ECCC 2016 – Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

ECCC 2016 Round-Up!

April 17, 2016 Jay One comment

Listen to the live episode here.

Miles, Scott, and Jay performing the Hamilton cold open live at Phoenix Comics (video courtesy of Annie Bulloch):

ECCC Show Diaries:

ETA: If you absolutely can’t get enough of Hamilton and X-Men cross-references, here’s the time someone asked Jay to associate songs from the show with specific X-characters and they couldn’t stop.

105 – Live from ECCC with Kris Anka, Al Ewing, Scott Koblish, and G. Willow Wilson

April 17, 2016 Jay 17 comments

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Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop, or contact David to purchase the original.

In which continuity has its eyes on you; the multiverse is so complex that we have to drag Al Ewing out of the audience to X-plain it; the X-Men mean a lot of different (but mostly compatible) things to all of us; we will accept any retcons necessary to maintain Magneto’s history as a Holocaust survivor; and ECCC rocks our world.

X-PLAINED:

Secret Wars
Alternate universes vs. alternate timelines
Multiversal problem-solving
New Arcadia
Definitive alternate-timeline X-Men
The weird joy of reading comics out of order
That one alternate timeline where Storm has a leather jacket and is hooking up with Wolverine
The only happy Cyclops in the multiverse
What makes the X-Men the X-Men
Intersections we’d like to see explored in canon
The appeal of universe-hopping
Relative ratios of metaphors to punching
Proof of concept in comics publishing
Battleworld characters we’d like to import into the 616.1
Which X-Men should get solo series

NEXT WEEK: X-Terminators!

CORRECTION: During the panel, Jay claimed that Spider-Man had been married for their entire life. Jay was in fact five years old when Spider-Man got married. We regret the error, but maintain our stance that Spider-Man is totally married.

You can find links to all our ECCC coverage–as well as a live video of the Hamilton cold open, from the Phoenix Comics party–on our blog!

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

Buy prints of this week’s illustration at our shop, or contact David Wynne for the original!

Jay and Miles Try to Draw and Cyclops Has a Good Day at ECCC 2016!

April 13, 2016 Jay 4 comments

WOOHOO IT’S SKETCH ROUND-UP TIME!

We do bad X-Men drawings for $1 at cons (although we might end up raising the price, because we spent a somewhat ridiculous amount of time on these). Here’s most of what we did at ECCC, minus a few that we forgot to photograph:

Miles starts with a classic.

Cyclops Has a Good Day, by Jay. (It seems kind of unfair to commission something that’s *my* sketchbook theme–I’m used to other people having to think of these!)

Seriously, y’all, Miles will take ANY EXCUSE to draw Adam X the X-Treme.

If you ask Jay to draw Warlock, you will get a Warlock heart. Every time.

There were a lot of Colossus requests this year! Here’s Miles’s favorite.

This person wanted a shadowcat and a Magik in her zine, so we made them a matched set: Shadowcat by Jay…

…and Magik by Miles.

Jay’s attempt to capture the grandeur of ’90s Rogue’s hair fell tragically short.

Someone wanted Miles to draw the death of Nightcrawler, so, that happened.

What happens when Jay gets tired of coloring in AoA Colossus.

Miles is all about the really sharp dudes; in this case, Stryfe.

Jay REALLY ENJOYS drawing Shadowcat with swoopy Alan Davis hair.

Miles takes a stab at Inferno Colossus.

Jay drew a Warlock that is a heart that is also a bookplate. Your argument is invalid.

David drew a lot of really beautiful sketches and commissions, but for some reason, this is the only one we actually have a photo of:

And here are the newest additions to Jay’s Cyclops Has a Good Day sketchbook (the downside of working shows = very little time to run around and get commissions and sketches, alas!):

Cully Hamner

David Wynne (who has actually drawn more of these than anyone else, but also had never previously been on the same continent as the sketchbook proper! Someday I will do an all-David Cyclops Has a Good Day gallery.)

Scott Koblish

Tea Berryblue

Jessi Jordan (who was also our marvelous table neighbor!)

ECCC Show Diary: Day 4

April 11, 2016 Jay Leave a comment

Jay here! It’s 1:30 AM, I’m scrambling to get Episode 104 up, and I’m dead on my feet, so I’m gonna keep this one pretty cursory.

Four days is a lot of convention. I know there are shows where it’s standard, but we really, really felt the extra day today.

I don’t even know.
I’m really tired, y’all.
Some stuff happened?
OH! There was some really great cosplay.
And we did a bunch of sketches and forgot to take pictures of most of them.
The end of a con is always pretty bittersweet. We’re exhausted and very ready to be home, but we also had an amazing time and saw (and made!) a lot of very dear friends who we will now miss dreadfully!
Speaking of which, we have to send David back to the UK tomorrow, and that sucks, because he’s awesome. Someone invent safe and affordable teleportation now, please.
Ooh, maybe I should do a con highlights list! Yeah, I’m gonna do that.

ECCC 2016 HIGHLIGHTS:

MEETING YOU! We know our listeners are awesome, but, man, nothing drives that point home like meeting you in person. You are universally delightful. One of you brought Miles beer.
Meeting creators! Scott Koblish is a national treasure, y’all. Also, apparently a lot of people whose work we really, really love listen to the show; which is both awesome and intimidating as hell.
Seeing old friends and meeting new. Man, we’re going to miss you so much.
THE LIVE SHOW. Oh. My. God.
The Hamilton cold open actually gets its own list item, because I am incredibly proud of that ridiculousness, and because Scott Koblish is–again–a national treasure; because he not only dove headfirst into that ridiculousness, but did it again the next night at our birthday party while standing on a chair.
SPEAKING OF WHICH, our 2nd birthday party was so damn fun. Phoenix comics was amazing! You were amazing! The cake was amazing! Going to a bar and sitting down and eating non-cake afterwards and talking until stupid o’clock was amazing!
Okay, look, this is my favorite show. (Sorry, RCCC: you’re lovely and our hometown con, but ECCC got a seven-year head start working its way into my heart.) I know the people who run it. I know a ton of people who go. I know the city, and I have a great place to crash, and basically I love ECCC and I love all of you and this has been a nonstop-amazing four days. Thank you. So much.
I’m going to borrow some words from David, who’s already said it far better than I can at this point: “All in all, ECCC has been an amazingly fun adventure full of life affirming positivity. I keep wanting to do a (series of) tweet(s) acknowledging all the great people I’ve met this weekend, but there are just too many. I would inevitably forget someone, so it’s better if I don’t do it. Just know: if I spent time with you, I’m glad I did, you are awesome.”

AND HERE ARE A FEW PHOTOGRAPHS FROM TODAY:

LOOK AT THESE PUNK X-MEN LOOK HOW AWESOME THEY ARE

Someone wanted me to draw a Warlock book plate in their X-Men sketchbook. The sketch on the facing page is X-Factor Cyclops by Ibrahim Moustafa, which was intimidating as all hell. — Someone wanted me to draw a Warlock book plate in their X-Men sketchbook. (You can only see a corner of it in this photo, but the sketch on the facing page is gorgeous X-Factor Cyclops by Ibrahim Moustafa.)

Remember Tea, that terrific Namor from earlier in the show? Today she was dressed up as Little Marvels AvX Cyclops, complete with a Bucky Bear! — Remember Tea, that terrific Namor from earlier in the show? Today she was dressed up as *Little Marvels AvX* Cyclops, complete with a Bucky Bear!

The nice folks at We Love Fine gave me a magnetic Goat Simulator goat, which I have spent the evening gleefully attaching to every metal or metal-studded object I could find--including David, who was still wearing his con badge under his jacket. — The nice folks at We Love Fine gave me a magnetic *Goat Simulator* goat, which I have spent the evening gleefully attaching to every metal or metal-studded object I could find–including David, who was still wearing his con badge under his jacket.

(We didn’t try any new Lush stuff today. Also, I think we accidentally left a bunch of it back in Portland. Maybe I’ll fold the rest into the roundups of cosplay and sketches later this week…)

ECCC Show Diary: Day 3

April 10, 2016 Jay 5 comments

Jay here. It’s a little after 1 AM, and I have to be back on the con floor in about eight hours, so this is gonna be short.

Today started with the always-fantastic “Taking Fandom Seriously” panel. This is the second year Andréa has put this panel together, and it’s incredibly fun: a group of hardcore fans who also work in comics–in creative or publishing capacities, or as a field of academic study–talking about bridging and occupying those worlds simultaneously. The take-away both years has basically been “there are so many cool ways to engage with things you love.” <3

The bookend on the other end was our meetup / second birthday party at Phoenix Comics. You turned out like whoa, we reprised the Hamilton cold open from the live panel yesterday, and I GOT A COMICS SHOP FULL OF PEOPLE TO SING THE X-MEN ’92 THEME SONG TOGETHER, which was something I did not even realize had been a life goal until it had happened. And then there was SO MUCH CAKE. (For the folks who asked: the cake came from Little Rae’s Bakery, and they were awesome to work with.)

If there’s anything the party drove home, it’s how awesome our people are: the listeners who turned out, our stupendously wonderful hosts, all the friends and fans and pros and–look, I’m tired and slightly tipsy, but I’m getting kinda teary just writing this. You are amazing, and seeing y’all concentrated in one place, celebrating and being splendid, was a pretty damn special way to close out the night.

(Actually, we closed out the night by migrating to a nearby bar and getting fancy Scotch and absolutely brilliant breaded-tofu sandwiches. I realize that doesn’t sound very appetizing, but trust me: they were stupendous.)

PHOTOS AHOY:

I got the Monster Scouts "Wicked Specs" merit badge. (And then I colored 'em in with a red sharpie. Is anyone surprised? Yeah, I didn't think so.) — On my way back from the panel, I picked up a Monster Scouts “Wicked Specs” merit badge. (And then I colored ’em in with a red sharpie. Is anyone surprised? Yeah, I didn’t think so.)

The sharpie kinda bled, but I've decided I can No-Prize that away as energy spillover. — The sharpie kinda bled, but I’ve decided I can No-Prize that away as energy spillover.

Speaking of sharpies, I'm really happy with the L in this knuckle tat, for my friend Ryan. (It's a reference to his game Katanas and Trenchcoats.) — Speaking of sharpies, I’m really happy with the L in this knuckle tat, for my friend Ryan. (It’s a reference to his game *Katanas and Trenchcoats*.)

People kept telling me about the X-Men dogs, but I only saw them in passing until today. In addition to being ridiculously adorable, they are also super chill and friendly.

We did a BUNCH of bad X-Men sketches, but this matched set, in someone's zine, are my favorites of the day: My Kitty... — We did a BUNCH of bad X-Men sketches, but this matched set, in someone’s zine, are my favorites of the day: My Shadowcat…

...and Miles's Magik. — …and Miles’s Magik.

Alison, as our Sunglasses fairy, at the party! — Allison, as our Sunglasses fairy, at the party!

With Nick and Simon, our awesome hosts at Phoenix Comics!

Lush stuff I tried today: The Hand of Friendship soap smells a LOT like cherry Starbursts; and the Cynthia Sylvia Stout shampoo + Veganese conditioner combo left my hair ludicrously soft and smelled pretty great.

ECCC Show Diary: Day 2

April 8, 2016 Jay 4 comments

Jay here! Today was our Really Big Day: the live episode. O.o

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

Stumbled through the morning and managed to get in mostly on time! (Well, I did; Miles almost did.)
If you had a coherent conversation with either David or me today, take a moment to thank AdminixtratriX Tina, who swung by shortly after opening with two enormous cups of coffee, because she is a saint/superhero.
There was SO MUCH GOOD COSPLAY today, which is particularly cool given that we know Saturday’s generally the big cosplay day at ECCC. People who turn out turned out on weekdays impress the hell out of me.
We did a LOT of bad X-Men sketches, and David did a lot of good ones. Also, between yesterday and today, I got Cyclops Has a Good Day sketches from the three people on my “Absolutely No Matter What” list for this show, which I will post eventually.
At 1:00, I ran off for my first panel: “We’re not Gonna Take It: How to Deal with Harassment in the Comics Community,” with Casey Gilly, Sarah Gaydos, and Annie Bulloch, and moderated by Jack Bauer. Very low turnout, but one of the best and most productive-feeling panels I’ve ever been on: we spent an hour discussing systemic factors in harassment in the comics industry and community, and hammering out practical solutions.
Stopped to see a bunch of friends at 312, and SUDDENLY THERE WERE SUGAR GLIDERS AND I GOT TO PET THEM AND THEY WERE TINY AND SOFT AND WONDERFUL! Also picked up a couple copies of Ma’at Crook’s absolutely lovely self-care comic/coloring book, and immediately gave one away.
Miles and I spent most of the spare moments we could grab between panels and talking to folks at the table to hammer out a rough outline for the episode; which was good, because I spent the last 40 minutes before the panel…
…outside with Scott Koblish, running through the cold open. I have NO IDEA what passers-by thought we were doing, but to their credit, they were very chill about it. We ended up behind an AMAZING Fury Road Crow cosplay on our way back in and so are probably in a lot of photos of it.
THE LIVE EPISODE. OH, MY GOD. WE DID THIS THING AND IT HAPPENED! Everyone was amazing, including Al Ewing, who we ended up dragging up from the audience to explain the current state of the multiverse. The crowd was fantastic, too–100% terrific questions, and pretty much everything
Fancy pizza + beer for dinner again; because if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. We briefly flirted with the idea of going to a couple parties, then decided to go home, take off our shoes, and finish proofing Episode 104 instead.

HERE ARE SOME PHOTOGRAPHS OF SOME STUFF!

Miles technically drew this Proletarian yesterday, but he just sent me the photo, so.

In addition to being a kickass Dazzler, Sarah is a roller-derby rock star AND the human behind our pro photos!

Someone asked us to sign their copy of The Incredible Hulk #148, which features what may be the most important character debut in Marvel history. — Someone asked us to sign their copy of *The Incredible Hulk* #148, which features what may be the most important character debut in Marvel history. P.S. IF YOU ARE THIS PERSON: I FOUND THAT ONE BUTTON, AND I AM HOLDING IT FOR YOU.

I HAD TO DRAW A "CYCLOPS HAS A GOOD DAY" SKETCH CARD AND I TOTALLY BLANKED. Also, I just realized his headphones don't have a cord. Ah, well--there's a reason we bill these as "Bad drawings of your favorite X-Man." — I HAD TO DRAW A “CYCLOPS HAS A GOOD DAY” SKETCH CARD AND I TOTALLY BLANKED. Shoemaker’s children go barefoot, and all that, I suppose. Also, I just realized his headphones don’t have a cord. Ah, well–there’s a reason we bill these as “Bad drawings of your favorite X-Man.”

THIS SUGAR GLIDER IS IMPOSSIBLY TINY AND SOFT AND WONDERFUL AND I GOT TO PET IT AND IT WAS UTTERLY MAGICAL

Our friend Tea as the King of Abs-Lantis. That is a TRAVEL TRIDENT, by the way: she's also got a full-size one, but this one is modular and fits into luggage, which kind of blows my mind. — Our friend Tea as the King of Abs-Lantis. That is a TRAVEL TRIDENT, by the way: she’s also got a full-size one, but this one is modular so that it can fit into luggage, which kind of blows my mind.

True fact: In addition to being a really good artist, Scott Koblish is an excellent and delightful human being. — True fact: In addition to being a really good artist, Scott Koblish is an excellent and delightful human being…

...who has also now set the high bar for the Cyclops Has a Good Day sketchbook. — …who has also now set the high bar for the Cyclops Has a Good Day sketchbook.

And then this happened, and it was PRETTY DARN AMAZING. (Also, thank you to everyone who was there for not spoiling to cold open online. The rest of you can catch it at the party tomorrow night, or when the episode goes a week from Sunday!) — And then this happened, and it was PRETTY DARN AMAZING. Left to right: Me, Miles, G. Willow Wilson, Kris Anka, Al Ewing, Scott Koblish! (Also, thank you to everyone who came; and double thanks for not spoiling to cold open online!! The rest of you can catch it live at the party tomorrow night, or when the episode goes a week from Sunday!)

Lush stuff I tried today: The Sexy Peel soap smells EXACTLY like marmalade, to the point where I kept expecting to be sticky after using it; and a little of the Wiccy Magic Muscles massage bar goes a VERY long way. — Lush stuff I tried today: The Sexy Peel soap smells EXACTLY like marmalade, to the point where I kept expecting to be sticky after using it; and the Wiccy Magic Muscles massage bar is nice, but perhaps over-scented. A little goes a VERY long way. Also, this is the first con I’ve been at in ages where my hands weren’t cracking by the second day, so obviously SOMETHING is working! =D

ECCC Show Diary: Day 1

April 8, 2016 Jay 10 comments

FIRST DAY OF THE SHOW PROPER!

We were expecting Thursday to be pretty quiet, but, no. You were NUMEROUS AND ENTHUSIASTIC, and IT WAS AWESOME. Here are the highlights:

Got up at stupid o’clock to feed the meter
Came back, showered, and put on grown-up daytime clothes. ONE OF US IS WEARING A TIE. MUCH ADULT VERY PROFESSIONAL.
Moved the car, because Capitol Hill has no parking. Damnit, Seattle!
David had caught inevitable international-travel plague, so we dropped off ibuprofen at his hotel, then…
…got lunch at a sushi place that we are fairly sure was actively attempting to make us leave. JOKE’S ON THEM. WE ATE SUSHI AND THEN PAID FOR IT AND THEN LEFT.
Went and set up our table.
DID A LOT OF CONVENTION.
I got two new Cyclops Has a Good Day sketches, from Cully Hamner and David Wynne. Yesssssssss.
Miles got a super sweet Silent Hill poster from Mondo…
…and I got Miles a super sweet Thors poster from Peter V. Nguyen
Once the show let out, we met up with Scott Koblish, and wandered off to get dinner…
…then practiced the cold open in an empty parking lot.
Our friends Katie and Douglas were hosting a karaoke night to celebrate both the show and recent amazing professional projects (THEY ARE AWESOME! GO KATIE AND DOUGLAS!), so we headed down.
Did you know that Miles sings Blondie? Miles sings Blondie. HE IS VERY GOOD AT IT.
Also, Al Ewing sang “Let It Go,” and possibly manifested a whole sci-fi rock musical just by being the weirdest and Britishest person in the room.
ANYWAY. We are very tired and slightly tipsy, and it is probably time for sleep. OUR LIVE PANEL IS TOMORROW (today; it’s after midnight) at 5:30 PM IN ROOM T304, AND YOU SHOULD ALL COME.
Seriously. KINDA FREAKING OUT about this cold open. It is by far and away the most ambitious one we’ve ever done.

PHOTOS:

Jay's first sharpie knuckle tats of the day, for a friend who used to co-run one of our favorite video-game websites EVER in high school. HI, NICH! YOU ARE AWESOME! — Jay’s first sharpie knuckle tats of the day, for a friend who used to co-run one of our favorite video-game websites EVER in high school. HI, NICH! YOU ARE AWESOME!

Miles drew Bill the Lobster. Your argument is invalid.

Jay drew Magik. This was part of a pair, but the other one's in Miles's phone, and we're tired, so we'll post it later. — Jay drew Magik. This was part of a pair, but the other one’s in Miles’s phone, and we’re tired, so we’ll post it later.

DID YOU KNOW THAT SEATTLE HAS AN X-MEN BURLESQUE SHOW? These two are part of it, and they are awesome!

Lush stuff I tried today! Needles and Pines Shower Jelly smells like camping, but not unpleasantly so; and No Drought dry shampoo is my new best convention friend forever.

ECCC Diary: Day -1

April 7, 2016 Jay 5 comments

Jay here! A lot of you have written to say you wish you could be at ECCC this weekend. We can’t bring you with us, but hopefully we can give you at least a virtual window (and try a new X-periment on the blog) with a show diary!

Today we:

Drove up to Seattle from Portland
Dropped party stuff off–and picked up a few books–at the super awesome Phoenix Comics
Got our badges and worked out our table set-up! We are experimenting with more vertical arrangements this time, since we’ve only got half a table, and it is a little terrifying. Also, I broke the vase our sign goes in, but was able to repair it with a whooooole lot of duct tape.
Got David from the airport. It’s his first time in the U.S.! We went to a restaurant with $5 martinis and very okay barbecue and compared national stereotypes and were generally pretty excited about finally meeting after most of a decade of being Internet friends!
Bought groceries. Grocery shopping for cons is always super weird–by the time we get to the store, we’re tired and fuzzy, and it turns into a sort of surreal vacation-like fugue state. This time, we spent a lot of time looking at Spider-Man toys, then mostly bought granola bars, because we are boring adults.
Finally got into the place where we’re staying. We’re crashing at a friend’s place while she’s out of town, and her locks are suuuuuuper sticky, so there was some frantic messaging and experimenting, and I was briefly extremely worried that someone would think I was trying to break in. BUT WE DID IT, and we figured out the trick to mostly maybe making the outdoor key work. Kind of. We hope.
AND NOW WE ARE IN BED. Oh! And listener BLL, who works at Lush, sent us a ridiculously amazing package of fancy bath-type stuff, which we then forgot to try, but we brought it with us! And I am totally going to try at least a few things every day that we’re here, because it all smells amazing. (I am a creature of capital-H Habit, and am baffled and intimidated by fancy bath products, but BLL included both a detailed guide and a bunch of X-Men references, so I am ON TOP OF THIS.)

PHOTOS FOR YOU:

Our table! We set everything up, took a photo, and then took most of it down, because we didn't have a dropcloth. BUT! We have a photo, so we will know where it all goes tomorrow. — Our table! We set everything up, took a photo, and then took most of it down, because we didn’t have a dropcloth. BUT! We have a photo, so we will know where it all goes tomorrow. That’s our friend Rue is in the background. She’s awesome.

Lush stuff I tried tonight! The toothpaste tabs are super weird, the charity pot lotion is AMAZING, and the lip balm both smells and tastes kind of like lemon frosting! — Lush stuff I tried tonight! The toothpaste tabs are weird enough that I’m having trouble getting past the novelty to determine whether I actually liked them, the charity pot lotion is AMAZING AND I AM IN LOVE WITH IT, and the lip balm both smells and tastes kind of like lemon frosting! (Guest starring my sweet Spider-Man travel toothbrush.)

Two very tired X-Perts who have to get up very early tomorrow to move their car. GOOD NIGHT, INTERNET!

Jay & Miles Review the X-Men, Episode 79

March 31, 2016 Jay 10 comments

Week of March 30, 2016:

In which Jay draws a line in the sand, Rogue hits someone with a bear, Toad develops nuance, and you should totally come see us at ECCC!

REVIEWED:

Uncanny X-Men #5 (01:48)
*X-Men ’92 #1 (05:30)
All-New X-Men #7 (10:19)

*Pick of the Week (15:05)

You can find our full ECCC lineup over here!

Come join us on Imzy!

Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. These video reviews–and everything else here–are made possible by the support of our Patreon subscribers. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!