Sense of Adventure

I don’t actually watch Jericho. I tend to watch very little series TV.

That ‘fessed up to, I want to direct the attention of all my readers who do watch series to an online effort to save Jericho from cancellation. If you’ve enjoyed the show, or even think you might if it came ’round again, please cruise on over and give the site a look, sign their petition if so moved.

My vested interests in this are two. First, some of my pals from the [in]famous St. Louis Firehouse Gang of long years past have been working F/X on the show. While they assure me they’re not going to be on the bricks over the cancellation, it’d be nice for them to continue to be employed. When you’re dealing with Mad Geniuses of this caliber, idle hands really are the Devil’s playground.

Second: in general, as a guy who’s written a fair amount in the “After the Holocaust” genre - from The Guardians to Cybernetic Samurai to Deathlands - I, well, approve of that theme getting prime time airplay. Like The Dude, (and Earth itself in an early classic of the genre), it abides. Which is fine with me, since it’s a pool I’d like, and intend, to play in a bit more.

In a kinda sorta related subject, I continue to get fan email on The Guardians series. In a way it’s very cool, inasmuch as it’s been out of print for over 15 years and wasn’t printed under my name. It’s also a bit sobering that it’s what generates most of my fan email.

The usual query is whether there will be more Guardians books (short answer: probably not as such), with a fairly frequent kicker about the possibility of a Guardians movie (short answer: seems unlikely; I love the concept and think it could rock; please stay tuned). Real Soon Now I need to put together a boilerplate answer to send to these kind, interested folk, as well as post up on my Forum for all to read.

So the gentleman at The Happy Curmudgeon was kind enough not only to post my PDA plight on his own blog when I had yet to figure out how to enable the “Comments” function in WordPress, but to add some additional kind words. Thanks!

Yet I find myself with a bone to pick with this good Samaritan. You call yourself the Happy Curmudgeon. I certainly can’t cavil with anyone choosing to characterize him or herself as “happy.” And curmudgeons definitely have their place.

But you are clearly a good person as well as a reasonable, incisive social critic. You, sir, are not a curmudgeon. This, this is a curmudgeon.

Meet Everett True, incipient folk hero, John Bull lookalike, and walking Explosive Personality Disorder. Apparently, The Outbursts of Everett True was an actual early 20th-Century American comic strip.

The key word here is outbursts. Miss Manners (remember her?) may have gotten all prissy-faced and said, “Miss Manners wants people to behave,” in a constipated voice. Ah, but when Everett True wants people to behave, he makes them eat curb.

Needless to say, I don’t advocate or condone committing random acts of violence. Particularly against people who ogle pretty women. Especially not them. And by that I mean, “us.”

But there is something deeply soul-satisfying about seeing some fat guy with his belt in his armpits pound serious lout head.

And as Will Smith said in the utterly ridiculous but wildly entertaining Independence Day, “I have got to get me one of these!”

(There may be Everett True t-shirts in the birthday-present futures of certain of my friends.)

A lid-tip to Brian Doherty at the Hit and Run blog for the ungarbled word on Everett.