Follow us at https://bsky.app/profile/deconcomics.bsky.social !
#847 “Angel and the Ape”: Forgotten, but not gone
In the 1960s, both Marvel and DC tried publishing humor books, often in a style reminiscent of MAD Magazine. One of these was DC’s Angel and the Ape, about a beautiful young woman and a comics-artist gorilla who run a detective agency. While it only survived for 7 issues (with two title changes!) in 1968-69, somehow it got a Phil Foglio reboot in 1991, and showed up again as a Vertigo book in 2001, co-written by Howard Chaykin and David Tischman. While it’s hard to explain the existence of these revivals, comparing the three versions gives us an appreciation of the changes in the US comics industry over 35 years. Tim and Kumar discuss.
Brought to you by:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
#846 Pow! Crack! Breaking down comics sound effects
POW! ZAP! Comics may not be for kids anymore, but they still have sound effects! Our own Patrick Ijima-Washburn noticed that Japanese editions of American comics left the sound effects untranslated, and decided to put together a book on how common English sound effects should be translated. Life being what it is, it took well over a decade, but the book is finally out digitally, in both Japanese and English! This time Patrick joins Tim to talk about the genesis of the book, some sound effects trivia (what comic strip first used “ZZZZ” for snoring? Who originated adding “ker-“ to the beginning of a sound effect?), and take a quiz from Tim: if quoted a sound effect from an actual Marvel comic, can he guess what action it’s supposed to represent?
Brought to you by:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
#845 Jack Kirby’s “Cap and Falcon” 209-211: An Uncle Sam Person
While the last three issues of Captain America and the Falcon we looked at were rather underwhelming, issues 209 to 211 give us all the kooky science fiction and Kirby Crackle we could want! The appearance of Arnim Zola, in his first face-off with Cap, has revitalized the story. But Falcon seems shunted off to the side, and what the heck happened to Anna Maria’s personality?? Tim and Emmet discuss these three issues.
Brought to you by:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
#844 The Fantastic Four on Film: “Fant4stic” (2015) pt 2: WTF does Doom want??
We conclude our look at 2015’s Fant4stic, directed by Josh Trank. Trank’s behavior on the set (and on Twitter) have been nothing but bad for his career, and studio meddling was nothing but bad for a film that wasn’t a good take on the FF, but might have at least been a better film if Trank had been left alone. As it was, we’re left with yet another FF movie that’s short on explanations of Dr. Doom’s objectives.
Videos drawn on for this episode:
-
- Does the “Trank Cut” of Fantastic Four (2015) Exist? (Frame by Frame)
- Fant4stic Four (2015) — One X-cruciating Scene | Anatomy Of A Failure (Filmento)
- FANTASTIC FOUR (2015) BREAKDOWN! WTF Really Happened With This Movie? (New Rockstars)
- Inside Josh Trank’s Director’s Cut of Fantastic Four (Bullets & Blockbusters)
Brought to you by:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
#843 The Fantastic Four on Film: “Fant4stic” (2015) pt 1
Should a director re-interpret a property when nobody wanted it re-interpreted? 2015’s Fant4stic, directed by Josh Trank, turns getting superpowers into an exercise in body horror. Much of its inspiration comes from Bendis and Millar’s very straightfaced Ultimate Fantastic Four comics, Trank threw in a liberal helping of The Fly and Scanners. Tim, Kumar, and Jordan (in another crossover with the Comic Book Movie Oblivion podcast) look at the first appearance of the Negative Zone in Fantastic Four #51 by Lee and Kirby, and at Ultimate Fantastic Four v. 1, before beginning a look at the film itself.
Brought to you by:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
#842 Struggling with Kit Anderson’s “Second Shift”
After the (connected) short stories of Safer Places, Kit Anderson‘s new book is a full-on graphic novel called Second Shift (again from Avery Hill) which has gotten some breathlessly positive reviews from writers who give the impression they totally understand it. At Deconstructing Comics, our reviews tend to be more nuanced. What did we think of it? I’m joined by Loyala Marymount University professor Juan Mah y Busch to examine this book, and we’re not afraid to say we found it difficult to understand!
Brought to you by:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
#633 “Eileen Gray: A House Under the Sun”
FLASHBACK! Eileen Gray: A House Under the Sun is a slim graphic novel by Charlotte Malterre-Barthes and Zosia Dzierzawska, about the titular famous Irish architect that most people have never heard of. Kumar and Emmet found it beautiful and intriguing; here’s their review. (Originally published August 28, 2019.) This episode includes a new intro from Emmet, referring to the recent film about Gray.
Brought to you by:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
#841 Ken Krimstein on Einstein, Kafka, and comics in general
Ken Krimstein‘s Einstein in Kafkaland: How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came up with the Universe builds on the fact that these two stars of the early 20th century were part of the same friend group at one point and builds it up into what NPR described as “Alice in Wonderland meets The Lives of the Poets meets Krazy Kat.” This week Emmet talks with Ken about the book, the two historical figures featured in it, and the nature of comics itself.
Brought to you by:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
#840 Joe Sacco’s books on the Middle East
Joe Sacco has been covering the Israel-Palestine conflict in varying forms since 1991: first in Palestine, then in Footnotes in Gaza, and most recently in War on Gaza. It’s too much for Kumar and Dana to contain in their heads all at once, both in terms of information and emotion, especially for poor Kumar, who struggles to form complete sentences through the entire episode. And it was a herculean task for Joe Sacco, too, as he confesses right on the page, but the end result is monumental.
by Joe Sacco and Art Spiegelman, from The New York Review (Feb 27, 2025)
Brought to you by:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
#385 The Legacy of “Starman”
FLASHBACK! The 1990s DC series Starman is one of comicdom’s most fondly remembered series. Interestingly, says series author James Robinson, it seems to be more popular now than it was when it was actually in production! James joins Tim and Ryan Haupt this week to look back on various aspects of this iconic series, including the theme of “legacy”, a sneaky crossover with another series, a story arc that never happened, the differences in how the Big Two have dealt with their Golden Age characters, and much more. (Originally published January 6, 2014)
James Robinson on Science…Sort Of in October 2009
Brought to you by:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download