The breaking of the 80th seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse unleashes more pops and shocks than a Popple party in an electric chair. Listen in pop and awe as I take you to Shock Pop Comic Con, a brand new pop/horror/comic convention in Fort Lauderdale held Friday the 13th/Valentine's Day weekend 2015. Thrill to the adventures of the Nostrodomatron as I squander fantastic opportunities for in depth interviews with rarely appearing legends in the history of robot based science fiction. Because mostly what happens is I take advantage of fantastic opportunities to waste my time playing free Star Wars pinball all day. How did Gerry Conway feel about writing for licensed toy properties? What is your New York grandma's favorite robot show? How did Mark Ryan sneak the word 'bollocks' into the Transformers movies? What does 'bollocks' even mean? All that and more in this I'LL NEVER WASH MY BUMBLEBEE'S BOLLOCKS AGAIN edition of the podcastalypse!
Or download it directly
See the rest of my Shock Pop pictures at Flickr Macrocrania.
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This recording was originally eight solid minutes of me playing Star Wars pinball followed by 30 minutes of me complaining about the prices of Transformers I already have and then one and a half minutes of me talking to Richard Epcar. Then with the con mostly over I realized there was more to life than Jawa pinball and toy complaining, so I started walking around the con floor and going to panels and asking interesting people terrible questions. I decided to keep a little under five minutes of the Star Wars pinball, but I promise it's spread out over the course of the show so it's not as painful as it sounds and you will hopefully experience less discomfort than Richard Epcar did as I talked to him. Hopefully.
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José Delbo and Will Simpson both found themselves drawing Transformers comics for Marvel in the latter half of the 1980s, but on different sides of the planet. I knew a great picture opportunity when I saw one and I captured this, the first time they had ever been in the same room together. Except that they recognized each other because they were both at the Belfast Film and Comic Con late last year. But at least this picture with me is the only picture of them together (well except for the other picture I took with just them together). Well I'm sure it's special and historic anyways. Speaking of which, Gerry Conway is ridiculously better looking than me.
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Richard Epcar is my secret wonder twin and we activated our powers to record the most captivating one and a half minutes ever recorded of me telling him how much I loved Robots in Disguise. Miraculously he got a word in edgewise and was able to talk a little about how he liked working on Transformers as a writer and voice actor. But mostly the whole thing was an excuse to trick him into signing my bootleg RiD DVD set made by my old friend John Spangler. It turned out no tricking was required and he told me he wished he had one! But even if he had a set he still couldn't watch it because there's no time off from being the world's busiest voice acting wonder twin of the roboplastic apocalypse.
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Harmony Gold VP of Marketing Kevin McKeever was holding Robotech panels all weekend long telling about the future of Robotech licensing and giving progress reports on the upcoming movie. He has an 'ask me anything' policy so I fired away with questions about how he got hired and what it's like being a roboplastic historian working for Harmony Gold. I even asked about that whole Transformers SDCC exclusive Jetfire kerfluffle from a few years back. Now I know people see Harmony Gold as the bitter enemy of mankind and evil Martian oppressors and suppressor of all things Macross but I have never believed that. And I am not just saying that because Kevin gave me a sweet cartoon boobie girl calendar for free. (Okay maybe I am.)
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Well I know his name is Simon and he likes to do drawrings! The legendary Simon Bisley signed my old copies of 2000AD and drew Captain America, Judge Dredd, Lobo, and big crowds as he sketched for people all weekend long. I asked for an interview but he couldn't say much about the upcoming Joe Pineapples story in 2000AD he's doing with Pat Mills. We came to the mutual conclusion that it would be in everyone's best interest not to record so as to not compromise the artistic integrity of the project. Actually the truth is he flat out told me no and I cried inside like a little baby. So I am left with only great pictures, fantastic memories of our brief encounter, and some nice scribblings on my tear stained books. Don't worry I'll be okay. No I won't.
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During the Transformer panel Mark Ryan played with my Human Alliance Bumblebee, which is really awesome considering the roles he has had in the Michael Bay Transformers movies. I am not sure if he touched it in the bollocks or if my Bumblebee's bollocks were correctly transformed. Over the course of an hour Mr. Ryan and Will Simpson told movie industry stories (which I did not record) and a couple of Transformer ones (which I did). I was the only person in the audience for most of the panel so it was hard to stealthily sneak pictures and record audio from three feet away. But of course I did it anyway because even if I am the only person in the audience, I bring all my fellow Macrocranians with me wherever I go in the digital voice recorder I carry. So in a way there were maybe six people in the audience, five of which were in my pants snuggling my bollocks.
- Hello from the ShockPopocalypse
- Toy Fair 2015 was this weekend
- Can't get enough pics of Will Simpson
- John Spangler's Botcon prize winning DeLorean Transformer
- There's an avalanche of Robotech stuff coming
- News about the Robotech movie
- Can't get enough of that Star Wars Pinball
- Hello! My name is Simon!
- Bisley's ABC Warriors
- Mark Ryan, mad machine man
- Don't Rocket Punch your friends!
2 comments:
Will be sad that you don't do as many convention tours. Because you know so much about these old toys, comics, and cartoons, you're actually very good at interviewing them! The Mark Ryan Q&A was terrific!!!!
It's really a matter of location. When I leave Florida I won't be around so many conventions and my easy access to the comic book old timers will be cut off. It would probably be tough to do the Paunch Stevenson show outside of NY/NJ, you know?
Plus I've already pretty much met everyone I've ever wanted to meet so I'm ready to let go. I find it very hard to stay motivated to do convention recordings now after meeting Herb Trimpe and Don Perlin and Budiansky and Delbo. I could retire from going to cons at this point and be completely happy with what I've seen and done.
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