Pick of the Week Podcast
Show Notes
It’s a new epoch for our show! Hopefully it’s a short epoch, but here we are. There actually are some new comics out this week, and we talked about all of them. Yes, all of them. We brought our pal, James Viscardi, of comicbook.com, to have some fun, and help us speculate wildly on what the future of comics might hold, and answer some listener questions. You might also notice we went really, really long. Really long. And, oh yeah, there’s one more special guest to join us in our new Corner.
Running Time: 01:34:49
Pick of the Week:
00:02:59 – Five Years #9
Comics:
00:12:23 – Teen Titans GO! To Camp #6
00:17:04 – Sabrina the Teenage Witch #1
00:21:03 – Gen:Lock #14
Patron Pick:
00:25:43 – Batman: The Adventures Continue #1
Patron Thanks:
00:31:52 – Len Schmidt
00:34:55 – Karl Degre
00:36:31 – Chris Kabool
G.I. Joe Corner:
00:41:16 – “The Cobra Strikes” The M.A.S.S. Device, Pt. 1
Comics in the Time of COVID-19:
00:55:56 – The state of the comics industry and what might happen in the future; plus we answer related emails from Rashaad B., Andrew M. from Spain, Tony B. from San Diego, CA, and Dr. Chris Lewis from the UK.
News:
Please consider voting for Bill Sienkiewicz: Revolution, Vol. 1 for Best Collection in the Tripwire Awards!
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Music:
“Nowhere to Run”
Martha and the Vandellas
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Hey can we share ideas for new segments on the show? How about suggested runs to read. Reviews on Absolute editions? I want to see if i am the only one who digs the Batman year one Absolute. Any new thoughts on DC universe ? Favorite creators to follow?
Thanks, guys. You have no idea how comforting something like this is right now. Even if it’s a little different.
It is most likely true that The Adventures Continues was done to help cash in on the toy line, but that doesn’t mean it’s not in continuity with the show. The first arc of this comic with Lex makes it clear that it’s set after World’s Finest. Paul Dini said it was a semi-sequel to that story and Lex references what happened with the Joker from World’s Finest in the issue. In the EW interview, it was stated that this comic takes place before the events in the flashbacks from Return of the Joker which makes sense with Tim appearing later. Now in regards to ranking the portrayals of Lex Luthor, I will say that it’s subjective. However, the best live-action Lex is still Michael Rosenbaum for me. I don’t think it’s close honestly. Clancy Brown is the voice I hear though when it comes to the comics and is probably the best Lex overall.
1) You open with “Nowhere to Run to,” and I’m back in an APC on the streets of Saigon. Or in my parent’s car road-tripping to Florida – we played the “Good Morning Vietnam” soundtrack and Jimmy Buffet’s “Feeding Frenzy” live album on rotation. Good call on the music.
2) Really liked your discussion with Jim at the end of the episode. This is a big topic, and it was interesting hearing his take after listening to Christina Merkler of DCBS on 11 O’Clock Comics. Both discussions made it very clear that comics can’t go back to business as usual after this: a small collective of shops can’t decide how the entire industry operates, and one distributor with a monopoly on a sizeable aspect of the business is untenable. I thought Jim’s idea of the big 5 shops taking on a distribution role was an interesting one, and when you think geographically it’s not a bad idea: Midtown takes the NE, DCBS/In-Stock Trades takes the Midwest and South, Lone Star takes the SW, Mile High takes the Mountain area, and whoever is the big store on the west coast takes that area. Then small and mid-range stores arrange through their regional distributor. The three questions that come up are: 1) Would these stores be willing to take on the infrastructure upgrades necessary to do this; 2) who distributes to the distributors (I’m guessing the same way Diamond gets its inventory now); and 3) how do the comic publishers get out of their exclusive with Diamond (and more important, will this incident convince them tnat they need to)?
First of wanted to say thanks for doing the show in these trying times, I am working from home, and really appreciate having something to listen to.
On the digital vs print debate. I dont think you mentioned one big problem. If we continued putting out digital comics but not print, when print returned they would be 2-3 months behind digital permanently, or you would have to expect all print customers to buy 2-3 months worth of books in one week (and when they didnt have the cash to it would put the stores out of buisnes that just fronted all the money), either of these i believe would be terrible.
I read print (I have the collector mentality) and hate not having comics for a few months, but truthfully believe thats the best option.
Lastly, I agree diamond isn’t good for the industry but dont know what is the answer.
It’s late, but I’m pretty sure I did mention that. Eventually.
Thanks for answering my question! Honestly, when I wrote that a few weeks ago, it didn’t occur to me that digital distribution would stop as well. I just learned a lot about the business from the last segment of the show, so thanks for that. I’ve been feeling pretty glum about it all lately (enough to finally get a ‘Nothing Make Sense’ tee), and was happy to hear you all have a not entirely negative feeling about the future of comics.
am i the only one who really liked greg pak and aaron kuders action comics run?
Nope. We enjoyed Bearded Superman and talked about him a lot on the show.
Chas!