0:01-7:17: Greetings from Graeme “Are You Sure?” McMillan and Jeff “She’ll Be Fine, She’ll Be fine!” Lester! Edi took a tumble, Graeme has been under the weather, and we are not even sure we want to talk about comic books? So what do we do, then?
7:17-28:07: Well, why not talk about Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw? It’s kind of like a comic book and, like many a comic book, neither Graeme nor Jeff have seen it! So it’s got to be a great topic for conversation, yeah? How about Joker, that seems a little more on topic, right? Even if we haven’t seen that either? Also discussed: budgeting and The Alamo Drafthouse Season Pass; budgeting and comics purchasing database number crunching; X-Men: Grand Design; and more.
28:07-1:00:28: “You know, Graeme,” ever-obsessive Jeff asks, “what are you obsessive about? It’s clear I’m an obsessive hoardy mess but I don’t necessarily know if we’ve talked about, what are the things that you feel uncomfortably obsessive or sweatily compulsive about?” Discussed: work, food, training yourself off of things, heroin (metaphorical), friendship, upgrading phones, FOMO, X-Men #1, Superman Smashes The Klan #1, failing Marc Singer (sorry Marc!) for not crediting his point in our comments on air, Giant Days, obligation, and MUCH more.
1:00:28-1:17:33: Way back when, Graeme had mentioned Matt Singer’s new book, Marvel’s Spider-Man: From Amazing to Spectacular: The Definitive Comic Art Collection. And he had a point or two to make about it, so we return to more typical Wait, What? ground for a bit. To make it even more on point, Jeff wishes that people writing these mass market character overviews got the chance to curate on streaming services like DC Universe or Marvel Unlimited. (To be fair, Marvel Unlimited actually does something like this already, but only using their own editors and creators.) Also discussed: Disney+, Enigma being reissued (finally!) by Dark Horse; BizarroTV; and more.
1:17:33-1:33:38: Speaking of DC Universe and their TV show offerings, we assume you know about the contest they’re holding where the winner will create a DC Universe unscripted/reality show? We can’t enter, but you can! So listen closely as we try—mostly unsuccessfully, it should be admitted—to come up with winning pitches you can use! Discussed: Booster Gold 2020, Space Cabby 2020, Night Force 2020, Who’s Going To Be The Next Phantom Stranger (2020), and more.
1:33:38-1:47:32: “Hey, you know who’s still alive?” asks Jeff semi-rhetorically. “Don Perlin is still alive!” And how does Jeff know that you might ask? Well, therein lies a story…and a whole lot of talking about Werewolf By Night and Moon Knight.
Undiscovered Country #1 is Image Comics’ Biggest Genuine Launch in Five Years With 83,000 Pre-Orders https://t.co/ZaWNyb9p3H
— Bleeding Cool (@bleedingcool) October 17, 2019
1:47:32-1:55:46: Dipping our toes in the water of current comics news in the mildest way possible: good on Scott Snyder, Charles Soule, and Guiseppe Camuncoli for the preorders on Undiscovered Country #1! Also discussed: SAGA—where is it? Also, Jeff tries to ask about something about perennial (or strong) sellers for books that only ran about 30 issues and…somehow the question doesn’t quite connect with Graeme, apparently? Hey, it happens!
1:55:46-2:11:53: Back on our bullshit (well, Jeff’s bullshit is probably more accurate) as Graeme returns to The Pitch Zone to suggest some great DC styled reality shows! Discussed: the Legion of Superheroes 2020 reality show and (here’s the Graeme genius in action) the Legion of Substitute Superheroes reality show. Challengers Of The Unknown 2020! Challengers Of The Known 2020! The CW shows and their special effects budgets (2019?), and more!
2:11:53-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. (Also, don’t forget about Spotify!)
Next week: Drokk!! Grab your copy of The Complete Judge Dredd Case Files, vol. 9 and join us!
Cut? Paste? Gotcha!
http://theworkingdraft.com/media/podcasts3/WaitWhat281.mp3
Free ideas for DC reality shows (because there’s no way I’d ever put in the effort to do it myself):
-Cash Cab but with Space Cabby
-One of those supermarket dashes but with Booster Gold supplies
-Condiment King cooking contest show (and the judge is dressed like Matter-Eater Lad)
-Ghost Hunters but it’s all set in Baron Winter’s mansion
As a child of the 90s, I got a stomachache hearing Jeff confused Remote Control and Singled Out. Christ Hardwick and Jenny McCarthy hosted Singled Out, the dating show. Remote Control was hosted by Ken Ober, with Colin Quinn, Adam Sandler and Denis Leary making appearances.
Thank you, Ian! I’ll admit Ken Ober’s face flashed to mind when I was talking, making me worry I did indeed have it wrong…but I’d hoped Graeme would correct me if so. (And also, I hate to admit it but I couldn’t have remembered Ober’s name to save my soul. RIP, Ken. You deserved better than me erasing you from history.)
More DC reality shows
Detective Chimp 2020 – contestants try and solve a mystery selected by a chimp
Congorilla 2020 – a gorilla and a con-goer swap places – hilarity ensue!
I hope Jeff puts this week’s thoughts about curated lists and FOMO together with last week’s talk about year-end lists. Keeping up is a function of consumer capitalism. There’s more than 80 years of this medium, no-one’s read everything, so a list put together of the most interesting and enjoyable things read in a year by a commentator I enjoy is of value. To be absolutely clear, you, Jeff, qualify. You don’t have to, but because it doesn’t match the conventional year-end list would seem an odd reason not to.
I feel like a bad person for suggesting this, but I think Graeme’s Legion show needs Jim Shooter.
My own pitch would be DC Celebrity Cosplay Challenge. C or D list celebrities have to make a cosplay, coached by luminaries of the cosplay world in a week. Every week someone is voted off. You could have technical and performance challenges. I’m hoping for tears and hugging. Failing that just put Dan Didio and Geoff Johns in a room and give them a task they have to do together, like making breakfast or lighting a fire.
“Failing that just put Dan Didio and Geoff Johns in a room and give them a task they have to do together, like making breakfast or lighting a fire.”
And this week’s winner of “things I wish I had said, and said on-air” is….
I really hope Superman being the trans pride flag running across the telephone wires was intentional
Ok ok I have a pitch in the style of Jeff’s.
You wholesale rip off Fear Factor by putting contestants through a bunch of horrible tests, BUT they’re all based on silver age Jimmy Olsen covers. Superman’s Pal 2020
Since you’ve got Jimmy Olsen up there, here’s a reality show pitch, with the added public-good angle:
Build The Daily Planet: The show funds and offers mentors and publication opportunities to young potential journalists and given support to go dig up some local-level investigative news. At the end of each season, top teams compete for DC-level funding to start up a local news print and/or online publication dedicated to local news. I’m thinking So You Want to be a Superhero meets American Investigative Reports meets one of those “we’ll fund your restaurant” shows.
Worst case scenario: some young and driven journalists get to do some good work with mentors, with slightly better rewards than @forexposure_tvt examples on Twitter.
“Can even a werewolf battle a man clad in solid — and survive?” On the whole, I think that would be more of a problem for a werewolf than for someone else, not less.
Solid silver, obviously. Shame there’s no edit button.
Yes! Moon Knight love from Jeff! Great that Don Perlin is still kicking, and even sketching I understand. However we must also acknowledge Sienkiewicz’s role in realising the visuals of the most consistently interesting character in comics ( at least if you ignore the 1990s and 2000s and skip to Warren Ellis on…actually that would be a good read through after Drokk…Oy vay Khonshu!)