Pick of the Week Podcast
Show Notes
No one could predict what the Pick would be, but it gets clearer during the discussion. Will a bulldog snore? Will the Old Man genre burn itself out? Will the show withstand 3 whole entries in the War Corner? All these answers and more in this week’s show!
Running Time: 01:19:53
Pick of the Week:
00:02:33 – Daredevil #1
Comics:
00:14:49 – United States vs. Murder, Inc. #6
00:19:44 – Old Man Quill #1
00:25:16 – Red Sonja #1
00:29:22 – Uncanny X-Men #11
00:34:48 – Batman #64
00:41:07 – Gunhawks #1
00:42:49 – Green Arrow #49
War Corner:
00:44:54 – Archie 1941 #5
00:47:29 – James Bond: Origin #5
00:48:57 – DIE #3
Patron Pick:
00:53:15 – The Girl in the Bay #1
Patron Thanks:
01:01:06 – Chris Conine
01:02:40 – Ark Wang
01:03:21 – Austyn Riley
01:04:34 – Jared Hiller
Audience Question:
01:06:52 – Wes wants to know what the last great Vertigo series was. And we go on and on.
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Music:
“Sunshine Rock”
Bob Mould
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It’s getting to be like newscasters in a communist country.
They”re trying to report the news but can’t actually criticize the dictator because they fear his wrath.
A lot of dancing around that this run just isn’t working.
You didn’t like the book. It’s ok to not like it.
I don’t think you have dropped off The Seeds – David Aja series. I’m trade waiting it and only 2 issues of a 4 issue mini have come out so far.
Enjoyed the Vertigo conversation. I have lots of them on my ‘to read’ list as Scalped / DMZ is my era. Currently backtracking and reading a Preacher trade every 3 months. Love it!
I also greatly enjoyed the Vertigo conversation. Josh and Conor have discussed this many times before but they always touch on new points, and I learn a lot. Thank you Wes, for asking your question
I was one of the Patrons pushing for the Patron Pick so I have a few thoughts. And I say this despite not having read it yet. The Girl in the Bay may be total crap or a total masterpiece, I don’t know, but I think you’re undervaluing Dematteis somewhat. His working with Karen Berger is a bigger deal than you’re suggesting, considering he writes the kind of comics that were the bread and butter of early Vertigo. Along with scripting JLI, Dematteis had a fairly notable Spider-man run (Kraven’s Last Hunt, anyone?) and was an important name in terms of 80s and 90s creator-owned comics for both Marvel (Epic) and DC (Vertigo and Paradox) with titles like Moonshadow and Brooklyn Dreams.
I don’t think he ever got the respect he deserves for being, essentially, the American answer to the British Invasion of the ’80s. In the early years of Vertigo, he was a mainstay for the imprint with a bunch of different mini and limited series to his name (The Last Ones, Seekers Into Mystery) and worked closely with Karen Berger on these books, apparently. Like Pete Townshend, he was a follower of Maher Baba and much of his work without Giffen was both pretty personal and full of mysticism and mostly Eastern spirituality. Not to say that everything he did was a smash hit but he has always been an interesting and fairly singular writer. Also worth checking out is his Dr Fate series from the early ’90s that was virtually a Vertigo book in all but name (I’ve never understood why stuff like it or Ostrander’s Spectre were never folded into Vertigo).
As I say all this, though, I actually don’t know if his stuff, even at its best, would appeal at all to you guys. It can get pretty esoteric. I’ve always found his stuff pretty interesting, though, and Brooklyn Dreams is flat out one of my all-time favourite comics.
Speaking of Vertigo, really cool discussion and I largely agree with everything said but I think you’re overlooking the same thing that Vertigo itself seems to be doing. When Vertigo started, they were not primarily about creator-owned comics but about doing “mature audience” takes on established DC characters or radical reinventions of them. It didn’t take too long for Preacher to come along but the earliest Vertigo titles were Sandman, Shade: The Changing Man, Doom Patrol, Animal Man, Sandman: Mystery Theatre, Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, Black Orchid and collections of notable ’80s runs like Moore’s Swamp Thing and Morrison’s runs on Animal Man and Doom Patrol.
Creator-owned comics took over Vertigo by the late ’90s and they released some of the all-time greatest comics ever during that period. With the massive rise of Image as a home to creator-owned comics and a number of smaller companies also going for similar models, Vertigo has indeed been left behind. To make Vertigo standout again, I would think the best thing they could do would be to go back to their original edict and release more stuff like the Sandman Universe comics (I’ve only read a bit so far but, man, the Dreaming is the most Vertigo-like comic in forever) and get top creators to do lengthy(ish) mature-readers runs on some of DC’s more out there characters; allowing them to make their mark on these characters without worrying about corporate-driven interference. Mind you, considering how much of a mess the whole Black Label thing has been (a mature-readers Batman comic contained, would you know, it mature-readers content – what a scandal!), I do wonder if this is even possible anymore.
This has to have more potential than Vertigo as an also-ran in creator-owned comics, surely?
PS. The fact I’m totally in on the whole Around Comics joke just makes me feel really, really old. So thanks for that.
Daredevil was good but something about it kept me from really liking it. I was hoping you guys would touch on whatever that is, but you came out liking it far more than i did, which is fine.
A day later, i think i have it. Do you remember how it ended? Do you care what happens next? Compared to other books where im looking forward to see where the story goes. Daredevil just didnt make me feel the same way, though i acknowledge its high quality.
I care.
That’s not really great reasoning for explaining what kept you from really liking it. The ending wasn’t hard to remember with what Matt did on accident and caring is subjective. I’m looking forward to what happens next with Matt recovering and dealing with what he did.
At first I read Conor’s reply merely as
“I care”
instead of
I care
and I laughed
It’s one of my favorite lines from STAR WARS and it just comes out reflexively at this point.
Old Man Quill was a boring disappointment but, sadly, I can’t say I’m surprised. It’s what I expected Old Man Hawkeye to be when that one was announced way back when, and which thankfully turned out to be pretty wonderful, so it seemed risky that they’d go back that well for OMQ. I was hopeful OM Quill would have the same nervy energy as OM Hawkeye but it did not. The tragedy of Quill’s dead family barely registered for me, and when the other Guardians showed up it just slipped back into that vaguely quippy, bickering mode that passes for characterization these days. Groot’s absence was supposed to be sad, I guess? I have no idea why. Maybe we’ll find out but I don’t care. Also, this takes place fifty or so years after the fall of Earth’s heroes, right? How is Rocket even still alive? I know, I know, comic books. Anyway, Old Man Hawkeye managed to find the perfect formula of tragedy, humour and pathos by very effectively mining the classic Thunderbolts stuff, Old Man Quill seems to be drawing from the more recent Bendis run which was not great as I recall and if Sacks had dug into the cosmic insanity of Abnett and Lanning’s Guardians – which, for second there, he seemed to be doing with the space church stuff – I wonder if it might have turned out a little more compelling than what we got. It was perfunctory and I kind of hope the excuse was that this was editorially mandated and not all on Sacks after the greatness of Old Man Hawkeye.
Wow, check out how Old Man I sound in that post.
I don’t know if either of you have read it, but I was curious for your thoughts on The Female Furies #1. I wouldn’t blame you for not reading it and after Mister Miracle, what a misfire by that creative team. I can’t believe how Darkseid was portrayed and just don’t buy what he did where it was out of character for me.
Have you guys been reading any of the Age of X-Man books?
What do you think of Magneto’s fabulous fur-lined half-cape?
So glad to see James Bond Origin make into War Corner. As much as I don’t want to actually know his origin, it’s a fantastic war book.