Episode 25: Return of the Jedi/King/Mack

THEY LIVE!  Yes, after a somewhat longer than planned hiatus your favourite comics, graphic novels and sequential art podcast is back!  We talk 2013 comics movies, free comic book day, meeting real super-heroes and review Age of Ultron, Stormwatch, Hawkeye, Mara, Avengers, Batman, The Standard and in an incredibly immature manner, Sex.

Plus we now have a Facebook page - come and 'like' us at https://www.facebook.com/GiveMeComicsOrGiveMeDeath
Follow us on twitter @comicsordeath, download us from iTunes and visit us at givemecomicsorgivemedeath.blogspot.com

00:00:00 - 00:15:03 - General jibber jabber and previews
00:14:04 - 00:59:44 - 2013 movies
00:59:45 - 2:02:59 - Reviews

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Episode 24: Bumper Review Special

Happy New Year!  Since last episode we've read a hell of a lot of comics, so what better time to do a Bumper Review Special!  We run down a ton of Marvel Now releases, and so much stuff from other publishers we'd be here all day just listing 'em!

Follow us on twitter @comicsordeath, download us from iTunes and visit us at givemecomicsorgivemedeath.blogspot.com

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Top 10 of 2012

Fearless listeners of episode 23 of the GMCoGMD podcast will recall Mike asking me if I was going to regale the castees with my top ten comics of the year, what with it being top-ten-of-the-year time. Then, before I could look at my watch and wonder if the pod really needed to be even longer, Pod Commander Mike said that I'd blog it instead. So, scared of his robust physicality, I said sure. And here it is - the frankly populist half of Give Me Comics or Give Death's Best of 2012!

Rather than casting my mind back over the thousand or so comics I've read since January 1st 2012, I actually made notes all year, in anticipation of this very blog! What that does mean is that it's the more immediate and fun comics that dominate the list, rather than the more cerebral and serious types of work that populated the GMCoGMD awards. Anyway, here's the list - feel free to comment at the end to tell me just how disgustingly wrong I am about everything.

10) Ultimate Comics The Ultimates #16 by Humphries and Ross. This was a fairly key part of the (rather enjoyable) Divided We Fall crossover that took up much of 2012 in Marvel's Ultimate universe. Why did I enjoy it? Because it had President Captain America kicking ass and taking names in a brazenly ridiculous and corny and brilliant way, not seen since Millar and Hitch made Ultimates such a great book. President Cap rocks - I'd vote for him (you know, allowing for the him fictional/me not American thing...)

 

 

9) Wolverine & the X-Men #15 by Aaron and Molina. I've been pretty down on most of Jason Aaron's Marvel work in 2012, but this cute little issue was a moment of quiet in the AvX storm and suddenly felt like everything clicked and Aaron got the voices and dynamics of his cast of weird outliers (and Wolverine...) that hang about in the Jean Grey school. It was one of those classic X-Men issues where little happens but you're reminded why you care about all the endless fights - it's because you care about the characters.

 

 

8) Secret Service #1 by Millar and Gibbons. Read the opening few pages and tell me that a) It's not the best pre-credits sequence a James Bond film has never had, b) It's not the best thing Mark Hammill has done since 1983 and c) It doesn't deserve to be on this list. 

 

 

7) All-New X-Men #1 by Bendis and Immonen. The only surprise here is that I didn't simply install this in the top spot by default. It's Brian Bendis and it's Stuart Immonen and it's the X-Men and it has Wade von Grawbadger's name on it - what more could you possibly ask?

 

 

6) Hawkeye #2 by Fraction and Aja. If you're reading this blog then I assume you like comics and I assume you know how great the new Hawkeye series has been? I'm going to avoid any rubbish puns about hitting the target and just saw that this is one of those superhero comics that is all classy and cool and reads like the sort of thing that makes you think non-comics readers might be impressed with it (although they probably wouldn't be, the fools...)

 

 

5) Trinity by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm. Not strictly a comic (to my philistine perspective) as it had no men in tights smacking each other about. This was read as part of the GMCoGMD non-fiction comics experiment, and is a history of the development and deployment of the atomic bomb in WWII - you can tell it's non-fiction as they don't mention Captain America slapping a Jap even once! It's a well-written, well-drawn and fascinating book that told me more about disturbing stuff that I should have learned in school than I learned in school.     

 

 

4) X-Factor #230 by David and Lupacchino. Peter David's tenure on X-Factor has offered up many gems - it's a classic case of being given a bunch of characters that neither too many fans or anyone too important at the corporation cares about and so having freedom to tell interesting stories. This was a laugh-out-loud issue with the various second and third-tier mutants who make up X-Factor bouncing off each other. Great character beats, great laughs, great issue - more people should be buying X-Factor than watch the shitty show of the same name.

 

 

3) Fantastic Four #604 by Hickman and Epting. This issue has been a little bit robbed by not being in first place as it was my favourite single issue of the year but then I totally cheated, as you'll see if you read on (and if you made it this far, I assume I've got you until the end). Hickman's run on the FF books has been as good as any run in the history of the characters and "To me, my Galactus!" will be one of the panels that immediately come to mind when I think of the most thrilling panels I've read...ever! Yep, never mind in 2012, the 604th issue of Fantastic Four is great at any time. 

 

 

2) Scalped #any of them by Aaron and Guera. See, I tried to make a list of ten single issues and knew that Scalped had to be on there and that it had to be near the top and just don't feel it would be fair on whichever issues of Scalped I didn't pick by singling one out. The whole series was of such outstanding quality, not just the ones this year. Scalped is as good as entertainment gets, never mind comics. If you haven't read it, you're wrong. 

 

 

1) Journey Into Mystery #any of the Kieron Gillen issues by Gillen and various. Another cop out? Another failure to pick a single issue in my top ten single issues list? And something better en masse than Scalped? Well, yes, kinda. I'll accept that Scalped might, in some snooty way, be better than JiM, though I've no idea how you measure that. But Kid Loki might know, and he'd certainly be able to convince you that he knew, and you'd know he might be telling lies but you wouldn't really know so you'd start to trust him and then you'd wonder if you were wrong and if he was right and he'd be wondering the same and then love and then hate and then betrayal and hope and disappointment and epic fantasy and look, this was a really great run and it might not end up with a proper collected edition so hunt out the single issues. Cracking stuff. 

 

 

Mike might edit away the rest of this, but in the interests of making your life some sort of me-influenced multi-entertainment extravaganza, here, not in reverse order, are my movies and albums of 2012. Legally download them, or something. 

 

1) Avengers Assemble 

2) Dark Knight Rises 

3) Amazing Spider-Man 

4) Dredd 3D 

5) Chronicle 

6) Looper 

7) Brave 

8) The Expendables 2 

9) The Bourne Legacy 

10) Skyfall 

 

1) Japandroids, Celebration Rock 

2) Hey! Hello!, TBC 

3) Titus Andronicus, Local Business 

4) Mark Lanegan Band, Blues Funeral 

5) Future Of The Left, The Plot Against Common Sense 

6) Cloud Nothings, Attack On Memory 

7) The Gaslight Anthem, Handwritten 

8) Titus Andronicus, LLC Mixtape Vol. 1 

9) Ginger, 555% 

10) Metz, Metz 

That's all. See you in 2013...

Lee - Mike'll give you comics so I'll bring the death!

Marvel ARrrgh!

Question: would you enjoy this blog more if [AR] you could point your smartphone at that slightly intrusive and annoying little [AR] that your eyes just flicked past? Especially if, after doing so (at just the right angle) you were treated to say, a video of me typing this post? Or, say, a little clip of me sounding bored and sarcastic and maybe giving away the end of the blog post before you'd gotten there? 

Answer: well, I'm guessing here, but I'm gonna have to go with "no, that'd just be irritating and a little bit crap."

Now, when Marvel first introduced the AR tags it divided opinion on the GMCoGMD podcast, and I came down in favour of them. Mike decried it as, at best, a gimmick, but my Marvel-love blinded me and I quite liked it. It was a little bit exciting and it was new and, besides, it was (mostly) just in the big event book, Avengers Vs X-Men, and those first issues were drawn by JR Jr, so what I did was read the comic as normal and then go back through, re-admiring Romita's art and looking for the AR tags. It wasn't earth-shattering, but it was fun. The ones that showed the art developing or alternate layouts were nice, the ones that gave a motion-comic version less so (it just looks like a really awful cartoon - what's the point?) and the creator interviews were mixed, but I could see the appeal of AR - it's just DVD extras in a comic. Nice idea, worth exploring. 

Fast-forward to Marvel Now and the various new/re-launched titles that comprise it. The AR tags are now more prevalent in all books (although I noticed they'd gotten a lot smaller in Captain America #1) and the content has become slightly more varied (the weird puppet giving you Deadpool's history in Deadpool #1 was a highlight) but I'm now finding them massively annoying! They intrude on the page, spoiling the art - in the (rather excellent) Indestructible Hulk #1 there were AR tags on facing pages; surely Leinil Yu's art deserves more pages, not covering up with little red boxes? Some of the content is just merde (pardon my French) - all due respect, but who cares what a Marvel staffer's mother thinks about a comic? - and I'm torn between just ignoring them totally or, like a fidgeting junkie, dragging my iPhone out every other page, just in case I'm missing something good (note to self - I'm not). 

I still like the concept, but the execution is weak. What I'd prefer to see is a little menu on the letter or intro page with all the tags there, rather than having them scattered through the book. Don't spoil Stuart Immonen's pretty, pretty pictures in All-New X-Men with an AR tag; instead, have a little box at the back that says "see the breakdowns for page 6" or what have you, or "tag here to hear Bendis talk about stuff". It'd still be a bit cool and still be a new thing for comics and still be interactive and all that, but it also wouldn't intrude on the experience of reading and, critically, looking at the comic. 

I assume whatever technology sits behind the AR tags is what drives the current placement, with the art on the page serving as some sort of surrogate QR tag, but if the technology is not ready, then wait until it is, because at the moment Marvel AR is impacting on my enjoyment of the books in the wrong way. And if Marvel are trying to smooth the road towards digital comics, persuading old-school readers like myself that comics will be fine on an iPad by making technology an integral part of the experience, they need more compelling content than AR offers at the moment. In fact, if that is the plan then I am more than happy to miss out - ditch AR from the physical books and let readers on Comixology or whatever 'benefit' from the extras. 

A closing comparison for you: the best comic being made at the moment is probably Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples' Saga - no AR there and, in fact, you can't even email them; BKV insists on actual letters, on paper! You don't need to innovate to make great comics; you just have to make great comics.

Episode 23: Give Me Comics Or Give Me Death Awards 2012

Come on, you didn't think we'd skip something as obvious and cliché as an end of year round up and awards special did you you!!?

Follow us on twitter @comicsordeath, download us from iTunes and visit us at givemecomicsorgivemedeath.blogspot.com

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Episode 22: A Weekend of Comics! Thought Bubble 2012

We came, we saw, WE KICKED IT'S ASS!*  Join us as we round- up our Thought Bubble 2012 experience, including interviews with Mark Waid, David Hine, Ian Churchill and Woodrow Phoenix.  Then we have a bumper selection of reviews including Storm Dogs, Fight!, St Colin & The Dragon, Shadowman, Jennifer Blood, 47 Ronin, Moloch, Scalped and more Marvel Now than you can shake a creatively revamped stick at.

 *That's from Ghostbusters, for all you young 'uns.

Follow us on twitter @comicsordeath, download us from iTunes and visit us at givemecomicsorgivemedeath.blogspot.com

00:00:00 - 00:43:05 - Thought Bubble 2012 round-up

00:43:06 - 1:01:33 - Interviews

1:01:34 - 2:10:37 - Reviews

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Episode 21: Thought Bubble 2012 Preview

It's that time of year again!  We preview our local, and the UK's biggest and best, comics festival - it's happening 17/18 November so get on down!

Plus reviews of the CBLDF Anthology, Vertigo's Ghosts anthology, A-Babies v X-Babies, Batgirl #13, Batwoman #13, Wolverine Max #1, Multiple Warheads #1, and DC's new TV show Arrow.

Follow us on twitter @comicsordeath, download us from iTunes and visit us at givemecomicsorgivemedeath.blogspot.com

00:00:00 - 00:56:14 - Thought Bubble Preview
00:56:15 - 1:36:26 - Review

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