The Comics Canon

In anticipation of the eagerly awaited Spider-Man: No Way Home, we look back at one of the most universally reviled stories in comics history: 2007's Spider-Man: One More Day by J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada, published by Marvel Comics! Quesada, then Marvel's editor in chief, wanted to reset everyone's favorite wisecracking wall-crawler and magically undo his longstanding marriage to Mary...

(Content warning: Lots of people get buried alive.) Greetings, boos and ghouls! Gather 'round the campfire as the Curtkeeper and Kevin From the Black Lagoon wrap up The Tomb of the Crypt, their miniseries on horror comics, with a handpicked selection of spooky stories from EC Comics' Tales From the Crypt! Join us as we dig up The Curse of the Full Moon, The Maestro's Hand, Ghost Ship, The Hungry G...

(Content warning: This story contains references to rape by deception and incest.) Our horror-comics miniseries The Tomb of the Crypt continues with Swamp Thing: Love and Death—specifically, Swamp Thing Vol. 2 issues #29-31 and Swamp Thing Annual #2 by Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, John Totleben and others, published by DC Comics! Swamp Thing's nemesis, the evil scientist/warlock Anton Arcane, ret...

The Tomb of the Crypt, our miniseries on horror comics, continues with a look at 2018's acclaimed Infidel by Pornsak Pichetshote and Aaron Campbell, published by Image Comics! Described as a haunted house story for the 21st century, this five-issue series explores issues of bigotry, xenophobia and racism as Aisha and Medina, two young women of color, move into an apartment building where a bomb bu...

(Content warning: Body horror and a couple of anatomical references) We kick off The Tomb of the Crypt, a miniseries on horror comics, with our very first manga title—Umuzaki: Spiral Into Horror by Junji Ito, published by Viz Media! In this chilling tale that Nerdist referred to as "the Watchmen of horror manga," a small Japanese town becomes plagued by ... spirals. This everyday shape begins show...

Because YOU (well, one of you, at least) asked for it, we finally get around to discussing All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant, published by DC Comics! Superman is dying, his cells flooded with solar radiation thanks to his arch-nemesis Lex Luthor. But before he goes, Kal-El has a few things to scratch off his to-do list. This acclaimed 12-issue series combines fun S...

In anticipation of the Nov. 5 debut of the Eternals movie, we take a look at The Eternals issues 1-7, published by Marvel Comics! A few years after defecting to the Distinguished Competition to create the ambitious Fourth World saga, Jack Kirby returned to the House of Ideas, where he set to work on ... another ambitious cosmic epic! Drawing inspiration from Erich von Däniken's mega-successful Cha...

Alonso Duralde , the hardest working man in podcasting (Maximum Film, Breakfast All Day, the Linoleum Knife family of podcasts) returns as we prepare for the Aug. 11 launch of What If...? on Disney+ by gazing upon the alternate realities of Marvel Comics' What If! First published in 1977, this anthology series explores what might have happened had key moments in Marvel continuity happened a little...

In this episode, our Myth Takes miniseries concludes with a story that combines the mythic grandeur of America's pastime with Jewish folklore—The Golem's Mighty Swing by James Sturm, published by Drawn & Quarterly! In the early 1920s, money problems force a traveling Jewish baseball team to agree to a promoter's plan to increase ticket sales: Henry Bell, a Black player pretending to be Jewish, wil...

In this episode, an actual Greek myth gets retconned as Myth Takes, our miniseries on comics and mythology, rolls on with a discussion of three stories from the Sandman collection Fables & Reflections—specifically, Thermidor, The Song of Orpheus and Ramadan! You may be familiar with the myth of Orpheus, the balladeer who journeyed to the underworld to retrieve his lady love Eurydice. But you might...

(Explicit warning: A couple of swear words are used.) In this episode, Myth Takes, our series on comics and mythology and folklore, continues with The Sandman: A Game of You, collecting issues 32-37 of The Sandman, published by DC/Vertigo Comics! Atlanta actress and friend of the show Jennifer Lee returns for a lively discussion that goes deep into Sandman lore as we get into this 30-year-old stor...

In this episode, we follow up the anthropomorphic samurai of Usagi Yojimbo with a menagerie of talking animals as Myth Takes, our miniseries on comics and mythology, takes a slight detour into fairy tale territory with a discussion of Fables Vol. 2: Animal Farm, published by Vertigo/DC Comics! In Bill Willingham's long-running series Fables, the characters from all your favorite childhood tales ha...

In this episode, Myth Takes, our miniseries on comics and mythology, continues with a look at Stan Sakai's Eisner Award-winning Grasscutter saga from Usagi Yojimbo Vol. 3, issues #13-22, published by Dark Horse Comics! Usagi Yojimbo, Sakai's long-running series featuring rabbit ronin Miyamoto Usagi, draws from Japanese history and folklore to create a fully realized world populated by anthropomorp...

In this episode, Myth Takes, our miniseries on comics and mythology, continues with a discussion of everyone's favorite teenage God of Chaos, Kid Loki, in Journey Into Mystery: Fear Itself (specifically, Journey Into Mystery issues #622-626 and #628-629) by Keiron Gillen, Doug Braithwaite and Whilce Portacio, published by Marvel Comics! When Cul the Serpent, God of Fear and brother of Odin the All...

In this episode, we kick off Myth Takes, a miniseries on the intersection of comics and mythology, with a book in which an A-list superhero gets a mythological upgrade: Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Blood, by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang, published by DC Comics! This companion piece of sorts to our previous Wonder Woman episode explores the character's reboot as part of the 2011 New 52 relaunch of DC t...

Content warning: Depictions of wartime violence and PTSD symptoms are discussed. In this episode, we discuss one of the most acclaimed storylines from the Pulitzer Prize-winning comic strip Doonesbury, as collected in The Long Road Home: One Step at a Time and The War Within: One More Step at a Time, published by Andrews McMeel! These strips follow the physical and emotional ordeal of long-running...

Podcaster Alonso Duralde (Linoleum Knife, Who Shot Ya?, Breakfast All Day, A Film and A Movie) returns to discuss Justice League International by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire, published by DC Comics! Debuting in 1987, Justice League International came out of the gate with a light and often absurd tone that bucked the "grim and gritty" trend of the late 80s, with Batman and a rost...

Debuting as a webcomic in 2012, Nimona became an Eisner Award-winning sensation after its publication as a graphic novel in 2015. Noelle Stevenson's tale of a playful shapeshifter who turns out to be something more was even on its way to an animated adaptation until the closing of Blue Sky Studios last month left that project's future in doubt. We may not ever get to see that feature film, but we...

Combining corporate intrigue, James Bond-style espionage and more than a hint of social relevance, it's perhaps the defining Iron Man storyline—and arguably informs Robert Downey Jr.'s mega-popular portrayal of the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In this episode, we strap on the jet skates to discuss Demon in a Bottle—specifically, The Invincible Iron Man issues #123-128, by David Mich...

In this episode, we load up our rucksacks and make a long-overdue trip to the world of bande dessinées —and one of the most popular comics characters of the 20th century—with a look at Tintin in Tibet by Hergé! When Tintin learns of a plane crash in the Himalayas, a dreamlike vision convinces him that his friend Chang has somehow survived the crash. Joined by his faithful dog Snowy and the irascib...

In this episode, we're joined by Bryan Stratton and Robb Milne of the Marvel by the Month podcast to complete our first podcast crossover (you can hear the first part here)—and to discuss Ultimate Comics Spider-Man: Death of Spider-Man, by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley, published by Marvel Comics! Just when things are looking up for the Peter Parker of Earth-1610, life comes crashing down a...

We celebrate our fifth anniversary by finally tackling a seminal work by one of the biggest names in comics: Smile by Raina Telgemeier, published by Scholastic/Graphix! In this Eisner Award-winning graphic memoir, sixth-grader Raina suffers a dental injury that upends her entire world, kicking off a years-long succession of visits to various "odontists" involving surgery, braces, headgear and a re...

( Note: Due to some sound issues, we were forced to re-record a couple of spots in the first few minutes of the podcast.) In this episode, we kick off 2021 with one of the best-reviewed books of 2020: Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru, published by DC Comics! Taking inspiration from the 1940s radio serial The Adventures of Superman, this three-issue limited series follows th...

Explicit Warning! This episode contains strong language and is recommended for mature listeners. For the last episode of 2020, we segue seamlessly from Bucky Barnes to another iconic comics antihero, Buddy Bradley, with a discussion of five stories featuring the Bradley clan from Peter Bagge's 1980s anthology Neat Stuff, published by Fantagraphics Books! Specifically, we dive deep into "Rock 'n' R...

For decades, Bucky Barnes sat cooling his heels with Ben Parker in the exclusive club of characters Marvel Comics would never bring back from the dead. But all that changed in 2006, as chronicled in Captain America: Winter Soldier—specifically, Captain America issues 1-6. 8-9, and 11-14—by Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, Michael Lark and others. While chasing down a terrorist plot with S.H.I.E.L.D. age...