Who’s gonna take the bait on that Shade book…

Fantastic Four 243 and 245

A running theme in these posts is most definitely going to be the very transgressive and transformative nature of the comics themselves.  The bulk of my collection (suitable for giving away to relatively all ages) is from a time before “This Business” had identified status quo as a desirable state and condition for merchandising purposes.  Costumes, names, characters, all seemed up for grabs.  Case in point – John Byrne’s barn burning pace on Fantastic Four.  Invisible Girl No More – Galactus Falls.  Byrne did a really, really nice job showcasing the talents of Sue Storm.  Her invisble force projection power (vague and uninspiringly defined by recent art teams) was given a huge “level-up” under his able draftsmanship.  Similarly, watching a group of Marvel’s finest and also-rans take Galactus down a peg over the course of 3 issues blazed with a kind of manic pace that’s not very common today.  As our beloved mainstream titles get lost in wandering stories spanning actual years of the fleeting readership’s lives it’s important to remember what made this stuff “Can’t miss” as opposed to “Days of our Lives” never-ending soap opera horseshit.

Star Trek 10 – 11 – 12

The Mirror Universe concept gets dusted off here and by the end of it everything is blown up and Kirk is literally strangling himself.  Awesome.  Sidenote, for the LONGEST time I only had issue 11 of this arc.  Can you imagine the fever dreams I had?

RESTOCKED – Don’t Panic.  Most of that is reprints.

THOR 247

Thor and Firelord find themselves in the bewitching thrall of a gypsy’s magical diadem.  No worries, here comes JAne Foster to challenge her to (and win cleanly, I might add) a girl knife fight.  APPROVED BY THE COMICS CODE AUTHORITY!  Thor gets the patented “I say thee, NAY!” moment but not until AFTER Jane wins the fight on her own.  Take that, Bechdel Test!

Superboy starring the Legion of Super Heroes 200

Wow, great Cockrum costumes.  Duo Damsel’s wedding dress is gorgeous.  Starfinger, on the other hand…jesus.  Just…no.

Amazing Spider-Man 258 and 270

In 1985 Ron Frenz and Tom DeFalco took over from my boy Roger Stern (He of ASM 251 ENDINGS fame) and went on quite the little tear themselves.  in 258 Spidey discovers his swanky black threads are an alien symbiote and he battles it with the FF.  That resulted in the classic Spidey wears a bag on his head bit.  ”Kick Me” sign and all.  Then, in 270 he somehow gets pulled into a fistfight with a former herald of Galactus and after a really well done cat and mouse game finds himself lured into the open.  It’s at this point Peter goes full “Ralphie beats up the bully” from A Christmas Story on Firelord and beating him into unconsciousness   He only snaps out of it when Captain America taps him on the shoulder and is like, “Whoa, son.”  The man who killed more Nazis than anyone else in history just told you to take a chill pill, Spidey.  Time to switch to decaf.

Milk, good. Donut, good. Comic, good.

Adventures of Superman 463

This comic broke my “Superman and the Flash are forced to race under a dubious premise” cherry and it was soooooo good.  Really dynamic stuff from Art Thibert of all people sees Superman breaking through to the developing core of the Wally West character.  Wally being all insecure but trying hard to earn it.  It’s a comic about people who are learning, growing, and destroying a Mxyzptlk altered Mt. Rushmore…oops.

Unicorns do exist

Wonder Woman #0

Thanks Azzarello.  20+ issues of pushy gods, bad puns, and about 12 issues of wasted Cliff Chiang and I’m practically willing to forgive it all because of this #0.  It’s a great “Young Diana” story about learning the virtue of Mercy and the importance of staying true to your heart.

But no, I don’t see an audience for this kind of book, do you?  

Welp, that was the week that was.  Looking forward to next week when we discuss our favorite Hostess Pie interludes!

12 REASONS TO DIE #1
A PLUS X #8 NOW
ADVENTURE TIME #16
ADVENTURE TIME FIONNA & CAKE #5 (OF 6)
AKANEIRO #1 (OF 3)
ALL STAR WESTERN #20
AQUAMAN #20
AVENGERS #12 NOW
BART SIMPSON COMICS #83
BATMAN BEYOND UNLIMITED #16
BATMAN INCORPORATED #11
BATMAN LIL GOTHAM #2
BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #20
BOUNCE #1
CROSSED BADLANDS #28
DAMSELS #7
DAREDEVIL #26
DARK HORSE PRESENTS #24
DARK SHADOWS YEAR ONE #2
DEADPOOL #10 NOW2
DMC DEVIL MAY CRY VERGIL CHRONICLES #1 (OF 2)
DOCTOR WHO VOL 3 #9
FANTASTIC FOUR #8 NOW2
FEARLESS DEFENDERS #4AU NOW
FIVE GHOSTS HAUNTING OF FABIAN GRAY #3 (OF 5)
FLASH #20
FURY OF FIRESTORM THE NUCLEAR MAN #20
GHOSTBUSTERS #4
GI JOE COBRA FILES #2
GREEN LANTERN #20 (WRATH)
GREEN LANTERN NEW GUARDIANS #20 (WRATH)
GREEN TEAM #1
HALF PAST DANGER #1 (OF 6)
HELLRAISER DARK WATCH #4
IRON MAN #258.3
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #652 NOW
JUDGE DREDD #7
JUSTICE LEAGUE #20
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #20
LOBSTER JOHNSON SATAN SMELLS A RAT ONE SHOT
MARVEL UNIVERSE ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #14
MASKS #7
MASSIVE #12
MIND MGMT #11
MINIATURE JESUS #2 (OF 5)
NOWHERE MEN #5
OCCUPY COMICS #1
POWERS BUREAU #4
RED LANTERNS #20 (WRATH)
RED SONJA #75 RUBI CVR
REVIVAL #10
SAVAGE HAWKMAN #20
SCARLET SPIDER #17
SEX #3
SIXTH GUN #31
SOLID STATE TANK GIRL #1 (OF 4)
STAR WARS DAWN O/T JEDI PRISONER OF BOGAN #5 (OF 5)
STAR WARS LEGACY #3
STEED AND MRS PEEL ONGOING #8
SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #10 NOW
SUPERMAN #20
TALON #8
TEEN TITANS #20
TMNT VILLAIN MICROSERIES #2 BAXTER STOCKMAN
TRUE BLOOD ONGOING #13
ULTIMATE COMICS WOLVERINE #4 (OF 4)
UNCANNY AVENGERS #8AU NOW2
UNCANNY X-MEN #6 NOW
UNWRITTEN #49
WASTELAND #45
WORLD OF ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #29
X-MEN LEGACY #11 NOW2
YOUNG AVENGERS #5 NOW

Books/Mags/Stuff
A PLUS X TP VOL 01 EQUALS AWESOME
ARCHIES 1000 PG COMICS DIGEST TP
BRICKJOURNAL #23
CHRONICLES OF KING CONAN TP VOL 05 BLACK DRAGONS
DEMON KNIGHTS TP VOL 02 THE AVALON TRAP (N52)
FLASH GORDON TP VOL 01 ZEITGEIST
GODZILLA HALF CENTURY WAR TP
JIM FEATURING SIF TP VOL 01 STRONGER THAN MONSTERS NOW
NAZI ZOMBIES TP
NEIL GAIMAN MAKE GOOD ART HC
RED SONJA ATLANTIS RISES TP
SCOTT PILGRIM COLOR HC VOL 03 (OF 6)
SLAINE GRAIL WAR GN
SONIC UNIVERSE TP VOL 05 TAILS ADVENTURE
STAR TREK JOHN BYRNE COLLECTION HC
TMNT WORKS HC VOL 01
TORPEDO TP VOL 03
UNCANNY X-MEN BY KIERON GILLEN TP VOL 04 AVX
WOLVERINE BEST THERE IS TP COMPLETE SERIES

As always, what do YOU think?

…and no, nobody does answer that question. But then who cares – it’s 1980′s Gil Kane! Anyway, this…

SECRET ORIGINS #28
Starring:
Midnight
Art by Gil Kane
Written by Roy Thomas
Lettered by Jean Simek
Coloured by Tom Ziuko
(Also Nightshade by Rob Liefeld, Robert Greenberger et al.)
DC Comics, $1.50 (1988)
Midnight created by Jack Cole

I found this a few years ago, it was wedged in the back of a bargain box and only eyes trained in Shamballa to spot the word “Kane” on a comic book flickering past in a four colour blur allowed  me to halt my fingers long enough to pull it towards me; like a tiny child rescued from a rushing river. A rushing river whose waters were Time! A child who was not a child but a comic! It’s not a comic people talk about a lot but, by Mishima’s slippers, it is an astonishing piece of work by Mr. Gil Kane. It starts like this…

In order to impose some sense of order and consistency on the post CRISIS DC Universe SECRET ORIGINS delivered 50 issues during the years 1986-1990, with each issue being dedicated to presenting the newly established origin of one or more DC characters. That’s right, in 1986 -1990 DC Comics actually gave enough of a chuff about continuity to have given it a bit of thought so it all worked out nicely. I think we can all agree that the Nu52 has had none of that. Although DC’s total banjaxing of their own continuity does still give us the joy of seeing Baleful Brian Hibbs going all puce every single time he realises that Batman now hasn’t been Batman long enough to have had all those Robins. Yes, there was a time when DC Comics didn’t just pretend everything made sense they actually made it make sense. Obviously Rascally Roy Thomas was all over this series like a rash. So much so that he wrote this comic. And Gil Kane’s only gone and drawn it!

GilRoy worked together on many magnificent series/characters all of which are better remembered today than this. Which is a shame. Mind you, I’m not even sure this character has ever appeared again.  Feel free to correct me, as ever. Midnight first appeared in the Quality published Smash Comics #18 (Jan 1941). The strip was certainly drawn, and probably written by, Jack “Plastic Man” Cole hence the little credit box in the splash above. Just as The Death Patrol were a copy of The Blackhawks so was Midnight essentially The Spirit. Yes, there is a text feature by the Rascally one I have cribbed from. Midnight then is a man in suit and a domino mask who decides, inspired by the character whose adventures he narrates on old timey radio, to right wrongs and smack bad guys about. His name comes from the fact that he confronts his enemies at…midnight! This is clearly a very poor gimmick that the bad guys would soon twig to ending in a dead man in a suit with a domino mask. Inspired, I have submitted to Dan Didio a treatment for a Nu52 treatment of the character which is basically the same except he attacks his foes when they are mid shite. Take my word, people have a really hard time defending themselves when they are on the pot. Anyway, I think it has the requisite level of class modern DC Comics requires and I breathlessly await their response.

As much as I treasure Roy Thomas, and his work here is entertaining and sprightly as befits the pulpy period set material, I am actually here to talk about Gil Kane. Because 1980s Gil Kane is what I’m all about. Sadly I wasn’t invited to personally watch Kane create the art on these pages but to me it looks like he’s using markers. That’s the sign of a confident man right there. Of course, so I hear, he would have broken down each page into rough layouts down to the panel level. Usually then some tightening up would transform the layouts to pencils and then, naturally, the final inking. But Kane, so I’ve read, would skip the pencils and just bang! ink over his layouts. With markers. That’s…confidence. That’s Gil Kane. Worship at your convenience.

Of course the markers may be a mundane reason for the obvious lightness of detail in Kane’s work. Certainly in “The Secret Origin Of Midnight” Kane continually veers away from heavy detail.  So much so that his hatching is very rarely even crossed. Cross hatching and heavy detail were the mark of illustrators and, for Kane, there was a clear delineation between artists who favoured continuity and those who had an illustrative bias. Kane was a continuity first guy. To clarify this Kane would often cast it in terms of his work versus that of the Filipino school. Hence his documented dissatisfaction with Rudy Nebres inking of his pencils on the Marvel John Carter series. The reader’s eye was meant to flow through Kane’s pages obeying the visual rhythm set by the artist himself. When detail occurs it occurs in controlled quantities and its purpose is specific. Here city scenes seem detail rich but on closer inspection the illusion of detail is the result of an accumulation of what turn out to be visual generalisations. Kane saves the more honest detail for when he shows a face in close up. On these occasions he uses his hatching to cue in the mood of the subject regardless of light sources as with the noir movies of his youth. Basically for Kane illustration is used to convey intensity. Here it’s usually the intensity of the villainy of a bald fat man but my point remains.

Also present on these pages is Kane’s constant attempts to differentiate between the flesh and the forms of the world it inhabits. It might be argued that there is a concerted and clear divide between the living and the inert in Kane’s art. This is a city based tale packed with artfully implied period detail, including suits that make natty look tatty. At no point is there any confusion on the part of the reader between the person and their clothing. This is due to Kane’s skill at drapery but also to the fact that he varies the level of detail and line-weight between the clothes and the flesh that they drape. Noticeably so.  A striving for seperation, and yet also some balance, between the natural and the manufactured line was an important part of Kane’s artistic ambition. He would always be quick to praise Lou Fine, an artist who Kane felt had achieved excellence in both the geometric and organic line. However, in all fairness I should note that Gil Kane could draw men in hats better than Lou Fine.

Oh, don’t worry this comic contains all the explosive movement, bombastic gymnastics, panel breaking, in-panel montages, punched people back flipping and chisel chinned cavorting that the most frenetically entertaining and irresistibly enjoyable work of Gil Kane always contains. I just thought I’d highlight a couple of things I wouldn’t usually mention. If I came off sounding like someone having a dry drunk please don’t let it put you off this comic should you see it. After all, it’s 1980s Gil Kane and that’s VERY GOOD!

After all, if 1980s Gil Kane is anything he’s certainly – COMICS!!!

(Really, that was a pretty shitty week for comics — I kept most of what shipped LAST week up on the shelf too, just to fill in room….)

AGE OF ULTRON #8 (OF 10): So, I’m reading this and I’m literally thinking, “Why am I reading this? This doesn’t count, this story didn’t happen being the inner-level alternate reality of an alternate-reality-driven comic. The last page when, dunno, something huge drops on New York, and the city goes up in hellfire and destruction? I’m thinking “Yeah, and…?” I mean, it didn’t happen, and it’s all just time-travel, alternate-reality nonsense, and there’s eight and one half minutes of my life that I desperately wish I had back. Wake me when the Angel-girl shows up to unthread this…. AWFUL.

AVENGERS ENEMY WITHIN #1: This is the first part of the CAPTAIN MARVEL / AVENGERS ASSEMBLE crossover, conveniently not attached to either series. I don’t know, this is pretty drama-free to me, because, just like AGE OF ULTRON above, I’m fairly confident that Kelly Sue DeConnick isn’t going to murder Carol, so “the enemy within” of her comic-book illness isn’t really much of anything at all, now is it? This also wasn’t really written with a new reader in mind — I felt like it thought that I knew what was going on when I opened page 1, and I really don’t, especially. And, more importantly, nothing on display here warmed me to Carol or Captain Marvel, or made me want to read or learn more about any of it. Foo! Also? The art was really bad, I thought — Scott Hepburn doesn’t seem to have basic control of anatomy or human proportions. I also have to give this one an AWFUL, though that’s more a limitation of the SavCrit scale… “Very EH” might be slightly more accurate…

DOOMSDAY.1 #1 (OF 4): John Byrne has been killing it with these sci-fi books now — I thought this was very much a airport best-seller from the 70s or something, and that’s not even slightly a complaint: there is an easy level of craft and professionalism on display here, with many dramatically distinct characters. This isn’t saying a LOT, since, like I said “shitty week of comics”, but I thought that this was easily the best thing that I read this week. VERY GOOD (and available on our digital store, he said fruitlessly)

DREAM MERCHANT #1 (OF 6) : One of two named “Dream” books, and the one I couldn’t really follow very well. The art by Konstantin Novosadov has some nice ethreal qualities, but it gets colored far too dark in too many places, and he kind of bobbles the faces again and again. The writing I thought was too self-indulgent, and should have covered twice the ground in half the space. WHAT IS THE ACTUAL PREMISE OF THIS COMIC? It’s really not in issue #1. A very very low OK. (You could also get this at our digital store… and the coloring might be tuned to a screen, for all I know)

DREAM THIEF #1 (OF 5): Our other “Dream” comic is much easier to follow as Jai Nitz gives you a reason to care for the protagonist, and set out a controlling mystery very effectively. And I thought the art by Greg Smallwood was extremely effective in the flashback-to-dreams sections. The story is kind of Little Nemo in Slumberland meets The Spectre, and while I found the mystery compelling, I’m not sure that the body count produced makes the book really my cup of tea. Still, this is a very very solid GOOD, maybe even a bit higher.

That’s what I thought at least, what did YOU think?

-B

(So awkward, still.)

Keep an eye out for a new “giving away comics” post a little bit later. Currently, this 100% opinion piece!

Something you may not know about us working donut professionals is that we keep odd, lonely hours. Between one and five-thirty am every day not only am I awake and functioning at a high level it is exceedingly rare for me to utter a single word. Take a second to think about your day. Have you ever been silent for four and a half hours and not asleep?

What a nutty life.  Much, much more after the jump.

Anywho, in order to fill those hours when I can’t speak to anyone I listen. I listen actively and intently to all manner of media. Albums, comedy specials, NPR, Hood Internet mixtapes, TV Series. Hell, I HEARD more Friday Night Lights, House of Cards, and Cheers than I ever actually watched. I also found that I am not averse to the sound enthusiasm. Podcasts such as our own esteemed “Wait, What?!” Marc Maron’s WTF, Grantland, and Nerdist…sweet, sweet, Nerdist brought me a new arena of entertainment.

Let’s clear one thing up right now. I am a faithful Ben Blacker apostle. I listen to Thrilling Adventure Hour, every one of his Nerdist Writer’s Panels, and literally anything else he and his writing partner, Ben Acker, produce. These guys are legit trailblazers. Architects of a new endeavor. Check ‘em out!

Hey, Kids! Shine up your astro-spurs and dust off your robot fists!

http://www.nerdist.com/podcast/nerdist-writers-panel/

http://www.nerdist.com/podcast/thrilling-adventure-hour/

(Bonus: Latest behind the scenes episode #115 features a sneak peak at upcoming comics pod co-host Heath Corson.)

At any rate, I was toiling away one morning and listening to him chat up some guy named Ryan Condal.

http://www.nerdist.com/2013/04/nerdist-writers-panel-84-ryan-condal/

Ryan was/is responsible for adapting Cullen Bunn’s Sixth Gun for television. To be fair, frank, and clueless I didn’t know this was going on and I haven’t read more than two issues of Sixth Gun. Here’s a quick recap of the surrounding hullabaloo featuring our own Savage Graeme!

January 22 – May 8

Graeme ‏@graemem22 Jan
Congratulations to @cullenbunn @brihurtt @crabtree_bill @OniPress for the Sixth Gun getting a pilot order for the TV version.

Jay Faerber ‏@JayFaerber6 Apr
Congrats @cullenbunn — the Sixth Gun is apparently an early favorite of the NBC pilots! http://www.deadline.com/2013/04/primetime-pilot-panic-the-early-buzz/

Brian Hurtt ‏@brihurtt8 May
At end of day @cullenbunn and I intend to stay focused on the one thing we do have control over. The comic. Thanks for all your support!

cullenbunn ‏@cullenbunn9 May
Don’t give up hope for THE SIXTH GUN tv show just yet. http://ht.ly/1W0trk

Whew, that’s a rocket ride. Throw your entire career related highs and lows into a basket and it would be tough to match that six-month run.

Aye, Verily.

This episode of “Writer’s Panel” had gone up prior to the bad news so Condal was still very hopeful and excited. Throughout the interview he was kind, considerate of others feelings, and seemed an all ‘round good egg. Additionally, his twitter icon is Shatner – as Kirk – mid ‘KHAAAAAN’ scream and his background is Frazetta’s “Conan the Destroyer” so say hello to my innermost gristmill, Mr. Condal. We are close on a level few humans have words for. I salute you.

However, missing in all his amiable chat with Blacker was any mention whatsoever of Bunn, himself. The man, along with artist Brian Hurt, who is more responsible than anyone for the vision of the Sixth Gun as a “thing” did not rate a single mention. It should be said, of course, that it may have been edited out and certainly Blacker knows Bunn as he’s mentioned him numerous times on other shows. I’m not saying – unequivocally – Bunn’s been given short shrift. However, they both mention Oni Press, the production company that holds development rights for all Oni Press offerings (“Closed on Mondays,” a division of Oni created back in ’03 if you’re curious.) and various other people associated with the project.

What I am saying about Cullen Bunn is simply this: He’s not up front – where a creator should be.

They just needed to move that pic of Cuse over the creator credit and it would have been perfect.

Without getting into Hickman-esque diagrams it’s clear that Cullen Bunn is down the ladder. Is he going to write any of this? Is he going to get a producer credit? Is this creation going to secure his working life – financially and creatively – for the foreseeable future? Have we been sold a bill of goods in the “Creator Owned” arena?

At it’s average, The Sixth Gun was selling under five thousand copies and he’s ending it at issue 50. According to Publisher’s Weekly that’s just Beer Money under most models. http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/comics/article/53365-the-kirkman-bendis-debates-four-years-later-creators-look-stronger.html

In the realm of “Creator Owned” not all contracts are written equally. For example, we have no idea how far Cullen’s creative rights extend to development in other media. Does he get to say what goes in and what stays out? Does he get to exercise final say over any decisions in regards to merchandise? In the link to his blog post above he mentions that the showrunners were “open to feedback.” Very reassuring.

What’s Oni’s mutated role in all this? They may be oh so happy to write a contract that gives creators control of a 3,000 issue-selling comic but does “Closed on Mondays” offer extended rights? Or is that a new raft of deals, reduced options and shares? As our own Abhay once opined:

THE SIXTH GUN is a comic book published by Oni Press. Oni Press is a comic publisher founded in 1997, and since 2003, it’s been the sister company to Closed on Mondays, a production company that Oni describes as “created specifically to help Oni Press creators and titles find life in mediums outside of comics” which “works closely with Oni creators and staff members to find [appropriate] creative partners.” Like other similarly situated comic companies, Oni refers to their comics as “creator-owned” — though when comic publishers have sister companies that work closely with creators, some people might find it a little fuzzier what creator-owned means exactly– or at least, it’s my limited understanding that reasonable minds might differ on that point. All the crowing and chest-puffing of this past year aside, the label “creator owned” on a comic seems sort of like the label “organic” on a box of cookiess– it’s not exactly clear to me what that means, and I don’t know if it’s a good idea for me to always assume what’s being sold is healthy just based on that label.

http://www.savagecritic.com/reviews/abhay-the-sixth-gun/

Hear, hear Mr. Khosla.

Contrast this position with that of one Robert Kirkman. A person, who since launching stage two of his career post-manifesto has, essentially, written the book on how to “get yours.” You can’t look at a thing that is Walking Dead without knowing Robert Kirkman made that choice. His was the power of “No.” Right from the outset he saw through a plan that got him dirty but left him free, clear and holding permanent rights to the kind of success Jack Kirby might only achieve in a fever dream.

Cullen Bunn, on the other hand, working with a loose definition of creator owned, a bright burning dream, a restrictive in house production company deal, and sub five thousand sales may well have felt his options were reduced to one simple, “Yes.”

Yes or No?

Quick addition to the piece:

One other thing that I forgot to mention in the piece is that “A series of mini-series” is the WORST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS.

See, what happens with POS systems is that they track “series” by an internal number assigned by Diamond called a series code.  However, each mini-series RESETS that series code, making it more difficult to track subscription orders, or to see changes in the series over time, etc. Things like, say, BPRD, which was producing at least 12 issues a year, but renumbering them every few months, didn’t show any native relationship to one another when looked up… unless the retailer took extra time and effort to “marry” (and edit!) the various series.

I know that for myself, a lot of time when I’m rushing to get the order form done in time, I’ll just “lowball” the next series rather than ordering precisely perfectly in the way that I would with an ongoing book. And why wouldn’t I? It is “just a mini-series”!

-B

See, everyone? I don’t blow every deadline, just some of the deadlines.

Anyway, we’re back (although SPOILER: we’re off next week again) with not quite two hours of Kirby talk, Ewing talk, and…three year old niece talk?  Um, I’m afraid the answer to all of those is: YES.  Join us after the jump for show notes, why don’t you?

0:00-2:35:  Hello again!  It has only been about two weeks but we are confoundingly rusty.
2:35-19:01:  And yet, within the first three minutes we are talking comics.  More specifically, we are talking the terrific Ethan Rilly’s Pope Hats #3, which Graeme found on the cheap while we were at the comic store together up in Portland.  We talk about it, the work of Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian; the Paul books by Michel Rabagliati; how it feels to be in the elite cadre of CE newsletter writers; the difficulty of digging through long boxes as you get old; the food in Portland; Vegan Viking — Portland food or Jack Kirby character?; the hero of World War II, Ken Dynamo: and more.
19:01-21:16: After some problems with his 2000 A.D. app, Jeff managed to get his subscription ironed out and was up to his neck in 2000 A.D.  And so in Part One of “this week in Al Ewing,” we rant about the Zombo strip in 2000 A.D.’s Free Comic Book Day issue, or do until an unexpected tech snag sends us instead into….
21:16-21:52:  INTERMISSION ONE!
21:52-24:19:  And we are back, with a story from Graeme about some hold music that is all about listening to music while on hold.  Meta.  And then about a company that has put the Star Trek logo onto an arrangement of atoms. Terrifying.
24:19-29:33:  But, yes. Back Al Ewing and Henry Flint’s fantastic Zombo story for the 2000 A.D. Free Comic Book Day story.  Also, Graeme was in the store during Free Comic Book Day and saw some eye-opening things.  (I mean, apart from comics.)
29:33-34:54:  Hey, Whatnauts:  care to help a brother out?  Jeff is looking for ideal comic books for his three year old niece that are age appropriate and feature female action heroes.  This segment talks about the stuff he’s looked at, the stuff he’s looking for, and how you can help.
34:54-54:08: And somehow this leads into Justice League of America #3.  Graeme has read a bunch of recent DC titles and comes away with a good feeling about the variety in the New 52′s line-up…or does he?  Included in the discussion:  the latest issue of Swamp Thing, Suicide Squad #20 by Ales Kot and Patrick Zircher; Ann Nocenti doing her thing on Katana; Jeff Lemire’s Green Arrow;  Batman & Robin, and more.  By contrast, Jeff read The Movement #1 and Action Comics #20, and was maybe not so positive about it.
54:08-59:59:  Part Two of “this week in Al Ewing”:  Graeme sells Jeff on Avengers Assemble #15AU, and Mr. Ewing’s latest novel, The Fictional Man.
59:59-1:07:22:  Also under Graeme’s magnifying lens, Gilbert Hernandez’s Julio’s Day and Paul Pope’s The Death of Haggard West.
1:07:22-1:07:43: Intermission Two!
1:07:43-1:16:16: Can you withstand the onslaught of….The Graemebot! And Jeff has a story of frustration–dire funny book frustration.  Family are involved. 1:16:16-1:28:09: Jeff has seen Iron Man 3 and talks about that a bit.  What about Jeff’s boycott?  He talks about that, too, as well as the weirdness that appears to the Avengers 2 negotiations and Marvel Studios.
1:28:09-1:32:46:  Which brings us to Graeme’s tweet about Marvel and Jack Kirby that was retweeted 645 times. The figures in Graeme’s tweet comes from the first issue of Comic Book Creator from Two Morrows Press, which we also talk about for a bit.
1:32:46-1:55:56: Speaking of Kirby, we discuss The Jack Kirby Omnibus Vol. 2, as well as the amazing “White Zero” issue of 2001: A Space Odyssey #5.  We discuss the first Super Powers miniseries, especially the last issue written and drawn by Kirby.
1:55:56-end: Closing comments.  Next week we have a skip week thing going on (again) but we make pledges! We make vows!  We take oaths! To try and give a good run of episodes for a bit.

As for the episode itself, well, hmm.  It probably hasn’t hit iTunes yet (although that RSS feed does seem to synch up quite nicely to it these days) but, as always, you are more than welcome to listen to it here:

Wait, What? Ep. 123: Assault Monitors

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