I think I've slept through about 18 of the past 24 hours. I don't deal with being sick very well. With that said; I have an obligation to provide this week's episode to you because simply put: It's pretty good.

Here's a breakdown for you: A friend of ours named Tighe called us on Skype and we got to talk to him about what it's like to be able to do cool things and to have talent.

Pretty neat, right?

Also here's a fun fact: It took me 6 tries to write that 2nd paragraph because I'm so hopped up on medicine I can't see straight. There was a minor debate in my mind to just leave it the way it was typed out for comedy's sake...but honestly Tighe was such a rad guest I felt like it would have been a disservice to him to have the post riddled with spelling errors and nonsense.

Now it's time for more sleep.

Enjoy!

-Jr.

This week was neat.

Alex and I didn't have a guest lined up so we knew it was going to be just the two of us. During our pre-show "oh shit what are we going to talk about" meeting something crazy and completely unexpected happened: We started talking about comics.

Ok so maybe not completely unexpected because it happens literally every time we hang out. But it also got me thinking because it was conversations like the one we stumbled into today that ultimately led to the genesis of this very show.

So we rolled with it and did a sort of "throwback" episode and just talked about comic book characters we felt were underrated/over-hyped and it was glorious. I'm sure you'll have your own opinions for this week's topics and I urge you to share them with us. Maybe even on our Facebook page if you were so inclined.

I swear to God if anyone says one bad word about Maxwell Lord, though....

Anyways, enjoy this week's jam.

-Jr.

Ok,

So there's this thing called Super Art Fight that we've talked at length about in the past. We've been to a bunch of their shows, we've thrown money at them in exchange for art and t-shirts, and we've had a few of their members on the show....twice.

Jamie Noguchi is here this week for number three. 

Both a founder and performer with Super Art Fight, Jamie has also been producing a webcomic for the last 7 years, posting art all over the internet, and providing motivational advice in the form of three simple words. Join us this week as we dig a bit deeper into the mind of the "King of Brush Style" and discover the secrets behind the Jamie Noguchi System™.

Enjoy!

-Jr.

Let the record show that I've made it perfectly clear I'm not that great at most competitive videogames. There have been times....brief periods of time....where I thought there was a game I was good at. Then someone would come along and give me a swift and harsh reminder that when it comes to videogames I will always be drowning in mediocrity. Now with games that actually have a "ranking" (Halo 3, Overwatch, etc) there was always one thing I was good at: sitting right in the middle. I can never come close to the top but I'm also competent enough to stay out of the bottom.

I've accepted the fact that playing games as a career is out of the question for me. My skills combined with my age (30 is ancient in the competitive scene) leave me at a severe disadvantage. Combine that with intense competition anxiety and you have the perfect mixture for someone who will spend their days only playing games from the comfort of their living room.

Luckily we have friends who are good at games and make an effort to play them at a competitive level. Sometimes even attending that funny thing called a tournament. Want to hear us talk with our friend Ken about fighting games and fighting game tournaments for an hour?

You're in luck.

-Jr.

Writing a huge post about how 2016 was awful and how glad we all are that it's over would seem a bit...expected. Plus there are dozens of other people who have already put their thoughts down about 2016 who are much better than me at expressing themselves. Take this recent Penny Arcade strip for example. That pretty much sums it all up.

So for now I'll just say that 2017 is upon us. We have a lot of neat ideas for the future and hopefully we'll be able to share those ideas with you soon. We hope you enjoy the last episode of the year as we chat with our good friend Babs and recap some of the more positive things 2016 gave us.

Until next year,

-Jr.

Hey all,

Gonna keep this short today as I have tons to do before xmas festivities kick off. 2016 marks my first attempt at hosting Christmas for my family so it should be....fun? That's not quite the right word. More like...oh god I have no idea what I'm doing. 

Yeah. That sounds better.

Anyway. Join Alex and me as we chat about past xmas traditions and current Overwatch controversies. It's a doozy.

On behalf of Alex and myself we hope you have a safe and merry holiday full of food and joy and more food. See you next week.

-Jr.

2016 has been a "Year of Firsts" for us.

For example; this year featured the first time:

• I missed an episode.
• I abused the term "hot takes" to an almost absurd level.
• We got to interview a voice actor (Hint: See: last week)
• Daniel Govar taught us about Peacocks.
• Our jaws were literally dropped for over an hour by Larry Houston.
• We dove into a fantasy world of Dungeons and Dragons with Jeff Kalles.
• We got to talk fan fiction with Rob Bricken.
• Our guests included both a professional wrestler and an emperor.

And today:

• We recorded an episode from the comfort of our own homes because we were too snowed in to drive anywhere.

All in all? Not a bad year if you asked me. And those were just the "firsts"...not even beginning to count all the other amazing guests and segments we had this year.

Not bad at all.

-Jr.

I've put close to 100 total hours into Overwatch since last May. That might not seem like an enormous amount for someone who considers themselves an avid gamer...but 100 hours is a lot for me especially for a game that doesn't even have a campaign. It might help that almost every single close friend I have also has the game and we play almost on a nightly basis. But still.

It's safe to say that Overwatch is pretty fantastic especially when I'm on the winning team...which unless Joe, Alex and Colin are carrying me winning seems to be a rarity these days. But that's beside the point.

The point is the voice actor who plays my favorite character in the game came on the show this week and let Alex and me ask him questions. His name is Keith Silverstein and not only did he provide the voice for the best character in the game, but a quick scan of his IMDB profile will show you the other 186 credits to his name. Such credits include Hunter X Hunter, One Punch Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and many, many more. In other words: There's a really good chance you've already heard his voice before listening to this episode and there's an even better chance you'll have a huge appreciation for Keith and what he does for a living after listening to this episode.

Enjoy!

-Jr.

It doesn't truly feel like a new Pokemon game has been released until we have Jess on the show to talk about it.

So Jess came on the show to talk about it.

This episode isn't so much of a review as it's more of a "We already expected it to be rad, and it was. So now we're going to talk about how rad it was". If you're looking for in-depth analysis and a fair and balanced review you can check the other 10,000 sites out there who have already done so. If you're looking for casual conversation featuring many throwbacks to the Golden Age of catching fictitious super-powered monsters; you're in luck.

Now to get back to training this Vulpix; I can't stop until it has at  least 8...no...9 tails. (See what I did there? That was clever.)

Enjoy!

-Jr.

UPDATE: Joe threw some words down so I added them along with my own. Check them out:

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja is among the most popular web comics ever to be put on-line, and Chris Hastings has spearheaded the writing and the art of the project since 2004.  I stumbled across it in December of 2009, and ended up catching up on the entire 4 year run at that point in one afternoon.   At one point I handed a copy of the first McNinja book to frequent guest Brett Kelley to show him a joke probably a ninja joke involving Jose Cuervo and after he laughed, he flipped over another page, and then another, and then grabbed the second book.  Hastings has a talent for pulling humor out of every medium that he works in, from writing to drawing to skit comedy, and you all have the pleasure of experiencing the auditory version of that with this week’s episode.

  In addition to a great webcomic, Hastings has churned out several fantastic comic books including Gwenpool (which has recently popped out a trade) and Adventure Time (a five year running book that Chris joined in 2014).  He also churned out the Deadpool arc of Fear Itself, and Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe, both of which allow the hilarious Hastings to paint with a large comedy brush.  I’m obviously a hugely obsessed fan, but it comes from a place of immense talent and deep hilarity. 

 This week’s episode has Alex, Jayare, and myself interviewing Hastings a little about his career, talking about how he goes about creating comedy gold, the importance of creating compelling characters, his sketch comedy, and then like 15 minutes on how apparently Hearthstone is awesome.  It was nothing short of being one of the best hours of my life, and I sense you will all find hilarity and enjoyment from it as well.

Finally, if you are going to check out Dr. McNinja and haven’t before, start here with the first official storyline or here with the first color storyline.  The current arc is the last one, and nearing completion – avoid it at all costs, because in addition to being an awesome payoff for hundreds of pages of hilarity, it is crazy spoilerific.  Thank you to Chris Hastings for joining the episode, and Jayare and Alex for letting me join them in interviewing one of my personal heroes.

-Joe

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I apologize in advance if I've written this before but it bears repeating:

One of the greatest feelings in the world is when you talk to someone you really admire and you confirm that they're a genuinely good person. That they fit that image that you've formed in your head based off of a 2 minute conversation or a quick Twitter exchange. They live up to the absurd and probably unfair expectations that you've set for them simply because you enjoy the product they create. They're not obligated to humor you and sacrifice their spare time while you fanboy for the better part of an hour...but they do it anyway.

To put it bluntly: It's awesome.

Our guest this week is the one and only Christopher Hastings. (Longtime listeners will recognize the name mentioned in past episodes.)  He's the creator of the hit web comic "The Adventures of Dr. McNinja", he's written comics for Marvel such as "Deadpool: Fear Itself", "Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe", and "The Unbelievable Gwenpool". He also writes the Adventure Time comic and makes frequent appearances in the local New York sketch comedy scene (More on that in the episode). He's also one of those people I talked about in the beginning of this post. We've admired him for a while, we're all fans of his work, and after spending an hour and a half with him on Skype we can confirm that he's just as rad as the stuff he makes for us.

To reiterate: Awesome.

Enjoy.

-Jr.