Hosting Wizard World Philly’s “Battlestar Galactica” panel: The greatest nerd moment of my life.

This past Saturday at Wizard World Philadelphia, I hosted the “Battlestar Galactica” panel featuring Edward James Olmos (Admiral William Adama), Michael Hogan (Colonel Saul Tigh), Nicki Clyne (Crewman Specialist Cally Henderson) and Luciana Carro (Captain Louanne ‘Kat’ Katraine)—easily the highlight of my entire career at Wizard and the greatest nerd moment of my life.

The panelists.
The panelists.

I’ve been bubbling with excitement over all the little intricacies and amazing moments of the hour I sat on stage with the foursome of Galactica crew members, and figured I’d sit down and write my official documentation of this momentous story. I managed not to completely freak out in a fanboy fit while hosting, so I think I’ve earned the right to gush a little bit here—and gush I shall.

Also, there will be some “BSG” plot spoilers ahead, as we talked about the series finale and the upcoming DVD “The Plan,” so be forewarned.
Continue Reading “Hosting Wizard World Philly’s “Battlestar Galactica” panel: The greatest nerd moment of my life.”

Share

Authority Figure

Though I haven’t posted here in the last two days, the Enemy of Peanuts (yours truly, Jim Gibbons!) has still been quite active on the interwebs.

Be forewarned, this post is about to be a little bit of a promotional link-a-thon, but an entertaining one! So, read on for some nice, brief stories and links.
Continue Reading “Authority Figure”

Share

Journalism

As a writer and editor (as well as an intern, reporter and freelancer), I’ve racked up a load of clips and links across the print and online mediums—once upon a time, that is. Here’s a semi-comprehensive catalog of my ol’ journo work.

A bunch of these links are dead now, but I’m leaving the list intact for posterity’s sake.

Freelance Writer (Late 2009)
Comic Book Resources

  • CARTHAGE IS KING IN “CITIZEN X”
    The new historical fiction webcomic by “Hannibal Goes to Rome” writer Brendan McGinley ruminates on what could have been if Carthage, instead of Rome, had been the ultimate victor in the Punic Wars.
  • SHAMUS AND BIG APPLE GO HEAD-TO-HEAD WITH NYCC
    Early word from the rebranded Big Apple Comic-Con shows that Wizard Entertainment head, Gareb Shamus, plans on running his New York convention against New York Comic Con in 2010. (Article by Kiel Phegley. Photos by me.)

  • Baltimore Comic-Con: THE ACT-I-VATE EXPERIENCE
    A cadre of members from the webcomics collective came together to promote their new print anthology, air a short film about their site and announce a new indy comics creator who is soon coming to ACT-I-VATE.
  • Baltimore Comic-Con: MARVEL: YOUR UNIVERSE PANEL
    Brian Michael Bendis and Matt Fraction headlined the Marvel: Your Universe panel to answer questions about a wide range of topics, from Marvel’s movies, to Tony Stark’s diminishing intelligence, to the Infinity Gems, and more.
  • Baltimore Comic-Con: GEORGE PEREZ SPOTLIGHT PANEL
    The man who drew “New Teen Titans” and “Crisis on Infinite Earths” chatted with fans about his storied comics career, discussing the long-awaited graphic novel “Teen Titans: Games,” which will hit stores within a year.
  • Baltimore Comic-Con: “BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: SEASON 8” PANEL
    This past Saturday, the artists and editors of the popular series gave eager fans some insight on what happens behind the curtains and teased what’s to come.

Associate Editor of Wizard magazine (February 2009-September 2009)
Editing clips

Writing samples

WizardUniverse.com News Editor (December 2007-February 2009)Due to numerous Web site erasures and relaunches, all of the below links associated with WizardUniverse.com are now dead. Apologies.
Interviews

Reviews

Columns

Beat News

Reporting for the Columbia Missourian (August-November 2007)

Wizard Freelancer (August-November 2007)

My days as a Wizard intern (Summer 2007)

Reporter, Staff Writer and Senior Staff Writer at student newspaper The Maneater, aka “The often embarrassing olden days of Jim’s journalism career.” (2003-2005)
Interviews

Reviews

Sidebars and mini-features

Share

Sketchy Galore!

This one’s a long time coming folks! For over three weeks now I’ve been wanting to get this up for you kind readers, but with the cool down from Wizard World Philly meshing right into the crazy-hectic buildup to Wizard World Chicago, I haven’t had the time to post this SUPER AWESOME WIZARD STAFF SKETCHBOOK!

That’s right, a sketchbook from Wizard World Philly chock-full of art from the Wizard Staff!

Basically, we’re all at a convention where sketches are being done left and right and it motivated all of us to try our extremely amateur hands at some sketches of our own. Most were done just screwing around and over a few beers, but we all thought it’d be a good time to get them up for people to see as they’d be at least worth a few laughs to the our minimal but fiercely loyal fanbase (thanks to all seven of you!).

Anyway, here’s a quick sample…

“Jordan”
By Alex Kropinak



“Mel by JIM”
By Jim Gibbons

Yep, that’s Top Cow’s Mel Caylo!

Head here for the rest of the sketchbook with drawings by Wizard legend Mike Cotton, Wizard TV‘s Alex Kropinak, Indie Jones‘ David Paggi and a few more by me.

Sadly, there was an entire series of drawings done in crayon at a Chili’s that got ruined in Dave’s backpack…but hey, be thankful you got these hilarious doodles!


And yes, we’re well aware they may just be funny to us, as they are drawings by us of us…but hey, that’s what blogs are for right?!

Share

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I’m blurb-worthy!

So, I was catching up on this week’s comics and was reading through on of my favorites from Image Comics, Jay Faerber and Mahmud A. Asrar’s Dynamo 5. After another another great issue, I flipped over to the back cover where I saw the following…

The cover and back cover of Dynamo 5 #12…

…And let’s zoom in for a closer look.

This quote comes from a Secret Stash review I did of Dynamo 5 back in Wizard #191, and while Mahmud mentioned me on his blog back when the review came out, and I’ve had blurbs of my reviews featured in press releases before, I believe this is my first blurb to actually grace the cover of a book—which is super exciting. I don’t write my reviews consciously trying to make them cover-worthy, I write them for readers looking for honest looks at books. But at the same time, it’s nice to know that something I’ve written—and honestly believe about a comics—was viewed by the creators and the people at Image as something that they thought was worth putting on their book. So, thanks to Jay, Mahmud and the good folks at Image for making one of my minor journalistic dreams come true!
——————————————————————-
Special thanks on this post goes out to my sister Lexie, who dug through a pile of my old Wizard’s littering my room back on the ol’ suburban Chicago homestead to help me confirm #191 featured my review. Thanks Lex!

Share