It's Prime Time!

Greetings All,

    Dragon*Con is just over 90 days away!  It will be the first exploitation of all this training and working out.  My costume for D*C 2012 will be Prime from Malibu Comics Ultraverse series.  Many (and I mean MANY) people have asked why that character.  The complex answer is I wanted a character that would be a blend of obscure and yet still be identifiable (at least to comic nerds).  I see so many of the same old characters at D*C.  Some are done exceptionally well, others….not so much. 

Cosplay comes with a unique set of challenges: 

1.        What costume is right for you?  If you are 6’6” (which I am not) you are probably going to have a tough time pulling off a convincing Link from Legend of Zelda. 

2.       How well will your costume translate?  There are so many characters in all forms of media that have costumes the really don’t work in real life. 

3.       How workable the costume?  Steampunks find out fast that the dazzling appointments to their costumes make for a lot of effort over time.  Spartans find that they can’t go anywhere outside the host hotels (no shirts no shoes, no service and all that). 

The list could go on for miles.  By the way, the simple answer is I just wanted too, ok! 

     When I go in costume I like to be fully immersed in the character.  If the character requires a different hair color, then I will pay a visit to Ms. Clairol.  I have done everything for costumes from green body-paint to black pomaded hair.  This is the first time I have gone to these extremes in dieting and working out for a costume though.  While it is not the only reason I started this mad quest, it is the most immediate one.  Look for me and the handful of others I have suckered into this crazy hobby in the Dragon*Con parade this year!

Super-Jerry

My "Dorian Gray" Moment

Greetings all,

    It’s amazing how comfortable a person becomes with their physical image.  I am not talking about fashions or hairstyles.  I simply mean the physical shape of their body in the mirror.  I had an interesting experience in this area while training last week.  After some particularly intense shoulder exercises, I was sitting on the bench trying to recover and I noticed my refection (under the lights and with a solid pump going) looked very different than I am accustomed to.  It was the first time that I was able to consciously discern the shadow cast by forming definition.  Ephemeral as it was, I almost felt a little scared because the image was so unfamiliar to me.  I thought of Dorian Gray:  terrified to look at his own portrait.  Later on when I had cooled down and the pump had gone away, my reflection became a bit more familiar. 

    So what did I learn from that experience?  I am still trying to figure that out.  I don’t want to become vain or too proud, but I think I could start to like this image once I get used to it.  For now, it just seems to be a stranger in the mirror working out next to me.

Super-Jerry

Perceptions, Jokes and "The Type"

Greetings All,

    Okay, so I have been working out pretty solid for a little more than 5 months now.  It must be showing because now I am starting to get muscle jokes from my co-workers.  Nothing malicious, just things like “We need Jerry’s muscles” if someone is lifting something heavy.  The other day at the optometrist, an older lady at the reception desk asked if I was a cop or maybe a Marine.  When I asked why she would think that, she said “You’ve just got a really athletic build.”  That was a strange experience.  I have never presented the perception of physical fitness before.  The feeling is an odd mixture of being exposed and being gratified.  I am trying to remain in an objective mindset though.  How much could I really have gained in only 5 months?  It could just be coincidence.

    Another funny thing happened at a very well know PC components store.  I was shopping for a new motherboard and was asked by a salesman if I needed help.  He was dumbfounded when I began asking about chipsets, memory latency, and PCI-E interfaces.  When I asked why he was so shocked at my questions, his response was that I just didn’t look like the type that would ask such in depth questions about motherboards.  Unsure how to react to that one, I just smiled and chuckled flatly.  To be fair, I was wearing my tank-top (seldom a geek fashion) and it was shortly after a grueling arm workout (so I still had a good pump going), so I wasn’t in much of a geek mode.  Still, is there a “type” that should or shouldn’t know about the inner workings of a computer?  I will be returning to this store in a few months (when I put on some more size) to test the perception again.  That should be a laugh.  Maybe I can get my friends to film it.  Stay tuned!

Super-Jerry

Major Milestones

Greetings All,

I have finally crossed a major milestone in my training!  600lbs-15 times on the leg press.  Not as heavy as some others could do, but it did feel like a good solid accomplishment.  Some good friends of mine were on hand to film the event:

There is an alternate view as well:

The road continues on and I endure.  Survivable?  We'll see.  Ask me Labor Day weekend when I have to fit in my superhero costume and look badass.

Super-Jerry

 



The Uber-80's

Greetings All,

    Who remembers the cartoons and comics of the 80’s and 90’s; the ones where the characters were drawn with insanely large physiques?    He-Man, Thundercats, Superman (in that period), X-Men, and many others from that era featured bodies with inhuman proportions.  A friend of mine who is a diehard comic enthusiast/historian called it the “Uber 80’s”.  I guess it’s to be expected when the action stars of the day were Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.  The underline message: Big Muscles = Badass.  I do wonder how many bodybuilders today were inspired to get into the sport by watching after school cartoon heroes (or even villains).  

     I can only recall one example when bodybuilding was incorporated directly in a comic book type series.  “Max Rep:  Mr. AstroTitan 2206” featured cleaver storylines that blended bodybuilding and sci-fi.  The strip was run as a feature in Muscular Development magazine for years.  I think it would be awesome to have a full comic book series again that featured bodybuilding/sci-fi storylines.  It would be a great thing to sell in Gold’s Gym for the more geeky among us to read while doing cardio.  All is not lost however.  The amazingly great artist of the Max Rep comic strip, Mr. Lyman Dally, still maintains that universe through the eyes of Max’s female counterpart, Quadra Blu.  I wish there were more sci-fi/fitness stories out there; a bodybuilder type superhero (or just a bodybuilder type protagonist) might inspire more geeks to take to working out (we are not classically the fittest bunch).  I am tired of pretty-boy type supers that do nothing to inspire me to work out.  But alas I must remind myself that the Uber-80’s and 90’s are over and I must wait for the pendulum to swing back.

Posted with permission of Mr. Lyman Dally.

    The heroes and villains today look more like Muscle-Mania competitors rather than the Mr. Olympia type heroes of old.  Today cartoon animators and comic book artists are favoring a more streamlined body.  Movies are in on this trend too.  Endomorph is out and Ectomorph is in.  Action stars like Chris Evans, Ryan Reynolds and Brad Pitt are more lean/ripped body types.  What will be next, Rise of the Mesomorphs?

Super-Jerry