The Doors are Open
Jun. 12th, 2020 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cjlasky7First week over back at the branch. Overall, not too bad, considering my concerns going in. Everybody wore a mask, even if some people had to be prodded a bit to wear it properly. We haven't reached a point yet where overcrowding could be a problem, but not everyone knows we've re-opened; we'll see how the situation develops in the coming days.
Even though I'm back to an almost-normal schedule, I find myself feeling depressed. Maybe it's because of the current sociopolitical chaos. Maybe it's because my car got banged up (again) in Borough Park, and I might have to replace a bumper. Or maybe it's that working at my usual post gives me the illusion of normalcy, when I'm acutely aware of the illusion.
***************
Sad news for comics fans: Denny O'Neil, groundbreaking writer of Batman and Green Lantern in the 1970s, died at the age of 81. O'Neil, along with artist Neal Adams, brought Batman out of the "camp" era of the TV series and restored the dark mood and mystery of the character. I will never forget stories like "The Joker's Five Way Revenge" or his run of adventures pitting Bats against Ra's Al Ghul. O'Neil and Adams also took Green Lantern out of fifties space opera and dropped him right in the middle of the social unrest of the seventies.
[One cutting sequence of panels summarized O'Neil's intent for the series: an elderly black man approaches GL and asks how he can work for the blue skins (the Guardians of Oa), save the orange skins and purple skins... but not the black skins. It's still depressingly relevant today.]
On a personal level, O'Neil was my teacher. I took a course in comic book writing with him and he was funny and inspirational. I created one of my most interesting heroines for his class. (I hope Brianne can see the light of day, somehow.)
Even though I'm back to an almost-normal schedule, I find myself feeling depressed. Maybe it's because of the current sociopolitical chaos. Maybe it's because my car got banged up (again) in Borough Park, and I might have to replace a bumper. Or maybe it's that working at my usual post gives me the illusion of normalcy, when I'm acutely aware of the illusion.
***************
Sad news for comics fans: Denny O'Neil, groundbreaking writer of Batman and Green Lantern in the 1970s, died at the age of 81. O'Neil, along with artist Neal Adams, brought Batman out of the "camp" era of the TV series and restored the dark mood and mystery of the character. I will never forget stories like "The Joker's Five Way Revenge" or his run of adventures pitting Bats against Ra's Al Ghul. O'Neil and Adams also took Green Lantern out of fifties space opera and dropped him right in the middle of the social unrest of the seventies.
[One cutting sequence of panels summarized O'Neil's intent for the series: an elderly black man approaches GL and asks how he can work for the blue skins (the Guardians of Oa), save the orange skins and purple skins... but not the black skins. It's still depressingly relevant today.]
On a personal level, O'Neil was my teacher. I took a course in comic book writing with him and he was funny and inspirational. I created one of my most interesting heroines for his class. (I hope Brianne can see the light of day, somehow.)
