Wait, What? Ep. 199: Panthers of a Sort
- May 1, 2016
- Tagged as: 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank, Amazing Spider-Man, Batman, Bill Sienkiewicz, Black Panther, Brecht Evens, Captain America, Captain America: Civil War, Criminal, Dan Slott, Daniel Acuna, DC, Ed Brubaker, Flash, Frank Miller, Geoff Johns, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Graeme, Grant Morrison, Jeff, Marvel Unlimited, Nick Spencer, Podcast, reviews, Sean Phillips, Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Panther, Wait What?
0:00-10:45: Greetings! And a slow burn of a greeting it is, too, what with Graeme actively (actively!) asking questions about Jeff’s storage space moving plans. And then a discussion of media mail?! Are you kidding me?? Just how lucky are you, you guys? It’s almost impossible to gauge.
Wait, What? Ep. 198: BvSvJvG:DoJ(IHTI)
- April 3, 2016
- Tagged as: Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Ben Affleck, David Goyer, DC, Geoff Johns, Graeme, Greg Rucka, I Hate The Internet, Jack Kirby, Jarett Kobek, Jeff, JSA Omnibus, Kurt Vonnegut, Matt, Rebirth, reviews, Scott Snyder, Superman, The Super sons, Tom King, Wait What?, Zack Snyder
Oh, man. I apologize right now if the audio file you get sounds weird, you guys: for some reason, the first ten seconds kept cutting out on me over and over and over so trying to solve that may have been too taxing for my limited skills. I was able to get it to work but now there’s a two second delay between when I finish introducing and Graeme & I start gabbing. You’ll forgive me, right?
Anyway, enough with the preemptive apologizing, let’s get to the purely emptive apologizing—show notes!
Wait, What? Ep. 197: Pair A’ Guys Island
- March 20, 2016
- Tagged as: Amanda Conner, Benjamin Marra, Chad Hardin, Charles Soule, Chester Brown, Dan Clowes, Daniel Clowes, Dark Horse, DC, Dept. H, E for Extinction, Fantagraphics, First Second Books, Graeme, Harley Quinn, I Hate The Internet, Jarett Kobek, Jeff, Jillian Tamaki, Jimmy Palmiotti, KC Green, Mariko Tamaki, Marvel, Marvel Unlimited, Mary Wept Over the Feet of Jesus: Prostitution and Religious Obedience in the Bible, Matt Kindt, Patience, Paying For It, Podcast, Secret War: Civil War, Terror Assaulter: O.M.W.O.T., This One Summer, Wait What?
0:00-8:53: Greetings! We’ll save you the early problems with Skype and just take you to where things finally straightened out, and Jeff and Graeme were able to just start talking about, y’know, the Internet and happiness and babies slipping on ice and OUTRAGE! and stuff.
Wait, What? Ep. 196: Neurotic Comics
- March 6, 2016
- Tagged as: Archie Goodwin, Batman, Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Black Kiss, Darwyn Cooke, Detective Comics, Erotic comics, Gilbert Hernandez, Guido Crepax, Howard Chaykin, Jim Lee, Leandro Fernandez, Luba, Man of Steel, Manhunter, Marc Andreyko, Neal Adams, Peter Milligan, Scott Snyder, Superman Unchained, Superman: The Coming of the Supermen, The Discipline, The Twilight Children, Walt Simonson, Wonder Woman '77, Zack Snyder
Wait, What? Ep. 195: Demon Rebirth
- February 21, 2016
- Tagged as: Batman, Chip Zadarsky, Chris Visions, David Walker, DC, Demon, Graeme, Grant Morrison, Jason LaTour, Jason Shiga, Jeff, Jim Lee, Justice League, Marvel, Marvel Unlimited, Matt Fraction, Power Man and Iron Fist, Radioactive Spider-Gwen, Rebirth, Ricco Renzi, Sanford Greene, Scott Snyder, Sex Criminals, Superheavy, Wait What?, Wonder Woman, Yanick Paquette
0:00-19:00: Greetings! Welcome to our new, super-speedy show notes! As you may have picked up on by our subtle cues here and there on the podcast, Jeff’s schedule (and life) is changing up a bit. Until he catches up with it, or it catches up with him, welcome to our express show notes, now with 95% less lists, quotes and jokes. Take, for example, this opening patch where we talk about how this podcast was recorded during the first day of DC Rebirth announcements at the ComicsPro conference in Portland, Oregon. It’s also the day Jason Shiga’s last issue of Demon was released digitally to patrons of Shiga’s Patreon (and we got our hard copy in the mail too). So first, it’s Jeff talking about how much he enjoyed the final issues and Graeme talking about how he fell behind, and then it’s on to us talking about DC’s announced plan for Rebirth. Seventeen titles published biweekly? SEVENTEEN? Yup! We run down the list, and try to handicap the odds which is tough since the creative teams won’t be announced until Wondercon.
19:00-34:00: Then around the nineteen minute mark, with a bit of an aside for a few late breaking (and kind of fake) announcements, we talk about Wonder Woman’s various creative runs since the George Perez days—good runs, bad runs, and runs that, for whatever reason, never caught on with the reading public. Will (as rumored) Marguerite Bennett have a better luck on the title…biweekly?
34:00-54:10: The success of reboots in this marketplace can be tough to measure since the marketplace is so tough overall: Graeme has looked at some of the sales at All-New, All-Different Marvel and points out a book that is clearly dead in the water by its second issue. But we then Jeff drags Graeme back into listing the various biweekly titles so we can continue handicap them, in part because Jeff just can’t conceive of the idea of, say, Green Arrow biweekly or a Green Lantern title coming out every week. If you like your comic book speculation to be all about “Well, I don’t know if Peter Tomasi can sell two biweekly Superman titles” and less on the “hey, I flipped that first appearance of Harley Quinn on eBay for $50 last week”? This whole long section should be your jam.
54:10-1:13:30: Graeme, as I now suspect he meant to do earlier before Jeff dragged him back onto the DC Rebirth announcement train, goes on to talk about the Marvel sales numbers, and compare them to earlier renumbering of the same series to get a sense of whether or not renumbering gives more than a short-term bump to sales. The answer? Uh, no, maybe not! Fortunately, we do talk a lot about various Spider-Man titles along the way, including Graeme’s recommendation for Spider-Man and the X-Men by Elliot Kalan and Marco Failla, some strong Marvel Adventures Spider-Man featuring work by Paul Samnee. As for Jeff, he’s said it before and he’ll say it again: he’s been enjoying Spidey by Robbie Thompson and Nick Bradshaw, and Spider-Man/Deadpool by Joe Kelly and Ed McGuinness.
1:13:30-1:30:54: In that vein, we talk about the first issue of Power Man & Iron Fist by David Walker and Sanford Greene. Amazingly enough, we haven’t talked enough about the original incarnation of that title, especially the long, excellent run by writer Jo Duffy from back in the ’80s: it really is amazing because it’s a favorite of both Jeff and Graeme. So how did they react to this new incarnation, one clearly written by an equally big fan? Listen in, I tell you! (Although SPOILERS: we spoil the first issue from page the first to page the last.) And we fit a lot of other stuff in there, don’t worry.
1:30:54-1:49:41: Sex Criminals #14 by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky! Jeff read it and wants to talk about it, so he does. Those of us who remember our “glory” days of talking about Fraction may admire our newfound ability to talk about the writer without getting weirdly obsessive and personal about it…or maybe not? We hope so, anyway.
1:49:41-2:08:30: Batman #49 by Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette! Jeff also read this and wanted to talk about it, especially in light of our previous discussions about this current storyline, Superheavy. Jeff thinks this stuff is so strong he really wants to see more DC work from the Scott Snyder who can really own his influences the way Batman #49 does, and would be excited to see Snyder on Justice League. But Graeme? Well, Graeme has some pretty good reasons for why his feeling is, uh, not so much. And just as we had a big long talk about the post-Crisis creative teams of Wonder Woman, we do the same here about JLA.
2:08:30-2:12:06: Time for Jeff’s regular update on Radioactive Spider-Gwen, although the reason for this particular update is that even though the writing is by Jason Latour, the art on issue #5 is by Chris Visions, not Robbi Rodriguez and the storytelling is already a lot more assured and driven. (And the coloring by Ricco Renzi helps a huge amount.)
2:12:06-end: Closing comments! Look for us on Stitcher! Itunes! Twitter together and separately: Graeme and Jeff! Matt! Tumblr! Our special thanks to the kind crew at American Ninth Art Studios for their continuing support of this podcast, as well as our continuing special thanks to the Empress Audrey, Queen of the Galaxy…and to all 117 of our supporters on Patreon who make all this possible.
Next week: It’s a skip week! Catch up on your Wait, What episodes! Do some early prep for the next Baxter Building, maybe? But whatever you do, please enjoy it! And we hope you also enjoy our next episode when it pops up on your feed, in your ears…and in your heart. Awwww.
Wait, What? Ep. 194: Fallow Fellows
- February 8, 2016
- Tagged as: Alan Moore, All-New All-Different Marvel, Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Black Knight, Black Magick, Captain America: Civil War, Dan Didio, DCYOU, Diane Nelson, Duncan Fegredo, Enigma, Evan "Doc" Shaner, Graeme, Greg Rucka, Harry Potter, High School Debut, J.K. Rowling, Jeff, Jeff Parker, Jim Lee, Keith Giffen, Mark Buckingham, Miracleman, Neil Gaiman, Nicola Scott, Peter Milligan, Podcast, Rebirth, Scooby Apocalypse, Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh, Suicide Squad, The Sheriff of Babylon, The Vision, Tom King, Wait What?
Wait, What? Ep. 193: Absurd and Delightful
- January 25, 2016
- Tagged as: Batman, Boba Fett, Chris Burnham, Dan McDaid, Erick Freitas, Faith, Francis Portela, General Grievous, Grant Morrison, Greg Capullo, Huck, Jeff, Jody Houser, Judge Dredd, Lego Dimensions, Marguerite Sauvage, Mark Millar, Muppets, Nameless, Patsy Walker AKA Hellcat, Podcast, Radioactive Spider-Gwen, Rafael Albuquerque, Scott Snyder, Spider-Man/Deadpool, Spidey, Star Wars, Superheavy, The Ultimates, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Ulises Farinas, Vision, Wait What?
Wait, What? Ep. 192: Ring In, Black Out
- January 11, 2016
- Tagged as: Bob McLeod, Chris Claremont, Dan Abnett, DC, Doug Ramsey, George Perez, Graeme, High School Debut, Jeff, José Luis García López, Kazune Kawahara, Marv Wolfman, Marvel, My Love Story!!, New Mutants, New Teen Titans, Star Wars, Star Wars The Force Awakens, Teen Titans, Titans Hunt, Uncanny X-Men, Wait What?, X Factor
00:00-17:43: Greetings and Happy New Year from Graeme “I Didn’t Lose Consciousness, I Just Blacked Out” McMillan and Jeff “No, That Is Exactly What Happens When You Lose Consciousness: You BLACK OUT” Lester, who have a very extended non-comics opening session that involves the Snowpocalypse, bicycles, learning to ride bicycles, the delay some of us might’ve had in learning to ride bicycles, rude four year olds, growing up out in the middle of nowhere, and, yes, blacking out.
17:43-1:09:46: Okay, so yes comic books. Don’t worry, we remember! (Or…do we?) Following on the heels of his recent post here at the website, Graeme and I talk about DC’s Teen Titans. More specifically, DC’s comic book incarnation of the Teen Titans, and even more specifically, the revitalization of that title (which we could more honestly remove the “re-“ and call a vitalization) under Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, as well as what happened to it afterward. Graeme has read a huge ton of the material recently—including Teen Titans Omnibus 1, 2, and 3, as well as the New 52 trades and the current Titans Hunt series by Dan Abnett, Paulo Siqueira, and Geraldo Borges—whereas Jeff has been out of the Titans loop for a very long time, but was a fan of the Wolfman/Pérez material back in the day. Discussed/referenced: The Beatles, Chris Claremont, the Uncanny X-Men, the Dark Phoenix storyline, The Judas Contract, that “annoying blond guy,” the second big Trigon storyline and the secret theory about it that Jeff never gets to utter because there’s too much gabbing going on.
(PODCAST BONUS: That theory? About a story Jeff never finished reading? The theory is that Raven was sexually abused by her demonic father and Wolfman thought he could make the icky subtextual link between icky sexual abuse and demonic evil into actual text in the direct market-only Baxter-approved book but then wasn’t able to for whatever reason and then had nowhere else to go…unless that is indeed what happened, in which case it’s just as well I didn’t mention it on-air anyway.)
Also discussed: Wolfman’s confession about his years-long creative block and subpar work; the importance of George Pérez as the detailed yang to Wolfman’s scattered yin; the gap between Paul Smith and John Romita, Jr., and between George Pérez and José Luis Garcia-Lopez; Bob McLeod, as penciller and inker; the artistic legacy of the New Mutants; Kurt Schaffenberger; Louise Simonson taking over New Mutants; Doug Ramsey as an example of the limitation of the superhero genre; slowly typing in those stupid programs onto the VIC-20 that never worked right; the movie War Games and The Hacker’s Handbook; Chris Claremont not being down with X-Factor; post-Tumblr DC; the three distinct eras of Teen Titans, including the Geoff Johns and Scott Lobdell’s eras; the Marvel template and the hot-headed feet of clay character; the above-referenced Titans Hunt by Dan Abnett, Paulo Siqueira, and Geraldo Borges (and Stephen Segovia); “racist” Aqualad; the return of Mr. Twister; how to avoid alienating new readers right after attacting them; and more.
1:09:46-1:23:59: FINALLY, we put the Titans to rest and move on to a new timecode as we segue from how Titans Hunt handles its approach to a reboot with the new nonboot from All New All Different Marvel. Discussed: Al Ewing’s work on the current incarnation of The Ultimates, and why he’d be the perfect writer for The Fantastic Four; Marvel winning truly new comic readers and then losing them with a reboot; the end of the first volume of Ms. Marvel; The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl’s upcoming crossover with Howard The Duck; Chip Zdarsky on Howard The Duck vs. Chip Zdarsky on Jughead; what happens when sales targets are not met and how to measure those sales targets; and whether or not sales on Marvel’s Star Wars books are leveling or actually dropping.
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