Previously on Drokk!: As we got tired by the ongoing reign of Garth Ennis on the 2000 AD episodes of the Dredd strip, two things in the previous episode pointed towards the future: John Wagner’s return to the series in the pages of the Judge Dredd Megazine, and a one-off 2000 AD story written by none other than a very young Mark Millar…
0:00:00-0:02:21: A brief-enough introduction lets everyone know that we’re reading Judge Dredd: The Complete Case FilesVol. 19, which collects material from 2000 AD and Judge Dredd Magazine — or, as it was called at the time, Judge Dredd: The Megazine — from 1993, written by Ennis, Wagner, Millar… and Grant Morrison, whose 12-part “Inferno” serial dominates both this volume and our discussion thereof.
0:02:22-0:50:44: What looks as if it’s going to be a discussion of Mark Millar’s surprisingly strong contribution to the collection gets detoured into a lengthy discussion of “Inferno,” via the fact that Millar wrote a (not-collected-here) prologue series for 2000 AD called Purgatory. I compare that, perhaps unfairly, to DC’s Countdown to Final Crisis, and talk about Millar’s tendency towards nastiness, and then we end up talking all over “Inferno” properly, and what Grant Morrison gets right — the high concept at the heart of the story — and wrong, with the latter being, basically, “the execution of that high concept.”
Jeff makes the argument that “Inferno” is Morrison using the story as a calling card for writing Dredd in the future, and we discuss the ways in which it works and doesn’t — the emptiness, the odd pacing and seeming disinterest in engaging with Dredd in any ways beyond the surface quips and violence, transforming it into a summer blockbuster movie… which it actually works relatively well as. Despite that, there’s an accidental lesson to be learned from the whole thing, when it comes to the Judges self-policing and the limits of their attempts to clean up their own messes. All this, and I also explain 2000 AD’s 1993 temporary relaunch the Summer Offensive!
0:50:45-1:06:32: With Morrison out the way, we approach Garth Ennis’ last work (for awhile) on the series and bemoan just how bad it is — at least he was consistently off, I guess…? — and talk about how surprised I am to enjoy Millar’s contributions as writer, as unsubtle as they may be. Under discussion: Is British newspaper the Daily Star an unexpected influence on Millar’s Dredd? Can Morrison and Millar write more entertaining Dredds because they’re not necessarily fans of the character or the strip? And, really, just how bad is Ennis’ last contribution, which seems to be entirely based around how much he didn’t like early 1990s late night show The Word?
1:06:33-1:17:36: The unsung hero of Case Files 19 is, undoubtedly, John Smith, and as we move onto the Megazine material, Jeff and I marvel at how well he manages to “get” what John Wagner has done with the strip in a way that no-one else with the exception of Alan Grant has really managed — and, in the process, come up with the math for an ideal Dredd story: “Smart + Funny + Cruel.” Also discussed: John Smith’s love of the overwritten caption and the strange way in which Wagner will, eventually, follow Smith’s lead in that respect. (Kind of; Wagner doesn’t do “overwritten.”)
1:17:37-1:52:19: And so, to the Wagner material in Case Files 19, which includes our joint favorite story in the book, “Hottie House Siege” — a one-off so silly that we take a second to appreciate how much we enjoy Wagner’s stupid stories. (As opposed to his more serious stories.) An all-too-brief (in retrospect) mention of the Return of Slick Dickens leads us onto discussion of the third “Mechanismo” story, which is actually a discussion about how abruptly a character relationship shifts, and whether or not this is a problem of a character being shared between writers — and whether Dredd, by this point 16 years old as a strip, has started to encounter the problem that all long-running comic strips do, when audiences have to start picking and choosing their own head canons for the character. We also find out that Jeff is nostalgic for Case Files 10 and that era of Dredd, but really, after three volumes of Garth Ennis, who isn’t…?
1:52:20-1:58:24: All told, is this volume Drokk or Dross? The answer might surprise you — it certainly surprised me — and we pick our favorite and least favorite stories from the volume: Good news for John Wagner, slightly less good if you’re Garth Ennis or Mark Millar. (Surprisingly, Grant Morrison skids through without getting near either category.)
1:58:25-end: As I tease the fact that we’re skipping out on regular Dredd for the next episode — we’ll be covering Judge Dredd: The Restricted FilesVol. 3 — we sign off in our regular fashion, by mentioning Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, and Patreon. For those who’ve been reading and listening along, bless your collective cotton socks, as ever.
0:01-19:16: Greetings, but without our traditional greetings bit! Hopefully, you know which one of us is which by now as you are getting us in media fucking res after a *small* tech snafu on Jeff’s end, but from there we move on to talk about the stressful week that was, and try to scooch quickly past the reasons we can’t talk about to the ones we can such as….New York Comic-Con! It was happening as we spoke, it’s happening as I edit this, and almost nobody is talking about it. Is everyone burned out on the virtual comic cons of 2020? Or are there things IRL cons offer that virtual cons just can’t? Discussed: Mike Mignola; Scott Snyder in conversation with James Tynion; BarCon; Endless Winter (and its prequel event, Careless Whisper); and more.
19:16-32:53: Graeme re-watched Spice World! Then gave Jeff crap for seeing it in the theater when it first came out! What the hell, Graeme? Also discussed: other movies Graeme watched, some of which he doesn’t actually give Jeff crap for also watching. [AQUAMAN! We finally get to talk about Aquaman!]
32:53-41:39: Jeff wants to talk about what he’s been reading comic book wise despite the fact that most of it is not new (but is at least newly collected). West Coast Avengers: Tales to Astonish (I should call it by its proper title “Avengers West Coast: Tales to Astonish” but I find that title annoying and stupid, even if I understand why for shelving purposes Marvel would call it that) which not only collects the final issues of West Coast Avengers written by Steve Englehart, but also has Avengers Annual #16, West Coast Avengers Annual #2, and…Emperor Doom?! To badly paraphrase Goody Rickles: Don’t Ask, Just Listen! (Or, alternately, buy if you’re punctual enough to hear this episode within 24 hours of it getting out into the wild in which case you can either shop Comixology’s BOGO sale or just get it at Amazon for half-price).
Oh Hoopla, you did make me very happy with that author credit….
41:39-50:40: On a completely different but similarly Avengers-related tip, Graeme reread The Korvac Saga, Jim Shooter’s magnum opus of The uptight Avengers versus a horny, middle-class God. It’s on Hoopla (and is also part of the Marvel BOGO sale but is *not* half-price on Amazon, super-weirdly).
50:40-1:10:55: And then! After all this “Jeff reads one Avengers trade, and Graeme reads another,” it turns out that we unknowingly both read the *same* trade at roughly the same time: Hardware: The Man in the Machine by Dwayne McDuffie and the amazing Denys Cowan (and JJ Birch, apparently?) Graeme also recommends Icon by McDuffie and the also-amazing Mark D. Bright, and we talk about what Milestone returning might mean to us now in 2020.
1:10:55-1;20:50: And if *that* isn’t proof we’re going seriously old school with this podcast, Jeff also read Bloodstone and the Legion of Monsters (also covered in the BOGO), a trade which has the much more recent (and pretty decent!) Legion of Monsters mini by Dennis Hopeless and Juan Doe, but also the original Ulysses Bloodstone series which gets an *amazing* final issue written by Steve Gerber that’s….really something to behold.
1:20:50-1:26:31: Sadly, in the “more recent” debacles column, Jeff read the amazingly titled President Werewolf #1 and is here to let you know that, yes, it is amazingly titled. And he read (recently arrived on Marvel Unlimited) Marvel Premiere #27, a Satana issue drawn by The Tribe and written by a very young and very “knew what he liked, even back then” Chris Claremont.
1:26:31-1:43:37: Continuing in this vein of “Jeff drags Graeme down memory lane,” Jeff talks about rebuying the very first issue of Conan The Barbarian he ever read, and the semi-atypical way in which it came into his possession. WARNING: this story is so heavily ‘70s, it should come with its own eight-track player. 1:43:37-1:48:16: But enough of that memory lane jazz? What about comics news? The new Alan Moore interview? The film deal for the comic Black? A weird way to connect the two?
1:48:16-2:08:59: Meanwhile, it’s time for another installment of Graeme Grapples with Death Metal! In this latest ep., Graeme reads all of Death Metal (and its related tie-ins) and concludes, “it actually does make slightly more sense if you read it all in a oner.” Includes discussion of Death Metal: Speed Metal and Death Metal: Multiverse’s End. 2:08:59-end: Closing comments, but with Jeff also remembering to mention the very good Humble Bundle currently running with over 100+ volumes of horror manga from Kodansha! 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: Drokk!! We’re reading Volume 19 of the Complete Judge Dredd Casefiles. Join us!!
Previously on Drokk!: Sure, Garth Ennis might be a well respected comics writer for work on titles including Preacher, Punisher, and Some Guy and A Gun or Something these days, but did you know that, when starting out, he wrote some really poor Judge Dredds? Because we sure do after the last couple of episodes.
0:00:00-0:02:32: Before diving into what is, ultimately, an uneven book — but one that’s far better than we’ve enjoyed in recent episodes! — we introduce ourselves, and the fact that we’re reading Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Vol. 18 this episode, featuring stories from 2000 AD and Judge Dredd Magazine from 1992 and 1993. Yes, there’s more Ennis, but there’s also more John Wagner than we’ve had for awhile, too, so… yay…?
0:02:33-0:34:59: As is our tradition, we immediately dive into the Garth Ennis material, because apparently we hate ourselves. Ennis writes all but one of the 2000 AD episodes in this volume, and we discuss the way in which these stories have all of his bad Dredd habits and then some, and Jeff floats a theory that, perhaps, editors were trying to position 2000 AD’s Dredd stories for the audience that was buying not-for-kids comedy comic Viz at the time. (I’m not convinced.) Also discussed: Mark Millar’s first Dredd story (it’s not good) and what it might owe to Pat Mills, whether or not Ennis has grown at all in how he approaches Dredd as a strip, and just why Garth Ennis’ sense of humor doesn’t really work in this strip, at least in this incarnation.
0:35:00-0:59:38: We’ve talked about Ennis’ seeming sympathies for the more fascistic parts of the Dredd mythos in episodes past, and we’re back at it now after Jeff talks about Ennis’ tendency to be a bully when it comes to the targets of his comedy. Is Ennis pathologically afraid of weakness, and if so, how does that factor into his support for might-makes-right as an ideology? We also talk about two storylines in which Ennis is at his most Ennis-y: “Raider,” in which someone is almost as hard as Dredd, but isn’t, and Ennis’ only P.J. Maybe story, in which he… utterly misunderstands the entire point and appeal of the P.J. Maybe character. Things are grim, Whatnauts.
0:59:39-1:01:22: Are the 2000 AD stories in this volume Drokk or Dross? Anyone who’s been paying attention wouldn’t be surprised that we’re not fans.
1:01:23-1:22:52: Onto the good stuff, as we get to the Magazine material, and “Mechanismo,” in which John Wagner asks the important questions: “What is policing without a human element?” and “What if I did a story based on that question but also referenced Robocop and Short Circuit, because they’re about robots?” Jeff also brings up good points about what the Mechanismo robots say about policing in 2020, and the ways in which John Wagner and George Romero have similar approaches to long form storytelling. No, really!
1:22:53-1:34:51: It’s not all “Mechanismo,” though, and Jeff raves about “A Christmas Carol” — both Dickens parody and statement of intent on Dredd’s place in the world by John Wagner, as it turns out — while we’re both confused and slightly non-plussed by John Hicklenton’s artwork on another of the strips. I’ll be honest, we pretty much shortchange the Alan Grant material in Case Files 18, but I think there’s also an argument to be made that we’re giving it exactly as much attention as it deserves. (Sorry, Alan.)
1:34:52-1:45:07: We start to wrap things up by looking back at the Magazine material as a whole in this volume, and then Case Files 18 in its entirety. Which is my favorite of the two “Mechanismo” stories in this book? Is the book Drokk or Dross overall? What are our favorite stories in the book? The answers can be found within!
1:45:08-end: And then we really wrap things up by looking at what awaits us next episode — Grant Morrison, and it’s not good — and by mentioning the usual suspects: Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and Patreon. Thank you as always for reading along and putting up with our meanderings, and I hope you’ll come back next month for an episode we’ll pretend is spookier than usual, because, you know, Hallowe’en and stuff.
0:01-32:08: Greetings! We continue our trend in “we don’t really want to talk about 2020 too much, but on the other hand we should let you know how we’re doing since we’re both on the coast that is on fire” discussions. I don’t want to totally spoil Graeme’s discussion of what things are like in Portland, but here’s the money quote: “Yesterday, We rewatched Robocop, the original Robocop? And that feels tame compared to our reality today.”
32:08-35:59: As we transition to talking about comics, Graeme has a very hearty recommendation for the latest issue of the Judge Dredd Megazine. Not only is it the 30th anniversary of the the megazine, not only does it feature a strong lineup of strips, it also has the first installment of the 2000AD Encyclopedia, which is more or less as Graeme says, “The Official Handbook to the 2000AD Universe.” For those who’ve been listening to Drokk!! and intrigued by the idea of jumping in on the current day action, it sounds pretty great?
35:59-57:00: From there, there’s a bit of news pivot because Jeff is confused that this weekend was apparently *another* DC Fandome weekend? And more confusingly, Graeme was *not* covering it? We talk about that, the season two finale of Doom Patrol, what is news, why the follow-up weekend,and then transition into Represent #1 by Christian Cooper, Alitha E. Martinez, and Mark Morales, a free digital comic that DC dropped with no forewarning last Tuesday. It’s a promising and challenging book—but is it going to be something DC keeps walled off in its own little corner, is its viewpoint going to be embraced and reinforced by the rest of the messaging in DC’s other books, and a lot of other questions and possibilities.
57:00-1:01:33: After Graeme talked about it last week, Jeff felt compelled to pick up Death Metal: Trinity Crisis #1 and Graeme is right that it’s an event tie-in book that feels like it should be an issue of the event, even though the whiplash between Francis Manapul as the artist here and Greg Capullo as the artist on the event it makes imagining the upcoming collection very difficult.
1:01:33-1:05:01: And also in “last week/this week” news, after talking so much about the Bill and Ted movies, Jeff picked up Bill and Ted Are Doomed, written by Evan Dorkin, the original creator on Bill & Ted’s earlier comic series and drawn by…Roger Langridge? Dorkin are two great tastes, but do they taste great together?
1:05:01-1:22:41: And to get the final entry into Jeff’s Trifecta of Meh, he read the first two issues of Adventureman by Matt Fraction and Terry & Rachel Dodson, a book he had no idea had even been released. We discuss the pulps, casual comics readers, long-gestating projects, and more.
1:22:41-2:09:08: Back to our obsessions from last week! Graeme continued to make his way through the rest of the Alien movies (AvP movies excepted) as well as some amazing stories about the first Aliens omnibus! Come for the stories about “Billie” and “Wilks,” stay for Graeme’s comparison of Alien: Resurrection to “a Mountain Dew commercial from the same period.”
2:09:08-end: Closing comments with bonus impromptu scheduling session! 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 thank goodness, sez Jeff). Read Volume 18 of the Complete Judge Dredd Casefiles and Join us in two weeks for Drokk!!
0:01-32:37: Guh-reetings! (In our truncated way, at least for an eensy bit.) Graeme has had quite a week, a week with something he hasn’t had in a very long time—three days off from work. As Jeff puts it: “Gasp!” By contrast, Jeff has been working a lot and is trying to handle the challenges of training a new employee remotely. The latter takes the stage for a longer comic-free chat about work, Zoom, social media, the media, and the strangeness of 2020. Feel free to take a pass if you want your comic book and pop culture podcast to be a bit more about comics and pop culture? (But personally I think Graeme has some good things to say.)
32:37-39:21: Speaking of comics: are we caught up? As Jeff so charmingly put it, “comics didn’t shit the bed in the past week!” Uh, we think? Graeme passes one or two little tidbits of news but it’s very difficult to categorize it as bad, much less bed-shittingly so?
39:21-1:00:20: On the other hand, depending on how you feel about it, Jeff’s desire—a strong one, let us to be clear—to talk about Batman: Three Jokers #1 by Geoff Johns, Jason Fabok, ahd Brad Anderson could be why (as William Blake so poignantly put it) we’re not allowed to have nice things? Discussed: BATMAN: THREE JOKERS #1. (Amazingly enough, I’m pretty sure this is a spoiler-free conversation, at least as far as plot points are concerned.)
1:00:20-1:17:44: Another thing Jeff strongly desires to discuss? Bill & Ted Face The Music. This unlike our talk about Three Jokers is a full-on spoiler-filled discussion of a goofy movie that really…resonated with us? I wouldn’t listen if you’re planning on seeing the film, but if you have already, tuck in!
1:17:44-1:30:27: Jeff also rewatched Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula because he was high and thought it wasn’t a terrible idea to do so. (Spoilers: he was very wrong.) Whereas Graeeme rewatched Alien and Aliens for the first time in something like three decades and as a result he has what Elizabeth Barrett Browning once poignantly called “a hot take.”
1:30:27-1:35:55: Back to comics, although still with a strong basis in genre films with franchises running over a quarter-century: Graeme has caught up on Blade Runner 2019 by Michael Green, Mike Johnson and Andres Guinaldo, a comic Graeme quite likes. “It’s a really fucking smart spinoff of, honestly, like, movies that if you’d suggested to me that there could be a comics spinoff, I would be like ‘oh, fuck.’” Graeme has also grabbed off Hoopla one of the first collection of Aliens comics to go with his film watching.
1:35:55-1:41:15: Next week is the release of Death Metal Trinity Crisis which Graeme has read an advance copy of, and he does a great job of discussing it without giving away any spoilers while still mentioning that, as he puts it, “it feels so tied in to the primary story, that I’m not sure how you could skip [it] and fully understand what’s going to be happening in Death Metal.” By contrast, Graeme has read the end of Empyre and enjoyed it, calling it “a really solid mainstream Marvel superhero story.”
1:41:15-1:45:16: As for Jeff’s corner, he talks super-briefly about the first issue of We Only Find Them When They’re Dead by Al Ewing and Simone DiMeo (with color assists by Mariasara Miotti). Jeff’s review is not particularly detailed, at least compared to his reaction to the news that John Layman and Afu Chan’s Outer Darkness has been cancelled?
1:45:16-1:49:16: Jeff has much more to say (and less bad news to react to) about the first ten issues of The Last Of The Atlases, a band desinée by Gwen De Bonneval, Fabien Vehlmann, Frédéric Blanchard and Herve Tanquerelle translated into english and published digitally by Europe Comics.
1:49:16-1:53:43: And in the “news I hope is still valid by the time you read this,” Jeff wanted to point out that there’s more than 256 Black Panther comics available for free on Comixology at the moment (as well as books like Killmonger, Shuri, and Doomwar). Not Jeff’s beloved Jungle Action, mind you, but—yeah. That’s kind of impressive? Also! Related but utterly different: Abhay has three comics he collaborated on with some terrific artists, and you can buy them digitally on Kickstarter before the end of the month (along with add-on stuff like the comics Abhay both drew and wrote). Jeff has read them and, no fooling, Jeff loves them. So you should get on that! Seriously!
1:53:43-end: Closing comments with bonus impromptu scheduling session! 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!)
Previously on Drokk!: We are firmly in the Garth Ennis era of Judge Dredd by this point, which has so far included a climax to the growing democracy story arc that concluded, stunningly, that fascism is apparently really cool because Judge Dredd is tough. If you think that’s the nadir of the strip, just wait.
0:00:00-0:03:08: Another swift introduction for this episode, as Jeff and I let everyone know who we are and that we’re reading Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Vol. 17 and Batman/Judge Dredd: Judgement on Gotham this episode, with the latter perhaps the sole thing from preventing both of us from being overwhelmed by the Young Garth Ennis of it all.
0:03:09-0:26:16: I misdirect us a little bit at the start by pointing out that, at the same time Ennis was writing these (very bad) Dredd stories, he was also writing Hellblazer for DC, which was… far better than this…? This leads us to a somewhat more-fragmented-than-usual discussion about the importance of artists on making Dredd work — especially Carlos Ezquerra, in this volume — and what Jeff calls the “zen koan” of what makes an effective Dredd story in terms of writing. We also touch on Judgement on Gotham earlier than intended, Simon Bisley and Chris Halls, and debts owed to Bill Sienkiewicz.
0:26:17-1:06:59: We dive into “Judgement Day,” the massive mega-epic that takes up fully half of Case Files 17 and fails so utterly on so many levels. On the one hand, it’s a big deal — not just the first crossover between 2000 AD and Judge Dredd Magazine, it’s also a crossover between Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog, with the latter guesting in basically the entire story. Unfortunately, as we cover at length, “Judgement Day” is a mess — a zombie story that doesn’t really understand zombie stories or know what to do with them, that passes up every available opportunity to say something interesting about its characters, that doesn’t necessarily comprehend how to pace a story, and one that doesn’t seem to understand that telling the reader that a bunch of people are in trouble isn’t the same as actually demonstrating it. Jeff suggests that Garth Ennis is getting worse when it comes to Dredd, but I’m not necessarily convinced, and we approach the idea that this is Ennis at a stage in his career where he’s not yet realized that other people aren’t quite as fascinated by the myth of the tough guy that can withstand everything thrown at him as he, himself, is. Suffice to say, we’re all in on just what a bad choice for Dredd Ennis is, at least in this particular phase of his career.
1:07:00-1:15:57: Spinning out of the above, Jeff suggests that the comics in Case Files 17 might be both creatively and morally bankrupt — at least in the eyes of a fictional Gary Groth — which brings us to a discussion of whether or not this is the fault of creators who clearly weren’t ready for the gig just yet. Was 2000 AD that creatively desperate, or was this the result of those involved feeling that Dredd needed a reinvention after more than a decade, and just making poor decisions when approaching that reinvention?
1:15:58-1:37:33: If the new guard creators is failing Dredd, then surely the old guard are doing better, especially in a high-profile project like Batman/Judge Dredd: Judgement on Gotham? The answer is… fine, more or less…? The first crossover with Batman is a fun read, but a throwaway one that relies more heavily on Simon Bisley’s artwork than the writing to make it work. Jeff has an explanation as to why that may be, even as both of us are disappointed by how some of the characters are written. This brings us back to a comparison between John Wagner and Alan Grant, and Garth Ennis, and how disappointing the latter seems by comparison — and whether or not that’s his “fault,” or simply a sign that, perhaps, a 22-year old fan didn’t stand much of a chance when replacing creators who have been working for pretty much as long as he’s been alive.
1:37:34-1:44:33: As we start to close things up, I talk about it having been a rough episode in terms of reading material, and admit that I cheered myself up by reading the current Dredd serial in 2000 AD, which prompts Jeff to detect a sign of optimism — that we know that both Dredd and 2000 AD have better days ahead after just how poor this particular material is.
1:44:34-end We look ahead to the next episode, which sees John Wagner come back for more than three episodes at a time, Jeff asks about my love for the final panel in “Judgement Day” despite my intense dislike for the rest of the storyline, and we mention, as always, the Patreon, Twitter, Tumblr and I-swear-I’ll-use-it-again-soon Instagram. If you made it through all of this, we’re very grateful. It wasn’t easy.
(literally impossible to figure out what’s going on in this trailer if you don’t know the characters, I think)
0:01-5:30: Greetings! It’s Ep. 301 and we hope you can forgive us by starting off discussing the weather because the weather for both of us is pretty darn extreme. (Graeme, as is typical, gets the worst of it, while Jeff complains the most, of course—but in his defense, he was woken up by thunder and heat lightning hours later at three in morning?) It is a topper on a heckuva week…which is probably best exemplifies by us having to discuss possible technical issues after the audio cutting out a few minutes in. Fortunately, we decide to push through.
5:30-42:15: “But it could be worse,” Graeme sagely concludes. “We could be at DC.” Which is an excellent segue to talk about the news we all-but-have-to-discuss: the laying off of one third of DC’s editorial, including a slew of senior editors (including Bob Harras) and what this might mean for the future of the company and the future of its comics as may or may not be inferred from an interview with Jim “Winner Takes It All” Lee. Discussed: an end to long-term series commitments, maybe; execs at WarnerMedia giving AT&T what they think AT&T wants; the shitting of the bed of Perry Mason and Run; Fleabag is wonderful and we won’t hear a word saying otherwise; and more.
42:15-56:33: Douglas O’Keefe starts us off with what the kids might’ve once called A Big Ask: I’m a teacher of 8-12th graders, ages 12-18, in San Francisco, and I’m trying to assemble a small set of comic books (single issue floppies) to have in my classroom, available for casual reading, and possibly for classroom lessons. A “small set” means about 20 different issues.
For most of the kids, these may be the only floppies they ever read; for some, maybe the only comics they ever read. So I want them to be really good, right? Not just an example of a good series, but a GREAT issue from that series. I also want as much variety as possible, to sell the kids on comics.
So, I was hoping you each might offer, say, four possibilities? Single issues you love.
I’ve got a pile of my own in progress. I’ve got a Barks’ Uncle Scrooge, Stanley’s Lulu, your beloved OMAC 1, and Daredevil 164. I’ve got a Marston-Peter Wonder Woman (reprint, of course), and Fraction’s Hawkeye #2, where Kate and Clint team up. I wanted Paper Girls #1 but those girls swear, damn them. My school of the moment is somewhat strict: the choices can’t have any sex or swearing in them. This being the USA, massive violence is fine, however. Also, please stick to American comics. Violence not required.
What I really don’t want is stuff that reads as pandering, or, conversely, overly didactic. Don’t worry about availability or cost, what with reprints and the cheapness of low-grade issues. I want my students to learn that comics are fun and cool to read: powerful or funny or astute or weird or wildly imaginative–good stuff like that!
56:33-1:07:02: This Charming Man Dan White queries: If you were to do a podcast about something other than comics, what would it be about? And would you be able to get 300 episodes out of it?
1:07:02-1:12:59: Paul Spence has a question one of us will surely be able to answer! What 2000AD characters and/or titles would you recommend to a newbie. I have been following along with the Judge Dredd case files and this has got me interested in exploring more of the 2000AD universe. They have numerous characters such as Rogue Trooper, Slaine, Nikolai Dante., etc. Can you make some suggestions about where a newbie should start.
1:12:59-1:18:26: Mikey Gesus emerges from the mist with riddle of the ages: After all this Ric Grayson stuff, will DC ever get back to Nightwing being any good? Why do they as a company struggle with an adult legacy character that is emotionally stable?
1:18:26-1:23:43: Richard Halfhide wonders: Which major character or characters are repeatedly botched by creators? Or, put another way, which characters are the great missed opportunities in comics?
1:23:43-1:25:34: Patrick Gaffney wants to know: If this was the last episode, what would be your highlight of the show? Besides 300 weeks of talking to your best friend.
1:25:34-1:27:24: Right! Said Ed: How do you store your physical comics? Bagged, boarded and in longboxes? Loose issues piled up in corners? Different for floppies vs. trade format?
1:27:24-1:35:24: Chris Tanforan breakts out the big guns! – In honor of the auspicious anniversary, what is your favorite 300th issue of an ongoing series? In that same vein, which ones leave the worst taste in your mouth?
– When you guys first started this way back when in an earlier, arguably more innocent, time, what were your expectations for the podcast? And what do you imagine episode 600, coming to us in the heady days of the ’30s, will be like?
– This one is for Jeff- it’s been a couple of years since you let go of the majority of your physical comics- is there anything you regret about the process? I ask this as someone who has accumulated an overly healthy number of long boxes over the years and am reaching the point in life where I wonder if I really need that many physical comics taking up space.
1:35:24-1:38:03: Eric Reehl’s question might as well be our mission statement: I usually follow comics creators more than characters, but that doesn’t always work out. Have you ever got burned out on a creator? You used to read all their work, but are now uninterested in their new projects?
Also are there characters who no creator can get you to read? For example, it doesn’t matter who writes Vampirella, I won’t be reading it.
1:38:03-1:38:44: Martin Gray tells us he wants, what he really really wants: Which character from Marvel or DC has the most untapped potential?
1:38:44-1:49:17: BadgerMushroom (not their real name!) has two, two, two q’s in one! Can I have two questions, please sirs? 1) For Graeme: How has the slow motion apocalypse affected the world of comics news and reporting? Are there any long term affects, do you think? 2) For Jeff: You have offhandedly mentioned your time in the comics world, but would you mind telling us what your actual comics career has been? Are there Jeff Lester written/drawn/edited comics we should be reading?
1:49:17-1:53:31: Isobel M falls right into the Graeme trap: I like Watchmen (doesn’t everybody?) I like the formalism and ambitious intellectualism. Can you recommend anything else that will satisfy that itch? I don’t actually care about superheroes very much. Bonus points for creators of color or women.
1:53:31-1:57:23: Jonathan Sapsed requests speculation: I sent a question already about Rebellion’s Treasury of British Comics imprint – which titles might attract a wider audience than nostalgic Brits of a certain age…?
1:57:23-1:58:43: Paul Jay-Slee has spoken from high, and lo, they said: if you could commission a comic biography of a pop culture figure by a creator of your choice, who would you pick and why?
1:58:43-2:05:58: Miguel Corti weighs in fast and he weighs in hard: 1. How would you compare and contrast your readthroughs of the Fantastic Four and Judge Dredd, either in terms of entertainment, relative quality, or the relationship of that material with the comics industry as a whole? For Jeff specifically, given that you’ve come to Dredd as an adult to you into the character in the way you will alway, for example, be into Batman regardless of if he is at a high or low, or do you feel you can only appreciate the character Dredd when handled by certain creators, Wagner in particular? (This second question came to mind after your discussion of feeling unfulfilled by superhero comics.)
2. Either of you mess with Alan Moore’s “Jerusalem,” and is it possible for humans to read that tiny font for a 1,000 pages without some form of visual aid?
2:05:58-2:09:42: Carlos Aguilar is probably owed an apology because we did this one wrong: Jeff what is a comic/series/manga (or two) that Graeme reads & enjoys that, to you, seems odd for him to enjoy? Graeme same question, but about Jeff. Also, any thoughts on Abhay’s new TCJ column?
2:09:42-2:14:14: Matt Digges has his finger on the zeitgeist: In your opinion, who/what is the most criminally underrated creator/character/property?
2:14:14-2:20:51: Thomas Williams goes all-in: Brubaker and Phillips going OGN only next year. Saga at the two year mark of its hiatus. Rucka taking monthly work from DC while his creator owned work is quarterly at best as his IP is being mined for TV and Film. What is the future of Image and creator owned work? Does creator owned work reach a plateau where it only makes sense to stop doing monthly comics and then take your work to other media? Image isn’t independent or alternative comics so has it just become where a creator auditions IP for other media, no one goes to Image to tell their heart felt personal tales right?
I’m so late in asking that question I bet it’s been asked already so I will ask a back-up
I recently took a look at Lobdell’s work on red hood after reading the news he was leaving the character. Since the start of the new 52 Lobdell has built this crazy back story and world of mystical presences and all of this is just ignored outside of the series lol. Have either of you ever taken a look at this series?
2:20:51-2:25:16: Garrie Burr sends us some softballs[??]:Here’s a couple of easy questions to celebrate your anniversary!
–What once-favored creators and their works have not aged well for you? What creators and their works did you once dislike but now seem absolutely wonderful? Any thoughts on the reasons for these changes in perception?
–Thinking about Archie Goodwin and Karen Berger and other editors from the past whose books were a guarantee of something at least quite-interesting and worth a read. Which editors working today turn out a similar consistently high quality of books?
2:25:16-2:26:47: Hix clix: Let’s assume there are 4 important aspects to a comic book event:
1. Quality of story
2. Quality of art/covers
3. Impact/legacy/launching pad for comics & concepts
4. Eventiness – scale, scope, cool/wow factor
With this in mind, what do you think are the best DC/Marvel events?
2:26:47-2:33:00: Matthew Murray is asking and we’re answering! Maybe building off of this, could you describe the major Marvel/DC event you’d do if for some reason you were given permission to do so. (Whether this is Jeff’s “everyone gets new secret identities” thing or something else.)
And because Jeff is vain and excitable, here’s his list:
Man-Thing/Hookjaw;
Punisher/Dredd?
One Piece/Teen Titans (Cartoon Network versions);
and probably my very favorite two big-dream, never gonna happen crossovers:
Darkseid/Dredd;
Batman/Golgo 13.
2:33:00-:2:33:56: MatthewMurray is back from the dead! Or…to ask about the dead? One of the two! What do you think might have happened to DC as a company/universe if “dead meant dead” and they never brought back Oliver Queen/Hal Jordan/Barry Allen? (Have you answered this before? I can’t remember.)
2:33:56-2:42:01: Jason1749 dials the Wait, What? 4-1-1: Now that it’s a while in the rearview, what is each of your #1 takeaway from reading all those FF comics?
2:42:01-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 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: It was supposed to be a Drokk! but it instead is going to be a skip week. Graeme will be covering Fandome! Jeff will be finishing off those PBR Hard Coffees and staring intently at a wall! Join us in two weeks for Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Vol. 17 and the first Batman/Dredd crossover! Join us!!
And as a bonus pick for Jeff, here’s a picture of Randy Quaid:
And with all that said, here’s the episode!
0:01-28:07: Greetings from Episode 300! We get right into it with exactly what people expect from a big landmark number like that—nostalgia, self-aggrandizement, and a sheepish acknowledgment that our numbering system is hilariously askew. Also discussed: Battlestar Galactica! Smashing Pumpkins! The Batman Quadrology and related relationship (and music) confessions!
28:07-41:19: Three Questions from Galactic Protector Dominic L. Franco! Question 1: Since you both at one time worked in retail comics, I wanted to ask your opinion about why comics don’t fully transition to the graphic novel format. Floppies made a lot of sense when they were relatively cheap and when the only market was the direct market or the newsstand. But now, there are bookstores and Amazon, Comixology, and even those direct market stores that all do their business off of trades and graphic novels. When publishers are asking $9.99 for a “giant, special” issue, is cost really the boogeyman some would make it out to be. Floppies also made a lot of sense when every floppy was a self-contained story. But now, so many issues are just “writing for the trade”, why not cut out the middle portion and just put out the trade? Is it because trades/graphic novels cost so much up front for something you don’t know anything about? How is that any different from the hundreds of hardcover novels that get put out and picked up every year? Are publishers worried about the upfront cost? Again, why is that so different from the book market and the publishers that work there. Every book publisher knows what authors will be bankable (in the short term) and what authors will be a risk or a possible loss; Marvel knows what kind of numbers a Mark Waid book is going to post; DC knows that Geoff Johns is going to cover the cost of putting his work out. I just wanted to know your thoughts about transitioning fully to the trade format — arguments for and against. I apologize if this feels like a subject that was covered before.
41:19-57:48: Question 2! Why does Superman not seem to work anymore in pop culture at large? Batman is thought of as “so cool”, has multiple cartoons and multiple movies that have worked and reworked his concept. Superman is thought of as “everyone’s dad” but that’s just shorthand for saying he is old-fashioned and corny. He’s put into films that play up the fact that he is an alien (not one of us), or that make him more violent and less heroic (in the try to save as many people as possible sense — “we can’t fight here — the people!”). Even in the comics, different attempts are made to chip away at him — to give him angst or pathos. Why can he not seem to work as the inspirational figure he is meant to be? Why is his ethic of wanting to do good simply for the sake of doing good (because it is the right thing) sneered at? Did we let Superman down or was he always just something for children? I ask this as a Superman enthusiast and am just curious as to what kind of discussion this may stir.
57:48-1:02:55: Question 3! You know I’ve tried to solicit from the both of you Wait, What? the Soundtrack. Now I want to ask about Wait, What? the Movie: Jeff, in your opinion, who plays you and who plays Graeme? Graeme, same question.
]
1:02:55-1:24:57: This was a long time coming! Kevin Donlan asked: So…on the last Q&A (Ep 273) I had asked a question that got pushed because it was a bit deeper than time allowed, I’m still curious about your thoughts, especially with how the world has gone slightly more than sideways since then. If you were to recommend an introduction to comics to different age levels what would you recommend. I had put a bunch of age brackets in the question last time, but how about 10 and under, 11-15, 16-20, 21-30 and 31+. I know it’s kind of a hard question since you don’t know anything about the target audience other than age, but I think you are up to the challenge. Thanks for the podcast, I appreciate what you guys share with us.
1:24:57-1:38:08: Michael Loughlin performs a flawless victory combo! On the last episode, you discussed the recent Lois Lane mini series, and that Superman explaining why he wouldn’t help immigrants imprisoned by the government was weak and didn’t fit his character. I’ve long maintained that bringing in too many real-world elements breaks Big 2 super-heroes.
Do you agree?
Should we see super-heroes solve real world problems in the pages of their comics, or does that cheapen real world problems?
Is it better to see super-heroes deal with an analogue to the real world problem? (e.g. “President Universo is detaining undocumented Durlans on Takron-Galtos and using the Science Police to attack protesters! It’s up to the Legion of Superheroes to free the unjustly-imprisoned Durlans, but can Element Lad convince Officer Erin to stand up to his fellow officers?”) (why yes, I have been reading a ton of Legion lately, how did you know?)
Not counting out-of-continuity/alternate reality series like Watchmen or Squadron Supreme, can you think of a Big 2 super-hero comic that addressed real world concerns that was exceptionally good?
1:38:08-1:51:13: David Austin inquires: Question for podcast 300: I rarely hear you guys talk about eurocomics/Bandes dessinee compared to American, British, or Japanese comics, even though they’ve become a lot more accessible thanks to ComiXology, Titan, and other distribution mechanisms. Curious if you have some favorites or recent picks (I enjoyed the Elric adaptation from a few years ago). Also curious whether you think European genre comics – fantasy, sci-fi, crime, etc. – are smarter or more sophisticated on average than American genre comics, or do they just tend to present as such because of more sophisticated visuals and more “adult” themes?
1:51:13-2:04:30: Steven Bagatourian descended into the underworld to save his beloved and returned with this: Speaking of desperate and dying, let’s talk about the state of mainstream comics! More specifically: the price of mainstream comics.
When I started reading comic books, they cost 65 cents at my local Circle K. Today, we live in the land of the $3.99 and $4.99 comic book — price points that are wildly out of whack with the cost of inflation and the cost of minimum wage in this country. No matter what index you choose, comic book prices are just insane and seem to doom this medium to cultural obscurity, particularly now, with the present economic horror show we’re living through. I realize the readership is shrinking dramatically, but to me, clearly, these absurdly escalating price points are a huge reason why this has happened — not the only reason, to be sure, but a pretty fucking big one.
Is the paper floppy really a dead format (NOOOOOOOOOOO!)? Would $2 floppies sell substantially higher than their $4 counterparts, enough to justify the price-drop? (I say “Yes” to that last one — at least, I would take a chance on a whole lot more books at two bucks.) Are we destined for comic book magazines in America that combine multiple issues in phonebook-style manga magazines?
2:04:30-2:07:16: HEEEEEEEEEERE’S Ethan Johnson! What is DC doing? It seems like a bunch of titles are “wrapping up” in a month or so. Is this the “5G Reboot” thing, or is that off the schedule because of COVID and DiDio’s departure?
2:07:16-2:26:46: Telegram from Tim Rifenburg! Hey Guys, I already sent a question through Patreon but if you are feeling kind, here is a quick one. Favorite Anniversary Comic? (100th, 500th, 25th etc.) Mine is JLA 200.A fun throwback to early JLA with Gerry Conway, George Perez and a bunch of short chapters with classic team up / slugfest by a jam of artists.
2:16:54-2:26:46: Podcast Protector and Comic Book Champion Adam Knave (whose name I think I talked over when Graeme said it? Sorry, Adam!!): 3 part question though, in honor or the 3-0-0 –
What is the GREATEST Avengers run?
What is the GREATEST JLA run?
Between the two – which is better than the other?
2:18:38-2:26:46: We are always grateful to hear from Dan Billings—sorry we truncated your comments down to just the question, Dan!—who ponders: What would you recommend to feel good about comics?
While talking to my wife about Christopher Nolan’s movies, she said that she much preferred “the Buster Keaton Batmans” and reader I am still recovering.
2:26:46-2:29:04: That imp CJ Kral inquires: Would you rather see a 1920’s silent Batman film staring Buster Keaton or Spider-man staring Charlie Chaplin? Super-exciting question for Jeff on so many levels! It’s a reference to one of his tweets! He gets to explain the joke to Graeme! And his answer makes Graeme reconsider his. WE HAVE A HAT TRICK, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN
2:29:04-2:35:51: It’s the Flasshe of Two Worlds! Roger Winston powers up the cosmic treadmill to ask:
Question 1: If DC’s 5G initiative had actually gone forward and was as rumored (legacies replacing originals), is that something you would’ve been in favor of? And for how long? I think I would’ve been okay with it, but for like 2 years max.
2:35:51-2:41:46: Question 2: Is the pandemic NOT really going to be the nail in the coffin of the comics industry, or at least the direct market? I was sure it was, but now I’m wavering.
2:41:46-2:46:52: Question 3 (I guess he’s the Flasshe of Three Worlds?): Has quarantining / self-isolating changed your eating habits for the better or worse or not at all? I am eating less, but also probably less nutritiously, and losing weight but not the “bad” weight since there is also less exercise.
2:46:52-2:50:00: And jumping the queue is Chad Nevett for our final question of the episode: which of you is which from below? Robert Secundus quote: “Oh you two have a podcast? Which is the scholar and which is the clown?”
2:50:00-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 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: It was supposed to be a Drokk! but it instead is going to be the wrap-up of answering your questions! Woo, another longstanding Wait, What tradition survives!
0:01-1:28: Greetings from Secret Comic-Con! Yes, you suckers enjoy your “ComicCon At Home” b.s., Graeme is living it up at the real Comic-Con and it sounds amazing!
1:28-37:44: No, just kidding. There isn’t a secret comic-con just, as Graeme puts it, “truly, truly terrible panels on Youtube.” Fortunately, Graeme of course has watched them, and so can school Jeff—who of course has not—on why they’re…less than great, and what lessons we hope NYCC can take from them. Discussed: NYCC; panel announcements; the legally mandated fond reminiscences of Comic Cons past; the Eisners Awards 2020; the SDCC At Home home page; Marvel’s Storyboards; and “more.”
37:44-54:33: Comics news question: how does Jeff feel about the Walking Dead being re-released in color? Discussed: why the heck did Jeff like The Walking Dead so much? [SPOILERS for the end of the series.] narrative engines; revisiting stories; the joys of careless reading; and more.
1:15:43-1:45:30: Here’s a curveball for Graeme—does living in Portland, Oregon, in 2020 during the midst or protests and ACAB and so much more affect how he is taking in escapist literature, especially escapist literature of the “punch the person who is wrong” variety? Discussed: The Monkees; The Music Man; hip-hop; Jodorowsky; Portland’s hero/superhero; the unreality of America; the unreality of Chips Ahoy!; can Jeff really come back to superhero comics and what would it take?; Empyre #1 (which Graeme enjoyed!); and more.
1:45:30-1:59:55: Due to a hard stop, we have to start wrapping up but Jeff wanted to talk to Graeme a little bit about Death Metal #2 by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, and FCO Plascencia. And, since he’s one of the podcasters on this show, he gets to!
1:59:55-2:02:11: Remember that hard stop? Graeme does! But Jeff does have a quick point to make about Secret Invasion, Brian Michael Bendis, and DC very quickly. (Maybe even…too quickly? Is that even possible for Jeff?)
2:02:11-end: Closing comments! Watch The Doghouse on HBO Max! 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! Come back in two weeks for EPISODE THREE HUNDRED. We think it’s going to be a Q&A, so tweet or email us your Qs and we’ll make As out of ourslves answering them!
Previously on Drokk!: After more than a decade, John Wagner stepped back as the lead writer on the strip, allowing a hungry new up-and-comer, Garth Ennis — then still in his teens — his big break. It wasn’t good, but things were about to get much worse.
0:00:00-0:02:44: In a particularly speedy introduction — assisted by the shortest cold open in Drokk! history — I’d like to think that Jeff and I make two things very clear. Firstly, that we’re reading Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Vol. 16 this time around. And secondly, that these are some very bad comics indeed.
0:02:45-0:08:56: We’re going to spend most of this episode talking about the failures of the writing in these stories, as is our traditional focus, but it can’t be overlooked that there’s also some very poor artwork to be found in this collection, from a number of artists whose later work was very good indeed. There’s also some great stuff — I love John Burns’ work on Dredd a lot — but the shadow of Simon Bisley falls heavily on the work here, sadly, as I explain.
0:08:57-0:42:49: So, why is Garth Ennis not succeeding here? We go hard on the topic, while also going hard on Ennis himself — or, at least, the 20-year-old writing the stories collected in this volume. That he’s only 20 is likely a contributor, as is the fact that he’s probably feeling all kinds of pressure taking on a strip that he clearly idolizes maybe a little too much to allow him to be effective. Where are the editors, we ask, while also blaming Ennis for writing a particularly flat Dredd and failing to give any other characters (with one notable exception) any kind of life whatsoever. Mr. Lester has a theory about why that might be, and it’s a pretty compelling one.
0:42:50-0:52:30: It’s not just the newcomers that are letting the side down here, though; Alan Grant contributes a number of stories to Case Files 16, and they’re uniformly bad, as well, lacking character motivation and exposition, but unfortunately including a side helping of racism that’s genuinely shocking to read when it appears. There’s also a resolution to a long-running plot thread that we’d forgotten, and also a reminder that, when surrounded by a collection of truly subpar work, even “barely competent” suddenly feels like a breath of fresh air.
0:52:31-1:03:41: Jeff’s attempt to get me to pick a favorite non-John Wagner story from the book backfires as I pick a John Wagner story — “Watchdogs,” one of only two in this collection — leading to me taking on Jeff’s traditional role of projecting meta text into what we’re reading; Jeff isn’t convinced, but it leads into a brief discussion about what Wagner can do that Ennis and Grant solo aren’t able to, and asks the question, “How much can a good artist save a bad story?”
1:03:42-1:07:47: A very brief digression brought about by Jeff referencing the Judge Dredd pinball game (of course) has us pondering the fact that this book, featuring work published 14 years into the strip’s existence, feels as if it’s the kind of uncertain, what-is-this-strip-about, thing that should have come at least a decade or so earlier. Such is the power of Wagner’s hold on Dredd, it seems.
1:07:48-1:29:52: At the heart of the collection are two stories — Wagner’s “The Devil You Know” and Ennis’ “Twilight’s Last Gleaming” — that tie off the democracy storyline, and seem almost in conflict with each other. We try to talk about that without being overpowered by my strong visceral hatred of Ennis’ contribution, and… almost succeed? Well, almost-almost, at least. Covering “Twilight’s Last Gleaming,” we discuss the ways in which it betrays Wagner’s Dredd as a character, humiliates Blondel Dupre and the democracy storyline as a whole, and arguably reveals Ennis as a pro-fascism writer with a weakness for a strong man leader who disregards morality and the norms in the name of maintaining the status quo. It’s a story that arguably doesn’t even make sense given what’s come before, but at least it looks nice…?
1:29:53-1:46:57: Wagner’s “Devil You Know,” meanwhile, brings out Jeff’s metatextual reading prowess, and we also discuss a couple of ways in which the two stories make an accidental argument for the Judges being a corrupt system that fails to do what it was created to do, and instead focuses on itself. And, yes, we also talk about the way in which that feels a particular way in this particular moment in history, too.
1:46:58-1:53:02: With absolutely no surprise to anyone — despite Jeff’s attempts otherwise — we declare this collection Dross, instead of Drokk, and talk briefly about our choice of favorite non-Wagner stories, both of which are chosen because of the art instead of the writing. (Mine is either “Firepower” or “The Art of Geomancy,” Jeff’s is “Hand of Fate,” if you’re curious.) It’s not a fun time, this book.
1:53:03-end: In which we look ahead to the next Drokk!, where Garth Ennis writes a crossover between the Megazine and 2000 AD, and wrap things up with the traditional mention of the Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Patreon. Grud bless you all for making this painful journey with us, Whatnauts.
Recent Comments