Decade of Dross

Well, my friend Rob tagged me in one of them blog meme type things. It is a “best of decade” thing that hopefully I can squeeze 3 or so categories out of. From Ami Angelwing’s original blog post:

It's the "of the decade" meme! Basically come up with 3 categories and who you think wins that category! Be creative!


Like what I mean isn't just "best comic book of the decade"... like "best moustache of an comic creator of the decade" or whatever.. it can be serious (best Asian male film character of the decade) or not or whatever.. it doesn't have to be about comics, or games or whatever.. it can be about nething (worst hair of a world leader, weirdest food trend... etc etc)

and tag 3-5 other ppl! And then they come up with 3 categories.. etc :] The main part is to be creative!

Be creative? That isn’t my specialty, but lets see what we can do…

Best Piece of Radio Audio of the Decade: Just go and listen to this piece of audio. The thing to remember is that this was a radio host interviewing the Dallas Chief of Police. Oh, what must have been going through his head!? I have heard this well over a hundred times and it makes me laugh every single time.

Best Sporting Event of the Decade: This decade was the second time I went to the first two rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament. The first round is four games with quite a bit of time between the first two and second two games. Between those games two friends and I were drinking at the bar in the arena. One of my friends hits on a girl there and, she offers to give us the seats of some of her family who have already left. We ended up watching the games that evening on about the 15^th row. A little bit better that our seats on the last row in the arena.

Best Website of the Decade: The Captain Comics message board. One of the most civil places on the web were we discuss so much more than just comic books. I have even had the pleasure of meeting a few of the people on there.

Best Comic Book Memory that has Nothing to do with Comic Books of the Decade: I don’t believe I have ever told this story on the web before. Okay, so it is the first year of Wizard World Texas in Arlington, TX (I wanna say 2003). I am volunteering at the Hero Initiative booth (still called ACTOR back then). One of the guests of honor is George Perez and he is also donating some of his time to sign comics at our booth for donations. I meet him Friday and that was very, very cool.

Saturday night a friend of mine who was their peddling his comic with some other friends was having a party at his house, and I went to that of course. We almost pulled an all-nighter, and I ended up with a solid 2 hours of sleep. I went to the con that day very tired and very hungover. I sat in the back of the booth feeling sorry for myself waiting until the time I had to go back on duty. At one point George shows up ad he looks miserable too. It turns out he had gotten mild food poisoning the night before and also felt like ass. He just wanted a place to hang out before he met more of the fans, so George Perez and I just sat in the back of the booth commiserating with each other for about an hour. That’s right kids I had just about every fan boy’s wet dream as I had a one-on-one with George Perez. I don’t remember what we talked about, but I know it had little to do with comic books

That is it that is my list. Who to tag? I reckon Howard, Jeff, and Mike. I would tag P-Cat as well but I don’t know if his serious sports blog would be up for a meme. If you are go for it as well.

PS I am trying to see how many places I can out that picture of me and George Perez. This is either 4 or 5 sites. This picture was taken a few years later though.

Legion Sketch #25

We finally close out Wizard World Texas 2007 with:



We have Andy Kuhn's rendering of Karate Kid. What I like about this was this was done late on the last day of the con, and he still seemed to really get into it. A nicely done sketch.

Legion Sketchbook #24

This time:



We are still at Wizard World Texas 2007, and we also get our second appearance of Wildfire in the sketch book. This time he was drawn by Angel Medina. Perhaps best known for his run on Spawn. I really enjoyed listening to him talk, and hearing some of his thoughts on comic books.

My favorite line (to someone else at the table),"Are you impressed with my skill?"
"Yes."
"Then why doesn't it get me laid more?"
Pretty close to that anyways.

I do find it interesting that on the sketches that are pencils only the paper looks yellowed. Oh well.

Legion Sketch #22

We finish out the Fatal Five:



This rounds out the Fatal Five from Wizard World Texas 2007. This was actually done by one of the other Hero Initiative volunteers: Hector Avila. A very cool, menacing Validus. He filled the page up so much part of the left hand side got cut off on the scan.

Triumvirate of Fun

This past weekend was a perfect storm of a good time. It didn't start out that way though. Friday at about noon I left work early as I was feeling nauseous and was running a fever. I was hungry, but everything I even thought about eating made me feel like I was going to throw-up. By about 4 though I was feeling fine.

Late Saturday morning I played my regular City of Heroes game with my brother and friends. Then I got the call to play poker Saturday night. Of course I went. I brought the beer, and my friend Stephanie made some pho. Nicole baked cookies. A nice pre-Chinese New Year's celebration. One guy went to a party, came and played poker for a while, and then went back to his party (I think the girls finally showed up). After we got done I spent the night there.

Why? Because the next day I was going to the Dallas Comic-con. My friend's house was closer to the con than my place. I also got to play with their son for a couple of hours before I left, which was fun.

Going one day was fine with me. I didn't bring my camera (or I did but no batteries), but I did meet the likes of Bernie Wrightson, Howard Chaykin, and Herb Trimpe. Which was cool. I talked to some dealers and local creators I know. The top topic being the cancellation of Wizard World Texas. (Slight tangent one day pass to Dallas Comic-con: $10.00 Wizard World Texas: $28.00. Are you kidding me!?) I bought a slew of Weird War Tales, a bunch of half-price trades, other various odds and ends of comics. It was fun, and three hours there was a perfect amount of time to be there. No sketches this time though.

A good, fun, responsibilty free weekend.

He Hates Batman!!!

Now some might see this sketch and think, "Man, he hates Batman."
Others, "Wow what a Predator fan."
Still others, "What a weirdo."
Well, I neither hate Batman, nor have any great love for Predator. The third you will have to decide on your own.

This tale begins back in the Spring of 2003 when I was at a comic convention talking to local artist Chris Medellin. He had a request to do a sketch of the Predator killing Batman, but he had no reference for ol' Pred. I was helping a friend of mine at a booth, and my friend allowed me to sell some 25 cent comics there. I had about 2 longboxes, and I knew that I had some Predator minis by Dark Horse in there at one point, but I had sold a bunch that day. No one else had any so, I went and looked, lo and behold I still had some and provided the comics. Cool. Chris completed the sketch, and gave me the funny books back.

Flash forward to Wizard World 2006. I am walking through Artist Alley, and see Chris there. He has a new comic out, and I pick it up. He has a few sketches lying on his table, and I flip through them. Out pops the above sketch.
"Oh, man! You still have this? I remember this one." I tell him
"Yeah the sonuvabitch never came back, and I can't get rid of it!" Chris exclaims
"Man that sucks."
"Look, Travis, five bucks and it is yours."
"Sold"
"Seriously, thank you for getting off of my hands."

It only took 3 1/2 years too.