A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit Of That

Got a couple random pieces of business today.

First, I'd like to welcome a new member into the sacred order of the 'ol Comics Blogosphere: Mr. Brad Reed proudly brings us The Filing Cabinet of the Damned. I have to say he looks like a well-educated, thoughtful and witty commentator, which makes him only one of, oh, a few hundred thousand other blogs worth checking out on a daily basis.

(Which does not imply that I actually check them all out - some of them aren't my cup of tea, and some of them seem to be broadcasting from an entirely different plane of reality than myself.)

Anyway, it looks like Brad is off to a great start, but I have to take issue with one of his postings on Marvel's excellent Essentials line (which you can read here). It's not that I take issue of the fact that many of the Essentials are gleeful repositories of cut-rate crap - no, I agree with him there. But the comparison of Lee/Kirby to Lennon/McCartney is what stuck in my craw. Not in the way you might be thinking - no, I take issue with the assumption that John Lennon was somehow the stronger force in the partnership, a la Jack Kirby's arguable dominance over Stan Lee. I'm not going to sit here and defend Wings (which probably could be done by someone with more of an interest in the matter), but rather, I must point out that John Lennon's solo body of work is quite possibly the most overrated chunk of crap in the entirety of the rock canon. Come on, why does everyone love "Imagine"? It's trite, simplistic, cloying and treacly in the most grating proportions. "Beautiful Boy"? "Jealous Guy"? Everytime I have the misfortune of hearing any of these horrid tracks over the speaker in the CVS I want to plunge chopsticks into my eardrums. I'm serious: whatever John Lennon had in the Beatles, he almost certainly lost it soon after the band dissolved. There were a few flashes of competency throughout the 70s, but man, the overwhelming tredn was precipitous decline. You can say whatever you like about Paul, but Wings and his later solo stuff was, if not great, at least consistently competent. Solo Lennon was just embarrassingly bad, and I think the only conceivable reason he is regarded so highly has to be some sort of sinister conspiracy among aging rock critics.

Also, Dara Naraghi's Ferret Press weblog is having a neato-keen contest to win a copy of the Strangehaven TPB - check it out here. I know I'm not usually one to mention contests, but Dara wrote me an especially nice note asking me to help out - and you guys know how much of a sucker I am.

On that note, time for bed.