Author Archives: The Geek

Digital Strips Podcast 275 – Review – Soul’d

Posted on by
2

Quick everyone just pretend the last month didn’t happen.

We are back in action and while our lawyers are telling me I can’t legally claim to be better than ever (that phrase apparently implies that we are sorta good) I can say we a the same as ever, and really isn’t that what everyone came for?

This week we take a look at Soul’d by Mary Taranta. Normally we don’t do comics that haven’t updated for a while but when we do it allows us an interesting chance to do a full post mortem on them and take a look at things a little deeper. That’s what we do this week. We also talk about Kickstarter, how it’s changing comics and other industries and about why we’ll never talk about it again.

We mention the following comics, links to which will appear over my lunch break.

Minimumble
Mohagan
Awkward Zombie
Not Invented Here
Medium Large
Sally Forth
SkullKickers
Dawn of the Ninja (I say chapters, I meant pages)
Order of the Stick
Diesel Sweeties

Half Time Music
Go Balls Deep

Girls with Slingshots
Turbo Defiant Kimecan
Johannes Cabal
Sketch Blog

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Share

Not Yet Named Games Podcast Episode One

Posted on by
4

Jason is up to his elbows in fatherhood now so we’re giving him a short break to figure out first hand how diapers and butts work. So this week we have a one off (for now) games themed podcast. If you like the video games, give it a listen I think it turned out pretty good. If you’re not a fan, next week I hope to have a web comics themed show again.

Thanks for listening and we’ll see you in the fourth panel.

Music through out the podcast is ‘Hyrule Party Mix‘ by NoppZ

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Share

Digital Strips Podcast 268 – Review – Two Guys and Guy

Posted on by
2

If web comics have tuaght me anything, it’s that I should be really upset about my room mate experience as I went through college. Apparently, room mates are suppose to do everything with you, go on adventures, help you get through challenges, shoot you dead when they mistake you for a ghost. That sort of thing. Not pass out in the door way one winter night and drive your heating bill way up.

This time my former room mates are being shamed by Two Guys and Guy, another room mate comics where not real happens, and we’re glad for it. Join us as we join Guy, Frank and Wayne for some potentially deadly hijinks, which I think we’ll all agree are the best kind of hijinks.

We also discuss, why there is no news this week, why were so bad at podcasting and our hopes and dreams for the new year. We also mention the following:

Gaia Comic
Sandra and Woo
Jason’s Web Comic
Animals being Dicks
Scence from a multiverse
Bug
Robot Beach
Adventures of superhero girl
Rob and Elliot
Gasphrophobia
Sexy and I Know It
Hunter Black comic
Not Invented Here
Optipess

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Share

Digital Strips Podcast 267 – Review – Velia, Dear

Posted on by
8

Hey people of the Internet. Stop putting punctuation in the name of your webcomics. It makes my show titles look weird. Can’t you see what you’re doing to me? I’m looking at you Miss Beaton.

This week’s episode is a hard one for me to post. Not because of any emotional thing that happened during it’s production or that the comic was painfully bad (quite the opposite, in fact) but because I come across as a raging butt-munch.

Normally, if either of us somethings like a turd-burglar with cheese, it’s Jason, and I’m totally down with publicly shaming him for his own good. But me? I don’t see how I can learn from this. I’m just posting it in the hopes that you find my dilweed-hood entertaining.

This week we’re taking a look at the cross-generational gag-a-day comic, Velia, Dear by Rina Piccalo. We discuss whether or not very newspapery strips work in webcomics if they use dirty words and how an art style can make you feel at home, even in Canada.

We cover tons of news, lots of stuff we’ve been reading, the happiness of a new comics’ birth and the sadness of their retirement, love, death and horchata all on this episode of Digital Strips.

Show Notes:

ECC comic – 4:00
Brad Guigar – 4:00
Penny Arcade – 4:45
Beaver and Steve – 6:30
Faraday the Blob – 6:45
Muktuk WolfBreath (I say Assassin but he’s a shaman) 8:45
Song of Xanthia 10:00
Sequential Art 11:00
StarCrossed 12:00
Ellie on Planet X 12:00
Judge Jetski – 12:30
Hunter Black – 14:00 (Once again dude, super sorry)
Hereville – 21:00
Imagine This – 22:00
Bear and Tiger – 22:00

Music in the middle by zircon.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Share

Digital Strips Podcast 263 – Review – Muktuk Wolfsbreath, Hard Boiled Shaman

Posted on by
Reply

It’s times like this that I really wish I still had my old trench coat. It was the best coat ever. It kept me warm, it kept me dry. It would billow in the wind in just the right way. It had a slit in the pocket so I could scratch my junk without any one knowing. It was the perfect coat. The problem with a trench coat like that is the only people who can get away with wearing them are hard-drinking, chain-smoking private investigators and flasher perverts.

While not directly featuring any rockin’ trench coats, this week’s comic will have you wishing they were more fashionable, too. It’s Muktuk Wolfsbreath, Hard Boiled Shaman by Terry Leban. And it’s as noir as you can get without heavily featuring my current favorite article of clothing, and this is only because it takes place in primitive Siberia.

This blue and white-tinted tale gives us plenty to talk about, although as usual, our conversation revolves about how wrong the other person is about it. If you like the shows where both sides present their arguments without resulting to name calling, this isn’t the one for you although you probably already knew that by now.

We also talk about the following comics, but I forgot to mark the time we did so for some. I hope you can forgive me.

Chainsawsuit, Buttock Safety – 6:00
Red Light Properties (Act-I-Vate ) 7:00
Bug 9:00
Maliki 9:45
Dresden Codak 10:00
Cucuc, Dawn of Time, Charles Christopher

Our middle music was Go Balls Deep by Kazuo Sawa. How could I not use a song with that title?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Share

Digital Strips Podcast 262 – Review – Three Word Phrase (Sometimes You Must Sound Douchey)

Posted on by
1

This show is going out to everyone who thought we were too gushy or well spoken in the last episode. This week we’re mean and can’t seem to make a sentence worth saying. It still makes for good listening though, just for different reasons.

This week we’re taking a look a Three Word Phrase by Ryan Pequin. Specifically, but more in general, we’re digging into the very nature of humor and what makes us laugh. Jason and I go deep into what makes this sub-genre of comics, those based solely on non-sequiturs work and why it works so much more for some people than it does for us.

We talk about how humor is different for different people, and how that affects things. We talk about the quickfire nature of today’s society and the effect that it has on jokes. We talk about poop jokes.

It’s a very special episode, that’s for sure, but it’s got plenty of our usual commentary of the world of webcomics in general and on each other’s hygiene habits.

We also mention the following:

Hijinks Ensure – 5:15
XKCD – 6:15
PVP – 7:00
Edmund Finney – 8:15
League of Super Redundant Heroes – 8:30
Happle Tea (I should have said Two Guys and Guy though, I was confused, sorry) – 8:45
SMBC, KC Green, Medium Large, Kate Beaton – 15:45
Achewood 19:30
Pictures for Sad Children – 25:45

Our middle music was Digital Memories by LukHash.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Share

Digital Strips Podcast 261 – Review – Ellie on Planet X (Jason Sure Thinks He Can Dance)

Posted on by
2

Well the snow has already come and gone to the Rocky Mountains, giving us either our shortest winter ever, or a totally normal October, we’ll have to wait and see. But in any case I’ve decided to celebrate by posting another fun-filled episode of Digital Strips, this week reviewing the very cute Ellie on Planet X by James Anderson.

We don’t just review comics round these parts, nah, that’s too easy. Those who know us know we feel the need to ramble first and ramble we do. This week we talk about dancing. We learn that Jason is way too proud of his dance skills for a guy who just jumps and sticks his butt in the air. Keeping in the theme, Steve tells a story that proves he really is a horrible person, then he doubles on the proof by demonstrating what he will do to you if you happen to have the same name as him.

We then get into a recent post full of Web comics advice from Dresden Codak creator, Aaron Diaz, and Steve and Jason weigh in on his advice. During which Steve teaches us all how to speak Chinglish and look stupid at the same time. We get into some harsh talk about people’s motives when getting into Web comics and what they should be.

Over Clocked Remix dot com is the source of our middle music again this time with Origami Robots by k-wix. I drizzled in a sort of NSFW story from Jason to the mix, jump ahead about 90 seconds if you don’t want to explain to anyone listening with you what genitals are.

We then get into the comic, talking about how much whimsy you can cram into a comic, how a comic can be the nice guy in your class and how sometimes orange and blue do go together outside of a grade school context.

And just when you think we’re done with you, we tangent off into the realms of Pan’s Labyrinth, old school fairy tales and how kids today can’t handle a good dismemberment.

This weeks rambletron topic, what do you do when the Hulk shows up to your barbeque.

Show notes

Indistinguishable from Magic – 7:00
Modest Medusa – 9:00
Rice Boy, Order of Tales, Vaatu– 9:15
Copper – 13:00
Cucumber Quest – 21:30
Tiny Kitten Teeth – 25:00
Dawn of Time, Laugh Out load Cats, Silent Kimbly– 25:45

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Share

Digital Strips Podcast 260 – Review – Fortune’s Fools

Posted on by
Reply

I’ll be the first to admit that this show is an odd one. Not only is it the second of a two show recording session but it’s also a review of a comic that has long since stopped updating. The former means our A material is all used up, but fortunately our B material is also a bunch of wiener/boob jokes and ad hominum attacks. The latter makes this an interesting look back through time at what could have been, rather than what is. Which is a little trippy and a lot of fun.

We start by pinning for the the new Muppets Movie which is still over a month away. We then discuss why Jason has gone through his beloved RSS feed witha scythe and cut almost all of the story-based strips found within. It turns out, stories are hard for Jason.

The middle music is American Dream Man by Leslie Hunt.

We then get into Fortune’s Fools by Mel Olm and MJ ALmon. Like I mentioned this black and white comic set in medieval France has long since given up the ghost leaving us to only wonder what might have been. I don’t know about you guys but finding fun comics that gave up a long time ago is always bitter sweet for me. On the one hand, I get to see what could have been and imagine my own ending, one the other hand, there’s a strange sense of loss over something I never knew there was. I’m probably over thinking this.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Share

Digital Strips Podcast 259 – Horizons Watch Derelict and The Man of Many Shades

Posted on by
2

Ok, I’m super sorry about the lateness of this update. I do think that this particular episode was totally worth the wait, not only do we deliver two comics that are just begging for your attention but we get to hear Jason’s impression of a guy from Idaho, being given a book. You cannot buy quality audio programming like this.

This week we turn again to the horizons taking a look at Derelict and The Man of Many Shade, a name that becomes surprisingly hard to type after the 10th time.

Derelict is a dirty, grungy, post-apocalyptic tale that is different from all those other dirty, grungy post-apocalyptic tales, largely because it has a boat in it. But boats changes stories, they make them about the sea, and the sea has been changing our literature since we crawled out of it. Boats add romance, grandeur and an infinite setting that calls to all of us. Also a seagull dies in this, and everyone hates those dirty rat-birds.

The Man of Many Shades is all about juxtaposition. Like a good sweet and sour dish, it takes things that probably shouldn’t go together, and makes them not only go together, but be better for it. Here, instead of the sweetness of honey and the twang of lemon juice, it’s a dark and grity noir protagonist, and a poorly drawn unicorn. Trust me, it works.

We also talk about the following comics and the following times:

Imagine This – 5:15
Bug 6:15
Gronk 6:30
Bear and Tiger – 4:45

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Share

Digital Strips Podcast 258 – Review – Optipess

Posted on by
2

Hey what do mass murderers, butt sex and suicide have in common? There’s all topics even I won’t make a joke about. But fortunately I am not the the guy behind Optipess, this week’s comic.

Before we get into the matters at hand, we ramble, as we are want to do. We admit to each other, and vicariously all of you guys, that we were total weenies once and have not matured as much as we would have liked. I’m slightly braver than I once was, but it took a band of different colored ninjas to get me that way.

We then talk about what we’re reading, Shortpacked for Jason and Two Guys and Guy for me.

We then finally get into the show part of the show where we talk about Optipess, a comic I can’t think of a better word for than “dark” and if you would give me two words, I’d add “European.” Its a twisted little gag-a-day that I’m glad Jason brought to my attention, if only to counterbalance Modest Medusa in my RSS feed.

Let us know what you think of the show. We love us some feedback.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Share