As January comes to a close, we're taking your listener questions!

On this week's show, we're very happy to welcome Columbus Post Dispatch business reporter and author of the new book Comic Shop: The Retail Mavericks Who Gave Us a New Geek Culture, Dan Gearino! We talk with Dan about what it takes to run a comic shop, whether you have to be a fan to do it, the rise of Diamond as the only comic book distributor, Funko Pop displays, Urkel, and so much more! Plus, we answer a follow-up listener question!

In our first regular episode of the year, we're ranking some comic book characters sent in by you, the listeners!

Almost caught up! And in this special, we rank the Story of the Beast!

We're kicking off 2018 with our annual awards show, with categories (categordies?) submitted by you, the listener!

This year, we exchange our gifts at the grandest theme park of them all, Dollywood!

We got a letter from the government. The Special Bureau of Specials, to be exact. And they said that the only way we could keep doing Christmas specials every year was to watch some other Christmas specials and discuss them. So that's what we did! Luckily, RJ Edwards and Ian Holliday, the hosts of the HARK! podcast, dropped by to help us out. Merry Christmas!

We're almost caught up on ranking stories! Here's the newest 2-hour batch of ranks.

Matt's not here this week, so Chris is joined by special guest cohost Chris Rohling for quite possibly our Christmasy-est non-Christmas special ever! Longtime friend of the show Jeff Parker joins us this week for a holly jolly deep dive into a story he wrote 12 years ago: "Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santron." We talk about trying to make Gravity happen, working backwards from an ending, and of course, the magic of Christmas!

Our pal and fellow Garfield Gathering attendee Daniel Kibblesmith joins us on this show this week to talk about his new book, Santa's Husband, his upcoming run on Quantum and Woody, and much more! Plus: You know we go in depth on Doomsday Clock, right? We do.

We're back with another Every Story Ever Special this month as we make up for lost time!

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We spent some of our holiday week ranking some comics characters.

Our good friend and resident werewolf expert Kel McDonald is back this week to talk about her new project, "You Are the Chosen One," worldbuilding, smooching monsters, the smells of medieval fiction, getting metatextual, Buffy, TV show title cards and much more! Plus, Chris and Matt answer one of your listener questions!

The publishers of The Devastator are back to talk about their new Wet Hot American Summer Fantasy Camp RPG! We get into it with them about game design, appealing to fans of both the movie and gaming, Geoffrey's near-unbelievable bio, character creation, getting the blessing of the Wet Hot crew, preferred classes, fighting over who gets to be a can of vegetables, and much more! Plus, we take a listener question from Tumblr!

Yes, it's November, but we're making up for lost time and catching up on our story-ranking specials! So I named this one for the first one we missed. Check back before the end of the month for October's, then another two in December!

We're ranking characters in this, the first episode of the holiday season! A few characters manage to challenge for the bottom of the list, too! Do any of them get that coveted bottom spot?

On our annual Halloween episode, Hector Plasm writer Benito Cereno joins us to talk about your listener-submitted Ajax Dreams! We also talk about horror movies, Carman, the Christian rap(?) group DC Talk, our own nightmares and a whole lot more!

We're spookily exicted to welcome Tini Howard, writer of the new Hack Slash: Resurrection series, back to the show! Also, Chris is back! And we haven't missed a step, because we're talking about inscribed weapons, horror/comedy, the terror of ladder matches, unsung slasher movies, enjoying the sensation of being scared, and much more! Plus, we finally return to raking characters on the Panel President list!

Our pal Chris Haley joins Matt to shoot the breeze and answer listener questions this week! Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is discussed at length, as are soup, cereal, Dark Nights: Metal, Jon Kent, horror movies and lots more!

This week, we're very pleased to welcome back Katie Schenkel, the writer of Moonlighters, to the show as guest co-host! We chat about adapting Moonlighters into a musical, balancing comedy and spooky stuff, what the chaw of vaping would be, digital comics formatting, vampires vs. Frankensteins, and much more!

This week, we're extremely pleased to welcome the artist and writer of the Spidey Zine and the upcoming The Immortal Bro, Hannah Blumenreich! We talk about personal experiences with bros, drawing extremely pretty characters, fan comics, the idea of a "huge" Spider-Man, the Highlander of bros, and much more! Plus, guest co-host Kieran Shiach and Matt take a listener question!

Chris is off this week, so Matt's welcoming guest host James Leask, formerly of ComicsAlliance, into the mix! We discuss food at length, as well as whether Warpath vapes, Destiny 2, which celebrities should join Alpha Flight, McNugget Buddies, and much more!

With Dr. McNinja recently wrapping up and Gwenpool going strong, we asked Christopher Hastings to come by and talk about his work on both, as well as topics including breaking the fourth wall, collaborating with Gurihiru, how it feels to end a long-running webcomic, bringing real-world characters into a comics world, explaining characters who may not exactly be what they seem on the surface, and much more! Plus, Chris and Matt take a listener question!

For this week's episode, we're happy to welcome two of the creators behind the Champions of Hara board game and tie-in comics, game designer Walter Barber and artist Jason Piperberg! We talk about building a multimedia project, game mechanics, fleshing out game characters with comics, using bright colors, loud sirens, our optimal hybrid animal monsters, legacy games and much more! Plus, we add some new characters to the Panel President list!

Matt and Chris are catching up and answering a few listener questions on this chilled-out Labor Day episode!