Browsed by
Tag: SDCC

Drinking From a Firehose

Drinking From a Firehose

SDCC 2022: San Diego Comic Con actually happened this year after a long period of COVID-based dormancy, and it returned with a fury, dropping all kinds of news and sneak peeks and trailers…of comic book movies and tv more than anything else. Our hosts dissect the announcements that interested them the most.

CHAPTERS:

  • (00:00) Intro
  • (04:29) Quick overview of Marvel Studio’s Phase 5 plans
  • (05:28) She-Hulk: Attorney at Law trailer & Daredevil’s return
  • (12:59) The teaser trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever asks more questions than it answers––as can be expected from a teaser trailer.
  • (19:45) Star Trek: Picard announcements & character posters.
  • (22:47) Star Trek: Strange New Worlds & Star Trek: Lower Decks announcements and…crossover?
  • (27:17) DC announcements? Not so much, aside from a trailer for Shazam: Fury of the Gods.
  • (28:06) The Dungeons & Dragons movie gets a trailer and a controversial poster.
  • (38:43) Outro – RIP David Warner
  • (42:48) Outtakes

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • We Don’t Know $#!&” (29 May 2014): In our first episode, our hosts discuss some controversy surrounding comments made by David Goyer about She-Hulk.
  • Magic Beer” (23 January 2015): Where, when discussing the David E. Kelley’s legal comedy-drama, Boston Legal, our hosts mention how he would be the perfect person to bring a She-Hulk show to life (audio is quoted from this episode).
  • Multiverse Averse” (20 May 2022): Where our hosts discuss their excitement after seeing the first trailer for Disney+’s She Hulk: Attorney at Law.

INFO:

FEATURED MUSIC:

  • “Be Prepared” by Tim Rice & Elton John, performed by Jeremy Irons
Con Artists #05 – No Con 2020

Con Artists #05 – No Con 2020

Everything has changed in the wake of COVID-19. This applies, of course, to indie comic creators, for whom the pandemic hit especially hard in terms of income. With gatherings of people not likely to happen in any safe capacity for awhile, it has many creators asking, “What do we do in a world without comic conventions?”

D. Bethel and Taurus Comics’ Kyrun Silva sit down to talk about creating comics during a pandemic. While a dour topic generally, they manage to find the laughs amid the serious discussion of the future of indie comics and the conventions they hold so dear.

RELEVANT LINKS:

OTHER EPISODES:

REFERENCES:

  • The infamous “Sweet Justice” poster:
art by D. Bethel.
  • The YouTube playlist of the short videos D. Bethel made for Chapter 4 of his webcomic (the music changes regularly after the fourth or so video; he was playing catch-up):

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“Road Music” by D. Bethel
-“Bounce” by D. Bethel

Con Artists #04 – StocktonCon Winter 2019

Con Artists #04 – StocktonCon Winter 2019

The lauded limited podcast series returns with a new episode as well as a fan-favorite co-host, Kyrun Silva of Taurus Comics as he and D. Bethel (check out his webcomic, Long John, and his podcast, A Podcast [ , ] For All Intents and Purposes) pair up to take on the first StocktonCon Winter show. This episode focuses on the strange space that indie creators inhabit, that realm between fan and professional and how those waters can get muddied, especially when it comes to reading and respecting creators from your childhood (there is a lot of Rob Liefeld talk in these conversations) to meeting your heroes as a creator in your own right.

CORRECTION: D. Bethel said that one of the Uncanny X-Men issues he had Jim Lee sign was #249; he meant to say it was #248. All apologies.

OTHER EPISODES:

REFERENCES:

Art by Kyrun Silva.

  • The panel from Frank Miller’s Rōnin that Rob Liefeld homaged in New Mutants #100:

Top: Frank Miller’s Ronin (source: DC Comics)/ Bottom: Rob Liefeld’s New Mutants #100 (source: Marvel Comics)

  • And, for what it’s worth, here is a photograph of a 13 year-old D. Bethel at 1994’s San Diego Comic Con showing Jim Lee the mysterious foil card in its snug plastic case:

––––––––––––––––––

Special thanks to Kyrun Silva for agreeing to being recorded and for driving us to and from the convention.

FEATURED GUEST:

-Kyrun Silva of Taurus Comics

FEATURED RECORDING EQUIPMENT:

-Tascam DR-40

FEATURED EXISTENTIAL WESTERN WEBCOMIC:

Long John

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“Road Music” by D. Bethel
-“Bounce” by D. Bethel

Episode 150 – Comivention

Episode 150 – Comivention

WEEK IN GEEK: Andrew returns to a previous WiG by booting up a since heavily patched River City Ransom Underground (starts at 2:03) while D. was impressed with the pragmatism and instructional value of Brandon Dayton‘s Sketchbook Summer artbook (12:32).

NERD LAW: When legal stuff happens in the nerd world, Andrew is on the case (though not dispensing any legal advice). This time around, he talks about Epic Games suing players who use cheats in Fortnite and Comic Con International winning its copyright battle against Salt Lake Comic Con over the term “Comic Con” (19:40)

RELATED EPISODES:

LINKS:

  • Bethel, D. “Trials By Fire #001: Fantasy“: A 2011 article by D. Bethel where he talks about Orcs Must Die!, a game he compares to Fortnite.

WORKS CITED:

INFO:

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

FEATURED MUSIC:

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

Episode 141 – The Unpop Culture

Episode 141 – The Unpop Culture

WEEK IN GEEK: In a fit of nostalgia, Andrew picks up The Sims 3 again (starts at 1:49) while Dan can’t get past a nit-pick to enjoy anything Netflix’s Castlevania has to offer (20:46).

SDCC 2017: [starts at 34:04] It was a big weekend for nerd culture as the San Diego Comic Con dropped a bunch of new trailers on the world. Dan and Andrew look at three trailers and how they seem to be pointing out the creative direction of their respective studios with Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok, DC/Warner Bros.’ Justice League, and Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One.

For reference, here are the three trailers the discussion focuses on.

Thor: Ragnarok

Justice League

Ready Player One

RELATED EPISODES:

WORKS CITED, REFERENCED, OR CONSULTED:

LINKS:

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

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“Stayin’ in Black” by Wax Audio

News Blast: Super Heroes at San Diego Comic-Con

News Blast: Super Heroes at San Diego Comic-Con

Last weekend was San Diego Comic-Con, and although lots of news filtered out of the event, super heroes were an important element of that story. Marvel and DC both showed up ready to spill with trailers, news, and all sorts of superheroic nonsense up in the air for fans to ingest.

DC Comics has a lot of ground to makeup for, with 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice leaving a lot of eager fans less than thrilled. Probably one of the biggest things they had to present was the trailer for next year’s big superhero movie, Wonder Woman:

There’s been a lot scuttlebutt around the DC Cinematic Universe in the last six months, but the one thing that seems to still be on track is the stand-alone Wonder Woman. Set in the era of World War I, it looks like this movie brings a lot of what  you’d expect from Wonder Woman: some weird quasi-Greek stuff, some lasso action, and punching. And kicking in wedges, let’s be honest. Swords and shields, and the rest.

Of course, not one to disappoint, DC and WB also provided a look at the other big movie coming out next year: Justice League. This is less a trailer and more a bunch of “footage,” but it does provide a little look at what’s going on. We get to see Bruce Wayne and Wonder Woman talk about stuff. Bruce Wayne tries to recruit Aquaman and Flash, with varying levels of success. If anything, it provides a look at the different relationships the characters will have with each other in the movie.

Apparently, there’s still some confusion as to whether or not this is going to be one part of two, or a stand-alone movie. I suspect a lot of the future of the DC Cinematic Universe rests on the shoulders of Wonder Woman and this first Justice League offering.

In the TV department, DC Comics seems to be dominated by the “Arrow-verse,” the series of television shows airing on the CW. The unexpected ending of last season’s Flash will be addressed in the upcoming season, although the extent to which we will be living in a Flashpoint world is still uncertain. In the flagship show, Arrow assembles a new team of crime-busting vigilantes, although it’s clear that the old team isn’t going anywhere. Also, Legends of Tomorrow marches forward, with Captain Rip Hunter and his crew of “legends” working to preserve the timeline (or something). It’s hard to say if Rip Hunter’s first mission will be to stop Barry Allen from saving his mother’s life, but only time will tell. Unfortunately, newcomer to the Arrow-verse (and, more specifically, the CW), Supergirl, hasn’t begun filming yet, so there’s no neat video to show; however, it does promise to bring Superman into the mix. Furthermore, a four show crossover episode is apparently also in the cards.

On the other side of the aisle, Marvel had its fair share of dazzling videos to put forth. With respect to movies, Marvel put out a new trailer for the upcoming Doctor Strange film. In an effort to prove that this movie has no respect for conventional notions of reality and geometry, it features some of the most bizarre cityscapes in recent cinematic history:

It was also announced that actor Brie Larson will be taking on the role of Major Carol Danvers, the superhero (eventually) known as Captain Marvel. Although not scheduled for release until 2019, Captain Marvel is currently the first Marvel movie headlined by a female character.

On the television side, Marvel surprised a lot of people (or, at least me) when they announced the arrival of Ghost Rider in Agents of SHIELD, Season 4. Probably bigger news, though, is the newly released trailer for Luke Cage, the third show produced from the Marvel-Netflix alliance and part of their Defenders storyline.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymw5uvViqPU

Although fans of the Netflix-Marvel collaboration have already seen Luke Cage appear in Jessica Jones, this series has already established a very different tone than its predecessors. A teaser trailer for the NEXT series, Iron Fist, was also released, reminding people that there will be an ongoing onslaught of Marvel characters pouring through your television screens. Of course, in an effort to flood the bitstreams with even more Marvel excitement, they also released a teaser trailer for the upcoming Defenders mini-series, featuring Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist together.

Of course, there’s even more news out there for super hero movie and television fans. This is just the tip of the iceberg. From all of the television and film being produced, it looks like the age of the superhero has at least a few more years of kick left in it.