Monday, January 20, 2014

State of the Wall: 1-20-14

As always, here's the state of things for the show and various other projects going on!

Check everything out under the cut!



Schedule of Upcoming Episodes
2/3 – US-1 #3
2/10 – Youngblood #6
2/17 – Star Trek: Generations
2/24 – Gameboy #3
3/3 – The A-Team #1
3/10 – The Wild #1
3/17 – Kamandi at Earth’s End #5
3/24 – Nova Girls: Kissing Canvas
3/31 – Avengers #200

As always, the schedule is subject to change depending on outside factors or if a comic just doesn't have that much to work with. However, this set has me FINALLY looking at Avengers #200, a widely-requested comic, so hooray for that, at least.

HelioCon
For those in Texas who'd like to see me, come to the one-day speculative fiction convention HelioCon in Lewisville, Texas on Sunday, January 26th! More details HERE!


Storyline
Since people have been asking, the new storyline (titled "The Machinations of Worms") will begin sometime in April. I wanted a few months to work on these other projects and get them done, plus what the last storyline taught me was just how useful it was to have all the scripts for said storyline in the can ahead of time instead of just having a pretty good idea of where the storyline was going. Since this storyline is also horror-themed, it will end in October.


MAGFest Live Show
The MAGFest Live Show will be put up (hopefully) later this week. I'm going to be focusing my efforts on getting an episode and another live show script ready for HelioCon. Since HelioCon is a new convention and I don't know how much of a fanbase I have in that area who will be attending, this will be another case of "that live show will go up depending on how many people are there." Live shows are always more fun if there's more of an audience, so while I'll most likely film it, I may not put that one up and just reuse the script for the next convention.


Atop the Fourth Wall Episode Guide Book
As I'm always seeking new ways of merchandising the show and offering products and things that people would actually be interested in having, I can announce another project which is in the works: the Atop the Fourth Wall Episode Guide Book! Still haven't figured out a name for it, so I'm open to suggestions. Basically, I asked on tumblr if people would be interested in such a work and people definitely liked the idea. As such, it's currently in the works, with me rewatching the old episodes, figuring out my favorite joke, writing about the storyline events that happen, and putting in my ruminations and thoughts about everything.

The book will be structured very similarly to Mystery Science Theater 3000's "Amazing Colossal Episode Guide," though obviously some differences since the show formats are different. Still, I'll try to include stuff like crossovers, commentary from other producers involved with the material in question, and other neat little factoids or the like. Now obviously for copyright reasons, I can't include artwork from the comics in the book (with exceptions for stuff like Neutro, which is public domain), but we'll be getting around that with title cards from Al, including new ones for older episodes from before he worked on the show. Another thing to note is that the book will probably be only the first volume, with hopefully more in the future. We're approaching 300 episodes right now, which means even if I kept it to 1 episode per page (which isn't all that likely to happen considering my tendency to ramble), the book would be far too big as a single volume. As such, the first volume will probably cover the first 100 episodes or so depending on length and if there's more interest in it, I'll make more volumes covering the rest of the series.


DVD Volume 1 on Amazon
Kunaki, the service responsible for publishing the DVDs, has now set up a service where the DVD can be sold on Amazon! If you're someone who has had difficulties with Kunaki's system for one reason or another, you can purchase the DVD from THIS AMAZON LINK!

People have also asked if I get more money through Kunaki or through Amazon. The answer is I get more from Kunaki - they take out $1 and the cost of shipping, leaving me with around $19 per DVD whereas Amazon takes out a few bucks for themselves, meaning I get $15 from them. That being said, it's more important to me that people are able to purchase the DVD at all, so I prefer you use whatever works best FOR YOU.


DVD volume 2
For those asking, there will indeed be a second volume of the DVD! The current hope is to have it done by March/April so it'll be around for the summer Con season. The tentative title for it (like how volume 1 was Secret Origins) will be "Editorial Mandate." The tentative contents shall be:
-2 Brand new Reviews!
-2 Brand new riffs!
-3 Brand new Longbox of the Damned episodes!

Since storyline stuff tends to be the thing that takes the longest to shoot and complete for these, there won't be a storyline for the two episodes. If there's a high enough demand for one in the future, it'll probably be incorporated again, but for the moment we'll see how things go with just reviews, riffs, and really poor makeup application for Moarte. The volume 2 DVD will also be available on Amazon when it's ready.


History of Power Rangers
Sooo yeah obviously that didn't end up happening at the end of last year like I hoped. No change here except I've finally seen the first two episodes of Overdrive, so progress IS being made, if slowly.


Revolution of the Mask
Yes, this series IS continuing. As I said in a previous State of the Wall, it's more just a matter of finding the time to get them set up at a new publisher. Issues 3 and 4 are complete and we'll see if I'll publish them simultaneously or separate in order to space them out a bit. As always, time is my enemy. However, things should be less hectic after HelioCon, meaning I'll have time to work on this and all the other projects.



That's all for now! Feel free to ask any questions and check out the new episode when it premieres later this morning!


45 comments:

Anonymous said...

More Star Trek and the infamous Avengers comic? AWESOME! Can't wait!

kkhohoho said...

Ah yes; Avenger #200. I've actually read this issue, along with nearly every issue of Avengers ever made up until 2012 or so. I honestly never thought this one would get covered here, since you never seem to do 'older' comics much, (it seems like you usually just do stuff from the 90's and 2000's, and only rarely covering the wealth of material that came before,) but nonetheless, I'm delightfully surprised. Usually, I love the Avengers, but this was arguably the first black mark on their history, and it would not be the last. Mind you, most 'bad Avengers moments' depend on actually being a fan of the Avengers to begin with... but luckily, I'm pretty darn sure #200 is a moment EVERYONE can hate. :)

Volvagia said...

Subject by Subject:

02/03: US-1 #3 (Ah. Finally. Hopefully it won't be as long for the next one.)
02/10: Youngblood #6 (Youngblood.)
02/17: Star Trek: Generations (7 Down, 1 to go, as far as comic adaptations are concerned)
02/24: Gameboy #3 (Ah, these are always fun.)
03/03: The A-Team #1 (This'll have plenty of foddder.)
03/10: The Wild #1 (Either this is an adaptation of that Disney movie or it's something forgettable and Liefeld-esque)
03/17: Kamandi: At Earth's End #5 (So freaking close now. I'm guessing this will be done this year.)
03/24: Nova Girls: Kissing Canvas (I looked this up. The concept seems to be (based on the cover blurb) that they're...anti-corporate female superheroes? That sounds...insane.)
03/31: Avengers #200 (This thing is infamous, and rightly so. Even by the standards of how superhero comics handle female heroes, this thing is held up as one of the ultimate examples of "how not to do it.")

Unknown said...

Yes more MR.T is on the way..
Also US-1..

Unknown said...

Yes more MR.T is on the way..
Also US-1..

But I am dreading Kamandi though...

PRATN said...

I never heard of Avengers #200, but after watching The Escapist's two-part vid briefly talking about it...that is just sick and downright loathsome.

Besides that one, really looking forward to more US-1, Trek and Gameboy.

As for the Episode Guide Book, very interesting idea. Here's some suggestions off the top of my head:

"Secret Files of the Fourth Wall"
"The Comicron Archive Vol 1"
"Saga of the Fourth Wall Episode I: Of Magic and Robots"
"Below the Fourth Wall"
"AT4W: The Comic Imperative #1", "Linkara's Database: Atop the Fourth Wall Vol 1"
"Atop the Fourth Wall Vol 1: I AM A MAN!"

SlightlyCoolZagreus said...

Would you consider putting Revolution of The Mask on Comixology using their Creator Owned Comics function?

FugueforFrog said...

More US-1: good. Avengers 200...whoo boy, probably one of the most infamous mainstream books ever. But then again, it is aligned for March 31st so...maybe this is just a trick and it is going to be something much more interesting with it going up on Tuesday, the 1st of April...

Anonymous said...

I don't think I will be purchasing the new dvd. I don't see any purpose buying it if there is no storyline stuff.

Unknown said...

So you're reviewing the infamous 200th issue of Avengers huh? And on my birthday even, well that's gonna be interesting. I don't usually like having my gifts spoiled, but this will be great to look forward to.

Anonymous said...

Avengers #200 ?

oh boy, this is going to be a treat!
Probably one of Marvel's BIGGEST Dethroning Moment of Suck, which actually manages to be worse than One More Day

But you didn't answer the most important question!
Will we get more of Fat Grandma?

Anonymous said...

I apologize for the prolix posting but:
Have you ever considered tackling the New 52 Wonder Woman book?
It's just astounding how colossally it has managed to miss the point of the character:
Concept-wise we had the most quintessentially female character in popular culture, who used to be the avatar for the gathered essences of all female Olympians(plus Hermes) and who derived not just her powers, but her personality, physique, abilities and values from the gifts bestowed by the Goddesses and now anything and everything special about her comes from one guy's magical spunk... That's right, we went from a slice of the very the souls of multiple Goddesses in an unique event to deadbeat dad's magical sperm. Also, we've traded one of the most original conceptions in fiction, a mystical equivalent to "genetically engineered", for the tritest, most overused idea since actual mythological times(the half-offspring of God/alien/demon/whatever).
We went from a character who walked the line between warrior and diplomat, a complex and interesting conflict, the "ambassador of peace" who's ideological opposite was Ares reborn as the God of conflict, to a generic bruiser who carries a sword and punches stuff a lot, because everything can be solved with punching.
You'll get no argument from me if you say the old WW book has always had problems and almost never, if ever, lived up to it's potential, but the issue was always in execution, never premise. Moreover, the current book is atrociously written, with all plots and ideas lifted straight from stuff like "Hercules: The legendary journeys". WW is written essentially as an annoying guy with tits and she's dumb as door knob.
It gets to the point where one must ask: Why would this person be called "wonder" in the first place? Think about it, both in and out of universe. One central thing about WW was that even with the goofier interpretations, there was always a sense of grandeur about her; The sobriquet "wonder" was not just because of her powers, otherwise she'd have simply been "super".
Now, i don't write this from an ideological perspective, rather i do it as someone who loves comics, literature and stories in general and who is irritated and saddened at the transformation of one of the most potentially original, complex and interesting characters into something that defines the term "lowest common denominator". It's as if we took a generic action hero and called him Batman...
There was no need to fundamentally change the character to get this book, in fact, name and costume aside, it's pretty much a completely different character, so there was no need to make this book WW in the first place.
Well, i apreciate at least if you managed to get through this wall of text.

PSap29 said...

Alright, after continually reading these posts, the "I'm busy" excuse for not working on HOPR needs to be called out as bullshit. You say you don't have time to work on it, yet you have time to do things like stream games, watch bad horror movies, and build your cybermat army. I know Operation Overdrive is going to be painful to watch, but you knew going into HOPR that you'd have to watch it at some point. Just do it already, and get it overwith instead of putting it off.

John Pannozzi said...

Coincidentally enough, did you know that Top Cow actually co-produced the A-Team movie?

lee said...

Suede said that pokemon 4ever will be out at the end of this month. At least he hopes. You should have said that.

doug.glassman said...

For the book title, I'd suggest "The Official Handbook of the Fourth Wall Universe" (or something like that).

One thing about "Avengers #200": I do hope that Avengers Annual #10 gets mentioned. That's when the Avengers visit the X-Mansion after Carol returns from space and she rips them a new one for how horrible they acted towards her.

Anonymous said...

Suggestion for the book title?

"Behind the Fourth Wall."

Or maybe "Guns, Hats, and Cybermats." :D

PopCultureOtaku said...

2/3 – US-1 #3: Been more then 2 years. Finally!
2/10 – Youngblood #6. It's youngblood. Rob crap before he let better creators handle his characters.
2/17 – Star Trek: Generations. Didn't hate it when first saw movie but that changed somewhat over the years. I don't remember the comic.
2/24 – Gameboy #3: I wonder how weirder this gets.
3/3 – The A-Team #1. More Mr. T in some way? YES!
3/17 – Kamandi at Earth’s End #5. This books is really bad. Like Marvelle the soon done the better.
3/31 – Avengers #200. I don't what issue this one is but considering some reaction I have feeling what it is.

DVD Volume 2? Where do I sign up! Seriously I bought Volume 1 as soon as I can and will do the same with 2.

loomCAT said...

Oh God, the next two months look to be friggin' amazing. I don't think I'm familiar with the Avengers #200 thing, but it's apparently a Big Deal, which gets me excited. =D

Curious about exactly what this new villain is in the storyline. Hoping it's something as awesome as the Entity, like some kinda epic reference like the Entity was. I dunno, maybe that's silly of me, but I've got my fingers crossed.

More merchandise? Yes, please! I loved the first volume DVD, so I'm glad there's another one coming. A guide sounds neat, too.

Anyone want to take bets on when the next History of Power Rangers will come out? No? Oh, well, figured I'd ask.

RICHB said...

Nice to see, as for the DVD to be honest the stroyline stuff in the first one wasn't that strong. It was ok and it was great to see Liz but it didn't really ad much. Will there be a bonus feature? As for the guide book considering how much I watch your old stuff (yes, I admit it) I am sure I would eat that up. Looking forward to watching you new episode next.

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"Alright, after continually reading these posts, the "I'm busy" excuse for not working on HOPR needs to be called out as bullshit. You say you don't have time to work on it, yet you have time to do things like stream games, watch bad horror movies, and build your cybermat army. I know Operation Overdrive is going to be painful to watch, but you knew going into HOPR that you'd have to watch it at some point. Just do it already, and get it overwith instead of putting it off."

I was wondering when someone was going to try to pull that.

First of all, no: I stream games because I need stress relief because I am not a video-making machine. And even then, I stream all of ONE game - X-Com, because I also want to be entertaining an audience while I do so and not just play strictly for my own amusement.

Two - the bad horror movies? I actually haven't watched any for a while, but when I do, I do it WHILE I'M EDITING. And even then I end up pausing it a lot while I work because sometimes I need to be paying attention to the audio of the episode, so much like how watching Power Rangers can stretch from a 20-minute episode into an hour because I'm constantly pausing and writing down notes and thoughts.

In other words: don't frickin' tell me how long it takes me to do stuff, because I'M the one who actually knows how long it takes for me to do things and what I need to do to get things done.

DMaster said...

3/31: Avengers #200

"CAST IT INTO THE FIRE! DESTROY IT!!!"

Unknown said...

Yay A-Team! Oh dear, I love the MCU Avengers and have bee getting more and more into Black Widow since Avengers, and almost every comic lists how infamous issue #200 is. I am suddenly very fearful.

Am excited about the book. Will it be a physical or digital book? As for titles, 'Tales from the Top', 'History of AT4W' (like your HoPR), 'Behind the Futon'? Would love if there could be a section in the book like 'things only Pollo knows' or something like that.

Neato to your DVD being on Amazon, hoping to finally get that soon. (And Harvey's album, mortgages are a bitch ;)

I've been enjoying your streams of X-COM though am hoping you get a chance to do another Let's Play in the future.

Thanks for keeping us updated.

@dragons_dusk

Ming said...

-- Kamandi at Earth's End: The end is nigh now that the Bearded Idiot has entered the scene.
-- Avengers #200: I guess it was only a matter of time before you came to the infamous Rape of Ms. Marvel, one of the worst Avengers stories. I hope you'll include the follow-up as well.
-- AT4W Episode Guide: I'm actually interested in seeing it. Here's some suggestions for the title: "Chronicles of the Champion"; "AT4W Guide of Awesomeness"; and "AT4W Book of Bad Comics and even Badder Villains".

Unknown said...

Avengers #200? I've never heard of it (but then again... I rarely collect superhero comics). But if the comments that everyone has left so far are to be believed, we might be in for OMD-style rage.

How's this for a suggestion for your guidebook: Building the Fourth Wall: The Storyline Guide, pt 1?

Anonymous said...

I can't help but notice that you'll be doing indy comics 5 weeks in a row. You usually alter Marvel-Indy-DC-Indy. Was this intentional?

Anonymous said...

I'm glad that you'll review Avengers 200, mostly because of its content, but also because after 5 years you're FINALLY going to review an Avengers comic that isn't Ultimates, what took you so long?

Anonymous said...

What's the big deal with Avengers #200?

(goes to check the summary on Marvel Database)

Oh.

Yeah, go ahead and tear that thing apart.

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"I can't help but notice that you'll be doing indy comics 5 weeks in a row. You usually alter Marvel-Indy-DC-Indy. Was this intentional?"

Hardly. ^_~

Star Trek: Generations is DC and A-Team #1 is Marvel. They may not be superhero books, but they still count as comics put out by the Big Two, so they're in the right slots. ^_^

Anonymous said...

Avengers 200? If you're going to review that, you have to cover Avengers Annual 10, even in brief. Chris Claremont's scathing rebuttal of that issue is necessary just to point out the horrid context.

Unknown said...

ERMAGAD!!!!! I can't wait for new Revolution of the Mask! :D Will it be released in digital form? Like the other 2 issues?

PSap29 said...

"I actually haven't watched any for a while, but when I do, I do it WHILE I'M EDITING. And even then I end up pausing it a lot while I work because sometimes I need to be paying attention to the audio of the episode"

And yet you still somehow manage to make time to be snarky about them on twitter. Would it really be that hard to take one day, or even half a day, out of the week to work on HOPR?

MR.T said...

Wait a minute you said in your mystic force review that you think that overdrive is the worst season and yet you only now seen the first 2 episodes. You can't say that you think it is the worst season without even watching it. That is like saying that RPM is the best season of power rangers if you only know Scott.

Anonymous said...

In regards to Power Rangers, have you been keeping up with Megaforce/Super Megaforce?

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"Wait a minute you said in your mystic force review that you think that overdrive is the worst season and yet you only now seen the first 2 episodes. You can't say that you think it is the worst season without even watching it. That is like saying that RPM is the best season of power rangers if you only know Scott."

I've seen the first two episodes, "Once a Ranger," and another episode. I've seen spoilers for the season and bits here and there. While my opinion may change as I progress through the season, all of the things that I found wrong in all of those exposures are present in everything I've seen so far.

DMaster said...

A thought in future: We started looking at Kamandi at Earth's End to not only parse a distinct flavor of 90s tropes, but also to parse how in the Minauros Veitch could've come up with Superman at Earth's End. Perhaps once we're done...we could jump into the past again and look at the original Kamandi? You said it yourself, Mr. Lovhaug, all these bad comics (DC, at least) keep leading back to Kamandi in some way. It wouldn't surprise me if even Flashpoint could be tied back to Countdown and by extension Kamandi, and further, the whole of the New 52 ties back to it. So...what's the deal with Kamandi? How might it the source of all things wrong with DC?

Alas, I cannot prove a word.

(and anyone who gets THAT reference, consider yourself an elite nerd)

kkhohoho said...

To everyone who's been saying 'Make **** sure to cover Avengers Annual #10!'... yeah, definitely. Lewis, if you're going to do Avengers #200, then you need to at least briefly talk about about Annual #10; Claremont takes the pile of filth that was #200, and smacks it this side of Marvel. There's just no question here.

MR.T said...

Alright its just you shouldn't judge overdrive with what people tell you so just don't listen to the spoilers that people tell you. Remember your the one who wants to be amazed by the season. So I won't spoil overdrive's ending. Lets just say its a pretty good ending if you compare it to wild force's ending

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking about putting the DVD on my birthday list (even though my birth month is November) ,which is ironic seeing how I commented on YouTube a few days ago that I recently got my copy. I'm also excited for the new DVD because of two words:

More Moarte! (It even has alliteration! XD)

Anonymous said...

US1 and Kamandi Whoo hoo! Classic reviews time!
Any plans to make a Lets play series out of your Twitch.tv Xcom playthroughs? Would be great! :)

Volvagia said...

Some Suggestions:

Criminal Macabre (Early Ben Templesmith artwork and a final twist that shows, even by comic book standards, an absolutely LUDICROUS grasp of science)
Human Target: Final Cut
Wonder Woman: The Blue Amazon

Unknown said...

"And yet you still somehow manage to make time to be snarky about them on twitter. Would it really be that hard to take one day, or even half a day, out of the week to work on HOPR?"
Mate, I'm as impatient as the next guy with regards to HOPR. Not sure how nagging him is going to help, though. Plus,making remarks on Twitter isn't exactly time consuming stuff.

Anonymous said...

RIP Jew wario.

Anonymous said...

YES! You're finally gonna do Avengers 200!!!

Xepscern said...

I don't know if you will read this, Linkara, or if I make any sort of impact. However, this is something I feel must be said to you.

I know a lot of fans are frustrated with the fact that you are, as of this State of the Wall, only 2 episodes into Operation Overdrive. Let me be clear, here. The problem isn't that you aren't done; it's that you have barely started on it.

I don't know how your personal life if. I don't pretend to know all the details. However, it's really frustrating to hear that this project hasn't had a lot of relative time put into it.

I know a lot of fans of your's, including myself, who got into your main videos through HOPR. I also, frankly, know a fear bit of fans who *only* watch your HOPR. The fact that after 10 months since Mystic Force was released, you have only just got done with the season premiere feels like a slap in the face to many fans.

I do realize that you go to a lot of conventions. And that you have a busy schedule. That being said, however, I find it frustrating that a series I and a lot of other users care about is being neglected for these cons. After all, I am busy every single day of the week. I can't just drop everything and go to a convention. What am I suppose to do, then, when I hear that your convention travels halt any further progress into HOPR.

I am trying to be respectful, here, and I am sorry if I offended you. However, this has become a problem for many fans, I feel, in some respectful way, you need to be told this.