Stories that Matter to Me
Instead of a traditional bio, I thought I'd tell you about some of the stories that helped make me who I am. I think you'll learn a lot more about me that way than if I simply wrote:
"Hi, I'm Mike Maillaro. I'm a lifelong Jersey boy, comic geek, husband, father of three, and professional union goon/writer."
All of that's true. But I think the stories we love tell you far more about a person than their résumé ever could.
At the bottom of the page, I'd love to hear about the stories that shaped you. One of my favorite parts of creating this website is the hope that it becomes a conversation instead of just a place where I talk at people.
Favorite Movie: The Princess Bride
The best place to start talking about Meaningful stories to me is definitely The Princess Bride. I will admit, the only reason I watched the movie the first time was because I loved wrestling and the first review I saw of the movie in Games Magazine mentioned Andre the Giant was in the movie. I immediately fell in love with the movie. It’s funny, romantic, brilliantly written and performed, and the sword fighting scene is still a scene I will randomly put on for fun.
Odd side note to this, when I read William Goldman’s book, I genuinely believed there was a real The Princess Bride written by S. Morgenstern. Remember kids, I grew up before the internet. I spent close to ten years looking for a copy. It wasn’t until college that someone let me in on the joke. Slightly embarrassing…
Favorite TV Show: Doctor Who
I still remember the first time Doctor Who entered my life. My friend, Maj, was running an RPG, and he mentioned a Dalek. I had no idea what that was. This would have been just after Doctor Who returned to TV in 2005. 
He sent me a picture…and I was even more confused. This is the most threatening creature in the universe??
Soon after, I was waiting for my sister and I was flipping through an issue of Toyfare Magazine, which had an extensive article about Doctor Who, and I started to see the appeal. My wife and I ended up getting the 2005 relaunch series on DVD from Netflix when they still did DVD’s. We were immediately hooked. The premise of a show that can be something new every single week is so appealing to us. Western, Sci-fi, domestic home scenes, and end of the world scenarios all seem appropriate for Doctor Who. My wife and I ended up watching as much of the old Doctor Who series as we can too. I will definitely write more about Doctor Who in the near future.
More TV Shows That Matter
Favorite Book/Favorite Musical: Les Misérables
I will admit, I wasn’t really into musicals growing up. While I liked Disney animated films like Aladdin and The Lion King, when it came to live actors breaking into song mid-scene, I just didn’t get it.
That started to change in high school. One of my closest friends was a theater kid who performed in Chess and Sweeney Todd at our local community college, and I started to realize, Hey, maybe this isn’t so bad. (Though if I’m being 100% honest, I’m not sure I was ever fully able to separate my puppy dog crush on her from my feelings about musical theater!)
For my high school graduation, a close family friend gave me a copy of Les Misérables and tickets to see the Broadway production, which was actually my very first Broadway show. I didn’t know much about the book or the musical at the time, so I wasn't sure what to expect.
BUT, OH MY GOD, IT WAS LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT!
It is such a brilliant book. The musical is fantastic, too, I ended up seeing it seven times on Broadway, but it’s really Hugo's novel that I love most. Victor Hugo manages to bring 19th-century France to life with such vivid, immersive detail. There were scenes where I could practically smell the Parisian sewers as he described them.
And honestly, nothing will ever be more badass to me than Javert, right before his tragic end, taking the time to write out a meticulous treatise detailing all the ways the Paris police department could improve its operations. My ultimate dream is to quit a job one day and leave behind a document exactly like that.
"Before I leave, here are seventeen pages explaining how all of you could have done this better."
More Musicals and Plays That Matter
Favorite Song: Bohemian Rhapsody I am a child of the 80’s, so I will admit that the first time I heard Bohemian Rhapsody was during the head banging scenes in Wayne’s World. I still do that to this day and have encourage my kids to do it too. When I was around 10, I used to do food delivery runs with my older cousin, Brian. One day he asked what music I wanted to listen to, and I was very excited when I saw he had Classic Queen in his car.
Aside from the memories the song brings up, I just think it’s a really cool song anyway. Any song that seems to change identity throughout is always something I will love (I love Wings’ Band On the Runfor the same reason). I have grown to love many other Queen songs over the years, but Bohemian Rhapsody will always be king to me…(though Radio Ga-Ga is a close second.
Favorite Band: Aerosmith Aerosmith had a massive resurgence right as I was getting old enough to be completely obsessed with MTV, VH1, and Jukebox. When I first heard "Livin' on the Edge," I had absolutely no idea they had already been a band for over twenty years. I distinctly remember telling my wife back when we were still in high school how much I liked that "cool new cover" Aerosmith did of that old song "Dream On"... having zero clue that they were the original 1970s band!
Aerosmith was also the very first real concert I ever went to, and we even had tickets to see their farewell tour before it got canceled. But whenever I need a shot of pure rock and roll adrenaline, Aerosmith is still my go-to.
Side note: One of my earliest celebrity crushes was definitely Liv Tyler in the "Crazy" music video!
More Songs and Musicians That Matter
Favorite Actor: Andre Braugher Ever since I first saw him on Homicide, Andre Braugher has been my favorite actor. He can bring intensity to any role he does, but he also could bring a powerful gravitas or be so funny too depending on whatever the role needed. While most people know him from Homicide and Brooklyn 99, I also thought he was great in Men of a Certain Age, Thief, and Hack, shows most people don’t even remember.
He was also very active in local charities in NJ often dressing up as Santa for local holiday toy drives. But, I never had the opportunity to meet him. I did pass him on the street once, but I didn’t feel right interrupting his day, so didn’t get a chance to tell him how much of a fan I was. Definitely a big regret. I was pretty broken up to hear about his death a few years ago.
Favorite Video Game: Curse of Monkey Island I love old Lucasart and Sierra Adventure games. The Monkey Island series from Lucasart is basically my favorite, and this was my favorite game in the series. There are so many in-jokes from this game that my sister, my wife and I still yell at each other 30 years later. Actually they were the ones who reminded me that I should include video games as a category for the website.
These games were sort of one and done, but I still have such great memories of this game. Every time someone releases a new “old school point and click adventure game,” I hope we can get something that impacts me like Curse of Monkey Island, but nothing else comes close…
Favorite comic: Starman
James Robinson and Tony Harris’s Starman series from the 1990s has been my absolute favorite comic series for a long time now. It tells the story of Jack Knight, the son of Golden Age hero Ted Knight (the original Starman). The series kicks off with Jack's older brother taking on the mantle, only to be brutally murdered by the son of one of their father's arch-nemeses. Jack is forced to step up and become Starman to protect his father and himself, and he quickly finds himself growing into the hero he never intended to be.
What I love most about this series is that Jack isn't a traditional superhero. He's an antique dealer who collects eclectic pop culture items, and he'd almost always rather negotiate with a villain over a cup of coffee than punch them.
The creators also manage to make Opal City an essential "character" in its own right. The series dives deep into themes of family, legacy, and the gray areas between good and evil. It’s pretty much a perfect comic run, and I've re-read it more times than almost anything else on my shelves.
(I even have a commissioned piece of Starman and The Shade hanging in my house!)
Red Wing – StorytellerWhile I wasn’t a Scout growing up, I’ve been actively involved in my son’s Boy Scout troop for the last few years. I never went to sleepaway camp as a kid, but for the past two summers, I’ve spent a full week at Camp Yawgoog in Rhode Island with my boys.
We stay in the Red Wing campsite. Every campsite at Yawgoog has its own unique slogan attached to it, and this week, one particular detail immediately caught my eye: Red Wing’s official slogan is "Storyteller."
Standing there at camp, surrounded by nature and working on my website, seeing that word posted above our campsite felt like a quiet little alignment of the universe, and something well worth sharing here.