On Saturday the 29th of November 2009, I attended my first ever comic book signing!

It was an all-afternoon event that took place in Northampton (where I currently reside).

I arrived 30mins late but I didn’t miss anything thank god, so I joined a long queue at precisely 1:30pm which stretched all the way outside.

That queue soon split into three separate ones depending on who you came to see.

The first queue was for Mr Adi Granov, an extremely talented artist who currently worked on several Iron Man comics for Marvel and acted as an adviser for the Iron Man movie was being made.

The second queue was for Mr Alan Davis who did a lot of X-Men comics for Marvel and is considered royalty in the comic book world and also the best that Britain has ever produced.

The third queue belonged to Mr Ian Churchill who did some X-Men issues as well and currently making the on-going Red Hulk series out now.

So by the time I reached the three queues, I joined the Alan Davis line as I had some of his stuff to sign as well as asking for a personal sketch, few minutes later, it was announced that he was leaving early and there was no way for me to see him, I was gutted!!!

And so the middle line disappeared, so I decided to join the Churchill line knowing that Adi is a more established artist.

By the time I reached the front desk to greet Mr Churchill, it was 5:25pm… yep, I queued the whooole time, I felt this pain in my lower back that I never felt before from all that standing! Lol

The first thing I asked him was to sign one of his Uncanny X-Men graphic novels which he was involved in which he did and also signed it to me personally.

Afterwards, I pulled out a blank A4 piece of paper and asked for a sketch of Chamber which surprised him and stated that he has never been asked to do one of him before.

The sketch took 35mins to make and at the end I asked to sign it to my name again which was awesome.

For this day the sketches were free, normally in a convention, a sketch like mine would have cost you £35 ($55) but not today as it was a small event.

I then quickly went over to Adi and asked to sign my second comic and that was pretty much the end of my day and went home a happy man.

TOP PIC: Me holding the signed Chamber sketch seconds after completion.

MIDDLE PIC: An issue with a cover designed by Adi and signed in gold to me.

BOTTOM PIC: A graphic novel made by Churchill and again signed to me.

If you want to see more pics of the day's event, just head to:     http://www.flickr.com/photos/krimzon23

Fear Factory began in 1990 and were originally called Ulceration which didn’t really mean anything apart from the fact that it sounded really cool being only teenagers at the time, they later on the same year changed it to Fear Factory as it closely represents the music they were projecting at the time.Their early demo CD was pretty much a straight up death metal record which would later on be turned and re-recorded into their debut Soul of a new machine, released in 1992.It turned out a lot less death metal than the previous demos and lead singer Burton C. Bell started doing what is now known as the aggressive verses with melodic choruses that we all know and love today, industrialising the sound at the same time, they have stumbled upon gold and the world of heavy music started to take notice because something new and exciting was happening in their backyard.To the band, that album was just a blueprint compared to what they had in mind for Fear Factory, they have by now completely shed their death metal sound and opted for a very machine-like, cold and dark fusion of industrial and metal, by this time the band has accidentally created a new sub-genre for themselves: Cyber-metal.

 Demanufacture was the second release which came out in 1995 and by now they have been established as a force to reckon with by sharing stages with Sepultura, Pantera, Ozzy and other Rock/Metal royalty. The new record could not have been more perfect and to this day still remains their best release to date. Lead single Replica saw the band making their first video for it. The songs on the record are extremely calculated with deadly precision but at the same time the choruses would humanise the songs, something that bands at the time were either too scared to do or too stubborn, Fear Factory took the leap and smashed all boundaries by incorporating electronics and other small but effective experiments. This was also the record that saw them being known for the machine gun riffs along with the drums syncopated to produce that stop/start rhythm you hear a lot these days. After the success of Demanufacture, they were due to make a new record and in 1998, they unleashed Obsolete.

A concept album that follows a story which is closely intertwined with the main songs, with each song serving as highlighted episodes of the whole story which needs following through the booklet that came with the CD *illegal downloaders are missing out on this one*. The story revolves around the idea that man and machine can not co-exist and in time, the machines will rise and wage war on mankind *this predated The Matrix by a year*. Musically it’s very fitting too, the opener Shock pretty much gives you a taste of what’s to come through out the album and also acts as an intro to the story lyrically. Through a combination of technological advancements and experience, Fear Factory have evolved like a computer virus, constantly reconfiguring itself to maximize its destructive impact. This was the first Fear Factory album I bought… in fact, it was the first metal album I bought and I still remember 9 years ago when I received it by post, the excitement I felt, I haven’t felt like that since that day, I can easily say that part of me has changed forever for the better knowing that a band exists with the sounds of my dreams, a sound that I thought one day I hoped to have stumble upon and it turned out to be that they were doing it since I was in primary school. Skipping 3 years after the successful Obsolete, the band released their final album with Guitarist and founding member Dino Cazares, the portly Mexican is now officially an innovator surrounded by imitators.

 Digimortal was released in 2001, their most commercial and radio friendly to date. This time round, they decided that this record would only have the core aspects of Fear factory and completely peel away the rest and the result turns out to be a more direct and simple approach to song writing, more electronics has been added to transform them into a more futuristic sounding beast of an album. Its not a concept album like the last one but a message still flows throughout the record, still dealing with the same topics of an dystopian future, the message of Digimortal is that we need the machines and it needs us and that we can live side by side in harmony, digital mortality, without them we die, without us it dies, Burton has said that this idea came to him while being at home and realising that he was surrounded by technology and electronic gadgetry, feeling extremely co-dependent on the things that have potential of stripping someone of their humanity as time goes by, computers, phones, fax machines, televisions, microwaves and other very helpful contraptions that we all are in need of in this day and age.

Shortly after a brief tour in 2002, singer Burton decided to leave the band publicly stating that he didn’t want to play with the band anymore, especially with Dino, thus begins the dissolution my beloved Fear Factory. They made enough records to last me a lifetime in my opinion but I was still devastated that I’ve only known of them for couple of years. Burton shortly after decided to concentrate on his side project; Dino went to form Asesino, a death grindcore band with fellow Mexican Tony Campos of Static-X on bass and vocals. The remaining members of Fear Factory were Christian Olde Wolbers who played bass and Raymond Herrera who played the drums and without anybody knowing, they secretly decided to start writing a new record and recorded demos, those songs were later on presented to singer Burton who liked what he heard which signalled the reawakening of the deathly machine that is Fear Factory. This meant that Dino would be left out in the cold due to their fallout which came to the conclusion that Christian has now officially switched from bass to guitar and recruited the assistance of Byron Stroud of Strapping Young Lad to fill the bass duties.

An album was shortly recorded with those early demos and the album was released in 2004 appropriately titled Archetype to signify and send the out the message that Fear factory are firing all cylinders and let the world of metal know who started that sound. This time round, the whole man/machine concepts has been ditched and therefore allowing Burton to write about the last 4 years of his life outside Fear factory. The first single Cyberwaste takes a swipe at the people using the net to talk shit about people and never actually dare express those feelings to their faces.

“Assume that you know my thoughts
(All I want to do is see)
Infect me with your disease
(Tapping only on the keys)
Change your face in front of me
(Safe behind the cyberscreen)
Wishing that you knew the truth
(All I know is what I read)”

This was the first album to have been self-produced by the band themselves and received great reviews by critics and fans alike and it turns out that things are going well without Dino. Just a year later, the band announced that they were releasing a new record which was too soon in many opinions…

The record received the title Transgression which was an experimental album to try things that they never dared to do before, the album contained two cover songs of U2 and Killing Joke. The whole thing felt rushed and Christian stated that he was unhappy with the guitar sound and production in general even though the album redeemed itself by the fact that half of the record contained songs heavy enough to break skulls.

There has been a long silence since 2005, due to the fact that Burton was busy completing, releasing and touring his side project. During that time, Christian and Raymond started writing the next record stating that “it will be a heavy record from start to finish” but Burton was too busy to rejoin them. To their frustration, Christian and Raymond recruited Jon Howard of Threat Signal to start a new side project and let him sing on those already-written songs instead of them going to waste, that project has come to be known as Arkaea. While Arkaea were busy doing their stuff, Dino and Burton buried their hatchet and became friends and so talks of playing together again has surfaced. They recruited the legendary Gene Hoglan of Strapping Young Lad on drums along with current bassist Byron Stroud and decided to call themselves Fear Factory…

A monstrously mutated version of the previous model.

The problem with that great idea is that no one told Christian and Raymond, were they in the band anymore? What was their role in this? The two camps were not in contact anymore due to Burton and Dino not responding to Christian and Raymond. So weeks goes by and the Arkaea duo decide to launch a law suit stating that they were very much still FF members and are refusing for the newly assembled FF to use that name to record an album which will be called ‘Mechanize’ out in Feb 2010…

The story continues…

Despite the messy ending there, this band is as close to me as my heart is and no matter whom the members are, they know what Fear Factory is, what it means and what it stands for. Fear Factory has since directly influenced Killswitch engage, Korn, Spineshank, Devildriver, In Flames, Linkin Park, Machine Head, Meshuggah, Slipknot, Soilwork, Trivium, Static-X and other countless bands who came and went over the years. There will be a time when they will be replaced by a new , fresher and younger band that will carry that same signature sound that I love most but that time won’t be for a while more as things are getting really exciting once again… just like the first day.

It all stems from the writer Charles Darwin who wrote the book "The origin of species" published in 24 Nov 1859 which apparently states that a big bang is what initiated the universe as we know it today, man descended from early homosapien ape-like creature and slowly but surely was able to stand up and that this all a matter of chance, a mistake... a beautiful mistake.

The topic of creation VS evolution has raised a considerable amount of contention over the years and the world of science has fully enveloped itself with evolution as the prime source of all that is science and everything between and negates any mention of a creator of any shape or form.

Ok so far so good, now allow me to pin point what the problem with the theory is...

In his book, Darwin saw the natives of Australia and Negros as being at the same level of

Gorillas and claimed that these races should disappear.

He maintained that it was essential to prevent them multiplying and so for these races to be brought to extinction.

Furthermore, Darwin's theory's denying the existence of God had been the cause of peoples' not seeing that man was something created by God and therefore all men were created equal. This was one of the factors behind the rise of racism, the acceleration of its acceptance in the world.

Darwin's closest friend professor Adam Sedgwick was one of the first people who recognised the dangers of such a theory, after reading and digesting the origin of species he said:

"If this book were to find general acceptance, it would bring with it a brutalization of the human race such as it had never seen before."

And truly time showed that Sedgwick was right to doubt his good friend because the 20^th century had gone down in history as a dark age when people underwent massacres simply because of their race.

This nicely leads me to a certain Mr Adolf Hitler.

Yep, Hitler fell in love with the theory which played a key role when 'The final solution' was being formulated.

Just like Darwin, Hitler believed that humans were animals to whom the genetics laws could be applied to.

The Nazis also believed that instead of permitting natural forces and chance to control evolution, they must direct the process to advance the human race.

The first step according to Darwin is to isolate the 'inferior races' in order to prevent them from further contaminating the 'Aryan' gene pool.

The Nazis believed wholeheartedly in Darwin and that they were simply applying facts "proven by science" to produce a master race as part of their plan for a better world.

Everyone at some point thought that the mass exterminations that took place in Auschwitz were out of mindlessness killings and pure hatred but it later turns out that they were just simply following instructions... carefully laid out details of how to conduct and progress with the process.

Those details were from the very pages of 'The origin of species'.

Yes it's a theory and its nothing but words but somebody decided to put that theory to practice and that practice turns out to have taken place in Auschwitz where camps were set up to eliminate those people who did not fit the criteria that was laid by Charles Darwin.

The worst thing about all this is the fact that it's widely accepted as fact and everyday people actually believe in the theory but refuse to discuss the vast majority of the theory which of course talks about extermination and natural selection.

Adolf Hitler was only someone who followed written guidelines to the dot and scientists still believe in the theory but everybody knows that if you're a scientist and hold dearly to a theory, they usually put it to practice... so why hold on to it? You can't cherry-pick the best bits out of an apple that's covered in excrement.

I know most of you don't have a religion and think that Darwinism is your only option to believe in something but I strongly suggest you look elsewhere and not get drawn in to this evil conjecture that was written by a mad man some 200 years ago.

You wouldn't call your great grandfather a monkey so why would anyone call their entire ancestors apes and savages? Most people would love to meet their bloodlines in person.

It's being taught in schools everywhere and everybody wonders why the world has gone to shit.

Supporting or believing in this theory doesn't make you clever at all and it doesn't make you any better than the ones who don't fit the criteria either, if you're still at school and you are hearing this shit, ask about the practice of this theory and I promise you that they will not divulge the gritty parts to you in case of offending anyone who isn't white, tall, blue eyed with natural blond hair and pinkish skin.

I personally wished I knew all this when I was at school so I could scold my teachers but thanks to the World Wide Web, Darwinism must be unfolded and exposed for what it truly is...

Its been going on for ages but it seems things are getting much worse for the record industry, decades of ‘stealing’ and plundering hard-earned cash from music lovers all over the world by putting up ridiculous prices for CDs has finally caught up with them and now they don’t like it when it happens to them… hypocrites!

Technology is the weapon that the music masses are using for this fight and they are winning BIG TIME! You hear stories of people getting sued in the US and are asked to pay millions of dollars that they don’t have, this is the greed of the industry at play here for all to see and hate.

It’s very easy for me to imagine middle-aged men in suits planning and clamoring to sue little boys and girls and ruin lives for the sake of songs. Adverts have been published with ‘artists’ complaining about the illegal downloading and how it affects them. The industry is telling people that these artists are the big losers in all this if the downloading continues…

BULLS**T!

It has been told a thousand times that it’s the industry that are the ones in danger here; artists NEVER truly get the money that they are entitled to, and the ones that are moaning are the ones that NEVER TOUR!! The only money they make is from CD sales, interestingly enough, the most outspoken against piracy tend to be Pop singers because they don’t tour… (Lazy bumholes!)

Its very obvious that these so-called artists made a deal with their companies to fleece every penny kids have by setting trends that will make the closed-minded person to go out and purchase only because  their favorite singer told them to, so the singer get their share and the rest goes to the big wigs…. What a plan!

I’m glad at least people have caught on to the old forgotten speech about how “piracy funds terrorism”, nobody bought that idea; they really thought people were THAT stupid! LOL also the very idea of suing the same people you are selling thing to is somewhat baffling! They put vulnerable people under pressure to buy their stuff and yet they hunt them like dogs.

Consumers are obviously upset with their tactics. Now, another group affected by high CD prices, piracy, and the lawsuits are speaking up. Recording artists are venting their anger with the direction the recording industry has taken.

Here are some quotes from TRUE artists:

"Lawsuits on 12-year-old kids for downloading music, duping a mother into paying a $20,000 settlement for her kid?" said rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy. "Those scare tactics are pure Gestapo."

"File sharing is a reality, and it would seem that the labels would do well to learn how to incorporate it into their business models somehow," said genre-busting DJ Moby in a post on his Web site. "Record companies suing 12-year-old girls for file sharing is kind of like horse-and-buggy operators suing Henry Ford."

Moby and Chuck D are right on the money, and they are part of an industry that has been unable and unwilling to adapt to changes in consumer expectations and buying habits. While the lawsuits fly, the FAKE artists feel the pain of decreased record sales and shrinking royalties. They also dont buy the notion that the companies have their interests at heart as it sues their fans:

The record companies did not initiate these lawsuits to defend artists rights, the musicians say, but to protect corporate profits.

"For the artists, my ass," said [hard-rock band Disturbed member David] Draiman. "I didnt ask them to protect me, and I dont want their protection."

Due to the rise of myspace, bands these days can function very well unsigned, the only way band profit and make money is to tour and sell their merchandise, so you will never lose your favorite band……. Unless they’re manufactured crap!!

So if you love your band and want to show them TRUE support, go see them live and buy a t-shirt… the days of one-hit-wonders from shoddy TV program will shortly come to an end… no more annoying popstars pushing their crotch in your face!!

 You’d be surprised to know that their neighboring Japan, are experiencing the exact opposite.

 Over the past few decades, children are short in supply, while the burdensome population of the retirees is increasing with no in sight.

 There is no explanation as to how this came to be, one reason may be that the expensive living costs of today may be putting off couples to conceive so it becomes a personal restriction unlike their neighboring china.

 Furthermore, the technology that was to made Japan superior to the rest of the world and a futuristic paradise of easy living is keeping people alive for inconveniently extended periods.

 Japan’s situation has raised number of issues about the way the world is running in general, it’s possible to consider the possibility that human beings are temporary growths like leaves on trees, fated to fade and die while the real organism, society itself, lives on regardless.

 It’s a provocative and unsettling thought that reduces human beings to consumers and customers, mere cogs in a much larger system that is only interested in them as long as they are productive and the eradication of individuals.

 One of the reasons of Japan’s predicament is obstructive attitude towards immigration; “Japanese-ness” is not a matter of someone’s place of birth or chosen allegiance, but a racially defined characteristic that is all but impossible for a foreigner to acquire.

 Even Koreans who migrated to Japan four generations ago, who severed their ties with their history, are still considered foreigners although it does not affect them financially.

 The only way to solve this issue is for Japan to really open up their borders and invite their Asian counterparts to contribute by not being pressured to migrate to make a real difference.

 Repopulating the youth of Japan would not be an overnight task and at least will not further upset the balance.

I personally didn’t know anything about it and after finding out what it was about, it still doesn’t change anything but it does explain quite a lot of the strange preoccupation throughout my life...

GENESIS

Like I said before, extensive research and tests has lead scientists to believe that this is gene based, the common symptoms that contributes to AS is mainly associated with the fathers, I.E. if your dad use to collect stuff, then there is a small chance that the AS offspring will inherit an obsession which will develop fully unless it's caught early and managed.

A child with AS will do things differently and will struggle with the norm which will have a major effect on his/her development of the mind, that’s when the communication bit of learning takes a hit and the consequences are that they won't know what the hell you're talking about and of course, vice versa.

People with AS often have a limited range of intonation; speech may be unusually fast, jerky or loud. Speech may convey a sense of incoherence; the conversational style often includes monologues about topics that bore the listener, fails to provide context for comments, or fails to suppress internal thoughts. Individuals with AS may fail to monitor whether the listener is interested or engaged in the conversation. The speaker's conclusion or point may never be made, and attempts by the listener to elaborate on the speech's content or logic, or to shift to related topics, are often unsuccessful.

CAUSE

Abnormal migration of embryonic cells during fetal development may affect the final structure and connectivity of the brain, resulting changes in the neural circuits that control thoughts, so it happens soon just after conception.

CHARACTERISTICS

A pervasive developmental disorder, Asperger syndrome is distinguished by a pattern of symptoms rather than a single symptom. It is characterised by a significant impairment in social interaction, engaging in restricted patterns of activities and interests, and by no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or general delay in language. Intense preoccupation with a narrow subject, one-sided verbosity, restricted intonation, and motor clumsiness are typical of the condition, but are not required for diagnosis but the lack of good communication is.

My personal interests are pretty much on display on my buzznet page, there are only few things I like but it was only recently that it was pointed out... there are direct links to what I like... patterns that I subconsciously develop and seek for when looking for something and the common theme is anything that's futuristic... which explains why I use to watch films like Terminator and Robocop a hundred times over.   it wasn't the film itself but the visual ideas and aspects of it that was what became my interest... which lead to computer games that where all quite similar and the same genre, friends became fed up with me playing the same type which was really boring for them as you can now imagine. Those ideas and interests became prominent for me as I got older and found more of the same but in different media.

CONTACT

Things became somewhat surreal throughout my teenage life, having friends come and go because of the lack of understanding that we both had, most of the time I was too odd and said way too many weird things that would've freaked anyone out, there was a lack of social and emotional reciprocity which didn’t help me out at all in certain situations almost to the point where I even asked myself "how do I feel sorry?" because I really couldn’t so I came across as callous and cold simply because I couldn’t relate. All I had was logic and common sense but that's only good for dealing with computers, not the complexities of people.

THE WINNING HAND

So far, it’s been very negative but there are positives to all this... (I will do my best to explain, if you don't understand, I apologies beforehand) things that I would've never known if I wasn't so determined, things I wouldn't have known if my thought process was not so jumbled, looking at things from a different perspective that no one else can has helped a lot, right now I'm getting the best from both worlds, there are more positives then negatives.

CONCLUSION

I'm at a stage in my life where I’ve got my grip on things but the truth is this will never go away, I will always struggle with people and understanding in general but the main question is: would I ever wish to get rid of this condition of mine if I had the choice? and every time, the answer would be NO!....... this is part of what made me be me today, it had a major role in building my actual self, removing it would be to remove my heart... it's here to stay. (^_^)