Podcast 74 - Southern Gothic

In which our heroes find quite a lot to say about a genre that barely exists in comics.

Southern gothic persists as a genre in all other mediums, so why is that deliciously swampy style so under-represented in comics? An investigation brought to you by big words, a fetish for Spanish moss, and that half-glimpsed face at the window of the ol' plantation house.

We talked about:

• Iceman - Sina Grace and Alessandro Vitti
• Winnebago Graveyard - Steve Niles, Alison Sampson, Stephane Paitreau
• The Unsound - Cullen Bunn, Jack T. Cole
• Grass Kings - Matt Kindt and Tyler Jenkins
• The Stone Heart (Nameless City Vol.2) - Faith Erin Hicks, Jordie Bellaire
• Bulletproof Coffin: The 1000 Yard Stare - Shaky Kane and David Hine
• Godshaper - Si Spurrier and Jonas Goonface
• Black Hammer - Jeff lemire and Dean Ormston
• Harrow County - Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook
• Will O' The Wisp - Tom Hammock and Megan Hutchinson
• Swamp Thing - Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette et al
• Wet Moon - Sophie Campbell

Apologies for the occasional spurt of someone else's voice on the background of this one. Some people just don't know how to use their indoor voice.

Have we missed something obvious? Tell us in the comments so we can read it because looking forward to Snagglepuss is a sad state of affairs.

Episode 70 - Big Weird Sci Fi

Back, back again to the stranger edges of sci fi. We ponder whether sci fi has preemptively shifted to reflect our garbage fire times, or whether our reading habits have just taken a turn for the cynical.

Because of the garbage fires.

We covered:

• Black Monday Murders - Jonathan Hickman and Tomm Coker
• Those Fucking Dinosaurs (I have no idea where to find this, let us know if you spot it)
• Descender - Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen
• Harrow County - Tyler Crook and Cullen Bunn
• Mare Internum - Der-shing Helmer
• Dept.H - Matt Kindt and Sharlene Kindt
• Quantum Teens Are Go! - Magdalene Visaggio, Eryk Donovan, Claudia Aguirre
• The Firelight Isle - Paul Duffield
• Leave Me Alone - Vera Brosgol
• Deep Space Canine - Comic Book Slumber Party (full list of contributors here)
• Trees - Warren Ellis and Jason Howard
• Injection - Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvie, Jordie Bellaire
• The Wild Storm - Warren Ellis and Jon Davis-Hunt
• Sex Criminals - Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky
• Warm Blood - Josh Tierney, Saskia Gutekunst, Joysuke, Winston Young, Naomi Franquiz, Marina Julia, Olivier Pichard (so far)
• Epicurean’s Exile - Leia Weathington and Jack Cole
• Monstress - Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
• Kaijumax - Zander Cannon

Podcast 67 - Best Comics 0f 2016

Hot dang folks, it's the end of the year, and that means Best Of lists. We're no exception to this cheap and easy content format, but we will at least give some lucky scamp a prize of each of our picks for the best comics this year.

Our spoilery results way below, hidden beneath this very professional advert for  affordable bookkeeping:

Problem Chimp Will Count For You

(Not an official Problem Chimp Enterprises advert, but I do work in marketing, so, y'know. Sorry.)

Each of Our Top Three Books:

• AD: After Death #1 - Scott Snyder and  Jeff lemire
• For The Love Of God, Marie - Jade Sarson
• The Nameless City - Faith Erin Hicks and Jordie Bellaire
• Rolling Blackouts - Sarah Glidden
• Unsounded - Ashley Cope
• March #3 - John Lewis, Nate Powell, Andrew Aydin
• Vision - Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Jordie Bellaire
• Plutona - Jeff Lemire, Emi Lennox, Jordie Bellaire
• 5000 KM Per Second - Manuele Fior

Still Good:

• Saga - Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
• Paper Girls - Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, Matt Wilson
• Trees - Warren Ellis and Jason Howard
• Southern Bastards - Jason Aaron and Jason Latour
• Empty Zone - Jason Shawn Alexander
• Doctor Fate - Paul Levitz and Sonny Liew
• Giant Days - John Allison, Lissa Treiman, Max Sarin
• Harrow County - Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook
• Sixth Gun - Cullen Bunn and Bryan Hurtt
• Squirrel Girl - Ryan North and Erica Henderson
• Doctor Strange - Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo
• Injection - Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey, Jordie Bellaire
• Monstress - Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
• Check Please - Ngozi Ukazu

And also:

• Broken Frontier Anthology - Various
• The Spire - Simon Spurrier, Jeff Stokely, André May
• The Can Opener’s Daughter - Rob Williams

Podcast 59 - Manga

This week we try to correct for our utter ignorance about manga, reading as much as we can in two weeks and then spouting opinions all over the place.

A theme emerges in Roger's reading. Not a good theme.

We covered:

• Bad Machinery - John Allison
• The Goddamned - Jason Aaron, R.M. Guera, Giulia Brusco
• Saga - Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
• The Sixth Gun - Cullen Bunn, Tyler Crook, Brian Hurtt, Bill Crabtree
• Filmish - Edward Ross
• A City Inside - Tillie Walden

Hey Kids! Manga!

• Abandon the Old in Tokyo - Yoshihiro Tatsumi
• Oishinbo: A la Carte - Tetsu Kariya and Akira Hanasaki
• Ode to Kirihito - Osamu Tezuka
• Angel Heart - Udou Shinohara
• Amakusa 1637 - Michiyo Akaishi (this isn't anywhere legit, sorry)
• Barefoot Gen - Keiji Kakazawa
• One-Punch Man - “One” and Yusuke Murata
• Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service - Eiji Otsuka
• Tekkon Kinkreet - Taiyo Matsumoto
• Project X Cup Noodle - Tadashi Katoh and Akira Imai

You might also like:

• Manga database - http://hidamari.moe/
• UK Anime Network

Podcast 57 - Broken Frontier Anthology

This week we're covering the Broken Frontier anthology, a recent collection of sci-fi treats. Plus! English wine! Corn! And guess who does an impression of a "Wizard's Stairlift"? It's not actually a sex act! #persuadethebunn

Apologies for the sound quality in this episode - English wine degrades the nervous system, it was the best we could manage.

We covered:

• Barefoot Gen - Keiji Nakazawa
• Harrow County - Cullen Bunn & Tyler Crook
• Geis Volume 1: A Matter of Life and Death - Alexis Deacon
• Notes: Born to be a Larve - Boulet
• Heirloom - Dave Barker
• Broken Frontier - Various artists:
  • Highlighted stories
  • Dark, Dark World - Cullen Bunn, Nathan Fox, Brad Simpson
  • Plunder - Phil Hester, Daniel Warren Johnson, Doug Garbark
  • The Wave - Robert Sammelin
  • The Wall - Tyler Chin-Tanner, Toby Cypress, Thomas Mauer
  • Flyer - Justin Zimmerman, Mike Lawrence, Thomas Mauer
  • The Beard - Fred Van Lente & Alison Sampson
  • The Trip - Joshua Hale Fiakov & Ryan Kelly
  • Here There Be Monsters - Sean Wang
  • Terran Omega - PJ Holden & Scott Ferguson
  • Key: A Bastard’s Tale -  Salgood Sam
  • Last Dance at Omega Point - INJ Culbard
  • Dark, Dark World - Cullen Bunn Nathan Fox
  • Plunder - Phil Hester Daniel Warren Johnson
  • The Beard - Fred Van Lente Alison Sampson
  • Quin Returns - David Hine Mark Stafford
  • Down in a Hole - Noah Van Sciver
  • No Regrets - Jamie Coe
  • Inside Out - Karrie Fransman
  • 30 Years of Service - Box Brown

Podcast 53: France (and Belgium)

How angry is it possible to be about Tintin, a comic where a boy and his dog solve mysteries and occasionally assert the supremacy of Belgium? Really quite, it turns out. That's right, we're covering the comics of France and Belgium (in rage-spittle).

Plus! Learn who's an alcoholic (it's Captain Haddock, and Roger). Which Franco-Belgian comic character has "bad trousers"? What are good names for the Cornish? We'll tell you. You'd better believe we'll tell you.

Our title music is by Canon Hannon's Ham Cannon.

We covered:

• Long John Silver: Neptune - Xavier Dorison & Matthieu Lauffray
• The End of a Fence - Roman Muradov
• Sex Criminals - Matt Fraction & Chip Zdarsky
• Orbital - Serge Pelle & Sylvain Runberg
• An Tain - Colmán Ó Raghallaigh
• Harrow County: Countless Haints - Cullen Bunn & Tyler Crook (PDF Preview)
• Miss Don't Touch Me - Hubert & Kerascoet
• Tintin - Hergé:
  • Cigars of the Pharaoh
  • The Blue Lotus
  • The Black Island
  • The Secret of the Unicorn
  • Red Rackham’s Treasure
  • Asterix - René Goscinny & Albert Uderzo:
    • Asterix the Gaul
    • Asterix and the Goths
    • Asterix and Cleopatra
    • Asterix the Gladiator