We held off on an individual spotlight for a bit so we could bring you a HUGE spotlight: it’s the Shots in the Dark team! In the shot above, pictured clockwise from left, are Vince, Janelle, Imoticon, Lucas and Michael Madsen. Yes, the REAL Michael Madsen. The Shots in the Dark crew doesn’t mess around. Read on to meet Lucas, Janelle, Vince, The Viceroy, Imoticon, and John after the jump, or watch the latest episode right now!

Name: Lucas Siegel

Shots in the Dark team position: Co-Producer, Booking

Specialty: Comics, tech, anime, random knowledge

Things I do: Newsarama.com, ShotgunReviews.com, Truman College Newspaper Arts and Entertainment Editor, Generally kick-ass, Get linked to by Rolling Stone

Interests: Comics, video games, writing (creative and journalism), all the geeky stuff we talk about on the show, Da Bears, making fun of Vince, trolling/giving negative karma to JB on our forums (found at shotgunreviews.com/shots/forum)

Name: Janelle Siegel

Shots in the Dark team position: co-host/token girl

Specialty: smart assery, comics, saying “your mom” at inconvenient moments, video games (The Sims 2 in particular), manga, and using my boobs to get my way.

Things I do: copy-edit Newsarama (can I say that? I think you know the link but might want to clear with Matt), Shotgun Vlog (http://www.youtube.com/user/SitDShow), write for Shotgun, and co-host SitD. To pay the bills: office administrator for fashion designer Andria Lieu - website still in development.

Interests: Your mom. Ha. Seriously: comics (love Fables, X-Men, Birds of Prey, and Suburban Glamour), manga (Fruits Basket, Ouran High School Host Club, Nana, Vampire Knight), video games (The Sims 2, Final Fantasy 2/4-8, SSX, Burnout, Smash Bros.), books (favorite authors include Stephen King, L.M. Montgomery, and John Irving), my husband, animals (especially our cats Monkey and Chicken!), TV (favorite show ever = Veronica Mars, favorite show currently on TV = Lost), movies (Empire Records, Gone With The Wind, and Lost in Translation), music (I <3 U2), and editing (I hates the bad grammars).

Name: Vince Scalabrino

Shots in the Dark position: Co-Producer, Marketing

Specialty: Retro video games, Non super-hero comics and pop culture obscura: Dr. Who, 80’s animation, vintage computer tech and games, robots, etc.

Things I do: Digital marketing (www.icrossing.com), voiceover acting (www.voiceofvince.com - Coming soon!), audio and video production (www.shotgunreviews.com/shots), writing (Right here on www.shotgunreviews.com).

Interests: See specialties. Vince is also a casual harmonica player, snowboarder and unabashed Karaoke lover. He blogs on very rare occasions @ vscalabri.livejournal.com. There are rumors he is also in the early stages of development of his very first novel.

Little Known Fact: Vince once got up in front of 500-some Motorola employees and their former CEO, Ed Zander, and sang 12 bars of Cole Porter’s “Night and Day”, in the style of Ol’ Blue Eyes. In case you were wondering, he no longer works at Motorola.

Name: The Viceroy

Shots in the Dark team position: Co-Founder, on-air talent, and random odds & ends support

Specialty: Video Games, Tabletop & Board Games, Collectible Card Games, random facts of nostalgia (Like Vince only more extensive & random!), as well as general geek-ese and geek-isms. Oh, and making everyone wonder who is the man behind the mask…

Things I do: Senior System Designer at an unnamed “super secret” video game company, part-time entertainer at Chicago Bulls basketball games, and Voice Overs if he ever has the time (demo tape is just about done!), typically speaks of himself in the third person

Interests: See Specialties & Professional sections above. In addition to those, The Viceroy also has an analyst streak in him and follows most of the Chicago pro teams (Bears, Bulls, Cubs). The Viceroy also dabbles with building with LEGO and has a fond appreciation Cartoons & Animation. The Viceroy would like to write again at some point as well…

Little Known Fact: The Viceroy could have been one of the ‘contestants’ on the TV Show “The Pickup Artists”, but decided against it.

Name: Imoticon AKA Steve Scalabrino

Shots in the Dark team position: On-Air Talent

Specialties: Movies, TV, Games (FPS,Action,Fantasy)

Things I do: Acting (stage, print and TV), retail gigs to cover the gaps (Starbucks and the like).

Interests: Airsoft, Movies/TV, All things of 80’s, good sushi restaurants, know any?

Name: Halcylon AKA John Stvan

Shots in the Dark Team position: Graphic Designer / Cinematography Lead, On-Air Talent

Specialties: Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Call of Duty Series (Any First Person Shooter, really), Star Wars (Movie and Book form), Graphic Art, Digital Art

Things I do: Graphic design (www.gravityforcegraphics.com), Video producing/ editing (www.shotgunreviews.com/shots), Bungie.net user/abuser (Halcylon’s Profile).

Interests: See Specialties. Anything involving the color blue (It’s the only color I can truly see well). I have read almost every book available regarding String Theory, partake in skiing in Colorado and have acted in plays and movies since high school (almost a decade of work in all). I have a fuzzy kitty named Sierra who is a dog in disguise (she barks and plays fetch). In case you didn’t already guess, I enjoy long drawn out conversations regarding anything to do with myself. =)

Look! It’s our boy Caleb!

As he himself says at his blog, the sublime “Every Day is Like Wednesday“: J. Caleb Mozzocco is a freelance writer based in Columbus, Ohio. You can read his writing on comics in Las Vegas Weekly every Thursday and the Best Shots column at Newsarama.com every Monday.

Our man in Columbus has certainly been busy lately. Take it, Caleb!

“This week on Every Day Is Like Wednesday…

Last weekend was Billy Ireland Weekend, a three-day look at somewhat forgotten early 20th century Columbus cartoonist Billy Ireland, occasioned by OSU Cartoon Research Library Lucy Shelton Caswell’s book and lecture. You can read it here, here and here.

Golden Age Wonder Woman and her mom used Amazonian technology to tell us who isn’t going to win this fall’s presidential election.

Rumors of the Martian Mannhunter’s impending demise occasioned a look at just how hard it is to kill J’onn J’onnz.

Wednesday night saw the weekly review of all the super-comics that followed Caleb home from the shop.

Thursday brought the weekly EDILW link-dump, including a review of Therefore Repent!

And, finally, to help kill time while watching the State of the Union speech, Caleb takes us on a poorly photographed personal tour of all the comics art and comics-like art hanging on his walls.”

I should also note that Caleb often runs hilarious cartoons featuring comic characters in uncomfortable situations, such as Batman giving Christmas gifts, or this gem, wherein Caleb accidentally introduces Black Lighting to J.E.B. Stuart.

Check out his work, won’t you?

Welcome to our new series that (obviously) highlights our contributors! First up, our priestess of the Lyrical Lounge, hip-hop reviewer and interviewer Angelica LeMinh.

Angelica hails from Canada, and she’s presently extremely busy up there. She writes a monthly sex column for “a lovely glossy” in Monteral called Nightlife; here’s a sample. Angelica also writes for Pound, which is the national Canadian hip hop magazine.

You can also check out stuff from Angelica at these NY based e-ventures: The Industry Cosign and natcreole.com (I wrote a big essay a little while ago called “Hip Hop is not dead, bitches”).

Her home away from Shotgun is her own blog, www.trueurbanlegends.blog.com

If you have a moment, show some love for the work of the constantly-writing Ms. LeMinh, all right?