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.

As the title suggests: This episode is a little different from our normal weekly jam and I think you're gonna dig it. There's no guest. There's one topic. And it has nothing to do with anything we've ever covered on the show.

This week: Alex takes us on a journey both terrifying and inspiring.

Enjoy.

-Jr.

This might sound absurd but this week was Brett's first appearance since May. We went 6 months without having Brett on the show. Half of a year has passed since he last sat in front of our microphone. I wanted to make a list of all the things that have changed since then but it would just turn into me complaining about Donald Trump and I'm guessing you're not here to be reading about that hot garbage.

So anyways.

Brett came in this week in celebration of a few things: His Steampunk coloring book that he Kickstarted earlier this year has started finding its way into the hands of eager backers (including ours) and he's got an upcoming show at the local Easthampton comic shop "Comics N' More" for everyone to check out.

Those are two awesome things and this week you get to hear us talk about them. Now if you'll excuse me I have some super important podcast business to attend to that definitely isn't laying on the floor coloring in my new Brett Kelley coloring book.

Just super important podcast business.

-Jr.

In the words of the lovable robot Bender:

I'M BACK BABY.

Super chill episode this week while we prepare to get back into our regular schedule of recording our conversations with neat people. Join Alex and me as we chat about videogames and comic cons.

It doesn't get much better than that.

-Jr.

I'm not sure how to get this one started as this episode is a bit foreign to me.

Because I'm not in it. And I had no part in its creation.

See. I got a new job recently. And part of this new job means passing a really hard test with a short amount of time to study and learn the material. So every minute of my life for the past two weeks has been spent grinding for this test that I'm *hopefully* going to take next week.

Because I've been so busy...I took the week off from the show and Alex manned the Board with the help of dual guests Joe Sherry and Jon. I haven't even listened to it yet...I'm just uploading it on good faith...which could be a mistake. Probably not, though...probably.

Oh God.

Nah. I'm sure it's fine.

.....

-Jr.