Agent Palmer

This past weekend, I had the privilege of attending The Great Allentown Comic Con Summer Show at Merchants Square Mall. As usual, it was filled with vendors of comic books and other pop culture paraphernalia, artists and other vendors, as well as, my fellow attendees, those in cosplay and those who just showed up with their geek on their sleeve.

I have said before and I’ll say it again, The Great Allentown Comic Con is getting too big for itself. This is not a complaint, more of an observation, and a good problem for the organizers to have at that.

Heavy Metal was released on Aug. 7, 1981. It was produced on a meager $9.3 million budget, but grossed nearly $20 million dollars during it’s initial theatrical release. Twenty-five years later, after some music industry scuffles about song rights, the film was re-released, as “Louder and Nastier than Ever,” in theaters on March 8, 1996 and later that year was released on VHS and Laserdisc, which sold over a million units. Five years after that in 2011, it was released on Blu-ray.

The film follows closely to the magazine it shares its title with, in that it was a film made up of 10 stories, although only nine were released. The only differentiating factor between the movie and the magazine, is that the movie is tied together with the Loc-Nar, while the magazine stories are not tied together at all in any given issue.

I am a fan of Star Wars, but not a fanatic. I grew up watching the original trilogy as it was intended and when the “updated” versions of the original trilogy hit store shelves, I was not educated enough, nor fanatical to have a real opinion. But now, as Episode VII is being filmed, it’s time to geek out for a bit.

First off, let’s talk about Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. I remember standing in line, at about 5:00 p.m. for the midnight show, on a school night.

This past weekend, I attended the 60th Philly Non-Sports Card Show in Allentown, Pa. This isn’t the first time I’ve been there, but every time I go I’m amazed at how much of that industry still exists.

I grew up with movie cards, sports cards, and collectible card games. Sure, I stopped collecting sports cards and I don’t collect Magic: The Gathering cards like I used to, but that obviously doesn’t mean everyone else kept up with their hobbies.