The Midnight Comic Club Episode 8 – Frankenstein at Marvel & DC

Posted on by TJDietsch

As we come together for the eighth meeting of the Midnight Comic Club, we celebrate the November 32, 1931 release of James Whale’s Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff by looking at how Marvel and DC have integrated the character into their universes!

Starting with Marvel, check out Menace #7, X-Men #40 and the fantastic Monster Of Frankenstein trade paperback if you’d like to learn more.  Scroll on down for some images of those books as well as plenty of others mentioned in the episode. I also mentioned the Avengers: Legion Of The Unliving trade which you can check out here.

I should probably link to the episode, so here it is!

Here’s a few more of the Marvel books I mentioned: Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos, Howling Commandos Of S.H.I.E.L.D., Fear Itself: Deadpool/Fearsome Four and Punisher: Frankencastle.

Moving on to DC, these are some of the books I mentioned: Showcase Presents Superman Volume 2, The Demon By Jack Kirby, Showcase Presents The Phantom Stranger Volume 2, The Creature Commandos, Seven Soldiers Of Victory Volume 2 (though you should also check out Volume 1 as well), Frankenstein Agent Of S.H.A.D.E. Volume 1 and 2 and Elseworlds: Batman Volume 1.

The Midnight Comic Club Episode 4 – Alex Kropinak & Arkham Asylum

Posted on by TJDietsch

In this fourth meeting of The Midnight Comic Club, I talk with my buddy Alex Kropinak, one of the best toy animators in the business. He chose to read Batman: Arkham Asylum by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean. It’s an absolute, must-read classic for any comic AND horror fan.

Do yourself a favor and check out Alex’s fantastic animation work on YouTube and Vimeo and also give his blog a look. See the bottom of this very post for one of the Twisted ToyFare Theater strips he animated that I helped voice!

So, enjoy the episode and read on for a few more notes. In the following gallery you can see the covers to Arkham Asylum and The Cult, plus an image of the lettering by Gaspar Saladino and the big spread towards the beginning we both talk about.

The Arkham Asylum inspired story of is was called “Trial” from Season 2. Paul Dini and Bruce Timm came up with the story and Dini scripted.

Batman Gothic was drawn by Klaus Janson and originally appeared in Legends Of The Dark Knight #6-10.

I happened to talk with artists Brent Schoonover and Mark Laming at New York Comic Con after recording this episode and Laming told me that McKean’s artwork was actually mixed media and photographed!

We also talk about Batman: The Cult by Jim Starlin and Bernie Wrightson, which I haven’t read yet!

I’m helping! You can help by rating the show on iTunes and leaving comments or questions here!

Trade Pile Part 2: Shutter, Aquaman, Batman & Doom Patrol

Posted on by TJDietsch

Alright, so going through the top half of this pile was pretty fun on the previous post. I had a great time with Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy, Batman ’66 Meets The Man From U.N.C.L.E. AND the first volume of Mockingbird so there’s no reason to expect I didn’t also enjoy the bottom half (mostly because I tend to follow the old “if you don’t have anything nice to say” adage). Want to hear about Shutter, Aquaman, Batman: Dark Knight, Dark City and the first volume of Gerard Way’s Doom Patrol? Then you know what to do! Continue reading Trade Pile Part 2: Shutter, Aquaman, Batman & Doom Patrol

Trade Pile Part 1: Lumberjanes, Gotham Academy, Mockingbird, Batman & The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Posted on by TJDietsch

Well, I guess I’ve been at it again. Even though I spent a good deal of my last vacation burning through the first few books of Alan Moore’s amazing Swamp Thing run, I’ve also taken time out to plow through another pile of trades, most of which come from my local library.. I thought about separating them out into various themes and writing a bunch of different posts, but don’t want to forget too much and have decided to do a good, old fashioned quick-shot pair of pile posts! You know you want to hear what I thought about these books, so hit the jump! Continue reading Trade Pile Part 1: Lumberjanes, Gotham Academy, Mockingbird, Batman & The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Batman Rebirth Trade Post: Batman, Detective Comics & All-Star

Posted on by TJDietsch

As I mentioned when reviewing the first batch of DC Rebirth trades I went through, I’d lost touch with a lot of these characters since the New 52 hit and mostly rewrote the old continuity I loved. That’s not exactly the case with the Batbooks. I’ve read almost all of Scott Snyder’s volumes of the previous Batman series and a few other entries here and there like Batgirl and We Are Robin. Still, I thought it was interesting diving into these new takes on familiar titles and characters. Continue reading Batman Rebirth Trade Post: Batman, Detective Comics & All-Star

Trade Post: Frank, Midnighter, Constantine, Spirit & Batman/TMNT

Posted on by TJDietsch

trade-pileAnother week has gone by and I’ve knocked out another pile of comics, most of which came from my local library system. As you can see, we’ve got a mix of amazing indie artists, classic comic visionaries, crossovers and newer books. Hit the jump to see what I had to say on this batch! Continue reading Trade Post: Frank, Midnighter, Constantine, Spirit & Batman/TMNT

Trade Pile: Curse Of Dracula, Batman Contagion & Prelude To AoA

Posted on by TJDietsch

curse-of-draculaOver the past three or four years, I’ve really started digging into the horror side of comics, especially the ones published by Marvel. A few years ago we did a week-long run-up to Halloween showcasing certain scare books, then last year we did the same, but for the whole month of October.

One of the many jewels I’ve discovered in my time reading through these books mainly on the fantastic Marvel Unlimited service has been Tomb Of Dracula. That series is just fantastic and I hope to dig into the whole thing at some point. I’ve also come to realize just how amazing of an artist Gene Colan was. So, while searching his name on my local library service, I was excited to see his and Marv Wolfman’s The Curse Of Dracula which came out from Dark Horse in 1998.  Continue reading Trade Pile: Curse Of Dracula, Batman Contagion & Prelude To AoA