Don't Get Me Confused With...

It's come to my attention that there's an entity on Tumblr who has the moniker Madman-with-a-book. He also goes on other social media as Enlightmentality. This person appearantly has several sites in which they offer counseling to abuse victims. This Madman-with-a-book is not a licensed therapist and supposedly uses some questionable techniques. They've also been accused of being emotionally and verbally abusive.

I would like to clarify that I am not that other Madman-with-a-book. I've been maintaining this blog for about 10 years now. My focus is on and has always been on books and pop culture. I do not and never have used Tumblr. Also on other platforms, I do not go by Madman With a Book.

In the past year, I have been writing as both Madman With a Book and my real name, Tony Dillard for the website Outright Geekery. But that is all.

My wife is a licensed clincacl social worker and I have written a couple of articles about mental health and autism in the realm of comic book collecting. But I have never offered counseling advice to any of my readers.

I've noticed my personal readership has gone down in the past couple of months. This is about the same time that Madman-with-a-book began his amatuer clinic. Thank you to those who have continued to read my blog. And special thanks to the reader who pointed out the other Madman-with-a-book so that I can clarify that I am not that appearantly toxic person on other social media platforms.

Family Comic Friday CANCELLED On Account of Surgery!!!

 
  Loyal readers, today is when I would post my weekly Family Comic Friday review. But today, I had to cancel that on account that I'm due for surgery in less than 3 hours. 

     Late last year, I was driving home when I noticed a pain just under my right elbow. I thought maybe after a long day in the kitchen, it was just sore and with my other hand, I tried to massage it a little. Only instead of a tight muscle, I found a lump. 

    Over the past about 8 months or so I've had numerous MRIs, doctor appointments, and headaches with medical billing but it's been determined that I have a tumor under my right elbow. Complicating matters is that the mass is growing right over a blood vessel, resulting in not just the pain I felt but circulation problems as well. So, we've made the decision to get this removed before it gets any worse.

   My doctor says that it's non-cancerous. But they are going to biopsy the tumor anyways. I'm not wishing cancer on myself and I am thinking positive on things. But I am also not so oblivious to the fact that there's a small but real chance that the doctor's got it wrong and it is cancer. I'd rather be aware of the possibility than be one of those people who say 'But you said it was fine!' and their whole world comes crashing down.

    All this being said
I would love to say that I'll be punching out reviews again tomorrow. I've got tons of books to review. But, it all depends on how I'm feeling. So, just keep tuning in and I'll be back as soon as I'm feeling up to it again!

   

I'm Still Here...

 

   Folks, I've not blogged in forever this week, but it's not because I've stopped Madman With a Book. In my secret identity, I'm an ill-tempered sous chef in corporate catering. (There are no mild-mannered chefs- it's a myth.) Taking this into account, work has been killer. 

   My head chef's been out this week, so I am the chef on duty. We've had double caterings all week and about 30-extra at lunch. Being a man down, this wipes you out. 

   Then last night, I worked double shifts, doing security at the John Cleese/ Eric Idle show. Being a Madman isn't cheap you know. While getting greeted by them was great and it was lots of fun, you just can't blog while on the job folks. 

   Plus, added to all this extra work, I got a call on Monday for a job interview teaching culinary- my dream job. But you just don't walk into a job interview for culinary empty handed. I had to build up my portfolio again. That meant finding my letters of recommendation, printing photos of food, organizing menus, recipes, etc. It's a lot of extra work. Work that's worth it, but it keeps you from doing other things like writing reviews, reading books, or other things you do to pass the time. 

    But things should quiet down a bit. That means I'll be back writing, reviewing, and READING in no time. I should be able to get my last Halloween Family Comic Friday out tomorrow. But I will not have another spooky kids book to review in time for trick-or-treating. Sorry. But stay tuned, I've got a couple of books in my cubby reading to get read and that can only add to your reading list for next year.

   Thanks for understanding and Happy Reading... 

I Want You... To Submit Your Comics for My Blog!

Folks, as you know I love to read and review comics books. Over the years I've read DC, Marvel, Image, Archie, Gemstone, Disney, Dark Horse, IDW, Vertigo, and many more. But the one thing I have trouble getting my hands on are independent comics. I get lucky when I go to a comics show and I find a few Indy or self-published gems at Artist Alley. Every once in a while I'll manage a few older books if I can find them in bargain bins or grab bags.

So, here's where you come in. If you are the publisher, creator, artists, or collaborator of an Indy comic and you're looking for some expose- send 'em my way. I want Madman with a Book to really become a site where folks get some great reviews and advice on how to start collecting and reading comics. To go to the next level, I need some Indies to read and review.

If you've got a book you're interested in being reviewed for this blog you can do one of two things:

Email me at fireandrice3@gmail.com

Or Mail me at:

             Tony Dillard
C/o Madman with a Book
 PO Box 175

Hillsborough NC 27278

I prefer print over digital. I'm very old school. But if you'd feel better letting me know a book is on my way so I'll look out for it, by all means email me.

Also, if you have any images you'd like me to share on my review of your work, please email me at the above address. This is a family blog, so please no nudity and easy on swears.

Thanks, enjoy, and let’s get those submissions coming!

I'm Broke(n)

Well folks, I was planning on starting a series on my trip to Geppi's Entertainment Museum starting tomorrow but that's on hold. In fact, quite a bit of what I do is on hold for a while. See I broke my foot today. My foot had been sore for a couple of days and today, I went up to give my wife a kiss during the meet and greet session at church. I did fine getting up the stairs, but on my way down, I felt (and heard) a loud and painful pop!

  I managed to break at least 1 bone on my right foot (5th toe AKA pinkie toe), I also may have done some damage on the joint just below the bone I broke. I can't weight bear and I have to use crutches which is really hard as I have carpal tunnel from having broke my wrist in 3rd grade and now I am a chef for a living.

  I need to schedule with a podiatrist tomorrow to find out whether I will need surgery or not.

  Until then, I'm going to do my best to keep on blogging and reviewing but it's not so easy in a large boot to get around. Hopefully, this recovery will be swift and getting a lot less painful than it is right now.

Where am I? Being Transferred...

No, I'm not being transferred from my job or anything like that. As you may know, 'Madman with a Book' is not my first attempt at an online reading journal. For about 6 years I've been using another site. For about 5 and a half years, I was very happy with the site. Then the logging in problems started.


It seemed like every week the site was down for maintance and I'd get incressingly worried that I would lose all my years of reviews. I depended on that site to help me keep track of what I'd read. When you've read over 2,600 books (yes mostly comics) it's hard to keep track over what you've read and what you haven't.


Anyways, 3 days ago I got a notice saying that the site would being shutting down on May 31st. At that time, I still had about 1,500 reviews that I had yet to transfer over to MMWAB. So, I've been spending most of my online time transferring my reviews to a Word document in order to transfer over to this site.


It takes a lot of time to post old reviews while keeping up with the latest things I have read. I try to add about 25 old reviews a week. But until I can get the last few hundred of them saved into a Word file, I'm going to have to forgo time on Blogger. I'm hope to be back in business by the end of the week.


I apologize for the delay and hope you will continue to enjoy the rantings of a madman with a book.

November is Doctor Who Month!!!

The Doctors of the past 50 years, Numbers 1-11.

 This month marks the 50th Anniversary of the iconic British sci-fi series, Doctor Who. Now that I am finally caught up with my Halloween reads, I plan to start a new them read: in honor of the countdown to the 50th Anniversary episode due to air November 23rd, I will be reading many of the Doctor Who comics and books that I have in my collection. I've been saving them for this very occasion.
   I still have some Captain Carrots left to read and most of my Doctor Who stuff are single issues and I don't like to read them at work or away from home, so I'll also be reading a few other non-themed works through the month.
  But, Doctor Who is very special to me. I've been a fan of the show since I was a little kid, not even in kindergarten, watching the Doctor and his myriad of companions travel through time and space in a little blue box on local PBS station WUNC. That was about 33 years ago- so with exception of Star Wars, it's been a TV watching fixture for just about my entire life. I even titled my blog after a phrase that the 11th Doctor has described himself as. He's a madman with a box, I'm a madman with a book.
   So, let's see what the universe has to offer for the timelord known as The Doctor