Last week’s League post was a tough one, and I’m totally late getting to it. But I wanted to be a part of this one. The question:
What is the one item in your collection you would save if your house was being swallowed by a sink hole, carried off in a tornado, and then swept away in a flood.
I’m totally cheating, because I’m picking two things, but I have good reasons.
First, I would grab my Talking Pee-Wee Herman doll. Well, I should say, it’s mine now. See, I inherited it from my uncle, who died in a fire 12 years ago. The fire didn’t destroy his house, just the kitchen, so we had to drive to Nashville to clean out the rest of his belongings. Pee-Wee was in a trunk, still in his box, along with a Beetlejuice and some other doll. My uncle was the guy who introduced me to Pee-Wee (and fueled my love of comics and pop culture), as I talked about in another League post. The Pee-Wee doll that he had was the one he bought for himself the same day he bought mine. I brought Pee-Wee home, along with a bunch of other toys and pop culture memorabilia, and spent hours with Febreze and other cleaning supplies to restore the items to their former glory. Oddly enough, with all the smoke damage so much of his stuff endured, Pee-Wee’s only issue was a little smoky smell. As hard as it is to think about sometimes, I miss my uncle every day. When we were redecorating our house and filling it with toys and art that we love, I had to make sure Pee-Wee had a prominent place. It sounds silly, but it’s kinda like my uncle is here, too.
Anyone who knows me knows I’m fortunate enough to spend my days with a fellow geek. He taught me about toys, and I taught him about comics. I thought long and hard about what else I’d grab. I thought about grabbing my Mego Wonder Woman that Brad bought me for Christmas, or the first Wonder Woman figure he bought me. Then I thought about things that couldn’t be replaced, and one thing came to mind: our sketchbook. We started the sketchbook in 2010, when we attended HeroesCon for the first time. We got to cover the con for this site, and I was excited at the prospect of meeting so many comics creators. Brad was much better at asking for sketches than I was, but I managed to muster enough courage to ask Adam Hughes and a few others. Jim Mahfood was the most fun, as he not only drew a sketch in the book, he also drew on the cover. Yes, the sketches are amazing, ranging from legends like Nick Cardy and Neal Adams to indie artists like Kate Beaton and Jim Rugg. But it’s not all about the sketches. It’s about the memories of all the cool folks we’ve met. The book is a love song to comics, to art, and to the passion the artists and writers bring to Heroes, and an amazing souvenir of adventures Brad and I have had.
So yes, my picks were incredibly sentimental, but if you’re grabbing something as John Cusack destroys your house (wait, maybe I need to watch 2012 again), you’d better make them count. (Honorable mention goes to my Uglydoll Cinko, whom Brad bought me when my mom was in the hospital.)
Now that you’ve read my sappy tale, won’t you check out other posts from around the League?
- Charles at Geek Show Ink saved an amazing piece of original art.
- Bubba Shelby at Toyriffic hopped on his sweet ride and got out of town…
- …and Lefty Limbo was right there with him, pedaling like he had E.T. in his basket.
- Flywheels joined the League and goes into robot salvage mode.
- Ashley at Life with Fandom is taking a little muscle with him.
- Shawn at Branded in the 80′s is rescuing his childhood companion.
- TL at Flashlights Are Something to Eat, finally explains the name of his site with his sentimental save.
- Brian at Cool & Collected is scaling tall buildings with a gorilla in one fist and a spaceman in the other.
- Fong at Haxbee joined the League and kicked things off with an epic save.
- Jon at Double Dumbass on You has nothing to fear, because he’s bringing along his old pal, Jack.
- As usual, Kevin at Team Hellions is kicking ass and taking names–er, autographs.
- Jason Vorhees’ Blog is getting the old gang back together and getting out of Dodge.
- Reis at the Lair of the Dorke Horde is grabbing his doll and jumping in the station wagon.
- And Mike at the Sexy Geek’s House of Swag is grabbing the autograph of some guy named George Herman Ruth Jr.
Stacey Rader
Editor-In-Chief
