Release The Geek

With the One Esports DOTA 2 World Pro Invitational starting this week in Singaport, Release The Geek turns its attention to growth industry of esports. Paul 'ReDeYe' Chaloner is an esports panel host, compere, shoutcaster and consultant for the industry at large. When we first spoke to Paul back in 2016, he was a guest in South Africa to help promote, at that time, the country's largest esports event. We chatted about the growth of esports globally and how the SA scene compared skill wise to best in the world.Esports has grown in a number of ways in the ensuing three years - amateur event coverage has given way to slickly produced events and an expanded generation of professionals, both on the playing side and in the broadcast sphere.Paul was in town for the Vodacom rAge 2019 event and was gracious enough to share some time to chat about many things including: - his role as an ambassador for Vodacom and TenCent to help promote the recent addition of PUBG servers for the mobile gaming market - his advice on how to help grow the local industry with regards to gaming servers and get major competitions organised for the SA scene. - and why he feels the days of esports education are coming to an end.

Brian Stelfreeze is an American painter, penciler, inker, and

colourist. From humble beginnings in a small town in South Carolina, Brian

now has the distinction of having worked for nearly every major US comic

book publisher, with an incredible run of over 50 cover illustrations for

DC's Shadow of the Bat. Brian's work with Ta-Nehisi Coates on Black Panther

was also instrumental in defining the artistic style of the hit movie -

Chadwick Boseman at one stage revealed in an interview that the entire

Black Panther production team had read Brian and Ta-Nehisi's run as a key

influence for the massive Marvel hit.

John Higgins is a colorer and artist who has an incredible array of comic book credits under his belt - from over 100 appearances in 2000 D to his great run on Hellblazer with Garth Ennis, his work on The Boys, Swamp Thing, Pride & Joy and so much more. How much more? John also just happens to have worked on two of the greatest comic book stories ever - Batman: The Killing Joke and genre-defining Watchmen.

From a young age, all Dean Rankine wanted to do was draw. While today, Dean is a well established Australian comic book artist, he'd still describe himself as a big hairy kid - but a kid who has now worked for a range of companies and a variety of titles including Australian MAD magazine, The Simpsons comic book for Boingo and a cover for the Rick and Morty comic. Dean is now a popular mainstay on the Australian pop culture convention scene, and has developed his own fan following with his popular 'Simpson-ised' portraits of guests at each event.

Dean has also started a recent podcast which we encourage you to check out: it's called The Ogres Basement Podcast, and you should totally check it out.

Ku Liang has potentially one of the best jobs you can think of - working with the coolest events around the globe and trying to figure how to make them even better?

Ku is the Global Director of Business Development at ReedPop - the company behind some of the biggest comic and pop culture conventions in the world including New York Comic Con, the MCM chain of events in the UK (which is running its Birmingham event this weekend, where guests include Star Wars's C3PO Anthony Daniels and geek hall of famer Sean Astin), PAX events around the world, and the relatively new kid on the block, Comic Con Africa. It's Ku's job to help develop and grow these events further ... no mean feat when there are over 40 events worldwide, each with their own regional challenges and trends against an ever-changing international pop culture backdrop.

Against the backdrop of the MCM Birmingham event this weekend, Ku was in Johannesburg recently for the second edition of massively successful Comic Con Africa and was kind enough to chat to us about many things including:

- how Japanese animation and manga, a good smattering of kung fu books and plenty of Chinese translated sci-fi novels started him on a lifelong path of geekdom.

- how his extensive experience in retail and publishing helped give him the clarity and understanding of what fans may want, and how to make sure ReedPop is getting it right.

- and whether the convention scene, and fandom itself, in the US and internationally is close to hitting its saturation point.

Plus we discuss how the recent Comic Con Africa experience in Johannesburg compares to other Comic Con events internationally.

Patric Reynolds is a comic book illustrator, who has worked with some incredible names over the past decade. A former public school teacher, Reynolds took the jump in 2009 to become a comic book artist, and hasn't looked back. Patric has some impressive credits to his name, including many "Mignolaverse" titles including Hellboy & the BPRD 1954 and Abe Sapien - and we chatted to him during his recent visit to South Africa courtesy of Comic Con Africa

With great thanks to the team at Comic Con Africa and the Death Wish Coffee podcast ‘Fueled by Death’, we celebrate Halloween by interviewing the ‘ghoul of your dreams’, LeeAnna Vamp!

Back in March, RTG got to visit the brand new site of the Comic Con Museum in San Diego, checking out the ‘Cover Story’ Exhibit. We then chatted to Executive Director of the Museum, Adam Smith, about his path to geekdom and how he came to helm what will be a true temple of pop culture history.

Many things have been happening in the Release The Geek world - here's what's been going on before the launch of Season 5 later this week.

From its origin in 2003, World Cosplay Summit (WCS) has grown to become the biggest cosplay event in the world. WCS has expanded to over 35 regions globally, and in 2018 takes its first steps into Africa, with ICON Comics & Games Convention playing host to the first regional qualifier on the continent.

Ed Hoff joined us to take us through the origin story of WCS: from its early beginnings with 5 cosplayers invited from Germany, France and Italy, to its massive 9 day event in Nagoya that it has become. We also give South African cosplayers a glimpse of wait awaits the regional winners!