Tag: Cecil

This Week in Comics (My Pull List 5-15-24) and traveling with the Monkey

Posted on May 16, 2024 by Bruce

So last weekend we headed to Mansfield, Ohio to go prison. What does this have to do with comics? Not much, but it does have something to with environment and images. You see one of the MINI groups we run with planned a tour of the Ohio State Reformatory. This is the same group that had tour of the Randolph County Asylum, hmmm… coincidence?

Why the Ohio State Reformatory? It was the location for the film “The Shawshank Redemption.” It’s an impressive building from the outside and a work in progress on the inside. Sue and I spent the night before in Mansfield and did some geocaching and adventure labbing. There is an Adventure Lab that takes you to many of the locations used in the film which was cool. It seems that thanks to “Hollywood Magic” Mansfield took the place of Maine with almost every scene being shot there except the final scene on the beach… which was done using primitive AI technology 🤪 (it wasn’t, they actually went to the U.S. Virgin Islands).

I understand the importance of drawing from real life and one of those things I always find frustrating is trying to do that with a group of people wanting to move onto the next spot. or trying to draw while also trying to learn about the place from the tour guide. So I take some photos and maybe use them as inspiration when needed. So far I haven’t needed, but someday I might.

Cecil came along (of course) and since this is a newish group of people I got to explain the monkey all over again. My usual response is “I’m an old elementary school teacher, and this is my class mascot. I take him places and my students like to see where he’s been.” As you get know me, you know he’s a lot more than that. Besides being a character in this comic (when I actually draw the comic) you learn he’s my extroverted personality. He does all the silly things, I don’t do. He’s my excuse to come up to complete strangers and ask for a photo. He’s an icebreaker for when I’m too shy to talk to someone. He’s an alter ego… with a big ego. I have friends, not because of me, but specifically because of the monkey.

I just remember being at a MINI event and someone was coveting the exclusive MINIon badge that each person in the group I drove with had. They met someone from the group and when they found out I was involved asked I was still carrying around that stupid monkey. I found out about it. When they came up to me and asked if they could get a badge, because they had heard I was the guy to talk to (I am the guy to talk to), I replied that being MINIon 4238 I was so far down the line, I had nothing to do with it. They needed to talk to someone with a lower MINIon number. Don’t ever disrespect the monkey.

This Week’s Comics:

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #20 – One of those “filler issues” that I actually like. It gives you a chance to build up characters and relationships without much chaos. Of course there is some chaos, but still and nice art walk with friends and “Shift” stats to gain a bigger role, which is nice. Of course we have to end the whole thing with Vampires since that is the summer mega event. 🙄

Action Comics #1065 (House of Brainiac 3) – we’ve got Lobo, Superman, the whole Super Family against Brainiac and a special guest appearance by the Space Cabbie! It seems that Brainiac has a city collection more vast that we first thought and this will play into future issues (next in Superman #14).

Batman and Robin # 9 – Batman captured by Man-Bat and Robin still trying to figure things out… and finally doing it. getting the Principal to snap (I think it really had to do with low test scores and not getting teacher evaluations done on time) and the identity of “Shush.” So now Gotham is about to be “saved” in some weird psychotic way by Man-Bat. Let’s see- No Zur En Arrh, no Orghams, it’s interesting to try and figure out when in Batman’s timeline all these stories are taking place. It’s a comic, it really doesn’t matter.

Dark Ride #12 – It looks like the conclusion. Who will end up controlling Devil Land? Who lives? Who dies? It has been an interesting ride as we see the story behind Satanic Disneyland.

Fishflies #6 – Yes! a history lesson and we finally learn why a giant bug is running around the county and what his purpose is. I like the way the flashback was done monochromatically. How will the news at the end impact the story?

U & I # 4 of 6 – So the bad guts go after U. Can Isabelle save him? I frankly have sadistically enjoyed the trouble Isabelle’s uncle has gotten himself into- Karma is beautiful. Unfortunately, it might not work out well for U & I in the end, but we have two issues to get there.

The Displaced #4 – It’s been months since the small town of (weird, I don’t remember it’s name) disappeared from the map and memories of everyone in the world, except those who escaped it. Those folks now are forgotten the minute they leave your sight. This has lead to some interesting ways to dealing with life- rob someone, and they don’t remember it, check into a hotel, and they don’t remember you did and give the room to someone else. Now it’s starting to wear on everyone… the way to escape? leave everyone, and go off on your own… although it looks painful, you then disappear too. Where do you go? I think many hope they return to the friends and family they lost when the town vanished.

It’s interesting, when I read this comic I go back and think of how people come in and out of our lives. Sometimes you forget them, others you don’t. I feel bad, because I’m one of those teachers who, try as I might, can’t remember all of my students. After 35 years, 3 schools, and thousands of kids, my memory is faulty. Having taught elementary school doesn’t help, because kids age and change (I think it’s called puberty) which doesn’t help. Worse yet is 20 minutes after a former student leaves, sad that I don’t recall their humorous exploits, I remember everything, and feel even worse. What’s also sad are the number of kids (now adults) who come up and tell me they were “bad kids.” In 35 years I’ve only had a handful of kids who were “bad” and most of them it was their parents who really made them memorable (or the thing of nightmares).

Ultimate X-Men #3 – We learn the story of Mei the white haired girl with lightning bolt earrings. The last word of the speech bubble in the last panel… “mutants” I wonder what that could mean?

Star Trek #20 – Since this takes place in a pre-Picard time period as the Theseus gets and overhaul at Utopia Planitia we get to meet Commander Liam Shaw who seems to be making the rounds in the comics since he can’t make the rounds anymore streaming because <SPOILERS>. So off they go where “No Man Has Gone Before” in hopes to save the Organians. Who will they meet? Dr. Crusher is hoping to be reunited with Wesley.

Secret Origins of Super Villains

Posted on November 27, 2023 by Bruce


First Appearance of Cecil – Evil GeoCaching Monkey Bent On World Domination
—
Indy’s Lamest cache GC100CE

published 12/28/2006
* Found by ProfessorZoom
* 01/02/2007

Indiana, United States


Here’s the log… the very first time Cecil-Evil GeoCaching Monkey Bent on World Domination had ever been mentioned. How did it happen- I was asked to write something silly or creative or something like that…

The red phone rang- it only did that when a call was coming in so I picked it up. The receiver was heavy in my hand as I listened to the call to adventure. “Zoom, you must find this cache… the safety of the free world is depending on it.” I took down the coordinates and thought to myself, I may need some backup on this one – it was in a part of town known for danger. I explained the mission to Mrs. Zoom as we sped to the coordinates, “It looks like a basic park and grab, but I sense there may be more to it than just that.” She looked at the coordinates and asked “Are you sure this isn’t a setup?” I shrugged, a geocacher has got to do what a geocacher has got to do. We drove past the spot and made a quick u-turn hoping no one saw us. “Cover me” I said as I made for the lamp post. Suddenly, we were surrounded by robot ninja monkeys! They had been hiding in the old shed. It had to be my arch nemesis, Cecil. He was trying to get to the cache before we did. Fortunately I was prepared. I’m glad we stocked up bananas at Costco. We loaded the shopping cart with the bananas and shoved it away from the cache. Using all their ninja skills the robot monkeys silently chased after the cart- we were clear, the cache was ours. As Mrs. Zoom tried to open the cache I knew time was running out and soon the monkeys would be back. I torn open the container and wrenched the damp log book out as the monkeys having finished the bananas turned to face us. As they piled on us in hopes that they could win with sheer numbers I was able to tear off one of their tails and sign the log with the green coolant dripping from one end. Cecil, knowing he was beaten once again called a retreat. “This isn’t the end Professor Zoom- we’ll meet again.” As I replaced the cache and got back in the car all I could think was, “I probably should have taken my pills this morning.” Then again, if I had this cache would have been pretty lame.

At this time, Sue and I cached under a shared identity (ProfessorZoom). We had started caching, or at least created a geocaching account, on July 13, 2006, while I was attending the ISTE conference (back when it was called NECC) in San Diego. We didn’t invest in a GPSr until I returned home. Younglings Please Note: This was a time when you needed a GPS receiver to cache. Most cachers printed out cache pages and put them in binders. Those who were more technologically inclined used what was called a “Palm Pilot” to store cache information. The iPhone didn’t exist until mid-2007, and the GC App didn’t exist until 2013.

This was the first log containing any mention of Cecil, who later would be known as Cecil-Evil GeoCaching Monkey. I think I originally thought of him as a Blofeld/Silas Greenback-like character, which quickly morphed into an evil monkey living in my basement. He became more than just an inside joke when caches were missing or logs were wet. He then started his reign as an agent of chaos. Cecil did not appear in comic form until the summer of 2009, going through many changes over the years.

A collection of my strips I cobbled together so I could say-“Look! I’m published!”

…and so my life was forever changed. Geocachers sometimes talk about that one cache that changed their life, one cache can do that. For me, it was a pretty lame little park and grab hidden by bfoust close to 17 years ago. Since then I have traveled the world with that monkey. I started a comic strip, and drawn untold number of monkey minions. I’ve gone on hiatus, from not only the strip but also caching. Now in my retirement I return to both, a lot older and a wee bit wiser.

I’m going to take some time and try to update the site- probably breaking it multiple times in the process. I’ll let everyone know when it is ready for the general public. Better, stronger, faster with at least 20% more ookiness.

As for Indy’s Lamest Cache, it is still there, adopted by kiaria in 2009. It was last logged in October. For the record… Cecil has yet to log this cache, I doubt he ever will.

I’m not quite sure the value of this log if you had it graded and slabbed… probably nothing, but as (according to the internet) many current politicians say – “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

OK- So I had planned to have this post on New Year’s Eve, but like they say “The best laid plans of mice.”  I hope everyone had a nice New Years and are ready to boldly go into 2014!

No, I’m not telling…
You know I swear every time I go to the Doctor for my annual check up he just reads the same script -lose weight, exercise more, eat healthy… yadda, yadda, yadda. When I was growing up I made a 98 pound weakly look obese, It’s taken a lot of work to just be in the “Normal Range.”  Is it my fault that “normal” in Indiana (and the U.S.) is overweight? Thanks to some friends I have been participating in a “Weight Loss Challenge”  part of that for me has been to exercise more… no really I even bought a fancy pedometer that keeps track of everything.  Like any good teacher will tell you the only thing more important than data is more data.  So I do have all this data to examine… which requires me to be sitting at the computer not exercising.
So top secret information has yielded some leads… For those who have been long time readers might remember Mongo’s first appearance & Cecil’s cloning plan.  The clones have been around, showing up here & there, but he’s pulling out all the stops (& calling in his army of clones) in the search for the Caching Curmudgeon’s secret hide out. I do want to apologize quickly for last week’s hiccough.  Halloween, lead to Parent/Teacher Conferences, which led to utter & complete exhaustion.  I should have posted something, but it was definitely a week- I’m sure you all have had one of those.
I’ve seen this somewhere before… it looks vaguely familiar.  Anyone?  Anyone? Bueller?
So, Dr. Who is taking a summer break… and I didn’t win the “Where’s the TARDIS?” contest (I told you I wouldn’t).  The episode was fascinating and a lot was revealed.  There were also characters introduced that have back stories I need to hunt down, I’m sure someone else has already done the hunting and posted it on a reliable site (like Wikipedia). Do I have a sonic screwdriver? Yes, I picked one up at the first C2E2.  Do I have a black fez with a police box on it?  Maybe- Like a number of fez wearing organizations I am not a liberty to discuss anything unless you can show me the secret handshake.  The Royal Order of the TARDIS is a very secret society that you must… wait, did I just give something away? Then again, I could just be pulling your leg. As for the bow tie- I AM a geek after all.  My grandfather taught me how to tie a bow tie when I was in high school.  When he passed away I was able to pick a few from his collection.  I think I have more bow ties than straight ties- and yes, none of them are clip ons- clip ons are for…
Yes, as the time runs down on this season of Dr. Who we still don’t know who has won the Where’s the TARDIS contest.  BBC America has been posting the runner’s up each day this week so as of Thursday (Second Runner-up) the Dr. Who Cache series was still in the running.  I’m just glad I have low self esteem (thank you Mom & Dad) so I really don’t expect to win- it was a hoot making all the cache containers and learning more about the history Dr. Who (although I am nowhere near an expert). As for Cecil’s lament – have you ever noticed that when staying at a hotel they tend to never have the channel that has the show you want to watch.  Home shopping? Sure, at least 4 different networks.  Discovery, TLC, and ESPN are standard.  BBC America? not so much.  Before I finally invested in something other than bunny ears Sue and I used to get caught up on the TV shows everyone was talking about by going away for the weekend… (This was back when there was only one CSI and it was on Fridays) Now we watch channels that hotels don’t tend to carry & therefore either DVR stuff, or stay home. I hope everyone has a good weekend.
It looks like Cecil is getting to the end of his patience when it comes to looking for a new lair… I hope he finds something soon- I’m having trouble coming up other places for him to look at!