What's a "True Believer"?
Well, before anyone accuses me of stealing the name I will acknowledge that I first heard of the term "True Believer" as a kid. It was and is the term the great Stan Lee of Marvel Comics fame used to address his legions of fans.
When I was younger and actively reading and collecting comic books one of my favorite things to read was the letters to the editor page in my favorite comics. And Stan always addressed the faithful as "True Believer's".
Fast forward to 2008 and in a moment of inspiration and memory lapse I named the fictional TV show that the protagonists in my novel "Pilgrimage" are the hosts of "True Believer".
At the time the name sounded a bit familiar but I couldn't remember where I had heard that term before. I still owned my comic book collection from decades past but it had been years since I looked at the individual comic books.
Eventually I made the connection but I kept the name.
You see, my "True Believer" is different than Stan Lee's "True Believer's".
Stan's were his fans. In Pilgrimage the True Believer's are the viewers of the show; and those viewers watch "True Believer" - a paranormal debunking program hosted by a father/daughter team of physicists - to learn what the hosts believe to be "the truth"...
So I look at using the phrase as an homage to my childhood hero, Stan Lee (and by the way, Stan is still alive and well and working; he has a TV show and comic books and a convention and movie cameo's - and he's 90 years old).
But why name the blog the "True Believer Forum"? Mainly because, like the characters I created, I am interested in learning the truth.
Whether or not that means finding out if there really are Aliens flying around our skies, abducting people and doing terrible things to them; whether there is a God who deserves credit for creating, well, everything; whether there are ghosts and an afterlife...and other things more, shall I say, real...
Like what about the Higgs-Boson Particle - or the causes of The Great Recession - and what about organized religion...?
I want to know. How about you?
When I was younger and actively reading and collecting comic books one of my favorite things to read was the letters to the editor page in my favorite comics. And Stan always addressed the faithful as "True Believer's".
Fast forward to 2008 and in a moment of inspiration and memory lapse I named the fictional TV show that the protagonists in my novel "Pilgrimage" are the hosts of "True Believer".
At the time the name sounded a bit familiar but I couldn't remember where I had heard that term before. I still owned my comic book collection from decades past but it had been years since I looked at the individual comic books.
Eventually I made the connection but I kept the name.
You see, my "True Believer" is different than Stan Lee's "True Believer's".
Stan's were his fans. In Pilgrimage the True Believer's are the viewers of the show; and those viewers watch "True Believer" - a paranormal debunking program hosted by a father/daughter team of physicists - to learn what the hosts believe to be "the truth"...
So I look at using the phrase as an homage to my childhood hero, Stan Lee (and by the way, Stan is still alive and well and working; he has a TV show and comic books and a convention and movie cameo's - and he's 90 years old).
But why name the blog the "True Believer Forum"? Mainly because, like the characters I created, I am interested in learning the truth.
Whether or not that means finding out if there really are Aliens flying around our skies, abducting people and doing terrible things to them; whether there is a God who deserves credit for creating, well, everything; whether there are ghosts and an afterlife...and other things more, shall I say, real...
Like what about the Higgs-Boson Particle - or the causes of The Great Recession - and what about organized religion...?
I want to know. How about you?
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