Episode 296: Pop Culture and Wrestlemania Predictions

Hey guys, its Adam.  I haven’t posted a show in a few weeks.  Brian and Shaka came over to watch Wrestlemania and we recorded, so here is a raw/uncut discussion on random pop culture stuff and our predictions for Wrestlemania.

Runtime 1 hour 40 minutes 29 seconds

 

Episode 296: Pop Culture and Wrestlemania Pridictions

Comic Reviews: Hair Shirt & Black Paths

Hair Shirt

There is a saying that “no one gets out of life alive”.  I have long believed that there is a corollary to that saying and that would be “no one grows up without getting messed up.”   We all come out of our teenage years with emotional baggage that needs to be dealt with in our early twenties before we are ready to pass on to adult hood.  Hair Shirt is a new graphic novel by Eisner Award-winning artist Patrick McEown that follows the course of two young college students as they try to reconnect and rekindle a childhood romance.

John is a college art student coming to grips with a bad break up who is plagued by terrible dreams (mostly involving a dog with a human face) that are a manifestation of his long-ignored personal problems.  Naomi, on the other hand, at first seems to have shed the emotional baggage thrust on her by an abusive, alcoholic father and a brother who can only be described as sexually abusive but as the story progresses both we and her come realize that even though she has seemly pushed through her experiences the past will not let go of her that easily and are causing her to almost subconsciously sabotage relationships to protect her from further hurt.

Reading this book my mind kept thinking that if this were a movie instead of a graphic novel the only words to describe it would be “indy” and “bleak”.  There is no happiness in these characters’ lives, there is no joy, there is no light; there is only the business of living hopeless lives.  Despite the darkness, McEown gives us and the characters a faint, silvery ray of hope off in the distance in that both characters realize that they need to confront their past before they can move forward.

Can John and Naomi face their past and come back together, or at least move forward with their lives?  The book never says but I don’t think that is what McEown is striving for.  Life rarely has nice, neat, happy endings and like this book sometimes all we can do is recognize we need help and that can be victory enough for us for now.

Over a year ago our webmaster Adam’s love of indy comics inspired me to take my own journey on seldom-travelled roads and this book makes me glad I did.  Books like Hair Shirt are the reason I read comics now.

Black Paths

Time for a quick history lesson.  During WWI Italy signed the Treaty of London which promised to give them the Austrian Littoral (which now forms parts of Italy, Croatia, and Slovenia) but NOT the city of Fiume.  Italian writer Gabriele D’Annunzio marched into the city with 2600 Italian troops in late 1919 and in 1920 he declared the city of Fiume an independent state with himself as the dictator.  This independent state lasted for four very uncertain years until D’Annunzio was ousted from power and the city was annexed into Italy and it is during this period of history that writer/artist David B sets his latest work Black Paths.

The set up for the story is very simple: writer/soldier Lauriano and his band of soldiers are hanging out in ravaged port city of Fiume and one day he meets and falls in love with a beautiful singer named Mina.  Sensing that he has finally found what he is looking for in life he decides to “get the band back together” and stage an art heist that will set him up for the new life he hopes to have with her.  But how can he succeed when everywhere he turns there are people driven mad by war?  I can’t really say whether he succeeds or not without spoiling it for you but let’s just say that there are some books where the ride to the end is so good who cares what the ending is?

French small press artist David B has taken story elements from World War 2-set spy thrillers such as Casablanca, The Third Man, and mixed it with a kind of pulp-art/primitive wood carving style that gives the story a setting and sense of time all its own and the two mesh wonderfully.  The only problem I have with this book is I am going to now have the find the money to purchase the English translations of his other works.

Announcement: Comics Elimination Challenge 2013 - Predict It!

No show posting this week, but we have the Dollar Bin Comics Madness Elimination Challenge 2013 up and ready for your predictions:  Comics Madness Elimination 2013

The challenge is to predict how we, on the Dollar Bin podcast will vote the winners of the match-ups.  I went ahead and did 128.  The deadline to get your predictions in is April  16 and we’ll start posting each round’s results over the next few weeks starting on April 17.  Highest score wins a Dollar Bin Prize package.  I’ll announce the contents of the prize package shortly.

Feel free to listen to last year’s challenge shows to get some ideas, or you could ask last year’s winner, Matthew Guy

Its not to bad of a sign up.  You don’t get any junk from the site.  It took me a while just to find it again from last year.

Press Release: JAMES ASMUS and TOM FOWLER Bring on QUANTUM AND WOODY #1 in July!

On July 10th, a new era begins for the world’s worst superhero team in Quantum and Woody #1!

 

Valiant is proud to announce that award-winning writer James Asmus (Gambit, Thief of Thieves, Captain America & Bucky) and acclaimed artist Tom Fowler (Venom, Hulk: Season One) are bringing Valiant’s first full-on superhero team back to the Valiant Universe with an all-new ongoing series beginning on July 10th in Quantum and Woody #1!

 

Once upon a time, Eric and Woody Henderson were inseparable. Adopted brothers. Best friends. Brilliant minds. Years later, they are estranged siblings, petty rivals, and washed-up failures. But when their father’s murder leads them into the throes of a life-altering scientific accident, Eric and Woody will find themselves with a whole new purpose – and a perfectly legitimate reason to wear costumes and fight crime. Go big or go home, folks! Quantum and Woody are coming! And the action-packed, zeitgeist-shredding exploitation stunt comic you demanded is here at last. 

 

(And, yes, there will be a goat too. Eventually.)

 

“Quantum and Woody are one of the most beloved superhero duos in comics. There’s a rich history to draw on here and we have some very exciting things on deck for Quantum and Woody in 2013 and beyond,” said Valiant Executive Editor Warren Simons.

 

“Since the day X-O Manowar #1 hit shelves, everywhere we’ve turned, fans have been demanding that Quantum and Woody step back into the spotlight,” said Quantum and Woody Editor Jody LeHeup. “James, Tom and Jordie are delivering a smart, heart-filled take on the team that will be central to the new Valiant Universe, and one that honors the spirit and bravado of what came before.”

 

Launched by Christopher Priest and M.D. Bright for Acclaim Entertainment’s rebooted Valiant Universe in 1997, Quantum and Woody became one of the most beloved independent superhero titles of the decade, spawning a rabid and loyal following that endures to this day. Most recently, Valiant Entertainment re-issued the entirety of the original series for the first time digitally via comiXology. 

“In all of comics, there’s no other book that mixed style and substance quite like Quantum and Woody. I was willing to literally kill someone for the chance to write the relaunch for the new Valiant Universe. I might have. Those first days after I got the call are a blur. But Quantum and Woody isn’t (just) a superhero book – it’s action-comedy, it’s family drama, it’s a boys-meet-goat tale that tugs at the heartstrings,” said writer James Asmus.

 

On July 10th, the Valiant Universe’s most infamous duo enter the fray with writer James Asmus, artist Tom Fowler and colorist Jordie Bellaire in Quantum and Woody #1 – featuring a standard cover by Ryan Sook, a Pullbox Exclusive Variant by Marcos Martin for customers who pre-order with the their local retailer, an incentive variant by Andrew Robinson, and an interactive QR Voice Variant by Tom Fowler (with real talking goat action)!

 

For more information of Quantum and Woody and the rest of the Valiant Universe, visit Valiant on Facebook, on Twitter, and at ValiantUniverse.com.

 

QUANTUM & WOODY #1

Written by JAMES ASMUS

Art by TOM FOWLER

Cover by RYAN SOOK

Pullbox Exclusive Variant by MARCOS MARTIN

Variant Cover by ANDREW ROBINSON

QR Voice Variant by TOM FOWLER

$3.99/T+/32 pgs.
ON SALE JULY 10th!

HeroesCon 2012: The Activity Panel

Episode 295: Borderlands' Geek Trivia Night 3-12

Again, Adam and Shawn venture out into the cold unknown to test their skill at being true geeks and once again they (thankfully) fail.  After winning the first Borderlands’ Geek Trivia Night ever, they now claw and bleed to simply avoid last place.

Runtime 22 minutes 20 seconds

Episode 295: Borderlands' Geek Trivia Night 3-12