Baltimore Comic-Con

The world's newest superhero - The Midnight Cat!

This past weekend our family took a trip down to Baltimore Comic-Con, which was a really good time. Believe or not, this convention actually focused on COMICS! There were some great creators there, including Jerry Ordway, Walt & Louise Simonson, Mark Waid, Joe Staton, Paris Cullins, and Karl Story. There was also enough room to actually move around, which I've found to be a rarity at bigger conventions.

What was really nice, though, was there was specific programming for kids. Kira was able to take part in a few of the workshops, including Superhero University (as you can see above). She had a great time and got to discover a lot of new kid-focused books.

I think the highlight of the weekend, though, was meeting people. I knew that Tom Panarese was going to be there, as he has gone for the past several years and he took his son last year. We met up at Thom Zahler's table, and had fun chatting. We met up again later at the kid's area and who should show up but Darrin & Ruth Southerland along with Chris Calloway! The next day we say Darrin & Ruth again, but this time they had Michael Lane with them.

It was a really fun weekend, with great friends and a good amount of comics fun. We might just go back next year.

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Why SDCC Doesn't Excite Me

There are a few reasons that I really don't care about what happens at San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) doesn't hold much meaning for me. First of all, I'm not reading any current comics, so hearing all about these panels and such where the latest news on comics titles break really doesn't appeal to me. It's great that people are excited for the new Bunnyman ... sorry, I mean Batman, but they lost me with that character a long time ago, and DC just keeps reinforcing that.

Second, while the name is "Comic Con", it's really more about all media. Oh, I watch these movies & TV shows, but if I watch them anyway, I don't care about reveals outside of the show. Much like Andy Leyland of Hey Kids, Comics!, if I've already made up my mind to see something, seeing trailers is probably going to spoil more of it for me than add to my excitement. Heck, I'm the guy that stops watching when the TV show says "Next Time on ...", because I plan on watching it next week, so I'll see it during that episode.

Lastly, and this is from an actually visiting there point of view, I'm not huge on crowds. It's not that I have a fear of them, I just get annoyed when I want to get from Point A to Point B and the people in front of me decide to stop in the middle of everything and point over somewhere. In a place like Walt Disney World, that is unavoidable, kind of like strollers, but at least there the good far outweighs the bad. At SDCC, I would be annoyed at trying to get somewhere to hear news that I didn't care about.

Take all of that and add to it the time and expense to get to San Diego, or just the time to watch the videos, etc, and I can honestly say that I really don't care about SDCC. Much like Major League Baseball, for which I also have no interest anymore, I prefer the smaller conventions. You know, ones that I can actually buy comics at. Or at least the ones that have an identity and don't try to be the end all, be all of every possible media type & genre.

OK, rant over. Now get off my lawn!

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Like what I'm doing here on the blog and podcast? Why not check out my Patreon Page to see how you can help me do more? http://www.patreon.com/TheHammerStrikes

Two True Freaks at AC Boardwalk Con

So, you might have noticed a little bit about this whole AC Boardwalk Con thing in the past week, especially that nifty banner at the top of the site. Well, here's the skinny. Two True Freaks is trying to expand our listener base, and to do that we need to do some promotion. So, we've gone ahead and gotten a table to ACBC, which is the next step up from just wandering around there and hoping to meet people.

So, if you want to meet me or any of the other hosts that are going, head on over to our Facebook event. We'll be posting all of the latest news there.

I'm at it again

Yeah, that's right, I was a guest on another podcast. This time the guys at The Ninjaverse we nice enough to invite me along to discuss the tiny bit of news that managed to make it out of a small town called San Diego. Give it a listen. There's bound to be something you'll find interesting.

You can even watch us!


Oh, and since I went on a bit of a rant on the show, I'll just put this here:



And you did listen to the latest episode of The Hammer Podcasts!, right? No? Well what are you waiting for!?!? Download it here.