The Comics Canon

Just in time for Christmas, Emmy-winning writer (and co-host of The Flop House ) Dan McCoy joins us to unwrap a trio of Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories by the late, great Carl Barks!   In "Only a Poor Old Man," Uncle Scrooge's first full-length adventure, everyone's favorite spats-wearing billionaire fights to protect his fortune from the Beagle Boys in a rollicking heist tale! In "Luck of t...

It's our bicentennial episode, and we celebrate by going back to 1976 for a momentous match-up between comics' two most popular characters: Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man, by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru, published by DC and Marvel Comics! This first-ever inter-company crossover event finds the Man of Steel and Ol' Web-Head going toe-to-toe (of course) before joining forces to combat the combi...

Happy Bonesgiving! In this episode, we celebrate our favorite(?) holiday with another excursion into the world of Bone, this time skipping ahead to Bone Vol. 5: Rock Jaw, Master of the Eastern Border, written and drawn by Jeff Smith, published by Cartoon Books and Scholastic! Fone Bone and Smiley Bone are separated from the rest of the book's main cast, attempting to set an adorable baby rat creat...

Content warning: sexual abuse and implied sexual assault In this episode, friend of the show and John Constantine authority Tracy Tanoff joins us in unpacking a defining moment in the life and career of everyone's favorite street-level mage (and con man) with a discussion of John Constantine, Hellblazer #11: Newcastle: A Taste of Things to Come, by Jamie Delano, Richard Piers Rayner and Mark Bucki...

One year (almost to the day) since we discussed the first half of American Gothic, we round out the scare-iffic month of October with a look at the final five issues (Swamp Thing #46-50) of this groundbreaking storyline by Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette and others, published by DC Comics! First, Swamp Thing and John Constantine rub elbows with DC's superhero elite in the midst of the Crisis on Infin...

Wait, where's Swamp Thing: American Gothic, Part Two? Well, Curt and Kevin weren't feeling so well this week, so they decided to take it easy and record a short mini-episode on the comics-related film and TV adaptations of the year so far. (Except, of course, it turned out to be not so short after all.) Mild spoilers abound as Curt (and occasionally Kevin) opines on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,...

(Note:You may just ever-so-faintly hear a neighbor's barking dog occasionally adding his two cents in the background for the first half or so of the episode.) A perennial Spider-Man foe gets a horror-monster makeover (and our Spidey Super Stories miniseries concludes) with 2010's Shed from Amazing Spider-Man #630-633, by Zeb Wells, Chris Bachalo and Emma Rios, published by Marvel Comics! After a l...

Despite popular demand, our recurring comics-themed quiz returns! This time, Curt surprises Kevin with a pop quiz on everyone's favorite unstoppable X-Men villain, following last week's episode on Amazing Spider-Man: Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut!

In this episode, we swing back into our Spidey Super Stories miniseries with a pair of acclaimed Spider-Man tales from the early 80s: The two-part Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut from Amazing Spider-Man #229-230, and The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man, from Amazing Spider-Man #248! First, everyone's favorite wall-crawler races to stop the X-Men villain Juggernaut from kidnapping the psychic Madame We...

Media critic Matt Goldberg returns as we temporarily pause our Spidey Super-Stories miniseries to discuss the unstoppable cultural phenomenon known as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with a look at the book that started it all—Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 (and also #2) by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird! Before the seven different movies (including the well-received new "Mutant Mayhem"), the ani...

In this episode, Spidey Super Stories swings into a different gear as we examine yet another version of everyone's favorite wall-crawler with a look at Ultimate Spider-Man: Learning Curve, with a special emphasis on issue 13, Confessions, by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley, published by Marvel Comics! We discuss the ways in which the Ultimate Universe Peter Parker and his supporting character...

Bryan Stratton and Robb Milne from the Marvel by the Month podcast join once again us as Spidey Super Stories continues with a look at The Superior Spider-Man: My Own Worst Enemy, collecting The Superior Spider-Man (2013) issues 1-5 by Dan Slott, Ryan Stegman and Giuseppe Camuncoli, published by Marvel Comics! Doctor Otto Octavius, one of Spider-Man's deadliest enemies, is in control of the wall-c...

We kick off Spidey Super Stories, a series dedicated to everyone's favorite web-slinger, Spider-Man, with a look at "Spider-Man No More!" from Amazing Spider-Man #50, along with two early clashes with the Kingpin in #51-52 and #69, by Stan Lee and John Romita, published by Marvel Comics! Fed up with a public that hates and fears him, Spider-Man hangs up his web-shooters to devote more time to his...

In this episode, we wrap up our two-parter on The Sandman Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones, with a look at issues 64-69, published by Vertigo/DC Comics! Lyta Hall and the Furies descend on The Dreaming, intent on destroying the dream realm and killing the Dream King. Various characters meet untimely ends, while others move on to new locales and one steps into a new role. Can Morpheus defeat the Erinyes and...

In this episode, our series-within-a-series on The Sandman begins winding down as we kick off a two-parter on Vol. 9, The Kindly Ones, discussing issues 57-63, published by Vertigo/DC Comics! When her young son Daniel is abducted, Lyta Hall embarks on a quest to find the trio of goddesses known as the Furies and exact revenge on the being she holds responsible: Morpheus, the Dream King! Meanwhile,...

On this episode, we look ahead to the June 16 release of The Flash with a little story that established the concept of the multiverse as a canonical part of superhero comics: "The Flash of Two Worlds" from The Flash # 123, by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino, published by DC Comics! Performing for children at a fundraiser, the Flash (Barry Allen) vibrates at super speed and finds himself on anoth...

On this episode, just in time for the May 24 debut of American Born Chinese on Disney+, we take a look at, well, American Born Chinese, written and drawn by Gene Luen Yang, published by First Second! This award-winning graphic novel moves between three characters: The Monkey King, a deity who chafes at being called a monkey; Jin Wang, a child of Chinese immigrants who sees his heritage as an obsta...

It's one of the few superhero deaths that has managed to stick over the intervening decades. And it ties up Adam Warlock's Magus Saga with a tidy bow. On this episode, we revisit Marvel Comics' first-ever "graphic novel," Jim Starlin's The Death of Captain Marvel! He's fought countless Earth villains and cosmic bad guys, but the man named Mar-Vell finally confronts a foe he can't defeat: cancer. A...

On this episode, we wrap up our two-parter on Marvel's cosmic messiah, Adam Warlock, with a look at two stories that close the loop on Jim Starlin's classic Magus Saga: Avengers Annual #7 and Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2, published by Marvel Comics! In "The Final Threat," Warlock, Captain Marvel, Moondragon and the Avengers are all that stands between Earth and an alien armada as Warlock's onetime...

Content warning: Suicide/self-murder On this episode, we kick off a two-part look at the definitive Adam Warlock story, The Magus Saga, aka The Strange Death of Adam Warlock, as featured in Strange Tales issues 178-181 and Warlock issues 9-11, written and drawn by Jim Starlin, published by Marvel Comics! Who is Adam Warlock, the mysterious character slated to make his Marvel Cinematic Universe deb...

With April Fool's Day just around the corner, the time seems right for a long-overdue look at DC Comics' Ambush Bug, who was breaking the fourth wall and spreading mayhem almost a decade before Marvel Comics' Deadpool. Specifically, we take a look at his appearances in 1984's Action Comics #560 and issues 1-4 of 1985's Ambush Bug miniseries, by Keith Giffen and Robert Loren Fleming! Combining elem...

In this episode, we look at the source material for one of the upcoming DC movies recently announced by James Gunn: The Authority Vol. 1: Relentless, collecting The Authority #1-8 by Warren Ellis, Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary, published by Wildstorm Comics! When the U.N. superhero team Stormwatch is slaughtered by xenomorphs from the Aliens film franchise (...wait, what?), The Authority steps out of...

In this episode, we follow up the controversial death of Robin, Batman's surrogate son, with the debut of his actual flesh-and-blood offspring in Batman and Son from Batman #655-658, published by DC Comics! Superstar writer Grant Morrison begins their acclaimed Batman run with a bang, introducing Damian Wayne, the son of Bruce Wayne and Talia Al Ghul. Trained by the League of Assassins, this pread...

Content warning: A minor is murdered. In this episode, we examine one of the most popular Batman stories of all time: A Death in the Family from Batman #426-429 by Jim Starlin and Jim Aparo, published by DC Comics! In 1988, DC established a pair of 900 numbers to allow readers to vote whether Jason Todd, the second Robin, would live or die. Spoiler alert: He dies. But that's not even the most memo...

Content warning: suicide, threat of sexual assault. In this episode, we visit one of the most popular Spider-Man stories of all time that also happens to be one of the most atypical Spider-Man stories of all time: Kraven's Last Hunt, by J.M. DeMatteis, Mike Zeck and Bob McLeod, published by Marvel Comics! You'd think Kraven the Hunter would be happy. After all, he's finally captured his elusive fo...