SUPERMAN, 'BOB BILLENS', AND ME...(The Final Cut)

I was looking for some biographical information on a well-known comicbook artist a couple of days back, and duly typed his name (or so I thought) in the search box at the top of the screen. Being the impatient kind, I picked the first one on the proffered list and hit the key - only to discover that it wasn't the individual I was looking for.

My mistake, but - many years ago - I'd had a friend whose name was incredibly similar to that of the artist, and, in my haste, I had unconsciously typed his name - BOB BILLENS - instead of the intended BOB BILLINGS. (Names changed to protect the guilty, but they really are that similar.) The face of what appeared to be a total stranger stared out at me from the screen, and I was about to back-space to the previous page when something made me look again more closely.

Wonder of wonders. It was the actual former friend of nearly half my life ago, apparently doing very well in the world - if his self-penned many fine words in tribute to himself and his achievements can be taken at face value. Not that it matters much - he was always his own biggest fan. And anyway, what's a blog for if not to blow one's own trumpet? (And, in his case, generate a little work.)

What struck me, however, was just how old he looked, which is why I hadn't recognised him at first glance. Being the nostalgic sort, I couldn't stop my mind from rewinding back through the years to when I'd first met 'Bob', sometime in 1979. As I have to
fill this blog with something, I may as well tell you about it now. Hopefully, I'll contrive some way of making it seem interesting
before we reach the end of the story.

Starting in February of 1979, I worked in my local Central
Library for about six or seven months. Quite a few of the 'head' librarians were given to looking down their noses at those who worked under them, and to boasting about the extent of their overdrafts. (As banks only give money to those who have money, they considered it some sort of status symbol to be accorded the 'honour' of owing loads of dosh.) They really were a tedious bunch of pretentious, insufferable poseurs.

I'd only been at the library for perhaps a couple of months, when a fellow worker one day exclaimed,"You sound just like Bob Billens...", before going on to explain - in response to my predictable enquiry - that
'Bob Billens' was someone who worked in the library during the Summer months.

Anyway, before too long, I got to meet Bob Billens, and - sure enough - he did sound a little like me. Amazingly, he was also a dyed-in-the-wool comicbook
geek like myself, and we soon
hit it off - talking comics and
swapping opinions on what we thought about the new SUPERMAN movie starring CHRISTOPHER REEVE (which at that time was still only a few months old). We also indulged in a fair amount of secret sniggering at the pomposity and pretensions of our library 'masters'. 

I eventually grew discontented and quit the job, but our friendship continued. However, shortly after, Bob and his wife (in a pre-planned career move) 'upped-sticks' and relocated to England. We kept in touch for a few years until,
gradually, his new life claimed him completely and his already steadily-waning inclination to maintain contact finally evaporated.

When shot-on-location photos of Superman IV he'd taken and promised to send never turned up - with no word from him in the weeks
or months to come - it became clear that there was little likelihood of him ever getting in touch again.

Perhaps he'd simply concluded that, being hundreds of miles distant, I could serve no further possible practical purpose in his day-to-day life (especially after I'd given him my highly collectable SUPERMAN THE MOVIE poster) and was therefore surplus to requirements.

Also,  I probably just didn't measure up to his 'sophisticated' new circle of friends and colleagues down South. He'd once 'hinted' as much on a brief visit home, when he looked at me and said, "I dread to think what the folks at work would think if they could see you." He tried to say it in a 'jokey' way, but was obviously embarrassed by what he considered my lack of sartorial elegance and less than fashionable appearance. (Judge for yourselves from the photo. I think I look rather saintly.)

The irony of him becoming the same kind of status-seeking, social-climbing snooty snob as the librarians he had so often claimed to despise and regularly heaped scorn upon is not lost on me. It would be on him 'though, but that's usually the way of such things.

That reminds me - I really must track down a replacement for that Superman movie poster one day. One that doesn't look quite so old and as tired as Bob Billens.

(And 'Bob' - if by some remote chance you ever happen to read this - I'm sure 'Big Rosa' would want to send you her regards.)