Gauthic Times: The Bill Gauthier Newsletter #118, or Symbols of Hope

Hello, friends.

You ever have the feeling that everything’s unraveling and there’s no way to stop it, but when you try to find evidence of the unraveling, you can’t find any? I mean, globally (or nationally), yeah, it’s coming apart. I’m talking on a more personal level. There’s a feeling that’s something’s coming undone but you can’t see it. Can’t put your finger on it. It’s strange.

What does this mean? The hell do I know? If I did, I probably wouldn’t be asking.

This past week was a much quieter week than the few that proceeded it, though, and here we are. Writing despite the sense of impending doom, let’s get into things.

Welcome to the 118th installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and modern symbols of hope.

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Anyway, let’s go!

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Maybe some of the feeling of unraveling is that I’m now three weeks past finish my second draft of Project: Amusement Park and still haven’t gotten into anything new. I’ve done a lot of thinking, which I mentioned last week, but not much else. Of course, thinking is part of the process, right? Yesterday I did open the folder of short stories on my computer and began looking at the them.

I have around twenty unpublished short stories that I have deemed viable (and maybe as many I’ve abandoned for good…unless…) in various stages of completion. Some need rewrites. Others need me to get off my ass and find a place to submit them to. Either way, there’s work to be done. There are titles there I don’t remember at all and others I remember quite well.

I also intend to begin pestering local bookstores (and maybe a few not-so-local ones) to try to get events going for the summer. If money wasn’t so tight, I’d try for NECON or some other conference or convention, but I don’t think that’s doable. I know it takes spending money to make money, but I’m not sure that’s wise with the way the world is right now.

I did draw a picture this over the last two days.

I’m proud of it but needs work. Try as I might, some of the arms are funky. I intend on trying to ink it at some point and color it, but for now here it is. I got the idea on Friday, Superman Day as it were. I’ve written more about Superman below.

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As I write this, yesterday was April 18^th, which has become Superman Day. The reason for this date is that on April 18^th, 1938, Action Comics #1 hit newsstands. The debut of Superman in this comic book rocked the world. Here we are, 87 years later, and the Man of Steel will be hitting movie theaters in a brand new adventure this summer. I couldn’t be more thrilled.

For a long time in my life, I was a Batman guy. Gritty, determined, a human without superpowers, Batman was cool. He wasn’t the Boy Scout like Superman, and all that. As I’ve gotten older, though, I’ve come back to Superman.

Superman was my favorite when I was real small, with Batman, the Hulk, and Spider-Man close behind. When I got to my thirties, though, I began to realize that my heart was with Superman. Here was an alien with godlike powers who wanted badly to be more human. He saw the good in most people. He provided hope. No, no one could be Superman with the skin of steel, heat vision, power of flight, and all the rest, but that wasn’t the point. No one could be Batman, either, but that doesn’t occur to some fans. The point was that Superman was aspirational. Most of the creators have known that and have done some terrific things with the character.

Another aspirational superhero is Captain America. This is a character that I completely disregarded until around 2000. I was in my early twenties and began to see the character as an aspirational figure, which I’d been too young and immature to realize beforehand. As time has passed, the idea of Captain America is what America should be, and Stan Lee and Jack Kirby bringing him back in the 1960s as America was in a turbulent time to see that the nation wasn’t living up to its promise made the character more interesting, something that has really been the case in the last 25 years.

This morning I finally got to see Captain America: Brave New World, which continued the cinematic building of the myth of Captain America. Sam Wilson’s Cap is definitely different that Steve Rogers’s but that’s a good thing and plays a big part of the movie. If anything, the film directly mentions the legacy and the symbol of the superhero.

Right now, the ideal is what appeals to me. We’ve been living in screwed-up times for a long time now and it’s only getting worse. And here we are, the year 2025 and both Captain America and Superman grace the big screen bringing decency and hope. Much-needed decency and hope.

I guess as a teenager and young adult, the moody, sulky rich guy who needs therapy but kicks bad guys’ asses is alluring. Now, though, believing in good when everything points in an opposite direction is what I long for. I’m happy there’s a Superman and a Captain America. We need them more now than ever.

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That’s it for this week’s newsletter. Thank you so much for subscribing, reading, and for your support.

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