Player Uno by Jesus Marquez and Keith Betancourt

The boys in the Tollbooth love pro-wrestling and pop culture, and so does our special guest, current PWG Tag Team Champion Player Uno!  Uno joins the boys and they talk wrestling, Uno’s favorite comics, his thoughts on The Dark Knight Rises, and the great Canadian delicacy that is Poutine!

Listen and find out:

The Secret Origin of Player Uno!

What it’s like to wrestle a woman!

Player Uno’s Favorite Batman Story!

And much, much, more!

Find out more about Player Uno (like where you can see him live in all of his eight bit glory!)  by visiting his website and follow him on Twitter!

As a bonus, check out the match that made Jeremy a fan of Uno!

The summer of 2012 was SO CRAZY, we had to cut up our recap into two episodes!  We start off this show talking wrestling, with the boys contemplating if the WWE is hitting the beginning of a new Attitude Era with the current crop of top superstars.

And before they got completely derailed, they thought it only appropriate to talk about Joe Kubert’s passing, discussing his resume and his scope of influence on modern comics.

Speaking of influence, Jesus AND Keith both have new comics coming, hot off the press in the next few months.  Keith is the colorist for the book – The Mighty Titan.

From the Mighty Titan Facebook:  “The Mighty Titan is about a hero who, in getting the most amazing gift of all, learns he has the greatest curse of all. How can a man who is strong enough to save the world, save himself?”

And Jesus will have copies of his newest comic – Man of the Hour – on hand at his appearance at The Baltimore Comic Con!  If you’re in the area, stop by his table and pick up this hilariously awesome book.  Trust me, it’s worth it!

All that – plus what comics were we READING this summer?  Find out on this episode of – The Fanboy Tollbooth!

After a summer hiatus, the boys in the Tollbooth are back for Season 2!  We start off this episode catching up with one another, then we have our first ever LIVE interview with Josh Alves, creator of the Araknid Kid and artistic everyman.  Josh and his brothers (both real and adopted) got together over Labor Day weekend with the sole purpose of developing an ALL NEW smartphone app in the small window of 48 hours. Did they succeed?  Find out by searching for the hashtag #48HourAlvesApp on Twitter.

Then we got to talk all things summer movies.  How did Anne Hathaway stack up as Catwoman?  What was Jeremy’s favorite line uttered by Bane in The Dark Knight Rises?  It’s plot holes a’plenty on this all new episode of The Fanboy Tollbooth!

I know, there are some out there who read comics but don’t like wrestling, and vice versa – but I’m here to tell you that those two worlds have far more in common than one might think.  And if those two worlds collide in more perfect form, you’d find Chikara Smack in the Middle of that collision.

First of all – some history.  I fell in love with wrestling around 1985, when Hulk Hogan’s Rock and Wrestling Connection was running strong.  Professional wrestling, at least in the WWF, had become essentially a live action cartoon or comic book, with larger than life characters, compelling stories where good battled evil, and evil rarely triumphed.  It was a perfect escape for any kid.

And then the 90′s hit.  And the steroid scandals, followed by the explosion of Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), whose popularity singlehandedly ushered in the Attitude Era of professional wrestling – where good guys did bad things and bad guys did worse things.  The language got more coarse, and the storylines were more adult soap opera than melodramatic kids cartoon.  The bottom line is – The Attitude Era killed any chance I thought I would have had to introduce my own children to professional wrestling.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I caught wind of Chikara Pro wrestling, an independent wrestling company based out of the greater Philadelphia area.  They had podcasts, DVDs and a YouTube page full of clips from their shows.  However, because of their location and limited touring, it seemed impossible for me to actually get to experience a Chikara show live and in person.

Fast forward to earlier this year – Chikara announced that their theme for the year would be “You Are Chikara!”, and they began to expand their tour stops, including one just a short drive away from me – in Syracuse NY.

I’ve watched Chikara on video, but there is something about the live show experience that changes your perspective a bit.  All pro wrestling feds have their own culture, and Chikara is no different.  There are chants a’plenty there, not unlike any other fed, but none of these chants have curse words in them.  This isn’t because all of the fans don’t curse, but because Chikara goes out of their way to tell their fans to refrain from foul language at the beginning of the show.  The point is – there are kids here, so don’t swear.  It’s not cool.

Gavin Loudspeaker, the Rock and Roll Ring Announcer, gets the crowd riled up and tells them the rules.

And it works – for the most part.  In fact, if someone gets close to the edge or crosses the line of decency, they get called out on it.  I watched this first hand, as two rather rowdy, and somewhat intoxicated guys were threatened with extraction if they continued to behave in a way that was not family friendly.  Chikara doesn’t mess around – they are what they say they are – a family friendly wrestling organization.

And the action?  Non stop, pedal to the metal, from opening bell to final bell.  These guys are really good at the craft of professional wrestling, and the coolest part for me at least, was how self aware that they are of how ludicrous pro-wrestling is.  They know that we know that it’s choreographed, so they’re not afraid to use that knowledge to elicit laughs from the crowd.  They are masters at the dance, and aren’t afraid to show us what’s behind the curtain from time to time.

Sugar Dunkerton peeks through the curtain after his victory over Jakob Hammermeir.

They’re also not afraid to be a little bit goofy.  At one point, during a four way, Young Lions Cup X Match, instead of shaking the hand of his opponent, Mr. Touchdown, one of the fastest rising stars of Chikara (and 1/3 of the trio The Throwbacks) decided to fart at his opponent instead.  This turned into a much longer bit, using the fart as a weapon, with one worker even selling the fart smell by falling backwards.

In the ring we saw everything from high flying to grappling, to a giant, four man Boston Crab/Camel Clutch combo.  There were even guys chicken fighting at one point.

Mr. Touchdown with a pretty killer frog splash, as his valet, Veronica cheers him on.

The Bravado Brothers (Who wrestle in argyle themed tights and kickpads) involved in a chicken fight with The Spectral Envoy (Ultramantis Black and Hallowicked)

A four man Boston Crab/Camel Clutch Combo, that has to be seen to really be believed.

So not only is there great in ring action and comedy, but the fan interaction is unmatched.  TNA usually does a good job at this, but Chikara takes it to a completely different level.  During intermission, I bumped into Sugar Dunkerton, who was just hanging out in the back of the room.

And just after that, they offered for anyone who wanted to, they could come up and get a picture taken in the ring with Dasher Hatfield.  For free.  This is normally a minimum of $20 at any other show.  But they did it for free.  That’s a way to really get fans to love your product.  And of course, I took advantage of the offer.

So I got to speak to two of the three members of the Throwbacks.  (I’m not sure if Matt Classic still counts.  If he does, I guess it’s two of the four….).  The only interaction I got with Mr. Touchdown though, was a picture of him celebrating his victory in the Young Lions Cup X Match.  He’s at the beginning of a pretty strong heel turn, so I’m okay with that.

My only regret for the show itself was the lack of my hero, Archibald Peck AKA Mixed Martial Archie, who recently lost a “Loser Leaves Town” Match.  But they were still selling his shirt, which I bought with zero hesitation.

If you can get me to buy a T-Shirt, You’ve got a fan for life.

So if you’re a disheartened former pro wrestling fan, whose fandom waned for whatever reason, check out Chikara.  If anything, I can compare Chikara to ECW for this reason only – It’s got a wildly devoted fanbase and its own culture.  Without the vulgarity and ultraviolence that ECW offered.  And hey, some say that ECW ushered in the attitude era.  Maybe Chikara can help usher in a new, fun, family friendly era into professional wrestling that’s been lacking for a long time.

Either way, Chikara has made a fan out of me, and it should make a fan out of you.

George Lucas by Jesus Marquez

It’s another GIANT-SIZED Episode of the Fanboy Tollbooth, and it’s a topic that deserves a giant sized show – STAR WARS! Joined by The Good Guy (Joe Endres) from The Good vs Evil Podcast, Jeremy, Jesús and Keith get together to talk all things pop culture, but mostly our love affair with A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far Far Away.

Topics include:

The Cancellation of Avengers:  Earth’s Mightiest Heroes

The Avengers Movie (again…), but this time, Jeremy makes a Shocking Confession!

and then finally we hit our main topic – The People v. George Lucas, our take on where everyone has gone wrong with the Star Wars Saga (George Lucas AND the fans), whether we’ll ever see any other Star Wars feature films, and if Sacred Cows really do make good burgers.

Oh, and we talk comics.

Joe’s got a comic coming out.  You should buy it.

And Jesús drew a picture of a duck dressed like Wolverine.  For no apparent reason.

Wolverine as a Duck by Jesus Marquez

The Song Featured at the end is “Star Wars Love Song”.  You can check out the artist that sings it below.

MIND MGMT #1 by Matt Kindt

As I’ve expressed numerous times on the show and in private conversations, I believe that the trade paperback mentality has destroyed the necessity of the monthly comic buying experience.  For a time, I’ll even admit to being part of the problem, preferring to buy trades of massive storylines, rather than try to hunt down each issue at my local shop.   This was far more advantageous to a guy like me, with space in my home being taken up more and more by children, and a budget doing the same, it just seemed logical to become a “trade paperback (TPB) guy”.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with the TPB Guy.  There are many reasons besides the ones that I listed for why one might become a TPB Guy, most (if not all) of them are good and decent.  But if you want to find a reason to go back to buying monthly comics, I found it in Dark Horse’s MIND MGMT, by Matt Kindt.

The Skinny

MIND MGMT follows  Meru, a down on her luck writer who, after a bout with writer’s block, is sent on a mission to unravel the mystery of a sold out airline flight where all of the passengers suffer from a kind of amnesia.  While searching for answers, Meru begins to uncover a large conspiracy that involves covert agents, brainwashing and much more.

The Fat

I love a good drawn out mystery.  I was (and still am) a huge fan of LOST, and there are a few obvious nods to that (the flight number, for instance, is 815).  What seems to be happening just in the first issue is a laying down of a firm foundation for Kindt to build on, a fully realized universe that he is able to navigate deftly and with confidence.

What seems to be Kindt’s goal is to get you as invested in his universe as he is.  How does he do this?  Content, content and more content.  In the first issue alone, there are three stories (The main story about Meru, a short comic strip in the front and back cover, and a two-page backup story, all pertaining to various aspects of that universe.  Add to that the clever usage of the page borders, where he adds snippets of information about the MIND MGMT program, and a sort of “alternative reality game” that unlocks bonus material for loyal readers online, and you have a bunch of material to tide you over between issues.

The book itself is a pretty good throwback to the old days of comics – printed on what appears to be newspaper, along with the amount of story content.  The colors and the art are a throw back as well – simple, yet complicated, with what appears to be no digital manipulation whatsoever (if there is, it’s very subtle) Kindt himself writes in the letters column that this is the kind of book that he hopes to get him reading monthly books again, and hopes that it will do the same for us.  It should.

The only advice I can offer?  And this may surprise you – don’t buy it digitally. This book is meant to be experienced in Analog.  Digital would almost seem to be an insult.

The Hard Sell

If you like stories that are richly layered for a big payoff in the end, give Mind MGMT a try.  If you know anyone who may not be a fan of comics but loves a good mystery, tell them about MIND MGMT.  This is the kind of book that you should get in on early, or you’ll feel left out in a year or two when every one of your fanboy friends will be talking about how awesome it is.

After the heartbreak of having to take away Keith’s geek card for not knowing the difference between Thanos and the Skrulls, we decided to play a game to help him earn it back.  Can he do it?

Also:

The future of the NY Comic Con in NYC (or Queens?)

What the heck is Darkon?

The Michael Bay (0r Ultimate Warrior) of Comic Books,

and the inevitable Gay Green Lantern Discussion -

All of that, and much more in this SUPER SIZED episode of The Fanboy Tollbooth.

The Avengers Copyright 2012 Marvel Comics

After some time away, the boys got together and discussed the future of comics art (Cintiq’s vs. Paper and Ink) and a little movie called The Avengers.

Listen and find out why one of the guys in the booth gets their geek card revoked.  Hear our favorite Avenger’s Scenes.  And find out what characters each of them think deserves their own feature length film.  (Some of our choices may surprise you….)

Just a warning – this episode is Heavy Laden with Spoilers.  If you have yet to see The Avengers (and if you haven’t, why not? And also why would you be listening to this show?) don’t listen until after.  A movie is best experienced with virgin eyes, so don’t ruin it for yourself.  It’s worth the wait.

This podcast is also dedicated to the memory of Adam “MCA” Yauch of the Beastie Boys.

The Jersey Shore’s Situation getting into the comic book game

The Avengers movie (This was BEFORE they saw it)

Free Comic Book Day Plans and Memories

Avengers vs. X-Men

Should Black Widow be an Avenger?

And much, much more!

Jesus Reacts To Daniel Bryan's Loss at Wrestlemania 28

Wrestlemania 28 has come and gone, and the most important moment of the night happened in the first five minutes – Daniel Bryan, hero of the Tollbooth and Jesús’ favorite professional wrestler, lost in 18 seconds.

After attempting to talk  Jesús off the ledge, he, Jeremy and Keith break down their feelings on each match of the card, including:

Cody Rhodes vs. The Big Show

Did the Big Show deserve it?

HHH vs. The Undertaker

Should this have been the Main Event of the evening?

and The Rock vs. John Cena.

Was John Cena’s loss the right decision?

And also:

What is Brock Lesnar doing back in the WWE?

We talk all that and more in this all Wrestlemania episode of The Fanboy Tollbooth.

Rated PG-13

The closing music is the theme music for Brock Lesnar in the WWE.