Podcast - Episode 103: Black Panther, The Complete Collection vol. 1 by Christopher Priest

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Week three of the summer book club and we read the first volume of Christopher Priest's run on Black Panther. Seventeen issues of Everett Ross is whole lot of Everett Ross.

Here we have T'Challa with his...um...underage(?!) sex partners in waiting.

Sensibly dressed for their jobs of protecting the king of their nation. But at least they are ready to go if, at any time, T'Challa decides to sleep with one of them/make them his wife. Yuck.

This page here will give you an idea of why it took us so long to get through this book:

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Black Panther's other super power: talking really, really, really fast.

Here he does it again, to Captain America:

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Steve: "Sorry, friend. I missed everything you said after 'I have known...'"

And finally, here is that brutal Falcon costume design:

Here's the link to the Sept. 2017 Men's Journal feature on Jeremy Renner. It provided me with a lot of laughs.

But let's leave off with this promo image for Marvel 1,000,000 B.C. of Ghost Rider riding on a flaming mammoth, shall we?

Yesssssss.

Actually, let's leave with this photo of Armie Hammer from a Sept. 2017 Vanity Fair's style portfolio:

How dare you, sir?

Podcast - Episode 100: Spider-Man: Homecoming

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100 episodes!!!

First of all, thank you so much to everyone who has listened to the podcast. We really appreciate it. It's been fun to do and I'm very glad Dave talked me into it a little over two years ago. It gave me a much needed creative outlet.

We saw Spider-Man: Homecoming (of course) and we talk all about it for the last half hour or so of the episode, so if you haven't seen the movie yet, you might want to turn off the episode before that. It's full of spoilers.

The other thing that we do in this episode (besides bring back the Renner Report) is announce the line-up for this year's book club, which will start with the next episode. Here is the full line-up:

  • July 19 - Trinity by Matt Wagner (DC)
  • July 26 - Sexcastle by Kyle Starks (Image)
  • Aug 2 - Black Panther: The Complete Collection vol.1 by Christopher Priest, Mark Texeira, Vince Evans, Joe Jusko, Mike Manley, Mark Bright and Sal Velluto (Marvel)
  • Aug 9 - The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures by Dave Stevens (IDW)
  • Aug 16 - The Thing: Project Pegasus by Ralph Macchio, Mark Gruenwald, John Bryne, Sal Buscema, and George Perez (Marvel)
  • Aug 23 - Who is Wonder Woman? by Allan Heinberg and Terry Dodson (DC)
  • Aug 30 - Ms Marvel: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona (Marvel)
  • Sept 6 - The Valiant by Jeff Lemire, Matt Kindt, and Paolo Rivera (Valiant)
  • Sept 13 - Young Avengers by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung (Marvel)
  • Sept 20 - Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt by J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck (Marvel)

I have also made a list of these books on Goodreads, to make it easy to follow along.

So we'll start next week with Matt Wagner's Trinity (by which we mean the complete collected edition, which includes vol 1 and 2).

Finally, if you are interested, my original rating of Steve Rogers as a superhunk is here. Poor bastard.

Again, thanks for listening! See you next week!

Podcast - Episode 87: The Power of Nostalgia

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The release of the new Power Rangers movie has gotten us thinking about the power of nostalgia, which seems to be the driving force behind everything these days. As our generation replaces the baby boomers as the target demographic for all nostalgic pandering, Dave and I are pondering this strange hold that things we enjoyed in our childhood has on us.

But, more importantly, Jeremy Renner released an app this past week. And it is SOMETHING ELSE.

I will never understand how these stars you can purchase work. Apparently you use them, after you buy them with REAL MONEY, to show your support for your favourite posts? To let Renner know you are his real, true fan? Gross.

Anyway, the app is worth downloading just so you can get this message when you delete it:

But enough about that wiener. Let's look at this shirtless bathroom selfie that Sebastian Stan posted:

Yes. Yesssssssssss.

Again, this seems wildly out of character for our boy. But for a first attempt, I am impressed. I mean, yes, he could have taken a second to move that fancy bottle of blue handsoap out of the foreground. And maybe move or block the 'slippery floor' sign in the background. Maybe tug the waistband of those Calvin Kleins down a little bit...maybe take the sweatpants clean off...

But overall, very good effort. And if this is just his 'en route to Winter Soldier' body, well...

To be fair, I can achieve that same effect of the underarm muscle wings by wearing a bra that is too small.

Anyway, he is lovely. Please post one of these a week, my darling.

Ok, enjoy the episode everyone! Rate us on iTunes if you have a second!

Podcast - Episode 70: Funnies!

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Time to laugh again! This week Dave and I share some of our favourite humour comics, past and present.

Guys, why isn't there an online database of Far Side cartoons? I feel like this is a major flaw in the internet. Like, what is the internet even for?!

Here are a few favourite Far Side cartoons. I could have looked at Gary Larson's entire catalogue for days and days, honestly.

Here are those Far Side cartoons that had the captions swapped with Dennis the Menace. Dave and I almost remembered these correctly:

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And here is the very excellent page from Drew Friedman's Any Similarity to Persons Alive or Dead is Purely Coincidental:

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We talk quite a bit about Nicholas Guerwitch's Perry Bible Fellowship. I don't think there have been new strips in awhile, but the site has all of the strips archived and you should go read all of them. Here are some faves, including some of the ones mentioned on the podcast:

Michael Kupperman is a master, and I had a hard time choosing just a couple of things to post here as examples, but here's what I decided on:

Seriously so great. I can't recommend buying the collected volumes of Tales Designed to Thrizzle enough. And as a bonus, here are a couple of panels from the Namor comic he did for Marvel's Strange Tales #1 back in 2009:

Kate Beaton is, obviously, awesome. Here is a festive Christmas strip from, like, 2007 or so. You can buy things through her website and you SHOULD.

Here are a couple of panels from the Kraven the Hunter comic she did for Marvel's Strange Tales II in 2010, in which he needs a prom date:

Alright! Go read some funny things and try to deal with everything!

Podcast - Episode 38: Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice

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Man.

So we saw Batman v Superman and thankfully Dave and I didn't have to pay for it (thanks Cal!). Johnathan Munroe joins us this week and he DID have to pay for it (sorry Johnathan!).

Johnathan didn't hate the movie as much as Dave or myself, but he sure didn't like it. Dave couldn't find much to like in it, despite being optimistic going in, and I just hated it. HATED IT.

Here's the thing about Superman and Batman, guys. I mean, I didn't think we still needed to go over this after nearly 100 years of character development on these two, but here goes:

These are aspirational characters. They represent the best of humanity. Humanity. That's important to keep in mind. Because this movie has NONE. Here's what the characters should be:

Superman is all-powerful, but never scary. His goodness is what makes him a hero. He is better than us, but it was mostly learned here on Earth, his adopted home. His values come from Johnathan and Martha Kent, from his Kryptonian parents who made saving the life of their son their final act before dying, and from the wholesome naiveté of small town America. He doesn't need to help us, he doesn't even need to stay here, but he will because he believes in us.

The core of Batman's character is, and always needs to be, hope. He doesn't do what he does because he hates criminals. He does it because he wants humans to be better. And that is why it is so important that he doesn't kill. Ever. Even the most bloodthirsty criminals get a chance at reform and redemption.

Superman teaches us patience, kindness, humility, and concern for our fellow humans. Batman teaches us determination, perseverance, ingenuity, and sacrifice. Together they should be overwhelmingly inspirational, and anything but cynical.

So, anyway, this movie had none of that and was garbage.

Before we get to talking about that, we talk a bit about DC Rebirth, which you can Google, as well as Daredevil: season 2 (Dave finished it, and I am still only up to episode 4), and Jeremy Renner's announcement that he is totally down for a Hawkeye Netflix series.

Oh, and I saw The Bronze! And I really liked it! And I forgot to mention this on the podcast, but J.Bone drew some really great Lance Tucker art (that's Sebastian Stan's character in The Bronze, guys). Check it out:

Sebastian's sex scene body double liked it! That's something!

I am exhausted from thinking about Batman v Superman. I am so glad it is behind me forever. Enjoy the episode! Warning: you can hear the sound of a cat barfing in the background. It's appropriate.

Podcast - Episode 36: Civil War Mania

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What a week, guys. What. A. Week.

There was so much Civil War/Winter Soldier/Sebastian Stan coverage in the media this week I couldn't even read all of it.

So this episode is a jumbled mess of trying to piece together our thoughts on everything. Plus, Dave is suffering from a cold. Nothing that a solid hour of listening to be ramble on about Winter Soldier can't fix!

First, let me introduce you to our special guest co-host:

Not a bad looking figure, right?

Here is the travesty that they are calling a Winter Soldier toy that I saw at Toys R Us:

Nope.

I did not enter the contest to win a helicopter ride with Henry Cavill, but I do get hilarious emails about it:

J.Bone did indeed do a really great drawing that imagines Spider-Man being Bucky's annoying friend:

So, so great. Knocking it out of the park as usual, J!

Here are some links to the many interviews and such that I mention this week:

Jeremy Renner being a douche with poor Elizabeth Olsen

Sebastian Stan doing a weird and adorable and sexy video Q&A for Moviepilot

Sebastian Stan on ET

Chris Evans and RDJ on ET

Markus & McFeely on why Bucky is a messed up sad sack

Buzzfeed Q&A with Evans, Stan, Downey, Boseman and the Russos

It's worth scrolling though the Buzzfeed posts because you get to see things like a portrait of Winter Soldier, quickly drawn by Sebastian Stan, as well as a screengrab of his Winter Soldier Spotify playlist. Plus, images like this one:

Boys. Come on. Cut it out.

There's also this really great little video of Sebastian Stan talking about seeing Civil War for the first time. I forgot to talk about it this week, but I will definitely talk about it next week:

Short version: it made him stress eat a whole thing of candy

Here is the new Civil War trailer, by the way:

And here's what you've all been waiting for: the Winter Soldier vs Black Panther Pop Secret packaging!!!

Butter only makes the Winter Soldier more powerful!

Ok, let's wrap this up, with, oh, I don't know...this picture from Friday of Chris Evans wearing the shirt that Sebastian Stan was wearing the DAY BEFORE?!

I mean. Come on. Also: god damn, Chris. Looking good. Trying to keep my eyes above the waist here.

I'm actually going to end this with this screengrab of Sebastian Stan's insane Winter Soldier body:

He's gonna get his shirt off in this movie, right? RIGHT?!