After a few weeks of reading about how certain comic book characters and storylines have evolved throughout the years on Wikipedia, I felt the urge to dig up some old comic books and look back in time to some of my few salvaged comics.  In the process of rummaging through some old boxes, I stumbled upon this now-ancient relic of the past: Kevin Lillard’s A Fan’s View the book.  Oh my, was this a brief moment of some serious reminiscing.

I liked Kevin and what he did back in those days, and I wanted to support him, hence my purchase of his book.  From what I’ve learned through hearsay and rumor, Kevin has long since left the convention scene, and his old website is long gone.  I hope that whatever he’s doing these days, he’s still doing well, nonetheless.  Needless to say, this book is more a memento of what he did, aside from the various JPEGs we as once cosplay enthusiasts hoarded from his numerous convention reports throughout the late 90s into the 2000s.

It goes without saying just how much the times have changed these days.  As I looked through the pages, I can’t help but briefly pause and think about how many people I once knew from these days, and where they may be today.  With the evolution of the internet, social networking, and particular websites, more information than what’s genuinely necessary seems to be available in regards to many individuals, any in many cases, it’s not really for the better.  I knew a good bit of people that were pictured, and knew of some others.  Some folks I didn’t, because of the old “east coast cons vs. west coast cons” disparity that once existed, and I got a good laugh out of the rudimentary evolution of costuming back then, compared to now.  If a character had a navy blue cloak with a lighter blue trim, it seemed to mean navy blue with royal blue trim, of the cheapest, lustless basic cotton as possible; basically a Vampire Hunter D costume from 2000 looks like comparing a Crayola 8 pack to a 64 pack.

But mostly, perusing through this old relic, led to a litany of judgmental remarks, hinging on the lines of:

• You know, I didn’t really like him/her at all
• I had a crush on her
• If only people knew what he/she were doing today
• Man, these costumes sucked to standards now, and then
• Derek is/was a gigantic dork
• And to emphasize, you know, I didn’t really like him/her at all