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Bonus: Indiana Comic Convention 2026: Impromptu Transformers "Expert", The Norris/Sith Conspiracy, & Pompeii (2014)
CatBusRuss is out of promotional buttons. This in itself would suggest that it was a successful trip to Indiana Comic Convention 2026, but its the friendships that count. Friendships that allowed him to be a substitute panelist because some people just volunteer for everything.
His sign stating that "Chuck Norris was a Sith Lord" did help him get some extra attention.
The first panel of the day was celebrating the 40th anniversary of Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns". Like most panels at FanX events, rarely is a moderator assigned. Novelist Darby Harn was made to take the lead with a panelist who was over her head in expectations. A sigh of relief was apparent when Russ showed up to sit in on the panel. Our podcast host may not be an expert, but he knows how to keep a conversation going.
After the panel, Darby's copanelist was not up for the 40th anniversary of "The Transformers: The Movie" that was the next panel in the room. Fortunately he asked Russ if he was sitting in on the panel. This led to Darby volunteering the podcaster to fill in her spot for another moderator-free panel along side video game writer Cory Lanham. It was a fun time discussing the trauma of seeing our toys die, and how Gen X/Millennial parents are prepping their kids to watch this film at an appropriate age.
For the crew behind the "Full of Sith" podcast, time is measured by exposing their kids to pop culture. This allowed for a fun juxtaposition during their "Mandalorian Changing Streaming" panel where they were joined by DePaul Accounting Professor Nitin Bhojraj. Nitin is working on documenting the macroeconomics within the "Star Wars" Universe, so it was a fun number-based panel about the evolution of streaming platforms.
The next panel Russ attended was "31 Flavors of Horror" with bestselling authors Kiersten White, Alex Langley, and Ryan La Sala. This was a panel about their likes/dislikes about the current state of horror and their aspirations to see their work adapted to the streaming services. When you have a gay YA writer dropping a five-letter C-bomb, a good time was had by all.
And when it comes to horror, Bootleg Safari delivered better than "Nanoshark". "The Simpsonsns" toys would give anyone nightmares with their bug out eyes and uncolored accessories. Hopefully they were meant to be accessories or that is the worst case of gout anyone has seen.
The panel presented trailers for two rip offs from The Asylum and Aaron Reynolds guiding us through "Three Giant Men", a Turkish movies where Captain America and El Santo are out to stop a criminal mastermind in Spider-Man. It cannot be the webslinger because his colors were red and green instead of red and blue. That is more effort from the Turks to distinguish themselves from Western cinema than usual.
With those films on his mind, Russ decided to watch a real movie and keep up sword-and-sandal week with "Pompeii". Can Paul W.S. Anderson standout with this disaster/gladiator hybrid flick, or will it just show how inadequate he is in comparison to Ridley Scott?
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