I've learned a lot from comics.

I'm not at all trying to brag here, because even if I felt like the amount I knew was more than other comic fans, I'm not sure it would be something worth bragging about. What I'm trying to say is that I've had a bit of a revalation as of late regarding the way I remember things, and I can thank comic books for this little item of self-discovery. Keep reading to find out exactly what I learned.

(4/24/10 - Quick Note, this was written Saturday Night in a fever pitch and not posted until today, sorry about the "today" inconsistencies. Enjoy)

I'd like to think that I have a pretty good memory, but I often find in work and personal life that I'm really bad with names. I've always thought that my "bad with names" syndrome was isolated, but I'm starting to realize that it's kind of systemic. Without going into any detail whatsoever, I work with a lot of different people at the day job. As a result of this, I have to remember some key details about each one of them in order to do my job.

I'm starting to think that there are really three types of people in the world:

1. People Who Are Fantastic With Little Details.

2. People Who Are Fantastic With Big Ideas And Concepts.

3. People Who Are Fantastic At Both.

I'm not very big on the details, so if this was a multiple choice test, I would choose "B" as the option that best describes my personality. When I realized this, a lot of things started to come together for me, and I gotta say, it's kind of interesting.

First off, my excitement for big ideas and big events makes me susceptible to equally big announcements. The first time this happened to me was back in, I don't know, 2003? I think it was our second or third Gencon, and at the time we were enrolled in the "Warlord" program with Wizkids Games. Our role as Warlords was to run local tournaments and help build a general excitement for the collectible miniatures game Mage Knight. In exchange for us running tournaments and other kinds of events for free, we were given some exclusive miniatures. When Gencon rolled around, we found out that Wizkids was going to be holding a special presentation that required Warlord status to attend. I was stoked, only 18 and getting to attend this not-really-but-kinda-exclusive event (booster picture borrowed from here).

Where was I going with this? Oh, right! So at this appreciation night, which was the best perk of the entire Warlord program, we were presented with the first exposure to the second edition of the rule game both in witnessing the announcement and, here's the awesome part, we got a set of demo figures to take with us to use in our local stores. I was completely overblown and have a distinct memory of The Bro looking at me with a little bit of excitement, but also a lot of hesitation. You see, I was excited by the mere concept of a new edition. It was big, it was bold, and it was new. I got sucked into the novel announcement and didn't think too deeply on what the details of it would mean. Of course in this example, I ended up loving the rules (2.0 was always my preferred set of rules over Alpha) but the game died shortly into this new edition - oops (The guy to the right here was also a freebie - quite a nice guy to kick the set off with - find the original picture here).

This brings me to today. Don't get me wrong, I could probably fill an entire blog with "things I got excited for really easily," but it would just go on and on and act more as a chronicle of my poor judgment and unfulfilled dreams (this would be terribly dreary). Instead, I'll fast forward here and all save us some time. The Bro, little sister, Brett (of Con of the North fame) and I went out of town today for a little field trip to a better comic store than our little berg has to offer. I've been listening to a lot of iFanboy lately (well, pretty much on a weekly basis for over two years, whatever), and if you followed our c2e2 coverage, you'll know it's been a particularly comic booky kind of period for me lately. One of the big announcements that caught me at c2e2 was all the Avengers teams that are going to start up starting very soon. This post is littered with pictures of the new teams, and yes, I am excited for something based almost entirely on a big announcement at a convention.

While I've been an avid trade paperback reader, I don't tend to buy weekly single issue releases. Today was an exciting experience as I was able to pick up six whole issues, woo! Anyway, on our way home, The Bro, who's taken a lot of interest lately in the Blackest Night mega event over at DC (which I'm quite smitten with as well), asked me what I knew about the Marvel Seige event. Somehow I was able to trace the entire event saga that's been going on with Marvel since before House of M (the first mega event that set off a whole slew of mega events culminating in Seige). Although I haven't read most of these events I could recite the major players and the big aspects of them. It's like I was some kind of super freaky human computer.

Call me a victim of the hype machine, and it may be true. In my experience, whether I'm planning an RPG session or trying to write a bit of fiction, I tend to be an "ideas man." It's taken me a while, but I've come to the point where I feel I can say I'm pretty creative. I can think up some pretty cool concepts, but when it comes down to execution, it's a skill I tend to lack. Maybe some day I'll inch my way into category 3 and be better with the details. I'm working right now on that on a pretty big project that I feel really jazzed about. The big ideas are there, and I'm just crossing my fingers that I don't fall into the trap of my creative ADHD once again!

Oh! In case you're curious, I picked up the following books - Jonah Hex #50, Shield #1, the Batman and Robin #1 $1.00 reprint, and Ultimate Comics: Spider-man #1 - 3. So far I have no regrets and will probably start regularly collecting Ultimate Comics Spider-man in the very least as Spider-man has never been so adorable.