Brett, EvilJeff and Steve gather to discuss the news out of the 2010 San Diego Comic Con. The fags then break into a tangent about Walking Dead #75 before moving on to discuss X-Men: Second Coming and Justice Society of America #40. They wrap up with Brett and Steve battling it out in a Scottish accent-off!
(and at the very end, Steve realizes he shouldn’t believe everything he sees on the internet)
Steve welcomes back 3 previous guests to discuss Wonder Woman #600. 
This issue we’re joined by Randy from the Ham-Berger Book Club blog, Darren from the Legion of Substitute Podcasters and Brian Anderson of So Super Duper fame. The boys give their opinions of the stories within WW 600, their personal attachments to the character and finally speak out about the new costume/direction.
Also, Darren mentions a picture of a guy in the WW costume and here that is:
In this episode, Steve sits down with southern queerkateer Randy to receive some good ol’ fashioned southern hospitality. Just as you’d expect, the boys nerd out over comics! Steve gives his stamp of approval to Power Girl #13 and Randy discovers the Doom Patrol for the first time.
Check out Randy’s blog here: http://ham-bergerbookclub.blogspot.com/
The queers start out talking about the Heralds mini-series which prompts Stevie to give a dissertation on the history of Frankie Raye. The boys then go on to discuss books like New Avengers, Avengers Academy, Birds of Prey and X-SecondComing-Men.
Stevie pulled out his patented interview juice (Maker’s Mark Whiskey) to talk to the creative muck
etymucks behind Modern Mythology Press, Eric M. Esquivel and Dave Baker. The boys discuss their latest book “Horrible Little People” and upcoming projects, as well as the influences in their work. Since these guys are fresh college graduates, they did most of the talking while Stevie kept sipping the ambrosia of the Gods. Enjoy!
Make sure to check out the boys’ work as well as Eric’s Article “Post-Modern Mythologies” over at the Bleeding Cool site.
Music copyright the Dandy Warhols and the RoboCop 2 soundtrack.
Get your maps, get your compass, get your 4-toed giant statue, the boys are talking LOST!
Brett, EvilJeff and Steve talk about the Lost series finale, the series as a whole, and what they have been filling the void with.
Thanks to Mike Norton for the “Found” comic strip! Click on the picture to check out more of Mike’s awesome art!
The video Steve mentions towards the end of the podcast:
Steve asked Mer Boy to name an old run in comics that he felt was under rated, and we would all read it again and see if it stood up to the test of time. He chose John Francis Moore & Adam Pollina’s X-Force #70-75. We got Mirage, Siryn, Meldown (Boom Boom), Sunspot, & Warpath on a mutie-tastic road trip that leads to a Burning Man concert…and a lesbian Karma! Sweet!
Brett, EvilJeff and stevieD discuss the sorrow they feel over a recent X-Death. They also talk a little bit about Batwoman and finally they come up with an amazing idea for a comic; and yes…it includes Emma Frost.
“People are attempting to bring a superficial reality to superheroes which is rather stupid. They work best as the flamboyant fantasies they are. I mean, these are characters that are broad and big. I don’t need to see sweat patches under Superman’’s arms. I want to see him fly.” – Frank Miller
Ah, good old crazy, brilliant Frank. Interesting quote, considering he’s pretty much responsible for bringing “gritty realism” to comics. Once upon a time, Batman had a Bat-Mite, lest we forget.
So what’s the deal? I think these things are somewhat cyclical too. Batman would originally carry a gun and kill his villains, until Bob Kane or Bill Finger or whoever realised characters like The Joker were far too delicious to just lay to waste.
The 50’s camp came from a need to step away from the idea that comics were a negative influence on children, so they were given some form of totally far-out kid’s cartoon feel. Because you know, flying men are not enough.
There’s a point here, stay with me. Other than the fact both Wertham and Miller have a lot to answer for, each in their own way.
I think realism in comics is a pretty good thing. It’s what makes us empathise with the characters, and keeps us coming back for more. Which in turn means the characters have to become less real, because the more we want, the less they can’t age or die (at least forever). What a paradox eh. We all come to watch Scott and Jean’s love go up and down because we feel we can relate to it, and then of course the characters can never move on from that for very long because otherwise we start to moan or something.
I watched Kick-Ass the other day and realised Millar took realism to it’s ultimate peak, and as such came up with the fact that it’s actually a pretty silly idea. I mean, there’s not one character in Kick-Ass that isn’t pathetic, and that’s not what I go to my superheroes for. Of course I want them to have complicated love lives and to wrestle with eternal questions about morality and friendship. What I don’t want them doing is getting stabbed and then run over by a car, and having to be sent to the emergency room for a three month hospital stay.
I don’t want them to have neuroses the size of uzis, or appalling sex lives. This is the reason Watchmen works so well as a self-contained book, we can’t go back there without delving into humour. Would you constantly keep going back to a character who can’t have sex without his costume? It starts to delve into The Boys territory, and I for one can live without seeing Ozymandias with a hamster up his rectum.
Lee, Kirby and Ditko brought a realism to comics that hadn’t been seen before. DC Comics heroes have always been more of a Greek pantheon, whereas Marvel decided to start from the street level looking up at the gods. Yet what we forget is that the supposed realism was completely drawn from soap operas, not particularly real life itself.
My point being, a certain amount of realism is great. It keeps us coming back to see whether Rogue and Gambit are ever going to get back together. It helps us understand Magneto as not just some evil force but as a conflicted man in a sick world. But there’s a certain moment in comics where I also want to leave the world behind, and I don’t want to see Batman stop leaping over rooftops to spend half an hour taking off his costume so he can go to the toilet. I don’t need to see Catwoman miss a step and fall nose first from a fourth story. I particularly don’t want to see Captain America farting when he thinks no-one is around.
The concept of reality in comics is a glossed-over one. When done to perfection, it means we can see emotional moments that will bring us that much closer to our beloved heroes (and villains, and the ones inbetween). The rest of it should just stay in the gutters.
In this episode, stevieD and Eric catch up with one of their favorite queer indie creators, Zan Christensen (Mark of Aeacus; Prism Comics) who was gracious enough to call us from WonderCon in San Francisco to let us know how it was going. Zan even shares with us who won this year’s Prism Comics Queer Press Grant (click on the link for details on how you can enter!). stevie then gets Ipad envy which leads to a discussion about digital comics and we round out the show with a call from another favorite queer indie creator Brian Andersen (So Super Duper)
Please be aware that some of the links may not be safe for work…YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
