SEVEN YEARS! *Monarchical High Fivery All Around*

Today, I want to talk about Geoff. Because, if Geoff weren't Geoff, there's no way we would have been around this long. I remember the first time I saw him. I had just transferred to Stanford from Caltech and was walking past the cafeteria in Roble when I dropped my pen. I ducked down to grab it and when I brought my head back up again I just saw walking guy this dude in a Mega Man t-shirt with an open Hawaiian shirt trailing behind him. I wanted to comment on the shirt, but he was already passed, and I figured (I remember distinctly thinking this) that he was probably some way popular junior or senior, so I would only be making an ass of myself. And that was that. I was rarely out and about in the halls of the dorm, since I tended to spend most of my time over at the Stanford tv studio working on sketch comedy with Holland Smith (who you might remember as the guy who drew this episode, and this one).

Then, for reasons I don't entirely recall, I got dragged into conducting our dorm's production of Damn Yankees and, at the auditions, who should walk in but Geoff. I asked him what parts he might be interested in, and he said, "Pretty much just Applegate" which is the part everybody wanted, but as soon as he ran through some lines I knew he was perfect, and that's how our friendship began. I was out of the dorms the next year, but on a somewhat regular basis I'd drive on over, grab Geoff, and we'd hang out for the weekend at my place in glorious, glorious South Hayward. Basically, we'd grab a twelve pack of Coke, various boxes of snack cakes and cookies, and just sit down to play video games and watch cartoons for two straight days.

It was magnificent.

And in that time, I learned some things. Nobody tells a story like Geoff. Pretty much everybody who knows him, after a couple of years, starts telling stories like he does. I can't count the number of verbal ticks and turns of phrase that I unconsciously use because they are just part of how he normally talks. He is also the person that can make me laugh until it hurts, until I can't breathe. Don't get me wrong, I am generally a laugh-o-centric fellow, but when Geoff gets on a tear, I'm done.

Geoff also has a crazy steel-trap of a memory. I remember for a while I used to send he and his brother trivia from the Marvel Universe, and the sheer amount of peripheral knowledge he had about characters he hadn't seen in a decade and a half was stunning, and it's that way for everything. Things that we watched together that I can't remember a thing about he recalls to the episode.

But mainly, Geoff is just a plainly good person with a kind heart and boundless talent, and it's a privilege to know him, and it's been the best part of my creative life to work with him on this comic the past seven years.

- Count Dolby von Luckner

Seven years is an interesting amount of time for an anniversary. More than five, less than ten, but better than six, eight, or nine because it is prime. It is also a full ten percent of the proverbial threescore and ten, which puts seven years of doing something into the realm of the character-defining.

When I was checking the comic this morning, I wasn't expecting to find a paean to myself hiding underneath of it. Truth to tell, I wasn't thinking much about the seventh anniversary due to a bunch of other things going on. The Count has been minding the store while I work on finishing the layouts for the second book (for reals this time), so it kind of snuck up on me.

These are the benefits of collaboration. If it was just me working on this thing, it probably would have faded away a long time ago. The Count is what makes it so there ain't no gettin' off of this train we're on.

My mind might be a steel-trap, but it is a certain kind of trap, best suited for esoterica and not important things like day-to-day human interaction.
(In my dotage, some relation might ask, "Grandpa, who was your favorite Maurader?" And I'll respond, "Who the hell are you? You know, they ret-conned Gambit in later, does he count?")
So, anyway, my first real memory of meeting The Count was the audition for Damn Yankees. Maybe I had seen him around and had some vague idea of him as a man with the sartorial advantage of the rest of the dorm, but maybe not. I certainly didn't realize at the time that I was embarking on a friendship that has lasted for almost 15 years now.

The Count is incredibly enthusiastic. While I'm spending my time grubbing about in the mud hoping to turn up some coins, he concerns himself with ideas and trying new things.
There are several times when starting a venture where I'll come to the point where I pretty much decide that there isn't any point in continuing due to a deficiency of worth/smarts/talent/etc. The Count's response to such questions is always, "balls on that." And then we're off.

He's also incredibly well-read on a variety of subjects and gives our history comic a legitimacy it wouldn't have otherwise. When people approach us at conventions, I'm always amazed by The Count's ability to answer their questions about Russian literature or favorite composers of the 19th century or whatever isn't the megaphone crooner song about dragons that I have playing in a loop in my head.

The Count is the true Gentleman-Scholar of the partnership.

--Geoff