We're 100% less Sexy this week as Dr. Sexy attends an international conference on the sexiness. Rest assured that the US will be well represented. Dr. Sexy is, after all, the current world champion on perversion, so let's support the home team, folks! I'm not sure how most people use Facebook. For me it seems solely a tool to look up women I wish I had (or could) slept with. Or maybe slept with more, since I wasn't THAT lonely during my pathetic high school years (yeah, there were some generous girls back then to take pity on my sorry ass). Torturing HappyJack the way they did Bond in Casino Royale just wouldn't work. However it does conjure some really interesting mental images - perhaps instead of slapping something into HappyJack's balls, they'd actually have to pick his balls up and slap them into things. Yes, these are the intellectual discussions we get into without Sexy to keep us on track. Kevin Smith is closing Secret Stash West according to a recent Smodcast. It's a little discouraging - it's understandable that the economy's in the shitter, but to hear someone who dreamed of having a comic store now feel like it's more of a burden than anything is disappointing. Everyone knows by now that we don't like Diamond and hate the way they conduct business. And with the economy in the shitter, it's only getting worse. There's some hope that this will open the door for a solid competitor or alternative means of distribution, but who knows. Stevie of the CBQ mentioned to me that the Windy City Con is coming up the weekend after Pittsburgh, but I don't think our week of comic decadence is possible with our finances being what they are. Erik Larsen and Steve Wacker have been going at it over Obama. While I think each side has some valid points, I think they're both being a little unreasonable about accusing the other of things - Marvel are a bunch of fair-weather friends for "suddenly" pulling out of Colbert's ass to start kissing Obama's, but putting him on the cover is hardly some brilliant bold move that's completely unheard of pre-Larsen. Titles we spoil this week (and there are some real spoilers in there, be warned!): MYSTERIUS THE UNFATHOMABLE #1, X-FACTOR #39, SHRAPNEL PREVIEW, DR DOOM MASTERS OF EVIL #1, FACES OF EVIL DEATHSTROKE #1, DARK AVENGERS #1, THUNDERBOLTS #128, MIGHTY AVENGERS #21, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #584, 3 GEEKS SLAB MADNESS #1, UNCANNY X-MEN ANNUAL #2. Show breakdown: 3:35 - Contrasting Jason E. Becker voicemails 6:45 - Torturing HappyJack's balls wouldn't work 7:40 - Secret Stash West is closing 9:45 - Diamond changing it's order threshold, indy publishing 12:18 - Larsen vs Wacker re/ Obama 14:05 - Windy City Con 15:10 - Comics Talk Our new closing theme is the awesome "I'll Still Be a Geek After Nobody Thinks It's Chic (The Nerd Anthem)" from Marian Call's new album, Got To Fly. If you haven't picked up this album yet, you really should - it's a fantastic listen, chock full of nods to Browncoats & BSG fans & numerous geekery references!

It’s been a long time coming, but the pro-zombie forces couldn’t keep us down! In this last installment of our segment on preparing for the coming zombie invasion, Redwalker and Kwip discuss hitting the road and making the transition from your home to your haven.

Now that our “warm-up” segment is done, we’ll get started analyzing such training videos as the Living Dead series and even such questionable topics as Veggie Tales 28 Days Later.

Feel free to chime in with your own thoughts - you can drop us an email or call our voicemail at 646-797-2763!

If you’ve listened to Q!PaW, then you know how funny Jon and Matt are. Well, they’ve brought a third friend into the mix, and have expanded their coverage from comic books to whatever topic they pull out of the hat in their new podcast, The Hat Decides. Very funny stuff.

HappyJack likes spicier food than I do, and that’s saying something. But he’s also prone to eating really disgusting things (like salads), so to hear him talk about something that grosses him out can definitely put one off of lunch, to say the least. But eating odd foods might be in his genetic make-up, because apparently his daughter has caught on to eating oddities…

We met Cory (whose name I always forget because I’m an asshole) and Ziggy (who is kind enough to have a very memorable name) of Fake McCoy Comics several times as we commiserated over our lousy table locations. Granted, they usually wound up in worse spots than us, so we laughed at them, too (always good to find someone even slightly worse off than you, of course). While they struggled with their regular titles, I think they’ve got an unbelievably awesome hit on their hands with the Animated CornerKicked series. Hilarious.

I think everyone agrees that Fox are complete assholes per the ridiculous “we deserve free money” bullshit. However, I don’t think anyone has put the situation nearly as eloquently as Cracked.com’s Daniel O’Brien.

If you’re the sort of n3rd that enjoys beta versions of software, let us know your thoughts on Windows 7. I’ve heard quite a mix of things about it, but I’m always eager to hear more (good OR bad!).

HappyJack is going to be accompanying Dr. Bruce and Steve to SPACE this year, and I can’t wait to hear about it. It sounds like a good, very affordable show (which is quite a welcome change!).

Nothing says high class more than drinking your beer out of an ice-frosted glass stein. With an evil teddy bear’s face on it. Mmmm, classy! I can’t wait to get my mitts on it!

Our new closing theme is the awesome “I’ll Still Be a Geek After Nobody Thinks It’s Chic (The Nerd Anthem)” from Marian Call’s new album, Got To Fly. If you haven’t picked up this album yet, you really should - it’s a fantastic listen, chock full of nods to Browncoats & BSG fans & numerous geekery references!

Show breakdown goes like this:

1/17/09
3:00 - The Hat Decides
5:00 - Fried Baby Cthulhus
6:30 - Don’t eat sand
8:30 - CornerKicked Animated Series
10:00 - NYCC is stealing everything we love
11:15 - Eli Stone notes
12:30 - Fox can eat an acre of cocks (with nods to Daniel O’Brien)
14:00 - Windows 7 is out for testing
15:00 - HappyJack’s going to SPACE w/ Dr. Bruce & Steve
16:30 - Mumblepuss rocks Zazzle
19:00 - Voicemails
25:30 - Wolverine discussions
27:00 - Comic books

This weeks show represents (another) attempt at a new sound for us. Under the guidance of Dr. Bruce, I picked up the Zoom H2 Handy Portable Stereo Recorder and we recorded this show using it. While I obviously still have some kinks to work out (getting everyone level), I’m VERY happy with the quality and ease of it. If you’re in the market for an awesome hand-held digital recorder, the Zoom comes with the official N3RD stamp of approval.

I don’t know how you get involved with e-Rewards, but if you can spare 15-20 minutes online occasionally, it’s well worth it. I’ve racked up $50 of GameStop gift certificates - not to mention a few free subscriptions to various magazines over the past year or so.

Tom Spurgeon over at CBR did a nice interview with Matt Fraction that was a good read. It was certainly enough to send us spiraling off into a lengthy discussion on comics and the industry as a whole.

We were pretty much resigned to not going to NYCC, no matter what fancy screenings they were offering. But now we’ve heard that a number of our favorite people are going to be there, it’s just rubbing salt in the wound.

The awards season has begun, and Dark Knight has already come out strong. But speaking of awesome movies, there’s news about Iron Man 2 casting decisions that could make for some interesting characters.

Wizard World seems to be in quite a lot of trouble. This isn’t really news to anybody, but it’s still annoying to think about when you look at some of the horrible decisions they’ve made and how ridiculously expensive their tables are.

Title we spoil this week include: DETECTIVE COMICS #852, FACES OF EVIL GRUNDY #1, SECRET SIX #5, SGT ROCK THE LOST BATTALION #3, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #582, INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #9, MARVEL ZOMBIES 3 #4, PUNISHER #1, SPIDER-MAN FEAR ITSELF #1, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #21, X-MEN NOIR #2, BOYS #26, NO HERO #3.

Again, the only breakdown I think folks might care about is where we start talking about comics. That’s at 52:15 if you want to miss out on all our brilliant observations and wit.

I’ve often discussed on the show how surprised I am that there aren’t crazies out there trying to be the next Batman. Well, I need ponder no more! Although the NY Times has a brief article about these “real” heroes, Rolling Stones has a very in-depth and pretty interesting read about one hero in particular. It’s disturbing, amusing and just a bizarre read to see how some people delude themselves. And that’s coming from a guy who believes he can lose weight whilst eating Ben & Jerrys.

Pittsburgh Comic Con has been delayed until September of 2009 (and one of these days they might even get around to updating their site). I think there’s a lot of split opinions on the whole move - some of the folks were upset that they didn’t find out before now, some folks are upset at the new date, and some folks are just upset at change, period. This will be hard for HappyJack, since Leadslinger Studios was going to premiere a number of their new titles in Pittsburgh,

Dr. Sexy has finally designed and ordered the official Dr. Sexy Muppet. I’m of course very jealous because I can barely afford to make a Kwip sock puppet, but I’m sure Dr. Sexy will get many miles of usage out of that Muppet!

Congrats to Dr. Bruce finally hit his 100th KomicsKast recently. We were hoping for a downward spiral of drunken debauchery, but I guess we’re the only ones that get up to that sort of chaos during our shows.

Paul Adams joins us on this show. Among his other distinctions, he is also the new drummer for Sobriety Starts Tomorrow, a Panama City punk band. If you’re into the punk scene, you should check these guys out - tell them the N3RDs sent ya!

Titles we spoil this week (and we really do have some spoilers in there, watch out!): SECRET SIX, WHAT IF SECRET WAR, JSA #22, AVENGERS INITIATIVE #20, WOLVERING #70, CAPTAIN AMERICA #45, KICK ASS #5, GOON #31, BATMAN CACOPHANY #2, BATMAN #684, PUNISHER WAR ZONE #4, VENOM: DARK ORIGINS #5, DAREDEVIL #114, TEEN TITANS #66, ATOMIC ROBOT #5.

To listen to the show, RIGHT-CLICK HERE AND CHOOSE “SAVE AS…”

I didn’t bother with the music interludes on this show. I’m still not sure how I feel about them - I like using music to break up the show, but it’s kind of hard to break our show up since we bounce around topics so much. I’d ask HappyJack and Dr. Sexy what they think, but they never listen to the shows, so why bother? Regardless, this show I only use a clip from Paul’s band at the end of the show, so enjoy!

Also, there’s not much point in doing notes for this show, since we don’t talk about much else other than the comics, but if you want to skip over our blathering and get right to the comics talk, that starts around 18:30.