Baltimore Comic Con 2015

A comic con from a fans point a view. 

I love comic books. My husband loves comic books. My brother loves comic books and some of our friends love comic books. The rest of our friends just roll their eyes and chuckle at us.  My husband and I decided that we were going to go down to the Baltimore Comic Con with a group of friends. Prepping the night before, we pulled out all the comics and graphic novels that we thought would be really cool to have signed.  Then we debated on what we were going to wear. My husband had two new tee shirts that were contenders.  Should we go with Free Hugs with Leatherface or Welcome to Mordor. Welcome to Mordor for the win.

Then in the morning we double checked to make sure we didn’t forget anything while listening to Wordburgler rap about comics and drink coffee. The trip down to Baltimore was not that bad. I love looking at every one that dressed up. It is fun and there are all sorts of extremes in costumes. I thought I would join in the dressing up in a small scale and had a Black Widow dress and some knee high boots on. If I were to ever to dress up as Black Widow again, I would forgo the boots and wear something more sensible.  There is a price for cute boots and I am not entirely sure it was worth it. 

We barely go through the doors and make our way into the center to try and get out of the fray and I spot Jeremy Bastian at a table and there isn’t a line yet.  He wrote and illustrated Cursed Pirate Girl, which is one of most beautiful books I own. I could sit there and look at the art for hours. It is incredibly and intensely detailed. I had hoped to have my booked signed, but he did one better and drew a picture that you wouldn’t know wasn’t there originally and signed it. Inside I was squealing while I stood there in awe. 

Not to long after we wandered over to Justin Jordan’s table. Justin is a great guy and signed everything that was shoved in front of him while we chatted about cats. I don’t know if that makes him sound like a crazy cat man or me a crazy cat lady.  Maybe a little of both. Either way it was great to see him and I regret not bringing Tom Waits a cat toy. 

It takes a special sort of person to come up with God Hates Astronauts, and Ryan Browne completely blew me away. I could not stop laughing as he and my husband traded compliments with each other as he drew hats and signed almost a dozen issues and then drew a picture inside of a graphic novel.  It shouldn’t  have surprised me that he was a cool guy with a neato personality  considering the number of mind bending things that go on in his comic, but it did. I know it was one of the highlights of the entire convention for my husband.

My brother is a big fan of Ben Templesmith. I will be honest, I haven’t read a single thing by him yet, but I do have all of my brothers Wormwood issues, so that is an easy remedy. Trying to be the good sister, I brought some issues to be signed. Ben was a striking figure dapperly dressed in black and oozes dark comedy that had me trying to unsee the loincloth man walking around the convention. The unfiltered commentary left me chuckling. It was only hours later that I wished I could  have gotten my brain moving to get something commissioned while I was there and picked up his SquidGirls. I regret that my brain was on overload. 

In between getting issues signed there were boxes to go through and vendors to visit. There is something for everyone there. I wish I had more money or at least had the ability to be more whimsical financially, because if I had that ability I would buy at least one of those mystery boxes and then perhaps a game or two at some of the tables and have some stuff commissioned. Despite my non ability to be whimsical, I think we still did pretty good on adding to our growing comic collection. I am looking forward to next trying to attend next year and am completely thankful to the artists and creators that gave us the time of day.

Winning at Marriage

My anniversary is coming up and I was trying to figure out what to get my husband to celebrate. Looking for inspiration,  I went to the almighty Hallmark website, to see what was the appropriate gift to mark the numerical year of my anniversary.  I was horrified.

This is what Hallmark had to say.  

Anniversary	Traditional	Modern
1st	Paper	Clocks
2nd	Cotton	China
3rd	Leather	Crystal/Glass
4th	Fruit/Flowers	Appliances
5th	Wood	Silverware
6th	Candy/Iron	Wood
7th	Wool/Copper	Desk Sets
8th	Pottery/Bronze	Linens/Lace
9th	Willow/Pottery	Leather
10th	Tin/Aluminum	Diamond Jewelry
11th	Steel	Fashion Jewelry
12th	Silk/Linen	Pearls
13th	Lace	Textile Furs
14th	Animals*	Gold Jewelry
15th	Crystal	Watches
20th	China	Platinum
25th	Silver	Silver
30th	Pearl	Diamond
35th	Coral	Jade
40th	Ruby	Ruby
45th	Sapphire	Sapphire
50th	Gold	Gold
60th	Diamond	Diamond

* Historically, the traditional 14th anniversary gift was ivory, but endangered elephant populations make this an unethical choice.

I feel cheated that I missed leather.  There are some interesting things that I could have done will leather. Right now I am on Fruit/Flowers or better yet Appliances.  I am not entirely sure that, Honey I love you. Please enjoy this new oven and please don't cook me in it, is the way I want to go. 

I feel like this list had a lot left to be desired. It didn't inspire me, well maybe the leather did, but other than that it didn't give me much to work with. The idea of buying fruit or flowers or appliances doesn't stir the blood. I decided that I would make my own list.  

Anniversary 

1st-Tee Shirts   

2nd- Action figures/ Toys

3rd - Comics/ Books

4th-Movies/Theater/Entertainment

5th- Games

6th- Beverages/ Alcohol

7th- Amusement Park/Fairs/ Concerts

8th- Kitchen Gadgets

9th- Food

10th- Electronics/ Computer 

11th-Themed Conventions

12th- The Great Out Doors 

13th- Winery/ Beer tours

14th- Pajamas/ Costumes

15th- Themed Hotel Room

20th- Destination Trip (hello hobbits)

25th- Jewelry

30th-Museums

35th- Leather/ Weaponry

40th-Art

45th- Mythical Creature

50th- Vow renewal - Themed

55th First edition

60th-Trophy

That's right, for my 60th anniversary, my husband and I should get a trophy for winning at marriage. 

Willful Intent

There was only one shark in my drink. I found it quite amusing, since the drink was called Captain and his First Mate.  I thought perhaps they should layer the alcohol with the gummy sharks, but I could see how a person might pull a filling trying to eat cold gummy sharks.  It wasn’t the shark inside my cup that I needed to be worried about. I seemed to be surrounded by them, since I found myself eating dinner on the Pride of Susquehanna waiting for the will of Remington Chesterfield to be read. 

They story goes that Remington Chesterfield was one of the wealthiest Americans of 1951 and he kicked the bucket mysteriously about two weeks ago and all the friends and family were circling around in hopes of a free meal and some extra dough.  Main players in this little mystery were the not so grieving widow, Amelia, the shifty eyed Lawyer, Farnsworth Billingsly, the long lost sister, Eleanor Chesterfield, the lover Renee Floozee and the young nephew Jack Diamond.  With a cremated body and motive all over the place, it is interesting to see who gets the big pay out.

I don’t want to give away the culprit in this charming interactive dinner theater of Willful Intent by Otter Productions hosted on the Pride of Susquehanna, but I will say that I was completely and utterly wrong on whom I picked. I obviously spent too much time pondering over the shark in my drink, catching up with GAT and Nic and making new friends with the lovely couple beside me to catch those little details to solve the mystery.   I am completely okay with that. The overall enjoyment of my meal and the good company completely overshadowed the fact that both of my dinner companions deduced correctly the culprit and won the drawing for the evening’s prizes.

Throwback Highschool

What is high school like?

My niece inquired of me recently.   My first response was an exploitive, which thankfully wasn’t heard, since she had asked via text.   I have been free of the strains of high school longer than she has been alive.  Part of me can still remember where my locker was located and that awkward way the band uniform fit, where it was a half strangle with my neck strap to my saxophone.

I needed more information, before I answered the question. Was she looking for what my entire high school career experience or just what it was like to be a freshmen? Those are two different answers, and both of them are long, and much longer than I would ever put in a text message.  Of course she wanted to know it all, as if I had all the secrets to the universe or just the secret to surviving high school unscathed.  I figured I would take my time and really answer the question instead of answering her that high school is one of the circles of hell, because while it may be partially true, it isn’t the whole truth.

What is it like to be a Freshmen?

A lot of people will attend high school with the same people that they attended intermediate and elementary school. I was not that lucky, or perhaps unlucky.  I hailed from the west coast, the land of sunshine, earthquakes and tacos. Moving to a new school and new state and not knowing a single soul was daunting as a freshman. That first year was awkward and full of me playing catch up, socially and educationally. Core curriculum is not universal and things that were assumed to be taught in previous grades for me had at best been glossed over. I felt like an idiot most of the time. Overall from what I can remember, being a freshman is like going from a big fish in a little pond to a little fish in a big pond. It is a change a perspective that as much as you mentally gird yourself for the change, you will still find yourself floundering from time to time.

What was my high school career like?

The things I learned in high school I didn’t know I learned until I got out of high school.  High school is about the experience and during high school there is the pressure to escape the prison of forced education and peer groups and live your life the way you want to live it.  The friends you have in high school very rarely follow you for the rest of your life once you leave and who you are in high school does not define who you will be the rest of your life, it just add perspective. You will have your heart broken and possibly break someone else’s heart. You will be stressed and things will seem terribly large and important that in hindsight may not be that way and you won’t be able to tell it isn’t important because it is happening right at that moment.  You will wish you died of embarrassment on multiple occasions, between your parents being lame and just not understanding or your friends being lame and immature. I think that Charles Dickens may have described high school most accurately with the first line out of Tale of Two Cities.

“IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

I wanted to be sure that I covered everything without going overboard. I texted my niece to inquire if there was something specific that I should cover about my time in high school. My gut clenched thinking that she would ask me about boys, sex, drinking or pranks that went on when I was in high school. She did have one question.

“How much homework is there?”

My head could have hit my desk with a loud thunk. I have obviously over thought all of this, but seeing as it is already composed and “Throw Back Thursday”, I’ll give her all the answers she didn’t know to ask and answer the one question she did ask.  Homework is going to be there and at times there is going to be a lot of it, but out of all the things that will give you nightmares and daydreams, homework is not one of them.  I hardly remember the home work I did and have no regrets over the home work I didn’t, but am certainly glad for the depth and perceptions that were granted to me with home work I did do. 

Wytches

My brother came out for a visit and we swapped comics, canned goods and beverages.  I wasn't sure what to expect when my brother recommended Wytches from Image to me. My brother and I are still working on find our common ground in genre.  He likes horror and dark comedy. I like some dark comedy and very little horror. I tend to go for more adventure. I had a little bit of trepidation when it came to picking up his recommend. In the end I didn't have a choice. He brought me a copy and left it in my vicinity and my natural curiosity was awoken.

I know that I have read some comic books by Scott Snyder before, but it has been a while. When it has been a while, you forget how much you enjoy a certain style. Wytches is good, which is much like saying that the sun is hot. The story has interesting dynamics that have to do with the family and human nature while maintaining a horrifying fiendish element.  Without giving away too much as to what is going on in the story is that you can pledge some one and if your pledge is accepted you are granted one wish. Now image if some one close to you has been pledged. Welcome to Wytches. The art works well with the story and gives it a gritty feel when needed.  I am not sure if it is a good thing that my brother recommended the book to me, or if he is trying to tell me I have been pledged.  I am looking forward to the next volume and if I have been pledged I hope I can figure a way out of it before it is too late.

Snuff

When I finish a good book, there is a quick rush of euphoria. It makes me giddy, hyper and feeling like I can take over the world. It energizes me and makes me want to give the characters or author a high five for an awesome experience.  Captain Vimes is one of my favorite characters to pal around with, which made reading Snuff by Terry Pratchett an indulgence of the senses. 

You can take Vimes out of the City but you can’t take the City out of Vimes, which often times leads to unexpected actions and antics. It is really hard to write anything about Snuff at all, without wanting to spill all of its secrets and ruining all of the unexpected chuckles that ambushed me.   Snuff is about vacation, expectations, tobacco, goblins and justice.   It makes me smile when I think about the sort of marriage that is between Sybil and Vimes and how perfectly they complement each other in their imperfections.  

I would not recommend this to be the very first Terry Pratchett book you ever read, because while it is enjoyable on its own, it is that knowledge of the evolution of characters that puts a sparkle in the eye and keeps you flipping the page. 

“The jurisdiction of a good man extends to the end of the world.”
― Terry Pratchett, Snuff

Macbeth and Cherries

Do you ever get that brilliant idea in the middle of doing something else and as soon as you finish what you are doing that brilliant idea is nowhere to be found, except for a few fragments? Yeah, that happened to me, and it has taken me almost a month to try and figure out what I was going to say. I am not even sure that I know what it was I was going to say. There is only so much procrastination I can do, which is why I have given up on brilliant and witty and just settled for quirky.   

About a month ago Lizzy and I were on a canning adventure and found a brilliant recipe that called for six pounds of pitted cherries and a whole bunch of brandy and along with a couple of other ingredients. I was in the middle of pitting cherries with a paper clip, I marveled at how very Lady Macbeth I looked with red cherry juice flowing from my hands like blood.  

“Sleep, Sleep, Macbeth hath killed sleep and shall sleep no more.” 

If there is anything that is sure to assist a person in sleep are the brandied cherries.  The wave of alcohol that could be smelled as they cooked was enough to make a person light headed and giddy.  They smelled like a Christmas dream and tasted like seduction. It may be my new favorite thing jar and possibly consume. 

My mother had several large jars of cherry juice that she wasn’t going to get to and they had found their way into my possession.  Cherry jelly seemed like the obvious answer.  Armed with a spoon and a pot and a quirky sidekick, the cauldron was set to boil.  I think that cherry juice looks like blood and smells like black cherry Kool Aid when it is swirling in the pot. The witches in Macbeth came to mind as the deep red liquid rolled and crashed in to the wooden spoon.   

"Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,--
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."

I don’t know what it is about cherries that make me think Macbeth. Maybe they are just a comedy and tragedy all wrapped into one. It is all fun and games until you realize that cherry stain isn’t going to come out. Perhaps it is the versatility of cherries that can go from sweet and innocent to dark and sultry, just as a Shakespeare can go from comedy to tragedy in a blink of a line. I don’t know, but I do know that I will enjoy this season delight and resist the urge to continue to procrastinate.