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The 61st episode of THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST is now available for your listening pleasure! THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST is the official podcast of FIRESTORM FAN and THE AQUAMAN SHRINE.
This episode is dedicated to you… yes, you the listener! Rob and Shag compiled all feedback from the past seven episodes and spend a couple hours discussing! The listeners of this show (affectionately called “Nuclear Subs”) compose the single greatest podcast listening community on the planet! Sit back, relax, and enjoy your episode!
You can find the 61st episode of THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST on iTunes. While you’re there, please drop us a review on the iTunes page. Every comment helps! Alternatively, you may download the podcast by right-clicking here, choosing “Save Target/Link As”, and selecting a location on your computer to save the file (58 MB).
As always, thanks to my co-host Rob Kelly, Sea King of THE AQUAMAN SHRINE, for doing all the post-production on these episodes! Opening theme, “That Time is Now,” by Michael Kohler. Special thanks to Daniel Adams and Ashton Burge with their band The Bad Mamma Jammas for our fantastic original closing theme! This episode brought to you in part by InStockTrades.com!
Have a question or comment? Send us an e-mail at firewaterpodcast@comcast.net. Visit our Tumblr site at fireandwaterpodcast.tumblr.com.
Support Firestorm and Aquaman! Fan the Flame and Ride the Wave!
Can’t believe my gentle ribbing registered when Frank’s constantly unloading abuse but… ANYWAY:
When will the Fire and Water music album come out? Martin Stein’s song was another winner!
Yes! I’d love to see a Monthly Power Records Podcast become a staple of the Fire & Water Family of Podcasts, that’d be great! I’d also be all over a DC Classics Podcast that focused on Shagg’s favorite DC era of 1982-1988, as that covers my favorite era of DC Comics as well It could jump around and focus on some of the great DC Comic series from DC during those years, like All-Star Squadron, Blue Devil, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, and of course Crisis! Obviously that would add more time & effort in your guys’ already busy schedules, but we can dream can’t we?
As for the Feedback issue, that’s really a tough one. I like both formats, I say as long as Listener Feedback is continued and addressed in some way, whether its once a month, or every episode, I say it defaults to whatever works best for you guys and your show format and time schedules! I would however say that you keep the Who’s Who feedback the same format, I think that works very well addressing the feedback regarding the previous episode at the end of every new episode.
Ouch comparing Gene Ha to Pink Floyd is rough haha! I think Floyd’s followers tend to be of the stoner persuasion, I don’t think you have to be high to enjoy Gene’s art, at least I don’t have to be. As far as how I know he gets last minute gigs, that’s based on how almost every single book he’s done art on for DC since New 52 has been on books where a different art team is solicited and he is announced as the artist very late in the game. For example, Justice League #20 was originally solicited as being done by Ivan Reis and Joe Prado. DC announced the change in art team very late in the game, after orders were already placed by shop owners. Whether this late announcement was intentional by DC to get comic shops to still order the issue in high qualities due to the hot art team of Reis & Prado, or if the change really came at that very last minute, is up for interpretation, but it is clear it was a late change, how last minute though, remains unclear.
With regards to Jeremiah Parker, don’t be discouraged, you can get old Aquaman issues fairly cheap off of eBay. I recently picked up a bunch of Aquaman Silver Age issues at around $4-6 an issue (including Shipping). These include some of the more sought after issues from that era, including Aquaman #18 (marriage of Arthur & Mera), Aquaman #29 (1st Appearance of Ocean Master), Aquaman #35 (1st Appearance of Black Manta), and Aquaman #42 which has that awesome Nick Cardy Black Manta cover. So don’t give up, you can get these old Aquaman issues if you keep a steady eye out for them on eBay or at Comic Cons.
I second Siskoid’s suggestion, we need a Fire & Water Soundtrack featuring all of the great original songs played during the podcasts. Let’s Kickstart this bad boy!
Thanks again guys for taking a few hours to make my mundane Monday at work more bearable. Fan the flame and ride the wave.
A few thoughts on the feedback episode…
1. I think sticking to a periodic feedback episode is for the best. You guys have a good flow (not sure about a hustle and flow, but a good flow) in the standard episodes and having to sacrifice that for the feedback might be to the show’s disadvantage. Also it would help with a weekly schedule. I am not sure that is what you guys are looking for but between the Who’s Who, the two books, a Geek Talk type episode and a Feedback episode I would get the Rob and Shag fix that I am now so desperately in need of.
Seriously, you guys are worse than heroin laced meth with a dash of crack. Well, you and the podcast Hey Kids, Comics hosted by Andrew and Micheal Leyland.
2. If you wanted to replace the Geek Talk episode with a Power Records podcast I say thee hell to the yes. Those two episodes were a lot of fun. Thanks mainly to Rob I have downloaded most of the Batman and Superman ones but things like Conan or the Six Million Dollar Man are still uncharted territory. Commentary would be awesome from the both of you as well.
3. I was not upset by being left off the guest host list. I chalk it up to Shag, because he and I were on that episode. His drinking and partying is getting to late nineties Robert Downey, Jr. level. Rob had nothing to do with it.
4. How is the view under the bus, Shag?
5. And to Siskoid I say this, Frank’s abuse is so constant that after awhile it just seems normal. That’s why all other criticism stands out.
6. This just occurred to me as I re-read my comments after they were posted. When I am typing this I am picturing how Shag and Rob would read them on the air. It’s very odd. It keeps happening. It just won’t quit.
Seriously, you guys are worse than heroin laced meth with a dash of crack.
I am the one who podcasts!
And Siskoid, Mike is right–we’ve come to expect this abuse from Frank, so when it comes from a someone who hails from The Land of Polite, it really stings.
Ouch comparing Gene Ha to Pink Floyd is rough haha! I think Floyd’s followers tend to be of the stoner persuasion, I don’t think you have to be high to enjoy Gene’s art, at least I don’t have to be.
I didn’t mean it like that, it was more that Pink Floyd is one of things that lots of people like that I never have, but that doesn’t make me think PF is bad. Ditto the work of Gene Day–I don’t think it’s bad work, it just doesn’t appeal to me at all.
1. Adj. 1. zoonotic – of or relating to or constituting zoonosis
n. pl. zo·on·o·ses (-sz) A disease of animals, such as rabies or psittacosis, that can be transmitted to humans.
So who’s been getting jiggy with Topo?
2. I didn’t have regular access to a comic shop until 1987, but didn’t really get to take advantage of one until 1989, and my heavy DC reading didn’t begin until 1993. As a result, a lot of hallowed ground from the ‘80s didn’t get covered until the ‘90s, and my perspective was sewed. The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One & Daredevil: Born Again reached me the earliest and got through (though Born Again reads much better when you incorporate the build-up my Denny O’Neil.) I was blown away by Marshal Law, which dampened most of the potential impact of Watchmen, though I’ve always found Alan Moore’s clinical scripts problematic. Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters was another one that was revered in its time, but I didn’t get to it until much of the ongoing series was already behind Mike Grell, by which point it was a pretty but shallow book. I think Hawkworld holds up much better, but lost the race to call “first.” While Arrow ought to have an impact on Longbow Hunters sales, it doesn’t seem to have, and where Hawkworld should continue to be recognized, continuity has left it forgotten by modern audiences. Also, I had more fun with the Mike Barr/Trevor Von Eeden mini-series when I read it in the late ‘90s. I think Hawkworld would make the better Power Record, though an insultingly racist Shado performance might make all the difference. “Ahh, Ollie-san, snatch the arrowhead from my palm.”
3. Good to hear Chad take back his age and make it sound more like the boon that it is. Little bastard.
4. I’m still thinking Luke and I should take over hosting duties for an episode to see which of us makes it out alive without being devoured/stomped. Whoever wins, the podcast loses. Also, my commentary on his three episode stint at Just One of the Guys has grown so long that I plan to just post it as its own (very indulgent) article at DC Bloodlines. If I wait for Luke to approve the comments on his blog, his boys could read them on their iPads in their sophomore year.
5. Good on Tim Wallace continuing to prostitute himself until I finally remembered to add him to my blog roll.
6. I might gripe less about the Power Records episodes if you featured one of the four Wonder Woman stories sometime. Does Rob work for Warner Brothers or something?
7. The best part about the Hawkman Baby Ruth commercial was that they name checked Lionmane. Holy crow! Hey, comics were going to put people’s kids through college back then, and Baby Ruth did a nice trade in wrappers-for-exclusive comics giveaways. I’m sure they started with Wolverine as the choicest commercial star and worked their way way down until somebody lowly enough pecked.
8. Super-heroes lend themselves to discussions of violence, and mature writers have addressed the matter, most prominently in the ‘80s. Some of those books became classics of the medium, and their superficial elements (swearing, gore, nudity) have been exploited by lesser lights ever since. By virtue of lack of virtue, these books are not “mature,” so I’d suggest we begin using more accurate terms, like “For Salacious Readers.” Unfortunately, that would dilute the false esteem nincompoops derive from reading a book labeled as “mature” when what they’ve really bought is more akin to the magazines in the black bags kept behind the check-out counter. Personally, I like the MPAA’s “Restricted” rating, since it lands in the linguistic vicinity of “arrested,” developmentally speaking. I’m working my way through the lengthy endnotes on Chester Brown’s “Paying For It,” then moving on to Alison Bechdel’s “Are You My Mother?” Those are for “mature readers.” I will defend Blackest Night as a zombie movie played out in the DC Universe, which damned well ought to be violent. I will not defend its riding on the coattails of Walking Dead and Marvel Zombies, though.
9. I could swear that Neil Gaiman stole that line about comics from something Henry Rollins said about music, but I can’t back that up after at least an hour of searching online.
10. I wonder how Villains Month is shaking out for subscribers? This month I got the three Justice League titles, Vibe and Pandora. For Villains Month, just the Mongul and Secret Society of Super-Villains one-offs.
11. I still need to do a full write-up of “Last Sons,” the only Graphic Audio radio play I own.
12. At Space City Con yesterday, a couple of artists asked me why I get such obscure commissions, and assumed that the Martian Manhunter was my favorite character. I explained that no, I have many other characters I favor over the Alien Atlas, and they’re all being taken care of by their legions of fans. With J’Onn J’Onzz, there’s a real sense of “if not me, then who else?” That’s why I do it, and such would seem to be the case with Rob and Power Records, inexplicable as that seems given how ubiquitous they were in our youth.
13. I don’t care about Green Arrow, but now I want to write a series, just because of all the potential villains that keep turning up in Who’s Who.
14. “Comics sell comics” is pretty accurate for comic shops. I had accessible neighborhood stores, so a movie would usually bring a couple or three interested new readers, but keeping those customers was always a challenge. Book stores offer a much smoother transition for new readers, since they can browse through a wealth of trade paperbacks until they find something that grabs them. Floppies are much harder to jump aboard, and few shops are very hospitable or stocked well enough to allow for casual reading of trades before purchase. Houston has a bunch of shops, but none are in locations that encourage walk-ins. You’re not going to jump off an exit along I-59 or roll miles past the Galleria without specifically aiming for a comic shop. As goes the bookstores, so goes comics, which is why digital distribution is essential to reach casual readers.
15. Archie digests offer numerous short, complete stories as impulse buys racked next to magazines targeting a similar demographic. Disney used to put out one that worked for kids. The modern comic model just doesn’t have the same attraction to casual readers.
16. Legion has been in almost continuous publication for decades, so no, Firestorm/Hawkman/Aquaman have had it worse.
17. None of my letters ever got published, not even to Wolverine or Wizard. Clearly, I’m working through some issues in these comments.
18. Batman Returns is the better film. All Batman has is Nicholson mugging. Returns has Michelle Pfeiffer in skintight vinyl, DeVito, Walken, a script by Dan Waters, wilder production design and even “Kiss Them For Me” by Siouxie and the Banshees to close it out. I only own one of the first cycle of Bat-films, and that’s it.
19. I wanted to see Ivan Reis draw Despero and the Martian Manhunter. That’s the only thing I’d hold against Gene Ha’s work. Remember how Marvel was having Igor Korday routinely knock out X-books in a week, then blackballed him?
20. My sister loves Floyd. I like a few singles. Everybody loves Zepp. I like a few singles. ‘70s AOR was just never my bag. Is Queen an acceptable alternative?
21. Rob’s guest appearances on the JLA episode of “Views from the Longbox” got me listening to that podcast, so I’ve been thinking about Superman a lot lately. I would say that Weisinger’s Superman was a distinct entity from Siegel & Shuster’s, and then along came Byrne. All other interpretations simply riff off of those three with relatively minor variations. I think Weisinger has the best mythos/story engine, but the post-Byrne take is the most palatable for modern audiences.
22. I won’t likely try any stinking Batman podcasts, so let’s just say I grew up Bronze and my interest in the character peaked with Starlin’s late ‘80s run. He’s been such a douche since his first movie blew up that I can’t stand him anymore.
23. Oh no! Your offhand comment made me think of Rob & Shag slash fiction. “We dip our bald heads in oil, and rub them all over each other’s bodies, like Mahatma Gandhi used to do.”
24. National Comics ran for about four monthly issues, I bought all of them, and the ones I’ve read were all worth doing for one reason or another (even Looker.) Besides the done-in-one pilot season format, it also benefited over DC Comics Presents in never having Dan Didio’s name in the solicitations. “Hey—here’s the New 52 Challengers of the… oh. Never mind.” DC published anthologies in the ‘70s in the vain hope of stumbling upon a hit to become competitive again, which they’ve long since given up on.
25. Martin Stein: Sexual Intellectual was very “Show Me Your Genitals,” which is intended as a complement.
26. Maybe if Rob hadn’t posted the podcast a day before Firestorm Fan, he’s have had time to edit out the Red Tornado joke. Look man, we just like commenting on WordPress better.
27. Google has been squeezing me between Blogger and YouTube to activate and maintain a Google+ page, so extortion probably plays into the up-tick in usage. All you people who keep trying to friend me on my loathsome, rarely visited Facebook page take note. I NEED to delete that page already.
28. Just to be clear, and don’t think I didn’t note Shag’s audible lack of enthusiasm anyway, but my Podcast #100 suggestion was not serious. That would be boring as hell, and was just a way for me to shoehorn more Manhunter information into the commentary. The 100th Martian Manhunter story in Detective Comics was unexceptional, as the death of John Jones didn’t occur until the 102nd. Yes, this time, too.
29. In defense of the New 52, even in/because of the absence of a book all his own, the Martian Manhunter’s looks and abilities have been amped up to such a degree that people are looking at him again in a way that they haven’t since the early years of Morrison/Porter JLA. Interest in the character has been building in recent weeks thanks to Injustice: Gods Among Us. I’m also glad a lot of pre-Crisis elements of Wonder Woman lore have been reintroduced, especially Steve Trevor, who despite being a jackass for decades did not deserve to be sidelined for an entire generation of readers.
30. Question for Rob r/t Justice League Europe: If you had your druthers, would you have had Gerard Jones replace Peter David on the (second) ‘90s Aquaman relaunch? Really explore the question in detail.
31. As much as I’d like to find a way to cross the Twitter board and get kinged with double length tweets, I’m trying to take advantage of the lack of availability of a decent variation on @Idol-HeadOfDiabolu. @CommanderBlanx should help me be more succinct and pithy, while opening up the range of topics. Basically, I’ll get to send 9mm comment bullets on anything across the world. All your tweet are belong to moi.
32. To continue above, whether as Diabolu or Commander Blanx, I come representing for villains. I don’t have a Martian Manhunter blog so much as an Alien Atlas adversary/universe blog. Rob listens to podcasts about movies he likes. I listen to “How Did This Get Made?” Being Captain Contrary is my job. Rob’s Lawful Good, Shag’s Neutral Good and I’m Lawful Evil. I shouldn’t have to explain the dynamic 61 episodes in.
33. I prefer the Listener Feedback embedded into other episodes. I never have anything to talk about in the Listener Feedback section.
Great episode, guys. It goes to show that this podcast and the group that follows it understand how to have fun with comics.
Rob: We use politeness to destroy our enemies. See how the comment was actually a compliment to the guest? That said, you probably wouldn’t last a minute in my environment. It’s all improv players with vicious wit. We’re all armored against mockery, or should be.
Obviously, Canada is no more polite than all New Jersey citizens are hockey fans. I don’t watch hockey (or any sports) either, but I found it funny you would compare your state to Nova Scotia in terms of winter wonderlandedness. First, you guys have an NHL team, Nova Scotia doesn’t. And of all the places in Canada, you had to pick one of the warmest. Hardly any snowfall, in a temperate zone that allows them to grow grapes, some of the warmest beaches north of the Virginias, they’ve even been hit by hurricanes. It amuses me what people think Canada is like.
And in the same vein Shag, “eh” is for English Canadians, and I’m French Canadian, as well you know. And “zut alors” is so incredible French from France, there’s absolutely no way one of us would say it with a straight face. I could teach you some ribald French Canadian exclamations if you’d like!
And because Frank should not be ignored…
10. For me, it’s going to be about who writes them more than the characters themselves. I’ve always been a “writer first” kind of reader, and it wouldn’t make sense for me to skip (and I haven’t checked who wrote what, this is just an example) a villains issue written by Jeff Lemire when I basically read everything he writes regardless of publisher.
16. In that sense I completely agree. There’s usually Legion to read if you don’t mind it being the version of the Legion you want to read about.
18. You have a point. I’d rather say all four 90s-ish Batman movies are dated-to-awful, no matter how much I liked the first one as a young man. It doesn’t help that I then saw the Burton Batman film again and again and again dressed in new costumes (The Shadow, the 90s Captain America movie, not to mention Burton’s aesthetic in just about everything he did). Familiarity breeds contempt and I am very contemptuous of those films.
21. True enough. We can call them Golden Age, Silver Age and Post-Crisis, though some as far as origins go, some credit should go to Donner and the Superman movies who eventually infected the comics with all that crystal Fortress nonsense.
24. Was I the only one who saw National Comics as cheap pilots for TV stories WB might like to see developed? They all had that dark supernatural tone TV likes so much these days, and would all have been pretty affordable as television shows.
32. Hey, How Did This Get Made is a really fun show!
I like this format for the ‘general’ comic/geek talk. But I think the Who’s Who feedback should be done in the Who’s Who podcasts.
I do think you guys have great rapport and I am not surprised by the amount of feedback you get. Quality leads to quantity.
It is hard to think the Legion had it worse. There was one long continuity through the Baxter series. The 5yL series was the same continuity, just 5 years later. So it was only the Legion Lost and then the Waid ‘threeboot’ that were new. And then Levitz came back and reclaimed the old continuity. I can only imagine what the next re-imagination of Legion will be like. I am expecting to cringe.
YAY! Frank added me…and all it took was selling my Blue Beetle Booty! lol
Nice blatant pandering to your audience, Rob and Shag!
I cannot understand why comic books aren’t available in Walmart. They used to be; that’s where I got some of my earliest comics when I was growing up. Walmart’s the biggest retail monster in the world. That Diamond wouldn’t ship to them seems asinine to me. I also don’t know why Marvel doesn’t ship comics directly to movie theaters every summer.
@Frank – I’m pretty sure it was “Face to Face” by Siouxie and the Banshees in BATMAN RETURNS. Also, Rick James’ “Super Freak” during the masquerade!
I didn’t leave a comment on the nostalgia episode, so here goes:
My comic book “comfort food” begins with Marvel’s G.I. JOE from the ’80s and early ’90s. The first comics I ever read were from this series, and I love that IDW is re-collecting them in oversized hardcover format. The first 115 issues, almost all written by Larry Hama, are terrific, but issues #10 through #50 are my favorite run in comics and I can go back and read those anytime.
Other comforts that I always return to are Marvel’s WEREWOLF BY NIGHT, the FANTASTIC FOUR run written by Mark Waid, and Vertigo’s SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE.
Also, for me the most surreal aspect of this cyclic return of ’90s comics trends is that the most exciting new books are coming out of Image and Dark Horse.
Count Drunkula, are you reading the continuation of the classic Hama JOE book from IDW? They’ve brought him back to continue his story, and if you aren’t reading it you’re missing out on the best book being published these days!
Yes, I love G.I. JOE: A REAL AMERICAN HERO. The first year was a little rocky, suffering some of the same problems as the end of the Marvel run, but it finally got on the right track and now it’s the first book I read every month. Having said that, I think the relaunched new-continuity Joe books from IDW are very disappointing. COBRA started strong, but now… meh.
Count Drunkula, I’m glad to hear that! Yeah, the first year wasn’t fantastic, but it was still better than pretty much anything else I was reading at the time. Since then, Hama has really hit his stride, and I think he’s telling the best stories of his career! You know, I’ve never bothered to pick up the other IDW books, though they did pique my curiosity from time to time. In the end, I just decided that you really shouldn’t mess with perfection.
I tried posting this on the Shrine, but apparently it doesn’t like me very much…
Gents, it’s a testament to the charm of your podcast that an all feedback show managed to be quite entertaining. I’m sure part of the attraction came from my own narcissistic desire to hear my comments addressed, but even so there was of interest in that show.
I’ve enjoyed the Power Records episodes, and I encourage Rob, if he has as much love for those recordings as he evinces, to return to them as often as he likes. I imagine most of us will quite happily keep listening. As I’ve said before, I’m a huge fan of audio drama, so these shows are right in my wheel-house. I have to say, though, after hearing several folks mention it, I’m dying to hear “Robin Meets Man-Bat.”
I THINK it was this show that saw a discussion about the need for the Big Two to get their books where people, especially kids, will actually see them, and I couldn’t agree more. If that wasn’t this show, then you are free to regard the rest of this paragraph as the ramblings of a madman, assuming you weren’t already so inclined. Anyway, I’ve been saying this for years. As long as Marvel and DC continue to pitch their product to an ever-dwindling market of aging fans, they’re inevitably doomed to a slow, strangling death. You can’t build a growing business on a shrinking pool of customers. The only way they can restore superhero comics to a viable business is to bring in new readers, and the only real way to do that is to hook kids. Yeah, it’s harder to do in the digital age, with the many and varied distractions and entertainments available to our youth, but in my experience there is little that appeals more to boys, and even girls of exceptionally good taste, than heroic, colorful characters engaged in daring do in fantastic settings. If they wrote books that kids could enjoy, but that weren’t so dumbed-down they’d be considered offensive to a severely impaired box turtle, they could have a chance of creating a NEW audience, one with ever-increasing numbers. Incidentally, such books would also appeal to those of us who have grown weary of the painfully shallow attempts at misnamed “mature” storytelling (Frank expressed the contempt I have for such misuses of the term rather well). And of course, to reach such an audience, the powers that be should put the books where they are. Toys ‘R Us, Walmart, Target, any and all of these places are perfectly suited to a spinner-rack model of distribution. I share Rob’s frustrated amazement at the lack of concerted effort on the part of the Big Two to reach that market.
Thank you Shag, for your complimentary description of my poor prose. I’m glad I’ve been able to add a bit to the conversation surrounding y’all’s work.
Ahh, now that you’ve answered my question about Firestorm and JLU, I seem to remember hearing something along those lines once upon a time. I agree, that’s a real shame. “The Greatest Story Never Told” is, without a doubt, one of the best JLU episodes. You can absolutely see how Firestorm would have fit in there, with Ronnie filing in easily for Booster Gold and Prof. Stein taking the same cerebral, cautionary role that Skeets fulfilled.
At the same time, that was such a great Booster Gold story that I’d hate to lose it either. I suppose that’s just one more reason that JLU should have gone on in perpetuity. Who knows what awesome tales would have been told! Firestorm vs. Killer Frost? Aquaman vs. Ocean Master? We’ll never know what might have been.
Well, I’m very glad you saw reason about the Firestorm/Flash exchange, Shag! Ha, though, you and Rob are absolutely right about the character being made into a mouthpiece for plot-induced drama. These old books engaged in that pretty often. Flash was actually a victim of it as often as not, though Aquaman also got his share. Either way, I certainly won’t hold a bad piece of character development against ‘ol Ronnie. If I were the type to do that, I’d have given up on the Sea King years ago!
Ha! Rob, by ‘barely concealed contempt’ I meant mostly that, in every show I have listened to (admittedly only a handful), you’ve always more or less just skipped over or skirted around the topic of Murk. I suppose ‘refusing to acknowledge his existence’ isn’t exactly the same as ‘barely concealed contempt.’ Either way I hope my theory proves correct and we see Aquaman school this second rate Namor like the chump he is.