We brought the guys from FUBAR (Jeff McComsey, Steve Becker and Dominic Vivona) back to talk about their hitting the NY Times bestseller list. And of course, we got all sorts of off-topic with our usual mirth and merriment. We recorded this about two months ago, but I suck and am only now getting time to post it. I feel bad to the FUBAR crew, and also to our loyal listeners. Apologies to both of you!

Before we started the show, I was discussing my work cutting down a pair of evil holly trees in my backyard. This led to the idea of making a bench out of the remaining two stumps. And of COURSE this led to the idea of the Ent’s assault on Isengard – after they wiped out the Orcs, did the Ents fashion benches out of the Orc bodies, do you suppose?

Poor Dominic. Little did he suppose that a bit of humorous zombie anus sketchwork he did would turn into his calling card on the interwebs. I attempted to repair the damage with this episode, but time will tell if Vivonication perpetuates throughout the blogosphere.

My phat lewts for the FUBAR 2 medal of honor-level sponsorship were just INSANE. You chumps may have delighted in your copy of FUBAR 1 & 2, or maybe your 11×17 zombie combat targets, or perhaps even your custom sketches. Me? I GOT IT ALL, BABY! I’m madly in love with my portrait – but everything in this reward pack is just incredible. The line art from Jeff and Jim McMunn is beyond cool – I really want to hang it in my office, but I’m afraid of it getting faded. Anyone have any suggestions?

The fact that FUBAR 2 is now a NY Times Best-seller really is crazy to think about. Not because of the quality – it’s a fantastic book, filled with some of the greatest talent out there. But as is the case with so many great indie talents, I expected it to be relegated to obscurity. Obviously, I greatly underestimated the drive and determination of the FUBAR High Command, because they proceeded to knock this one out of the ballpark. The book sells itself, don’t get me wrong – but to be a team of independent creators and to get the books out on such a large scale takes the brains and determination equivalent to launching a full-scale invasion. Getting the chance to talk with Jeff, Dom and Steve about this is another fascinating look into what it takes to be a success in the indie market.

At this point the Gary Friedrich vs Marvel case is old news. But the whole thing stinks – when I look at something like this, I just feel sad for the state of the comics industry as a whole. Everything has gotten to be so about the bottom line and copyright that there’s no joy left in the “Big Two” anymore. I can’t bring myself to buy any of their books, despite many of my favorite creators still being there. To me, indie books are where it is at now; they still appeal to the inner kid who loves comics (and outer adult who has money to spend on comics).

If you were like me and had no idea about The Gutters, I strongly recommend you check out Jeff’s work here and here. Hilarious!

Finally, there’s a couple of things you should check out if you haven’t already: Troll Hunter, Ready Player One, Generation Kill, and Red State.

I waited to post this just so I could savor that graphic in a brand-new year. I might leave it up till the end of the world in December...

We're joined this episode by the Supreme Allied Commander of FUBAR, Jeff McComsey; General of Vodka, Dom Vivona; and Secretary General of the Self-Prescribed Meds, Jason Steve Becker. This is actually one of the most-informed, fascinating shows we've done since Jason Becker called in. The guys were incredibly open and upfront with us, discussing numbers, Diamond, self-publishing, and many, many facets of putting an anthology book together. If you can get past our drunken side-tracking, there's really some great information to glean here. If you want to skip to the meat of the conversation, it starts after the first hour (yes, this IS a long one!), but you'll be missing out on some other great discussions:

Many, many, MANY moons ago (January of 2008, we had the awesome Sean McManus on our show. Unfortunately, like any great moment in our show, it was completely ruined by my stupidity. Our live listeners of the day got to hear his incredible interview. He's such a great guy, and I his book is fantastic (and possibly still available for ordering!). If you're a fan of writers like Jason Becker (and you goddamned better be or he'll show up hiding behind a curtain in your house with a table leg and beat the SHIT outta you!), you owe it to yourself to check out these excellent comics.

And when you order, add a note that we're very, very, VERY sorry, and still want him to come back. Please?

I don't know if they have Drink & Draws in your neck of the woods, but around here, they're damn near legendaryevents that give birth to epic sketches and outlandish drunken antics. I would tell you what goes on in them, but I don't draw, and they don't allow pinch drinkers.

Comic book conventions for us have never actually been about comic books so much as about comic book people. People of all sorts (and shapes, holy mackeral, the SHAPES!) come together to share a hard-core love of comics, and some of the coolest people actually create even cooler books. It's an incredible thrill to be able to meet and spend time with all of those creative people, and it really energizes the creative juices.

And destroys the liver.

Tori is a glutten for punishment. I'm not sure what possessed her to come BACK to the show, because we've only been getting worse. Especially knowing that she appreciates a good boob-shot with the best of us, things tend to get very NSFW rapidly when she's around. What can I say - she brings out the best in us!

Atomic Robo is only only one of the greatest goddamned books out there, it's soon to be one of the greatest goddamned digital shorts out there. The Fictory is a group of creative geniuses who can melt your face with their talents. Luckily for all of humanity, they've turned their powers to good and focus on crafting incredible games and comics.

And now, animation.

Admittedly, this has been in the hopper for a long time. They've been a bit waylaid with all of the work the individual creators have been off doing on their own, but trust me when I tell you that the animated Atomic Robo short is going to be an absolute nut-shot of non-stop entertainment. I don't want to get your expectations up, but let me just say one word: Oscar-worthy. Or is that two words? Whatever, it's going to tweak your nips.

We talk a great game about the buy some FUBAR already.

We’re recording at the VFW again. I apologize up front for the sound; while the quality is pretty good (actually quite excellent for one of our shows), the jukebox is being used pretty hard during the show, and not all the selections are the best… It’s only going to get worse in the future, too, as there’s a new Internet-enabled jukebox there and our background songs are apt to become worse now that fellow patrons will have access to the ENTIRE Reba McEntire library.

For whatever reason (he’s drunk), HappyJack decided it would be a good idea to share a tale about his most recent conquest with the rest of us (and now, you). I’ve never experienced this whole squirting thing, and considering my inability to bring a woman to that stage of pleasure, it’s doubtful I ever will. HappyJack has been quite insistent with “tutorial” videos he keeps sending me, but let’s just ignore him.

Considering that I don’t like to be touched at all, there’s absolutely no way I’m letting someone touch my privates, let alone with an ink-filled needle. Those of you around long enough to remember Isten will doubtless not be surprised to learn he has taken his considerable art talent and become a tattoo artist. Some day we’ll have to get him to call into the show so he can tell us stories about tattooing people’s junk. Because I’m SURE he’d LOVE to talk about that.

HappyJack has dated some pretty awesome girls, that’s no lie there. What lapse in judgment resulted in their willingness to date him we’ll never know, but running into them again (albeit only digitally via Facebook) is always entertaining. Especially when they’re smoking hot and eager to dress in sexy costumes for comic cons. A great deal of this episode is consumed with one of those unfortunate souls texting back and forth with me, so I must apologize for the incredibly annoying iPhone clicks and beeps that accompany much of this recording. In my defense, I would have shared any sexy pics she sent me with you. Because we’re cool like that.

Once it comes to con discussions, we of course have to return to our favorite birthplace of insane stories, the NYC Comic Con. The con itself was horrible – poorly planned, poorly executed, and ridiculously over-attended. But everything that happened outside of the con was tremendous. For me, it is (and always will be) the fun that our friends in the comic world bring us that gets me most excited about the cons. That may change when (if) I actually have something to sell at a con, but I have a hard time picturing anything surpassing a very special dinner at a Sushi bar near the Pittsburgh Comic Con.

There is an exception to every rule, and the above’s exception would be White Castle at the NYC Con. That was a terrible, terrible event. And I blame Dr. Sexy for it!

Dr. Sexy was finally able to clarify the various Bat-incarnations for me (specifically BatGirl vs BatWoman). That’s a good title to drag Tori back on the show to discuss. We shall have to ready the kidnap van!

There’s a reason that death in comics is a joke. And that reason is EVERY SINGLE FUCKING DEATH IN COMIC BOOKS.

Dr. Sexy is the only one of us keeping current on his comics, so it’s up to him to illuminate us on what we’re missing. I do have a lot of back-issues to get through, so I’m hoping to join in on the discussion sometime around 2013.

If the world is still around, of course.

I'm not an artist, so I don't really have a good opinion, but I can certainly understand the prospect of doing work for a big company just for a chancethey would mention you or give you some sort of credit on a design. Dr. Sexy IS an artist, and does this sort of a thing for a living, so it's only expected he has a much more informed opinion on the whole thing.

I really enjoy Brian Hibbs' Tilting at Windmills column over at CBR, even though I sometimes don't agree with him. Granted, he certainly knows the business of comics about 10 million times better than I, so I should probably just shut the hell up. Then again, this IS the internet... But in this instance, I absolutely agree with him - LCS' are getting shafted and Marvel has made an already difficult situation much more difficult by their constant screwing around and back-tracking.

And speaking of screwing up - really, Barnes and Noble? You're just going to take your ball and go home? Well, good luck with that. I guess we'll see who needs who. This certainly seems like a rational, well thought-out plan. Only not.

Meme.

And as long as we're piling on Marvel, what the hell is going on over there? I mean, hey sure, these days everyone has to be a bit frugal. But ONE bathroom per sex? Are you insane?!?! Or is there some attribute of Marvel staff that I'm not aware of - perhaps Marvel hires only fallen angels that lack genitals and anuses? That would explain a lot of things... Okay, maybe not, but now I can't stop thinking about it.

Have you seen this? I don't know, I just can't stomach the thought of yet ANOTHER Spidey movie. HappyJack is the biggest fan and all, but even he agrees that Andrew Garfield is a ridiculous choice for Parker. I mean - might as well cast the Rock. Yes, he can put on glasses and muss up his hair. Still doesn't make him a nerd.

But if you want to talk interesting movie trailers, check out Chronicle. Yes, it's a theme that's been done before (plenty of times, actually); but I'm still interested in this.

If you want to see a GREAT movie, however, check out Troll Hunter. I can't say enough good things about it - really amazing indy project along the lines of Blair Witch, but not nearly as nauseating and LOADS more fun.

Dr. Sexy clued us in that Red Stateis now available on Netflix, but I still haven't gotten to watch it. I like Kevin Smith, and I think that Chasing Amy is an absolute brilliant movie that was his greatest film. But I also think Zack and Miri was HIGHLY underrated and only performed so poorly because of the title.

My point is: I'm awesome.

Also, I really need to watch that movie. Maybe I'll put it on while trying to catch up to Kwipette in Glitch tonight!

Look, I recognize that this show is supposed to be about comics and that all this Scarlett talk will no doubt offend some people (but turn out some really interesting google search links to us), but seriously people: they are impressive. But of course I respect her for her acting ability! Just to be clear...

While I think the Kindle Fire is very cool and I would love to get some hands-on time with one, there's no way I'm giving up my Kindle 2. That thing is just too easy on my eyes, too easy to use, and too damn reliable. I love it muchly; given the choice amongst my bountiful wealth of gadgets, the Kindle wins hand-down.

With the uproar of Catwoman #1, I was geniunely curious as to what our sole female voice would have to say on the matter. No, not ME, I'm talking about Tori - one of the few girls I know that is a regular comic reader. So we abused her until she agreed to come on the show again and talk about the controversy, and it was very enjoyable to get her take on the broohah.

Also, on Scarlett's pictures.

I also had to talk again about Batgirl #1 - I was so surprised and impressed by this issue I really should do something kind for Gail. But I should have known - I love her writing, and of COURSE she would do a great job with a character I didn't think much of. I mean, look what she did with Secret Six!

Yes, it's true: I feed a Pookah.

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This is a pretty late delivery. We recorded this Sept. 23rd, so we're talking about a lot of old comics. But we're timely like that! Plus everyone is still arguing about Catwoman and Starfire, so we're still relevant. So there. But now we're late wishing Bruce a Happy Birthday, so we suck. But we make up for it with all sorts of offensive comments.

It's always a risk recording at the VFW considering the clientele, but what can you do: the beer is cheap and the other drunks leave us alone. For the most part...

There's all sorts of offensive fun in this episode. I think we offend people the most by being NOT offended at Catwoman. But we're men, and all we see in the comic are boobs, so we're okay with that. Send your hate mail to <A HREF="mailto:n3rdcast@gmail.com">n3rdcast@gmail.com</A>.

Apart from the objectification controversy, this is a very exciting time in the DC universe with all the reboots. I don't know that it will all wind up being for the Greater Good&#174;, but there really are a lot of great stories out there. For the first time in my history, I'm getting more DC books than any other publisher. And while there's still some confusion about what's going on in that universe, I don't feel clueless; merely as if I haven't gotten to the answer yet. Like reading a good book: in the beginning I may not know all the background, but I feel like it's going to be explained in the future.

And if it doesn't, I save money on my pull list, so yaay!

Don Bruce had a birthday last month, and had this episode posted when we recorded it instead of 3 weeks later, we would only be a LITTLE late. As it is, we're a LOT late. Apologies, and best wishes!

Oh - and <A HREF="http://www.chipmunkbay.com">Justin</A> redesigned the site for us. Again. I'm starting to worry about that guy - spending all this free time on our rubbish site? It can't be healthy. But the site sure is spiffy now! That guy knows his Wordpressjitsu.

I've always been more of a Ho-Ho kind of guy rather than a Twinkie guy, but Dr. Sexy's description of the Twinkie Cake sounds DELICIOUS. And now that I've got a fancy new kitchen, I'm all about the bakery!

It was extremely exciting to hold the Hero Envy comic that our friends had worked so hard on in our grubby little mitts, but even better that this is a comic we all love. Although they don't do the Hero Envy show any more, they are doing the Swass-Castsand are a great listen (they're also available as videos - if you want to swoon over Keith's baby blue eyes, and John's hawt bawd, give them a view!). It is definitely a comic targetting us, so if you listen to us, you should check it out, too!

I think that we're the last comic book podcast to do an episode on the DC Reboot with JLA #1, and only 2/3rds of us have actually read the issue, so we're keeping up with our well-informed views of the Comic Book 'Verse. I've listened to several of my favorite comic podcasts that were much better informed and certainly more entertainingthan us, and the views are definitely all over. But I'm definitely on board for at least four more of the #1 issues, and we'll see what the next couple of months hold for us!

While my love for Gail is boundless, I just don't care for Batgirl. And yes, I did compare her to Comet the Superhorse and Ace the Batdog. You can send hatemail to N3RDCast@gmail.com. But don't think for a second I've got anything but love for Yvonne Craig!

After HappyJack leaves us in a lurch, we do get a bit distracted with talk of Portal. You'll have to forgive me, but it took me four years to beat the damn thing. I think I'm justified being happy. I'm also very excited about possibly beating Deus Ex. That's the ORIGINAL one- I'll get to Human Revolution sometime around 2014.

Oh, and the exchange between Zod and Luthor we were talking about is here. Hilarious!

If you haven't already, make sure to support FUBAR 2!

We're in the wilderness for this show, so F'ing Zach, don't even bother tuning in - it's a cricket fest up in this bizatch! Also, despite me putting the mic directly in front of Dr. Sexy, you can't hear him until about the 10:00 mark, when I turn the mic towardshim. That seems to work better!

I also tried to mix this down to mono, single-track-dom just to make the file smaller, but the sound quality was even worse than this one is, so never mind that. I'll keep working at it - we all know what a perfectionist I am when it comes to sound quality!

When I read the latest Tilting at Windmills, I got a bit upset. It just struck me as odd, in this day and age, that A) someone would actually be surprised the a big company is screwing them over when they EXPLICITLY STATE that they don't trust big companies, and B) that they aren't prepared to deal with the digital generation. The comics business overall is dying, and following the music industry's example of innovation sure as hell ain't bringing any new readers.

Yes, it's true: I hate Blamimations; but I love the Kris and Scott’s Scott and Kris Show. What can I say - I am the embodiment of the duality of man.

I am HUGELY psyched for the NASA MMO. The only thing is, they're talking about this building on the original NASA game, Moonbase Alpha. But Alpha was presented to me as an educational game - and maybe it was, but it was an education for NASA: how many people will play a game if we say it's from NASA? I certainly didn't feel any more prepared to do a mission to the moon after having played the game for a while. I really loved the game, don't get me wrong - but the aspect of the game being "educational" is a dangerous label, and I don't know if NASA should be using the same label for such an awesome concept as they once used for Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing...

We go through quite a number of movies in this show, and I'll try and break them down: SpaceCampis first on the list. It's a completely absurd premise that launches a group of kids into space (with the help of a sentient robot) that stars the delicious Lea Thompson (and the equally delicious Joaquin Phoenix in his big-screen debut). It was actually a very fun film that was perfect for kids eager to learn about traveling to space - unfortunately, it was released five months after the Challenger blew up.

The Boogeymancontinues to haunt my 9-yr-old memories as the scariest movie ever made. I don't think I'll ever watch this again, just so I'm not disappointed in my childhood self and what he find scary.

At least HappyJack had the taste to be scared by a decent film, Magic. It starred Anthony Hopkins, no less! That guy was destined to play Lector, let's face it.

Another movie that I probably shouldn't watch as an adult is The Private Eyes, starring Tim Conway and Don Knotts. At ten, this was hi-LAIR-ious. Granted, growing up with The Incredible Mr. Limpet, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, The Apple Dumpling Gang and The Carol Burnett show I pretty much have always loved them both, but that movie really stands out in my mind as the perfect collaboration between the two of them.

Which is why I shouldn't watch it again.

I vaguely remember Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, but hearing HappyJack talk about it, I definitely need to check it out further.

Dr. Sexy brought a wonderful "review" of Adam West Nakedto our attention that was written by . It's definitely worth the read, and certainly got me interested in getting our own copy of the movie for a movie night.

If you haven't already, make sure to support FUBAR 2!

In honor of the LARPing episode, I used a theme song to start out in place of our usual theme song (and not at all because I deleted the original theme song from my computer and can't find it). But this song is the most excellent "Chase Dat Gold" by Vacant Manifesto. If you're not familiar with them, check out the music video, it's great fun.

Before we started the game, everyone else played a round of Poo, the card game. It's quite a lot of fun, even if I couldn't partake (I had pitchers of beer and wings to get, after all!). Definitely a great party game that's easy to learn, so keep that in mind if you're looking for a new game that doesn't involve wearing mascara and black trenchcoats.

This episode is going to alienate even more of our listeners - we'll be cut from 2 to 1, and that one's just going to be our friend Jim who was there (the author of a lot of this madness, in fact). We're discussing our history of LARPing (Live Action Role-Playing) and the shame we deal with to this day.

If you're not familiar with Vampire, you should read up on the game overall. And particularly the powers of Presence and Obfuscate, because those play key roles in a lot of our bitchingstorytelling.

I forget everything, but I wish I would've at least remembered the name of the ARG for AI, which is the Beast. Even reading about it now, years later, gives me goosebumps - it was such a brilliant idea, and absolutely thrilled the shit out of me, even if I couldn't come close to keeping up with it. There were just far too many clever people solving it, and not only was I the furthest thing from Watson to their Holmes, I couldn't even pull off a passable Lestrade.

Writing this up, I did a random search for the old Red Rose Larp website (New Mydian, the last game) and found that it still exists - reading it now is good for a laugh or two (especially those pictures!).

Oh, and I put this under the MOG N3RDCasts because it fit better there than the Comics one. 'Cuz hey, at it's height, it beat the number of Age of Conant players (SICK BURN!). So there.

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This week's show we discuss touring Dr. Sexy's crying spots, dating crazy women, HappyJack's balls, Russian HappyJack, nobody's doing their digital comics correctly, tablets, FUBAR 2, Womanthology, Dan Didio cannot relate to his customers, heads of comic empires in general, creators not respecting their fanbase in general, the DC reboot, John Constantine in mainstream DC universe, Black Dynamite animated series, Ultimate Spider racism, Kwinn the Eskimo - greatest death in comics, doing cons, asians at the bank, and old Eddie Murphy.