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Butt Magic

Butt Magic

WEEK IN GEEK: Andrew lives in bliss during CBS All Access’ 23 weeks of Star Trek, especially as the premiere season of their comedy-drama animated show, Star Trek: The Lower Decks, comes to a close, while D. Bethel lives vicariously through hopeful survivalists in reruns of the History Channel reality show, Alone.

RELEVANT LINKS:

  • Goodwin, Jazmin and Charles Riley. “Regal and Cineworld Cinemas Are Shutting Down Across the US and UK.” CNN, 05 October 2020.
  • Star Trek: Prodigy

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • News Cruise” (07 August 2020): Where Andrew discusses his excitement for Star Trek: The Lower Decks.
  • U3DS” (02 October 2020): Where D. Bethel discusses his love for the European comic, Blacksad.

INFO:

FEATURED MUSIC:

A Podblip

A Podblip

TAKING A MULLIGAN: 2020 rears its ugly head again (as it does every day), forcing our humble hosts to take a week and just deal with life for a bit. They’ll be back next week with more nerdy and geeky news and commentary.

INFO:

FEATURED MUSIC:

U3DS

U3DS

WEEK IN GEEK: This week, Andrew enthusiastically plays the 2nd edition of Pathfinder, despite not fully enjoying the first edition, while D. Bethel gets really excited to play an adventure game based on one of his favorite comics, Blacksad, but gets horribly disappointed by Blacksad: Under the Skin.

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • The Volumometer Incident” (10 July 2014): Where Andrew shares his experience playing the Pathfinder card game.
  • Starting By Starting” (03 January 2020): Where D. Bethel discusses the noir adventure game inspired by H. P. Lovecraft, Frogwares’ The Sinking City.
  • Nature’s Velcro” (03 July 2020): Where Andrew plays the computer RPG, Pathfinder: Kingmaker.

RELEVANT LINKS:

  • Here’s D. Bethel’s fan art of Blacksad.

INFO:

FEATURED MUSIC:

Earl British

Earl British

BETHESDA, WA: In a surprising turn of events––in the same week that Sony gathered all the attention for announcing the prices and release dates of its upcoming console(s)––Microsoft announced its acquisition of Bethesda Softworks––developer of the The Elder Scrolls series and the Fallout series and publisher of franchises like Doom and Wolfenstein––for a price tag of approximately $7.5 billion. Andrew and D. Bethel ruminate (and, at times, speculate) at what this could mean for Bethesda, and gaming, for the future.

RELEVANT LINKS:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • Episode 61 – A Lot About Hmm” (21 Aug 2015): Where Andrew buys a Playstation Vita.
  • Nothing But Feet” (13 Dec 2019): Where D. Bethel discusses the sidelining of Campo Santo’s second game, In the Valley of the Gods, after Valve purchased the studio.
  • News Cruise” (07 Aug 2020): Where D. Bethel revealed that the Golden State Killer committed his first Sacramento crimes in his neighborhood.

INFO:

FEATURED MUSIC:

Dad Talk

Dad Talk

WEEK IN GEEK: It’s kind of an accidental ’80s week as Andrew watches the YouTube Premium/Netflix series, Cobra Kai––which then prompted him to go back and watch the original Karate Kid movie––while D. Bethel, in an effort to see what all the hype was about, sat down and watched a version of the 1984 sci-fi classic, Dune.

THE NEW FINAL: At this week’s PlayStation 5 event, a trailer for Final Fantasy XVI was revealed as an exclusive (at least for the moment) for the PS5.

RELEVANT LINKS:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • News Bruise” (11 September 2020): Where D. Bethel and Andrew discuss the trailer for this year’s new Dune adaptation, briefly.

INFO:

FEATURED MUSIC:

News Bruise

News Bruise

I’LL MAKE AN INTERNATIONAL INCIDENT OUT OF YOU: The live action version of the ’90s animated classic, Mulan, was released to Disney+ subscribers (for the cost of an extra $29.99) and, with it, came a lot of controversy––from Chinese reviewers not being too keen on it to human rights issues, D. Bethel and Andrew run through the discourse of this interesting, troubled film.

ANOTHER DUNE: The first trailer for Dennis Villaneuve’s new adaptation of the Frank Herbert sci-fi philosophical classic, Dune. Andrew and D. Bethel muse on the potential this new film has (and how people will still likely be disappointed by it).

And here’s an example––from Jodorowsky’s Dune––of some of the pure artist intent Jodorowsky had in his approach to movie-making (with his Dune being the center of it).

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Something About Werewolves

Something About Werewolves

WEEK IN GEEK: This week, Andrew watches the recent Netflix-made video game documentary series, High Score, and gets inspired to finally check out the very strange––and controversial?––game, Night Trap. D. Bethel finds serenity as the ferryman of the dead while playing Thunder Lotus Games’ Spiritfarer, a game that is a far cry from their previous games.

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Aiming For Whales

Aiming For Whales

EPIC WIN (OR FAIL): It has been a few weeks of high drama in the world of video games as Epic––the company behind Fortnite and the Unreal Engine––sued Apple after Apple delisted Fortnite from its storefront when Epic violated its terms of service as a developer. It’s a complicated, convoluted issue with a lot of far-reaching and severe consequences for those who don’t really have a dog in this fight––the players (not to mention the impact it could have on smaller indie developers). Andrew and D. Bethel attempt to unravel all the goings-on in this very interesting and possibly paradigm-shifting event.

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Pandemic Birthday

Pandemic Birthday

DC DECONSTRUCTED: News of a major restructuring of DC Comics by WarnerMedia last week set the comics world ablaze with speculation and worry. D. Bethel and Andrew try to parse the information and speculate on what it could mean not only for DC Comics but for comics in general.

LOWER THE SHIELD: Over seven seasons, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. comes to a close. Our hosts’ appreciation for the show––especially this final season––has not been a secret. Now that is has ended, they finally––finally––talk about the final season and the show it brought to a close. SPOILERS ABOUND for the final season, especially the two-part finale.

The caricatures Dan drew back around 2000-2001, of Andrew and his roommates. The drawing that the SHIELD villain reminded Andrew of is on the bottom right. D. Bethel is in the bottom middle with Andrew at the top left.

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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.

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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