New York Comic Con is a week away, and let's just say I don't feel prepared at all. I'm just wrapping my mind about the scope of it all, and doing my best to not give into feelings of overwhelm. On Friday, I'll be attending several private events, a few panels, and conducting at least 2 interviews on the convention floor. I'm doing my best to reserve Saturday to just explore Artist Alley and meetup with past guests like Morgan Hampton, Nikolas Draper-Ivey and Trevor Fernandes-Lienkiewicz. It'll be awesome to meet these guys in person (again in the case of TFL). There are several other creators I'm excited to meet, but you'll have to wait for the video recap to see them. If you're coming to NYCC and would like to meet up, send a reply to this e-mail so I can make a note. Once I get a lay of the land, I'll tweet about a potential meetup spot/photo op for the Dope Fiends on Saturday. On The Channel A family emergency shut down my video production this week. Needless to say, I'm behind on a lot. Be on the lookout for back-to-back uploads all next week. In addition to The Pull List, I'll be covering some upcoming Marvel trade paperback releases, and a really special announcement you'll want to watch out for on Tuesday. Thursday morning, I'll break down just how I plan to have a successful NYCC. Then when I get back, we can see how well it all worked out. On The Podcast This week, comic artist Anna Marazova is in the guest chair! We talk about how she gave up on a lucrative tech career to chase her comic dreams, being discovered and making a name at 2000 AD, and now working on Barbarella for Dynamite Entertainment. We also have an interesting discussion about the buying habits of European vs American comics fans. It's a delightful listen that I hope you'll enjoy too! I can't believe we'll be hitting 50 episodes in just 2 weeks! It's gonna be a double sized anniversary issue. Get hype!
An Absolutely Useless Review Have you ever read a comic so amazing, you get mad you can't spoil it? How long is the moratorium on Absolute Batman #1? Because we HAVE TO talk about it. Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta absolutely KILLED IT! Without spoiling, I'll say this. Batman is an extremely malleable character. No matter what writers take him through, you always have a general feeling of 'that makes sense'. But it's rare that you get moments with Batman that feel fresh. This new take on Bruce feels FRESH in the best ways. Dragotta's art with Frank Martin's colors make it even better. There's nothing I can say without spoiling that would do this comic justice. So RUN to your comic shop and buy it, so we can have a fun discussion on Discord! Until then... Read Something Dope Today, BJ KICKS |
Celebrating everything Dope about comics. Curated by BJ KICKS.
I had a whole intro typed about procrastination. I'll get to that later. This week, I gave myself a challenge. Post one video each weekday leading up to HeroesCon. Just so I wouldn't chicken out, I posted the schedule on social media SNL style. Now if I went back on my word, I'd be lying to at least a dozen people. 3 Down, 2 to Go. It's part of what I'm calling the Summer Sprint. After nearly a year of having to put the channel on the backburner while I dealt with more pressing matters on the...
It's a milestone week here in Dope Land. I woke up to two bits of exciting news on Tuesday. First, our audience grew to 18,000 subscribers on YouTube! I've set a goal in my head to reach 20k by November. But the truth is, the number only matters to me as much as I'm bringing joy to the person on the other end of it. That any singular person chooses to spend time listening to what I have to say about an artist's words and pictures will always be mind blowing to me. That makes the next...
Yesterday, I posted a video updating the general public about what I've been up to lately. If you read this briefing regularly, you already know. I'm busy being a family man, yada yada yada. But I also hinted a bit at some things to come on the channel. I've been searching for ways to include more book reviews in my heavily compressed schedule, and I think I've found just the trick in YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. Look, Ma! I'm in 16x9 format! While I've been hesitant to join the...