The Fantasticast

No Smoking Except In The Designated (Negative) Zones

Hello, and welcome to episode 125 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

This week, we're returning to the Negative Zone for the second full appearance of Annihilus, The Death That Walks, in Fantastic Four #109. As befits the return of one of our favourite villains (and Janus, the Nega-Man), we've roped in a special guest host. The Pop Culture Hound himself, Chris Thompson, joins us from Orbital Comics to explore this issue.

As well as being joined by one of the best comics creator interviewers out there, we find the time to discuss just what exactly the point of an extend-o-platform is, casual racism towards gargoyles, Reed Richards in the 25th Century, and Clive Dunn. Yes, Clive Dunn. No, I'm not explaining why - you'll have to listen for that!

Chris's podcast backlog can be found at popculturehound.net. New episodes of Orbital Comics In Conversation can be found at http://www.orbitalcomics.com/podcast/. You can also follow Chris on twitter where he is @popculturehound.

As a small addendum, the Chip Zdarsky event discussed at the start of the show isn't last week, it's today - Saturday April 11th. Grab your Sex Criminals, conceal them in a brown paper bag, and head down to get them signed!

Send in your feedback to [email protected], leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at fantasticflameon.wordpress.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

Original artwork by Michael Georgiou. Check out his work at mikedraws.co.uk

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.

All-New Flashbacks

Hello, and welcome to episode 124 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

This week on the show, we're cracking open Fantastic Four #108, and experiencing a bit of deja vu all over again. As is well-know, the contents of Fantastic Four #108 were 'frankensteined' together from unused Jack Kirby pages, originally intended for Fantastic Four #102 before they were rejected by Stan Lee. We looked at these pages and the story they were supposed to have told a few weeks back, and now it's time to look at them in the context of their original release.

John Buscema and John Romita do their best, but there's something very off about this issue, and it's not just our frustration at having to read the same pages twice in 6 episodes. But we're brave and honourable citizens, and our duty is to read these comics, and hopefully we found a new way of looking at them.

Send in your feedback to [email protected], leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at fantasticflameon.wordpress.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

Original artwork by Michael Georgiou. Check out his work at mikedraws.co.uk

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.

Steve Buscemi's Fantastic Four

Hello, and welcome to episode 123 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

This week on the Fantasticast, we're taking a look Fantastic Four #107. Ben's about to get defrosted, Janus is looming on the horizon, and nobody's really caring about Crystal. More importantly, this is the first issue to feature art from Fantastic Four mainstay John Buscema.

As well as this, Steve's autocorrect leads to an unusual arrival on the show, we wonder just how a lethargic alarm system would sound, and we exhibit a high level of suspicion regarding a claim that the Bullpen Bulletins are not just about plugging other books.

Send in your feedback to [email protected], leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at fantasticflameon.wordpress.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

Original artwork by Michael Georgiou. Check out his work at mikedraws.co.uk

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.

It's Pronounced Solzhenitsyn

Hello, and welcome to episode 122 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

This week, we're taking a look at Fantastic Four #106, featuring the return of Joe Sinnott to the inking brush. A monstrous figure is laying waste to downtown New York, Reed's experiments on Ben are reaching a critical point, and everyone's already forgotten about Crystal.

We've also got an explanation for the hiccup in our release schedule, and after 122 episodes, tensions between the hosts finally spill over.

Send in your feedback to [email protected], leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at fantasticflameon.wordpress.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

Original artwork by Michael Georgiou. Check out his work at mikedraws.co.uk

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.

Pollution Is Bad, M'Kay?

Hello, and welcome to episode 121 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

This week we're getting our grubby, non-Inhuman hands on Fantastic Four #105, which casually slides a key character over to another title, sets up a potential cure for The Thing, and rather niftily introduces multiple levels of threat for the entire team. It's John Romita's penultimate full issue of the Fantastic Four, and John Verpoorten's final inking for the book.

We've also got a debate about Motown, a moving listener e-mail, some news about our activities next weekend, and an announcement about the long-neglected Fantastic Flame On blog.

Send in your feedback to [email protected], leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at fantasticflameon.wordpress.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

Original artwork by Michael Georgiou. Check out his work at mikedraws.co.uk

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.

Dramatically Defeatist Namor

Hello, and welcome to episode 120 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

This week, we're concluding a story started by Jack Kirby and finished by Stan Lee and John Romita. Magneto has taken command of the armies of Atlantis, developed a curiously personal grudge against the Fantastic Four, and kidnapped Sue and Lady Dorma into the bargain. Can Reed and Namor save their true loves and avert war?

We also take a look at Avengers #82, where we compare and contrast a Stan Lee-penned invasion of New York with a Roy Thomas-penned invasion of New York. And finally, Ben and Triton are busy having some bro time, watching a Netflix marathon, in Sub-Mariner #31.

Send in your feedback to [email protected], leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at fantasticflameon.wordpress.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

Original artwork by Michael Georgiou. Check out his work at mikedraws.co.uk

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.

The Usefulness Of Lady Dorma

Hello, and welcome to episode 119 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

We've done it. We've broken through the Jack Kirby barrier. Let the uncertain era of Lee, Romita, Thomas, Buscema, et al. begin. And begin it does, by picking up the pieces of Kirby's Magneto/Atlantis plot and rebuilding them in the form of a fast-paced action epic.

We've got the Master of Magnetism, an invasion of New York, the return of Agatha Harkness, the worst possible satnav directions in the Fantasticar, along with brief looks at Sub-Mariner #30 and Fantastic Four Annual #8. And not forgetting this episode's special guest star: Richard M. Nixon!

Send in your feedback to [email protected], leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at fantasticflameon.wordpress.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

Original artwork by Michael Georgiou. Check out his work at mikedraws.co.uk

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.

The Lee/Kirby Retrospective Episode

Hello, and welcome to episode 118 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

It's a bumper-sized episode this week, as Steve and Andy tackle an unusual 'Frankenstein' project from 2008, when Marvel published a special issue comprising of a recreation of the original, rejected Fantastic Four #102, along with scans of the original artwork, and a reprint of Fantastic Four #108. We're covering this issue out of sequence to mark the end of one of the most notable and productive collaborations in comics history - Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's run on The Fantastic Four.

We also feature feedback from our listeners on the impact, the highs, the lows, and the surprises from this legendary run, as well as provide our own thoughts. As a little bonus, there's also some audio of notable comics creators discussing Jack Kirby, his work and his influence.

Send in your feedback to [email protected], leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at fantasticflameon.wordpress.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

Original artwork by Michael Georgiou. Check out his work at mikedraws.co.uk

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.

The Podcast That Goes Like This

Hello, and welcome to episode 117 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

This is it. The end of an era. Fantastic Four #102, featuring the dual-menace of Magneto and the Sub-Mariner, and the final issue of the Fantastic Four pencilled by Jack Kirby. There's a certain serendipity to releasing this episode on the 21st anniversary of his passing, although absolutely no planning went into this!

Joining us to take a look at this landmark issue of the Fantastic Four is Micheal Leyland, one half of Heykids Comics, one third of Andy's offspring, and 100% of the people who have said 'yes' to appearing on the show then never turned up for the recording. We've finally got him, and as an added bonus, we even exposed him to an Inhumans story from Amazing Adventures #2.

The opening trailer is for the Kickstarter of Ray Gunn and Starburst. Please support this Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/703821617/ray-gunn-and-starburst

Send in your feedback to [email protected], leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at fantasticflameon.wordpress.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

Original artwork by Michael Georgiou. Check out his work at mikedraws.co.uk

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.

Post-Trailer Comedown

Hello, and welcome to episode 116 of The Fantasticast. Each week, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland guide you through every issue, guest-appearance and cameo of The Fantastic Four.

It's time to take a look at the penultimate Jack Kirby-penciled issue of the Fantastic Four, issue #101. The Maggia have their eyes on the Baxter Building, and will stop at nothing, including murder, to get their hands on the contents of Reed's laboratory. It's a small but effective tale, and a late burst of quality from these final issues.

And if it's quality that you like, then you'll barely tolerate the existence of Amazing Adventures #1. The Inhumans are given their own solo strip for the second time, and Jack's been allowed to write and pencil. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a muddled mess, with inappropriate colouring and heavy inking doing their best to drown Kirby's work.

We're also taking the time to plug a kickstarter for an audio SF comedy series called Ray Gunn and Starburst. Written by Holly Rose, and featuring the voice of Fantasticast guest-host David Wynne, this is a fun project. Check out the kickstarter and help Holly get the funding at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/703821617/ray-gunn-and-starburst

Send in your feedback to [email protected], leave your comments at the libsyn site, or at fantasticflameon.wordpress.com. Follow us on twitter, where we are @fantasticast

Original artwork by Michael Georgiou. Check out his work at mikedraws.co.uk

Episode cover design by Samuel Savage.