Views From The Longbox Version 2.0

After two weeks away Michael is back and has more random stuff to throw at you muck like a primate in a zoo. It's a pretty mixed bag at that with Michael discussing the comics he's been reading lately before unleashing several bits and pieces of a talk he had with Shag. The two mostly discuss some of the news that came out of San Diego...mostly and then Shag tells a story of his recent trip to New Orleans. All of this and a big announcement regarding a special Views From The Longbox event that starts next week.

Michael flies solo again this week for a standard sized episode and as the title suggest it is a pretty random one at that. This week's offering includes; a twenty year old animated theme song, Michael complaining about his day job, some of the comics he has been reading lately, a list of podcasts he listens to and one of the reason being a Superman fan sucks. All of this in only twenty-seven minutes. How about that? No really, how about that?

Michael takes the plunge into his Superman fandom this week with having not one but two guests. Steve Younis, webmaster of the Superman Homepage, and Neal Bailey (no relation), also of the Homepage join Michael to discuss the Man of Steel and some of their experiences at the recent Superman Celebration in Metropolis, Ill. Unfortunately they never get to Neal's experiences and Steve has to pop out early, but the discussion is lively and Michael learned a lot about the history of the site he reviews for and how Steve and Neal got into Superman in the first place.

Part two of the Hulk discussion and this time it's pretty much all about the two Hulk films. Michael and Brad go over their problems with the 2003 Ang Lee film were Mike just has to do the whole origin joke again. They move on from their to the 2008 film and along the way get side tracked with all kinds of tangents, including one about Marvel's past comic book movie adaptations that must be heard to be believed. All in all a fun show and comes in about twenty minutes shorter than the first part. A quick warning as always; the language gets a little blue, so throw those headphones on if you are at work.

Michael once again teams up with Brad Douglas, webmaster of the Spider-Man Crawlspace (or as Michael at one point refers to it the "Crider-Man Crawlspace") and host of the Spider-Man Crawlspace Podcast. This time out the die-hard Superman fan and the die-hard Spider-Man fan discuss their second favorite character; the Incredible Hulk. In between some really messed up digressions the two manage to spend an hour and twenty minutes discussing the Hulk television series, the various animated series and about twenty years of Hulk comics including their thoughts on Peter David's run, Planet Hulk, World War Hulk and why John Byrne's second crack at the character sucked beyond belief. All of this and a special appearance by the hokey-pokey Hulk too. A quick warning as always; the language gets a little blue, so throw those headphones on if you are at work.

Michael presents his first ever pro interview. This week Views is very happy to present a conversation with Michael Eury, former edior at both DC and Dark Horse and current edior of TwoMorrows' BACK ISSUE magazine. Mr. Eury talks about how Adam West got him into comics, his time at DC, the Who's Who Binder Edition (covered last episode oddly enough), his stint at Dark Horse, his opinion of the BARB WIRE film and how Captain Action brought him back to comics publishing. The audio quality of the interview is not spectactular, but should improve if you throw on some headphones. And keep an ear out for a guest appearance by Michael Bailey's wife Rachel, who, for a variety of reasons, all justified, was a little annoyed with the host at the time.

The "celebration" conttinues with this second part of the one year anniversary. Michael and Shag continue their vs. conversation by discussing DC Direct vs. Marvel Legends, Who's who vs. the Marvel Handboook (or what became Who's Who vs. the Marvel Handbook), Superman/Batman vs. Worlds Finest, Man of Steel vs. Brand New Day and more. This one runs a tad longer than the first part but Michael and Shag make up for it by...well, they don't really make up for it in any form. But you get to hear two "old" men up past their bedtime and lots of swearing, so that should count for something even though it doesn't.

Has it really been one year? Well, in a day it will be. Michael has managed to keep this podcast going for a year and the next two episodes are going to celebrate that...somehow. Shag makes a return visit to the show and after some vacation talk and about one thousand digressions the two get to the actual subject of the next two installments. It's compare and contrast time as Mike and Shag choose a bunch of subjects to discuss and those subjects include trades vs. single issues, Joe Q. vs Dan D. and Super Powers vs. Secret Wars. All in good, clean, comic book fun

This week Michael flies solo again and presents an episode about the Hulk that doesn't completely suck. In expectation of the new film Michael goes over his feelings about the hype leading up to the 2003 HULK movie. Thrill as Michael goes through the merchandising, the action figures and the books that came out during that year. Michael also goes into the Hulk Encyclopedia that came out around that time and boy does he hate that book. All this and some feelings on the books and merchandise coming out this year.

After a quick apology to Van Plexico for a good later in the episode Michael continues his delayed conversation with Keith Dallas. After a bit on the late seventies history of DC Comics Michael and Keith begin talking about various eras of the Flash including Cary Bates' run and the adventures of Wally West as written by Mike Baron, William Messner-Loebs and Mark Waid. Things wrap up with some talk of the 1990/91 live action FLASH television series. Remember that Keith is the editor and head writer of the FLASH COMPANION, which will hopefully come out in July from TwoMorrows Publishing.