You know how I love to talk about “The Age of the Geek”, right? Well, I’ve been thinking about it and I wonder if it has been brewing just under the surface for a long time. Mainly in Hollywood and celebrities, in general… “What the heck are you talking about, Kylan?” you may ask. Come with me and see for yourselves! 

Let’s go back to Elvis Presley, The King of Rock and Roll. Did you know that he was a huge comic book fan? His favorite super hero was Captain Marvel, aka SHAZAM! In fact, the tiny capes he wore on stage were homage to Earth’s Mightiest Mortal. Or how about Nick Cage? An equally, if not bigger, comic fan. To make sure that he got his roles based on his own merit and not his famous pedigree he changed his name, like so many actors do in Hollywood. He took his name from the man with steel hard skin, Power Man himself, Luke Cage! Then there’s Gene Simmons, who is a serious comic collector. To a certain degree, the onstage personas of the members of KISS became super heroes in the movie Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park. Check it out… there are clips on YouTube!

So, along with celebrities who happen to be geeks, there are geeks who are celebrities… ok it’s splitting hairs, but so what! You have Chris Hardwick, John Barrowman, Wil Wheaton, Vin Diesel and Joe Manganiello (who recently announced he’d finished writing a script for a D&D movie!), just to name a few. There are many actors, musicians and directors who are full blown geeks and the world would never know it, unless you knew where to look. So it is a strong possibility that the Age of the Geek was a long time coming, but maybe it was a given occurrence, too?