It Begins!

Hello and welcome to the Cool Kids Table.

Now you may be asking yourself, "Self, why is this blog called 'The Cool Kids Table?'" (And no, after 10 years I still don't find that bit to be going out of style)

Well, there are two reasons I can give you. Let's go choose your own adventure style...

1-After years of being on the fringe, myself and my friends, the "geeks" who read comic books and all that entails (which for me and many of my circle means drawing a paycheck for a job having something to do with aforementioned comics), have become the ordained "tastemakers" of pop culture, thanks to the mainstream success of super hero and sci fi movies, etc. Thanks to the ever-increasing "Geeks rule" mentality of society, we have become the cool kids!

2-I am of the self-assured sort and have considered myself and my running buddies cool long before the rest of you yahoos caught up.

It's probably a combo of both, but regardless, it's the first name I thought of and it fit.

Anyhow, if you've made it this far (or, to be fair, if you clicked on the link that brought you here), you can see that I have started a blog.

Who am I? Again, the fact that you're here indicates you'll probably skip over this part, but for the hundreds of people I don't know who I accepted Facebook friend requests from to appear more popular, here's the nut graph:

My name is Ben Morse. I'm a 26-year old white dude originally out of the Boston area who currently lives in scenic Saddle Brook, New Jersey with my lovely fiancee Megan. After graduating from Connecticut College in 2004, I did three years at Wizard Magazine (the one-time Guide to Comics), one as a research assistant and then two as a staff writer, before signing on for my current job as an assistant editor at Marvel Comics helping run the Marvel.com web site. I enjoy Nova the Human Rocket, Melrose Place, the Boston Red Sox, professional wrestling, 80's hair metal, any movie with Matt Damon in it and many other things I hope to write about here. I'm lactose intolerant (just won't stand for it) and color blind. I've got two artificial ligaments in my left shoulder from my glory days wrestling in high school. I don't really drink anymore, but I indulge pretty much any entertainment guilty pleasure without feeling any shame because life's too short.

From the Naked Trojans (we'll get to them) to the 7SV (maybe not), I've been fortunate to have been surrounded for years by good friends who also happen to be creative, talented and entertaining folks. Many of them have blogs where they post their art, their thoughts, their reviews, their ramblings, etc. Thusly, this blog.

I'm not sure how frequently I'll use this thing. Given my track record, there will probably be multi-post days and then weeks where I'll go MIA. In short, I will rock the blogosphere like a hurricane: inconsistently but awesomely.

I'm also hoping to be joined by some guests from time to time who I've told are welcome to use this forum as a showcase for their art and opinions. If the Internet is L.A., hopefully this joint will be like te Tropicana back when it was cool.

But while you're waiting for me to get busy, lemme recommend some of my amigos' blogs where you can find radness and mirth this very minute:

-Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat, the homebase of Yale-educated Wizard alum Sean T. Collins, the dude so smooth he stole Mr. T's last name and used it for his middle initial

-Rowdy Schoolyard, the irreverent sketch blog of Dave Paggi, Kiel Phegley and Rickey Purdin

-Kickin' It Old School, the official soapbox of ToyFare editor T.J. Dietsch

-And, of course, you can never, EVER go wrong with Marvel.com, the very best comics coverage on the net

Ok, so that should keep y'all sufficiently busy while I concern myself with putting something other than this up here for you to read.

See you in six months*!

(*Kidding...I hope)