Storied Arcs

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...

Send us Fan Mail "I just... I just want to be happy. Or at least... happy with being sad." Welcome to Everything! Mike and Alex are ready to start a new season of Storied Arcs by wandering the aisles of Everything Volume 1: Grand Opening (issues #6-10) from Dark Horse Comics and Berger Books by Christopher Cantwell and I.N.J. Culbard. The guys start the conversation by considering Cantwe...

Send us Fan Mail For this season of Storied Arcs, Mike and Alex are talking about Everything. Well, not everything everything, but Everything by Christopher Cantwell and I.N.J. Culbard from Dark Horse Comics and Berger Books. The guys give a quick rundown of the of the creative team, including Cantwell's television work (like AMC's Halt and Catch Fire ) and Culbard's many collaborat...

Send us Fan Mail "Only when you accept that one day you'll die can you let you and make the best out of life. And that's the big secret. That's the miracle." Mike and Alex are closing out Death Month with a comic that's been on their to-discuss list since the earliest days of the show, Daytripper by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba from DC Comics/Vertigo. A beautiful and emo...

Send us Fan Mail "All things that live, die. This is why you must find joy in the living, while the time is yours, and not fear the end. To deny this is to deny life. TO fear this... is to fear life." Death Month rolls on as Mike and Alex face down monsters with I Kill Giants (issues #1-7) by Joe Kelly and JM Ken Niimura from Image Comics. The guys start their discussion by covering all...

Send us Fan Mail "Who is to say exactly how things end? If there is one thing we have learned, it is that life's endings are bereft of answers." Welcome to Week 2 of Death Month, where Mike and Alex head to Mumbai (in a storytelling sense) to discuss Ram V and Filipe Andrade's The Many Deaths of Laila Starr (issues #1-5) from Boom Studios. The guys jump right into the story and...

Send us Fan Mail "The fact that we know things will end actually presents each of us with an amazing choice : What will you do with the limited time you get on this spinning rock? " To kick off Death Month, Mike and Alex are looking into the W. Maxwell Prince-penned anthology comic Swan Songs (issues #1-6) from Image Comics. In each issue of the series, Prince collaborates with a differe...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to a new season (and year!) of the Storied Arcs podcast! Mike and Alex have returned with another theme month- DEATH. Or dying. But, living. Or ending. But, continuing on. It’s kinda all the same thing. Every story about death is really a story about life, and that’s the thing we’re hoping to explore with the books we’ve picked for our discussions. They’re a wide assortmen...

Send us Fan Mail "It became this giant spectacle. The more attention it got, the more money it raised. Because it dumb or funny or stupid. Who cares why. People wanted in." This week, Mike and Alex wrap up their look at Crowded by Christopher Sebela, Ro Stein, and Ted Brandt with Volume 3: Cutting-Edge Desolation. They get right to it and start at the end, breaking down everything surrou...

Send us Fan Mail "Charlie, from what I've seen in the last four days, the fact that he knows you doesn't mean he's not gonna try to kill you." In this episode, the action heats up in Crowded Volume 2: Glitter Dystopia (issues #7-12) by Christopher Sebela, Ro Stein, and Ted Brandt, and Mike and Alex are ready to break it all down. They start with some stand-out moments from...

Send us Fan Mail "You Just pretend to be people's friends. You don't have feelings . I didn't start the campaign, but I wish I could thank whoever did. You deserve this." Mike and Alex are here to kick off a new season of Stories Arcs by diving into the action-comedy-romance-question mark comic Crowded Volume 1: Soft Apocalypse (issues #1-6) from Image Comics by writer Chr...