Schwappathetic

noun - when the owner of this blog is apathetic about the subject matter he generally covers.

Folks, I'm not dead, dismembered or laid up in a hospital that will want my first born (and then some) to cover the expenses.

I'm just busy, tired and seriously lacking in motivation to write about comics lately.

Since the last week of November, I've been working a day job, again. Started up a help desk at a company that had previously used site techs at all of their locations. Not as part of management, but the first and most seasoned member of the actual desk. I'm one who often takes things way too seriously, so I've poured myself into the job and the hours I spend with my mind and actions on the job (in and outside of paid times) more or less fill the day.

Now, that said, I'd still be able to find the moments to write about comics and the like...if things weren't so disappointing and/or boring from the big two. I've been reading plenty of comic book material from anywhere else BUT those companies that is worthy of discussion (The Sixth Gun Volume 1 TP, Locke & Key V. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft TPB, etc). The rub? It would take more time and energy than I seem willing to give.

You see, the "mainstream" comic material that is good or bad enough to comment on doesn't always demand precise wording and detailed thought for discussion. One doesn't feel quite as guilty for basically saying little beyond "me like" or "SCHWAPP SMASH" about those offerings.

Lately, what I've read hasn't even really struck me as clearly good or bad. What I've liked hasn't necessarily had anything particular stand out about it that would encourage a post. I'm still enjoying Secret Six every time I buy it, but I'd be hard pressed to write two paragraphs about it, for instance. What I've disliked is the same. I don't know how many times I can point out what I feel are James Robinson's shortcomings on JLA or if I really want to bother bringing attention to his poorly juggling a hundred and one narrators to someone who can't pick it up on their own.

Beyond that, though, is the problem of the "meh" work. I've been sufficiently underwhelmed by so much of late. BRIGHTEST DAY and JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST come to mind. How much they both seemed to whiff on their final swing of their series is the closest they've come to really giving me any reason to want to say something about them to the five or so people that still look at this blog on occasion. I mean...if a stilted introduction of Swamp-Punisher-CaptainPlanet-ExpositionMan-Thing is the way you finish a book? Next time, don't start it.

Maybe if I had been weened on Marvel as a young 'un, FEAR ITSELF would deliver the goods more for me. If DC wasn't running in place or, in the case of REIGN OF THE DOOMSDAYS, trotting backwards, I might muster up some excitement for FLASHPOINT. I don't know.

I hope this post might be the start of my putting something up here at least weekly. I pray that, by the time I finally get a regular work schedule, I can post more frequently than that and give time to the non-"mainstream" works I'm really digging. But be warned: whenever I've prayed or hoped in one hand, it's always the other hand that's been filled faster. As long as I'm at it, I'm hoping/praying that Cullen Bunn could get at least half the attention that Nick Spencer has gotten over the last year, since, to my thinking, he's at least twice as deserving a talent.