Covid-19 may not sound as threatening or scary as other things in pop-culture with numbers in the title, such as T-1000, LV-426, or Transformers 7, but it did make quite the villainous impact on the world, especially within the world of Geekdom. One of the biggest gut punches of the pandemic was the mandatory quarantine that derailed every planned event on Earth, including the Geekdom’s much beloved San Diego Comic Con. On top of that, everything we Geeks know and love came to a complete and utter standstill: Comics were halted, all films were delayed, and basically every TV show stopped production or was cancelled entirely. Covid-19 really mucked things up for most, but it’s been excep- tionally rough for all within the Geekdom. And I’m here to bitch about it using splashes of sar- casm, halfway decent fact-chec- king, and a dash of optimism. Now, before I dive deep into my highly intelligent views on all this, I hope it goes without saying that everything I’m about to complain about is nothing compared to the sacrifice and courage all essential workers and healthcare professionals had to work through during the chaos that was this pandemic. All these people kept the world running while we got fat in our underwear, shared Tiger King memes, and watched Rick & Morty, so the least we can do (besides clap for two minutes a day) is officially thank them for being the best among us. So, from all of us at Spoiler Maga- zine, we salute all the doctors, nurses, firefighters, police, EMT, grocery store clerks, liquor store employees, and last but cer- tainly not least, the God damn delivery drivers who absolutely knows us on a first name basis by now. Thank you.

Okay! So. Covid-19. What an asshole, right? It took all the Geek-tastic things we were looking forward to and took a big ol’ crap on them. Hey, I don’t like that visual, either, but a crap’s a crap. One of the biggest Geek-centric industries that took a wallop during all this stupid pandemic mess, was the ever-so-financially stable in- dustry of comic books. I’m sure you didn’t even hear about how bad the comic book industry suffered because people were spamming you with other highly depressing articles, but let’s just say it got real bad. How bad?

Well, Diamond Comic Distribu- tors, the company that physica- lly makes most of your favorite comic company’s products, had to halt distribution of literally everything.

While this doesn’t necessarily affect consumers of digital comics and those fancy folk who get comics sent to their home, it was still a huge blow to most of the comic book industry and a swift kick in the pants to the brick and mortar comic shops we know and love. Now, the good news is, there were steps to get comics made again quite quickly as well as many grassroots movements to save the mom and pop comic book shops. One of the big- gest movements is Diamond’s launching of “Back the Come- back,” which is, as they put

it, “a multi-phased campaign focused on supporting local comic and game stores as they reopen, restart, and rebuild.” So, if you have the time and left-over money from your stimulus check, go help these havens of Geekdom stay afloat. And to the neckbeards who don’t, I look forward to the next comic movie coming out and hearing you argue with fourteen-year-olds during Call of Duty over how “the comic was soooo much better, bro.”

The film industry was pro- bably the hardest hit industry during the living pajama night- mare that was this Zod-damn pandemic with every film in production coming to a scree- ching halt, resulting in tens of thousands of people losing their job. Needless to say, the film industry had to do some major damage control. With the few films that were ready for immediate release and all movie theaters closed, many compa- nies had to look to streaming services or video on demand for release, which made me miss paying $27 for a medium popcorn and Buncha Crunch. For films a little further down the pipeline, release dates were pushed back to the Fall and in some cases, early 2021, inclu- ding some of the Geekdom’s most anticipated comic book films. And then it gets a little trickier as all films that were in the middle of filming when the world stopped had to complete- ly shut down production inde- finitely. Now, I’m sure a lot of the filmmakers used that time to tighten aspects of the script and even hop into the editing booth to edit what they already filmed, but, unfortunately, the only thing they really could do was wait out the crisis until the go-ahead to continue production was given. And I don’t know about you, but if I had to wait a second more than I had to to see Robert Pattinson in The Batman, I was going to She-Hulk rage through my apartment building. Yeah, I know She-Hulk retains her intelligence and emotional control when she’s angry and that I’m crossing comic universes, but you watch The Batman screen test and not get antsy! The good news is, the film industry is a mega-beast and isn’t going quietly into the night anytime soon. We will be getting all of our movies, it just might take a little longer than we thought. Luckily for the film industry, patience has always been one of the Geekdom’s strongest virtues. Kindness… not so much. Let’s try working on that shall we? Ya idiots!

TV might have been the most wild west of all the mediums that was affected by this abso- lute piece of giant donkey sh*t of a pandemic. With all shows in production being shut down completely, some were put on the shelf for the foreseeable future, while others were strai- ght-up cancelled. The problem with a lot of TV shows (mainly cable) is that they film a chunk of episodes, edit them, and then air said show before they’re even halfway through filming the season. Netflix, HBO, and other streaming services on the other hand film all their episodes, spend months editing them,

and release the entire season at once, or quickly one after another, while also having a smaller episode count. And with that shutdown, cable networks were desperate to get content and scrambled to find anything they could get their hands on. So, basically, all those awesome and original new shows that were pitched to them that they thought couldn’t possibly compare to their definitely unique cop dramas or their not boring at all doctor romance shows? Yeah, they’ve gone ahead and asked people to film a TV show in their apartment with an iPhone instead. On the other hand, I do think some TV has actually bene- fited from quarantine, giving a more stripped-down version of certain shows and showing that less might actually be more. I mean, nothing improves Jimmy Fallon like watching his kids do what we all wish we could, climb all over him to stop his monolo- gue by any means necessary.

That might seem like a lot of negative stuff, but I do think there is a lot of positive to be had from this pandemic. If a boy can dream, my biggest hope is that this quarantine made us all stop for a long while and take a good look around to see what’s truly important. I’m not gonna get all kumbaya on you, I’m just saying that, in the last few years, the world has felt like it’s been spinning a little bit faster than normal and maybe this time to slow down and take a breath is exactly what we needed. I hope you were like me and the worst thing that happened during the pandemic was not knowing what to watch next, your pants got a little tighter, and only a few popped blood vessels when trying to call unemployment. For those of you who lost more than just time and patience, we at Spoiler Magazine and everyone within the Geekdom are here for you and we sympathize. And for those whose mental state/ health was tested during that period of time, you are awesome, strong, powerful, beautiful, and we love you. And as much as all the pandemic nonsense was a real sh*t hand to be dealt, I truly believe that it and the quarantine will end up making our community and culture even richer in the long run. I mean, think about it; during all of this, people around the country, even the world, took up all sorts of hobbies and interests that they always felt they never had the time to pursue in the past. All of a sudden, a large chunk of the world started reading and writing plays and screenplays, they put on concerts, did acting workshops, took art classes, wrote comics, drew comics, and everything in between! I bet you, I bet you, years from now we will talk to some of the greatest people within the arts community and the Geekdom and those people will tell us that they began working on their craft during the Covid-19 pandemic. They will have found their calling during a time of darkness and helped change the world for the better. Wouldn’t that be great? And hey, listen, if you sat around and did nothing during all of that, don’t even sweat it. We all did what we needed to during that time. And because of it, the world will never be the same. Perhaps it’ll even be better. And sure, you’ll probably have to explain yourself every time you sneeze for the rest of your life, but hey…you’re here. So, enjoy it my Geeklings.