2005: It Sucked!

Oh yes, it sucked, but in ways both Good and Bad. I had quite a year; in many ways it was the Year I Grew Up. In other ways, it was the Year I Grew A Beard. Let us look back, shall we?

-I GOT TWO CATS
Wee Linus and Lucy came to live with me. The are fat and fluffy and love to beat the shit out of each other. I love those goddamn cats.

-ALL STAR SUPERMAN
The original Man in Tights is back. My favorite author and one of my favorite artists brought me a simple story about a man who only does good. I ate it up with a wooden spoon, and re-read it until the staples fell out. I drank in the art like milk with cookies, and I felt like an eight year old all over again. Not since NEW FRONTIER has my nerd weiner been so fondled. SEVEN SOLDIERS came out of the heavens as well, pulled from the rushes in a basket, and delivered to me in swaddling clothes. It was a good year to read comics. Aside from Grant Morrison, there were lots of delicious treats. But everyone knows that. It was a good year.

-I WAS FIRED.
Yes, dear hearts, I was fired from my job, a first time for yours truly. You could say that it was foolhardy to start planning a store while working in another, but due to a myriad of reasons, I had no choice. The timetable and the schedule was tight and prickly. So I was fired from my job, when my former employer found out I would be opening my own store. C'est La Vie! I hated that job anyway. It was pretty much the worst work situation I've ever been in, and the honest truth is that I was damn near suicidal. I won't go into details as to why it was as bad as it was (and it was bad), but I would walk into work and stare off into space and want to die. Anyone who knows me has (no doubt) seen my demeanor go from despondent and hopeless to stressed and frantic. A great improvement, thanks to being fired.

-MY GIRLFRIEND MOVED IN
I'm all growed up, now! The Love of My Life, my sweet blonde baby, moved into my Brooklyn home and proceeded to make it all messy with screen print paints and shoes. Great Odin's Raven does that girl have shoes! I've never seen so many! Aside from the mess she has brought to my once-spotless home, I now drink more coffee (she makes a full pot every morning, and only drinks half a cup), I am sometimes made to change my clothes if they do not "work", and I feel bad about practicing my banjo when she's trying to read. It's great. We still have Hellboy toys on the shelf and comic art on the walls, but now there are a few more throw pillows and votive holders. And it smells like flowers rather than musty books. Good times!

-KING KONG
As long as DVDs have existed, I've been waiting for the beautiful, restored, super-duper edition of the 1933 masterpiece about a monster who bites people's heads off. It's probably my favorite adventure, full of high seas adventure, dinosaurs, violence, savages, bi-planes, and one sultry blonde vixen. And now the DVD is mine all mine!

-I OPENED A STORE
I co-own a business now. All growed up! Trying to make this place something wonderful has been a fun five months, and sometimes, it almost makes me happy. We've done far better than either of us expected, and I think we'll be around for a long, long time. There's a lot of doom and gloom and naysaying about The State of Comics, but from our point of view, things are rosy. Everybody loves comics!

-I'M STILL NOT THIRTY
I'm in my twenties for a few more months. For some reason I thought I was supposed to turn thirty this year, but my girlfriend pointed out that I was wrong. I'm not so good at math.

Here's hoping that 2006 isn't as crappy as every other shitty year in my stupid life. Hooray!