Wait, What? Ep. 83: As Good As A Feast

Hoo boy.  Did not think I was going to make this particular deadline.  I won't bore you with the blah-blah-blahs, but let's just say: papa needs a new microphone and he needs one bad.  I apologize in advance for all the not-especially-discreet cracking and popping going on at various points in the background of this.  We are maybe two weeks away from a solution to both it and the mild echo chamber effect that's afflicted us ever since Graeme managed to transcend this corporeal realm.

Buttttttttt, anywayyyyyyy... Gotta keep this short and snappy so lemme just say this:  Wait, What? Ep. 83 is two hours and twenty-seven minutes long, and Graeme and I do not spend all that time trying to remember if the boss at the end of Crazy Climber was a gorilla or not!

No.  Instead, we do our best to cover a lot of lost ground by jawing about Iron Muslim and Zombies vs. Fanboys from Boom Comics, Kirby: Genesis, the current state of comics and the comics internet including Chris Roberson quitting DC and David Brothers' amazing article over at Comics Alliance, Before Watchmen, Grant Morrison, Brian Bendis and Avengers Assemble #2, as well as the Oral History of the Avengers.

Also?  The eighth issues of Wonder Woman Justice League, OMAC, and Batman, Casanova #3, The Shadow #1, The Boys by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, Alabaster Wolves, Saga #2, Archie Meets KISS, Prophet #24, more issues of Glamourpuss, and much, much more.

This show was pretty late making its way to iTunes, but if it's not there yet, it will be there soon.  But even so!  You can also listen to it here and now if you would prefer.  Behold:

Wait, What? Ep. 83: As Good As A Feast

As always, thanks for your patience.  I gotta go jump through hoops for the next ten hours or so, but we'll have more for you next week--and, of course, thank you for listening!

Wait, What? Ep. 80: Bats and Birds

Apologies to those of you already pestered with this image on Twitter:  I thought it was worth a re-use, in no small part because I must once again plead mentis mortis (I have no doubt I'm handling this dead language so poorly, a charge of necrophilia could well be leveled), thanks to how late it is that I'm composing this and where I'm at for a variety of reasons that will probably become clear once you hear Wait, What? 81 next week.  (Hint: it's a terrifying topic Graeme and I have tackled before.)

But enough of that for now, there's a podcast to be had!  Wait, What? Ep. 80, in fact, a done-in-one of approximately two hours and twenty-five minutes in length.  Yes, you all know I can be pretty wishy-washy (I prefer the verb "to waffle," for obvious reasons) and Graeme and I both thought there were a lot of great and compelling arguments made for keeping this in one.  I do appreciate the minority views, however, and wish I could figure out a way to appease both parties (or offer some consolation for the two part crowd) .  Hopefully, I'll figure something out.

Yes, so--a done-in-one, with the first forty minutes or so being the mighty Graeme McMillan and I talking the reception to the John Carter movie, the lack of interesting Wondercon news, shelling pistachios, costume design, and conspiracy theories about bad movies.

Then, once it becomes obvious, we should maybe start in on the comics and not worry about waiting for a break, we really hit the gas, and start in on recently read comics, including The Wasteland Omnibus, reading The Flash and writing for the trades, Justice League #7 and the Shazam! back-up, Secret Avengers: The Children's Crusade, Avengers X-Sanction #4, Wolverine #303, Dominique LeVeau Voodoo Queen, Wonder Woman #7, Astonishing X-Men and Wolverine and The X-Men, and a heckuva lot more.

You interested?  Oh, come on!  All the cool kids are doing it!  Look on iTunes: iTunes is doing it!  Look right here at this entry, just below!  This entry is doing it!  Don't you want to try it?  Aw, come on!  It'll be cool:

Wait, What? Ep. 80: Bats and Birds

(See, I warned you--admittedly in debased Latin--about how braindead I was!  Nonetheless, I promise to do better next time.  And, as always, thank you for listening!)

Sha-Zam! Hibbs in Advance, for once

We've gotten on the DC press list (hey thanks!), but most of the time it is a little silly -- generally they're sending out just the periodical comics; and because of the efficiency of DM distribution (not kidding on that one), that generally means I'm getting comics to review a few days after I already have them. Heh. BUT, this week, we got a package with two things that won't be out until (I guess?) next week -- the ARMY @ LOVE TP (nice design, intro by Peter Kuper (!)) and the hardcover of SHAZAM: THE MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL

What a nice looking package!

What's especially nice is that it is both a dustjacketed AND laminated HC -- the dustjacket folds out to be a full size Shazam! poster, but if you do that, you still have a nice looking HC with that wonderful Euro-style lamination. (I really prefer that myself, so its a nice case of having ones cake and eating it as well)

There's also a pretty extensive backmatter section with terrific sketches, and the various Production Diary material that, I think, appeared on the Web?

For $29.99, its a really compelling package, and the content is really wonderful as well -- charming and fun, yet still exciting superhero material. If every superhero comic approached 50% as good as MSE then no one, anywhere, would be complaining that there are too many superhero comics.

EXCELLENT stuff, in a muy EXCELLENT package, and totally worth your coin.

Putting my retailer hat back on, though, I have to say that I'm a little disheartened by the publishing strategy here -- barely 3 months have passed since the final of the four issues of the serialization was released (7/18, by my records), and had I realized such a nice package was coming SO quick I certainly wouldn't have placed that last set of reorders for the comics. Plus, being in "prestige" format, the "natural" audience for this book is the same group of people who are most likely to grab up the HC, and not wait for the cheaper, inevitable, SC.

And even putting aside the clever packaging with the poster/dustjacket, the addition of the sketchbook material makes this the WAY better format for the work, and is, in a big way, a real slap in the face for the people who spent $23.96 for this same material JUST THREE MONTHS AGO.

In my opinion, either there should have been a MUCH wider window from serialization-to-collection (*minimum* six months, probably 12 months being even better), *OR* the serialization should have had the "extra" material as well.

OK, retailer hat back off!

What do YOU think?

-B

Keeping it daily: the 2 best comics Hibbs read this week

I'm still lagging behind my reading (yeah yeah, shut up), but I HAVE just read two of the best comics I've read all year, and you probably should, too CRIMINAL #5: A great (if horrifically downer) ending to this first arc. Brubaker's on fire lately, and for my money, this is him at his purest. If I had to say something bad about the book, it might be that this issue just felt a little STRAY BULLETS to me. Sean Phillips art is as loverly as ever, and this is just one of the nicest looking packages, of design and backmatter, being released as a periodical comic book in 2007. We'll see if the second arc holds up to the strength of this first, but there's really no reason to think it won't, is there? VERY (very!) GOOD

SHAZAM: MONSTER SoCIETY OF EVIL #2: Oh! My! God! That was astonishingly stellar on almost every level! Tha sequence with Mary zipping around the Big Red Cheese had me laughing out loud, and there's just a sheer exuberant level of fun from every page of this. Not to mention mystery, and suspense, and perilous peril. Hoo-boy, that's what the funny books is 'sposed to be about, and there's no doubt whatsoever that this is EXCELLENT in every way possible.

More tomorrow....

-B