Comic Book Bears Podcast

We move into a new season and the Comic Book Bears are back with this new summer-sized audio episode! Hit play to hear Steve, Caleb and Billy Z talk about a number of new books and graphic novels! From the Big Two we explore the newest iteration of Giant-Size X-Men from Marvel and DC's The Power Company Re-Energized #1. On the independent side of things we dig into The Fairy Godfather by Robert Mailer Anderson and Jon Sack, Muybridge by Guy Delisle, Pure Rubbish by Kayla E. and the first issue of Mad Cave's Vanishing Point by Mark Russell and Juan Doe! (All this plus Caleb gets schooled about New Jersey's Pine Barrens!)    

The CBB boys (Bill Z, Steve and Caleb) say farewell to Spring with the end of the Merry Month of May and look forward to Summer with this new audio episode! After an opening tangent salvo about Diamond's bankruptcy and all that brings, toys and tariffs and ... um ... the 2008 Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy, our fellas finally get focused on the funnybooks. Absolute Green Lantern (DC), Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma (DC), The Incredible Hulk (Marvel), Lost Fantasy (Image), I Was A Fashion School Serial Killer (Image) and Sectaurs (Nacelle/Oni) are discussed. It is worth noting that our discussion of the Hulk makes many references to the late, great Peter David (who was also a past guest of ours.) This episode was recorded on 5/21/2025, three days before his unfortunate passing. Rest well, Sir.    

The CBB Boys head back to the movies and discuss Thunderbolts*, the 36th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe on this latest audio episode! The movie is directed by Jake Schreier and stars an (amazing) ensemble cast including Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen and Julia Louis-Dreyfus! Thunderbolts* finds the unlikely team of Yelena Belova, Winter Soldier, U.S. Agent, Taskmaster, Ghost, Red Guardian and ... Bob ... brought together by circumstance and conspiracy and discovering just what this collective of anti-heroes are capable of! And as is our tradition, each of us (Steve, Caleb and Billy Z) make recommendations of comic book arcs featuring the film's characters which we think you may enjoy! Afterwards, we go on to discuss some new comics we are enjoying - the newest version of Heavy Metal magazine, DC's Absolute Martain Manhunter and Dynamite's new Herculoids series. We hope you will hit play to join us for some Marvelous Marvel M

It is hard to believe that it has been over four years since our special group of Star Wars fans (Mike Lovins and Craig Lantz joining CBB regulars Steve Mowry and Bill Zanowitz) have been gathered around the mic together, so we are thrilled to bring this Force Sensitive Foursome back on this new audio episode! We very recently saw the second season of Andor begin with the first three episodes released at once. We weigh in on that (in a totally spoilerific fashion), the news from Star Wars: Celebration 2025 from Tokyo and a whole lot more!  So power down your lightsabers, set your blasters on stun, hit play and enjoy our musings on tales from a galaxy far, far away!    

It has been a few years since we had a Comic Book Bears Podcast episode wholly dedicated to manga and figured it was time for a new one! So hit play to join in on 2+ hours of chatter about some great works, old and new, that have come out of Japan! The CBB Boys - Bill Z, Steve and Caleb - have chosen Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Wild Strawberry, Mach GoGoGo (aka Speed Racer), The Liminal Zone, Astro Baby and Inuyashiki as the subjects for this particular summit!  ショーを楽しんでいただければ幸いです。

Spring has sprung and March is in its "out like a lamb" phase and the CBB Boys (Steve, Caleb and Bill Z) are back with a new audio episode! For a change there is a good deal of comics related news between Diamond's auction completing, the cast roll out for Avengers: Doomsday and the New History of The DC Universe and we cover each of these at the beginning of our show. Then onto the new comic talk with Avengers #21 (with an Avengers vs X-Men baseball game), the X-Men's X-Manhunt event, Zatanna #1, Secret Six #1, the Gargoyles: Winter Special and the Resurgence of the Valiant Universe mini-series all having their moment under our ursine spotlight!

Through new tattoos, foot injuries and holding down the fort at home, Bill Z, Steve and Caleb return with another new Comic Book Bears audio episode! After a little bit of catching up with each other and a little bit of news (a new DC/Marvel crossover planned for the summer, Daredevil: Born Again), the CBB Boys dive into comic talk. And it's a varied grouping this time around - from the latest Green Lantern Corps relaunch (DC) to the Captain America and Volstagg one-shot (Marvel) to Ashes by Àlvaro Ortiz (Top Shelf) to Final Cut by Charles Burns (Pantheon) to some manga with The Marshal King by Boichi (Viz) and wrapping up with the Techno-Noir of Warm Fusion by Scott Hoffman and Alberto Ponticell (DSTLRY)! Hit play for 2+ hours of funnybook talk from some hairy, heavy homos!

It's back to the movies for the Comic Book Bears on this new podcast audio episode! The film this time is Captain America: Brave New World! It is the 35th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, directed by Julius Onah starring Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Captain America alongside Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Carl Lumbly, Xosha Roquemore, Giancarlo Esposito, Liv Tyler, Tim Blake Nelson, and Harrison Ford as President Thaddeus Ross. Caleb, Bill Z and Steve offer up what they thought about the movie (spoiler warning natch) and as is custom in our movie centered episodes they also make suggestions regarding past comic book arcs featuring the film's characters we think you may enjoy. The CBB boys also roundtable a few new books - The Secret of the Garden (from the world of Hellboy), Safer Places by Kit Anderson and the Green Hornet/Miss Fury crossover series - and there a few tangents sprinkled throughout as always. So hit play or download and enjoy our latest comics and movies gabfest!

Time for a new Comic Book Bears Podcast audio episode!  Steve, Caleb and Billy Z reconvene for two hours of four color funnybook talk! On the docket this time are a few news items (Diamond's bankruptcy, Marvel Studios not inviting Rob Liefeld to an afterparty) followed by a half dozen books we wanted to spotlight. Hit play and hear about what we thought of the inaugural issues of a few new series: Aquaman (DC), West Coast Avengers (Marvel), Lawful (Boom!) and The Death of COPRA (Image). We also chat about Tim Bird's autobiographical graphic novel Adrift in a Painted Sea (Avery Hill Publishers) and DC's tabloid reprinting of the 1980 Untold Legend of The Batman mini-series. Also, please note that this episode was recorded at the beginning of the month and as 2/3rds of the team here are huge football fans we offer up what were our Super Bowl LIX predictions. (One of us gets it spectacularly wrong.)  

The Comic Book Bears podcast goes All In this time around in our new audio episode! As much of the US is contending with a January winter freeze, Bill Z, Steve and Caleb once again huddle around the mic. And after a deep dive into recent news (specifically Diamond Comic Distributors filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the allegations by various women against Neil Gaiman), the CBB boys turn their attention to DC Comics and their All In publishing initiative which finds their entire main comics line enjoying a refresh! Justice League Unlimited, Justice League: The Atom Project, Action Comics, Birds of Prey, New Gods and Metamorpho are the main books discussed. And all you have you have to do is hit the play button to go All In with us!

The CBB Boys are thrilled to bring you the audio version of their 300th episode! And for this anniversary they welcome back to the show a very familiar name and a great friend - writer Richard Rivera! Richard is here to chat about his new Kickstarter for the latest Stabbity Bunny project: a remastered version of Stabbity Ever After #1 which takes Stabbity on a more humorous path through an alternative reality. But this time Richard brings along some friends to the show with their own Kickstarter campaign! Making their CBB debut to discuss it are writers and Insymmetry Creations co-founders Matt Knowles and Steph Cannon! Matt and Steph take us into the world of Heirs of Isildur, a collision of sci-fi, steampunk, heavy metal and graphic storytelling that is on its fourth issue! Heirs of Isildur is not the only project under the Insymmetry Creations banner and we also get to hear about a number of those. And best of all, there is a campaign component where Stabbity and Isildur crossover!!! (Links to the Kickstar

This new Comic Book Bears audio episode is our last episode of 2024 and a loaded one it is! The CBB trio of Caleb, Bill and Steve are all on hand to chat about a whole bunch of things! The teaser trailer for the upcoming Superman film written and directed by James Gunn dropped on December 19th and this turned out to be a very big deal. We opine on it along with the new Creature Commandos animated series on Max which kicks off this new DC Universe for film and TV. In terms of Marvel, in the movie theaters right now is Kraven the Hunter - the new film based on the Spider-Man adversary starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the title role, Ariana DeBose and Russell Crowe. 66.6% of the bear crew saw it and provide their viewpoints on it. We also take a few new books off of the virtual spinner rack and discuss JSA by Jeff Lemire and Diego Orlotegui (DC), Arcbound by Tom Hardy, Scott Snyder, Frank Tieri and Ryan Smallman (Dark Horse) and Tender by Beth Hetland from Fantagraphics. Lastly, each of us choose their favorite

The Comic Book Bears shake off the snow and ice from their fur ... well, two of them do at least ... to regroup to chat about some new comics now that winter has hit! One of them is DC's Absolute Wonder Woman! Three more of them are from Image: The Department of Truth, Falling on Love on the Path to Hell and Grommets! Another is a new interpretation of Dracula courtesy o Matt Wagner and Kelley Jones! And we also chat about Being Gordy, a situation comedy in comic book form! So heat up some hot chocolate (or whatever your favorite wintertime drink is), hit play and enjoy!

In our first Comic Book Bears audio episode recorded after the US election, the CBB boys (Bill Z, Caleb and Steve) spend the first few minutes talking about the results and the state of the nation. We then (mercifully) put that to the side to chat about some recent comics. And what a line up we have! Absolute Superman #1! DC Horror Presents Creature Commandos #1! Animal Pound, written by Tom King and published by Boom! The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen! Horny & High, Volume I by Ed Firth from our good friends at Northwest Press! And the new Jonny Quest series from Dynamite! Hit play and enjoy!

New Comic Book Bears audio episode! For the first time in ages it is just Big Two books this time around as Caleb, Steve and Bill Z reconvene to talk about recent additions to Marvel's X-Men line and DC's most recent soft relaunch! Who are the Exceptional X-Men? Which recent X students are featured in the NYC set NYX? Why is Dazzler going back out on tour? What is the new status quo for the DC Universe set by the DC All In Special? And why are the Trinity confronting a rabbit with a Brooklyn accent in Multiversus: Collision Detected? Hit play and all will be answered!

We are catching up on our backlog so this next Comic Book Bears audio episode dates back to this past September 26th when Bill and Steve had just returned from Baltimore Comic Con! BCC is one of the best comic book conventions out there and we have been past guests of the con as press for a number of years, so it was a thrill to return to Inner Harbor! Bill and Steve talk about their experiences, gets and hijinks that happened during this year's edition. Then Caleb joins in on the fun as we have an all-indie roundtable chatting about books including Jeff Lemire's Minor Arcana (Boom Studios), Morning Star (Mad Cave), EC's Epitaphs from the Abyss (Oni Press), Howard Chaykin's Hey Kids! Comics! (Image) and A Phone Call Away (Mad Cave)!!! So please hit play and enjoy this Charm City inspired ep!

The CBB Boys are back but this time they are focused on one era of comic books in this new audio episode! Set the controls for the 1950s and 1960s as we discuss some of our favorite books published during the Silver Age of Comic Books. The Silver Age is considered to cover the period from 1956 to 1970 and it was a time where the concept of the super-hero was revitalized for the Cold War period! Caleb, Steve and Bill Z are on the mic to talk about some of their favorites - Fantastic Four, Tales to Astonish, Aquaman, Tales of the Bizarro World, the sci-fi work of Steve Ditko for Charlton, The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and more! 

On this latest Comic Book Bears audio episode, we emphasize the "Comic" part of our show title to welcome to the show queer comedian Jeff Klein!!! While talking about not fitting into his communities or clothes anymore, Jeff has performed at comedy clubs and festivals from coast to coast. This Florida-born comic is the host of the online shows Beer with a Queer and Outside a Comedy Club and very recently taped his first comedy special entitled Fatty Gay!! Bill Z and Steve spoke with Jeff just before his special was taped and chatted with him about how he got into comedy, what goes into recording a comedy special and much, much more!! We also talk comic books with Jeff and dive deep into his love for CrossGen Comics, particularly Ruse, and also offer up some more recent comics which gave us a few chuckles including the first issue of the new X-Factor series by Mark Russell and Bob Quinn and DC's Super-Pets Special: Bite-Dentity Crisis one-shot featuring a lead off story by Tony Fleecs and Mike Norton starring

As we enter into Labor Day weekend, the CBB boys are providing one more audio episode for you this month and this time it is our review of Deadpool and Wolverine!!! D and W is the 34th Marvel Cinematic Universe film and finds Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman reprising their respective title roles! It is directed by Shawn Levy and also stars Emma Corrin, Matthew Macfadyen, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney and so many cameos it might make your chimichangas explode! In the film, Deadpool learns that the Time Variance Authority is set to destroy his home universe and enlists help to stop them in R-Rated glory! Please note that the episode is all sorta spoilerific if you have yet to see it. But, if you want to find out what Bill Z, Caleb and Steve thought about it and (as is our custom whenever we have a movie centered episode) be provided with suggestions about some comic book arcs you might enjoy reading featuring the movie's main characters, then hit play and Let's. F*ckin'. Go!    

Recorded back on 7/25/2024 and finally available as our new audio episode, this show finds the CBB Boys (Caleb, Steve and Billy Z) recounting what the big news items were from this past San Diego Comic Con. Additionally, a bunch of new comic books come under our ursine analysis. Hit play to hear our opinions about new series like Phoenix (Marvel), Namor (Marvel), Zatanna: Brining Down The House (DC Black Label), Gatchaman (Mad Cave) and Space Ghost (Dynamite) along with the graphic novella Viscera Objectica by Yugo Limbo (Silver Sprocket). Plus we have our expected banter, tangents, Geeks Gets and Woofs of the Week!