Nerd Lunch

Michael and Rob are joined by Ben Graham and new guest Nick Casbarro to talk about Nick's novel, Vitalerium: Descent into the Void, and then to determine the greatest spaceship of all time. And of course we determine that the only way we know how: by listing 16 of our favorites, putting them into tournament brackets, and voting on them until only one remains.

Michael and Rob are joined by Joanna from Bloody Popcorn and Shawn Robare to create teams of horror-themed athletes and terrifying events for them to compete in. Who will win the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals? The Hex Pistols? Scare-istocracy? The Grisly Grahams? The Hellboy Hooies? Pick your favorite team and root them on!

Rob, Michael, and Pax finish up this month's Lounge talking about The Oracle Year by Charles Soule, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Superman comics, Batman: Resurrection by John Jackson Miller, Zach Cregger's Weapons, KPop Demon Hunters, and more!

Michael, Rob, and Pax continue their occasional series covering the Predator movies by talking about the original film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, and the introduction of one of the coolest-looking monsters in cinema history. And stay tuned after our conversation for a special rerun of Pax's I Read Movies episode covering the Predator novelization by Paul Monette.

It's Lounging Time again as Rob, Michael, and Pax talk about whatever's on their mind, including French Silk pie, Wonder Woman's daughter, and different ways to use the Pop Culture Eraser.

Michael and Jess talk about Halloween and other spooky things, including the comics Vampire Hunter D: Message from Mars and 30 Days of Night.

Rob, Pax, Jacob, and Michael reconvene our Sherlock Holmes panel to talk about lots of Holmes stuff, including Murder by Decree starring Christopher Plummer and James Mason as Holmes and Watson on the trail of Jack the Ripper.

Michael, Rob, and Pax go back into the Fast and Furious timeline to watch Better Luck Tomorrow, an early Justin Lin film that both he and actor Sung Kang have retroactively declared to be the first appearance of Han from the Fast and Furious series. It's a crime movie, it's a high school movie... it's a Fast and Furious movie? We talk about how well it works in all three of those categories.

Michael, Rob, and Pax welcome very special guest, Tyler Mane (X-Men, Rob Zombie's Halloween) to resurrect an old topic from After Lunch's early days. We each nominate fighters, locations, and complications and discuss Who Would Win? Of course Sabretooth vs Michael Myers comes up, but there are many more epic battles to talk about and argue over.  Be sure to check out Tyler's new graphic novel, The Last Spartan: Red Tape, co-written with Christopher Priest.

Kolchak: The Night Stalker started as a couple of TV movies, but when it became a TV series it struggled and only lasted 20 episodes, finally becoming a cult classic thanks to late night reruns. Michael, Rob, and guests DeAndre and Sophie discuss how they would tweak the series to be even better than it was. And also about what they love and wouldn't want to change.

This is the part of the show where Michael and Jess talk about horror, including this month the graphic novels Heathentown by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman and Plunge by Joe Hill and Stuart Immonen.

For this month's Sherlock Holmes movie, Michael, Rob, Pax, and Jacob go way back to the silent era for Sherlock Holmes starring John Barrymore as Holmes, Roland Young as Watson, and Gustav von Seyffertitz as Moriarty. It's also William Powell's first movie and features Reginald Denny in a small, but important role.

Finishing this month's Lounge, Pax, Rob, and Michael talk about the novel that inspired Gymkata, amusement parks vs theme parks, cozy video games, work spaces, the new Ultimate Spider-Man, and meeting Oscar Goldman.

In this month's Lounge (last month's Lounge, actually, but Summer travelling slowed us down a bit and we're behind), Pax, Rob, and Michael dig deeper into the Superman and Fantastic Four movies than we were able to last time, plus Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Gymkata, and Fantastic Four podcasts, Appaloosa by Robert B Parker, Bono’s memoirs, and more.

Returning to a classic Nerd Lunch topic, Michael, Rob, Becky Tyler, and Ben Graham each pick a single element from a movie or TV show that we want the rights to. And we of course explain what we would do if we had those rights.

Michael and Jess talk about horrific things they've been watching and reading, including the comedically bloody Grizzlyshark comics and the vampire Western graphic novel West of Sundown.

Michael, Rob, and Pax grab their gas guns and hop back into the buzzing car to watch The Green Hornet Strikes Again. Even though it was released in the same year as the serial it's a sequel to, there's a new actor playing Green Hornet (Warren Hull this time, instead of Gordon Jones). But Keye Luke is back as Kato, Anne Nagel as the awesome Case, and perhaps less excitingly, Wade Boteler as the bumbling stereotype Michael Axford. We didn't all love the first Green Hornet serial, so let's see how this one compares.

Jacob, Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about the TV movie Sherlock, aka Sherlock: Case of Evil starring James D'Arcy as the sexiest Holmes at the beginning of his detective career. Vincent D'Onofrio plays Moriarty, Richard E Grant is Mycroft, and Gabrielle Anwar shows up with some crucial information.

Michael, Pax, and Rob finish this 50th Lounge episode talking about celebrities who represent us, Interior Chinatown, X-Men/Star Trek crossovers, Jurassic World Rebirth, the Beastie Boys Book audiobook, and Stinker Lets Loose! by Mike Sacks (aka James Taylor Johnson).

On this 50th Lounge episode, Michael, Pax, Rob - and introducing PJ Holley! - talk about history podcasts, unproduced Superman movies, Sharks Of The Corn, Indiana Jones, The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie, Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books, and how to invade an ensemble TV show.