The 2020's are soon upon us. How does this make you feel?

I'm looking forward to the new decade. It will coincide with upcoming milestones and new chapters in my life.

The upcoming year is also making me think back of my own life in the last 10 years, and how I have changed and what I dealt with during this past decade.

I think one of the only constants from my life in 2010 is that I'm still reading the monthly Batman comics.

When I was a boy in the 40s, I thought about the year 2000 and how old I was to be, if I made it at all. Here I am at the twenty year mark and going strong. Amazing.

Im gonna be 70 next year. When I talked to my grandfather about what its like to be seventy he said," Its a damn site better than NOT being 70"

Thinking about 2020 and the new decade kind of makes me wish I'd gotten a lot more things accomplished this decade and the last.

What is stopping you from completing your goals during the last 20 years?

Personally, I'm content over what I have done. I'm especially happy over my decision to be more socially open after many years of being shy and emotionally withdrawn.

Would you like me to PM you about that? I don't want to disclose that here.

I know this is a bit off-topic, but since you brought Batman up, what do you think of the new Joker movie that came out?

No need for the PM. Based on the past discussions, as well as other personal details you shared, I can probably presume what occurred.

As for Joker, I liked the film. The film is mostly held together by Joaquin Phoenix's performance as Arthur/Joker. And the film is obviously inspired by 1981's The King of Comedy, which is also about a delusional comedian who is obsessed with a talk show host.

While I am only 45 and early 2000's seemed like yesterday when I look back 10 years ago around the time when the I-phone debut it is like I am looking into a half a century back...what comes ahead is information entropy, or in simpler terms, fake news and mass manipulation!
Guessing the future was always hard, but now is really impossible!
Yes, weird is the right word to describe the feeling of getting further down the 21st cent.

Just like '80s nostalgia ended when the 2010's rolled in I think '90s nostalgia will officially end when the 2020's get here.

I don't think nostalgia ends at a definitive time. As long as people have fond memories of the past and creators want to use certain time periods, nostalgia will be used.

The new Wonder Woman film, to be released in 2020, will be set in 1984 and the trailer heavily features the fashion, music and technology of that time.

Well there seems there's some kind of sociological trend in which whatever the current decade is there is nostalgia for the decade that preceded it 2 decades earlier. At least that's how it seems in pop culture.

There was a lot of nostalgia for '80s things in the 2000's and for '90s things in the 2010's. Why a two-decade span is picked is beyond me.

However I recall there was some nostalgia for '50s things in the '80s and you could see this represented in '80s culture:

The shows Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley took place in the '50s.
The first Back to the Future movie took place in the '50s.
The Q-Bert cartoon which was part of Saturday Supercade was set in a 1950's-type world.
Singer Bowser was part of Sha Na Na which was a retro 1950's-style doowop band.

There are probably other examples of 1950's nostalgia from the '80s but I don't know of any off-hand.

So the Wonder Woman used in the new movie is the one based on the Linda Carter version?

So you don't feel old?

No, it is the sequel to the 2017 Wonder Woman film, which was set in 1918.

That version of the character previously appeared in 2013's Batman V Superman and 2017's Justice League.

I'm guessing that when children grow up to be writers, they tend to write about what inspired them during their childhood 20-25 years ago.

It is more noticeable in comics, when longtime fans become writers of their favorite characters and they soon make reference of stories they read as a child.

Okay, but what does that have to do with the 1950's nostalgia in the '80s?

I came up in the '80s and early '90s. Some people have told me some of the toons and comics I said I wanted to develop and produce belong in the '80s and '90s. In other words, they said they were dated. Some people told me some of my material was kitsche.

I have also said I wanted to produce toons that are throwbacks to Golden Age cartoons and make cartoony comics that are throwbacks to comics that were based on Golden Age cartoons, and/or cartoony comics that are throwbacks to cartoony comics that came out when Golden Age cartoons came out.

People have told me my cartoons and comics should be up-to-date, but I do not like what some people put in current cartoons and comics.

...the problem is precisely that I feel way older than I should at my age...

Good. Then you understand and appreciate some of the issues and challenges I have had with trying to get at least one cartoon and/or comics series developed, produced and put out there.

I have been out out art school about 2 decades. I would like to go back to school, or pursue some other venue or venues to further my training so I can learn how to voice act professionally and produce comics professionally. I would also like to relearn how to produce animation professionally.

I would still like to produce 2-D animation.

There is still a handful of animation- and comics-related production software I still need to know how to use and familiarize myself with.

I have said I should have at least ONE cartoon and/or comics series going by now.