Crisis Tapes 19 Talkback: Crisis on Infinite Earths #5, Part 1--The Cover

i_am_scifi

One cover. Ninety-plus characters. Two hosts. Three hours. Zero regrets. Before our discussion of the fifth chapter of Crisis, join us in a 'quick' review of the key players from the two prime Earths, as selected and depicted by George Pérez. (3:16:56)

Listen here.

ChrisBeckett

Anyone else not seeing this in itunes?

i_am_scifi

@ChrisBeckett That's the second complaint I've seen about this, and yet the episode shows up on the Apple Podcasts page. So yeah, no clue. Is it Windows or Mac iTunes? https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/comic-geek-speak-podcast-the-best-comic-book-podcast/id73330265

ChrisBeckett

@i_am_scifi It’s Apple podcasts on my iPhone.

Travis

Still hasn't shown up in my Apple podcast feed.

i_am_scifi

Thanks, @Travis. We're looking into it, so hopefully this will be resolved soon.

nweathington

Re: Wildcat, he did appear in one JSA story in All-Star Comics #24, but as a one-time thing, not as an official or even honorary member. He even says “this one time” in the story.

ChrisBeckett

So, I don't know if it's coincidental with a fix, but I did a search for Comic Geek Speak in the podcast app, and the episode was sitting right there at the top of the list. I was able to download it, and it went right to my subscription in my podcast library, even though I did try updating it just prior and it did not download it.

That's one workaround, if you need it @Travis

Travis

@ChrisBeckett That worked. Thank you!

Thor_El

Count me among those who didn't have it automatically load into my feed, but I was able to find and manually download it. Strange.

Pants

When I found out you guys were recording this episode I tried to track down a scan of the original cover art for issue #5. Unfortunately the owner of the cover, whose identity I do not know, has not made public any scans of the artwork. I have it on good authority, however, that the image of the two earths was done on an overlay and that there is likely artwork on the board underneath.

Do Fog and Monocle appear anywhere else in Crisis other than this cover?

I do have some corrections - Alan Scott Green Lantern first appeared in All-American Comics #16 not #40, and the Golden Age Starman first appeared in Adventure Comics #61 not #1.

i_am_scifi

The feed should be fixed now btw!

Adam_Murdough

Pants said:

I do have some corrections - Alan Scott Green Lantern first appeared in All-American Comics #16 not #40, and the Golden Age Starman first appeared in Adventure Comics #61 not #1.

The "Adventure #1" thing was a slip of the tongue on my part--I'd meant to say "sixty-one" and somehow only the "-one" part made it out of my mouth. I didn't realize it at the time and probably never would have if you hadn't pointed it out here. Alan Scott's first appearance, however, I did have down in my notes (incorrectly, of course) as #40, so that one's entirely on me. Thanks for lending us your ear for detail, Brian.

Keep those corrections comin', everyone! Find those foul-ups, if there's more to be found! It's for our own good!

Peter

Pants said:

Do Fog and Monocle appear anywhere else in Crisis other than this cover?

The Absolute edition - which has some errors/omissions - has an index of "all" the characters, and doesn't list any appearances for either. A quick look through the 2-issue villain war came up empty. So my guess is - for now - I'd say they don't appear on a page only on a cover.

nweathington

@Peter, I don’t want to take anything away from George’s work on this cover in terms of making the characters identifiable, but a lot of credit should go to the various artists who made such distinctive character designs to begin with. It’s been a long-standing industry standard that a character should be identifiable even in silhouette whenever possible, and several of the characters shown here could be identified even if they were completely blacked in based on the design work of those artists.

Ezri_El

I stumbled upon your podcast last week by happenstance and was instantly captivated! I've since gone back and listened to The Crisis Tapes from episode 6 (the earliest episode my patience would allow me to find as my listening medium lists all CGS podcasts together). 

My last reread of Crisis has been over 15 years ago but I've been compelled to read it anew given your insights on the series. I wasn't a Crisis Kid, getting into collecting comics with a primetime news story of Superman being killed off in '92. Sadly, my small hometown wouldn't get a comic shop until after his death which made my back issue hunting non-existent until 1993. It was among that store's long boxes I first discovered "Crisis on Infinite Earths" out of curiosity of issue 12's cover (specifically the appearances of multiple Supermans). I had no inkling as to what the story was about nor the journey I was about to embark. It would take several years for me to complete my run as issues 1, 7, and 8 were already fairly scarce by the early 90's.

Thank you for rekindling my interest in rereading this series...and also for rekindling my love of the JSA! Len Strazewski's 1992-93 run of "Justice Society of America" was my first real foray into comic collecting as most the Superman titles where nonexistant on the newsracks at the time (I've always assumed due to his impending death more than anything else). Your asides of "All-Star Squadron" reminded me why I loved these characters.

I look forward to hearing more Crisis Tapes. Keep up the good work!

David_D

Welcome aboard @Ezri_El !

i_am_scifi

@Ezri_El If you would like to check out earlier episodes, they are all listed under their own feed from back in the day when there were so many spinoffs it was hard to keep track! http://www.comicgeekspeak.com/cgs-crisis-rss.xml

ChrisBeckett

That was great! Thanks, gentlemen.

Not a criticism, but I was surprised the story behind the cover didn't come up. I can't remember if this was in the companion to the Absolute Crisis or if it was something in an old interview, but I think Marv Wolfman had suggested that Perez draw 3 faces on this cover, to allow him to get a short rest from all the work he'd been doing, inside and on the covers, of the first four issues. But, if memory serves, Perez had trouble deciding what three characters to highlight on the cover, so he just went to town and did what Perez always did and stuffed the image to the gills with character heads.

Ezri_El

@i_am_scifi Thanks for the hook up...I am now all caught up and awaiting new episodes with abeited breath!

Webhead

Never has three hours gone by so fast, thanks guys. As usual you entertained me and educated me all at the same time.

BionicDave

If there's a podcast equivalent to the Oscar Awards or the Nobel Prize, I'd love to give CRISIS TAPES 19 the Podcast Episode of the Year! I cannot describe how much I loved listening to every minute of @Peter and @Adam_Murdough spending 3+ hours discussing this CoiE #5 comic book cover :love: it was like mainlining 47 years of pure DC Universe brilliance. My favorite lines:

"Lanterna non grata" - Adam

"Okay, I'm spent, shall we merge our faces?" :joy: - Peter

This series is always fantastic, with its patient, granular analysis of the #1 event in comic book history. But this episode in particular went above and beyond in showing off the talents of its hosts, and the creativity of so many writers, artists and editors across the first decades of DC. My great thanks to Adam and Peter for all the hard work and long hours they continue to put into this multiverse-sized effort.