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.

Podcast 73 - Spinoffs and Franchises

Spin-off! Is there any word more thrilling to the soul and/or corporate wallet?

This week we read a bucket of franchise-extension comics. From flaccid extrusions of long-spent IP, to comics an actual person might actually want to read, we talk about whether spin-off comics can be any good (yes), how it all works (it's complicated), and which ones are just utter, utter shite (surprisingly: not Pokémon).

Find out more about the "beautiful teat filled with dollars".

Not gonna lie - there's about twenty minutes of Pokémon chat, and some hand-wavy theorizing about yaoi on this one. You love it. 

We covered:

• Tencount vol. 1 & 2 - Rihito Takarai
• Something City - Ellice Weaver 
• AD: After Death #3 - Scott Snyder, Jeff Lemire, Steve Wands
• Heirloom - Dave Barker & Hester Wells
• Hotblood! (the 'sexy horse' one) - Toril Orlesky
• Emily Carol's webcomics
• Mind MGMT - Matt Kindt

Spin-offs:

• Buffy (Season 8) - Brian K Vaughan, Georges Jeanty (also sometimes Joss Whedon)
• Aliens: Apocalypse - The Destroying Angels - Mark Schultz, Doug Wheatley
• The Flintstones (2016) - Mark Russell, Steve Pugh
• Simpsons Comics On Parade
• Simpsons Comics A Go-Go
• Simpsons Comics Unchained
• Pokémon Adventures #1-3 (Red, Blue, and Green) - Hidenori Kusaka
• Mass Effect: Redemption - Mac Walters, Jackson Miller, Omar Francia
• Portal 2: Lab Rat - Michael Avon Oeming, Jay Pinkerton
• Aliens vs Predator - various

So, uh, there's that?

We also reviewed Something City on the site.

Podcast 68 - Comic Shops

We really expected to just talk in gushing tones about our favourite comic shops and then come up with some great ideas for how we'd run our own.

So of course we're ranting about the comics Direct Market. But also some other stuff! 

We read:

• Mare Internum - Der-shing Helmer
• Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet - Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze
• Trees - Warren Ellis and Jason Howard
• The Arab of the Future - Riad Sattouf
• How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less - Sarah Glidden
• Critical Chips - Zainab Akhtar and various authors
• The Can Opener’s Daughter - Rob Davis

Comic shops we talked about:

• Gosh (London)
• Page 45 (Nottingham)
• Niche (Huntingdon)
• Dave's Comics (Brighton)
• OK Comics (Leeds)

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 60 - The Eisner Awards

This episode we look at the Eisner Awards, looking at recent winners and asking: "Awards, huh? What are they good for?" Stick with us to find out.

Sixty episodes! Where does the time go? I'm serious, where is it. ANSWER ME, PHYSICS.

We read:

• Deadpool v Gambit - Ben Blacker, Benjamin Acker, Danilo Beyruth
• Empty Zone - Jason Shawn Alexander, Darragh Savage, Luis Nct
• Mechanism - Raffaele Ienco
• Bad Machinery - John Allison
• Gunnerkrigg Court - Tom Siddell
• Giant Days - John Allison  and Lissa Tremain
• Doctor Strange - Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo
• Vision - Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta

Eisner:

• March - John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell
• Showa: A History of Japan 1953-1989 - Shigeru Mizuki
• Southern Bastards - Jason Aaron and Jason Latour
• Paper Girls - Brian K Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, Matt Wilson
• Descender - Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen

You can find a full list of the Eisner Winners here.

John Barrowman as Squirrel Girl

Photo credit: John Barrowman MBE

MBE

Podcast 58 - The Louvre Collection

This week we look at the Louvre's very own comics range in detail. Plus special guest Chris tells us about ELCAF, there's a diversion about Shakira, and Roger liberally marinades his crotch.

We covered:

• Descender - Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen
• Stickleback - Ian Eddington and D’Israeli
• Mooncakes - Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu
• Family Man - Dylan Meconis

Louvre Collection

• Rohan at the Louvre - Hirohiko Araki
• Cruising Through the Louvre - David Prudhomme
• The Museum Vaults - Marc-Antoine Mathieu
• An Enchantment - Christian Durieux
• Glacial Period - Nicolas De Crecy
• Phantoms of the Louvre - Enki Bilal

Special guest star ELCAF special review special:

• Veripathy - Andy Poyiadgi
• Kadak Collective:
  • The Same Everywhere - Aarthi Parthasarathy, Kaveri Gopalakrishnan
  • My Secret Crop - Kaveri Gopalakrishnan
  • Cat Disco - Rebecca K. Jones
  • On the trail - Anna Ring (Estonian Comics Collective)
  • Blob Squad - Kristyna Baczynski
  • Internal Wilderness - Claire Scully
  • Artificial Flowers - Rachael Smith

Podcast 55 - Webcomics Revisited

Disease and a lack of free time have delayed our return - if your time is as obviously precious as ours, let us steer you through the murky, yaoi-filled waters of webcomics and onto the safer shores of whatever weird porn it is that you like instead.

Also learn which version of Doctor Who is sexually attracted to! Listen to us talk ourselves out of joining the CIA! More!

We talked about:

• Injection - Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey, Jordie Bellaire
• Limbo - Dan Watters & Caspar Wijngaard
• The Broken Frontier Anthology - Various, edited by Wendy and Tyler Chin-Tanner
• Quicksilver - Emily Smith
• Judecca - Noora Heikkilä and Jonathan Meecham  
• Hotblood - Toril Orlesky
• Check Please - Ngozi Ukazu
• Fascist Friends - Erin Lux
• Drugs and Wires - Cryoclaire & IO Black
• Griefer Belt - Kali de Wild
• Tim Ginger - Julian Hanshaw
• Doctor Fate - Paul Levitz & Sonny Liew
• El Que Debe Vivir - The Cuban Government (honestly do not have a link for this one, but the TV show is here)
• Ahoy Booty - Emily Partridge & Lainey Diamond (you can't buy this any more, sorry)
• He is a Good Boy - KC Green
• Graveyard Quest - KC Green
• Achewood - Chris Onstad
• Blue - Pat Grant
• Moon Knight - Jeff Lemire, Greg Smallwood, Jordie Bellaire
• Stand Still, Stay Silent - Minna Sundberg

Podcast Episode 50 - The Best Comics of 2015

Here at the old Consequential.net, we like to think that we cover the very best comics week on week. So it stands to reason that our selections for the best of the year are a rarefied breed indeed, yes? Yes. We're not saying these books will get you laid, but they probably won't get you sent to prison either. Great! Plus, someone wins a prize! Could it be you? Yes!*

*Accuracy dependent on competition entry.

We apologise for the occasional high-pitched noise in this episode. It was caused by a particularly acute case of The Clanks. Roger is being exorcised and deloused and it won't happen again.

Also, for your enjoyment:

• Christmas recipes!
• Find out which candy is "disgustingly minty"!
• Other things as well.
• You can read all of the competition pitches we received, like we had to.

We covered, in no particular order:

• Supermutant Magic Academy - Jillian Tamaki
• Mulp - Matt Gibbs & Sarah Dunkerton
• Porcelain - Benjamin Read & Chris Wildgoose
• Descender - Jeff Lemire & Dustin Nguyen
• Solomon - Carlos Pedro
• Limbo - Dan Watters & Caspar Wijngaard
• Wet Moon - Sophie Campbell
• Saint Cole - Noah Van Sciver
• Fante Bukowski - Noah Van Sciver
• Roller Girl - Victora Jamieson
• Wytches - Scott Snyder & Jock
• Aama - Frederick Peeters
• I Love This Part - Tillie Walden
• Space Dumplins - Craig Thompson
• Nimona - Noelle Stevenson
• Munnu - Malik Sajad
• Fantasy Sports - Sam Bosma
• Injection - Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey, Jordie Bellaire
• Sing No Evil - J. P. Ahonen & K. P. Alare
• Kaptara - Chip Zdarsky and Kagan McLeod
• The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl - Ryan North and Erica Henderson
• Necropolis - Jake Wyatt
• Wild's End - Dan Abnett, I.N.J. Culbard

Podcast 46 - Comics Continuity (Where To Start With Marvel and DC)

Do you want to get started reading the lycra-clad adventures that Marvel and DC peddle, but you're put off by the huge gnarled continuity that has built up over the best part of a century? Batman, X-Men, Superman - all have accreted a vast mythology full of plot holes, reboots, crises many and various, but fear not - we're here to help with some surefire techniques to get you past the initial confusion, and to make sure you find the good stuff. Thanks to Tom Howard on Twitter for the setup.

Leap straight to the 1 hour, 1 minute mark if it's just that that you're after, or stick around for: plenty of new things! A series of crimes done in Dave's house! An introduction to homebrewing! Haikus! The secret history of nutmeg! Who could want more? It's a bumper episode!

We covered:

• Check Please! - Ngozi Ukazu
• Fires Above Hyperion - Patrick Atangan
• Descender -  Jeff Lemire & Justin Nguyen
• Aama - Frederick Peeters
• Paper Girls - Brian K Vaughan & Cliff Chiang
• Space Dumplins - Craig Thompson & Dave Stewart
• Sex Criminals - Matt Fraction & Chip Zdarsky
• The Fifth Beatle - Vivek Tiwary, Andrew C Robinson
• Nathaniel's Nutmeg - Giles Milton

The suggestions for starting points:

• All-Star Superman - Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely
• Batman: Year One - Frank Miller & David Mazucchelli
• The Ultimates - Mark Millar & Bryan Hitch
• Astonishing X-Men - Joss Whedon & John Cassidy
• FF - Matt Fraction & Mike Allred
• She-Hulk - Dan Slott, Various
• Hawkeye - Matt Fraction, David Aja, Matt Hollingsworth
• Moon Knight - Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey, Jordie Bellaire
• DC: The New Frontier - Darwyn Cooke
• Daredevil - Brian Michael Bendis, various artists
• Spider-Man: Blue - Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale

Even Batman knows Cyclops is a dick.

Podcast 36 - Sci Fi Roundup

Last time we did sci fi comics, we looked at the psychedelic end of things. Now we're looking at the current batch of sci fi comics. We're the complete package, is what I'm saying here. Also: Trago Mills! Colonoscopies! Beauty and the Beast visit Ikea! Limericks! The velvety softness of hamsters' testicles! And more!

We talked about:

• Brass Sun - Ian Edginton & I. N. J. Culbard
• The Fuse - Antony Johnston & Justin Greenwood
• SAM: After Man - Richard Marazano & Shang
• Gunnerkrigg Court - Tom Siddell
• Trees - Warren Ellis & Jason Howard
• Prophet - Brandon Graham et al.
• Transmetropolitan - Warren Ellis & Darwick Robertson
• Roche Limit - Michael Moreci & Vic Malhotra
• Copperhead - Jay Faerber, Scott Godlewski, Ron Riley
• Aama - Frederik Peeters
• Wild's End - Dan Abnett & I. N. J. Culbard
• Low - Rick Remender & Greg Tocchini
• Fear Agent - Rick Remender & Tony Moore
• Chrononauts - Mark Millar & Sean Gordon Murphy
• Punk Rock Jesus - Sean Gordon Murphy
• Material - Ales Kot, Will Tempest, Tom Muller
• ODY-C - Matt Fraction & Christian Ward
• Descender - Jeff Lemire & Dustin Nguyen
• Nameless - Grant Morrison & Chris Burnham

Podcast Episode 35: Indie Comics Roundup (Sort Of)

This week is a roundup of indie comics - coincidentally about 90% of what we were reading anyway. Think of us as Newsnight Review for comics, if Bonnie Greer was shitfaced and Tom Paulin had figured out how to hide his obvious depression behind overlong foul-mouthed tirades. What's that? You already do? Excellent! Let's crack on.

We read:

• Descender - Jeff Lemire & Dustin Nguyen
• The Fade Out - Ed Brubaker & Sean Philips
• Satellite Sam - Matt Fraction & Howard Chaykin
• I am Fire - Rachel Smith
• The Red Road - Rozi Hathaway
• Roller Girl - Victoria Jamieson
• I don’t Like My Hair Neat - Julia Scheele
• Solo - Hope Larson
• El Deafo - Cece Bell
• Giant Days - John Allison & Lissa Treiman
• Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen - Dylan Horrocks
• Howard The Duck - Chip Zdarsky, Joe Quinones
• Nemo: River of Ghosts - Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill

This episode is sponsored by cold medicine, cheese curds, and NIGHTMARE FOREST CIRCUSES.

Podcast Episode 27 - Violence (For Real This Time)

Comics have always been violent, and while early comics broadly focussed on Hitler getting punched on the jaw or lovesick cats being pelted with bricks, extreme violence has gone through peaks and troughs and sparked the odd moral panic along the way. We look at how violence is portrayed in comics, and where it works and doesn't.

This week we talked about:

• Southern Bastards - Jason Aaron & Jason Latour
• Wytches: Issue 0 (free) | Issue 1 - Scott Snyder & Jock
• The Motherless Oven - Rob Davis
• Essex County - Jeff Lemire
• Blacksad: Amarillo - Juan Díaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido
• Resident Alien - Paul Hogan & Steve Parkhouse
• Exit Wounds - Rutu Modan
• Kate Beaton's Beat Poets
• Batman: Odyssey | AKA Neal Adams' crazy Batman | Brilliant coverage of that insane comic
• We3 - Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely
• Flex Mentallo - Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely
• V for Vendetta - Alan Moore & David Lloyd
• Punisher - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon
• Crossed - Garth Ennis & Jacen Burrows
• Preacher - Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon
• The Boys - Garth Ennis & Darick Robertson
• 300 - Frank Miller & Lynn Varley
• Three - Kieron Gillen & Ryan Kelly

It's a bra, yeah, but like it's also crabs

This is a bra made of crabs, so now you've seen it too. [wwm_survey id="1"]

Podcast 25 - Time Travel

This week we tackle one of the philosophical and scientific big questions - should you date a man who willingly drinks Drambuie? Also we talk about time travel comics! But mostly that first thing.

• Shoplifter - Michael Cho
• The Wrenchies - Farel Dalrymple
• Trilium - Jeff Lemire
• The Property -Rutu Modan
• Copperhead - J Faerbera & Scott Godlewski
• Red Wing - Jonathan Hickman & Nick Pitarra
• Pax Romana - Jonathan Hickman (Not Nick Spencer, no matter how many times I repeat it)
• We Can Fix It - Jess Fink
• Seconds - Bryan Lee O'Malley