Black Nerd Problems

This July was my first venture into one of the most popular conventions in the country, Dream Con. Created by the content creation juggernaut RDC World (short for ‘Real Dreamers Change The World’), Dream Con is easily one of the youngest youth-led conventions of its magnitude. The first iteration of the convention launched at the Waco Convention Center in 2018. These guys were in their early twenties then! From 6,000 attendees in 2022 to 45,000 in 2026, the con is just getting started.

I done seen a lot of things at a cons, but the thing that will always surprise me more than detailed cosplays is seeing people gather to hear poetry. I attended thinking it would be a small gathering, but I stood in a line that wrapped through the Que room then spilled outside and around the corner. Mind you, this was a Saturday too, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. Dream Con was taking place in Houston, Texas, which always had a strong poetry scene.

This transcript has been slightly modified from the original recording. BlackNerdProblems: Hello, my name is Mikkel Snyder. I’m BNP’s Filipino-American correspondent, and today I am talking with J.P. Karliack, who is currently voicing Morph on the critical darling that is X-Men ’97, but you may have heard his voice on the Netflix dub of Neon Genesis Evangelion as Kuzo Fuyutsuki, or as the Joker in Suicide Squad, Kill the Justice League, or one of a dozen other projects.

A few weeks ago, DC announced that Absolute Batman was going to receive an animated adaptation. This is unequivocally good news given that since the Absolute Universe started in 2024, they have been a much needed shot of adrenaline to the comics market and also the DC canon at large.

I’ll defend Jame Gunn’s Superman on any hill. That movie was exactly what was needed to give DCU a new direction as well as a better more heartwarming feel for the Man of Steel. The best unexpected surprise tho? Finding out Krypto wasn’t Clark’s dog, he was just dog sitting for the actual owner. Then finding out that the owner was Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl, Clark/Kal-El’s cousin. This wasn’t a Supergirl we were used to.

If I’m being completely honest, the existence and success of Cyberpunk Edgerunners is bittersweet for the homie. I LOVE the Cyberpunk universe and the game (I was running that shit on PC at launch and sidestepped most of the justifiable bitterness that came when it dropped). I was still invested in the universe when the first Edgerunners dropped and fell in love again with the universe at large. Not just my badass, sideswipped, netrunning steal assassin V from my save files.

Writer: Julio Anta / Art: Daniel Irizarri / Colors: Patricio Delpeche / Letters: Lucas Gattoni It’s been a minute since I’ve reviewed a fresh #1. There’s so much content these days, and it’s tough enough to keep up with long running mainstays let alone add more to the queue. That being said with Beast of Borikén I couldn’t help but be intrigued.

Save Your Flasks, We’re Just Getting Started One of the biggest misconceptions I had at the formation of Black Nerd Problems was that we would function like a grocery store. We had things that folks would want, they would come visit us, and take what they wanted. They would take what they needed and leave. And hopefully, they would come back to us again and again. We would keep the shelves stocked with unique nerdom, and people would become frequent visitors.

I have read the stories within I Won’t Pretend These Missiles Are Stars about three times over the last month before finally sitting down to write this piece. I hesitate to call it a review; a review in the realm of comics is a question of taste and quality. When I am reading a conventional single issue or graphic novel, I am considering the coherency of narrative, the way the art looks on the page, the intersection and integration of the two.

I keep thinking surely this will be the last time I write about Destiny 2. I have told this story enough times that it if you have any history with this site, you already know exactly what I’m going to say, but I got my gig here at Black Nerd Problems as the quote unquote Filipino-American correspondent because I played Destiny with our editor-in-chief, Will Evans.