Happy Thanksgiving.

October 10th, 2016 - 221 Days to Keycon

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends!

Today Canada celebrates it's Thanksgiving. The day will be full of friends, food, family, food, sports, food, crying, food, arguments, food and finally more food.

There will be pie. Usually of the pumpkin variety. With ice cream and lots of whipped topping.

So, of course, I have to work.

However, to my geek friends and fellow con-goer's.

Happy Thanksgiving!

RIP Tom Ireland

On October 3rd, 2016, Winnipegs fandom woke to find themselves fewer by one. At 4:18am Tom Ireland, husband of Anna Murray, passed quietly surrounded by friends and loved ones.

Above is an illustration I did to honor Tom on the Meet the Geeks blog page. It's a small tribute to a man who has been a staple of Keycon for decades. The quote under the comic came from his Facebook page and seemed apropos.  

I'm forced to admit that I didn't know Tom that well. Although our lives crossed paths for nearly twenty years I never really got to know him. I knew him enough to engage him in conversation and to congratulate him when he and Anna got married in 2015. 

I saw him occasionally at my work and he, often accompanied by Anna, would come and chat for a time. We were both engaged in the security industry. 

I really wish I had gotten to know him better. 

I regret not getting down to see him in the hospital. I wanted to believe that there was still time. We had the good intention of going down to see him but life happened. Maybe next week. 

But there is no next week.

And I am truly sorry. I wish I knew more about him. Enough to write a short biography. Enough to tell you about him. About the people he made smile. About those that loved him and that he loved.

I don't even know how old he was when he passed.

Goodbye Tom. This is a poor, poor obituary for so fine a soul.

May those that were left behind find peace and remember only the good times.

Winnipegs Fandom won't be the same without you.

All my love...

~Corey

September 07, 2016 - 254 Days to Keycon.

I'll admit it. I suck at keeping up on things.

Seriously, I've got like four or five unfinished blog posts waiting in the queue.

At least I've managed to keep up on, somewhat, the Meet the Geek's blog page. I'm averaging about two blog posts a week there.

Meet the Geeks is moving along reasonably well. I've found a bunch of old comics that I never finished so I've been taking time in the evenings, when I can, to touch them up, finish inking them, and now even starting to colour them.

Part of what had been keeping me away from working on the comic was that I could'n't find a lot of my tools to prep the comics for the web. My copy of photoshop is still packed away somewhere so I was able to find a work around program that frankly is a lot more intuitive than photoshop and better suited to my comics work. That program is a free add on for Microsoft Paint and is called paint.net. It's a simple and clean paint program that does everything that Photoshop needed to for comic creators and isn't $20 a month or $800 dollars or whatever. Plus it's open source and a user created an add on called isolate line art that does just that so you're not required to jump through the hoops that Photoshop needed to get your line art. One click and you're done.

Also found my old Wacom tablet in my boxes. Fortunately the drivers work with Windows 10 so I didn't need to go out and buy a new tablet.

The most recent MTG comic was coloured in paint.net and, while I'm not happy with some of the colours, it at least gave me a chance to work on my technique. It came back to me as I worked through it.

So there you go folks. Cartoonist Corey is back. I'll be updating as much as I can over the coming months. In the meantime check out the Meet the Geeks blog right here on Blogger. 

~Brother K'Bob

Presenting Rob and Lorna Collett

July 16, 2016 - 306 days to Keycon

Photo Credit - Lee Werth

Today Jenn and I went to the go-to con social location the St. James Legion to celebrate the union of fellow Klingon Robert Collett and Lorna Fink.

It was a low key affair. The wedding started at 12:30 with the bride, looking stunning in a white and red dress, walking down the aisle. I admit that the joyous tears of the bride as she walked towards her intended may have set off a few tears of my own. Vows were exchanged and the happy couple walked arm in arm up the aisle a half hour later.  

We had about six hours to kill in between so Jenn and your humble reporter returned home to eat and take a nap.

We returned to the dance at about 7:00pm where the festivities were just beginning. The dance was being MC'ed by Philip Grodecki. The newly minted couple took to the dance floor to usher in the evening. Unfortunately Lorna's father was unable to make the wedding so, where the father and bride would have danced, Lorna took to the floor with Walter, their adorable and incredibly well behaved infant son. Heart strings were tugged. 

Just before hitting the photobooth I was surprised to hear the first bars of The Time Warp, a convention dance staple, start up. Traditionally the song is played at midnight so it coming on at 7:50 threw a few people off. Of course, in true Pavlovian form, the challenge was met and the floor was quickly filled. 

After that we got our photo taken and joined in a con-goer group photo.

We mingled for a time before slipping out.  

Of course Jenn and I wish Robert and Lorna all the best. 

~Brother K'Bob 

I have no idea what to do

July 7, 2016 - 317 days to Keycon

One of the off putting things about being married with children is that on those rare days that you are on your own you find yourself completely unable to figure out what you want to do.

I'm sitting here on my couch, a fan by the door blowing cool air on me, in my underwear and realizing that the world today is indeed my oyster but I have no clue what to do with myself.

Jenn and the kids are camping.  The toddler is with his auntie and I'm sitting here able to go wherever I want and do whatever I want and I'm realizing that I have no idea what to do!

I could go browse a bookstore.  I could go explore a used CD store and look for some music.

Instead I'm here on my computer.

This stinks.

I'm going to go find something to do.

Happy Canada Day

July 1, 2016 - 321 days to Keycon

Happy Canada day to my Geeks!

I consider myself, especially now, to be lucky to have been born Canadian.

There are few countries where we could expect the standard of life that we have here.

I want to say thank you to all out there, and I know there are many of you, who have served to keep this country as it is.

~Brother K'Bob

Fun Mountain and the history of the Peg

July 20, 2016 - 332 days to Keycon

I, of course, woke up late on my parents couch to the screams of Death Metal Rooster, my chosen alarm tone, issuing from my iPod.  It was nine o'clock and I had been up late watching music videos and drinking wine, Pepsi and whisky.  It was a regular Sunday evening visit at my parents and par for the course after the toddler had been put down for the night.

Groggily I pulled myself up and immediately had a two year old jumping on me with the delighted screams of "Daddy!".  I knew I had to pull it together because Jenn, Tracy and the kids were waiting for me at home for our planned outing to Fun Mountain.

I managed to get the kid packed and ready to go and down to the van in record time and was only twenty minutes late arriving home.

But to be perfectly honest I'm getting too old for these late nights.

The morning and afternoon went off without a hitch and I marveled at how much my little boy has grown. He was a true master of the slide. Everyone was exhausted by the end but a good time was had by all.

Fun Mountain is a Winnipeg staple for families and has been around for over 30 years. The 48 acre park includes water slides, bumper boats, zip lines and a miniature golf course. When I contacted the park they told me that "it opened in June 1983 and at that time there were many families together that contributed to it's development. There were 4 slides originally."


I remember going to slides with my school and friends many times in my youth but I never really thought about the history of the slides.


It's brought to mind that there's a lot of Winnipeg institutions that I've visited but don't know the history of. Like Keycon.


So I've decided I'm going to become a tourist in my own city. I'm going to learn the histories wherever I can and I'm going to report on them as much as I am able right here in this blog.


In the meantime I'm also going to be trying to learn the basics of travel writing and start some research. I'm also going to be looking for suggestions for places to visit.


Keep tuned true believers!


~Brother K'Bob

I am Brother K'Bob

June 16, 2016 - 337 days to Keycon

It occurs to me that I have'n't really explained how I came to have the name Brother K'Bob.

Are you interested dear reader?

Can you handle the truth?  Strange and terrifying as it may be?

I hope you can.   Here we go.

It all started in November 1996.  It was the opening weekend for Star Trek: First Contact and I had been invited by a friend (at the time) to go meet up with the KAG group that was on hand for the premier. It was at this time that I met the Captain of that ship, Kull of House Jev, later known as Doug, who little did I know would become my nearest and dearest friend and would stand as my best man at my wedding 19 years later. But that is a dark tale for another time.

It was the last of the truly interactive premiers that I would attend where the audience was totally immersed in the film.  It was probably also the last of the truly great Star Trek movies (sorry J.J.).

After a few meetings and my eventual acceptance into the group I was asked what I would like for a Klingon name.  Not being of terribly original mind at that time I stated simply:

"Bob.  Bob the Klingon."

"K'Bob?"

"Sure."

I had no idea what I would be releasing with that utterance.  Like a curse, once spoken, it could not be taken back.  Once opened it ran forth to cause havoc on the world.  Like Victor Frankenstein I had created my own monster, my own nemesis, my doom.

Ok. Perhaps a bit melodramatic. But it would continue to shape my world for the next two decades.

The ever present original Jammies.  I don't like competition.

Eventually the group would implode but I would continue to be known as a Klingon among Winnipeg fandom for years.  A pair of red pajamas emblazoned with Klingon Tre-foils would be my armor, ever present on Saturday evenings at Keycon until they started to fray (like my sanity) and turn pink.  They were eventually retired and have yet to be replaced.

I would later join a online Klingon forum, which shall remain un-named, where I met a fellow Klingon who seemed to be cut from the same cloth.  Kahn of House Klag.  Immediately we knew we had found someone who would understand and I was quickly invited to join his house, becoming K'Bob of House Klag.

For whatever reason I've always been interested in religion while roundly denouncing it.  However it was John (Kahn) constantly calling me brother (I called him Cap'n) that helped shape something of K'Bob's background.

Photo credit: memory-alpha.wikia.com

I decided that K'Bob was a disillusioned cleric from Boreth who, following the events of ST - TNG "Rightful Heir" and from the novel Kahless by Michael Jan Friedman, decides to forge out on his own, preaching his own views on Kahless, removed from the corruption of the High Clerics, and seeks out adventure.  One day he stumbles into the house of Klag, drunk on bloodwine, and loudly announces "I live here now!" before passing out in the wine cellar.  Kahn, and other members of the house just shrugged their shoulders and accepted this new arrival.

The story really isn't that far from the truth.

In my mind K'Bob is part Hunter S. Thompson, part Kane from Kung Fu.

So here I sit now, writing out this strange tale, one that is'n't yet over, and look forward to my future with my alter-ego.  It's been a ride so far and shall continue to be.

Join me friends.

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”

― Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967

Journalism and the Convention

June 14, 2016 - 339 days to Keycon

It's the second day of my first real vacation of 2016, a glorious 9 days off and what am I doing instead of working on my plans for Keycon 34? I'm sitting in a pair of rapidly deteriorating pajama pants and watching Enquiring Minds a documentary on Generoso Pope Junior, the owner and creator of the National Inquirer.

I've had an interest in journalism for a while now but I've never been able to figure out how to get into it without heading back to school.  At 41 years, going on 42, I'm worried it might be too late.

I've also been developing an interest in documentaries. It had occurred to me that a documentary on Keycon, while only of appeal to a small number of people, might be a good starting point.  After all it's one of the few places where I have almost complete access to many of the originators of the convention itself as well as many long time attendees.

It's something that I've looked forward to for most of the last twenty odd years and have met many friends and acquaintances through the con.  It's been a source of joy and fun for many years and, unfortunately, the source of some shameful behavior on my part.

But life has changed and in many ways so have I. There's history and a true love of the con and the city that hosts it. It has a storied history, one that I think needs to be told.

~Brother K'Bob

Greeting's and salutations

I've been away too long.  Away from my keyboard.  Away from my fandom.  Away from the things that made me who I am.

Who am I?

No.... not 24601...

This blog is going to follow the next year as I get ready to return to Winnipeg fandom.

New!

Shiny!

Improved!

Yeah.  As if you can polish a turd.

Still, this is a year in the life of one Winnipeg fan.

You've been warned.