Sakura Con Recap w/ Haylee Troncone

SakuraCon formerly known as BakaCon took place last weekend (April 14th-16) over Easter. SakuraCon celebrated its 20th anniversary this year as two cosplayers, Haylee Troncone Cosplay and A-Baby Cosplay, celebrated their 10th year attending. SakuraCon is the largest Anime convention in the North West showcasing Japanese culture, manga, animation, fashion, music and most importantly, food.

Crypticon Seattle 2017 Preview #1

Crypticon is right around the corner, May 5-7 to be precise, so as a mini preview, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce you all to a few friends of this site who'll be on hand at Crypticon. Some are vendors, some artists, and a guest or two that have interacted here with us at thestevestrout.com...Hope to see you at Crypticon!

Highlights From Star Wars Celebration Weekend...No I Wasn't There!

For those of you, who like us, weren't on hand at Star Wars Celebration this weekend, luckily we were able to watch a lot of the convention online.

If you missed out on the live streams, don't fret. I've round up some links to a few big panels for you to enjoy.

Review: Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return

Mystery Science Theater 3000 has returned and haven't missed a beat. The cult favorite series, created by Joel Hodgson, brings a new cast of characters portrayed by the likes of Felicia Day, Patton Oswalt, and Jonah Ray to name a few, with our old favorite misfit robot crew (Crow T. Robot, Tom Servo, and Gypsy) back to poke fun at some really bad sci-fi films floating around in the public domain.

I just dove in and finished the first episode, REPTILICUS, about a giant Kaiju-esque lizard on a rampage in Copenhagen of all places. It's full of the terrible effects and acting as we've come to expect in an MST3K film. I must say, these writers haven't missed a beat with their brilliant riffing on these bad sci-fi movies.

Guest Post: Do Comic Movies Impact Book Sales? by Josh Cook

Do Comic Movies Impact Comic Book Sales?

The short answer is yes, of course. You can't have billions of dollars in comic book properties selling all over the world without having some of that fall into the actual books themselves. But, is that all there is to the story?

One of the craziest things I've ever heard is that there is no way of universally tracking comic book sales. When I was younger, I didn't believe, but lo and behold, it's actually true. In an age where you can get real time notifications of almost every transaction on the planet, we can't get somebody to count comic sales? Well, it's not quite that simple, but I've veered off course here.

Since Wrestlemania weekend just wrapped, check out these recent wrestling themed comics...

Since I'm a wrestling fan, and the biggest weekend in wrestling (Wrestlemania) just wrapped, I think it's a great time to share a few pro wrestling themed comics that you should check out. 

Image Comics' RINGSIDE by Joe Keatinge and Nick Barber
Joe Keatinge best sums up the series:
"RINGSIDE is an ongoing series set within the world of professional wrestling combining the ensemble drama of THE WALKING DEAD with interconnected rotating perspectives akin to The Wire. Each issue will explore the relationship between art and industry from the view of the wrestlers themselves, the creatives they work with, the suits in charge and the fans cheering them all on.
But that's just the beginning.

The real violence is outside the ring."
We interviewed Keatinge and Barber a while back about Ringside. Check it out HERE

Headlocked by Michael Kingston with guest stories and art from a who's who in the professional wrestling world. 
Mike Kingston describes HEADLOCKED as:
"An HBO-style drama about a kid breaking into the wrestling business. As he's attempting to learn the art and the craft of wrestling, he's got to navigate the seedy underbelly of the business in his quest to get to the bright lights and the big stage."
I personally consider this book a pretty realistic account of the in's and outs of the wrestling world, and definitely worth a shot. Mike Kingston is another great creator we interviewed recently. ICYMI, you can check it out HERE ...Headlocked is also currently on a tour to promote the Kickstarter for the next book in the series. Hope you consider contributing to this awesome project, which can be found here>>>  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headlockedcomic/headlocked-the-hard-way

Boom Studios' WWE Then- Now- Forever by Dennis Hopeless and a variety of amazing artists.
   
In the first story arc, WWE Then-Now-Forever chronicles the breakup of the Shield (Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins) faction, and the rise of Seth Rollins, under the tutelage of HHH. It offers a behind the scenes look at Seth Rollins and HHH's relationship as we saw on WWE tv programming, while keeping a comic book vibe to the series, having HHH be not only a heel boss, but more of a comic book supervillain. Definitely a fun read! You can tell Dennis Hopeless did his research, and is actually a fan of the business. The superb art added to the script makes this a must read for a wrestling fan or regular comic book reader.

 Have you read any of these comics? What did you think? How about Wrestlemania? Did you watch Wrestlemania or any of the huge pro wrestling events that happened over the weekend? Did you enjoy the show(s)? Come discuss with us at the official fan page for this site, Comic Book Swap Meet on Facebook and @thestevestrout on Twitter!!

Steve Strout is the media mastermind behind this site, host of the Comic Book Swap Meet, nerd, terrible artist, gamer, convention goer and comic book reader who spends more time rescuing toys from thrift shops than a normal adult should. He is also known around the northwest for his promotion of live music and stand-up comedy events and is the creator/producer of the Comic Book Swap Meet mini convention, and Olympic Peninsula Comedy Competition (which will make it's big return in 2015). Follow him on Instagram at http://instagram.com/thestevestrout, and  He can be reached for comments at ptcomedy@yahoo.com on twitter at @thestevestrout

We did a mini review of Top Cow Comic's Think Tank : Animal #1 and chat with writer, Matt Hawkins about Think Tank and more...

As mentioned in the ECCC recap, I'll be posting about a few comics I was introduced to at the show...

This next offering is from the Top Cow Comics creative team of Matt Hawkins and Rashan Ekedal, Think Tank: Animal #1. This issue kicks off volume 5 of the Think Tank ongoing series, which though I'm not familiar, I was able to easily jump into this book with no background.