WFC 2012: Interview with Author Patrick Rothfuss

I was fortunate enough to be able to catch up with best-selling fantasy author Patrick Rothfuss for a short interview at the World Fantasy Convention in Toronto, Canada. Mr. Rothfuss is a relative newcomer to the world of speculative fiction, having published his first book, The Name of the Wind, in 2007. It is the first of a planned trilogy following a young performer named Kvothe in his quest to discover the truth behind the murder of his parents. It is told in a format in which an older Kvothe (calling himself ‘Kote’) recounts the now-legendary events of his life to a Chronicler of history. The reader is left to wonder how many of the extraordinary events described are exaggerations, and wherein the truth lies.

The Name of the Wind swiftly began gaining Rothfuss critical and popular acclaim in the field, rising to #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List as well as receiving the Quill Award and a mention in the Publisher’s Weekly Best Books of the Year List. The sequel The Wise Man’s Fear was released in 2011 and also debuted at the top of the NYT Best Seller List. He is currently working on the final book of the trilogy, tentatively titled The Doors of Stone, and is a college lecturer at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point.

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OPEN THE FRIDGE:  Hello Patrick, thank you for joining me for this interview!  Let’s start with an easy question... How would you describe The Kingkiller Chronicles to our readers who may be unfamiliar with it?

PATRICK ROTHFUSS:  Oh… I don’t.  I never try to describe my own books.  At best you sound like a hopeless narcissist, and at worst it’s just a big mess.  I in particular suck at summarizing or trying to pitch my own books, to the point where it’s comical.  I never do it if there’s any way I can dodge out of it because it’s not even comically bad, it’s just BAD.

OTF:  (laughs)  There’s something to be said for comedy...

PR:  No, no... it’s like, you know how there are some movies that are so bad they’re good?  This isn’t one of those times.  Feel free to quote me on that. I'll trust you to describe the book if you want to do that. You can't be any worse at it than I am.  

OTF:  Fair enough.  Moving on... It’s common to see music and/or poetry in fantasy novels, but music plays a particularly significant role in The Kingkiller Chronicles.  Did making your main character, Kvothe, a musician present any unexpected challenges to you?

PR:  Not necessarily.  Whenever you’re creating a rounded-out character some things are gonna be tricky.  Creating a character at all is a tricky situation... but making him a musician was a treat all the way across.  If anything it’s trickier making somebody a magician, or a wizard, because at least you can do research into music.  You can get some hands-on experience with music, you can listen to music.  So no, it wasn’t particularly tricky for me at all.

Hit the jump for the full interview with this acclaimed, best-selling author!

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NYCC 2012: An Interview with Redbubble's Peter Tomassi

RedBubble's cool, eco-friendly pop-up shop on the floor of NYCC.

Redbubble is a cool artist-driven company that puts unique art on all sorts of fun products from t-shirts to iPhone cases.  Focused on helping artists "share their authentic, high-quality work with the world," Redbubble seeks to provide products that reflect the current cultural trends.

Redbubble's Chief Community Officer Peter Tomassi sat down with Open the Fridge at New York Comic-Con to chat about their unique business model, the cool art it carries from artists worldwide, and the role it's playing in global geek culture.

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Open the Fridge: Let's talk about Redbubble and your brand – how did you get started and what are you all about?

Peter Tomassi: When we started the site back in 2007 in Melbourne, Australia, all the founders were artists or writers themselves. They wanted to build a site for themselves, their friends and their colleagues that would allow artists to upload work and connect them with the facilities to print, manufacture and ship that work to people all over the world who were interested in buying it. We've actually grown quite a bit in five years; we used to have three artists and now we have over 220,000 around the world in just about every country, many of which are represented here. Together, they have uploaded more than 9 million works and have approximately 60 canvases to print on, meaning t-shirts, posters, art prints, skatedecks, iPad/iPhone cases, etc. or any item in the home, or on apparel that would benefit from original art. We're not just a community, we're also a business and a marketplace. And those 9 million works are literally available in hundreds of millions of configurations.

We've tried to build not only a platform for artists, but effectively a retail site, offering an alternative to what the mainstream malls and stores offer people. We don't think that what people wear, put on their walls, put on their phones, or put in their dorm rooms should be dictated buy a couple VPs of marketing for big brands. That kind of monotony really bothers us – we've taken the opposite approach. We don't decide what is popular on Redbubble; artists do. We encourage and nurture them through contests; we had a contest to develop our official poster for NYCC; this artist is from Gdansk, Poland and it's someone who might not have the exposure otherwise.  This artist is going to now be on CNN next week. So we continue to provide artists with a platform for selling their work, we faciliatate the logistics, shipping and so forth, and they get a cut of the proceeds; they can actually set their margin.  Not everything is exactly the same price – an artist can put a value on their work. If they want they can make a $25 t-shirt, or if they want they can make a $70 t-shirt. So the artists have a lot of control over the front end. We also do some our own marketing, getting them exposure so our site is authentic, honest and very searchable. For us, our artists are the spotlight and we really take a backseat.  We are really a platform to empower artists.

Please.

Hit the jump for the full interview with the awesome Peter Tomassi about Redbubble and what makes it unique for both the artist and the consumer!

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NYCC 2012: "The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2" Roundtable with Bruce Timm

You just can't get enough DC at a comic-con these days. In addition to our NYCC coverage of what to expect from Green Lantern in comics and from Arrow on television, we're also excited to share what we've heard about the future of DC home video. We sat down with the architect of DC Animation, Bruce Timm, at a roundtable discussion to talk about Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2, the latest home video release from DC Entertainment.

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Most film adaptations of comic book properties tend to abridge the material and leave certain parts on the cutting room floor. Was there anything from Frank Miller's orignal story that didn't make it into the film?

Bruce Timm: There's nothing really big that was left out. We had a lot of elbow room since we had two movies to spread out in. I think we got all of the important stuff in there.

Since the story has been broken up into two parts, was it difficult to find an appropriate point to separate the two halves?

BT: It's a pretty even split. The original comic was four thick issues and we split it right after issue two. We jury rigged the endng [og Part 1] a bit, moving up the scene where Joker wakes up in Arkham Asylum in order to make that the cliffhanger, but other than that, it was pretty obvious where to do it.

The Dark Knight Returns carries a PG-13 rating and there have been rumors that The Killing Joke might be adapted to an animated feature. Can this potentially push animated films towards an R rating?

BT: There is a discussion that comes up now and then about broadening the marketplace and maybe doing an R-rated DC adaptation. For a while, we were talking about The Killing Joke. After the theater shooting this summer, I don't think anyone wants to go that route with these animated movies at the moment. But the possibility does still come up of us doing something a little more adult. It almost happened with Dark Knight, Part 2. Part 2 is actually pretty violent in places and we were crossing our fingers, hoping we wouldn't get an R rating and have to go back and cut something out. But we got PG-13, thankfully, but it could happen down the road. It's tricky. You don't want to make an R-rated Batman movie just for the sake of making an R-rated Batman movie, so it has to be something that feels appropriate for the material. We'll see what happens down the line.

Is there a possibility of seeing a part 3 and 4?

BT: You mean Dark Knight Strikes Again? I would be willing to give it a shot. If the numbers come back on this one and are huge, and we get interest from [Warner] Home Video to do more, I'm ready.

Hit the jump for the full discussion with the true architect of the DC Animated Universe!

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NYCC 2012: "The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2" Roundtable with Andrea Romano

"I wish Andrea Romano was my grandmother. Is that weird?"

That's an actual comment on an interview with Andrea, and, quite frankly, not the first time I've heard something to that effect.  And for the record, no, it isn't weird (although you should brush up on your understanding of the subjunctive mood.)  She's just that delightful.

Andrea Romano, eight-time Emmy award winning voice director, is responsible for casting and directing the voices behind practically all animated projects that have been truly great from the past 20 years.  Whenever you see her name attached to an project, you can implicitly trust that it's going to be amazingly acted and worth watching.  Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: the Animated Series, Spongebob Squarepants, Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Justice League, The Boondocks, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra... her list goes on and on, and the quality of each project maintains an astoundingly high level.

More than that, though, if you have had the pleasure to meet her, you know she is just an amazingly kind woman with an incredible directing talent in her own right.  Her smile lights up the press room, and you could literally listen to her read the phone book for hours.

We sat down with the legendary voice director at New York Comic Con to talk about Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2, and the incredible talent she has worked with over her prolific career.

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With all of the success of the Chris Nolan movies, was there a pressure to differentiate your sound with this similarly dark, but ultimately very different Batman?

Andrea Romano: I love the voice actors that I work with.  It makes me very happy because they're really skilled at this work, for the most part.  It's all about finding the right actor first of all, and then just letting them do what they do.

But I don't try to compare myself to the live action films; they're such a different animal.  There's a lot of things we can do because it's animated that live action films just plain can't do.

The fight walla, that stuff is always a challenge, and these particular two films - part 1 and part 2 of this Dark Knight piece - are so fight heavy. So, that's just one of those voice things where you just try to make sure you don't rip the actors' throat out because after two or three hours of just [glottal grunts], it could be painful.

Michael Emerson [cast as the Joker in TDKR]: did you find him or did he find you?

AR: I found him at Comic-Con San Diego a couple years ago.  I had admired his work on Lost so much, and I asked him, "would you be interested ever in doing an animated project if the right role came up?"  And he said, "I think that would be great fun."

When this piece came up, I said, "Oh well, would you like to be the Joker?"  And he jumped on it, and he had a great time.  Although he did tell me that he thought it was the hardest work he's ever done. I think it was kind of out of his wheelhouse; it wasn't something he had much experience in.

And so we recorded him - I was in LA; here was here in New York shooting Person of Interest, I believe. It was the first time I've ever recorded by Skype so I could watch him because working with an actor when you can see them, as opposed to only hearing their voices, is very helpful.  And then, for them to be able to see me, so that I can direct them physically - as they say, a picture would be worth a thousand words - that was very helpful too.

Peter Weller can invest heavily in a character. Was there anything about his technique that really stood out for you?

AR: The thing is Peter is a good actor, in and of himself. [What] I didn't know was that he was a major comic book fan, so he was really familiar with the source material.  I think that's what appealed to him about doing it was he knew already how good the graphic novels were. Bob Goodman wrote a beautiful script, adapted from the graphic novels, and so all of those things combined made [Weller] say, "Yes, I want to be a part of this."  And I think he was familiar with some of our previous projects, so that was all good too.

But I think as far as -- if I can't use Kevin Conroy (because I do love using Kevin Conroy whenever I can, and Mark Hamill as well) -- this was a really good bit of casting.  I'm not just saying that; I don't just cast all by myself. There's a group of about 10 people that have input as to ideas of who we could cast. We create a list of the number one choice, two, three, four... And sometimes that's in no particular order [in terms of ability] - it's just that we think we can get a fast response if we go to [a particular person.] But Peter, I think, was top choice, and he said yes right away, and that was very, very good.

Hit the jump for the full interview with the amazing voice director, including tidbits on with whom she'd like to work and what makes Kevin Conroy so special!

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NYCC 2012: Skip Brittenham and Brian Haberlin Shows Us "Anomaly"

When you're traversing the chaos of the convention floor at NYCC, there are some comics that just speak to you.  The art is particularly compelling, the words are striking, or the premise is something new -- something that just makes the comic book just jump out at you.

When I came across Anomaly, something did jump out at me - quite literally.

Created by long-time entertainment industry collaborator Skip Brittenham and acclaimed artist Brian Haberlin, Anomaly is a 370-page "epic science-fiction adventure" set in the year 2717 that tells the story of a group of people that are sent on a seemingly easy first contact mission to a new world.  When they arrive, however, they discover that the whole mission was a ruse, and they were sent there to die by the forces that be.

That sounds like it's already a premise we sci-fi nerds like us can get behind, but there's a brand new component to this reading experience as well in the form of two companion apps that flesh out the reader's immersion into the Anomaly universe.

The first is an augmented reality app that will come free with the purchase of the massive, landscape-style tome.  Characters will literally pop out of the page when the reader's camera is pointed at the book -- no silly QR codes required.  It was really amazing to see the technology just understand at what you're looking and populate the screen with an interactive model that you can literally touch and poke.  Moreover, any character or creature that can be pulled up on the AR app also comes with a full appendix explaining who or what they are in the Anomaly universe.

The second app is a standalone tablet app with a full, motion comic version of Anomaly programmed right in.  Completely customizable, the reader can change how they experience the full story -- with or without a full assortment of voice actors reading the story to you, automatic progression, and info touchpoints.

Check out our interview with the creators for even more details about this brand new project, and for a demo of the new AR tech with the book!

Anomaly will be released November 15th.  You can pre-order your copy here!  (And, if it's any indication, we hear that the exclusive pre-release copies offered at NYCC sold out before the weekend was over -- so you had better pre-order today!)

NYCC 2012: A Very Venture Interview

The Venture Bros. returns!  (soon.)

After what feels like an interminable hiatus, The Venture Bros. will finally return later this month for a Halloween special, "A Very Venture Halloween," with the rest of season 5 to follow in 2013.

We. Cannot. Wait.

At NYCC, Tek and I had the pleasure of catching Venture creators, Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer, at their panel in the packed IGN Theatre.  In that rousing edition of "Let's All Smoking," the incomparable duo (along with Venture voice actors Michael Sinterniklaas and Paul Boocock) drank Fresca, smoked e-cigarettes, answered some fan questions, and showed a few clips and a sizzle reel.

As Col. Hunter Gathers says in the reel, the upcoming season promises to "make your life bright and motherfu$*ing cheery."

I don't doubt it.

Following the panel, Tek had the opportunity to speak with the creators, culminating in what could possibly be the funniest interview we've ever had the pleasure to record.

I mean, we tried asking about the upcoming special, but, well... just watch for yourself.

"A Very Venture Halloween" airs on October 28, 2012 at 11:30 on Adult Swim.  Season 5 is currently slated to following soon after, in January 2013.

(Thank you so very much to Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer for kindly chatting with us!  Couldn't have asked for a better, more hilarious interview!)

BCC 2012: Interview with Phil LaMarr

If you were to list the top five voice actors in the animation business, Phil LaMarr would be on that list. In addition to a history on stage and TV (the UBS guy remains one of my favorite MAD TV characters), LaMarr's incredible voice talent can be heard in a humongous swath of animated productions - in movies, on television, and in video games.

Even if you haven't realized it, you've heard his voice.  A few highlights from his IMDB page: Hermes Conrad (Futurama), Green Lantern John Stewart (Justice Leauge), the eponymous Static Shock, Vamp (Metal Gear Solid), Jazz (Transformers: Animated), Kit Fisto (Star Wars: Clone Wars), and many, many, many, many more.

At Baltimore Comic-Con, Mr. LaMarr was kind enough to give us a few minutes to talk about the audition process, the distinctions between different types of acting, and more!

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Open the Fridge: At your panel, you were talking about how you transformed Static from a teenager [in the Static Shock series] to an aged adult [in the "Once and Future Thing" episode of Justice League]. When you receive a character to voice, what goes through your head when you're trying to find where that character falls in your voice?

Phil Lamarr: Well, you start out with the description that the people who created the cartoon give you. They usually are pretty specific about certain things, if they don't have a voice in mind already. Sometimes they will say "he's gravelly" or "we want something in a higher register" because maybe they already have somebody that they want to counterpoint.

If they don't say that, then they'll describe the kind of person [the character is.] Then, you look at the picture of the character, and, coupled with their description, you go: "Okay, how do I want to make the sound?" If it's somebody [in an elongated voice] "who's very tall," do I want to give it a "tall" sound? Or [in a wide voice] a very heavy sound, you know, if that's entitled to the character.

Sometimes, you might decide to go opposite. If the drawing of the character is someone very, very large, then [in a compressed voice] you might try to go in a different way with the voice.

Basically, it starts with descriptions and visuals, and then whatever that brings up to me - my first instinct. Then, if it doesn't feel like it's right on the money, you start to adjust from there.

Hit the jump for the full interview with the incredible Phil LaMarr!

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Interview with Mary Czerwinski of DVD Geeks & Creation TV! [Star Trek Week]

We've got a special treat for you today, as Star Trek week continues here on Open the Fridge.  We had a chance to sit down with Mary Czerwinski, the face of Creation TV and frequent Roddenberry.com collaborator. She is a veteran of all things Star Trek, hosts her own podcast at DVD Geeks, and started the Trek crafting series Glue Guns and Phasers.  We caught up with this busy gal and got her thoughts on Star Trek, geek girl fandom, and what she has planned for the future.

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Open the Fridge: How did you get involved in Star Trek and turn it into this career with Roddenberry Entertainment and DVD Geeks?

Mary Czerwinski: I started coming to conventions just for the fun of it because I wanted to meet other fans and share my love of Star Trek. My degree is in journalism, so I always wanted to be on camera to interview these people who have inspired me so much, but also to hear the perspectives of the fans. In 2006 I did a series of fun fan interviews, like “The Sexy Side of Star Trek” and “Star Trek After Dark.” They’re all up on YouTube right now. At one point, Adam [Malin] and Gary [Berman] from Creation saw them and, in 2007, they invited me to be their official Creation TV host. They were trying to get more video on the website, so they asked if I could do 3-minute interviews with the guests as they come off-stage and talk to them about their experiences at conventions. I got to interview William Shatner that year, and so many great Star Trek celebrities. George Takei is always a favorite of mine.

From that, I interviewed Rod Roddenberry and we built up a rapport and a friendship over the years, and we always said we should do a project together. We then started looking at the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, which is coming up in a few years, and thinking, “What are we going to do about it?” So, we figured that the Original Series actors are getting up there in age and we need to hear their stories while they’re still around. He decided to start a project for the archive so he can actually own the interviews, because previously, they all belonged to Paramount and CBS, expect for the ones he did for “Trek Nation.”  H wanted to get long-form interviews with all of the cast, starting with TOS, of course, and moving into “The Next Generation” and all the way up to JJ [Abrams]. We have our work cut out for us. We’ve already interviewed dozens of people.

Hit the jump for the full preview of our Mary Czerwinski interview! To listen to the full audio recording, be sure to check out our special podcast now!

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"Star Trek" Interviews Straight from Las Vegas! [Star Trek Week]

From left to right: Ashley Eckstein, Mary Czerwinski, Robert Picardo, Garrett Wang.

Star Trek Week continues, and it's the one you've been waiting for! While in Las Vegas for the Star Trek Convention, we had the chance to sit down with some fine people to discuss Trek and its impact on culture.

These guests had tons of interesting stuff to say, we thought it would be a disservice to simply type it up for you:  you have to hear it for yourself!

Head on over to our podcast page now to hear our interviews with Ashley Eckstein, Mary Czerwinski, Robert Picardo, and Garrett Wang.

So, go!  Go now!  Here!

(And, by the by, you have listened to our Star Trek Con podcast already, right?)

BCC 2012: Interview with "Morning Glories" Artist Joe Eisma

I haven't exactly hidden my love for Morning Glories in the past. (Volume 3 review coming soon, spoiler alert: it's still bloody incredible.) So when I saw that the artist Joe Eisma was going to be at Baltimore Comic-Con this past weekend, I knew I had to chat with him about this spectacular Lost-cross-Runaways series.

I approached his table, where Joe was doing a sketch for another con goer. I saw some of the MG pages for sale, and I suddenly wished I had more money and more space in my apartment.

After finishing the sketch, Joe graciously shook my hand, his wry smile widening as I gush over the book. (Totally unlike the creepy version of himself played here.) He kindly took a few minutes to chat Morning Glories: the ramifications of issue 19's shocking events, the start of the newest arc with the introduction of the Truants, and what to expect for the rest of this "season."

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OPEN THE FRIDGE: One of the things that I love about your art is your ability to capture character so well. For a book like Morning Glories, the emotions that play off of characters' faces are so important, and you achieve that so strongly. What goes through your head when you try to capture what Nick [Spencer, Morning Glories writer] is trying to convey?

JOE EISMA: Well, I went to college to study film - I didn't go to art school or anything - so I always look at it like I'm a director. I know that sounds kind of pretentious, but you know, I see the characters [in] a "how can I get the best performance out of them?" [kind of way] or whatever.

Angry Hunter is angry.

I'll get the script and there's obviously, in Nick's writing, a lot of emotion going on there with the characters, so I want to bring that out as much as I can. With comics, we're very limited with what we can do; we're not like TV or video games. We're very static. So, my thought process is always to overemphasize, overexaggerate a reaction just to really drive it home. Because of the fact it's a 2D medium, I'm always just looking for the best way to amplify the mood of any scene.

Hit the jump for the full interview with Eisma!

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