Hey everyone! It's time for some
Bulleteer Madness. I have a couple of things I want to announce,
not a lot of bad news. This is going to be a personal column,
not too much comics review, but it will definitely revolve
around comics.
Raph's Rant: Excelsior! Geeks
Unite! Changes. Transition. Life.
First off, I hit Excelsior on the forums! Excelsior is 1000 posts. Before winter break, I had about 240 or so. I made over 750 posts in a MONTH! It's something I wanted to do for my birthday, have 1000 posts. Well I hit the goal pretty early! When I first set off to do this, I wanted to get myself out there, and be known as one of the top posters on CGS. Then as time went by, and others shot right into the upper 1000's – 2000 level, I stopped caring so much. It's a number. A very high number, but it's not like I'm competing with anybody on the forum, I just felt the need to be one of the top posters. Winter Break is nearing an end for me, and I have so much on my plate. I enjoy posting on the forum, not just for the sake of posting, but for discussing comics with people who love it as much as I do. That's what the forum is about, not who has the most posts. Hell, from what I heard, this is the third forum. If and when this forum crashes, my post count will be eliminated. So I'm happy I reached a goal I set for myself, but it's time to move on.
For those of you who don't know, I'm starting a podcast. I was inspired to do it after hearing Peter Rios talk about the beginning of Comic Geek Speak. Sean's mentioned how he got started by contributing to CGS. I'm contributing to Raging Bullets, with a column, a story and my constant posting. Sean and Jim have been very good to me in letting me do this stuff, and I've tried to be as good and enthusiastic as I could be. I've tried to release this column on time. I'm trying to release two chapters of Crisis on Infinite Bullets a month. I think the next logical step is to join Sean and Jim in the podcasting world. I respect what they do and I think imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So I'm in the comics podcast fray.
Wanting to do something and actually doing it are two different things. I've downloaded all the equipment needed, the sound editing and conversion files and what have you. I got Skype, for the panel to communicate together, I got recorders and What-Not. I even got a review copy of a comic sent to me through someone on ComicSpace. That was awesome. I've had episode 0 in the can for a month now... just need to edit the um's and uh's, so what's the problem? Time.
I have 22 credits left of school to complete. 15 credits in Spring, which is 5 classes, are being taken care of. I'm also volunteering at a hospital. I love comics, I love them with a passion. I want to be involved in the industry, regardless of what I get paid for it, nothing or everything. I just don't have the time right now. Between all of that stuff, podcasting and writing columns and stories, including my own comics work, I don't know how I stay sane. Passion really makes people do crazy things.
Recently, a friend (and forum member) suggested that I take time for myself, that I slow down the pace of things. If I could get paid for my passion, I'd drain myself dry every single day until I was dead tired. So in light of all of these things in my life, I'm going to be doing this column bi weekly. You thought I was going to drop it didn't you?!? Well no. I love this column, it's my first public display of my fanboy-ism. It's not very professionally done, I tend to do everything while I'm typing without organizing an outline or anything, but it's something I've done. I hope I have a few readers. So I want to slow down the pace a little, I'm sure you guys spend 40 dollars a week on comics, listen to 10 – 15 podcasts a week on top of your other stuff right? ... Just me, eh? Well I think you guys get the point.
The plan is to release this column on Week 2 and Week 4 of the month, Crisis on Infinite Bullets will come out Weeks 1 and 3. You will get a full month of goodness from me, until I go crazy and burn out. It's my gift to you, my fellow Bulleteers, and it's just the only way I can do this. My passion won't let me drop this thing.
As for the format, well I want to make it a little more “column-y”. More official. More professional. It may not happen, but I want to try. I also may change up things. I might bring in more stuff on my podcast and my writing rather than just talk about DC Comics and review their books. My life as a comic fanboy is evolving, this column should reflect that change.
Not all of this is going to happen suddenly. I'm still going to be doing my usual stuff for the next week or so. I don't plan on doing Geeks Unite! “full time” until Summer 2007, maybe even fall, so this is a major transition period for me, well in general it is. I'm going to graduate. My adult life is really beginning in earnest. Can I really be such a huge fanboy now? Don't I have to get serious about my life and really do something with it? Can I get myself published and live off of that? Can I succeed? All the questions that come with being your own person. It's a lot of nervous fear, but it's exhilirating.
Anyway, that's my rant for
this week. I think the column is going to take on this kind of
format. I'm going to rant about my writing and my podcast, a
behind the scenes kind of look. I'm not some elitist who wants
to build mystery around my life. Yes I want to write comics, yes
I want to do a podcast, but (and this is more specific to the
creators, as I find podcasters to be the most awesome people
ever) I'm not the greatest podcaster on Earth, nor am I the only
person who is capable of writing a comic book that isn't already
a professional. I want to share my experience, not to brag about
it, but to allow people to take the journey with me. You don't
have to be a writer as well, I just want to share with others.
Silver Bullets of the Week – The
Last One. There are spoilers.
The “Self Contained Goodness”
Bullet – Y The Last Man #53. Very excellent self contained
story. It links to the past, as we are winding down to the end
of the series, but I'm a relatively new comer to this series and
I throughly enjoyed it. Very emotional at times, very cold and
stark at others. We follow the life of a former supermodel in
her life digging graves and preparing bodies.
The “Go Get Some!” Bullet – Green
Lantern #16. I sincerely hope Hal Jordan hands that snot nosed
Amon Sur. I was starting to like Cowgirl... now she's dead,
according to Amon Sur. We all know, from the past few weeks,
that nobody really dies until we see the corpse, and even
then... that's for the next bullet...
The “Bang for the Buck, Mooch
Pick this UP!” Bullet – 52 Week 37. Wow. Just wow. Amazing. I
kind of expected Booster to return, but it still blew my mind
away. Skeets ATE the Phantom Zone. The muddah effin PHANTOM
ZONE. WHO DOES THAT?????? I was amazed by that. Also, the
revelation about Buddy was a shocker, but I expected it. Charlie
didn't die, why should Buddy? I predict someone WILL die for
sure around Weeks 50 – 52. Not before then.
That's all for this week. The
next Bulleteer Madness will either be this week or next. Crisis
on Infinite Bullets Chapter 3 will be out this week too. Episode
0 of “Geeks Unite!” will be out also. Big things in the works,
thank you to Sean and Jim for hosting this column, and thank
you, the person reading this, for doing so. I hope I've
entertained and possibly informed you over the past 3 months or
so.
Raph is a 22 year old Hunter
College student. His column, Bulleteer Madness, can be viewed at
the Raging Bullets webpage,
www.ragingbullets.com.
He is also attempting to get a podcast started, and has a
webpage dedicated to it and to his comics endeavor, the
Wraythverse. That can be seen at
http://www.freewebs.com
He will also SHAMELESSLY
PROMOTE anything he finds enjoyable. You can contact him at
ComicGeeksUnite@gmail.com
OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER: Raph's rants and insanity do not reflect the opinion, beliefs or goals of Raging Bullets as a podcast. Any opinions, words or strange sounds coming out of Raph are completely his own, and shall be treated as such by anybody with sue-happy lawyers. Oh, and if you're actually going to sue me, get a life, I'm not really here to trash anyone, just spreading the comics love.