THAT COMIC SMELL: Justice League International Volume 5

The new episode is online now. A return to discussing Justice League International.

From the website:

"Guess who’s back with a brand new plan of attack?!

Yes! The TCS crew are all back together in the same space. We got a really nice day weather wise so took the chance to sit outside and catch up with our favourite DC superhero squad. We are back chatting about the Justice League! In this JLI Vol.5 conversation we sift through the next collected volume whilst also admiring the single issues we each have, from different parts of the world as well. We compare the printing, colouring, different editorials/collections over the decades and of course (most importantly) the smell.

It was so great to sit down and just have the band back together chatting comics again.

We really hope you enjoy, as much as we do…

That Comic Smell!

Follow us on Twitter & Instagram @thatcomicsmell

Get us on…

Soundcloud: tinyurl.com/y8vzeh3c

Spotify: tinyurl.com/y2qtu2cs

YouTube: tinyurl.com/yajnxcno

Apple Podcasts: tinyurl.com/hwbqxab

Podbean: tinyurl.com/yxvecykj

and most places you find podcasts."

MODERN FAIRYTALES: BIG BROWN EYES

Modern Fairytales is the latest edition of the Big Brown Eyes anthology edited by the Lambert sisters.

It features Freya Lambert, Jon Halls, Ken Best, Linda Vuorenvirta, Michael Powell, James Patricks, Emily Dixon, Nadev Rosenbloom, Joe Latham, Ross Billingham, and Karis Viola Lambert.

And I have a comic in there called, "Love in Lockdown". Here's a wee preview:

For more information, click here.

NEVER IRON ANYTHING: Power Man and Iron Fist #68

I discussed issue 68 of Power Man and Iron Fist by Mary Jo Duffy and Kerry Gammill with Tony Esmond on his podcast. A fun comic I hadn't read before!

Have a listen here.

THAT COMIC SMELL: Captain America

The new episode is online now.

From the website:

"This time we tackle a very special 80th anniversary of a Joe Simon and Jack ‘The King’ Kirby creation. Yes! It’s CAPTAIN AMERICA!!

We dive into our recollections, past issues, what we still have, what we thought of them and the character and so much more.

We also answer those burning questions that listeners had for us on social media before we started recording.

This and all the usual comics chat on…

That Comic Smell!

Follow us on Twitter & Instagram @thatcomicsmell

Get us on…

Soundcloud: tinyurl.com/y8vzeh3c

Spotify: tinyurl.com/y2qtu2cs

YouTube: tinyurl.com/yajnxcno

Apple Podcasts: tinyurl.com/hwbqxab

Podbean: tinyurl.com/yxvecykj

and most places you find podcasts.

Captain America #414 (Mark Gruenwald, Rik Levins)

Avengers Unconquered (Brian Michael Bendis, Alan Davis)

Avengers Unconquered #7 [Civil War] (Mark Millar, Steven McNiven)

Mighty World Of Marvel #80 (Fabian Nicieza, Tom Grummett)

Marvel Legends #31&32 [Civil War aftermath] (Christos N. Gage, Jeremy Haun)

Captain America & Falcon #213 (Jack Kirby)

Captain America #200 (Jack Kirby)

Captain America Weekly (John Byrne)

Captain America #305 (Mike Carlin, Paul Neary)

Daredevil #233 (Frank Miller, David Mazzucchelli)

Truth: Red, White and Black (Kyle Baker, Robert Morales)

Justice League America #47 (Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis)

Fighting American (Joe Simon, Jack Kirby)

Captain America #110&111&113 (Jim Steranko, Stan Lee)

Captain America and The Falcon (Jack Kirby)

Captain America #247-255 (Roger Stern, John Byrne)

Captain America #274 (J.M. DeMatteis, Mike Zeck)

Captain America #286 (J.M. DeMatteis, Mike Zeck)

Captain America Annual #8 (J.M. DeMatteis, Mike Zeck)

Captain America #1 - 21 (Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark, Steve Epting, Mike Perkins)

Marvel Vault

Secret Wars"

TAY BRIDGE DISASTER at OPTICAL SLOTH

Kevin Bramer has written on The Tay Bridge Disaster comic over at Optical Sloth.

Have a read here.

OMEN TO THAT

I guested on Damian Edwardson's "Omen to That", as part of his "The Art of Self-Publishing" episodes.

Have a listen here.

THAT COMIC SMELL: Read Me Forever!

The new episode is online now.

From the website:

"On today’s episode we covers those pages/comics in which we constantly come back to. The ones we set aside even though we have a huge reading pile to get through. The ones that we jumps to when thinking about comics. The show offs. The utter loves. The ones that are FOREVER!
We also go into quite a large list this time of comics that we have got a hold of, bought or have been reading recently.
This and all the usual comics chat on…
That Comic Smell!

Get us on…
Soundcloud: tinyurl.com/y8vzeh3c
Spotify: tinyurl.com/y2qtu2cs
YouTube: tinyurl.com/yajnxcno
Apple Podcasts: tinyurl.com/hwbqxab
Podbean: tinyurl.com/yxvecykj
and most places you find podcasts.

Star Trek DC (Mike Barr, Tom Sutton, Ricardo Villagra)
This Was 2020 (Peter Conrad)
Batman: Strange Apparitions (Steve Englehart, Marshal Rogers, Len Wein, Walt Simonson)
Bubbles Fanzine #9 (Brian Baynes)
Please Don't Step on my Jnco Jeans (Noah Van Sciver)
King-Cat Classix (John Porcellino)
Tarzan (Burne Hogarth)
King Kirby: Jack Kirby y el mundo del cómic (José Joaquín Rodríguez)
Bone (Jeff Smith)
Watchmen (Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons)
Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back (Al Williamson, Archie Goodwin)
The Incredible Hulk (Stan Lee, Jack Kirby)
Spider-man/Venom (Todd McFarlane)
Transformers: Stargazing (Simon Furman, Jeff Anderson, Stephen Baskerville)
Hellblazer: Original Sins (Jamie Delano, John Ridgway)
Thor: Blood Oath (Scott Kolins, Michael Avon Oeming)
X-MAN (Steve Skroce, Terry Kavanagh)
Battle Angel Alita (Yukito Kishiro)
Fued (Mike Barron, Mark Nelson)
The Hulk vs Doc Samson: Marvel Annual (John Byrne
Dragonball Z vol.2 (Akira Toriyama)
One Piece Vol.1 (Eiichiro Oda)
Excalibur (Chris Claremont, Alan Davis)
V for Vendetta (Alan Moore, David Lloyd)
Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)
Blacksad (Juan Díaz Canales, Juanjo Guarnido)
The Death of Superman (Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Louise Simonson, Roger Stern & various)
Follow Me In (Katriona Chapman)
CYDO (John Tucker)"

RAIDERS OF A LOST ART #2

The latest from Barnstormer Comics is an Indiana Jones parody called, "Raiders of a Lost Art".

This second issue has work from Robin Barnard, a cover by Martin Hand, and a comic by me called, "Indiana Jones and the Age Old Question".

You can read the entire issue over at Images Degrading Forever here.

TAY BRIDGE DISASTER COMIC at BROKEN FRONTIER

Andy Oliver has written on The Tay Bridge Disaster comic over at Broken Frontier.

Have a read here.

MONSTER / MONSTERS

In 1985, my family went to Canada for a family holiday. The first trip abroad we’d had. One of the highlights of the trip for me was access to comics I couldn’t usually get. American Marvel, DC, and other comics. I discovered Archie Comics on this trip.

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars had just begun to be published by Marvel UK, and I was eagerly reading that series. One of the comics I got in Canada was Secret Wars II #3 – a jump into the future which blew my mind. 

Another Secret Wars related comic I got was Incredible Hulk #312. The Secret Wars II tie-in element was a few pages tacked on at the end of what was actually a very powerful story. A retelling of Bruce Banner’s life with the conceit that the Hulk was part of his character from the moment he was born. 

The story by Bill Mantlo and Mike Mignola showed that Bruce’s father was possibly irradiated over the years as he worked with dangerous materials. Bruce had suffered mental and physical abuse throughout his childhood, and so when the gamma bomb from The Incredible Hulk #1 went off, it released the Hulk creature which had always been inside him.

It was heady stuff for The Hulk comic, I read it a thousand times and it became a real favourite.

Many years later in 2003, around the time of the Ang Lee Hulk movie, I read an interview with Barry Windsor-Smith in Comic Book Artist #1, where he said the idea of that story had been his. He’d pitched it to Jim Shooter, but for various reasons depending on who you speak to, they’d gone ahead with a Mantlo/Mignola version. Windsor-Smith let the readers know he’d continued working on the comic in the eighteen years since, and completed pages from it were shown in the magazine.

It was shocking to see that one of my favourite Hulk comics had this background, but exciting to think a more expanded, purer version of the story was on the way. 

I used to write letters in to Comics International magazine, and in #163, I sent in the following to them:

Fast forward another eighteen years. As a regular guest of Tony Esmond’s Never Iron Anything podcast, I am called upon to choose different comics to discuss in depth with him. I decided Hulk #312 would be a good choice, as I had seen that Fantagraphics were going to publish the apparently completed “Monsters”. This would be a timely conversation! Have listen here.

Today, my copy of Monsters arrived and I am keen to read it. In fact, I am a bit trepidatious to read it. What if it’s crap? We’ll see…