Comic Book Couples Counseling Podcast

Okay, it’s time to press pause on your life and press play on this week’s episode. Klaus Janson is an icon. He’s worked in comics for over fifty years, radically shaping characters like Daredevil and Batman, while working alongside other comic book greats such as Frank Miller, Dick Giordano, Gene Colan, Dennis O'Neil, Grant Morrison, Bill Sienkiewicz, Brian Michael Bendis, and many, many more. He’s worked within the medium from multiple angles as penciler, inker, colorist, writer, and teacher. By thriving through comics, he’s also collected a million stories to tell. We got a few out of him today. We’re honored to have Klaus Janson join us for our 350th episode, especially during a time that sees his first North American art exhibit on display at the Philippe Labaune Gallery in New York City. You have until April 11th to witness more than one hundred Klaus Janson pieces, reflecting a lifetime of dedication to our favorite art form. If you’re looking to extend the 40th anniversary celebrations of The Dark Knight Returns, a book that continues to shape the entire industry and a few others as well, then you owe yourself a trip. Klaus Janson takes us all the way back to his time before comics, and how two unique jobs prepared him for his life at the drawing board. We discuss his collaboration with Frank Miller on Daredevil and The Dark Knight Returns, a few of the projects he’s proud of that don’t necessarily get the most attention, and how comics have shaped him as a person. Also, we spend this episode’s introduction discussing our recent excursion to WonderCon in Anaheim, California. With multiple conventions fighting for your attention this weekend, we consider what WonderCon offers that other gatherings don’t, as well as some of the comic book news revealed across multiple panels. Absolute Crisis? Please say Thank You to Klaus Janson by following his Instagram. This Week's Sponsors Everyone loves to talk and debate about comics, but few people get to see what it’s actually like behind the scenes. Now, IDW Publishing is changing that with the launch of IDW Studios. The first monthly show is CreatorxCreator, a free-flowing, fun and honest chat between two comic book creators as they discuss their craft, process, inspiration, and what life is really like as a creative. The second monthly show, Superlatives, brings IDW’s knowledgeable and spirited editors head-to-head to debate each of these categories, with another editor stepping in as the moderator to pick the winner once the pros have made their arguments. The Future is Calling! 2000 AD is the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, with new issues published every single week! Every 32-page issue of 2000 AD brings you the best in sci-fi and horror, featuring characters like Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, and more. Get a print subscription to 2000 AD and it’ll arrive to your mailbox every week - and your first issue is free! Or subscribe digitally, and you can download DRM-free copies of each issue for only $9 a month. That’s 128 pages of incredible comics every month for less than $10! Head to 2000AD.com and click on ‘subscribe’ now – or download the 2000 AD app and start reading today! Other Relevant Links to This Week's Episode: Subscribe to the Comic Book Couples Counseling YouTube Channel Watch The Stacks, Comic Creators Name Their Favorite Comics Previously on CBCC: Ethan Young on Demon Run Follow the Pop Culture Maven on YouTube Comic Book Club: My Boyfriend is a Bear at Meanwhile...Coffee in Herndon, Virginia, on 2/1 at 3:30 PM Comic Book Film Club: Paying For It on 4/26 at the Alamo Drafthouse in Winchester, Virginia. Final Round of Plugs (PHEW): Support the Podcast by Joining OUR PATREON COMMUNITY. And, of course, follow Comic Book Couples Counseling on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Bluesky @CBCCPodcast, and you can follow hosts Brad Gullickson @MouthDork & Lisa Gullickson @sidewalksiren. Send us your Words of Affirmation by leaving us a 5-star Review on Apple Podcasts. Continue your conversation with CBCC by hopping over to our website, where we have reviews, essays, and numerous interviews with comic book creators. Podcast logo by Jesse Lonergan and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.

You love to see it. Cartoonist Ethan Young (Dragon Path, Nanjing: The Burning City) places a huge bet on himself. He’s reclaimed the rights to his main character from the graphic novel series The Battles of Bridget Lee, originally published at Dark Horse Comics, and planted her in a slightly altered landscape with a much more mature (i.e., violent) tone. The new comic is called Demon Run, and you have till April 3rd to make your orders for the first two issues on his website. The Battles of Bridget Lee: Invasion of Farfall first hit stands in 2016. Ethan Young has made many more comics since then, worked extensively in animation (including Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man), and significantly evolved his style. Why is he going back to Briget Lee? Why is she battling demons now and not alien invaders? Why is Demon Runfilled with gnarly, grisly action and not sanitized for the YA market? Most importantly, why is Ethan Young taking on the burden of self-publishing? All these questions and more are asked in this week’s Comic Book Couples Counseling podcast. We’ve admired Ethan Young’s comics for many years now. His appearance on the show is a long time coming, and we’re excited to see him morph Bridget Lee into the Demon Run concept. You’re damn right, we were two of the first to pre-order the comics via Young Illustrations. In addition to bookmarking his website, make sure you’re following Ethan Young on Instagram and BlueSky. This Week's Sponsors The Future is Calling! 2000 AD is the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, with new issues published every single week! Every 32-page issue of 2000 AD brings you the best in sci-fi and horror, featuring characters like Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, and more. Get a print subscription to 2000 AD and it’ll arrive to your mailbox every week - and your first issue is free! Or subscribe digitally, and you can download DRM-free copies of each issue for only $9 a month. That’s 128 pages of incredible comics every month for less than $10! Head to 2000AD.com and click on ‘subscribe’ now – or download the 2000 AD app and start reading today! Other Relevant Links to This Week's Episode: Subscribe to the Comic Book Couples Counseling YouTube Channel Watch The Stacks, Comic Creators Name Their Favorite Comics Previously on CBCC: David Dastmalchian on Through Comic Book Club: My Boyfriend is a Bear at Meanwhile...Coffee in Herndon, Virginia, on 2/1 at 3:30 PM Final Round of Plugs (PHEW): Support the Podcast by Joining OUR PATREON COMMUNITY. And, of course, follow Comic Book Couples Counseling on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Bluesky @CBCCPodcast, and you can follow hosts Brad Gullickson @MouthDork & Lisa Gullickson @sidewalksiren. Send us your Words of Affirmation by leaving us a 5-star Review on Apple Podcasts. Continue your conversation with CBCC by hopping over to our website, where we have reviews, essays, and numerous interviews with comic book creators. Podcast logo by Jesse Lonergan and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.

To create is to submit. Here’s my story, this is me. Filmmaker, actor, and comic book writer David Dastmalchian returns to the podcast this week. He’s discussing his new graphic novel Through, made in collaboration with artist Cat Staggs and letterer Adam Wollet. It’s a deeply intimate story about an orphan who cracks her head and enters a fantastical realm as a result. There are direct allusions to Lewis Carroll and several other classics and not-so-classics. However, ultimately, Through is David Dastmalchian revealing a piece of himself to the reader, and hoping the reader finds a piece of themselves within, too. As with his films and the characters he inhabits, David Dastmalchian’s comics are acts of self-reflection. While telling an engaging, scary, thrilling adventure into wonderland, Through is also a chronicle of an anxious moment in Dastmalchian’s life. We’re grateful he was willing to join us for a thoughtful discussion about mental health and the pursuit of understanding via artistic expression. Not every creator wants to go there, but David Dastmalchian delights in the internal plunge. On the show this week, we discuss David Dastmalchian’s inspirations, how Through differs from other comics work like Count Crowley, and what this medium offers that others do not. Through is currently available from Z2 Comics in multiple editions. Please, continue the conversation with David Dastmalchian by following his Instagram and Website. This Week's Sponsors The Future is Calling! 2000 AD is the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, with new issues published every single week! Every 32-page issue of 2000 AD brings you the best in sci-fi and horror, featuring characters like Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, and more. Get a print subscription to 2000 AD and it’ll arrive to your mailbox every week - and your first issue is free! Or subscribe digitally, and you can download DRM-free copies of each issue for only $9 a month. That’s 128 pages of incredible comics every month for less than $10! Head to 2000AD.com and click on ‘subscribe’ now – or download the 2000 AD app and start reading today! Other Relevant Links to This Week's Episode: Subscribe to the Comic Book Couples Counseling YouTube Channel Watch The Stacks, Comic Creators Name Their Favorite Comics Previously on CBCC: David Dastmalchian on Count Crowley Comic Book Club: My Boyfriend is a Bear at Meanwhile...Coffee in Herndon, Virginia, on 2/1 at 3:30 PM Final Round of Plugs (PHEW): Support the Podcast by Joining OUR PATREON COMMUNITY. And, of course, follow Comic Book Couples Counseling on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Bluesky @CBCCPodcast, and you can follow hosts Brad Gullickson @MouthDork & Lisa Gullickson @sidewalksiren. Send us your Words of Affirmation by leaving us a 5-star Review on Apple Podcasts. Continue your conversation with CBCC by hopping over to our website, where we have reviews, essays, and numerous interviews with comic book creators. Podcast logo by Jesse Lonergan and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.

We’re all the product of our influences. Cartoonist Simon Roy, on this week's podcast discussing his new short story collection, A Star Called the Sun, refers to his influences as "foundational mulch." We dig into a bunch of them—everything from Jack Vance novels to Soviet comedies. Celebrating the shoulders he stands upon while building comics filtered through his imagination that feel and look unlike any others. Each story in A Star Called the Sun exists within Simon Roy’s Altamira universe. It’s a post-human realm where many subgenres get to play alongside just as many different tones. If you’ve read previous Roy comics like Griz Grobus or Refugium, then you are well-traveled in Altamira, but if you’re unfamiliar with this strange domain, then there is no better place to start. Beyond discussing the stories and creators who inspired A Star Called the Sun, we plunge into the themes that hop throughout the collection. How far can humanity stretch before it stops being humanity? What the heck is consciousness anyway? It’s all a matter of context. A Star Called the Sun is now available in paperback from Image Comics. Make sure you’re following Simon Roy on BlueSky and Instagram. Be on the lookout for his next Kickstarter comic. This Week's Sponsors The Future is Calling! 2000 AD is the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, with new issues published every single week! Every 32-page issue of 2000 AD brings you the best in sci-fi and horror, featuring characters like Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, and more. Get a print subscription to 2000 AD and it’ll arrive to your mailbox every week - and your first issue is free! Or subscribe digitally, and you can download DRM-free copies of each issue for only $9 a month. That’s 128 pages of incredible comics every month for less than $10! Head to 2000AD.com and click on ‘subscribe’ now – or download the 2000 AD app and start reading today! Other Relevant Links to This Week's Episode: Subscribe to the Comic Book Couples Counseling YouTube Channel Watch The Stacks, Comic Creators Name Their Favorite Comics Comic Book Club: My Boyfriend is a Bear at Meanwhile...Coffee in Herndon, Virginia, on 2/1 at 3:30 PM Final Round of Plugs (PHEW): Support the Podcast by Joining OUR PATREON COMMUNITY. And, of course, follow Comic Book Couples Counseling on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Bluesky @CBCCPodcast, and you can follow hosts Brad Gullickson @MouthDork & Lisa Gullickson @sidewalksiren. Send us your Words of Affirmation by leaving us a 5-star Review on Apple Podcasts. Continue your conversation with CBCC by hopping over to our website, where we have reviews, essays, and numerous interviews with comic book creators. Podcast logo by Jesse Lonergan and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.

When observing comic books, the miracles come in big or small ways. This week on the podcast, we’re discussing a resurrection we previously thought unimaginable. Stephen R Bissette, who gained legendary status working on titles like Saga of the Swamp Thing, crafted his masterpiece in the mid-nineties. Tyrant was meant to run fifty issues or more, but only four saw print before disaster struck the industry, and Bissette pulled up stakes, leaving comics to focus on family and a more financially stable situation. We’ve spent years searching for Tyrant in the dollar bins, picking up an issue here and there. As much as we love Bissette’s work on Swamp Thing, Tyrant represents the artist at his purest, most thematically forward. Even at four issues, Tyrant is a masterpiece, expressing the agony and beauty of life, as we follow a Tyrannosaurus Rex from conception to birth. It’s easy to mourn the story we did not get, but we must also celebrate the story we did. It is enough, and thankfully, we’re not the only ones who thought so. Chris Stevens, of the newly formed Lighthouse Press, convinced Bissette that now was the time to re-release Tyrant in both a Complete Edition and a Deluxe Artist Edition. Stevens also hired cartoonist Jim Rugg (who recently shot a Stacks video with us) to oversee the production of these new additions. Together, they’ll hopefully bring a massive new readership to Tyrant and give this lost masterpiece the recognition it never got. We’re extremely happy to have Stephen R Bissette, Jim Rugg, and Chris Stevens on the podcast this week. Together, we place Tyrant in the context of its creation and explore why now is the time for its resurrection. We discuss the themes Bissette excavates in Tyrant and where the story was going before he had to pull the plug. We also discuss the heartbreak of pulling the plug and all the humanity within and without its pages. The 90s comic book scene. You had to be there. The Image Revolution. Pouches. Rob Liefeld and Spike Lee making Levi's commercials together. The Death of Superman was going to pay Brad’s way into college somehow. The distribution implosion. The speculator flight. Devastation. Apocalypse. Something our earthbound dinosaurs also understood quite well. Please recognize the miracle that is Tyrant’s resurrection by visiting the Lighthouse Press Kickstarter page and signing up for notification of its official launch. Also, follow Stephen R Bissette on BlueSky and Facebook. Follow Jim Rugg on Instagram. Follow Lighthouse Press on Instagram and BlueSky. This Week's Sponsors The Future is Calling! 2000 AD is the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, with new issues published every single week! Every 32-page issue of 2000 AD brings you the best in sci-fi and horror, featuring characters like Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, and more. Get a print subscription to 2000 AD and it’ll arrive to your mailbox every week - and your first issue is free! Or subscribe digitally, and you can download DRM-free copies of each issue for only $9 a month. That’s 128 pages of incredible comics every month for less than $10! Head to 2000AD.com and click on ‘subscribe’ now – or download the 2000 AD app and start reading today! Other Relevant Links to This Week's Episode: Subscribe to the Comic Book Couples Counseling YouTube Channel Watch The Stacks, Comic Creators Name Their Favorite Comics CBCC on The Brave and The Boys CBCC on Dollar Bin Bandits CBCC on Pop Culture Squad Support Your Local Comic Shop: Secret Identity Comics in Chester, England Comic Book Club: My Boyfriend is a Bear at Meanwhile...Coffee in Herndon, Virginia, on 2/1 at 3:30 PM Comic Book Film Club: The Phantom at the Alamo Drafthouse Winchester on 3/15 Final Round of Plugs (PHEW): Support the Podcast by Joining OUR PATREON COMMUNITY. And, of course, follow Comic Book Couples Counseling on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Bluesky @CBCCPodcast, and you can follow hosts Brad Gullickson @MouthDork & Lisa Gullickson @sidewalksiren. Send us your Words of Affirmation by leaving us a 5-star Review on Apple Podcasts. Continue your conversation with CBCC by hopping over to our website, where we have reviews, essays, and numerous interviews with comic book creators. Podcast logo by Jesse Lonergan and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.