Hmm, yeah, there might be a slight Kirby influence here, maybe.
Hey, all! We are back with episode 156, and, uh, I just found out about Robin Williams dying like, um, five minutes ago? So… yeah. I’ve got the show notes I cooked up yesterday, but they won’t be quite as embellished as I’d like them to be since my brain is kinda shut down. My heart goes out to his family and friends and to the man himself. There’s not an official cause of death yet, but if it really was suicide that makes it seem likely that the guy was suffering in one way or another, which is just terribly, terribly sad to consider. I hope he found peace; I wish he could have found it here.
Anyway…yeah. Join me after the jump for show notes, yes?
00:00-21:05: Greetings! Do you believe in psychic powers? Do you believe in Jay-Z and Beyonce? Do you believe that when Graeme describes the hubbub over Jay-Z and Beyonce as “ludicrous,” Jeff misses the opportunity to make a Chris “Ludacris” Bridges reference? Jeff still can’t believe it. Come for the greetings, stay for the guest appearance by Ernie and Gus! We are going to transition in this opening section to the comics talk and I’m not going to make a separate entry about it because I want to be somewhat discreet about what we segue into talking about it, in part because a certain amount of the talk is us discussing it in code, and then arguing about whether we should talk about it. You know how that goes, right? Anyway, depending on how long you’ve listened to us you might find our conversational equivalent of subtweeting either highly informative or utterly baffling.
21:05-49:40: Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers #1 by Joe Casey, Nathan Fox, and Joe Casey! (We think Ulises Farinas doesn’t pop up this issue.) Graeme wrote a review which inspired Jeff to pick the book up. And so, you know, a conversation happened. I don’t know what to tell you—it just…it just happened. Mentioned: Omega The Unknown, both versions. Jonathan Lethem’s Omega The Unknown. Lethem’s oft-unmentioned writing partner on Omega The Unknown, Karl Rusnak. A surprisingly big discussion of Jonathan Lethem’s Fortress of Solitude. David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina. Stephen King’s Dolores Claiborne (1995, director: Taylor Hackford). Michael Chabon’s Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (All of the above are the original versions by Charlton Comics, not the reboots by DC Comics in the mid-90s.) And then we finish up by discussing… Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers #1 by Joe Casey, Nathan Fox, and Jim Rugg! Impressive, right?
49:40-54:09: From a re-creation of a Kirby title, to a book that re-creates a Kirby comic: Nightworld #1 by Adam McGovern, Paolo Leandri, and Dom Regan. Published by Image, funded by Kickstarter, inspired by (at least) The Demon by Jack Kirby. A very fun match with Captain Victory, and a very enjoyable experience for those who don’t mind their books on the pastiche-y side. The image for our post comes from this very comic (in case you couldn’t tell).
54:09-59:49: Graeme didn’t read Nightworld, but he did read the first issue of Terminal Hero by Peter Milligan and Piotr Kowalski. Does this mean we talk Shade, The Changing Man, The Human Target, and the writing of Peter Milligan? Does it ever!
59:49-1:10:29: Graeme’s also read the first issue of The Devilers by Joshua Hale Fiaklov and Matt Triano. Jeff has read the first two issues of Outcast by Kirkman and Azaceta, so get ready for demonic exorcism comics a go-go!
1:10:29-1:15:26: Is Jeff the Death of Comics? Well, obviously—duh!—but not due to any financial stinginess on Jeff’s part. Picked up recently and talked about super-super-quickly are: What Did You Eat Yesterday, by Fumi Yoshinaga (vols. 1 and 2) and The Wrenchers by Farel Dalrymple.
1:15:26-1:51:55: Very quick discussion of some Batman vs. Superman news, and then we talk about Guardians of the Galaxy. (SPOILERS re: Guardians. We pretty much give it all away). And then Jeff talks about Transformers 4 because god damn it he saw it okay and god damn it he liked it. But mainly we talk about Guardians… A LOT.
1:51:55-2:21:39: Graeme asked people for questions on Twitter, as well as posting some amazing stuff on our Tumblr. (You should check these sites out, if you’re not already.) And don’t be upset, Patreon people, Graeme forgot we promised exactly this kind of thing for our long-term patrons…but we handle just two or three questions very briefly. The big question-a-thon, we did not do this time. Discussed: the post-credits sequence of Guardians, some of the credits themselves, and the case with Marvel’s credits (and maybe that’s where we touch on, all too briefly, this article about Steve Gerber?). Also discussed: deprivation tanks and Altered States, as well as a comic about the former by Lucy Bellwood; recent surprisingly great comics we’ve read: the last volume of DC’s Spirit Archives by Will Eisner; the above-referenced What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Volume 1
2:21:39-end: Closing comments! Which includes among other things, us exhorting you to check us out on Twitter (twitter.com/waitwhatpodcast), tumblr (http://waitwhatpod.tumblr.com/), and, of course, on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/waitwhatpodcast) where, as of this count, 72 patrons makes it possible for us to do this podcast every other week, and contribute original content to this website each and every week. Any interest in becoming our 73rd patron? Our 74th or 75th? Please check out the link above and consider!
Podcast is available on iTunes (or should be shortly), on our trusty RSS feed, via the player above, or for download via this handy link:
Wait, What? Ep. (15)6: Too Sweet To Be Sour
And because Al Kennedy asked us to months ago, we’ve just submitted our feed to Stitcher. We will see if they kick us to the curb or not.
Okay. So now I’m off to feel weirdly melancholic. Do take care of yourselves, okay?
Just a quick correction, Geoff Johns’ comic The Possessed came out from Cliffhanger when Wildstorm was part of DC. So it wasn’t an Image comic : )
It was also one of the last comics to come out from the Cliffhanger imprint, as it stopped existing a couple of months later.
Ah, thank you for this! It makes…a lot more sense, in a way.
Guardians of the Galaxy was good fun at the movies, and yet all the criticisms you guys discuss are true. The sound was so bad I didn’t want to mention it because I thought it was a problem with the theater I watched it in, not the movie. Everything was just messed up in the mix. Like quiet yelling in a quiet bar etc. Idk it was just terrible soundwise. Also, when Jeff talks about Lucas and Spielberg pulling it off and Gun not quite, I thought the exact same thing. There was something missing cinematically which made the movie devoid of suspense. There was no suspense! It was charming as hell, but I was never rapt in a scene for one second.
Also a quick correction, the colon is silent in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, however there is no period following the v, to avoid confusion, or cause further confusion or some such.
My family and I loved the Guardians film. Whatever magic Marvel worked came from taking a largely unknown concept and turned it into a hit. Apparently on just the Marvel name. Were there flaws and plotholes? Of course. That is no different than any other action movie released in the summer months.
Something that may interest Jeff after his comments about Transformers 4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2THVvshvq0Q
THIS WAS GREAT. Thank you for that link, Dave!
Ha, I was musing on What Did You Eat Yesterday just the other day.
http://theeasternstandard.blogspot.com/2014/08/i-was-going-to-save-this-for-next-week.html
It is a weird book; I enjoy it but I’m not actually sure if I’d recommend it? I also assume Jeff would’ve mentioned Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy! if he’d read it; that one’s a riot, definitely check it out.
Speaking of food comics, did you guys ever talk about Lucy Knisley’s Relish, or did I just forget you did?
Joe–thanks for mentioning that! I’m definitely the world’s laziest Fumi Yoshinaga fan. I’d heard about “Not Love…” and actually thought I’d just misremembered what I’d read and it was actually What Did You Eat Yesterday. Not so great to find out I was wrong (as usual), but great to find out that I’ve got another Yoshinaga food manga to hunt down!
As for Lucy Knisley’s Relish, it got a super-fast mention on an episode. As I recall, I was a little harsh on it, probably for very unfair reasons: it either came out as the same time as In the Kitchen with Alain Passard, or else I bought and read it at the same time as In The Kitchen with Alain Passard. I really liked Knisley’s cartooning, and the way she’d cartoon the recipes but I thought the book needed more polish and a stronger editor. It felt kinda disjointed and the stories were a little, I dunno, quasi-pointless? I should hunt it up and read it again but that was my impression at the time…
Hey can I nominate Graveyard of Empires for Jeff’s next writeup? I also wound up reading the first issue through several times, which I never do. Maybe I was in a particularly dimwitted state of mind, but I remember thinking that issue 1 was crazy dense, one of the most jam-packed floppy comics I’ve ever read. Don’t dig too deeply into the comparison, but I did get the sensation at some point that I was reading the James Joyce take on a zombie invasion. So yeah, prime essay fodder imo.
That’s a great idea, Cass. Issue #1 is crazy dense, probably to its detriment, but it might be really fun to unpack. And I really do want to get through the rest of the series at some point soon..
Not only does Beyonce eat, but Cazwell made a song about it. http://youtu.be/rWZm9SfGgSU
Crediting comic creators that work I. A shared universe that has been ongoing for decades is kind of a weird thing. Should they be credited? Absolutely. But really, Englehart created a character named Peter Quill, Star-Lord, but what at all besides the name does that character have to do with the character Chris Prat portrayed on the screen?
Jeff, was this the Gerber piece you were thinking of? Published back in May, but it got some understandable traction after GotG came out: http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2014/05/all-quacked-up-steve-gerber-marvel-comics-and-howard-the-duck/
Matt: this was indeed it. Thanks! I’ll get off my butt and integrate it into the show notes.
I’ve been listening to you guys for a long time, and I never thought you were personally offensive to comics creators. You acknowledge that the author’s personality has a direct influence on the author’s work, but you don’t use it to go after the creators. It’s not like “Grant Morrison is a horrible egotistical euro-trash prick for breaking up Cyclops and Jean Grey for spoiling my shipping fantasy” or “Matt Fraction is a horrible drunk for bringing his issues into Iron Man and spoiling my power fantasy” or other cases where it’s fueled by fanboy rage over actual critique.
I’m both glad and disappointed that I waited to listen to this until I’d seen Guardians of the Galaxy. I mean, you would have ruined the anticipation but at least I would have gone in with more realistic expectations.
Oh, and I meant to add, I don’t think GotG poses any danger to Avengers 2. They’re going to have Robert Downey Jr. charming the shit out of audiences as usual, and Whedon probably has a roomful of writers tearing their hair out going “What’s this movie’s Galaga joke?”
Star Wars, on the other hand…
Yeah, creator credits in the Marvel movies are a shitty deal, and Jack Kirby will never get his proper due since his contributions are just too large. But are the DC movies any better? Are creators even mentioned besides the ones they are legally obligated to credit (Kane/Siegel/Schuster and presumably Moulton)? Did Chuck Dixon get a shoutout for Bane? This isn’t an attempt to score rhetorical points or anything, I really am curious. I don’t obsessively scan the DC films’ credits the way I do Marvel’s.
Oh, and by legal obligation I mean via litigation, not legislation. Just to be clear.