Deconstructing Comics

Now that we've become familiar with Jack Kirby's original Eternals comics, repeatedly referring to the 2021 MCU film along the way, it's time to sit through all two hours and 37 minutes of it again and evaluate it anew. Unfortunately, as a movie, it still has just as many problems, but at least now Tim and Emmet can get a better idea of what those problems were. And also take note of the bright spots. Brought to you by: Checkered Past podcast Our supporters on Patreon

Samuel Edme's comic The Shapes is... a bit hard to pin down. It looks like notebook scribblings, it has its faults, but it seems to have found an audience, which is all a comics creator can ask for. Bad? No. Not for us? Probably. Tim and Adam attempt to describe it anyway.

We've reached the end of Jack Kirby's Eternals series. Sure, it was a weird series, but introducing a Hulk robot apparently did little for the sales numbers. How did Kirby wrap things up? For a series that featured so many characters (though not as many as the freakin' movie, which we'll get to soon!), he took the odd step of giving us an Ikaris solo adventure, with a Celestial-in-the-machine ending. Not really what we wanted from a series that we initially found enjoyable. Tim and Emmet discuss the series wrapup. Brought to you by: The Quarter-Bin podcast Our supporters on Patreon

The 1994 film The Fantastic Four seems to have been made with the expectation, at least from producer Roger Corman on down, that it would be released. While some interested parties have claimed that it was only made to help Constantin Film's Bernd Eichinger keep his option to make an FF film from expiring, others say that someone stepped in to kill it after the film was made. In part two of our FF '94 crossover with Comic Book Movie Oblivion, Tim, Kumar, and Jordan finish walking through the film itself, and then explore the possible reasons why it never hit your local multiplex. Watch the film on YouTube Watch Doomed: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four on YouTube Read the 2005 Los Angeles magazine article "Fantastic Faux" Brought to you by: The Law of Equivalent Exchange: A Fullmetal Alchemist manga podcast Our supporters on Patreon

By the early '90s, Superman and Batman were blockbuster movie franchises, but Marvel had yet to find a way to get a big-budget film made based on their characters, let alone succeed at the box office. Bernd Eichinger of Constantin Film owned the film rights to the Fantastic Four, but those rights were soon to expire. So he teamed up with B-movie producer Roger Corman to bang out an FF film -- which, for somewhat unclear reasons, never came out. This week, in a crossover with the Comic Book Movie Oblivion podcast, Tim is joined by Kumar and Jordan; some early FF comics are evaluated, and then we begin a two-part discussion of the film, what's good and bad about it, and the (apparent) reasons it never hit screens. Watch the film on YouTube Watch Doomed: The Untold Story of Roger Corman's Fantastic Four on YouTube Brought to you by: To the Batpoles! podcast Our supporters on Patreon

Jack Kirby's The Eternals was not a conventional superhero book. It didn't even seem to take place in the Marvel Universe. By issue 14, it appears that Marvel editorial must have been pressuring him to make it more Marvel Universe-y, which would account for the appearance of the Hulk in issues 14-16... except it's not really the Hulk, leaving plausible deniability to the fact that this is really happening in the MU. But, along with New York City, the Pseudo-Hulk also smashed the direction of the series. Tim and Emmet sift through the damage. Brought to you by: Worst Collection Ever podcast Our supporters on Patreon

This week we catch up with the work of two DCP favorites, Chad Bilyeu and David Dye! Chad’s series The Re-up, about his time as a pot dealer 20 years ago, continues and has overcome the skepticism Tim had of the series at the start. David has released three more issues of Amazing Tales and gone in various directions: a Beowulf adaptation, a Burroughs-esque time travel story commenting on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and an EC-type horror comic! We review The Re-up issues 4-6 and Amazing Tales issues 6-8! Brought to you by: BAT 77: The '70s Batman podcast Our supporters on Patreon

If you've ever felt like your city left you before you left your city, Jason McNamara's Ghost Band is for you. Tim and Emmet discuss this post-apocalyptic look at San Francisco. Jason then taps in to explain the inspiration for the book and what happened to artist Vincent Gladnick 2/3 of the way through. Meanwhile, in Nigeria, the Grim Reaper has an apprentice, and he saves a girl's life -- temporarily. Grimm’s Assistant, by Mamode Ogbewele and Chigozie Amadi, might be a little too stingy with important story info, but sharp art and interesting ideas make it worth Tim and Jason's time reviewing it. Brought to you by: Who’s Who podcast Our supporters on Patreon

Tim gets ever closer to catching up with the MCU! Tim and Mulele discuss Avengers: Endgame's time-travel explanation (and problems), Captain Marvel's relative irrelevance to the film, how this movie set the stage for the upcoming TV shows, and much more. (Originally published on Patreon March 14, 2020) Brought to you by: Bat Bits podcast on Patreon, featuring our research on Batman '66 Our supporters on Patreon

FLASHBACK! Sports have rarely been subject matter for comics in the US; perhaps comics’ inherent static-ness has seemed antithetical to an activity with so much movement. But Japan has seen comics about various sports, and some of them have been quite popular, even iconic. Takehiko Inoue’s Real is not only about basketball, but about physical handicaps, relationships, and more. Kumar and Ilango find a whole lot to like about it — including the satisfying ways in which it translates sports action to the comics page. (Originally published February 16, 2015.) Brought to you by: The Law of Equivalent Exchange: A Fullmetal Alchemist manga podcast Our supporters on Patreon