The Hyper Room

Inside the Hyper Room I welcome the president of Toynami George Sohn who has had the Robotech license for over 20 years and Pat Wang the president of Icon Heroes who just started his license with Robotech this year. Also joining us is Harmony Gold’s Robotech Master himself Tommy Yune who has been the Stewart of all things Robotech for the past 20 years and was the director on the Robotech Shadow Chronicles movie.

Both Toynami and Icon Heroes have product out this year and will talk about what they have planned and Tommy will talk about the new Robotech merchandise coming out this year as well as a little bit on the upcoming Robotech live-action movie coming from Sony Pictures.

So continuing our Robotech 35th Anniversary celebration lets suit up for a look at Robotech collectibles with Toynami, Icon Heroes and Harmony Gold inside The Hyper Room.

You can watch a video version of this podcast on YouTube.com/iconheroes and you can follow The Hyper Room on Twitter and Instagram at The Hyper Room and catch up on past podcasts at www.thehyperroom.com

Warner Bros was developing a Flash TV series in the late 1980s but not until the world went into full on Batmania in June 1989, did CBS pull the trigger on development of The Flash in early 1990, and like the proverbial bolt of lightning the pilot debuted in October 1990.

But all this is not possible without an actor who could play the Scarlet Speedster and his secret identity of Barry Allen.

Born in Norfolk, Virginia John Wesley Shipp started his career in soap operas like Guiding Light, and As the World Turns in the early 1980s - but then like the comic book Barry Allen had his life changed by lightning, as he was cast as the TV version of The Flash.

Although it lasted only one season, the show lived on in re-runs, VHS taps and DVDs until 2014 when it became a huge hit on The CW.

The amazing thing is that John’s Flash journey doesn’t end there, and so we are celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the original Flash TV show with star John Wesley Shipp inside The Hyper Room.

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The New Master of Sequential Horror Art Talks 40+ Years in Comics.

As a teenager, artist Kelly Jones started mailing his comic samples to every publisher he could after getting words of encouragement from legendary Batman artist Marshall Rogers at a comic con. His first gig was inking Butch Guice on Marvel Comics original Micronauts series before being promoted to lead artist on the 1984 relaunch: Micronauts: The New Voyages.

He has had an absolutely prolific career ever since creating and drawing books like Terraformers, Chrome, Air Raiders, Comet Man, Dino Riders and then one day he was assigned a serial in the new Action Comics Weekly with Nexus co-creator Mike Baron that would change his career forever.

This podcast interview goes very deep into Kelly’s career - we touch on as many books in is prolific 40 year career as we can and how the DC character Deadman, a book that was assigned to another artist at first, showed the world a new definition of horror artwork in comics.

From Deadman to Sandman, Batman to Knightfall, Dracula to Frankenstein working with his heroes Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson and further cementing his reputation as the new horror comics master working with Joe Hill on his Hill House Comics imprint at DC. 

Join me and artist Kelley Jones inside this career spanning episode of The Hyper Room

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It's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights, I welcome Mike Horn from Palisades Toys in The Hyper Room tonight!

Mike is the founder of one the most beloved toy companies of the 1990’s and early 2000’s that while not producing any new products today are still in the hearts and minds of collectors around the world. 

Mike walks us through his secret origin as a marketing company importing Japanese toys to the US to being one of the very first licensees of South Park to producing products for everything from GI Joe resin busts to Buffy the Vampire Slayer lunchboxes to making a 6” meatball action figure called MEATWAD for the Aqua Teen Hunger Force line.

We go over the entire history of Palisades talking about products from extremely diverse licenses like Dragonball, Resident Evil, Ren and Stimpy, Reservoir Dogs, Pink Panther, X-Files, debunk the story that the Micronauts brought down Palisades, look at their biggest hit The Muppets and how it got famous painter Alex Ross involved with their Sesame Street line and how the crash of the specialty market affected the future of Palisades in the early 2000’s.

So, put away your ToyFare magazines, press pause on your X-Files DVD and save your Resident Evil game, and join me and Mike Horn inside The Hyper Room.

Rob Liefeld burst on to the comic book scene with the power and intensity of the creators that influenced him. Liefeld visually re-introduces Hawk and Dove to a new generation in 1988 but defines a generation of comic book readers like myself when he starts drawing The New Mutants with writer Louise Simonson and taking it from near-cancellation to become the second biggest selling book at Marvel Comics of all time.

This is a look-back specifically at The New Mutants #86 and the subsequent issues leading to X-Force #1 and how it affected me and shook up the entire comic book industry and laid the groundwork for THE comic book publishing phenomenon of our time.

I look back at the explosion of Rob Liefeld’s The New Mutants and X-Force from 1989-1991 inside The Hyper Room.

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Pat Lee talks about Image Comics, Dreamwave and his time on Cybertron

Back in 1986, the Matrix of Leadership lit the Autobots darkest hour in Transformers: The Movie, arguably the greatest animated film of all time. Artist Pat Lee and his Dreamwave Productions did the same by illuminating the return of the Transformers to the world of comics and updating the Hasbro toy line for the 21st century. 

From his early days in Toronto drawing Rob Liefeld’s Extreme Studios comic book series Bloodpool with writer Jo Duffy in 1996, to launching his own studio in 2000 at Image called Dreamwave; publishing the anime-inspired Darkminds and Necrowar leading up to Transformers: Generation 1 and Transformers: Armada in 2002, Pat Lee’s career has been as an amazing ride as taking the Space Bridge to Cybertron.

In this interview conducted in June 2020, we go over his career ups-and-downs starting in Toronto, Canada to what he’s doing now in Hong Kong and China.

Transform and roll out with me and Pat Lee inside The Hyper Room!

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Marvel’s Moon Knight has been resurrected again this time by Jason Aaron in the pages of The Avengers: The Age of Khonshu which was so good I fell down a Moon Knight rabbit hole and decided to bring you all along with me.

Usually I do interviews but I’ll sprinkle some of these “character histories” into the mix as well since I love where the Rabbit Hole leads me. By no means a definitive or exhaustive publishing history of Moon Knight but more like a “course refresher” as we read about The Age of Khonshu in The Avengers and prepare for his Disney+ show.

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Authors of "American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1990s" - Keith Dallas and Jason Sacks join me inside The Hyper Room for a huge 2 HOUR talk encompassing 10 years of comic book history as a companion piece alongside their incredible book published by TwoMorrows and available now.

The decade that brought you Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Image Comics, Valiant Comics, Age of Apocalypse, Wizard Magazine, Hellboy, Sin City, and so, so much more is represented in this ultimate audio stroll down memory lane.

I hope I was able to convey the awesomeness of their book "American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1990s" in this interview - I enjoyed talking to them and the insight they have, especially as when this was recorded (Diamond Comics had stopped distributing comics due to COVID-19 and DC decided to not re-sign exclusivity with Diamond) is a great chance to look back at the historic time of the 1990s.

Get the book now:
https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=95_94&products_id=1373

Follow the authors on Twitter:
Keith Dallas: https://twitter.com/Keith_Dallas
Jason Sacks: https://twitter.com/jasonsacks

I've been reading BACK ISSUE since the first issue so check that and many other great publications at TwoMorrows: https://twomorrows.com

Other books by Keith and Jason:

American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1980s: https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=95_94&products_id=1063&zenid=bee33bc75e324b709aa4be2f107f9c84

Jim Shooter: Conversations: https://www.amazon.com/Jim-Shooter-Conversations-Comic-Artists-ebook/dp/B072M7ZW46/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Jim+Shooter%3A+Conversations&qid=1590880777&sr=8-1

Sign-up to be alerted on my own return to The Wonderlanders: https://www.thunder.house

In 1981 in Madison Wisconsin, one of the greatest independent comic series of all time - NEXUS - was born, 40 years later, I welcome legendary writer and Nexus co-creator Mike Baron to The Hyper Room.

We talk about Nexus, The Badger, his Wally West run of The Flash for DC Comics and his crazy Punisher series for Marvel Comics and a magical gift from Dark Horse Comics' Mike Richardson.

I was very fortunate to sit down with Mike, to talk about his career in comics and his writing and creative process on the eve of the beginning to his Kickstarter campaign for his first Nexus novel, news on an animated Nexus project and new Nexus material in 2021.

Follow Mike Baron on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/bloodyredbaron
And visit his site: http://www.bloodyredbaron.com

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Icon Heroes leads innovation in licensed pop culture office products, environment statues, toys, action figures, and collectibles with licenses as diverse as 80's cartoon powerhouses Thundercats and Masters of the Universe to classic sci-fi genre Star Trek and The Terminator all the way to The Golden Girls - yes The Golden Girls. Co-founder Pat Wang visits The Hyper Room to talk about making collectibles, selling collectibles and the future of retail in this current COVID world.