The Comics Canon
One of our co-hosts is quarantined at home, so we’ve decided to postpone our next proper episode until we can be together in person! Meanwhile, Curt surprises Kevin with a pop quiz on quotes from books we’ve covered on the podcast. How good is Kevin’s recall? (Spoiler: It’s bad! Very, very bad!)
info_outline Episode 208: Return of The Dark Knight Returns Part 2The Comics Canon
Content warning (death by suicide) Our reexamination of Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns continues! How good IS this story, really? Will things go differently than they did in our fourth episode way back in 2016, allowing this universally acclaimed 1986 miniseries to avoid nuclear winter and score a ticket to that David Endocrine Show studio audience known as ... The Comics Canon? In This Episode: · The only Bartleby the Scrivener reference you’ll hear in a comics podcast this week! ...
info_outline Episode 207: Return of The Dark Knight Returns Part 1The Comics Canon
Explicit (a few swears scattered throughout) and content warning (brief mentions of death by suicide and attempted sexual assault) This isn’t a podcast—it’s an operating table, and we’re the surgeons! This time, we revisit one of our most controversial episodes (okay, pretty much our only “controversial” episode) with the first installment of a two-part, in-depth reexamination of Frank Miller’s 1986 landmark miniseries Batman: The Dark Knight Returns! Does this paradigm-shifting, game-changing series hold up to scrutiny nearly 40 years since its publication? And what are its...
info_outline Episode 206: Wolverine (1982)The Comics Canon
On this episode, it’s the return of “Miller March,” featuring a month of Frank Miller comics! First up is the 1982 miniseries Wolverine by Chris Claremont and the aforementioned Mr. Miller, published by Marvel Comics! The very first comic series to feature Wolverine’s name in the title takes Logan to Japan, where his lady love Mariko has entered into an abusive marriage arranged by her father, the crime lord Shingen. His heart broken by Mariko, humiliated by Shingen, Logan spirals into a dark night of the soul as he’s pursued by the deadly ninja clan known as the Hand! Will...
info_outline Episode 205: Lone Wolf and Cub Vol. 1 – The Assassin’s RoadThe Comics Canon
On this episode, we take a long-overdue look at one of the most influential manga of the last 50 years: Lone Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima! Specifically, selected stories from Vol. 1: The Assassin’s Road, as published by Dark Horse Manga! Who is this taciturn assassin known as Lone Wolf and Cub? Why does he push his young son across feudal Japan in a wooden baby carriage with a banner that reads “Son for Hire, Sword for Hire?” How did he get to be such a proficient killing machine? And can father and son survive their harrowing journey along that Road to Perdition...
info_outline Episode 204: Hulk vs. Thing – The Last Round?The Comics Canon
Our two-part look at Hulk/Thing fights wraps up with a look at one of the twosome’s more recent titanic tussles in Fantastic Four Vol. 6, issues 12 and 13, by Dan Slott and Sean Izaakse, published by Marvel Comics! But first, because this episode drops on Valentine’s Day, we discuss the wedding of Ben Grimm and Alicia Masters in Fantastic Four Vol. 6 issue 5, most notably the story “4-Minute Warning” by Dan Slott and Aaron Kuder! Then it’s time for the main event, as the Immortal Hulk interrupts Ben and Alicia’s honeymoon, with a little help from Alicia’s father, the...
info_outline Episode 203: Hulk vs. Thing, Rounds 1 and 2The Comics Canon
In this episode, IT’S CLOBBERIN’ TIME as we kick off a two-part look at one of Marvel Comics’ most storied traditions: epic slugfests between the Hulk and the Thing! Specifically, the first two face-offs between these fearsome foes in Fantastic Four #12 and #25-26, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby! First, everyone’s on their worst behavior as General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross enlists the FF’s aid in subduing the Hulk, who’s accused of sabotaging a military experiment! Then, with his teammates sidelined, it’s up to Ben to stop the angry green goliath from rampaging across...
info_outline Episode 202: A Guest in the HouseThe Comics Canon
Content warning: Mentions of suicide; general gaslighting, psychological domestic abuse. In this episode, we look back at one of the best-reviewed books of 2023: A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll, published by First Second! Shy, awkward Abby is newly married to widowed dentist David and adjusting to domestic life with him and his pre-teen daughter Crystal. But David’s stories about his past wife, Sheila, don’t add up. And there’s more to Abby than meets the eye, as well – as becomes apparent when she strikes up a halting friendship with Sheila’s ghost! Can this gripping story...
info_outline One-Shot: The Comics Canon All-Stars 2024 (The Best of Our Second 100 Episodes)The Comics Canon
In this not-so-mini mini-episode, we look back on the last episodes, each ranking our 10 favorites. How many titles did we agree on? We also discuss Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the Transformers movies, the current state of the Big Two publishers, comic strips, some things we’d like to cover in the coming year, and a possible reconsideration of one of our most controversial decisions! Plus: Curt opens a present live on-air! Join us in two weeks as we resume our regular programming with a look at Emily Carroll’s A Guest in the House! Until then:! ! Hit us up on The Platform...
info_outline Episode 201: A Carl Barks Christmas (With Dan McCoy)The Comics Canon
Just in time for Christmas, Emmy-winning writer (and co-host of ) Dan McCoy joins us to unwrap a trio of Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories by the late, great Carl Barks! In “Only a Poor Old Man,” Uncle Scrooge’s first full-length adventure, everyone’s favorite spats-wearing billionaire fights to protect his fortune from the Beagle Boys in a rollicking heist tale! In “Luck of the North,” Donald drags his nephews to rescue his insufferable cousin Gladstone Gander in a madcap, Tintin-esque adventure. And in “A Christmas for Shacktown,” Donald, Daisy and the boys...
info_outlineIn this episode, Curt and Kevin prepare for the Feb. 15 debut of The Umbrella Academy on Netflix with a look at The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, published by Dark Horse Comics!
Brimming with inventive energy, this engaging miniseries follows a group of extraordinary children—each born to women showing no signs of pregnancy on the same night—adopted by inventor Sir Reginald Hargreeves, who grooms them to save the world. Decades later, these superpowered siblings, each haunted by physical or emotional traumas, come back together to bury their distant, demanding “father.” But they’re soon thrust into action against an old foe, as well as one of their own: their sister Vanya, now leader of an orchestra of madmen and murderesses bent on destroying the world!
Can this fractured family overcome their conflicting feelings for each other in time to avert Armageddon? And can they matriculate into that institution of higher learning known as … The Comics Canon?
Things Discussed in This Episode:
- Spoiler warning
- Curt’s mini-review of Aquaman
- Collider’s Allison Keene likes Netflix’s Umbrella Academy
- The Feb. 15 debut of Doom Patrol on DC Universe
- Darth Plageuis the Wise
- Grimjack
- Doom Patrol: Crawling From the Wreckage
- Runaways: Find Your Way Home and Best Friends Forever
- Doom Patrol: Brick by Brick
- Murder Falcon
- Tenacious D: The Metal
Join us in two weeks as we begin preparations for the March 8 debut of Captain Marvel with a look at the first Marvel Comics avenger to go by that name—specifically, Captain Marvel (1968) #27-33 by Jim Starlin!
Until then, don’t forget our snazzy Comics Canon merchandise and the Benoda! series of typefaces by our friends at Category 4!
Last but not least, please be so kind as to rate us on iTunes, send us an email, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook, and we may read your comments in an upcoming episode. And as always, thanks for listening!