Snapshot #1 -- Politics Whining (oh, wee)

Snapshot #1 by Andy Diggle, Jock, and Clem Robins, published by Image Comics in February 2013 (and in Judge Dredd Megazine, prior thereto, apparently): I read this immediately after I read Scarlet #6, and a similarity between the two jumped out, an irritant. Scarlet #6 begins with a monologue dismissing Occupy Wall Street:  nothing changed, nobody learned anything, protests are pointless, no one is listening, blah, blah.  That sort of shit. And so, too, Snapshot, opens by immediately dismissing protests:  a guy at a comic shop tells the comic-shop-employee main character that his girlfriend is "dragging" him to a march: "Some big anti-whatever shindig. We're all marching to put an end to, I dunno, bad stuff... Even as we speak, my apartment's ripe with the pungent tang of sharpie-wielding hipster."

If this scene is meant as a critique of the Bro talking, that's not successfully communicated. No, this is early-- we're only just meeting the main characters. We're again expected to agree with this repulsive crap, I think, expected to identify with this dull cynicism.

What is all this, do you think, this insistence upon surrender? Why, this persistent message that to do anything but surrender to the status quo makes one a figure of mockery? What makes comics so eager to trumpet fake heroics, phony, ersatz heroics, but so dismissive of protest, of an actual examples of courage from the least powerful among us? Is it just the particulars of the "creative community" involved, a community that never fought for each other, that routinely betrays its greatest artists, a community whose heroes suffocated communal effort in their womb? Why would we expect any better...? Or is it more than that? Maybe it's just young people, just youth itself and youth's silly hopes and impractical dreams of a better tomorrow, that comics find so laughable. Comic books: middle-aged men, to the rescue!

Later in Snapshot #1, the protestor girlfriend is shown, in only one panel, arms crossed, given no word balloons, rendered mute. We don't ever get to hang out with her. We're always stuck with the bros.

Have I ever participated in a protest? No, and perhaps that opens me to attacks for being a "hypocrite" for objecting. But I'm Indian, and non-violent resistance, that's sort of a thing for us. Plus, I'm an American-- protests are a big deal for Americans, too, goddamnit. Diggle's ancestors were The Bad Guys for both those groups, I guess, but even they have their own history, too, last I checked. This cheerleading for apathy, it is ahistoric and uninspiring and boring.

"It's just a couple panels, and you're overreacting-- maybe it will all be critiqued in a later issue," you might reasonably say, forgiving person that you are, and probably be right. But here's what still nags: the comic is in the thriller mode. When you think back on the thrillers you've seen in your life, don't the really great thrillers tend to ask for some kind of transgression-- particularly of their main characters? The kink of Hitchcock; the perversions of DePalma; the "Michael Douglas fucked the wrong lady" section on Netflix. But Snapshot? Apathy. Distinterest. Disengagement. Aren't these the very things a person seeks to escape by their transgressions? The very things that so urgently sends them to all of their sins?

Wait, What? Ep. 120: Beat Up

Stunner stuff from D'Israeli in Stickleback, currently appearing in 2000 A.D.

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends! (If I was Stan Lee, I'd offer a No-Prize to those of you who really get that reference...but thank goodness there is only one Stan and I'm not him.)

Join me after the jump for show notes for Wait, What? Ep. 120, won't you?  (Yes, there is one this week.  I assure you, I'm not pulling an April Fool's Joke on you a week late...OR AM I????

Nope, I'm not.

By the way, we offer on-air apologies but let me apologize here for not giving you all an on-site update about last week's unexpected skip week.   In the future, I'll try to throw something together to let website-oriented Whatnauts aware that we won't be around.  At the end of this 'cast, however, we mention our skip weeks for the next six weeks or so, so feel free to get out your calendar if it will ease your anxiety.

What was I...?  Oh, right.  Show notes!

0:00-16:44:  Well, nothing says upbeat like talking about dead people!  Graeme and Jeff briefly contemplate the passing of Roger Ebert and -- in a bit more detail -- the passing of Carmine Infantino.  Also included in the discussion (but still alive as far as we know): Terry Austin; Bill Sienkiewicz; John Peele; advocacy v. shrill pedanticism; our own critical failings; etc. 16:44-37:01:  And as we skate merrily onto thinner ice:  Age of Ultron; the Guardians of the Galaxy Infinite Comics; and a new thesis (All-New Avenging Thesis!) from Jeff about the work of Brian Michael Bendis.  And more discussion about the concept of naive cynicism.  It could well be very frustrating for those who have to participate in this conversation via comment threads (or brought it up in the hopes we would stop talking about this kind of thing) but there are some surprising turns in here, I think. 37:01-50:10:  The first of three things Graeme really wants to talk about this week: (1) Zombo by Al Ewing and Henry Flint (currently appearing in 2000 A.D.), which also includes praise for Stickleback by Ian Edginton and the amazing art by D'Israeli, and Dandridge by Alec Worley and Warren Pleece. 50:10-54:41:  By contrast, Jeff thought he would love Agent Gates, the super powered quasi-steampunk graphic novel parody of Downton Abbey by Camaren Subhiyah and Kyle Hilton. 54:41-1:14:14: The second of three things Graeme wants to talk about:  (2) Stormwatch #19 by Jim Starlin.  Graeme is perhaps not so pleased.  We also end up talking a bit about The Inhumans over at Marvel and openly pray for the return of HEX (which probably isn't usually referred to in all-caps like that but it gives you an idea of our fervor.) 1:14:14-1:14:49:  Intermission One!  (And what is probably my current favorite of Graeme's stinger tunes for us.) 1:14:49-1:24:04: Graeme has been on NPR! Jeff has left a glass of water in the next room! And Graeme's third thing he really wants to talk about this week:  (3) Marta Acosta's She-Hulk Diaries. 1:24:04-1:37:52:  But Jeff, all he wants to do is talk about Giant-Man.  Giant-Man, Giant-Man, Giant-Man! 1:37:52-1:46:53: And Graeme reminds Jeff that Avengers A.I. which is coming soon. And then we spoil Age of Ultron #3.  (You're welcome.)  Also included in the conversation (and filed under "Stuff Jeff doesn't know until Graeme tells him"): Marvel's next event and the death of Formspring.  (I actually had just a comma there originally since I thought there might be more to the list, and was tempted to leave it just so it would look like the title of Marvel's next event was "The Death of Formspring.") 1:46:53-1:56:41:  "Jeff, tell me about a comic you liked!"  Jeff's answer?  Season Five of Mad Men.  Includes the phrase, "the Thor vs. Hulk of my heart."  Bonus topic:  What do we read comics for?  (And for extra credit, guess which one of us really hates that question.) 1:56:41-2:14:07:  Graeme read DC Showcase Presents: The Flash, Vol. 4, so we get to talk more about Carmine Infantino, as well as Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, our favorite things about Infantino's art, whether Neal Adams destroyed comic book art, Dave Cockrum, and more. [Note: Jeff mistakenly says Dan Day at least once here when he means Gene Day. Oy.] 2:14:07-end:  Closing comments! Apologies, promises, blood oaths, and so the cycle is complete.  And lo, the cycle shall start again!

It's possible (yes, really.  Highly possible, even) that this podcast is already on iTunes.  But, as always, we make it available here for your delectation.  Are you not delectated?

Wait, What? Ep. 120: Beat Up

Oh, and don't forget to check out Abhay's thoughts about Scarlet #6, or John K (UK)'s thoughts on Robert Aickman, or any of the other material by people who don't have to read the coattails of a talented and charismatic Scotsman.   And, as always, we thank you for listening and hope you enjoy!

Arriving 4/10/13

It's a killer week of new comics, with the latest issues of Walking Dead, Hawkeye, and Saga to look forward to. Even more great books after the break. ADVENTURE TIME FIONNA & CAKE #4 (OF 6) AGE OF ULTRON #5 (OF 10) ALIENS VS PARKER #2 (OF 4) ARCHER & ARMSTRONG (VU) #9 AVENGERS #9 AVENGERS ARENA #7 NOW2 AVENGERS ASSEMBLE #14AU AVENGING SPIDER-MAN #19 BATGIRL #19 BATMAN #19 BATMAN AND RED ROBIN #19 BATMAN LIL GOTHAM #1 BRAVEST WARRIORS #7 BTVS SEASON 9 FREEFALL #20 COLONIZED #1 (OF 4) CONSTANTINE #2 DEMON KNIGHTS #19 DJANGO UNCHAINED #3 (OF 6) DOCTOR WHO CLASSICS #2 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS CUTTER #1 (OF 5) FANTASTIC FOUR #6 FEARLESS DEFENDERS #3 GARFIELD #12 GI JOE COBRA FILES #1 GREEN HORNET #34 GREEN LANTERN CORPS #19 (WRATH) HARBINGER (VU) #11 HARBINGER WARS HAWKEYE #9 INVINCIBLE UNIVERSE #1 JENNIFER BLOOD #25 KEVIN KELLER #8 LORD OF THE JUNGLE #14 MARS ATTACKS #9 MARVEL UNIVERSE AVENGERS EARTHS HEROES #13 MEGA MAN #24 MYLO XYLOTO #3 RAVAGERS #11 ROCKETEER HOLLYWOOD HORROR #3 SAGA #12 SAUCER COUNTRY #14 SECRET AVENGERS #3 SECRET SERVICE #6 (OF 6) SEX #2 SHADOW #11 SLEDGEHAMMER 44 #2 (OF 2) SPONGEBOB COMICS #19 STAR TREK COUNTDOWN TO DARKNESS #4 STAR WARS #4 STUFF OF LEGEND TOY COLLECTOR #4 (OF 5) SUICIDE SQUAD #19 SUPERBOY #19 SUPURBIA ONGOING #6 TALES OF FEAR #1 TEAM 7 #7 THOR GOD OF THUNDER #7 THRESHOLD #4 TMNT COLOR CLASSICS MICRO SERIES LEONARDO TRUE BLOOD ONGOING #11 ULTIMATE COMICS ULTIMATES #23 ULTRON #1AU UNCANNY AVENGERS #6 UNCANNY X-MEN #4 NOW WALKING DEAD #109 WARLORD OF MARS DEJAH THORIS #24 WOLVERINE #2 X #0 X-TREME X-MEN #13 XT

Books/Mags/Stuff

100 BULLETS HC BOOK 04 AVENGERS VS X-MEN TP VS BATMAN DETECTIVE COMICS HC VOL 02 SCARE TACTICS (N52) BRINGING UP FATHER HC VOL 02 CABBAGES & KINGS EC JACK DAVIS TAINT MEAT ITS HUMANITY HC EC WILLIAMSON 50 GIRLS 50 & OTHER STORIES HC ESSENTIAL IRON MAN TP VOL 05 FANTASTIC FOUR TP VOL 01 NEW DEPARTURE NEW ARRIVALS FLASH CHRONICLES TP VOL 04 HI FRUCTOSE MAGAZINE QUARTERLY #27 JUDGE DREDD (IDW) TP VOL 01 JUDGE DREDD COMPLETE CARLOS EZQUERRA HC VOL 01 MARVEL SUPER HEROES #8 MARVEL UNIVERSE IRON MAN DIGEST TP MIND MGMT HC VOL 01 OZ ROAD TO OZ HC POINT OF IMPACT TP QUEEN SONJA TP VOL 05 ASCENDANCY ROCKET RACCOON AND GROOT COMPLETE COLLECTION TP STAR TREK COUNTDOWN TO DARKNESS TP SW HAN IN CARBONITE BOTTLE OPENER SWAMP THING TP VOL 02 FAMILY TREE (N52) TINY TITANS TP VOL 08 AW YEAH TITANS UNCANNY X-FORCE TP VOL 06 FINAL EXECUTION BOOK 1 VALERIAN GN VOL 01 CITY OF SHIFTING WATERS VIDEO WATCHDOG #173 WILL EISNER SPIRIT ARTIST ED HC WOLVERINE COVENANT TP WORLDS FINEST TP VOL 01 LOST DAUGHTERS (N52) X-MEN RECKLESS ABANDONMENT TP ZOMBIES VS ROBOTS PREMIER CONVENTION ED HC

As always, what do YOU think?

Scarlet #6 -- Current Events

Scarlet #6 by Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, and Chris Eliopoulos, published by Marvel Icon, released February 2013:  This was one of the damn oddest comic-reading experiences for me of recent memory.  First, there was the surprise of even seeing it-- this was a comic that had just stopped coming out, mid-story, ages and ages ago (2011, according to the internet). I just found it sitting on a shelf, unheralded, nearly two years after #5.  Letter page promises #7 in March; if that came out, it got by me...?  It's been more than 10 years since Bendis-Maleev Daredevil launched; since then: Halo, crossover tie-ins, Spiderwoman, Moon Knight...?  For a team that decent, that celebrated, back-when, a run of (mostly) also-ran’s. What happened?

But more strange:  Scarlet is a comic about a woman who runs around shooting police officers because she hates police corruption.  Uh, which is a thing that actually happened:  that one guy, Chris Dorner...? Remember him?  He wrote a manifesto which accused the police of being dirty (also: how he wanted to have sex with Laura Prepon and how he regretted that he would likely not survive to watch the Hangover 3), and then went and murdered some cops, etc.  That totes happened. This comic ends with a rally inspired by Scarlet's cop-killing antics;  in real life... I wasn't paying too much attention, but the way I remember it:  the police shot up a bunch of random people; found him in a cabin; lit the cabin on fire ("inadvertently"); yadda yadda, he blew his brains out rather than burn to death...?  I didn't follow Dorner too close, all happened during a busy time in my life, may have some details wrong and I apologize, but still:  boy, this made for an extremely odd reading experience, one obviously unintended by its authors and yet maybe unavoidable for readers. (Though of the four reviews I glanced at, only one mentioned him, so … maybe not…?). I found it a very strange time, returning to this comic's world after all that ... hoopla....?

So: a serialized comic's narrative unexpectedly matches up with current events-- that's a thing that happens sometimes.  What do you think?  Surely, it has to effect how we read it, whether we like it or not, whether we want it to or not.  Does it make the story better that the main character's antics actually now seem somewhat more plausible?  Or, alternately, because this story presents events so different from the reality of how you know similar things played out in real life, does it make the story worse?

At the moment, if forced to choose, I'd vote "better." It seems suggestive that Bendis, Maleev and Eliopoulos were at least "asking the right questions," at some point in time.  Even if accidental, even if mere coincidence, it at least creates a pleasant illusion that there's something-- something?-- at the root of this thing worth examining.  Of course, the Dorner story was many things, but not great fiction.  The synchronicity of current events alone isn't enough fissionable material to solve this comic's more pressing issues, namely: is the redhead an interesting character? Her goals are extraordinarily vague and intangible, forcing our attention too much on society’s response to her which now only defies plausibility all the more thanks to Dorner et al. Practically-speaking, if she is an interesting character, I don't remember why anymore-- 2011's too far.  But so, the Dorner thing, it's something.

That'd be my answer, at least at this moment in time.  However, as the story progresses, will we notice its discontinuity with reality more and more?  What's it going to be like not with #6, but #9, #11, #13, as it becomes clearer how much they've "gotten wrong" about how things would play out should a "cop-killer with reasons" gain national media attention?  Hot damn, it's an exceptionally odd situation for a comic to find itself in.  But I guess only if the comic actually comes out, which is really just anyone's guess, at this point...  Maybe?

“They Were Stacked Criss-Cross, Like Cheese Straws…” BOOKS! Sometimes I Fancy A Change!

I didn’t really get around to any comics this week what with one thing and another. But I did read some prose and I ended up writing about that. It was a couple of books of short stories written by the co-founder of The Inland Waterways Association. Sounds gripping, huh? Well, if you’re going to let preconceptions hold sway then, I guess, this one’s for me. I know! The gall of the man, the sheer, wicked nerve! Anyway, this…

COLD HAND IN MINE By Robert Aickman Faber, £12.00 (2008) THE UNSETTLED DUST By Robert Aickman Faber, £13.00 (2009)

The written work of Robert Fordyce Aickman (1914-1981) was a staple of my young life via his collections of, to use his preferred term, “strange stories”. Memory, ever unreliable it should be noted, maintains a plenitude of these books populated the stacks of the library around which much of my young life revolved. For the child library books have their own unique wonder. The primary source of this wonder being the sure discovery, on a page turn, of the, seemingly obligatory, trapped and flattened hair of an oddly pubic cast. So inevitable did such lightly disquieting discoveries seem that a youth possessing an imagination lightly foxed by morbidity might consider it not entirely beyond the pale that, down a quiet and municipally taupe corridor, there could not fail to be some secluded room within which, ill-lit by a crackling bulb, some hirsute creature crouched, snuffling wetly while delicately plucking and pressing a single hair from its own plentiful fund between the pages of a book. Said volume having been taken from the piles mazed around the bristling creature, doctored as stated and finally replaced upon the shelves by a man with a strangely fungal pallor and slurred gait. And upon this book the hand of a child would alight…

…Some three decades later and deciding to add some agreeably bound volumes of Mr. Aickman’s work to my own modest, and largely hairless, personal library I was aghast at the lack of availability of such volumes. O, they existed; their existence could be in no doubt but then nor, alas, could the height of the prices they demanded. Existence and availability should never be assumed to be twinned as many a convicted sex offender has discovered to their chagrin. After a little piggish truffling I did, however, find the paperback volumes noted here which, while not precisely cheap, are at least within reach of most budgets. True, they are a bit on the perfunctory side, with the only variation design wise being the name of the collection in question. A biographical note is also lacking; so one would not know that Mr. Aickman was renowned in his time for his efforts to reclaim Britain’s inland waterways and edited the first 8 volumes of the Fontana Book Of Great Ghost Stories; modestly excluding his own work from vol.s 4 and 6. Proof reading, particularly, with The Unsettled Dust, leaves something to be desired; Aickman being a most fastidious writer this is not groundless carping. Nor are there found hereabouts any testaments to the high regard with which Mr. Aickman’s work is held by today’s fantasists and fabulists. So, the modern reader would not be attracted by the fact that such as Peter Straub (who attempts to write in the key of Aickman upon occasion), Neal Gaiman (whose less fey work can approach the Aickman-esque) and the British dark comedy practitioners The League of Gentlemen (whose work is sodden with Aickman’s influence) are amongst the many who flit around Aickman’s darkly warming flame still.

With rare exceptions Aickman’s shorter works are primarily allusive and flee from concrete meaning with a singularity of purpose akin to a man who has bolted from his home upon noticing his wainscoting labours as though breathing and, indeed, has done so for some time…But, fret not, it does this in a welcoming rather than an exclusionary way. Aickman’s lithe use of language and precise prose draw the reader in before baffling and unsettling them to pleasantly discombobulating effect. Recently I, perhaps unwisely and certainly rather blithely, posited that the popularity of British war comics in the 1970s was not a result of us being a nation of blood thirsty racists backwardly yearning for The Empire, but rather the result of complications born of adjusting to the unavoidable upheavals such a prolonged period of warfare prompts. Had I finished these books in time they would, perhaps, have helped mitigate the apparent inanity of my premise. For, it soon becomes apparent, that much of Aickman’s work is concerned with the inadequacy of the brittle social conventions of the time (these collections date from 1975 onwards) to endure in the face of the psychic mayhem unleashed by two debilitating wars in quick succession. Aickman’s stories mostly document minds and lives as they intersect with subtly chaotic and leisurely overpowering forces and, as a consequence, dissipate with the tranquil violence of paper separating in a puddle. In doing so he also attempts to convey the dislocation and unease felt by a society as paradigms shifts far too suddenly for comfort.  I feel no shame in revealing that as a child all this completley passed me by. It appears that Aickman's work is work that grows with you, how simply marvellous! There’s another collection in this series, The Wine Dark Sea, now I haven’t acquired that one yet, but be assured I shall. For now I must return down this municipally taupe corridor to my room, ill-lit as it is by a crackling bulb, and bend my back to my task…

Oh, and how does Robert Aickman bear up? Well, brace yourself and let me pour you a stiff brandy because it appears, to all intents and purposes, that Mr. Robert Aickman remains…EXCELLENT! Next time, probably, - COMICS!!!

Arriving 4/3/13

A smaller Wednesday than in recent weeks, but still a lot of good stuff to choose from! Check out the list after the break! ABE SAPIEN DARK & TERRIBLE #1 (OF 3) ACTION COMICS #19 AGE OF APOCALYPSE #14 XT AGE OF ULTRON #4 (OF 10) ALL NEW X-MEN #10 NOW AME COMI GIRLS #2 ANIMAL MAN #19 ARCHIE #642 ARCHIE & FRIENDS DOUBLE DIGEST #26 BATWING #19 BEDLAM #6 BETTIE PAGE IN DANGER #7 BLACKACRE #5 CALIGULA HEART OF ROME #4 (OF 6) DARK SHADOWS #15 DARK TOWER GUNSLINGER EVIL GROUND #1 (OF 2) DEADPOOL #7 DETECTIVE COMICS #19 DIAL H #11 EARTH 2 #11 FAIREST #14 FASHION BEAST #8 GI JOE SPECIAL MISSIONS #2 GLORY #34 GODZILLA HALF CENTURY WAR #5 (OF 5) GREAT PACIFIC #6 GREEN ARROW #19 GREEN LANTERN #19 HARBINGER WARS #1 (OF 4) INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK #6 JOE PALOOKA #5 (OF 6) KILL SHAKESPEARE TIDE OF BLOOD #2 (OF 5) KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #196 LAST OF US AMERICAN DREAMS #1 (OF 4) LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #7 LOCKE & KEY OMEGA #4 (OF 7) LOONEY TUNES #212 MASKS #5 MEMORIAL IMAGINARY FIENDS #2 (OF 3) MICE TEMPLAR IV LEGEND #1 MIND THE GAP #9 MISS FURY #1 PHANTOM STRANGER #7 PLANET O/T APES CATACLYSM #8 POLARITY #1 (OF 4) POPEYE #12 RED SHE-HULK #64 REPOSSESSED #4 (OF 4) SAVAGE DRAGON #186 SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU #32 SHADOWMAN (VU) #6 SMALLVILLE SEASON 11 #12 SNAPSHOT #3 (OF 4) SNOW ANGEL ONE SHOT SON OF MERLIN #3 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #247 SPAWN #230 STORMWATCH #19 SUPER DINOSAUR #18 SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #7 SWAMP THING #19 THANOS RISING #1 (OF 5) THE LONE RANGER #14 UBER #0 ULTIMATE COMICS X-MEN #25 VENOM #33 WINTER SOLDIER #17 WITCHBLADE #165 WORLDS FINEST #11

Books/Mags/Stuff ADVENTURES OF JODELLE HC ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN JOSE LUIS GARCIA LOPEZ HC ARMIES HC BACK ISSUE #63 BATMAN DETECTIVE TP VOL 01 FACES OF DEATH (N52) CHARLES BURNS LIBRARY SC VOL 02 BIG BABY (NEW PTG) COMPLETE CRUMB COMICS TP VOL 02 MORE STRUGGLE COMPLETE PEANUTS HC VOL 19 1987-1988 DC UNIVERSE BY ALAN MOORE TP DC UNIVERSE SECRET ORIGINS TP FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND #267 IRON MAN EXTREMIS TP NEW PTG IRON MAN SEASON ONE PREM HC JULIOS DAY HC LONE RANGER OMNIBUS TP VOL 01 PUNISHER NIGHTMARE TP PUNK ROCK JESUS TP RED SHE-HULK TP HELL HATH NO FURY NOW SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN TP VOL 13 SECRET HONEY O/T MOON SKETCH MAGAZINE #42 SUPERMAN SECRET IDENTITY TP NEW PTG TOTALLY USELESS MAD TP X-O MANOWAR (ONGOING) TP VOL 02 ENTER NINJAK

As always, what do YOU think?

Comix Experience's 24th anniversary

On 4/1/1989, I opened Comix Experience for the very first time.  I'm crazy pleased to say that today is our 24th anniversary. No party or anything (24 is almost an anti-climax?), but it is... interesting to be the oldest store in your metropolitan area.

Thanks to all of you for your support over the years! Next year: 25!

-B

"You See That? He's STILL The Greatest!" COMICS! Sometimes It's GilWolf Unbound!

A-huh! HUH! It’s another instalment of Gil Happy! Unsightly blemishes are a thing of the past as Gil Kane and his plucky sidekick, Marv Wolfman, team up with friends galore to document the exciting, amazing and thoroughly ridiculous adventures of 1980s Superman. Bonus! Feel the years just fall away as we revisit that time a comics creator flicked DC’s tie back in its face! Documentary evidence provided! Anyway this…

DC's Legal Department in a self congratulatory mood...oh, sorry, it's actually Brainiac!

ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN: GIL KANE Art by Gil Kane Written by Marv Wolfman, Martin Pasko, Bob Rozakis, Gil Kane, Cary Bates, Roy Thomas and Joey Cavalieri Coloured by Tom Ziuko, Gene D'Angelo, Anthony Tollin, Jerry serpe and Carl Gafford Lettered by Shirley Leferman, Ben Oda, Gaspar Saladino, Andy Kubert, Milt Snapinn and Todd Klein Originally published in Action Comics #539-541, 544-546, DC Comics Presents Annual #3, Superman #367, 372, 375 and Superman Special #1 and 2 DC Comics, $39.99 (2012)

Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

AN APOLOGY: John's scanner is still acting up. While this sounds like John's housemate is Darryl Revok and he isn't doing his share of the washing up, what it really means is that all images are not taken from this book. All images in the body of the review are in the book but in a much cleaner, nicer form. I apologise for this.

I've mentioned some of the comics contained herein on previous occasions. Usually I've emphasised the art as the stories seemed a bit, er, slapdash. Since my age tanned run was incomplete I thought this was the result of absent chapters. Having experienced the visually splendid whole I find that, in fact, the stories are just straight-up nonsensical and preposterous in the extreme. That’s not intended as a slur on Marv Wolfman, who is a pretty decent comic book writer. Indeed, shortly after these issues he would have a far more coherent run on Adventures of Superman with Jerry Ordway following the Byrne re-boot. This does suggest that Gil Kane had the storytelling/plotting lead here and while he has given himself plenty of ostentatious incidents to illustrate the burden on explaining these, seemingly after the fact, falls to Wolfman. Most of whose intellectual energies are engaged with coming up with various different scientific, cough, results for Superman spinning around very fast indeed. I may exaggerate upon occasion but I feel safe in saying that if you are a fan of pictures of Superman spinning around very fast indeed you will want to marry this book. There are a lot of pictures of Superman spinning around very fast indeed, is what I’m getting at there.

No, he isn't spinning around but it is all quite exciting!

As a writer Wolfman gets some craft scraps in the form of Lana And Lois continually trying to c*** block one another over Clark and a slightly less ludicrous approach to inter-personal dynamics than comics may previously have shown. I said, slightly. Yes, Jimmy Olsen does put on a magic show for orphans because - you don’t fuck with the classics. Wolfman does refer to Joanie Loves Chacchi and for this he should never, ever be forgiven. Ideally there’d be an introduction in which Wolfman explained how the book came to be but DC splashed out on glossy paper instead, I guess. Tightwads. As it is I have made a great deal of assumptions so maybe I am wrong. Maybe Marv Wolfman forced Gil Kane to illustrate his scripts exactly as written so convinced was he of their literary worth. Maybe. I doubt it. Anyway, none of it makes any sense at all but Marv Wolfman does make it hold together enough for rational human beings to enjoy the book’s goofy charms without getting nosebleeds. Just about. C’mon, it’s a comic about a flying man with a good heart drawn by Gil Kane and that’s enough for me.

Gil Kane just straight up drew the Hell out of this panel, didn't he? The collection eases you into the insanity with a couple of shorts one of which is about how if you ignore a hosepipe ban Superman will pay you a personal visit and tell you a story about Krypton expressly designed to make you feel like a proper shitheel. Where I live a man from the Council with cheap shoes and a bad haircut would come round and threaten to fine you which, frankly, lacks razzamatazz in comparison. GilWolf©’s run proper starts with a tale concerning two sorcerers who seek a divorce via time travelling magical violence. Relax, they are a lady and a man so bigots can enjoy this tale too. This magical marital disharmony results in Superman’s doppelganger creating the universe at the dawn of time, where he is spotted by Brainiac whose disembodied consciousness has travelled back to the dawn of creation because mumble mumble. Brainiac, now a fussily re-designed robot, entirely reasonably comes away with the impression that Superman is the Angel of Death or something and pressgangs several planets’ populations into an army. After failing to kill Superman because his plans repeatedly fail to take into account the power of spinning around very fast indeed, Brainiac attacks earth whereupon Gil Kane draws a whole issue where the JLA and Teen Titans fight, fight, fight those coerced alien rascals. This is a mid-way high point as Gil Kane demonstrates you don’t need six fucking months to draw some robots and rubble as well as proving it is possible to draw Starfire without making me ashamed of my entire gender. As I implied, there’s more to come and that more involves a parade of DC’s Lamest Heroes© (who are actually fantastic in their lameness and this world is all the poorer without them), Vandal Savage, some pyramids, aliens, stuff, nonsense, bit, bobs, maybe even a kitchen sink and it all culminates chaotically in that fantastic single issue where Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster create Superman and save the world through their pluck, belief and imagination. I may have mentioned that one before. Fair play though; it’s impressive how each storyline in the main run flows into the next, with elements being carried across and the whole thing building to the magnificently shameless optimism of the final chapter. Sure, it’s crackers but it’s quality crackers. The book ends with a DC COMICS PRESENTS ANNUAL where Superman, Superman of Earth -2 and Captain “Shazam” Marvel fight Silvana which is beautiful in its combination of single minded narrative simplicity and the raw joy communicated by Gil Kane’s art.

Swooping in...

And it’s that art you’ll mostly be revelling in. Because, Gil Kane. Keep up, son. Art-wise the big thing I noticed reading these comics in a fat batch wasn't just all Gil Kane’s usual tricks but a couple of new ones. Well, new to me, I’m hardly Oliver Observant you know. I’ll just focus on one because you look a bit restless; apparently having forgotten that you can stop reading this at any time you like. Now, we all know that people being punched so hard they back flip out of the panel is a ©Gil Kane move. It’s not exactly subtle is it? It’s only due to the limits of reality that the back flipping dude isn't literally in your face. But a slyer move Gil Kane sneaks in is a number of panels where a character will be flying, leaping, bounding etc (as Kane’s athletic characters were wont to do) and some extremity or other crosses beyond the panel border. This basically flips the effect of the “punch out” panels to give the impression of the figure entering the panel/page from without. Sometimes the character’s extremity just fails to cross the border but due to the position and tendency of the figure with the other contents of the panel it’s unmistakably the artist’s intention to communicate the impression of entrance. Over the long haul the combination of these “punch out” and “plunge in” panels create, I think, a particular and magical effect. Rather than the panels on the page being read as images projected onto the flat page and the “screen” of each panel, Kane’s pages are like windows onto another world. Another couple of scotches and I’d be trying to push my face into the panels imagining it looming hugely out of a cloud on the other side of the dimensional barrier that Kane’s art creates the illusion of having broken. Due to Kane’s distinctively friable style it’s obviously not our reality but it could be easily be a world where everything looks like Gil Kane drew it. That’s just the one thing I noticed, there’s plenty of others. As the art goes there’s something to ponder, admire or puzzle over on every one of these pages. Even if that thing is just that someone with talents so awesome and honed by practice could still have such trouble drawing feet.

Gil Kane was quite a humorous artist too. That guy in the foreground is not only doing a "Hey, youse guys, check out alla da commotion!" pose but the fact that the same pose crops up again and again in more modern milieu implicitly makes this chump the ancestor of many of Kane's foreground folk.

Oh, wait, before you all go could DC Comics just stay behind for a minute…thank you.

Now, I take no pleasure at all in pointing this out but if we don’t address this issue it may have ramifications for your future. So, this book cost £39.99, which is no small sum, and on the back of the jacket there is this blurb:

"Kane's work of Superman shined on such titles as..."

Look, DC Comics, I’m not unsympathetic; I realise these are tight times for us all and I guess, allegedly, crushing the dreams of elderly people in courts of Law is a pricey business. But the apparent outsourcing of your proof reading to the linguistically challenged Brian Bendis is just a false economy. No good can come of it. It hardly speaks to a commitment to quality commensurate with your position in the industry does it now? Treating your audience with the same disdain as you now treat creators post Levitz/Kahn might not actually be the soundest policy with regards to the future. Just a thought there. Don’t let me have to detain you again. Now go outside and play in the sun.

Despite DC Comics’ best efforts at self-sabotage ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN: GIL KANE is VERY GOOD!

However, purchasers will miss out on the non-Gil Kane contents of ACTION #544. But it’s okay because I have that issue and I can fill you in on what you missed. The issue in question is an Anniversary issue and so to celebrate DC Comics got the creators of Superman to contribute.

Art by Gil Kane and Dick Giordano

That’s Mr Jerome Siegel and Mr Joseph Shuster I’m talking about there. You may remember them fondly from decades of legal hassle with DC Comics. I guess there was a bit of a truce on at the time. DC was paying them something at least, I imagine. Everybody on their best behaviour and all that. So, being the writer, Jerry Siegel gives us several thousand words reminiscing about the creation of Superman; thanking all the people who helped it become a success; how it defined his life and such. It’s all very temperate and polite. Neal Adams et al are all thanked but he doesn’t explicitly say that’s he’s thanking them for securing Joe and he the payments from DC then currently ensuring the truce and the good behaviour.

The whole thing is sweet and kind of heartbreaky. Mind you, the fact that it’s actually addressed to Superman throughout in the manner of one of those letters dead parents leave for their children to find, the ones which emphasise how the child enriched the parent’s truncated life, kind of gets the ducts filling early anyway. Of course, hearts are harder these days, with most of fandom more concerned with how the Siegel & Shuster legal battles would affect the possibility of a Justice League movie or whether Superman’s trunks could come back. Because, priorities.

Being the artist Joe Shuster submits this charming piece:

Now, as nice as that is the words he sent it with knock it into a cocked hat. This is what Joe Shuster wrote:

"...I have decided to keep the original."

All those years, all those lawyers and they didn’t break him.

HA! Now that’s not comics but it is very - COMICS!!!

Have a good Easter now, y'all!

Wait, What? Ep. 119: Watching You

Yup, we talk about Action Comics #18!  And I think...we even have stuff to say? Maybe, kinda?

Behind the jump: show notes annotating the podcast commenting on the industry having one of its craziest weeks ever!  Action verbs! Jazz hands! Psychedelic Superman!

Show notes are truncated again, in part because I am again behind the eight ball, schedule-wise, and in part because I could've puffed out the notes and given away some of the rather amusing twists and turns the convo took...but thought it better to just play as it lays.  On the plus side, at no point do I refer to Stevie Wonder as "Steve Wonder." So, there's that. 0:00-54:08: Right into it as we deal with one of the news-heaviest weeks for comics in a while.  (Indeed, one is surprised we weren't actually taking a week off for a change.)  Andy Diggle officially off Action, Joshua Hale Fialkov exiting two Green Lantern titles, and the rumored death of John Stewart make for one eye-blackening week for DC.  In addition, we wonder about how superhero comics affect work relationships; Dr. Doom and the Internet; and if what we think of as DC is just one era and facet of a much bigger company; Jeff's theory of the curse of comic books; the coming out of Orson Scott Card; and who we would pick to replace Bob Harras. 54:08-1:03:55: Action Comics #18!  The big finale of Grant Morrison and Rags Morales' run on the title. Actions will undoubtedly vary but if nothing else, it gave Graeme and Jeff a lot to talk about. 1:03:55-1:04:15: INTERMISSION ONE! 1:04:15-1:08:30:  But first a salute to all the amazing and strong comics we were able to get our hands on last week!  Jennifer Blood! 2000 A.D.! Daredevil! Justice League! 1:08:30-1:15:08: On the other hand, there was also Constantine #1. Graeme gives Jeff the low-down and insprires some dynamite comic book pitches as a result. 1:15:08-1:38:59:  Neil Gaiman! Angela! Marvel!  (Or maybe more like: Neil Gaiman? Angela? Marvel?)  Plus, as a bonus, Graeme, being Graeme, expresses sympathy for a figure in the situation and Jeff, being Jeff, tries to talk him out of it.  And then there's some talk about Neil Gaiman and Age of Ultron and yakkitah-yakkitah-yakkitah, and then hijinks ensue. I feel compelled to point out that Graeme is especially hilarious in this section. 1:38:59-1:52:35:  But the good news of the week?  The Private Eye by Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin available for download here as a pay-what-you-want comic. We talk about it here, although perhaps more from an industry analysis angle and not nearly as much from a "what a damn fine comic" angle. And as if to punish us for our oversight... 1:52:35-end: Onslaught:  The Return of Techpocalypse! And also closing comments.  We don't quite come out and say it in the closing moments so I should point out here:  next week is a skip week due to some bone-crushing deadlines on both our parts.

I got an email from Apple the other week letting me know how their podcast standards were changing and hoo-hoo, boy have I been too scared to even begin looking into that shit!  But hopefully this episode will be up there very soon (if not already).  And!  You can, as always, download from us right here in this very section of cyberspace:

Wait, What? Ep. 119: Watching You

As always, thanks for listening and we hope you enjoy.   We will see you in a fortnight!

Arriving 3/27/13

Another big week, with Hickman's new series East of West launching, as well as the latest issue of Batman Inc & Young Avengers. Lots more after the break! A PLUS X #6 NOW AGE OF ULTRON #3 (OF 10) ALL STAR WESTERN #18 ANGEL & FAITH #20 ANSWER #3 (OF 4) AQUAMAN #18 ASTONISHING X-MEN #60 XT BART SIMPSON COMICS #81 BATMAN INCORPORATED #9 BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #18 BPRD VAMPIRE #1 (OF 5) CLONE #5 COMPLETE ZAUCER OF ZILK CRIMINAL MACABRE FINAL NIGHT 30 DAYS XOVER #4 (OF 4) CROSSED BADLANDS #26 DEADPOOL KILLUSTRATED #3 (OF 4) DEATHMATCH #4 DIA DE LOS MUERTOS #2 (OF 3) DOCTOR WHO VOL 3 #7 EAST OF WEST #1 FANTASTIC FOUR #5AU NOW FATALE #13 FERALS #13 FF #5 NOW FIVE WEAPONS #2 (OF 5) FLASH #18 FURY MAX #10 FURY OF FIRESTORM THE NUCLEAR MAN #18 FUTURAMA COMICS #66 GAMBIT #10 GARTH ENNIS BATTLEFIELDS #5 (OF 6) FALL & RISE PT 2 GARTH ENNIS RED TEAM #2 GFT GRIMM FAIRY TALES #83 GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #1 I VAMPIRE #18 ICE AGE THE HIDDEN TREASURE ONE SHOT JOE KUBERT PRESENTS #6 (OF 6) JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #650 JUDGE DREDD #5 JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #18 LAST ZOMBIE BEFORE THE AFTER #5 LEGEND OF LUTHER STRODE #4 (OF 6) LIFE WITH ARCHIE #28 MARK WAID GREEN HORNET #1 MARVEL UNIVERSE ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #12 MASSIVE #10 MISTER X HARD CANDY ONE SHOT MORBIUS LIVING VAMPIRE #3 MORNING GLORIES #25 MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #5 PLANETOID #5 PLUME #4 (OF 5) POPEYE CLASSICS ONGOING #8 POWERS BUREAU #3 RACHEL RISING #15 RED LANTERNS #18 SAVAGE HAWKMAN #18 SAVAGE SKULLKICKERS #1 SCARLET SPIDER #15 SHERLOCK HOLMES LIVERPOOL DEMON #3 (OF 5) SIXTH GUN SONS O/T GUN #2 (OF 5) STAR TREK ONGOING #19 STAR WARS DAWN O/T JEDI PRISONER OF BOGAN #4 (OF 5) SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #6 SUPERMAN #18 SUPERMAN FAMILY ADVENTURES #11 TALON #6 TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #79 TEEN TITANS #18 THINK TANK #6 THUNDERBOLTS #7 TIME WARP #1 TRANSFUSION #3 (OF 3) ULTIMATE COMICS WOLVERINE #2 (OF 4) UNCANNY AVENGERS #5 UNCANNY X-FORCE #3 UNWRITTEN #47 WITCH DOCTOR MALPRACTICE #5 (OF 6) WOLVERINE AND X-MEN #27 X-MEN LEGACY #8 YOUNG AVENGERS #3

Books/Mags/Stuff 2000 AD PACK FEB 2013 68 TP VOL 02 SCARS ALL NEW X-MEN PREM HC VOL 01 YESTERDAYS X-MEN NOW AMERICAN VAMPIRE HC VOL 05 AVENGERS VS X-MEN TP BAD MACHINERY GN VOL 01 CASE O/T TEAM SPIRIT CHANNEL EVIL TP COLORFUL DREAMS GN DAY OF JUDGMENT TP DOOM 2099 COMPLETE COLLECTION BY WARREN ELLIS TP EXTRA JUICY GN HUSBANDS HC IT GIRL & ATOMICS ROUND ONE DARK STREETS SNAP CITY TP JUDGE DREDD DAY OF CHAOS FOURTH FACTION GN JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #333 JUDGE DREDD ORIGINS TP KICK-ASS 2 TP MARVEL UNIVERSE VS AVENGERS TP MIGHTY THOR BY MATT FRACTION TP VOL 03 MMW GOLDEN AGE HUMAN TORCH TP VOL 01 NEXUS OMNIBUS TP VOL 02 PREVIEWS #295 APRIL 2013 SHOWCASE PRESENTS SGT ROCK TP VOL 04 STAR TREK TNG HIVE TP SUPERMAN VS ZOD TP TOWER CHRONICLES GN VOL 04 (OF 4) GEISTHAWK UNWRITTEN TP VOL 07 THE WOUND WITCHBLADE RED SONJA TP WOLVERINE AND X-MEN BY JASON AARON TP VOL 03 AVX

As always, what do YOU think?

"A Tiger Doesn't Give A Buffalo Warning." COMICS! Sometimes They aaaAAAIEEEE!!! DAAKEESE MOB!!

In the Burmese jungle of 1942 only one thing was more deadly than the Japanese...In the war comics of 1976 only one strip ruled the playground...That thing, that strip was DARKIE’S MOB by Mike Western and John Wagner. COME ON!!! GET SOME!! CAHMMM AHHHNNNNN!!!! DARKIE’S MOB: The Secret War of Joe Darkie Art by Mike Western Written by John Wagner Introduction by Garth Ennis Titan Books, £16.99 (2011) Darkie’s Mob created by Mike Western and John Wagner (N.B. Darkie’s character defining shiny pate was the masterstroke of then editor Dave Hunter.)

Cover art by Carlos Ezquerra and Mike Western.

May 30^th 1942: “We’re just sitting. Waiting to die…” Taken from the blood stained pages of the battle log of private Richard Shortland comes the story of Darkie’s Mob. This is the story of Joe Darkie and of the men who followed him into Hell. This is the story of Joe Darkie who wore a dragon against his flesh and hid a demon in his heart. And this is the story, also, of the lost and hopeless men Joe Darkie forged with War into a jungle hard fighting force. And when he was done, when Joe Darkie was finally done, Joe Darkie had taught them that war was Hell but he also taught them that Hell could also be a home. And the Hell of War was the only home there could ever be for DARKIE’S MOB.

...and then he'll have to kill you.

This book contains all the episode of the picto-serial DARKIE’S MOB which originally appeared in issues of BATTLE PICTURE WEEKLY from August 1976 to June 1977. BATTLE was a weekly British war comic aimed primarily at children and it was thus a violent, dark, complex and brutal assault on the pre-teen mind. Which is just how kids like it, social services be damned. So, you've probably guessed Pat “Moderation” Mills was involved but only in that he, together with John Wagner, had set up BATTLE for Fleetway in direct response to the tamer and more typical fare of D C Thompson’s WARLORD.  To be fair, when I was a kid WARLORD had its moments but BATTLE still has its moments now I’m an adult, so BATTLE wins. Some might be confused by the fact that during the 1970s there was such an emphasis on the war in British comics. Such people’s confusion would be bolstered by the knowledge that, in addition to BATTLE and WARLORD, there were also the several monthly self-contained digest size titles of BATTLE PICTURE LIBRARY, WAR PICTURE LIBRARY and COMMANDO COMICS.

"British people In Hot Weather-AH!" The simplistic and sweeping answer (you were expecting maybe a reasoned thesis?) is that the War still wasn't all that far behind us back then. In fact a notable feature of early BATTLE was that readers were encouraged to send in the war stories of their fathers and grandfathers. (Of course due to natural attrition this feature became less popular as the years wore on). Basically Britain was still trying to process the massive trauma of the conflict and was having a hard time doing so. We’d helped win the thing but it had pretty much broken us and so, yes, it may well have been the 1970s but, sad to admit, the 1940s were taking some shaking.  In Renegade the autobiography of (i.e. a fascinating interpretation of his own reality) The Fall’s Mark E. Smith recalls how he used to play Japanese Prisoner of War Camp with the kids he was babysitting. This would involve them having to sit under a table and asking permission of the future Marquis Cha-Cha for any water or food. The kids of Britain in general were not unaffected by the tone of the times, is what I’m getting at there, and BATTLE would reflect this. BATTLE would reflect it in a relatively timely fashion as by 1976 attitudes to the war had changed somewhat and this was, as ever, reflected in the entertainments proffered. The slightly harsh but never too far from cosy early post-WW2 war films embodied by the words “John Mills” had started to give way to bleaker, grimier fare such as Robert Aldrich’s Too Late The Hero. Comics has ever magpied from pop culture after the fact but BATTLE was nimbler than WARLORD on picking up on the changes. WARLORD lagged behind in that it was still Millsian in the sense of Little Johnny but BATTLE was about to forge ahead by virtue of being Millsian in the sense of Pat. DARKIE’S MOB would be one of a number of strips Mills, Wagner, Gerry Finley Day et al would develop and script which would be part of a nation’s acceptance of its own past. Proof that true acceptance had been reached came when war comics fell by the way side. And so the healthy British mindset was to be embodied by a giant killer shark eating surfers like plankton and a fascistic future cop with a chin like a knee but, then, that’s why comics are the best of all things ever. Fact.

It's okay, he's just joshing...isn't he?

DARKIE’S MOB is a product of the 1970s and so, as this is 2013 when everybody behaves impeccably at all times, Garth Ennis spends most of his informative, knowledgeable and very enthusiastic introduction pointing out that although racist terms are used, they fall within acceptable parameters for the portrayal of a bunch of desperate men at the end of their tethers fighting an enemy it is in their interests to dehumanise. Let’s face it soldiers swear, and sometimes use less than pleasant terms for the people they are trying to kill. There’s no effin’ and jeffin’ here but there are some terms that might make us uncomfortable. And so they should, after all we’re not currently jungle fighting the Japanese are we? Anyway, you have been warned. Ennis also points out that the Japanese army weren't fucking about either. They meant business. In fact, the extent to which they were not fucking about quite surprised the breath out of the British hence they were somewhat on the back-foot when the tale opens. Although, cleverly, the tale is over when it begins and we witness everything via flashbacks spurred by entries in a diary found after the Japanese defeat. Right there on the first page is the clue to how it all ends, and it won’t be ending with kissing nurses in ticker tape parades. Not for Joe Darkie's Mob.

"Hey Kids, COMICS!!!"

As was usual for strips in British weekly anthologies of the time John Wagner and Mike Western get a whopping three (sometimes four!) pages an episode. Consequently brevity, concision, density and clarity are the order of the day and Western and Wagner obey those orders above and beyond the call of duty. While the initial impact of DARKIE’S MOB will always result from surprise at the savagery of the proceedings its persistence in the reader’s memory is wholly due to the characterisation. No, it’s not exactly Jonathan Franzen, but Wagner nails down the various characters with an enviable certainty and economy. He does this while, in each episode, also delivering at least one explosively violent set piece, hinting at Darkie’s past and keeping a character centric sub plot or two simmering. Wagner is of course known and loved by all comics fans primarily for co-creating Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog but is an excellent comic writer; one whose excellence is often taken for granted due to his comics working so well you often don’t realise how superbly executed they are. To the detriment of his own reputation Wagner always steps back and lets the story take precedence over his personality. Here then is DARKIE’S MOB which is fantastic episodic comic book writing by John Wagner. Oh, the usual warning applies with Brit reprints - it isn't, truthfully, best served by gorging, so maybe put the book aside now and then for the best effect. Self-restraint, I’m talking about self-restraint there. Although that might be difficult given the breakneck velocity built into the strip.

"AIEEEE!", Indeed!

In concert with Wagner’s scripting DARKIE’S MOB benefits enormously from its excellent envisaging by Mike Western. Mike Western is one of a whole host of 70s artists who worked on British comics and whom deserve wider recognition. Thanks to reprints some of them are getting a deserved second wind. This should afford them at least a place in comics history even if it isn’t fully the place they deserve. Carlos Ezquerra’s okay he’s got Judge Dredd (and then all the rest) to keep him in view and Joe Colquhoun isn't going anywhere thanks to Charley’s War and his Johnny Red should give John Cooper a deserved leg up as he shared the strip, but Mike Western’s shot is probably going to be DARKIE’S MOB, so forgive me if I try and make it count.  Because it deserves to count because Mike Western is a kind of old school awesome worth celebrating. Western was a stalwart mainstay of the British comics scene with his realistic rather than cartoony work gracing adventure strips and TV tie-ins in titles such as Knockout, Buster, Valiant and, of course BATTLE. Following DARKIE’S MOB Western would continue working in British comics until he officially retired in the ‘90s. He died in 2008. Throughout his career his work was informed by an admiration of artists from over the pond such as Alex Raymond and Milton Caniff. Studying their work would enable him to maximise the limited page space available in British comics but it was his own remarkable talents which make his work in DARKIE’S MOB so successful.

He's Got A Ticket To DIE!!!!

Western served his country in WW2 and while I do not know if any of his experiences are reflected in his art for Darkie’s Mob I kind of hope not for his own sake, what with the claustrophobic sense of sweaty doom he gives the strip. Reportedly Western enjoyed drawing faces and while this is never a bad thing in a comic artist it’s a sure strength when drawing war comics. As the Army isn't noted for encouraging individuality the Mob are largely differentiated by their faces, somewhat in the manner of real human beings. Western’s solid and lifelike fizzogs ground the melodramatic emotions being experienced and enable the retention of a veneer of realism over events that sometimes might stretch belief. Western’s characters are also placed firmly in environments which in a few lines and slabs of black ensure that the reader comes away from DARKIE’S MOB with a sure sense that the book has occurred within the dank folds of a murky jungle Hell. At first glance Western’s art might appear staid and static but when read with Wagner’s words it comes alive, drawing the reader in and pushing the real world out. Proper Comics there, that is. In DARKIE’S MOB with fewer pages than fingers on a wounded hand Western manages to pack in all the desperate and dingy psychodrama Wagner’s script requires in order to sting. He also works those individual panels. Really works them. Mike Western could cram an indecent amount of action, event, character, information and motion into a single panel and if you gave him a whole page to play with? Glad you asked:

DARKIE’S MOB is a raw blast of ‘70s Brit comics Burmese battle action delivered by the masterful team of Mike Western and John Wagner. War is truly terrible but DARKIE’S MOB is VERY GOOD!

“AAAIIIIEEEEE!!!” – COMICS!!!!

Wait, What? Ep. 118: Skypenet Techpocalypse

Why, yes, Stevie Wonder performing Superstition on Sesame Street is indeed relevant to this week's podcast, thanks for asking!

After the jump, somewhat hasty show notes for our somewhat hasty episode (less than two hours?  What has happened to us?)

Yeah, so it's funny.  Recently, we got an incredibly encouraging and generous email from a listener who was, unfortunately, fed up with listening to Graeme and I stumble about, complaining and crying out, whenever a tech problem popped up.  As a result, we made a promise to edit all that shit right out and do our best to master the arcane powers that control whether or not we're able to podcast.

And then this podcast happened.  To which I can only say:  We tried, generous Whatnaut, we tried.

And with that foreboding note:

0:00-11:37:  "Something horrible is going to happen."  Oh, if only we had known… Despite promising all of you (though some of you more than others), we would avoid tech problems talk, this episode was a bit of a challenge for us (as you'll regrettably hear).  Anyway, our brief bit of non-comic talk at the opening includes the nature of consciousness, Stevie Wonder on Sesame Street (see?  Relevant!), the stomach flu (a discussion of which you might find it a relief the volume drops out once or twice), appendicitis, and finally... 11:37-30:23:  Comics talk!  We have two weeks of comics news and comics to catch up on--let's start by talking about the first two issues of Age of Ultron. We are not down with it, but!  Jeff is enjoying both All-New X-Men and Uncanny X-Men by Brian Bendis. We talk about all of these things, in more-or-less a random order. 30:23-1:06:57:  Oh, and Doctor Timebomb asked us about doing  a post-mortem on Before Watchmen.  Jeff's refused to read them so he's not much help, but Graeme….well, Graeme is a different story altogether.  Operation: Blow Jeff's Mind is in full effect!  Oh, and we also come up with one of the best marketing campaigns of all time.  You're welcome, DC. 1:06:57-1:12:15:  And then for whatever reason, Jeff ends up talking about Bendis again.  Go figure. 1:12:15-1:17:35: Graeme and I speculate on what amazing seemingly passive-aggressive battle is being waged between Marc-Oliver Frisch and Heidi and/or the comics blogosphere at large over the monthly DC sales analysis over at The Beat.  Then, it's time for our moment of admiration for House to Astonish, and that leads us to: 1:17:35-1:17:57: Intermission #1! (Oh, stinger music, how I've missed you.) 1:17:58-1:31:22: Marvel 700 on Comixology!  (Alternate title:  Jeff's confession of self-abasement!)  We try to wrap our brain around what was intended with the giveaway, what was achieved, and Jeff links once again to Todd Allen's article about digital comics codes in which Jeff is quoted. Because, yeah, that's the way Jeff rolls. 1:31:22-1:36:36: Another way Jeff rolls?  With The Hulk.  With an eye toward maybe putting together a Tumblr that bites its style and charm from the FF 365 Tumblr, Jeff's been reading a lot of early issues of the Hulk.  And Giant Man.  Oh, god.  Giant Man.  Lord, does he want to tell you about Giant Man.  But then…techpocalypse! 1:36:36-1:42:25: Okay, here we are trying not make a big thing out of twenty minutes of "WTF just happened there, it was like we were split into gatefold covers and then our goofy marketing initiative name was withdrawn…" and instead we just apologize at get back to Jeff trash-talking Giant Man and what he'd really intended to talk about with Graeme:  how long it really takes for characters to click. And then…. 1:42:25-end: Techpocalypse Two! (I blame the number of times I said the name "Rick Jones" over and over right before the disconnect.) So we are reduced to me on Skype calling Graeme on his cell phone, having to apologize to everyone and then just sign off.  Because we have no idea what the hell to do.  So we're putting out this call to our more tech savvy listeners:  if you happen to know who has put us under an evil curse? If you could talk to them and get them to remove it, we would be grateful.

Episode will be on iTunes shortly, unless that email I got a few weeks ago talking about iTunes' shift in protocol has screwed us over entirely, in which case, uh, yeah.  Enjoy it while you can below, because the fiery post-tech world of the Age of Ultron has turned against us!

Wait, What? Ep. 118: Skypenet Techpocalypse!

Next week:  Hopefully more of the good stuff and less of the bad stuff!

Arriving 3/20/13

Holy moly is it a big week of comics! Saga, Morrison's last issue of Action Comics, and Mind MGMT are just a few of the highlights. Check out the rest after the break!

ACTION COMICS #18 ADVENTURE TIME #14 ALL CRIME #1 ALL NEW X-MEN #9 ARTIFACTS #26 AVENGERS #8 B & V FRIENDS DOUBLE DIGEST #232 BATMAN BEYOND UNLIMITED #14 BATWOMAN #18 BIRDS OF PREY #18 BPRD HELL ON EARTH #105 COLD DAY IN HELL #1 (OF 2) CABLE AND X-FORCE #6 CAPTAIN AMERICA #5 CAPTAIN MARVEL #11 CATWOMAN #18 CHEW #32 COMEBACK #5 (OF 5) CONAN THE BARBARIAN #14 CONSTANTINE #1 DAMSELS #6 DAREDEVIL #24 DARK AVENGERS #188 DARK HORSE PRESENTS #22 DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS #18 DEADPOOL #6 DOCTOR WHO PRISONERS OF TIME #3 (OF 12) DREW HAYES POISON ELVES #1 ELEPHANTMEN #47 FABLES #127 FIVE GHOSTS HAUNTING OF FABIAN GRAY #1 (OF 5) FLASH GORDON ZEITGEIST #10 GI JOE #2 GI JOE SPECIAL MISSIONS #1 GREEN LANTERN NEW GUARDIANS #18 HARBINGER #10 HELLRAISER DARK WATCH #2 MAIN CVRS HOLLOWS #4 (OF 4) INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK #5 INVINCIBLE #101 IT GIRL & THE ATOMICS #8 JENNIFER BLOOD #24 JSA LIBERTY FILES THE WHISTLING SKULL #4 (OF 6) JUDGE DREDD YEAR ONE #1 JUSTICE LEAGUE #18 JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #2 JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICAS VIBE #2 LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #18 MEMORIAL IMAGINARY FIENDS #1 (OF 3) MIND MGMT #9 MY LITTLE PONY MICRO SERIES #2 (OF 6) RAINBOW DASH MYSTERY SOCIETY SPECIAL 2013 NEW AVENGERS #4 NIGHTWING #18 NOVA #2 POPEYE #11 RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #18 REVIVAL #8 SAGA #11 SAVAGE WOLVERINE #3 SIMPSONS COMICS #200 SONIC UNIVERSE #50 STAR TREK COUNTDOWN TO DARKNESS #3 STAR WARS LEGACY #1 PRISONER O/T FLOATING WORLD STEED AND MRS PEEL ONGOING #6 STORM DOGS #4 (OF 6) SUPERGIRL #18 SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #6 SWORD OF SORCERY #6 THE SPIDER #10 TMNT ONGOING #20 TMNT SECRET FOOT CLAN #4 (OF 4) ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #21 WILD ROVER FT THE SACRIFICE ONE SHOT WOLVERINE MAX #5 WONDER WOMAN #18 X-FACTOR #253 X-O MANOWAR (ONGOING) #11 X-TERMINATION #1 XT (OF 2)

Books/Mags/Stuff AVATAR LAST AIRBENDER TP VOL 04 SEARCH PART 1 BATMAN HC VOL 02 THE CITY OF OWLS (N52) BATMAN TP VOL 01 THE COURT OF OWLS (N52) DAREDEVIL BY MARK WAID TP VOL 03 DEADPOOL CLASSIC TP VOL 08 DOCTOR WHO FORGOTTEN HC GAMBIT TP VOL 01 ONCE A THIEF INVINCIBLE IRON MAN TP VOL 10 LONG WAY DOWN MASSIVE TP VOL 01 BLACK PACIFIC MAXIMUM MINIMUM WAGE HC PENNY ARCADE TP VOL 09 PASSIONS HOWL POPEYE TP VOL 02 SECRET AVENGERS BY RICK REMENDER PREM HC VOL 03 SELF REFERENCE ENGINE NOVEL SUPERIOR TP SUPERMAN DEATH AND RETURN OF SUPERMAN OMNIBUS HC TMNT ADVENTURES TP VOL 04 WHATEVER GN WINTER SOLDIER TP VOL 03 BLACK WIDOW HUNT

As usual, what do YOU think?

"Decency." COMICS! Sometimes They Do Not Bring Me Out In Hives!

Look, we all know that last time John read some comics released this century it all got a bit hairy. John would like to point out that this was not out of malice, low blood sugar, jealousy, his piles flaring up or sunspot activity. No, difficult as it may be to believe, John maintains it was the result of those comics not actually being all that good. Think of it as being a bit like John was showing you that sometimes he and Comics would argue but it didn't mean they didn't love each other any less and it certainly wasn't your fault. John can see why Doctor Doom talks like this – it’s fun. Anyway, this…

Due to the lack of a scanner all pictures are stolen from other people. That's what I'm reduced to. I hope you are all proud.

(Note: Doctor Doom was created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. Or Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, whichever floats your boat. The important thing is to get both names in there. It’s free and respectful, Marvel.)

CREEPY#11 Art by Gilbert Hernandez, Amy Reeder, Peter Bagge, Chrissie Zullo, Johnny Craig and Joelle Jones Written by Gilbert Hernandez, J. Torres, Dan Braun, Peter Bagge, Alisa Whitney, Archie Goodwin and Jamie S. Rich Lettered by Gilbert Hernandez, Amy Reeder, Peter Bagge and Nate Piekos of Blambot® Dark Horse Comics, $4.99 (2013)

CREEPY is a horror anthology comic so it’s a given that it'll be a mixed bag but this issue kicks itself in the head from the off by kicking off with The Gilbert Hernandez Show and so everything after that is done no favours whatsoever. Oh editors, you never put Elvis on first. Hernandez’ tale is haunted by the phantom sounds of a thousand readers’ eyes revolving as his statistically gifted heroine grits her teeth through her lower back pain and bounces through a story as trashy and daft as all get out. By the final full page reveal said fun parched eyes will be revolving so fast that dogs from miles around will be howling at the resulting sound. The only way this nonsensical and nasty strip could have been improved would have been to slather it with hot pinks and crystalline greens a la Stuart Gordon's From Beyond. Ayup, fear fans, that’s the toxic territory we’re in here and while there does not actually exist a monograph called Basket Crepes: The Nearly Edible Imagery of Frank Henenlotter if you wish one did you’ll enjoy this magnificently shameless embracing of schlocky horror by a man so gifted he just doesn't have to care anymore.

"...like a gingerbread man!"

After that, Amy Reeder illustrates a story about a pining husband and his inadvertent contribution to the locally sourced fishing industry. This one is mainly notable for Amy Reeder’s art being far better than it was on her BATWOMAN stint. Then there’s one about how a lady’s monthly cramps might be hunger cramps because women are unknowable monsters who prey on men. I've made it sound really misogynistic there because I wanted to see who reached for their buckled hat and flaming torch. And now I know, don’t I? Now we all know. Alas my New Puritans it’s far more mundane than all that; the tale isn't terrible but is too derivative and tamely delivered to work as a terror tale. Filling in the cheap content reprint slot there’s Johnny Craig joint from an old CREEPY. It may be from the '70s CREEPY, but could just as well have come from a '50s EC Comic which is fine and dandy by me but might not be by you. I feel quite tremulous merely mentioning EC Comics on The Internet as currently any conversation involving them seems to devolve rapidly into a fucking chimps tea party where the winner is whoever gets the most shit in Eddie Campbell’s hair. The final story reads like someone excorcising the baggage of a bad relationship through the medium of words and pictures; with the pictures not quite sleazy enough to do the job justice. Throughout the book there’s a drizzle of Peter Bagge strips which, if you are a Peter Bagge fan, I guess you’ll like. Like I said, it’s a horror anthology so if you like horror anthologies what with their customary blemishes and surgical scars and all then this one was GOOD!

GLORY#31 Art by Ross Campbell & Ulises Farinas Written by Joe Keatinge Coloured by Owen Gieni Lettered by Douglas E. Sherwood Glory created by Rob Liefeld Image, $3.99 (2013)

Ah, Glory. What a fine comic this is. Sales aren't so hot so I hear. That’s most likely because Glory is a female character who hasn't been designed with the aim of appealing to the lowest portions of the lowest portions of fandom. She’s a bit butch, this lass and no mistake. Glory doesn't so much look like she’s built like a brick shit house as she looks built out of brick shit houses. A sturdy pile of at least five on top of which sits a creepy wee Barbie head but with Action Man’s scarring. Flesh may be on display but the flesh on display has the bluish-marbled sheen of freezer burned meat. Fancy your chances, chaps, and Glory will snap it off and feed it to you. Which is refreshing. What’s also refreshing is the jumble of outrageously gory issue(s) long fight scenes and convincing character interactions the series has managed to deliver thus far . The splatterhouse fight scenes are by Ross Campbell, who gives the offally antics a Darrow/Quitely/Burnham/Burrows burnish of detail; a level of detail which explicitly testifies to the relish with which the task is attacked. With GLORY Keatinge and Campbell (et al.)  have built a sweet story of friendship, a brutal story of family and a comic that’s basically just all round engaging entertainment. Although I greatly enjoyed Keatinge's effective deployment of undercutting (pancakes, anyone?) his savage and serious buildup I think I most enjoyed the issue which flash forwarded to a point in the narrative where everything looks to have gone tits up. Now we've jumped back and the suspense is doubled; nice one. I enjoyed this stratagem when I first encountered it in the WARRIOR SUMMER SPECIAL in 1982(ish) where Alan Moore did it in Marvelman. I don’t know if Alan Moore did it first and nor do I care because what’s important is that Keatinge deploys it at least as well as The Magnificent One; meaning GLORY is GOOD!

1982 - That was certainly a special Summer!

Of course a lot of you won’t be familiar with Marvelman due to the reasons outlined so smashingly in Padraig O'Mealoid’s fascinating, informative and wholly necessary investigation into the history of Marvelman. An investigation which promises to reveal who actually owns Marvelman. This, of course, is a bit of a cheeky maguffin as the ownership of Marvelman is beyond doubt. Why, as any fule kno, Marvelman is owned wholly and totally by Marvel©™, man! Oh sure, sceptics call this into doubt and wave at the fact that Marvel©™ has released nothing Marvelman related except for a bunch of insanely overpriced reprints of the Mick Anglo strips and a bad Joe Quesada poster. Now while these Anglo reprints are certainly of nostalgic interest (which is of more interest than the Joe Quesada poster) they are not the Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman material; i.e. the only material anyone cares about. Hataz fixate on this as though it proves something and yet these Hataz fail to take into account Marvel©™’s publicly stated position that they are taking their time so that when the MM stuff appears it will be done right. I mean, let’s face it perfectionism is a major, if not the defining trait, of Marvel©™. After all they do a perfectly good job of (and seem perfectly happy doing so) of denying Jack Kirby any credit or compensation for his co-creator role in the creation of the IPs without which no one at Marvel©™ would have a job. Oh, you thought I was going to do that thing where someone looks at Marvelman and has the shit shocked right out of them like brown toothpaste from a tightly squeezed tube by the bloody remarkable fact that in the last 30 odd years Marvelman has dated somewhat. But I didn't. Probably will do at some point though!

BATTLEFIELDS#4 Art by Russ Braun Written by Garth Ennis Coloured by Tony Avina Lettered by Simon Bowland Dynamite, $3.99 (2013)

Garth Ennis once popped up in one of the Dynamite back pages to bemoan the fact that no one read this here comic and that writing the series was pretty much a thankless and financially fruitless task. Since the contents of Dynamite back pages don't exactly inspire credence I thought Garth Ennis was just being a drama queen because he seems that sort doesn't he? A bit flaky; no good in a firefight; dress as a lady as soon as the lifeboats are struck; you know the sort. Seriously though, who believes anything comic creators say anymore? No, no, no, their wives just say they do; it’s part if the matrimonial pact. Anyway, I had a look at the sales figures and this comic is the #300 best-selling comic. That means people find that there are 299 comics better than this one. At first I thought this meant that readers would much rather read a bad super hero comic than a good war comic. Then I realised these were sales to Retailers. So really Retailers were happier ordering bad super hero comics rather than good war comics. Then I realised the “super hero” and “war” were red herrings and basically retailers were okay ordering bad comics rather than good comics. And at those deep discounts and attractive retailer incentives who can blame them! I guess everyone’s okay with comics being a giant Ponzi scheme? Do they generally work out well those things? Ha ha ha, only joking. I know nothing about retailing and I'm sure it's all fine! Say, while I was enjoying myself reading comics (or, if it was a Tuesday, enjoying myself staring into space silently weeping) my long suffering partner pointed out that there had been a programme on TV about the Hindenburg. Apparently the Hindenburg worked really well. Until suddenly it didn't.

Everything was going so well!

So, this comic no one is reading? Turns out it’s pretty great. BATTLEFIELDS is basically a banner under which Ennis and his various (and variable but very good at the least) artists deliver three part story arcs. Sometimes these arcs are stand alone and sometimes they involve recurring characters. There’s usually a good reason if the characters don’t recur. Death, I’m talking about death there; happens a lot in war, so I hear. Obviously raised on British war comics of the '70s Ennis synthesises the chippily anti-authoritarian swagger and honest violence of these with modern sophisticated storytelling to create (along with his artists) some of the best comics (apparently) barely anyone is reading. They also usually have covers by the divine Garry Leach (and maybe one fine and shining day he could do some interiors?), Leach is of course the man who first drew Alan Moore’s reinvention of Marvelman and is one of the few people who give cross hatching a good name. I’m getting off the subject now, but let’s be clear here – Marvel own Marvelman, Padraig O’Mealoid! MARVEL! Also (SPOILER!) Marvelman may have dated a bit in the last three or so decades. OMG! KIMOTA! Anyhoo, this issue of BATTLEFIELDS kicks off a new three parter involving Anna Kharkova; she being a female Russian pilot previously featured in an arc you need not have read to enjoy this comic. All you need to enjoy this comic is to read it.

"AIIEEEEEE!!!!"

Because, yes, despite the fact that comics is a primarily visual medium this comic, one which consists for the most part of two people in a room talking, is pretty great. It’s pretty great because the words coming out of the characters’ mouths are not bland pap; you know, the kind of page filling sub-TV blather dependant on some weird mutual non-aggression pact between the reader and the writer. These words here have content, these words here have substance and within these words a world unfolds. Admittedly it’s a world consisting primarily of a Quonset hut populated by two people but, still, it’s a world. Unfortunately for all involved it’s a world within a world and all that divides the two is wood, tin and glass which is little use against the irrevocable intrusion of the larger, madder and infinitely more savage world which is the world at war. It’s fine work in the words department is what I’m saying. The staging’s good too with both Ennis and Braun working with very little to convey the passing of time in an unobtrusive but effective fashion. It’s mostly Ennis’ show given the confined cast and setting which means Braun isn't given much to work with. Then again Braun is given the human face to work with and that is everything a decent artist needs; he proves to be a more than decent artist by the way. So, this issue was engaging, effective and intelligent and I’m going to go all the way up to VERY GOOD! Should you have the temerity to doubt my words then you’ll have to read it won’t you now? Check. And mate.

Oh, and because there is no podcast this week here's some thoughts on the latest Big Ticket Thinks in Recentville:

1) There is no question to which the right answer is arming Brian Hibbs. We "don't want any more trouble like you had last year in the Fillmore District", Brian Hibbs! 2) I won't be buying anything by people who actively seek to deny other people equal rights. You do what you want. That's how that Freedom stuff works. 3) Jerry Ordway is a good artist and yet he's still basically turning up at the WalMart parking lot at 6 in the morning hoping someone will pick him to go in the back of the truck. Nope, nothing wrong with this industry. 4) Howard Victor Chaykin is starting a new series about General George Custer in the next issue of DARK HORSE PRESENTS - aw, yeah! You'll miss him when he's gone you know!

Now go and fight like the mad dogs you are! But only fight about what's worthwhile - COMICS!!!

Wait, No. (Podcast, Interrupted)

Hey, everyone--some bad news: because Graeme was struck with food poisoning, we did not record last week...which means no podcast this week.  But, barring further catastrophe, we will be recording this week...which means you'll have another podcast in your hands next week.  Sorry?

But, hey, I'm sure you'll find lots of stuff to do in the meantime.  I mean, it's the Internet, right?  I mean, if you haven't checked it out, I would point you to Abhay's recently completed epic: Insensitive Veterinarians? Or, I dunno, I'm a little bit behind on it, but holy god is Tom Scioli going to some truly insane places with Satan's Soldier. That's like...if a comic line had spun off from Frank Miller's Dark Knight Strikes Again?  It's just...amazing stuff.

But, again: you'll figure something out.  I'm sure some of you haven't quite caught up with all 100+ eps. of Wait, What? so...now's a chance to do so in a leisurely manner.

Sorry we weren't there for you this week, Whatnauts, and as always, we thank you for listening!

Arriving 3/13/13

Another big week of comics! See what to look forward to after the break! AGE OF ULTRON #2 (OF 10) ALIENS VS PARKER #1 (OF 4) ALPHA BIG TIME #2 (OF 5) ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #8 ARCHIE & FRIENDS DOUBLE DIGEST #25 ARTIFACTS #25 AVENGERS ARENA #6 NOW AVENGERS ASSEMBLE #13 NOW2 AVENGING SPIDER-MAN #18 BATGIRL #18 BATMAN #18 BATMAN AND ROBIN #18 BEFORE WATCHMEN OZYMANDIAS #6 (OF 6) BIONIC MAN ANNUAL #1 BLOODSHOT#9 BRAVEST WARRIORS #6 BTVS SEASON 9 FREEFALL #19 NOTO CVR CHANGE #4 (OF 4) CROSSED BADLANDS #25 DARKNESS #111 DEJAH THORIS & GREEN MEN OF MARS #2 (OF 8) DEMON KNIGHTS #18 DOCTOR WHO CLASSICS #1 EMILY & THE STRANGERS #2 (OF 3) END TIMES OF BRAM & BEN #3 (OF 4) FANTASTIC FOUR #5 NOW FEARLESS DEFENDERS #2 NOW FEVER RIDGE MACARTHUR JUNGLE WAR #2 (OF 8) GAME OF THRONES #13 GARFIELD #11 GHOST #4 GHOSTBUSTERS #2 GREEN LANTERN CORPS #18 (WRATH) GREEN LANTERN THE ANIMATED SERIES #12 HIGH WAYS #3 (OF 4) JIM BUTCHERS DRESDEN FILES GHOUL GOBLIN #3 JUGHEADS DOUBLE DIGEST #190 KATANA #2 MANHATTAN PROJECTS #10 MARS ATTACKS #8 MARVEL UNIVERSE AVENGERS EARTHS HEROES #12 MEGA MAN #23 MIND THE GAP #8 MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #4 MYLO XYLOTO #2 NOWHERE MEN #4 RAVAGERS #10 RIPD CITY O/T DAMNED #4 (OF 4) ROBERT JORDAN WHEEL OF TIME EYE O/T WORLD #33 ROCKETEER HOLLYWOOD HORROR #2 SAUCER COUNTRY #13 SECRET AVENGERS #2 NOW SHADOW #10 SLEDGEHAMMER 44 #1 SPAWN #229 SPONGEBOB COMICS #18 STAR WARS #3 SUICIDE SQUAD #18 SUPERBOY #18 SUPURBIA ONGOING #5 TEAM 7 #6 THOR GOD OF THUNDER #6 NOW2 THRESHOLD #3 THUNDERBOLTS #6 NOW TMNT COLOR CLASSICS MICRO SERIES DONATELLO TODD THE UGLIEST KID ON EARTH #3 (OF 4) TRIGGERGIRL 6 #1 ULTIMATE COMICS WOLVERINE #1 (OF 4) ULTIMATE COMICS X-MEN #24 UNCANNY X-MEN #3 NOW WALKING DEAD #108 WHERE IS JAKE ELLIS #3 (OF 5) WOLVERINE #1 NOW WOLVERINE AND X-MEN #26 X-MEN LEGACY #7 NOW2 X-TREME X-MEN #12 XT

Books/Mags/Stuff ADVENTURE TIME MATHEMATICAL ED HC VOL 01 ALL NEW BATMAN BRAVE AND BOLD SMALL MIRACLES TP ARCHIE LOVE SHOWDOWN TP AVENGERS SEASON ONE PREM HC AVENGERS VS X-MEN TP AVENGERS ACADEMY BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL TP VOL 26 BLIZZARD CHEW OMNIVORE ED HC VOL 03 CHRONICLES OF CONAN TP VOL 23 WELL OF SOULS EARTH 2 HC VOL 01 THE GATHERING EMPIRE TOTAL WARS OST CD ESSENTIAL CAPTAIN MARVEL TP VOL 02 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST 3-IN-1 ED TP VOL 04 GARTH ENNIS JENNIFER BLOOD TP VOL 03 GRAPHIC CLASSICS GN VOL 24 NATIVE AMER CLASSICS GUARDIANS OF GALAXY TP VOL 02 TOMORROWS AVENGERS HAWKEYE TP VOL 01 MY LIFE AS WEAPON NOW I VAMPIRE TP VOL 02 RISE OF THE VAMPIRES ILLUSTRATION MAGAZINE #40 MICE TEMPLAR HC VOL 01 THE PROPHECY NAOKI URASAWA 21ST CENTURY BOYS GN VOL 02 NEON GENESIS EVANGELION 3-IN-1 ED TP VOL 02 PHINEAS AND FERB MAGAZINE #16 PREACHER TP VOL 01 GONE TO TEXAS NEW EDITION STAR TREK ONGOING TP VOL 04 STAR WARS CLONE WARS TP DEFENDERS LOST TEMPLE WOLVERINE ROT TP X-FACTOR TP VOL 19 SHORT STORIES

As always, what do YOU think?

“I Know That Cave!” COMICS! Sometimes They Are Not For The Eyes Of The Vicar!

Hello! It is I, and I have some words! The words this week are about an original graphic novel penned by Gilbert Hernandez - Comics' very own George Clooney-a-like and Living Master of the Form. So, it's probably a safe bet I liked it. Saved you some time there. For those with time to kill this idiocy continues after the <more!>.

LOVE FROM THE SHADOWS By Gilbert Hernandez Fantagraphics Books, $19.99 (2011)

Gilbert Hernandez certainly has his knockers both on and off the page. Quite a lot of the time those off the page are motivated by the incessant presence of those on the page to commence their knocking. After thirty years this knocking has reached a pretty high volume, because yes, this year marks Gilbert Hernandez’ thirtieth birthday. Looking at the author photo on the back-flap he’s had a hard life. Oh, maybe it’s his love that is thirty years old, or maybe his rockets. Either way it’s an anniversary of some kind so I’m joining in by looking at this book. A book which contains knockers and probably has many of same since it also bat-shit.

LFTS is the third in a series of books intended to act as an adaptation of a cinematic opus starring Gilbert Hernandez’ character Fritz from the Luba cycle of stories. CHANCE IN HELL and TROUBLEMAKERS are the two other “adaptations” issued in stand alone form although I believe the stories Hypnotwist and Scarlett By Starlight in NEW LOVE AND ROCKETS are also intended to perform the same function. Then there’s SPEAK OF THE DEVIL which is apparently the real life events which form the basis of the Fritz vehicle The Midnight People which hasn't been adapted yet. It’s all very clever and all very meta but you really don’t need to worry about it unless you want to worry about it. In which case, well, there it is. Really though, all the conceptual fluffery just seems to be a long winded way of Gilbert Hernandez apologetically informing his audience that compared to the high art dishes of his past (Human Diastrophism, X, Poison River etc. etc. etc.(yes, "etc.", he’s pretty good.)) he’ll be serving up a somewhat cruder stew. Cruder both in terms of territory and technique.

Other than strange looks from people with your best interests at heart there’s little to be gained from an outline of the plot. Or “plot” (?!) as it were. Weird business is afoot almost from the off and by p.20 the main character has changed into someone else (maybe?) after entering a spooky cave under her house while being a pursued by some childishly inquisitive men clad in boiler suits and shades.  After that it gets really bizarre. It may be reductive to describe what follows as an imaginatively volatile cocktail of Tyrone Power flicks, Scientology, Russ Meyer and Barry Gifford but as reductive as that may be at least it’s a start. A start which merely intimates the insanity Gilbert Hernandez depicts so dryly over the 120 pages of lucid cartooning herein. So lucid in fact is his art that given the outrageously ridiculous subject matter it becomes in itself a tone, that of deadpan.  This poker faced delivery never falters and lends it all a farcical air which somehow both mercifully undercuts and unmercifully inflates the sense of creeping dread. It’s the work of a comics master tearing into the stained brown paper parcel of his unconscious, and finding a piping hot slurry composed of decades of pop culture detritus. Using his decades-honed skills of cartooning elegance and narrative clarity Gilbert Hernandez proceeds to mould his own serious concerns into the hectic pop hodge podge masquerading as a plot.

Yes, Gilbert Hernandez has flensed the trash of his past but he has not done this for nostalgically onanistic purposes. All these trashily  startling and confoundingly crazed pages point not to a talent titting about but rather to a talent continuing to develop; to develop in areas and ways in which he himself seems more driven than coherent in purpose. LFTS is no spinning of the wheels, it is no plucking of the foreskin. No, it is yet another step out beyond expectations and another skip up and over stagnation. LFTS is nonsensical, filthy, horrific, messy, unsettling, funny, dumb, lurid and as smart as all get out. LFTS is an example of a comics creator who has reached a place where he can do what he wants, however he wants and has found that there is still stuff he wants to do. It's part of Gilbert Hernandez' Big Ern Moment. Thirty years in and Gilbert Hernandez has definitivley won and all these weird, impolite books (of which LITS is but one) are the bits where he staggers around with his comb-over wisping freely and declaring to all and sundry (but mostly to himself), “They can’t touch me now! I'm above the Law!”

And after thirty years who can deny him that? Not I. No, not I. So, LOVE FROM THE SHADOWS is VERY GOOD! Besides he still does the straight stuff, Pops. Who isn't looking forward to JULIO'S DAY and MARBLE SEASON? People who hate COMICS!!!

A Brief Note From The Backroom Boys:

The more visually inclined amongst you will have noted the lack of images accompanying the preceding “thing”. This was not the intention. Alas, life spits on intentions like a sailor on shore leave. Yes, at present John is without a scanner. Last week The Haunted Scanner gave up the ghost and stopped being haunted and became a haunter. Not that there’s actually an after-life for scanners (although given the stuff Gilbert Hernandez comes up with it wouldn't be the most unlikely prospect I've entertained recently). Anyway, we’ve disposed of it in the time honoured and totally safe tradition of disposing of electrical goods (hefting it over a disused building’s fence in the dead of night) and now only the mourning remains. And the waiting. The waiting for a new scanner to appear out of thin air. Until that happens I’m afraid it’s going to be reduced rations content-wise. So, just letting y’all know there.

Ta-Ta For Now!

Wait, What? Ep. 117: Sometimes Dead is Better

One of Annie Wu's great covers from the interior of Hawkeye #8.

Yep, it looks like this posting on Monday thing might be our new podcasting schedule for the conceivable future.  I hope it is not a problem for everyone (including Hibbs, who just posted the shipping list a few hours ago, do go check it out and comment.

After the jump: our charming and trying-hard-to-be-respectable old chum--the show notes.

0:00-5:11:  Here's our opening, a bit more truncated than usual, just so we can jump in with the Bizarro talk and humor for children. 5:11-11:41:  This is definitely a full spoiler episode for the stuff discussed (although as Graeme points out, a lot of the stuff under discussion have discussed and spoiled by the mainstream press).  And although that sounds like the perfect lead-in to our discuss about Batman, Inc. #8, we actually end up talking a bit about Channel 52, DC's spoilery back-up feature currently in all its books, Dan Didio's writing which leads into Graeme's discussion of... 11:41-18:46:  the latest issue of Legion of Super-Heroes, by Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen.  Graeme makes it sound pretty amazing, let's put it that way. 18:46-22:26: Graeme has also read Action Comics #17 (which Jeff read last week) and Graeme is far kinder about the work than Jeff was. 22:26-32:24: And so by comparison and contrast, there should be a discussion of Batman, Inc. #8  starting here…but instead we give a shout-out to Excalibur Comics in Portland, Oregon and grouse a bit about the Constantine preview currently popping up in DC books. 32:23-49:13: And then *finally* we get to Batman, Inc. #8.  A lot to talk about here, with Graeme bringing the hard questions and Jeff bringing the jabber. 49:13-1:05:55:  Also, in another round of DC Catch-Up, Jeff read Batman and Robin #17, that strange book that bridges the Morrison and Snyder sides of the Batverse, and what its future might be post-Batman, Inc. #8. 1:05:55-1:08:40:  Getting away from the Big Two books, Graeme and Jeff are both pretty enamored of Jennifer Blood, issues #22 and #23. We are very careful not to spoil any of the very big things going on in this book, but they are pretty darn good. 1:08:40-1:18:18:  Saga #10!  Although we start off by saying we will not spoil the end of Saga #10--Spoiler!!--we totally go on to spoil the end of Saga #10. 1:18:18-1:22:21: Jeff really liked issue #34 of Prophet, since he feels that Simon Roy really bring the "Space Conan" vibe to the issues he works on. 1:22:21-1:33:26:  Graeme and Jeff are apparently really out of the swing of answering questions, but we do have a few things to talk about that have been brought up by commenters in our threads recently about craft and intention and clarity. 1:33:26-1:42:37: It's been a while since we've digressed to cover other areas of pop culture, but Graeme has a recommendation for Jeff: The Following.  What does the show have to do with DC Showcase: World's Finest, The Strangers and Bad Machinery, both from Oni Press ?The answer may surprise you! (Probably not, but, hey, you never know…) 1:42:37-1:45:21: Jeff has a recommendation in his very-late-to-the-party kind of way.  If you like your comics in digital format, David Boswell has put up (nearly) all of Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman on his website for "pay what you like" downloads. Even Heart Break Comics, the amazing original graphic novel from back in the day (1984?) is available, and they're all fantastic. 1:45:21-end: Speed round reviews! From Jeff:  Witch Doctor Mal Practice #4, Black Beetle #2, Flash #17, and Avengers Assemble Annual #1 by Christos Gage and Tomm Coker.  Graeme has things to say about Brandon Seifert's other work, the excerpt from The Fictional Man, Al Ewing's latest novel, Angel & Faith #19, Young Avengers #2, and Hawkeye #8 by Matt Fraction and David Aja.  Do we also mention Hook Jaw?  Of course we do!  Also, we thank those who have supported this podcast by sending Jeff digital copies and other materials -- a topic about which Jeff was quoted in this article by Todd Allen over at Next Web -- and if you listen at the close at the ending, you can hear how Jeff COMPLETELY misunderstood what was happening at the beginning. That's, like, some serious circularity, man.

Okay, so since this is getting posted at the same time I upload to iTunes, there's a chance it's not out in the wild yet, but you can find it below, ripe for the plucking (I'm not the only who finds that phrase a little on the obscene side, am I?):

Wait, What? Ep. 117: Sometimes Dead is Better

As always, we hope you enjoy and thank you for listening!

Arriving 3/6/13

Another big week of books, with Age of Ultron #1 and Joe Kelly's SEX looking to be the biggest hits. More after the break.. 47 RONIN #3 (OF 5) A PLUS X #5 NOW ADVENTURE TIME FIONNA & CAKE #3 (OF 6) AGE OF APOCALYPSE #13 XT AGE OF ULTRON #1 (OF 10) ALL NEW X-MEN #8 NOW2 AME COMI GIRLS #1 ANIMAL MAN #18 ARCHIE #641 ARCHIE MEETS GLEE PT 1 ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #238 DOUBLE DOUBLE AVENGERS #7 NOW BATWING #18 BEDLAM #5 BEFORE WATCHMEN RORSCHACH #4 (OF 4) BLACKACRE #4 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER WILLOW WONDERLAND #5 (OF 5) CABLE AND X-FORCE #5 NOW CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT SPECIAL COLDER #5 (OF 5) DAN THE UNHARMABLE #11 DAREDEVIL END OF DAYS #6 (OF 8) DARK SHADOWS #14 DETECTIVE COMICS #18 DIAL H #10 EARTH 2 #10 EPIC KILL #9 FAIREST #13 (MR) FAIRY QUEST #2 (OF 2) FASHION BEAST #7 GREAT PACIFIC #5 GREEN ARROW #18 GREEN LANTERN #18 (WRATH) HELHEIM #1 HELLBOY IN HELL #4 HUMAN BOMB #4 (OF 4) HYPERNATURALS #9 I LOVE TROUBLE #4 INSURGENT #3 (OF 6) IRON MAN #7 NOW2 JINNRISE #3 (OF 5) JOE PALOOKA #4 (OF 6) LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #6 LOOKOUTS RIDDLE VOL 01 #4 LOST VEGAS #1 (OF 4) LOT 13 #5 (OF 5) MARA #3 (OF 6) MONSTERS INC A PERFECT DATE #1 MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #4 PHANTOM STRANGER #6 PLANET O/T APES CATACLYSM #7 POWERS BUREAU #2 RED SHE-HULK #63 NOW2 REPOSSESSED #3 (OF 4) ROAD TO OZ #6 (OF 6) SAVAGE DRAGON #185 SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU #31 SEX #1 SHADOWMAN #5 SMALLVILLE SEASON 11 #11 SNAPSHOT #2 (OF 4) SON OF MERLIN #2 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #246 STITCHED #12 STORMWATCH #18 SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #5 NOW SUPERMAN #17 SUPERMAN FAMILY ADVENTURES #10 SWAMP THING #18 TRUE BLOOD ONGOING #10 ULTIMATE COMICS ULTIMATES #22 VENOM #32 WINTER SOLDIER #16 WITCHBLADE #164 WORLDS FINEST #10

Books/ Mags/ Stuff ALL STAR WESTERN TP VOL 02 LORDS & OWLS (N52) ARCHER & ARMSTRONG (NEW) TP VOL 01 AVENGERS INFINITY TP BAKUMAN TP VOL 18 BATMAN GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT TP NEW ED BLEEDING COOL MAGAZINE #3 CROSSED TP VOL 05 DANGER GIRL GI JOE HC DISNEY JUNIOR MAGAZINE #12 DOCTOR WHO 3 TP VOL 01 HYPOTHETICAL GENTLEMAN DOWNTOWN HC FANNY & ROMEO GN GLENN FABRY SKETCHBOOK SC HEAVY METAL LORNA LEVIATHAN AZPIRI HC IN THE SOUNDS AND SEAS GN JOE THE BARBARIAN TP KICK-ASS 2 PRELUDE HIT-GIRL PREM HC LAST CALL GN VOL 02 LORNA AND HER ROBOT SC LORNA DART-AN-GOR BY AZPIRI HC LUMINOUS INCAL DLX HC MESSAGES IN BOTTLE TP COMIC STORIES KRIGSTEIN MICE TEMPLAR TP VOL 03 MUSE DLX HC NEW CRUSADERS RISE O/T HEROES TP NO PLACE LIKE HOME TP VOL 01 PEANUTS TP VOL 02 POKEMON ADVENTURES TP VOL 15 R.I.P. ROCKETEER CARGO OF DOOM HC SEVERED TP SHADE TP SLEEPER OMNIBUS HC SPIDER-MAN DYING WISH PREM HC STEVE DITKO MONSTERS HC VOL 01 GORGO SUPERMAN REIGN OF DOOMSDAY TP TANK GIRL EVERYBODY LOVES TANK GIRL HC VALIANT MASTERS NINJAK HC VOL 01 BLACK WATER WIZARDS TALE TP

As always, what do YOU think?

Wait, What? Ep. 116: G-Mo K-Hole

Because it is Hook Jaw, and Because it is My Heart...

Yep, we are back!  Sorry for our absence from the podcasting broadcast waves and of course the Savage Critic site itself.

After the jump--show notes!  But before we get there, I wanted to congratulate House to Astonish for their 100th Episode!  I'm listening to it now, and want to recommend it for people who like what Graeme and I do but would maybe like it if it was done much better?  Congrats to Al & Paul!

Now, then.  Where was I?  Oh, right.

Actually, as long as I'm on the linking-to-not-Wait-What? tip, I should mention I had a great time talking movies with Sean Witzke over at the Factual Opinion's movie podcast, Travis Bickle on the Riviera.  As I said on Twitter, I make a terrible Tucker Stone stand-in, but being able to talk Lincoln, The Seven-Ups, All That Jazz, and John Woo's The Killer (among others) was an opportunity I refused to pass up.  Big thanks to Sean for that, and if there are those brave, masochistic few that haven't had enough of my braying laugh yet, please do check it out.

As for this go-round, check it out:

0:00-6:59: We tried to get our technical problems out of the way at the very beginning (and pass the savings on to you, the listener).  And then it's on to a few minutes of Jeff kibitzing on Graeme's work habits, so it's the best of both worlds--you get to listen in on what Graeme McMillan (the hardest working man on the Internet)

6:59-9:44:  "But, instead, let me read three pages of Hook Jaw…" Who does that sentence turn out well for?  Not someone who has other things to do, that's for sure.  In other words, Hook Jaw is awesome, unless you're Jeff who is trying to procrastinate.

9:44-13:11: Moving on from Hook Jaw, Jeff also picked up issues #3 and #4 of Happy by Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson, and talks about that (although with a lot less evil oil rigger imitations).

13:11-20:04: As long as we're on the G-Mo Train (and let's be honest, when aren't we on the G-Mo Train?), Jeff also read Action Comics #17.  Since Graeme hasn't, the conversation is not especially weighty.  But, hey, for those of you filling out your Wait, What? bingo cards, feel free to fill that in…even if it really should be the card's free space by now.

20:04-21:59: "Where on the Morrison spectrum does Batman Inc. fall for you?"  Yeah, we are not out of the k-hole that is Grant Morrison yet. Not nearly.

21:59-43:07:  And so we're out, via discussion of Batman #17, the "Death of the Family" finale by Snyder and Capullo. Graeme references the discussion that he had over at Kotaku with his smart friends, and it's only fair I include a link to that here.  Graeme also talks about the follow-up issue of Batman & Robin which Jeff forgot to pick up at the store, dammit.

43:07-50:54: We discuss Justice League of America #1.  Has it been a while since we've really dug into DC titles, or is it just me?

50:54-58:14:  But speaking of not speaking of Marvel, Graeme read issue #6 of The Avengers by Hickman & Kubert thinking Jeff would've read but didn't and then he has to talk about it all by himself.  Haw, haw! Sucker.

58:14-1:01:43: Jeff has read Thor #5 by Aaron & Ribic, and man is that a pretty book. This isn't much of a review as much of a collection of spoilers with a bunch of fanning compliments about the art, but, eh.  That's how it happens sometimes.

1:01:43-1:04:39:  Jeff also read the first issue of Nova by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness and was pretty surprised to find himself enjoying it.  (Not such a fan of Avengers/X-Sanction was ol' Jeff.)

1:04:39-1:07:13:  Graeme really liked issue #23 of Daredevil by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee, which apparently is a great jumping-on point for the book.  Jeff is pretty jealous.  The term "a perfect superhero comic" is used as well as the phrase "amazing, amazing stuff."

1:07:13-1:13:55:  Jeff asks about the Superman H'el on Earth storyline because, eh, he's honestly curious.  What can he say?  And Graeme gives all the deets. Unfortunately, at this point, Jeff's head moves one step closer to its MODOK stage and the crunching of the headphones tightening around his ears can be heard in the background. Embarrassing and awkward!

1:13:55-1:26:46:  Also, does Graeme have a take on the new Green Lantern teams?  Whatnauts wanted to know, so Jeff also asks about that bit of business. A bit of analysis about what DC is doing and where they're heading is probably inevitable.

1:26:46-1:50:54:  And of course we are going to discuss "Oscar Scott Card." Probably also inevitable.  There's also some discussion of Jeff and his ever-growing collection of bad-faith boycotts that may be kind of interesting to some.  A surprising admission is made, let's just say.

1:50:54-1:54:34: More comic reviewy stuff!  Uncanny X-Men #1 by Bendis and Bachalo has been read by Jeff so he blabs about it for a bit.

1:54:34-2:14:02:  Last issue of Hellblazer!  It's been read by Graeme so he blabs about it for a bit, as well.  (Spoiler alerts, of course.)  He's got a great prediction here for a possible announcement during con season--be on the look-out for it.

2:14:02-end:  Winding down/update for any Graeme stalkers: will Graeme be attending ECCC? Or other conventions?  Also: Graeme listened to House to Astonish Ep. 100 (see above--but, yes, I will also link it again). Also, if you are in Oslo on June 7 and 8, check out the Oslo Comics Expo!  We will be back next week with more podcastery!  (And we promise to answer our outstanding questions next time, we promise! Even I'm a little appalled we didn't answer any this time around.)

The episode is probably up on iTunes of this entry--if only because all of my attempts to launch this early Tuesday morning has gone awry the last three or four months.  But you can also grab it below, should you wish:

Wait, What? Ep. 116: G-Mo K-Hole

We hope you enjoy and thanks for listening!