Comic Book Bears Podcast

Not too early to wax nostalgic for 2014 yet, is it? Enjoy our reflection of the best from that year!

"It's that time! That time when Justin, Bryan and Billy Z offer up their picks for the best of 2014! Join them as they run down their picks for favorite ongoing, favorite mini-series, favorite writer, favorite artist, favorite single issue, favorite cover, favorite mini-series and their favorite comic related media of the past year! What do they pick for their tops of 2014? Multiversity? Big Hero 6? Saga? Storm? Cyclops? Afterlife with Archie? Ramon Perez? Aaron Kuder? Jonathan Hickman? Charles Soule? Some of these get the nods - some of these don't - you'll just have to listen in to find out which ones. There is also a talk about DC cancellations, Convergence, the NFL playoffs, Broadway theatre, comics that made them cry, Lootcrate and other tangents and topics! (Explicit warning - once again there are few cases of potty mouth - but you should have heard what they cut out!)

Intro - "Where You Get Love" - Matthew Sweet

1:30 - Best Comic Related Media of 2014 (and Lootcrate)

14:30 - Best Comic Book Cover of 2014

20:06 - Best Artist of 2014

26:00 - Best Writer of 2014

33:38 - Best Single Issue of 2014 (and comic that made us cry and Mutiversity: Thunderworld Adventures)

47:40 - Best Ongoing of 2014

1:05:10 - Justice League United and the Legion/Convergence/DC titles cancelled/Fantastic Four: 1234/Capote in Kansas

1:16:45 - The Woofs of the Week

Outro - "54/40" - Dead Moon

With so much turmoil happening in the world, we at the Comic Book Bear Podcast are honored to provide something for you that is celebratory! Please join Bill Zanowitz, Justin Allen, Matt Brossard, Bryan Pittard and Steve Mowry for an hour and a half that we are proud of as we toast each other, our listeners and the art form we adore with our landmark 100th episode! Imagine the ultimate CBB spinner rack as we each talk about our all-time favorite issues, our favorite books that have come out since our podcast started in 2011, our all time favorite comic book covers and our favorite anniversary comics!

Then we talk about OUR favorite comic book bears.

For a nice stretch.

INTRO: Bear in Heaven - "Reflections of You"

OUTRO: Quincy Jones with James Ingram - "One Hundred Ways"

A Flashback from 12/2014: After an extended break, Billy Z, Bryan and Justin are back on the Comic Book Bears mic with nearly two hours of comic book and geek culture talk. Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly's AMAZING Multiversity: Pax Americana is up first in the spotlight! The comic talk continues with the bears boys weighing in ODY-C #1, Matt Fraction, purple nipples, Wonder Woman, AXIS, Thor, Superior Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, the original Secret Wars, Mike Zeck, Kraven's ass, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Robert Hack, Action Comics, Superman in the New 52, comic book sales and the back issue market. They then take a non-comic detour to discuss the end of the current season of Doctor Who and the Star Wars Episode 7 teaser trailer. Then they turn on the TV to rap about what is happening on Gotham, Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Flash and Constantine. They wrap up as always with the Woof of the Week. Word of caution - the boys are little more potty mouthed on this ep than usual for some reason. And who or what is Havok Thanos Del Rio? Well, you'll just have to listen in to find out!!

THE BREAKDOWN (Because We Love You!)

Intro - "Where You Get Love" - Matthew Sweet

0:24 - Intro

1:24 - Multiversity: Pax Americana (DC)

18:30 - ODY-C #1 (Image)

28:55 - Wonder Woman #s 35 & 36 (DC)

37:55 - AXIS/Thor/Superior Iron Man/Captain America (Marvel)

48:20 - The original Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars (Marvel)

51:59 - The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #1 (Archie, just a brief teaser)

53:00 - Action Comics #36/Superman in the New 52 (DC)

1:01:04 - Comic Book Sales and Trends

1:07:09 - Non-Comic Detour - Doctor Who and Star Wars

1:32:08 - TV Talk - Gotham/Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D./The Flash/Constantine

1:48:04 - The Woofs of the Week

Outro - "53rd and 3rd" - The Ramones

Here is another CBB Flashback from November, 2014. This was recorded just after we had our first ever live show as part of New York Comic Con's Super Week and we brought on to the cast friend of the show Tom Nordin!

The bear boys are back with a special guest in tow, long time listener and friend of the show Tom Nordin! Tom, Billy Z, Bryan and Justin detail their experiences at New York Comic Con last month with tangents and topics including Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Avengers Station, Justin vs. a Ghostbusters cosplayer, the Empire State Building, hot dogs, Sina Grace, NPR's Ask Me Another, Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Coulton, the upcoming Shaft comic book, Judas Priest, The Americans on FX, Harvey Comics 60's super-heroes and more. Then its time to turn the dial to TV with the guys weighing in on The Flash, Constantine, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Doctor Who. We then leap from the small screen to the big screen to discuss the Marvel Cinematic Universe's spate of upcoming films. And then we round it off with a little bit of new comic talk by covering Multiversity, Batgirl #35 and the Death of Wolverine. Explicit language - and this time Bryan has the biggest potty mouth!

Intro: "Where You Get Love" - Matthew Sweet

2:29 - New York Comic Con

33:25 - The Flash on The CW

40:50 - Constantine on NBC

47:00 - Gotham on Fox

1:00:30 - Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC

1:08:42 - The current season of Doctor Who and the comics from Titan

1:13:00 - Marvel Cinematic Universe films

1:26:00 - Multiversity

1:34:00 - Death of Wolverine

1:40:26 - Batgirl #35

1:45:00 - The Woofs of the Week

Outro: "52 Girls" - The B-52's

Another CBB Flashback episode - this time with the super sexy Steve Pew from October, 2014!

The bears are back with a new episode, this time with special guest bear Steve Pew! (Ain't he cute?) It is mostly Marvel on the docket this time around as Billy Z, Bryan, Justin and Steve - after a few minutes on the premiere of Gotham - discuss what they are reading. Hickman's Avengers and New Avengers, All-New X-Factor, All-New X-Men #32, the Ultimate Universe, Uncanny X-Men, speculation about Spider-Man and the X-Men, Hawkeye, Immortal Iron Fist, She-Hulk, New Warriors, The Inhumans all get time in the spotlight along with books from other publishers like Velvet, The Fade Out, Annihilator, DC's September Future's End Books, The Devilers and more. Plus this is our last chance to talk up Comic Book Bears Podcast Live! on October 8th in NYC!

Intro - "Where You Get Love" by Matthew Sweet

1:00 Introducing Guest Bear Steve Pew

4:50 The Premiere of Gotham

19:00 Hickman's Avengers and New Avengers

30:30 All-New X-Factor

37:00 All-New X-Men #32, the Ultimate Universe and Uncanny X-Men

45:30 Spider-Man and the X-Men speculation

49:20 Velvet, Hawkeye, East of West, Immortal Iron Fist

53:05 The Fade Out

55:05 Annihilator and Multiversity: The SOS, Frazier Irving and Chris Sprouse

1:07:30 September's Future's End Books (Justice League United, Justice League, Superman/Wonder Woman, Batman and Robin, Teen Titans, Batman, Batgirl, Red Hood and the Outlaws, World's Finest, Aquaman and more.)

1:22:30 The Devilers

1:25:40 New Warriors, (the all-women) X-Men, Ms. Marvel

1:28:55 She-Hulk and the Inhumans

Then ... The Woofs of the Week and our last chance to talk about Comic Book Bears Podcast Live!

Outro - "Area 51" by The Charlatans (UK)

The first of our flashback episodes! With the end of the Earth 2 Network we will gradually be re-releasing episodes that previously were only available through the Earth 2 feed! And we start with Episode 50 from September, 2014.

Con recap episodes are a specialty of ours and you get a double shot here with Bryan talking about DragonCon and Billy Z and Justin about Baltimore Comic Con. Then new comic talk covers Mutiversity #1 (DC), Grant Morrison, a lot of Final Crisis talk, The Futures End issues of Earth 2, Action Comics and Swamp Thing, Original Sin #8, Dash #1 from Northwest Press, The Devilers #2, God Hates Astronauts #1 and more.

Intro – "Where You Get Love" by Matthew Sweet

1:06 Bryan talks about DragonCon

19:47 Billy Z and Justin talk Baltimore Comic Con

47:56 – Mutiversity #1 (DC), Grant Morrison and Final Crisis

1:12:10 – The Futures End issues of Earth 2, Action Comics and Swamp Thing (DC)

1:25:10 – Original Sin #8 (Marvel)

1:36:18 – Dash #1 (Northwest Press)

1:43:07 – The Devilers #2 (Dynamite) and Miracleman (Marvel) – briefly

1:47:00 – God Hates Astronauts #1 (Image)

1:56:40 – Kevin Keller #14 (Archie) and Grendel/The Shadow #1 (Dark Horse/Dynamite)

1:59:12 – The Woofs of the Week

Outro "50/50" by The Strokes

Woof Links -

http://www.comics.org/

http://www.bbcamerica.com/doctor-who/

http://www.amctv.com/shows/halt-and-catch-fire

http://geeksout.org/events/great-gay-geek-retreat-easton-mountain

http://www.relmnetwork.com/#!gatent/c5ik

http://drawnaway.centerofsomewhere.com/

http://drew-green.tumblr.com/

Fair warning: this episode does not contain any comic book talk. As part of the gay community we felt honor bound to talk about the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando last week. What you will get in this episode is a fairly raw discussion between three of our co-hosts (Bill Zanowitz, Bryan Pittard and Steve Mowry) about their feelings and perceptions surrounding the tragedy. Our next episode is a big anniversary for us so the funnybook talk will be back in place then but this episode is what it is. For those of you who do hit download, our deepest thanks in advance for listening.

Intro - "Reflections of You" by Bear in Heaven

Outro - "99 Luftballons" by MC Smike

On this week's episode we are honored to welcome to the show Legendary Comics' Editor in Chief Bob Schreck! Bob has been a longtime fixture in the comic world. In the early eighties he worked for Creation Entertainment on their groundbreaking fan conventions and from there he transitioned to a position at Marvel and then as Administrative Director at Comico Comics. From there Bob moved onto an editorial position at Dark Horse Comics which he then left to co-found Oni Press. Toward the end of the last century, Bob moved over to DC Comics where he became the group editor for the Batman books as well as overseeing editorial duties on Green Lantern, Green Arrow, the creation of the All-Star imprint and later a stint with Vertigo. After leaving DC, Schreck joined IDW Publishing as a senior editor and since 2011, he has been a VP and EIC of Legendary Comics, the comic book wing of Legendary Pictures! Legendary Comics launched with Frank Miller's controversial Holy Terror. Other books that have come out of Legendary include Grant Morrison and Frazier Irving's Annihilator, The Tower Chronicles and other works by notable names such as Mark Waid, Chris Roberson, Shane Davis and Judd Winnick and series and original graphic novels involving franchises that Legendary has been associated with in the film world such as Godzilla, Trick R Treat, Pacific Rim and Krampus. Bill Z, Steve and Justin speak to Bob to about his impressive career and what is brewing at Legendary Comics. After the interview, Matt joins us and we get down to some talk about current comics including Aliens: Defiance, Wonder Woman: Rebirth, Legend, Providence, some Valiant titles and more.

Intro - "Reflections of You" by Bear in Heaven

Outro - "98.6" by Keith

Rafer Roberts is the writer of the current Archer and Armstrong series at Valiant Comics and the CBBears are thrilled to welcome him to the show! Steve, Billy Z and Matt spend the first hour of the show interviewing Rafer about his work on A&A and his other projects for Valiant as well as his history as an indie comic writer and artist with his work on Plastic Farm, Nightmare the Rat, Magic Bullet, Rise and more! Best of all, you get to hear what Davey the Mackerel actually sounds like!

Afterwards, Bryan joins the cast and the talk shifts to current comics talk including discussion about Scooby Apocalypse, Superman Rebirth, Civil War II, Imperium, Poe Dameron, Cyborg and much more!

Intro - "Reflections of You" by Bear in Heaven Outro - "79" by Fela Kuti

LINKS: http://plasticfarm.com/ http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rafer-Roberts-maker-of-Plastic-Farm-and-other-comics/238475832829996 http://twitter.com/#!/plasticfarm http://plasticfarm.com/test/?feed=rss2

With three bears (Matt, Bill, Steve) in the den this week, the Comic Book Bears are thrilled to welcome to the show writer Richard Rivera! Richard is the writer of three current series - Stabbity Bunny, Wild Bull and Chipper and the soon-to-be-released Storm Pirates! Richard provides for us the lowdown on those books as well as his role as the marketing director for Think Alike Productions! The show continues with a tribute to the recently departed Darwyn Cooke and the boys also get in a little bit of current comics talk including a dose of Valiant, Future Quest #1, Midnighter #12, Invincible and more!

Intro - "Reflections of You" - Bear in Heaven Outro - "Durango 95" - The Ramones