0:01-02:19:  Greetings from Graeme “Master of Time and Space” McMillan and Jeff “Insert Suggestion Here” Lester! Because it’s been three (or four!) weeks since our last podcast, we really do make it a point to speed through the small talk and get to…

02:19-1:07:39: CCXP!  Also known as Comic-Con Experience São Paolo!  Also known as the comic convention that might’ve ruined Graeme for all North American comic shows!  Pull up a chair and sit back as Graeme gives a very complete overview of the show he attended at the beginning of December in Brazil.  It’s a very complete overview of a fantastic show, and gives us opportunity to discuss what makes it such a successful show, what American shows can learn from it (and if they will)!  Also discussed: the 20+ minute Kevin Feige Experience; the rapture of Money Heist and the multimedia presentations; the Frank Quitely panel; whether cons “for” fans might be different from cons “for” pros; the joys of last minute and long-distance travel; going to war with Disney; freelancing duties while traveling; and much, much more in this hour-plus discussion.
1:07:39-1:33:03: Speaking of Graeme’s freelancing work, he’s been tasked with preparing both Best of the Year and Best of the Decade lists.  In doing so, he realized there was a fatal shortcoming on his decade list—no manga!  So he asked on Twitter for recommendations, checked a lot of stuff out, and these are his reactions to what he’s read.  Discussed:  Delicious in Dungeon; Tokyo Tarareba Girls; One Piece; Goodnight Punpun; and more!
1:33:03-1:52:13: From manga of the decade to American comics from last week:  we both read Dark Knight: The Golden Child by Frank Miller, Rafael Grampá, and Jordie Bellaire (Jeff doing so after Graeme said good things about it on Twitter) and we both want to rave about it here.  It’s a….surprising book for a lot of reasons that we unpack here. Discussed: Kirby, Mantlo, mugged liberals, and much more.
1:52:13-2:04:05: “I’m not going to say a lot about Doomsday Clock #12,” announces Graeme “Tease” McMillan, “but I am going to say this…”  Don’t worry, it’s spoiler-free, but it is a tantalizing set of impressions from Graeme.  Also discussed: the difference  between Watchmen the HBO series (also spoiler-free in our discussion) and Doomsday Clock; and more.
2:04:05-2:13:53: “You know, Graeme,” Jeff sez, “the really sad thing is we can’t just talk for six hours.”  Really, Jeff?  REALLY? Well, anyway, here are some of the things we talk about talking about if we had the time to talk about them: CBR meets the outsourcing content mill; Brian Bendis’s Superman issue called “Truth” about Superman revealing his identity, and the Superman issue called “Truth” about Superman revealing his identity that happened all the way back in, uh, 2015; The Wonder Twins: Activate collection by Mark Russell and Stephen Byrne; and more.
2:13:53-end:   Closing Comments!!  Look for us on  Stitcher! Itunes! Instagram! Twitter together and separately: Graeme and JeffTumblr, and  on Patreon where a wonderful group of people make this all possible, including Empress Audrey, Queen of the Galaxy, to whom we are especially grateful for her continuing support of this podcast.  (Also, don’t forget about Spotify!)
Next week: Drokk, it’s time for Drokk!! Join us next week as we discuss Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Vol. 10!
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0:01-23:08:  Greetings from Graeme “Burp!” McMillan and Jeff “Saliva!” Lester, where your two faithful podcasters are here at your service, despite problems with taxes, and talking, and breathing.  Thanks to tax prep, we look back at the state of digital affairs for Jeff’s library with talk about the amazing month of March and April 2018; do a quick review of the state of comic streaming services we use and what’s changed about them; more singing of the praises of Hoopla (for comics, anyway); whether Jeff should get the DC Universe app, and more.
23:08-35:50: From there, a sort of strange left turn: the new redband trailer for Hellboy resurfaces a tweet from B.P.R.D. and Hellboyverse writer John Arcudi.  Did Arcudi leave Hellboy and B.P.R.D. (and Guy Davis leave comics altogether) based on how they were handled and/or (un)compensated in relation to this?  The Magic Eightball says “All Signs Point To ‘Comics Will Break Your Heart.’”  Also discusssed: reaction to the original trailer; reaction to rough cuts of the film; Vague Recollections of Forgotten Dinner Parties; the filmography of Neil Marshall; the strangeness of having people hype things that don’t seem like what they’re hyping; and more.
35:50-53:52: The Hellboy thing may leave a bad taste in your mouth if you’re a B.P.R.D. fan, but Jeff’s not really into it or Hellboy.  He is, of course, alternately appalled, guilty about, and mystified by the Wikipedia summary of Doomsday Clock, Geoff Johns and Gary Frank taking the Watchmen characters into the DCU.  Graeme has read issue #9 of the book (not out until later this week so Graeme does superhuman work in trying to avoid spoilers of any kind) and we discuss what’s come before, what might be coming next, and what Johns is trying to say (apart from “back up the money truck”).
53:52-1:01:51: And from our discussion about narrative jumps, Jeff goes on to mention the first five issues of Exorsisters by the talented team of Ian Boothby and Gisele LaGace.  Jeff is heavily in the tank for these two, so what did he think of the book? The answer may surprise you…or at least baffle you?  (Jeff is clearly baffled, as you’ll hear.)  Jeff summarizes the book, talks about its charms, and entreats Graeme to read the issues so we can talk about it more.
1:01:51-1:04:57: Jeff’s got a throughline in mind as he transitions from Exorsisters to Action Comics #1008 by Brian Michael Bendis and the terrific Steve Epting.  (Jeff really didn’t talk about it here, but man does Epting’s stuff look gorgeous on the DC characters!)  That throughline, fortunately or unfortunately, tiptoes around Crabby Jeff and tries to hew close to the path of Diplomatic Jeff.  (There’s also an all-too-brief shoutout to Satoru Noda’s Golden Kamuy, which is still flat-out excellent.)
1:04:57-1:53:43: Part of why Epting and Noda get short-shrift is Graeme chimes in with his experience about catching up on Tom King’s Batman, which Graeme hadn’t read since September.  There’s been some grumbling about the pacing and storytelling choices King has made with the title since issue #50—do those grumblings have merit for someone reading all those issues in a oner? (1er?)  Also discussed: Heroes in Crisis #6; subtext becoming text; the futility of a work-for-hire creator as embodied in a work-for-hire creation; Batman RIP; Mortal Kombat and common ground; movie violence in the ‘80s; and, quite obviously, us back to circling around Doomsday Clock again (ha, “circling!”)
1:40:15-1:53:43: Graeme still hasn’t seen Aquaman! But that may well be rectified *very* soon, thank goodness.  And Jeff re-saw Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, and has a lot of thoughts about, many of which are informed by…Natalie Nourigat’s I Moved to Los Angeles to Work in Animation?  Really?  Warning: big ol’ spoilers for the movie and in-depth descriptions so take a pass if you haven’t yet seen this (really excellent) film.
1:53:43-2:05:35: Graeme has picked up a bunch of old 80 pg. dollar Superman Family comics, describes ‘em for our delight, and sings the praises of low-stakes/no-stakes comics.
2:05:35-2:20:21:  As for Jeff and the old comics routine, thanks to the wonderful David Wolkin, Jeff has read issue #131 of Dark Horse Presents from 1998, and issues #1 and #2 of Nightmares from Doug Moench, Paul Gulacy, and Don McGregor, published by Eclipse all the way back in 1985!
2:20:21-2:37:33:  News?  Well, maybe there’s some somewhere, but the only stuff we can think of worth mentioning is, as Graeme rightly points out, everyone should check out the trio of speeches given at ComicsPro by ex-DC Marketing Director Bob Wayne, and retailers Brian Hibbs and Joe Field.  And there’s also a bit of a lazy roundup of stories, or maybe as much roundup as a week that includes “Marvel Meow.”
2:37:33-end:  Closing comments!  Look for us on  Stitcher! Itunes! Instagram! Twitter together and separately: Graeme and Jeff! MattTumblr, and  on Patreon where a wonderful group of people make this all possible, including Empress Audrey, Queen of the Galaxy, to whom we are especially grateful for her continuing support of this podcast.
NEXT WEEK:
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0:01-32:16:  Greetings from the very last “Wait, What?” podcast of the year! Graeme “The Best of” McMillan and Jeff “The Rest of” Lester. As the nicknames suggest, we immediately jump into discussing the idea of the Best of 2018 list: Graeme has an in-process list, Jeff doesn’t, and it’s been a damn odd year for it for some reason. We discuss why, and also what Graeme currently has on his list.  Discussed: Martian Manhunter #1, Bitter Root #1, Goddess Mode #1, the joys of serialization, Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Seconds, whether or not Marvel should do a Daredevil: Season 4 comic; what happened to the Netflix-Marvel deal; spoilers for the finale of s2 of Iron Fist at 20:29 to 20:44); the sales of Marvel’s digital first comics; Marvel’s recent selection of back titles on Marvel Unlimited; Agents of SHIELD makes it to a seventh season, somehow; what the fuck happened with The Inhumans, including The Death of the Inhumans; and more.
32:16-44:44: Section break just in case you need to get your bearings, and also because we linger on this topic for a bit:  there’s been “a report” that a screenwriter is working on adapting Master of Kung-Fu.  Is Jeff excited? Nonplussed?  Halfplussed? We talk it all out.

44:44-56:24: The discussion of MOKF causes Jeff to ask in turn for for Graeme’s feeling about the Bright Burn trailer.  “What’s the Bright Burn trailer?” Graeme asks, so Jeff makes him watch it during the podcast so we can talk about it [Graeme’s real-time reactions edited for length].  Discussed: Bright Burn (which Jeff keeps calling “Bright Born” and still maintains is a better title than Bright Burn).

56:24-1:15:34: Jeff had mentioned earlier there were some news stories he thought we’d be discussing this episode.  What stories were those, Graeme wonders? There was a big announcement of what Shonen Jump is doing starting December 17.  Also discussed: an amazing story from Graeme about Doomsday Clock #8, but the bulk of it is us talking about the Shonen Jump deal, what the expectations are, and who is the deal for, and some other consideration that won’t end in a preposition and make me uncomfortable.
1:15:34-1:33:06: We expand the discussion about the new Shonen Jump to have a larger discussion about other comix streaming services currently available in the U.S.  Who’s the audience for Marvel Unlimited?  Who’s the audience for Comxology Unlimited? What’s the real DC Unlimited service?  And how much does Jeff actually use the streaming services he subscribes to?  That last question is a potentially very embarrassing can of worms for Jeff, but on the upside it does allow him to talk about the first volume of Vinland Saga by Makoto Yukimura, which really is as good as everybody says, and which Kodansha is offering the whole first volume of on Comixology Unlimited.  Also discussed: the Hit Reblog anthology on Comixology Unlimited; what comics are on the DC Universe app; and more.
1:33:06-1:49:49: Comics that we are reading!  This is a thing we occasionally talk about on our comics podcast!  And in case you were wondering, this is where Graeme finally gets a chance to break out that incomplete list of the year’s best books, so it’s worth paying attention to this part, probably?  Discussed and/or listed:  Brazen by Penelope Bagieu; Woman World by Aminder Dhaliwal; Berlin by Jason Lutes; Mister Miracle by Tom King and Mitch Gerads; The Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing, Joe Bennett and others; My Boyfriend is a Bear by Pamela Ribon and Cat Farris; Sabrina by Nick Drnaso (which features a longer discussion between Jeff and Graeme); Judge Dredd: The Small House, by Rob Williams and Henry Flint and just wrapped in 2000 AD; Prism Stalker by Sloane Leong; and (honorable mention) Justice League by Scott Snyder, Jorge Jimenez, and others.
1:49:49-1:54:5o: The mention of Justice League and how, while not being the best book of the year may well be the most improved, leads Graeme to talk about the new Uncanny X-Men series which Graeme describes as “astonishingly bad.”  And also, because I’m too lazy to make this a separate entry, Graeme also discusses the first issue of Shazam! by Geoff Johns, Dale Eaglesham, and Mayo “SEN” Naito.
1:54:5o-2:03:48: And then Jeff just talks about stuff he’s been reading, most of which is far from the best (and some of which, like volumes 21-27 of S&M by Mio Murao is just inexcusable). Discussed: Vinland Saga again; Die #1 by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans; and others I think I’m too tired to link to, although some of them deserve it.
2:03:48-2:35:44:  Are we through yet? No, not yet!  A listener sent us the first seven issues of Plus Ultra by Jon Hughes and Matthew Weldon, and so we dig into this comic series about a superheroine dealing with supervillians and self-identity even as her creators deal with telling superhero stories, engaging in worldbuilding, and injecting ideas about self-identity into a comic book story with only so many panels, so many captions, so many scenes in any given issue.
2:35:44-2:41:49: Closing comments? Nope, psych!  We end up talking a bit about Dan Slott’s Fantastic Four and recording plans for our final episode of Baxter Building!
2:41:49-end: Closing comments–for real this time! Look for us on  Stitcher! Itunes! Instagram! Twitter together and separately: Graeme and Jeff! MattTumblr, and  on Patreon where a wonderful group of people make this all possible, including the kind crew at American Ninth Art Studios and Empress Audrey, Queen of the Galaxy, to whom we are especially grateful for their continuing support of this podcast.  And then we’re out!
NEXT WEEK:  Baxter Building Episode 50! The conclusion of Volume 1 of The Fantastic Four.  Join us!
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0:00-7:47: Greetings; the Kurt Eichenwald/Diversity & Comics feud; and our next proposed Patreon tier;
7:47-47:49: Comics worth discussing (brought to you by Hoopla, and yes, the hyperlinks for the DC books are to the Hoopla pages):  Wired: Graeme is reading Batman And The Outsiders, Vol. 2 by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo  (and Trevor Von Eeden!) Tired: Jeff read Superman Vs. Darkseid by John Byrne, Mark Schultz, Jerry Ordway, Michael Turner, Jeph Loeb and many others.  Enmired: John Byrne, what the hell is wrong with you?
47:49-1:09:54: Wild: Jeff wants to talk about Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt #1 by Grant Morrison, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson, Howard Porter, Jorge Jimenez, Doug Mahnke and Jamie Mendoza  (full spoilers on this one, I guess?)  Mild: how Geoff Johns sees the DCU, as reflected in current issues of Doomsday Clock and perhaps the event’s conclusion Unfiled: discussions of the DC Rebirth Special, Earth2 by Morrison and Quitely and much more.
1:09:54-1:28:48:  Jeff really thought we were going to get into a very deep, spoiler-filled discussion of the Black Panther movie, but instead…we just kind of lightly discuss it, spoil a chunk of it, but only after discussing Black Panther Annual #1 [Kindle/Comixology link: http://amzn.to/2CIpaL3 ] by Christopher Priest, Don McGregor, Reginald Hudlin, Mike Perkins, Daniel Acuña, and Ken Lashley.
 
1:28:48-2:24:09: I think we end our discussion of the movie here and move on to talk about some BP-related marketing from Marvel, including their pricing of the first three digital volumes of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ run for $1.99, as well as some other Marvel tricks about which Jeff is his unsurprisingly hand-wringy self.  Also discussed: the class action suit against Funko; the Marvel presentation at ComicsPro; C.B. Cebulski; Marvel Fresh Start; the artist exodus from Marvel; the free digital graphic novel giveaway with Amazon; idle speculation about the future of Marvel Unlimited; and much more.
2:24:09-end: Closing comments!  Look for us on  Stitcher! Itunes! Twitter together and separately: Graeme and Jeff! MattTumblr,  and  on Patreon where a wonderful group of people make this all possible, including the kind crew at American Ninth Art Studios and Empress Audrey, Queen of the Galaxy, to whom we are especially grateful for their continuing support of this podcast.
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http://theworkingdraft.com/media/podcasts2/WaitWhat238.mp3 Greetings!  Just in time to close out the first weekend of December is Wait, What? Ep. 238! Here’s a quick breakdown of what Graeme and Jeff talked about in their two and a half-hour…

Hello, wonderful Whatnauts!  If you’ve been paying attention, you know that we are scheduled for a Baxter Building this weekend.

And!  I am happy to say you will indeed be getting a healthy dose of Jeff & Graeme in awe of what Steve Englehart is doing to the Fantastic Four.

But! Considering how crazy the comics news has been the last few weeks, and considering Marvel announced a new Editor in Chief just two days ago, we thought it might be a good idea to convene a quick 2017 check-in with what happened, what will happen next, and classic ’70s TV show, What’s Happening!!  (Sadly, I’m only joking about that last one…for now.)

So! Join in on the bemusement with this episode: it’s barely over an hour but still chock full of the quality bemusement you expect from us!

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