ScratchCast – Welcome to the Apocalypse (plus an update)

Yeah, not going to lie. The reason this is late is because I’m a lazy bastard who would rather play Bastion then finish editing a 90 minute podcast. This was supposed to go up on Friday night…then it got bumped to Saturday. Then Sunday. Then Monday. At least this thing is finally up and I’m done with my mid-terms. This podcast was recorded before DC officially revealed their new logo, so our discussion treats it as mainly a rumour. Also expect bitching about the non-rumour of Rob Liefeld being put in charge of three DC Comics series. There’s also discussion on the layoffs at Media Blasters (and how the American anime industry is basically going to crap), the upcoming Saturday-nigh Fox animation block, and pizza and calzones. This is an awkward episode that I couldn’t really edit. There are so many audio glitches and stupidity that overlaps will things we say and just ugh. Barking dogs,  Sketch turning into a robot…so the entire thing is a raw cut. Hopefully we’ll get better next episode. Speaking of next episode, we’re making some changes to the ScratchCast.

Starting next week, the ScratchCast will be divided into two separate podcasts that will alternate each week. One will be a news podcast, which is pretty self-explanatory. The other will be our feature podcast, where we’ll continue to talk about random crap loosely tied into a main topic.

P.S. The song at the beginning is Uncaged Czarina, and it serves as our theme song. And so we won’t have to pay $10 every time we use it…Free Royalty Free Music by DanoSongs.com.

P.P.S. What were YOUR thoughts on the recent changes at DC Comics? Tell us on Twitter, Facebook, via email, or in the comments below!

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ScratchCast – One Year Later

This episode was recorded on Thursday night, and we had some…problems with it. Not just the occasional wind tunnel sounds that you’ll hear while listening, or the bizarre echo-filled closing. No, I’m talking about the 30 minutes it took for all of us to get our act together and start the episode. There was arguing and random laughter, Jon got pissed at everyone, and I screamed in anger for the first time in months. Not a good start to an end-of-the-year episode, and our first one at that. But while hastily editing this episode for tonight, I found myself feeling like this 2-hour long episode was very enjoyable. Hell, not only did we have TomatoSurprise, ToonFaithful, and Sketch, but also Mr. Wednesday from Animation Revelation and Thomas Blalock from Twitter. And dammit, despite the rough start, we had some fun doing this episode and every single one in the past: especially the “lost” episode nine of Notaku Diaries.

Thanks for listening to all the insane and stupid crap we put out this year, from Notaku Diaries, to Not Another Old Cartoon Podcast, to those weird WRSP thingys, and finally the ScratchCast. Here’s hoping that we continue to act like fools in the future…as well as improve our quality. See y’all next year!

P.S. The song at the beginning is Uncaged Czarina, and it serves as our theme song. And so we won’t have to pay $10 every time we use it…Free Royalty Free Music by DanoSongs.com.

P.S.S. What were YOUR favorite parts of 2011? Tell us on Twitter, Facebook, via email, or in the comments below!

Download this and other WRSP podcasts on iTunes.
Don’t have iTunes? Download Scratch Cast episodes here.
Only interested in our podcasts? Subscribe to our ScratchCast blog maintained by TetrisDork.

ScratchCast – The New #1

Placeholder until I design a logo for the Scratch Cast.

Okay, here it is! The official first episode of the ScratchCast! TomatoSurprise was supposed to be in this episode, but he wasn’t, so screw him. However, Ryan Mead wanted in, so heck yeah, episode one guest star! The key issues discussed here include TetrisDork’s trip to Anime Weekend Atlanta, my review of My Life Me and how wrong I am, DC Nation news, Barnes & Noble getting pissed at DC, and the death of Steve Jobs. But it wouldn’t be the Scratch Pad Cast if we didn’t go on weird tangents, like trying to make sense of Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn, or if Warner Bros. is trolling Don East. We also manage to connect Steve Jobs’ death to My Little Pony…yeah, we can be pretty weird sometimes.

The most important thing about this, however, is the fact that this is an attempt at a regularly updated podcast. Every other week, to be precise. I’ll try to post new episodes no later than a week after they’re recorded (this was recorded on Sunday), and I hope to keep to that for much longer than we did with Notaku Diaries or Not Another Old Cartoon Podcast. With that said, the podcast feed has been renamed to ScratchCast as well. I think that’s it, so listen and enjoy. RacForce, out.

P.S. The song at the beginning is Uncaged Czarina, and it shall serve as our theme song. And so we won’t have to pay $10 every time we use it…Free Royalty Free Music by DanoSongs.com.

Download this and other WRSP podcasts on iTunes.
Don’t have iTunes? Download Scratch Cast episodes here.

Reboot Recovery: Episode 3 – The Cat, The Bat, and The Alien Skank

Welcome to episode three of this craziness folks, this week has been a rather controversial week for the DC New 52. With Catwoman shocking all we focus our attention on DC Universe Presents, Blue Beetle, Wonder Woman, and Batman. Did we love them? Did we hate them? Can you understand Softly Spoken Las? Join Elliot Shade and Tomato Surprise as we try to decipher what the hell is going on.

Softly Spoken Las, aka Linsay Powell, is also a part of Comics Anonymous, a blog devoted to reviewing comics and specifically DC’s New 52. Title card art was done by Jeremy Conrady.

Download Episode Here

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WRSP – DCnU: The New 52 BUYER’S GUIDE (Parts 3 and 4)

Nothing much to say here. Tomato is back and talking up a storm. I return to being the quiet one who laughs a lot (while I’m there at least. I leave partway during Part Four). TetrisDork butchers the names of a few characters, writers, and artists. Dragonpiece is confused about what is going 70% of the time. ToonFaithful listens to us and tries to put in his humourous two-cents. And Don East is Don East.  And we all get into a debate over the Teen Titans animated series, and other random stuff. All-in-all? Normal podcast episode. But if you must know…I didn’t edit this much. Schoolwork mixed with general laziness means that I ended up just cutting the initial conversations we had before we did the podcast proper. So you don’t get to hear me freak out over dying several times in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. or at Tetris playing a high-frequency buzzer for several seconds. I apologize for that. But you do get to hear all our flubs, so that’s a plus. I don’t know when the next WRSP podcast is going to be, but I do know that we need a better name for it than that.

September 21th Lineup

September 28th Lineup and Q&A

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Reboot Recovery: Episode 2 – Waller’s Not Weightless

Join us once again as Tomato Surprise and Elliot Shade take on the New 52′s most meh week thus far. We cover the newer, thinner Amanda Waller in Suicide Squad, the feeling of a text file in Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE, and the awesomeness of both Batwoman and Mr. Terrific. Will Tomato keel over from his over-exposure to Adam Glass? Does EA Glover have the Voice of God? Am I ever going to get my head on straight?

The Reboot Recovery title card was done by Jeremy Conrady. The music in the intro is In The Meantime by Spacehog (iTunes | Amazon | website).

Have iTunes? Download this podcast (and others) here!

Don’t have iTunes? Download Reboot Recovery Ep2: Waller’s Not Weightless here.

Reboot Recovery: Episode 1 – Reboot Circus

Last Wednesday, during Part One of  the DCnU Buyer’s Guide, we let it be known that Tomato Surprise, along with TRSP friend Elliot Shade, planned to review of all 52 titles that DC is launching/rebooting this month. And being the awesome people that they are, while we aren’t the exclusive home of these little forays into this new universe DC Comics is crafting, we are the ones that get to give you the link to download these episodes. This week has them chatting with Yan Basque as they discuss Batgirl, Animal Man, Stormwatch, and Action Comics. Listen to this podcast above or download the MP3 below!

P.S.: MUSIC ALERT! The background song used is “Ring Capacity” by Kirby Krackle, from the album E For Everyone (iTunes | Amazon | website).

Have iTunes? Download this podcast (and others) here!

Don’t have iTunes? Download Reboot Recovery Ep1: Reboot Circus here.

WRSP – DCnU: The New 52 BUYER’S GUIDE (Parts 1 and 2)

This was originally supposed to be a full podcast that was a Part 2 to the first one. However, it turns out that none of us knows the meaning of the term “Lightning Round,” since the entire Buyer’s Guide had to be divided into four parts, each 40-60 minutes in length. It’s probably for the best though, since you guys get a better idea about how we feel about each title. Each segment covers one week: Part 1 covers Sept. 7 (aka today), Part 2 covers Sept. 14, etc. The last two parts will be posted on Sept. 21st, so be on the lookout for that.

During these first two parts, Tetris is talking through his iPod, so some of what he says near the beginning of the recording is covered up slightly by static. This clears itself up later on, though. Also of note is the fact that I speak for more than a minute…in fact, there are points where I just go crazy and don’t shut up, especially when we talk about Rob Liefeld. Toon is there throughout the first part, but chooses not to say a word until the second. TomatoSurprise and Shadows of Thot were supposed to be on these parts, but…things came up for both of them. The former recorded his thoughts on these first 26 comics though, and you can listen to them below.

September 7th Lineup

September 14th Lineup

BONUS: Tomato shares his thoughts on both lineups.

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WRSP – DCnU: The New 52 (Part One)

As promised, we got together to share our feelings on the whole DC Universe reboot. In Part One, which was recorded on the 26th, we focus on the entire experiment as a whole, debating the good and bad aspects of it, as well as our initial feelings when we first learned about the reboot and how they have changed over the past few months. If you are more interested in hearing our thoughts on the individual comics, since they all happened to hit store shelves (both physically and digitally) today, then just wait until next Wednesday for Part Two of this “joint podcast thing.” The outro is the unused theme for a 60s Batgirl series.

On a general podcast note, we plan on merging Notaku Diaries and Not Another Old Cartoon Podcast into a single entity with the WRSP name come September…which means that the SDCC 2011 ‘cast back in July was technically the first episode of this new project and this is the second. Of course, all the episodes of Notaku and NAOCP that haven’t been posted will be posted eventually, hopefully before the fourth episode of WRSP.

P.S. - Since Tomato never gave me that link, I had to find those DC Comics sales charts myself.  And here are the charts from January to June 2011 (couldn’t find July or August). So yeah, you can see why they took such a gamble with this relaunch. And while it seems to be a success so far, we just have to wait and see how it does in the long-run…man, I say far more in the production notes than I do in…almost every podcast episode really. Also, here’s the ad that DC made to promote the comics…yeah, no comment there.

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The Hero Reboot Challenge: The Flash

THE HOOK (PART ONE)

“I’ve gotta be honest, Iris: your husband will never be the

fastest man alive.”

- Ed Thawne, “The Unstoppable Force”

In Central City, nothing ever moves quickly. For all of the less-than-stellar things you can say about the little town that could, it hasn’t earned that name by rushing into anything. The solar panels on the roof of the governor’s mansion were dragged there with grandeur, and the city’s skyline shined like the Second Coming, eventually. The people that live here are like that, too: if the city didn’t dictate their rhythms, you could say that they dictated the city’s. Just ask Ed Thawne, Central City’s top physician. Needless to say, he never had much competition, (the c-word was rarely uttered in this place) but he was gentle enough for his name to make the rounds early and often. City folks never called it a doctor’s appointment; it was just “going to Ed’s”.

Perhaps this was why Centeral City was so struck when Ed Thawne retired. Usually, when a man as old as Ed retires, a pine box of some sort is involved, and everyone rents a nice tuxedo or dress. Edward Thawne, however, retired in the most basic sense of the word; one day, the aging doctor woke up to find that realigning his bookshelf was more appealing than realigning somebody’s back, and that was that. A somber mood fell over the little town, or at least a somber enough mood for six-packs to be bought and consumed in his honor. But no retirement is a good retirement if it doesn’t end sometime, even if it’s just for a old college friend. After all, it wasn’t every day that you saw two people survive the same lightning strike. And it wasn’t every day that they were married.