Looking for a place to happen...

“I’ve got a job, I explore
I follow every little whiff
And I want my life to smell like this”

I remember listening to the radio when that song, “Looking for a Place to Happen” by the Tragically Hip came on. As I listened I realized that it summed up everything I’ve ever wanted for and from the Geeks.

For me Meet the Geeks has been a journey towards the savage heart of my dream: The idea of one day becoming a cartoonist of note, joining the ranks of the likes of Berkley Breathed, Jim Davis, Bill Watterson and the new crop of web cartoonists such as Jennie Breeden and Lar DeSousa. The thought of traveling down an unknown road and finding fortune at its end. Exploration and discovery.

The two works I come back to on a regular basis during this journey is that song, sung to perfection by the late and great Gord Downey, held with reverence in my heart, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. That book/comic/movie explores the search for the American Dream, found in Las Vegas, the dream of making it big and ultimately shown to be a “lame fuckaround, a waste of time”.

But it isn’t that lesson that I took away. Preserverance and a little bit of madness will take you through to your goals.

It also helps to have a travelling companion.

I won’t lie. The greatest obstacle towards the success of Meet the Geek’s has always been me. It’s not a fear of failure, I’m an old hand at that: It’s been a fear of success. I’m afraid of getting that momentum up and then having to keep it up. Let’s face it, if you’re working for yourself you have to stay hungry and never stop moving.

It sometimes seems easier to just sit back and embrace the status quo. Work for the man. Take home your paycheck. Do the least amount of work you can get away with.

But sometimes on your journey you acquire a traveling companion, or maybe they were there all along, and you let their enthusiasm infect you.

That’s what’s happened here Geeks.

Sean, my stalwart companion - he’s been there from the git-go - and I are off on this savage journey to the heart of the fannish dream, exploring new avenues, making friends, seeking companions and moving forward. Ours is an older journey, not in a bright red Chevy convertible seeking through the glitz and chintz, finding the big win in Las Vegas, the easy out. No, ours is a journey in the old wood ships of the explorers of yore. Get on a pile of canvas and timber and set out on the raging seas looking for a new land. A Place to Happen.

And maybe, just maybe, with a little work we can find a place to call our own.

"...Jacques Cartier, right this way,
I'll put your coat up on the bed
Hey man you've got the real bum's eye for clothes
And come on in, sit right down,
no you're not the first to show
We've all been here since, God, who knows?"

~CoreyGeek