The Comics Canon
Content warning: Sexual assault, pedophilia On this episode, we welcome co-host, current Harley Quinn writer and former The Daily Show With Jon Stewart head writer Elliott Kalan for a discussion of the 1978 graphic novel A Contract With God, written and illustrated by Will Eisner! This collection of standalone stories, centered around a fictional tenement building in the Bronx, finds Eisner (perhaps best known as the creator of ) drawing on his own life to examine the relationship between man and God and the Jewish-American experience in 1930s New York. Can Frimme Hersh, filled with grief...
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Content warning: Gun violence, including against children Our decade-by-decade miniseries on the X-Men, All My Xs, reaches the 80s with a look at the 1982 standalone graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills, by Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson, published by Marvel Comics! The X-Men have faced evil mutants, sinister aliens and even a sentient island, but they may be up against their toughest opponent yet: a white-haired televangelist! The Reverend William Stryker doesn’t just preach hatred of mutants to his millions of followers – he also employs a paramilitary strike force known as the...
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All My Xs, our decade-by-decade miniseries on Marvel’s merry mutant franchise, rolls into the 1970s with a look at The Phoenix Saga from X-Men #101, 104-105 and 107-108, published by Marvel Comics! Superstar writer Chris Claremont starts coming into his own in these issues, which introduce the Phoenix, reestablish Magneto as the X-Men’s primary big bad, and inject a healthy dose of space opera (and more than a few Star Trek shoutouts) into this once-moribund title! And if that weren’t enough, artist extraordinaire Dave Cockrum hands the book off to blockbuster artist John Byrne,...
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In this episode, we kick off All My Xs, a decade-by-decade look at everyone’s favorite Marvel mutants, the X-Men! First up, it’s the swingin’ 60s – 1969, to be exact, and X-Men #57-61, by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams, published by Marvel Comics! Adams’s creative and energetic artwork enlivens these issues, in which Scott Summers’ brother, Alex, gets a cool costume to go with his new codename, Havok, and Larry Trask revives his late father’s mutant-hunting robots, the Sentinels! And before they can catch their breath, the X-Men find themselves facing off against the energy-draining...
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Galactus makes his big-screen debut this week in Fantastic Four: First Steps*, which means it’s the perfect opportunity to discuss his second-ever comics appearances in The Mighty Thor – specifically, issues #160-162 and 168-169, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, published by Marvel Comics! (For his comics debut, we humbly direct you to ) First, it’s the war to settle the score, the brawl to end it all, as the Devourer of Worlds squares off against none other than Ego the Living Planet! And the Son of Odin and the Rigellian robot known as the Recorder are caught in the middle! It’s classic...
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On this episode, the upcoming Superman movie has us in a Justice League frame of mind, which is as good an excuse as any to discuss the classic Tower of Babel storyline, as collected in JLA #43-46 by Mark Waid, Howard Porter and Steve Scott, and JLA Secret Files #3, by Dan Curtis Johnson and Pablo Raimondi, published by DC Comics! Batman’s longtime nemesis Ra’s al Ghul unleashes a plan to cull the world’s population, and to ensure his success he proactively incapacitates the members of the Justice League! How does he do that? Funny you should ask! Turns out the Dark Knight Detective...
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On this episode, we’re getting ready for the July 11 big-screen debut of Krypto the Super-Dog in James Gunn’s Superman with a look at the Silver Age origins of Krypto and his fellow members of the Legion of Super-Pets, as collected in Tails of the Super-Pets, published by DC Comics! First, Superboy is reacquainted with his childhood pet and uses him to gaslight Lana Lang in “The Super-Dog From Krypton!” Then, Superbaby, the Toddler of Steel, butts heads with another denizen of his former homeworld in “The Super Monkey From Krypton!” Not to be outdone, Supergirl gets in on the...
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On this episode, we discuss a Swamp Thing story that we’re surprised didn’t qualify for our recently wrapped We’re With the Banned miniseries on banned and challenged comics -- Rite of Spring from Saga of the Swamp Thing #34, as well as its sequel, Windfall from Saga of the Swamp Thing #43, by Alan Moore and various artists, published by DC Comics! First up, Abigail Cable finally professes her love for our sentient vegetable man. And in lieu of sexytimes, he offers her communion via a bite of one of the tubers growing on his body, sending her on a consciousness-altering trip that shows...
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We’re With the Banned, our miniseries on banned and challenged graphic novels, concludes (at least for now) with a stop at Daniel Clowes’ Ice Haven, a “narraglyphic picto-assemblage” published by Pantheon Books! A collection of comic strips covering a variety of styles and perspectives, this peek behind the curtain of suburban America introduces us to an absorbing cast of characters including bitter would-be poet Random Wilder, lovesick teen Violet Van Der Platz, her young stepbrother Charles, clueless detective Joe Ames, aspiring writer Vida Wentz, and … (ahem!) comic book critic...
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We’re afraid you’ll have to wait another week for our episode on Daniel Clowes’ Ice Haven. But that doesn’t mean you’ll have to wait a whole week to hear Curt and Kevin talk at length about comics. In fact, you can hear them render judgment on some fun comic-book stories of yesteryear this very day! Confused? Kevin’s here to explain.
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On this episode, we welcome The Flop House podcast co-host, current Harley Quinn writer and former The Daily Show With Jon Stewart head writer Elliott Kalan for a discussion of the 1978 graphic novel A Contract With God, written and illustrated by Will Eisner!
This collection of standalone stories, centered around a fictional tenement building in the Bronx, finds Eisner (perhaps best known as the creator of The Spirit) drawing on his own life to examine the relationship between man and God and the Jewish-American experience in 1930s New York.
Can Frimme Hersh, filled with grief and rage following the death of his adopted daughter, draft an unbreakable compact with the Almighty? And can this groundbreaking work enter into a legally binding covenant with that higher authority known as … The Comics Canon?
In This Episode:
· Harley Quinn Vol. 1: Destructive Comics
· Sadie Mouse Wrecks the House
· Joke Farming: How to Write Comedy and Other Nonsense
Join us in two weeks as All My Xs resumes with a look at Wolverine: Weapon X by Barry Windsor-Smith!
Until then:
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