Wednesday Warrior or Trade Waiter? What Say Ye?
|
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 announcement even sweeter... The 2025 HeroesCon schedule is finally out, and I'm hosting my first panel! On Saturday at 4:30pm, I'll be teaming up with my good friend Badr of The Short Box: A Comic Book Talk Show for a live podcast taping! We'll be yapping about the best comics of the year so far, and bringing out a few surprise guests (rolodex, don't fail me now)! On The Channel I'm sticking to my word and doing my best to upload more frequent videos on the channel. In case you missed it, check out last week's premiere of The Review Desk -- where I shared my thoughts on Marvel's latest summer debuts, plus more than a little analysis of Priest & Quesada's Marvel Knights: The World to Come. [Spoilers: the debut of T'Charlie caused a stir, but this comic fan ain't worried a bit.] I can't promise The Review Desk will be a weekly series. But I at least want to do one installment per month, aligned with some of the most talked-about comic releases. If haul videos are more your speed, you can check out everything I added to the collection in May here. On The Podcast Thanks to my busy schedule, the Podcast has become video only in the past several weeks. I'm working to get the audio published to the feed for you daily commuters. In the meantime, please check out the latest episode featuring Chris O'Hara of Bentbox Comics. His campaign for Refuge #1 is still ongoing, and we need every supporter we can to make it happen. The Last Word This week, I've been bugged by the age old debate. Should I keep buying series monthly, or drop them and wait for the trades? My budget can only handle so many comics. And my schedule can handle even fewer. But now more than ever, it seems impossible to narrow down the books on the list. Everything I read is good. Some things I read are GREAT. And there are several titles I haven't gotten around to, that others tell me are great. All of Ghost Machine's output for example. Every time I decide to trade wait, it seems to end poorly. I'm still waiting for Dynamite to collect Space Ghost and Jonny Quest. X-Force got canceled after 10 issues. The sob stories go on and on. So I'll leave that last word with you:
Vote wisely, but with confidence! Read Something Dope Today, BJ KICKS |
Comics Are Dope
Celebrating everything Dope about comics. Curated by BJ KICKS.
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...
This weekend was pretty busy. My grandmother turned 88 last week, and I was recruited to throw a bunch of ribs on the smoker for Saturday's party. Since smoking meat is usually an hours long process, I took the time to bring a whole stack of Fantastic Four trades down to my kitchen table. My Fantastic Four crash course The trades span several key eras, and I was supposed to be reading a small sample of each. Instead, I was captured by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo's run and never came up for...
Ever have a task you know for sure needs to be done, but you just can't bring yourself to do it? Yep. Me too. Good old procrastination. Back in the day, I read a book on the subject called Eat That Frog. A musing on prioritization, the book's hypothesis is simple. If the first thing you do each day is eat a frog, the rest of the day should be considerably easier. Obviously, the lesson wasn't taken to heart. This week's frog? Finally editing and publishing audio for the last 7(!) podcast...