Once Upon a Geek

Today we are presenting the latest collection of geek related t-shirts from my closet.  This time around I’ve included some baseball caps and even one pair of new boxers.  For past entries featuring geek apparel, please click here.  These shirts are all fairly recent acquisitions.  Please note nearly all of these were gifts.  My wife has put a strict moratorium on buying myself anymore geek t-shirts as the closet is already bursting at the seams.  Happily my friends are under no such ban. 

This t-shirt and ball cap combination was a gift from Serv.  Notice how the colors on the Superman symbol are reversed.  I find that striking.  In fact, this hat has become my favorite to wear lately.  The shirt came pre-faded.

This Red Lantern t-shirt was another gift from Serv, this time for my birthday.  Can’t you feel it?  The shirt just radiates rage.  Rage!  RAGE!

Neat mega-print Batman shirt from Lore (the irredeemable brother) for my birthday.  I really like the Bronze Age styling of the image.

Hilarious Star Trek t-shirt from Lore (the irredeemable brother).  This gag still makes me laugh!

Neat Superman hat I’ve had for a while.  I picked it up at Wal-Mart of all places.  I really like the bold colors and that the hat is fitted.  Where there would normally be an adjustable strap on the back, it’s just solid fabric with the stitched Superman symbol shown in the insert.

This Ghostbusters shirt is actually billed as a “T-shirt Costume”.  I picked this up at Target last Halloween.  The slime glows in the dark also.  I’ve been slimed!

A birthday gift from my boss.  This shirt is hilarious!  I tried to make the image big enough for you to read all the various powers.  I think my favorites are, “Communicate with Fruit” and “Summon a Lamp… Once”.  LOL!

This Scooby-Doo t-shirt is another birthday gift from Lore (the irredeemable brother).  I really like the coloring on this shirt. The mystery machine is faded and everyone in the foreground is really solidly colored.  Just looks sharp.

A friend gave me this Star Wars ball cap about 15 years ago.  It’s served me well, even in the years before Star Wars was cool again.

I picked up this Unique Geek t-shirt prior to DragonCon to help promote the website.  The insert shows the back of the t-shirt.

Okay, I don’t normally post pictures of underwear, but this is an exception.  I already featured these boxers on FIRESTORM FAN, but thought they were worth mentioning here also.  I just picked these up last week from K-Mart.  While there are tons of DC Comics boxers on the market, these are astonishing because they include both Firestorm and Doctor Fate.  Seriously?!?!?  Firestorm and Doctor Fate?!?!?  Two of my favorite characters that have proven time and again they can’t support their own monthly comic books?!?!?  Two characters that almost no one in the general public would recognize?!?!?  You betcha!  The other characters (Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Robin, and even Green Arrow) aren’t surprising to see on apparel as they are fairly well known.  I just never imagined they’d make Firestorm or Doctor Fate boxers.  I’m thankful they have!  I will say it’s a bit awkward where they’ve placed Firestorm.  He’s right on the flap. Kinda creepy.

Coverage of Dragon*Con 2009 continues here!  I’ve already recapped Friday and Saturday, so today will cover Sunday and Monday.  If you’d like to see over 600 pictures I took at the event, you can view them on Flickr and THE UNIQUE GEEK photo gallery.

SUNDAY

After going to sleep around 5am the night before, we all slept-in on Sunday morning.  Eventually I awoke, cleaned up, and got in line to see Patrick Stewart.  Yes, THE Patrick Stewart!  Patrick Stewart, as in Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Patrick Stewart, as in Professor X from X-Men.  Patrick Stewart, as in the famous Shakespearean theatre actor.  Patrick Stewart, as in teh awesome!

I waited in line for about 80 minutes with the Methvin clan for the Patrick Stewart panel.  We were in another one of those lines that stretched outside and wrapped around the block.  Surprisingly, even though I was around the block, I was only number 400 in line for a room that holds 1,500.  Just before showtime, we got into the room and scored great seats.  Patrick Stewart was wonderful!  From what I’ve heard, he doesn’t do a lot of conventions.  Based upon his apparent nervousness and unrehearsed stories, I’d guess that was true.  I’m really glad his stories were unrehearsed because they sounded a lot more genuine that some celebrities at conventions.  He talked at great length about his time on Star Trek, mostly focusing on experiences he had during filming (rather than about the stories themselves).

I waited in the Q&A line, unfortunately they didn’t get through many audience questions.  So I returned to my seat about 15 minutes before the end of the session saddened that I didn’t get to ask my question.  Then surprisingly Patrick Stewart seemed to fumble while trying to answer someone else’s question.  After a really protracted pause by Stewart, I saw the opportunity to ask my question from my seat (without the benefit of a microphone).  The question Stewart was attempting to answer was something like, “What things did you enjoy while filming Star Trek?”  He seemed to have run out of things to say on the subject and was pausing quietly on stage.  So I took it upon myself to fill the uncomfortable silence and yelled out my question with my loudest stage voice, “What about the dune buggies?”  I wanted to ask this question because in the movie Star Trek: Nemesis, Patrick Stewart genuinely looks like he’s having the time of his life during the dune buggy scenes.  My question from the audience caught Stewart by surprise, but it was apparently a pleasant surprise.  His face lit up at the mention of the dune buggies!  He then made a joke about the audience leading him by the elbow (which I was pretty embarrassed about, deservedly so).  Next he went on to talk cheerfully about filming the dune buggy scenes for about ten minutes.  In fact, someone tried to change the subject and he responded with, “I’m not done talking about the dune buggies.”  PATRICK STEWART LIKED MY QUESTION!  Hooray!  I guess I was thrilled with this because celebrities have usually heard just about every question.  It’s rare to catch them off-guard or,  even better, to excite them with the subject matter of your question.

Overall, Patrick Stewart was an amazing guest and a real joy to listen to.  I’m not sure how many opportunities I’ll have in my life to see him, so I’m really glad I did.

Next up was lunch with an internet buddy of mine, Adama.  Adama runs the Green Arrow blog, Dispatches from the Arrowcave. This was the first time we’ve met face-to-face.  I’ll detail this meeting more in a future post over at my other blog, FIRESTORM FAN.

While all this was going on, I missed out on the DC Comic cosplay photo shoot.  While I didn’t get any pictures of it, thatdjspider on Flickr did.  It looks like it was truly amazing!

I did a little shopping at the Tales of Wonder booth and picked a couple amazing deals.  First up was Marvel’s Hulk Visionaries: Peter David volume 1 which normally retails for $19.99, but I got it there for $6.  This trade covers Peter David’s earliest Hulk issues with art by Todd McFarlane.  I’ve never read these issues, so this was a real steal!  Next up was Dark Horse’s Star Wars: A Long Time Ago… Volume 5 which normally retails for $29.95, but I got it there for $15.  The A Long Time Ago… series of trades reprints the original Marvel Star Wars comic.  I’m a huge fan of the old Marvel run and have been slowly picking up these trades.

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Sunday evening was the night for THE UNIQUE GEEK Board of Directors dinner!  This is basically a chance for all those that participate in THE UNIQUE GEEK to get together and hang out. It’s open to anyone who participates in our listserv, listens to our podcast, or that we find randomly wandering the streets.  This time 21 of us descended upon a local Mexican place to cause havoc!  We had good food, lots of booze, and lots of laughs.  The gang included: Serv, Doctor Jen, Jon, Choco Taco, Damian, Leigh, Rox of Spazhouse, Scott C, Eli, Jemma, Jamin, Ron, Holly, Race, Erika and her husband John, Ravenface, Shockwave, myself, and Michael Bailey and his wife Rachel.  Shockwave’s spouse made her annual brief appearance decked out in her Cobra Baroness costume! Below are a couple pictures from dinner.  Again, visit Flickr or THE UNIQUE GEEK photo gallery for a great deal more photos from dinner.

After dinner (and working out everyone’s share of the bill using differential calculus), we headed off to play late night games.  We played several rounds of Werewolf (also known as Mafia or Assassin) into the wee hours of the morning.  This game is becoming a DragonCon tradition for us!  Another tradition is for our game moderator to become completely wasted!  It makes the game more interesting, trust me.  We were joined (unwillingly for us) by a freshly-turned 18 year old girl in full Michael Jackson zombie make-up.  She didn’t exactly gel with the crowd, so we soon dispersed.  We wandered the hotels for a while and eventually settled in a room party.  Sometime around 3am (I think) we finally crashed.

MONDAY

Since I had an early afternoon flight, Monday was really a day for goodbyes and last minute shopping.  Back at Tales of Wonder again I picked up another great bargain.  Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson normally retails for $24.95, but I got it there for $5.  I’ve never read these issues, in fact I’ve read very few issues of Thor in my life.  However, Walt Simonson has never disappointed and I’ve heard rave reviews of these issues.  Can’t wait to jump into this book!

I also picked up the Big Finish Doctor Who spin-off audio adventures Dalek Empire at a reasonable discount.  I picked up the first four disks for $40.  This is one of the few Big Finish Doctor Who spin-offs I haven’t picked up. Given the discount, I just couldn’t pass it up.

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That wraps up my on-site coverage of DragonCon 2009.  Come back tomorrow when I’ll feature the best of DragonCon 2009 costumes!

Coverage of Dragon*Con 2009 continues here!  To read about Friday, click here.  If you’d like to see over 600 pictures I took at the event, you can view them on Flickr and THE UNIQUE GEEK photo gallery.

Saturday

After the WAR OF THE SNORE the night before, Choco Taco and I decided to grab some breakfast.  Thankfully we had access to the Executive Level in the Hilton where they supply complimentary breakfast.  Turns out that many of the celebrities also have access to the Executive Level.  So there we were eating, while a couple tables over were Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter), Adam Savage (Mythbusters), Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh on Battlestar Galactica), Neil Innes (best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python), and others.  It was neat being with so many celebrities during their down time.  As I looked around the room trying to identify everyone, I wondered if they were looking at us trying to figure out if we were famous too.  Probably not, but a boy can dream.

We then made our way to the parade.  We got there minutes before the parade started, so we didn’t have a great view.  Last year there were approximately 3,500 spectators for the parade; I’d say we had more this year.  The parade was pretty good this year.  The Colonial Marines lead the parade and the Star Wars characters finished it.  In-between were the usuals like the Cobras, Star Trekkies/Trekkers, superheroes, Middle Earth folk, pirates, Stargate folks, Battlestar Galactica folks, horror folks, Ghostbusters, Doctor Whovians, Anime folks, and many, many more.  I’ve got over 100 pictures of the parade up on Flickr and THE UNIQUE GEEK photo gallery. The most creative parade costume I felt was the two-person AT-AT.  Unfortunately, my pictures of the AT-AT didn’t turn out that great, so here is a pic from the costume creators.  A really clever idea!

After the parade I visited the Walk of Fame.  I considered taking my picture with Eric Roberts since he was in Doctor Who, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.  I can’t stand his acting and really hated him in the Doctor Who TV movie.  I did stop by and visit Alan Ruck (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Spin City, Star Trek: Generations).  He was super cool!  We shook hands (he offered his hand immediately) and he asked me my name.  I’m not much for autographs, I usually prefer to get my picture taken with famous people.  So we chatted for a few moments and then he came around the table for the photo.  A couple days later, we were both on the same street corner waiting for the light to change.  We started to chat and he remembered meeting me and shook my hand again.  He was probably one of the nicest and most approachable celebrities I’ve ever met.

Then I visited Dirk Benedict (Battlestar Galactica, A-Team).  One of my goals at Dragon*Con this year was to meet him.  To me he represents everything that was fun about television in the late 70’s and early 80’s.  I had a question prepared that I didn’t get to ask during Friday’s A-Team panel, so I figured now was a good time.  I asked if the scene with the Cylon in the A-Team opening credits was originally scripted, or was improvised on-set.  He said the shot was his idea as a joke for the guys who weren’t there on-set that day.  Apparently the Director didn’t want to do the shot, but Dirk convinced him to.  Turns out the shot was so well-received, it ended up in the opening credits!  After that I got my picture taken with him and also purchased one of his books. I’m about a quarter of the way through his first book, Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy: A True Story of Discovery, Acting, Health, Illness, Recovery And Life.  The book covers his early life, his battle with cancer, the benefits of a macrobiotic diet, and taking control of your own health through diet.  There is a lot of controversy surrounding his dietary suggestions, but it’s worth listening to.  I don’t normally go in for autobiographies, and I REALLY don’t go in for health food propaganda.  However, I’m really fascinated by this book and find myself questioning the way I eat.  I’d recommend this book to anyone with an open mind.

I then when hunting for more great costumes to take pictures of.  I was shocked to find out I’d filled my memory card entirely after about 500 pictures!  Wow!  Thankfully I brought my laptop that has a built-in SD reader slot.  So I downloaded all the pictures, cleared the memory card, and started off again.

There were two panels I was planning to attend but was disappointed to find out they were canceled.  Both the Eureka creator panel and the Leonard Nimoy panel were canceled for Saturday. Bummer.  So instead I got in line for the Stargate Atlantis panel.  I’ve seen some Stargate panels before at Dragon*Con. They’re very well organized and the guests are great, so I figured it was worth a shot.  The line was insanely long.  It went outside and wrapped around the building.  I waited for about an hour with some very nice people and we had a great chat.  Once we got inside we were lucky enough to find seats on the fifth row!  That was awesome! While I’m not an expert on Stargate Atlantis, I have watched my fair share of episodes.  The cast were funny, kind to the fans, and genuinely seemed to be having fun.  One of the stars, Rachel Luttrell (Teyla), was late.  So Joe Flanigan (Colonel Sheppard) called her on his cell phone.  He held his phone to the microphone so we could all hear the conversation.  He lied and told her the panel hadn’t started yet and the hilarity ensued!  Throughout the panel they all had some really good banter and teased each other mercilessly.  This panel was a blast. I’m going to be sure to attend more Stargate panels at future Dragon*Cons.

After that I hit the Art Show.  There I picked up my third Tom Fleming print. This time out it was Doctor Fate!  I’ve already got an Aquaman and Firestorm from him.  They look great framed in my office!  He’s slowly working his way through the JSA, so I might pick up some more from him in the future.  You can see more of Tom Fleming’s work by clicking here and clicking here.

Later Ravenface and I came across someone in an Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld costume!  We couldn’t believe it!  You may recall a few months back Ravenface and I interviewed the creators of Amethyst for this blog (click here for more on that interview).  This was the first time either of us had ever seen someone dressed as Amethyst.  We chatted with this lady for about ten minutes.  She was super sweet and really was a big Amethyst fan.

After that we witnessed the astonishing Alpha Flight photo shoot being organized.  Allen (a.k.a. The Evil Twin) had dressed up as Firestorm last year for Dragon*Con.  This year he created an impressive Sasquatch costume.  Seriously, this costume was eight feet tall!  You can read more about it on his blog. We were only there while they were preparing the photo shoot.  So I’m using some pictures here from other photographers.

During the convention, some of our friends were handing out THE UNIQUE GEEK bingo cards.  You can see the cards below.  In order to qualify to win, you had to have very specific pictures.  My old friend Shockwave took this challenge as a personal crusade.  Through determination and cleverness, he managed to get a bingo!  Way to go Shockwave.  Below you’ll see one of his required photos, a JSA member in Saturday Night Fever pose.  In this case, Doctor Fate discoing.

Finally, from 10pm until 4am we were at the Nuts on the Road: Gonzo Sound & Vision film fest (presented by NeedCoffee.com and Quickstop Entertainment)!  This thing is amazing!  They play hilarious video clips all night long, taking breaks every hour to hand out thousands of dollars in prizes.  Seriously!  If you show up, you’re going to go home with something.  More than likely you’ll go home with multiple prizes. This year I went home with Sideshow Collectibles gift cards, Batman The Brave & the Bold The Atom action figure, and a DC Universe Infinite Heroes action figure set with Bizarro, Supergirl, and Wonder Girl.  There were also numerous packages of caffeinated mints, caffeinated chocolate chews, and Bacon-flavored chewing gum given out (or to be exact, thrown out to the audience).  They offered a lot more prizes, but I declined as my suitcase was already beyond full.  Also featured was an opening musical act, Neil Innes (best known for his collaborative work with Monty Python – yes, the same guy we saw at breakfast).  There were other celebrities on-hand, such as Adam Savage (Mythbusters), Dr. Forrester & TV’s Frank (Mystery Science Theater 3000), Doc Hammer (Venture Bros), and more.  As always, we had a phenomenal time.  This year’s crop of comedy videos was possibly the best yet.  If you attend Dragon*Con next year, this event is a MUST!  Below is a photo of THE UNIQUE GEEK gang around 4:00am after the event was over.

That was Saturday!  Come back tomorrow for a recap of Sunday and Monday…

Dragon*Con was four days of zany geekiness with 30,000 of my closest friends. Today kicks off my recap of celebrities, costumes, events, friends, swag and more!  While I’ll cover a lot, this is only a fraction of what took place during Dragon*Con 2009.  At certain times, there were as many as 50 different simultaneous sessions going on! This program was astonishing!

Last year’s Dragon*Con was so amazing, I didn’t think this year could hold a candle. Well, I was wrong.  This year was as good as, if not better, than last year!  One of my goals was to take more pictures this year.  In 2008, I took a little over 400 decent pictures.  This year I managed to take over 800 pictures, with over 600 of them worth keeping!  If you want to check out my pictures, they’ve been uploaded to Flickr and THE UNIQUE GEEK photo gallery.  Additionally, I’ll be featuring some of my favorites here over the next few days.

The hardest part about coming back from Dragon*Con is re-acclimatizing to regular life.  After complete immersion in the geek-lifestyle, it’s hard to readjust to “normal” people. Just imagine four days surrounded by people with similar interests and that understand every vague reference you can imagine; phrases like the following are understood by everyone there: Docking Bay 94, Ootini, Kobayashi Maru, Red Shirt, Can’t stop the signal, It was a bad call Ripley, Pwned, My Precious, Pre-Crisis, or It’s Clobberin’ Time.  You can’t help but get caught up in the experience.  It’s like an affirmation of everything geek.  It’s like Christmas for adults!

FRIDAY

My flight into Atlanta arrived around 9am.  Serv got there just before me, so we caught up in the airport.  We hung around for a bit waiting for our friends Holly and Race.  We grabbed a beer (remember it’s only 9am) agreeing that it’s only alcoholism if you attend meetings.  Holly arrived on-time, but no Race.  Huh?  Yeah, super-punctual Race missed his flight.  Race-less, we grabbed the MARTA and headed to our hotel.  After getting off at the Peachtree station, we knew we were in the right place when we saw someone dressed up as the Mad Hatter and an overweight guy in a Star Trek costume.  Bingo!  We’d arrived.

Immediately after checking into the hotel, I went to get my Dragon*Con badge at the Sheraton (most sessions have Dragon*Con staff checking for badges).  The line for pre-registration badge pick-up was about three hours long.  Aaaarrrrggghhhh!  I was really bummed because I was gonna miss some panels I wanted to attend.  Thankfully someone informed us that certain lines up front were vacant.  It appears the majority of people checking in had last names starting with A, B, or S.  So I side-stepped the rest of the line and walked right up.  In-and-out in five minutes!  I guess that makes up for the 45 minutes I had to wait last year.

Sadly we missed the William Shatner/Leonard Nimoy panel.  I’ve heard it was great!  There is some video available online, so I’ll be sure to check that out later.  I quickly zipped over to wait for the Torchwood panel.  While there I got my picture taken with a life-size TARDIS replica from Doctor Who.  This thing was amazing!  The owner handed me the key, suggesting I unlock it and step in just like the Doctor.  There was a sound system inside playing the background hum of the TARDIS as well as the occasional Cloister Bell!  Totally cool!  The owner explained they have different windows and decal treatments to emulate the different eras of Doctor Who (as the TARDIS has changed slightly over the years).  It’s currently decked out to appear as the TARDIS 11th Doctor Matt Smith will be traveling in.  In addition to touring with the replica TARDIS, the owner also sells Tom Baker scarf replicas that she knits.  I still have my 12 foot scarf my Great Aunt knitted for me back in the 1980s.  We talked quite a bit about the different scarves worn in the show and the efforts she’s going through to ensure accuracy. Really neat lady.  You should check out her website, the WittyLittleKnitter.com.

The Torchwood panel was pretty good.  It featured Gareth David Lloyd (Ianto Jones) and James Marsters (Captain John on Torchwood and Spike on Buffy).  Last year these two did the same panel together, so there were several rehashed stories. If I hadn’t attended this same panel last year, I probably would have enjoyed this more.  New stuff included some good discussion on ramifications of the recent “Children of Earth” storyline, as well as some unrelated anecdotes from Marsters.  All-in-all it was a good panel and I’m glad I went.

Next up was the Avengers Symposium on Assembled 1 & 2 in the Hyatt.  The first 30 minutes was an interesting literary analysis of the comic book super-team the Avengers and the Assembled books by Van Allen Plexico.  Then it turned into a Q&A session with Van, George Perez, Keith RA DeCandido, George Kopec, and Joe Crowe. Great panel!  This was also considered the book release for Assembled 2: The Unauthorized Guide to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and Their Foes, so I purchased my copy and got the whole panel to sign it.  Hooray!  Also on sale was Super Comics Trivia!, a book containing questions and answers from ten years of Van Plexico’s comic book trivia tournaments at Dragon*Con.  Surprisingly, I’m on the cover of the book!  Seriously, I’m not kidding!  I was lucky enough to participate in one of Van’s Marvel/DC Comics Jeopardy tournaments a few years ago.  Someone happened to take a picture of the game and that made the cover of the book.  Interestingly enough, Van posted this picture to his website a few years ago. I jokingly asked if he could color in my bald spot.  For the cover of the book, he did!  If you look closely you can see where they colored in my bald spot!  LOL!  Thanks, Van!

You can order both Assembled 2 and Super Comics Trivia from Amazon.com. I’m the guy closest to the camera in the blue shirt below.   The back of my head is on Amazon.com!  I’m famous!

After that was the A-Team panel featuring Dirk Benedict (Faceman on A-Team and Starbuck on the original Battlestar Galactica) and Dwight Schultz (Howling Mad Murdock).  They really had chemistry and were lots of fun to watch.  They were definitely old pros on the convention circuit and knew exactly what would get the crowd cheering.  They had some really funny and surprising things to say about George Peppard and Mr. T.  I’m glad I made the time for this panel.

Then I hit artist’s alley.  My goal… to get an autograph from George Perez on an old Flash comic featuring a Firestorm back-up story he drew.  When I arrived at Perez’s table, turned out he was doing head sketches!  Awesome!  In addition to signing the comic, Perez sketched Firestorm for me!  In the Assembled panel, Perez mentioned he always likes to add something extra when delivering an art piece.  I’d asked for Firestorm, so he took the time to add in an “extra” of Professor Stein’s astral head!  To see the Firestorm sketch you’ll have to watch future posts on my other blog, FIRESTORM FAN.com.  Needless to say, George Perez was super cool!

The last event of the evening for me was in the comic book track, Marvel vs. DC Family Feud.  The host, Van Plexico, changed the format this year from the usual Jeopardy to Family Feud, which allowed many more players to participate.  He selected returning champions and finalists from previous years, so I got to play!  On our team (dubbed the “DC” team) was my good buddy Michael Bailey (from Views from the Longbox and Fortress of Baileytude), a Dragon*Con acquaintance Mike Stewart, another Dragon*Con acquaintance named Michael, and two other guys named Michael.  Seriously, on our team there were five guys named Michael and one guy named Shag.  And if you know me at all, then you know how ironic this really was.  On the opposing team (dubbed the “Marvel” team) was our good friend Choco Taco, publisher Lars Pearson, and four other blokes.  It was a close contest with some unexpected survey results, but in the end our “DC” team triumphed!

The rest of the night was spent hanging out with friends and taking copious amounts of pictures.  Sadly around Midnight the battery in my camera died.  I was just about to snap a picture of Barbie Jedi when it happened.  Aarrggghhh!  Sadly I never got the picture, but thanks to the wonders of Flickr, I found that someone with the online handle Charfade did get her picture.

Sometime around 2am or 3am we all retired for the night.  In our room was Serv, Ravenface, Choco Taco, Race, Jon, and myself.  Six guys all packed into one hotel room.  It’s no surprise that what happened next can only be described as THE WAR OF THE SNORE!  I believe I have permanent hearing damage from the racket we created with our snoring.

Great first day! Wonderful to see friends again and have so much fun! I’m sure I’m forgetting things, so there may be addendums throughout the week. Come back tomorrow for coverage of Saturday, which will include: breakfast with Draco Malfoy, a parade, and people throwing caffeinated mints at my head at 4am…

Show your support for ONCE UPON A GEEK by ordering one of these super-cool t-shirts through Zazzle! Get ‘em now before the runways of Paris are crowded with these tops.

Three designs are displayed below, but you’re not limited to what is shown here.  You’re able to modify the type, size, and color of these shirts.  Additionally, if you’d like the messaging different, just let me know and I can create new products easily.

While you’re exploring Zazzle, be sure to check out these other fine products from our good friends over at THE UNIQUE GEEK!  This is just a few of the many different designs available from THE UNIQUE GEEK.

They even did a shirt featuring a caricature of yours truly.

As always, your support is appreciated!

Just a heads-up, I appeared on a recent podcast of THE UNIQUE GEEK.  This time out the crew was reviewing the zombie book World War Z by Max Brooks.  On the podcast was Jon (The Unique Geek), Cary, Widge (NeedCoffee.com), Ron, and myself.  I’m not normally a fan of zombie stories (unless we’re talking George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, Marvel Zombies, or Night of the Comet), so I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable World War Z was.  In fact, I was addicted.  I couldn’t put the book down!  If you’ve read the book, check out this podcast.  If you haven’t read the book, go read it now!  We’ll wait for you.

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Additionally, if you’ve been reading Flash: Rebirth, I’ve been helping Michael Bailey over at VIEWS FROM THE LONGBOX review that series.  Our reviews of issues #1 & #2 are already posted, with our review of issue #3 to be posted on Wednesday, July 29.  You can check these out over at VIEWS FROM THE LONGBOX.

Over the last year, a few people have suggested I do a regular feature on upcoming comic books.  While I love the idea of sharing my commentary on upcoming projects, typing all the things in my head would likely break my keyboard (and my fingers).  So instead, I once again teamed-up with Michael Bailey to record a preview of upcoming comics for THE UNIQUE GEEK.  To be specific, comics shipping in May 2009.

Michael Bailey is the host of the wonderful Views from the Longbox podcast and the author of the fantastic Fortress of Baileytude blog.  In a fit of insanity, Mike was kind enough to give me a semi-regular co-host spot on his podcast a while back. So you may have heard some of our banter in the past.  This is more of the same, but with a focus on upcoming books.

Mike and I chatted for well over an hour about the comics shipping in May 2009.  We covered DC and Marvel in great depth, and then touch on several independent companies.  We talk about what to buy, and what not to buy.  If you enjoy the episodes of VIEWS FROM THE LONGBOX featuring both of us, or are just curious about what is coming out next month, then check out this podcast. We think you’ll like it.

You can listen to it right on THE UNIQUE GEEK website, or download it from the same place.  Enjoy!

Back in July 2007, the gang from THE UNIQUE GEEK got together to discuss the Watchmen graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. On the call was Jon, Patrick, Todd, Holly, Cary, Maria, Sterling, Michael Bailey, and myself. We discussed the themes, characters, and who is hotter – Dr. Manhatten or Night Owl.

You can play the podcast right here on the ONCE UPON A GEEK  site with the handy-dandy player below! Running time 1 hour and 21 minutes.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

If  you’re unable to play the file above, please visit PodcastDirectory.com.

Here are a few podcast recommendations for geeks everywhere…

2-in-1 SHOWCASE

2-in-1 Showcase episode #103 features Blake and Chase chatting about the king of the seven seas, DC’s Aquaman! The boys talk about the character’s various eras, best stories, how they’d fix him up and make him viable again, and why he gets less respect than Rodney Dangerfield. Then, getting a bit more serious, the guys discuss the new Diamond Distribution policy and why it may spell death for smaller comics.

SPIDER-MAN CRAWL SPACE 

Over at the Spider-Man Crawl Space, they recently finished up a three-episode tribute to the comic book artist Sal Buscema. Sal just celebrated his 40th year at Marvel Comics. He also holds the record for the longest penciling stint on any Marvel comic. He drew 104 issues straight of the Spectacular Spider-Man title.  This is a great run of podcasts.  Even if you aren’t a Spider-Man junkie, these are good times.

Podcast #55 – To honor Sal for this accomplishment, the Crawl Space invited a few of his friends along. On the first part they have Stan Lee, Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, Roy Thomas and Danny Fingeroth. If you’ve ever wanted to hear Stan Lee curse, this is your podcast! 

Podcast #56 - The Crawl Space continues their interview of legendary Spider-Man artist Sal Buscema. He’s joined by writer Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz as they answer questions live from people around the world. They talk about artistic tips, spider-clones and Spider-Girl!

Podcast #57 – The conversation with artist Sal Buscema wraps-up. In this last half hour they answer written message board questions. Some of the questions range from Sal’s thoughts on Amazing Spider-Girl getting canceled, funny experiences at comic book conventions, and why the Hulk is his favorite character to draw.

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

Technical Difficulties Episode #4 is now available.  In this one, Jon, Ed, Todd & Terry discuss recent news, hard drives, virtual machines, and smartphones. 

THE UNIQUE GEEK

The Unique Geek Issue #81 features a review of 2008. The year blew by and it is time to look back at what they thought was the best this rollercoaster of a year had to offer. The cast for this issue is Michael Bailey, Ron, D, Jon, and special in-studio guest Serv.

CHUCK VS. THE PODCAST

Chuck vs. the Podcast episode 14 features part 1 of their writers series, featuring Phil Klemmer, who also wrote for Veronica Mars. They also discuss the 3D return of Chuck (which hadn’t aired yet when they recorded this).  As always, there is news, spoilers, and more.  If you like Chuck, you’ve got to listen to these podcasts.

You know I couldn’t give you a list of podcast recommendations without plugging one that I appeared on…

VIEWS FROM THE LONGBOX

Views from the Longbox Episode #71 features Michael and I conclude our look at what is coming down the pike from the Big Two this year. In this episode we tackle Marvel Comics in 2009. Topics range from Secret Invasion to Dark Reign to War of Kings to the supposed 70th Anniversary of Marvel, and surprisingly we stick to the subject at hand.

Happy listening!

Just a heads-up… I appeared in a couple recent episodes of the Views from the Longbox podcast.

Views from the Longbox Episode 66 was the 2008 Christmas Spectacular! My apologies to Michael as I should have mentioned this episode long before now.  It was a blast to record the Christmas episode of Views from the Longbox!  On this episode was Brad (from the Spider-Man Crawlspace), Big Honkin’ Steve (from Geek Out Online), Michael (from Views from the Longbox), and myself.  Good times and Christmas fun!

Views from the Longbox Episode 70 features Michael and I covering what’s coming up from DC comics in 2009.  It also includes my prediction of the secret identities of the new Nightwing and Flamebird in the Superman books.  Check out the cover of Action Comics #875 with Nightwing and Flamebird, then listen to the podcast.  You’ve got to hear it to believe it!  Just a warning, we really went for the throat on this podcast.  We were pretty negative and brutal.  Sorry if we said anything to offend.

This coming Wednesday, you should be able to get part two of our conversation where we tackle Marvel in 2009.

A new podcast worth checking out is “Technical Difficulties“.  It’s done by my crazy tech friends at The Unique Geek; Jon, Ed, Todd, and Terry.  While I’m not on this podcast, they have managed to make fun of me at least once.  With friends like these…

In all seriousness, I recommend you check out this podcast.  I’m not much of a techie; maybe a 4 on a scale of 10.  I found everything in these podcasts easy to understand and very interesting.  Give ‘em a try!