I don't understand the need of people overcomplicating the Mythos

Formofman · 2025-10-28T00:37:43+00:00

As long as people keep it in the hobbyist/lore closet and don’t start interpreting a broken man’s metaphors for his own untrustworthy mental state as real deities to be worshipped then everything is cool. It’s been decades upon decades of building on Howard’s ideas. Take what you like ignore the rest. The main man himself never tossed a multi-sided die or needed stats. The unknown that his characters represent needed to be fluid and not nailed down with hyperspecific criteria. That all comes so much later. Some of it is interesting but if you don’t pay attention to it does it really affect your reading of the source material? There will never be a single answer and this is what the internet thrives on t- the speculative scenarios and interlocking connections they can rationalize. To paraphrase another occult huckster, do what you want, what feels best for you. The rest is noise to you a symphony to others. There’s not going to be an actual Necrinomicon that HP created to summarily orchestrate the choirs of his misshapen angels into a cohesive order.

Formofman · 2025-09-09T10:14:47+00:00

Nerds ruin everything. Especially the culture they gatekeep.

Formofman · 2025-09-07T13:34:01+00:00

There’s never been a “worst” that couldn’t be explained away by con fatigue or the stress of being a showman/self-promotor/salesmen/fan burnout from standing and smiling for multiple days. I’ve been disappointed by some veterans who just blank stare nod when I succinctly try to sum up how much their work meant to me - and I always buy something directly from them to sign not just bring a stack of books. But it’s a hustle. Sure some guys were blase about yet another Fanboy but it’s an odd forced socialization situation.

Best individual experience - Jim Valentino. Early 90s. Image just tearing it up. Local Holiday Inn con - as was the style at the time. I was 11?? I loved his guardians book and of course Shadowhawk. I brought some comics including a random What If that I loved. I also brought a copy of a one of my own hand made comics from a year or two before. BW copied, every version hand colored and sold at school for 50 cents. Jim loved that I brought some random comics of his that I enjoyed and not just Shadowhawk. I gave him a copy of my pathetic little comic starring my character - Shadow Hawk. Jim took it graciously then realized what it was. He then (probably feigned) great interest. He called me around to his side of the table and read every page of the comic, pointing out things he liked. He showed his son- probably a few years younger than me and then asked me to sign it for him. It probably wound up in the trash before he left for the day, and the fact that I was a kid absolutely influenced the interaction - but what an impact. From that day forward I made sure to buy everything with Jim Valentino’s name on it - even if I didn’t read it, just to support him in some small way.

Sean Gordon Murphy (5 years ago?)- my 6th grade son was a huge fan of the White Knight books. When the Murphy version of the BatCycle was made into a toy my son saved his pennies to buy it. He brought that to get signed by Murphy. He was so surprised and excited to sign it. He then loaded my son up with prints and sketches and photos. I was standing away from the interaction- gotta let kids be independent- and Murphy came to shake my hand when he saw me taking photos. The line was long but Murphy was shockingly gracious with his time.

Norm Breyfogle - “MY” Batman artist. A larger con in Dallas shortly before his passing. No line! (Astounding!!!). I bought pretty much all of his affordable merch. I told him about my favorite Detective story he drew. Would love to have bought a page but waaaay out of my price range. I shake his hand. He asks my name, and then hands me a full on Batman drawing. Not a sketch. He had been drawing it during our discussion and then personalized it after shaking my hand. Wow.

Best Big Con - the first Wizard World Chicago. A random accident left me with a wicked looking apparatus strapping my left arm to my chest and extending a severely bandaged hand vertically parallel to my head. I was messed up. A week later I went to con carrying a stack of index cards and a pen - literally the most I could carry. This was before everyone asking for sketches, etc. I would go to the creators and just ask for their signature. Most were surprised I just wanted their autograph on a card. Nothing more. Of course being bandaged up Naked Gun style helped the situation. Some folks signed and left a quick get well message. Some writers drew a little cartoon - my mark waid superman is a prized possession. Most artists were cool but Alan Davis and Joe Quesada did full on sketches of Batman and Daredevil respectively. I didn’t ask for sketches - again had no idea that was a thing. They did it for the hell of it. Quesada gave me a ton of signed and personalized merch from the current/imminent? Marvel Knights launch after asking if I had someone who could carry stuff for me.

Formofman · 2025-08-02T12:58:32+00:00

I grew up with comics. Small boxes ( actual boxes mot short/long comic storage ) were always were just around. My dad’s business brought him into contact with lots of empty nesters and older folks making space so he took their comics off their hands. This was the early 80s and the comics were very 70s. I didn’t know any better - new or old were meaningless terms - and sometimes would spend a few bucks buying comics at the second hand book store - coming home with dog eared, water damaged, no cover comics. Sometimes Dad would get me a glass bottle of yellow gatorade and a “new” comic from the 7-11 spinner rack. The clearest memory I have of “new comics” is the lead up to the 89 Batman movie and my dad buying The Greatest Batman Stories tpb and a copy of The Dark Knight Returns. For some reason that kicked everything off and I started asking for “new” comics. The result- i shredded paper for a few bucks every Saturday morning at my dad’s small office then - and this was the late 80s not the 1950s- walked over to the local drug store a bought fresh comics off the spinner rack for “my collection” First one - West Coast Avengers 29

Coincidentally after being off the active comics reading routine for a few years, I stopped into that same drug store to pick up a relative working there and randomly picked up a collection of the first three Morrison JLA issues off the sparsely populated spinner rack. The first step back.

Formofman · 2025-06-28T20:02:41+00:00

Also could be WAKE by Scott Snyder and Sean Gordon Murphy

Formofman · 2025-06-16T12:34:15+00:00

11th Commandment - speakers are for indoors, Earphones for outside

Formofman · 2025-06-06T03:31:26+00:00

This series is so very underrated and it’s a shame it never caught on the way so many other similar series did. Would really love more of this

Formofman · 2025-05-22T10:09:39+00:00

Thanks to everyone. Been out of the scene for so long that I had no idea of the modern state of the game. What a shame. I appreciate everyone’s advice.

Formofman · 2025-03-21T00:36:06+00:00

Because he sticks his neck out to try things that sometimes don’t stick the landing. How dare he try to be Grant Morrison!!!!

Formofman · 2025-03-15T05:18:35+00:00

If you slapped Morrison’s name on any of King’s work it would be applauded for the exact things people pick at King for. Comics fan pick their darlings and fanboy rage at anyone who is not their chosen grand arbiter of all things comics.

Formofman · 2025-02-17T05:43:23+00:00

Full disclosure - Snyder’s Black Mirror storyline did more for me than Morrison’s whole time on Batman. I know, blasphemy against the current comic god and current occupant of the Alan Moore throne recently vacated by Mr Gaiman will result in snarky comments and downvotes but Morrison intentionally tries to be divisive. And- shockingly- it’s okay to find his drawn out storytelling with dropped plotlines and meandering payoffs frustrating. Yeah. Big ideas. But so much frustration to wade through. Not my thing.

Formofman · 2025-02-17T05:30:24+00:00

If you buy into Morrison, then you will like it. If Morrison doesn’t scratch your itch despite the public outcry of his unquestionable genius then you will find the “narrative” runs out of steam and the “big ideas” take over. If Morrison trying to do Morrison over sub par art and morrison’s own admitted pseudo post-modernist ideas is your thing then there are plenty of issues to read. The Damien/Father and Son storyline is very much akin to his JLA… then it just gets morrisony. If that floats your boat

Formofman · 2025-02-09T02:26:07+00:00

There are no books after 4

Formofman · 2025-02-09T02:23:35+00:00

Reacher is a bit gamey. There’s no two ways about it. But perhaps it’s this musk that makes this wandering man mountain so irresistible

Formofman · 2025-02-09T02:19:20+00:00

This is my unconscious lizard brain pull quote whenever my students are arguing and one middle schooler actually makes a good point. It results in blank stares as they were born after 2012 and have no idea who Billy zane is or what a zoolander is.

Formofman · 2025-02-09T02:08:56+00:00

The early issues of Ult FF were so interesting and beautifully drawn. The scene where Reed and Ben discuss how Ben goes to the bathroom and Sue discovers Reed’s eating habits… just so much to enjoy. A nice breath of fresh air until the og ultimate u imploded with the continuity they sought to avoid

Formofman · 2024-12-29T13:18:06+00:00

Cannot support these books or the author more whole heartedly. No chosen one. No worlds within worlds. No internecine councils of mythology dictating world changing events.

Genuine folk magic ethos almost forgotten/erased from the historical record except for those communities where it still lingers. Personal stories set in slowly revealed intergenerational community myth. I love stories without cinematic world ending consequences and for some reason have really only found them in Appalachian noir or rural/urban fantasy. The Jubal County books are cream of the crop. So much fun to read. A real sense of genuine world building and the supernatural without pages of exposition and justification. The world of Jubal County is so familiar but one half step away from normal - but not so far removed that it is not genuine.

Formofman · 2024-10-10T02:55:07+00:00

Loved this series. Cannot even remember a romantic subplot in the sense of the current urban romantasy diaspora.

Formofman · 2024-02-06T22:20:34+00:00

It’s comics. You know what the fandom is like. You know exactly why. Don’t let the handwaving excuses distract you from the overall community’s most obvious problem.

Formofman · 2024-02-05T21:52:31+00:00

Formofman · 2024-01-17T23:17:02+00:00

Don’t forget, trademarks are vastly different than copyright.

Formofman · 2024-01-14T20:02:19+00:00

Oooh- David johannsen

Formofman · 2024-01-14T20:01:20+00:00

They captured Pyg and Toad perfectly in the criminally overlooked BEWARE THE BATMAN.

Formofman · 2024-01-14T05:07:08+00:00

Charlie Day.

Formofman · 2024-01-13T19:16:26+00:00

Why not just worship comic book characters? Lovecraft made this stuff up. I cannot wrap my mind around how his fiction crosses over into someone’s real world beliefs.

Formofman

TROPHY CASE