VHS Rewind -- Interview

I was interviewed recently by Mark Jeacoma of VHS Rewind.

You can listen HERE.

New Nostalgic Review for Encyclopedia of KISS

I love the nostalgic nature of this Amazon review of my KISS book, written by someone named Kris Anderson: 

I spent two years between ages 12 and 14 listening to KISS virtually every day. Alive II was on a constant cycle among me and my friends - so much so that we could speak and sing every word that was uttered on that album. It wasn’t the only one, but it was definitely part of the soundtrack of our lives.

It took some time for me to receive this book and it was worth the wait. So much so that I read it in one sitting! This is not your average encyclopedia. This is a very detailed; very cross referenced volume of information that is perfect for super fans and average fans alike.

Organized alphabetically, each entry covers any aspect of KISS that you can think of: personnel, events, music, songs, individual projects, related bands, former bands, venues, producers, merchandising etc.

Not only are these areas covered, they are cross referenced. Some entries are substantial. This is true in particular about the members of the group – original and replacements. Each is covered in equal depth.

What I loved the most about this book is that it is not filtered through the Gene Simmons/Paul Stanley prism. Equal weight is given to Peter Criss and Ace Frehely as there is to Eric Carr, Tommy Thayer and others. Too many times in “official” KISStory, the story cuts out the original members who we grew up loving.

This is such a fun read. I literally could not put it down and stayed up way too late absorbed in all the details. After I finished, I dug out Alive II and flashed back to my teen years – black light posters, incense and KISS! It rocked!

*You can order Encyclopedia of KISS HERE. 

My Interview with PopNerdTV's Alex Thompson

I recently interviewed the perpetually positive Alex Thompson,  Chief Content Coordinator with PopNerdTV, and co-host of Nerd Portal, for an article I'm working on for the July issue of K Magazine. I will cull some quotes from the interview for the piece, but I decided to go ahead and publish the entire interview here in order to give fans of comic books, video games and geek culture in general a little behind-the-scenes info on the website, YouTube channel and Alex himself. Enjoy!

BRETT WEISS: You live in Keller, correct? Did you grow up in this area?

ALEX THOMPSON: We film in Keller and our CEO, John Martin, currently lives in Keller. I was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and moved to Temple, Texas at the age of six. It wasn't until I finished my associates degree that I was accepted into the University of North Texas as a music major, which quickly changed to a broadcasting major, that I moved to Denton where I still currently live.

WEISS: Are you a millennial? What does that label mean to you?

THOMPSON: I guess I am technically labeled as a millennial, but I was raised by my grandparents, and most consider me an old soul. The term millennial has its negative connotations with a group of people born in a certain time, but weren't the baby boomers saying the same things about the Gen-X crowd back in the '80s? It is all just a cycle--millennials grew up in a time of technology that I think causes some to believe in instant gratification. Success only comes from time and hard work, which is something my grandfather always told me.

WEISS: Did you grow up reading comic books?

THOMPSON: Surprisingly, I did not grow up reading comics. I did spend a lot of time in front of the TV set, though, and shows like X-men: The Animated Series, Batman: The Animated Series, Super Friends, and Spider-Man all inspired my love for comic characters. It wasn't until I moved to Denton, and not knowing anyone,  that my now-fiance decided to go on eBay and buy me a box of Venom comics to read that my love for comics blossomed. She recalled me talking about how at the time Venom was one of my favorite comic characters and how I disliked his portrayal in Spider-Man 3 that she randomly decided to buy the box. I think she saved me from a lot of bad things in my past by doing this though. Comics can change old habits by forming new hobbies.

WEISS: Did you grow up playing video games?

THOMPSON: In my childhood, video games were life. I had my group of neighborhood friends who each had different systems and games. We would get together and bike from one person's house to the next to spend hours playing games. I can recall my aunt having an NES that I would just push buttons on because I was too young to know what I was doing. Another thing that I miss so much is the time I would spend with my grandfather in the arcades. He would play Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter II, Primal Rage, and all kinds of arcade games with me. I don't think my love for games really blossomed, though, until I got a Nintendo 64 for Christmas. It was my first console just for me, and after I played Super Mario 64, I was hooked. Later on I had my phases with Tony Hawk, fighting games, first-person shooters, and whatever my friends or I could get our hands on. I will say the arcades of the '90s influenced a lot of my choices, though.

WEISS: What comics and games do you enjoy now?

THOMPSON: Currently, I am still a Marvel fan boy. I'm really into the classic cosmic Marvel stuff done by Jim Starlin, Ron Marz, Roy Thomas, and more. I have also always been an X-men fan, and even though they aren't very popular now a days, I still read almost every X book that comes out. On the DC side of things, you can't go wrong with Hal Jordan. In the video game world, I still play my original N64 very often. I have started to collect old systems now since I am an adult and can afford things,  but for new games I'm stuck on playing Overwatch and Grand Theft Auto V.

WEISS:What has geek culture meant to your life beyond entertainment value?

THOMPSON: Back in high school, most people would see me as the complete opposite person I am now. I used to go out a lot and party with no real care about the world that was going on around me. Most people think that starts in college, but for me, college was where I kind of found a new hobby with fandom, and I used this to try to make my life more meaningful. I have always been a social person, and growing up I was always into the geek culture, but doing the full 360 and coming back to it really impacted my life.

WEISS: What is your day job? Is it related to your interest in geek culture?

THOMPSON: My day job is kind of similar, but the topics are different. I am a web content coordinator for a digital marketing firm that deals with insurance companies. I oversee and edit what goes on company websites and manage a numerous amount of blogs for insurance. Never did I think I would end up in an office reading about insurance all day, but the job has its perks, and my coworkers are great!

WEISS: What is PopNerdTV? How does it stand out from similar YouTube channels?

THOMPSON: PopNerd is a labor of love that is made by fans for the fans. We started out as a project among a group of grad students at the University of North Texas before I was even involved. Eventually they ended up getting busy with other adventures and projects, leaving PopNerd kind of on a hiatus. Later on I met John as a student of his. I presented a short documentary to him as a final project over the rise of comic culture in the Denton area and how the rise of diversity in comics was becoming more and more relevant at the time. This was when Jane Foster ended up becoming Thor and Marvel was doing their big switch up with characters. John had mentioned the site before, and I needed an internship, which lead to me becoming a writer for the site. After about 5 months of me doing what I could, John asked me to become editor in chief, and we put together a writing team of students and fans to front the push for nerd culture that seemed to be lacking as a media outlet in the DFW area. Soon we started adding video content, and from there we pushed off on our journey. I would like to think we stand out from other YouTube channels because we all have this vision of what we want to be. Like I said, most of us are just big fanboys and girls with a love of expressing ourselves and entertaining others. We don't want to feel like all the other sites who like to use click bait and spoilers to drive traffic. We want to be organic and genuine with our movement and show the world that fandoms are still around and loud in the DFW area.

WEISS: What is your current role with PopNerd?

THOMPSON: Awhile back, I gave up my responsibilities as editor in chief to my good friend Jake Combs and started to focus on video content as the Chief Content Coordinator. I am responsible for making sure things get done on time and managing the interns and production teams. I like to think of my self as a multi-role kind of guy. We all do this for free so sometimes you have to take on multiple jobs.

WEISS: What are your plans for PopNerdTV moving forward? Where do you see the channel and website five years from now? Do you hope to make it a full-time job?

THOMPSON: Moving PopNerd forward has been a challenge because no money is involved. We are trying to focus on quality and content for now, and social media has been a big help for advancing our material to larger audiences. We have a great social media team and set of content creators who I am thankful for. Every day we see the progress made and continue to research and brainstorm ways to promote ourselves and the DFW area. I would love in five years to be doing this full time. I can see the website and channel blowing up, but it takes time and hard work. Finding advertisers and people who want to invest in us is tough for a company that has only been pushing content for a little over two years. I love the involvement from the students in the DFW area and the creators and shop owners we come across daily. We have high hopes that PopNerd can eventually be built into something that will not only represents the DFW area but Texas as a whole. We want to get our voices out there.

Check out a recent episode of Nerd Portal:

My Interview with PopNerdTV's Cierra Caballero

Check out my interview with the lovely and talented Cierra Caballero, one of the co-hosts of PopNerdTV. She's the horror hostess (of a sort) with the mostest, she fronted a really cool rock band while she was in high school, and she's a funny and intelligent girl, which you'll gather as you listen to the interview. We talk horror, science fiction, absurdism, film, geek culture, belief in the supernatural, and more. The interview cuts off abruptly at the end, but it was pretty much over--just needed to sign off. Click HERE to listen.

Also, check out one of her Jump Scare videos:

And her former band:

The 100 Greatest Console Video Games: 1977-1987 - NOW ON AMAZON KINDLE

My book, The 100 Greatest Console Video Games: 1977-1987, is now available on Amazon Kindle, which is an app that you can download for FREE on your phone, tablet or computer. Check it out HERE. 

There have been many top 100 books before, but rarely one like this. Here are the best of the early video games, shown in over 400 color photos and described in incredible detail in the entertaining and informative text. Each game’s entry features production history, critical commentary, quotes from industry professionals, gameplay details, comparisons to other games, and more. This book celebrates the very best of the interactive entertainment industry’s games from this highly crucial, fondly remembered decade. This pivotal period was marked by the introduction of the indispensable Atari 2600, Odyssey2, and Intellivision, the unleashing of the underrated Vectrex, the mind-blowing debut of the next-gen ColecoVision and Atari 5200, plus the rebirth of the industry through Nintendo’s legendary juggernaut, the NES. Whether you’re young or old, new to the hobby or a hardcore collector, this book will introduce you to or remind you of some of the greatest, most historically important games ever made.

*"This is an amazing book...detailed information...very high quality all around." - 8-Bit Eric

*"Truly beautiful from cover to cover...It should be a fixture on every coffee table in a video gaming household...Each section of the book is well-written and accompanied by high quality artwork and photos." - Patrick Scott Patterson
 
*"Author Brett Weiss knows his stuff...a respected name in the classic gaming community...he provides insightful behind-the-scenes information...the book is suitable for just about any type of video game fan." - The Video Game Critic

*"100 Greatest Console Video Games 1977-1987 is truly an excellent book that anyone interested in video games should own. Whether you want to read about the details of the games or just admire the tons of images within its pages, this book is for you. Will you agree with every game selected? Unlikely, but thats part of the fun. If you dont find a game you think should have made it within the main book, be sure to check out the appendix at the end with 100 honorable mentions. That game may have made it there." Rating - 10/10." Retrovideogamer.co.uk

SNES Podcast -- Talking Donkey Kong Country & My Super Nintendo Book

 I recently appeared on the SNES podcast, talking the Super Nintendo in general, and my forthcoming SNES book and Donkey Kong Country specifically. You can listen HERE.

ENJOY! 

Fan Expo Dallas Report

The comic book convention scene is much different now than it was in 1983, when I first started going to Larry Lankford’s late, lamented Dallas Fantasy Fairs, which had begun a year earlier. Back then, the Dallas Fantasy Fair was one of the biggest comic cons in the country, drawing around 2,500 fans. According to some reports, only San Diego Comic-Con and Chicago Comicon were bigger, the former bringing in around 5,000 people (grown to more than 160,000 today).

Compare that to my experience over the weekend at Fan Expo Dallas, where close to 50,000 fans (according to pre-show estimates) converged on the Dallas Convention Center. In the old days (the last Dallas Fantasy Fair was in 1996), comic books were king—most of the guests were comics-related, and most of the vendors sold comic books.

Nowadays, movie and TV celebrities have taken over the bigger comic cons. There are still plenty of comic books for sale (along with action figures, trading cards, T-shirts, and the like), but today’s shows have a different, more corporate, more mainstream vibe than those older, more intimate shows, where you felt like you were part of a secret society.

Before this column devolves into a “get off my lawn” type of rant where I lament “the good old days,” where we would stay at the Dallas Fantasy Fair all weekend without renting a hotel room (the back row of the all-night film room made for a good place to sleep), I’ll try to stay focused on the here and now of Fan Expo Dallas.

Both of my kids were home from college for the event, so that meant I would likely have a great weekend no matter the quality of the convention.

We set out Saturday morning and arrived a few minutes after the show opened. We had media passes, so we didn’t have to hassle with getting tickets, but we still had to wait in a pretty long line just to get in (lines for pretty much everything else were long as well).

After taking a brisk survey of the vendor’s room, we made a beeline to the celebrity area, where several rows of movie and TV stars were meeting, greeting, and taking pictures with fans. One reason my son Ryan wanted to go to Fan Expo was to collect autographs for Hearts of Reality (www.heartsofreality.com), an annual non-profit charity event that helps support Give Kids the World. Located in Orlando, Give Kids the World provides children with life-threatening illnesses and their families an all-expenses-paid trip to Orlando to visit the area theme parks.

With paperwork in hand, and with my daughter Katie and I acting as backup support (at least part of the time), Ryan waited in each line, bravely approaching the celebrities’ handlers, managers, etc., telling them what he was doing, explaining the charity to them, and hoping they would comply.

Much to our delight, a number of celebrities happily agreed. Among others, Ryan collected autographed glossies from such Hollywood types as Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy from Harry Potter), James Marsters (Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Khary Payton (King Ezekiel from The Walking Dead) and Robin Lord Taylor (The Penguin from Gotham). Several cast members from The Rocky Horror Picture Show also complied, including Tim Curry (Dr. Frank-N-Furter), Patricia Quinn (Magenta), Nell Campbell (Columbia), and Barry Bostwick (Brad).

Each autographed photo Ryan collected will be auctioned off, and 100% of the proceeds will go to Hearts of Reality. While Ryan won’t benefit monetarily from the autographs he collected, he was the benefactor of a super fun day talking to celebrities, in addition to the good feeling one gets from charitable works. Even some of the celebs who didn’t fork over a photo were a blast to speak with. For example, Rocky Horror cast member and rock and roll icon Meat Loaf didn’t donate a signed pic, but it was pretty cool talking to the legend up and close and personal.

Speaking of Meat Loaf, the highlight of Saturday for me was attending his Q&A panel, where he waxed eloquent about his long career, which includes numerous movie appearances, a brief stint with Ted Nugent (he sang lead vocals on five tracks on Free-For-All), and collaborating with lyricist Jim Steinman on several records, including 1977’s Bat Out of Hell, one of the best-selling albums of all time.

Not only did Meat Loaf tell interesting stories, he was downright hilarious, such as when he mimicked his “moronic” self being absolutely star-struck and unable to speak when he met Elvis Presley and John Lennon (on separate occasions).

Since the floor was open to questions, I tossed out one of my own, inquiring about where he got the idea for combining operatic vocals with rock and roll. Meat replied, “No one. I didn’t want to copy anyone else. I didn’t want to sound like anyone else.” A little later he said, “The only other people who could do what me and Jim Steinman did were Brian May and Freddie Mercury of Queen and Pete Townshend with The Who.”

All in all, Saturday was a blast, and I even found some graphic novels for $2 each, a small stack of old MAD magazines for $2 each, and a large stack of recent Marvel and DC comic books for 75 cents each. I bought these things to resell in my antique mall booth, but I did find one item for my collection: an official Tron joystick (1983) for the Atari 2600 for only $10 (they go for about $25-$30 on eBay).

Ryan and I had decided not to go to Fan Expo on Sunday, since we were both exhausted, and since Ryan figured he had collected about all of the signatures he could. However, Katie talked us into going by insuring us that we would have fun, reminding us that she had driven five hours from Lubbock just to go to the convention, and telling us we’d be crazy to miss the Rocky Horror Picture Show panel scheduled for that afternoon.

It was raining like crazy on our way to the show Sunday morning. While driving in those conditions was a hassle, I was glad I was at the helm and Katie wasn’t driving there by herself. I’m sure she could have handled it, but, even though she’s 19, I’m not ready to give up the role of protective father just yet.

As Katie predicted, we had an amazing time on Sunday, and Ryan even managed to snag a few more charity autographs. The highlight was meeting Jason David Frank, the original Green Ranger in multiple seasons of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. We’re not really Power Rangers fans, but we immediately became huge Jason David Frank fans when he signed FIVE photos and insisted that we pose for a picture with him free of charge. His energy and generosity were awesome.

The coolest part of the entire weekend, as Katie predicted, was indeed The Rocky Horror Picture Show panel. With no need for a moderator, Patricia Quinn, Nell Campbell and Barry Bostwick kept a room full of fans mesmerized and howling with laughter. If you’ve seen Rocky Horror at the theater or on DVD, you can imagine some of the ribbing Quinn and Campbell gave Bostwick about his “tighty-whities.”

The panel was poignant as well. During one especially moving moment, a young woman said that watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which is a musical about a “sweet transvestite from Transylvania,” saved her life. Feeling suicidal after her parents had rejected her when she came out as gay and transitioning, she watched the film, and it gave her some measure of comfort and a sense that she wasn’t alone.

I’ve got many more stories to tell about Fan Expo Dallas 2017, such as James Marsters bursting into song at his panel, but those will have to wait until another day.

You can donate to Ryan's Give Kids the World page HERE.