Storied Arcs

Send us Fan Mail "I was showing everyone that technology is nothing but a monster." "Technology is just a tool. Human beings still do the heavy lifting." Welcome to book three of Social Media Summer! This week, Mike and Alex dive into Thumbs (issues #1-5) from Image Comics by Sean Lewis and Hayden Sherman. They start by examining the slightly different angle this book takes tow...

Send us Fan Mail Social Media Summer continues this week as Mike and Alex jump a little further forward on the decline of social media timeline (June to August 2019) to introduce Thumbs by Sean Lewis and Hayden Sherman from Image Comics. As usual, the guys give a quick rundown of the creative team's comics history, as well as whatever projects they may be working on now (like maybe one of the...

Send us Fan Mail "It is no longer white noise. It is a deafening crescendo. News flits by in a millisecond. Who can tell what is truth? Every moment of every day... we are besieged." Mike and Alex close out book two of Social Media Summer this week with a dive into Unfollow Volume 3: Turn It Off (issues #13-18) from DC Comics/Vertigo. The guys grapple first with the ending of the story,...

Send us Fan Mail "I mean, what's the point of doing something unless you can tell the whole world?" This week on Storied Arcs, Mike and Alex continue to make their way through Social Media Summer with Unfollow Volume 2: God Is Watching (issues #7-12) by Rob Williams and Michael Dowling from DC Comics/Vertigo. The guys discuss how narrowing the story into two or three main threads wo...

Send us Fan Mail "The great terror comes form the universe's actions that do not have a cognizant mind behind them. What if all we are is swept away by something that wants nothing? That means nothing?" Welcome to book two of Social Media Summer! This week, Mike and Alex begin their look at Unfollow by Rob Williams and Michael Dowling from DC Comics/Vertigo with Volume 1: 140 Charac...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Mike and Alex setup the next book in their Social Media Summer series, Unfollow from DC Comics/Vertigo by writer Rob Williams and artist Michael Dowling. They guys first give some background on the creative team, including colorist Quinton Winter and letterer Clem Robins, as well as acknowledge the handful of guest artists brought on the pinch hit for an issue here and...

Send us Fan Mail "I put the gun in their hands and I trusted them to use it wisely. Just like Tunisia. Just like Sirine. And they used it to kill. I have to stop them. There's no other choice, this is my responsibility. It's on my hands." This week, Social Media Summer continues with Hacktivist Volume 2 (issues #1-6) from Boom Studios by Alyssa Milano, Jackson Lanzing, Collin K...

Send us Fan Mail "It's Moore's Law. Every two years, transistors double on integrated circuits. This is a constant since 1958. That means that we the people, the ones with the technology, we're getting more powerful by the day." Welcome to the first entry in Social Media Summer! This week, Mike and Alex are jumping back to 2014 to dive into Hacktivist Volume 1 (issues #1-4...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Mike and Alex introduce their latest themed set of books (see: Death Month from January 2025), only this time, instead of just a month, it's going to stretch all season. They're calling it Social Media Summer and they're focusing on four comics that utilize and comment on society's relationship with technology, specifically social media. And th...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Mike and Alex are honored to be a joined by artist Marcus To, one of the co-creators of Joyride! They start with an quick overview on Marcus' work on Hacktivist with Alyssa Milano, Jackson Lanzing, and Collin Kelly (a comic you may want to consider picking up soon for discussion on this podcast) before diving into Joyride. Marcus lets us in on the origins of Joyrid...

Send us Fan Mail "Good and bad, humanity can transform anything into something . We express. We create. Even when we're under a dictator. Even when we can't see the stars, we imagine them." In this week's episode, Mike and Alex return to Earth to wrap up their discussion of Joyride from Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, and Marcus To with deep dive into Volume 3 (issues #9-12...

Send us Fan Mail "The dead are dead-- and their sacrifices kept me alive. They made this place possible. They made me possible. Moments like this... they matter 'cause they end." This week, Mike and Alex throw a planet-wide rave and jump into Joyride Volume 2 (issues #5-8) by Jackson Lanzing, Colin Kelley, and Marcus To. The guys start by discussing the heavy character focus this vo...

Send us Fan Mail "Right now, you gotta get it through your propaganda-themed brain that you're not the one giving me the choice. It's 100% the other way around. I'm not going back to a world without stars." Kicking off this season of Stories Arcs, Mike and Alex hijack a spaceship and head out into the unknown as they dive into Joyride Volume 1 (issues #1-4) by Jackson Lanz...

Send us Fan Mail For this season of Storied Arcs, Mike and Alex are heading back into outer space to dive into Boom Studios' Joyride from co-writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly (aka the "Hivemind"), artist Marcus To, and colorist Irma Kniivila. The guys run through the comic book history of the full creative team (including letterer Jim Campbell), along the way noting on how an...

Send us Fan Mail “Just look above you. Do you see? That is called the Immense Board of Lights. And there is the Great Black. And, strewn across it, small and surrounded and vulnerable and brave… there is the Great White.” This week, Mike and Alex wrap up their discussion of Top 10 by Alan Moore, Gene Ha, and Zander Cannon with Volume 2 (issues #8-12) of the initial run. They guys jump right into i...

Send us Fan Mail "Listen, I got a call for you and Slinger. Irma and Li are at Seventh and Macaroni handling some kind of psychokinetic Santa." Welcome to a new season of Storied Arcs, and Mike and Alex are here to dive into Alan Moore, Gene Ha, and Zander Cannon's Top 10 Volume 1 (issues #1-7) from America's Best Comics/DC Comics. The guys jump right in, discussing the densene...

Send us Fan Mail For this season of Storied Arcs, Mike and Alex will be tackling the critically-acclaimed, multi-dimensional police procedural comic Top 10 (issues #1-12 of the original series only) from America's Best Comics (aka Wildstorm aka DC) by Alan Moore, Gene Ha, and Zander Cannon. They start with some background on America's Best Comics and use that to track the publication his...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Mike and Alex have the good fortune to be joined by another incredible member of the Deep Cuts team, all the way from Italy, artist Helena Masellis! Helena starts by describing the comic scene she was exposed to growing up in Brazil, from both the US and Asia, and how that influenced a whole generation of Brazilian artists. They also discuss into the importance of havin...

Send us Fan Mail In this week's episode, Mike and Alex are elated to be joined by Joe Clark, one of the co-writers/creators of Deep Cuts! Joe starts off by giving his origin story, both in comics and in music, and tells us how the meeting of those two things in high school led him to befriending Kyle Higgins, this co-writer/creator on this project. Then the guys go deep into Deep Cuts, discus...

Send us Fan Mail "Jazz, America's music, was born from a combination of uptown and downtown, of high art and low places. Now, it combines the free, the electronic, the spiritual, the revolutionary, the ancient, the immediate." In this week's discussion, Mike and Alex jump right into Deep Cuts by co-writers Kyle Higgins and Joe Clark and a stable of brilliant artists from Image...

Send us Fan Mail For this season of Storied Arcs, Mike and Alex dive into the beautiful chaos that is jazz as they get ready to discuss Deep Cuts from Image Comics by co-writers Kyle Higgins and Joe Clark along with a litany of incredible artists. A different artist is brought in for each of the 6 double-sized issues of this anthology miniseries: Danilo Beyruth, Helena Masellis, Diego Greco, Ramon...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Mike and Alex are super stoked to be joined by Matthew Erman, one of the co-writers/creators of Golgotha Motor Mountain! Matthew first gives his comic origin story before diving head first into the entire publishing saga (and that might be an understatement) of Golgotha Motor Mountain. He covers where the initial idea for the comic came from and how the creative team ev...

Send us Fan Mail "Grief is the ether-like fumes of memory evaporating into nothingness. But from nothing, things can appear. From the void and blackness, magic can arrive." In this one-shot episode, Mike and Alex travel to the backwoods of Kentucky to discuss Golgotha Motor Mountain by Matthew Erman, Lonnie Nadler, and Robbi Rodriguez from IDW Publishing. They guys break down the larger...

Send us Fan Mail In this new season of Storied Arcs, Mike and Alex are diving into a one-shot discussion about Golgotha Motor Mountain from IDW Publishing by Matthew Erman, Lonnie Nadler, and Robbi Rodriguez. They first give a little history about IDW (a publisher they somehow haven't covered properly before), then give a rundown of the full creative team behind the book, including co-writers...

Send us Fan Mail "Can’t paint on a smile and expect it to work, ya know?”  This week, Mike and Alex break down the mind-bendy conclusion to Christopher Cantwell and I.N.J. Culbard's Everything from Dark Horse Comics and Berger Books with Volume 2: Black Friday. The guys jump right into the end and discuss how the ultimate reveal for the explanation of the store did or didn't work fo...