January 1, 2012
Okay, so…first blog post in a while. Spent all of November working on NaNoWriMo, and though I reached my goal of 50,000 words in November, I didn’t finish my book. Yet. Only like two or three chapters to go though. I want to try to get them finished by my birthday on Valentine’s Day. We’ll see.
Speaking of books, I’m currently reading the Star Wars: Legacy series, which I received for Christmas. Currently on Volume 3, and it’s what the Brits might call a “cracking good read”. Most of all, it’s a worthy next chapter of the Star Wars mythos. I think I’m going to “count” these as Episodes VII-IX of the movies. I always wanted to know “what happens next” in some of my favorite stories, and now I can find out, even if it’s not in the form of actual movies.
In other comic-related news, I find myself interested in statues and mini-busts now. Mini-busts are a bit of a stretch, as I prefer full statues, but several of the characters I want statues of only have mini-busts, so I just have to make do. Actually, that’s a bit of a lie. I don’t expect to ever actually get any statues or mini-busts, but it’s a peripheral goal of mine, one I’d like to accomplish at some point if I get a job and/or become rich. It’s kind of like how I want to collect pages of original art, in that respect.
Truth be told, I’m further along on the original art front, as I actually own two pages of comic art. One is a Olivier Coipel Legion page featuring Shrinking Violet. The other is a Lee Sullivan page from Doctor Who Magazine, featuring the Seventh Doctor, Ace, the Brigadier, and Muriel Frost, an original character created for the comic strip.
As for what type of original art pages I want, there are several. On the Doctor Who side of things, I’d like to have a Dave Gibbons and a John Ridgway page. There are probably others, but those are the two main goals for Doctor Who.
Other artists I’d like to have pages from include John Byrne, Alan Davis, Mark Bagley, Jim Lee, Ron Lim, etc. There are many others, of course, but these are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
As far as 2012 goes, I have made resolutions – guidelines, really – of what I want to work toward in my collecting. These include:
- Start an Alpha Flight-themed Sketch Book for Acme’s Free Comic Book Day guests to fill up
- In the Sketch Book I’m already working on completing, ask for interesting or unusual character requests
- Start my statue collection (yeah, right)
- Start (well, continue, really) my original art page collection. Also, get a portfolio to contain the pages. My first two pages are framed on my wall, but I’d like to get a portfolio for the new ones.
- Start sending out Autograph requests again. I sent one to Harry Morgan, but he died before he could reply. I had intended to send out requests to Elisabeth Sladen and Nicholas Courtney, but they died before I ever sent them a request. I have only myself to blame for missing out on them. (Please understand, the main direction of my grief is for the loss to their friends and family, but as someone who collects autographs, it’s naturally going to be regretful that I don’t contact someone before they pass on and let them know how much I enjoy their work.)
- Convert more of my comics over to trades and sell off my back issues on eBay, keeping an occasional key issue that has sentimental value to me.
- Try to catch up on my Doctor Who DVD collection. I’m behind several releases, and I really need to catch up so that I can junk my inferior VHS copies.
- Try to catch up on my TV on DVD collection, particularly for series I haven’t watched in quite some time. These include, but are not limited to: Mad About You, Becker, Just Shoot Me, How I Met Your Mother, Dragon Ball, Pokemon, and Super Friends.
I have other goals, but they’re a bit more personal, so I won’t publish them here. Suffice it to say, I have my work cut out for me. However, I shall approach this new year with my eternal optimism quite intact.
Wish me luck!
