Storied Arcs

Send us Fan Mail "Haven't you figured it out by now? People down here are crazy. Anything to pretend the world hasn't changed. That includes forcing a kid who doesn't need his legs into a wheelchair." Welcome to a new season of Storied Arcs! This week, Mike and Alex take to the skies to dive into Skyward Volume 1: My Low-G Life (issues #1-5) by Joe Henderson and Lee Garbet...

Send us Fan Mail On this season of Storied Arcs, Mike and Alex lifting off with Image Comics' Skyward by Joe Henderson and Lee Garbett. They guys start with a spoiler-free pitch on the book and chat about how they came to the comic and what to expect from the story. Then they dive into the creative team, including writer Joe Henderson (another TV-writer-turned-comic-writer), artist Lee Garbet...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Mike and Alex are proud to share an exclusive interview with Matthew Roberts, artist of Manifest Destiny, recorded live at the Lexington Comic & Toy Convention on March 28, 2026. We sat at his table in Artist Alley and chatted all things Manifest Destiny, including how he got attached to the project, working with writer Chris Dingess, the amount of research that wen...

Send us Fan Mail Mike and Alex are back with another bonus episode to recap their trip down to the Lexington Comic & Toy Convention. The guys chat about what they saw, who they talked to, and what convention swag they came home with. They also discuss the news that there will be second Lexington Comic & Toy Convention this year. The fall version of LexCon is scheduled for September 4-6, 20...

Send us Fan Mail "This place will always be of monsters." This week, Mike and Alex wrap up their discussion of Chris Dingess and Matthew Roberts' Manifest Destiny from Image Comics with Volumes 7 and 8 (issues #37-48). The guys discuss the end of the Corps of Discovery and the final encounter at the Pacific Ocean and what they think the books says, if anything, about the expedition....

Send us Fan Mail "If we have learned nothing on this journey, it is the fact that we know nothing. What the next danger will be, or where it will come from." Mike and Alex are back this week to continue their trek through Chris Dingess and Matthew Roberts' Manifest Destiny from Image Comics with Volumes 5 and 6 (issues #26-35). They dive right into how the book followed up on the ma...

Send us Fan Mail Mike and Alex hop on the mic to discuss a preview of one of their favorite comic events of the year: Lexington Comic & Toy Convention in Lexington, KY. It approaches this weekend. Listen to this episode to hear a little history of our experience with the event and what we're really looking forward to this year. Additionally, if you're within a few hundred miles then...

Send us Fan Mail "There is vast land out there, but it is deadly. And we can't destroy that danger. Only Navath, Keeper of the Realms, can. But we must pay. Make a sacrifice." This week, Mike and Alex continue their journey west with Chris Dingess and Matthew Roberts' Manifest Destiny Volumes 3 and 4 (issues #13-24) from Image Comics. The guys discuss the narrative swings these...

Send us Fan Mail "Men are braced for action. Surely we will encounter the creatures spoken of by President Jefferson when he wisely commissioned this mission." Welcome to the latest season of Storied Arcs! This week, Mike and Alex begin their trek westward with the Corps of Discovery as they dive into Manifest Destiny Volumes 1 and 2 (issues #1-12) by Chris Dingess and Matthew Roberts fr...

Send us Fan Mail For the next season of Storied Arcs, Mike and Alex will heading into the western frontier as they tackle Manifest Destiny by Chris Dingess and Matthew Roberts from Image Comics/Skybound. They guys give a spoiler-free pitch for the comic (aside from the parts of the book that intersect with known history) and chat a bit about some of their expectations going into the story. Then th...

Send us Fan Mail "I don't care if we win... I just want them to lose." This week on Stories Arcs, Mike and Alex finish up their deep dive into The Fade Out by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips from Image Comics with Volume 3: Act Three (issues #9-12). They start at the end- how does the mystery resolve and what does it all mean? Did any of it matter in discovering the truth? And what is...

Send us Fan Mail "Charlie's just a moth who figured out how to get closer to the flame. But Maya, and people like her, they did him one better... they figured out how to be the flame, instead." This week on Storied Arcs, Mike and Alex continue their look into the seedy underbelly of Golden Age Hollywood as depicted in Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' The Fade Out Volume 2: Act Tw...

Send us Fan Mail "Whatever it was inside that made him a writer had been stolen over there. Now he was just empty. And every word he typed felt like a waste, and not enough at the same time." This week on Storied Arcs, Mike and Alex start their deep dive into Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' The Fade Out from Image Comics with Volume 1: Act One (issues #1-4). The guys discuss how the...

Send us Fan Mail For the next season of Storied Arcs, Mike and Alex are returning to the noir-tinged world of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips with their 2014 book from Image Comics, The Fade Out. The guys covered Brubaker and Phillips (and colorist Elizabeth Breitweiser) back when they discussed Kill or Be Killed (check that out if you haven't already), so first they give a brief update on some...

Send us Fan Mail "But Gus failed and is forgotten now, and I fear I am forgotten as well. Maybe someday trees will also spring from my joints and moss will crawl over my skin." Mike and Alex are closing out Lonely Sci-Fi Month with Andrew MacLean's OGN ApocalyptiGirl: An Aria for the End Times from Dark Horse Comics. The guys touch on how they came to find this book, and how it slot...

Send us Fan Mail "All these years lost, and I've never felt more alone." This week on Storied Arcs, Mike and Alex continue Lonely Sci-Fi month with Gone (issues #1-3) by artist/writer Jock from DSTLRY! The guys start with some nitpicks and notes about the story and on Jock as a writer, before transitioning into discussing Jock as an artist, where the guys have nothing but praise. Th...

Send us Fan Mail "It could be that our collective fate will be the same as this book. May that's all any of us are... a letter to the Universe no one will ever read." Welcome back to Lonely Sci-Fi month! This week, Mike and Alex are tackling Mark Russell and Roberto Meli's Traveling To Mars (issues #1-11) from Ablaze Comics. The guys start by looking at this book in relation to...

Send us Fan Mail "After that, things started to change. We started to change. And so did Val. If only I knew then what I know now, maybe I could have saved her." Mike and Alex are starting Lonely Sci-Fi month with a look at Sentient (issues #1-6) by Jeff Lemire and Gabriel Hernandez Walta from TKO Studios. The guys chat about how and when they first found this book, and how their perspec...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to a new year and new season of Storied Arcs! In what may be turning into an annual tradition, Mike and Alex are once again starting off the calendar with a theme month- Lonely Sci-Fi. Alone in space. Stranded on a planet. It's a prevalent trope in science fiction and we're excited to examine it from an assortment of angles using these comics as a lens: -Sentient...

Send us Fan Mail "There will be times in the future, my daughter, when you will question everything you are. Hearing your name spoken over will help when everything falls away." Mike and Alex are here to finish up their look at Daniel Warren Johnson's Extremity from Image Comics with Volume 2 Warrior (issues #7-12). They kick things off with a deep look at the (possible) religious p...

Send us Fan Mail "But no matter what the fight... no matter who lives or dies... I won't kill my own brother." This week on the Storied Arcs podcast, Mike and Alex kick off their deep dive of Daniel Warren Johnson's Extremity from Image Comics with Volume 1 Artist (issues #1-6). The guys start by discussing the world building (or lack there of) that DWJ provides in this book, a...

Send us Fan Mail In this new season of Storied Arcs, Mike and Alex taking a look at Daniel Warren Johnson's sci-fi-ish/fantasy-ish revenge epic Extremity, from Image Comics. The guys start with a spoiler-free preview of the book, talking a bit about how the book was initially sold in solicitations ( "the beauty and imagination of Studio Ghibli meet the intensity of Mad Max" ) and ho...

Send us Fan Mail "This isn't a nightmare. This is the night. And I'm in a playground for monsters filled with monstrous things. I don't belong here." This week, Mike and Alex are here to wrap up November by Matt Fraction and Elsa Charretier with Volume 4 The Mess We're In. The guys dive right into things, breaking down the ending and discussing how the various story t...

Send us Fan Mail "Who knew I had a line? Who knew I could cross it? Well... almost." Mike and Alex are back with the penultimate volume of November by Matt Fraction and Elsa Charretier, breaking down Volume 3 The Voice on the End of the Phone. The guys discuss what is (and isn't) happening in the actual story of the comic, and how that story continues to be presented to the reader,...

Send us Fan Mail "It's not every time the world ends you're look at a click when it happens. Some girls... we're just lucky." This week, Mike and Alex continue their exploration of November by Matt Fraction and Elsa Charretier with Volume 2 The Gun in The Puddle. The guys talk about how the various story threads begin to intersect in this volume, gently overlaying and cris...