You will curse the day that you did not do all that The Good Art Friends asked of you! Not because we’re as domineering as the Phantom, but because we just ask you to engage with wonderful art such as The Phantom of the Opera. The episode starts with some spoiler-free discussion, before launching into our analysis of this haunting and moving musical at 19:22. We guarantee that your time with us won’t result in any Stockholm Syndrom, unlike Christine's time with the Phantom. 

Note: The version that we cover in this episode is the 25th-anniversary production that was staged at the Royal Albert Hall. 

Other art discussed in this episode: Princess Mononoke; a bunch of Zelda games; The Wood at Midwinter; Fame; Porgy & Bess; The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt; Wuthering Heights; and The Bear.

Coming up next month: The Garts! Our end-of-year awards!

Shameless Plug! Pick up a copy of Spencer’s supernatural thriller The Staff and the Stake:
Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

🎶 

Good Art Friends

Good Art Friends

Talk about a comic book:

Ultimate Spider-Man!

Six issues are in the can,

Look out,

Here come the Good Art Friends!

We recommend

Tuning in

To this book by Hickman

With art by Checchetto;

This comic is worth a go!

Hey there!

Let’s chat about Spider-Man!

🎶

We promise our podcasting will be better than our lyric writing in this episode where we break down the first issues of the 2024 Ultimate Spider-Man. The spoilers for these issues (which are available now as a trade paper-back or on Marvel Unlimited) kick in at 21:40.

Other art discussed in this episode (there was a lot!): Pumpkin beers & ciders; Howl’s Moving Castle; V.E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic trilogy; Marvel vs Capcom; Sunday comics such as Peanuts & Family Circus; Saturday morning cartoons such as X-Men TAS and Spider-Man TAS; Brian Michael Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man run; Devil Dinosaur; It’s Jeff; Avengers Academy; Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye; Kieron Gillen’s Young Avengers; Maximum Carnage; G Willow Wilson’s Ms. Marvel; Chip Zdarsky’s Daredevil; Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Wonder Woman Historia; Ryan North’s Fantastic Four; Brian Vaughan’s Saga; N.K. Jemisin’s Green Lantern; Cody Ziglar’s Spider-Punk; Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay; Megalopolis; Eve Ewing’s Exceptional X-Men; Joe Kelly’s upcoming Eight Deaths of Spider-Man. 

Shameless Plug! Pick up a copy of Spencer’s supernatural thriller The Staff and the Stake:

Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

We start by wishing we could inhabit the world of Kiki’s Delivery Service for our Miyazaki Minute, before setting the table for My Chemical Romance’s 2006 release The Black Parade. At 14:10 we enter into the spoiler section of the show, and proceed to gush about the lyrics and arrangement of this remarkable concept album. Along the way, we reference the influences of the album, when MCR put the album in the casket in Mexico City, share interpretations of the overarching storyline, and wonder whether the record was cursed!

Other art discussed in this episode: My Chemical Romance’s discography; songs with ridiculously long titles; Bright Eyes; Taking Back Sunday; crying on air; The Decemberists; Spanish Love Songs; Camus’ The Plague; The Corpse Bride; and the cozy concept of Autumn.

Next month’s episode: Ultimate Spider-Man 1-6 (available as a trade paperback or on Marvel Unlimited)

Shameless Plug! Pick up a copy of Spencer’s supernatural thriller The Staff and the Stake:

Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The episode kicks off with a Miyazaki Minute on Spirited Away, before chatting about the state of video games. They discuss the benefits of video games developed by a small team and then transition into some spoiler-free talk about Animal Well. Then they analyze this beautiful, enigmatic pixel-art game (19:29). After that--since they’re feeling generous--they break down the long-awaited return of NCAA Football (32:23). Just how many points will Jonathan drop on Spencer? Tune in to find out!

Other art discussed in this episode: Stardew Valley; Metroid Dread; Tunic; Death’s Door; Balatro; Hyper Light Drifter, A Short Hike, Celeste, Monster Train, Tecmo Bowl, and for some reason a bunch of James Joyce novels. 

Shameless Plug! Pick up a copy of Spencer’s supernatural thriller The Staff and the Stake:

Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The episode kicks off with some hockey-talk and a Miyazaki Minute on Spirited Away, before turning to Chad Harbach’s 2011 novel The Art of Fielding. Spencer and Jonathan have a spoiler-free chat about what makes for a great baseball story and what they should expect from this coming-of-age novel. Then at 15:12 they return after reading the book to dive into this beautiful, poetic novel. They discuss their favorite passages, themes, and quotes, before wrapping up by choosing player comps for each of the main characters. 

Other art discussed in this episode: Various baseball movies, Hilda, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and following a historically bad baseball team.

Connect on Threads at TheGoodArt Friends or send us messages at [email protected]

This month Spencer and Jonathan dive into Sufjan Stevens’ 2023 album Javelin. The first half of the episode touches on the entirety of Sufjan’s career, then at 21:50 they dive into his latest record, in all of its lyrical and melodic beauty. 

Also discussed in this episode: My Neighbor Totoro, 12-hour car races, Susan Cain’s Quiet, and cat towers. 
Next month’s topic: The Art of Fielding by Chard Harbach

Welcome to The Good Art Friends, where good friends discuss good art! In our inaugural episode, we tackle Hayao Miyazaki’s latest and last film, The Boy and the Heron. The first half of the episode is a spoilers-free discussion of Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli films as well as our relationship with them. Then we enter into a spoilerific conversation on The Boy and the Heron (16:49). 

Next month we’ll chat about Sufjan Stevens’ album Javelin, so be sure to give it a listen before tuning in!

Contact us on Threads at TheGoodArt Friends and send us an email at [email protected]