The Comic Source Podcast

Jace takes a look at Dead Day #1 from Ryan Parrott & Evgeny Bornyakov. On special days, known as Dead Day the dead rise and once more and walk among the living. It doesn't happen every year, but it is predictable and it brings many fascinating opportunities. Some loved ones are reunited with family, other dead, especially prisoners who have been executed are violent. A religion known as the Revivalist has sprung up around the concept of Dead Day and even with the proof of the revivals out there for all to see they are looked upon as a cult. This particular story is all about how Dead Day affects one family, especially the mother who has done out on Dead Day to meet a former love, she has gone out to keep a promise made in a previous life, but will the price she pays to keep this promise be hire than she wants to pay?

Jace takes a look at the first issue of a great series from one of our favorite writers Eliot Rahal. How would you react if you had been abducted by aliens for 17 years and returned suddenly? What if you remembered every moment of that abduction and how the aliens experimented on you? Now imagine how your family feels when they had likely assumed you were dead. Let's throw in one more wrinkle, the world itself sees you as the Milk Carton Kid and are about to find out all about your crazy stories of returning from the stars having been kidnapped by extra-terrestrials almost 2 decades ago. Yeah it's about to get real!

The Man Who Effed Up Time is a rollicking good time. In the best tradition of time travel and Sci-Fi stories, it explores many of those ideas with a likeable main character and plenty of humor. Stylish line art from artist Kyle Mostert adds to the aesthetic and the colors from Dee Cunniffe compliment the linework beautifully. The story and scripting from Jonathan Layman is top notch and fans of characters like Archer & Armstrong or the crew from Sliders will love this book.

Jace dives into the first issue of Miles to Go. We meet Amara a former assassin trying to live the life of a normal mom. She's dealing with raising a daughter as a single mother with her divorce on the horizon, but also her past seems to be rearing it's ugly head. Her mentor has recently become a target and you have to wonder if she is next. It's great characterization in this first issue as writer B Clay Moore and artist Stephen Molnar give us subtly clues to who these characters are. It's the perfect sort of character building that almost happens on a subconscious level. Not too mention we get one heck of a cliffhanger ending.

Jace talks about the first issue that mixes two genres we have never seen combined before, it's a heist story against the backdrop of a Kaiju event. If you love heist stories as much as us, stories about giant monsters or maybe even both, then this is the book for you. We are introduced to our gang of thieves in the first issue and there isn't exactly a lot of trust between them, couple that with the fact that one of them isn't even the person they think she is and you have the start of a lot of dramatic tension and a whole lot that can go wrong when it's time for the score to go down. Another intriguing start to a story with a very original premise from AfterShock

Jace gives his thoughts on the first issue of Undone By Blood. It's a dual narrative as our protagonist seems to be drawing inspiration or even mentorship from the old gunslinger in the western novel she carries and reads when time permits. Meanwhile she is on her own search for vengeance in the dusty town where a terrible tragedy occurred over a year ago. Clearly all is not as it seems and we have a feeling this young girl, Ethel, may be far more formidable than she appears at first glance. Set in 1971 with a distinctive feel of the restlessness of that decade, this story is poised to translate well to other media and has already been optioned as a TV show.

Jace reviews the first issue of Disaster Inc. Starting form the premise of extreme tourism, an increasingly popular activity where people pay large sums of money to be guided to some of the most dangerous remote and sometime restricted places on earth. In this first issue we meet Paolo, the president of Disaster Inc and his right hand man Abby. They are leading a group of tourists into the "exclusion zone", an are of Japan that was the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster ever. Unbeknownst to them, there are things at work in the zone far more dangerous than simple radiation, but we have only seen a glimpse of what those dangers might be.

Jace takes a look at the #1 issue an espionage story that brings back the tension and intrigue of the Cold War. Russian agents, mysterious power outages, violent attacks, this story has a fast-paced start and an intriguing mystery that is just starting to unfold. Adding to the realism of the story is the fact that it was conceived by an authentic Russian intelligence agents. Take all that and bring some visceral art with fantastic emotion & body language and you have the ingredients for a successful series.

One last holiday tale for Superman as Jace takes a look at an issues from 2001, Warworld has just been built, the big Worlds at War event is about to kick off, though that's is unbeknownst to the heroes of the DCU right now. Also Lex Luthor has been elected president and Clark struggles with acceptance. While he meets with each of his fellow Justice Leaguers he questions them about their thoughts on the election while also giving them their gift for the year. They all get appropriately suitable gifts for the Man of Steel, who for his part has selected the presents so well, you can't tell if they are tongue in cheek gag gifts or gifts given from the heart.

Another great Christmas episode starring Superman. It's a very emotional issue as Kal-El shares with Lois the frustration he some times feels that he cant' help everyone, for all his incredible abilities he is still only one person and there are limits to his powers. We are also reminded that each of us has within us the power to help others in ways that even Superman may be unable to do. Ultimately, Superman is able to help some who are in need during the holiday season including some children who have the chance to meet Santa Claus in person thanks to the efforts of the Man of Steel and Professor Hamilton.