Atomika and Magic 'Shrooms

Sunday, June 05, 2005

Had a great time in Philly, met some awesome people and got some good books which I am currently making my way through. I’ll probably just plug various people I met each day this week so let me start with Sal Abbinanti, creator and penciler of Atomika for Speakeasy Comics. Atomika is a book worth looking into, without getting too involved it’s a story of super-heroes against Gods set in Communist Russia. Sal himself is a very cool cat, very receptive, fun to talk to and seems to have his head screwed on nicely and knows what he’s doing.

_______________

Confession time – I played Magic (the card game) in college.

Granted it only lasted about three months but I will not deny that I had my deck and I tapped my mana and I cast my spells and called my creatures. It all started Sophomore year when my friend Eric was talking about some tournament he was entering, how the winner got cash, and it got me to thinking I could win cash and maybe quit my shitty job as student manager in the dining hall.

Eric taught me everything I needed to know to become a Magic master. He was the Yoda to my Luke. The Miyagi to my LaRusso. The Rumsfeld to my Hussein.

He gave me a bunch of cards, enough to start off and practice with. My friend Andy also played, he was old school. He had all these cards that were illegal to use in tournaments and cost hundreds of dollars – he got them in the original packs. These cards made him impossible to beat. Andy, Eric and I would take turns playing each other, on a Saturday night, drinking Vodka, wearing a Wizards’ hat (Eric was a Washington Wizards’ fan, always had that hat on, occasionally a jersey).

Anyway, lame joke aside, Eric’s hand-me-down cards weren’t enough for me to beat him, let alone Andy. I started buying packs of cards at Comicopia but I still couldn’t hang against these cats’ decks – they were just in it for too long.

R’s younger brother used to play Magic as a kid and let me have a bag of his cards – a fact that, when looked at closely, is quite pathetic. There were a bunch of good cards in there, if I remember correctly, and I was now able to hold my own. But I thirsted for more power, I needed more cards.

One day I was over at my drug-dealers place picking up some dope. We had the usual conversation, I was telling him how much I loved dope and he tried to rush me out of his place. This time, however, I happened to mention that I was playing Magic (for some fucked up reason I thought my dealer actually cared).

Well, he did care. Turns out he used to play not too long ago and he had a shit load of cards he wanted to get rid of since, you know, the drug game was working out better for him.

He sold most of them to me for fifty cents a card. I specifically remember one time going over his place and purchasing ‘Shrooms and a WRATH OF GOD. Even funnier, since the WRATH OF GOD was rare, he wanted ten bucks for it, same amount I was paying for the ‘shrooms. Hey, it was still cheaper than Comicopia.

One time Eric wanted to come with me, having no idea that this guy supplied me with more than Magic cards. As he was rifling through the cards, pulling out the ones he wanted, I was buying some dope for the week ahead – something that shocked and amused him.

As we were leaving Eric had to admit that it was very convenient to have an all purpose dealer. We went back to the dorm, smoked a bowl and tried out our new cards, wishing the entire time that the kid was capable of also selling us some pizza because Dominos was taking forever.

Eventually the kid stopped selling me Magic cards because he decided to start playing again. Shortly after that he stopped selling me drugs because he got arrested. Shortly after that R left me and her brother wanted his Magic cards back. I was back to the crap cards Eric gave me and the few I bought off of my dealer and I just decided to pack it in.

I was only in for the bitches and the fame anyways, and we all know how that story ends.

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posted by Jason at 1 Comments


1 Comments

Anonymous Wilson said...

Duuuuude. Everybody knows the bitches and fame are in Pokemon cards.

1:47 AM  

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