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- 🇳🇿NZ · Visual Arts#893K to 10K
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900 to 3K🎙 Daily cadence·370 episodes·Last published 6d ago - Monthly Reach
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On the show
From 11 epsHost
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Recent episodes
Lupin III Treasure of the Sorcerer King with Robbie Sherman (Conversations with Robbie Sherman)
May 10, 2026
Unknown duration
Over the Hedge with Doug Fink (Walloping Websnappers, Novel Gaming, Falling with Style, Skreeonk)
May 3, 2026
38m 21s
The Uncanny X-Men with Adam Williamson and Miles Stokes (Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men)
Apr 26, 2026
57m 42s
Sailor Moon Another Story with Cass Proffitt (Distant Echoes)
Apr 19, 2026
50m 36s
Bartman Meets Radioactive Man with Tommy Proffit (Lee Carvallo’s Podding Challenge, Distant Echoes)
Apr 12, 2026
1h 00m 03s
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| Date | Episode | Topics | Guests | Brands | Places | Keywords | Sponsor | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5/10/26 | ![]() Lupin III Treasure of the Sorcerer King with Robbie Sherman (Conversations with Robbie Sherman) | Buckle up for a PS2 heist where Lupin III swaps manga mischief for blocky stealth antics in Treasure of the Sorcerer King, that 2004 gem channeling Monkey Punch’s rogue into disguises-gone-wrong and treasure hunts that test more patience than finesse. Joining the vault-cracking crew this time is Robbie Sherman from Conversations with Robbie Sherman, dishing on how the game stacks up to the source chaos of Jigen’s aim, Goemon’s blade ballet, and Fujiko’s inevitable backstab. So grab your best disguise and let’s see if you can sneak the treasure out of this one. Either way it’s going to be a blast. Learn such things as: When does homage become IP theft? Does it ever work to retcon multiple unrelated characters into a single one and act like it’s not weird at all? Do you really need those side characters? Can’t we just get rid of all of them and follow the main character exclusively? And so much more! You can Robbie on BlueSky @convoswrob and his podcast Conversations with Robbie Sherman. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in. The next episode is going to be Justice League Heroes for the PS2, Xbox, PSP, and Nintendo DS. So get your thoughts ready and over to me if you want to hear them in the show. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children’s media and how crazy it is that we’re supposed to just forget about that now that we’re adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Another GI Joe Podcast and Campus Comics Cast for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who might have been here the whole time without me realizing it. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.Read transcript | — | ||||||
| 5/3/26 | ![]() Over the Hedge with Doug Fink (Walloping Websnappers, Novel Gaming, Falling with Style, Skreeonk)✨ | video game adaptationscomic strips+3 | Doug Fink | Walloping WebsnappersFalling with Style+3 | — | Over the HedgePS2+6 | — | 38m 21s | |
| 4/26/26 | ![]() The Uncanny X-Men with Adam Williamson and Miles Stokes (Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men)✨ | video gamesX-Men+3 | Adam WilliamsonMiles Stokes | Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-MenUncanny X-Men | — | Uncanny X-MenNES+3 | — | 57m 42s | |
| 4/19/26 | ![]() Sailor Moon Another Story with Cass Proffitt (Distant Echoes)✨ | Sailor MoonJRPG+5 | Cass Proffitt | Distant EchoesSailor Moon: Another Story | — | Sailor MoonAnother Story+6 | — | 50m 36s | |
| 4/12/26 | ![]() Bartman Meets Radioactive Man with Tommy Proffit (Lee Carvallo’s Podding Challenge, Distant Echoes)✨ | BartmanRadioactive Man+4 | Tommy Proffitt | NESGame Gear+4 | — | BartmanRadioactive Man+5 | — | 1h 00m 03s | |
| 4/5/26 | ![]() Dante's Inferno with Adam Williamson✨ | video game adaptationDante's Inferno+4 | Adam Williamson | PS3Xbox 360+3 | — | Dante's Infernovideo game+6 | — | 31m 10s | |
| 3/29/26 | ![]() The Darkness with Sarah of Mars✨ | comic-based video gamesstorytelling+5 | Sarah of Mars | The DarknessTop Cow+1 | New York | The Darknesscomic adaptation+8 | — | 41m 02s | |
| 3/22/26 | ![]() Catwoman (2004) with Billy (Commandercast)✨ | video gamesCatwoman+5 | Billy | GameCubeXbox+3 | — | Catwoman game2004 video games+8 | — | 34m 01s | |
| 3/15/26 | ![]() Constantine (2005) with Merrilee O'Neil (Fear Coded)✨ | video game adaptationtheological horror+3 | Merrilee O'Neil | PS2Xbox+4 | — | ConstantineKeanu Reeves+7 | — | 40m 43s | |
| 3/8/26 | ![]() Robotech the Macross Saga with DC Dave (The Monitor Tapes)✨ | Robotechgaming+4 | DC Dave | Game Boy AdvanceSwitch+2 | — | RobotechMacross Saga+7 | — | 41m 33s | |
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| 3/1/26 | ![]() Yu-Gi-Oh Destiny Board Traveler & World Championship Tournament 2004 with David (Anime Field Guide)✨ | Yu-Gi-Ohvideo games+3 | David | Anime Field GuideYu-Gi-Oh! Destiny Board Traveler+1 | — | Yu-Gi-OhDestiny Board Traveler+3 | — | 1h 02m 12s | |
| 2/24/26 | ![]() Lucky Luke (1996) with Dr. Queso de la Muerte✨ | video gamescomics+3 | Dr. Queso de la Muerte | Game BoyGame Boy Color+1 | — | Lucky LukeGame Boy+5 | — | 49m 14s | |
| 2/15/26 | ![]() One Piece Grand Battle with Janine Juliette (D'ohmance Dawn) | Read transcriptSet sail, button-mashers, because this time Play Comics is diving face-first into One Piece: Grand Battle! that PS2 and GameCube special where early Water 7-era drama gets smooshed into a chaos-filled arena and told to play nice. Expect stretchy punches, loud special attacks, and exactly the kind of character balance you’d expect from a game that assumes “pirate” and “fair” don’t belong in the same sentence. We’re talking Straw Hats, shipyards, and the eternal question: “Is this actually good, or do I just really like yelling ‘Gum-Gum’ every five seconds?” Joining Chris on this voyage is Janine Juliette from D’ohmance Dawn, here to bring big-brain One Piece insight and just the right amount of gremlin energy to keep things interesting. Janine’s got thoughts on how this slice of the anime translates into a brawler, where the game nails the Straw Hats’ personalities, and where it feels like someone skimmed the wiki five minutes before coding a super move. If you’ve ever wondered what happens when a deeply thoughtful One Piece fan is forced to reckon with PS2-era anime jank, this is absolutely your kind of chaos. So grab your controller, your favorite questionable snack, and maybe a backup controller for when Luffy’s rubber nonsense finally pushes you over the edge. We’re digging into how far the game actually gets into the story, why some characters feel terrifying and others feel like they snuck in as a joke, and whether this one belongs on your “must-play” shelf or your “fondly mock from a distance” list. Treasure, friendship, and highly unsafe maritime workplace practices await. Let’s see if Grand Battle! can keep its ship together. Learn such things as: Which Straw Hat shines in an arena brawler and which one feels like they forgot to finish the move set? Is this game might secretly be more fun as a chaotic couch brawler than as a serious competitive fighter? How would the internet have broken if people could have known what was to come for these characters? And so much more! You can find Janine on BlueSky @janinejuliet.bsky.social and of course her podcasts D’ohMance Dawn and Wrestle Girlies. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children’s media and how crazy it is that we’re supposed to just forget about that now that we’re adults, then is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to I am Your Target Demographic and Longbox Review for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who probably has a stuffed Chopper. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics. | — | ||||||
| 2/9/26 | ![]() Marvel Ultimate Alliance with Perry Constantine (Superhero Cinephiles, Japan on Film) | Read transcriptThis week on play comics we ask ourselves what happens if you you can’t decide what you want to make a game about. Should you just give up? Should you really dig into your soul and decide what you’re super passionate about? Should you look and see if there’s any other related media coming out that you can tie this game into? Or should you act like you’re at the end of five different boxes of sugary cereal and justice dump the mall into a single bowl and see what happens? There’s certainly one thing that I made my mind up about this one, and that’s how Perry Constantine from Superhero Cinephiles and Japan on Film needed to come by and help me make sure that I kept everything straight here. And it’s a good thing too because with more playable character than I want to count spread out across 7 consoles upon release and a few more as back catalogs were taken advantage of it would have been really easy to miss something here. So was there an actual story for this game? Or was it just a giant excuse to squeeze in as many tidbits as they could so the other kids would think they’re cool? You’ll have to listen to find out! Learn such things as: Is it possible to have too many characters to pick from? What happens when there’s an actually good original story? Are there any deep cuts that didn’t make it into this one? And so much more! You can find Perry on Bluesky @percivalconstantine.com, Threads @perconstantine, catch some of his writing on Sub Stack or Patreon, or his own podcasts Superhero Cinephiles and Japan on Film, If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children’s media and how crazy it is that we’re supposed to just forget about that now that we’re adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Coffee and Comics and Once Upon a Geek for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who spent forever trying to make the Ninja Turtles show up.<iframe style="display: none;" src="about:blank"></iframe> Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics. | — | ||||||
| 2/1/26 | ![]() Popeye Rush for Spinach with Ryan Estrada | Read transcriptGrab your canned vegetables and your questionable licensed tie-ins, because this week on Play Comics we’re diving headfirst into Popeye: Rush for Spinach on the Game Boy Advance—the game that looked at a classic comic strip about a gruff sailor punching his problems and said, “Actually, what if everyone just… ran a lot instead?” This is a world where the Sea Hag steals the global spinach supply, the solution is apparently time-traveling track meets, and Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto, and Wimpy all agree that the best way to settle things is to sprint through history like someone off-screen yelled “last one there buys lunch.” Helping us untangle this leafy green disaster is the wonderful Ryan Estrada from the comic-making side of the internet, a man who knows exactly what it looks like when characters escape the page and do something absolutely no one asked them to do. Ryan’s here to help figure out how a comic icon who started life in newspaper strips, got famous selling spinach, and spent decades punching sea monsters somehow wound up in a handheld racing game that feels like it was brainstormed during a very strange lunch break. So power up that tiny GBA screen, flex those forearms, and get ready for an episode that’s equal parts comic history lesson, adaptation autopsy, and incredulous laughter at the phrase “Popeye racing game.” Learn such things as: Were our parents lying to us about spinach all these years? What’s the point of dropping plot threads if you never plan on picking them up? Will somebody just bring me a cheeseburger already? And so much more! You can find everything you could ever want to know about Ryan on RyanEstrada.com. Let’s see if anyone can pick out my favorite part. I’ll give you a hint, it’s on the home page. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children’s media and how crazy it is that we’re supposed to just forget about that now that we’re adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Peace Bound and Down – A Wonder Woman Podcast and Carnival of Glee Creations for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who prefers arugula.<iframe style="display: none;" src="about:blank"></iframe> Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics. | — | ||||||
| 1/26/26 | ![]() Lucky Luke (1998) with Insane Ian | Read transcriptHave you ever wanted to live the cowboy life while staying comfortably parked on your couch with a controller in hand? Well dust off that old PS1 and join us on a tumbleweed-tossed adventure into Lucky Luke, the 1998 game that lassos the comic’s wild west flair and corrals it into glorious mid-poly action. This week, Insane Ian from the comedy music frontier rides into town to help Chris figure out whether this comic adaptation shoots straight or ends up misfiring into nostalgic absurdity. We’re mixing comic books, cowboy clichés, and just enough slapstick to keep the saloon doors swinging. It’s part retro gaming archaeology, part cartoon chaos, and part “why did this ever happen?” Come for the shootouts, stay for the laughs, and maybe learn a thing or two about how French cartoonists conquered the Old West one pixel at a time. Learn such things as: How does Lucky Luke’s cheerful swagger hides a deep existential dread about polygon counts? Is Jolly Jumper one of the few horses that Chris isn’t afraid of? Can readers today look past the very of the time racial attitudes of the Luck Luke comics? And so much more! You can find Insane Ian on BlyeSky @insaneian, his music on the Insane Ian Bandcamp page, his videos on the Insane Ian YouTube page (where you can hear if he’s played FF VII), and check out the Funny Music Project that he sometimes contributes to. Also give Ian the appropriate amount of crap for not having enough videos on that new channel, Insane Ian Comics Gaming, yet. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children’s media and how crazy it is that we’re supposed to just forget about that now that we’re adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Gender Pop and The Last Comic Shop for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who probably needs a hug. It’s been a long year already.<iframe style="display: none;" src="about:blank"></iframe> Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics. | — | ||||||
| 1/18/26 | ![]() Robotech Invasion with Greg Sewart (Player One Podcast) | Read transcriptStrap in for the mecha of your dreams, or nightmares, because this week on Play Comics we’re transforming, exploding, and fighting our way through the post-apocalyptic wastelands of Robotech: Invasion, the PS2 and Xbox shooter that said, “You know what would make the Invid Invasion better? A first-person perspective and the ability to pilot a motorcycle that also becomes battle armor!” (Spoiler alert: it actually kinda worked!) This gloriously ambitious action game takes the New Generation saga of Robotech and asks the most important question: what if we gave players the chance to save Earth from alien protoplasmic parasites while somehow managing to keep their sense of humor intact? Featuring FPS combat, transforming Cyclone vehicles, and enough environmental destruction to make any resistance fighter proud, this 2004 adventure proves that sometimes the best way to fight an alien invasion is to embrace the chaos and enjoy the ride. Joining us on this mecha-piloting expedition is the phenomenally talented Greg Sewart from the Player One Podcast, a man who’s been dissecting video games with the precision of a Robotech technician since before most of us even knew what a Veritech was. When Greg isn’t co-hosting one of gaming’s longest-running podcast institutions with fellow ex-games journalists, he’s crafting the delightfully nerdy web series Generation 16 where he breaks down the games that shaped an entire generation with the kind of passion that can only come from actually living through these gaming eras. And here’s the kicker, Greg has intimate knowledge of Robotech: Invasion that’ll make this episode more insightful than your average “let’s talk about this old game” discussion. Here’s a hint, he helped make it. Together, we’ll explore how this game managed to capture the desperate, war-torn atmosphere of Earth under Invid occupation, puzzle through the quirky design choices (inverted camera controls, anyone?), and debate whether transforming on the fly between Cyclone and battle armor is the best or most ridiculous gameplay mechanic ever conceived. Did this game successfully honor the Robotech universe, or did it get a little too ambitious for its own good? How does it stack up against the PS2’s library of anime-inspired action games? And most importantly is the level design actually good, or are we just nostalgia-blinded? Lock and load your favorite energy weapon, adjust those camera settings immediately, and prepare yourself for an episode packed with more robotic transformation sequences than an afternoon spent watching the New Generation arc! Learn such things as: Can a transforming vehicle system be both mechanically interesting AND narratively meaningful to the story? How does working within PS2 hardware limitations affect game design ambitions? Does it get awkward to ask someone how something that they helped create could be better? And so much more! You can find Greg on BlueSky @sewart.bsky.social, Threads @gregsewart, his YouTube Channel @sewart (where Generation 16 is on different playlists for different seasons so I’m linking to the main page), and of course the Player One Podcast. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children’s media and how crazy it is that we’re supposed to just forget about that now that we’re adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Escape the Mojoverse and Invasion of the Remake for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who just wants to find a cute mech to cuddle up with. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics. | — | ||||||
| 1/11/26 | ![]() Fantastic 4 Flame On with Scott Niswander (NerdSync, It's (Probably) Not Aliens) | Read transcriptPicture this: it’s the early 2000s, the first Fantastic Four film is about to hit theaters, and someone at a video game developer says, “You know what would be the perfect way to capitalize on this intellectual property? A side-scrolling action game on the Game Boy Advance where Reed Richards appears to have been replaced by his less scientifically-inclined brother in law (close enough, give me this one) and the Thing is made entirely of texture-mapping nightmares.” Congratulations, you’ve just invented Fantastic Four Flame On! It’s a game that managed to take four of Marvel’s most iconic heroes and somehow make them feel more constipated than a chemistry lecture taught underwater. Joining us this week is the absolutely phenomenal Scott Niswander from NerdSync (the man who can explain the entire Marvel mythos while simultaneously making you question why the Human Torch doesn’t just solve every problem by setting it on fire) and It’s (Probably) Not Aliens (where not even Sue Storm’s force fields could save Ancient Aliens from the debunking). Together we’ll navigate a game so baffling in its design choices that you’ll start wondering if the developers were actually aliens trying to understand human entertainment and coming up just slightly short of the mark. Will our heroes discover that the Game Boy Advance’s technical limitations somehow made this game better than it had any right to be? Can Scott explain why this game exists in a way that doesn’t make all of our brains feel like Alicia Masters trying to sculpt in the dark? And most importantly, does “Flame On” actually let you catch things on fire in any meaningful way, or is it just an elaborate metaphor for combusting under pressure? Strap yourself in for an episode more chaotic than trying to explain Fox’s Fantastic Four continuity to anyone born after 2010. Learn such things as: How do you make the Human Torch work in a side-scroller without just turning it into a horizontal beam-spam simulator? Did Fox’s movie curse extend all the way down to the humble Game Boy Advance? How did Johnny Storm have time to do all this stuff considering the timeline of the movie? And so much more! You can find Scott at The NerdSync YouTube channel, on Twitter @NerdSync or on the NerdSync Patreon page. Also check out It’s (Probably) Not Aliens to hear Scott and Tristan Johnson debunk Ancient Aliens. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads ,@playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children’s media and how crazy it is that we’re supposed to just forget about that now that we’re adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Gender Pop and Distant Echos for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who would make Jiffy Pop with just his hands if he had fire powers.Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics. | — | ||||||
| 1/4/26 | ![]() Snoopy vs The Red Baron with Phil Theobald (Player One Podcast) | Read transcriptAttention, ace pilots and Peanuts enthusiasts! Buckle up your aviator goggles and prepare for some canine combat as Play Comics takes a nostalgic dive into Snoopy vs. The Red Baron, the PS2 and PSP action extravaganza where Charles M. Schulz’s beloved dog finally got his chance to translate his doghouse fever dreams into actual gameplay. That’s right, somewhere out there a development team sat down and thought “You know what the world needs? Snoopy piloting an actual Sopwith Camel and engaging in legitimate aerial dogfights with the Red Baron, the nemesis who has haunted a beagle’s imagination since comic strips were still printed on actual paper.” This episode is guaranteed to be more unpredictable than Snoopy’s victory dance moves and absolutely loaded with more nostalgia than Lucy’s psychiatric booth could ever handle. Joining us for this World War I aviation adventure is the incomparable Phil Theobald from the Player One Podcast, a man who knows retro gaming inside and out and whose encyclopedic knowledge of everything from the Peanuts universe to PS2-era gameplay mechanics makes him the perfect co-pilot for this particular mission. Together, we’ll soar through the skies, investigate how faithfully this game captured Snoopy’s long-running fantasy sequences, and determine whether this particular adaptation is more “Happy Dance” and less “Charlie Brown Disappointment.” Will you discover that this game is a hidden gem that deserved more recognition, or will you find yourself grounded faster than a teenager who borrowed the car keys without permission? There’s only one way to find out! Learn such things as: Why does the Red Baron make for a surprisingly compelling video game antagonist despite being a fictional nemesis? Did the PS2 version feel significantly different from its PSP handheld counterpart, or are they basically the same dog in different houses? Did we really just get an entire Peanuts experience without trombones? And so much more! If you were looking at the post on the website, you’d see the ad for that baseball game that never came out right here. But you’re not, so you don’t. But you could be, so maybe go look at that. You can find Phil on BlueSky @whimsicalphil and of course the Player One Podcast. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children’s media and how crazy it is that we’re supposed to just forget about that now that we’re adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Anime Field Guide and What’s Shakin with Shaner for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who was definitely twitching in the bed but I have no idea why. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics. | — | ||||||
| 12/28/25 | ![]() X-Men the Official Game with Alex Zalben (Comic Book Club) | Read transcriptListen up, mutation enthusiasts and multi-platform adventurers, because this week on Play Comics we’re strapping on our Kevlar suits and diving straight into the bewildering, beast-infested, cross-console chaos of X-Men: The Official Game! We’re talking about the 2006 game that launched on practically every system known to mankind (GBA, GameCube, Nintendo DS, PS2, Xbox, and Xbox 360. Seriously, did they forget a platform?), which based the story nominally on the third X-Men film from Fox. You know, the one that showed us what happens when Professor Xavier and Magneto finally decided to outsource their beef settlement to a video game developer. This particular romp through Marvel’s merry mutant universe was brought to you by the folks who looked at a film featuring Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Iceman and thought, “What if we made this game SLIGHTLY different on each platform?” It’s like they were challenged to see just how elastic the definition of ‘the same game’ could be, and frankly, the results are beautifully inconsistent. The story was co-written by Chris Claremont (yes, THAT Chris Claremont) and Zak Penn, and it featured voice acting from the actual film cast, which means you got Hugh Jackman’s growl in your living room, your handheld, and probably also your neighbors’ living rooms at 2 AM. Joining us to make sense of this portable and stationary pandemonium is none other than Alex Zalben from Comic Book Club, a weekly live talk show about comics that’s been running since 2006, performed at every major comic convention you can think of, written up in the New York Times more than once, and hosted literally hundreds of guests with more swagger than most podcasts muster in a lifetime. Alex is a writer, editor, and podcaster who knows his way around both four-color storytelling and video game adaptations, making him the perfect guide to help us determine whether this cross-generational, cross-console adventure managed to capture what makes the X-Men actually work, or if it just made us wish we could teleport away from our screens. So sync up your Danger Room protocols, pick your favorite handheld or home console, and get ready for an episode that’s guaranteed to be more chaotic than a Sentinel factory explosion and infinitely more confusing than trying to figure out why THIS game exists on THAT console! Learn such things as: Who thought it was a good idea to put this on so many consoles? Is it possible to get that team feeling when you’re playing solo? Is it better to look at this game as a sequel to the 2nd movie, or a prequel to the 3rd movie? And so much more! You can find Alex on YouTube @ComicBookClub and of course Comic Book Club Live. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children’s media and how crazy it is that we’re supposed to just forget about that now that we’re adults, then is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Nerd Best Friends and Escape the Mojoverse for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who has not stopped the face palm from this one yet. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics. | — | ||||||
| 12/21/25 | ![]() Men in Black II Alien Escape with Doug Fink (Walloping Websnappers, Novel Gaming, Falling with Style, Skreeonk) | Read transcriptAttention, galaxy defenders and neuralyzer-dodging citizens! This week on Play Comics, we’re suiting up to tackle Men in Black II: Alien Escape, a title that hit the PS2 and GameCube with all the grace of a cockroach climbing out of a dumpster. We are looking at a game that saw the plot of the second movie, shrugged, and decided that what the franchise really needed was a run-and-gun shooter where Agent K looks less like a grizzled veteran and more like an Elvis impersonator midway through a bad Vegas residency. Joining us to figure out why the Class 7 Ozone Demogrifier sounds like a vacuum cleaner you’d buy from a 3 AM infomercial is the omnipresent Doug Fink. You know him, you love him, and you can hear him on Walloping Websnappers, Novel Gaming, Falling with Style, and Skreeonk, all of which are on the Glitterjaw Podcast Collective. Together, we’re diving deep into a game that proves you don’t actually need the likeness rights to your main characters to ship a product, provided you have enough aliens to splatter across a corridor that looks exactly like the last five corridors you just ran through. So put on your Ray-Bans, check your memories at the door, and prepare for an episode that makes about as much sense as putting a Ballchinian in a post office. Learn such things as: Is it possible to base a game on a movie while simultaneously ignoring 90% of the things that happened in said movie? How many times can you fight the same boss with a slightly different color palette before you start rooting for the destruction of Earth? Can you even compare this to the comics or should you just compare it to the movies? And so much more! You can find Doug on BlueSky @ickybooley and of course all of his wonderful shows on the Glitterjaw Queer Podcast Collective, Walloping Websnappers, Novel Gaming, Falling with Style, and Skreeonk. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube or the Play Comics website. If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children’s media and how crazy it is that we’re supposed to just forget about that now that we’re adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out. A big thanks to Comic Book Club News and The Monitor Tapes for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who probably had things to add to this episode, but forgot.<iframe style="display: none;" src="about:blank"></iframe> Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics. | — | ||||||
| 12/14/25 | ![]() Naruto Ultimate Ninja with Cory Byrd (Byrds Eye View Comics) | Read transcriptGrab your custom jutsu hand seals and prepare to feel a crushing sense of inadequacy when comparing your reaction time to a ninja’s because we’re diving shadow clone deep into the first Naruto Ultimate Ninja game on PlayStation 2! This week we’re channeling our inner shinobi to explore how Bandai Namco took Masashi Kishimoto’s legendary manga about a determined orange-suited underdog and transformed it into a frantic button-mashing tournament fighter that somehow convinced an entire generation of fans that they could recreate iconic Naruto moments if they just hit the attack button fast enough and screamed at their TV harder than Naruto himself. Released during the golden age of anime-to-console adaptations, the Naruto Ultimate Ninja games became the de facto way fans could live out their ninja fantasies—assuming your ninja fantasy involves janky camera angles, occasionally unresponsive inputs, and the kind of special effect visual soup that makes you wonder if you’re actually watching a jutsu or if your PS2 is just having a mild aneurysm. With fighters pulled straight from the Hidden Leaf Village and beyond, these games proved that sometimes the best way to honor a beloved manga is to give players the chance to make Naruto fight characters he had absolutely no reason to fight (looking at you, random filler villains). This episode, we’re absolutely stoked to welcome Cory Byrd from Byrds Eye View Comics—a fellow enthusiast of all things sequential art and gaming who can probably explain why Naruto’s popularity transcended manga, anime, AND video games with the kind of clarity that makes marketing departments weep with envy. Together, we’ll investigate whether these games managed to capture the heart, humor, and hyperkinetic energy of Kishimoto’s creation, or if they just left us face-first in the dirt like Naruto at the beginning of the series. So synchronize your chakra, practice your most devastating combo, and prepare for an episode that’s guaranteed to be more chaotic than a Sand Village invasion and infinitely more entertaining than watching filler arcs about onigiri eating contests. Learn such things as: Can a game truly capture the experience of having ninjas solve political problems through friendship when there’s no friendship stat on the screen? How many ninja village headbands would it take to actually run an economy, or is that question unanswerable because the series never bothered explaining it? Is it more important for characters in a fighter to be balanced or accurate? And so much more! You can find Cory on Instagram @ByrdsEyeOfficial, the Byrds Eye View Comics Facebook page, and of course his website Byrds Eyes View Comics. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube or the Play Comics website. A big thanks to Gender Pop and the Glitterjaw Queer Podcast Collective for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who did something really cool but nobody saw it. You know, because of the whole being a ninja thing. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics. | — | ||||||
| 12/7/25 | ![]() Rogue Trooper with Steve Morris (Shelfdust) | Read transcriptLock your squad into formation, charge your bolters, and prepare your genetically-enhanced blue skin for a parade of panzer-busting action because this week on Play Comics we’re putting boots to dirt in the grim, industrial wastelands of Rogue Trooper, the 2005 third-person shooter that took Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons’s iconic tale of a genetically engineered super-soldier and transformed it into a cover-based combat experience that somehow managed to capture the grit, the fury, and the desperate isolation of being a lone warrior against overwhelming odds. Originally deployed across PS2, Xbox, and Wii, Rogue’s had more platform changes than a soldier has armor repairs, eventually landing a remaster invasion on PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, proving that some grimdark British sci-fi concepts just refuse to stay buried in the trenches. Speaking of refusing to stay down, we’re genuinely thrilled to have Steve Morris from Shelfdust joining us for this deep dive. When he’s not busy operating as the marketing manager for 2000 AD itself, essentially being the guy who decides which corner of Judge Dredd’s dystopia gets the spotlight treatment, he’s the critical voice behind one of comics fandom’s most thoughtful, hilarious, and incisive podcast ecosystems. Steve brings both the insider knowledge of how 2000 AD operates AND the fan’s perspective that makes him the perfect guide through this particular adaptation’s journey from glossy magazine pages to console warfare. Together, we’ll investigate whether this hyper-violent squad-based adventure managed to capture what makes Rogue Trooper such an enduring character, a soldier stripped of everything but his wits, his weapons, and three AI companions implanted directly into his equipment. Does the game understand the existential dread of being created solely as a weapon? Can it convey the isolation that defines the character while also providing the kind of multiplayer mayhem that defines the era? And perhaps most importantly: does this game explain why blue skin became the ultimate badge of being expendable in the far future? Grab your tactical visor, synchronize your biometric links, and prepare for an episode that’s more explosive than a Rogue Trooper ambush and considerably more thoughtful than you’d expect from a game about murdering aliens on a lifeless planet. Learn such things as: What happens to character development when your entire supporting cast is literally just AIs living in your equipment? Does covering the same ground across four different console generations change how audiences perceive the story being told? How do you make a character who exists specifically to be expendable actually matter to players emotionally? And so much more! You can find Steve on Bluesky @Shelfdust which makes sense since you can also find him on the Shelfdust website. And if you want to check out the 2000 AD stuff, there’s always and the If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky. A big thanks to the Kickstarter campaign for TEN #1-5 and the new game Murderworld from Austin Auclair for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who is really disappointed that I didn’t do some sort of “war never changes” intro like I did for that one Gundam episode.<iframe style="display: none;" src="about:blank"></iframe> Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics. | — | ||||||
| 11/30/25 | ![]() Spider-Man Battle for New York with Jarett Tyree (Has to Do With Spider-Man, I Think) | Read transcriptWelcome, web-slinging console warriors and handheld hop-scotchers! Prepare your cartridges and grab your controllers, because this week on Play Comics we’re diving into the gloriously chaotic streets of New York with Spider-Man: Battle for New York, the 2005/2006 portable powerhouse that took Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley’s Ultimate Spider-Man universe and somehow crammed all of Manhattan’s mayhem into a GBA and DS-sized punch-up bonanza. Because apparently, someone looked at one of the most beloved comic runs of the 2000s and thought, “You know what this needs? A brawler where Spidey spends most of his time frantically hammering the same three buttons while dodging increasingly ridiculous villain attacks.” Released across Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS, this wasn’t your typical web-slinging adventure—it was more like someone distilled all of Ultimate Spider-Man’s most explosive moments into a side-scrolling arcade experience where the city itself becomes just as much of an enemy as Green Goblin ever was. With a roster of villains pulled straight from the comics and more “beat stuff up” objectives than you can shake a web at, this game proved that sometimes the best way to honor a beloved comic series is to completely reinvent what it means to be Spider-Man. This week, we’re absolutely thrilled to welcome the phenomenally knowledgeable Jarrett Tyree from Has To Do With Spider-Man I Think, who brings an encyclopedic understanding of all things Arachnid and animated to help us untangle whether this game managed to capture the kinetic energy of Bendis’s run or if it just left our webbing all tangled in the wrong places. Jarrett’s the kind of Spider-expert who can probably explain exactly why this game makes the choices it does, while also gently reminding us that sometimes video game adaptations are more “inspired by” than “faithful to” the source material. So strap in your web-shooters, prepare for some serious button-mashing mayhem, and get ready for an episode that explores whether this dual-platform adaptation is a hidden gem of portable gaming or just another case of “well, we had to do SOMETHING with this license.” Let’s see if Battle for New York is worth defending! Learn such things as: How connected to the actual comic storylines is this game, or does it just borrow character names and call it a day? Does an action-packed comic run actually translate better into a side-scrolling brawler than into an open-world adventure? Why do handheld games keep trying to squeeze console-sized epicness into screen sizes that make text completely illegible? And so much more! You can find Jarett as part of Has to do With Spider-Man, I think on BlueSky @smitpod and of course the Has to do With Spider-Man, I Think website. If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky or hear Chris on his other podcast Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine. A big thanks Talkin’ Comix and Orphaned Entertainment for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who would never let us even be at the top of that bridge in the first place.<iframe style="display: none;" src="about:blank"></iframe> Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics. | — | ||||||
| 11/23/25 | ![]() Yu-Gi-Oh Dungeon Dice Monsters with Marcus Stewart (Game Informer) | Crack open your Millennium Puzzle and prepare to roll some incredibly awkward polygonal dice, because this week on Play Comics we’re delving into one of the most bewildering spin-offs to ever stumble out of the Yu-Gi-Oh universe! We’re talking about Yu-Gi-Oh Dungeondice Monsters for the Game Boy Advance—a game so determined to turn Kazuki Takahashi’s trading card phenomenon into a dungeon crawler that it somehow forgot to ask if it should. Joining us for this delightfully confusing journey through Dungeondice Monsters is none other than Marcus Stewart from Game Informer, who’s armed with the kind of gaming knowledge that only comes from actually playing this thing. Whether he’s here to defend it, destroy it, or just figure out what the heck is happening on a 240p screen, we’re thrilled to have his voice in the mix as we attempt to understand why anyone thought “card game meets roguelike dice mechanics” was the logical next step for the King of Games. So lock your monsters in the vault, prepare your dice for rolling, and get ready for an episode that’s far less about card strategy and far more about watching two people gradually lose their minds over a game that inhabits some kind of strange liminal space between “ambitious experiment” and “fever dream at a game arcade.” The dice have been cast. The dungeon awaits. Our sanity? Well, that’s negotiable. Learn such things as: Does the dice-rolling mechanic create engaging strategic depth or just mask random chaos behind a veneer of math? Does the actual Dungeondice Monsters storyline tie-in justify the existence of this video game adaptation at all? Does the very small mention of what this game actually is give young gamers their first instance of bait and switch marketing? And so much more! You can find Marcus over at Game Informer in either digital or physical format or on BlueSky @marcusstewart7 If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in. If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store. Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix. You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky. A big thanks to Piecing it Together and “Fun” &amp; Games for the promos today. Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who rolls dice to see which dice he should roll. Support Play Comics by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/playcomics Check out our podcast host, Pinecast. Start your own podcast for free with no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-89f00a for 40% off for 4 months, and support Play Comics.Read transcript | — | ||||||
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