Not too early to wax nostalgic for 2014 yet, is it? Enjoy our reflection of the best from that year!

"It's that time! That time when Justin, Bryan and Billy Z offer up their picks for the best of 2014! Join them as they run down their picks for favorite ongoing, favorite mini-series, favorite writer, favorite artist, favorite single issue, favorite cover, favorite mini-series and their favorite comic related media of the past year! What do they pick for their tops of 2014? Multiversity? Big Hero 6? Saga? Storm? Cyclops? Afterlife with Archie? Ramon Perez? Aaron Kuder? Jonathan Hickman? Charles Soule? Some of these get the nods - some of these don't - you'll just have to listen in to find out which ones.  There is also a talk about DC cancellations, Convergence, the NFL playoffs, Broadway theatre, comics that made them cry, Lootcrate and other tangents and topics! (Explicit warning - once again there are few cases of potty mouth - but you should have heard what they cut out!)

Intro - "Where You Get Love" - Matthew Sweet

1:30 - Best Comic Related Media of 2014 (and Lootcrate)

14:30 - Best Comic Book Cover of 2014

20:06 - Best Artist of 2014

26:00 - Best Writer of 2014

33:38 - Best Single Issue of 2014 (and comic that made us cry and Mutiversity: Thunderworld Adventures)

47:40 - Best Ongoing of 2014

1:05:10 - Justice League United and the Legion/Convergence/DC titles cancelled/Fantastic Four: 1234/Capote in Kansas

1:16:45 - The Woofs of the Week

Outro - "54/40" - Dead Moon

Fair warning: this episode does not contain any comic book talk. As part of the gay community we felt honor bound to talk about the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando last week. What you will get in this episode is a fairly raw discussion between three of our co-hosts (Bill Zanowitz, Bryan Pittard and Steve Mowry) about their feelings and perceptions surrounding the tragedy. Our next episode is a big anniversary for us so the funnybook talk will be back in place then but this episode is what it is. For those of you who do hit download, our deepest thanks in advance for listening.

Intro - "Reflections of You" by Bear in Heaven

Outro - "99 Luftballons" by MC Smike

With three bears (Matt, Bill, Steve) in the den this week, the Comic Book Bears are thrilled to welcome to the show writer Richard Rivera! Richard is the writer of three current series - Stabbity Bunny, Wild Bull and Chipper and the soon-to-be-released Storm Pirates!  Richard provides for us the lowdown on those books as well as his role as the marketing director for Think Alike Productions! The show continues with a tribute to the recently departed Darwyn Cooke and the boys also get in a little bit of current comics talk including a dose of Valiant, Future Quest #1, Midnighter #12, Invincible and more!

Intro - "Reflections of You" - Bear in Heaven
Outro - "Durango 95" - The Ramones

DC Rebirth is an important event! So much so that Justin actually called in from his hospital bed to join Bryan, Steve and Bill to discuss the book! Written by Geoff Johns with art chores by a host of top name talent, DC Rebirth #1 effectively closes the door on the New 52 era and ushers in a new one! Hit download and you get to hear what we thought of it along with the surprising developments seen in Captain America: Steve Rogers #1 and (in unexpectedly truncated form) the season finales of some of the current super-hero based network TV shows.

In this week's episode, all five Comic Book Bears are on hand to welcome to the show for the first time the incredible Sina Grace! A writer and illustrator, some of Sina's past projects include Burn the Orphanage, The Li'l Depressed Boy and Not My Bag among others.  Sina's most recent project is a web series based on his autobiographical graphic novel Self-Obsessed for Image (which he also stars in!) Our conversation with Sina covers the web series and those projects as well as bears, Scar Jo Sailor Moon, penises, more bears, Prince, working as an editor for Robert Kirkman's Skybound imprint, more penises, one particular syndicated comedy from the 1980's, Generation X and even more penises among other topics! (Yeah, we kind of have to give this one an explicit tag!) We had an utter blast talking with Sina and we hope you will have a blast listening in!

Intro - "Reflections of You" by Bear in Heaven

Outro - "92" by Avail

LINKS:

http://www.sinagrace.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/sinadarkcomics

This week, Billy Z, Matt and Steve are jazzed to bring to the show Dale Lazarov for an interview!!! Dale is the writer and art director of numerous gay character-based, sex-positive graphic novels! Dale talks about his process and career, spotlighting a number of his works available through his imprint Sticky Graphic Novels including Bulldogs, Pardners, Peacock Punks, Manly, Sticky (which is celebrating its 10th anniversary) and many others! (Sticky Graphic Novels are published in hardcover by Bruno Gmünder GmbH and in digital format through Class Comics and links for those are below.)

After the interview we get in a little bit of current comic talk, focusing on Midnighter, Ninjak, how we influenced cosmic events with our mention of a 90's crossover on a previous show bearing unexpected fruit and as always closing the show out with our Woofs of the Week!

And fair warning - some explicit language.

http://www.dalelazarov.com/

http://www.stickygraphicnovels.com

http://www.classcomics.com/ccn/product-category/comics-by-series-title/sticky-graphic-novels/

http://www.dalelazarov.com/sticky-graphic-novels-gay-character-based%2c-sex-positive-graphic-novels-in-hardcover-format.html

Intro - "Reflections of You" by Bear in Heaven

Outro - "87" by The Bouncing Souls

Throughout 2016 the Bear Boys will be welcoming a bunch of bear comic book creators for interviews and Billy Z, Justin, Steve and Matt are thrilled to bring on to the show the super talented Jeremy Owen as the first of those hirsute and handsome hombres!!! Jeremy is the creative force behind Bludgeon from his own imprint, Burly Press. Jeremy goes into his history with comics, his collaborations with Greg Freeland II and our own Bryan Pittard, professional wrestling, Legos, his appearance in the movie Paul and a whole lot more!

Afterwards, we get into some comics talk and grab Titans Hunt, Prophet: Earth War,  Faith, Rise of the Eternal Warrior, Injection and retro-pick JSA: The Golden Age off of the spinner rack!

Intro - "Reflections of You" by Bear in Heaven

Outro - "'82" by Stone Sour

Jeremy's Links -

http://www.burlypress.com

http://burlypress.tumblr.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Burly-Press

https://twitter.com/burlypress

https://www.patreon.com/burlyjer?ty=h

The bear boys are thrilled this week to welcome to the show Vivek Tiwary, the author of The Fifth Beatle, the fantastic graphic novel which he wrote with art by Andrew Robinson and Kyle Baker!! The Fifth Beatle is a #1 New York Times bestseller and the winner of two Harvey awards which tells the story of Brian Epstein, the manager of the Beatles. A flamboyant but troubled figure who guided The Beatles to worldwide success, Epstein struggled with his homosexuality at a time before it had been decriminalized in the UK and died from an overdose of sleeping pills at age 32 at a point where The Beatles were at the zenith of their success. Vivek takes us through what attracted him to Epstein's story, the process of creating and developing The Fifth Beatle, plans for a major motion picture as well as other projects he is involved with!

LINKS:

http://thefifthbeatle.com/

http://www.tiwaryent.com/

https://twitter.com/VivekJTiwary

https://www.facebook.com/vivek.j.tiwary

https://www.facebook.com/TheFifthBeatleFilm

MUSIC

Intro - "Reflections of You" - Bear in Heaven

Outro - "The Class of 1973 Bells" - Prefuse 73 with School Of Seven Bells

We all fell in love with them when we saw Barry Bishop propose to Billy Brooks on stage last month at San Diego Comic-Con International. Now we at the Comic Book Bears Podcast are thrilled to bring both Billy and Barry to the show to discuss their Hall H experience, their work in the film industry including Space Station 76 and the upcoming Con Man, their VFX company Mind and Machine, how they developed their interests in geek culture and so much more! Barry and Billy were AMAZING guests: listen in and, we promise, you will be richer for it!

Then stick around as Bill Zanowitz, Justin Allen, Bryan Pittard, Steve Mowry and Matt Brossard soldier on to talk about recent comic based movies (Ant Man, Fantastic Four, Justice League: Gods and Monsters) and comics (Midnighter, Uncanny X-Men, Black Canary, Justice League: Gods and Monsters - Superman, Archie vs. Sharknado and more!)

NOTE: If you are accessing the episode from our the Comic Book Bears iTunes/Libsyn feed, the sound quality may not be up to our usual standards due to space concerns.  If you want to listen to the episode in superior sound, please go to the Earth 2 Network iTunes feed or access the episode directly from the link below:

http://earth2.podbean.com/e/comic-book-bears-podcast-issue-68-with-billy-brooks-and-barry-bishop/?token=7a7c634ce220260c0fd0dce4ec418b86

In the first part of our 65th episode, Jamal Igle makes a return visit after his appearance at our New York Comic Con Super Week show last October to discuss his Kickstarter campaign to help fund the ongoing series of his Molly Danger and the bear boys couldn't be more thrilled! Molly Danger is a super powered 10-year-old-alien girl who protects the city of Coopersville, New York from an army of villains called The Supermechs. Although Molly is an internationally famous super heroine, she is incredibly lonely and isolated from the public by D.A.R.T. (Danger’s Action Response Team) command. Forbidden from having personal contact, she has no friends, no family, and no life outside of being a hero; that is until she meets D.A.R.T. pilot and new partner Austin Briggs and befriends his stepson Brian Hammond.   The ongoing series picks up nine months since the end of Molly's Book One with Molly continuing to break D.A.R.T. protocols as she begins to question what is and what is not real! Jamal also serves as the Vice President of Marketing for Action Lab Entertainment and he fills us in on what to expect from Action Lab in the near future. And if all that weren't enough Jamal also discusses with us his early work in comics, his two year stint on Supergirl, the return of his Venture project with writer Jay Faerber and much more!!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mollydanger/molly-danger-the-ongoing-series

http://www.jamaligle.com/

http://www.actionlabcomics.com/