Is It Monday Again? Already?

I’m a little unprepared this week. Normally I write the blog up in little snippets as the week goes by, a few minutes at a time. But this week, nothing has really grabbed my interest. And now I have to waste an hour or so talking about nothing.

I suppose I could rant about Sarah Palin, but I don’t really need that kind of indigestion at 8:30 in the morning. Besides, Matt Damon already did that.

I heard Obama talking about health insurance this morning. He seems to have adopted Senator Clinton’s plan, more or less. Which is nice, since it was the only thing I liked more about her than Obama. The timing was interesting, as I just signed up for my 2009 insurance plan -it’s a pretty bare bones policy. but at least it only cost me $650 a month! (Fuck!) Even when I was working for other people, the cost of health insurance always went up, up, up. And while it hurt back then, now it is simply crippling me. I know people bitch and moan about Universal coverage -but these are usually people who have never had to self-insure. And besides, no matter what arguments you make about it, the economic fact is that here in the States, we spend a larger portion of our GDP on a shittie system, than any other country in the world. I have many friends in other countries and they are very pleased with it. If Obama gets elected I might just put away my Canadian immigration paperwork . . for now.

I was really stoked to learn that there is a new Hector Plasm book coming out. I wish it could come out more frequently, but these guys work for a living, so it’s understandable that it takes a back seat to paying the bills.  Hector Plasm is easily my favorite comic book in years. I didn’t really have time to do this, but I took a day and banged out a pin-up for them. I can’t wait to see this book in print! Not since I first discovered Hellboy have I enjoyed a book so much.

Vol.2 of Atomic Robo is almost finished. Page 10 gets done today. over all I’ve been pretty damn pleased with this volume. Last night I wrapped up pg9, which featured the first appearance of the incomprehensible Scottish SAS sergeant, James “Scottie” Milligan. “Scottie” is kind of a fun tribute to my Grandpa -also called James “Scottie” Milligan.

Grandpa wasn’t an SAS commando though. For some time during the early years of the war he served as an NCO in the British Army. However, due to a football (soccer) accident in 1938, he eventually lost sight in his right eye. He then joined the Merchant Marines and did something far more dangerous than fighting the Nazis with a rifle. Churchill called it the Battle of the Atlantic, and it went on for years. It was probably one of the most critical struggles in the entire war.

Grandpa received his eye injury, not during the war, but right before it. In the 1920’s and ’30’s professional soccer was very popular in America, and he was playing for a team in Brooklyn. He and his brother, neither one with more than a 6th grade education, used their athletic abilities as a way out of the slums and coal mines of Southeast Scotland. He came and went to the States a half dozen times before successfully planting roots after WWII. He kept sailing out of New York Harbor until I was 4 or 5yrs old, and he was always a larger-than-life man to me.

The Commando in 2.5 is really nothing at all like Grandpa -not even a bad parody of the man. The real Jim Milligan was far too stoic and serious to even be in an issue of Atomic Robo. Still, I think he would have enjoyed seeing it.

RANDOM SPLENDOR

-High Tech Noon. Yes. It’s as awesome as it sounds.