Channel Awesome (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Fandoms interest me. As a would-be writer (of something other than commentaries and gag strips) I do like seeing how fans can react to something they enjoy. Sometimes it’s positive, and sometimes it’s the stuff I parody in Jake & Leon. This is why I started covering conventions and I would like to actually talk to some more fans this year to see why they like the characters they’re dressing up as.
With a dipped toe in the “video reviewer” pool thanks to BW Video Reviews and my association with Reviewers Unknown, this is included in that interest. We’re seeing more of their presence at conventions, as reviewing has become entertainment it its own right. For the fourth year of Channel Awesome and That Guy With The Glasses, my colleague CFerra, writer of the sprite comic Starbolts and former contributor to the Channel Awesome Wiki, who also has his own comic book review show, gathered a bunch of reviewers inspired by the members to do a tribute for the anniversary. I’m not in it because I didn’t even hear about it (not being on Facebook), but I still find it interesting.
I’m one of those people who found the site because of the brawl with the Angry Video Game Nerd (apparently some of the Nerd’s more diehard fans were yelling at anyone on YouTube even remotely similar to his show, and the Critic just decided to have fun with it), but it was Linkara’s Atop The Fourth Wall that really got me interested in the site.
While CA didn’t have a direct influence on my doing video reviews, I wouldn’t have started them if not for the forums, the Godzilla collaboration, and realizing how many Saturday Night Showcase videos were being taken down for various reasons. This is why I do video reviews, but I do enjoy watching other reviewers both for the entertainment and being exposed to stuff I wouldn’t otherwise see. Plus, if you watch the good reviews there is some analysis within the jokes and ranting.
So happy anniversary, Channel Awesome. I’ve met Doug Walker at a local convention and I’m hoping to go to ConnectiCon this year, and maybe get an interview for the Spotlight (and see if he ever read that comic I did with him in it).
BW Media Spotlight 