My Geekery

Let me start out with a very ugly statement; Peter Pan is dead. Now let me explain. In my 20s and even into my 30s I never worried about time marching on. I looked at myself as the same never changing person. Then I was no longer able to ignore the changes that were going on. When my hair disappeared en mass I knew the fabled perpetual child no longer lived within me.

Now almost *cough* 52 *cough*, I look back on a full life of Geekery. One of my earliest memories is when Star Wars was showing in the movie theaters. Back then you could buy one ticket and stay in the theater all day long watching the show over and over again. I must have seen the first Star Wars over 50 times in the theaters.

My first anime was Star Blazers. At the time, no one knew it was an anime. I found Robotech a few years later, again no one knew it was an anime. Anime always blew me away with how they had more of a plot than “Good guys win and bad guys escape to do evil another day.” In Starblazers and Robotech there were people who actually died. I learned about sacrifice and I truly worried if the bad guys were going to win.

My first real introduction to anime came from the original Bubble Gum Crisis, about a group of women who were secretly fighting rogue androids. I loved that the heroes weren’t men. I was shown women can be strong and brave.

Back then anime was not readily sold in western stores. The videos were directly from Japan. We didn’t have English subtitles. The translations were passed around with the videotapes and you hoped to all that is Holy they got the translations right.

I did not get into manga until much later, because I was too used to the flashy colors of comic book heroes. Manga is all black and white. I still have my collection of about 5,000 comic books. My favorite comics were all the X-Men titles. My first manga that I picked up were the six big volumes of Akira. I bought them because I loved the anime movie. I was amazed by all the detail. The stories were gritty, but had beautiful moments. I learned the black and white were their own art. I fell in love with it all.

I go to the bookstores looking for new manga and I see kids on the floor checking out the new arrivals. I try to be nonchalant about looking through the selections, trying not to feel out of place. I’m sure the Gen Zs are wondering why this Gen X is wandering through their section. Probably think I’m a lost Boomer.

My Geekery doesn’t start and end with anime and manga. I have collected a lot of fun stuff. My biggest collection is all of my Lego Star Wars sets. At last count I have over a hundred sets and am quickly running out of space. For me it is very Zen like to put a Lego set together.

Being a Geek has certainly changed a lot. With social media it is incredibly easy to connect with other Geeks with similar interests. I grew up without these connections. It made it a lot tougher being a Geek without a community.

I really don’t care that I’m some old guy still collecting anime, manga, and toys. These are things that make me happy. That’s what is really important to any Geek. Finding what makes you happy and embracing it.

So, I offer two pieces of advice. First, don’t ever let go of your Geeky passions. Love them for the rest of your life. Second, be nice to the older Geeks. They were the ones that pioneered the way for you.

For a short story and more of my ramblings visit JeffSherwood.co

Stay Geeky,

Jeff