Last year, Variant Edition spent Free Comic Book Day at A Little Shop of Comics in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. To celebrate this year’s Free Comic Book Day - this Saturday May 1 - we pulled the footage out of the vaults and present to you some of the fun that is Free Comic Book Day.

Variant Edition is the weekly video podcast covering comic book news, reviews and culture. Every week, episodes are online through iTunes, available on www.variantedition.com and sharable through Veoh, Blip.tv and YouTube. And don’t forget to check out our forums…let us know what you think of the episodes or would like to see something covered on the show.

twitter.com/variantedition

more to come

and we’ll get the website fixed soon too…

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We’re cleaning out the archives and finding quite a bit of footage that we’ve never released. First up, here’s an interview with Bryan Glass and Michael Avon Oeming that we conducted back at Wizard World Philadelphia ‘07. They tell us all about their then upcoming series: Mice Templar. Since then, they’ve released issues 1-6, collected them into a Hardcover and just this week released a sketchbook. For more info, check out: www.hiddenrobot.com/MICETEMPLAR.

We’ll be releasing more from the archives…keep watching.

Variant Edition is the weekly video podcast covering comic book news, reviews and culture. Every week, episodes are online through iTunes, available on www.variantedition.com and sharable through Veoh, Blip.tv, YouTube, Google and LiveVideo. And don’t forget to check out our forums…let us know what you think of the episodes or would like to see something covered on the show.

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Today Kevin reviews 2 number 1s…Robert Kirkman’s Destroyer #1 and Mark Waid’s Irredeemable #1.

Variant Edition is the weekly video podcast covering comic book news, reviews and culture. Every week, episodes are online through iTunes, available on www.variantedition.com and sharable through Veoh, Blip.tv, YouTube, Google and LiveVideo. And don’t forget to check out our forums…let us know what you think of the episodes or would like to see something covered on the show.

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Today Kevin’s got a review of the great new Secret Warriors #3 by Bendis, Hickman and Caselli.

Variant Edition is the weekly video podcast covering comic book news, reviews and culture. Every week, episodes are online through iTunes, available on www.variantedition.com and sharable through Veoh, Blip.tv, YouTube, Google and LiveVideo. And don’t forget to check out our forums…let us know what you think of the episodes or would like to see something covered on the show.

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download : h.264 (720×400) - iPod / PSP (720×400)
share : Blip.tv - YouTube - Veoh - Vuze - LiveVideo - MySpaceTV

We’re back!

Variant Edition is the weekly video podcast covering comic book news, reviews and culture. Every week, episodes are online through iTunes, available on www.variantedition.com and sharable through Veoh, Blip.tv, YouTube, Google and LiveVideo. And don’t forget to check out our forums…let us know what you think of the episodes or would like to see something covered on the show.

I have more news. I mentioned that I would get something up soon…it’s taking a little longer to get that going. I also have to change the return date.  The show will return in mid Feb, I know its a little later than originally stated, but I’m about to travel to California for 2 weeks as part of my job. The bad news, other than the additional delay is that i’ll be missing the NYCC. I’m not too happy about that, but I got to keep the lights on somehow. I missed the Baltimore Comicon in the fall due to all my problems. I was really looking forward to the NYCC…but the California trip wasn’t one that could be delayed.

I really miss Variant Edition. I hope to have Variant Edition a part of my life again very soon.

-Brent: thanks noticing the work we put into the show. We actually managed to get the look I wanted with rather cheap equipment. It’s amazing what you can achieve with only Home Depot shop lights and DIY rigging. Our cameras weren’t that expensive, 3 CCD, non HD. I splurged on a $150 microphone, but we use a $15 extendable light bulb changer as our boom pole. Careful lighting, planning and constant focusing…some of our ’secrets’.

Would anybody be interested in a secret origins of Variant Edition blog post? Maybe something I can put together on my flight to Cali?

It’s funny…it just dawned on me that 3 years ago we were in the planning stages of the show. How time flies….

First, I want to thank everyone who has managed to keep waiting for a new episode of Variant Edition. Frankly, I wouldn’t blame you if you were no longer waiting.

Second, some news. I will be relaunching Variant Edition in late January. I’ll have more exact dates after the holidays in a week or 2. But for now, that is the plan. There will be quite a few changes, but Variant Edition will return. I’m not sure of all the changes just yet, but we’ll probably change the way we release the show. I expect us to have two kinds of releases: whatever the new Variant Edition ends up being and From the Archives segments, mainly con coverage and interviews that we conducted but have not posted yet. I think we’ll surprise quite a few people when we get this going and we build our little archive of interviews and con coverage. We’ve talked to a lot of people in the last few years.

When we’re ready to make a formal announcement in January, we’ll talk about schedules and formats and all that other fun stuff.

Now let’s get to the part where I explain how we got here. Settle in, this may take awhile…

First, let me preface this with that fact that this is not an excuse. I just want to share an explanation of the facts that led us to where we are today. (or not since we haven’t released an episode since October)

Variant Edition has always had issues with timeliness. In the beginning some of that was due to our inexperience…we were learning how to do this as we went along. But as time went on, we learned and adapted and got more efficient. Some of it is due to the fact that we all worked full time jobs in addition to doing the show. And that’s the reason we lost Ricky and the Swisstacks. But most of it is due to the fact that I set very high ideals for the show. Hell, I tried to produce Variant Edition with the production values of a television show. We shot on a set, with full lights and sound and sometimes with multiple cameras. The set up and break down every week took at least as long as the actual shooting did. Plus we made the show very graphics heavy. Again, wanting it to look like a pro production. And we did all of this on our free time and out of our own pockets*.

I’ve addressed some of this before, but when we started Variant Edition, we wanted to create a show about comics…not a video blog, not a bunch of guys talking to a camera about comics. I tried to produce Variant Edition like a television show. Invariably that means that I didn’t think that we could get away with very many shortcuts. I know there are other ’shows’ out on the internet these days. Anybody with a webcam can have a show. But that’s not what I wanted Variant Edition to be.

Some behind the scenes info: the actual shoots were all hands on deck, everybody involved and helping out. The post production was just me. Eventually I got an assistant, Leah to help me out towards the end of last year. So any delays are usually my fault. I had almost unrealistic expectations of what I wanted the show to be; couple that with my perfectionist tendencies, not enough time and that almost always equals delays. Hell, my ultimate goal was to do the show full time and release episodes a few times a week. We had plans for expanding the show in a few directions, but without backing and having to work the day jobs, that all got put on the back burner.

But we did pretty good for awhile. We hit our Variant Edition Tuesdays for a long stretch without delays. We released 77 full episodes, a good number of specials and interviews and God knows how many Tuesdays. We have 153 videos on YouTube. That’s alot of content. I’m very proud of everything that we’ve put out. I know the early stuff is rough, but it lead to where we are today.

So enough nostalgia. The above will explain the delays in the past. But the delays that we experienced the entire year of 2008, that’s a different story. (if you’re still reading)

Starting towards the end of last year, 2007, I started not feeling like myself anymore. There were a few extra stresses in my life and I just assumed that they were affecting my productivity. I noticed it at work and it was very evident on the production of the show. We took a hiatus at the beginning of 2008 for me to get back on track. I thought that would be enough to get the ball rolling again…but it wasn’t. The extra stress seemed to be manifesting in fatigue. I’d have enough energy to get through the work day and little else. Sometimes we’d shoot, but after I couldn’t muster the energy to actually finish the episode. Then after a delay, i’d just skip over what we shot and start fresh on new material. (we have so much unused footage, it’s sad) This went on through the spring. Towards the summer I actually started noticing that i wasn’t just tired all the time, but that I was actually feeling sick quite alot. The stresses I was under didn’t go away and I assumed it was really getting to me. But it was something a little more.

Towards the end of the summer, I started looking for a new job. As I’ve told everyone, I wanted to have health benefits and working for a small business like an independently owned comic book store that you don’t own doesn’t get you health insurance or a retirement. I got a new job at the beginning of September. Once my insurance kicked in, I wanted to get myself checked out…it had been awhile since I’d been to a doctor and my fatigue and other ailments were getting worse. So after quite a few tests…most of them not that pleasant…my doctors figured out that I suffer from a chronic illness that I’ll have to deal with for the rest of my life. And that I’ve been dealing with it as it got worse since probably the end of 2007. It’s not fatal or even all that serious in the grand scheme of things, but to be blunt, it knocks me on my ass.

It got really bad right before we started treating it, so that’s why there have not been any episodes since October. My October, November and December has pretty much consisted of working 40 hours a week, sleeping and going to doctors. Plus that fun weekend where I missed 5 days of work - 2 spent in the hospital.

So before anybody starts to think I’m getting weepy or looking for sympathy, let me assure you that I’m not. And i’m not trying to use my worsening condition as an excuse for not producing the show. I just wanted to be as upfront as I can be and explain the situation.

You know, it’s weird…I don’t know very many of you reading this. But there are sure a lot of you that probably feel like you know me. You know what comics I like and what kind of friends I keep. And for awhile we’d hang out on your computer or iPod for a few minutes every week or so. You’d wait patiently, or not so patiently looking forward to our new episodes, then let us know what you thought when they finally came out. So I feel like I owe everyone this explanation.

So there it is. My health is improving. After the holidays we’ll evaluate things and set out to start up the Variant Edition machine once again. To be honest, I miss the show. I miss talking about comics and I greatly miss producing the show.

I’ll have more information for everyone after New Year’s. I hope that everyone has a great holiday and a happy new year.

Talk to you soon,
Kevin

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We’re back! Better late then never, right?
We’re back with a catch-up on the news and reviews of War Heroes #2 and Walking Dead #52, plus looks at Flash Gordon #1 and Red Rocket 7.
Our Pick of the Week? Invincible #53!

Variant Edition is the weekly video podcast covering comic book news, reviews and culture. Every week, episodes are online through iTunes, available on www.variantedition.com and sharable through Veoh, Blip.tv, YouTube, Google and LiveVideo. And don’t forget to check out our forums…let us know what you think of the episodes or would like to see something covered on the show.

Thanks for your patience.

-k