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spider

So my vacation comes to an end. While I had a little fun, decompressed somewhat, and got to do my favorite past time (nothing), I have to unfortunately say that this wasn’t my best trip. Weather, shy sea life, recovering from my own medical problems, and minor mishaps kept the trip from being close to as good as last time. Luckily I’ll have another break in half a year.

boats

Wow. What the fuck lame! First, I’m a bit pissed because I read this TPB in less than an hour. Seriously. There should be more packed into five issues. Daniel Way is not the only comics writer guilty of this. On the other hand, I’m glad it took me so little time to read this, because it’s crap not worth my time. No wonder I stopped reading it after the first issue when that first came out (glad I didn’t pay for it).

My main problem with Daniel Way: He does not have the ability (or doesn’t use it) to make me care about the characters he writes. Truly. There’s a reason I’ve not read more of his body of work. At least with the first arc of Wolverine Origins, I though it was cool and wanted to know what was going to happen next. I’d read each issue during my last months working at Collectors Kingdom. Sometime later I brought the first three TPBs thinking I’d enjoy the first arc again, and that I’d like the other two stories. Not really though. I wanted to know what was going to happen next, but that is where m interest ended. I’ve read one or two singles issues since, that I bought for pennies to the dollar. . Maybe they read better on their own, once in a while.

About the only work of his I liked was the three issue Hawkeye (Bullseye) arc in Deadpool. I liked that a lot, but Bullseye: Greatest Hits didn’t float my boat much either. Cool start, but meh… His Deadpool in general is not for me. I’m not on the Deadpool craze, but I have cared about the character in the past when Waid and Nicieza wrote him. Joe Kelly lost me long before Way.

My second huge problem with this book is the art. This Umberto Ramos clone crap. This mangaesque style works sometimes for mainstream superhero comics, but not often. Characters like Spider-Man look acceptable in this manner, but in a book that’s supposed to be scary like John Carpetner’s The Thing movie, this art did not work. I know Marvel editors like artists who can get a job done on time, sometimes more than they are concerned if the art fits the tone of the story, but c’mon!

The one thing I liked is Sam Keith’s covers. Those are not really creepy, but his style is perfect for Venom or some symbiote, possibly of his species as this was not explained in this arc.

Now I’m pissed I’m spending more time writing this than it took to read the book. Fuck. This book is now on my Sequential Swap trade page. I hope no one reads this review before requesting it.

Thanks to The Comicbook Database for the cover image. I think they’re winning the database war going on in my head, only the site keeps freezing up lately.

crab

Most of the day was nice and I tried to take in as much sun as possible as it was my last day. When snorkeling around a bend and had a hell of a time getting back, the current was just so strong I started getting worried more then once (great way to end a vacation, huh? By drowning.). On the plus side the adventure finally allowed me to see—and snap pictures of—a sting ray (see earlier), but unfortunately a bunch of sea urchin skeletons (do they have skeletons?) that I found in my swimming broke in my swim trunk pocket during my wild flaying to make it back to land. Had dinner at Herve, a nice French restaurant not for those that hate to climb a hill to get to. I packed up for tomorrow with much sadness over leaving.

seaturtle

lounge water

Finally, a beautiful day. Made the most of it by sunning myself, swimming, snorkeling and reading outside. I considered a trip back to St John but I was still disheartened from the other day and didn’t trust the weather to hold anyway. All next week is supposed to be beautiful. I also discovered a small crack, which explains why, despite the constant readjusting, there was always a leak in my diving mask.

hermit crab

Sea Urchin

Rain all day; the sun never came out. Can I get some of my money back? I went snorkeling anyway, but when you are thirty pounds underweight and have low blood pressure you tend to get very cold very quickly especially when the sun doesn’t come out. Also, I can’t get any good fish pictures in the dark. Topped the day off with a very disappointing meal at East End Café.

shoreline

iguana on chair

Had sushi at Lotus last night, still using the bill from the previous night for the 10% off (I have to make back some of my funds lost to St John). It’s good food, but I think I like it best for the constant video display of aquatic action. What can I say, fish fascinate me. Sadly there wasn’t much I could see/do today, as, despite some moments of clear skies, most of the day was cloudy and wet. Beautiful sunset, though. Went to Robert’s Café again for dinner.

Mom&Dad

click to enlarge

Drawing Board

Since I had to do some clean up because of bad scans, I decided to go ahead and fix a few other things about the comic.

The pacing of the comic was not quite working. Resizing the panels allowed me to make it more like a syllogism: Tier 1: they hate you; Tier 2: it doesn’t matter, you can still do great things; Tier 3: therefore, do great things. Okay, it’s not quite a syllogism, but I think the pacing is a little better.

This was a comic that I was creating as I was working on it. I had a loose script, with no punchline (or kick line as the case may be). It was closer to 13 panels, but I cut out some of the lesser needed info. I drew it piecemeal in that each of the images was drawn on a separate page, which allowed me to more easily re-size and move things around (as will be obvious if you look at the earlier draft below).

I’m still working on my cartoon Obama. I realized after I inked the first image that if the prez is supposed to be tall, his pants should be too short rather than rolled up into cuffs. He’s in rolled up shirtsleeves and jeans, because I actually think he does work hard (as opposed to some pResidents I’ve drawn).

The comic doesn’t come close to saying everything I’d like to about Health Care Reform, but I think it basically gets my point across about Obama’s (so far) failure to get it done. If you don’t lead strong, others will fill the vacuum.

St John Freedom statue

Planed to go to St John’s even though the day started off pretty rainy and I would like some pictures that didn’t look like they were taken at night. Still, made the massive mistake of going anyway. I took my Mom and we hoped on the ferry as an adult and senior (no student rates) and braved the rapids to the enchanted isle filled with nature trails, historical sites, and parks. It was also filled with water. Hiking anywhere was immediately deemed impractical for my mother even if we had the proper accoutrements like sneakers, so we took a taxi to the Annaberg Sugar plantation to see how sweet sugar was made by sweating slaves. The ruins were interesting and the view (what I could see through the rain) was fabulous. It was also interesting to see how the mill, etc were build from coral as well as rock.

Mill made of coral

Luckily, the taxi driver was going to pass back our way after making another stop or we’d been stuck on top of a hill miles from nothing. At this point I counted up my money and determined that (along with my mother’s $20 bill), based on the taxi prices, that we had enough money to do all of nothing. I hadn’t replenished my funds from the day before and never realized that everything on St John’s was an expensive ride away. Still, I proposed to make the most of it and take in a few sites before heading back. When the taxi returned us to the port I went to pay and—of course—couldn’t find the $20. It must have fallen out of my pocket when I was tallying up funds. Even more annoyingly, while I was realizing this I had give two tens to the driver and was so flustered at the loss of the twenty that he assumed I didn’t want my two dollars change (this will be important). So here we were, at the port of St John with $5 and needing $6.50 to get back to St T (where I would have to have the taxi wait while I got payment for him out of the hotel room). So how do I get my mom and myself off this rainy island and back to my domicile? No ATM card, and—I quickly learned—the ferry didn’t take credit cards. I came up with an idea that if went to a bar I could offer to put a large tip on the credit card bill if the bartender would then give me the money. Tricky, but it would work if I found a willing taker and a bar that took credit cards. I managed to find one, explained my situation and put $10 above the drinks I bought. So elated at solving the crisis I gave the bartender an additional five from the cash since I felt—even though he would be rewarded—that he was courteous enough to deserve some more. Returning to the ferry as it was now getting too late to see any of the sites, I prepared to purchase the tix and noticed the octogenarian with her Bible being asked to show ID, something that did not occur on the ride over. Quickly, I asked my mother if she had proof of age, which she did, but was instantly despondent when the teller demanded not only proof of age, but proof of residency. Instantly my more than enough funds of $10 became $2 too short (again, see how not tipping the cap driver would have helped?). To add insult to the situation the teller and manager were incredibly rude when I questioned the situation. Senior and resident? Really? And you can’t let anyone side even if it means they’d be stuck on the island with nowhere to go? I’m the first to stop people from getting away with cheating institutions whether taxes or claiming to be under twelve at the movies, but would it have ended the world to let us get home? Yes, I sure there are plenty of people that wish to milk the system, but not everyone is a crook. I’m sure that for every handful of people that you let off “just this once” there are one or two that actually are connivers. Still, is that ratio so bad? I’m convinced the sold majority of such cases actually help decent human beings rather than reward petty ones. “For want of ten good men would you destroy the city?” “Not if there are ten” to horrifically poorly quote the Bible on whether or not god would allow a den of inequity to stand if there were only a handful of decent people residing there. But I digress. I returned to the bar and explained my situation again. This time I put enough money on the card to cover the ferry and the ride to the hotel and more just in case. I tried to give the bartender some extra cash and he refused. He realized he was getting enough out of the deal and seemed genuinely interested in helping. He seemed a decent enough fellow; I never even got his name. And so my mother and I got out of St John like it was the last chopper out of Saigon, wet, annoyed, and broke with little to show for it. Several hours later my mother discovered that she never gave me the $20 and had it all along.

Annaberg mill

me_underwater

Thought about going to St John to see some sights. Day started off reasonably, but by the time I set off for the ferry the weather was ominous. At the last second I decided to turn around and head into town. It poured for the next hour, which doesn’t mean that the other island got soaked, but seeing how I would be spending time in a rain forest (key word being “rain”) and walking around, I didn’t relish the idea of being cold and uncomfortable (I’m just getting over my cold anyway). It was my last trip into Charlotte Amalie so I spent a couple of hours there, bought some arty things and had lunch (another place owned by Cellar/Lotus/East End crowd and it seems that if you take a receipt from one restaurant to another you get 10% off your bill. Wish I knew that before, but used it for dinner at The Cellar again. When for a snorkel and finally saw a Sea Turtle, but, since I charged my camera’s batter the other night, I had replaced it backwards and the camera didn’t work.  Aaargh! Still, nice to see it.

yummy coral

Shit. It worked out in the end. My backlogging of blog entries had made it to 7, and I’d posted on time on day 9, and here is day 8, created on 8 January in Mark!’s swanky Uptown (Re: Almost Harlem) apartment overlooking Cloverfield.

If Mark! hadn’t gone to some tropical island to swim with mini-cthulhus I’d of course would not have missed a day, even with Jonica and I arriving home at 4 am because I toiled away in the sketchbook of Mark!, who should scan the Supergirl Mark! I made at his birthday some years ago.

Really. What the hell can I say about this image?

Oh wait. I’m full of shit. I can’t even read my own signature. I made that on the 5th and for some reason I keep thinking this is 2008, as if that would make the world a better place.

The Armzrace anniversary came and went without us celebrating it. Sad. Oh, well, we’ll have a party another day.

amok in a hammock

Ah, vacation. reading, sunning myself, swimming, snorkeling, and taking walks. I love my job, but who are these people who live to work?

trumpet fish

I don’t have time to figure out what’s up with my scanner (so I’ll repost once I get it fixed), but here’s the January contribution.

click to enlarge

Dad's dove

Stupid cold. Feel like death and every time a cloud or a cool ocean current comes by I shake like milk. Eyes/nose won’t stop dripping and have you ever sneezed wearing a diving mask? Exhausted all the time. Currently not the best of vacations, although worlds better than being in Haiti. Ate at The East End Café (same people who own The Cellar) and there must be a law about freezing your customers. My arm fell off and shattered on the floor. People go to the tropics to be warm you idiots.

Mom&Dad

fish_school

Started out poorly with lots of rain, but things picked up leaving clear skies and warm sun. Kept to my reading and swimming, but I didn’t see anything interesting while snorkeling. Beach combing also seeing a lot weaker than last time I was here as I—so far—found no interesting coral. Went back to Blue Moon for dinner, unfortunately there are only about 10 items on the menu, three of which I can’t have and two which I don’t want; they do have great steak for an island where the two cows I’ve seen didn’t look too fit. The day ended on a sour note as I have a cold. Not too sure when/where I picked it up, but kept me awake most of the night and my nose won’t stop running. Perhaps I’m being cursed by the cold weather I left behind.

coral

I tried calling my Senators today to get them to stop being a bunch of cowards and start acting like Democrats (you know, the majority party in a state that’s largely democratic) and push health care reform.  I couldn’t get through to Schumer (no voicemail? really?) and Gillibrand number sent me to Verizon (not that that mattered, all I need is Schumer, as she votes however he does). Anyway, if someone wouldn’t mind giving them a ring. These are the numbers I got. Tell them to stop being pussies and give me health care.

Senator Charles Schumer
Phone: 202-224-6542
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
Phone: 202-224-4451supporting thin

sunset

The sun! This is what I came here for. Clear skies, hot weather, and warm waters. Now my vacation begins. Step one: sit in sun reading until I get hot. Step two: go into water either for a swim or snorkel. Repeat. With the clear skies I could spend more time in the water and actually see the ocean denizens. Rock lobsters, sea urchins galore, various tropical fish, some standoffish cuttlefish (what a misnomer), and the piece de resistance a several foot wide stingray. There was also a wedding (not in the water), which the party should have been counting their blessings for considering the break in the weather. Ate at Robert’s Café, which has good food with portions that you’d expect for the price (quite the change from Romano’s). The view of the water was also a nice. Another ambulance outside of hotel. Some lady’s artificial hip up and popped.

fish

wedding

stingray

sea urchin

A gray day with some heavy rain convinced me to go into town after some futile attempts to snorkel and swim. With me being thirty pounds underweight and with low blood pressure I get cold far too easily and they lack of sun had caused the temperature of the normally delightful water to drop. No light also meant limited visibility so I didn’t enjoy snorkeling all that much either, although my investment in a pair of flippers was a great idea and I was astounded with how much power they gave me allowing me to risk currents and brave reefs that I wouldn’t have before.

sea urchins of death

synagogue

Town wasn’t too exciting as my naïve continental mentality was blind to the idea that shops close early on Friday rather than stay open late as in NYC. Didn’t find anything interesting to buy and I need to get some gifts for friends. I did enjoy going to the St. T synagogue (oldest under a US flag in the world). It was rather beautiful and had intriguing, sand covered floors (a nod to the crypto Jews of Spain who, after being forced to convert to the religion of love and meekness under pain of death and, well pain (torture) remained true to their faith and used sand to muffle the sound of their basement prayers, and not, as what is often incorrectly reported, as a symbol of the exodus from Egypt). I won’t go into the history here any more than to say it’s actually quite interesting and the informative video featured a rather hilarious rabbi (see Germany, the holocaust is the reason their aren’t any funny people left in your country).

synagogue sand

I also saw the studio of Camille Pissarro, which was less interesting, having nothing of his time there. Dinner was at an artist’s restaurant in a shady section of the isle. Romano’s (named after the owner) is an interesting person involved in human rights and protests against screw caps on wine, but unless you order the osso bucco the meals are so small and overpriced that you want to mount a protest against him. Ambulance outside of hotel. A lady took a header.

Pissarro

I went on my vacation to the Caribbean Island of St. Thomas on my second night of 4 hours sleep (that’s what I get for trying to finish A Thousand Splendid Suns). It’s always interesting to get on a plane in a freezing city and then get off in 80 degrees. It was rather rainy and overcast when I arrived which is odd as usually every hour would have ten minutes of drizzle and ten of clouds (overlap not necessary). While waiting for the sun I set up my computer in order to download audio books onto my mps player. It worked fine on the computer but not when the player was disconnected. Massive waste of time and energy that infuriated me especially after the delay getting into our hotel room; so much for having a good half day. I had bought some new bathing suits since I lost so much weight in the hospital, but it seems I lost even more than I thought as they didn’t fit and had to buy another (tried it on this time, duh).

hermit_crab
Swam out into the ocean, which was nice despite the weather, but still have to be very careful since my operation as my scar has tightened my core muscles to the extreme and I haven’t actually had any real exercise in months between operation recovery and infection. Dinner with family was nice at The Blue Moon (An American) Café, but, as seems to now be a lifetime situation, my stomach, no matter how hungry, can only handle small amounts of food. Brought The Blackadder DVDs to watch at night (yeah, I’m a party animal) but the player in room doesn’t work. Not the best start of a vacation.

iguana

cuttlefish

hermit_crab