Podcast - Episode 66: Dave Spooks Rachelle

Did you miss us? We're back! And there's so much to talk about!

Did you guys watch that Rocky Horror Show thing on Fox last week? Oof. Not good. Rocky's shorts were a god damn hate crime:

Let's just erase that image with a little...

Oh yeah. That's the stuff.

And speaking of the stuff, here's that Chris Samnee cover for Black Widow no. 10 that made me DIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!!!!!

So cute! So exciting! So sexy!

Here's Spencer Tracy as Mr Hyde, looking basically better than I do most days:

Do check out Dave Tumblr so you can see all of his Fake Frights horror movie posters.

Happy Halloweeeeeeeeen everyone!!!

Podcast - Episode 63: Superhero Starting Points

Dave and I run through five characters this week, making recommendations for people who became interested in them through the movies or television, and are looking for good places to start with the comics. These are necessarily the best comics ever written about each character, but they are good, accessible stories that most likely give new fans what they are looking for.

Before we get to that, here is Sean "Wordburglar" Jordan's new music video!

Here are our recommendations:

CAPTAIN AMERICA

The entire Ed Brubaker run, which would be:

1. Winter Soldier
2. Red Menace
3. Captain America: Civil War
4. The Death of Captain America
5. The Man with No Face
6. Road to Reborn/Reborn
7. Two Americas
8. No Escape
9. The Trial of Captain America
10. Prisoner of War
11. Steve Rogers Super Soldier
12. Secret Avengers (Mission to Mars/Eye of the Dragon)
13. Fear Itself
14.  Captain America (relaunch) #1-19
15. Captain America & Bucky (The Life Story of Bucky Barnes/Old Wounds)
16. Winter Soldier solo series (#1-14)

So if you haven't read all of that already, get going! If you need to skip parts, we would suggest skipping Road to Reborn/Reborn. You don't really need to read Secret Avengers, either, but it's good.

Captain America: War and Remembrance by Roger Stern and John Byrne (now collected in an Epic Collection called Dawn's Early Light)

The Avengers: Epic Collection Earth's Mightiest Heroes by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Don Heck, et al.
This collects the first twenty issues of the original 1960s Avengers comics. It's very fun.

Captain America: Man Out of Time by Mark Waid and Jorge Molina
NOTE: I don't actually like this book all that much. But it is accessible, and gives fans of the movie version of the characters what they are looking for, more or less.

Captain America: the 1940s Newspaper Strip by Karl Kesel
This was collected in a book in 2010. It's out of print, but you can probably track down a copy one way or another. They are all on Marvel Unlimited as well.

Captain America and The Falcon by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and others
This is getting collected into Epic Collections. A few are out now. Mad Bomb is probably the most significant story to come out of this run.

SUPERMAN

The Geoff Johns run, which would be:

1. The Last Son of Krypton
2. Secret Origin
3. Brainiac
4. Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes
5. Escape from Bizarro World

I don't think it really matters what order you read these in, they were all kinda coming out at the same time. Some were dragged out while others filled in the space in between. It was confusing, but these are five great Superman books.

World's Finest by Dave Gibbons and Steve Rude

Birthright by Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu
NOTE: neither of us are crazy about this book, but it's good for new readers.

Superman For All Seasons by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale
Same note as above.

IRON MAN

The Matt Fraction/Salvador Larocca run, which would be:

1. The Five Nightmares
2. World's Most Wanted
3. Stark Disassembled
4. Stark Resilient
5. My Monsters
6. Unfixable
7. Demon
8. Long Way Down
9. The Future

Demon in a Bottle by David Michelinie, Bob Layton and John Romita
Again, we only sort of recommend this. And it's not even a real story arc exactly, but it is collected in a book with this title and if you want to see Tony Stark hit rock bottom, this is for you.

WOLVERINE

Wolverine (1982) by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller
It's kinda weird, but still holds up. Good especially if you're interested in Wolverine's connection to Japan.

Wolverine: Weapon X by Jason Aaron and Ron Garney
We both really love this run. I can't recommend it enough. It's collected into, I believe, three volumes.

Wolverine and the X-Men by Jason Aaron and various artists
This is a fantastic run that followed the Schism event, and Wolverine is the headmaster of the new Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. The school is staffed by other anti-Cyclops X-Men, including Kitty Pryde, Storm, Ice Man, Beast and more. There are, I think, eight volumes of this. And it's really the last appearance of Wolverine because he's been dead in the comics for awhile.

Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday
Wolverine is a bit of a background player in this one, but I think he's note perfect in the scenes he's in. It's collected into two books.

WONDER WOMAN

Who Is Wonder Woman? by Allan Heinberg and Terry Dodson
Cool series where Diana Prince is a secret agent with gorgeous Dodson art.

Current "Year One" run by Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott
Every other issue that is coming out right now is part of the "Year One" storyline and it's great.  

Wonder Woman: Earth One by Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette
It's a little weird, but it's an interesting examination of the character with beautiful art.

Wonder Woman run by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang
There are six volumes of this run, and it's pretty great. 

DC's The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke
Obviously.

Podcast - Episode 51: Kingdom Come

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:

MONSTER MAN from Heavy Water Studios on Vimeo.

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 Jun 15, 2016 at 5:21am PDT

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 - Epsiode 46: East Coast Comic Expo

It's the first ever Living Between Wednesdays road trip! Destination: Moncton, New Brunswick!

Ok, it wasn't much of a road trip. For one thing, we went on separate days in separate vehicles. For another, we really only hung out on Saturday night, after East Coast Comic Expo was over. But still!

This is a very chill episode, via Skype, because I was too tired to leave my house again after getting back. We talk about the many, many spoilers that have hit the internet for DC's Rebirth. We talk about Wonder Woman: Earth One, because we both finally got around to reading that this week. We talk about the first issue of Future Quest by Jeff Parker, Doc Shaner and Steve Rude (quite a line-up!). And this week sees the return of an organized This Week in Winter Soldier segment, in which I am amazed by Bucky's abilities to test the ripeness of plums with his metal fingers.

First of all, I feel like a complete ass because I forgot to mention the awesome Black Widow that Liz Mac drew for me at ECCE. Here is a slightly blurry image of it:

So cute!!!!

And here is the amazing Winter Soldier drawing that Andy Cotnam did for me! What an awesome surprise!!!

Here's Dave with the super rad Joe-Luis Garcia Lopez Wonder Woman piece that Nick Bradshaw scored for him:

So, yeah. We had a great time. Nick Bradshaw puts out a great spread!

Confession: Eating lobster is just an excuse to consume dinner rolls.

It was nice meeting everyone. Check out Kelly Tindall's work here, and Riley Rossmo's work here. 

Thanks for listening! Next week Dave and I are going to endure that X-Men Apocalypse movie for you.

Podcast - Episode 38: Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice

Man.

So we saw Batman v Superman and thankfully Dave and I didn't have to pay for it (thanks Cal!). Johnathan Munroe joins us this week and he DID have to pay for it (sorry Johnathan!).

Johnathan didn't hate the movie as much as Dave or myself, but he sure didn't like it. Dave couldn't find much to like in it, despite being optimistic going in, and I just hated it. HATED IT.

Here's the thing about Superman and Batman, guys. I mean, I didn't think we still needed to go over this after nearly 100 years of character development on these two, but here goes:

These are aspirational characters. They represent the best of humanity. Humanity. That's important to keep in mind. Because this movie has NONE. Here's what the characters should be:

Superman is all-powerful, but never scary. His goodness is what makes him a hero. He is better than us, but it was mostly learned here on Earth, his adopted home. His values come from Johnathan and Martha Kent, from his Kryptonian parents who made saving the life of their son their final act before dying, and from the wholesome naiveté of small town America. He doesn't need to help us, he doesn't even need to stay here, but he will because he believes in us.

The core of Batman's character is, and always needs to be, hope. He doesn't do what he does because he hates criminals. He does it because he wants humans to be better. And that is why it is so important that he doesn't kill. Ever. Even the most bloodthirsty criminals get a chance at reform and redemption.

Superman teaches us patience, kindness, humility, and concern for our fellow humans. Batman teaches us determination, perseverance, ingenuity, and sacrifice. Together they should be overwhelmingly inspirational, and anything but cynical.

So, anyway, this movie had none of that and was garbage.

Before we get to talking about that, we talk a bit about DC Rebirth, which you can Google, as well as Daredevil: season 2 (Dave finished it, and I am still only up to episode 4), and Jeremy Renner's announcement that he is totally down for a Hawkeye Netflix series.

Oh, and I saw The Bronze! And I really liked it! And I forgot to mention this on the podcast, but J.Bone drew some really great Lance Tucker art (that's Sebastian Stan's character in The Bronze, guys). Check it out:

It's crude and rude and Lance is nude. Have you seen #theBronze #lancetucker #sebastianstan #lancedance #jbone

A photo posted by J.Bone (@originaljbone) on Mar 26, 2016 at 1:10pm PDT

Sebastian's sex scene body double liked it! That's something!

I am exhausted from thinking about Batman v Superman. I am so glad it is behind me forever. Enjoy the episode! Warning: you can hear the sound of a cat barfing in the background. It's appropriate.

Podcast - Episode 14: Let's Settle This

Last week on the podcast I had the pleasure of getting Dave all angry when I suggested that Batman should maybe just kill the Joker. That got us thinking about other arguments and conversations that we never want to have again. So that's what the topic is this week. Yeah, it's a weird one, but it ends with Dave and I getting into a fight over Batman: Year Two. You don't want to miss that.

First we talk about some of the announcements that Marvel made about new or renewed ongoing series for 2016. We talk about Wesley Snipes' depressing campaign to make Blade 4 a thing. We talk about the study that showed that 53% of comic book readers are female. AND I finally got to talk about the shocking and delightful true origin of Red Skull. He was almost called HOT FUDGE, you guys! He was almost ICE CREAM-based!!!

Here are those concept sketches I did. I'm a very good artist:

Man, I wish Joe Simon had never noticed that cherry.

We also reveal the name I came up with for Jeremy Renner's possible secret album that he is maybe working on. And Dave made some great artwork. I couldn't choose one so here are all three.

I can't decide. Maybe number three? They all have a great Eddie Money vibe. I'm glad Dave did this because it saved me having to Google image search Jeremy Renner.

I pronounced Ta-Nahisi Coate's name incorrectly. It's actually Ta-Na-HAH-SI. I am trying a new thing, though, where I just give my best attempt at pronouncing names instead of being like "I don't know how to pronounce this!" because I have a weird name and I know what it's like to have people look at it and say "I'm not even gonna TRY with this one!" I hope I'm pronouncing Alti Firmasyah's name right. Honestly, I hope I'm saying Jeff Lemire's name right.

Dave wasn't lying about that Blade television series. 2006 on the Spike network, and it did indeed star Onyx's Sticky Fingaz! I don't know how I missed out on this whole thing. You can read about it here. Geoff Johns was one of the writers! It actually looks pretty fun. Sticky Fingaz looks great! You can watch the first part of the first episode here.

It wouldn't be a podcast blog post without Sebastian Stan content! Here is where you can watch his entire panel from Salt Lake Comic Con:

I do recommend searching Tumblr for all the fan photo op pictures with Sebastian Stan and/or Chris Evans. A lot of lucky people got to pay money to lay their hands on those men.

Oh, and since I was talking about 1872 this week, here's a cool fan thing someone made about 1872 Natasha and Bucky. It was reblogged on Tumblr by 1872 artist, Nik Virella:

If you are interested in reading my 2009 rant defending Wonder Woman, you can find it here. Nothing makes me angrier faster than someone saying that Wonder Woman is lame. You made an enemy for life, Megan Fox.

Here's the thing, guys. Dave is wrong about Batman: Year Two. It sucks. I put forward a very compelling argument against it way back in 2006. I guess that's what I was doing instead of watching the Blade tv series.

Haha! She who controls the blog gets the last word on Batman: Year Two! Eat it, Dave! Eat it forever!

Just kidding Dave. Please don't draw The Reaper in my sketchbook.

Oh and hey, guess what? It looks like next week's episode WILL be the Age of Ultron one after all! Our good friend Tiina Johns will be joining us! We're gonna eat pizza, drink beer, watch the movie, and record the episode immediately after! It will be awesome!