Between The Gutters Podcast

DC: The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke is one of the most deservedly acclaimed DC books of the past twenty years or so. It's a superhero comic that takes place in the transition period between the Golden Age and the Silver Age, and takes into account the sociopolitical zeitgeist of those decades. The New Frontier is also a work that we suspect contains a lot of Darwyn Cooke's heart and personality. This is a corporate-owned cape comic that manages to convey a singular and distinctive artistic vision. What are your thoughts on DC: The New Frontier? Feel free to hit us up on our socials, or email us! We also have a Linktree here: linktr.ee/betweenthegutters Before we get started with our proper DC Top 25 countdown, we're gonna discuss some honorable mentions that didn't make the final cut (as well as a few notable dishonorable mentions). If you've been following our feed for a while, you may have noticed several episodes in the past year falling under these categories.

Volume nine of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko features a couple of major first encounters between key characters, and at least one major revelation. Join us as we continue our monthly deep dive into this timeless mecha classic! If you have any thoughts, questions, or corrections, we're here. Feel free to hit us up on our socials, or email us! We also have a Linktree here: linktr.ee/betweenthegutters

WE3 by Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Jamie Grant, and the incomparable Todd Klein is a highlight of the past 20 years. This compact tale about three cybernetically modified pets who escape their government handlers as they search for home is one that resonates on multiple levels. It's a pulse-pounding action comic, an endearing animal story, a prescient commentary on modern warfare, and a treatise on the innovative ways to depict time, movement, and space on the comic book page. Join us as we bask in the glory of WE3! What are your thoughts on WE3? We'd love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to hit us up on our socials, or email us! We also have a Linktree here: linktr.ee/betweenthegutters Before we get started with our proper DC Top 25 countdown, we're gonna discuss some honorable mentions that didn't make the final cut (as well as a few dishonorable mentions). If you've been following our feed for a while, you may have noticed several episodes in the past year falling under these categories.

Image Comics was founded in 1992, thirty years ago. It seems like a good time to do a retrospective look back at the publisher's history. Both of us grew up in the Image era and we have quite a few memories of the comics of that time period, but while there are some nostalgic feelings, it's fair to that the very early years of Image Comics' output don't stand the test of time, and neither of us are high on the books of our respective youths. That said, Image's evolution over the decades has proven to be exceptionally fruitful, and they've published so many excellent, worthwhile books that are absolutely worth your time and money. In this episode, we talk a bit about our thoughts on the founding fathers of Image, and their works, and we also discuss our broader thoughts on Image as a publisher. We also each share individual lists of our favorite Image comics that we've read! What are your favorite Image titles? We'd love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to hit us up on our socials, or email us! We also have

We are now on volume 8 as we continue reading through Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko this year, one volume per month. This month's installment is contains two particularly special storyarcs. One of them is an intensely personal, tragic story about the effect that war has on regular people. The other is the kind of war comic that deals with big picture, chessboard of life stuff that will affect human society moving forward. There's a lot of rich, beautiful storytelling that is rife for thought-provoking discussion, and we invite you to join us. We provide summaries and personal commentaries of each chapter in the volume. If you've got any Gundam or mecha thoughts, feel free to hit us up! And don't forget to check out our previous episodes on The Origin to get all caught up! We also have a Linktree with just about all our relevant (and some irrelevant) links: https://linktr.ee/betweenthegutters

Because the She-Hulk Disney+ series is set to release soon, we thought it would be fun to do a little pregame reading and talking about the character and her comics. Between the two of us, we've read a variety of She-Hulk comics in our lifetimes, and several specifically for this podcast. The comics discussed in this episode include her very first appearance by Stan Lee and John Buscema, early issues of the John Byrne run, part of the Dan Slott run, the first part of the Charles Soule and Javier Pulido run, the entire Mariko Tamaki run, and Jason Aaron's World War She-Hulk storyarc from his Avengers run. As you can see, it's a veritable smorgasbord of She-Hulk comics. Most of these comics didn't feel like they warranted the depth of discussion and analysis that we often like to engage in on our podcast, but we also talk about the concept of the character, and what works and doesn't work. If you have any favorite She-Hulk comics, feel free to let us know in the comments, or shoot us a message! We also have a

We recently got around to watching Ms. Marvel on Disney+, so now it's time for the autopsy! In this episode, we discuss the things about the show that didn't work for us, as well as the elements that did. Spoilers begin around the 21 minute mark, but we'll warn you in the audio. Towards the end of the episode, we also chat a little bit about some of the recent MCU news that was announced at San Diego Comic-Con. Whether you enjoyed the Ms. Marvel show or not, we hope you join us for this episode and let us know what you thought of the series!

Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, Matt Wilson, and Jared K. Fletcher was recently adapted into a live action Amazon Prime series. However, we're here to talk about the comics! In this episode, we discuss the entire series. If you haven't read the comics yet, don't sweat it. We start with a spoiler-free general discussion about the book and its creators. Full spoilers begin around the 42-minute mark. (We'll clearly warn you in the audio.) Suffice it to say, this is a comic book series totally worth reading and owning - it's BKV and Cliff Chiang, after all! Neither of us, at the time of recording, have watched a single episode of the adaptation, so this is purely about the comics. Have you read the comic, or watched the show? Let us know what you think! https://linktr.ee/betweenthegutters

In this month's installment of our readthrough of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, we're covering more flashback material. This volume encompasses Operation British, the Battle of Loum, and the early portion of the One Year War. It's packed with action, spectacle, and emotionally resonant human drama. Most of all, it's also a masterpiece of political theater. Join us as we provide our usual chapter-by-chapter commentary, packed with varied and sundry references and historical tidbits! Also, please note that we'll be taking a bye week next week. Albert will be at San Diego Comic-Con. Find him at the Beefypoo booth!

Whattup, fam! It's time for another one of our patented movie autopsies as we dissect Thor: Love and Thunder, the latest MCU flick to be released! It seems like a lot of people online and elsewhere have been expressing feelings of superhero fatigue. As longtime comic book readers who have read way more than our fair share of cape comics (including tons of bad event comics), we've got way more stamina (and stronger stomachs) than the average bear, so we think our thoughts on the movie are generally untainted by any sense of Marvel weariness. (And we forced ourselves to watch Moon Knight for the podcast!) What are your thoughts on the movie? Slide into our DMs and let us know! We'll clearly warn you in the recording before we go into spoilers, but we do provide spoiler-free impressions as we begin the podcast. Spoilers begin at about the 34:00 mark.

It's a Bird... by Steven T. Seagle, Teddy Kristiansen, and Todd Klein is a DC book we've wanted to discuss on the podcast for quite some time now. Originally published by Vertigo during that imprint's 2000s heyday, It's a Bird... is a personal and powerful semi-autobiographical original graphic novel about the struggle of the act of writing, the pain of living with a family secret, and the difficulties of understanding the intricacies of a fictional character and whether that even matters. There's a lot of depth to this hidden gem of a book, and we hope our episode is enjoyable to those familiar with it, and motivates those who haven't read it to seek it out for themselves. A couple of notes: This isn't really the type of story that hinges on plot twists, so even though we may spoil a few things here and there, we don't spoil anything that would hinder your enjoyment or appreciation of this elegant work. Secondly, we will get to presenting our official DC Top 25 list eventually... We've just got some more ho

This week, we're taking a look at a couple of Ms. Marvel comics. First up is her origin story in Ms. Marvel volume 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona. The other story we look at is The Magnificent Ms. Marvel Volume 1: Destined by Saladin Ahmed and Minkyu Jung. By the time this episode goes live, the Ms. Marvel Disney+ series will be about halfway through its run, but we're still doing a pre-topsy! Before getting into our book reviews, we take some time to discuss the concept and character of Kamala Khan, and what she's all about. Whether you're new to the character or a fan from day one, join us for our conversation of Ms. Marvel! What are your favorite Kamala Khan stories?

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin Volume 6: To War continues the flashback/prequel material unique to this version of the First Gundam story. Yoshikazu Yasuhiko adds his thoughtful personal flourishes to the lore and legend of the Universal Century, and he spends an extensive amount of time in this volume covering key formative years of Char Aznable and the Zabi family. This political potboiler makes for a fascinating stew, and there's quite a bit of story here to digest, both in terms of plot and themes. Join our conversation as we provide our commentary on volume six! In 2022, our plan is to read through the entirety of Gundam: The Origin. Once a month, we will read and discuss one volume of this manga masterpiece, the same way we did a full readthrough of Invincible last year.

After a week off, we're back with another long episode! This time around, we're examining the category of shonen manga. It's one of (if not THE) best-selling forms of comics in the world, and obviously there's a lot of super popular anime based on shonen manga. Truth be told, though we read plenty of manga, neither of us tends to read much popular shonen, so we felt we needed to step out of our preferences and study something that millions of readers love. To wit, we decided to dabble by reading the first volumes of four big titles: Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata; Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama; Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba by Koyoharu Gotouge; and Chainsaw Man by Tatsuki Fujimoto. Have you read these series, or watched the anime adaptations? Let us know what you think! For reference, the first portion of our podcast is a general discussion about shonen manga, and specifically popular shonen battle manga. Timestamps for the book discussions are as follows: Death Note - 1:07:00 Attack on

The Moon Knight show on Disney+ recently finished its run, and we got around to watching it. Now we're gonna talk about it. We begin the episode with some general spoiler-free impressions. Spoilers begin at around the 21:15 mark. We've both read a good amount of Moon Knight comics, and if you're interested in hearing what we had to say about various Moon Knight comic book stories, check out episode 120, where we also discuss the elements of the character that appeal to us.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin volume 5 is a significant turning point in this epic saga. This volume, titled Char & Sayla, is Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's original material; these stories were not present in the First Gundam anime. There's a lot of political intrigue at play here as we witness the formation of the Principality of Zeon as well as the backstories of Char Aznable and Sayla Mass. It's a longer podcast episode than usual because this particular chapter deserves a close examination. In addition to some general thoughts on the volume as a whole, we also provide a chapter-by-chapter commentary. If you haven't been reading along with us, or if you've never read Gundam: The Origin, try your local library or a local bookseller or comic book store. Volume 5 also contains material that was adapted into the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin anime OVAs (also directed by Yas himself), so if you've watched those, a lot of what we discuss here will make sense. You can even watch the anime (in its recut, television broad

In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we're talking about one of our favorite Asian American comics creators, Adrian Tomine! Specifically, we're discussing three of his stories: Hawaiian Getaway, Amber Sweet, and Killing and Dying. These are stories that were originally published in his comic book series Optic Nerve, and can now be found in the book collections Summer Blonde (for Hawaiian Getaway) and Killing and Dying (the other two stories). These three stories were (loosely) adapted into the 2021 French film Paris, 13th District, directed by Jaques Audiard. Justin from WAHW (We Are Half the World) joins us as we dissect the three comics stories and the film they inspired. We also discuss generally what we appreciate about Adrian Tomine's work. To learn more about WAHW, please visit wahw.org and give them a follow on Instagram!

It's time for a Between the Gutters-style Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness autopsy! We tried to stay away from inane fanboy theories here, though, and we definitely don't whine about all the cameos we didn't see. We tried to keep the conversation about the film by looking at it on its own merits. (Maybe there was a tangent when we got on a soapbox to talk about how Disney and these corporations should reward the comic book creators upon whose work their movie empire is built.) The first part of the podcast is spoiler-free, and we'll warn you when get into spoiler territory. If you've had a chance to watch the movie, what'd you think? For that matter, what are your favorite Dr. Strange stories and comics? Spoilers begin at about the 50:30 mark.

Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics by Tom Scioli is a fitting biography of the King in comics form. Last week, we discussed the Stan Lee biography written by Abraham Riesman, and it's only fitting that we dedicate an episode to Jack Kirby, the man whose boundless imagination continues to captivate our minds. Tom Scioli's book provides an excellent overview of Kirby's life, and we definitely recommend reading it for yourself. In this episode, we discuss what we knew about Kirby when we were kids, what he means to us now, and how comics will break your heart.

True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee, a heavily researched and all-encompassing biography written by Abraham Riesman, is an elucidating examination of one of the most significant figures in modern pop culture. Originally released a little over a year ago, the recent release of the paperback edition precipitated our discussion of the book. It's a book we think that anyone who's remotely interested in learning about Stan Lee should read. For those who don't know too much about Stan Lee, there may be things in here you'll wish you would have remained ignorant of. Join us as we discuss this prose biography! (Please note that if we said anything inaccurate or misleading during the course of our conversation in this episode, that is the fault of our own subpar recollection of what we read combined with poor note taking, not the fault of the material in Riesman's book.)