00:00-3:14: Greetings! We have excitement for you right out of the gate: not only is Chloe Maveal here to talk with us, but Graeme was at a fish & chips shop and mistaken for an Irishman! By an Irishman! Truly this is the Wait, What age of craic!
3:14-42:20: Paul Verhoeven ends up introduced as a topic of conversation far earlier than I personally would’ve expected, but it makes sense as Chloe and Graeme have recently seen Showgirls (or “Tits!” as it was purportedly originally called, according to Graeme) and have been talking about it *a lot*. Right after, they watched Velvet Goldmine, then Boxing Helena, and are moving along to the remake of Cat People (why? because as Chloe herself puts it: “because I want to watch Malcolm McDowell hang dong again!”) Yes, Chloe is working her way through her “Bad, but Horny, Movies” list. Also discussed: Betty Blue, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Two Moon Junction, Beyond The Valley of the Dolls, plus find out the movie Jeff calls “Reefer Madness but for genitals.”
42:20-50:09: Both Chloe and Graeme are reading Bobby Gillespie’s memoir, Tenement Kid, and there are some surprising comics-related cameos and facts in a memoir by the Primal Scream frontman/Jesus & Mary Chain drummer. And then, of course, more discussion about what should be on the Bad, but Horny, Movie list. Also: Dog Day Afternoon!
50:09-01:39:19: Comic stuff? Yeah, sure, okay…but only if it’s going to be about stuff that sounds as amazing as The Art of Carlos Ezquerra! Then we each talk a bit about what we’ve been reading and enjoying lately:
Chloe: She’s been doing a lot of reading for pieces at her amazing NeoText Review—Eros Comics and Sam Kieth comics, in particular! And we apparently have a future piece from Chloe about DC’s Little Shop of Horrors adaptation of the 1986 musical remake, Little Shop of Horrors!? With script by Michael Fleisher and art by Gene Colan?! The mind, she does reel. Also, Both G and C have nothing but the highest praises for Mek Memoirs, the limited edition re-release by Dark and Golden Books of the self-published mini-comic by Chris Lowder and Kevin O’Neill originally published *before* 2000 AD.
Jeff: Jeff’s been reading a lot of manga which means—oh shit!—that Chloe gets to try her hand at My Four Manga! Sadly, Jeff didn’t prep anything new, but Chloe didn’t hear our bonus rounds from last month, so Jeff runs the public Wait, What? installment by her! And then after that, Jeff talks about Orochi: The Perfect Edition, Fist of the North Star, Vol. 4; and the first twenty-plus chapters of Chihayafuru. I apologize for tiredness and my slight dyslexia creeping out; Chihayafurucenters around the card game karuta, which I call Kataru (all the right letters, nearly all in the wrong place). I blame all the Wordle playing!)
Graeme: Graeme just finished the upcoming fourth volume of Lawless, his beloved sci-fi Western by Dan Abnett and Phil Winslade (out June 23, 2022) and he luuuuuuuurves it.. Also, for a work assignment, Graeme has read a whole ton of Moon Knight comics and can pretty much give opinions about all of the major creative teams and their runs on character. Also reading, not for a work assignment, Charles Soule’s most recent run on Star Wars (War of the Bounty Hunters,Crimson Reign).
01:39:19-2:06:09: Graeme has also read Out, Rob Williams and Will Conrad’s World War 2 Nazis vs. Vampires series from AWA Comics, which leads to talk about pacing and throw in some shout-outs to The Nice House on the Lake , Bermuda,Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters, and more. Jeff then tries to get everyone to complain about a comic (surprise!), but both Graeme and Chloe refuse (?!) leading Jeff to rant on alone about Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #1 by Mark Waid and Dan Mora. (Also, I just realized now! For two people who turn down an offer to complain about a comic, they sure have some choice words for Hush by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee! Hmph!)
2:06:09-end: Closing stuff! Graeme’s newsletter (https://www.getrevue.co/profile/ComicsFYI! Stitcher! Itunes! Instagram! Twitter together and separately: Graeme and Jeff! (and Chloe!) Tumblr, and on Patreon where a wonderful group of people make this all possible, including Empress Audrey, Queen of the Galaxy, to whom we are especially grateful for her continuing support of this podcast.
NEXT WEEK: Skip week!! See you in two weeks with a new Wait, What?
If you just want the straight link, no questions asked:
https://theworkingdraft.com/media/podcasts5/WaitWhat339.mp3
I just wanted to let you all know that i have been reading Larry Hamma’s from the beginning ever since you mentioned it in the toy episode a while back. It’s been a wild ride. I’m in the comic’s flop era though after the Desert Storm analog (Hasbro’s internal marketing research must have really shown that kids love Ninjas) but so close to finishing I’m trying to muscle through it. The comic is frequently hilarious which I didn’t really expect and frequently weird as heck. The art has mostly largely been terrible with some very notable exceptions (MD Bright routinely kicked ass, Wildman is sometimes good, sometimes kind of rushed and always inked with a heavy line which i think kind of obscures the detail in reproduction).
Probably never would have read these if you hadn’t mentioned them, so thanks
Just throwing this out there for Chloe, but the Xanadu Marvel Comics adaptation by JM DeMatteis and drawn by Al Milgrom and Bill Sienkiewicz with Layouts by Rich Buckler seem right up your alley. For one thing, they don’t have the rights to the ELO music (nor do they know what music will be where) so they have to explain a musical with text boxes. You can find it all lovingly scanned here at the “Only Olivia” (formerly ONJ Only Fans) website: https://www.onlyolivia.com/visual/xanadu/marvel/
A threesome show, always a fun energy! Mind, maybe you could spare Graeme having to hear the horny crap films talked about on air after he’s sat through them (ie I was trapped on a cross trainer having no idea what was going on, I’ve not seen a single one of these films – I remember the Showgirls kerfuffle but, as with other films that sound terrible, avoided it. Yours, Entitled Lad).
I’d forgotten about the DC Little Shop of Horrors, I’d love to see it too, well done Chloe.
I enjoyed the Moon Knight talk, I’ve not bothered with a single series since the first revamp, post Moench/Sienkiewicz. A pox on them all!
The Waid/Perez Brave and Bold was blooming brilliant, I recently rebought it in trades, so yes, I loved the new World’s Finest – I actually made the link in my review. Sorry you never enjoyed it, Jeff!
Only seen Velvet Goldmine once, when it came out (so a while ago). But if I’m remembering correctly (and I may very well not be), it does rather shamelessly exaggerate how excitingly poor and, well, wild Iggy Pop’s upbringing was. I vaguely remember a line about a trailer “in the wilds of Michigan” or something like that. And being naive, I took that at face value when I saw the film back in 1999 or whenever it was, and supposed that it was an accurate depiction.
But since then, I have moved to Michigan, and while Mr. Pop did grow up in a trailer park, it was not exactly in the middle of nowhere, but in Ypsilanti, which is right next to Ann Arbor in the Detroit metro area. And while Ypsilanti is gritty enough, certainly grittier than Ann Arbor, and it was a trailer, Mr. Pop’s parents were among the better-off people in the trailer park, well-off enough that it was considered a bit odd that they chose to live there. Young Iggy went to rather good schools, Tappan Middle School and Pioneer High, where he would have rubbed shoulders with the children of the likes of doctors, lawyers, and. University of Michigan faculty. No idea what property prices near those schools were like back then, but nowadays they are eye-watering.
(I drove past both schools on Sunday, as it happens. Neither looks like the sort of place one would imagine as the right environment to prepare someone for rolling around on broken glass on stage.)
I can’t believe you spent so much time talking about Elizabeth Berkeley and not mention her comic book connection. Her husband is a painter who did Hellblazer covers. Also, if you want a secretly horny film that’s directed by Sidney Lumet, check out Deathtrap
Your podcast has left me with a bit of a dilemma. I (bragging alert) already have the original Mek Memoirs.
It’s 12 pages. You’ve shown me the new cover, so do I spend £8.00 for the remaining unseen seven pages? It’s not much use asking you, as (almost like a philosophical conundrum) Jeff will always say ‘Yes’ and Graeme will always say ‘No.’
Chihayafuru is a hoot, both as a manga and and an anime. I’m hoping the anime gets to finish as well.
Shockingly I have, for once, actually watched one of the films you’ve talked about! I watched Liquid Sky a few months into the pandemic lock down and it’s a weird movie with a really weird soundtrack (that sometimes still springs to my mind).
The visual aesthetic of the movie also deeply inspired the electroclash movement of the early 2000s (bands like Fischerspooner).
I guess I’d recommend it?
While GDT’s Nightmare Alley is a sloppy muddle (graced with some wonderful sets), the 1947 original is a tight, nasty piece of entertainment with Tyrone Power being very pretty and yet believably sinister. Unlike Cooper’s character, he starts from a sort of height that makes the story of a fall actually feel interesting. And like a fall. Great character actors, and the actress playing the Rooney Mara character is the most painfully pretty ingenue type I’ve ever seen. Highly recommended.
Thanks for this, bpm! I’ve been meaning to watch the original film *forever* and I think you sold me on it.
Thanks for flagging up Chloe’s piece on the parallels between If… and The Invisibles. As a massive Lindsay Anderson fan I was intrigued when I spotted Morrison had named If… and (the follow up) O Lucky Man! as his two favourite films in a profile in an old Judge Dredd Annual, but pretty sure I’d stopped following the Morrison series by the time I saw either film.
I liked Chloe’s article on the Invisibles and If. Much less reductive than my own ‘The Illuminatus Trilogy, now starring Jerry Cornelius.’
Great discussion on Betty Blue, which I blame for the following 20 years of my life searching for the perfect sexy unhinged woman. It never ends well in the 2nd half.
The Lemire-Smallwood Moon Knight run is a different level to Huston/Finch, I don’t see how Graeme says it’s doing the same thing. Yes they both have ambiguity over delusions but that’s been the character trope since Moench and Sienkiewicz’s Moon Kings issue. The great things about Lemire/Smallwood were the page and panel designs, and the collaboration between the three storylines with three different artists that interweave not only issue to issue and page to page but panel by panel as it reaches a climax. A brilliant way to represent the struggle of multiple identities and find a resolution, sensitively done. Huston/Finch was just blood and extreme violence.
The War For Earth 3 ‘event’ was just dire. The bookends weren’t excruciatingly awful, the Flash book had good stuff in when it wasn’t pretending it mattered to the bigger story, but Teen Titans Academy was seven kinds o’shite, with the worst script I’ve read in a mainstream book for years. The ending of War For Earth 3 #2 was very confusing – Waller wins Earth 3, but according to the caption, after sealing it off from the rest of the multiverse she takes her new team right back to regular DC Earth 0.
I reckon Jeff is correct in his understanding of Tom King’s attitude to continuity. He’s having it both ways… if a subsequent comic refers to the hero being dead and the heroine being a cold-hearted witch, it’s official. Until anyone else shows us the dead guy isn’t a puddle of meat, it’s official.
Graeme’s revelation about Dredd having lots of relatives and an interesting relationship with an accountant makes the strip sound interesting. That’s not to say that I didn’t grimace when he suggested that after you get through the case files in six months, you should read more Dredd. Come on, laddies, there’s a legion of other things to cover!