Comic Book Bears Podcast

We hope you tuned in to our last two video episodes! We are playing catch-up and are now releasing the first of the two episodes in audio form! Listen in as Bryan, Caleb, Bill and Steve provide a re-introduction of themselves and talk about books that they think people who are unaccustomed to comic books might benefit from as their first reads! AND a familiar voice from our show's past makes a surprise appearance!! Please know that we encountered some audio issues when recorded - this is new terrain for us - and there are parts where the audio gets choppy. (Again, we did our best in the edit!)

The Comic Book Bears are back with our weekly social distancing episode. The books that Bill, Bryan, Steve and Caleb discuss this time around include Dry County (Image), Al-Qaeda's Super Secret Weapon (Northwest Press), Plunge (DC/Hill House) and a return visit to The Fifth Beatle (Dark Horse.)  (Please also note that this episode is not up to our usual audio quality: we did our best to fix things in the editing but we made a commitment to weekly episodes while staying at home and we are sticking to it!)

The Comic Book Bears are back to four strong for the time being as we are thrilled to announce that Caleb Alexander-McKinzie will be joining us for the duration of our social distancing period. The books that Bill, Bryan, Steve and Caleb discuss this time around include Leviathan Dawn (DC), Howard the Human (Marvel), Fearful Hunter (Northwest Press) and The Three Rooms in Valerie's Head (IDW). Tangents include the virtues of open book vs closed book tests in law school and Alice in Chains. All this plus an expanded Woofs of the Week segment!

  As more and more of the world comes under stay-in-place or other similar orders, the Comic Book Bears are back with you with a new episode! Bryan Pittard returns to the show as does our special guest and good friend Caleb Alexander-McKinzie for this occasion. Listen in as Bryan, Caleb, Bill and Steve discuss what they have been doing since the current work-from-era began. They (eventually) get around to talking about comics. Selections include books from the Big Two (Justice League, Cable) and the world of independent creators (A Letter to Jo, Kid Gloves.) We hope you are all hanging in there through these difficult times. (And if you just came to escape it all, you can fast forward to the 20:00 mark when the funnybook chatter begins!)

We know that social distancing is in full force for many people and we decided to format an episode where all the books we discuss are currently available for FREE on ComiXology! So if you want to you can grab all six of the books (two Marvels, two DCs and two indies) easily before you listen in … or after … please do! The books we discuss are: BugHouse #1 Captain America & Thor: Avengers!(One Shot) M.O.D.O.K. Assassin #1 Rex Libris #1 Sensation Comics #1 Superman (1939) #1 Listen in as Steve and Bill Z discuss these books and know that this will be the first of our sequestration episodes that we will be getting out to you regularly! Hang in there, everyone! We will get through this! We know that social distancing is in full force for many people and we decided to format an episode where all the books we discuss are currently available for FREE on ComiXology! So if you want to you can grab all six of the books (two Marvels, two DCs and two indies) easily before you listen in … or after … please do! The

The CBB boys head once again to the movies, this time to weigh in on the latest DCEU film Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) in this new episode! Over the space of an hour Steve Mowry and Bill Zanowitz detail what they thought about the new film starring Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rosie Perez and Ewan McGregor and based on the DC Comics title of the same name.  In addition to their thoughts on the movie they also provide their recommendations for trade paperbacks and arcs stemming from the Birds of Prey universe of four-color stories. All this plus Billy Z goes to a comic book auction, Steve uncharacteristically mocks Bill's New Jersey accent and the phrase "connective tissue" is said waaayyy too many times!   

Get out your lightsabers, fuel up your land speeders and pre-order your Child merch! With The Rise of Skywalker in theaters and The Mandalorian finishing up its first season on Disney+ the CBB boys decided for their first episode of 2020 to focus on the Star Wars universe!  And with a special episode comes special guests!! Joining Billy Z and Steve for this show are two of the biggest Star Wars fans we know among our fellow podcasters : Craig Lantz from the Southern Fried Geekery Podcast and Mike Lovins from the Reel Gay Movie Show! Apart from the aforementioned TROS and the Baby Yoda Show we also discuss the Jedi: Fallen Order video game, our own histories with the franchise and, since this IS a comic book podcast, some of the Star Wars comic books we are digging. All this and Star Wars themed Woofs of the Week! This is the way.

It has been awhile since we dedicated a full episode to reviewing current comics so for the final CBB episode of 2019 we make a return to that format! Listen in for an hour as Billy Z and Steve offer up what they thought of Dragonfly and Dragonflyman #2 (Ahoy Comics), Lois Lane #6 (DC Comics), The Magicians #2 (Boom), The Infected: Deathbringer #1 (DC) and Olympia #1 (Image Comics.) Like always the episode is rounded out by our Woofs of the Week and we wish you all a great end to 2019 and look forward to you rejoining us in 2020!!!

Well, we originally were going to record one of our comic book "critique" shows but just weren't feeling it when we got on the mic.  So Billy Z and Steve decided to hang out for an hour and 15 and talk about a lot of topics. Our first exposure to comics. What would  the JLA and Avengers line ups look like if we were writing the books? What are we looking forward to in 2020? What cartoons from our youth have stood the test of time? What are our current cartoon favorites? The West Coast Avengers! The New Teen Titans! Infinity Inc. and the JSA! Battle of the Planets! Rick and Morty! Outer Darkness! White Trees! Event Leviathan! There is a lot in this one! (Steve even curses at one point!) As this episode is being released on Thanksgiving Eve, you might need something to play during your car ride or to distract you from your conspiracy theory spouting uncle or a soundtrack for your tryptophan crash! We might fit the bill just fine with this offbeat episode!

This time around the CBBears are thrilled to welcome the creators of Signal and Silence, Chris Lopez and Randy Wyatt. It is a 100 page graphic novel about three college friends -Jimmy, Nica and Dorch- all of whom are haunted by their shared history at an evangelical college. These days, Jimmy and Dorch run a comic store and run role-playing game sessions out of the basement. But over the span of several days, vital secrets are spilled that threaten to tear their bonds apart forever. Signal and Silence began life as a play written by Randy which Chris adapted into comic form. Listen in as Steve and Bill interview these handsome fellas about the project and many other things, including Chris's work with the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE) and Randy's feelings about a classic children's novel!

Billy Z and Steve present the final episode in the trilogy of Comic Book Bears Podcast episodes dedicated to the landmark simultaneous mini-series of X-Men books House of X/Powers of X from the pen of Jonathan Hickman and the drawing boards of Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva and which wrapped up earlier this month. What do a long time line-wide X reader and a life long DC zombie think? Just where does the X-Men status quo stand at the end of the story arc? Which old friends do we see once again? And what lies ahead for the marvelous mutants at the Dawn of X? Join us to find out!

This time around Richard Rivera, the writer of Stabbity Bunny, returns to the CBB cave to discuss his upcoming special stand-alone one shot! Not only is this the newest chapter of the original Stabbity Bunny saga, at the core of this story is the relationship between Stabbity cast members Emmet and Wally and the heartbreaking consequences of a hate crime. Listen in as Steve and Billy Z have Richard take us through what we can vouch for is a very special, emotional comic book! STABBITY BUNNY: EMMETS STORY #1 from Scout Comics will be in shops in December and you can pre-order it through the end of October. The Diamond order number is OCT192062.

We follow up our last House of X/Powers of X episode with coverage of House of X#s 3 and 4 and Powers of X #4! Listen in as Bill and Steve broadcast from the CBBearcave and offer up their opinions about the groundbreaking new X-Men dual mini-series. (You even get their Sassy Mister Sinister imitations!) Apart from the HOXPOX books, Bill leads a discussion about Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium and Doomsday Clock from DC and Steve flies the indie comic flag by covering Steeple from Dark Horse and You Are Obsolete from Aftershock. And it goes without saying - EXPECT SPOILERS!!!  

The biggest event happening in comics right now is Jonathan Hickman's revitalization of the X-Men franchise! Join Bill Z and Steve for an 80 minute exploration into the seismic events which went down in House of X #s 1 and 2 and Powers of X #s 1, 2 and 3!

Well, we didn't intend to be away for 7 weeks.   Listen in as Steve and Billy Z finally make a return trip to your earbuds to discuss the various announcements that were made at San Diego Comic Con last month. Among them are the Marvel Cinematic Universe slate for the next three years, the Arrowverse in the 2019/2020 television season including Crisis on Infinite Earths, the new group of X-Men books at Marvel, King and Gerard's Adam Strange, trailers, trailers, Watchmen, trailers, armored polar bears, trailers, Zombie Tidal Wave, trailers, Dark Phoenix Barbie and more trailers!

Between comic book conventions, illness and work the Comic Book Bears boys have been super busy in June but there was no way they were going to let Pride Month close without getting an episode out to you. So Bill and Steve are presenting to you this "Pride Quickie" where you get to hear about their first Pride experiences and a nice dose of queer comic book reading talk. Happy Pride!  

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!