Episode 48 – Sin City

“I grab myself one last lungful of night air. Then I trade it in for a smoky soup spiced with sweat and vomit and booze and blood. I know the flavor well.”

After more than two years, we’re back with another panel episode! And this month, we’re tossing back some cheap booze at Kadie’s Saloon and making some bad decisions with Joe Preti, and Kit Laika, and get our filthy mitts on Frank Miller’s hyper-stylized, two-fisted neo-noir comics franchise that defined all things grim and gritty in the 1990s: Sin City!

After a rise to comics superstardom with Daredevil and Batman, Frank Miller turned his trademarked hard-boiled style up to eleven with a series of interconnected hyperbolic crime stories, set in the fun house mirror world of Basin City, a desert town populated entirely by lowlifes, mobsters, prostitutes, corrupt businessmen, assassins, creeps, killers, crooked cops, dirty politicians, and one hulking unkillable brute named Marv.

Illustrated in a stunning highly contrasted black and white, Sin City was a perfect distillation of everything comics readers loved and hated about the comics of a controversial and often problematic master of the craft.

Music: 
“Cool Vibes” from Film Noire by Kevin MacLeod

Episode 12 – Conan the Barbarian

2595372-savage_sword_of_conan_047_01fcTravel back, O Listener, to an age undreamed of!

Hither came Mike and Casey, swords in hand, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under sandaled feet with Greg Hatcher of Comics Should Be Good! and our friend Pól Rua of Mike and Pól Save the Universe!

That’s right. This month, the panel is talking about Robert E. Howard’s legendary fantasy anti-hero, Conan the Barbarian! From his pulp magazine beginnings in 1932 to the character’s explosion into comic books, newspaper strips, cartoons, and feature films. Conan’s impact on modern fantasy fiction — and popular culture itself — is deep and often unsung. Join us in a discussion of jocks versus nerds, power fantasies and the infectious “fuck yeah!” moment.

So heft your weeping red broadsword, and whisper a prayer to Crom, because we’re telling you of the days of high adventure!

[CORRECTION: Greg writes new pulp adventures for Airship 27. My apologies.]

Music: 
The Battle of the Mounds from Conan the Barbarian” by Basil Poledouris

Previously titled: “A Jock’s Wet Dream”