Here’s the rundown. 

Son and I got to Planet Groove, the shop, and although it’s a small collectibles store with tight quarters, it’s a well-kept place and an amiable atmosphere. A handful of skater boys and skater girls were present. Some chatting, some working on their boards, some reading comics. Two of my seniors were there, so that was cool as well.

Thing 1 went absolutely 150% boy crazy over the collectible toys until he noticed the Transformers comic books. Let’s just say, if he were a pinball machine, the moment would’ve been TILT!, TILT!, TILT! I forewent shopping for myself; I can go some other time.

The precedent was getting my son there for his first comic book store run and first purchasing experience. He chose his two Transformers comics on his own, and I handed him the money to give to the store owner, a young man who--small world--happens to be neighbors with our local pharmacist. I have to give props to my two students, Juz$ and L$, for being the crazy-cool comic geeks and good students they are. Juz$ modestly tapped me on the shoulder at the counter and said, “Here, there are still plenty of free comics left over from last week.” He handed me a Hulk and Iron Man free comic, then added, “There’s an Avengers , too.” Totally awesome. So, missing Free Comic Book Day wasn’t a full-on bust after all.

And I have to say that my lil man was well-behaved though enthusiastic about the whole affair and fascinated by the “scootboards” on the walkway outside the store’s frontage, where we also stopped to look back in the plate glass windows because, hey, they had stand-up posters of Optimus Prime and Megatron on display. Thing 1 launched into his mini-dissertation of the merits of the “good Autobots” and the “bad Decepticons” for a few minutes, and we departed. Most of the drive home, he geeked out in his booster seat and flipped through the two freebie comics. He’s just gotten through regaling his mother with tales of “good Autobots” and “bad Decepticons” and is flipping through his small yet (hopefully) growing collection.

Oh, and the plastic and the backing boards for the two Transformers comics? We’ll just set them aside. He can become a true collector one day at his own determination. For now, it is to enjoy the comics for themselves, tucked away in his little desk drawer, read sometimes at night and found on top of the covers.

So, writing has been sparse this week. However, I had a breakthrough yesterday regarding a protagonist’s background, which played nicely into where I hope the plot and protag are headed. Then I had a sentence pop into my head. And another sentence. They glared at me and vied for attention, so I handed them to a trusted student--shout out to J$!--and trusted colleague--holla, R$!--for a vote. 

Right now, the sentences stand one and one. The ol’ Self-Avowed Geek then had an epiphany, if you will: “Hey, I’ll post the twain on LJ and see who comments.” I’m declaring today, at least, Fun with Feuding Sentences Thursday. 

A touch of background might help.  Imagine a character gone to war--second deployment--and already having had an unusual experience. Oh, maybe rescuing a bean-nighe (banshee) from a curse yet being stalked because, hey, no good deed goes unpunished, right? Now, context having been rendered (slightly, though), here are the sentences:

Sentence 1: . . .After looking at the crow, I walked across the parade ground and saw my shadow was gone.

Sentence 2: . . . The crow hopped off its perch and swooped near. Its shadow passed across mine, then vanished into the coming twilight.

Help ‘em out here. They’re needy, and so’s their writer. 

Votes with or without comments are welcome.

Peace out, homeslices.

Okay, so I’m a bit slow on the uptake, but I gather from various LJ friends’ posts that there are gentle comic book readers out there. So, out of curiosity, let me know some of your favorite stories, writers, artists, whatever. What’s the pride of your collection, no matter how big or small the collection, too. If you want to brag about size, well, how big is it? The collection, people, let’s stay on topic . . .

Since I’m hanging it out there, here goes . . .

* I have a 2,000+ strong collection, about three-fifths Marvel, one-fifth DC, one-fifth independent.

* best run: Issue 67-125 of Wolverine

* some faves: Wolverine mini-series penned by Chris Claremont and penciled by Frank Miller, The Watchmen, 30 Days of Night, The Complete Frank Miller Batman, Sandman, Books of Magic, and some scattered Sgt. Rock and Weird War Tales comics

* pride of collection: Issue 18 of Daredevil, penned by Stan the Man Lee; the aforementioned Wolverine mini-series, and Issue #1 of Star Wars from Marvel (yes, that one!)

So, whatchou got goin’ on?

Too friggin’ cool for school anecdote:

The son (Thing 1) and I were outside a little while ago. Breeze was up. Checked the mail. Chased an adult lizard around without success in capture but much success in, well, that little thing called Fun.

Then I hear, “Oh, Daddy, look! I caught a baby lizard!”

No, he didn’t. It is, by all estimations and photo searches along and amid teh intarwebs, a common House Gecko. Waaaaaaaay down South. We built a tiny vivarium for it out of a clean cream cheese cup with airholes in the lid and some sand, dirt, grass, and crumbled-up pine bark inside. I’m going to pluck a tiny wasp nest and put in there so that the lil sucker can feast upon the emerging, stinging buggers.  A bigger vivarium in the offing as soon as posting is done, for those concerned about, well, cramped space for a gecko.

A freakin’ gecko. 

May not mean much to you, but, hey, we’re just a bunch o’ simple country folk down here. And it’s not everyday you see a gecko outside the odd GEICO commercial.

And while were on the tangential GEICO subject--yes, in the mail was the monthly auto insurance bill from, you guessed it, GEICO. Hmmmmmmmmm. Coincidence or shameless capitalistic/marketing/reptoid conspiracy?

You decide.