Chattacon

digresssmlOriginally published February 9, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1421

I’m rapidly reaching a point in my life where it’s split pretty much dead even between the time I spent as a fan versus the time I’ve spent as a professional… well, whatever I professionally am. Since fandom is where my roots are, however, I was more than willing to go along when my fiancee, Kathleen, wanted to head down to Chattacon in Chattanooga, TN, a convention she and her siblings frequented since she was a teen. (Indeed, her brother Sean’s theme parties have become an event in and of themselves.)

Here’s my concern about the Mets

I’m reasonably sure that I remember them going into the All-Star break on a high note in previous seasons.

And then invariably they come out of the break and promptly go into a massive losing streak. They were moving up and then they lose thirteen out of fifteen games.

So it’s kind of hard for me to feel good about their current winning ways.

PAD

Retcons and Stetcons

digresssmlOriginally published February 2, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1420

Once upon a time in comics, it was simple: No one really gave a dámņ about what other people were doing.

So when a new origin for a character cropped up, it needed no reason other than that a writer or editor (or both) had come up with what they thought was an interesting twist on the hero’s origin. Or perhaps it was nothing more complicated than that they had a ten-page space to fill that month and they were fresh out of ideas for new stories, so they decided to recycle the hero’s birth one more time.

DVD Dread (circa 2001)

digresssmlOriginally published January 26, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1419

They almost had me. They almost had me totally sold on DVDs.

Several years ago, I complained quite bitterly, in this very column, about the new format which was rendering my beloved laser disks obsolete. This upstart, this annoyance. Sure, my lasers were taking up a ton of room, but the picture quality was great, you could jump around for specific chapters instead of trying to fast forward with video tapes. And then these… these little frickin’ coasters called DVDs come along, with patchy transfers and totally different players, threatening to push out my movie format of choice.

To be a Supergirl

digresssmlOriginally published January 5, 2001, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1416

The following arrived via email the other day:

I’ve always wanted to be Supergirl. I’m 12 years old, my name is Ashley. I have prayed and prayed for it to come true but nothing ever happened. So one day I went to school this boy named Justin who says he was Superman and he could fly that day I was wearing my Supergirl shirt. He looked at my shirt and laughed. No one believes in me. I don’t even believe in me. So please let me know if you can help me or if you could believe in me. It makes me sad to think about how me myself doesn’t believe in me. Please write me back.

Your Friend Always,

Ashley