THE NERD REPORT

Nerds around town: It's all about Comicpalooza this weekend

Nerds around town: It's all about Comicpalooza this weekend
ART BY JESUS RODRIGUEZ

Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio, Sports and Wrestling. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio show at www.nerdthugradio.com!

Hey Nerds!

It's Friday and the weekend is upon us, storms be damned it's Comicpalooza time!

GOOD DEED OF THE DAY

Seriously, just buy a shirt and help people with cancer. That's what this boils down to, we all hate cancer, we all know it can be a massive burden on someone and it just becomes a sad story at some point, the longer the battle goes the harder it is to get your life right afterwards. Help people in the battle against cancer, buy a shirt and support Crits For Cancer. #NerdsUnite

COMICPALOOZA WEEK!

It's an easy one today. When you go to Comicpalooza, one of the things to get excited about and check out is all the people. So many people are going to be cosplaying and having a great time, Comicpalooza feels like a genuine celebration for many. They are all so nice and many will take pictures with you, the whole scene is a very exciting and fun thing to be around. Ranging from Harry Potter to Doctor Who and all the comic book movies and comic books characters themselves, this thing will be loaded with your favorite characters and people just out there trying to have a great time. So ask people nicely for pictures, have a great time and truly enjoy this weekend, I know I will.

WHILE YOU'RE OUT

So usually I tell you to go check out your local comic book store and then I highlight some new comic books right here. This weekend you need to come down to, you guessed it, Comicpalooza. You'll actually get to meet tons of comic book creators and fun people and get to find other fun reasons to buy comic books. Reasons like, I met this creator and they seem awesome, or I met this creator and we both agree the world needs more Batman in it. The reality of it is, these are people just like you and me and they are pouring their hearts and souls into being these talented creative people and when you meet a lot of these guys you'll see they're very cool, down to earth people and you'll love reading their work and supporting their dreams because they make good books.

NETFLIX MAKES A MOVE

As the streaming wars keep going, Netflix has fired the next shot by stepping up their relationship with Dark Horse Comics. Dark Horse was the publisher for both Umbrella Academy and Polar which both did amazing at Netflix and also were both very well made, which I think is important to a show being successful. Dark Horse has been a player in comic books for a very, very long time and honestly they have a pretty massive and robust catalog of characters but if I had to guess what was next it would be the Black Hammer line of comics at Dark Horse. It's about 1960s superheroes and their legacies and then fast forward to modern times and what impact their heroics had in the world, sort of, it's a crazy read.

NOT THAT YOU ASKED

Here lately it's rained on and off and on and off seemingly the last two months and I can't help but notice how poorly Houston now handles the massive amounts of water we're getting. My father's neighborhood flooded massively during Harvey, not because of the rain but because they did those controlled floods and dumped three feet of water into his neighborhood after a massive storm. The reality is these days with all the construction, there's less trees and grass to absorb the water and honestly we've poorly planned this city to the point that water has no where to go at times and we have only ourselves to blame. We need to be doing better about city infrastructure and how we build things before we become like New Orleans who had broken levees and awful infrastructure.

I'm going to jump out and wish you guys a great weekend and remind everyone to be kind to each other and try a little harder to have a great day! I'm coming back Monday and we'll be bringing more good times your way. Feel free to check out my digital short story The Wilson House or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help fight cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio or support our Patreon Page. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.

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Get your popcorn ready! Composite image by Brandon Strange.

Filed the column early this week with Astros’ baseball that counts arriving Thursday! Ideally that arrival occurs with Minute Maid Park’s roof open under sunny skies with temperature in the mid-70s and only moderate humidity (that’s the forecast).

As they ready for their season-opening four game series, the Astros and Yankees enter 2024 with streaks on the line. The Astros take aim at an eighth consecutive American League Championship Series appearance while obviously aiming ultimately higher than that. The Yankees are a good bet to fail to make the World Series for the 15th consecutive season, which would be a new Yankees’ record! At its origin in 1903 the franchise was known as the New York Highlanders. The name became the Yankees in 1913, with the first franchise World Series appearance coming in 1921. So that was 18 years of play without winning a pennant. Maybe that gives the Yanks something to shoot for in 2027.

On the more immediate horizon, the Astros and Yankees both start the season with question marks throughout their starting rotations. It’s just that the Astros do so coming off their seventh straight ALCS appearance while the Yankees are coming off having missed the postseason entirely for the first time in seven years. Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole can spend time Thursday chit-chatting about their days as Astro teammates because they won’t be pitching against one another. Cole’s absence hurts the Yankees more than Verlander’s should the Astros. Cole was the unanimously voted AL Cy Young Award winner last season, and at eight years younger than Verlander the workload he was expected to carry is greater. Cole is gone for at least the first two months of the season, the Astros would be pleased if Verlander misses less than one month.

Whoever does the pitching, the guy on the mound for the Astros has the benefit of a clearly better lineup supporting him. The Yankees could have the best two-man combo in the game with Aaron Judge batting second ahead of offseason acquisition Juan Soto. Two men do not a Murderers’ Row make. Gleyber Torres is the only other guy in the Yankees’ projected regular batting order who was better than mediocre last season, several guys were lousy. The Astros have six guys in their lineup (Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker, Alex Bregman, Chas McCormick, and Yainer Diaz) who were better in the batter’s box than was Torres last season. The Yanks have hopes for a healthy and huge bounce back season from the brittle and 34-years-old Giancarlo Stanton. Good luck with that.

Man with a plan

We have to see how things play out over the season of course, but it is exciting to see new manager Joe Espada’s progressive outlook on a number of things. Acknowledging that Astros’ baserunning has too often been deficient, Espada made improving it a spring training priority. The same with Astros’ pitchers doing a better job of holding opposing base runners at first with base stealing having occurred with the highest success rate in MLB history last season. Tweaking the lineup to bat Alvarez second behind Altuve is a strong choice. Having your two best offensive forces come to the plate most frequently is inherently smart.

Opting to bat Tucker third ahead of Bregman rather than the other way around also seems wise business. Let’s offer one specific circumstance. An opposing pitcher manages to retire both Altuve and Alvarez. Tucker walking or singling is much more capable of stealing second base and then scoring on a Bregman single than the inverse. Or scoring from first on a ball hit to the corner or a shallow gap. I suggest in a similar vein that is why the much older and much slower Jose Abreu should bat lower in the lineup than Chas McCormick and Yainer Diaz. Though Espada giving Abreu veteran deference to get off to a better season than Abreu’s largely lousy 2023 is ok. To a point.

Eye on the prize

The ceiling for the 2024 Astros is clear. Winning a third World Series in eight years is viably in play. The floor is high. Barring an utter collapse of the starting rotation and/or a calamitous toll of injuries within the offensive core there is no way this is only a .500-ish ballclub. That does not mean the Astros are a surefire postseason team. The Rangers may again have a better offense. The Mariners definitely begin the season with a better starting rotation. In the end, other than when it impacts team decision-making, prognostication doesn’t matter. But these two words definitely matter: PLAY BALL!

To welcome the new season we’ll do a live YouTube Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast about 30 minutes after the final out is recorded in Thursday’s opener.

Our second season of Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast is underway. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics weekly. On our regular schedule the first post goes up Monday afternoon. You can get the video version (first part released Monday, second part Tuesday, sometimes a third part Wednesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available at initial release Monday via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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