Time for another new audio episode based on our spotlighting of indie creators on our video livestream! On this episode (recorded on March 7th) we are very pleased to welcome for her first time on the podcast writer Corissa Grant!  Corissa introduces us to her horror comic series, Worthy Chaos: Redemption!! The project just had another successful Kickstarter campaign for issue #9! Steve sits solo in the driver's seat for the interview and chats with Corissa about the fight for survival against destiny and the forces of the underworld in Redemption, her inspirations, building a fanbase, and why terrifying supernatural creatures make such cute plushies! And for the second show in a row, Bill Z joins up late toward the end to talk up some other comics like Spider-Gwen: Smash (Marvel) and AWA's U&I by J. Michael Straczynski & Mike Choi! Hit play and you'll get all this plus Woofs, Gets and more on this (sadly) Caleb-less episode!

One last 2022 Comic Book Bears audio episode for you all! Bill Z, Caleb and Steve are back with you for one more episode before Father Time ushers us into 2023! Listen in as the CBB first cover some of December's big news items such as James Gunn's new role overseeing DC Studios (including the cancellation of Wonder Woman 3 and Henry Cavill hanging up his cape as Kal-El) and Aftershock's filing for bankruptcy.  Then they shift over to the comic talk with Gargoyles #1 (Dynamite), A Vicious Circle #1 (Boom), Batman/Superman: World's Finest #10 (DC), Frank Frazetta's Dawn Attack #1 (Opus), Art Brut #1 (Image) and from a few years back Saucer State (IDW) among the books discussed! We hope you all had a great holiday season and we wish you all the best as we venture into the new year!!

On this latest Comic Book Bears Podcast audio episode, Bill Z and Steve don their Murderino caps and dive deep into Murder Book: A Graphic Memoir of a True Crime Obsession, a wonderful new original GN by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell from Andrews McMeel Publishing. Campbell, who is best known as a cartoonist for The New Yorker, traces the murders that have captivated her through her life, details how this is a generational interest in her family and simultaneously offers up a love letter to her fellow true crime fanatics. Murder Book is a funny, thoughtful, and highly personal blend of memoir, cultural criticism, and true crime with a focus on the often-overlooked victims of notorious killers and provides the best answers yet as to why it can so much fun to read about death and dismemberment! Also we honor the passing of comics legend Neal Adams this past April 28th with our exploration of his life and work. (We are fully aware that you won't be able with the audio version to follow along with the graphics as you would from our livestream so please head over to our Facebook page for a gallery of Neal's art that we discuss.)

HO HO HO!!! It’s the last Comic Book Bears Podcast episode of 2021!! Before we usher in Christmas and the new year, please hit play and join all four CBB boys – Bill, Bryan, Steve and Caleb - for two hours of four color talk! On the news front we talk about Dark Horse being acquired by gaming giant Embracer Group! And on the comic book front we discuss Inferno, Robin and Batman, Regarding the Matter of Oswald’s Body, The Illegitimates, Superman and the Authority, Action Comics, The Thing and much more! We wish all of you the happiest of holidays and a safe and super changing of the calendar year!  We will be on hiatus for a few weeks and will be rejoining you with new episodes in late January 2022!!!

Time for another new Comic Book Bears Podcast audio episode! Recorded on 9/16/2021 the CBB boys are thrilled to welcome back to the show “the koala of comics” David Hazan, the writer of Nottingham from Mad Cave Studios! Nottingham, an amazing reinterpretation of the Robin Hood legend with art by Shane Connery Volk, recently completed its first arc and those five issues are collected in Nottingham Vol. 1: Death and Taxed (available now digitally and in TPB on 11/3!) As seen in this esoteric take on medieval noir, the Sheriff of Nottingham hunts a serial killer with a penchant for tax collectors. His investigation makes him the target of England's most nefarious power-brokers while the Merry Men, terrorists lurking amongst the trees of Sherwood, are led by an enigma known only as "Hood." David talks to us about the collected edition, some of what he has planned next and then joins Bill Z and Steve for an international comic book roundtable!

On this Comic Book Bears Podcast audio episode, Steve and Bill Z turn on the tube and chart the comic book related TV we have seen throughout 2021 so far.  And there is a lot - Superman & Lois, Batwoman, WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Jupiter's Legacy, Lucifer, The Flash, Supergirl, M.O.D.O.K., DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Teen Titans Go!, Invincible, Fear the Walking Dead, Wynonna Earp and even more! So if you are in that boob tube mood, hit play and enjoy!

Join us for the final Comic Book Bears Podcast audio episode of 2020! Bryan, Bill and Steve are back in the bear cave to discuss recent news, talk about their favorite books of 2020 and amazingly each pick a DC book (Dark Nights: Death Metal - The Last Stories of the DC Universe. The Green Lantern: Season Two, Hawkman) in spotlighting a recent fave read.

Hoping that you all had a very happy holiday season and wishing you all a MUCH BETTER year in 2021!

The Comic Book Bears Podcast returns with another episode breaking down what is happening over in Marvel's X of Swords crossover - specifically Wolverine #6, X-Force #13, Maurauders #13 and Hellions #5. Between Storm being a total badass in Wakanda and the introduction of a new, formidable adversary for Logan in the new character Solem there is a lot to chat about. Steve, Bill and Bryan get in some more comic talk spotlighting Penultimateman, Be Gay Make Comics and Hawkman. And framing the comic talk are topics and tangents galore including politics, QAnon, what Bill's dad did in the 70's, HBO's The Vow and much, much more.

(Please also note that on this episode, Bryan is very, very low in the mix. We tried to fix it in the edit but it may require turning the volume up and down a few times. Sorry folks.)

It is a somewhat different Comic Book Bears Podcast this time around as there is isn't a hell of a lot of actual comic book talk but there is a hell of a lot of comic book related talk. Listen in as Bill, Steve and Bryan talk about the TV versions of The Boys and Lucifer, I Am Thinking of Ending Things, The League of Regrettable Sidekicks, Stuck Rubber Baby, Toni Tennille (!), ComiXology's free Black Panther books, many things Dune and offer a fond farewell to Diana Rigg with a discussion about how Emma Peel influenced comics.

We are finally caught up with the Comic Book Bears Podcast livestream vs. audio backlog with releasing this episode! Join Steve, Bill and Bryan for Caleb’s last show as a regular for now! (Pesky law school!) On the spinner rack this time around we discuss Strange Adventures (DC), The Death of Nancy Drew (Dynamite), Dragman (Metropolitan Books), various Free Comic Book Day offerings from Archie, Upshot and Dark Horse and much, much more!

It's just the hosts this week (Bill, Bryan, Steve and Caleb) who have convened for, despite the title of the episode, an indie dominated roundtable. Listen in as the CBB boys discuss Ash and Thorn (Ahoy Comics), Letter 44 (Oni Press), American Jesus: The New Messiah (Image), Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes (IDW), eschatology, Alien and Predator moving over to Marvel, Christian grindhouse films, copyright and the public domain and much, much more!

We are thrilled to welcome back to the show Clifford Meth! Mister Meth is the co-publisher of Aardwolf Publishing and has been fixture in the world of comic book fandom for over 30 years! Cliff was instrumental in reaching settlements for Dave Cockrum, Gene Colan and Marv Wolfman with Marvel regarding participation for the characters and concepts they created! As a writer, his works include Comic Book Babylon and the upcoming Unsuckled! He discusses all of that, his relationships with many other creators along with an in-progress sale of books from Dave Cockrum's personal comic book collection that benefits scholarships at the Joe Kubert School! (Links are below!) After that we find Bill, Caleb,  Steve and Bryan in the newsroom talking about DC's sudden separation from Diamond Distribution and the equally sudden departures of Ruby Rose (Batwoman) and Hartley Sawyer (The Flash) from their respective CW shows. All this and as usual our Woofs of the Week!

http://thecliffordmethod.blogspot.com/

https://thecliffordmethod.blogspot.com/2019/05/dave-cockrum-estate-sale.html

The latest "Quarantina" episode of the Comic Book Bears Podcast finds the CBBoys talking about four books that are currently available for free on ComiXology. The virtual spinner rack for this episode include the first issues of Huck (Image), Vagrant Queen (Scout), The Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion (Dark Horse) and The Seeds (Berger Books/Dark Horse). Apart from that there is some talk of comic shops re-opening, a lengthy MST3K/Rifftrax tangent and some tea being spilled.

We are thrilled to bring back to the show FAN FAVORITE Jack Foster! Join us as Steve, Bryan, Caleb and Bill for almost two hours with Jack to talk about his comic book series Gun, indie comics and their creators, conventions, recent comic news and so much more!

You'll also want to watch the video version as Jack can rock a sailor's hat!

AND as a plus to help our listeners get through lockdown, Jack has made the first volume of Gun available for free!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJEaF2VZM54

https://guncomic.com/

https://guncomic.com/freegunvol1?fbclid=IwAR1Vl3SBJMEEb8Ojq7qZLUyzW_0yoHFDvLrjmTbtUUagQTLWhHboq-IUWSY

We hope you tuned in to our last two video episodes! We are playing catch-up and are now releasing the first of the two episodes in audio form! Listen in as Bryan, Caleb, Bill and Steve provide a re-introduction of themselves and talk about books that they think people who are unaccustomed to comic books might benefit from as their first reads! AND a familiar voice from our show's past makes a surprise appearance!!

Please know that we encountered some audio issues when recorded - this is new terrain for us - and there are parts where the audio gets choppy. (Again, we did our best in the edit!)

The Comic Book Bears are back to four strong for the time being as we are thrilled to announce that Caleb Alexander-McKinzie will be joining us for the duration of our social distancing period. The books that Bill, Bryan, Steve and Caleb discuss this time around include Leviathan Dawn (DC), Howard the Human (Marvel), Fearful Hunter (Northwest Press) and The Three Rooms in Valerie's Head (IDW). Tangents include the virtues of open book vs closed book tests in law school and Alice in Chains. All this plus an expanded Woofs of the Week segment!

Well, we didn't intend to be away for 7 weeks.

Listen in as Steve and Billy Z finally make a return trip to your earbuds to discuss the various announcements that were made at San Diego Comic Con last month. Among them are the Marvel Cinematic Universe slate for the next three years, the Arrowverse in the 2019/2020 television season including Crisis on Infinite Earths, the new group of X-Men books at Marvel, King and Gerard's Adam Strange, trailers, trailers, Watchmen, trailers, armored polar bears, trailers, Zombie Tidal Wave, trailers, Dark Phoenix Barbie and more trailers!

As close as we have ever come to a live episode, join us for a down and dirty AND SPOILER FILLED discussion of the new film Avengers: Endgame that was just hit the movie theaters! It is the 22nd film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise and in its first weekend has grossed over $1.2 billion dollars worldwide.  And to discuss such a huge movie we bring you all the big guns - we have all three co-hosts (Bryan, Bill and Steve) on the mic along with our good friend Caleb Alexander-McKinzie of the Southern Fried Geekery Podcast! In addition to discussing what we thought of the movie, we also make some recommendations regarding some our favorite Avengers stories in comic book form for you to check out! And once again, THIS IS SPOILER FILLED!!! (If you haven't seen the movie yet you might want to table listening to this until after you have.)

Our first episode of 2019 finds Billy Z and Steve discussing Aquaman, the most recent entry in the DC Extended Universe series of films starring Jason Momoa! Listen in as Steve and Billy weigh in on the James Wan directed movie. Beyond the film, the CBBears also talk about the history of Aquaman including reading recommendations from the 60's, 70's, 80's and today including the recent Drowned Earth crossover and the first issue of the new Kelly Sue DeConnick/Ronson Rocha run! We also discuss what comic book based films are coming in 2019, somehow Liza Minnelli works her way into the conversation and we say "Aquabro" a lot!

The Comic Book Bears boys head to the movies this time around! Put those earbuds in and enjoy an hour of discussion about Black Panther! Based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, it is the eighteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and stars Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, and Andy Serkis! Bill, Bryan and Steve offer up their (SPOILER FILLED) opinions about the film that is breaking box office records all over the place! And since it is a comic book based podcast, the CBBears have comic book runs starring Black Panther to recommend! In this episode you will also hear Bryan super excited about his favorite sport now that the Winter Olympics are happening, Bill revealing a film he thinks is better than Superman III, Batman and Robin, Catwoman AND Howard the Duck, and you won't believe the verbal mileage Steve gets out of a 10 page back up story from 1980!

WAKANDA FOREVER!

Billy Z, Justin, Matt and Steve are back this week with an abbreviated episode that still manages to pack in a whole lotta funnybook talk! We hear a little bit about Bill's Chicago adventure at the C2E2 convention along with a healthy dose of Valiant (Archer and Armstrong, Ninja ... um ... Ninjak, Wrath of the Eternal Warrior), Marvel's Infinity Entity by Jim Starlin and Alan Davis and one of the Woofs of the Week leads to some unexpected Doom Patrol talk - which we promise to follow up on at a later date!

 Intro - "Reflections of You" by Bear in Heaven

Outro - "88 Lines About 44 Women" by The Nails

We decided to do something totally different with this episode.  Instead of sticking with our standard format, we instead have all five bears on the mic this time around, without any prep or plan and we just talk. And talk. And talk and talk. About everything!  Sketch comedy TV, Tina Fey, Monty Python, dead pets, Hulk Hogan and racism, gun control, Whitesnake, straight porn movies ... in fact we don't start talking about comics until the end of the episode.  It was a nice break for us and, though it might not be to everyone's liking, we still hope you will check it out!

In this very somber episode of the Comic Book Bears Podcast which was recorded this past November 10th, the raw feelings about the results of United States Presidential election are at the forefront. Bill, Justin and Bryan lay down their thoughts.  Like the Orlando episode we felt it was important to discuss this seismic event. But if you want to skip that part of the discussion, you can go to the 34:22 mark where we actually begin discussing comic books. However politics doesn't end there though as we each provide a politically-based comic series or strip which we would recommend and the choices span from the 80's to the present day. (Or the present-yet-prehistoric day!)

Bill Z of the Comic Book Bears Podcast has launched a new podcast - THE UKPNW@40 PODCAST!

UKPNW stands for United Kingdom Punk and New Wave and the intention of this podcast is to serve as a look and listen back at the amazing music that came out of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland during the period from 1976 to 1979. What Bill will be doing with this podcast, as close as practicality allows, is to celebrate UK punk and new wave record releases, radio and TV appearances, key concerts and other events on their respective 40th anniversaries. Bill fills us in on some of his background and what to expect in the coming months on the podcast.  This first episode examines The Sex Pistols and their debut TV appearance on September 4, 1976.

If you are digging what you hear, like the podcast facebook page, tell friends who you think may also be into a podcast like this and reach out to Bill at ukpnwat40@gmail.com.

https://www.facebook.com/UKPNWat40-Podcast-231229423939957/

The Sex Pistols TV debut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-8x6FxybOY

With the recent release of BvS on DVD and BluRay, this latest Flashback episode from this past March finds all five Bears on the mic to weigh in on the film!

Original show notes: The bears are back to five strong as Billy Z, Matt, Bryan, Steve and Justin are all on this week's episode to talk about a film you just may have heard of. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is director Zack Snyder's follow-up to 2013's Man of Steel and is the second installment in the DC Extended Universe series of films. What do these hairy heavy homos think of Batfleck, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Superman in the bathtub and the other elements of the movie? Listen in to our spoiler filled, spirited discussion to find out!

Very proud to bring this episode back to our listeners, with our interview with the great Peter David!

Original show notes -

We here at the Comic Book Bears Podcast are thrilled to bring to the show the one and only Peter David for an interview! Peter is here to discuss the recently released Avengers Vault from Thunder Bay Press which he wrote in the first half of our show. We go on to discuss Peter's long and distinguished career as a comic book writer, touching on his work with X-Factor, Spider-Man 2099, Hulk, Fallen Angel, his plans with the upcoming Secret wars, film novelizations and much, much, much more! Peter also takes us through his writing process and we even get to hear about a new project he is involved with for the first time!

Afterwards Justin, Steve, Bryan and Billy Z get into the comic and TV talk. We tune in to what is happening on SHIELD, Gotham, Arrow, Flash, Agent Carter and even some Australian (!) small screen goings on. Then we turn to the four color format and yap about about Avengers #42, All-New Hawkeye #1, Spider-Gwen #1, Batman #39, the new Star Wars books from Marvel and, of course, tangents upon tangents.

Intro - Matthew Sweet - "Where You Get Love"

0:49 - Interview with Peter David

47:44 - Post-Interview chat including Photon, DC vs. Marvel, Doctor Strangefate and Amalgam Comics, original art, artists who work digitally, Ramon Perez, Neal Adams, Steranko

57:10 - Comic TV talk including SHIELD's return, Gotham, Arrow, Flash, the DC team show in development at the WB, Helix, Underbelly, Danger 5

1:18:00 - Comic talk including  Avengers, Age of Apocalypse, All-New Hawkeye, Jeff Lemire, Jason Latour, Spider-Gwen, Batman, the abundance of severed hands in the New 52, combo packs and digital codes, Billy Z needs a code buddy, want lists, Bryan manages his whole life with Excel, the Star Wars books from Marvel and more

1:57:03 - The Woofs of the Week

Outro - Chicago Transit Authority - "Poem 58"

LINKS:

http://www.peterdavid.net/

http://www.thunderbaybooks.com/product/Marvel-The-Avengers-Vault,472.aspx

http://www.crazy8press.com/2015/02/07/welcome-to-pangaea

http://www.sbs.com.au/comedy/danger-5

http://www.nerdyshow.com/nerdy-showcase/flame-on/

http://www.captneli.com/

We continue our re=posting of our "missing" episodes with the first appearance of Brother Steve as a regular co-host!

The original show notes provided that "We are very proud to announce that our past guest Steve Mowry is now joining us as a regular co-host! As part of his initiation for his new role, Steve first takes us through some of his favorite things about comic books. Then Billy Z recounts his going to Toy Fair for the first time. Next up Justin and Bryan join in for a discussion about the new Lego DC Comics Super-Heroes movie Justice League vs. Bizarro League. Billy Z attended the NYC premiere screening and you'll hear his interviews with James Arnold Taylor, the voice of The Flash, and filmmakers Brandon Vietti and Jim Krieg. Then some comics related TV talk. Then a whole lotta comics talk - Multiversity: The Mastermen, Nameless, The Black Vortex, All-New X-Men, Marvel's June 2015 Solicits, Ant-Man, Justice League United, Batman, Action Comics, Future's End, Earth 2: World's End, Divinity #1 and Displacement, a graphic novel which maybe made Steve cry."

This week's Comic Book Bears Podcast episode finds Billy Z, Steve and (eventually) Matt talking about two television programs that have been on the minds of many folks these past few weeks.  In one corner you have Jessie Custer, Tulip and Cassidy! In the other, you have Dustin, Eleven and - sigh - Benny! So tune in to our SPOILER FILLED examination of both AMC's PREACHER (based upon the Vertigo series by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon) and STRANGER THINGS from Netflix!

(Yeah, yeah, yeah - we know that STRANGER THINGS isn't really comic book related but sometimes we throw the rules out the window ... and into the Upside Down.)

Intro - "Reflections of You" by Bear in Heaven

Outro - "If I Was a Folkstar" by The Avalanches

Flashback with us to the second time we had the huggable and incomparable Steve Mowry on the show, before he became a regular co-host. (It was after this show was recorded that we decided we are keeping him!)

The CBBears are pleased to welcome back one of their favorite past guests - Steve Mowry - for a 2+ hour comic confab.  First up is an analysis of the recently released DC Universe Animated Movie Justice League: Throne of Atlantis. Then we hit the spinner rack and talk about The Multiversity Handbook, DC's upcoming Convergence event, Avengers, New Avengers, Fantastic Four, All-New X-Factor, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Uncanny Avengers, Valiant's new Timewalker series, Supreme: Blue Rose, the state of Vertigo and Jonathan Hickman's The Dying and the Dead.

Intro: Matthew Sweet - "Where You Get Love"

00:30 - Welcoming back Steve Mowry

02:50 - Throne of Atlantis (Warner Home Video)

28:43 - The Multiversity Guidebook (DC)

47:30 - Convergence solicits (DC)

51:10 - Avengers and New Avengers: Time Runs Out and Fantastic Four (Marvel)

1:06:15 - All-New X-Factor (Marvel)

1:12:20 - Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (Marvel)

1:16:50 - Uncanny Avengers (Marvel)

1:25:00 - Ivan, Timewalker (Valiant)

1:39:58 - Supreme: Blue Rose (Image)

1:45:40 - The state of Vertigo/Secret Origins #6 (Vertigo/DC)

1:54:55 - The Dying and the Dead (Image)

2:01:32 - Previews - Coming Up on the Comic Boook Bears

2:02:40 - The Woofs of the Week

Outro - T.I. - "56 Barz"

LINKS:

www.facebook.com/centrelgbtqa

www.facebook.com/events/621901291175446

www.thebearsinthecity.com

www.nerdyshow.com/nerdy-showcase/flame-on

www.sixgungorilla.com

www.noprofitrecords.limitedrun.com

Flashback with us to the first time we had Steve Lightle on the show!!!

We are very pleased to welcome to the CBB podcast artist extraordinaire Steve Lightle! Steve is here to discuss his new project, the futuristic online comic Justin Zane! Steve also discusses with us other projects he has been involved with in his 30+ year career as a comic book creator including his longtime association with the Legion of Super-Heroes, the late 80's revival of the Doom Patrol, his stints as a regular X-Men and Flash cover artist, the creative process and much, much, much more! It was a thrill to have the opportunity to interview Steve and he was gracious enough to stick around as Justin, Bryan and Billy Z cover recent news concerning Marvel and comic book based TV shows, Agent Carter, Secret Avengers, Mutiversity: Thunderworld Adventures, the Miracleman Annual with a long lost Grant Morrison story, Sixis ... we mean, Axis, a little Beatles talk, The Sandman: Overture #4 and of course Marvel's new Star Wars #1.

LINKS:

http://www.lunatickpress.com/

http://stevelightle.wix.com/justin-zane

 http://www.srdogs.com/

http://marvel.com/comics/unlimited

http://demonpack.com/brett_schmidt_art.shtml

http://www.randomhouse.com/book/222247/words-for-pictures-by-brian-michael-bendis

http://earth2.podbean.com/e/comic-book-bears-special-episode-bronze-age-bears-episode-1-the-argument-for-1973

https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/4vVTd

Intro - Matthew Sweet - "Where You Get Love"

0:30 - Interview with Steve Lightle: Covering Justin Zane!, The Legion, Doom Patrol, cover work and more!

1:14:00 - News about Secret Wars and the Marvel Universe

1:20:00 - Comic based TV show renewals and Agent carter

1:30:00 - Star Wars #1 (Marvel)

1:38:00 - Secret Avengers (Marvel)

1:40:00 - Multiversity: Thunderworld Adventures (DC)

1:44:00 - All-New Miracleman Annual #1 (Marvel)

1:48:00 - Sixis ... we mean, Axis  (Marvel)

1:55:00 - The Sandman: Overture #4 (Vertigo)

2:00:00 - The Woofs of the Week

Outro - The Eagles - "OL' 55"

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/

The Comic Book Bears are back with a special episode where we close the funnybooks for an hour and shift our focus to the silver screen! We are thrilled to have on the show for an interview some of the big names behind the upcoming Bear City 3! Writer/Director Doug Langway and Producer Sam Kite join Billy Z, Justin, Steve and Matt to discuss the Indiegogo campaign to help fund the third and final hilarious installment of the award-winning BearCity Trilogy! Matt pulls double duty on this episode as both a co-host AND a creator as he is drawing the BC 2.5 Graphic Novel, the official BearCity Graphic Novel! BC 2.5 is just one of the many campaign incentives you can choose from when you open up your wallet to help make this project a reality! Listen in as Doug, Sam and Matt take you through what you can expect to see as the BC family heads to camp!

And if you haven't already, click thru to www.bearcity3.com or https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bear-city-3 to find out even more!

After an extended hiatus, Bill Zanowitz and Rob Staeger finally return with another episode that breaks down T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #6, originally published by Tower Comics and cover dated July, 1966.  The action starts with a few selections from the Silver Age spinner rack as Bill and Rob choose, as always, other books they would have picked up that were on the stands at the same time as T Agents #6. Then they dive into the five stories that make up the book including the first NoMan story with art by the legendary Steve Ditko! (In fact, there is A LOT of Ditko talk toward the end of the episode.) This issue finds the T Agents battling a host maybe-not-so legendary villians such as The Red Star, Richard Wizard, Demo Zizaqz The Mighty and Mr. Image! We also gave this episode an explicit warning tag because the guys do let out a couple of cuss words. All this plus ThunderTracks from Nancy Sinatra and Eddie Beram!

As part of New York Comic Con's official Super Week schedule of events, the Bears convened at Rockbar NYC on October 8th, 2014 for their very first live podcast recording! And we have the audio for the event for you! Join us as the three Bear Boys Billy Z, Justin and Bryan welcome special guests Jamal Igle (Molly Danger/Supergirl/IDW's Kiss) and Yale Stewart (JL8/Amazing Adventures of Superman) who stop by to discuss their work. Then Greg Boas (producer of such films as Drew: The Man Behind the Poster and Sexina) and the co-hosts discuss their favorite and least favorite comic book movies.  Our old friend (and birthday boy) Alan "New Mutant" White tells us of his Power Principle trade paperback and it turns out he isn't the only birthday boy in attendance!

A couple of words about the show - Bill apologizes in advance for the number of times you will have to turn down the volume when he is on the mic; fighting voice loss led to WAAAY over compensating on his part.  Also there were other segments to the live show (a Silver Age portion with our friend Bob Joy and a trivia contest) which do not appear on this episode due to issues with the soundboard recording.  We hope to bring you these segments on later shows once we properly address the audio problems.  Despite these unfortunate omissions, we hope you will still enjoy what for us was an unforgettable night!

Intro: Matthew Sweet - "Where You Get Love"

0:30 - The Bears Intros and Current Comic Picks

10:00 - Interview with Jamal Igle

27:12 - Interview with Yale Stewart

40:11 - Greg Boas joins the bear boys to discuss comic book movies

50:20 - Alan "New Mutant" White joins us to discuss The Power Principle and we bring up our birthday celebrating friends

1:00:00 - The Epic Thank Yous!

The long awaited Thundercast Episode 4 is finally here! Bill Zanowitz and Rob Staeger once again take you back to early 1966 to cover Tower Comics' titantic T-Agents! And what an issue it is - The return of Iron Maiden! Mod swastikas! The debut of Lightning! NoMan shoots a dude in the face! Weed smoking at super speed! Dinosaurs in Manhattan! Dynamo tells Alice to leave him alone! Plus Thundertracks from Iron Maiden and Eddie Floyd if that wasn't enough to get you to turn the pages of Issue #4 along with us!

This is the first of a number of special edition episodes when the Bears and their extended family will have a chance to talk about topics outside of four-color funnybook goodness. In this episode regular CBB co-host Bill Zanowitz and past guest and geek culture commentator Chris Cummins spend some time talking toys. You'll get to hear what toys Bill and Chris enjoyed as kids, their history with toys as certified manchildren, toy lines they would love to see exist and a lot more. 

Mego's World's Greatest Super-Heroes! Mattel's Secret Wars! Fisher Price's Adventure People! Kenner's Star Wars! Hugo: Man of a Thousand Faces! Shogun Warriors! Star Trek from Playmates! Defenders of the Earth! Milton Bradley's Duran Duran boardgame! These are just some of the toys we unwrap in this episode! 

The bear boys welcome Steve Bryant, the writer and artist of the adventures of that angelic and adventurous aviatrix Athena Voltaire.  Dark Horse/Sequential Pulp will be releasing the Athena Voltaire Compendium later in the year, collecting Athena's complete adventures and Steve drops in to talk about her publishing history, what to expect next with Athena, his influences and much more.  Plus Billy Z and Steve talk a little football! Then the bears get down to recent comic talk discussing Original Sin, Mike Deodato, John Byrne's Wonder Woman, the influence of comic book movies, Superman in the late 70's, Sensation Comics #1, Future's End, God is Dead: The Book of Acts, Uncanny Avengers, Axis, Attack on Titan, X-Men #18, Star Wars #20 not to mention Bill and Bryan's Washington DC adventure.

Intro: Matthew Sweet - "Where You Get Love"

00:40- The Comic Book Bears welcome Steve Bryant for an interview about the Athena Voltaire Compendium

36:00 - Steve and Billy Z talk football. (Deal with it.)

41:18 - Justin and Bryan manage to get a few questions in for Steve despite interview hog Billy Z

51:00 - Bill and Bryan's Washington DC Adventure

58:20 - Original Sin/Mike Deodato/Wonder Woman

1:05:00 - The influence of movies upon comics/Superman/Guardians of the Galaxy

1:07:29 - Sensation Comics #1

1:11:26 - Future's End

1:14:59 - God is Dead: The Book of Acts

1:18:22 - Uncanny Avengers/Axis/Onslaught

1:27:54 - Attack on Titan

1:32:52 - X-Men #18/Marc Guggenheim

1:39:04 - Star Wars #20/Marvel's Star Wars plans

1:44:20 - The Woofs of the Week

Outro - The James Gang - "Funk 49"

http://stevebryant.weebly.com/

http://stevebryant.deviantart.com/

http://atomictiki.blogspot.com/

The bear boys come back to you with a three-pronged attack in their latest episode!  First up, Billy Z interviews Dave O'Hare and Sal Zurzolo, the co-producers of the Garden State Comic Fest, happening in Morristown, NJ on Saturday, July 23rd.  Dave and Sal discuss the guests and the events at the upcoming convention.  Then Billy takes Dave and Sal through a series of trivia questions about comics. (Wonder what that means?)

After that Justin and Bryan join Billy and Sal to discuss the Guardians of the Galaxy film. Did they like it? (What do you think?)

Then finally Billy Z, Justin and Bryan get down with a cosmic level of new comics talk. Saga, Storm, Rocket Raccoon, Legendary Star Lord, Robin Rises, Low, Afterlife with Archie, The Devilers, G.I. Zombie, New Suicide Squad, Guardians 100th Anniversary, Secret Avengers, Supreme: Blue Rose and more! Plus you come away learning way too much about the underwear preferences of the hosts.

Intro - Matthew Sweet - "Where You Get Love"

1:05      Dave O'Hare and Sal Zurzolo of the Garden State Comic Fest

33:20    Guardians of the Galaxy

1:00:03 Current Comics Talk

1:53:40 The Woofs of the Week

Outro - Suzi Quatro - "48 Crash" 

Links -

http://www.gardenstatecomicfest.com/

http://charlesthurston.com/

http://www.bearbust.org/

http://nerdyshow.com/nerdy-showcase/flame-on/

http://www.bearskn.com/

http://aftertwilightcomics.com/

Get ready for our biggest episode yet!  Over 3 1/2 hours! We had originally planned to get an episode out to you earlier in the month but ... life happens.  So instead enjoy a grizzly-sized double dose.  First, author Clifford Meth returns to the show.  This time Ciff brings along Jim Reeber, his partner in Aardwolf Publishing. Cliff and Jim take us through their Kickstarter campaign for a project involving the late Dave Cockrum's Futurians. (Fitting that we talk Cockrum in an episode we can banner our own Giant-Size #1!) Before his passing, Dave wrote and drew an unreleased Futurians story and Aardwolf's Kickstarter has its sights set on seeing it finally in print! Then geek culture writer and prior guest Chris Cummins rejoins us! Chris and Billy Z recently attended the Marvel Universe Live arena tour in Philadelphia and you get to hear all about it.  It is impossible to have Chris on the show and not talk Archie so you get that as well along with some comic book musical talk. Then Justin and Bryan join Billy Z for comic conversation.  Topics in the final section of the show include #firerickremender, Captain America, Original Sin, Fantastic Four, All-New Invaders, All-New Doop, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Flash CW pilot, Superman:Doomed, Adventures of Superman, Infinity Man and the Forever People, Batman 66 vs. The Green Hornet, Dead Boy Detectives, The Private Eye, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and more!

INTRO: "Where You Get Love" - Matthew Sweet

0:25 - Introductions and Explanations

2:14 - Clifford Meth and Jim Reeber of Aardwolf Publishing talk The Futurians

55:05 - Chris and Billy Z talk Marvel Universe Live

1:51:10 - #firerickremender, Jet, Falcon, Captain America and much more Marvel

2:47:30 - The Guardians of the Galaxy preview and the CW pilot for The Flash

2:59:01 - Superman: Doomed, Adventures of Superman and more DC/Vertigo

3:17:40 - Vaughn and Martin's The Private Eye

3:22:45 - Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (A Woofs of the Week false start)

3:25:41 - The Woofs of the Week

OUTRO - Jack Hylton Orchestra - "Forty-Seven Ginger Headed Sailors"

Bill Zanowitz and Rob Staeger have returned to analyze T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #3, originally published by Tower Comics and cover dated March, 1966.  And what do we get in this issue? Dynamo vs. The Subterraneans! NoMan vs. Vibraman! Dynamo vs. The Red Dragon! The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Squad vs. gray make-up! And best of all - Menthor vs. Dynamo! We also cover what was on TV and what comics were on the spinner rack at the same time T-Agents #3 was on newsstands.There are also tangents galore to enjoy in this one as well, ranging from Northern Soul, Bill's grandfather and Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid!

Billy Z, Bryan and Justin are joined by guest bear and fan of the show Steve Mowry!  Steve and Bryan recently attended HeroesCon where Bryan presented a panel about gay characters with Los Brothers Hernandez (Love and Rockets), Terry Moore (Strangers in Paradise, Echo, Rachel Rising) and Kate Leth (Kate or Die!, Bravest Warriors). Bryan covers how the panel was put together and how it went down coupled with other con stories from Bryan and Steve. Billy Z was also in attendance at the inaugural Special Edition NYC from Reed Pop as well as the latest AnimeNext convention.  In keeping with the subject matter of the latter, all four bears offer their recommendations of anime and manga that they like.  They round it out with a small splash of current comics talk and, best of all, we got hate mail!!! 

Billy Z, Bryan and Justin are back together in the comic bear den.  First up, a little X-Men: Days of Future Past talk.  Then it is a big 'ol helping of current comic book talk which includes Forever Evil, Teen Titans, Superman: Doomed, Batman/Superman, Earth 2, Future's End, Firestorm, The Wake, Secret Origins, Cyclops, Amazing Spider-Man, Afterlife with Archie, C.O.W.L., Prophet, Velvet and Thanos Annual #1 (sort of). Then the mega funny and uber sexy Brad Taylor of Warner Brothers Studios Tours joins in on the fun to discuss the Batman at 75 tour of the studio that Brad has initiated.  He talks with us about what you can expect to see if you go on the Batman tour, the Warners lot, the Conan and Ellen shows (both of which Brad also works for) and so much more! Let's just say the second half involves cameos from Madonna, Darla from The Little Rascals and Optimus Prime (sort of).

A final word about this episode.  We were dogged with technical issues left and right when we recorded.  There were a couple of dropouts. (Lying - MANY dropouts.) We edited all of it together but left a portion of the nods to the dropouts in for poops and giggles. Enjoy!

Intro - "Where You Get Love" - Matthew Sweet

1:06 - Days of Future Past

13:29 - Forever Evil Wrap-Up

25:23 - Teen Titans Annual #2

30:00 - Superman: Doomed

35:43 - Batman/Superman #10

37:41 - Earth 2

41:40 - DC Weekly Books and Firestorm

47:46 - The Wake

51:24 - Secret Origins #2

53:00 - Original Sin

1:00:46 - Cyclops and the other X books

1:08:00 - Amazing Spider-Man #2/Amazing Spider-Man: Learning to Crawl

1:10:02 - Thanos Annual #1 (sort of)

1:12:13 - Afterlife With Archie #5

1:14:31 - Image - Prophet, C.O.W.L. and Velvet

1:18:56 - We bring on special guest Brad Talylor

1:41:09 - The Woofs of the Week

Outro - "45" - Elvis Costello

As Brother Bryan is sequestered on the job, Billy Z and Justin start the show off with a terrific interview with writer Clifford Meth. Cliff has compiled a series of his past columns about the comic book industry into Comic Book Babylon, out now from Aardwolf Publishing. Cliff takes us through his history in comics and his advocacy for creators rights, why he decided to put together Comic Book Babylon and where he thinks the industry is at today.  Dave Cockrum, Gene Colan, Stan Lee, Neal Adams, Harlan Ellison and many other figures work their way in and out of our conversation. Cliff also discusses what's coming up from Aardwolf Publishing, the continuing sale of Dave Cockrum's comic book collection and hella more!

The show wraps up with a discussion about comic books that were cancelled before their time in light of the recent New 52 cancellations from DC. Listen in as the bear boys offer up their picks for brilliant-but-cancelled books which had the axe fall on them way too soon such as Captain Britain and MI-13, Agents of Atlas, Fearless Defenders, O.M.A.C., The Thing, The New Invaders and more.

Links to Clifford Meth's work

http://thecliffordmethod.blogspot.com/

http://aardwolfpublishing.com

And if when you buy Comic Book Babylon, make sure you purchase it directly from Aardwolf!

And because we love you, here is the full episode breakdown -

Intro - "Where You Get Love" - Matthew Sweet

1:11 - Introducing Clifford Meth and what Comic Book Babylon is all about

2:41 - Clifford's first comic book experiences

4:18 - Cliff's original art collection

5:19 - The inspiration behind putting together Comic Book Babylon and the pitfalls of creators from the Silver and Bronze Age

15:37 - Harlan Ellison and Neal Adams

18:53 - Dave Cockrum and Gene Colan

27:57 - Artists who have had 2nd or 3rd "acts"

31:43 - Where Clifford thinks the comic book market is at and how the industry has changed

36:90 - Aardwolf Publishing

41:29 - Selling Dave Cockrum's comic book collection

45:38 - Creator credits, Stan Lee and more

1:02:39 - DC Cancels six New 52 titles and comic books that died before their time

1:06:54 - Captain Britain and MI-13

1:09:13 - The New Invaders

1:12:00 - Agents of Atlas

1:16:03 - Justice Society of America (1992)

1:19:49 - Fearless Defenders 

1:23:05 - The Thing

1:24:10 - O.M.A.C.

1:27:40 - Man-Bat

1:34:01 - The Woofs of the Week

Outro - The Zombies - "Care of Cell 44"

Bill Zanowitz and Rob Staeger return to cover T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #2, cover dated February 1966.  Hear all about the terror that is Dynavac, a big reveal about The Warlord, Dynamo's love interest, Mr. Fong, the Junior T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, NoMan's cloak in Newfoundland, and the best mutated fish-man of all time! All that plus Thundercorn, Rob's wife Kathy makes a brief cameo appearance and we let you know what you should ask Rob Liefeld to sketch.

The Comic Book Bears are very pleased to welcome Kyle Schmidt to the show for the first time!  Kyle is the comic book editor at Milwaukee’s Crimespree Magazine. Both Kyle and Billy Z attended the C2E2 convention in Chicago recently and they both recount their con experiences.  Billy also talks about the Batman at 75 program at the Paley Center in NYC that he went to.  After that the bears all join in for some Free Comic Book Day and Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie talk. Then they shift over to current comics talk, hitting on DC’s Future’s End, Shutter from Image, Batman: Eternal, Southern Bastards #1, Cyclops #1, Amazing Spider-Man #s 1 and 1.1 and Dan Slott, Black Science, Rick Remender, Original Sin, Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man , Stormwatch #30, Secret Origins #1 and lots more.  The show is end capped as always with our Woofs of the Week.

Also this episode marks the first of our Semi-Annual Bob Joy Drinking Game episodes! Take a shot every time you hear us bring up Bob Joy. Follow this instruction and you will be hammered by the end of the ep!

Intro – Matthew Sweet – “Where You Get Love”

0:00:25 – Bears Intro and Welcome Guest Kyle Schmidt

0:03:53 – Kyle’s Experiences and Interviews at C2E2 and Crimespree Magazine

0:09:02 – Billy’s Experiences at C2E2

0:17:51 – Billy at the Batman at 75 Program at the Paley Center in NYC

0:20:26 – The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Movie Talk

0:37:40 – Free Comic Book Day

0:51:58 - DC’s Future’s End and other FCBD books

1:09:13 – New comic talk starts off with Shutter (Image), Rachel Rising/Strangers in Paradise, Ms. Marvel

1:16:04 – Batman: Eternal, Southern Bastards #1, Cyclops #1

1:26:00 - Amazing Spider-Man #s 1 and 1.1 and Dan Slott

1:36:00 – Black Science, Rick Remender, Uncanny Avengers

1:44:37 – Original Sin and Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man #1

1:55:00 –Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

1:58:36 – Stormwatch #30 and Secret Origins #1

2:01:32 – The Woofs of the Week

Outro – Jethro Tull – “Hymn 43”

Justin, Bryan and Billy Z are back together in the bear den for the first time in a while! Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Marvel's Agents of SHIELD dominates the opening part of the cast, then they switch over to current comic talk, rapping about the current Cap books by Rick Remender, Uncanny Avengers, Magneto, All-New X-Men, Nightcrawler, All-New X-Factor, Inhuman, Daredevil, Action Comics, Supergirl, Batman and Wonder Woman, Batman: Eternal, Batgirl, Earth 2, The Wake, Trillium, Molly Danger by Jamal Igle, Iron Bound by Brendan Leach, curling, RuPaul's Drag Race and transphobia and much more.

Through the course of the episode we discover that Bryan has a thing for Lana Lang and that Justin is a Pumpkin Pounder. (If you don't know what that is, well you'll just have to listen in.)

Billy Z and past guest Bob Joy are joined by Chris Cummins for an Riverdale-riffic episode. Chris is a geek culture writer for Den of Geek US, Topless Robot and Geekadelphia and he also hosts the Nerd Nite Philadelphia events.  Chris has hosted a number of trivia events in the past.  He serves in the same function here with a trivia contest between Bob and Billy.  Chris is also an Archie Comics expert and the conversation turns to a lengthy discussion of all things Archie, past and present. Life with Archie, Sabrina, Jughead's Diner, The Fox, Kevin Keller, Cosmo the Merry Martian, Josie and the Pussycats, Afterlife with Archie - they're all in there and much, much more! Then we get into new comics talk including Animal Man, 50 Girls 50, Daredevil, The Joker: The Clown Prince of Crime, All-New Invaders, Silver Surfer, Justice League of America and more. The episode is closed out, as always, with our Woofs of the Week!

And Billy overuses the word "affection" - might make for a good drinking game!

Bill Zanowitz of the Comic Book Bears and Rob Staeger are the hosts for a new podcast about one of the coolest concepts from the Silver Age of Comics - The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents!! Rob and Bill will be conducting an issue by issue examination covering the entire history of the super-heroic espionage team, from its beginnings in 1965 to the current book published by IDW. On this first episode, the spyglass is focused firmly on T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1, published by Tower Comics and cover dated November 1965. Hear all about how Dynamo, NoMan and Menthor came into being as we discuss tales crafted by such comic greats as Wally Wood, Reed Crandall, Gil Kane, George Tuska and Mike Sekowsky. 

This episodes T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Tracks -

The Blasters "Samson and Delilah"

Duran Duran - "Sound of Thunder"

Billy Z and Justin welcome the amazing Wendi Freeman to the Comic Book Bears Podcast for a rockin' crossover episode with Wendi's Double Page Spread podcast!!! In the first of a two episode crossover, Wendi and the bears talk about rock and roll related comics from the 50s to the 80s. On the turntable - The Beatles, The Originals, The Defenders, Korn, Wings, Matt Wagner, The Micronauts, The Archies, Josie and the Pussycats, Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, the Josie and the Pussycats movie, Riot Grrrl Josie and the Pussycats (we wish), KISS, John Romita Jr., Teen Titans, Alice Cooper, rock stars who freaked us out as kids, Dazzler, more Dazzler, even more Dazzler, Shrapnel, Sonic Disruptors, Steeltown Rockers, Rock and Roll Comics, Todd Loren and Revolutionary Comics, The Plasmatics, Dan DiDio impressions, Undertow from Image, True Detective, Patrick Cox, Legands of the Knight and tangents galore!  And this is just the beginning - check out Wendi's Double Page Spread Podcast for the second part soon!

INTRO - Matthew Sweet - "Where You Get Love"

0:42 - Introducing Wendi

1:45 - The Boob Toob Podcast Promo

2:54 - Wendi tell us how she got into comics and her podcast

6:00 - Image to Grunge

7:13 - Early developments with rock and roll comics, Pat Boone and The Beatles

8:38 - Associating comics to rock performers

13:57 -The Archies and Josie and the Pussycats

19:14 - The 1970's - KISS, Alice Cooper, Teen Titans #46

26:46 - Dazzler

38:48 - The 1980's - Dave Wyndorf, Sonic Disruptors, Steeltown Rockers, The unauthorized and proud of it Rock and Roll Comics

49:05 - Woofs of the Week

Outro - U2 - "40"

Brother Bear Justin is still on the mend from his most recent surgery so filling his corner of the den this time around is James Figueiredo of the amazing Brazilian online community Bear Nerd! We start off with James taking us through the comic scene in Brazil, some of his all-time favorite books, Bear Nerd, Grizzly and the Bear Patrol (which weaves a little bit into the upcoming Crime Fighter Inquiry) and comic translations. Then it's a whole lotta comic book and comic creator talk with James, Bryan and Billy Z - The Trial of Jean Grey, Amazing X-Men, X-Factor, X-Force, the Avengers books, She-Hulk, Fantastic Four #1 and Leonard Kirk, James Robinson, Leave It To Chance, Miracleman #3, Forever Evil #6, Action Comics #29, the First Contact crossover, Forever Evil: Blight, Injustice: Gods Among Us Year Two, Wonder Woman, Starlight, Jupiter's Legacy, King's Watch, Mark Lanning, Archer and Armstrong, Loki: Ragnarock and Roll, classic Justice League International, The Wake, Zombie Killer Rex and much more!

It's an especially schizophrenic episode this time round. Our bi-weekly bear blabfest covers a whole lot of ground - Charles Soule's Strange Attractors and She-Hulk, Mike Allred, lawyers who write comic books, Ms. Marvel, Justice League, Batman, weekly comics (Action Comics Weekly, 52 and more), Scooby Doo Team Up, Looney Tunes, Batman: The TV Stories, Lil' Battlestar Galactica, Bergen Street Comics scaling back on carrying monthly titles from the Big 2, Miracleman, Marvelman, more Miracleman, even more Miracleman, The Lego Movie, Justice League 3000 and wrapping up with our Woofs of the Week (and some unexpected parrothead talk!)

INTRO - Matthew Sweet - "Where You Get Love"

0:52 - Charles Soule's Strange Attractors (Archaia) and She-Hulk #1 (Marvel)

21:13 - Mike Allred and cartoony art styles

27:47 - Lawyers Who Write Comic Books

28:44 - Ms. Marvel #1 (Marvel)

36:00 - Justice League #28 (DC)

38:00 - Batman #28 (DC)

40:50 - Weekly Comics (Action Comics Weekly, 52, Countdown and more.)

50:14 - Sccoby-Doo Team-Up #2 (DC)

52:15 - Looney Tunes #217 (DC)

53:48 - Batman: The TV Stories TPB (DC)

53:43 - Lil' Battlestar Galactica (Dynamite)

58:15 - Bergen Street Comics' decision to cut back on carrying DC and Marvel monthlies

1:07:00 - Miracleman #s 1 + 2 (Marvel) and the history of Marvelman

1:28:12 - The Lego Movie

1:37:07 - Woofs of the Week - including Bill Mantlo, Flame On!/Drag is the New Spandex, Music on the Bay 2014 and Tell God to Blow the Wind from the West (Oily Comics)

Former DC collections editor Bob Joy joins us once again for a spirited discussion about the Silver Age of Comics! With Bryan about to get his Silver Age on by reading the Steranko S.H.I.E.L.D. collection, the other bear boys take us through their favorites from this era in comics. Jimmy Olsen! Curt Swan! The Brave and the Bold! Fanastic Four! Arnold Drake! Tales of the Bizarro World! Wally Wood! Mighty Crusaders! Dick Dillin! The White Suit Wonder Woman! Alex Toth! Challengers of the Unknown! Roy Thomas! The Inhumans! Jack Kirby! Millie the Model! Steve Ditko! T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents! And that's just scratching the Silver Age surface! After that, some new comics talk with RASL, Fury Max, Charles Soule and Strange Attractors, Code Monkey Save World, All-New X-Factor, Superior Spider-Man, the Green Lantern/Red Lanterns flip book, Earth 2 Annual #2 and more in the CBB spotlight.  All this plus the bears being bears and "guest" appearances by Lisa Rinna and Joan Rivers.

This time around we find only Billy Z and Bryan in the comic bear den (as Justin continues to hibernate) and they offer up a very loose and lo-fi episode. Discussion topics this time around include author and NPR contributor Glen Weldon, Mid-Atlantic Leather and other gay leather events (stick with us - there is a super-hero connection), All-New X-Factor, All-New Invaders, Jonathan Hickman's S.H.I.E.L.D. and unfinished mini-series, Boom's The Foundation, Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Cry of Shadows, Star Wars #13, Robotech/Voltron. Doc Savage, The Saviors, Green Arrow, buying back issues, Miracleman, illegal downloads of comics, gaps in our reading, DC's cancellations and the state of DC (just guess where that goes) and a new feature - The Woof of the Week.

There weren't a lot of new books to discuss when we joined together on the mic early last week so the bear boys decided to talk about their all-time favorite comic book based movies, live action and animated series.  The recipe also called for a dash of overrated and worst comic book movies along with rehashing some celebrity encounters.  But we weren't going to give you a show completely devoid of comic book talk so you'll hear what we think about the Marvel 2014 teasers and recent Batman books.  Then Billy Z, Bryan and Justin talk ... sports!?!?! Warning - some explicit language. (But you already knew that.)

INTRO - OCEAN COLOUR SCENE - "You've Got It Bad"

01:55 - Intro and our favorite comic book based movies

17:50 - Overrated comic book movies

23:55 - Great scenes from comic book based films

25:57 - Least favorite comic book films

27:55 - Favorite comic book based live action series

39:35 - Celebrity encounters

52:40 - Favorite comic book based animated films

1:05:55 - Current comic book talk - Marvel 2014 teasers, Detective Comics #27, Batman: The Dark Knight #26, Legends of the Dark Knight #s 42 - 47

1:15:20 - Shout outs and salutes

OUTRO: KARMA TO BURN - "35"

In our final episode for 2013, Billy Z, Bryan and Justin are pleased to welcome Ed Catto of Captain Action Enterprises to the show! Captain Action has a special place in history as being the very first super-hero action figure.  Ed takes us through the history of the character and his appearances in comic books past and present, including the current Codename Action mini-series written by Chris Roberson and published by Dynamite Entertainment. Ed is also a partner and co-founder of the Bonfire Agency, a marketing firm centered around helping companies connect directly with genre markets. And since we are close to the holidays, favorite comic-related yuletide gifts work their way into the conversation.

In the second part of the episode, the bear boys go through their favorites of 2013. Uncanny Avengers. Avengers Arena. Forever Evil. Saga. Hawkeye. Batman. The Fifth Beatle. Captain Midnight. All-New X-Men. Jonathan Hickman. Brian Michael Bendis. Charles Soule. Matt Fraction. Chip Zdarsky. Ramon Perez. David Aja. Chris Samnee. Afterlife with Archie. Injustice. Something Terrible. Will any of these be among our favorites? Well, you'll just have to listen in to find out! (And see if you can catch where Bill invents a new word to describe the people who put pencil to paper to draw the pretty pictures.)

Brother Bryan is out celebrating so Billy Z and Justin welcome William Lindus from the Movie Bears Podcast to the CBBears Den to fill the third seat! Will lets us in on his history reading comics then we get into current comics talk.  You'll hear us rap about Saga, Earth 2, Forever Evil, Year Zero, Animal Man, Scooby Doo Team Up, Fearless Defenders, Avengers Arena, Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe (... again), X-Men: Legacy, Hawkeye, Amazing X-Men, Infinity, Inhumanity, The Fifth Beatle, the trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Gal Gadot cast as Wonder Woman, Alan Moore and Watchmen.  All this plus a huge tangent about lousy haircut and facial hair choices in our collective past, Justin thinks Watchmen is boring and the movie was better, Bill can't pronounce "Moira Queen" to save his life and this episode is probably the only time you will hear Alan Moore being compared to Faye Dunaway.

A word about the sound quality - for some reason when we recorded Bill was way over modulated and Will was a bit under modulated.  We fixed it as best as we could in the mix to mono.  If it is distracting, we still hope you will stick around because we think we get into some quality funny book conversation.

The CBBears are pleased to have special guest Paul Kupperberg on for an interview during the first hour of our latest episode!  Paul is currently the writer of the best selling Life with Archie magazine from Archie Comics.  He also authored the first young adult prose novel featuring Kevin Keller.  Paul has written over 900 stories for Marvel, Charlton, 2000 AD, Bongo and most prominently for DC Comics, where he created Checkmate and Arion, Lord of Atlantis.  We touch on all of these as well as Paul's new novel from Crazy 8 Press, The Same Old Story and other upcoming projects.  Then the boys get into some new comic talk.  Wanna hear what we think about Afterlife with Archie #2, Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe, Green Lantern Corps #25, Harley Quinn #0, Captain Midnight, Triple Helix, X-Men: Gold, Rocket Girl and other recent books? Then listen in. (EXPLICIT WARNING - yeah, we let out a few cuss words here and there, shame on us.)

Collected editions are up first in the episode as Billy Z, Justin and Bryan are joined by former DC Comics collected editions editor Bob Joy! Bob offers up his insights into collected editions and discusses his experiences editing various books during his tenure at DC. Then we shift over to news of DC's move to Burbank and the passing of Nick Cardy.  From there we go into current comic talk, discussing Battle of the Atom, Infinity and Amazing X-Men from Marvel, Sex Criminals and Velvet from Image and DC's Forever Evil. At various points in the cast you will also hear us discuss tranny Jimmy Olsen, Spooky Bear in Provincetown, the Skip Ender's Game events, Greg Rucka, DC Showcase Presents releases, Supergirl as a teen model, the late 70's New Gods revival by Gerry Conway and Don Newton, The Adventures of Superman radio show, Ed McGuinness, Afterlife with Archie and a helluva lot more.

In the mood to play a drinking game as you listen? Then take a shot every time Billy Z says "esoteric".

Billy Z, Bryan and Justin are joined this time by a host of straight guys for a wrap up of New York Comic Con 2013! Lonnie Ruland of New World Manga, The Line it is Drawn and Back Issue magazine contributor John Trumbull and Rob Staeger of The Village Voice join Billy for a rundown of their con experiences.  Then the whole gang joins in, first for a talk about growing up on Saturday morning TV in honor of the passing of Lou Scheimer then they hit the spinner rack for dem funny books! IDW Artists Editions, Code Monkey Saves World, Jules Feiffer, Dan DiDio, Jason of Star Command, Sex Criminals, Green Arrow #24, Jupiter's Legacy, Ark II, Letter 44, Afterlife with Archie all get discussed along with so much more! There's a little bit of football talk - yes Virginia, there are gay men who like football - and ... wait for it ...  Monchhichis!!!

The bear boys welcome author and columnist Charles Baserap.  Charles is a regular contributor to forcesofgeek.com and nerdtopiacast.com and he takes us through some of his interests in comics and topics of recent columns.  After that, the discussion turns to Marvel's Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series and some other genre TV talk, Dean Trippe's Something Terrible, DC Villains Month, the latest Infinity and X-Men goings on at Marvel, Mike Carey and The Unwritten and quick takes on Sex Criminals, Jupiter's Legacy, Sidekick, The Star Wars and Kings Watch.  And this episode is closed out by our uncoolest outro music yet.

In our latest episode the bear boys welcome Rob Kelly, author of the new book HEY KIDS! COMICS, a great collection of contributions from a varied set of essayists discussing how comic books played a significant role in their lives. In addition to the book Rob also discusses ACE KILROY, a webcomic he writes.  And as Rob is the force behind the AQUAMAN SHRINE website, you know Billy Z wasn't going to have Rob guest on the show without some Arthur Curry talk.  After that, Bryan, Justin and Billy Z shift over to current comics with The Young Protectors webcomic, Battle of the Atom, Infinity, DC Villains Month books (including some talk about the hot bears of the New 52), X-Men Legacy, X-O Manowar and Eternal Warrior each getting their time in the spotlight.  You can hear all this plus, for once, the boys somehow do not venture off into Explicit Contentville! 

The Comic Book Bears boys are back with their first episode as part of the Earth 2 Podcast Network! First up, the guys reintroduce themselves then immediately cross over to crossover talk.  Bryan, Justin and Billy Z weigh in on the current big events from the Big 2 - Infinity, Forever Evil, Trinity War and Battle of the Atom.  Captain America, Thor: God of Thunder, Batman Incorporated, JH Williams leaving Batwoman, DC editorial woes, and the Relic and Joker books from Villains Months then get their turn in the spotlight.  Lastly, Justin and Billy Z tell of their experiences at Baltimore Comic Con. There's a lot of spoilers, a little bit of cussing and a whole lot of superhero talk in this one!

Billy Z, Justin and Bryan come back atcha with 90+ minutes about what's going on over in the Big 2's team books these days. The Avengers, Justice League, X-Men, Legion and Green Lantern Corps families of titles each get their time in the spotlight, touching  on the New Universe, Hunger, Constantine, Injustice: Gods Among Us and What If: AVX in the process. After the team talk subsides Thor: God of Thunder, Batman/Superman, Captain America, Batman 66, Satellite Sam and Hawkeye Annual #1 each go under the hirsuite homo microscope. All this plus shout-outs to Earth 2 Podcast, Flame On!, Furgasm, Victor Dandridge's 8-Bit Challenge and Bergen Street Comics.  And ... weight loss discussions?

EXPLICIT CONTENT (Yup, there's one or two cuss words in the mix from these potty mouths.)

Your bear boys Justin, Bryan and Billy Z are back with a new episode! First up, Man of Steel gets the Comic Book Bears once over. After that, our first guest straight bear Lonnie Ruland of the excellent New Jersey shop New World Manga joins the discussion to talk about news from the DC Retailers Roadshow he attended. Lonnie and Bill were both in attendance at the recent AnimeNEXT convention in NJ and they discuss their con experiences.  The con talk continues with Bryan's experiences at HeroesCon which include his moderating a Kicstarter panel. DC Villains Month, Vertigo, digital comics, Neal Adamas, Jim Steranko and the History of Comics, Scooby Doo team-ups, The Carter Family: Don't Forget This Song, the connection between rock and roll and comics, Brian Epstein, Fearless Defenders, The End Times of Bram and Ben, Mind the Gap and Justice League of America's Vibe - they are all in the mix here. Lastly, this episode is dedicated to the memory of Patience Michael Allen.

Justin is back ... and bionic!  What's on the docket with all three of our boys back in the den? Let's see - Bill visits Bryan in Orlando, Beareoke, A Comic Shop, Paul McCartney and seeing acts kick off tours in Florida, Justin under the knife, Uncanny Avengers, Rogue, Wasp (Slutty Jan), Wonder Man, the rest of the current Avengers world, "Pushing Justin Buttons",  Hickman's Fantastic Four and FF, X-Men #1, Green Lantern #20, Robert Venditti, Legion of Super-Heroes, LEGO Batman - The Movie: DC Super Heroes Unite, Superman Unbound, Supergirl #20, Jae Lee, Simonson's run on Fantastic Four, the Harras era Avengers, All-Star Superman, Sandman, Doctor Who, Len Wein's Justice League of America, the Christine Spar Grendel, Fear Itself, classic X-Men Crossovers, Atlantis Attacks, Operation Galactic Storm, Millennium, Day of Judgment, Our Worlds At War, Acts of Vengeance, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., Armageddon 2001, Days of Future Present, Private Eye, Low Concept 3 (and how it can be hazardous to your health), Injustice: Gods Among Us for the iPad, Marvel video games, Daredevil #26, the writers of 52, HeroesCon, Ryan Browne, Deborah Cox (if just to prove we are still gay men), a secret identity reveal on Flame On, Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Bill owns how many DC Comics?

As Brother Justin deals with a rainy ride home, this time around it is only Billy Z and Bryan occupying the bear den. A two hour long gabfest revolving around Bill's time at C2E2, b-one #7 by Bobgar Ornelas, 3-D comics, Steve Bryant, Steed and Mrs. Peel, Captain Britain, digital comics, Marvel Masterworks and Omnibus editions, Mattel Retro-Action figues, Burt Ward and Julie Newmar, Star Wars: Legacy, The Bible 2, Free Comic Book Day, Infinity, Oni's The Strangers, Captain Midnight, The Stuff of Legend, Age of Ultron, Bryan Hitch, Captain America, Cable and X-Force, Daredevil, Iron Man, Superior Spider-Man, Detective Comics #19, Action Comics #19, Animal Man, Parker and Samnee's Adventures of Superman, Batman Incorporated, Jupiter's Legacy, East of West, Lost Vegas, JMS, Movie Bear Podcast, Kickstarters from Jontahan Coulton and I See Dragons, Charlie Harding, Husker Du and the sheer awesomeness of Wendi Freeman and the Double Page Spread Podcast!

Billy Z, Bryan and Justin are back with a convention centered ep with a healthy dose of Star Wars talk!  Justin went to the Tri-State Comic Con in Huntington, West Virginia as Bill headed to Asbury Park Comic Con in his home state of New Jersey and they fill us in on meetings, purchases and going on.  Then Bryan joins in on the current comic talk.  East of West #1, Batgirl #19 and the trans reveal, Billy Tucci, Dia De Los Muertos, All-New X-Men, Ambush Bug, Sam Ita's amazing pop up books, Ace Kilroy, ModHero, Age of Ultron, Superior Spider-Man #6AU, Guardians of the Galaxy #1, Star Wars: Legacy, Injustice, Hawkeye, DC's upcoming villains month, No Gods and Dustin Carson, Karate Kid, Dan DiDio, Brian Wood's Star Wars, Adhouse Books - they're all in there.  Plus, why Batman and Red Robin #19 brought out Grumpy Bill.

Bryan offers up his tales of this year's MeganCon in Orlando with Dean Cain, Neal Adams, Barret Biggs, Charlie Thurston, Benjamin Butler, Rod Roddenberry and (surprise) Ramon Perez working their way into the mix.  Afterwards we discuss the changes to Adventures of Superman #1, get into some X-Men talk (All-New X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine, 80's Captain Britain by Alan Davis), Action Comics #18, Nova #2, Rom and the Spaceknights, Marvel events, disagreement on Fearless Defenders, Batman & Robin #18, the original end sequence for Batman Inc. #8, Lost Vegas, Thor: God of Thunder, Manhattan Projects, The Private Eye, Doctor Who comics, Winter Soldier #15, Peter Cannon Thunderbolt #6, the awesomeness of The Rocketeer, Comixology freebies, Asbury Comic Con, It's a Bird It's a Plane It's Superman, the Earth-2 Podcast and a look back at comics from 1993. All that plus Kickstarters (Veronica Mars, Alan White's Power Principle) that we are keeping our eyes on and our dream pieces of original art.

The new episode starts off with a more indie vibe than usual with Billy Z and Bryan covering Prophet, Red Team, Lost Vegas, Sex, Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror, The Shadow:Year One and the wrap up of Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson's Happy.  Then Justin joins in and the boys pull Batman Inc #8, Legion of Super-Heroes #17, the first issues of Justice League of America and Vibe, Hellblazer #300, Nova #1 (and how Jeph Loeb can be irritating) and Guardians of the Galaxy #0.1 off of the spinner rack and discuss.  This episode also marks the first appearance of Drunk Billy on the show!

Orson Scott Card's upcoming story arc on the new Adventures of Superman was all over the news and the Comic Book Bears boys weigh in on the controversy for most of the episode. They still get in some new comics talk and cover Batman #17, New Avengers, a bad bearish hottie in Earth 2, Rotworld, Batman and Robin Annual #1, Wolverine and the X-Men, Secret Avengers #1, Batman Incorporated, Ramon Perez, FF, Green Arrow #17, Uncanny X-Men, Uncanny Avengers, New Avengers, Hawkeye #7, Legion Lost #16, Sword of Sorcery and creative changes in the Green Lantern titles.  They also weigh in with what they think would be great TV shows based on comic properties.  Flame On, Art and Franco and Aw Yeah Comics and our new friends at BearNerd get some love. Plus Bryan offers up some tales of comic shopping while on the road for work and Billy Z and Justin disagree BIG TIME about a nearly two year old anniversary comic.

Our good friend New Mutant rejoins us for a special roundtable.  Bryan, Justin, Billy Z and Alan go over each of their all-time favorite titles and choose their three favorite issues!  Some clues to the choices - Kitty Pryde, Timber Wolf, Apocalypse and The Shade.  Then we serve up some new comics talk with All-New X-Men, New Avengers and the end of Remender's Uncanny X-Force on the menu.  We also talk about Alan's Power Principle, Flame On, Twilight(!), Superman apparel,  cosplay and The World's Strongest Mailman.  And then everyone talks about BillyZ for five minutes. (Sorry, there are a few Skype drop outs on this ep that we couldn’t work around.)

Bryan returns to the den to give us his bests of for 2012, followed by a discussion of our comic related holiday swag, our expectations for 2013 and a quick dive into what we are currently reading.

Hickman. Remender. Bendis. Ramon Perez. Prophet. Deathmatch. Joe Shuster's fetish art. Justice League. Legos. Superman. Batwoman. Thunderbolts. Secret Avengers. The Shade. FF. George Takei in Kevin Keller. Morrison's Happy.  All-New X-Men.  Indestructible Hulk. They're all in there!

We have a little more stretching room in the Comic Book Bears Den in this episode as our brother Bryan was unable to join us for this 2012 wrap-up episode.  Billy Z and Justin talk about their fave raves of the year in this admittedly somewhat somber episode.  Somewhere along the lines Saga, The Boys, Dave Wyndorf and Monster Magnet, Dan Slott’s death threats, Legion of Super-Heroes, Jonathan Hickman, Infinite Crisis, Joe Kubert, Marvel Avengers Alliance, Team 7, JL8, Scott Williams, Gail Simone, the Amazing Spider-Man film, Before Watchmen, Robot God Akamatsu, DC Editorial, Justice League, Nicola Scott, Pantha, Jim Lee, All-New X-Men, Night Force, Vibe, FF, AVX: Consequences and The Polyphonic Spree all work their way into the conversation.  See you in 2013!

Bill Zanowitz, Justin Allen and Bryan Pittard return with another episode focused mostly on the new Marvel Now! books. We tackle the recent first issues of Fantastic Four, FF, Avengers, Captain America, Deadpool, All-New X-Men and more!  Also getting some airtime are the end of the Bendis era of Avengers, AvX: Consequences, Cyclops, Batwoman #0, Karen Berger's departure from Vertigo, Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre, Batman Incorporated, changes to New Crusaders, The Boys #72, Masks #1, Battlefields by Ennis along with talk about Hallmark ornaments, our buddy Dean from GuyFi, some bear stuff, the Dream Weaver Kickstarter from our friends at Geeks Out, Songs for Lexi, internet rudeness, our upcoming convention plans along with some plotting for CBBears world domination in 2013. Anything else you ask? We briefly find out that all three co-hosts are pretty good at George Takei imitations.  And we also have Bill taking the potty mouth crown away from Justin for an episode, Bryan's love for Jonathan Hickman running so deep that he starts crediting the man with books he didn't write, Bill on everything you need to know about Green Bay Packers games being streamed on internet radio and the episode starts off with Justin eating some major crow concerning a run he previously dissed.

Justin, Bryan and Billy Z come back atcha with a whole lotta comic (Brightest Day, Ultimate FF, JK Woodward, 80's Iron Man, Hickman's FF, Marvel Now Point One, Bendis Avengers, Jeff Lemire, Justice League Dark, Green Arrow, AVX: Consequences, Masters of the Universe, Happy, Action Comics Annual, Tony Lee and Doctor Who, Manhattan Projects, World's Finest, Earth 2, Kevin Maguire, National Comics One-Shots, Multiple Warheads, Bloodstrike, Brubaker's Captain America, Before Watchmen, Superman #13, Joe Kubert Presents, Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt, God Hates Astronauts, Alan Moore's Supreme) and non-comic (knee surgery, Bear Bust in Orlando, Sawmill Campgrounds, Hurricane Sandy, Honey Boo Boo, child actors, the election) jibber-jabber.

We were able to record an episode just before Justin went in for his surgery! In this ep, Billy Z discusses his experiences at NYCC.  Bryan, Justin and Bill then cover recent comics news and NYCC announcements and then the boys discuss some of their favorite licensed titles - Micronauts, Dr. Who, Jonny Quest, Charmed and The Lone Ranger are among the books based on properties outside of comics that get some airtime.  (Or should that be beartime?)

Just before Billy Z heads out to New York Comic Con, Justin, Bryan and Billy convene to discuss the wrap up of Avengers vs. X-Men, the upcoming Marvel Now titles, and the recent DC Zero issues.  But, there's more - the more being Grant Morrison's Happy, Black Kiss, IDW's KISS, Avengers, Amethyst, the Milestone characters, Wildstorm, Talon, Phantom Stranger, Wonder Woman, Cable, Rocketeer, Prophet and The Tower Chronicles among other topics the boys touch on at some point.

Bryan Pittard from the Flame On podcast joins us once again for our post Baltimore Comic Con episode! What will you expect to hear the bear boys discuss in this episode? How about convention tales, The Comic Reader, Alan/New Mutant's Power Principle, gossip about creators, Mark Waid, Kevin Keller, original comic art, Greg Laroque, Paul Levitz, Matt Wagner, Janet Lee, Barry Kitson, cosplay, panels, Marvel Now news, Chaykin's Black Kiss, The Manhattan Projects, the new(-ish) Vertigo titles, karaoke and ... yes ... bearaoke?  They also get into loads of X-Men talk and it is confirmed that Justin is a giant!

You were probably wondering where the hell did these guys go?  Well, we are back with the first of two episodes to be released this week! (And now that summer is over, we will be coming to you on a more regular basis!)  In this episode we talk about The Power Principle, Joe Kubert's passing, Brian Wood's upcoming Star Wars book, Liefeld's New 52 talk, Marvel Now, hot books with speculators, Darkseid, JSA, DC Archives, The Boys, CyberForce, Kickstarter, Young Bottoms in Love, Love and Capes, AVX.  All this plus Justin gives Billy Z a DC movies quiz and Billy Z gets all gay-activist-political for about 40 seconds!

Alan/New Mutant - possibly the all-time grooviest presence on the Interwebs - joins Billy Z and Justin on this long delayed new episode! The Dark Knight Rises is covered and critiqued along with lots of talk of the caped crusader's exploits past and present! Neal Adams! Jim Aparo! Alan Davis! Marshall Rogers! Matt Wagner's covers! Dark Knight Returns! DK2 (!) A Death in the Family! A Lonely Place of Dying! Year One! JLA: Tower of Babel! Batman and the Outsiders! - They all get their time under a bat signal shaped spotlight! Also, Alan gives us the downlow on his Kickstarter project, The Power Principle! All this plus Justin and Bill give us their sad tales of cosplay and hair colors past.

It's an all-Spidey episode!  Justin and Billy Z both went to the movies to see The Amazing Spider-Man and they don't exactly agree!  After that, Marvel Team-Up, The Death of Jean DeWolff storyline, Kraven's Last Hunt, Back in Black, One More Day, The Kingpin, Flash Thompson, the Spider-Man/X-Force crossover, the 1970's live action show, Doc Ock, the original Clone War saga and many other topics get caught up in their web of discussion.  All this and the should-be-legendary Spider-Man Rockomic!

Billy Z and Justin are joined once again by Bryan Pittard of the Flame On podcast to discuss Action Comics #10, LCS events around Astonishing X-Men #51, Before Watchmen: Comedian #1, anime old and new, The Night of the Owls, Prometheus, Walt Kelly's Our Gang, JMS and The Twelve, Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four/FF, The Manhattan Projects, Robot God Akamatsu, The Authority and Wildstorm among other topics and tangents.  Bryan also gives us the lowdown on his recent experience at Gay Days in Orlando and the upcoming Flame On comic story. And the guys also weigh in on who they think the hot daddies of comics are - both creators and characters.

Billy Z and Justin are back to dish out a heaping pile of Earth 2 with some side helpings of James Robinson's JLA, favorite costumes, Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1, the most recent Jonah Hex series, the Rock and Roll Comics documentary, this summer's comic book movies (again), the next wave of DCnU titles, DC's sword and sorcery titles of the 70's, Ray Bradbury R.I.P., Archie's history of super-hero titles and the New Crusaders app.  

Justin and Bill return to discuss Astonishing X-Men #50, Action Comics #9, Batman Incorporated #1, speculation on the new DC gay, One Million Moms (the internet group most in need of an accurate headcount), the Watchmen toaster, the threeboot Legion, Ernie Chua and Tony Dezuniga R.I.P., Flash Gordon:Zeitgeist, the current output from Dynamite Entertainment and the new listeners in Justin's home.  Another long delayed episode - this time due to a laptop crash. Another episode is coming really soon!

Justin and Bill go to the movies to discuss The Avengers and then talk about Free Comic Book Day.  Tangents galore in this episode include weighing in on other comic book movies, Bring It On, the Wilson Phillips reality show, illegal downloading, Young Justice: Invasion, HBO, Chris Lavoie of The Stephanie Miller Show and Jason of Star Command to name just a few!

Justin and BillyZ welcome their first guest bear with Bryan Pittard of the Flame On podcast joining in on the fun! Topics include BillyZ's trip to C2E2!  Disney Gay Days!  Ramon Perez!  Jim Henson!  Athena Voltaire!  b-one by Bobgar Ornelas!  The Stuff of Legend!  Flex Mentallo!  Grant Morrison's JLA!  Kevin Keller and Archie Comics!  Mark Waid and digital comics!  The second incarnation of the Secret Six from the 80's!  All this and Northstar's impending nuptials - he's gay, you know.

After a whole lotta DC chatter in the past episodes, our bear boys Justin and BillyZ leave their dens to make a House-of-Ideas call.  Avengers vs. X-Men#s 0 and 1 are spotlighted and then they cover their past Marvel favorites.  Stan and Jack FF, Spider-Man, Marvel Team-Up,  Micronauts, Byrne and Claremont, What If?, Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers, Daredevil: Born Again, the outback-era X-Men - all this, plus one of them admits to loving Atlantis Attacks!

For their first regular episode, Justin Allen and Bill Zanowitz discuss the DCnU at the six month point!  Justice League! Batman! Action Comics! Batgirl! Aquaman! All-Star Western! Animal Man! Hawk and Dove! O.M.A.C.! Legion Lost! Will one of your favorites be one of theirs? And boy, can those gay bears talk and talk!

Welcome to the first ever Comic Book Bears episode!!! Join co-hosts Justin Allen and Bill Zanowitz as they introduce themselves, briefly cover what a bear is for the unfamiliar, discuss the story behind starting this podcast and talk about some of their favorite creators and series.