Meet guest blogger Zack Smith
Hey there! I'm Zack Smith, and I'll be your guest blogger for this week. I'd like to thank Whitney for inviting me to blog, and to congratulate her and her husband on their beautiful baby girl!
I'm going to be honest with you — I got so excited by the opportunity to do a week at Pop Candy that I started writing blog posts as soon as I got the call. And I wrote up a lot of stuff — essays, interviews, video compilations and more!
So who am I and what can you expect this week?
Short Bio Time: I'm 32 and I write! I've done a couple of guest blogs in the past about weird 1980s kids' films and one on crazy unsold TV pilots. Here (above) is a photo of me with Phantasm star Angus Scrimm at the Mad Monster Party convention in Charlotte earlier this year (I also met P.J. Soles, Rutger Hauer and sat in the truck from Duel). Note that I am wearing a Ron Swanson T-shirt and a replica of Patrick McGoohan's jacket from The Prisoner I got off eBay. That should pretty much tell you all you need to know about me.
In addition, here is a special postcard-sized business card Jeffrey Brown drew for me where I am standing over a bunch of pop-cultural bad guys while wearing a Power Glove and a Van Halen shirt. This should also tell you something.
My main gigs as a freelance writer are for Indy Week (formerly The Independent Weekly), a local paper in Durham, N.C., and Newsarama, an award-winning comic book site. Some of the pieces I'm most proud of include a talk with Grant Morrison on his All Star Superman series, a really, really long look at the history of the character Captain Marvel, and most recently, a series of interviews with creators of Web comics. I've also gotten to do interviews with cool people like Ira Glass, John Waters, Temple Grandin and David Sedaris.
I live in Raleigh, N.C., which along with Durham and Chapel Hill forms "The Triangle," a combination of major businesses and major universities that throughout the year attracts an incredible number of concerts, author signings, movie screenings, stand-up comedians, art shows and plenty of local events.
Though I've lived other places, there's nowhere quite like the Triangle for its combination of artistic culture and laid-back hospitality. Also, there's still parking at most places. I can't emphasize that enough.
Here are some places you can find me online – I tweet regularly at @thezacksmith, archive my stories (occasionally) at www.zswriter.com and post all sorts of weird links on Facebook. I'll spare you the LinkedIn, OKCupid and MySpace profiles. I don't remember the password for the last one anyway.
I'm also an avid collector of comic art doodles and commissions, and you can check out some of my themed sketchbooks, including Arrested Development, Doctor Who and Adventure Time, on my Comic Art Fans page.
As for this week, I'm really excited to bring you all kinds of crazy pop-cultural links, stories and interviews. I got to talk with some amazing creative minds about the work that's inspired them, and I'll be sharing some of my own favorite weird and wonderful pieces of popular culture. There'll be videos and music and pictures and all kinds of whacked-out stuff.
Oh, and I recruited a few comic book creators I know to provide some special surprises for this week as well …you'll see what I mean.
It's going to be a wild week and I hope you'll come along with me for the ride. Strap in! Lock and load! Shake and Bake! Pop Pop! WOLVERINES! Random clichés!
Follow @thezacksmith on Twitter or visit www.zswriter.com.