Also, James is not on this podcast, because he’s on vacation (have fun, buddy!)
This episode is brought to you by [YOUR BUSINESS HERE]! Our previous sponsorship arrangement has ended, and we’re looking for news ways to pay the (modest) bills. If you’d like to pay us to say nice things about you or your business, or simply not insult you on-air, or maybe to repeatedly insult someone else, let us know! I’m sure we can come to an agreement.
In which we wish you a Happy Who Year!
It’s the first episode of 2015, and we’ve dishing on this year’s Christmas special, “Last Christmas”. There’s a lot to talk about in this episode, from the surprising return of a character we thought was gone, to our feels on The Doctor and Clara’s new dynamic. Also: Santa! Bojack Horseman! Racism! Wait, maybe that last one shouldn’t have an exclaimation point. Oh, and Brandon over-corrects and is not nearly drunk enough.
Outro music is “Dream On” by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
Podcast picture is by GIRL NAMED SHIRL PHOTOGRAPHY
In which we talk a lot about strippers. Because Christmas?
Merry Whoochmas, everyone! In this week’s special Christmas episode, we revisit two specials from Christmas past - “The Snowmen” and “The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe” - and we have some interesting feelings about them. Brandon yolos and mangles some Frenh pretty bad and Danica worries about the Kids These Days (take a drink) as swords-lizards and Nernia happen on the screen. It was pretty great.
This episode of Doctor Whooch was sponsored by Josh B., who provided us with some yuletide whooch for this episode! We would like to encourage this behaviour, so if you want us to mention you or maybe a project you have on an episode, send us alcohol somehow!
Outro music is “The Power of Love” by Huey Lewis & The News.
Podcast picture is by GIRL NAMED SHIRL PHOTOGRAPHY
In which Brandon drinks to forget.
This week’s episode features special guest Devin R. Bruce (from Scotch and Comics, The Listmakers, This Week Has Seven Days, and Apocalypse Kow!) and a lot of alcohol! Listen as Danica and Brandon talk with Devin after he watches Matt Smith’s first episodes for the first time! Marvel as… something else happens that Brandon doesn’t remember! Swoon as Devin speaks with that sensuous booming voice!
Outro music is “(Rockin’) All Night Long” by Taylor Swift & Bad Lip Reading.
Podcast picture is by GIRL NAMED SHIRL PHOTOGRAPHY
The following titles are scheduled to ship on December 10th, 2014. As always, not all books will get into all stores, and depending on the region you’re in, certain books might have come in a week earlier, or will come in a week later. For reasons, I guess.
This list is pulled from the good folks at Wizard’s Comics and Collectibles - as such, it only features the books they ordered. Head over there where you can see me telling people what to do and how before my last day on December 31st. Also, you can buy comics there, I guess.
Now, this isn’t (just) an excersize in self-importance – we want to hear what YOU’RE most anticipated reads are this week. Click here for the complete list, and either write a comment there, here or hit us up at Twitter @blogaboutcomics or @variantedmonton!
The presence of a penis in a comic will tell you a lot about a man’s maturity level. For some, it’s just another image, another fact of life. For others, the reaction varies from the shocked to the slightly uncomfortable to the blatantly homophobic and beyond. What I’m saying is, a lot of men react to cartoon penises differently, and that’s a strange thing to know. Such is the life of a comic shop manager.
While Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips diligently populate the industry with crime comics influenced by pulp novels and old Hollywood, Jason Aaron’s been putting together a solid string of tales himself in a slightly different arena. When you hear Aaron talk about his influences, you can sense a certain amount of cowboy in them. I’m not just talking southern influence (though clearly, that is there), I’m talking about tough-as-nails stoic protagonists and tension ratcheting silent stand-offs.
Men of Wrath approaches this type of crime from a decidedly wrong side of the law. It concerns the Rath family, and the seeming fact that the family has just gotten meaner over the years. Aaron and series co-creator Ron Garney take great pains to depict a generational souring that culminates in a confrontation between Ira Rath and his son, who put himself in a bad position by making the right choice at the wrong time. The tension in the comic not only comes from the situation that’s currently unfolding, but from the history of shocking actions the various generations of Raths. You’ve already been shown depictions of men doing the unthinkable, and so you’re left waiting for that trigger to get pulled. In equal measure, you’re wondering what this inherent meanness means for Ira’s son, and if that part of his family history will take root in him in order to survive. A hard crime story about being caught between a choice to be good vs. a history of evil. This series has earned itself our Crime Me A River Award for this week, as I eagerly await the final two parts to get into my hands.
Soon.
We stopped doing Best of the Week posts right around the time that Batman: Eternal started hitting the shelves. In hindsight, that was probably for the best, as I’d probably be talking about it every week (in some capacity), and I would have lost steam at this point.
Batman: Eternal is one of DC’s best books right now. While it remains mired in an aesthetic that doesn’t suit me personally, the storytelling has been incredible, and resembles something close to my platonic ideal for a weekly comic series. Over the past 35 issues, the writing team (and the ever-rotating series of artists) have taken the monthly serial and optimized for a swifter pace of release. What you get isn’t a typical monthly comic - it’s a story that lets plots bubble for issues at a time without having to wait six months for payoff. It lets different plots come to a boil at different moments, ramping pressure as each week offers progression and payoff. As a result, you get something like this issue, where a perceived victory mingles with some of the book’s slower moving plots in order to produce a bit of a nightmare for the titular character. So far, Batman’s been winning, but it’s cost him each time, and the price is starting to strip everything away from him. It’s gotten to the point where I am deliriously happy to read the Batman stories to come after this book concludes, as I’m sure the paradigm will have shifted. With the amount that’s happened in here, things can’t help but be different - and even though we all know things will go back to an equilibrium at some point in the future, for now (and the very near future), we’ll be getting some pretty strange and wonderful tales.
This is great. This is what superhero comics should be doing, experimenting with the form and building something interesting. A great job by the whole team, who has earned their Crazy Like A Fox award.
They know why.
As I’m entering the final month of my employment at Wizard’s Comics, I’ve finally been forced to look at the comics on the shelves and figure out what I actually want to read for the first time in a long time. Without the need to read for the shop, I can keep things down to a relatively slim list of interest, rather than the larger swath I cut in order to taste test for a larger audience. What follows is a look at what I’m actually bringing home with me this week. It’s not an indictment of any comics, so much as it’s a refined focus on the things that bring me joy specifically. To the side, you’ll see the full list of what I’m bring home. Below, I’ll be taking a look at a few things in specific detail.
Now, this isn’t (just) an excersize in self-importance - we want to hear what YOU’RE most anticipated reads are this week. Click here for the complete list, and either write a comment there, here or hit us up at Twitter @blogaboutcomics or @variantedmonton!