All posts by Ian

Podcast

Comic Timing Episode 254 – Clear Eyes, Ironheart, Can’t Lose

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This week, Ian is joined by Brent Kossina and Donovan Morgan Grant at start, with Kris Naudus joining in at about the half hour mark. They begin with discussion on the passing of industry staple and longtime Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics, Jim Shooter, and his lasting legacy as a writer and editor. The group then deviate onto a discussion of the first three episodes of Marvel’s newest Disney+ series, Ironheart, spoilers and all. Did the series connect on what it was trying to achieve, not only for Riri Williams, but also The Hood? And should we still be trying to make Anthony Ramos happen? A note this only covers the first three episodes, so if you want to see how things end, do check out the back half of the series which is now available. Finally, some quick discussion on Pixar’s Elio, including its tumultuous behind-the-scenes production history.

You can support future releases of Comic Timing and get in on the occasional early releases of the show at http://www.patreon.com/ComicTiming. Video versions of most episodes are at http://youtube.com/@comictimingpodcast, along with Raph’s new shorts series, Raph’s Comic Catch-Up, so go ahead and subscribe if you haven’t already done so.

You can also follow Comic Timing on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/comictiming.bsky.social, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ComicTiming/, and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/comictimingpodcast. And please, if you can, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts; it helps attract new listeners! Finally, you can join in on the conversation at our Comic Timing Fans group on Facebook, which is a great place to hang out and talk comics.

Follow Ian on Bluesky, and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/i_am_scifi. Brent posts regularly to YouTube on his channel, BK’s Bullets and can be found on Bluesky; Donovan is on Bluesky, writes for DC’s blog and The Batman Universe, and check out his podcast, Questions: We Don’t Have Answers. Kris is lampbane on Bluesky, here’s the article Kris wrote about the comic book industry in 2020, and you can check out her various other works at http://linktr.ee/krisnaudus.

Thanks for listening, we’ll catch you next time, and as always, there’s always time for comics!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:31:39 — 97.5MB)

Podcast, Previews

Comic Timing Episode 253 – June 2025 Previews

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As June comes to a close, so does the end of an era. The June 2025 catalog marks the final physical copy of Diamond’s Previews catalog. While the format of the media may change, the format of this episode will not, as we’ll be pivoting to individual publisher catalogs and mostly Lunar for the foreseeable feature, checking in occasionally with Diamond as well. As such, Ian, Murd and Raph tackle the Image, Dark Horse, Boom, DC Connect, Marvel Previews, IDW, Diamond and Lunar catalogs here, with books mainly set for August 2025 release. Highlights include a Rick Remender and Daniel Acuña’s anthropomorphic war story Escape, a new collection of Giffen and DeMatteis’ Hero Squared at Boom, W. Maxwell Prince, Martín Morazzo and Chris O’Halloran from Ice Cream Man bring their odd horror sensibilities to DC with Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum, Kyle Higgins goes full manga with his Elseworlds Immortal Legend Batman, G. Willow Wilson takes on Black Cat at Marvel, Jason Aaron returns to Duckburg with Scrooge – Earth’s Mightiest Duck, Christopher Priest launches his own reboot of Red Sonja with Sonja: Reborn, a comic book continuation of Star Trek: Voyager at IDW, a new superhero universe at Aspen, and tons more. NOTE: Items mentioned in the Diamond Previews are not guaranteed to come out as advertised; you can reference books also listed in Lunar’s catalog, and others (like most Dynamite books) will see the light of day in the coming months.

Time stamps:

Diamond Previews updates, changes and news: 0:2:31

Image Comics: 0:14:45

Dark Horse: 0:32:09

Boom Studios: 0:48:45

DC: 0:58:33

Marvel: 1:39:12

IDW: 2:08:39

Dynamite: 2:20:33

Titan: 2:24:31

Back of the book: 2:26:55

Two Morrow’s: 2:44:37

Manga: 2:48:39

And here’s the video version:

You can support future releases of Comic Timing and get in on the occasional early releases of the show at http://www.patreon.com/ComicTiming. You can also give one-time donations to the show over at paypal.me/iamscifi. Video versions of the show, as well as occasional shorts and other goodies are available at https://www.youtube.com/@comictimingpodcast.

Follow Comic Timing on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/comictiming.bsky.social, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ComicTiming/, on Threads at https://www.threads.net/@comictimingpodcast and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/comictimingpodcast. And please, if you can, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts; it helps attract new listeners!

Finally, we have a Facebook Group that is thriving nicely. If you’d like to join, do so!

Follow Ian on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/i_am_scifi, on Bluesky, Threads, and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/i_am_scifi. Raph can be found on Bluesky and Twitch.

Thanks for listening as always, we hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season, and we will catch you all next time! And as always, there’s always time for comics!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:57:41 — 121.6MB)

Podcast

Comic Timing Episode 252 – Absolutely, DC

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Now that the big three titles have finished their first arc, and the second wave of titles have begun being released, the team of Ian, Brent, Raph and Jamal are here to review the Absolute Universe at large! This includes Absolute Batman, Absolute Superman, Absolute Wonder Woman, Absolute Flash, Absolute Green Lantern and Absolute Martian Manhunter. Spoilers abound, as we go into what makes this new universe unique from the main DC Universe, the distinctly different styles of each books and what drugs may be needed to truly appreciate Absolute Martian Manhunter in full, how we’d like to see crossover handled moving forward, what books should launch in the Absolute Universe next, doing our best not to confuse Marcos Martin and Javier Rodriguez, and much more. We also finish off with some last minute conversation on how many times Raph is already planning on seeing the new Superman movie, and why Jamal is all-in on it (DC pun intended). And if you can successfully guess how many times we said Absolute this episode, Brent may have prizes for ya!

And here’s the video version:

You can support future releases of Comic Timing and get in on the occasional early releases of the show at http://www.patreon.com/ComicTiming. Video versions of most episodes are at http://youtube.com/@comictimingpodcast, so go ahead and subscribe if you haven’t already done so.

You can also follow Comic Timing on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/comictiming.bsky.social, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ComicTiming/, and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/comictimingpodcast. And please, if you can, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts; it helps attract new listeners! Finally, you can join in on the conversation at our Comic Timing Fans group on Facebook, which is a great place to hang out and talk comics.

Follow Ian on Bluesky, and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/i_am_scifi. Brent posts regularly to YouTube on his channel, BK’s Bullets and can be found on Bluesky; Raph is on Twitch at RaphDoesStuff, Instagram, and Bluesky. And finally, Jamal is https://bsky.app/profile/jamaligle.bsky.social, https://www.instagram.com/jamaliglecomics/ and of course https://jamaligle.com/.

Thanks for listening, we’ll catch you next time, and as always, there’s always time for comics!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:43:36 — 107.7MB)

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Comic Timing Episode 251 – Here’s To You, Peter David

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Ian, Kris and Raph gather this episode to discuss a multitude of topics. The going trend of this episode is people being in the right place at the right time and becoming legends unexpectedly. Said topics include the passing of one of our favorite creators, Peter David, and some great recommendations of his many works, all the new projects revealed out of Netflix’s Tadum event, including Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, Wake Up, Dead Mam: A Knives Out Mystery and One Piece Season 2, spoilers on the end of the most recent season/series of Doctor Who, the unexpected Batman/Deadpool crossover and the kerning of the new Batman logo’s font, subsequent logo talk on the X-Men and how long the logo we know has been in use, Marvel’s new fighting game with Arc System Works, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, Ian reviews the Jim Henson Idea Man and Stan Lee documentaries available on Disney+, Kris goes through her journey through Claremont-era X-Men, Raph enjoys some Ultimate X-Men and the Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods documentary, and Ian hates on Marvel’s TVA miniseries, is so-so on H2sh, and loves Absolute Martian Manhunter. Finally, before the episode wraps, we break the news on Diamond Distributors cancelling all Penguin Random House orders for books set to release after June 25th.

And here’s the YouTube video version:

You can support future releases of Comic Timing and get in on the occasional early releases of the show at http://www.patreon.com/ComicTiming. Video versions of most episodes are at http://youtube.com/@comictimingpodcast, so go ahead and subscribe if you haven’t already done so.

You can also follow Comic Timing on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/comictiming.bsky.social, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ComicTiming/, and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/comictimingpodcast. And please, if you can, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts; it helps attract new listeners! Finally, you can join in on the conversation at our Comic Timing Fans group on Facebook, which is a great place to hang out and talk comics.

Follow Ian on Bluesky, and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/i_am_scifi. Brent posts regularly to YouTube on his channel, BK’s Bullets and can be found on Bluesky; Raph is on Twitch at RaphDoesStuff, Instagram, and Bluesky. Kris is lampbane on Bluesky, here’s the article Kris wrote about the comic book industry in 2020, and you can check out her various other works at http://linktr.ee/krisnaudus.

Thanks for listening, we’ll catch you next time, and as always, there’s always time for comics!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:06:03 — 116.4MB)

Podcast, Previews

Comic Timing Episode 250 – May 2025 Previews

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We celebrate our 250th episode of Comic Timing with…an episode of the show! Makes sense, don’t it? Filling in for Murd this month while he practices his stagecraft is none other than Chris Eberle, along with Ian and Raph, to cover all the May Previews catalogs. This includes Image Catalog Issue 7, DC Connect issue 60, Marvel Previews Vol 6 issue 44, and Diamond Previews issue 440 and a little bit of Lunar’s Next Phase Issue 41, with books mainly set for July 2025 release. Highlights include Archie crossing over with both Minor Threats and Jay & Silent Bob, the relaunch of Fantastic Four, a weekly Gotham Sirens event, DC collecting someof the earliest Silver Age Hawkman appearances, Gail Simone taking on Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon: Nemesis for Titan, a new volume of Space Ghost, Criminal’s return just in time for its upcoming Amazon adaptation, and so much more.

Timestamps:

Some Diamond talk, including the shuttering of Diamond Select Toys: 0:07:08

Image Comics: 0:11:11

Dynamite: 0:31:35

Titan Comics: 0:39:42

DC Comics: 0:49:05

Marvel Comics: 1:32:21

Boom: 2:18:18

Dark Horse: 2:20:09

IDW: 2:23:29

Back of the Book: 2:29:09

Two Morrow’s: 2:56:09

Manga: 2:58:02

And here’s the video version on YouTube:

You can support future releases of Comic Timing and get in on the occasional early releases of the show at http://www.patreon.com/ComicTiming. You can also give one-time donations to the show over at paypal.me/iamscifi. Video versions of the show, as well as occasional shorts and other goodies are available at https://www.youtube.com/@comictimingpodcast.

Follow Comic Timing on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/comictiming.bsky.social, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ComicTiming/, on Threads at https://www.threads.net/@comictimingpodcast and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/comictimingpodcast. And please, if you can, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts; it helps attract new listeners!

Finally, we have a Facebook Group that is thriving nicely. If you’d like to join, do so!

Follow Ian on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/i_am_scifi, on Bluesky, Threads, and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/i_am_scifi. Raph can be found on Bluesky and Twitch.

Thanks for listening as always, we hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season, and we will catch you all next time! And as always, there’s always time for comics!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:08:36 — 127.9MB)

Podcast

Comic Timing Presents: Back to the Bins Episode 663 – Decade of Heroes

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This week, we’re running the latest Gold Team appearance on Paul Spataro’s Back to the Bins podcast! Episode 663 of the podcast features Paul, Ian, Chris Eberle, Adam Murdough and Shane Kelly discussing four books from their reading past; Fantastic Four #55 (Silver Surfer and The Thing action), Batman #232 (Ra’s Al-Ghul’s first appearance), Supreme #41 (Alan Moore’s reboot issue), and Fantastic Four (1998) #60 (Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo’s first issue). Some great comics conversation ahead of you, so do enjoy!

And if you’re interested in Kickstarting Steve Bryant’s Shaken and Stirred graphic novel, here’s the link for that!

You can support future releases of Comic Timing and get in on the occasional early releases of the show at http://www.patreon.com/ComicTiming. If you’d like to give a one-time donation to the show, that can be done over at https://paypal.me/iamscifi. You can also follow Comic Timing on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/comictiming.bsky.social, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ComicTiming/, and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/comictimingpodcast. And please, if you can, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts; it helps attract new listeners! Finally, you can join in on the conversation at our Comic Timing Fans group on Facebook, which is a great place to hang out and talk comics.

Follow Ian on Bluesky, and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/i_am_scifi. Brent is on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kossinab, and he posts regularly to YouTube on his channel, BK’s Bullets.

Thanks for listening, we’ll catch you next time, and as always, there’s always time for comics!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:04:51 — 79.3MB)

Podcast

Comic Timing* Episode 249* – Thunderbolts* Movie Review*

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The Blue Team of Ian, Brent, Raph, Donovan, Brandon, Kris and Jamal are back at it to talk about Marvel’s conclusion to Phase Five, and the unexpected tentpole of what’s to come, Thunderbolts*. Spoilers abound as they discuss the nuances of the film as well as the team’s comic book origins, who the heck Bob is, how Marvel subverted our expectations in more than one way and how they made us care about these particular characters through the exploration of mental health, the joy that is Florence Pugh, Pullman and Russell: TNG, the father daughter relationship between Alexi and Yelena, how MCU Contessa is basically just Victoria Hand, where we rank this in post-Endgame movie releases, the thoughtful dickery that is John Walker, Congressman Bucky, and tons more*.

*Okay fine, we address the asterisk and how even that has multiple meanings.

We also start with thoughts on this year’s Free Comic Book Day and FBCD in general, discover a new library of comics you can read from the library via the Comics Plus app, and we conclude with some recent reads!

And here’s the video version:

You can support future releases of Comic Timing and get in on the occasional early releases of the show at http://www.patreon.com/ComicTiming. Video versions of most episodes are at http://youtube.com/@comictimingpodcast, so go ahead and subscribe if you haven’t already done so.

You can also follow Comic Timing on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/comictiming.bsky.social, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ComicTiming/, and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/comictimingpodcast. And please, if you can, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts; it helps attract new listeners! Finally, you can join in on the conversation at our Comic Timing Fans group on Facebook, which is a great place to hang out and talk comics.

Follow Ian on Bluesky, and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/i_am_scifi. Brent posts regularly to YouTube on his channel, BK’s Bullets and can be found on Bluesky; Raph is on Twitch at RaphDoesStuff, Instagram, and Bluesky. Kris is lampbane on Bluesky, here’s the article Kris wrote about the comic book industry in 2020, and you can check out her various other works at http://linktr.ee/krisnaudus. Donovan is on Bluesky, writes for DC’s blog and The Batman Universe, and check out his podcast, Questions: We Don’t Have Answers. Brandon is on Bluesky and Twitch, and will be running a panel at Kaiju Brooklyn on May 31st! And finally, Jamal is https://bsky.app/profile/jamaligle.bsky.social, https://www.instagram.com/jamaliglecomics/ and of course https://jamaligle.com/.

Thanks for listening, we’ll catch you next time, and as always, there’s always time for comics!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:59:29 — 113.3MB)

Podcast

Comic Timing Special: Diamond Distributors Update and Re-airing Ep 179 – There’s Always Time For Collecting Comics!

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Today, May 1st 2025, is Comic Timing’s 19th Anniversary. To celebrate, we’re re-airing our 10th anniversary episode! But first, Ian gives updates on Diamond Distributors incredibly tumultuous sale process, including Alliance Entertainment terminating its purchase, suing Diamond over false representation, and the final winner of the bankruptcy being a combined bid by Universal Distribution and Ad Populum. He also gives props to Comic News Insider on their 1600th episode, and to Charlito for his amazing print he created for CGS’ 20th.

Then, we transition into Episode 179, which was the first time Chris Eberle, Adam Murdough and Shane Kelly appeared on Comic Timing as a group! They join Ian and Brent in a full conversation on collecting comics that remains quite relevant today, nine years later.

Time stamps:

Diamond Distributors updates: 0:03:32

CNI 1600 and Charlito’s print: 0:11:57

Episode 179: 0:15:26

You can support future releases of Comic Timing and get in on the occasional early releases of the show at http://www.patreon.com/ComicTiming. Video versions of the show, as well as occasional shorts and other goodies are available at https://www.youtube.com/@comictimingpodcast.

Follow Comic Timing on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/comictiming.bsky.social, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ComicTiming/, on Threads at https://www.threads.net/@comictimingpodcast and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/comictimingpodcast. And please, if you can, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts; it helps attract new listeners!

Finally, we have a Facebook Group that is thriving nicely. If you’d like to join, do so!

Follow Ian on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/i_am_scifi, on Bluesky, Threads, and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/i_am_scifi.

Thanks for listening as always, we hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season, and we will catch you all next time! And as always, there’s always time for comics!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:12:41 — 85.4MB)

Podcast, Previews

Comic Timing Episode 248 – April 2025 Previews

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Back at it again with that Previews magic! To start, Ian and Murd talk the final final final (for now) results of the Diamond Distributors purchase, as Alliance Entertainment has officially closed the deal after a last minute attempt at shenanigans by Diamond and their secondary bid. Then we delve into the multiple catalogs, including quick comments on Lunar’s catalog for TwoMorrow’s content, and a little bit of Penguin Random House’s very hard to read catalog. As for the usual suspects, we have Image Catalog Issue 6, DC Connect issue 59, Marvel Previews Vol 6 issue 43, and Diamond Previews issue 439, with books mainly set for June 2025 release. Highlights include Dynamite’s fever dream known only as Thundercats Powerpuff Girls, Brian K Vaughn and Nico Henrichson’s Spectators, Image’s foray into oversized with their Jim Aparo’s DC Classics Artist’s Edition, the conclusion of Michel Fiffe’s Copra, a whole lot of Godzilla in various forms as IDW, Marvel AND DC all get in on the game, Mark Waid’s New History of the DC Universe, the temporary return of Rainbow Rowell’s Runaways, Top Shelf’s It Rhymes with Takei, and so much more.

Time stamps:

Diamond acquisition talk: 0:01:41

It Rhymes with Takei: 0:09:26

Image Comics: 0:12:56

Dynamite: 0:46:05

Titan: 0:58:50

DC: 1:06:57

Marvel: 1:44:41

Back of the Book: 2:24:42

Two Morrows: 3:01:34

Manga: 3:03:13

You can support future releases of Comic Timing and get in on the occasional early releases of the show at http://www.patreon.com/ComicTiming. Video versions of the show, as well as occasional shorts and other goodies are available at https://www.youtube.com/@comictimingpodcast.

Follow Comic Timing on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/comictiming.bsky.social, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ComicTiming/, on Threads at https://www.threads.net/@comictimingpodcast and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/comictimingpodcast. And please, if you can, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts; it helps attract new listeners!

Finally, we have a Facebook Group that is thriving nicely. If you’d like to join, do so!

Follow Ian on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/i_am_scifi, on Bluesky, Threads, and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/i_am_scifi.

Thanks for listening as always, we hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season, and we will catch you all next time! And as always, there’s always time for comics!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:10:09 — 132.7MB)

Podcast

Comic Timing Episode 247 – Catching Up (w/Chris, Shane & Murd)

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Gold Team, unite! It has been way too long since Ian, Chris Eberle, Shane and Murd got together for a loosey goosey, catch-up comics conversation, so we bring that to you this very episode. Highlights include Shane being all the closer to completing his full Justice League run and some general conversation on complete runs the others own. Chris talks Jason Aaron’s Namor series, Mark Waid’s Batman and Robin: Year One as well as his upcoming New History of the DC Universe, the new GI Joe series from Image/Skybound, Black Canary: Best of the Best, a reread of Brubaker and Phillips’ Criminal, and Roy Thomas’ return to Savage Sword of Conan. Murd goes retro, as he tends to do, and brings forth Sandman Mystery Theater Compendium One by Matt Wagner and Steven T. Seagle and The Complete Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, plus something much more modern in Jonesy out of Boom Studios. Ian brings media to the table as he reviews The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, as well as the complete first season of Batman: Caped Crusader, and Season Five of Harley Quinn; plus a dalliance into theater with BOOP! The Musical. Then Shane finished us out with some toy talk, and thoughts on Mark Waid’s Justice League Unlimited, The Atom Project, whether we actually needed a Hush 2 and The Question: All Along the Watchtower, and we mention the passing of Val Kilmer and what his works meant to us. And more!

Here’s the video version up on YouTube:

You can support future releases of Comic Timing and get in on the occasional early releases of the show at http://www.patreon.com/ComicTiming. You can also follow Comic Timing on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/comictiming.bsky.social, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ComicTiming/, and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/comictimingpodcast. And please, if you can, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts; it helps attract new listeners! Finally, you can join in on the conversation at our Comic Timing Fans group on Facebook, which is a great place to hang out and talk comics.

Follow Ian on Bluesky, and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/i_am_scifi. And check out Brent’s YouTube channel, BK’s Bullets.

Thanks for listening, we’ll catch you next time, and as always, there’s always time for comics!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:36:05 — 61.6MB)