What Is Geek Life?

Nostalgia is big business.  We all get a little misty eyed when we think of the all the cool things we had or did when we were kids.  For that very reason, every two weeks for the next year, ACB will proudly present a new issue of Geek Life.  It will be a retrospective, introspective look at all the great geek things of the past three decades.  But what can you expect from Geek Life?

The Geek Life Column

You can expect me to present many topics from my memories of watching the classic Doctor Who series, to my fondness for the Marvel Transformers series, to the significance of the Secret Wars maxi-series, to how awesome Star Trek comics were and how The Next Generation made a huge splash in the mainstream.  I will focus the first 13 issues on the 1980s with the second half focusing more on the 1990s and 2000s.  Most of the issues will be directly tied to the things we’ve covered before on this site, but some items may step outside the realm of comics.

So now that you know what Geek Life is, you might ask why we’re featuring one person’s view on these topics.  Why let just one person share his own personal memories of growing up a fan of comic books, sci-fi, and so on?  Well, it’s because many of us have experienced many of these some moments in our collective history.  Maybe an even more commonly asked question will be why should you care about my childhood?

Well, I’ve always been a sentimental person.  As I’ve grown older, sentimentality has grown to near out-of-control levels.  As changes in my life get nearer, I’ve wanted to express these memories in some way to not only the person I will soon be married to, but mostly for my children that will also be coming in my future.

I don’t doubt that my offspring will be just as weird or quirky or geeky as I will be.  I’ve long realized that.  They will grow up in a world that is decades removed from the original Star Wars trilogy.  They won’t have the pleasure of going to see a new Indiana Jones movie or watching cartoons on Saturday mornings like Transformers or G.I. Joe.  Well, they may have some of that stuff, but it won’t quite be like what they were when they were brand new things.  What they will have will be re-imaginings or maybe even poorly done live action movies or remakes.  Either way, the gritty cool of hand-drawn animation or special effects done with models and matte paintings will not be in the memories or vocabulary of the next generation.  So, maybe what I’m saying is that this blog isn’t so much about you or me, but about the next generation or the one after that.  They deserve to see why we loved the things we did, and since they will likely not understand it by being forced to watch or read the things we did growing up, maybe they will understand through words.

So, that’s what Geek Life will be all about.  I don’t mean for this article to be a self-serving sort of thing at all.  I want people to share their experiences.  It doesn’t matter if you grew up with it too, or if you’ve just discovered the television show, or comic, or what have you that I presented in the blog.  Let us know how you remembered your childhood and feel free to post any comments you will have!

Tags: Doctor Who Geek Life Secret Wars Star Trek Transformers