THAT COMIC SMELL: A Fantastic 4 Christmas Do!

The latest episode is online now.

From the website:

"HO HO HO! Merry Christmas!
We are celebrating the only way we know how. By chatting about comics. Not just any comics though. As it’s the festive season, we just wanted to have a little fun and what can be more fun that diving into Marvel’s first family, The Fantastic Four!!
So come join in on our Christmas Do. You’re very welcome to.
We chat about where we came across them, our different appreciations for different runs, Tom has a secret to tell and Nando is given an unanswerable question.
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
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Apple Podcasts: tinyurl.com/hwbqxab
Podbean: tinyurl.com/yxvecykj
and most places you find podcasts.
Don’t forget to Like, Share, Subscribe, Rate & Review.
Most importantly though… Read More Comics!
Thanks again for listening and supporting the podcast
Merry Christmas and Very Happy New Year to you all."

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"

THAT COMIC SMELL 27: Top 3 Creators

The new episode of That Comic Smell is now online. A discussion on some of our favourite comics creators.

Have a listen at iTunes, Soundcloud and YouTube.

From the web:
"TOP 3 CREATORS. GO!!
Is exactly what we did to our guest on episode 27 of That Comic Smell.
We were joined by the oh so amazing Olivia Hicks! (2000AD writer, Betty & Veronica and Cloak & Dagger Lover)
We all bring our own top 3 creators to the table and one by one present them and discuss some of the works that really made us decide that they were the ones for us.
There is also many a usual wild tangent and what we have currently been reading.
All that and so much more on the only podcast that can be understood by household pets and various wild birds.
That Comic Smell!
Follow us on Twitter & Instagram @thatcomicsmell
Get us on…
Soundcloud: tinyurl.com/y8vzeh3c
YouTube: tinyurl.com/yajnxcno
iTunes: tinyurl.com/hwbqxab
Don’t forget to Like, Share, Subscribe, Rate & Review.
You can also find us on the Podbean app.
Thanks again for listening and supporting the podcast
Here are some of the titles mentioned:
Nando:
John Byrne - Hulk, Fantastic Four, X-men
Moebius - Lt Blueberry, The Incal, Silver Surfer
Paco Roca - Wrinkles, El Invierno del disbujante, Los Sucos del azar
David:
Sam Henderson - Magic Whistle, Humour can be funny
Mary Fleener - Life of the Party, Slut Burger
Al Williamson - Star Wars
Mike:
Akira Toriyama - Dragon Ball, Dr Slump
Bill Finger - Batman
Walter Simonson - Thor
Olivia:
Kate Beaton - Hark a Vagrant
Katie Skelly - My Pretty Vampire
Kathleen Jacques - Band vs Band
Giuseppe:
Sergio Aragonés - Groo the Wanderer, M.A.D, Bogie Man
Bryan Talbot - The Tale of one Bad Rat, Grandville
Darick Robinson - (w/Warren Ellis) Transmetropolitan (w/Garth Ennis) The Boys
Tom:
Derf - Trashed, My Friend Dahmer, The City
Daniel Clowes - David Boring, Ghost World, Wilson
Bill Watterson - Calvin & Hobbes
Some Honourable Mentions:
Tony Millionare - Maakies
Todd McFarlane - Spider-man/Venom
Garth Ennis - Preacher
Kate Leth - Patsy Walker AKA Hellcat
David Robertson - Dump I, II & III, Zero Sum Bubblegum, Wow! Retracted, Berserkotron"

THAT COMIC SMELL 21: Love

The new episode of That Comic Smell is now online.
Have a listen at iTunes, Soundcloud and YouTube.
From the website:
"Welcome! to a brand new episode of That Comic Smell. You're gonna LOVE this one... I'm sorry.
In this episode the folks here dive head first into the real heart of comics. They discuss different kinds of love in comics, what some of their favourite picks are with love as a theme and even some in the title and really pump through some amazing books (ok, the puns are done. Hand on heart, I promise)
We then wrap things up by having a little talk on some books we were very kindly sent by Centrala publishing. Have a little listen and pick out a good one to grab for yourself http://centrala.org.uk/
All of this and much much more on the only podcast that comes to you in 4D!! (Not guaranteed to actually come in 4D)
That Comic Smell!!
Here are the titles we discussed:
Le Scorpion (Stephen Desberg, Enrico Marini)
Raptors (Jean Dufaux, Enrico Marini)
The Far Side (Gary Larson)
Modern Slorance [Torts and Tinder] (Neil Slorance)
Blue is the Warmest Colour (Julie Maroh)
Love & Rockets (Los Bros Hernandez)
The Sculptor (Scott McCloud)
The Story of Sex [From Apes to Robots] (Laetitia Coryn, Philippe Brenot)
Ethel & Ernest (Raymond Briggs)
The Lovely Horrible Stuff (Eddie Campbell)
Weird Love (Various)
Boy in my Pocket [Billy Dogma] (Dean Haspiel)
X-men [Scott and Jean] (John Byrne)
Spider-man Annual
Drawn Together (Aline & R.Crumb)
Batman [Mad Love] (Paul Dini, Bruce Timm)
Samurai Executioner (Kazuo Koike, Goseki Kojima)
Silver Surfer [Rebirth of Thanos] (Jim Starlin)
Slaine [The King] (Pat Mills, Glenn Fabry)
The Mighty Thor (Walt Simonson)
Hellblazer (Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette)
Liberty Meadows (Frank Cho)
Blankets (Craig Thompson)
Saga (Brian K Vaughan)
Archie
Calvin & Hobbes (Bill Watterson)
Moscow (Øystein Runde, Ida Neverdahl)
Erik the Red (Søren Mosdal)
Comics Cookbook (Various)
Staring from the Hill (Norbert Rybarczyk)
Chernobyl [The Zone] (Francisco Sánchez, Natacha Bustos)
Forest Beekeeper and the Treasure of Pushcha (Tomasz Samojlik)
The Awesome Comics Anthology Volume 1 (Vince Hunt, Dan Butcher, Tony Esmond, Daniel Marchant, Nick Prolix)
Comichaus [App] (https://www.comichaus.com/)"

THOSE PEOPLE ARE NOT GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

After having given their biggest characters to Fox and Sony in order to avoid going out of business altogether, Marvel Comics made enough money from their share of the success of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man and Bryan Singer’s X-Men films to firstly stay alive and then later start up their own movie studio. Against the odds, they somehow had a huge mainstream hit with the character Iron Man, and struck gold with the Avengers movie. Now though, Marvel have pretty much ran out of already popular and famous characters. They are aware of this, and quite cleverly, if cynically, factored it in to the first trailer for the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy...

“Who are you?” 

“Star Lord” 

“Who?”

Then a roll call of the characters as Peter Serafinowicz is told who they are.

I remember Rocket Raccoon from The Hulk’s 20^th anniversary issue, so that’s 1982. He was a bit of a joke character really, with his name a play on the Beatles song. Hulk even complained about him on the cover...

A bit later, there was a lovely looking 4 issue series drawn by Mike Mignola, prior to Hellboy...

Gamora was a terrific character from Jim Starlin’s Warlock series in the mid 70s...

Groot was another one who guest starred in Hulk; in the 1976 Annual drawn by Sal Buscema, to be exact. Groot was originally drawn by Jack Kirby in the old Marvel monster comics. This story had a bunch of old weirdos reappear so the Hulk could smash them to bits one after another. Quite literally in Groot’s case…

Starlord was a good comic by Chris Claremont and John Byrne in the late 70s. Some visceral violent action, shades of Star Wars – “a sith lord” even turns up...

A bit later I bought black and white Star Lord comics aimed at a slighly older audience, with Carmine Infantino drawing a sexy lady called Caryth. Here is her emotional (and topless) death scene...

Star Lord’s costume is completely different in the trailer, I observe.

And wait, why is Star Lord in this film ? Why are any of these people in this movie?
Because I read Guardians of the Galaxy too, and none of these jokers were in there.

The Guardians of the Galaxy were first featured in Marvel Premiere 18 in 1969. I was lucky enough to pick it up in the late 80s for 10p in a second hand bookshop.

It had intriguing concepts . The characters were from different planets in the solar system and so their bodies had grown differently due to their native atmospheric conditions. As well as being a good sci-fi idea, this also gave scope for the characters being distrustful of other “races”.
Then there was poor old (very old) Vance Astro, who had set off on a thousand year space mission in hibernation to the nearest star system, only to find humanity had developed faster than light travel and arrived there hundreds of years before him. They still gave him a hero’s welcome, but he was tortured by the events. And the Badoon were scary villains (I thought the Judoon from Doctor Who owed something to them).

Beautifully drawn by Gene Colan, as you can see above.

I recall the Guardians reappearing to guest in Avengers comics with a few more characters added. 

At some point Marvel must have completely rebooted the Guardians of the Galaxy comic, ditching the original characters, and the movie is based on that.

I feel like I turned up for a Temptations concert and nobody’s left in the band.

COURTING CONTROVERSY – COMIC CREATORS AND ONLINE ACCESSIBILITY

This is the seventh in a series of guest posts I'm running over the summer. I asked folk to write on any topic at any length - as long as it's comics related. Next up is Gary Smith...

  

I imagine that most comic fans will have an opinion about John Byrne, but the nature of this view will probably be heavily influenced by when readers were first exposed to his work. For fans who were first exposed to his work in the 1970s, he will perhaps be  best remembered as the young hot shot artist who cut his teeth on Iron Fist and helped take the X-Men to new heights of popularity. For fans who began reading in the 80s he may be forever linked with the Fantastic Four or his revamp of the Superman franchise. For fans in the 1990s it will perhaps be his run on She-Hulk or the launch of his Next Men title. Despite this huge catalogue of well received work in the comics industry, it's likely that fans introduced to John Byrne after the year 2000 will associate him less with his creative output and more with the forthright views he expresses through his website and forum, regularly giving his honest opinion on characters, creators and developments within the world of comics. From the controversy that surrounded his comments on Jessica Alba's casting as Sue Storm to the coining of the term Byrne-stealing (essentially arguing that reading a book and putting it back on the stands without purchasing it amounted to theft), in recent years there have been no shortage of newsworthy quotes arising from Byrne's use of social media.

My thoughts drifted to John Byrne after reading the recent Marvel title, All New X-Factor issue 7. In it, two characters have a discussion about whether a creator should be separated from their work, and whether it is justifiable to read a book - and therefore implicitly support - an author that may have questionable views. The character of Quicksilver is outraged that his team-mate, Danger, is reading a novel by Scott Dakei, a prominent anti mutant campaigner. Danger, for her part, argues that the content of the novel have nothing to do with this issue, and that the author's personal politics do not factor into the novel at all. This debate struck a chord with me because while John Byrne is perhaps the most prominent example, comic fans now enjoy a level of unprecedented access to creators, engaging with them in a way that would have been unthinkable even ten years ago.

1960s Marvel was built on the illusion that it was one big, happy community. Creators were given nicknames, letters pages were answered in a more informal manner; even caption boxes and editors' notes were written in a jocular style. Yet for all this informality, fans at the time were unlikely to know where the creators stood on popular issues (aside from generic representations of the national mood, such as the fear of communism). As the new wave of Marvel writers emerged in the 1970s, including Steve Gerber and Steve Englehart, it was apparent that many of them were politically to the left of their older colleagues, but unless a reader ventured into the world of the fan press it is unlikely that they would have been able to definitively pinpoint their views. 

In the modern comic community, with the majority of creators having a presence on Facebook and Twitter, as well as their own Blogs or web sites, it's relatively easy for fans to work out just where their favourite creators stand on certain issues. Countless creators are only too keen to tweet their thoughts on every conceivable subject, from the serious to the mundane. The question is whether any thoughts so expressed should have an impact on the way that their work is perceived.

In a perfect world the answer would be no. As long as the offensive opinions aren't reflected in their work then there should be no reason not to buy it, and readers should be able to enjoy the work on its own merits. In practice, though, this can sometimes be harder to do. Personally, I have been somewhat surprised by the number of people I have recently seen on Facebook vowing to remove from their friend list anyone that they know to have voted for UKIP in the recent elections. To many people, casting a vote in this way, despite being people exercising their democratic right to vote for a party of their choosing, appears to be so horrific that it outweighs every favourable quality those individuals may possess.

Alongside John Byrne, Dave Sim is another creator who became as famous for his outspoken views as he was for his creative output - perhaps even more so. His essays in each issue of Cerebus highlighted his views on a variety of subjects, with many relating to his views on woman. Courting much controversy, Cerebus, and much of Sim's work, is viewed by many as a platform for him to express his worldview. That raises an interesting point. Sim is undoubtedly a talented creator, yet many readers left Cerebus before the end of its run, growing weary of the increasingly specific direction that Sim's views were taking the title down. Let's imagine that Sim stuns the comic world by agreeing to work on a mainstream superhero - say, Green Arrow. Should it matter that he has strong opinions that may be objectionable to some? If someone admires him as a creator but despises his politics, is there any reason for them to boycott a run that is unlikely to feature as distinct an authorial voice?

There are no easy answers to this topic and I can fully understand why some readers may be so put off by a creator's behaviour that they may boycott their work, but what advantage is gained in doing so? If the creator hasn't advocated anything illegal or morally dubious, is this still enough to transform the way their work is perceived?

For me, much of it comes down to admiration. I want the creators that I admire to also be people that I can admire, ones that share my views and act in a way that I think is appropriate. Sadly, this isn't always the case, but as I grow older I'm increasingly accepting of the fact that life is made up of all sorts of people, with a huge variety of views. If a creator produces fantastic work then perhaps that is enough. If they're also what I would consider a 'decent' person, then that's even better. Or if I really want to preserve my enjoyment of my favourite creators perhaps I should refrain from social media and recapture some of that mystique that creators had to earlier generations of fans. Sometimes, it must be said, ignorance really is bliss.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

It's 2013!

Further to this previous post, the above is from X-Men: Days of Future Past, the time travel story published in 1980 that the next movie will be based on. In the comic, the far-flung future is 2013, and the present is 1980. The upcoming movie will feature the prequel cast (set in the 1960s) and some of the cast from the 2000-2006 movies. It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out.

ANOTHER X-MEN MOVIE

I’ve just read what’s going on with the next X-Men movie and I am impressed. I like the first two movies, but not the third, and I haven’t even watched the prequel as that seemed like a way to make another X-Men movie and not pay the established cast to be in it. But here’s what I understand is going on: 1. Director Bryan Singer is back. This is good. He’s the reason the first two movies worked. 2. It’s an adaptation of Chris Claremont and John Byrne's Days of Future Past from 1981 – probably the second most popular X-Men storyline (after Dark Phoenix, which X-Men 2 set the stage for and X-Men 3 screwed up).

3. Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen are back in some capacity. Days of Future Past is a time travel story, so they’ll probably get younger actors to play them in the flashback stuff. 4. They are! They’re using the actors from that prequel they did last year to be the young versions. That’s pretty neat and tidy, and as far as I can make out, it wasn’t the original plan. Matthew Vaughn who made the prequel wanted to do a second prequel set in the 70s. This tying up of the two X-Men series (three I suppose, if you count the Wolverine movies) would seem to be Singer’s idea. So I thought I was finished with X-Men movies, but there is hope.

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE

When I was a kid I liked the Avengers comics. From a young un’s point of view you can buy a comic with Spider-Man in it, one with Batman in it, or you can cheat and get one comic that has loads of superheroes in it.

If one character in a comic was great and getting more was a bonus, the Jim Shooter/Dave Michelinie era was like getting away with murder. Look at the opening page to “The End…and Beginning!”.



Later on in the same story they had a sequence featuring a man and a woman in a sensual embrace. It seemed very risqué at the time.



There was a great one by 70s superstar artist John Byrne where Count Nefaria became all powerful and was able to defeat the Avengers easily. They all tried to stop him to no avail. There is tension throughout the story while everyone wonders where Thor is, as surely he could defeat him?





So imagine my excitement back then when I saw that they were going to be showing a TV programme of the Avengers! Unbelievable!

And imagine my disgust at some bloke in a bowler hat and a woman sticking a flower in his lapel. OK, she did shoot his champagne bottle, but that was hardly in the league of tackling intergalactic menace Korvac!

Now they’ve finally made a live action Avengers movie, but it’s years too late for me to conjure up the same excitement. Oh well…



The Avengers was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Captain America was created by
Kirby and Joe Simon. Iron Man is credited to Lee, Don Heck and Larry Lieber as well as Kirby.

Here’s a very nice written piece by Neal Kirby on watching his Dad working at the drawing board as a kid.