Wait, What?

00:00-9:21: Hello, hello, hello! Today you’re in for something out of the ordinary, as Gary Lactus (from Silence!), Chico Leo (of Fan Bros), and Paul O’Brien of House To Astonish join Jeff Lester on Battlepod for an infinite secret podcast crossover! Yes, Graeme was whisked away by the Beyonder to another part of the strange dimension known as Battlepod, leaving me to fend for myself against three of the sharpest knives in the comic book podcasting drawer. First up are speedy introductions to one another—punctuated by a lot of “Fer Sure! Fer Sure!” in what is a sudden thickening of my native Californian accent—and then more formal introductions of each of our esteemed guests so you know who they are, where they’re from, and why they’re awesome.

9:21-18:41: Intros out of the way, it’s time for us to turn to this episode’s theme (yes, a themed Wait, What? episode—the stakes get higher by the minute!): “The Worm Turns: Characters, Creators and Books that we used to hate but now love or vice-versa.” First up: Paul O’Brien and Captain America! Discussed by the group: propaganda, the monarchy, Frank Miller and Ales Kot, Mark Millar, good ol’ John Walker, and more.

18:41-36:34: Next, Chico Leo is at plate to talk about…Spider-Man! Discussed by the group: how a simple concept has grown less simple over time, and how attempts to simplify have somehow only made it more complex in some ways; The Simpsons vs. Harry Potter; John Byrne’s take vs. Dan Slott’s comic; the grating gear change at the end of Claremont-infused X-Men stories; Marvel continuity versus the imaginary stories of the DC Silver Age; the idea of the crossover as “naughty universe touching;” and more.

36:34-48:41: Gary Lactus is up next to talk…Bloodstrike! After discussing the history of the 90s and running into the arms of Dan Clowes, Peter Bagge, and Dan Clowes, Mr. Lactus has come around to talk the charms of one Robert Liefeld. Discussed: feet; penises in jars; the Inkstuds interview with Rob Liefeld; the first issue of Prophet; the road from sunday school to Black Mass; “he’s a one note creator but sometimes all you need is that one note;” Rob Liefeld’s The Covenant; a quick break as one of Gary Lactus’s former heralds shows up to cause disarray; when the phrase “remarkably sane” is disappointing; and more.

48:41-54:12: “We’re definitely in the realms of freeformville,” Jeff announces. “Is there anyone else who maybe has a creator up their sleeve that they have switched on over time?” And of course Paul chimes in with the name everyone was surely just about to say: Bret Blevins. Also discussed: BRET BLEVINS; Louise Simonson; New Mutants; Meltdown: Havok and Wolverine; the importance of watercolors to telling a serious story in the Nineties; and more.

54:12-1:00:36: For follow-up, Chico Leo talks about both a creator with whom he went from “hate” to “love”—the mighty José Luis García López—and from love to hate: Mr. Frank Miller. Discussed: “the goddamned Batman;” the term “mind enema;” Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, and the difference between the artist and the art; the secret career of JLGL; and more.

1:00:36-1:10:33: Gary Lactus gets another turn at the creator flip and this time he brings up an excellent choice: Mr. Joe Matt. Discussed: confessional comics as the big thing of the ‘90s and what happened; our ability to share and get instant affirmation; Jeff doing strange things to the word “reportage”; Chester Brown’s Paying for It; guys growing up isolated in smaller industrial cities; and more.

1:10:33-1:29:43: The book round! Paul has an excellent choice for this, just as Gary did for creator: Cerebus The Aardvark. Mentioned: The gnostic heresy, the perfect phrase “one of the most technically competent pieces of outsider art ever made;” the literal disbelief with which the turn of Sim’s intentions was greeted by on the Internet; the idea of Cerebus as three different comics; Speakers’ Corner; Gary’s inability to get into Cerebus; The Strange Death of Alex Raymond; watching someone box a stump; Terry Zwigoff’s documentary Crumb; Steve Ditko and Alan Moore; and more.

1:29:43-1:36:52: Gary Lactus has one last worm to turn, and it’s in regards to the Golden Age hero, Mr. Terrific. It’s a delightful tale well told by GL, one that’s well worth a listen and also a great way to wrap up our adventure.

1:36:52-1:41:28: Because the shimmering cosmic curtain that has gathered is about to dissipate, a call is put out for closing shots. Chico Leo weighs in with the book he once loved that now he hates: Mad Magazine. You may get a glimpse into the time displacement involved in the recording of this episode by our discussion of contemporary politics at the moment…

1:41:28-closing: Closing comments, in no small part because our bladders are incredibly full: each of us tells you where you can find us next. Since I covered a lot of that up in the intro, let me just add the twitter accounts for Mr. Lactus, Mr. Leo, Mr. O’Brien and myself.

And look out for Episode 7 of the Secret Convergence on Infinite Podcasts over at House to Astonish.

NEXT WEEK: Graeme returns in a brand new black costume for Baxter Building Episode 11!!

Reviews

Capsule America and Falco: Jeff on Comics He’s Read Recently

It’s kind of a drag Matt can beat me at my own game but, let’s face it, not entirely surprising, either. Fortunately there’s not a huge amount of overlap between what the stuff he so incisively reviewed and the stuff I’m going to fumble about. But there will be a bit so…more fool me, I guess?

Anyway, after the jump: Secret Wars #7, Ultimates #1, Radioactive Spider-Gwen #2, and, of course. Mystic Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1!

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Usually when there’s one of these huge weeks of comics, I do a bit where I’m like “Whoa, hey, this was a great week of comics! Wow!” Then I write about, like, some random Impulse issue from 1998.

But the haul this week was substantial enough that even I am not going to ignore it. Here, then, are capsule reviews of a few of the notable books this week–first issues, key issues, and, of course, Batman & Robin Eternal. God forbid I not keep everyone apprised of how I’m feeling about that one.

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Joys of The Comic Swap: Graeme Is Glad He Didn’t Pay Full Price For DC Challenge

November 10, 2015
Tagged as: DC Challenge

Every few months here in Portland, there’s something called Frankenstein’s Comic Swap. I might have written about this before; it’s a swap meet for comic dealers, essentially, a small room filled with longboxes and cheap comics where you can pick up random shit for relatively cheap. This weekend, I made out pretty good — I got the three-issue Martian Manhunter: American Secrets by Gerard Jones and Eduardo Barreto, the four-issue Machine Man mini-series from the ’80s by Tom DeFalco, Herb Trimpe and Barry Windsor-Smith (I didn’t remember Windsor-Smith took over art entirely in the last issue, co-plotting it, too, but he does), some Marvel Age and Micronaut back issues and a twelve-issue series I have become increasingly more fascinated in in recent years: DC Challenge, from 1985-1986. (For an idea of how cheap Frankenstein’s Comic Swap is, I got all of that for less than $20.)

No, really: all of this for less than $20. It’s AMAZING.

This was a series I remembered from my childhood, even though I’d never read an issue before. There were full page ads for the series throughout DC books before it launched, explaining the premise with preview art showing characters I’d never heard of, and it all sounded so alien and exciting to the 10-year-old me I was at the time. For those who’ve never heard of DC Challenge, it’s Exquisite Corpse: The Comic. Each issue was by a different creative team, who’d have to resolve cliffhangers left by the previous team, set up cliffhangers for the next team, push the overarching story of the series forward and stay away from characters they were regularly working on at the time. Fun, right? Well, as I bought the issues, the dealer said, “Yeah, this was a mess.” Continue reading →

Welcome to the super-early, pre-surgical edition of Wait, What? Jeff is heading in to deal with a minor health condition (that rhymes with pygmy scones) which will kind of make our usual Monday mid-day drop time a bit on the impossible side. So pull up the player of choice, kick back with the following show notes, and try not to think of one of your hosts squirming in discomfort on a hospital gurney somewhere. (Cheery, right? Seriously, don’t worry about me: I’ll be drugged to the gills.) (I hope.)
00:00-9:19: Greetings from Jeff “Whoville” Lester and Graeme “The Graemetown Massacre” McMillan, who feel like they haven’t talked in a while…because they haven’t! It’s a fine jumping off point for a bit of pre-comics talk about human intimacy, Aziz Ansari’s Modern Romance, the atrophying of conversational muscles, Twitter changing from stars to hearts, Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World’s First Digital Weapon, The Journalist and the Murderer, and other potentially depressing ephemera.

9:19-26:43: Yes, ephemera! Not like good old live-forever-and-can-never-die comic books! Graeme has been thinking about the latter and he’s got stuff to blow our mind with. He’s been looking at sales figures and he’s got some very interesting insights to share with us, including how Star Wars comics are essentially the fourth largest comics publisher in the direct market, how much money DC is seeing from issues of Prez (with help from the info assembled by Alex De Campi, Printing costs and other behind-the-scenes info from Jim Zub). Discussed: DC You and profit, Snakes on a Plane, the Batgirl of Burnside, The Dark Knight Returns and the prestige format books, how to craft a book that is both safe and has the potential to go wide, and more.

26:43-55:46: In the course of talking about books from the Big Two that take some risks, Jeff brings up the first issue of Vision by Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, and Jordie Bellaire. Graeme has thoughts about it too, some of them relating to the recent first issue roundtable we did with Matt Terl on the website, Impressively enough, we manage to keep the end of the issue unspoiled but otherwise consider it pretty much ALL SPOILERS, ALL THE TIME. but Discussed: tradewaiting, slow burns, second issues sales, a mission statement framed via a semantic argument, Mr. Spock in American Beauty, an almost comical reluctance by Jeff to bring up Alan Moore, the “return” to Marvel’s 70s diversity, our own struggles with comic book cynicism, and more.

55:46-1:03:52: Graeme wants to talk about Ms. Marvel #19 by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona, which was so satisfying for Graeme that he kind of feels…done with it? With everything happening at Marvel, there’s probably never been a better time to talk about Jumping Off Points (well, okay, except for maybe the New 52), and so that’s something we kick around the old sonic playing field. (I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but you may get a lot more out of the first two minutes of the conversation if you’re aware that Jeff is confused and thinks Graeme is talking about Captain Marvel but is trying to hide it.) Discussed: Alan Moore leaving Swamp Thing, the post-Morrison years of Animal Man, and more.

1:03:52-1:09:21: A mention of Al Ewing reminds Graeme that in approximately two months all of Mr. Ewing’s work on Loki will be available on Marvel Unlimited, and this is a seventeen issue run that Graeme very much recommends. Discussed: whether or not one should read Gillen’s Journey Into Mystery (and Young Avengers) before reading Ewing’s run, Mighty Avengers as a victim of Marvel Eventitis, and more.

1:09:21-1:19:00: “Marvel Unlimited is such an amazing resource,” says Jeff, before going on to talk about how his mad month-long buying spree on Comixology has him reading purchased stuff instead of all that (amazing!) all-you-can-eat stuff. Will Jeff disclose how much he spent? Can Graeme find a gentle way to tell his friend has a problem? Discussed: how much Graeme spent at the comic store; the first week of Jeff’s experiment of foregoing floppies (and his store discount) and buying digitally; the issues Jeff bought this week, which leads us to…

1:19:00-1:27:20: “Hey, so what’d you think of Unfollow, then?” Graeme asks, which gives us both a chance to talk about how much we enjoyed Unfollow #1 by Rob Williams, Michael Dowling, and Quinton Winter. Vertigo has had a pretty strong batch of first issue launches recently, but this is so far the strongest. Discussed: Survivors Club and Stephen King’s It; The Sheriff of Babylon and Jacked; Dowling’s beautiful art; Mark Millar and Grant Morrison; and more.

1:27:20-1:30:33: Jeff wants to talk about the first issue of Platinum End, by the Death Note/Bakuman team of Ohba and Obata and very much in the vein of the former than the latter. At the time of recording, it hadn’t seemed like a lot of people knew that you can buy each chapter digitally for ninety-nine cents at the same time as its Japanese release. You can get it at Viz; you can get it at Comixology; you can get it on Amazon for the Kindle. As Jeff puts it, “If you want to see what Mark Millar is going to be ripping off two years from now, check it out.”

1:30:33-1:35:11: Graeme wants to know if Jeff’s picked up Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda. Is it, as Graeme calls it “the ultimate Image book?” We go on to discuss it, along with Sarah Horrocks’ piece on Bitch Planet, Graeme utters the phrase, “I don’t even like fantasy, and this book is stunning to me.” (At the time of recording Jeff hadn’t, but he did not long after based on what Graeme says here and was pretty impressed… as you can see here.) The first issue is 71 pages for $4.99, it looks beautiful, and as Graeme says (and I go on to agree with in my piece), “Marjorie Liu is bring some really impressive fucking chops to it.”

1:35:11-1:39:51: The other first issue? The new James Bond book, Vargr, by Warren Ellis and James Masters. SPOILERS: It sounds pretty good…certainly better than Jeff’s take on what might happen.

1:39:51-1:43:58: We’ve both read Klaus #1 by Grant Morrison and Dan Mora. Considering it’s a comic book about Santa Claus, you would think Graeme would love it, right? Did he? Didn’t he? You’ll find out but you’ll hear a lot more about it from Jeff who refers to it as The Game of Thrones Christmas Special. (Which it’s really not, but come on, that would be AMAZING.)

1:43:58-1:48:10: If you did read the first issue roundtable, you’ll know both Jeff and Greeme were pretty underwhelmed by the first issue of Paper Girls by Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang. So along comes issue #2 and….we happily eat ourselves some crow. Discussed: Whether Brian K. Vaughan is doing Lost even though he worked on Lost, or whether Brian K. Vaughan is doing Under the Dome even though he worked on Under the Dome; FULL SPOILERS for plot developments in the issue; Jeff compares the second issue of Survivors Club versus the second issue of Paper Girls, and an eensy bit more.

1:48:10-2:11:16: Just to finish up talking about books we discussed on the roundtable…Jeff is a few issues behind on reading Batman and Robin Eternal, but Graeme is still reading it and, remarkably enough, is onboard! Discussed: the delight of a monoplot; how long this weekly book lasts; how long it takes before the “everything changes!” trick wears thin; Batman comics written by Scott Snyder’s clique and Batman comics written by people outside Scott Snyder’s clique; Pete Tomasi and the Curse of Pete Tomasi [Note: not officially referred to out loud as the Curse of Pete Tomasi], the Justice League Darkseid War one-shots, and issues #40-45 of Justice League which we revisit because Jeff picked them up after Graeme talked about them last time. (Seriously, we talk about them a lot.)

2:11:16-end: Closing comments! We try to figure out what’s coming up next…which is confusing in part because next episode is our Secret Convergence of Infinite Podcasts episode. Graeme won’t be here (he’s on episodes 1, 3, and 5 of the crossovers) but Jeff will be joined by Chico Leo, Gary Lactus, and Paul O’Brien, discussing “The Worm Turns: Characters, Comic Books, and Creators We Used to Love But Now Hate, and Vice-Versa.” Our special thanks to the kind crew at American Ninth Art Studios for their continuing support of this podcast..as well as our special thanks to the Empress Audrey, Queen of the Galaxy…and to all 114 of our supporters on Patreon who make all this possible. Look for us on Stitcher! Itunes! Twitter together and separately: Graeme and Jeff! Matt! Tumblr! And, of course, where, as of this count, 114 patrons make this whole thing possible!

Okay, so check out the first comment if you need a link to cut and paste into the player of your choice, and, hey, maybe even drop us a note if you want? That might be…nice? Either way, as always, thank you for listening!

Reviews

First Things First I’ll Eat Your Brains: Jeff Talks Monstress #1

November 7, 2015
Tagged as: Jeff, Marjorie Liu, Monstress, reviews, Sana Takeda

MONSTRESS #1: As you’ll hear when the podcast goes live on Monday, Graeme and I a bit of talk about Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda’s Monstress #1, which just came out from Image Comics. And, as you’ll also hear, Graeme does most of the talking because at the time he had read the issue and I hadn’t. Based on his description of it, I turned around and bought it right off Comixology while he was still talking. Woo, the future!

(Amusingly enough, I think Graeme actually did the same with Platinum End, the new series from the Death Note team or Ohba and Obata which I’d read and he hadn’t. And maybe also of note, each book was more or less the same page count—71 pages—for very different price points: Monstress for $4.99, and Platinum End for $0.99, which probably tells you something about the respective audience sizes: even at five times the price, Liu and Takeda are taking a much larger risk with their price point than Ohba/Obata/Viz/Shueisha, Inc.

And if this was a nicely symmetrical column, I’d get all McCulloch on your ass and weave a deft series of comparisons between the thematic underpinnings of the two. But…. nope. I’m here to talk about Monstress. Join me after the jump for more.

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Reviews

Marvel Unlimited and Chill: Matt Rambles About Netflix-For-Comics and an Old Warren Ellis Book

November 6, 2015
Tagged as: Carlos Pacheco, Marvel Unlimited, Matt, Starjammers, Warren Ellis

Looking back over the reviews I’ve written recently, a couple of things stuck out to me:

I’ve said a few times that I wouldn’t pay for a title but would read it on Marvel Unlimited
I’ve referenced how much I preferred Warren Ellis’s old superhero work over his newer stuff

Since Marvel Unlimited finally uploaded the long-absent first issue of Ellis’s 1995 Starjammers miniseries , I figured I’d return to both those topics in one post. Which you can read, below!

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Highfather Knows Worst: Graeme Thinks About The New 52’s New Gods

November 4, 2015
Tagged as: Green Lantern/New Gods: Godhead

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Out of all the New Gods that received a New 52 makeover, I think it’s fair to say that Highfather had it worse. Sure, Orion was transformed into what was essentially Cosmic Guy Gardner in the Azzarello/Chiang Wonder Woman run, and Darkseid suddenly gained both a taste for surprisingly colorful costuming and shoulders that apparently belonged to Ben Grimm, but Highfather…? He went from kindly old pacifist granddad to a militarized, haughty patrician who showed disdain for almost all around him. (Thanks, once again, Brian Azzarello; this, too, was a Wonder Woman reboot.)

Fueled by something approaching excitement for Justice League‘s current “Darkseid War” storyline — which, in many ways, feels like Geoff Johns purposefully trying to retrofit a bunch of Grant Morrison concepts into the current DCU (Both the prologue’s Multiversity-like backstory for the DCU, and also the death of Darkseid, which was of course a plot point of Final Crisis‘s finale, although it had already happened in other places by that point, of course) while channeling his own Blackest Night — I’ve found myself revisiting other Fourth World appearances in what was once called the New 52. There’s been a handful of them; Wonder Woman, Justice League, Infinity Man and the Forever People, the Earth 2 and Earth 2: World’s End stuff… and, most interestingly of all, Green Lantern/New Gods: Godhead. Continue reading →

Okay, so it’s unlikely that, between Halloween, the end of Daylight Savings Time, and all the usual stuff that goes into the weekend that this post will truly help you BUT JUST IN CASE let me tell you about some of these books I picked up in the Supergirl sale that ends on 11/2. Matt already hipped us to Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the Eighth Grade (I picked up my digital copy after his review), here’s a few of the slightly more musty treasures to which I wanted to draw your attention. Because for ninety-nine cents a pop, they’re pretty great. Continue reading →

Reviews

Matt Claims That Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade Is A Perfect Comic Book

October 29, 2015
Tagged as: Eric Jones, Landry Q. Walker, supergirl: cosmic adventures in the eighth grade

I don’t generally think of these reviews from a commercial perspective. I don’t think of these posts as buying advice, for the most part, especially since most of my reviews wind up boiling down to “Yeah, I dunno, if it’s the sort of thing you like you’ll probably like it.”

But this time I’m stowing my so-called critical faculties and letting commerce drive the entire review. Comixology has a whole bunch of Supergirl stories on sale (through Monday, 11/2/2015), and one of them is one of my favorite comics of all time. I’ve wanted to scream at people to buy this book, and now that I’ve got this here outlet, I’m going to scream away.

The book in question is Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, written by Landry Q. Walker with art from Eric Jones, and as far as I’m concerned it is damned near a perfect comic book. More after the jump!

SupergirlFalling

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Wait, What? Ep. 189: The Secret Convergence on Infinite Podcasts Crossover!

Capsule America and Falco: Jeff on Comics He’s Read Recently

Matt Gives In And Does Capsules For A Good Week Of Comics

Joys of The Comic Swap: Graeme Is Glad He Didn’t Pay Full Price For DC Challenge

Wait, What? Ep. 188: Romancing The Stones

First Things First I’ll Eat Your Brains: Jeff Talks Monstress #1

Marvel Unlimited and Chill: Matt Rambles About Netflix-For-Comics and an Old Warren Ellis Book

Highfather Knows Worst: Graeme Thinks About The New 52’s New Gods

That’s Really Super, Supergirl: Jeff Looks at Adventure Comics #416-419

Matt Claims That Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade Is A Perfect Comic Book

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