I feel like there was a bit of a sophomore slump for Wizard World Des Moines in 2016. The first year saw heavy hitters like William Shatner, Billy Dee Williams, Lou Ferrigno, Robert Englund and several others. This year the biggest name draw was probably Chloe Bennet from “Agents of SHIELD.” That’s not a slight… Read More Wizard World Des Moines: Kevin Conroy & Loren Lester
UPDATE: Now I’m seeing that there’s some confusion on if reports of Darwyn’s death were accurate. I hope I posted this about 30 years too soon. Holy crap, 2016 has been a rough year. I just woke up with a nasty stomach bug and was flipping through my phone to see on Twitter that cartoonist… Read More RIP Darwyn Cooke, 1962-2016
When I was laid off last month, I decided I should try to get in shape. I felt like I was at my desk a lot while working at the Register, but looking back, I was going out on interviews regularly and walking around downtown quite a bit. But then I got a real desk… Read More How I learned to stop worrying and walk the mall
Short summary: I’m attempting to drink 365 Iowa beers in a year. You can check out the first five beers here. If you have suggestions for beers I should try (including homebrews), leave a comment or email joelawler AT gmail.com Beer 6: Backpocket Pennywhistle Wheat ABV: 5.5% Purchased at: Valley West Hy-Vee Notes: I used… Read More 365 Iowa Beers: 6-10
This week Rifftrax is doing a live riff of “Time Chasers” in theaters (it will be showing locally at Jordan Creek’s Century 20). Back in 2009 I interviewed Kevin Murphy of Rifftrax for a now defunct website. I recently found the text for the interview and decided to revive it. It’s interesting to look back on… Read More That time I interviewed Kevin Murphy of Rifftrax
Last week I wrote about the festering pile of dead and unfunny strips that comprise the current comics page. So is there any hope out there? At one point I would have pointed to The Boondocks, Get Fuzzy and Cul De Sac. Unfortunately, Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder shifted his focus to an animated series that… Read More Is there hope for the comics page?
I enjoy a good beer, and a good challenge. I’ve decided to combine the two for a potentially crazy idea. I want to try 365 Iowa beers in the next year. Are there 365 Iowa beers? I haven’t actually counted. The Iowa Taproom has 100 some available, then there are seasonals and smaller batch stuff… Read More 365 Iowa Beers: Beers 1-5
In April, the challenge was to read comics featuring Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman, due to a big movie getting released at the end of March. I decided to put my focus on some unread Baman that have piled up recently. In particular, I had a lot of Scott Snyder New 52 Batman comics. I… Read More My April Comics Reading List
When I was a kid, the comics page was my entry point into being a newspaper reader. There was a mini-renaissance going on thanks to The Far Side, Calvin & Hobbes and Bloom County. Plus, Garfield was still in its first decade of lasagna-loving and Monday-hating. I loved checking out the comics page when I… Read More The comics page is a shuffling, humorless corpse that needs to be destroyed
There was a parenting moment I knew would happen eventually, but I foolishly hoped might bypass my family: an emergency room visit. My parents knew it well. I had seizures as a kid. My brother fell through a plate glass table top (one among many child/adulthood injuries). My sister got her pinky slammed in a door,… Read More Four-year-olds are the worst roommates
