Opinions May Vary

Five Points Fest is but mere days away and with it being my first year attending, I think it goes without saying that I'm pretty excited to be completely clueless as to what is going on. I'm still pretty new to the designer toy scene but after Jon and Alex's recap of last year's show, I've been looking to this upcoming weekend for some time now. While researching and hashtag-jumping in preparation for the show, Alex came across a toy designer by the name of 3D Hero. We were both impressed with his work and seeing as he's going to be tabling front-and-center at the show this weekend, we thought it would be fun to talk with him, learn about his characters and designs, and generate a little hype for Five Points Fest. You can check out his work HERE and HERE plus if you're going to be in Brooklyn over the next 48-60ish hours, you'll be able to see him and his work in-person at the show! Huge thanks to Hero for making time for us despite his insanely busy pre-con schedule. This year's Five Points Fest is shaping up to be a rad show and I can't wait to spend too much money there. Enjoy! -Jr.

Our guest this week is fellow podcaster, filmmaker, and documentarian Anthony Desiato. As the owner and founder of Flat Squirrel Productions, Anthony acts as host of the podcast "My Comic Shop History" and has numerous directing credits to his name. His most recent endeavor, the documentary "My Comic Shop Country" had Anthony traveling across the US visiting comic shops in 9 different states to give an in-depth look at the business, fandom, and community of comic book stores across America. Tune in this week for a behind the scenes look into Anthony's journey and learn about his process, his experiences, and his thoughts on the current state of the American Comic Shop! As always, be sure to check out his work and give him a follow so you can get updates on "My Comic Shop Country" and where you might be able to see it at a location near you! Enjoy! -Jr.

We have two returning guests this week; one from a little while ago and one from a littler while ago. Both, however, are most assuredly rad. First up is author David (D.W.) Kann and he's here to talk about the latest volume in his "Lovecraft P.I." graphic novel series. Currently on Kickstarter, "The Curious Case of ReAnimator" takes another dive into the world of Supernatural Detective Agencies as Detective Ward Lovecraft tries to solve the mystery of a VooDoo cult deep within the infamous Black Swamp... Spooky, right? If you're reading this early enough, you might still have some time to check out the Kickstarter. Click the link above for more details! Closing out the 2nd half of our show this week is Ellie Hillis because good lord did we have a great time talking with her just a few weeks ago. It seems our "Because Comics" topic couldn't be contained by a single hour-ish long episode so we took some extra time this week to put that metaphorical bow on some of the most insane moments in comics history. (For first time listeners, click the link above and check out Ellie's debut from a few episodes ago. It's worth it.) And that's it for this week. Huge thanks to David and Ellie for being so gracious and making their return appearances. Be sure to give them a follow on the various social mediums and throw some love their way. Enjoy! -Jr.

We haven't talked with writer/artist Rich Woodall in quite some time and that's just a travesty. If you were to grab a dictionary and look up "damn that guy is so f**king cool, talented, and insanely humble" you probably wouldn't find anything because that's more than one word. But in the OMV dictionary, you'd see a picture of Rich. Probably holding a raygun or something. Being a creator of fantastical things, Rich is currently Kickstarting his latest set of books and if you're reading this within the next 20 days or so, you still have time to get your money in. This project is a little special, too because Rich has two separate books he's looking to print and there's a good chance at least one of them might be your brand. Looking for a legendary team-up between a raygun wielding superhero and a Dragon of the Savage variety? Or how about some creepy WWII horror featuring an enlisted werewolf? If any or all of that sounds great, Rich has got you covered. Check out our chat with Rich, click the links above for our previous chats and also for some info on his Kickstarter, and be sure to stop by his table if he's ever at a convention in your area. A chat with one of the coolest guys in comics is definitely worth your time. Enjoy! -Jr.

With the annual Free Comic Book Day quite literally upon us (like, it's today. Go out and get your books and support your LCS if you haven't already) we figured it was the perfect opportunity to talk comics. Now, this isn't the standard "Alex and Jayare talk about the same books they've been gushing about for the last 7 years." No, friends. This is much better. This week we had the pleasure of chatting with Ellie Hillis. A graduate of Smith College, Ellie is a co-editor at Density Media, an essayist, and a comics historian who recently gave a talk at our local Nerd Nite called "That's CAPTAIN to You: The Evolution of Carol Danvers". It was at this talk that Ellie dropped the phrase "because comics" while trying to recap some of the more....problematic story lines of Captain Marvel's past. And that got us thinking. What are some other moments that are just so wacky the only way you can describe them is with a "because comics"? With the long and somewhat turbulent history of comics, surely there must be more, right? So we reached out to Ellie, we put some lists together, and we put some microphones in front of our faces. The end result is an hour and twenty minutes of some of the most insane and inexplicable moments in comic book history. Because comics. Enjoy! -Jr.

It's been a minute since we last had the opportunity to cover Anime Boston so when Vicky came to us asking if she could go on assignment and get all the juicy anime details straight out of the heart of New England- It was an easy "hell yes." After a few hiccups with trains and hotels, Vicky was finally able to make her grand return to the Hynes Convention Center where she joined up with OMV fan favorite Colin for a weekend jam packed with cosplay, panels, and wig styling competitions. If you're not doing so already: Be sure to give Vicky a follow on all of her various social mediums. Her cosplays are top tier and you'd be hard pressed to find a better person to attend a convention with. Big thanks to her and Colin for representing OMV once again. Maybe someday Alex and I will get our amateur asses out to AB. Until then it's a comfort knowing we're being represented by some of the best people out there. Enjoy! -Jr.

Last night we got together with some friends and played board games for like, many hours. While exchanging pleasantries over various drinks and snacks, I boasted to Colin that we, and I quote, "recorded a bomb ass episode this week" and proceed to feed him teasers of what we had in store. Now I can stop teasing my friends because we did, in fact, record a bomb ass episode this week and now we get to release it to the world. This week we were joined by Jason Langston aka JNL Toys. A veteran of the toy industry, Jason has worked for major toy companies (like Mattel) and and currently provides freelance work for those in need of his expertise. Due to Jason's vast knowledge of toys both new and old, it was just a matter of time until we dove down the rabbit hole of nostalgia and within minutes I was already making plans to rummage through my parent's storage to find my old Ninja Turtles. Check out this week's episode for insights, stories, and behind the scenes info on Jason's time in the toy industry. We won't blame you if you have to pause the episode a few times so you can rummage through storage yourself. We know how important those old toys can be. Enjoy! -Jr.

There's just something amazing about talking with people at length regarding the things they love. It can be fascinating when someone has a near encyclopedic knowledge of something. Weather it's Ken with fighting games, Colin with Spider-Man, or Matthew with wrestling; I could truly sit for hours and just fire off question after question while desperately trying to keep up. Luckily for me, I have a podcast that affords me the ability to do this with these people very frequently. Hopefully they don't catch on to my ruse because I have no plans of stopping any time soon. So anyways, WrestleMania was last weekend. And WrestleMania just isn't WrestleMania unless we talk with Matthew James about it and what do you know? He just happened to be in our studio this week. Oh, and if it wasn't clear by now or from past episodes, huuuge WrestleMania spoilers ahead. Beware. Enjoy! -Jr.

It has been a full week since we got home from the latest iteration of PAX East and I still don't feel like I have fully recovered yet. I'm not sure if it's because I'm getting old and these shows are taking a greater toll on my mind/body than they used to...or if it's just because we managed to make this one of the most eventful PAX-es in recent memory. Since I'm in the mood to deny I'm getting any older and I'm still as young and spry as I ever was, I'm going to go with the latter. All joking aside, we did have one hell of a PAX this year. It was a record setting event in terms of both panels and games and we still managed to squeeze it all into a span of two days. Joe is back in the studio with us this time for our annual recap and I'm just going to warn you now: it's a doozy. We managed to jam an insane amount of content into a massive, 2 hour marathon of an episode and we're pumped for you to check it out! Pictures can be found HERE. (Shoutouts to our man Bob from Dead Henchmen Productions for the camera hookup) Enjoy! -Jr.

First off, let us apologize for the late episode. There are a number of excuses we could throw at you such as: We were at PAX? PAX is in Boston. And Boston is far away from our studio? um I'm out of excuses. So yeah. We're a little late with last week's jam but we're going to make it up to you with another episode later on this week. And then another one next week, and maybe even one more the week after that. Who knows, we might be able to keep that going for 7 years or something. Anyway. We had some fun recording this episode for you and we hope you have fun listening to it. It's full of stories, tidbits, and histories all related to what some might call "Oh my god I f***ing hate this stupid day I need to just stay off the internet until tomorrow". Enjoy! -Jr.