Crom and Mithra! Mike returns to the Hyborian Age of Robert E. Howard on Ryan Daly’s Showcase Gene Colan podcast on the Fire and Water podcast network! This time, we’re looking at the legendary comic book artist’s work in Savage Sword of Conan #33‘s tale, “Curse of the Monolith”
It’s a tale of treasure, betrayal, bloody revenge, and a barbarian who just absolutely refuses to die. Seriously, do not fuck with Conan.
“Spins a web, any size. Catches thieves, just like flies.”
This month, we’re web-slinging through New York with the Fire and Water Network‘s Ryan Daly and Tobiah Panshin of the House of Jack and Stan podcast. We’re climbing the wall over Marvel’s revolutionary and relatable comic book hero: the Amazing Spider-Man!
From his beginnings in a cancelled anthology comic by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1962, Spidey has exploded into multimedia superstardom, and changed the superhero genre forever. He’s headlined literally thousands of comic book issues, seven feature films, and countless animated shows. He’s been a company mascot, a parade balloon, a breakfast cereal, a cartoon pig, and even the star of his own failed Broadway musical.
We dig into all things pertaining to the web-head, try to figure out if the Daily Bugle is a reputable news source, and try to answer that question: is Spider-Man hero, or menace?
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Mike makes his fifth appearance on Rob Kelly‘s Film and Water Podcast, this time to talk about his favorite movie of all time, 1968’s Planet of the Apes.
Loosely based on a novel by Pierre Boulle, this science fiction masterpiece follows a cynical astronaut, played by Charlton Heston, who finds himself stranded on a planet where talking apes rule, and a species of mute, brutish humans are hunted for sport and scientific experimentation.
Mike dives into why this film will forever be his favorite, and how it successfully checks off all of his favorite things — from time travel to courtroom drama to gorillas with rifles — into a timeless piece of cinema.
Mike return to Rob Kelly‘s Film and Water Podcast, to talk about one of his favorite movies, 1960’s Inherit the Wind!
Based on the play of the same name, and on the real-life Scopes Monkey Trial, Inherit the Wind tells the story of a small town schoolteacher put on trial for teaching his students Darwin’s theory of evolution to his students. With the town — and the entire country in an uproar — a former populist presidential candidate stands for the prosecution, and a famed civil right attorney for the defense, and sparks fly!
Mike gets into why this is one of his favorite films, how its a refreshing departure from the usual portrayal of atheist/agnostic characters in fiction, and why a movie made in 1960 — and based on events from the 1920s — is frighteningly still relevant today.
Casey makes his first appearance on Rob Kelly‘s Film and Water Podcast, to talk about his favorite movie of all time: Blade Runner.
They get into the film’s slow burn noir-ish take on science fiction, its lush and timeless world-building, and how its status as a landmark of motion pictures overcame the numerous issues that went into its production.
Mike makes a third appearance on Rob Kelly‘s Film and Water Podcast, to talk about the 1978 George A. Romero horror classic largely credited with the creation of the zombie apocalypse genre: Dawn of the Dead.
We get into the film’s graphic violence, scathing humor, timely social commentary, and often incredibly downbeat tone. And why this movie has stood the test of time as the quintessential zombie movie.
Mike comes back with a fourth appearance on the Fire and Water Podcast!
This time, Mike joins co-host Rob Kelly ‘s Film and Water Podcast spin-off to talk about the highly underrated sixth James Bond film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service!
We get into the film’s back story, it’s top notch action sequences, and the performances of leads George Lazenby, Diana Rigg, and Telly Savalas. We talk about ski chases, the movies impact on popular culture, why it deserves a better reputation, and Mike’s man-crush on Savalas’ interpretation of supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
Mike returns for a third appearance on the Fire and Water Podcast, this time to co-host Rob Kelly’s film-centric Film and Water Podcast spin-off. And this time, they’re on a mission from God.
They discuss the 1980 comedy/musical/car chase mayhem movie, the Blues Brothers. Dan Aykroyd! John Belushi! Ray Charles! Aretha Franklin! Carrie Fisher with a rocket launcher! Neo Nazis, irate country western bands and every cop car in the state of Illinois!
Mike recently sat down and recorded a guest appearance on the Fire and Water Podcast with its co-host Rob Kelly – the graphic designer behind our cool panelist Bio pictures!
Their topic: the Aliens franchise — for a start. From there, they bled into a discussion about all sorts of things pop culture-y and nerdy.
A couple of months ago, Mike recorded a guest-hosting spot over at the Fire and Water Podcast, a weekly show dedicated very specifically to a pair of DC Comics superheroes, Aquaman and Firestorm.
The episode is now live for your listening pleasure!
The Fire and Water Podcast is a really fun show and probably has the best interactive community of any podcast I’ve ever heard. They talk about their respective favorite characters in particular, and usually DC Comics in general. But this time they did something a little different.
Mike sat down via Skype with Rob Kelly – of the Aquaman half of the show – to talk about a weird and complicated issue: comic book continuity.
In short, Mike make the argument that comics would be all the better for dropping a line-wide shared universe where everything is supposed to fit together, and just letting the creators interpret the characters and stories in their own ways.
The new episode is now live and available for your listening pleasure! Give it a listen and let Mike know how wrong you think he is!