Even tho I was only peripherally paying attention to Legion 10 years ago, I estimate that August would have been around the time the reboot began.

where was everyone? what were you doing with your lives at the time?

besides being a big vertigo-head, I began working weekends in a very cool comics shop, was working on finishing an Associate's degree, slaving away in an Italian restaurant, trying to work on my artwork, and (more specifically, date-wise) was covered in mud (Woodstock 94).

I briefly dated a weird goth chick named Lisa, was pal-ing around with a fellow artist who has since completely vanished from my continuity (it seems), and casually met some people I never thought I'd never meet again that would become a very close gang of friends, although we've since scattered around the country.

As quick as the past six years seem to have flown by, suddenly 10 years seems like an eternity ago...

Ten years ago...

Ok, I had just turned 13, and truly began to love comic book. My Dad told me to start at the beginning, so I read every issue of Spider-Man from start to finish, starting with Amazing Fantasy #15. I liked doing it so much, I did it with other titles, and stumbled across Adventure Comics.

I was going to enter 8th Grade that year, and was still too shy around girls. I had no idea I'd kiss my first girl that year, and in two years time be confident in myself and a popular kid in high school.

I had a close group of friends that I grew up from age 3. Sadly, most of these friends (besides my brother, myself and one or two others) all went down a bad path, dropped out of high school and are mostly addicted to drugs and unable to hold a steady job. Most of my best friends were still mild acquaintances or people I never knew existed.

I had never fallen in love yet, and I got my first mild crush that year, although the first time I ever *thought* I was in love was in 11th grade.

I played hockey and baseball and could never imagine going away to college, let alone working a real job like my parents.

It really feels like an eternity ago...

Hrmph. Doesn't seem like that long ago to me. 10 years ago I was just getting ready to go back for my Junior year at Syracuse. I had spent the summer working construction and partying my balls off. I was living at home, with no real bills to pay, so I was pretty much loaded that summer, and I blew my money with reckless abandon.

I was dating a girl from Boston whom I'd met the year before at school. Things weren't quite serious yet, at least as far as I was concerned, so we agreed to see other people for the summer, and see what was going on when we got back to school in the fall. As it turned out, I spent the next four years with her before things went to hell. Her parents and grandparents loved me. They still send Christmas cards every year.

Now I'm a broke, bitter world-weary 30 year old in a dead-end job with no prospects. Can't wait to see what the next 10 years brings...

10 years ago feels like ancient history to me.

On my birthday (August 3rd, thanks for all the birthday wishes, you guys ), the girl I had been going out with for 18 months decided we should see other people. I'm serious; she told me this ON MY BIRTHDAY.

Instead of getting depressed, I realized she was without a doubt the most repressed and childish woman I knew, and our relationship was at a dead end anyway.

So I completely changed my life: I joined a gym, lost weight, got in shape, made new friends.

I never saw her again (although I did run into her parents five years ago when I just got married and my wife was pregnant with our first daughter), but I am SO glad she took the first step to break up our relationship because I am a creature of habit, and our relationship was so routine that I accepted it without question or wondering if I was truly happy.

10 years ago I started college. I suppose it was fortunate that it co-incided with a nice opportunity to start reading the Legion again.

I was a precocious three-year-old who'd just taught myself to read the previous winter. I had started undertaking my own translation of The Brothers Karamazov from Russian to Ancient Greek (by way of Esperanto) when my parents, alarmed that I'd be shunned in preschool if I advanced too quickly, decided to slow things down a bit.

They put a copy of the Legion in my little hands, and the rest is history.

Funny you should say that, EDE, I'm going back to college this fall and the Legion's being relaunched again.

As for ten years ago, I was going through my own 5-year gap, and I don't remember much of anything from the time.

Hmm... I wonder if I ever considered that I'd actually be in college for longer than the "reboot" Legion would last?

(Assuming that Waid's version is a new version of the team)

I was 11.

Hmmm, August '94 I was on campus during break (I ended up spending so much time on campus during breaks that most of my memories of the place is of it being almost empty). I was working alone and drinking vodka almost every waking moment since I hated being there (it's amazing I got all my work done on time).

Ten years later, I'm still drunk and alone and the Legion's about to be rebooted again.... the more things change, hm??

Ten years ago -wow! It feels life another lifetime ago I'd just started back at University as Ol had started school, had just met Alan (who I later married) and was living in a really quirky, cramped flat with wacky wallpapers in every room.

Can it really be 10 years?

I was in the eighth month my first job out of college, a small daily newspaper in Muskogee, Okla., not exactly the most exciting place to be when you're just out of college.

Luckily, our forethinking executive editor had spent the year hiring other bright, young talent, and I had some fun people to hang out with (and plot our escapes from Muskogee). They had no problems with me being gay, and we made the most of limited opportunity (Tulsa was only 45 minutes away, and it wasn't too bad). One friend made it her personal mission in life to find me an alcoholic beverage I liked so I wouldn't just get water whenever we went to the bar. She finally did: the Gumby (midori sour if you order it anywhere but Oklahoma, I've discovered). I still mostly order water the rare instances I'm in a bar, but at least there's something I can get if I'm trying to be sociable.

I was computerless at home, but not at work, and I entered the world of Amateur Press Alliances, snail-mail fan groups, and joined one for Legion fans (APA-LSH, co-founded by the Bierbaums -- anyone interested in joining?) and one for gay fans in general (Northstar).

Our forethinking editor also got the newsroom an AOL account, and I was one of the few people allowed to set up my own username on it and scout the world of the Internet to see what the fuss was about. I couldn't run on the Internet willy-nilly, though, because the closest dial-up numbers were in Tulsa, so it was a long-distance call. What a long way we've come since then.

I also adopted a kitten from the cat belonging to one of our photograhers. I named her Daphne (Daphne Velma when she's in trouble -- gotta have a middle name for when they're in trouble), AKA Daphne the Wondercat, and she's on my lap right now.

10 years ago I was 6. I think that was the year my little sister bit me for dumping juice on her.

Wow. A decade later, eh?

My daughter was almost 3, I was finishing my junior year at the University of Oklahoma, played on weekends with a street band and my dear wife was a sweet little hottie.

That was it, work and family and then more work.

Ten years ago I was living in a tree in a Forest in England. Pagan Lass and I shared that tree for a long, long time because of her relationship with that Merlin guy... But anyway...

Or maybe I hadn't been born yet...

Ten years ago, I had just moved to Kansas City to attend graduate school. I would graduate two years later.

I had stopped reading the Legion earlier in the year and was completely ignorant of the reboot until much later. I first heard about in the Comics Buyer's Guide, and responded by writing a letter that included a parody of Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock & Roll" called "Old Time LSH":

Just take those old Legions off the shelf
I'll sit and read them by myself.
Today's Legion ain't got the same face.
I still like that old time LSH.

It would be '98 before I picked up the Legion again, and, to my surprise, I enjoyed the new stories. My vacation from the Legion -- and immersion in academia -- had given me a different perspective on it.

Hmmm, ten years ago I was snorting coke in the men's room at the Boy Bar, waiting for my Ecstasy to kick in!
How I survived that period in my life, I'll never know!

lil'rhino

Ten years ago I fear I was 9 (almost 10) and still about a year 1/2 away from reading my first Legion tale...though I was well submerged in Marvel Comics by then.

I was working a soul-sucking second shift gig and looking after my mom. I was also moving away from one group of friends towards another, including folks I had met and hit it off with the previous year.

Er, I was 11 almost 12 doing reading comics, watching cartoons, playing video games, etc.

A decade? Wow.

So... in August 1994, I was smack-dab in the middle of my only "marriage" and working at a bank. Both the marriage and the Bank job have been gone for years now.

Oh, and according to this tape I dubbed, dated 08/94, here's what I was listening to:

SIDE 1

THE SIGN - Ace of Base

DIVINE HAMMER - The Breeders

MORE & MORE - Captain Hollywood Project

CAROLYN'S FINGERS - Cocteau Twins

SWIMMING IN YOUR OCEAN - Crash Test Dummies

MR. VAIN - Culture Beat

AGE OF LONLINESS - Enigma

MIRACLE - Erasure

BIZARRE LOVE TRIANGLE - Frente

GIVE IT UP - The Goodmen

SIDE TWO

TOUCH ME FALL - Indigo Girls

NOT ENOUGH TIME - INXS

BLUE - LaTour

TONIGHT IS FOREVER - Liza Minelli

THE MORE YOU IGNORE ME THE CLOSER I GET - Morrissey

ALL THE WAY - New Order

HEAD LIKE A HOLE - Nine Inch Nails

WHITE LOVE - One Dove

CAN YOU FORGIVE HER? - Pet Shop Boys

I was attempting to ignore Legion's reboot. The downward spiral of the LSH after Giffen's departure and the similarly lousy post-Sprouse L* scared me away from my still-tender state of Legion fandom.

But the reboot won me over temporarily with its very Legionnaires-reminiscent feel. A more solid pair of artists than Moy and Moder might've kept me on for more than a few months. It'd be two more years before I'd get back on board.

Oh, and I was starting my first permanent job.

Ten years ago, I just finished teaching summer school and preparing for my first contract teaching job as the perilous...teacher librarian!

At the same time I was wooing the woman of my dreams who would become my wife---crazy nut!

Ten days, ten years later, I'm now about to turn 35. I'm comfortably teaching high school English, on the verge of either becoming a dottering, middle-aged schoolteacher OR desperately believing I'm still a cool thirtysomething. This fall I'll be escorting my wife to her ten year class reunion from university. But best of all, I'm living with the second love of my life, my (just turned) 2 year old daughter!

Bring on the relaunch!

I'm listening to Pretty Hate Machine right now! I just picked it up from the used bin at Media Play on Thursday. I wore out a tape copy of it freshman year of college and never replaced it until now!

Bow down before the one you serve--

You're gonna get what you deserve!

"That's What I Get" was the theme song for a pretty bitter breakup I had that year. I listened to that song alot because it helped make me feel like crap about myself...

Head like a hole
Black as your soul

I'd rather DIE than give you control!


Oh I miss TRent Reznor and his understated poetic lyrics

I think he's pumping gas at the Noco station down the street now...