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The Full Kyrun

The Full Kyrun

THE STROMAN ARGUMENT: Kyrun Silva of Taurus Comics and the 4 Tales Podcast joins D. Bethel for this week’s show and they talk a bit about some recent guests Kyrun has had on his podcast.

WEEK IN GEEK: This week, Kyrun dives into Alan Moore’s celebrated run on DC Comics’ Swamp Thing while D. Bethel is awestruck by Godzilla Minus One (though, technically, he watched Godzilla Minus One Minus Color).

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TOPICS:

(00:00) Intro – Welcome, Kyrun Silva!
(11:20) Kyrun’s Week in Geek: Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing
(21:10) D. Bethel’s Week in Geek: Godzilla Minus One Minus Color
(42:46) Outro – A Mini Con Artists
(46:25) Outtakes

RELEVANT LINKS:

  • Godzilla Fhtagn“: an essay about the 2014 American production, Godzilla, and its Lovecraftian overtones by D. Bethel.

INFO:

FEATURED MUSIC:

Three-Part Trilogy

Three-Part Trilogy

EVENTUAL CONTACT DAY: Our hosts cover some recent Star Trek news, including the announcement of a Section 31 movie and the teaser for season 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

WEEK IN GEEK: In a bout of recently released video game-based movies, Andrew talks about AppleTV+’s docudrama (emphasis on the drama), Tetris, while D. Bethel joins the rest of the world in seeing The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

RELEVANT LINKS:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • In It to Win It” (03 October 2014): Where Andrew shares his pitch for the (at the time) recently announced sci-fi themed Tetris movie.
  • Super Sleep Mode” (28 November 2014): Where D. talks about starting the book about the Sega-Nintendo rivalry, Console Wars (he actually finished the book in 2019…he really didn’t like how it was written).
  • Something About Werewolves” (4 September 2020): Where Andrew discusses the Netflix video game documentary series, High Score.

INFO:

FEATURED MUSIC:

A Week for Days

A Week for Days

WEEK IN GEEK: This week, Andrew gets lost in the 2022 reboot––and continuation?!––of the classic science-fiction adventure series, Quantum Leap. Meanwhile, D. Bethel finds a lot to love and ponder in the newest volume of the beautiful European noir comic series, Blacksad: They All Fall Down, Part 1.

RELEVANT LINKS:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • U3DS” (02 October 2020): Where D. Bethel talks about the adventure video game, Blacksad: Under the Skin, and how it was a frustrating experience.
  • An Accident of Flavor” (12 November 2021): Where our hosts mourn the passing of Dean Stockwell, an actor in the original Quantum Leap.

INFO:

FEATURED MUSIC:

Chekhov’s Mud Pit

Chekhov’s Mud Pit

HIGH PREYS: Our hosts discuss how incredibly blindsided––in a good way––by the newest entry into the very wobbly Predator franchise, Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey.

RELEVANT LINKS:

  • VFX Artists React to Bad & Great CGI 71.Corridor Digital, 07 May 2022: Where CGI artists discuss how the Polish film, The Champion, uses face replacement so the video matches the English language dub. (The discussion of The Champion starts at 09:59 in the video:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • Chekhov’s Honk” (22 January 2021): Where our hosts previously referred to Anton Chekhov and the principle of “Chekhov’s Gun” in a title to an episode.
  • Ding Dong Bowser” (10 June 2022): Where our hosts previously discussed the trailer for Prey and the news of the included Comanche audio dub.

INFO:

FEATURED MUSIC:

Surviving 2020: Kyrun Silva

Surviving 2020: Kyrun Silva

2020 was a year that upended all expectations. Though the threats that 2020 brought affected people in a variety of ways, for most it became a year of simple survival. For nerds, of course, we turn to the things that occupy our attention, inspire our imagination, or generate conversation. This year, we are looking at the things that helped us survive 2020. Today, Kyrun Silva––creator at Taurus Comics and co-host of the Con Artists podcast on this very website––shares what kept his spirits up this year.


Okay, let’s get this out of the way: 2020 sucked for most of us. For me it sucked a lot. No comic book conventions, no family gatherings, no martial arts training (which also meant I didn’t get my black belt this year, maybe next year; who knows?), and so many other things. 2020 will be a year that remembered forever, but even through all this turmoil Some things still brought joy to my life. A few of those joys were geeky things. While my family’s love (and the sheer variety) of anime––a mainstay of my 2019––allowed us to explore all of the feelings that came with the pandemic, there was one thing in particular that––aside from annoying my wife for half the year––really hit me hard.

HAMILTON

I have to admit, ever since July happened my family hasn’t been the same.

July 3rd, 2020 was the exact day. It was a warm evening. Dinner had been consumed, and we sat down to relax. Instead of watching more anime, I suggested we watch Hamilton, which had just been released on Disney+.

I heard about Hamilton over the years. I even watched a couple of YouTube videos showing clips of the original cast performing on stage, off stage, and in the White House. For years, my wife and I tried to get tickets to see it live. When news got out that Disney had bought the rights to stream it, I knew I had to watch it. From the opening couple of notes I was hooked. The music, the voices, the pageantry, the dances, I loved every minute of Hamilton. Maybe a little too much.

Source: Disney

The entire musical is three hours long with an intermission in the middle. For my wife it probably felt like an eternity. The problem is, after my first viewing, my love for Hamilton didn’t end. One viewing turned into two, then three, and soon became double digits.

I quickly found the soundtrack and lyrics online and soon began singing the entire musical all day every day. My enthusiasm for this phenomenon spread to my oldest son, who quickly joined me in my madness. He and I started taking different parts of the show––he, as Alexander Hamilton; me, as Aaron Burr. Then my two youngest joined us.

My wife was not amused. She said I was a grifter1 of sorts, tricking them into liking the show. I say they just have good taste.

Presumably, this is Kyrun and his son at least twice a day. At least. Source: Disney

I became a Hamilton zealot, searching from anything I could get my hands on about the musical. My browser history became filled with searches of the cast and crew. Even to the point where I started watching the show Station 19 because Okieriete Onaodowan, an actor from the musical, was now on the show. Side note: I already watched all the episodes of Black-ish that featured another Hamilton cast member in Daveed Diggs.

Hamilton is still played at least once a week in my household. Yes, the enthusiasm may have died off a little, but the love is there.


2020 was a crazy year. Though I wasn’t able to consume my geekdom in ways I had been accustomed to in the past, I found alternatives that filled that void and helped bring my family together. We’ve created new memories together that will strengthen my family’s ties and give us something to look back on years down the line.

Turnips & Romance

Turnips & Romance

WEEK IN GEEK: In the lead up to the holidays, Andrew binges the entirety (so far) of Amazon Prime’s original series, Man in the High Castle, while D. Bethel has been playing the delightful yet simple Cat Quest in short bursts.

RELEVANT LINKS:

  • The charming Nintendo Direct where Mario & Zelda creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, guides us through the new Super Nintendo World theme park:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

INFO:

FEATURED MUSIC:

Shortcast 57 – Fair Point, Dude

Shortcast 57 – Fair Point, Dude

WEEK IN GEEK: Andrew goes back to his undergraduate roots and dives into programming with the Unity engine via the online programming courses taught through Udemy while D. Bethel updates his nostalgia with the Super NES as he plays around with Analogue’s Super Nt system.

RELATED EPISODES:

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“District Four” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
-“Disco Medusae” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
*Tracks are licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Shortcast 43 – The # Age

Shortcast 43 – The # Age

WEEK IN GEEK: This week, Andrew and D. start with a little Black Panther talk––friend of the show, Kyrun Silva, went on Good Day Sacramento to talk about what the character has meant to him as an independent comic creator––before Andrew discusses the complex but fun fantasy board game, Gloomhaven, while Dan watches the short but effective AMC comic book documentary series, Robert Kirkman’s Secret History of Comics.

RELATED EPISODES:

RELEVANT LINKS:

  • Check out the website for Gloomhaven‘s developer, Cephalofair (the company name for Isaac Childres), and scroll down to see all the writing he has done about the process of making the game.

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“District Four” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
-“Disco Medusae” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
*Tracks are licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Episode 146 – Bad Games Make Precedent

Episode 146 – Bad Games Make Precedent

WEEK IN GEEK: Andrew pauses his walk down the Star Trek Nostalgia Trail and attended a day of PAX West (starts at 2:14) while Dan dips into the history of his favorite comic book franchise by reading Marvel Epic Collection Vol. 5: X-Men – Second Genesis which collects the early issues of the great X-Men reboot from 1975 when the “All-New, All-Different” X-men were added to the team (Wolverine, Colossus, Storm, Nightcrawler) and started the 16-year run of writer Chris Claremont (18:17).

FINAL FANTASY VII AGAIN: (28:23) September 7th marked the 20th anniversary of Squaresoft’s (at the time, now Square Enix) breakthrough hit, Final Fantasy VII. Dan and Andrew talk less about the game itself and instead talk about the impact the game had on gaming and nerd culture.

NOTE: Sacramento’s Crocker Con | Art Mix is happening September 14th at the Crocker Art Museum at which D. Bethel will be exhibiting with his wares. Come by and say hi!

RELATED EPISODES:

WORKS CITED:

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“Stayin’ in Black” by Wax Audio

Worth a Look

Worth a Look

Whatever your thoughts may be about BioWare’s Mass Effect: Andromeda, there is no doubt that something happened during its development that lead to such a rocky debut, a series of choices so clouded in the public’s questions and shrouded in the mystery a company like EA’s BioWare can afford, the game was otherwise assumed to be relegated to the “well, that happened” category of games and we (as the gaming public) would be forced to move on.

This frankly bizarre secrecy around AAA game development shines a light on a major deficiency in the community––companies can bury “failed” games in mystery because they can get away with it. Though not focused on a failed game, a few years ago the BBC made a docudrama about the legal troubles of rockstar game studio, Rockstar Games, against which the developer filed suit, in a bit of irony. The development of Sony’s long-delayed The Last Guardian was mostly kept behind curtains, allowing the game to speak for itself when its time finally arrived, which had the aggregated conclusion of “it’s fine.” Though these are two of many examples, most of the community has accepted the idea that we will most likely never know how the choices were made, for better or for worse, and these companies will keep their business secreted away behind blast doors.

Peebee from Mass Effect: Andromeda. Image courtesy of BioWare and Electronic Arts.

Luckily, some people are starting to catch on to the fact that “video game history” isn’t relegated to the eighties and nineties alone; it’s happening now. Right now. Mass Effect: Andromeda got a lot of dirt piled onto it. I enjoyed it for what it was and what it’s worth, but the tidal chart of nerd judgement is rather unforgiving. If something doesn’t meet a certain standard (a standard I believe is often rather arbitrary), that game, movie, comic, or tv show is dumped upon. There is no critical middle anymore in popular culture. And such a strong negative reception can taint a studio or franchise for a long while, a stain nobody can afford to live with. So, with things like Jason Schreier’s article coming so soon after Mass Effect: Andromeda‘s release, it can shed some much needed counterpoint onto the conversation.

To be clear, Schreier’s article isn’t an apology for the game. Instead, it’s investigative; he isn’t casting judgement, but instead acknowledging that something happened and the public reacted to it and he simply wanted to find out why:

[To] those who worked on it, Mass Effect: Andromeda felt unusually difficult. This was a game with ambitious goals but limited resources, and in some ways, it’s miraculous that BioWare shipped it at all.

This is an effort to chronicle recent history rather than simply cast it in one light or another, but to try and find out the whole story so historians have all the pieces with which to assemble hindsight instead of waiting for a day when only two or three members of the team are alive to tell the tale. This has actually been a trend I’ve seen recently and it warms my heart to see members of the games press turning a historical eye to the industry instead of being the first to give readers a hot take (not that hot takes and investigative pieces are mutually exclusive). Waypoint published a fantastic oral history of Halo, a genre of historical recording of which I’m growing fonder (more on that in a future episode). Waypoint also published a fascinating look at development documents for what would have been the sequel to the 2012 Square Enix-published Sleeping Dogs. I think the industry needs to be more self-aware, or else corporate red tape could actually contribute in the hindering of keeping this medium from becoming the art form it deserves to be.

Way back in Episode 58, Andrew and I discussed our (and listeners’) “gateways to geekdom,” accepting that the road to fandom is not necessarily––perhaps rarely––a straight path. A lot of us come to our passions through strange on-ramps or off-ramps from one fandom or medium to another. Popular culture has definitely done this with superheros and their stories with the rise of superhero cinema. It certainly wasn’t the comics industry who were making amazing books that the populace grabbed onto, but filmmakers who loved the comics and finally, finally, started making good movies based on those properties. Does that make cinematic universe enthusiasts any less of a fan than comic book readers? Ultimately, no. A fan of Iron Man is a fan of Iron Man is a fan of Iron Man.

The few times we spoke with friend-of-the-site, Elijah Kaine, he mentioned his initial gateway into comicsdom––of which he has become thoroughly ensconced and well-read––was not comic books but the X-Men animated series, and this was probably the “in” for many X-Men or comic book fans. How many people started reading The Walking Dead because they watched the AMC tv show first? During my teenage years, my severe interest in Japanese feudal history and martial culture could be traced back to things like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or The Highlander. But they were gateways for me to walk through and soak up the world on the other side of the jamb.

Doctor Fate v Atrocitus: Dawn of Injustice 2. Screenshot courtesy of NetherRealm/Warner Bros.

Mike Diver’s article hints at something a bit more nuanced. He discusses the fact that he’s learning about DC’s characters by playing the fighting game that uses them. Sure, he’s also jumping online to mine wikis, but the fact is he’s actually getting a strong sense and knowledge of these comic book characters by playing a video game set in that world (but in its own continuity). In fact, it may be fair to say he’s becoming a fan:

Here I am, playing, and learning—and with superhero fiction such a staple of modern entertainment, it’s good to get deeper into its (to me, at least) weirder corners, via the accessible “in” of an easy-to-pick-up fighting game.

This intersectional literacy is probably the most common method of knowledge creation and meaning-making, more than traditional, antiquated, or teacher-centric educational models would lead us to believe. While my previous examples were my gateway to an interest in the topic, sometimes there are non-traditional texts––like video games, comic books, movies, tv shows, etc.––that actually gives the user information that would otherwise only be learned in that actual field. I wonder how many people learned legitimate history from playing games like Age of Empires, or gained a knowledge about different aspects of our world’s cultures from playing Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? How many learned about the intertwined influence of economics and politics by playing Crusader Kings or Civilization? How many people developed an interest in the hard sciences because they watched Star Trek? The answer to all of these questions is likely the same: many more than you would think.