Alpha Geek Interviews

Todd spends an hour wiith The Doubleclicks. The Doubleclicks are a pair of sisters Angela and Aubrey Webber who sing about Dungeons & Dragons, dinosaurs, and Mr. Darcy. They play cello and ukulele. They have been called snarky, geeky, and sweet. Their latest album, Lasers & Feelings, includes songs about Mars Curiosity, meeting people on the Twitter, and Geek Girl pride, and debuted in the top 10 on the Billboard comedy charts. Their single for that album, a geek girl anthem called Nothing to Prove has been viewed over 1 million times on YouTube. The Doubleclicks tour the country regularly, playing at game stores, comic shops, and conventions, and have shared bills with nerd and comedy superstars including Jonathan Coulton, Paul and Storm and Wil Wheaton.

Todd talks to author John Scalzi while attending Phoenix Comicon 2013.

Todd and Rebecca speak to author Jim Butcher about his work, including the recently released Cold Days - a Dresden Files novel.

Iolite talks to actor Mark Meer about his role as the voice of male Shepard in the Mass Effect games, and his starring role in the Mass Effect fan film, Red Sand.

Todd talks with the creators of the Trigger Men comic, from Tryptich Books (http://www.triptychbooks.com). Trigger Men is a dark comedy that follows the lives of two hitmen, Matt Whit and Jason McCarty as they navigate the absurd world of contract killing.

Todd talks with the creators of Looking for Group (http://www.lfgcomic.com) and Least I Could Do (http://www.licd.com), Ryan Sohmer and Lar DeSouza. Looking for Group is a fantasy-themed Canadian webcomic written by Ryan Sohmer and drawn by Lar DeSouza. The Comic follows the adventures of Cale'Anon and Richard, as well as their companions. Since its launch on November 26, 2006, it has received positive attention from the webcomics community at large.

Todd talks with the creator of the Girls With Slingshots webcomic (http://www.girlswithslingshots.com). Danielle Corsetto created her first comic strip when she was 8 years old, starting with a blatant rip-off of Garfield called Fat Cat. She started writing Hazelnuts in high school, the precursor to Girls With Slingshots (unbeknownst to her at the time), and ran a comic about super-slacker college kids called Ramblers in the student paper at Shepherd College (as well as popimage.com). In October of 2004, she began Girls With Slingshots, and a couple of years later she was doing the strip full-time. It's now updated 5 times a week at some god-awful hour. In addition to GWS, Danielle wrote and drew The New Adventures of Bat Boy for the Weekly World News, taking the reins from Bat Boy's kind & talented former creator Peter Bagge. Danielle lives in Shepherdstown, West Virginia in a 230-year-old house with her two cats, Smudge and Ellie (aka Fluffy and Sprinkles) and her 9-year-old goldfish Goldie. She loves sipping tea, going for hikes, and eating local foods, because she is a filthy filthy hippie.

Todd talks with the creator of the Something Positive webcomic (http://www.somethingpositive.net). R.K. Milholland is probably napping right now. Sometimes, at night, he dons little shoes with curled toes and a little hat and secretly aids overworked cobblers. Then he uses their stores to launder money. He also grew up in a little patch of suburban sprawl between Dallas and Ft. Worth, Texas. Under a full moon he sometimes transforms into a meerkat.

Todd Whitehead and Darrell Skeels discuss Trek Fandom in the 21st century. Darrell: "I became a Trek nerd way back in 1969 during the original run of Star Trek on NBC. I still have the images in my head of diamond-shaped spaceships spinning a web around the Enterprise. That was my first exposure to Star Trek, The Tholian Web: 11/15/1968. I was only 6 years old, but my life was set on a fantastic course that influences my life even to this day."

Todd Whitehead and Tom Merritt discuss Tom's time in Internet Broadcasting, and the new Geeks & Sundry YouTube project.

Iolite interviews Mark Meer, the voice of Commander Shepard from the Mass Effect series of games.

From coverville.com: "Coverville is a podcast, produced three times a week, that focuses on cover songs – a new rendition of a previously recorded song. The show is produced and hosted by Brian Ibbott, in his home in Arvada, Colorado – about 10 miles West of Denver. The show features a combination of music and information about the music, delivered in a very relaxed, informal style. On average, each show runs about 35 minutes and features six selections. Information about the performing artist, and source album is provided, along with information about the artist being covered."

From lenperalta.com: "My name is Len Peralta and I am an Internet cartoonist. I believe in many things. Ghosts. Elves. Bigfoot. But most of all, I believe in making art affordable for everyone. I've been very fortunate to do some interesting illustrations. I've drawn princes throwing up. I've drawn Internet rock stars dressed up in skin-tight catsuits. I have illustrated a few books. I've drawn art for a card game about medical malpractice. Even the New Yorker has shown off my stuff. I've drawn hoboes and molemen and superheroes and video game characters. You know, all the stuff that would end up in the margins of your notebooks in grade school, high school and college. Somehow I've managed to eek a living out doing these things. No one is more amazed at this fact than I am. One of the things I love about what I do is that I can wake up every day and never know what my pencils and art pens will be drawing that day. It's almost as if they leave my drawing table at night on mad adventures to bring back incredibly geeky booty for me. I love them for that. Even though they are just inanimate objects."

Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He's written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic and fights the abuse of science, but his true love is praising the wonders of real science.

Full time Xbox staff, part time PAX and w00tstock performer, I am at heart a geek of pure pedigree. Ever since joining the Microsoft Corporation in April of 1994 I've pretty much been known by my email name, which is Stepto@microsoft.com. I've worn a few hats for Microsoft: product support monkey, technical writer, trainer, and Communications Manager for security response at Microsoft from 2002 to 2006. For that role I worked alongside a team of great people triaging and investigating and solving reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft software. On August 13th, 2007, I took on a great new challenge by joining our Xbox team working on Xbox LIVE. I'm currently the Director of Policy and Enforcement for the Xbox LIVE service. Along the way I made some amazing friends, wrote a book, and wore a suit.

Marian Call delivers whimsical Alaskan folk funk for the Coffee Counter-Culture. She sounds a little like Joni Mitchell & Regina Spektor raising the child of Jason Mraz & Erin McKeown. Call's sound is always soulful, honest, and clever, loved by all types -- computer geeks, church ladies, teenage thugs, NPR listeners, and urban hipsters worldwide.

Comedy singer/songwriter Mike Phirman joins Other Todd for an episode of Alpha Geek Interviews. About Mike: "Mike Phirman is incredibly uncomfortable writing about himself in the third person, so he is going to write his bio in the second person. You attended UCLA where you received a degree in Philosophy. While at college, you met Chris Hardwick, a fellow comedy enthusiast with whom you began performing silly musical acts under the name Hard 'n Phirm. Together, you've made an album, driven through a lot of corn, and taped a Comedy Central Presents special that you feel went not-too-badly. You've also worked as a visual effects artist for movies and TV. (Don't tell anyone, but on one episode of C.S.I. in which the camera follows a spark that sets off a car bomb, if you play it frame-by-frame, the spark briefly spells out Hi Mom!) You love folding laundry and were born without a sense of smell. Last summer, you released your first solo album called "The Very Last Songs I Will Ever Record (Part 1)". You lost your mind when Weird Al Yankovic showed up to perform on one of the tracks. Most recently, you googled the words "comedian bio what to write" you found nothing helpful."

Other Todd interviews Scott Johnson, founder of Frogpants Studios.

Apologies for the sound quality on this one, it had to be recovered from a damaged file. Shout out to Ironhart for bringing the lost data back from the dead! Danielle Corsetto created her first comic strip when she was 8 years old, starting with a blatant rip-off of Garfield called Fat Cat. She started writing Hazelnuts in high school, the precursor to Girls With Slingshots (unbeknownst to her at the time), and ran a comic about super-slacker college kids called Ramblers in the student paper at Shepherd College (as well as popimage.com). In October of 2004, she began Girls With Slingshots, and a couple of years later she was doing the strip full-time. It's now updated 5 times a week at some god-awful hour. In addition to GWS, Danielle wrote and drew The New Adventures of Bat Boy for the Weekly World News, taking the reins from Bat Boy's kind & talented former creator Peter Bagge. Danielle lives in Shepherdstown, West Virginia in a 230-year-old house with her two cats, Smudge and Ellie (aka Fluffy and Sprinkles) and her 9-year-old goldfish Goldie. She loves sipping tea, going for hikes, and eating local foods, because she is a filthy filthy hippie.

Paul Cornell is a British writer who has written episodes for Doctor Who (Father's Day, Human Nature/Family of Blood) and other British television series (Primeval, Robin Hood), comics for Marvel (Wisdom, Captain Britain and MI-13) and D.C. (Action Comics, Knight and Squire, Batman & Robin), numerous Doctor Who novels (including creating the popular companion Bernice Summerfield, who has spun off into her own novel and audio adventures), and his own original fiction (British Summertime) including short fictoin in the recent superhero anthology Masked.

Gnomewise interviews Author and Stargate Universe story consultant John Scalzi.

An impromptu interview recorded on the exhibition floor of Phoenix Comicon 2011.

Gnomewise interviews Internet music master Jonathan Coulton. There were some connection issues during this recording session that forced us to conclude the interview sooner than we hand planned. We apologize for the sound quality issues.

Gnomewise interviews a blast from his past, Turpster! Turpster can be found these days on The Instance, The Movielicious, The Incredible Podcast of Amazing Awesomeness, and Hypothetical Help.

Gnomewise interviews musical comedy duo Paul and Storm. http://www.paulandstorm.com http://www.w00tstock.net

Deathspank: Thongs of Destiny World at War 2 Torchlight 2 Portal 2

Gnomewise, Daksa, and Grail interview 3 representatives from the GameCrush "play date" service.

Daksa at the PAX 2010 All Girl Gamer Meetup.

Gnomewise interviews TotalBiscuit from www.cynicalbrit.com

MATURE CONTENT - This episode contains adult language and themes. Gnomewise interviews Greg and Liz Dean from reallifecomics.com.

Gnomewise interviews comic book artist Georges Jeanty.