2 in 1 Showcase Episode 281: The 2012 Year in Review

It’s finally here, friends… the Showcase crew goes through everything interesting in the world of comics and pop culture for the past 12 months! This mammoth podcast touches on Marvel Now!, the New 52, The Walking Dead, hit movies, not-so-hit movies, LEGO, Aquaman, Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, the Avengers, the X-Men, Hello Kitty and virtually everything else. And as always, the crew closes it out with their picks of the year. Go to the bathroom first, because this episode is a giant. Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@CXPulp.com!

Music provided by Music Alley from Mevio.

2 in 1 Showcase Episode 281: The 2012 Year in Review

Indestructible Hulk #1

Evertime Realms: Beginning Year Three

Hey, everyone. It’s that time again, it’s the two-year anniversary of the launch of the modern incarnation of Evertime Realms, and again, the website has continued to evolve over the past year. The introduction of Time Travel Tuesdays has been fun, and the launch of my (second) podcast, the Evercast, has given me plenty of work but has me very excited for a project I hope to kick off in just a few weeks.

But today, I thought it would be fun to go back and do what I did last year, and give you a list of the top ten articles from Evertime Realms over the past two years. Although there are holdovers, list has changed up quite a bit, which is probably a good thing. In descending order…

10. Halloween Party: Mickey’s House of Villains — In the first Halloween Party after I moved shop here to the ‘Realms, I reviewed this direct-to-DVD Disney film based on the old House of Mouse TV show. Over the past year, people have continued to visit this old review, and it’s moved into the #10 spot on my list.

9. Toy Stories: Haven’t I Seen You Somewhere Before? — This photoblog from April of 2009 has climbed into the #9 spot. In this feature, one of my “Toy Stories” series, I looked at different versions of the same character, and compared different paints and different sculpts side-by-side.

8. Toy Stories: DC Universe Infinite Heroes-Lotsa Toys — Another “Toy Stories” feature from December 2008. This was kind of a catch-all feature for me. I’d gotten a lot of figures in the time between Halloween and Christmas, but hadn’t gotten around to doing a photo feature on them. On Dec. 30, I covered them all at once.

7. DC Universe Infinite Heroes — The prototype of the “Toy Stories” features was this post I made just after I discovered the existence of the toy line. It shows the first three Infinite Heroes figures I got, and I think it shows that although I’m not a great photographer, I’ve at least improved.

6. LEGO Batman and Mini-Nightwing — This post from September 2008 showcased some of the McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys that were released to accompany the premiere of the LEGO Batman video game, as well as a Mini-Mate set featuring Nightwing and Starfire.

5. Kanye West Hates Reading — This post, which I made just days before last year’s list but had already secured a spot in the top 10, followed a few days after the noted scholar Kanye West made some comments about how worthless and useless books are… comments made as he was preparing to release his own “book.” My thoughts on worthlessness are similiar, when you apply them to Kanye.

4. What Your Teacher is Really Thinking — The most recent post on the list clocks in at number four. Just under a month ago, in a moment of exhaustion, I put together this feature telling you the truth about what we teachers really think while the students are hard at work.

3. Halloween Party: Who You Gonna Call? — The last “Toy Stories” feature in this list, I promise. During the 2009 Halloween party, I did this feature about a set of Ghostbusters Mini-Mates. The continued popularity of this feature proves something of great importance: people still realize that the Ghostbusters kick ass.

2. What I’m Reading: Sheldon — This post from my first week online is still holding onto the #2 spot two years later, and all the credit belongs to Dave Kellett. I used the post to talk about how much I love Kellett’s webcomic, Sheldon. Less than an hour later, Kellett had posted a link to my blog post from his own website, and his legion of fans checked it out. It was my first exposure to a shocking increase in my views for the day.

1. Where I Find Free eBooks — Going back to February of this year we find the post that has overshadowed all others on this site, garnering some 10,000 more views than the #2 post on this list. (Not a typo — TEN THOUSAND.) As a Kindle owner, I’ve made it a mission to hunt down different websites where I can find free (legal) eBook content. In February I listed some of those sites, and that blog post caught on like wildfire.

Come back next summer, gang, and I’ll give you the top ten list Mark III.

Evertime Realms: One Year Later

It’s a double aniversary for me today. First of all, it’s four years to the day that I first met my girlfriend, Erin, in person. And for all the crap that has happened since then, the time with her has made it the best four years ever.

In news that will be of more interest to those of you who don’t want to get cavities, today is also the one-year anniversary of the relaunch of my Evertime Realms site. I did a “soft launch” of sorts on June 2, 2008, putting the site online and e-mailing friends and family asking them to check it out before I started posting links, setting it as my site on profiles like Facebook, and generally trying to promote it. It wasn’t long, though, before I started turning out the content that I was hoping to do. Later that same day, I posted my first book review, of Kevin Brockmeier‘s novel The Brief History of the Dead. My first movie review came on June 12, with the documentary The King of Kong. I started doing basic blog posts, columns, rants, ponderings of all kinds. On June 9 I posted the prologue to my novel-in-progress, Summer Love, which I swear to you guys is still in-progress.

Then things started to happen that I didn’t intend when I launched the site. On July 24 I posted a bit about the new DC Universe Infinite Heroes action figures I found. The response surprised me, so I did it again. And again. Now the feature I call Toy Stories has become a staple of Evertime Realms.

Earlier this year, I realized that I needed time to work on Summer Love, really work it to completion. So rather than leaving no new fiction here at all, I started serializing an older work of which I am still extremely proud, Lost in Silver. I’ve wound up posting a lot of fiction here on the site, and it’s gotten a lot of reads. But not enough comments, hint hint.

I moved my annual Halloween Party and Christmas Party series here from my old LiveJournal account. I’ve provided incessant links to my columns and podcasts, and an enormous, still-incomplete archive of my comic book reviews. I’ve done bits on teaching and writing. About plays I’ve been involved with and about just goofing off with Erin and my friends. I even survived a hurricane.

So it’s been a pretty good year here at the Realms. Thanks for everyone who has stopped here over the last 12 months. I hope you keep coming back, and I hope you keep enjoying it — and I hope you comment more. If there’s one thing I’d like more of, it’s feedback! I’m shameless about this, friends, I want to know what you’re thinking. Every post has a comment button. C’mon. Use it!

To wrap up this little retrospective, I thought I would let you know something I already know — which posts have been the most popular. Here, in descending “Countdown” order, are the top ten most-viewed posts at Evertime Realms to date:

10. How to Have a Crawfish Boil — Every Lenten season, my cousins Carl and Tammy host seafood feasts on Fridays. One week, Erin inspired me to take pictures of a crawfish boil in-progress. Since then, this post gets hits all the time from people searching for crawfish recipes. I hope it helps.

9. Blake’s Universal Rules of the Universe is a feature I brought back from my old site, one that people actually asked me to bring back. It’s just a list of goofy thoughts and sayings that I think have some… well… universality to them.

8. NOLA Comic-Con 2009 was a quick post I made once I knew that there were plans to bring a con to New Orleans. Amazingly, this became the top Google search hit for people looking for “New Orleans Comic Convention” and other variations on that. Several people approached the 2 in 1 Showcase table at the con and told me they found out about it because of my post. That was awesome.

7. DC Infinite Heroes: The Gotham Group is a post that showcases the Infinite Heroes Commissioner Gordon figure, as well as a couple of toys from the Dark Knight line.

6. DC Infinite Heroes: Lotsa Toys was a post-Christmas photoblog that ran down a dozen figures I’d gotten since my last post at the time. More Dark Knight, some Green Lantern, Superman, and lots of assorted characters.

5. DC Infinite Heroes II-And Blake’s Classroom was just the second-ever post I made about toys here. It ran down a few new figures, included lots of goofy Mini-Mates pictures, and also showed off how I had arranged my classroom for the then-upcoming school year… the same year that just ended.

4. Lego Batman and Mini-Nightwing looks at, of all things, the McDonald’s Lego Batman Happy Meal toys, as well as the Mini-Mate two-pack of Nightwing and Starfire.

3. Kanye West Hates Reading is a post that’s less than a week old, but it’s already become the third most-read post on my site. When Kanye proved, once again, his utter ignorance by decrying books and asking people to buy his 52-page “book” at the same time, I unloaded. And I’ve gotten some attention for it. This one post probably has more replies than any other on the site.

2. DC Infinite Heroes was my very first toy feature on the site. For those of you who wonder why I talk about toys so much here, this is your answer. Five of my top ten posts have been toy-related posts, including the post that would have been my most-viewed if not for one really cool thing.

1. What I’m Reading: Sheldon. On June 10, 2008, just over a week after I launched the site, I decided to write about my favorite webcomic, Dave Kellett’s Sheldon. The exceedingly generous Mr. Kellett somehow came across this post and linked to it on his own site, which you may notice is far more popular than mine. The incoming traffic was enormous, and this post still gets several hits a week from people going through the archives of Kellett’s blog. This post has almost three times the hits of post #2 on the list. It’s not getting unseated anytime soon, unless Oprah winds up Twittering about me or something. I’d rather have Dave Kellett.

So there you have it, folks. A year’s worth of blogging, and this is what I’ve got to show for it. And y’know? It was totally worth it. I’ll see you later for the beginning of year number two!

2 in 1 Showcase Episode 101: Secret Invasion

It’s been a few weeks now since Marvel‘s Secret Invasion storyline wrapped up. This week, Blake and Chase pick apart the build-up, the spin-offs, the aftermath, and the event itself. How did we get here? Which spin-offs were worth reading? And where is Dark Reign going to take us? In the picks this week, Blake bids farewell to Shrugged, and Chase is a fan of Thor #12. Write us with comments, suggestions, picks of the week, “Ask Chase Anything” questions, or anything else at Showcase@comixtreme.com!

2 in 1 Showcase Episode 101: Secret Invasion
Inside This Episode:

PLUS: In Week in Geek #6, you get a true rarity — a video game review from Blake. He talks about LEGO Batman: The Video Game, and gives you his review of the new book by Michael Davis, Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street. (Trust us, friends, it’s not what you think.) Plus, he’s got a very specific request for your feedback.

Week in Geek #6: LEGO Batman: The Video Game & Street Gang

Lego Batman and Mini-Nightwing!

Although I don’t play a lot of video games these days, one new game that I’m kinda interested in trying is the upcoming Lego Batman game. I briefly played one of the Lego Star Wars games a few months back and really enjoyed it, and the Lego Indiana Jones looks like a blast too. Lego Batman? C’mon, it can’t miss.

Lego Batman comes to McDonald's!

And as if the game wasn’t enough, McDonald’s is now offering a line of Lego Batman toys in their Happy Meals. Now these days, Happy Meal toys are just as likely to be sought after by collectors such as myself as they are by children, so when I decided to try to get my hands on a few of these toys, I wasn’t in the least embarrassed to be ordering a Happy Meal.

“Hello, good fast food merchant!” I cried, dropping my voice two octaves. “I require a Happy Meal for my son… my son… Cornelius. Cornelius Jethro. Ah, old Corny, he loves those McNuggets. Ha ha! Which Batman toy do you have today?”

Lego Batboat

I’d hoped that the toys would include actual Lego men and vehicles, but alas, it was not the case. Instead, we got little figures and vehicles in the style of the game, but not actually made of Lego blocks. Still, they’re kinda neat. Lego Batman, seen above, was the first toy I got. He comes with a Batarang, which he can theoretically throw if you pull his arm back. On, and if you’re wondering why his feet are gray, look at any Lego Man. The feet are molded into the legs, and one color. It’s just consistent with the game design.

The other toy I’ve gotten is this awesome Batboat. It’s awesome for a few reasons. First of all, it’s kind of hard to tell in the picture, but inside the plastic cockpit is a little mini-Lego Batman, perfectly poised to guide his Batboat through the narrow waters and canals of Lego Gotham City. The second thing that makes it awesome? You see that Bat-symbol on the front? That doesn’t just look nice. If you push down on it, the Batman in the cockpit swivels around, and…

Lego Mini-Batboat

A mini-Batboat launches from the back of the larger one, allowing for rapid escape should the main Batboat get caught in the sort of nefarious trap the likes of Lego Joker or Lego Penguin no doubt have laid out all over town. These toys are just too cool for school.

I happened to notice that Mickey Dee is offering a second set of toys for girls (apparently, Ronald doesn’t believe girls like Batman — Ronald has never met my girlfriend) based on a new doll set featuring the characters from the MGM version of The Wizard of Oz. What strikes me as unusual, however, is that the placard for these toys features a Kids WB logo. I know Warner Brothers owns the movie and the characters, but why are they branding the toys with the logo of a defunct television network? Just strikes me as odd.

Nightwing and Starfire

Anyhoo, I also recently snagged another Mini-Mate two-pack that kinda ties in with this topic: Nightwing and Starfire! The former Robin comes with two battle-sticks (I know there’s an actual martial artsy name for these sticks, but I don’t know what it is and I’m too lazy to look it up). Starfire has no accessories, except for a burning desire for Dick Grayson. I guess I see the sense behind packaging Nightwing with his one-time girlfriend, but honestly, I always liked him better with Oracle. Hey, when is herMini-Mate gonna come out? Have they ever done a Mini-Mate in a wheelchair before? Is there a Professor X? Hmm… DC Direct has said they’re considering going to boxed sets for future Mini-Mate releases instead of the traditional two-packs, which would be fine with me. How about a Birds of Preyset, including Oracle, Huntress, Manhunter, Misfit, and Lady Blackhawk? I would so buy that.