Ronald O P Simmons
Head of MEMES and Marketing
Ronald grew up in the 90's watching TMNT, POWER RANGERS and the classic Marvel and DC cartoons.
Big on Spider-man, but his favorite stories are usually in the cosmic scope. He dabbled in comics, but didn't become a hard core reader until around 2008.
A military guy, during his first tour in Iraq, he dove into stories like The Sinestro Corps war, Planet Hulk, and Marvel Annihilation.
When he's not busy reading comics or telling people he's "been to war and seen some shit", You can catch him Cosplaying while refusing to take pictures because he hates everyone. He also wrote this in the third person, just so he didn't have to speak to you directly.
Jason Dincauze
Editor/Contributor
Jason writes and edits comic reviews and fan culture op-eds. He reads a lot of comics. One could say an obsessive amount. A regular attendee of NYCC since 2011, Jason enjoys meeting creators and getting signatures from his favorites and generally avoiding anything that isn't comic related.
A question Jason asked at a Cup o' Joe Panel in 2015 led to a response from Marvel Publisher Dan Buckley that Newsarama called "the quote of NYCC" that year. This, and his obsession with the work of Jonathan Hickman, led to Jason creating "Marvel's Secret Wars 2015 Theories" (now All-New Secret Marvel Theory Wars), a Facebook page that started him down the road to reviewing comics more seriously and eventually led to Jason being part of this team.
Jason lives in Manhattan with his fiance, Mollie, and their daughter, Harper. Yes, Jason is running out of places to put his hardcover collection. No, that doesn't mean he'll give you any.
Ben McElveen
I was always interested in superheroes but that was mostly in cartoon form. It was 2008 (a great year for comic book movies!) when my interest in comics began. This was mostly thanks to the film "The Dark Knight". It began my obsession with Batman. I read as many Batman comics as I could and then a few years later, when DC's New 52 event kicked off, I really began my spiralling descent into comic book collecting (and madness).
If it isn't obvious, my favourite character is Batman. However, that is closely followed by Invincible and Spider-man!
In my spare time I create videos for my YouTube channel, Batarang To The Butt (https://www.youtube.com/c/batarangtothebutt). Which, yes, is further proof of my Batman-love but it is not solely dedicated to him!
You can follow me on twitter too; @thebatben
Tucker Weems
Overly sarcastic, dumb narcissist checking in. I think it goes without saying that I'm a nerd so here are a few things that you don't care about but you are going to read anyway: my zodiac is Cancer, I build computers for fun (nerd. Told you), and I occasionally eat sandwiches with a knife and fork. I'm told this makes me an awful person so address your complaints accordingly.
I'll mostly be writing about film here but I will sometimes sneak in a stray article about television, video games, or video game hardware.
You can follow me on all social media using @tuckerweems.
Kate Baerkircher
I started reading comic books when I was six years old - the first two I bought were Red Sonja and Amethyst, after that I was hooked.
There was a comic book shop down the block from where my mom worked so I often walked there and was always the only girl there. I also went to conventions where again I was pretty much the only girl. I won a door prize at one and I actually heard a guy say: "What's *she* gonna get out of that??"
Favorite characters growing up were Red Sonja, Amethyst, Cloak & Dagger, Dazzler, Starfire and Raven. Now I'm really into the X-Men, Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, Ms. Marvel, New Wolverine, Teen Titans, the Totally Awesome Hulk, Mighty Thor and a ton of indie comics. Some of my favorite writers are Greg Rucka, Gail Simone, Greg Pak, Amanda Conner and Marguerite Bennett. In my spare time I watch a lot of horror movies (horror is my other passion), create artwork and read read read.
Kolbey Leek
So my introduction into comics was a giant stack of old 1950s Dell comic books my grandfather gave me when i was very young. The titles ranged from Beetle Bailey to Lassie. It all smelled like cigarette ashes and none of it was very interesting. Fast forward a decade and I was far from what anyone would call a "comic book nerd"...
I was a three sport athlete coming out of high school and i was going on to play college football on scholarship. I was a meathead in almost every sense of the word...almost. My one flaw that kept me from being a total jock is that I enjoyed reading....like a lot. I read Clan Of The Cave Bear in 5th grade...and got in quite a lot of trouble for it. I'd burned through most of the classics by middle school, and it didn't go unnoticed. Beginning some time in my Sophomore year, my high school librarian would find me in class and drop a stack of books on my desk to read through and give recommendations on what age groups i thought they were appropriate for (she was old fashioned and didn't trust Accelerated Reader lol!).
It was this love of reading that guided me to the college library to discover that they had an entire graphic novel section...an almost unbroken chronological collection of mostly DC comics and graphic novels from the tail end of the Silver Age up through the early 2000s. Classics like All-Star Squadron, Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Watchmen, V For Vendetta, and of course Crisis On Infinite Earths. In high school I'd read some of the bad 90s stuff that people like to ignore now...stuff like Shadowman and Badrock...or the random issue of Nomad or whatever other horrible 90s comic people seemed to somehow accumulate without ever knowing how or when. So for me, reading COIE was like turning on the lights... I was hooked then, and I've never looked back.
I've been reading steady for almost 20 years now, and I've managed to branch out into several other nerd related hobbies...i enjoy table top RPGs, cosplaying, videogames, and movies (especially movies)...so i like to think of myself as being pretty well-rounded. Some of my favorite comic book writers are, of course, Alan Moore, and also Mike Grell, Mark Gruenwald, and Marv Wolfman. My favorite artist is Steve Epting...no one else comes close, as far as I'm concerned.
Gage Bullock
It all started when I picked up X-men #8 by Jim Lee and Chris Claremont, and within the first few pages there was a picture of Psylocke in a bathing suit and I was immediately hooked.
Growing up my dad was huge into comics so naturally my interest began at an early age, the first books I read were Claremont/Lee X-Men and McFarlane Spider-Man that belonged to my dad. I didn't venture out much farther outside of X-men, Spider-Man, Batman and Superman UNTIL the first episode of JLU which began my obsession with Green Arrow.
My 2nd favorite character is Namor but also some other favorites are Thor, Cyclops, Aquaman and Daredevil. I also enjoy reading Conan the Barbarian comics and anything written by Jeff Lemire. When not reading comic books you may find me reading James Bond novels, watching Bobs Burgers or playing video games. I have two amazing sons and for a living I work quality at a tire plant. As far as the page goes I mostly run the Instagram page of ours and will be doing Green Arrow comic reviews.
Michael Granger
I started reading comics at around 8 or 9 years old. My parents figured it would help improve my reading as I loved to read but only stuff that interested me. They bought whatever they passed on the rack. Superman, Hulk, and Spider-man were my favorites back then. But eventually I got into football, girls, and rap music.
Then in around 2002 Transformers made a return to comics and I got back into it. That opened the door for me to get back into other comics. I started with some Marvel events and of course Superman related books. Then I got really into Black Panther and read everything I could with him and then that I just decided to dive back in fully. So now I’m a addicted to comics and there’s not enough time in a day to devote to comics.
My favorite comics at the moment are Invincible, Transformers, and Ultimates 2. My favorite characters are Black Panther, Superman, Blue Marvel, Hyperion, Battle Beast (RIP), and the MIGHTY MEGATRON! Oh yeah, I’m a soldier, a fanboy destroyer, and philosophical humorist. I also completed law school at an advanced age…so there’s that.