Show Notes 5/18/2011

In this special interview episode, Daniel and I talk about the Do Kickstarter, which had met it’s goal within 24 hours, and at it’s current state has reached nearly 6 times its original funding goal – providing game books to a great deal of the masses.

We also talk about plenty more ideas, the future of the possibly trilogy-to-be that consists of Happy Birthday Robot, Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple, and perhaps “Pop & Locke” a heist game?

And plenty more that I’d list specifically, except that I really want to push this episode out already. Go listen.

Download MP3

Show Notes – 11/20/2010

Business
- Breaking up the Daniel Solis Episodes
- Leave me a message! 646-8200- DFL
- Appearance on the Jennisodes, Ep. 12
- New segment for Warpig Radio, coming soon!

Games
- Different games for different coasts, the prevalence of Pathfinder and FATE games.
- Game Chef and Apocalypse World

Travel
- Las Vegas, NV – NeonCon
- Boston, MA – Hanging out with Steve from Postcards from the Dungeon
- State College, PA – Work + Comic Swap visit
- Ellicott City, MD – Judge’s Bench

Creativity
- Prioritizing your own needs

Download MP3

WARNING: This review may contain spoilers, despite my best intents. The short version is that I liked it.

Kick-Ass is the story of a kid so bored with his life that he decides to become a superhero. In a way, this makes it a neat meta-superhero comic since it’s all very down to earth and real. The characters remain mentally twisted in a very classic comicbook way, which helps the reader maintain a higher degree of immersion.

I think the thing that I found most interesting about this comic is that it really starts to make use of modern technology and social networking as a crucial plot mechanic. This is not the comic that I know and love; it has most definitely evolved into something new. Is this the beginning of a Silicon Age of comics?

Thinking back, I can remember tidbits of evidence of comics writers starting to slip very modern references into their stories. Fantastic Four’s consistent use of their fame, as a subplot for exposition about Reed’s constant guilt over their change; and Darwyn Cooke’s The Spirit stories slip in cellphones here and there; Dr. Horrible has a blog, which Captain Hammer and the police use to track his schemes!. And I have no doubt that there are more references to Google, Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter throughout the wide variety of stories out there.

The brutality of the story also seems to mirror a certain theme of reality in today’s internet vs. the old world battle. Kick-Ass is a scrappy internet-age kid who somehow has time to read through what must be thousands of comments on his MySpace page from his plethora of fans. For some time you might even consider calling him Ass-Kicked since he seems to get beaten up every other scene. But he just can’t stop being a hero, even in the face of near-certain sterilization. Meanwhile, in his semi-secret identity, he pretends homosexuality to get close to the cute-girl who he’ll never get. In many ways, the story reminds me of reality TV more than comics. If you grew up in an age of card catalogs and fax machines, you’re likely to feel dated reading this story.

Kick-Ass represents to me a weird new age in mainstream comics. While I doubt that it is as drastic as some earlier paradigm shifts, the themes addressed here will slow-burn into other titles and we’ll see more contemporarily relevant references to and uses of technology. Despite the use of themes that make me feel outdated and old, I really enjoyed this collection. It maintains enough of the classic tropes to keep me fully involved while breaking new ground.

Thumbs up.