This week, it’s time to quietly step into the confessional, whether it be a TARDIS or a Metropolis phone booth and tell the truth.
What is something you absolutely hate or love or just don’t get, or maybe it’s something you have never even seen or read. What is your deepest, darkest geek confession?
I am a geek of all trades. I love comics, toys, movies, gadgets, and geeky TV shows. My taste in music is varied and at times obscure. Challenge me in a pop culture trivia contest, and you’ll get a run for your money. I go to toy shows and conventions, and I follow Toy Fair and SDCC news like it’s a major world event. But even I, the self-proclaimed Geeky Vixen, have some confessing to do about a few things.
First, let’s talk about comics. I have been a comics reader since my third year on the planet. A quick glance at my bookshelf or longboxes, and you can see that I love everything from Archie to Spider-Man to Love and Rockets and Eightball. Having access to all that art is intoxicating to me. However, there are a couple of artists that should delight me, but they don’t: Alex Ross and Jim Lee. Don’t get me wrong–Kingdom Come was the first big thing that brought me back to the comics fold, but I just don’t get it. After I saw his work in that first book, I thought, “Okay, this is different.” I quickly realized, after seeing much more of his art, that it really wasn’t. Everything looks the same to me. Even the action in books he illustrates looks like a painting. The fun of comics is the dynamic art, the “Pow” and “KrakaTHOOM” leaping off the page. Which brings me to Lee. I loved the “Hush” storyline in Batman a few years ago. Other than that, his art is BO-RING to me. Having him draw the new 52 Justice League was the thing that put me off. Most artists’ style evolves over time. Take one of my favorites, Mike Allred, for instance. He has come from a very rough style to a more refined drawing style. Lee looks like he’s stuck in the ’90s, and not in that fun, “Oh, I’m listening to my old college mixtapes” way. His hand in the redesigns of some of the new 52 DC characters shows that’s where he’s comfortable. Give me an Allred or Mahfood any day. (Close third to Ross and Lee is Ethan Van Sciver, whose busy Green Lantern splash pages give me a headache.)
Moving on to TV, let’s talk about Star Trek. Unlike Brian at Cool and Collected, I’ve seen my share of the Trek. However, my knowledge is limited to the few original series episodes I’ve seen and the films (at least 2-4 and First Contact). I’m not a fan of the later stuff. When my husband and I first started dating, he took me to Star Trek: Nemesis and paid good money for me to sleep in public. We’ve watched Enterprise together, and it’s pretty good. That’s where I draw the line. I can’t watch Next Generation or Voyager or Deep Space Nine. I just can’t do it. I can watch funny videos of Worf or Geordi or Riker, but I can’t watch actual episodes. We were talking about it earlier, and he said, “You should watch some DS9.” I sang him the chorus from Meat Loaf’s “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)”. Of course, JJ Abrams’ Trek is a whole other story. I can watch that one anytime, anywhere. Especially when Kirk starts talking about morphology.
Other quick hits: I only owned two Nintendo games as a kid (the Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt that came with the system and Legend of Zelda 2: The Adventures of Link). I don’t get graded comics or people who leave toys in their packages, and I share Ashley at Life with Fandom‘s bewilderment at cosplay. I love buying well-loved comics and toys because I’m afraid no one else will. (I have a first appearance of Poison Ivy that I found in a $3 bin because the cover is damaged. I don’t care. I have a first appearance of Poison Ivy that I paid $3 for.) I don’t get Lord of the Rings, and though I’ve seen all the films and love to read, I’m never going to read any of the Harry Potter novels. I don’t care how good you tell me they are, I’m not going to read them.
So there it is, my geek confession. What deep, dark secret do you harbor in your geeky closet?
