Reading is Fun Week: Funny Friday, May 19th

On Funny Friday, of Reading is Fun Week, the Reading is Fundamental people recommend that we make our own comic book characters.

I am not going to participate in this. I think that all the good comic book characters have already been drawn. (See the Cinematical Seven: X-Meta: An Outsider's Guide to Symbolism in Superhero Cinema)

I guess I could just be feeling a little bit insecure about my artistic ability, or complete lack thereof. Once when I was a teenager, a retired high school art teacher sat me down with an oil set and a canvas. She said that she was positive that I was a budding artist, that I must be overflowing with raw, untrained artistic ability, because I was so musical, and um, I can't remember the other reasons why she thought I would be artistic. (The truth is, my musical talents are not what most would call talents. My musical ability is just basic ability born of mild interest, and a desire not to hurt my piano teacher's feelings by quitting. Anyway, Edgy is a much better piano player than I am, and the only place that I will sing a solo is in my car, with the windows rolled up and the radio playing louder than I am singing, so no-one will have to accidentally hear my voice.) Regardless, it seems silly to believe that someone is artistic based on minimal musical ability.

Yeah, well, after one afternoon with a paint brush, she never asked me back. It scarred me for life. I still feel like I failed her for some reason. Like it was my fault that there wasn't some artistic talent hidden deep down inside of me just waiting for her to temper and harness it into this writhing pulse of creative dexterity.

If I never try to draw a comic book character, I will never fail at it.

Well, today marks the middle of Calveras County Fair and Frog Jumping Jubilee, a tradition started by Mark Twain with his short story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. Maybe, to celebrate Funny Friday I need to go buy a frog.