New Single!: My Heart Is An Occupied Territory

wredfright · My Heart Is An Occupied Territory

The new single compares love with an armed struggle as the singer of the song attempts to free the territory of the singer's heart from the emotions of the old love.  Lyrically, this is an old theme as the idea of love as war is pretty ingrained in language with expressions such as "captured my heart" or people hitting on someone and being rebuffed being described as "shot down in flames", but this song makes the comparison more explicit.  The lines about the children come from a time when I was involved with an organization that helped children injured in a war zone, and I always thought that kids not being able to be kids and play outside without worrying about being shot or something was one of the worst things about war (and there are a lot of bad things about war and little good).  Musically, it's the usual guitar, voice, keyboard as bass, keyboard, and drums.  For fun, I threw some bell sounds in from a cat keyboard (the keys are the cat's teeth) my kid has.  I like the way the instruments come in throughout the song, building to the end.  I tried to sing it somewhat deadpan, as the subject matter was melodramatic enough already.  Lyrics are below:

My heart is an occupied territory,
but I'm going to break it free

You think that love is warfare and one of us has to win,
but with an idea like that we've lost before we begin.
No more dictators!  No more tyrants!  I'll have no more of hearts of tin!
I'd rather have no love than a love that's imposed.

The sun is shining,
and the street is quiet,
and the children look in disbelief
as the soldiers are gone.

From out of the rubble, I'm going to build myself anew,
and I'm going to dig and dig and dig until I've rooted out every last bit of you,
and then finally you and I--there is no we--will be through,
and the children will play in the street again.

My heart was an occupied territory,
but I broke it free.

Thanks to The Tinnitist for adding the previous single, "All The Onions In The World" to a recent playlist!

For more Wred Fright music, listen to the Yeast? 7"!

Stick Your Variant Covers Up Your . . .

I recently picked up preview publications for DC and Marvel at a local comics shop.

Ugh.

It was grim.

I suppose that's to be expected given my age (I used to participate in the Comics Buyers Guide annual reader poll, and every year, the average age of the participants seemed to increase.  That was great because comics grew along with me--this was the age of Watchmen, Maus, and Dark Knight Returns-- but if continued indefinitely, it leads to the death of the industry), but the companies are selling the vast majority of their comics to adults these days, so it's still disappointing to see so much stupidity.  DC was offering Justice League Vs. Godzilla Vs. King Kong, which if the average age of comics readers were still ten would be awesome (it even has a variant cover with a roar sound effect), but there probably aren't many ten-year-olds who can afford to drop $14.99 for a 40 page comic book (10 of which pages will probably be ads for other comics) that roars (the non-roaring version is $4.99 though--I suppose you can roar yourself and you might have more fun and save 10 bucks).  Marvel was offering some sort of cosmic crossover that after reading numerous other cosmic crossovers was about as exciting as watching paint dry.

One of the reasons I started doing my own comics was that I couldn't find enough interesting comics these days.  The industry has never been great, but it was probably never this bad before, despite all the celebrations of graphic novels in public libraries and superhero movies in movie theaters and whatnot.  I don't know if these problems can be fixed, but here's a to-do list to start with if they want to salvage things:

1) Comics are too damn expensive.  That's why the readership is aging (and increasingly dying).  Mainly only older folks such as myself who caught the habit early will still buy these things (and even I probably will tap out once the monthly comic books go above $5).  But graphic novels are even more expensive.  Webcomics may help because they cut out a lot of expenses and the companies may be able to pass on the savings (something they're loathe to do currently for fear of alienating their cash cow print customers).  Right now though it's just a journey of slow but inevitable obsolescence.  In 1938, when Superman first appeared and the modern comics industry was born, the comic book had 64 pages (some with ads) and cost a dime.  Today, with inflation, that same comic should cost $2.08 according to an inflation calculator I used.  Instead, the average comic costs $4.99 and is about 32 pages with ads (there has been some loss of advertising, perhaps because the medium has lost its appeal to advertisers outside of the comics industry or maybe the publishers are too lazy to actually go and solicit advertising).  One reason for this is that the comics companies are overstaffed.  There seem to be about five times as many editors as is needed (Stan Lee somehow managed to edit most of the 1960s Marvels by himself).  Whatever the cause, the companies need to reduce the price to attract a wider and younger readership.

2) The industry needs to respect creator rights more.  Companies such as Image and Dark Horse seem to allow creators to own their copyrights and profit from their creations.  The two largest companies are less likely to do that.  The result in DC and Marvel has been a slow stagnation in creativity.  Instead, they just tell the same stories over and over again with the same characters from the 1930s or 1960s, probably because not many comics creators are going to put a lot of effort into creating a new character that the company will own.  If the companies allowed more creator rights and royalties, the creativity would no doubt flourish across the industry not just in self-published and other independent comics.  But since they don't, we get 15 different Batman-related comics this month.  I like Batman as much the next comics reader, but the great Batman stories have mostly been told.  That's now reflected in the sales.  In 1960, DC could sell half a million Batman comics (and since he had two titles and also appeared with Superman in World's Finest and in The Justice League Of America, he probably helped to sell close to a couple million comics a month).  60 years later, the character is still selling, but it's fewer than a hundred thousand an issue in his main title and probably 800,000 total spread across a dozen titles or so a month.  It's clearly flogging a dead horse at this point.  

3) The damn variant covers.  Obviously, more art is good (they could just do pinups though in the back of the book), but the industry decided at some point that since the readership was dwindling, they needed to milk the remaining readers even harder for cash.  The result was a bunch of different covers for the same issue in hopes that multiple copies of the same comic could be sold to each reader.  If I were a collector and buying back issues, then this would drive me crazy because I usually went by the cover to know if I hadn't read an issue yet.  Today, I'd never be able to do that because I would end up buying the same comic several times.  Imagine if the industry put this same effort into writing better stories . . .

4) Publish less.  As a kid, I couldn't afford to buy all the great comics coming out (today, I catch up by buying the ones I missed out on in dollar bins--sometimes even saving money, whether through inflation for a dollar comic from 1977 or the more expensive comics from 1990 on or so--or reading collections from the library), but today I could probably afford to buy all the comics I'm interested in, but very few interest me.  I found two comics in both the DC and Marvel booklets that I hadn't read before that I would buy.  That's two out of over a hundred publications each for each company.  Maybe there just isn't enough talent going around nowadays (it's possible also that I've just read too many comics and I'm harder to please in the same way that a Britney Spears song might please a kid who hasn't heard much music before but might annoy me), so maybe the companies should concentrate on generating more great comics such as Sandman, and they might make more money in the long term.

Well, at least the comics industry still exists.  But given what seems to be out there currently, that might not be for long.  But if the commercial companies go out of business, then that might provide more proverbial sunlight for the better self-published and other independent comics to reach a wider readership.  And, whatever happens, at least the art form can never die.  Even when I go, I bet one of you will be crafting something fun out of words and pictures.

To read some of my comics, click here and scroll down.  To read what happens to a superhero when the end of the story is allowed to be told, read Fast Guy Slows Down.

Comic: My Neighbors Love To Burn Shit

This comic is about an odd neighborhood quirk that I do not partake in.  To read the comic, I suggest clicking on the image and making it full screen.  You could also download it after you click on it for the primo view, I suppose.  I thought about sending it to Scene for their comics issue, but I called, left a message, and no one ever called me back (I can see how that newspaper gets thinner every issue--for all they knew, I might have been calling to advertise in the comics issue).  Here it is:

 

For more fun, read my latest novel:  Fast Guy Slows Down!

Comic: Joe Biden Garage Sale

I never thought there would be a worst president than George W. Bush (even Trump, the con man, wasn't that bad).  Then along came Joe Biden, who should have been driven from politics back in 1988 for the plagiarism scandal (he not only stole Neil Kinnock's speech; he stole the dude's life story), but thanks to Delaware voters and Barack Obama, this moron is still plaguing us in 2023.  What makes him worse than Bush Jr.?  Well, Bush Jr. made horrible decisions and made life miserable for many people, but seldom messed with me directly.  Biden also makes horrible decisions and makes life miserable for many people, but he messes with me directly with dumb shit like vaccine mandates and making me dig for twenty-year-old receipts.  About the only decent thing his administration has done has been to try to ban noncompete agreements.  They should be doing more stuff like that, but instead that's the atypical bright spot, and the daily reality is stuff like Biden preventing the rail workers going on strike, ignoring their safety concerns, and then a couple of months later, their safety concerns are proved to be all too real when poor East Palestine, Ohio USA becomes a toxic waste dump.  Meanwhile, the corporate/mainstream media is too busy hating on Trump for not starting enough wars to satisfy them or something to ever connect the dots between events like that, and it's left to scruffy cartoonists such as myself to note in little-read blogs (though to be fair American communists did note it as well--maybe they're right wing extremists now, also?).  Anyway, here's another, as Joe Jackson would sing, blow against the evil empire (click on the image to make it bigger):

 

 

For more pithy political commentary, read my latest novel, Fast Guy Slows Down, where the main character poops on various world leaders (yes, politics can be very messy)!

Crazy Carl Robinson Interview

 

Pat King has posted another episode of his Back To The Underground video interview series wherein various underground writers get interviewed about their experiences in The Underground Literary Alliance.  This one features an interview I did with Crazy Carl Robinson, and, as always, it was a lot of fun chatting with Carl.  Pat also recently posted another episode with another old zine pal of mine, Jess:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVNUNI93Pms.  

If you want to read some literature by The Underground Literary Alliance, then please check out The Slush Pile Strikes Back!

Another Dead Drummer

Ever since the virus panic turned into a vaccination gold rush a couple of years ago, I've noticed that a lot of musicians, especially drummers for some reason, have been dropping dead suddenly.  Given that the mRNA vaccinations have cardiac and immune system disorder side-effects (in addition to not working very well for their stated goal), when I hear of a musician's sudden and untimely death lately, I wonder if he or she got vaccinated against Covid-19, and what role that flawed product might have played in the passing.  Usually, I'd suspect a drug overdose or suicide when I hear of a musician dying young (or younger for the middle-aged ones), but when I hear that someone like Rick Froberg has died of "natural causes" at age 55, I wonder what role the vax might have played.  I've thought the same of the following musicians:

Rachel Nagy - The singer of The Detroit Cobras died at 48, and I've never seen the cause of death revealed.  I do note that she was supposed to play in Cleveland right before she died, and the venues here, like most places, were run by crazed vax zealots.  If the vax did play a role in her death, it's ironic that her band is playing a tribute at the same venue that might have contributed to her death with their vaccine bigotry and hysteria.

Blackie Onassis - I would have suspected the former Urge Overkill drummer to have died from drugs, but no cause of death is listed, and he was only 57, so I wonder about him.

Andy Rourke - The bass player of The Smiths died at age 59 from pancreatic cancer.

Pat Fish - The Jazz Butcher died unexpectedly.  He was 64.

Jeremiah Green - drummer for Modest Mouse, aged 45, died quickly of cancer.

Nanci Griffith - At least she made it to 68, ahead of the other ones on the list.

Taylor Hawkins - Suggestions that the vax played a role in the death of the 50-year-old drummer of The Foo Fighters were quickly met with outrage.  If only the outrage had been there when people were pressuring these musicians to take a flawed Big Pharma product due to the virus panic . . .

In any case, the list goes on.  Not all deaths of musicians in the past couple of years make me think the vax played a role.  Tony Bennett was old.  He wasn't going to live forever.  D. H. Peligro, another dead drummer, of The Dead Kennedys went due to the sadly all too traditional drug overdoes route.  But, if the vax did play a role in some of these other deaths, then the loss of the great music they might have made is yet another casualty of the virus panic.  If the hysteria hadn't been there, then it's likely these flawed products would not have been approved, given even the Big Pharma friendly nature of government regulators, but maybe that's even too much faith in the government.  In any case, best to think for oneself.  And, if you did get the jab and you're feeling fine, count yourself lucky.

I wouldn't recommend taking up the drums then though.

For happier times with music, listen to the Yeast? 7"!   

Comic: The Mussolini Award

It seems like Italian-Americans often produce the worst celebrities, which is odd because most of us are pretty nice.  This comic seeks to rectify that by proposing an award to encourage better Italian-American celebrities (click on the image to make it bigger).

  

For more sarcasm, read my latest novel, Fast Guy Slows Down!

King Karl Wenclas Interview

 

Pat King has posted another episode of his Back To The Underground video interview series wherein various underground writers get interviewed about their experiences in The Underground Literary Alliance.  This one features an interview I did with King Karl Wenclas, one of the group's founders and its leader.  I had a lot of fun chatting with King about his literary activism and other topics, and Pat did his usual great job creating the video.  It's amazing that 20 years on, we're all still being creative!

If you want to read some literature by The Underground Literary Alliance, then please check out The Slush Pile Strikes Back!

Comic: d.a. levy

I've been rereading my library over the past few years and gradually discarding it, as much as I love it, as I have no interest in maintaining or moving many boxes of books when I'm 80 years old or however far I make it.  Along those lines, I read a couple books by/about d.a. levy.  levy (yes, like e.e. cummings, the lower case is a poetic decision) was a poet from Cleveland, Ohio USA in the 1960s who was active in the small press movement (think zines before photocopiers were common).  He died young, and people still debate today whether his death was a murder or a suicide.  One thing is certain, he and his fellow "beatniks" (as they were viewed before they started calling the youth hippies) were hassled a lot by the cops.  Frank Walsh, a poet from Philadelphia and my buddy from the Underground Literary Alliance, once told me that the ghost of d.a. levy protects Cleveland, and even if one is not inclined to believe in ghosts, levy's poetry is certainly very-based in Cleveland, and, as a result, he isn't always well-known or understood outside of the area.  But if you do have an acquaintance with the city and its surroundings as well as the time period of the 1960s, then you will likely recognize how excellent a poet levy was.  He also was a talented collage artist.  In any case, I got inspired to adapt one of his poems in comic form.  For outsiders, it helps to understand that Hunting Valley is the little suburb where the people who owned Cleveland lived, which is still somewhat true today. Anyway, here's the comic (click on it to make it bigger):

For more literary fun, read levy's poetry and my novels, such as the latest one, Fast Guy Slows Down!

The Partial Refund eBay Scam

I suppose most eBay sellers know this already, but in case there's a newbie out there, then consider this a public service announcement.  I was once such a newbie and fell for it.  Thankfully, I wised up after that.  Basically, you sell an item, then the buyer messages you afterwards that there is a problem with it.  You say, ok, bummer, sorry about that, please send it back, and I'll refund your money.  Then the buyer says, well, I'll keep it if you send me a partial refund.

Don't do it.  Basically, you have a cheapskate/con artist for a buyer who is looking for a discount after the sale.  The buyer likely tries this scam on every seller because some sellers do fall for it, either because they are worried about their seller rating or it's not worth the trouble to spend any additional time on it.

I wish they wouldn't though because it encourages the scammers to keep trying this same scam.  I don't sell a lot on eBay anymore, but I still seem to get it about once a year.  The way to respond I've found is to just offer a full refund if the buyer returns the item.  Usually, the scammer disappears at that point.  The scammer tried and failed.  Occasionally, the scammer will persist.  Just keep offering the full refund.  Usually, the scammer gives up.  Very rarely, will the scammer just return the item and get the refund.  I've had that happen once in the last few years.

Here's some examples:

1) Dude buys a vintage Star Wars drinking glass from me.  He messages me that the box rattles, and he thinks the glass is broken.  Many messages go back and forth, and mine stay consistent:  "Open it up.  If it's broken, then send it back, and I'll refund you."  He disappears, later posting feedback about how he loves his glass.

2) Dude buys a record and claims it skips.  Since I had played the record before shipping it and it played fine, I am skeptical.  When I don't bite at the partial refund requests, he goes away.

3) Dude buys a golden age comic book and is surprised it is in terrible condition even though I have described it as being in terrible condition.  When I stick to my send it back for a full refund line, he refuses and just gives me negative feedback.  I return his negative feedback with negative feedback (technically positive feedback since eBay refuses to let buyers get negative feedback, but my comments are that he is a scammer and other sellers should beware).  When he complains and has my feedback removed, I call eBay to complain, and, amazingly enough, the eBay representative agrees with me that the dude was trying to extort me with negative feedback and removes his negative feedback and gives him an official eBay demerit or something.  He then goes away.  Apparently, he was ok with his purchase after all.

The latest is a guy who bought a brand new cd box set.  His complaint is that the brand new sealed box has a cutout mark (which was in the pictures and noted in the description).  We'll see what happens with this one.  He already opened up an official return (sometimes the scammers do, hoping the seller will just approve the request and then they get to keep the item and their money--I never do that).  This dude messaged me when he bought it with needless shipping instructions, which is always a red flag (I was half-tempted to cancel the sale then), so he may just be a moron who doesn't read descriptions and just wastes everyone's time and money shipping purchases back.  If the item arrives in the condition it shipped in, then I'll refund his money.  Usually, they never end up shipping it, and eBay closes the return request after a few weeks (in the meantime, I get to have eBay hold my money in case he does return it--thanks, dude). 

As I noted, thankfully, this only happens to me about once a year, but I am sure sellers with greater volume probably deal with this nonsense weekly.  I just hold my return the item for a full refund line and add the scammer to my blocked buyers list so the scammer can't plague me again (at least until the scammer gets a new eBay user id).  I've noticed that over the years most of the scammers on my blocked buyers list get thrown off eBay eventually, so I'm assuming they tried the partial refund scam a few too many times and even eBay got exasperated with them (and, unfortunately, eBay is a little too scammer-friendly because over the years eBay switched from being an equal trading post to placing more emphasis on attracting buyers), which is impressive. 

In addition to holding the full refund line and adding the scammer to your blocked buyer list, I also pay for postal insurance on items sold above $100.  Then if the scammer tries the old "it was lost/damaged in shipping" routine as an excuse for why they can't return the item, you can just direct them to take it up with the post office (and the scammers won't want to deal with a USPS inspector, so that will be the end of it).

The vast majority of my eBay sales go through just fine with happy buyers and a happy seller.  Unfortunately, there are some scammers out there though, so know what to do.  If enough sellers hold the line on partial refunds, then the problem should lessen, which would be good news for everyone.

There is a copy of The Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus for sale on eBay, but you can also buy the novel directly from me.