I Need Your Help
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Today, I'm mustering up the courage to do something I never thought I would. For the last few weeks, I've been promising some ambitious videos. A deep dive into the Ultimate Universe. Power Rankings for all the digital comics subscription services. A long-awaited Q&A video fielded from subscibers on social media. Then comes a bunch of silence and missed deadlines. What you don't see between uploads are all the struggles of trying to make things happen. For example, last week's Graphic Novels for Kids video was actually uploaded twice. The first time, I uploaded a truncated version after my computer failed the export without telling me. The timestamp on my PC said 40 minutes, but the YouTube video cut out after 13. I noticed the error only after tagging all the publishers, writers and artists who were covered in the video. I quickly made it private, then spent ALL NIGHT trying to export the video without errors. That was the last straw. For the past week, I've been building out a fundraising campaign to finally upgrade my technology stack so that computer, camera and storage issues won't prevent you from getting my best efforts. Today, it finally launches. If I'm honest, I'm super nervous about it. There are far more dire situations in the world than helping a YouTuber buy a camera, but I’d rather ask for help than suffer in silence. There are 3 ways to support (including buying comics from my personal collection). If everyone who watched last week's Pull List donated just $2, we'd actually CRUSH the goal! Our 5th anniversary is coming up, but I'm not sure how much farther we'll make it without these upgrades. The campaign page has all the info you need, as well as today's YouTube video. Whatever support you can offer is greatly appreciated. Future Static is Back! Back in October, I finally got to meet Static artist Nikolas Draper-Ivey. We'd been friendly online since the day he saw my excitement about the then-forthcoming return of Milestone Media's Dakota Universe; and he graced us with an appearance on the Comics Are Dope podcast -- our most viewed ever. When we met, I asked if he had anything exciting projects coming up. He swore me to secrecy, so I haven't told a single soul that... This November, DC is publishing Batman/Static: Beyond! It's a 6 issue miniseries penned by Evan Narcisse, with Nik kicking off art duties for the first 2 issues. If you read the Milestone 30th Annniversary Special, you've already seen a sneak peek at the world Nik has been building. I'm incredibly excited to revisit it! Issue #1 is in stores November 12th. You can bet I've got mine on pre-order already. Comics on Kickstarter are Dope This week, I'm shouting out three Kickstarter campaigns you should be backing. I've interviewed the creators, but export issues... you know the rest. Please check out the video, and back whichever campaigns sound interesting to you! Read Something Dope Today, BJ KICKS |
Comics Are Dope
Celebrating everything Dope about comics. Curated by BJ KICKS.
For my kids, this week is Back to School week. They've been feeling it for a while. Bedtimes have gotten earlier. Routines more rigorous. And finally, they'll have something filling several hours of their weekdays. It's been a perfect time to examine and tighten up my own routines as well. I've been waking up earlier, taking advantage of the quiet time to get more videos done. I've always been more early bird than night owl, but I forgot how much I used to get done between 5:30 and 8:00am....
Late last week, I teamed up with DJ Ben Ha Meen of the For All Nerds show for a new, monthly comic review series. Each month, we'll pick 3 to 5 of our favorite issues and go back and forth. Since each of us hadn't read the other's picks, Episode 1 was equal parts education, reaction and clowning. I can't wait for you to see the shenanigans. In the meantime, let's talk about some other books I enjoyed in July. Recent Comic Reviews Some of my July favorites. SPEED RACER #1 | David Pepose (w),...
A few months ago, my wife and I hosted an Easter dinner for our extended families. She told everyone I was making Jerk Chicken; and since her family is Jamaican, my oven recipe just wasn't gonna cut it this time. So I bought a grill. The chicken was great, and I've been cooking outdoors at least once a week ever since. Something about cooking over open flames and using smoke to tenderize an otherwise undesirable cut of meat is really appealing. Plus, when it's not blazing hot outside, it's...