in the heat of the night the animals scream

I know I'm way late to the party on this, but I just discovered the graphic novel Transmetropolitan, on the advice of my friend Ryan. As an added bonus, we saw it in a comic shop with our friend Alan, who it turns out had never read Watchmen or Dark Knight Returns. We convinced him to pick them up and read them, and I was reminded of the excitement and wonder I felt the first time I read Dark Knight, and how profoundly Watchmen affected me the second time I read it, and saw all that stuff you miss the first time through.

In my limited free time this week, I've been re-reading Neuromancer, and all these new (to me) graphic novels that I got over the weekend. There's Transmetropolitan, Proposition Player, and Hopeless Savages, which are all outstanding, and I haven't gotten into Scott Pilgrim, Planetary, WE3, or Ex Machina, yet.

These graphic novels and the trip to the Comic and Game shop (Metro, in Santa Barbara) brought on such a hypernostalgic geek jones, it's sick. I've heard stories of recovering addicts who see a movie about junkies, and feel a throb in their veins, like their arm's longing for the pinch of the needle, and I have some sort of geek version of that.

It's a very tangible longing, an insistent yearning, to sit on Darin's floor in 1989 and play Illuminati, watch Holy Grail, listen to They Might Be Giants, and then paint 40K armies while we argue about plot holes in Aliens before we head off to a comic convention at the Shrine Auditorium, hoping the newest Sandman has come out.

It's watching The Prisoner for the first time, networking Mac II computers using Appletalk to play NetTrek and Spaceward Ho!

It's walking into an empty engineering set on Stage 9 when I was 15, so I can stand behind the pool table, look at the engine lights pulse with their nearly-silent neon click, and pretend that the ship was real.

It's watching a VHS bootleg of Akira, having no idea what's going on, but still loving it and wanting more and more and more.

It's hours and hours of Car Wars and Awful Green Things and 40K and Talisman.

It's listening to The Frantics, Bill Hicks, Bob Goldthwait, Dr. Demento, and Bill Cosby.

It's music, too: Squeeze, Depeche Mode, The Smiths, The Cure, The The, and Oingo Boingo.

It's movies: Batman, Blade Runner, Back to the Future, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Dawn of, Night of the Living, and Day of The Dead.

It's not talking to girls, but spending an awful lot of time talking about girls.

It's a longing for the uncomplicated simplicity of those years, years which we were convinced were anything but uncomplicated or simple at the time.

I get like this a few times a year. I can never pinpoint the exact reason, and I sort of hope I never do; I enjoy these hypernostalgic trips, even if a certain amount of sadness and longing is the price of admission. If I figured out why these feelings well up from time to time, they probably would stop coming, and I'd lose touch with my formative geek years: the most complicated and uncomplicated -- and most important -- years of my life.

Comments

[Keith Coogan]

Dude, it's called nostalgia, and it can hurt sometimes. I think that as we grow older, the nasty stuff from our past slips away, but the good times, no, the great times just keep growing and becoming more real as time goes by. You can never go home again. If our past is our home, then our future is supposed to be a great adventure. Look forward to the future, and try to make more great memories.

-KC

[Kel]

Great isn't it? To wander back through your mind and remember the times of your life you love the most.

K.

[zjman]

networking Mac II computers using Appletalk to play NetTrek and Spaceward Ho!

Just picked one line but... Wow! What memories you've invoked with this entire post!

The The . . . Akira . . . "Bobcat" Goldthwait

*sigh*

[kblue]

Nice, a 3-post day.

It's true, nostalgia is both enjoyable and sad simultaneously...but good I think.

Speaking of graphic novels, I just finished reading Marvel 1602 last night. Does that count?

[Pope Zaphod]

I just had a flashback of hanging out in my friend Scott's room and trying to figure out just what the hell Prince was singing in "Batdance". The best we could come up with was, "In the future man will mumble."

Thanks for the trip. I need to go home and re-read "The Maxx" tonight.

[catzmeow]

I get hit with these moments of nostalgia, but mine always flash back to 85-89, when I was in college, having the best years of my life. I suspect our "best years" are different for everyone, but the longing to go back can be so tangible it's like a physical pain.

[Gandalfe]

I personally believe there are 3 long term but finite comic book series that stand out, head and shoulders, above the others. At least so far, there are a few coming out now that may reach in there. But I digress.

You already know Sandman, of course. Certainly a masterpiece, if not better. You are now discovering Transmet, and learning that Spider is your new god. The third is Preacher. Preacher is... Shit. There are many descriptions out there, all of them more eloquent than anything I typed in the little box would be. It's motherfuckingawesome. Read it.

[rpresser]

The word nostalgia is itself pretty interesting. It was originally (19th century) a diagnosis applied to soldiers at war, far from home. Look it up on Wikipedia.

[Gandalfe]

Oh, and on nostalgia:

I have to say, with only slight fear of being called dishonest or sappy, that THESE are the best years of my life. I know so much more now, about both the world and myself, that I did as a teenager, or a young man, it's nearly impossible to believe that I'm the same person at all.

And yet, there are times when I DO still long for the thrill of discovery, the simplicity of the days when a kiss was enough, the certainty that my friends would always be there to back me up.

To quote David Sylvian:

Voices heard in fields of green
Their joy, their calm and luxury
Are lost within the wanderings of my mind
I’m cutting branches from the trees
Shaped by years of memories
To exorcise their ghosts from inside of me

The sound of waves in a pool of water
I’m drowning in my nostalgia

[Sean Weitner]

Wil, not to oversell them or anything, but I'm willing to make a wager that you positively flip for Scott Pilgrim. Ex Machina is, like all of Brian K. Vaughan's stuff, totally top-shelf, but Scott Pilgrim might actually make you wish you were a Canadian guy with a band and no job born in the '80s.

[GDISTORM]

Wil and others:

A very intersting set of posts, of course primarily about nosatlgia in some form. It doesn't seem that Wil's original post started out being about nostalgia, but about new discoveries, which evolved into nostagia. As everyone has iundicated so far its different for everyone, both in what ignites it and ehat it connects it too. Of course, Wil's post was pretty detailed. For me, these feelings of nostalgia seems to be ignited by music. That is, certain songs from longer ago seem to connect me to events and people from when I first heard it. Of course nostalgia is important on a variety of levels. For the most part it re-connects us to things that are/were important to us and made us the people that we are today. Sometimes its important for us to re-live and re-discover those things. I guess its a challenge to put these kinds of issues into words or text ... they often don't seem to be 'real". and a little abstract. That's probably why its difficult to put a finger on where they suddenly come from. We can just saythatthey are an importnat part of what we recognize as our personality and is one of the things that makes each of use unique. Niw that's probably one of the most obtuse and unintelligble things I've ever written .. but it was the best shot ?I could muster. Everybody, have a good day and enjoy your memories .. sometimes our nostalgic memories is all we end up taking all the way through our lives, both good and bad.

[Ranger Bob]

The Frantics... they were just the best. Skits like Grade 3.. Mr. Canoe Head.. and "Mr. Hand Puppet".

I had no idea you even knew this troupe existed.

Hey, now I feel bummed out... and really, really old now. Thanks! =)

http://ranger-bob.net/home.h22.jpg

[Cherikooka]

Geek memories are the best! You're my hero - no wait, that's Ferris Bueller. Oh, hey, did I forget my panties in your car last night? 80's memories....ahhhhh
-Cheri

[HPunster]

The Preacher is a must-read.
The Frantics kick ass!
That is all.

[HPunster]

...and a boot to the head!

[5000!]

Damn, Wheaton. That post gave my heart a lil' squeeze!

I get the same nostalgic fugues now and again, especially this time of year (and for a lot of the very same things as you). Glad to hear that I'm not the only one having the occasional pine for things long gone.

[dgbellak]

Gawd, you're a geek. I am now simultaneous wistful and jealous. Wistful, because I fondly remember doing nearly all of that (though substitute "Apple IIe" for "Mac II"), and jealous, because, well, some of us never got to see Stage 9.

[starshine_diva]

Back to the Future is my FAVORITE movie EVER!!!!! Yes, I know there are 3 films...

Also, for me, nostalgia is walking into a candy store... that has all that stuff you LOVED as a kid (and still now!)... Candy Corn, Fun Dip, Pixie Sticks, Popeye, PEZ, Lego Blocks, Garbage candy, Razzles, Pop Rocks.........

ORGASMIC!

[TitanKT]

Awww... jeeeeez! You HAD to mention Fun Dip. As an adult, foulest stuff ever. As a kid, ambrosia. I remember that was the pinnacle of candy. Sugar Daddy's and those Jolly Rancher wide, flat sticks were my usual go-tos. But the Fun Dip! Ahhh, THAT was for extra special occasions!

Neuromancer, and by extension anything Gibson ever wrote, hands down best cyberpunk ever. Joe Haldeman's Forever War a close second. But I've read those Gibson novels so many times now, I've got them nearly memorized and they actually represent comfort to me.

Was in Target today buying birthday presents for my soon to be 5 year old son and standing in front of a display of movies, my eye was caught by Stand by Me. *grin* Suddenly it's everywhere.

[Stickyfingers]

Will,

This is my first comment on your blog. I have been reading your blog for a few months and decided this blog entry was quite different from the rest. So, here I go, posting on a strangers blog.

Whenever someone mentions Neuromancer, I plead, "Dear God, please don't let them use this wonderful piece of literature as an act of looking cool in front of people." I admit, Gibsons writing changed my life and the value I place on his work is very close to my heart.

Watching Blade Runner and reading Batman comics were a part of my young adulthood I have never forgotten. Our favorite movies, comics, books and hobbies are a like a fabric that we weave and knit into our character that help us remember who we are when we feel out of place.

Sometimes, we all forget who we are and return to the things that bring us joy. Maybe we feel that we should have outgrown these 'things', but they make us who we are. And we love it.

I could recommend some great comics:

Pick up Next Wave, Desolation Jones and the Authority, by Warren Ellis. If your friend hasn't read the Dark Knight returns, persuade him to read Batman Year One by Frank Miller and the Long Halloween, written by Jeph Loeb.

By the way, great blog.

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." (Neuromancer, Gibson p.1)

[khereva]

Geek nostalgia! Wonderful!

As someone lucky enough to "stay wit' my own kind play wit' my own kind," I gots to know... what army did you paint? And do the kids play too?

As for me, my wife remains confident that I will never leave her, because she would get half of the minis... and has already picked out which half.

[DanahFaren]

80's were so much fun! I get sentimental about those days too - when other people worried about employment, politics, money and I just had a blast listening to my music and thinking Tom Cruise is a cool guy in an airplane (something I have since then been able to change my mind about).

I also remember talking to my dad who told me how cool the Rolling Stones and the Beatles were and how crappy my music is and I laughed it off.
Now when I hear Mr. Timberlake and his sorts, I sit there thinking "oooh the 80's .. REM, The Cure, The Smiths, Depeche Mode -- that's when music still was profound and prescious".

[Brightflowermaid]

Oh, you have totally ruined me now Wil. After reading the blog my man and I got out Talisman, played a game then cracked open my old Spectrum and played Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy.
Would have watched Akira if I'd had it so had to settle for My Neighbour Totoro.
I must applaud your excellent taste in 80's nostalgia and I thank you for sending me there for the day.

[barbarakitten]

dammit wil...

i had to get a typekey account just so i could log in so i could tell you that you just made a 51 year old grandmother cry. i have pretty much avoided my september nostalgia trip this year, and now it has hit full force. i want to sit in a coffeeshop and listen to 70's music and write bad poetry!

[Eric]

Aye, the Frantics. I aready saw the Boot to the head references that I was going to make. too bad I was late to the party.