There's Sometimes a Buggy

Welcome to our brand-new movie podcast!

In this episode, Elise Moore and David Fiore ramble on about their respective lives cinematic and present impressionistic lists of their characteristic enthusiasms. Last, but not least, we sketch out the shape of 'casts to come.

Among the topics covered here: our not being a David Lynch podcast, RCA Videodiscs, Canadians watching New England PBS stations, Xanadu, The Lady in the Lake, reading about movies you fear you'll never see, The Strawberry Blonde, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, Bette Davis in general, Stanley Cavell, Ray Carney, Jonathan Rosenbaum, and the great Jerry Lewis.

Time Codes:

0h 1m 00s: Dave and Elise's Nitrate Nativities

1h 16m 33s: 4 Impressionistic lists

1h 57m 35s: Coming attractions

*Read Elise's Writing at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cléo, and Bright Lights.*

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at [email protected]

Theme Music:

"What's Yr Take on Cassavetes?" – Le Tigre

Elise and Dave take a moment to salute the great Ernie Colón (1931 – 2019) before segueing into conversation with a pair of intriguing interlocutors. On the docket: some behind the scenes dope on the everlovin’ Spider-Buggy, “The Male Feminist Gaze”, My Chemical Romance, Peter Milligan, Herman Melville’s Pierre: Or, The Ambiguities, Sean Howe’s Marvel: The Untold Story, Spider-clones on 1970s TV and the too-frequently ignored similarities between Jim Shooter and Otto von Bismarck.  

Thanks for listening everyone – and, if you’re discovering this in 2025 and want to talk about comics while the world evaporates into a fever dream, please email us at [email protected].

Credits: Intro music:

Debbie Harry - "Comic Books"

All good relapses must come to an end – and this is ours! Elise and Dave examine the books that bequeathed a thousand clone tales to the 1990s. Does the original story justify all that agony? Whaddyou think, Tiger? Stay tuned for twin epilogues, soap opera meta theory, Dave’s customary swipe at Marvels, a lot of sexbot talk, the most amazing thing that’s ever happened at Shea Stadium, and a confused science teacher who broke the mold in breaking bad. 

Thanks for listening and we hope you’ll join us for There’s Sometimes a Buggy: Irresponsible Opinions About Classic Film, beginning next week right here on this feed!  

Credits: Intro music:

Debbie Harry - "Comic Books"

In our podcast’s sole foray into the world of mid-70s Marvel Giant-Size comics, our beleaguered spider-buddy battles Lizards and Man-Things and unbearable sci-fi relationship pressures. Also: wouldja believe, the Recession? With Great Responsibility, comes… a great desire to run away to Florida. Then, in Amazing Spider-Man 147, The Jackal reveals the reason for his homicidal animus against the wallcrawler, prompting Elise to entertain the notion that ol’ Green-culottes is a manifestation of Peter’s roiling guilt. No one real is The Jackal!

Paroled for good behaviour, the Scorpion heads straight for Manhattan for another go at completing his dumb bucket list (rob bags of money; take over the rackets; maybe kill Spider-Man). Do the authorities allow him to reclaim his singularly stinger-less tail? Of course they do. Long time listeners will be used to this by now. Marvel-USA’s Second Amendment covers assault suits. Along the way, Scorp meets up with The Jackal, who seems to know a lot of things about our hero that he shouldn’t. Together, these two green creeps really put Spidey through his paces – providing Peter a conveniently calisthenic means of clinging to his sanity while the mystery of this new Gwen (same as the old Gwen?) unfolds.    

Credits: Intro music:

Debbie Harry - "Comic Books"

At last! The big Cyclone two-parter you’ve been waiting for! Conway and Andru deliver a pair of the greatest superhero comics of the Bronze Age with one disgruntled ex-military scientist turned terrorist tied around their necks. The MJ/Pete relationship reaches new heights at the airport! Not to be outdone, Gwen rises from the grave! Also: our hero demonstrates his scientific ingenuity with simulated Spider-ventriloquism and a souped-up fan; 1970s letter-writer Bernadette L. Bosky makes a sociological plea against Marvel’s sliding time scale; and 2019 email writer Todd Murry prompts Dave to deliver snap judgments on most of Spidey's chroniclers up until 1990.

Credits: Intro music:

Debbie Harry - "Comic Books"

Conway cannily caches a crepuscular clone cameo near the crescendo of a seemingly throwaway Mysterio two-parter straight out of the Scooby Doo script slush pile. So many incredible developments in these issues! MJ and Pete’s autumnal stroll through Central Park; Betty and Ned – engaged at last; J. Jonah Jameson leaves the country; and Spider-Buggy: No More! And, as usual, the paratext pushes the conversation in a million different semi-coherent directions – most notably some reflection on Roy Thomas’s World War II titles (occasioned by a Bullpen Bulletins teaser for THE INVADERS) and the Hobbesian editorial power vacuum at Marvel during the mid-1970s. All this plus another missive from Todd Murry, chock full of information about contemporary comics and Sesame Street lore.  

Credits: Intro music:

Debbie Harry - "Comic Books"

It’s nearly all-Jackal-all-the-time from here until the issue #149 climax, and Dave couldn’t be happier! Elise gets a lot of mirthful mileage out of the arch-fiend’s vestigial green loincloth. Does that furry freak’s costume feature a Jackal member? Is it even a costume? We’ll let her discover that pertinent point in the fullness of time. We also bear (yes, I said it) witness to the sad rise and fall of The Grizzly, savour an MJ-centric missive from the perceptive Nan Brower, and respond to amiable emails from Franz Fuchs and Todd Murry.  

Credits: Intro music:

Debbie Harry - "Comic Books"

In issue #137, Goblin fils Harry Osborn throws on his dad’s weird old rubber duds, steals an atomic bomb, and then really proves he’s lost it by positing that Flash Thompson is “one of the three people closest to [Peter Parker] in the world.” (Or does he have precognitive access to the heartwarming events of the following issue?) And what about that next issue? Well, friends, it’s called “Madness Means the Mindworm!” ‘Nuff said!  

Credits: Intro music:

Debbie Harry - "Comic Books"

This week, we are delighted to find Maoist politics smuggled into the Tarantula’s origin story, of all places (as narrated by The Punisher, in his second full appearance). Then, a Gestalt Green Goblin (far more than the sum of what’s left of Harry Osborn’s mind) lights the fuse that writes finis to Peter Parker’s swingin’ Silver Age pad. Worst roommate breakup ever!

Bonus: Stan’s Soapbox sales pitch re: our hero’s imminent Electric Company gig prompts your hosts to wax nostalgic about all the YA lit they read instead of Spidey Super Stories comics.

Credits: Intro music:

Debbie Harry - "Comic Books"