Fan Expo Saint Louis was most likely not happening in 2023, by all accounts. Some people said it might return, so it was unclear. However, it has been confirmed the show is 100% done here. I'd say I'm sad, but I don't want to lie. I said last year I had zero desire to return for a future Fan Expo because it wasn't fun. The whole show felt more like a thing where you paid to get in and then waited in line, paid for a celebrity to sign something, and then went on your way. When the show was Wizard World there were at least comics, toys, collectibles, and the like. Fan Expo just lacked much of any spark--and I got to go as press without paying the insane entry fees (parking was still costly though)!
I guess Fan Expo Saint Louis didn't make enough money to feel it was worth coming back. That, or lacked enough vendors willing to pay for tables (I heard the tables were costly). Perhaps it was an issue booking celebrities? I honestly do not know why Fan Expo is gone (presumably for the foreseeable future). I will say I do have fond memories of the show before the rebranding and when it was Wizard World. At least I'll always have Kato Kaelin. He was funny and kind enough to sign a comic he was featured in for me--for free no less. Fan Expo in its current incarnation, however, is dead to me...and I guess Saint Louis too.
For a while, it seemed like projects Joel McHale was associated with were doomed to get canceled. He was at, "The Soup," for a good chunk of time but it ended up killed by E! and he had a good run on, "Community," but that was killed and brought back a couple times! Netflix did, "The Joel McHale," show but it sadly floundered, as did his sitcom, "The Great Indoors," and so forth for most stuff he did. He was briefly on, "Stargirl," then when he started appearing more on that show (upgraded to a series regular) it got canceled. It seemed like McHale couldn't catch a break, but lately, things are going well for him. As a fan of his work, this pleases me.
McHale is a major character on the sitcom, "Animal Control," which got solid enough ratings I'm hoping it will get a second season. He also hosted the hilariously clever, "Crime Scene Kitchen," which will be back for a new season on May 22nd. Plus, he's going to host a newly announced show on E! of all places (they really did him dirty with, "The Soup,") titled, "House of Villains." It will be a bit like, "The Traitors," and features a bunch of reality television, "Villains," getting together in the hopes one can outsmart/out-scheme the others and win a bunch of money. It sounds sufficiently trashy and I liked, "The Traitors," so I'm down for this show.
Joel McHale is a talented and funny guy so I am pleased to be seeing more of him in programs--plus that, "Community," movie is in the works too for Peacock, so that should be fun. Plus, if we more, "Animal Control," that'll help ease the sting of, "Call Me Kat," just getting canceled. That was a bummer.
I loved, "MadTV," when it was on the air. It could be quite hit-or-miss, but when it, "Hit," the results were sheer hilarity. The show was brought back some years ago on another network but apparently was horrible. The original series was a hoot, however, and one of my favorite skits would be a three-parter from a single episode. Throughout the episode, we witness a hilarious parody of, "Antiques Roadshow," that manages to lay out how to do perfect comedy while also cleverly twisting the famous, "Rule of Three."
The Rule of Three or, "Comic Triple," basically means that a grouping or pattern can be quite hilarious. Something is funny the first time and makes you laugh even more the second time. Then the tension and anticipation for the third occurrence results in you guffawing harder than ever. The MadTV take on, "Antiques Roadshow," uses the Rule of Three while also taking advantage of audience expectations to supply an even funnier twist.
The first skit establishes the general idea. A British(?) man named Fenton Kenilworth (portrayed by Will Sasso) tells a woman who brought him a flask some shocking news--basically that an older relative was in fact an opium junkie who engaged in sex work via, "Orally servicing Chinese rail workers." The woman (Mo Collins) is at first aghast, but upon learning how the flask is worth a chunk of change, becomes quite pleased. Observe:
The second skit features good ol' Fenton with another woman (Debra Wilson) who found a strange old dress at her Grandfather's estate. It turns out her Grandfather was a vaudeville drag performer...who also turned to, "Whoring," to support an opium habit. The result was that he--you guessed it turned to, "Orally servicing Chinese rail workers." Wilson dislikes hearing this shocking news about her Grandfather and says she doesn't even want the dress, but as you can probably predict decides to keep it after hearing it has a lot of value. Here is that skit:
This leads us to the third skit where viewers might think they can anticipate what is going to happen. Alex Bornstein has brought a candelabra for Fenton to appraise. However, things go quite differently than before in this skit. Watch it and then we can break it down:
Wasn't that quite the swerve? Bornstein knows full well she had a, "Whoring Granny, we called her, 'Granny BJ.'" Fenton seems outright perturbed he doesn't get to upset her with the news of her grandmother engaging in sex work. He tells her of its great value with little joy, but then the big twist happens--she had it cleaned/replated.
If you or anyone around you knows anything about antiques, you basically don't ever engage in restoration except in rare cases (and with an expert involved). Bornstein's character knew full well her Grandmother was orally servicing rail workers but didn't know she'd utterly destroy the value of her antique. Fenton now gets excited to tell Bornstein about this because the dude clearly is twisted and we viewers just got taken on a wild rollercoaster of anticipating the Rule of Three taking us one way but it zigging right where we expected the zag. It's ingenious and some damn fine comedic work. Yes, it is a bit raunchy and offensive, but it also is very clever. Man, I miss MadTV in its prime.
I missed the last ToyMan show in March due to my wife, son, and little ol' me being sick with sinus concerns. Thankfully, everyone is currently feeling good in our household so I was able to visit the show today. I'm glad I did as the ToyMan show is always fantastic--and this show I got some stellar comics in addition to enjoying browsing all the cool stuff for sale.
A number of folks at the show that I'm friends with saw my post on Friday announcing our upcoming baby, so a number of people congratulated me and wished Samii and me the best. One of the first of many cool folks I ran into was Jack Thomas from Fortress Comics. He had a ton of silver and bronze age comics for sale at wildly good prices in addition to other neat stuff. I also saw my chum Spike of Lost in Space Toys and Collectibles. Tom from Alliance Comics, Toys, & Games had many cool books as well. I was able to cut a deal with John Chaffee from Bigfoot Comics & Collectibles which resulted in these incredibly cool Batman comics coming home with me:
Toys of Our Youth was present with plenty of goodies as were the good people behind Retro Resale. I also got to meet in-person artist Craig Poddig. I'd seen his work at my local comic shop, Altered State, but hadn't yet put a face to the name--as they say. It was lovely to see him in person and tell him how much I like his work. You can find it here at Poddig's Paintings. I had a chance to talk to my friend, Brian Lan, too and he had some movie recommendations for me. Plus, I did some dealings with Vince of VK Toys which allowed me to acquire these two snazzy Marvel comics:
In the upstairs area, my good friend Jessica Mathews chatted with me about an upcoming book she's hard at work on. Another buddy of mine, Lindsay Hornsby, had her great comics and art for sale too and we discussed how crazy-busy the week had been with many events/occasions. I next saw Debbie Manbe Kupfer, whom I met at the last ToyMan show I was able to attend in January. She had her fantastic books for sale and was a treat to speak with as before. As you can tell from this article, the latest ToyMan show was packed to the gills with tons of great stuff--but isn't it always?
Whether you want comics (like me), vintage toys, Funko Pops, Legos, hot wheels, autographs, wrestling-themed items, anime, or any other fun thing, you will likely find a vendor or creator with it at Toyman. I always bring my little cart-on-wheels with me anytime I go to the show because I end up trading for and buying so much fun stuff. I'd encourage you to plan on visiting for the next show. It takes place on July 9th. You can find all the details via the official website and as long as our baby isn't here yet I'll plan on being there too!
The first Saturday of May ever since 2002 (with some disruptions from COVID) has been Free Comic Book Day. Companies make special free comics and many comic-book stores give them out and have all kinds of fun sales and deals too. It is always a fun time and I'd encourage you to go get some free comics and perhaps buy something at a store too if they've got a cool graphic novel/toy/etc. to show your appreciation for this stellar occasion. Have a great time getting free comics, everyone!
We've kept it a relative secret for some time just to be sure everything was okay, but Samii and I now feel comfortable with letting everyone know that we are expecting a new baby boy! Samii will be 27 weeks pregnant tomorrow and so as long as the baby stays in the metaphorical oven as long as it is supposed to, we should be having our new baby in July! Clarkson, of course, came early at 30 weeks, so anything is possible--we're trying to be as prepared as we can be. Longtime readers may recall how I posted about the loss of our second pregnancy in December 2019. After a lot of soul-searching and talking we decided we wanted to try to grow our family again so now here Samii and I are eagerly awaiting the birth of our third child overall and second child who will be able to be Earthbound with us.
A name has not been decided on but we've maybe gotten it down to five or so possible options. My parents, other relatives, and a small chunk of friends were aware of this pregnancy but it is probably one of the biggest secrets we've kept for so long for the general public--we're excited to let everyone know now, however! I love being a Dad to our son, Clarkson, and know having a new addition to our family will be equally exhilarating and exhausting. I thank everyone who reads this blog for sending us good vibes and will let you all know when our next bundle of joy is here!
Today is May 4th or, "May the fourth be with you," as some say because it's an unofficial-ish Star Wars Day! I add that, "ish," because it started out more as a jokey pun on, "May the force be with you." Now, big corporations have gotten involved in celebrating/profiting from the holiday because if there is a dollar to be made somebody's gonna try and make it. Speaking of holidays that have grown into a big corporate money-maker, Cinco De Mayo is tomorrow too! It is a day in honor of when Mexico won a big battle against France in the 1800s and by all accounts I've read online, is actually a bigger holiday in America than Mexico because--hey, an excuse to binge drink! Even if both days are used more as an excuse to buy stuff or drink they still are fun little holidays. Watch a Star Wars flick/show today and celebrate Cinco De Mayo safely tomorrow, I say. Oh, and as a post in the near future will discuss, something big occurs on May 6th too--especially if you like free comics--but more on that later on.
Sometimes when you buy something from the Dollar Tree you expect it to be of decent quality but not fantastic. You may get a broom that will get the job done but is by no means top-of-the-line when it comes to sweeping. You'll purchase some Ritz crackers but there is less in the container than if you bought a more expensive pack at the grocery store. With this in mind, I didn't expect two magazine-sized comic and activity books from Dollar Tree to be so fun!
As the picture at the top shows, there is an, "Avengers," one and a, "Spider-Man," one. The Avengers story is actually written by a longtime Marvel employee who has held multiple positions, Ralph Macchio (not to be confused with the actor of the same name). It focuses on Ebony Maw causing all kinds of trouble--the Guardians of the Galaxy help stop him too--while the Spider-man magazine focuses on Spidey fighting The Vulture. Each issue has activity pages with word searches, true-or-false questions about various heroes, sections to color for fun, and more! The only odd thing was how there is a random page dedicated to facts about Venom in the, "Avengers," magazine, I think it would be better to have him in the Spidey one. That said, for $1.25 and tax that these cost I was impressed as a grown-up comic reader and would say these comic/activity magazines are a superb way to get younger folks into comics or entertain someone like me who needs a good 20 minutes to accomplish even the easiest word searches. I seriously am bad at those.
The Writer's Guild of America is on strike as of today. Gizmodo's Linda Codega has an article that gives an in-depth breakdown of how that might impact what you watch for entertainment, but to summarize: If you like a scripted show it's eventually gonna be in trouble. This immediately impacts nightly talk shows with monologues (Colbert, Meyers, Kimmel, Fallon--which is also the order of which I enjoy watching them the most to least) and means we don't get a new Saturday Night Live for the rest of this season. That's a bummer as Pete Davidson was set to host. Then, other scripted shows that don't have everything written will be delayed/canceled. Before you know it, movies won't be made either and tons of stuff in pre-production will wither away.
The last strike occurred in 2007-2008 for 100 days and it was a royal mess. This strike is focused on how writers of television shows and movies want better pay, better residual in the streaming era we are now in, and protections against AI being used to quickly craft a junky script they could theoretically get paid peanuts to patch up. 98% of the WGA voted in favor of a strike when a deal could not be reached with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, so everyone is fed-up and ready to either be treated better or quit working until they get proper recognition/pay/etc.
As I said, this impacts a small number of shows immediately but will delay work on a lot of stuff in the long term. The longer this goes on the more unscripted television you can expect. In other words, I hope you like junky reality television because there is going to be even more of it if the strike takes a while. I do like trashy reality shows, but I also enjoy scripted programming and I want the people who make it to receive fair compensation. Therefore, I'm not happy there is a strike, but I totally understand why there is one and support the WGA. I still really would have liked to see Pete Davidson on SNL this Saturday, to be completely honest, but again, I offer my full support.
Is David Guetta okay? Like, is he struggling to think of original song ideas? I ask because he seems eager to find past hits and make minimal tweaks to them as if that makes a new song. A bit ago did it with his awful remake of 1998's, "Blue," featuring BeBe Rexha. That song mutilated the original by changing the lyrics about sadness to, "I'm Good," and singing about having a fun time in a dance club. Now, he's not even changed the chorus with, "Baby Don't Hurt Me." That song takes the 1993 classic, "What is Love," by Haddaway, so Guetta clearly is enjoying excavating the 1990s as of late.
"Baby Don't Hurt Me," vaguely tweaks the beat, keeps the same chorus (Anne-Marie sings it) and has Coi Leray do some mediocre rapping as the verses. Coi Leray recently sampled, "The Message," by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to create the atrociously unlistenable, "Players," but I'm starting to digress from my point of Guetta seeming to be out of original song ideas--and I don't hate sampling/remixes/etc. by any means!
I like it when a piece evokes an older tune. I've written all about, "Weaponized nostalgia," and how it can be used to take something from the past and create a cool new interpretation of a song. Guetta isn't really making anything new, however. He's just recycling old songs with the slightest tweaks and whatever flash-in-pan artists are hot right now joining him. I'm not sure why this annoys me so much. Perhaps it is how Guetta is doing the bare minimum with these songs when it comes to creating anything. He isn't sampling a tune or calling it a remix, he's just wholesale taking older stuff and acting like dusting it off and slapping a coat of metaphorical paint on it makes it new. At least, I assume, Haddaway got paid decently for this travesty.
