Welcome to Why Not?! Episode 23: “Bills, Bills, Bills”

Here we go! The Mantlo era has begun! Only one issue today as we get our feet under us a bit. And what with all the sturm und drang we (Chris) injected in anticipation of this run…it might not be terrible? Or, more accurately, parts will be rough and other parts will be great and we’re going to call a clean game. And we make time to have a very thorough conversation about soap operas.

In this episode, Chris:

• retires the “MANTLOOOO” battlecry for the time being
• advocates for self-care and really taking care of yourself…even if it means walking away from your team while they’re fighting the Hulk
• calls an audible 20 minutes in to get some more coffee: the magic of audio!
• figures out the proper network for an Alpha Flight tv show: the CW
• is…somehow feeling ok about what’s to come?! Or putting on a brave face. It’s one or the other

and Tom:

• fills everyone in on Bill Mantlo’s history and, yeah, that wasn’t fun
• also advocates for self-care…even if it means flattening a major metropolitan area and reducing it to dust
• takes that opportunity to also get coffee: do you like this level of detail?
• compares The Iliad, Odyssey, and The Aeneid to soap operas and by extension…Alpha Flight?!?!
• knows that it’s “New South Wales”, not “North South Wales” but left the mistake in for accountability

Issue covered:
Alpha Flight #29 - “Cut Bait & Run” - cover date December 1985
Writer is Bill Mantlo
Artists are Mike Mignola and Gerry Talaoc
Letterer is Jim Novak
Colorist is Bob Sharen
Editor is Carl Potts
Jim Shooter as Editor in Chief

To read more on Bill Mantlo, this story from TripAdvisor (of all places) provides a good bit of background. It’s a difficult read, so buyer beware.

And Tom was on another podcast recently: “Mining the Dalkey Archive”. He joined the hosts in a conversation on Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policemen and for you Lost-heads, there’s some interesting show lore discussed.

Why Not?! Read Alpha Flight with Chris and Tom is brought to you by the Excelsior Embroidery Company. Choose from dozens of distinctly comic inspired designs available on hundreds of items at excelsiorembroidery.etsy.com. Listeners of Why Not can use the discount code WHYNOT20 to get 20% off any 2 items. When company’s coming over, bring out the good towels. Excelsior!

Airhorn sound effect by freesound_community from Pixabay

Written by Chris Baker
Produced and edited by Tom Flynn
Music:"Oh, Canada" by Five Iron Frenzy

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