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Episode 1409 Talkback - Comic Talk
Pants
Posts: 567
Chris Eberle and Dani O'Brien from Wild Pig Comics join us in studio for some lively discussion. We discuss our upcoming trip to Fan Expo, the Kick Ass 2 movie, Chris' retailer take on the 3D/2D DC covers, and more. Sure there's some ranting, but to make up for it we've got suggestions on some great books we're currently reading. (1:33:09)
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Listen here.
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http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/trustedcape/mystery-box-0
Boom: 1- Hypernaturals
Dark Horse: 1 -Star Wars
DC: 7 - Aquaman, Batman, Green Lantern, Justice League, Justice League Dark, Justice League of America, Wonder Woman
Dynamite: 2 - Shadow, Shadow: Year One
IDW: 5 - Classic Popeye, Doctor Who, Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time, Popeye, Star Trek
Image: 7 - East to West, Mind the Gap, Invincible, Invincible Universe, Revival, Saga, Sex
Marvel: 5 - All-New X-men, Daredevil, Indestructible Hulk, Superior Spider-Man, Uncanny X-Men
Monkeybrain: 2 - High Crimes, Mask of the Red Panda
Valiant: 3 - Archer and Armstrong, Bloodshot, X-0 Manowar
DC and Image tie for me in terms of number of must reads, but Valiant is the best in terms of ratio of must-reads to total line.
How do your numbers look? In this vein, who is your "favorite/best" publisher right now?
I honestly get tired of the belly aching about the big two. They have been producing ten sucky books for every great one forever (or at least since, uh, 1971 when I started buying them). They are fighting for their lives and the survival of their physical distribution avenue. If they can't haul in some cash on the basic books, they will not have the funds to pay creators to take risks or write those few awesome titles. In the seventies, there were not 3-D covers because they were throwaway items bought on impulse, and they fed the frenzy by using misleading covers that suggested that Batman killed Batgirl or Lois Lane grew to 100 feet tall or that Spider-Man grew a dinosaur tail or something. Oh, yeah, those were the great days of artistic integrity and respect for the readers from the big two.
I like superhero books. When people lament the dominance of superhero books, I roll my eyes. I like them when they are decent and I love them when they are great. I enjoy reading an independent black and white comic about miserable teenagers wanting to slit their wrists or about racial tensions or whatever. Just love a good Batman story better, at least in this medium. And this medium has always been about 95% tacky.
"They give me the best gas EVER!!!"
b-(
Marvel (1) Wolverine
Digital only (1) BKV's The Private Eye
Image (3) Saga, Fatale, Lazarus
Who is my favorite publisher of 2013 (so far)? Image
With Image I get quality stories told to me every month (or 2 months if they are on a break, it is just that simple. From DC Comics as much as I like them the thrill is gone or too early to tell w/ the new series, sad but true. Finally we come to Marvel, I know everyone is apeshit over Marvel Now! but I will likely have to try new series Guardians of the Galaxy in collected format & the same goes for the big 10-12 issues HC for Waid's Daredevil. Newsflash to ALL publishers, I can't buy everything.
I'm skipping the DC .1, 2 3 4 nonsense & reading Box Office Poison instead for September. I'll be waiting for issue #24 the next month.
Matthew
Jamie D is correct, All- New X-Men is not the second coming people thought it was.
The pacing.................................... is so slow.........................
We're 14 issues in, how many issues have been in the mansion only? How many issues are just people talking? How many times has it been stated 'we need to send the old team back'? Obviously it's coming to a head in this upcoming crossover, but it should have happened 7 issues earlier.
Dark Horse: 6
DC/Vertigo: 2/7
IDW: 1
Image: 8
Marvel: 2
Oni: 1
Th3rd World: 1
Da winner!: Image (I have a few of the new Vertigo titles added in here, and I'll see how they go, but they look promising so far.)
DC/Vertigo (7)
Batman
Batgirl
Legion of Super Heroes
World's Finest
Wonder Woman
Fables
Fairest
Marvel (3)
All New X Men
Daredevil
Hawkeye
Image (3)
Walking Dead
Manhatten Project
Chew
Darkhorse (1)
Star Wars
I'm looking forward to seeing you guys and Uncle Sal at the Expo! Gosh, I'd better start packing. I have to leave tomorrow! Oh, am I'm hoping that Pants won't eat any Long John Silver just before showing up at the booth on Thursday.
DC "bashing" - yeah...I think the negativity went on a little too long BUT hey, that's how Jamie and Chris were feeling about the Villains' gimmick and while I sort of agree that it's been going on a long time from both the Big 2, I do think it's worth continuing to bring up. When they did things like a giant Lois Lane on a cover, sure they were trying to sell more comics, but back then there was a lot more of a "pie" to share. So to do things like the Villains-gimmick now when there's so little of a pie, it could be dangerous. Like Chris, I figure there will be loads of Villain's gimmick bargain bin fodder.
Anyway, I liked the more positive things that were said also. I agree with your recommendations: All-New X-Men, Hawkeye, Lazarus, Daredevil, Star Wars, Trinity War, and in addition, Back Issue.
**SPOILERS**
One of my favorite about All-New X-Men, and I say don't know how to say this without seeming like a Jean Gey hater (which I'm not) is that they really show her has having feet of clay and not being a saint. She really comes off as manipulative, using her powers to force Angel to stay the first time, and I really felt like in the latest issue she was manipulating Hank. Her confrontation and kiss was more to head off the future she doesn't like then one born of real affection. The biggest draw for me is that the kids are questioning everything, all authority, trying to determine whose right or wrong and make up their own minds: Jean's confrontation of the X-Men over the Scarlet Witch, Bobby accusing old Hank of lying to them, Angel defecting to Uncanny, etc. I'm long from being a teenager, but these feel like the most authentic teen characters since Kitty herself was introduced.
"At the end of the day, people have a budget. They work their asses off often for their money, and... here, here's 10 minutes of reading and oh, by the way you have to pay $7 for it.
Go to hell."
Well said Chris and I concur.
Second best quote? Regarding @JamieD's non-conclusion on whatever happened to Richard Rider, I found this on http://marvel.wikia.com: Looks like the only people who stay dead in comics are... Uncle Ben.
(Man, Service Merchandise... THERE'S a place I haven't thought about in years! I miss that clipboards & conveyor belts emporium!)
As for Hanna-Barbera cartoons, I think their ability to stand the test of time depends on iteration and formula, as in "Show X is the y iteration of formula z". For instance: family in different historical era. Flintstones works well, Jetsons a little less so but alright, then you have snoozers like The Roman Holidays. Or the mystery solving kids and their weird mascot: Scooby works (so long as he has the whole gang with him and does NOT have Scrappy in tow), and the many, many imitators... not so much. Wacky Races yes, Yogi's Space Race oh good sweet lord in heaven no.
I remember Laff-A-Lympics being re-run on ABC in the mid-to-late 80s, and me and a lot of my friends who watched it all thought it was new at first because we were just a little too young to remember the original run! Same with Hong Kong Phooey.
Whacky Races
Jabberjaw
The Great Grape Ape
Rocky and Bullwinkle
Underdog
Captain Caveman
Hong Kong Phooey
Scooby-Doo
Quick Draw McGraw
Yogi Bear
Flintstones
Jetsons
The Space Kidettes
Herculoids
Shazzan
Samson and Goliath
Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!
Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch
Inch High, Private Eye
Speed Buggy
...are all shows I watched as a kid in the 80s and had NO IDEA at the time they were reruns.
I also love Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova. I agree that Nova is a great all-ages book in the truest sense of the phrase. I think everyone can enjoy it. I am curious is Marvel will ever address how Star Lord and Thanos escaped the Cancerverse. It was in The Thanos Imperative (and least if memory serves me right) where Nova and Star Lord stayed back to allow others to be saved and held Thanos there knowing that it would mean their demise. But then months later Thanos was back and then months after that we got Star Lord back. No Nova to be seen. I would like to see how, and maybe there is hope for Ryder to return one day.
I have heard a lot of podcasts talking about how we as consumers really need to look at what we're buying and adjust to stop buying the things that we are not excited to read. I totally agree with this and I'm glad others are feeling the same way. I am way behind on reading some titles because I keep putting them off for other things I want to read. Those are the titles I am cutting. Obviously I'm not missing them.
I did order the Villains bundle from DCBS, but it's because I'm genuinely interested in almost all of the books, and cost wise I would have been paying almost the same for the issues I wanted versus all of them with the higher discount. It just made financial sense to me, but I am using the next month as a good jumping off point for DC titles I don't enjoy reading enough to keep up with them. I did this to Marvel a while back and I'm down to the two main Avengers titles, 4 X-Men titles (and yes, All-New X-Men is one because it's awesome), Hawkeye, Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova, and a couple Spider-Man titles. That's really it, which might sound like a lot to some people, but I was up to 25 Marvel titles at one time. This is less than half of that, and I'm not sorry that I did it. Now it's DC's turn.
I will say that I still do find a lot in DC that I enjoy a lot. I'm not someone who thinks all of the new DCU is bad. There are great comics in there, but I do need to trim the "okay" titles.
I also want to say that without listening to podcasts, I would have never discovered the world of independent comics. Podcasts are what got me to read The Walking Dead, Invincible, Saga, and many more. So thank you for that.
And the more I listen to Chris on the show, the more I feel like he's a long lost brother (with the same name!). I still have my Burger King Star Wars/Empire/Jedi mugs. I didn't have them all, but the ones I got I still have (the Lando one from Empire was always my favorite).
I, too, loved the Sears Wish Book and can remember the anticipation of the new one each September. I loved going through and circling everything I wanted. Then I'd go back and do a "revision" to bring it down to a reasonable level. The Star Wars pages were always the first ones I sought out.
A couple other things that take me back to my childhood:
The Q-Bert tabletop game:
(I loved the cartoon as well; I was young)
And DC digests:
Thanks for the great episode and for, yet again, spurring memories of my childhood. Love it!
chris