Geeky Present

The best presents are those made just for you- those that people go out of their way to make sure it’s utterly right for you in every sense of the word. Everyone has had one of these, at least. One present I received this previous christmas could fall into this category- an utterly geeky present I received from a friend I only knew through the internet. Rebecca “Soap” Gunther is a talented artist, the artist behind multiple webcomics, most recently including Anathema and Amya. We became friends during my long winded stint as a webcomics reviewer, conversing with many artists on the Comic Genesis forums- where she started out her first couple of webcomics. She’s improved almost constantly on her artwork over the years and years that I’ve known her. You owe it to yourself to her work and see what I mean. Even after I had quietly left the webcomics scene (it wasn’t so much of a leaving of the scene- more of fading out from the whole usual hubbub and drama that surrounded many of the webcomics communities I frequented), we continued our friendship, mostly on twitter and other social networking sites of its ilk. There isn’t a site that I’m on that I’m sure I’ll find Soap close by (seriously, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter… we’re friends on most of ’em). This line of communication continued through the holidays, when Rebecca would send out Christmas cards to all sorts of people she knew online. It was a tradition she did year after year, and I was fortunate to receive them time and time again, year after year during the holidays. One year, Soap included a picture she drew and colored herself- a picture of my old online persona as a Sackboy from Little Big Planet (the character was originally Kon, a little stuffed lion toy from the manga Bleach. I have appeared as this character cameoed in multiple comics) . I loved the picture so much I had it on the wall above my desk. In response, I sent her a poster I got from a Resident Evil 5 release blood drive held in LA, knowing that Soap was a huge fan of the RE horror games. It was perfect for her- she responded in glee on Twitter, espousing words of thanks that I was more than happy to receive. This year, she expanded upon the gift even further. She made what was once a drawing into an actual sackboy (or sacklion, really) into an actual sackboy. It arrived during a freak string of rainy weather here in Los Angeles, which had soaked my room with water so much so that I had started moving myself out of the room. I was stressed from moving (and work) that I almost didn’t notice the box on my doorstep, soaked completely to the core. I was able to tear the box apart with my fingers to expose the small present within. I knew what it was the moment I saw just the arm sticking out of its packaging. I giggled in joy, and showed it to my sister, who admitted that while it was a great present, it was “still pretty nerdy” (living with a nerd, she’s become used to the random things that give me joy that she just doesn’t really “get”) But I didn’t care. It was a present perfect for me, perfect for what I was all about. I bounded off to work with a spring in my step. And when It came time for me to move everything out of my room, the original picture and the sacklion were the first to be packed. They were the first things I unpacked when I moved right back into my room- resting beside my game consoles. They were the best geeky little present ever. Thank you, Soap.