So I had one of those rare weekends where I not only had some things going on, but I got stuff done and had a great weekend. That stuff doesn't always go hand in hand, but this weekend it did.
Good things started on Friday. My bi-weekly delivery of comics came. That's always the start of a nice weekend for me, the nerd that I am. In my shipment were my first installment of DC's Villains Month books. It's a lame event where DC Comics has suspended the publication of their entire line and replaced it with a set of books that tell the story of their villains. Instead of Aquaman, we get a book about Black Manta, or instead of Batman, we get a book about the Joker. You get the idea. Part of the Villain Months celebration is DC published the books with special 3D Lenticular covers. Only they fucked this up real good and didn't publish enough copies to fulfill their orders. There are shortages of a lot of these books. Luckily all of the ones I ordered came with the 3D covers, so I was pretty stoked about that.
Saturday morning I got up and headed for the gym early. I had stuff to do and the sooner I got that out of the way, the better. And all that sweat has been paying off. I stepped on the scale on Saturday morning to see this:
It's the smallest number I've seen on the scale in my entire adult life. I don't really have an explanation for it. I haven't been pushing myself harder than usual to see it, but it happened. I'm so proud of myself. I've come a long way since seeing 300.5 on the scale. Today I was back up to 191 after a weekend of carb loading, but I'm okay with it.
Saturday saw the return of FantaCon to Albany. It used to be the regular nerd convention here years and years ago when FantaCo was still in business. FantaCo was a comic book store and part-time publisher. But they brought the convention back and I wanted to attend for a few reasons. The first reason was some of my favorite locally based artists were going to be there and I'm going to miss them in November when the next Albany Comic Con hits. (Damn vacation!) I've been loving getting my sketch book filled. The Albany shows are prime for this sort of thing. I brought my sketch book to the New York Comic Con once and got nothing. Everyone was so busy or booked up through the weekend that it made it impossible. Here's what I got this time:
Adam Strange by Fred Hembeck
Blue Devil by Matt Smith
Doc Stearn -- Mister Monster by Michael Gilbert
Michael Gilbert doesn't do NY area conventions usually as he lives in Oregon, so this was my one shot at getting something from him. I used to love this comic back in the 80s. And I've been wanting to revisit the book for about a year or so now (ever since I saw someone got a trade paperback of Mr. Monster stories at a previous Albany Comic Con) but the stuff has been out of print. Luckily he still had a stack of trades for sale and I picked one up.
I also got a one of a kind sketch from Fred Hembeck. I've known Fred for decades. I used to work in a comic book store back in the 80s and he was a semi-regular customer. So I've known him forever and over the past few years got back in touch with him. We see each other a couple of times a year. Anyway, he wanted to draw me something proper, so when I got to the convention, he had this waiting for me. I absolutely love it. LOVE IT. I'm going to get a frame for it because I want that up on my wall.
Night Girl and Polar Boy from the Legion Of Substitute Heroes. Awesome!
But I have to admit, the biggest draw for me was meeting Geri Reischl. She's best known for playing Jan Brady on the Brady Bunch Variety Hour. Fake Jan. The real Fake Jan. She was at the convention because it was not only comics, but also horror. She's done a bunch of horror movies, most famously I Dismember Mama. I've been following her on Facebook for a couple of years now and she's got a wicked sense of humor. She doesn't take herself too seriously and she loves being Fake Jan. She's sort of made a career out of it. She's had a show called Fake Jan Sings For Real, she's done movies, she's done albums. And she has fun with it all.
This is me, looking all dorky, with Fake Jan. She's so tiny. But she was very personable, she gave me a big ol' hug, we talked for a little while and I got her to sign my Brady Bunch Variety Hour dvd. And not only did I get her assistant Mary to take out picture, Geri also gave Mary her camera to do the same. I really can't say enough good things about Geri. She was fantastic.
She asked if it was alright to write "Fake Jan" above her picture. Of course it was!! She even gave me a Fake Jan button. I think she sells them, but mine was free. Yay free stuff!
And the other geeky thing that happened to me this weekend was the arrival of my first Nerd Block.
What's a Nerd Block, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. You know what a Birch Box is, right? It's a mystery box you get in the mail once a month full of neat stuff. Birch Box gives you hair & skin products, gadgets and other cool stuff. Well, Nerd Block is the same thing, just with AWESOME shit.
Here is the stuff I got in my first delivery. A Gremlins t-shirt, a TMNT Funko Pop Vinyl figure, a Big Bang Theory Mystery Box (I got a Wolowitz. I wanted an Amy Farrah Fowler), a HeroClix firgure, Wacky Packages, some cell phone sticker. Neat stuff. I like it. I can cancel my subscription at any time, but I think I'll keep it for the time being. I like the idea. I went on Instagram and looked up the #nerdblock to see what other people got. The t-shirt was the same, the Pop Vinyl figure was different in everyone's box, but was a TMNT figure. Same with the HeroClix. Different ones in each box. And a Big Bang toy in every package, too. I feel good about that, that every Nerd Block is basically the same for everyone.
Sunday was good, too. I got everything accomplished that I set out to do. Laundry is done. Dishes done. Banana bread made (we had bananas that were about to go bad.) Finished the book I was reading. Dismantled my old desk chair that broke and has been sitting in the middle of my office floor for the last few months. Lawn mowed. I didn't intend on cleaning the house, though it really needs it. I "French showered" the house, though. Basically, ran a quick vacuum and picked up a little bit. I'm ready for next weekend already. I hope that doesn't make this week drag, though. I don't know if I can stand that.
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