ComiCentric

Welcome to another exciting chapter of comicentric on this week’s show we have the fabulous and pragmatic Rosa limon, along with the moniker of Mother, wife, and daughter she is a costume designer, entrepreneur, vlogger, and much more.

X file under nope: Why aren’t more people talking about aliens?

The aliens are real. That’s it. And no one gives two flying saucers about it.  Our government has straight out said and even gone as far as change the name of the UFO to UAP. and we are all too busy looking down at our phones to look up in the sky. Movies always lead me to believe that aliens are either here to destroy us or to party down with us.

Either way the world of television and movies have been setting us up for our encounters for a long period of time now. We owe them for insinuating that there are secret military bases where our government keeps secrets and plays God. And while Area 51 is no longer the secret base hidden in the desert. It is now a semi tourist trap, that’s missing is the gift shop. The horrors that if true, transpired at that location. Everything from secret spaceships to alien autopsies the kind you can only watch late night on FOX.

Do you remember your first convention? Do you remember standing in line and being excited of the possibilities? From hobnobbing with your favorite writers, artist, and celebrities. Does the thought of being part of an exclusive club of nerd make you happy? Well, you are sure to love the Con life.

But be forewarned the convention life is not for the faint of heart. It takes a certain type of individual, with the muster to stand in long lines, deal with angry nerds and dismissing celebrities.

Taking an annual pilgrimage was always fun. But it seems like time progresses and the allure of the con life starts to diminish. Thanks to the intervention of the mass media, there is no longer a call to head down to a place where the hoards gather, and the masses meet.

Its not that there is no love for the show, it’s just no longer what it used to be. The internet has made it easier to get the exclusives. Therefore, Toys and memorabilia can be easily access by anyone that has accessibility to the internet with the push of a button.

Furthermore time was the only place to see a trailer for a movie, tv show, or cartoon that might or might not come out was at con. Now you can just look it up within minuets of it dropping at the convention.

Artist are more approachable with social media. and more cons have been popping up across the Nerdospher. So emphasis on making the annual pilgrimage to San Diego a thing of the past.

To Summarize and not to shit on Con life, it’s definitely an experience and one any person who has ever been into comics or any type of medium that has convention to meld the masses. It’s a chance to meet and interact with other people that share the love of your eccentricities.

Then take a chance for that sweet romance of for the love of what you are into

Well as I run through the barrel of people I know. We come across a person that has stood firmly in the background of nostalgic comics for several years. A rock in the mist of the storm always there to back up her partner in whatever endeavor he sets upon.

Joanna Morales has been that rock for Nostalgics' Peter Mellini. While she is always supportive, she is also quick enough to put him in his place is he strays from the way. Always being present at every event. Running the background so that the foreground can shine. she has put up a lot of her heart and energy into helping make Nostalgic what it is today.

Her enigmatic journey into this world of comics is a not a complex as you would think. Meeting with Peter in college she quickly found her way into each others heart. Since they hit it off the Ying and Yang fusion of a relationship was pragmatic to say the least. but it worked and it continues to work into this day

Going on nearly 20 years of holding each other up with no signs of waning they are a model of what people call relationship goals. Of course, they have their ups and downs but what relationship doesn’t.

Nevertheless, they stay firm, and they stay strong. I have seen this firsthand and can attest to the fact that somethings just are the way they are.

So behind ever king is a Queen. And this is no exception. So, join us and get to know a little bit about Mary Ann… I mean Joanna.

No ghost this week kids. So, Pete and I take a moment to talk about what’s been going on around our comic world. We went to go watch Thor: Love and Thunder on the day it was released so we take a long minuet discussing the ups and downs of the movie. While it was an excellent movie and in the end the hero prevails, we find ourselves in a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. The movie takes several dark tones like death, the loss of faith, and how the upper-class society don’t give a shit about you. It masks it in a way that you can still laugh about it and have a good time watching a Superhero movie.

We discuss the director Taika Waititi’s roll in making this the best Thor movie’s, of a Norse god who pretty much lost everything, can be.  The New Zealand director has several hits on his belt. But is it because he’s an eccentric or is it because he understands the eccentricities of man? Hard to say, but he can make you feel things so that’s a trait many directors fail to show in their work.

Nathaniel Osollo or “ollo” is an artist who has been creating and been making comics for more than 10 years. He has created such books as Dark Mouse self-described as The Rats of NIHM meets Sin City, a former mouse cop with an edge sharper than a Masamune. Shadow people a all-ages book that used augmented reality to tell a story. While the app is no longer available the story still holds. About making friends with the things that originally scare you. Point of You: where do you want to be? A slice of life, if life was the universe, it questions our existential reasons for being alive. How we are all here for a brief period and we have every right to exist.

Currently Nathaniel has just finished a Kickstarter campaign where he crowd funded his latest book of short stories in the Dark mouse universe. Dark Mouse: The Climb and Other Tails Contains 3 short stories that is sure to thrill and entertain. You should be able to pick this one up soon. He still has plans to release the complete collection of Dark Mouse soon. With another campaign starting soon we hope to hear more about this in the future.

So come along with us as we sit down with Nathaniel and talk about his books is side projects and a bit on his creative process. How to keep priorities straight and how media is over saturated on situations that shouldn't even be more than a basic right for every human being. Also, how advertising is a big part of the media. Seriously we spend an entire segment on the atlas advertisements and how not to get your castle kicked in.

This week on ComiCentric we welcome our good long time friend Adolfo Reyes AKA OflodaMonstro.

OflodaMonstros has been drawing since as far back as he can remember. Drawing inspiration from watching his father pick up and emulate random art from different places, free handed and with precision. He figured he would follow in similar footsteps. Picking up the pen and choosing to be a homebody staying in to draw instead of going out to play.

Inspired by cartoons of the time. While watching the Disney afternoon, Batman and Tiny toons. Such cartoons like Tiny Toons gave him inspiration that he was able to win a contest for the class banner for his graduating class, winning over classmates with a drawing of tiny toons Byron Basset.

While he didn’t have many comic books growing up. He did have inspiration in from compilation books such as Garfield and the Archie's run of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures.

In High school OflodaMonstros switched his attention to music. Learning to play the guitar. This gave him more of a appreciation for music. While leaving art on the side burner, but on low heat, as didn’t do much drawing then.

It wasn’t until he started attending LACC where he took some art classes that included Life drawing and sculpting. That things started to draw him back into art. While hanging out at UCLAs Downtown campus villa tat he ran into the local comic shop that he ran into collection of zines by Optic Nerve artist Adrian Tomine. Being inspired by this and some zine fest he had visited. Gave way for OflodaMonstrosto get out there and try comic artist life himself. He managed to table at a few shows. That included the Latino comic Expo and several zine fests. Showcasing his slice of life comics and several other notable art pieces.

Doing all this while working, being a partner to a most radical lady and a father of 2 awesome artistic children. OflodaMonstros has had his hands full.

Recently OflodaMonstros had gotten back on the horse after overcoming a bit of a mental art block hiatus. And is seeming to be embracing the digital medium over traditional. With many ideas floating in his head we can only wait to see what he can come up with. A true inspiration of personal growth.

So join us as we talk a little with our pal OflodaMonstros on this pragmatic issue of concentric.

This week on ComiCentricwe get together with an old friend who has established himself in the written world. Nikolai Garciathe nomadic poet laureate of Los Angeles. Nikolai grew up in South Central and has been writing since the age of 13 high school. having a taste for writing he continued his training by going to a magnet school in the San Fernando valley and even joining the journalism department at East Los Angeles college.

Since he has been writing poetry at a young age, inspired by an old episode of Rosanne.  but it wasn’t until after college, with a brief hiatus in which he became a social activist, that he came to get serious about poetry. finding motivation after joining DSTLArts a nonprofit that helps guide artist and writers in the right direction by giving them a guidance and a platform where they can sharpen their skills.

This program helps Nikolai start writing again and even went as far as to help him produce his first chap book “Nuclear Shadows of Palm Trees” a book of his own poetry. Filled with poems of his own experiences living laughing and loving in Los Angeles. A page poet and a poet of place Nikolai’s’ ‘Felix the cat is the mayor of Los Angeles’ if one of my favorite poems. He manages to take a Los Angeles icon that overlooks the 110 freeway and elaborate it into an iconic visual that helps settle the sediment of Los Angeles.

Finding support by going to these workshops and meeting up with other of his fellow compatriots they would meet up at Patria coffee shop to spend time listening to each other and providing feedback and support.

Nikolai is currently working on his new chap book, poetry that is more influenced by music.

Slow in coming along due to his busy schedule its hard for him to find time to write. Besides being a writer, he currently is hosting his own poetry readings at places like Re/Arte in East Los Angeles, holding his own workshops in south Los Angeles, travels the coast doing different poetry readings and is also assistant editor for Dryland a literary journal created in South Central Los Angeles

Furthermore Nikolai is more than just a writer he is a reader of comics as well. He got into comics through like many at a young age via cartoons. Watching old spiderman cartoons lead him to buy his first issue of spiderman. A random issue set in the maximum carnage story arch. This led him to venture out and find comics any which way he could from the magazine rack at the local rite aid to the no longer available comic shops in the east of Hollywood. Nikolai’s passion grew and he eventually found shops and even got to venture to the shrine Auditorium for their annual show. He eventually started buying his comics from peter and hasn’t stop since.

We find that music is a big part of Nikolai’s life as well. We go off on a bit of a music tangent and we could have gone on forever. So, tune in and find out a bit more of our favorite poet laureate Nikolai Garcia.

This week on comicentric we go off on ghostly tangent. As we slang books and hung out at  Nostalgic, we started talking about ghostbusters. And realized it’s been almost 40 years of its inception on the big screen. Being that day was also Ghostbusters Day, and there is no such thing as a bad idea, we decided to take our tangent and make a podcast about it.

We tried to keep it simple and just talk about the first movie. But as we do we end up going off on other tangents talking about all the movies and music that make this franchise bigger than the stay puff marshmallow man.

Furthermore of you who have paying attention to the show, the background cricket comes back and puts his two cents. Since I started this podcast there has been an additional cast member and some have noticed. He is normally quiet all day. Yet as soon as we start to record the podcast, he makes his presence known. While we don’t speak cricket, I believe that he’s just here to make his voice heard. Give his opinion or perhaps he’s here to translate into his native tongue for those who cricket is their first language.

And like most tangents. We see the top 3 movies for the weekend that ghostbusters came out, where Ghostbusters, Raiders of the Lost ark, and Gremlins. All 3 movies iconic on their own right. We find out that sometimes sequels aren’t all they are hacked up to be. All 3 movies have sequels some become more notable others just don’t compete with the original. With Jurassic World around the corner, we find out that some sequels aren’t as cool as the original.

So join Marisol and pete as we go tangent after tangent, with the lights turned off, we end up with another episode of Comicentric

Hope you enjoy this tangent.

XOXOX

CRUZ