No one ever said keeping track of any part of your own life would be easy. And when they did, they were kidding themselves and no one else on the subject. That piece of supposed wisdom aside, this is my attempt to prove myself wrong as best I can...
Personal AffiliationsThese are all organizations I hold or have held membership in over the years. The Comic Book Industry Association. Made up of industry professionals from retailers to publishing house staffers to creative talent. The Ottawa Science Fiction SocietyMember since 1995. I've happily served as cover artist and newsletter editor on an irregular basis and have also served as Secretary from 2000 to 2001.
| Causes I Believe InThe Dementia Society of Ottawa and Renfrew County Amnesty International Médcins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders
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People I RespectSome of the people whose sites I've set up links for here are friends, some are somewhat more distant in my acquaintance. What they all share is my respect for them and their work. From ComicsDan Curtis Johnson - Comics writer and computer systems designer. Co-creator of DC Comics' Chase and a fine storyteller. J.H. Williams III and Mick Gray - Dan's partners on DC's Chase, and later worked with Alan Moore on America's Best Comics' Promethea and with Warren Ellis on Desolation Jones, which are each worthy of considerable attention in their own right. (Before you ask: No, J.H. is no relation to me, direct or otherwise, that either of us is aware of. ) Mark Shainblum - writer for magazines, novels, comedians and comic books and strips. Co-creator - with artist Gabriel Morrisette - of the dead-serious Northguard and the socio-cultural satire Angloman. Scott McCullar - Online acquaintance and occasional crony in the DCU RPG freelancers' club. He's been webmaster of several comics professionals' websites over the years. Christopher Priest - longtime writer and editor in comics, music producer, and minister. He's been written at least two of my personal favourites in recent years, Marvel's Black Panther and Acclaim/Valiant's Quantum & Woody. Dwayne McDuffie (1962-2011) - senior writer on the Justice League animated series for the Cartoon Network(also aired in Canada via YTV), co-creator of Damage Control and Deathlok(the Michael Collins version) for Marvel, co-founder of the Milestone Media comics universe, and a fine writer himself. I miss him. Tony Isabella - writer of comics and novels, industry columnist (with columns running at the Perpetual Comics and World's Finest sites) and loyal family man. J Torres - writer for TV and comics. Co-creator of Alison Dare, Sidekicks,, Siren, and Copybook Tales. Kurt Busiek - co-creator of Astro City with Brent Anderson and Alex Ross. B. Clay Moore - writer of several titles of no small interest, particularly the detective/supernatural series Hawaiian Dick. Scott
Beatty - occasional writing partner of Chuck's, and
author of several of the Ultimate Guides for DC Universe characters
published by Dorling-Kindersley. Kieron Gillen - Word Scientist. From Prose FictionRobert J. Sawyer - Hugo and Nebula winner. A novelist with twin specialties in mystery and SF work. Very capable at creating cross-genre works. Lee "Budgie" Barnett, author specializing in "flash fiction". It's quick, it's good. Leslie Charteris - the late and much-honoured creator of a certain Mr. Templar...Simon Templar, known to some as the Saint. By necessity, Mr. Charteris' estate runs his website, and I understand from several sources that the bulk of the series is finally back in print, in North America as in the UK. Diane
Duane and Peter Morwood
AKA the Owl Springs Partnership. Diane maintains a blog here. Elizabeth Holden - longtime fellow comics fan and occasional commentator on the art and business of comics. Greg
Rucka - creator of the Atticus
Kodiak novels, the Queen &
Country comics series, and all-around decent guy. Mike Norton
- another of my
comics fandom friends, and a decent hard-science resource when I need
one. Hayden Trenholm - writer and boss of the former Bundoran Press. From
TV and Film | Other Assorted WorthiesProfessor Michael Geist - member of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa. Cyberlaw commentator for assorted news services. Makes sense of the issues he covers more often than not. Nigel Henbest and Heather Couper - space sciences authors extraordinaire. They co-wrote my favourite book to date on the makeup of the Milky Way Galaxy, The Guide to the Galaxy, back in the early 1990's. Go ask the book's publishers why there hasn't been a revised edition in over ten years. The book's that good in explaining its topic. And then there's the maps... Note:Sadly, Heather Couper died in March of 2020. So we'll be seeing no more of her work, save in reprints and e-book editions. Linda McQuaig, political affairs commentator. James David Nicoll, longtime SF comment-maker, longtime survivor of "Nicoll Events", and eminent quotable person in general. Other InterestsTVSome of my favourite shows, past and present, include: Due South: Let's face it. It's the quintessential Canadian super-hero comedy/drama/police-detective series. I tend to look on it as Canada's answer to Star Trek: one of those "Franchises That Cannot Die". How soon CTV and Entertainment One realize this and act accordingly is up in the air, though. Regrettably, the
official website's been taken down for the foreseeable future, so for
anyone interested in deep background on the show, I recommend William
and
Elyse's Due
South
page. (Sorry, but that link seems to be defunct as of 2023!) Power Play - The great hockey soap opera. Okay, so Laurin and Davis didn't set out to create a show about hockey, but rather about the people who work in our Great Game, particularly player-agent turned Hamilton Steelheads GM Brett Parker. So what? It's a semantic argument over that point, and besides, the show has been fun to watch. It was supposed to last about four years, or so they hoped, but it wrapped up well enough in two. Law & Order: Need I say more? Very competent police/courtroom procedural show. I wish I could watch it more regularly, but considering the coverage that its three branch series have across multiple channels, I don't really have to. If anyone can recommend a good fan-run web resource site for these shows, let me know, okay? Intelligence - A CBC crime/espionage drama, from the same guys and gals who've given us Da Vinci's Inquest/City Hall. Watch it as soon as you can legally do so. CyberSix:
Based on the Argentinian comics series created by Carlos Meglio and
Carlos
Trillo, it started airing on Teletoon in 1999 back in that channel's early days on Canada's cable "dial", was rerun steadily for a couple of years thereafter, and is rather different
from much of the rest of super-heroics. A touch of Frankenstein
here
for her origin story, a tad of Victor/Victoria
for her secret identity, a
dress sense borrowing liberally from the Shadow(the hat and suit
color), Catwoman(self-explanatory
once you see her) and Spawn(the
cape)
or so it seems to me. Ranges from
fun to scary and back again very deftly. The
Mercer Report:
You
know him from This
Hours Has 22
Minutes: Rick Mercer. He's got his own
satire/commentary/"fake
news" program on CBC...and now he has a blog. And
he's using it. Music Some favourite artists, be they composer-conductors, vocalists, or what have you: As the Poets Affirm: Ottawa-based band. If you catch'em in concert, consider yourself blessed. Mike Post: The "Good TV Theme Guy". If he isn't called that in the same tone of respect as is given to Carl Barks for being "the good Duck artist", I'd like to know the reason why. He's been in the business of putting together music for TV shows in the States for over twenty years now, from at least The Rockford Files onward that I know of, and he does good work. Bruce Cockburn: Pronounced "koh-burn", like that actor. Part romanticist, part social activist, all-around good musician. Christopher Franke: The Babylon 5 music composer. Themes, background pieces and so forth. Excellent. Sarah McLachlan: Enough said. I thank the Due South people for bringing her work to my attention through judicious use of pieces like "Possession"(?), "Fumbling Toward Ecstacy", and "Fear". Enigma: This outfit ought to be getting serious employment from space opera and superhero movie productions. Absolutely mythical in range and scope. |
ByMUG - The
Bytown Mac Users Group