11 O'clock Comics Podcast

Infused with the red-hot energy of the Rulk laying a cosmic smackdown on the Watcher, we snap, crackle, and burn through topics like God Complex #1, Powers, Vertigo's Daytripper #1 by Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon, a trio of books from Buenaventura Press (Injury #3 from Ted May, Lisa Hanawalt's I Want You #1, and Eric Haven's The Aviatrix #1), The Looking Glass Wars and Hatter M, X-Factor #200, Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth and Man-Thing, John Byrne and Alpha Flight, FANZINE FLASHBACK: Amazing Heroes and Comics Interview, the greatness of Bill Mantlo, Questprobe, Godland, classic versus contemporary comics storytelling and dialogue, Eaglemoss, Sectaurs and Inhumanoids (Yes, you read that correctly...), and much, much more!

It's chaos from the get-go as we bluster and blunder our way through Assault on New Olympus, more on Alan Moore's Dodgem Logic, Justice Machine, Archer and Armstrong from Valiant, Five Fists of Science, Barry Windsor-Smith, Invincible Iron Man #21, Matt Fraction, the logistics and downside of company-wide storytelling, JMS and Gillen's Thor, Siege, Bryan Talbot's Grandville from Dark Horse, Jonah Hex #50, digital comics, Earth One and the Ultimate and 2099 universes, and much more!

LANGUAGE IS A VIRUS: After bidding an 11 O'Clock family member a fond farewell, the remaining members launch into spirited discussion on Ultraviolet: 69 Blacklight Posters from the Aquarian Age and Beyond from Abrams Image, Alan Moore's Dodgem Logic fanzine and website, Punisher #11, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Archie comics, The Nam, Heroes for Hope, The Other Side, another fact-filled FANZINE FLASHBACK, Jim Starlin, Mark Millar's Master of Doom and Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four, a letter from Catwoman's Will Pfeifer, Image United #1, Blackest Night #5, Iron Man #20 by Fraction and Larroca, Blackest Night: Titans and whole mess more!

Happy Thanksgiving: listener email, out-of-print collected editions, Peter David's X-Factor and spoilers, Nelson, Adventure Comics #4, Black Adam and the anti-hero, Pak and Manco's War Machine, Al Columbia's Pim and Francie from Fantagraphics, Stumptown, Doctor Strange, Siege, Pigeons from Hell, Deadpool Team-Up #899, Doomwar, and much more!

Agents of Atlas' Gabriel Hardman stops by to shoot the shizzle on working as a storyboard artist, Avengers Vs. Agents of Atlas, Comic Book Comics #4, the connection between John Byrne's Namor and Ed Brubaker's Captain America, Wild Pig, Sam Raimi and Spider-Man 3, an unfortunate Neal Adams experience and Gabriel's comeuppance, Punisher #11, Heathentown, pencilers and inkers and the mystical third entity created by a special combination of the two, Alpha Flight, Home Alone 3, Gabriel's working methods and influences, Noel Sickles and Scorchy Smith, Bernie Wrightson, and a whole lot more! Plus, a special suprise appearance by Davros and the usual Hotline hoohah!

Wood double-times it to make up for an absent Chris Neseman, pushing us down paths towards Dark Avengers/X-Men: Utopia, Marvel Apes, 1985, Dark Reign - The List: Punisher, Wednesday Comics, Sword #1, Astonishing X-Men, Spider-Woman: Agent of Sword, X-Factor, Shatterstar, Neal Adams and Continuity Comics, The Incredible Hulk and Sal Buscema, 3 Story by Matt Kindt, and a whole lot more!

Mysterius the Unfathomable's Tom Fowler sits in for a vacationing Jason Wood, dragging us through discussion on Wednesday Comics, What The?! #6 and John Byrne, the Marvels Project, Dark Horse's Noir (and a suggestion for a moratorium on the word), David Lapham, Ditko's cutting boards, Fowler's Legends of the Dark Knight shipping fiasco and digital delivery of artwork, Image United, John Workman, Cowboy/Ninja/Viking from Image and Shadowline, Geoff Johns and the Superman Family of titles, Powers: the Definitive Edition volumes One and Two by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Omeng from Icon, Cinderella, Box 13 from Comixology, and much more!

It's tricky! We wander aimlessly all over the comics map, occasionally stopping to collect our thoughts on the Comics Buyer's Guide, the shrinking size of Diamond's Previews catalog, the BOOM! Disney comics publishing strategy, Blackest Night #4, Warren Ellis and Planetary, even more laments from Chris over Gutsville, Wood talks cartoons (Batman: Brave and the Bold and the Wonder Woman feature film), more from David on Darkness/Pitt #1 from Top Cow, Daredevil #501, Thunderbolts, Andy Parks' original art collection, Terror Inc. from Marvel Max, X-Men: Die by the Sword, ideas for Diamond's December skip week, Parker: The Hunter, Alan Davis, Library Binding, and, try as he might, no one shares Vince's love for Dark Reign - The List: Punisher by Remender, Romita JR, Janson, and White. Forever cold and alone. So sad. Also, the requisite amount of Hotline hocum! Remender RULES!

Who wound up David? King DAP can't seem to shut his trap, leading us through discussion on Scott McCloud's ZOT!, The Stand: Captain Trips and American Nightmares with Mike Perkins, listener email, Marvel Visionaries: Stan Lee, Namor, Hitman, Bryan Talbot's Heart of Empire, the Superman Family titles, cat yronwode, Creator Spotlight: Osamu Tezuka - God of Manga by Helen McCarthy for Abrams Comicarts, Top Cow's Darkness/Pitt, Simpsons Treehouse of Horror #15, a harrowing comic book experience (with beer), Vigilante, Blackest Night, Rick Leonardi and Cloak and Dagger, X-Men Legacy #228 and Daniel Acuna, Liberty Comics #2, Dark Horse's Noir anthology, Thor: Ages of Thunder, and a whole mess more! Bonus! Crazier-than-usual Hotline calls (and that is saying a LOT).

All praise J'Rhogan! The prophet B'Dickenson hath spoken: gaze in wide wonder at the majesty of GODLAND by Joe Casey, Tom Scioli, Bill Crabtree, and Nick Filardi! After the Ibogane wears off, we manage to eek out a few comments on James Jasek and Library Binding, Jack Kirby, Terence McKenna, Mickey Mouse and Friends #296 and Uncle Scrooge #384 from BOOM!, the Losers, the Baltimore Retailer Summit, the Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks, Daredevil under Diggle, the Harvey Awards, the 10 Cent Plague, and much more! Bonus! Hotline messages aplenty! Eegah say: Unglamorate!

A lot of ground is covered as we trample through topics such as Rick Remender and Jefte Palo's Doctor Voodoo: Avenger of the Supernatural, X-Men/Agents of Atlas #1, Shang-Chi, Jason Lutes' Berlin, Morrison and Johns driving the DC bus, Siege and the Avengers titles, Wonder Woman, Vampirella: Second Coming from Harris Comics, Val Staples and Incognito, Haunt #1 and Image United, G.I. Joe: Cobra Special, Mighty Avengers, listener voicemail, a special Tom Fowler-inspired treat, and much more! Glory be to King DAP!

Titanic TOM FOWLER drops by to drop some science on his Mysterius the Unfathomable miniseries co-created with Jeff Parker, Wildstorm, Brian Azzarello, Howard Chaykin, Douglas Adams and the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, DC's Focus imprint, Steve Gerber, Hammer horror, Cameron Stewart, Gabriel Hardman and Agents of Atlas, Caper, Mad magazine and Monroe, Drawn and Quarterly, Darwyn Cooke's Spirit, Andy Jewett's SICKO, clever obfuscation of genitalia in comic books, Canadian delicacies, the didgeridoo, and much more! Bonus! A veritable mountain of Hotline messages and the winner of Adam Besenyodi's Deus Ex Comica essay contest!

Jason Wooode makes up for lost time by chewin' up most of this episode with talk about the Windy City Comicon, Fred Van Lente Month: Week Four - Incredible Hercules and the downside of technology, Jonathan Hickman's Pax Romana and Kirkman and Adlard's Walking Dead Volume 10 from Image Comics, Strange Tales #1, Avengers Forever, random G. I. Joe jib-jab, Exiles, Dark Reign: The List - X-Men by Fraction, Davis, and Farmer, and much more!

11 O'Clock Comics: Proudly bending reality into a pretzel for seventy-four episodes! This week, the gang's all here to discuss flea market finds, Fanzine Flashback, James Jean, Morrison's X-Men, Hellboy: The Wild Hunt, Captain America: Reborn, Nomad, The Eternal City and Cory Doctorow's When SysAdmins Rule the Earth from Robot Comics, Blackest Night: Batman, Moon Knight and Jerome Opena, The Best Radioactive Man Event EVER (Simpsons Comics #155, Bart Simpson #48, and Simpsons Super Spectacular #9) crossover from Bongo Comics, Fred Van Lente Month Week Three: Incredible Hercules and Amazing Spider-Man #605, Indie Spinner Rack's Awesome 2: Awesomer, anthology love, Batman/Grendel, Hotline hubbub, and a whole lot more!

Chris takes a breather this week, leaving us to talk about even more about Vertigo Crime: Filthy Rich and Dark Entries, the Wolverine: Tales of Weapon X hardcover, Incognito, Black Panther, the G.I. Joe books from IDW, Paul Levitz and DC Entertainment, Joe Quesada's response to the Marvel/Disney merger, Avatar's Anna Mercury, week the second of Fred Van Lente Month: Super-Villain Team-Up: MODOK's 11, Project Superpowers: Black Terror and Masquerade, Hotline hullaballoo, and a whole lot more!

Wood returns just in time to school us proper on the finer points of the Marvel/Disney merger and what they mean to us comic fans. Plus, we find the time to include talk about Incredible Hulk #601 (from Chris, no less) by Pak and Olivetti, Marvel's Utopia event, The Comics Journal #299, comments from our listeners, Vince's love letter to Fred Van Lente's Marvel Zombies 3 and Marvel Zombies Return #1 (in a segment dubbed Fred Van Lente Month by dashing David), and we finally get around to an in-depth look at Jeff Lemire's The Nobody with a little bit of Sweet Tooth thrown in for good measure.

We try and pick up the slack dropped by a missing Jason Wooode with willy-nilly wordplay on Hickman, Eaglesham, and Mounts triumphant Fantastic Four #570 (once again reclaiming its flagship status and tagline of the World's Greatest Comic Magazine), Ian Churchill and Hulk #14, crime comics: The Hunter, Filthy Rich, and Dark Entries, Vertigo's fantabulous Madame Xanadu by Matt Wagner, Amy Reeder Hadley, and Richard Friend, listener comments, leaving comics, Fanzine Flashback: Amazing Heroes #113, more than necessary on Solson, Sky Doll, Bongo Comics, The Simpsons, and the arrival of Sergio Aragones, Red Circle, Dark Reign, Norman Osborne, and Dark Reign: Mr. Negative, Daredevil #500, War Machine, and oodles more.

It's back to business as usual as we banter incessantly on Blackest Night and plastic Lantern rings, The Marvels Project #1, OHOTMU, Bendis and Maleev's Spider-Woman: Agent of S.W.O.R.D. motion comic, the Beast and Agent Brand, Filthy Rich from Vertigo Noir, Brubaker and Phillips' Sleeper, Criminal, and Incognito, The Complete Illustrated History of the Skywald Horror-Mood by Headpress and Archaic Al Hewetson, Solson, Paul Grist and Jack Staff, Dr. Who and Torchwood: Children of Earth, District 9, Diamond's Blackest Night spoiler cover (...or is it?), Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth #1 and 2 and Dark Reign: Deadpool/Thunderbolts Magnum Opus, Jersey Gods, and a whole lot more!

In our post-Wizard World Chicago...er...Chigago Comic-Con episode, Chris and Vince tell tales both long and short about their convention experience (including the D-bag in a Yellow Hat, Tex in an elevator, almost dousing Skottie Young with ginger ale, chaos at the X-Force panel, bin diving, Chris' apology, con crud, and more), after which we attempt to answer the musical question of what exactly is a cartoonist, touch upon Fantastic Four: Requiem, Gil Kane's Sword of the Atom, New Mutants #1-3, Archie Double Digest #200, Marvel's Avengers books, a merry mess of Hotline messages, and...you know the drill. Next on the horizon: Windy City!

Where in the world is Christopher Neseman? We try to answer that question, occasionally pausing our pondering to plod through perorations on Amazing Spider-Man #600, Batman or Spider-Man?, Adrian Tomine's Summer Blonde, Creepy #1 from Dark Horse, the Necrosha X-event and X-books in general, Steve Mannion's Fearless Dawn from Asylum Press, Jason rants on Marvel, DC, and IDW, and lots more!