godzilla_and_godzookyIt is Sunday, which means it’s time for another episode of the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Show, or as we like to call it: that thing we do as an excuse to not write for one day so we can devote more time to drinking whiskey, watching Game of Thrones, and babying the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office Mascot, Parker The Kitten.

On today’s show, we tackle:

  • Godzilla! We went into it thinking it would be a movie filled with Walter White battling a giant lizard, walked out of it thinking it was a pretty enjoyable reboot of the property… and then we talked about it. And sometimes, that’s the worst thing you can do to a movie…
  • Wild-assed and variant covers – Marvel announced this week that the covers of each issue of The Death of Wolverine would be something called “Weapon Etched Holo Foil,” and DC is planning to release their Futures End (Mistakenly called Five Years Later in the show) September one-shots with another series of 3D covers. As a couple of people who lived through variant covers and how they helped kill comics in the mid-90s, we don’t have a lot to add about it, but man do we like to complain about them.
  • Batgirl #31, written by Gail Simone with art by Fernando Pasarin
  • The United States of Murder Inc., written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Michael Avon Oeming
  • The Walking Dead #127, written by Robert Kirkman with art by Charlie Adlard, and:
  • Cat nutrition, or: taking care of a stray animal for only $47 a day

And one show note for the week:

  • The Island of The Mushroom People is an actual movie, actually called Attack of The Mushroom People in America and Matango in its native Japan. I wish I was making that up.

And, our usual semi-legalese:

  • This show was recorded live to tape, meaning that you might hear more than the normal number of “ums”, pregnant pauses, and references to Bukkake
  • This show contains adult, profane language, and is not safe for work. That line just above about references to Bukkake? I didn’t pull that out of my ass. Be smart: listen with headphones.

Enjoy the show, suckers!

homer_superman_shirtMy God, it’s a miracle: we’re actually releasing a new podcast on our regularly-scheduled Sunday! Sure, we had to tape it on Saturday to get it done, and during a time when we were forced by circumstance to remain sober while we did it, but what the hell; it’s a small price to pay for being able to rant about comics and pop culture on a predictable schedule.

In this week’s episode, we discuss:

  • Television! Particularly, the announcements this week that Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was renewed (and whether or not that is a good thing), and the announcements that various networks have picked up season orders of Agent Carter, Gotham, iZombie, Constantine, and Flash, and which shows we think might be good or horrible, depending on their direction
  • Moon Knight #3, written by Warren Ellis with art by Declan Shalvey
  • Miles Morales, The Ultimate Spider-Man #1, written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by David Marquez, and
  • Why you should never allow a kitten into a recording studio when you are, you know, recording.

And, a few notes (and please let us know in the comments if we mentioned something obscure and forgot to include it here):

  • The “Maurissa” whose name we were trying to remember was Maurissa Tancharoen, one of the showrunners for Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
  • When we talk about Beacon Hill and Dorchester, you might not know that Beacon Hill is a Boston neighborhood populated almost exclusively by people who use the word “summer” as a verb, and Dorchester is a place where you go to witness or participate in a knife fight (it is the home neighborhood of Mark Wahlberg, so you know almost nothing good has come from there)

Finally, the nitty gritty pseudo-legalese:

  • This show may contains spoilers, and it may spoil something with no warning whatsoever (although we make an effort to chuck a “spoiler alert!” in now and again)
  • This show was recorded live to tape and is unedited, so there may be more “ums”, pregnant pauses, and vile, ill-advised humor than you are used to from your everyday comics / pop culture podcast
  • This show includes the use of explicit and profane language, and is most decidedly not safe for work. Unless you have the kind of job that requires you to know what a “Tunguska Reacharound” is, in which case, listen away and feel free to tell your pimp that we think you deserve a larger cut of the take.

Enjoy the show, suckers!

tmp_amazing_spider-man_2_one_sheet_poster-1438492544Yes, we know, it’s been a couple of weeks since our last podcast, but we have a good excuse: we were drunk we were busy catching up on the latest in pop culture and comics after a weekend pretending we were still young reintroducing ourselves to classic video games!

So we are tan, rested and ready to talk about the biggest comics and geek events of the past week! Including:

  • A discussion of a weekend spent playing video games at the American Classic Arcade Museum at the Funspot Arcade in Laconia, NH
  • A talk about the highs (Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man) and lows (Jamie Foxx as Electro) of The Amazing Spider-Man 2
  • A dissection of the upcoming death of Wolverine, why it feels empty and corporate, why most recent comic book death stories feel the same, and a few comic book death stories that break that mold (and why)
  • A review of Jason Aaron’s and Jason Latour’s Southern Bastards, how it feels like a modern High Noon, and how it plays into (and stymies) views of the South from a couple of inveterate yankees
  • Quick discussion of DC’s Futures End Free Comic Book Day release, and Batman: Eternal #4

And, as usual, here are the disclaimers:

  • This episode was recorded live to tape, which means that there may be more dead air, ill-advised language, and “ummmms” than you are used to in your standard comics / pop culture podcast
  • This show uses explicit and profane language, and is not safe for work. If you have the choice between listening to this show on speakers and being reprimanded for faking a disability for wearing an earplug to listen to this show? Take the write-up. Sure, your hearing-impaired co-workers will give you the stinkeye tomorrow, but at least you’ll still be employed to see it.

Enjoy the show, suckers!

wondercon_fangirl_shirt_designOkay, okay; it’s been slightly more than a week (eight days, you want the exact tally) since our last podcast, but we (I) have a good reason, which I expand upon in the first few minutes of the show.

Tune in this week for discussion about:

  • Automobile vandalism! (Shit, I gave away the super-secret reason for the show’s delay!)
  • Misguided fangirl hate (Prompted by the t-shirt on sale at Wondercon, the design of which you can see at the top left, and the truly reprehensible reaction to Janelle Asselin’s critique of the upcoming Teen Titans #1 cover and suggestion that it might be a book prime to be designed for a female audience)
  • The new Joss Whedon written and produced movie In Your Eyes, which recently debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival and which can be rented for video on demand via Vimeo right now! Here’s the first three minutes of the movie (with a built-in button to rent the whole thing) so we’re at least kind of on the same page:
  • Scott Snyder’s Batman: Eternal #2 and American Vampire: Second Cycle #2!

And as always, our disclaimer: this show was recorded live to tape, so there may be a few more instances of “um,” “uh,” and “douchenozzle” than you are accustomed to in a comics podcast. Further, this podcast contains explicit, vulgar language, and is not safe for work. Every cell phone you have owned since 2006 has come with earphones. Use them.

Enjoy the show, suckers!

comxiologyYeah, I know that we mentioned the other day that we had subjects that we wanted to talk about in a podcast, but I also know that you didn’t even remotely think that we’d actually, you know, do one.

Well, the joke’s on you, because here’s Episode 11: The Golden Shakeoff Caper! In which we discuss:

  • The ComiXology buyout by Amazon (in which I reference a piece I wrote about ComiXology’s licensing and lack of ability to back up your comics)
  • The San Diego Comic-Con hotel registration process, and the anxiety-provoking processes around attending SDCC in general
  • Deadpool #27
  • DC’s new weekly comic, Batman: Eternal #1

And here is our usual disclaimer: this episode was recorded live to tape, meaning that other than adding the intro and outro music, it is presented exactly as we discussed it, with every, “um,” “uh,” cough and burp. Further, this podcast is not safe for work. Be advised that we liberally use explicit and vulgar language, although if you weren’t tipped off by the fact that our title this week includes the phrase, “golden shake-off,” you need more help than a friendly warning. Either way, use some headphones.

Enjoy the show, suckers!

tmp_captain_america_winter_soldier_poster_captain_america 1970456123I know what you’re saying. You’re saying, “Jesus Christ, Rob! A podcast? How timely! Only almost exactly 23 months after your last podcast! You’re a Goddamned radio machine, you guys are!”

True, true… but we just came back from watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which we enjoyed the hell out of, and decided that rather than just sit in a bar and talk about it, we’d dust off the old microphones and mixer and do it for public consumption. Hell, we liked podcasting… but what we never liked was recording one, then listening to it and taking notes on what editing and post-production we wanted, then taking another two hours and actually, you know, doing those edits and post-production, before finally uploading the damned thing.

So we tried something a little different today: we just sat down, shot the s**t about the movie for about half an hour, slapped the intro and bed music onto it, and uploaded it. This is live to tape, boys and girls; as you hear it is how we said it, awkward pauses, “um”s, and everything. But since that “everything” also includes fisting jokes, we hope it evens out.

In this episode, we talk about:

  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier in general
  • Black Widow, and how this is the first time it feels like she’s a character who could carry her own movie
  • Deviations between the movie and Ed Brubaker’s original comic
  • What effect this might have on ABC’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
  • The post-credits sequences
  • How the lack of laughter over a tombstone makes me weep for the state of movie-goers in general

And a bunch of other stuff we can’t remember because yeah: live to tape.

Here’s the usual disclaimer: this podcast is not safe for work. Further, we spoil a bunch of stuff from the movie, so if you haven’t seen it and want to remain pristine, give this a pass for now… but feel free to come back after you’ve seen it!

Enjoy the show, suckers!

I know what you’re saying: “Rob,” you’re saying, “It has been a month since Amanda’s and your last podcast. What’s the occasion?” Which would be an excellent question had Avengers not opened in American theaters last Friday, so asking it makes you look foolish. So stop it. You’re better than that.

Here is the pure hell of being editors of a comics Web site: Amanda and I watched Avengers together Saturday afternoon, and rather than discuss it, we agreed to see it again on Sunday… and still not discuss it until we got home and did it into microphones. And discuss it we did; in this Avengers podcast, we discuss:

  • The Avengers 3D vs. 2D Experience from the point of view of people getting old with slowly failing vision!
  • The Hulk: Great Avenger or Greatest Avenger?
  • The Hulk can lift tanks, so why can’t he carry his own movie?
  • Our Friend, The Thrice-Nightly Screening, or: Why Can’t Johnny Edit?
  • Black Widow as best developed Avenger (insert your own boob joke here)!
  • Hawkeye: Redundant Avenger or Redundant Avenger?
  • I Can Has Justis Leeg Moovee Nao?, and:
  • AAAvengers: who do we want to bring up from the minors?

As always, if you intend to listen to this at work, we recommend you wear headphones unless you want your boss to hear phrases like, “Lokif***er,” “Mjolnir… is not the hammer,” or, “You just want a Dirty Ruffalo!” Besides, with headphones, if you listen really close, you can hear two grown comics geeks misidentifying S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Sharon Carter as Ms. Marvel!

Enjoy the show, suckers!

(Avengers Booty Ass-emble via Kevin Bolk)

Guess who found their microphones?

That’s right, after five months, and literally no waiting with bated – or any – breath, it’s time for another exciting episode of the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Podcast!

In this week’s episode, we drunkenly rant about:

  • Digital Comics. Specifically, it was a big week encompassing the closing of the Graphic.ly Web storefront and the release of the first of Marvel’s Infinite Comics via ComiXology, so we talk about how faithful customers of digital comics get to be in the vanguard of comics publishing while eventually being doomed to wind up with fuckall for their money!
  • Marvel’s Augmented Reality application, which forces you to read your printed comics through your cell phone like Commander Data or some other robotic autistic person!
  • Fanboys Vs. Zombies, and how it is an awesome book if you have been to SDCC, want to go to SDCC, or want to see Joe Quesada eaten by a grue!
  • The Avengers movie: can it possibly be as good as the trailers and the TV spots make it look?
  • Agent Coulson: Xander of the Marvel Movie Universe?
  • Hawkeye: Like a Boss? Or Like a Miss?
  • SDCC Hotel Sales: big mess or biggest mess?
  • Plus: Justice League Dark and The Boys!

As always, if you listen to this show at work, wear headphones unless you want to explain to your boss why you’re listening to someone bemoan the lack of glory holes in San Diego hotel rooms! And if you can listen to the whole thing, see if you can tell the moment when the booze gets on top of us!

As always: thanks for listening, suckers!

You thought we’d given up, didn’t you? No such luck; it’s a day, which means it’s time for another exciting episode of the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Podcast!

In this week’s episode, we talk about:

  • How to get comics into the hands of children (Give a store to Jerry Sandusky! What, too soon?)!
  • What to pay your kids for allowance (Or, Sundusky’s Lawsuit-Be-Gon)!
  • New Jersey Comic Conventions (or: SDCC with GTL and MPV meaning HEP3!)
  • F***ing Digital Comics: How Do They Work (Great, if you hate paper and reading comprehension)!
  • The pros, cons, Novas, Phoenixs (Phoenixes? Phoenices? Phoenicians? Penises?) and Wonder Twin clones of Marvel Point One!
  • Our favorite non-reviewed books of the week, and:
  • Fisting a ham (Oh, it’s in there)!

As usual, if you listen to this at work, you should wear headphones! Unless your boss is into that hot, sweet, man-on-piglet action (And if he is, thanks for listening, Coach Sandusky)!

Thanks for listening, suckers!

It’s, err… a day (We’ve just about given up on a regular schedule for this thing)… which means that it’s time for another exciting episode of the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Podcast!

Brought to you, as always, in crystal-clear Drunkard Digital 2.0 surround sounds (2.1 if Rob burps into the microphone! And you don’t want to know under what circumstances it becomes 2.2!)

Discussed in this week’s program:

  • Monthly Comics: Holding The Line at 20 Pages plus House Ads and Shilling for Harley Davidson!
  • Looney Tunes, or: The Diagnosis of Super-Villains (Ooh! I vote Tertiary Syphilis!), and:
  • Our unreviewed books of the week: Deadpool, Dead Man’s Run, and the conclusion of Spider-Island!

And you can follow along at home with these links, kids!

As always: wear headphone when listening at work unless you’re tired of your job!

Enjoy the show, suckers!