The Comics Canon

In 1986, after decades of sneering supervillains, mad scientists and interplanetary despots, the Man of Steel was finally confronted with a foe even he couldn't defeat—an editorially mandated reboot!

But before he could fly off into the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths sunset, he'd have to deal with deadly new versions of some of his classic foes in the two-part farewell Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, courtesy of superstar writer Alan Moore, quintessential Superman artist Curt Swan and legendary editor Julius Schwartz! (Content warning: Things get a bit dark.)

And as if that weren't enough story for our landmark 150th episode, we also crack open The Superman Super-Spectacular from 1963's Action Comics #309, featuring a guest appearance by none other than President John F. Kennedy!

Can 60s Superman protect his secret identity from Lois Lane and Lana Lang for the umpteenth time? Can 80s Superman protect his friends—and himself—when his rogues gallery gets a lethal upgrade? And can these stories survive a trip to that Bottle City of Comic-Book Candor known as ... The Comics Canon?

Discussed in This Episode!

• The unfortunate timing of Action Comics #309
• The bottle city of Kandor's greatest foe!
• Let's just say we briefly mention the website Does the Dog Die?, if you catch our drift
• Lloyd Llewellyn
• Don Rickles and Goody Rickels in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen
• Superman Breaks Loose from Superman (Vol. 1) #233

Join us in two weeks, when we hope to welcome a very special guest!

Until then: Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook!

And as always, thanks for listening!

In anticipation of the eagerly awaited Spider-Man: No Way Home, we look back at one of the most universally reviled stories in comics history: 2007's Spider-Man: One More Day by J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada, published by Marvel Comics!

Quesada, then Marvel's editor in chief, wanted to reset everyone's favorite wisecracking wall-crawler and magically undo his longstanding marriage to Mary Jane Watson. So of course what better way to return Spidey to his roots than to ... shoot Aunt May and have ol' web-head make a deal with the devil??!

Can this poorly conceived, editorially mandated event possibly be as bad as its reputation? Or can it somehow rise above its bad rap and swing its way into that Brand New Day known as ... The Comics Canon?

Discussed in This Episode!

• The last gasp of '90s superhero comics
• Comics' complicated and confusing numbering system
• What happened to, you know ... that one more day?
• Curt breaks down the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer
• Silver Surfer (1968) #3
• Make Way for Tomorrow
• Batman: Sword of Azrael
• Knighted by Gregg Hurwitz and Mark Texeira

Join us in two weeks as we celebrate 150 episodes of The Comics Canon with a look at Alan Moore and Curt Swan's Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

Until then: Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook!

And as always, thanks for listening!

(Content warning: Lots of people get buried alive.)

Greetings, boos and ghouls! Gather 'round the campfire as the Curtkeeper and Kevin From the Black Lagoon wrap up The Tomb of the Crypt, their miniseries on horror comics, with a handpicked selection of spooky stories from EC Comics' Tales From the Crypt!

Join us as we dig up The Curse of the Full Moon, The Maestro's Hand, Ghost Ship, The Hungry Grave, A Fatal Caper, A Shocking Way to Die, and The Thing From the Grave, from The EC Archives: Tales From the Crypt Vol. 1, published by Dark Horse Comics!

How scary are these stories, really? And do they belong in that Vault of Horror known as ... The Comics Canon?

Discussed in This Episode!

• The thinner the moustache, the more evil the person?
• The Bad Werewolf Friend
• Marvel By the Month: The Comics Code of 1954
• All of the Marvels by Douglas Wolk
• The Crossroads at Midnight by Abby Howard
• P. Lovecraft's The Hound and Other Stories by Gou Tanabe

Join us in two weeks as we prepare for Spider-Man: No Way Home with a look at a Spider-Man story with a different three-word title: One More Day!

Until then: Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook!

And as always, thanks for listening!

(Content warning: This story contains references to rape by deception and incest.)

Our horror-comics miniseries The Tomb of the Crypt continues with Swamp Thing: Love and Death—specifically, Swamp Thing Vol. 2 issues #29-31 and Swamp Thing Annual #2 by Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, John Totleben and others, published by DC Comics!

Swamp Thing's nemesis, the evil scientist/warlock Anton Arcane, returns from the dead in one of the most horrific revelations in mainstream superhero comics—making 1984's Swamp Thing #29 the first mainstream comic not to carry the seal of the Comics Code Authority since the 1950s!

Eager for revenge against our muck-encrusted hero, Arcane unleashes a cadre of undead serial killers upon Southeast Louisiana, and casts his own niece—Swamp Thing's friend and not-so-secret crush Abigail Arcane—down into the depths of Hell itself!

Can Swamp Thing prevail against the hordes of Hell and rescue the woman he loves from eternal damnation? And will this chilling slice of contemporary horror fantasy take root in that Garden of Earthly Delights known as ... The Comics Canon?

Discussed in This Episode!

• Previously, in the pages of Swamp Thing ...
• James Bond, for some reason
• The Phantom Stranger's David Caruso sunglasses moments
• Swamp Thing #34: Rite of Spring
• The Empty Man
• Swamp Thing #32: Pog
• Edgar Allen Poe's Snifter of Death #1
• Lugosi: The Rise & Fall of Hollywood's Dracula

Join us in two weeks as The Tomb of the Crypt continues with ... Tales From the Crypt!

Until then: Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook!

And as always, thanks for listening!

The Tomb of the Crypt, our miniseries on horror comics, continues with a look at 2018's acclaimed Infidel by Pornsak Pichetshote and Aaron Campbell, published by Image Comics!

Described as a haunted house story for the 21st century, this five-issue series explores issues of bigotry, xenophobia and racism as Aisha and Medina, two young women of color, move into an apartment building where a bomb built by a Muslim tenant detonated a few months earlier—and soon find themselves confronting a terrifying spirit that feeds on the dark emotions of the building's residents.

Can our protagonists defeat this gruesome specter before its body count grows any higher? And can this smart, tense thriller gain admittance to that rent-controlled co-op of chills known as ... The Comics Canon?

In This Episode!

• Night of the Living Dead
• Special effects artist Rob Bottin
• A connection to our previous episode, Uzumaki
• His House
• We Are Lady Parts
• Something Is Killing the Children
• Ms. Marvel: No Normal
• Frontiersman #1

Join us in two weeks as The Tomb of the Crypt continues with Swamp Thing: Love and Death!

Until then: Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook!

And as always, thanks for listening!

(Content warning: Body horror and a couple of anatomical references)

We kick off The Tomb of the Crypt, a miniseries on horror comics, with our very first manga title—Umuzaki: Spiral Into Horror by Junji Ito, published by Viz Media!

In this chilling tale that Nerdist referred to as "the Watchmen of horror manga," a small Japanese town becomes plagued by ... spirals. This everyday shape begins showing up in increasingly unsettling ways: A spiral-shaped scar on a girl's forehead grows in size until it consumes her; two boys slowly mutate into giant snails; and a sentient hurricane becomes obsessed with a teenaged girl, to name but a few. And then things REALLY get weird.

Can high-schoolers Kirie and Shuichi figure out what's happening to Kurouzo-cho before their lives are irrevocably altered? And can this superbly realized saga twist and shout its way into that widening gyre of graphic-novel gruesomeness known as ... The Comics Canon?

In This Episode!

• Forget it, Shuichi. It's Spiraltown
• Tomei by Junji Ito
• The Drifting Classroom
• A Walk Through Hell Vol. 1

Join us in two weeks as The Tomb of the Crypt continues with the 2018 Image series Infidel!

Until then: Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook!

And as always, thanks for listening!

Because YOU (well, one of you, at least) asked for it, we finally get around to discussing All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant, published by DC Comics!

Superman is dying, his cells flooded with solar radiation thanks to his arch-nemesis Lex Luthor. But before he goes, Kal-El has a few things to scratch off his to-do list. This acclaimed 12-issue series combines fun Silver Age concepts and a contemporary sensibility to distill the Man of Steel to his essence and explore what makes him one of the most iconic and inspiring characters in popular culture.

Can the Last Son of Krypton celebrate Lois Lane's birthday, protect the Earth from the Bizarro world and boorish Kryptonians, and defeat a monster that eats time and a living, evil red sun?

And can he project himself into that Phantom Zone of funnybooks known as ... The Comics Canon?

In This Episode!

• How to write Superman
• The Death of Superman
• Does Superman like abasing himself?
• Chekhov's Sun-Eater
• The Death of Captain Marvel by Jim Starlin
• Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen by Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber

Join us in two weeks as we delve into the worlds of horror and manga with a look at Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror!

Until then: Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook!

And as always, thanks for listening!

In anticipation of the Nov. 5 debut of the Eternals movie, we take a look at The Eternals issues 1-7, published by Marvel Comics!

A few years after defecting to the Distinguished Competition to create the ambitious Fourth World saga, Jack Kirby returned to the House of Ideas, where he set to work on ... another ambitious cosmic epic!

Drawing inspiration from Erich von Däniken's mega-successful Chariots of the Gods? Unsolved Mysteries of the Past, he conjured a tale of humanity's sibling races: the monstrous Deviants, the godlike Eternals, and the even-more-godlike Mega Space Gods, the Celestials, one of the most visually striking assemblages in all of comics!

Join us as we probe the cosmic mysteries: What are the similarities and differences between this book and the arguably better-known Fourth World titles? Why do the Eternals reveal themselves to a college anthropology class? And will these issues receive the Thumbs Up of the Gods and become part of that Uni-Mind known as ... The Comics Canon?

In This Episode!

• Curt likes Big Barda and he cannot lie
• Fantastic Four: Forever
• Nomadland
• Some thoughts on the upcoming Eternals movie
• Avengers: The Final Host by Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness
• Eternals (2021) by Kieron Gillen and Esad Ribić
• Kirby: King of Comics by Mark Evanier

Join us in two weeks as we discuss All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely!

Until then: Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook!

Alonso Duralde, the hardest working man in podcasting (Maximum Film, Breakfast All Day, the Linoleum Knife family of podcasts) returns as we prepare for the Aug. 11 launch of What If...? on Disney+ by gazing upon the alternate realities of Marvel Comics' What If!

First published in 1977, this anthology series explores what might have happened had key moments in Marvel continuity happened a little differently: What if Bullseye Had Not Killed Elektra? What if the Original Marvel Bullpen Became the Fantastic Four? What if the Avengers Had Become Pawns of Korvac? And what if a host of Marvel creators were let loose to create an issue full of rapid-fire dad jokes?

Can this quartet of issues ascend to that not-so-sacred timeline known as ... The Comics Canon?

In This Episode!

• "It's a shame you're not in this alternate reality where your girlfriend lives!"
• What If Dr. Fredric Wertham Became Doctor Doom?
• "This bar has everything!"
• What If #43: What If Conan Were Stranded in the 20th Century?
• Pyongyang: A Journey to North Korea by Guy Delisle
• Jamie Loftus's Aack Cast
• The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel
• I'll Be Home for Christmas Movies

Join us in two weeks as we look toward the Nov. 5 opening of Eternals with a look at the source material: Jack Kirby's original Eternals series from 1976!

Until then: Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook!

And as always, thanks for listening!

In this episode, our Myth Takes miniseries concludes with a story that combines the mythic grandeur of America's pastime with Jewish folklore—The Golem's Mighty Swing by James Sturm, published by Drawn & Quarterly!

In the early 1920s, money problems force a traveling Jewish baseball team to agree to a promoter's plan to increase ticket sales: Henry Bell, a Black player pretending to be Jewish, will take the field as a golem, an animated creature from Jewish legend!

When racial tensions come to a head during an ugly game in an anti-Semitic town, will the Stars of David make it out alive? And will this powerful tale hit a home run and slide into that All-Star Game of graphic storytelling known as ... The Comics Canon?

In This Episode:

• Sports nerds vs. comics nerds
• Casey at the Bat
• Yasiel Puig's hazardous journey to the U.S.
• The Golem in Marvel's Strange Tales
• Charley the Australopithecine
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay
• James Sturm's America: God, Gold, and Golems
• Jar of Fools by Jason Lutes
• The Der Golem episode of the Scream Scene podcast
• Reign of Terror

Join us in two weeks as we look toward the Aug. 11 debut of What If ...? on Disney+ with a special What If episode!

Until then: Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook!

And as always, thanks for listening!