Almond Joy Has Podcasts, Mounds Don’t

So tomorrow night we’re recording the tenth Big Monkey Podcast (even it if is really the ninth because of the Podcast that shall not be named). It is very exciting and we have some solid topics picked out. Of course, there is one thing I need from you guys and gals. That’s right, Lightning Round questions and dramatic readings.

Go ahead and send them to Thosewednesdays@gmail.com. Thanks and keep listening.

Shana Tova

Clix Ahoy (It's like Chips Ahoy but not)

So in yesterday’s DC Retailer summit there were some cool announcements made: The Titans East, a hardcover for The Killing Joke, and so on. However, none were cooler than this:

Prior to the DC presentation, WizKids announced that HeroClix Crisis, a Crisis on Infinite Earths booster set will be released for the game in February of 2008, with the next large-scale HeroClix slated to be the Anti-Monitor, which will be as large as the HeroClix Sentinel.

WizKids will also launch a HeroClix line based on NBC’s Heroes in 2008.

A Crisis set – get out of here. I can already see the set list: a new Blue Beetle, a new Ronnie Raymond, maybe a good guy Killer Frost, a true Earth-2 Superman, Earth-2 Robin and Huntress. It’s going to be sweet. I’ll finally be able to have a game where I KO Pariah with a Con Artist. Hooray.

Now the Heroes is going to be sweet. I’ll be able to do my very own “Save the Cheerleader, save the world!” scenario. It also creates a brilliant precedent. I mean to have clix based on television shows. You know what that means, right? I want a double-based, transpoter General Lee with a special Incapacitate power based on everyone getting drunk on moonshine. Oh and Leap/Climb. I mean look at this.

This raises a good question though. What television property would you turn into a clix set? What clix would be in that set? What special powers would they have?

Thoughts on the Con: Panels

So Baltimore is over and I would say it was pretty successful. I got comics signed, picked up a couple small press books, some Starman issues I was missing, and was gifted with a sweet Buffy sketch by Georges Jeanty. Even though my goal of the con, a Scud: The Disposable Assassin #1 First Printing, eluded me, I walked yesterday afternoon pretty happy. However, finding back issues and getting signatures are not really why I go to cons. I go for the solidarity with other fans, the shared experience of a group of people appreciating a single hobby. It is the same reason people go to sports events rather than just watching them on television.

There is no better example of this than the panels.

At this point I think I have hit my fifth or sixth DC panel of this con season not mentioning the ones I went to last year. I have had some revelations about why I go to so many. It is not about getting inside information or secrets because the tidbits that are revealed are cleverly and purposely placed. It is not about having the few reveals that are discussed first because before you can call your buddy the information has hit the Internet. I go to witness the staged show that are the panels.

It is like seeing your favorite band in concert and knowing what songs they’re going to play. In DC, you have the golden oldies called “Spoiler’s Case in the Batcave” and “Where is Barry Allen.” There is Bob Wayne’s “Swing by the DC booth and I’ll cut down your comic list.” There is a certain level of comfort in knowing that these moments will come up, in laughing when they do. Sure, the stage banter changes year to year: the Alpaca talk, herpes as a gag, Cully Hamner singing (sorry I didn’t know the words or I would have sung along), but ultimately they are pretty much the same. It is Didio and company leading us on with hints, teases and jokes.

You know what, though? I will continue going because they are what cons are all about.