Thomas Deja’s Nocturne Travel Agency launches a new podcast. In episode 1 of The Nocturne Travel Agency Podcast, Deja talks with author Richard Lee Byers about his self-published super-hero prose anthology series The Imposter.  It’s  an hour of discussion about pulp, heroes, licensed properties and the creative process.

History happens every day. Every day changes the world.

Not every day gets written down in history books. Not every day is part of that pop quiz second period.

Usually, the battles get written down. We measure time in wars. The more death, the more important.

And yet, that’s not all there is to history. There are births and marriages and medical advances that allow women to give birth without dying from infections. There are music and art and dance. There are comic books and television shows and movies.

When I was a young history major in college (back when there was waaaay less history), some of the more interesting discussions we had were about how one defined history at all. It is a study of the past, of course, but what kind of study?

The field is enormous, of course, and allows all kinds of views. The one that most interests me is the question of how people lived their lives in other times and other places.

I like the stories.

This week, on AMC’s award-winning Mad Men, the story centered around an historical event that I actually remember, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I was in high school at the time, my freshman year at boarding school in Connecticut, and mostly what I remember is feeling horrified (MLK inspired my early pacifism) and frustrated, because there was no way to find out what was going on up on that mountain.

The Mad Men cast had lots of reactions. Some were upset, some were scared for themselves, friends and family. Some were annoyed that events upstaged their plans. Some were awkward around the (very) few black people they knew. I believe all the reactions were authentic recreations of what people in that particular demographic niche felt at the time, although I’m not sure the proportions are correct. Still, it is history the way I like to see it, happening to people in real time.

There are lots of parallel stories in comics. The most famous is probably our own Denny O’Neil’s run on Green Lantern/Green Arrow, written about the real world, using super-heroes to articulate some of the different points of view in the day’s arguments. Another of my personal favorites is this story, in which Superman trusts President Kennedy with his secret identity. I read that comic when I was ten years old, and President Kennedy had just been shot.

It’s hard to imagine a story like this today, when things are so hyper-partisan. Looking at it now, I have an understanding of how different our national discourse was 50 years ago.

Another little bit of history that happened this week is the return of All My Children, now on the Internet (and also One Life to Live, but I don’t watch that). I don’t know how anyone can keep historical records in Pine Valley, when time doesn’t seem to move in a straight line. Apparently, five years have passed since we last saw our cast, but some characters are the same age, while some are a decade older. Just a few episodes in, and it’s thrilling how much I don’t care.

And the great philosopher, Howard Chaykin said, “Continuity is for geeks.”

SATURDAY: Marc Alan Fishman

SUNDAY: John Ostrander

This weekend, the race to box office supremacy begins! Mike Faber, Mike Gordon, award-winning author Bobby Nash, Box Office Buzz scribe Ashley Bergner, and 7th Row Center podcaster Alex Autrey survey the highs and lows of the upcoming summer movie season. However, Alex’s magic movie 8-ball cannot help him in The Geek Seat! Plus, Tara Lynne returns to the station to tell tales of the Ice & Fire Con this past weekend. All this, and the usual Rants, Raves, Khan Report, and Shout Outs! Plus, Bobby gives a report from the Pulp Ark Convention.

Join us for yet another episode of The Earth Station One Podcast we like to call: 2013 Summer Movie Preview at www.esopodcast.com

Direct link: http://erthstationone.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/earth-station-one-episode-161-2013-summer-movie-preview/

The Inhumans were one of the last great creations by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Beginning with Medusa, introduced in Fantastic Four #36 in 1965, the full complement showed up nine months later. They were another branch of humanity, although it was a long time before readers learned the full story, especially as succeeding writers found new ways to tie them in to the evolving Marvel Universe cosmology. They were a fascinating, colorful bunch but each time they received their own series, it never quite caught on. Still, that hasn’t stopped people from trying, including Paul Jenkins who brought a radical approach to the race for the fourth attempt in 2003. His twelve issue maxiseries was drawn by Jae Lee, propelling him into the spotlight.

Jenkins focused on what the societal structure of Attilan, must be like. We knew previously of Black Bolt and the royal family, but we also came to know that there is a subservient class of Alpha Primitives. The maxiseries contrasts relations between the Inhumans and the mutants along with the Inhumans and the world governments. To tell the story, he focused on a group of teens as they undergo Terrigenesis, a rite of passage that exposes each to the Terrigan Mists, which unlocks their special genetic heritage.

Stirring the unrest among the Primitives is one young Inhuman, an outcast from their society. Stirring unrest among the governments is the king’s insane brother Maximus the Mad. And yes, there’s an insidious connection between the two. Various governments covet the high tech prowess possessed by the Inhumans while Black Bolt just wants to live apart from humanity. Geopolitics, fueled by family infighting, ignites and propels the story.

This was adapted into a series of motion comics shorts that ran online a while back and has been collected onto DVD by Shout! Factory. As with the other motion comics, the process is a modern day version of the 1960s Marvel cartoons with the artwork lifted from the comics and limited animation added. Jae Lee’s artwork does not lend itself well to the process and the modifications to his work by others are evident.

Jenkins’ story, already episodic, breaks into neat chapters and flows nicely. He clearly has his favorites such as Karnak the Shatterer, and doesn’t know what to do with others such as Triton and Crystal. In the center remains the mute Black Bolt, long-suffering sovereign of a people that cannot find lasting peace. He also gives new characters to embrace such as Tonaja, one of the newest Inhumans and Rexel Toiven, who considers himself an outcast and decides to take his problems to the world governments in the name of his king. Of course, the humans fight back and Attilan is brought to the brink of a global war. With Maximus stirring up the Primitives, Black Bolt has his gloved hands full.

As befit Marvel Knights at the time, this is a darker take on the Marvel Universe and their allegorical themes. In this case, the Inhumans stand in for the standard fear of mutants but there are several other themes Jenkins explores and does well, although the comic actually does a better job with this aspect.

I wish I could explain it, but as usual, the vocal talent here is lackluster although better than most of the other motion comics from Marvel. Brian Drummond’s Maximus gets an A.

Shout! merely collects the chapters without editing them into a seamless movie so you get each installment’s recap and by the midpoint it feels very repetitious. The 132 minute running time could have been streamlined and the story made stronger in the process.

Unlike some of the other DVDs in the series, this one comes with A Look Back At The Inhumans with fresh interviews from Jenkins and then-Marvel Knights chief  and now Chief Creative officer Joe Quesada. Jenkins does a nice job talking about the motivations for the project, his thoughts on the Inhumans as characters in the Marvel Universe, and writing the maxiseries. Quesada is a bit more generic and rah rah.