Michael Bailey's Views From The Longbox

Michael presents his first ever pro interview. This week Views is very happy to present a conversation with Michael Eury, former edior at both DC and Dark Horse and current edior of TwoMorrows' BACK ISSUE magazine. Mr. Eury talks about how Adam West got him into comics, his time at DC, the Who's Who Binder Edition (covered last episode oddly enough), his stint at Dark Horse, his opinion of the BARB WIRE film and how Captain Action brought him back to comics publishing. The audio quality of the interview is not spectactular, but should improve if you throw on some headphones. And keep an ear out for a guest appearance by Michael Bailey's wife Rachel, who, for a variety of reasons, all justified, was a little annoyed with the host at the time.

The "celebration" conttinues with this second part of the one year anniversary. Michael and Shag continue their vs. conversation by discussing DC Direct vs. Marvel Legends, Who's who vs. the Marvel Handboook (or what became Who's Who vs. the Marvel Handbook), Superman/Batman vs. Worlds Finest, Man of Steel vs. Brand New Day and more. This one runs a tad longer than the first part but Michael and Shag make up for it by...well, they don't really make up for it in any form. But you get to hear two "old" men up past their bedtime and lots of swearing, so that should count for something even though it doesn't.

Has it really been one year? Well, in a day it will be. Michael has managed to keep this podcast going for a year and the next two episodes are going to celebrate that...somehow. Shag makes a return visit to the show and after some vacation talk and about one thousand digressions the two get to the actual subject of the next two installments. It's compare and contrast time as Mike and Shag choose a bunch of subjects to discuss and those subjects include trades vs. single issues, Joe Q. vs Dan D. and Super Powers vs. Secret Wars. All in good, clean, comic book fun

This week Michael flies solo again and presents an episode about the Hulk that doesn't completely suck. In expectation of the new film Michael goes over his feelings about the hype leading up to the 2003 HULK movie. Thrill as Michael goes through the merchandising, the action figures and the books that came out during that year. Michael also goes into the Hulk Encyclopedia that came out around that time and boy does he hate that book. All this and some feelings on the books and merchandise coming out this year.

After a quick apology to Van Plexico for a good later in the episode Michael continues his delayed conversation with Keith Dallas. After a bit on the late seventies history of DC Comics Michael and Keith begin talking about various eras of the Flash including Cary Bates' run and the adventures of Wally West as written by Mike Baron, William Messner-Loebs and Mark Waid. Things wrap up with some talk of the 1990/91 live action FLASH television series. Remember that Keith is the editor and head writer of the FLASH COMPANION, which will hopefully come out in July from TwoMorrows Publishing.

This week kicks off a two part conversation with Editor-In-Chief of Comics Bulletin and writer/editor of the upcoming FLASH COMPANION from TwoMorrows Publishing Keith Dallas. Keith was Michael's editor back when he wrote reviews for Silver Bullet Comic Books and was nice enough to come on the show. Part 1 has Keith and Michael discussing Keith's collecting history, including a litter digression into Star Wars. Then you get to hear a preview of sorts of the FLASH COMPANION and some of Mark Waid's thoughts on the Bart Allen Flash series before they get into a kind of haphazard discussion of the Flash and his history.

Back after a week off because he was under the weather Michael discusses DC's Elseworlds as a concept as well as what many people conisder the first Elseworlds tale; Gotham By Gaslight. Before that, though, you'll hear about Michael's distrust of a certain portion of the medical community and why he likes Sebastian Bach. The show clocks in at about twenty-five minutes this time out but still manages to stay as unimpressive as ever. Also, the language is pretty tame this week, so it should be safe for work listening. Unless you think the word "ass" is profanity. Then you might want to put on the headphones.

Last week Michael teamed up with shag and this week he teams up with...Shag. Last week was Marvel in the nineties and this week they discuss DC in the nineties. After arguing whether or not the nineties were a good time for the company Michael chides Shag on a past debate before they go over their choices. First up Michael goes over Mark Waid's run on the Flash and then Shag tackles the nineties Starman series. Fun stuff all around, which is pretty common for these two crazy guys. WARNING: THIS SHOW HAS LANGUAGE THAT IS INAPPROPRIATE FOR...EVERYONE. LISTENER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Another episode, another guest host. Shag's back and this time he's not taking any prisoners. Actually he's not not taking prisoners either. Frankly he's just talking about comics with Michael again. This week and next Shag and Mike discuss some of their favorite books of the nineties with this installment dealing with Marvel. Shag takes a team of heroes that turn out to be a team of villains while Michael handles a certain Star Spangled Avenger. Plus, Shag has a little bit of an announcement. All this and a very mean tag after the ending theme. WARNING: THIS SHOW HAS LANGUAGE THAT IS INAPPROPRIATE FOR...EVERYONE. LISTENER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

More of Ryan and Michael talking about comics. They start this "grand adventure" by discussing the pros and cons of current comic book storytelling and things kind of fall apart from there. Also there's a little digression where Michael and Ryan talk about the cinema of the nineties, but other than that it's more snarky goodness. WARNING: THIS SHOW HAS LANGUAGE THAT IS INAPPROPRIATE FOR...EVERYONE. LISTENER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.