Agent Palmer

With the news of researchers at the University of Rochester developing a “three-dimensional, transmitting, continuously multidirectional cloaking” device, it’s time to dream big.

This cloaking device is being related to Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak but, in truth, cloaking or invisibility has been a part of Dungeons & Dragons, science fiction, comics, gaming, and literature well before J.K. Rowling put pen to paper.

This past weekend, I had the privilege of attending The Great Allentown Comic Con Summer Show at Merchants Square Mall. As usual, it was filled with vendors of comic books and other pop culture paraphernalia, artists and other vendors, as well as, my fellow attendees, those in cosplay and those who just showed up with their geek on their sleeve.

I have said before and I’ll say it again, The Great Allentown Comic Con is getting too big for itself. This is not a complaint, more of an observation, and a good problem for the organizers to have at that.

Football, Futbol or Soccer, whatever you call “The Beautiful Game” it’s currently in a stage of frenzy commonly called, “World Cup Fever,” and the only cure is more of it.

In fairness to the other sports, it is only really in the United States where you either get it or you don’t. Otherwise, you get it and it’s a matter of degrees between passing fancy or religion.

In places where it is a religion, almost every beyond American borders, although factions do exist within the US, it’s hard to explain to Americans why it’s so important.

I am a fan of Star Wars, but not a fanatic. I grew up watching the original trilogy as it was intended and when the “updated” versions of the original trilogy hit store shelves, I was not educated enough, nor fanatical to have a real opinion. But now, as Episode VII is being filmed, it’s time to geek out for a bit.

First off, let’s talk about Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. I remember standing in line, at about 5:00 p.m. for the midnight show, on a school night.