Features

When I first started watching Game of Thrones I hadn’t read the books yet and I had no idea that a mentally impaired character who only said one word, “Hodor”, would become such an emotional storyline for this series mostly involving intrigue and war. At Baltimore Comic-Con’s spotlight panel we were able to meet Kristian Nairn, the actor behind Hodor. At the panel he spoke about his love of World of Warcraft, his time on the set with the actor who plays Bran, learning of the world’s reaction to his big episode in season 6, and being involved in the music scene. ...

Christy Blanch, who Comic POW! readers will know as the writer of The Damnation of Charlie Wormwood and the professor behind the MOOC that led to the redesign of this site, was the moderator for all the spotlight panels at Baltimore Comic-Con 2016. If you haven’t seen her moderate a panel at BCC, you’re in for a treat. Ms Blanch has a talent for keeping the conversation going thanks to her research and her ability to key in on the right questions to ask the panelists. ...

As the first day of Baltimore Comic-Con 2016 came to a close, some comic writing luminaries got together to discuss how pulp fiction (the genre, not the 1990s movie) inspired them and set the foundation for the comic book industry in the USA. https://youtu.be/MEqpqtBzyUc Paul Levitz on Pulp Roots of Comics panel Howard Chaykin at Pulp Roots of Comics Panel ...

Valiant realized that their characters aren’t quite as well known as those in the Big Two, so they held a panel to introduce new fans to the series. Afterwords they took questions from the audience, some of which were about how Valiant may or may not be joining the big two in having TV shows and movies based on their characters: https://youtu.be/yn3CfdYrJUI

When you pass by a booth with as varied a selection as the books at Monica Gallagher’s, you have to stop and ask about the books. In this interview we talk about the influence of magical elements, roller derby, and coming to terms with the body one is born into. https://youtu.be/EvFWSaoo84E Check out her website: http:www.eatyourlipstick.com Some of Ms Monica Gallagher's books More of Ms Monica Gallagher's books Boobage by Ms Monica Gallagher Bonnie N Collide by Ms Monica Gallagher ...

On the first day of Baltimore Comic-Con I was able to score two awesome interviews - John Layman and Rob Guillory of Chew. In order to allow them to man their table, I conducted two separate interviews. In this interview we discuss the evolution of Rob Guillory’s art style, the evolution of Mason Savoy, those background Easter Eggs, and how race plays into Mr Guillory’s career in comics. https://youtu.be/UpI6DgmYgFw While I’ve been waiting for the end of Chew to give it the full Comic POW! treatment, Dan and I did cover it a couple times early in Comic POW! history when we used to do the Weekly POW!s: ...

On the first day of Baltimore Comic-Con I was able to score two awesome interviews - John Layman and Rob Guillory of Chew. In order to allow them to man their table, I conducted two separate interviews. In this interview we discuss the significance of Tony Chu’s race, Applebee’s hate for Chu, and John Layman’s favorite way to eat chicken. https://youtu.be/yjO7J3MY4wk While I’ve been waiting for the end of Chew to give it the full Comic POW! treatment, Dan and I did cover it a couple times early in Comic POW! history when we used to do the Weekly POW!s: ...

Baltimore Comic-Con is this weekend! 2-4 September! Let’s get to the last bit of info you might need if you’re still on the fence about coming. American Mythology Productions will be there as a featured publisher. I hadn’t heard of them before, but it seems like they have some pretty neat nostalgia titles that they could potentially do some great stuff with: targate: Atlantis, The Pink Panther, The Three Stooges, Equilibrium, The Land That Time Forgot, Zombie-Proof, and Werewolves vs. Dinosaurs. ...

There’s a quote people like to throw around on the Internet, “Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity.” Some attribute this to Napoleon, but it doesn’t matter if he actually said it, it’s a pretty good maxim to help people out when they’re finding themselves engulfed by the temptation to believe in conspiracies. It’s certainly something that got many a person through the George W Bush presidency. But in Letter 44, author Charles Soule flips the saying on its head. What if all the crap you hated about Bush - all the wars he started seemingly just to get back at the guy who flipped the bird at his dad - what if it was all just a coverup? What if the president was actually just using that as an excuse to pump up defense spending budgets in order to get the technology needed for a top secret space mission to meet the first intelligent life humanity had discovered? It’s certainly a tempting premise - it makes all the destruction and lives lost no longer meaningless.

Hello readers! Unfortunately, it’s been way too long since my last post. But to make up for that, I’m going to put together everything I know about Baltimore Comic-Con 2016 so far into one post. First of all, the most important thing. This year’s Baltimore Comic-Con is 2-4 September. I really love Baltimore Comic-Con because it’s a big enough show to attract some of the great big names of comics (Mark Waid, Scott Snyder, Frank Cho, David Finch, etc), but it’s still small enough that you can always get into the panels you want to see without having to spend forever waiting in line like some of the more famous conventions on the east and west coasts. So if you live within driving distance, make sure you buy your tickets!