KA-PLOW! KA-BUNCH! Hey, it's tough coming up with different ways to start this article every week. However, I digress. Welcome to another amazing, fantastic, super-rad installment of the Comic Vine Community Star Award! SHA-PLAP! Last week, Superkitty took the cake, and it only took him 4 or 5 days to see it.
This week, we have another amazing member of the vine to highlight. After carefully looking at all of your votes in our weekly voting thread, I came to the conclusion that this week's winner should be a newer person on the vine. So... Literally start applauding (...you're not doing it... seriously, start literally clapping... thanks, to the two of you who actually did it...) for this week's winner, Thanosrules!
He's only been here since October 7th of 2011, but he's accomplished a great deal on this site since then. He's written 73, high quality reviews here at the vine, thus far including Annihilation Classics and the whole Dark Angel Saga, starting with issue 11. 73 reviews in a matter of a few months is a ton of work, especially when all the reviews are well-thought out and well written.
Thanosrules is also working hard on the wiki portion of the site. He's been kicking butt and chewing bubble gum, but Roddy Roddy Piper stole all his bubble gum. Have you seen the ridiculousness that is the Ultimate Nullifier page? Thanosrules has put an amazing amount of work into that page racking up over 3,000 points. He's also put over 1,000 points into Defenders 1. Yeah... that's a ton of work just on a single issue. Thanosrules has almost hit the 13,000 point mark on the wiki section. Super-sweet work!
He's been a big part of the new community, and he even has 28 blogs thus far. He's done a great deal of work here so far. I sat down with Thanosrules, in different rooms, and probably different states to find out what skeletons are in his closet. Time for my hard hitting interview which usually leaves most Community Star Members in tears.... or jail.
Inferioroego: Hi Thanosrules! How does it feel to win the community star award?
Thanosrules: AMAZING! I have been working so hard to make a name for myself on Comic Vine, I am glad that my persistence has paid off. I am truly grateful. Thank you.
First thing's first. Where did you get that giant Silver Surfer from, the one you call "your pride and joy?"
I "won" it on eBay.
Backstory: When I started collecting and reading comics again (I took a 15 year hiatus) I would go from book store to book store picking up every issue and collectable of Silver Surfer I could find. Then I saw the holy grail of Silver Surfer collectables… this statue. It was suspended from the ceiling, as a decoration at that store and they were not going to sell. The only problem was, I had the bug. I HAD to have it. It took a lot of patience, perseverance and a sharp eye, but I finally found one. The best part, it happened to be available as a local pickup IN MY HOME TOWN. Thinking this was too much of a coincidence. I made sure I won the auction. Voila! There it is.
You've done something that I haven't seen before, you used the Xbox Kinect to review Uncanny X-Force 20. Where did you come up with the idea to do video reviews through the Kinect and will you do more of them?
I had been wanting to do video reviews for a while, but I also wanted to do something different. I had used the Avatar Kinect technology when it first came out, just for fun. Its first application was to act as an introduction to a family video collage introducing my newborn son to the world. It seemed like a logical progression to leverage the technology for reviews, as well. I will also be leveraging this same type of thing for a work presentation in the coming weeks (as an introduction to a technical demonstration). It should be right on target, as I have been known to use the Kinect for other “just for fun work things in the past”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqwu4AQFpv8
If people respond well, yes, I would be happy to do more.
You say your goal is to collect every appearance of Silver Surfer/Norrin Radd. How many do you have currently?
How did you know I had a spreadsheet outlining my collection? ;)
Rough estimates put my Silver Surfer collection (issues, trades, statues, and collectables) at well over 300 items (rough because I do not have a specific column for “appearance”, just series title). It actually makes up a small portion of my entire collection… as I have started collecting much more than Marvel Cosmic stuff now.
As one would expect, my collection includes the standard origin issues and each of the issues and trades for his various series, but my most unique items include: Silver Surfer Original Art by Tim Proctor, a Silver Surfer pen, various pin sets, all the Silver Surfer themed Lamp-in-a-boxes; the Silver Surfer Animated Series DVDs, and of course the life-size statue (among any other statue I can get my hands on). J
How many more do you need?
It is a continually moving target, but I am probably in the 90% realm (of known and obtainable items).
Is Silver Surfer your favorite character?
Yes.
What's the first comic book you read?
When I collected as a teen, I did just that, collected. I did not read. I do not know what it was about collecting comics, it was just fun. I guess I was more about covers back then. If I read anything back then, it would have been something with Spider-Man, the X-Men or Thanos on the cover.
For my return into comic collecting (and now reading), the first book I read was the trade for the Infinity Gauntlet.
How did you find out about Comic Vine?
I was searching the internet for THE BEST online database for comics, with the following criteria:
- There had to be an API so I could programmatically access the data
- The data had to have a relationship between “Series Title” and “Characters”
- The data had to be reliable
The reason I was looking for all of this was because I was in search of “every issue of Silver Surfer”. Which turned into “every issue…” of a bunch of other stuff too.
I have made A LOT of purchases based on the data I was able to extract from the Comic Vine database via the API. In fact, the API saved me tons of hours of copy/paste… and now I have a PowerShell script that can extract “Series Title” data based on “Character Name”.
Why pick the name "thanosrules" if you're a huge Silver Surfer fan?
When I was just a young lad, I was big into WORDART. I printed up a bunch of banners with my favorite character names in funky WORDART patterns and designs. One of the most memorable of all of these banners was one that said, “Thanos Rules” all stretched out, bold and embossed. I have spent HOURS looking for that piece of paper from my childhood, and have come up empty handed. I thought the best tribute to that relic from my past was to make it my online comic book fan identity.
Do you know how to use the three seashells?
Only if I am taken out for dinner and dancing at Taco Bell.
Don't you have a thought repeating in that barbaric brain of yours?
Yes, it is boggling my mind.
The name Friendly. Edgar Friendly. Don't you have a job to do?
That’s not Edgar, I know Edgar.
Don't you have someone to kill?
No, just write out of the story for a couple arcs.
How could Taco Bell win the fast food wars if their food is so awful?
They invented fourth meal, that’s how.
QUICK: Your on a plane that's going down. You're going to die. You have 5 minutes left to live. What do you do?
Finish reading the Infinity Gauntlet trade that I always carry with me on long trips.
Any last words for the other viners out there?
No matter how many reviews you write, forum posts you create, lists you cobble together, quests you finish, or images you upload, just remember:
Its Adventure Time!
Wow. That's a lot of great revelations, and a lot of great Demolition Man references. Make sure to give Thanosrules all your interweb hugs/high-fives/kisses to make him feel as awesome as he should feel! We'll see you guys next week in the voting thread where I answer the question "How many burritos is too many burritos?" See you guys on Monday! Congrats Thanosrules!