For this week's podcast, we're digging out a treasure from the CBCC Patreon Feed: our deep-dive conversation with Daniel Warren Johnson about The Nam # 9. This thorough discussion launched our "Married to Singles" Patreon exclusive series, where we examine the favorite single issues of various comic book creators and critics. It's one thing to dissect an artist's work alongside or in front of them, as we often do, but it's an entirely different thing to scrutinize an artist's work with another artist. Daniel Warren Johnson is a can't-miss cartoonist. If he's on a book, you ..read more

When people dare to complain about modern Transformers stories, they often single out the human characters and how they drag the spotlight away from the glorious Cybertron titans they paid their money to see. Optimus Prime is enough. Bumblebee is enough. We don't need Spike or Sparky to stretch the narrative. Just give us the 'bots. And yet, Daniel Warren Johnson, the virtuosic cartoonist behind Extremity, Murder Falcon, and Do a Powerbomb!, could not imagine telling his Transformers story without Spike and Sparky. Why? The humans are at the forefront of this week's podcast as we reflect on Da ..read more

How many words belong on a page? How many panels? In this week's podcast, we uncover the answers by chatting with Pornsak Pichetshote and Jesse Lonergan about their new Boom Studios series, Man's Best. It's a radically personal work about three emotional support animals lost in space, and it forced its creators to rethink their collaborative impulses to achieve the best comic possible. And we're excited to report they pulled it off. Man's Best is, without doubt, one of the year's best comics. In our conversation, before we dig into the craft and math behind the comic, we challenge the themes P ..read more

We've dreaded this moment for more than a minute. The Death of Comics Bookcase is here. Journalist Zack Quaintance has assembled a mighty fine coffin in the form of a comic book and put his old self into it. Having written for his old site, we'll miss him, but we also recognize this death as a rebirth loaded with possibility, and we can't help but be excited, too. Having dipped his toes into comic-making with Next Door, Zack Quaintance now plunges all the way in with his latest project. The Death of Comics Bookcase is an anthology featuring various rad artistic talent: Nick Cagnetti, P.J. Hold ..read more

A story is never one story. A story is several stories. It's the story imagined by its author or authors, as is often the case in comics, and it's the story imagined by its many readers. They can be similar or significantly different, but none of them are the same. Never have we been more aware of this phenomenon than when we were talking to Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay about their new comic, Somna. The DSTLRY series gripped us immediately. One issue in, we found ourselves challenged, wrestling with how these witch trial stories typically propel themselves. Fear and hate are the enemy, but wha ..read more

Walk into your local comic book store and give it a good browse. These days, you won't find too many Western comics. When a publisher like Image Comics grants a person the opportunity to make one, they must seize it and run wild. Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips cram The Enfield Gang Massacre with everything they love about the genre. It's got bank robberies, shootouts, and Gatling guns, oh my. When Condon and Phillips last appeared on the podcast, we speculated that The Enfield Gang Massacre and its sibling series That Texas Blood were their Hellboy saga. Within this massive, time-spanning tal ..read more

Who are we? Who do we want to be? Sometimes, the truth is a lie well told. Tom King returns to the podcast for his most in-depth conversation, breaking down the themes of his iconic Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow run and why so much of his personal history wound up within it. Explore no further if you have not already read Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. We spoil everything. We've wanted to have this conversation with Tom King since we read the first issue, and it became utterly vital for our well-being after we read the last issue. We begin with the title and its significance at the start of the ..read more

This week's episode is the conversation we've wanted to have with Tyler Crook from the moment we first read The Lonesome Hunters. Despite already having two wonderful chats with Crook on the record, we couldn't let him rest there. After Dark Horse Comics released the second volume, The Wolf Child, we needed to go full-spoilers, and it appears Tyler Crook needed to do the same thing. We start at the end and work our way back to the beginning, picking through the comic's various themes and how they got there. All of that is to say that you've been warned. If you have not read The Lonesome Hunter ..read more

Some birthdays are bigger than others. To properly celebrate the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hitting their forties this year, IDW Publishing is determined to make a fuss regarding our favorite comic book siblings, including, but not limited to, inviting heavyweight scribe Jason Aaron onto their flagship title. The main monthly comic will relaunch with a new number one in July but remain faithful to IDW's continuity, all one hundred and fifty issues of it. This week on Comic Book Couples Counseling, Jason Aaron reveals the title of his run's first storyline, how it's layered with meaning, espe ..read more

What's in the box!? Scott Summers invites Emma Frost into his mind palace and shows her his special black cube, constructed with a little help from his ex. Gulp. This week, we reach the halfway point in our ScEmma Counseling Session series, discussing Dark X-Men: The Confession as well as Uncanny X-Men issues 518 and 519, which mark the height of their functionality. Yup, it's the top of their hill, and we're not ready to look on the other side. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Instead, let's revel in their achievements as they recognize each other's authentic selves while casting off the ..read more