Episode 131: Gaijin Roll

This week, the paperback edition of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s graphic novel Get Jiro: Blood and Sushi, was released. This book is a prequel to his 2012 sci-fi comic Get Jiro!, and like the original, it is steeped in modern foodie culture. Luckily, Amanda is also steeped in foodie culture.

So we talk about Get Jiro! and other foodie-related books (like Starve and Chew), and how some are good about catering to new culinary enthusiasts, while others depict a subculture where not knowing the unwritten insider foodie rules mean that you literally deserve to die… all while being part of a comics culture that is trying desperately to shed a long reputation of being hostile to outsiders. And if that all sounds heavy, fear not: there is also a story about Rob eating a pile of rock salt at a fine French restaurant that is just plain funny and dumb.

We also discuss Civil War II #6, written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by David Marquez!

And, the usual disclaimers:

• This show contains spoilers. If you don’t want to know if Jiro survives Get Jiro: Blood and Sushi, well, you’re probably being willfully obtuse considering it’s a prequel, but consider yourself warned.
• This show contains adult, profane language, and is therefore not safe for work. We talk about C. B. Cebulski’s Lucky Peach. You want to risk your mom hearing about that? Then get some earbuds.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:40:19 — 99.1MB)

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Thanks for listening suckers!

Episode 74: Like Billy Batson At A Pharma Party

We are back, after a week spent upgrading various parts of our online infrastructure! Which was exactly as exciting as it sounds! Provided you are Lex from Jurassic Park and know Unix! Unlike us!

And we came back just in time for an almost complete comics news drought. This happens ever year in the couple of weeks leading up to San Diego Comic-Con; the publishers save their big announcements for the show, while leaking only little things, like TV casting announcements.

So the news about comics winds up being news about comics at SDCC. So this week, we discuss a couple of announcements about the convention itself, including some of the… shall we say, odder… convention exclusives that some vendors are making available, to the announcement that Marvel Studios won’t be having a Hall H presence this year, while Star Wars and DC / Warner Bros. (probably) will be having a big one.

And we took the opportunity afforded by a relatively slow news week to talk about more of this week’s comics than usual, including:

• Starve #1, written by Brian Wood with art by Daniel Zezelj,
• Starfire #1, written by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti with art by Emanuela Lupacchino,
• Constantine, The Hellblazer #1, written by Ming Doyle and James Tynion IV with art by Riley Rossmo, and
• Batman #41, written by Scott Snyder with art by Greg Capullo!

And, as usual, the disclaimers:

• We record this show live to tape, with minimal editing. While this might mean a looser comics podcast than you are used to, it also means that anything can happen. Like learning why putting a cape on your office chair means Gotham City is doomed.
• This show contains spoilers. While we try to shout out warnings ahead of time, please be aware that we might ruin stuff for you.
• This show contains adult, profane language, and is therefore not safe for work. Unless you want your employer to hear multiple references to a sketchy, ten-dollar party, get some headphones.

Enjoy the show, suckers!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:57:28 — 106.6MB)

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Episode 56: SDCC 2015 – Joyless Blue Glory Hole

It has been another apocalyptic week at the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office. Continued terrible weather in Boston has led to water pouring into our walls, eliminating our Internet connectivity and therefore our access to any kind of comics news. In fact, this episode is being published thanks to the free Wi-Fi at our local bar, which is the only reason we are here. Yup. No uncontrollable drinking problem here! You don’t know us! You think you’re better than us?

Ahem.

So without much in the way of comics news, we spend this episode talking about what we know. And this week, what we know is trying to register for San Diego Comic-Con 2015. So we discuss the process, what we like, what we don’t, and how it has evolved over the years.

And here’s a little appeal: since it looks like we might not be able to attend SDCC in July, we’re looking for another regional convention we might take a crack at covering. So if you have a favorite convention that takes place over the summer that you think we should cover, let us know at crisisoninfinitemidlives at gmail dot com!

We also discuss:

• Moon Knight #12, written by Brian Wood with art by Greg Smallwood, and:
• Justice League #39, written by Geoff Johns with art by Jason Fabok!

And now, the legalese:

• We record this show live to tape. While this might mean it’s a looser comics podcast than you might be used to, it also means that anything can happen. Like a discussion about how Amazo would lose to Captain Underpants.
• This show contains spoilers. While we try to shout warnings ahead of time, be aware that we might ruin plot point or two.
• This show contains adult, profane language, and is therefore not safe for work. You want your boss to hear about the frustrations about a swirling blue hole? Didn’t think so. Get some headphones.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:25:06 — 75.1MB)

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Enjoy the show, suckers!

XX-Men: Marvel Gives Details on Wood’s and Coipel’s All-Female Book

Y’know, for a guy that had his DC exclusive contract politely allowed to expire about a month before the New 52 relaunch (and after DC announced, and then unannounced, that he would be the writer on the Supergirl relaunch in September, 2011), Brian Wood has had one hell of a busy – and big – year. Between the launches of Mara for Image, Conan and The Massive for Dark Horse – not to mention the big success of Star Wars for that publisher just last week –  the guy has a lot going on… including that new book for Marvel that they teased last week with a one-word poster reading only “XX”.

These’s been a lot of speculation about what “XX” means, from the idea Amanda floated to me that it was an X-Treme X-Men relaunch, to the one I insisted upon to my bartender that it was about Dos Equis. Actually, I was just ordering a Dos Equis, but that’s not important right now.

What is important is that Marvel has revealed what it’s all about. It’s an X-Men book. Titled X-Men. With no, you know, men in it.

I Have A Bad Feeling About This: Star Wars #1 Review

Just a few hours ago, in a town, not so far away…. I picked up my copy of Brian Wood’s Star Wars at my local comics shop, where they know me by name and keep begging me not to bring Rob there, ever again.  Getting the issue is apparently no small feat since even our fearless leader Rob couldn’t get his hands on a copy of this mutha.

Wood is tackling an interesting time in the Star Wars timeline. His focus is on the original characters during the several years between the destruction of the Death Star at the Battle of Yavin, and where Empire picks up on Hoth. It truly surprises me that this period is rarely addressed, with the absolute breadth and depth of expanded universe novels, comics, cartoons, and slashfic. There’s an awful lot of un-addressed character development that takes place off-screen between the movies. Luke has gone from whiny farm boy to a confident and able fighter. Han has shed his “only looking out for number one” attitude, and emerged as a real leader within the rebellion.  Leia has transformed from a mouthy princess to… well, a mouthy princess.

Kid, I’ve flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I’ve seen a lot of strange stuff, but I’ve never seen anything to make me believe in spoilers…

The Most Interesting One-Word Marvel Now Teaser In The World: “XX” By Brian Wood and Olivier Coipel

Wolverine calls him the best there is at what he does.

Cyclops believes that he is a dick.

It took Emma Frost longer to read his mind than it did for her to read Infinite Jest.

Hank McCoy calls him a beast.

He is the master of magnetism… according to Eric Lenshurr.

He is… the most interesting man in – ah, screw it; Marvel’s released another one-word teaser poster, and it says “XX.” Sure, I could have made a classy observation like “XX” is the chromosonal sequence for women, but there was a Dos Equis beer joke there, and I am only a man. A weak man. A weak man with a drinking problem. It’s pretty much all I can think about. It’s quite serious.

Right, the comic book. You can check the teaser after the jump.

All About Mara – Review Of Mara #1

Ok, pop quiz hot shot: you’re a 17 year-old, wildly successful and famous celebrity athlete, you have recently taken on new sponsorship, and, at the opening volley of an exhibition game against a group of much younger girls, you manifest super powers. What do you do? What do you do?

The answer? Probably not what Mara Prince, the protagonist of writer Brian Wood’s new comics effort, Mara does. Well, not unless you, like Mara, are 17 years old and, therefore, are probably prone to making age related poor decisions. But, more on that later.

Wood’s story is set in a distant, or maybe not so distant, future. One in which athletes and their accomplishments are raised onto pedestals and worshiped with cult-like fervor. This athlete-centric culture has so permeated society that the world’s armies are now made up of soldiers who are the beneficiaries of endorsements and competitive contracts, drastically changing the nature of the near constant state of war in which the countries of this world find themselves, as soldiers fight for personal glory rather than country. In fact, this system has created “a multi-trillion dollar industry, producing perfect athletes and soldiers.” So, what happens when one of these products becomes a little too perfect?

Flags on the play, and spoilers, after the jump.

It Is The Massive, And I Am Also Happy To See You: The Massive #1 Review

In The Massive, writer Brian Wood is back in the wheelhouse he established in Channel Zero and DMZ: a story about pragmatic survivors in a world at least two degrees more dystopian than our own. It is an interesting book with action, at least a couple of well-thought characters, in a world that has obviously been carefully planned and built by Wood, with high stakes for everyone involved, and loads in a background enigmatic mystery to boot. It’s tinkering with big ideas – such as, what happens if Al Gore is correct, and we’re about to be joylessly fistfucked by global warming – and doing it using a pragmatic, non-sci-fi viewpoint. It appears ambitious.

So why am I sitting here wondering: where the fuck is that second zodiac speedboat from the Goddamned chase scene? But we’ll get to that in a minute.

I say again for the record: this book is Wood back in his element. The man made his bones looking at How Things Are, extrapolating How Things Might Be In Two Years If It All Goes To Shit, and stacking that world with people fighting that system. Channel Zero is a classic of that style – a story from the late 90s based on the simple idea of, “What if, after cleaning up Times Square by throwing all the winos and junkies in Riker’s Island, Mayor Giuliani could do anything he wanted?” And in that world he put Jennie 2.5, a media hacker raging against the machine with guerrilla journalism that foretold blogging and social media revolution by about ten years… although, to be fair, Christian Slater and Pump Up The Volume not only got there first, but had gratuitous Samantha Mathis jugs and Leonard Cohen tunes. But I digress.

Stalking Horse: Dark Horse’s Digital Pricing Controversy

It is the twenty-first century, and it has been a week, so that must mean that someone tried to do something tricky about digital comics that pissed almost everybody off.

Earlier this week, Dark Horse Comics announced that, like DC and Marvel’s Ultimate line, they were going to make their books available digitally on the same day as the print copies. The problem is that they didn’t specify any details about their pricing model, which, for older books that they’ve made available digitally to date, is generally a buck ninety-nine, compared to the normally $2.99 print editions.

And then the comics Internet shit its tubes.

The Lamentations Of Their Artist

The first big announcement from the New York Comic Con came from Dark Horse Comics yesterday, when they announced the new creative team for the upcoming Conan The Barbarian: Queen Of The Black Coast miniseries: Stan Lee’s lawyers!

Just kidding! It’s actually gonna be Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan, the creative team behind the Generation X-focused emo superhero book Demo!

Just kidding! It’s actually going to be – oh wait, that one was real?