Opinions May Vary

It would be virtually impossible to properly convey just how important Joe is both to the show and to Alex and me as a friend. He is one of the main people we leaned on the most when we first started out in 2012 and always made time to come on and chat with us whenever we hit him up. Over time, he turned into our unofficial gaming correspondent, providing brilliant write-ups and reviews in addition to vital coverage in the field at shows like PAX East. He gave us suggestions for potential guests, helped us out with interviews, and couldn't be beat when it came to promoting the show at conventions. We have a bunch of these "final appearance" episodes coming up as we wind down to episode 450 but you'll have to excuse me if I get a little extra sentimental over this one. Yes, Joe has been a staple of the show for a decade now and we've had a ton of fun chatting with him. But as it turns out, Joe is also my oldest friend. We've known each other for well over 20 years now dating back to middle school living two st

You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who has left a bigger impact on this show in a mere than Rich Woodall. I've said it before but it still holds true today: he's arguably the kindest and most humble creator we've had the pleasure of talking with. He's got talent for days and it seems like he couldn't stop making things even if he tried. In the past, we've talked at length with Rich about the comics he's made, the people he's worked with, and the projects he Kickstarted. Now, since we last talked with him in 2019, Rich and crew have also launched their own imprint with Scout Comics: . For those looking to get their horror and sci-fi comic book fix, Black Caravan is for you. With titles like The Electric Black, Gods of Brutality, and The Perhapanauts (among many others) there's a little something for everyone. Check out their page for more and hit up your local comic shop for some reading material! With all that said, we can't thank Rich enough for all the time he's given us over the years whether it was on

I'm not sure what else to write here as the title of this episode contains everything you need to know. I guess I can elaborate a bit, though. This week it's just Alex and me and to top off this year's spooky-sodes we're talking about fear. The things that scare us. The things that make us uncomfortable, that make us squirm, that we've been avoiding for years whether we were aware of it or not. The real good stuff. Good, old-fashioned fear. We also talked about The Muppets. Kinda hard to go wrong with The Muppets especially when they're in The Haunted Mansion. Enjoy! -Jr. Credit to https://www.FesliyanStudios.com for the background music.

Ok so it took us a little longer than normal to get to our usual spooky-filled episodes but we promise it was worth the wait because this episode is jam-packed with so many rad things. This week, we had the absolute pleasure of talking with not one, but TWO contributors of the insanely popular ""! For those unaware, "The No Sleep Podcast" is an award-winning anthology series of original horror stories. They've been making content and releasing episodes since 2011 and are set to begin their 17th season soon! First up, we were joined by composer Brandon Boone. Brandon has been scoring the show for the past 8 years and has created over 5,000 individual pieces of music in that time with no signs of slowing down. He's a self-taught musician with an immense talent for creating spooky and haunting tunes that perfectly compliment the show. When he's not creating music for NoSleep, he's hard at work writing and producing his own albums, or creating soundtracks for videogames like "Scarlet Hollow".  Check out his for

Our guests this week are no strangers to the OMV universe and despite having multiple cumulative appearances under their belts, they've never come on the show at the same time. Until now. That's right. We're trying the whole "4 people in 4 separate locations desperately trying to not talk over each other" and this time we're joined by artists Daniel Govar and Tony Moy! Now, it would be fun to just hang and chat with them about what they've been up to over the last few years, but there is a reason as to why they've both come on the show this week:  they've started their own YouTube channel! Known as "The Paint Bros", Daniel and Tony have started uploading and live streaming videos of their art as well as tutorials and live conversations with chat. Whether you're looking for quick, time-lapse videos or long form, in-depth discussion, Daniel and Tony have you covered all while creating amazing watercolor pieces. Check out their , annihilate that subscribe button, and follow the guys on their for more art, anno

We got to talk about Tarzan for the better part of an hour with two guys who are about to Kickstart a Tarzan book next month. It was a pretty great Thursday, I'm not going to lie. Our old friend D.W. Kann is back with us and this time he brought one of his writing partners, Ryan Matta, to talk about the first volume up their upcoming comic Tarzan The Untamed. Rather than re-telling your typical origin story, D.W. and Ryan are adapting a different time in Tarzan's life: "Book one finds Tarzan and Jane living peacefully in East Africa in 1917 on their secluded Greystoke estate. When their quiet life is suddenly threatened by the encroaching battles of World War I and the machinations of a band of mercenaries, led by the rouge German army officer, Sergeant Schneider, a single minded hunter, determined to find Tarzan. Tarzan must unleash his Savage nature to protect his Ape family, his fellow Englishmen and his true love Jane." For people like me who didn't realize how much their life was lacking in Tarzan conten

I was going to leave this super vague and cryptic because this episode contains a major announcement that we cover right off the bat. But I also feel obligated to tell you that afterwards, there's some tasty SPOILERS for The Suicide Squad. We did our best to point it out in the episode, but for those who might tend to skip around, I wanted to make sure it was known. So yeah. Spoilers ahead! Now, back to the vague and cryptic. Check out this week's episode where The Countdown....begins. -Jr.

We've talked about tattoos from time to time over the last 430+ episodes. In fact, the topic of tattoos can be found as early as episode 16 as part of that week's "The Big Question". For those trying to do the math, that was back in July of 2012 and as you probably could have guessed; Brett Kelley was the guest that week. Because of course he was. But this week is different. This week, for the first time ever (we're pretty sure), we had the chance to talk with not just a fan of tattoos but an actual tattoo artist. That artist is Lora Bird. Lora, aka , is the owner of the new studio "The Nest Art Collective" out in Colorado and they're set to have their grand opening today, July 31st!  With a focus on trauma informed, inclusive tattooing, Lora and her team have created a safe and clean space for bodies of all shapes and sizes to get their dream piece.  If you're looking for more info, be sure to check out their for updates, finished pieces, and bios on all the different artists and creators working at the stu

This week I learned "squib jackets" are a thing. Like, I always knew about jackets. And with Alex doing SFX makeup I'm aware of what squibs are. But combining the two was never a concept I had thought of until this week's guest, Paul Drechsler-Martell, casually mentioned wearing one on the set of Daredevil a few years back. You see, Paul is a stunt performer. He does the dangerous things you might see in a movie or television show that other people either physically or legally can't do. For example, in Daredevil he had to get shot by pretend bullets a bunch of times while literally everything else in the room exploded around him; hence the need for the aforementioned squib jacket.  We've known Paul for years dating back to our time at the local theme park where we tried to entertain people while not sweating to death. But since then, Paul has been a busy man doing stunts for programs like Gotham, The Blacklist, Mr. Robot and tons more. A quick glance over at his will show you the rest but I think you get the

If I'm reading our own website correctly, it has been over two years since the last full appearance of our dear, dear friend Brett Kelley. That fact will shock any longtime listener as Brett holds many records within the OMV universe and there was a time when he was making appearances on a weekly basis. Luckily, recording a podcast with Brett is just like riding the proverbial bike and despite the long hiatus we still managed to stay (mostly) on track and lay down a pretty sweet episode for you all. Especially if you like D&D and getting mad about D&D. And art. We also talked about art and artists and artists on Twitter. Because art. If you're new here, this may be your first time experiencing Brett on the show but we can say with confidence that it certainly won't be the last time you'll see him drop by. If you're looking for more of him and his work, check out the or just type "Brett" into the search bar on our site and see the literal dozens of episodes he's been featured on. Enjoy! -Jr.

Jim Calafiore is back! It's been a while since we've seen him (or anyone) at a con, and even longer since we last got to chat on our show; but Jim is back with us this week and, as expected, we're talking comics. Specifically, we're talking Ned. Ned is your average guy. Like the rest of us, he's got his share of problems - relationship troubles, deceased family members, zombie roommates. His father is one of the Lords of Hell. You know, the usual stuff. We were first introduced to Ned and his family in the first volume of Ned, Lord of the Pit last year. Now, Jim is Kickstarting the 2nd volume to continue the story of everyone's favorite future hell-lord. Currently, the campaign has a few weeks left before time is up so we thought it would be the perfect time to talk with Jim about the book, his process, and the challenges involved with writing, penciling, inking, and coloring a horror-comedy all by yourself. Check out for more info or search for it on Kickstarter while you still have the chance! Enjoy! -Jr.

I have a dumb brain. When it comes to symbolism, interpretation, and open-endedness, my brain just does not compute. If something doesn't have a clear meaning or ending, I'm pretty much immediately on Google trying to get other people to explain what I just saw and/or read. It's not for a lack of trying, I genuinely try to figure things out...but this big, dumb brain of mine doesn't like it. With that said, upon reading some of the Three Panel Crimes comics on Instagram, my dumb-brainness kicked in a couple of times. Each comic is three panels long and has no dialogue. The panels can sometimes be extremely detailed with tons of story told in a single image and if you're not paying attention it can be easy to miss an important clue. Long story short: you gotta use your brain. But once you get your brain going you'll quickly realize how damn good these comics are. Three Panel Crimes is written by Tony Fabro and over the last few years he and his ever-expanding team of artists and collaborators have put together

It appears Spring has officially sprung because my sinuses have been in a constant state of explosion for the last few weeks. It's been a rough allergy season but luckily they gave me a few hours of relief, long enough for us to chat with a comic pro in ! Jamal has been involved in the comics world in some way, shape, or form since the early 90s. He's worked on books for just about every major publisher whether it's DC, Marvel, Image, etc. You name it, he's probably done some work there. He's a true veteran of the industry and in 2011 he was honored with the Inkpot Award for Achievement in Comic Art. For those looking to check out Jamal's work but don't have easy access to his runs on Green Lantern, Supergirl or any of the other dozens of books he's worked on, you can check out the new series from Ahoy Comics called The Wrong Earth: Night & Day with issue 5 hitting the stands next month! With Tom Peyer on the script, Jamal has been putting out some fantastic art to a really fun story. Be sure to check out

I got my 2nd Covid vaccine shot today and as of this writing I'm feeling great but, given all that I have read and seen on the internet, that's subject to change within the next few hours. So, I'm writing this the day before posting in the hopes that my planning ahead will work out for the best and all I have to do is click "publish" tomorrow afternoon. And yes, I usually write these posts that no one reads mere minutes before posting the episodes...what can I say? I'm a lifelong procrastinator. Annnnnnnyway. We have an extra long episode for you this week but it's with good reason: we got to talk with . For those who might be unaware or unfamiliar, Ben is an incredibly talented artist and writer who co-created 30 Days of Night and also created titles such as Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse, Welcome to Hoxford, and he recently started his own Instagram webcomic . We cover a pretty wide range of topics in our chat with Ben, but if you're looking for more or want to support him and his artistic endeavors, you can ch

This episode is all about old friends, new friends, and the rad things they make. In this case, it's a graphic novel called The Monuments and, as of this writing, it's currently crushing it over on . The aforementioned friends? Well longtime listeners of the show will be thrilled to hear that is making his long-awaited return and this time he's joined by one of his creative partners-in-crime, ! Michael and Mike along with Oliver Mertz have created an amazing new world and after years of planning and collaboration, they're finally ready to bring the story to life. Even though the campaign is already more than halfway completed, and even though they've absolutely demolished their goal and subsequent stretch-goals, we still couldn't wait to chat about this book. Gigantic mechs? Unsolved mysteries spanning hundreds of years?  Past/present timelines slowly revealing the truth? Sign me up. Take my money. Check out our chat with Michael and Mike, learn about The Monuments and, if there's still time, head on over t

So The Snyder Cut happened. It's been a while since we did the whole "let's ramble about the latest blockbuster movie" so we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to do just that. With this being a discussion about movies, we also thought it would be fun to include our good friend Jared Skolnick in the conversation seeing as he writes, directs, and appreciates movies better than we could ever imagine. This is probably a good time to mention that Jared has a and a that you can check out (featuring many familiar faces to those lucky few who have seen some of our real human faces). It should also be noted that, per usual, this discussion contains some tasty, tasty SPOILERS. So if you haven't seen the flick yet and you don't want literally everything ruined, watch it first before listening to our voices. With that said, check out our ramblings as we discuss the characters, the plot, the things we liked and the things that made us question our sanity in the 4+ hour marathon that was The Snyder Cut. Enjoy

Another year of casting pods has come and gone and this one, despite the odd circumstances and ongoing global pandemic, was a pretty solid banger. Of course, I'm biased. But after listening to the yearly montage that Alex put together featuring some of the best clips and snippets from the last year, you'll understand where I'm coming from. This recap is the longest one yet so I'm going to do my best to keep this short. With that said, we talked to some incredible people over the past 23 episodes and per usual, we can't thank them enough for coming on the show. This has been a challenging 12 months but being able to talk with artists, creators, musicians, and everything else in-between made it just a little bit easier. And at the end of the day, if we were able to provide you with some escape and entertainment, then I'd say it was all worth the effort. Enjoy! -Jr. Audio Credits: "Coin-op Worlds" "Arcade Puzzler" "Arcade Heroes" "Arcade Goblins"   by Eric Matyas

You're going to want to set yourself a reminder for March 2nd. I realize that doesn't make any sense at the moment, but bear with me because this week we're talking about a rad little card game called "Doomlings". To put it simply, Doomlings is described as "A delightful card game for the end of the world" and it's coming to Kickstarter soon on, you guessed it, March 2nd! We're especially psyched about this one because while Doomlings is cute and easy to learn, it's also surprisingly strategic and we had the absolute pleasure of talking with two of the developers, , all about the creation, development, and challenges that went into creating such a neat game about the world ending. Alex has already posted some videos over on our showing a quick run-down of the game and some mechanics. But if you wanted to learn more be sure to check out the , subscribe to their newsletter and keep your eyes peeled for the March 2nd Kickstarter launch! Enjoy! -Jr.

With the last episode being such a major departure from what we typically talk about here on OMV, it would probably be a good idea to get back to basics and start talking about comics, movies, and videogames again. But we didn't. We kinda did. But we mostly didn't. Have I completely lost you yet? I hope not because this week we got to talk with a super rad guest in musician and YouTuber Christina Pepper! Christina is a professional pianist who has been uploading pieces to YouTube for over a decade now. While that is a feat in and of itself, in 2018 she expanded the channel to include accompaniment tracks with the intent of helping other musicians practice when a pianist isn't readily available. With the pandemic obliterating everyone's plans for almost all of 2020 and now the beginning of 2021, I don't think anyone would fault Christina for taking it easy and putting her channel on hold for a bit. But she didn't. In fact, according to her video feed she has uploaded almost 20 videos in the last month alone. S

So, yeah. This one is a bit of a departure from our normal song-and-dance. Rather than discuss the latest happenings in the comics world, the next neat thing coming to Kickstarter, or bothering one of our friends to come on and talk about Star Wars or something....we took a dive into the world of diamond hands and rocket ships. Hedge funds and short squeezes. Folks. We're talking about the stock market. One could make the argument that "hey, it's GameStop! Videogames! OMV talks about videogames all the time!" but it really has almost nothing to do with videogames. But, seeing as it's a massive, game changing moment in history that, to this day, is evolving and yet unresolved we thought we take a stab at talking about it. One thing to note that's probably pretty obvious but needs to be stated: Neither of us are financial professionals and nothing said in this episode should be taken as advice. With that said, we hope you enjoy our attempt at explaining this whole thing. At the very least, maybe some of the mem