Comics, Paintball and Beer Pong

Today was the MCBA FallCon. I joined my friend Justin there for a day of super heroes and comic delights. There actually wan't TOO much that I jus HAD TO HAVE this time around. I think I set a record of how little I spent on anything.

I wasn't really looking for comics but I did find a book called Sasquatch. It's composed of mini stories and comics all based around sasquatch. Each comic is by a current comic book or web comic artists and is basically their take on the legendary Sasquatch, or bigfoot, or yeti. Pretty awesome.

Other than that I won a copy of the ElephantMen Vol. 1. It's a Trade Paperback of the first 7 issues of ElephantMen. Pretty cool. I would have chosen the "Batman: Under the Red Hood" or "Superman/Batman: Apocalypse" but those DVD's were already taken by the time we were going to leave and my number got picked. Every year they do a drawing, you fill in your info on this little sheet and then they draw 20 numbers every half hour. Right as we were leaving I saw the lady at the desk that is there every year so I went to say hi. She asked if I won yet, because I usually win at least once every year. I told her that I hadn't and that we were leaving but she said they were going to draw in another 5 minutes so we decided to stick around.

So I sit and B.S. with here for a little bit until she's getting read to draw. I told her that my number is 503 so she should pull that. She said she can't cheat, laughingly. But once she she pulled the first number, instead of writing it on the board she let out a big groan then turned around and held it in my face... lucky 503. So I snagged the only thing I could find on the table that I had any remote interest in and We took off.

Pretty awesome book. I'll have to read it soon.

Now lets hop into the time machine and go back a week, to the day after I went on my hundred mile ride with Tom.

I went and played paintball for the first time. VERY FUN... and painful, but worth it. I was on the team that lost most of the time but I'm going to have to do that again. And next time I'll get my own gun since theirs don't shoot very straight.

I went and bought some old army surplus clothes too. worked out well, but it was WAY TOO HOT that day.

Later that night we had the Big Arn's Annual Beer Pong Tournament. My partner Zach and I didn't win :( We actually didn't even place. Last year we got 3rd place. This year it was 5th. But we had to play the team that wins or places second every year, two times before we started getting in our groove. So we had an excuse.

Better luck next year.

Star Wars Garage Sale... WIN

Found a Star Wars garage sale on craigslist.com not too far from my house. Had to go and check it out. After taking a few wrong turns and calling Gretchen for help, I finally found it. I got there at about 9:45am... they opened at 9am... I left at about 8:40am.... like I said, I got lost.

But once I got there, there was loads of Star Wars things to go round. As I walked in I felt a bit let down because there's didn't appear to be too much. But when I got in there, saw the 3 or so tables full of stuff above and below, I went ape shit.

Star Wars book, Star Wars figures, Star Wars original records, Star Wars collectables... it was awesome.

Here's a pic of all the stuff I bought... I kinda wish I would have bought more, but I'm glad that I was able to show a little bit of restraint.

I know what you're thinking... and yes, those are blueprints to the Slave 1, X-Wing, and Rebel Snowspeeder. AND YES, that's a star wars bed sheet... for children...

and a stormtrooper pez dispenser...

It's like Christmas at my house...

Picked up a few things on sale at Best Buy and finally got a few packages in the mail today... 

Pinocchio 70th anniversary DVD

Richard Pryor DVD

Family Guy Volume Six DVD set

Character Animation Crash Course Book

Elemental Magic Animation Book

Walk Hard DVD

ALICE IN WONDERLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DVD.... FINALLY!!!!!

Picked those up along with the tabs for the boat that's been sitting behind our house for AGES... time to go boating... anyone interested? hit me up for a fishing trip... and bring YOUR car with a trailer hitch. 

2009 Microcon

Went to the Microcon last sunday at the stat fair grounds with my cousin Jessica. Was just like any other Con, people dressed up, comic and toy venders everywhere. 

This is a Picture of Jessica with Jengo Fett and a clone trooper. There were all sorts of super heroes there but these were, in my opinion, the best outfits in terms of quality and realism. 

I did end up buying a few comics and a bunch of toys as well. 

A decent contribution to my already started "Boba Fett Shelf". 

I also found an artist who's blog I've been following. His name is Grant Gould and he draws for the Star Wars the Clone Wars online comic. I asked if he would do a character sketch for me but instead of doing it on paper I gave him a Mini Munny to doodle on. He said he'd rather doodle on it after the con and send it to me. So I emailed him and am waiting for a reply. 

Other than that, not too much going on really. I read Superman: Red Son, a comic that I picked up for dan at the con. Kind of a Superman in Russia scenario, with a Russian Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman. Pretty awesome. 

If you're a fan of Superman, check it out... but if you're a fan of Batman, like me, you REALLY HAVE TO READ IT...  yay batman. 

The job hunt continues

Started searching Craigslist.com for jobs a while back, and I'm happy to say I FINALLY applied for one. I'll keep the blog updated with any and all news. 

I also began reading "The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation" and I must say I wish I would have read this stuff a long while ago. I'm learning quite a bit and you can expect to see some animations coming out of me SOON. 

another trip to barnEs and noble

another trip to Barnes and Noble has yielded successful.  I purchased another 8 or 9 books and stayed under $25. 

run, don't walk, to Barnes and Noble. 

I reed GOOD! :)

Went to Barns and Noble today and bought a stack of books... LITERALLY! I went in there thinking I would look over the bargain books and found way more than I thought. Most books were marked down 75% off of the lowest price you could find on the book... AND most had price tags of $9.99 or less. Ended up walking out with this fat stack and not even breaking $40. 

and just in case you didn't believe me, here's the receipt with all the low low prices. A bunch were under $2.00, and I even ended up getting one for 78¢. 

sorry about the crappy pics, but long story short... GO TO BARNS AND NOBLE and get yourselves some literature!!!

Flying Fortress' new book

I just received this book in the mail the other day. It features one of my favorite artist, Flying Fortress. He's Best known for his teddy trooper designs, but the book is filled with 128 pages of PURE AWESOMENESS. 

Here are some sample pages from the book. 

BEER PONG!

Well, I was invited to be in a beer pong tournament with Gretchen's best friend Kari. It was the fourth annual tournament, and based on how good I am, and how good Kari is, I wasn't expecting too much. Which was a good thing because we lost all but one game in the prelims and then went out with 1 win and 2 losses in the actual tournament. After two losses you're out. But all in all, it was good. All the beer I could drink for $10. 

Ended up leaving at about 12:30. I had stopped drinking earlier so that I could drive home, just in case Gretchen wouldn't be up for the challenge. But we were both fine. 

The other day, Gretchen asked if I would go with her to JoAnn Fabrics in Coon Rapids. Naturally, I said no, but then she bribed me with a trip to a comic store. She looked on line, found a new one I had never been to, and we were off. Went to JoAnns... you can imagine how fun that was. A guy in a fabric store. But when we got to the comic shop, holy f*cking sh*t. This place was nuts. Not so great with newer releases, but there back issues are all 5 for $1.00. AND they have a deal where you can fill a long box with as many as you can and it only costs you $40. Since the first trip, I've been back 3 times and I have the box about half way full. That's about 140 comics. When it's JAM PACKED it will be close to 300. That's like saving $20 in my book. 

Weekend with the CON

The MNCBA Fallcon: Comic Book Celebration was going on this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday. I, naturally, went both days because, YES, I'm that big of a nerd now. I went with Dan the first day and I met a friend up there the second. I ended up getting quite a few more comics than I expected but they were at AMAZING prices. Some for only 25¢ an issue. Those times were when I went nuts and bought like 80 that I needed. Now my collection is impressive, MOST impressive. 

There was a drawing that was going on both days. All you had to do is sign up for the mailing list and then they would give you a ticket with a number on it and they would post 15 numbers every half hour. Winners could go up and pick a prize from a wall of comics or tables with t-shirts... REALLY shitty ones, I might add. I was lucky enough to win the first day so I picked out a comic that was hard to get and that I needed. The second day I signed up more than once, which you weren't supposed to do, and I won twice, so I got two more comics. My friend shawn who met me up there the second day won twice as well and he's not really into comics so he let me pick out ANOTHER two comics. It was awesome. 

I saw a few people that I knew up there, some from the Robot Love store and some that I went to high school with. Ended up having a good time and I wouldn't have changed a minute of it. 

More Biking

Today I went for a bike ride up to Minneapolis. Ended up going to Robot Love where my trip. read 16 miles. I then tried taking another route home and ended up going a very long other way. Once I got closer to home I called Michael and asked if he would be interested in joining me for lunch at a little pizza joint called Davanni's. Very, very good place. Hot hoagies, Pizza, cheese bread.... can life get better? I submit that IT CAN NOT!

After lunch I was on the fence about getting a ride home from Michael, I finally decided I would ride my bike the rest of the way home, but when I got outside I noticed the sky turning very dark. SO I ended up getting a ride.... at least I went about 33 miles today. 

longest yet...  :D

After a shower and change of clothes I ended up going to the comic store and picking up a few back issues and a mystery box. It only cast $5 and it contained at least 100 comics, closer to 125, AND Dan wanted to split them with me so we only paid $2.50 a piece.... but he ended up making me take them all... there were just some HORRIBLE comics in there. but still....

Chevis and Dan invited Gretchen and I over for a sort of birthday dinner for me, since my birthday is in 2 days. We ordered out for sushi from Mt. Fuji. It was SO good. I really can't explain how good it was to have a tiger roll. I have really been missing them. We also ordered a rainbow roll, 2 Philadelphia rolls, a California roll, and a Deep Impact roll (which was shrimp tempura inside and spicy tuna outside)... That was probably one of the best sushi dinners EVER. 

THANK YOU GUYS FOR THE AWESOME NIGHT!!!!!

After dinner Chevis made brownies while Dan and I talked comics for a while... a sort of foreign language to the lady folk. Just before the brownies were done we began playing board games. We started with "men are from mars and women are from venus" Dan and I won that one. The next game we played was some weird one that involved each player to wire what they thought the definition to a word was, or a movie title to a description of the movie. That was pretty fun as well. GAWD we had a good time. 

Now it's off to bed so I can get up early, go to breakfast, work on my site and/or video, and get into all sorts of new mischief.

p.s. - my mom just got home from a business trip to Missouri. Didn't get to talk to her tonight, she was already asleep when I got home. Tomorrow it will happen. 

ebay selling

Yesterday was the comic release day. And my favorite comic, All Star Batman and Robin: The Boy Wonder #10, was released. So I picked up a few issues along with a few variant covers. When I got in line, the guys that worked at the shop told me that this issue might get pulled from the shelves due to some swear words that weren't fully blacked out during printing. I looked inside the books and sure enough, you could read the swear words through the black boxes covering them up. So I bought a few more copies. 

Later that night I decided to see if anything was going on on ebay. And sure enough those were selling like hot cakes. I posted a few, all for 'Buy It Now' prices, $50 for the normal cover and $90 for the variant cover. Within the first 3 minutes of them being up, I got an offer for $70 for the variant cover. I got scared and declined. Good thing I did too because I ended up selling one of the $90 ones and two of the $50 ones just last night. We'll see how the rest do. 

In other news: 

I just started my animation for the contest that Dan and I are having. I am also getting closer to posting my website every day. My next post will be to announce the launch of site and/or post my finished video. 

More Comics.... more confusion

Today I went to my comic joint and picked up the 3 new issues that came out today... then I found a bunch of back issues that I want to read... then I got a call from Dan, telling me that he was going by a different comic shop and was wondering if I needed any from there... so I ended up buying about 20+ comics today... 

the collection is building...

Now to figure out which OTHER comics I need before the Fall-Con this October. 

new comics and finished trap shooting

Today was started off by going to a comic store with dan and picking up a new comic at about 10...  at noon we went to another comic place and picked up a few more comics... I ended up with 2 variant covers, which basically mean that they are more rare than other covers. This was great fun... 

dan and I played games until his son woke up and then I left to go trapshooting. 

at the trap, my dad and I finished off the last few spaces in our trap... which means we shot ahead about 2 weeks so that we are done and finished up the season. Overall our shooting wasn't too bad. I think I shot a 21 when I first shot with my dad and Chelsey (my cousin) while they both got 22. The next round I think they both got 19 and I got 23.... then we finished it off with my dad and I tying. Today was the first time this season that my dad beat me and that we tied. It was also the first season that my dad was on our league team. I'll have to watch myself next season so that he won't ALWAYS beat me... :)

Level 7 accomplished...

I think I officially reached a new level of NERD tonight... from level 6 to 7...

I finished reading the All Star Batman and Robin The Boy Wonder and I must say that it had it's ups and downs but all together it is better than Jim Lee's other baby... Hush. It is only better in the story. The art is the same, both by Jim Lee, and that makes the two of them the greatest comics ever written...

 

YAY me for being a dork 

omg... i'm behind

Lately, it's been fun, but not TERRIBLY exciting. 

I went to a going away part for my Graphic Design teacher, Ambica Prakash. Rode my motorcycle to Stout and got there around I think 7 or 8. It was really fun catching up with a few of my teachers. I ended up staying at my old roommate's new place in Menomonie, Zac's place. Zac, Chad, Derek and I all stayed there that night and went to breakfast the next morning. 

Yesterday I picked up the newest addition to my vinyl family, my Unicornasaurus.

the newest release by Joe Ledbetter

I've finished a few more comic books and I've also started a few new ones. All batman, and all good. I just started reading the All Star Batman and Robin the boy wonder by Frank Miller and Jim Lee... Just as good as Jim Lee's other baby, Hush. 

I think the reason I like Hush and this Batman series is because it's a little more dark than most batman comics I've read. Darker in ways that Batman, in more than one case, ends up beating someone to a bloody pulp. I know it doesn't sound very appealing but it is very exciting. The most recent thing in this book was that batman broke a guys arm and then explained to him that it is a compound fracture and that it will never heal, not right anyway... not nearly right.

Tomorrow is the day of tattoos. I'm not getting one but Chevis, Dan, Dan's friend Chris, and my girlfriend Gretchen are ALL getting tattoos... at least that's what they have planned. 

Dan's getting a bull, the spanish bull... look at the balls on that sucker.

Chevis is getting her name, in a way that i designed... not sure what colors yet... also not sure about the star yet.

I forget what Chris is getting... I believe something in Latin... he's a Latin teacher. 

and Gretchen is getting 3 starts... another design by me. 

as for me... no tattoo yet... not until i create something I like enough to have on me for the rest of my life. I was talking with Jerry, my uncle Tom's brother in law and he was saying.... if you create something why not just rend it really nice and put it up on your wall so you can look at it every day?... he's kinda against tattoos though. 

Jim Lee's Autograph :D

Saturday, 08-02-2008... Jim Lee, the man who's art has sold more copies of a single comic than any other comic in the world, was doing signings at the Source Comics off of Snelling and Larpenter. Dan and I, naturally, showed up. The night before I went up with Gretchen to check out the store and how to get there, good thing we did because they gave out numbers for the line. I got 2 cards, #975 and #976... this was going to be a long day. 

Jim Lee finally showed up around 1:30 and started signing... the whole even was supposed to be held between 1 and 4. But it took about an hour and a half to get through the first hundred. 

I saw my buddy Jesse's little brother Jeffery there and asked if he was going to stay. He said no and then offered me his ticket... #557. When we got that, dan and I each jumped in line under the one ticket. The guys were fine with it and we ended up getting 2 signatures each, the limit per ticket, even though we only had one ticket. 

This was taken with my iPhone

This was taken for his blog... and we're in the back :D

Jim was a very cool guy but you could tell he was getting tired... my only regret was not asking him for a quick sketch inside of my book. Other than that... AWESOME!

Batman Hush

Just finished Batman Hush Volume 1... I would have to say that it was one of my favorite comics ever. I don't know what it is about batman that draws me toward his series. But I do know that I really enjoy all of the darkness involved in these series'.

Time for the second one. 

The Killing Joke

Overall, very good comic. History of the Joker. Interesting, and in my opinion, a great ending. 

games and comics

Today was, overall, a boring day. Although, tonight was a bit better. I ended up going over to my aunt and uncle's house for a while and hung out with Dan and little Daniel. After Daniel was put to bed dan and I ended up talking comics for a bit. I have never really been too into comics but I find myself moving towards batman comics. Maybe it's because Dan has an ASS LOAD of them. I was trying to figure out which ones I should start with and he gave me a few good ones. I also spoke with my good buddy Dan, who I attended college with, and he told me to check out a few of the same ones. 

So as I spoke with Dan, my cousin's husband, he ended up pulling out a box of his comics and he's going to let me borrow a bunch that I have on my list. 

We'll see how this goes. I'll probably end up buying some, if not all, of the ones he's letting me borrow. There is a midwest comic convention going on in early October at the State Fair Grand Stand. We're really looking forward to that.

I'll probably end up posting each comic as I finish reading them... but the first on will be The Killing Joke. Guess who it stars...