Evil Cats, Shouting Germans and Peasant-Punching

I haven't seen a ton of movies lately, but here's a few that I saw recently. Before you read any of my movie reviews, you should know that my favorite three movies of all time are The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the King and Destroy All Monsters. I also have two young kids, so I watch and enjoy a lot of cartoons and kids movies. Hopefully that'll put things in perspective for you....

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DAS EXPERIMENT

I wouldn`t call myself a fan of foreign films, but I enjoy them occasionally. I never have a problem with subtitles like a lot of folks do - I think people just don`t want to read anything other than textspeak anymore...In fact, if a movie is filmed in a language other than English, I would prefer to see a subtitled rather than dubbed version. (Maybe not all of the time - in Godzilla movies, the bad dubbing actually makes it all the more fun.) Anyway, let`s just say that I normally don`t go out of my way to see many non-English language movies, even though they are usually far more original, at least from my point of view. This certainly was pretty ``out there``....

In case you didn`t know, Das Experiment is the original German movie that inspired the recently released American film appropriately titled The Experiment, starring Adrian Brody. (I haven`t seen that one and didn`t even know of it`s existence when I watched the German one.) The story is about a social experiment in a mock prison environment. The volunteers are seperated into groups of inmates and guards, and are pretty much left alone to figure things out, all the while being monitored by surveillance cameras. Basically, things go wrong - horribly wrong. After only a few days there emerges a bitter power struggle between the two groups that results in torture, humiliation, severe beatings and the deaths of several participants. Was the experiment a complete failure - or a resounding success? (I think I stole that line from the back cover of the DVD)

Certainly, the filmakers succeed in creating an intense thriller that passes from being psychological into being more than a little psychotic - a rousing tale of sadism, violence, domination and other nasty human tendencies. .....Well, okay, so it's not Saw or anything, but it seems far more real to me and that's what makes it far better (I am not a fan of the Saw films, BTW). Das Experiment is in fact based on a an actual experiment conducted at Stamford University in 1971 (read about it here). I highly recommend this movie, and I`m sure the American version is probably pretty good too - but it likely doesn`t have a bunch of angry Germans yelling in it. Somehow that makes Das Experiment that much more intense.  

A-

(minus because it`s a little disturbing)

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SKYLINE

It`s Independence Day (without the All-Star cast) meets Cloverfield (without the shaky camcorder video) meets Dawn of the Dead (without Zombies) meets War of the Worlds (without Tom Cruise). That last one`s not really a detraction; I prefer most of my movies to be without Tom Cruise (insert rimshot). There`s no real surprises here. It fairly easy to recognize all of the standard elements of the Sci Fi/Horror/Monster genre present in Skyline, but there's nothing in this film that we haven't seen before, except the actors....

At least it has gigantic, freaky-looking alien monsters in it. That's always a plus for me.

C+

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TIME BANDITS

I have always been a fan of Terry Gilliam's films. His  name is synonymous with dark, dirty-looking fantasy imagery and an irreverently silly sense of humor that could only have developed within the bowels of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Although not one of his best films, Time Bandits is a good example of his early post-Python work.

It's about a little British boy who's generally ignored by his parents and a little unhappy with his life, finding solace in the pages of ancient history books. Six dwarves suddenly appear through a dimensional vortex in his bedroom one night, being pursued by the Supreme Being. The boy gets swept up with them and whisked through time, meeting noteable historical figures such as Robin Hood (played by John Cleese), Napoleon (Ian Holm) and Agamemnon (Sean Connery).  Along the way, the group is also pursued by Evil (the bad guy - that`s his name) and must confront him in the end.

It`s not ROTFLOL funny - it`s a little dry, but witty, like most Brit comedy and Python-related material in particular - but it holds up alright. Not nearly as good as the later produced Adventures of Baron Munchausen, but still better and more lighthearted than the pointlessly bizarre Tideland.

Best scene in the movie: Robin Hood and his band of Merry Peasant-Punching Men.


B+


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CATS & DOGS : Revenge of Kitty Galore

Basically, this film is mostly-CGI dogs and cats voiced by well-known actors playing out a pseudo-Bond/Spy Kids sort of mission. It may sound really lame to an adult, but its good for the kids and watchable enough for mom and dad. I must say that I prefered the first Cats & Dogs to this one. They`re both cheesy, but I enjoyed them both, being a confessed long-time fan of talking animal movies. (Yes, I`ve even seen both Garfield movies...) I liked that they brought back Mr. Tinkles in this one (the supreme evil cat from the the first movie), but his Silence of the Lambs tribute scene is a little questionable for a kids movie.

 That being said, evil cats are funny. C`mon - they just are.


B


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That's all I got for you right now. I'm going to be working on some action figure photos and comic pages this week, so stay tuned for some fun stuff!

May the Force be with you...

Filling the Void...

Well....my Star Wars Miniatures collection is now gone. *sniff* *sob* They sold for a nice fair price on EBay to a lucky fella in the US and I just dropped the parcel at the post office this morning. Godspeed, little minis! I hope you like your new home! I hope your new owner takes good care of you, and takes you out to play often.....

(Thanks to everyone for their interest and to everyone who bid on the auction BTW)

As I said before, I`ve held on to the complete first set (Rebel Storm) for nostalgic purposes....I`m hoping that someday I can get my wife to play nightly games of Star Wars Minis when we`re retired and driving around in our behemoth RV... I`m sure I`ll have to watch a whole lot of Sandra Bullock movies and go to a lot of craft shows until then to get her to agree to that....

So what do I do now? What will fill the void left behind now that Star Wars Miniatures is gone? Well, I do have a few ideas....

GUILD WARS

I picked up this game about 3 weeks ago....and I'm frightened by it. This is my first experience with online gaming (other than Boggle Bash and Scrabble) and I'm afraid that I'll get eaten alive by twelve year-olds and hackers. I've only created one character so far, and I think I'm like 2nd or 3rd level after about 5 hours of playing time. It seems really awesome, but I really need to learn the controls better if I expect to get anywhere in the game without dying every 5 minutes. No, the picture above is not from me - I'm not quite at the 'Dragonslaying' stage just yet. (My apologies to whoever owns this image for my using it without consent, but it's an awesome picture, and it's not like I'm taking credit for it or making any money off of it.) Definitely not me - I'm still having trouble fighting giant worms that pop out of the ground and stand still in one spot - I'm a Newbie, through and through. Also, I can't type fast enough to chat with anyone in-game....they just walk away when I'm still typing.

Be that as it may, it seems to me like it'll be worth the struggle to play it. The graphics are amazing and the possibilities seem endless. I'd comment on the storyline, but so far I'm so overwhelmed with new information that I have no idea what's going on in the story......if there even is one. All of the mini-quests that I've accepted and/or completed are pretty standard fantasy story stuff but I've got no complaints - that's what I signed up for. 

But of course, who has time for video games when you've got all this other cool stuff to do....

For example:

HEROCLIX

Although I've always been interested in Heroclix and even own a handful of figs, I have never played a game. I've skimmed over the rules and it seems pretty straightforward like SWM - basically move and attack and roll to hit - but with six-sided instead of twenty-sided dice. Instead of the Star Wars motif, we're dealing with comic book characters, so this is an acceptable trade-off for me. I believe that the two types are interchangeable, but I think I would prefer to invest in the MARVEL instead of DC Heroclix. There's also HORRORCLIX as well, but I'm not so into that and I hear it doesn't adapt directly to the other games. Of course, I`ll have to start buying into another collectible miniatures game that makes you spend all your money chasing after the rarest and best figures.....it would be just like Star Wars Miniatures, and the whole thing`ll start all over again...

Whatever. I just want to see Wolverine dukin`it out with Howard the Duck amongst the smoldering ruins of Asgard.

`Nuff said!

(click on image above to view larger)

COMIC LIFE

And, speaking of geeky comic book weirdness, I just got an awesome program (Comic Life) that allows you to easily create comic book-style pages with your photos. This opens up a whole new world for me and my toy photography. What you see above is my very first go at it with a bunch of old photos that you've probably seen on my blog countless times already...of course with the same jokes too. That says two things:  1) I really need to take some new pictures...and  2) I really, really need new jokes.

The program is so easy that a child could use it - and they do. I actually learned about it from a teacher that uses it in her class for assignments...

Man, I wish I had this when I was a kid... but then again, when I was a kid, most computers took up an entire room and only printed in dot matrix... When I was a kid, I used to hand draw a lot of comic book 'masterpieces' and even though the artwork was crude (as was the humor) it still took forever to make a single page. Now I can just drag and drop my photos right in to the templates and type in voice bubbles wherever I want! Although it may seem like no big whoop to you...this program is definitely going to see a lot of use from yours truly.

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There are a lot more other things that I could/should do with my time now that I won't be playing SWM anymore (well, I'll still play, but certainly not as often), and I'll highlight some of those things on upcoming blogs. I should probably focus on my photo business and website (Rebel Alliance Photo), but the in and outs of wedding and portrait photography aren't really all that fun to write about. I'll of course be featuring more comics and action figures again soon, and I'll get back to some more movie reviews too - once I actually get to see some more movies...

That's it for today. Take care, and thanks again for listening.

May the Force be with you...

5 Comics to Read Before You Die (The Comic Book Bucket List Part 1)

I guess you could call this "The Comic Bucket List".....You know....like the movie The Bucket List (which I've yet to see)....the two old guys who decide to do all the things on their lists of things to do before they 'kick the bucket'. This post is not so much about the things that I accomplish before I reach my deathbed.....but what I'll be reading on my deathbed. I vow to have a big stack of comics right beside me as I pass over into the Great Beyond - maybe even a longbox full of comics tucked under said deathbed....just in case I want to skim through Secret Wars before I croak.

Seriously though, this is an attempt to present a few of my all-time favorite comics and recommend them to you (highly). Since I've read so many great ones, it's impossible to list all of them in one post, so I'll highlight them a few at a time, starting with these ones right here today.

 I'll start with a 'Canadian Classic':



ALPHA FLIGHT # 23

Truth be told, this comic doesn't come from Canada at all, but at least writer/artist John Byrne actually lived in Canada and all of the stories take place here....and at least one major character gets to say 'eh' all the time, eh?  I've spouted off plenty about Alpha Flight and Sasquatch before, and I don't feel like repeating myself (yeah....like I never do that). If you are really dying to know more about this awesome comic title and Sasquatch in particular, check out this previous post,  Marvel Legends - Sasquatch . I'm pretty sure there's a full synopsis of this issue in there.....

Let's just say it's all about two giant bigfoots(feets?) laying the smackdown in downtown Vancouver. Throw in a hot Quebecois girlfriend with a multiple personality disorder and a Dwarf in a wetsuit and you've got a rollicking good time, eh?

ROCKET RACCOON Limited Series (1985) # 1-4

Although I had erroneously stated in a previous post that Rocket Raccoon was first introduced in The Incredible Hulk #271 in 1982 (see Bronze Age Keys  from a little while back), I just read that his first appearance was actually in 1976 in Marvel Preview #7. So I was wrong...sue me. None of that matters, because the Rocket Raccoon  limited series in 1985 was the pinnacle of Rocky's career in my humble opinion.

Like I said before, this isn't for everyone, but I found it to be an excellent read, and the artwork by Mike Mignola (later famous for Hellboy, of course) is fantastic. It's a silly-looking comic that actually takes itself pretty seriously and manages to pull it off. I preferred the limited series over Rocky's Hulk appearances, since we didn't have the Hulk as an earth-based counterpoint, and it takes place entirely within it's own universe. I guess that makes it more 'believable' to me...and easier to accept a gunslinging, robot-fighting bipedal talking raccoon....and let's not forget the otter and rabbit and walrus either.

READ IT! BEFORE YOU DIE!!

AMBUSH BUG Limited Series (1985) # 1-4

Early on in my comic collecting life, I was a bit of a DC hater. I didn't actually know why, I just knew that Marvel comics were cooler. Maybe I just couldn't forgive the cheesiness of The Superfriends and the 60's Batman TV show (and let's not forget the Shazam! show...). It took me a while to get over my fear of DC comics... I think Saga of the Swamp Thing #1 was my actual first DC Comic purchase, but then I eventually got wise to Vigilante and then the greatest DC non-superhero of all time: Ambush Bug.

This limited series is jam-packed full of jokes, many of which I didn't understand, since they were about characters and situations in the DC Universe that I knew little to nothing about. This comic is DC's way of making fun of itself, and that obviously appealed to me. I found myself actually wanting to know more about Superman & Batman & Wonderwoman and the like, just so I could get the jokes in Ambush Bug. That being said, I wasn't going to risk wasting my money buying more DC comics while the Secret Wars limited series was going on... Besides the abovementioned titles, I didn't buy many DCs at all until this millenium (sounds like a really long time when you use the word 'millenium').

Anyway, Ambush Bug rules because he's basically aware of his audience and his place in the fictional comic book world....and constantly refers to us readers as 'fanboy'. His sidekick is a seemingly inanimate, super-cutesy doll in a homemade super-suit named Cheeks the Wonder Toy. His arch-enemy is Argh!Yle! an evil, sentient sock who wears a Dr. Doom-like iron mask. Ambush Bug himself has only one real power - teleportation. This allows him to basically disappear and reappear wherever it's funniest to do so.

Overall, one of the stupidest comic series that I've ever read....followed closely by the Ambush Bug Stocking Stuffer #1 (X-mas 1985) and the Son of Ambush Bug limited series (1986). There's also the recently produced Ambush Bug-Year None limited series which sort of recaptures the stupidity of the original. Rest assured there are a lot more stupid Ambush Bug appearances...all of which I'll hopefully read before the final curtain....

By now, one might assume that all I like are silly comics, but you couldn't be more mistaken. Case in point:

ELRIC-The Sailor on the Seas of Fate # 1-7

I love the writings of Michael Moorcock. His books are always full of violence and gore and the occasional bit of sex. Pretty raunchy for the fantasy genre. He has produced a lot of great characters, including Prince Corum, Hawkmoon and Jerry Cornelius....but his greatest and most well-known character has to be Elric of Melnibone - the gaunt, brooding albino anti-hero, who (with the help of the sentient, soul-stealing black sword Stormbringer) feeds off of the life energy of his opponents. He's kind of evil, but usually finds himself combating far greater evils and protecting the innocent as well as those few he can call 'friend'. Initially unknown to Elric, his life is all part of the cycle of the Eternal Champion...as are Corum, Hawkmoon and Erekose...all of whom he meets in this limited series (adapted from the novel of the same name) and allies himself with.

The comic book adaptation is done by Roy Thomas and Michael T. Gilbert. Very well done, in fact. Being a 'Mature Readers Only' comic, you could always expect a good level of gore, and at least you could catch a glimpse or two of some boobies in comic book form every month (this was, of course, very important at age 13). I can't remember if I actually read these comics or the novels first. There are comic book adaptations of at least six Elric novels that I know of, and I don't know what order I read either the comics or books in. Sailor on the Seas of Fate is my favorite, and The Vanishing Tower is a close second.

When it comes to 'swords and sorcery' type fantasy, Elric has to be my favorite character. No disrespect, but he's so not Conan.

GODZILLA - King of the Monsters # 1 (Marvel 1977)

I just couldn't go any further without mentioning Godzilla. I am a die-hard G-fan for life and appreciate Godzilla in all his forms, the 70's Marvel version being no exception. He's more like the real Japanese Godzilla in this than in the  Godzilla animated series from roughly the same era, and certainly more than the disappointing 1998 Hollywood production, but still not quite the same. According to this comic, he appears in Alaska and then makes his way across the western United States and somehow finds his way to New York City. Along the way he encounters many Marvel Universe icons, like S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers...and less iconic characters such as Dr. Demonicus and the Champions. While it's nice to see Big G battling Thor and Hercules, it just doesn't feel quite right. Instead of blue radiation beams, Godzilla apparently spews actual flames from his mouth. He also looks a lot more lizard-like and leaner than his Toho counterpart. Still, it's great fun to see how America would deal with this walking natural disaster instead of seeing the same old crowd scenes of Japanese people running around in utter panic. (And there's no horrible voice-over dubbing in the printed version either.)

If you call yourself a giant monster fan at all, you absolutely need to own this comic. Next to Alpha Flight # 23 , this is the one comic I wish I could take with me to the next world when I die. I'm hoping they'll at least allow for carry-on luggage so I can take more than one...

If that is the case...y'all better start packing! Don't forget to include these titles on your Comic Book Bucket List, and stay tuned for some more essential reading!


Until Next time,

May the Force be with you...

STAR WARS MINIATURES GAME - My collection for SALE!!

Just to give y'all a heads up if you're into this type of thing - 

 I just listed a HUGE lot of Star Wars Miniatures on EBay. I've decided to keep only the complete Rebel Storm set, as it was the first set released and the first set I completed, but...

 everything else must go!! 

 It's hard to let go of my beloved collection of so many,so very cool little plastic men (and women ...and wookiees and droids of course), but in all honesty, I could certainly use the money a lot more than the minis...

(Sorry about the crappy photos...I didn't have a lot of time to do this...)

I thought that, rather than milk it forever and try to sell off the figures seperately or in smaller lots, why not just put them all together in one massive lot. Being as hardcore into this game as I have been over the years, it'll make it less painful for me as well, I suppose, if I just get rid of them all at once and quit cold turkey....

In all, there are over a thousand miniatures in this one-time-only auction, plus a great collection of maps, rulebooks, counters and promo items. I've played games with almost all of them, but there are a good number of these minis that have never seen the light of day...  So yes, they are used, but no, they are not abused. There's a good number of Very Rares and a ton of Rare figures in there, plus legions of Stormtroopers, gangs of Gungans, clusters of Clones, regiments of Rebels, tons of Tuskens and at least enough scum and villainy to fill several wretched hives to capacity...

Instant armies at your disposal...

 

 

To the best of my knowledge, all stat cards for all figures are included, although there may be, like 12 Stormtroopers and only 11 Stormtrooper cards or something like that...but Stormies are all the same, right? There definitely would never be any unique characters that are missing cards. I've taken good care of my little plastic men over the years.

So anyway, if you're interested in my (ex-)collection, have a look at the auction here:

GIGANTIC Star Wars Lot - EBay.ca

 

If you have any questions about this auction, you can contact me through EBay or through email or this blog or whatever works. BTW, even though the auction says shipping only to US/Canada, I could possibly ship to other countries as well, but it's going to get expensive...we're talkin' 25lbs of little plastic men here, for the love of Yoda...

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Thanks for taking a look, even if you don't care about Star Wars Miniatures at all. At least this gives you some idea where all my time and money has gone over the last 6 years....well, this and comic books...

Thanks again for listening.

May the Force be with you...

Andy's Brag Blog

I know I say I don't like to brag, but here's a quick list of recent statistics and accomplishments that make me feel good about myself and how I'm doing:

 1) Current total number of hits on this blog  = 1606  - Now, I just recently stopped registering my own views with the counter, so at least a few hundred of those have to be me...I'm pretty critical of myself.

 2) List of countries that recorded hits on this page = Canada, USA, Great Britain, Denmark, China, South Korea, Slovenia, Spain, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, Finland, Poland, Argentina, Netherlands, Iran, France, Australia, South Africa and Turkey. - I get the most views from Canada and the States, but there's more than a few countries that recorded more than 10 hits, making me hope that these are people who actually read and enjoy this blog rather than just someone trying to hack me or something...  Paranoia aside, it's pretty cool to think that someone on the other side of the world might like something I wrote.

 3) Had a better-than-expected experience at Central Canada Comic Con 2010. - Of course I just wrote about this last time, but it was great and I can't wait until next year. I'm just one guy (even though I had some help here and there), and definitely the 'little guy' compared to most of the other vendors and artists at the con, but I was pretty happy with how I did. Hope everyone enjoys their comics and figures and stuff! I'll have a lot more up for grabs soon!

 4) Recently taught myself to play and sing "Are You Experienced?" by Jimi Hendrix.  - No, I can't play it backwards like it's recorded or left-handed like Jimi....and I can't do much for a solo yet, but I think I can do a passable version that might earn me a few busking bucks....Not that I've ever actually 'busked' before....the guys you see playing guitar out in public always seem to be either super-good or super-crappy (and/or super-drunk). I'm not sure which category I'd fall into. I've been in several bands and played live a few dozen times in my life, but never solo, so maybe it's time to get out and play. I'll keep you posted if I'm getting anywhere near this....

 5) Basement renovations are 90% complete.  - I can't take much credit for this - I slacked off a lot. I am not a fan of this type of work and I'm not very good at it. A huge thank you to my wife and (especially) her dad for 'gittin' er done' and figuring out all the nitty little details that I hate so much as well as doing the bulk of the work. There's still some trim and doors to do, but it's now pretty functional down there and pretty nice to look at compared to the dungeon it used to be...

 6) My collection of 'Harry Potter' movies is now complete and up to date.  - We recently watched them all in order over the span of a week or two. I enjoy the series a lot (does that make me a Potterhead?), and I'm excited to see the next installment. I think splitting Deathly Hallows into two films will turn out to be a great idea, although I'm saying that as someone who hasn't read the book and doesn't know what's going to happen.

 7) Set up a wireless network in my home (with help) and learned how to stream media and share files between computers.  - Many of you probably have no trouble at all with this sort of thing, but this was another of those 'too many details to deal with' types of tasks for me. It feels good to get it all going and it's cool to be able to manage it all so easily. Let's hope I use it wisely - with great power comes great responsibility...

 8) Earnings in my Google Adsense account so far = $0.01  - Obviously not enough to retire on, but it's all symbolic,y'know? Feel free to click on some ads on my blog - help a brother out, willya?

Anyway, that's an octet of awesome things that are going on for me lately. Hopefully, life is treating you all good too.


May the Force be with you...

Comic Con / Halloween 2010





First off, I want to do a big shout out to all the folks who helped make this year's Comic Con a huge success for a small-time guy like me. I sold a lot of comics and figures, and I passed out a ton of business cards. (Also a gigantic Thank You with hugs n' kisses to my wife for helping me out)

It seems kind of silly of me to direct so many folks to this blog lately, and not have any new content for like 2 weeks...... Suddenly, for someone who normally can't seem to ever shut up, my communication skills don't seem to be all that hot. Truth is, I am burnt out beyond belief, especially when it comes to comics, action figures and other sci-fi/pop culture-type stuff. It seems like all I've been doing lately is organizing, pricing, transporting and handling comic books, games and toys. I never thought I'd say this, but I don't even want to look at another comic right now. (Maybe after a few days off from my real job...)

As I'm sure you gathered from all that shameless self-promotion (or 'SSP') in my previous posts, I spent this past Halloween weekend as a vendor at the Central Canada Comic Con here in Winnipeg. It was a great time, and I sold a lot more stuff than I'd expected to. Met a lot of cool people there too. I'm hoping that some of you out there who are reading this ran into me at the convention. If that's the case, and you're new 'round these here parts, welcome to ALLIANCE of ONE, the official blog of Rebel Alliance Canada! Hope I don't waste your time.....

There has been some other great stuff happening too. My daughters had a fantastic Halloween (or so I am told - I was too busy with the comic con to actually do any trick or treating with them). Daphne was the cutest little Ballerina and Chloe went as the Corpse Bride (from the movie of the same name). They must have done pretty well, since there were two gigantic bowls full of candy on the kitchen counter when I got home that night....

Also, we just recently got a new cat - a little grey and white kitten named Momo. She's still pretty shy around people, but she's really gotten attached to our other cat Pepper in the last two weeks. She can't seem to leave him alone, and even though he pretends that he doesn't like her, you can tell he loves the companionship (just like a typical male, right ladies?). It's been almost exactly a year since we got Pepper. If the current trend continues, by Halloween 2018 we should have 10 cats and be running our own comic con....

I also just purchased a brand new laptop, and I love it! I'm hoping it's going to inspire me to blog more, and hopefully it'll allow me to work 'on the go', even though I don't really ever go anywhere.... Main reason I got it was simply to have a better, faster computer that I can edit photos and play games on, and also use as a portable digital portfolio. It's taking me a while to get used to the smaller keyboard and the pointing device, but at the rate I'm using my laptop in the two days since I got it, I'll have mastered it in a week or two.

If you met me at the comic con and are looking for more info on the things I sell, I'm sorry you had to read this far and hear all about my personal life when all you are looking for is some more cool stuff to buy. In the future, I'm hoping to sell items directly through this blog, but for now I'm limited to my EBay store, which is actually pretty barren right now since I was saving everything for the con and have yet to get a chance to list what I've got left (see 'Essential Links' in the upper right hand corner of this blog). Any items or photos seen on this blog can be purchased locally from me as well. Email me for details ( andonator2000@yahoo.ca ). Watch out for some Kijiji ads maybe too....

As always, thanks for spending the time to read this blog. I promise I'll be back with some actual fun stuff soon.

May the Force be with you...