Podcast - Episode 145: The Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank

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Week two of the summer book club! In anticipation of Garth Ennis's appearance at Strange Adventures on July 7, we read the 2000 Ennis and Steve Dillon series, The Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank.

Compared to what's happening in the world these days, it's a light, summer read.

Next week we will be taking a break from the book club to talk about Ant-Man and The Wasp! See you then!

Podcast - Episode 37: Batman LOVES Superman!

With Batman vs Superman: The Dawn of Justice looming, Dave and I decided to cheer ourselves up by talking about some of our favourite comics that feature both Superman and Batman.

But first! Here is that comment Sebastian Stan left on Instagram that explained the contents of Bucky's backpack/destroyed us all:

Ohhhh godddddddd. This movie!!!!! Who will remove my corpse from the theatre?!

If you want to find out if Sebastian Stan is your soulmate, you can take the BuzzFeed quiz but there is no point because he is MY soulmate.

MINE!

Oof. Those biceps. Anyway.

Here are some links to some old (so very old, holy smokes) blog posts I wrote about some of the comics we talk about in this episode.

World's Finest #302 back-up by David Anthony Kraft and David Mazzucchelli. I have the entire five-page comic posted here, with commentary. It's seriously one of my favourite things ever published.

World's Finest Annual #9 (final two pages) by Elliot S. Maggin and Alex Toth. I posted the entire hot dog vendor prank part of this comic at the end of the blog post here, which was mostly about Action Comics #241, which is one of my favourite Superman/Batman stories ever.

Brave & The Bold #150 by Bob Haney and Jim Aparo. Remember when you are looking at these panels, the goon who is beating the life out of Bruce Wayne is actually Superman.

I've done a couple of posts about the Super Sons, which you can see here and here.

World's Finest #71 by Alvin Schwartz and Curt Swan. You just have to read this comic to believe it. It's so crazy. Here's that panel of the slumped, silent Superman-in-a-Batman-suit, after being knocked out by Kryptonite:

That will never not crack me up.

World's Finest by Dave Gibbons and Steve Rude. I have the little Christmas gift scene posted in its entirety here.

Lois Lane #89 by Leo Dorfman and Curt Swan. Lois marries Bruce Wayne without knowing he's Batman! She's marrying him for HIM! Just an ordinary billionaire hunk!

World’s Finest #189 by Cary Bates and Ross Andru. Superman dies and leaves Batman the gift of unnecessary surgery.

And here is the bonus issue of World's Finest I mention where Batman and Superman get sick of Earth and decide to start a new life in space. Oh, Bob Haney. I love you.

Alright, we are off to watch Superman kill Batman or whatever tonight. We'll let you know what we think next week! Thanks for listening!

Cursed Linear Flow of Time...

So: I've recently been enjoying both the rip-roaring good times of TV's Breaking Bad and the fun-filled romps of early 90s Punisher comics. In general, these activities have increased my quality of life, but today, in one of those once-in-a-lifetime cosmic realizations that can really ruin an afternoon, I was made aware that the world had missed out on a magical crossover opportunity:

Now, the actual story involves the Punisher getting mixed up with a biker gang/eco-protest group named the Satan's Lords (And their cranked-up leader Hec, who drove the point home by snorting meth off of a Bowie knife and turng on his closest advisors, the cad), but imagine a world in which twenty-plus years wasn't an insurmountable obstacle to creative works interacting with one another.

Picture this world, and now picture an extra narration box on the page above, one that begins, "Word has it that there's a new player on the Arizona meth scene, a mystery man named Heisenburg..."