TFMSR #030: My New YouTube Channel! …

When we last visited our intrepid Spinner Rack hero (that’s me), he promised his WonderCon 2023 panel recreation for Tales From My Spinner Rack! #030. If it pleases the court, I hereby submit into evidence this graphic to prove it:

Yep. That’s what he said. Your honor, I rest my case.

Well, life has intervened in the past couple of weeks. I won’t bore you with the details, since they were bad news for a little while (I’m okay now). But the good news is: I used some of that downtime I found myself with and I now have a YouTube Channel, and it looks like maybe (doesn’t that sound oh-so-totally passive-aggressively committed?), I’ll be able to re-create my WonderCon 2023 (“When Batman Became Bat-Baby!”) and Comic-Con 2023 (“Jimmy and Lois: Still Crazy After All These Years!”) panels using edited and audio-enhanced newer versions of my Keynote presentations. I’m working diligently—if a tad slowly—on this, but I’m learning as I go. Who knew setting up a YouTube Channel is so difficult? (It isn’t, really … I’m just a slow learner in my old age, and my Gemini/OCD clouded mind wants everything to be P.E.R.F.E.C.T.).

So here’s what we have right now: Call it a trailer, call it a teaser, call it a commercial, but here’s a short (less than one minute) preview of the OFFICIAL Tales From My Spinner Rack! YouTube Channel. Go on … take it for a spin.

Soon to come:
Episode 01: “And Lo, There Shall Be A … SPINNER RACK!” This is a brief introduction to yours truly (“My Secret Origin,” if you will), and the whole Tales From My Spinner Rack! phenomenon, which is, in homage to Stan Lee’s hyperbolic skill, sweeping the world!

Episode 02: “When Batman Became Bat-Baby!”, a re-creation of my WonderCon 2023 panel presentation, which explored the wonderfully wonky and wild Bat-story from Batman #147, in which Batman became Bat-Baby while maintaining his adult intellect, strength, and skills, while donning a 1960s era Bat-Toddler outfit.

Episode 03: “Jimmy and Lois: Still Crazy After All These Years!”, a re-creation of my Comic-Con 2023 panel presentation, in which I explored the incredibly popular and inane zaniness of DC Comics in the 1960s, featuring the comics series Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen and Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane.

Also featured on the Official Tales From My Spinner Rack! YouTube Channel, a Playlist featuring all my other video appearances that are available on YouTube, including:

• My two appearances on SDConCast with the fine folk of the SDCC Unofficial Blog, from 5/24/2022 (talking about my years as Director of Programming at San Diego Comic-Con), and 5/16/2023 (about my Director of Print and Publications years, with lots of art).

• My 2020 Facebook Live Interview with artist Jen Bartel from the Comic-Con Museum, talking about her career and her WonderCon Program Book cover featuring Wonder Woman (which was eventually used at WonderCon 2022).

• An overview of the “Sense of Wonder: The Art of WonderCon” gallery show which I curated for the Comic-Con Museum in 2020, and which—sadly—only ran for a few weeks before shutting down due to the pandemic.

• My interview with comics artist Michael Cho, as part of the WonderCon@Home 2020 initiative. Mike was scheduled to be a 2020 guest at the event.

• My 2020 Comic-Con Museum discussion with authors Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross about their Bond, James Bond book, Nobody Does It Better: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of James Bond.

But, Gary, you ask … what’s going to happen to your regularly scheduled Tales From My Spinner Rack! posts that all of us—all over the globe (we hear we’re big in Luxembourg!)—have come to love so dearly and look forward to? Don’t worry … I will get back into regular posting in the near future. My goal is to have 35-40 posts by year’s end, but I have a little bit of travel coming up between now and then, so that will mean some more downtime. I hope to have all my panel re-creations posted within the next 30 days or so. And I may just take some of my older posts and convert them into video form, further down the line, which is—admittedly—a bit of a process, involving Keynote—Apple’s version of PowerPoint—and requiring me to feel in more of an “actorly” mood.

Here’s the secret about my 2023 convention panel appearances: While I was very happy with my scripts and graphics (and very grateful I was granted panel space at both shows; I know how difficult that can be to get), I was very disappointed with my performance in each panel. Since I was reading from a script, it felt wooden and dull. And yes, I will be reading from a script in my YouTube re-creations, too, but because it’s just me sitting in the familiar setting of my living room here at Casa Spinner Rack (there’s a spectacular view of the ocean; you should see it at sunset!), and no audience—large or small, mainly small—staring at me, I hope to be more animated, but you’ll have to be the judge of that. I’m searching for a new approach to presenting my Tales From My Spinner Rack LIVE! panels at conventions that will allow me to be a bit more extemporaneous and, well … “lively” (not a word most people use in reference to little ol’ me), and hopefully I’ll solve that before any 2024 presentations.

In the meantime, visit my YouTube Channel and like and follow me there, please. Maybe even leave a comment or two (be nice!). To be honest, If I get 100 followers, I’ll be very happy. I’m not looking for one of those silver plaques YouTube sends out when you reach 100,000 or the gold one for 1,000,000, nor am I looking to monetize this stuff I so enjoy creating and sharing with you all. I hope you enjoy it, too.

Next time: Who is the mad genius behind Tales From My Spinner Rack!? What is his Secret Origin? Tune in for Tales From My Spinner Rack Episode 01: And Lo, There Shall Be A … Spinner Rack! to find out!

To read all the “Tales from My Spinner Rack” posts, click here!