AudioShocker

Jessica Heberle joins Shawn Atkins and Nick Marino to discuss the pros and cons of artist support groups (thx to Dan for the topic!) Photo by Tom Jefferson Jessica is a Pittsburgh artist and the organizer of Artists Meetup, an interdisciplinary gathering held at Assemble in Pittsburgh's Garfield neighborhood. Shawn, Jess, and Nick share their experiences with community events organized by comics-related groups like Artists Meetup, Dr. Sketchy's, National Cartoonists Society, The ToonSeum, and more.

Is it actually Paul Giamatti's dream to play the Rhino? Does J.J. Abrams have any chops as a director? WHY DO WE EVEN CARE? We don't wanna see these movies anyway, yet we still take the time to complain. Then get ready to celebrate the holidays with Ross Campbell and Nick Marino as we endure an EXTREMEly awful Morlock adventure in X-Men: The Animated Series episode #62 (s4 e12 on Netflix). And here be thine gifts: screencaps!!! What's that??? You heard we're giving out some awards? YOU'RE RIGHT!! AudioShocker's 2012 YOU DON'T SUCK Awards: MOVIES. Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning STREAMING. Tie! Star Trek: The Next Generation and Blue Exorcist COMICS. Wet Moon 6 PODCASTS. Comic Book Pitt TEA. Trader Joe's Vanilla and Cinnamon Black Tea INTERNET MELTDOWN. Rob Lifeld TV. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles BOOKS. The Girl Who Would Be King If you're a YDS 2012 winner, you can sport this nifty (and well designed!) banner on your website or blog (click on it for a bigger version): Finally, after the end theme we lament the loss of PonyGasm. And Nick gives Ross a special gift... Funky Monkey! Next: X-Men: The Animated Series episodes #63-64 (s4 e8-9 on Netflix).

Neal plays hooky to pitch Nick some fantastic ideas for new startups. Then he reminisces about the glory days of RnB group Jagged Edge, who were more interested in settling down and raising your children than having a one night stand. Neal wonders how the BBC's Top Gear is able to rustle up a production budget so massive that they're able to casually drive a car up the side of an active volcano. This deep thought was inspired by Nick's rediscovery of streaming video on Crackle, most notably Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee. ALSO: Nick couldn't handle the excessive product placement in Young Adult, Neal almost cried after watching Microsoft's shameless 90s retro commercial, and Nick jumps the shark by declaring A Haunted House the best movie of 2013.

E.D. from Peculiar Comics joins Nick Marino to discuss their recent Super Haters collaboration, "When Ya Comin' Back, Kid Raptor?" (a.k.a. E.D. Guest Week). The story features Kid Raptor, a new sidekick hired by the Super Haters. And, of course, Mind's Eye and Destruct-O-Tron are making his life a living fucking hell!! That's why we asked you for YOUR work horror stories to share on this episode... and you delivered!! The middle of this podcast is a magnificent collection of employment nightmares, from rotten fish to professional indiscretions to pervert bosses. Finally, after the end theme, E.D. and I discuss our artistic process. E.D. explains how he goes from light pencils to lush vector art, and we both reminisce about our favorite moments from our five-page webcomics collabo.

Shawn Atkins and Nick Marino are joined by penciler V Ken Marion to discuss his journey as a professional comic book artist. Ken talks about starting with samples and portfolio reviews, his early work with Bluewater Productions and Zenescope, his work on the recently-wrapped Extermination from BOOM! Studios, and his new secret upcoming assignments! Plus, Shawn and Nick share some of their secret history! After the end theme, Ken and Nick discuss a bunch of other stuff including what V stands for (hint: V), coloring straight from Ken's pencils, and more.

Shawn Atkins had a very Ohio Xmas and he's here to recap his midwestern holiday adventures! Plus, he got some Jack Kirby goodies from Santa :D So what's up next in Gello Apocalypse? The raucous return of Pryor and Mikey 3!!! Shawn also reviews Windsor McCay's The Complete Little Nemo in Slumberland, Volume II: 1907-1908 and Charles Schulz's The Complete Peanuts 1950-1952.

Nick Marino read the digital ComiXology version of Wet Moon 6 and shares his thoughts with Ross Campbell. That leads to a discussion about digitizing printed work. Is it inappropriate for ComiXology to create a "smart panels" mode for a digital book without approval from the creators? We eventually work our way to the EXTREME challenge, discussing two more shitty X-Men: The Animated Series episodes, #60-61 (s4 e13 & s3 e19 on Netflix). Of course, Ross made screencaps and Nick made screencaps. Then we switch to another cartoon we might watch from top-to-bottom: Street Sharks! Will creator Joe Galliani to respond to our tweet and join us on the podcast?? CALL TO ACTION!!! We need you to send us your nominations for the AudioShocker's 2012 YOU DON'T SUCK Awards in the categories of Movies, Streaming Video, Comics, Podcasts, Tea, and Internet Meltdown. Leave your noms in the comments below. We'll reveal the winners in #145. After that, Nick rants about why he's losing interest in superheroes movies. Ross adds more fuel to the fire by tossing out other reasons why superhero flicks are boring. Finally, we ask a confusing question -- on which Earth does DC's Superman: Earth One take place? Is it "Earth One" or "Earth-1" or unnamed? And what about the main Earth in The New 52... which one is that??? After the end theme, we take the question to Twitter and get a shitload of ridiculous replies (and one possible answer). Next: X-Men: The Animated Series episode #62 (s4 e12 on Netflix).

Nick is psyched that THE 99 (the superheroes, not the protest movement) finally has an animated series and it's on Netflix and uhhhh the animators had a little too much fun with this moment: Neal watched Lost Girl wants to know... who greenlights these bootleg multi-season sci-fi TV series?!?!? Also, Neal saw Archer Live! and it was awesome.

Seeing as how they already teamed up to discuss SVC Chaos, Alex and Kenny finally talk about the Capcom side of that crossover with... ...Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 and Capcom vs. SNK 2: Millionaire Fighting 2001 / Mark of the Millennium 2001!!! They run through the ups and downs of both games, and discuss which characters they'd like to see in a theoretical third entry to the series.

Kenny Riot wants to get you hyped for the next episode, so he put together a little mixtape of music from another series of fighting games. Trust us, you'll know what's up when you hear it. Enjoy!

Dan Greenwald and Shawn Atkins share an intimate conversation about death and divorce in comics, approaching the topic as both fans and creators. Dan talks about teasing the death of the title character in his Blue Wraith webcomic, while Shawn discloses his secret desire to kill off all of the main characters in Explorers of the Unknown. After that, Shawn chats about Gello Shots and his positive experience podcasting about his webcomics. Finally, Dan and Shawn wrap things by describing how Instagram, hashtagging, and photo sharing can be beneficial promotional tools for comics creators.

DUN DUN DUUNNNNNN!!! The evilest of all evils consumes the latest and greatest Sequential Underground discussion as Rebecca Cohen, Dan Greenwald, Shawn Atkins, and Nick Marino battle... the dreaded hiatus! Rebecca opens up about the return of Gyno-Star and the six week hiatus which proceeded it. Shawn talks about the recent return of his Explorers of the Unknown comics and the fight to keep another hiatus at bay. Nick shares about his unexpected hiatuses for Super Haters and how they morphed into an ending for his ongoing story. And Dan Greenwald prepares his long hiatus-ing webcomic, Blue Wraith, for a victorious return in 2013!

It's Xmas and the AudioShocker's got the whole the shebang!! (But, sadly, a shebang is not a lesbian orgy.) We kick things off with a vague discussion of Neal's new secret web project and our mutual disappointment with the Scary Movie 5 trailer: After that, Neal confirms that Pootie Tang still sucks and will forever be blemish on Louis C.K.'s resume (despite the evergreen bear gorilla mauling gag). Then Nick dishes about a pair of awesome films -- Spielberg's 1971 thriller, Duel, and the classic 80s Schwarzenegger/DeVito buddy comedy, Twins. But Neal continues his losing streak with Step Up Revolution (a.k.a. Step Up 4). And oh yeah... Merry fucking Christmas.

Alex and Kenny team up once again to discuss the fan-made project that became a free-to-download Capcom game celebrating the 25th anniversaries of Street Fighter and Mega Man... Street Fighter X Mega Man!! K and A discuss their gameplay experience and the various ups and downs (and tricks and cheats!) that came with it. As a bonus, check out this video of the Two Best Friends Play guys having a session with the game: And hit up A_Rival's Bandcamp page to pick up the soundtrack! (which you'll also hear some clips of in this episode) Street Fighter X Mega Man OST by A_Rival (A correction from Kenny: So, for some odd reason, I said the "weapon demo screen" theme was Dan's theme from Alpha 2. That's not right...it's actually the character select theme from Street Fighter Alpha 2. I guess I threw myself off because Dan is on that screen? Oh well.)

After a bit of a hiatus, Kenny Riot returns to the mic to go over the non-re-release fighting games of 2012 and what he thought of 'em, including BlazBlue: Continuum Shift EXTEND, SoulCalibur V, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Dead or Alive 5, and tons more. Some of these games already had their own HyperComboCast episodes, so it'd be a good idea to check them out if you haven't already! Street Fighter X Tekken - HyperComboCast #36 (Nick, Josh) Skullgirls - HyperComboCast #38 (Kenny, ZanSam, Kayin, Nick) Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown - HyperComboCast #46 (Kenny, Webster) Persona 4 Arena - HyperComboCast #54 (Kenny, TirMcDohl) And... Kenny's Tekken music podcast! Finally, check out 2012's final fighting game release -- Street Fighter X Mega Man. It's out today and Capcom's site is getting slammed with downloads, so be patient!! Here's an alternate download link for the US version of the game.