[Apologies everyone: show notes here are super-quick this time around as Jeff ran himself ragged this weekend and is still trying to prep for an even busier week. So not as many images, and not as many notes, but they and the episode are indeed here. Enjoy!]
[Also, it looks like the audio player isn’t loading, which is kind of a drag and we promise to work on soon?]
0:00-7:03: Greetings from Graeme “Trapped in a Heat Wave” McMillan and Jeff “Trapped in a World He Never Made” Lester! We recorded this episode much earlier than usual (Wednesday, August 2) which should be the major talking point of these introductory comments, but instead a surprisingly long discussion about the weather. (Okay, probably not that surprising if you’ve heard us before.)
7:03-13:09: First order of business! Graeme read and was *very* impressed by the recent Eisner winning graphic novel The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye by Sonny Liew,and he tells us a bit about here. (Jeff certainly has vowed to pick it up soon.)
13:09-47:36: And since Graeme mentioned picking up the book at SDCC, you’d think we’d actually talk about news from the Con, wouldn’t we? Well, guess what? We do. How’s that for a shocker? Discussed: Superman: Year One, Ed Piskor’s X-Men: Grand Design, The Terrifics by Jeff Lemire and Ivan Reis; meeting Frank Miller; yachting with Geoff Johns; meeting a bunch of great people (hello, Kyle!), the amazing Tom King panel, and more.
47:36-1:13:32: And from there, we move to Hibbs’ extraordinarily eye-opening piece about trying to order Marvel books for their upcoming Marvel Legacy. Here’s the tasty pull quote Graeme and I both posted on Twitter independently of each other: “Literally, you are being asked to purchase comics you can’t sell, in order to gain access to comics that you can.” We also spend some time seeing if we could puzzle out what’s going on with the terms offered in Marvel’s leaked book catalogue.
1:13:32-1:27:14: Movie time! Want to hear why we recorded this episode early? Or what movie Jeff thought was a very odd remake of Magnolia? Or our discussion about Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World? If not, skip this section!
1:27:14-1:48:37: But, yes, we do also talk about comics here on this podcast from time to time. For example, this little segment where we discuss: Kamandi Challenge #7 by Marguerite Bennett, Dan Jurgens, and Klaus Janson; Yes Roya, by C. Spike Trotman and Emilee Denich; Shaolin Cowboy: Who’ll Stop The Reign #1 by Geoff Darrow with Dave Stewart; and more.
1:48:37-1:58:58: And then, as promised in the Book of Revelation, we discuss Manga Poverty by Sato Shuho and translated by Dan Luffey. It’s a remarkable book with some eye-opening insights into how professional mangaka are paid, although Graeme had some problems with the second half of the bok that are very understandable.
1:58:58-end: And then! Closing comments! Look for us on Stitcher! Itunes! Twitter together and separately: Graeme and Jeff! Matt! Tumblr, and on Patreon where a wonderful group of people make this all possible, including the kind crew at American Ninth Art Studios and Empress Audrey, Queen of the Galaxy, to whom we are especially grateful for their continuing support of this podcast.
Next week: Baxter Building Ep. 32! Covering Fantastic Four issues #285-295 concluding the epic run by John Byrne!
And for those who want to do the cut & paste:
http://theworkingdraft.com/media/podcasts2/WaitWhat230.mp3
Check the feed. I think you have last episodes description in there. (Or iTunes/Podcasts is misbehaving…)
Ah, thanks, Kag! There’s two places I need to put the description and I only fully updated one of them. Should be good now.
Thanks again!
Jeff, for a little while now, whenever you’ve done the “please disregard Jeff’s opinions” thing, I’ve felt a niggling sense of familiarity in the back of my head. Got it nailed down. You are Kevin Matchstick, though not necessarily Matt Wagner.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/794442/Mage%2001%20p6.png
Now I have to wonder how well Graeme wears the bandages, though.
I’ve wondered what the deal is with Jeff Lemire for a little while. It seemed his Marvel stories were ending and they weren’t announcing new stories and then he signed up for DC work, but no announcement that he was going exclusive. I wondered if there was a fallout, but there were absolutely no reports that he was so much as leaving Marvel.
IvX was $5 for the first issue and then $4 for the rest, iirc. Actually, I wondered if IvX (and the whole T-Mist storyline) is what pissed him off about Marvel. Either that or he pitched a Fantastic Four story and was told no, so he went to DC and pitched it instead.
Graeme: Do you have a link to the leaked Marvel catalogue you mentioned? I’ve tried searching for it and can’t seem to track it down anywhere.
Never mind — here it is for anyone else interested: https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/07/27/else-can-find-marvel-book-previews-catalogue-early-2018/
RE: non-returnability of the big-ticket Marvel stuff: I’m pretty sure this has been the case for some time (though it sounds like they might be lowering the price threshold? I can’t tell from the catalog); they’ve been prepaid-only for years at the bookstore I work at. Usually, that means that a title’s non-returnable or it’s some sort of weird, fly-by-night publisher that we’d never get our money back from if we tried to return it.
Oh shit! DC Kirby sale on comixology! Jeff peaking that resolution aloud was a challenge to the Gods!!!
‘Speaking’ it aloud was also a challenge.
I’ve never been so angry about something in all my life!!
And in case you’re wondering, I have now worked in a “Kirby” exception for sales between now and his birthday *only*.
Graeme, check out issue 9 of “Back Issue” by TwoMorrows, where they speak to all of the principals involved with “Crisis of the Soul.” It’s as close as we’re ever gonna get to being let into the pitch.
Greetings Whatnauts! This was another terrific show. There is an interesting article that I think follows on from your discussion of Manga Poverty. It appeared in the Japan Times and it believes that trends indicate that the future of Manga is digital and online. Here is the link:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/08/02/business/manga-goes-digital-via-smartphone-apps-paper-comics-still-place/#.WY4VeFGGO71
The opening discussion of The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye caused me to doubt myself – in fairness it doesn’t take much as I’m much more a Jeff than a Graeme in that regard. It was Graeme saying I “literally didn’t know it existed” that led to me thinking maybe I didn’t write about it in response to your last best of year, maybe like so many things (like for instance, a cover of ‘Monsters on the Pull!’) I only thought about it. However, I was relieved to find I had posted about it here on 30/12/16. This isn’t a j’accuse situation, it was a late post at a very busy time of year, so it’s easy to see how Graeme might have missed it. I’d still like to hear from someone who doesn’t know it’s all Sonny Liew. To me it was completely obvious it was him drawing in different styles from first picking it up. However, listening to comics literate people like yourselves be unsure who’s inking Kirby, or others I respect confuse the work of the Buscema brothers it seems there’s a curve on art style recognition and it’s a separate skill.
It was fun to hear Frank Miller was charming. I saw Alan Moore a couple of years ago, he was wearing a plain t-shirt and trousers. He seemed relaxed and happy talking about his films.
Another great show, guys!
Regarding the Con: Any thoughts on how Kirby’s centennial was celebrated there? Did Marvel’s booth or any of their programming take note of his 100th? Was hoping since they came to an agreement with the family there’d be something notable from them at the con about Kirby, since they didn’t do much in the regular comics.
Regarding Comixology: Accidentally ran across a stealth release of Golden Age material from DC. Don’t remember it being advertised before. When they put all that Golden Age Wonder Woman stuff out, they included Sensation Comics and Comics Cavalcade. But the 99 cent issues of those books didn’t just carry the WW stories, they included -all- the content! Granted there’s a lot of junk included there, but among the Hop Harrigan’s and Red White & Blue’s I also found some Sheldon Mayer Scribbly, Joe Kubert/Alfred Bester Green Lantern and Gardner Fox Flash stories.
The Comics Cavalcade reprints were not perfect — some of them were obviously created from bent up Xerox copies. But for 99 cents, it’s quite a deal.
In the past Comixology would reprint an old Action Comics or Detective Comics and list all the creators associated with that particular issue, but all you’d get would be the Superman or Batman story. You’d be missing the Dr. Fate, Boy Commandoes or whatever other features the list of creators implied you’d be buying. (Pay attention to the page count from Comixology before you press ‘Purchase’)
Hopefully this new rush of digital Golden Age will continue. Would like to see More Fun and Flash issues so we can get old Spectre, Dr. Fate, and Hawkman, among others.
Take care!