How it all began
- spokenjays
- Jan 29, 2015
- 4 min read
In one of most recent episodes of Spoken Jays, JB and I briefly glazed over what got us into the world of nerdiness that we currently reside in… but we didn’t really dive into it much. Producer Mó (who couldn’t be with us for the last recording session) said “What the hell? Now I want to know more!”
Maybe she’s on to something? We all know how nerdy the Jays are… all you have to do is bring up Star Wars, The Walking Dead, new action figures or any of the great Marvel movies to find that out. But what set all of that off?
Let’s go back to 1983 shall we? ... (Enter John Williams’ iconic Star Wars opening credits score) Long ago, in a county not too far away I was living with my grandparents; coincidentally, my cousin was too, at the time. Anywho – on May 25, 1983 Star Wars: Return of the Jedi hit theaters. My grandmother’s favorite way of spending time with us was going to the movies. So, my cousin (who was 7) and I (who was 3) were taken to see the last installment of the original space opera trilogy.

Let me just stop you right there. I was 3…I get it. I do not remember doing this at all. Not in the slightest. I’m just setting the tone here.
My cousin, being a little older, had all the cool Star Wars toys that came with the release of the movie; he had the full-size Falcon, the Jabba and slave Leia set, the Rangkor (which was a really big toy by the way), a ton of little action-figures, and (totally un-related to this film) an AT-AT… and not a little pint-sized one either. The big one that was scaled with the action figures. I, of course played with all of these toys for quite a few years.
Unfortunately, I was 3. I didn’t have any idea what the movie was about. I just knew lightsabers were cool, that tall guy in the mask talked funny, the emperor scared me, the fish guy who said it was a trap looked weird, and all the toys were AMAZING. Apparently, Star Wars was not the cause of my nerdiness, though it definitely has a place in my heart…
Scroll ahead to 1986. I was already getting into drawing a lot. Not anything in particular… just drawing. But something happened that year that really rocketed me into a world beyond just typical “boys playing with action figures”. I mentioned it in the show, but you may have missed it…
Surprisingly, a tall British man with wild hair, one funky eyeball, and a very creepy

cod-piece frolicking about with little puppet goblins is what got my nerd juices going. Aside from its cult appeal and awesome soundtrack, the movie’s settings and characters created by Brian Froud (whose credits include The Dark Crystal and Lady Coddington’s Pressed Fairy Book)… not to mention the screenplay in the hands of Terry Jones (whose credits include everything Monty Python among others), Labyrinth is one of the coolest nerd-classic movies ever… in my humble opinion. You can argue that, if you like.
In any case, watching how cool Labyrinth was led me to The Dark Crystal (which I
had not previously seen yet). Both movies pushed my need to draw more; and the more I drew those types of things, the more I wanted to draw MORE THINGS. That, of course led me to comic books.
My first bunch of Comic Books came in the form of Marvel’s Wolfpack. I don’t remember much about the comic itself. I remember the name, the fact that I got about 6 or 7 all at once, and that I probably should not have been reading them at the age of 8. I do remember that comics back in the day always had a few pages of random advertisements in them… and always had little snapshots of other comics to read, like Spiderman and the like.
My dad was in bands when I was growing up, and among them was a guy named Jimmy. Jimmy was the first adult I met who collected what I thought to be non-adult things. He owned an electronics repair shop that mainly specialized in musical instruments, had a huge collection of every single color Chuck Taylor released, and had a very substantial collection of Judge Dredd comics/ graphics as well as every Batman graphic novel released to that day (this included The Killing Joke and Batman: Year One among others). I read every single graphic novel he had, from cover to cover… I was hooked.
A couple years later, I re-discovered all those great toys in my grandmother’s attic crawlspace and started watching Star Wars all the time. And by that time, I already had my own growing collection of comics and graphic novels… I was slowly becoming a fan boy.
Then… I met JB… and the rest is Spoken Jays history.
- Jay

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