0:01-22:11: Greetings! As Graeme McMillan points out, “it’s been for fucking ever!” Or, you know, something like three weeks? We sort of start to catch up on the comic news, but quickly get very sidetracked by talking about the Warner-Discovery merger, which is quite probably a very big deal? (But for those of you who might have missed it, Jeff mentioned the passing of David Anthony Kraft, and was also going to mention that both Jesse Hamm and Kentaro Miura, Berserk‘s creator, have also passed at brutally young ages.). As a result of the merger, there were some very dumb theories that came out of it, and Jeff wonders if earlier dumb “somebody might be buying DC” rumors came out of what would’ve been some sort of asset sizing that would’ve been happening to prep for the merger with Discovery? Graeme shuts that down pretty authoritatively here, as well as discussing what happened to the other publishing media in Warners, the amount of money HBO Max is expected to lose with its “on the service and in the theaters” choice for 2021, the winding path of Marvel Productions, rumors about Disney buying Viacom, and more.
22:11-28:47: Jeff, realizing once again how lucky he is to be able to just ask questions of someone who writes and reads entertainment news stories for a living, asks for an update about #DisneyMustPay, and Graeme’s report is…promising? And also still baffling…but also promising in some ways. And this rapidly transitions back into more historical trivia from Graeme about the differences between Marvel Studios and Marvel Entertainment, the uncanny parallels in DC and Marvel’s business history, and other amazing tidbits.
28:47-1:08:38: And from there an unexpected question from Graeme for Jeff: “Do you read comics differently in digital than in print?” And although Graeme is actually skewing the question a specific way, I think (literally, “do your eyes work on the page differently?”), Jeff sort of talks at length about the way his digital reading habits have evolved and continue to evolve. Also discussed: Wasteland coming to DC Universe Infinite! An anecdote about Batman/Fortnite; the new movies on HBO Max, and the difference between “new” and “new to you”; Hacks on HBO Max and Army of the Dead on Netflix, James Corden(!), and more.
1:08:38-1:24:22: I’m putting in one of those entirely arbitrary time code stamps because, honestly, there’s no real reason why I should separate out “Graeme talks about the trailers for the Crank movies” from everything else, but it seems like a good enough excuse to throw in one of the trailers since our discussion is semi-solidly in the “trailers so good you don’t need/want to see the movie” camp by this point. Also discussed: Army of the Dead and whether or not Graeme (and the listeners) should watch it; a surprisingly verdant discussion about the career of Geena Davis.
1:24:22-1:34:30: Comics! Yes, we do talk about them eventually! Graeme goes first in our “hey, what are you reading?” discussion and talks in depth about Firekind, the upcoming September release from 2000 AD reprinting the John Smith/Paul Marshall series from 1993; Hershey (mentioned in passing by Graeme), and digs in deep to the joys of the third volume of Lawless (Ashes to Ashes) by Dan Abnett and Phil Winslade coming out in August.
1:34:30-1:41:05: Jeff’s turn, and he makes a point to mention that both he and Graeme have been enjoying the current run of Nightwing by Tom Taylor, Bruno Redondo and Adriano Lucas, and that swerves into Graeme talking about Mariko Tamaki’s current run on Detective Comics and the pleasures to be found therein.
1:41:05-2:09:22: But, anyway! Other stuff Jeff has read—volume 1 of the Brother Voodoo Marvel Masterworks, one of those volumes with some odd editing choices and such a peripatetic selection that you realize Brother Voodoo was never really a thing? (For real, he makes Son of Satan look like Spider-Man by comparison.). Also discussed: Marvel Teamworks Masterworks Vol. 5; the first volume of Boys Run The Riot by Keito Gaku; Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba; Cross Over Vol. 1: Kids Love Chains by Donny Cates and Geoff Shaw; Home Sick Pilots Vol. 1: Teenage Pilots; and The Department of Truth Vol. 1: The End of the World by James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds; and more.
2:09:22-2:14:51: Graeme has read an advance copy of Douglas Wolk’s All of the Marvels, which sparks a bit of brief discussion about how many comics there are comprising the Marvel Universe.
2:14:51-end: Closing Comments! Oh, but fortunately some things never change: 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.
Next week: Episode 320! Join us!
And for all that cutting and pasting goodness:
https://theworkingdraft.com/media/podcasts4/WaitWhat319.mp3
Back around the time of the 300th episode I emailed in a question that was inspired by Brother Voodoo as he remains to my mind a great missed opportunity. That mere handful of appearances, as well as the Haitian backstory, lent him an enigmatic quality that sadly doesn’t stand closer scrutiny (as proven by the MM edition). The opportunity was there for a long time for a writer to take him on and elevate him into something more than just a second rate black Dr. Strange, but hard to ever see that happening now.
Hi guys, good to hear from you. I tend to see Wrightson as Golden’s big early influence. I’d be looking at the first couple of issues of Micronauts and his adaptation of ‘A Cask of Amontillado’ to make that call. I thought of the changes as he drew Micronauts as being him embracing Kirbyesque superhero storytelling, but it could equally have been the more muscular Ditko work towards the end of his first work at Marvel that he was looking at. It’s always interesting to see artists embrace the dynamics of classic artists rather than their surface.
I like Broderick’s ‘nauts as well, but in a kind of prog-rock concept album way- ‘I need more keyboards!’ I think his work on Atlas’s ‘Planet of the Vampires’ was the first continuity of his I saw.
‘Cutthroat Island’ I fond excessively dull, while intending to be a thrilling romp. Perhaps I was just in a sour mood, but I came away thinking it must have been poorly edited, so the action just didn’t land. The best thing I got from it was a certain smugness realising that ‘Romeo and Ethel the Pirate’s Daughter’, the play in Shakespeare in Love is a reference to ‘Cutthroat Island.’ Well, so I suppose, Marc Norman has a writing credit in both.
Graeme’s pronunciation of Transylvania 6-5000 is driving me crazy. It’s a parody of the Glen Miller song “Pennsylvania 6-5000.”Graeme was a Twin Peaks fan, doesn’t he remember this scene? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCqp_cycIYM
I almost corrected him but thought it’d be rude, then he said it again! And then it killed me again when editing.
But since it’s really just a drop in the bucket compared to me mispronouncing the name of every single comics creator we’ve ever discussed on the show, plus mangling every manga title.
I can’t believe I’m declaring this in a public forum, but Crank 2 is absolutely worth watching. It is more unhinged than its trailer, which makes it as unhinged as just about anything you’re going to see.
I for one enjoyed “Army of the Dead,” despite its flaws. I know Graeme won’t like it because there’s quite few nods to Cameron’s “Aliens” in there, a film he’s gone on record as saying is not that good. I don’t want to wade into any Snyder debates, but he’s 2 for 2 when it comes to zombie films in my book, especially with casting and musical choices. Jeff’s right though, that opening for the movie with Vegas being overrun by zombies could be a movie in its own right. I also liked when Snyder threw in a little homage to Frazetta’s Death Dealer with the one scene with the Alpha zombie leader on the horse.
Regarding the first Crank, there was something in there that really stuck with me. Jason Statham kills the main villain’s brother, and instead of the cliche of the villain trying to exact revenge and only paying lip service to his dead brother, the film gives scenes for him to emote and feel the grief of loss. Not something schocky action movies usually do, and it wasn’t something I was expecting in a movie as lightning speed paced as Crank.
Ah, Miguel! Yes, the Death Dealer homage was great and I meant to mention it (and then forgot, darn it). You and I are on the same page with Snyder zombie films and I couldn’t be happier about it.