{"id":1103,"date":"2007-01-14T00:23:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-14T04:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/?p=1103"},"modified":"2007-01-14T00:23:00","modified_gmt":"2007-01-14T04:23:00","slug":"am-i-officially-a-geek-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/?p=1103","title":{"rendered":"Am I officially a geek now?"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/a>Okay, I guess to pre-empt the chorus of laughing “friends” I’ll beat everyone to the punch and say that yes, I’ve been a geek for years. But today was the first time I’ve actually gone out and made a trip to the comic book store because a special guest was there. That guest, ladies and gentlemen? Scott McCloud.<\/a><\/p>\n

Most folks know that Scott has many interesting insights into comics, and in fact has an excellent book out called “Making Comics,”<\/a> but to me he’ll always be the author of Zot!<\/a> Jump with me into the wayback machine, back to the late 80’s. I was in high school and had already been reading comics for ten years. I did my fair share of buying indie titles, but didn’t discover Zot! until I was in college, at which point I picked it up faithfully in Chapel Hill, at Second Foundation (now Chapel Hill Comics<\/a>). I always looked forward to it.<\/p>\n

Thirty six issues were published, but my collection stops with issue 35. I have no memory of why I don’t have that last one – maybe I had finals? Maybe it came out over break, and I was home and neglected to go the comic book store? Whatever the case, I still have the rest of my collection. So when Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find<\/a> hosted Mr. McCloud when he was in town for a lecture, I took the fangirl plunge and dusted off my Zot! box.<\/p>\n

<\/a>(By the way, “Zot box” is totally what my secret weapon will be called should I ever enter the field of evil geniusing.)<\/p>\n

Man, what a trip down memory lane. It was nestled between my Puma Blues<\/a> and some Cynicalman and Antisocialman minicomics by Matt Feazell.<\/a> I used to get these at Heroes when they were on Thomas street. I often went with my dad, who favored Uncle Scrooge. According to Mr. McCloud, Matt’s gone from stick-figure minicomics to contributing to Disney Adventures magazine, so maybe I can pick up something he’s done for my daughter to enjoy.
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\n<\/a>Aaaaaanywho, Scott was there with his charming family, all of whom were gracious. It was quite pleasant meeting and chatting with he and his wife. I think they took their own little trip in the wayback machine when I pulled out my old Zot!, which Scott was kind enough to sign for me.<\/p>\n

It was nice to talk about characterization, and to find that I’d selected an issue which apparently doesn’t make him wince too much. I think we’re all our own harshest critics, particularly of our older work. I look back at my TV spots, such as the one for “Super Borg Sunday” (yeah, we were counterprogramming Trek against the Superbowl) and enjoy it, but I also think about how I would improve it now. And God knows I heave a sigh every time I put on that nipple hat<\/a>. Yet, while I often pull out the newer stuff<\/a>, sometimes I still wear the old girl, which I’m sure says something about… something. Nostalgia? Pride in learning new skills? Let’s just go with “something.”<\/p>\n

Scott’s wife Ivy mentioned that there was a possibility of getting the later issues (maybe all the issues?) put out again. I’d buy it – it would be great to at least know what the heck happened in issue 36. Seventeen years later and I’m still in the dark!<\/p>\n

All in all, it was a very pleasant experience, and intruding on a total stranger’s time and space wasn’t nearly as awkward as I thought it would be, thanks to the grace of Mr. McCloud and his wife. Maybe I’ll come out to another one of these dealies sometime.
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Next time: Yarn and knitting pics!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}