The Doldrums
Now is the traditional period of calm in the GeekNights universe. The next convention,
PAX East, is over a month away. It's cold, so we can't go outside. We just keep on podcasting and doing geeky things all the time. If you are in the same situation, then this works out because you will have plenty of podcasts and newsletters to pass the time with until the sun comes back.
Ask Rym & Scott
Last time I requested more people send in questions for this section. To my surprise, I actually got quite a few questions. That should keep this newsletter going for quite awhile. Still, keep sending them in to
geeknights@frontrowcrew.com. You never know when we will run out.
This month we got a letter from listener Eryn. She writes:
I got a job at a local comic book shop, and one of the new books we got in recently was the first hardcover of the New 52 Action Comics. It reminded me of your episodes on all the New 52 first issues, and made me wonder: do you think either of you are still going to make good on buying the trades for the titles you rated as "good/worth the money"? If so would you be interested in making shows out of reviewing some of those trades to let people know whether or not the subsequent issues met the expectations set by the first issues?
Also as a side note: those New 52 episodes were extremely helpful for getting me oriented in my new job. I am not a superhero comics geek, so re-listening to those episodes really helped me learn the stock faster and get a sense of what I could recommend to customers. Thanks for doing that whole slog, guys! It was worth it.
One last question (more of a review suggestion): you rated Batwoman as "meh/bad", with the exception of the awesome arts. Have you ever heard of Batwoman Elegy, written by Greg Rucka and art'd by the same guy doing the new series? I checked it out on a co-worker's recommendation, and it's pretty good. Way better than the current series, and it's a one-and-you're-done book, so there's not much room for it to go into convoluted underwear pervert BS. Would you ever be interested in reviewing it?
Thanks, and no worries if you can't answer everything in this email in the newsletter. Good luck with all things PAX!
Thanks for writing in Eryn. As I hope people know by now, I buy all my comics from dcbservice.com. The way it works is you pre-order everything two months in advance, but you get an insane discount. Every month I have been looking for some of the New 52 comics to come out in trades, so I can buy them. What I keep seeing are hardcovers. I hate hardcovers. They cost more and take up more room on the shelf for no benefit to me. I think a couple of Animal Man trades might be out by now, but not much else. Considering I have all these other, better, unread comics lying around, I'm in no rush to pick up any new 52.
I've also sort of been paying attention to see what happens to various series, to see if they stayed true to the first issue. As it turns out, unsurprisingly, a lot of the good ones turn bad. A lot of artists and writers get shifted around. It's less than 20 issues since the new 52 started, and already titles have been canceled, and new ones have started. There have also been troubling shakeups at DC's Vertigo imprint, as well as a controversy recently because they are going to let the
shithead Orson Scott Card write Superman. That really doesn't have me excited for anything DC.
One more thing people have to understand is that Rym doesn't read or buy many comics. Part of the reason our show can cover so many geekeries, is because while we share many interests, Rym has geekeries I do not have, and vice versa. Rym does still read and like comics, but mostly only web-comics and what I force upon him for the show. Thus, the frequency of episodes about comics, and which ones, are determined by that pushing process. The Batwoman Elegy comic you mention rings a bell, but I have never read it. However, you should stay tuned because Rym may have read something else that Greg Rucka was involved in, and a show is forthcoming!
Thanks, for the question Eryn, we are glad to be of service.
The Great Gatsby
Seriously you guys. I'm betting if you speak English and listen to our podcast, you have heard of
The Great Gatsby. Why? Because it's an incredibly important and famous classic, and a movie based upon it will be released very soon. Many literary scholars consider it "the great American novel." If it's so important, don't you think that every respectable, educated, and intelligent person should read it? Rym and I had never read it, but that problem has been corrected. This book is also seriously short, so just do it. The episode will almost definitely be next week. I have something awesome planned for the next selection as well.
New Podcasts
I just got done explaining how we rarely do comic episodes because I have to force Rym to read something. That actually just happened.
Saga by Brian K Vaughan is a really hot book right now, so we absolutely had to review the first trade. Also, there is a new Star Wars comic by Brian Wood that takes place between episode IV and V. These are things which a
geek can not ignore.
In all the years of GeekNights we never did a full episode specifically covering the once dead, and now resurgent, genre of point and click adventure games. If you can think of any other such obvious topics we have not covered it, let us know.
There is an Interwebs war a-raging lately. It's a battle mostly between sexist shitheads and well-meaning loudmouths. Apparently some people think that other geeks are fake, only pretending to like geeky things. Other people think that there is no such thing, and to suggest that someone is fake is the worst. It's clear that one of these groups is made up of good people, and the other of jerks. But as far as we are concerned, both groups are wrong in their assessment of the situation. Listen to this to find out our surprising false dichotomy breaking opinion.
No, not the power tool you use to make a nice pattern on the edge of your tabletop. We're talking about the machines that sit on the edges of computer networks telling all the packets where to go. Learn all a normal person needs to know about them and more by listening to this podcast. Or maybe just read about them on Wikipedia and do something else with your time.
New Videos
Not a lot of new videos lately. We have a lot recorded, just not edited and uploaded. If you want to see more, I suggest you start sharing, liking, or repeat-viewing, the ones we already have. If they get millions of views we can quit our jobs and make stuff for you guys full time!
Never before seen weather patterns are emerging as there has been a bunch of new forum members recently. Maybe you are a subscriber to this newsletter, but not a forum member. Do you really want to just be a consumer of content for the rest of your life? Level up and be a creator! Be somebody! Start by taking the intermediate step of being a contributor and post in a forum regularly. Why not ours?
Join today!
Thing of the Newsletter
Fan Art
The fan art department has been sacked for lack of production. We will accept submissions on a freelance basis, but will no longer put forth effort to solicit them.
Closing
We will never make a Harlem Shake.