tangerine's dream

I've been trying valiantly to a) get rid of some clutter and b) unpack the last of my random boxes. I'm failing miserably at the former and succeeding somewhat at the latter. In unpacking a box that I thought was only comics, I discovered my "missing-presumed-gone" Buffy graphic novels, and some zines I had that used to belong to lucylooo.  I wasn't really ready to read the zines at the time, and for some reason I was convinced one of them was entirely about Space: Above and Beyond, which I really only know the title of and not much else.

That said, I finally looked at the aforementioned zine and noticed it was, in fact, a multi-fandom zine, and that the last fandom listed was X Force (no dash).  To which I tilted my head, and said out loud to nobody, "wait, my X-Force?"  and ended up reading a Shatterstar/Cable story, with some UST Shatterstar/Rictor floating around in the background.  It was quality, classic Shatterstar, and very firmly set in canon. 

I'm actually sorry I missed the heyday of zines.  Most of them, admittedly, I couldn't have purchased, being under-aged at the time, but still!  I find them very neat.  I console myself with the knowledge that while I missed the zine thing, I used to buy fansubs on VHS from a guy in a black civic, outside a donut shop, in the sketchiest part of Scarborough ('burb of Toronto).  Fannish history is something I love very much.  

Somewhat fandom related, I think I've finally settled on my cons for this year:

1. Ottawa Comic Con (Ottawa, ON)
2. Anime North (Toronto, ON)
3. Otakon (Baltimore, MD)
4. Otakuthon (Montreal, QC)
5. Fan Expo (Toronto, ON) -- this one is a maybe, I wish it wasn't run the way it is

I still have a hearty list from the Snowflake Challenge, so one of those might sneak in this year, too.  I always stare at NYCC enviously. 

I'm back to re-reading X-Force. I got side-tracked when I had to re-read 100 issues of X-Factor for yuletide (such a hardship, I know). Tony Daniel is on art now, and he's really the guy who defines X-Force-era Rictor and Shatterstar for me. I'm up to issue 34 -- which is really one of the quintessential Rictor issues. You get Rictor's messed up family history and the glory of Shatterstar revealing he learned Spanish just so he and Rictor could secretly communicate. Guh, boys, seriously. (All the issue 34 stuff also makes it even more tragic when power-less Rictor in X-Factor starts using guns, waah).

I think, after X-Force, I'll re-read PAD's awesome first run on X-Factor (and possibly all of X-Factor, because tiny!Rictor shows up in, like, issue 17 and is so wee and little and traumatised). I've been keeping up to date with Kathleen David's blog (PAD's wife).  For those comic fans who may not know, Peter David had a stroke a little over a week ago, and she's been keeping the fans (among others) updated on his progress. 

Then after X-Factor, I'll read the New Mutants, because I've owned the entire run for years and never actually read a single issue.  /confession