Robots From Tomorrow!

Program warning: today's episode dives directly into Chris Claremont's original 16-year run on UNCANNY X-MEN, which means Greg will be once again talking about his all-time favorite run of comics (although this time with an expert to help out). Longtime listeners playing a drinking game based on him name-dropping these comics on the show would be wise to give that game a pass today, or risk massive liver damage. You have been warned.

In the epilogue to his Twitter account THE CLAREMONT RUN, Doctor J Andrew Deman wrote the following about that project and his decision to focus its attention on those comics: "What if they, contrary to every expectation, were (and always had been) profound and brilliant and worthy of literary analysis?" For over two years, Deman and his team did the work to prove he was right to see merit in those comics, posting thread after thread diving into analysis and discussion about Claremont's mutants and the highly influential yet still under-appreciated gems contained in those issues. While those posts are still available on the now-ironically-named social media site X, Deman's work on this subject will soon be available in bookstores with the publication of The Claremont Run: Subverting Gender in the X-Men, coming October 24th from the University of Texas Press. Deman has also tackled the British corner of Marvel's mutant-verse as 1/3rd of the hosts of the Oh Gosh, Oh Golly, Oh Wow! Podcast with Dr. Anna Peppard and Christopher Maverick, giving us an issue-by-issue rundown of the first volume of Excalibur, originally created by Claremont and artist Alan Davis. He also contributes with the aforementioned Dr. Peppard to the Sequential Scholars project over at sequential scholars dot com, which not only studies comics but aims to make the study of comics accessible to everyone. He is the expert referred to earlier and he's back on the show to talk about his upcoming book, publishing, and all x-things Claremont.

When someone is inducted into the Royal Society of Literature, they are invited to sign their names in a roll book dating back to the society's founding in 1820, using the pen of Lord Byron, T.S. Elliot, or George Elliot. Greg closes today's chat with writer Nikesh Shukla by asking what pen he chose, because not only is Nikesh writing the current Spider-Man: India miniseries (with issue #2 hitting shelves July 26th), but he was also inducted into the Society back in 2019, to join such fellow Fellows as Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, Tom Stoppard, and roughly 596 other distinguished gentlefolk of English literature.

In addition to those two wonderfully dichotomous career achievements, Nikesh has written five novels, co-founded the Zhalak Prize for British or British resident writers of color, and edited two collections of essays called The Good Immigrant, which center around race, immigration, identity, and the experience of ethnic minority life in both the United Kingdom AND in the 2019 followup co-edited with Chimene Suleyman, the United States. These are issues and aspects of life never far from his thoughts or his work, as is the concept of Seva. Greg talks with Nikesh about all this and more on today's episode!

Orson Welles wore many hats in his day: filmmaker, actor, writer, producer, pitch man, raconteur . . . the list goes on and on. But what can only be told now is that you can add 'defender of the Earth' to that list as well.

According to Milton Lawson's Orson Welles: Warrior of the Worlds comics project, illustrated by Renton Hawley and finally debuting from Scout Comics on August 16th, the thespian led a secret life keeping this planet safe from invaders from not only Mars, but all around the galaxy. Greg checked in with Milton to find out more about the book's long journey from idea to publication, and Welles' life in general, both in front of and behind the camera.

Today's episode takes us back to a time when gods walked the earth. Oh sure, they may LOOK like four late 80's teenagers banging their way thru semi-coherent covers of rock songs, but they are, in fact, all that stands in the way of Jackson, TN suffering a biblical-level plague of . . . well . . . you'll find out in The Rock Gods of Jackson, Tennessee, the new OGN by Mike Norton & Rafer Roberts, now in comic shops from Dark Horse.

Greg talks with the duo about how to spin autobio soul-searching into the stuff of horror classics, pros & cons of working on a single release versus a longer serialized product, just what the hell a pre-press specialist does, the comics rhythm section of Allen Passalacqua and Crank!, staying focused over the long haul, and much more. All that, and the eternal debate of Metallica versus Megadeth on today's episode!

This episode was originally broadcast on February 17, 2017.

The boys are back this week, as Mike returns to the show from his sojourn abroad with thrilling tales of splendor seen and treasures purchased! He goes deep-dive into his experience at last weekend’s 2000AD 40th Anniversary Thrill Festival, both from behind the microphone and from wandering the convention floor. What kind of shindig does Tharg throw for his favorite Earthlets? How far does the American dollar go in picking up original Thrill-art? When was the last convention you went to where beer-related art accidents were a hazard to consider? Who was the artist ‘get’ of the show? All that, plus the differences in original art ideology on either side of the Atlantic, the many medias of Mark Buckingham, Rick Veitch tremor meeting Dave Gibbons sheen, recapturing comic shop wonder, solving distribution woes, and much more on today’s episode!

BONUS: Video of Mike’s “Building Worlds” panel, with Ian Edginton, INJ Culbard, D’Israeli, and Rob Williams.

Robots From Tomorrow is a weekly comics podcast recorded deep beneath the Earth’s surface. You can subscribe to it via iTunes or through the RSS feed at RobotsFromTomorrow.com. You can also follow Mike and Greg on Twitter. Stay safe & enjoy your funny books.

Today's episode returns the show to a topic apparently never too far from our thoughts: the galaxy's greatest comic 2000AD! After his recent chat with Mike Molcher where The Best of 2000AD was touched on, Mike suggested Greg reach out to today's guest for a real deep dive into the subject. Some emails were sent, plans made, and here we are with Greg chatting with the Best Of maestro himself: Owen Michael Johnson.

The pair talk about Johnson's decidedly non-2000AD comics upbringing, the peril of curating stories from a 45-year catalog into 6 volumes, his quasi-trial-by-fire directing the 40 Years of Thrill-Power festival anniversary extravaganza for Rebellion in 2017, his colleagues at the Nerve Centre, what Big Two U.S. comics character he'd love to "Best Of", and much more! All that AND some Kirby Silver Surfer deep diving on today's episode!

Today's episode takes us out to the farthest reaches of outer space and the even further reaches of the human emotional spectrum with the debut collaboration from illustrator Mimi Alves and writer Ben Crane: Cosmic Cadets, Vol. 1: Contact! from Top Shelf!

Greg chats with the couple about this all-ages OGN that follows a 'first contact' event for the children of the crew of the exploration vessel ESS Khonsu. Find out what goes into making all-ages material in this day & age, the importance of listening to others, the limits of universal translation, what happens when Star Trek meets Dr. Seuss, and much more! All that, plus the all-ages book that hit Greg right in the feels on today's episode!

Today's guest is writer, game designer, editor, and graphic designer Eric Trautmann. While his previous comics work has included such titles as DC's Checkmate with Greg Rucka, Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist with Alex Ross, Red Sonja, Vampirella, and the Vertigo OGN Shooters with co-writer Brandon Jerwa and artist Steve Lieber, he's on the show today to talk about his new Image Comics series The Forged. Drawn by Mike Henderson, colored by Nolan Woodard, lettered by Ariana Maher, and co-written by the aforementioned Greg Rucka, The Forged has been described by Rucka as "an over-the-top pulp adventure of sex, violence, and sci-fi inspired by Conan, Heavy Metal, and those other comics you tried to hide from your parents."

Greg gets a chance to chat with Eric about the series, its inspiration, the nature of pulp fiction in today's market, his background in roleplaying games (specifically the Star Wars license of the early 1990's), his collaborations with a wide variety of creators, how to make an evil dinosaur scientist's handwriting look real, and much more!

Today's guest is not only a man of his times, but several others as well. When he's not re-enacting 17th century English civil warfare, he's spreading the gospel of 2000AD, the Galaxy's Greatest Comic, as the now-Brand Manager of Rebellion/2000AD. But it's his role as author of the new book I AM THE LAW: How Judge Dredd Predicted Our Future that brings him back to the show today. The book melds comics history with political, social, and policing scholarship to us how a comic series started in the 20th century about a lawman in the 22nd century is still showing us what we have to look forward to (and hopefully avoid) in the 21st century. It deserves to be on both college syllabi and fan bookshelves for years to come.

Nearly ten years after he helped the lads set up the Multiver-City One column that still goes strong each and every week, Michael Molcher sits down to chat with Greg about the book and all things Dredd, the surrealism of promoting his own work, the brilliance of cover artist Pye Parr, and just what the hell a Brand Manager does.

Sierra Barnes is a cartoonist whose work combines such varied influences as history, folk lore, mythology, fascism, anti-fascism, war, and foxes that might not actually be foxes. Her webcomic exploration of these topics, Hans Vogel is Dead, was just announced as having its first volume of strips collected with updated content by the folks over at Dark Horse Comics. She uses her degrees in History and German Studies, as well as an MFA in Comics from California College of the Arts, to bring to every page Hans Vogel's death to life.

Greg sits down with Sierra to talk about the long road in getting Hans Vogel out of her head and on to the screen and page, the differences between mythology, folklore, and history, how she learned to stop worrying and love the art of lettering comics, what tales scarred her for life, her take on the age-old question "Walt Disney: Threat or Menace?", and much more!