0:01-2:50: Greetings! Without us telling you, in less than 30 seconds you will know which one of us watched the latest presidential debate and which one didn’t! 

2:50-13:36: And within two minutes, you’ll know which one of us has read Three Jokers #3 and which one of us hasn’t! (To be fair, it hasn’t been officially released yet, so Mr. Big Shot Entertainment Reporter has a big advantage on that front that Mr. Little Fish Writing The Show Notes does not.  But!  Really, would any of us trade places with Graeme after listening to just how much it is killing him not to spoil the issue and talk about some of the choices writer Geoff Johns has apparently made?  And to make matters worse for Graeme, he has also read the next of the upcoming Death Metal one-shots which once again does stuff that kinda feels like it should be in the main event and once again can only be talked around.  It truly is a hard-knock life!

13:36-23:39: By contrast, Jeff read the new Werewolf By Night #1 by Taboo and B. Earl (Jackendoff), Scot Eaton, Scott Hanna and Miroslav Mrva and can talk more openly about it (though he doesn’t give away the fact that the Werewolf is basically wearing bicycle shorts which is somehow a perfect summation of the whole book, somehow).  (Also new in stores is the fourth volume of Kaito’s Blue Flag which Jeff read and love but does *not* spend any time talking about in-depth.

23:39-34:25: A newish book Jeff read is the downright beautiful Dracula, Motherf**ker! by Alex De Campi and Erica Henderson, available on Hoopla.  But before we get a chance to talk about it in detail we take a *big* swerve into self-indulgent talk by talking about the little-known (and arguably less-loved) Erotic Vampire Bank Heist by E.J. Ehlers Jeff published digitally a few years back. But we do talk about this book (and how mind-bendingly gorgeous it is!) as well as the series De Campi is publishing through Panel Syndicate, Bad Karma with art by Ryan Howe and Dee Cunniffe.

34:25-42:17: Also read and enjoyed a lot by Jeff; Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham: Aporkalypse Now by Zeb Wells, Will Robson, and Erick Arciniega, all five issues of which are available on Marvel Unlimited.  May or may not be Graeme’s jam?  But definitely did the trick for Jeff—truly funny material with a lot of very clever and smart metahumor.
42:17-44:06: Further down the enjoyment scale, but also nowhere near the unenjoyment side of things?  Empyre: Fantastic Four by Dan Slott, artists R.B. Silva and Sean Izaakse, Marte Gracia and Marcio Menyz.  Jeff throws around the hashtag #NotMyFantasticFour but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a charming piece of craft about which you might enjoy even more!  (Again, available on Marvel Unlimited.)

44:06-1:01:53: Also on Marvel Unlimited is Iron Man 2020 by Dan Slott, Christos Gage and Peter Woods.  Graeme has read all six issues of it, and we talk about the charms and shortcomings of the event and of Slott’s writing.  Come for the discussion of Slott’s writing; stay for Jeff not only getting the number of issues of Slott’s FF available on Marvel Unlimited wrong because Jeff read that many issues and forgot everything about them!

1:01:53-1:12:01: Is it easier to strike a balance between the enjoyment of predicability and the delight of surprise in “comfort food” superhero comics?  Jeff seems to think so, especially if you have new superheroes revisiting classic concepts.  And as evidence Jeff offers up Icon Vol. 1: A Hero’s Welcome by Dwayne McDuffie and M.D. Bright.  (Volume 2, like Volume 1, is available on Hoopla.)  Jeff is enjoying it a ton and it reminds him of Iredeemable?  Graeme thinks Irredeemable is more like Invincible?  What are we, nuts?

1:12:01-1:38:32: What looks like it’s going to be a break for station identification (that’s what we call it when Jeff has to go pee) turns instead into a discussion about DC’s recent revival of The Challengers of the Unknown and the other books in the marketing banner under which it returned: The New Age of Heroes!  Also discussed:  Cary Nord; G. Willow Wilson’s Wonder Woman run; Matthew McConaughey(?); Werner Herzog (!); Graeme’s summaries of the eight-page stories that appeared in the dollar issues of Adventure Comics in the 70s; and more!

1:38:32-2:04:09: Okay, we’ve hit the part where slicing up the topics is more than a tad arbitrary here as our discussion about Adventure Comics went to the JSA, the Earth 2 Huntress, trademark retention, creators being *too* clever* in their approaches to legacies, and that’s how we get to our discussion about the introduction of the speed force in The Flash. From there we talk about the return of the Superman Family, a plot point in Man of Steel that made Graeme reconsider the Superman origin story; us weighing in on the Phantom Zone; continuity and lack thereof back in the Silver Age; and more

2:04:09-2:16:18: Bendis brought back the Superman Family but is departing from the Superman titles very, very soon. What’s next? According to DC, it’s the Future Tense event coming at the beginning of 2021. Graeme breaks down for us—by which I mean a very baffled Jeff—what has been announced so far.

2:16:18-2:31:54: Poor Graeme! Not only does he have to deal with a very chatty (and kinda way too interrupty) Jeff, he also has to summarize the comics news and keep his eye on the clock! So Marvel is now only holding its comics for three months before dropping the issues on Marvel Unlimited! That’s kind of a big deal. Also, DC and UCS Distributors have parted ways and Lunar is now the only domestic distributor for DC. Plus, there’s now order levels and no buyer’s clubs are allowed, only stores. More aftershocks in the seismic shake-up of 2020 for the direct market, though if you have listened to us a for a while you will not be surprised that we quickly get sidetracked by shit-talking Skype’s contact choices.

2:31:54-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: Skip week! We wish you a happy Halloween, good health, and a successful voting process! Join us in two weeks for a new episode!