It’s New Years Eve and while I am not much for partying I can kick out an episode of Views to mark the occasion. This week I take a look back at 2008 and go over where the show has been and what I thought I accomplished. After that is a Best of 2008 feature where I list my favorites comic, movies and toys of the past year. Finally there’s a quick run down of some of the plans I have for the coming year, which has a lot of Marvel type stuff in it.
I hope everyone has a safe New Years. Party in moderation. Don’t drink and drive. All of that stuff. Take care, ya’ll and remember to drop me an e-mail, comment here at the site or better yet head on over to the forums and take part in the conversation.
Here it is, folks; the 2008 Christmas episode of Views! No one asked for it but you got it anyway. This year instead of playing Christmas themed Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman stories from Power Records I am joined by the Irredeemable Shag, Brad Douglas of the Spider-Man Crawlspace and Big Honkin’ Steve from everywhere and we talk Christmas, comic books and Christmas comic books. This is probably the most fun I have ever had recording and surprisingly we keep on point…most of the time. Seriously we discuss our favorite Christmas themed comic books, comic book/geek related presents, Christmas music, Christmas specials and Christmas movies. In between we do a whole lotta laughing and generally have a good time and I hope you do too.
Quick warning; this may be a Christmas special, but the language gets a little raw at times, so you’ve been warned.
A few things before I get to the links. First the fireplace, doorbell and answering machine sounds were taken from The Freesound Project, which is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds. Freesound focuses only on sound, not songs and I joined their site when I was searching for sounds online. It is a great site and here is a list of the sounds I downloaded and the people who created them.
AM Beep was by NoiseCollector, TwoToneDoorbell was by acclivity and fire.crackling was by dobroide.
Thanks to those people for creating those sounds and for the Freesound Project for being there when I needed them.
Second, here are the covers to some of the books we discuss in this episode. I am putting them under a cut because I crosspost this to LiveJournal and I don’t want to obliterate my friends’ Friends Pages. (more…)
Another week, another solo episode. This one is very late, but I wanted to get it out anyway. The subject this week is the Punisher. I go through some random thoughts on the character before tackling two books I got out of Titan Games and Comics dollar box; The Punisher Movie Special and The Punisher: A Man Called Frank. I also have a few e-mails to go through this week in addition to some shout outs and announcements.
One of those announcements is that Views now has some forum space thanks to my buddy Big Honkin’ Steve. Head on over to the Geek Out Loud Forums, scroll down slightly and there you are. Start threads, comment on threads already started but more than anything have a good time with it. I am planning to use this area a lot, so come and let your voice be heard about the show.
Links
The Punisher Archive: A very details Punisher site. I frequently use this as a resource for the character.
I’m flying solo for the first time in two months this week and while the plan was to only go about a half hour with some listener e-mail after that things did not go as planned. It was fun though, so there’s that. This week I talk about the 1992 storyline Rise of the Midnight Sons, which saw the Ghost Rider of that era team with the Ghost Rider of the seventies for their “epic” battle against Lilith. Along the way they team up with and/or fight Morbius the Living Vampire, the Nightstalkers and one of the worst comics of all time, Darkhold. Before that I tell you about my broken glasses, ask you to take part in an experiment and go through a little of the history of Ghost Rider as a concept. After the “main feature” I go through a stack of reader e-mail. All of this in an hour and change.
If you have any particular thoughts about this episode or the books I discuss feel free to comment here or write me directly at michael@viewsfromthelongbox.com.
Links
The Grand Comic Database: I mention it on the show. It’s part of the experiment. Check it out if you haven’t yet.
Big Honkin’ Steve is back for two episodes this week and the topic is our second favorite super-hero of all time the Hulk. Yeah, another Hulk episode or episodes I guess since once again I am doing two episodes this week. Big Honkin’ was originally supposed to be on with the Hulk episodes I did with Brad back in the summer but he missed out, so we sat down for about two hours and talked ol’ Jade Jaws. In this second part we discuss the first six issues of the Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness Hulk series. Steve and I look at this story from top to bottom and discuss it in depth, so, you know, SPOILER WARNING and all. Is this commentary or humor or both? It is also comic book podcasting as you like it, true believers.
Links
As mentioned Steve has a blog, a podcast and takes part in at least two others. They are:
Geek Out Online: He doesn’t update daily but what is there is choice. It is one of the first stops in my daily travels on the web.
Geek Out Loud: The official podcast of Geek Out Online. Steve’s been good about getting the podcasts out lately and I genuinely enjoy every one. You won’t find anyone more dedicated to their audience then Steve.
Starkville’s House of El: THE Smallville podcast. Steve and Derek mix commentary with humor rather well. A must for all Smallville fans.
Skynext: I don’t watch Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles but from what I saw at Dragon*Con it has a loyal following. So if you like that show check out this podcast.
And here are some Hulk sites for your general amusement.
The Incredible Hulk LIbrary: A very extensive Hulk site. You will not find a more in depth Hulk site on the web. Comics, movies, television, wallpapers…it’s all here.
Alan Kistler’s Top 10 Must-Read Hulk Stories: Alan is a master and this list is fantastic. I can’t find fault with any of his choices. Well, maybe Planet Hulk/World War Hulk. Then again I should re-read those at some point since it has been so long. Maybe I will enjoy them more.
Big Honkin’ Steve is back for two episodes this week and the topic is our second favorite super-hero of all time the Hulk. Yeah, another Hulk episode or episodes I guess since once again I am doing two episodes this week. Big Honkin’ was originally supposed to be on with the Hulk episodes I did with Brad back in the summer but he missed out, so we sat down for about two hours and talked ol’ Jade Jaws. In this first part Steve talks about his Hulk fandom and we go over the television series, the revival tele-films of the late eighties and the comics. We even get high falutin’ and discuss the Hulk on a “deep” and “meaningful” level where I probably offend half of my audience. Come back tomorrow for the second part where we get into the first six issues of the Loeb/McGuinness series.
For your amusement I am including a YouTube video that takes me back to when I was twelve years old. Here are the original NBC openings to both The Incredible Hulk Returns and Trial of the Incredible Hulk, plus some scenes that shed a little more light on what Steve and I discuss this week.
Plus it is just cool.
Links
As mentioned Steve has a blog, a podcast and takes part in at least two others. They are:
Geek Out Online: He doesn’t update daily but what is there is choice. It is one of the first stops in my daily travels on the web.
Geek Out Loud: The official podcast of Geek Out Online. Steve’s been good about getting the podcasts out lately and I genuinely enjoy every one. You won’t find anyone more dedicated to their audience then Steve.
Starkville’s House of El: THE Smallville podcast. Steve and Derek mix commentary with humor rather well. A must for all Smallville fans.
Skynext: I don’t watch Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles but from what I saw at Dragon*Con it has a loyal following. So if you like that show check out this podcast.
And here are some Hulk sites for your general amusement.
The Incredible Hulk LIbrary: A very extensive Hulk site. You will not find a more in depth Hulk site on the web. Comics, movies, television, wallpapers…it’s all here.
Alan Kistler’s Top 10 Must-Read Hulk Stories: Alan is a master and this list is fantastic. I can’t find fault with any of his choices. Well, maybe Planet Hulk/World War Hulk. Then again I should re-read those at some point since it has been so long. Maybe I will enjoy them more.
Welcome back for Part 2 of my conversation with Shag on some of the Batman books from 1989. This time out we go through two Marv Wolfman written Batman tales; Batman: Year Three and A Lonely Place of Dying. We cover a lot of ground this time out and it is a pretty packed episode as we cover the writing, art and characters of both stories.
The cover you see at the top of this post is from from my trade of A Lonely Place of Dying. That is Marv Wolfman’s signature on the cover. I had the chance to meet him twice at two different DragonCons and I am really pleased to have this book signed.
Did I bring it back the next year to get it signed by George Perez? No. Why? Because I am a moron.
Links
Here are the links to the podcasts and blogs mentioned in this week’s episode. We go into why we like them in the episode so here are some straight up links.
In the first of the two episodes to be released this week I team up Shag once more in a sequel to our previous conversation. The Batman talk continues this time out as Shag and I discuss the 1989 story arc Mud Pack, which first saw print in Detective Comics numbers 604 to 607. Actually I do most of the talking as Shag has never read this particular story. In this episode you’ll get a very brief history of the people who bore the name Clayface, why Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle are one of the best Batman creative teams ever, why this story was so damn good and some current comic book talk before we get into the site, podcast and blog recommendations and a big ol’ stack of e-mail. All of this and a very special song that is so awesome it defines the very essence of awe to the some.
I also say the term “kick ass” a lot in this episode. I have no idea why. Turn it into a drinking game if you want.
Links
Here are the links to the podcasts and blogs mentioned in this week’s episode. We go into why we like them in the episode so here are some straight up links.
This week I am splitting the conversations into two parts because once again I had a conversation that couldn’t be contained by a single episode!
(Cue dramatic music)
Actually the original plan was to talk for only just one hour things didn’t work out that way because they never work out that way. I could plan on talking for only twenty minutes and four hours will go by. That’s just how things go for this podcast. I don’t know if that is good or bad or not. Only time and the audience will tell.
In any case this week I team up with my semi-regular co-host Shag to mark the twentieth anniversary of the seminal Batman story Death in the Family. Yes, two decades have gone by since a poll was taken to determine the fate of the Jason Todd Robin and Shag and I look at it from all angles. Sure this story has been kind of rendered moot but there is still much to discuss. In this second part Shag and I continue our look at the story and end things by talking about the ramifications of this story. We also tease about an upcoming episode as well, so there’s that.
In case you were curious the music at the top of both parts of this episode is from an album put out in the Sixties by Sun-Ra records and featuring the sensational guitars of Dan and Dale. The album is pretty awful but the track Robin’s Theme seemed somewhat appropriate.
Links
Once Upon a Geek: The Irredeemable Shag has a blog and this is it. Shag posts Monday thru Friday (mostly) about comics and Dr. Who and all manners of geeky subjects.
Batman Yesterday, Today and Beyond: The best Batman site I have come across on the web. This thing is to Batman what the Superman Homepage is to Superman. Comics, movies, television…it’s all here. A very impressive site.
Bat-Blog: Batman Toys and Collectibles: A very enjoyable blog that centers around the more collectible side of the Dark Knight. Tommy runs a pretty swell blog and covers vintage toys, cartoons, comics and more. He also holds contests from time to time, which is pretty darn cool.
The Bat Pages: I kid you not this is the most impressive site dedicated to the sixties Batman series that I have ever seen. Seriously. Just click on the link. It is freaking awesome.
Batman Movie Online: A great resource for the films of the eighties and nineties. Another very impressive site complete with a forum and up to date info on DVD and other releases.
This week I am splitting the episode into two parts because once again I had a conversation that couldn’t be contained by a single installment!
(Cue dramatic music)
Actually the original plan was to talk for only just one hour things didn’t work out that way because they never work out that way. I could plan on talking for only twenty minutes and four hours will go by. That’s just how things go for this podcast. I don’t know if that is good or bad or not. Only time and the audience will tell.
In any case this week I team up with my semi-regular co-host Shag to mark the twentieth anniversary of the seminal Batman story Death in the Family. Yes, two decades have gone by since a poll was taken to determine the fate of the Jason Todd Robin and Shag and I look at it from all angles. Sure this story has been kind of rendered moot but there is still much to discuss. In this first part Shag and I talk about the history of Jason Todd and the differences between the Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis version of the character. There is also a pretty healthy debate about the artwork of Jim Aparo before we get into the story itself.
In case you were curious the music at the top of both parts of this episode is from an album put out in the Sixties by Sun-Ra records and featuring the sensational guitars of Dan and Dale. The album is pretty awful but the track Robin’s Theme seemed somewhat appropriate.
Come back tomorrow for the exciting conclusion or at the very least the conclusion.
Links
Once Upon a Geek: The Irredeemable Shag has a blog and this is it. Shag posts Monday thru Friday (mostly) about comics and Dr. Who and all manners of geeky subjects.
Batman Yesterday, Today and Beyond: The best Batman site I have come across on the web. This thing is to Batman what the Superman Homepage is to Superman. Comics, movies, television…it’s all here. A very impressive site.
Bat-Blog: Batman Toys and Collectibles: A very enjoyable blog that centers around the more collectible side of the Dark Knight. Tommy runs a pretty swell blog and covers vintage toys, cartoons, comics and more. He also holds contests from time to time, which is pretty darn cool.
The Bat Pages: I kid you not this is the most impressive site dedicated to the sixties Batman series that I have ever seen. Seriously. Just click on the link. It is freaking awesome.
Batman Movie Online: A great resource for the films of the eighties and nineties. Another very impressive site complete with a forum and up to date info on DVD and other releases.
Views From The Longbox is a weekly podcast hosted by reviewer, blogger and would-be commentator Michael Bailey. Every Wednesday (or so) the host (as in me) takes between 30 minutes to an hour to discuss something to do with the world of comic books. Occasionally I have a co-host, most notably Shag of Once Upon a Geek and The Unique Geek, the latter of which I am also a part of. Anything goes really and some episodes are really random, but I have fun and I hope you will too.
If you have any questions or comments go ahead and use the little comment thingie at the bottom of the post.
All images used on this site and all audio samples used in the podcast are owned by the people who control their copyrights, licensing and publishing rights. I don't own them and I don't claim to own them. They are used merely for entertainment purposes and I am not compensated for them in any way. They are there to add a little more to the blog/podcast and to illustrate the points made by the author.
