Author: ComicsJim

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 170 – John Byrne’s 2112

In last week’s podcast, I mentioned that I met Tom King at the Fax Expo Boston and he saw me carrying a copy of John Byrne’s 2112 graphic novel.  King asked if he could look at it and I began to tell him the history of how this book was made.  I did not get to meet John Byrne but it gave me an idea.

This was the impetus for this week’s podcast.  Jon has never read the graphic novel 2112 and I always like covering old comics so I thought we will do a review of it…

JB_2112

Here is the cover.  Pretty cool, right?  It has dinosaurs there and tall futuristic towers in the back.  I know what you are thinking…”Dinosaurs are from the past!  How did they get into the future?!”  Well, we will find out together.  Also, there is the image of a masked man.  Who is this mystery man?  Well, that would be…

sathanus_02

Sathanus!  The main antagonist in our story.  You knew he was going to be a bad guy.  How many guys in masks with red eyes turn out to be humanitarians?  His mutant power…er, I mean – Halfling power (not mutant) is that he sucks the life out of people like a vampire.  He was born to be the bad guy and he has ‘anus’ in his name so that makes him an a-hole.

sathanus_01

Here is an image of Sathanus…uh, sucking.  Pretty brutal.  But who will be brave enough to take down this heel?  Why that would be…

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Agent Red – our main hero.  This scene is early on in the comic and as you can see here is a tough and stoic man.  Jon mentions in the podcast that Agent Red reminds him of Judge Dredd and that is an apt description.

Jon and I go over the graphic novel and let you know if this is something to be on the look out for next time you are at your local comic shop or flea market.

Your comics pal,

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 170

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 169 – Boston Comic Con 2018

This year, the Boston Comic Con officially changed it’s name to Fan Expo Boston 2018 but I will always call it Boston Comic Con.

It was was held at the South Boston Convention Center (SBCC) for the 2nd year in a row and I hope it stays there going forward.

SBCC_01
This is a picture of the outside of the SBCC

Fan Expo was going big on the celebrities this year with features like: Michael J Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Billy Dee Williams, Evangeline Lilly and many more.

I was not interested in those celebrities.  Our main draw were the comic creators.  They had John Byrne, Jim Lee, Tom King, J. Scott Campell and many more.

Jon and I spent last Sunday there.  We let you know who we met and what we saw…

Your comics pal,

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 169

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 168 – Death of Superman Movie

Back in 1992, DC comic creators had planned a story line where Clark Kent would finally marry Lois Lane after years of dating.  This story was canceled at the last second due to a series of unfortunate events (which we chronicle in the podcast).

At the eleventh hour, the creative teams decide to go with a story line that was first suggested as a joke – “What if we kill Superman”? 

This led to the infamous Death of Superman story line that ran for a few years through all 4 Superman books leading to the ultimate issue – Superman #75 where Superman finally dies…at least for a year or so.  C’mon!  No one stays dead forever in comics. 😉

Here is what Superman #75 looked like in it’s sealed black plastic bag and the actual cover.

Jump to 2018, WB video has just released a direct-to-video original movie called The Death of Superman.  It is a adaptation of the multi-issue comic event that ends with Superman dying. (Spoilers!)

DoS_movie

Jon and I have watched the movie, read the comic event and give a brief oral history on why it was a good idea to kill one of the most recognized comic creations.

Your comics pal,

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 168

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 167 – New Comics Review

Welcome back to another new comics review podcast.

There have been dozens of new titles that have come out and we picked 4 of the best to discuss.  Here is the order and comics we will be going over this week:

1.The Weatherman by Image Comics

WM01

  • Story by Jody Leheup
  • Art by Nathan Fox

2. Spider-Man by Marvel

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  • Story by Nick Spencer
  • Art by Ryan Ottley and Humberto Ramos

3. Blackwood by Dark Horse Comics

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  • Story by Evan Dorkin
  • Art by Veronica and Andy Fish

4. Iron Man by Marvel

ironman01_2018

  • Story by Dan Slott
  • Art by Valerio Schiti

Jon reviews the 2 Marvel books and I review the 2 independent books.  We recommend you pick up all 4 books and we will give you multiple reasons why in the podcast!

Your Comics Pal,

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 167

 

 

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 166 – 2018 Eisner Awards

Eisner2018

Last week was the San Diego Comic Con where they held the 2018 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards.  So this week, Jon and I will be doing a review of the nominees and winners of some of the categories from the:

2018 Eisner Awards

Or as I like to call the podcast:

2 Ignorant Clods Butcher Names and Talk About Comics They Didn’t Read (For The Most Part).

Jon and I recognized a few of the creators and titles up for awards this year like: Monstress, Black Hammer and Hellboy.

Congratulations on all the winners and please don’t be too angry at us if we pronounced your name wrong.  We will do better next year so keep up the good work!

Jon also goes over the 2 DC Movie Universe trailers that dropped: Aquaman and Shazam.

Your Comics Pal,

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 166

 

 

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 165 – Ant Man and the Wasp

The next Marvel movie has come out and it is…

AM_wasp_01

Ant Man and the Wasp.

We saw it a few weeks ago and decided to do a review of it this week.  It is a continuation of the last Ant Man movie and references ties to Captain America: Civil War.

The Ant Man series (like the Guardians of the Galaxy Series) are more light hearted and funny movies than the other series and I enjoy that.  Not every hero has to be grim and gritty.  This movie continues with a mixture of levity and fast pace story telling.

The movie introduces a new character called Ghost.  Ghost is more of an anti-hero in the film than a true villain or at least, a sympathetic villain.  This is similar to how Ghost is portrayed in the comics and we go over that in the podcast.

We go over the movie with minor spoilers and give our verdict if you should go out and see it.  We then get into so the Marvel Comics story lines it references and some of the Easter Eggs that we spotted.

You comics pal,

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 165

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 164 – Give Me Liberty Part 2

Welcome back!  We continue the discussion of Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons’ dark political satire – Give Me Liberty.

We discussed Books 1 and 2 last week and we continue on with the remaining Books 3 and 4.

We start the discussion with Miller’s crude brand of humor and we discuss if he could get away with this type of humor today.  We go on to discuss Martha’s relationship with Chief Wasserstein, the introduction of the Surgeon General, the dissolution of the United States and Moretti’s final fate.

Some of the material is a bit dated but overall, Jon and I did enjoy reading (and rereading) this miniseries again.

Your Comics Pal,

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 164

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 163 – Give Me Liberty Part 1

July 4th was a celebration of the birth of the United States.  It is also the birthday of Martha Washington.  Who is that?  Why she is the main protagonist in this week’s review.

Since it is Independence Day, it seemed appropriate to do a review of Give Me Liberty a creator owned comic from writer Frank Miller and artist Dave Gibbons.

GML_01

The comic was originally published by Dark Horse Comics in 1990 and it is a creator owned character for Miller and Gibbons.  Give Me Liberty was published as a 4 issue prestige comic miniseries.

Give Me Liberty is dark political satire that takes place in a near future dystopia.  (Remember, this came out in 1990 and starts in 1995 with the birth of Martha Washington).

I have my original copies of this series and read it when it first came out in 1990.  Jon has never read the series until this week.  We had so much to talk about that we had to break this podcast up into 2 parts.

Part 1 – We cover the first 2 issues.  We talk about President Rexall and how he repealed the 20th amendment (I think I mistakenly called it the 26th amendment) so he can run for president for more than 2 terms.

GML_03GML_04As you can see from Dave Gibbons lovely art, President Rexall looks more like a dictator with each passing election.

Martha joins PAX (which is a combination of the Peace Corp and the Marines) and her first mission is the protect the Amazon Rain Forest from the corporate greed of Fat Boy Burgers.  Here is another great image from the series…

GML_02

There is a lot to talk about in this series and most of the issues in this comic are still relevant today.  Listen to part 1 and come back next week for our conclusion to the series.

Your comics pal,

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 163

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 162 – Preacher Season 3

Preacher is back!  Season 3 premiered last Sunday so that will be the focus of this week’s podcast.

preacher_S3

Jon and I talk about the first episode: our first impressions, the new characters and then end the podcast with our thoughts on what will happen during the rest of the season based on the comic.  Guess what?  THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS PODCAST!  If you have listen to previous podcasts, you know we talk about everything to listener be aware.

One of the topics of discussion is the selection of Jody on the show.  Here is a comparison of the comic vs the show:

jody

Now, Jon is a fan of the guy who they cast.  I on the other hand am not a fan (but maybe I will change my mind by the end of the season).  Listen to the podcast to hear my reasons.

I’ll tell you what I am a fan of…the new print ads for the show.

preacher_S3_ad

These are hilarious.

As always, Jon and I have a great discussion on the show and try to keep it entertaining.

Your comics pal,

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 162

 

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 161 – Krypton TV Series

SYFY premiered a new series focused on the history of Superman’s alien lineage called Krypton.

krypton

The first season recently ended so Jon and I have put this podcast together to talk about the good and bad of the show.

Before we get into it, let’s talk about the premise: The series takes place about 60 – 100 years before Krypton explodes launching Superman to Earth.  The central character of the story is Superman’s grandfather, Seg-El.

Krypton - Season 1

Seg is a fun loving young person living his best life ever on Krypton only wanting to party all night and sleep all day.  He is visited by a mysterious strange called Adam Strange(er) and he tells Seg that he will be related to one of the greatest superheroes of all time but he needs to rebel against the current Kryptonian theocratic political system in order for his great grandson to survive.  The rest of the show features some twists and turns revealing many familiar faces from the comics and previous movies like this dude…

doomsday

Krypton is a fun ride that takes you through Krypton’s history but needs to focus more on the characters and less on the chase.  We discuss the good and bad on the podcast.

Your comics pal,

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 161

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 160 – Superman Annual #11

Superman Annual #11?  That’s specific and yet random for a Comics Misremembered Podcast.  Why are we talking about this one?

sma11

Glad you asked.  Last podcast (159), I started to talk about Action Comics issue #1000 and I felt that it was a missed opportunity to tell a tale involving Superman to celebrate his life but also give new readers a little history on the character.  It was a good issue but not a great issue.  The stories did not live up to the milestone that Action Comics achieved, in my humble opinion.

Then I remembered reading Superman Annual #11 that came out in 1985.  It was written by Alan Moore with art by Dave Gibbons (the creative team behind The Watchmen) and I remembered how much I liked that story.

superman_fantasy
Poor Kal-El.  He can never catch a break.

Jon never read the comic, which is also know as “For The Man Who Has Everything“, so he read it and I reread it and we decided to talk about it and then start breaking it down as to why it is a great story.  We also elaborate on why a story like this would be a great introduction to new Superman readers (even today).

We then breakdown how Alan Moore took stories that were happening in politics in the real world in 1985 and used this story as an allegory for Krypton.  The messages Moore was trying to get across in the story are as relevant today as they will be for years to come.

Listen to the podcast and do yourself a favor and get a copy of this annual to read.

Your comics pal,

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 160

 

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 159 – Anniversary Issues

Remember that Flintstones episode where Fred gets the cops to sing the “Happy Anniversary” song to Wilma for their anniversary?  What do you mean you don’t know what ‘Flintstones’ are?  Well, go on Youtube and watch it.  I’ll wait.

You’re back!  Good.  And you heard the song?  Great.  That song runs through my head every time someone mentions the word ‘anniversary’ and it’s happening now that I am going to talk about 3 recent anniversary issues:

  • Invincible Iron Man #600
  • Amazing Spider-man #800
  • Action Comics #1000

Jon and I reminisce about what we remember regarding anniversary issue back in the day and then we dive into talking about these 3 issues.  The stipulation I give Jon on these comics is: If I was a new reader and this was my first issue reading about these characters,  would I enjoy it?

I know that there are other anniversary issues that came out recently (Captain America #700 and Deadpool #300 to name a few) but these 3 issue illustrate what I think all milestone comics do:  1) the are the ending to an epic story line or 2) they are a starting on point to a new story line, direction or character (sometimes all 3).

I will tell you this regarding the 3 books: 1 is not very good, 1 is very excellent and 1 is a missed opportunity.  Listen to the podcast to find out which is which.

Your comics pal,

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 159

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 158 – X-Statix

Last week, Jon and I reviewed the Deadpool 2 movie on the podcast.  During the movie, Deadpool puts together a team of mutants that he calls X-Force.  One of those mutants was called Zeitgeist and I thought he was made up for the movie.  Turns out, he was 1 of 2 mutants (Domino being the other) that was actually on the team X-Force.  How did I forget this?!

In 2001, Editor in Chief – Joe Quesada wanted to inject some life into X-Force that was not doing so well in sales at the time.  Enter Peter Milligan, writer of Vertigo’s Shade the Changing Man and Animal Man.  He told Joe his crazy idea for the book – Get rid of the original X-Force and replace it with a whole new, all different X-Force.  Full of brand new mutants.  Joe agreed to let Peter tell his story and we got…

Xforce116

X-Force #116 – see that guy in the center of the cover that is doing a vault over the ram-like mutant.  That is Zeitgeist!  The mutant that can spit acid.  And get this, he dies in the comic during the first story arc.

The comic will gain popularity and change it’s name to…

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X-Statix!  I read every issue of this comic during it’s run from 2001 – 2004 and like the wackiness of the new teams.  Jon has never read this version of X-Force/X-Statix so I lent him a trade that I had that collected the first 5 issues of X-Statix.  We dicuss this off beat mutant book by Peter Milligan and Mike Allred.

Your comics pal,

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 158

ComicsJim

CM podcast 157 – Deadpool 2

2 years ago we witnessed an R-rated comic book movie called Deadpool and it was good.  We did a podcast on the the movie and more.

Last week, the highly anticipated sequel came out.  Is it as good as the original or is it Deadpoo?  We will tell you what we thought of… Deadpool 2!

dp2_01

We will tell you up front – this movie is as good as the original (even better, maybe).  Being a Deadpool movie, you know there will be jokes, violence and swearing but this movie also as heart and compassion (which were in the original – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it).  Jon and I give our opinions on the movie and we try not to spoil too much on what makes it great.

Your comics pal,

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 157

 

ComicsJim

CM Podcast 156 – Irredeemable

In 2009, Mark Waid thought to himself “What if Superman was a complete bastard?” and this was the impetus for his original series – Irredeemable.

Irredeemable was written by Mark Waid with art by Peter Krause and it was published by BOOM! Studios.  It ran 37 issues and it was a psychological profile on “What if a man with Superman’s powers used them for evil instead of good and why would someone do that?”

irredeemable_01

The main character of the story is a super powered hero turned ultimate villain by the name of The Plutonian and the comic starts at the point of the Plutonian suddenly behaving very violently and evil and the rest of the superhero community has to find out what happened to him.  This comic starts at full throttle and never lets up.

Jon has never read the series so I gave him the trade of the first 4 issues and this is what we discuss in the podcast.

Your comics pal,

Jim

Comics Misremembered Podcast 156