Empire's Comics Presents: Cracking The Vault

.. in which we, Tony Asaro, Patrick Clarke, & Ryan Miller, celebrate the best in comics & comics-related media of 2019, in our fifth annual Vaulty Awards show!! Download EP_174_-_THE_2019_VAULTY_AWARDS_FIN.mp3

.. in which we, Ryan Miller, Patrick Clarke, & Tony Asaro, celebrate Ryan's birthday in a town beset by evil, trying to fend-off the fury of Dracula, The Wolf Man, & The Mummy, in a round of Prospero Hall's Universal Monster-mash cooperative board game Horrified, out of Ravensburger Games!! [Note: This episode is a tad noisy! 'Cause that's what happens when you put a mic on a table & then play a board game on that same table! Mistakes were made, lol. Regardless, we hope you enjoy the episode, because we had an absolute blast making it. Cheers.] Download EP_173_-_Horrified_FIN_FIN.mp3

.. in which we, Patrick Clarke, Tony Asaro, & Ryan Miller, indulge in one of our longest-running annual traditions & take a look at how we did on our comics-related resolutions from 2019, before then making a whole batch of spectacularly-ill-advised new resolutions for 2020!! [image from My Hero Academia by Bones/Funimation, created by Kōhei Horikoshi] Download EP_172_-_New_Years_Comics_Resolutions_FIN.mp3

.. in which we, Ryan Miller, Patrick Clarke, & Tony Asaro, try our level best to wrangle, explain, & discuss, our feelings about the biggest comic event of 2019: Marvel's 12-part, showstopping, X-Men miniseries, House of X & Powers of X, by Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia, R.B. Silva, & Adriano Di Benedetto!! [Note: We recorded this episode in November, just as the first wave of Dawn of X was debuting. Much has happened in those books in the meantime, & there have also been a great many exciting developments with Tony's flowerbed full of Krakoa Seeds. We will update you on these matters with all due haste.] Download EP_171_-_HOX_POX_FIN.mp3

.. in which we, Tony Asaro, Patrick Clarke, & Ryan Miller, travel all the way back to The Bronze Age of Comics in honor of Tony's birthday, & rap about what was on the spinner rack in 1979!! (featuring reviews of Ghost Rider, Elfquest, & the original Marvel-era Star Wars comics) Download EP_170_-_The_Year_Was_1979_FIN.mp3

.. in which we, Tony Asaro, Patrick Clarke, & Minnie Saucedo, (with additional contributions from Ryan Miller, & Ben Schwartz), helped celebrate Tony's birthday way back in September of 2018 by talking-out all our feels concerning The Big Blue Boyscout, himself, Clark Kent. *** This one sat buried in The Vault for an embarrassing length of time, which was unplanned & unintentional, & we're thrilled to finally put it out there, into the world. Thank you for sticking with us, thank you -as always- for listening, we hope you enjoy hearing this as much as we enjoyed making it, & we hope each & every one of you is having a warm & wonderful winter holiday season. Lastly but most importantly, a big thank you to Minnie for being such a vital part of our show for so many episodes. We remain deeply grateful to her, for her incalculable contributions to Cracking The Vault during her time with us. *** [cover image from Action Comics (vol 2) #37, drawn by the incomparable Darwyn Cooke] Download EP_169_-_Superman_FIN.mp3

.. in which Tony Asaro sits down with Ben C. Schwartz for a our debut rapid-fire-questionnaire mini-episode of 10-in-10 with Ben!! Download 10_in_10_w_Ben_SEPT_19_FIN_FIN.mp3 [cover image from Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man #309, by Chris Bachalo & Tim Townsend]

.. in which we, Patrick Clarke, Ryan Miller, & Tony Asaro, belatedly celebrate Patty's birthday by discussing one of his favorite-ever comics: Planetary, written by Warren Ellis, drawn by John Cassaday, & colored by Laura Martin!! [Warning: We talk about the entire book, in this episode! Consider yourselves officially spoiler-warned!! Additionally, we had to keep the A/C on during recording, because it was a scorcher, & we apologize for the resulting slight background hum. Last but not least, we totally forgot to mention the great Laura Martin during this episode, but her colors on this book are remarkable (as her colors always are, see also, her work on Wonder Woman, Thor, The Amazing Spider-Man, Black Panther, & heaps more beautiful comics over the course of her stellar & distinguished career), & we are collectively deeply embarrassed that we dropped the ball on saying so, on mic.] Download EP_167_-_Planetary_FIN.mp3

.. in which we, Tony Asaro, Ryan Miller, & Patrick Clarke, gather to talk Eisner Award Winners, newly released movie & tv trailers, & the rest of the biggest announcements that dropped at this years San Diego Comic Con!! Download EP_166_-_SDCC_News___Reviews_FIN.mp3

.. in which we, Tony Asaro, Patrick Clarke, & Ryan Miller, finally weigh-in on the 23rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Far From Home!! [*Be-warned: This review contains spoilers from the get-go!*] Download EP_165_-_Spider_Man_Far_From_Home_FIN.mp3