Jotham Knight’s Round Table

Here’s a little clip of the 501st on parade.

Here is the second of our “Who Wants to be a Superhero” set. I got to talk with Matthew Atherton aka Feedback, the season one winner, and what he’s up too. Turns out that Atherton makes appearances at Con as part of his charity work for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Learning Through Listening foundations. Being a Special Education teacher by day, I was very pumped to talk with Matthew about his work.
Thanks for being a hero Feedback!

Here is an extremely kind and funny guy. After the interview cut, I asked Chris what he was working on. He’s trying to pitch a show to Scifi that would entail Major Victory hosting superhero movies. Think Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, but with superheroes. I dig the concept! There’s enough superhero and superheroish stuff films there for Major Victory for be on the air for awhile. Plus, there’s the void left by Mystery Science Theater 3000 that I think Chris could fill. He’s a funny guy whose body of work shows talent. Show him some love at MajorVictory.net or chriswatters.com/.

Here’s the interview.

The video interview I’ve been working on first is with the great David Petersen. You can look at my first Motorciy post for my entire David Petersen/Mouse Guard love where the video is also posted. But, if you’re just here for the video….here it is.

I was not alive when Star Wars: A New Hope it theaters (born in 1978), so I missed the initial shock the nation had when George Lucas and his little epic space western was an overnight success. Instead I grew up in a world were it was common knowledge that Darth Vader was Luke’s father and it was okay if twins smooched on screen (as long as they didn’t know they were brother and sister). It wasn’t until I was an adult (which is still in dispute by some) that I realized what it must have been like to be chomping at the bit for years to get to the end of a story. This generation of kids has no idea what it’s like. Harry Potter is out in books before it hit the theaters and the Lord of the Rings series have been around longer than Star Wars. I’m not sure there will ever be anything like Star Wars again. When the alien archeologists dig us up in thousands of years, they will think the Star Wars was a major religion.

Now I don’t have the over-the-top emotional reaction that some people do over Star Wars, but do have a very nostalgic feeling towards the original trilogy. They are, and always will be, some of my favorites.

Addition: AICN reporter Merrick wrote a great little piece on what Star Wars has ment to people

Addition II:
Sweet Marry, Mother of God is my wife not going to like this one! One of the things I’m very happy Star Wars gave the world is the very HOT! metal slave girl bikini. Where would my adolescent fantasy’s be without Princess Leia? Boring…that’s where! So here is the very cute Olivia Munn, from G4’s Attack of the Show, as she is currently appearing at the Star Wars Celebration in LA. Wow I need my wife to get one of these

This says a lot about where comic properties have gone, commercially, that a video clip of Frank Miller talking about his upcoming film version of The Spirit is prominently displayed on the Hollywood Reporter’s Cannes coverage page. There’s not a whole lot in the interview that die-hards don’t know — Eisner invented comics, great influence, new technology, yadda yadda — but if you feel like seeing a nattily dressed Miller saying all that stuff again, by all means go for it.

And while Miller talkes about how the technology Robert Rodriguez brought to bear on Sin City has enabled him to tackle this project, there’s no word on the actual look of the film. The Sin City-esque promo image might be representative of the final look (which would be a travesty) or it might just be a good way to tie the existing Sin City fanbase to this film.

The most pertinent info actually isn’t in the interview: the name of the actor who will play The Spirit. We know Samuel L Jackson is in Miller’s mind as the villain, but it sounds like Miller doesn’t even know who he wants to play the title hero. “I’m hoping to be very pleasantly surprised…it might be a long search, but you’ll know him as The Spirit and he will be The Spirit.”

Thanks to CHUD for the info

Nigel is another one of those Comic Con mainstays for me. I see him at every year at the two Cons I visit annually, but I’ve never really talked to him. Truth is the first time I saw him was, I think, Wizard World 1999 and they (Nigel and his pirate cohort) were giving me the hard sell. After that, I just kinda kept on walking every time I saw their table because I hate the hard sell. Nigel, if you are reading this, sorry man. This time I stopped at his table and I was blown away by his art. Just looking at his prints of logos from DC heroes makes me want to see the re-birth of the Elseworld titles and get a pirate JLA adventure. It also struck me as some great tattoo ideas! Nigel Sade has a unique style that I have never seen duplicated and would love to see his art hanging in studio somewhere. If I ever with the lottery and can afford to hire an artist to make huge mantelpieces for my Wayne Manor sized fireplace, I’m giving Nigel a call. However, since I’m the kinda guy who doesn’t with the lottery (the universe doesn’t let people who actually need the money win the lottery) I’ll settle for saving up to get a nice print and may-be a tattoo design.

Dear Readers, please take a look at Nigel Sade’s website because not only is it great art, but they guy is pretty damn funny too.

Nigel the Pirate is cool, and I was a schmuck. There, I said it.

Fun t-shirts are a staple of my life. I have to wear business casual to work every damned day of the week. So on the weekends, not only do I want to fly my freak-flag, but I want the right t-shirt to do it in. Fishynuts.com can help me with that. I met these guys at the Motor City con and they were one of the few vendors I saw having a good time. I didn’t get to pick up one of their shirts, some “has-been” porn star mugged me, but I’m looking to the future (i.e next pay check). For anyone into funny/geeky t-shirts, give Fishynuts a look. And tell them you read about it at HeroesTV.com

Here is an artist that I have seen at Cons for a few years and always enjoy her work. Connie Persampieri works with the fantasy/gothic genre, but also is doing freelance work for various sketch card projects. She is a very talented artist who’s work I find to be amazing and original (which can be hard to do in the fantasy genre). According to her website, Connie is available for hire, for either private custom artwork or commercial projects. Looking at her blog calendar, she’s planning of attending Wizard World: Chicago. If she’s willing, I’m going to try and get an interview with her. Until then dear readers, you’ll have to settle for her website

When a person starts to attend Comic Conventions on a regular basis, you learn one truth very early. Lou Ferrigno is notorious for being one of the biggest ass holes at the Con, just ahead of Rob Leifeld, but I’ll save that for another time.

When we arrived at the Con, our press liaison, Valerie, told us that there were many people willing to do interviews for HeroesTV. She assured, in fact, that many of the Con guests were happy to do it. When we asked with whom we could talk, the first person she mentioned was Lou Ferrigno. We knew she was mistaken. Lou doesn’t talk to anyone, well not unless they pay him $20 of an oversized Mr. Universe poster from 1974.

I met a Novi cop last weekend (don’t ask how) and he told his Lou Ferrigno story from the 2006 Motorcity Con. The cop was working the Con detail, making sure, everything was on the up-and-up, and he tried talking to Lou. Keep in mind this the guy was in full uniform so there was no mistaking that he’s a public servant. Lou asked the cop for $20, the cop said, “My wallet’s in the squad”, so Lou brushed him off to talk to the 1970’s ex-porn star at the table next to him. What a dick!

I digress: So Eric, ever the optimist, says he wants to ask Lou for an interview. So, we walk over to Lou’s table, where he is starring off into space wondering why he’s alone in the world, and Eric says, “Hi, I’m Eric with HeroesTV.com“

“Okay“ Lou mumbled

“We were told by Valerie, the press liaison, that you’d be willing to do a quick interview for our fans“ said Eric.

“If you pay $20 for a picture I can sign it, but I’m not going on camera” Lou responded

I jumped in with, “Would you be willing to just answer a few questions that we could post, no camera involved?”

Lou had to make the hamster’s wheel he calls a brain start to turn so he could understand this concept and responded:
“If you buy some of my stuff I can answer a question“

A question? Like one question?!? Not a couple, or a few questions!?!? I felt like asking him how to synthesize a mentholated alkaloid just to watch him have a fracking brain aneurysm!

So we walk away getting exactly what I expected, Lou Ferrigno still being a knob. The kicker is the CW station that was at the Con (the only other press I saw) must have paid their $20 because they got to talk to him. We snapped a picture of this and Lou shot our camera operator a mean look. Well, it was more like look devoid of any higher brain functioning. By the way, we’ve seen Lou try to rip a camera out of a guy’s hands for taking his picture without his permission.

Then (yes, there is more) later that that night at the pub, Lou decided to try and be a nice guy by getting up to the karaoke mic to gather the attention of the room so a guy could propose to his girlfriend. Now I’m happy for the couple, but Lou’s way of getting everyone’s attention was to yell, “EVERYONE SHUT UP! I HAVE A VERY HEART WARMING THING TO SHOW YOU!” and when the billiards table didn’t immediately respond he said, “YOU IN THE CORNNER, SHUT UP AND LISTEN!” That went over well….

Now, I was going to let this go and do the Christian thing, but a source called “The Dude” paid his twenty-bucks or was a part of the CW crew and reported this on Superherohype.com:

“I was at the Motor City Con in Detroit today, and Lou Ferrigno was there. We got to talking, and he revealed something he shouldn’t have. Basically I asked him about if he knew anything about the new HULK film, he did confirm he will be in the movie, but he will play a “big important” part in the film. I looked at him, then he said something about playing a villain, I couldn’t really hear over the loud noise. I asked him again, and he said he didn’t want to get into trouble, whatever that means.”

I call B.S.! Lou has no acting ability at all! That’s why all his rolls were either B-Movies, dubbed over, or walk-on cameos. No one would make him the major villain in anything. If he is in the new Hulk movie, then I hope we see the Abomination eat his steroid infused heart.