Comic Books Are Burning In Hell
158 episodes - English - Latest episode: 6 months ago - ★★★★★ - 60 ratingsThe only podcast about comic books on the internet, with Joe McCulloch, Chris Mautner, Matt Seneca and Tucker Stone.
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Episodes
The Comico Grendel!
October 15, 2023 09:00 - 1 hour - 91.7 MBIn 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...
Social (Science) Fiction
July 31, 2023 09:00 - 1 hour - 107 MBThe 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!!!!
Catalan Returns: Mickey Mouse Has Crickets In His Pants
November 21, 2022 11:00 - 1 hour - 32.4 MBThis 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!
Public Broadcasting and Literature BEING THAT THING
October 26, 2022 10:33 - 1 hour - 27.5 MBThe 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!
Fantastic Four: Full Circle
October 12, 2022 19:50 - 1 hour - 39.6 MBIn 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!
Hanna-Barbera's OROCHI
August 22, 2022 10:57 - 1 hour - 29.8 MBOn 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.
Batman: Mad Love (with Katie Skelly)
August 15, 2022 10:22 - 1 hour - 35.8 MBWe'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!
Jiminy Crickets!
July 25, 2022 10:36 - 1 hour - 38.8 MBThe 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!
Batman: Mask
May 11, 2022 10:00 - 1 hour - 34.2 MBSay 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 Ta...
"I Was Thinking A Lot Of Ding Dong Circus"
April 27, 2022 11:00 - 1 hour - 36.1 MBGreen 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!
Catwoman: Lonely City
April 20, 2022 09:56 - 1 hour - 51.4 MBWelcome 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...
Red Flowers, Buddy!
January 26, 2022 16:57 - 1 hour - 37.4 MBIt'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!
Our Favorite 2021 Comics
January 06, 2022 16:35 - 1 hour - 51.5 MBChris, 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!
Batman: The Jungle Cat-Queen
December 22, 2021 11:30 - 1 hour - 39.3 MBWelcome 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,...
Batman: Murder In The Night
November 23, 2021 18:26 - 1 hour - 34.9 MBWelcome 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 ...
Spending Sundays In My Cage
October 27, 2021 10:00 - 1 hour - 39.9 MBIt'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!
Batman: Venom
October 21, 2021 13:59 - 1 hour - 39.3 MBWelcome 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 m...
Duke Togo & Dan Didio
October 12, 2021 10:00 - 1 hour - 31.9 MBWe 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!
Batman: Prey
September 28, 2021 10:00 - 1 hour - 41 MBGet 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.
Snapper Carr Vs. Rick Jones
September 13, 2021 22:30 - 1 hour - 38.3 MBRumor 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!
Garth! Fujimoto! TIM TRUMAN???
August 17, 2021 10:00 - 1 hour - 39.2 MBWhile 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!
Won't Someone Think Of The Children (Of Mu-Town)
June 16, 2021 19:52 - 1 hour - 29.4 MBIt'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!
The Fists of Barry Windsor-Smith
June 01, 2021 18:16 - 1 hour - 37.7 MBIt'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!
Jimbo Returns To The NO WARPING Zone
May 13, 2021 15:02 - 1 hour - 36.4 MBIt'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...
Jimbo Returns To The NO WARPING Zone
May 13, 2021 15:02It'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...
1963 Reasons To Read In Pictopia!
April 29, 2021 22:34 - 1 hour - 37.6 MBThis 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!
The Gang SPOILS The End of Chainsaw Man!
April 04, 2021 18:05 - 1 hour - 40 MBThis 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!
The Zack Snyder Pregame Special
March 17, 2021 21:23 - 1 hour - 50 MBJoe, 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
Every Single Issue Of Frank Miller's Ronin
March 10, 2021 21:00 - 1 hour - 39 MBIt'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!
The Al Columbia Show
February 25, 2021 22:42 - 1 hour - 36.8 MBThis 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!
The First Of Many Dreddcasts!
February 17, 2021 23:41 - 1 hour - 42.6 MBHow 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...
Frank Thorne & The Son of Tomahawk
January 29, 2021 11:00 - 1 hour - 38.5 MBIt'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 hi...
The Richard Corben Cast
January 13, 2021 01:00 - 1 hour - 33.3 MBThis 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!
The Best Comics Of 2020
January 09, 2021 03:59 - 1 hour - 42.5 MBHappy 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!
Guy Davis Gets Strange, Rachel Pollack Tells Time, The Spectre Kills Everything
December 17, 2020 18:05 - 1 hour - 41.4 MBJoe 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.
Guy Davis Gets Strange, Rachel Pollock Tells Time, The Spectre Kills Everything
December 17, 2020 18:04Joe McCulloch, Chris Mautner, Matt Seneca and Tucker Stone get together to take a look at Vertigo Visions: Phantom Stranger, Rachel Pollock and Chris Weston's Time Breakers and the legal problem-causing Spectre comics by Jim Aparo and Michael Fleisher.
Michel Rabagliati and Paul's Extended Universe
December 10, 2020 00:00 - 1 hour - 31.4 MBThis 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 podca...
The Origins Of Comics Criticism
December 03, 2020 01:49 - 1 hour - 27 MBOn 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 ...
Pierrot Alterations and William Softkey & The Purple Spider
November 11, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 32.3 MBThis 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!
A Vision Of Maids
October 21, 2020 22:31 - 1 hour - 26.7 MBThis 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!
Crisis On Infinite Earths (recorded live at SPX 2020)
October 06, 2020 20:23 - 1 hour - 30.2 MBOn 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!
It's Boston Corbett Time!
September 23, 2020 14:12 - 47 minutes - 17.6 MBThis 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!
Comics By Frédéric Coché & Tom Scioli Featuring Main Characters Who Are Short
September 03, 2020 20:12 - 1 hour - 33.6 MBThis 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!
PEOW Goes Cyberpunk, Chris Goes Perramus-ing
August 21, 2020 00:54 - 1 hour - 26.1 MBThis 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.
The Sky Is Blue With A Single Cloud
August 10, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 30.5 MBThis week, we're talking about the work of Kuniko Tsurita, recently collected and brought to English by Ryan Holmberg, Mitsuhiro Asakawa and Drawn & Quarterly.
Olivier Schrauwen's Cable by Yeon-sik Hong
August 03, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 31.9 MBIt'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!
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist
July 27, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 31.3 MBThis 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!
Jack Kirby's 2001
July 13, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 31.3 MBThis 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?
Wendy: Master of Art & The Philosophy of The Punisher
July 06, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 30.5 MBOn 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.
Step Into Kunzle
June 29, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 29.9 MBMatt'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!