Moderate Fantasy Violence #9 – Prisoner Of Warcraft

New podcast episode! And I think one of our best ones yet, despite it being beset with minor technical issues during the recording. You can see the episode on the dedicated MFV website here, or below lurks the description, including download link and a nice embedded player..

Episode nine, we're doing fine! Or are we? After a brief opening chat about iZombie and the recent Captain America controversy, we plunge comics newcomer Alastair into the swirling heart of the latest DC superhero relaunch with the DC Rebirth and Batman: Rebirth specials (5:09), stare in fantastical bafflement at video game orc movie Warcraft (25:14) and develop crushes on Matt LeBlanc while covering the BBC's Top Gear revamp (38:17).

Then our recommendations feature (51:48) goes on a bit longer than usual as we're covering one of Nick's favourite superhero comics ever: Black Panther (1998) #1-5 by Christopher Priest and Mark Texeira.

As ever, we spoil all our topics pretty egregiously. Use the timestamps to avoid any you're sensitive about. Also, we suffered a few technical sound problems while recording it, but hopefully Nick has edited the bulk of them into oblivion. Get the mp3 download here! And if you want to leave us a review on iTunes, we'd like that a lot.

Oh, and if you want to hear us talk more about the promotion and purpose of DC Rebirth, we did that a bit back here in MFV #2.

Moderate Fantasy Violence #8 - A Wave Of Your Massive Blue Smurf Hand

I'm going on holiday very shortly so can't spend too long endlessly talking about myself on the internet, but the eighth episode of my pop culture talky podcast with my friend Alastair is up now and you can see more info on the podcast website, or I'll paste the description and an audio player in below.

Or if you want to just cut to the chase, download the file here!

Right, I'm off to York. Probably some pictures on Twitter or Instagram or something if you like that sort of thing.

It's our eighth episode, the fourth to feature a major superhero movie! But at least there isn't another one until Suicide Squad in August! We start with X-Men: Apocalypse (3:22), then move on to cape-free TV comic adaptation Preacher (23:34). After all that, we finally watch an all-original film, namely horror-thriller Green Room starring Patrick Stewart as a Nazi (43:21).

And then we leave the realm of narrative entirely for our recommendation feature, as Alastair suggests the Cammell Laird Social Club album by irreverent post-punk band Half Man Half Biscuit (53:27).

Spoilers abound, especially for the X-Men movie. Beware! And if you enjoy the show, do review us on iTunes or tell your friends!

Love Interests of Flash/Arrow - an essay elsewhere!

Today, another link to a blog post I've written somewhere else - this time on the Moderate Fantasy Violence website about how Flash and Arrow have dealt with introducing new TV love interests whilst working on a pre-destined comics canon. How have they done? What can other properties (such as Captain America: Civil War) learn from it?

All that and... well, that. Basically, no deleted scenes from the podcast this fortnight, so I'm doing this instead. Enjoy, hopefully! First long-form bit of pop culture writing in a while, must admit I quite enjoyed it.

How To Write A Hobson & Choi Book In 50 Easy Steps - GUEST POST ELSEWHERE

Because I am the best at internet, I've only just realised that a guest post I wrote a while back has been on the internet since December! It's a choose-your-own-adventure style list post on how to write your own Hobson & Choi book in 50 easy steps, and it's hosted on the Music, Books & Tea blog! Click on this paragraph to activate it!

This only came to light when I was emailed by Faye Rogers (the nice PR person who gets me these guest post gigs) to talk about future commitments and I realised I'd never actually promoted this one.

Whoops. Still, I think it's pretty funny and deserving of attention. More stuff like this probably coming up as we move ever closer to the release of H&C4!

Moderate Fantasy Violence #7 up now!

The seventh episode of my podcast is up now! Myself and Alastair JR Ball this week discuss Orphan Black season 4, upcoming indie scifi film Tourbillon, the ending of Daredevil season 4 and we take a look back at Sports Night. So go ye to the website here and get more info about that.

Or you can just download the episode directly from this link or listen to the embedded player below. Both would also work.
Tomorrow, hopefully, a link to some actual new blog content by me. You have been warned.

Moderate Fantasy Violence #6 - Black Panther's Trailing Entrails

It's been just over two weeks and that must mean it's podcast time! And also time to mark my failure to do a real blog! Sorry - although Hobson & Choi v4 is now off with the external editor, so some form of contentful blogging on here will probably have to happen.

In the meantime, full details about MFV #6 over at the dedicated podcast website, but we're talking in full about Civil War, the return of Game of Thrones, Better Call Saul season 2 and Blue Velvet, plus a brief exchange about the new Doctor Who companion. Wow.

There should also be a short bonus episode going up (in two chunks) during the coming week talking about the Civil War ending and implications of same, with full spoilers. If that floats your boat.

You can download the episode here, or you can go here to get it for your iTunes. Last but not least, here is some kind of in-line audio player...

Moderate Fantasy Violence #5 - The Man Who Laughs At Goats

Latest episode of my new pop culture podcast is up, and the title absolutely refers to me! (Yes, I pick the titles, so really it's surprising that this has taken a full five epiodes.)

Not done any blogs since the last one, surprisingly, but you can listen to some bonus MFV clips here if you like.

So, here's the podcast blurb:

Five episodes in and Nick and Alastair are spanning mediums like a common HTML tag refusing to accept the results of his psychic reading.

So we’re taking in recent hit horror movie The Witch (plus Alastair’s problems with recent horror and Nick’s amusement at livestock), the second season of mega-podcast Serial (plus the natural excitement of murder and the dangers of doorstepping) and the BAFTA-winning video game Her Story (plus the fun of fragmented narratives and the truth about human nature).

BEWARE: plot spoilers in both The Witch and Her Story sections, though we flag the major ones shortly beforehand.

Lastly, Nick recommended Alastair two Punisher books by Garth Ennis last episode –Punisher: Born and Punisher: From First To Last. This fortnight, we find out whether roaming the streets gunning down criminals is his sort of thing. Oh, and stick around after that for some hot info about MFV #6.

In short, another great episode. As ever, you can download the show directly, you can subscribe on iTunes or you can listen in the embedded player below.