Papa Doc Abraxas' Omnium Gatherum

Yesterday, history was made. Barack Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States. Wow! As the results came in, as my state California helped to put Obama over the 270 electoral vote hump, I thought of my father. Of how he isn't alive to see this day. Yet this was a day that he told his sons would come. That they could be and do anything they wanted in America. If they worked hard enough. If they dreamed long and hard and true enough. Even the highest office in this land was not beyond the realm of possibilities for his African American sons. I think Pop would have smiled and cried a little at what I saw, what the whole world saw last night. Following Obama's lead, today begins the new work, the tough work of getting America back to being that shining place on the hill. What strikes me is how I don't think many African Americans fully realize Obama's election asks of us to stand taller, to be better. Not to slam anyone directly, the last couple of

It is here at last, Election Day. On this day, history will be made. We Americans will either elect the first African American as president or the oldest first term president. There is something in the air today. An electricity of differing moods and feelings. A waiting for the other shoe to drop, as long as it is not upon our collective head. Politics junkie that I am, I am up far too early here in Inglewood, California. The news is on the TV as I type this. I'm an MSNBC man, by the way. And I am settling in for what looks to be a long, long day. I am not worried about the results. Unlike some of my friends, I am following the Middle Way. I might be disappointed if Barack Obama loses. I won't front on that. But, just as with enlightenment, I will get up tomorrow and continue living my life in the best ways that I can. If Obama does win as the polls trend towards and the pundits pitch and quasi-predict, I will feel lighter and brighter and will still get up in the

Back after a long silence and talking politics. Just a quick note tonight. Is is just me or does anyone else find Karl Rove predicting an Obama win in November is more of a threat than an observation? If you don't know what I'm talking about, follow the link: http://news.aol.com/elections/article/obama-would-win-today-rove-says/200842?icid=100214839x1211086526x1200675227 Reading that reminded me of the scene towards the end of Chris Rock's Head Of State when right wing radio hosts warn Californians of an impending win by Rock's Mays Gillium (please forgive me if I get it wrong and don't look it up so I get it right), which sends tons of Orange County white folks into the streets in a panic. With a month left to go, all the weapons at the Republicans' disposal will be drawn. This may just be the first serious shot across the bow of Obama's ship.

Hey, folks, a new issue of the Comics Waiting Room has gone live at its website. Here's the link: http://comicswaitingroom.com/ This issue contains the latest edition of my column Omnium Gatherum. This time out I had to explain Why Superman Never Has And Never Will Suck. I wrote it in response to an essay I saw a few weeks ago under the title of Why Superman Will Always Suck. As a superhero fan, I thought the arguments being made were off base. Watch me have my say. Now the conceit behind CWR is that it's the webzine that wants to be Rolling Stone when it grows up. Just play along. Scroll down a bit and click on the cover. From there you will be taken to the menu listing this issue's offerings. Scroll down some more and you'll see the button to my column. While you're there, check out all the CWR has to offer. Thanks loads. Namaste.

Oh, crap, I still have a column to write for next week's issue of the Comics Waiting Room. That has to be the next thing I change. Back to the drawing board.

Today is exactly two months before my 40 th birthday. Now, I'm not all that big on milestones and the like but I did have to think about this some. Especially after talking with my mother recently who will celebrate her 80 th birthday in December. I have to start thinking that I could live that long or longer. Or only live as long as my father did, dying at 58 from lung cancer. That and I'm just not where I wanted to be in my life. I'm still very much on the periphery of the comics industry despite the professional credits I've accumulated. I don't live in a very nice place. I don't have the car I always wanted. Okay, I just don't have a car but that's besides the point. All in all, I'm not where I always dreamed of being at this point in my life. In most of the books on aging, this is the age where I should be going through a mid-life crisis of some kind. Where I look at my goals and where I actually am and either adjust my goals accordin

At least according to My Space. I have a grand total of five friends. Although I suspect that Tom guy is just a plant by My Space. I just haven't figured it out yet. And I'm waiting for my studio partners to add me to "our" My Space page. Oh, well, it's not like anything happens instantaneously in the Internet Age.

The real answer to that question is there is no reason for anybody to care about who I am. Other than myself, naturally. But I am moving ever forward towards my goal of a comics writing and editing career. Besides, when I wrote a charming little piece entitled Why It Fails When Fangirls Attack (http://www.comicswaitingroom.com/vince2.html) last year, it showed that some of people cared about what I wrote. It was mostly slings and arrows. Yet it showed that, with the right topic, I could reach people. And, whenever I engage in the new fad of Googling oneself, that column still turns up as the most popular item under my name. Not bad for a novice. As it will come out next week in my column, Omnium Gatherum, my attempt at a large scale format covering a number of topics hasn't gone as well as I would have liked. I don't hide the fact that I'm often out of touch with the rest of the world. I'm still buying CDs while everyone else I know is buying MP3s. So I want more

I was born, raised, and am still living (on a shoestring budget) in Southern California. My lifelong love of comics was born from the very moment I bought Fantastic Four #176, with a Jack Kirby Impossible Man cover. Over the years, despite efforts to live life in the real world, I found myself working at Comics Ink in Culver City, CA for nearly nine years, from 1991 to 2000. In recent years, I have been slowly breaking into the comics industry, with a few false starts along the way and some good friends still made in the process. Today, I am still writing and drawing and creating secret projects of my very own (of which more will be heard about in the coming years, hopefully), in addition to providing services to Astounding/DarkStorm Studios as editor. As well as being part of the creative team at 10 Worlds Studio. See the group’s page at myspace.com/10_worlds_studio And returning for a part time engagement at Comics Ink. My biweekly column, Omnium Gatherum, can be found at comicswait

As this is my first posting via Blogger, I'm just testing out the system. This is only a test. The full broadcast day will begin shortly.