This post is arguably a bit narcissistic and self-indulgent, and while I am generally both of these things in real life, I try not to be when I’m writing. Nevertheless, this stuff is in order.

My first post with Comics Alliance went live this past Tuesday: PokeMarvels: 11 Pokemon/Marvel Mashups. Here’s a quick sample…

Let me tell you why I’m so giddy about this one. If you had googled “Devil Bulbasaur” before this post went live, you wouldn’t have gotten any results. This means that I made something new for the Internet out of two things that already existed. This means that my life ultimately has value. How much value remains an open question. Also, I don’t really know much about Pokemon, so I feel like I did a pretty good job with this piece when you take that into account. And it should go without saying that I’m crazy excited for whatever I get to do next. Also, a huge thanks to Laura and Caleb over at CA for being so great about bringing me on board.

Now I will get vaguely and unnecessarily personal for a moment or two, but you should read on, since it will also include a summation of my current situation in terms of awesome comics.

(you can skip this part if you want)

A little less than 6 months ago, I turned 30. When that day came, I sort of arbitrarily decided that I was going to make my 30th year awesome, as if I had any kind of control over that. And I decided to start this thing, since people have been telling me to do something like this for way too long, and I finally started to agree with them. I didn’t do it with the intention of getting a writing gig, and I’m still pretty shocked that it’s happening, but it’s basically fulfilling the directive that I set out for myself on December 24th, 2009, as I prepared to celebrate with my nearest and dearest. The weird thing is that I probably got this gig thanks to people on twitter, most of whom I’ve never met. I like you people. I hope to meet you someday. I’ll probably high five you. I like high fiving. I also like hugs. And pie.

(okay, no more skipping)

Six months later, here’s where I’m at:

1. After four years living in an amazing neighborhood with most of my dearest friends, I’m moving deeper into Brooklyn where I know very few people. I’ll have a nice place of my own, and maybe I’ll get a cat, and maybe I’ll let you people name it. This whole transition absolutely terrifies me, but I feel like I have the option of deciding that it’ll be awesome.

2. I have a great job, work with great people, teaching great families. And that is all I’ll ever say about that. This thing is not about my job.

3. On Tuesday, I finally got to put on my seersucker suit again. I’ve been waiting since Labor Day. It was a joyous occasion.

4. In the past week, I got three prints in the mail. Two from Rusty Shackles, and a signed Awesome Hospital print of THIS from Matt Digges, which is easily one of my favorite images in 20 years of reading comics. I’ve never even met these guys, but they’ve both been incredibly kind and supportive to me for reasons that I’m still not sure I understand. You should absolutely check out everything that they do.

5. Road House just arrived from Netflix. If this were the only item on my list, I’d be pretty comfortable saying that I’m the luckiest guy alive.

6. I’m in the process of reading:

  • The Savage Detectives, by Roberto Bolano. Yes, I’m still reading books that are not comics and oh my goodness but Mr. Bolano is reminding me why. This book is actually making me excited for the extended commute that comes with my move.
  • The first three volumes of One Piece. Manga: ain’t nothing wrong with that.
  • An incredible stack of war comics: the first volume of Charley’s War, which is proving to be one of the most incredible comics I’ve ever read in my life and I think everyone should read it, comics lover or not. I’m just about done with Blazing Combat, and then I just got The Best of Battle. I’m not exactly entertained by these books, though their quality is indisputable. We live in a world in which the nature of our media has effectively numbed us to the wars that are taking place. These books about wars long past have helped me to recognize and appreciate the ongoing sacrifices that soldiers make, sometimes for country and sometimes for nothing at all.
  • Frank Miller and John Romita Jr.’s Daredevil. This pretty much speaks for itself.
  • Matt Kindt’s Super Spy. Something about espionage comics has always gotten me, and this is no exception.
  • I’m three volumes into Slam Dunk, a manga about crazy high school basketball in Japan. In the first volume, there’s a reference to the old Yiddish tune “Dona Dona“. As strange as it sounds, I grew up singing that song at Jewish summer camp, and seeing it used as a gag in a Japanese comic about basketball pretty much sold me for life. I know I have friends in this world who can appreciate this.

7. I picked up almost of that stuff and more at Bergen Street Comics, which really truly is the best comic book store I’ve ever shopped at in my life. The wonderful people there are the ones who turned me on to the war comics, and while I’m sad that I won’t be living around the corner anymore, it’s probably quite healthy from an economic perspective. If you love comics, and you’re ever in New York, this is the place you have to go. Seriously. Promise me. Also? Call me. I’ll buy you a cup of coffee or something.

8. My friends are awesome, both the real ones and the Internet ones. I’m still not sure if the Internet ones actually exist.

These are the things that are happening. I’m still making lots of mistakes and only learning from some of them and doing my best to do my best, but it’s nice to see the little dreams start to happen.

I recognize that I’ve strayed from some of the things that I initially intended to write when I started this site and I am also aware that writing for another site is going to make it tough for me to keep the good things happening here. However, this was always meant to be the dream project and I’m not giving it up. Some new mustache stuff is in the works and my internal monologue continues to beg for release, so I’ll always have that.

Here is a picture of Julia Child holding a large fish: