Release The Geek

During the recent (and massively successful) FanCon Comic Convention in Cape Town, we managed to chat to a raft of local and international writers and artists. In this episode, we chat to Ian Churchill and Warren Louw! With over 20 years in the comics business, Ian has worked on a massive number of titles, including the X-Men, Hulk, Supergirl, Teen Titans and the Eisner Award nominated Marineman that Ian created. Warren Louw is a South African freelance illustrator and character designer whose work has graced many print publications including ImagineFX magazine, UDON's Darkstalkers graphic novel and DC's Power Girl comic. Both Ian and Warren were kind enough to share their origin stories which should serve as great inspiration to young creators everywhere.

Arwen Swan is widely recognised as South Africa's premiere corset crafter and creator. Arwen's work has graced the pages of magazines, appeared in fashion shows, has been worn by TV celebrities and is highly sought after both here and abroad. With Arwen joining an ever-expanding roll-call of guests at ICON 2016 this year to discuss corsetry in cosplay, we sat down to chat with her about how she got her start in corset making, how she grew her business from the ground up, and what's next for Arwen Garmentry.

Limpho Moeti is the part of 'The Variants Cover' triumvirate and has well established geek credentials. From diving into comics at a young age via her brother's stash, to debating success, a long and successful stint at Outer Limits Comic Store in Melville, Johannesburg, to becoming a creative in her own right - Limpho has truly earned her geek badge. Check out her path to geekdom and future podcast plans here!

Captain America: Civil War hits South African cinemas this week, and The Variant crew have plenty to talk about. Greg, Limpho and Nas start off by reviewing the 2006 Marvel Comics storyline that the movie takes its name from, then moves on to ... well, plenty of other stuff. We even manage to talk about the movie at some point!

Rico Schacherl is a cartoonist and illustrator, best know in South Africa for his work on the 'Madam & Eve' comic strip. Beyond that, Rico has worked on a wide range of projects including animation, television and children's education work. Rico joined us to chat about his path to geekdom: from Tin Tin and Asterix to his first exposure to Star Wars through to his mandatory military service, then on to making a career out of his illustration work and the origin story of Madam & Eve. In addition to graciously taking time out to chat to us for the podcast, it's our pleasure to announce that Rico will be part of two panels at ICON 2016 this year. He'll also be available for book signings as well, so make sure you bring along your favourite panels for the man himself to sign, so make sure you get there!

You may not know Triggerfish Animation Studios, but you'll certainly be familiar with their work: they're the team behind Takalani Sesame, Khumba, Zambesia and more! Last year, Triggerfish launched a fantastic initiative called 'Story Lab', a program that aims to develop African writers and directors and has drawn the backing of the South African DTI as well as Walt Disney Studios! Stuart Forrest and Anthony Silverston sat down to chat to us about the origins of Triggerfish, how the Story Lab idea came about and what it's like working with the House of Mouse!

Reader's Den Comic Shop in Cape Town has been building up their Free Comic Book Day activities for a number of years, becoming an event that draws people from across the country. This year, Nizar Abrahams and the Reader's Den team have decided to take things to another level with the inaugural FanCon Comic Convention. With a lineup including Jason Aaron, Jamie McKelvie and many more, FanCon is going to be a massive event for comic and pop culture fans in South Africa. We chatted to Nizar about the road to FanCon: from falling in love with Superman as a kid, to the origins of the store and how they embraced Free Comic Book Day and built it up to what it is today.

Daniel Clarke and Daniel Snaddon are part of the Blue Forest Collective in Cape Town who have just successfully had their Kickstarter project funded for Kariba - an African graphic novel where history and mythology collide. Not only did they meet their goal of USD$20,000, they absolutely blew past it with over 200% funding. Willem Samuel is an illustrator and comic book creator who has worked on various projects including the soccer comic book Supa Striker, one of the biggest comic titles in the world. Willem has also published his own autobiographical comic, MengelMoes. We sat down with all three to chat about a host of amazing topics including animation, the creation/development process and how you can make a career out of thing you love doing.

Steven Tu is a Johannesburg based designer, illustrator and most importantly for this podcast and indie game maker. To say that Steven is passionate about game design is an understatement - he even created a game design company called "Two Plus Games". In November, 2015, as part of a 24 hour game design contest on the BoardGameGeek website, Steven created the framework of a game that would eventually become 'Dubai' - a game that uses 2D cards to form 3D isometric buildings. Steven entered 'Dubai' into the first ever 'Cardboard Edison' competition and his game was selected as one of 11 finalists - an incredible achievement!

One of the biggest movies of the year next week, and it's tailor-made for comic fans everywhere to discuss the classic "who would win?" topic. This week, the Variant Covers team of Limpho Moeti and Nas Hoosen (sadly, we were Greg Nell-less this week) chat about the who would win this titanic battle, who should win this titanic battle, and talk about the best Batman V Superman storylines from the comics.