Cats At Large: Beer Cat

The fine folks at the Brooklyn Brewery invited us out last night for a release party of their Mary's Maple Porter. A draft-only beer that's part of their Brewmaster's Series, it's available until April. The Mary in Mary's Maple Porter is Mary Wiles. She works for the brewery and also owns maple trees. A lot of maple trees. And all the syrup (there's 50 gallons in each batch) comes form her.

Huge thanks to all the ladies and gents at the Brooklyn Brewery. We apologize we harassed your cat. (Picture by @henchling.)

Dragons At Large: ReedPOP's Favorite Dragons

The Year of The Dragon officially began on Monday. To celebrate the end of the first week of this most ferocious year (or is it the start of the second week), we're proud to present a survey of some of ReedPOP's favorite dragons. Roar! Growl! Chomp! The dragon a symbol of power and fortune in China, the Year of the Dragon is probably the coolest year in the Chinese Zodiac, and those born in the Year of the Dragon are considered to be domination, ambitious, and successful. They're lucky, too, unlike those poor fools born in lamer years like the Year of the Pig or the Year of the Rat.

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Guests At Large: Walking Dead's Tony Moore At C2E2

We're very excited to announce artist Tony Moore will be attending C2E2! Most known for Walking Dead, Moore provided the interior art for the first six issues and cover art for the first score. Moore's also been involved with projects including The Exterminators, Ghost Rider, Punisher, and Venom. He should, though, be most known for his Battle Pope, which he illustrated for Walking Dead's Robert Kirkman. Battle Pope, of course, is the second-best-named-comic in comic book history. The best-named-comic, as you might have guessed, is Mike Norton's Battle Pug.

Caturday

From Mark, spotted on Chicagoist.

Guests At Large: Anthony Daniels At C2E2

What’s the one constant between all six Star Wars movies? Is there one face or voice who's been there from Episode I all the way through VI? There is. And, in fact, the is only one. Anthony Daniels -- the voice and the body of C-3PO -- is the only cast member to have appeared in all six of the Star Wars films, and -- come April -- he'll be appearing at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo. Coming to C2E2 with the help of our friends at Official Pix, Daniels will be signing autographs and recounting his adventures inside a tight, gold suit. Coming all the way from London to Chicago, we're excited and just a bit giddy to meet him. And, a fun fact, while he's most known for Star Wars, Daniels was also the creative designer of something called Volcanoland in Singapore.

Super Important Urgent Update!

Just a friendly reminder to anyone reading the blog at ReedPOP, get your shit out of the refrigerator today or else Vic's  throwing it out.  Also, Ron's still selling candy.

Interview At Large: Steve Gadlin and Mighty Mike Negin

ReedPOP covers a wide spectrum of pop culture at our shows. Comics, video games, movies, toys, television, anime, books. And cats. Yes, cats. Now, we have to say we love all the strains of popular entertainment equally, but -- in truth -- our affection for just about everything pales next to kitties. @MightyMikeNegin will be presenting a series of interviews in the lead up to this year's C2E2, and he starts us off with something of the feline persuasion. Before we talk to creators and Marvel and DC, Mike's picking the brain of Steve Gadlin from IWantToDrawACatForYou.com.

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Guests At Large: Silvestri, Petersen, and More At C2E2

Kim was giggling and squealing this morning. So was Brian. So am I. Why? We got some amazing news around C2E2 we'll be sharing with you as soon as we can. Of course, we've got some news today that ain't too shabby, either. Marc Silvestri, David Peterson, and five more comics creators have been announced as guests at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo. Silvestri got his big break with Uncanny X-Men, and after a stint at both Marvel and DC, he emerged to lead Top Cow Productions, where he produced his most famous series: Witchblade, The Darkness, and Cyberforce.

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Garden In The Sky! High Line Phase Three Is Go!

Years ago, Manhattan had raised subway lines. Lifted above the streets, they carried trains that clattered atop cavemen and horse-drawn buggies down below. Now, one of the last relics of this bygone era sleeps on the West side of Manhattan around Chelsea and Union Square. And for decades, it was just that, a relic. It was the bones of a long-gone, faded, rusted memory. Then, after community support, fervent volunteers, and successful fundraising, the hulk of this abandoned train line was transformed into an above-ground park. It's called the High Line.

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Twitter: The Zeitgeist Of The Planet

These were the top three stories atop my Twitter dashboard this morning.  I feel they roundly capture the consciousness of the planet.  I'm never so proud and so terrified as when I scan through my morning tweets.

Talk People Pretend Make Sound Funny Guffaw

Chinglish is closing at week's end on Broadway. I took it in last night. If you've got a night free in NYC before January 29, you should grab a ticket, too. Originally performed in Chicago last year, the play's a disaster-filled comedy about the gaffs, struggles, and mis-interpretations when the West does business with the East. The play's been called "the best American play of the year" by Time Magazine and "sexy, fun, and hilarious" by New York Magazine, but if you've not put your butt into a seat at the Longacre Theatre to see it, you've only got a handful of days left.

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Eleven Oscar Nominations For Hugo! And Muppet Oscar Talk!

This year's Oscar nominations were announced today. You'll find the full list on just about every site, so I'm not going to waste the 1s and 0s to post it fully here on Medium at Large. Rather, we've got some balloon-dog sharp commentary after scanning over the list ourselves. Firstly, Hugo's come back with an astonishing number of nominations -- eleven total. Giving the list a quick skim, that's more than any other picture this year. We doubt it'll take eleven Oscars home, but with eleven chances, it's going to walk away with at least one little, naked, gold man.

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Looking For A Star-Crossed Lover? Speed Dating At C2E2!

We'll be making a bigger announcement around this in a bit, but I wanted to break the news Ryan Glitch and the team at Sci-Fi Speed Dating will be returning to C2E2. We've worked with Ryan since Star Wars Celebration in 2010, him coming to us as a fresh-faced kid who wanted to help perhaps the not-the-most-socially-acclimated fall in love. Since then, we've brought Ryan to both NYCC and C2E2, and -- most recently -- he was at the center of TLC's Geek Love specials. Be on the look-out for details soon, but we're excited to say Ryan will be coming back to C2E2 in April!

The Art Of The Out Of Office

Hello, thank you for visiting Medium At Large. It's Sunday, January 22rd, and I'm out of the office. I'll be back tomorrow with legitimate updates, but I've left the following post if you need a ReedPOP fix right now. In place of any actual, real, genuine content, here's a gallery of some of the best (and worst) Out of Office messages sent by ReedPOP in 2011. Really? Yes. Sit back, relax, and be thrilled by these virtual, textual postcards from events and vacations since passed. Is this pointless? Yup. Silly? Probably. Can I think of anything better on a Sunday morning? Nope.

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...Something Borrowed, Something Blue

ReedPOP's @petertatara is getting married this year.  It's going to be a classy affair.  No vows in Klingon. No flowergirls dressed as Mario princesses.  No Macross-shaped cake.  This said, the bridesmaids and groomsmen will be getting lightsabers.  And then there's this picture.  It's wedding invites waiting to be sent.  They're blue.  A very specific shade of blue.  One could say they're TARDIS blue.  One could also say Peter spent two months and received sixteen envelope samples from four different vendors to find the proper color. It's going to be a classy affair.

Caturday

BRONY: (n) A Name Given To A Male Fan Of My Little Pony

I'm going to go on record saying I want more My Little Pony and Brony content at New York Comic Con and the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo. We've done a little of it thus far, but it's a community I'd very much like to engage more in our shows. I'll also go on record saying I'm not a Brony myself, but I've got a number of Brony friends, and I adore the quirky, silly, off kilter humor of the show (to the left is My Little Pony's Doctor Whooves) and its surprising level of world building. What's brought all this up? A few weekends ago, NYC's My Little Pony community held BroNYCon.

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Red Tails Premieres Today

What are you doing tonight? Nah, not good enough. Change your plans as tonight's the night that George Lucas's Red Tails comes out. A movie decades in the making, it's Lucas's love letter to the Tuskegee Airmen, the brave pilots who fought the Germans in the air and the racism of their fellow Americans on the ground. The movie's dog fights are by Lucas's own ILM, and the funding for the film, almost $100 million, is from Lucas as well. We worked with Lucasfilm to present a Red Tails flight sim at NYCC in 2011, and it was one of the showstoppers of the show.

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Meet Robin. He's On The Phone Right Now.

Meet @robbinrobin.  He works in Singapore for the Singapore Toy, Game & Comic Con.  He's on the phone right now, talking about guests for this year's show.  The whole team's on the line, actually.  We're doing a lovely little conference call.  It's morning in the US, and 10 PM Singapore time.  They're troopers.

C2E2 VIP Tickets Launch Today

Today at 12 PM Chicago time, VIP Tickets for C2E2 go on sale. For fans who want to be the first on the Show Floor, want to grab all the exclusives they can carry, and want to keep them safe and sound in a special lounge, you'll want to look no further. The package includes a VIP Badge with exclusive artwork, First access onto the Show Floor, a C2E2 poster signed by the artist, a Private VIP Lounge, Guaranteed Premium Seating in the IGN Theater, Private Autograph Signings with two Special Guests, and More. To learn more and grab your ticket come noon, click on over to C2E2.com.

Adam Hughes Comes To C2E2

C2E2 today announced artist Adam Hughes will be returning to Chicago for this year's Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo! Working over 20 years in the comics industry, Adams is most known for turning mutants and super heroes into pinup girls, crafting covers with characters including Batgirl, Zatanna, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, and Power Girl, and he's now working on the covers for Vertigo's Fables spin-off, Fairest. Hughes joins guests including Joe Kubert, Ben Templesmith, Gary Gianni, and Art Baltazar. For more on Hughes and his art, visit his brilliantly named website, justsayah.com.

I'm Sick But At Least The Blog Looks (A Little) Better

I'm at home today.  I cleaned out the fridge last night, getting rid of a lot of old, odd, and expired food that I'd come into possession of during the holidays.  By "getting rid of", I mean eating.  I didn't want this stuff to go to waste, but as my stomach's filled with needles now, I clearly didn't make the right choice.  If there is a silver lining, working remotely today's given me some time to work on the blog. There'll be a few wobbly phases, but the who, what, where, when, and why of Medium At Large has started down the road of upgrading from cutting edge 1996 technology.

Stop Everything, There's A Doctor Who Video Game Picture!

Hey, look, it's an image of Matt Smith plucking away at his TARDIS's strings. Wait, what's that, The Doctor looks a little different. Is he CG?  He is.  From Facebook by way of Kotaku, behold the first image of the upcoming PS3 game Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock.  The game, which'll hit the PS3, Vita, and PC later this year, features The Doctor and River Song investigating the Eternity Clock, a device recording every event in the history of the universe. I presume the Daleks, Cybermen, or Clock King are scheming something untoward around the clock, and it's not just The Doctor sightseeing.

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Josh Gates Searches For The Truth At C2E2!

C2E2 is the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo. From the get go, our eyes are on bringing the worlds of both comic books as well as broader entertainment to McCormick Place. It'll take C2E2 a few years to grow into a big boy like New York Comic Con, but that doesn't mean we won't have movie and television guests in 2012. Last week, we announced our first entertainment name: Destination Truth's Josh Gates! We've brought out the Ghost Hunters and other paranormal guests previously, always devoured by fans, so we're excited to continue this tradition with our favorite cryptid hunter.

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Henchling Made This

The blog's been quiet lately. I've got big plans for it this year, but 2012's started off to a whimpering start. And that's a good thing. I guess. ReedPOP ain't the biggest organization, with pretty much everyone wearing multiple hats and dabbling in each other's business. The blog's an outlet that sadly isn't first or second on anyone's to-do list (yet), and when we get busy, the blog gets quiet. While Caturday is fun and all, there's actual content we should be posting up, too. Expect to see this change gradually and then explosively. Right now, though, meet the de facto ReedPOP mascot.

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Caturday

7 million people have watched this video.  7 million people haven't attended ReedPOP's shows.  Clearly, we need more kittens.

C2E2 Panel Deadline Is Tomorrow

C2E2's panel deadline is 11:59 PM Central Time on January 11th.  That's tomorrow.  Want to hold a panel or screening at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo?  Talk to us now.  Really.  If you apply today, there's a lot we can do.  If you wait until Wednesday, there's not so much.  Whether you're a publisher, a professional, or a fan, if you want a soapbox at C2E2, send us your information today.

Get C2E2's panel details and apply here...

http://c2e2.com/Whats-Happening/Panels-And-Screenings/Panel-Submission-Form/

Really.  If you email Kim or I later in this week, no amount of begging, pleading, and mini-muffins will change the fact that the deadline's passed.  Well, mini-muffins might.  The point is...

Apply for your C2E2 panel now.

C2E2 VIP Tickets Announced

Alright, 2012 is here, and with it comes a flurry of C2E2 announcements and activity.  This week's guest and panel news is just the start.  What's next?  VIP Tickets. C2E2 2012 VIP Tickets will be going on sale at 12:00 PM CST on Thursday, January 19. As always, there is a limited number of tickets available.

For fans who want to be the first on the Show Floor, want to grab all the exclusives they can carry, and want to keep them safe and sound in a special lounge, look no further than the VIP Package. It includes a VIP Badge with exclusive artwork that acts as a Weekend Ticket into the Show, First access onto the Show Floor, a C2E2 poster signed by the artist, a Private VIP Lounge, Guaranteed Premium Seating in the IGN Theater, Private Autograph Signing with two Special Guests, and More!

The Package is $165 and goes on sale January 19. For all the information, click over to...

http://c2e2.com/Buy-Tickets/VIP-Tickets/

Caturday

2012 Begins... As Does C2E2's Guest Announcments

In late December, we announced our first guest for C2E2, comics legend Joe Kubert.  This week, we announced our first official round of names, and -- as Chicago's a magical city filled with friends, awesome people, and the most diabolical food on the planet -- we wanted to kick the year off with some Chicago locals... all names who were born in Chicago, live in Chicago, or have spent a good portion of the time working in Chicago.

Who's on deck?   

Art Baltazar, Ben Templesmith, Chris Burnham, Gary Gianni, Geof Darrow, Jenny Frison, Jill Thompson, Mike Norton, and Tim Seeley!

I knew most of these ladies and gents were Chicagoland alum, but I had no clue Templesmith is kicking about the Windy City.  Australia... Los Angeles... New York City... And now Chicago...  Templesmith spreads over the world like an imperial will, stripping the cities he calls his home of all their tea, making the ladies swoon with his dapper jackets, and confusing the locals with his random shouts about squid-related things.

C2E2 2012, here we go!

C2E2 Panel Submission Deadline Coming Up

Do you fancy yourself the Midwest's foremost expert on 1930's crime comics? Do you know more about My Little Pony than any other 20-something man should? Do you have a passionate opinion on Benedict Cumberbatch vs. Robert Downey Jr's take on Sherlock Holmes? If you want to present your panel/screening/presentation/diatribe at the 2012 Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, you've only got a few more days to propose it to us. 

C2E2's panel deadline is 11:59 PM Central Time on January 11th.

Get all the details and apply here...

http://c2e2.com/Whats-Happening/Panels-And-Screenings/Panel-Submission-Form/

Treat Yo Self to an NYCC 4-Day Pass - With A Proper Picture

Here's the picture I wanted to post earlier today along with our NYCC ticket post. Not some nonsense about cheesey Japanese noodles.  Nope.  Instead, I wanted to share this darling chalk Treat Yo Self art spotted by Aziz Ansari himself at a Whole Foods.

4-Day tickets to New York Comic Con 2012 are available now!

Treat Yo Self to an NYCC 4-Day Pass

Behold Cheddar Cheese Yakisoba. Yup. Really. I show you this picture not to scare you but to let you imagine the possibilities. Despite the initial raised eyebrows, Cheddar Cheese Yakisoba is a brilliant blending of cultures - American mac and cheese and Japanese noodles.

It's a lot like New York Comic Con, a delicious stew of comics, movies, television, toys, anime, and games. Yum. And, just like the initial skepticism around the Cheddar Yakisoba, NYCC can be off-putting, too, upon first glance - sprawling lines and wonky wifi and all - but you soon fall in love.

Yeah, this is a tenuous comparison as best, but I just deleted picture I really wanted to use to illustrate the post. Curse you, cold weather and shivering fingers!

Anywho, NYCC 2012 tickets go on sale today at noon.

We will only be selling 4-Day tickets this far out, with 3-Day and then 1-Day Passes going live closer to the con, allowing us to offer tickets to all you faithful but still have some available for casual fans.

4-Day Passes will get you into all of NYCC -- including Thursday, which is only open to Pros, Press, VIPs and fans who purchase a 4-Day Ticket. After the launch of our Thursday programming last year, too, we'll be expanding it with more panels and screenings and extended show floor hours -- open from 3 PM to 9 PM.

You can snap up your ticket today at noon at newyorkcomiccon.com. Go on and treat yo self to the Christmas gift you really wanted.