The High Five Podcast Episode 41 – Brian Michael Bendis At DC Part 1 !

Posted on by TJDietsch
On today’s episode of The High Five podcast, I’m taking a look at some of Brian Michael Bendis’ DC work, none of which I had read until this week!
Throughout the episode, I mentioned a few stories I read online:

George Marston’s Newsarama story about Bendis’ Jinxworld imprint moving to Dark Horse is what spurred me on to read these books in the first place. It’s also where I learned that he was no longer DC-exclusive starting earlier in 2021.

Going back a bit, Bendis leaving Marvel for DC was such a big deal that George Gene Gustines wrote about it for the New York Times in 2017.

Also, big thanks to Carole over at Comic Book Treasury for creating the Bendis Superman/Action Comics Reading Order page that I used to start this journey.

Here’s the very informative interview with the writer himself conducted by Joe Grunenwald for The Beat.

Before wrapping up, I also mentioned the debates between Bendis and Kirkman about creator-owned comics, which you can read a recap of on CBR from 2008!

As always, you can email me at high5tj at gmail.com or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. Also feel free to subscribe to my YouTube Channel!

The High Five Podcast Episode 35 – A Neil Gaiman Sampler

Posted on by TJDietsch

Get into the Halloween spirit with this sampler of Neil Gaiman goodies that I think will give you a nice launchpad into his fantastic work! The best part? It’ll only take a few hours!

Link time! You can find the Neil’s Works section of his website here and read the Colleen Doran interview I did here.

I also tackled five more films in It’s All Connected 2021 to keep that moving along. I finished my Jill Schoelen mini-marathon, indulged a bit on my favorite slasher franchise, watched another John Carpenter film and then got to one wacky killer animal flick!

For a bit more context, check out my old reviews for Halloween 4, Halloween Resurrection and The Fog (which I wrote about in 2011 and 2014)! I’ve also written about the whole Halloween franchise together. I also updated the It’s All Connected 20201 poster:

As always, you can email me at high5tj at gmail.com or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. Also feel free to subscribe to my YouTube Channel!

The High Five Video – Spooky Brave & The Bold Team-Ups

Posted on by TJDietsch

I tried something different this week and put together a video based on The High Five Episode 32 – Spooky Brave And The Bold Team-Ups! It was a lot of fun…and a lot of work, but it looks nice! I have a few ideas for other episodes to do this with to expand on more visual topics.

If you dig it, please leave a comment and subscribe to The High Five YouTube channel!

The High Five Podcast Episode 32 – Spooky Brave & The Bold Team-Ups

Posted on by TJDietsch

On this week’s episode, I went through years’ worth of Bronze Age Brave And The Bold Batman team-ups to come up with a list of fun, Halloween-themed issues. If you’re looking to follow along, you can check them all out on the DC Universe app or the first two volumes of Batman In The Brave And The Bold The Bronze Age.

As always, you can email me at high5tj at gmail.com or follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

Halloween Scene Trade Post: A Mike Mignola Trio

Posted on by TJDietsch

I’ve spilled a lot of digital ink this season talking about how much I love Kelley Jones’ work, especially on Batman (in posts here and here), but there’s another artist whose work is synonymous with horror in my mind: Mike Mignola. The genius behind Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. has done all sorts of work in the comics world and this post will give some love to a few of his other works that are lots of spooky fun! Here are some interesting comics you might want to check out if you don’t want to dive too deeply into those sprawling epics.

Enter, if you dare…

Halloween Scene: Batman By Doug Moench & Kelley Jones Part 2

Posted on by TJDietsch

I’ve been having a great time watching connected films and a variety of horror books this season, but it’s very possible that re-visiting the Batman run by Doug Moench and Kelley Jones has been one of my favorite experiences so far. As I mentioned in the first part, these post-KnightFall books were bedrock-forming for my knowledge of not just the Dark Knight, but also the imagery of horror as put through Jones’ incredibly capable lens. As good as the Batman developments are in these issues as he regains his life after the Bane and Azrael incidents, it’s equally exciting to see these two creators work their magic on a variety of villains and co-stars.

Enter, if you dare…

Halloween Scene: Batman By Doug Moench & Kelley Jones Part 1

Posted on by TJDietsch

Every Halloween (or Scare Season, if you will), I find myself taking on some kind of film-based project, but also trying  to read through as many horror-themed books and comics as I can. Last year, I focused solely on Vertigo titles, but this year  I’m mostly pulling books off my shelf or out of my To Read box. Of course, I’m always looking around to see if there are any books I just NEED to add to my library, though. While scoping out Amazon, I came across two volumes of Batman By Doug Moench and Kelley Jones. I was immediately interested and began comparing prices when I realized, “Hey, I have these issues in the garage!” As you can see from the above pic, that proved to be true and I saved myself some scratch and also had a far more immediate dive into some very important comics from my childhood!

Continue reading Halloween Scene: Batman By Doug Moench & Kelley Jones Part 1

Trade Post: Nightwing, Kill Or Be Killed & Mother Panic

Posted on by TJDietsch

Even though this week’s Trade Pile isn’t quite as robust as others, I still wanted to get a few thoughts down on three books that I read this week that I thought were pretty darn spiffy. One set an established character out on his own in a way that really worked for me while the other two featured brand new characters, one set in an equally new world an one rooted in a far more familiar one!

Continue reading Trade Post: Nightwing, Kill Or Be Killed & Mother Panic

The Midnight Comic Club Episode 11 – Gateway Horror Comics

Posted on by TJDietsch

I call together this first meeting of The Midnight Comic Club in 2018 to order! This time around, I assembled a Frightful Five of gateway horror comics that are good for kids of various ages. As always, I recommend you read the books first before passing them to the young reader in your life, but I think there’s some solid options in here!

Here are the Amazon links for the first four which have both digital and analog versions to chose from: Scooby-Doo Team-Up Volume 1, The Creeps Volume One: Night Of The Frankenfrogs, Ghosts and Ghostopolis. And then here’s a link to the MyComicShop.com page for Leave It To Chance!

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.