Variant Covers #1
Looking back on Xmas 2021 and ahead to 2022
I hope everyone had a better Xmas than I did. I got sick the Sunday before, and I’m just barely starting to feel better. Don’t worry, it wasn’t Covid-19; two tests confirmed that. It was just a nasty seasonal cold. I think the fact that I haven’t been sick since the pandemic started AND I’m a smoker contributed to this one really kicking my ass.
Now you know why we didn’t get any new posts last week. It’d be nice if I could say that it was a planned holiday vacation, but no, I was laying in bed hacking up my lungs and trying to keep my face from exploding. The Spider-Man origin walk-through posting this week was written last Tuesday, but by the time I finished it at 4 am, I was too tired to give it a proper edit. When I woke up in the morning, I was feeling the cold symptoms full-on and couldn’t get out of bed for about two days.
I probably don’t need to share all this with you, but I have felt so guilty about not getting anything up last week, that I wanted to lay it all out for you. Which, brings me to the REAL point of this post.
Something new
The main title of this post is Variant Covers. This is the title of my old column in the local newspaper I used to work for. Several years ago, when I was hired to be a reporter and photographer for the local newspaper, I was also given my own column. The title I came up with for the column was Variant Covers. Being the comic book nerd I am, I couldn’t think of a better title. As you all may well know, a variant cover is an alternate take on a print comics’ standard cover image. They’re different interpretations of an idea. That concept seemed to fit nicely with what I wanted to do with my column. I would give alternative perspectives on ideas and themes that we faced in the community and the world.
The problem was, I was working for a small-town newspaper. A CONSERVATIVE small-town newspaper. Let’s just say after only a few months and an article about how socialism in Star Trek could be a blueprint for our future, my column was pulled and I was instead asked to dig into the archives to reprint fifty-year-old articles. I lasted, maybe, another six months on the paper before we parted ways.
I’ve been wanting to do a weekly free-form post for COSGRRRL for a while, but I wasn’t sure what it would be. One day, I got a wild hair up my ass and the idea of bringing back Variant Covers struck me. I don’t really have any particular direction I intend to go with it; Kinda like my original column. I think this will just be a space where I can talk with our readers. Sometimes I might write something that tries to make a specific point or focuses on a topic I find interesting, and sometimes I just might tell you about my week.
So, even though the exact nature of the column might be fluid, the one thing I do know I’d like it to be is a conversation. This is me talking directly to you, dear reader. It’s me telling you about my week. It’s me giving you some insight into my strange and chaotic brain and how I view the world and what it could be. It is also a place for you to respond in the comment section. If I tell you about my week, I’m gonna ask you about your week. I’ll tell you what I geeked out on this week, you tell me what you geeked out on this week. If I write about my opinions on the concept of a society working together for the betterment of humanity and mutual cooperation for the sake of making the world a better place, feel free to tell me I’m full of shit and totally nieve. Variant Covers is my place to be me, but it’s also a place for you to be you. Isn’t that what COSGRRRL is all about?
Now that I’ve got that out of the way, let’s look forward to the new year. I’m hoping to fully kick this cold before New Year’s eve. I want to party this year! However, I’ll probably end up spending it watching the Doctor Who Special, jumping into the 10-film Star Trek boxset my daughter got me for Xmas, and drinking beer by myself. Honestly, that’s the kind of party my 40-year-old ass is into these days. Then again, you never know, I might end up with friends… Nah, I’ll be watching Who and Trek and solo drinking!
Looking forward to what’s to come for COSGRRRL 2022
My goals for COSGRRRL in 2022 include finding some new voices to grace our pages as well as reconnecting with some of the amazing familiar voices you’ve come to know. So many amazing writers have published pieces on here, and I’d love to get a chance to work with them. I’d also love the opportunity to give space to new writers to make their bones.
I believe that COSGRRRL can be a space to do what science fiction, and the nerds who love it, do best, make the world a better place through dialogue and the sharing of ideas. When COSGRRRL is at its best, it presents ideas that can inspire and make you think.
Don’t forget to have fun!
All that being said, we can’t be serious and introspective all the time (totally reminds me of that line from The Crow, “It can’t rain all the time”)! Like the other post I’m posting this week, sometimes we just want to read a walk-through or a list of cool shit. This week’s article started as a review of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” it then morphed into an analysis of the MCU’s Spider-Man origin story and ended up a walk-through of that origin without much analysis. I had intended to rewrite it to be a more insightful analysis, but this pesky seasonal cold got in the way.
Final thoughts
So, that’s about it, yo ho ho! We get a new weekly column coming from your friendly neighborhood editor and, hopefully, new stuff from someone, ANYONE, other than me! I know the amazing and talented Majorie Steele (also known as COSGRRRL’s previous editor and the mastermind of Creative Onion Press) has some super cool content coming up. I’m in the process of strongarming a very talented friend of mine into writing some stuff focused on sci-fi soundtracks and other cool things. I’ll also toss in the talented Gary E. Moore’s name in the hopes that he’ll be enticed to send us something new. I’d drop some more names, but I don’t want to dig myself too deep; they might tell me to go frack myself.
There is so much potential for the future of COSGRRRL and I’m super stoked to see where we can take it. I hope you all have a fun and exciting New Year’s! Here’s to trying something new this year, cheers!
