Bags of Action podcast now on YouTube

I’ve been podcasting with Steve Aryan for a number of years, having previously been a guest host and interviewee on his long running show Grouchy Old Geeks (previously Comic Book Outsiders) that he does with Scott Grandisson.

Our podcast Bags of Action , where we spend about an hour mulling over an action movie from the past or present, has been running for a number of years. Our 64th episode (Creed II with special guest Barry Nugent) recently came out on the Geek Syndicate network and we try to get a new full length episode out about once a month.

BOA logo, designed by Azim Akberali

We’ve covered some of my old favourites that Steve had never seen, like Blind Fury and Stone Cold, Netflix Originals like Triple Frontier and The Foreigner, classic films like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon and some embarrassing gaps in my viewing history like Big Trouble in Little China and Aliens. We don’t always agree on what makes a good film, or on how to pronounce Christophe Lambert’s name but we do always give each film a score out of five bags of action (with no half bags allowed). We also have occasional guest hosts like Barry from Geek Syndicate, Gavin from the Sidekickcast and former Marvel and IDW comics editor, writer and educator Andy Schmidt. You’ll find us on all good podcasting apps.

As well as the main show, we have started to do quickfire 5-minute reviews of films we’ve seen between episodes.. You will find these and the main show on our new YouTube Channel, where we upload full episodes every Monday and 5 minute reviews on Tuesdays. If you like action movies please have a listen and make sure you stay bang up to date by subscribing to the channel.

Stephen Aryan - Magebane

I’ve been friends with Steve Aryan for a long time now, when we aren’t putting the world to rights we record our action movie podcast Bags of Action together and co-write comics too.

Steve is also the award winning author of the Age of Darkness trilogy (Battlemage, Bloodmage, Chaosmage) and Age of Dread trilogy (Mageborn, Magefall, Magebane), both published by Orbit books. If you are a fan of fantasy novels I’d highly recommend checking these out. The latest book Magebane comes out in August and you can pre-order it here.

To celebrate Steve is doing a series of events, currently he has plans to be in Glasgow and Birmingham, with talk of a trip to Swansea too. You can find out more about those events and his upcoming Reddit AMA here.

His debut novel Battlemage won the decidedly metal Hellfest Inferno award in France, and you can see Steve picking up the award and being interviewed about it in this video.

Nugecon 2016

Last weekend eight podcasters headed to the Cotswolds for the inaugural Nugecon event, proving that the post comic convention pub chat can stand on its own two feet. We took the essence of a comic convention, threw out the hall and the panels, the tables and the exhibitors and shut ourselves away in a barn conversion with plenty of food and booze.  While there was no artists alley, there was a six hour game of the Battlestar Galactica board game to take its place.  I came away from the three days with the urge to re-watch Unbreakable and with the realisation that I'm not as good at table football as I thought I was and that I fall asleep too easily. Already looking forward to Nugecon 2017.

Please take time to visit our sponsors Bags of Action, Comic Book Outsiders, Geek Syndicate and Sidekickcast.