Interstellar

I was awoken just past midnight with the buzzing notification of my phone as it vibrated off my night stand to the floor below. What could possibly be going on? My thoughts immediately went dark: perhaps somebody was trying to contact me because of an emergency with a friend or family matter. I grab the phone and unlock it quickly, fearing the worst. I see text messages from my friend Cale, that simply stated: 9 Days to Go. It was ominous, but clearly not life threatening - unless he was counting down to something nefarious. I asked for some details, and he responded back with one word:

INTERSTELLAR

Oh yes, the new Christopher Nolan film was coming, and its arrival was quickly upon us. This is a movie that I've been specifically avoiding in the hopes of not receiving spoilers and to keep my first viewing experience as unblemished as possible. The teaser, released quite some time ago, was enough to sell me on the film. The trailers that I was subjected to was giving me a few too many details than I cared for, but I had faith that since Nolan was behind the director's chair, I would be pleasantly surprised by the film regardless.

As I was browsing Reddit, I saw a title along the lines of "What the film reel of Interstaller looks like on 70mm." It was an image, and as I surmised the contents I deemed it safe to click on, so I did. What I was presented with was an image of a gigantic film reel on its side, sitting in a projection room ready to be loaded up. Nearby objects revealed the size of the film, and it was gigantic. I had heard of 70mm projection before, but now it was time to take a look into this. My theories were correct: 70mm is quite a bit larger than a typical film cell, resulting in a dramatic increase in picture quality. In this case, Interstellar was filmed in IMAX, filling the entire 70mm frame in a glory that can only be experienced in two theatres in Ontario. This IMAX experience differs from the mainstay screens you see branded with the IMAX name, in that this 70mm projection would be film, while all others are digital. And those digital projections can't match the resolution - so to speak - of a film cell this large.

After messaging Cale and some others, I attempted to convey the benefits of watching this film in 70mm and quickly, a trip was planned to go downtown Toronto. Unfortunately Cale had some other responsibilities (re: family) so he was unable to go, but my friend here was up for the journey. We booked tickets for a 3:30pm show, left for Toronto at 10 in the morning and found our way, with a couple of pit stops, to the theatre. We progressed to our reserved seats, and sat down. Immediately we noticed the size of these chairs as being particularly small. We were shoulder to shoulder, and remarked that this was an older theatre and could only surmise that the general populace is growing horizontally at an alarming pace over the past fifteen years as the new theatre in our hometown had wide, comfortable seating. The screen in front of us was massive, a true IMAX screen. I got excited.

Right on cue, the lights dimmed and screen lit up with various studio logos. There were no trailers or previews here. Those digital elements were not welcome here, and I can only assume that studios don't bother sending out trailers on film anymore. This was going to be a pure experience, but if only somebody told customers. People were waltzing in up to ten minutes after the film started, thinking that they were going to avoid some of the previews. This distraction could not compare to our first disappoinment: the  deep bass of the score seemed to be out of sync (assuming multiple subwoofers), creating this sickening low end droning that would drown out the movie's vocals. After a few minutes of this at the beginning of the film, I felt a headache coming on. This was not supposed to happen. And it happened four or five times throughout the movie.

The second disappointment came from the picture quality itself, which was a significant point as I had just set aside an entire day and hundreds of kilometers to see this movie in the best image possible. First, not all the film was shot in IMAX. Yes, it was silly of me to assume the entire thing was, and perhaps I was a bit too optimistic or my detail-denial of this film obscured some of this information. It's the same thing as Nolan's The Dark Knight, where some scenes are in IMAX while others aren't, and you can determine this by the complete change in aspect ratio. The non-IMAX scenes, or regular film scenes were out of focus and muddy. This was present throughout the entire film, and nagged on my mind throughout.

The IMAX scenes were breathtaking. They were sharp, in-focus and magnificently large. There were plenty of scenes to be seen in this way, and each one delivered on all fronts as promised. I've never see an image as good as this, even going back to seeing Star Trek (2009) in the IMAX in Chicago years ago. That film wasn't shot in large format, but the image was the best I had seen and is the gold standard for picture quality afterward. Nothing has matched it since, except these large format sections of Interstellar. It's all the more disappointment when you understand that this could be the movie presented in this 70mm format. The filming process is expensive, as is distribution. Digital projection is prevalent and the new standard, to the point where studios don't send out film reels anymore. While I'm glad to have seen this in 70mm, I'm upset that it was such a poor theatre experience.

What of the movie itself though?

It was really fantastic. While I step back a little to ensure that I don't view the movie with any kind of bias because of who directed the film, I can't help but see the shine of a truly good director come through here. I own all of Nolan's films, and have confidence in saying that I won't be stopping that habit anytime soon. The genre really appeals to me, and this science fiction film throws out a lot of science that may be incredulous, but presented in a very believable way. The plot is basic: the Earth's plant life is dying, and our crops are nearing impossible to grow. Humanity looks to the stars for a new home. Of course, there is much more.

Something bad has happened in this world, and I enjoy that it's left to our imagination to fill in the blatently gaps. No armies exist anymore. You have a choice to pay taxes? NASA is operating in secret? All little tidbits that help add some depth to this universe while keeping the focus on the story and the characters. In fact, we never really leave the small farm or town - aside from the sweeping space travel. This juxtaposition is important to ground our characters, keeping a focus on their motivations. And yes, the sweeping space travel is incredible. We're presented with some really incredible visuals and sights that we get to experience with awe. Nolan allows us time to consume what we're seeing. The incredible score brings us through the voyage and personally, had me on the edge of my seat.

If you've seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, you'll be right at home here, as well as being able to catch much of the inspiration. A scene from Event Horizon - of all films - is duplicated here nearly verbatim, and it doesn't involved demons from hell. The pacing is a bit slow at first, as the film spends a lot of time on exposition. It's almost jarring when we get into space, and from there things come along at a decent clip. The movie still clocks in at 180 minutes and you can't help but feel some of the latter part of the film was compressed a bit, so we can always hope for a longer cut on home release. The science was pretty heavy at times but at no point was I overwhelmed and in no way am I saying I understood it all. Perhaps it's that I didn't try to wrap my head around much of it that allowed me to enjoy it. You don't need to fully understand the mechanics of time relativity to fully appreciate the emotion that is delivered afterward. I think they've made a pretty accessible film by focusing on the basics, while providing us quite a bit more to chew on.

I don't want to say too much about it, so you can experience it as fresh as I did myself, but I encourage going out to see it, and I will most likely be going out to see it again. A) for the experience of the movie itself and B) for a hopefully better theatre experience, with proper sound and an in-focus picture. Although those IMAX scenes were incredible.

Nightbreed

As I typically keep up on forthcoming special editions of various movies and frequent Bluray
collector sites, I became aware of a movie named Nightbreed that was being given quite the royal treatment. Shout! Factory was releasing a 3 disc special edition of this film, pricing it at about $45 and stamping limited numbers on some of them upon the thriving horde of movie collectors worldwide. Never heard of Nightbreed before, so I took it upon myself to see what the fuss is all about, and most importantly, decide if I wanted to partake in this expensive special edition. After all, at a price like this, there must be something boiling underneath.

The first hit on this movie brings up the name Clive Barker, who wrote and directed the film, which was based on a short story of his own creation. It's a familiar name, especially for those of us growing up in the late eighties: a few iconic horror movies adorned Clive's name above the title, including Hellraiser and Candyman. He was also a well known author, and was involved in various comic book projects (and still is, most likely). It wasn't my type of horror back then, so I missed out on all of it, including Nightbreed.

Not having seen it upon initial release shields me from the nostalgia-goggles that so often blurs the quality of a product - or movie, in this case - from your harsh adult judgments. It's not a bad thing by any account: I love watching movies that were significant to me when I was younger, even though I can see why they would be terrible. Nightbreed, however, was met with critical and box office failure when it released back in 1990. A special edition decades later like this screams cult classic, which indicates I could very well enjoy the film. After all, I've been revisiting many films from the eighties recently and have gotten a kick out of most of them.

Nightbreed is definitely a cult classic. Further investigation unearthed a story of studio meddling, cutting and general Hollywood tomfoolery. The theatrical cut was an abomination, and soon after, Clive Barker put together his own cut which became known as The Cabal Cut. It looks like there was a 145 minute version Barker put together back in 1989, which existed only on VHS as a work print and presumably was bootlegged into cult status. Fast forward two decades, and a newer 159 minute cut was revealed on another long-lost VHS. In 2012, a new 155 minute cut was put together, using elements of the VHS tapes and a DVD from the Warner Bros Archive. This was enough to get people really excited, and it was time for Shout! to announce an upcoming DVD release for the followers of this film. Turns out, they really outdid themselves, as they discovered the original film elements of Nightbreed and gave Clive Barker the opportunity to put together his own cut. The Director's Cut would be the definitive version of this film, and it's made up entirely by thoroughly restored original footage. If you were part of the cult, this was a dream come true.

With all that knowledge, it was time to watch the movie - because I knew about the history of the film I kept myself dark on the film itself. I chose to watch the Director's Cut of course. And what can I say? This is not a good movie, and it pains me to say that. I really wanted to enjoy this film. It's not even a matter of exceeding or falling short of expectations, I just sincerely could not enjoy the film. The first act felt disjointed; there was a lot happening that I didn't understand, nor did the film provide me a lot of clue in the end to what was happening. Our main character - played by Craig Sheffer- is flat generic and meaningless. His girlfriend, played by Anne Bobby, is perhaps the most versatile and impressive on screen, but her poor character keeps walking into danger. Many character actions just don't seem to make a lot of sense. The plot seems like a mess. Is this because there was such a focus on the "monster" makeup? Clive Barker's mind can produce some really interesting imagery, and it's all present here. Each of the dead, residents of Midian, are unique and interesting to look at. Unfortunately they all kind of suck. They are not interesting characters. In fact, they all seem like pushovers with a ton of negativity. Barker wants to guide us through a dream like world, but there's simply too much. The literal trip down the levels of this underground world is incredibly impressive: the monsters and sets are incredible. Unfortunately it's all marred by poor dialogue, silly actions and a weak story. Then there's Cronenberg - yes, that David Cronenberg, who plays a doctor who is really a serial killer trying to frame our poor protagonist. He aids in exposing the hidden refuge of these mutants, and helps the plot along and get us our actual "horror" in the film with traditional slasher methods. The mask he wears is brilliant.

Apparently Clive Barker wanted this to be a Star Wars of horror films, so to speak. And you can feel that ambition flowing from the film and it's rather unfortunate that it falls flat. It seems like this happens too often, and when you look back at some of the great trilogies and worlds, they are built on strong first outings, and those first films don't necessarily try to build up an entire world and leave strings out for future iterations. The first Star Wars film - episode IV - can stand on its own. When you boil down the plot and the characters, there are classic elements that have withstood the test of time and proven themselves in other films (before Star Wars). Through the creation of compelling characters, future stories are born.

The story of how this film came to be restored is interesting, and I'm envious of the fans of the movie. If only some other cult classics could be so lucky and treated with such care and passion. While the movie didn't impress me, I can see that passion coming through, and I can see hints of great, more wonderful things emerging.

Destiny Video

One of the features I was excited for on the PS4 is the Share button, and all the things that it could enable on the system. Specifically, I liked that it was going to record the last fifteen minutes of gameplay and allow me to save that with a touch of a button. It works, and it works well. So far, I've recorded a few gaming sessions and saved them locally, but haven't done anything with it, because the options are limited: Facebook or Twitter (I think). With the latest update we can now upload to YouTube, which is ideal. So this past weekend I decided to upload a video I took of me playing my very first Salvage match in Destiny. Here's how it went.

1. Figure out that I can't just upload the raw video to YouTube.
2. Download and install Sharefactory on the PS4
3. A week later, remember that I installed it.
4. Open Sharefactory, become somewhat confused by the lack of options in it.
5. Start a Project in Sharefactory.
6. Choose my opening bumper video.
7. Try to figure out which video has my gameplay in it (it's been over a month).
8. Spent a weird amount of time trimming the video.
9. Figure out how to export the project.
10. See that Sharefactory was going to take 30 minutes to render the video.
11. Come back hours later.
12. Connect PS4 account to YouTube
13. Enter my 30 character random password manually into PS4 interface. Twice. This took a long time.
14. Start upload to YouTube.
15. Uploading takes just over an hour.
16. Play Destiny for a few hours.
17. Receive confirmation of video upload from YouTube.

It seems like a lot of steps and in all honesty, it was. It was also the first run through, which is a learning experience: future endeavors will go by with a buttery smoothness, I'm sure. Now I just have to fight with my Ryebone YouTube account, which is attached to my Google+ account, which forces me to use a first and last name, so it shows up like "Rye Bone" which just kind of sucks.

As for the video itself, you can see it below. It was my first Salvage match, and it's a bit rough. I don't even know what weapons to use because I'm pretty new to the Crucible. But I make it through. My team is all-star. Then I see that the other team had some dropped players, making it infinitely easier for us. It gets a bit more interesting near the end, where somebody else joins the competition and we have to do a bit more fighting. Most importantly, I never die - until just moments after the match is finished. Really, it was a good experience and I'm encouraged to upload more later on. After intense matches of Star Craft, my friends and I would spend just as much time watching the replay together and making commentary.

WolfCop

Without knowing anything about the movie before seeing it, and judging entirely based on the title and the movie poster itself, you can and do expect a fair amount of cheese. And you get it, in spades. I certainly sat down and started watching this with the full expectation of a terrible movie and yet again, not so surprisingly, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The movie opens on Leo Fafard playing Lou, our soon to be titular wolf cop, waking up, hungover with a woman by his side in bed. The first thing you notice is that this film is not going to be subtle: Lou's an alcoholic to an extreme. And he's a cop, so seeing him drink on the job forces you to detest him, of course, but after the film continues to drive home his alcoholism, you can't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all.

It's no spoiler that he becomes a werewolf, as suggested by the title of the movie. And it is brilliant. Just brilliant. I love these werewolf films, and love that the film spends so much time on his initial transformation. It's disgusting. As it should be. They selectively choose what we see, to let our imaginations run just a bit wild with horror before the full reveal and give the film makers credit for their achievement in fantastic makeup and special effects with such a modest budget. With his new found abilities, Lou takes the high road and decides to make up for his lackluster human morals by fighting crime in his wolf form.

WolfCop answers all the questions that we didn't know we were asking: What part of you transforms to wolf first? Can werewolves eat anything other than people? How long can a person survive without a face? Can werewolves have sex? Or more importantly, make love?

We're treated to a delicious montage of gore, action and humour with scene after scene of ridiculousness. Of course, the movie can't take itself too seriously, and maintains a short run time. It's not going to overstay its welcome nor linger on any poor scenes before advancing onto the next: this movie knows what its doing and it gets the job done well.

We're left wanting more, and the movie promises a return. The sooner the better!

A Loop Adventure

Many moons ago, in the year 1997, a young Ryebone turned sixteen years old. A true milestone of greatness, celebrated across the country as a rite of passage for teenagers who will now take to the road in their parent's cars to cause vehicular mayhem. My sister is four years older than me, and in her time, getting a license in Ontario was looking pretty simple: go and write your test, here's your certificate and off you go. In the time she received her license and when I was going for mine, the provincial government instituted a graduated license program - still in place today - that would see you go through various steps before they deemed you road worthy. As part of this process, it financially beneficial to go through a registered driver's training course. Not only will it reduce your insurance cost, but it will also allow you to advance to the second stage in your license a few months early. It's also extremely beneficial as it teaches you how to drive. The time came, during this training, to go out with my instructor. I logged a few parking lot hours with my parents, but it was now time to tackle the roads with real traffic.

Destiny

It pains me almost - but not completely - by how much I was dismayed and on the fence about Bungie's latest epic, Destiny, just a short two weeks ago. The game didn't sell me initially, but I persevered. Persevered mainly by my friends who were well advanced into the game: they confirmed some of my complaints, but they also intrigued me to continue onward. So I did, putting a few hours in over the course of a few days, then the flood gates opened and I was pouring myself in - all the way in.

First off, is the story, or lack thereof. Yes, I know that it's not necessarily the focus here, but I've quite enjoyed playing through the campaign mode of these first person shooters, especially the Halo series. The story is here, but it feels like it's officially in the backseat here, with the focus being on the "open world" concept that they've built here. The world is impressive, and I'll talk about it more later. It just doesn't feel like anything is happening on the main story campaigns, perhaps because I'm encouraged to go into the overworld and do side-missions and patrols to help level my character so that I can, in fact, progress through the story without it being overly difficult. In those patrols, I would revisit areas over and over, then again (or previously) in story missions. The big open world feels a bit smaller when I've gone there a few times already. This is exactly what happened on the Moon, where I performed the first mission, then did a dozen or so patrol missions with my friend. We went all over the place and yes, it was great fun. The next day I would start a story mission that took me into the exact places I had just explored, but they were now filled with different enemies, narrative and cut scenes. The oomph of the story - of the reveal - was diminished.

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

The setup of the game is simple, but don't let that deceive you: we open on a small boy mourning
over a grave, then a cut scene that tells us the grave belongs to his mother, who was lost at sea. He was there: he tried to help, but couldn't save her. The boy is interrupted by his older brother, who is with their father. The father has fallen ill, and now it's your first task to bring him home in a cart that requires the two brothers to work together to operate. This is where you're introduced to the game's core, innovative control scheme. The left side of the controller (that is, the left stick and left shoulder trigger button) control the older brother, and the right side of the controller belongs to the little brother. Your viewpoint is akin to a bird's eye view, but will zoom in and out as necessary and to always display the two brothers on screen at once.

I must say, I don't think I ever fully got used to the controls. There were many, many moments though when the control scheme synergized and felt incredibly natural and fluid, allowing me to solve puzzles and claim a sense of accomplishment. Other times, I was acutely aware that my brain wouldn't allow the little brother to run left unless he was behind the big brother - like the left stick had to be "first" on the screen. The opposite holds true: when moving the two brothers right, the little brother (the right control stick) had to be on the right of the screen. But you could move them completely independently, and often times I would. There are many moments - many puzzles - that has one of the brothers staying put while the other throws a switch. The puzzles get more complex, and involve timely use of the action triggers. Swinging the two from point to point in later levels required concentration and thought.

As a result, I became conscious of how careful I would become with various puzzles. This is in stark contrast to other games, where typically you're rewarded with going through things as quickly as possible, or you just feel the need to do so on your own anyway. Patience was abundant while playing this game. You're rewarded with beautiful vistas, incredible environments and wonderful small touches throughout. As the brothers begin their journey for medicine, you run through the town and can interact with people and things, including a small girl with a ball. You can throw the ball around, play "monkey in the middle" and even throw that ball down a well, if you're so inclined. There are benches all over the world, representing an opportunity to view the world you're about to enter, or give you a break from adventuring to appreciate the beauty of the landscape.

All the characters speak in gibberish, so it's up to you to identify the subtleties in their mannerisms and their interactions with the environment to progress. It's not a difficult game by any means: clocking in at around three hours, the game is more of an experience than anything else, one which I highly recommend. And from here, there will be spoilers. If you plan on playing, I recommend leaving the article now.

PlayStation 4

The other day, I bought a PS4. It seemed initially to be a result of the perfect combination of peer pressure, (too much) disposable income, peer pressure and finally, peer pressure. While I'm eager and always willing to blame my friends for my seemingly absurd purchases, I have nobody to blame but myself. This allows me to step back and look at the long, storied history of factors that put myself in a Wal-Mart at 7:20am on a Thursday morning, asking for - and subsequently - purchasing the latest iteration of Sony's home video game console.

Six Months of Movies: January to June 2014

Another six months has gone by and I didn't even notice, hence the late nature of this post. It's not exactly a high priority either, but decided to get around to it. Instead of just giving boring old numbers, I figured I would provide some information on the movies I watched this past six months. But first, the numbers.

Fig 1. January 2014 to June 2014

Nothing too exciting to report here, aside from consistency. No more than 15 movies in a month, and no less than nine. If I knew I was dipping into single digits, I would have picked up the slack.

Fig 2. January to June Year by Year Comparison

This comparison between the same period in 2014, 2013 and 2011 speaks more to the consistency I mentioned before. 2013 had a major dip in it, and 2011 was very much more up and down, whereas 2014 has been less prone to those fluctuations. In terms of total viewed, it's pretty steady throughout the years.

2014: 73 movies
2013: 67 movies
2011: 70 movies

What type of movies did I take in for 2014? We can start first by speaking to the quality of the film, as when I record a view, I also record a rating to it, on a scale of one to five stars.

Four movies scored 4.5/5, those being: Inception, The Dark Knight, TRON: Legacy and Senna.

Quite a few more scored 4. Many of these were movies I've seen before, save these films which have a late 2013 or 2014 release: Edge of Tomorrow, Gravity, The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Wolf of Wall Street.

In the first six months of 2014, I've seen 12 movies actually released in 2014, 23 from 2013 and 16 from before 1995.

The worst two movies I saw in this period were Nurse 3-D and The Art of the Steal, sitting at 1 and 1.5 stars respectively. There are quite a few movies sitting at 2 stars, which I don't believe: Critters and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai were good, fun movies but somehow got a low rating. Pompeii and Robocop (the remake) got a deserved score of 2, and both were released in 2014.

The overall average is 3.1 stars, which makes sense.

When will I watch a 5 out of 5 movie?

Fan Expo 2014

This year was going to be a bit different. Mainly, I wasn't going to lie to myself. Every year before The Expo, I tell myself that I'm going to inventory my comics, and create a list of "wants" for the show. It could be as simple as filling in some gaps to complete a run, or a hunt for a specific storyline that I'm interested in. One year, I actually did an inventory, one that I refer back to at times, but one that is also incomplete in both accuracy and details. Over the years, I've picked up a few items but have failed to update that inventory. The end result is often aimless wandering and random purchases - if I can bring myself to purchase anything at all. Twenty fourteen though, this year will be different. And it was.

The Amazing Spider-Man issue #300 can be considered a holy grail for my collection, if you will. When I
was younger and started collecting, the run of comics done by artists Todd McFarlane and Erik Larsen were fresh in the back issue bins. I saved up my allowance over the course of a few weeks to buy Amazing Spider-Man #316, with a brilliant cover by McFarlane, depicting Venom taking down our titular hero. It's an aggressive cover, which also happens to be Venom's first "cover appearance," with bold colours, fast action lines and great peril. I couldn't really buy more than that, but would slowly pick up issues where I could, resulting in a perfect candidate to complete at something like the Fan Expo.

In the weeks leading up to the Expo, I decided I would complete the run from issue #300 to #400, which would take approximately forty issues - more than I thought, but quite attainable. The main obstacle, would be #300. Over the eight years I've been attending Fan Expo, I've kept an eye on the price - it was high, then seemingly came down for a bit but has now steadily rose again. I believe the advent of grading and the general age and increased interest in comics contributes to the increase in price, but mainly grading. At the show, I saw graded issues ranging from $240 to $900, and ungraded issues from $130 to $600. I was hoping not to spend more than $100 on the single issue. Something that could be done, perhaps through eBay, but I wasn't certain on the condition that the comic would be in for such a price. Indeed, I hadn't thought of condition at all for anything.

At the Expo, I undertook my task and picked up six issues, all early 300's with McFarlane's art. They were half price, their condition looked decent and they were serving their purpose for my task. It felt good. It felt great, actually. Rifling through back issue bins, on the hunt, transported me back to the prime of my collecting days. I kept an eye out for #300 and saw it everywhere, but the price was something I wasn't prepared for. Then I saw something: a Marvel Omnibus that collected The Amazing Spider-Man issues #296-329, and one issue from Spectacular. The collected works focuses on the collaboration of writer David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane, but also features some other artists (including Larsen). It happens to collect many of the issues I am looking for, including the holy grail itself.

The book is massive at over 800 pages. It has substance. It would intimidate the other books on the shelf. It was also $100. Breaking that down, would be a decent value for each issue inside, and quite the value, considering that many of those issues go for more than $10 or $20 a piece. I put it back on the table, looked around, then picked it up again. Could I do this? I've never spent so much on a book before. I put it down, and walked away. My mind needed to be cleared up, but it was full of questions. Did I want individual issues? Was having the originals that important? Was it a waste? Did I want to collect, or read? Both?

I came back to the vendor with my mind mad up: I was going to buy it, and I did. The lady handing the cash gave me a big smile, said she saw it in my eyes that I couldn't resist the book. I really couldn't. In my walk, I looked the book up on Amazon and saw that it was selling for more than the asking price at the show, and it could very well have been out of print. One commented that it's in your best interest to sell your individual copies and buy this with the profits. The pages are glossy, the colour has been reconstructed and the ads stripped away. There is a small amount of bonus content - not much, but that wasn't the point. You got everything here, in better shape and clarity than you would the individual issues.

When I got back to my friend's place I quickly opened it up, and was able to compare the same pages within to one of the issues I bought separately. The difference was astounding, and I knew then, that I made the right decision. It would be read, enjoyed and displayed on the shelf, instead of hidden away in long boxes that haven't seen the light of day in years. I was no longer needing to collect every issue in the run from #300 to #400, although I will certainly keep an eye out for issues that I'm missing and are not covered in this collection. It was the right thing to do: I knew that I wasn't the same collector as I was twenty years ago, and didn't need to recreate that person. For the first time, I've acknowledged and accepted where I am and what I was doing in terms of comic collecting. The moment of clarity occurred in the seething masses of comic book fans during the Fan Expo: a chaotic environment, to be sure. It's on that show floor that decisions are made, and boys become comic book men.

As a result, my experience at the Fan Expo this year was absolutely positive. I picked up a few other nice items, and my friend Cale fulfilled his goals. We tried something a little different this year, in that we split up a couple of times to tend to our vices. Cale, in the hunt for video games and merch, and Ryebone, on the hunt for deeply discounted comics. We lost ourselves in time. We arrived early at the Expo, and stayed later than usual. Not until we found ourselves in the car heading home did we pay attention to the screams of our aching feet, or feeling the pain in my shoulder from carrying around a bag full of hardcover comics. Like children, we got home and splayed our bounty in front of Cale's wife, gushing over the deal and significance of each item. It was a ritual that I was fast falling in love with: a modern incarnation of showing your parents your haul from the comic book shop, only to be met with rolled eyes and bemused laughter.

It's time to cross some items off the list, and add new ones. We're only a few days past the event, and I'm ready for next year.