Pimping Stuff: Pair o' Podcasts

I've always said I've been fortunate enough to work with a brilliant bunch of folks over the last few years, and it's nice to see the world at large begin to recognize our genius, as my friends and I rocked not one, but two podcasts today promoting our various endeavors.

First up, I was fortunate to be an invited guest on friend of the CKT Dan Brooks' podcast, Robot Sweatshop. Dan and I spent over an hour chatting about the origins of my Werewolf By Night Christmas story (currently on sale in the Marvel Holiday Spectacular), some behind the scenes stuff on the day-to-day of Marvel.com, upcoming goodness for Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited Comics and Marvel Motion Comics, as well as my bizarre fondness for certain random comic characters. Now, I'll warn you ahead of time that as I was unable to make it into Brooklyn to do the show live and had to conduct the interview over the phone my audio isn't necessarily the best, but the fabulous Mr. Brooks assures me that if pump up the volume and make sure you're in reasonable peace and quiet, you can hear just fine, so check all that out here.

Meanwhile, over on the War Rocket Ajax podcast co-hosted by Chris Sims of Invincible Super-Blog fame (I'm a big fan), the geniuses behind Twisted Toyfare Theater--also known as my pals T.J. Dietsch, Justin Aclin, Jon Gutierrez and Rob Bricken--spoke out on their own process and projects as well as topics ranging from Transformer to the Wu Tang Clan; give it a listen here.

Download, listen, enjoy!

Lovely Parting Gifts pt. 2: ToyFare Attacks!

No sooner did I disseminate my post on Wizard going away art to my brethren alumni than did the former members of our old little sister magazine, ToyFare, cry out "Wait! Pay attention to us!"

The rivalry between Wizard and ToyFare is a tale as old as time, a song as old as rhyme.

Ok, actually there is no rivalry whatsoever, but in my heart, I always kinda wished deep-down that there was and that it would be settled each year at the company picnic with me hitting a deep homer off Justin Aclin to win the admiration of my peers.

Anyhow, here are some cool customized action figures the TF boys got on their way out.

The aforementioned Justin Aclin departed ToyFare in early 2008 for life in the big city only to promptly return later in the year in a higher position where he still reigns to this very day. Jaclin got a simply sweet Marvel Legends custom job of himself that he claims came with "a laptop, a portable gaming system, several in-scale action figures and a headband, because he is a ninja." None of those are pictured above, but you can see that they did capture Justin's beard in all its glory.
When I was still at Wizard, Zach Oat was running the show over at ToyFare, but he left in 2008, opening the door for the return of Justin. Zach is currently rocking it over at Television Without Pity (currently sporting a Melrose Place article on their homepage that I'm going to go read once I'm done here). The Master of the Mutton Chops was gifted for his years of service the amazing Iron Man figure bearing his likeness you see above.
Jon Gutierrez was the Price Guide Editor at ToyFare for many years, during which period he still found time to perform as a member of the Upright Citizens Brigade. For his trouble, he received a Star Trek-themed Mego of himself with what he calls an "Egon Spengler-like hairdo." To the best of my knowledge, Jon did not have any facial hair while working at ToyFare, making him like that one white guy who played for the Harlem Globetrotters.

And now I'll await the inevitable flood of e-mails from former InQuest staffers wanting me to post their custom Magic cards.