Graphic Novel Apostle

In part 2 of our Batman: The Long Halloween series (see Episode 19 for part 1), it's Thanksgiving in Gotham City. In addition to continuing their search for gangster Johnny Viti's murderer, Batman and Captain Gordon seek to discover who was responsible for the bombing of District Attorney Harvey Dent's house on Halloween night. In the midst of it all, the Holiday Killer strikes again!

Batman: The Long Halloween, Issue 2
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Artist: Tim Sale
Colors: Gregory Wright
Letters: Richard Starkings and Comicraft
Publisher: DC

Let us know what you think. Questions? Comments on the show? Comments on the book we covered? Recommendations for other comic collections or graphic novels?
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @graphicnovelapostle
Blue Sky: @gnapostlepod.bsky.social
Twitter: @markohrenberger

Something a little different for this episode of the Graphic Novel Apostle podcast. Think of this as an addendum to last week's Trve Kvlt episode, which also included my guest Michael Crump. During our discussion of Trve Kvlt, we took a detour ... for about 45 minutes ... to discuss our "40 From 20" playlists, that is - playlists with 2 tracks each from our 20 favorite albums. In the end, we decided to cut that discussion out of our Trve Kvlt episode and share it this week as a bonus episode. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Be sure to come back next week for the second entry in our Batman: The Long Halloween series, as I'll be discussing Batman: The Long Halloween, issue 2.

Crump's Top 20 Albums (no particular order): 

• Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair
• Peter Gabriel - Car
• Jason Isbell - Southeastern
• Pearl Jam - Vs.
• Childish Gambino - Camp
• Twenty One Pilots - Vessel
• Prince - Purple Rain 
• The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta
• Men at Work - Cargo
• The Cranberries - No Need to Argue
• Toad the Wet Sprocket - fear
• The Replacements - Tim
• The Decemberists - Picaresque
• Live - Throwing Copper
• Ben Folds Five - The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
• New Edition - Heart Break
• R.E.M. - Automatic for the People
• Carbon Leaf - Indian Summer
• Of Monsters and Men - My Head is an Animal
• Midnight Oil - Blue Sky Mining

The Apostle's Top 20 Albums (no particular order): 

• Elvis Costello - My Aim is True
• Cake - Motorcade of Generosity
• Weezer - Weezer (The Blue Album)
• G. Love & Special Sauce - Philadelphonic
• The Head and the Heart - The Head and the Heart
• Grateful Dead - American Beauty
• Jason Isbell - Southeastern
• Paul Simon - Graceland
• Son Volt - Trace
• Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
• Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean 
• Billy Joel - Cold Spring Harbor
• Dave Matthews Band - Before These Crowded Streets
• David Gray - White Ladder
• Bon Iver - Bon Iver
• Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind
• The National - Trouble Will Find Me
• U2 - The Joshua Tree
• R.E.M - Automatic for the People
• Dashboard Confessional - MTV Unplugged

Let us know what essential records we missed!

Let us know what you think. Questions? Comments on the show? Comments on the book we covered? Recommendations for other comic collections or graphic novels?
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @graphicnovelapostle
Blue Sky: @gnapostlepod.bsky.social
Twitter: @markohrenberger

Host Mark Ohrenberger's long-time friend Michael Crump joins the podcast to discuss the hilarious, absurdist, burger-flipping, heist-pulling, devil cult thriller Trve Kvlt. This 5-issue miniseries is nothing but fun from start to finish. 

Trve Kvlt
Writer: Scott Bryan Wilson
Artist: Liana Kangas
Colors: Gab Contraras
Letters: DC Hopkins
Publisher: IDW Publishing (IDW Originals)

And come back next week for a bonus episode where Mark and Michael break down their personal all-time top 20 records ... none of which is known to possess occult powers.

Let us know what you think. Questions? Comments on the show? Comments on the book we covered? Recommendations for other comic collections or graphic novels?
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @graphicnovelapostle
Blue Sky: @gnapostlepod.bsky.social
Twitter: @markohrenberger

On this week's mini episode, host Mark Ohrenberger begins by recapping his experience at the Memphis Comic Expo last weekend. After that, the episode focuses on the new Ghost Machine horror universe and specifically Hyde Street, issue 1, and the one-shot It Happened on Hyde Street: Devour.

Hyde Street, issue 1
Storytellers: Geoff Johns & Ivan Reis 
Inks: Danny Miki
Colors: Brad Anderson
Letters: Rob Leigh
Publisher: Ghost Machine/Image Comics

It Happened on Hyde Street: Devour (one-shot)
Creators: Maytal Zchut & Leila Leiz 
Colors: Alex Sinclair
Letters: Rob Leigh
Cover Art: Ivan Reis, Danny Miki & Brad Anderson 
Publisher: Ghost Machine/Image Comics

Let us know what you think. Questions? Comments on the show? Comments on the book we covered? Recommendations for other comic collections or graphic novels?
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @graphicnovelapostle
Blue Sky: @gnapostlepod.bsky.social
Twitter: @markohrenberger

On this episode, host Mark Ohrenberger starts a new monthly series covering Batman: The Long Halloween, the 13-issue noir mystery series in which an early-career Batman pursues a serial killer on the loose in Gotham City who strikes every month on the holiday falling on that page of the calendar. One week out of each month from this October to next October, we'll examine one issue from the series as Batman closes in on the mystery Holiday Killer!

Batman: The Long Halloween #1
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Artist: Tim Sale
Colors: Gregory Wright
Letters: Richard Starkings & Comicraft
Publisher: DC

This week, Mark also announces a new schedule and format for the show. Moving forward, each month:

• One episode will be dedicated to exploring a single issue in a longer series, beginning this week with Batman: The Long Halloween #1;
• One episode will be a "mini" episode where Mark highlights books from his pull list or speaks with a comic creator or another participant in the comic book industry; and 
• One episode will be a traditional two-person show where Mark invites a friend who doesn't read comics to come on the show and discuss a comics collection or original graphic novel he has selected specifically for them.
• Some months might also feature a bonus episode. Otherwise, the show will likely take one week off per month.

Finally, Mark discusses his recent visit to Gabe's Cave comic shop, in El Dorado, Arkansas, to meet the writer and one of the artists on two recent series from Image Comics, Feral and Stray Dogs: Dog Days - Tony Fleecs and Tone Rodriguez. 

Let us know what you think. Questions? Comments on the show? Comments on the book we covered? Recommendations for other comic collections or graphic novels?
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @graphicnovelapostle
Blue Sky: @gnapostlepod.bsky.social
Twitter: @markohrenberger

On this week's mini episode, GNA host Mark Ohrenberger offers a "State of the Union" on horror anthology titles in comic books. Specifically, we discuss:

Creepshow, from Skybound/Image Comics
Epitaphs from the Abyss, from EC/Oni Press and
Hello Darkness, from Boom! Studios

In the second half of the episode, we'll discuss a great Halloween tale from Creepshow, vol. 1, issue 1 (Sept. 2022):
"Take One"
Writer/Artist: Chris Burnham
Colors: Adriano Lucas
Letters: Pat Brosseau

This week, I also want to recommend a Kickstarter project that I am backing, and I hope you'll join me to get it to its fundraising goal in the next few days.
unSeen/unHeard: Disability & Neurodivergence Comic Anthology will present a dozen short stories across a variety of genres, all written and drawn by creators with disabilities or neurodivergence and featuring characters with disabilities or neurodivergence. Back the project here: http://kck.st/3B4CAoh

Let us know what you think. Questions? Comments on the show? Comments on the book we covered? Recommendations for other comic collections or graphic novels?
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @graphicnovelapostle
Blue Sky: @gnapostlepod.bsky.social
Twitter: @markohrenberger

On this episode, Mark's most Halloween-loving friend, Jake Jones, joins the show to discuss his annual celebrations of Halloween, the impact of the Universal Monsters on mid-twentieth century America, and what happens when a horror film festival presents Basil Saxon's long-lost cursed film God of Monsters and accidentally unleashes Dracula, the Necro Wolf, Frankenstein, mummy Amon Razar, and the Dweller on small town Cedar Bluffs, Missouri in The Midnite Show!

The Midnite Show
Writer: Cullen Bunn
Art: Brian Hurtt
Colors: Bill Crabtree
Letters: Jim Campbell
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Let us know what you think. Questions? Comments on the show? Comments on the book we covered? Recommendations for other comic collections or graphic novels?
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @graphicnovelapostle
Blue Sky: @gnapostlepod.bsky.social
Twitter: @markohrenberger

On this episode, Mark welcomes Sean Golding, writer of the new punk rock zombie fighting series, Guns of Brixton. Sean discusses his love of live music, especially rock, punk, and metal, and the idea of pitting an all-girl punk rock band, empowered by a drug that sharpens their reactions and abilities, against a general populace of South London that has been turned to zombies by an airborne toxin. Sean also discusses his experience as a first-time comic writer navigating the opportunities and pitfalls of self-publication. 

Guns of Brixton, Issue 1
Writer: Sean Golding
Artist: Renzo Podesta
Letterer/Spanish Translator: Jahch

You can pick up issue one at:

• Amazon US (is available on all local Amazon sites): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DC46RXTY
• Shift (UK based with print to order available): https://theshift.store/products/guns-of-brixton-1
• Comix.one (digital): https://www.comix.one/products/guns-of-brixton-40bc238f4b7d
• GlobalComix: https://globalcomix.com/c/guns-of-brixton

Issue 2 is available for pre-order at: 

• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJ5Y38RT

You can reach the creators for this series at:

• Sean Golding: https://www.instagram.com/seangoldingwrites/
• Renzo Podesta: https://www.instagram.com/renzo_podesta/
• Jahch: https://www.instagram.com/rjjcomics9/

Let us know what you think. Questions? Comments on the show? Comments on the book we covered? Recommendations for other comic collections or graphic novels?
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @graphicnovelapostle
Blue Sky: @gnapostlepod.bsky.social
Twitter: @markohrenberger

This week, Mark's long-time friend, Parish Pollard, joins the show to discuss the haunting New Orleans-based supernatural family crime drama, Bone Parish, vol. 1, and to talk about Mark and Parish's first spooky visit to New Orleans all the way back in 2001. 

Bone Parish, vol. 1
Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Jonas Shcarf
Colors: Alex Guimaraes
Letters: Ed Dukeshire
Cover Artist: Lee Garbett
Publisher: Boom! Studios

Let us know what you think. Questions? Comments on the show? Comments on the book we covered? Recommendations for other comic collections or graphic novels?
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @graphicnovelapostle
Blue Sky: @gnapostlepod.bsky.social
Twitter: @markohrenberger

On this week's mini episode, we examine the pros and cons of various digital comics subscription services, focusing on four specific services:

1. Marvel Unlimited
2. DC Universe Infinite
3. GlobalComix Gold
4. Hoopla

Spoiler: Mark likes them all!

Next week, Mark's buddy Parish Pollard joins the podcast to discuss Bone Parish, vol. 1, written by Cullen Bunn, with art by Jonas Scharf, published by Boom! Studios.

Let us know what you think. Questions? Comments on the show? Comments on the book we covered? Recommendations for other comic collections or graphic novels?
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @graphicnovelapostle
Blue Sky: @gnapostlepod.bsky.social
Twitter: @markohrenberger