Tag: Andrew Sumner

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With Further Ado #232: Ms. Tree – Success Is No Mystery

With Further Ado #232: Ms. Tree – Success Is No Mystery

Posted on by Ed Catto

I never grew out of Superheroes, but I did grow into detective fiction. I’m not sure when it was (maybe middle school?), but mysteries and detective stories were my favorite literary genre. And while I’ve always been all in on comics, there was never an overwhelming amount of traditional detective/mystery/private eye comics.

Oh, there were a few that pulled me in, and I enjoyed them all. I particularly remember Mike W. Barr’s Maze Agency, Jonni Thunder and those Jason Bard back-up stories in (appropriately) Detective Comics. And the long running Ms. Tree was also always a favorite.

This character, and series, were created by two folks who would become favorites of mine. Max Allan Collins is a Mystery Writers of America 2017 Grand Master ‘Edgar’ winner, although I knew him better as the Dick Tracy writer and the guy behind the Nate Heller novels. Terry Beatty is a fantastic artist and today many folks know him as the inker of the Eisner Award-Winning Batman and Robin Adventures series and the World’s Finest graphic novel. Continue reading “With Further Ado #232: Ms. Tree – Success Is No Mystery” →

With Further Ado #147: Five and a Half Questions with Hard Agree’s Andrew Sumner

With Further Ado #147: Five and a Half Questions with Hard Agree’s Andrew Sumner

Posted on by Ed Catto

Andrew Sumner is a dynamo wrapped in a fireball with the limitless energy of a blazing supernova. I’m always fascinated by everything he’s doing and the launch of his new podcast, Hard Agree, (I’ve become a regular listener) provided a great excuse to catch up with him!

Question 1:

Ed Catto: You’ve got so much going on now and such a cool origin story, Andrew.  Can you tell us a little about who you are and how you ended up at your current position at Titan?

Andrew Sumner: My grandfather and best friend, Pops Smythe, served with an American unit in Normandy in WWII, and when he came back to Liverpool, England in 1947 (after spending two years as an MP on clean-up duty in post-Nazi-occupied Paris), he came back with a great love of America, Americans and American popular culture – as personified by movies, big band music and the comic books he’d received as part of his US Army rations. He transferred all of those passions to me – when I was three, he bought me my first US comic (Batman #184) and I was hooked for life. Continue reading “With Further Ado #147: Five and a Half Questions with Hard Agree’s Andrew Sumner” →

Press Release: “A SPOILERVERSE CHRISTMAS CAROL” LAUNCHES IN SUPPORT OF GIVE COMICS HOPE

Press Release: “A SPOILERVERSE CHRISTMAS CAROL” LAUNCHES IN SUPPORT OF GIVE COMICS HOPE

Posted on by PCS Staff

Press Release:

Wednesday December 23. 2020, Seattle –

Spoilerverse.com, the universe of pop culture podcasts based in Seattle (home of the Spoiler Country, Misery Point Radio, Narrative Gunslingers & Hard Agree podcasts – and many more) announce the launch of their annual “A Spoilerverse Christmas Carol” podcast, this year in support of Give Comics Hope.

“A Spoilerverse Christmas Carol” is the first of Spoilerverse.com’s annual yuletide charity podcasts and features regular Spoilerverse commentator/podcaster (and EVP of London’s Titan Entertainment) Andrew Sumner performing Charles Dickens’ one-man public performance version of Dickens’ Yuletide classic A Christmas Carol.

http://scpod.net/a-spoilerverse-christmas-carol/

Sumner commented: “we’re coming to the end of a wildly-turbulent & damaging pandemic year, which has left the comics industry’s all-important network of individually-owned comic book stores – the temples of pop culture in which we all worship – hard hit & struggling to survive. William Schanes’ team at GiveComicsHope.org have dedicated themselves to supporting our comic book shops until we can get to the other side of the pandemic. Their mission of community support reminded myself and Spoilerverse show-runners John Horsley & Kenric Regan of Dickens’ own seasonal message of empathy & civic responsibility, so we thought “what better way to underline & amplify Bill’s mission than to return to the words of Charles Dickens himself, the great believer in human society pulling together?”

“A Spoilerverse Christmas Carol” is live now:
http://scpod.net/a-spoilerverse-christmas-carol/

With Further Ado #105: Sharing SDCC’s Secret Traditions

With Further Ado #105: Sharing SDCC’s Secret Traditions

Posted on by Ed Catto

The San Diego Comic-Con is many things to many people.  For the business community, it’s an incredible commerce success story.  For fans and collectors, it’s both a celebration and a validation.   For entrepreneurs, it can be an enjoyable way to drive revenue quickly. For the entertainment community, it’s a fantastic marketing venue. For the entertainment community in Los Angeles and Hollywood, it’s also a great excuse to get outta town.

And for so many folks, professionals and fans alike, it’s an opportunity to spend time with 200,000+ of your closest friends.  It’s an annual journey to a real-life Disney World, mixed with a hefty dose of your best days on a college campus and the most incredible state fair ever, where the main dish on the menu is “all the stuff you love.”

This year, as the nation and the world struggles with Covid-19, the folks behind the convention shifted gears quickly to morph the show into a virtual convention. We’ll all be analyzing that for a while, but one refrain I heard time and time again was not so much how folks missed the big events, but how they missed the little things.

I reached out to a group of fascinating folks and asked them to share some of their more personal stories and traditions from their annual pilgrimage to San Diego Comic-Con and the little things they miss this year.

* * *

Rob Salkowitz is the author of Comic-Con and the Business of Geek Culture  (I use this as a textbook for one of my college classes)  a consultant  and a sayer of things. He wistfully remembers one tradition he and his wife Eunice especially hold dear:

Our oldest and longest running SDCC tradition is the Tuesday night dinner we instituted with Batton Lash and Jackie Estrada back in 2000, maybe earlier. We were fans with no industry connections whatsoever. They befriended us, introduced us to pros, made us formally part of the Eisner Award staff and brought us into the circle of Comic-Con. After we lost Batton a couple of years ago we continued with Jackie. We really miss seeing her in person this year.

Continue reading “With Further Ado #105: Sharing SDCC’s Secret Traditions” →