Wait, What? Ep. 92: Brave Faces

Above: the Tomato Bs waffle, which is tomatoes, brie and basil on a savory liege waffle, from The Waffle Window, Portland, OR

So, never let it be said, we don't go the full nine yards for you here at Castle Wait, What?  For episode 92, not only did I drive 630 miles, set up and record this podcast in Graeme's attic, drive 630 miles back, mix, edit, and upload the podcast, but I also provided detailed show notes for you! Not sure if it's one time only thing or not, but join me behind the link so you can smoke it while you've got it!

So here is what Episode 92 of Wait, What? looks like from the air:

1:18-3.53  : Greetings and apologies and caveats 3:53-7:18: The Avengers and the oddness of its worldwide profits 7:18- 8:51: The Amazing Spider-Man movie and how it's being marketed 8:51-22:59: Safety Not Guaranteed and a terrifying quasi-related Blair Witch Project story 22:59-26:33: WAFFLE WINDOW 26:33-31:38: Comics discussed with varying degrees of knowledge:  Kevin Huizenga's Gloriana and Chris Ware's Building Comics. 31:38-33:46: Digression: our dynamic revealed! Somehow, Quincy, M.E. is involved. 33:46-39:48: The Wire and the process of entertainment, including Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty's The Manual: How to Have a Number One the Easy Way and Jeff tries his hand at a Venture Bros. plot. 39:48-55:28: More comics discussed! Batman: Earth One by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank.  Should you expect a Batman book by Geoff Johns or a Geoff Johns book with Batman in it?

--55:28-56:10:  A brief break--

56:10-57:49 :Zaucer of Zilk and David Brothers and Graeme on why Graeme associates it with Casanova 57:49-1:02:58: Comic news: Spider-Man and Alpha... 1:02:58-1:06:05: ...and Marvel teasers for its latest "War" event and online reaction to Graeme's online reaction 1:06:05-1:06:53: Obligatory magical Portland library shout-out... 1:06:53-1:08:18: And the obligatory explanation of Jeff and his Marvel Comics boycott/abstinence... 1:08:18-1:13:48: The Brubaker interview at Comics Reporter and the state of Icon (warning: includes slight Kick-Ass discussion) 1:13:48-1:22:53: SDCC, the announcement cycle and what Marvel might have up their sleeve.  With discussion of the rumored Bendis and Immonen and biweekly X-Men book and other Marvel strategies. 1:22:53-1:39:18: Graeme tries to make Jeff cry with this column from iFanboy, resulting in a conversation that goes all over the place. 1:39:18-1:41:30: Closing comments of a kind as we realize we have broken the motorboat, so to speak.

Even without this roadmap, you may have already stumbled across the territory on iTunes.  Alternately, why not take the time to explore at your leisure below?

Wait, What?, Episode 92: Brave Faces

As always, we hope you enjoy and thanks for listening!

Wait, What? Ep. 63.1: Classic's Classic

You know what programming languages need? They totally need <cant stop> </wont stop> tags, amirite?  (I would also be equally happy if there were <baller> </shot caller> tags as well, but maybe those would be restricted to the "Diddy on Rails" language, I really couldn't say.)

What I can say, is that Wait, What? Ep. 63.1 is here, and in it Graeme McMillan and I discuss oddball treasures from all over the globe, such as The Spy vs. Spy Omnibus by Antonio Prohias; Nemesis The Warlock by Pat Mills, Kevin O'Neill and Bryan Talbot; Strontium Dog by John Wagner, Alan Grant, and Carlos Ezquerra; Crying Freeman by Kazuo Koike and Ryochi Ikegami; and we dollop more praise on Ganges #4 by Kevin Huizenga because honestly that sucker could probably use another five or six dollops.

Sinister ducks have probably already unearthed us on iTunes, but they are also invited to waddle about in the dark while listening to us here:

Wait, What? Ep. 63.1: Classic\'s Classic

Installment 2 is right around the corner with some slightly more mainstream fare (although pacing that is far more odd) and somewhere in one of these installments is a dramatic reveal from Graeme about Brad Meltzer's Decoded(!) (Or !!!, depending.)

As always, thanks for listening and we hope you enjoy!

Wait, What? Ep. 62.1: The Hour That Stretches

Ah, mishaps. They seemed to plague Graeme and I during the recording of Wait, What? Ep. 62 but somehow we were able to wrest a podcast from the vile clutches of "why isn't this recording? Dear God, how long has this not been recording?" So I have to warn you in advance, we only have one installment for you this week and it is just a dash over an hour long, answering your questions from our earlier post here on this website.

Warning Number Two: we don't discuss Josie & The Pussycats. I just liked the image and needed a bit of Dan DeCarlo-inspired sunshine in my day. But we do talk kid-friendly books in the New52, Matt Fraction and Dave Eggers, Uncanny X-Force, Spaceman #1 and the future of Vertigo, Kevin Huizenga's Ganges, Alphas and Misfits, and as much as we can work into our unfortunately-truncated time schedule.  It's only an hour but we jam a lot of stuff in there for you.

The podcast is now available on iTunes, certainly, but it is also available right here for your listening pleasure:

Wait, What? Ep. 62.1: The Hour That Stretches

We will be back next week with more (hopefully, much more).  Until then, we hope you enjoy and thank you for listening!

Back From Vacation.

Yeah, after the signing, I pretty much zoned out for a week solid. (Hopefully, you noticed.) After a whirlwind 72 hours consisting of the signing, APE, catching four movies with Robson, and getting my car broken into, my brain was little more than a piece of dry, unbuttered toast. So brain-dead was I that I couldn't even find the new comics I bought from CE for five or six days. (The new Golgo and Drifting Classroom are tucked away in my bag for store reading today.) Anyway, I--oh, hey look! Comic book superstars!

This is the best picture I took of our four signers from Friday, in part because it was a hard angle to catch all of them in on one shot, and in part because I kept having to go breathe into a paper bag to keep from hyperventilating and that probably kept my camera hands shaky. All of the signers were incredibly generous and kind, and put up with my nattering and/or lousy directions which in the case of poor Gene Yang meant that he showed up 45 minutes late to his signing (and in case you're wondering Kevin Huizenga, from what I can tell, always has some variation of a "they never built a prison that could break me" look on his face).

The signers said they had a good time, we sold a ton of books that day, and I think it'd be safe to call the signing a success. And yet, I spent most of the day feeling like Artie ("Do me a favor. Just kick my ass, okay?") Fufkin in Spinal Tap because there weren't lines out the door and down the street and helicopters circling around trying to figure out why traffic on Divisadero stopped. Because that's what these four people deserve, if you ask me, and that we didn't get that makes me feel like I didn't do my job correctly and do me a favor, just kick my ass, okay? I'm not asking. I'm telling.

Anyway, I--hey, look! There they are again!

(I'm very happy that New Comix is shining above their heads; I just wish it was little bit more centered.)

Oh, and as a bonus, here's a picture of Graeme and Hibbs plotting to overthrow the world:

Anyway, those are the signing pix (I've actually got a pretty good crowd shot with Matt Silady talking to Ian Brill, and Kiel Phegley (who not only was a very nice and funny guy but also did a kick-ass job of covering APE for Wizard's website) chatting with Bill Roundy but couldn't quite figure out a way to work it into the post). My thanks to Kevin Huizenga, Hope Larson, Bryan Lee O'Malley and Gene Yang for their kindness, generosity and awesomeness. Having them at the store was a tremendous honor for me.

Don't Rhyme No Mo': Graeme doesn't review.

So, APE weekend and even though I was too nervous to talk to anyone at the signing yesterday - I'm only exaggerating slightly, sadly - a fine time was still had by all. If I had to nominate a king and queen of the whole thing, it'd be Bryan Lee O'Malley and Hope Larson, who put up with my shyness and appreciated Kate's food tips never mind their obvious talent and attractiveness (That said, Kate's food tips are generally always worth listening to). They also let me buy a page of Scott Pilgrim art that is on its way to being displayed in the bathroom, if only because I've been told by my lovely wife that every bathroom needs something wonderful to look at. Buying art is actually a running theme for me at APE - Kate and I always end up with art (normally from Nucleus, who rep artists that Kate adores; every year she buys prints from them to frame and hang in the house) instead of books, even though we both wander around and see many things that look pretty great. That said, this year it's worth heading to the convention (if you haven't already) for the guests alone; even if Bryan and Hope aren't your thing, there's also Gene Yang, Derek Kirk Kim, Kevin Huizenga (someone else I was entirely too scared to talk to on Friday. Me = Dick, in case you didn't know), Debbie Huey, and - if he's there tomorrow at the AiT booth like he was today - Matt Silady, who did The Homeless Channel that I raved about here. Go and ask him to tell you about his book. And then you should all buy lots of art, just like Kate and m'self.

Reviews tomorrow, honestly.

Reminder....

I keep trying to avoid that situation (which I know is nonetheless inevitable) where I'll post pictures of the event next week and someone will say, "Hey, I didn't know that was happening! Why didn't you post a reminder or something? I even looked at your blog that Friday because I was in town for APE and I didn't see anything!"

If you're in town around 5, stop by. It's going to be a tremendous gathering of talent under one roof, and a great way to kick off your APE weekend.

Congratulations, but you can congratulate them yourself if you're around tomorrow...

Hey, look, the Eisner Nominations are out. And two names in particular stand out for me: Best Graphic Album—New American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang (First Second)

Special Recognition Hope Larson, Gray Horses (Oni)

Wow, wouldn't it be great if the two of them appeared together at a signing along with Kevin Huizenga and Bryan Lee O'Malley? Like, tomorrow, between 5 and 7?

I just wanted to get that in before Jeff did.

Eight Days Away....

It's almost ready. Are you?

Sorry for being so tardy with the posting lately. I sat down this morning to write a few reviews and found myself stuck: I spent over an hour typing sentences and deleting 'em, typing and deleting in turn. Anyway, I have tentative plans to try liveblogging from the store tomorrow so hopefully that'll work out a bit better. Lord knows there's enough coming out....

Countdown to Awesome.

Less than two weeks until the signing? Holy Cow, that's just crazy.

Oh, and since I posted this on a Saturday, you can probably count on it showing up in the middle of this upcoming week (and probably next week as well, come to think of it.)

Hope any of you inclined to show up will do so. It oughta be awesome.

Save The Date & Spread The News: CE's Pre-Ape Signing for April 20, 2007!

Okay, this has been in the hopper for a while, but I didn't get that gorgeous green light until just last week. We're having a signing from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Friday, April 20, 2007 and I think it's a pretty big deal. Y'see, when this year's guests at APE were announced, I kinda lost my mind. So many great guests this year! I went to Hibbs and begged him to get some sort of signing together which he consented to as long as I organized it. So if this post doesn't make much sense, or seems quasi-unhinged, please understand: not only am I tremendously whacked out because this is the first signing I've ever organized, but--more importantly--the signing is going to be for:

him, and also for:

her, as well as for:

him, but also for:

him.

Yeah, that's right. Kevin Huizenga, Hope Larson, Bryan Lee O'Malley, and Gene Yang are signing at Comix Experience from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. on Friday, April 20, 2007. That's an absurd amount of talent under one roof, and I owe big props to the artists and also Gary Sassaman and Comic-Con for going for it. This group of artists did some of the best work of 2006 and it's all I can do not to unleash torrents of hype at all of you about their utter awesomeness. If you're a Bay Area type or in town for APE, I hope you'll drop by the store from 5 to 7, get a book signed from these four amazing talents, or just stop by to "hey." APE can be an all-encompassing swirl and this may be a great way to get face time. (Plus, there more of you there are, the less the four of them will be subjected to the quivering fanboyness that is Jeff Lester, which I assure you is best for all involved.)

Anyway, I'll be back later with reviews, and when we get the flier put together this week, I'll also post it here. But I just couldn't keep it under wraps any longer, and had to share this with all y'all. As I said, I hope you can stop by.