Next week is Free Comic Book Day 2013, and once again, Blake and Erin are here to walk you through the books being offered. What are this year’s can’t-miss titles? What are books you’ve never heard of that may be worth your time? And what special treat has Blake cooked up for you guys? Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@CXPulp.com!
Music provided by Music Alley from Mevio.
2 in 1 Showcase Episode 288: Free Comic Book Day Preview 2013
Comic-Con weekend is here, and although Blake and Erin aren’t in San Diego, that’s not going to stop them from pontificating about all the news from the con. The aftermath of Avengers Vs. X-Men! Neil Gaiman returns to Sandman! A slew of new Image comics, the titles and release dates for Marvel Cinematic Universe’s “Phase 2…” and is it possible the greatest Marvel villain of them all could be… Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz? Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@CXPulp.com!
Music provided by Music Alley from Mevio.
With just five days left before Geek Christmas, it’s time to gear up for Free Comic Book Day! Blake and Erin go through this year’s list of offerings and talk about which books they’re anticipating, which ones may not be to their taste, and whether or not there’s any reptile as awesome as Doctor Dinosaur. (Answer: No.) In the picks, Erin is absorbed in Rhiannon Frater’s As the World Dies series, and Blake urges you to watch Young Justice on Cartoon Network. Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@CXPulp.com!
Music provided by Music Alley from Mevio.
Episode 264: Free Comic Book Day Preview
It’s Free Comic Book Day 2011, and the boys are back at BSI Comics! Blake, Kenny and Mike chat with our old friends Vernon Smith, Kurt Amaker of Immortal 60 and Monty and the Mongoose of Flying Zombies fame. PLUS: Your old buddy Chase is back with his inimitable brand of freewheeling movie and pop culture commentary. In the picks, Chase gives a shout out to Captain America: The Captain, Blake was into Avengers Academy #13 and Kenny dug DC Comics Presents: Son of Superman #1. Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@CXPulp.com!
Music provided by Music Alley from Mevio.
Episode 220: Free Comic Book Day 2011
The boys are back this week to talk about the big movie coming to theaters this Friday. The guys discuss the coming Thor motion picture, the character’s history, and favorite runs with the Mighty Avenger. Then, it’s time for our annual Free Comic Book Day preview, where we run down all of the books available at a shop near you next Saturday! In the picks, Mike liked Captain America: The Captain Saga, Blake is down with Super Dinosaur #1, and Kenny digs Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #8. Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@CXPulp.com!
Music provided by Music Alley from Mevio.
Episode 219: The Mighty Thor
This week the boys line up another top ten (or seven… or eight…) episode, as they get together to discuss some of their favorite underrated characters from comics, television, movies, video games, and even a book or two without pictures. Which warriors do the guys say just don’t get the respect they deserve? And in the picks, Blake selects Superman/Batman #75 and Kenny digs on Booster Gold #35. Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@comixtreme.com!
Music provided by the Podshow Podsafe Music Network.
Episode 185: The Unsung Heroes
Inside This Episode:
Comixtreme is back! Kind of! You can find it at Comixtreme.net for the time being, while we try to sort out the .com issue. But this week’s Everything But Imaginary column is waiting for your scrutiny. This week’s column is based on what happens when my mind starts wandering. What If?-style questions get asked. And we’re looking at a big What If this time… what if DC Comics merged with Archie Comics?
Oh, and don’t worry, Other People’s Heroes fans. This post isn’t replacing that one for today. I’ll be up a little later. I’m editing even now.
Last week, as you may have heard, I spent in Pittsburgh with the wonderful Erin. This week I’m back home reading the comics I got while I was there. And like most people do when they go to Pittsburgh, I got several Archie comics. That’s what Pittsburgh is famous for, you know. So I thought today I’d talk a little about the Archies that came back to Louisiana with me.
Archie and Friends #140 was a book I missed out on when it was released a few months ago. A while back, Batton Lash and Bill Galvan did a great job on their series “Archie: Freshman Year.” In this second run of stories, Lash and Galvan told a different Freshman Year-era story about several of Archie’s friends, beginning here with the tale of what happened when Jughead briefly moved to Montana. As you can tell from the cover, it isn’t quite what one would have expected. Away from his friends, Jughead meets a young lady named Sadie Cameron, and unexpected sparks fly. This is a great issue, a very strong character piece for Jughead. Lash uses this Freshman year story to explain away a few things about ol’ Jug, from why he has no interest in the girls of Riverdale to the origin of his classic “S”-sweater that never made much sense for a Riverdale High student. Lash has a wonderful feel for these characters, weaving in jokes and puns that are perfectly appropriate for their ages and — for the most part — managing to avoid topical references that will serve to date the comic in a few years (a problem with a lot of Archie stories over the years). Galvan is a classic artist who is doing some of his best work, especially with Sadie. He manages to give her a unique look, setting her apart from the likes of Betty and Veronica while still maintaining the “Archie Comics” house style. It’s a great book.
Rating: 5/5
Also in Pittsburgh, I picked up the recently-released final chapter of “Freshman Year: The Missing Chapters,” as presented in Archie and Friends #144. Lash and Galvan are back, of course, but instead of a story focusing on one of the classic characters, this issue turns the spotlight on a new character introduced in their first “Freshman Year” yarn — Archie’s little-seen buddy Pencilneck G. Archie and Pencilneck grew close during Jughead’s absence, but largely disappeared after that. In this chapter, the “present day” Archie gang reminisces about their various introductions to Pencilneck, and we again encounter him in the present day.
Pencilneck and his group are almost like a “Bizarro” version of Archie and the gang, with Pencilneck filling in the Jughead role to a different “Betty, Veronica and Archie.” Seeing them interact feels like the Seinfeld episode where Elaine finds a whole different group — it reminds us of our heroes, but there are distinct differences. It’s a fun book, and perhaps best of all, it ends on a cliffhanger. Clearly, there’s another volume of “Freshman Year” in the works, and I for one can’t wait to read it.
Rating: 4/5
Next up is the latest installment in the Archie “new look” series, Betty and Veronica Double Digest #181. In part two of “No Baseball For Betty,” Betty Cooper is suffering from the fallout of her decision to try out for Riverdale High’s baseball team instead of playing softball this year. Her former teammates on the softball team feel like she’s abandoned them, while the boys on the baseball team are threatened that a girl is planning to replace one of them — and she’s good enough to do it. Betty’s relationship with Archie is especially strained when he, as the team captain, fails to stand up for her. Melanie J. Morgan has been the driving force behind these “New Look” comics, and it’s really nice to see her doing something different with them. She’s mostly written love stories of one sort or another (the tale of Archie “moving away” being a notable exception), so tackling this sort of story is a nice change of pace. It’s also great to see a Betty spotlight, rather than something focusing on Betty and Veronica, or Betty and Archie. Both of them are in the comic, of course, but it’s really about her. Rod Whigham does the art for this title, and does a solid job drawing semi-realistic characters that evoke the Archie house style.
Rating: 4/5
Jughead #200 is, of course, a milestone issue for our favorite eating machine, and it also has the distinction of being the first Archie comic to be released with two different covers. I only got one. In this landmark issue Tom Root (one of the writers of Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken series) leads Jughead to an out-of-the-way diner where a witch makes him a deal. She’ll serve him up the greatest cheeseburger of all time, but for a price… his perfect metabolism. When Jughead’s eating starts to catch up to him, Archie and the rest of the guys set out to try to rescue him, but they each get in further and further over their heads, leaving it up to a special guest-star to get them out of this one. This is a wonderfully funny issue. It’s a little darker, a little sharper than most Archie comics, but it doesn’t go so far as to be inappropriate for kids or upsetting to parents. It’s a solid, funny story that utilizes everything the Archie universe has to offer, as well as explores just what makes each of our core cast what he or she actually is. Rex Lindsey is a legendary Archie artist and he does his usual magic here. He tells the story well and gets to have fun with the characters visually — fat Jughead, Archie as a jerk, Veronica in rags. It’s a wonderfully silly issue and a fine way to celebrate 200 issues of Jughead.
Rating: 5/5
Finally is a book that I didn’t actually buy — a leftover from this year’s Free Comic Book Day that one of the shops was handing out. Sonic the Hedgehog: Hide and Seek and Destroy is apparently a side-story to the regular series. Written by Ian Flynn with art by James Fry, this issue shows us Sonic examining the ruins of Dr. Robotnik’s old territory, unaware that Robotnik is back and watching him. Robotnik had a pretty spectacular breakdown in issue #200 of Sonic’s ongoing comic, so this issue actually comes across as a fairly important one in terms of the character’s ongoing storyline. I’m not a regular reader of Sonic’s comic, but I am continually impressed with how the writers of this Archie series have managed to keep it going for such a long time. This is the longest-running video game comic of all time, and it’s not showing any sign of slowing down. Even in periods when Sonic’s games weren’t tearing up the charts, this comic has succeeded. This issue was solid, if not spectacular, and probably a must-read for fans of the ongoing.
Rating: 3.5/5
Evertime Realms 
People are saying…