episode 023: best of 2013

alec and joey return again to reflect on what comics they enjoyed in the year 2013. hear them sound like a couple of stoned teenagers as they discuss batman incorporated by grant morrison and chris burnham, pompeii by frank santoro, battling boy by paul pope, life zone by simon hanselmann, the end of the fucking world by charles forsman, backyard by sam alden, household by sam alden, training by josh simmons, fatale by ed brubaker and sean phillips, sex by joe casey and piotr kowalski, satellite sam by matt fraction and howard chaykin, the manhattan projects by jonathan hickman and nick pitarra, sky in stereo #2 by mardou, fury max by garth ennis and goran parlov, change by ales kot and morgan jeske, jupiter's legacy by mark millar and frank quitely, copra by michel fiffe, 3 new stories by dash shaw, new school by dash shaw, lose #5 by michael deforge, optic nerve #13 by adrian tomine, internet comics by mare odomo, young avengers by kieron gillen and jamie mckelvie, so long silver screen by blutch, and more.

music by a$ap ferg

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diary of a guttersnipe 03/11/2013: an old man walks into the streets..

by Shawn Starr

It’s Joey Aulisio's birthday! To celebrate, here's some drivel.....

Mini-Reviews

Guardians Of The Galaxy # 0.1 (Marvel)
by Brian Michael Bendis, Steve McNiven, John Dell III, Justin Ponsor

I'm pretty sure everyone has read a comic or seen a movie that was meant to make you shed a tear (just a single one though). These kind of things tend to have a 50/50 work/fail ratio on me because deep down i’m a big baby who was not hugged enough as a child or something, but 'Guardians Of The Galaxy' is not one of those instances.

Instead it comes off as twenty pages of “i wish I knew my daddy” with a macho revenge ending that makes you groan with cliche. It seems a lot of writers like to apply these themes of empathy and revenge to one-shots, everyone want’s to make a comic where Clint Eastwood’s papa hit him at the start, but he staves off those demons of abuse until some rapscallion kills his wife and Clint finally catches up with them and unleashes all that rage. Maybe a bottle of whiskey is involved. And spitting, definitely spitting.

(God, did you guys see the end of "Unforgiven" ? That scene still gives me chills.)

Anyways, our Clint in this scenario is some kid whose mom let some alien (who looks unnaturally like a human, convergent evolution towards Homo-Sapien characteristics in the Marvel Universe is insanely prolific) knock her up after he crash landed in her backyard. It turns out there's some space war going on and he’s actually royalty so the “bad” aliens come and try and off him as a child (to sever the royal bloodline) but all they do is kill his mother and make him mad.

Flash forward 20 years and you find out this whole story has actually been him talking to Iron Man and then we get a little box at the bottom saying  “To Be Continued in...Guardians of the Galaxy #1!”

So i guess this will never be mentioned again.

Sex #1 (Image)
by Joe Casey, Piotr Kowalski, Brad Simpson, Rus Wooton

A fine first issue.

Batman Incorporated #8 (DC)
by Grant Morrison, Chris Burnham, Jason Masters, Nathan Fairbairn

If Grant Morrison's only decent issue of 'Action Comics' taught anyone anything it's that you can't kill IP (intellectual property for you laymen), so his sudden attempt at killing off the past five to ten years of his Batman “creations” over the past eight issues kind of rings hollow. Sure Damien is dead, or seems to be, I didn't see no casket so the jury's still out, but his value is found in his existence, which makes his supposed death all the more sorry, because he will be back, the market demands it!

Young Avengers #2 (Marvel)
by Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, Mike Norton, Matt Wilson

This opening arc seems like it should be taking place about twenty issues into the run. Instead of focusing on bringing the team together, we have two issues devoted to two character's relationship (Wiccan / Hulkling) that only really makes sense if you have read the run involving those characters previous relationship that took place over the course of  five years and two mini-series. It’s an interesting enough story, it's just that there is no real ground to stand on if you’re not into 15 pages of teenagers talking about their relationship, and five-one page updates on the rest of the team who we aren't going to meet for a while.

Hellboy In Hell #4 (Dark Horse)
by Mike Mignola, Dave Stewart

Ahhhh, yeah, That's my Mignola!

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Other things James Stokoe has ruined in Mark Andrew Smith’s life:

. His amateur ATV career.

. His Mighty Morphin Power Rangers themed sushi restaurant.

. His patent on a blanket that also doubles as a hat (he would never have to be referred to as a school teacher again!).

. His run at the Guinness Book of World Records for most names in a single name.

. His album of J-Pop inspired Johnny Cash covers.

. His network sitcom.

. His credibility.

. His collection of animals in Kangaroo pouches figurines.

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links

ECCC decided to post the majority of their panels online, some for pay and some for free, luckily the only one that mattered fell into the “free” category ‘Putting the “Graphic” in Graphic Novels’ features smut luminary Howard Chaykin (fresh off the completion of 'Black Kiss 2', a comic about how fucked up the movie industry really is + trannies) and recent newcomer and rising post-porn star Brandon Graham ('Pillow Fight', 'Perverts Of The Unknown') along with Matt Fraction and Joe Casey who kind of tangentially relate to the field insofar as they write comics with the words “sex” in the title and they needed to fill out the panel (Also present was Fiona Staples which makes zero sense, if 'Saga', just for showing tits and balls, counts as a sex comic i need to reevaluate a lot of things in my life). As with all things, Chaykin, Casey and Graham provide all the highlights, the real blockbuster reveal on the panel turns up about two thirds the way through where Howard Chaykin, yes THEE Howard Chaykin, tells everyone he was a camp counselor at one point.

Joey and Chad Nevett did something of a audio variety but won’t tell me what it was. I am annoyed.

I guess MOCCA is now the cool place to be in the month of April, i thank MOCCA for letting me in on that fact well past the point of me being able to attend. Seriously, you have DeForge and Forsman at your con and your only press announcement is “that guy who draws the retarded clown comics is coming” ? What did you want me to think MOCCA? WHAT?

Jonny Negron: "For me, [my imagery is] not as shocking. I’ve exposed myself to so much outsider art or alternative art that a lot of that stuff is not that obscene to me. I draw what I draw because I know that it will cause some kind of reaction for the viewer.”

Have i linked this before? I don’t know, but Michael DeForge's entire 'Ant Comic' series has been compiled in a single page for your viewing pleasure. Those are some fine comics.

The John Darnielle WTF podcast was very good, although i’d suggest a large quantity of alcohol be on hand while listening to it

After seeing the newest 'League Of Extraordinary Gentleman', I’m not sure why they did not also use this hardcover format for their Century titles.

Toren Smith died, from my understanding he was a major figure in the early US Manga movement, particularly in translating some major works. That is sad news. Also in other sad news Kim Thompson has lung cancer, comics would not be the same without him.

Tom Spurgeon’s ECCC con report. Along with interviewing Gary Groth.

Chris Sprouse removed himself from that bigot Orson Scott Card's Superman script due to media attention; because that's how moral stands are made, via complaining about unwanted attention. The fucking coward.

diary of a guttersnipe 10/22/2012: it's called topicality! (do you think i'm handsome, no really...do you?)

by Shawn Starr

This week in Diary of a Guttersnipe we talk about the recent crop of announcements at NYCC with Joey Aulisio (aka “The Guy Who Runs The Site”) and then i do some other stuff.

SO READ ON, MY DEAR READER!

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PIMP

Glenn Danzig: Was it great going from Marvel to DC and getting that much freedom?

Jack Kirby: I didn't get it, I took it.

AS A CANDYBAR!

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-----(((((((("We've been grateful that [you've] found other writers to fill words"))))))))------

SHAWN STARR: Well New York Comic Con happened!

I think it's fair to say Image won NYCC this year, or won as much as any comics publisher can “win” a con that is primarily devoted to pandering towards film and television fans, announcing a strong lineup of old favorites and interesting newcomers.

Its amazing that not even a year ago the thought of Image being a dominant force in the market was preposterous. Fuck I’m pretty sure Dark Horse was beating them in market share last year (or were very close) and the only thing of value at Dark Horse is Mike Mignola’s Hellboy Universe and those overpriced Milo Manara collections, and now Image is the home of just about every major writer in mainstream comics and a healthy portion of its top artists (they may even be publishing the best “mainstream” book of the year in 'Prophet'.)

Imagine if the 'DC New 52' had the same lineups as Image this year? I would probably still be buying a DC “proper” book besides 'Batman Inc.' (and even that was more a legacy title).

New Howard Chaykin always has me excited, Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky's ‘Sex Criminals’ spiked some interest too following Fraction's recent creative renaissance (Casanova/Hawkeye) along with Kieron Gillen and Ryan Kelly's ‘Three’ which seems like a collaboration that has taken far too long to occur. So which books jumped out at you?

JOEY AULISIO: Yes, NYCC did happen, and this was the first year i did not attend it since 2007. On Thursday I was starting to get a little bummed that i was not going and then once i saw this...

...i was 100% certain i made the right decision not to attend.

But yes i would agree that Image certainly “won” the con once again in terms of announcements, and it does not look like any other publisher is going to challenge that crown for quite a while. The three books you mentioned in particular were certainly standouts among a handful of others.

Chaykin’s ‘Midnight Of The Soul’ sounds like the exact kind of book i want to read right now. It’s hitting all the Chaykin checkpoints so far, Noir mood, 40’s-50’s period setting, takes place in NY, alcohol is involved, and i am sure someone is getting shot and/or fucked at some point. There’s also a parallel universe involved to boot! ‘Black Kiss 2’ has mostly been a fun exercise in excess and depravity so far, but i think this series is probably the one to really pay attention to. I predict it will be the book Generation Wuss will be having a shit-fit over next year but it will be probably be in my Top 5 of 2013.

I notice Matt Fraction seems to be on the explicit tip more than usual lately judging from the books he has announced from Image so far. That murder mystery book he announced with Chaykin back at SDCC looked to be more on the skeevier side of things (Chaykin is drawing it so it will feel like that regardless), and this book literally is about people who have sex to stop time and then commit crimes, so if he wanted to shed his “Marvel hack” image, i guess this is a start. Like you said though it does seem like Fraction has had a creative renaissance recently between the most recent volume of ‘Casanova’ (which came off rather brilliant on a re-read) and the solid work on 'Hawkeye' (and 'FF' from the looks of it), i am more excited to read these now than i would a year or two back. Both Fraction and Zdarsky come off as those annoying kids in the back of the class who won’t shut the fuck up on twitter, but they do make some pretty great comics from time to time.

I agree that Kieron Gillen and Ryan Kelly collaborating on a book does seem like one of those “this should've happened already” things and i am glad that they decided to come together especially on an original book. The fact that it is a book about Spartans and war threw me off at first but then i remembered that the creative team worked on both ‘Thor’ and ‘Northlanders’ respectively, now it makes more sense. I also like how Gillen described the genesis of this book, as being both a response and appreciation of Frank Miller’s seminal masterpiece ‘300’. Personally, i find it more entertaining and interesting when creators critique each other through their work as opposed to other means, that’s how we get better in a ‘call-and-answer” medium. I do also have to wonder if this was also the book Gillen has been saying was coming from Avatar Press for years, if so my eyes are thankful Image and Ryan Kelly picked up the ball on that one.

Staying on Image announcements though, it seemed like Jonathan Hickman and Ales Kot were certainly the most prolific and ambitious in what they announced. It looks like the Hickman written and drawn book 'Feel Better Now' is finally getting a release as well as a new sci-fi western series with artist Nick Dragotta called 'East and West', While Kot announced the books 'Zero' (featuring like 10+ artists) and 'The Surface' with Langdon Foss on art. Any of these happen to spark any interest for you ?

SHAWN STARR: Yeah that floor makes me want to have a panic attack.

Howard Chaykin seems like the definitive “fuck generation wuss” comic writer/artist. For a man enamoured with Jazz and the 50’s (both for machismo and style), it is fascinating that he can still elicit such a strong response in 2012 for his content, you’d figure we would be past it, or at least see it more as scandalising than content, but that's what makes 'Black Kiss 2' so strong, Chaykin is able to write a book which smears decades worth of romanticism of Old Hollywood, the French Resistance, the Titanic and fucking Disneyland by turning them into these bastions of exploitation and violence, but also subtlety use it as a critique on the American Dream and its acceptance of sex/violence.

So yeah, Chaykin and alcoholic bikers in the 1950’s sounds amazing or awesome, whichever one is more “critically” minded.

(I hope it’s in black and white and everyone dies or gets fucked though.)

The two Hickman books sound strong, Nick Dragotta is one of Marvel’s best artists whenever he shows up on 'FF'. My only complaint is that the “high concept” sounds so “high concept” that it avoids any possible discussion as to what it is actually about. Seriously what does “[A] sci-fi/western hybrid about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse's mission to kill the President of the United States.” even mean at this point in time? It’s so “AWESOME” to be rendered meaningless.

New Hickman art is interesting, i'm fascinated as to what a couple years of only writing Marvel Comics has done to his style (aka his Graphic Designing) since we’ve never actually seen one of the “Marvel” guys draw a book after becoming a “Marvel” guy (Bendis, Brubaker, Remender). Does he still have it? I’d like to see (My guess is no, but as always I would like to be proved wrong).

Ales Kot is one of those guys i’m fascinated by, he’s only had one book out (to my knowledge) which is 'Wild Children', which i think worked well enough as a piece of political comics writing; not “political” in the sense of normal “politics” (aka Republican/Democrat) but as a manifesto on comics as a medium, something akin to 'Promethea'. That said it was clearly modeled after political writers and their need to constantly write a “fictitious” story around their ideas (Fathers and Sons/Thus Spoke Zarathustra/Anthem) and their failure to understand that an actual story needs to occur in their essays (except in the case of Orwell, because well he’s Orwell and the dude can write).

'Zero' seems so ambitious as to be either a total failure in every aspect or a landmark comic. Can’t wait to see which it will be. That's one thing i have to give to Kot, the man does not take half steps - every one of his comic(s) end up being a swing for the fences, which i have to respect (His acceptance of this fact, and its natural polarization among critics and readers is even more admirable, as opposed to Morrison's recent bout of condescendence, valid or not).

Image’s big get this con seems to be Paul Pope's 'One-Trick Rip-Off'; a title originally set to be published by Legendary, which brings up the (unanswerable) question of what happened with Legendary? 'One-Trick Rip-Off' has already been solicited for a January release so it had to be in a late stage of development/production at Legendary, and along with Jamie Grant's coloring (which Image, however flush with 'The Walking Dead' cash, could never possibly afford) seems to point towards a colossal fuck up on their part.

Anyways, new Paul Pope is always a good thing.

Which brings me to a question about Legendary as a publisher, they seem to want to be making “pitch books” for their movie studio counterpart, but so far they have only published 'Holy Terror' which is really and truly "unfilmable", and their recent crop of announcements do not look much better in that respect. The description for the new Grant Morrison book 'Annihilator' reads like a Michael Bay script that someone forced Charlie Kaufman to write under threat of death (or in Kaufman’s case probably a heart to heart with his mother). Which brings us back to the question of what is the point of this comic for Legendary, since "Adaptation" was, while a critical hit (primarily because of Kaufman, or only because of Kaufman), a financial wash. It really seems like a book a post-Animal Man Morrison would produce, which means i will read it, and then be disappointed in it not being 'Animal Man' or 'Doom Patrol' like i am with every Morrison book nowadays.

Legendary announced some other comics right? I didn't read the whole press release since it was long, but i saw Del Toro’s name which seems interesting (I wonder if in two or three years we will be looking at Legendary as another Tundra? Only with less sympathy since seriously fuck Hollywood).

JOEY AULISIO: Legendary the studio brought us “The Dark Knight’ trilogy so i am forever grateful (but they also helped unleash Zack Snyder on the world which is an unforgivable act),

Legendary the publisher really just has a series of announcements under their belt and not much else. I loved ‘Holy Terror’ and was really happy someone had the balls to release it and especially throw that much promotion behind it. They recently released the first part of a collaboration with Matt Wagner and Simon Bisley but other than that nothing has actually showed up in a store. Of the stuff they announced this go around, I think the Grant Morrison book ‘Annihilator’ definitely sounds interesting, and i trust Morrison a lot more with those “run on sentence high concept ideas” than almost anybody else. No mention of an artist yet though unless it is Morrison himself, and if so, Legendary clearly won the con then.

The Guillermo Del Toro book is just a prequel to his upcoming film “Pacific Rim” (of which Legendary is the studio funding), so in other words probably a waste of time, but then again the Del Toro project at Dark Horse right now ‘The Strain’ has a great team on it and is actually a really entertaining read, so who knows? Maybe Del Toro is one of the few Hollywood guys who actually does give a shit if books with his name on it are actually good.

Speaking of Dark Horse though, they had two pretty intriguing announcements which seemed to fly under the radar a bit. The first was that the long awaited book from Gerard Way and Becky Cloonan “The Fabulous Killjoys” looks to finally be hitting shelves in 2013 after originally being announced back in 2009. Way is one of the few “celebrity comic creators” who seems interested not just in the actual medium itself but also trying to push it forward. ‘The Umbrella Academy’ certainly did not reinvent the wheel or anything but it was a genuinely pleasant surprise and an energetic and imaginative read. I also wager that book brought more people (young people especially) to the comic medium than any other comic stunt Marvel or DC has pulled in the last ten years. So another book from him, especially with art by Becky Cloonan, will definitely be something i will check out.

The other book that is one that if i had to say was my favorite announcement overall would be that Joe Casey is reviving 'Catalyst Comix' and using a rotating cast of artists including Dan McDaid, Paul Maybury, and Ulises Farinas (the latter two really caught my eye on ‘Twisted Savage Dragon Funnies’). I believe the idea is to continue the book and bringing in more ‘indie’ artists as it goes along, and since Casey seems to be the only guy really pushing the idea of a superhero comic further, i am excited to see where this ones goes.

SHAWN STARR: I don't really care what Joe Casey does in the first issue of 'Catalyst Comix' because him name dropping Ben Marra is enough to secure my $3.99. Although how amazing would a Ben Marra/Joe Casey comic be? Seriously my brain / dick would explode. So yeah, that comic sounds decent, even though i don’t know what it’s about past “Joe Casey revitalizing a bunch of dead characters no one cares about”; which seems like all Joe Casey does nowadays.

The only real imprint left talking about is Vertigo, since DC and Marvel decided to not bother announcing anything besides 'Young Avengers' (which was leaked a month ago) and a Jim Lee/Scott Snyder Superman book (which was also leaked a month ago). I’ll buy 'Young Avengers' simply because i want to see Gillen/McKelvie do another project, even though it’s not 'Phonogram', and i don't care in the slightest about a Lee/Snyder book because this is not 1992 and i don’t think “LEE IS THE DREAMIEST SCAB TO EVER SCAB” or any book which shares the same name of the movie which is going to be released around the same time will ever be good.

The Scott Snyder/Sean Murphy (it PAINS me to spell Shawn as Sean, like morally, he spells his name wrong and god help me if he didn't draw better than every artist at DC) sounds interesting, Snyder’s name does not elicit much response, he seems like a competent writer, if not over wrought in most cases ('Batman' #12), Murphy’s 'Punk Rock Jesus' is tied for the best comic DC is publishing (with 'Batman Inc') so anything he draws is an instant buy for me, although Snyder may push that into a instant trade buy, by the end of the series. The Jeff Lemire series sounds interesting, although I found 'The 'Underwater Welder' lacking and 'Animal Man' to be running in place after issue #6, but he still has some indie cred left over from 'Lost Dogs' and 'Essex County' for me.

JOEY AULISIO: I am really looking forward to ‘Young Avengers’ but i’ll buy any Gillen/McKelvie collaboration sight unseen, and I could not give less of a fuck about that ‘Man Of Steel’ book. I do think it is interesting that Scott Snyder is just “the guy” for all of DC Comics right now including Vertigo. If you think about it ‘American Vampire’ is the last bona fide hit that Vertigo has had in years, he’s certainly the golden boy at DC proper handling Batman, Swamp Thing, and now Superman to great sales so far. Has there been a creator at DC before who was literally at the top of the sales chains in both camps at DC ? I honestly can’t think of one.

Sean Murphy on the other hand has become the reluctant superstar artist at Vertigo despite DC under utilizing him in every way, and yet everything he works on winds up being a hit. To think in 2007-08 DC signs him to an exclusive and DOES NOTHING with him for years, that is just insanity! Vertigo decides to use him for some ‘Hellblazer’ fill-in’s (most of which did not see the light of day for three plus years), some superhero stuff which they shut down because it did not conform to their “house style”, and then finally gets a hit when he does “Joe The Barbarian” with Grant Morrison plus an ‘American Vampire’ mini that gets him some well deserved recognition too. Now ‘Punk Rock Jesus’ is a hit for Vertigo in spite of the fact that they tried to handicap it several times out of the gate (and like you said it is the best book DC is publishing not called ‘Batman Incorporated’), and only now with ‘The Wake’ is he getting the star treatment.

On the actual book itself, i am not a Scott Snyder fan at all. He’s competent like you said but pretty damn boring otherwise. Sean Murphy on the other hand i have bought pretty much everything he has done since that 'Year One: Batman/Scarecrow' mini and i don’t think i am going to stop now. I’m in for the Lemire one as well, at least 'Trillium' is only a mini so he can’t pointlessly meander for issues at a time like on ‘Sweet Tooth’. That’s the other thing about the Vertigo announcements is that these are basically the three guys they have left that sell anything or draw any interest in a potential audience at all (at least until the new Gaiman/J.H. ‘Sandman’ book drops). Also all the books (even the Gaiman one) are all mini-series now, i guess that’s what they are transitioning into publishing now as a model.

SHAWN STARR: Well Scott Snyder is the only reason Batman sells any copies whatsoever according to him. Take Snyder off Batman and that book will sink like a 1974 Buick LeSabre filled with misfitted clown costumes. That or he’s writing every major franchise with a top tier “superhero” artist, which has a pretty built in audience (along with the perception of its “importance”); it’s not like he saved Green Lantern and turned it into a giant dissertation on rainbows and “AWESOME” moments that are not really that awesome or anything. A new Murphy comic should be good, maybe they will even pay to color it this time (although 'Punk Rock Jesus' kind of proves color is not necessary when it comes to Murphy) and possibly keeping Lemire under 600 pages is for the best.

Well i think that wraps for New York Comic Con, unless something else was announced, but i really don’t care and i figure i would have heard about it by now.

So...we done?

JOEY AULISIO: Yeah, “we done”.

-----((((((((((("a defined purpose to breed familiarity and trust ")))))))))))------

Not so much a review, as a thought on one comic.

Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories (Fantagraphics)
by Gilbert Hernandez

I'm about a hundred pages into the Gilbert Hernandez 'Palomar' Hardcover and Gilbert's first string of stories are much stronger than Jaime's early Locas entries; they're both there for the most part art wise but Jaime's early stuff is overwritten beyond belief making it a chore to get through. That said the reward at the end of it all is one of the greatest long form narratives in comics, but those first hundred pages are a bitch. Gilbert on the other hand introduces a cast of roughly twenty characters who are pretty well fleshed out early on with believable relationships and conflicts. My only complaint is Gilbert has a tendency to have odd panel transitions which, while not jarring, just stand out a little more to me than they should.

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STEP ASIDE, I AM GETTING POLITICAL!

leaflet full of sweet things. #WhiteGuySayings

pamphlet full of honey's #WhiteGuySayings

spreadsheets full of broads. #WhiteGuySayings

phone books full of dames. #WhiteGuySayings

file cabinets full of shorties. #WhiteGuySayings

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"ROAD HOUSE"

“I promise you that this will be the best drive-in movie ever made. It will be a movie that people will love. It will be fun, we’ll have a great time making it, and just trust me.” - Joel Silver selling Kelly Lynch on staring in "Road House".

Truer words have never been spoken by a producer, although that was followed up with the following statement "And by the way, you don’t have a choice, you know. You’re under contract. You can say ‘no’ and we can get really difficult, but we want you and you should do this. It could be great for you." just to prove hes still a scumbag.

/////////"That gal's got entirely too many brains to have an ass like that."\\\\\\\\\
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I've been attempting to watch every Nicolas Cage film (starring roles, i have a life), so far the worst ones have been:

"Knowing"
"Seeking Justice"
"Next"

Seriously don't watch these movies, they're terrible.
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Jamie Hewlett looking Swayze.

"Sometimes, you get your throat cut while a clown is pulling your pants down." - Josh Simmons interviewed on The Comics Journal.

----The best tag line for a movie ever. ---

----The best tag line for a movie ever. ---

episode 019: ghosts

in this episode joey and alec discuss rob liefeld's spectacular exit from dc comics, take a look back at daniel clowes' ghost world (eightball #11-18) + lament the loss of the one-man anthology, batman incorporated #3 by grant morrison and chris burnham, the sky in stereo by mardou, scalped #60 by jason aaron and rm guera, and more.

music by rival schools

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episode 015: a soft reboot

joey and alec return after a long absence and jump right into discussing the manhattan projects #1-3 by jonathan hickman and nick pitarra, secret #1-2 by jonathan hickman and ryan bodenheim, batman incorporated #1 by grant morrison and chris burnham, action comics #10 by grant morrison and rags morales, the ed brubaker comics reporter interview, the "year of the creator", a look back at ed brubaker's lowlife, and more.

music by jawbox

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episode 014: the defining line

in this episode the boys are joined by tim callahan (of cbr, tor, splash page) for an extra long sprawling conversation that includes discussions about basil wolverton, steve ditko, the dc new 52, action comics by grant morrison with rags morales and andy kubert, rob liefeld, joe casey, steve bissette's comics reporter interview, tundra, frank miller and the new sensitivity, batman inc: leviathan strikes by grant morrison with cameron stewart and chris burnham, the different approaches to writing about comics, ross campbell, brilliant by brian michael bendis and mark bagley, spider-man, kids and comics, tim vigil, time management, single issues and absolute editons, jeff lemire, the glyph awards, mocca, michael deforge, spawn/batman by frank miller and todd mcfarlane, savage dragon by erik larsen, stupid people, and so much more.

music by hella

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episode 013: best of 2011

in this episode we do our big year end wrap-up and look back at the last year in comics and talk about some of our favorite works including lovestruck by dennis hopeless and kevin mellon, secret avengers by warren ellis and others, our love is real by sam humphries and steven sanders, li'l depressed boy by s. steven struble and sina grace, loose ends by jason latour and chris brunner, batman: knight of vengeance by brian azzarello and eduardo risso, new york five by brian wood and ryan kelly, casanova: avaritia by matt fraction and gabriel ba, punishermax by jason aaron and steve dillon, uncanny x-force by rick remender and jerome opena, holy terror by frank miller, prison pit: book three by johnny ryan, batman incorporated by grant morrison and chris burnham, scalped by jason aaron and rm guera, butcher baker, the righteous maker by joe casey and mike huddleston, love & rockets: new stories #4 by jaime hernandez, ganges #4 by kevin huizenga, lose #3 by michael deforge, criminal: the last of the innocent by ed brubaker and sean phillips, optic nerve #12 by adrian tomine, moon knight by brian michael bendis and alex maleev, spaceman by brian azzarello and eduardo risso, zegas #1 by michel fiffe, daredevil by mark waid, paolo rivera and marcos martin, vengeance by joe casey and nick dragotta, blast furnace funnies by frank santoro, and savage dragon by erik larsen. we also discuss what we are looking forward to in 2012, the holiday season, and more random stuff.

music by jay-z & kanye west

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episode 010: double digits

in this episode joey and alec discuss supergods by grant morrison, batman incorporated #7 by grant morrison and chris burnham, the wolverine's revenge storyline (wolverine #10-12) by jason aaron and renato guedes, the mindless ones website, brandon graham's comics journal interview, hate annual #9 by peter bagge, the similarities of approach between peter bagge and erik larsen, and we answer some emails, among other things.

music by †††

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episode 008: death via committee

in this week's episode joey and alec discuss the current state and uncertain future of vertigo comics, our anticipation and concerns about grant morrison and rags morales' upcoming run on action comics, episode 48.1 of the excellent wait what? podcast, the death of spider-man storyline (ultimate spider-man #155-160) by brian michael bendis and mark bagley, the amazing spider-man teaser trailer, new avengers #9-13 by brian michael bendis with howard chaykin and mike deodato, avengers #13-14 by brian michael bendis with chris bachalo and john romita jr., our love is real by sam humphries and steven sanders, and supergirl #65 by kelly sue deconnick and chriscross.

music by animals as leaders

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episode 004: what's wrong with picnics?

in this week's episode we discuss pull lists, the splash page podcast, joe casey, invincible #75, avengers #1-6, new avengers #1-7, the next age in comics, batman and robin #16, batman inc. #1, batman: the return, batwoman #0, t.h.u.n.d.e.r. agents #1, wolverine: the best there is #1, strange tales 2 #1, generation hope #1, uncanny x-force #1, nemesis #3, batman: odyssey #3-4, scalped #43, thor #615-617, and secret avengers.

music by drive like jehu

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episode 002: sex and violence

in this week's episode jean tells us of his adventure as a firefighter, alec relays his dorm life experiences, while joey gets excited about the new batman status quo. we also discuss scott pilgrim vs. the world, darwyn cooke, casanova #1-2, frank miller, morning glories #1, cbgb #1, avengers prime #1-2, sweet tooth #11-12, x-force: sex and violence, and batman: odyssey #2.

music by deftones

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