Submarine Channel
Waaaaay back when, we celebrated High Geekdom with a PDF mag and a book called Geek Chic. Of course now if you are into comics, movies, collecting action figures, or all of the above, you can satisfy your passion with a regular diet of YouTube videos made by geeks just like you. It’s a wonderful time to be a geek.
Ubergeek Michael Minneboo, who wrote a book about his lifelong obsession with Spider-Man, selects the five Best Geeky Vloggers on YouTube.
NerdSync
Could Superman actually reverse the earth’s spin and turn back time? What’s the real origin of free comic book day? Why is the Hulk green? And why do people still choose to live in Gotham City? These are the sort of question every comic book geek asks himself at one point in his life. Thanks to Scott Niswander and his team of editors at NerdSync, one doesn’t have to look any further for an an intelligent answer. All videos on NerdSync are well researched, well edited and a lot of fun to watch. With his boyish charm and infinite enthusiasm for geeky stuff, Scott seems like one of us and a great guy to drink a beer with.
I especially like the videos on comic book misconceptions in which they set the record straight about things like whether or not Ant-Man is a wife-beater, or why it isn’t really a problem that a lot of superheroes are rip offs of other characters.
On the about page, and in this introduction video, Scott says the goal of his channel is twofold: ‘show that superhero stories can be deep and complex and show that learning can be exciting when done so through a fun subject matter.’
Mission accomplished, I’d say.
At the time of writing, NerdSync has over 458 thousand subscribers and published over 400 videos since the channel started in September 2012.
Filmjoy aka Movies with Mickey
FilmJoy is hosted by Mikey, Deep Dive, Portscenter, and Review Candy w/ Thaddeus. What all of these creators have in common is that they do not lash out at films, like so many other ‘movie critics’ on YouTube. Instead they talk about movies because they simply love cinema.
My focus will be on Movies With Mickey, because he’s the reason I follow this channel. Mickey focuses on geeky films, such as The Dark Knight and Scott Pilgrim vs the World and television series like Stranger Things.
Sometimes Mickey looks at these intellectual properties from a more philosophical standpoint. Like when he asked his audience who would be the ideal person to play Batman, he taps into the discussion about the quest for more diversity in movies, and he is not only talking about the Batman franchise. In another video he explores the reception of Star Wars movies upon their initial release and the cultural legacy of the franchise.
Mickey can get a little manic sometimes, with his asides, but his weird sense of humor gives his video essays a lightheartedness that leaves me with strong positive feelings after watching them.
FilmJoy started in November 2013. By the time of writing, the channel has gathered more than 180 thousand subscribers and published 160 videos.
The Strip Panel Naked
To me, comic books are a wonderful, creative and complex medium. I love to read them, to write about them en hopefully, some day write them as well. Comics seem to be very accessible and easy to read, which explains why most people start their reading life with comics. However, comics can be a very complex medium.
That’s why I love the Strip Panel Naked, because this channel takes a look at why the best comics work the way they do. It’s a channel filled with great videos in which comics are analyzed. Whether its about the three ways to create focus in comic book storytelling, how movement works in static images, or how one establishes characters. The Strip Panel naked uses a particular book as an example or a specific artist to get their point across.
The Strip Panel Naked is for geeks that love comics and the people who make them. This channel started in June 2016. By the time of writing it has gathered over 19,500 subscribers and published over a hundred videos.
Toy Galaxy
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjoe3Qo_DymYyBR6X9VxFjQ/videos
Is there anything more geeky then collecting toys? Well, yeah, collecting action figures and making damn good videos about them like the good people of the Toy Galaxy channel do.
Whether you want toy reviews, the history of a particular animated series that accompanies a toy line, or an in depth video on toy collecting, Toy Galaxy is the place to be on YouTube. Although I’m not a toy collector myself, I’m having a lot of fun watching this channel.
Toy Galaxy started in April 2015. By the time of writing they have gathered more than 87,600 subscribers and published about 536 videos. That’s a lot of hours of talking about toys.
Minty Comedic Arts
Lists are like gold on the Internet and are often used as clickbait. However, I really like the ’10 Things You Didn’t Know About…’ lists by Minty Comedic Arts. He covers classic geeky films like The Dark Crystal, Ghostbusters II, and Creepshow. He also covers characters like He-Man and Wonder Woman, or cult tv shows like The Twilight Zone. Occasionally he publishes a film review or a video about merchandising to boot.
Minty Comedic Arts, whose host always wears sunglasses, started his channel in February 2008. By the time of writing he has gathered about 112 thousand subscribers and published over 270 videos. His first videos from back in the day are rather roughly edited, but they look much more polished now.
