Tag: anime

Pop Culture Squad > anime

With Further Ado #246: ITHACON Student Writing Competition – Taking a Look at Black Butler

Posted on by Ed Catto

ITHACON 46 was a rousing success. It seems like just about everyone had an outstanding experience. As part of the class I teach the Promoting and Managing ITHACON Class at Ithaca College, each year we embrace this annual tradition with the “With Further Ado” column.

Each year, I ask the students to submit a column on pop culture as if they were the author of this space. Our crack editorial staff pours over the submissions and selects a winner, and they get published on this website. (The fact that it gives me a couple of weeks break right after ITHACON is of no concern to anyone but me.)

Anyway, we have three amazing columns to publish this year.

Our second runner-up of this year’s fill-in columnist contest is Collin Longo and his thoughts about manga called Black Butler. Congrats to you, Collin!

Black Butler is a manga series created by mangaka (author) Yana Toboso, published in Square Enix’s magazine Monthly GFantasy. Having been published since September of 2006, the manga is currently ongoing with one hundred and ninety-eight chapters and thirty-two physical volumes released. In October of 2008, an anime television series of Black Butler was released, it now having three seasons, an original video animation (OVA), and a feature length movie. Several other adaptations have also spawned such as a live action movie, a video game, and even five stage musicals. Continue reading “With Further Ado #246: ITHACON Student Writing Competition – Taking a Look at Black Butler” →

What To Expect at Ithacon 46 – April 22-23, 2023

What To Expect at Ithacon 46 – April 22-23, 2023

Posted on by PCS Staff

You may have heard about Ithacon, the second longest running comic convention in America, before. Our own Ed Catto is a major force behind making it a terrific little comic show. It is going to happen next weekend, and as the weeks leading up to it are now down to just days, we wanted to let you know all the amazing things that will be there.

First of all Pop Culture Squad will be attending. Mike Gold is a Featured Guest and will be the subject of the discussion panel “Reinventing Characters with Mike Gold” on Saturday 4/22 at 11:30AM. You won’t want to miss it.

Also Bob Harrison will be representing Pop Culture Squad and hosting and participating in a bunch of panels at the con. Follow this link for a look at the complete programming schedule.

The list of Featured Guests also includes Will Dennis, Jamal Igle, Roger Stern, Glen Whitmore, Tom Peyer, and Stuart Moore. The full list of guests can be found here.

Here are some of the things to look for at Ithacon from their announcements that you may have missed.

Continue reading “What To Expect at Ithacon 46 – April 22-23, 2023” →

First Comics 40th Anniversary at C2E2

First Comics 40th Anniversary at C2E2

Posted on by Bob Harrison

This year is a momentous anniversary at Pop Culture Squad. The independent comic book company First Comics launched forty years ago  and published its first issue in March of 1983. Mike Gold, one of our key contributors at PCS, was the founder and editorial director at First.

First Comics was the little comics company with some of the biggest stars in comics before comic superstars was a thing. Names like Mike Grell, Howard Chaykin, John Ostrander, Timothy Truman, Jim Starlin, Mike Baron, and Steve Rude are just some of the comics greats who were regulars at First. It was fertile ground for independent creator-owned comics. The genres included superheroes, science-fiction, space fantasy, spy thriller, political satire, humor, and more. The publisher produced interesting comics that challenged the larger publishers to adapt. They innovated by producing the first digitally created comic in Shatter, by Peter B. Gillis and Mike Saenz and bringing the manga title Lone Wolf and Cub to American readers. Continue reading “First Comics 40th Anniversary at C2E2” →