5 reasons to Go to New York Comic Con in 2012

Still debating if you’ll go to New York Comic Con this October? With 26 days to go, you better make your decision and fast! While you’re tossing up the pros and cons of making the trek to the East Coast Nerd Mecca, let us take this moment to remind you of everything that you’ll be missing if you decide to stay at home.

Dan Slott

Yes, Dan Slott is one reason in 5 to make the trek to NYCC. He seems like one of the loveliest guys in the comic book industry, possibly because he is. Also because he’s just one huge fanboy who gets do one of the best jobs in the world every day of his life, so maybe that’s why he’s always smiling. And not least because his (self-written) bio says this;

“Don’t worry about bringing too many comics for him to sign. He’ll sign all of ’em. Because, well, it’s really no trouble, he has a monosyllabic name, and, seriously, it’s the least he can do— when you bought all that stuff, you paid his rent”

That’s just enough to make you want to give him a humungous hug!

Check out the NYCC website http://www.newyorkcomiccon.com for details on more guests. Photo taken from NYCC website.

Awesome guests

This year’s line-up is one of mammoth proportions. For the anime fans, there are people as cool as Yoshitaka Amano (Final Fantasy), Danny Choo and voice of the infamous Vocaloid, Yu Asakawa.

Comic guests this year include Brian K. Vaughan (SAGA), Axel Alonso (Marvel), Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead) , Scott Snyder (Batman) and Mike Mignola (Hellboy). And if that didn’t help you get your geek on, this year’s con sees guests such as Seth Green, Tom Felton, Christopher Lloyd, Adam West and Elmo from Sesame Street!!

Actually, Matt says there’s really only one reason to go to NYCC and that’s Adam West. Here’s Matt’s seal-of-approval face

Wherever you see this face, you know it’s the Curicon seal of approval

Cosplayers

The best part about going to cons can be the awesomeness of the cosplayers. If you like to dabble, or even if you’re a full on cosplayer nerd, or even if you’re a complete newbie, cosplaying is one of the best things you could do. It’s just so much fun!

Check out some of the awesome cosplayers we met at this year’s SDCC

Artists Alley

The best part about going to ANY con (IMHO) is the artwork that you can get there. Some of my favourite pieces are ones that I have picked up at cons -even the ones I didn’t intend to buy but did because they spoke to me and there was a story behind them. Obviously you’ll end up buying way more than you need but that’s what happens at cons. The worst-case scenario is you have some really cool gifts to give to friends and family!

We’ll Be There!

 

Yep, Curicon is making the trek from Australia to Booth #102 in the Javits Center and we cannot WAIT! Put us into your show planner, come on by and hang out with us for a bit 🙂

We’ll have a (yet-to-be-announced) limited edition New York Comic Con Exclusive. And it’s free. But it is limited edition and well….we can’t say any more just yet. But we’ll keep you posted!

We’re leaving Chuckie at home so he can take care of things for us while we’re gone.

Chuckie – ruler of the realm

OK, so if that hasn’t convinced you I don’t know what will. If the only reason that you’re not going is because it’s so freakin’ expensive, then I have AMAZING news for you…you could win a trip to NYCC!

Yep, that’s right boys and girls. We have one of the most awesome competitions EVER right here at Curicon. You can win a trip to New York Comic Con – that’s flights, accommodation and tickets to one of the biggest conventions in the world. Yeah, we know we’re awesome. J

All you have to do is go to the Curicon homepage and put in your details. Simple! We’ve given you lots of different ways to increase your chances of winning so don’t be afraid to give it a shot.

Competition closes on September 23^rd and if you keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter feeds next week, we’ll be giving out a special code from our Curicon Limited Edition collectible cards… Can’t say fairer than that!

Have an awesome weekend.

Much nerdy love!

–Kerrie xxxx

NEIGHBORHOOD COMIC SHOP TO HOST SIGNINGS AND AUCTION FOR VICTIMS

Jason Farnsworth Assembles Comic Industry for Aurora Rise: Benefit Event

Following the tragic July 20 shooting at the Aurora Century 16 in Colorado, Jason Farnsworth, manager of the city’s only comic shop, All C’s Collectibles, encouraged members of the comic and entertainment industries to find their inner superheroes. Mr. Farnsworth set out on a mission to help help the Aurora community and joined forces with Image Comics and Dark Horse Comics to “do everything in our power to raise money for the victims and their families.”

Mr. Farnsworth has worked with members of Image Comics and others to organize an event that would honor those who lost their lives that night and assist survivors with outstanding medical expenses. By the end of the first day of planning, Steve Niles (IDW‘s 30 Days of Night) led by example and offered to visit the Aurora comic shop for an in-store comic signing. Shortly after Niles pledged his support, Matt Fraction (Marvel’s Fear Itself, The Mighty Thor), Mike Mignola (Dark Horse’s Hellboy), and DC Comics artist, Moritat (The Spirit, All-Star Western), offered to join Niles for the event scheduled for August 25 – 26 at Farsworth’s store, All C’s Collectibles, only a mile and a half from the Century 16.

Steve Niles will be attending the All C’s Collectibles Silent Auction in aid of the Aurora victims and their families

In addition to the in-store signing, a silent auction is also planned for 6:30 on Saturday, August 25 at the Embassy Suites Hotel Denver – Aurora (courtesy of Embassy Suites). As news of the auction spread across social media networks via Facebook and Twitter, professional comic creators, local artists, and others reached out to Aurora Rise with generous donations to support Mr. Farnsworth’s efforts. In addition to rare lithographs and original comic art from top comic talents such as Rob Liefeld (Deathstroke), Tom Feister (G.I. Joe), and Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead), the Aurora Rise auction will feature an electric guitar signed by the Zac Brown Band (Taylor Guitars), tickets to a taping of The Big Bang Theory (CBS), an autographed Anthrax poster (Suicide Girls & Scott Ian), an Amazing Spider-Man poster signed by Stan Lee (POW! Entertainment), and a signed Halo 4 Collectors Box Set (McFarlane Productions). The proceeds from Aurora Rise will go directly to the Alex Sullivan Fund and the Aurora Victim Relief Fund.

Plans are now underway for Aurora Rise events in Colorado and elsewhere that will generate additional assistance for the Community First Foundation – Aurora Victim Relief Fund.For more information, visit the Aurora Rise:Benefit Event on Facebook or on Twitter. The Aurora Rise website (www.aurorarise.org) is also under construction and will host updates as they become available.

Let’s hear it for the Day!

Don’t mess with Felicia Day. She has friends in high places. And on Twitter.

Last week, the now former writer for gaming site Destructoid, Ryan Perez, attacked Day completely out of left-field, accusing her of being nothing more than a ‘glorified booth babe’ who brings nothing to the gaming industry.

As Julie Roberts would say, “big mistake. Huuuge”.

Felicia Day, as most of you will know, is one of the hardest working people in the industry. Hands down. She’s clearly an intelligent, hard-working woman who has found her niche and exploited it. And I use the term ‘exploited’ in a positive sense. She’s evidently got a good business head on her shoulders and has leveraged her success to create a geek media empire in the making. It was a good call. At time of writing, the Geek and Sundry Youtube channel currently has 247,391and Day herself has over 1.9 million followers on Twitter.

Perez came under almost immediate attack for his unwarranted diatribe of abuse, triggering an incredible display of solidarity by friends and fans of Felicia Day.

Oh dear.

What does this teach us?

Fist of all, your mother was right. If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. Secondly if you do say something awful about someone, you better have a bulletproof vest and a highly resilient ego because her friends gonna’ get you.

Perez may be regretting his attack now because not only will he never be invited to Wil Wheaton’s house for dinner, but he has officially been dumped by Destructoid in a ‘it’s not us, it’s definitely you’ type scenario. Perez and Destructoid parted ways in the wake of Felicia-Gate with Destructoid stating categorically that they in no way shared the opinions of Perez.

The internet is aflame with the controversy, some accusing Perez of sexism and others claiming that his right to free speech is being compromised.

It’s all too easy to throw the sexist card out there and accuse Perez of being biased against Day simply because she’s a woman in the gaming industry, an industry which incidentally gets some (justifiable) flak for not always being female-friendly. But it would be too simplistic to just say that he’s a misogynist and be done with it.

The gaming industry is suffering from an image problem, and is seen by many to be nothing more than a boys’ club. It’s explored in greater detail in a must-read interesting blog post by Xenos. For women working in, or who are fans of, that industry, it’s easy to see how Perez’s attack on a lady who has done a lot to raise the profile of the gaming industry and made it more accessible for women, can just compound the current situation.

My personal opinion is that he may just be an idiot, a notion he may well subscribe to himself stating that he may have been better off to aim his attack at God or the Catholic Church.

On the other hand, he is perfectly entitled to his own opinion even if it’s a negative one, however Twitter isn’t the forum for an attack, and an unwarranted and very public one at that.

Whether he was drunk, as he claims isn’t an excuse. It might account for his lack of forethought but certainly not for the bilious attack on Day, the reason for which is still unclear. Perez even goes so far as to suggest that he doesn’t really know who Day is (he certainly can’t claim that now) which makes the entire situation even more baffling. He does go on to say that he will actually acquaint himself with her portfolio of work, which may have been an idea prior to the Twitter fiasco.

He also offers a contrite ‘sorry’ to Day which is followed by a 7-part apology issued, ironically enough through Twitter.

Felicia Day accepted Perez’s apology with good grace, and the controversy is eventually beginning to die down. His actions were completely unjustifiable but it’s safe to say that even if he never learned a lesson from this, his career now lies in tatters and his credibility seems to be shot to pieces. That should be deterrent enough for the next person looking to take a swipe at the Queen of Geek.

The solution?  Somebody needs to invent a breathalyzer that plugs into your laptop or phone and disables all social media channels when your blood/alcohol limit reaches a certain point. Anybody looking for a startup idea? Invent that and you’ll be golden.

Bet Perez wishes he had just drunk dialed his ex on Friday night, instead of drunk tweeting that ‘glorified booth babe’.

-Kerrie

Nerd Bucket List – 7 Things Every Nerd Should Try Before They Die (or are Cryogenically Frozen)

Ok, so that’s something of a morbid title and while we’re not expecting you to pop your clogs any time soon and shuffle off this earthly coil, we thought it would be fun to start a Nerd Bucket List; a list of things that you should definitely do before you die. This isn’t an exhaustive list by any means – in fact, it’s anything but that. We just wanted to get you thinking about what it is you’d put on your list. Feel free to add anything to this list in the comments. We’d love to get your feedback!

 

Go to San Diego Comic Con

Yes we know it’s not about the comics any more, we know that the TV companies, the toy distributors and the publicity people have taken it over so it’s more like Entertainment Con than anything else. It’s jam packed full of people, the food is overpriced, you have to wait for two hours just to get to a panel and it’s a s**t-fight just to get to the toilets. So why go?

Because it’s San Diego Comic Con man! It’s nerd mecca and despite the fact that it’s overpriced and there are too many people and it’s not about the comics, those aren’t reasons not to go. Stripped back from all of the promotional stuff, Comic Con still has heart and that’s because of the people who attend year in, year out. People who have grown up going to SDCC and now bring their kids

It’s awesome. It’s one of the most hectic, fun-filled, exhausting weekends you’ll ever have in your entire life but it’s completely worth it just to nerd out on all the cool stuff that’s there. Artists Alley, the panels, the coolest cosplays you’ll ever see in your life, the people you’ll meet and make friends with for life, the sheer scale of the whole thing and of course, the swag! If you only go once, you should go. It will honestly stay in your mind as one of the best experiences of your life. Warning: Trying to get a member ID and a ticket will shave considerable years off your life, so don’t say we haven’t warned you.

Heroes Con

If Comic Con really isn’t your thing and you’re just a die-hard comic collector, then you have to get to Heroes Con in North Carolina. Started 30 years ago by Shelton Drumm, Heroes Con is beloved by comic book fans for being ‘legit’. It should absolutely be on your list of ‘Cons To See Before I Die. It took place just last weekend so to get you in the mood and ready for next year, make sure you read the following articles. These will get your blood pumping and we promise you, you’ll have booked a ticket to North Carolina before the weekend is through!

Comics Alliance’s Chris Sims recounts his experience at Heroes Con and gleefully boasts about his considerably impressive haul at this years con.Readit and weep (literally).

Bleeding Cool’s Rich Johnson learned some valuablelessons this year on his first trip to North Carolina

Joe the Peacock, the man who let the cat out of the bag with his article on TheBestComicConventionyou’veNeverAttended.

Play a MMORPG – Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game

Sure it doesn’t trip off the tongue and these games might dredge up connotations of middle-aged men living in their mother’s basements but MMORPGs are so much fun! They’re also becoming a lot more mainstream now thanks in part to World of Warcraft’s massive advertising campaigns, so try one out before it loses its nerdiness. The beauty of a MMORPG is that you can create an entire back story around your character and completely immerse yourself in their world. Yes, it’s escapism but so what. Where else can you battle demons and trolls and have this much fun?

 

Learn Klingon

Even if you’re not a Trekkie, you should definitely try learning Klingon with its gutteral sounds and odd sentence structure. The language was created by Mark Okrand at the behest of Paramount Pictures for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Star Trek:The Next Generation.

You should pick yourself up a copy of the Klingon dictionary. For the collectors among you, you might like to try to source the first edition which was printed in 1985. If you can get one of those, let us know. We so want one!

Here’s something to aspire to: Okrand himself is said not to be fluent in Klingon so if you can beat him you will be one of approximately a dozen people on the planet who are fluent in Klingon. Now THAT’S an achievement!

Start a podcast

Inflict yourself on the internet with the intention of becoming famous for your in-depth knowledge of Kevin Smith films only to realise your fore-nerds got there before you. You can still have fun with it though. Invite your friends, make it a party. That’s the beauty of the internet – anybody can be famous for at least 15 seconds (look at Justin Bieber), you just need an internet connection and you’re set!

Solve the rubix cube.

Solve it without taking it apart or transferring the stickers around. Hours of fun, yes. Hours of frustration will follow though when you realise that this contraption was designed to baffle you and make you feel intellectually inferior. When you realise that you can’t solve it, feel free to wallow in your own misery by watching this youtube video of this three year old Asian kid who can solve it in 114 seconds. And she didn’t even have to leave the comfort of her high chair.

Back to back Star Wars

You cannot claim membership of the nerd club without having watched Star Wars back-to-back. Simple as. Even now, when we have 3D movies and special effects galore, you have to admit that George Lucas is a veritable genius for what he achieved at the time.

P.S: In case you were wondering, the term ‘bucket list’  comes from the idiom ‘to kick the bucket’, meaning to die – something of a euphemistic expression. If anybody knows the first person to die from kicking a bucket, we’d be most grateful if you would enlighten us. Answers on a postcard please. Or as the Klingons would say, “QIn ‘echletHom jang.”

‘Til Later 🙂

Let us introduce you to….Winter City

“Death remembers all sins. And no sin goes unpunished”

Once in a while, something so great comes along that you have to tell people about it because you know it will enhance their lives in some way. That’s the case with Winter City Comics.

Ok, it’s not a way to turn base metal into gold, nor is it the next greatest app that will change the world but for lovers of well-constructed narrative and high-end artwork, Winter City Comics is a must-read. Others must think so too because Kings Comics sold out of them entirely over the weekend.

We first came across these guys through Twitter and after some quick Internet research, found pictures of this 12-part comic series on their website. The first response was ‘awesome!” The artwork in these comic books is superb, really great inking and the actual story itself is gripping.

Book 1 is called ‘Murder of a Fat Man’ so it’s not too much of a spoiler to tell you that the story opens with the grisly murder of Alan McLean, the city’s resident philanthropist. Set in Winter City, the story has a noir quality to it. It’s gritty, it’s mean and unflinching in the way it deals with the issues that crop up.

I promise not to spoil it for you so I can’t say anything else, except to tell you to collect all 12 issues in the series. I can promise you you’ll thank me for it. You can find their website here or place them into your collection on Curicon here.

-Kerrie

9 Best Nerd Sites on the Interweb

Never let it be said we don’t do anything for you guys! Whether you’re out of the nerd closet and proudly wear your nerdiness on your sleeve or if you have yet to let your friends know that you’d rather watch all of the Star Wars movies back-to-back than go to the latest club, we’ve compiled a list of the best websites to keep you on top of nerdy/geek current affairs. Consider this your ultimate nerd news channel. You’re welcome.

Comic Booked

In terms of comic book review, Comic Booked is right up there with the best of them. Don’t be fooled by the name – they’re not just comic book readers but podcasters, gamers and massive toy fans too. They have a huge team of incredible nerds led by Jordan DesJardins. They rock. And you should rock with them too. There’s nothing more to say. Check them out at www.comicbooked.com

MTV Geek

An offshoot of the hugely popular MTV juggernaut, MTV Geek was launched in 2010. Some said it was thanks to the MTV name that it gained such a substantial following but in truth, nerdette extraordinaire, and comic book editor Valerie Gallaher has guided it from the beginning to the dreamy heights of success it’s reached today. Known for her pull-no-punches approach to reviewing comic books, Gallaher has curated a top-notch team of writers and contributors to cover all the latest in pop culture news, reviews, conventions and gaming.

Get thee to the Geek on http://geek-news.mtv.com/

Nerd Reactor

Featuring news and reviews on movies, video games and comics, all written in an invariably witty writing style, Nerd Reactor will make your day more interesting just for being there. It’s up-to-date, it’s topical and always has something fun/witty/interesting to say at least once a day. They also always have the most hilarious posts on Facebook. Don’t like them if your sensibilities are easily offended. Go to www.nerdreactor.com to check them out.

Nerdist

If you haven’t heard of Nerdist, get out of the room. Now.

Ok, seriously come back, we have something awesome to tell you. So, Nerdist is like a mish-mash of all of these awesome writers and podcasters who have come together to make geeky heaven. It’s truly fantastic and a great site to add to your general reading/listening. It’s also becoming a juggernaut nerd site – everything we used to listen to is gradually becoming amalgamated with Nerdist. Which is no bad thing. It just means that you have all your (soon-to-be) favorite channels in the one place. It won’t make you smarter, just nerdier. You’ll be no use in a general knowledge pub quiz but it’ll make you a happier person. Click on www.nerdist.com

Geeks are Sexy

The title tells us what we all knew already, but in case you were in any doubt there’s a picture of a very suggestive young lady sitting right next to the logo. Just in case there were any Doubting Thomas’s lurking about.

Quite aside from the ‘sexy secretary’ look which if nothing else has brightened up many a dreary day, Geek Are Sexy covers tech, science and social news. Not alone that but they cover cosplay in some detail as well as attending some conventions – Denver Comic Con being the most recent. The site evolved from a Canadian blog and while it’s mainly aimed at IT pros and Computer professionals, it’s still well worth a look even if you’re not either. Trust us! Go to http://www.geeksaresexy.net/ for more.

Kabooooom

Face it, you’ll never be able to spell the name if this site properly because there are just too many o’s. Spelling aside, we definitely insist that you check out this complete nerd-fest in all its awesomeness. It doesn’t just cover comics but anime/manga, games and toys too. They do fantastic, comprehensive reviews of all the above AND they’ll take suggestions if there’s something in particular you want them to review. What else do you want? Check them out on www.kabooooom.com

(For the record, there are 5 o’s in Kabooooom)

The Mary-Sue

Here’s one for the girls! Well not just the girls. The Mary-Sue is the ‘guide to girl geek culture’ but we definitely know a few guys who have been known to peruse the plethora of nerdy goodness found on its pages. To be frank, The Mary Sue can be absolutely hilarious.  It’s essentially a site with tonnes of really cool, funny, intelligent writers including Jill Pantozzi. Whether you’re a guy or a gal or you’re just not sure, get over to the The Mary-Sue at http://www.themarysue.com/

This isn’t a definitive list by any means. Tell us what you think. Start a discussion here and let us know what you think are the best nerd websites. We undoubtedly missed some awesome ones from the list above. There could potentially be a list of the top 100 but really, who has the time?? Let us know what you think.

With as much nerd love as possible. ❤

Kerrie & the Curicon Team

A competition that’s not a competition, Supanova and some other stuff…

Happy Friday nice folks! What’s everybody doing for the weekend?

That gratuitous question leads me nicely onto telling you what we’re doing this Saturday and Sunday – going to Supanova Sydney!!

Yes, we will be reveling in the smorgasbord of delight that is Australia’s biggest pop culture convention. A veritable cornucopia of nerds, a gaggle of geeks, a tardis of Whovians…and whatever else you’re having yourself will descend upon Olympic Park for one of the best weekends in Sydney outside of Mardis Gras.

We’re a small bit excited in case you haven’t guessed. Our wigs are at the ready and the excitement is almost too much. Because we’re not remotely as talented as the cosplayers who’ll be at Supanova, what with not being able to sew and all, we had to get a bit creative with the outfit choice so…we’re going as nerds. It left us with no other choice but to wear our own clothes. We will however be sporting the latest nerd look of the con season which is….

Just a little photo shoot we did you know

Yes, people. We have our very own Curicon t-shirts. They’re not just any t-shirts though. They’re issue#1 t-shirts. Yes, they’re limited edition. We only got 50 printed and no, they’re not for sale. Is this the ultimate nerd act? – Creating collectible t-shirts?

Check these babies out!! Yes, that’s right, “Issue #1”. You heard us!

Keep your eyes peeled for pictures of various people wearing them. We’ll be posting pictures of some of our (and your) favourite nerds wearing the Curicon t-shirts. We also got tank tops for the girls. Girl Nerd Problem: Finding cool t-shirts for girls! So we solved that problem.

If you’d like a limited edition Curicon t-shirt, just let us know. We can’t promise one for everybody because well…there ARE only 50 of them and we’ve promised some to other people. But if you REEEEALLLY want an issue #1, drop us an email (gday@curicon.com) and tell us why you should get a t-shirt; the reasons can be as crazy or pedestrian as you like. But get emailing

Dear Curicon, gimme a t-shirt! Sincerely yours…

Like, if you’re going to the Great Wall of China on a vacation, will you promise faithfully to wear the t-shirt and get a cheesy holiday shot taken?? If you’re not going that far, you could just promise us that you’ll send us a photo of you in your Curicon t-shirt on the Great Wall of your Back Garden. Or feel free to go planking in it –we don’t mind! But um…please wear pants. Thanks.

We concur with this cat

We have 10 to give away – 5 for the boys and 5 for the girls! The most creative/funny/crazy /downright bizarre will more than likely win this. And the judge’s decision is final AND arbitrary. We’re not open to bribes (unless it’s a lifetime pass to Comic Con).

The giveaway ends when we’ve given away all of the t-shirts. You won’t know you’ve won until you receive the t-shirt in the mail some day soon and all your dreams come true! So be sure to include your full name and address in the email to us. And your shirt size. So you don’t end up like this…

We hope to leave Supanova with some serious collectors swag, which we promise to share with you on Facebook! In the meantime, check out some of the new items we’ve added to the Curicon Library during the week at the suggestion of some of you guys. Aimee is the Library Machine – she’s just been making the library colossal over the past few weeks and she’s not even close to finishing!! Check these out!

Batman V – Zipline Release

Ukido Ninja Warriors

Marvel Comics – Astonishing Spiderman and Wolverine

Living Dead Dolls

That’s it for now – have an awesome weekend you guys and keep the suggestions for the site coming!! Much nerdy love to you all. Kerrie xxxx

Meet someone awesome!

Sometime the best thing about working with Curicon are the amazing people that we get to meet and talk to on a regular basis. Today, we’d like to introduce you to one of the most talented animators we have ever met. Kim Broadbridge from New Orleans is one of THE coolest people we have ever met AND just happens to be redonkulously talented too!

Take a look at some of her animation here

Aside from creating adorable elephants and making them come to life, she also drew a sketch this week of our Matt in his hat. An uncanny likeness if you take a look at the most recent blog post before this!!

She is truly awesome. Keep an eye on her. She’ll definitely go far. And watch out for her artwork in the upcoming Curicon animated feature!!

To see more of Kim’s art, visit her site at http://www.kimbroadbridge.com

Have an amazing weekend!! ❤

A Personal Thank You

Hello,

I’m Matt Byrne, the founder and CEO of Curicon.

I wanted to personally thank you for being a part of Curicon.

As one of the first members, your participation has helped me shape the future of the platform.

Speaking with our early members has been the highlight of my day, each and every day since our beta hit the Internet in January.

If you would like to see how your suggestions and feedback have influenced Curicon, take a look at the massive update we just rolled out.

curicon.com

One of the questions I receive regularly is “Who are you and what is Curicon really about?”

Let me do my best now to answer that (two-part) question –

I’m a 27 year old Australian who loves the beach/ocean, I have a BSc IT from UTS and I have worked in the IT/Design industry since I was 16.

Ever since I was a child I have collected anything I could. Comics, Action Figures, Trading Cards, Stamps, Rocks, Coins, Phone Cards, Consoles/Games, Model Planes/Tanks, Warhammer & Matchbox cars.

My longest & current passion is Comics, especially anything Marvel.

I originally sketched out the plan for Curicon in 2010, by late 2011 it was time to give up my day job (at the IT company I owned) and make it happen.

So that brings me to – What is Curicon really about?

Curicon is a place for collectors, designed and built by collectors. We have no affiliation or responsibility to anyone. Curicon is whatyou and I want it to be.

We want and have loved hearing all of your comments and feedback – we are building this place for you, so please, get involved and be a part of the journey.

If you have a look at the site now, you will see that we have just rolled out an amazingly big update! I am talking a huge step forward. Have a look for yourself –

curicon.com

In this update we have introduced a few features which we are very proud of –

1. Questions & Answers

Have a question about a collectable? Or, maybe you just love helping others. Either way, there is now a place for you.

It’s slick, simple and will make getting & giving answers a pleasure.

curicon.com/questions/

2. Discussions

If you love talking about collectables, collecting and everything related, we have just built one of the most amazing discussion platforms (IMHO) you will have ever seen (not so humble lol).

It takes the awkwardness out of the forum experience, nothing you don’t need. All the focus is on the discussion. Come join us and get involved!

curicon.com/discussions/

That’s not all as far as updates go either! There are too many to list, go have a look at curicon.com yourself to see them in action.

If you have read this far, I would like to thank you again.

As always, you can contact me via email on matt@curicon.com or if you like the phone, we have one! +61 2 8484 1010 (We are in Australia, so that might be long distance for you – don’t blame me for your large phone bill as I like to chat! 😀 )

See you in Curicon,

Matt Byrne

CEO Curicon

Nerds of the World Unite – Curicon launched on International Nerd Pride Day!

Happy International Nerd Pride Day! The day when you celebrate your nerdiness with pride, when you dig out those glasses held together with some sticky-tape and reminisce about the days when being a nerd meant you had a ‘spidey sense’ for bullies throughout your high-school career. Nowadays it’s cool to be a geek and now the hipsters are in on the act. But you, YOU have the original Pac-Man t-shirt, the 1985 Yak Face action figure from Star Wars IN IT’S ORIGINAL PACKAGING and the original Commodore 64. You my friend are the original nerd. Be very proud. This little guys is…

That’s why we have created Curicon. A cromulent place for lovers of geek and pop culture to come together, upload, share and talk about their collections. What’s your juice? Whether your passion lies in comics, action figures, miniatures, Lego, digital pets, Star Wars memorabilia, die-cast models or vintage posters, we at Curicon have you covered.

AND we’ve finally made it. After weeks and months of toil, hard work, sleepless nights and far too many energy drinks, we’ve done it! The new Curicon is here…and it arrived just in time for International Nerd Pride Day!

For the past few weeks, we know we’ve been quite cloak & dagger about what we’ve been up to. All you guys knew was that we were busy doing a lot of coding. Well, the wait is finally over and we can reveal… ta-da! A brand new shiny Curicon with all the trimmings.

There are so many new features like the Q&A section, the discussion section, pages to discover events and a marketplace where you can become a fan of your favourite stores.

We have also introduced a brand new feature called Nerd Alert! It’s a weekly mini-interview with a famous nerd and our very first Nerd Alert is with…drumroll please….ALEX ZALBEN!  We introduced you to Alex a couple of weeks ago. He’s the man behind Elephant Larry and also presents Comic Book Club. Besides being super nice, he’s also a super nerd. You can and should follow him on Twitter @azalben and Facebook.

We don’t want this to descend into an Oscar-esque thank you list but we would just like to say a colossal THANK YOU to all of you who made Curicon what it was today. Honestly. Without the constant feedback from our users, Curicon might not have been nearly as awesome as it is. We appreciate you guys more than you will ever know . And we’re pretty proud of it!

Please do continue to send us feedback. We love hearing from you guys, even if you just want a chat!

Nerds of the World Unite!

So this is what we’re mainly looking like this week. The Zen has left the building, our chi is out of whack, we’re a bit frazzled but secretly we’re loving it.

In just a few days Curicon will go from this 

to this… 

We were always beautiful, but we just needed a bit of a makeover 🙂

So the countdown is almost over! Things are hectic and crazy and we’ve just discovered what real stress is. Yes, first world problems abound in the Curicon office! Still, we wouldn’t change anything for the world. It’s incredibly exciting to be in on this journey.

We’re almost there (at the starting point really) but we just want to say thank you to everybody for sticking with us this far. Wait until you see the new collectibles experience that awaits you. It’s going to be awesome!

Because we don’t have time for our usual spiel of awesomeness, we will leave you with a few websites we recommend you check out.

 Spoke with the awesome Brian Truitt of USA Today this week. He’s, like, the nicest guy and if you guys haven’t done so already you should check him out on the Lifestyle section of USA Today. He’s really funny. You can also follow him on Twitter @briantruitt

http://content.usatoday.com/topics/reporter/Brian+Truitt

 Also awesome is the multi-talented Max Engel of Brickd.com. Not just a site for fans of Lego but genuinely a site that’s full of amazing Lego creations. You can check it all out here. It’s really cool.

http://www.brickd.com/

 For the art lovers among you (hands up!!) here is a pretty cool site you should check out by Onezumi Hartstein. No, we can’t pronounce her full name either but she does say that Oni will do….see her amazing artwork here http://www.onezumi.com/

And because we never leave you without a video, here’s a random episode of The Guild that made us laugh!

Have a great weekend you guys. As always, send us comments, questions, queries and riddles to gday@curicon.com We love hearing from you all!

Not the News of the Week!

The countdown is on and in just a few weeks we’ll have everything ready for Show ‘n’ Tell. Yes, that’s right, we’ll be rolling out a completely new-look Curicon for you guys so just sit tight and we promise, amazing things are in the pipeline!

What’s gotten us excited this week? Well, lots of things…

 For a start, the announcement by DC Comics that the Green Lantern Annual #1 will be available from August 29^th.

Bringing together the might of writer Goeff Johns and artist Ethan Ethan Van Sciver, who have previously collaborated on such titles as GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH, GREEN LANTERN: THE SINESTRO CORPS WAR and THE FLASH: REBIRTH.

Hmm…..Wonder if you can pre-order???

Happy Birthday Wolfenstein!!! 20 years young and STILL epic! It’s the legendary game that launched the First Person Shooter Genre and now, it’s available on iTunes. Awesome!

Even if you’re not a Lego fan (who isn’t??) you have to admit that this is pretty awesome work by DeTomaso Pantera. We found it on the Brothers Brick website. The detail is incredible…

The news guaranteed to make nerds everywhere empty their piggy banks. People attending Star Wars weekends at Walt Disney Orlando from May 18^th to June 16^th can now opt to get a figure made of themselves trapped in a block of carbonite for $100. We say, I’ll take two!

We found this particularly useful bit of info on awesome site Topless Robot. Wander over and take a peek at them…they’re fun.

New things in the Library

Aimee has been busy at work this week, uploading items to make the library even bigger and better. We currently have 115,870 items in the database and it’s growing day by day.

New to the Curicon Library are Tonner Dolls, Integrity Dolls, Ashton Drake Dolls and the really cool Living Dead Doll Collection. So, what are you waiting for? If you have, had or want these get clicking and add them to your collection!

If anybody is looking for some cool new sites for your geeky/nerdy fix, may we suggest that you check out Geek of Oz. Covering movie, comic book reviews, anime, manga and book news AND there are some amazing interviews with very cool people such as Neil Gaiman. Get thee to the Geek!

And because we never leave you without at least one video. This week sees Captain America surprising a very small fan.

Have an awesome week guys and remember, any suggestions, comments, complaints about the site, email us at gday@curicon.com

Talk soon!

May the Fourth Be With You!

 

 May the Fourth Be With You!

Today the theme of the blog is ‘Star Wars’. Yes people, it’s Star Wars Day and in keeping with this theme we have compiled a list of Star Wars awesomeness the likes of which you’ve never seen before!

Meet the 501^st Legion– the world’s definitive imperial costuming organization. Not just fans of dressing up, this worldwide organization puts its resources to good use for volunteering, fund-raising and charity work. The Australian contingent will make an appearance tomorrow, May 5^th at the Dreamworld Annual Stormtrooper Weekend. If you’re in the Coomera area, do drop by. It’s for a great cause, the Starlight Children’s Foundation

Meet Jacob French. You may already heard of him but chance are you won’t recognize him…if he’s not dressed in his stormtrooper costume. Jacob completed a 5000km walk across Australia from Perth to Sydney over the course of 9 months. Walking for 10 hours a day in the black and white battle armour he went through several pairs of shoes as he completed the trek. And the reason for this ‘stroll’? To raise awareness and $50,000 for the Starlight Foundation.

Jacob did better than that, he managed to raise over $90,000. You can still donate if you go to his page here

Speaking of Star Wars and all its awesomeness, this week we met the lovely Bonnie Burton; cuter than the proverbial button and super talented author, sci-fi/horror geek and editor at Starwars.com this girl knows her Star Wars. If you didn’t know, she’s also blogger extraordinaire and a massive Betty Page fan on www.grrl.com  You can follow her on Twitter (and we suggest you do) on @bonniegrrl

 Tomorrow is free Comic Book Day!! Need we say more?? Check this link to find a participating comic book store near you. You literally have nothing to lose and everything to gain. What are you waiting for???

 Speaking of gaining awesome new comics, this week saw the launch of the first ever dead-tree Ninjabread comic. We strongly suggest you check it out here

And because we never leave you guys without at least giving you one cool video to check out, this week we’ve been mostly looking forward to seeing the newest Tim Burton movie. Guess who’s in it?? We’ll give you a hint; he looks a little bit like this guy…

and it rhymes with Shonny Schmepp!

It doesn’t matter, we still think it looks awesome! Enjoy 😀

Have an awesome week Curicon followers. As always, we’d love any feedback on the site. Email us on gday@curicon.com

The Week in Brief

Ron Burgandy - once again NOT reading the Curicon News

The week in brief from Curicon;

Happy burger Friday everybody! Well, you may not be having burgers but we certainly are. Sitting down by the creek Huck Finn-style chomping on potential coronaries wrapped in greasy paper, watching the ducks and the world go by. James Stewart was right; it’s a wonderful life.

So what have we been doing this week I hear you ask? Oh this and that. Just the usual you know; creating awesome new user features just so you can curate your own collection. Our library catalogue is growing at a rapid rate so keep checking in with us and continually add to your collection, or at the very least your wishlist.

So, another week has flown rapidly by. This is exciting because it brings us ever closer to the date when we bring you lots of cool features to the site. It also brings us closer to the night when we can get 8 hours full-uninterrupted sleep, breath a sigh of relief… and tackle the next Curicon challenge. And no, we can’t tell you what that is just yet J

For the procrastinators among you, here is our weekly round-up of videos guaranteed to be a time-suck but also definitely worth watching,;

Take a look at Frankie and Dottie as they try to work the ‘tweet machine’. It’s like looking at your granny. Or for Kerrie, it’s like a flash-forward into her future…

Bohemian Rhapsody like you’ve never seen it sung before;

Watching the Avengers trailer more times than could be considered normal;

And checking out cool Lego creations

 

Nerds we’ve been loving this week;

So we made some more new friends this week. Because we’re so nice that everybody wants to be our friend (or maybe they just want to play with our cool toy collection???)… Either way, this week we met Leonardo Ramirez, talented Sci-Fi and Fantasy author. He’s the author of Jupiter Chronicles and Haven of Dante. If you get a chance you should take a look at his pitch for self-publishing on Indie Gogo. He’s super-nice, really talented and absolutely guaranteed to be one of the next big authors. You heard it here first folks!

For you Nerdy Nerds out there….if you haven’t done so already, you just definitely check out the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast. Whether you’re an old hand at this nerd buzz or you’ve just started getting your geek on, the lovely Alan Kistler and the lovelier Jill Pantozzi combine dating advice with the latest in entertainment news. Not to be missed 🙂

We have also been reading the hilarious advice column/web comic Dear Dinosaur that you can read here. It’s written by Ryan L. Schrodt who is currently in the process of bringing Dear Dino from the web to the actual world. Well… he’s bringing a real comic out…not…yeah, you know.

On that completely random note we will leave you. Feel free to send all comments and suggestions on a postcard (or email). Gifts via mail  🙂

Have an awesome week!

This week at Curicon HQ

We have not employed Ron Burgandy to write this blog

The week in brief;

This week we have been drinking copious amounts of tea and energy drinks, finding cool stuff for you guys to add to your library, cleaning up after Chuckie (our cockatiel) who has a penchant for leaving ‘presents’ on our keyboards and trying to figure out the riddle that is Pinterest. Why do you log on for 5 minutes and then find that 2 hours has passed?? Is it in actual fact a time machine masquerading as an online pinboard?? Answers on a postcard please.

Things we think you should check out this week;

If you’ve been living under a rock…come out from under there, you’ll catch your death of cold. You should be checking the following out…

S.U.D.S- Simian Undercover Detective Squad. Co-written and produced by the talented Deb Loftis and Perry Sachs these simian detectives are guaranteed to have you in fits of laughter.  It’s like the muppets…. but on crack. Hilarious. Play it safe, this is probably NSFW! Now showing on the Nerdist Channel. Which you should also check out.

For the Whovians among you, who (geddit?? Sorry) wouldn’t want to visit this bar? It’s now on our hit list of things to see and do when we go to New York for Comic Con NY in October. Just added ‘Pee in the Tardis’ to the collective bucket list of the Curicon peeps. Don’t judge. You know you’d do it too, given half the chance. Particularly having read the lyrically descriptive musings of the lovely Jamila from Girl Gone Geek…

The Doctor

For all you gamers out there, if you haven’t checked out Wil Wheaton on Geek and Sundry, we suggest that you do. Loving Small World already. It’s fun and has massive replay value. What are you doing still reading this post??? Go!

If you’re still with us after watching Wil and the gang, we salute you, Vulcan-style.

This week, Aimee has been adding to our already extensive library of collectables resulting in a trip down memory lane when we saw these;

Mad Magazine

And this;

Tintin

And a strong desire for a Tim Burton movie marathon when we saw this;

In other news, if you were having trouble accessing the site this week, we apologise. There was a brief moment in time when Curicon had a bit of a tantrum but we placated it with biscuits and chocolate and now all is right with the world. So that means you can upload your collection, and add to your wish list to your heart’s content.

The perfection that is Curicon

Do keep dropping by. It makes us all warm inside when people keep coming back (and there are a LOT of you now. So thanks).  Over the next few weeks, you’ll see lots of cool new features, which we won’t tell you about now. It’s like a thriller movie and we like to maintain the suspense…. suffice to say they are truly awesome and will knock your socks off. Literally. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Have an awesome weekend.  Do say hello to us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Tumblr. Sometimes 7 days is just too long to wait to say hi again J

P.S: Has anybody watched the new Morgan Spurlock movie Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope? We haven’t seen it just yet but Peter Gutierrez has written a review, which you can read here. What did you think?

The week in brief from Curicon HQ*…

This week we have mainly been coding and developing some awesome new features for the site, watching more youtube clips than can possibly be considered healthy, doing a bit more coding, being jealous of all the peeps on Twitter who are going to C2E2 and chatting with some really fun Curicon followers. We also had a photoshoot with some really cool characters. They moved in this week and they don’t take up too much space. But their language is atrociously foul. Here they are;

And a few more…

Saving the world!

We currently have 106,788 items in the Curicon Library of collectables which we like to think is fairly awesome progress since January this year.  So far, our categories include Action Figures, Plushies, Dolls, Vinyl Toys, Comic Books, Warhammer, Scale Models, Lego, Manga, Trading Cards, Video Games, Digital Pets (for all those 90’s kids out there) and Games Consoles to name just a few. Take a cruise around the site and if there’s anything you think we should have on the site or anything you want to contribute, let us know here. Curicon is built by collectors for collectors and we really want to hear any feedback you might have, good or bad; just don’t make us cry. Or he shall smite you….The best part of today is that it’s Friday. Not alone is it Friday but it’s ‘Burger Friday’-a Curicon ritual designed to delight and distract us from the aforementioned activities. A ritual where silliness is not just a possibility but also a requisite. It usually involves the Curicon imps digging around the creek trying to get a look at the resident lizards (no that’s not a metaphor, there really are lizards).

This is Matt in his hat. Not a lizard

This is a Lizard. Not Matt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In an impressive bout of name-dropping, we have to tell you that we had the good fortune to make friends this week with the lovely Alex Zalben, he of Elephant Larry & Comic Book Club fame (yes, we know you’re jealous and frankly, you should be). He’s even nicer than we thought he could possibly be. And yes, we’re gushing a little bit but it’s allowed.

He also looks much more real than this picture would have you believe

Youtube videos we’re loving this week…

An anthem for geeks and nerds everywhere, the multi-talented Felicia Day (is there anything this woman can’t do?) and The Guild, “I’m the one that’s Cool”

Honestly, this will just turn you to mush inside. The cutest, smartest kid who has his own games arcade made from cardboard. We challenge you not to love it.

And not just because he’s our new best friend (BFF might be pushing it but you never know) but also because it’s an awesome episode, here’s the first @Nerdist Channel episode of Comic Book Live

Lest you think we’re simply coasting along watching Youtube videos, we have also been hard at work developing new features for Curicon that promise awesomeness, cult-like passion and a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Trumpet-blowing much? There’s no room for modesty here so if that’s your bag, move along. Nothing to see here 🙂

Keep checking in with us to see what we’re up to. Or just stop by to say hello. We like meeting new friends. We’re on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr and Google+

*WARNING: Read this on your lunch break. We’re not sure how easily you can pass off watching youtube videos as ‘work’. Unless you’re Kevin Alloca.