0:01-2:53: Greetings! Either Graeme has quite the frog in his throat, Yoda has decided to guest-host, or Chloe Maveal has once again joined us for some comic book blabbity blab! (Don’t worry I won’t spoil it for you here—no wait, I pretty much have to.). She’s only here with us for the first hour (don’t worry it ends up being closer to 90 minutes).
2:53-16:44: We had a whole bunch of stuff we’ve been planning on talking about for a while and a lot of it falls under the pop culture side of things than comic stuff (at least to start). For example, I’ve been wanting the three of us to talk about Malignant for *months* now…and now it’s finally here! Dear Cahiers du Cinema: I always thought your letters were made up, but then something happened to me I just had to write to you about… But first, quick talk about For All Mankind, and Annette and then SPOILERS as we talk bout the giddy, messy joys of Malignant.
16:44-30:19: Is there really a link between Malignant and Dune (apart from Jeff’s best friend, HBO Max?). He thinks so, but Graeme and Chloe think there are distinctions to be made considering Dune is, y’know, good. But we talk about Villeneuve’s adaptation, Lynch’s adaptation, the original book, being weird and horny, Graeme having the action figure as a kid, David Lynch’s amazing contest, and more.
30:19-52:21: Another film Jeff has been *dying* to talk about with Graeme and Chloe? Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch, which Jeff only saw for the first time a few weeks ago! Chloe and Jeff both have some divergent opinions (along with an amazing potential prediction from Chloe about Jeff’s future) and present the case for and against for Snyder’s oddball “epic”. Also discussed: Bjork, Jack Hill, Welcome to Marwencol, I Kill Giants, Showgirls, Burlesque, and more.
52:21-1:31:52: SPOILERS as we talk about season two of Ted Lasso, now that Jeff’s finally finished watching it. Why does Jeff refer to it as “Tad Lesso” and why won’t Graeme and Chloe acknowledge how god-damn brilliant that pun is? Discussed: Twin Peaks Season 2, which Ted Lasso character we all are; Twin Peaks: The Return; Dollhouse; Tank Girl and the career of Malcolm McDowell; Succession; Hackers; SLC Punk; and more.
1:31:52-1:50:37: Chloe splits, leaving Jeff and Graeme with a certain amount of confusion. What….do we talk about now? As it turns out Graeme has an answer and that answer is: Brian Michael Bendis’s run on Superman. Spoilers, I guess, if you haven’t read the end of Bendis’s run, especially with regards to the Invisible Mafia storyline and the fate of Jor-El.
1:50:37-1:59:19: On the opposite end, comfort-wise, of the “I liked it, it was good,” Jeff is incredibly impressed (and conflicted) about Tom King and Jorge Fornés’s Rorschach, which he is reading on DC Universe Infinite. We talk a bit about how the story continues to intertwine Strange Adventures, how the series might’ve gotten way more positive word of mouth if it wasn’t such a poisoned chalice of an IP. (Also, Graeme’s caught up on the first five issues of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by King and Bilquis Evely, something I’ve wanted for Martin Gray for literally months now).
1:59:19-2:10:37: Quick rundown of some of the other stuff Jeff’s been reading, super-quick: the second issues of Clear and We Have Demons and the first two issues of The All-Nighter, all on Comixology Unlimited; the first two volumes of Outcast by Kirkman and Azaceta via Hoopla; the finale of The 6 Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton; volume 10 of Sweat and Soap; the latest issue of the Nice House on the Lake; the first issue of Catwoman: Lonely City; and vols. 2 and 3 of Creature Girls: A Hands-On Field Journal in Another World.
2:10:37-end: Closing Comments…although a smooth landing is marred by some literal hemming and hawing from Jeff about our schedule for December. Nonetheless: 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 Empress Audrey, Queen of the Galaxy, to whom we are especially grateful for her continuing support of this podcast.
Next week: Skip week! If you’re in the States, have a great Thanksgiving and join us in December!
Previously on Drokk!: Something is afoot in Mega-City One, and it’s not just John Wagner’s attempt to get something resembling an ongoing continuity going in the strip for, really, the first time in its existence. Cyborg mob boss Nero Narcos has secretly supplied the Justice Department with new weaponry, as part of his plan for… something, while at the same time, Judge Galen DeMarco has left the Justice Department as, essentially, collateral damage in the Cold War between Judges Dredd and Edgar. Wouldn’t it be a thing if one storyline tried to tie those two threads together, while also bringing in an entirely unexpected classic storyline from the early days of the strip? Wouldn’t it?
0:00:00-0:03:53: And so we return and begin again, with Jeff and I introducing ourselves and also the volume we’re talking about this time: Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Vol. 30. Written by John Wagner, the whole volume is, in theory, telling one singular — if complicated — story, with art from a whole host of talents, including Cam Kennedy, Mick McMahon, and Charlie Adlard. I also take this opportunity to call out a mistake in the credits of Vol. 30, which is honestly kind of impressive when you think about just how many credits have run in the preceding 29 volumes without mistake.
0:03:54-0:26:29: We immediately launch into a discussion about why the book disappoints, because it’s us. It’s not just that it’s uneven, but that the start of the volume is so strong that when Wagner starts losing interest, it’s very obvious. Jeff has theories about the ways in which the arc fails to live up to traditional Dredd mega-epic plotting, and also feels as if this arc is “The Apocalypse War” all over again (but worse); I’m unconvinced, pointing out that at least some of the traditional mega-epic structure shows up here. More of a problem for me is the fact that, as a crossover between the Megazine and 2000 AD, the way the story is collected in this volume hurts the material, which wasn’t that strong to begin with. Also! What is going on with the Judge Edgar non-plot thread in this story? And how great is Wagner when he goes minimal as he does on the first story in this collection?
0:26:30-0:38:13: Our dissatisfaction tour continues, as we talk about the utter failure of Nero Narcos as the villain of the piece — something that even Wagner seems to have realized and accepted inside the text of this story itself, somewhat amazingly. He had the potential to be a mirror image of Dredd himself, but utterly failed on that front. (Except, and we didn’t discuss this on the podcast, what if his failing to live up to his potential and having no ability to stay on mission part of his opposite of Dredd-ness? Did I just blow your mind?!?) But did Wagner undercut things by making sure that the fall of Mega-City One happened off-panel — and could that have anything to do with what Jeff describes as Wagner having grown past the war comic genre?
0:38:14-1:06:17: We return to how uneven the book is, and why the opening works on levels that the rest just can’t live up to. Is it Cam Kennedy’s art? (And Simon Davis’ art, too.) Or is there something about the tone of the writing that is abandoned to a cartoonish ness for the rest of the book, including the conclusion of the very trial story that Kennedy and Davis’ arcs are part of? Also, does the cheapness of Orlok’s escape speak to a structural problem with the strip having a recurring villain based around the idea of his being as tough as Dredd? Does the trial attempt to redeem Dredd’s actions in “The Apocalypse War” and speak to Wagner attempting to retcon Dredd into being less morally ambiguous, and more “Judge Dad”? Am I out of bounds by using future Dredd stories as guidelines for how I read this material? Did I completely and accidentally miss Jeff’s cue that he wanted to talk about DeMarco and instead talk about other stuff? Well, the answer to that last one is easy to answer: yes. (Oops.)
1:06:18-1:25:19: Finally, we get to the DeMarco conversation that Jeff wanted to have earlier, and it goes to unexpected places. That both of us feel that the DeMarco side of the story is a letdown, I’m pretty sure everyone saw coming, especially with Andrew Currie’s artwork failing to serve the story in any appreciable way. It’s similarly not too surprising that we were both disappointed by DeMarco running into two judges she’s previously worked with, or how broadly Rothman’s portrayal is in his brief appearances — for real, he would have been reprimanded for that kind of nonsense, surely…? — but who expected Jeff and I to get into a discussion over whether or not private eyes should exist in Mega-City One, or whether it’s a waste of the potential that DeMarco represents?
1:25:20-1:32:41: The unfortunate fate of Chief Judge Volt is briefly touched upon, with neither of us feeling as if it was particularly earned, nor necessary. Jeff talks about whether or not it’s part of an especially subtextual arc about Volt being a Dredd supporter, whereas I’m more concerned about the seeming overstatement about the importance of whether or not the Psi Division is responsible for the disaster, which comes up more than once in the story. I mean, they did see it coming…
1:32:42-1:42:03: Before we try to close up shop, we talk a little bit about the art in the volume, which includes some genuinely incredible highs — Kennedy, McMahon, Colin Wilson doing some great work — and some utterly destructive swapping out of artists on the “War Games” sequence in particular, which has no less than six artists in seven chapters, and not exactly artists with similar styles.
1:42:04-1:54:19: Drokk or Dross? We both go for Drokk ultimately, despite reservations, which comes as a surprise to me considering some of Jeff’s misgivings. We also talk about the anti-climactic climax to the entire storyline, and the fact that — because of the format of the crossover, and the way it’s collected here — you get to read it twice, just to ensure as much disappointment as possible.
1:54:20-end: As we try and wrap things up, I throw a wrench in the works and suggest that next episode ignores Dredd entirely to, instead, read some Strontium Dog — another 2000AD series created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, and written for the majority of its run by the team of Wagner and Alan Grant — only for Jeff to agree, so: next time, we’ll be reading Strontium Dog: Search/Destroy Agency Files Vol. 2, and it’ll be a lot of fun. Also, we mention Patreon and Twitter, as usual, but that’s not as important as, next month! Strontium Dog! As always, thanks for listening.
0:01-5:57: Greetings! You catch us in a very potty mouthed media res as our first five minutes have already happened but without Graeme’s side of things being recorded. (Not much fun to sync up after the fact either, though I think I have it all worked out now.). It probably suits the episode overall, since—as we explain here—this episode was already failing to go according to plan. This was supposed to be the return of the remarkable Chloe Maveal to the podcast in order to discuss Malignant, Dune, and…some other movie, maybe? But due to some unexpected circumstances—of the barking, four-legged kind—she is unable to join us. (Would that Graeme’s half of the recording has nearly as good an excuse.). Fortunately, Graeme remembers the most important part of the lost discussion—Fire! by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown—which you can see in all its remarkability above. (Or so I hope, anyway.)
5:57-1:03;58: Having caught you up on all of the above, Graeme leads us into our first big-ass topic of the episode: on Monday, the workers of Image Comics formed a union. Although that is not, as many first assumed, the artists and creators of Image, it is nonetheless explosive news for the North American comics industry which almost universally uses exploitation as the oil to lubricate the engines of creation. So I hope it’s understandable why we would talk about this topic and speculate about what their statement means and what it might mean for the industry, and much, much more. As we mention repeatedly during the discussion, we are as far from experts as can be about situations surrounding unionizing so we definitely invite those of you who know more to correct and/or contribute in the comments to this post.
1:03:58-1:26:06: An hour in and we should talk about actual comics, you say? Welllllll….ok! Graeme sat down since the last time we talked and re-read The Immortal Hulk (in digital, not print, mind you). And after binging it, Graeme thinks that (a) it reads so much better when read in a oner but (b) doing so also makes the dry patch in the second half that much more frustrating? Kick off your shoes and join us as we rap about Cap sulk about Hulk and talk about how good all the material is and yet (for Graeme) still doesn’t quite land.
1:26:06-1:35:23: Graeme also talks about reading the recently completed Die by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, its pleasures, and how it ultimately isn’t his bag for reasons he lays out. PLUS, Graeme has also read the recent incarnation of Roy of the Rovers by Rob Williams, Ben Wilsher, and Lisa Henke (among others) and talks about the smart choices it makes to update the story and characters. PLUS PLUS, Graeme has been re-reading old Strontium Dog comics (quite possibly the least surprising sentence I will write this shownote entry, and more than likely this month as well) and he thinks we should just do an episode of Drokk! devoted to Strontium Dog and explains why.
1:35:23-1:40:24: PLUS PLUS PLUS, after failing to turn the spotlight over to Jeff’s reading interests, Graeme also mentions he’s been reading some of the sublime Monsieur Jean by Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian.
1:40:24-2:14:57: As for Jeff, he’s going to put all his comics discussing eggs in one basket and talk about his recent re-read of Supreme: The Story Of The Year and Supreme: The Return by Alan Moore, Rick Veitch, Joe Bennett (of Immortal Hulk, wildly enough), Chris Sprouse, Ian Churchill and several others, as published in trade format by Checker Books in 2002 or so (although reprinting comics that ran from 1997-2000). It’s a Superman analogue comic that tries to recapture and recontextualize the joys of the Silver Age Superman stories beloved by Moore (including the joys of interplay with other superheroes and continuity callbacks). And it is also, as Jeff tries to put it, a solid beam that Moore later goes on to diffract into all the titles of his ABC work. Jeff brings it up expecting Graeme to be, at best, coolish but the conversation zigs in places you might expect it to zag. Check it out! (Oh, and I *should* create a separate entry for it but at 2:11:43, we go from talking about Erik Larsen’s snotty annihilation of Moore’s Supreme to his apparently earnest reboot of…Ant?)
2:14:57-end: Closing Comments, thank goodness! 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 Empress Audrey, Queen of the Galaxy, to whom we are especially grateful for her continuing support of this podcast.
Next week: Remember to keep on Drokkin’! Read Vol. 30 of Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files and join us.
0:01-3:45: Greetings! Jeff is psyched (out) about this episode for reasons unknown to him and Graeme. Is it because next week is a skip week? Because last week was a Drokk! but so much was happening it should’ve been a Wait, What? Because Jeff can’t count? All those reasons and more? Like Mary Skrenes’ and Steve Gerber’s original ending for Omega The Unknown, it shall probably remain a mystery forever.
3:45-30:15: With one enigma in place, Graeme goes for a second: “A week later—and this is not meant as a diss of DC Fandome at all—but (a) what do you remember about DC Fandome, and (b) does it really seem like something that you ‘re like, ‘well that’s something everybody was talking about after the fact?’ I mean, maybe The Batman trailer, but that feels like it.” And so, you know, let’s unpack that. Said unpacking includes Jeff feeling ooky about the Black Adam sneak peek; slightly less straight after watching Ezra Miller introduce The Flash sneak peek; Graeme recommending Doom Patrol and the joys of the third season; Robins #1 and the Monkey Prince oneshot on DCUI; and the Milestone Initiative, a talent development program.
30:15-43:04: It was Wonder Woman Day on October 21! How did we celebrate? Jeff retweeted Linda Carter, downloaded some free Wonder Woman comics and bought a few others; Graeme read a whole pile of Wonder Woman comics, many of which were sent out on Wonder Woman Day, and reports back to us on the state of Wonder Woman 2021. (Spoilers: it sounds pretty good!)
43:04-57:29: Graeme also did a re-read of all the Action Comics material since Future State which works much better when read all at once. This is of interest to Jeff, who quite liked Superman And The Authority, the four issue miniseries that ties in to the same storyline. Graeme, having read both, talks about the ties—some pretty tenuous—between the connected stories and their very different takes on the Man of Steel. Also discussed: the CBR interview with Morrison about the final issue of the miniseries; and more.
57:29-1:09:09: There’s a new She-Hulk series! And it sounds…kinda like most of the other She-Hulk series(es). Between that and the upcoming Donny Cates/Ryan Ottley run on Hulk, is Marvel just rolling back the status quo on the Hulk books? Well…probably. But Jeff, who *really* loved the finale of Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing, Joe Bennett, Ruy José, Bellardino Brabo and Paul Mounts wonder if rather than following Sinatra, it might be better to pivot? Also discussed: holy shit, that run of The Immortal Hulk! And yet…was the follow-up about it on social media very quiet? (Jeff admits to termsearching because some of the people he normally sees tweeting about comics didn’t mention it.). Graeme dropped off—more than once!—and came back, so we talk a bit about why people step away from good books, the two sides of Al Ewing’s work and how each side to each of us differently, and more.
1:09:09-1:40:57: Remember when Jeff favorably compared Jason Aaron’s Avengers run to Grant Morrison’s run on JLA? Well, the bloom’s off that rose, baby! And yet, it’s Graeme who sat down (for the…third time?) to re-read all of it and this time around? He…still doesn’t like it. SURPRISE! (But we also unpack a lot of stuff in that, be it who popularized the “never ending story” trick, the ‘disrespect’ of reading digital, and much, much more).
1:40:57-1:54:41: Jeff has been, as he puts it, “Restoring The Snyderverse” by reading the first issues of the three(!) titles Scott Snyder published this month through Comixology Unlimited (We Have Demons with Greg Capullo; Clear with Francis Manapul; and Night of the Ghoul with Francesco Francavilla) as well as the wrap up of the first arc of Snyder and Tony Daniel’s Nocterra.
1:54:41-2:05:39: A substack joke inspires Graeme to talk about the free Substack newsletter of ND (formerly Noelle) Stevenson and the autobio comics posted there and how good they are. Sounds awesome, so you should do what Jeff did and go to imfineimfine.com and sign up for updates!
2:05:39-end: Closing Comments…or are they? 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 Empress Audrey, Queen of the Galaxy, to whom we are especially grateful for her continuing support of this podcast.
Next week: Trick or Treat! Smell Our Feet! Join us again in about two weeks!
Previously on Drokk!: With co-creator John Wagner now seemingly fully installed as the primary — indeed, seemingly the sole, Dredd writer once again, the strip seems to be once again finding its feet even as it appears to be quietly trying to reinvent itself…
0:00:00-0:02:51: After one of my favorite cold opens in Drokk! history, we introduce the volume we’re reading this time around — Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Vol. 29, covering material from 1998 and 1999, by Wagner, a small army of artists, and the surprise return of Alan Grant, who writes two stories herein — before getting down to business. Jeff also makes a great choice in naming the block this time around, too.
0:02:52-0:14:54: Jeff feels as if a way in to talking about this volume is to compare the returning Alan Grant to John Wagner, and so we talk about their differing approaches to Dredd, and the world of Judge Dredd the comic strip; according to Mr. Lester, Grant is “shaggy” in a way that Wagner isn’t, whereas I think that he’s just sillier — or, really, that Wagner plays his own silliness more straight. “He knows where he wants to hit his marks,” Jeff points out, but is that it? Is Wagner just a more assured, successful writer?
0:14:55-0:58:57: Because it’s us, we then go into the most frustrating portion of the entire book: “Worst of Frendz,” which is somehow even more disappointing than that title would suggest. Is it the “weird flex,” as I put it, of the threesome scene between two unnamed, unclothed women and the cyborg villain Nero Narcos, who has a checks notes telescopic penis? Is it the sub-Mark Millar dialogue? Is it the genuinely appalling artwork? Sure! All of the above and more. In theory, the story is a lead in to “The Scorpion Dance,” which is arguably the heart of this volume — one that I enjoyed and Jeff did not, and there’s a lot of back and forth about the reasons between the two opinions: I enjoyed the art, Jeff thought it was too crowded; I enjoyed the DeMarco arc, and Jeff thinks it’s a sign that neither Dredd nor John Wagner care about her as an individual; I like Judge Edgar as an antagonist, Jeff thinks she’s a sign that Wagner might be a misognynist, and so on. Jeff’s feeling that the storyline doesn’t go far enough is, arguably, somewhere that I think he’s on firmer ground, even if it’s a feeling I didn’t share because I’ve read further stories, but let’s just be happy that we can agree that “Worst of Frendz” is, by any stretch of the imagination, bad.
0:58:58-1:10:35: Fearful that we’re just spending an episode talking about what we don’t like, I ask Jeff about his favorite stories from the volume, and then share some of mine. We talk all-too-briefly about “Mega-City Way of Death,” which is genuinely great and should have been discussed more, as well as “Dreams of Glory” and a handful of other good stuff, before we somehow end up back on the topic of the slow burn of the Narcos plot and where it’s leading next volume. Look, apparently, we were in a circular frame of mind when we recorded this.
1:10:36-1:20:04: Jeff asks about two particular stories — “Wounded Heart” and “Christmas Angel,” both of which are sequels to earlier (more successful) Dredd stories — and I admit my disappointment in both, particularly the former, which I fully believe exists purely so Wagner can both meet his deadline requirements and use the pun that ends the strip. I also share my disappointment in “Simp City,” another strip that returns to old material trying to find something new to say, only to fail, and Jeff talks about how he initially believed better things were in the offing… only to quickly realize his mistake.
1:20:05-1:30:00: As we both agree that this volume, despite its shortcomings, is Drokk, not Dross, I suggest that the material from the Judge Dredd Magazine is stronger than its contemporary 2000 AD material, which Jeff takes issue with — we talk about that for a little while, before talking about favorite stories from the volume: Mine is “The Contract,” Jeff’s is “Mega-City Way of Death.” (Our least favorites are “Grud’s Big Day,” and “Worst of Frendz,” for the curious.)
1:30:01-end: As we close out the episode, I ask Jeff what he’s expecting from the next volume before teasing what’s actually coming up in the next volume. If that was my attempt at a surprise, though, he’s got me beat, by scheduling future recording sessions without me knowing, as you’ll hear me discover on air — and then we’re talking about Patreon and Twitter before skedaddling altogether. As always, thank you for reading and listening; we’ll be back in a month for a Dredd crossover with a difference.
0:01-6:25: Greetings! Tech mishaps are a thing of the very recent past, so you get to hear Graeme and Jeff talk about those as they clear the decks for another scintillating episode of Wait, What?! And what’s a better way to cleanse the palette than complaining about tech, we ask you? (No really, we need to know, clearly, because we not only go on about it for far too long, we use some amazingly inapt metaphors…)
6:25-42:35: Fortunately, Jeff goes on to blame all of our tech problems on the return of SAGA, which is a very good segue (if I do say so myself) because it allows us to talk about, yes, the return of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staple’s beloved sci-fi family epic! We talk about how long it’s been gone, how much of its audience will return with it, the Game of Thrones prequel (House of the Dragon), The Matrix Rebooteration, Daredevil: The Target, the return of the Busiekverse, Love and Rockets, Jeff’s experience reading Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku, Vol. 5 (the American version, so vols. 9 and 10 of the Japanese tankōbon), Graeme McMillan: the Littlest Hobo, and more.
42:35-49:49: Graeme has re-read (and as he says, in some cases, read) Evan Dorkin’s Pirate Corp$ and its continuation, Hectic Planet. It kind of ties in to what we’re talking about on many levels—it like some of the examples from our first half-hour remains unfinished—but was also read just as its own thing that Graeme, a fan of Dorkin, wanted the chance to fully (re-)experience. Also discussed: this thread from Dorkin talking about stepping back from comics for a bit.
49:49-1:02:50: Good news/bad news: if last episode you enjoyed us shit talking Scott McCloud’s Reinventing Comics based on our memories of more than twenty years, you’ll be interested to know that Graeme sat his ass down, got a copy from the library, and re-read it. And what he discovered in revisiting it may…surprise you?! It’s a great little segment if you’re interested in setting the record straight, less so if (like Jeff) you just wanted complain about it some more?
1:02:50-1:15:49: And to add faux insult to nonexistent injury, Graeme has read the first arc of Kieron Gillen and Esad Ribic’s The Eternals series for Marvel, despite the potential for tsk-ery from Jeff. With great restraint, Graeme manages to avoid spoiling the end of the first arc (since it’s not yet out on Marvel Unlimited) but also talks about all the good stuff Gillen and Ribic bring to the book. It is a blissfully spoiler free discussion that nonetheless digs into why Graeme thinks the book is quite possibly the best thing Marvel is publishing right now.
1:15:49-1:34:19: Graeme’s also been swigging from DC’s well of Outsiders comics, re-reading not just the 80s incarnation by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo (and others, as Jeff finds out) but also the very different re-incarnation by Barr in the ’90s. The Outsiders, the quintessential 80s super-team, as a 90s title? Graeme tells us what works and what doesn’t and we speculate about why.
1:34:19-1:49:54: Are you ready for another round of My Four Manga? Graeme is (thank goodness) and Jeff kind of is? So join us as we talk about The Walking Cat; You’re My Demon Lord, Senpai!; Booty Royale, Never Go Down Without A Fight; and Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Wander the Dungeon! Can Graeme guess the fake? Can Jeff stump Graeme?
1:49:54-1:55:35: You might’ve missed Joe (“Jog”) McCulloch’s brilliant obit/tribute to Takao Saito, creator of Jeff’s beloved Golgo 13 (Jeff is far from alone in that regard, as you know.). He takes the time to mention Jog’s excellent piece, in part so he can link to it here. (Jeff also talks quickly about some of the other stuff he’s read recently.)
1:55:35-1:58:27: And Graeme mentions how much he’s enjoyed reading The Phoenix Colossal Comics Collection, a—you guessed it—very big collection of comics from the UK’s Phoenix magazine.
1:58:27-end: Closing Comments are a go! 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 Empress Audrey, Queen of the Galaxy, to whom we are especially grateful for her continuing support of this podcast.
Next week: Rock out with your Drokk out! Read Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files, Vol. 29 and join us!
0:01-4:25: Greetings! A smidge of an opening leads to us very quickly brainstorming ideas for the newest Scottish children’s book star, Smidge The Midge, and quite probably gives you a head’s up for what kind of episode you might be in for. (In retrospect, it should’ve for us but I don’t know if we were aware of it at the time…).
4:25-30:49: But don’t you worry yourself none, we are off and talking about comic books (though Jeff, as you soon hear, starts off for more than a bit hobbled) with Graeme reading a lot of Venom comics, more specifically, Venom Epic Collection: Symbiosis, the stuff that basically leads up to Venom being Venom. (And I’m including the Comixology link because Marvel is currently having a BOGO for the next twenty-four hours or so that this is up, so if you have some other Marvel collection you’ve been wanting to pick up and want nearly 500 pages of what Graeme describes as “nuts…genuinely wacky,” this is your chance?) But reading it Graeme finds himself a little put off by the Micheline/McFarlane stuff that launched Venom and is still considered one of the defining runs on Spider-Man. Why? Does Jeff feel the same? How many more rhetorical questions can be used to pad out this entry? Two?
But beyond that is a larger discussion about where the sweet spots are for superheroes, when that passes, and whether or not Spider-Man works better as a visually dynamic character in a less dynamic artistic presentation, or as a dynamic character in artistically dynamic stories.
30:49-41:53: Kind of an awkward place to put in a show note transition, but our discussion of Spider-Man’s design led us to talking about the redesign of DC characters for the New 52, and so here we are at this particular point in things where we go from talking about Flash’s New 52 redesign (which has stuck) to what’s happening with Wally West, Barry Allen and the semi-but-not-5G approach of having Barry off doing adventures in Infinite Frontier, and some quality harrumphing from Jeff about the latest issue of Nightwing that gets pulled from its current storyline into the Batman Fear State event.
41:53-47:15: The talk of subtext in one of the Batman-related books leads Graeme to talk very elliptically about the final issue of Strange Adventures by Tom King, Mitch Gerads, and Evan “Doc” Shaner and how it plays against the conclusion of Rorschach by King and Jorge Fornes. It’s a spoiler-free discussion which will either intrigue you or find you clamoring for more solid details…but at least it’s spoiler free!
47:15-59:47: Rorschach, Spider-Man…it’s almost like we planned to talk about the direct and indirect influence Steve Ditko has had on the American comics industry as a way to give a sense of context to the news that his estate has filed a termination notice for the rights to Spider-Man and Doctor Strange (as well as other creators such as Larry Leiber and Gene Colan also represented by Marc Toberoff). It may—or may not—end up being a very big deal.
59:47-1:08:36: A stray wocka-wocka leads us into what I would call “prime Wait, What? digression territory?” as we end up discussing—and, really, try to stop discussing—which muppets would play which Marvel staffers/creators in the Muppet Marvel biopic. Graeme calls repeatedly to listeners to chime in with your suggestions in the comments. *Please* do! It’s fifteen hours later and I can still barely think of anything else!
1:08:36-1:39:01: From the absurd to the less-than-sublime: we talk about our experiences with the Infinite comics released on Marvel Unlimited as well as the Batman Family comic (among others) on Webtoons. The future of comics? Maybe we can only fully understand the future of comics by scrutinizing a fragment of its path—that is, Scott McCloud’s tremendously underwhelming follow-up to Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics. Yes, as a wise man once said, “those who don’t complain about their past are doomed to repeat it (and by it, I mean ‘complaining about the present’).”
1:39:01-1:47:49: Jeff *very* much wants to deliver a new installment of “My Four Manga” but cannot since he’s almost entirely been reading stuff previously mentioned and therefore offering no guesswork possibilities: Fist of the North Star, Vol. 2 by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara; Sweat and Soap, Vol. 9, by Kintetsu Yamada; and chapters of Drowning Love by George Asakuara (which Jeff calls Drowning God which is, um, wrong).
1:47:49-2:18:56: Graeme, by contrast, has been catching up on and was hugely impressed by The Many Deaths of Laila Starrby Ram V and Filipe Andrade; Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters by Chris and Laura Samnee and Matthew Wilson; and Joshua Dysart’s Valiant “trilogy” of Harbinger, Imperium, and The Life and Death of Toyo Harada. And some thoughts Graeme has had about trying to compare Dysart’s story with what Hickman’s done with X-Men leads to us discussing talking about Hickman’s departure from the x-books, some of the more extreme theories surrounding them, and areas of Graeme’s discontent with the redirection of the X-titles. Also discussed: Russell T. Davies returning to Dr. Who and his previous track record of understanding U.S. history; and much more.
2:18:56-end: Closing Comments…or are they? 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 Empress Audrey, Queen of the Galaxy, to whom we are especially grateful for her continuing support of this podcast.
Next week: Skip week again! Join us in a fortnite for the first episode of October!
Previously on Drokk!: As co-creator John Wagner once again takes sole control of Mega-City One, writing the series for both 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Magazine, a new calm settles on the future lawman’s world. A calm called, “these comics are just… good, aren’t they…?”
0:00:00-0:04:40: After a cold open that accidentally foreshadows the episode to follow, we introduce the book we’re discussing this episode — Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Vol. 28, which contains material from 2000 AD Progs 1084-1099, and 1101-1110, and Magazine Vol. 3 #2 39 through 45, all from 1998 — and I manage to get John Wagner’s name wrong after 31 episodes. “Alan Wagner,” indeed. What was I thinking? Also discussed: that we’re in a “comfort food” era of Dredd, where the high quality comes with a familiarity that’s hard to ignore. (Or, for that matter, define.)
0:04:41-0:14:15: We dive into the longest story in the book, “Beyond the Call of Duty,” which is a quasi-sequel to “The Pit,” the mega-epic from a few volumes back that Jeff and I loved a lot. That’s less true here, and we talk about the reasons why: how the story underwhelms in terms of emotional arc, and hurts one of the two main characters in the process, Jeff’s comparison to the work of Joe Esterhaus (and who saw that coming?), and the unexpected debt Ed Piskor’s Red Room owes this storyline, whether he knows it or not. Galen Demarco deserves better, dammit.
0:14:16-0:25:04: This is a really good looking book, and we talk about the art a little bit, singling out Alex Ronald, Trevor Hairsine and John Burns as standout artists — Siku, too, is a standout, but not for good reasons; we go into depth with the ways in which his work isn’t hitting the mark. In addition to my love for Ronald’s “Handbangers” story, Jeff also points out one of the reasons why this volume feels particularly strong in terms of visuals: the artists are, for the most part, getting stories that work with their strengths.
0:25:05-0:49:44: Following on from the previous episode, we talk about the return of “Judge Dad,” AKA the idea that, under Wagner, Dredd will occasionally be the voice of moral authority in a way that arguably steps outside the confines of the strip as it’s previously existed. This means touching on both “A Death in the Family” and “Sex, Lies, and Vidslugs,” two Magazine stories that see Wagner’s anger feed into his satire, with Jeff putting forward the idea that the serious stories are jokes, and the joke stories are serious, this time around; we also talk about two comedy shorts, “Vidspex” and “No More Jimmy Deans,” that feel as if Wagner is reaching for something larger than the story unfolding on the page. Also under discussion: Is Dredd soap opera, or something else? And is Wagner trying to address that very question in the stories collected in this book?
0:49:45-1:07:58: Jeff suggests that Dredd is “flatter” in this book, and we talk about that idea — and the idea that it’s actually difficult to talk about this book because, while the majority of it is very good stuff, it’s also good in such a way that we’ve seen before, and that makes it difficult to have new insight about. It really is a comfort food collection, and we go back and forth about what that really means, and if we should be concerned that there’s no particular innovation in this volume. (Short answer: Not really, because Wagner’s shown himself to recover from this kind of lull before, and also, these lulls are so damn enjoyable.)
1:07:59-1:19:13: What are our favorite stories in this volume? For me, “Headbangers,” for Jeff, “Sleaze”; our least favorite story, as it turns out, is the same: “The Bouncy Brats Heist,” although Jeff leaves space for “Vidspex,” a story so utterly undermined by its artist at a time when the artist/story pairing has been unusually strong. Also, is this Drokk or Dross? The answer… won’t surprise you at all, honestly.
1:19:14-end: We look ahead to the next couple of volumes, before closing out the episode as we always do — mentioning our Instagram, Twitter and Patreon accounts. Next time: more Wagner, but with an unexpected return of Alan Grant, of all people. Be here in a month, dear Whatnauts, and until then, thanks as ever for reading and listening.
0:01-25:43: Greetings! Graeme is a fine mood after a very eventful week, and Jeff is….Jeff and really what can any of us do about that? (I mean, look at how much Jeff has tried and see what little difference it makes!). Anyway, the slightly undercurrent of self-loathing felt by those who write about themselves in the omniscient third person is not really discussed here: it’s largely about the difficult necessity of having uncomfortable conversations on the telephone, whether that being Graeme interviewing someone for his job or just trying to get a straight answer from his vet! Kid update, dog update, Portland update—all this wrapped up in the time warp of “Chloe was just on the podcast *a week ago*?” Whereas, Jeff barely survived his descent into the dangerous labyrinth the Elder Gods call….Ikea! Plus: a “pug on ‘roids” update!
25:43-45:43: Anyway, remember how Jeff kept threatening Graeme to play a game where Jeff described manga and Graeme had to figure out whether it was real or not? Welcome to our first installment of “My Four Manga,” where Jeff names and describes four manga and Graeme has to guess which one isn’t real! Discussed: Steaming Sniper;A Pantyhose like World; Sweaty Garden Gacha Girls!; and Dick Fight Island.
45:43-1:42:20: And so to news—Comixology gave word that in the Fall they will be: (a) doing a huge upgrade to their app; and (b) redirecting Comixology.com to Amazon’s Kindle Comics/Comixology store (currently already up and running although please god let this still be in progress). And this was followed by more news including that those who used Comixology Submit to publish their comics will have to re-upload to Kindle Comics, they will have to redo the Guided View approach, and Amazon’s cut goes up from 35% to 65% (unless the self-publisher pays the expensive uploading fees and then Amazon’s cut goes back down to 30%). Check out this FAQ, this Comixology Submit related FAQ, and some wise words from friend of the podcast Todd Allen. TL;DR? This is a really bad turn of events, no matter how jauntily the CEO wrote the email. We talk about it, how publishers might have received this news, how digital’s place in the market has evolved/devolved, comics on Kickstarter, Gumroad, what could happen with Substack (and what we hope happens!), Webtoons, Tapas (and the staffing behind the scenes) and more.
1:51:55-2:01:47: Comics! We keep on reading comics! Graeme (soon to be guesting on the Voice of Latveria podcast) revisited some of Stan Lee/John Buscema Thor comics, has been rereading JSA, (the James Robinson/David Goyer/Geoff Johns scripted joint), which led him down a comics hidey–hole to revisit JSA’s ur-text, Infinity, Inc. Discussed: baby Todd McFarlane; Amy Reeder’s Amethyst; and more.
2:01:47-2:16:55: Jeff, by contrast, reread 16 volumes of Steaming Sniper by Marley Caribu (a pseudonym for the writer of Old Boy) and Tadashi Matsumori. What did Jeff take from 2,000+ pages of middle-aged man gentle fantasy? (A whole lot of comfort, but also a bit more as he talks about here.)
2:16:55-end: Closing Comments! 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 Empress Audrey, Queen of the Galaxy, to whom we are especially grateful for her continuing support of this podcast.
Next week: Time to Drokk out! Read vol. 28 of Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files and join us!
0:01-18:08: Greetings! Tech shenanigans abound since Graeme has a new computer and a temporary workaround for recording, so we apologize right here at the top of it all for any diminishment in our normal recording standard. But fortunately, part of the reason for the workaround is that we are once again graced with the presence of crack critic Chloe Maveal! But first, listen to the stories of Graeme’s working situation pre-new computer upgrade and remember, we will not be held responsible for any resulting nightmares if you do! Anyway, if you like hearing two people wonder if they’re just old and having one extra person on the side vigorously nodding, this is the call for you! Discussed: Overton Windows and Titty Windows; the mistake of complaining in front of Graeme; and more.
18:08-31:36: This episode was recorded on what would’ve been Jack Kirby’s 104th birthday, so it’s only natural for three comic nerds to talk generally about what part of Kirby’s legacy they want to see continue, and more specifically about the most recent Kirby they’ve (re-)read and/or their current fave. Discussed: OMAC #1 (OMAC!), The Demon, New Gods, the drama in Kirby’s facial expressions, Dingbat Love and the reconstruction of Soul Love (which is currently 50% off through the end of August!), Kamandi, The Eternals, and more.
31:36-40:50: It’s that time in the podcast where Graeme talks in vague terms about something he’s read that isn’t out yet and how we should keep an eye out because he thinks it does something very interesting. (I should’ve initial capped all that and turned into a ghastly acronym but oh well.). This time around: Infinite Frontier (probably issue #6?), which turns to Jeff talking about reading the first few issues of Heroes Reborn on Marvel, Chad Nevett’s thoughts about it in his awesome newsletter, and more.
40:50-45:51: Speaking of critics who are generous and those who are unforgiving, Graeme has a point about last week’s Drokk that still confuses him—we both really liked Volume 27 of Dredd: The Complete Case Files but we spent the bulk of the episode by and large complaining about the stories that didn’t work? Why? Can Star Trek’s Ensign Tolstoy help explain it? And another good reason to check out the comments on our show notes (especially on Drokk!)
45:41-59:10: I won’t explain how we got from Dredd to Fugazi to this great story from Chloe but it all makes sense, trust me. A cameo appearance from someone’s noisy car engine distracts us into talking about the current tenor of their Portland neighborhood. Also discussed: The Fast & The Furious films, cassette mixtapes, the secret story behind Lou Bega’s Mambo No. 5 and who’d we cast in the film, and Jeff’s “parody comic” dreamed up at 5am while half-asleep and half-high, and….pride shame?
59:10-1:02:25: Normally, I do my best to hide the break in our conversations but here it can’t quite be helped, in part because you’d miss a couple of funny jokes, I think? And also because it’d be really hard to rethread an edited conversation’s passage back into talking about the latest work from Tom King without it. Discussed: the latest work from Tom King (and its six month echo currently being explored by Jeff on DCUI); and more.
1:02:25-140:27: And here’s the meat of the episode: two lovers of reality TV (Graeme and Chloe) have a conversation with the reality TV non-lover (Jeff) about Below Decks: Mediterranean for which Jeff watched the first four episodes of Season 1 of what he thought was the main Below Decks show (it wasn’t) and which G&C thought he’d be watching Season 6. (Nope!). Nonetheless, we find enough common ground to talk about how little common ground we actually still share about reality TV? Discussed: Below Decks Mediterranean, Captain Sandy, Malia White, people fucking up, schadenfreude, attractive people, how very tightly constrained narrative needs nevertheless involve narratives, people being “big trash bags”, I’m With Busey,Fboy Island, Love Island, Wandavision [?], Too Hot To Handle, soap operas, non-downer DNA, and more.
1:40:27-2:01:53: Chloe mentioned pride shaming close to the top of the hour and it seems like a good time to bring it back up and break it down (but…is it? We’re genuinely not sure!). Nonetheless, Chloe does her best! Discussed: Jackass, The Underground Railroad, The Anna Nicole Smith show, the relief of letting go, Uno, and Malia White from Below Decks: Mediterranean.
2:01:53-end: Closing Comments—with a twist! Look for us on Stitcher!Itunes!Instagram! Twitter together and separately: Graeme, Chloe, 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.
Recent Comments