Strange Connections

I have known about the Witchblade series for what feels like forever. After being introduced to the television series in the early 2000s (ran from 2001 to 2002), I also caught some of a cartoon version of the stories as well. And in each iteration I saw a slightly different story than what was probably the original comic book version of the story. It’s the nature of the beast, you put it into a different format and things change. I get it, I understand it, sometimes it bothers me to no end and other times I take it in stride. I figure my reaction is in line with quite a few other people at any given moment in something like that.

But this is only partially what is on my mind right now…

It all started with finding the Witchblade graphic novels a little bit ago. I don’t know how you do it but I have a tendency to find something fun and then put it on a shelf for a bit (or jump right into it and forget the world for a little while). This is what happened with these graphic novels. Hell, I have the first two and I didn’t even get them at the same time. I consider it a bit of luck that I even managed to get them in sequential order.

If you are interested in this kind of thing, I am referring to the series put out by Image comics by Ron Marz and Mike Choi. The copies I have are actually the second printing (and from 2011, though I can never remember if that is the date of this printing or the date of original publication).

And this is where things take a turn for the odd, or something.

So I read the first one. The story was good and I love the art. No big deal. At this point it isn’t really something that is earth shaking, at least not for me. And then I got into the second graphic novel. It was a couple storylines in that I was hit by a truck (is that too strong an image for an epiphany?).

See, here I was, reading this story that was sad, tragic and just a bit of a play at the emotions. And I realized it was something more. Not in the story itself but in its greater conversation with the world around us.

For some reference, this story came about after the main character is transferred to a different police department. Someone from her old work home had come to her for help. And this story plays out as something that is tragic but without any supernatural attachments. It is a story that could have fit within just about any framework. But in contrast to the extra ordinary stories around it, it stood out as something greater than what it seemed. I was reminded of why I had fallen in love with the Judge Dredd storylines back in the 90s.

The back drop of these high powered, earth shaking stories, is a living and breathing world. With Dredd there were the cutesy stories of a candy maker who created highly addictive candies, among many other just oddball things that happened to draw you into the world. These little bits of flavor where interspersed amongst stories of Death Judges and the Cursed Earth. We had a respite that let us know the world was still working through all they were going through.

This is where I found myself when I had finished that storyline in the second Witchblade graphic novel. It had been tragic, and awful. But the world around her was still carrying on. There is a life within the world she lives in and she is only a part of it.

As I sit here thinking about all of this I am reminded of the show “24.” I could never get into it. And part of that was the idea behind the whole thing. Each season was meant to be the 24 hours of a single day. So if this was one day out of the year for these people, what the hell happened during the other 364 days that year. When you think about it that world must be incredibly boring except for one day every year. And then if you were living in the world, what would it be like? Anticipation till the day comes (because you never exactly know when it will happen) and then a complete release and boredom after it all goes done. Well, that is as long as you survive that one day.

Anyway, those are my thoughts for the day. Here’s to hoping that the connections you make bring you to some happy places.

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