Cartoons, Film Reviews, Videos, and Adventures

Plans for the new year and a request.

Image by Jody Lindke from Her Monster Romance Series

Thank You

As I finish my first full calendar year of creating and editing content for the Geekerati Newsletter, I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone of you who subscribes. While I am not able to write here as much as I’d like, I put a good deal of thought and effort into the posts that I put up here and I am unimaginably grateful that you find my posts worth your time.

I started this Newsletter in November of 2022 because I wanted to get in the practice of writing on a fairly regular basis and I wanted to resurrect my old Geekerati blog where I shared my thoughts on Pop Culture in general. That blog led to a podcast where I and my friends Shawna Benson, Eric Lytle, Wes Kobernick, and Bill Cunningham produced over 170 episodes of geek related discussions and interviews. I have fond memories of recording those episodes and I was blessed with great co-hosts and some excellent guests.

As happens, each of us got busy with various projects. Shawna and her writing partner, and sister, Julie went on to write for a number of television shows and comic books. Bill Cunningham’s pulp related publishing business has flourished and I am a regular purchaser of his books. You’ll be seeing some reviews of those in the coming year. Eric went on to work for California’s Environmental Protection Agency and is doing great work there. Wes is a struggling sound editor and entrepreneur. I started a Ph.D. program (I am finishing my dissertation this spring) and moved to Idaho where I teach as an adjunct professor and do data analysis for Ada County. All of these projects, especially my Ph.D. program, led to the show and eventually my old blog petering out.

I missed the community that came from sharing my own and others passions about a variety of subjects and that led to me looking at Substack as the place to do it. It’s been a good fit and I’ve seen my subscribing audience grow from 6 at the end of last year to the current level of 104. That isn’t a blockbuster/bestseller level subscription base, but it is one that I am very proud of and I want to once again thank you for being one of those subscribers. I’d also like to take a moment to thank a few of you directly and then I’ll move on to talking about plans for the upcoming year and making a request.

Patrick Frey was my first subscriber. He never comments, and I’m sure that most of what I write about makes him roll his eyes, but he has a very high activity level and I am honored to have his support.

Tomas McIntee was my first “unknown” subscriber. That is to say that he’s someone I did not know in person before he subscribed. He’s also a very active subscriber and a political scientist.

Steven Schend was my first “geek community” subscriber. Steven worked on a number of my favorite role playing game products and has been gracious enough to chat with me about super hero role playing games.

Those were my first three subscribers and they all subscribed within a day of me launching the newsletter. Wow. Thanks.

My sister Krista was also an early subscriber and since we grew up in the same household, I know she shares a lot of the same geek obsessions I do and I’m thankful she’s willing to read me prattle on about them.

I don’t have the space, and it would be boring for everyone else for me to give a paragraph describing each and every other subscriber, so I’ll just give the rest of you one collective THANK YOU. I will say though that looking at the Substack subscriber reports you are a very interesting group of people and some of you come from very interesting backgrounds.

Plans for 2024

Though I started the Geekerati Newsletter as a place to share my thoughts on all aspects of popular culture in a way similar to the way that White Dwarf, Dragon Magazine, and The Space Gamer did before they became house organs, I made one big change in 2023 that expanded the vision of the Geekerati Newsletter.

I began running reviews of 4K discs written by my friend Luke Y Thompson. He’s been a friend for years and is a professional film reviewer who writes for SuperHeroHype, A.V. Club, and other online venues. He was my editor at The Robot’s Voice and he’s deeply knowledgeable in a host of entertainment genre. I pay him for these reviews, at a heavy discount, which technically makes me a publisher and that feels pretty cool.

In 2024 I’d like to expand the Geekerati Newsletter even further and I’d like to do it in four key ways.

First, I’d like to host more reviews by Luke and possibly some reviews by other reviewers in my acquaintance pool. I’m happy to take their “this piece has no other home, but I really wanted to write this” reviews. I love conversations about pop culture and I’d love to build a community that discusses all aspects of it. I won’t be able to pay much, but I won’t expect them to do it for free.

Second, I want to run monthly comic strips/panels by my wife Jody Lindke. Jody was the first woman to win the Charles M Schulz college cartooning award. She won it for her fantastic Nicnup comic strip that ran in the University of Nevada, Reno’s Sagebrush newspaper. She’s my favorite cartoonist of all time and I would love to share her work. She did a weekly strip called Pattie Kaiks for an alternative paper in Reno and has doodled many ideas, including a couple like the one at the top of this post that were inspired by old Dragon Magazine “Dragon Mirth” cartoons.

Third, I’d like to write and publish adventures for a variety of role playing games. These will be more like the Shadow of the Krampus adventure linked below and less like the adventure outline I did with The Night the Reindeer Died (Feng Shui adventure). They’d come with maps and some art (likely stock art from Rick Hershey since he’s great and he’s a subscriber).

A Holiday Themed RPG Adventure: Shadow of the Krampus (Reprise)

Fourth, I’d like to film regular interviews and reviews for my YouTube channel and make the Geekerati Radio experience a regular thing again. I miss interviewing people and chatting with them about all aspects of geek culture. The world is filled with more entertainment content that is worth experiencing than one can consume in a lifetime, but I’d like to highlight some things that I think are really worth your time and to chat with the people who helped make those things possible.

Now for the ask.

If I want to do all the things I hope to do in 2024, I can’t do it without your help and you can help in three ways.

You can spread the word and help this newsletter grow. More subscribers means more dopamine when I see the daily statistics. It also means more conversations.

Speaking of which, you can read and comment. I would certainly love for more conversation to happen here. I want to know what you are excited about. You might guess by the fact that I’m usually positive here that I’d prefer you share comments that are similar, and that’s true, but I am always open to honest criticism of things you don’t like. I just ask that you critique the content and not the creators. I’ve known a lot of people who write, film, edit, and design products and I’ve yet to meet one who was trying to make what they thought was a bad product.

Lastly, and this is the big ask. I’d like some of you to consider upgrading to paid subscriber status.

If I can raise $50 a month total, I can get Jody Lindke to to a monthly cartoon for the site.

If I can raise $100 a month total, I can pay Luke Thompson a higher stipend and recruit more reviewers throughout the year.

I know it’s a lot to ask, but please consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Thank you again for reading and let’s make 2024 an amazing year.