Transcript

Introduction to Comic Book Noise podcast

[0:30] Hello and welcome to Comic Book Noise. I'm your host Derek Howard. Comic Book Noise can be found at ComicBookNoise.com and is part of the Deliberate Noise Network.
For more details, please go to DeliberateNoise.com, If you'd like to send feedback, you can email me. My email address is Derek, D-E-R-E-K, at ComicBookNoise.com or you can call the audio comment line at 7-

[0:57] Okay, anyway, I'm gonna talk very briefly about what I've been reading lately.

Falling behind on pop culture and TV shows

[1:06] And a lot of this stuff is actually kind of old because I am way behind on my, consumption of pop culture Yeah, we say um, I'm still not finished watching Supergirl or or Resident Alien, or Flash.
I haven't even, no, I was about to say, I haven't even started Superman and Lois, but I did end up watching the first episode. When it came out, I haven't watched it since.
So I am very behind.

[1:49] So much so that a lot of things that were on my pull list are no longer being published.
I think there's a new Aquaman series, so the one that I was getting pulled is no longer getting pulled.
I don't know about Legion of Superheroes.
Lazarus Rising is done. Velvet is done, I believe. So anyway, so just, I'm way behind, so some of this stuff is new to me, even though you may be thinking, what the hell, that came out years ago. All right, um, When I first started listening to uh Comic geek speak why not first because I think I started, Listening before he actually joined the show, but um adam urda, Who by the way i've met he's a very nice guy. Um.

Memories of being behind on comic book reading

[2:45] I remember him talking about how he was several years behind on his reading, And at the time that was just something that just just it could not compute with me just did not click, You know, I know I've spoken about this before but there were times and I'll go to the comic shop, And I would get my comics No pull lists just so I'm going off the shelf. Oh, this looks good. This looks good all back issues and take a look at those, what $2.50 for a back issue, are you crazy?
Anyway, so I would buy the comics and I would go out, sit in my car and I would read like a comic book or two.

[3:30] And then I would, excuse me, then I would leave, but I wouldn't just leave, I'd have a comic book propped up on my steering wheel, So that as I'm driving, I get to a red light, red lights only, I would look down and I'd read before the light changed, you know, read a page before the light changed or so.
And then when I would get home, I'd sit in the driveway or the parking lot, depending on where I was living, read another book or two before I'd go in the house, right?
And when I was married, um...
I'd go straight to the bathroom when I read comic books, so you know, they knew I was comic book dead.
Well, yeah, I was a neglectful father and husband, but only on comic book day, only on new comic book day. Otherwise, I was just Yeah, just an ass.
Anyway, um Just a long way of saying that yeah, I'm behind, right?

Catching up on Marvel Cinematic Universe, Flash movie discussion

[4:36] But I'm just and I don't have them in front of me, so I'm just going off of memory of the last few things that I've read.
The thing later I'll do on movies and stuff that I've watched because with the exception of Guardians of the Galaxy volume 3 I'm all caught up I believe on, no no there's also the spider-verse the new spider-verse movie so I'm almost all caught up on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There's the Flash movie which I, don't even know if I want to see that and I'll talk about that and it's not just because of Ezra Miller's gross fuckery over the past few years. DC He really shit the bed when it came to FLASH because I don't know if people remember this but when the TV show came out, was it 7 or 8 years ago now?
The exact same day that the show, well not the same day but the same week that the show debuted, they were talking about making a FLASH movie with an entirely different cast.

[6:00] You know so it's like oh yeah we're gonna cut the balls off of this one because we care more about the movies but the movie came out so long after the TV show that the TV show pretty much ran its course and some people think it even went a little bit too long in it too.
So that just showed me that they didn't really care about the TV show so and the good part is that that let the TV show do whatever the hell they wanted to do.
I'm sort of like Arrow, they did not give a shit about Arrow.
You cannot convince me that the people who were in charge of the DC Cinematic Universe gave even half a fuck, not even one partial stroke about Arrow.
Arrow started getting a little bit more popular and so much so that DC Comics said, you know You know what?

[6:56] We've done pretty much shit all with Ali over the past few years.
Let's actually make him a focal point of our universe, right?
I mean, it worked for Marvel and Iron Man, because I think people forget that Iron Man was not, an A-level superhero before the movie came out.
And now he's like in the midst of everything. But that's how it was with Arrow.
Arrow was like, you ain't green, Arrow. It was over to the side, and then once the TV show, actually started to take off they started integrating more of, the TV show into The comic books, you know, which which was cool but, You could tell that they hit it big when They when the TV show is no longer allowed to use characters for the suicide squad.

[7:49] You know, I mean they had a dead shot. They had Amanda Waller. They even had in a very, very, very, very brief cameo that only if you knew you knew Harley Quinn. You know, very brief. And then they would tell, oh yeah, yeah, you can't use any of those characters because we have big plans for, them. Okay, they really just should have let Berlanti do what the hell he wanted to do.
But anyway, um, where was that? Oh yeah, I saw the Flash movie. I don't know if I'm gonna watch it. I didn't see it when it was in the theaters. It turns out it's a huge bomb I guess having a movie come out around the same time as a popular TV show with all different characters and a lead who is problematic at at best.

Flash movie's poor performance and lead actor controversy

[8:49] I wasn't really good for the bottom line, you know? Anyway, I guess that's probably woke nonsense, whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean nowadays.
Anyway.

[9:01] I think, no, I'm not gonna go off on a political rant. I think we all know how I feel about the right-wingers.
I'm not a fan, all right?
And I'm not to say conservatives, because to me, people who are conservatives different from the modern-day right-wing, all right, just like they think that, um, no, they don't. I'm about to give them credit for something that I'm not going to. Anyway, So what I've been reading for years, years, I've been getting, I've been on the.

[9:39] Oh, not Titan, 2001 AD, Jesus, not 2001, 2080 mailing list where I get review, you know, digital review copies of stuff.
In fact, I talked about Judge Dredd, America on here before, which I really enjoyed, really enjoyed.
But unfortunately, I really haven't had a chance to read a whole bunch of stuff from 2000 AD.
I mean, and they give me links and I don't even really like to download on it.
So I'm gonna talk about it, so I'm really good at downloading.
But I decided I was gonna just grab a bunch of stuff.
So I grabbed four titles. I've only read two of them because these are Judge Dredd collections.
So they are very long, all right. But the one that I started with was called Helltrekkers.
I'd never heard of it, and apparently this is, you know, like America, one of the more.

The Epic World of Judge Dredd and the Dreddverse

[10:49] Critically acclaimed things from Judge Dredd, the whole, I don't know, Dreddverse.
And it starts off in Mega City One, where there's a bunch of basically pilgrims who want to leave Mega City One, to go through basically the badlands to get to, I forgot what they're calling it.
It's their form of like sanctuary slash paradise.

Restarting Lives in a Distant Place from Mega City One

[11:26] It's a place far away from Mega City One where people can go to restart their lives, you know?
If they're pieces of shit in Megacity, well, maybe they won't be pieces of shit somewhere else.
It's, um...
It's bad terrain, right? That's just trying to put it nicely.
If you've ever seen, oh, Stagecoach, the old Western stagecoach.
It's been done a couple of times I can remember.
The first one that I recall was starring John Wayne as a young man, so I'll let you know how long ago that was.
And I believe that there was another one, I wanna say in the 70s, but I think it might've been like a TV, made for TV movie.
Can't remember who starred in it. But anyway, it's just like that.
It's that a little bit of wagon train where they're going from point A to point B.
And it's a lot more about the characters.

[12:38] I take that back. Stagecoach is a lot more about the characters, Wagon Train, which is a TV show, Western, was also more about the characters as it had to be.
This is a lot about, what if George R.R. Martin wrote Wagon Train because they introduce a bunch of characters and they get you to like a bunch of characters and damn it, a lot of those characters that you like or gain some sort of affinity for, they don't make it to the end.
This is like one of the most brutal comic book stories I've ever read.

Unpredictable and Brutal Comic Book Story

[13:25] In a lot of western media, TV shows, comic books, there are really two things that they don't do.
They don't kill off kids and they don't kill off pets. Unless it's like the revolving thing around the story, they just don't like…oh here's a pet.
Oh you love this pet? Oh nice cuddly pet. Yeah, you're dead.
They kind of don't do that. Yeah, you had no guarantees in this story.
No, no, no, no, no. There's this one part I don't want to spoil it.
It just came out of nowhere. But yeah, I can't remember who wrote it.
I can't remember who drew it. I can't remember.
All I remember is reading it and just being really sucked into the story, right?
Because it's less about, oh, I like this character.
I hope he makes it to the end. It's more like, okay, I like this character, how they gonna fuck him up?
You know, for a while it was just more about how gruesome can these people die, right?

[14:38] But the judges are in the very beginning. They're just like escorting people.
They're watching people leave. You know, they're just like, you know, you leave, can't come back.
And they're just like, yeah, well, I don't wanna come back. And a lot of people are just like, ooh, shh.
Maybe he didn't want to leave.
Anyway, so if you ever get a chance, Hell Trekkers.

Recommendation: Hell Trekkers, a Gripping Story

[14:59] Really good story, really good story. And then I'm reading a, currently reading another judge, I think it's called Judge Dredd Crime Files, maybe volume 21 or 22. So these are a bunch of short stories.
And it's weird, even though I read Hell Truckers, which has very little to do with the, um...

[15:26] In fact, I don't even know if that was Judge Dredd in the beginning of the book.
And I read AMERICA, which had a lot more about Judge Dredd, but he was like on the periphery.
And I saw both the Judge Dredd and Dredd movies.
All of that, I still know very little about the character. And so as I'm reading these stories, a lot of them are short stories, not just about Judge Dredd, but about a bunch of other judges.
And I have a lot of questions that I'm just going to read through.
If I have more questions, I'm just going to keep those questions in my head.
I don't need the instant gratification of knowing the answers.
But they're really good.
These are all different writers, different artists, so the quality kind of varies.
And I'm not saying the quality of the artwork, I'm just talking about the quality of what I like, you know.
There are certain types of art styles I just don't like, okay.

[16:36] And there are certain writing styles I just don't like. Not that they are bad, right, because one of the most popular, I was talking about, I was talking with my family last night about comic book characters and writers and as everybody knows to me the top of the list of writers is Alan Moore, I think he's like the best.
Then there are other people who I will put very high on the list who others may not like, Robert Lorne Fleming, I'd put him very high on the list, right?
And then there's some people who others would put very high on the list that I just wouldn't.
And there's like one person who is very popular, extremely popular, probably one of the most, popular comic book writers out there today.
A lot of my friends are really big fans.
I just can't stand the guy. I can't stand his work, it's just like, eh, okay.
But I'm not gonna, this is not about slagging off everybody.

Providing Links and Acknowledging Website Visitors

[17:47] It's just letting you know that if you're gonna read the Judge Dredd crime files, hopefully I will remember to put links to the stuff, in the show notes for those, what, 12 of you come to the website on a semi-regular basis.

Anthology Series with Diverse Art Styles

[18:06] I just realized going from one story to the next, it's like different.
These are, this is an anthology series, right?
And I'm like, some anthology series, like if I was gonna make an anthology series, I would try to get people whose artwork, complimented each other, you know, so that you could go from, oh, let me think of my murderers row, who would I would want to put?
You know, go from Alan Hughes to Stéphane Roux, though, because those guys have similar art style.
Maybe even a Frank Cho, you know, have those in an issue together, right?
Or you have Doc Shainer and Jamie McKelvey and Mark Laming all in the same book, stuff, like that. You know, these are all people that I like, right?

[19:10] So you have those but in these books they are drastic because they're just like, okay, here's a scrap that's really, let's just call it a minimalistic style and the next one we have this guy that's like ultra detailed and then somebody really scratchy and somebody really clean lines and it's just like, okay, that's the land of Judge Dredd.
Anyway, so yeah, I've been reading.

Evan Doc Shaner's Shazam Book about Mary Marvel

[19:35] Oh wow, this is not a shram. Like I thought it was gonna be.
So anyway, hold on a second.
I don't even know why I said hold on a second. I just could've paused and wouldn't even know.
If I just didn't pause, then you wouldn't have known.
You know, you wouldn't have known. I don't know why I said that.
Anyway, speaking of Evan Doc Shaner, Shainer, who is one of my favorite pencilers out there right now. I read his book.
Oh, crap. I can't remember the name of it now. Shit.
Oh, it's the Shazam book. But this one is about Mary Marvel instead of Billy.
It was very well written, very well written. Artwork, knocked out of the park.
Colors, everything about it.

[20:30] But they had the one problem that DC and Marvel has continuously done that wants to just like drive me crazy. DC more than Marvel, I want to say that. I'm reading this, it's a collection, and shit, I wish I could remember the name, Might, The Might of Shazam?

[20:58] Anyway, it's a mini series. It's a story of Mary Marvel, and apparently there's like, it was a four issue series, and then there's like an extra issue of something totally else, like a different crossover event story, right?
Um, and keep that in mind, I mean, you have the, the complete story and then you have like another story, but just keep that in mind for yourself.

Lack of Context in the Shazam Mini-Series

[21:31] Um, and it's all about Mary Marmol who wants to go off to college and away from her family.
She's lost her powers.

[21:39] The rest of the kids have all lost their powers when Billy, who's now the wizard and he's off cut off from the power and then next thing you know she gets her powers the rest of them don't okay and so she's trying to juggle going to school along, with you know her family obligations this is it's a good story the cute story. They made references that I had no clue and there was no like, there's no setup. You know, there's not like a, there's no page saying, okay at this point in time, you know, Billy is here, the powers have been lost. This is the status quo for the family. They didn't, they didn't do any of that. It's just like you had to read the whole thing. Okay, okay, all right, now I get it. Which is okay, but there's sometimes it's like, come on, give me some kind of context, right?
Every comic is somebody's first, that used to be, I don't know how much there is nowadays, but this is the first time I read, this is the first time I heard about this book, right?

[22:59] And I had no clue what was going on. I had to read the whole thing before I got a clue.
And then there's some like future Lazarus, Lazarus planet, something like that, which was like a story at the very end that I guess dealt with Billy coming back and keeping his power and Mary still having her power and they were gonna go off to do something else. I don't know it was like it wasn't exactly a cliffhanger it's more like you know the the the adventures will continue in in, you know.

The Importance of Context in Understanding

[23:44] And so, you know, that's OK. That's OK. I don't like that because, like I said, if it's not in context, who the hell knows what's going on?
OK.
So to me.
I recommend. Hell trackers, I recommend the the judge Dread Case Files, whatever number it was.
If you are a fan of Evan Shainer's artwork, and you should be, I mean, very, very good artist, then I would highly recommend this book. If you're one of these insane people who think he's just okay, you may wanna just like, Unless you're a completist and you get all of the Lazarus Planet stuff, and I'm almost positive it's Lazarus Planet.

Soft Recommendation for Shazam and Power of Shazam Movies

[24:45] Then this is a soft recommendation. I still recommend it, but it's soft.
Unless you're, like I said, a Shainer fan or a Lazarus Planet completist, Then yeah, you might still like it.
If you like the movies, the Power of Shazam and Power of Shazam, I don't know, Fire Walk with the Gods, whatever it was called, which I saw and I liked.
Which I believe also dealt with the kids losing their power, but I don't remember it.
Am I getting the two mixed up?
No, no, no, I'm not.
Anyway. Yeah, you might like it.
Like I said, self-recommendation. Now, I just said that I did not like the way they just tacked on a story at the end where It's like, oh, if you want to read the continuing adventures, go here, right?

[25:49] Remember that little bit of hypocrisy, because I'm about to be a hypocrite in a second.
Anyway, also I've been reading Betty and Veronica, Senior Year, which apparently came out in 2019?
Did not know. Or 2018, I don't think about it. Anyway, it's not the classic Dan Parent slash Dan DeCarlo, Betty and Veronica.

Different Take on Betty and Veronica by Mark Waid

[26:19] This is more of the, remember when Mark Waid took over the book, Mark Waid and Fiona Staples?
I think it's that line of Betty and Veronica.

[26:33] But it's different, different stories. See that's the thing about Betty and Veronica and all of the Archie stuff.
They like almost all have their own continuity for each thread I guess.
So this is about them in their senior year of high school and the blurb says it is a a great example of female friendship, you know, or friendship between women. I think they said female friendship. Anyway, I thought it was very good, very well written. The artwork was was okay. The problem is is that the artist's oh shit whose name I can't number.

[27:33] Ink of their own work, and you could tell that it was digital ink, and you could tell because sometimes the lines were thin, because you know I love me a thin line, and sometimes they were really thick, and that led to some inconsistencies from page to page, but I mean you could tell it was the same artist, but still, just I don't know. Oh crap, I cannot remember who it was though.

Comic Book Noise Podcast: An Empty Rant

[28:00] I'm just just totally you know if you don't like, Somebody once did a review of comic book noise saying that if you do if you like an empty rant, then this is the podcast for you and of course, there's the.

Random Complaints and Ramblings

[28:21] The long ago the one that I remember is the guy who said that listening to comic book noise made him want to smash his earbuds his iPod which okay back when I was younger when I was a young man was it like 40 something 30 late 30s whatever it was oh by the way I'm 56 today so no so I don't what had him in 51 maybe no who cares Anyway, but yes, by the way, I'm recording this on my 56th birthday.

[29:00] So I made a band, who cares, who gives a fuck. Anyway, the guy said he wants to smash his earbuds.
Somebody else also complained that I wasn't very, I didn't do my research.
It's like, no, I rarely do my research. I'm doing this shit off the top of my head.
I think anybody who's listened to more than one show can, even if you've listened to one show, thing like partway through you just think so this motherfucker is making it up as he goes along the shit's coming off the top of his head right every now and then I might have a book in front of me but even then it's just so I can see, drew the books doesn't tell me like oh like you're page 14 panel 3 down on the left side looking that corner it's like a little bit of detail I like that you, And by the way, yes, I have seen reviews of comics that try to get into that much detail.
I'm not doing all that. But I wish I could just remember.
But like I said, going off the top of my head, I don't care.

Telling a Complete Story of Senior Year

[30:07] Anyway.
But what I liked is it told a complete story of their senior year, right, which dealt with you.

Archie's Misunderstandings and Love Triangles

[30:17] Misunderstandings. This is Archie books, so there's misunderstandings, there's love triangles, there's all kinds of teenage angsty stuff that all works out in the end, you know.
But at the very end of that book they gave I think it's issue one of Sabrina the Teenage Witch which you know ended on a story beat right because it's the end of the first issue and then it's like if you want to read more pick up the Sabrina the Teenage Witch coming out in 2019 and that's when I realized, oh wow, this book is a lot older than I thought.
And even though I did not like it when Shazam, when DC did it with Shazam, I liked it when Archie did this because when I finished reading it I was like, damn, I want to read this Sabrina the Teenage Witch book, you know, when I did not get that from the Lazarus Planet.

[31:26] And I think I might have been a little bit more forgiving with that Lazarus planet tie-in if it didn't use the same characters that I was just reading.
So I read about Mary, I read about the villain, I read about that and then boom here's Billy and now we're going off on a different adventure.
With the bettering of Veronica is a complete story, end of the story.
Hey, you might be interested in this, you know, which is a totally different book, totally different characters, none of the characters from the first.
Jesus Christ.
All right, sorry.

Introducing Biff Stone: Monster Hunter for Hire

[32:16] All right, so they're totally different stories, you know, so I kind of like that.
All right. Now, last one I'm going to talk about, because it's like I said, I actually only wanted to talk for like maybe 10 or 15 minutes and now I'm going over twice that time.
I don't know where I got this book from.
I believe it was part of a Kickstarter rewards digital set, I don't remember exactly where, but it's called Biff Stone Monster Hunter for Hire.
I'm reading this, and by the way, there's one more thing left, and Beth's not.

[32:59] I'm reading this and just by the cover I'm like what the hell?
This guy looks like…a lot of people were saying there was a letter section and people were comparing him to looking like Magnum P.I.
When actually to me he looked more like Lee Horsley as Matt Houston.
Which as I'm reading this when the writer said I kind of want him to look like Lee Horsley from Matt Houston because that's who I got.
So this is a 70s guy and he's fighting demons with a flaming sword and I'm reading this and I'm like what the hell is this book?
I'm absolutely loving it. It's by Gallant Comics, that much I do remember, by Gallant Comics.
They also put out John Amon, the Amazing Man, and I want to say like Miniature Man.
So what they do is they take public domain characters and they create new stories.
And so apparently Biff Stone was a character.
The story the quick story is that he.

Biff Stone, the Time-Traveling Monster Hunter

[34:22] He was around in the 70s or so, I believe. He's around in the 70s, got sent to a different dimension, and now he's back in modern day times, but he still looks the same.
I mean, it was pretty cool as I'm reading it. So I'm probably gonna see if I can find more of the book.
Anyway, going back, but yeah, Biff Stone, Manhunter, Monster Hunter for hire.
It's not cheesy, it sounds cheesy, it's not cheesy, it's not wacky, it's not zany, it's actually good.
Last thing I want to talk about.
When I was reading the Betty and Veronica senior year.

[35:08] There's a forward, which I usually try to skim over those really quick before I actually start reading the comic book part.
And they were mentioning Betty and Veronica, how versatile these two characters are.
You can plug them in anywhere. They had them in a post-apocalyptic landscape, going up against zombies, you know?
And then they made a mention to, they even started their own girl biker gang.
I was like, what the hell?
I was like, oh, god, nah. That sounds ridiculous. I'll probably try to hunt it down one day.
Put the book down, turn around, go to the next book on a pile, and it's Betty and Veronica Vixens, which is a story about them as a girl biking.
So I will be talking about that one in a little while.
But for right now, I'm, oh, one last thing before I get done.
At the very end of this episode, and most of the episodes, if not all the episodes, you will hear my youngest child making a bunch of noise.

[36:19] I was told that the last two words were daddy Okay, so Daddy so, Don't know if that's true or not Memories are vague obviously, but anyway, Yeah, so right now. I'm done. Oh, I've got so much stuff to talk about in so little time, but right now like I said truly I'm done making a lot of noise, a lot of comic book noise, take it easy.