Halloween is right around the corner, so we're temporarily hitting pause on All My Xs (again) to revive our horror series Tomb of the Crypt and discuss The Closet, by James Tynion IV, Gavin Fullerton and Chris O'Halloran, published by Image Comics! Things aren't going particularly well for Thom. He and his wife Maggie are packing for a cross-country, and his son Jamie keeps talking about a monster in his bedroom closet. If only the kid would give this monster thing a rest – they're going to be in Portland in a week, and that closet will be a continent away! Problem solved, right? … Right? Can Maggie cut him some slack for not throwing out a box of souvenirs from the woman he cheated on her with? Can Jamie really leave his closet monster behind? And can this three-issue story make it intact to that cabin in the woods known as … The Comics Canon? In This Episode: ·      Casey Kasem's famous meltdown ·      This guy, right? ·      Curt and Kevin's spooky-themed song recommendations Join us in two weeks as we return to All My Xs by taking a step back to the 1980s for Uncanny X-Men #120-121 and John Byrne's Alpha Flight #1! Until then:Please consider donating to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Facebook or Bluesky! And as always, thanks for listening!
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Episode 243: New X-Men – E Is for Extinction
Superstar writer Grant Morrison updates the X-Men for the 21st century as All My Xs, our decade-by-decade miniseries on Marvel's mega-popular mutant franchise, continues with a discussion of E Is for Extinction – specifically, New X-Men issues #114-117 and #121 – by Morrison, Frank Quitely and Ethan Van Sciver, published by Marvel Comics! It's not a shock that the writer behind Vertigo's The Invisibles would remake the X-Men into a cooler-than-thou team of leather-jacketed badasses. But what might come as a surprise is just how over-the-top dark and edgy this book gets – and that's before an intriguing new villain slaughters an island nation of several million mutants! What is the terrible secret linking Cassandra Nova to Professor X? Does E really stand for "edgelord"? And can the coolest-looking teachers at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning break into that invitation-only faculty lounge known as … The Comics Canon? In This Episode: ·      Curt wonders what "lost in the sauce" means ·      Grant Morrison's X-Men manifesto ·      The Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale, by John Klassen ·      Uncanny X-Men #159 and 160    Join us in two weeks as we mark the spookiest time of the year with a look at The Closet, by James Tynion IV and Gavin Fullerton! Until then:Please consider donating to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Facebook or Bluesky! And as always, thanks for listening!
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Episode 242: Weapon X
After a brief but worthwhile interruption, All My Xs, our decade-by-decade look at Marvel's X-Men franchise, returns with 1991's Weapon X, written and drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith! Originally serialized in Marvel Comics Presents #72-84, this Wolverine story largely focuses on three members of the shadowy Weapon X program, which captures a scrappy loner named Logan, gives him an adamantium skeleton and claws, and turns him into a ruthless killing machine. Will the evil Professor, along with Dr. Cornelius and Carol Hines, suffer any consequences for what they've done? What's the deal with that twist, anyway? And can this popular X-Men-adjacent storyline survive a confrontation with that super-soldier program known as … The Comics Canon? In This Episode: ·      Wait, why does he need an adamantium skeleton, exactly? ·      Moss Introduces Jen to the Internet ·      Curt casts Weapon X ·      Low-Down Road by Scott Von Doviak ·      Conan the Barbarian #16, "The Frost Giant's Daughter" ·      The Whole Wide World Join us in two weeks All My Xs – and the X-Men – roll headlong into the 2000s with Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's New X-Men: E Is for Extinction! Until then:Please consider donating to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Facebook or Bluesky! And as always, thanks for listening!
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Episode 241: A Contract With God (With Elliott Kalan)
Content warning: Sexual assault, pedophilia On this episode, we welcome The Flop House podcast co-host, current Harley Quinn writer and former The Daily Show With Jon Stewart head writer Elliott Kalan for a discussion of the 1978 graphic novel A Contract With God, written and illustrated by Will Eisner! This collection of standalone stories, centered around a fictional tenement building in the Bronx, finds Eisner (perhaps best known as the creator of The Spirit) drawing on his own life to examine the relationship between man and God and the Jewish-American experience in 1930s New York. Can Frimme Hersh, filled with grief and rage following the death of his adopted daughter, draft an unbreakable compact with the Almighty? And can this groundbreaking work enter into a legally binding covenant with that higher authority known as … The Comics Canon? In This Episode: ·      The Tenement Museum  ·      Harley Quinn Vol. 1: Destructive Comics ·      Sadie Mouse Wrecks the House ·      Joke Farming: How to Write Comedy and Other Nonsense Join us in two weeks as All My Xs resumes with a look at Wolverine: Weapon X by Barry Windsor-Smith! Until then:Please consider donating to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Facebook or Bluesky! And as always, thanks for listening! Â
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Episode 240: X-Men – God Loves, Man Kills
Content warning: Gun violence, including against children Our decade-by-decade miniseries on the X-Men, All My Xs, reaches the 80s with a look at the 1982 standalone graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills, by Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson, published by Marvel Comics! The X-Men have faced evil mutants, sinister aliens and even a sentient island, but they may be up against their toughest opponent yet: a white-haired televangelist! The Reverend William Stryker doesn't just preach hatred of mutants to his millions of followers – he also employs a paramilitary strike force known as the Purifiers to hunt them down and kill them in cold blood. When they seemingly kill Professor Xavier, Cyclops and Storm, the rest of the X-Men are left reeling – and on the run for their lives. Can the X-Men find common cause with their arch-nemesis, Magneto? Can they rescue their friends and defeat the Stryker Crusade? And can they survive that Spanish Inquisition known as … The Comics Canon? In This Episode: ·      The evolution of Kitty Pryde ·      The problem with Professor Xavier ·      Holler: A Graphic Memoir of Rural Resistance ·      Weapons ·      The Comics Courier ·    Curt and Kevin discuss their Comics Canon coffee mugs Join us in two weeks as we take a break from All My Xs to discuss Will Eisner's A Contract With God! Until then:Please consider donating to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Impress your friends with our Comics Canon merchandise! Rate us on Apple Podcasts! Send us an email! Hit us up on Facebook or Bluesky! And as always, thanks for listening!
The Comics Canon is the podcast that reads, reviews, and renders judgment on the greatest comic book stories of yesterday and today. Each episode, Curt Holman and Kevin Moreau take a critical and completely subjective look at one of the biggest stories and most seminal moments in the medium's history, as they decide: Does this belong in the pantheon of classic and iconic tales known as ... The Comics Canon?
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