“Ink and color us impressed.” ~DFW Quick
“Serious Business, Part 2″ Plans are set in motion as Barry and Vlad try to undo Ben’s influence, but the outcome reveals bigger consequences. Check out part 2 of The Variants season finale guest starring Ben Templesmith.
“Serious Business” Richard brings comics artist superstar Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night, Fell, Chronicles of Wormwood) to Dallas to generate some revenue for the store in dire times. But just how dire are they? Only Keli seems to have a hint, and Richard is more distracted than usual. Joe and Barrys rivalry also heats up with the arrival of Templesmith. Who will he side with?
cast of The Variants web series (Jason Janik)
Pick up this weeks QUICK newspaper for Geoff Johnston’s interview of the cast of The Variants on page 24!
Nerd Alert: ‘The Variants’ wrap up debut season
It seems like only yesterday the staff of Zeus Comics premiered its online geek-centric comedy series The Variants. Well, it wasn’t yesterday. It was about 10 months ago. I should really invest in a desk calendar.
The show’s concept is simple: Each episode is a 10-minute adventure featuring five comic-book shop employees. They fight off hordes of zombie-like customers thirsting for free movie passes. They daydream during customer-service meetings that use Mariah Carey and unicorns as mnemonic learning devices. They don skintight costumes to attract business. They feign invisibility. You know, everyday workplace shenanigans.
Joe Cucinotti, Barry Fuhrman, Richard Neal, Keli Wolfe and Ken Lowery (as Vlad) play amplified versions of themselves; characters that amicably, if often facetiously, play well off one another. The cast’s chemistry comes off as playful and familial, a trait that overshadows the project’s shoestring budget, transforms its amateurish aspects into endearing qualities and deters inevitable fanboy cynicism intrinsic to the show’s target market.
Read the full interview online at quickdfw.com
“Power Outage” The staff suspects losing sales to a street vendor while dealing with a loss of power and sanity.
“Manga Mia” Joe’s keeping a secret and the rest of the store is determined to get to the bottom of it.
“Tsunami” An upset customer leads to the staff changing job responsibilities.
“The Heist” Joe accidentally sells a comic from a customer’s pull box. Now Joe and Keli have to track down another copy at another store while Richard and Barry handle a comic convention solicitor.
This is truly stunning. Scott Kurtz, guest of episode 5 of The Variants web series, captures a great moment of the show between Barry and Keli during a smoke break in the show.
Keli and Barry watching traffic
Great job, this is wonderful.
The gang hosts a comic book signing for guests Scott Kurtz and Dave Crosland, but they may be too much for the store to handle.
A movie pass giveaway forces the employees in the store overnight. Can they keep back the hordes and survive until dawn? Watch episode 4 of the web series, The Variants.
Episode 1: Pilot
Episode 2: Dead Man’s Comics
Episode 3: The Upsell
Epsiode 4: Passholes
Episode 5: Guest Signing
Episode 6: The Heist
Episode 7: Tsunami
Episode 8: Manga Mia
Episode 9: Power Outage
Episode 10: Serious Business
Episode 10.2: Serious Business