To celebrate her loosing over 80 lbs. this last year, my wife Debbie has signed up for a local March for Babies here in Tupelo on April 26th.
Her current goal is to raise $100 dollars, so with the help of the comic book community I figured we could help her meet that goal.If you would like to donate, you can do so here: http://www.marchforbabies.org/damozbe
I still play D&D in various forms after all these years. I was part of a campaign with a bunch of friends that ran for over two years. Those were really great times. Rest in Peace Gary.
Dungeons & Dragons Co-Creator Dies at 69
By EMILY FREDRIX – 7 hours ago
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Gary Gygax, who co-created the fantasy game
Dungeons & Dragons and helped start the role-playing phenomenon,
died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva. He was 69.
He had been suffering from health problems for several years, including an abdominal aneurysm, said his wife, Gail Gygax.
Gygax
and Dave Arneson developed Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 using
medieval characters and mythical creatures. The game known for its
oddly shaped dice became a hit, particularly among teenage boys, and
eventually was turned into video games, books and movies.
Gygax
always enjoyed hearing from the game’s legion of devoted fans, many of
whom would stop by the family’s home in Lake Geneva, about 55 miles
southwest of Milwaukee, his wife said. Despite his declining health, he
hosted weekly games of Dungeons & Dragons as recently as January,
she said.
“It really meant a lot to him to hear from people from
over the years about how he helped them become a doctor, a lawyer, a
policeman, what he gave them,” Gygax said. “He really enjoyed that.”
Dungeons
& Dragons players create fictional characters and carry out their
adventures with the help of complicated rules. The quintessential geek
pastime, it spawned a wealth of copycat games and later inspired a
whole genre of computer games that’s still growing in popularity.
Funeral arrangements are pending. Besides his wife, Gygax is survived by six children.
What the HELL do I have to do, and\or who do I have to talk to get comics on a persistent basis??? Is there a form to fill out, a goat to sacrifice, whatever it is I am just about ready for it.
It has now become habit for me to call up the local shop (after they open at noon) on Wednesday to see if comics have come in. The shop is on the other side of town and sometimes UPS shows up late, or not until Thursday, and on a few occasions not until Friday.
Now this isn’t an ideal situation, but I would rather call and find out then drive all the way over there and their not be any new stuff. Things have been getting better over there at the local shop, they moved next door to a better place and things have been looking like a real business instead of something that has been run out of a garage. I have suffered for a few months(?) now while they are still trying to get credit card access set back up (they say), so I have to run by the bank for cash instead of using my debit card. I have dealt with that, there is an ATM pretty close. I have dealt with the fact that I want to get copies of the Lone Ranger comic for me and Dad since we used to watch reruns when I was a kid, but they never seemed to get ordered and I end up hunting they down somewhere else.
After today it might be time to think things over again. I call at 12:15, giving the owner time to unpack boxes and I am informed there is no shipment this week. WHAT!! Now I know sometimes holidays make comics late a day, even bad weather on the east coast made things late a day too. I even gave him the benefit of the doubt and double checked that I didn’t miss some news about no comics coming out for some reason. Nope, shipping as usual.
So what the HELL is the deal here?? Why is it so hard for me to go in there and SPEND MONEY!!! Now of course I could just go to another shop, but the closest one is in Memphis about 1hr 45min away (around an hour if my wife drives).
I know that things happen; the owner has had trouble with UPS in the past with things being put on the truck but never getting to the shop until late. However, if I was running that shop, I would do SOMETHING to make sure that those damn comics were there when I opened every damn week!!! Am I crazy (don’t answer that) or am I the only one that thinks this is a bunch of crap??
OK, I feel better now.
Hello, my name is Chris and I am a comic book addict.
We need more of this kind of thing today, kids don’t really have anyone to look up to these days. Hopalong Cassidy was always one of my Dad’s favorites, and I remember watching his movies with my Dad when I was a kid.
Those are some of my favorite times growing up, and I wouldn’t trade those for anything. Thanks Dad!
Rare poster from the first Hopalong Cassidy movie in 1935
Grace Bradley circa 1934
Young Bill Clinton dressed as Hoppy
Some celebrities emphatically proclaim that they don’t want to be role
models. They won’t adhere to certain behaviors, even if their limelight
activities may be mimicked by children. Others take on the role with
pride, using their clout to organize events, raise money for charities,
and the new trend of being green.
One celebrity who loved being a role model was William Boyd. Known
primarily as Hopalong Cassidy, Boyd wanted the character, and his
public appearances, to mean something to people. However, Hoppy wasn’t
always that way. As a pulp-fiction character he was a whisky-drinking,
hard-living, foul-mouthed wrangler. When Boyd took the role to film he
cleaned up the character making him a cowboy hero who didn’t drink,
swear, or smoke, and he never started a fight.
Hopalong Cassidy was known as a noble cowboy, and he took that
seriously. When Hoppy producer Harry Sherman wanted to cancel the
series, Boyd gambled virtually everything he had to buy the character
rights from creator Clarence Mulford and movie rights from Sherman. He
sold many of his possessions and spent most of his money on the belief
that America wanted more Hoppy, and that he could deliver.
Boyd was always good to his fans. He generously gave money to
charities and hospitals to help those less fortunate. On a regular
basis, he would visit hospitals and take part in children’s programs to
interact with his youthful fans. When going to hospitals, dressed as
Hoppy, he would bring gifts for children, making their day in the
process.
Aside from taking part in charities, he expressed moral justness.
By the end of every Hopalong Cassidy show he gave encouraging advice
telling people to be kind to animals, support their country, go to
church, behave for your parents, etc. At a department store opening he
refused to sign autographs until the two lines, one of African American
children and one of Caucasian children, were integrated.
William Boyd was not just an entertainer, but a humanitarian. His
personal values and unwavering pursuit of morality imparted wisdom to
generations of children and that will always be part of his legacy.
Gemstone’s Hopalong Cassidy book is well on its way. Co-authored by
his widow, Grace Bradley Boyd, the book will give insight into William
Boyd’s life, the love he shared with Grace, and the message he and
Hoppy shared with America. Gemstone is still collecting photographs of
children dressed as Hoppy. If you have these photos, particularly of
the early 1950s, send them to russ@russcochran.com.
“In times like these, when IT administrators are trying to determine which flaws to deal with first, it helps to have an array of security blogs
to visit where the vulnerability details are sliced and diced and fellow IT pros can explain how they are addressing a threat in their
environments.
I visit many of these blogs when trying to figure out which security issues need to be written about on any given day, and would like to devote this week’s
column to sharing them. And so here’s my list:”
Not only am I on the list, but I am second in line
Not bad for a blog with no content huh?
In any case I am really glad to see that there are people out there that appreciate my meager attempts at trying to keep the community informed on various security issues. This and all of the people that have come up to me at MMS to give thanks for what I do really make it all worth while.
I woke up this morning and found that advertisements for adult webcomics had made their way on to my sidebar ads, and on the banner ad of the New Comic Weblog Updates Page.
I don’t know if anyone actually saw those ads, but they have been removed and I have taken step to hopefully make sure that this doesn’t happen again.
If anyone was offended, I apologize. That isn’t the kind of content I want to be represented here.
If anyone finds any of the other ads on this site offensive, please let me know and I will take steps to fix the problem.
I got a call from the Managing Editor of WindowsSecrets.com last night, letting me know that he had decided to discontinue my column effective immediately. He plans to have one of the other editors combine the same kind of content into their columns. My last column was published on Aug, 16th 2007
I can’t say that I am surprised but it couldn’t have happened at a better time. That small column was beginning to demand more time that it was supposed to when I first signed up for it, and with the book deadlines coming up, it would have been impossible to keep up.
Working for that newsletter was a great opportunity for me, and I enjoyed working with the other editors as they were real professionals and very passionate about what they do.
