Fearless Fred Presents: Mud 79 - A Fan Made Star Wars Story

Fred Kennedy is a comic book creator, radio personality AND tattooed Jedi master extraordinaire and on Issue Zero, he’ll explore all the things that used to get you beat up in school but now are considered the coolest. New episodes coming November 12, 2019

Star Wars meets Platoon. Fearless Fred Presents: Mud79 - is a fan made Star Wars story that takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Solomon Kwai is one of countless youths from across the galaxy who find themselves in the Imperial Army four years after the Clone Wars and before the rise of The Empire, because the battle is not over. Kwai and the rest of the 79th platoon are stationed on a remote planet in the Outer Rim. The days are brutal and filled with ever present danger under the Imperial Flag.   Tensions rise, and soon there's blaster fire. Suddenly Kwai and his comrades are embroiled in a bloody conflict, one the Empire cannot afford to lose as they become part of the galactic war machine… will they survive? Find out starting June 01 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re talking Aliens and the Xenomorph, what makes them so terrifying? Could a scenario like Alien happen here on earth? Your host, not in a parasitic way, Fred Kennedy, takes you through the backstory on the Alien film franchise…and more specifically, its star player…the Xenomorph. He's joined by Johnnie Christmas, who just adapted the original William Gibson screenplay for Alien 3 into a comic for Darkhorse…and is a guy who’s knee deep in the ORIGINAL source material to find our what makes these creatures so terrifying. To answer whether humanity could survive a xenomorph invasion he looks to an actual scientist, Dan Riskin, former host of Daily Planet and a Canadian evolutionary biologist, television personality and producer.  Spoiler alert! both guests will not let you sleep at night. Host: Fred Kennedy Twitter @Fearless_Fred Facebook @fearlessfredontheradio Guests: Johnnie Christmas - @j_xmas Dan Riskin - @riskindan

Today we’ll be answering the questions “What is a Mandalorian? Who are they? What are their history?”  It all starts with Boba Fett,  if you’re familiar with Star Wars you know he’s  the bad ass looking bounty hunter who escorts Han Solo encased in carbonite to Jabba The Hutt’s Palace in Return of the Jedi... If you’re not familiar with him just know that he somehow is a fan favourite despite having only four lines in the original series. It really is wild that a character so trivial, developed such a massive cult following. A HUGE backstory was eventually developed. Books. Comics. Boba Fett even became the catalyst for the first ever live action Star Wars series…The Mandalorian, which you can watch on Disney Plus and the reason we’re talking about him today with the help of Heather Antos a former editor for Marvel Comics. She worked on the company's line of Star Wars comics. Host: Fred Kennedy Twitter @Fearless_Fred Facebook @fearlessfredontheradio Guests: Heather Antos - @HeatherAntos

Fred Kennedy is here to tell you all about Conan the Barbarian and why you too should fall in love with this TRAGICALLY underrated and misrepresented hero. We break down the shocking origins of everyone’s favourite loin cloth wearing wanderer…who incidentally didn’t start wearing a loin cloth until the seventies…and no, it wasn’t a fashion choice. If your only knowledge of Conan is that he’s some guy with a sword and abs who kills monsters, you’re about to get schooled! You’ll learn the historical origins of Conan the Barbarian and how he was an emotional faucet for his creator Robert E Howard. And how just like his creator he’s a tragically misunderstood…and misrepresented figure in comic book history. Host: Fred Kennedy Twitter @Fearless_Fred Facebook @fearlessfredontheradio Guests: Jim Zub - @JimZub Raymond Salvador - @Radiator_Savior

Who is the scariest Marvel Villain? Thanos? No. Glaactus? No. Dr Doom? NO! It’s Ultron. I’m serious. Today I’m gonna break down WHY a villain who starred in what many consider to be one of the worst movies in the MCU is actually the most terrifying villain Marvel has ever created. PERIOD. And we don’t just chat with comic book people for this one, we even brought in a legitimate AI expert Fotieni Agrafioti…the HEAD Of Borealis AI and Chief Science Officer at RBC. She really slices away the myths of AI and gives us the straight dirt. What she said about the future of AI is actually pretty mind blowing. You’re gonna love hearing what she has to say! Twitter @Fearless_Fred Facebook @fearlessfredontheradio Guests: Ed Brisson - @edbrisson Kelly Thompson - @79SemiFinalist Foteini Agrafioti - @fagrafioti Also a Spiderman Meme…https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/635889-60s-spider-man

The Star Wars Holiday Special was released 1978. It's was a TV special and...well it gets a lot of hate. If you've seen it, then you know it’s cheesy, and it has some pretty ridiculous aspects, thanks in part to budget for special effects.  BUT, if you take a look at the time it was broadcast, AND you acknowledge the very tenuous involvement George Lucas had with it…you wonder if he even wanted it made in the first place. Fred Kennedy will be joined by his producer Dila Velazquez to dig deep and go to a galaxy far far away with Chewbacca, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, your favorite droids R2D2 and C3P0 to celebrate "Life Day" with a few new friends including Boba Fett. THIS our extra special HOLIDAY broadcast of Issue Zero! Host: Fred Kennedy Twitter @Fearless_Fred Facebook @fearlessfredontheradio Guests: Dila Velazquez – Twitter @DilaDeyanira

Captain Marvel is the first female fronted movie in the MCU. It’s kind of a surprise too, Black Widow has been front and centre in the MCU since Iron Man 2. AND Captain Marvel is a character who’s had some serious ups and downs in terms of their actual origin. In fact Carol Danvers is actually the FOURTH person to carry the mantle…one of them was even a Skrull! So why Danvers? And why now? Well today we’ll peel back the layers on the space faring jauggernaut that bears the company name…Captain Marvel…and find out what makes them such a big deal! And we’ll be joined by one of the best Captain Marvel writers ever…Kelly Thompson! Host: Fred Kennedy Twitter @Fearless_Fred Facebook @fearlessfredontheradio Guest: Kelly Thompson: @79semifinalist

In this episode we break down the tragic relationship between film and gaming, and also dive into the storied lore of…story and gaming… The main obstacle to a good video game adaptation is story... the tasks and challenges are simple but you have hours to fall in love with characters....and time? Time is not something you have a lot of in movies. That could be why video games don’t make good movies. BUT is there a chance, that maybe with the success of The Witcher we’ll see more video game properties turned into TV shows? Who knows. Also…here is a link to what many consider to be the first computer based a role playing game…it will have a lot more context once you listen to the show…https://ultima.fandom.com/wiki/Akalabeth Host: Fred Kennedy Twitter @Fearless_Fred Facebook @fearlessfredontheradio Guests: Elias Toufexis @EliasToufexis

The Tick is one of the weirdest comic book creations. It started first as a newsletter for a comic book shop and has since been rebooted countless times and none of them have really lasted more than a few seasons. Each one of those iterations is a little different than the last, and true fans have followed him every step of the way. On today's show we’re going to investigate how a character with so much awesome going for it is still SOMEHOW lurking in the shadow of greatness. Ben Edlund’s interview just before the 2001 Live action series debuted… http://www.thetick.ws/ben.html Ben’s Slashdot discussion with fan’s about his thoughts on The Tick… https://news.slashdot.org/story/01/11/26/2219219/thus-spake-tick-creator-ben-edlund Host: Fred Kennedy Twitter @Fearless_Fred Facebook @fearlessfredontheradio Guests: Zander Cannon @zander_cannon Susan Hurwitz Arneson @batdorkgirl

This is a love letter to Star Trek, and as such we break all our own formatting rules. Instead of an argument or question where we tackle multiple perspectives, this episode is just a list of five episodes that best lay out what kind of captain Jean Luc Picard is. If you're gonna watch the Picard series but don't really know or really remember who Jean Luc PIcard IS, give this episode a listen. There are no guests. It's just me and my feelings. Enjoy. Host: Fred Kennedy Twitter @Fearless_Fred Facebook @fearlessfredontheradio​

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) wrapped up its first major event in the spring of 2019…but since then I've wondered who were the REAL villains of that event? Sure, Thanos snapped his fingers and killed off half the galaxy.... but was that worse than what the Avengers did in Endgame? Fred Kennedy looks at the evidence, breaks down the numbers and drops some hard science to find out who truly wreaked more havock to our fair planet…the Mad Titan or Earth’s Mightiest Heroes? Host and Silver Surfer: Fred Kennedy Twitter @Fearless_Fred Facebook @fearlessfredontheradio Thanos: Dila Velazquez Twitter @diladeyanira

DC Comics seemingly tossed the idea of shared universe aside and just keep releasing a whole bunch of movies made by different people with different takes on their characters. Wonder Woman and Joker aside DC seems to be struggling with their movies. Team up films like Justice League and Suicide Squad were panned by critics and who could forget Aquaman? It’s like DC kinda wants their movies to be all interconnected.... like they tease that they are, but are they? It’s a confusing discussion to have...even with a nerd like myself.  So is DC even trying? are they looking to build a DCMU? Fred Kennedy is joined by Screen Rant’s Editorial Director Rob Keys to try and figure out what’s the deal with DC? Host: Fred Kennedy Twitter @Fearless_Fred Facebook @fearlessfredontheradio Guests: Rob Keys @rob_keyes Editorial Director & PR Director @screenrant @cbr Creator of @gamerant

COVID 19 has affected all of our lives, BUT the worst thing we can do is panic, or let it get you down. We are all in this together and for sure there is a lot more downtime we hunker down and self isolate to slow down this coronavirus.  Today on Issue Zero we’ll be throwing the format into the fire and creating a list of what to check out with all that extra down time. Fred Kennedy and our contemptuous harpy of a producer, Dila Velazquez, give you a list of what they're watching and doing to get through these weird times. Required viewing: https://youtu.be/dj9VF7LyffU  Contact: Twitter @Fearless_Fred Facebook @fearlessfredontheradio Contemptible Harpy: Dila Velazquez Twitter @diladeyanira

So a few days ago…well weeks ago, Diamond Comics Distributors Inc issued a statement saying they would no longer be sending out product effective April 1st. The announcement effectively put the entire comics business on pause. No new books would be going out, period. That’s what the internet was saying, anyways. But is that the case? Are comics effectively halted? What does this mean for digital sales of comics? There’s a lot of questions that need answering so I contacted three people with different experiences, and different takes on what will happen in the coming months. Contact: Twitter @Fearless_Fred Facebook @fearlessfredontheradi Guests: Heather Antos – Senior Editor at Valiant Entertainment Twitter - @heatherantos Christopher Butcher – Founder and Organizer of TCAF Twitter - @comics212 Jay Bardyla – Former owner of Happy Harbour and Friend of Comic Book Legal Defense Fund   Twitter - @JBardyla

This week we continue our look at what content people are consuming during quarantine. We talk to writer/editor Steph Cooke about what she’s been reading/watching/playing since the Covid-19 shut down began. I also go on a rant about how I am once again obsessed with a videogame that was first released in 2003…because I am an old man with no taste. Steph Cooke - @hellocookie

So as we continue to huddle down in our hovels, reading, gaming, binging, and possible snuggling other humans and fur babies. I figured I’d reach out to some o0f my fellow comic creators and other creatives to see what exactly they’re doing in these times of uncertainty. Specifically I wanted to speak with J Torres. He’s done loads of work with Oni, DC, and even Kids Can Press. One of the big reasons I wanted to talk with J is that he does a lot of YA stuff, and wanted to focus on content you can watch with your kids. That’s a big deal it’s one thing being stuck indoors on your own, but doing it when there’s wee ones involved is extra taxing cause you need to keep them entertained as well as yourself. So EVERYTHING J brings up today is kid friendly…within reason. Just listen, you’ll get the idea. Contact: Twitter @Fearless_Fred Facebook @fearlessfredontheradi Guest: J Torres: @jtorrescomics

This week we have another chum cast where we just chat about what type of content people are consuming during the Covid-19 pandemic. After a heated text-versation with my producer about various Star Wars related topics we opted to just run the gambit of the Star Wars related content there is out there. It’s a universe that spans multiple formats with something for everyone. Specifically we discuss… The final season of The Clone Wars The Gendy Tartakovsky version of The Clone Wars Star Wars Rebels The ORIGINAL Thrawn Trilogy The confusing Star Wars timeline Battlefront 2 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG Yeah. It’s a big deal. Contact: Twitter @Fearless_Fred Facebook @fearlessfredontheradio Contemptible Harpy: Dila Velazquez Twitter @diladeyanira

This week we look at the first chapter of Timothy Zhan’s classic novel Heir to the Empire. This is the book that really kicked off the expanded universe. There were Star Wars novels before this of course, but they adaptations of the movies or direct tie ins…and they were all released within a few months of the premieres. When Heir to the Empire was released there had been any Star Wars books in print since the early eighties, it shot to the top of the New York Times Bestseller List and stayed there for months. It really did change Star Wars in profound ways. I can’t recommend this book (and its two sequels) enough. The Thrawn Trilogy: Heir to the Empire Dark Force Rising The Last Command Contact: Twitter @Fearless_Fred Facebook @fearlessfredontheradio Contemptible Harpy: Dila Velazquez Twitter @diladeyanira

Today we continue the trend of Content for Covid by chatting with comic and tattoo artist Brian Level. He’s drawn everything from Batman to Thanos. And I bet he’s done at least ONE Tasmanian Devil tattoo…or at least a Dolphin saying “Wazzzup!” But today we talk about all the things he’s been watching/reading/playing since the whole Covid-19 shutdown began a few weeks ago. We even get into a pretty deep breakdown on spirituality and chess…trust me. It will make sense. Be Our Heroes Canada - https://www.facebook.com/beourheroescanada/  Contact: Twitter @Fearless_Fred Facebook @fearlessfredontheradio Guest: Brian Level - @brian_level