Adrian Has Issues

This week's guest is Fallon Goskowski. Fallon is a singer, thespian, the founder of Access BOSS...and Adrian's older sister. Adrian & Fallon reflect on what it was like growing up as Blerds to now being parents to both organic and digital children and express their thoughts on what it means to be Black while fighting to exist and be seen in traditionally White spaces.

This week's guest is David Pepose, the writer and co-creator of the Ringo Award-nominated comic Spencer & Locke as well as Going To The Chapel. from Action Lab Danger Zone. As the comic book industry experiences huge shakeups in publishing and distributing, creators like David Pepose are looking to more crowdfunding ventures such as Kickstarter to appeal to a wider audience that might not have the backing of a traditional publisher. Adrian speaks with David about what inspired his latest comic The O.Z., which is described as The Hurt Locker meets The Wizard of Oz. The conversation then shifts into the marketing of said title, as it is David's first Kickstarter comic and he breaks down his experience with a new outlet of potential readers. There's also talk about what the continual shift towards crowdfunding means for the direct market and the future of indie/mainstream comics and coming to the realization that we're not Keanu Reeves (but that's okay).

Jono Diener is a musician and comic book writer based out of Flint, Michigan. He’s performed in bands like The Swellers, Baggage, and No Trigger to name a few. Diener put together A Comic For Flint: HOPE released by Source Point Press, and is featured in the anthologies Maybe Someday (A Wave Blue World), and Everything Is Going Wrong: Comics on Punk and Mental Illness in addition to his self-published titles Monster Bounty, and Jetpack Zack. In this week’s episode, Adrian chats with Jono about his comic book writing career and his involvement in THE INEVITABLES, an art/music project which was created by Vinnie Fiorello (Less Than Jake) and Obi Fernandez (Westbound Train) and features artist Liana Kangas (She Said Destroy), designer Devin Watson, artist Fabian Lelay (We Are The Danger) and letterer Cardinal Rae (Forgotten Home). Jono and Adrian also examine the post-pandemic nature of both the comic book and music industries and the challenges of creating while dealing with anxiety.

On this week’s episode we’re featuring the comic book “mixtape” entitled Tales From The Pandemic. Taking inspiration from quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic, writer Mario Candelaria (Ashes, The Chart, The Good Fight Anthology) assembles a talented team of artists including our other guest Adam Ferris (The Good Fight Anthology, Unlawful Good, Baroque Pop). Mario and Adam give listeners a candid look at their professional and personal friendship, give their thoughts on being comic creators during these uncertain times and hip-hop’s influence on the creation of the anthology.

This week’s episode features a 2x bonus of videogame music awesomeness! The first half of the show features Ro Panuganti. Ro is a YouTuber, multi-instrumentalist and videographer, specializing in covers of videogames and films in the style of rock and progressive metal. Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the popular role-playing videogame franchise “Mother”/”Earthbound,” Ro talks about co-producing the eclectic tribute album Fuzzy Pickles from GameLark with fellow musician Peter “Soundole” Smith. In the second half, Adrian and Ro are joined by fellow guitarist/YouTuber Christian Richardson. Christian and Ro give a detailed breakdown of the long yet rewarding journey the duo took to arrange and co-produce the thrilling album Moon Rock from Materia Collective, which pays tribute to the music of Super Mario Odyssey from Nintendo.

Celebrating 7 years as a podcaster, Adrian further examines the “culture of creativity” on a deeply personal level. In asking listeners a question, Adrian also comes to a realization that will undoubtedly shape future podcasts for years to come.

This week’s guest is Jules Conroy aka FamilyJules7x, a California-based guitarist and YouTuber. Jules details his origins as a musician leading up to the release of his second iteration of “Replay,” a sprawling 20-minute musical tribute featuring 46 different videogames from Pong to Super Mario Bros. to Persona 5. Plus, Jules talks about his successful cover album of the Super Meat Boy soundtrack, which transitioned into working with game composer Danny Baranowsky and being hired as the guitarist for the popular Nintendo game Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the Necrodancer.

This week’s episode features multimedia visual artist and Oneshi Press co-founder Jayel Draco. Jayel and Adrian engage in an irreverent yet poignant conversation about Oneshi’s latest project, Mr. Guy: Zombie Hunter. The story revolves around a wisecracking half-goblin determined to cure himself of a zombie infection…and possibly save the world in the process. While discussing the book’s themes and origins, Jayel examines the nature of parody and meta humor in storytelling and Adrian learns a valuable lesson about life thanks to gelatin-encased foodstuffs known as aspic. Oh, and the Red Baron makes an appearance or two. Why? You’ll have to listen in and find out!

On this week’s episode we welcome back our good friend and podcast regular Erica Schultz. Erica is the acclaimed writer of comics such as Xena: Warrior Princess (Dynamite), Twelve Devils Dancing (Action Lab Danger Zone) and Daredevil (Marvel). Her latest title Forgotten Home has recently been released in a collected trade format on Comixology Originals. The Vice Press comic tells the story of a Sheriff's Deputy investigating missing children that may be related to magic from her homeworld. Picking up where we left off on Episode 148, Erica and I look back at the themes of Forgotten Home and how they’ve found a new relevance in the wake of both the COVID-19 pandemic, the fight for racial justic/equality and the Black Lives Matter movement.

This week's episode features a conversation with Jeff Beck, the owner of the comic book shop East Side Mags in Montclair, NJ. Established in 2014, ESM combines an inclusive, personal approach to comic book retail and a DIY punk aesthetic. Recorded prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, Jeff and Adrian wax nostalgic about the New Jersey punk/emo scene of the late 90s and early 2000s. Additionally, our heroes share their mutual love of post-hardcore favorites Glassjaw as well as offer takes on the high-profile reunions of Rage Against the Machine and My Chemical Romance.