Podcast - Episode 33: If We Ran DC Comics

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Oh DC. DC might actually stand for 'dear child' because that's how I feel about them these days. I just shake my head whenever they announce anything and think "Oh, you dear, sweet, stupid child. You have no idea what you're doing."

Well don't worry, DC, because I am here to solve all of your problems with a well-thought-out plan. Don't be scared. I know well-thought-out things and plans are not things you are used to seeing around Burbank or wherever the hell your offices are now, but if you just read it I think you'll see that I'm right. (Reading, by the way, is also something you should do to your own comics that you publish. Before releasing them to the poor, comic-loving public).

So yes, this week Dave and I talk about how things would change if we were in charge of DC!

First of all, apologies for the slightly fuzzy sound this week, particularly when I am speaking. We will be all set up with fancy mics and a mixing board next week but this week we used the room mic and I turned it up a little too loud and sat a little too close. I did my best trying to mellow it out in post, but it's still a little crunchy. Next week will sound great!

We are on Instagram now! Check us out!

I don't think there is too much to put in this week's blog post. Not too many things were discussed that require links or visual references. Except maybe BONDAGE DAREDEVIL!

It actually took me a while to locate that gif in my image folder because I have so many bondage pictures of super heroes.

Oh, turns out the cast of Civil War did NOT appear on ET this week. So I was following bad information or it was canceled or something. I'm gonna blame Jeremy Renner.

As I mention, I unlocked Winter Soldier in the Lego Marvel's Avengers video game this week, which means I can assemble exciting teams like this one:

Just a couple of Buckys, out on the town.

We talk a little bit about Sebastian Stan's upcoming film, The Bronze, which promises to have a crazy sex scene. I'll prrrrrrrrobably see it...

Hmm...ok, that's probably it for this week. I'm pretty distracted now.

Thanks for listening! Follow us on Instagram! Rate us on iTunes! Should we set up a Facebook group?

Podcast - Episode 32: Captain America (1979)

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Dave and I spent Valentine's Day watching the 1979 Captain America TV movie together. It was...not a good movie. But it WAS a good time.

We switched up how we do our recording this week and now I am in charge of mixing and editing and such and I think it sounds pretty good for my first kick at the can! Next week it will sound even better! Full disclosure: I do a fade-in at the beginning because there was something weird happening with the headphones so I am full-on yelling into the microphone for the first few seconds. Then I mellow out.

So, yes, the 1979 Captain America movie is amazing. But before we get to that, we talk about some other fun things, like the whole Rob Liefeld NY Times fiasco. If you haven't read it yet, here it is. He seems like a real sweetheart.

And if you want to read about Todd McFarlane's HARD R HORROR Spawn movie, you can check that article out here.

By the way, if you aren't familiar with what Dave and I are talking about when we mention the DC Super Hero Girls line, this is what we mean:

You can watch little cartoons on the site. I can't make a decision on this stuff. If I had a daughter, is this something I would be excited for her to watch. I honestly don't know! Tell me what to think!

Here's that awesome looking Dr. Strange Pop Vinyl toy we talk about:

And here are the new toys that I am saving up to buy, because do my kids really need shoes?

More info on those toys here.

There was a new Civil War trailer this week. It aired during the Super Bowl and was definitely the highlight of the game (well, this and Beyonce). It's about 40 seconds of awesomeness, including a lot of new Bucky footage!

I am so excited I can barely function. I mean, LOOK!!!!!:

THIS IS A REAL MOVIE!!!!!

I mention the hilarious (and heartbreaking) Winter Soldier memories mission in the Lego Marvel's Avengers video game. You can see that mission in this helpful gamer's video:

Here's a little taste of that Civil War Prelude comic, which you can only buy digitally for now. You can find it on Comixology here. Here's a little taste of Bucky in his Romanian hide-out, remembering the bad times:

Ok, so this Captain America movie. As you may recall, I bought the DVD that collects both of the 1979 movies for Dave for Christmas. Here is the trailer for the first one:

From that trailer you might think this movie is a reasonably fast paced. It is not. It is the slowest movie ever. Like, when an oil truck is dumping crude onto the road as part of a (bad) plot to kill Steve Rogers, they show ALL of the oil dumping out of the truck. They paid for that oil, and we're gonna watch every last drop of it hit the pavement.

This movie did not leave much on the cutting room floor, I'm guessing.

There's a clip reel that has highlights from both movies. Based on it, the second movie (any clip where he's wearing the more classic looking Captain America suit) looks a lot more action packed:

Here's the thing about the costume in the first movie: the shorts are WAY too tight for ol' Reb Brown:

And this is how he looks as Steve Rogers:

I forgot to mention on the show that his eyebrows were such a mess. I was obsessed with fixing them.

We get very few sexy moments. This beach scene was one, I guess:

That's Steve Rogers doing what Steve likes doing best: lounging around.

I didn't even catch that he's an ex-Marine in this movie. I have no idea when they mentioned that. Because I say on the show that they should have at least made him a soldier or a former soldier. I guess they did. But now he just wants to drive his sweet van and look at the ocean. His sweet van, by the way:

But, man, that scene where Steve is given his shield for the first time? I wish I could find a clip because I couldn't breathe I was laughing so hard. Here's a still:

So, yes. Amazing. And so boring. It's hard to believe this was ever made. Good job, 1970s.

That's it for this week. I hope you find this episode sounds better than usual. We are going to start using a mixing board and XLR mics next week, so that should sound even better! Thanks for listening!

Podcast - Episode 31: Favourite (and Least Favourite) Marvel Characters

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Coming at you after a week off. We recorded when I was fresh off my trip to Toronto, which was better than any trip to Toronto in the dead of winter has a right to be. Highlights include, in no particular order:

  1. Seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (and sitting very close to the stage!);
  2. Watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier with J.Bone;
  3. Eating at Bahn Mi Boys more than once;
  4. Drinks and strippers with J.Bone;
  5. Not having any kids with me at all;
  6. $hopping!;
  7. Sleeping through the night in a dark, quiet room;
  8. Hanging out with (ECMA-nominated!) Sean "Wordburglar" Jordan, and recording an episode of his Weekend At Burgie's podcast;
  9. Did I mention no kids?;
  10. Meeting Owen Craig from Panel Culture finally;
  11. Just generally hanging out and talking to J.Bone, who I feel like I could talk to forever, honestly. So glad we finally got to hang out in person.

But, as The Boss says, you can't break the ties that bi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-ind, so now I am back in snowy Nova Scotia, and there is in fact a blizzard happening here as I write this. And both of my kids are home.

Also, a belated birthday shout-out to Dave, who turned, I dunno, a thousand last week? Oh shit! Don't invite me to a birthday roast! I will scorch that place!

So this week, since Dave and I were guestless for the first time in a few weeks, we decided to list our favourite (and least favourite) Marvel characters. We did the same with DC characters way back in our third episode.

Before we got to that we discussed some of the news from the past couple of weeks, first and foremost the announcement by DC of a new line of Hana-Barbara comics. And that line-up includes a batshit insane Scooby-Doo relaunch:

Where is the detective squad that will stop these monsters?!

I also talk about the Lego: Marvel's Avengers video game that was recently released, and how one of the levels is a PLAYABLE BUCKY'S DEATH SCENE! I put together some screengrabs in a Tumblr post:

Bucky!!!!!!

This week's episode sees the return of MITCHELL, who joins us to share some of his thoughts on Marvel characters. His segment has a slow start, but it pays off, I think.

We do not see the return of HILLARY this week, though. She feels bad, but she just couldn't condense her thoughts on these new X-Files episodes into a coherent segment. This is a very exciting time for her. I completely understand because, as you may recall, we needed to devote an entire podcast episode AND bring in a special guest to discuss the first Civil War TRAILER. So having a hard time gathering your thoughts about two whole episodes of your very favourite thing in the world is understandable.

What I'm saying is that the Civil War movie will probably require five episodes to cover.

I am not going to mention the new Civil War trailer in this blog post, even though it's all I'm thinking about, because we will be talking about it on next week's episode. Probably at great length.

Podcast - Episode 30: Jessica Jones and the Super Ladies of TV!

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We turned the big 3-0 this week, guys! And to celebrate, we had Tiina Johns back on the show! We finally talk about Jessica Jones, and a bit about other heroic ladies on television. A very little bit. This may be a good topic to revisit in a later episode.

Here's the fresh new look for Captain America:

And here's the first cover, with a lil' Winter Soldier in the background:

Bucky! Is that really you, buddy?!

Speaking of Winter Solider (and I usually am), I forgot to mention these hot new Bucky drawings J.Bone posted on Instagram this past week:

Shady character #civilwar #wintersoldier #winterschildren #buckybarnes #drawing #jbone

A photo posted by J.Bone (@originaljbone) on

Awwww, look at him!

Here's that Chris Evans Glenn Frey tweet that Dave mentioned. God bless Chris Evans and his adorably earnest Twitter account.

Don't worry. Jeremy Renner's Twitter account is still amazing:

And here's a little Sebastian Stan in Ricki and the Flash, dancing like a goof with Rick Springfield:

Alright, that's it for two weeks! I am off to Toronto to bother J.Bone and see Bruce Springsteen! Go see Pride and Prejudice and Zombies! It's great!

Podcast - Episode 29: The X-Files!!!

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Holy smokes, guys! The X-Files is coming back this week! We had to have superfan Hillary Titley (the Scully to Dave's Mulder), on the show to gush for awhile. So this episode ended up being pretty long. Twice as long as a regular episode, actually. And I think Dave says, like, five words.

Here is our guest, Hillary, holding the framed, signed oh-so-90s David Duchovny photo that we mention:

I was going to post a link to the Civil War panel video but I realized that I included it in last week's post. Hmmm. Well, we can look at some pictures of Chris Evans in a tux at the Golden Globes instead:

Oh knock it off, Christopher.

And here is Sebastian Stan at an afterparty, all safe and happy and sockless:

Did they coordinate their navy tuxedos? We can only guess! (Yes. Of course they did).

It's a long episode, guys. You don't have time to read stuff. I'm done.

Podcast - Episode 28: Great Writing/Bad Art & Great Art/Bad Writing

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This week we totally talk about actual comic books! We talk about books that had such great writing that we were (almost) able to overlook the not-so-great art. And then books that had art that was so great that we bought them even though the writing was just terrible. It gets kinda mean, not gonna lie.

And the panel at the top of this post is, of course, from JLA (great writing by Grant Morrison, just dreadful art by Howard Porter). Here are a few more of the comics we mention:

1. Animal Man with great writing by Grant Morrison, not-so-great art by Chas Truog:

2. Miracle Man with great writing by Alan Moore, not-so-great art by Chuck Beckum:

3. Godland with great art by Tom Scioli and not-so-great writing by Joe Casey:

4. Doom Patrol with great writing by Grant Morrison, not-so-great art by Richard Case:

5. Our favourite example: Superman/Batman with great art by Ed McGuinness, terrible writing by Jeph Loeb:

Hey, if you want to watch the entire Captain America: Civil War panel from Wizard World New Orleans, you can!!! Right here.

And if you want to see how extremely handsome and snugly Chris Evans looked while doing that panel, here's some visual reference:

I'll finish this with a picture of that Winter Soldier Dorbz toy that is coming out and is adorable. And some very funny fan art inspired by it.

Nah, I lied. I'm gonna end this with a selfie of Sebastian Stan in a tux on Golden Globes night: