17

A BLOG ABOUT A CHOG 

prepared entirely on my iPhone!

I was going to use the fact that I had been hospitalized as an excuse for the long gap between this post and the last one, but then I realized I've been out if the hospital for two and a half weeks. Then I realized my posts are ALWAYS far apart and I haven't met a single deadline I've set for myself. Then I realized no one is really bothered when my blog goes long periods of time without updates. I'm sure many a young man in my shoe, having just taken the other shoe off to dip his toes into the blogging water, would be discouraged by such a lack of reader enthusiasm, put his shoe back on (along with any other metaphorical clothing articles), and call it a day, waving "goodbye" to the world of blogging forever. Luckily for you, I'm not so easily defeated and, being on disability, I have a lot of free time.

Here I am goofing off because I thought I was just having a little trouble breathing.  I was not aware that my lung had already collapsed.  Knowing what I know now, I have no regrets.  This is a funny picture.

HEALTH UPDATE
(I promise I'll talk about chogs soon!)

I'm finally  starting to have active days again

I went back to the hospital because I had another pneumothorax (lung collapse).  Having been released from the hospital after being told I had a 50/50 chance of another pneumothorax, I was living in constant fear. I knew that at any second I may have to relive the scariest moments of my life. Fortunately, this time the doctors provided me with the procedure I should have had last time, which greatly reduces my chances of another collapse.

Despite the title, this isn't an issue of Ultimate Spider-Man. This series, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man followed Ultimate Spider-Man.  Some would argue that this series was even better than it's predecessor.  Being a big fan of the series, I own the fancy version with the shiny cover.

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN
The hunt continues (as does the anticipation for something chog-related)

I knew from the beginning there would eventually be a wall to hit, I just didn't think it would come this close to the end. I have six more issues to go. I've picked all the nearby comic 'ssues clean. My plan is still the same. I could get the issues I need right away if I was willing to pay inflated prices online, but I'm not. I'll be attending New York Comic Con, though, so maybe I'll strike back issue gold there. I also have a few websites I routinely check for good deals, so hopefully by my next post I'll have a new issue to report on.

PenVINCIPals
My attempt to get published on the Invincible letters page
In my last post I showed you the design for my new custom Nike Invincibles. Now I'm happy to say I have them and they rock. I decided to write in to the creators of Invincible, show them my Invincible inspired sneakers, and hopefully be featured on their letters page. After a few minutes of writing my letter I started to feel like I was saying way too much and not getting to the point. I decided to look at a few letters from a recent letters page and see how others had started and how they had structured their letters. I opened the most recent issue and picked a random letter to read. I was only looking at the letter to help me structure my own, but something else got my attention. The writer was describing his new April 1st tradition, which was exactly like my own. Looking back it seems ridiculous that I had to look at the end of the letter to see that it was my own!  Here's the letter:

I couldn’t be happier that the letter I got printed included that awesome message about the bone marrow registry. It had been my dream to be immortalized in a comic book letters column, but having that happen with the addition of a message that represents what I believe to be my new purpose in life is indescribable.  Go to your local comic shop and pick up Invincible #103 and own a copy of my awesome letter!  If you can't find it I may be willing to part with one of my 10 copies. We'll see.

CHOGS

They aren't chickens, and they aren't frogs

Looking at this guy, I know there's not a whole lot to say about him, but look at this thing... what’s the point of having a blog if I don't include things like this when they come around?  I was lucky enough to be introduced to Chogs by a comic called "Chew" by John Layman and Rob Guillory.  Recently increasing demand from fans for some merchandise resulted in them Licensing Skelton Crew Studios to make some chogs.  Being a collector of toys that can't really be played with, I had to have one.
The ticket in the picture is for the fictional show "In the Kitchen with Chow Chu", a cooking show starring Tony Chu's(the main character) brother Chow.

BLOGGING ON iPHONE
Why I didn't prepare this post on my laptop.

The other day I spilt a drink on the keyboard of my laptop.  I turned it over and laid it on a towel and waited several hours before turning it over to see if it worked. About half the keys worked. I decided it would be best to wait a little longer, and then I almost immediately spilled an entire cup of coffee across the entire keyboard. It was saturated.

So for now I've got my iPhone and iPad, with my totally sci-fi keyboard (pictured below).

Because typing and posting pictures gets exhausting on a makeshift computer, the rest of the things I wanted to talk about will be summed up with one picture and one or two sentences each.

Here goes:

After finally checking out Adventure Time and loving it, I bought the first 6 issues.(An awesome panoramic scene can be built with the following covers: #1 4th print, #2. 3rd print, #3-6 2nd print.)

My new Nike Invincibles have lived up to their name so far, withstanding short walks through the house and several hours on wheelchair footrests.


This was drawn by an artist named Melody with whom my brother Tom shared a table.  She said she worked on the Simpsons.  Tom didn't bother to find out her last name but there is a Melody Severns on the Simpsons IMDB page so combined with the accuracy of the sketch I'd say her story holds up.


Olive Chu from "Chew" is usually drawn wearing t-shirts from threadless.com.  In this month's issue she wore a shirt depicting "lying cat" from the comic "Saga".  Threadless has tons of comic related t-shirts but none from Saga.


Here's an older shot of Olive wearing a shirt from threadless(http://www.threadless.com/product/751/The_Madness_of_Mission_6/tab,guys/style,shirt)


A Lego collector needs to find the classic Robin if he/she ever wants to complete the dynamic duo properly.


Mini Haribo bears are even better than the regular.


Throwback cereal boxes!!! I've only ever seen Cocoa Krispies with the monkey on the box.


Mark Waid is the writer of "Daredevil", and "The Indestructible Hulk".  In the current story arc he's brought his two properties together and as you can see chaos has ensued.


I come for Skottie Young's amazing artwork, but stay for the excessive punishments of the Nome King.


As a result of the excessive abuse of time travel in "Age of Ultron", the space time continuum has been damaged and pieces of Universes have spilled out into one another.  Most significantly, the Ultimate Universe got Galactus(For those who don't know Galactus, he's a giant god-like entity that roams the Universe and eats planets.)


Not even the chog wants to eat these gross new green skittles.


A small tribute to the greatest video game franchise of all time.


Working on my notebook for next year.  I know there's no Tuesday January 1 in 2014.  These are just test pages.


My parents got me this sweet traditional Irish Blackthorne cane for my birthday(Which is fast approaching).  I'm still mostly wheelchair bound, but I've been getting around the house a little easier with it, and with the cane in my arsenal, I'll be able to phase out the wheel chair a lot sooner.

OKAY.  Now that I've mentioned about 25% of what I wanted to talk about in this post, It's time to wrap things up.  Stay tuned for another great entry at some arbitrary point in time.

16     

WHAT TIME IS IT?

...it's bloggerin' time

"This is the longest I've ever gone between posts" is the line I started my last post with, but I've outdone myself once again, but much to the relief of my fans, my blog is still going strong(unlike my lungs)!  Still, everyone has been telling me it's been a while since I made a blog entry! My mailbox is overflowing and my mailman is starting to get annoyed. Gmail is threatening to put a cap on my storage. I need to do some bloggin' to satisfy the masses. I know there are at least 10 people who are willing to read this blog and I can't keep them waiting. The title of this entry is a throwback to something only a true nerd could remember, the old Fantastic Four cartoon. It was on when I was a kid, but I have no idea when it originally aired. Here's the Thing in the episode where he becomes a one hit wonder by singing his catch phrase and it all goes to his head:

And if that left you longing for more, here's some more orange rock man punching a seemingly endless hoard of moloids, or aliens, or... something:

Whatever they are, the Thing's been known to clobber first, and ask questions later, as demonstrated in Daredevil #2. The Fantastic Four needed a lawyer, and the Thing made an appearance at Matt Murdock(aka Daredevil)'s law office by blasting through the door.

I've Been busy

this section diverts from comics briefly

I'm on a decreasing steroid regimen right now, which will eventually leave me feeling a lot stronger, but while I'm adjusting to the changes it's making me really exhausted and weak. Also, with every passing day, I become less and less likely to have a pneumothorax (that's the technical term for a collapsed lung), so I'm happy about that. At this point I'm in the middle of an experimental treatment that may slowly stop whatever is wrong with my lungs, but a lung transplant is a very real possibility if this treatment fails. Right now, though, all I can do is continue to stick to my med regimen and maintain a positive attitude. Way back when this whole cancer battle started I was told that my positive attitude would be my greatest asset. Years later I find that one of the most challenging things I have to do every day is stay positive in the face of everything. Now brace yourself because this is gonna sound really corny, but it's the truth, and it also segues into the next thing I want to write about, so stay wth me. Because I've become such a big comic book fan, I've found that super heroes are a great reminder of the strength, both physical and mental, that I need to overcome this disease and recover. When a super hero puts his costume on, he needs to be stronger than a normal person and willing to endure things that may seem impossible. I find that just looking at a Superman keychain or seeing my Daredevil shirt in the mirror reminds me to get into the proper state of mind, so I try to make sure I have at least one super hero item with me at all times. That's why two nights ago when I discovered that NikeID now offered the 1972 Nike Cortez in nylon, I couldn't resist modeling a sneaker after one of my favorite superheroes. I call this beautiful creation the Nike Grayson, but if you prefer you can call them Air Graysons, or simply Invincibles.  Here's the Grayson next to it's namesake, Mark Grayson a.k.a. Invincible.

Ultimate spider-man!

Another one down

My older brother was in town for my sister-in-law Lindsay's baby shower (I also got to feel MY godson kicking in there. He's pretty strong.) He suggested we return to the comic book store where he found the Strange Adventures #88 that now hangs on my wall. This time around, he was ready to make a purchase. I suggested my favorite shop in Mass, “Comically Speaking." So we three men (my dad was with us, too) left the women to their baby shower and engaged in the pastime of comic bin picking. This time not only did Tom search for titles, but he actually bought himself four. He generally looks for Gold and Silver age curiosity books. Here are a few of the books he picked up while I sifted through the USM rack looking for the seven remaining issues I need.

I'm really glad to have made a comic book collector out of him, even if he only wants them so he can display the highly entertaining covers. I think there's something for everyone in comics, and Tom's approach would work for anyone who needs conversation pieces to fill in blank walls in a new apartment or house.And of course, here's what I picked up. An immaculate copy of Ultimate Spider-Man #22.

I realized I made an error on my checklist at some point, so last week I was wrong when I said I had six left, but now, I really only have six left. Stay tuned. Just be warned that posts will continue to be less frequent because I'm not gonna write unless I've got new USMs or new USM info.

Thanks for reading this one. Hope you enjoyed it!

15     

Fantastic couple weeks

...unless you're asking about my health

This is the longest I've ever gone between posts, but don't worry, I'm not gonna drag this out.  Don't feel bad if you want to skip certain sections.  I'm writing this with a lot of very different people in mind so some of the information might not be intended for you.  Either way, I've tried to make it all as interesting as possible while keeping it non-fiction. I'm getting really close to completing the collection, so what becomes of this blog after that is still up in the air. For now, however, my posts will be less frequent because I'll only be posting if I find an issue or if there is some development pertaining to the hunt. I have no idea how long it will take (weeks, years, decades?) to find those last six issues, so I'll pop in and post about other stuff once in a while so as not to disappoint my legions of fans.

First let me explain the line up there about my health.  I had to be hospitalized again from May 6th to May 10th.  If you're squeamish, skip ahead to the bold text.   I'm really only posting it because it sounds like something out of a movie.  I was at my house just sitting there building my Lego apartment, nothing strenuous, and suddenly started to feel a little out of breath.  This has happened plenty of times before, so I just did what I did every other time: I put on my oxygen and sat still.  After about thirty seconds my breathing started to get worse even though I wasn't moving. That hadn't happened before, so at that point I called my Dad up to my room.  A few minutes later I was gasping for air and getting extremely small breaths. My pulsox started dropping rapidly.  My Dad called 911.  By the time the police and ambulance got there, which was amazingly fast, I was basically sucking in tiny little pockets of air by flexing my throat muscles.  The police officer who arrived about a minute before the ambulance put a re-breather mask on me.  That helped a bit, I assume, because it made sure that what little air I was getting was pure oxygen, but it was still getting worse when the EMTs arrived.  They quickly got me out, which was no small task because it involved carrying me in a chair down a flight of stairs.  At the time I was thinking about how long it would take to get to the hospital.  I didn't think I was going to make it.  I had no idea what was wrong with me, and I definitely had no idea how they were going to fix it. Thankfully, one of the men in the ambulance was a paramedic, and he knew exactly what was wrong and how to fix it.  My left lung had collapsed.  He then performed an amazing procedure called "thoracic decompression."  Basically, he jabbed a needle into my chest, letting the air escape from my outer lung area so that the lung itself could inflate.  Suddenly I was breathing.  It was the greatest feeling of relief I've ever felt and I owe that guy my life.

I spent  the next week in the hospital.  I'm sorry to those I didn't get in touch with about coming to visit, but the truth is I was tired and uncomfortable (they wouldn't let me shower because of the holes in my chest) and I just wasn't in the state of mind for visitors on most days.  It was a difficult hospital stay and most of the news I was getting was pretty frustrating and disappointing.  Fortunately, I had the emotional high that comes from having yet another close call and living to tell about it.  To celebrate, I did a little online shopping, and obviously if I'm buying myself gifts, there's going to be at least one comic in there. Here it is (if the pictures aren't there it's because I'm using a different site for image hosting and I'm not 100% sure that it works):

This is my copy of Daredevil #3.  This hit the racks in August of 1964.  It's in great condition for a comic of it's age, and although I won't tell you how much I spent on it, I believe it's worth almost double what I paid.  I know that seems ridiculous, but here's my theory on the pricing. If you're not interested in how comic grading works, skip to the next bold text. Comics are graded on a scale 0.5 (or "poor") to 10 (or "gem mint').  I got the comic through a huge online comic retailer called midtowncomics.com.  The first thing about Midtown I should mention is that, in the past, I've always noticed that their condition estimates are a little low.  They're just a comic retailer; they don't have any official graders, so the grade they give is an estimate.  For my comic, the estimate by Midtown was "Very Good" which translates to "4.0." My opinion is that the grade is actually closer to "7.0- Fine" or even "7.5- Very Fine." They do tons of online sales and at the same time they allow returns. If the problem is their fault, they pay for return shipping on top of the refund.  It makes sense that they would want to avoid having lots of comics returned because the buyer felt they had received a lower grade comic than what they paid for.  For the majority of the comics they sell, the difference between "Very Good" and "Very Fine" is only $2.31 because the "Very Fine" comic is only $4.85.  At those prices, low balling by a point or two doesn't cost the company much money.  Obviously the difference is a lot larger with a much more valuable comic. 

Another important factor in determining the value of a comic is the content.  A comic with an important event in it (death of a popular character, first appearance of a character, a wedding, etc.) is obviously worth much more than a boring comic of the same grade and age.  But whether or not a comic contains an important event can depend on the person assigning a value to it.  For example, the comic above, Daredevil #3, is the first appearance of "The Owl," a somewhat popular super villain depending on which comics you read.  It's very possible that a person assigning a value to the issue doesn't consider his first appearance to be a very big deal, while anyone who would be interested in this comic would most certainly consider The Owl important.

The whole comic is in really nice condition.  Every page is flat with sharp corners, and the binding is almost perfect, but the most important part is what's on the pages and they look awesome, as far as old comics on newsprint go.  I highly recommend getting your hands on a really old comic and reading it in that form.  I've read lots of old comics that were reprinted in modern volumes, but nothing compares to the experience of getting your hands on the original book in all its rough and faded glory.  I keep all my comics in plastic bags, but don't let that make you think I don't read them.  I want to protect them as much as possible, but I consider any slight damage done to the book is fine as long as it happened while I was enjoying the book.

Aside from being an important part of Daredevil's story, and being in great condition, this comic was a great read, and as with all comics written by Stan Lee, it also included some really silly dialog.  For example:

FREE COMICS AND ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN

As I pointed out above, I'm getting close to the end of my USM adventure.  I've picked a lot of stores' Ultimate Spider-Man collections clean, so finding them now is difficult.  I do know that there are a few shops that I only left because I had already spent too much money.  It's possible that I might find more issues in those shops.  After that, I'll need to come up with another method.  I could easily go online and order them, but for the most part, for USM issues, I would pay inflated prices without knowing what that kind of condition they were in.  The exception is midtowncomics.com.  If any of those issues are available from Midtown on a day that I'm making an order large enough for free shipping, I'll get them that way.

The first of the two issues I found was #127 a.k.a. "War of the Symbiotes Part 5." It was Free Comic Book Day and I was feeling sick for the first half of the day.  I wasn't about to pass up free stuff or fail to celebrate a comic book holiday, so I asked my Dad to stop by the Time Capsule and grab me a copy of "Chakra the Invincible".  Chakra was created by Stan Lee and apparently the comic is one of a number of comics being planned for Indian audiences or something.  I don't understand the why or know the what, but I did know that Liquid Comics was releasing a Chakra story for Free Comic Book Day, so I had to make sure I got a copy.  My Dad called me from the Time Capsule to let me know they were all out of it.  I was pretty bummed.  My Dad offered to go check another place for it, but I didn't want to send him on what could be a wild good chase.  A few hours later I was feeling better and it occurred to me that the stores were still opened.  I called a few comic shops and got a lot of no's.  Finally I figured I'd try the Toy Vault at Warwick Mall. They had it.  My Dad had no problem taking me down there, pushing my wheel chair in, and sharing the glory of victory in a successful comic hunt.  This next part is strange.  In the past, the Toy Vault had disappointed me with its weak comic collection.  They had no indie comics, no back issues, and a very limited new issue rack.  This time I didn't bother to check their comics, but my Dad did, and somehow a huge back issue section had appeared out of thin air.  I was shocked.  I checked the Ultimate Spider-Man issues, and I managed to find #127.

Having my two brothers living in different states is a real bummer for the most part, but sometimes it means I can get a little help from out of town.  My older brother Tom was walking past "Fat Jack's Comic Crypt," a comic shop in Philly that I had liked a lot when I visited, and he decided to call me and ask if I needed anything.  I said yes and I read him my list, and he was able to locate #130, or part 2 of "Ultimatum." 

So I'm six issues away from victory.  At some point I'm going to re-check the issues I have just to make sure I didn't check any off by accident.  I'm also goanna make sure there aren't any major flaws on any of the books that I missed before.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!!! 

I told you last time I posted that I'm gonna be an Uncle, but now I get to tell you I'm gonna be a Godfather too.  I'm really proud to have been asked and I won't disappoint my brother and his wife.  I plan on being there for them and the baby (Thomas M. Allison VI) whenever necessary, and when I'm back in good health, I plan on spending time with the little guy and spoiling him a little bit.

Celebrating Tom's Graduation

This weekend Tom came home to celebrate his 2nd college graduation, which we were planning to attend last weekend, but my lung had already decided that that week would be a good time to collapse.  Here's a photo of Tom enjoying one of his graduation gifts.

That's five pounds of gummi bear

Thanks for reading.  I'll post again as soon as I get another issue.  Here's some legos:

14A2: The sequel to 14A

This isn't the post I promised you, where I talk about a couple comic trips that came close to ending my hunt.  You'll have to wait patiently for that one.  It'll be called post #15 and it will mark the return of editor Scott Allison.  I promise to try my hardest to make it interesting but I can only say it might be interesting if you've found any of my previous posts interesting.  It's okay if you don't, because I know you're all reading.  I've passed 1000 views, so that's tantamount to about 56 per post and that's good enough for me.  You should be proud to be riding first class on what's been referred to as "an internet phenomenon" (by me).

First thing I wanta discuss is what I should have mentioned in my last post.  I claimed that I was filling you in on what was going on in my real life, and while I did give some info, I left out a lot.  I sometimes forget that I'm living a very irregular life right now and some people might find this interesting.  I'm gonna put little labels to make it easier for you to skim through my life to the things you like to read about.

Read about my family gathering on Easter and my awesome aunts, uncles, and cousins!

First off, what do they call the relation between myself and the child of one of my cousins?  Is there a word?  Someone said second couin, but that doesn't make sense to me.  What about that cousin's husband, or the husband's kids from a previous mother?  What do I call them?  Does that have a title?!  But enough of that and onto my Easter Sunday.  I went to a family gathering.  I haven't been to a family gathering in years because there are so many small children, and unfortunately I'm loaded with immunosuppressants(to prevent my body from rejecting the stem cells).  This year I was no less immunosuppressed, but I've been living this way for too long.  I wanted to see my family before they forgot who I was.  I didn't ask my doctor for permission to go.  I just took extra precautions(gloves, mask, constant purelling, no xoxo, and no holding babies.  It was worth it.  The bet thing that happened is my Aunt let me in on a secret that basically changed my life.  When wearing oxygen tubes, the backs of your ears, where they hang from, get a lot of friction and the skin gets raw, swollen, and painful.  She noticed my red ears and told me about some little gr  y foam things that the oxygen company can send for free if you ask them.  Yes, you have to ask for these things.  You wouldn't know, because no one tells you, but luckily I have my Aunt Susan.  Everything else went well too.  I didn't get sick(er), I saw the young cousins who I've been sending comic books to and I got to see their reactions to getting a new stack of comics.  From that I got exactly what I had hoped for.  It's so cool to see these books that cost me almost nothing brighten up their day so much.  I hope they don't grow out of it any time soon, but if my friends and I are any indication, it comes back when you're about 27.

Left: Legend of the Spider-Clan..this series is really popular with the little dude.  What kid doesn't love Spider-Man?  I had ordered it just to check out the Skottie Young art, I had no idea I'd be giving it away, but I really expected this one just to be a filler.  Now he's got me hunting for the missing issues of the series.

Right: Perhapanauts: My cousin is a really unique little girl, and so far, she seems to love the Perhapanauts the most.  She also told me she really likes Takio, which makes me feel really bad because I got her the book and the first three issues and I'm starting to wonder if Brian Michael Bendis has abandoned it.  At least they're still making Perhapanauts.

Read about the new addition to my family, coming soon!  But if they do grow out of it, I'll be fine because I'm gonna be an Uncle soon.  My brother Tom and his Wife Lindsay are having a baby and I've already started blowing money on him.  

Of course when the plushes came in the mail, I found a tag that said ages 5+.  It's disappointing, but I guess it's because of the plastic eyes.  The baby should be able to play with them if he stays supervised.

 I wish they would be living a little closer so I could easily see Tom the 6th(or is it 7th?  I should know that) grow up,  But maybe I'll end up moving to Philly.  It all depends on when I can get out of this hole I'm stuck in.  

Read about my lung problems!
Here's the news on that.  I just finished the first part of a drug trial with a drug that has helped others' lung problems that resulted from graft vs. host disease.  The problem is we know I have GVHD, we know I have lung problems, but we don't know if the lung problems are related to the GVHD.  I do know that my lungs have gotten slightly better, so hopefully that will continue, and if this temporary break from the drug hurts my breathing, I'll know that it was probably the drug that helped me.  If this trial fails, they have another drug planned, and if that doesn't work there's a last resort: lung transplant.  The lung transplant scares the hell out of me, but I've been told it will completely fix the issue, so at least I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  For now, my therapist has advised me to start figuring out how I'm gonna get this last class out of the way so I finally get my bachelor's degree.

Read about my Academic Future!

I've been unable to take the class for the same reasons I can't go to work.. my immune systems crap, I an't drive because of the pain meds, and Rhode Island College is amazingly disorganized.  Furthermore, I'm having trouble with the type of course this is.  It's an internship.  I can't really do an internship unless I find one that I can do at home.. so it looks like I'm going to talk to someone important at RIC and keep going up the totem pole until I find a solution.  My therapist and I discussed my plans to finish school and then go back for a masters, and my plans to get myself on some kind of ADHD drug.  But when my therapist and I aren't talking about school and getting ahold of drugs, we talk about our common interest, comic books.  Strangely enough, I told him about my new Lego hobby today, and he had plenty to say about Lego collecting.

Read about my therapist and I talking comic books and Legos

Today, impressively, when I brought up comic books, the good doctor produced from his desk a card that listed the dates of upcoming small-time comic cons.  These comic cons are different than the big ones full of celebrities, costplayers, high profile creators, and sich.  These are the legendary ones that comic collectors drool over because of the apparent improved odds of finding treasures in the boxes.  Searcing comic bins at big name cons or comic book stores will generally bring you s few good books, but these are just big white boxes filled with random old comics.  I've been dying to go to one ever since I saw them described on "comic book men".  Okay so like I said, I also recently got into(or back into, every kid loved these things) Legos.  I saw a couple Marvel super hero minifigures.  I knew Lego made quite a few things from different fictional worlds I loved.. Marvel, DC, Star Wars, and I had recently been impressed by smart business they had done by creating their own TV series, Lego Ninjago, and then merchandising from that.  When I was a kid, Lego was already the best thing when it came to versatility.  It promotes creativity.  The more sets and new minifigures they produce, the more tools a kid can have to mess around with and create what's in his head.  I took a trip to the Lego store, with my Dad, of course, and I discovered the blind lego minifig bag.  I'm no stranger to blind boxes from different designer toy companies I've collected in the past, so I was really appy to find out Lego was doing this with their lines of minifigures, which are Lego men and women that represent tons of different people from history, pop culture, industry, public service, outer space, etc.  I'm in love with these things, and right now I'm working on finding more efficient ways of getting my hands on them.  The gentlemen at the lego store was very helpful.. he had developed the ability to feel the bag and identify what figure was inide in about 3 seconds.  He accurately found the man in a chicken suit that I was asking for.  Here's a few of my favorite guys:

So at this point I've managed to get off to a nice start.  I bought a few minifigs to start.. the first one being "Iron Fist".  Then when I visited the Lego store I couldn't help but try one of the new "architecture" sets.  I started building this thing, and it all came back to me.  The sound of the pieces as you rustle through them, the satisfying snaps, the glorious moment when two seperately built massive parts need to be put together.  It's awesome, but I quickly realized that the set I had chosen was not enough.  It only took a night to finish.  I wanted more.  This time I decided to take the opportunity of having both my brothers and several friends coming over during the course of the next week while my parents are on a cruise, and I ordered a ridiculously large architecture set.  It's the Tower Bridge which crosses the River Thames in London.  I wish I could have been patriotic and bought the white house, but it's a shamefully small set, by comparison at least.  The White House has 561 Lego pieces.  The Imperial Hotel has 1,188 pieces.  The Robie House has 2,276.  But this week, starting on Friday, I'll be working with 4,295 pieces.  Here's what it looks like so far:

Comic Books

If you're a weekly comic book reader, you're already doing everything right.  Every wednesday you get to go down to the shop and pick up your pull list.  If you aren't reading comics, you gotta ask yourself why not.  Feel free to ask me for some recommendations.  If you like art, some of the greatest modern artists are in the comic industry.  If you like great literature, it's there.  Yeah, there are plently of nonsense comics that live up to every bit of the negative stereotyping.. and I love that stuff too, but it's not for everybody.  What I want to get across here is that there is in fact at least one comic for everybody.  I've seen a few people convert because of "Saga", so that might be worth checking out., otherwise, keep looking.  There's great stuff out there.

Today a lot of great stuff came out but the big book on my list was "Li'l Gotham".  It was originally digital only, but now it's coming out in comic form, which I'm really happy about because I have no iea how permanent the ownership rights to a digital comic.  I want every issue of this series because the art is so cool.  I'm glad that DC puts so much into their all ages comics, but art like this belongs in one of their big selling titles  Here's a sample:

And let me finish by posting this awesome ad I found for a product I will most definitely be buying.
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