Colors of summer. Not pictured: many tacos and tortas were had.

The Guggenheim in Bilbao did not require a $50M parking garage like we would have built in the US. In fact, there was no visible infrastructure for visitors arriving by passenger car.

I was fortunate to live and work here at the start of my adult life.

Vertigo Comics is no longer. Long the “adult” imprint of DC, Vertigo was a great place for lovers of comics and graphic novels that took on deep issues with often dark or horror content.

I’m not the best person to write about what Vertigo meant, but I thought I’d share three things Vertigo printed that I have loved.

The Sandman

Of course I love Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. Linked is volume one of The Absolute Sandman, which I think is the best way to read this comic. You can’t be a fan of dark fantasy and not devour this complex mythology. You can’t be a fan of comic book art and not drown in every page. Follow the tales of the Seven Endless: Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium. ¹

American Vampire

A violent traipse through iconic American settings, American Vampire shows two creators, Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque at their best. ²

Y: The Last Man

Brian K. Vaughan is one of my favorite authors, and these days may be as well known from Saga as Y: The Last Man. What if there was a virus unleashed into the world that killed all males, including animals, except one man and his male monkey companion? Y: The Last Man is a great post-apocalyptic tale and a perennial recommendation from comic readers to someone who as never clicked with the genre.

City living can definitely come with a good view.

This is going to be a lot of dinner.

A few more from San Sebastián.

I am finally reviewing some of the pictures from our recent vacation to Spain that were shot on our Sony NER 5X instead of my iPhone XS.

A few observations on photography.

• The Sony photos still look better, mostly because they seem to do a far better job with dynamic range and noise.
• I take worse photos with the Sony camera, I think because the screen for previews is less good and difficult to see in bright lights. Additionally, the larger body means that I feel more awkward doing the work of physically moving to better frame my photos.
• It’s so freeing to take lots of pictures and delete many.
• It’s amazing what a small amount of cropping, color and light adjustments, and retouching can do for a photo. Spending 60-90s per photo makes a world of difference, and I don’t know what I’m doing at all.
• I really enjoy having true optical zoom, even with the kit lens. I think I’m going to end up either buying more lenses for the Sony or picking up a new camera soon to step up my game.

Here’s two pictures… can you tell which is which, even after processing and being resized?

In one picture, the beauty of great parenting in a world with sane transit architecture and a sign that even in a world with sane transit, people are jerks.

A triptych of seafood referencing famous works in San Sebastián

Mercado de la Ribera is gorgeous public art masquerading as a market.

The Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain.

Michelin Star pintxos for like $30.

Been using a “real” camera most of this trip without an SD card reader or laptop handy so it feels like the “old” days where I don’t actually know if these will come out well. Here’s one shot on my iPhone.

Steps from our hotel for the next couple of days.

This lamb was incredible.