Funnybook Babylon

FBB is back on a new server, hopefully everything’s migrated properly. Let us know if you experience any malfunctions.

The meat of this podcast revisits the work of G. Willow Wilson, particularly her Vertigo series Air. The “Try it For a Dollar” seventh issue drops tomorrow, with the bargain-priced first collection headed to stores next week.

We also rummage around in the Marvel/DC newsbin, and Chris formally endorses Maintaining Bohemia over at Zuda. That’s right, someone actually slogged through the Zuda interface!

Plus a Jeph Loeb Happy Hour drive-by on the subject of cannibalism!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:16 — 31.9MB)

I figured we might try doing these again. Here are some potentially interesting books hitting the shelves tomorrow!

Read the rest of this entry »

With Pedro and Jamaal doing adult things, we brought in a ringer. Jon Bernhardt came up from Baltimore to chat about the first issue of Air, G. Willow Wilson & M.K. Perker’s new Vertigo ongoing.

Then, a surprise visitor arrived just in time for our discussion of Captain America #41 by Ed Brubaker & Steve Epting. I bet if you whisper “Captain America” three times in your bathroom mirror, Pedro will show up at your house too, looking for beer.
Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:02:10 — 42.8MB)

Ever since I started grad school, I haven’t been able to go to many events in the city. But with school out this week, I had some spare time and noticed a posting on G. Willow Wilson’s blog about a talk she was giving and decided to check it out. I’m glad I did, because I had a blast. The panel was held in one of NYU’s swanky meeting rooms, and while they had free pizza and drinks, I had to go to dinner right afterwards, so I passed.

I took a seat on the left side of the room, which would apparently turn out to be the comics side of the audience, as the talk was sponsored by the Muslim Student Association, which was what brought in most of the attendees.
Read the rest of this entry »

Special Interference Note from Chris: David said pretty much anything I’d want to say about the books he’s spotlighted this week, so rather than going all Tag Team for y’all, we are going to play it like the originators, 95 South, and bring you a double a-side of metaphorical Miami Bass comics previewing!

TORONTO, WHERE THE BOOTY AT? WOOT, SUPERHEROES
Blue Beetle #18
John Rogers & Rafael Albuquerque
In this issue, Jaime Reyes teams up with the Teen Titans to fight Lobo. Apparently, this story is also going to cross over into next week’s Teen Titans #50 and explain Jaime’s presence there. Blue Beetle has been a relentlessly consistent book (barring a single fill-in) that’s kind of been a textbook example of how to introduce a new character into a shared universe that, unfortunately, nobody really seems to be paying attention to, and the occasional tie-ins this book has never feel like distractions from the plot. DC needs to give this series the promotion and care it deserves.

Outsiders: Five of a Kind - Aquaman/Metamorpho
G. Willow Wilson, Tony Bedard & Joshua Middleton
This is the funnybook debut of G. Willow Wilson, an expatriate American journalist from Cairo who got her foot in the door with a much-hyped Vertigo OGN called, well, Cairo. The fact that she broke into superhero comics with a crossover tie-in at the same time is very unorthodox given most new Vertigo finds, and God knows superhero comics need more female voices - especially good ones. I’m really, really curious to see how this reads, considering most writers seem to be getting carte blanche to do what they want within a thin Bedard-written framework to justify the adventure within the framework of the overall story.
Read the rest of this entry »