Tag: Interviews

Crowdfunding Paradox Girl, a Lesson in Time-Travel — an Interview

While most of the content is lighthearted and whimsical, we’ll see what it’s like for Paradox Girl to struggle with timelessness and the lack of consequence. Loss, identity and regret are underlying themes of the character and while juggling that whimsy, we’ll deal with some of those deeper concepts.

Paradox Girl Comic Book CoverCayti Bourquin is the writer/creator of a new kind of heroine, codenamed: Paradox Girl, illustrated by Yishan Li. Together, both this duo and and Peter Bensley, editor of Hana Comics, are taking to crowdfunding on Kickstarter to help this comic book take off. They are well past their goal, and the team believes there’s a market for this special kind of independent hit.

This character is very different from the normal type of heroes found in print and the story looks at a problem found with stories involving time-travel — just how do you deal with altering anyone’s personal time stream? The television series Doctor Who dodges the issue and CW’s Legends of Tomorrow has yet to consider the bigger picture. The pilot episode already altered the timeline with how Professor Boardman passed on — or was the incident meant to be? Even in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the 2012 animated series, the heroes in the half-shell went back in time to pretend they are Yokai only to save their sensei. The most craziest of situations was explored in Futurama, Bender’s Big Score. Just how these other properties addresses the issue of altering time-lines makes for great story-telling and Bourquin has a plan in mind for her Paradox Girl (PG). She may seem to be an ordinary hero, but there’s more to her than meets the eye, especially when she has to live with all her future selves.

At least the hit here is that issue #2 will happen. There’s still two weeks left to this campaign. Readers might want to take note of possible convention appearances as they get announced by Bensley. Artist Yishan Li will be attending Europen conventions with this product. Although shy, perhaps Cayti Bourquin can be encouraged to appear for autograph signings in a tour at shows in North America.

Otakunoculture spoke with Bensley and Bourquin about this product:

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LANtasy Wants the Fun in Fandom to Return in Victoria, BC!

Pearkes Recreation Center will play venue host to Gottacon and LANTasy.

LANTasy Event LogoMarch 12-13, 2016
Pearkes Arena, Victoria BC 

Tickets: $30 weekend pass
or $15 per day (pre-registration).

LANtasy‘s motto is “Play Games, Have Fun” at their upcoming event taking place March 12th and 13th. For the fandom living in Victoria, BC, hopefully everyone can put the incidents of 2015 behind them. The final quarter of that year was less than positive: GottaCon (GC) announced they were closing their doors and Island Fantasy Convention did not happen. The reaction by the community was not kind with how the latter event was handled. However, with a new year Tsukino-Con remains strong and the technical crew behind GC decided to continue the legacy the broad-spectrum gaming event represented.

Jeff Pedlow is one of the department heads. He says this show will exist to bring people together and his group really loves the gaming community that exists here. Despite the name, they are not playing favourites over what kind of activities are being offered at this show. Yes, there will be a heavy Local Area Network (LAN) gaming presence, but there is more to the show than just that — board gaming, miniature gaming and RPGs are offered. People will be encouraged to come in costume (cosplay). Essentially, this event will be just like GottaCon in their early days. In what’s for certain, Pedlow says that his group does not take any money from the event and their goal is to throw community-centric gaming events for everyone living on the island. As their Facebook page shows, there are qualifying events taking place in and out of the Capitol Region that will lead up to the finals at LANtasy.

“If we grow in size, that’s always great, but our primary concern is throwing fun events for the community to come out and enjoy,” said Pedlow.

Even though this event is two months away, perhaps fandom should start planning. In addition to their FAQ about this event, Otakunoculture talked to Jeff about other lingering queries:

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Humourous Tales from the Bald Side, An Interview with Michael Roberds

Michael Roberds can sometimes found in the background of many a Vancouver production. When on the spotlight, fans will remember him in the season four Supernatural episode, “Yellow Fever,” where he played Mark Hutchens, a reptile lover.

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Michael Roberds

Going from an actor from a well-received series (The New Addams Family) to being an all-around media personality in Vancouver, British Columbia, Michael Roberds certainly is not resting. He appears on television as a movie critic for Global TV and he is sometimes found in the background of many a Vancouver production. When on the spotlight, fans will remember him in the season four Supernatural episode, “Yellow Fever,” where he played Mark Hutchens, a reptile lover. He also has a notable role in The Further Adventures in Babysitting, a made for TV movie due in 2016. When considering that being an extra keeps him occupied more often than any other job, there’s a certain pleasure to know that he was requested by a casting director to appear in the X-Files miniseries that’s also broadcasting next year.

Although Roberds has not gotten a new role in today’s pop culture scene to guarantee him regular appearances at media conventions, he’s still looking. He still enjoys working on the side-lines and there was a time in his life where he also helped a talent agency geared specifically for people just wanting to be an extra. “But ever since The CW came along with Smallville, the attitude became we don’t want anybody over the age of 30 and they have to be good-looking. I had an elderly couple and they were available 100% of the time. They were never a problem but I was lucky if I could get them work once every couple of months.” revealed Roberds.

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In Conversation with Glenn Taranto of the New Addams Family

Glenn Taranto loves the cinema from the Golden Age of Hollywood and the stars that emerged from it.

Glenn Taranto

(On Examining the appeal of the Addams Family Franchise)

by Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Glenn Taranto loves the cinema from the Golden Age of Hollywood and the stars that emerged from it. During that time, many genres like German Expressionism emerged, and from that, film noir. The influences date as far back as the silent films, but it was the comedic greats that this actor/writer revealed an affinity for. He grew up watching a lot of them on television and film with his brother, and it’s no small wonder that the passion has influenced him in kooky ways that Charles Addams, the creator of the Addams Family comic approves of. Taranto is very familiar with the source material and it helped him prepare for the role of Gomez Addams when production for the New Addams Family began. This program ran on multiple networks (YTV in Canada and Fox Family in the United States) from 1998-1999.

These days, Taranto spends his time in Los Angeles, the entertainment hub of the world. The roles he often plays can be attributed to the fact that “it’s a family business.” To know the quirks needed to play these parts effectively only came naturally for him and he made use of this experience when he crafted his first feature-film debut as a screenwriter with the movie, Stolen.

“I say write what’s in your heart and don’t let your imagination be stifled. Never say ‘That can’t be done’ or ‘I can’t do that’. Just get it all out,” advised Taranto.

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In Conversation with the New Addams Family Coming Soon!

New-addams-family-1

From The New Addams Family, Gomez (played by Glenn Taranto) and Uncle Fester (Michael Roberds) are coming over to Victoria, BC for Island Fantasy Convention (IFCon) this Halloween weekend! Both cannot be any more thrilled. The actors are just as excited for what’s to come because Roberds expects a lot of laughs as they share some of their behind the scenes stories. “The cast of our show [The New Addams Family] is very lucky in that we quickly became good friends and have all stayed in touch over the years,” said Roberds, the actor behind the mask.

The same rule applies for the original Addameses (Lisa Loring and Felix Silla). Who knows, maybe some strange shenanigans will happen outside of the convention. “When we were filming the New Addams Family, Ellie and Mike kidnapped me for my 40th birthday,” Taranto recalled.

“I have to give Ellie Harvey full credit on that,” said Roberds. “She came up with this idea of saying well we’ll go to Victoria. We told a bunch of the cast and crew what’s up. We took him out for a seafood lunch down in Tsawwassen cause he didn’t know the area. It worked pretty well, we got him all the way to the island before he realized what’s going on. That was a great weekend and we all had fun.”

Roberds even considered moving to this garden city. The only thing that really kept him from doing it is the fact that most of the acting gigs took place in Vancouver. Nowadays, that’s a different story but the issue is being able to commute to where the auditions and locations are. He has a friend living on Bowen Island and it was a pain for him to come over and go back; it was really costly. More details will be coming about his work as a Vancouver-based regular when his interview publishes in a few days.

Both this actor and Taranto have plenty of stories to tell when fans of their series visits this garden city too. There’s plenty of creepy and kooky sites to see in the days leading up to All Hallow’s Eve, and they are going to be the spotlight for this show that is trying to emphasize a Halloween theme. For those people coming over more than a weekend stay, there’s more than a few Victorian styled architecture to get inspired by too when touring the sites after the firework filled day. In the next two days there will be full interviews with the two about their work that looks into and beyond the Addams Family world.

Getting Tromatized with Lloyd Kaufman, An Interview

Lloyd Kaufman and his studio are here for making art. He said, “We want to make a film that people will really be impressed with.”

Lloyd Kaufman PosterGetting to talk to Lloyd Kaufman, the cheerleader for Troma Entertainment, is a treat for this journalist. He’s very knowledgeable about the industry and he has more than 40 years of experience in entertaining the masses. One of his long-standing philosophies in life is to share what he knows and not play with the evil conglomerates. His work in the independent B-movie scene is well-respected, and perhaps the best way to summarize his thoughts is in what he said, “We’re all friends of the underground and it’s very important to help develop each other’s well-being.”

That not only in reference to lifestyle changes needed to emotionally succeed but also in how he conducts business at Tromaville, or rather, Troma central. When considering all that he’s experienced in his road to recognition and the fact the Toxic Avenger franchise put Troma Entertainment on the map, people are asking what’s next? The big question is in what’s happening about the big screen treatment that’s been limping along in development. Sadly, Kaufman is not in the loop with every detail. He notes that Steve Pink is a fervent supporter of Troma products and that a script exists. Kaufman knows that the product is in very capable hands and when it does go into production, he will have a cameo in it much like how he appeared in Guardians of Galaxy, directed by James Gunn (also a supporter since Troma was where he got his start).

Kaufman is very happy that a handful of films his company produced do have moguls in Hollywood interested. Just when it will arrive will depend on the ultimate thing that even plagues this business: where’s the money? Until that comes, Troma Movies has a YouTube Channel offering 250 of their films for free and lessons in how to get into the film industry.

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