Comic Books Are Burning In Hell (Tucker Stone)

Green Lantern, the guy who created the Double Dragon side-scroller, Tucker's mistaken "let's interrupt people" idea, Donny Cates Hulk comic, very old school podcast stuff, Akira, Jack Kirby's Silver Star, Koike's Heaven's Door, the Legends of DC Universe featuring Steve Rude, and the new Jack Reacher book. It's one of our biggest and messiest podcasts in a good long while: climb aboard and GRAB AHOLD!

On this episode, Joe McCulloch, Chris Mautner and Tucker Stone dedicate themselves to speaking to one another about the recently deceased Yoshihiro Tatsumi--why they like him, what others thought of him, and the nature of studying the history of another culture's art form when you don't know the language of that culture.

The books talked about on this episode are published for the most part by Drawn and Quarterly. They are:

• Black Blizzard
• The Push Man and Other Stories
• Abandon The Old In Tokyo
• Good-Bye
• Fallen Words
• A Drifting Life

The boys are back-actually, they were back a while ago, but then one of the boys got sick and sleepy, so it took a while to get this one up: it's about Crickets, from Sammy "Salami" Harkham! It also features our recurring segment on British comics, which finally is giving a name. It's comic book time, pal!

On this episode, Chris, Tucker and Joe talk about what might be the worst Garth Ennis comic ever made, one that is fine, and the history of Queen Emeraldas. Get in where you fit in, young demon!

On this episode, Chris Mautner and Joe McCulloch discuss contemporary manga that Joe picked up on his way to MoCCA, which he attended with Chris Mautner. Good times? Good times indeed.

Every year, a festival takes place in Brooklyn, and every year, Joe comes out to visit Tucker and go through his rituals. This time around, Joe and Tucker are joined by Tim Hodler to recap:

• CAB
• NINTENDO
• OPERA
• MANGA
• TRANSIT
• COMICS

Tom Spurgeon – The Narrator

Chris Mautner – The Recorder

Joe McCulloch – A Peeping Tom

–

AND FEATURING, IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE...

–

Various works by Wallace Wood (ex. “Cannon”, “Malice in Wonderland”, “Pipsqueak Papers”)

Various works by Frank Thorne (ex. “LANN”, “The Iron Devil”, “The Complete Ghita”)

“Birdland” by Gilbert Hernandez

Various works by Don Simpson ('Anton Drek') (ex. “Wendy Whitebread: Undercover Slut”, “Dracula's Daughter”, “Forbidden Frankenstein”)

“Ironwood” by Bill Willingham

“Id” by Robert Crumb

Various works by Tom Sutton ('Dementia') (ex. “Buffy”, “Crypt of Cum”, “Savage Sewer Sluts”)

“Box” by Brian Sendelbach

“Hump Crazy!” by Jeremy Eaton

“Cannibal Porn” by Rich Tommaso

“I Want to Be Your Dog” by Ho Che Anderson

“Cynthia Petal's Really Fantastic Alien Sex Frenzy!” by Dave Cooper

“Sheedeva” by Sandra Chang

Various works by Steve Carter & Antoinette Rydyr (ex. “Femosaur World”, “Spore Whores”, “Kill of the Spyderwoman”)

“Leatherboy” by Craig Maynard

“Coley Running Wild” by John Blackburn

“Ramba” by Rossano Rossi & Marco Delizia

Various works by Ron Wilber (ex. “Revelry in Hell”, “Domino Lady”, “The Ocelot”)

“The Young Witches” by Francisco Solano López, Ricardo Barreiro & Pablo Maiztegui ('Pol')

“Super Taboo” by Wolf Ogami

“Bondage Fairies” by Kondom

“Silky Whip” by Oh! Great

“Tart!” by Howie Dard

“Elizabeth Bathory” by Raulo Cáceres

“Talk Dirty” by Matthias Schultheiss

“Dirty Stories” anthologies, Eric Reynolds ed.

Various works by Tony Libido (ex. “Here Come the Lovejoys”, “Boffy the Vampire Layer”, “The Matrixxx”)

“Blowjob” anthologies, Michael Dowers ed.

“Crack Whore” by Dean Williams & Gunther von Wegen

“Submissive Suzanne” by Gunther von Wegen

“Diary of a Dominatrix” by Molly Kiely

“Small Favors” by Colleen Coover

“Eros Forum” anthologies, Ryder T. Windham ed.

“Housewives at Play” by Rebecca

“The Blonde” by Franco Saudelli

“Baby, You're Really Something!” by Frank Frazetta

“Liz & Beth” by Georges Lévis

“Real Smut!” by Dennis P. Eichhorn & various artists

“Butterscotch” by Milo Manara

Joe, Matt and Tucker get together to talk about filmmaker Zack Snyder, his Man of Steel, his Batman V Superman, and how that informs all of their lives and life experiences. It's time for a comic book movie podcast!

wait where's Chris

How many jokes about the Judge Dredd movie featuring Sylvester Stallone will we will allow Chris Mautner to make? How many assumptions regarding British comics will be made? How often will Tucker get hyperbolic about John Wagner? Will Matt do an accent? Guys, the answers to these questions are yes, 1, a lot, many times, and sure. You'll have to listen to find out the order?

You can take a look at a lot of the books we talk about on this show on our Bookshop page. If you purchase any of the books, the podcast will receive an affiliate fee, which will go towards paying the monthly hosting fee for the podcast, and, because it is Bookshop, will also go to support indie booksellers. On Twitter, you can keep up with the boys at @factualopinion, @snubpollard, @mattseneca and @cmautner.

On this week's episode, we take a look at DC Comics in the 80s, specifically, the Marv Wolfman & George Perez series Crisis On Infinite Earths. Everybody is here: The Psycho Pirate (Matt Seneca), The Anti-Monitor (Joe Mcculloch), Arion, Lord of Atlantis (Chris Mautner) and Tucker, who dresses up like Hawk every morning! It's comic book podcast time!

Three boys, one toy: JIRO JIRO JIRO. I don't care about some sushi movie, for me, there is only one Jiro: His name is Taniguchi. Come and dive into a lurid pool of love for a gentle soul who knew his way around a famous gunshot. Joe, Chris and Tucker talk about their affection for one of Japan's heartiest souls.

This week, the boys are taking a look at Ex.Mag #1, published by PEOW--an anthology of cyberpunk comics by a laundry list of creators, while Chris and Matt are breaking down their innermost on Perramus, the latest hardcover of Alberto Breccia comics put out by Fantagraphics.

Say hello to Joe McCulloch, everybody! Co-editor of TCJ.com, formerly of Comics Comics, Savage Critics, and the legendary Jog the Blog, Joe is the headliner of our main show Comic Books are Burning in Hell, and the best comics critic of the internet era. There's no other way to say it: no one since Gary Groth has contributed as much high level writing and thinking about the form as Joe. But even the greats are fallible! Case in point: this episode, in which he deigns to babble about Bryan Talbot and Batman at great length with us. That's right folks: it's time for a podcast about some all-time Serious Superhero Comics, the great Legends of the Dark Knight deep cut BATMAN: MASK. Wanna listen?

In this morsel of a pickle, Chris Mautner and Joe McCulloch sit down to gab about Blubber, the latest (greatest) release from Gilbert Hernandez and Fantagraphics Books, alongside Optic Nerve #14 by Adrian Tomine, a blistering piece of work. Two of the best single issues you'll see this year, being talked about by a couple of crackerjacks. Check 'em out!

Hey there pardners. Saddle up and join us at the saloon for a rootin, tootin’ … OK, enough of that. In this episode Joe McCulloch, Matt Seneca and Chris Mautner are talking about Western comics, with a lengthy discussion of Garrett Price’s White Boy. Yee-haw. Or some such exclamation.

The title says it all: these are the best comics of 2016, courtesy of Matt Seneca, Chris Mautner and Joe McCulloch. Tucker is here too, but he refused to do a best of thing. 

Well, not completely.

This week, the boys are going back to the shelf to take a look at The Hero's Life and Death Triumphant, but they're also checking in with the new Jack Kirby biography from Kirby expert extraordinaire Tom Scioli. It's a bunch of talking about these things! 

Katie Skelly, cartoonist and host of Comic Books Are Burning In Hell, welcomes special guest Joe McCulloch, Tucker Stone, Matt Seneca & Chris Mautner to talk about Go Nagai's Cutie Honey in all its perverse and gonzo glory. You can't call it a potboiler when the room gets as messy as this one!

The Hernandez Brothers make it to television, but they don't talk about Blubber enough for our taste, and Alan Moore throws some words on the page but doesn't include any Don Simpson pictures? Well, if everything is wrong in the world, then what is right? Garth Ennis. Garth Ennis is always right!

On this episode, Matt, Tucker, Joe & Chris talk about Wendy: Master of Art, by Walter Scott. And then, because there is always time for pie, they talk about Punisher #89 and how it represents the Platonic Punisher.

This week, Chris, Joe, Matt & Tucker are talking about Blutch's Mitchum and some favorite tales from Crepax!

It's time to return to the subject of old: Jimbo, from Gary Panter. We've been jawing on the subject of Gary Panter for as long as we've been jawing at each other on anything, podcast or no podcast. NYRC's reissue gave us yet another chance to return to the subject, as did Fanta's publication of the big orange Crashpad. But none of us expected this episode's shocking discovery!

You can take a look at a lot of the books we talk about on this show on our Bookshop page. If you purchase any of the books, the podcast will receive an affiliate fee, which will go towards paying the monthly hosting fee for the podcast, and, because it is Bookshop, will also go to support indie booksellers. On Twitter, you can keep up with the boys at @factualopinion, @snubpollard, @mattseneca and @cmautner. We also set up an instagram for the show if you want to bet money on future hot takes!

It's time to dive into some of the most politically prescient manga now available in English to the discerning reader: Masumura Jūshichi's Children of Mu-Town, published by Glacier Bay. What will the onslaught of takes result in: consensus, or all out war? There's only one way to find out, and if you haven't figured that part out yet, then I think we all know why you're still reading this description. Suit up!

This week, the full crew is here with a look back at Jack Kirby's 2001 comics, published by Marvel in the 1970s. Get ready to hear about the history of violence in human development, the most incisive and contemporary criticism of fandom and consumption you can find (written by Jack himself) and the nature of children: what's wrong with their faces?

Mike Mignola's Hellboy and related titles continue to be some of the more popular comics seeing release today. They have movies and everything. But are they any good? One podcast is ready to find out.

Chris Mautner, Joe McCulloch and a special guest sit down to talk about Bethesda's own SPX Festival. Matt and Tucker didn't go so they aren't here yakking about it. What books did they buy? What did they miss? What did the younger generation have to say?

This week, Matt, Joe, Chris & Tucker are talking about Seasonal Shift, the recently published collection of Lala Albert's comics from Breakdown Press. After that, it's time for a weekly Garth Ennis update: with a discussion of the recently concluded Punisher Soviet, featuring the art of Jacen Burrows.

This week, the boys are playing with fire by talking about Alan Moore: will this be the end of our fair podcast? Probably not, because he refuses to even acknowledge the existence of the comics in question: it's the all new In Pictopia (from FU Press!) and the never-gonna-be-new-again 1963 (from Image's cool kid days!). Don Simpson, Steve Bissette, Chester Brown & Dave Gibbons: get ready to be name checked, boys!

It's time for the four of these jokers to get busy with a timer and there personal top ten released of the year. Which Image book makes the cut?

There’s a new comics publisher in town (any town, just pick one), New York Review of Comics. In this episode, Joe McCulloch and Chris Mautner examine two of their latest offerings, Peplum by Blutch and a new edition of Pushwagner’s Soft City. Merriment is had Fun fact: I hate writing blurbs.

Welcome once again to Batman Books Are Burning In Hell, this week featuring special guest sta- hey wait a second, how'd he get in here? Chris Mautner? It's Chris Mautner, people! If you've literally never listened to an episode of our eleven year old comic book podcast before, Chris boasts a top-5 resume as a comics critic, with a portfolio of work for The Comics Journal, Blog@Newsarama, Robot 6, The Smart Set, and probably ten or twelve other publications I'm forgetting. He's also 1/4th of Comic Books Are Burning In Hell, and a big nerd who really took this show's bit between his teeth and made us talk about some completely random comic I'd never heard of. So here we go with more discourse than you ever imagined could exist about Murder in the Night, as presented in Detective Comics #481-482 by Jim Starlin and P. Craig Russell! Reach between your legs and hold on tight!

On this special background and feelings episode, we get Joe to open up even more than he already did in a 10,000 word interview, specifically about the conclusion of one of his major works of comics criticism, "This Week In Comics", then we discuss the merits and debits of comics advocacy as a general program, talk about our favorite types of writing, and say nice and mean things to one another in equal measure. If you stick around at the end, there's a nice little conversation about Batman and jeans.

This week, we're down a man and the sass is upped: Tucker, Joe & Chris are talking about the latest Michel Rabgliati book, Paul At Home, then they're talking Keum Suk Gendry-Kim's Grass, and a brief tour of M.S. Harkness' Desperate Pleasures is made as well. 

You can take a look at a lot of the books we talk about on this show on our Bookshop page. If you purchase any of the books, the podcast will receive an affiliate fee, which will go towards paying the monthly hosting fee for the podcast, and, because it is Bookshop, will also go to support indie booksellers. On Twitter, you can keep up with the boys at @factualopinion, @snubpollard, @mattseneca and @cmautner.

We start off with a random survey of each other's memories to determine who has that diesel, then it's time to go to church and mourn the passing of an O.G. killer, TAKAO SAITŌ. After that, we put Chris in the hot seat to figure out why he needed to read every single issue of 52 to decide whether or not he should keep the issues or take them outside to his nearest dumpster, which resulted in evern more memorializing. Where's Matt Seneca? He's busy! 

This week, Joe, Tucker & Chris are talking about Boston Corbett, the massive new comic that comes in a cube by Andy Douglas Day. It's a beast of a read, but well worth the box that Sonatina put it in...even if that box is as heavy as a child's bowling ball!

On this episode, Joe, Tucker, Matt and Chris debate the latest graphic novel from Daniel Clowes, Patience. Recently published by Fantagraphics, it's a pretty big deal.

The whole team sits down to talk about Sammy Harkham's Crickets--the fourth issue, specifically. That's Joe McCulloch, Chris Mautner, Tucker Stone and Matt Seneca on the same podcast. Drink in the noise!

This week, we're spotlighting the late Richard Corben, the great Richard Corben. We don't all walk in with the same take, but by the close, we reach the kind of war torn climax a Corben character often finds: a grudging, earned moment of quiet spent looking across a blasted landscape. Except here, the landscape is of the listeners mind. Dare you join us, brother? Shalt we see you, sister? Rise! Rise and FIGHT!

On this special episode of Comic Books Are Burning In Hell, we discuss fairy tales, Kazuo Umezz and critically acclaimed cartoo--BARF. BARFING SOUND. Carto--VOMIT AGAIN. UPCHUCK CENTRAL.

On this episode, you can hear the boys discuss the following NEW comics available for purchase now at your friendly comic book store.

• Multiversity
• Nameless
• Stray Bullets
• Rat God
• Casanova

On this episode of the podcast, Matt, Joe and Tucker sit down to talk about the following topics!

• Drive by shitting on Garth Ennis collaborators
• Unearthing by Alan Moore
• Hercules, starring the Rock
• Axel Pressbutton from Eclipse Comics and Steve Moore
• Puke Force, If N Oof, Ninja, Battlestack Galacticrap, Maggots by Brian Chippendale
• Tim O’Neil’s review of Puke Force
• The Incredible Hulk: What's the deal?
• Super Hero Movies and the collapse of culture
• Mark Millar, the last traditionalist

This week, the crew is looking at the career output of Al Columbia, a cartoonist we all love tenderly and wildly. You want to get there? Cross the Syndercut river, you cowards! The Biologic Show awaits!

• On this episode, Tucker, Sean, Matt and Joe take on the Seneca Challenge: Barry Windsor Smith, Roy Thomas and Conan! Subjects include:
• Conan: Red Nails
• Egon Schiele
• Miracleman: The Golden Age
• Mercury Rising, Kiefer Sutherland's career and Mark Hamill's choices

Welcome to Episode 2 of Batman Books are Burning in Hell, in which regular hosts Tucker Stone and Matt Seneca are joined by Benjamin Marra for a discussion of Batman: Venom! If Marra needs an introduction you're living wrong - the cartoonist behind Night Business, Terror Assaulter O.M.W.O.T., American Blood and What We Mean By Yesterday is one of the most accomplished artists currently making comics, full stop. Marra's works are vital entries in the category of American pulp, embracing his medium's history of disrepute while avoiding nostalgia with their purity of execution and commitment to extremity. Venom, published in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #16-20 (1991), is Denny O'Neil, Trevor Von Eeden, Russ Braun, and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez's epic saga of a Batman whose commitment to workout gains ends in tragedy, madness, and punching a great white shark in the face. LISTEN UP!

On this brief episode of Comic Books Are Burning In Hell, Joe McCulloch and Tucker Stone welcome a four year old girl named Piper on to talk about three new comic books--Captain America, Thor & Disney Princesses. Then they touch upon Comics Arts Brooklyn 2017, which Joe attended.

New Comics? You know who cares about new comics? Losers, that’s who. Which is why this week Matt, Joe and Chris pulled some old comics out of their longboxes to talk about — old, obscure comics you probably haven’t heard of before. ‘Cause you’re so uncool.

I wish i was dead all the time

This week, Joe, Chris, Tucker & Matt got together to talk about Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Diana, a recent documentary by Frank Henenlotter. Why a movie? Because Mike Diana is the only cartoonist to ever have been convicted of obscenity in the United States. Come for the movie, stay for the discussion of dealing with obscenity. Handwringing and posturing ensues, but luckily, it isn't by all four of them.

The gang is all here, and so is the NYRC release of Social Fiction, a collection of comics by Chantal Montellier, translated by Geoffrey Brock. Is there a bit of spot the reference going down? Sure there is: but if your eyes are closed, how are you gonna see who is coming at you?? Wake up sheeple!!! France is a real place!!!!

On this episode, Joe, Chris and Tucker get together to recap the last few months of comics they have read (which is less than you would think). Alan Moore, Garth Ennis and AVATAR are all brought to the table. YES MA'AM.

This week, we're talking about the work of Kuniko Tsurita, recently collected and brought to English by Ryan Holmberg, Mitsuhiro Asakawa and Drawn & Quarterly.

It's January 2018--what better time to look back on 2017? On this extra long episode of the only comic book podcast, you'll find Matt Seneca, Chris Mautner, Joe "Jog" McCulloch and Tucker Stone powering down the comics that kept them going. What's on their list? You'll have to listen to find out!

On this episode of Comic Books Are Burning In Hell, Joe McCulloch and Matt Seneca get together to talk about Tim Hensley's 2016 comic Sir Alfred, the final publication of Alvin Buenaventura's Pigeon Press. NOTE: difficulties with recording make this episode hard to hear at times, and for that we apologize. 

Get ready to dive straight towards your nearest 90s longbox! Matt and Tucker are taking the reins and talking Batman. In this installment of a Very Special Takeover Cast, the tale on offer is "Prey", from Paul Gulacy & Doug Moench. Over at The Factual Opinion, you'll find extensive show notes and images from the work in question from Matt Seneca. Keep your ears peeled, right down to the blood splattered bone, for more BatCasts To Come.

This week, all decorum is out the window: Joe isn't here to stop us, so we're talking about Disney's Mickey Mouse in a labor fantasia, we're talking about a comic where a talking penis takes the stage (he's pink, y'all!) and, in the episode's coda, we talk about the coda of Crickets. You wouldn't think we'd get this much done with only the three of us: and your lack of faith reflects your poor upbringing!

On this episode of Comic Books Are Burning In Hell, Tucker Stone, Joe McCulloch, Matt Seneca and Chris Mautner discuss the comics that they call "best" when they get into this last ten years.

It's time to get back to the classics of Comic Books Are Burning In Hell: a look at a new one from Olivier Schrauwen (that new one would be Sunday 3/4, from Colorama) and an old one from Martin Vaughn-James (that old one would be The Cage, from Coach House Books). But first: did you hear that one about the time the guy googled a religion the night before his paper was due? There's a comic book version of that. DC published it!

On this episode, Tucker, Chris & Joe tackle the latest Kazuo Umezz books to make it to American shores: My Name Is Shingo! And that's not the only comic that came across the US Border under the microscope...they're also all about Batman, and his adventures with Italian mainstay, Dylan Dog. Does this Caped Crusader appearance mean more Batman yakking? You guessed right, True Believer!

This week, you'll get hot, ripped-from-the-bedsheets coverage of the manga all the kids were reading a few years ago that has finally made its way through the various nerd channels and achieved "make Tucker and Chris read it" status. How will they react? Will Joe quit the show in a huff? At one point did Matt join the conversation? Who performs the new closing theme song? This episode is as full of twists and turns as a chapter of....CHAINSAW MAN!

Rumor control? Here are the facts! 1) Chris read every single issue of Rom, The Space Knight...but nobody asked him too! 2) Tucker read all of the Eternals...but Joe doesn't believe him! 3) This podcast is actually all about what Jack Kirby and Steve Dikto really wanted to do...and more! Get in where you fit in, and if you can't find that place, make that place! Make it your own! We're there, and our arms are outstretched. Podcast!

It's round-up time! Tucker's reading the Ladronn Cable, Chris is reading Umma's Table, Matt is reading Olivier Schrauwen's Sunday and Joe's reading Magician A by Natsuko Ishitsuyo. Is there a connective thread between this variety of works? Hell yes there is!

This time around, the boys are talking about Chester Brown, Matt Kindt, Fist of the North Star, Moebius, Gasoline Alley, Little Orphan Annie, Little Joe, Floyd Gottfredson, Garth Ennis, Dav Pilkey and their depressing predictions for our terrifying future. It's comic books, baby!

This week, Joe, Tucker, Matt & Chris talk about the decision by DC Comics to sever their relationship with Diamond, their primary distributor. In a surprising twist, this ends up being the entire topic of the episode!

This week, the boys are looking at the latest from some lifers: Katie Skelly's Maids and Julia Gfrorer's Vision. Do things get heated? Yes. But do they get heated because of those two comics? No! They get heated because Joe won't stop talking about the dingdang Three Jokers!

The wrecking crew (Joseph McCulloch, Matthew Seneca and Christopher Mautner) does battle with two titans of the past, both of whom have returned to the killing floor: Alan "Revenge of the Overfiend Moore" and Frank "Does A Body Good" Miller! Don't miss this battle royale!

In this episode, we're talking about Matt Wagner's Grendel--well, as much of it as we could fit in before we reached emotional capacity for...the devil! That turned out to be basically Grendel as it was published by Comico in the 1980s, which basically means "everything Grendel up until you get to Grendel Prime"). There is a little diversion into a Dark Horse comic written by Diana Schutz and drawn by Tim Sale, and as few cursory mentions of Grendel Red, White & Black as we can get away with, but neither of those take up so much time that we can't safely call this one "The Comico Years".

On this episode of Comic Books Are Burning In Hell, Matt, Joe, Chris and Tucker sit down and deliver the public service of easing the world into a land where there is no new weekly column by Joe McCulloch lining up the various comics and graphic novels that will be released this coming Wednesday. If you've spent the last 13 plus years reading Joe on Tuesday mornings and are now wondering where you are to turn, well, so are Chris, Tucker and Matt. So here it is: your weekly dose of Joe, in podcast form. We tried our best to stay out of his way!

Subjects Discussed in this Episode:

The Work of Yuichi Yokoyama--you can read Matt's interview with Yokoyama here,. His new book is called Iceland, and you can track it down from Retrofit if it isn't at your local store.

Poppies of Iraq, by Brigitte Findakly--you can find more information about this graphic memoir at the publisher's site.

Pope Hats #5, by Ethan Rilly--you can find more info over at the publisher's site.

What is a Glacier, by Sophie Yanow--you can grab a copy at Retrofit's site if this is hard to come by.

Beirut Won't Cry, by Mazen Kerbaj--this is an FU book, you can find out more information at the Fantagraphics site. This book is 264 pages!

Quazars Vs. The Jealous Machines--Shabazz Palaces stuff. Read about it at Fantagraphics.

Nightcat #1--This is a piece of shit that Marvel put out.

Break the Chain--Kyle Baker made this, it's great.

All Star Batman Volume 1: My Own Worst Enemy--if you can't find this on your own, you have problems that extend beyond being annoyed i'm not helping you track it down.

Bane Conquest #5--Chuck Dixon, Nolan--what else do you need? Nothing. You need nothing else.

Dastardly and Muttley #1--Ennis stuff. I haven't read it yet. I'm sure it's garbage, can't wait.

Jimmy's Bastards--More Ennis shit. Hot garbage, i've been digging it.

LaCroix Sparkling Water.

Usagi Yojimbo Saga Books. Dark Horse has them, but so does Lone Star.

4 Kids Walk Into A Bank #5--This is a Black Mask comic. Pretty sure i've never read a single issue of a Black Mask comic.

Amory Wars Comics, who knows. Rags Morales!

Death Note, all in one box. Huh. 

Marvel's Graphic Novel Program. Again: you can square this circle.

This week, Joe, Tucker, Matt & Chris are taking a look at the graphic novel Portrait of a Drunk, a 2020 release from Olivier Schrauwen, Jerome Mulot & Florent Ruppert, published in the US by Fantagraphics. 

We're back at the Batphones, and this time around, we're joined by Katie Skelly to talk about Batman: Mad Love! A loose collection of comics featuring the Animated Series versions of Gotham City's craziest and most violent citizens, this is a box we had to check. Here she is: the REAL Lady Joker!

COMMUNITY. That's our message this week. MATT SENECA visits TCAF and reports on the scene.  JOE MCCULLOCH buys a stack of 1997 Avatar Press comics and gazes across the tides of history. CHRIS MAUTNER reads a Junji Ito's Fragments of Horror and ponders the nature of art and authorship. COMMUNITY. I don't need to explain this metaphor. TOGETHER WE CANNOT BE BROKEN.  Please consult the comments for factual corrections. 

On this episode of Comic Books Are Burning In Hell, Tucker Stone, Matt Seneca, Joe McCulloch and Chris Mautner gather round to discuss the Ganges series by Kevin Huizenga, one of the most important comic book releases of the last decade. Check out The Factual Opinion for links to articles that we've written about Kevin's work!

Chris, Matt, Joe & Tucker get together to talk about some of the comics that hit them the hardest this year. Less a back and forth, more a roundtable ramble: no list is coming, you'll have to listen to find out more!

It's time to talk about Monsters, the newest brick of Barry Windsor-Smith comics since...geez buddy. I don't know. A long time! Consider this a prelude to our Rune-cast, part of a Malibu Monday series we have planned for the tenth of In Your Dreams. Time to get some teeth gnashing on!

It's time for another installment in: the boys read some Tsuge! This time around, they're drinking in Red Flowers, the latest development in Yoshiharu Tsuge archival studies, in this, a look at the second volume of his mature tales! IS THAT AN ANTLION TALE? It is, you frisky freak! But wait? A salamander as well? B'twixt my shanty!

Welcome back to Batman Books Are Burning In Hell, where this episode Tucker and Matt are joined by special guest star and master cartoonist Anya Davidson! Anya's work sometimes seems to encompass the whole history of American comics, harnessing the raw current of energy tapped by everyone from George Herriman to Jack Kirby to Fort Thunder - but it's also a world of its very own, its artist dancing in perfect counterpoint to a music only she can hear. Books like School Spirits, Band For Life, and Lovers in the Garden are as notable for their expert markmaking and perfectly composed sequences as they are for their rare level of commitment to building characters and the big heart beating underneath their skin. They're also vvery vveird stuff, so we are absolutely gassed to present a conversation about one of the all-time best Bizarre Batman Comics: The Jungle Cat-Queen (1954), by the legendary Dick Sprang, with writer Edmond Hamilton and inker Charles Paris, as presented in Detective Comics #211. This is the stuff that dreams are made of - LISTEN UP

On this very special episode, Matt Seneca, Tucker Stone & Chris Mautner talk about the latest issue of Sammy Harkham's tremendous Crickets series up until Matt turns back the pages for a look at the Mike Zeck classic of old, Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt!

Happy New Year, you dirty scumbags, you shiny bottleneckers, you comic book naildrivers: it's time to look back at the comics that came out in the last year where you might have been able to keep from getting your hands dirty. We've got ten comics to yank our entrails about, and the whole gang is in the building. It's list talking time!

When Joe was 14 he thought watching anime was the next evolutionary step from reading comics. Now he and Chris are living in the future, as they discuss a bunch of Japanese cartoons they watched, all of them based on comics by the thoroughly franchised enfant terrible Go Nagai! I’m told the word “Devilman” will improve our metrics!

On this episode, Joe, Matt and Tucker talk about the following comics and comic related things:

• Who in comics is a 9/11 truther?
• How many different times in American history has the Savage Dragon comic been masturbation fodder?
• What's going on with Crossed Plus One Hundred, written by Alan Moore?
• Was there a manga called 20th Century Boys?
• Is there a manga called Master Keaton?
• How good was Grandville: Noel?

In this special, weirdly long episode, we talk about a bunch of Marvel characters in an Abrams book--all of them, somehow connected to Alex Ross. It's Fantastic Four: Full Circle time! Get in where you fit in, and brother, you fit in just fine!

On this episode, Joe, Matt, Chris & Tucker talk at great length about Yoshiharu Tsuge's comics in English--both of which just arrived, courtesy of Drawn & Quarterly and the NYRC. The Swamp and The Man With No Talent are up for discussion, and yes, these are books they have a lot of affection for.

While most of the comics we talk about on this one are new, this is as classic an episode of Comic Books Are Burning In Hell as it gets: there's Garth Ennis comics, a recap of Peter Milligan's decisions, Joe checking in on some up-to-the-minute new manga from Tatsuki Fujimoto, huge technical problems, Tucker losing his temper with Chris, Matt talking about the Punisher, and then they still find time to talk about the 80s DC supercreeps of Hawkworld. Get it on!

On this episode of Comic Books Are Burning In Hell, Chris, Joe and Tucker are joined by Tim Hodler, editor of the Comics Journal, to discuss Comics Arts Brooklyn, which they all attended in some capacity.

Matt Seneca and Joe McCulloch couldn't find any comics, so they went to the movies! What movie, you ask? Why THE NEON DEMON of course!

If you're keeping track of these, this is number eight. When did we record it? None of your business, turkey hunters! This time around, on Batman Books Are Burning In Hell, Matt Seneca & Tucker Stone are talking about Batman: Strange Apparitions by Steve Englehart & Marshall Rogers.

On this extra long episode, the boys go old school and talk exclusively about a book that none of them liked: The Sculptor.

On this echo heavy episode--we're really sorry about that--the boys talk about Julio's Day, Charlie Hebdo's final issue and Thomas the Tank Engine.

It’s a podcast crossover as Trash Twins co-host Katie Skelly shows up to talk about Moyoco Anno’s Insufficient Direction. Then Joe and Chris talk about Dominique Goblet’s Pretending Is Lying. It’s a short episode but we actually got decent audio recording equipment for once. Don’t expect that to ever happen again. 

Joe McCulloch, Chris Mautner, Matt Seneca and Tucker Stone get together to take a look at Vertigo Visions: Phantom Stranger, Rachel Pollack and Chris Weston's Time Breakers and the legal problem-causing Spectre comics by Jim Aparo and Michael Fleisher.

Chris and Joe went to second annual CXC festival in Columbus, Ohio, and decided to record a podcast about their trip on the car ride home. That’s a great idea, right? In between they talk about Winsor McCay, Charles Burns, Garry Trudeau and just how cool that Billy Ireland museum is (it’s pretty cool).

It's that time again: back issue time, when the boys go digging into the boxes of old. This time, it's to take a look at a comic that Matt Seneca has been making a case for as of late: the last ten issues of DC's Tomahawk, drawn by Frank Thorne. We're all in on this one, even when things get contentious, and even more so when things get really saucy...hey, we're talking about Frank Thorne, of course that kind of stuff is going to happen! Who knew Chris would choose this episode to explain his personal fetishes!

Welcome once again to Batman Books are Burning in Hell, where this time Tucker and Matt are joined by none other than Cliff Chiang, master cartoonist behind the best superhero comic to hit the stands since some of those old ones we usually talk about -- CATWOMAN: LONELY CITY. Whip-smart, addictively paced, and visually stunning, LONELY CITY is a hardboiled "one last score" crime novel that dons Batman-universe drag and absolutely werks it while tossing off no-shit social commentary that's as cutting as it is intelligent. It's a throwback to the type of dense, creator-driven, legitimately mature Batman sagas of the late '80s and early '90s that we created this show to discuss.. That Cliff is one of comics' most thoughtful interview subjects is the cherry on top. We're very proud to present this interview, so stop reading these words and start listening to it now! 

Tucker, Matt, Joe & Chris got together to check in about the top of their Just Read stack, including a new comic from Kevin Huizenga, Mickey Zacchilli's Space Academy 123, and the unjustly (justly?) ignored Batman: Master of the Future. And at the end, Joe provides a deep analysis that may or may not be necessary of a recent Todd McFarlane article posted at Vice.

Matt's away, but the rest of your crew is here to talk about David Kunzle's Eisner nominated Cham, Rick Veitch's self-published Maximortal franchise, and what it looks like when Garth Ennis phones it in with Jimmy's Bastards!

It's time to take a page from the baby book: a 1980s DC Comic that is! It's Frank Miller's Ronin, and yes, everybody is wearing tight shoes and really awake this time, with interruptions and "I don't agree with you sir" ringing out like a turn of the century switchboard. We also cover Chris Claremont's X-men as much as we probably ever will. Bring it on home, Frank!

This week, the boys are taking a look at CF's latest works with Anthology Editions...but talking new CF means talking old CF, and talking old CF means talking legacy, impact, the whole deal. Then things take a turn...for the randy!

On this special, no-Joe episode, Tucker, Matt and Chris sit down and hammer out the books that caught ahold of them in the middle of a tumultuous year. The books discussed in this episode are all deserving of some attention:

The Story of My Tits, by Jennifer Hayden

Band For Life, by Anya Davidson

The Terror Assaulter: One Man War On Terror, by Benjamin Marra

Demon, by Jason Shiga

Blubber, by Gilbert Hernandez

Pope Hats, by 

Crickets, by Sammy Harkham

Optic Nerve, by Adrian Tomine

Sky In Stereo, by Mardou

Men's Feelings, by Ted May

Copra, by Michel Fiffe

Providence, by Alan Moore & Jacen Burrows

Eat Eat Eat,  by Tom Van Deusen

Invisible Ink, by Bill Griffith

Fante Bukowski, by Noah Van Sciver

Generous Bosom, by Conor Stechschulte

Inner City Romance, by Guy Colwell

SuperMutant Magic Academy, by Jill Tamaki

Volcan, by Various Artists

If you'd like to know what sort of order they ended up in--well, you'll have to listen to find out!

This week, the spotlight falls upon Adrian Tomine. How will this widely acclaimed new memoir land for the boys of the Burning in Hell crew? There's only one way to find out, trusted listener: by asking someone else who listened to the episode to tell you. Proceed with caution!