11 O'clock Comics Podcast

In this atypical extravaganza, we engage in two extended discussions -- the first concerns the X-Men: Asgardian Wars collection (incorporating Paul Smith, Terry Austin, Art Adams, Mike Mignola, X-Men/Alpha Flight, the New Mutants Special, Chris Claremont, Uncanny X-Men Annual #9, Longshot, Todd McFarlane, Michael Golden, and a whole lot more), and the second spotlights the book Chris and Vince deem the greatest Batman story of all time: Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, and Lynn Varley's The Dark Knight Returns! Plus, we have enough time left over to talk about the Parker Martini Edition, X-Men Vs. Avengers, Rick Remender, IDW's G.I Joe books and the Cobra Civil War crossover, the second volume in Craig Yoe's Chilling Archives of Horror Comics featuring Bob Powell's Terror from IDW, Gingerbread Girl, Percy Crosby's Skippy, Daredevil by Waid, Rivera, and Martin, Ennis and Batista's Jennifer Blood from BOOM!, and a whole mess more!

In this post-Thanksgiving King-Size gorgefest, we tickle the giblets of Grant Morrison's Action Comics, Dave Frank's Saucy Jesus and the Gun of Sod from Cactus Comics, Tom Scioli, Secret Prison, Action Lab, Doug Moench and Mike Ploog's Terror on the Planet of the Apes (soon to be reprinted from BOOM!), Universal Orlando and Harry Potter, Jack Kirby's Kamandi Omnibus volume one, the first volume of IDW's Grimjack Omnibus by John Ostrander, Tim Truman, and company (including Tom Sutton, Steve Pugh, Demon Knight, Nexus, Badger, Crossroads, Total Eclipse, Flint Henry/Henry Flint, and more), Airboy and Eclipse Comics, the TMNT Omnibus from IDW, Jacques Tardi's masterful Arctic Marauder from Fantagraphics, Superman: Birthright from Mark Waid, Leinil Francis Yu, and Gerry Alanguilan, Jughead Double Digest #175 from Archie (incorporating Rich Koslowski), ADD comic reading, Scud: The Disposable Assassin - The Whole Shebang from Image, Astro City: The Dark Age volume one, Legion of Monsters by Dennis Hopeless and Juan

Happy Thanksgiving! Franky DeJesus and Alan White help us give thanks for Comic Book Comics by Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey, Bill Mantlo (incorporating David Yurkovich and Mantlo: A Life In Comics, Micronauts #1 and Micronauts Annual #1, ROM, Steve Ditko, Questprobe, Pat Broderick, Michael Golden, Jack of Hearts, Jackson Guice, and more), Paul Grist and Mudman #1 from Image, many issues of Amazing Spider-Man including the Spider Island event, John Severin, Joe Kubert and St. Johns Publishing (including 3D comics, TOR, Strange Terrors #7, Matt Baker, Comics Journal, and the prototypical "picture novel" It Rhymes with Lust), the Mid-Ohio Comic Con, Marc Sumerak and All-Ghoul's School from IDW, Back Issue #38, 48, and 52 from TwoMorrows Publishing (touching upon Bernie Wrightson, Sergio Aragones, PLOP!, EC Comics, Vampirella, John Byrne, Charlton Comics, Madame Xanadu and Michael Kaluta, and a whole mess more), Low Concept: The EOC Community Anthology, Mahmud Asrar and Supergirl #3, Skottie Young and Magneto

We spend a nice chunk of time pulling apart Greg Rucka, J. H. Williams III, and Dave Stewart's Batwoman: Elegy (incorporating the New 52 Batwoman series, the Question, Pipeline, Five Books of Blood, Queen & Country, 52, and more), after which we take a detour into TV Land, taking long, hard looks at Young Justice, Green Lantern Animated, and Walking Dead (including Beast Wars, Joss Whedon and Buffy, and more). Plus, we still have enough slack to hang ourselves on Archie's Mega Man, Will Pfeifer, Dan Clowes and Eightball #23/Death Ray, Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlevy's Comic Book Comics #6, the New 52 Deathstroke by Kyle Higgins, Joe Bennett, and Art Thibert, the DC Universe Legacies hardcover, Marvel's Point One #1, Uncanny X-Force, Adam Glass and Suicide Squad #3, and a whole mess more!

Trans-dimensional broadcast in progress...Buffering...99%...LIVE from the ANT Farm, writer/artist Jeff Lemire sits in with us to discuss Animal Man, Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, J. G. Jones, Alberto Ponticelli and Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E., Travel Foreman, Elephantmen, the CBDLF Liberty Annual 2011, Dark Horse Noir, Benjamin Marra's Gangsta Rap Posse #2 from Traditional Comics, Gabriel Hardman and Corinna Bechko's Betrayal on the Planet of the Apes #1 from BOOM!, Captain America and Bucky and Chris Samnee, Fear Itself 7.1, Superboy, Flashpoint: Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown, NYCC, Top Shelf, Kamandi, Keith Giffen and the OMAC/Frankenstein crossover, Sweet Tooth, Zenescope's The Theater #1, Heroes for Hire, Crimson, Sonic the Hedgehog from Archie, the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival, J. Gonzo's La Mano del Destino from Castle and Key, Walking Dead, and a whole mess more!

Willy-nilly once again, we investigate the IDW Artist Editions and the late, great Wallace Wood, J. Gonzo's incredible La Mano del Destino and Castle and Key Publications (castleandkeypublications dot com), the other guys weigh in on Abrams ComicArts' Someday Funnies, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Juan Gimenez' Metabarons slipcase from Humanoids, Jason Aaron and Mark Silvestri (et al) on Incredible Hulk #1, Fables (incorporating Once Upon a Time and Grimm), Walking Dead S2E3, Flesh and Blood by Robert Tinnell and Neil Vokes from Monsterverse and Kerry Gammill, First Comics, John Byrne's Cold War #1 from IDW, Locke and Key, Steve Rude, the awesome Fantagraphics lineup for 2012, Jim Starlin and Breed III from Image, Pluto, Rick Remender and Fear Agent #32 from Dark Horse (no spoilers) , and a whole mess more!

In this messy, sloppy, scattershot episode, we talk about Brian Augustyn and Humberto Ramos' Crimson for Cliffhanger (incorporating Danger Girl and J. Scott Campbell, Out There, Battle Chasers, RASL, Planetary, Black Hole, Fear Agent, and more), The Someday Funnies from Michel Choquette and Abrams ComicArts (featuring Jack Kirby, Wally Wood, Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Walt Simonson, Moebius, Art Spiegelman, Frank Zappa and Cal Schenkel, William S. Burroughs, Federico Fellini, Ralph Steadman, Tom Wolfe, and a whole lot more), more on Matt Wagner's Mage, Dan Clowes' Death Ray, Legends of the DC Universe (specifically, but not limited to, issues #22 and #23), Walt Simonson's Orion, Dave Gibbons and the Watchmen prequel rumors, The Dark Knight Strikes Back, Gil Kane and Jan Strnad's Sword of the Atom, The Ray, Marvel Value Stamps and comic book advertising, X-Men/Micronauts, Regular Show, All-Star Western, Carl Potts and Alien Legion, Orchid from Dark Horse, The Milo Manara Library volume one, Walking Dead epi

It's our giant-size NYCC 2011 wrap-up episode featuring chatter on Jim Cheung, jam pieces, Brian Azzarello, Ben Templesmith, Bob Layton, Ramona Fredon, Marie Severin, Kevin Maguire, Mahmud Asrar, Tim Seeley, Tom Fowler, Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman, Mike Norton, Greg Capullo, Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld and the return of the mighty Extreme!, Matt Wagner, Ryan Dunlavey and Fred Van Lente, Andy Lanning, Jeremy Haun, Kagan McLeod, Top Shelf, Jeff Lemire, Chris Claremont, Image Comics, Dan Didio, Jason Aaron, Cliff Chiang, Matt Kindt, Michael Dooney, Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett, Tony Moore, Erik Larsen, Scott Snyder, Bill Sienkiewicz, Herb Trimpe, and a whole mess more! Plus, after Chris bails, we stick around for close to another hour to chew the rag on Juan Doe and the Legion of Monsters #1, Neal Adams and the greatness that is Batman: Odyssey V2 #1, the Batman: Year One animated film, Habibi, Love and Rockets: New Stories #4, Star Trek/Legion of Superheroes #1, DC's Jackie Gleason and the Honeymooners

Vince is on vacation, so Chris, David & Wood discuss the upcoming New York Comic Con, Teen Titans: Games, Love & Rockets, Petrograd, Chew and a whole lot more.

Tim Seeley, the hardest-working multi-talented man in comics, drops in to talk to us about Witchblade, Hack/Slash, Suicide Girls, digital distribution, Jack Kraken and Four Star Studios, the double-edged sword of creative autonomy, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Dungeons and Dragons, Fletcher Hanks and Fantomah, the Hack/Slash movie and film options, horror movies, and a bloody mess more! Plus, we have enough steam to kibbitz about Creepy Presents Bernie Wrightson and Creepy Archives volume ten from Dark Horse, Johnny Ryan's Prison Pit from Fantagraphics, Steve jobs, Echoes by Joshua Hale Fialkov & Rahsan Ekedal from Top Cow, Teen Titans: Games by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, The Hit List Agenda books out of Aspen, Avengers Academy, and a short fifth-week DC wrap-up spotlighting Action Comics, OMAC, Detective Comics, Stormwatch, Animal Man, and Swamp Thing!

In our last overview of DC's New 52, we cover The Fury of Firestorm, Voodoo, Green Lantern: New Guardians, Blackhawks, Savage Hawkman, Justice League Dark, I, Vampire, Aquaman, Batman: The Dark Knight, The Flash, Superman, Teen Titans, and All-Star Western, with a little bit of time left over to touch upon Smoke Signal #10 and John Severin, Dennis Hopeless and Kevin Mellon's Lovestruck, the Abrams Star Trek from IDW, Kurt Busiek's Astro City, and a whole mess more!

The DC New 52 rampage rolls on as we ramble through Snyder and Capullo's Batman, Wonder Woman by Chiang and Azzarello, Mahmud Asrar and Supergirl, Lobdell and Rocafort's Red Hood and the Outlaws, Krul and Freddie Williams II's Captain Atom, Swierczynski and Saiz on Birds of Prey, Winick and March's Catwoman, Levitz and Portela's Legion, Tomasi and Pasarin on Green Lantern Corps, another look at Mr. Terrific, Bedard and Guara's Blue Beetle, Higgins and Barrows on Nightwing, and a whole mess more!

All DC Comics, all the time! This week, after Vince does a little bit of catch-up on the first salvo from the DC New 52 (Detective Comics, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Action, Batgirl, Hawk & Dove, JLI, Stormwatch, and OMAC), we jump head-first into the second week, touching upon Batman and Robin, Batwoman, Deathstroke, Demon Knights, Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E., Green Lantern, Legion Lost, Red Lanterns, Suicide Squad, Superboy, and Resurrection Man. Hey, it's a revolutionary month for the comics industry. Get used to it (for at least another two weeks).

David Price, Chris Neseman, and Jason Wood talk about a lot of comics. Vince writes really long episode notes, but he's gone, so this is what you get.

In an extra-long episode to make up for the extra day's wait, we devote the first hour or so to the book on everyone's lips: Geoff Johns and Jim Lee's Justice League #1 (incorporating Flashpoint #5, Fear Itself, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and more), after which we throw down hard and thick on Walt Simonson and the IDW Thor Artist's Edition, Regular Show, the Thor movie (including Natalie Portman, George Lucas, and the recent boo-hoo over the Star Wars films), Gabe Hardman and Corinna Bechko's Betrayal on the Planet of the Apes miniseries from BOOM!, Archie Comics and the Red Circle heroes, Jacques Tardi and the second Adele Blanc-Sec volume from Fantagraphics, Dynamite's Kirbyverse, Kamandi (the world's greatest comic book), Christos Gage, Colossus, Batman/Deathblow, Greg Pak's Heart of the Monster swan song on Incredible Hulk, Jeff Lemire's Animal Man, Rob Williams' new take on Ghost Rider, Rafael Albuquerque and Mondo Urbano from ONI, Ben 10 Ultimate Alien, Mad, Doctor Who, Frank Cho, John Rozum and Frazer

We're all over the place, talking up The Comics Buyer's Guide #1682 ($8000 for Eerie #32?!?, fanzines old and new, The Infinite, Zenescope, and more), the closing of Atomic Comics, Rob Liefeld's tweets, sales numbers for the first month of DC's New 52 (Stormwatch, Ron Marz, Wildstorm, Batman, and more), X-Men: Prelude to Schism and Schism proper (Acuna, Pacheco, Jenkins, Remender and Uncanny X-Force, inventive ways to beat a dead mutant horse, and more), Kagan McLeod's Infinite Kung Fu from Top Shelf, Dark Horse Presents #3, Chris Samnee and Captain America and Bucky, Joe Hill's The Cape, Marvel's Legion of Monsters, plus, Brent Schoonover sits in with us at the tail end to talk about Mr. Murder Is Dead from Archaia! Where else are you going to have this much fun?

What's this? Can it be? A well-planned and -executed, level-headed, hyperbole-free episode of everyone's favorite comic book podcast (all three of you)? You be the judge as we talk about John Romita JR and Al Williamson, The Heap #1 from Moonstone (incorporating Diamond's ridiculous minimum order policy, digital distribution, and more), Will Shetterly and Vince Stone's Captain Confederacy (spinning off into racism in comics, the Captain America movie, revisionist history, Fear Agent, Power Man, and more), Wizard World Chicago, Tom Scioli and Jonathan Maberry's Captain America: Hail Hydra #2, Incredible Hulks: Heart of the Monster (Greg Pak, Paul Pelletier, Danny Miki, Morry Hollowell, Fin Fang Foom, Bi-Beast, Wendigo, and more), Supergods, Kagan Mcleod's Infinite Kung-Fu from Top Shelf, League: 1969, Mike Carey's X-Men: Legacy, Astonishing X-Men, the NuDCU, Rob Liefeld, the Image Comics founders, Doc Stearn: Mister Monster, Jess Fink's sizzling Chester 5000 from Top Shelf, Victor Quinaz and Brent Schoonover's

On and on 'til the break of dawn... This time around, we talk about Frank Frazetta, Wizard World Chicago, Eduardo Risso and Challengers Comics, Greg Capullo, Robert Kirkman and Rob Liefeld on The Infinite #1 from Image, Terry Moore's Rachel Rising #1 from Abstract Studio, Star Wars: Jedi: The Dark Side and Mahmud Asrar, licensed comics, Jesse Moynihan's FORMING from Nobrow Press and AdHouse Books, Kieron Gillen, more on the Captain America film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Daredevil #1 and Mark Waid, Jim Balent's Tarot, Witch of the Black Rose from Broadsword, Detective Comics, Scott Snyder's Severed, ONI Press and Spontaneous, Dark Horse's Orchid, and a whole mess more!

Chasing the white rabbit leads us to encounters with Jack Davis, Wally Wood, the NuDCU 52, Cracked Mazagine, Thunderbolts (Gage, Blanco, Diggle, Parker, Walker, Shalvey, and more), Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century 1969, Jesse Moynihan's FORMING from Nobrow Press and AdHouse Books, Chester 5000, Roger Langridge's Snarked! from Kaboom!, Chris Samnee and Captain America and Bucky, X-Men: Schism, Hack/Slash and Fletcher Hanks, Tim Seeley and Witchblade, Shaky Kane, Avengelyne from Rob Liefeld, Mark Poulton, and Owen Gieni from Image, Fanzine Flashback: Four Color Magazine, Gingerbread Girl from Top Shelf, Robert Kirkman and Cliff Rathburn's Reaper, John Constantine, Jeff Lemire's Jonah Hex, Moriarity: The Dark Chamber from Image, and a whole mess more!

Neseman's even more fired up than usual as we talk about Sandman Mystery Theatre, Jeff Lemire and Sweet Tooth, Cable: Reborn, Evil Deadpool, IDW's Artist Editions, upcoming EC Comics reprints from Fantagraphics, SDCC 2011, the Captain America movie, Howard Chaykin's Black Kiss and the forthcoming Image Comics sequel/prequel, ZAP Comics, Creepy #6 from Dark Horse (Joe R. Lansdale, Nathan Fox, Jason Shawn Alexander, Budd Lewis, Archie Goodwin, Neal Adams, and more!), the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1969, Fables, B.P.R.D., the Eisner Awards (COMICS AND VEGETABLES), Screamland #1 from Image, Halcyon, IDW's Locke and Key: Keys to the Kingdom by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, Frank Darabont and Walking Dead, George Herriman and the greatness of Krazy Kat, B-One Comics, Cinderella: Fables are Forever, Crossed: Psychopath, Lady Death, and a whole mess more!