Mike’s Comments (group member since Jul 09, 2016)

Mike’s comments from the I Read Comic Books group.

Ed wrote: "Working my way through the Batman New 52 trades at the moment. On volume 8 of 10 right now. Snyder and Capullo are doing some great things with the Dark Knight. The immersive stories and brilliant ..."

I'm still trying to finish up their run. The next volume on my list is Batman, Volume 7: Endgame

Trying to tackle my huge pile of backlog collections. Read Laid Waste which was, as expected, very sad and depressing.

Up next: The Hypo: The Melancholic Young Lincoln

Chris wrote: "First time listening and thought it was a great show, will be tuning in regularly!"

Woohoo! Thanks Chris! Let us know what you think! And what you want to hear us talk about.

Our Goodread Book of the Month episode! Featuring Nick and Brian! Woohoo!!

Episode 121 | Goodreads Book of the Month: Superman: Red Son

I read Green River Killer last night and holy shit was it amazing. Easily one of the best non-fiction comics I have read. Ever. If you're into true crime stories, this one is amazing. Simply amazing.

I also read Motor Crush, Vol. 1, which was a heckovalot different than I expected. By a long shot. The end of the volume had me yelling "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" because it was over.

I guess I'm hooked now.

This week's minisode features Mike (me) and Kate talking about the X-Men. I'm sorry in advance.

Minisode 11 | X-Men (part 1?)

I read Aliens: Dead Orbit #1 after grabbing it during the Dark Horse sale on comiXology over the weekend and... WOW is this book gorgeous. Like... holy shit. If you have even an inkling of interest in the Alien franchise, you have to read this book.

Boy oh boy, re-reading this book has brought back some memories.

I think the first time I read this series I was a freshman in college looking for some "non-traditional" DC comics to read as I was a serious Marvel fanboy and DC books were "lame." Nonetheless, already knowing the basics of Superman, I wanted to read something that was cool and edgy and this book was definitely it.

I'll let my full thoughts for the show next week, but whew... memories...

The Longest Day Of The Future

We're at the beginning of our "summer break" and that means we're dropping in minisodes for the month of July. To start, Kate and Tia dive into the character Doctor Aphra.

Check it out now!

Dove into a bunch of my physical comics this weekend: Sex Criminals #18: Totems and Sex Criminals #19: Down With The Thickness (the latter was pretty great), followed by Uber: Invasion #6 and Uber: Invasion #7 which was brutal as hell. There's a moment in #7 that made me cringe in the best way. Gillen knows how to make War very horrifying.

I also sat down and read The Long Year which was a terrifying and beautiful anthology of short comics. I seriously, seriously, seriously cannot get over Claire Connelly's art. It sucks me in in a seriously strong way. I could read her comics for years--she has a TON of them available on her website for free. I really dug this anthology and definitely plan to get my hands on her other works (Black Eyes got me into her work last year and I've been obsessed ever since).

Let us know what you thought about our discussion for June's BotM pick!

Listen to the episode here.

Hiyoooooooooooooo it's July and we gotta know over here at IRCB: What are you reading right now? Any good TPBs or OGNs or single issues? Any bad stuff? Let us know!

This week's show features Kara and Tia and is all about The Male Gaze in comics--what is it exactly and how does it affect comics? All we ask is this: Take a good look at how your comics are presented to you.

Episode 119 | I’m Here For One Thing And One Thing Only

Joe wrote: "Hi I'm Joe. I'm from the Chicago suburbs. I collected comics as a child, and in the past few years I've regained my love for them as an adult. I read mostly Image & Marvel, but I'm willingly to giv..."

Hey Joe! Welcome to the IRCB group (and super duper thanks for listening to the show!). That's an awesome list of books there, got a recent favorite?

Figure I should update a bit

IRCB Podcast Teams' Recommendations:
[x] Fante Bukowski
[x] The Vision, Volume 1: Little Worse Than A Man
[ ] Old City Blues
[ ] Savage
[ ] Heartthrob, Volume 1: Never Going Back Again
[x] The End of the Fucking World
[x] Giant Days, Vol. 1
[x] Nimona
[ ] Midnight Nation
[x] Bedlam, Vol. 1

IRCB Group Members' Recommendations:
[x] Rat Queens, Vol. 1: Sass & Sorcery
[x] The Vision, Volume 2: Little Better than a Beast
[ ] X-O Manowar, Volume 1: By The Sword
[ ] Alex + Ada, Vol. 1
[ ] I Kill Giants
[ ] The Joker
[x] Space Riders, Volumen Uno: Vengeful Universe
[ ] The New Teen Titans, Vol. 1
[x] The Royals: Masters of War

I ended up dropping a few books last night after reading them and feeling 'meh' about them, namely The Flash.

Otherwise, I got caught up on Batwoman and Outcast, read Man-Thing #3-4 (which is kind of... awful but it's only 5 issues and I'm just going to stick through #5), Iceman #1 (FINALLY), and X-Men Blue #5 which was very, very odd.

Speaking of very odd: Batman #24. No spoilers, but WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON. Seriously. Bat-folks? Please message me or DM me on twitter. I need to scream about this issue.

This week's episode was all about... manga? Yeah, we decided to dive right in and between, Kate, Rene, and myself, we had a pretty solid discussion about how manga is distributed/purchased, what the good and bad parts are, and gave a ton of suggestions.

Check it out: Episode 118 | We're All Trash Here

Phillip wrote: "Mike wrote: "IRCB Episode 117 was super fantastic this week, specifically because we had creator Matt Horak on the show (current artist on The Punisher with Becky Cloonan).

Chec..."

Having Matt talk about what he was reading was probably my favorite part of him being on. If/when we have another creator on, we'll definitely be pushing for this again.

Nick wrote: "Hey all,

I'm Nick, and I'm on the IRCB podcast semi-regularly. If you listen, chances are you've heard me in my de facto role as "Resident Valiant mouthpiece," or as a substitute host to Mike Rapi..."

!!!!!! IT'S HAPPENING!!!! NICK IS HERE! WOOOOOOOOOO