User:Fforde/ELR

In 2001, ExtraLife originally began as a web comic based on all topics in the realm of geekdom, everything from video games, technology, to movies. Shortly after the comic's launch, a podcast in the spirit of the comic was begun, and in January of 2007 a companion video podcast entitled ExtraLife TV was launched.

Comic
The humor comes primarily from jokes on computer games and/or internet slang. It is drawn in a post-modern surreal style by hand and colored in photoshop. Some of the humor does veer off into toilet humor at times. Users have participated in making the punchlines on occasion.

This comic is regularly republished at mmorpg.com. It is also frequently a part of Joystiq.com's Weekly Webcomic Wrapup.

In January 2007 MajorSpoiler.com featured ExtraLife in their top 57 webcomics, ranking ExtraLife the 9th best webcomic on the internet.

Podcast
Extralife Radio began in 2001 (archive.org), is recorded weekly and is hosted by Scott Johnson. When the show originally began, the term podcasting had not been coined and the RSS 1.0 specification had only just been written, so it was not technically a podcast. It was however available via electronic distribution through an MP3 download at extralife.com. While ExtraLife Radio has gone through multiple forms and it has not been continually produced since 2001, it is one of the oldest podcasts on the internet. The latest incarnation of ExtraLife Radio began on May 25th, 2005, with Scott as the only member of the show. While the podcast, entitled ExtraLife Radio, is not the oldest member of the ExtraLife family, it is quickly becoming the most prominent.

Since it's incarnation, ExtraLife Radio's format has evolved into a panel discussion form with several regular guests and regularly occurring segments including ELR News, Crappy Movie of the Week, and How Were the Graphics. The show also commonly features Dean Cain and Future Sport references, Inside Baseball, and other non sequiturs. There is a regular panel of four people and often additional guests are welcomed on the show.

Extralife Radio also boasts strong listener interaction. From very early on the listening community has played a large role in the show, including call-ins, content contribution, and suggestions for topics of discussion. The most notable instance of community interaction is Andrew's time on the show. Originally he was only a listener but became a regular member of the show for almost 100 episodes.

ExtraLife Radio currently has approximately 15,000 unique listeners. 

Other Panel Members
Obsidian or "O" - Creator of the webcomic COMMISSIONED and a fantasy artist/illustrator. A popular running joke on the show is the fact that he is Columbian, leading to taunts such as "Obsidian's internet connection is made of bamboo and cat hair", and a deliberate "confusion" between Columbia and Mexico. (Although all the regular panel members taunt each other's locations, Obsidian receives more taunts than the others.) He has been given his own segment on the show, entitled "Ask O" or, more recently, "Ask the Columbian", in which listeners send in questions in hope of receiving O's sometimes bizarre advice (for example, once claiming that he attracted women by the means of a liquid secreted from a special gland that only he had, and offering to sell listeners bottles of this liquid) or simply to ask for information that they find interesting, for example, which D&D campaign setting he prefers to use.

Brian Dunaway - Creator of the webcomic A Mission Deep (which is not a pornography site as often referred to by Scott). Brian lives in South Carolina, and, like Obsidian and Andrew, is the recipient of taunts due to this, mostly around the idea that the inhabitants of South Carolina are all yokels or country bumpkins. (For example, at one point it was declared that Brian rides a pig to work.)

Andrew - Andrew is currently not a member of the show but was a regular panel member from the earliest episodes up until episode #120. He was originally a listener who was invited on as a guest host and eventually became a regular member of the ensemble. Along with Scott Johnson, he is also co-host of ''The Instance, a popular World of Warcraft podcast. He lives in Florida, which is mockingly referred to as the "wang of America" by Scott Johnson, and like Obsidian, receives taunts about his location in Florida, although to a lesser degree. He also has a regularly update blog, [Cranial Jacks & Converse]. Recognized as being a vast source of "geek" knowledge, to the extent that he has been given a segment named "Stump Andrew", in which listeners attempt to present an obscure "geek" question which he is unable to answer. Occasionally this segment will be themed, for example, all questions will be on Dungeons and Dragons.

Mark - Long-time friend of Scott Johnson (he also lives in Utah) and for a period was a regular panel member, actually joining the conversation from Scott's house. Long-running jokes by the other panel members was to question Marks sexuality and to refer to him as the "Other Guy".

Other panel members have included Scott's friend and neighbour Jeff (the "Other Other Guy" or "New Guy"), Len Peralta of the Jawbone Radio podcast, Rico (Rick Dostie) of the Treks in Sci Fi podcast, Scott Ramsoomair of the VG Cats webcomic, Pontus Madsen of the Little Gamers webcomic, modding enthusiast Sasa, Kristin from the Manic Mommies Podcast and Scott's wife Kim, among others.

Blog
The site also features Scott's News Blog. The Blog is Scott's direct connection to his readers and listeners. He is known to update his Blog many times a day and highly encourages readers to use the comment feature. He posts anything and everything that he finds interesting. However he has now expanded allowing certain people to update his blog on a regular basis meaning more updates.