the rough poetry of the Man in Black

 Thank you Old Dog, I was thinking of putting together something about the Oscars, something about them being a big tinsel  ball of over rated nothing.  I like movies, and I saw several of the movies in contention, but who cares what a bunch of fat headed Hollywood types vote for?  Not me.  Anyway now I have a better topic.

I just heard there was a punch out.  A punch out always gets the attention, but once it gets to be a regular thing it is like throwing chairs.

The war comics that I read didn't have any heroes, it was just one story after another set in various wars, WWII and vaguely the Korean mostly.  There were cowboy comics too, though I was never a big cowboy fan.  The only superheros at the time were Batman and Superman, I think there may have been a Green Lantern but he seemed kind of esoteric.

But of course the best comics were the horror comics.  I don't think we were even aware of the Comics Code, but we were aware of the exact date it went into effect and comics before that date were prized much higher than the ones that came after.  

I never read a real book until I was twelve.  The Ant Men, one of those famous Winston science fiction books.  Why read anything else when comics were so good?  Every kid had a stack about two feet high and every so often we would get together and trade comics.  It was great.  Happy days in the old hood.

Yes the Sunday comics were a whole nother world, to spread out on the rug and crawl over.  A lot of story comics and those really odd Katzenjammer Kids, and years later when I got into head comics I realized that Smokey Stover was psychedelic before there was even psychedelia.

I love Johnny Cash lyrics and try to sprinkle them into my writing when I can.  One I use often is our streak-of-lightning cars and fancy clothes.  At first glance they look kind of cornball but a closer examination reveals that they are spot on.  

I have noticed that there are small changes in the lyrics depending on their source.  I remembered long-haired girls, but there was long-legged girls in another version.  I prefer the former because I think it adds to the fast cars, you can see their hair blowing in the breeze.

My favorite songwriter off the cuff is the recently deceased Nanci Griffith.  

When I copy and paste the lyrics I put them into italics, then I make them bigger or smaller to fit in with the post.  I guess this last time I made them too small.