Welcome to the weird.

Do you have a sweet tooth for nonsense? How about pretty pictures? Possibly something plastic related and awesome?! Then you’re in the right spot! That’s right, if you’re down for reading words or watching things, then FreakSugar is your one-stop shop!

FreakSugar is your new home for indie and geek culture, bringing you the oddest corners of comics, gaming, music, gear, toys, and lifestyle. We’ll bring you the latest in reviews, and interviews, while plumbing the depths of geekdom’s past and present with features.

The Freak Show with Steven Smith (not the sports guy, the white one)

Every week live on FreakSugar from Converse’s Rubber Tracks Studios, Steven and his team of misfits, recap the week’s biggest geek tidbits, sit down (or stand – whatever) with guests ranging from Paul Pope to Fat Mike, and bring you an exclusive like only The Freak Show can.  It’s like The Daily Show but for geeks and we don’t make fun of people, we celebrate them, so not like The Daily Show at all really, more like Tony Robbins but less teeth and lies.

The Freak Show is executive produced by Steven Smith and Mike Cangemi.

The Freak Show

Meet the Freaks

Managing Editor

Jed W. Keith is managing editor for FreakSugar and has been a writer with the site since its start in 2014. He’s a pop culture writer, social media coordinator, PR writer, and technical and educational writer for a variety of companies and organizations. Currently, Jed writes for FreakSugar, coordinates social media for Rocketship Entertainment and GT Races, and writes press copy and pop culture articles for a variety of companies and outlets. His work can also be seen in press releases for the Master Musicians Festival, a Kentucky event that drawn acts such as Willie Nelson, the Counting Crows, Steve Earle, and Wynona Judd. His work was featured in the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con convention book for his interview with comic creator Mike Mignola about the 25th anniversary of the first appearance of Hellboy. Jed also does his best to educate the next generation of pop culture enthusiasts, teaching social studies classes--including History Through Film--to high school students.

Senior Editor, Comics & Lifestyle
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Sean Kleefeld is an independent researcher whose work has been used by the likes of Marvel Entertainment, Titan Books and 20th Century Fox. He writes the ongoing “Incidental Iconography” column for The Jack Kirby Collector and had weekly “Kleefeld on Webcomics” and "Kleefeld's Fanthropology" columns for MTV Geek. He’s also contributed to Alter Ego, Back Issue and Comic Book Resources. Kleefeld’s 2009 book, Comic Book Fanthropology, addresses the questions of who and what comic fans are. He blogs daily at KleefeldOnComics.com.

Senior Editor, Comics

Steve Ekstrom received his Bachelor of Arts in English Literature with a minor in Creative Writing from Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia. From 2007 to 2011 Steve was a leading contributor for Newsarama.com and Shotgun Reviews. Over the past several years, Ekstrom has published comics with 803 Studios, Desperado Publishing/ Image Comics, Zuda/ DC Comics, Tin Star Studios and Top Shelf Productions. He is also an accomplished poet; having received an Academy of American Poets Award in 2001. In October 2014, Ekstrom launched his first ongoing webcomic project, Cannibal Island.

Senior Editor, Gaming

Clint Mize was most recently the Editor of MTV Multiplayer and writer for MTV News focusing on reviews, interviews, and the culture surrounding the world of video games. Prior to that he was the Producer for the MTV Arcade in the MTV Games group. When he's not playing/yelling at video games, he lives by his personal motto - Kawaii in the streets, senpai in the sheets.

War Comics Correspondent
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Ensley F. Guffey is an author and pop-culture historian. He has published academic papers on Breaking Bad, Babylon 5, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Farscape, and Marvel’s The Avengers. His latest academic work is co-editing (with Samira S. Nadkarni) the collection War in the Whedonverses: Essays on Warfare and military Studies in the Works of Joss Whedon. Ensley is also the co-author (with K. Dale Koontz) of Wanna Cook? The Complete, Unofficial Companion to Breaking Bad, and Guffey and Koontz are currently at work on their next book, Dreams Given Form: The Unofficial Companion to the Universe of Babylon 5. Ensley has been reading comics since he could reach the spinner-rack, has presented and lectured on war comics in general and Sgt. Rock in particular, and was the curator of Four Color Culture: Comic Books and American History, 1938 – 2014 at the Reece Museum in Johnson City, TN. In his spare time, he continues to gather material for the perfect Sgt. Rock cosplay.

Diminutive and dangerous, Syd Williamson devours all comic books in her path. Syd first fell in love with the medium as a junior in high school the first time she read Watchmen. A graduate of the University of Central Florida, Syd aims to continue to spread the good word about comics to the unwashed masses and to free all lobsters from their captivity tanks in supermarkets across the globe. She's FreakSugar's Kitty Pryde; let's hope she survives the experience.

Rob Feldman started in the digital world way back in 1995 when he began taking his design creations to the web by coding html from scratch. Since then, he has helped design and launch brands on the web from LA to NYC, working closely with companies to realize their online presence. A designer and Flash animator who emerged from the smoke of the 2000 dot com burst, he is most known for his cult hit series “Dr. Shroud” through his company Earworm Media and is currently working on several comic, animated and film developments. Feldman is a true fan of comics, pop culture and horror, regularly devoting his non-digital time to his family and creating original properties suited for his own 9-12 age level. Rob also builds pretty cool websites, obviously.

Founders and Past Contributors

Co-Founder

People like talking with Steven Smith. Most recently Steven has worked for Chevrolet as their official Music Host; as the host of Midnight Snack for Discovery Networks; and as the host of MTV Geek!, leading MTV's live coverage of Comic Con and chatting with the likes of Stan Lee, Anthony Bourdain, and William Shatner. Steven has interviewed some of music and film’s biggest stars from Grammy Award Winning Green Day and Madonna to Academy Award Winners Hilary Swank and Sir Ben Kingsley. He has hosted for SPIN and was a VJ for VH-1. From there Steven was handpicked by Fuse to host Daily Download, the network’s first live music/talent interview show. Following which Fuse launched Steven's own daily program: Steven’s Untitled Rock Show, which ran an amazing 700 episodes. Steven has appeared on Fox News, ABC Morning News, the Today Show, and is a frequent commentator on CNNs’ Showbiz Tonight. Additionally, he was the Executive Producer for Steven’s Untitled Rock Show, and made his musical debut singing backing vocals on Riot!, the platinum-selling album from Grammy nominated act, Paramore.

Co-Founder

Currently hailing from the backwoods of Kentucky, Lemonjuice McGee has made quite the name for himself in the worlds of collectibles and back-alley clown fighting. His rage, only satiated by a steady supply of pop culture and professional wrestling, had stayed bottled up the last few years thanks to covering the toy and geek industries for MTV, revealing exclusive news, interviews, and action figure reviews to the plastic-addicted masses. Will FreakSugar be able to keep the toy-loving hobo out of trouble-- and the clutches of Johnny Law? Only time will tell...

Co-Founder

Charles Webb has been providing pop culture criticism and new coverage for sites like Comics Bulletin, MTV, Twitchfilm, and Paste Magazine. A video game industry vet, he is a credited writer on multiple titles, most recently working at Microsoft Game Studios. Don't look too much into it, but he is a carbon-based hu-man.

Co-Founder

Jimmy McCain is one half of the New York-based artist collective/creative agency known as Mr. Gif. Jimmy's design work has been featured on the Grammys, the Superbowl, New York Fashion Week, SXSW, Comic-Con, and MTV's VMAs. His past clients include Nike, Coke, Disney, Burberry, Maison Martin Margiela, and the US Open. Mr. Gif was recently featured by Tumblr in their Top Blogs of 2013 showcase.

Co-Founder

Mike Cangemi is a television producer, writer, musician and independent filmmaker. Mike started producing at MTV after a number of projects for MTV, VH1, Comedy Central and ABC. There he served as a producer on all Real World, Challenges & MTV ancillary specials for several years before moving to FUSE TV where he was a producer on the daily live show The Sauce, hosted by Steven Smith & Jared Cotter. Soon after, Mike was hired to produce Steven’s Untitled Rock Show, hosted by Steven Smith. The show included hundreds of celebrity interviews, bands, music videos, field shoots and original skits. At FUSE he also produced for The Rock Show, covering festivals including Sundance, Warped Tour, Projekt revolution, Bonnaroo, VooDoo Experience and Lollapalooza. At MTV Digital, Mike has covered numerous events, produced pilots, and conducted interviews with the members of shows including the casts of Jersey Shore, Teen Wolf, Snooki & JWoww, and Awkward. While there he produced the live-stream finale party for Jersey Shore and a Target-sponsored four-hour live concert event for MTV hosted by Gabe Saporta of Cobra Starship. In 2012, Mike was hired to produce NBC’s New Year’s Eve Live with Carson Daly, producing the live show as well as writing/conducting interviews, intros and skits for the star-studded event. After New Year’s Eve, Mike moved on to produce the Nickelodeon daily live show Nick Studio 10 and from there went to Spike TV where he was a producer for Ink Master Live - a two-hour finale event hosted by Dave Navarro, Chris Nunez, and Oliver Peck. Mike is currently back at FUSE producing a new music-based show called Absolute which takes a deep look at the monumental artists and events that have shaped genres of music.

Tabletop Gaming

Matt Morgan plays tabletop games of all varieties, but his favorites come in boxes with grumpy German dudes on the cover. Previously, Matt covered tabletop gaming for MTV Geek and Wired's GeekDad blog, provided feature content for The Escapist, and produced the Boardroomers live web series. Matt also currently runs the Desktop/Tabletop newsletter, rounding up the best tabletop gaming coverage across the web. Outside of gaming, Matt is active in the maker community, and enjoys organizing his Netflix queue.

A lover of all things film, weird, and nerdy, Tyler “the Wizzard” Whitaker films 24/7 with his trusty troupe of misfits who come together to form That’s A Lot of Fish productions. After being plucked from obscurity by Lemonjuice McGee, Tyler has become an invaluable asset for cinematography and editing at FreakSugar, following their adventures of comic book summaries, toy reviews, and wrestling excursions-- all while using his specific skills of stealth-recording and subpar camera work! He then delves into his professional editing process of duct tape, glue, and long nights in front of his computer to bring these videos of awesomeness to you lucky viewers. Watch the Wizzard at work.

Social Media and Engagement

Sarah Walters has an emotional range comparable to that of a golden retriever. Originally studying behavioral neuroscience at Southwestern University, she branched out to communications in order to work in the video game industry. For the past year, she has worked at Trion Worlds where she now serves as the Community Representative, managing the studio's social media for ArcheAge, RIFT, Defiance, and Trove.

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