Who Is Paul Kupperberg?

02.09.2005

I've been buying up original pages of the Vigilante comic series on eBay for a couple of years now. As a page pops up, I'll bid on it, and most of the time I'm crazed enough to bid more than I should and I end up winning it. I keep telling Jerry my goal is to own a significant percentage of the original Vigilante artwork. For a rough estimate, there were 50 issues and 2 annuals published, average in about 25 pages of actual story art per issue, so that would mean there are about 1300 pages made. I've now got (I think) 16 pages from various issues. That would give me a whopping 1.2% of all the original Vigilante artwork in existance.

Yeah, I need help.

Well, the last couple of auctions I've won have all been from the same seller on eBay. After looking at who I've been writing checks to, the address I'm sending the checks to, and paying attention to some of the details about the actual Vigilante series I found out something: I'm buying these from Paul Kupperberg, the actual writer of the series that I'm so enamoured with.

That realization just bonked me on the head. This is the guy whose stories I read and mentally gulped up for years. The comic series I became obsessed with - this is the guy who wrote all that stuff. If not for him, Jerry wouldn't have the fun story he shares of me walking around in a daze after reading the final issue of Vigilante.

Maybe I should just tell Paul what a fan I am? The trick is how to do it without sounding like some type of fanboy stalker.

Permalink books/comics

One Eyed Monster - The Dream...?

02.08.2005

One morning last week I woke myself up laughing. Evidently I managed to have a dream that I thought was hilarious. The details of the dream are enough to either make you agree or sign a petition to send me off to therapy.

The first thing in my dream was a monster. Not a normal monster, but only one I could invent. First, take one of the Pokemon red and white balls. In place of the button that opens the ball, put a blue eyeball. There we have the head of my monster: actual size. Next dress the monster in an oversized, turtleneck, ratty old sweater, where you can't actually see any arms, legs, or body. There you have my dream monster. The voice of the monster was being supplied by Ron Livingston, best known in the nerd world as Peter Gibbons in Office Space

In my dream, the monster was trying to escape my grasp as we were waiting in an office. It seems that someone in the office was trying to sell us on the idea of putting the monster in its own reality series. The monster kept yelling "No! No! Never!" but I would look down at it and say "But you have to be in it. You're the star! The show's called The One Eyed Monster!"

I should have woken up then, but no. The monster managed to escape to one of the bathroom stalls that lined one of the office walls (oh, like that even makes sense). I fought to get the door open, until the little bugger dashed out the bottom, went out an open window, and jumped on a bus that was passing by. I couldn't get through the window to give chase, so I stood there, arm raised against the window, yelling "but you are the one eyed monster-r-r-r-r!"

That's when the laughing started enough to wake me up.

Analyze it all you want, there's a field day of hidden meanings in there. Why was I holding the one eyed monster? Why did it get away (do I have no control?)? Where did it go? Why was there a line of bathroom stalls in an office? Can I kill my own brother (brother?... brother...?)?

Permalink dreams

Galactica Replay

02.07.2005

I've managed to get sucked into the new Battlestar Gallactica series airing on the SciFi channel. The hardest part is remembering that it comes on at 9:00 on Friday nights. Luckily I'm old and don't have an exciting social life, so I'm usually home.

This Tuesday SciFi is showing a little marathon of the 5 episodes that have aired so far. It's a good chance for anybody interested to catch up on the series.

The one thing that has gotten me to like the series is that I've told myself it's not a re-hash of the original. The character names may be the same, but other than that forget it. Sharing the galactica name really just allows the show to forgo a lot of background explanation. Evil robots after the last struggling batch of humans. Don't care why, just accept it. The new series is more about the personal interaction of all the characters, with some nifty special effects added in. Honestly, this is more of what the Wing Commander movie should have been. Looking at it from that viewpoint, this series is great!

Permalink movies/tv/dvd

Of Groundhogs and Spines

02.02.2005

Groundhog Day, the day I traditionally say "Happy Birthday Dad!". Unfortunately, saying it here doesn't count since Dad's off trucking somewhere between home and Chicago, so I guess I'll have to be making a little phone call later.

Monday morning as I prepared for work I felt fine. The later in the day it got, the more my back started to hurt. It was my twisted and bent spine contortion that usually puts me out of action for a day or two. The confusing part was that I generally wake up broken, but this time it crept up on me. I'm now on Day 3 of being broken and I'm not really feeling better. It's reached the stage of pissing me off because now it's interferring with karate and yoga (which should all be doing wonders for my back, dammit!).

I'm ready to be over this crap....

Permalink

Hyai Arghhhh!

01.26.2005

I stole this idea from Jerry - After ninja school yesterday I seem to be really sore. I think it's because I've been trying to hyperextend my knee(s) when kicking. When you've got as much leg as I do flinging around, speed is hard to control once it gets going. As a result, I think I'm more sore now than I should be. Jerry was talking about a Flash app with pulsating red globs highlighting his soreness. I found the poor man's version...

Permalink random