GeekPapas

I am the proud father of the two most beautiful girls in the world, Katie and Carly. I’m a proud geek raised on Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Excalibur, Conan, and Big Trouble in Little China, among dozens of other great films. I was an avid Marvel Comics reader in my youth, and was inspired to be a cartoonist and illustrator when handed “How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way” and “The Star Wars Sketchbook.” The youngest of six boys, I was also exposed to old classic movies, “Star Trek,” “Mission: Impossible,” Heavy Metal Magazine, National Lampoon, and of course, Monty Python. (Which would lead me down a life-long love affair as an Anglophile, soaking up Benny Hill, Blackadder, and the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe.)

I’m a member of the Cult of Macintosh, love all kinds of music, and am a regular attendee of the San Diego Comic Con. As far as podcasting goes, I was a founding member of Comics Coast to Coast, taking part of over 70 episodes, before starting my own podcast over at Tall Tale Radio, where I’ve been lucky enough to produce, write and record over 120 episodes, interviewing cartoonists, animators, filmmakers, musicians and writers over the past three years.

With GeekPapas, I’m hoping to reach a broad audience of a whole new generation of father; the father who watches Bugs Bunny and Spongebob with his kids; who gets more excited about the summer movie line up than anyone else in the family; who wants to get his hands on the latest video game, gadget, phone or computer; who follows his favorite sports team avidly, and loves the spirit of fair competition; who wants to be active in his kids lives and show them the ways of the Force. (The old school Force…none of this “midichlorian” crap. Han shot first, dammit.) I hope you’ll pull up a seat and join in!

I am the proud GeekPapa to two beautiful kids, William 9 and Tara 6. My son is a voracious comic strip, comics, and Percy Jackson novel reader. He has just discovered the Harry Potter books and read the first one last week in only three days. I have a feeling that they will all be finished by the time he enters 4th grade in a couple of months. My daughter is in love with Luke Skywalker and wants to watch ‘Return of the Jedi’ ALL THE TIME. There’s just something about that black outfit I guess.

I would say that my geek pedigree began around 1972 when I officially started buying Conan and Captain America comics. That branched into anything with Captain America in it, then anything with the Avengers in it, and then I got hooked on Spider-Man and thus the virus spread. I still buy the same titles I did back then, Conan, Spidey, Avengers, and Cap, and am also a complete Trekker fanatic. I am now, as of this writing (mid-2011) halfway through my 3rd ‘Year of Trek’ when I watch every episode of every Star Trek series and the movies in chronological order, starting with ‘Enterprise’. I’m not much into Lord of the Rings despite my decade as a knight and jouster at The New York Renaissance Festival, the New Jersey Renaissance Faire, and Medieval Times. During that time I also tumbled-about under cape and cowl at the Batman Stunt Spectacular as Batman for five years at the Six Flags Great Adventure Park in New Jersey.

Along with wanting to be a knight and a super-hero when I grew up, one of my childhood aspirations was to be a cartoonist someday like Charles Schulz. I was a mega-Peanuts geek when I was in grade school and always had one of those paperback collections in my back pocket. Currently I work as a professional cartoonist and illustrator at the Charles Schulz studio in Santa Rosa, California. I’ve illustrated 5 Peanuts children’s books, and work with Sparky’s art and its application on product from all over the world, specializing in the Japanese market.

I received my Master Of Fine Arts degree in acting performance from Rutgers University in New Jersey and was a working actor in New York for some time until I generated a family. I did lots of Shakespeare in New York and to this day am quite the Shakespeare-geek. I also performed stunts and small parts in soap operas. The first time I ever appeared on a soap, One Life To Live, I did a scene with Gina Torres; Zoë from Firefly (Serenity) so that’s some geek-cred right there.

I also have my own syndicated comic strip at GoComics.com, it’s called MythTickle and I am very relieved to say that after working with it and evolving it over the last seven years it is beginning to generate a healthy following. I also have one book collection of the strip out, available at mythtickle.com.

I have podcasted before, along with Tom Racine and Brian Dunaway, I am a founding member and now sometime co-host of Comics Coast to Coast.

Wait… what?

I’m not a GeekPapa. I’m not even a GeekMama (yet). But I’ve got some geek in me and that’s why I’m the webmistress here. I do my webmistress-ing from Stockholm, Sweden, where I get to sleep until noon on the weekends due to my non-GeekMama status.

While web design does fill much of my past, my main project since November of 2007 has been my comic “Imy,” which I publish online at my website, imycomic.com. And when I get tired of drawing that curvy redhead and her twitter-savvy goldfish, I amuse myself with random illustrations which I normally post on my illustration site, IlloLuv.

My claim to geek-hood would be my undying love for the Harry Potter and Hitchhikers Guide books. I’ve read both series more times than I can remember and will never get tired of them. The day I learn how to conjure a perfect patronus (I’m thinking a hedgehog or a ferret) and learn to miss the ground at the same time I will be ultimately happy.