Another great year of Brown County Library Comic-Con episodes comes to a grand finale with a special Phoenix Studios crossover event! Bryan joins forces with the powerful minds over at Psych and Stuff (represented here by Dr. Ryan Martin and Dr. Chuck Rybak) to talk about supervillains, psychology, mental health, and political philosophy! Is Killmonger justified? Does Lex Luthor have a complex? Can we read Two-Face as a metaphor for depression? And what of Thanos? All that and Bryan airs his grievances with the Joker and Suicide Squad in a riotous, hopefully insightful hour of podcasting.

Serious Fun at the Brown County Library Comic-Con continues as Bryan sits down with the Scribe award-winning author John Jackson Miller! Miller, the writer of countless comics, novels, and more for franchises like Marvel, Star Wars, Star Trek, and the Simpsons talks about the challenges of working in established universes, the process of writing comics in a digital age, the perils of focusing too much on canonicity and continuity, and so much more in a wide-ranging and entertaining discussion that is a must-listen for any aspiring writer or fan. Come for the writing advice, stay for the snark about the Clone Saga - and check out JJM's new Battlestar Galactica comic, available at a shop near you!

The first of our three-episode series LIVE (to tape) from Brown County Library Comic-Con is here! Bryan sits down with local artist Carli Ihde to talk about her style, her experiences working in art forms ranging from murals to pumpkins, her time at the Kubert school and working in the comics industry, her advice for aspiring artists, and her thoughts on drawing powerful women. It's funny, it's inspiring, at points maybe even a little inappropriate - a great episode of Serious Fun with a fantastic artist.

LINKS:

We refer to Carli's work several times in this episode. You can check it out in lots of different places:

Carli's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlieyed/?hl=en

Carli's DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/carliihde

Carli's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carliihdeart/

The COUNTDOWN TO COMIC-CON at the Brown County Library continues on Serious Fun! This week - Bryan sits down with UWGB Psychology professor Dr. Regan Gurung to talk about comics and superheroes across borders as well as his own experience with the medium as a child growing up in India. What can Superman tell us about the immigrant experience? How can comics explain and find commonality across culture? What is the psychological payload of identity - dual or otherwise - in superhero media? And what is the impact of the rise of Afrofuturism as a genre and aesthetic? All this and more this week on Serious Fun!

Music clips:

Hans Zimmer - "Flight", Man of Steel (2013) Original Score

John Williams - "Superman March", Superman (1978) Original Score

Serious Fun makes a triumphant return for a new season with the first part of the Countdown to Comic-Con event! With a plethora of new games, movies, and comics coming out this fall, Spider-Mania is alive and well - but what about Spider-Man makes him endure and why do we care about him as much as we do? CU-Boulder Media Studies professor J. Richard Stevens sits down with Bryan to talk about the character, his enduring faith in humanity, his origins as a borderline horror character, and why we love this spider-guy so much.

Music and other clips:

Michael Giacchino – Theme (from “Spider-Man”) [Original TV Series] – Spider-Man Homecoming

Danny Elfman – Main Title, Spider-Man (2002) Original Motion Picture Score

Audio from "Spider-Man" (2002), Dir. Sam Raimi, Sony Pictures

Serious Fun is proud to present another live panel show from UntitledTown 2018! This time around, Bryan moderates a panel on hybrid storytelling featuring "Bend in the River" creator BJ Hollars, and Appleton Storycatchers Tara Pohlkotte and Kathryn Gahl. They'll talk about their own work and how to go beyond prose and page to tell a great story - from podcasting to setting poetry to music and more.

Live from UntitledTown 2018, Bryan moderates a panel with "Imagine Wanting Only This" author & art director and New York Editor for "The Believer" magazine Kristen Radtke and Milwaukee-based comics artist, educator, and hip-hop MC Mistaloo Meff (creator of "Angry Kat: Zombie Protocol"). It's all about comics, from the mechanics of sequential art to breaking into the industry to representation and beyond!

The Serious Fun Women's History Month series concludes with a celebration of the unsung and underappreciated women in popular culture. Panelists Dr. Rebecca Nesvet, Dr. Kris Coulter, and Dr. Michelle McQuade Dewhirst cover female achievement in everything from screenwriting to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to sports bras and hair care products, discuss ways to promote and celebrate women's accomplishments, and even call out Paul McCartney along the way. (Recorded live at the Common Grounds Coffeehouse on UWGB's campus, April 5 2017.)

Our special Women's History Month series continues with a discussion of gender issues and body image in popular culture, recorded live at the Common Grounds Coffeehouse at UWGB. Panelists Dr. Jana Fogaca, Dr. Christine Smith, Alison Gates, and Kwynn Carter share their own experiences with body image and explore where our obsession with the "perfect" female body comes from - from classical art history to the Kardashians and beyond.

(NOTE: There are some sound issues for the first minute or so but it's better after that - apologies!)

Tired of convention panels on feminism and gender issues in media that are just dudes who look like Bryan? So is Serious Fun. As part of the celebration of Women's History Month, we're launching a three-part series about issues facing women in popular culture - all recorded live at the UWGB Common Grounds Coffeehouse with all-female panels. First up - the female action hero. Once a rarity, we're now seeing women take charge and punch faces more regularly in pop culture - but what does that mean for feminism and what does it mean to be an empowering character? Panelists Dr. Ioana Coman, Selena Deer, and Anna Katner talk about this issue from Wakanda to Wonder Woman and beyond.