House to Astonish Episode 184
After our foray into the abyss that is the 1993 Marvel annuals, we’re back with a regular episode, talking about Denny O’Neil and Joe Sinnott, the recent wave of allegations of impropriety and harassment in comics, DC quitting Diamond, Marvel’s new Warhammer line, the culling of the Empyre crossover and the return of Bill & Ted under Evan Dorkin and Roger Langridge. We’re also reviewing Ash & Thorn and All-America Comix, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is full of both jeepers and creepers. All this plus Big Pando, two sickly ponies and a movie from 1997 about a chimp that wins the lottery.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Twitter, via email or on our Facebook fan page. And as always, we have our swish t-shirts available, should you be in a position to actually leave your home, and these are for sale over at our Redbubble store.
“Oy, that’s my Leg” sounds like it could be a darkly cynical game based on the allegeations discussed in the. Episode.
The great irony of DC leaving Diamond is there was a long standing rumor for years that DC had an option to buy them (started during the Distribution Wars of the 90s).
So Peepers is basically a poundshop Heimdall? I’d do a comedy one-shot of the X-Men sending him to Asgard for a dour sentry apprenticeship.
The retailer wasn’t Mile High, but Midtown. DCBS (a massive online retailer) is also distributing for DC. So the geography of the competition is moot as regards the latter.
Surprised you’re not talking about the obvious angle on Marvel getting the Games Workshop licence, which is, of course, the Blood Bowl/NFL Superpro crossover we’ve all been waiting for.
Just to be pedantic, I think the Bastards of Evil were a completely different kids-of-the-Masters-of-Evil team in Young Allies, and appear to be unrelated to the Young Masters from Dark Reign and Vengeance.
Note that in a recent interview Geppi reveals that the last contract with DC took them almost three years to negotiate, and ended up with DC having a 60-day out clause (https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/45778/icv2-interview-geppi-family-enterprises-ceo-steve-geppi-part-2), so it looks like at least some faction at DC was looking to get out of business (at least exclusive business) with Diamond for a while, and the shutdown was just the push they needed to get their way.
As far as DC’s departure from Diamond – I remembered seeing news stories about Diamond delaying deliveries of DC comics after they announced they would no longer be exclusive to Diamond.
I suspect that those delays were a retaliatory action by Diamond, which in turn may be what finally lead DC to just kick Diamond to the curb.
All-America Comix sounds like he’s bitter that someone else made one of his characters famous, maybe a character he was personally proud of, after changing almost everything about that character. I imagine that with all the good will in the world, that must feel like a bit of a slap in the face. I don’t know if Joe Casey is the petty type.
Some of those Resistance guys were in Morrison’s New X-Men for a scene or two, I think. The claw guy was welding the giant sentinel into a Magneto face.
My first and favorite appearance of Peeper and his buds was in the rambling Tunnelworld era of Defenders, where they worked for the Mandrill. Here he is, having a really good day: https://imgur.com/gallery/Z6MK1mV.