October 26, 2014: Vermont ComicCon

After an all day class yesterday, I spent the afternoon and evening visiting with The Armchair Squid and Drama Guy.  We watched next month's Mock Squid Soup movie, Space Battleship Yamoto (available for FREE on YouTube!) and had some good conversation and some good Chinese food.

Today...today was Vermont ComicCon!  The Squids and Mocks met up and had a blast.  I'm at the point in my comic book collecting where there really isn't anything on my wish list.  I occasionally hear about a run or a series I missed that might be worth picking up.  But today was about random finds, artists and costumes!

I grabbed two Batman '66 comics for Logan, four random Star Trek issues (two John Byrne photo novels and two alternate reality issues) and a Red Sonja one shot.  For a buck a piece, I couldn't say no!

I also snagged all 5 issues of the Spider-man: With Great Power... mini-series for $2.00!

I spent some time exploring the work of a whole lot of artists!  I picked up a Doctor Who print by Blair Shedd from one of his recent Doctor Who comics and a smaller print from Vermont artist Lee Wakerly of the 12th Doctor.  I plan on displaying them both in my classroom.

Blair Shedd: Approximately 11" by 7"

Mr. Shedd signing his print

Lee Wakerley: Approximately 4" by 6"

Mr. Shedd also did TWO sketches!  One for my son and one for his friend!

Nan bought a limited run print from Mr. Shedd with a Vermont theme for the house!

And then the costumes....you can see more on Nan's NEW site here!

“This is who I am, right here, right now, all right? All that counts is here and now, and this is me!”

Nan found this HERE.

Additionally, Logan and I captured all of the images...

Happy December!

I like comic books.  I've been collecting comics for over 30 years.  I have 8,781 comics in my database with about 20 more lying around waiting to be entered.  I've brought comics into every classroom I've ever had and have shared my love with my students more and more in recent years.

 I am a fanboy but have recently slipped into a "grumpy-old-man, get-off-my-lawn, back-when-I-was-a-kid" sort of phase with comics.  I liked stories, back in the day, that lasted an issue or two.  I am NOT a fan of books these days that are one long continuous soap opera with no jumping on or off point.  I dropped my last superhero book from my pull list yesterday.

Awhile back, I intended to spotlight certain comics on the first day of each month.  So, without further ado...here are a bunch of comics, in my collection, that bear December cover dates!

Cover Date 1964
My 10th oldest comic book!

Cover Date 1975
Man, does this cover make me laugh!

Cover Date 1976
I love Neal Adams' cover art...but this is one weird image!

Cover Date 1979
One of my all time favorite covers!

Cover Date 1979
You can take the Justice League out of the 70s, but...

Cover Date 1980
Totally forgot I own this until I was scrolling through for this post!

Cover Date 1980
Bwah-ha-ha-ha!

There aren't many December dated comics in my collection worth spotlighting!  But scrolling through the database gave me a bucket load of ideas of issues to donate to Goodwill!!

Happy Birthday...To Me!

Our blogs are all about us, right?  Sure we want to make connections and make someone chuckle or what have you, but when push comes to shove they are about US!  After all, the topic we most enjoy discussing is usually ourselves.

What a great birthday weekend I just had!  I stayed late for the last two weeks at school to have Parent Teacher Conferences and to get Friday off!  Friday is my wife's birthday!  Saturday we were the same age for the day.  Today is my birthday!

Thursday night saw some Doctor Who and a Red Sox victory!  I even wrote a lesson plan for my Master's Class!

Friday was a lazy day...but Friday night we had a nearly a dozen friends over for drinks and appetizers.  It was such a pleasant affair.  Everyone seemed to laugh and have fun.  The Armchair Squid brought gifts (I'll review mine on Friday!)  My teaching partner brought my wife a HUMONGOUS pumpkin, hoping she could use it for her recent spate of pumpkin themed recipes.  Alas, it was a carving pumpkin, not a cooking pumpkin

We had a Broomball game and we won!  It was quite an effort but we prevailed.  After the game most folks came back to the house for some more drinks and some carving of the pumpkin

. 

Saturday we went to visit my brother and his wife in Worcester.  Nan and the kids hadn't met the baby yet.  My folks came down.  We had a great dinner and a fun visit.  My folks got us all hotel rooms to save a long drive home.

My beloved Red Sox won a return to the World Series, just after midnight, officially on my birthday!

We went to a Panera near our hotel for breakfast.  I entered announcing it was my birthday.  Our cashier, Amy, said it was hers as well and she bought my breakfast after I told her if I was a girl, my parents wanted to name me Amy!

Our ride home was filled with a backlog  NPR's Sunday Puzzle...we had an impressive success rate!  We went to one Target and used our birthday gift cards!

I'm just feeling happy and babbly!  

Happy Sunday to all!

Sunday Night Wrap Up

I missed the Cephalopod Coffeehouse gathering...again.  Here are all the links if you are so inclined to go check them out!  Wonderful bloggers all!

1.	The Armchair Squid	2.	Remembering Grace
3.	Vanessa Morgan	4.	Trisha @ WORD STUFF
5.	M.J. Fifield	6.	Denise Covey @ L'Aussie Writing
7.	My Creatively Random Life	8.	Subliminal Coffee
9.	The Random Book Review	10.	Divine Secrets of the Writing Sisterhood
11.	Scouring Monk	12.	Clarissa Draper
13.	Huntress	14.	mainewords
15.	Excuse Me While I Note That Down	16.	Mark Noce Stories
17.	StrangePegs -- Temporary Anne	18.	Blue Sky Gazing
19.	What's Up! MOCK?	20.	Nicki Elson
21.	V's Reads	22.	Stephen Tremp
23.	Ed & Reub	24.	StrangePegs -- The Spirit Well
25.	Hungry Enough To Eat Six!	26.	Words Incorporated

I've been meaning to sit and babble at you all for awhile now.  A new school year is underway!  The family has become Doctor Who fans!  I was invited to my alma mater to join a small panel and speak to a class of first year students about the teaching profession.  Broomball has started!  There is so much in my head all of the time!

But instead, for you, a look at the members of Star Trek: The Next Generation (also in heavy rotation these days!) in Original Series uniforms! via io9

Doctor Who: Doomsday (SPOILER)

ROSE

Where are you?

THE DOCTOR

Inside the TARDIS. There's one tiny little gap in the universe left, just about to close. And it takes a lot of power to send this projection, I'm in orbit around a super nova.

I'm burning up a sun just to say goodbye.

ROSE

You look like a ghost.

THE DOCTOR

Hold on...

ROSE

Can I t-?

THE DOCTOR

I'm still just an image. No touch.

ROSE

Can't you come through properly?

THE DOCTOR

The whole thing would fracture. Two universes would collapse.

ROSE

So?

THE DOCTOR

Where are we? Where did the gap come out?

ROSE

We're in Norway.

THE DOCTOR

Norway. Right.

ROSE

About fifty miles out of Bergen. It's called Dårlig Ulv Stranden.

THE DOCTOR

Dalek?

ROSE

Dårl-IG. It's Norwegian for 'bad'.

This translates as 'Bad Wolf Bay'.

How long have we got?

THE DOCTOR

About two minutes...

ROSE

I can't think of what to say!

THE DOCTOR

You've still got Mr. Mickey, then?

ROSE

There's five of us now. Mum, dad, Mickey... and the baby.

THE DOCTOR

You're not...?

ROSE

No.

It's mum.

She's three months gone. More Tylers on the way.

THE DOCTOR

And what about you? Are you...?

ROSE

Yeah, I'm- I'm back working in the shop.

THE DOCTOR

Oh, good for you.

ROSE

Shut up. No, I'm not. There's still a Torchwood on this planet, it's open for business.

I think I know a thing or two about aliens.

THE DOCTOR

Rose Tyler. Defender of the Earth.

THE DOCTOR (CONT'D)

You're dead, officially, back home. So many people died that day and you've gone missing. You're on a list of the dead.

Here you are.

Living a life day after day. The one adventure I can never have.

ROSE

Am I ever gonna see you again?

THE DOCTOR

You can't.

ROSE

What're you gonna do?

THE DOCTOR

Oh, I've got the TARDIS. Same old life. Last of the Time Lords.

ROSE

On your own?

ROSE (CONT'D)

I lo-

 

ROSE (CONT'D)

I love you.

THE DOCTOR

Quite right, too.

And I suppose... if it's one last chance to say it...

THE DOCTOR (CONT'D)

Rose Tyler...