Comic Books & Me

My Journey with comics goes way back.  I remember as a little kid seeing them at the hospital Playroom or My Uncle Bob’s stash.  My Uncle Bob is eight years my senior and he loved horror comics.  My Aunt and her first husband had a decent collection of Legion of Superheroes.  These two influences got me interested in comics. In the Seventies Mr. Rogers agreed with a study that said Kids watching or reading Superheroes exploits reinforce violent solutions to conflict.  My Mom agreed so at the age of 8, I was forbidden from Superhero comics.  I was allowed Hanna-Barbera, Harvey, Archie and the like.  I was 8 and these were for babies to me.  I wanted the Superheroes I saw on TV, Batman, Superman, Hulk, Flash, Shazam, Hawkman, Spider-man and etc.  I would browse them every chance I could when I would find a spinner rack.

 I was still stuck with the funny books, until I was 10.  We had moved to Adak, Alaska.  My Dad was part of the base’s Public Works department and was assigned to refuse control.  In the military when you move you are only allowed a certain weight allowance.  So when folks would move they would leave large amounts of good stuff.  One day my dad came back with a Large Green Plastic Trash bag full of Comics.   Not just Funny books, there were horror, SciFi, and Superheroes books in there.  They were mostly DC, Marvel and Gold Key.  It was then that I discovered I preferred the DC characters to their Marvel Counterparts.  Thanks to copies of Adventure comics and the Death of Earth-2 Batman story starring the Justice Society of America, I loved the alternate worlds DC did.  They had their multiple earths.  As a 10 year old, I was able to keep up with everything and knew the differences between the various earths.  Those comics plus the Mirror, Mirror episode of Star Trek started me on my love of Alternate World/ History Literature.  When we moved they stayed.

It was not until 1982, when I was 14 that I came back to comics.  This time it went big.  It started with two books, The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and Who’s Who in the DC Universe.  They were Encyclopedias of Superheroes.  Much of my geeky comic book knowledge can be blamed on those two books.  I had various jobs I did, so I had spending money.  If I had money I wanted comics.  After those I got into Uncanny X-Men and New Teen Titans.  A friend of a friend lent a friend mine a run of X-men starting with Giant-Size Uncanny X-Men #1. I then found Ralph’s Comics Corner in Ventura, California and bought my run of New Teen Titans.  These two series were great and I loved them.  Ralph’s was my first comic shop.  Originally he was located in a corner of a Thrift Shop.  In 1984, Ralph had his own location.  Then the first two Big Event series came out Crisis on Infinite Earths and Secret Wars.  All bets were off.  I discovered Artists and writers: John Byrne, Chris Claremont, Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway, Paul Smith, Bernie Wrightson, Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Mark Bright, Roger Stern, the Romitas and more.

At Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, my closest comic shop was Pegasus Fantasy in Beaverton.  That is the Predecessor to Things from Another World.  I watched the Richardson Brothers launch Dark Horse Comics.  I still was stuck in Superhero comics during this time.  However this is when things got interesting with Marvelman/ Miracleman, Watchmen, and the Dark Knight Returns.  This also was the DC post-Crisis relaunch.  During this time the Mutants books started to multiply from just one title to many.  I started noticing other comics companies although I was still not buying them.

That all Changed in 1988.  I moved to Eugene, Oregon to study at University of Oregon.  There is one of the best comic shops, at least back then, in back stock I had ever found, Emerald City Comics.  There I started helping out and was allowed to read some of the back stock I would never have read before.  I broadened my horizons, with stuff that was not the big two: First Comics, Heavy Metal, Eclipse Comics, Fantigraphic Books, Kitchen Sink Press, Comico, WaRP Graphics, Caliber Comics, Slave Labor Graphics/ Amaze Ink and more I cannot think of.  During this time new creators that blew my mind were Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Matt Wagner, Bill Willingham, Mike Mignola, Mike Grell, Howard Chaykin and Chuck Dixon. With titles like Sandman, Mage, and Baker Street, I began to see beyond the Superhero genre and the possibilities.  In 1991, I left Eugene and moved back to Dundee, Oregon.  I started buying more from non Big two publishers at this time with Valiant Comics, Image Comics and Malibu Comics.  Marvel and DC tried to expand their readership with imprints like Vertigo and Epic.  Both of those imprints were trying to step away from superheroes.  Marvel started reprinting work from Moebius and the Magna Series Akira.  After the Age of Apocalypse and Zero Hour Events I had enough of comics.  I got out in 1995.  I then got rid all but a few treasured titles.  I made a colossal mistake in 1997; I sent those few titles to an online friend in Florida.  Yes, folks I know, I was very stupid.

In 1999 I started to get back into comics, mostly thanks to one creator: Warren Ellis.  His Run on StormWatch and Planetary made me think I could get back into comics.  I dabbled before 1999, but I started regularly reading again that year. I also found DC Comics Elseworlds Imprint.  It is an imprint of DC Comics that does Alternate Reality tales of its classic superhero characters.  It started back in the mid Nineties; I came back after Elseworlds Finest.  I became a member of the WEF (Warren Ellis Forum).  Everything changed, I still read some Superhero book, but I wanted the more interesting stuff.  Image Comics, CrossGen, Avatar Press, IDW, Oni Press, Top Shelf Productions, and Humanoids Publishing were among publishers recommended on WEF.  I discovered great creators during this period: Garth Ennis, Larry Young, Greg Rucka, Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Millar, Ian Edginton, Matt Fraction, Alejandro Jodorowsky and so many more. I was sad when WEF went offline in 2002.  The experience gave me a whole new way at looking at comics.  Superheroes were no longer the end all be all.  Even though I was getting there on my own, The WEF gave me ideas where else to look.

I had been in a long term relationship during this period.  In 2009, I was having trouble with keeping up with my reading versus my buying.  Barbara, my partner at the time, allowed my to buy my comics, but never gave me the chance to read them.   In December of 2011 I left that relationship.  I still had over 10 Diamond Distributing (the comics distributing company) boxes full I had not read.  I was overwhelmed.  I had already at this point begun buying comics digitally on Comixology.  I decided to get rid of all my Floppies (individual single comic issues) and kept my Graphic Novels, Trade Paperbacks, Book Shelf Comics, Hardcover and Collections.  I have streamlined my life and the way I buy my comics.  I am still trying to get caught up with books I own that I have yet to read.  The number is not as overwhelming as it once was.  That is My Not So Humble Opinion.

RPGs & Me

First when I refer to RPGs or Role Plying games, I am usually referring to Tabletop RPGs.  MMORPGs or Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying games and RPG video games are Video games to me.  Although they have RPG elements to them they are not the creatively immersive experience with one’s imagination that old school tabletop RPGs are.  I began my journey with them back in the fall of 1982.  I was a freshman in High School in Oxnard, California.  My cousin, Steve, who was an avid war and strategy gamer, had referred to them before that time.  The one I was interested in was Top Secret.  It was an Espionage centered game from TSR, the same folks who created Dungeons and Dragons.  Now, I was not interested in D & D and Advanced D & D AKA AD & D.  That was due to my mother’s very religious biases about it.  I enjoyed RPGs; I tried to create some of my own.  When my grades went down that spring my mother blamed the RPGs and my comic books.  She took all of them from me.  I got the comics back but she forbade me from playing RPGs again.

In University I tried to get back into them.  There were several failed attempts when I was at Pacific University.  I was trying to get into Superhero RPG groups playing V & V (Villains and Vigilantes) and Champions.  It was not till my second year at University of Oregon, that I found a group.  They were heavy Champions, the GM or Gamemaster was a huge Hero System fanatic.  Even though we played in TSR’s Forgotten Realms or Shadowrun, it was using the Hero System rules.  When I moved back to Dundee after I left University, Members from that group who moved welcomed me into their gaming group.  Unlike the previous group which only had one GM.  There were Multiple GMs encouraged with rotating games. Also instead of one system only they encouraged using the system that came with the world.  During this time I got way into RPGs.  I was into AD & D 2^nd Edition, Shadowrun, Hero System/Champions and White Wolf’s World of Darkness Setting.

I played with that gaming group for four years.  I stopped because it went from once a week to two or three times a week.  When people left the group, games those people were in would suddenly stop, except for Shadowrun which is good for revolving door casts.  There were also financial demands on me for being the only one with a full time job.  A friend once told me, that if something was no longer fun stop.  Gaming with these folks became a chore an obligation, not so much fun.  I could not stay in this group, so I ended my participation with the group.  I also needed some space from these people.  Let’s just say those friendship were never rekindled.  I try to bring back gaming with other friends but it never worked out.  I even dabbled with online chat room or e-mail games.  None of it was the same.  I also tried LARPing (Live Action Roleplaying) with the Camarilla of Portland/ Vancouver, Washington.  This was a White Wolf World of Darkness LARPing group.  I played a Werewolf, in a Vampire dominated game and area.  I felt out of place, so I left.  I came back one more time, but found it the same.

Now even though I was not playing, I was still involved I still bought my favorite game Shadowrun.  I started trimming down how much stuff I had at this time.  I got rid of all my Magic: The Gathering, most of my comics and most of my RPGs.  The only RPG I kept was Shadowrun.  Shadowrun is set in a Cyberpunk Future where Magic comes back.  I had become a huge fan of their Shamanic Magic system.  I started connecting with folks on the internet.  This was back I 1997.  So I started my own, Shadowrun site, the specialized in the Shamanic end of things.  One of the fans of the site was a writer for FASA, the company that created Shadowrun.  I started seeing my ideas in FASA published Sourcebooks, but I did not write them.  At this time I was sending them proposals.    In frustration of all this I shut down the site around 2000-2001.  I was tired of playing in someone else’s sand box.  I got rid of a big chuck of the Shadowrun books.  I kept a few though. 

I have been out of the RPG world ever since.  I still check out what is going on, but I never buy anything.   I got into Superhero MMORPGs for 5 years, but that is not the same.  I miss the comradery he community.  Many of the games I loved are gone.  I left Shadowrun during the Third Edition, AD & D during the 2^nd Edition and The World of Darkness during the first version.  I feel out of touch, but I have people I know who are still into it.  That is My Not So Humble Opinion.

Video Games & Me

To start, in the video game world I am Old.  I am over forty and my journey with video games starts in the seventies with Pong.  That was both the Arcade and Home system.  I remember their predecessor the Pin Ball Machine.  After pong there was Gun Fight which like Pong was very archaic compared to today’s games.  Growing up in both Southern California and Oregon, I became very familiar with Arcades.  Mind you they were more prevalent in the Seventies in California than Oregon.  That changed in the Eighties.  I never was that good at the games.  I became more familiar with them from 1978 to 1981 when my Family was bouncing between Alaska and California at the behest of the United States Navy.  The various Airports civilian and military had small arcades of 3 to 5 games.  My brother Mike and I enjoyed them very much.  This was also the time that the first major home console system became big, the Atari 2600.  We wanted one, but we ended up with a Montgomery Wards console.  Funny thing, it had better graphics, but being kids we wanted the Atari.

                                  

In Junior and Senior High Schools, I got into arcade games.  It did not hurt lived near the biggest mall in town and two of the movie theaters in town.  Mind you, I was never a master video gamer.  I had my fun.  Games went from Pong to the line games like Asteroids to Pac-Man and Frogger. I saw the advent of the laser disk games like Space Ace and Dragon’s Lair.  There were even Japanese Anime laser disk games in the mid eighties.  Living is Southern California I frequented the Amusement Parks (Disneyland, Six Flags Magic Mountain, and Knott’s Berry Farm), they all had state of the art arcades.   As you can see I have a soft spot for Arcades.  So as an adult when I found Ground Kontrol in Portland Oregon, I was in seventh heaven.  An old school style video arcade that is 21 and older.  Yes, that means they serve alcohol, however I am not much of a drinker.

By the late eighties early nineties, the NES came out.  I was in college at the time.  I played some of my roommate’s games, but was not that interested in owning one myself.  Mike got heavy into the NES.  I did not get back into gaming till Christmas of 1999.  Barbara, my Ex, bought me a Playstation 1. I got big into fighting and pro-wrestling games.  I loved Dark Stalkers, Bloody Roar and the WWF games.  My Birthday in 2001, My Mom bought my PS2.  I got into RPG’s and Adventure games with that game system.  I kept up with the fighting games and the WWE games too.  In 2005 I had a GameFly account that allowed me to try games I was unsure of.  I tried games I would not have before.  For a short time I even played Football games.  In 2012 I got rid of all my PS1 and PS2 Games, as well as the PS2 console. 

In 2004 I got into the PC game series Sid Meier’s Civilization III and later IV. In 2007, I picked up City of Heroes/Villains.  That was the beginning of the end for my console gaming.  I tried Champions Online and DC Universe Online, for Superhero MMO RPGs City of Heroes was the best in my mind.   I continued with City of Heroes till it closed in November of 2012.  Not sure about returning to either DCU online or Champions
Online.  I still have accounts there.  I have been tempted with Civilization V, we will see. 

Recently I acquired an X-Box 360, and I have only played a few games.  Skylanders: Giants, Brutal Legend, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe and Injustice: God Among Us are the ones I have played.  I am interested in the DC game Infinite Crisis.  I stink at Shooters, so even though Bio-Shock Looks interesting I am not sure if I will try it.  It may take another GameFly account to play with what I like.  I am not a hardcore gamer, I am very casual.  I never had a level 50 character in City of heroes for the 5 plus years I played that game.  I enjoy playing them, but they are not the end all.  That Is My Not So Humble Opinion.

Real vs. Fake in Nerdery and Geekiness

So recently in the Geek/Nerd community the idea of fake or poseur nerds or geeks has made it to the forefront.  Part of this something I discussed in Rant-O-Rama.  This is the whole fake geek girl controversy.    The problem is who are you or I to judge who is geeky or nerdy.  It is true when something becomes mainstream there are those who jump on the bandwagon, for coolness factor.  They exist in any sub-culture.  It is something that the geek and nerd culture is not used to.  The problem is some of the people being accused of being poseurs are judged based on gender.  The other thing is there is always something that everyone is geeky or nerdy about.  So is it really one’s business to guess who is or isn’t geeky or nerdy. 

Let’s go back to the sexism masquerading as fake geek girl controversy.  We have many generations of geeky guys who feel uncomfortable or were ridiculed by females.  So they now feel threatened by the increased female attendance to their beloved functions.  This misogyny is unacceptable.  I have seen them give a guy a pass wearing a superhero shirt but grill a lady wearing one.  They will ask her twenty questions about the character in questions.  Funny thing is I know Female geeks who are old enough to be these guys’ mothers.  I know women who were into comics in the early eighties.  So geek girls are nothing new, it is they just are feeling more comfortable socializing with us male geeks.  Guys stop this no girls allowed mentality.  Just accept them on face value.  I know some of you guys do not know how to interact with ladies.  That is your problem; please do not make it theirs.  Guys you need to behave and shower more than once a week.  Another thing is just because a girl dresses provocatively that does not give you the right to leer at them or molest them.  Just treat them they way you would want to be treated.  Now I myself have made social faux pas with ladies.  I have dusted myself off and tried not to repeat those mistakes.  That is all one can do.

The idea that cosplayers are poseurs is garbage.  I know some cosplayers and I know a group of Pirate re-enactors/ performers; they are hardcore the time and money they put into their wardrobe and props is immense.  The dedication to getting it right is so nerdy and geeky on too many levels.  Many Cosplayers fabricate costumes themselves.   I know of a group here in Portland, Oregon that cosplays as Superpowered characters; one caveat for that group they have to be original ideas.  No characters from Pop culture allowed.  Can one cosplay using a store bought costume?  Sure, your amount of dedication is up to you.  The one that make their own costumes however are hardcore geeks and nerds.

The poseur problem is easy; these people won’t be here in a year or two when a new fad, fashion, or trend shows up.  Be nice do not judge.  Funny thing is they may become one of us.  They may like our community or passions.  Do not discourage them, encourage them.  They could be a geek or nerd in the closet or have not discovered that geek or nerd button.  That is that one thing that makes all people geek out one way or another.  That button is different to everyone, but everyone has one.  It could be Comics, movies, music, TV, fashion, toys, sports or whatever.  It is out there.  That Is My Not So Humble Opinion.