The Fantasticast

The Ayn Rand Simile Or Metaphor Theme Song Annual season continues and concludes here at the Fantasticast. Steve and Andy get to grips with Amazing Spider-Man Annual #4, featuring the latest team-up between the Human Torch and Spider-Man. Memories of Strange Tales Annual #2 are lingering, and with irrelevant villains, forced conflict, and leaps in storytelling logic so vast even Evel Knievel would...

KERPLUNK - Spelt K-E-R-P-L-U-N-K It's annual season once again at the Fantasticast. 1967 served up two annuals featuring members of the Fantastic Four, so to avoid a super-sized episode (and to save Steve's editing muscles), we've split the episode into two. First up for Andy and Steve is Fantastic Four Annual #5. This issue features guest-appearances from almost every friendly face featured in th...

The Great Latverian Bake-Off! It's muffin week here in the Fantasticast tent. Will Mary Berry be impressed by Victor's blueberry surprise muffins? And will Paul Hollywood survive his criticism of Victor's cake density? Will Steve Lacey, Andy Leyland and returning guest host Seb Patrick find a coherently-plotted story amongst the destruction of the Beehive? When exactly opens the cocoon? And will S...

Sgt Fury's Lonely Hearts Club Band Hello, and welcome to our special 75th episode* spectacular. To celebrate 75 episodes* of The Fantasticast, Steve Lacey and Andrew Leyland decided to invite a special guest onto the show. In no way at all was the special guest invited, and at a later date Steve discovered that this was going to be the 75th episode. Oh no. Joining us this week is writer and critic...

Definitely Not Not Brand Echh! It's really not. What it is, though, is the 74th episode of The Fantasticast, hosted by Steve Lacey and Andrew Leyland. This week we're looking at the first physical appearance of the Kree in the Marvel Universe, as both the Supreme Intelligence and Ronan The Accuser make their debut appearances in the Marvel Universe. Hint: One of these is a lot more prominent than...

Mike Draws Us In With His Synopsis A little twitter-based humour for you there... It's been a while since Steve and Andy invited a guest onto the show, and Fantastic Four #64 seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so. Joining us this week is the writer and artist of Elemental Micah, and the cover artist of this very show, Michael Georgiou. Michael jumps aboard as we gently explore the theories...

BLAST It, I Need A Funny Subtitle Episode #72 of The Fantasticast is here, ready to BLAST you with a BLAST of audio goodness, BLASTing from your speaker/headphones into your non-BLAST-proof ears! BLAST BLAST BLAST! (Have you guessed that this week's villain is BLASTarr yet?) Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland are here to continue guiding you through the Fantastic Four from the very beginning, this week...

Punch A Submarine To Death It's episode 71 of The Fantasticast and, in a rush to get the episode released so Steve can go watch Monty Python, he forgot to record a pre-titles stinger. So, imagine him singing the theme to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or something along those lines... This week, Steve and Andy dig into Fantastic Four #62, featuring some terrible peril for Reed, the first appearance...

The summer sun is fading as the year grows old And darker days are drawing near The winter winds will be much colder But The Fantasticast is here! Today on The Fantasticast, Steve and Andy take a look at a powerful solo debut for a long-time Marvel universe villain in Fantastic Four #61. Yes, it's the Sandman, divorced of the Frightful Four and equipped with a great Jack Kirby-designed costume. It...

After nearly two-and-a-half years, Steve and Andy reach the conclusion of their journey. With their coverage of Fantastic Four #60, they have exhausted the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby issues collected by Marvel in Omnibus form. Today, we clobber our final vagrant. Such sad tidings aside, we also have one of the best fights seen yet in the Fantastic Four as the team go head-to-head with the cosmically-powe...

Hello, and welcome to the 68th episode of the show! Your hosts, Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland, are all fired up and ready to look at Fantastic Four #59: Doomsday! First, though, there's the small matter of our Listener Question of the Month, where we asked our listeners to tell us their feel good Fantastic Four reading experiences. Our feedback was limited, but we've gathered it all together anyway...

The Silver Surfer: Imprisoned and drained. Doctor Doom: Enhanced with the power cosmic. The Inhumans: Still trapped. The Fantastic Four: Blissfully unaware of Doom's power, and wilfully ignorant of unusual lightning strikes. Professor Alan Middleton: Still here after an entire week. His family miss him. He's eaten all the cereal and won't go and buy some more. Terrible house guest. Although he did...

So, who like Latverian monarchs? Who likes cosmically-powered ex-world-eater heralds? Who likes surfing? Who would like to see all three combined, and served with a side-salad of granule-based supervillain? And how would you like if such a story were to be covered on the show in the presence of the Cultural Attache to the Embassy of Latveria (or whatever his title is)? We think you all would, whic...

It's time to dust off a character whose copyright is about to expire, deliver a resounding beat-down to a litigious creator, and welcome back the original android Human Torch to Marvel Comics. Join Steve Lacey and Andy Leyland as they cover Fantastic Four Annual #4, featuring The Torch That Was, and take a look at the behind-the-scenes goings-on that led to this copyright-retaining revival. Send i...

I'll give you three guesses as to which villain makes a return in this issue, and the other two guesses just don't count. Yes, Klaw is back, and he's shed the meth-addict look for some a classic Kirby onesie, complete with unfortunate highlights around his backside. Fantastic Four #56 is devoted to clearing up the biggest loose end of the Fantastic Four's sojourn to Wakanda. See Sue fail to be sil...

It's our shortest ever episode as Steve and Andy see what happens when the Silver Surfer returns to the lives of the Fantastic Four in issue #55. It's a fantastic issue-long punching match between Ben Grimm and Norrin Rad, with at least one incredibly suspicious tactical decision from the ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing along the way. Send in your feedback to  fantastic4podcast@gmail.com , leave your...

Year Three of The Fantasticast is here! If we were Batman, we'd be introducing our kid sidekick right about now... But as we legally can't do that, instead we're going to return to Lee and Kirby following our end-of-year shenanigans. Steve Lacey (20 Minute Longbox, Who True Freaks) and Andy Leyland (Heykids Comics, Who True Freaks) are here to guide you through Fantastic Four #54, featuring the fi...

Welcome to The World's Silliest Comic Podcast! As our listeners rouse themselves from the annual turkey coma, we head back in time 31 years to celebrate with 20th year of publication of the Fantastic Four with a good old-fashioned roast. Yes, this episode, Steve Lacey and Andrew Leyland present the glorious gag-packed jam issue, Fantastic Four Roast, masterminded by Fred Hembeck. Check out the lis...

Happy Christmas, and welcome to the first of our two end-of-year special episodes of The Fantasticast. Once again, Steve and Andy are throwing the Lee/Kirby issues out of the window (not literally - we've proved over the past two years just how dangerous hardback collections of these comics can be) and are choosing two issues from across the length and breadth of the 53 years of the Fantastic Four...

No, it's not another origin song - your ears are safe! Instead, it's an origin story, as Stan and Jack tell the tale of the Black Panther, and the tragedy that birthed him. Join Steve Lacey and Andrew Leyland as they take a look at Fantastic Four #53, violent murder, giant red sound elephants, and a chilling comparison with Gotham's greatest hero. Don't forget to answer our Listener Question Of Th...

We've been back in, re-tooled, and fixed the audio. We're back, re-recorded and 100% kinder on your ears than the original episode would have been. This time around, Steve and Andy get to grips with the introduction of the first black superhero, The Black Panther. Will this be a measured and respectful look at tribal life in another country, or will we get caught up in hideously inappopriate and d...

Hello, and welcome to the 58th episode of the Fantasticast, your guide to the Fantastic Four from the very beginning. Your hosts - Andrew Leyland (Heykids Comics) and Steve Lacey (20 Minute Longbox) are here to guide you through the contents of Fantastic Four #52, featuring the first appearance of the Black Pa- Wait, what? Oh, right, that episode doesn't yet exist, thanks to an unfortunate piece o...

This special episode of The Fantasticast statistically has a high chance of something magical happening if you listen to it on the day of release. For Saturday 23rd November is the anniversary of an assassination, the anniversary of a TV show, and more importantly, the first day of the Thought Bubble Comic Convention, which both Andy and Steve are attending. So, as you listen to this episode, we m...

Guided by The Watcher, The Human Torch ventures into sub-space to seek the only weapon useable against Galactus. Meanwhile, cowed by The Punisher, The Thing, Mr Fantastic and The Invisible Girl find themselves powerless against The Destroyer Of Worlds. Only the power of The Silver Surfer can halt Galactus's plans to devour the Earth. Steve and Andy, even more unable to affect the seemingly unstopp...

Or, as this episode proves, rather a lot of mistakes, both huge and small. Yes, it's another fill-in show, and we can promise you no singing this time around. Except that we can't really, there will be singing. But what we can give you is a selection of the best openings and outtakes from the first 10 episodes of The Fantasticast for your enjoyment. Steve and Andy will return next week with their...