Speaker 1: Warning, this episode contains spoilers for a bunch of the
Speaker 1: comic books that we are going to discuss. And these
Speaker 1: are comic books from across a spectrum of publishers including Marvel, DC,
Speaker 1: Image and Onny and much more. So you have been warned. Hello,
Speaker 1: my name is Jason Concepcion. Welcome to episode ten of
Speaker 1: X ray Vision, The Cricket Podcast, where we dive deep
Speaker 1: into your favorite shows, movies, comics and pop culture.
Speaker 2: To mark our first.
Speaker 1: Double digit episode, we're bringing on a double hit of
Speaker 1: co hosts. Today up, first on Previously On, I'll be
Speaker 1: covering all the news that's happened in the past week,
Speaker 1: and then it's time for an extended airlock where we
Speaker 1: talk about comics, comics, comics, and to do that we're
Speaker 1: bringing on our comics connoisseurs, writer Rosie Knight and Cody Ziggler. First,
Speaker 1: let's hit the news on today's previously on. First up,
Speaker 1: the Book of Boba Fett trailer is out. How best
Speaker 1: to describe this, So it's like Boba Fett in his
Speaker 1: role as the new crime lord of tattooing now that
Speaker 1: job is out of the picture. I kept wanting to
Speaker 1: hear the Sopranos theme under it because it's like a
Speaker 1: lot of you know, Boba Fett meeting with the various
Speaker 1: coppos of Jaba's former crime empire and getting them all
Speaker 1: in line with the help of mgno Win's Fenixshand This
Speaker 1: will start streaming December twenty ninth on Disney Plus. Of course,
Speaker 1: ep'd by Dave Filoni and John Favreau. This looks super fun. Next,
Speaker 1: the trailer long awaited trailer for Morbius from Sony in
Speaker 1: conjunction with Marvel Studios has been released. It stars Jared
Speaker 1: Leto as the famed Spider Man villain Morbius, the Living Vampire.
Speaker 1: He is a physician who has a blood disorder. Then
Speaker 1: he is like, how do I cure this thing? So
Speaker 1: he goes down to an area where there are a
Speaker 1: lot of vampire bats and guess what, he becomes a
Speaker 1: fucking vampire. It stars Matt Smith, Jared Leto, Jared Harris,
Speaker 1: Al Madrigal, and Tyrese Gibson. It is directed by Daniel
Speaker 1: Espinoza from a script by Matt Sazama and Burke Sharpless.
Speaker 1: This trailer has come out two years after the first
Speaker 1: teaser trailer was released. In four years after the project
Speaker 1: was announced.
Speaker 2: Obviously a lot.
Speaker 1: Has changed in that time, and it is laden with
Speaker 1: references from Sony's various Spider Man offerings, including an appearance
Speaker 1: by Michael Keaton's Vulture. There is a shot of the
Speaker 1: Oscorp building. There is a mention of Rhino and Black
Speaker 1: Cat from the cover of a Daily Bugle. There is
Speaker 1: a mention of that thing that happened in San Francisco,
Speaker 1: which is clearly a reference to Venom. So lots of
Speaker 1: Spider Man from all versions of Sony's Spider Verse happening here.
Speaker 1: Be interesting to see how this ties into the MCU.
Speaker 2: If at all I mean, I'll watch it.
Speaker 1: And then finally, nine employees of Image Comics have announced
Speaker 1: that they are going to form a comic book workers
Speaker 1: union called Comic Book Workers United. The decision announcement reads,
Speaker 1: in part quote, our workforce and the comic book and
Speaker 1: publishing industry as a whole is over taxed and undervalued.
Speaker 1: This is detrimental not only to general staff, but also
Speaker 1: to the creators. We were paid to serve in the
Speaker 1: audience as they entered work to entertain. We love what
Speaker 1: we do, but loving what you do doesn't mean you
Speaker 1: can't or shouldn't ask for improvements to your working conditions.
Speaker 1: And it was signed by the Image staffers Ryan Brewer,
Speaker 1: Leanna Counter, Marla Isaac, Drew Fitzgerald, Melissa Gifford, Cloos, Trisha Ramos,
Speaker 1: John Schlaffman, and Erica Schnatz. Somewhat ironic since Image was
Speaker 1: formed in nineteen ninety two by disaffected comic book creators
Speaker 1: from DC and Marvel who wanted to benefit from the
Speaker 1: success of their creations in a way that working at
Speaker 1: the Big two simply wouldn't. So the fact that this
Speaker 1: is happening with Image is interesting and I hope they succeed.
Speaker 2: I hope they succeed.
Speaker 1: This builds on a history there's been a lot of
Speaker 1: like aborted attempts to kind of unionize the comics industry,
Speaker 1: going back to the Academy of Comic Book Artists from
Speaker 1: the seventies, which was an organization that stan Lee created
Speaker 1: that in his mind was would act as like a
Speaker 1: promotional arm for the comics book industry, but for younger creators,
Speaker 1: more militant creators at the time, including Neil Adams and
Speaker 1: Archie good One. They thought, okay, we should turn this
Speaker 1: into basically a comic book union that will go out
Speaker 1: there and fight for the interests of creators for better pay,
Speaker 1: more equitable profit sharing, better work hours, better working conditions,
Speaker 1: et cetera. And that one kind of broke down because
Speaker 1: there are a lot of disagreements obviously, one about what
Speaker 1: the ACBA would actually do, and then two how best
Speaker 1: to share those benefits, Like would it just be writers
Speaker 1: and pencilers, What about the inkers, what about the colorists,
Speaker 1: what about the letterers? And it's so I'm hoping that
Speaker 1: this union succeeds one and doesn't break down along those
Speaker 1: similar lines. If you're going to be inclusive, you got
Speaker 1: to include everybody. That means writers, artists, pencilers, colorists, and everyone.
Speaker 1: I hope it succeeds some.
Speaker 2: Of the goals. The stated goals.
Speaker 1: That this union has put out there in their announcement
Speaker 1: says they want to foster a more competitive industry through
Speaker 1: salary workload transparency for all existing and proposed job titles,
Speaker 1: more transparent company culture stuff in there, for allowing employees
Speaker 1: to continue to work remote, et cetera. It's a long
Speaker 1: time coming, and I hope this. I hope this works up.
Speaker 1: Next we go into the airlock with Rosie.
Speaker 2: And zig.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the airlock today, where we are joined by
Speaker 1: the Great Rosie Knight and the Great Cody Ziggler. Folks,
Speaker 1: how were your respective Halloweens?
Speaker 3: You know they were good for me? On my end,
Speaker 3: I was a very I was a very adult about it.
Speaker 3: I got my booster shot for pis or being chot out.
Speaker 3: So I spent literally all of my night of Halloween
Speaker 3: on my couch nursing a gnarly headache.
Speaker 4: So that was very serious though. I like that, you know,
Speaker 4: thank you.
Speaker 3: I did what I can. You know this this is
Speaker 3: thirty four. You know, twenty seven year old me would
Speaker 3: would rich at the idea, But like at thirty four,
Speaker 3: I'm like, yeah, we hang out my couch, play some
Speaker 3: Guards of the Galaxy and watch some TV. That that's
Speaker 3: what I got going on.
Speaker 4: No, I feel that at thirty three it was lay
Speaker 4: on the sofa and watched like a ton of bad sequels.
Speaker 4: I watched like every I know what you did last
Speaker 4: summer movie. Two of my favor with late stage hel
Speaker 4: raise of sequels, which is Bloodline and Hell well both
Speaker 4: of them absolutely foncused ten out of Time would recommend.
Speaker 4: But that's that's the life. When you're in your face,
Speaker 4: you got to.
Speaker 3: Be chilling that I get eying, knowlse to prove I've
Speaker 3: done it all?
Speaker 2: What did I do?
Speaker 1: I went to an improv show at Largo, and then
Speaker 1: I went to a friend's party that was already cashed out,
Speaker 1: so we just sat with their dog and talked and
Speaker 1: hung out. It was actually quite chill and delightful. And
Speaker 1: that's it.
Speaker 2: And then I went home.
Speaker 1: Folks, I can't wait to talk about comics today because
Speaker 1: people ask all the time whenever we delve into comic books,
Speaker 1: where do I start? I want to get into comics,
Speaker 1: and I don't know where to start, and I don't
Speaker 1: know what.
Speaker 2: To read, and YadA, YadA, YadA.
Speaker 1: Folks, this is for you. If you are one of
Speaker 1: those people, this segment is for you. Zig Rosie and
Speaker 1: I are going to get into such topics as where
Speaker 1: do I start, what's a good comic arc? And we're
Speaker 1: going to do that across Marvel, across DC, across Boom,
Speaker 1: across Image, across top Cow. We're going to talk to
Speaker 1: you about some of our favorite comics and great places
Speaker 1: to pick up and start.
Speaker 2: If you're new to it. Are you ready?
Speaker 4: I'm ready, I'm ready. This is the one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, give way for it.
Speaker 1: Our first prompt, what are good entry arcs for new
Speaker 1: comics readers?
Speaker 2: And let's start with Let's start with Marvel. Who wants
Speaker 2: to go first? I guess we'll go. We'll just go
Speaker 2: down Zig Would you like to start?
Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah, you know this. I've been yelling about this
Speaker 3: particular run since it came out maybe a year a
Speaker 3: year some change ago. Kelly Thompson and Elena or Elena
Speaker 3: Cussa Grande's Black Widow is for me.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: It's one of those stories that I think defines the characters,
Speaker 3: sort of like how Matt fact fraction in David Aya's
Speaker 3: Hawkeye became like, oh, this is what Hawkeye should be like.
Speaker 3: This is very much in the same vein as what
Speaker 3: what they've done with Black Widow. Fantastic character moments with
Speaker 3: with that, that that that Kelly wrote, and the art
Speaker 3: is amazing, Like car Kelly has has sort of this
Speaker 3: staple where she can do some really beautiful double spreads
Speaker 3: that conveys so much action. Uh, and this usually sent
Speaker 3: it around like a center point frame. There's something crazy
Speaker 3: going on if you're looking for some amazing art as
Speaker 3: well as some beautiful, touching storytelling. I highly recommend Black Widow.
Speaker 3: It's such a fun run. It's funny, it's heart wrenching
Speaker 3: and also has the fun stuff with like you can
Speaker 3: we give the combooks like oh, there's a there's a
Speaker 3: there's a dude in a hovercr like.
Speaker 4: Every day and it's grounded but.
Speaker 3: Everything. Oh right, there you go now, I'm yeah, Harry
Speaker 3: recommend Rosie.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm gonna like, I'm thinking of something in that
Speaker 4: would be like a similar vein because I love the
Speaker 4: idea of this being like a reading list for me,
Speaker 4: like something you really those double page spreads. The way
Speaker 4: Kelly can write them and Elena can bring them to
Speaker 4: life is the twenty thirteen Young Avengers run. They're Kieran Gilla, Yeah,
Speaker 4: Matt Wilson on colors. Those colors are vital to the books. Like,
Speaker 4: this book is so good. It's like I love the
Speaker 4: original Young Avengers, Jim Chung's like the best, and but
Speaker 4: this is like this was my thing, Like I love
Speaker 4: this book. I got the first issue with a Brian
Speaker 4: le O'Malley variant cover, and it's basically like Team of
Speaker 4: young heroes and it's cosmic and it's weird, and it's
Speaker 4: what we're basically about to see in the MCU two
Speaker 4: looking at the team, know America, Chaves, Patriot, You've got
Speaker 4: like Kate Bishop, Hawkeye. You know, there's and it's and
Speaker 4: it's queer and it's funny and it's inclusive and there
Speaker 4: is there are these double page spreads and these things
Speaker 4: that Jamie does with Paneling, Like there's this one double
Speaker 4: page spread where they're having a fight, and all around
Speaker 4: the edges there are like little kind of like outtakes
Speaker 4: where you're seeing different people fighting the number the fighter
Speaker 4: and it is like I remember reading.
Speaker 3: That and being like, ship it broke my brain. The
Speaker 3: first time I read that.
Speaker 4: I was like, this is what comics are, Like, this
Speaker 4: is what you can do with them. And it's like
Speaker 4: it's fun, it's sexy, it's like silly, but and it's
Speaker 4: kid Loki. Wow, big kid Loki storyline. If that's your thing.
Speaker 4: So I think that is like a really and that's
Speaker 4: from this era of Marvel that I just loved when
Speaker 4: they were doing Marvel. Now you know that Miss Marvel,
Speaker 4: Kamala Kahan, Like there was a lot and that is
Speaker 4: just like, that's peak I when I work in a
Speaker 4: comic shop, I used to recommend that book to everyone.
Speaker 1: Gillan, uh mckelvy, Matt Wilson. That is an elite, top
Speaker 1: level creative team, so clean, the writing is musical, it's romantic.
Speaker 2: I love that one. That's a great one.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of x Men out there, there's
Speaker 1: you know, forty fifty years now of x Men history.
Speaker 1: I am going to select for the new reader. X
Speaker 1: Men Grand design Ed Pisker's three volume compendium of X
Speaker 1: Men history, done as like almost like a zine. So
Speaker 1: it's not gonna give you like the granular detailed stuff
Speaker 1: like about you know, it's not gonna give you everything,
Speaker 1: but it's gonna basically catch you up in four or
Speaker 1: five decades of X Men history in this really fun,
Speaker 1: almost like indie art style.
Speaker 2: That I super love.
Speaker 1: Whether you're a X Men fanatic or someone who's just
Speaker 1: like wants to know all the stuff that happened before
Speaker 1: diving in. I think it's a great pickup. Listen, bar
Speaker 1: the first one from your library or if.
Speaker 2: You have comic compony, yeah, library, yeah, and if you
Speaker 2: like it, go pick it up. From your from your
Speaker 2: local comic shop. Next zig another one, give us another one, you.
Speaker 3: Know, since we're since I'm coming off that I'm dismounting
Speaker 3: from from your pick. For X Man, I gotta recommend
Speaker 3: zeb Wells and Steven Segovia's Hellian's I Love My Boys V.
Speaker 3: We work together on Cheehak. He's super funny guy in
Speaker 3: this comic is very very funny, also very dark. He's
Speaker 3: he the way that he's able to have a character
Speaker 3: like mister Senator have actual bits and I have punchlines
Speaker 3: in his comics is missed.
Speaker 4: The sinister is like the I want to do this
Speaker 4: is so funny, like and you can. Hellien's is a
Speaker 4: brilliant choice because it seems like maybe it's a little
Speaker 4: bit more heavy because it's just been off sea. But
Speaker 4: it's not like you can jump into this book and
Speaker 4: just absolutely love it and if you really love it,
Speaker 4: you can go to House of X all the other
Speaker 4: stuff like this is like the and it's what's fifteen issues.
Speaker 3: And yes, easy easy and easy out. It's one of
Speaker 3: those things that also, like the Sculturals, I guys like
Speaker 3: we know what the Thunderbolt told in IR like we
Speaker 3: know what Suicide Squad is, so like taking that team
Speaker 3: and couching it in like the X Men world, and
Speaker 3: also being like, oh, I'm gonna have some of the
Speaker 3: funniest jokes you've ever read, also sandwiched in between some
Speaker 3: really traumatic stuff going on, much of the same way
Speaker 3: that I think that Black Widows sort of redefines a
Speaker 3: black widow for this sort of modern age. I think
Speaker 3: if Helions could be redefined, I think in the year's
Speaker 3: twenty twenty one, like, this is definitely the book that
Speaker 3: I would recommend if you're looking for something that's new
Speaker 3: at currently being made. It's also funny and has hits
Speaker 3: all the different tiers of like action, like the dramatic bits.
Speaker 3: It also a really really really funny book, and it.
Speaker 4: Comes out regularly as well. For a big two book.
Speaker 4: I rarely have big two stuff like on my pull
Speaker 4: list for a long time. Yeah, this is in our house.
Speaker 4: That is that that's like Helen's is just so good.
Speaker 4: I'm so glad you included that one. It's just it's
Speaker 4: so good. It's so funny, but it's.
Speaker 1: Also like really yeah, yeah, the mister Sinister aspect is
Speaker 1: fantastic because you know, for mister Sinister, classic X Men
Speaker 1: villain has a very tangled history within the X Men lore,
Speaker 1: but like you don't need to know any of that.
Speaker 1: It's like so campy and funny and weird. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a great pick, great pick.
Speaker 4: And he has like an incredible cape, which is like
Speaker 4: one of my all time favorite.
Speaker 3: I do love their bits that revolve around the spindles
Speaker 3: on his cape. They dive into very fun stuff.
Speaker 2: H Rosie.
Speaker 4: Okay, I'm gonna go for a let's think. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 4: that was just so good. Okay, let's go old. Let's
Speaker 4: go old because you went there. Okay, So I'm gonna
Speaker 4: recommend We've talked Infinity Gornela, which is on my list
Speaker 4: because I just think that's such a great comic. But
Speaker 4: we've talked about that before people know it. That's your MC.
Speaker 4: So I'm gonna go for Silver Surfer Rebirth of Thaos,
Speaker 4: which is from nineteen ninety. It's Ron Limb, whose Absolute
Speaker 4: Icon also was artist on Infinity Gone and Jim stalin
Speaker 4: the career of Thanos and Infinnity Go. This is just
Speaker 4: a really cool, weird ninety story about Silver Surfer and
Speaker 4: Thanos and it's what led into Infinity Gorne lit. So
Speaker 4: this is a great place to if you want to
Speaker 4: know how Thanos ended up on the Quest for the Gems.
Speaker 4: This includes really great art called Danos Quest and it
Speaker 4: is just so much fun. Run them is one of
Speaker 4: my absolute favorite artists, just absolutely stunning, brilliant, weird, cosmic art.
Speaker 4: If you're looking for something where it's like you want
Speaker 4: to be someone who can go into them SEU and
Speaker 4: you have a little bit more context on what's going on,
Speaker 4: and maybe you want to make up some fan theories
Speaker 4: or you want to chat to your friends about what happened.
Speaker 4: I feel like this is a relevant book. I feel
Speaker 4: like this is a good direction to go to, and
Speaker 4: it's just really cool. And they actually have this book
Speaker 4: wasn't collected very often, but there is a silver Stuff
Speaker 4: of Rebirth of Thanos collection which is really easy to
Speaker 4: just grab as a trade.
Speaker 2: I love it. That's a great one.
Speaker 1: Let's see where will I go? Okay, so let's jump
Speaker 1: to DC. I think if you're listen, this is dead easy.
Speaker 1: You want to know about Batman? Right, Batman? You're one
Speaker 1: Frank Miller, David Matsucelli, first of all, that creative team
Speaker 1: in that year did Batman You'r One and Devil Born Again,
Speaker 1: which is just two of the top top top greatest
Speaker 1: arcs ever. And Batman Year one. It tells you right
Speaker 1: in the title.
Speaker 2: What it is.
Speaker 1: It is the first year that Bruce Wayne put on
Speaker 1: the cape, put on the cowl, and started skulking around
Speaker 1: at night trying to be Batman. And it's the ups
Speaker 1: and downs, the ins and outs, the trial and error
Speaker 1: of what you need to do and what you experience
Speaker 1: when you're trying to become a masked vigilante in the
Speaker 1: most crime burden city in DC comics America.
Speaker 2: And the art is just Yeah.
Speaker 4: Maza Kelly's as like Conreal. There's so many moments you'll
Speaker 4: recognize even if you haven't read the comic. When you
Speaker 4: see it, you'll be like, oh, that's what I ass from.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's just like iconic stuff. The pacing of the art,
Speaker 1: the framing, it's just absolutely beautiful. And it's everything you
Speaker 1: need to know where Batman comes from and what he
Speaker 1: has to face as he meets a bunch of people
Speaker 1: from his Rogues gallery towards the end of the story.
Speaker 1: Really really great. Pick it up as a trade perfect
Speaker 1: next zig Once again, what's next.
Speaker 3: You know, I don't have any DC because I'm a
Speaker 3: company man through and through. But what I do have,
Speaker 3: you know, if you're look at him, that's little bit
Speaker 3: different flavoring from I think traditional Cape superhero comics. You
Speaker 3: gotta check out hell Boy. I highly I mean any Hellboy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, just so much great stuff.
Speaker 3: There's so much great there's I mean, the good thing
Speaker 3: about Hellboy is that it's not very serialized, especially this
Speaker 3: first couple of comics. You can just pick up their
Speaker 3: basically folklore, So you know, I highly recommend Hellboy, The
Speaker 3: Chained Coffin and others like that's the first one that
Speaker 3: I read for Hellboy, even.
Speaker 4: Like Seed of Destruction, which is volume one, Like that's
Speaker 4: you you can just jump on, like that's such a
Speaker 4: good thing. And it does kind of link to DC
Speaker 4: because a lot of Mike mcnoll's original work was at DC,
Speaker 4: like he did a little bit Batman, you know, so
Speaker 4: I think I think that's a really cool course. That's
Speaker 4: also I think one of the best if you like
Speaker 4: superhero comic and you want to dive into something that's
Speaker 4: more independent creator around, but still has that folkloric, mythological
Speaker 4: epic scope. I think Hellboy is like a really good choice.
Speaker 3: Yes, that choice of words is I think is what
Speaker 3: really draws me to it is that you know there
Speaker 3: most of them are myths and fairy tales and folklore,
Speaker 3: and because just human beings have been telling those things
Speaker 3: for a thousand of years, Like it instantly feels familiar
Speaker 3: but also grandness of scale, but like you could have
Speaker 3: a story that lasts you know, ten pages, that is
Speaker 3: in and out, but it feels very complete because we've
Speaker 3: heard versions of that as long as I for fort
Speaker 3: since we've been going up forever. But also they are fantastic,
Speaker 3: Like the use of colors and shadows that he does
Speaker 3: is just next world. And also it's very nice different
Speaker 3: spin if you used to like I think the Eight
Speaker 3: Head the Eight Heads of like Comic Web, like superheres,
Speaker 3: everyone's like jacked and like they're like all six foot five.
Speaker 3: It's nice seeing a different take on that. And it's
Speaker 3: also a nice seeing some things that are made outside
Speaker 3: of like the Big too, if you're looking against some
Speaker 3: more independent comics.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think as well, like something that could
Speaker 4: really I think is a good another good inroad for
Speaker 4: people who are mostly into Big two is like it's
Speaker 4: almost like a it's a shared universe of folklore, so
Speaker 4: you have all these different characters from all over the world,
Speaker 4: and instead of it being like Batman teaming up with
Speaker 4: you know, the Justice League or whatever, or founding Justice League,
Speaker 4: it's instead you've got like Barba Yaga and like all
Speaker 4: these different but also you know hell Boy and all
Speaker 4: these other like Lobster Johnson, like these characters that Mike
Speaker 4: created as well. I just I think those books are
Speaker 4: so wonderful and really cool to see a creator who
Speaker 4: got to do a book for such a long time
Speaker 4: kind of end it on his own terms and then
Speaker 4: he does dip back into it. But that is something
Speaker 4: if you want to get into something and just do it,
Speaker 4: it's you can do that. That can be your seat dive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a there's a breaking bad aspect too of
Speaker 1: hell Boy, where it's like Mignola keeps putting hell Boy
Speaker 1: into situations where you're like, how's he gonna get out
Speaker 1: of this way? And he gets out of it and
Speaker 1: it ends up mattering and changing. The story is as
Speaker 1: they move forward into it, where things just get worse
Speaker 1: and worse and worse and worse and worse for hell Boy,
Speaker 1: who's you know, entire struggle as a character is trying
Speaker 1: to avoid the fate laid out to him. And each
Speaker 1: time he each time he like puts the fade off
Speaker 1: for a little while, it comes back stronger and he
Speaker 1: has to resist it even stronger again, and it just
Speaker 1: it's a great, great arc all the way through.
Speaker 2: Could not agree one, Rosie.
Speaker 4: Okay, So I'm gonna use you know, Zigg's very good
Speaker 4: deflection to go back to his distinguished competitions. So if
Speaker 4: you if you read, if you read, if you read
Speaker 4: hall Boy, and you love it, and you're like, what
Speaker 4: is dark and weird and similar? But what exists in
Speaker 4: this this DC space that I love with this? So
Speaker 4: I'm gonna go for Saga of the swamp Thing the
Speaker 4: nineteen eighty four to so from Sagara Swamping twenty one,
Speaker 4: which is when Alan Moore, Stephen Besset John Tottlebin and
Speaker 4: that is like the weirdest best stuff ever. So this
Speaker 4: is really where the swamp Thing. The Swamping was created
Speaker 4: by Lem Wayne and Bernie Wrightson, and it's this great
Speaker 4: horror character. But here basically just before this they kill
Speaker 4: swamp Thing, he gets shot in the head and so
Speaker 4: Alan Moore basically was like, wow, he's made of plants.
Speaker 4: So he just comes back to life, and it really
Speaker 4: it reinvents it. It introduces a lot of the stuff
Speaker 4: that we know about swamp thing, and it has this
Speaker 4: absolutely incredible issue called Rights of Spring, which is like
Speaker 4: super notorious because it's basically this super trippy swamp thing,
Speaker 4: basically like giving a tuba off himself for his girlfriend
Speaker 4: to eat and then they trip together and like unbelievable,
Speaker 4: And I just think that is That's the kind of
Speaker 4: comic you can give to anyone. Like if someone's really
Speaker 4: really into horror and they love Talboy, for example, you
Speaker 4: can give it to them. If you've got if you
Speaker 4: want to get a comic for your parents or someone
Speaker 4: older and they just really appreciate more classical style art,
Speaker 4: that's a great election. If somebody's read Watchmen and they
Speaker 4: want to know other Alan more stuff to read, like,
Speaker 4: there's just it's just so much fun, and they've really
Speaker 4: done a great job of collecting it. It's also a
Speaker 4: good back issue comic. If you're a collector, you can
Speaker 4: go to your local comic shop. You can probably find
Speaker 4: that issue twenty one for kind of ten to fifteen bucks,
Speaker 4: and you can sort of start a fun collection. So
Speaker 4: I think it's a really nice comic for a lot
Speaker 4: of different reasons.
Speaker 2: Wow, this is great.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I am going to say, gosh, I'm Ultimate
Speaker 1: Spider Man.
Speaker 4: I just think, Jason, that is not decenta.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Going back to going back to Marvel, Marvel's Ultimate Universe.
Speaker 1: So the Ultimate Universe was a initiative that Marvel put
Speaker 1: into place early two thousands that was basically like, how
Speaker 1: do we how do we bring the Marvel Universe into
Speaker 1: the modern world, right?
Speaker 2: And so.
Speaker 1: It's it's just great. There's I think it's about one
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty issues all told, I want to say,
Speaker 1: And you know, just read it all the way up
Speaker 1: through spoiler, the death of Spider Man, the introduction of
Speaker 1: Miles Marnallas.
Speaker 3: Good.
Speaker 4: It's so good.
Speaker 1: It hurts so so so good, Mark Bagley, Stuart Immanen
Speaker 1: and others, and it you know, it puts Peter Parker
Speaker 1: into early two thousands New York. You get to see
Speaker 1: it's and it is a real like Peter Parker as
Speaker 1: a teen figuring it out. You feel the danger of
Speaker 1: what could happen. If these various villains find out about
Speaker 1: Peter Parker's secret identity, and you know, because it is
Speaker 1: Ultimate Universe, there are real stakes which again lead to
Speaker 1: Peter Parker's absolutely heartbreaking death.
Speaker 2: Great, great run.
Speaker 4: It's so good. It has to one of my favorite
Speaker 4: Spider Man moments of all time. Yeah, there's the absolutely,
Speaker 4: there's the there's the I always remember, like post the
Speaker 4: death of Spider Man, there's a scene with Miles and
Speaker 4: he's like remembering Peter with all these different family members
Speaker 4: that is that has like there's a scene I think
Speaker 4: it's Gwen or someone who's remembering and that she like
Speaker 4: imagines what their whole life would have been. Like, Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's like a silent page with and it is so good,
Speaker 4: and we talk. We talk about Clamont a lot, and
Speaker 4: this was actually I think Bendis overtook Clamont as the
Speaker 4: longest writer on one run during on a Spider Man.
Speaker 4: So that's like also a milestone.
Speaker 1: And there's a handoff, like to hand off from an
Speaker 1: iconic character Peter Parker two Miles Morales and do it
Speaker 1: in a way where it honors both characters and you're like,
Speaker 1: Miles Morales immediately enters the pantheon of comic.
Speaker 3: Immediate like it.
Speaker 2: That is so hard to do and they absolutely pull
Speaker 2: it off.
Speaker 3: And also a character built as a clap back to
Speaker 3: all the they were like, yeah, we don't want to yes,
Speaker 3: a non white Spider Man, Like, oh, we're not only
Speaker 3: going to make one, but he's going to become like
Speaker 3: the face of like the generation of Spider Man going forward. Now,
Speaker 3: that's who.
Speaker 4: Kids dress up as. Now, like, that's who my nephew
Speaker 4: dresses up as. That's who kids that con dress up as.
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter who it is. Miles Morle has that suit,
Speaker 4: that beautiful red and black suit, the sneakers like that
Speaker 4: is and obviously into the Spider Verse. Just the best
Speaker 4: Spider Man movie of all time. And yeah that I
Speaker 4: think that's such a great recommendation because that's another one too,
Speaker 4: where like a lot of times, getting into comics, it's
Speaker 4: sporadic issues. Yeah yeah, but oh I'm a Spider Man.
Speaker 4: That is like Jason said, like one hundred and sixty issues.
Speaker 4: You can just dive in there and go on a journey,
Speaker 4: like a decade long class journey, and you'll be in
Speaker 4: a really good space to understand Miles and where he
Speaker 4: comes from. And then the best thing about comics, there
Speaker 4: are other great Miles stories told by people more like
Speaker 4: Miles now, so you kind of get to see the
Speaker 4: evolution of that character. That's so cool.
Speaker 1: One more round of entry arcs for new readers, and
Speaker 1: then we'll go to some of our favorite art and
Speaker 1: trade zig Uh.
Speaker 3: You know what, I think I've tapped out my Marvel
Speaker 3: like I got I'll shout out for Hawkeye, Fractured Idges,
Speaker 3: Hawkeye just because Hawkeye is dropping. It's fantasic, fantastic art,
Speaker 3: really really funny, great stuff. But for another non DC,
Speaker 3: non Marvel, Kirkman's Invincible, much like like Ultimate spider Man
Speaker 3: Businesses spider Man is also I think it's like one
Speaker 3: hundred and twenty something issues like that. I truthfully, I
Speaker 3: just re read them all, like not too long ago
Speaker 3: when an Invincible TV show came out, so like it's
Speaker 3: a nice modern take on on like this Peter Parker
Speaker 3: story subbed in for like little mix of Peter park
Speaker 3: a little mix of Spider Man or of Superman. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and beautiful art Ryan Yes, just artist fantastic, Like the
Speaker 3: the way that they also sort of have a running
Speaker 3: theme of their jokes where they'll just have love repeated
Speaker 3: panels like I love that, Like I I steal that
Speaker 3: from my own work because I think it's very fun. Also,
Speaker 3: it's very economic if you're trying to.
Speaker 4: Get a story fun, because it's a really met a
Speaker 4: joke where it's like it's partially done because of economy,
Speaker 4: but it's also sometimes done as the joke of you
Speaker 4: thinking it's economy, so you're like it's cheaper to just
Speaker 4: and quicker to just. So it's like a comic about
Speaker 4: making comics as well, which is really fun.
Speaker 3: It's really fun. I really recommend it. It's great seeing
Speaker 3: an anyhow, any comic like that that has also sort
Speaker 3: of broken too the barrier, not unlike Spawn or Boy.
Speaker 3: And it's also just getting a nice fresh take like
Speaker 3: most of the comic calls up, there's some stuff that
Speaker 3: is like, oh boy, this was obviously not written in
Speaker 3: this point, but it's it's still still really really fun
Speaker 3: read and highly recommend. If you're going to get like
Speaker 3: a new sort of span on like the Spider Man,
Speaker 3: Superman Lore, the fresh fresh eyes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm going to go for something that's like a
Speaker 4: farm more out there. But if you if you grew
Speaker 4: up on like a Calvin and Hobbes or you like
Speaker 4: strip cartooning that kind of stuff, but you also like
Speaker 4: too There's this unbelievable book from twenty fifteen called Super
Speaker 4: Mutant Magic Academy, which is by Jillian Tamaki, who's the
Speaker 4: most incredible cartoonist, and it's basically it's a series of
Speaker 4: one or two comics that are interlinked about a group
Speaker 4: of kids at like a magic school, and it's kind
Speaker 4: of Harry Potter meets Xaviers, but it's super funny, and
Speaker 4: it can go kind of like Kellyn's. It can go
Speaker 4: from these really humorous panels about like teenage weirdness to
Speaker 4: a character who he's just he never dies and it's
Speaker 4: like this existential nightmare throughout the comic. And that is
Speaker 4: like one. The book is beautiful. It's like this big, chunky,
Speaker 4: square book and that you can get that in most
Speaker 4: local comic book shops at your library. Libraries love that
Speaker 4: book and it is just so much fun and it's
Speaker 4: really kind of weird and smart and silly and totally independent.
Speaker 4: And I think that is just a really cool space
Speaker 4: if you want to start dipping your toes into more
Speaker 4: kind of like experimental cartooning or indie comics. And Jillian
Speaker 4: has done a bunch of amazing books, including this one
Speaker 4: Summer with Marico Tomki. So there's just it's a great
Speaker 4: place to start. But it is so fun, especially if
Speaker 4: you like X Men, You'll just be living life because
Speaker 4: it is like it's like the funniest, weirdest X Men parody.
Speaker 2: I will I'm putting that on my list right now.
Speaker 4: It's so good. It's like, I will go to the
Speaker 4: book is beautiful, Like if you love to have a
Speaker 4: nice book on your shelves, just go and buy it.
Speaker 4: It's like it's so good, it's so so good.
Speaker 3: I'm literally buying it right now.
Speaker 1: Jillians, I love so to jump in and learn about stuff.
Speaker 2: I am going to pick.
Speaker 1: You know, early two thousand's Marvel was kind of like
Speaker 1: defined by certain creators. I think Brian Michael Bendas is
Speaker 1: probably the big one, And so I'm going to say
Speaker 1: Avengers Disassembled into which is like a self contained arc.
Speaker 1: You can get it as a trade into. Brian Michael
Speaker 1: Bendis with David Fintion and Steve Mcnivin's new Avengers run,
Speaker 1: which is so the Avengers have broken up, one of
Speaker 1: the many many many make the country. But it's so
Speaker 1: The great thing about Avengers Disassembled is you you read
Speaker 1: it great art, and you feel like, wow, this is
Speaker 1: this is this is it.
Speaker 2: The Avengers are no more. I can't believe it.
Speaker 1: There's like people holding up candles outside the Avengers mansion.
Speaker 1: This is this is first, this is a cataclysm.
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, it's like the Avengers.
Speaker 3: Have broken up like a dozen times.
Speaker 1: Don't worry, don't worry about it. But running into new Avengers,
Speaker 1: you get this. You get a new team as Earth's
Speaker 1: mightiest heroes try and figure it out. They don't have
Speaker 1: the kind of financial backing of Tony Stark anymore. It's
Speaker 1: gonna look more rough and ready.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: And it's a really cool mix of characters including you know, Wolverine,
Speaker 1: Captain Marvel, you know Clint Barton in the Ronan costume
Speaker 1: for some reason. But it's super fun and it threads
Speaker 1: through a lot of the big events that happened during
Speaker 1: that era, Civil War, siege, etc. And so you get
Speaker 1: like this kind of smattering of big events and it
Speaker 1: takes you basically up to the stuff that's happening now
Speaker 1: as a launch Pad, really fun run with you know,
Speaker 1: big fights, lots of stakes and that kind of like
Speaker 1: bend to see a lot of words coming at you,
Speaker 1: but in a great way. So check it out. Let's
Speaker 1: go to our favorite graphic novels and or comic runs.
Speaker 1: Usually these runs are going to be contained in trades
Speaker 1: that are easy for people to pick up.
Speaker 2: So let's start with Musig What do you got.
Speaker 3: I'm going to go with a truly indie indie book
Speaker 3: as a series called Very Near Mint by Justin Peterson.
Speaker 3: I think think I found it when I was in
Speaker 3: art school. Uh. He had like a random Kickstarter. I
Speaker 3: was like, it's basically Clerks in a comic book shop.
Speaker 3: Was like I got to read this, uh and and
Speaker 3: and it's great. It's super super funny. It has that
Speaker 3: indie spirits like it's a it's a black and white comic.
Speaker 3: And my first one to one with that is with
Speaker 3: Clerks because it was also, yeah, they couldn't afford to
Speaker 3: pay for color films, so they did it black and white.
Speaker 3: It's super super funny. Justin has got a very funny
Speaker 3: sense of style. I love his art. I love anything
Speaker 3: that that that that that sticks the landing on being
Speaker 3: a piece of indie art made for a very beach audience,
Speaker 3: which is comic book fans, but then also combook fans
Speaker 3: that are aware of how other combook fans actually and
Speaker 3: and like.
Speaker 4: How comic shops work, and like that kind of interior,
Speaker 4: the kind of stuff that we talk about between off friends,
Speaker 4: like and ann your local shop and stuff that's really
Speaker 4: hard to capture.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I I I think you can. I know that
Speaker 3: you can buy I think it might be mostly out
Speaker 3: of print, but you can buy a PDF of it
Speaker 3: from Justin's website. I think it's probably like volume one
Speaker 3: maybe on Amazon or something like that. But I highly
Speaker 3: recommend I looking for something that's like a little bit
Speaker 3: off the beaten path, and also if looking for like
Speaker 3: as flat out comedy graphic novel series very near man.
Speaker 3: I think there's three volumes out and I think you
Speaker 3: may have done a couple like shorts and stuff too.
Speaker 3: High recommend that if you can find it, really really
Speaker 3: great series. And also it's a nice just a different take,
Speaker 3: and I think on what a lot of people think
Speaker 3: comics of being like capes in superheroes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, mine, I'm going to go for another black
Speaker 4: and white comic too, and this is We've been talking
Speaker 4: a lot about these arcs that you can just jump
Speaker 4: into and have like four years. So mine is Love
Speaker 4: and Rockets by the Hernandez put Yeah, I love them
Speaker 4: so much. This is like the ultimate indie comic. It's
Speaker 4: been going on for decades now. And the cool thing
Speaker 4: is it's if you want, it's very easy to collect
Speaker 4: the first like fifty issues of magazine size. It's really
Speaker 4: fun thing to collect. But Fantagraphics has a ton of
Speaker 4: really cool story collections where they collect together arcs about
Speaker 4: different characters because it's kind of nonlinear in that way.
Speaker 4: But there's two major aspects of the story. There's the
Speaker 4: Maggie and Hopie, who are two friends slash on time
Speaker 4: like lovers on and off, and they're in the punk
Speaker 4: scene in La the Mexican punk scene in La in
Speaker 4: the kind of seventies eighties, and they grow up real time,
Speaker 4: so now they have grown up as you read the book.
Speaker 4: And then there's a Palomar, which is kind of this
Speaker 4: small town and the lives of people who live there
Speaker 4: and they are just like this is some of the
Speaker 4: best cartooning I have, Like multiple Love and Rocket status,
Speaker 4: the Henandez Bros.
Speaker 3: Are La Edges.
Speaker 4: You can go to any convention, Yere and Hi May
Speaker 4: Will and Gilbert will just be their chilling sign in.
Speaker 4: Like I almost died the first time the first time
Speaker 4: I went to Comic On. They were at the fanographics
Speaker 4: table and Grant Morrison was at the heavy metal table,
Speaker 4: and I was like, what the fuck is this? What? What?
Speaker 4: This is? What you guys get at San Diego? You
Speaker 4: can just go and and yeah, they're really great if
Speaker 4: you love rock music, if you love punk, if you
Speaker 4: love comics, if you want to read a queer comic
Speaker 4: that's been going on for like forty years, the early
Speaker 4: stuff Maggie the Mechanic that's very sci fi, very influential
Speaker 4: on like Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, stuff like that. And I
Speaker 4: just I cannot sing the praises of that book enough.
Speaker 4: And it's the kind again kind of book you can
Speaker 4: give to anyone.
Speaker 3: This this is just tangerous with that. But have you
Speaker 3: read The Queen of the Rings the right wrestling drawings?
Speaker 4: Of course ten ten was waiting for that for so long.
Speaker 3: It's just if you're looking for just like a nice
Speaker 3: art book by her behind me her Nandez. It's just
Speaker 3: him drawing a bunch of fantastic female wrestlers from from
Speaker 3: all the decades. It's a nice little material.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think it's like it's like thirty five
Speaker 4: dollars or something from panographics. I thought it was gonna
Speaker 4: be like one hundred and fifty dollars art book. But
Speaker 4: I went to hiding her comics and I was like, Wow,
Speaker 4: this is afootable and I love it. Yeah, that's and
Speaker 4: that's another thing. There's a whole bunch of wrestling and
Speaker 4: kind of like the like female wrestling characters throughout. So
Speaker 4: it's just a really eclectic, wonderful set of comics.
Speaker 1: I am going to pick I'm going to go India
Speaker 1: as well. I'm gonna pick Fantasy Sports and I volume
Speaker 1: and three volumes one, two, and three, Like how to
Speaker 1: explain it?
Speaker 2: So that it is.
Speaker 1: It follows the adventures of Wiz and Mug, a young
Speaker 1: girl and her her muscle bound friend, and they take
Speaker 1: on various sports themed challenges and it's just an absolute delight.
Speaker 1: The art style is like the best way I could
Speaker 1: describe it is when I was a kid and I
Speaker 1: was and I was drawing a lot this.
Speaker 2: Is what I wish. It's like.
Speaker 1: Just so detailed, beautiful, like manga meets Mike mgnola kind
Speaker 1: of style. And yeah, it's an over It comes in
Speaker 1: an oversized hardcover three volume edition. You can get it.
Speaker 1: You can order it through your local comic shop, you
Speaker 1: can order through a bookshop. You can order it from Amazon.
Speaker 2: If you wish.
Speaker 1: And it's just beautiful and all ages. If you're not
Speaker 1: a you don't need to know a lot of lore
Speaker 1: to read it. You can give it to a kid
Speaker 1: and they would love it. As an adult, you will
Speaker 1: love it. It's just fantastic. You can't I can't recommend it Highland.
Speaker 4: Rare English language sports comic and it's that mixture. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and it takes that manga sports comic vibe that puts
Speaker 4: it in this really extreme like fantasy. I love that.
Speaker 4: As soon as I saw that, I was like, I
Speaker 4: hope that's what It's so good. That is just so good.
Speaker 4: I love those books.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm gonna You know, since you mentioned
Speaker 3: the the sort of manga inspiration for fancay sports, I
Speaker 3: gotta do. Scott Pilgrim.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: It was one of the first first non superhero DC
Speaker 3: Marvel comics that I read or graphic novels that I read.
Speaker 3: I also was like a little punk shithead when I
Speaker 3: was in when I was younger, so like I could
Speaker 3: very much relates. I was very much. Oh yeah, I've
Speaker 3: played at those type of shows and met those type
Speaker 3: of people. Like it very much captured what I what
Speaker 3: I thought my twenties was being in like a shitty,
Speaker 3: shitty band. Scott does not hold up too much.
Speaker 4: Now, I think that's the point there, right, Like you
Speaker 4: grow and you're like, yeah.
Speaker 3: Scott's an asshole, like anyone else should Kim Pine really
Speaker 3: should have been the hero of this. Yeah, but it's great,
Speaker 3: it's great. I think they released some colored versions.
Speaker 4: Now, have the beautiful Brian actually I think colored them
Speaker 4: himself as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so like if you want to get a text
Speaker 3: for either one, like I personally love the black and
Speaker 3: white stuff.
Speaker 4: And only then they're all like manga side. Yeah, it's
Speaker 4: really nice, easy to read. Yeah, that is such a
Speaker 4: great And if you like the movie, which obviously is
Speaker 4: like so iconic, the book is really great because it
Speaker 4: just expands. It's so similar, but it just you get
Speaker 4: more time with Kim, you get more time with Ramony,
Speaker 4: you get more time with Knives obviously Justice for Knives
Speaker 4: like the best character. Like I just I love Scott Pilgrim.
Speaker 4: I'm so stoked you picked that because that is like
Speaker 4: I love Brianley, O'Malley. I love Seconds as well. It's
Speaker 4: like one of my favorite books. But Scott Pilgrim is
Speaker 4: that's another great give it to anyone.
Speaker 3: But yeah, yeah, anyone can get it, especially now that
Speaker 3: like people are into these things now it's not just
Speaker 3: niche as being like, oh I'm into video games, but
Speaker 3: also you know music and all that stuff, like everyone's
Speaker 3: doing that. Yeah, it's great. It's a really fun easy
Speaker 3: into that. And also you can see like like like
Speaker 3: like like she said, you can get a bigger expansion
Speaker 3: like what was sort of pair down from the film
Speaker 3: that I think, you know, eggar Wright knocked out of
Speaker 3: the park. I could really captured the spirit of pokem
Speaker 3: books as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well we did a lot of like manga influence.
Speaker 4: So I'm going to do I got three manga books
Speaker 4: on my list. Okay, so I'm gonna go for the
Speaker 4: classic because we're doing kind of good in way, So
Speaker 4: I'm gonna go for Kira by Cats Heiro Tomu at Tomo.
Speaker 4: It's like one of the best comics ever made. It's
Speaker 4: super easy to read because they have these huge telephone
Speaker 4: book sized collections that you can get any comic shop.
Speaker 4: It is a dystopian, sprawling sci fi masterpiece. If you've
Speaker 4: seen the movie, that's literally like one book, if not
Speaker 4: a little bit less than one book. So there's a
Speaker 4: lot to deep dive into. One of the most influential
Speaker 4: aesthetic of all time, movie and book. The art is
Speaker 4: so dense and incredible, and you could look at those
Speaker 4: I've got the full set that Dark Horse did with
Speaker 4: all of the books. You can look at them for days.
Speaker 3: I hate so much going on, what's going on?
Speaker 4: And and you can literally if you commit to it
Speaker 4: and you buy those collections, you could enjoy that for years.
Speaker 4: Like you can read one, you can take it in
Speaker 4: and then you can take a break and you can
Speaker 4: read another one, and like it is just so good
Speaker 4: and it is obviously always just go back and watch
Speaker 4: a Carror as well. It's like one of the best
Speaker 4: movies ever made. But that is such a great place
Speaker 4: if you want to get into. I wouldn't say, like, oh,
Speaker 4: read that if you just want to get into manga,
Speaker 4: because you could probably read like Bleach or or a
Speaker 4: Ramd Mahalf or anything that's a bit more accessible. But
Speaker 4: if you want to get something, you can just totally
Speaker 4: lose yourself in and read one of the most like
Speaker 4: influential sci fi a different tier.
Speaker 3: It's a different tier of like yeah, of of a
Speaker 3: book that you're reading. When it comes to that, it's
Speaker 3: not just like dragon Balls your Hunter Hunter, it's like, oh,
Speaker 3: this is yeah.
Speaker 4: You know what's gonna happen. They get have some sick fight,
Speaker 4: like go and find some gems, like yeah.
Speaker 3: Maybe there's a monkey that has any exactly.
Speaker 4: But the other thing about a Curreror as well is
Speaker 4: I think if you are an American comics reader or
Speaker 4: even just a fan of American sci fi movies, and
Speaker 4: that is a book where you will read it and
Speaker 4: you'll be like, oh, I see that's where they got
Speaker 4: that from. Like yeah, even and if you love like
Speaker 4: an artist, like I know me and Jason talking about
Speaker 4: a lot, but like our Adams is such an incredible artist.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of similarities. They're they're dense, like beautiful,
Speaker 4: intricate in depth work that you can just look at
Speaker 4: for hours. So Akira is always Oh and you know
Speaker 4: what else, I actually do love that, I always do shout.
Speaker 4: Marvel did a really weird thing in the nineties where
Speaker 4: they put a ton of money and got mobius like
Speaker 4: the icon, and they bought everyone in to make these
Speaker 4: for Epic, their imprint Epic. They made these colored reprints
Speaker 4: of Akira single issues, and so they changed the direction,
Speaker 4: which I never agree with, but they made it. Basically,
Speaker 4: they spent the time and effort to take this Japanese
Speaker 4: comic and translate it in a way that they would
Speaker 4: hope would make it accessible for American readers. But if
Speaker 4: you can get your hands on that, the colored art
Speaker 4: is so cool and it was all done like Catsira
Speaker 4: was involved to an extent. I have I have actually
Speaker 4: had got that whole collection of the single issues because
Speaker 4: it's just so cool to look at. So any version
Speaker 4: of a Kira you can pick up American reprint single
Speaker 4: issue versions, you can pick up those big dark Horse
Speaker 4: telephone books, which are probably also at your library at
Speaker 4: this point, and yeah, just just have some fun with that,
Speaker 4: because that is a that's a fucking.
Speaker 2: Cool book, man. I Wow, these are also great.
Speaker 1: I am gonna pick Uh We Three by Grant Morrison
Speaker 1: and Frank Quietly for issue limited series UH trade paperback.
Speaker 1: You know, like listen, if you got into comics, if
Speaker 1: you like nerd stuff, if you like comics, you you're
Speaker 1: an outsider. At one point in your life you felt
Speaker 1: like I needed, I need I need a different perspective.
Speaker 1: I feel like I am I'm not in a I'm
Speaker 1: out of step with the world. Is probably a feeling
Speaker 1: you felt, and.
Speaker 2: We Three captures that. It will break your heart.
Speaker 4: Jason's trying to make you cry. It is trying to
Speaker 4: make you cry.
Speaker 2: It will break your heart.
Speaker 1: It is about It is about three animals who is
Speaker 1: who uh escape from a military testing facility where they
Speaker 1: were turned into weapons and they just want to live
Speaker 1: a peaceful life and they are such close, loving friends
Speaker 1: to each other.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: And this story will absolutely it will crush you happy ending,
Speaker 1: but on the way there it will fucking.
Speaker 4: It's so basical like that. That is the comic where
Speaker 4: when I worked in a comic shop, and if i've
Speaker 4: if I have relatives or someone who's been given it,
Speaker 4: that is the number one comic where people go, oh,
Speaker 4: when's the next part? Because you can't believe like the four,
Speaker 4: you get so absolutely connected and invested. It's like it's
Speaker 4: heartbreaking that there's no more, but it's also perfect.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so yeahful.
Speaker 2: It will crush you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you will Frank quietly, Frank quietly and Morrison together.
Speaker 1: It's like the perfect melding of immense creativity, like like
Speaker 1: grounded fresh flesh and blood, uh, imagery and textures and
Speaker 1: just pure imagination.
Speaker 2: And again, this book.
Speaker 5: Will bres It will break your heart if you are
Speaker 5: the if you are the type of comic book reader,
Speaker 5: slash nerd person who's.
Speaker 1: Like I've always felt outside of things, get ready because
Speaker 1: three is going to stab you in the chist and.
Speaker 4: He hasn't, like Jason hasn't even half prepared you, Like,
Speaker 4: thank he's being hyperbolic.
Speaker 3: This is actually soft to go through. Yeah, if you're
Speaker 3: trying to have a bad week, check it out.
Speaker 2: It will give you a bad week.
Speaker 1: But but again it will end in a place that
Speaker 1: you will feel good about it. But it will it
Speaker 1: will destroy you. Okay, what comics are that are ongoing?
Speaker 1: Are we excited about right now? Zig?
Speaker 3: This is uh from an artist in Peach Momoco Demon Days.
Speaker 3: She's a fan best and absolutely fantastic. She's like, her
Speaker 3: art is amazing, her storytelling is amazing. It makes me
Speaker 3: jealous reading this stuff. Uh So, she's a Japanese artist.
Speaker 3: She has a series called Demon Days, which is we've talked,
Speaker 3: we've touched on like other manga and like inspiration like
Speaker 3: you know, mangan and in American comic books. This is
Speaker 3: a great, a great amalgamation of those two art style,
Speaker 3: beautiful watercolor paintings that are retelling classic Marvel heroes in
Speaker 3: the style of like a Japanese folklore. So their only
Speaker 3: their demons, like there will be a you know, instead
Speaker 3: of Thor being the god of thunder, he is like
Speaker 3: a thunder demon. He carries like little little little storm
Speaker 3: on her shoulder. Fantastic art. I think there's like it
Speaker 3: gonna be six or seven books in the next one.
Speaker 4: Storm, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, not wait for that, Like
Speaker 4: they're so Peach is so good? How are you? Probably
Speaker 4: if you haven't read her like Demon Days, you've definitely
Speaker 4: seen her covers. She is like the comics cover artists
Speaker 4: right now. Like the way that she has inspired fans
Speaker 4: to be caring about comics covers is just it's like
Speaker 4: Tom mcfalland and Greg Coppolo in the nineties, like, these
Speaker 4: are the covers people want to have, Like, yes, she's incredible.
Speaker 3: Have you ever been in a coup Bok shop and
Speaker 3: you start to like, what the fuck is that? She's
Speaker 3: probably Yeah, she's the one who drew that. He's the
Speaker 3: one that made you start. But I got it. I've
Speaker 3: never read this comic, but I've picked up because the
Speaker 3: cover is so cool.
Speaker 4: One hundred percent she she is that. I'm sure when
Speaker 4: I worked in a shop, everything was like it was
Speaker 4: a Scotty Young cover and everyone would bring it, like
Speaker 4: ninety percent of people would bring it back if it
Speaker 4: wasn't in their pulse and be like, why doesn't the
Speaker 4: inside look like that? I am sure that Peach is
Speaker 4: the curse of shop. I'm sure people pick up like
Speaker 4: and then they're like, wait, why doesn't the inside? But
Speaker 4: don't worry. Read Demon Days.
Speaker 3: They'll give you everything. It's a great high recommend, fun
Speaker 3: new from a from an artist writer that's killing the
Speaker 3: game right now.
Speaker 4: Demon Days Enough, Yeah, Rosie, So I'm going to go
Speaker 4: with there's this Viz has been doing the because you
Speaker 4: talked about Demon Days. It just inspired me. Vis has
Speaker 4: been doing these unbelievable manga re releases. So they just
Speaker 4: did a fist of the North Star.
Speaker 3: Oh, let's go.
Speaker 4: It's so good. The cover, it's like the version you
Speaker 4: always wanted. It's got like a it's like a matte,
Speaker 4: blood splatters on the frog. And they also have been
Speaker 4: reprinting Lam and mazony Kuku by Ramiko Takahashi. Who I
Speaker 4: feel who is an icon made in a Yasha ramahalf
Speaker 4: all the manga and anime you loved as a teenager.
Speaker 4: And I just had to bring that up because one,
Speaker 4: the copies are so stunning. If you are someone who
Speaker 4: loves a nice book on your shelf, you got to
Speaker 4: go to those reprints. And two, when I read Demon Days,
Speaker 4: I was like, this is like Remiko Takahashi doing Marvel
Speaker 4: Like it's that make sure of folklore, cute faces, like
Speaker 4: iconic characters, designs. So those and the kind of continued
Speaker 4: re releases that Vis are doing of these kind of
Speaker 4: classic mangas is something I just can't get enough.
Speaker 2: Of at the moment. That is great.
Speaker 1: Gonna pick gosh, I'm gonna pick The Department of Truth
Speaker 1: by James Timmyan and Martin Simmons. It is a I
Speaker 1: don't know how this is gonna turn out, like, maybe
Speaker 1: they don't stick the landing. But I'll just say this
Speaker 1: as an ongoing book that is in the zeitgeist right
Speaker 1: now because it is about conspiracies and what if conspiracies
Speaker 1: are real and how do you deal with that? And
Speaker 1: what is truth? It is a very paranoid and very
Speaker 1: creative book. It's on image the art. I would describe
Speaker 1: it as like Bill Sankowitz, like the in his like
Speaker 1: most darkest tendencies. It is twisted and always interesting to
Speaker 1: look at.
Speaker 2: It can be a little naughty.
Speaker 1: And confusing, but it feels like that's by design. And
Speaker 1: again I hope they stick the landing. But it is
Speaker 1: a crazy book currently an image something I really like. Okay,
Speaker 1: one more for for both, for all of us, and
Speaker 1: then we'll move on.
Speaker 3: You know. I almost keep in the vein of indie comics.
Speaker 3: There's a new comic series called The Antagonist by Godhead
Speaker 3: Comics or a Black owned Black Runner Black Ran Studio
Speaker 3: out of out of Atlanta. I believe. I think there's
Speaker 3: only three issues out for The Antagonists. There's another four
Speaker 3: that they're kickstarting at the moment, but that got on
Speaker 3: my radar just through Twitter. I found their kickstarter. I
Speaker 3: supported them, and it's a fun book. You know, It's
Speaker 3: just you can tell from the name that's from the
Speaker 3: point of view of what would be General Zodd, their
Speaker 3: version of like a black General Zod and like his wife,
Speaker 3: and there's sort of a dismantling you know, a racist nation,
Speaker 3: capitalist nation. And it's just been an interesting point of
Speaker 3: view and like what I think, you know, every I
Speaker 3: think we've seen a lot of like what if Superman
Speaker 3: was bad? Like what if the bad guys ran the country?
Speaker 3: And it's interesting seeing that just from a point of
Speaker 3: view from you know, the thing built on something that's
Speaker 3: I think a lookit more tangible and grounded, like you
Speaker 3: soruld relate sort of like how you can relate to
Speaker 3: Killmonger a lot in the Black Panther movie. That can
Speaker 3: relate to these characters a lot in this series. I
Speaker 3: highly recommend support you know, some some new upcoming artists
Speaker 3: and comic companies that are independent also you know, ran
Speaker 3: by some people of color.
Speaker 4: Yeahs, I'm going to go. So this is going back
Speaker 4: to a big two DC again, but it does include
Speaker 4: some really really incredible cartoonists of So basically DC is
Speaker 4: bringing this huge event called Trial of the Amazons. You
Speaker 4: got Marie Javins as eic now an iconic comic book editor,
Speaker 4: who is heading up this thing with Brittany Molsher, who's
Speaker 4: another editor who's really behind bringing Diana and Nubia, Diana's sister,
Speaker 4: to the forefront of DC Comics. Currently there's a newbier
Speaker 4: in the Amazons series which is leading into this issue.
Speaker 4: One just came out, so it's a great time to
Speaker 4: jump on. It is an unbelievable team. Steph Williams, I
Speaker 4: love her, one of the funniest indie cartoonists around, just
Speaker 4: absolutely the best. Did a Marvel story about Monica Rambo,
Speaker 4: Like just absolute wonderful persona ayala, absolute g comic book superstar,
Speaker 4: the best. So they're the co writers and it's Alitha Martin,
Speaker 4: who is a Martinez who's one of the absolute most
Speaker 4: legit Black Big two artists, And it is just so badass.
Speaker 4: It reintroduces us to the Amazon's Themisca introduces the idea
Speaker 4: of the Well of Souls, which is basically a way
Speaker 4: of opening up and blowing up who can be an Amazon?
Speaker 4: So you have all different kinds of new people coming
Speaker 4: through those doors, and that is really the jumping on
Speaker 4: point to this bigger trial of the Amazon's event alongside
Speaker 4: the Wonder Woman book, which is written by Becky Clunan.
Speaker 4: Another absolute g love Becky Klunan so much, someone who
Speaker 4: really got me into comics, Big two and indie. So yeah,
Speaker 4: that is just something I think is really exciting, and
Speaker 4: that's going to be the big DC event going into
Speaker 4: the kind of next few years. So it's a great
Speaker 4: time to jump on right now because just those first
Speaker 4: couple of issues are out there. You can go to
Speaker 4: your comic shop, grab them, and you'll be in from
Speaker 4: the beginning of this really cool event that has really
Speaker 4: focused on inclusive new heroes. Nubia is a queen of
Speaker 4: them scart now Nubier is an all black creative team
Speaker 4: on that book. So that's just really cool to see
Speaker 4: that happening.
Speaker 1: Damn it Rosie making me spend money.
Speaker 2: Okay, my final pick.
Speaker 1: My final pick is let's go to Image The Good
Speaker 1: Asian biopor Sick Pishit showt and Alex Tefaneggi. It is
Speaker 1: a noir set in nineteen thirties Chinatown in San Francisco,
Speaker 1: and it follows the adventures of a Chinese detective having
Speaker 1: to deal with, you know, solving mysteries and a racist
Speaker 1: society that doesn't really accept him and his culture. And
Speaker 1: it is It's great, it's ongoing right now.
Speaker 2: Get it.
Speaker 1: Image wonderful art, you know, like I just love Noir.
Speaker 1: I love that it really evokes a kind of like
Speaker 1: Batman Year one.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that vibe origin of so many of
Speaker 4: these characters.
Speaker 1: But really really exciting, you know, obviously an all Asian
Speaker 1: creative team. Check it out at Image Comics. Love it
Speaker 1: and I think it only started in when did it start?
Speaker 1: Like it is nice and far into it like May,
Speaker 1: like May or June of twenty twenty one, so not
Speaker 1: hard at all to jump right in.
Speaker 2: Up next, let's go to the end game.
Speaker 1: Okay, folks, we are in the end game now, and
Speaker 1: today we're playing some assembly required in which Rosie Zig
Speaker 1: and I will be randomly assigned a mission and I
Speaker 1: have to assemble a character or a team of characters
Speaker 1: from any comic from any comic company to accomplish this mission.
Speaker 1: And we have selected the randomly assigned mission, and it
Speaker 1: is to compete in Mario Now this is a real
Speaker 1: quote unquote real life Mario Kart, So like Mario Kart
Speaker 1: with an actual vehicle, in the reality of the of
Speaker 1: the adventure that we are taking.
Speaker 2: So let's see.
Speaker 1: Uh, let's let's keep it the same way we've been
Speaker 1: doing it. Zig Who will you select to compete in
Speaker 1: real life Mario Kart? What character from any comic book, franchise, company, whatever.
Speaker 3: My first draft picked will be a one Kate Bishop
Speaker 3: aka Hawkeye. I think if you're in a game of
Speaker 3: Mario Kart, think you give a Mario card, you need
Speaker 3: someone the accuracy, the dexterity. I think Michael Cake can
Speaker 3: hold it down. Get her any honestly, any turtleshell becomes
Speaker 3: a red turtle shell in the hands and exprest archer.
Speaker 3: So she's doing mad work with blue with green turtle shells.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we're in trouble.
Speaker 2: That's a good one, Rosie.
Speaker 4: Okay, So I'm gonna go for ghost Rider. Obviously, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna go said I'm gonna go Johnny Blaze just just
Speaker 4: for fun. I mean, you know, anything he gets on. Really,
Speaker 4: let's be real, let's getting possessed by the devil. He's
Speaker 4: flying down there. There's flames. It's gonna be chaos if
Speaker 4: anyone gets in the way, just throw some chains at them.
Speaker 4: It's probably not gonna be the e for everyone Rate
Speaker 4: and marire Car like Let's it's probably gonna be some
Speaker 4: toasted toads out there. But I think I think ghost
Speaker 4: Rider Johnny Blaze. That's that's the winner.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's a good one.
Speaker 1: Okay, since I don't want to lose, I'm good to
Speaker 1: take a character who has never lost and has come
Speaker 1: away with surprising, world shaking victories.
Speaker 4: Squirrel gol.
Speaker 1: Driving the cra van, Craven the Hunters airbrushed van, the
Speaker 1: unbeatable squirrel Girl. Uh so driving Craven's van and listen,
Speaker 1: we gotta throw shells out the back, so helping squirrel
Speaker 1: girl is this cheating?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 1: Can Howard the duck be in the back to throw
Speaker 1: shells and stuff out the back? So it is squirrel
Speaker 1: Girl in Craven, the Hunters van, the cra Van.
Speaker 4: I mean she's unbeatable.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I didn't think. I didn't I didn't plan
Speaker 3: that far ahead. I didn't think about that monkey in.
Speaker 1: Uh, this has been super fun. Folks, What do you
Speaker 1: think who would you select as a comic book character
Speaker 1: from any comic book series, any comic book company to
Speaker 1: compete in Mariya Kart let us know. Send us your
Speaker 1: answers at hashtag XRVN game. That's XRVN game, and shout
Speaker 1: out to at Marcus mendes One for his end game
Speaker 1: of top five fictional Billionaires. Continue to send us those,
Speaker 1: Rosie zig This has been fantastic and I'll see.
Speaker 2: You out on the streets.
Speaker 1: Big thank you to Rosie and Cody Zigler for joining
Speaker 1: us on another episode of X ray Vision. Next Wednesday,
Speaker 1: we'll be covering Marvels Eternals, So if you want to
Speaker 1: learn more about what we explore in each episode, check
Speaker 1: out our listener's guide in the show notes or on
Speaker 1: our website. Also, five star ratings. Please give us the
Speaker 1: five star ratings. We desperately desire them, We want them
Speaker 1: from you. Please give them to us. X ray Vision
Speaker 1: is a Crooked Media production. The show is produced by
Speaker 1: Chris Lord and Saul Rubin. It is executive produced by
Speaker 1: myself and Sandy Garard. Caroline Reston and Carlton Gillespie are
Speaker 1: our consultant producers, and our editing and sound design is
Speaker 1: by Vasili's fittupulus. Also thank you to Brian Vasquez for
Speaker 1: our theme music.