Friday, December 05, 2008

Surprise from the Past

Recently did an interview with Andrew Cosby, creator/producer/writer of Eureka, a Sci-Fi Channel series that I follow regularly. Andy is also the publisher of Boom! Studios, a comic book company that's doing a lot of licensed books... including a comic based on (how'd you guess?) Eureka.

I knew that Andy had shopped at Dr. No's many years ago, when he lived here (before he moved West to find fame and fortune), but in the course of the interview, another connection with Andy was revealed. I'll let Mr. Cosby fill in the rest:

“Cliff's comic book shop was the shop I grew up with. When I was a kid, it was really the only bonafide ‘comic book store’ around. Not to date myself, but this was during a time when comics were mostly purchased off the spinner racks at your local grocery store or convenient mart. You might also be interested in knowing that eight tracks were still around and The Six Million Dollar Man was ‘that hot new show,’ but I digress...
“I eventually moved away from Atlanta, but then moved back during my junior year of high school—North Cobb, to be precise. Happy times, me being the only punk rock kid in school that even the rednecks considered to be too redneck. I still remember my first day, in which I found myself sitting in the middle of Mr. Biggers' English class. He started the year off with one of those classic essay assignments -- ‘What I Did Over the Summer,’ or something like that. At the end of the hour, Cliff called me up to discuss my essay. I thought I was in some kind of trouble -- I was used to that at this point in my school experience. But it turned out they'd put me in the wrong class. This was a remedial English course, and Cliff was quick to ship me off to the advanced placement classes. Now I'm a writer being interviewed by one of the first teachers to recognize it. Funny how life works!
“Thanks again, Cliff, not just for taking the time to do this interview, but for taking the time more than two decades ago to recognize that the weird kid in the back of the class might have some potential. I'll keep on trying to prove you right!”

What a pleasant blast from the past! Thanks, Andy!