Countdown City Geeks attended the Kevin Smith store signing at Bat City Game & Comics in Austin TX. Kevin has a loyal fan base. He was in town performing at Cap City Comedy Club – An evening with Kevin Smith 9/23 & 9/24.

This was such an honor for me cause Kevin Smith inspired me to step outside my comfort zone in life. It goes back to the movie Clerks. When I was watching this movie, I was like there is someone who thinks like me and has the same humor. Right after that came Mallrats. 

Then in 2007, Kevin started podcasting and this is where I heard the story that inspired me to leave my job and to go work at a comic store full time. This lead me down this path. 

Covering this event I got to see I wasn’t the only person Kevin inspired to step outside their comfort zone. I saw two young college students went to film school because of Kevin and crafted their first independent movie. They even had Kevin sign the script. Then two people who wrote their independent comic. Kevin gave quality time with every fan to either chat or take selfies with. 

In our interview with Kevin we asked about working on “Archie meets Jay & Silent Bob” where he worked with artist Fernando Ruiz. He talked about how Fernando killed it on the book. Fernando went to the Joe Kubert School and then became a teacher there. Kevin even called this project “Clerks 3.5”. If you are a fan of Kevin’s movies, you will love this issue. It’s a 5 out of 5. 

He also told Countdown City Geeks that he is working with Marvel again and that Jay and Silent Bob are popping up in Marvel issues. He said it will lead to something big. Could we be getting a Jay and Silent Bob take over the Marvel Universe? We will just have to wait and find out. So the next time you read your Marvel comic, keep a look out for a secret Jay & Silent Bob cameo.

Big thanks to Bat City Game & Comics and Kevin Smith for an awesome event. Bat City will be celebrating their two year anniversary.

The Bat City Games & Comics team.

You can check out the full interview.

A Bad Batch novel

It’s been over a year since the Bad Batch series ended on Disney+. The story focused on Omega and Clone Force 99. A new book written by Lamar Giles will be released on (Penguin Random House). It’s title is Star Wars: Sanctuary. Countdown City Geeks got an exclusive opportunity to read the book before it comes out.  

We follow Hunter, Omega, Tech and Wrecker as they help rebuild the island refuge on Pabu. We get to see the team work with Phee Genoa, who was played by Wanda Sykes on the show. If you were a fan of Bad Batch and fell in love with the team, it is so awesome getting to see them go on another adventure. It was awesome getting to hear Tech talk again in the book. If you were a fan of Andor, you’re definitely going to like what goes on in this book as well.  Lamar Giles leaves me wanting more.

Click here to purchase book.

Lamar Giles has also worked on Static: Up All Night for DC Comics.

Photo source: Lamar Giles Instagram

Special thanks to Dragon’s Lair (Alamo Ranch)

That Guy Tommy sat down with prolific Kaiju artist Matt Frank during the “Retro City” King of the Monsters-Fest. Since 2011, Matt Frank has been known in both Japan and America as the “Kaiju King,” becoming the fan-favorite artist for all things giant and monstrous!

Although he had been drawing since he was very young, Matt became a true professional artist somewhere between 2005 and 2008. His first official foray into the Godzilla franchise was as a cover artist for Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters for IDW Publishing, and he continued to make covers for Godzilla: History’s Greatest Monster in 2012. By 2013, he headlined the 25-issue series, Godzilla: Rulers of Earth, the longest running Godzilla comic ever published, as a story co-developer, cover artist, and lead interior artist, and the series became an instant classic among fans.

Though Godzilla will always be his first love, Matt is also an accomplished Transformers artist, beginning with The Beast Wars Sourcebook as a character illustrator, and also providing interiors for Transformers Animated: The Rise of Safeguard, Transformers Spotlight: Trailcutter, Mars Attacks the Transformers, and numerous titles for both IDW and Fun Publications. Matt even created 4 new Transformers characters, the Raptoricons, for the Official Transformers Collector’s Club in 2016.