Comic Book Bears Podcast

Billy Z, Justin, Matt and Steve are back this week with an abbreviated episode that still manages to pack in a whole lotta funnybook talk! We hear a little bit about Bill's Chicago adventure at the C2E2 convention along with a healthy dose of Valiant (Archer and Armstrong, Ninja ... um ... Ninjak, Wrath of the Eternal Warrior), Marvel's Infinity Entity by Jim Starlin and Alan Davis and one of the Woofs of the Week leads to some unexpected Doom Patrol talk - which we promise to follow up on at a later date!

Intro - "Reflections of You" by Bear in Heaven

Outro - "88 Lines About 44 Women" by The Nails

The Comic Book Bears are Matt-less this week but Bill, Justin, Bryan and Steve still assure you a good amount of hairy-heavy-homo comic book talk in this episode loaded with recent issues! On the spinner rack in this episode are various X-books from Marvel, the first issue of Patsy Walker, Hellcat (with a new favorite character of ours among the supporting cast), Jupiter's Circle, Last Gang in Town, Dark Knight III, Darkseid War, Swamp Thing and much more!

Intro - "Reflections of You" by Bear in Heaven

Outro - "1979" by Smashing Pumpkins

The CBB boys were all about the Big 2 last time so this episode shifts focus to some of the finest books from independent publishers that they are digging. They start off with some discussion about their favorite bits of news from last month's San Diego Comic Con and then they launch into the indie talk! You get the lowdown on - Secret Identities; Gravedigger: The Predators; Dash; The Manhattan Projects; The Dying and the Dead; God Hates Astronauts; Luther Strode; Providence; 8 House: Arclight; Strange Fruit; Archie; Hellboy and BPRD; Airboy (of two different eras); Nathan and the Adonai; The Spire; Grant Morrison's 18 Days and more!

We are absolutely thrilled to bring to the Comic Book Bears Podcast for the first time the creative force behind Wuvable Oaf, the one and only Ed Luce! Ed joins Steve Mowry and Bill Zanowitz and they have Ed take us through the origins of everyone's favorite kitty cat loving, headbanging and hirsute masked wrestler up to the most current Oaf book Blood and Metal which recently came out on Fantagraphics! Amidst the expected talk about bears and cats and music and wrestling, we also explore Ed's work on Henry and Glenn Forever, his story in a sex themed issue of Heavy Metal along with some insight into Ed's future work! (Big thanks to Bennet Marks for the pic of Ed with Goteblüd himself!)

All four CBBears (Bill, Justin, Bryan and Steve) are on the mic for this episode! And for their first episode of 2017 they choose to look back and offer up their favorites for 2016! Listen in and find out what their picks for best ongoing title, best limited series, best writer, best artist and more are!

We decided to do something totally different with this episode. Instead of sticking with our standard format, we instead have all five bears on the mic this time around, without any prep or plan and we just talk. And talk. And talk and talk. About everything! Sketch comedy TV, Tina Fey, Monty Python, dead pets, Hulk Hogan and racism, gun control, Whitesnake, straight porn movies ... in fact we don't start talking about comics until the end of the episode. It was a nice break for us and, though it might not be to everyone's liking, we still hope you will check it out!

The 6th episode of the UKPNW@40 Podcast focuses on The Vibrators! The band were the first punk group to have recorded and released a Peel Session! You will hear a track from that session (recorded on October 12th, 1976 and released on October 28th, 1976) along with both of the singles just a few weeks later in November, 1976. Host Bill Zanowitz guides you through an introduction to the band as well as offering up what a Peel Session actually was.

The 5th episode of the UKPNW@40 Podcast spotlights the band that served as one of the bridges between the Pub Rock and Punk Rock scenes - Eddie and the Hot Rods! Listen in as host Bill Zanowitz takes you through a brief primer on Pub Rock, the Rods' "Teenage Depression" single (released on the 28th of October, 1976) and their debut album of the same name (released on November 22nd, 1976.)

All four DC Comics-based shows airing on the CW recently were part of a crossover and Bryan, Bill and Steve are on hand to talk about it. The event Heroes vs Aliens is based on DC's series from the late 80's Invasion and the bears take you through The Dominators' efforts to subjugate Earth! And if that wasn't enough, we also have current comic talk with Wrath of the Eternal Warrior, All-New X-Men Annual #1 (with a story by the amazing Sina Grace), Tomasi and Gleason's Superman, Bryan Hitch's wrap up of JLA, the relaunch of Nova and Grand Passion occupying space on this week's fat and furry spinner rack!

The 4th episode of the new UKPNW@40 podcast spotlights "New Rose/Help",the first single by The Damned on the independent label Stiff Records. Released on the 22nd of October, 1976, the single has the distinction of being the first single to be released by a British punk act. Join host Bill Z as he takes you through the pre and early history of the group.