Comic Book Bears Podcast

New Comic Book Bears audio episode! Join us as Bill Z, Steve and Caleb return to the movies (for a second episode in a row) to discuss Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse! The animated film is the sequel to 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and is directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson. Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Vélez, Jake Johnson, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, Karan Soni, Daniel Kaluuya, and Oscar Isaac make up the main voice cast which finds Miles Morales on an new, high stakes adventure with Gwen Stacy across the multiverse where he meets a new team of fellow Spider-folk known as the Spider-Society, led by Miguel O' Hara/Spider-Man 2099, but comes into conflict with them over how to handle a new threat! Hit play to hear what the CBB boys thought of the movie and then - as is now custom with our movie oriented episodes - make their recommendations concerning comics featuring the Spider-Verse characters that we think you might dig! We still get in a little bit of roundtable time to discuss some new books and GNS like Count Dante #1, Centralia and Supermassive 2023! WOOF AND THWIP!

May 5th, 2023 saw the release of the final installment in the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Once again directed by James Gunn - and his MCU swan song as well - GOTGV3 stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan and more as Star Lord, Drax, Mantis, Rocket, Groot, Nebula and a revived Gamora go on one final adventure together, this time squaring off against The High Evolutionary! And what did the CBB boys think of it? Well, hit play to hear where Steve, Caleb and Bill Z think Guardians 3 ranks! And as is now custom with our movie centric episodes we offer our recommendations for what Guardians tales we think readers would enjoy in the four color format! We also discuss the Eisner nominations, get in some unexpected Amityville Horror talk, woofs, gets and a lot more!

We had hoped to get the audio episode of our livestream on this past Star Wars Day (5/4/2023) out to you a bit earlier than we have but here it is! Bill Z, Caleb and Steve gather round the mic for another new CBB confab! Since we have something else Star Wars specific in the planning stages, we don't spend too much time in a galaxy far, far away but journey long enough around the Outer Rim to discuss the recent High Republic comics! On top of that Superman: Lost, more Sins of Sinister, Hellcat, Jeff Lemire's Phantom Road and Betty and Veronica: Friends Forever - Rock and Roll also get their own spotlights during our roundtable! Plus news, gets, woofs and much more!

Another new CBB audio episode! We welcome to show for the first time Zackary Marois! Artist/writer Zack is a graduate of the Kubert School and is about to launch a new Kickstarter: Voyage Issue 1 - Principium! This sci-fi adventure series details the saga of Sonderon, an intergalactic space explorer! The Kickstarter will launch soon and we get the early word from the creator about what to expect. The indie vibe continues on in the roundtable as Steve, Caleb and Bill Z discuss Monster Tag Team (American Mythology), The Seasons Have Teeth (Boom!), House on Fire (Living the Line) and more!! Hit play and join us!

We are thrilled to welcome back to the show the Koala Bear of Comics and Nottingham scribe David Hazan! Our favorite Aussie David has some new books coming out in the next few months - the magic oriented Monomyth (Mad Cave) with its first issue hitting the shops on May 3rd and Death Drop: Drag Assassin (Scout), a supernatural queer noir about a hitman turned drag queen that is slated for release on June 14th! David fills us in on these series as well as the Tales from Nottingham (Mad Cave) anthology series and he is joined by the letterer on these projects Lucas Gattoni, the Argentinian Lettering Bear, who discusses his work on David's books and others such as Blue Beetle: Graduation Day (DC)! And if this sexy international ursine one-two punch isn't enough we also talk about some recent comic book oriented Film and Tv trailers and Billy Z, Caleb and Steve discuss The Unstoppable Doom Patrol (DC), the relaunched Black Panther (Marvel), the Paul is Dead: How The Beatles Lost Paul (Image) graphic novel and more!

Another new Comic Book Bears Podcast audio episode! Earlier this month, we observed Daylight Savings Time here in the US and this was the first time the CBB boys (Bill Z, Caleb and Steve) reconvened in the virtual bearcave since setting the clocks ahead. After a bunch of news items the comics discussed on this episode include Superman: Space Age (DC), the X-Men: Sins of Sinister event (Marvel), Local Man (Image), Blood Tree (Image), Godfell (Vault) and How I Became a Shoplifter (Sumerian). Hit play and you will also discover what "Met the Deck" isn't!

WITH ONE MAGIC WORD! The Comic Book Bears boys return to the cinema for a new audio episode discussing Shazam: Fury of the Gods! It is the sequel to the first 2019 Shazam! film and is also the 12th installment in the DC Extended Universe franchise. The film was directed by David F. Sandberg and stars Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Rachel Zegler, Lucy Liu, Djimon Hounsou, and Helen Mirren. In the film, Billy Batson and the rest of the Shazam siblings fight the Daughters of Atlas! Hit the play button to hear what Steve (not the pen) and Bill (who was battling with the Fury of the Bad Headcolds when they recorded) thought of the movie and, as is CBB custom, also offer up their suggestions for collected comic book editions starring the Shazam Family members!

The Comic Book Bears head back to the movies to discuss Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the 31st Marvel Cinematic Universe film and the first in that franchise's Phase 5! The film was directed by Peyton Reed and stars Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly returning as Scott Lang and Hope van Dyne alongside Jonathan Majors, Kathryn Newton, Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael Douglas. In the film, the Lang/Van Dyne family are transported to the Quantum Realm and face Kang the Conqueror. Caleb, Steve and Bill Z offer up what they thought of the movie and also provide their picks for anyone who might want to follow up seeing the film by reading Ant-Man or Kang centric comics. (Also, it was impossible to discuss this film without spoilers so if you want to avoid the film talk, that all occurs between the 3:42 to 45:50 mark.) After that a trip to the spinner rack yields a discussion regarding recent comics like Swamp Thing: Green Hell (DC Black Label), Blue Beetle: Graduation Day (DC) and A Foulness in the Walls (AfterShock). So hit play to release those Pym Particles and join us for some subatomic cinema talk!

Time for another new Comic Book Bears Podcast episode! The show starts off as Bill Z, Steve and Caleb catch up with one another and then talk briefly about the recent passing of music legend Burt Bacharach. News items include Kickstarter searching for their new director of comics projects and the passing of artist Lee Moder. Then we head onto the virtual spinner rack with discussions about Midnight Suns (Marvel), Avengers: War Across Time (Marvel), It's Lonely at the Center of the Earth (Image), Where Monster Lie (Dark Horse), Breath of Shadows (IDW) and the manga classic Banana Fish (Viz.) Plus as always our gets, our woofs and our tangents!

On this new Comic Book Bears Podcast audio episode, we welcome back to the show the incredible Steve Bryant! Steve has been on our podcast many times in the past to talk about his work like Athena Voltaire and The Clean and this time around he is here to discuss his Kickstarter campaign for the first issue of Evie and the Helsings! For centuries, the Van Helsing family has protected humanity from things that go bump in the night. The mantle has been passed onto the last of the family line. But Evie Van Helsing just wants to rock! Written by Steve, drawn by Don Cardenas with colors by Jason Millet, Evie and the Helsings is the first issue of a 4-issue miniseries that follows Evie as she navigates life between the music industry and the supernatural world. (Think Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets This is Spinal Tap by way of Ash Versus Evil Dead.) Hit play to hear Steve tell us all about it! After the interview, Caleb, Billy Z and Steve discuss some recent comic related news (such as the cancellation of two HBOMAX comic books based shows and a new Titans #1 with a phenomenal creative team behind it!) New books on the spinner rack that we discuss include Nightwing #100, the kickoff of the X-Men storyline Sins of Sinister and Inferno Girl Red #1 from Image Comics! All this and ... sorta kinda ... Cher!

Please also note this is our first episode with our brand new theme song ... which we really really dig ... composed just for us by the electronic artist Walkathon!

And lastly we talk about a Meal Train campaign to assist our very close friend and fellow podcaster Wendi Freeman who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. The links for the Evie Kickstarter and Wendi's campaign are below. Please consider contributing to both!!!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stevebryant/evie-and-the-helsings-1

https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/9v4vy6