Comic Book Bears Podcast

DC Rebirth is an important event! So much so that Justin actually called in from his hospital bed to join Bryan, Steve and Bill to discuss the book! Written by Geoff Johns with art chores by a host of top name talent, DC Rebirth #1 effectively closes the door on the New 52 era and ushers in a new one! Hit download and you get to hear what we thought of it along with the surprising developments seen in Captain America: Steve Rogers #1 and (in unexpectedly truncated form) the season finales of some of the current super-hero based network TV shows.

In this week's episode, all five Comic Book Bears are on hand to welcome to the show for the first time the incredible Sina Grace! A writer and illustrator, some of Sina's past projects include Burn the Orphanage, The Li'l Depressed Boy and Not My Bag among others. Sina's most recent project is a web series based on his autobiographical graphic novel Self-Obsessed for Image (which he also stars in!) Our conversation with Sina covers the web series and those projects as well as bears, Scar Jo Sailor Moon, penises, more bears, Prince, working as an editor for Robert Kirkman's Skybound imprint, more penises, one particular syndicated comedy from the 1980's, Generation X and even more penises among other topics! (Yeah, we kind of have to give this one an explicit tag!) We had an utter blast talking with Sina and we hope you will have a blast listening in!

Intro - "Reflections of You" by Bear in Heaven

Outro - "92" by Avail

LINKS:

http://www.sinagrace.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/sinadarkcomics

Recent TV is first up on the docket in this new Comic Book Bears Podcast episode! Bill, Matt, Steve and Justin talk about the Supergirl/Flash crossover, one particular recent episode of Legends of Tomorrow and more! The talk then turns to current comics as the CBBears weigh in on Midnighter, House of Penance, Gwenpool, Public Relations, Empress, Prophet: Earth War, Scarlet Witch and then wrap things up with The Woofs of the Week!

This week, Billy Z, Matt and Steve are jazzed to bring to the show Dale Lazarov for an interview!!! Dale is the writer and art director of numerous gay character-based, sex-positive graphic novels! Dale talks about his process and career, spotlighting a number of his works available through his imprint Sticky Graphic Novels including Bulldogs, Pardners, Peacock Punks, Manly, Sticky (which is celebrating its 10th anniversary) and many others! (Sticky Graphic Novels are published in hardcover by Bruno Gmünder GmbH and in digital format through Class Comics and links for those are below.)

After the interview we get in a little bit of current comic talk, focusing on Midnighter, Ninjak, how we influenced cosmic events with our mention of a 90's crossover on a previous show bearing unexpected fruit and as always closing the show out with our Woofs of the Week!

And fair warning - some explicit language.

http://www.dalelazarov.com/

http://www.stickygraphicnovels.com

http://www.classcomics.com/ccn/product-category/comics-by-series-title/sticky-graphic-novels/

http://www.dalelazarov.com/sticky-graphic-novels-gay-character-based%2c-sex-positive-graphic-novels-in-hardcover-format.html

Intro - "Reflections of You" by Bear in Heaven

Outro - "87" by The Bouncing Souls

Throughout 2016 the Bear Boys will be welcoming a bunch of bear comic book creators for interviews and Billy Z, Justin, Steve and Matt are thrilled to bring on to the show the super talented Jeremy Owen as the first of those hirsute and handsome hombres!!! Jeremy is the creative force behind Bludgeon from his own imprint, Burly Press. Jeremy goes into his history with comics, his collaborations with Greg Freeland II and our own Bryan Pittard, professional wrestling, Legos, his appearance in the movie Paul and a whole lot more!

Afterwards, we get into some comics talk and grab Titans Hunt, Prophet: Earth War, Faith, Rise of the Eternal Warrior, Injection and retro-pick JSA: The Golden Age off of the spinner rack!

Intro - "Reflections of You" by Bear in Heaven

Outro - "'82" by Stone Sour

Jeremy's Links -

http://www.burlypress.com

http://burlypress.tumblr.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Burly-Press

https://twitter.com/burlypress

https://www.patreon.com/burlyjer?ty=h

Yeah yeah yeah, we are a comic book based podcast but how can we not talk about The Force Awakens!?!? We are back to five bears strong this week as Bill, Justin, Bryan, Steve and Matt discuss what they thought of the new movie. (SPOILER ... they are not all in agreement ... except about Snap Wexley!) Then the CBBears each recount our earliest Star Wars memories. Then, to tie it back into comic books, we recount the history of Star Wars in comics and spotlight some of our favorite SW funnybooks including Dark Empire, Tales of the Jedi, X-Wing Squadron, Darth Vader and the Cry of Shadows, The Star Wars among them right into the current Marvel books.

Intro: Bear in Heaven - "Reflections of You"

Outro: The Clash - "1977"

The Comic Book Bears are back to five strong as Bryan rejoins Matt, Steve, Justin and Bill this week! The state of Marvel is up for discussion first and the boys dig deep into Secret Wars, Thors, The All-New All-Different Avengers, Hercules and more. Then DC gets time with Justice League: The Darkseid War, Starfire, Bizarro and the new books from Vertigo. Indie talk is dominated by the extraordinary Huck, F__k Fairyland and The Devilers. And Justin's retro pick is not Harry Potter. (That's a hint.) We also included a potty mouth preamble to kick off the episode. (During our pre-show conversation we were cussing up a storm. There's a little of that in the main body of the episode for whatever reason.)

Intro: "Reflections of You" by Bear in Heaven

Outro: "Teenage Lament '74" by Alice Cooper

The bear boys are thrilled this week to welcome to the show Vivek Tiwary, the author of The Fifth Beatle, the fantastic graphic novel which he wrote with art by Andrew Robinson and Kyle Baker!! The Fifth Beatle is a #1 New York Times bestseller and the winner of two Harvey awards which tells the story of Brian Epstein, the manager of the Beatles. A flamboyant but troubled figure who guided The Beatles to worldwide success, Epstein struggled with his homosexuality at a time before it had been decriminalized in the UK and died from an overdose of sleeping pills at age 32 at a point where The Beatles were at the zenith of their success. Vivek takes us through what attracted him to Epstein's story, the process of creating and developing The Fifth Beatle, plans for a major motion picture as well as other projects he is involved with!

LINKS:

http://thefifthbeatle.com/

http://www.tiwaryent.com/

https://twitter.com/VivekJTiwary

https://www.facebook.com/vivek.j.tiwary

https://www.facebook.com/TheFifthBeatleFilm

MUSIC

Intro - "Reflections of You" - Bear in Heaven

Outro - "The Class of 1973 Bells" - Prefuse 73 with School Of Seven Bells

The bear boys (minus Bryan) are back with the first of their episodes in their new weekly format! That's right - instead of twice a month, you will be getting hairy heavy homo comic talk every week now! Bill Z and Justin start off with a New York Comic Con recap! There is a Valiant Moment with Steve and Matt! Billy Z leads the DC talk! Matt takes the lead with Marvel and Indie talk! Steve gets in some Vertigo chatter! And newly christened Retro Bear Justin offers up the first of his retro pics! In the mix - Art Ops, Book of Death, Weirdworld, Jim Starlin, Mike Mignola, Titans Hunt, a New God getting punched in the face and a LOT more!

Intro - "Reflection of You" by Bear in Heaven

Outro - "Emergency 72 (Live)" by Turin Brakes

We start off the show welcoming Sean Lewis for an interview about his upcoming series for Image Comics SAINTS with artist Benjamin Mackey. Sean is an award winning playwright and This American Life personality and he drops in to tell us about this new ongoing series he is writing; a crime/horror action-packed new series that promises heavy metal, sex and deadly one-liners at every turn. Sean delves into how a Catholic upbringing informs the story, how he and Benjamin came up with the idea for SAINTS, his creative process and a lot more. After that, we hear about Steve’s trip to DragonCon and he gives us the lowdown on his time and the sights there. Then the comic book talk starts off - Injection, lots of Secret War tie ins (Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, Civil War, Future Imperfect, Ghost Racers and more), Force Works (!), DC Comics Bombshells and other female magic based books out on the stands, the now obligatory Matt and Steve “Valiant Moment” and we end on mullets and other hair disasters (not a comic).