Some Of My Friends Read Comics

This week we read another fairly recent comic, All-New Ghost Rider 1-5 from 2014, because it introduced a new version of the Ghost Rider character that they've been using for the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show this season. No more flaming skeleton on a bike, now he’s a flaming skeleton in a hot rod! Cooooool. So what's so great about this new Robbie Rodriguez Ghost Rider? Join us as we try to figure it out!

Sweet Christmas!  Luke Cage is coming to Netflix! We're pretty familiar with his modern adventures, but hadn't read any of his older stuff like Power Man.  We thought it'd be fun to check out the first time he met his BFF Iron Fist in Power Man 48-50, and then Power Man & Iron Fist 59-60. Join us if you want to learn what a samovar is!

This week, we go back to the late 1980s -- a time when most comics were trying to imitate that Frank Miller & Alan Moore were bringing with Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen.  Cue JUSTICE LEAGE INTERNATIONAL! Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis attempt to re-form DC's flagship book as a humorous, light-hearted funny book.  Is it successful?  Help us decide as we read JLI 7-13!  

It's about time we did another non-superhero book. This time we jump to the Crossgen universe (yes, they had a universe!) to read Ruse by one of our favorites writers, Mark Waid. It's a Sherlock Holmes story, but if it focused more on a female Watson who uses time-stop magic that Sherlock doesn't know about. Don’t worry, it'll all make sense. Join us for Ruse 1-5!

Nobody ever thinks about the little guys, the ones who have to clean up after all the superheroes. Nobody but Dwayne McDuffie, that is! He wrote a few miniseries for Marvel called Damage Control with artist Ernie Colon and together they tackled the comedic world of work orders and bureaucracy. Join us as we read the 2nd Damage Control miniseries "Acts of Vengeance" from 1989!

And the Eisner for Best New Series goes to… PAPER GIRLS by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang! We took a look at the first story arc in issues 1-5 and tried to piece together what we could from this bizarre time travel story. The room was pretty split as we tried to make the case for and against their Eisner win. #SquirrelGirlForever #NotMyEisners

It’s our 2016 Eisner Pre-Show Spectacular! As we gear up for the awards, we take a look at three past winners of the “Best Single Issue” award. Astro City #4 from 1996, Tom Strong #1 from 2000, and Hawkeye #11 from 2014. We also read one of this year’s nominees, Silver Surfer #11, and we would have read them all but indie comics can be hard to find sometimes! We talk about all four of these very different stories and decide if they were indeed worthy of the coveted Eisner award. And we don’t agree!

Dogs and cats! Cats and dogs! Ghosts and zombies and witches and frogs! Instead of our typical superhero fare, today we stray away from the pack (get it?) and read the first volume of Beasts of Burden, a collection of eight short stories about pets encountering the supernatural. Evan Dorkin’s scary and sentimental writing combined with Jill Thompson’s beautiful artwork makes this a series that’s not to be missed!  

Doom Patrol! A name some of us have heard far too often, but do we really know what it means? To find out, we travel back to the late ‘80s to read the start of one of Grant Morrison’s first runs with DC comics in Doom Patrol 19-22. We’ve got Surrealism, Dadaism, and the straight up bizarre in spades as we deal with a humans trapped in a robot body, multiple personality (and multiple super-power!) disorder, and a wheelchair bound asshole.

To celebrate his big screen arrival, we took a look at the weirdest Apocalypse miniseries we could find, and that was X-Men: Apocalypse vs. Dracula! Sounds cool, doesn’t it? We thought so too, but instead we just got a bunch of British dudes showing off their tattoos. Listen as we try to figure out why this comic exists and what would have made a much more interesting story. Next Episode: Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison, issues 19-22

Darwyn Cooke, one of our favorite comic book creators, passed away last week at the age of 53. To honor him, we decided to cover his magnum opus, DC: The New Frontier, which takes a look at the Dawn of DC’s new superheroes and the birth of the Justice League in the 1950’s. It’s an oversized 6-issue miniseries completely written and drawn by Cooke himself and it’s an absolute must-read for fans of the genre, young and old.

How was there not a Power Pack cartoon in the ‘80s? How is there not one NOW?!? We took a look at issues 1-4 of this 1984 Marvel superteam created by debut writer Louise Simonson and artist June Brigman. We really let it transport us to a land of sugary cereals on Saturday morning and fake unicorn grandparents that you love more than your actual family (yes, really). We also try to figure out why someone named Alex Power would choose the much lamer “Gee” as a codename.  Get it together, Alex. You’re an embarrassment to the Power Pack.

Next week, the Marvel Cinematic Universe tears itself apart in Captain America: Civil War, based on the best-selling Marvel comic CIVIL WAR! We go back 10 years ago to read the original CIVIL WAR, where Captain America and Iron Man broke up, Spider-Man told the world he was Peter Parker, and everybody's best friend (who hadn't been in a comic in over decade) died! This one's for Cody!

It’s our one year anniversary special! And what better way to celebrate a full year of comics than with the definitive Batman origin story, Year One! And even better, it’s by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, the same creators from our very first episode. Full circle, whoaaaaa! Join us as we talk about our some of our favorite moments from Batman’s first year in action as well our own first year in action! And did you know Bryan Cranston once played Jim Gordon? Well he did and it was great! And why isn’t Vince as good as LeBron James? Join us for all the answers!

It's April Fools Day and Chris played one hell of an unintentional prank on us by choosing Not Brand Echh for this week's episode. We read the first three issues of Stan Lee’s 1967 attempt to make a Marvel comedy magazine and, to be honest, we had a pretty great time ripping this thing to shreds while searching for any jokes. It also gave us a great chance to talk about a bunch of other funny comics that are actually worth reading! All that and more on today's Bum Of My Bends Bead Bomics! Who says a podcast has to be good??

Ladies and gentlemen and aliens, tonight's heavyweight qualifier match is coming to you LIVE from the planet Bodace and will determine the fate of our galaxy. In the red corner, from the planet Krypton, weighing in at 235 lbs, it’s Superman! And in the blue corner, from the planet Earth, weighing in at 236 lbs, Muhammad Ali! (Really Google? Superman weighs less than Ali?) Michael joins us at ringside to fill in our gaps of sports knowledge as we read Superman vs Muhammad Ali from 1978! Let’s get ready to ruuuuuummmmble!

Before we recorded our Thanos episode a couple months back, we knew we were gonna eventually head back to outer space to cover the Infinity Guantlet. But we had so much fun reading Thanos Quest and were so impressed with the writing and art of Jim Starlin that we decided to head back even sooner! This time we took a look at Adam Warlock, a character that Vince and Kia knew absolutely NOTHING about, other than that he appeared in the background of Guardians of the Galaxy and was eventually gonna be pretty important. Luckily, Chris is here as usual to clarify exactly what the heck is going on. Join us as we read Strange Tales 178-181 and Warlock 9-11!

Everybody’s got Deadpool-mania! His new film just broke box office records for an R-rated release… unprecedented for a comic book character less than 30 years old! To find out how the wise-crackin’, fourth-wall-breakin’, merc-with-a-mouth got to be so popular, we went back to the first time he broke the mold. In Deadpool #10 & #11 from 1997, good old Wade Wilson goes back in time to 1967 and invades Amazing Spider-Man #47, taking the place of that goody two shoes Peter Parker. There’s also this picture of Deadpool as Forrest Gump, and we can’t figure out why! It’s pop-culture references galore in this week’s episode of SOMFRC!

All around me are the Batman’s cases: Joker chases, makeup faces. Harley Quinn just wants the Joker’s embraces. Plays her Aces, schemes take places. And this comic’s kinda funny, this comic’s kinda sad. The panels where she’s dreaming are the best I’ve ever had. We liked Paul Dini’s writing. And Bruce Timm’s art was great. Like the animated series, it’s a very very… Mad Love.

When it comes to classic superteams, one of the first names that comes up is the Teen Titans. It started out as kid versions of DC’s big guns, but when Marv Wolfman and George Perez reinvented the series with The New Teen Titans, they became one of the most popular teams of the 80’s. Join us as we check out issues 1-6 from 1980!