Some additional NYCC notes to be aware of before the show!

Posted on 10/12/2011 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

Bob Camp, one of the co-creators of Ren & Stimpy has been doing production background art for an upcoming mobile game called Tanks of Fury. They’ll be handing out cards with QR codes for a free demo.

LEGO will giving away a free Superman lego, which is also part of a contest.

Cartoon Network has an awesome Finn of Adventure Time toy they’re giving away.

This NY food/restaurant guide from CB Cebulski is really cool and also directs you on how to get a free exclusive pin by Cliff Chiang during the con. It seems a lot of work for someone without an iPhone/Android, but that’s what up.

There’s a lot of special Foursquare stuff like that too and you can’t do Foursquare without an iPhone/Android either…so I think it’s a bit unfair that the better off you are financially the more free stuff you get… like celebrities with their Oscar swag bags.

On top of the appearance at the convention, Chad Michael Murray will be signing at Barnes and Nobles on the Upper East Side on Friday night.

There’s some excellent after the convention events happening:
James Marsters is performing all the way out in Amityville on Saturday.

Also on Saturday a slew of street artists, toy customizers and graffiti artists are doing live painting in Alphabet City.

Zombie/Horror artist Wrona has a solo show in Brooklyn on Saturday as well.

and in New Jersey on Saturday there’s a Jack Kirby art tribute show with live music

a few other notes of interest:

The folks from Irattional Games will be giving out a BIOSHOCK INFINITE litho to those who come to their signing

Andrew W.K. is doing a signing

Foxtrot’s Bill Amend has a panel and a signing

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Beer, Glorious, Beer!

Posted on 10/11/2011 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

I am not much of a beer drinker is what I tell people when I go out drinking. This isn’t exactly true. I just really can’t find enjoyment in what most people drink when they say beer. They usually mean PBR, Heineken, Coors, Budweiser or Guinness. Sometimes I get lucky and it’s folks who actually mean a brilliant creation of flavor involving a hops. An independent brew developed by a master who gave a damn about what he was creating instead of just putting yeast piss mixed with barley or wheat in a can or bottle.

I know how beer is made. I have studied it intensely in reading, but I have never taken the time and energy involved to make my own brews. I’ve even come up with various ideas, percolated how certain flavors and mixes would bring both body, taste and a good buzz worthy to say “Dude, I’m drunk and happy about it!”.

When I was in New Jersey recently for an arts event I got to not only meet people who do home brewing, but sample many different flavors and tastes. There was a vast amount of deliciousness here and some truly passionate people.

The group is called the Jersey City Brew Club and they meet monthly to plan, discuss, arrange and organize beer brewing, events and whatnot. Their event at the 4th Street Arts and Music Festival was also a contest. While all the beers were absolutely amazing, they still decided to have purveyors to vote for their favorites.

The favorite that won was a Dark Chocolate Cherry Stout which I unfrotunately could not taste as I have an allergic reaction to cherries, but I got to try another beer he had made that was not in competition and it was quite amazing. Second place went to the Buffalo Porter, an aromatic beer suggested best with earthy cheese just like its flavor and third place went to Hopasaurus in the Dark, this was very dark and really jumpy as the name suggests. Other excellent beers that really caught my tastebuds were the Pumpkin Cider, the Apricot Wheat Ale and the simply called HurricanAle.

I am amazed at what these individuals achieved and I wouldn’t mind getting into it myself.

Unfortunately for me their next meeting in which they’ll not only discuss these beers but other brewmaking genius is this weekend during New York Comic Con. If you aren’t heading out to that and you live in a place where Jersey City is easy access for you, I totally recommend checking these guys and gals out… it seems like an awesome club to belong to.

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Oh, my Pasta!

Posted on 10/07/2011 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

Whenever I’m out with a friend and decide its time to get a nice meal I have three types I’d gear for, Thai, Indian and Italian. The problem with Italian is that I feel weird paying for pasta dishes which I can easily make at home. I could probably make Thai and Indian dishes as well, but not as easily as Italian. Most places use pre-made pastas, so you’re just paying for labor, but not ingredients you don’t traditionally can pick up at the grocer for cheap. What I’m always looking for is a place that not only mentions that their pasta is made in house, but prides itself in this fact.

Luckily recently I finally found this place on Montague Street in the Brooklyn Heights section of New York City. While the restaurant might have a hokey name in “Oh, my Pasta!”, the cordial service and absolutely amazing food made up for it completely.

We started our meal with their rendition of eggplant parmigiana. This isn’t the way you would expect it in a regular Italian restaurant, very heavy with lots of breading and topped with more tomato sauce than eggplant almost. No, this was a succulent portion cooked to a perfect palate that just melted in the mouth and really triggered the start of the meal.

We decided to sample two of the pasta dishes.

Tagliolini al pesto Siciliano and Troccoli alla carbonara.

The silician pesto was made with basil, pine-nuts, shelled almonds, grated sheep’s milk Rodez cheese, tomatoes, and extra-virgin olive oil. It was served on Tagilolini which is a flat noodle, much like linguine for the lay-man, but more more delicate. This pesto was just the right balance of flavors and the tagiliononi absorbed it so perfectly, it melt in the mouth.

I serve carbonara at home on a regular basis, but never with Sheep’s Milk cheese the way they do here. Troccoli is a traditional spaghetti like pasta and the carbonara sauce didn’t take as well to Troccoli as the pesto and was lacking something, but was still delicious. It is possible that because I am working on various type of forms of carbonana sauce at home my mind and taste buds are more selective than with a pesto sauce which is much more intricate to make and why I don’t do it at home often.

For desert we had an absolutely amazing chocolate tort. This thing was perfect in every way. I tend to despise raspberry sauce in chocolate but here it worked and was a perfect ending to an amazing meal.

I must also bring up the amazing service here. While our waitress was brand new, actually having just started that day, the rest of the house from manager to owner and chef all made a point to be involved. While some criticisms on sites such as Yelp and other restaurant reviews sites have mentioned that when the place gets more full their front of the house to back of the house control can be lacking, I didn’t find it to be that bad and the food was definitely worth it.

While I do not find myself in Brooklyn Heights as often as I’d like, when I have a group of acquaintances, colleagues or a female friend to impress I will definitely make a point of returning here.


Chef Steven J. Lecchi makes pasta
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She Went to Hell and took us with her

Posted on 10/02/2011 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

Hello, Chuck Palahniuk, it’s me Reid Harris Cooper. I just wanted to let you know that your newest book is compelling and successfully fills many of the holes it creates along the way, creating interesting characters and a vivid image of a designed hell I can see well animated by John Kricfalusi. On the other hand it is at times quite pretentious, overly wordy and particularly annoying. While you can easily blame this on your protagonist and the first person speech, it did not have to be this way. Certain choices were made in terms of structure, repeated style use and pushed upon ideas that at times I almost tossed the book across the room in frustration. It is almost a sign that the book got accidentally water damaged making it look mangled, but not unreadable.


DAMNED is the newest upcoming book from the acclaimed writer of Fight Club, Survivor, Choke, Lullaby, Haunted, Rant and a few more. Many are thinking of it as possibly a return to form that he seems to have possibly lost, but I see it as more experimentation from a writer who refuses to be locked down into any type of style or particular voice other than that of unreliable narrators and reveals that flips he story late into the book, sometimes too late to make a dent, other times perfectly sculpting pure genius. In many ways, DAMNED does both.

Chuck seems to have definitely done his research here and while it is admirable and adds to the scenery, at times it almost feels like he is trying to boast more than even educate through his various characters that he can talk about Hell because he went and read all the various books, scriptures, theologian essays and more. I applaud his effort, while also rolling my eyes at it. I almost feel it’d been more interesting for him to create his entirely own vision of Hell than the cobbled together version in this book. There are some really hilarious, fantastically brilliant ideas here and some of them are fully formed, while others just get touched upon making you desire more. This could be to the possibility of an upcoming sequel. If said sequel doesn’t exist though they’re just nuggets that will lay there untouched; Very cute, interesting nuggets that will only percolate in the readers mind, but never to be fully fleshed out and formed.

As an entire package the book tells a full and complete tale that is both visually entertaining and mentally stimulating, yet falters from expansive sections which could’ve easily been in fast forward and at times The major plot “twist” can be easily telegraphed from an early sequence as well that is just really longer and weirder than it needed to be. I feel like I’m spitting more venom than sprinkles here for a book I actually cared enough to finish, especially since books that start to piss me off usually get tossed on the ground and given a beat down, but the fact is that I really saw a lot of potential in this story and I feel at least a sequel could save it, but as it stands I can only recommend it to the the most stalwart fan of Chuck’s or those who really love contemporary visions of Hell via the dialogue of a young girl who finds empowerment through Death and Dismemberment.

DAMNED currently has a release date of October 18, 2011 in America and is published by Doubleday. It will be a hardcover with a retail price of $24.95, but obviously cheaper through sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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Games That Tell Tales

Posted on 09/29/2011 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

As TellTale Games truly expands their line of excellent produced games in the end of 2011 and beginning in 2012 with magic based on the Jurassic Park movie franchise, and two very popular the Comic books in Image Comics The Walking Dead created by Robert Kirkman and the Vertigo fantasy series FABLES created by Bill Willingham, I thought it best to look at Telltale’s game history as a whole as well as quickly review their three last distributions in Back to The Future-The Game, Puzzle Agent and the second chapters of Hector-Badge of Courage.

I’d previously reviewed the first chapter of Hector on PCS, but I’ve yet to throw praise their way for everything else and they’re highly deserving it. So, away we go, with the history of the company as I understand it without all that legal and technical mumbo jumbo and with applauding their efforts and criticizing a bit (because it’s video games and one still must criticize video games) along the way.

Telltale was founded by former Lucasarts team members Dan Connors and Kevin Bruner. Both have had an extensive hand both creatively, administrative and technologically in bringing to life some of LucasArts most popular franchises such as Sam & Max and Grim Fandango, along with some Star Wars titles as well. Along the way they’ve been able to bring in some really awesome people to the team including Mike Stemmle, who was co-lead on Sam & Max as well as Escape from Monkey Island, Andy Hartzell, an award winning independent comics cartoonist and most notably Dave Grossman, co-creator of Monkey Island, Pajama Sam, and Moop & Dreadly with Ron “Grumpy Gamer” Gilbert (who now works at the other base of operations for awesome games Doublefine with Tim Schaefer, who worked alongside Stemmle, Connors and Brunner back when) was brought in as head designer. Along with incredible artists, producers and more, this assembled team has allowed Telltale to be one of the only successful adventure game companies in the United States today. Most of the adventure game companies with success are based in England, the Netherlands and Germany. Thankfully though Telltale exists and helps bring franchises you’d think were primed for a game, but also difficult to envision to life.

The first series they tackled was Jeff Smith’s BONE. Visually and intellectually, as well as voice acting, this production was awesome, but it definitely suffered serious flaws in their action and mini-games sequences. Despite this, it is a great shame that they only got to do Out From Boneville and The Great Cowrace. I’d love to see them return to the series at some point and maybe try and create a side adventure instead of the adaptations done here. Maybe an untold Grandma Rose story would be best suited.

TellTale was given the CSI franchise to develop for publisher Ubisoft, but these games never really seemed to fall into line with where Telltale’s style and bread&butter landed. It wasn’t long into Telltale’s existence as a company though that the opportunity to “come out like gangbusters” presented itself. While the exact reasoning behind how Sam & Max ended up at Telltale has many stories suffice it to say they got their hands on the Freelance Police, along with their creator Steve Purcell along for the ride for brand new adventures not tied to the LucasArts design. That gave us “Save The World” which was followed by “Beyond Time & Space” and eventually “The Devil’s Playhouse”. All three games used very interesting and intriguing uses of puzzle design and twists in the adventure gameplay to deliver games that were quite awesome, even if they somehow never have yet to reach the epic-ness that was “On The Road”. This was not for lack of trying. It could be because of the SCUMM system, maybe it’s because of nostalgia on my part. I enjoyed all the Sam & Max games from Telltale but there were decisions made in gameplay style which caused problems.

These same issues would plague their very thought out and high quality “Tales of Monkey Island” series. This game did have the excellence of Ron Gilbert working alongside Grossman and Stemmle to come to fruition though. What hurt this game, much like in the Sam & Max game was that each episode was not exactly standalone. They were treated much more like chapters in a book and some episodes were weaker than others, in terms of length, puzzles and more. If played in one sitting, this could be ignored, but if played the way they were originally designed it was very noticeable. In the long run though, it truly proved that Telltale was on to the magic. (Although it should be noted Ron Gilbert did come in for one chapter of this series, helping with design and writing, helping stir the pot that Stemmle and Grossman started.)

During this time they had also worked with Aardman Animations on their “Wallace & Gromit” franchise. Now I never saw how that could be a video game, but they figured it out. Even more amazingly they found how to turn the Strong Bad flash cartoons in to fascinating and funny games. I was never a fan of Strong Bad and I am still not, but my god, they seriously figured out how to make me in the least like those Strongbad games. It’s a testament to the talent of the Telltale team.

In 2010, Telltale became more than just a developer of their own products, but the housing platform for smaller games which would come out on their own, but with Telltale backing them had much more chance at being seen by a public desiring adventure games on all levels. They called it the Pilot program and the first title was Nelson Tethers, Puzzle Agent. Designed by cartoonist Graham Annabelle, who had been working in some capacity at Telltale since 2005 as they published his webcomic DUNK, it was an an example that Telltale didn’t just make good games, but they really could find excellent ones. I actually had problems with Puzzle Agent, both the original and the sequel in the puzzles. Some of them just went beyond my style of thinking. That’s not on me though, the game is called Puzzle Agent and that meant all kinds of puzzles, logic, math, visual, and when it comes to two of those I tend to have some issues, especially super complicated mazes. The game has both super easy and then slider puzzle types and I am not good at slider puzzles. Never hand me a Rubik’s cube, my way of solving it is to crack it open and re-glue it together when solved.

Back to the Future: The Game was announced in June of 2010, alongside with the upcoming Jurassic Park, as part of a licensing deal with Universal. Fan interest was high straight from the start and only got higher when the game was announced as “the fourth chapter” in BTTF and that Christopher Lloyd would be voicing Doc Brown. From the first chapter I was immediately sold. While my computer wasn’t completely up to snuff to handle the graphics completely I could tell the writing, acting and gameplay were everything I’d been wanting from Telltale and that the franchise only helped this. I think with this series the company really found their swing. Maybe it was knowing that there would be even more discerning eyes on it to accomplish their goals. Yet, yes, the episodic formula caused this to also suffer from some episodes being weaker than others and the game can truly only be appreciated best if played in succession. It truly was one of the strongest efforts from Telltale and gives amazing hope to their Jurassic Park game, not to mention The Walking Dead and Fables.

The most recent Telltale game to “ship” were chapters 2 & 3 of the Straandlooper developed HECTOR-Badge of Carnage. These both continued the excellence of the first two chapters and truly compel you complete the entirely funny, well thought out and constructed point & click game. The way this project finished gives me not only hope to see what if anything Straandlooper produces next, but what the pilot program may offer. While it’s obvious Telltale’s efforts for the next year will be in the three previously mentioned franchises and hopefully a second Back to the Future game, I hope they understand what they can really do here for gaming as a whole. Especially being one of the only, if not the only developer who is not an independent creator to produce games like this with distribution on almost every available platform one can think of.

There was a TellTale panel scheduled for New York Comic Con 2011, but based on research I could conduct it has been postponed for rescheduling or possibly all out cancelled.  This is a shame as I was excited at the prospect of possibly meeting Stemmle, Grossman, et. al… but alas.  I shall just continue to enjoy their products.

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Overview of Brooklyn Book Festival 2011

Posted on 09/22/2011 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

The Brooklyn Book Festival which just completed its sixth year was quite intense. Full of free panels with many scheduled at the same time and all taking place while there’s an actual book festival within Columbus Park it is a lot to take in.

Unlike Conventions such as New York Comic Con or Book Expo America, the book festival is only one day. While it claims a four day existence with many events designed to be part of the Expo beforehand, the major crux, the beautiful outdoor fest directly outside Borough Hall and star studded panels in the surrounding areas are relegated to one Sunday.

Since this entire fest is free and completely about fan service with its panels and helping smaller publishers who would normally not get noticed at the book store (which there are less and less of these days) by the average consumer, it is perfectly acceptable for one day.

Although for someone as me with such a broad expanse of book love, it really isn’t. I was able to successfully make it to four panels and see maybe 75% of the Festival in the time allotted.

I did enjoy those panels though and I got some great book info and even ended up making one singular purchase of a book on sale that was brand new and I couldn’t resist.

It’s called “The Recipe Book”, the newest project from music duo, One Ring Zero and the first publication of Black Baloon Publishing. It’s got recipes, food and music inspired essays and a CD. Josh Besh, Chris Cosentino, Tom Collichio, Mario Batali and more are involved. If I can think of more to say about it I will, but that’s all I got.

Unfortunately other than my photos during the Comics Quick Draw and a few photos of the beautiful church some of the panels took place in, there wasn’t much to capture visually. While author portraits would’ve been interesting, a press pass at this event doesn’t afford one anything special or extra. One would need to miss panels for specific author signings to get that photo and with time being a major issue here I couldn’t achieve that. Yet, I must share one of those windows from St. Ann and The Holy Trinity. They have an amazing history and should be seen purely from an artist standpoint, ignoring the religious concepts.

All in all I truly look forward to near year. The festival brings in some serious talent for their panels and the community and neighborhood make it a not miss event for anyone who loves or just even like books and reading.

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BBF2011: Funny Ha-Ha-Comedy in Comics

Posted on 09/22/2011 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

This panel featured four very talented comics creator with various pedigrees and creators of very different types of comics all that would fall under humor in the format of sequential storytelling.
Keith Knight, a syndicated strip cartoonist he is famous for his The K Chronicles a (th)INK strips. Jennifer Hayden, creator of the strip Underwire which appeared on Act-I-Vate and the upcoming graphic novel The Story of My Tits. Kate Beaton, the creator of the obscenely popular strip and now collected edition “Hark, A Vagrant” and Michael Kupperman, writer/artist of Tales Designed to Thrizzle and the upcoming graphic novel “Mark Twain’s Autobiography: 1900-2010”. It was moderated by The Beat‘s Heidi McDonald.

The panel started out with each panelist talking about their past and why they use comedy in the majority of their work.

Jennifer told about a panel in Underwire which showed the aftermath of her accidentally hitting a deer. It displayed her thoughts on the deers defecation upon death. She received polar opposite reactions to this one panel, some found if it sad & poignant, others laughed out loud non-stop. She loves how one can use humor in comics to hide or explore tragedy easier and also allow one to say the things on the page one wouldn’t/couldn’t say in person.

Kate Beaton detailed how Hark, A Vagrant came out as started out being comics editor on her college paper and having to fill the page. She originally planned to become a professor, but the comics just spiraled. She loves how even though her strips use lots of comedy and jokes people still explore the real history afterward.

Michael Kupperman made the announcement of his and Kate’s soon to regular comedy show at Luca Lounge in Manhattan. This should be definitely something to check out if you can.

Keith talked about his history as a cartoonist and the development of the strip, but the best was his statement that “if it doesn’t make you laugh, at least it makes you think, and it doesn’t make you think, at least it makes you laugh, but when both…”

Heidi’s first official question was if they were the class clown/how did you find out you were funny? Which of course all the panelists found awkward but found good answers to.

Keith kind of dodged the questions, but dropped some pontification. On the other Jennifer stated she was the class clown and the family clown. As a kid she would stuff her dad’s tie in a drink or in his mouth. She grew up around very stuffy people and hated it, so she used humor in way of rebellion.

Kate also said she was the class clown out of necessity. She said she was a pudgy little kid, so the best defense was to be the funny kid. Being the one people looked to for funny gave her power and control unlike anything else she could ever feel and that if someone is meant for comedy they figure it out early on.

Michael just said “What they said”…

Heidi asked Kate specifically (but open to all) that because she handles obscure history if there was anyone/thing that can’t be funny. Kate stated people are always asking for Hitler, she doesn’t know why. She said some people from history are so tragic that you want to try and tackle the story, but it just doesn’t work out. She gave the example of Angelique, the famous Canadian slave accused of arson, who was hanged and burned for her crimes in the 1700’s. She felt that the story could not be approached from a humor standpoint and abandoned trying to make a comic strip version.

I personally would love to see Beaton try to tackle this one again, she could make fun of the fact that in 1700’s Canada was like 1600’s America and so on.

Heidi asked Jennifer abut how her family felt about using them in her strip. Jennifer stated she has to tread carefully and only recently found out her husband didn’t want to be in them and then was flabbergasted when he finally started reading and was “Wait, I’m barely in this anyways! Where am I?”

A story she decided to skip was the the experience of birth control and condoms discussion when her kids went off to college. Find it funny she has no problem telling us in a panel, but not in a strip.

Heidi then asked Keith about the experience of being a very controversial strip cartoonist who has had his strip pulled and banned in many markets.

Keith then went into a very intense and detailed story about a strip he did which made fun about current race relations. This particular strip made an uproar at a university and the university requested he come and talk about the strip. In reaction to the strip a small segment of black students were actually walking around campus with nooses around their necks. He needed to state that at this same university prior to this someone called in a prank terrorist threat on black students, so it wasn’t his strip that caused the problem, there already was one and the politics of that university were prone to that particular strip meant for the whole world. He also finds it funny how in black communities when a situation like this arises the media makes an effort to talk to the craziest person they can find and that’s how you get viral Youtube sensations.

The last question to get any real answers was on Influences.

Kate had stated a few, but she didn’t talk into the mike so it was hard to hear her, but I did catch her state Stephen Leacock, who I previously was not familiar with. He was a Canadian writer and scientist and Kate loves her home town Canada a lot obviously with wanting to write about Angelique and mentioning Leacock. Yup, she’s from Nova Scotia, dontyaknow?

Kupperman cited Monty Python, SCTV and the Smithsonian Book of Comics.

Hayden mentioned growing up on Archie and MAD, but really grew on Doonesbury and also Asterix and as she got older Charles Dickens. She also cited Maurice Sendak.

Knight cited Peanuts, Bill Watterson, Parliament Funkadelic and The Young Ones.

The Q & A and final questions provided nothing further, but it was a satisfying and enjoyable panel with colorful insights.

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BBF2011: Eoin Colfer x Walter Mosley – GUMSHOES

Posted on 09/22/2011 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

We start with a reading of work.  First Walter Mosley reads from his forthcoming January 2012 “All I Did Was Shoot My Man”, the next Leonid Mcgill book. It was a spirited reading of chapter 1 and definitely whetted the appetite.

Before reading the first chapter of PLUGGED, Eoin Colfer begins with telling about the last time he was at a NY Church. He had just finished being on a Disney cruise with his wife and son, Finn. His son watched Pinocchio non-stop, which never got annoying he said mildly sarcastically. Their on the steps of I believe he said St. Patrick’s Cathedral and he tells his son to go stand on the steps for a picture. When Finn ran off up the steps without asking for money, Eoin should of known something was up. His son, a beautiful Irish boy with bright blond hair, standing on the steps, hands in prayer with priests and parish looking on and what prayer does Finn make?

“Dear God, please make me a real boy.”

In many of the questions, Walter tended to give non-answers, or things that weren’t very quotable, while Eoin was much more open and funnier. Walter definitely had his moments though.

When asked what it is about the crime fiction genre that compels him, Eoin stated that he’s always been a fan. It wasn’t till a friend asked him for a short story for a crime-fiction anthology that the ball got rolling though. He argued that he writes about leprechauns and fairies and his friend pointed out him that you take out those and his work is basically crime fiction.

Eoin is also really excited that he can be invited to Bouchercon now, it’s a dream come true.

Walter Mosley stated that crime fiction is a very important style of writing, it allows one to look into existentialism. Question what is right and what is wrong, invites you into the view of this unlike other genres which builds readers. Gives example of a story about an undocumented laborer in California, if written well, this story will get read, but if written from the viewpoint of a Chicano detective figuring out who killed the worker’s bosses you get a better audience and way to explore the setting.

The moderator asked about story flow and Eoin stated that at least for crime fiction he tries to base the story in places he’s been in enough to get a feel for the voice and demeanor of the people, which is why PLUGGED took place in New Jersey. For an example of being pulled out of a story he chose highly criticize Tom Cruise’s accent in Far and Away in completely pulling you out of the film as you got the impression that Cruise had never been anywhere near Ireland.

Colfer plans to write a book about a bum in Barbados who lays in a hammock all the time, so he’ll have to go there for the next three years for research and live that life.

In speaking about the fact that he has written all types of fiction, Mosley was quick to point out he had also written erotica. He brought up the book Blue Light as a book that he could’ve written as a mystery, but chose to tackle speculative style because of its format and that the book was about the soul. The crux of a story helps him decide what genre he will write in. Later he also brought up his young adult book 47 in relation to Eoin’s long career in that field.

Eoin stated on writing for different audiences that leprechaun fiction and pixie fiction are different. He’s also tried writing unicorn fiction. When he’s on to something he states “Oh Christ” and then “apologizes” for blurting out that statement because the panel is taking place inside of a church to accommodate the large audience.

“You can never have too many Leprechauns” Colfer also states.

When asked if PLUGGED was always planned as an adult book, Colfer goes into comedian mode once again and says that it was the editor who called him and said that the word “motherfucker” is in the book too much to be considered young adult.

He also stated that if PLUGGED sells, it’ll be a trilogy and that working on a series is akin to the building of show like Star Trek.

I got to ask one question during the Q & A and asked about name development and choosing names you hope will stick with an audience.

In terms of Daniel in PLUGGED he was originally called Lincoln, but Eoin changed because of Jeffrey Deemers. He then said Daniel was in recognition of Colin Bateman, but realized that didn’t actually work because his main guy was Daniel as well and there was a fault, but by then it was too late and “what can you do?”

Walter stated he never really thought about, but he did notice how the names he did pick ended up actually being descriptive of the characters and their lives or actually not being indicative as “Easy” Rawlins life is anything but easy.

Eoin added one joke into this question by stating he tries to use names in children’s/YA books that are great jokes for adults, but will go over kids heads. For example in an upcoming Artemis Fowl he’ll introduce Colin Scoppy.

The final question of the panel pertained to films.

Mosley stated he felt Devil in a Blue Dress was a good adaptation, but much closer of course was the adaptation/teleplay he wrote himself  “Always Outnumbered” starring Laurence Fishburne.

Eoin stated he had one TV adaption done of his work which he enjoyed. I had to look up to discover that adaptation was a still uncollected and never aired in the US,  CBBC series based on “Half Moon Investigations”.

Eoin got to end the panel jokingly stating that hopefully Tom Cruise will end up working on the adaptation of Artemis Fowl.

The way Hollywood works, we’ll get Tom trying to do an Irish accent for the film version of PLUGGED. One can only hope the book does that well in the end.

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Overview of Panels that immediately caught my interest for New York Comic Con 2011

Posted on 09/20/2011 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

While not all panels have been announced and press events can change everything here, I thought I’d take a moment just to overview the schedule and be slightly prepared.  One can never truly be prepared though.  You always think you’re ready, but it’s always a bit overwhelming.

FRIDAY, Oct. 14

11:00 am – 12:00 pm
It Gets Better (With Comics!)
LGBT panel with Abby Denson and Ivan Velez, Jr. I am a long supporter and reader of LGBT comics, movies, etc. while being what would be considered straight with a broken tip. The correct term is not bi-sexual or even bi-curious. I guess essentially it would be…”existing”.

11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Meet Me At The Arcade
Panel about the current and former life of the arcade in New York City. I don’t know which of these two panels I’ll be attending if either.

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Locke & Key Fox Pilot Screening
I heard about this all over the net and by the time I got to it, it was pulled. It has been given rave reviews and while I’ve never read the comic I have read Joe Hill’s books and with a severe lack of horror TV shows these days, with only AMERICAN HORROR STORY, so it’ll be bitter sweet to watch this, but rather see it then not if I choose this panel.

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Panel to Pixel: The Walking Dead & FABLES, Video Games from Telltale Games
This company is making some of the best games out there and I really want to see them in person. From Sam & Max to Back the Future and now also Jurassic Park, they are truly masters of the concept and these two projects could be something amazing games.

12:15 pm – 1:15 pm
Batman: Arkham City
This of course is also one of the best games coming out in 2011. I’m on board 100% for it. I’m even replaying Batman: Arkham Asylum in anticipation. Kevin Conroy is going to be on panel and I’m betting Mark Hamill being on site anyways will show up too. Who knows what if any giveaways there might be as well. That sentence applies to any TV, videogame or movie promotion panel. There’s always the chance at exclusive con only shirts, posters, toys, whatever.

12:15 pm – 1:15 pm
Jane Espenson’s Husbands –A Marriage of Experience and New Media
This brand new webshow started last Tuesday and it is wonderful and by the time Con hits they’ll I believe finished showing all 12 episodes and really be ready to reflect on its success or failure and the entire experience. As much as I want to go to the Batman and Telltale panels, if they plan a special press only attachment to this panel I might to do this tract, as I highly support this show.

1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Dark Horse Presents: 25 Years of Publishing and Beyond

This could be intriguing just as a retrospective and possible great announcements. One could probably skip this and get

2:45 pm – 3:45 pm
Food and Comics Panel with Wylie Dufresne
While I’m not going to do the $550 dinner attached to this panel, I wouldn’t mind seeing what this one could be. There’s a chance for an entirely entertaining panel here and maybe food sampling too!

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
DC Universe Animated Original Movies gives an early look at Batman: Year One, Catwoman & Justice League: Doom
Do I really need to go to this and see trailers and stuff that will soon be on blu-ray? Probably not, but I want the option to be in my scheduling.

3:45 pm – 4:45 pm
Joe Simon: My Life in Comics
98 years old! His birthday will just be passing. One of the truest legends of all comics. Of all panels this might be the most fascinating and passionate of all and I hope if I can’t be at it for any reason that someone else will make sure this one is captured properly on film.

5:15 pm – 6:15 pm
The Superheroes of J.J. Sedelmaier Productions!
Ex-Presidents and The Ambiguously Gay Duo are two of the coolest creations ever. I couldn’t tell from the description exactly what this presentation entails, but J.J. Will on hand to present the video, so if I can fit this in I will, but the next panel is actually one I’m quite interested in.

5:15 pm – 7:00 pm
Unicorn City
The trailer for this film is really good and I assume that based on the 1:45 time set for this means it will be just be a screening. If at this point of the day I still feel like I just want to sit down and relax and watch a movie, I might just have to go to this.

6:15 pm – 7:15 pm
Creator Connection
This panel sounds like a possible chance to maybe meet that artist I’ve been looking for my various projects I’ve come up with and don’t have someone to tackle them with. If there’s a really talented artist looking for the right writer, this would be the place to be.

6:15 pm – 8:30 pm
Comedy Central
They don’t even know what this panel will focus on. It’s their big Comedy Central panel though. Last year their panels filled so quickly and some of the crowd were people who just went to the panel beforehand and didn’t leave. I probably won’t even get into this thing!

7:30 pm – 8:30 pm
IGN, Free Sh*t
If this means they are handing out free shit… I’m there.

8:45 pm – 9:45 pm
Indie Toymaker Roundtable: Turning Characters Into Toys
This panel features some of my favorite artists and will have a very niche crowd of fans, so it might be a great place to finish off my Friday night.

8:45 pm – 10:00 pm
Pizza Man
On the Other hand, the Pizza Man panel will have DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE! BANG! Maybe Roddy will show too!

SATURDAY, Oct. 15

1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
A Liar’s Autobiography
I don’t know if they plan to air the entire Graham Chapman cartoon here or a trailer or what, but it’s the first official Monty Python movie and any footage or news I can get I want!

2:00 pm – 3:45 pm
NYCC Exclusive! Smallville: The Complete Series Retrospective Premiere
I might skip this since it’s basically the same thing that will be seen on the Smallville boxset and I’m sure will hit the internet or Netflix in some fashion eventually. As the documentary piece is an hour and forty minutes I don’t expect any surprises here.

3:45 pm – 4:45 pm
JJ Sedelmaier Shorts
More Sedelmaier… I’m assuming this will include a lot of TV Funhouse from SNL, but the fact that Robert Smigel is not being mentioned makes me wonder if this is worth it.

3:45 pm – 4:45 pm
MARVEL Television Presents
This one could be where a major announcement could be made by Jeph Loeb about an as of yet unannounced live action series premiering on some cable channel that intentionally left it out of their upfronts is debuted. I’m going to try and squeeze this in.

5:15 pm – 6:15 pm
AMC’s The Walking Dead
Hopefully at this they will explain how the show is working now with losing their showrunner, what season 2 will be like and etc. I will be doing my best to go this for a friend more than for myself. She might kill me if I don’t.

5:30 pm – 6:15 pm
The Heart, She Holler
Which is a shame, as I wouldn’t mind hearing more about this tupcoming Adult Swim show with Patton Oswalt and Kristen Schall… but whatever… what happens, happens.

6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Roddenberry Pizza Party Presents
I was thinking I might want free pizza, but I don’t know if I care enough about current Roddenberry productions for this.

7:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Hasbro: Marvel Action Figures
I’m a toy nut, so I wouldn’t mind seeing these, but not if it means skipping the next panel!

7:30 pm – 8:30 pm
MTV Presents Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head
Mike Judge will be on hand for this and the show premieres AFTER the con, so it’ll be awesome to see some footage shown at San Diego along with some new stuff and maybe some giveaways?

9:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Drew: The Man Behind The Poster
Struzan is one of the greatest artists of all time and while it doesn’t seem he’ll be at this panel, they’ll show off some of the documentary and have a panel and giveaways.

SUNDAY, Oct. 16

11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Adventure Time / Regular Show Panel and Q&A
Pendelton Ward and J.S. Quintel will be in attendance, what what? Boo Yeah! Ooooh! Being there being there! This just became a party because I brought it there.

11:00 am – 12:30 pm
IFC’S Portlandia and the Increadingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret
It’s so messed up that this panel is at the same damn time. David Cross and Fred Arminsen in one room with fellow crazy geniuses in another. IFC and CN should team this into one huge panel!

12:30 pm – 1:45 pm
Ben 10 / Generator Rex: Heroes United Screening and Q&A
When Cartoon Network does this full screenings with a panel attached they usually turn out to be not miss events. I love both these shows and I can’t wait to see how they merge them without it seeming like a waste of time. I’d like it to have consequences on the show like the Jimmy Neutron/Fairly Odd Parents crossovers have had.

2:15 pm – 3:45 pm
ESSENTIAL KILLING
Not sure if this is a screening of the Jerzy Skolinowski film starring Vincent Gallo or just a panel. I know that I am interested as it’s Jerzy’s first English speaking film in almost 20 years.

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BBF11: Comics Quick Draw!

Posted on 09/20/2011 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

The first panel I attended at the 2011 Brooklyn Book Festival was titled “Comics Quick Draw!”. It featured three of my favorite writer/artists as well as people. Dave Roman, co-creator of Jax Epoch and a writer of Avatar-The Last Airbender comic stories, he is currently best known for his Astronaut Academy series and is working on a colored and collection edition his Teen Boat series with John Green. Raina Tegelmeier did the very successful comics adaptations of Babyistter’s Club and the Eiser Ward winning autobiographic SMILE, she is currently developing her next original graphic novel, a story taking place in middle grade. Laura Lee Gulledge has been a gallery artist and her first semi-autobiographic graphic novel Page by Paige came out in 2011, she is currently at work on her second graphic novel about a young girl named Wilhimina and the living shadows that surround her.

The Draw Off gathered a collective crowd of children, parents and adult fans and was moderated by Publisher’s Weekly’s Calvin Reid. There ended up being seven rounds, with the final round being called a Switcheroo. The first round had the artists all doing a different drawing, the next five rounds they all did their version of the same idea. The concepts came from the kids in the audience and I must say, these kids were both strange and a little morbid.

Following is a description of the drawings done and photos of the finished works.

ROUND ONE

Monkey drinking coffee on the subway by Raina Tegelmeier


Elastic Man by Laura Lee Gulledge (basketball addition hers)


A Cat and Mouse by Dave Roman (he totally twisted this)

ROUND TWO
Mutant Dog eating a rabbit


Laura Lee Gulledge


Dave Roman


Raina Tegelmeier

ROUND THREE
Alien on Mars eating bagels


Dave Roman


Raina Tegelmeier


Laura Lee Gulledge

ROUND 4
Wizard on vacation at the beach


Laura Lee Gulledge


Dave Roman


Raina Tegelmeier

ROUND 5
Giant powdered donuts being pelted by sprinkles


Laura Lee Gulledge


Dave Roman


Raina Tegelmeier

ROUND 6
Cucumber jumping into lasagna


Raina Tegelmeier


Laura Lee Gulledge


Dave Roman

The Final round was called SWITCHEROO.  In one minute intervals for three minutes they would create three Jam drawings based on the same themes.  After much suggestions from the audiences and deliberation, the three things were Dragon, Hippo, Catwalk.

Here are the three pieces created by Dave, Laura and Raina together with some Photoshopping (like some other pieces in this article) from yours truly.

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