Hola, folks. Welcome to the new section where fans are answered the question "who is Sid? What makes him tick?" Well, okay, no one thinks that, but I like to think that someone thinks about thinking that thought...or somethin'. Anyway, this page will be basically a place for me to rant and rave about a new subject(s) each week. It will be updated every Wednesday to keep me on my toes with this site. Each topic may or may not be GenX related, usually not comic related at all, so feel free to not read it. Either way, it's getting vented out of my system.

This Week's Topic Is...

Yeah, I know. I can see the calendar. I'm late. Like, a week late. But I decided to do this one early, and just sorta forget about that last one (it never happened, it never happened, it never happened...). Anyhoo, if you notice the topic for this week, it will be similar to last weeks, but I'm going to throw a second topic in as well, just because I want to rant on and on until your eyes start bleeding. So here we go...

I started this page several months ago, but refused to open it until I believed it was complete enough for others to see. Well, due to some little problems, I actually ended up publicizing the site too early. However, I pulled through and constantly worked on the site, putting school aside. Guess what? I'm in summer school now. See what I've done for you?! Just kiddin. It was my fault. I suck at math. Back on topic: Constantly have I worked on this site, usually updating daily, but now I simply can't do that. I've become too busy. Other projects come up, recreational fun entices me, and other things to keep me away from the computer riddle my time. This is why the updates are so slow, this is why I'm one week late. Well, partially. I tell ya, RPing on MU* is addictive.

Back on topic: I love making people happy when it comes to the internet and website design. I just freakin love getting email from people I have never met from all over the world telling me that I'm doing a good job. It really does make my day. That's my goal for this site. Of course I want the best Generation X page out there, of course I want to have exclusive things dealing with the comic, of course I want people to continually come back to the site. But all that boils down to making people happy. This little explanation here is pretty much the definition for my site, why it's still here. I'll be honest with you all, I've thought about just shutting down the site several times, due to the work load and other things. Then I see that I have over 100 entries in my guestbook, 98% of them being positive. So if you guys and gals weren't around to keep me going, neither would this site.

Onto the second topic....

I really believe the comic from which this site is based upon is really going down hill. Many have been complaining that the art is too "cartoony" and very unlike Bachalo's earlier style of the book. Many want the art from the Age of Apocalypse back and placed on the book now. This, most likely, will not happen. Bachalo is leaving the book, going on to pencil Uncanny X-Men, and while I wish him the best of luck, I also wish he would have attempted to stop "playing" with the book, and treat it like the great book it is. Perhaps he was doing this, but it doesn't seem so. I miss the great art of GenX, how it was so different from the other x-books, yet kept a very realistic and artistic tone to it. I still sort of like the art he's doing currently on the book, on his last issues that is, but I have to say this; Generation X does not belong in the funny pages. I'm sorry, but it's gone a tad too far.

Don't get me wrong, I love Bachalo's art, but it's getting to the point where it seems he doesn't really care to portray the characters like they should be, like they used to be. But Chris isn't the only one to blame for the downfall, Lobdell is, in my opinion, more responsible. He has completely backed away from the book, without any warning besides that "vacation" he made. Perhaps he did all he could with the book and believed if he tried any harder he would get slammed hard. Well, I think he was simply doing what Chris had done, which is to not treat the book like it was his own, and like how others want it to be. A main cause of this is the lack of noticability they took on the fans, I'm assumming. It doesn't seem like they payed any attention to the fans whatsoever, which is a key to writing a successful book. On Scott's other work, over at the other x-books, he's messed around too much with them as well. But I won't get into that, that would be too off-topic.

So what of GenX the website? This one, that is. I'm not sure. It's staying, I can tell you that, but it all depends on the next direction that Hama takes it to. I'm trying to have confidence in him, but it's hard. He has good plans (read the News), but I really don't like his "little plots" he's planning. Having only three-issue stories isn't the book's style. It is a continuous story, but it jumps quite a bit, which is what he doesn't like. As long as it gets from here to there and makes sense in the middle, that's good for me. But if it's compressed, what's the point? It just seems like a stupid thing to do. Yes, I know, he will have main themes throughout probably. I know how these work, trust me, so don't email me telling me my suspicions are wrong.

The future? We'll see.

Until next week I'd like to think I am...

Sidney X
Great Beef King of New York