Oct.13-19 - More Returns and Changes

Bits & Pieces at the Start of a
New Work Year
Or "Who moved me to Seattle?"
[Categories: Life & Times, comic books, Steve Rude, Heroclix]

A Tuesday that feels like a Monday -- happily with what would then be a Friday off, but then again unhappily because they'd be wanting me back in work on Sunday...

Okay, it's just Tuesday. Holiday Monday is dead. I don't want to have to keep revising the calendar.

Despite the alternation of moaning posts and distraction by bright, shiny trinkets ones, I'm attempting to face the new year in a more positive manner. So far I'm not encouraged by much, but playing the role of non-military Sad Sack didn't work out so well for me, so it's time to try something else.

There's never a shortage of people in far worse circumstances, such as some miners and their families in West Virginia, and while such things have never been a comfort to me they are something I should keep in mind.

Acting on information from Tony Collett, I went over to Steve Rude's site (which I hadn't known existed) to participate in a poll concerning publishing plans for the possible launch of his own comics company. Registration is required in order to vote in the poll, but it's nothing onerous or intrusive - just picking a user name and a password. Everything else is optional.

Of the three options I chose the alternating schedule that would essentially mean a new, bimonthly Nexus series. Why? Well, I don't believe I'd buy the anthology, and as I'm not interested The Moth (his other title) I'd rather have a shot at Nexus on a bi-monthly schedule than having four monthly issues alternating with four monthly issues of The Moth -- which is to say, four issues of nothing I want.

Truthfully, it's not something I feel that strongly about anyway -- is they alternated 4-issue miniseries it would work at least as well for me, I suppose, as the urge would be to collect the arc first before reading them anyway... though I could see reading it issue by isolated issue, too. Part of me knows, though, that the knowledge that they plan to collect the arcs into trades will be dancing around in the back of my mind. What'll drive me towards ordering the individual comics at first will be wanting to see a new Nexus title, wanting to help the launch of a new company, and uncertainty as to whether or not the trade will represent a savings. Not only have some small presses produced trade collections that are more expensive than the single issues they represent, but even Marvel and DC have had problems with trades collecting a mere four issues of a comic; there appears to be some expense threshold that makes getting the cost/page down below comics level unless they're reprinting at least five issues.

Last night, as part of the attempt to cap off the New Year's leg of vacation, I went down to the Plymouth Meeting Mall to play in the long-delayed Armor Wars marquee. I arrived almost 25 minutes before game time only to find that they'd sold out of boosters. They had enough for 16 people, and I suppose I was #17.

Hmm. Poor planning there, especially since I know that 17 of us had been signed up for it online, but these things happen. If this were to happen again, though, they might lose me. (Hardly a source of terror for them, I'm sure, especially as I've not made it down there much in the past month and a half.) I don't want to be forced to show up 45 minutes to an hour or so before an event in order to play. Occasionally it might be good -- get some trading done perhaps -- but not every time I go to play.

There's another one happening Wednesday night just down the street from here - closer than the Mall - and the sign-up list for this is about a third of what Monday's venue had. That should work well enough... but I'll probably press myself to head down there by 5:30 to help protect me from a possible shortage there, too.

Okay, off into another gray, rainy, January day. I really detest this weather. It's almost the worst of all possible worlds for the company I work for, and it's simply depressing weather. It's January. Until March, I demand clear skies or copious amounts of snow.