Storied Arcs

Send us Fan Mail On this season of Storied Arcs, Mike and Alex are backing the campaign for Crowded from Image Comics by writer Christopher Sebela and the art team of Ro Stein and Ted Brandt. The guys start with a quick synopsis for the comic (crowded funded assassinations, anyone?), their histories reading it (don't judge a comic solely by its cover), and why they're interested in discu...

Send us Fan Mail "And when it comes down to it, really, time is all we have. And it doesn't matter how long you live if you're not spending it the way you want." This week, Mike and Alex are here to wrap up their discussion of Time Before Time from Image Comics with Volumes 5 and 6 (issues #25-29 and #6, #12, #18, and #24). They start at the end (of the narrative, at least) and...

Send us Fan Mail "I really thought things were going to be better when we came back here. Maybe the world's just cruel no matter what time you're in, though." Mike and Alex are here to continue their trip through time and space with Image Comics' Time Before Time, this week examining Volumes 3 and 4 (issues #13-17 and #19-23). They guys discuss the introduction of a new ch...

Send us Fan Mail "Well, let me put it this way... if the past could be changed, do you really think the world would be like this ?" It's been a while since Mike and Alex have tackled time travel (you have to go all the way back to the very first book they covered, Paper Girls), and it felt overdue in returning to the concept. So inn this season of Storied Arcs, they're diving i...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to another season of Storied Arcs! This go-round, Mike and Alex are ready to tackle time travel paradoxes head on as they dive into Time Before Time from Image Comics from Declan Shalvey, Rory McConville, and Joe Palmer. The guys start by giving a run down of the full creative team behind this book (to start, at least; a roster of guest artists come into the series after i...

Send us Fan Mail In honor of Halloween, Mike and Alex are delighted to chat all things horror comics with special guest and comics connoisseur Rosie Knight, co-host of X-Ray Vision ! They start with a big picture look at horror as a genre and why it has such lasting appeal in comics, and also discuss their own history consuming horror stories. The trio then each give their top three horror comics...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Mike and Alex are incredibly excited to be joined by the creators of Revival, Tim Seeley and Mike Norton. They start by discussing the origin of Revival (it helps when you work in the same studio) and how it evolved to incorporate multiple different genres, all working under the umbrella of "rural noir." Tim and Mike then dive into on how and where they feel R...

Send us Fan Mail "But after Revival Day, we all went back to being within reach of the scythe. It made us remember how little time we get together. It made us honest. It made us human." This week, Mike and Alex warp up their discussion of Tim Seeley and Mike Norton's rural noir, Revival, as they dive deep into Deluxe Volume 4 (issues #36-47). The guys start at the end and break down...

Send us Fan Mail "Or, Martha Cypress... maybe, our paths crossing again is meant to redeem us both. Maybe this moment defines what we do with our gifts." Mike and Alex are continuing their deep dive into Tim Seeley and Mike Norton's rural noir Revival from Image Comics, this week breaking down Deluxe Volume 3 (issues #24-35). They start by looking at the some of the big reveals give...

Send us Fan Mail "I don't know what makes that kind of monster, Martha. And I don't know what has to happen to make a person decide they have to take a life to protect their family." In this week's episode, Mike and Alex continue their discussion of Tim Seeley and Mike Norton's farm noir tale Revival from Image Comics. The guys jump right into the Chew/Revival crossov...

Send us Fan Mail "If you add more weight onto the backs of the people here... if you push them just a little farther , someone might just... snap ." Welcome to the newest season of Storied Arcs, where Mike and Alex are heading to small-town Wisconsin to deal with the not-zombie zombies of Tim Seeley and Mike Norton's Revival from Image Comics. The guys dive deep into how the comic w...

Send us Fan Mail For this season of Storied Arcs, Mike and Alex will be dipping back into the world of horror as they get ready to discuss the "farm noir" zombie (question mark?) story Revival by Tim Seeley and Mike Norton from Image Comics. As usual, the guys start off by talking about what drew them to this book and how they came initially read it, given that neither particularly trend...

Send us Fan Mail "They are the history behind the history. The hands that turn the world. We are their beasts. Their reckoning." Here at Storied Arcs, we like to celebrate completed runs and stories of independent, creator-owned comics. Sometimes, that means a book wraps up after 24 or 30 or 54 issues because that's what the story required. And sometimes, that means a book is cancel...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to a new season of Storied Arcs! This time around, Mike and Alex will be driving deep into Romulus (issues #1-4) by Bryan Edward Hill and Nelson Blake II from Image Comics. Never heard of it, you say? Not surprised. Neither Mike or Alex have ever met another person who's read this book other than each other. In fact, this book was a topic of discussion the first time...

Send us Fan Mail "I guess when you look at the way my life turned out so far, it's about the only way you can look at it. Good after bad. Kind of amazing." In the final installment of Storied Arc's look into the selected works by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, Mike and Alex swing into Spider-Man: Blue (issues #1-6), the second book in the Loeb-Sale Marvel Colors Quadrilogy (which is t...

Send us Fan Mail "I had promised my dad I would never ben an 'uneducated pug' like him. He wanted me to be a lawyer and I made good on that. But it wasn't enough. I had seen how the law- which I still steadfastly believed in- wasn't always the same as justice." Mike and Alex are back diving deep into the selected works of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, this week moving over...

Send us Fan Mail "Folks tend to call him 'The Man of Steel' nowadays. I guess that he's the most famous person in the world... not that he was ever interested in being famous in the first place." Welcome to another week of the Storied Arcs podcast as Mike and Alex continue their look into the works of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, this time diving in Superman For All Seasons (is...

Send us Fan Mail "I made a promise to my parents that I would rid the city of the evil that took their lives. No matter what that evil looks like or becomes. I believe someday I will make good on that promise. I have to. I believe in Batman ." In this very special (and very long) episode, Mike and Alex are pleased to welcome their good friend Drew (aka the person we're pretty sure i...

Send us Fan Mail And now for something (not entirely) completely different. For this season of Storied Arcs, Mike and Alex are taking a detour away from creator-owned, independent comics and stepping into the caped and cowled world of mainstream, Big Two (that's Marvel and DC) superhero comics. But with a twist. The through line of the season isn't a character or title, but creators, wri...

Send us Fan Mail This is a very special one-off episode. Alex and Mike were asked to host a meet-up night at a local Cincinnati Manga shop (Manga Manga.) We recorded the entire discussion and you can hear us discuss western comics, manga, and more!  Keep your notes app open since there are a ton of great recommendations we gathered from people in attendance.  Here are some of the recommendations: ...

Send us Fan Mail "I... I want purpose. To contribute. I want to be accepted by society... live in a world I don't have to hide in... make choices without being in constant fear of them destroying me or the ones I care about." Mike and Alex are here to dive deep into the final arc of Alex + Ada (issues #11-15) and they do so by hitting on what they think may be the secret theme of th...

Send us Fan Mail "Technology will always advance. But we need to be careful as we advance that we have humans always at the center of our best interests." Mike and Alex are back to dive into right into Alex + Ada Volume 2 (issues #6-10) from Sarah Vaughn and Jonathan Luna. The guys discuss how much they enjoyed this story arc versus the opening one and what they thought was improved betw...

Send us Fan Mail "It's complicated, what makes a person. I think... part of it is experiences- whether you seek them out or they come to you- and your reactions to them." In this new season of Storied Arcs, Mike and Alex jump back into the world of robots and androids and artificial intelligence as they begin their deep dive into Sarah Vaughn and Jonathan Luna's sci-fi love sto...

Send us Fan Mail For the next season of Stored Arcs, Mike and Alex are jumping back into the world of androids and A.I. as they dive into Alex + Ada by Jonathan Luna and Sarah Vaughn from Image Comics. The guys talk about what drew them to this book (and why it maybe took a little longer for them to start reading it than some other books) and give a little, lightly spoiled, tease as to what it&apo...

Send us Fan Mail "He's always got some eminently pragmatic blanket solution for a world that's complex and irrational and... and human." We've come to the end of another season of Storied Arcs, but before we move on, we have to discuss the final part of Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris' political-slash-superhero tale, Ex Machina Deluxe Volume 5 (issues 41-50 plus Spec...