Sci-Fi Saturday Night

Tonight’s guest is Mike Dougherty, director of the Firefly/Serenity fan film Browncoats: Redemption. He gave us the inside scoop on his newest project, Z-Con. This new film is an original story about a podcast that becomes the only link to the outside world for a convention overrun by zombies. In three weeks (or so) a Kickstarter campaign will begin to fund the production. Like Browncoats:Redemption, all of the proceeds from Z-Con will go to charity, so the more funding it receives, the more  they can do to ensure large donations. To learn more about Z-Con, visit their website and their Facebook page.

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Summit City Comic Con

This week’s guest is Zack Kruse, founder of Summit City Comic Con which takes place in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Summit City focuses mainly on artists and strongly supports the interaction of presenters in Artist’s Alley with guests. One of the ways they do this is by handing out “Con Bingo” cards. For each interaction on the card you can get a stamp at the corresponding table for completing it. Once the card shows “BINGO”, it can be turned in to be entered into a raffle for some fabulous prizes. Summit City also has some great activities specifically geared towards kids, such as a kids only costume contest and a kids’ comics workshop at the Allen County Public Library. Summit City Comic Con is May 12 at the Grand Wayne Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

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Norman Spinrad

Tonight’s fascinating guest is Norman Spinrad:  author, essayist, and screenwriter.  Although he could not discuss his lost Star Trek script, He Walked Among Us, we could (and did) discuss his thoughts on the past, present, and future of the Sci-Fi genre. If you like what you hear, we recommend checking out Norman’s blog, which contains more of his thoughts as well as information about the digitization of many of his published works.

“The saddest day of your life isn’t when you decide to sell out. The saddest day of your life is when you decide to sell out and nobody wants to buy.”–Norman Spinrad

(Correction: On this podcast we mistakenly state that J.J. Abrams directed Wall-E. The film was actually directed by Andrew Stanton, but everything we said about it being awesome is still true.)

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Keep Calm and Carry a Raygun

This week Dave Gordon was excited to tell us about the third annual Watch City Festival. The original steampunk city, the Watch City Festival  is a street fair that takes place all over Waltham, MA which has a rich industrial history that blends perfectly with steampunk themes. Events include a choose your own adventure pub crawl, hot air balloon rides, mime classes (for kids), and special performers all over the city. Many events are open to the public, but purchase of a pass entitles the bearer to all events as well as special discounts at many restaurants and shops. The Watch City Festival is presented by the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation  and runs May 11, 12, and 13 in Waltham MA. Passes are: Adults – $20 for the weekend or $15 per day – Children – $10 for the weekend or $7 per day.

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It’s another two-guest show tonight! Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and publisher of Heavy Metal magazine, and Jeremy Bastian,  the creator of Cursed Pirate Girl join us to discuss their current projects, Justin Beiber, and their upcoming appearances at Boston Comic Con. We do NOT (*wink*) discuss Michael Bay.

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Go Back to Hogwarts by Juli Mayers

Tonight we were joined by not one, but three guests!

Juli Mayers is a perennial Boston Comic Con fixture in Artist’s Alley. She is accepting commissions before and during the convention, and you can see her work on her Deviant Art page. Juli also draws the webcomic Wicked Unscripted.

Reprising her appearance last week, we also had the pleasure of speaking to Laura Ortiz, but this time she was joined by her equally fabulous Holliston co-star Corri English. (NB: Watch the premiere episode of Holliston before you tune in this week… spoilers!) Holliston airs on Tuesdays at 10:30 PM on FearNET, but if you and don’t get that channel (we don’t!), you can catch up on iTunes every Wednesday.

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