The Popzara Podcast, the official podcast from Popzara.com.
Episodes
Wednesday Oct 25, 2023
Wednesday Oct 25, 2023
Just in time for Halloween comes Mimi's Tales of Terror, nine frightful tales illustrated by the manga maestro himself, Junji Ito, and adapted from the original Japanese urban tales collected by Hirokatsu Kihara and Ichiro Nakayama's Shin Mimibukuro (New Earmuffs), a book that’s impossible for Japanese fans to find, let alone English readers. A version of Ito’s adaptation was originally published back in 2002 as Mimi no Kaidan Kanzenban (Mimi’s Ghost Stories), though like Kihara and Nakayama’s original, good luck finding a copy these days.
Saturday Oct 21, 2023
Saturday Oct 21, 2023
This generation’s teen movie trend, which started out as a niche indie subgenre circa 2018, has slowly been shifting towards the mainstream in the past couple of years. In a way, these films harken back to the ‘90s when the focus was on younger, more pre-pubescent leads, as opposed to the older high school or college subjects of the ‘80s and ‘00s.
Wednesday Oct 18, 2023
Wednesday Oct 18, 2023
No stranger to crafting biographies about creative people many consider among the world’s most innovative and influential, Walter Issacson (Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo Da Vinci) now turns his attention to Elon Musk, a man many feel is both admirable and deplorable, a Gen Xer more likely to find inspiration from Mel Brooks and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy than the Great Books of the Western World. Whether you consider Elon Musk (the man) a hero or villain could depend largely on your personal politics, or your appetite for hero worship.
Monday Oct 02, 2023
Monday Oct 02, 2023
It’s The State of Gaming Podcast, Popzara’s in-depth look at what’s shaking up the gaming landscape delivered on a monthly basis. Our hosts Cory Galliher and Nate Evans guide you through the best, worst, and everything else making headlines and headway in the world of interactive entertainment.
The biggest games of the month include: Starfield, Mortal Kombat 1, Chants of Sennaar, Lies of P, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Payday 3, and Disgaea 7.
On the software charts Madden NFL 24 touchdowns in first, Namco Bandai’s Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon debuts high in second, Gearbox Publishing’s Remnant II stays strong in third, and Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom stays solid in sixth. Further down show the PlayStation 5 effect as Sony’s God of War: Ragnarok turns in sixteenth, Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XVI is right behind in seventeenth, Gran Turismo 7 returns in eighteenth, and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales in nineteenth.
But there’s more! Did you know Elon Musk was such a hardcore gamer? Read Walter Issacson’s Musk book and you will! It’s probably best to avoid the Switch version of Mortal Kombat 1 for now, possibly forever. Immortals of Aveum developer Ascendant Studios laid off nearly half their staff.
Netflix is into gaming! But not as much as they’re into gaming anime! Castlevania: Nocturne is here, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft (starring Hayley Atwell) is coming soon! So is Devil May Cry! Your pricey new iPhone 15 Pro will play the Resident Evil 4 Remake – and it’ll probably get super hot doing it!
Want to learn the history of Karateka and the future of interactive documentaries? Listen to our chat with games historian Chris Kohler (when you’re done listening to this episode, naturally).
Friday Sep 22, 2023
Friday Sep 22, 2023
Our guest on this episode of the Popzara Podcast is a veteran of the gaming industry who knows a few things about remembering (and collecting) classic games, Digital Eclipse’s editorial director Chris Kohler, whose career as a journalist, historian, presenter, and, naturally, an actual game player, make him uniquely qualified to talk about The Making of Karateka, the first title in his company’s planned Gold Master Series of “interactive documentaries”.
Last year’s Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration signaled a momentous change in what a collection of older games could be: using the medium to let players experience and interact with both the games and their history. The Making of Karateka narrows this focus to a single title, telling the story how a teenaged Jordan Mechner (Prince of Persia), inspired by his love of Bruce Lee and martial arts films, would innovate game design by applying cinematic elements and a greater emphasis on story with 1984’s Karateka on the Apple II computer. There was more to the story, of course.
Our own amateur archivist Nathan Evans and Chris deep dive into the creation of Digital Eclipse’s groundbreaking series, the “gamification” of gaming history, how the relationship between Jordan and his father Francis Mechner may be the real story behind Karateka’s success, and how Nintendo’s year of unparalleled successes in 2023 may be the catalyst for others to start taking the preservation of gaming history more seriously.
Friday Sep 08, 2023
Friday Sep 08, 2023
Joining our resident blockhead Nathan Evans on this episode of the Popzara Podcast are the writing/cartooning duo of Luca Debus and Francesco Matteuzzi to talk about their new book Funny Things: A Comic Strip Biography of Charles M. Schulz, a unique look at the life of the cartoonist that uses comic strips to illustrate his Midwestern roots to creating the world’s most beloved comic strip, Peanuts.
2022 was the centennial of Charles Schulz (1922 – 2000) birthday, and what better way to celebrate the creator of Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Snoopy and Woodstock than with a lovingly created look at his life through comic strips? The guys discuss the world’s love of Peanuts, finding the right moments of Schulz’s life to share with fans, giving lesser known cartoonists (Jim Sasseville) their due, similarities with Bill Watterson’s Calvin ‘n Hobbes, how finding the right partners (Bill Melendez, Vince Guaraldi) helped bring Peanuts to life, and so much more.
Thursday Sep 07, 2023
Thursday Sep 07, 2023
It’s The State of Gaming Podcast, Popzara’s in-depth look at what’s shaking up the gaming landscape delivered on a monthly basis. Our hosts Cory Galliher and Nate Evans guide you through the best, worst, and everything else making headlines and headway in the world of interactive entertainment.
The biggest games of the month include: Baldur’s Gate 3, Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, Immortals of Aveum, Atlas Fallen, Blasphemous 2, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles, Sea of Stars, and Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy.
Other notables include: Quake 2 Remastered, Red Dead Redemption Remastered, Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, WrestleQuest, and Vampire Survivors (Switch).
Circana remains the gaming industry’s best snapshot of what’s moving and shaking up both physical and digital retail shelves across the country. All estimates are for entertainment purposes only. Total sales of new gaming hardware and software topped $4.18 billion, a slim 1 percent uptick over last year.
The software charts get interesting as Remnant II debuts in first, Diablo IV takes second, Final Fantasy XVI in fifth, Pikmin 4 debuts in sixth, and Exoprimal in sixteenth.
But there’s more! Nintendo’s Switch surpasses the lifetime sales of the Wii in the US! Was the Gran Turismo movie really the weekend’s number 1 at the box-office? You really shouldn’t sell stolen copies of Starfield. PlayStation Plus is getting a hefty price hike! There’s a new PSP coming – the PlayStation Portal! And Super Mario Bros. Wonder looks like the trippiest Mario adventure yet.
Monday Aug 28, 2023
Monday Aug 28, 2023
For Bruce Lee fans 2023 marks two anniversaries; both his untimely death and the release of Enter the Dragon, which would have catapulted him to worldwide superstar status had he lived to enjoy it. But Lee had been working on another project prior to his passing, surviving only in video fragments and notes. The version of “The Game of Death” released in 1978 exhibited little, if any, of Lee’s original vision.
Joining our own grandmaster Nathan Evans and returning champion Kevin (YouTube’s StoryDive) on this episode of the Popzara Podcast is James Flower, writer, editor, and director behind The Final Game of Death, a mammoth 223 minute analysis of both the surviving footage and the philosophical methodology behind Bruce Lee’s final film as part of Arrow Film’s exquisite Bruce Lee at Golden Harvest Limited Edition, which also includes beautifully remastered 4K editions of The Big Boss, Way of the Dragon, Enter the Dragon, commentaries, interviews and so much more.
Nate, Kevin and James gather on the field of (podcast) battle to chat about what it’s like to undertake such a project, the love/hate relationship fans have with Clouse’s original “The Game of Death”, how Lee’s film would revolutionize and influence martial art films and videogames, shameless “Bruceploitation” clones, “sanitizing” Asian content for Western audiences, physical media vs. streaming, the importance of proper film restoration, and the timeless appeal Bruce Lee still commands around the world.
Monday Aug 07, 2023
Monday Aug 07, 2023
It’s The State of Gaming Podcast, Popzara’s in-depth look at what’s shaking up the gaming landscape delivered on a monthly basis. Our hosts Cory Galliher and Nate Evans guide you through the best, worst, and everything else making headlines and headway in the world of interactive entertainment.
The biggest games of the month include: Exoprimal, Remnant 2, Pikmin 4, The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie, Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg, Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals, Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise Of The Dragons, and Disney Illusion Island.
But there’s more! Sony’s Twisted Metal series debuts on Peacock! Are you ready for the Mortal Kombat 1 beta? The PlayStation 5 hits a huge 40 million milestone (the Xbox Series X/S hits a different, less positive one). Is Nintendo’s next console already circulating among developers? Missing Netflix’s Castlevania animated series? Get ready for the Nocturne spinoff coming this September!
Monday Jul 10, 2023
Monday Jul 10, 2023
It’s Popzara’s Movie Time! Podcast!, where our own movie nerds Ethan Brehm and Nate Evans take you on an unscripted journey yakking and chatting about some of their favorite movie moments and cinematic scenes, from past and present, presented without snark and snobbery for your listening pleasure.
On deck for this episode are two classics from 1984 (perhaps the greatest year ever for pop cinema) that use videogames as a framing device that take our heroes into larger worlds they could have never possibly imagined.
First up is The Last Starfighter, directed by Nick Castle (Halloween’s original Michael Myers) and starring Lance Guest, Dan O'Herlihy (RoboCop), and Robert Preston (The Music Man) in a sci-fi fantasy that’s more Star Wars-lite than Buck Rogers. One of the first movies to extensively use CGI, it’s a perfect encapsulation of Joseph Campbell’s Hero's Journey, only with space combat and an entire race of aliens with male pattern-baldness (even the women).
Next is Cloak & Dagger, Richard Franklin’s Hitchcockian thriller starring Henry Thomas (E.T.) and Dabney Coleman (in a dual-role) in what could be the best 1980s kids movie you don’t hear enough about. Latchkey kids race from blood-thirsty terrorists as an Atari tape (yeah, tape) may hold the key to an international espionage plot. What more could you expect from writer Tom Holland, creator of Fright Night and Child's Play?
Even in a year overflowing with an embarrassment of riches, both movies managed to stand out. Did The Last Starfighter inspire Pixar’s Toy Story? Is Cloak & Dagger the most violent movie (made for kids) ever? Could either be rebooted and/or sequalized in today’s sensitive times? These questions and more will be answered - no quarters required!
Sunday Jul 02, 2023
Sunday Jul 02, 2023
It’s The State of Gaming Podcast, Popzara’s in-depth look at what’s shaking up the gaming landscape delivered on a monthly basis. Our hosts Cory Galliher and Nate Evans guide you through the best, worst, and everything else making headlines and headway in the world of interactive entertainment.
The biggest games of the month include: Street Fighter 6, Final Fantasy XVI, Diablo 4, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, Master Detective Archives: Rain Code, Aliens: Dark Descent, Sonic Origins Plus, Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, Pikmin 1 + 2 Remastered (Switch), and even new hardware with the release of Asus’ Rog Ally, the first mainstream Windows 11 gaming handheld.
Saturday Jul 01, 2023
Saturday Jul 01, 2023
I have to be honest and admit that I wasn’t looking forward to another Indiana Jones film, as Harrison Ford isn’t getting any younger, and it feels like we’re in an age where movies are all about remakes, reboots, and digging up old franchises to make money off nostalgia. But after seeing Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, I can say I had a good time watching Mr.
Saturday Jul 01, 2023
Saturday Jul 01, 2023
Today, it often seems like stand-up comedy is only quantified by how quotable it is. You watch a 60-minute set waiting for the funniest bits so you and your friends can repeat them to each other ad nauseam over the next few months - maybe even years.
Saturday Jul 01, 2023
Saturday Jul 01, 2023
Unlike most troubled movie detectives, Jon Hamm’s Chief Jordan Sanders isn’t listless, or jaded, or even all that troubled. Aside from his wife passing away a year ago, Sanders is relatively content, if not clear-headed.
Saturday Jul 01, 2023
Saturday Jul 01, 2023
Long-running franchises form a sort of cultural backdrop that inspires other media over the course of years. What would the entertainment landscape look like without Star Wars, for instance? That said, what happens when a property gets long enough in the tooth it becomes a little intimidating for folks who haven't kept up with it? When you tell someone who isn't a long-time Final Fantasy fan that we're up to Final Fantasy XVI, for example, there's a pretty good chance they'll wonder if they need to play the other fifteen to figure out what's going on.