[Originally, I’d planned to do a parody number about this week’s news based on this song, but some health issues kept it from happening. Please feel free to watch the opening below and imagine what might’ve been…]
0:01-8:47: Greetings! And an innocent question on Graeme’s part about ads on Skype immediately leads into a discussion about how Jeff makes his money, the Snyder Cut song, the Warner Brothers chain of command, and more deep info on Hollywood from these two ultimate insiders.
8:47-15:39: This sounds like the part where we maybe we start talking about things seriously, and discussing how in the wake of the announced Snyder Cut, peeps like David Ayer are talking about getting The Ayer Cut of Suicide Squad. Also discussed: The Watchmen cut, The Damon Albarn season of Watchmen; Who Watches The Watchmen (Not Jeff); HBO Max watching problems; and more.
15:39-25:36: And one baby step closer to reality (our terrible, terrible reality!): people are asking Marvel to say something about The Punisher and the appropriation of his skull icon by the police. Marvel are not saying anything about it, but Gerry Conway will try to get some work about it, and Jeff & Graeme have a continuity argument about the Punisher’s origins (and man Jeff didn’t even get to the first issue of the Mike Baron/Mike Zeck miniseries that comes up with an in-continuity excuse for that dude’s jay walker killing tendencies); and more.
25:36-1:28:33: Graeme officially broke some huge news over at The Hollywood Reporter: DC has cut ties with Diamond Comic Distributors, requiring all comics retailers after June 15 to order DC books through Lunar Distribution and UCS Comics Distributors for periodicals and Penguin Random House for graphic novels and collected editions. We talk the facts, the beliefs about what’s happening behind the facts, the retailers’ reactions and, of course, our own healthy dollop of speculation and discussion. At 32:14, Graeme reads DC’s note to retailers which is as follows:
Dear DC Direct Market Retailer, First and foremost, we hope this finds you safe and well especially during what has been an incredibly challenging year. We are writing today to share with you that DC’s long-standing relationship with Diamond Comic Distributors is coming to a close effective following Diamond’s distribution of product offered on DC’s FOC list of June 1st.We want to thank Steve Geppi and the great people at Diamond for all the years of service. We recognize that, to many of you, this may seem like a momentous decision. However, we can assure you that this change in DC’s distribution plans has not been made lightly and follows a long period of thought and consideration. The change of direction is in line with DC’s overall strategic vision intended to improve the health of, and strengthen, the Direct Market as well as grow the number of fans who read comics worldwide. In the near term, Diamond will only be fulfilling orders placed through June 1 Final Order Cut-Off and will not solicit the sale of new DC titles further.To ensure a smooth transition for retailers, DC will suspend Final Order Cut-Off for June 8, making those books available to order on Final Order Cut-Off on June 15. Moving forward, we will continue our distribution relationship with Lunar Distribution and UCS Comic Distributors for distribution of periodicals and graphic novels, and Penguin Random House for distribution of graphic novels, worldwide. We believe this new distribution system will bring you world class service using top of the line and modern systems that will provide you the most efficient operational supply chain. DC will continue to look for ways, together with our new partners, to better serve you and the fans to the best of our ability. We remain committed to the Direct Market and look forward to partnering with you to grow your business and to get the best comic books and graphic novels to the fans in the most efficient and seamless manner.All the best, DC
And for those of you who want to follow along with some of the other quotes we discuss, here’s a link to Heidi’s round-up at The Beat, where Jeff anyway pulls talking points from Todd Allen, Brian Hibbs, Chuck Rozanski, and more. Also discussed: the cold war shenanigans from Diamond toward DC before DC walked away; why no other publishers have signed up with Lunar or UCS; Diamond being pretty terrible at their job; and much, much, much more in this hour-plus conversation.
1:28:33-1:38:55: “Have you been reading comics in the midst of all this,”asks Jeff and of course, Graeme, being Graeme, has. Discussed: Green Lantern: Mosaic; The Shadow by Andy Helfer, Bill Sienkiewicz, Kyle Baker, and Richmond Lewis (big thanks to the mighty Matt Terl!); Hellblazer old and new, and how they’re not the same as John Constantine stories; and more.
1:38:55-1:47:40: As for Jeff, he’s been revisiting World’s End Harem by LINK and Kotaro Shono, the porny manga version of Y: The Last Man on Earth; Outer Darkness/Chew #2; Avengers #33; the first few issues of Scooby-Doo Team Up and the truly impressive issue(s) #83 and #84 featuring just about every gorilla and chimp character in the DC pantheon; The Joker: 80 Years of the Clown Prince of Crime The Deluxe Edition; and more.
1:47:40-1:49:42: Graeme gives us the head’s up that the latest Rob Williams Judge Dredd storyline is a throwback to the days of classic megaprogs with Dredd facing down The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by heading out on a quest (it sounds great!).
1:49:42-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: Read Volume 15 of Judge Dredd: The Complete Casefiles and the first main story in America and Drokk out with us next week!
Need nothing more than the link? Here you go!
https://theworkingdraft.com/media/podcasts3/WaitWhat296.mp3
I feel like a part missing from the conversation about the retailers DC has chosen is (maybe something I am beginning to realize about all of them) but the owner of mycomicshop is a massive piece of shit a full in the tank Trump conspiracy theorist from images from emails that place has sent out that I have seen.
I dunno if this is just a widespread feature of the old nature of the big retailers who have survived in the Direct Market or not but it is a real bummer to see them as one of the people DC is going in with.
I think that describes Geppi, as Jeff suggested in his laugh out loud funny imagining of a love letter to Bari Weiss. That said, I suspect Geppi is more of an Ann Coulter guy.
Mycomicshop is not one of the retailers (though it was said in the podcast) – the two retailers are Midtown and DCBS.
Yeah I saw Matt’s comment mere hours after mine, that is better to hear for sure.
Graeme – quick correction, but the other shop isn’t MyComicShop, it’s DCBS.
Hey guys, your podcast is something I actively look forward to, so I’ll lead off with the thanks. Graeme’s remarks about the treatment of pride in Hellblazer reminded me of my experiences in England that led me to distinguish between pride and chauvinism. I’ve lived here for over 35 years and move in lefty/alternative-y circles. I fairly frequently encountered a shame about English identity. Obviously, there are historic wrongs that need to be made as right as they can be, but it seemed bizarre to be talking to people who could see nothing in English culture to take pride in. What I found shocking was the speed with which some of these people would start talking about ‘English xxxx is the best in the world’ with very little encouragement on my part to take pride. Which is what I think of as chauvinism- it doesn’t mean anything if it isn’t better than everything and everyone else
Jeff, I remember Steven Grant doing a Punisher mini-series with Mike Zeck, did Mike Zeck and Mike Baron do one as well?
I think the big thing with the Punisher (that you both sort of circles to at the end) is that the Punisher may have been created as an action hero but he wasn’t a role model for police or military (for different reasons).
Helfer’s Shadow is one of my favorite comics of all time.