WSU Fandom

Hopefully everyone has had a nice relaxing weekend so far. Up here in Minneapolis it's still pretty cold but we haven't had snow in over a week and it's slowly warming up so I'm feeling pretty optimistic. In celebration of the warming weather it's time to celebrate the fandom of Wildstorm comics.

Today I'm going to focus on five things in the Wildstorm fandom. First off is going to be an obvious choice, the official Wildstorm forums.

(Link: http://dcboards.warnerbros.com/web/category.jspa?categoryID=6 )

There's nothing particularly special about this forum but it's a great place to talk for free about your favorite Wildstorm books with other fans. I am picking this board in particular first because it's official and also there's not nearly enough activity on these boards at times. I think one way to help make the folks over at DC pay more attention to it's Wildstorm fans is by getting more fans on their forums showing there's interest in the Wildstorm books. If you're all about the internet forums without wanting to post on sites full of crazies (like Newsarama) make an account and start posting if you haven't done so already!

Next up, I want to tell you about The Comic Forums.

(Link: http://www.thecomicforums.com/forum2/ )

The Comic Forums aren't Wildstorm specific. They are simply comic specific. But it's a great culture on these boards and you can talk about just about anything comic related with hundreds of other comic fans from across the world.

One great aspect with these forums is you can do more than just talk about comics. You can also make threads to buy, sell and trade books and there's many podcasts featured on the forums, including the infamous Comic Geek Speak podcast. Comic Geek Speak has covered some Wildstorm titles in the past, including a Book of the Month Club episode focusing on The Authority v.1 by Warren Ellis. It's a great episode to listen to if you're into podcasts and have considered picking up these issues in the past.

With nearly 5,000 registered accounts you can't go wrong posting on The Comic Forums. Not only can you talk to fellow comic fans on this site but also creators and publishers. You can learn about a lot of indie books especially that you may not necessarily read or hear about elsewhere.

Next up I want to talk about the Eye of the Storm podcast. Eye of the Storm is a podcast that's been put on by a gentleman going by the name of Franky De Jesus. He started the podcast at the beginning of 2008 recording episodes consistently throughout the winter and spring of 2008. He went on hiatus in the summer and fall and recorded his most recent episode in December of 2008.

The podcast isn't perfect but when Franky was active he gave us what we needed with solicitations and in-depth interviews. I think the best way to encourage Franky to put out more episodes more often is to download his episodes (episodes 2 through 7 can be found on iTunes by searching for Eye of the Storm under podcasts). If you have any compliments of criticisms please write a review about his podcast on iTunes. To this day I am the only guy who has written a review for Franky. I'm hoping with enough downloads and comments he will be more encouraged to get active again. Even if he doesn't the episodes are worth listening to for his Armageddon reviews.

Wildstorm definitely needs a larger presence in the world of podcasting. With over 100 active comics related podcasts out there we have very few that ever focus on anything Wildstorm related. I'm now going to shift focus on another podcast that covers Wildstorm at times that's much more active than Eye of the Storm and that podcast is Raging Bullets.

Raging Bullets is a podcast that focused on DC Comics which of course includes the Vertigo and Wildstorm imprints (you can find it by searching Raging Bullets in the podcast section of iTunes). Even though it's not specifically for Wildstorm they cover quite a bit to make Wildstorm fans consider listening to them. With over 160 episodes put out regularly it's a great show to check out if you have the time to listen to them. I mention having the time to listen to them because their shows can be very long (most comics podcasts in my experience are 45-90 minutes on average, Raging Bullets can go 2-3 hours). If you aren't interested in the entire podcast you can always look at shownotes and fast forward to sections that may interest you.

Keep in mind with podcasts, you don't have to have an iPod or pay any money to enjoy them. iTunes is free for everyone to download and you don't have to have an iPod to sync your podcasts to. So if you're ever just sitting at your computer and browsing the internet you can always browse while listening to your favorite podcasts.

I'm saving the best for last and what's last is the Wildstorm Resource Wiki.
(Link: http://wildstormresource.wetpaint.com/?t=anon )

I'm not going to talk about this website much but I just had to link it as it's a wonderful site. Please check it out and participate. Make an account and help promote your favorite books and characters! If you want to know more about the Wildstorm Resource Wiki click the link and check out the goodness! Remember, for a Wiki to work there needs to be people like you and me helping add information to it to make it a wonderful site. A special thanks go to Grifter78 and Wildstorm Resource for modding and providing the site for us fans.