On this new Comic Book Bears Podcast audio episode, we welcome back to the show the incredible Steve Bryant! Steve has been on our podcast many times in the past to talk about his work like Athena Voltaire and The Clean and this time around he is here to discuss his Kickstarter campaign for the first issue of Evie and the Helsings! For centuries, the Van Helsing family has protected humanity from things that go bump in the night. The mantle has been passed onto the last of the family line. But Evie Van Helsing just wants to rock! Written by Steve, drawn by Don Cardenas with colors by Jason Millet, Evie and the Helsings is the first issue of a 4-issue miniseries that follows Evie as she navigates life between the music industry and the supernatural world. (Think Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets This is Spinal Tap by way of Ash Versus Evil Dead.) Hit play to hear Steve tell us all about it! After the interview, Caleb, Billy Z and Steve discuss some recent comic related news (such as the cancellation of two HBOMAX comic books based shows and a new Titans #1 with a phenomenal creative team behind it!) New books on the spinner rack that we discuss include Nightwing #100, the kickoff of the X-Men storyline Sins of Sinister and Inferno Girl Red #1 from Image Comics! All this and ... sorta kinda ... Cher!

Please also note this is our first episode with our brand new theme song ... which we really really dig ... composed just for us by the electronic artist Walkathon!

And lastly we talk about a Meal Train campaign to assist our very close friend and fellow podcaster Wendi Freeman who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. The links for the Evie Kickstarter and Wendi's campaign are below. Please consider contributing to both!!!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stevebryant/evie-and-the-helsings-1

https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/9v4vy6

SO THIS IS THE NEW YEAR! The CBB boys ring in the new year with their first audio episode of 2023! And in the spirit of new beginnings and soft reboots, we decided to offer up some reintroductions! Billy Z, Steve and Caleb each chat a little bit about themselves and then they each surprise one another with questions - one comic related and one about life in general. We also spend some time going over the generally accepted definitions of bears and bear culture in the queer community for those who might have a degree of unfamiliarity (and maybe even for those who are QUITE familiar!) For the news segment, in the absence of any notable developments recently in the comics world, we focus on a tweet from writer Chuck Dixon designed to mock and attack newer and diverse comic creators and that leads to a discussion about when people with a body of work you respect come up way short as human beings. Then onto the comic book talk - almost exactly at the one hour mark if you want to cut to the chase - with New Mutants, the Hulk mini-series Joe Fixit, Nightwing, Danger Street, Spy Superb and the Black Veil Brides-centric series The Phantom Tomorrow all occupying slots in our spinner rack! All this and our patent pending Geek Gets and Woofs of the Week! Hit play and join us in the comic cave for a bit!

Intro Music: Ocean Colour Scene - "You've Got It Bad"

Outro Music: Klassik 78 - "Living Fantasy (Tonight)"