Adrian Has Issues

On this week’s episode we’re featuring the comic book “mixtape” entitled Tales From The Pandemic. Taking inspiration from quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic, writer Mario Candelaria (Ashes, The Chart, The Good Fight Anthology) assembles a talented team of artists including our other guest Adam Ferris (The Good Fight Anthology, Unlawful Good, Baroque Pop). Mario and Adam give listeners a candid look at their professional and personal friendship, give their thoughts on being comic creators during these uncertain times and hip-hop’s influence on the creation of the anthology.

This week’s episode features a 2x bonus of videogame music awesomeness! The first half of the show features Ro Panuganti. Ro is a YouTuber, multi-instrumentalist and videographer, specializing in covers of videogames and films in the style of rock and progressive metal. Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the popular role-playing videogame franchise “Mother”/”Earthbound,” Ro talks about co-producing the eclectic tribute album Fuzzy Pickles from GameLark with fellow musician Peter “Soundole” Smith. In the second half, Adrian and Ro are joined by fellow guitarist/YouTuber Christian Richardson. Christian and Ro give a detailed breakdown of the long yet rewarding journey the duo took to arrange and co-produce the thrilling album Moon Rock from Materia Collective, which pays tribute to the music of Super Mario Odyssey from Nintendo.

Celebrating 7 years as a podcaster, Adrian further examines the “culture of creativity” on a deeply personal level. In asking listeners a question, Adrian also comes to a realization that will undoubtedly shape future podcasts for years to come.

This week’s guest is Jules Conroy aka FamilyJules7x, a California-based guitarist and YouTuber. Jules details his origins as a musician leading up to the release of his second iteration of “Replay,” a sprawling 20-minute musical tribute featuring 46 different videogames from Pong to Super Mario Bros. to Persona 5. Plus, Jules talks about his successful cover album of the Super Meat Boy soundtrack, which transitioned into working with game composer Danny Baranowsky and being hired as the guitarist for the popular Nintendo game Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the Necrodancer.

This week’s episode features multimedia visual artist and Oneshi Press co-founder Jayel Draco. Jayel and Adrian engage in an irreverent yet poignant conversation about Oneshi’s latest project, Mr. Guy: Zombie Hunter. The story revolves around a wisecracking half-goblin determined to cure himself of a zombie infection…and possibly save the world in the process. While discussing the book’s themes and origins, Jayel examines the nature of parody and meta humor in storytelling and Adrian learns a valuable lesson about life thanks to gelatin-encased foodstuffs known as aspic. Oh, and the Red Baron makes an appearance or two. Why? You’ll have to listen in and find out!

On this week’s episode we welcome back our good friend and podcast regular Erica Schultz. Erica is the acclaimed writer of comics such as Xena: Warrior Princess (Dynamite), Twelve Devils Dancing (Action Lab Danger Zone) and Daredevil (Marvel). Her latest title Forgotten Home has recently been released in a collected trade format on Comixology Originals. The Vice Press comic tells the story of a Sheriff's Deputy investigating missing children that may be related to magic from her homeworld. Picking up where we left off on Episode 148, Erica and I look back at the themes of Forgotten Home and how they’ve found a new relevance in the wake of both the COVID-19 pandemic, the fight for racial justic/equality and the Black Lives Matter movement.

This week's episode features a conversation with Jeff Beck, the owner of the comic book shop East Side Mags in Montclair, NJ. Established in 2014, ESM combines an inclusive, personal approach to comic book retail and a DIY punk aesthetic. Recorded prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, Jeff and Adrian wax nostalgic about the New Jersey punk/emo scene of the late 90s and early 2000s. Additionally, our heroes share their mutual love of post-hardcore favorites Glassjaw as well as offer takes on the high-profile reunions of Rage Against the Machine and My Chemical Romance.

This week features returning guests Lynsey G and Jayel Draco, the co-founders of the independent publishing company Oneshi Press. Adrian chats with Lynsey and Jayel about their current project Tracy Queen Vol. 2: Dangerous Experiments. The second volume sees the titular character continue her quest for empowerment and independence from her criminal past and greedy adult movie moguls. Oh, did we mention talking raccoons and clone armies? The podcast conversation explores Tracy’s motivations and how they reflect the ideas of s*x-positivity, feminism and the pitfalls of blind hero worship.

Adrian welcomes back sequential artist and writer Alex Schumacher. Alex's ongoing webcomic DECADES OF (in)EXPERIENCE chronicles the exploits of Luke Carlin, a 30-something man dealing with the ups and downs of everyday life through a dark yet comical lens. Adrian and Alex commemorate the comic's 200th strip with a candid look at Luke's journey and his growth (or sometimes lack thereof) in the series' first five years.

Grant Henry, known best by his stage name Stemage, is a composer, session player, and audio engineer. He is the creator of Metroid Metal, former guitarist for the video game tribute band LONELYROLLINGSTARS and the guitar player for the Emmy-nominated animated series Steven Universe. His latest project is the soundtrack and sound design for the videogame Card of Darkness. The Apple Arcade exclusive is a collaboration between game designer Zach Gage (Tharsis) and Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward. The game is developed by Choice Provisions (Bit.Trip). In this episode, Grant discusses developing the game’s unique soundtrack and the balancing act of creating warm, inviting music juxtaposed to the challenging nature of the gameplay. Additionally, Adrian and Grant cover a myriad of topics including the continuing popularity of vinyl music, mobile gaming and much more.