It’s funny, Steve and I were just saying before recording this very episode that we appreciate it when podcasts are quick and succinct, not getting lost in useless drivel simply for the sake of lengthening their content. The Bugle is one such podcast: hosts John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman are masters of spinning the news into something much more entertaining and bitingly hilarious. While we’re not quite there yet, we do a decent job of lampooning webcomics news with our Digital Strips News Minute.

… except that we don’t. Not this week, at least. After shuffling about some random game talk in the first segment (and being ethereally glided to our second segment with “Heroes”, a Final Fantasy Legend II remix by Ziwtra [6:06]), we take a few moments to discuss the importance of being able to separate the creator from their respective personas, fictionally-nourished or inspired by their actual deeds and opinions.

Our specific examples include Doug TenNapel of RatFist (8:22), Scott Adams of Dilbert, and even Tracy Morgan of 30 Rock and SNL fame. All of these men have found acclaim in their respective mediums, yet they find themselves with dark clouds hanging overhead due to inflammatory statements made here or there. Can the artist exist wholly excised from their persona? We attempt to come to grips with this issue and welcome your input on the subject! Oh, we also mention PvP (10:37) in the process, but then again, when don’t we mention that comic?

Finally, White Mystery take us to our third segment with “Party” (17:45) and sets up the rollicking fun of our featured strip, SMASH (18:59), quite well. This a great, if not somewhat cliched, child fantasy of superheroism, but, as Steve puts it, cliches are wonderful when they are done well. We might not agree completely on the level of success that brothers/creators Chris and Kyle Bolton achieve with this work, but we can certainly attest to the quality contained in the pages thus far.

Enjoy the show and stick around the site for news summations as well as the first notice of what we’ll be doing for Episode 247!

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