Anyway, I just launched a new blog called British Candy Authority wherein I review American candy and talk about how terrible it is. Here’s the first episode:

I haven’t been posting the show here on the blog because it’s so much easier to disseminate stuff on Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter et al. but in case you wanted to see the five episodes we’ve produced so far here’s a handy-dandy playlist. It’ll auto-update with new episodes too, so that’s nice.

We all know it’s coming… some day, whether next year or a few down the road, Matt Smith is going to leave the show. So, who would be the best actor to take his place? Should it be another youngster, or is an older actor worth looking at? What sorts of companions would be a bonus for these actors? And, let’s just face the question: should it, in fact, be a woman? What does the future of Doctor Who really hold?

This panel takes place in the Program D room on Sunday from 11:30am-12:30pm, and it should be a blast. See you there!

Oh, and this weekend we’re shooting a top secret Dalek Gary project. Don’t tell anybody!

Subject 5 Con is part anime/horror/scifi/animation/anime/entertainment convention, part launch part for the webseries Subject 5. The event will also feature an anime panel and at least two horror panels. They’ll also be raising funds for charity, I’m told. Which is nice.

Other attendees include voice actors Richard Epcar (Legend of Korra, Ghost in the Shell, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe), Dino Andrade (Hellsing Ultimate, Batman: Arkham Asylum, World of Warcraft), and JB Blanc (Beware the Batman, Bleach, Marvel Anime).

Admission to Subject 5 Con is only $10 online, or $15 at the door. Head over to the Subject 5 website for more details and to purchase a ticket.

I want to get out of some bad habits, which means I need to let go of some things. This includes webcomics. I’ve been webcomicing since 2003. My first webcomic, Fried, ran for three years and updated sporadically – even moreso once I realized I actually hated drawing. The second webcomic, Jump Leads, has come to an unceremonious end in part due to troubled art schedules, and Deadlong is on hiatus for similar reasons (though we’re filling the hiatus hole with some new material starting later this month). Other attempts to start webcomics, including a project with my friend Ray, have not been particularly successful.

It’s taken me a while, but I’ve realized webcomics isn’t where I want to be and it’s not what I want to do. Not to say I don’t enjoy webcomics, but I’ve been focusing my energy in the wrong place, and it’s time to reassess. Once Deadlong is finished, I’m done. Out of the game. Deadlong will be my webcomic swansong.

I think, truthfully, that I’d prefer to pour my energy into video content, and I want 2013 to be the start of that. I plan on trying to produce original video content throughout the year, starting with PortsCenter , then moving on to other projects. I’m developing a webseries with Mac Beauvais that should be a lot of fun, and I’ll be working with Michelle Osorio on new projects for Kill9 including Dalek Gary and at least one other thing that’s still sort-of in the woiks.

Another thing I want to do that’s important to me is to the stand-up into a proper paying gig. I need to do that, which means I need to get serious about it. I need to hone my craft, I need to get better at working off-book, and I need to actually book some actual gigs. In addition to this, I want to develop an hour of material over the course of the year which I’d like to debut at GMX Vol. 5, assuming they want me back.

Time to stop being passive. Time to stop expecting the new year to be a better one, and time to start making it so. Here’s to making things, and here’s to you. Happy New Year.

At a time in my life when I’m questioning every action I’ve taken, every decision I’ve made, that has led me to this point, and when I find myself wanting more out of life, Wreck-It Ralph speaks to me.

About two weeks ago I was with some friends discussing what a possible sequel to Wreck-It Ralph might be about. Director Rich Moore has all but confirmed that they’re doing one, and he’s suggested he’d want the follow-up to explore console gaming and online gaming. That got me thinking: How exactly would they do that?

As I was talking, the story I’d write for a Wreck-It Ralph follow-up basically fell out of my mouth. It was, I thought, basically perfect, though not strictly speaking accessible. Literally no one at Disney would want to make my idea. Nevertheless, I’m going to share it with you now. Mild spoilers for Wreck-It Ralph follow.

2012 was the 30th anniversary of Fix-It Felix Jr. It was also a bad year to own a Fix-It Felix Jr. machine – like clockwork, on the night of the game’s 30th anniversary, almost every machine broke down. The problem commonly reported was that Ralph wasn’t appearing anymore. Most arcades chalked it up to an aging ROM board, and put their machines out to pasture.

The truth, of course, is that almost every single version of Wreck-It Ralph that existed within those Fix-it Felix Jr. machines’d had the same identity crisis that the Ralph in the machine at Litwak’s Arcade, but without the same experiences to guide them they’d either gone missing or died in other games, or had simply not wanted to return to their machines without a Medal.

The worldwide failure of almost every Fix-It Felix Jr. machine causes a commotion. It’s reported on gaming news sites everywhere – Kotaku, Destructoid, Joystiq, IGN, you name it. They all pick up on the weird simultaneous failure of the game.People are talking about Fix-It Felix Jr. again, and the company who now holds the rights to the game takes notice.

They decide to do two things. Firstly, they’re going to develop a modernized reboot of the game. Secondly, they want to release the original arcade classic as a multi-platform digital download. But there’s a problem – even their Fix-It Felix Jr. machine has died. Where to source a working machine?

Well, Litwak’s arcade has one, don’t they? And they wouldn’t need to keep the machine. They’d just need to go to the arcade and make a ROM dump.

Fix-It Felix Jr. is released for downloadable platforms, and Felix, Ralph and the Nicelanders find themselves existing not in an arcade but on a console hard drive alongside characters from games like Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, Left 4 Dead and Silent Hill. The console world is much more scary than the arcade ever was. And it’s about to get scarier.

The same week, the Fix-It Felix Jr. modernized remake is released. It’s a much grittier reboot that isn’t even remotely faithful to the source material (think Bomberman: Act Zero). The rebooted version of Felix is cold, rude, aggressive and unpleasant, but he’s nothing compared to the Reboot Ralph. What’s more, Reboot Ralph loves being the bad guy – he wants to dominate not just the Fix-It Felix Jr. reboot, but the entire console, endangering everybody on the Hard Drive.

It would be up to the “classic” Ralph and Felix, with some assistance from Reboot Felix, to stop Reboot Ralph from taking down the Hard Drive altogether.

It’s got problems, I know. It’s flawed, it’s unfinished, and it’s heavy on technical detail and low on plot. But it’s a great groundwork, and from a story perspective it’s perhaps the best way to get the important characters from the first film into a console so the second can explore those ideas.

Me and a few friends. I promise you I’m not Shopped into this image. [Photo courtesy of WaspPhoto.com]

GMX is the first convention I’ve attended in which I have been asked to attend as a featured guest. It’s the first time a con has paid for my flight, put me up in a hotel room, kept be fed and watered, and generally treated me like royalty. It’s the first time I’ve been presented onto a stage in front of an audience and had them applaud, and hoot, and holler. It’s the first time, honestly, that I’ve felt like what I was doing mattered to someone other than myself.

What a feeling.

I was ostensibly there to promote PortsCenter, but that was just a fraction of what I did there. On the Friday, immediately after the opening ceremonies, I was rushed into another room where I spent an hour and a half in the company of the delightful Ellen McLain, voice of GLaDOS, for the Portal Party, where she and I spent an hour and a half berating players as they approached an Xbox 360 to play Portal 2 – her in-character as GLaDOS, and me “filling in” as an emergency back-up Wheatley.

I knew this was coming, and I’d spent much of the week trying very hard to sound as much like Stephen Merchant (the voice of Wheatley) as possible. Unfortunately I’m not a voice actor, and I’m not a mimic, but I tried my best to capture the same energy and attitude that Merchant infused Wheatley with. So many people came up to me after the party to tell me how great I was. So many people seemed to think I sounded just like Merchant. That was… wow. I even had people coming up to me to ask if I’d voiced the character in the game itself. Thankfully nobody seemed too crushed when I told them that no, I hadn’t.

But the highlight of that party was getting to sing “Still Alive” and “Want You Gone” on stage with Ellen. Oh boy. I had no idea that was on my bucket list until I was crossing it off. What a night. What an experience. I really hope someone out there got video of that.

Saturday was exhausting, but a very good kind of exhausting. On the strength of my improvisational skills in the Portal Party Ellen and I were invited to join University of Georgia improv troupe Laugh Out Loud for their two shows on Saturday, along with Doug Walker of That Guy With The Glasses fame. Doug and I hit it off almost immediately, and we had an absolute blast participating in the troupe’s Whose Line-esque game session. I spent time on stage being attacked by zombies (and subsequently attacking the audience myself as one), getting counselling from a ninja therapist, licking my own genitals, and being accused of Australianism. Hopefully the Laugh Out Loud team will post video of that too.

The second improv event, which Ellen unfortunately wasn’t able to attend but which Doug was, was more of a Beginner’s Guide to improv. It was a ton of fun teaching the audience about improv, having them come up on stage themselves to join in, and generally just buggering about. The whole experience had me wanting to do even more improv – maybe I can find a group in or around the LA area who’d be willing to take on a 6′ 4″ British redhaired goon.

Saturday evening was the Web Comics 101 Panel. Unfortunately Ethan Nicolle and Brian Patterson were unable to attend due to other commitments (Ethan ended up having to leave the con early on Saturday while Brian had to cancel entirely) , but we still had Scott Christian Sava, Johnathon Brock and Betsy Brock, all of whom offered far better advice and suggestions than I ever could have. I might have accidentally offended Betsy at the top of the panel… I still feel really bad about that. If you’re reading this, I’m sorry!

Saturday night was party night, which meant only one thing: sitting in a darkened room playing Cards Against Humanity with a group of sick-minded problem-causers including, but not limited to, Doug Walker, Brandt “Professor ShyGuy” Cooley, the Marble Hornets, Dennis Upkins, Lorelai Perrin, Ali Spagnola, and too many other wonderful, terrible people to name. Also Leonard.

But before that was dinner, and blimey, that was a treat. Well, sort of – the food was an overpriced Caesar salad that tasted like it had been previously digested by a fish – but it was the company that made dinner so much fun. Spread out across two huge tables were myself, Chris Pope, the Marble Hornets, the Two Guys From Andromeda, Garrett Wang, Rob Paulsen (who I’ll come back to in a couple of paragraphs), Veronica Belmont, Professor ShyGuy… at this point my memory is starting to fail me, because there were so many people there. If I’ve left you out, I apologize.

Sunday really was the Big Day. The PortsCenter Presentation was at noon which, despite a minor technical hiccup where video footage of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game for the NES didn’t play correctly, was a resounding success. I only wish I’d had the foresight to film the bloody thing.

I then pinballed from there straight to a Doctor Who panel – “One Brit, Many Doctors”, which was originally going to be me and a couple of other Brits talking about Doctor Who but which instead became basically me. I talked about the show for a full hour to a packed room. A packed room, who hung on my every word, who laughed at my jokes and nodded at my thoughts and insights into the show itself.

How, I ask you, is that even a thing? How does that happen? Who am I? I’m nobody. But they loved me there. All weekend, they loved me. People asked me to sign things, they asked me to record messages into their phones, they wanted to talk to me about games, and comics, and TV shows.

Even the other special guests treated me as an equal. Not just people like Doug Walker and the Ellen McLain, but guys like Billy West and Rob Paulsen. I had the very special honor of sitting next to Rob on the flights to and from Nashville, and what a delight he is. Such a nice guy. He was humble and kind, and he treated me like a colleague and a friend for the entire weekend. We had lengthy chats about cartoons, about British comedy, about his career and the work he’s done, and there is not a trace of ego about the guy. He considers himself to be very lucky. I contend that we are the lucky ones.

Billy West was a joy, too. We met at the airport – our flights from LA arrived in Nashville at more or less the same time – and rode in the car to the hotel together along with The Hunger Games actor Dayo Okeniyi. The four of us were chatting away for the entire ride. Again, what absolute gentlemen. So kind, so welcoming, so inclusive.

Just like everyone else at GMX. Just like the staff, who drove us and manned tables, and kept an eye on panels. Just like the attendees, who came out to see a bunch of really awesome people, saw me, and decided I was just as awesome as everyone else there. Just like the people selling their wares in the Dealer’s Room, who were enthusiastic and proud and happy. The whole event felt more personal, more welcoming and friendly than any other con I’ve had the fortune to attend. I didn’t have a single bad encounter, didn’t speak to a single douchebag or arsehole just trying to dick their way around a convention for a weekend. Nobody – not the guests, not the staff, not the organizers and not the attendees – were difficult. Nobody caused problems.

GMX is, without a doubt, the single greatest fan convention I’ve ever attended in the US. It was an honor and a privilege to have been invited to attend, and if I never appear at another con ever again I’ll be happy for having appeared there. I sincerely hope they ask me back for next year. Thank you, Nashville, for having me, and thank you for giving me such an amazing weekend.

Portal Party 2.0
Friday, October 26th ▪ 8:00pm – 9:30pm, Palomino + Quarter Horse + Mustang rooms
Last year, we both said a lot of things that you’re going to regret. But I think we can put our differences behind us. For science. You monster. Why don’t you just keep testing with GLaDOS? Ellen McLain, voice of GLaDOS from the Portal series returns to berate Portal players just trying to survive, and maybe cake? Better gaming, better decorations, better batteries, and an awesome hangout for Portal enthusiasts.

Web Comics 101
Saturday, October 27th ▪ 7:00pm – 8:00pm, Arabian Room
Learn the ins and outs of the webcomic business with a Q&A from the industry pros. Featuring Ben Paddon, Scott Sava, Brian Patterson and Ethan Nicolle.

PortsCenter – A One-Hour Look at Video Game Ports
Sunday, October 28th ▪ 12:00pm – 1:00pm, Franklin Room
British writer and geek humorist Ben Paddon talks about unique video game ports; games that have been converted for different systems. A blend of stand-up comedy and PowerPoint presentation.

One Brit, Many Doctors
Sunday, October 28th ▪ 1:00pm – 2:00pm, Quarter Horse Room
Doctor Who discussion with British expatriate and geek humorist Ben Paddon. What qualifies Ben to speak with authority on this topic? He has the right accent.

Please note that this schedule is entirely subject to change based on factors such as GMX shifting things around, or me dying. See you in Nashville!

But anyway. it’s taking place on Sunday at 12pm in the Franklin Room. If you’re going to be at GMX, you’ll want to be there. Oh, and here’s the rest of the schedule in case you’re interested.

See you there!