Podcast - Episode 54: Batman: Hush

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Oh man. It's the one you've been waiting for. Or, the one we've been waiting for anyway. The 12-issue Jeph Loeb/Jim Lee hot mess that you can't help but love, Batman: Hush!

Just a couple of things real quick before I post some helpful Hush images.

Here is the link to the interview where Sebastian Stan talks about over-doing it on the bulking up for Civil War. It's from the GQ Style interview that I posted a few weeks ago. Here's that specific part of that Q&A:

He's wrong about the fitted jeans not looking good anymore.

Here's a Nicola Scott tweet, acknowledging that Beefcake Steve Trevor is the best Steve Trevor:

Ok, all aboard the crazy train to Hush station!

First, this is that double page spread I was trying to describe where Batman is looking, um, pretty busy but still has a hard time staying focused (based on his rambling interior monologue). 

And this is a great example of what Jim Lee thinks appropriate business attire for women is:

Poor, poor Lois.

And here is Bruce Wayne using his excellent detective skills, first noticing the subtle changes in the opera performance he's attending with Selina:

And here he is determining that the man in his arms with a hole in his forehead is DEAD:

Oh, Batman: Hush. You are the best.

I am sure I forgot to mention many things in our conversation about this. I mean, I know for sure that I forgot to mention the fact that Bruce Wayne borrows Lois Lane's work computer to OPEN UP A CHAT ROOM TO TALK SECRETLY TO ORACLE!!!!

This comic, you guys.

Ok, so Dave and I are taking a week off while he goes to SDCC, and then we'll be back to talk about Doctor Strange: The Oath.

Podcast - Episode 53: Wilson

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Week three of the book club and we are talking about Wilson by Daniel Clowes! Because we can't talk about super heroes all the time!

We do talk about super heroes a lot in this episode, though. We read a whole lot of comics that we discuss, including Sam Wilson Captain America #11, Batman #2, Superman #1, Justice League #1, The Fix #4, Green Arrow #2, Green Lanterns #2 and more!

We also talk about the statue of (Steve Rogers) Captain America that is going to be installed in Brooklyn to commemorate the character's 75th anniversary (and, um, 5th year of being from Brooklyn). You can read more about that here. Here is the image of the concept for the statue:

"I'm just a kid from Brooklyn." Alright. Whatever. Fine.

But just imagine a statue based on Kirby's art in the Lower East Side. Right? Right?

Anyway.

Here's that hilarious "candid" photo of true, real, authentic, unstaged love from Taylor Swift's Fouth of July party:

Ryan Reynolds in that photo is my favourite thing.

And here's that Tom Holland selfie from the set of Spider-Man:

I'm gonna keep this post short because I am writing it way in advance before I leave for NYC.  I recommend listening to the Daniel Clowes interview on the WTF podcast with Marc Maron. And please do read (or re-read) Batman: Hush for next week because we have so much to say about it. We are very excited to talk about this one.

Podcast - Episode 51: Kingdom Come

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It's the first week of the Living Between Wednesdays Summer Book Club!

We're kicking things off with the 1996 DC Elseworlds event, Kingdom Come, by Mark Waid and Alex Ross. It's pretty! It's dark! It has everyone! It inspired Jay-Z to return to hip hop (don't tell me I'm wrong about this, I don't want to know)!

Before we get to all that, we cover a few news items.

We talk a bit about the tragic and very sudden passing on Anton Yelchin. Man, what a devastating thing. It's going to make it really hard to watch that new Star Trek movie.

I mention that Yelchin had a memorable role on ER as a child. Here's a screengrab of that:

Awww. 

If you want to read about the unending hell that was the Suicide Squad set, io9 has a pretty good list here.

Here is the Key and Peele sketch about Ray Parker Jr. It cracks me up every time. Especially when 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch' scrolls up the screen.

I would post a link to some stuff about the Justice League set visit, but, nah.

We talk a bit about race in comics, and the lack of available comics by Black creators in particular. Also, the weird kinda racist depiction of Black super heroes in many comics. There is a really good piece about Black representation in comics and the death of James Rhodes by Thaddeus Howze here.

I don't even think we got into how messed up it is that Rhodes was killed (another Civil War starting with the death of a Black super hero), or the fact that almost no one is talking about it (the death of a Black hero is not as interesting as a white hero being a fake Nazi, I guess). We mostly talk about the weird racist meeting of all the Black heroes in Sam Wilson Captain America last week.

You can't watch Arty, the film that Dave is in, online yet, but you CAN watch the brand new documentary short, Monster Man, also directed by Nathan Boone, right here:

I'm not going to link to the Captain America porn, but here's a promo image to give you an idea:

I forgot to mention that Bucky does not have a metal arm in this porn. That's weird, right? I expect better attention to detail to be paid in my pornographic entertainment.

And if you want some softcore, here is a legit video of Sebastian Stan working out recently, posted by his friend (and trainer, I think?). Or, rather, here is a version that a fan edited so it's just Sebastian moments:

And if you want more Sebastian Stan (yes), here is the Q&A he did in GQ Style.

And if you want to see some super awesome Stucky art by J.Bone, check this out:

For real this time #stucky #captainamerica #wintersoldier #winterschildren #jbone

A photo posted by J.Bone (@originaljbone) on

Shriek!!!! I can't believe I didn't post this sooner!

J's Rocketeer comic comes out today, and I have it on good authority (his) that Steve and Bucky are hiding in the background somewhere.

Alright, let's get to Kingdom Come!

It's my boys! And my girl!

It was fun revisiting this book this week. I hadn't read it in awhile. And I am always here for silver fox Bruce Wayne:

And, um, shirtless farmer Superman:

Dave asked why people refer to this book as fanfic, and I don't think I explained it very well when we recorded. Basically, although, yes, all fiction written about characters that you didn't create and don't own is technically fanfic, this particular book contains more tropes of traditional fanfic than most (really, most of the Elseworlds did). This is what you might call a canon-divergent dark fic. Besides the premise, and the fact that, as I say, every character ever is worked in there somewhere, there is also the whole Alex Ross's-dad-as-original-character thing, the Superman/Wonder Woman thing, the pregnancy super happy ending thing...frankly that entire scene at the Planet Krypton restaurant read like fanfic. I'm saying this as someone who has read a lot of fanfic and a lot of comics. Some just seem more similar than others.

This would be the archive details for Kingdom Come, were it published online as fanfic:

Rating: T

Archive Warning: Major character death, 

Category: M/F

Fandoms: DC Comics (All), Superman (comics), Batman (comics), Wonder Woman (comics), Justice League of America (comics), Captain Marvel (DC)

Relationships: Superman/Wonder Woman, Superman & Batman, Batman & Wonder Woman, OC (male) & Spectre

Characters: Superman (Clark Kent), Batman (Bruce Wayne), Wonder Woman (Diana Prince), Captain Marvel (Billy Batson), Spectre, OC (male), Lex Luthor, The Flash (Wally West), Aquaman (Arthur Curry), Blue Beatle (Ted Kord), Green Arrow (Oliver Queen), Black Canary (Dinah Lance), Green Lantern (Alan Scott), Power Woman, various OCs

Additional Tags: Future fic, dark future, retired Superman, religion, Superman needs a hug, Batman is a bamf, Wonder Woman is a bamf, brainwashing, pregnancy, mortality, first kiss, major character death, eventual happy ending

Summary: OMG, idk. This was suppose to be a super short scene and it totally got away from me! Can't shut the muses up LOL! Set in the future, Superman has retired and the Justice League has been replaced by younger, more violent heroes. Lots of angst but a happy ending! I just really wanted to see Superman and Wonder Woman kiss! *hides* Possible prequel coming!

OK, and I looked into it. There have been a couple of female writers of Batman and Detective Comics, but very few issues written by them. As far as I could find, Devin Grayson wrote two issues of Batman and two issues of Detective Comics, and at least part of one Batman Annual. Louise Simonson wrote three issues of Detective Comics and at least part of one Detective Comics Annual. And I think...that's...it. At least for Batman and Detective Comics proper. Becky Cloonan was indeed the first woman to draw an issue of Batman. IN 2012!!!!! And...I don't think there has been one since? Correct me if I'm wrong?

So when I say it's challenging to find a lot of classic mainstream super hero comics by female creators, I mean it's VERY challenging. I'm glad to see that changing finally.

Sadly, there is no video feed or any information at all to confirm the rumours of the physical altercation between Waid and Ross at ComicCon but please please PLEASE be real. Dave thinks it would look a lot like the fighting you see in this trailer:

Alright, next week we are talking about Gerry Conway and Ross Andru's Spider-Man: The Original Clone Saga. It's a long one! Get reading, everyone! I still haven't unlocked Spider-Man in my Avengers Academy game!

Podcast - Episode 50: Our Secret Origin/Book Club Launch!

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Hey! It's our 50th episode! Wow!

First of all, I apologize for the weird sound. I don't know why, but Dave and I both sound like we're recording via Skype, when in fact both of us were in the same room using my very nice microphones and mixing board. I did my best trying to fix it in post, but it's still not great.

But anyway, 50th episode!!!!

To celebrate, we decided to share our secret origin stories (how we got into comics and super heroes). And we also announce the launch of the Living Between Wednesdays Summer Book Club!

We encourage you to read along with us for the next ten episodes! Here is the schedule, starting with next week's episode:

June 29th: Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross

July 6th: Spider-Man: The Original Clone Saga by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru

July 13th: Wilson by Daniel Clowes

July 20th: Batman: Hush by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee

July 27th: Doctor Strange: The Oath by Brian K Vaughan and Marcos Martin

August 3rd: Cosmic Odyssey by Jim Starlin and Mike Mignola

August 9th: Copra: Round One by Michele Fiffe

August 17th: Batgirl: Year One/Robin: Year One by Chuck Dixon, Scott Beatty, Marcos Martin and Javier Pulido

August 24th: Captain America: Man Without a Country by Mark Waid and Ron Garney

August 31st: DC: The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke

Please join us as we talk about some awesome comics all summer!

I'll leave you now with some of the crazy things Dave and I listed as influences on this week's podcast:

The 1980s 'I am Astar, a Robot' War Amputations of Canada PSA

CBC Halifax's Switchback

Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue

Archies: Return to Riverdale

M.A.S.K.

I could not find any evidence of a Little Lulu live action television movie. I assume it was a fever dream Dave had. Prove me wrong, internet!

Podcast - Episode 48: Controversial Comics with Cal Johnston

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Comics have a long, proud history of dropping crazy stories on their readers. Some of these created a bit of a stir at the time. Sometimes that stir moved beyond the comic fandom and into mainstream media. And sometimes a comic that didn't cause much controversy at the time...just doesn't age well.

Dave is away this week but I was lucky enough to be joined by Cal Johnston, owner of Strange Adventures comic shops here in Halifax/Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Strange Adventures are amazing comic book shops, and Cal is an awesome guy. I do owe a lot of my love of comics to Cal and Dave and the welcoming nature of Strange Adventures. Cal is very enthusiastic about comics, and shares his love of them in many awesome ways, from being incredibly generous on Free Comic Book Day, to organizing and financing DCAF, a free one-day comic fest that happens in Dartmouth every August. He has also helped the careers of several cartoonists, and is the cornerstone of the local comic scene here. Cal rules!

As I mention on this podcast, if you would like to learn more about Cal and his stores, you should listen to him on Sean Jordan's podcast, Weekend At Burgie's.

I mention a few good tweets from the comic book world this past week. You should read the entire thread of tweets from Kurt Busiek here.

And Gerry Conway had a bunch of great tweets on white male privilege, like this one:

Gerry Conway, as it turns out, might be the most woke dude on Twitter (did I say that right?).

I also really enjoyed this Nick Spencer tweet:

Thanks for listening! 

Podcast - Episode 47: Comics in the Age of Social Media

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Hi guys!

Whoosh! What a week! I'm releasing this episode a day early!

I don't even have that much to write this week because I've pretty much said it all in this blog post I wrote last week:

A Defence of Nick Spencer From Someone Who Loves Captain America and Hates Hate

And if I didn't say it there, I certainly said it in the comments section of that post, or on Twitter, or in this episode of the podcast. Dave and I just talk for 90 minutes straight about all of this (with some actual thoughts on the actual content of the comics at the end).

But I did just want to clearly state a few things here in list format that I believe (not gonna speak for Dave, but he probably agrees):

  1. Fan entitlement and outrage is a real problem that does, and has always, existed as long as there have been things to be fans of;
  2. This does not mean that fictional characters aren't important, or that people cannot have strong feelings about them and what they do in fictional stories;
  3. The non-white, non-straight, and non-male population is still VERY underrepresented in pop culture and that does need to be addressed by the creators of entertainment, and fans have every right to get loud about that;
  4. BUT this does not mean that writers/directors/publishers/studios are not allowed to tell the stories they want to tell with the characters they own;
  5. Difficult subject matter is absolutely allowed to exist in fiction and SHOULD exist;
  6. BUT it's ok for someone to be offended or uncomfortable about it, or to choose not to consume that particular story/show/movie. It's ok for that person to explain why they feel that way without being dismissed. Everyone has valid points in any argument;
  7. BUT those fans who are upset about something that is happening in a fictional story can't dismiss that a lot of other fans are not bothered by it, and may even love it, and that this doesn't mean those fans who like it are bad people;
  8. Loudly judging a long-format, serialized story based on the first chapter doesn't make a lot of sense;
  9. Threats are always, always bad. So are false accusations and willful ignorance. Less yelling and more listening/discussion is a good idea;
  10. Nick Spencer is a good writer and has earned the right to tell this story.

Enjoy the episode! I think it's a good one. Dave and I had a really great discussion that covered a lot of issues. And if you don't know what happened last week, I open with a timeline to bring people up to speed.

As always, I welcome questions on this blog, or you can Tweet at us or hit us up on Facebook!