00:00-15:36: Greetings! It is, by some people’s system of counting, our 350th episode! And we celebrate it as only we can—(a) by not mentioning it during the recording at all, because (b) we forgot! But we are at least able-minded enough to point out that it’s October, and thus also (1) Chloe’s birthday on October 2, the day this episode gets released; (2) Graeme’s birthday on Wednesday, October 5, when he will be traveling to NYCC; and (3) Jeff’s birthday right smack dab on Halloween itself. So if you’re wondering if this means there will be an abundance of indulgent small talk this episode, we can only offer this segment, and its expansive discussion about Graeme’s wishlist on Amazon, as Exhibit A. And Jeff talks about the stuff what he would like for his birthday. (Please note: the link to this amazing looking Love & Rockets: The First Fifty is already covered, no need to even think about purchasing it for me. I’m just linking to it here because I think everyone should see it.) And then there’s some exciting shed talk! Yes, nothing says four hundred and fifty issues of a comic book podcast like (as Graeme refers to it): “Wait, What? Shed Edition!”
15:36-46:54: As mentioned above, NYCC is almost upon us, so we discuss a bit of the reason that fact alone seems surprising and uncomfortable…which leads us to talk about so much of Graeme’s experiences working comic book cons and what it means to actually, you know, work them.
46:54-51:46: Return of the shed talk? Well, maybe a little. But also, because Jeff is heading up to Portland for the first time in three years (or more?), there is some Broforce-related talk.
51:46-57:12: Comics talk does happen, though! For example, Jeff wants to point everyone toward Graeme’s talk with Todd McFarlane over at PopVerse, Graeme wants you to know that ReedPop is going to be streaming a lot of NYCC content for free during the show, and (and I hope I have the right link for this), if you want an inexpensive way to get beyond the PopVerse paywall to read things like Graeme’s extensive chat with Grant Morrison plus VOD panels from NYCC, there are NYCC 2022 digital tickets!
57:12-1:o7:54: Comics rundown (Jeff edition)! Jeff had a strong finish to September and talks a bit about the stuff he read and dug: Fist of the North Star, Vol. 6! Conan The Barbarian, issues #84-98! Cross Play Love: Otaku x Punk Vol. 1! Chapter 1 of The Game Devil (readable on MangaPlus)! Turning the Table on the Seatmate Killer (on Azuki)! My Dear Detective: Mitsuko’s Case Files (also on Azuki)!
1:07:54-1:36:05: Graeme is kind of curious how the Conans are, and Jeff needs no more than that to talk a bit about the run he’s about to finish—the Queen of the Black Coast years—and how much he sees now that writer Roy Thomas was doing his Roy Thomas-y thing and patching continuity holes, tying threads and references from later stories and tertiary materials into the comic, and how, essentially, Jeff thinks there’s the bones for a very good Game of Thrones style series in place thanks to that work. (My apologies for talking too quickly that when I said “Roy Thomas’s Continuity Cross Fetish” that Graeme wasn’t able to jump in and add “Otaku x Punk” because the absence is felt.) We also talk about Alter Ego the magazine from Two Morrows that Thomas edits—it’s a continuation of his fanzine! He turns 82 next month—he has a story in X-Men Legends!
1:36:05-1:57:28: Graeme wishes he could appreciate fantasy, but it’s not really his jam. “Great is in the eye of the beholder,” he opines before going to on to talk about what he’s been reading (and/or re-reading depending on the issue): The Thing series from the 80s, now fully available on Marvel Unlimited! And we also talk about the charms of Marvel Two-In-One, the previous series featuring The Thing that at least had a gimmick that functioned as a story engine.
1:57:28-1:59:21: And if you want to hear the part of the podcast where Jeff clearly loses his mind… 350 issues and I don’t think we’ve ever had extensive corpsing…until now!
1:59:21-end: (More than a little hysterical) closing comments! Next week is a skip week and then join us for Drokk wherein we read and discuss volume 4 of Judge Dredd: The Restricted Case Files! But don’t forget about: Stitcher! Itunes! Instagram! Twitter together and separately: Graeme (and not a Twitter: Graeme at Popverse!) 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: Judge Dredd The Restricted Case Files, Vol. 4! In two scant weeks!!
https://theworkingdraft.com/media/podcasts5/WaitWhat350.mp3
NSFW, and will make no sense unless you’ve made it all the way through this episode:
https://www.deviantart.com/shiniez/art/he-s-no-good-to-me-dead-P-613884975
You really expect us to believe that Steve Gerber created a character named Wondarr the Aquarian just a couple of years before he made Thundarr the Barbarian? Nice try, sirs.
Have to say, shed talk is peak Wait What right there
Exquisite corpsing, I joined in. My dad had a guard’s van railway carriage as a shed, so the standard by which I judge all other sheds. I don’t currently have a shed, I did at my last house, but I miss the garden more. It’s soil was wonderfully fertile, it was a home to hedgehogs and slow worms and I frequently dug up fossils while turning it over.- ammonites and seashells.
Given that Jeff has been reading the letter columns of that Belit run of Conan, he’ll have read my younger sister, Evelyn, criticising Roy Thomas’s writing. Funny old world.
In all Roy has to say about it, does he say who decided not to have thought balloons or sound effects on Conan? Himself/Barry/some combination?
I read in one of the TwoMorrows books (it was probably Alter Ego) that Roy Thomas wasn’t offended by Houseroy. He also admired Sold Brodsky deeply (the Brodsky issue of Alter Ego is great), so he probably wasn’t offended by Brodsky being in the WHAT IF? issue. Later on, Roy wrote on those Topps Kirbyverse books. I don’t think ever had an ill-will towards Kirby, and at some point, Jack may have given up (or forgotten) on his ill-will towards Roy.
Thanks for the extra context, Ian! Thomas seems pretty magnanimous overall, I think. (There’s a great one where apparently Harlan Ellison was a fan of Conan, and called Thomas telling him he (Ellison) would write the 100th issue which would be both a fitting celebration for the book’s 100th and great publicity).
The most disturbing part of that Chewbacca run: Why does Jeff pronounce “Chewbacca” like that?
Oh no! Out of all the things I could mispronounce it? I didn’t pronounce it “Chew-backa”?
I don’t know how to reply to comments, but I suppose you’ll see this, Jeff. I believe that the “a” in the second syllable of “Chewbacca” is pronounced like the “a” in “palm.” You pronounced it like the “a” in “back.” I hear it “the right way” (As much as there is a “right way” to pronounce the name of an alien dog-man) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kms97x00O3M&ab_channel=PronunciationOrator
It might be my age, but I could have used a little more shed talk. As someone whose current living arrangements precludes shed ownership, I’m super curious what would be stored there. Is it just garden tools and Christmas decorations? Sheds aren’t climate controlled, right? Can you just put anything in them, or are you limited by what can survive reasonably unattended for a duration of time? Would you put a workbench in your shed and build birdhouses?
I enjoyed the Conan talk very much. Usually you only hear the BWS issues or the Savage Sword of Conan series get talked up, and not so much the post-BWS Thomas work. If I’m too understand correctly, there never was a drop in quality of the storytelling, just that the comics readership had moved on from Conan in favor of things like Wolverine. Speaking of which, would love to hear you talk about “What if…Conan Met Wolverine?” or whatever that issue was called.
The last word on sheds belongs to Pygmalion writer George Bernard Shaw. He wrote in a shed set upon a turntable that would slowly revolve throughout the day to continuously capture natural sunlight. And as a reclusive writer he named the shed “London” so that whenever any unwanted visitors would call at his house they could be told, quite truthfully, that he was “In London at the moment.”
And before anyone else asks, I’ve first dibs win calling my 70’s prog rock group “George Bernard Shaw’s Revolving Shed.”
Happy October birthdays to Game, Chloe and Jeff, and thank you, as always, for supplying my favourite podcast.