Needless Things Podcast 217 – Blue Hawaii Needless Commentary

Part of an ongoing series – the Needless Things Irregulars gather in the Phantom Zone to provide their own unique commentary on classic genre films!

Jerry’s Shameless Self-Promotion Post

By Jerry Chandler

In between grumblings and observations on fandom and genre, I do a lot of promoting of other people’s works and passion projects. One thing I’ve really not done is promote anything I’ve been working on other than in the little bio bit at the bottom of the columns, and, let’s be honest, most people that read articles on websites tend to stop reading when they hit the first few words of those things.

However, if I learned nothing else during my years of being a professional wrestling fan and seeing Mick Foley on the television, I’ve learned that cheap pops work. Unfortunately, cheap pops of the Foley variety don’t really work all that well on a website like this. However, I also learned from the Foley years of WWE television that shameless self-promotion isn’t always a bad thing.  As such, this week I’m doing some shameless self-promotion. Think of it as my birthday gift to myself. Granted, my birthday is still five months away. However, I keep being told that procrastination is bad, so I’m getting it out of the way now.

The Joy of Joe

By Dave

As most of you probably know I adore GI Joe: A Real American Hero and often cite it as my favorite toy line of all time. At the very least it is the toy line that dominated my childhood and much of my adult collecting years.

Needless Things Podcast 216 – MomoCon 2018 with Mike Gordon

Our old pal Mike Gordon returns to the show to join Dave for a recap of MomoCon!

ConCarolinas 2018 is in the Books

By Jerry Chandler

ConCarolinas is multi-genre, multi-media convention that has at this point been plugging away in North Carolina for the better part of the last two decades. I’ve been an on and off attendee since 2014, so I’ve seen some of the growth of the convention in recent years as well as seen a couple of nice locations for the event. Although, I have to admit, of the four ConCarolinas I’ve been to, this one was a little different in more ways than one. One reason was something everyone may have noticed. The other thing was a tad more personal.

Comic Book Wednesday – Previews June 2018: “Enter Sandman”

By Dave

If you don’t know, Previews is the catalog that Diamond Comic Distributors use to offer the products they distribute to comic book stores around the country. This is where you can view and order (through your favorite Local Comic Book Shop) comic books, trade paperback collections, t-shirts, books, media, and toys and other collectibles from hundreds of different vendors that deal in geek-oriented merchandise. The genius part is that you actually have to pay for your copy of Previews for the privilege of ordering other things to pay for.

It’s like the Ren Fest except without the horse poo smell.

So every month a new edition of Previews is sent out to comic book stores. Contained in the pages within are products that might be currently available or could be released anytime in the next year; but are typically about two months away. Most of this month’s offerings are scheduled to ship in August.

Now it’s time to discuss a few of the weird and/or wonderful items offered in this month’s edition!

The MCU Ranked

by Beth

There was some jibber-jabber last month on the Needless Things Podcast Facebook page about people ranking the MCU. At the time that it was happening I was just too lazy to do my own ranking becuase I felt like I needed to explain my choices. That's just too damn much for a Facebook feed. With the announcement of the Disney/Fox deal I was thinking about the MCU much harder today than before. How will the X-Men work their way into a universe that they've been excluded from for so long? Will we finally get a good Fantastic Four movie? How many Marvel movies are going to be flung at us every year to ensure that Disney recoups it's 52 billion dollar investment? I'm guessing it'll be a lot.

MomoCon 2018 – The Love Movement

By Dave

For the first time ever I really do believe that these kids are going to make this world a better place.

Yes, seriously – that’s my takeaway from my weekend at MomoCon.

Needless Things Podcast 215 – Solo: A Star Wars Story

Screenwriter Chad J. Shonk and Needless Things’ Head of Research Ryan Schweck join Dave to discuss the newest Star Wars film!

Memo to Marvel and Netflix: Bring on the Horror Universe

By Jerry Chandler

When you mention Marvel Comics around just about anyone these days, the first thing they’ll start talking about with you is superheroes. Certainly they’ll talk about superhero movies, because Marvel has largely owned the big screen for some years now when it comes to that market. You may even get some people launching into excited conversations about superheroes on the small screen; especially if those discussions revolve around Netflix’s offerings.

Occasionally, you even get people that mention a character like Blade. Annoyingly, and more than just occasionally, there are people that will respond with surprise when the film Blade is brought up in a discussion about Marvel movies. This is because a lot of the general public doesn’t seem to realize that Blade, vampires in general, and a whole lot more creations that fall under the monstrous and supernatural have been well established parts of the Marvel Universe for decades now. It’s well past time that something happens to rectify this.