Happy Birthday to Gerard Way!

Last year on April 9th, Amanda and I were baking a birthday cake for a guy that was never going to eat any of it simply because there was a snowball's chance in a very hot place that he was ever going to show up on the doorstep and spend his birthday with one of his fans; however Amanda said that didn't matter and we "just had to bake Gerard a birthday cake" - which we did. I wish I had a picture of it to post but the only one who has pictures is Amanda and she won't give one up saying that it "wasn't a very good cake". If memory serves, it was still quite tasty even though it never would have made the cover of American Cake Decorating Magazine!

For Gerard's birthday this year we actually didn't bake a cake which just goes to show how much more mature Amanda is now when it comes to the lead singers of her favorite bands (though I can't say for sure she won't want to bake a cake for Mindless Self Indulgence's front-man Jimmy when his birthday rolls around in September!). The past year brought a lot of opportunities that I never would have imagined in my wildest dreams when I wrote my very first post about My Chemical Romance and the band's lead singer, Gerard Way, and in looking back on it all, I still have to shake my head and think "wow"!

In the words of The Grateful Dead, "what a long strange trip it's been" but maybe that's all just part and parcel of having a teenager and the world really being a small place after all. If you would have told me last year that not only would I have gone to see MCR in concert in Worcester, Massachusetts in May but that I would have seen them again at the Projekt Revolution concert in Hartford in August I might have believed you. If you had told me that I would get the opportunity to meet Gerard Way backstage at that concert in August, I probably would have not believed you! Funny the little twists and turns that life takes ...

A year later it's once again Gerard's birthday and if he's like most people he's doing some reflecting back on the past year and the events that transpired during the 30th year of his life. I'm sure he's thinking "wow!" himself as I rather doubt that if someone would have told him that he was going to meet the most amazing woman ever on his summer concert tour and marry her before the summer was over he probably wouldn't have believed it anymore than I would have believed that I would have the opportunity to shake his hand as well as the hand of the amazing woman he married while Amanda showed them some of her artwork. Funny the little twists and turns that life takes ...

No cake for Gerard this year but Amanda did try her hand at doing a drawing of him based on a picture that Gerard had taken during a photo shoot by photographer Rob Bennett in September of last year just about the time that Gerard's latest venture, The Umbrella Academy comic book series, was being released.

Guaranteed that this looks a lot better than last year's cake did but I doubt the paper it's drawn on is as tasty!

Happy birthday, Gerard, wherever you may be and may this year bring you even more happiness and "wow's" than last year did!

The Umbrella Academy is in Session

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I think I may have mentioned in the past that Gerard Way, lead singer of My Chemical Romance, and one of Amanda's very favorite band members out there is also an artist who has his own comic book series now in publication. If I failed to mention that somewhere along the way I am totally surprised! Gerard was actually working in the comic book industry in New York City before co-founding My Chem with his brother Mikey so having his own comic book series has always been a dream of his.

The name of the six-volume series is The Umbrella Academy and though he doesn't do his own illustrations due to the time constraints of being on the road touring pretty much all of the time, Gerard is writing the series for Dark Horse Comics with the illustrations being done by Gabriel Bá, a comic book artist who has made quite a name for himself on the Image Comics cult hit “Casanova.”

The comic series features a foster family of seven superheroes who were all adopted and brought together by a cold-hearted alien foster-father, Dr. Reginald Hargreeves, whose death has brought them all back together nine years later. Unfortunately, the family is just as dysfunctional as they are super so they run into quite a few trials and tribulations while trying to save the world. Sounds like something Amanda would just love to read, doesn't it?

That was my thought exactly so awhile back - quite awhile back! - I pre-ordered the first volume which was due to hit the stores on September 19th. The preview edition had come out on Free Comic Book Day, May 5th, and of course Amanda had a copy of that but I was pretty sure she was going to want the whole series. Call it a mother's instinct if you will!

Imagine my surprise - and delight - when I got an email from Josh Christiansen from the Online Marketing Department at Things From Another World, the online comic book shop that I had pre-ordered the first issue from, on September 19th telling me that I had won a free subscription to The Umbrella Academy. Apparently when I pre-ordered The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite #1 I was entered into a contest along with everyone else who pre-ordered and I actually won! Me - who never wins anything - won a contest I didn't even know I had entered!

Along with the six volumes of The Umbrella Academy, TFAW.com is paying for the shipping and when they become available, we also get one of The Umbrella Academy patches that were designed to go along with the comics. Now how cool is that??

Because it took me forever to write this post, Amanda received the first volume quite some time ago and is now anxiously awaiting Volume #2 which is due to be released tomorrow. Even though I'm not much of a comic book reader myself anymore (I used to love them as a kid), I think this is pretty darned cool!

Now if I could just win that darned lottery!