"Post No. 530"

"The Ramblin' Road"...

Which means just that today. This post is about nothing in particular and everything that comes across my mind of events, etc. of the past few weeks.

For the first thought, my mother is somewhat better now since her release from the hospital of a couple weeks back and currently recuperating in the local nursing home in an attempt to build back up her strength, potasium and iron levels, and get her where she can walk around again. I was there today (as I have been every day since her arrival) for a little while, helping her get her bills in order, clean clothing and other essentials of ones everyday life. Whether she'll be able to get back to work again as one of the town's librarians is uncertain due to her frail state, but she's eager to get better and out of there ASAP and return to normal routines. Most all of her friends have already been by to visit with her, and a sister who lives in Indianapolis is coming down next week for a few days.

Since I personally came back from spending a week in the hospital with her, I've been attempting to catch up on "things" around here. Last night I mowed both mom and my yard as well as using the weed eater on it. I've only had a couple of days off since then and I'm cramming as much stuff into those as possible to get everything back in order. Since my return I've actually had time to catch up on a little of my reading as well on various TPBs and comics lying around here.

I read through (finally) that copy of The World of Steve Ditko and found it pretty complete as a review of this man's volume of work since the early 1950's to the late 1990's. It's a well-recommended collection and in its pages one can see the enlightenment of the "enigma wrapped in a riddle" that is Mr. Ditko, in his various styles of artwork, the myriad characters he developed for comic book companies, and his personal understanding of Ayn Rand's professed philosophy. Blake Bell did a fine job collecting and noting this material and for those who are fans of Steve Ditko (as I have always been) I believe you'd enjoy it.

And speaking of Ditko, I read a few issues of his Speedball title he did for Marvel in the late 1980's. Looking back over that I find it not one of his best works. I mean, Speedball was always one of the lesser of the Marvel cast and to me, just an attempt by Ditko to try to create yet another teenage superhero which was doomed from the start to never obtain the popularity of his most famous in Peter Parker/Spider-man. Even so, he's sort of a fun hero and not the worst thing Ditko ever did. In fact, the artwork, while not equal to that he did for Marvel or Charlton, or even DC that preceeded the title, still was better than 75% of what was on the spinner racks back then.

I also read a few issues of the Wildstorm title, Planetary, written by Warren Ellis, and thought the various spin-offs/tributes (what have you) were great! Although this is sort of one of those books where the author attempts to re-write some classic, iconic, comic book characters in his own image, one tends to forget that just because it's written so well. I definately want to read more of these!

Titles I still haven't had time to read yet is a run of DC's Hawkman (2002 series) #'s 40 thru 49/Hawkgirl #'s 50 thru 59, a near full set of Wildstorm's The Winter Men, but these will be the next ones in the stack. Just depends on how much time I have to be able to sit down and enjoy them as I want to rather than being pushed to get to bed early because I still have several days before I get a couple more off from work.