I had the honor of sitting down with the cast and crew of one of my favorite podcasts All Comics Considered to celebrate National Comic Book Day.
All Comics Considered is comprised of the brilliant minds of Martin Anton Gleason, Nick Fury, Hannah Craig, and Tim Bruhn Yang. They release a weekly podcast that delivers an hour of reviews, jokes, and thoughts about comic books and the culture surrounding them.
How long have you been a fan?
If you liked Star Wars, the presupposition was that you would also like comic books, because nerd-dom was basically one big swirling mass of “Please don’t start a ‘Mother’s Against’ group and make me take my posters of wizards down”. My Venn diagram of interests definitely included comics, but the closest place I could buy comics was an hour and a half away, so I didn’t have many. – Nick
It’s almost a running gag on the show, but the first comic I started collecting was Nomad. It was a really 90s book–which is to say an anti-hero with a heart of gold, anti-spandex and glam-rock hair. The best thing that ever happened to this character was his death in Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Martin
I was very young at the time (somewhere around seven years old) and my mom and I read the comics together. My rad mom is the nerdy one in my family and had been a big Fantastic Four fan when she was young, so she wholly supported my interest in Superman, and then the X-men, and later when I hit my teenage years, Japanese manga. I recently got her back into comics by introducing her to Saga, an extremely beautiful space opera comic that I recommend to pretty much everybody. – Hannah
If you could spend an afternoon in a comic book world, what would it be and why?
Which Comics Are You Excited About Right Now?
- Marvel – The best superhero comic of the last few years, hands down. Kamala Khan’s a teenage Muslim American-Pakistani girl who likes writing slash fanfiction and playing MMOs. She’s also Ms. Marvel, protector of Jersey City! Written and edited by actual Muslim women, Ms. Marvel broke the mold on comic book hero expectations and proved to be a smash success, opening up the gates for a new generation of diverse heroes and fans.
- The Wicked + The Divine – Young people are reincarnated as gods to party hard as pop stars for 2 years before they flame out in glory; a meditation on the nature of fandom. Also, FASHION. The gods are modeled after real life music celebs, so expect to see Lucifer looking like David Bowie, Sakhmet as Rihanna’s twin and Odin sporting a Daft Punk vibe.
- Lumberjanes – An excellent book for pre-teens and teens, Lumberjanes is about a girls’ adventure camp. In the spirit of Adventure Time but all about girls.
- Saga – The opposite of war is sex in this spectacularly epic space opera. One of the best comics of this century.
- Bitch Planet – Smash the space patriarchy. A screaming feminist screed that’s reclaiming women-in-prison movies.
- All-New, All-Different Wolverine – Logan’s legacy is continued by his clone/daughter X-23. Though it’s got a very comic booky background (clones! Somebody is dead again but sort of also of not!) it’s actually an extremely heartwarming story about what actually makes a family.
- She-Hulk – The 2014 series written by Charles Soule. Soule’s actually a lawyer and brings legal expertise and awesome characterization to this short run. It includes She-Hulk vs Daredevil…in a courtroom!
- Anything Written By Kieron Gillen, Literally Anything At All, Even His Twitter Is Solid Gold – Phonogram, Angela (including Asgard’s Assassin, 1602 Witchhunter and Queen of Hell), Young Avengers, Darth Vader, SIEGE, and my absolute personal favorite comic book of all time, his run on Journey Into Mystery. Gillen is my favorite comics writer and all of his work (and especially with his creative partner, artist Jamie McKelvie, which includes The Wicked + The Divine), is highly worth checking out. – Hannah
Thor – Jane Foster is Thor, she’s battling cancer and every time she transforms into Thor any therapy she goes through is undone. But she refuses magical medical help because she knows magic has a price. Yet…she’s willing to take the magic of transforming into Thor, because the world needs her, and she needs to feel powerful. Conflicted? Yes. Interesting? Hell, yes.
Squirrel Girl – I stepped away from the 90s in comics because everything was so “dark and grim” (i.e. lots of pockets and guns and hash lines everywhere), Squirrel Girl is the antidote to that, a mouthwash to clean out all that badness from the Dark Age of Comics. She’s irreverent, funny, light hearted, and doesn’t automatically go for punching lights out when she encounters villains.
Totally Awesome Hulk – Bruce Banner is dead, long live The Hulk. The mantle of the Hulk has been passed down to Korean American mastermind Amadeus Cho. Cho is 19, hormonal, and his sister Maddie tries to keep him grounded and send him on missions where he can do the most good. This Hulk? Not full of angst, he’s enjoying his time as the strongest one there is. I’m enjoying a comic book where an Asian American is being portrayed in a non-stereotypical way. – Tim
What advice would you give to someone who is new to comics but wants to check it out?
Final Thoughts?
Comics are way more than superhero books by Marvel and DC. While some of those titles and characters are my favorites, this is actually an AMAZING time to get into comics because of just how diverse and broad the medium is really becoming. – Hannah
You can find this and so much more by listening to them on iTunes, Stitcher and www.allcomicsconsidered.com
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