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In a very special episode of the podcast, Mike and Pól are broadcasting for the first time in same room, in the aftermath of the Emerald City Comic Con! They exchange notes on the Con, their respective weekend comic hauls, and how the Con represents the best and most exciting parts of the comics medium! Also, they talk about Matt Kindt’s compelling psychic conspiracy series Mind MGMT. They thrill over the Valiant Comics relaunch and reminisce about Archer and Armstrong and Magnus: Robot Fighter. They drool over the latest output by Archaia Press. They discuss classic pulp heroes like the Shadow and Doc Savage. And finally, they anticipate the upcoming Don Rosa Disney Duck collections from Fantagraphics Books.

This month, Mike and Pól dive into some excellent comics that defy easy classification! They talk up some of DC Comics’ unusual outliers like Solo, Wednesday Comics, and the Judas Coin, that proves the versatility of their characters and the medium as a whole! They discuss how the evolution of comics, the growth of independent companies and the growing accessibility of the medium has changed what comics do, and what we expect them to do. They heartily recommend Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Lovecraftian horror-by-way-of-crime-noir epic, Fatale, while eagerly awaiting the duo’s upcoming works. And finally, we rave about new and upcoming releases in the Parker and Blacksad series’.

Mike and Pól come out of hibernation to dive into another month of comic book goodness! It’s the opposite of a revoltin’ development! They rave about Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt’s epic western/dark fantasy/horror amalgam, the Sixth Gun. They look back on the collected works of late, great masters of the medium like Joe Kubert, Jack Kirby and Carl Barks. They explore Paul Pope’s new mythic tale of coming-of-age heroism in Battling Boy. They anticipate the upcoming Fantagraphics Books collections of Don Rosa’s Uncle Scrooge comics. And finally, they dive into worlds of super-science, time travel, deep space and familial bonds for a look at what makes Marvel’s the Fantastic Four so damned awesome.

While comics fans will find a lot to complain about, we’re actually living in a beautiful, new golden age of comic book joy. Mike and Pól dive into that joy like happy porpoises! Never has there been such diversity of tone, voice, genre, audience or social acceptability for sequential illustrated storytelling. We dig into Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ brilliant science fiction series Saga. We give our thumbs up to Marvel and DC’s more imaginative offerings from Batman ’66 to Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye. We pay homage to Archie Comics’ recent artistic ambition in Archie: the Married Life, and their zombie horror series, Afterlife with Archie. And finally, we drool over Brandon Graham’s multi-genre masterpiece, King City. These are comics so good, you’ll run to buy them like you’re being chased by a crocodile with a claw hammer! This month’s recommendations: Ex Machina by Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris. Bandette by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover.

Rotting corpses! Serial killers! Ghosts! Monsters under your bed! Mike and Pól are talking about the long tradition of horror comic books! And only a month late for Halloween! We dig up the grave of comics’ first wave of comic titles from EC Comics that prompted the Comics Code Authority. We look at 1970s horror comics revival under Warren Publishing, and the current wave of popularity for the genre in today’s comics. From the Walking Dead to Marvel and DC’s dueling swamp monsters…we love the bejeezus out of horror comics! Please forgive us for some sound issues in this episode. Apologies! THIS MONTH’S RECOMMENDATIONS: LOCKE AND KEY by writer Joe Hill and artist Gabriel Rodriguez ————————————————————————————————————————– UZUMAKI by writer and artist Junji Ito

This month, Mike and Pól have a double-sized podcast! We’re diving into the written works of one of our favorite comic book scribes — and one of the most critically acclaimed. That’s right, we’re talking about Northampton’s favorite snake-worshiping magician , Alan Moore! From Watchmen to V for Vendetta, from Swamp Thing to Promethea, and from Captain Britain to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen… few creators have pushed the boundaries of what comics are and could be like Alan Moore. We talk about his lyrical writing style, his battles with DC Comics for creators’ rights, and his terrifyingly dense scripts. THIS MONTH’S RECOMMENDATION: FROM HELL by writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell

This month, Mike and Pól break the usual topic-based format for our first — of potentially many — Comics Roundtable episodes, where we talk about the comics we’ve been reading, the comics we’ve loved, and the things on our “to-read” piles that really excite us. This time, we chat about Mike’s transition from buying monthly issues, to primary buying comics in trade paperback collections. We extoll comics’ uniqueness as an inexpensive, limitless and experimental storytelling medium. We discuss a number of brilliant titles from Image Comics like East of West and Chew.  We drool over the Fantagraphics hardcover reprint collections of the EC Comics and Carl Barks Libraries. We dive into the history and comic library of our favorite Western anti-hero, Jonah Hex. And we look back at the insanely fun work from creators like Bob Haney and Jim Aparo on the 1970s Batman team-up title, the Brave and the Bold. THIS MONTH’S RECOMMENDATIONS: ROCKETO: JOURNEY TO THE HIDDEN SEA by Frank Espinoza As readers, we all have things that really work for us. And for me, one of the things I really dig is the idea of the fighting sailor. The idea of a two-fisted adventurer, setting a course for high adventure on the open sea, in a world where every unexplored corner holds new mysteries, dangers and wonders. So, Rocketo had no trouble at all in grabbing my attention. The story is set in the far distant future, where the familiar landmasses have been twisted and shattered by a series of almost forgotten cataclysms into sun-drenched, steaming jungle realms, storm-tossed oceans, blasted wastelands and mighty empires… and of course, large, blank stretches of unexplored lands and oceans –‘Here be Dragons’. In the dim, barely remembered past, the world was rocked by a series of devastating cataclysms and now, everything is strange, new and unfamiliar – a perfect setting for exciting tales of high adventure. In this strange, future world, exploration is supremely dangerous, made even moreso by the fact that the old methods of navigation by starlight and compass no longer work, and long voyages can only be made with the aid of a Mapper, a member of a guild, all of whom are born with the strange ability to sense their location and heading with the aid of an inbuilt power called ‘a compass’. Our hero, the impressively named Rocketo Garrison, is one such mapper, and these tales represent just one of his amazing stories and adventures. This is an amazing serie

Because criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot, this month, Mike and Pól are talking about Batman! From his pulpy beginnings in 1939’s Detective Comics #27, Batman has undeniably become the most popular superhero in the world, dominating comics, television, animation, merchandise and the silver screen. We explore the Dark Knight’s enduring popularity, his versatility, and how his very name has become synonymous with awesome. We dig into the controversies of his creation, giant typewriters, and the darkening of the character over the past couple of decades. THIS MONTH’S RECOMMENDATIONS: BATMAN: KING TUT’S TOMB by writers J.M. DeMatteis, Christina Weir, Gerry Conway, and Nunzio Defilippis and artist José Luis García-López This story was originally published as 3 issues of a series called Batman: Confidential, in which different creative teams would write short, self contained stories which exist independently of what’s going on in the current Batman titles, and introduces the mainstream DC Universe version of ‘King Tut’, who was character created for the 1960’s TV Series, and played by the wonderful Victor Buono. The tale begins with a series of bizarre murders… and at the crime site, a mysterious clue in the form of a riddle. And so, next stop, Arkham Asylum, to check to see if The Riddler, is still in his cell… which he is. Insulted by someone stealing his gimmick, the Riddler is only too happy to help… as long as he can tag along and help out. Reluctant at first, Batman is forced to acquiesce, and the crimefighter and his costumed foe form an unlikely partnership… as Batman races against time to decipher the clues and prevent further murders, all the while keeping a wary eye on his unlikely ally, whom he knows is looking for the slightest opportunity to betray him. This is a great story for a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s got that great procedural tone. Batman is the world’s greatest detective, and in this story, we get to see him actually using those skills… many modern interpretations like to put this in the ‘too hard’ basket, relying on increasingly improbably gadgetry to solve crimes. Secondly, Batman is presented as driven, professional and dedicated, but not the increasingly deranged, ruthless and paranoid version we’ve been seeing lately. Another thing which is really striking about this is its elegant simplicity. It’s quite content to be a thrilling action adventure tale, and to let the plot,

In our new episode, Mike and Pól are prowling the back alleys and seedy bars of crime comics! From noir-ish tales of mystery, to hard boiled detective stories, elaborate gangster epics or true tales of real life scofflaws, we love crime comics! Also, we discuss the history of the crime genre in comics, how industry censorship nearly killed it, and its current resurgence. THIS MONTH’S RECOMMENDATIONS: CRIMINAL by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips Criminal is a series of six volumes of crime stories centered chiefly around the criminal element of a fictional North American city called Center City. While each story is complete in and of itself, each one subtly interlinks with the others. Characters, events and places occur in common. The stories themselves are well-executed, but no-frills crime story. For the most part, Brubaker and Phillips aren’t trying to re-define the genre, just produce solid, very well-executed straightforward crime drama, featuring all the usual tropes. heists gone wrong, crooked cops, revenge, dark secrets, bad decisions, old mistakes coming back to haunt you, falling for the wrong woman and making the wrong enemies. This is a wonderful series, featuring compelling and well-rounded characters, in deftly executed narratives. Both story and art are crisp, evocative and hard-hitting without being overly or unnecessarily stylized. Both creators are confident in the power of their stories and characters to carry the series without baffle the reader with clever tricks or flourishes. Quite simply, if you love good, solid well-told crime fiction, this is definitely one to check out. Criminal is published by Icon, a creator-owned division of Marvel Comics. So far, there are six volumes, and the series is on hiatus while Brubaker and Phillips work on another series, Fatale, but they do plan to return to it. —————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RICHARD STARK’S PARKER  by writer and artist Darwyn Cooke Parker is based a series of crime novels by Richard Stark. Set in 1962, Parker is the story of a career criminal simply named Parker. He’s a nasty son of a bitch, who’s really good at taking thing that don’t belong to him. And he’s just been double crossed. After a heist, Parker’s been shot and left for dead by his wife. She’s run off with his accomplice, Mal Resnick, who’s stolen Parker’s