Opinions May Vary

It's time to talk about Spider-Man. We hope you're ready to listen to us talk about Spider-Man because apparently we had a lot to say. So much that we needed two episodes to contain it all hence the whole "Part 1" thing. Be on the lookout for part 2 later on. We spent the majority of Part 1 discussing the recent, Golden Globe-winning "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" film and it probably goes without saying that this episode contains MAJOR SPOILERS. If you haven't seen it just take our recommendation and see the damn thing; then come back and listen to us. Even if you don't plan on coming back to listen just see the movie. You owe it to yourself. Also, it wouldn't have felt right to have intense, in-depth Spider-Man discussion without Colin in the studio. As long as I've known the man he's been a constant supporter of the web-head and you'd be hard pressed to find someone able to speak as passionately about the character. So yeah, it's time to talk about Spider-Man. Tune in next week for part 2 where the discussion continues and we expand into other Spider-Universes, both print and screen, old and new. Enjoy! -Jr.

This week Alex and I decided it would be fun to welcome our dear listeners into the new year with a nice round of "Wait, that was this year??" because for whatever reason 2018 was just one of those instances where everything felt like it actually happened 3 years ago. And in a break from all the other "Best of" lists that you're probably being flooded with, we took a different approach and discussed the things we finally got around to in 2018. Everyone has those one or five or ten things they've been meaning to do/experience and Alex and I were no exception. Did Alex finally check out that TV show he's had in his queue for the last 4 years? Was I finally able to sit down long enough to watch that 3 hour movie everyone always raves about? Tune in to find out! Anyway, 2018 is over. 2019 is here. Let's have some fun on 52 more episodes, shall we? Enjoy! -Jr.

There might be more here later. Maybe. It depends on how exhausted I am because I'm literally about to run out the door to watch some of the best people I know get married to each other. (Congrats Hannah & Will!) But, we figured since it's the end of the year it would be a good time to put together a fun compilation of our Year 6 b-sides. So that's exactly what Alex did and that's exactly what you're about to listen to. Happy new year, ya'll. Be safe out there. Enjoy! -Jr.

Our last episode before the holiday festivities begin (and probably 2nd to last episode of the year?) featured an artist that we recently started following after a simple Inktober piece popped up on an Instagram feed. A few months and many more amazing art posts later, we had the privilege of talking with the Kentucky-based artist herself: Tressa Bowling. A lifelong artist and designer, Tressa has had work featured in projects like "Kentucky Kaiju", "Cash & Carrie", and her own webcomic "Dracullama". She's a veteran of the Kentucky/Ohio comic convention scene and currently spends a ton of time engaging with her fans via her Patreon community. This week Tressa gave us a rundown of her beginnings in the art world, a crash course in running a Patreon, and a lesson in basic United States geography. Check out some of her social media platforms HERE, and HERE and click the links above for some webcomic and Patreon goodness. Enjoy! -Jr.

There's a lot that I want to say about the new Smash Brothers game and most of it is positive and most of it is probably pretty expected. But I'm bad at writing and also I'm leaving for Boston in an hour to go see Ingrid Michaelson sing Christmas songs for a few hours which should prove to be pretty neat. I did manage to get some thoughts out on the new Smash Brothers during the episode, though. So at least there's that. This week we're diving head first into the deep end of the FGC pool as we chat with our resident "Fighting Game Expert" Ken (Yes, that Ken. Of Local Co-Op fame). With the Capcom Cup upon us, the new Smash Brothers getting released, and SonicFox winning eSports the player of the year award....we had plenty to discuss. I gotta go, tho. It's time go get hella festive up in Boston. Enjoy! -Jr.

Our 2018 convention gauntlet has come to an end and through all the ups and downs I'd have to say we had a pretty great year of cons. While we may have missed out on one or two of our usual shows, we did get a chance to check out some new ones in their place. In the past it was almost always NYCC that put the metaphorical bow on our convention schedule but the last two years has seen the new PAX Unplugged show take over that responsibility and I think it's doing a spectacular job so far. Last year's inaugural Unplugged recap was packed with stories of my wife and me making our way to an unknown city with the intent of attending as many panels and seeing as many games as possible only to become mildly obsessed with the Omegathon and the local Reading Terminal Market. Long story short: It was different and amazing. This year my wife bestowed the honor of "dealing with Jr at a convention" over to our great pal Colin as we made our way back down to the city where they greased up the light poles that one time. Much fun was had. Many games were played (about 100% more than last year). And our hearts were broken as an unsung hero went down in flames before he had a chance to shine. Listen to the recap. It might make sense to you later. Oh, and I took some pictures while we were there. Check out the photo album HERE. Enjoy! -Jr.

I'm heading out to Philly in about 9 hours for PAX Unplugged so I apologize in advance for the brevity of this post. I'll spare you the usual fanfare and fluff and get right down to business: We actually followed up on a promise this week and we're very proud of ourselves. Back in June we had the pleasure of speaking with cosplayer Raymond Ramos and after getting to maybe half of the topics we actually wanted to talk about it, was quickly decided we needed to talk to this man again sometime. Today is that sometime. The man known as "Cosplay Ray" was generous enough to give us even more of his valuable time so we could talk his ear off about cosplay, conventions, rising above criticism and tons more. If you missed out on his first appearance be sure to check that out HERE. Enjoy! -Jr.

In the 6 years we've been doing this we've had some missed connections. Sometimes a guest just doesn't pan out or maybe we couldn't get the timing quite right and eventually the idea falls apart. It happens. It's a part of the game (you know, that podcast game that apparently exists or something). At the end of the day these episodes aren't gonna make themselves so we just have to move on. This week we thought it would be neat to kind of "revisit" some of those connections that never actually happened. I mean they were things we wanted to show you anyway...so why not talk about them, right? Sounds fun. Also I spent a good amount of time complaining about a small, not-required subquest of a nearly perfect videogame. And that's always a good time. Enjoy! -Jr.

Our dear friend Ryan Vella is back in action this week and, this might shock you, we're talking about video games. Specifically video games played at the competitive level. You know, that level that we could only dream of achieving no matter how hard we play yet it seems like it just comes naturally to these 18-23 year olds? That's the one. For those looking for some deep dives on the current Fortnite meta and the insane success Epic Games has been having....you've come to the wrong place. I think between the 3 of us we have a grand total of maybe 10 games of Fortnite under our belts so it's probably better if we stay away from that one. We have, however, played some Overwatch. And Vella has played some League. So we're going to talk about those games instead and attempt to sound like we know what we're talking about. Business as usual. Enjoy! -Jr.

This week we have artist Marc Lapierre in the studio and we're pretty excited about it for a few reasons: First, Marc is a rad artist and Alex and I never tire of talking with rad artists. Probably has something to do with the whole "we wish we could do what you can do" thing. Also they tend to be great people in general. Second: Marc is the artist of the webcomic "The SuperFogeys" and along with writer Brock Heasley they've managed to put out 700+ comics over the years. Now, it appears, it is time to start collecting these comics in the form of a book. Enter: The Kickstarter. With just a few days left the 'Fogeys crew has smashed their goal and are now working on unlocking those sweet stretch goals. You can check out the campaign HERE and if you like what you see you can also check out Marc's Instagram page HERE. We hope you dig this week's episode. Huge thanks to Marc for sacrificing his crisp New England Saturday and spending the afternoon with us and hopefully we'll be able to chat with him again soon! Enjoy! -Jr.