Comic Pants Podcast #41
This week, Randy Lander, Dave Farabee, Nick Budd, David Martindale (D3) and Dan Grendell return to a topic from an earlier podcast, the “Comics You Aren’t Reading” - in other words, criminally under-appreciated books. Each of our Panteon reviewers chose two series or trade paperbacks (tough calls!) to call attention to, explaining a bit about each one and why more people should be checking them out. Sometimes it’s for the writing, sometimes it’s for the art, most often it’s both, but in every case there’s something special about these titles that most people are missing out on and it’s a shame.
As always, commentary is welcomed and encouraged. Let us know what you thought of the podcast, and if you have suggestions for future podcast topics, leave us a comment or write in to the show! Please drop us a line to give us some questions or comments for the next show.
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The January solicts show American Virgin ending then. Boo-urns! Great podcast as always fellas.
15 Oct 2007 at 4:41 pm
QuoteThat sucks. “Testament” and “American Virgin”…
This is the first Vertigo expansion period I’ve been around for since the beginning. And I dig every one of their books.. but I am sure “Scalped”, “Army@Love”, “Exterminators” and “Crossing Midnight” are all on thin ice.
Uh.. I’ll prolly get to the podcast tomorrow!
15 Oct 2007 at 5:54 pm
QuoteI was also witness to my first Vertigo expansion period and American Virgin is my favorite book on the market. It definately was a book that deserved a larger audience. I did drop Testament a while ago because I just couldn’t follow it without really studying each issue and I didn’t have the time to do that. I enjoy what I bought, but it just wasn’t worth it anymore.
It just seems strange that Vertigo books do not sell any better.
Great podcast! Thanks guys.
15 Oct 2007 at 6:45 pm
QuoteNice podcast as always.
For me, easily my favourite overlooked and underappreciated book is Eric Shanowers Age of Bronze. I simply adore the book, though I wish it was a bit more regular.
16 Oct 2007 at 6:11 am
QuoteGreat ‘cast as always, guys. Although, if I might make a minor request, could you equalize the intro/outro music with your voices a little better? I always wind up adjusting the volume several times during the course of the ‘cast (it’s worse when I’m listening to several in a row.) The music’s loud, so I turn it down, and then I can’t hear you (Nick especially). Then at the end, the music destroys my eardrums
As for the recommendations, I’m definitely going to pick up Peanutbutter and Jeremy. It sounds right up my alley. I’ll probably end up picking Hawaiian Dick up too. Saw the solicits for that a while back and it looked interesting.
And American Virgin ending in January? NO! Why must everything I love die?
16 Oct 2007 at 7:13 am
Quoteyou guys run a comic book store, right? any completely indie books that a customer drops off at your store that we’ll probably never get to see which have some cool concepts in ‘em or anything like that. y’know, the homemade stuff.
(cap’s new costume is cool. ‘cept for the chromification)
16 Oct 2007 at 8:25 am
QuoteHeresy!
The costume itself dosen’t do much for me, but what I hate is the gun. Makes this guy look like a putz, he’s carry a shield that can do effectively do what a gun can and more and yet he still needs a gun?
One can hope it will turn out to be some “super-gun” that can fire gass rounds and stun rounds maybe a grapple line, ect., Not my favorite choice but at least it makes sense.
So no, so far I’m not looking forward to the new punk-ass Captain America.
Said it before I’ll say it again Bru’s run on Cap = most overrated series out there right now.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.
16 Oct 2007 at 10:30 am
QuoteHawaiian Dick - Awesome stuff.
American Virgin - “Could wrap in one arc”. That is good news since it is done in January. Maybe they were given enough warning and were able to close out their story. I heard that’s what happened with “Testament”, they gave him warning and time to wrap his story.
Peanutbutter and Jeremy - I dig the jokes you read. I dig Perry Bible Fellowship. I am going to throw this one on my list.
Street Angel - So much lovely fun.
PS238 - Got a friend who recommended this.. but I was always skeptical ’cause he also liked Pokémon. I don’t know that I could get into it though. I have a dark and gruff reputation to keep up.
Original Art - I got none.. unless the Green Arrow profile in Hester’s signature counts. I do have a wall space where I can envision hanging some art. I suppose I should more actively seek the stuff out.
Xenozoic Tales - Not sure this is for me. I have no nostalgia for EC or expect I could revel in old school pulp.
Transformers - Really? I mean.. I am sooo skeptical. How much of it is nostalgia and the surprise that it doesn’t stink? (Ya know, I think I’ve already asked this of you guys on a Top Five Friday)
Fear Agent - I know I’ll dig this. On my list.
My Faith in Frankie - Nice comparison to Bryan Fuller. I’ve only read it in the b&w digest and I liked it a lot.
Action Philosophers - I gifted these to a civics/history teacher of mine. That was without reading them though. After that story broke about the teacher giving EightBall to a student, I got skittish. She doesn’t have them in her class, but I thot maybe she could photocopy small parts for her students.. like Jefferson, Marx and Hobbes.
16 Oct 2007 at 10:55 am
QuoteLove Age of Bronze. Have all of it that’s been put out so far in hardcover, planning to buy hardcover three as soon as it comes out. (I think it’s late)
We’re on a low-tech, low-money setup with one mic, and that causes most of the sound issues. With any luck, we’ve got a fix coming at some point soon. It’s a pain, I know, because I listen to them in my car on my iPod, and I have the same exact problem.
Nothing, really. We don’t actually get a lot of stuff dropped off to us or anything. And I personally haven’t picked up a lot of mini-comics in the past year or so. I’ve gotten a few, and I definitely recommend checking out the blogs for Chad Thomas, Max Riffner, Sara Ryan, Katie Cook, Joe Infurnari, Chris Schweizer and Dean Trippe. I picked up mini-comics or sketchbooks from all of them in San Diego (except Chad, whose work I found at Wizard World) and they’re really good. I’ve got links to a lot of them from my personal homepage at insidejoketheatre.blogspot.com, or you can just do a Google search.
But if you’re looking for some under-rated, up and coming talent and mini-comics, that’s a good place to start. That and looking through all the recent postings about SPX and following people’s links.
I was really hoping for at least two more arcs on American Virgin. Seeing the finale is a bummer. As long as it gets a good ending, and it all gets collected in trade, I’ll be OK with it.
I’ve discovered that you can find a lot of really good art online at remarkably cheap prices. Leonard Kirk was recently selling off some of his stuff, and that’s where Dan got two of his pieces. And I believe Scott Chantler had some of his gorgeous pages from Northwest Passage for what I thought were ridiculously affordable prices. Y’know, if I actually had any money right now.
I have only the mildest of interests in EC, and my pulp interest lies more with modernized versions of it like Raiders of the Lost Ark, and I loved the hell out of this book. Give it a flip through at some point, it’s actually really great. I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did.
I have fairly little nostalgia for Transformers, and I think the IDW stuff is really enjoyable. If you think the basic concept of transforming robots is cool, this is worth a read.
Not to worry… Action Philosophers is *definitely* not Eightball. It’s very much an all-ages read. Only problem you might run across is a kid being too young to understand it, but there’s no boobies and bad words. It’s parent-safe.
16 Oct 2007 at 12:12 pm
QuoteI remember paging through and seeing nearly naked people in the Freud pages.
As for the ‘normalization’ issue, I’ve heard good things about the Levelator. It has been mentioned on a few other netcasts I listen too. It’s free.
16 Oct 2007 at 4:11 pm
QuoteiTunes refuses to update the podcast with this episode. I’ve downloaded the ‘cast manually but wondered if anyone else had encountered the same problem?
16 Oct 2007 at 4:15 pm
QuoteI thought Hawaiian Dick was a great book initially (notice how I cleverly avoided saying “I loved Hawaiian Dick”), but my enthusiasm waned a bit during the long delays. Hopefully the ongoing will be able to keep to a regular schedule.
PS238 is a fun little book. Nothing really groundbreaking, but it usually makes me at least smile if not laugh out loud.
I guess I’m in the minority, but I just could never get into American Virgin even after trying it for several issues.
I keep meaning to give Fear Agent a look. Hopefully, once I get my “to read” pile down a little bit, I can pick up the trade. Several of the other picks sounded interesting too. Looks like I’ve got a big Amazon bill in my future.
16 Oct 2007 at 5:21 pm
QuoteYou might have the same problem I have - the office firewall hates the Comic Pants Podcast!
Changing the subject entirely.
I love original art, especially if you’re interested in independent and/or up-and-coming artists who are cheap. Michael Lark’s Gotham Central Pages were once going for about $40 to $50 a page before he started drawing Daredevil. I have a Bendis page from Jinx: Torso, some Terry Moore SiP pages, and a stack of Mike Weringo’s FF, Superman, and Spider-Man stuff. I really miss that guy.
16 Oct 2007 at 8:32 pm
QuoteGreat podcast guys. I really like when you guys do topics that cover books that have been under my radar. I added a bunch of the ones you talked about here to my wish-list (though several are listed as out-of print on amazon). Tried the first American Virgin trade a while back and couldn’t get into it though. Not sure why, just wasn’t really my thing. I’m not sure this one qualifies as “under-appreciated” since it was on so many best-of lists last year, but a non-mainstream book i read recently that i really enjoyed was Fun Home. Some of it flew over my head (particularly the Ulysses stuff near the end, since I wasn’t too familiar with that book), but it really made a big impression on me and stuck with me for a while after reading it.
And on the subject of original art, I don’t have any, but my friend with disposable income has Bryan Hitch’s cover to Ultimates 2 #8 (Cap in handcuffs) and John Cassaday’s splash page of Cyclops pointing the gun at Emma. Needless to say, I am insanely jealous of him.
16 Oct 2007 at 9:40 pm
QuoteSadly, no. I have encountered the problem as well. It’s a tech issue on our hosting company’s side. Hopefully ironed out soon.
Sadly, given the recent cancellation, I think you’re in the majority.
I know Dan G. has never been that into American Virgin, either. I’m a huge fan, but I’ll definitely acknowledge that it’s a weird little book.
I need to give this one another read through. I got about a quarter of the way into Fun Home and just couldn’t connect with it. Well-done, interesting subject matter, but it just… wasn’t doing anything for me. Given the almost unanimous critical support it’s gotten, though, I want to give it another try. At some point.
Good Lord. Covers? And Hitch/Cassaday work? That’s the big bucks realm of original art, along with collecting classic Silver Age stuff from the greats. That’s well above the level of my original art collecting, I’d be jealous too.
16 Oct 2007 at 10:34 pm
QuoteYa know, I kinda felt the same way at first. After I finished, I thought “that was pretty good, i suppose”, but I just couldn’t get the thing out of my mind for weeks, and the more I digested it, the happier I was that i picked that book up instead of the latest New Avengers trade.
16 Oct 2007 at 11:51 pm
QuoteIt’s fixed.
17 Oct 2007 at 2:22 am
QuoteThanks, I’ll try it out on the next episode. Their description sounded good, and I’d like to see how it performs.
Trust me… I know. We’re thinking of giving Nick a megaphone for the podcast.
17 Oct 2007 at 11:05 am
QuoteD3 is the man. The man with the pants.
17 Oct 2007 at 12:12 pm
QuoteHope things work out with Levelator. Not that it’ll stop me from listening if it doesn’t, I look forward to the ‘cast every week.
Ooh, and Action Philosophers. That’s another one I’ve been meaning to pick up.
17 Oct 2007 at 2:15 pm
QuoteOn Cap Does anybody think the new costume is worse than being dead?
19 Oct 2007 at 1:45 pm
QuoteI bought Peanutbutter & Jeremy, but unfortunately, the new printings don’t have the dust jacket with the flaps. I guess I’ll have to chuck it in the trash now.
19 Oct 2007 at 4:08 pm
Quote