The Corner Box

In Part One of this two-part episode, David attempts the most brilliant thing ever done on a comic podcast or the dumbest… opening a stack of TWENTY Terminal #1 blind bags. His target is the elusive Rob Liefeld cover, but the bags have other plans—mostly involving enough copies of issue seven to supply the entire listening audience. Along the way, John remembers writing Optimus Prime dialogue for Peter Cullen and expla...

Two episodes in one day?! What's the special occasion? Well...

David's Miss Mina and the Midnight Guardians Book Three campaign launches today and HE'S NOT PANICKING! YOU'RE PANICKING!!! Ahem... Sorry. We have guests. I shouldn't scream...

Tyrant Fall creators Brennan Knight and Max Davenport return to the show and bring their own Kickstarter launch, a looming world war, and the grim realization that making the comic may be easier th...

In part two of this exclusive two-part Corner Box conversation, special guest Steven Grant joins David and John for a brutally honest trip through comics, from the Punisher’s emotional shutdown to the birth of his ninja creation, Whisper. Steven recalls how Mike Baron and Steve Rude’s Nexus helped Capital City reach the point where it could finally pay an artist for his book. The conversation jumps online as Grant remem...

Special guest Steven Grant joins David and John to explain how measles, Flash of Two Worlds, and one very strange dime-operated comics rack rewired his childhood. His road into the business runs through Underground Comix, Michael Moorcock, Bob Layton, Roger Stern, John Byrne, and a surprise Marvel Two-in-One assignment that he never asked for. Along the way, Grant remembers learning from Gil Kane, surviving Marvel’s fill-in t...

David unveils the new Top 10 Hottest Artists list, from Mark Spears and Brett Bean to Nick Dragotta, Ryan Ottley, and Hayden Sherman at the top. Daniel Warren Johnson’s upcoming Chain Kata causes a minor ashcan feeding frenzy, while Jamal Campbell makes the case that Zatanna can absolutely move books when the pages look that good. John then brings Image’s Royals to the table, praising Derek Kirk Kim and Jacob Perez for ...

David and John compare San Diego Comic-Con scars, including a panel-opening challenge that landed like a wet fart. John unveils his work on a 3D comic adaptation of Santo and the Treasure of Dracula, built to read like an actual comic instead of a pile of movie stills. David breaks news on the upcoming Kull miniseries with John Arcudi, Mark Buckingham, and Dave Stewart—then explains why he missed the announcement after an egr...

What separates a technically solid comic from one that grabs three Marvel editors by the throat at the same time? That question leads John through Jason Aaron’s early career, the difference between having technical chops and possessing a distinct creative voice, and why no stack of screenwriting books can manufacture the magic. David then puts Dynamite’s Thundarr the Barbarian revival to the test, complete with Jason Aa...

David opens the show at his breaking point after a recent issue of Captain America delivers artwork he believes never should have made it to print. John brings the former-editor perspective, breaking down how brutal deadlines, crossover schedules, shifting status quos, disappearing inventory stories, and the loss of veteran inkers can turn a promising monthly book into a full-blown disaster. From there, the guys compare Marvel&rsqu...

This week gets fun when R.C. Samo of FanboyNation.com joins David and John to talk Marvel’s Burbank move, Steve Wacker’s new editorial role, and what gets lost when the House of Ideas leaves Manhattan. They kick around the real human cost of a cross-country move, the danger of comics becoming movie leftovers, and why Daniel Warren Johnson’s Transformers worked because somebody let an artist swing for the fences. T...

The fellas get into how summer events stopped feeling like summer events and became a never-ending conveyor belt of crossover noise. John pulls from the Marvel trenches with House of M, Civil War, Secret Invasion, Tony Stark taking the heat, and Ralph Macchio’s very correct complaint that Spider-Man should not just walk into a press conference like some regular dope. Then Absolute Batman takes over the room, with Scott Snyder...

The guys sit down with David Pepose as The O.Z. heads toward its third and final Kickstarter chapter, turning the Wizard of Oz into a war-torn fantasy battlefield with Dorothy Gale’s granddaughter at the center of the wreckage. Pepose breaks down the long wait between issues, why keeping Ruben Rojas on the book mattered, and how trauma, reinvention, and redemption became the spine of his work from Spencer & Locke to Space...

Part 2 of the Bart Sears interview continues as Bart walks David and John through the high-pressure years where every career move looked massive and every deadline came with teeth. Bart talks Eclipso, DC exclusives, the frustration of not getting one of the big characters, and the Valiant jump that put him on X-O Manowar and Turok right as the 90s boom was cooking itself alive. Then things get even more beautifully ridiculous with ...

Bart Sears joins David and John to unpack the early grind behind one of comics’ most muscular, instantly recognizable art styles. Bart talks about learning from Neal Adams, Ross Andru, Frank Frazetta, John Buscema, and How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way before landing work through Larry Hama and eventually walking into Hasbro with full superhero energy. From designing the heroic proportions of C.O.P.S. figures, to Hasbro badly...

The guys get into Frank Miller’s 300, from its brutal Spartan swagger to the underappreciated magic Lynn Varley brought to every inch of the page. John is out today, but David is joined by special guest and fill-in co-host Chase Marotz to talk about Miller’s later art style, the historical homework behind Thermopylae, and why this book still feels like a giant opera made of sweat, shields, and testosterone. Before the m...

The guys get into the real mechanics of launching a comics Kickstarter without just throwing a link into the void and praying to the algorithm gods. David breaks down why the campaign is won before launch day, how email lists and “notify me” clicks create the first-day fire, and why stretch goals work best when they feel like party favors instead of cheap bait. John digs into the questions creators actually ask: do upda...

David & John talk about the brutal math of making comics after the pages are done and the hard truth of the hard work behind every Kickstarter project. The guys talk about Marvel's changing of the guard, Dan Buckley’s legacy, DC’s momentum under Marie Javins, and whether comics are being pulled closer to media-brand machinery than comic-book instinct. John then drags Clive Barker’s Razorline out of the longbox...

John and David welcome Eisner-nominated comics journalist and podcaster David Harper for an Eisner Awards heat check. Absolute Batman, Absolute Wonder Woman, Assorted Crisis Events, Ghost Pepper, Jerome, Land, and Hirayasumi all get thrown into the ring. David Hedgecock argues for Denis Camp, Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman, and books that actually make you feel something, even if that feeling is misery. David Harper brings the mang...

David & John get into Ken Landgraf, Ghoul Butcher, New York City Outlaws, and the strange thrill of “Outsider Comics” that feel half-feral but wonderfully alive. David maps out his outsider-comics reading list, including Revenger, C.R.O.W.Bar 9, The 7 Guys of Justice, and Amerikarate. John counters with Bobby Benson’s B-Bar-B Riders, a 1950s ranch comic reprint that somehow includes Bob Powell, Dick Ayers, a m...

Kirt Burdick returns to talk Death of Power, the upcoming finale of his gloriously unhinged bootleg-superhero epic, and the creator realities of trying to turn Kickstarter momentum into something resembling an actual career. Along the way, the conversation veers hard into outsider comics like New York City Outlaws, Hayden Sherman’s Batman work, Scott Snyder’s hit-or-miss post-Batman output, Frank Miller’s weird se...