Slott board: Tell us about yourself.

[Dingo]

I thought I would start a thread about everybodies favourite subject, themselves.

So introduce yourself and tell us about you.

As for me...

My real name is Gary Edwards.
I run a comic store in Fremantle, Western Australia called "The Comic Box".
I am married. My wife's name is Candy. We have been married 2 years.
My mother is called Chris, my sister is called Kelly.
I was born 29th Dec 1981 in Oldham, England.
I have a dog, he is half dingo. The reason I have a dog that is only part dingo is that a pure bred dingo does not bark, and therefore makes a poor guard dog.
I chose my web name before I got the dog. The reason I chose dingo is that it is not technically an Australian native, but everyone treats it like it is, just like me.
My wife has a cat, Calypso. I don't like cats but I make an exception for this one. It has dog qualities.
My first comic was Fantastic Four 355: Wrecked. It was an all Thing issue.
I am a computer programmer, but I like comics more so I decided to do that instead.
The Thing is my favourite Slott series, but only by a bit over She-Hulk, which is only a bit ahead of SM/HT.
My favourite non-comics writer is Terry Pratchett. If you haven't already read one of his books, go and get Mort now. I am serious. Really. I mean it. Go now.
My favourite Terry Pratchett character is Samuel Vimes. I see a lot of myself in him.
I have webbed toes on one foot, but it doesn't look very impressive because I have short toes.
My wife is pretty much my first girlfriend.

Perhaps I will add more as I think of it...
What about you?

[Miss Kitty Fantastico]

My name is Chris Cook, and I'm a heroine addict.

I'm a writer by trade, but no, you won't have read anything by me (unless you play Warhammer 40,000, in which case, hope you liked the Emperor's Children). I eke out a living, and right now (well, not right now, because I'm wasting time on online forums, but you know what I mean) I'm working on my first novel for publication. It's a kind of Holy Crusades meets steampunk by way of Xena thing. Besides actual writing-for-money, I do a lot of fanfic - more the latter than the former, in fact, which I really ought to change. But I'm utterly smitten by Tara from Buffy, so that ain't gonna change any time soon.

I came by my screen name in a fairly convoluted manner (though it's kind of typical of how I end up with these odd traits). See, I used to play a lot of Medal of Honour with friends from university at the local netgamer, and in melee mode one of the playable characters was a French resistance woman, who I habitually chose, and named Miss Kitty Fantastico, after Willow and Tara's kitten (Tara once jokingly alluded to MKF having a shadowy role in the resistance prior to her being adopted by the couple). When we made the switch to Battlefield 1942 I kept the screen name, seeing as everyone knew it was me, even though there weren't any female characters, and from there I just adopted the name regardless of the utter lack of any reason for it.

(What with that and the lesbian fiction writing, I get mistaken for a woman occasionally. Nowadays I tend to set my user sub-title, appearing just beneath the name on forums, to 'guy', to avoid that kind of thing. Though I take it as a compliment, so far as the writing goes.)

I started reading comics because of action figures, of which I have a sizeable collection - about 150, all girls (that began unintentionally, just because I was buying toys of heroines I liked, but nowadays I deliberately avoid male figures just to keep the spirit of the collection going. Except for the Transformer Alternator of Jazz, because it's just too freakin' cool not to own. Anyway, it's a) a technically androgynous robot, and b) stacked). In a review of the Marvel Select She-Hulk figure I read about the Byrne-era hijinks of fourth-wall-breaking and so on, so one day when I had some cash to spare, I bought Single Green Female to see what Shulkie was up to these days. Not so much of the fourth wall stuff, but needless to say I was hooked anyway, and from reading the two TPBs available at the time I picked up the affection Dan has for the Marvel world in general, and looked to other titles. Bringing us neatly to the present, with 4-5 issues a week being my average haul. She-Hulk remains my favourite, followed by Heroes for Hire, Ms Marvel, Bomb Queen, and Devi. I'm thoroughly enjoying Civil War and 52.

I like Terry Pratchett's Discworld - Men at Arms and Feet of Clay are my favourites. Obviously the Watch are my favourite 'series' within Discworld, Vimes especially, though I'm feeling Terry may be going back to the well a bit too much there - Thud didn't entertain me as much as I'd hoped, and all in all the recent novels (from about Fifth Elephant onwards) haven't grabbed me the way the 'middle era' ones did. I adore George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman novels, and China Mieville's Bas-Lag novels.

I'm a 100% cat person - I don't mind dogs, as a concept, but they freak me out if I'm physically near them. I had a cat for most of my childhood, Alexander the Great, who passed away several years ago at the venerable age of 16.

I appreciate quality cinema as much as anyone, but I have an intense fondness for so-bad-it's-funny fantasy and sci-fi movies, as well as ones that aren't technically bad but are just so over the top they're preposterous - I love Van Helsing, for instance (three-mile-tall Castle Dracula, baby). In fact looking at the last twelve months, I'd say I've focused on bad/enjoyable movies, and looked to TV shows when I'm in the mood for actual quality: Battlestar Galactica is unbeatable in my books.

I like tennis - I'm pretty bad at it, but I just play for fun. Naturally I sit through the godawful mess the networks make of the grand slams when they telecast them, but it's worth it to see Amelie Mauresmo play.

[Dingo]

My name is Chris Cook, and I'm a heroine addict.

I read that without paying attention.
I thought that you were so much more elloquent and coherent than most heroin addicts I have met.

Yeah.


I'm a tool sometimes.

Heroine

[Dave S.]

My name is Dave Sands. My birthday is Jan. 21st, 1982. Only a month older than Dingo. I have no plans to get married anytime soon. Definately not ready for that. I am a university student, studying Physics. I took some time off from school to work and travel. Spent a year in New Zealand, though never made it to Aussieland. I started back at school last year. I go to Stony Brook University on Long Island, NY. I'm originally from Rochester, NY. My first Marvel comic was: Amazing Spider-man #334. I had read some TMNT before that, but don't remember the issue #s. I stopped reading ages ago, during the clone saga. I read a few comics online, back when Marvel started offering titles on their website. Notably the early Ultimate books and the start of JMS' ASM. But still didn't feel like actually getting back into comics.

Then I was introduced to Dan Slott's work with GLA: Misassembled, which still remains my favorite mini-series of all time. Someone suggested I play Mr. Immortal in an online text-based rpg, and sent me scans of every GLA appearance. I hadn't read comics in years at this point. I loved the character, and when I got to the mini, I was floored. Not liking the idea of reading scans, I went out and bought the trade for GLA as soon as it came out. I also bought the first two She-Hulk trades, because I liked Dan's work so much.

From there, I started picking up Thing, I had to dig for some back issues, but luckily there are three decent sized comics stores in my area, so I found them. I then decided to start picking up other comics. Might as well, since I was making a trip to the store. Now, just around a year later, I spend $50-$100 on comics a month.

Dan Slott got me into comics again. Thanks Dan.

My favorite non-comic author: Kurt Vonnegut
My favorite ice cream: Mint Chocolate Chip
My favorite TV show: Farscape
My favorite current TV show: Battlestar Galactica
My favorite current on-going: Fables
My favorite Marvel Event: Annihilation
My favorite current mini-series: Hellstorm: Son of Satan
Biggest recent disappoint: Highlander (It just gets worse with each issue.)
Biggest recent pleasant surprise: Stormwatch PHD

[Dave S.]

Wow. 3 people. I thought Slott board was friendlier than this.

[Dermie]

Hi. My name is Mike, and I'm from London, Ontario in Canada.
My birthday is Feb 1st, 1979.
I am currently single.

I have a miniature schanuzer named Casey. The reason I've got a schanuzer is that they are a non-shedding dog, and I am allergic to shedding dogs and cats. I love them, but I can't live with them.

I have been a Marvel Comics fan for ages, and the Avengers and their various members are my particular favourites. Aside from comics, I am also a sci-fi fan, especially Star Trek and Babylon 5. In my younger days I was a He-Man fanatic (I'm sure I must have drove my mother nuts), and am enjoying reliving the series now that it has come out on DVD.

That's all I can think of for now.

[Dingo]

In my younger days I was a He-Man fanatic (I'm sure I must have drove my mother nuts), and am enjoying reliving the series now that it has come out on DVD.

I was a He-man fanatic in my younger days too. I even had several pairs of He-man underwear so I could wear them all the time.

However, reliving the series has been anything but enjoyable for me. It was baaaad.

[tom daylight]

Wow. 3 people. I thought Slott board was friendlier than this.

Sure, but some of us are private and/or boring

[Dingo]

Sure, but some of us are private and/or boring

I'm sure we would love hear about you in any case.
Besides which, I don't think anyone has owned up to anything inherently interesting. It is all just biographical info.

[Dermie]

I was a He-man fanatic in my younger days too. I even had several pairs of He-man underwear so I could wear them all the time.

I don't remember having any He-Man underwear (which is a rather ironic concept when you think about it, since He-Man generally didn't wear much more than underwear), but I watched the show obsessively, had tons of the action figures, was subscribed to a He-Man magazine and a news letter, and bought the comics.

However, reliving the series has been anything but enjoyable for me. It was baaaad.

Well, I haven't gotten through the whole series yet--so far I've done the Best of He-Man DVD, Best of She-Ra DVD and He-Man & She-Ra Christmas Special. Of those three, only the Christmas Special has been a bit of a disappointment, since I think it was probably a bit of a rush job. But it still had some fun moments.

The series may not be the best thing ever made (and the frequently recycled stock footage is probably the biggest problem with the production quality), but I think the writing was generally pretty good for a kids show. I see some of the cartoons from the last ten years or so, and He-Man seems to be much better than most of them in terms of writing quality and character development.
The show was definately a source of positive role models for kids. Aside from the very obvious things like the moral messages at the end of each episode, there are also more subtle things, like the way He-Man always tries to find the non-violent solutions (and we rarely ever see him actually punch someone directly; he generally finds some other way of disabling them).
And the roles for women characters were also very impressive for a kids show of that period. Even before we got to She-Ra, there was Teela functioning as the captain of the palace guard--basically a woman who is considered one of the finest warriors on the planet, in command of a military unit. And Queen Marlena was an astronaut from Earth who crashed on Eternia years ago.

So yeah, although the series may not be the best animated series in tv history, I think it had a lot of positives to it as well, and I will always remember it fondly. (although I do find it really funny to look back now at Prince Adam's outfit with the bright pink shirt and and the purple leotards--He-Man, the original gay icon of the 80s ).

Oh, one other thing of relevance to add to my info: I am the co-mod of a She-Hulk message board. Many of the posters here (including Dan) are already aware of that, since they frequent both boards.