We Talk Comics

 

Greg Rucka, one of the most compelling and outspoken personalities in the field of comics, was in town to attend The Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo and took time on Friday morning before attending the event to sit down over coffee and juice with Brett & Mo to discuss a variety of topics both in the industry and out.

Greg shares his thoughts on the industry as a whole, the inspiration he draws from Portland, the psychology of writing characters such as Superman / Wolverine / Wonder Woman, how he went from writing Whiteout to Detective Comics and his love of the Batman character just for starters. He also gives thoughts on trusting artists to tell the story visually, learning how to tailor his scripts to an artists strengths, and working with the genius Michael Lark on Lazarus.

This being Greg Rucka though, the topics tend to stray a bit from just the usual world of comic books and into some more personal and political topics. As well he goes further into depth on his recent blog Contents Under Pressure regarding the gatekeeping of women in geek culture and the fallout it has created.

We’d like to thank Greg for taking the time to speak with us, as well as the media relations at The Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo particularly Alex Kingcott for the wonderful job they did this year. This also would not have happened without the internet’s best comic book website  COMICOSITY and in particular Jessica Boyd of Mom’s Read Comics fame who earlier interviewed Greg Rucka (here and here) on her video podcast The Hangout… Thanks so much for helping facilitate this interview Jessica! And we also invite other websites to use the embed player on your site provided you link back to We Talk Podcasts. Enjoy the show.

(Language Warning)

 

Keith and Chris are joined by We Talk Comics’ most frequent and beloved guest host Matt Santori-Griffith for a look back at what Geoff Johns has been calling the DC Universe’s First Act of the New 52.

As Forever Evil draws to a close, the New 52 is closing out the threads introduced since the relaunch and is starting into the new story lines that will fill the next year. Starting from September, 2011, the guys sort through the big picture of the New 52 and theorize what is still to pay off in the future. Most importantly, they skip any talk of behind the scenes rumours at DC and focus on the stories.

Along the way they look at the success of integrating the Vertigo characters back into the DCU and the struggle to do the same with the Wildstorm characters. Why did one work and the other stumble? And what of the big Daemonites event that died on the vine?

Matt lays out an argument for exactly what books one should read if you want a good base in the world-building of the New 52 (the list may be shorter than you think) while Keith explores what he calls “the Superman problem.”

Matt and Keith are big fans of DC so this could have been a whole series of shows. Sit back, relax, and explore a bit more of the New 52 Act 1.

The hilarious concept of reading unproduced Hollywood comic book scripts or scriptments returns for the second time as your hosts review perform 4 more verified never made movie blockbusters.

This time we have James Cameron’s infamous take on Spider-Man, what would have happened if Rob Zombie had made a film about the Crow, the potential of Arnold Schwarzenegger playing Sgt. Rock, and the script made from Nicolas Cage’s personal notes in an attempt to get him to come back to the Superman film franchise.

Also a quick WeView of Marvel’s latest offering Iron Fist: The Living Weapon #1, and make sure to check out WTC’s incredible show sponsor the awesome COMICOSITY

 

We Talk Comics is back… better late than never. This show features Mo, Brett, and Comic Canuck (Chris Doucher) in a burger joint.

Friend of the show Comic Canuck (@comic_canuck) took the time to go to Emerald City Comic Con this year. To celebrate, we got him to take us out for lunch and tell us all about his trip. After complaining about the lack of sleep he had, we finally started to get him to open up. He was super excited to talk to us about his interview with  comic writer Fabian Rangel Jr, who talks about his start in comics, and his very popular self-published and Kickstarter-funded Doc Unknown: The Secret of Gate

City. Fabian also gives us the goods on his current and very popular Doc Unknown (Vol. 2): Winter of the Damned Kickstarter campaign.

If you want to find all of the interviews Comic Canuck was able to get at ECCC, then be sure to visit his site, comicbooktherapy.com.

While you are out surfing, be sure to visit our regular sponsor comicosity.com as well.

We Talk Comics Episode 104: Episode #1: T00L T1ME !

Keith hosts solo and is joined by guests writer & letterer Ryan Ferrier (D4VE, Tiger Lawyer) and COMICOSITY founder and co-owner Aaron Long.

Jump on points, new-reader friendly, accessible. Necessary, beneficial, or marketing nonsense?

Inspired by a series of tweets (wait until you see that on a movie poster) by Ruiz Moreno, this week’s panel talks about the chase after new readers that can sometimes alienate or fail to entertain the continuing reader.

We look back at the history of the jump on point and how mainstream comics writing has changed since the days of the spinner rack. As well, we chat about creator owned books which use other methods to make the previous issues available while never stopping the story to catch up people sampling for the first time.

And Keith makes a reference to a historical precedent for serialized story-telling that he is sure English-major Chris would have enjoyed.

The big news of the week is the announcement about a special We Talk Comics Live event taking place at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo on April 25.

WeViews include Marvel NOW #1s of Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider and Iron Patriot. As well as Real Heroes from Image and Rocky & Bullwinkle from IDW. Take a wild guess which one is the most new-reader friendly!

All this, good old fashioned comic talk, and a spirited discussion about what was happening behind the fence on a beloved family sitcom.

Audience advisory: this episode contains 2 bad words and a pitch for an X-Rated version of Home Improvement.

 

Show sponsor COMICOSITY‘s  Michael Hale of the brilliant Comics Classroom Blog is this week’s rotating guest host and joins in for a fun discussion on the week’s biggest comic book news stories with Cub Reporter K, WeViews of 3 books (Witcher #1 – Daredevil Vol 4 #1 – Clockwork Angels #1) and a debate on who is really the biggest comic book character in the world in 2014. Not short on laughs, but loaded up on fun!

 

 

We Talk Comics Episode 102: The Superior We Talk Comics Episode #1 ! “Never the Real Thing”

Relaunched, renumbered, and retconned! We Talk Comics is back with the start of a rotating cast of hosts.

This week, We Talk Comics legacy hosts Keith and Chris are joined by Comicosity‘s Matt Santori-Griffith. We start with some news including Matt bursting Keith’s bubble about rumoured DC titles coming in June.

The topic of the week is Eric Stephenson’s speech to ComicsPRO in which he talked to retailers about what comics stood the best chance of getting new readers in their doors.

Was Stephenson attacking other companies? Readers? Or just trying to sell his own product? And the big question – what is the “real thing”?

WeViews include the relaunched Marvel NOW #1s for Captain Marvel and Secret Avengers. From Dynamite, the second #1 from the Gold Key imprint – Magnus Robot Fighter. And a couple of the hosts are introduced to the series Stray Bullets for the first time with Killers #1.

It’s comic talk and good fun as We Talk Comics gives you a great jump on point for the new status quo! New listener friendly!

(Language Warning)

You are Fred Van Lente

You have written virtually every comic book character

And you think Iron Fist sucks

Join Brett and Mo as they spend time with writer Fred Van Lente going through his career from his youth, getting his break thanks to doing The Silencers, working at Marvel and creating the new Victor Alvarez Power Man, his trials and tribulations scripting Cowboys & Aliens and his thoughts on the film adaptation,  his creative process,  how he got the chance to write Archer & Armstrong, upcoming projects like Conan, and who Magnus Robot Fighter is and how his version is different. Plus way, way too much time spent with Brett & Mo as they try and explain the crazy Acclaim Comics version of the character to Fred.

A great hour worth of listening covering all that and more.

It’s We Talk Comics boys and girls as sponsored by the great COMICOSITY and on this episode the boys take some real never made Hollywood comic book screenplays and give a synopsis, a review, and even perform a few scenes including…

 

The proposed Green Lantern film written by the man who created and voiced Triumph The Insult Comic Dog, Robert Smigel that was set to star Jack Black

Sam Hamm, scriptwriter of Tim Burton’s Batman and his insane adaptation of Watchmen that Alan Moore feared so much

The script of a high concept but seemingly doomed to low budget Spider-Man film written in 1985 for B movie studio and then rights holder Cannon Films

And the Michelle Pfeiffer Catwoman movie by Daniel Waters spinning out of Batman Returns and supposedly going to be directed by Burton himself

So much fun a part 2 is already in the works!

 

Language Warning – Originally recorded December 27th 2013, and delayed due to an apparent loss of audio which was recovered thanks to the work of Jacek Krzywicki. Please visit his LinkedIn page to learn more about his work as an Embedded & Real-time Systems Specialist  . We are very proud to present the 2nd We Talk Comics Super Summit in it’s entirety as it was meant to be heard (Minus some compensation for poor audio quality).

The Participants

Riley Rossmo: A popular Artist and Creator mainly known for works published through Image such as Proof, Cowboy Ninja Viking, Bedlam, Green Wake and Dia de Los Muertos. Riley’s latest creator owned work is Drumhellar.

Ryan Ferrier: Writer and Letterer who’s self-published imprint Challenger Comics offers a place for aspiring creators to showcase their their work, he also created Tiger Lawyer, a book about a tiger who is also, you guessed it, A LAWYER! Ryan also has a new book from digital publisher Monkeybrain gaining numerous critical acclaim called D4VE. readchallenger.com

Ben Rankel: “Ben Rankel is a Canadian designer, illustrator and comic artist. He worked on some popular webcomics for half a decade before deciding he wanted to draw comic books. Now he’s working on that. He hasn’t won any awards or anything yet but he’s pretty good at twitter.” – From the about section of  benrankel.com

Chris Peterson: A relatively new name on the comics scene Chris has made a splash as artist on Challenger Comics Ultranova (with Ryan as writer). He also has seen his work for Grindhouse: Bee Vixens from Mars  published by Dark Horse, and can be found on GOGETTERS! &  the excellently titled DONG PATROL! Check out Chris’s website at vsrobots.com

Jason Mehmel: How would Jason describe himself? Well according to Twitter “Writer, producer and theatre artist. Comics creator. Aspirations of becoming an internet samurai.” More of Jason’s crazy genius is to be seen at fightcomics.ca  or jasonmehmel.wordpress.com

Nick Johnson: Nick is poised to be the next great artist to come out of Canada and make some noise on the comics scene. A multiple time winner of the Calgary Artist Challenge (as hosted by the great Alpha Comics) you can read more of his numerous accomplishments in his burgeoning career at nickj.ca and nicksoup.com

Scott Kowalchuk: Not only is Scott the artist of the award winning Image comic The Intrepids (written by mega talent Kurtis J. Wiebe) and The Mysterious Strangers from ONI Press he is perhaps the most frequent and popular guest on the We Talk Comics Podcast and goes by the Twitter name Comics Jack Tri...