ComicMix Podcast #2 is now online!

Our second Podcast is now available for your downloading pleasure.

Mike Raub covers the massive Toy Fair trade show where all kinds of interesting stuff was announced (you’ve already seen some pictures here and here at ComicMix.com), we’ve got another Timeline feature, and some important comments from Marvel Comics’ editor-in-chief Joe Quesada!

Plus — we debut our regular Thursday review segment with some comics opinion from Boston’s own Gwen David. You can grab our second Podcast simply by pushing this button:

 

Transcript

When's the last time you had something different? Hi and welcome to our second podcast. I'm Mike Raub. Boy, look at this. I got a stack of stuff to go through for you today.

You know Toy Fair is going on. We got some cool toys to tell you about. Our review board debuts. We're going to dive into Go Go Check, some little love for Valentine's Day, and a strange case of two Adam's Raisins.

February 15, 2007. Gun ho! Here come the Gun Ho Commandos. Best equipped boys in the field. All the equipment you need for fun and excitement in the Gun Ho Commando Outfit by Marx.

Just look at all the things you got. By Marx. I'll write down the American International Toy Fair is running in New York City. With more than 1,500 manufacturers, distributors, importers, and toy freaks from 30 countries around the world.

Showing off the next wave of toys, statues, action figures, and a lot more. Here's some great stuff there already including these new Star Wars Transformer figures which will include Mace Windu as a Jedi Starfighter coming up in March. Later on in the summer you can get a deluxe Darth Vader as the Death Star. That'll be long in August.

Now before you know it, Spider-Man 3 will be in the movie theaters but way before that, Spider-Man 3 toys will be on the racks. Asbro has a two wave set in this collection. Collection number one will feature Spidey in these red and black threads. Whoa!

Spidey, love the new outfit. Sandman, the New Goblin, and Venom. Collection two has a lot more including Doc Ock, Green Goblin, the video game version of Scorpion, Lizard, and Rhino. There's also going to be a Spidey Mr. Potato Head sometime over the summer and a bunch

of more toys that all tie into the movie that Marvel thinks will be the next big blockbuster. ComicMix If you're looking to expand your superhero toy collection beyond what Marvel and DC has to offer, check out what's on the way from Marvel Toys. Now wait a minute, before you get too excited, there's a brand new series coming out in August

called Legends of the Comic Book Heroes. It doesn't feature your standard Marvel heroes. It features characters from a lot of other companies, believe it or not, like Super Patriot, Witchblade, Judge Dredd, Savage Dragon, Madman, Ribcloth from Cyberforce, and a lot more. There'll be some variants and all sorts of different things including a chance to once

you buy all the figures you build a giant pit along with this sidekick Timmy who comes with the Judge Dredd figure. There'll be another series later on that may feature Monkey Man, Darkness, Judge Death, Star from Savage Dragon, and Marv from Sin City. There's a lot more coming.

Keep abreast though that there may be some two packs and special things just for the Christmas season coming late this year. Comments Next timeline February 15, 1997 Of the Top 10 comics this week, 4 headaches in the title, 9 were from Marvel and there were 2 spawn issues.

We picked up number 59 and cursed the spawn number 6 this week. The hottest DC book was JLA with its 4th issue and Thunderbolts debuted with their very first number 1. Elvos Valentine's Week and on the radio, lots of love songs about lost love and broken hearts and at the top of the charts, number 1 was this one from Tony Braxton.

! ! Comics cost a lot more than 10 cents this week but you know you got your bargains with stuff like World's Finest number 223, a 100 page thick book that had not only a brand new Dead Man story but a lot of classic DC stuff and then for Bucket of Quarter you got

the famous first edition reprint of Detective Comics number 27. For finding you had enough space on your shelf to put this massive thing. Over in Commande, Jack Kirby showed us the human gophers of Ohio in issue number 17 and a little character called the Punisher debuted in Amazing Spider-Man number 129. Marvel was also going through their giant sized phase along here with Giant sized Super

Stars number 1 that had a brand new fantastic 4 story by Roy Thomas and Rich Buckler and some reprint material and again it was Valentine's week and on the radio was love, love and love unlimited. February 15, 1967 Eric GoGo checks everywhere and in Superboy number 137 he faced the mystery of the mighty

might. Yes he got his butt kicked by a baby. Green Lantern had a lot tougher time over in number 52 when he faced off with Sinestro again and in Marvel there was a new title with a familiar name. Well it was Ghost Rider but it wasn't quite the same.

This was a western hero based on the 1950's character published by an entirely different company. The movie Ghost Rider, well that's come along in a few years. Black Widow and Hercules guest starred in Avengers 39. There were more guest stars over in Fantastic Four number 60.

If you look through a close you saw the Inhumans, Peter Parker and even Mary Jane Watson. There's some real cool stuff going on outside of Marvel and DC. Captain Adam number 84 had two great Ditko stories both with Captain Adam and the Blue Beetle and that great nemesis strip was running in Adventures Into the Unknown number 169. On TV you clicked on Star Trek this week and got to see for the very first time the episode

Space C. You ready Bill? No. Signed aboard this ship to practice medicine. I failed my Adam and scattered back and forth across space by this gadget.

And a bunch of neighborhood kids in Chicago finally broke it big time all the way across the country with their very first number one song. It was The Buckingham. Marvel has announced that due to the popularity of the variant cover program every issue of Stephen King's Dark Tower the Gunslinger-Born will feature a sketch cover chosen by Jay

Lee and an all new variant cover by one of the top artists in the industry. Issue number two for example has a variant cover by artist David Finch from The New Avengers and Moon Knight. Meanwhile after the success of Dark Tower Marvel's Jill Cassata hopes it's a start of something big.

You can't predict the future but I do think though that it is an eye opening experience for other authors who might be out there and saying wow look at what's possible and they're doing that with comics. Comics aren't what I remember them being it really is a whole and I think when they look at the book and see the book and read the book they're going to realize that it is a

different world than they might have remembered from 20, 30 years ago. The folks in New York Comic Con want everybody to know the tickets for Saturday February 24th are sold out through their website but don't panic now hang on. Tickets for Saturday are still available through some of the comic book retailers who are selling tickets for the show.

I must hurry back to my comic book store where I dispense the insults rather than absorb them. If you'd like a list of these retailers go to the NYCC website NYcomiccon.com or you can link right to there from us at ComicMix.com. Speaking of the convention you know if you're a little sad about the fact you might not

be able to make the show don't worry we're going to be there all three days gathering all sorts of cool information talking to all the right people and of course sharing it with you right here on the podcast don't miss it. ComicMix.com. Wiz Kidz Inc creator of games like Hero Clicks has announced its agreement with Bungie Studios

and Microsoft to develop a new collectables miniature game called Halo Action Clicks. The Halo Action Clicks take you into the content of the Halo universe and bring it to the tabletop via the Clicks miniatures game world. Players familiar with Hero Clicks and horror Clicks will be able to jump right into the action and enjoy brand new game based mechanics including weapon swaps, figure respawning

and vehicle based combat. The first Halo Action Clicks set will feature more than 80 unique miniature figures from the Halo universe including some preview content from the much awaited Halo 3. The sets premiere in September. ComicMix.

According to the Hollywood Reporter Jeff Bridges has joined the cast of Iron Man playing and we're quoting here a confident and close business associate of Tony Stark a long time employee of defense contractor Stark Industries and someone who has a major role in shaping Stark's life. Please tell me this is not.

Happy Hogan. Cleaning up and try again. ComicMix.com. What would a podcast on the internet be without a healthy dose of free speech? That brings us to the debut of our very own review board.

Now to start we've chosen three people each from very different walks of life to share their thoughts and opinions on the comics they like or maybe don't like. This week we kick it off with Gwen David. Now in her mild matter of other identities she resides snugly behind the counter at Boston's New England comics chain.

They've seen it all the good the bad and even some comics that caught her interest. Ladies who read comics and actually like them you would think that they're few and far between. They're actually more common than you think. Working at comic book store chain we're at about 20 people, 6 of them are women. While it's not a terribly large number it is somewhat surprising in such a typically

male dominated genre. And why is it such a male dominated sector? I don't know probably because a large majority of comics are aimed at men. Which is fine. It's something to do to keep their minds occupied between football games and barbecues.

This only becomes problematic when you have ladies who are interested in the genre. That's where Terry Moore comes in. Sure I had read comics here and there most of my life but it wasn't until I picked up a copy of Strangers in Paradise by Mr. Moore that I found a comic that I really liked. I don't remember offhand what issue number it was though I think it was somewhere in

the high fifties. Here was a comic where with just one issue I immediately cared about the characters and what might happen to them in that issue and the issue after that and then the 50 odd issues that came before it. What I first noticed about Strangers in Paradise was the art.

Usually women portrayed in comics look a bit silly. I mean who wouldn't in an outfit made almost entirely a spandex. It's not an easy look to pull off. Women in most comics are somewhat well no very unrealistic in their appearance. Think about Wonder Woman.

Did she have to wax her bikini line every time she puts on that little get up? I sure hope not. But in Strangers in Paradise the women look like, I know it's weird, real women. Someone who I can relate to and care about. And now that the series is coming to a close I have mixed feelings.

I am sad to see it go but understand that it must all at the same time. Issue 87 came out recently and there are only three issues left. In the previous issue 86 one of the main characters died and I can only wonder if Mr. Moore picked this issue to kill this character because of the relation of the issue number to being killed off. I haven't been so close to crying over the death of a fictional character.

Issue 87 while not as emotional was still powerful and I look forward very much to reading the next three issues. I have no doubt in my mind that Mr. Moore will end the series with the same amount of thought and care with which he began. And I understand why it has to end. Everything does. And it's lame and it sucks.

But wouldn't he rather it ended with a killer storyline? No pun intended. It just ended? I know I would. This has been Gwen David.

Please tune in next time for another enthralling episode of What Gwen Sinks About Comics. If you have opinions you know there's plenty of places to share them and we would love for you to do that. Click around at ComicMix dot com. Well that does it for the podcast today. By the way if you had a chance to look around the ComicMix website yet there's stuff added up there all the time.

In fact in the time it took me to say that sentence I guarantee there's probably something new up at ComicMix dot com. But you have no idea what's coming in the future. Trust me. We'll give you a little glimpse of that this weekend when we sit down for a nice long chat with ComicMix mastermind Mike Gold. We'll talk about how Marvel's on pins and needles for the Ghost Rider movie this weekend.

And we got some more cool toy fair stuff to share as well. Talk to you in a couple of days. ComicMix dot com.