My New Project

As you know, I have gotten a subscription to Marvel Unlimited. As such, I have now read some comics that I never would have had the chance to, and some that I meant to try but didn't want to drop the money on. Since then, my "You must have organization in everything" mentality has taken over and I've now started reading Marvel from the beginning.

No, not from Marvel Comics #1 (although I have read that) but from the start of the Marvel Age with Fantastic Four #1. In order to get this done with a minimum of fuss or backtracking, I'm using The Complete Marvel Reading Order website. A lot of work has gone into sussing out just what issues come where, so I figure it's a pretty decent place to start. Plus, this will keep me out of trouble for awhile.

They've Gone And Done It

For those of you that haven't heard, Marvel Comics has announced that they're going to take a page out of DC's playbook and do a reboot of not only their Ultimate line, but also the main Marvel Universe. I think this is a good thing. As I stated on Episode 2 of The Hammer Podcasts!, there's just too much continuity for Marvel's sliding time scale to contain. I can only hope that they also learn from DC's mistakes and reboot everything from the ground up and don't leave a few titles to stretch over the reboot. In other words, they need a John Byrne's Man of Steel or George Perez's Wonder Woman style of reboot, and not whatever happened with Batman or Green Lantern after the Crisis.

Not that my opinion really matters to them, as I haven't bought a new Marvel comic in at least a decade. Still, I wish them well as I peruse their back issues, but more on that next week.

Trailers

As I get older (this is the last year that "late 30's will appear on this blog's description) I find that I tend more and more to not watch trailers. Oh, I'll watch the first one pout out, as I did with Age of Ultron, Star Wars Episode 7, and Ant Man, but I'm not going out of my way to see anything down the road. There's a few reasons for this.

First is the time it takes. Yes, I know these are short things, but I have so much else going on in my life that I'm not going to go seek these things out. If I'm in a theater and the trailers are on, then I have no choice, but that's also part of the movie-going experience. I'm so far behind on other forms of viewing (I still have only seen the first episode of Constantine, for example) that I have all my TV time booked.

Secondly, there's going to be TV spots. More than likely, I'm going to end up seeing something on these things just by watching my normal TV, so why waste time in seeking them out?

The biggest reason is, though, I'm falling into that "old fart" "Get off my lawn!" mindset. I like what I like and I tend to stick to that. If these trailers get my interest up on the first viewing, that's great. If it looks like it's going to annoy me, then I avoid it. More information with likely not change my opnion too much, one way or another.

Besides, I'm a geek. I'm GOING to see the movies anyway, so why spoil the experience by watching most of it before I'm in the theater?

The State of the Podcast

As my first post of the New Year, I thought I'd look back on my biggest project from 2014, which would be to start my own podcast. Luckily I was able to annoy Scott Gardner enough convince the wonderful guys at Two True Freaks into allowing me on their network, which made my life a lot easier.  I covered a good number of topics, and had a great time doing it. Here's a breakdown of the episodes and how many downloads they got:

Episode 1 - Star Trek

My thoughts on Star Trek: The Motion Picture and The Animated Series.

Downloaded 297 times (Rank 177 in 2014 for all Two True Freaks shows)

Episode 2 - Comic Books

How I got into comics and my likes/dislikes.

Downloaded 290 times (Rank 189)

Episode 3 - Mythology

My general thoughts on Mythology and Arthurian legend.

Downloaded 363 times (Rank 79)

Episode 4 - Feedback

Response to various e-mails that I had gotten up to that point. I have since gotten a bunch more, so look for "Son of Feedback" in the near future.

Downloaded 325 times (Rank 135)

Episode 5 - Changes

I was joined by Tom Harris (of Radio Free Asgard) to talk about changes to Thor and Captain America. I think we had quite the intelligent discussion on the topic.

Downloaded 391 times (Rank 52)

This was my most popular episode to date and that's all thanks to Tom.

Episode 6 - Greek Gods

In this one I went more in depth on Greek Mythology, looking at three myths and giving you my opinion.

Downloaded 129 times (Rank 558)













Episode 7 - Role Playing Games

In this episode I was joined by The Irredeemable Shag himself (of Firestorm Fan) to talk about our mutual passion for Role Playing Games.

Downloaded 113 times (Rank 675)

Episode 8 - Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Released on the 35th Anniversary of the premiere of the first Star Trek feature film, Scott Gardner (one of the Two True Freaks) and I talk about our love of this movie and why you should give it a second look.

Downloaded 156 times (Rank 455)

Episode 9 - A Christmas Carol

My very own holiday special. I have only heard good things so far, so obviously the checks cleared.

Downloaded 71 times (Rank information not available.)

Legends of the Superheroes - Swamp Thing

Very graciously agreeing to by my first ever guest, Rob Kelly (of The Aquaman Shire) and I go over this often overlooked movie based on the DC Comics character.

Downloaded 344 times (Rank 107)

Legends of the Superheroes - Batman

This time out I was joined by Paul Spataro and Bill Robinson (of Back to the Bins) for a look back at the Adam West Batman series.

Downloaded 413 times (Rank 35)

My most popular episode to date! As with Episode 5 above, I give all the credit to Paul and Bill.

Legends of the Superheroes - The Incredible Hulk

A loving look back at the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferigno TV show with Chris Weissenborn and Mike Zsiga (of The Ninjaverse).

Downloaded 301 times (Rank 170)






Not too shabby for my first year, if I do say so myself.

Merry Christmas!

Santa has come to the internet and has dropped off some podcasts for your listening pleasure. All of these were done by my cohorts over at the Two True Freaks Internet Radio Network, so you know they're good quality. :)

First up we have Tom Panarese with some music for all of you. These are Tom's favorite songs that get the least air play on the radio. Good stuff.

You can download it here.

Then there's Chris "Hair Metal Hero" Tyler reading "The Gift of the Magi". He really does this classic tale justice and he even works in Emmet Ottr's Jugband Christmas, so now you have to listen.

You can download it here.

Next we have the Back to the Bins show where they review Marvel, DC, and Disney Christmas comics. Yes, there are tangents a plenty, but that's pretty much how BttB works.

WARNING: You may want to avoid listening if there are younger ears in the room.

You can download it here.

Now we come to my own contribution. Those of you that are friends with me on Facebook and Google+ will have alread seen the announcement of this, but I wanted to mention it here just in case you have nearly 3 hours to kill. Yes, I read the ENTIRE original text of "A Christmas Carol". I didn't do any special effects or music, but if I get enough feedback on the subject I might do a special edition for next year.

Yeah, I know I'm not Christian, but there's so much Heathen symbolism just in the Ghost of Christmas Present, that I love this story.

You can download it here.

And we have now arrived at the all star Two True Freaks Christmas Variety Special. Along with pretty much everyone else on the network, I took part in this and it's a great episode.

WARNING: Definitely not suitable for anyone of younger years or high levels of maturity.

You can download it here.

Then there's Hey Kids, Comics! where Micheal and Andy Leyland take a bit of a darker turn for the holidays. It's Grant Morrison, so what do you expect?

You can download it here.

Last up for Two True Freaks is Earning My Ears, a Walt Disney World podcast done by Scott Gardner and Scott Ryfun. The subject this time out is Christmas in the parks and how to get the most enjoyment out of your trip. Also, where can you find Christmas in WDW 365 days a year. Good stuff!

Next, while they're not affiliated with Two True Freaks, I would be greatly remiss if I didn't mention Star Wars In Character. These guys have done three,count 'em THREE, amazing Christmas Specials with completely original songs! Wonderful stuff!

WARNING: These are definitely not suitable for younger ears due to language and subject matter. There are also a copious amount of ear-worms in here.

The 2012 show can be downloaded here.

The 2013 show can be downloaded here.

The 2014 show can be downloaded here.

Finally, for some more good old superhero holiday magic, we have Chris and Cindy Franklin of the Suprmates Podcast looking in on a comic and a cartoon, both involving the Timm-verse versions of the DC Heroes. Really good stuff here, especially when Cinday explains why she could be friends with the Ultra Humanite.

You can download this one here.










As is quickly becoming my tradition, I'll be taking next week off from posting, so come on back on January 8th for more geeky goodness!

The Golden Age of Cartooning

From Movie Muse Scraps

Being an unabashed child of the 1980's, I have long held that this decade was the Golden Age of animation. Most of it, in my opinion, can be attributed to the fact that there were so few channels available and each one of them was competing for the demographics. While a good number of cartoons that I watched were, basically, half hour toy commercials, they were all at least entertaining and, more often than not, made you think. Below are a few of my must see series. In other words, those shows that I annoyed my sister with by demanding that we watch them.

A very special thank you to Charlie Niemeyer, who's now defunct show, Charlies Geekcast, put me in this mindset.

Spider-Man, Iceman and Firestar. You just can't go wrong. Well, they did with the dog.

Bruce Banner and the Incredible Reappearing Clothes

Yes, I know that this was from the 70's, but I first saw it on Nickelodeon in the 80's.

Still the best Flash Gordon adaptation out there.

This is probably my favorite version of the show, Wonder Twins and all.

It didn't take me long to realize that the Earth would be destroyed right around when I graduated High School. Still, a fun show.

I actually had some toys from this show. The figures had little wheels that made sparks to light up their chest emblems. Not something you'd see today.

My very first lay-away item was the Thunder Tank.

Great show with an astronomy lesson at the end of each episode.

I had a mess of these figures. And all the stuff was mix and match.

This one's for my Quantum Cast co-host.

Yeah, it's kidified, but I still like it. OK, you can get rid of the mice and I wouldn't complain.

Still my favorite version of the Transformers.

The first time I ever won something it was a He-Man contest at Burger King.

No, they couldn't hit anything they were aiming at, but I still loved this show,

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

This past Sunday was the 35th Anniversary of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, one of my favorite movies of all time and what I consider to be the reason for my geeky nature. To celebrate this historic event, I invited Scott Gardner, one half of the Two True Freaks, to talk with me about the movie and what it means to us.

I would encourage anyone, regardless of what you think about this movie, to listen to our discussion and then rewatch the movie. I think you'll find that it's actually pretty good. And if you do that, please let us know on Facebook what you thought.

Direct Download: http://twotruefreaks.com/media/podcasts/TheHammerPodcasts/mp3/THP-Episode008.mp3