Comic Book Bears Podcast

It's just comics this time around. Listen in as we discuss Doomsday Clock #10 and Heroes in Crisis #9 from DC, Ascender #2 from Image and Killer Groove #1 from Aftershock. In addition to our Woofs of the Week, we also fall into a few tangent potholes along the way.    

On this new Comic Book Bears Podcast episode Billy Z and Steve are thrilled to bring to the mic for the first time Jack Foster! Jack is the writer and artist of the  ongoing comic book series GUN which tells the story of Trevor Werner. In the world that Trevor inhabits, he is s a gun ... "the good guys are called capes, the bad guys are guns..." Jack has a Kickstarter campaign to collect the first GUN story arc, Fighting is my Monday which ran through issues 1-3 of the series which finds Trevor meeting Olive Armstrong, a fellow gun trying to go straight and they stumble upon an easy money payday in the form of a passed out - and ransomable - super hero and, as with all good capers, things go sideways. We had an absolute blast talking to Jack so, apart from his mega cool comic, there is a lot of laughing and tangents in this episode! Jack's campaign for GUN Volume 1 runs until June 4th so make sure you are one of the cool kids and back it! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/recklesseyeballs/gun-volume-1-fig

As close as we have ever come to a live episode, join us for a down and dirty AND SPOILER FILLED discussion of the new film Avengers: Endgame that was just hit the movie theaters! It is the 22nd film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise and in its first weekend has grossed over $1.2 billion dollars worldwide.  And to discuss such a huge movie we bring you all the big guns - we have all three co-hosts (Bryan, Bill and Steve) on the mic along with our good friend Caleb Alexander-McKinzie of the Southern Fried Geekery Podcast! In addition to discussing what we thought of the movie, we also make some recommendations regarding some our favorite Avengers stories in comic book form for you to check out! And once again, THIS IS SPOILER FILLED!!! (If you haven't seen the movie yet you might want to table listening to this until after you have.)

For a few months we have been more Pet Shop Boys than The Police with Steve and Bill keeping the CBB ship sailing as a duo but we are thrilled to be joined once again by our beloved brother Bryan Pittard! Bryan fills us in with what he's been up to and then all of three us get the gab going. We talk about DC Universe, Disney+, Star Wars and on the comic book front G. Willow Wilson's Wonder Woman, the Bendis-led Wonder Comics line from DC, the GLOW comic from IDW based on the hit Netflix series, Major X, Bronze Age Boogie and lots more!

With one magic word, the Comic Book Bears boys are back to discuss the new DC Extended Universe film SHAZAM! Join Billy Z and Steve for an hour plus discussion about the movie starring Zachary Levi and Mark Strong and directed by David F. Sandberg. In addition to the film, we also discuss the comic book (and legal) history of the character who at one time was known as Captain Marvel and weigh in with we what think were some of the great Captain Marvel/Shazam stories in the funny books and on TV over the past 80 years! All that and a little bit of comic talk thrown in as usual!

The Comic Book Bears go back to the movies on this episode to discuss Captain Marvel, the twenty-first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise! Carol Danvers comes to the silver screen with Brie Larson starring as the title character! Steve and Billy Z weigh in with what they thought about the film and then follow that up with the history of Ms. Marvel/Binary/Warbird/Captain Marvel in comic books. Our two bear boys will be the first to admit that they are not Captain Carol experts but do their best in taking you from her first appearance in the late 60's up to the present day. After that, some current comic talk time is devoted to Marvel's Age of X-Man event, the DC Walmart 100 page books, Valiant's Incursion and the finale of DC's Sideways along with much, much more!   Plus a drinking game suggestion: take a shot every time Bill says the word "marquee" during this episode!

The Comic Book Bears are thrilled to welcome back to the show Steve Bryant! Steve, best known for Athena Voltaire and Ghoul Scouts (both of which who currently have a home at Action Lab Comics) is here to discuss his Kickstarter campaign for The Catch, a crime-superhero-caper-romance comic! Think Elmore Leonard meets Gotham Central and Powers! Written by Steve, with art by Ismael Canales and coloring by Roger Surroca, The Catch should appeal to fans of super-hero crime comics, like Gotham Central, Alias, or Powers, viewers who like heist or caper movies, or TV shows like Justified, Better Call Saul, or Sneaky Pete as well as indie comic collectors looking to get in on the ground floor of a new book, filled with action, clever dialogue, and great visuals. So, hit play and listen in as Bill Zanowitz and the other Steve (Mowry) talk to Steve about this new project, Athena Voltaire and much more!

  Late last year the DC Universe app launched. Steve and Bill have been using the streaming service for months and on this episode they talk about the exclusive shows (Titans, Young Justice: Invasion, DC Daily) and other things they enjoying about the streaming service. Then a trip to the spinner rack finds them chatting about the current X-Men books, Wrong Earth and the Ahoy Comics line, Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt, Heroes At Large, Hawkman, Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion and much more! All this plus two great music documentary Woofs of the Week!

The horror rages on! Bill Zanowitz and Steve Mowry are back and this time around they discuss their favorite horror comic books of all time! EC Comics of the 1950's, Hellboy and the Mignolaverse, Sandman, Lucifer, Swamp Thing, The Sixth Gun, The Devilers, Hellblazer, Torso, Baltimore, Black Eyed Kids - all of these here and much more! (You might want to listen with the lights on!)  

The Comic Book Bears turn their cave into something dark and creepy for a change as they welcome writer/artist John Horsley to discuss the new comic project he is Kickstarting, The Eynes Anthology!! The book is about a family with a generation spanning connection to the supernatural! Listen in as John joins Steve and Billy Z in a discussion about the horror collection with numerous artists and writers from around the world joining John to tell us stories throughout time of this family and their demons! Check out eynesanthology.com for additional info about this crowdfunding campaign launching on February 1st!  

Our first episode of 2019 finds Billy Z and Steve discussing Aquaman, the most recent entry in the DC Extended Universe series of films starring Jason Momoa! Listen in as Steve and Billy weigh in on the James Wan directed movie. Beyond the film, the CBBears also talk about the history of Aquaman including reading recommendations from the 60's, 70's, 80's and today including the recent Drowned Earth crossover and the first issue of the new Kelly Sue DeConnick/Ronson Rocha run! We also discuss what comic book based films are coming in 2019, somehow Liza Minnelli works her way into the conversation and we say "Aquabro" a lot!

The Comic Book Bears are back with you for one more episode for 2018! And this time around Bill and Steve discuss Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse!! Listen in as Steve and Bill talk about what they thought of the new animated film featuring various Spideys and also provide some of their own reading histories with Spider-Man and their reading recommendations of Spider-Man stories past. (Don't worry - we'll be talking Aquaman next time!) And since it is the holiday season the CBBoys also talk about what they would love to see underneath their respective Christmas trees!

  We've been mum on the subject but we think it is high time that the Comic Book Bears addresses the Comicsgate controversy. With Bryan away in the land of the rising sun on the night we recorded, we are thrilled to bring back to the show our friend Caleb Alexander-McKinzie of the Southern Fried Geekery podcast for this episode! Seen by some as a consumer led revolt against forced diversity and liberalism in comics and by others as a harassment campaign targeting women, persons of color and the LGBTQ community, Comicsgate has birthed lawsuits, highly successful crowdfunding campaigns and comic cancellations among many other things. Join us for an hour and half as Steve, Billy Z and Caleb offer up their opinions regarding this hot button issue.

The 2018 editions of Baltimore Comic Con and New York Comic Con are in the history books and some of the CBB boys, past and present, were in attendance! Past and present ... what does that mean, you may ask? Well, for the first time in two years our former co-host and artist extraordinaire Matt Brossard joins us for an episode! Matt and Bill Z formed a dynamic duo while in Baltimore and they recount their exploits at the Charm City's long running con. Then Bill Z and Bryan talk about their NYCC experience. We didn't leave Steve on the sidelines for too long though and he joins in to talk about current comics including X-Men: Black - Mojo, Jook Joint, Cyko Ko! and Fantastic Four! One word - Slottwater!  

Join Steve, Bill (sorry ... William) and Bryan at the spinner rack once again as the CBBears offer up a nice dose of funnybook talk. Their selections this time around include Mister Miracle #11, Border Town #1, Captain America #s 1- 3, Red Hood and the Outlaws Annual #2, Royal City #14 and Batman #55. You'll also get a tangent about going digital and we do talk about Batman: Damned ... but not much.  

As Brother Bryan is off curling, Steve and Billy Z decide to do something a little different on this episode! The fates conspired against Billy's receipt of recent comics so our remaining bears decided to make this episode pretty much comic book free! Instead of chatting about their favorite four-color heroes and indie books the CBBears instead talk about other things they are enjoying during the summer months. Movie and TV news and shows are discussed along with toys, concerts and a recent BluRay/DVD buying binge on the part of one the co-hosts.  Within this episode's 90+ minutes The Toys That Made Us, The Pixies, great concerts, The Alienist, internet responses to casting, Mego toys, Smashing Pumpkins, I'm Dying Up Here, The Expanse, The Americans, terrible concerts, treasures found at Dollar Tree, They Might Be Giants and lots more make an appearance! And what show wouldn't be made better by a lifeguarding/acne tangent!?!?!

It is nuptial season in the comic book world and Bill, Bryan and Steve (along with unwanted wedding crasher in the form of Bill's head cold) are back with you for a new Comic Book Bears Podcast episode to talk about the recent Batman/Catwoman and Colossus/Kitty Pryde wedding issues! In addition to the aformentioned lovebirds, the CBB boys also talk about the first comic book wedding issues that they can remember as well as their favorite comic book wedding issues! All this plus Steve talks about the Black Hammer universe, Bryan talks about The Man of Steel and Bill fights a brave battle against the word "ambitious" within this hour+ of funnybook talk!

Grab some popcorn and get in your theatre seats as we have a movie triple bill to talk about. And to help out the CBB Boys this week we are thrilled to welcome to the show for the first time the amazing Caleb Alexander-McKinzie of the Southern Fried Geekery Podcast! Like everyone else in the CBB cave, listen in and you'll fall in love with him! (Sorry, boys - he's married!) Over the last few weeks we have seen the releases of Avengers: Infinity War, Deadpool 2 and Solo: A Star Wars Story and we needed to gather round the mic to talk about them. So join Caleb, Bryan, Bill and Steve to hear their opinions on these three films and we even sneak in a little bit of honest to gosh comic book talk toward the end!  

We are thrilled to welcome to the show for the first time queer comic book creator and educator Justin Hall! Justin is an Associate Professor of Comics at the California College of the Arts and a Fulbright Scholar. He's a pioneer historian of LGBTQ comics and in 2012 he curated the anthology No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, which featured milestone contributions by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer comics creators. Now, Justin's Lambda Literary Award-winning and Eisner-nominated collection is the inspiration for a documentary film directed by Peabody Award-winning and national Emmy-nominated filmmaker Vivian Kleiman. This feature-length film will bring stories from the comics off the page and give you a personal introduction to the dynamic artists and writers who paved the way! Justin discusses the Kickstarter campaign for the film, which runs until May 23rd, as well as his own comic work and much, much more! Links are below! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1077551457/no-str

Comic Books Bears Billy Z and Steve offer up a very special episode about a very special episode this time around! To talk about the recent "Carrie The Musical" episode of The CW's Riverdale the CBB boys are thrilled to bring back to the show geek culture writer and Archie Comics expert Chris Cummins! Not only is there a discussion regarding the episode, the history of Carrie The Musical itself (which was a legendary Broadway flop) is also covered in all its blood stained glory! DISCLAIMER 1: There were some recording glitches which Billy Z did his best to cure in the mixing process. DISCLAIMER 2: This is our gayest episode yet! Hands down!