Hands down, nothing beats getting in on the ground floor of an indie comic. I have yet to be disappointed with anything that involves so much energy and excitement as a creator owned and published comic. Long ago it was difficult to get these projects off the ground but thanks to Kickstarter, it’s a hell of a lot easier these days. For instance, Justin Gray‘s newest labor of love is Jail Bait & Trailer Trash.

I got the chance to see an almost final copy and it is everything you’d expect from one of the dudes that brought you Sex and Violence: Volume 2 a couple of years ago. Read on for more information!

I love a good indie comic book series; especially one with an exhilarating story, witty dialogue, amazing action sequences, stellar illustrations, an ex-mercenary monkey, and giant, killer robots. Yeah, Jake Smith‘s This Off Beat Town is my kind of book.

After a successful Kickstarter campaign for the first issue, Jake is back with the quirky, “off beat” characters that make the city of Nero so entertaining. With a goal of $10,000 for issues two through four, Jake’s new campaign has already raised almost 90 percent with 15 days to go, and has some awesome rewards as well!

I was able to speak with Jake about his project and am happy to share the interview with all of you here at Geeks of Doom. Check it out below along with his Kickstarter campaign video!

On this week’s Drill Down podcast, “Rogues and Resistance,” Science and the National Parks go rogue, tech’s response to President Trump‘s immigration ban, Oculus loses a $500M suit, a human/pig hybrid, and more.

GWAR!

Seriously, if that one word doesn’t make you smile and lean forward to read more, then your whole life has been a sham or you’ve been living under a rock. But not a good rock, more like a Nickelback version. Some folks look to KISS or Alice Cooper as leaders in the world of on-stage antics. However, GWAR beats them hands down, along with almost everyone else, for pure entertainment and shock effect. I first saw them thanks to an ex-roommate of mine, John Stange, a life-long fan. So there we were, watching The Skatenigs open up for what turned out to be one of the best shows I saw in the nineties: GWAR live in concert. With goo-spewing guns that shot a variety of substances (don’t ask) into the crowd and a particularly graphic scene involving the disemboweling of a variety of public figure effigies, their presence rivaled that of my own favorite band, Skinny Puppy! I left drenched and smiling; what more could I possibly want? Well, how about a five-issue comic book series from the shock rock metal monsters themselves? That’s right, GWAR comics! And they have named it GWAR: Orgasmageddon, which didn’t surprise me at all. Plus, in addition to the comics, a plethora of GWAR collectibles have been made available to fans. That’s right, this is a Kickstarter fundraiser where you pledge your hard-earned money and help make the concept a reality and you get cool stuff for doing it!

You may not know the name of Mike Diana, but you should. He is an underground comic artist who courted controversy and tackled challenging and provocative subject matter in his self-published series Boiled Angel. His gleefully, graphically grotesque artwork, influenced by comics legends like Bernie Wrightson and Jack Davis, depicted acts of sex and violence and was definitely not for all tastes.

One particular issue of Boiled Angel sold to an undercover police officer in his small Florida town led to Diana being ensnared in an ongoing murder investigation in the town of Gainesville and the first artist unjustly prosecuted and jailed on charges of obscenity. The Kafkaesque turn of events that resulted in Diana being banned during his three-year probation from producing any drawings or writings and becoming a lightning rod for artistic censorship is the subject of The Trial of Mike Diana, a new documentary from cult horror filmmaking legend Frank Henenlotter (Basket Case, Brain Damage). A Kickstarter campaign has been released for the documentary, and you can learn more about it and watch a trailer below.