00:00-12:30: Greetings from Graeme “anger averse” McMillan and Jeff “eyes bleeding with rage” Lester, just minutes after a technical problem! Follow up “anger” with a chaser of “fear” and we’ve got a reworking of a primo Yoda quote shoutout (that thank goodness is never made) as we discuss some of Jeff’s secret anxieties about our podcasting schedule and how all those fears inevitably lead to….Superman IV: The Quest for Peace? Discussed: teenagers; Superman IV: The Quest for Peace; why the fifth Superman movie should’ve taken place on the Planet of the Apes; and more.
12:30-41:33: Talking about non-comics superhero media? Why, don’t mind if we do! Graeme rewatched the last episode of Loki and that most recent Spider-Man movie; Jeff watched the *first* two episodes of Loki. And so we have some things to compare and contrast with (yes) Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Join us for a discussion of the Spider-Man movie and Loki (and Moon Knight!) that is pretty spoiler-free (I think)?
41:33-1:13:57: Jeff read an article in Variety about DC that leads him to make some connections about how Marvel’s success keeps tripping up DC in very weird ways; Graeme is a little more dubious about that article for reasons we go into, but it also gives us a bit of time to really dig into some of the other rumors that seem to be floating around about DC.
1:13:57-1:24:08: And from DC media to DC’s comic leadership to DC Comics….Jeff has a complaint about the digital trade of Infinite Frontier that leads to a rather surprising “Wait, What?” moment and/or scoop about the Infinite Frontier digital trade! You heard it here first, True Believer! (Unless you heard it somewhere else, that is. I don’t know—we’re not omnisicient! Cut us some slack!)
1:24:08-1:36:57: Comics! Graeme has recently read Telepaths by J. Michael Straczynski and Steve Epting. So why does Graeme spend so much time discussing The Resistance, The Resistance: Uprising, and The Resistance: Moths another series by Straczynski (and Mike Deodato, Jr., C.P. Smith, and Mike Choi)? There’s a lot of unpacking of The Resistance to help understand the surprising charms of Telepaths, believe you me! (Or “believe you, Graeme,” I guess.)
1:36:57-1:43:30: And of course, Jeff being Jeff, he’s not going to switch between talking about comics from the creator of Rising Stars to a one-shot from the creator of Chainsaw Man without paraphrasing a quote by James Baldwin (the thinking man’s Stan Lee, as I believe Baldwin’s been called). But pretensions aside, the point here really is that over on the Shonen Jump and MangaPluswebsites, Tatsuki Fujimoto dropped a 200 page one-shot, Goodbye, Eri, that is, quite frankly, fucking stellar. Pretty sure you can read it online for free currently without signing up for anything, and seriously—you should read it.
1:43:30-1:55:00: Apparently, during the last Wait, What. Jeff mentioned he was currently at an all-time high of seven manga titles he was reading in simulpub (though one of those has a *very* qualifier) but didn’t list them. He lists them here and talks about arguably the most mortifying one—yes, even more mortifying than Excuse Me Dentist, It’s Touching Me—Hokkakaido Gals Are Super Adorable! (May God have mercy on your soul, Jeff.) Also discussed: the joys of interlibrary loans!
1:55:00-2:08:00: Not currently under discussion, but apparently a bit of a teaser—Graeme has re-read a lot of John Smith and wants to talk about it a lot….but is not going to do so here because Chloe has also re-read a lot of John Smith and they both want to talk about it on here together. But to wet your whistle, here’s a small preview. And because I love you, in case you’re wondering the name Graeme is saying of the replacement writer for Smith on Indigo Prime when Smith disappears (for years!) mid-story, it is indeed Kek-W, and there is indeed an explanation for that, and a twitter account, and yes there is indeed a popular Twitch steam chat expression which made this search incredibly annoying so in addition to loving you, it can probably also be said that at this particular moment, I hate Graeme. Oh, but also, I’m not not going to split this out—in fact, I kinda wish I was going to edit this out but I’m not—but remember that opening talk about Loki? Jeff has a theory about the TVA that he’s curious about (only two episodes in) that he is hesitant to ask because, well, it’s kinda him showing his ass and highlights an uncomfortable bit of, uh, racist cracker-ness. But he’s going to go for it, and I’m not editing it out because honestly white people pretend like these little acts of racist supposition always happen to other people, not themselves, and maybe the world would be better if white people showed their ass, admitted it, and learned from it rather than edited it out of the podcast?
2:08:00-end: Closing stuff! Graeme’s newsletter (https://www.getrevue.co/profile/ComicsFYI! 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. (Plus, closing episode Showgirls-related fun fact courtesy of the inimitable Ian Brill. Thanks, Ian!)
NEXT WEEK: Not one but *two* skip weeks! Join us in the first full weekend of May for an all-new Wait, What?!
And here’s the cut and paste version, for your delectation:
https://theworkingdraft.com/media/podcasts5/WaitWhat341.mp3
Jeff, I’m really curious how you’re getting a new volume of Chihayafuru from another library…from what I understand, it’s been digital only, at least in English (if you’re getting the Japanese edition, then that makes it all make sense).
oh.
OH NO.
I mean, we’ll see what happens when it gets here but I thought I did a quick search to confirm that there will physical trades not just digital…but considering how confusing the library listings can be and considering it’s coming from the San Francisco library system, this may indeed be a Japanese edition…which will not be optimal for me at all. Sigh.
For Jeff’s, and other people’s, edification, Hokkaido is pronounced as follows
Ho – like the Santa Claus “Ho, Ho, Ho”
kai – like Guy but with a “k”
do – like “dough”
There is technically a pause between the “Ho” and “kai” as well if you want to pronounce it 100% correctly. Two consonants always represent a pause – except for the letter n, both of which are pronounced.
Also, listening to Jeff talk about what he likes in 70s Marvel comics really makes it clear why he likes manga a lot since all of those things are highly represented in the manga generally.
And, if Jeff is okay with watching anime, the Chihayafuru anime goes up to the end of volume 27.
thank you so much for this, Eric! Now that I read so much more manga—and have been for a while—I feel particularly strongly about trying to not *totally* show my ass while talking about it…and that one was a definitely 100% butt exposer (in part because I was *not* planning on discussing it, since i didn’t want to admit I was reading it!)
Thanks again, and thanks for the advice on the anime—it rarely works for me, but I admit I’m getting desperate…
It seems like there’s more manga being released in English that’s set in parts of Japan that aren’t Tokyo. Here are a few other series set in Hokkaido.
Erased (time loop/travel murder mystery thing with a guy going back to the 1980s and reliving his childhood)
Golden Kamuy (early 20th century, guy tries to track down a bunch of prisoners who have a map to treasure tattooed on their skin)
Silver Spoon (teen goes to agricultural school)
Wave, Listen to Me! (woman becomes talk radio host)
Also, Jeff might have managed to ILL the French version of Chihayafuru!
Wait—Wave, Listen to Me! is also in Hokkaido? I’m reading that!
(And I started Golden Kamuy a jillion years ago and loved it, and have 15 volumes I haven’t touched)
Question: does the comics podcasting industry have a podcaster relocation program? I think I may have embarrassed myself so much with this I’m going to have to change my identity!
The amount of Jeff Lester bare-assed action in this episode went from funny to disturbing and then back to funny for me. However, let me be the first to extend a welcome to Graeme’s new co-host who will debut in a couple of weeks, Leff Jester. Welcome Leff!
in honour of Jeff’s frankness, I’ll tell my John Smith anecdote. I really liked the first installment of ‘New Statesmen’ in Crisis. I didn’t enjoy the second episode as much and said so in a letter of comment. It wasn’t the sole topic and my criticism wasn’t more than a couple of lines. I was shocked to receive 11 pages of hand written invective from John Smith. All the swears, drenched in bilious expressions of contempt for my lack of intelligence. I was appalled that I had not considered that he might be such a vulnerable person. The best thing I could think of doing was write a grovelling apology and hope that helped.
Mind you, listening to the pair of you discuss the TV series Loki makes me wonder if John didn’t have a point about my intelligence. At the start of episode six there’s a big. kind of circular rock formation in space. I went looking for the page in Thor that has Loki with a similar rock. It’s in The Mighty Thor #147. Me like big Kirbyesque rock.
I was shocked to receive 11 pages of hand written invective from John Smith. All the swears, drenched in bilious expressions of contempt for my lack of intelligence. I was appalled that I had not considered that he might be such a vulnerable person. The best thing I could think of doing was write a grovelling apology and hope that helped.
You are so much nicer a person than I am.
Excellent show, but when is it not?
I watched the Loki telly programme, and thought it got worse by the week. By the time we arrived at the reveal of Kang (who has just been renamed ‘Karen’ by my iPad Speak and Spell), it was pretty dismal. I don’t know the actor Jonathan Majors, but found the hamminess of his version of Kang terribly annoying, a is old letdown after all the buildup – I don’t mind a fairly camp variant Kang, but the first Kang we meet should be damned impressive. This guy couldn’t kick Mopee’s arse. Who needs another trickster when we already have multiple Lokis? I bet Majors can do a scary Kang, he certainly has charisma.
Congratulations to Jeff on his scoop with the DC Frontier collection – I know what he means about certain creators ignoring tweets, but I have always found the boys and girls at ComixologySupport hugely helpful. Give them a tinkle.
A special John Smith episode of Drokk! sounds a tremendous idea, I fully support it.