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Welcome to Episode 221 of the Two-Headed Nerd Comic Book Podcast!
This week, we discuss First Second’s new line of Science Comic graphic novels, the disintegrating schedule of Marvel’s Secret Wars event, and Strange Wit, the new graphic novel project about the life of Jane Bowles by Katy Rex!
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE STRANGE WIT KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN!
Plus, we make our first foray into the manga world in our Take a Look It’s In a Book segment, as we review Pluto Vol. 1 by Naoki Urasawa and Osamu Tezuka!
Hey! Don’t forget to check out our other podcast, the Answer of the Week, where we talk about the latest Question of the Week with all of YOUR responses!
And when you’re done listening to this week’s episode, head over to the THN Forums to discuss it with your fellow Listenerds!
This week’s reviews:
- Joe — Zodiac Starforce #1 from Dark Horse Comics by Kevin Panetta and Paulina Ganucheau
- Matt — Drive #1 from IDW by Michael Benedetto and Antonio Fuso
Ludicrous Speed Round:
Joe’s 5:
- SHIELD #9 (Marvel)
- Noirness One-Shot (AdHouse)
- Hank Johnson: Agent of Hydra One-Shot (Marvel)
- The Seven-Per-Cent Solution #1 (IDW)
- Spider-Woman #10 (Marvel)
Matt’s 5:
- Book of Death: The Fall of Ninjak #1 (Valiant)
- New MGMT #1 (Dark Horse)
- Stringers #1 (Oni)
- Black Tiger #1 (Graphic India)
- The Last Days of Ant-Man One-Shot (Marvel)
Picks for next week:
- Joe — Plutona #1 from Image Comics by Jeff Lemire and Emi Lennox
- Matt — Midnighter #4 from DC Comics by Steve Orlando and Alec Morgan
Trade/Graphic Novel of the Week:
- Neil Gaiman’s Teknophage: The Complete Comics Vol. 1 from Super Genius by Rick Veitch and Bryan Talbot
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Our theme music is A Better Tomorrow by Dan the Automator. Other music found in this week’s episode was provided by the following sources: Big News Theme — Big News II by Clutch, Ludicrous Speed Round Theme — Fury of the Storm by Dragonforce featuring Dark Helmet, Drive That Fast by Kitchens of Distinction, Kickstart My Heart by Motley Crue, Don’t Fake the Funk by Prince Charles and the City Beat Band, Living After Midnight by Judas Priest, Hip Pickles by Blood Sweat & Tears, and many other fine songs that are copyright/trademark their respective artists/owners, but didn’t get listed because Matt is still editing as I type these notes.
I grew up as a child, US citizen, having never enjoyed reading a single issue of a superhero comic book I came across. The artwork did not appeal to me and thought them grotesque and strange, nothing like the bright and silly cartoons I watched on TV.
I was used to seeing super heroes on TV where they had less detail and a more stylized look particularly Batman The Animated Series. That show was mostly self contained whereas these comic book versions from what I understood had long running continuity spread out over multiple issues or different titles entirely which really annoyed me.
I didn’t know anyone who actually read comic books either so I just ignored them outright and their overall scarcity where I lived didn’t help.
It wasn’t until high school when I did start reading comics more that weren’t Calvin and Hobbes collections. I flipped through older collections of superhero comics from the early days of the genre and found the art style quaint and far less offensive to my eyes then the modern stuff but I still had no real interest in them.
My biggest interest was animation which I can never get enough of. To me Cartoons were Cartoons no matter what it looked like. This is in contrast with older “animation enthusiasts” across the country who knew the term Anime and used it to either mock or praise this apparently unique form of animation for adults that came only from Japan.
In my teenage years I watched Dragon Ball Z with the understanding that it was foreign in origin but that meant little to me. I got addicted to it since I was the target audience for it, boys who like silly, dumb, cool stuff and semi-serious storytelling. When I was at the local toy store I came across the first few volumes of the original DBZ comic which I quickly learned was the source material. Akira Toriyama’s art style was more fun to look at then the actual show and vastly prefer it over the cartoon.
I later found a floppy version of the DBZ comic that tried to mimic the format of a typical American comic book and once I got to the end of the issue I saw it was the final one and that the story would continue in something called Shonen Jump. SJ was a magazine made for boys and all the comics packaged inside it was just the way I wanted to read serialized stories similar to Dragon Ball Z.
My tastes evolved and I really got into the medium of comics, past and present, created all around the world. I still don’t care much for Marvel/DC superhero stuff outside of those amazingly cartoony Jake Cole Plastic Man comics, although it wasn’t a DC property back then, but that’s really just a drop of water in a vast ocean.
My final thought on the matter is it’s nice you enjoyed Pluto. I love Osamu Tezuka’s cartoony works, Astro Boy is a fun children’s comic, and this more adult take on one of the best storylines in the original has been a great read so far.
I do wonder though what the complete fascination of tentacle porn is with people who are not well versed in Japanese animation. It’s all people who don’t watch anything of it ever talk about. It’s an old trend born from the far weirder pornographic censorship laws in Japan and isn’t really produced much, or at all, nowadays for the small niche market that’s into that stuff.