Welcome to Hold 322, a weekly review of the comics in my hold at my local comic store as well as whatever I find on the shelf that looks interesting. I’m JC Carter, and comics have been a part of my life since I was 7 years old. Now, well over 30 years later, I am able to share my knowledge and insights into the world of, well, the comics that interest me. So sit back, relax, and enjoy. – JC Carter; Man About Town (with permission)

JC Carter

JC Carter is a professional interaction designer, web designer, web marketing consultant, graphic designer and occasional writer and editor. When his wife and kids allow him free time, he fills it teaching Tai Chi and Yoga, producing and directing local theatre productions and volunteering with the Boy Scouts of America.

JC is the creator and director of BackstageUtah.com, an online theatre community and resource site, and is also the marketing director for Around the Globe Theatre Company and is currently acting as its president.

It was JC’s father, AJ Carter, that first started him down the road of comic book fandom. AJ was functionally illiterate and enjoyed comics as they gave him a story via pictures that he could pretty-much understand, even if he couldn’t read the words. AJ bought JC his first comic when we was 6 years old, and JC was hooked after that. The local grocery store had a huge newsstand full of comics and JC wouldn’t leave the store without at least two new comics in his hands.

AJ was proud that his boy could read, so he had him read the comics to him, it was a bond the two shared for as long as AJ was alive, and it’s because of this bond that JC has proudly shared comics with his own children, and still continues to read about Superheroes in his 40s.

JC is primarily a Marvel guy, enjoying mostly the Avengers family of titles, with special affection for Captain America and Iron Man, but he doesn’t limit his purchases to just that publisher, and will grab any book off the shelf he finds interesting.

J.M. Bell

Jeff Bell is a professional writer, musician, wonk, and political consultant. He’s been working in and around politics since 1989 when he volunteered on a Price City Council campaign for free guitar strings.

Jeff is the former Democratic National Committee Communications Director for Utah, ran for Utah House 43 in 2012, and was the president of the Children’s Justice Corps, a non-profit entity that educated about sexual and physical crimes against children and lobbied for smarter, long term prosecution and punishment for offenders.

Jeff spent 3 years as the host of Left of the Dial on KSL NewsRadio, fulfilling a lifelong dream and proving that you should be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it … and it might be a giant turd.

Jeff is also the Owner of Defenestrate Media Group, a ground breaking network for developing grassroots media, internet delivered original content, and award winning podcasts.

Winner – Best of State from City Weekly in 2010 & 2012 & 2016

Robert Easton

After figuring out at a young age that he wasn’t imbued with the powers of a radioactive spider or the all-powerful surviving member of a fallen alien race, Robert aka Bob aka Ultimate Bob aka “that guy over there” decided to focus all his energies on growing up and becoming President of the United States. In the sixth grade he was elected President of his elementary school and that was enough office holding for him. Next he wanted to become a famous movie actor but discovered you have to be handsome and talented and not afraid of casting couch shenanigans to make that happen, so he moved on from that dream too.

Now Bob is content being a podcast contributor for both Hold 322 (for which he also blogs) and the Left Show, while he pursues his permanent goal of becoming a successful (someday paid) writer. He has a slew of novels, plays, film scripts and other writing projects in the works at all times. Back in 2005 Bob also founded and still runs a community theatre group called the Around the Globe Theatre Company which performs plays around the Salt Lake area whenever opportunity and finances allow. Also known as ATG, the company has even produced an original play written by Bob, inspired by his life experiences, especially with romance and the lady folk, called Bob Juan Casanova.

Bob’s passion for a fairer, more progressive America and world is almost equaled by his lifelong love of comic books; an addiction that started at a very young age when Bob was introduced to the sequential art form by his father who had a large collection of them (mostly DC but also some Marvel, like Spider-Man) for him to read. Bob buys close to twenty new comics every month and hopes to one day get paid to write some himself. He is grateful to be able to talk about comic books every week with JC, Jeff and Thom and is glad you chose to listen in when he does.

Thom Floyd

For over 20 years Canadian-born Thom Floyd has been one of the most reliable performers in porn, with youthful good looks and a body sculpted almost to perfection from long hours spent in the gym. His career began in the days when porn movies were take-offs of legit films; they had plots, dialogue, relatively hefty budgets and were meant to be seen in theaters.

He is still going strong (as of 2011), a holdover (but not a “relic”) from the “good old days” in an era of straight-to-video, low-budget rush jobs with no acting, little if any plot, tattooed / strutting / preening “actors” and bored, disinterested or barely conscious “actresses”. Few porn actors have (or most likely ever will have) a resume as extensive as Thom Floyd’s. Few, if any, actors can boast that they have been intimate on screen with as many of the superstars of porn as he has: Trinity Loren, Jill Kelly, Christy Canyon, Keisha, Taylor Wayne, Rebecca Wild, Ashlyn Gere,Victoria Paris, Jewel De’Nyle.

Thom Floyd’s enduring popularity has spanned generations of porn fans, both male and female, and even after all these years he still continues to impress and amaze both fans and co-workers with his, shall we say, “range”.

Robert J. Defendi 

Robert J. Defendi has worked on many projects. He was one of the writers for Savage Seas for the game Exalted. He’s done a good bit of work for Spycraft, Shadowforce Archer and the Stargate SG-1 roleplaying game. He wrote the current incarnation of Spacemaster. As the publisher of Final Redoubt press, he designed and released the critically acclaimed setting The Echoes of Heaven. He’s also done fiction for Writers of the Future, When Darkness Comes, and The Echoes of Heaven. He’s the author of the successful podcast audiobook Death by Cliche. He’s featured in Space Eldritch and Space Eldritch II.

Holly Braithwaite