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Out of Left Field Many years ago I went to the Dallas Comic-Con that was run by C2 Ventures. They have been running some sort of Comic, Science Fiction or Media related convention over the past fifteen years in the Dallas area. On Valentine's Day I read through my Google News Feed that C2 Ventures has been bought by the European based company Informa that has offices in London and Switzerland. For those of you living in the frozen north, this is the same company that runs the Fan Expo Canada brand. This link to an article by Robert Wilonsky of the Dallas Morning News has only the barest of details on the whole matter. They have a quote by one of the C2 people that says Informa has a very good track record with their Fan Expos in Canada and they have a lot of ideas for the shows. With the Dallas Comic-Con moving from the Irving Convention Center to the Dallas Convention Center they have a whole lot more space to deal with and can easily accommodate the crowds that the convention has been drawing over the past few years. The Dallas Comic-Con will be May 16th through the 18th this year so I'll have to see what things they have planned before I decide to go. The college semester is over the day before so I won't have to worry about missing classes to go. Some kids might have to miss a day of school to go on Friday, but I think education should come before a comic convention.
A Hard and Fast Rule Is there some hard and fast rule that everyone who collects comics must have a copy of the Watchmen Trade in their collection? I mean sure, Watchmen is a good story told by Alan Moore before he went off the deep end, but I could never get into it. I don't know if/when I tried reading it at the age of thirteen or fourteen I had issues going on in my life or just my brain could not comprehend the story. The reason I ask this is because it seems that every comic book collection I see on the internet that has trades in it has a copy of Watchmen somewhere in it. I'll say that yes, many years ago when I started collecting trades I considered buying a copy from a used bookstore, but then I tried reading an issue or two from the paperback copy that my older brother has and could not get through the first issue. My question of the month is this, if you collect comic book trade paperbacks or hardcover's do you own a copy of Watchmen, and if so why?
What About . . . The movie Non-Stop starring Liam Neeson as an Air Marshal on a plane that is going to blow up unless he can find the bomber came out earlier this month. The thing I find most interesting about the movie is not so much the movie itself, but how it was promoted. On the network Comedy Central in the States (otherwise known as the Stewart, Colbert channel with South Park and other original/syndicated programming tacked on), they have a sketch show called Key & Peele and one of the running bits they have on the show is the two of them being valets who talk about movies while waiting to valet cars. The movie 'Non-Stop' got special treatment on the show when they did a skit with valets talking about Liam Neeson and the new movie when Neeson walks out to pick up his car and they go crazy like all fans are when they meet an actor they really like. The bit made it onto YouTube and here is a link to it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGuPKSBpyBY (Please note my usual rule about reading You Tube comments applies in this situation. Don't read them unless you have a high tolerance for stupid things people say on the internet. Also there's one bad word at the end of the video so if that sort of thing bothers you then don't click on the link) I really like in the bit how all of a sudden they go from calling him Liam Neeson to Liam Nessons. I had a high school vice principal who in my senior year would always call me Mathews when he would see me in the hall. Just one of those odd quirks people have I suppose. Anyway I thought that was some funny cross promotion.
Getting back on track At the end of last year I decided I would try to get back into miniatures gaming after the somewhat successful attempt to play in a HeroClix tournament once a month. That kind of fell apart because not too long after I started going to the gaming/comic store they closed down. I kept the idea in my head for a while, of trying to go back to playing, but never had the time or inclination to go to a tournament elsewhere. It was around the time of my birthday this year that I decided to say, I'm done with miniatures gaming. I thought back to the times I played in those two or three tournaments and how I was razzed because I played more or less themed teams (like The Runaways or U-Foes) while everyone else played teams that they threw together that were vaguely linked by a generic keyword or just thrown together from something that was found on the internet for the point level. When you are razzed for playing for fun rather than playing to win at all costs attitude then it is just no fun. So where does that leave me? Well, when I was young four things had a major influence on my life; video games, comic books, movies and toys. Those three things are all I am going to focus on other than the try it and make me feel bad for sinking so much money into it world of miniatures gaming. Video games were a big part of my life because I was raised on arcade games as well as the Atari 2600 and Nintendo Entertainment System. I do miss stand alone arcades and it is too bad that they are all but unheard of here in the states. The comic book influence comes from when I was young and my father introduced my older brother and me to comic books to help us learn to read. My brothers and I still get comic books in one form or another every now and then, but I really think comic books can be used to help kids learn to read. Toys were an influence because as being a middle child it gave me a lot of time to be on my own and I could have fun with my GI Joes making up my own adventures rather than having to work around the ideas of my siblings. Movies were greatness in that it was something that could be done to fill up an afternoon or evening. So many good memories tied into going to the theater and seeing something. Whether it was good (Back to the Future), bad (Star Trek V) or really bad (Ishtar) it was good to get away from the house because one can only stand so many re-runs of Batman from the 1960's before one goes crazy. I want to know something; what hobbies or other things have had a major influence in your life? You may have strayed away from them because the grass looked greener on the other side so you went over and then realized that it is not that great grass. I'm going to wrap it up here. As always comments, suggestions, links to something funny and so forth can be sent to: mlbcollectortimes@gmail.com. I'll see you all in April.
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