Adventureman #1

[stubbleupdate]

The long, long awaited Adventureman #1 came out this week. Adventureman is the reason that the sexy mess that is Red One was put on hiatus...in 2016

As you'd expect from a Fraction book, it is full of intense adventure and silliness balanced with heart and some honest familial communication. This extract comes from the second camp.





Our lead has noise induced hearing loss and in the previous scene appreciated how nice it is to take her hearing aids out at night and shut out the world.



...I spend my days in a quiet place where nothing much ever happens.

Comments

[mister_terrific]

There's a lot of truth in there about hearing aids--I wear a special pair, where the one on the right is a microphone, sending everything over to the one on the left. It's been a general godsend, but it can be overwhelming trying to process everything quickly, especially in loud places like restaurants. And it's no help when your friends mumble or speak very softly.

There was one occasion where we went with a group to a restaurant, and on the way home my wife wanted to know what was wrong. I told her nothing, why? "Everyone noticed you were just sitting there with a look on your face, not saying a word, so they figured you were mad about something."

"No," I replied. "It was because I couldn't hear a damned thing any of them were saying."

[stubbleupdate]

I have an issue with auditory processing too, which makes gatherings of more than 6 people a nightmare. Filtering people out to concentrate on one conversation is so much effort I just leave.

At the last family get together like the one shown, I turned up last and before I sat down I had a waitress ask me what I wanted to drink, my dad ask how my drive was, my mum ask how I was and my nephew shouting for my attention too. It was very overwhelming

[mister_terrific]

It took me a while to swallow my pride and just tell people, "I'm sorry, I'm hard of hearing, could you repeat that?" when I didn't catch what they'd said. 99% of the time they were happy to do so.

At one point, though, my daughter got impatient. "Do you know how irritating it is to have to repeat myself?" she yelled. I looked at her and replied, "Do you know how irritating it is to have to ask?"

Around 2015 I reached the point where the right ear just went to like 5% (it's now 0%, because they had to remove all the working parts to get to the growth that caused the mess). I went to my hearing specialist, and the guy told me about these new hearing aids that might help. He had a pair that I could borrow for a few days and see if they'd do the trick.

I returned them five days later. "I'm doing this under protest. How do I get a pair for myself?" They really do make a big difference.

[repto]

My hearing is just fine, but I am finding out that working from home and spending 4-5 hours a day on Webex meetings (audio only) can be surprisingly exhausting when some members have low-quality connections. Mentally decoding what someone is saying when you're only picking up bits and pieces can be really, really tiring.

[bruinsfan]

Yeah, this has been the case for me for years as well on conference calls with people who apparently don't feel the need to use distinguishable consonants in their speech. Some people come through just fine, others sound like they're gargling. Or John Mayer singing.

[mister_terrific]

I went ahead and bought this today--really enjoyed it. Thanks for bringing it to everyone's attention!

[bruinsfan]

Oh, this is very much my jam. Pulp adventure, Doc Savage pastiche, Art Deco design aesthetic, beautiful Dodsons art, crisp, smart Fraction dialogue, modern inclusivity. All it's lacking are werewolves, and I wouldn't bet against some appearing down the line.