LNH: Easily-Discovered Man #48

[robrogers72 at gmail.com]

On Jan 21, 5:13 pm, "Tarq" <mitchell_cro... at caladrius.com.au> wrote:
And now seems like a perfectly acceptable time to point out that
> Easily-Discovered Man was the first LNH story I ever read (first RACC
> at all, actually), and I still get all giggly and fan-girly as soon as
> I see a new one posted. Tee hee hee. How my masculinity abandons me.

Wow!  If it turns out that I'm in any way responsible for encouraging
you to
write for the LNH, I may end up getting into heaven yet.

> That's a nice introduction, that is. I think it works well with the
> whole first-person thing that the first thing you're aware of is Lite's
> pain -- which is what he would be concerned about, not about where he
> is or how he got there or whatever. All that's explained in time,
> without shoving meaningless names and places in your face all at once.
> Kudos.

Thank you.  Although I'm not above shoving meaningless names and places
in people's faces.  It comes with being a journalist.

> Apart from being an amusing aside, it helps to remind us of
> the age of the characters, which is (I feel) an important element of
> Lite's wise-cracking persona. A sixty-year-old wearing a Chooters shirt
> wouldn't have quite the same effect, ya dig?

I'm always struggling with the age issue.  If I'd allowed Lite to age
chronologically, he'd now be... let's see... around 29.  It's somewhat
sad to be a 29-year-old sidekick, unless you're Ed McMahon.  I
decided that Lite only ages when I post, which means that he
could be in his teens well into the next century.

> Woah. Or 'whoa', as it is apparently meant to be spelt. Whatever. I had
> seriously never looked at it from that angle. That does, however,
> remind me of a conversation between Captain America and Maria Hill in
> what I believe was the first issue of Civil War, something about Cap
> being pissed that Washington will get to tell them who the villains
> are, and Hill being all "I thought villains were people in spandex who
> refused to obey the law" or whatever.

I had great hopes for "Civil War" -- I thought that Marvel might
actually be
willing to question the whole concept of super-herodom, in the way that
The Authority used to.  And then they had to go and make Iron Man a
mustache-twirling villain, so that the audience knows with whom to
identify.  I've been told this is a topic that "Miracleman" addresses
well, and I'm currently seeking out old issues.

> I think you may have just single-handedly destroyed my faith in
> superheroes. Good job!

I hope not.  [Rob drags out soapbox, climbs aboard].
My favorite super-hero stories are the ones that suggest
that heroes are here to inspire us, to show us that it's
still possible for one person to make a difference.
Think of the earliest comics -- Superman taking on
mobsters and corrupt officials, Captain America socking
Hitler in the jaw.  They arrived at a time when ordinary
people were being asked to do their part to fight evil.

I loved hearing my grandfather's stories about serving
as a bomber pilot in World War II -- but I also like
hearing my grandmother's stories about taking part
in scrap metal drives, painting her headlights black
to hide them from airplanes, scanning the horizon
for submarines.  I'm sure it was a scary time to
be alive, but it was also a time when the average
person could feel as though he or she was doing
something important for the country, and for
the world.

I had the opportunity, once, to ride in the same
kind of bomber my grandfather once flew
(there's only one of them left in the world that
still flies).  It was an incredible experience, and
it made me wonder if, given the same kind of
world crisis, I'd be able to step up and make
the same kind of sacrifices he did.

That was on Sept. 9, 2001.

Two days later, I found myself thinking the same
thing as a lot of other people -- that something
terrible had happened, that the whole world
was probably going to be involved, and that I
desperately wanted to do something to help.

Instead, my country was told that the best thing
we could do to fight global terrorism was to shop.
"Don't worry about it," the government said.
"We're taking care of the problem.  But we're
doing it in secret.  We can't tell you who we're
fighting, or what they've done, or where they
are, or what they've planned, or where we're
going to send them if we catch them.  You
just have to trust us.  Oh, and we might have
to listen in on your phone conversations and
poke through your library records, too.  Hope
you don't mind."

In my opinion, good governments -- like good
heroes -- don't try to solve our problems for us.
They inspire us to action.  They ask us to make
sacrifices.  And even when it's clear that we
don't have the powers and resources they have,
they find ways in which we can participate.

[Rob climbs down from soapbox].

This would be about the only bad point I have for this issue: Hasn't
> the whole 'we turn you into gorillaz!' thing been done enough yet? =(

You know, at the time, I thought, "Well, of course it's been done
before.  The point is to come up with an interesting reason why
they've been turned into gorillas."

Looking back on it now, though, making them into zombie gorillas
would have been a lot funnier...

> >      "haiku gorilla
> >      lends me the power I need
> >      as leaves fall, I strike," he said, and leapt

>I cannot deny that I was hoping that that would happen.

Until you've tried to write the character, it's hard to
appreciate just how good a job Tom does with his
Haiku Gorilla stories.

> Alrighty! The saga of Easily-Discovered Man continues, with evermore
> twists, thoughts, and monkeys, too! Keep 'em coming, Rob.
>
> ~Mitchell.

Thanks, Mitchell!  It's comments like yours that make it
worthwhile.  That, and being able to find a context for
using the phrase "zombie gorilla."

--Rob Rogers
--Easily-Discovered Man Lite of the LNH