0:01-5:40: Greetings! Jeff is still sick (but getting better)! Graeme is good (despite referring to “the cultural wasteland that is our llives”)! We open with a prophecy of the future—a prophecy that in the near future (August), The Sacred One (Chloe) will return and bring with her the ancient texts as foretold in lore (she and Graeme are gonna talk about all their reality tv watching). PROPHECY!
(But also a little bit of talk between us about Love Island.)
5:40-53:14: Instead of flimmity-flamming about some jimmity jam, we tuck right into talking about comics, recent comics to be more exact, Superman and The Authority #1 by Grant Morrison, Mikel Janin, and Jordie Bellaire, to be as exact as we possibly can! It’s a tight, fun first issue with a lot to unpack, especially with what G-Mo might be saying about their own career and/or the career of his contemporaries. We talk about where and how G-Mo might be doing so; about how Morrison plays with or cares about expectations; the reworking from the premise as a 5G book; about how Morrison has written and handled Superman throughout their career; some comparison/contrast between Morrison’s current standing and Tom King’s; dogs barking in the background; and more.
53:14-59:33: We mentioned Tom King and the online reception to his current work, so it seems more than appropriate for Graeme to talk (in a spoiler-free way about the penultimate issue of Strange Adventures as well as the “ambitious strangeness” of Rorschach; and more.
59:33-1:09:45: Jeff wants to keep this comic train rolling! But for some reason, the next station he wants it to pull into is…Skybound X, the weekly anthology book celebrating ten years of Robert Kirkman making people sell him their IP in return for checks? Jeff sees a potential in the anthology, a woulda-shoulda he wants to talk about, as well as mentioning things he came across in the title such as Tillie Walden doing a series of Clementine Walking Dead OGNs, the return of Assassin Nation, and more.
1:09:45-1:30:42: In other news: Jeff has done a reverse-o and is really liking Matthew Rosenberg’s The Joker Presents A Puzzlebox? But more important to those looking for good work available (currently) only digitally, Jeff wants to extol the virtues of Look Back, a 140 page one-shot (which is a helluva way to undersell the term “graphic novel”) by Chainsaw Man creator Tatsuki Fujimoto. It’s currently available to read over at Shonen Jump *for frickin free* and is extremely excellent. Also discussed: Fist of the North Star by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara; the movie Doberman Cop (based on a manga also by Buronson); the Action 2020 special including the full replica of the banned October 1976 issue; Giant-Size Conan the Barbarian #5 reprinting the team-up of Conan and Elric (under a new Kirby cover); and more.
1:30:42-1:42:07: Graeme has been rereading The New Defenders, the Gargoyle/Valkyrie/Angel/Beast/Cloud/Moondragon incarnation of the team installed by writer J.M. DeMatteis at issue #125 and then taken over by Peter B. Gillis shortly thereafter (with Don Perlin on art throughout). It’s an odd book that goes only even more odd under Gillis and one worth discussing and considering in the context of Marvel at that time.
1:42:07-1:53:45: And of a more modern stripe, Graeme has read both the first two issues (released) and the third (not yet) of Infinite Frontier, the Joshua Williamson scripted/Xermanico drawn “event book that’s not an event book” with an interesting cast, an interesting pitch, and may well need a good collection or reading all in a oner to truly be appreciated. Graeme has also been reading Crime Syndicate by Andy Schmidt, Bryan Hitch, and Kieran McKeown and that’s also a thing we chew over for a bit.
1:53:45-end: Closing Comments! Or…are they? I guess it depends on how you’d characterize Summer of Soul, currently playing over on Hulu. (Graeme would characterize it as “spectacular!”). And but still: 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: Skip week times two! Join us in mid-August for another Wait, What?!
And if you want in on that cut & paste action:
https://theworkingdraft.com/media/podcasts4/WaitWhat323.mp3
When I heard that Manchester Black was in Superman and the Authority, I was hoping Morrison was going to give us various multiversal Authorities. Maybe another time. Your discussion of the comic as is put me in mind of Captain Victory #13, a strange comic I like more and more.
Your back and forth on Tom King’s work was interesting, but where do you think his Supergirl fits in? I picked it up due to the charm of Bilquis Evely’s art, but was won over by a cheerful stickiness of finger that approaches that of Tharg. It’s ( Spoiler Warning) True Grit with Supergirl as Rooster Cogburn. There’s six issues to go, so it could all go wrong, but for now it’s fun. Y’know, fun revenge.
I’m uncertain if Graeme enjoyed reading Peter Gillis’s work on Defenders or enjoyed thinking about Marvel in the 80s. I read his run on Micronauts New Voyages, but all I recall is slight embarrassment that the more Kelley Jones developed his own style, the less I liked it.
Good work by Graeme bringing the episode to a close. Jeff was getting pretty close to buzzing and that would be a disruption to the natural order of this podcast.
Fun show as ever. I’m standing up for the new Crime Syndicate book, OK, there’s no thesis attached, no great subtext (unless it’s terribly sub), but it’s cracking entertainment. If memory serves, writer Andy Schmidt has said he didn’t want Superwoman to be Lois out of respect for Morrison’s version… Superwoman as Not Diana never made any sense, just look at howl Mike Sekowsky drew her.
I’m with Shadavid, please do tell us what you think of Tom King”s Supergirl. Great art – apart from Kara’s Doonsbury nose – and probably a great Ruthye story, but so far as Supergirl stories go, it’s utter pants. Another hit from Tom King’s PTSDC Comics.
The main thing I remember about the Gillis New Defenders run is how much I liked Candy Sothern, and the amazing covers. I must have a reread, enjoy a bit of Isaac and Dolly! Really, they should have called the comic the Ex-X-Men or something, if it’s not a non-team, it’s not a Defenders team.
I think what got me about your discussion about Grant Morrison’s Authority is that he’s writing a 21st Century Pulp that takes into account all of these cultural influences into the text to write something new. Reading the Authority feels to me like this is Grant Morrison doing a sort of “Fast and the Furious” meets “Doc Savage.” It has that sensibility of not completely indulging in the pulp of today by bringing in these archetypes of yesterday.
King is still my favorite working writer and Strange Adventures, Rorschach, and Batman/Catwoman are absolutely fascinating works. Just so tonally weird all around. I don’t know if his star has fallen. Is that on the basis of him not writing an ongoing? Because I don’t think he wants to. What the basis of who is a star or not at DC post-DiDio is still very much up in the air I would say as well.
I find King’s current round of work weirdly comparable to Haruki Murakami but I haven’t figured out how to expand that thought out.
Jeff, do you know about this manga https://sevenseasentertainment.com/books/primitive-boyfriend-vol-1/
Oh my–I do now!
I read about it here http://everydayislikewednesday.blogspot.com/2021/08/a-month-of-wednesdays-july-2021.html
Thank you–I’m going to have to track it down!
I expect everyone knows, but the current 2000ad humblebundle is worth checking out. Maybe there’s someone else that hangs out here who isn’t on the media social much.
Yes, thank you for pointing it out. If you did *not* pick up their Humble Bundle from last year, this appears to have everything that Bundle did and an extra 15 or so additional volumes (the new stuff is mostly Dredd):
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/judge-dredd-perps-punks-partners-2000ad-books?hmb_source=humble_home&hmb_medium=product_tile&hmb_campaign=mosaic_section_6_layout_index_3_layout_type_twos_tile_index_2_c_judgedreddfriendsrebellionpublishingtbd_bookbundle
A bit late catching up on the podcast but it’s great hearing the two of you chat as always.
I know there hasn’t been a call for listeners questions but inspired by this episode I thought I’d ask one early: is Morrison the comics analog to David Bowie* and if so does that make The Green Lantern their Tin Machine?** Discuss
*And which period corresponds to which? Pre Zenith to Bowies Decca years? Zenith to Space Oddity; Animal Man and Doom Patrol to Hunky Dory?
**Not necessarily meant as a criticism as more and more Bowiephiles have taken to re-evaluating this period of late but at the time it was the most dismissed or over looked of Bowie’s works