It’s hardly news to anyone who knows me that I am a geek and have been since long before it was cool. I recently passed another GEEKY milestone when I got my second tattoo.
I wanted this tattoo for years. Until I was hit with the inspiration to get “Yes, and…” on my arm, it was the design I’d always imagined getting first. It felt right to finally do it, but it also seemed silly and frivolous. Why would I put something on my body forever that is an obscure reference to a make-believe world?
The answer to that question lies in the role my geeky pursuits have played throughout my life.
BOOKS
I got into science fiction and fantasy literature young, starting with classics like The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, A Wrinkle in Time, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I was captivated by the careful planning and imagination that went into the world-building these genres required.
My reading continued into adulthood, and over the years I discovered some of my all time favorite books: Neuromancer, Ender’s Game, Snowcrash, and The Kingkiller Chronicles.
Comics became an early staple as well. At first it was G.I. Joe. I was never particularly interested in the military, but I watched the Saturday morning cartoon and I was a boy of my time, I suppose. Within the superhero genre, Wolverine and Poison Ivy were two of my favorites. I guess I like anti-heroes.
Other than the medium-defining masterpiece Watchmen, which was voted one of Time Magazine’s 100 Best Novels of All Time, I didn’t start reading comics again as an adult until a couple of years ago.
As I recounted in my CARPE DIEM post, mi padre adoptivo Howard wrote a novel called Albert of Adelaide, which was published by Hachette in 2012. Because a hard-boiled Australian western starring a platypus didn’t fit neatly into a marketing box, it never found its audience despite great reviews.
Howard and I discussed the possibility that a talking and shooting platypus wouldn’t be out of place in a comic or graphic novel, and maybe Albert could be discovered by more people in that medium.
When he passed, I started researching the project and reading comics again. Buying and reading comics turned into grief collecting as I processed his loss. I started buying more comics than I could ever read for the little dopamine hit it gave me. Eventually, I started selling comics on eBay to manage my growing collection and hopefully make a couple bucks in the process. Albert the graphic novel will happen.
GAMES
I never had an Atari growing up, but it was a special treat when I went to play with my friends who did. The game Kangaroo was one of my early favs. The first video game system I got was the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). I spent many many weekends and summers renting games from the video store up the street, glued to the TV.
I played video games into adulthood - sometimes for fun, sometimes to kill time, sometimes to escape. I stayed up late November 8th, 2016 watching the election results. As soon as it was certain Trump had won, I turned off the news and started replaying The Witcher 3 from the start.
In 2020, the first year of COVID, my lifelong struggle with depression was in a particularly rough patch. After staying up until 4am playing the remaster of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, it finally dawned on me that I was self-medicating with the brain chemicals released when I played video games. The next day I decided to finally go on medication.
Growing up, I played the standard board games - Monopoly, Clue, Life, etc., but also more obscure, complicated board games. One such game was The Awful Green Things from Outer Space which had a million little cardboard pieces. I discovered my dad’s first edition Dungeons and Dragons Basic Set and I must have read the rules through half a dozen times. As a teen I played D&D and other TTRPGs (Tabletop Role Playing Games) such as Shadowrun, Top Secret, and Cyberpunk.
During COVID I started painting miniatures. The ones I paint are part of a massive and complicated game called Warhammer, though so far I have painted much more than I have played. Even with car space at a premium on this trip, I brought along a basic setup so I can paint on the road.
MOVIES & TV
When I moved to LA in 1998, one of my dreams was to work on a big budget sci-fi movie. Although I worked a couple of days as a runner on the reshoots for Imposter, based on a Philip K. Dick short story, I never did get to work on a whole project.
I had ambitious, though very naive, hopes to get some of my sci-fi favorites made. I wrote to the author Neal Stephenson through his agent asking his permission to adapt Snowcrash into a screenplay. The letter was returned unopened.
I emailed Orson Scott Card asking if a film was ever made of Ender’s Game, could I work on it? He actually wrote me back apologetically explaining to me that writers have no say in the filmmaking process. That book was made into a film in 2013.
In 2008 I wrote an adaptation of Stephen King’s (writing as Richard Bachman) The Running Man, but I didn’t have the rights to shop the spec script. The book, which bears no resemblance to the 1987 Schwarzenegger film, is currently being adapted again by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Baby Driver) starring Glen Powell. It starts shooting any day and is slated for a November 2025 release date.
In 2010, I discovered that someone I went to high school with was out in LA and had worked as the writers assistant on The West Wing. We got together to develop an idea for a one-hour horror drama for television that was a post-apocalyptic zombie horror called Twitch.
He wrote the script for the pilot and we came up with a pitch for the arc of the show over 5 seasons. His manager said that it was the best thing he’d ever written and that he would put together a package to take out to the networks over the following two weeks. Literally the next day The Walking Dead was announced in the trades.
It was encouraging that my sensibility and instincts weren’t off, but it’s very tough to get something made if you aren’t already known.
Later, after I switched careers and got into tech sales, I helped develop and launch a new product called Screeners.com. It was a secure platform to show pre-release shows to critics and press. The big moment that helped the product get credibility and gain traction was when HBO’s started using it for their big new show Westworld.
It’s ironic that I had a larger impact on the entertainment industry once I got out of making entertainment and started selling technology.
ALIEN
Every geek has their main geekdom that they identify with - Star Trek, Star Wars, The MCU, etc. Mine is the Alien Universe, which can include, depending on who you talk to, the Predator and Blade Runner franchises (don't come at me).
In 1986, when Aliens came out, my mom uncharacteristically asked if I wanted to go with her. When she discovered the film was rated R she withdrew her offer, and I don’t think she ever actually saw it herself.
I don’t remember when I actually saw Aliens for the first time, but I do remember it was before I saw the original, 1979’s Alien. I couldn’t tell you what exactly it was about the creature or the series of films that stuck with me, but I'm sure it was partly because Aliens was one of the six films we owned on VHS. I must have watched it forty times while I was in middle school.
They are also, of course, fantastic films. Alien was voted number 7 on AFI's best all-time sci-fi films. Aliens was rated number 34 best sci-fi film of all time by Rolling Stone and the best film sequel of all time by Empire Online.
1992’s Alien3 was the first of the franchise I saw in theaters, and I have seen every one since on the big screen. Although Alien3 was panned at the time, partly because it killed two beloved characters in the opening credits (spoilers), it was David Fincher’s first film. I was one of the few people who liked the film. Since then, Fincher has produced an impressive body of work and become my favorite director. Fan appreciation for Alien3 has finally come around.
Starting with 1997’s Alien Resurrection, which was an unmitigated dumpster fire, every film since has been either okay, middling, or poor. Nothing has lived up to the first three films - until this year. Alien: Romulus - the first film since the Intellectual Property was acquired by Disney when they bought Fox - is a return to the aesthetic and sensibility of the films that made me fall in love with the franchise. And it delivers. I saw it three times in theaters.
In 2018 when I had a few months off in between jobs I made the pilgrimage to Gruyere, Switzerland to the Giger Bar, and the Giger Museum. H. R. Giger (pronounced like "eager") was a Swiss artist whose darkly erotic “biomechanical” airbrush paintings were nightmare fuel. He was tasked with designing the original creature in the 70s.
Not to miss out on any monetization opportunity, the Alien Universe has spread into all of the many tendrils of geekdom, and I have followed it into most of them:
Dark Horse Comics premiered their first Aliens series in 1988. I collected, read, and re-read everything they put out. In 2021, Marvel (Disney) came out with their first Alien comic series in 2021 and have been churning them out since.
With $350M in worldwide box office to date, Alien Romulus has ensured there will be more films in the franchise. There is also a forthcoming TV series call Alien: Earth, created by showrunner Noah Hawley (Legion, Fargo) which is premiering on Hulu in 2025.
There have been 31 Alien novels written so far, including film novelizations.
There have been 17 officially licensed video games for Aliens and another 14 for Aliens vs. Predator. Alien: Isolation is the standout of the bunch. I have played it through over 3 times and it still holds up 10 years after it was published.
There have been many board games, starting with the one Kenner put out with the original film in 1979. The latest versions include Alien: The Fate of the Nostromo, and Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps.
Alien: The Roleplaying Game is an exceptional TTRPG set in the Alien Universe that was created by Swedish game publisher Free League. It won the Gold ENNIE Award in for Best Game in 2020, and its expansions have won many awards since.
Trading cards, audio dramas, podcasts, lunchboxes, action figures, etc. etc. etc.
So, why should you care? Honestly, I don't expect you to.
That’s the thing about being a geek. You get excited about weird little trivia and the minutiae of the fantasy worlds you care about. You find your fellow geeks who feel the same way, but most people truly couldn’t give two shits.
That’s what my tattoo is - an identifying marker, exotic geek plumage to help me identify my tribe. Once, years ago, I went to the vet wearing a hat with the same design as my tattoo. When the doctor came in to check on the dog, she saw my hat and did a double-take. She asked “Is that…?”. “It sure is” I replied. We shared an appreciative, knowing look. Then the appointment proceeded as if nothing had ever happened. She was one of my people - IYKYK.
The tattoo is the logo of the nefarious “Company” in the Alien films: Weyland-Yutani Corp. The true villains in the Alien Universe aren’t the creatures, who are just surviving and propagating their species, but the humans trying to exploit the creatures as a weapon. The Company’s corporate greed and immoral dealings are the true evil in those films. The design is obscure enough that 99.5% of people won’t get it, but those who are true Alien fans will.
Fantasy and science fiction matter because they’ve always been my happy place. When the world was unkind, stressful, or unsafe, I could retreat to these imaginary worlds for solace. When I was bullied in middle school, I read comics and played roleplaying games. When work was stressing me out, I read books and played video games. When my marriage was crumbling around me, I collected comics and painted miniatures.
This tattoo is not just a reference to the Alien franchise. It’s an acknowledgement of the role that science fiction and fantasy have played in my life. It’s also part of my journey this year to feel more comfortable in my own skin and be proud of who I am - my full GEEKY self.
Yes, and…
Matt
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