0:01-6:25: Greetings! Tech mishaps are a thing of the very recent past, so you get to hear Graeme and Jeff talk about those as they clear the decks for another scintillating episode of Wait, What?! And what’s a better way to cleanse the palette than complaining about tech, we ask you? (No really, we need to know, clearly, because we not only go on about it for far too long, we use some amazingly inapt metaphors…)
6:25-42:35: Fortunately, Jeff goes on to blame all of our tech problems on the return of SAGA, which is a very good segue (if I do say so myself) because it allows us to talk about, yes, the return of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staple’s beloved sci-fi family epic! We talk about how long it’s been gone, how much of its audience will return with it, the Game of Thrones prequel (House of the Dragon), The Matrix Rebooteration, Daredevil: The Target, the return of the Busiekverse, Love and Rockets, Jeff’s experience reading Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku, Vol. 5 (the American version, so vols. 9 and 10 of the Japanese tankōbon), Graeme McMillan: the Littlest Hobo, and more.
42:35-49:49: Graeme has re-read (and as he says, in some cases, read) Evan Dorkin’s Pirate Corp$ and its continuation, Hectic Planet. It kind of ties in to what we’re talking about on many levels—it like some of the examples from our first half-hour remains unfinished—but was also read just as its own thing that Graeme, a fan of Dorkin, wanted the chance to fully (re-)experience. Also discussed: this thread from Dorkin talking about stepping back from comics for a bit.
49:49-1:02:50: Good news/bad news: if last episode you enjoyed us shit talking Scott McCloud’s Reinventing Comics based on our memories of more than twenty years, you’ll be interested to know that Graeme sat his ass down, got a copy from the library, and re-read it. And what he discovered in revisiting it may…surprise you?! It’s a great little segment if you’re interested in setting the record straight, less so if (like Jeff) you just wanted complain about it some more?
1:02:50-1:15:49: And to add faux insult to nonexistent injury, Graeme has read the first arc of Kieron Gillen and Esad Ribic’s The Eternals series for Marvel, despite the potential for tsk-ery from Jeff. With great restraint, Graeme manages to avoid spoiling the end of the first arc (since it’s not yet out on Marvel Unlimited) but also talks about all the good stuff Gillen and Ribic bring to the book. It is a blissfully spoiler free discussion that nonetheless digs into why Graeme thinks the book is quite possibly the best thing Marvel is publishing right now.
1:15:49-1:34:19: Graeme’s also been swigging from DC’s well of Outsiders comics, re-reading not just the 80s incarnation by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo (and others, as Jeff finds out) but also the very different re-incarnation by Barr in the ’90s. The Outsiders, the quintessential 80s super-team, as a 90s title? Graeme tells us what works and what doesn’t and we speculate about why.
1:34:19-1:49:54: Are you ready for another round of My Four Manga? Graeme is (thank goodness) and Jeff kind of is? So join us as we talk about The Walking Cat; You’re My Demon Lord, Senpai!; Booty Royale, Never Go Down Without A Fight; and Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Wander the Dungeon! Can Graeme guess the fake? Can Jeff stump Graeme?
1:49:54-1:55:35: You might’ve missed Joe (“Jog”) McCulloch’s brilliant obit/tribute to Takao Saito, creator of Jeff’s beloved Golgo 13 (Jeff is far from alone in that regard, as you know.). He takes the time to mention Jog’s excellent piece, in part so he can link to it here. (Jeff also talks quickly about some of the other stuff he’s read recently.)
1:55:35-1:58:27: And Graeme mentions how much he’s enjoyed reading The Phoenix Colossal Comics Collection, a—you guessed it—very big collection of comics from the UK’s Phoenix magazine.
1:58:27-end: Closing Comments are a go! 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: Rock out with your Drokk out! Read Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files, Vol. 29 and join us!
And should you require that cut and paste action:
https://theworkingdraft.com/media/podcasts4/WaitWhat328.mp3
I think that mid-2000s Batman and the Outsiders just becomes Outsiders for the rest of the run and is written by Pete Tomasi and Dan Didio (!) But I thought that one was a Chuck Dixon joint? Unless Tieri takes over from that.
Grant Morrison tees up Red Robin and the Outsiders in the first volume of Batman Inc. but I don’t think that really becomes anything because of New 52.
Finally. The thing that this podcast has been missing all these years is coverage of The Littlest Hobo.
Like Graeme McMillan, I always assumed that it was an American show, and somehow held onto that through years of living in America, despite it being the case that at no time did any American ever talk about it as a beloved childhood memory. But I learned my mistake a few years ago when listening to a Doctor Who podcast. From which podcast I understand that The Littlest Hobo remains quite an important show in the memory of many Canadians, so far more people may get the reference than Graeme McMillan thought.
And The Littlest Hobo Is completely on-brand for this podcast, because it’s a superhero show. The dog is a superhero. In many episodes, it seems like it’s the same conceit as Lassie, that this is meant to be an unusually intelligent dog, but a normal dog nonetheless. But eventually, they did an episode about someone putting together the scattered reports about Hobo’s heroic actions, and that episode establishes canonically, on-camera, that Hobo is a superintelligent dog, a mutant or the product of experimentation.
What is more, and this is something that I never knew as a child, the colour TV show, the one that was broadcast on British TV, was a revival — there had been an earlier black-and-white The Littlest Hobo in the ‘60s. And the same episode to which I refer above established that it’s the same dog, who therefore must have enhanced longevity (possibly immortality).
And obviously, Hobo saves people and stops bad guys with his superintelligence, while posing as a normal dog. Powers, heroism, secret identity — he’s a superhero. I’d go so far as to call him Canada’s greatest superhero. That’s right, Wolverine, I said “greatest.”
Also, my sympathies to Mr. McMillan for what sounds like it has been a hellish time, and to Mr. Lester as well if his experiences recently have been similar. I hope things are improving.
I have to admit that I haven’t finished the episode yet but I need to note my astonishment over this being the second time that Jeff has neglected to reference David Bowie’s finest work when given the opportunity: https://youtu.be/5SQdBxVjZx4
Meanwhile, I’ve noticed that I seem to address most of my messages in the comments to Jeff_ which is understandable as he’s great. I think this comes down to his writing the show notes on the regular episodes and my jumping in with British cultural reference for him during Drokk!. But Graeme’s great too so can I take this opportunity to say how much I enjoyed his Oral History of the DC Comics New52 relaunch. One day, when Geoff Johns is no longer under an NDA I hope he gets the chance to return to it. Brilliant work, Graeme.
Graeme doesn’t seem to mention it, so I’ll assume he doesn’t know about Dorkin’s return to the world of Hectic Planet in three short stories in DARK HORSE PRESENTS in 1997. Those don’t appear in the three volume collection (the third volume has #5 and #6 and the Vroom Socko one-shot) but were reprinted as HECTIC PLANET – THE BUMMER TRILOGY. They’re set a few years after HECTIC PLANET #6, and Dorkin optimistically states that “new Hectic Planet stories bridging this gap are planned for 2002”.
Sometimes it’s all about connections. Four years is too long to expect Saga readers to return, but 5 years between Outsiders series is unremarkable. The Eternals has Ribic and Gillen and the (to me) unsung authors of the changes to Loki Gillen has used so well in JIM and Young Avengers were Ribic and Rodi, with their Loki series from 2004. Ribic looking to me like someone who loved Don Lawrence in that. Carey’s nod to The Laughing Gnome reminded me of our Uncle Sam gifting my sisters and I a load of old singles. Among these was Strawberry Fair by Anthony Newley, which is the style guide for TLG. Finally, mention of the Phoenix had me thinking of seeing Jess Bradley’s work in her degree show at Bower Ashton. Even then it had a ridiculous amount of charm that captured my attention.
As ever a fun time. Hoping My Four Manga and Graemieleaks return.
To kind of tie multiple things together, Jamie Smart is one of the artists for several series in The Phoenix (Bunny VS. Monkey, Battlesuit Bea, Looshkin), but is probably better known to some as the creator of the comic Bear, which was published by SLG in the early 2000s.
Also, as a Canadian I am familiar with The Littlest Hobo. Reading the one sentence episode descriptions on WIkipedia is kind of wild.
“A criminal steals and tries to sell a secret laser.”
“Hobo tries to keep a rabid raccoon from coming into contact with anyone while attempting to alert authorities to its whereabouts.”
“Hobo is theorized to be a new species of dog by a scientist and a reporter who attempt to capture him to study him.”
“Hobo joins forces with inept private eye Rex Badger, who perfected his style watching old movies. As Badger plods through a series of comic clues, Hobo keeps several steps ahead of him and enables him to finally put the pieces together and wind up with the credit.”
“Hobo befriends a lonely clown.”
“A farmer and his mail-order bride seem incompatible.”
I’ll mention Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson’s Beasts of Burden series here. Which I admit I have not read, but as a fellow lover of Milk and Cheese, Pirate Corps and Dork, I felt you might be glad to know he is still working in the medium.
Regarding hiatuses, I spent years visiting the comics shop looking for the continuation of Matt Wagner’s Mage after the Comico series ended. Wikipedia tells me that the hiatus ran from 1986 to 1997. I picked up the new series and bounced off of it pretty hard- it didn’t measure up to my memories of the first series.