00:00-13:46: Greetings! Sure seems like it’s been a while, huh? That, anyway, is how your two hosts feel, although that may be mitigated by one of them having COVID (Jeff), one of them just having been boosted (Graeme), and both of them feeling like the week gone by somehow felt seven years long! Catch up with us as we catch up with each other, and enjoy Graeme’s ascent/descent into those vague oracular statements we all love so much! But: before we get there, here’s the link to the Friday newsletter he wrote but couldn’t send out, and a Miracleman-related tin hat theory Graeme has that…he actually shares with us?! It’s either “you heard it here first” scoop, or a “well, ya know, points for trying to read those tea leaves, Graeme” but either way it’s entertaining!
13:46-22:38: And for a change, instead of tackling the comics news (barring Graeme’s guess that could end up being news), we’re moving right into the comics we’ve been reading. Graeme takes the lead with an amazing overview of….Axel Pressbutton and Laser Eraser by Steve Moore, Steve Dillon, Alan Davis, David Lloyd, and others? I’m surprised, but really…should I be?
22:38-1:19:44: Arguably a little more on point is an even more thorough overview of the Keith Giffen/J.M.
DeMatteis run on Justice League (and Justice League International, and Justice League Quarterly) about which Graeme and Chloe are about eight issues away from having the complete run. A very handy—and extensive!—explainer whether you’ve only been exposed to WW84‘s Maxwell Lord, or if you, like Jeff, feel a certain strange tingle of recognition at the name Manga Khan (but can barely remember why). Jeff can’t help mentioning Tom King’s The Human Target (the first three issues of which he had read on the very day of recording) but Graeme does a pretty good job of steering us into safer waters, talking about the influence of these books on the current generation of creators and how understandable that is. Also discussed: Dark Crisis; the current arc of Action Comics; the Zdarsky/Jimenez arc of Batman that debuted this week; Batman vs. Robin #1 by Mark Waid and Mahmud Asrar; The New Champion of Shazam by Josie Campbell and Evan “Doc” Shaner.
1:19:44-1:43:14: Jeff’s turn to talk about what he’s been reading! Graeme’s mention of Philip Kennedy Johnson’s run on Action is a good in to the Johnson-written issues of Alien, the first ten of which are up on Marvel Unlimited. Post-Incubus (the Dredd/Aliens crossover we covered in our last Drokk!), Jeff decided to check them out….and so did Graeme! Jeff talks about the pros and cons of Johnson’s writing, leaving Graeme to talk about the cons and even bigger cons of Salvador Larroca’s art (and a very nice little talk about the importance of good coloring and how it can elevate material).
1:43:14-1:46:22: Jeff works a semi-clumsy segue to mention: Eternals Vol. 1: Only Death is Eternal by Kieron Gillen and Esad Ribic (and Matthew Wilson on colors), collecting the first six issues of the current series. As a “fan” [??] of the Eternals movie, Jeff thought this volume is actually in many ways a perfect remake, taking so many of the ideas and approaches in the film and, quite frankly, doing them better in almost every particular. Graeme, non-fan of the film that he is, does not think that’s a high bar to clear but….I wanted to mention it, anyway. Very good stuff.
1:46:22-1:55:35: Speaking of non-fans and “fans”[??], we had very different experiences watching Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness! Which is to say, we both saw a not-at-all-good movie barely hanging together enough to get from one scene to the next….but one of us enjoyed it, and the other did not.
1:55:35-end: Closing comments? Welllll, maybe. First, we have to get over the hump of figuring out our schedule for the rest of the month, since Graeme is going to SDCC (yikes!!) and the following weekend Jeff is going to visit his mother in law (double yikes!!!). Let’s just say there’ll be a Drokk next week, and then at least one skip week and quite possibly two? But! Then! Graeme’s newsletter (https://www.getrevue.co/profile/ComicsFYI!) 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 Empress Audrey, Queen of the Galaxy, to whom we are especially grateful for her continuing support of this podcast.
NEXT WEEK: Drokk—it’s here already!! Read Judge Dredd The Complete Case Files Vol. 37 and join us here next week!!
And should you need to cut and paste the link directly, here you go:
https://theworkingdraft.com/media/podcasts5/WaitWhat346.mp3
Hi.
I believe Zirk is originally a Garry Leach character that had a couple appearances in Warrior before joining the Pressbutton cast. At least one solo strip was reprinted in black and white in a 1992 issue of Heavy Metal and it is BEAUTIFUL,none of the color versions do it justice. It’s called the All Girl Amazon Attack Battalion or something of the sort.
We need to hear Jeff’s in-depth thoughts on Raimi one day. I’m a big fan. I think Evil Dead 2, A Simple Plan, and Spider-Man 2 are classics. My favorite parts of Doctor Strange: MoM were when Raimi’s style took over. And of course, this is the man who gave us the brilliant hula hoop montage in the very underrated Hudsucker Proxy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5kAj5rZVsw
“Is your defense of Dr. Strange 2 is that it is not as bad as a movie that is worse? …Um, no.”
The above is honestly and entirely sincerely one of the main reasons why I listen to this podcast. Beyond the excellent commentary, of course!
Also, I’ve fallen behind by a couple of episodes and was wondering if Jeff was reading Akane Banashi or Spy X Family on Shonen Jump? They both feel like something he would enjoy and was curious on his thoughts on them. RuriDragon is a new series that launched recently and I feel that is another one he would enjoy.
I think Zirk first appears in Laser Eraser and Pressbutton in Warrior #1 and Steve Dillon draws him then. He flies around on what looks very like the Mekon’s platform. As a character he was blessed with some truly wonderful art, but remains a creepy rape fantasy, presented as humour.
I’m also enjoying Akane Banashi, both for the story and on a meta level. It’s set in the world of traditional Japanese story-telling, but at the same time it’s resolutely a shonen manga. We had a training arc and now we’re in a tournament!
Salvador Larroca was someone I first noticed on Marvel UK titles. He and Carlos Pacheco turned up at the same time (early 90s?). Pacheco had the advantage even then, but it didn’t look like an unbridgeable gap.
Anyway, all best wishes for Jeff’s full recovery and that random chance acts in Graeme’s favour in dodging the bug.
Having watched the excerpt, I think I may have had enough bullying, shouty posh-boy. I’m sure it works well for Mr K.
Thanks for the info about Akane Banashi, Shadavid! I’d debated checking it out but hadn’t yet.
I looked up Axel Pressbutton. Graeme left out the best part — the character has the face of Ernest Borgnine! Given what Borgnine says in this clip, it makes sense that he’s the model for Axel Pressbutton https://youtu.be/hk1T9XC3XPc
Best wishes for Mr. Lester’s recovery, and I hope that this week finds him feeling better.
This was an excellent episode, especially the careful diagnosis of exactly what is wrong with the art in the current Alien comic.