Comic Books Are Burning In Hell

Gather round as a random text thread becomes an episode, ye children of the pod! All your favorite comics professionals have gathered to spin a yarn about why they like the things that are bad, whether that means a bad thing is good, and to finally nail down one of our longest running mysteries: Does Joe Watch Prestige Television Or Not?  For those of you who wonder if the Batman content is here: it is! And so is a lot of talk about Matt's recent appearance in Bubbles, the popular zine also responsible for so many of Joe's recent smiles. It's a podcast, buddy!

On this very special episode, Make-A-Wish kid Dan Nadel makes his fondest dream come true: a podcast with Joe McCulloch, Chris Mautner, Tucker Stone and a very special surprise guest! The topic: Dave Sim! Unfortunately, professional obligations ultimately demand that all individuals also discuss young Daniel's newly published biography of Robert Crumb, the famed cartoonist. No punches are pulled, but really, are any punches thrown? It's comic book time!

If you're keeping track of these, this is number eight. When did we record it? None of your business, turkey hunters! This time around, on Batman Books Are Burning In Hell, Matt Seneca & Tucker Stone are talking about Batman: Strange Apparitions by Steve Englehart & Marshall Rogers.

On this episode, Tucker, Chris & Joe tackle the latest Kazuo Umezz books to make it to American shores: My Name Is Shingo! And that's not the only comic that came across the US Border under the microscope...they're also all about Batman, and his adventures with Italian mainstay, Dylan Dog. Does this Caped Crusader appearance mean more Batman yakking? You guessed right, True Believer!

In this episode, we're talking about Matt Wagner's Grendel--well, as much of it as we could fit in before we reached emotional capacity for...the devil! That turned out to be basically Grendel as it was published by Comico in the 1980s, which basically means "everything Grendel up until you get to Grendel Prime"). There is a little diversion into a Dark Horse comic written by Diana Schutz and drawn by Tim Sale, and as few cursory mentions of Grendel Red, White & Black as we can get away with, but neither of those take up so much time that we can't safely call this one "The Comico Years".

The gang is all here, and so is the NYRC release of Social Fiction, a collection of comics by Chantal Montellier, translated by Geoffrey Brock. Is there a bit of spot the reference going down? Sure there is: but if your eyes are closed, how are you gonna see who is coming at you?? Wake up sheeple!!! France is a real place!!!!

This week, all decorum is out the window: Joe isn't here to stop us, so we're talking about Disney's Mickey Mouse in a labor fantasia, we're talking about a comic where a talking penis takes the stage (he's pink, y'all!) and, in the episode's coda, we talk about the coda of Crickets. You wouldn't think we'd get this much done with only the three of us: and your lack of faith reflects your poor upbringing!

The Hernandez Brothers make it to television, but they don't talk about Blubber enough for our taste, and Alan Moore throws some words on the page but doesn't include any Don Simpson pictures? Well, if everything is wrong in the world, then what is right? Garth Ennis. Garth Ennis is always right!

In this special, weirdly long episode, we talk about a bunch of Marvel characters in an Abrams book--all of them, somehow connected to Alex Ross. It's Fantastic Four: Full Circle time! Get in where you fit in, and brother, you fit in just fine!  

On this special episode of Comic Books Are Burning In Hell, we discuss fairy tales, Kazuo Umezz and critically acclaimed cartoo--BARF. BARFING SOUND. Carto--VOMIT AGAIN. UPCHUCK CENTRAL.

We're back at the Batphones, and this time around, we're joined by Katie Skelly to talk about Batman: Mad Love! A loose collection of comics featuring the Animated Series versions of Gotham City's craziest and most violent citizens, this is a box we had to check. Here she is: the REAL Lady Joker!

The boys are back-actually, they were back a while ago, but then one of the boys got sick and sleepy, so it took a while to get this one up: it's about Crickets, from Sammy "Salami" Harkham! It also features our recurring segment on British comics, which finally is giving a name. It's comic book time, pal!

Say hello to Joe McCulloch, everybody! Co-editor of TCJ.com, formerly of Comics Comics, Savage Critics, and the legendary Jog the Blog, Joe is the headliner of our main show Comic Books are Burning in Hell, and the best comics critic of the internet era. There's no other way to say it: no one since Gary Groth has contributed as much high level writing and thinking about the form as Joe. But even the greats are fallible! Case in point: this episode, in which he deigns to babble about Bryan Talbot and Batman at great length with us. That's right folks: it's time for a podcast about some all-time Serious Superhero Comics, the great Legends of the Dark Knight deep cut BATMAN: MASK. Wanna listen?

Green Lantern, the guy who created the Double Dragon side-scroller, Tucker's mistaken "let's interrupt people" idea, Donny Cates Hulk comic, very old school podcast stuff, Akira, Jack Kirby's Silver Star, Koike's Heaven's Door, the Legends of DC Universe featuring Steve Rude, and the new Jack Reacher book. It's one of our biggest and messiest podcasts in a good long while: climb aboard and GRAB AHOLD!

Welcome once again to Batman Books are Burning in Hell, where this time Tucker and Matt are joined by none other than Cliff Chiang, master cartoonist behind the best superhero comic to hit the stands since some of those old ones we usually talk about -- CATWOMAN: LONELY CITY. Whip-smart, addictively paced, and visually stunning, LONELY CITY is a hardboiled "one last score" crime novel that dons Batman-universe drag and absolutely werks it while tossing off no-shit social commentary that's as cutting as it is intelligent. It's a throwback to the type of dense, creator-driven, legitimately mature Batman sagas of the late '80s and early '90s that we created this show to discuss.. That Cliff is one of comics' most thoughtful interview subjects is the cherry on top. We're very proud to present this interview, so stop reading these words and start listening to it now! 

It's time for another installment in: the boys read some Tsuge! This time around, they're drinking in Red Flowers, the latest development in Yoshiharu Tsuge archival studies, in this, a look at the second volume of his mature tales! IS THAT AN ANTLION TALE? It is, you frisky freak! But wait? A salamander as well? B'twixt my shanty!

Chris, Matt, Joe & Tucker get together to talk about some of the comics that hit them the hardest this year. Less a back and forth, more a roundtable ramble: no list is coming, you'll have to listen to find out more!

Welcome back to Batman Books Are Burning In Hell, where this episode Tucker and Matt are joined by special guest star and master cartoonist Anya Davidson! Anya's work sometimes seems to encompass the whole history of American comics, harnessing the raw current of energy tapped by everyone from George Herriman to Jack Kirby to Fort Thunder - but it's also a world of its very own, its artist dancing in perfect counterpoint to a music only she can hear. Books like School Spirits, Band For Life, and Lovers in the Garden are as notable for their expert markmaking and perfectly composed sequences as they are for their rare level of commitment to building characters and the big heart beating underneath their skin. They're also vvery vveird stuff, so we are absolutely gassed to present a conversation about one of the all-time best Bizarre Batman Comics: The Jungle Cat-Queen (1954), by the legendary Dick Sprang, with writer Edmond Hamilton and inker Charles Paris, as presented in Detective Comics #211. This is the stuff that dreams are made of - LISTEN UP

Welcome once again to Batman Books Are Burning In Hell, this week featuring special guest sta- hey wait a second, how'd he get in here? Chris Mautner? It's Chris Mautner, people! If you've literally never listened to an episode of our eleven year old comic book podcast before, Chris boasts a top-5 resume as a comics critic, with a portfolio of work for The Comics Journal, Blog@Newsarama, Robot 6, The Smart Set, and probably ten or twelve other publications I'm forgetting. He's also 1/4th of Comic Books Are Burning In Hell, and a big nerd who really took this show's bit between his teeth and made us talk about some completely random comic I'd never heard of. So here we go with more discourse than you ever imagined could exist about Murder in the Night, as presented in Detective Comics #481-482 by Jim Starlin and P. Craig Russell! Reach between your legs and hold on tight!

It's time to get back to the classics of Comic Books Are Burning In Hell: a look at a new one from Olivier Schrauwen (that new one would be Sunday 3/4, from Colorama) and an old one from Martin Vaughn-James (that old one would be The Cage, from Coach House Books). But first: did you hear that one about the time the guy googled a religion the night before his paper was due? There's a comic book version of that. DC published it!