20 Questions with a Comix Connection Counter Monkey, Installment #3

Okay... it's that time again... another entry in the "Know Your Counter Monkeys 20 Question Survey"! This time we're back with the Q & A from one the Mechanicsburg guy, Shawn Skvarna.

20 Questions for the Staff:

1.)What's your name?
Shawn

2.)Any nicknames, codenames, etc?
Anything that Bill comes up with each time he sees me... "Shawn Shawn Shawn auf der Autobahn!"

3.)Store of Operations?
Mechanicsburg

4.)Favorite thing to do on a day off?
Spending time with my girlfriend, hang out with friends, read, draw, play guitar or Guitar Hero, check out some DVDs, sleep

5.)Any hidden talents or uncanny abilities?
Playing guitar (it's not like I can take it with me everywhere), drawing, writing...

6.)If you could live off only one food or beverage what would it be?
I could probably be happy with Subway subs, since I'm already surviving off of them

7.)Favorite kind of Pop Tarts?
Probably the strawberry kind. I don't really eat them too often.

8.)Favorite monster?
I love the old Universal monsters. Growing up I thought Dracula was the scariest.

9.)Favorite fictional character?
In novels I'm a huge fan of Harry Dresden from the Dresden Files series. In comics, I'm a fan of Superman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Firestorm, Spider-Man, Daredevil and Colossus

10.)Top five favorite video games?
Spider-Man 2, Guitar Hero (any version), Justice League Heroes, and the Lego Star Wars games

11.)Top five favorite bands?
U2, The Beatles, Better Than Ezra, The Killers... beyond that I'm into songs more than bands

12.)Top five favorite television shows?
Doctor Who, Torchwood, Smallville, Supernatural, Chuck

13.)Top five favorite films?
Casablanca, Arsenic and Old Lace, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Hot Fuzz, The Rocketeer

14.)Top five books you read that were not in comic book form?
The Dresden Files books, at the moment I'm up to book 4 in the series soon to be on book 5

15.)Top five favorite comic books?
Green Lantern, The New Frontier, old school X-Men from the 80s, Y The Last Man, Superman: Birthright

16.)What cancelled or finished comic book series should be revived?
I'd love to see Ronnie Raymond Firestorm make a comeback somehow.

17.)When and how did you discover comic books?
When I was very young my parents used to get them for me at the 7 Eleven near our house in Baltimore. My mom loved comics growing up and it just carried over into me I suppose.

18.)What appeals to you about comic books as an art form?
The combination of compelling stories, characters that readers can either identify with or wish they could be, and various styles of art to help bring the story across. There's a little bit of something out there for everyone and it's also good to see that other genres can keep going in comics, such as Serenity, Buffy and others.

19.)Earliest memory of Comix Connection?
I remember one of their first locations in the Delco Plaza. When I moved up to PA in the late 80s my parents let me go and check it out and it blew my mind that there was an entire store that was full of comics to be bought. I was hooked from that moment.

20.)Anything interesting we should know about you?
Ummmm... I'm not sure because I don't think of me as interesting, but I will put in a mention for one of my all-time favorite single issues of any comic I've ever read: Action Comics #800. It's a retelling of the Superman story but going to overlooked moments in his history, like how the Kents decide to keep Clark or meeting the mentor that took Clark under his wing that led to his career as a reporter. There are little vignette stories sprinkled throughout of people's impressions of Superman or just their love of him as a character. That book says all I'd ever need to about Superman and I loved it.

And that's that! Another installment on it's way soon!