Wait, What? Ep. 86: Defending Your Life

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on May 15, 2012

Categories: Podcasts

(Visual from Art Spigelman’s piece on Maurice Sendak unrelated to this episode, but I adore it too much to ignore it!) Hail and well met, fellow Whatnauts! Sadly, my M.O. of dashing something off in a state approaching sheer terror continues as I managed to put this together in time to hit all of our deadlines but with unexpected side-effect of stripping my soul down to its most bald-tiredian self. Forgive me, won’t you? But, hey, at least as a result you get to dig into the nougaty goodness that is Wait, What? Ep. 86. Packed with seven essential vitamins and minerals, the latest episode of Graeme and I answering your questions is part of this complete breakfast. [Quick shot…  Read More…

Wait, What? Ep. 85: Dashboard

47 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on May 9, 2012

Categories: Podcasts

Okay, then. Slight delay but none of us are quite the worse for wear, right? Unfortunately, I’m still kind of behind the gun, so lemme just block out the ep, aye? For the first fifteen minutes, charming and talented Graeme McMillan and I shun the comic book talk and instead discuss Graceland, Video Games, and TV theme songs.  Those of you who show up just for the sequential gossip should probably skip over that. But then we get on to the good stuff (at least as “good stuff” is defined and regulated by state law), talk Action #9, Earth Two #1, and Avengers Vs. X-Men #3.   And finally, we start answering more of your questions from Twitter, with topics…  Read More…

Wait, Where? Podcast, Interrupted

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on May 8, 2012

Categories: Podcasts

Very, very sorry about this: hit some snags in editing Wait, What? Ep. 85 (essentially, far too many family and friends visiting at one time) and so the episode will not be available until, um, maybe late Wednesday afternoon? (There’s a slim chance it’ll be ready by first thing Wednesday morning, but that chance is mighty slim, jim.) Anyway, just wanted to let you know.  Again, my apologies and please check back tomorrow!

Wait, What? Ep. 84: Q and A DNA Q

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on May 1, 2012

Categories: Podcasts

First off, our new graphic is courtesy of the incredibly talented Adam P. Knave (who on top of all the other things he does and does well, has added podcaster to the mix. Go check out The Glory, The Glory, why don’t you?) and our old dashed-off scattershot introductions to the podcast, courtesy of me who has once again managed to land himself behind a scheduling eightball. But!  That doesn’t mean we didn’t attend to our duties, as far as answering your questions go.  On the contrary, Episode 84 of Wait, What? is our first hour and forty five minute foray into the savage wilds of your inquiries.  Among the ground covered by Graeme McMillan and me:  our recommendations for…  Read More…

Wait, What? Ep. 83: As Good As A Feast

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on April 24, 2012

Categories: Podcasts

Hoo boy.  Did not think I was going to make this particular deadline.  I won’t bore you with the blah-blah-blahs, but let’s just say: papa needs a new microphone and he needs one bad.  I apologize in advance for all the not-especially-discreet cracking and popping going on at various points in the background of this.  We are maybe two weeks away from a solution to both it and the mild echo chamber effect that’s afflicted us ever since Graeme managed to transcend this corporeal realm. Buttttttttt, anywayyyyyyy… Gotta keep this short and snappy so lemme just say this:  Wait, What? Ep. 83 is two hours and twenty-seven minutes long, and Graeme and I do not spend all that time trying…  Read More…

Wait, What? Ep. 82: The Problem With Problems

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on April 10, 2012

Categories: Podcasts

Hola, chicos! The above image is from Dave Sim’s Glamourpuss #24, just one of many fine comic book hoohahs under discussion in episode 82 of the latest podcast from the brilliant (but presently ill!) Graeme McMillan and the generally slow-on-the-uptake (but mostly healthy!) yours truly. I gotta say, we pretty much drove right in on this one, and ended up talking Action Comics #8 in the first three minutes of this two hour twenty-five minute blabapalooza, and also managed to hit topics like OMAC #8, the colorization of  Scott Pilgrim, the battles behind the TV show Community, a great blog post by Steve K. about the state of the comics Internet, Casanova #3, Supreme #20, Fatale #4, Strike Force Morituri,…  Read More…

Wait, What? Ep. 81: On Tact Cleanses

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on April 3, 2012

Categories: Podcasts

[Image above from the awesome Sharknife: Double Z by Corey Lewis, which we did not discuss in this episode, but believe me it was rad.] Sorry, sorry, for reasons that will probably be apart for those who listen to the podcast, I’ve got to pull some serious Hello!, I Must Be Going shit because I’m on night nine of the ten day Flowers for Algernon diet. So join poor old Graeme McMillan and I for two-plus hours of the jibberty that goes jabberty.  Our topics include The Silence of Our Friends by Nate Powell and Mark Long; Shooters by Steve Lieber, Brandon Jerwa and Eric S. Trautmann; Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks; digital comics and Infinite comics; Spaceman…  Read More…

Wait, What? Ep. 80: Bats and Birds

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on March 27, 2012

Categories: Podcasts

Apologies to those of you already pestered with this image on Twitter:  I thought it was worth a re-use, in no small part because I must once again plead mentis mortis (I have no doubt I’m handling this dead language so poorly, a charge of necrophilia could well be leveled), thanks to how late it is that I’m composing this and where I’m at for a variety of reasons that will probably become clear once you hear Wait, What? 81 next week.  (Hint: it’s a terrifying topic Graeme and I have tackled before.) But enough of that for now, there’s a podcast to be had!  Wait, What? Ep. 80, in fact, a done-in-one of approximately two hours and twenty-five minutes…  Read More…

Quick Notice: Because There Are Reviews, There Will Be No Reviews.

21 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on March 23, 2012

Categories: Reviews

Hibbs is out of town but he emailed me yesterday, breathlessly and with that slipshod sense of punctuation you expect from people on the road (oh how I wish I had that excuse!), to let me know that it was very important that  I tell everyone that, yes, he had written reviews but no, he had not thought to bring his password with him and so, even more so, no, there will be no reviews from him until after 4/3…not because there aren’t reviews, mind you! (No, of course not.) So…there’s that.  In the interim, please check out John K’s excellent review of the Goodwin/Simonson adaptation of Alien and also, Tucker Stone’s latest slate of reviews over at The Comics…  Read More…

Wait, What? Ep. 79.2: Power of Ones

19 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on March 22, 2012

Categories: Podcasts

Hey, guess who did it wrong? Yeah, I had an incredibly busy Wednesday and it wasn’t until my head hit the pillow that I remembered I’d forgotten to upload this podcast. And create this entry. So, despite my fond reveries about providing extra content and blahblahblahblah, that will probably have to wait until next week because, well, I’m tired and dumb. But I wasn’t (entirely) when Graeme and I talked now comics for our conclusion to Episode 79!  Nope, I was more or less lucid and we reviewed the latest issues of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel and Faith, Frankenstein, Agent of Shade, Batwoman, and a whole mess of first first issues including Saucer Country, Crossed Badlands, Saga, Avengers Assemble, and…  Read More…

Wait, What? Ep. 79.1: iPhones and Asshats

50 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on March 20, 2012

Categories: Podcasts

Multitasking–can it truly be done efficiently? Studies suggest “no,” but if only they could watch me in action, they could change those studies to definitively conclude, “Oh hell, no.” At this very moment, I am uploading episode 79.1, listening to episode 79.2, and creating this entry to go live early Tuesday morning. Which will I screw up first? The smart money is on “all three.” That said–hello! Welcome to Episode 79.1! Yes, once again, we are changing things up and going back to two episodes per week, divided up into comfy one hour chunks. I kinda missed having content on the site on Thursdays–I thought it was a nice way to have something up to look at and listen to…  Read More…

Wait, What? Ep. 78: Quotes From Pandora Three-Sixteen

34 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on March 13, 2012

Categories: Podcasts

(This installment’s accidental shout-out courtesy of Action Comics #7) Normally, I try and pitch some rhetorical woo at you as a way to encourage or remind you to listen to this miniature stage play of the mind  Graeme (with his smooth, Noel Cowardesque line delivery) and I (with my stammering Method Actor incoherence) offer up each week. However, as the soul-stealing monster known as Daylight Savings Time has arrived to demand the tribute of an hour from each of us trembling villagers, I fear I’ve got nothing especially fleet-footed with which to charm you, merely the verbal posturings of the maladroit and the overwrought.  The sundial? Tis broken.  The hourglass? Now hollow. But if you wish to remember me fondly,…  Read More…

Wait, What? Ep. 77: The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on March 6, 2012

Categories: Podcasts

(Illustration from Chapter 166 of Bakuman. Remember it’s a right-to-left world out there.) Remember how The Uncanny X-Men would, like, get psychically mind-raped by The Hellfire Club, or shot full of Brood babies and be torn apart from the inside, or bound and gagged to the inside of Magneto’s rumpus room, and then afterward there’d be an issue of them playing baseball and walking around the recently rebuilt (since it had also been recently destroyed) mansion of Professor X? This episode is a little bit like that, I guess, with Graeme and I recovering from answering (almost) everyone’s questions and having ourselves quite the crazy time of it on the Internet.  So Episode 77 is two hours of amiable chitchat…  Read More…

Wait, What? Ep. 76: Dares, Wins

36 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on February 28, 2012

Categories: Podcasts

And Lo, There Shall Come…An Answering! For most of you, anyway.  I fully confess Graeme and I did punt on a few questions that were either complex enough to take up a full podcast at a later date, or so good that it would require better men than us to answer it.  (Ah, yes: the old “It’s not  you, Listener Question, it’s us” strategy–never leave home without it.) Anyway, as you might imagine with so many exceptional inquiries, it would take us a while to answer them–and of course us being us, we’re going to go egregiously off-topic, right?–so, yeah.  Two hours and forty minutes is what we’ve got for you. We talk so long Graeme turns into The Lord…  Read More…

Wait, What? Ep. 75: Joshua Judges OMAC

34 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on February 21, 2012

Categories: Podcasts

[Above:  Not a deliberate shout-out, I'm sure, but we'll take what we can get, of course.] Thanks for your patience during our mild vacation! In return, we offer you Wait, What? Ep. 75, which features more than two and twenty minutes of Graeme McMillan and me “stealing the air” or “pump[ing] up the volume” or whatever it is you “kids” call it. [Thanks to Joolian for pointing out that should really read "two hours and twenty minutes," damn my eyes!] Do we talk Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and The Walking Dead? Do we, ever! Dare we discuss Gary Friedrich, Ghost Rider and Marvel? Dare, we do! Tire I of answering rhetorical questions? Frankly, yes, but I won’t let that get…  Read More…

Wait, What? There’s No Wait, What? This Week?

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Posted by: Jeff Lester on February 14, 2012

Categories: Podcasts

Yes, well.  Tiny vacations were taken last week (little itsy-bitsy ones!) and it was pretty darn pleasant, I gotta say. However, this means Graeme and I didn’t record last week, which means I didn’t edit yesterday, which means no podcast today.  (Why this means I have to somehow map out the entire production process for you, I’m not sure.  Obviously, the mini-cation didn’t help my ability to vamp awkwardly.) Which isn’t to say we don’t have some great Wait, What? related content for you anyway.  For example, check out this Portlandia video below for a very compelling cameo (right around the 1:03) mark: And! After the jump!  Kirby tattoos!

Big Numbers: Brian’s Tilting… on the 2011 Bookscan Numbers at CBR

6 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on February 10, 2012

Categories: Retailing/Industry

Hey, everyone.  Since Brian is off doing what Brian does best–pestering comic book publishers for hard data–(and let’s face it, that isn’t very pretty), he asked me to give all y’all a link to his latest Tilting at Windmills over at CBR.  It’s his annual review of the Bookscan numbers which I think makes it even more of a look-see than usual. This is the ninth time Hibbs has sat down and crunched numbers of the Bookscan report (the sixth time he’s looked at *all* the numbers for the year) and, as always, the results are fascinating, terrifying, and stultifying all at once.  This year’s report runs approximately 15,000 words which is…pretty god-damned daunting, so my brain always breaks when…  Read More…

Wait, What? Ep. 74: Who Before Watches the Before Watchmen?

108 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on February 7, 2012

Categories: Podcasts

I hope you have your calendar cleared until 2014, because that’s how long it’s going to take before Graeme and I get to answering all your questions from this thread. Honestly, how were we to know Before Watchmen was going to launched the day before we were scheduled to talk?  As the astute listener may note, we were pretty reluctant to launch into the topic and how clearly tried to get it out of our system beforehand…but like one of those county fair snacks gone bad, it keeps finding new and horrible ways to re-surge and expel itself. So join us, won’t you, for Wait, What? Ep. 74?  The first eighty minutes is Graeme and I talking Watchmen, Before Watchmen,…  Read More…

Wait, What? Ep. 73: Thicker Than Forget

28 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on January 31, 2012

Categories: Podcasts

We didn’t even come close. Don’t get me wrong–we certainly tried.  But give Graeme and I more than four dozen questions with an amorphous time deadline and you’re not going to get the bulk of those questions answered even with us putting in two and a half hours to get it done.  [Though we do so at the expense of Haruki Murakami's 1Q84: if you are currently reading that book, please skip over the 20-25 minute section of the podcast to avoid some ship-sinking spoilers.  (Sorry again, Luke.)] So consider this Part 1 of our answers to your questions, with Part 2 to come next week.  If we go to Part 3, I give you permission to begin hunting us…  Read More…

Wait, What? Ep. 72.1: ‘Cause of a List For Life…

26 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on January 24, 2012

Categories: Podcasts

Top Five Reasons to do a List Podcast They’re Fun They’re (Comparatively) Easy The Third Item is Usually Not Great, But The Fourth is Great It Helps Our Remedial Counting Skills Five Things You’ll Hear About on This Podcast (In No Particular Order) Superman’s Diary Avengers: HR A President Who Speaks Like Jack Kirby The Still-New Theme Music Flooding (At The Beginning and Only Very Briefly) Five Ways You Can Hear This Podcast On iTunes Here on our RSS feed At a Friend’s House In the Dreams of Stephen Williamson Just Below: Wait, What? Ep. 72: \’Cause of A List For Life… A List of Concluding Elements we hope you enjoy thanks for listening! We apologize for the headings making…  Read More…

Wait, What? Ep. 71: Funk, Soul, Brother

35 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on January 19, 2012

Categories: Podcasts

Yep, a bit of a delay but here we are, more or less as promised: Wait, What? Ep. 71, featuring our new theme song courtesy of the hyper-talented Graeme McMillan. This done-in-one episode is not quite two hours and forty-five minutes and covers, um, lots of stuff. Stuff like OMAC and the other cancelled new52 titles; the current state of George Perez’s career and what Marvel’s marketing team could do with it; Mark Millar’s Trouble and Spider-Man; comments by Charles Vess and Ariel Olivetti about Marvel; Mark Waid’s Amazing Spider-Man/Daredevil crossover, Jason Aaron’s Wolverine and the X-Men as well as Wolverine #300. Plus, a lot of babbling from Jeff about PunisherMAX #21; a debate how many “good” issues a creator…  Read More…