Barb Lien-Cooper & Park Cooper

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  • WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT DARK SHADOWS (Part THREE): The Dark Shadows FAQ

    WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT DARK SHADOWS (Part THREE): The Dark Shadows FAQ

    It’s the Dark Shadows Frequently Asked Questions… list!

    –WHY ARE SOME EPISODES IN BLACK AND WHITE? At first, it’s because they hadn’t started using color cameras yet. But then, some episodes can still only be watched by us in this century because they didn’t always save all the tapes of the color episodes—but they did save (almost) all of the black-and-white recordings of the shows. The easiest way to explain it is that they broadcast the show in color (once that started) on most stations. But some stations didn’t show Dark Shadows at the same time—for just one example, California is three hours behind New York (where the show was made) time-zone wise. So some stations would show a black-and-white recording of the show (oh well—not everyone had color televisions yet, so they’d hardly notice). So when no one saved a color copy of an episode, modern Dark Shadows viewers watch the black-and-white copy.

    –“I HATE X CHARACTER—BECAUSE X CHARACTER IS SO MEAN//ANNOYING! WHEN WILL THEY GO AWAY?!?” This is a complex question because the answer depends on who we’re talking about. Let’s hit the most common characters that people say this about.

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  • Barb’s Early History of TV

    Barb’s Early History of TV

    Our colleague Patrick McCray (of The Dark Shadows Daybook) asked us, suddenly, “If you were going to tell people briefly about the history of television, what would you emphasize?”

    Well, you can’t ask Barb a question like that and not expect her to do anything with it, so she wrote the following essay. If you are someone who can’t remember a time before the internet, then you might find this educational. If you are someone who can remember a time before the internet, then you might find this nostalgic.

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  • WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT DARK SHADOWS (Part TWO): How To Watch Dark Shadows

    WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT DARK SHADOWS (Part TWO): How To Watch Dark Shadows

    Okay so: Dark Shadows. The 1966-1971 gothic soap opera. Maybe you are thinking about watching it.

    Here’s some stuff you need to know.

    You have two options:

    1. Start at the very beginning. NOT RECOMMENDED UNLESS YOU ARE INTO 1960s SOAP OPERAS IN THE FIRST PLACE. OR unless you are not used to scary/supernatural stories in the first place. If you are not used to scary/supernatural stories, then yeah, maybe you di want to start with episode 1. (But if either of those don’t sound like you, then come back and watch the first 209 episodes later, after you’re totally hooked.)

    2. RECOMMENDED for some people : You might want to consider starting with the vampire. The vampire is where practically everyone, at the time, started paying attention.

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  • WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT DARK SHADOWS (Part One)

    WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT DARK SHADOWS (Part One)

    Okay, Barb and I have been talking about ourselves, but now we need to talk about Dark Shadows.

    NO, not the 2012 Tim Burton movie. We try not to talk about that (although if it attracted some new fans to the real Dark Shadows— and it did– then fine, whatever). No, I’m talking about the TV show it was based on, from 1966 to 1971, the world’s first gothic daytime TV soap opera, Dark Shadows.

    Barb got me into Dark Shadows.

    Barb loves Dark Shadows. And, now that she got me into it some years ago, so do I.

    When I was growing up, I saw ONE episode of Dark Shadows on TV– as a re-run. It was during what’s called The Leviathan Storyline, which happens to be the one where a Lovecraftian monster dude not entirely unlike Lovecraft’s story “The Dunwich Horror” –but who can turn himself into a normal human-lookin’ dude as long as he can get back to a specially-prepared saferoom back at his lair place– is trying (reluctantly) to help an ancient evil cult take over the world (starting with the New England town of Collinsport).

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  • Married Geek Couple #3: Growing Up

    Married Geek Couple #3: Growing Up

    This installment of Married Geek Couple is in great part about things we grew up with, one way or another…

    Barb: You and I share a love of children’s literature. How did you get into the “Great Brain” books?

    Park: I think the Great Brain books were something I discovered on a shelf in a classroom. Maybe third grade? Or… Maybe another Reading Is Fundamental giveaway.

    Barb: One of my fave jokes from The Simpsons mentions that Lisa reads The Great Brain books. One of us! One of us! We accept you! One of us!

    Barb: Next question: How’d you get into The Rocky Horror Picture Show?

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  • Married Geek Couple #2: Barb Interviews Park Some More

    Married Geek Couple #2: Barb Interviews Park Some More

    Barb Says:

    It’s that time again.

    Time to study phrenology?

    Time to get your teeth cleaned?

    Time to Spin the Wheel of Morality?

    No!  It’s time to interview my husband again!

    Barb (to Park): Last time, I asked you about kids’ books. This time, it’s time to talk about other Geek culture subjects:

    Barb: What were your favorite cartoons as a kid, and why?

    Park: Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, because it actually was pretty well-written and acted dialogue-wise, and had lots of guest-stars from the rest of the Marvel Universe.

    —Battle of the Planets, because anime and style.

    –Warner Brothers cartoons, because hilarious.

    Barb: I got you a “Battle of the Planets” action figure set (still in box) and a t-shirt you wore until it was just threads.

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  • Married Geek Couple #1: Barb Interviews Park

    Married Geek Couple #1: Barb Interviews Park

    Barb: Hey, honey, interview time!!!

    Park: Okay honey!!!

    Barb: You learned to read and started reading at the age of two-and-a-half.  What are the first books/stories you remember from that time?

    Park: Not a lot, off the top of my head. I do remember seeing a for-tiny-babies library book called “The Egg And I” about a hen and her egg and thinking “I think I’ve heard about this, it’s also the title a movie or a book for grown-ups or something. Clever.” Toddler-me probably didn’t THINK the word “clever,” but it’s the non-toddler translation of my reaction.

    …But… well, there were a few classics, now that I think about it a little more. Mike Mulligan had a steam shovel, I think? And I think there was also a brave little tugboat? And Curious George (went to the hospital, I think? And/or flew a giant kite?)– Oh, and Danny and the Dinosaur. Okay, so, yeah, classic literature.

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  • Practice Autobiographical Post: Park and his Mom

    Practice Autobiographical Post: Park and his Mom

    Recently here at Wicker Man Studios, our publisher, Rodolfo, suggested that we needed to talk more about ourselves and help people better get to know us. So, Barb and I will be doing a series of postings about ourselves entitled “Married Geek Couple.”

    But to practice, over Thanksgiving, while my mom was doing stuff in the kitchen, Barb suggested I go talk to my mom and ask her questions and get answers—because knowing about my mom is a part of knowing about me. So I just started asking my mother whatever questions came to mind, and here’s the results of that:

    My mom, in this century
    My mom, in this century, with some Texas bluebonnets

    Park Cooper: Tell me about Papa’s [Mom’s father, my maternal grandfather] baseball team.

    Dian Cooper: Ohhh. Papa was a great baseball pitcher. He always played baseball. Every job he ever had, he was hired because he was the best baseball pitcher.

    Park: You mean like working for the oil field company baseball team.

    Dian: And in the army. He played baseball in the army.

    Park: His glasses didn’t interfere with that?

    Dian: That was before he needed glasses. He was gassed in the oil fields, that’s what happened to his eyes.

    Park: How did that happen?

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  • Interview: BFF Games And Their Boardgames!

    Interview: BFF Games And Their Boardgames!

    Park Cooper here, of Wicker Man Studios, interviewing Andreas Müller of BFF Games. I first became aware of BFF Games because I jumped into the Kickstarter for their game Hidden Leaders, a fun game that brightened up months of the ongoing pandemic for my wife Barb (my co-partner Wicker Man Studios) and I. Hidden Leaders is a fantasy-themed boardgame where you draw and play cards to influence the realm of the kingdom to one of four outcomes, playing as one of six leaders (such as Lemron, Pavyr, Cyra, and Enned, just to name four that we’re about to mention during the course of this interview). Each of the six leaders (whose identities are hidden to the other players until the end of the game) want the kingdom’s war to come out in either of two possible ways—so there’s a certain amount of guessing (especially early on) about what your opponent even wants to happen… BFF Games also did a successful Kickstarter expansion, and are about to start a Kickstarter for a prequel game, titled Yield.

    Park Cooper: So let’s see. I watched a video about how y’all came to make Hidden Leaders– But I have questions.

    So– the world was the world that y’all role-played games in? Is that right?

    Andreas Müller: Sort of, yeah. So the game was invented based on the world we all did Larp in (live action role play) but once we got our artist on board (Satoshi Matsuura from Japan) we made changes to the world to take his art into account. You could say, we merged our world with his art.

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  • WMS November Newsletter 2023

    WMS November Newsletter 2023

    Hi there! Sorry not to post on the official first week of the month, but there were a couple of other things I wanted to do, as you’ll see.

    Let’s see: I want to point out some stuff that got posted here but which didn’t actually get put in a newsletter until now:

    –First up, I made a book trailer for our graphic novel Hungry Ghosts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKrJZh4VH9Q

    –I finished posting my old interview with writer Steven Brust– I’ll let you look at that yourself: https://wickermanstudios.com/blog/

    –I also did a fun interview with the creators of BITEMARK, a nailbiting manga that is also published by Lucha Comics, just like Wicker Man Studios’ HUNGRY GHOSTS: https://wickermanstudios.com/2023/10/11/interview-bitemark/

    –Also, comics legend Keith Giffen passed away. His daughter and son-in-law posted online asking for remembrances and interviews, so I hurried and got mine up. There’s no images, but I feel that that’s appropriately somber: https://wickermanstudios.com/2023/10/12/keith-giffen-2006-interview/

    –Finally, here’s footage of our very own Barb Lien-Cooper, being interviewed (and getting just a few words in edgewise during a panel) about her comic Gun Street Girl (see here: https://wickermanstudios.com/2015/04/15/gun-street-girl/ ) as part of Austin, Texas’ Staple! The Independent Media Expo! from 2005: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XM-FwXBgyE

    Okay, now that that’s all done, here’s my feature presentation, as it were– every Halloween season, Barb and I try to watch as many scary/intense films and stuff as we can, which we call PARKTOBER. So here’s this year’s report!

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