Monday, May 23, 2022
Power Chords Podcast: Track 80--Reckless Love and Mark Tremonti
Monday, May 9, 2022
Thrash it Out Podcast | Volume 6--Track 2: Nightwish
Saturday, April 30, 2022
Power Chords Podcast: Track 79--Aerosmith and The Linda Lindas
Sunday, April 17, 2022
The Games Igniting My Creativity Right Now
Sometimes I sit down to write about where I am at in my creative journey, and I get a profound sense of déjà vu.
2022 has been a pretty chaotic year so far for me. I started a new job in February, and between that and a very busy family life that now includes basketball tournaments every weekend, my free time has been at a minimum.
Lately, Sunday mornings have become the one time of the week where I have a couple hours of "me time," and I have increasingly been using that time for creative self-care, which for me means consuming the kinds of games, stories, movies, shows, and music that provide an immersive experience, somewhere I can escape to for a bit and recharge for the week ahead.
Right now, I'm leaning heavily into games for my Sunday morning escapes, and the two I have been spending the most time with lately are Elden Ring, and Kirby and the Forgotten Lands.
I've chronicled my love for From's Souls games on multiple occasions. My first blogs about Demon's Souls are 11 years old! One of the things I've written about that makes these games special for me is they show you a world and tell you a story, but they also leave a lot of mystery for the reader or player to work out on their own. Elden Ring is From's biggest game yet, and provides more of everything I love about the Souls games, and then some.
But Kirby and the Forgotten Lands is also scratching that creative itch for me, as it also features a world filled with mystery, and plenty of lore and secrets to unravel. It's also adorable, and provides a wonderful contrast to the grim and challenging experience that is Elden Ring.
Both of these games are recharging my creative batteries right now, in a time where writing has been really difficult for me. Spending an hour or two on a Sunday morning with these games has been helping me get through some very busy and somewhat difficult times.
Monday, April 4, 2022
Power Chords Podcast: Track 78--Ghost and Marillion
Opening Act:
Sunday, March 20, 2022
2099 Revisited Podcast: Doom 2099 #2
This episode features a recap and discussion of the second issue of Doom 2099. In this issue, Doom hatches a plan to steal a rare resource called Tritonium from Tiger Wylde, and leverage it against him in an effort to take back Latveria.
Next episode will feature Ravage 2099 #1.
Monday, March 14, 2022
Thrash it Out Podcast | Volume 6--Track 1: Ratt
Sunday, March 6, 2022
Power Chords Podcast: Track 77--Saxon and Kissin' Dynamite
Opening Act:
Sunday, February 20, 2022
2099 Revisited Podcast: Doom 2099 #1
Doom has arrived! This episode features a recap and discussion of the first issue of Doom 2099. In this opening issue, Doctor Doom mysteriously arrives in the year 2099 to find Latveria under the control of Tiger Wylde. His initial attempt to reclaim power does not go well.
Note: I mention in the episode there is a derogatory term used several times in this comic when referring to Romani people. The Romani have been discriminated against based on stereotypes about their culture for hundreds of years, and that particular term is part of that. If you’d like to learn more, nonprofit org Facing History and Ourselves has a great video featuring Dr. Margareta Matache, the Director of the Roma Program at Harvard University: https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/video/we-call-ourselves-roma.
Next episode will feature Doom 2099 #2.
Saturday, February 5, 2022
2099 Revisited Podcast: Spider-Man 2099 #2-3
Continuing the origin of Spider-Man 2099! This episode features a recap and discussion of issues two and three of Spider-Man 2099. In these issues, we meet the Thorites, as well as the cyborg bounty hunter Venture, the first foe Miguel has to take on with his newfound powers.
Next episode will feature Doom 2099 #1.
Monday, January 31, 2022
Power Chords Podcast: Track 76--Meat Loaf and Battle Beast
Saturday, January 22, 2022
2099 Revisited Podcast: Spider-Man 2099 #1
We are officially diving into the futureverse! This episode features a recap and discussion of the first issue of 2099’s flagship series, Spider-Man 2099. In it we are introduced to the first reluctant hero of a new age, Miguel O’Hara.
Next episode will features Spider-Man 2099 #2-3.
Wednesday, January 12, 2022
Co-Op Critics is Back!
Almost 11 years ago, I started a blog and podcast called Co-Op Critics, as a place to talk about gaming with my friends. I had recently finished a two-year stint covering games for Comic Book Resources, one of the most popular comics news sites at the time. I stopped writing for CBR because I wanted to focus on my books, but I quickly found that I missed talking about games.
Over the years, Co-Op Critics evolved into its own site, as well as a YouTube channel, featuring hundreds of gameplay videos. My friend Nick Merritt and I created content together and with others. I even had a long-running Minecraft series I did with my son called Co-Op Craft: Family Edition. We had a blast overall, but it was always a passion project that would take a back seat to work and family life.
So, for the past three years, the channel and the site have been pretty dormant.
But Nick and I have made it a goal to bring Co-Op Critics back to life this year, even if we can't post the volume of content we once did. We've launched a brand new let's play series with a brand new game, and you can watch the first episode right in the player below:
You can head over to our YouTube channel to see the second episode now, and all future episodes. You can also check out the huge library of videos we have, featuring all kinds of games, from Roblox to Dark Souls.
If you want to catch up on old episodes of the co-Op Critics podcast, you can find them all here.
Speaking of the Souls series, I will definitely be doing a series on the upcoming Elden Ring, so stay tuned for that.
Sunday, January 9, 2022
2099 Revisited Podcast | Episode 0: Origins and Expectations
You can keep up with Don on Twitter @doncardenasart, and see more of his work on doncardenasart.com. You should also listen to Don's fantastic podcast, Comics - Coffee - Metal. And you can keep up with 2099 Revisited at 2099revisited.com.
Saturday, January 1, 2022
Looking Back and Moving Forward
Happy 2022! Also, sorry for 2021!
I've been clearing out the cobwebs on this blog over the past week or so, getting ready for 2022. I'm not going to make any grand proclamations about my creative goals for this year, with one exception: This year will be about creating things that bring me joy (see my new Twitter banner above, which has a little more whimsy than the old one).
I don't need to go into what an apocalypse the past two years have been, but I will say that I underestimated--by a grand margin--how these past two years would affect my creative output. I had already been struggling to balance work projects and personal projects since making a career change in late 2017. For those that don't know, I had been doing marketing, copywriting, and brand strategy work for years on a part-time basis, but that became my actual full-time job in 2017. For three years, most of my creative bandwidth was spent creating a content library for work, including creating, hosting, and producing an award-winning podcast. I love creating content, and I loved creating it for my job. Even after taking on a new role in 2020, I was still creating a ton of content on a regular basis, for both internal and external purposes.
All of which is to say that my personal creative projects suffered. My one consistent outlet has been podcasting, and even then, my writing/interview podcast took a back seat as I prioritized the two music podcasts I do (Power Chords and Thrash it Out). On the writing front, my book projects were put on the back burner while I spent most of my time writing for work.
But then a couple of really cool things happened in 2021--two projects I had contributed to were published after being in progress for years.
The first was How to Analyze and Review Comics, a collection of articles and essays meant to be a resource for journalists, academics, students, bloggers, and fans. Forrest Helvie had been working on bringing that project to life for more than five years. My chapter in the book was about interviewing creators, something I've done hundreds of times over the years, both as a podcaster, and when I was contributing to Comic Book Resources from 2008-2010. When Forrest started putting that project together, the Secret Identity podcast was still in its prime. I actually had to adjust my bio for the book before it went to print, as Matt and I ended Secret Identity in November of 2017. But being able to contribute to this book was a nice bookend to a time I was completely immersed in the comics industry, and it gave me a sense of closure for that period.
The second project that was published this year was a bucket list item for me. About five years ago, I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to contribute to a tabletop roleplaying game (TTTRPG) book. For those that don't know, I have been an rpg fan since I bought the original Dungeons & Dragons red box off of my friend's older brother in elementary school. I've played TTRPGs for a good chunk of my life, and even got my name in the credits of a few books as a playtester. I have always wanted to write for TTRPGs, and twice in the past I had projects almost come to fruition--an intro adventure for a game called Chronicles of Ramlar, and an adventure for Living Kingdoms of Kalamar that never saw the light of day. But file those under "everything happens for a reason," because my first official TTRPG project could not have been a cooler opportunity.
World of Darkness: Ghost Hunters from Onyx Path Publishing is pretty much a dream project for a horror writer and rpg fan like myself. The book is a resource on paranormal investigation that can be used in all of the World of Darkness games (Vampire, Wraith, Mage Werewolf, Changeling).
Not only did I get to help chronicle what the history of ghost hunting is WoD, but I also got to create characters, abilities, equipment, and bits of lore as well. One of the most fun things about this project was sprinkling in Easter eggs from various horror movies and TV shows, which people seemed to really like (yes, I did read the comments).
As I mentioned, this was a bucket list item for me, and I'm hoping to do a lot more in the TTRPG space over the next several years. In fact, there is something I wrote for the Ghost Hunters book that did not make it in, but I may put out through the community content portal on DriveThru RPG, the Storytellers Vault.
Speaking of future plans, let's talk 2022. As I said earlier, I'm not making a bunch of bold declarations at this point, but there are definitely things to expect from me this year.
First off, I'll be starting a new podcast project this month, and it's a return to talking about comics. The podcast is called 2099 Revisited, and in it I'll be taking a look back at the entire run of 2099 comics that Marvel put out in the 90s. Here's the teaser trailer: