Deja Vu and reset II

A lot has happened across the year as I noted on the other blog part of which has followed how much I have moved into being LB/ASB since both discovering Tumblr and ASB in both dot org and the current dot net forms.

Lockdown thanks if that indeed is the right turn of phrase has brought forward a number changes to both because of necessity of restrictions on what way may do have of being under direct authority which for me always was the case at boarding school apart from what we all had at infant and juniors plus parental rules.

That whole situation is a reversal for most which is why some struggle with it but for me a direct return to imposed rules that align strongly with being an adult child and the extent to which even adult males have stepped in as authority figures to help me conform as if I was their son.

That has positioned me in the community very much as that Boy which is both a relief for being subject to guidance, told what to do and has lead to my shorts being taken up to the same coverage I had as junior which has coincided with being taken back a very much junior role.

Yet another element of lockdown has been dealing with the impact of restrictions which have changed sometimes in just a few weeks, the continuing deluge of statistics announcements and fears.

While as you know I have been having a regular footie magazine, tending to buy anything else as and when I felt like it, this has become more difficult as stores have reduced stocks due to reduced demand and also restrictions on what they can sell which is essential.

You may find some comics and magazines at a newsagents which are allowed open, the stationery shops and comic shops have not.

Comics as I think I remarked a couple of years back have changed because everything around them and their readers have with very few of those I grew up with available.

The Beano is one that is and in this form was how I read it in the nineteen seventies and eighties every week helping to deal with the impact of adult matters on our lives such as terrorism and economic and social conflict.

Reading it and talking about what we read helped us imagine other worlds and lose ourselves to a world of fun that we needed.

I have to be honest and say I am finding lockdown hard going so it is the case that I feel I badly need the same sort of thing as I did then.

The modern comic is different, society is different, pc ideas have changed likely script endings from that of my era and their are new cartoon strips and some old ones have gone but I have decided to take out a subscription to the one comic of my childhood that's still around every week.

Back then I did have another comic that was very jam packed with action, adventure and war stories that caused a revolution in weekly British comic publishing called Warlord which was very much a boys comic.

That folded a good while back but one that has a longish history still exists and is published by D C Thomson, who publish the Beano and did publish the Dandy called Commando.

It tends to have a single long story in comic strip form in each weekly issue with stories based upon the past rather like in their shorter forms Warlord did including stories from both World Wars that were the mainstays of the war based games we played as boys back then.

This is an example of the artwork, high quality but fairly old school making it easy to follow and one the things I realized through being on Tumblr was the extent to which I just loved these boys stories not that today a mainstream publisher would call them that but in reality they are.

Old school boys war comic are so me, stuff I identify with strongly and so I also took a subscription out to Commando. This boy needs it.

As I said the comic world has changed and new comics have come out but as I may of written about here and I know I tackled it elsewhere, cover mounts today festoon comics often to the detriment of the content but a few years ago a all new subscription only comic came out.

Phoenix was its name and as the name would suggest out of ashes of older comics came new ideas with the same quality, positioned to relate better to today's children (although adults do read it too) aimed more at the Juniors and Prep School age groups so it's not childish but is for older children.

It has different stories each week that give you new things to look forward to plus some other content that helps develop reading abilities which is something I do struggle with

Modern looking and colourful it bridges the gap between traditional comics and comic books that are produced for teens and young adults.

I saw a sample online and felt It was worth getting a subscription from the same people as the footie magazine is supplied by because it would immerse me in a fantasy world free from much of the adult world especially in the news. 

In Twenty Twenty then not only does this boy go back to being a boy in short short trousers with adults guiding him, keeping me in the straight and narrow, he also while looking at news headlines only as needed, will be reading comics much more connecting with his boyishness.

This I feel can only be a good thing given the struggles I had before and especially during this current covid crisis in keeping my mental strength as good as it can, making sure I switch off from unnecessary adult stuff and better able to just do what I am told.