2015- A Retrospective: Days Gone By an Unknown Future

Here we are once again on the cusp of a brand new year, and I'm finding it almost surreal that we're coming up on 2016 already! I remember being a kid in the early 90's feeling like the year 2000 was so far away, and now we're almost into the new century by two whole decades! I was filled with so much wonder back then as to what things were going to be like post 2000. How different would the world be? Would there be flying cars, faster-than-light travel, virtual reality, giant robots, laser guns, and instant pizza? Would I at least be able to finally get one of those totally kick-ass hover boards from Back to the Future II?

In a lot of ways the world is different. Medicine, communication, entertainment, and technology in general have all improved by leaps and bounds. I remember when something like Netflix or youtube was considered a pipe dream to many. I remember how 3-D printing was something you only saw in sci-fi stories. I remember how flash cartoons ruled the internet in its infancy. Hell, I remember how having a 100 MB hard-drive and a 56k dial-up modem made me one of the baddest dudes on the net. Now we have the internet at our fingertips wherever we go through the likes of smart phones. Virtual reality games and toys to life games are becoming a major staple in the videogame industry. We can 3-D print anything as simple as miniatures to even human anatomy. There are even giant mechs being made for battle as I write this post. Things are indeed different now then when I was just that kid, wondering what the future held. While I'll admit to being a bit bummed we still don't have things like flying cars (or consumer ready hover-boards for that matter) the new millennium has been rife with innovations, and creations galore. We're living in that awesome sci-fi world I used to dream of.

The only down part I can find to it all is how it just seems to be flying by if anything else. Honestly it feels like just last month we were celebrating the turn of the century, just last week we were congratulating ourselves for making it a decade in, and just yesterday we were welcoming 2015 through the door. I don't know if it's simply the affects of me getting older or what, but the years seem to be slipping away from me faster than I can truly appreciate them. Then again, they do say that time flies...

I'll admit to 2015 being a pretty hectic year for me. It was without a doubt populated with a ton of personal ups and downs, which is probably why it feels so brief in my mind. My near-death experience at the end of 2014, the subsequent medical bills I had due to my surgery, the loss of my aunt at the beginning of 2015, my mother's continuing health issues, along with my turning thirty years old are all very viable reasons why I've found myself more ponderous and reflective than ever before. But this isn't the first time I've felt as though life was passing me by. This has been a sensation I've experienced practically since I first graduated high-school all the way back in 2003.

It's been mentioned previously on this blog, but '03 was a landmark year for me then. That was not only the year I graduated high-school, but also the year I got my driver's license, and attended my very first anime convention. I could honestly argue that it was likely one of the most influential years of my entire life. The world was essentially opening up to me for the first time, and in those initial days, life almost felt like a never ending carnival. Everyday was like a new event. Before this point I had never even left my home state of Maryland. Suddenly I'm traveling up and down the east coast, visiting places I had never been to before, and meeting tons of new people.

I know it's been said repeatedly on this blog, but it will always bear repeating in my mind. Meeting people like Joseph Silver, Bitmonkey, Shonuff44, Crybringer, Clear Skies, Razerfox, Riftwalker, Liquidmark, Animefreak40k, Cowrie1974, Al-818, Omar Dogan, Jim Zubb, Ross Watson, and Mike Surbrook was some of the best things to ever happen to me. All of these fantastic people came into my life simply because I decided to attend Otakon '03. If anything else, I'd like to say thanks to each and every one of them for all the years they've simply been there as friends. Thanks for helping forge me into a somewhat alright, well-rounded guy. Of course I can't forget my best friend for life/roommate Matt, along with my best bro Justin and the rest of my family. My father Frank and my mother Darlene worked hard to raise my siblings and I well enough so that we could go out into the world and make something of ourselves. Lord knows where I'd be without any of these awesome people at my back. With them all in my corner I've felt like I could conquer the world sometimes.

But as it currently stands, I feel like almost everything just went by too quickly. All these great moments I've shared and done with these people (the conventions, the games, the nights out drinking, the drawing sessions, the hours long conversations, etc.) all feel tragically too brief; like a "blink and you'll miss it!" type of deal. As the clock ticks on and life continues to pull us all in different directions, I can't help but find myself pinning for that clock to slow, just by a few seconds, if at all. Maybe it really is just me becoming an old man, who's nostalgic for simpler days. I can't help but sometimes feel like I'm at a point where life is no longer giving me things, but taking them away. Relatives I was close too (like my aunt and my grandparents) have passed away, I lost my dog Titan, pop-culture icons I admired (like Dio, Roddy Pipper, Dusty Rhoads, Lemmy Kilmister, and many more) have all gone in the last fifteen years. My mom, who used to be so active and funny is now wheelchair bound and depressed due to several strokes. All those good times are but memories now, with no chance to ever be relived or continued. I've found myself wishing on the odd night to just be able to live those moments if but for one more time; to have that same feeling of the carnival fill my soul.. But then I snap back and accept that all things must eventually come to an end.

Of course there was a lot of good to write about in regards to 2015. I managed to go out and do quite a bit whenever I had some spare time away from my desk at work/at home. This ranged from going to conventions, to attending concerts, to visiting the zoo, to just getting together with everyone to watch a professional wrestling pay-per-view. That's not even counting the movies I've seen, the games I've played, and a myriad of other extremely fun/nerdy activities. With all of my reminicing and schmaltzy feels out of the way, here is my...

 

!!!2015 YEAR-END RETROSPECTIVE!!!

A Chance Meeting with Weird Al!

Right at the top of summer this year I got to attend my very first Weird Al Yankovic concert. As part of the Mandatory Fun Tour, they stopped at the Pier Six Pavilion in Baltimore MD (my back yard practically) on June 13th, and I knew I had to be there. For those who don't know, I f#c%ing love me some Weird Al. I grew up listening to the guy since I could literally comprehend music, so getting the chance to see one of my all-time favorite musicians/comedians live was not an opportunity I was going to let pass. Together with my brother Justin, my roommate Matt, and Rob (Clear Skies) we embarked out to Baltimore to watch this legend perform his craft, live on stage.

We took our seats, the lights dimmed, and Weird Al just blew everyone away. Opening up with an awesome walk-through of the venue to his song 'Tacky' the crowd simply became electric. For a solid three hours Mr. Yankovic poured his heart out on stage, and despite the sweltering Baltimore city summer heat, everyone joined in without nary a dip in enthusiasm. His concert set was ultimately a celebration of his storied career up to that point, and when he came out for his encore performance the audience became so loud I almost couldn't even hear what he had to say upon reentering. The Weird Al chants were just too damn powerful.

This was how close we were to the stage.

Justin, Matt, and Rob waiting for the concert to start.

After the concert wrapped up, we found ourselves waiting outside the venue, killing time. This was mostly because traffic in Baltimore on a summer Saturday night (never mind one where a concert and a baseball game were both happening) has always been a bit of a slog, so we figured we'd wait it out for a bit, then go home. At a couple of points during our wait, I made mention of how cool it would be if we got to meet Weird Al just because we were waiting there. As if almost on cue, Steve Jay (the bass guitarist in Weird Al's band) came out and started asking us if we liked the show. We told him how much we loved it, and how all of us were long-time fans of Al. He hesitated for a moment and then told us that Al was actually going to be meeting fans on his tour bus in a few minutes; if we were willing to wait. Needless to say, we waited happily in line outside of his tour bus, and eventually I got to shake hands with the man himself. We talked for a few minutes, and I got to personally thank him for all the years he's dedicated to entertaining guys like myself. I only managed to get one photo of him, and unfortunately my hand was shaking like a chihuahua in a winter storm because I was meeting a childhood hero.

I almost still can't believe this actually happened! He even signed my Weird Al CD!

A Fun Trip to the Zoo

While it isn't a regular thing for me, every now again I enjoy taking trips out to Washington DC. Usually it's to see the likes of the Smithsonian, or the National Gallery of Art, but sometimes I go just to check out the National Zoo. I love to go there due to the fact that the place is huge, and has some of the best animal exhibits on the east coast. Consider that it's also entirely free, and I have little to no reason to not go. This past July I didn't go alone. I had my good friends Ronzo (Shonuff44) and Cindy (Cowrie1974) with me, and we had a grand 'ol time to say the least. Cindy was the one taking most of the pictures, but it didn't stop me from snapping a few cool shots.

Ronzo outside of the seal tank.

And me outside of the seal tank, just cause it looked cool.

I managed to get a really nice ass shot.

I also got a nice profile of this milk mama.

   

The Other Conventions

While I did my usual write-ups for Magfest, Katsucon, and Otakon this year, they weren't the only ones I was in attendance for. I was also at Bronycon, and Baltimore Comic Con, but failed to do any kind of reports on them due to my overly hectic work/personal schedule. I managed to snag some decent pictures, and I even sold some work at Bronycon. I made up a con-exclusive print, that impressively enough, sold out before the convention closed. I was there with Clear Skies (and several other artist) helping promote the tabletop RPG Roan.

Mayor Mare

Don't know who this guy is, but he's cool.

Star Swirl the Bearded

Flutter-Hulk

Little Big Mac readies a knock-out blow.

Queen Sombra

Clear Skies meets the defender of the skies, The Rocketeer.

The Roan team hard at work.

As for Baltimore Comic Con, I was (much to my dismay) only there for the Saturday of the event. Even though my time at the con was brief, I was able to meet up with quite a few writers and artists that I've always wanted see. Getting to shake hands and share art with the likes of Frank Cho, Amanda Conner, Budd Root, Neal Adams, Mark Waid, Ron Marz, and many more was pretty awesome to say the least.

Sue Storm

Poison

Catwoman

A Sound of Thunder brought the metal to BCC!

Red Arrow and Hawkeye shared archery tips.

Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange were looking for the boy who lived.

The DC Bomber Girls raided the convention hall.

The Good ol' Games

2015 hasn't exactly been a major hallmark year for me in regards to videogames. While the rest of the gaming world has been making the jump to the newer consoles in 2015, I've found myself picking up a WiiU and 3DS games throughout the year. Playing games like Super Smash Bros., Super Mario 3-D World, Bayonetta 2, Xenoblade Chronicles X, and Freedom Planet on the Wii U have been more than enough to pull me through the months. The area where I've been dropping the most hours though has been with my 3DS, and for good reason. Awesome games such as Fire Emblem: Awakening, Bravely Default, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, Stella Glow, Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX, Senran Kagura: Deep Crimson 2, and several others have all done an excellent job helping me waste away my leisure periods.

I will admit that the PS4 and X-Box One are becoming more tempting with some of the announcements made this year (like Gravity Rush: Remastered & Gravity Rush 2) but as of this moment, I'm currently pretty content to just keep playing on my WiiU and 3DS. Going by what I've personally experienced, two of the best games in 2015 was Freedom Planet on the WiiU, and Shantae and the Pirate's Curse on the 3DS. Galaxy Trail's work on Freedom Planet is everything I've wanted out of a Sonic title for years, and I can't begin to expound upon how happy that makes me. I grew up playing metric tons worth of Sonic games, so finally being able to say that there is a game that is a proper spiritual successor to that franchise is nothing less than frankly fantastic. Wayforward's latest installment in their Shantae series is for all intents and purposes, one of the best 2-D platformers I've had the luxury of playing in the last five years. From the graphics, to the gameplay, everything in Shantae is simply oozing with glorious nostalgic charm. I emphatically encourage anyone who even remotely enjoys old-school 2-D style platform gaming to check out Shantae post hast.

Between these two titles alone I've already spent tons of hours going around finding all the little collectibles, while trying to get the best run times. I'm sure I'll eventually move on from these games, but right now I'm still dedicating hours of my week to playing both. The only other game that came nearly as close to these two was Broforce on the PC. I consider counting Broforce as almost unfair though, because that game exists in its own league purely due to the insane amounts of freedom and justice it single-handedly possesses.

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Freedom Planet

Then there was the tabletop gaming antics I had, and boy what a year it's been. At the top of 2015, I not only got to run another part to my absolutely insane Maid RPG for my gaming group, but I also got to finish it in totally spectacular fashion. Without going too deep into the minutia of it here, I'll say this much: What started out as a group of maids (all of them with disparately weird backgrounds) helping out a scientist with his physics studies, quickly turned into an epic battle among the gods for the very fate of the multiverse.

After my completely anime-nuts-o Maid RPG finally came to a close, my brother Justin was then courteous enough to run a Mutants and Masterminds campaign for the group. The setting was essentially a situation where four super-villains had taken over the world, trashed it, and were ready to war with each other over the final say of who was in charge. Only a handful of remaining heroes are left to form a resistance to fight back, and well, chaos ensued. While it wasn't very long, it was highly entertaining considering all the post-apocalyptic type heroes we created for the game. I got to resurrect an older RPG character of mine (Star Power) and re-envision her in an Age of Apocalypse sort of way. Egos clashed in the best ways possible at points, and I've gotta say that the game really was one of the highlights of the year for me. I can only hope that 2016 brings just as much glorious tabletop shenanigans, seeing as how we're looking to start experimenting with D&D 5th Edition.

The Great 2015 Movie Drought

2015 actually marked an uncommonly dry year for me. I didn't get out to the theater nowhere near as much as I would've liked to, but at the same time, I sadly don't feel like I missed much either. While I did get to see essentially all the major releases that had my attention, I'm ashamed to admit that I missed some truly great gems like Ex Machina and The Revenant. If anything else, 2016 looks to be gearing up as a hallmark year for the geeks, and you can bet your bottom dollar I'm gonna be seeing most of/if not all of them.

Movie of the year is pretty easy for me to decide. It is without a doubt Mad Max: Fury Road. This was the only film I watched this year where I felt a strong compulsion to see it on the big-screen more than once. Even though some of the other big titles like Avengers: Age of Ultron, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Ant Man provided a good deal of entertainment, it was Mad Max that ultimately excelled in truly impressing me. Every bit of praise that Fury Road has been given has been entirely earned in my eyes. From its immaculate special effects, to its stellar action, every pore of Fury Road is filled to the brim with quality.

TV Times are a Changin'

Television hasn't been able to hold my attention for years, but surprisingly enough 2015 actually delivered up several shows that I really enjoyed. From the continuing adventures of everyone's favorite rainbow colored ponies in MLP, to Japan's absolutely phenomenal Death Parade, One Punch Man, and Monster Musume, TV has finally started to bounce back strong. Enough so that I might consider opening more of my schedule up to see what's becoming available for viewing.

Nowhere is this more evident than with Marvel's big return of Daredevil. This netflix series kicked nine kinds of ass, and stands heads and shoulders above some of the best shows that have come out over the last five years. Yes, that even includes Game of Thrones. Don't get me wrong, I love GoT, it's easily one of my all-time favorite shows, but I gotta give credit where it's due. Daredevil knocked it completely out of the park! From the superb acting, to the perfect production values, to the awesome action, to simply the story being told, all of it is quality entertainment. Daredevil was everything I wanted it to be, and more. Even it's sister series Jessica Jones (while still good in its own right) isn't quite up to par with the incredible outing featuring the devil of Hell's Kitchen.

Squared-Circle Shenanigans

Perhaps one of the most enjoyable things I've found myself doing this year (next to the tabeltop gaming) was getting together with a good portions of my friends and watching WWE pay-per-view events. I won't hesitate to admit that I'm actually a huge professional wrestling fan, but I haven't really been paying attention to it for the last few years. The emergence of my tabletop group was what fundamentally spurred on these monthly get-together's, and every time we've gotten together for these things it's been an absolute riot.

We all know that the WWE isn't what it used to be, so most of the time we simply have fun arm-chair booking, making light of botched spots, and making bets on how bad a show can potentially get. Of course it isn't all just for goofs, as we do watch New Japan Pro Wrestling on a weekly basis. While the WWE may be a bit of a joke these days, NJPW is nothing to sneeze at. These guys work each other, and sometimes the ring itself, harder than any of the top talent WWE currently sports.

Add into the mix the occasional odd-out MMA event (like watching Rhonda Rousey getting KO'd) and you've got yourself a veritable testosterone infused good time. Nothing brings my friends together better apparently than seeing people beat the snot out of each other, or rolling dice to kill things and take their stuff. What can I say except that you gotta love and represent the nerd life man...

This is exceptionally normal/tame for us. Usually there's a lot more fire involved with these sort of events.

 

Overall

In the end 2015 hasn't been an entirely bad year by any stretch. It could have been a hell of a lot worse, that much is for sure. I was able to dissolve my nasty medical bills, and put the funds (meant for those bills) towards building myself a new computer. While I haven't finished the commissions I owe in exchange for that money just yet, I haven't forgotten for a second what my obligations are. My plans for this new computer are finally starting to gel, so my podcast will be coming up very very soon. To those who're waiting on work from me, the pieces are in fact coming, and I'm sorry that it's literally taken a year to get them. Hopefully 2016 is going to be a new landmark year; where I finally take that plunge into the uncharted waters! I've got a good feeling about all of this going forward if anything else!

Wish me luck on this journey everyone! And HAPPY NEW YEAR!