Unexpected Joy Of Parenthood

Since Molly kept on waking up with a bad cough last night, we gave her some Children's cough medicine at about 11pm and I spent the rest of the night occasionally poking her to make sure she was still alive, THE MEDICINE WAS THAT EFFECTIVE. No real need to worry, khristle is very careful and measures the dosage for EVERYTHING with a degree of precision just short of a high school science teacher cooking up a batch of Meth. I would never trust myself as much as I trust her with dosage :)

Brilliant Idea Of The Day: ORIGINS

One of the biggest complaints I hear from Super Hero Fans is how often they retread the Origin Story of each hero. I have a ton of comics from the 70's that seemed to reprint the origin of the titular hero once every other issue as a "Bonus Back-Up Feature", and I actually *loved* it but most folks got really tired of it. As far as the movies and cartoons are concerned, that's where most of the complaining comes from because each time they reboot a franchise they have to redo the Parents Getting Killed/Spider Bite/Planet Explosion etc and a new generation of fans get to complain about how they already KNOW how the hero became the hero.

So this is kind of small-scale here, but how about a monthly series called "Origins". Eighty pages (a throwback to the old "80 Page Giant" comics of the 70's), contains the original origin story PLUS several 2-to-4-page reboots or reinterpretations by various current day artist/writer combos? Here's the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko origin of Spider-Man, and here's the Neil Gaiman/Charles Vess take on the origin. Next we have some new artist you've never heard of working with Kurt Busiek! Alex Ross and Brandon Jerwa! Stan Lee himself re-writing the story and being illustrated by Jim Lee! I know some of those pairings won't work due to contractual stuff, but you get the drift.

The next week could be Captain America. Then Ant-Man. Then Howard The Duck. Then whoever you like! Work with the Movie & TV people to make your release dates coincide with movie release dates and TV premieres. If Iron Man IV hits theaters on May 9th, you make sure that ORIGINS: IRON MAN is on store shelves by the end of April at the latest. When you have a TV or Movie version coming out, you get a "Variant Cover" with that image on it.

Captain Sea-Tac!

Trying to preserve this memory for posterity, as it's so old I sometimes doubt the details of it myself (and it's not as if your memory gets BETTER with age).

When I was young - very, VERY young, like 6 or 7 - Channel 13 (KCPQ 13 Tacoma, The Northwest's OWWWWWWWN movie channel) had a traditional "Kiddie Show" the likes of which you hear legends about called "Captain Sea-Tac".

Captain Sea-Tac was a nice man in his 30's with a 1980's mustache and a Captain's Hat. He would welcome us on board his boat and he'd read letters from the kids and show us pictures the kids had sent in, then he'd show us how to draw a cartoon character and then a half-hour of recycled 1970's Hannah-Barbera cartoons (usually forgettable footnotes in animation history like "Yogi's Ark", "Yogi's Space-Race", "The Flintstones Comedy Hour", etc). The show must have lasted later in to the 80's because I also remember seeing "Galtar Of The Golden Lance" on there, but that's neither here nor there.

As an aspiring 7-year-old comic book artist, I admired Captain Sea-Tac and worshiped the lessons he taught me on that show. He even showed one of my drawings that I had mailed in, a "This Is What A Space-Invader Would Look Like" (based on the popular Space Invaders video game) I had sent him, on the show! So imagine MY SURPRISE when it was announced that CAPTAIN SEA-TAC HIMSELF was going to be coming to The Eagles Club for their annual CHRISTMAS PARTY IN OUR TOWN!!! There would also be cake and cookies and soda-pop and presents and maybe JUST MAYBE a visit... from Santa! I begged and pleaded with my parents, and they agreed to take me there HOORAY!!!

The "Kids Party" was in the basement, and the "Adults Party" was up in the bar. This was like 1981 so it was still cool for the drunk adults to just lock us kids in a basement alone I guess? We were a bit early, it seemed... my Mom headed straight for the Bar, my dad walked me down to the basement where there were NO OTHER KIDS... just two adults beginning to decorate. My Dad made some small talk which ended with "So I can just leave him here with you two, right?" and then he was gone. The folks in charge of decorating set me up with crayons and paper, and even set up the old movie projector playing Yogi Bear cartoons for me! I figured this was a great opportunity to mak more artwork for Captain Sea-Tac before he got there!

The adults came and went, more went-ing that came-ing though, and for the better part of two hours I was *alone*. No other kids, which was kind of weird, but I was used to playing by myself so no big deal. Eventually the two adults in charge of decorating came down stairs all in a huff, chattering back and forth and then I heard it - CAPTAIN SEA-TAC WAS HERE!

I WAS SO EXCITED! I HAD BEEN DRAWING FOR TWO HOURS! The downstairs loading doors opened up and there he was, in his awesome Captain's outfit and hat and mustache and everything! I took a step towards him and froze as Captain Sea-Tac drunkenly stagger-smiled towards me... dropped his empty bottle of whatever he had been drinking... and vomited in to his captain's hat, spraying drunk-puke over the edges and then anxiously looking for something to do with his hat full of vomit. He looked around and decided on dumping it just outside the door he had just come in through, shaking it furiously as the door on the opposite side of the room and TWENTY KIDS RUSHED IN TO THE ROOM! WHere did all these kids come from??? Why hadn't I been put wherever they were being put before the show???

Captain Sea-Tac quickly put his vomit=hat back on and launched in to his "Hey kids!" routine as if nothing had happened. At the back of the crowd of kids were my Mom and Dad, arguing about when this whole party was supposed to have started. My Mom grabbed me up and asked if I had a good time, something something, we can't stay we have to go *NOW*.

Hours of isolation in the basement of a tavern, Clockwork-Orange-Esque viewings of Yogi Bear cartoons, meeting my hero who was a raging alcoholic drunk, and then not getting to be part of the actual Christmas Party at all...