My comic book podcast.
I’m thankful for a lot of things this year, not least of which is the great support my family’s had for this podcast. Thanks, guys — I know it’s a PitA sometimes.
Lots of comics this week, which I barely made it through with both the holiday, visiting family, and my desperate NaNoWriMo efforts. Interestingly, a lot of noteworthy covers this week, too, for good and ill.
Leading up to Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for all the excellent comics I found in my pull box this week. Yeah, there were a few clunkers, but it was overall a good time reading through these.
Listen to the podcast with the play button at the bottom of the post.
Enjoy!
Despite the ongoing saga of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), I’ve carved out some of my precious weekend to present you with … yet another DDTC Podcast!
Winter is (effectively) here, which means sometimes delays in getting to my Local Comic Book Store. Still, I managed to pick up my pull list and read it in plenty of time (hours, at least) for the podcast … WHEREIN we highlight some pretty good stuff that came out this week, some excellent titles to hop onto right now, a cover with women who aren’t about to fall out of their costumes. Also, I wax lyrical the 200th issue of Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo. Go, Stan, go!
The podcast link’s down at the bottom of the post. Enjoy!
See you next week!
Another week, another bucket o’ comic books to review. Lots of good news for Marvel, ratings-wise; not so good for the end of the second month of DC’s New 52. But we get a video to review as well, so that should be fun.
Comic book covers galore … (hover over them for the ratings):
I neglected to mention that Jessica Jones, in Alias above, is the character that Bendis has brought in (along with Luke Cage) into his long run on the various Avengers titles. Not quite as good as in the original, but, then, she’s not the focus of the books.
Big, big week in terms of number of comics, and short, short week in terms of my time being able to read them. But I managed to plow through, in service of you, my several listeners. Some great stuff, and not so great stuff, including a passel of Issue 2s from DC, the end of both “Fear Itself” and “Uncanny X-Men” from Marvel.
By the way, I misspoke in the podcast — Avengers Prime was a follow-up series to the “Seige” arc in the Marvel Universe, which followed up the “Dark Reign” arc that I cited. These cross-over events get a bit tiring to keep straight.
Another week, another comic book review podcast. This outing we get some good and some bad, as usual, plus some Questionable Content.
In post-podcast reading, I discover that JLA: Age of Wonder was originally published as a two-part comic in 2003. Which explains why it’s showing up in a DC age that’s anything but.
Lucky Thirteen! We touch on some continuing books and some new titles out this week.
As always, I welcome recommendations for new titles to try out or review.
UPDATE: I realized, after I had the podcast put to bed, that I hadn’t explained really why I thought Action Comics #2 is the best cover for the week. It’s certainly not a Big Action (so to speak) cover, but it has a restrained fury, a menace, that works on a number of levels — the menace of guns on Clark, and the observers in the window, and the restraints and headgear, but also the menace of this alien powerhouse, barely restrained but threatening possible bloody violence on his captors. It captures some of what Morrison’s trying to bring to the Superman mythos quite nicely.
This was a long one, probably mostly because there were so many good or key comics out I wanted to discuss. We get the wrap-up of the New 52 premieres, a lot of problems with inkers and colorists, a great kid’s book (Possessions), and a remarkable new/old Graphic Novel, out just this week.
Here are the covers:
Top-rated titles this week:
(No New 52, ahem.)
Another block of weekly comic reviews, for your listening pleasure. This week, we take on more of Marvel’s “Fear Itself,” “Schism,” but, more importantly, a big week in the DC “New 52” extravaganza.
Covers are shown below (and you can hover over them and see my ratings out-of-five-stars).
For those who are wondering what all the kerfuffle is about on Catwoman and Red Hood and the Outsiders, you can look here for a great article all about it by Laura Hudson. It includes a variety of illustrations from the actual comics in question, which may or may not be safe for work.
Issue 10! Be sure and buy all the alternative covers!
This episode we talk about more DCnU New 52 Issue 1s, what DC has done to two of the most enjoyable female characters in the DCU and (unfortunately) why, and a graphic novel of a comic I am far too late in the game in following: Morning Glories.
Also … WTF happened to the Batwoman #1 on my pull list?! Unhappy …
This week, we talk about the next wave of DCnU titles debuting, get a chunk of Dynamite action, and talk about Matt Wagner’s old “Trinity” series. There were a lot of comics I liked a lot this week, but nothing new that was amazing. (Though I still managed to fill 21 minutes of podcast, eek!)
If there’s a comic you think I should be reading, or that you want to hear a review about, let me know.
If you have suggestions for changes in format — longer bits on fewer comics, for example — let me know that, too!
Excelsior!
It’s the Labor Day Comic Books podcast that everyone’s been waiting for, huzzah! This week we look at the changing of the guard at DC, the final issue of Flashpoint that Changes Everything Forever (sh’yeah), and the first issue of Justice League. Also some Marvel X.1 issue, the end of Greg Pak’s run on Incredible Hulk(s), the beginning of Warren Ellis on Secret Avengers, and some shiny Serenity goodness.
See you next week!
Another podcast in the can. This week, more comics bidding farewell before the glowing red wall of the DCnU wipes them out, plus a bit of Gronk, some Girl Genius, and a new podcast award for Cover of the Week.
Now with Special Captioning of Covers!
Thanks again to my family for putting up with having their Sunday afternoons and/or evenings interrupted with this stuff.
Now with more comics reviewed than ever before! Yes, 17 comics in 16 minutes 40 seconds. Zowee!
This week’s podcast features a look at some farewell issues of DC comics (before the DCnU reboot in a few weeks), some Fear Itself, plus the Worst Comic of the Week, the Best, and some “Cleopatra in Spaaaace!” action.
I tried something new this week, and instead of spending a bunch of time scripting stuff up before the podcast, I put sticky notes on the comic covers and wrote up my impressions post-reading. It worked okay, except for my awful handwriting and the poor interaction between sticky note stuckum and the covers. I’ll continue to refine my methodology.
Many thanks once again to my family for their support of this and for making room for me to do it.
And another one in the can! Some Fear Itself, some farewells to some favorites, a bit of Charles Vess, and a shout-out to DC Women Kicking Ass.
Also, I mistakenly call Jessica Jones “Jessica Smith.” She’s going to hurt me. (There, I fixed it. If not in the most professionally slick fashion.)
UPDATE (21 Aug.): Apparently this one didn’t get correctly uploaded/categorized, so folks who are pulling it down from places other than my blog didn’t see it for a week. Sorry about that.
Ran a bit under-time this week — just under 13 minutes. I thought I was going to go over, honestly, and had a couple of outs noted. We continue to learn the timing.
Excelsior!
And back for another big week. Several issue #1s, a final issue, a broad mix of comic book companies, and a bit of Eisner Award goodness. The player is at the bottom of the post, after the covers.
Three time’s a charm, and perhaps even a habit. I got my new comic book reviews podcast done up today, and within spitting distance of my 15 minute target. I’ll be following up after I post this to see if all the RSS and iTunes subscription options are working. As always, this podcast is also visible on its own page under the Podcasts tab at the top of the blog. The player on this post is at the bottom of the post.
Comics for this week:
I’m continuing to work on the podcast process, both becoming familiar with Audacity and how to line up the music at the beginning and end of the cast, as well as sound levels and all that, and with how I script things. The prep work for the podcast is taking me longer than I’d expected. I eventually think I should be able to ad lib things, but for the moment, I’m doing detailed outlining of what I want to say about each ish — which, really, almost makes me wonder why I’m not actually doing blog posts about them. 🙂
The post-processing, too, is taking a bit of time — grabbing and uploading and properly formatting the images. That can be made a scosh more time-efficient, but not a lot.
One thing I have noticed about doing the podcast is that it has me focusing more on the comics I read each week, with a critical eye, and gets them read more quickly.
Working on process.
Well, I can now officially call this a weeky podcast because I’ve done two, a week apart. Three’s a charm!
I ran a bit long this week — a bit over 19 minutes rather than the target 15. The focus was the new DC Universe (DCnU) reboot, based on the “DC Comics: The New 52” preview that came out this past week. My picks and pans follow, as well as my sage counsel on the whole reboot (poorly handled, lots of angst, but this, too, shall pass — assuming DC Comics survives).
I also get in a plug for Tiny Titans, which just won an Eisner at this week’s San Diego Comic-Con.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy. The player for the podcast (and a download link) can be found at the bottom of the post, and, long-range, up at the top menu under Podcasts. My next job is to get this thing showing up in iTunes, too.
And now, for De … some pictures. 🙂
Hey, Kids! Comics!
I finally got around to doing the inaugural DDtC podcast this afternoon. You can get to it through this link, or use the little player at the bottom of the post.
Comics reviewed include:
As an inaugural effort, it took me about 4 hours to do it all (for a 15 minute podcast), which is far too long to sustain … but a big amount of that was learning curve: getting used to Audacity, figuring out how to mix in the music I’d selected (not sure I’m doing that in the most efficient fashion), figuring out how to edit out some gaps, figuring out how to export and the tags to use, playing around with PowerPress, etc.
I also did a lot of prep on the material, not sure I’d be able to do it off the cuff for 15 minutes. As it turned out, I blssted through the prepped stuff in 10 minutes, leaving me to vamp with some other comics I’d pulled (fortunately!) for another 4.
I’m pretty sure I can cut the prep down substantially in the future, if I continue.
But, then, the question is: should I continue? What sayest thou, readers?
(Feedback both on the content and on the podcast tech/process/product itself welcome.)
