Siike Donnelly

A year ago...

Venom The Last Dance in theaters. Its extremely cool that of all the characters to make a youtube show about, after struggling to build an audience with Transformers, Lego, and others, that I landed on Eddie Brock. Big thanks to Tom Hardy for that.

I knew who Venom was, of course, but I didn't know how interesting and relatable this guy could be. I also didn't realize how cool and passionate of an audience and community that talking about Venom would bring me to.

The fans, who go by many names; Venomheads, Venomaniacs, Venomites, symbiotes, and the list goes on, (I called them Parasites, as a nod to the first film) have been extremely welcoming and awesome to me over the years.

I too find it ironic that I talked about a guy who says "we" when describing him and his alien other, only to now speak about myself in plural as well, due to my own set of "others."

Let this be a lesson to anyone who embarks on an adventure in life, maybe even this is a reminder to myself as well:

As much as I love Transformers and toys and all of that, when I made YouTube videos about those things, as popular as they are, I struggled to build a following. We had like 200 subs, which was dope, but we never really went beyond until we talked Venom.

Venom built us to over 3k subs. Not just cause he was popular, but because I wasn't a know-it-all about him. I was learning, exploring, studying and understanding, with great respect, and I think fans appreciated that.

We talked about how filming is done, how comics are made. We talked about merchandise, reviewing it, discussing why things sell and don't sell, why books and movies make money vs not, how marketing works.

We went BEYOND the character while making the show and discussed the HOW and WHY of each aspect of this tremendously fun, yet tragic character.

By doing the Venom Vlog I also learned how to edit, how to create music, how to use PowerPoint and Excel and Photoshop, how to brand myself, how to make thumbnails, learned about SEO & algorithms, and so much more.

We grew. In the best ways. And we did it without being negative. We made it family friendly, like Mr Rogers (who I am a huge fan of) and made it about educating an audience about film, comics, and toys while they educated me about Eddie & Venom.

The point here is:

Aim to do what you love, but if it fails, be open to pivot and try something else that you may end up loving as well. It works out. Trust me.

Big love to the Parasites, to Tom, Kelly, Andy, Ruben, David, Todd, Erik, Mark, Donny, and all who have contributed to Venom over the years. Thanks for keeping him alive, relevant, and interesting. We love you all, human and symbiote alike.

1 day ago | [YT] | 13

Siike Donnelly

We had a request from long time viewer, and I believe most comments on this channel out of ALL the Parasites, Swordsman, to try to play this game before we end the Venom Vlog.

Due to me currently having a kidney stone, I am unable to film anything beyond what I filmed last week, so all I can do is edit and post, which means we won't finish the Venom Vlog by the end of October.

I am aiming to finish the last few episodes by the end of November now, but since this game drops on December 1st, I think we can definitely make a few Venom Vlog Live Streams, and play this game in its entirety throughout the first two weeks of December.

Sound like a plan? If so, see you soon with more Venom Vlogs and see you in December for Cosmic Invasion!!

3 days ago | [YT] | 3

Siike Donnelly

A Venom Vlog post.

A new YouTube episode went up today. I wanted to spend some time tonite to edit another one or two and then a bunch of shorts, but Blue left me a gift.

We have a Amazon credit card with a small limit. Its been paid off and every now and then I tell Blue he can buy himself a Blokees thing or maybe I'll grab a graphic novel or a shirt. Its just for fun things like that when money gets tight but we still want a little treat.

A month or two ago, Blue got us an Oscorp Lego set, which came with a small apartment for Eddie Brock, along with this movie/comic inspired minifigure, complete with symbiote head.

The pieces for the small apartment and Eddie/Venom figure were in their own bag, with their own instructions manual.

Blue's note on it said, "for Orange. Even when you're gone, you won't be. We are Siike."

Yeah, I'm emotional so I teared up. Manly tears though. 😉

I build the final building in our little Spider-Man Lego street, and put together a character that has connected me to so many great people these past nearly 8 years and nearly 1000 videos.

Exploring Eddie Brock has taught me so much about myself, yanked me out to events that a normal introvert like me wouldn't have attended on my own, and helped me communicate and agree with people that come from so many different walks of life.

I have a LOT of favorite characters in comics, but thanks to the Venom Vlog, Tom Hardy, the filmmakers and Parasites alike... I will always love Eddie Brock/Venom the most.

Still a few more videos and like 50 shorts to start uploading. Those will start dropping this weekend and all into next week.

Thank you again, Parasites. And thanks Blue/Ben for the lovely note.

1 week ago | [YT] | 10

Siike Donnelly

7 years ago.

We were 1 year into making the Venom Vlog. We began making friends and connections all over LA that led us to, and joined us at, an early screening of the first Venom film.

I wasn't invited by Sony or anything like that. I had a random GoFoBo invite that I was gonna ignore because I wasn't feeling well. But my friend Andrew was there, and he had a gut feeling. He called me and said to rush down.

I did. To The Grove in LA. Some other friends from Lego met up with me there, too. Then, shortly after, Tom Hardy showed up. And director Ruben Fleischer.

We watched the movie with Tom sitting behind us. Afterward, Tom filmed his intro for my YouTube show. It was a huge moment in my life. Meeting my favorite actor and him being so kind and supportive. We had made nearly 200 episodes of The Venom Vlog at that point, of which he couldn't believe. 200 eps in 1 year.

Obviously, we have slowed down some since. Lol. But we still have more episodes to go. A few. Some are uploading now.

Blue did great on the screening call. We are playing for a major new role at our job and so far we are moving through the process. Soon, we will move on to a set of final interviews. It's still a longshot, but we are staying optimistic and confident.

It's a job that would change our lives and will probably require a lot of NDAs signed, so it's a good thing we are ending this channel. Lol. Kidding.

Today I have a bad migraine. Gonna upload a few Venom Vlog eps and lay in bed for a bit. Then episodes will probably post tonite considering how slow my internet is right now. We just had a storm pass through.

Thank you all for the lovely, supportive messages and texts. I am very moved to see so many people rooting for us with our career and also being so supportive of us wrapping up the channel. It's a beautiful feeling. Thank you for the past 8 years of Venom.

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 12

Siike Donnelly

Going full SLOPTUBER with these new thumbnails for our final 11 episodes of the Venom Vlog.

The first 4 will go up this week, focusing on unboxings of the new Magic The Gathering Spider-Man products as we hunt for Venom cards.

We will also post about 40 Venom Vlog shorts in October, each one focusing on a single pack.

We will also make discussion videos on the last Michelinie mini-series called Separation Anxiety. Another video will be wrapping up the Alien Costume story from Marvel Chillers. A single episode dedicated to Peter David's work on the entire Symbiote series of minis that he wrote. And another single episode covering all of the Mayday Parker universe and her interaction with symbiotes. Spider-Gwen/Gwenom will get her own episode too before the end.

Our final Parasite Podcast will record soon. I'll have Randy back on to discuss the recent developments with Kaine and Ben Reilly.

We have some Lego shorts that will also post in October, and I am still thinking about what the final 2 Venom Vlog episodes will be.

I know in October we will do a final Venom Vlog LIVE and just have a general discussion about the character, the entire Sonyverse, and where/when we hope to see Venom again outside the pages of the comics.

Thanks again for the love and patience. The final episode of the Venom Vlog will post on Nov 5th, our 8 year anniversary of the show. That means y'all will be getting 9 episodes, a Live ep, a podcast, and over 50 shorts between now and Halloween. Hopefully you all like this final stretch.

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1 month ago | [YT] | 9

Siike Donnelly

Hey Parasites!

I filmed some footage for the Magic the Gathering event we attended yesterday. Edited most of it already, and filmed myself opening a TON of the cards.

We landed a few solid hits, so those videos will go up soon. Doing my best as we work around a new fronting schedule and new worl schedule.

We have 4 Venom Vlog eps dedicated to Magic The Gathering Spider-Man cards and nearly 40 shorts. All will post as we head into October.

1 month ago | [YT] | 9

Siike Donnelly

This rocks. Very well made!

1 month ago | [YT] | 1

Siike Donnelly

Going to an event on Friday.

Filming it for The Venom Vlog.

Just realized this might be my final out of the house vlog for the show. We've done a lot of events over the years, from CA to FL.

Movie premiers. Release parties. On Set visits. Conventions.

End of an era. I'll make sure to make this a fun video.

Also, October will bring an end to the Venom Vlog. I have 50 shorts that will drop in Oct to get the Venom Vlog shorts show to ep 100.

And our final Venom Vlog episodes will all go up, including unboxing Magic The Gathering cards videos, a few comic reviews, Lego sets and more.

One more SiikeAndDestroy this month. Gonna push the wrap up of SiikeAtNite to November.

Then the final SiikeAndDestroy ep 300 in December.

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1 month ago | [YT] | 6

Siike Donnelly

A video is FINALLY uploading to this channel! Not a short. A full 22-minute toy video. For real.

And for those who have been with this channel since the beginning, we are ending SiikeAndDestroy with a few Transformers specific videos.

Ep 298 is uploading now. It should be live in the morning.

Ep 299 will upload early next week. Maybe a short or two in between.

We cleaned up a few things on the channel. Some playlists have been updated, etc.

SiikeAndDestroy Ep 300 will be that shows end, but we wont record it for a while. We have an idea for it, but just cant do it right now.

If you like the Blokees Transformers stuff, follow Blue on Instagram at AutobotBlue now. His account is photos of his collection.

After this we will wrap up SiikeAtNite by mid Sept. Then we will spend all of October ending The Venom Vlog.

The last video we will upload to this channel will most likely be SiikeAndDestroy Ep 300. That'll land sometime in Nov/Dec, and it'll hopefully be about us rescuing a new dog, giving you all a massive health update from us, along with updates on our creative works like King of Neverland and our art book.

It'll be everything we can squeeze in to wrap up this amazing journey we had together and to let you know, and see, that there will be happiness in our future, so that y'all dont have to worry about us (for those few who do).

Thank you all! See you in the morning with some Blokees fun.

1 month ago | [YT] | 11

Siike Donnelly

Thanks for being okay with us taking a much needed break and career focus in our every day life.

Our new job has been a blast and with us being back at therapy, our family visiting for a fun vacation (our first family vacation ever), and the hours we were putting in at work, we made the decision to just slow down on Youtube for a bit before the end.

Probably would've made more sense to just pump out the final 10 or so Venom Vlogs and other videos and be done by now, but I personally didn't want to rush or just fart out quick videos.

Nah, we gotta have some fun before the full end.

We will get some shorts out next week, then by the end of August, full videos again.

Also, was thinking of doing a final Venom Vlog Live with y'all around early October, which would be the 7th anniversary of the first Venom film, and nearly the 8th anniversary of The Venom Vlog.

My new plan is to be 98% done with this channel by early November, leaving room for the absolute last videos posting between then and the end of the year.

Blue wants me to share a few things with yall too. So we'll get to work on that stuff soon too.

Hope y'all have been well. See you soon.

2 months ago | [YT] | 15