The Decade in Rob

I just got tagged in a new meme by the ever-adorable Ami Angelwings. This is how she describes it:

It's the "of the decade" meme! Basically come up with 3 categories and who you think wins that category! Be creative!

Like what I mean isn't just "best comic book of the decade"... like "best moustache of an comic creator of the decade" or whatever.. it can be serious (best Asian male film character of the decade) or not or whatever.. it doesn't have to be about comics, or games or whatever.. it can be about nething (worst hair of a world leader, weirdest food trend... etc etc)

and tag 3-5 other ppl! And then they come up with 3 categories.. etc :] The main part is to be creative!

Full Disclosure: The learned judges at Ami Central named me “Best Comics Blogger.. hell... Blogger period.. forget that.. WRITER.. named Rob Staeger this decade.” It’s a big honor, and I’m sure as hell going to try to live up to it next decade. This one, I fear I very nearly got elbowed out by my evil twin in Chicago. But as they say in A Christmas Story, it’s A Major Award, and it’s going right on the windowsill where everyone can see it!

I’m going to use blogger’s prerogative to supply more than three, since I’ve got a few serious ones at the end, and I don’t wanna lead with them.

Comics Artist of the Decade: Darwyn Cooke. Here, I will brook no argument. Brooke Shields, if you’re reading this, I know you’re a big Paul Pope fan, but with all due respect, Brooking. No. Argument.

(Actually, I listed a few other comics pics on one of Ami’s earlier posts, so you can read them there.)

Christmas Movie of the Decade: Bad Santa. All the best Christmas stories are Scrooge stories, and Thornton plays the Grinchiest Scrooge of all.

Horror Imagery of the Decade: The creeping vines in Scott Smith’s novel, The Ruins. When we finally got rid of that hideous wallpaper in the dining room, it was one of the many reasons I breathed a sigh of relief.

TV Show of the Decade: Arrested Development. Every episode was a little joyous ball of wrong.

Vampire of the Decade: Shane McAllister, from Jeri Smith-Ready’s WVMP novels. Not only do her vamps have a great gimmick—they’re stuck in the time they “died,” but being late-night oldies-era deejays can keep their minds from deteriorating until they become true monsters—but Shane is that rare romantic-lead vamp who doesn’t make me want to throw a chair. Instead, through the magic of seeing a friend’s creation grow and take life, he makes me want to write. Which is important as hell. Thanks for that, Jeri.

Trend of the Decade: Friendship.

It’s easy to make friends in school. You’ve got peers all around you, and while you’ll never get along with everyone, chances are you’ll find a core group, or even just one person, who gets you. That’s what I’ve found, anyway. Though all through elementary, high school and college, I also recognized I was pretty lucky, friendwise.

Just the same, I kinda thought I was through with making new friends to a large degree after my education stopped. There just weren’t the same opportunities to meet them in the working world. But you don’t always get what you expect. And I’ve managed to find and keep friends in each job I’ve had since the 90s: John & Steph from the newspaper, Mike & Lisa from the children’s crusade, and a whole bunch from the gun mags, including the Jims, Slaton, the Mikes, Shayna, Margaret & Justin. And more.

And then there are the friends who totally blindside you. Ami (remember Ami? The lady doling out awards?) is one; somehow we found each other in the blogosphere, and traded comments, then e-mails, and even had a chance to meet at a comic con last year in Philly. She’s someone I never would have met without this complex series of tubes connecting us, and the unlikelihood of our meeting makes every contact a little bit astonishing to me. Then there are all my friends at the Captain Comics site; I've only met a few of them in person (actually, just one), but I enjoy checking in with them every day; it's a great community, and it's been interesting in the past year to see them on facebook and twitter as well. What was once compartmentalized is extending through everything.

Two other friends, Don & Brenda, we met on a big group vacation. We’d be living with strangers and their kids for a week, along with two more families we knew. It could have been a disaster; instead, we were quickly thick as thieves. There’s a terrific musical by Jo Carol Pierce called Bad Girls Upset by the Truth. It’s got a line I try to remember when I go out into the world: “Friends are fine, but to have a truly interesting life, you must have strangers.” Every now and then, someone makes the switch from stranger to friend. And there’s nothing in the world better.

There are other friends, of course—some I’ve known since elementary school, and one (who I’ll be seeing tonight) I’ve known from even before then. And thanks to the internet, I’ve gotten back in touch with a number of them, and kept in better touch with others of the bunch, too distant to see as often as we’d like. But the Oughts were the decade that surprised me, by bringing me friends I never expected, whether in the office, online, or around a D&D table.

Rob-Centric Event of the Decade:

In June, 2001, in the town of Kinsale, Ireland, a smart, talented, funny, beautiful woman who should really know better made a dreadful mistake by agreeing to marry me. And then in April of 2003, she doubled down and said “I do.” No matter what else happened this decade, this event elevates the Oughts beyond compare.

In closing, the Nineties can Suck It.

Rob

P.S. I'm tagging Jeri, Jim the Bastard, Sharon, Travis, Geoff and Greg.