0:01-54:21: Greetings! Crazy, exhausted greetings! Jeff is recovering from a visit from his nieces and Graeme is recovering from 2020, and I have a question for you: did you want our opening pre-comics pleasantries to cover the better part of an hour, but also touch on the coronavirus, infectiousness, self-diagnosed hypochondria, baseless medical speculation, and general feelings of frustration about the world in general and the timing of the cancelation of Emerald City Comic-Con 2020 in particular? Because if so, I am impressed at the level of heightened awareness on your part about what you want from this podcast! And also very relieved, because as things turn out… Also discussed: Watching a Pixar movie right where virus testing packages are being dropped via helicopter; accidental quarantines; what your body remembers; a visit to the comic shop turned quasi-nightmarish; and much more.
54:21-1:05:16: And as long as we’re talking about discomfort and pain, let’s talk about DC Universe All-Star Games, DCU’s first original unscripted gaming miniseries starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sam Witwer (among others)! Jeff tries to blame Graeme for making him watch this—despite Graeme never mentioning anything about it—and tries to describe the experience of watching this “show” for “entertainment.”
1:05:16-1:13:44: Comics? Oh well, if you insist! Graeme has reread all four phases of Zenith by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell. FULL ON SPOILERS for a series that is, admittedly, thirty years old, so be warned. Discussed: Final Crisis connections, underplayed conclusions versus full-fledged melodrama; and more.
1:13:44-1:28:20: Did I say “more”? I meant “Moore”! After our discussion last time, Graeme sat down and read LOEG: The Tempest by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill! Discussed: Graeme’s impressions about the book and about Moore’s cautious self-positioning in this final work of comics creation.
1:28:20-1:41:26: Because Imaginary Graeme made him, Real Jeff has been reading Justice League of America: The Wedding of the Atom and Jean Loring, which reprints mid-70s comics written by Gerry Conway (among others, although not mentioned yet) and drawn by Arvell M. Jones, Alan Weiss, and others. Discussed: the real Ray Palmer, why comic book writers admire the silver age Atom, the “sweet” spot of why Gerry Conway comics from the 70s are weirdly readable, trying to fold Marvel characterization within DC tropes, and more.
1:41:26-1:47:31: And since he’s a harsh taskmaster, Imaginary Graeme also made Jeff read Adventures of Superman: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Vol. 2, which includes a lot of Elseworlds stuff, a collection of JLGL covers, at least one primo World’s Finest story by Bob Haney.
1:47:31-2:12:51: And on a more modern tip, both Brian Hibbs and Reality Graeme liked and generally recommended Strange Adventures #1, the Tom King/Mitch Gerads/Evan “Doc” Shaner miniseries with Adam Strange looking at heroism, egotism, science fiction, colonialism, and what King himself calls “the bloody gap between the myth and the reality.” So Jeff read it and, um. Is this the flip side of this episode’s LOEG: The Tempest discussion? Perhaps.
2:12:51-end: Closing Comments, featuring: scheduling and info about our next episode in two weeks: it’s a Drokk and we’ll be reading Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Vol. 13 and the trade of The Dead Man! (Also, there’s a 50% off sale over at 2000AD Store on Judge Dredd collections until the day after this ep. goes live so that’s worth a look-see for your stockpiling needs!) it’s a Look for us on Stitcher! Itunes! Instagram! Twitter together and separately: Graeme and Jeff! Tumblr, and on Patreon where a wonderful group of people make this all possible, including Dominic L. Franco, and Empress Audrey, Queen of the Galaxy, to whom we are especially grateful for her continuing support of this podcast. (Also, don’t forget about Spotify!)
Next week: Skip week! And then join us the week after for an all-new Drokk!!
Need the episode link, no chaser?
https://theworkingdraft.com/media/podcasts3/WaitWhat290.mp3
The one in the feed (at least in my Overcast feed) is the previous (Dan DiDio-focused) episode.
Sorry about that! Should be fixed now (though you may have to reload the RSS feed).
I don’t like Strange Adventures. I hate it tbh. The first thing I was struck by was the amazing art, and the colors on the physical page seemed impossibly beautiful. It is hard to believe how great the book looks. By the end of the book I just thought, all this beautiful art in service of what. King’s got one more issue from me but I think it’s going to be another boring Identity Crisis adjacent book. It’s not CIA psyops, it’s just CIA baggage, and we haven’t gotten any closure over the course of 100+ issues of superhero comics.
Yeah, I think the psyops thing is a straw man. The problem isn’t that King is trying to mind-f*#k readers, or even convince them that the CIA is OK. He’s just wringing his hands and lashing out, which would be interesting if it weren’t done in such a pedestrian manner. And that it’s not totally clear at this point whether he event sees a difference between criticism of his participation in bad comics and criticism in his participation in bad wars strikes me as telling, both with respect to his capacities as a writer but also, and more frustratingly, from his capacities and thinking, feeling person.
Overall, he just seems much more invested in his own thoughts and feelings than he is in the thoughts and feelings of others. That’s not always a fatal flaw in writer (see Martin Amis), but you need to be damn good to overcome it (see Martin Amis).
I agree with Brendan and can only expand due to exasperation with Strange Adventures. Such a sublime effort put behind this. Such lovely, rich effort being made here by Gerads and Shaner.
Miracle Man was, for me, the perfect distillation of the Suffering of Tom King and I liked it and I would go so far as to say it was helpful in a therapeutic dealing with personal trauma and loss.
But I don’t know if I can sit in on these sessions anymore. Maybe if it were a 5 issue miniseries but I can’t take up what’s becoming precious space in the Sad Room (not to be confused with the Rad Room nor the Red Room) of my amygdala due to the grim meathook future of the next year and what it will bring. even if it’s instructive of the zeitgeist.
I hate to say it but Tom King’s next big move is to do something fun.
I agree with all the above, Tim and Nate. You both pointed at something that eluded me, which is that King thinks this is a dialogue, but I didn’t realize I was signing up for a dialogue. It’s somewhat my fault for not realizing earlier lol.
Stuck the landing there. sigh
Obviously when I typed Miracle Man I meant Mr. Doctor Miracleman Man.
It goes without saying that thinking that it’s a crazy idea that Tom King is engaged in CIA psyops brainwashing just shows how effective his brainwashing techniques are.
Sure, you think it’s not open to doubt that King would make his intent obvious. That’s what you think *now*. But would you have thought that before you ever read a Tom King comic? I rest my case.
Maybe for a future episode you could each suggest a comic for the other to read that you think they will hate and then discuss them on the show. Then Jeff’s cries of “Graeme, why did you make me read this?!” will at least be factual. : D
Also, if anyone is interested in ordering physical 2000ad graphic novels and missed the sale, you can sign up for a one month subscription, get a bunch of issues of 2000ad and get a 50% off everything in the store. That’s how I got my copy of The Dead Man.
With Gerry Conway and José Luis Garcia-Lopez mentioned in the same podcast I’m triggered into asking what you guys think of Atari Force? Did the gorgeous pictures just obscure the Conwayness of it all? That art by Arvell Jones and Bill Draut made me wonder if it was that exact combination Mike Allred imprinted on.
Have you considered making blaming Graeme for time spent reading poor comics or watching poor television a reward level on Patreon? You could monetize out-sourcing regret.
If I had to distill everything I can no longer stand about Alan Moore into one image, and everything I could never stand about Tom King into another, I couldn’t have done any better than this post. Kudos!
Where’s that LOEG double-page spread from? It wasn’t in my Comixology copies of the issues? Did the trade include extras or something?
Oh, heck. I just checked my Comixology copy and you’re right! I pulled that spread from the digital trade–anyone able to verify that it’s trade exclusive, or was it something in the original print issues as well?
Looked in my print issues and don’t see it. Thought it had just slipped my mind.
Thanks, David!
This set of annotations suggests it is exclusive to the collected edition, yes.