Covert Nerd Podcast

Today we dive into the Tolkien universe with a Middle Earth Minute then we review 2 great comics. 

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Long ago when middle earth was first created, there was a demi-god or in the Tolkien universe they’re called Maia. One of those Maia was named (My Ron) Mairon, meaning "the admirable." He learned much in the ways of smithing and handiwork, becoming a great craftsman. Although he was a Maia spirit, and not as mighty as the Valar or Gods, he was arguably the most powerful Maia. 

He also had a love of order and perfection and disliked anything wasteful this would be his downfall, for in the Dark Lord Morgoth (who was an evil Valar), Mairon saw the power to help him achieve his own desires faster than if he had pursued them on his own. Morgoth wanted to control or destroy the very matter of the world itself, whereas Mairon's desire was to dominate the minds and will of its creatures. So great was his allegiance in later days, Mairon encouraged and coerced a realm of Men to worship Morgoth as the one true god. But that’s another story.   

After allying himself with Morgoth, Mairon maintained his appearance of being faithful to the Valar, but secretly fed Morgoth information about their dealings. It was only when Morgoth established his strongholds in Middle-earth that Mairon left and openly declared his allegiance. After turning to evil the elves of Middle Earth called him Gorthaur, meaning "dread abomination" 

During this time the elves waged war on Morgoth, who had stolen the Silmarils, enchanted gems that glowed with light from the home of the Valar. In that war, Gorthaur was counted as the "greatest of [Morgoth's] servants that have names". He was soon feared as a lord of terrible phantoms and dreadful beasts--a shape-shifter, sorcerer, and cunning servant of his master. He could take on many dark forms such as a Vampire Serpent  and Werewolf, but he could also appear fair and beautiful. 

Gorthaur directed the war against the Elves. He conquered the Elvish isle of Tol Sirion, and it became known as the Isle of Werewolves and he was the Lord of the Werewolves and of Tol Sirion.  

During the war an elf king and his men were captured by Gorthaur. The elf king and Gorthaur fought. During the battle only the elf king and his greatest warrior survived the other men were cast into the dark pits where werewolves devoured them. 

After the war, with the downfall of his master Morgoth and the destruction of his fortress, Gorthaur adopted a fair form and feigned repentance of his evil deeds in fear of the wrath of his enemies. He was ordered to return to Valinor to receive judgement. He was not willing to suffer such humiliation and so he fled and hid himself in Middle-earth.  

Although Gorthaur knew Men were easier to sway, he sought to bring the Elves into his service, as they were far more powerful. 1,200 years after his master's defeat, he decided the Valar had forgotten about Middle-earth and he once again turned to evil plotting. 

After lying hidden and increasing his power in secret, Gorthaur put on a fair visage, calling himself Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, he befriended the Elvish smiths in a region of Middle Earth called Eregion near Moria where Gandalf fell to the Balrog in the fellowship of the ring. Although they never realized who he truly was he was never welcomed by the elf lords Elrond, Galadriel and Gil-Galad because they did not trust him and refused to treat with him. Elsewhere he was gladly received, and the Elvish smiths learned much from him as their thirst for knowledge was great. Hunger for knowledge was the elves weakness and he knew it. 

Under Annatar's tutelage the Elven master craftsmen became more skilled than anyone else in that age. Remember in the beginning smithing was the first craft he mastered. He also counselled them in arts and magic. After many years when they reached the height of their power, the Elves began the forging of the Rings of Power, but Annatar

On today's episode we talk in detail about the Star Wars prequels

Links from the episode:

Tim on Twitter https://twitter.com/MotheeRainbow Comics Lincoln https://www.facebook.com/rainbowcomicsandcardsLincoln/Art by Taylor https://www.facebook.com/skellyboiart/Website https://www.rainbowcomicsandcards.com/

Today on the Covert Nerd podcast we will do some Tolkien Talk Next we will look at the state of Dark Horse Comics finally we will review a few comics.

Links in the episode:

Dark Horse comic title list 

Local comics:

Lenny Vernon ComicTransient Comic Stow Away Comic Goadkicker Podcast

Covert Nerd

 

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It’s good to be back, I haven’t been gone if you are a regular listener you know that.  However the format has been different than from the beginning. It’s nice to be back to how it started almost 2 years ago, just you and me talking nerdy topics. It’s like meeting up with an old friend who you haven’t seen in a long time you simply pick up where you left off.  Let’s get right to it.

When you were in school did you like history? Statistics show most people don’t.  However in our entertainment we want to know the history of our characters. We want prequel movies, we want origin stories. We want to know why our hero does what they do. We don’t want to know the dates we want to know the why. This leads to the first topic.

 

The announcement from Amazon about their Middle Earth TV series will be set in the 2nd age has me excited. If you are unsure about when that time is I will try to explain, if you watched the movie at the beginning of the LotR they talk about the war of the last alliance when the ring was cut from the hand of Sauron by Isildur. That was at the end of the 2nd age and the beginning of the 3rd age which the movie take place in. The TV series will take place during that time frame. There are some great stories they can use. Stories of kings and queens via for power. In fact I have a feeling they will tell the complete story of the war of the last alliance which they told an extremely condensed version in Fellowship of the ring.

This will give you the backstory on many characters like Isildar, Elrond and Saruon

If you didn’t know I am a big fan of Tolkien, I wouldn’t say I’m a super fan, knowing how to speak Elvish, but i would say I am above average in the fact I have read the LOTR, Hobbit, Silmarillion and a few of the other more obscure books from the legendarium as is referred to in Tolkien circles.

This is what I find interesting about the obscure background information in Middle earth and other fiction.  Knowing the why behind the characters and places is interesting to me and hopefully you will too.

JRR Tolkien is the author of The popular Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books. Telling the tale of Hobbits or Halflings travel across the mythical world of Middle Earth full of mythical races of Dwarves, elves, hobbits and orcs.

What most people don’t know about his more obscure book of the Silmarillion and his 12 volume called The History of Middle-earth is a series of books published between 1983 and 1996

There are also other books in addition to the 12 volume set. All of this extra literature was assembled by his son Christopher. What his son did was to scour through his father's notes and piece together the partial stories he started but didn’t complete. Imagine the work to do this. For example he might find a paragraph in a notebook referring to Gandalf before the hobbit, then a few weeks later find another paragraph that goes with that same story. This painstaking effort has gone on since his death in 1973. The latest book to be release is Beren and Luthien. Christopher claims this is the last. I believe it might be since Christopher is in his early 80’s and couple that with the TV rights being sold to Amazon seems to signal a change in how Tolkien's works will be handled.

 

I will admit the Silmarillion is a harder read than either the Hobbit and LotR. However it has some great stories. It’s basically a bunch of short stories with a small common thread. Based on what I said previously what Christopher did with his fathers writings after his death this makes sense. In the case of the Silmarillion it is a little different, it was roughly put together by Tolkien himself but he submitted to hi

Today we talk with two teenagers Ruth and Deqlan,  about the retro things they like and why.

Links from the episode:

Deqlan James Art Starformers podcast Art of Lee BokmaMini Con Info

Visit covertnerd.net for the ways you contact me and listen to other episodes

Today we talk with Jeff from the Make Eternia Great Again Podcast

Complete show notes here

Covertnerd.net

Jeff:TMNTDazed and ConfusedThe CrowFace OffDumb and Dumber

Lee:Tommy BoyBatman: Mask of the PhantasmYoung Guns IICan't hardly WaitLiar Liar

Listen to Tim and I talk about IDW Transformers comics, figures and all things Transformers

Links from the Episode:

The Transformers: The Basics is hosted by Chris McFeely.https://www.youtube.com/user/ChrisMcFeely

 

Rainbow Comics Lincoln

 

Episode art from Livio Ramondelli his Instagram is (https://www.instagram.com/livioramondelli/?hl=en).

 

 

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Covert Nerd Website

Links from the Episode

The Podcast Arcade

Art of Lee Bokma

Covert Nerd Podcast

Full episode notes

Nerd Death Match 3

 

Episode links:

covertnerd.net

Art of Lee Bokma

Full show notes

Today we discuss working together to make work easier, then we talk about the beginning of Image comics, lastly text adventures get new life.

Links mentioned in the episode:

Play the original Zork online

Play Zork on your Alexa

Art of Lee Bokma

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It’s good to finally be back and getting back to the old schedule before the holidays hit.  Don’t get me wrong I like Christmas and new years, but it does tend to interrupt the “normal” schedule a bit. I’m glad to be back and glad you’re here too.

Many hands make light work, I’m sure you may have hear this saying. Working together makes a task much easier, especially if you are working with people you like and have a common interest.

As a teaser I am fortunate enough to be friends with some local creators and we are working together  on a fun project I think you will love, so listen later to find out what it is.

Working together

So many things in our lives can be done better and easier if we get more people involved. Another recent example is we had a snowstorm and our driveway needed to be cleaned.  It’s not a small driveway I would say about 150 ft long. I fired up the snow blower to start and it wouldn’t work. I know your saying why didn’t you test it before the storm, and I did and it worked fine. I fiddle with it for about 20 minutes and no luck. So I grabbed the shovel and got to work.  Since I have kids I 3 of them help me. We took turns and when one person got tired they handed the shovel to the next person and so on until the entire driveway was cleared. In less than an hour the job was done. I could have kept trying to work with the snow blower and maybe got it done, but I’m not mechanically inclined so most likely not. Asking for help and working together makes the job easier.

Another place to ask is Google, Author Jerry Pornelle once said everything that has answer has been answered. And Google can point you to those people that have the same questions and concerns you have.

If you’re working on something and maybe you’re struggling to start or got started and you don’t know what to do next. Try asking for help, most people are willing to give you a tip or two to help. Regardless of what people may think most people want to help. People are more likely to help than to do you a favor, so when you ask, ask for help not a favor. Most likely someone has been where you are and can offer you wisdom.

Whether you love him or hate him Gary Vaynerchuck is a speaker and author who speaks his mind sometimes with colorful language. One thing He specifically talks alot about working alongside people who are doing what you want to do just to get the experience. Again it reinforces this concept that other people have been where you have been.  They can help you avoid the pitfalls you may encounter.

I could go on and on with examples like this, but I would guess you get the idea and you have you own stories.  I would like to hear them, you can email them to me [email protected] or you can find me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

 

Marvel early 90s bullpen

I was reading an old Uncanny X-men comic from 1990 and noticed the credits for the book Chris Claremont, Whilice Portacio, John Byrne, Marc Silvestri, Jim Lee. It reminded me again of how much talent Marvel had at the time.  If you read comics during that time period I took it for granted how great those creators were and how much Marvel had. I assumed that’s the way it would be for Marvel going forward. However

Marvel suffered a blow in early 1992, when seven of its most prized artists — Todd McFarlane (known for his work on Spider-Man), Jim Lee (X-Men), Rob Liefeld (X-Force), Marc Silvestri (Wolverine), Erik Larsen (The Amazing Spider-Man), Jim Valentino (Guardians of the Galaxy), and Whilce Portacio (Uncanny X-Men) — left to form Image Comics also d Sam Kieth (The Maxx), Dale Keown (Pitt), Jae Lee (Hellshock),left marvel immediately to join their friends at Image.  Chris Claremont was consid

Today we take a look back at the comics we reviewed this year then we will look at two fantastic comic titles. Lastly we take a look to the future.

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So many good comics this year and so little time. I listed them all and then I decided to rank them. Which was no easy task, I read so many this year and it was great to get back into comics again after being only a part time reader. I had a lot of fun looking for comics I had missed over the last 20 years and a few new titles from new publishers, artist and writers. There’s some good young talent out there. These talent out there now is like the talent I got into comics with in the late 80’s and early 90’s.  Many of those people now are in charge of publishers now. Keep an eye on these men and women now because in 20 years they will be running the comic industry.

Back to the comic picks of this year. If I reviewed or mentioned them on the podcast then IMO they were some of the best. This will be a very brief run through of the 14 comic titles I reviewed this last year. The list will be in the show notes on covertnerd.net. I can confidently recommend any of these and you won’t be disappointed.

 

(Some links are affiliate links)

Comics reviewed

14 Monstress Image Comics

13. Essex county Image Comics

12. I Kill Giants Image Comics

11. Ninjak vs The Valiant Universe Valiant

10. Plume Devil’s Dueent

9. Y the Last Man Vertigo

8. Dark Ark After Shock

7. The Long Con Oni Comics

6. Black Hammer Dark Horse

5. Secret Six DC Comics

 

These last four could almost all be number ones, however there can only be one.

Britannia Valiant any of them but starting with the first volume will help the story make more sense

 

Faith Valiant, thankfully you pick any of these up and it will make sense, but why miss out on all the fun. Just start at the beginning.

 

East of West Image Comics Who doesn’t like an alternative history heading towards the apocalypse. It’s a fascinating story with more plot twists and turns than a round about. Unlike the previous two you will have to start at the beginning to understand what’s going on.

 

Invincible Image Comics

Created by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Cory Walker and illustrated by artist Ryan Ottley. From beginning to end I couldn’t stop reading.  I didn’t find this until a few months before the last issue. I binged on this for almost 2 months, exclusively read Invincible and only Invincible. The story and and the art are fantastic. The story is tight and doesn’t veer much from Mark Grayson and how he deals with being a half human on earth. I love the fact Kirkman didn’t try to keep the series going and milk the title for all he could get, because he probably could have. I can see him possibly doing a few 1 shot issues here and there, telling some stories where the regular title was vague.  If he doesn’t I’m okay with that. He started a good story and ended it when he was done, that’s the way it should be. I would say grab all 144 issues and lock yourself in your room for the entire weekend and you won’t regret it.

There it is the 14 comics I reviewed this year ranked.  Let me know your thoughts on these. Agree? Or disagree?

Joe Golem:

Forty years after disaster left Lower Manhattan submerged in thirty feet of water, children have begun disappearing below the surface. In this new series, Joe Golem hunts the terrifying creature that has been pulling children into the depths of the canals.

 

Mignola and Golden have created a noir-esque detective book, fueled by alternate history and their usual twist of the spiritual macabre. They have crafted a masterful story. Patric Reynolds does some creepy work here. From the creepiness of the water, to flashback scenes giving us a little of Joe’s history, the art is wonderful and clean.  He provides the art of the gloomy world, with a grainy style of pencils which suits the somewhat sunken world.

This comics is based on the novel by the same name. Joe investigates strange events in the now partiall