Wait, What? Ep. 68.1: Grist for the Mill(ar)

31 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on December 27, 2011

Categories: Podcasts

This one had the best of intentions but somehow ended up being more of the accident-at-the-mousetrap-factory variety. Graeme and I started with the idea of doing a year in review podcast and it morphed, as our conversations usually do, into a verbal catalogue of compulsion and fixation. Oh sure, we start covering events from 2011 like DC’s New 52, day and date digital, but ends up being more about the paintings of Sharon Moody (erroneously called Shannon Moody by me for the whole damn podcast!), Christmas with the Swamp Thing and a long analysis of the year’s crossover events through the only lens that matters–that of Mark Millar. But my system crashes partway through the conversation (which you’ll be lucky…  Read More…

Wait, What? Ep. 64.1: Can Stop, Will Stop.

18 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on November 22, 2011

Categories: Podcasts

Oh, Thanksgiving weekend! What a boon you are to some, and a curse to others. I know I am extra-happy with the time off from work, but it also means Graeme and I won’t be recording this week. And it also means there didn’t seem to be much point to breaking this episode in half since so many will be away from their computers on Thursday and instead dealing with the complex mash of family, friends and strangers. (I’ll spare you details about my upcoming Thanksgiving but I realize I’m being way more morose about it than everybody else.) The point is, we are giving you a big ol’ 110 minute Waitstravaganza, with Graeme and I talking Community and Parks…  Read More…

Hibbsing into the first week of November!

16 comments

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on November 2, 2011

Categories: Reviews

I lost last week to GTA: San Andreas. It was on crazy sale on Steam (under $5), and I let myself get tempted and sucked in, and read very very little last week. But I’m back now!

Wait, What? Ep. 61.1: Same As It Ever Was….

22 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on November 1, 2011

Categories: Podcasts

(And look where my hand was.) Hey, we are back! After a pleasant two week respite, Graeme McMillan and I have returned with the first installment of Wait, What? Episode 61. And as you can see, we have a nifty new piece of fanart to bring along with us, courtesy of the awesomely talented Garrett Berner (who some of us also know on Twitter as The Mighty Gar). Well, that’s all fine and good, you say, but what about the podcast?  And I am happy to report it should already be up on iTunes and making its way back into your heart, like it had never left, just like some kind of ringworm or intestinal parasite.  And in it, we…  Read More…

“‘Fear Itself’? More like ‘Fuck Yourself’!” (wokka-wokka-wokka)

85 comments

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on October 21, 2011

Categories: Reviews

Hey, look, reviews!  

Wait, What? Ep. 57.2: Playing the Dozens

14 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on September 22, 2011

Categories: Podcasts

Behind the non-Clowesian eightball again, so this will have to be short and sweet. First? Graeme and I love you all. Awwww. (See? Sweet.) Second, the above illustration is from Uncanny X-Force #15, by the astonishingly great Jerome Opena. (I think the whole book is pretty great, because Remender is doing his best to crank things up to 11, but ooo mama that art….) Third, this installment is approximately eighty minutes long and we talk about a dozen-plus books, including Batwoman #1, Mr. Terrific #1, Legion Lost #1, Superboy #1, Uncanny X-Force #15, PunisherMAX #17, Criminal: Last of the Innocent #4, Journey Into Mystery #627, Drifting Classroom, Bakuman, and, as you’d probably expect, Fear Itself #6. Fourth, I think our review…  Read More…

Wait, What? Ep. 54: The Men Without Talk Talk Itself

14 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on August 30, 2011

Categories: Podcasts

Yeahhhh…. so Wait, What? Episode 54 is…kinda long?  I’ve been trying to break these bastards up into two parts so they’re a little less daunting, a little more accessible (kinda), but this sonuvabitch presented no easy way to cut into pieces — the traditional breaking point at around an hour was right when we were in the thick of things — so I thought it was better, in the end, to just give it to you as one prime piece of just-under-two-hours of auditory real estate. And what a fine patch of ear-land it is, I must say!  Graeme and I talk Black Panther: The Man Without Fear Fear Itself; the Internet backlash on Grant Morrison; whether creators are the…  Read More…

Wait, What? Ep. 53.1: Why Are They Smiling?

17 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on August 23, 2011

Categories: Podcasts

I kinda like that I’ve decided to call this installment, “Why Are They Smiling?” and I have a this illustration of someone asking “Why are they smiling?” and also maybe someone says it in the very podcast, too. It’s a bit like “Merv Griffin!”, that most excellent Milk & Cheese cartoon, and it’s a bit like that “turtles all the way down” meme, and a bit like that faux-Jack T. Chick Cthulhu strip, and it’s a bit like I have headache and can’t really think of anything especially subtle. So. Due to said headache, I will skip the program notes which I’ve been trying to add (not really sure if they’re helping anyone or not, anyway) and, hmmm, maybe I…  Read More…

Wait, What? Ep. 48.1: Talk Itself

22 comments

Posted by: Jeff Lester on July 19, 2011

Categories: Podcasts

Sometimes I think Graeme and I would do well to learn something like moderation. We took a week off — a week off during which we saw each other and hung out, mind you — and then when we got back together we talked for something like THREE HOURS, almost all about comic books. Yeah, but so then. Here’s part 1 of Wait, What? Ep. 48, wherein Graeme and I talk roommates (briefly), the Marvel Architects (perplexedly), Tom Brevoort (awe-struckedly), and, of course, Fear Itself #4 and Flashpoint #3.  I’m trying to be a bit better about the context thing so that link for Mr. TB takes you right to the article quoted in our episode my G.McM. You should’ve…  Read More…

Savage Symposium: FEAR ITSELF & FLASHPOINT (Part 3 of 3)

49 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on June 24, 2011

Categories: Symposiums

The fiery climax of our roundtable Q&A, in which questions about FLASHPOINT #2 are FINALLY ANSWERED, preconceptions are EXPLODED, homes are INVADED, true love is TESTED, and the hope of ALL will fall into the hands of ONE– and in a stunning twist ending, it turns out we were all in monogamous relationships with prostitutes this ENTIRE time.  Who saw that coming?  Well, in my case, everybody.  Everybody saw it coming.  Awwwww.

Savage Symposium: FEAR ITSELF & FLASHPOINT (Part 2 of 3)

12 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on June 22, 2011

Categories: Symposiums

Part 2, in which Questions are asked about FLASHPOINT #1 & FEAR ITSELF #3, lessons are learned, truths are revealed, a bloody revenge is discharged and a bloody discharge has its revenge.

Savage Symposium: FEAR ITSELF & FLASHPOINT (Part 1 of 3)

12 comments

Posted by: Abhay Khosla on June 20, 2011

Categories: Symposiums

As part of the 10th anniversary of The Savage Critics on the internet, and in conjunction with the 4-part discussion of Chester Brown’s PAYING FOR IT, a more mainstream-oriented “round-table” discussion of Marvel Comics’s multi-title crossover headline series FEAR ITSELF and DC Comics’s multi-title crossover headline series FLASHPOINT was conducted between April 11, 2011 and June 19, 2011, covering slightly less than the first halves of both series. As each issue of FEAR ITSELF #’s 1-3 & FLASHPOINT #’s 1-2 was released, a single question was posed.

Burble Burble Burble, Hibbs fufills a promise to review

10 comments

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on June 17, 2011

Categories: Reviews , Site News

I said I was going to review, so here’s a few quick hits. I’ve been spending a lot of time this week on the back end of the site, you’ll notice some of the real estate has changed. That “uncategorized” number will shrink over the year as I go through the older, blogger-era posts (sheesh, we have nearly 2000 posts here at this point!), but the tag cloud will really only be utilized properly going forward from here.   If you have any mechanical/aesthetic suggestions for the site, now is the time to do so.   Putting that aside, what stuck with me in the last two weeks?   PUNISHERMAX #14: I wrote up #13, but #14 compels me to…  Read More…

The Audition

27 comments

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on June 16, 2011

Categories: Reviews

I know that I told you that I’d be the first one to punk out 0n the every-week reviews — and guess what? I was right! (But I was writing Tilting, and a very special DC-Relaunch ONOMATOPOEIA that you can actually download as a full color PDF until June 28, so I don’t know, maybe that counts?) Anyway, Jeff and I were talking about how much we like John K (UK)’s comments every week in “Shipping this week” threads, and we thought “Well, let’s give him a shot”. (Important note to everyone who constantly asks to become a Critic — this is actually how you do it. You write nd you write without any expectation of anything other than amusing…  Read More…

Six Slices Of Terror: Graeme Looks At Some Fear Itself Tie-Ins

10 comments

Posted by: Graeme McMillan on June 13, 2011

Categories: Reviews

So, last week I did lots of Flashpoint tie-ins, so I thought I’d play fair and read lots of Fear Itself tie-ins this week. Well, it was that, or give you my terrible joke in place of a real review of ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #159 (“Peter Parker may be taking a long time to die in this “Death of Spider-Man” arc, but Brian Michael Bendis has successfully killed off one thing pretty quickly: Any interest I had left in this series.” Yeah, I know. But it’s Crap, let’s be honest). So: Let’s get fearfilled, shall we?

Fluff Itself: Graeme Gets Into Marvel’s Summer Event Book

26 comments

Posted by: Graeme McMillan on June 6, 2011

Categories: Reviews

I really meant to write capsule reviews, honestly; I got mailed the first two weeks of Flashpoint tie-ins, and thought “That would make a good post,” and then I started writing about Fear Itself and got into a bit of a rant. So Flashpoint will come tomorrow, and instead, here’s me getting carried away about Marvel’s big summer event book.

Events in mah brain!

30 comments

Posted by: Brian Hibbs on April 13, 2011

Categories: Retailing/Industry , Reviews

It is April, and we’re starting this year’s cycle of event storytelling. I’m fairly unconvinced this is what the audience actually and truly wants — at best I tend to think that the market supports them because its been sooooo long since we sold comics purely on the strength of the comics that we’ve forgotten anything BUT events, but I guess we’ll see what shakes out.   Clearly the market is reeling right now — January and February were abysmal, and March not really that much better — and there’s a sense to me, at least, that this year’s are “make or break” for the Marvel and DC universes in some fashion or another.   Not like comics will go…  Read More…