Fox Force Five News is officially one years old as of today — June 1, 2016. It’s hard to believe that so much time has passed since the birth of FFFN. The staff has grown, the content continues to kill and I couldn’t be happier with where we are as a pop culture news site right now.
When I started this place it was to escape creative purgatory and run my own ship where “fun” was free to reign once again and the writers here could create without fear of being told they suck. I’m the editor-in-chief, but the only edits I make to my writers’ work is grammatical in nature and I hope they have had fun making articles about what they enjoy as fans. Where else could you find a website that interviews heavy metal bands, Juggalo rap artists and then reviews the new Pixar animated film all in the same week? We write about what we want at FFFN – as long as it’s entertainment – we seek and destroy it. By destroy – I mean write about it… You know what I mean – we’re a deadly entertainment news assassination squad.
The ONE and only single gripe I’ve had since starting my own site (aside from learning how to make it look decent and not die on my own with zero site-building knowledge) is the constant morons who think we are affiliated with the right-wing psychopathic FOX News. I love the occasional Facebook messages from people freaking out over Obama and our newscasts…. They’ve started to die off – but still…. I didn’t even consider it at the time. Oh the joys.
Now for my top 5 favorite highlights since opening up FFFN.
#5) The perks. Blu-ray reviews, concert reviews, free entry to shows and conventions. If you run an internet news site – you know what I’m talking about. I’m so happy that various networks, film studios and show promoters have been helping us out in our first year. It’s only going to get bigger and better in year two people! I promise.
#4) The Conventions! We were able to get both Scott and Troy into Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle earlier this year which was awesome. Troy attended a major Heroes of The Storm live gaming tourney from Blizzard while Scott was able to check out Image Expo and ECCC to live-tweet panel coverage.
This was also my first time covering the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo under the FFFN banner and it was a blast getting to hang out with fellow staffer Mark while he geeked out with the staff from Cracked.com and kinda stalked the Killjjoys cast. I had a blast hanging with the guys from Wolf Cop, as well as catching up with a ton of artists and writers. I got lost in downtown Calgary so I missed out on the Panel One after-party but I vow to find it in 2017! I VOW!
#3) The Interviews. The first exclusive chat that I had when FFFN launched in it’s beta-phase May 2015, was with Dez Fafara from Coal Chamber/Devildriver. What a helluva way to kick off interviews in a brand new venture. Thankfully I made friends and media contacts at the old place, so it was easy enough to get a headstart but I’m still happy Dez jumped onboard so quickly. From there I got to interview Wolf Cop director Lowell Dean, Squarriors writer Ash Maczko and more in rapid fashion all within the first month of the site’s launch. The exclusives only grew from there and I’m more than satisfied with the friends that FFFN has made along the first year of it’s journey. I got to hang with Jason Mewes last year. I love Jay – that was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. Or that time I hung out on the tourbus with Blaze Ya Dead Homie and Boondox. I can’t even…. So many amazing and surreal moments.
#2) The Staff. Scott was the first to join my crew and continues to reign supreme as our comics editor and his weekly pull list is a staple of the site and one of our biggest draws. Troy was also here from the start and his gaming reviews and editorials have been fantastic. I don’t have time for gaming anymore – with running the site, having a full-time dayjob and then three kids all under the age of six – my Xbox (360 – yes it’s still a 360) is only used as a shiny Netflix player.
Along the way Mark joined up and does weekly movie reviews – never missing the chance to check out something new every single freaking weekend. Ashton’s love for heavy metal and journalism has found him wandering this way too – and he’s done concert reviews and badass interviews with several musicians since joining the squad. Hell, I even stole his father and my mentor – Kelly Clemmer to come and write here too. Kelly was my editor when I used to work at a weekly newspaper and he recently retired from the print media world but found that he missed writing, so on occasion – he writes about crazy cool shit like D&D and I love it. We run the nerd gamut here at FFFN – everything from gaming, comics, role-playing games – you name it, we will write our geeky asses off over it.
#1) The Freedom. No more bullshit. When I want to write about more taboo, or underground artists like Twiztid, Insane Clown Posse, or even some nasty as shit death metal band – I can do it. Because this is my house and I will write about whatever the hell I want and no asshole is going to say otherwise because it’s not “relevant” or it doesn’t fit in with the site’s culture. We make our own culture here and we give no shit in the process.