After Lunch

Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about what they've been listening to and reading, including their favorite podcasts and comics, but also Harry Potter audiobooks, Cameron Crowe's novel Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story, Circe by Madeline Miller, Raymond Chandler's The High Window, and additional thoughts on Rogue Nation and Picard, Season 3.

After Michael, Rob, Jeff Somogyi, and Ben Graham talk briefly about their various experiences playing Dungeons & Dragons and their expectations for the game, Ben leads the rest of the party into a quick encounter with a sheep-stealing griffin. Assuming the group survives, this is the first of a series of adventures that will also see William Bruce West joining the fun in future episodes. Roll a d20 and make a Fun Check.

Michael and Rob are joined by Michael DiGiovanni and William Bruce West to imagine a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie that includes characters from the wide array of toys, movies, and TV series that Marvel Comics has licensed over the years.

Michael and Rob continue watching their way through the Mission: Impossible movies with Christopher McQuarrie's debut in the series, Rogue Nation. Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Jeremy Renner are back, but how does Sean Harris measure up as the villain? And then there's Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust. Is this the entry that will supplant Mission: Impossible III as our favorite? Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to tune in and find out.

Michael and Rob welcome Michael's friend and Kill All Monsters partner Jason Copland to talk about Jason's new graphic novel, Full Tilt. Successfully funded on Zoop in an hour, the book is a non-stop scifi noir action thriller. Jason talks about its inception and the creation process, but there's also some Kill All Monsters talk and we wrap up with a discussion of some of our favorite other "full tilt" stories in various media.

Michael, Rob, and Karen Flieger wrap up their digression into 1967 unofficial Bond movies with a look at Charles K Feldman's spoof, Casino Royale, starring David Niven, Ursula Andress, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, and Orson Welles. It's a classic train wreck of a movie, but does that mean that it's no good? We talk about what happened behind the scenes during production, critique the jokes, and try to make sense of the plot.

Michael and Rob reunite with their old friend Carlin Trammel to talk in a very spoilery way about the recent, third season of Star Trek: Picard. This isn't part of After Lunch's official Star Trek Trek discussions, because those won't get to Picard for a long time. We just couldn't wait that long to talk about the season.

Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about what they've been watching and thinking, leading to conversations about New Girl, Shrinking, Star Trek: Picard, Shazam: Fury of the Gods, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, John Wick, Chapter 4, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Ted Lasso, The Mandalorian, Murder, My Sweet, Nope, The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek, former fandoms we used to enjoy, Easter traditions, and dream RPG settings.

Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about what they've been listening to and reading lately, leading to topics like the intersection of faith and feminism, different approaches to film podcasting, the novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Bono's memoir Surrender, Pax's reaction to Michael and Rob's Ghost Protocol episode, Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely, '90s Batman comics, and Batmobiles in general.

Check out the After Lunch website for images of some of the Batmobiles that come up.

Evan wasn't able to join us last episode when Michael, Rob, and Jody Collins rebooted Marvel Comics, so in this episode, he shares his ideas for all-new versions of Thor, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Hulk, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men.