Special Edition Podcast
Show Notes
Thanks to our awesome Patrons, we’re proud to present another Booksplode!
This month, Josh Flanagan and Conor Kilpatrick take a look at…
Planetary: Book One by Warren Ellis, John Cassaday, Phil Jimenez, Andy Lanning, Laura Martin, David Baron, Ryan Cline, Ali Fuchs, Michael Heisler, & Bill O’Neil!
What’s a Booksplode? It’s a bi-monthly special edition show in which we take a look at a single graphic novel or collected edition, something we really just don’t have time to do on the regular show.
Running Time: 00:36:00
Music:
“All Around the World”
Oasis
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Love Planetary! This was fun to back. Thanks guys!
Oh man. I am happy to hear it’s still good. I read this book about 7 years ago as I got back into comics and thought MY GOD, THIS IS FUN AND SMART AND GOOD and haven’t gone back to it so … I had some concern that PAST me was different and uninformed. Glad to hear it holds up!! You’ve convinced me to reread it!
For a while Grant Morrison and Warren Ellis were the only writers I was reading (especially in this period). I was a huge Warren Ellis fan back in the day, and while I still read him (I’m current on The Wild Storm) it does feel different from these old classic Ellis creations. That said Planetary came out (as you mention) in what was for me a huge drought of comics that would hold my interest. So it was easy for it to make a huge impression on me.
I love Planetary. Its a toss up which I look back on more fondly Planetary or Transmetropolitan. Transmetropolitan felt like the more interesting work at the time, but Planetary has a lot to say as well (as a meta commentary on the nature of popular fiction). Also Planetary is just a fun book to revisit.
I remember being really surprised and genuinely a bit emotional about the final issue of Planetary coming out. There was something attractive about that story still being out there going on, and while there was no way that last issue could satisfy the build up I remember really liking elements of it as a conclusion for fans.
I remember John Cassaday being my favorite comic artist for a long time based mostly on his performance in this book. I agree something has changed over time with his style and I wonder what exactly brought on the change in style. Some of those pages are amazing in Planetary. I remember at the time it was part of the sales pitch for Planetary in the advertising that the book would show you strange and wonderful vistas. I think it delivered in that respect.
The Stormwatch/Authority stuff I really enjoyed at the time, but as time has gone on I have found that my appreciation for it has fallen off a bit. It’s a bit more one note in what it’s trying to say. It’s still really pretty to look at Hitch’s art though. I dropped Authority as soon as Warren Ellis left the book. I just didn’t like the Millar/Quitely take on the series. It quickly fell flat for me. I never bothered to read any of the follow ups since.
I feel like a comparable read to Planetary would be Grant Morrison’s Invisibles, which overlapped with this book’s release around the turn of the century. They feel of the same time. Though Morrison’s Invisibles is quite a dense read (especially the Arcadia arc) and that omnibus must weigh a ton since the comic ran for about 60 issues. Certainly not as breezy a reread as Planetary. I liked it a lot and even I have trouble initiating a reread of The Invisibles. Though if anyone reading liked Morrison’s themes he had running from Animal Man to Doom Patrol to Flex Mentallo to the Filth … then The Invisibles is his opus in that respect.
A booksplode I can get behind. Love Planetary. I use to pick up old issues in the quarter bins at my local shop. (Those were the days.) And then added it to my monthly pull list (although it was hardly monthly). And then did something rare if ever do, bought the complete omnibus years ago.