Sunday, May 13, 2007

Waid Does It Again!

Most summers, Vicki and I end up going to the big comic convention in Chicago, as our big "geek fest" for the year. Over the past decade, I've usually also been a panelist there, participating as one of the four fans in an annual "Pro Vs Fans" comic trivia contest that's about as geeky as you can get. A quartet of no-name victims, including me, gang up against longtime comic author Mark Waid in a battle to see who knows more minutiae about comics from the Silver Age (approx. 1956 to 1970). As luck would have it, Waid often wins... by often, I mean usually... and by usually, I mean, well, always. (One of these days we'll beat him. Or he'll drop dead at the microphone, and we'll grab the crown off of his still-warm, flop-sweat-soaked head!) Last year's almost-victory was posted on YouTube, so the truly-desperate-for-entertainment should search for "Pro Fan Trivia" there and lose an hour of their life that they'll never get back...

But anyway, Master Trivia Wizard Waid was interviewed recently about sundry comic book topics - all of which were of great interest to me, of course - but the comment he made that echoed exactly my own feelings came when the interviewer asked him his thoughts on Marvel's Civil War series. Waid said,

"Basically, what made me itchy about Civil War is that - whether intentionally or not - the message seemed to be "give up your civil liberties and stop fighting for the things you believe in and everything will be fine." I get enough of that from the Bush administration."

If you're interested, you can read the entire interview here.

I should also point out that, having sparred with Waid in person as many times as I have, that I can totally hear his voice whenever I read an interview with him. Note that I didn't say "his whiney voice." Really. I didn't!

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