Comics Misremembered Podcast

This week we have a slight variation in our comic review.  This is a new  comic but it a comic that is adapted from a well know American novel.   Jon and I are reviewing Ryan North and Albert Monteys' comic adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five.  The adaptation is published by BOOM! Studios and is available now.

We went over an hour on this one but we kept it under 2 hours so not to split up the podcast.  Jon and I both love the original book and we think the adaption is brilliant.  We talk about the story and how well the comic stayed true to the source material.  In the podcast, we make recommendations on movies based on Vonnegut's novels and I must mispronounce Paul Lazzaro's name about 15 times.  I don't know if I ever got it right.

So it goes.

Last week, we reviewed the Warner Bros. Animated movie Superman: The Man of Tomorrow.  Months ago, when the title of the movie was announced and there wasn't any information about the movie, I thought they may be adapting the venerated Superman story: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow.  To my dismay, they did not adapt it and we were given a generic origin story for Superman.

Fast foward to a week later, I decided that we will be doing a retro review for Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow.  This story was originally told as a 2 part tale in Superman # 423 (Part 1) and Action Comics #583 back in 1986.  It was written by Alan Moore (with help by editor Julius Schwartz).  The art was done by long time Silver Age artist, Curt Swan with inks done by George Perez (Superman #423) and long time Silver Age inker, Kurt Schaffenberger (Action Comics #583).  The story is regarded as the "Last Superman Story" which is somewhat true.  It was the last Silver Age story before DC would reboot and modernize Superman with the release of Man of Steel miniseries.

A few months ago while searching for the release date of Superman: Red  Son (a comic and animated movie that are both quite good), I came across  an image for another upcoming Superman animated film called Superman:  Man of Tomorrow.

There was no description of this movie but I was excited that WB Animation will be releasing another Superman film in 2020.

Fast forward to September 2020 and the release of Superman: Man of Tomorrow written by Tim Sheridan (co-writer of Reign of Superman Movie and other DC Animated series).

Jon and I have watched this movie and we felt it was...adequate.  This movie is not based on any existing storyline in the Superman comics as far as I can discern.  It has elements of the New 52 iteration of the Superman comics (Modern interpretation of Superman, Clark Kent is an internet at the Daily Planet, Superman has only just been spotted in a modern setting) but it does not specifically reference any direct comic storyline.

Listen to the podcast and I will explain why this movie has the worst version of Lex Luthor since Superman Returns.  This is a boilerplate Superman story whose only purpose is to establish Superman's story in the modern age.  There is nothing special about this movie and it will soon be forgotten in the coming months.

We recommend to watch this movie only if it becomes available on HBOMax and don't pay any thing extra for it.  If you are curious about the plot (or lack therefore), then you want to listen to the podcast.

Last year, we were give The Boys, an Amazon Prime adaptation of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's comic series, and it was great.

We waited and about a year later, we are given the second season of The Boys!

***OBLIGATORY SPOILER WARNING***

There is a lot to talk about in just 4 episodes.  We mostly talk about the revelations that happened in Episode 4 and compare them against the comic book storyline.  I don't want to say too much here but we talk about Homelander and Stormfront's tenuous relationship on The Seven.  How Butcher is dealing with the revelations at the end of Season 1.  What The Deep is up too and much more.

This week we are talking about an original graphic novel that came out about a month ago that is part western and part crime drama.  It is called Pulp.

This fantastic story was written by Ed Brubaker with art by Sean Phillips and coloring by Jacob Phillips.  It was published by Image comics.

Here is the description from the Image website:

Max Winters, a pulp writer in 1930s New York, finds himself drawn into a story not unlike the tales he churns out at five cents a word—tales of a Wild West outlaw dispensing justice with a six-gun. But will Max be able to do the same when pursued by bank robbers, Nazi spies, and enemies from his past?One part thriller, one part meditation on a life of violence, PULP is unlike anything award-winning BRUBAKER & PHILLIPS have ever done before.

A few weeks ago we did a podcast for the Netflix movie, The Old Guard.  In that podcast, I mentioned that the comic and movie The Old Guard were both written by Greg Rucka.  We went over some history of Greg Rucka's past comic work and brought up that he did a Gotham Police comic with Ed Brubaker in 2003 called Gotham Central.

Fast forward to today.  I was able to pick up the first book in the Gotham Central series so Jon and I read the first 2 story arcs: In the Line and Motive.  We will talk about the comic and why you should be adding this to your "must read" list.

Gotham Central was written by Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker with Michael  Lark doing the art.  It was published by DC in 2003.  It ran for about  40 issues and was cancelled in 2006.  It was nominated for Eisners for  writing and art in 2003 and won an Eisner for Best Serialized Story in  2004.

Last week, we covered the 2020 Eisner Award Nominees and Winners.  In the category of Best Limited Series, Writer Bobby Curnow and Artist Simon Gane were nominated for Ghost Tree.  I recently purchased the trade for Ghost Tree so I thought it would be a great time to cover it.

The podcast for this week will be Ghost Tree by Bobby Curnow and Simon Gane with colors by Ian Herring.  The comic was published by IDW Publishing.  It originally came out in 2019.

I was not familiar with Bobby Curnow's writing before Ghost Tree.  I found out that he has worked on other IDW books like My Little Pony and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  This is my first time reading his work and I hope he puts out many more books like this.

I was already familiar with Simon Gane's work.  I was reading a comic called They're Not Like Us from Image that he was working on.  That was a great book and the art really sold it for me.  I was looking forward to see what he was going to do with Ghost Tree.

Ghost Tree on the surface is a tale about ghosts and the 2 men that have the ability to communicate with them.  Below the surface, you get a story about relationships and what you have to do to make them work.  Jon and I really like this miniseries and we highly recommend that you pick it up.

***Minor Spoiler Alert*** - we talk about some plot points but we did not give away the major revelations in the comics so it is fairly spoiler free.

Jim

The 32nd Annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards were presented at a virtual ceremony on Friday evening, July 24.

Normally, these awards are held at the San Diego Comic Con (AKA The International Comic Con) but due to COVID-19, the Comics Con was cancelled.  Luckily, the ceremonies were held virtually.

I believe this is our 6th Eisner Award review we have done on the Comics Misremembered Podcast.  We like to cover the awards like Best New Series, Best Continuing Series, Best Writer, Best Artist but we don't cover all the awards.  If you want to see the list of categories and winners then go to the Eisner Awards website.

Jon and I talk about the series and creators that we have read and which series that we are most interested in checking out.

We have been watching the CW show: Star Girl - which is set on Earth-2 and references the heroes and villains of the Golden Age of DC.  The show does a good job of using the Golden Age villains and heroes without being too hokey or corny.

While watching the show, I was reminded on how I got to know the Golden Age characters as a comic reader.  It was back in the early 90s, DC has a JSA comic series and I was enjoying it.  Getting to become familiar with the Golden Age version of Green Lantern and Flash while learning about new characters like Hour Man, Wild Cat, Starman and others.  Remember, we had no internet back then so I only had back issue and new comics to give me backstory.

In 1993, a relatively unknown writer, James Robinson pitched an Elseworlds story (The What If? equivalent for DC) about most of the JSA heroes called The Golden Age.   It would feature art by the awesome Paul Smith and had colors by Richard Ory.  DC would publish it as a 4 part prestige series between 1993 - 1994.