ComicMix Podcast #7 arrives!

Neal Adams tells Mike Raub about teaming up with Frank Miller on a Batman mini-series, we uncover the roots of the Suicide Squad, our Timeline stops on 1968, Walter Cronkite talks parallel history, and new releases are exposed!

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Transcript

www.ComicMix.com 3, 2, 1 I didn't get to sleep at all I can't sleep, can you? Nope

I can't sleep, I can't sleep at night Yeah, who needs sleep when you got a big pile of comic books, DVDs, and cool toys to play with? It's Mike Raub, we are back from the New York Comic Con, not quite unpacked, but ready to go with another week of podcast fun. Alright, this time we got a ton of news to share, a peek of what is going to be cool this week in the

comic stores of course, and what's not going to show up too. Also, we're going to talk to one of Batman's best creators and we're going to hear Walter take a stand on Vietnam and dig into mailbag too. All this on February 27, 2007. ComicMix. Starting out with five new comic book titles as a jumping off point, the Sci-Fi channel and Virgin Comics have announced a partnership to create original concepts. It'll be utilizing resources that exist both at the Sci-Fi channel,

which is part of NBC Universal, that's pretty big, and Virgin Comics as well. The partnership is aimed to attract some of the biggest names and talent from the world of comics, television, and movies, and the very first Sci-Fi Virgin Comics are expected to be out later on this year. Soon as we know more, we'll let you know. While business is good, especially for the big books, Marvel and DC have announced that sales are up over this time last year, especially in the

category of graphic novels and trade paperbacks. Like the World of Warcraft or maybe Afro Samurai, well, DC will be doing figures based on both of those properties. As part of the new DC Unlimited program, this means you'll see the figures both in regular comic stores and in the big toy stores as well. www.ComicMix.com. You're read at first right here on ComicMix.com, part of our weekend long coverage of the New York Comic Con. Neil Adams is returning to Batman and he's bringing

Frank Miller along for the ride. We talked to Neil about just what all this means. I'm creating it and drawing it, but it's a Batman. I'm not creating Batman. I'm sort of replaying with Batman. I'm doing it for DC. They don't want me to talk about it too much because, you know, they want to release, you know, whatever they have to say about it. But essentially it's a sort of an epic story of Batman and Frank Miller has agreed to dialogue

it for me and I'm probably going to ink a couple of the books, but we're going to get some other anchors to do it. Who sort of been chopping at the bit to ink myself over the years and now they're going to get their shot. The book will be called Batman Odyssey, which won't be a regular series, but as you heard a mini series just about how long in my mind, it was going to be six issues, but I really can't make it less than eight issues. Even if I have to do two for free,

I'm just kidding. Again, DC has made no direct announcement about this, but as soon as we know more, we'll let you know. ComicMix dot com. Speaking of DC, big story at the convention this weekend was their upcoming weekly series Countdown that we told you about. Now I'm not really sure what all this means, but we will pass it along. They had these buttons they were passing out at the convention and they had these weird little phrases on them. Maybe it means part of something

for Countdown. Maybe not, but here's what we saw. There was one that said WWMMD that stood for what would Mary Marvel do. One that said I found Ray Palmer. One that said look to the skies. One that said Jimmy Olsen must die and a limited edition button that said dark side rules. Start putting the puzzle together right now. www.ComicMix.com ComicMix mailbag. All right, back home, back into the mailbag. Got one from Shannon MX at optonline.net and Shannon says thanks for the great

coverage of the New York Comic Con all weekend long. Wish I could have made it there, especially to meet George Perez and hear him talk about doing Brave and Bold for DC. I am so psyched about this title. In fact, I'm trying to collect all the back issues, but I'm a little confused about the history. Now I know Hawkman and the JLA started there, but how about some other famous DC series? Anybody else premiere first in Brave and Bold? Well Shannon, I'm not sure how famous they were

at least at the time, but I'm pretty sure that even recent DC readers are aware of the Suicide Squad, right? The earliest version of this team appeared a couple of issues after the JLA along about 1960 or 61 in Brave and Bold. Now this team was headed by a guy named Rick Flag who turned up a little bit later on in the series, but these other Suicide Squad members were not superheroes or super villains. They were just common people battling dinosaurs and the like in the short

issue run they had there in Brave and Bold. And by the way, even though it was called the Suicide Squad, nobody really died. By the way, did you know that ComicMix's very own John Ostrander played a big part in the Suicide Squad revival a few decades later? Well, how about that? Write us with your questions. We'd love to hear from you all the time at podcast at ComicMix.com. And for more info, search on Brave and Bold, the Suicide Squad, or even John Ostrander right here.

This week at the place we bought our comics, we got a great issue of Fantastic Four was number 72 with a Jack Kirby Silver Surfer story that was amazing. Over in Amazing Spider-Man number 58, Spidey fought J Jonah Jameson who was in a big robot suit and the second issue of Marvel Super Heroes came along that featured Captain Mar-Vell. It was issue number 13 and it was a quarter so he had us pulling up a little bit more money for that, but it was well worth it. At DC,

the plight of the pin-up Adam was in Adam number 35 and Batman had to try and save his own life by buying a copy of Batman number 199, which by the way was already sold out. Where was eBay when you needed it? Over in the JLA, they took on Queen Bee with one of the last Mike Zukowski stories. That was in issue number 60. Television this week, Walter Cronkite stepped up and gave his famous tit offensive editorial. For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of

Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. This summer's almost certain standoff will either end in real give and take negotiations or terrible escalation. But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate not as victors but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy and did the best they could. This is Walter Cronkite, good night. Also on TV, CBS's Movie of the Week was our rehashing of The Great Escape

from 1963. They broke it up over two nights with Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Jimmy Coburn. And the Kraft Music Hall had a very special music feature. John Davidson, Tom Jones, Buffy St. Marie, and the Fifth Dimension made music of, and we're quoting here, the class of 1968 and what they like to hear. Trust me, I know people from the class of 1968, they didn't want to hear any of that. Also on TV on Sunday nights was this Jim, can you name it?

The show was called The Mothers-in-Law starring Eve Arden and Kay Ballard, a typical sitcom maybe by that day or even when you go back and look at it, it was way ahead of its time. On the radio, two guys who made their money writing hits as far back as 1961 and then later would hit a big with the monkeys and later on even become the monkeys, which is the whole other story, had themselves a top hit. Their names were Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hype.

Music ComicMix.com What's coming out this is this week. All right, before you dig into your pocket for the money, let's dig into what's going on in the comic book stores that you're going to spend that money on this week. Starting with something new from Dark Horse, first issue of City of Others, the mini series from them that will last about four

issues, very first one like I said, out this week from Dark Horse. Another issue of 100 Bullets, number 81, 52 winding down, number 43 is out this week. We talked to you before about what's going to be happening in the next few months in action comics. This is the beginning of it, number 846 is out this week. Batman Confidential, number three is out. Flash number nine, Green Lantern, 17. Trade paperback at the very first issues of Jack of Fables. This is volume one of an ongoing,

of course, as they collect those issues after they come out. First one is called Nearly Great Escape. That trade is out this week. Also, Justice number 10, Alex Ross Incredible miniseries is up to number 10. There are only two more issues of this, by the way, left after this one. Speaking of trades and collections and incredible artwork, Gil Kane, earliest issues of Green Lantern collected in a second showcase volume. Showcase presents Green Lantern number two. Diamo, number five. Now,

this is a new series coming out from Image Comics. You may want to check it out as well as the 11 issue of Fear Agent and another issue of Seth Green's Really Hot Freshman series. This is number three of volume two this week. True Story Swear to God. We've told you about that before from Image, a great, great book, and you can jump off with number four this week. Over to Marvel, Annihilation, Heralds of Galactus one shot this week. Black Panther number 25. Civil War Frontline

number 11. Daredevil 94, The Essential Peter Parker, which is again a collection of those very early Peter Parker spectacular Spider-Man stories, as I recall, some really nice, salve you some artwork in there. Second printing of the Immortal Iron Fist number two. This is the Foreman variant. You may want to talk to your retailer about getting one of those, as well as the Wolverine Black and White variant of number 51 and the regular Wolverine 51 this week. And of

course, an issue of Wizard covering some of the biggest new DC news out there. Some of which we told you about, but they have lots of pretty pictures to share with you as well. Uh-oh, uh-oh. Uh-oh, uh-oh. Here we go. This is the stuff that is being moved off of the calendar and down the road for a little bit. Comics that are supposed to be out but aren't out yet. This includes from Dark Horse, Return of the Gremlins, that whole series is being delayed. First issue was due for

this week. It is not going to be out until the 7th of March. Dark Horse also has Star Wars Dark Times number three, which is delayed until the 7th of March as well. At DC, Superman number 660 is delayed till the 14th of March. Bad Man Confidential number four, round number three, is out this week. Number four comes out the 21st of March. Superman Bad Man 33 also comes out the 21st of March. Superman Confidential number four also comes out the 21st of March. Superman 661,

that's been moved again a couple more weeks past 660. You'll look for that on the 28th of March. From spawn, well, bad news. Spawn number 165 was supposed to be out in December. That is not even scheduled to be out anytime soon. They'll let us know as soon as they can figure out when that's coming. For Marvel Comics Civil War Battle Damage Report is due to be out the first part of March, will now be out the 14th of the month. The Marvel Spotlight Civil War Aftermath also rescheduled for

the 14th of the month. And Ultimate Vision number four, that's been pushed way ahead until April the 11th. www.ComicMix.com. Well, you're just in time for what might be a very unhappy ending. All right, that wraps it for this time. Thanks a lot for being here. Next time, what are we going to have? You know, that's a really good question. I got to go through this suitcase to see what I brought back. I know I got a couple of really cool scoops to share with you, so we'll do that and

more. But you can tell us what you like or don't like about the podcast and love to hear from you. Just write me a podcast at ComicMix.com. Talk to you in a couple of days. Bye. www.ComicMix.com.