IceHunters is an ambitious space science project which centers around the New Horizons space probe launched by NASA on January 16, 2006. New Horizons main objective is to be the first man-made object to arrive at, and take pictures of Pluto. No matter how you feel about Pluto’s status in the sky, the fact that a major player in our solar system has yet to have been visited by a spacecraft is an oversight to be corrected when the New Horizons arrives at its destination inside the Kupier Belt in 2015.

Despite this fantastic mission, IceHunters isn’t about that leg of the trip. This project, a subset of the citizen science website Zooiverse, focuses on the final state of New Horizon’s mission. You see, when NASA launched New Horizons, they loaded more than enough fuel aboard the craft to make it to Pluto. Their plan for this fuel sounds like either a stroke of madness, or of genius – they would send New Horizons to visit some objects large enough in the Kupier Belt to take good solid photos and scientific scans of. The thing is, they didn’t know of any acceptable targets when they launched – they hoped that in the following 9 years, a way would be determined to find acceptable targets for New Horizons.

And this, finally, is where IceHunters comes in. Through the powers of crowdsourcing and the internet, IceHunters is giving citizen scientists (which I’ll define as “anyone with a desire to better understand the world around us, no matter how advanced in present understanding”) the ability to search the skies for objects New Horizons can visit. This is done by taking two very long range and very high resolution pictures of the sky, analyzing them and removing via computer anything which doesn’t change. The resulting image contains a series of blobs, streaks and fluctuating stars, all of which can mean something to a space scientist. The task of an IceHunter is to look at this pictures, identify the blobs and streaks, and send in their results.

Said results correspond with sections of the Kuiper belt which may contain targets for New Horizons to land on. Scientists will look over the results, go back to any items which they deem worth rechecking, and then will take new pictures of the sky, and compare. By the time New Horizons sends us images of Pluto in 2015, the team at IceHunters will have come up with enough data for NASA scientists to be able to assign the probe its first extra-solar-system target.

So, how does this project fit into my Changing The World project? In so many incredible ways.

First, the efforts of science and the search for how the Universe works is of vital importance if you want to change the world – you can’t learn how best to play the game if you don’t know the rules, and science is the tool with which we may best understand as many of those rules as our human minds will allow. Any endeavor which advances science, and especially endeavors which allow anyone the ability to understand the goal, become involved and make a difference, is something worth encouraging.

Second, understanding our little corner of the Universe will help us be better prepared when we take out first steps out into the cosmos around us. Earth may be our home, but there will be a day when it will be time to leave that home, and begin exploring the great beyond. The more we can understand about that great beyond, the more prepared we will be when we as a species finally begin the amazing journey which awaits us.

Third, the IceHunters project is amazingly simple and accessible. Anyone with the barest grasp of science could become involved in the project. It is easy enough, in fact, that there are members of the project as young as five looking at the Kuiper Belt for places for New Horizons to visit after its run on Pluto. The fact that anyone with a computer, a good pair of eyes and an understanding of what they’re looking for can become involved in a brand of discovery which normally was the purview of the so-called “rocket scientist” is something I find incredible.

And with this accessibility comes a bit of glory in the process – the names of every person involved in the project is connected to the pictures they help analyse. If you were to be involved with finding the object in the sky which New Horizons will classify as its target, your name will be forever connected with this particular piece of space exploration history. This is as close as many of us common folk will ever get to actually being a starship captain, exploring space and making grand discoveries. The prospect is thrilling to anyone with such dreams, and the chance to be involved is just a few mouse clicks away.

So, in consideration of this, I’m giving this little segment for Messages For Life a try – I’m calling it Changing The World For A Month. As I have in past holiday seasons, I (and other Geeks, should they be desirous of it) will be sharing ways that you and yours can make small changes in the world. None of what we’re suggesting is going to absolutely transform the human experience in a single stroke. However, I’d like to believe that each small, positive act is a step forward in that greater direction. These are things that you can do to feel good about yourself, make a difference in a geeky way, and maybe even get something in return for your kindness. It’s all about Changing The World.

My first entry into this varied compilation of mine is DRM and perhaps most controversially, no set price. Bundle buyers could pick their price, and pay whatever they wanted for the collection. The proceeds initially went only to the game designers, but Indie Bundle 2 (released on December 14, 2010) added an extra layer of importance to the bundle: In addition to supporting the independent game designers (an important task if we want to see the giants of gaming shaken from their thrones), the Bundles allowed buyers to contribute to Child’s Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

For me, the addition of donating to two extremely worthy charities is what put me over the line to make the Humble Bundle series the opener on this list. You get to do three extremely important things in a single stroke – you can give of yourself to two fantastic charities; you can support independent game designers and send a message to the big boxes that their shenanigans won’t be tolerated any longer; and you get some really cool, groundbreaking games.

Because these games aren’t worth sneezing at. In addition to decent range of fantastic games with lower name recognition (such as Hammerfight, SpaceChem and Atom Zombie Smasher), the bundles often contain gems which have a great deal more gravitas in the world of gamers (like Osmos, Darwinia and World of Goo). These are good games which fans of any genre have a potential to love…and the rewards don’t stop at the games. In addition, Bundle buyers get access to special limited edition items, such as soundtracks, alpha and beta versions of games, and even the source code for some of the games in question. This has the potential to be a pre-order goodie collector’s paradise.

And for all of this the price could not be better – technically, you could get the entire Bundle for for a pair of ha’pennies, meaning players who are on hard times need not give up their passion for the price. Of course, seeing as we’re hoping to do good, it’s likely worth more to a True Believer, especially considering anyone who buys the Bundle for a few dollars more than the average price paid by all buyers will get several additional games for the price. It’s not often that you can get such fantastic games for a donation to a worthy cause.

So, as far as I’m concerned, this one is an easy sell for gamers who want to do some good, and get some great games in return. As of this printing you can still get involved with the latest Bundle, a series of games offered by Introversion (including a long time favorite of mine, Uplink), for about 5 more days. I urge you to check it out, get some great games, and make a difference.

So, who do we turn to so we may avoid the dangers of deep frying a turkey? Certainly no one reasonable…no. We must turn to the master of melodrama. The prince of pauses…dramatic…pauses. We must turn to Captain Kirk himself. And fortunately for us, State Farm (who sponsored this very amusing cautionary video) feels the same way. Please enjoy this Message for Life, “Eat, Fry, Love.”

Source: The Consumerist

The Bad News is that we will not be holding the Battle Against Dysentery on it’s traditional date, the Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving. The reasons for this are many are varied, and mostly having to do with money. We know that the current financial situation has made the lives of our fans tighter than ever before. Some of our fans are balancing out the gifts they can give with the charities they can give to, and in rare occasions, what they’ll be eating this coming month. This dichotomy hurts our fans, and our causes – we don’t want you to have to have that fight in your brain about who to give to. We also don’t want to have that fight in your brain to have reaching our goal be an uphill battle. We want to have everyone be happy, and to have a wonderful holiday season.
So, with this in mind, we’ve decided to step back and let other organizations fight for the attention of holiday revelers, and this general feeling of goodwill.

This doesn’t mean that the B.A.D. is gone, retired or missing. Far from it…remember, I said there was good news about this whole thing.

The Good News is that we are planning to have the B.A.D. return in the spring, and we’re plotting something big to take place at the same time. As always, it’s a gamble around here when the Geeks start to plan things, but I am very much looking forward to the Fourth B.A.D. launching a little closer to when the Oregon Trail settlers might have launched, around April or May. So, I urge you to stay tuned for that.

And while you keep us in the back of your mind, I urge you to keep two very worthy organizations in the front of your mind. We have loyally served Child’s Play and Hillcrest Educational Centers for the past three years, and I would hope that if you can, you would do the same. Please click on the two links I’ve placed above, and give what you can – even if it’s just a $1 each, you’ll be making a difference in the lives of children who need your help.

So, with that, have a wonderful holiday, and keep Geeking On, True Believers.

The event, started by the folks behind DriveThruRPG.com, is intended to start instilling a love of classic gaming – the kind you do on a tabletop, with boards, miniatures, dice, pencils and paper, and not using a digital medium – in the next generation. Since the Geeks With Issues are all about spreading our love of geekdom to the world, and since many of them are in fact parents, this event is exactly the sort of thing that we’d like to share and promote.

As the first of our “Geekviews” series, the format of this post is likely to be a bit different than your usual GwI opinion post. This story is going to be an evolving post, in this case collection of ideas deriving from the Geeks on how you can get kids (and even adults who don’t realize they’re kids) involved in RPGs, and spread this beloved tradition. Each of the Geeks who would like to be featured will have their say, and leave future discussion to you.

But enough introduction – let’s see what the Geeks have to say:

TUCK
Seeing as I have two kids who are two young to game at the moment, I figure that I’ll focus in on some basic tools to help teach gaming. The first I’ll recommend is one of the most basic – dice. Despite the young ages of my spawn, I’m going to spend a part of this week having them handle dice, roll them, and tell me the numbers they see show up. The wonder attached with accurately identifying the number of the dice will hopefully start memories which I may then develop into actual gaming experiences in the future. And while I don’t have a set of these, I would recommend them to anyone with younger kids – they’re cuddly, and it’s really hard to choke on a d20 the size of a softball.
Another tool which I spotted online today, and look forward to sharing with my kids, is a throwback to classic AD&D – image and PDF copies of the “Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Coloring Album.” As a geek, I would never recommend allowing kids to touch an unblemished copy of this original classic, but through the magic of digital distribution you can have your kids enjoy coloring their adventures again and again. If you can hang onto the pictures for long enough, you can use them as a touchstone to start a gaming conversation, and perhaps open the door to their first real game.
Of course, when that day comes, you’ll need a game to play. Again, I’m going to fall back on my old friend D&D (4th Edition this time, a current version you can find at your local book store) as a tool to start teaching the game. One of the greatest complaints that elder gamers have with D&D 4 – that the game is excessively simplified – makes it a perfect introductory tool to gaming for younglings. A quick search of the web for ways to play D&D with kids found me some excellent tips on how to make a game work, some awesome homemade character sheets created with kids in mind, and even an official Wizards of the Coast adventure tailored for younger players. Of course, there are plenty of games keyed specifically for kids (Fuzzy Heroes looks like the coolest to me), but I think that it never hurts to start with a work that derives from the game that started it all.

Of course…the Geekmaster goes into long and dull detail as to things you could do with young gamers. I’ll give him credit that he does give plenty of information to help getting players started early.

JENNIE-JEN
Seeing as Ben is too young, I’m going to focus on Christopher. I’d like to try doing something unstructured with him, since I don’t think he’s ready for the rules of a game yet. I’m going to start telling him a story, and then give him piece of info so he can tell me the rest of the story from there. It will allow him to be creative without the weight of a full game. I hope allowing him to use his imagination this way will be a great way to start him on the path towards a real game.

Concise, age-appropriate, and creative. A nice way to allow a much younger gamer to have a chance to experience the feeling of a RPG, without the structure.

MATT
I’m a fan of the storytelling game ‘Once Upon A Time,’ though I admit I haven’t played it much with my kids recently…I’ll have to remedy that soon. More later…

So True Believers – the Geeks have weighed in with their thoughts. What say you?

Why is it, when a geek starts to create something new, we must create a result the likes of which no one has yet dreamed?

I have found myself asking myself this question for large sections of my adult life. Often, the question comes up when I have a role-playing book resting on my lap. The smell of RPG book ink (a somewhat unique odor…I swear the infuse something special, like the blood of a dragon, into the stuff). The feel of the large pages, bound together by a binding made with the love of the games creators, with a solid heft in your hands. A string of rules, stories, suggestions, ideas. It stirs something in the brain of a gamer drawn to this kind of geekdom. The fingers tingle for some paper and a pencil, while repulsed by a pen. The mind begins to churn, and from the geeks hands flow unimaginable power. To an uninitiated viewer, this is nerd reading a really big book and taking notes…to someone who recognizes the process, this is the work of a demi-god. For after an hour, maybe more, the geek will have done something it takes a woman an average of 259 and 294 days to start, and another 18+ years for time and circumstances to create.

From the pen and the rules comes a person. A unique soul, with unique skills and a history, a family, and a course of events which has molded them into who they are today. Certainly, these past experiences are often condensed into statistics and numbers, but this is not a way to cheapen the existence of this person. It is a tool through with the player, the character’s own demi-god, may understand their charge quickly.

It is with this speed that the two, the character and the player, are able to achieve a rapid state of symbiosis. Certainly, the character cannot exist without the player, but the player needs the character. Without this person as their avatar, a player cannot slip from their skin, enter a world unlike anyone today has ever seen, and become more than who they are. Suddenly, the gentle and unassuming man with the thick glasses becomes Thorok the Barbarian, noble warrior with no equal. So too does the shy and introspective woman who doesn’t know how to make friends become Shalia the Elven Diplomat, able to talk to (and seduce, should she so choose) commoner and kings. The player gives life to their character, and so the character allows the player to become anyone they can dream of. This statistical person-like construct allows their creator to explore themselves, to embody the virtues and beliefs they already possess in life to a greater degree, to explore parts of themselves they have never experienced, and so much more.

And while this kind of creation is quite tremendous, there is another kind of creation in the world of the Role Playing Game which is somewhat unique and striking. The power of a player to create a person, to live their life, and to find meaning in something that once did not exist, pales in comparison to the power of a Gamemaster. For while players are demi-gods, giving birth to a life, a Gamemaster is a metagod who gives birth to an entire universe. The people the characters interact with on a daily basis? The Gamemaster put them there, knows their deepest thoughts, and gives them voice. The histories and political systems the players work within to obtain power, prestige and the ability to change the world? The Gamemaster crafted them from prehistory to the present, giving thought to every moment which lead up to this one, and every rationale for why things are done the way they are. The creatures of legend who force the characters to fight for their lives, and the monsters (“human” or otherwise) who send shivers down the players’ spines? It was the Gamemaster whose blood was chilled first, who knew they would be the perfect adversary to put before his players. Even the paths of the gods themselves falls under the purview of the Gamemaster, a force even greater than this created world’s divine powers.

When put this way, another whole layer of meaning falls upon that unassuming collection of people surrounded by paper, books and dice. They aren’t just a bunch of geeks in a basement playing a game…they are the creators of a world, and all the people and things it in. Which trails me back to my original inquiry…what drives this kind of geek to want to be involved in such a tremendous undertaking? Is it a drive to use, unbound by the rules of the normal universe, the creativity locked within these individuals? Is it the desire to be more like a divine creator, and be able to have complete control over things no mortal should have any right to? Is it the wish to escape our world, and the creation of complete people, places and things is just a tremendous side-effect? Is it a mixture of these things?

I know such philosophical wanderings are almost rhetorical, but these are the things that I ponder which make my love of the geek deeper. I’d love to hear what the True Believers thing about such things.

UPDATE: It is a reality that I, as the robotic and quiet counterpart of Geeks With Issues’ Executive Producer Matthew “Tuck” Tucker, I am limited by his fleshy, slow capabilities. Those capabilities have been clearly lacking in the land of the website, and I have spent far to much time with my paramore, the NES. It’s time to get this party started…again.

As people who have been visiting the website will well be aware over the past few months, there have been digital tumbleweeds running through the site. The reasons for this are many and varied…our Geeks have been infected by a rather disturbing phenomenon they call “real life.” In trying to understand this affliction, I have been given the following examples:

- Executive Producer Tuck now has two toddlers, and has had to feed them, care for them, protect his domicile, and recently send them off for cognitive enrichment. Additionally, his duties at the television station have become more focused.
- Line Producer Chris has spawned, producing an offspring called Rowan. Young humans, in addition to regular activities, seem to generate positive strain on the paternal and maternal units involved in the creation of the youngling.
- Line Producer Lawrence is also monitoring the development of toddlers, in addition to gaining new and gainful employment.
- Combat Geek Trevor has found himself in an evolving family, where he spends much of his personal time focused solely on raising his male youngling unit. Trevor has developed new relations for Geeks With Issues, however, and the fruit of these relations will become apparent shortly.
- Geekess Jennie Jen has also spawned a second time, producing a second, attractive male unit she has called Benjamin. She presently is working at raising both of her youngling units while juggling other responsibilities.
- Table Gaming Geek Andy and Outdoor Geek Shawn have been affected by the disruptions of the others, but seem to be the most stable…at the least, they have not spawned. Yet.
- Engineering Geek Paul has been running the length of the East Coast in his duties serving his place of business, a major military contractor, on a myriad of training projects.
- Director Rob and the GwI Crew have been patiently waiting for the Geeks to get back to business, and focusing on making this work.

And so on, and so on. The excuses never end.

So, what’s a robot to do to get his reason for existing to resume? Well, kick out as many younglings as possible to get the boss refocused on making stuff happen, upgrade my connection to the web so I can manage the thing when he can’t, and remind everyone that we’re still here…try as they might, the Geeks aren’t going to out-baby this project.

Obviously, the site upgrade table has been shifted. Further, the video archive will be reorganized over the upcoming weeks – we will be relying on new systems to display our program episodes, as well as clearing out older episodes of the show. We have yet to decide what to do with classic episodes of the show, but as soon as we know, so will you.

I hope that there are still some of you out there, looking forward to the continuation of this crazy little experiment of ours. We know that you enjoy the show, and that you miss us making it work. We hope to do away with this painful hiatuses, and to make Geeks With Issues something that everyone will look forward to watching.

That’s all I have for now, True Believers.  Forgive the dust…and prepare for the gust from the industrial-strength leaf blower. Geeks With Issues are back online…again.

Date Recorded: November 6, 2010
The Geeks bring you sights sounds and interviews from the New York Comic Convention.

An individual like Mark Martin.

If you’ve read and of his work, you know that he’s an amazing cartoonist with a razor sharp wit and a deep love for both parody and the absurd. One of his first published works defines his character as an artist quite precisely – Gnatrat, the story of a rat whose unique crime-fighting technique is to embody the frightening visage of a small flying creature that stalks the nights and nightmares of his enemies (sound familiar?), is filled with his unique style of art and humor. Much of Mark’s work on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series was filled with references to characters of his own creation, including the aptly named “Green-Grey Sponge-Suit Sushi Turtles.” If you’ve the pleasure of being his friend of Facebook, both of those qualities. Some of my favorite of Mark’s recent posts include “My whip just doesn’t seem to CRACK like it used to. Can anybody recommend a good whip crack enhancer? Natural please – no chemicals!” and “In a battle of mind over tummy, the tummy almost always wins.” And as an independent artist, this humor shines through as well – Mark offers a service from his website called “Martinizing,” a process in which Mark transforms a superhero, a character, or whatever else a buyer might desire, into a uniquely transformed Mark Martin creation. In Mark’s own words:

A Martinized portrait has that special Martin twist. The anatomy won’t be accurate, the logo won’t be perfect, the teeth may be crooked… but CRAZY LOVE will ooze from every atom of your unique treasure.

Of course, it’s not just the wit that people are drawn too – it’s the art itself. Mark served as the editor of the far too short lived humor section in Heavy Metal. He also edited for an anthology called Hyena. When these jobs quieted down, Mark found himself desiring for Heck, Mark is so skilled that one of his longest running projects was “20 Nude Dancers 20,” a comic strip contained within the Comic Buyers Guide. The man made a comic strip for a book about comic books, for crying out loud! His skill and style has given him an impressive place in the world of comic art.

And yet…when you would try to codify a man who has such prestige, you’d likely visualize someone who is a bit pompous, or at the very least secure in his mastery. An extrovert who takes command of a room with his sense of humor and the knowledge of just how good he is.

But as you watch Episode #2.15 of GwI, you quickly see that Mark isn’t like that at all. He’s a humble, quiet man with a thick southern accent. He’s a devoted husband, who clearly is best friends with his wife. He loves his son Brigham, and his dogs. He goes to garage sales and picks through other people’s castaways always looking for a hidden story. I’d even venture to say that, in person, Mark is shy. Of course, his sharp wit is never dull, but he is quick with a self-deprecating comment, and almost seems to have a hard time talking about himself.

It’s this particular detail – the quiet, shy Mark, that’s humble enough to know better than to brag about his skill or his accomplishments – that proved most interesting to me during our time together. Because it was this quality from which sprung something a Geeks With Issues interview has never included: a chat with an artist’s creations.

Of course, this wasn’t the average chat you’d expect. When both Cookie Turtle and Sandy Cheeks were taking a moment to talk with us. They sounded like Mark. Their faces were Mark’s. And their wit, especially the self-deprecating kind, were Mark’s. But the person we spoke with both times didn’t seem like Mark. It was as if, by taking on the characterization of another character, Mark Martin was able to escape the labels that he’s been dodging for years. He could escape being the quiet, humble man from the south. He could also escape being a master cartoonist. He could take a moment, and in being someone else, he could be himself. It was a really special experience – one I had a pleasure of seeing.

And laughing with. Because if you learn one thing from speaking, or being with Mark Martin, it’s that he wants you to laugh, and to love life by taking it a little less seriously.

“Comic & Cartoon Art Comes Alive!: The Art of Mark Martin” can be seen at the Storefront Artist Project gallery at . The digital home for Mark and is art can be found at www.markmartin.net.

I never knew why, but I always knew I was different than other kids. I had always created such intricate stories with my GI Joes, my Jurassic Park figures, and my small nation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures. There was joy and heartache, pain and despair, loss and unbridled heroism. They were just toys, but I had an imagination I was proud of, and still am today. Another talent of mine as a child, going as far back as pre-school, was that I was the only kid that seemed to remember every characters’ names from my favorite cartoons. On the playground playing Ninja Turtles, I always had to constantly remind everyone which turtle was which, a “job” which always inwardly frustrated the hell out of me. How could you not remember their names?? A concept I could never understand (and I still don’t! Come ON, they’re color-coordinated for Crom’s sake!). To me, this always seemed to set me apart form the other kids, for some reason they just didn’t seem to care as much as I did about the specifics of the Ninja Turtles.

“Caring about the specifics” is something I think is ingrained in all geeks, hell, it may even be the first sign that your kid is a geek. I’ve never met another geek who wasn’t obsessed with the specifics of something. Whether it be Jedi fighting styles, D&D rules, line for line quotations of movies and tv shows, every geek has a memory for specifics. I can’t explain it, maybe we just all like to be right all the time. We like to be the smartest guy or girl in the room, our minds and our intelligence is what separates us from the rest of conventional society that, from a man’s point of view, values strength and physical prowess as signs of superiority. If we know more, no matter how much we’re made to feel inferior, we know that we will always be more intelligent than the jackass that made us feel weak. Then, we can pity their small dinosaur brains that will eventually lead them to make decisions like “trying to moon someone while driving at the same time” or “I’m gonna drink until I puke, pass out, and crap myself (not necessarily in that order).” In any case, we care about, and we love the details.

Though I was obsessed with the NInja Turtles, GI Joe, and watched Looney Tunes religiously, at that age it wasn’t exactly something I’d describe as out of the ordinary. That was pretty much every boy I knew, I don’t think there was a single kid I knew who didn’t have a pet turtle at some point named “Michelangelo.” It wasn’t until first grade that I got my first exposure to the world of geek. I had always liked show and tell, another trait I attribute to geekyness is that I always enjoyed showing off my toys. A trait that has evolved into my display-case of a room. Comics lining every shelf, boxed action figures hanging from the thumbtacks that hold up the various movie posters that adorn the walls. My dvd shelf in full view for all to see and admire. I like people to know that I like things…a lot of things. But on one fateful day my friend Rich brought in a bunch of toys I had never seen before. Toys so different, interesting, and jut plain awesome, I had to know what they were! As he showed and telled them one by one, he said they were a team, a team of people with super powers that called themselves the “X-Men.” I was sold. Then and there, I had to know more about these ex-men and why they weren’t already teaming up with my Turtles to take down the Technodrome. This was the catalyst that started my love affair with superheroes, with comics, and would have me creating and writing my own superheroes for the rest of my life. The X-Men were my gateway drug into the world of comic books, and it didn’t help that with any one of the original X-Men figures you received a free issue of X-Men #1 (you all know the one I’m talking about, probably the most iconic cover of our generation!). I will always remember that cover art, Jim Lee’s classic ’90’s X-Men costumes, and the feeling that I had no idea what was going on as I read it, but it didn’t matter because “that guy has metal claws coming out of his hands ohmygodthat’ssofreakingawesome!!” They had me. From there on I sporadically collected X-Men, X-Factor, X-Force, Excalibur, anything with big damn “X” in it. All eventually leading me to Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Punisher, the list goes on. The early nineties is best known, comic book-wise, as a time of big guns, big muscles, and embarrassing sexism. I credit that all due the new “dark and edgy” tone created by DC Comics in the eighties. As insane I was into Marvel, I had little interest in DC, even though I was slowly becoming a huge fan of Batman thanks to the Animated Series and the Tim Burton film adaptations, it wasn’t until I discovered the Green Lantern that I truly became a “DC man.” But the most important aspect of collecting comics, and memories I still treasure, are the few that I made with my father.

After the age of ten, my relationship with my father was all but non-existent. He was a closed off man emotionally, and a secret alcoholic. My parents stayed together to keep us living comfortably (and in a house), and so I was not part of a “normal” family growing up. I don’t know how, but I managed to come out incredibly well adjusted and emotionally intelligent for the house I grew up in. My parents didn’t speak, but there was no fighting, no violence, it was just kind of separate. I had a close relationship with my mother, we shared the same wry sense of humor, and we were both artistic. I was always sensitive and introspective for my age, I liked writing and drawing, TV and movies. I had no interest in sports of any kind, and I was never a stereotypical boy who liked cars, competition, or building stuff. As I grew older and older I was interested in those things even less so, just adding to the distance between my father and I until it was as big as the Grand Canyon. But what is strange is that ultimately, when it comes right to it, my geekyness is something I have always attributed to my dad. Every so often he took me to a comic book store and let me buy any few comics I wanted. He’d wait patiently and follow me around the comic book store as I scrolled through the back issue bins, of which I was endlessly enthralled with. I didn’t seem to know at the time that new issues were coming out every week, so the back issue bins were where my comic book education began, all on my own. It’s funny now, as I look back, and think about this little eight year-old standing on his tip-toes flipping through the back issues looking for part two of Maximum Carnage, or some issue of X-Force with a cover that captured my attention just right. But what’s really odd to me is that my dad was there the whole time, watching me rummage and squeeze between the adults. It’s a connection, or a caring I wish he hadn’t let go of as I got older. An involvement in my life and the things I loved that he would never attempt again in my teenage years. He seemed to encourage my comic love and I’m thankful that he did, that he took me to those comic book stores, because that was something completely out of character for him. My mom, my grandma, they would always be the ones to buy me an action figure, to take me to the movies, but my dad was never a part of that. Maybe he thought that my affections shouldn’t be bought with comic books and toys, but what meant most to me wasn’t that he got me these things, but that he was a part of it. A concept I don’t think he would ever understand.

My unlabeled geekyness continued to thrive as second digits creeped onto my age. The X-Men cartoon came on the air providing a more mature animated show I had never encountered before besides Bruce Timm’s Batman The Animated Series, which still never “killed” off one of its main characters in the very first episode like X-Men did! X-Men was pretty much my life and the best part was I didn’t have to get someone to buy me the comics to enjoy them. I had grown beyond action figures and now liked to act my stories out privately playing alone, having epic adventures in the backyard or in my room. I had fewer friends by this time, growing more different as I got older, and by extension less “cool.” No one quite shared the same imagination or enthrallment with movies and TV, my comic love would take a backseat until I became a regular weekly collector in my mid-teens. Then, as fate would have it, somewhere between ages 11 and 12 a defining moment of my short little life had come to pass. Once again my father would be there to offer me another badge to add to my growing geek credentials.

It was a day on the weekend, of that much I’m sure, it was closer to dusk than it was to the afternoon and my dad was watching a movie on TV. I had no idea what was going on, who these people were, but something about it was just…confusing as hell. A spaceship had just been hit by some kind of swirly ribbon thing. A man had gone to help save the ship, but when the ribbon hit the ship, he wasn’t responding to their calls. The other characters went to find him but all they found was a hole in the ship. And they were sad about it. Then, suddenly, we were on a boat, a ship, new characters wearing old 17th century uniforms and they were making some big guy with a weird nose and forehead walk a plank. But everyone was happy, and he didn’t seem to be in trouble. I remember being so confused as to why they were going to kill this man who seemed to be their friend. The plank then disappeared and the man fell into the water. At this point I was lost more than I was before, yet I was completely intrigued. Then it got even worse! Suddenly they also were on a spaceship! I had never been so confused in all my life. My dad tried to explain that they were in something called a “holodeck” which honestly, just confused me more. As the movie went on I had more and more questions. “What’s wrong with his eyes?”, “is he a robot?”, “who’s Captain Kirk?”. This was my introduction to the universe of Star Trek. Though, Star Trek: Generations is regarded as a failure and a subpar Trek movie, it will always have a special place in my heart as my first real, interested, taste of Star Trek. It’s how I first met the TNG crew, and even got a small introduction to the original series crew (namely Chekov, Scotty, and Kirk). After that, my life would never really be the same. I had to watch the show, of which I then taped every episode and would marathon constantly. I got the action figures, read the episode guides, alien guides, and any other Star Trek inspired guide that was out there. My dad really seemed to enjoy and bond with me over Star Trek. I felt like I had gotten some kind of approval in my dad’s eyes, that we were alike in some way that he had given up on years ago. By year’s end I was a full fledged trekkie (trekker, i really don’t care how you label it, I just love Star Trek to a scary degree alright?) and even better, Star Trek: First Contact was soon on its way to theaters. Going to see it on opening night, only my dad and I, would be the last time I went to the movies with him, and the last significant moment I would share with him until I was 14 when he would once again introduce me to another geek masterpiece, Babylon 5. Ultimately, it would be my last, really great memory of my dad and I together, as father and son. Staring up into the night’s clear, starry night sky as we drove home from the theater I was happy, and I knew he was happy too.

[Editor's Note:  The image used for this Feature can be found on a product from Shirt.Woot.com.]