30
Age is but a number, and I refuse to grow up.
I turned 30 yesterday. In the middle of a lockdown, this meant a day at home with a visit from my niece and my older brother – our house is the bubble they can spend time together in, and I’m insanely grateful!
Of course, my last milestone birthday – 21 – resulted in me challenging myself to complete a novella in a week, get a writing gig for a pop culture site and write a play, all in one summer. There is a risk at 30 that I’m likely to try do something that mad again. I honestly can’t tell what sort of existential crisis I’ll have once the age really hits me, but my anxious little brain will need to shut up and listen for once while I figure it out.
In the meantime, while I wait on a gift from my parents to arrive (there are some delays…), I can still ogle the most amazing present I will ever receive: a recreation of NEW MUTANTS 98, the first appearance of Deadpool in February 1991.
My twin brother presented me with a box of original art, by a bunch of Irish comic artists, that made no sense individually, and then the above framed picture. I thought I was going to start crying.
Full artist credits on this: Deadpool by Declan Shalvey, Cable by Stephen Mooney, Gideon by PJ Holden, Boom Boom by Nick Roche, Cannonball by Ruairi Coleman, Sunspot by Will Sliney, and Domino by Nate Stockman. Conor, my twin, coloured Deadpool and assembled the cover (including the title and cornerbox). It’s the best present I will ever get.
Excuse me while I go drown my emotions in tea, because this 30-year-old is getting weepy again.
