Comic Book Bears Podcast

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

Yeah yeah yeah, we are a comic book based podcast but how can we not talk about The Force Awakens!?!? We are back to five bears strong this week as Bill, Justin, Bryan, Steve and Matt discuss what they thought of the new movie. (SPOILER ... they are not all in agreement ... except about Snap Wexley!) Then the CBBears each recount our earliest Star Wars memories. Then, to tie it back into comic books, we recount the history of Star Wars in comics and spotlight some of our favorite SW funnybooks including Dark Empire, Tales of the Jedi, X-Wing Squadron, Darth Vader and the Cry of Shadows, The Star Wars among them right into the current Marvel books. Intro: Bear in Heaven - "Reflections of You" Outro: The Clash - "1977"

The Comic Book Bears are back to five strong as Bryan rejoins Matt, Steve, Justin and Bill this week! The state of Marvel is up for discussion first and the boys dig deep into Secret Wars, Thors, The All-New All-Different Avengers, Hercules and more.  Then DC gets time with Justice League: The Darkseid War, Starfire, Bizarro and the new books from Vertigo. Indie talk is dominated by the extraordinary Huck, F__k Fairyland and The Devilers. And Justin's retro pick is not Harry Potter. (That's a hint.) We also included a potty mouth preamble to kick off the episode. (During our pre-show conversation we were cussing up a storm. There's a little of that in the main body of the episode for whatever reason.) Intro: "Reflections of You" by Bear in Heaven Outro: "Teenage Lament '74" by Alice Cooper

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

The bear boys (minus Bryan) are back with the first of their episodes in their new weekly format! That's right - instead of twice a month, you will be getting hairy heavy homo comic talk every week now! Bill Z and Justin start off with a New York Comic Con recap! There is a Valiant Moment with Steve and Matt! Billy Z leads the DC talk! Matt takes the lead with Marvel and Indie talk! Steve gets in some Vertigo chatter!  And newly christened Retro Bear Justin offers up the first of his retro pics! In the mix - Art Ops, Book of Death, Weirdworld, Jim Starlin, Mike Mignola, Titans Hunt, a New God getting punched in the face and a LOT more! Intro - "Reflection of You" by Bear in Heaven Outro - "Emergency 72 (Live)" by Turin Brakes

We start off the show welcoming Sean Lewis for an interview about his upcoming series for Image Comics SAINTS with artist Benjamin Mackey. Sean is an award winning playwright and This American Life personality and he drops in to tell us about this new ongoing series he is writing; a crime/horror action-packed new series that promises heavy metal, sex and deadly one-liners at every turn.  Sean delves into how a Catholic upbringing informs the story, how he and Benjamin came up with the idea for SAINTS, his creative process and a lot more.  After that, we hear about Steve’s trip to DragonCon and he gives us the lowdown on his time and the sights there. Then the comic book talk starts off - Injection, lots of Secret War tie ins (Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, Civil War, Future Imperfect, Ghost Racers and more), Force Works (!), DC Comics Bombshells and other female magic based books out on the stands, the now obligatory Matt and Steve “Valiant Moment” and we end on mullets and other hair disasters (not a comic).

  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 us

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 Vi

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!  

NYC is about to have its very first LGBTQ comic convention! And coming on the show to discuss Flame Con are very special guests Joey Stern and Josh Siegel from Geeks OUT! Billy Z, Steve and Matt enlist Joey and Josh to take us through what to expect at Flame Con as well as the history of Geeks OUT, the NYC based queer geek culture group behind it. Josh is also an artist, better known by his pseudonym ModHero, and he talks with us about his work. We then become six on the mic when Brother Bryan joins us to to talk about the Archie Kickstarter and lots of comics including Thor, Secret Wars, Wuvable Oaf, Arcadia, The Filth and Convergence: Supergirl Matrix. Also, lots of show bandwidth is dedicated to just how gay Mr. Sinister is! So listen in and BUY YOUR FLAME CON TIX if you haven't already! Intro: Matthew Sweet - "Where You Get Love"1:01 - Introducing Joey Stern and Josh Siegel from GeeksOUT to discuss Flame Con!16:29 - Josh's ModHero work36:07 - Archie's Kickstarter controversy54:17 - Comic talk including Th

T.H.U.N.D.E.R.H.O.S.T.S. Bill and Rob return to talk about Dynamo #1, originally published by Tower Comics and cover dated August 1966. A giant size offering of our boy Len Brown in solo action! Listen in and hear how Dynamo faces the evil likes of The Red Dragon, The Iron Maiden, Demo, Dr. Sparta, mysterious men from the moon (maybe), Andor and Dr. Oom in battle! He gets nowhere (again) with Alice! He forgets to ask for a raise! He punches dinosaurs in the face! AND we are treated to the debut of Wonder Weed, Super Hero! All this and T.H.U.N.D.E.E.R.tracks from The Buggles and NRBQ!

Bill Zanowitz and Rob Staeger are back and it is a big one folks, as they cover T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #7, cover dated August 1966. After their customary tour through the spinner rack of June 1966 (and maybe a little too much Spider-Man talk) they tackle T-Agents #7 which includes some guest appearances from the ladies of Marvel (sorta kinda) ... but more importantly, they end with spotlighting "A Matter of Life and Death", probably the most important T-Agents story ever. T.H.U.N.D.E.R.tracks this time out from Sex Mob and David Bowie.

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 sh

The thunderrific fifth episode brings you five villains facing the T-Agents! The Golem! Demo! Baron Von Kampf! The Entrancer! Mastermind! T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #5 from Tower Comics cover dated June 1966 is the issue that Bill Zanowitz and Rob Stager cover in this episode! All this plus our regular shopping at the Silver Age spinner rack, comic convention advice and Thundertracks from The Subdudes and Toyah!

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

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 Zur

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 Bill