0:01-7:35: A little bit of catching up, mostly about the unfortunate Penthouse Forum-ian aspect of Jeff’s work recently. And then…
7:35-15:16: We have a spoiler-free discussion of Avengers: Infinity War, as Graeme has seen it but Jeff has not. And then from that, it’s off to…
15:16-39:59: Graeme talking about the big stack of Jim Starlin Thanos stuff (Infinity War the comic, Infinity Crusade, the three Thanos graphic novels Starlin did, The Infinity Abyss, Marvel Comics: The End, and even more) he’s read in preparation for writing about the film. If you’ve followed us for a while, you know Jeff is a huge fan of Starlin’s work in the Marvel Universe with Thanos, while Graeme….eh, not so much. UNTIL NOW. We talk about these books, about Starlin, and about the possible future of Marvel Unlimited (where Graeme read almost all of the material mentioned).
39:59-1:00:56: And now it’s time for what is becoming a terrifyingly regular feature to our Wait, What? Episodes—more discussions about the Fantastic Four aside from, in addition to, or in spite of our regular Baxter Building podcast. In this installment, Graeme has read the first thirty issues of the DeFalco/Ryan run to come, and Jeff read vol. 4 of the collected Mark Waid/Karl Kesel/Mike Wieringo run, and here we are talking about it in our non-FF podcast. What is wrong with us?
1:00:56-1:12:47: But to discuss other stuff we’ve read or watched: Jeff spends some time blabbing about the first Master of Kung-Fu Epic Collection by Doug Moench, Paul Gulacy, Al Milgrom, Ron Wilson, John Buscema, and *many* other artists.
1:12:47-1:34:45: How are the broilingly conflicted undercurrents of MOKF similar to those Jeff perceives in that Venom trailer? And how does that connect to Die Hard? Or the Netflix McG movie, The Babysitter? We’re so glad you asked!
1:34:45-1:50:18: And finally (sorta), Jeff had an epiphany about the new role Joss Whedon should play in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He felt it was worth sharing. Here’s your chance to listen and say to yourself (in your best Graeme McMillan voice) : was it, though?
1:50:18-2:11:16: “Graeme,” Jeff finally all but pleads. “Let’s talk about what you want to talk about!” And what does Graeme want to talk about? In no particular order: Bendis’s Clark Kent; Tom King’s Batman issues #45 and #46; “a metric shit-ton of 2000 AD stuff,” including Abnett and Winslade’s Loveless; and more, especially when Jeff decides to cut in and start talking about the digital Vampire Tales collections he’s been reading.
2:11:16-???: Technical difficulties give us the title of this episode, but also start steering us toward closing comments. How long does it take us to get there?
2:21:49-end: This long! And also: closing comments! Look for us on Stitcher!Itunes! Twitter together and separately: Graeme and Jeff! Matt! Tumblr, 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.
NEXT WEEK: Another installment of Wait, What? And if Jeff can gets his act, together—Avengers: Infinity War!
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! Matt! Tumblr, 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.
Hello, friends! Skipping our way back after skip week, it is the Wait, What? Podcast, with much talk about comics and comics news for you. As per our discussion in the comments of our previous show notes, there are some time annotations in the show notes below in order to help you skip spoilers you do not want to spoil you…but be forewarned I put most of them down guessing the intro would add a minute to the time and it was only a mere fifty-six seconds. I adjusted things accordingly for the Silencer spoiler but everything else might hit four or five seconds sooner than indicated? It’s not perfect, but on the other hand I might have this wrapped three fewer hours than when I used to do full show notes.
So, with that in mind, on with the show!
Topics discussed:
The Salt-N-Pepa Pedanticism Hour (fortunately not a full hour);
A lot of moving parts to the comics news: first up, the announced discount for Comixology Unlimited; the aftermath of Marvel’s latest absurd Amazon sale; the joys of Hoopla; the sumptuous art of Milk Wars: Doom Patrol/Justice League of America by Gerard Way, Steve Orlando, the amazing ACO, (with a backup strip by Magdalene Visaggio and Sonny Liew) (with story spoilers right around the 45 minute mark to around the 47 minute mark or so); Metal #5 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo (pretty much the whole conversation is a spoiler, I guess? To the extent we even understand what’s going on, which is part of the problem? So I guess starting around the 48 minute mark to right around one hour and three if you want to skip the majority of the convo?) Also discussed: Bendis’s plans for Superman and DC, the Scott Snyder weekly JLA event, and some understandably nervous retailers.
1:15:10 (or so): We talk about the news of Dan Mintz’s DMG Group buying Valiant and the absolutely delightful typo that resulted in the reportage of that news (h/t Seth Rosenblatt), but then quickly return to our patented W,W? hand-wringing over possible DC/Marvel gamesmanship in Summer 2018 right when the market literally can’t afford it.
1:29:00 (or so): A *very* quick discussion about Ethan Van Sciver’s harassment of Darryl Ayo and the difficulty of nailing down an objective history of something happening 100% on social media;
1:39:05: Moving into talking about comics we’ve read: Graeme has good things to say about Motherlands #1 by Si Spurrier, Jung Gi Kim, Eric Canete, and Rachel Stott; Jeff mentions West Coast Avengers: Zodiac Attack by Steve Englehart, Al Milgrom, and Joe Sinnott (but really doesn’t talk about how good it is—people, it’s really good); Silencer #1 by John Romita Jr. and Dan Abnett (with what Graeme points out is probably a significant spoiler mentioned at 1:53:52 to 1:54:08) and contrasted with Jennifer Blood, as well as the first issues of Abbott #1 by Saladin Ahmed and Sami Kivela, and Black Dahlias #0 by Kristin Schwarz, Shad Clark, and Ari Syahrazad. But, Jeff also read vols 1, 2, and 5 of Duet of Beautiful Goddesses by Yumi Hanakoji, so why should we listen to him, if you think about it?
2:03:05-end: Closing comments that very quickly go off the rails because we talk about the continuity of John Byrne’s Superman and how much control a creator should have; and then back to closing comments, and then we are back off the rails a few more times.
http://theworkingdraft.com/media/podcasts2/WaitWhat240.mp3 Well, well, well. Here we are again. Another new year, and another round of a podcast in which the clever, articulate one and the probably-not-as-clever-although-no-one-can-really-quite-tell-because-he-is-definitely-not-as-articulate one gather together to talk about that medium we…
Here’s episode two hundred and thirty-nine for your yuletide ears! Due to some tech problems, the episode ran short (and turned out to be even shorter once you cut out the “Hello, Graeme, hello?” “Jeff?” “Graeme?” “Hello?” joshery). Nevertheless, it is our hope we will scratch that hard-to-reach comic book podcast itch.
Topics discussed in today’s episode:
Our statement about the upcoming changes to Patreon’s fee structure;
*Jeff’s epitaph;
*An annotated readthrough of the lead story of World’s Finest #251, “Invasion of the Deathless Brain,” by Bob Haney, George Tuska, and Vince Colletta (oh, and good catch by Walter! Here’s that amazing fan-drawn facial hair on Speedy below);
*The roundtable by Matt and Graeme about Justice League #34 by Priest and Pete Woods, and Batman #36 by Tom King, Clay and Seth Mann, with some additional commentary here by Jeff;
*But Jeff also read and wanted to talk about three kinda recent first issues: John Wick #1 by Greg Pak, Giovanni Valletta, David Curiel and Inlight Studios; Fence #1 by C.S. Pascat, Johanna The Mad, Joana LaFuente; Ninja-K #1 by Christos Gage, Tomás Giorello, and Diego Rodriguez; and the (not a first issue by super-excellent) Rock Candy Mountain #6 by Kyle Starks, Chris Schweizer, and Dylan Todd. Also: *The 2000AD 2017 Christmas Special;
*Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Behave! 2000AD and Judge Dredd: The Secret History… by Pat Mills;
*The 2000AD Sale currently on their website (update: and thanks to editing this episode, Jeff now also has a digital copy of the Complete Harlem Heroes);
and more!
We will return in two weeks for the last Baxter Building of the year! Read Fantastic Four #s 322-327 and come join us!
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!
His name is Rio! And he dances on the sand! My name is Jeff! I was not a fan of the meme!
Together, we are here to finish what we started, which is answering the questions of the beautiful benighted souls on Patreon!
First up is Tim Rifenburg:
Hey Guys,
Thanks for doing the question thing again.
Question 1: Is there any character / company crossover you would like to see and who would write and draw it?
Question 2: Are you ever sorry you started the FF read through? I enjoy listening to your thoughts but you sometimes seem like you are struggling through the books.
Then there’s Ethan Johnson:
There are two variations, I don’t care which one you answer.
Marvel buys DC and moves existing Marvel creative teams intact to take over DC properties. Pair creative teams with books. I’ll allow recent iconic teams, because if you don’t put Hickman & Opeña on LSH, you’re crazypants.
Same scenario, but no DC. Just shuffle existing intactcreative teams onto other properties, like when Byrne & Mantlo swapped Alpha Flight & Hulk!
(Psst! Because Jeff was so proud of his list, he insisted on including it here:)
Okay. Hickman and Opena on LSH. Sure. But honestly I think a better take would be Gillen & McKelvie?
And, then, uh, in no particular order, other than how I think of ‘em:
Al Ewing and Barry Kitson on JLA;
Al Ewing and Elsa Charretier on The Flash;
Al Ewing and John Cassaday on Forever People;
Dan Slott turned Spider-Man into Batman; maybe if he wrote Batman, he’d turn him into Spider-Man? No, just kidding: I’d give Dan Slott and Sanford Greene Angel & The Ape. (Maybe Slott could have Batman, Inc?)
Chip Zdarsky and Leonardo Romero doing Ambush Bug: Year Done;
Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brian Steelfreeze doing Superman (I should probably say Wonder Woman and then they can just lightly rewrite their issues?);
And I guess Mark Waid and Chris Samnee on Action?
Jason Aaron and Goran Parlov doing Jonah Hex as one title, Batman as the other (I guess I was kidding about Dan Slott?)
Bendis doing Green Lantern (with Mike Deodato?), Aquaman (or maybe that’s Mike Deodato?), Green Arrow & Black Canary (with Dave Marquez), and Teen Titans (with Mark Bagley)
Ryan North and Erica Henderson get the coveted The Brave & The Bold treatment
Greg Pak and Chris Samnee/Stuart Immonen could take Wonder Woman?
Felipe Smith writing and drawing Vibe;
G. Willow Wilson and Tradd Moore on Teen Titans;
Jeff Lemire and Greg Smallwood on The Rose & The Thorn;
Ryan North (again!) and Gurihuru on Lois Lane;
Becky Cloonan and Olivier Coipel on Nightwing;
David Walker and Robbi Rodriguez on Batman and the Outsiders;
Tom Taylor and Phil Noto on Catwoman;
Nick Spencer and Jesus Saiz on Freedom Fighters;
Chris Hastings and Daniel Acuna on Metal Men;
Mark Waid And Humberto Ramos on Impulse;
Roxane Gay and Jackson “Butch” Guice on Suicide Squad;
Jason Aaron and Alex Maleev on John Constantine;
Matthew Rosenberg and Joe Quinones on Harley Quinn;
Gerry Dugan and Jim Cheung on Secret Six;
Jeff Lemire and Mike DelMundo on The Question;
Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo on Thriller.
Thomas Williams is curious:
The past two years during either SDCC or NYCC, Valiant do a huge sale and I end up buying the entire past year of back issues and binging them. I always find that the comics are just great with solid story, characters and art. However once this sale is over I am back to forgetting these books in my weekly purchases. What can Valiant do to get people like me to remember them throughout the year?
Also Graeme, of VanLente’s Archer and Armstrong and Timewalker which do you prefer?
Evan Cass wants to know:
Are there artists that you used to adore aesthetically that you can’t stand anymore due to those same aesthetics? Two of my favorite artists as a teen were Art Adams & Ron Lim; I loved their work. Now as a 40something their work literally upsets my stomach; it repulses me. I’m curious if you’ve experienced similar with any former favorites, and why you think that might be. Thanks for the show.
Here comes good ol’ Badger Mushroom:
You asked your Patreon patrons (of which I am one) for questions to waffle about. So here’s one: what do you two think of the recent purchase of The Beat by Lion Forge? Any implications for comics journalism?
(I should note that I have great respect for Heidi MacDonald and the staff of The Beat. I just want to hear the experts weigh in. 😉 )
Thanks to you both for an entertaining and informative podcast, and thanks to Empress Audrey, Queen of the Galaxy, for bestowing her mercy on us all.
Brendan O’Hare has all the best questions!
For Jeff: Who did you wife/husband up on Stardew Valley?
For Graeme and Jeff: I know Jeff recently parted ways with most of his comic book collection, but are either of you still going through back issue bins to fill in a run? If so, which ones?
And finally, here’s our pal Roger Winston:
I totally missed submitting a question for the Q&A podcast, but I see you are extending it to a second episode. I know you are already full of questions, but here’s mine just in case you need another:
Background:
I sold off the bulk of my collection (~22k books) several years ago and stopped reading. But a few years after that, I discovered digital and got back in (mostly thanks to my iPad and Locke & Key). Now I am totally addicted to Comixology (and to a lesser extent, Marvel Unlimited) and spend way too much money there, buying a lot of books, most of which I will probably never read. I think I felt a need to replace my print collection with digital. At least it takes up less space.
Question 1:
Do you ever think there will come a time when we will lose the rights to the comics we have bought digitally? I don’t think I ever read the Comixology terms of condition, out of fear. But I worry about them going out of business or changing their model or dropping publishers or whatever. Although them being owned by Amazon does make me feel more secure. I have downloaded DRM-free whatever I can for backups, but that is limited to some indie publishers (mostly Image in my case) -Marvel & DC don’t allow that. So was I stupid to have sank so much money (most of it during sales, luckily) into something that could potentially go away before I have a chance to enjoy it? Oh, the hazards of being an obsessive collector, even when there’s no physical component.
Question 2:
Do you think DC will ever come out with a DC Unlimited type service? The bulk of the digital comics I have bought are DC. On one hand, I would love this, because then I could stop buying back issues. (I’ve bought very few Marvels since subscribing to MU.) OTOH, I would hate this because it means I spent a lot on things I could then read a lot cheaper. I have heard some suggestions that DC’s new TV streaming service might include a comics unlimited type service as well, which does make a certain amount of sense.
And that’s that! Again, our thanks to all of you for tuning in, and a super big thanks for those of you on Patreon for you generosity!
Join us next week for a Baxter Building! Issues #314-324 of The Fantastic Four!
(Alternate Episode Title: Ask The Answer Men!) http://theworkingdraft.com/media/podcasts2/WaitWhat236.mp3 Lo, again it is the time! Graeme “Rio” McMillan asked our fine supporters on Patreon for questions so that he and Jeff “Union of the Snake” Lester…
http://theworkingdraft.com/media/podcasts2/WaitWhat235.mp3 Hey, there! Welcome to Episode 235! Today, we have two hours and forty-five minutes of quality comic book chit-chat for you! Jeff reads his twitter interview with the talented and generous Gisele LaGace of…
15:16-39:59: Graeme talking about the big stack of Jim Starlin Thanos stuff (Infinity War the comic, Infinity Crusade, the three Thanos graphic novels Starlin did, The Infinity Abyss, Marvel Comics: The End, and even more) he’s read in preparation for writing about the film. If you’ve followed us for a while, you know Jeff is a huge fan of Starlin’s work in the Marvel Universe with Thanos, while Graeme….eh, not so much. UNTIL NOW. We talk about these books, about Starlin, and about the possible future of Marvel Unlimited (where Graeme read almost all of the material mentioned).
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