Comic Book Bears Podcast

A bunch of bears and a bunch of new comics - yes, it's another new Comic Book Bears audio episode! Hit play and hear Steve, Caleb and Bill Z chat about a very important bit of recent comic industry news - the mass exodus of artists from Cadence Comic Art - and then onto the comic book talk with time dedicated to Ultimate Spider-Man (Marvel), The Schlub (Image), Somna (DSTLRY) and  John Constantine: Hellblazer - Dead in America (DC)! AND YES, ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #1 REALLY IS THAT GOOD!!!

Finally, it's a new Comic Book Bears Podcast audio episode! Hit play and hear the CBB boys (Bill Z, Steve and Caleb) talk about comics like Superman: Lost, Kneel Before Zod, the new Duke and Cobra Commander books from Image/Skybound's G.I. Joe line and - remember we are a queer podcast - Killer Queens 2! The boys also get caught up with each other and, since this first 2024 episode was recorded during the playoffs, you get treated to some NFL Conference and Super Bowl chat from Caleb and Bill ... it was a funny conversation so we left it in ... and if you have missed the audio episodes, don't worry - this is just the first of three that we will be releasing over the next week!

Two of the CBB boys (Bill Z and Steve) were able to sneak in one last livestream in 2023 and here it is now as the first Comic Book Bears Podcast audio episode of 2024! And it's all about the King of the Seven Seas! Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is the 15th film and final installment in the DC Extended Universe movie series and that's what we chat about! The film was directed by James Wan and stars Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry / Aquaman, alongside Patrick Wilson, Amber Heard, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Randall Park, Dolph Lundgren, Temuera Morrison, Martin Short, and Nicole Kidman. In the film, Aquaman must work with his half-brother Orm to prevent Black Manta from killing his family and using the cursed Black Trident to overheat the world while searching for the lost seventh kingdom of the seas. We let you know what we thought about it and also provide some recommendations for comic books featuring Aquatic Ace! Hit play to dive in!!!

We are thrilled to welcome back to the show for our final full length episode of 2023 Dr. Christopher Michael Roman! Dr. Roman is a Professor of English at Kent State University and he specializes in Comics Studies and the Graphic Novel, LGBTQ+ Literature and Queer Theory. The Professor is here to talk about his book Queering Wolverine in Comics and Fanfiction: A Fastball Special which discusses the ways in which Wolverine is a queer hero and examines his representation as an open, vulnerable, and kinship-oriented queer hero in both comics and fanfiction. It is an eclectic and very thought provoking discussion! After that our esteemed guest and not-so esteemed hosts sit down to a virtual comic roundtable to discuss recent reads like Unleashed, Wesley Dodds: The Sandman, Monstress and Wild's End!

Hit SNIKT and enjoy! 

The end of this year saw a number of Doctor Who specials hit the television screens and the first was The Star Beast! But did you know it was based on a comic book? Hit play to hear the Comic Book Bears boys discuss the original "The Star Beast" comic story written by Pat Mills and drawn by Dave Gibbons in 1980 as well as the 2023 live action interpretation of it written by returning Who showrunner Russell T Davies with David Tennant and Catherine Tate returning as The Doctor and Donna Noble. Since it is the end of the year we do get in some Best of 2023 chat in which is surprisingly not about comic books but about our favorite music of the year! Then we finally get to some full on comic book yapping with the recent Supergirl Special, Panya: The Mummy's Curse (from the World of Hellboy), Fung Gi (from Scout Comics) and Brandon Graham's Moonray under discussion. So, join all four hosts - Bryan, Caleb, Steve and Bill - for two hours of TARDIS and non-TARDIS talk!

We are thrilled to welcome back to the show comic creator John Horsley!!! John had previously appeared on our show to discuss his horror themed Eynes Anthology a few years back and this time he is here to discuss his Kickstarter campaign for a very different type of book! Jonly Nonly began life as a comedic webcomic back in 2008 that John created based off his wife Kaylie's drawings of John and his friend Jeff. The Kickstarter is for collections of these strips - both as single issues and as a TPB! John takes us through the characters who inhabit the strip (Jonly Nonly, the fishing obsessed Jeffers, the cool AF Calvereena and Star Wars enthusiast Earf) and fills us in on why we all should back it! Apart from the interview the CBBers also discuss recent comic related news (such as The Marvels tanking at the box office, possible Fantastic Four casting, the Madame Web trailer hitting and the SAG-AFTRA strike ending with comic related shows going back into production) and talking about some new comics including Jean Grey, Birds of Prey and Alan Scott: Green Lantern! So hit play and, for those listeners of ours in the States, have a great Turkey Day!!

It's another trip to the movies for the Comic Book Bears on this new audio episode as Bill Z, Caleb and Steve discuss The Marvels! The film is the 33rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise. The Marvels was directed by Nia DaCosta and stars Brie Larson as Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers, Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau, Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan and Samuel L. Jackson returning onced again as Nick Fury. The movie finds Danvers, Rambeau, and Khan teaming up after they begin swapping places with each other every time they use their powers, against the backdrop of a desperate and dangerous Kree Empire. It's no secret that the film has underperformed at the box office - hit play to hear what this group of groovy gay guys felt about the film and why there has been a muted reaction to it. 

Join the Comic Book Bears boys as fall is fully in gear! Steve, Bill and Caleb are all back on the mic and kick off this latest audio episode with a post-Halloween-mostly-about-horror-movies opening tangent salvo and follow that up with some comic book (and a tiny bit of non-comic book) related news. The CBBers then movie over to that funnybook round table with Steve championing the latest revival of Alpha Flight (Marvel) and Gone by writer artist Jock (DSTLRY), Caleb advocating for the Crypt of Shadows anthology (Marvel) and the Gargoyles Halloween Special (Dynamite) and Bill singing the praises of Jay Garrick: The Flash (DC) and Orson Welles: Warrior of the Worlds (Scout); hit play and hear all this and our geek gets, our Woofs of the Week and at least two really terrible puns!

We are back to four bears strong as Bryan, Bill, Caleb and Steve are all on the mic for this new audio episode! From Japan to Chicago to New York Comic Con, 3/4 of us have been off traveling for the past few weeks and we spend the first part catching with each other and talking of our exploits (much of them comics infused.) And if you want to skip right to the comic book talk then go to the 55 minute mark as we pull a bunch of recent #1 comics off of the virtual spinner rack - G.O.D.S. (Marvel), Justice League vs Godzilla vs Kong (DC), Transformers (Image), Conan The Barbarian (Titan), Kaptara: Universal Truths (Image), Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees (IDW) as well as the new graphic novel The Mysteries by Bill Watterson and John Kascht! So hit play and enjoy some four-color talk from some hairy heavy gays!

It's the latest audio episode of The Comic Book Bears Podcast! That's right - strike "comic" out of the title this week because for this installment of our show we are putting the funnybooks away and will be talking about prose books, both ones we are currently reading and the fiction and non-fiction books that made up our formative literature over the years. Hit play and hear Steve, Caleb and Bill discuss the current reads which include Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill, Under the Whispering Door by TJ Clune, Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum, American Daredevil: Comics, Communism, and the Battles of Lev Gleason by Brett Dakin and Sweet Dreams: The Story of the New Romantics by Dylan Jones. After that, we get into the books that made a big impact on each of us: they are too numerous to list here but trust our word that it makes for a fun discussion!

If this were the 1970s we would call this episode Comics Book Bears Triple Action! Press play and get ready for an extended triple treat! 

First, we are joined by writer Steve Bryant and artist Don Cardenas who join us to discuss their Kickstarter campaign for the second issue of Evie and the Helsings! The miniseries follows Evie Van Helsing of the famed vampire hunting Van Helsing family as she navigates life between two worlds - the rock scene where she fronts a band and the family business. It's like Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets This is Spinal Tap by way of Ash Versus Evil Dead. Steve and Don cover what metal bands and horror films are influencing them and so much more! The Kickstarter still has a few days to go and the link is below!

Second, we transition to cinematic talk and discuss Blue Beetle, the 14th installment of the DC Extended Universe. Blue Beetle was directed by Ángel Manuel Soto and stars Xolo Maridueña as the title character alongside Adriana Barraza, Damián Alcázar, Raoul Max Trujillo, Susan Sarandon, and George Lopez. All the CBB boys saw it and offer up what they thought of Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle's origin story!

Third, we still manage to get in a comic book roundtable to wrap it all up! Caleb discusses the latest reboot of The Avengers by Jed MacKay and C.F. Villa! Bill takes on Tales of the Titans #1 featuring Starfire! And Steve chooses The Devil's Cut #1 (or "that DSTLRY one-shot"), an anthology collecting samples of new work from the initial creative line-ups for DSTLRY's fall debut as a new publisher to chat about!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stevebryant/evie-and-the-helsings-12/description

We are thrilled to bring back Bryan Pittard back to the show!! If the CBB boys were The Defenders, Bryan is our Silver Surfer - he might not be around for a while but when he is back he's a full on member who swoops in to save the day! Bryan joins your regular crew (Steve, Caleb and Bill) to talk comics and this time the virtual pull list has DC's Knight Terrors event, Astonishing Iceman, Planet of the Apes, Second Coming: Trinity, Tula Lotay and Scott Snyder's Barnstormers and Pool Boys by Josh Trujillo with art by Josh Cornillo on it! As for the title of the episode, listen to the very beginning as we chat about a recent development on the music scene! 

The X-Men's annual Hellfire Gala recently happened and hosted man and mutant alike ... and things didn't go down so well! On this latest Comic Book Bears Podcast audio episode we - meaning Bill Z, Caleb and Steve - discuss the one-shot which kicks off the Fall of X event into high gear. But before that we have a very frank discussion about how one of our hosts appears to be losing interest in reading comic books and all the group shares their stories about times they stopped reading and what got them back in. (If you want to skip this chat, you can go to the 37:00 min mark.) Then the CBB boys are all in for comic talk with the aforementioned Hellfire Gala 2023 one-shot, Power Girl Special #1, Avengers Beyond #1, Ultimate Invasion #1, Fire Power and the Planetary Omnibus each undergoing our ursine analysis. So grab your embossed Hellfire invite, step into a portal to Krakoa by hitting play, grab a cocktail (or ten) and enjoy!

2023 marks yet another year where none of the Comic Book Bears Podcast boys - Caleb, Steve and Billy Z - were in attendance at San Diego Comic Con but the comic talk continues! Recorded on 7/20/2023, the date that SDCC kicked off, this episode starts off with tangents about the much missed MediaPlay chain and the hazards of getting stoned on the beach the day after your senior prom. Then the boys shift over to grab some books off that virtual spinner rack and this time around the books discussed include the beginning of DC's Knight Terrors event, the new Incredible Hulk #1, Dragonball Z, Jeff Lemire's new project Fireflies and a nod to the past with the Question by Dennis O'Neil and Denys Cowan Omnibus! Hit play to enjoy a solid two hours of ursine funnybook discussion! 

We all know how hot it has been this July in North America. The Comic Book Bears are here to help you cool down a bit with some talk about cool comic books! After rapidly changing subjects at the outset of the episode (going off on tangents from birthdays to a really intense take on Lex Luthor to ... the heat), the spinner rack gets spun! Steve talks up X-Cellent (Marvel) and the surprising Void Rivals (Image); Caleb takes a look into this year's Hulk and Scarlet Witch annuals; Billy Z examines the Dawn of DC version of Green Arrow and a classic run on New Gods by Gerry Conway and Don Newton. All this plus woofs and gets and much more!

For the third episode in a row, the Comic Book Bears bunch have a movie based episode! And this time the focus is on the fastest man alive! The Flash is based on the DC Comics character of the same name and it is the 13th (!) installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) franchise. The movie is directed by Andy Muschietti and stars Ezra Miller as Barry Allen/The Flash alongside Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon, Ron Livingston, Maribel Verdú and Michael Keaton once again in a landmark role of his. In the film, Barry travels back in time to prevent his mother's death which brings unintended, multiversal consequences. Steve and Bill are on hand to discuss what they thought of the movie and why they think the response to it has been muted. Then, as is custom with our film based episodes, we provide what we feel are exceptional Flash comics to seek out. All this plus our discussion of our time attending HeroesCon in Charlotte - some unexpected surprises there - earlier in the month, a quick current comics roundtable, Geek Gets, Woofs of the Week and more! So hit play and let us send you running on an audio cosmic treadmill!

New Comic Book Bears audio episode! Join us as Bill Z, Steve and Caleb return to the movies (for a second episode in a row) to discuss Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse! The animated film is the sequel to 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and is directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson. Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Vélez, Jake Johnson, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, Karan Soni, Daniel Kaluuya, and Oscar Isaac make up the main voice cast which finds Miles Morales on an new, high stakes adventure with Gwen Stacy across the multiverse where he meets a new team of fellow Spider-folk known as the Spider-Society, led by Miguel O' Hara/Spider-Man 2099, but comes into conflict with them over how to handle a new threat! Hit play to hear what the CBB boys thought of the movie and then - as is now custom with our movie oriented episodes - make their recommendations concerning comics featuring the Spider-Verse characters that we think you might dig! We still get in a little bit of roundtable time to discuss some new books and GNS like Count Dante #1, Centralia and Supermassive 2023! WOOF AND THWIP!

May 5th, 2023 saw the release of the final installment in the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Once again directed by James Gunn - and his MCU swan song as well - GOTGV3 stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan and more as Star Lord, Drax, Mantis, Rocket, Groot, Nebula and a revived Gamora go on one final adventure together, this time squaring off against The High Evolutionary! And what did the CBB boys think of it? Well, hit play to hear where Steve, Caleb and Bill Z think Guardians 3 ranks! And as is now custom with our movie centric episodes we offer our recommendations for what Guardians tales we think readers would enjoy in the four color format! We also discuss the Eisner nominations, get in some unexpected Amityville Horror talk, woofs, gets and a lot more!

We had hoped to get the audio episode of our livestream on this past Star Wars Day (5/4/2023) out to you a bit earlier than we have but here it is! Bill Z, Caleb and Steve gather round the mic for another new CBB confab! Since we have something else Star Wars specific in the planning stages, we don't spend too much time in a galaxy far, far away but journey long enough around the Outer Rim to discuss the recent High Republic comics! On top of that Superman: Lost, more Sins of Sinister, Hellcat, Jeff Lemire's Phantom Road and Betty and Veronica: Friends Forever - Rock and Roll also get their own spotlights during our roundtable! Plus news, gets, woofs and much more!

Another new CBB audio episode! We welcome to show for the first time Zackary Marois! Artist/writer Zack is a graduate of the Kubert School and is about to launch a new Kickstarter: Voyage Issue 1 - Principium! This sci-fi adventure series details the saga of Sonderon, an intergalactic space explorer! The Kickstarter will launch soon and we get the early word from the creator about what to expect.  The indie vibe continues on in the roundtable as Steve, Caleb and Bill Z discuss Monster Tag Team (American Mythology), The Seasons Have Teeth (Boom!), House on Fire (Living the Line) and more!! Hit play and join us!