[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Capes and Tights podcast right here on Capesandtights.com, i'm your host, Justin Soderbergh. This is the last episode of 2025, and as always, our last episode tends to be our comics of the year. This episode is once again brought to you by our friends over at Galactic Comics and Collectibles at galactic comics and collectibles.com and fittingly enough, Paul Eaton, retailer owner extraordinaire of Galactic Comics and Collectibles, joins us on this podcast to count down our favorite comic books of the year. We do something a little bit different here. We do his top 10 and my top 10 we altern and next year might be a little bit different. We're working on that. But yes, there's technically 20 comics that we talk about on this episode, but we all end up having a consensus number one comic of the year as we get to the end of this episode. But before you listen to it, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, bluesky, threads, all those places you can rate, review, subscribe over on Apple, Spotify or wherever you find your podcasts. You can always find us over on YouTube for the video portion of this podcast. And as always, you can Visit
[email protected] for, for reviews, articles, other lists. So much more. We had some Christmas stuff coming up this end of the year and our best of the year list and our looking forward lists are on there as well. But this is our top comics of the year from the Capes and Tights podcast with myself and retailer Paul Eaton of Galactic Comics and Collectibles. Enjoy, everyone.
Welcome back to the podcast. Paul, you, comics and collectibles.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: Oh my God. Is that time of the year again?
[00:01:33] Speaker A: It is that time of the year again. It's kind of like snuck up on us. It really, I got, it really did stink about us. Yeah, like, it was like one of those things that we, we were like, oh, crap, we gotta get this list together. Then I honestly, this is the first year in a long time that I've actually like put a list together and be like, okay, this is the list. And then like maybe four or five comics changed.
I think my top five were mostly there. One slid into the top five and maybe the order changed a little bit, but like, it's the bottom five where I'm like, there was so many comics that could make it, but, you know, I had to pick.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: I mean, there's a, there's a lot to come. I mean, coming from my perspective, there's A lot that comes out every week. And it's very easy, I think, to forget about stuff over the year, especially if a mini series starts in January and is done in, like, May.
You sort of just can write it off. You forget about the whole thing by the time the summer comes around.
Yeah, I was so. I was, like, proud of myself. I started my list the day after we recorded for 2024.
Oh, man, I'm gonna be. I'm gonna be on it this year. I'm ready to go. And last night, I was still reading comics for this podcast. Like, oh, man, there was one I wanted to squeeze in. Let me go check this. Let me try that. I'm like, I got, like, stacks of comics and trades, and I'm digitally. I'm like, they're everywhere.
[00:02:51] Speaker A: You get, like, a chalkboard out and you're, like, writing out the equations, and it's true. I tried. I was, like, thinking to myself, madman, I have, like, a note on my. On my phone. I was like, okay, when I read a comic book that. I think that's going to be great, and I'm going to finish it. I'm going to read it. I'm going to read issue one. It's going to be great. This is going to be amazing. Keep track of this issue and buy every week or every month and get it. And then I, like, I literally went back to look at that list. It had, like, one comic on it. And I was like, oh, I started that.
[00:03:14] Speaker B: So I was ahead of that January. So I had that list going. I did the same thing. And I. I think I had.
I want to say I had at least six on there ready to go.
[00:03:23] Speaker A: We read so much that, like. And then I'm like, did this come out this year? Did it not come out this year? Did it qualify? Because, like, our qualifications are two issues had to be released this year. It could be the last two issues, could be the first two issues. It doesn't really matter. It's in that rain.
But.
[00:03:39] Speaker B: I. I went and put last year's Marvel arc this year and was like, did I talk about this last year? And I started looking like, that came out last year. And then I was trying to figure out what that was. A big spark for Marvel this year.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know. But the funny thing is, I don't.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: I don't have a Marvel book on my list this year. Me either.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: I voted on my honorable mentions, which I think in this. This year, we'll do at the end, really quickly, we'll just rattle them off to the end. So then it kind of ruins, like, if you say honorable mentions now, it kind of ruins that they're not in the top 10. So we'll do that at the end. But, yeah, I would. I had to go back through and review, like, go back to my reviews and be like, well, obviously a comic book that's gonna be one of my favorite comic books of the year and is going to be one that I've reviewed, because obviously I review things. I write or write things that I read. And so I went back and, like, went back and, like. And I said, well, technically, I have to go back to, like, November of last year because a lot of times I get advanced copies or the first issue may have come out in December, but it really. The rest of the series came out in 2025, so.
And so on and so forth. So I was like, oh. And so I'm like, going back and I'm like, ah, this is interesting. And there's a couple. Like I said, there's a couple that fall into that. They split right in the middle, like, November, December, January, February. Which is like, okay, which. Which year does it really qualify for?
And then this year, there's one that came out with issues, two issues. And then this series is still going. And I'm like, well, I, I, I, I. It was just so good that I have to put it in there. So it's kind of fun to do this. I think I have a mixture of people. Yeah. But I have no big two. And I'll admit to the fact that Absolute Batman's not on here, but I almost was like, everybody loves it right now, so I haven't read it yet. So let me get in there and read it. And I was like. I went to look at the, like, issues of digitally. I'm like, there's a lot of issues. I don't have time for that right now.
So no offense to absolute Batman. I heard it's pretty good. I say the absolute Wonder Woman, things like that. I will admit to those. And I'll be on there. Because there's no DC on mine this year, which has been in the past, which is kind of funny. But I. I think one of my goals, if you had a.
Yeah. What do they call resolution for the year? New Year's resolution is to read more Big two this year. Even if it struggled to get through it, I think that. I think one of my things is like, okay, you know what? I might. Wait. Trade weight on some of them, in a sense. Or not trade weight but, like, wait till the five or six issues come out before I get into it and start reading it.
[00:05:45] Speaker B: Wait until an arc is sort of wrapped up so you can read.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: But I do think that Big Two.
[00:05:49] Speaker B: Has slipped off down next year. You're actually going to have accomplished that.
[00:05:53] Speaker A: Yes, I do.
[00:05:54] Speaker B: Like, well, I really was gonna read more of them this year, and I didn't.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: I do. I think I will. I think there's a little bit. There's a couple writers that I really want to get. Well, we're obviously going to read, like, Fantastic Four, and so there's some issues that go along with that.
I heard Ryan north is, like, killing it in Marvel Comics right now. So I think. I think a lot of stuff. And so, yeah, I read as much this year, so that's why you don't see it. But I did read some, and so they just didn't. I just don't know. Big Two comics just aren't striking with me right now. So I think that, again, D.C. is probably killing it in that regard. So if there was one to slip into my top 10, it probably would be a DC comic. Because it seems like this year DC kind of like took. Not took the lead in, like, the best comics or best characters wherever. I do think that they took the lead in, like, the most great stories.
[00:06:43] Speaker B: I definitely have some Marvel books that I like, plan on reading. I had one that I really intended to read for this list and just didn't get it in there, which would probably go My Honorable Mentions where I intended to read it. But, yeah, I don't have a Marvel book at all this year.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: I think last year you went first and I went second. And so this year, I think we're going to do this. Oh, and also, just a little caveat. I think next year we might change it. So this might be the final year doing it this way. I think next year we might do, like, technically the top 20 combined between the two of us, and we'll just alternate and we'll do kind of like a. Like a draft kind of thing where we go back and forth and just pick comics. And so one person will get number one and they're my top comic will be number two, and so on and so forth, that kind of thing.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: One of us be really pissed if we're like, well, my 10th book of the year is this. You know, like, that would have been my first pick.
[00:07:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:29] Speaker A: I think it's a way to do it. It's either that or we could do. We could do some sort of rating system. We could look further into this, do some more. Like some thing where we put books into a poll and we. Then we vote. Like we put 20 comics in there and then. And I vote. And that could work that way.
[00:07:41] Speaker B: Or.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: Or so we could actually get Kyle involved.
[00:07:44] Speaker B: Star reviews. Yeah, Kyle reads.
[00:07:46] Speaker A: Kyle reads a lot, so we can do that too. So we. We could do a bunch of things. But I think this year we'll go. We'll keep what we're doing in previous years and we'll do our top 10. Your top 10. My top 10 will alternate and we'll get through this. Usually this is a longer podcast, but we're gonna rapid. Not rapid fire, but we're gonna try to stay on topic here because Paul has to open the shop. I got other podcasts record. I got other work to do. I'm probably gonna have to pee at some point. So we'll just get this done and we'll.
[00:08:12] Speaker B: 20, 26 will be a brave new world here in the. In the comic scene as we.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: Oh, and last year we did live. We did it live last year. But you know what? Life is just crazy, hectic and weird and it's not gonna work. So unless we think about doing it maybe next year in January. If you think about it, like, maybe push over the new year.
[00:08:30] Speaker B: Liz had this, like, honeydew list she started. I'm like, you know, I have a podcast to record, right? And she's like, oh, crap. She's like, you probably shouldn't do podcasts the week of Christmas. Just like, so, you know, for recording sake.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: And I was like, well, I asked originally. And you're like, oh, yeah, we don't have anything going on.
[00:08:44] Speaker A: And we could do it earlier, we could do it later. Like I said, if we did it in January, it might be missing a bunch of people, but maybe we'll get that action of actual, like, people, like, finishing the year as well as we have more time, I think in January, so. But yeah, so we'll start it off. This number 10 for me comes from Image Comics, and it's news from the Fallout.
That is a comic book by Chris Condon with art by Jeffrey Allen. Love. A very minimalistic horror. Sci fi horror from the 1962 nuclear tests that has, like, a zombie feel to it. I think the biggest thing to me was the artwork that is just, like, so minimalistic, but, like, so creepy and eerie and suspenseful.
[00:09:20] Speaker B: Super, super grungy, but not in a bad way.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: Yeah. And it was like, I don't normally gravitate towards something like that. But like it fit like the plot, the premise, the writing and the artwork just like kind of molded together to me. And it just stuck in that. Probably my favorite artwork of the year.
[00:09:35] Speaker B: And that vibe that the color and tone chosen for fits that story make.
[00:09:40] Speaker A: It black and white with, you know, with the shadow and things like that and very scary claw looking fingers. And there's that zombie and the people not thinking about something and there's an alien aspect to it and stuff like that. So. So it's really good. Chris Conan to me is a great, great writer, but Jeffrey Allen love takes the cake on this one. So number 10 for me is News from the Fallout from Image Comics that came out this year.
[00:10:01] Speaker B: That's one of those books that slipped through my cracks because I want to read that and I, I forgot about it. My number 10 is EC Catacomb of Torment. It's an anthology piece by Only Press. So you have different writers. It's usually like three stories per issue roughly.
I have like, I. I don't know, I have this like history love of comics of like the nostalgia vibes of things. So the fact that EC is out there. I think this might have been on my list before, but I'm just, I love the EC label.
They put out a lot of different stuff now, but the Catacomb of Torment is kind of their main horror line and I feel like every story is just kind of fun. They're just different. You get different writers and different perspectives every time. So that was my 10th book of.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: The year and so a spoiler alert on that is I didn't put an anthology on there. But I honestly, I had a thought process of that. There's so many good ones in the horror like genre right now that I thought like, oh, that could be fun.
Creep Show's been great. Hello Darkness has been great. And so like in the couples that are over at EC has a couple different genres of anthologies.
Yeah, so I did think about that. I was like, oh, maybe that was. And I saw it on someone else's list. So I created my list and then I kind of googled to see if like, are we like in the same vibe as other people? And it's weird because we are like little independent driven. But then there's these people who are like completely like, I only do graphic novels or I only do the fringe stuff or I only. And I've seen ones that were like best comics of the year and all. It was Batman, Superman and Spider man. And I was like, okay, it's like there isn't that mixture really. So I don't feel bad doing what we do with this. Very little. Beats Big two in there.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: It's all our opinions.
[00:11:38] Speaker A: Exactly. And that's what we read. It's basically what it is. Our top 10 comics that we read this year. It's not just the top ten comics that came out this year. It's what we read this year. So there's that too. Number nine for me is the guy in the chair from writers Hannah Rosemay and Utkarsh and Budkar Art, Right. Guillermo Sanaa.
It's a spy thriller, but it's also action. It's also a romance. It's a rom com.
It's. It's this guy who sits in a chair. The guy in the chair. We all know about those guys in stories who kind of like falls for the person that he's talking to, the agent that's doing the things, and. But she really kind of doesn't know that he exists outside of this guy in the ear telling you, hey, go that way, go this way.
And after the end of the first issue, she ends up showing up at his doorstep and. And. And they have to like, find in mystery and do these different actions and so like he actually gets to meet her and so on and so forth. So we've all been there, we've all had that person in our lives that you kind of like, oh, I kind of want to be friends with them or. Or in a relationship with them or whatever. But never really think that they know you exist, if that makes any sense. Like, you know they exist and you want everything you before you're effort into them, but they really don't know you're there. And that's what this story is really about. And so it's really cool. But it has like a mixture of everything in it, which is really cool to me. And Dark Horse, you know, releasing it, it's really cool. So if you like, you know, I don't know, romance, but also want your action and thriller, spy thriller. And it's got it right there for your spot. So the guy in the chair, number nine for you. Third. Third issue actually comes out December 24th, so.
[00:13:12] Speaker B: Oh, perfect. This week.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: Well, yep.
[00:13:15] Speaker B: All right, Number nine for me. Bug wars by Jason Aaron, art by Muhammad Asar by Image Comics. So this book, I know a lot of people in my shop have absolutely loved this book. And for me it did make my top 10.
It's an adventure story. It's got like a mystery to.
I feel Like, a bit of it gives me a throwback vibe to, like, honey, I shrunk the kids. Because he's in his own backyard fighting bugs. Even though the bugs are, like, anamorphic human sort of magic, there's all kinds of weird stuff going on in it.
And you have, like, a relationship between him and his brother. And this kid, the main character that you're following, loves bugs. He, like, loves him. Like, he has pet bugs. And meanwhile his brother, like, hates him and is trying to kill all of them.
So you have this, like, immediate. And the big brother, like, bullies a little one and beats him up and all this stuff. So you have this, like, immediate, like, family thing going between them. And then you throw in this weird magic piece.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:14] Speaker B: And it's a fun read. So I don't have it as high on my list as I noticed that a lot of people listed it. And I do really enjoy Jason Aaron's writing generally.
I don't know, it didn't hit as much record for me, but it still hit my top 10 list, so Bug wars at number nine.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: It's great because I think that Jason Aaron also is one of those weird. Like, he's one of those guys. I. I mentioned Ryan north doing a really good job at Marvel right now, but he's got, like, the ability and the skill to write like this as well. To write like Thor, do you mean? Like, it's like, it's really, like, cool. Like, he has a wide range of what he can.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: Oh, Turtles is usually, I find, usually enjoyable. Like, he's one of those writers. I feel like Donny Cates is what I said before.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:51] Speaker B: Like, I usually just enjoy the ride no matter what it is.
[00:14:54] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. This was one of those, Like, I do think there's not a ton, but there's a few writers out there that. You see the name on the comic in the solicitation, you're like, I don't care what it is. I'll read it.
[00:15:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm going to pick it up because I know I. I know I'm most likely going to enjoy this.
[00:15:08] Speaker A: Well, I mean, this Turtle, he did Turtles this year. Like, it's. That's. That's a huge thing to, you know, see him go cross over to the IDW side of things, too, which is very good. It's been great. Yeah. So number eight for me out of Alcatraz over at ONI Press by Christopher Cantwell and artist Tyler Crook.
So I'm a huge. Like, Alcatraz and the Zodiac Killer, some of These, like, unexplained or unsolved mysteries of real life that we live in. And so, like, the people who. Who escaped Alcatraz, but they never knew. They never found them. And so this is, like, the historical fiction part of it, which kind of ends. That part of it kind of ends when they get to shore. Like, the idea that they. They made rafts and they. And they left Alcatraz and then they get destroyed. Now they're on the run. And so it's called out of Alcatraz, which is kind of misleading because the fact that it's basically the first issue takes place on Alcatraz or off of Alcatraz, and then it's them on the run. And so. But it's like, you're never really free. Like, you're never really set. Like, you get on land and you finally made it. But, like, there's more challenges ahead of you to get to where you're going. And the story. So, like, the Alcatraz part of it pulled me in, but then the writing and the artwork kind of, like, launched me forward, if that makes any sense. And it's just. It's great. So it's like, from 1962, it's these guys that make it to the land, and then they find that this freedom actually brings more challenges and that are deadlier than potentially staying on the island, which is kind of cool. And also, like, you kind of cheer for them, if that makes any sense. Because, like, there people assume that Alcatraz was always, like, the deadliest people in the world. It just happened to be, like, a prison. And a lot of times there's people who try to escape other prisons got put on that prison because it was harder to escape. And so, like, a lot of the people, like, stole a car and got put on this thing because they tried to escape another prison. And so, like, these people getting on land, you're always like, okay, they weren't really murderers. So to me, I'm, like, kind of cheering for them, too. I'm like, I want them to win. Because I'm like, you. You beat the man you got off the island. And that was cool. And then Tyler Crook's artwork, it says this historical feel to it, but also this horror vibe that I really liked. And obviously, again, another Christopher Campbell, another guy who can write independent comics and write the big two. So it's really cool to see that. But, yeah, so out of Alcatraz, over from Oni Press, was one of my top 10 picks at number eight.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: That's another one That I planned on reading and just kind of didn't get to. So. Yeah, because I. I also love that historical stuff, the Alcatraz thing.
Number eight for me. Those Not Afraid by Kyle Starks. And I'm gonna probably butcher this Patrick Piazz long again.
Oh, and there's an A at the end of that. I can't read it because it's telling me I spelled it wrong.
From Dark Horse Comics. Those Not Afraid. We actually did this for book club this year.
I felt like it's a fun slasher horror for those that enjoy that stuff. I think it is probably one of the, if not the best horror for the year. It's right up there for me.
We had some clients at book club that like, oh, the story wasn't deep enough. It didn't have this and that. That wasn't what it was. It's. It's two serial killers and they're sort of like relationship together that are both very like different people.
And what's going on with their like possibilities of hitting the top kill of the year? Like having the most.
Most of the series came out this year, including the trade. And I highly recommend those Not Afraid for anybody who's into the horror scene.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: So we'll just jump right on that because I'll just move on to the next one. Because number seven for me is those Not Afraid from. From Dark Horse Comics. So we can actually chat a little bit longer about this one. So yeah, I think it was like one of those things. It was like a fun campiness to it that's also horror. Like it's like make fun of itself in the same sense. Like it obviously wasn't taking itself too seriously. Which kind of like fits the vibe for Kyle Starks because he's a comedic writer as well as a horror writer. And so like it had that like bits of comedy in there. We were like, no one would believe this. And then there's shocking moments. You know, there's moments where you're like, wait a second. That, that's not. That can't be like that.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: I definitely had parts of the book that I was like on the edge of my seat.
[00:19:05] Speaker A: Yeah, it was really kind of cool.
[00:19:07] Speaker B: And it was like like guy behind the door vibe. Like you're just waiting for something to happen because it's. It's got like the creepy eeriness to it.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: And the idea that like, that's like.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: That really, really enjoys what he does. Yeah. And I feel like that really good for him, man.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: Good for him.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: No, but he's Just leading his best life.
[00:19:28] Speaker A: One of my, you know, and if you get on the casementites.com one of my top books of last year was a book called Serial Killer Support Group but Sarah Toga Schaefer and it was like this idea that there's a support group for serial killers that meets in the shadows, that they, you know, they, they don't have anybody else to talk to about what they do because they're serial killers. And so that kind of like there's been multiple times, I think they mentioned in the book five, five times in this, in history has there been like multiple serial killers in the same like geographic area. They mentioned it in the book. And so it's like it's not unusual to have two killers, serial killers. I mean it's probably unusual to have them Both at like 47, 48 kills at the same time, which is pretty crazy. Confirmed kills. As I mentioned, there's probably more.
But that idea that they actually they talk to each other and they compete. Like they're like competing in that they become kind of friends, but not kind of not friends.
[00:20:16] Speaker B: The other desperately. Because he wants somebody to chat with about, with this and share his life.
[00:20:20] Speaker A: Exactly. And you see the trajectory like, oh, this is gonna be kind of cool. And then like the fourth or fifth issue they just like throw in other stuff. You're like, what the hell? Where this and that honestly ended kind of on a cliffhanger which tells me that like, is this a limited series? Is this an ongoing. Is there going to be a second volume? Because I mean there is possibility there's like a, there's a couple of like loose ends they don't tie up, but not in a bad way, in my opinion.
[00:20:41] Speaker B: Yeah. And it can leave you that, that 80s horror, like they get them, did they not vibe of the movie that kind of just leaves you on edge anyways. Or they could return to it, which I will would happily pick right back up again.
[00:20:54] Speaker A: So those that are afraid.
[00:20:56] Speaker B: Oh, there we go.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: Yes. No, because he's done it. He's done. He did he. Kyle Starks did Where Monsters Lie at Dark Horse, which was a five issue miniseries and then it came out and then there was Cul de Sac, which was the follow up. So there's possibility. You see those Not Afraid and there's a sequel to it depending on sales and things like that. He's also doing a third volume of Where Monsters Lie, but that's a Kickstarter one because like it's didn't like those that are Afraid Cul De sac didn't sell as well, but it was like. It was well received but didn't sell as well. So he's trying to do it on Kickstarter or did it on Kickstarter to see. And then maybe they'll release it later at Dark Horse if it does well on Kickstarter. But yeah. So those are phrase number seven for me. So now you're on to number seven.
[00:21:36] Speaker B: All right, Number seven for me is Batman. Dark Dark Patterns by Dan Waters, Art by Hayden Sherman from DC Comics.
This is a 12 issue series, but it very much brings back your 80s Batman stuff of everything being wrapped up in either in a single issue to like three issues.
It's super noir feeling. It's got your 80s Batman style art to it.
I don't know, this book is. It's a little bit dirty, it's a little bit grungy. It returns, I feel like Batman to his origin of being the detective.
And it, it goes back to the vibes of books I used to read of Batman that have a lot more like Single nights in Gotham of what he's doing. It's not the big Joker. It's not the big two faced story. It's a little bit more of like what's going on in Gotham and what an evening is like of the Caped crusader. So it's a fun read. I can't wait for the trade to come out. This was one of the ones I sort of like proofread some of and was like, yeah, absolutely. This is, this is 100% on my list. And I can't wait to get the graphic novel or the trade when it drops because this was old school Batman for me.
[00:22:47] Speaker A: And it's, I think it's a lot of people had those.
I made my list. It's one of those things, like a lot of times I'll do like a review of something on like a novel and then I'll like do my review and I'll write it and I'll submit it to the website and submit it to Goodreads and then I'll go on Goodreads and see what other people said about it. Like, am I on the same area? And I think this is one of those things where I guess I made my list and I was like, okay, my list is fine. I'm done. I'm not touching it. This is last night. And then I'm sitting in bed, I'm like googling, what are other people saying about things? And I don't want to. I didn't Want to be influenced, but I also wanted to see what other people saying. But this comic, Dark Matters, was one of those ones that showed up on a lot of people's lists and also.
[00:23:17] Speaker B: Like, a lot of people's list. This year, we sold out of every issue. Every time. I kept trying to order more.
We have a backlog of people. Like, if you get any of them, I'm trying to finish it because people came in late to it. And I can tell you, like, the first issue is, like, already, I think, 20, 30 bucks. Almost every issue. Yeah, 23, because they didn't do any reprints of it.
[00:23:37] Speaker A: It was all that made the Year of Batman, huh? Let's be honest. It's a year of Batman. I think it's like. It's. It's true. Truth.
[00:23:44] Speaker B: Truth be told, I honestly, sitting here, like, day to day, week to week, looking at our polls, looking at our customer base, DC Comics, when we started, my orders, like, even Batman itself were just dropping and dropping and dropping. Now I'm ordering more and more dc, and I really probably need to reevaluate my Marvel orders.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: It's true. Like I said, I saw Batman showed up more times than I remember showing up in the past. And they're varying versions of Batman. The varying stories included Batman, too. It's not just like, the ongoing or whatever.
[00:24:18] Speaker B: Detective. There's all kinds of stuff. Yeah.
[00:24:20] Speaker A: Yeah, that's great. So number six for me, Spectators, the graphic novel by Brian K. Vaughan with artwork from Nico Henrikon. Again, I'm probably going to butcher that.
Very unique. I read a lot of Ryan K. Vaughan because I like Brian K. Vaughan's story, why the Last man was amazing. Obviously, there's saga. There's other things that are in there, too. Private Eye is also one that came out this year that was a reprint of one that from a long time ago. But the Spectators was. Was. Was a read you want to read in the corner. I mean, I have small kids. I have a wife. I. It was very, like. It's very mature in the sense that there's a lot of nudity in it. Like, a lot of nudity in it. It's. It's these people who die, and they're spectators, so they're like ghosts or spiritual things that watch over things before you move on and you get free reign. You can do whatever you want. But, like, you, like, they're, like, naked. It's like this. So they're watching. And the funny. It's like one person is a voyeuristic. So they, like, watch People have sex. It's kind of like how their post life thing. So. But it was like very interesting in the way that it progressed and then they see the world ending and all. So it's, it's a very, it was just unique in that sense. Like, I don't know, it's one of those things that you had to think outside the box a little bit. Like, I'm not normally picking this up, but I, I, I got the preview copy on Net netgalley and I was like, I'll give Brian Kvon a try. And then I actually got the, the, the physical arc of it. And I was like, this is just really cool. I think it's really different.
Like I said, it's not for everybody. It was a unique storytelling style and unique art approach as well as like the nudity in it.
But there's just this weird thing about it that was so good. And it was like I said to me, I'm always thinking, I'm trying graphic novels that are. I'm a big single issue person, as you know, but I also have now gravitated towards trying to like do a couple that are like, this is a graphic novel.
And that was one that I think I'm glad it was because, I don't know, like, there's certain stories, I mean, we just read.
We're reading Deviant for Book Club.
And I'll be honest, we are meeting in a couple weeks about this. But it needed to be read in that Volume one, Volume two. It could not have been read in single issues.
I think it falls in that same category. I think it's one of those things that I'm glad it was, it was. I read it as a graphic novel because it was needed to be that way. And so, yeah, Brian K. Vaughn's Spectators from Image Comics that came out this year in graphic novel. It's again, it's not for those people who don't want to see a little bit of some boobs and some penis drawn on comic book. But other than that's great. You can get past that. It's a wonderful comic.
[00:26:49] Speaker B: You get past that and it's a great book.
[00:26:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:52] Speaker B: Number six for me is Escape by Rick Remender, Art by Daniel Akuna by Image Comics. The artwork of this book is phenomenal. It's. Something about it just draws me in. It's beautiful.
Rick Remender is one of those writers that I will probably sign up for.
I see he's doing something. Yep. Put me in.
This story is one that I will say Is not necessarily a unique story. It's a, you know, it's a war going on, A plane shot down behind enemy lines. Will he survive?
What will happen between your protagonist and the enemy?
So it's definitely not an original story, but it's all done through like an anamorphic sort of storytelling.
It's a little reminiscent to me of Mouse, but not so deep where Mouse is like Mouse is a legitimate story of Art Spielman's father in World War II. And this is like this doesn't take place in World War II, even though it definitely kind of does and all that. But it gives you like this sort of more just war story vibe that you can just follow.
And recommender always to me just builds a great storyline. Like he's great world building storytelling. Character development only keeps me interested. So when I saw Remainder had nothing coming out this year, I immediately was like, yeah, put this on my checklist in the to do's. And Escape didn't fail to keep me interested. And on my. On my edge of my seat, another one that I'm looking forward to wrapping up the whole trade and story for because that's still ongoing right now. Yeah, but that's my number six.
[00:28:26] Speaker A: I. I noticed that online that a lot of people say that it's sold really well. Does it sell really well for you too on a retailer side of things? Or do you.
Are your fans a little bit different? Are your read a little bit different?
[00:28:36] Speaker B: It didn't start off super well, but then it caught on. I think we're on issue two and three. People started going back, trying to get back issues of it. Like, oh shoot. You know, I heard about this coming out.
I actually had to drop in some second print orders to try to just put a few more back and back issue.
So that I feel like started going. People started hearing about it more.
Yeah, every store, every store is different. We do a lot of horror, we do a lot of turtles.
Sometimes your action adventure or your more like drama books kind of sit with us. They don't catch on as quick, but Escape has started to here for sure.
[00:29:12] Speaker A: Yeah, that's one of those ones. There was a couple like, there's a couple books that had like really good second printing, third printing kind of sales and stuff like that. But like Escape seemed like, yeah, Rick Remander is a name. It's not like you're getting a nobody. It's just someone who actually has a following to him too as well.
[00:29:26] Speaker B: So the comic scene's different the last couple years too because there's less warehouse closing. There's less books. You don't get the first prints.
[00:29:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:34] Speaker B: And they don't do a second print. You're really out of luck.
So as a comic shop where I used to go, I don't really need second prints or third prints. I now like, oh, we need second prints and third prints of these.
And I think that's a book this year that I think some of our people here are going to come back later and be like, oh, I should have grabbed this.
[00:29:50] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. But yeah, so. So that's the top you had. You did your top 10 through 6.
That was like a. A rapid fire. Not. We can go just the same fast speed as we're going. Which is great because I think it. The thing out. People have short attention span, so I'm okay with that too. We're gonna do top five now. My top five is brought to you by Galactic Comics and. No, just kidding. The whole episode is brought to you by Galactic Comics and collectibles. So they.
I'm getting like so many friend requests on Facebook right now.
I'm so popular, Paul. It's just, you know, people can't. They just want to be friends with me.
[00:30:24] Speaker B: I'm lucky I made the cut here.
[00:30:25] Speaker A: I want people to know if you're one. I requested to be a Facebook friend of mine.
I literally only have like real like three friends. So, like, you're. You're not. And I barely have time for all of them. And so. So if you really think you're gonna actually be friends with me, it's.
[00:30:39] Speaker B: It's.
[00:30:39] Speaker A: You're. We're in for a rude awakening. No, number five for me is one.
[00:30:43] Speaker B: Of those question like, are we gonna hang out?
[00:30:45] Speaker A: Well, I started. I was like accepting some because I'm like, oh, okay, they're friends with Christopher golden, you know, like, whatever.
[00:30:49] Speaker B: They're just.
[00:30:49] Speaker A: They're befriending me. And I was like. Then I started getting too many of them. So I was like, I gotta delete, delete. Like, I can't. I have to have a reason to be friends with you anymore. I'm not gonna be that person who has 1500 friends on Facebook. And then it's stupid for me even get on there because that's just all this stuff for people. I don't know. I'm like, wow, who is this person? Oh, I don't know who this person is.
[00:31:04] Speaker B: I don't know who this is.
[00:31:05] Speaker A: Number five, is that one of those weird ones that falls. They're literally November, December of 2024. January, February, 2025 was the four issues. And so like it's one of those ones where like, well, it started in 24. Is it a 24? Is it a 25? So I think that it's a 25 and 24. Because of this. The trade also came out this year so that you have that like it.
[00:31:25] Speaker B: Gives an extra push. Yeah.
[00:31:26] Speaker A: And I wouldn't also think about that. Like, does that qualify if a trade comes down the year? No, it doesn't really, because. Not really, but the exorcism at 1600 pen. But I. Once again, by Hannah Rosemay.
And this artwork is by Vanessa Del Rey, who is a phenomenal horror writer of that or artist. So that has that like, grittiness to it that I like about it. It's like honestly, like a little bit more polished than Martin Simmons, if that makes any sense, but has the same vibe in that sense as well. So like, to me it was like all of a sudden Vanessa couldn't do it. I feel like they could slide Martin in there and it'd be a. No, no, no, no problem at all.
Supernatural horror based at the White House.
It's, it's a, it's considered a political horror. But in the same sense, like that's like a, like a, like a plot device. Not like the full on thing. There's no Republicans, Democrats, there's none of that stuff. It's literally apolitical in that sense where there's no like, like obvious themes in here where they're saying anti this or anti that. It's just that it happens to the White House.
[00:32:26] Speaker B: Like the horror itself, real world right now. Yeah, it's kind of nice to not have it.
[00:32:31] Speaker A: The, the, the, the, the daughter of the female president, the first female president is. There's a possession thing going on here, a supernatural force. I mean, I think it's horrifying enough. If I was a daughter of a freaking president, to be the first daughter of the, of the White House is probably horrifying enough. Just be like, like, like, like airdropped into the White House and have to deal with that in your life, let alone dealing with your mom being the first female president and all that stuff too. Like, that's crazy enough. And then you add in supernatural forces to the whole thing and like, like the whole thing just is like, oh my God, this is amazing. And the way it's laid out and the way it's done, like I said to me it was great because like you do see there are political comic books where it like doesn't say anti Democrat or anti Republican, but it like alludes to that. You're like, I know where they're getting at that this is not like that. And I think it's more about the family, it's about the possession, it's about that stuff. And it's proof in that matter that it's actually continuing in 2026. There's actually the exorcism at Buckingham Palace. So now they're going overseas and it's a non political place. Like this is not like, you know, two sides going against each other. And so like that's where like saying okay, they started here. It's kind of a drawn in. And I talked to Hannah Rosemary and she's like, it wasn't on purpose with the top world we were sitting in either to do a political comic book. It just happened to be when it came out and so on and so forth that way. And so yeah, it's, it's excellent. I think that has, that, it has a supernatural horror in there. But also like I said, it does take place in the White House. So you have a little like a, a place to look at, like a place to see, you know, how the world works in that sense. You know, a first daughter being the first female president and all that stuff. But there's also way more that goes involved in that stuff too. So it's atmospheric, it's just really cool. And again it has that like grittiness to it that you don't typically difficulty. I mean I watched West Wing that was like a polished, clean, like everyone's wearing suit and tie. But like having this like gritty horror to it. You're like, this is not something you typically see in the White House. And so that's really cool to see that too. So like Vanessa Del Rey, Vanessa Rosema and Vanessa Del Rey's art. Hannah Rosema's writing over at IDW is great. And then it's like a follow up series coming out. So get that trade. Read that to get yourself set up for, for the camp house one. Yeah. Number five.
[00:34:39] Speaker B: My number five is an ongoing Transformers.
[00:34:43] Speaker A: They go. Yes.
[00:34:44] Speaker B: Aaron Warren Johnson. Mike Spicer by Image Skybound.
This was the, I think this was book of the year last year.
[00:34:51] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:34:51] Speaker B: If I remember.
[00:34:52] Speaker A: And you're number one, my number two. But we, it's. It, it was so high we put it at this book of the year.
[00:34:57] Speaker B: I feel like the arcs continued this year for me. I, I couldn't put it down. I couldn't wait for the next trade to drop.
I even like had to grab a single issue because after I finished a trade, I just wanted to keep going.
It kept me right on the edge of my seat. I'm hesitant.
I am not the biggest Kirkman fan. I know that's an unpopular opinion. Especially you.
[00:35:19] Speaker A: I think it's like 50.
[00:35:22] Speaker B: I like walking Dead.
[00:35:23] Speaker A: I like Walking Dead. Okay. That. That's like. I don't. I'm not an invincible fan. So, like, I don't like. Whatever.
[00:35:29] Speaker B: Okay. All right. So I'm not offending you here. Yeah, yeah. I, I'm hesitant on that because I feel like Jaren Warren Johnson's love of Transformers comes right through this book.
In the story arcs that he's taken over the course of the year have been fantastic.
So he. He wrapped up this year. That is the end of Darren Warren Johnson's writing and Robert Kirkman's taking over. And I'm a little hesitant to see where the next arc is going to go with it.
But for the year in review, I think Transformers was. I had to be on the list. I. I considered not. I was going to put in honorable mentions and try to do more single stuff or stuff that started this year and I said I have to have Transformers on it. I couldn't wait to read it every time.
[00:36:08] Speaker A: So I will say you mentioned that Kirkman's writing it. Dan Mora's doing the artwork for that. That new. Starting at what number 25. I think it is that they're doing this.
And Dan Mora is a phenomenal artist in that sense too. And I feel like it fits that vibe too. I just finished. I think we're going to hopefully read it next year for Novemb Book Club at Klaus by Grant Morrison and Dan Mora. And Grant Morrison obviously is a phenomenal writer. It's a great story. And also. But what took me away. And it's just the artwork in that sense. And it's a big two style esque. So I feel like it lays itself to Transformers bombastic art and all that stuff. I think it's going to do well in that sense. Again, I liked Oblivion song a little bit.
I love the Walking Dead, but I think that there's. I'm not a huge invincible fan. I know that's probably a faux page right now too for people.
[00:37:03] Speaker B: Same problem in here. Yeah.
[00:37:04] Speaker A: But I think it's what it is.
[00:37:05] Speaker B: Don't just love it.
[00:37:06] Speaker A: I was like, yeah, and like, you know, whatever. So. So Kirkman writing is here or there, but I don't think that he'll ruin It. I just think that it's going to be a shock to some people how good Daniel Warren Johnson was on this run.
[00:37:17] Speaker B: Yeah, well, so my side. He was writing Void Rivals and I was. I was doing Void Rivals and I kind of just had enough.
[00:37:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:24] Speaker B: And I need, like, I'll probably go back and pick it up and keep reading Void Rival, but I feel like that's the way I. I get with Kirkman. He's like, okay, I'm on board. And then I just kind of had enough.
[00:37:35] Speaker A: Why do you think he's ready?
[00:37:36] Speaker B: Warren Johnson's. I would have kept reading. I would have read that forever.
[00:37:39] Speaker A: So, obviously, Dino, Warren Johnson is probably dying because he's done his issues. He wants to move on. He wants to do the next thing.
And he was doing both. He was doing all the stuff, so it's hard to do all that stuff. He was doing a lot of the artwork, too. Is. Is why Kirkman's writing it, though? Like, it's like, is there no one else that he could get to do that? Like, I feel like he's at a position now where he can just, like, run a business instead of having to all the work himself.
[00:38:00] Speaker B: I mean, he just really enjoys it. I mean, brought. Signed up to bring Transformers back on with Void Rivals initially.
[00:38:07] Speaker A: Well, maybe it's five issues.
[00:38:08] Speaker B: Really loves the property.
[00:38:09] Speaker A: Maybe it's five issues until they can set up the next person too. I don't know. You don't know. It's like, have you seen that Now, Turtles did that. And, like, it was like, at the end of the Turtles Run, there was like, Sophie Campbell did a bunch of it, and then it was like groups of people who did like, five.
Yeah, yeah. So excellent. Excellent.
[00:38:27] Speaker B: I'm glad.
[00:38:27] Speaker A: That said, it was.
[00:38:28] Speaker B: Was.
[00:38:28] Speaker A: It was a start. I will tell you that I didn't finish with continuing on with Transformers this year. I just think that I lost time and things like that. So that's one of the reasons why it doesn't make the list. It did make the list last year was so good that I could see why it's on your list this year. It makes sense. Number four, I'm not going to try to attempt to read all of the creators on the comic books on this.
[00:38:45] Speaker B: This book.
[00:38:46] Speaker A: But, you know, it's James Tinian and Michael Walsh for Exquisite Corpses, but there's Porn Sack was a writer. And there's all. There's all kinds of people who are writers because there's like eight issues or nine issues that have come out since the beginning of this. This series. And the first issue was written by James Tyen and Michael Walsh for Michael Walsh's artwork, and the second issue was written by Michael Walsh. You know, so, like, there's so many creators on this thing. I'm not gonna get into it. So go online and find exquisite corpuses and find out what issue you're reading and what art creative team is on this. But Exquisite corpses from Image Comics and Tiny Onion is number four.
You know, there's probably a little bit in here that's based in Maine, so maybe that's a little bit. Like, I even wrote that in my review of the first volume. Was like, okay, it's Tinian.
It's Horris, you know, VI slasher kind of vibe, has that Purge feel and has, like, the Hunger Games kind of feel to it. So all of that together, I was like, okay, cool. But, like, it's also based in a fictional town in Maine. We're used to this. We have Stephen King, who has all kinds of fictional towns in Maine. Like, this is cool. Like, I want to see this. I want to see what's going on here. It was awesome. Like, the first issue is really, really cool in the sense that they set up all the different killers that are happening. It's like a game where they take over a town, Oak Valley, Maine.
And it's about, like, the wealthiest people in the world who are in America, who actually run America.
And they had these games every once in a while that as this, like, killer wins, and then they get the control over the country, and they pick these killers and they have these weapons that they have to use to kill these people. And then the people in the town are, like, just shielded off. So, like, if you're in there and you're stuck, you're kind of screwed in that sense. You have to kind of hide. It's kind of like the Purge. If you get stuck outside and the Purge happens, the door is all shot, and you're like, oh, now I'm outside.
So it has that cool vibe to it. I think it's really like.
Like, a reality TV show vibe to it, a slasher vibe to it. A killer vibe. Horror, like, it's just a mixture of everything. The name is phenomenal. The artwork is phenomenal. I also am a big fan of the fact that it is different people. Like, Tiny is there to, like, keep the thing running. Like, he's like, the producer.
[00:40:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:49] Speaker A: He's the overall story arc kind of person. And Michael Walsh is also in that too. So it always says, like, porn Sax writing, but it's actually like with Tiny, with. With James Tiny and in the artwork, so. And so with Michael Walsh. So it's their architect of the thing. So, like, it's nice to have. When you have different creative teams doing that, sometimes you can feel disjointed along the way. Like, issue seven might not look similar to issue one, but there's something about the creative teams that they have on this that have continued it going in a way that makes it feel blended together. And so it's really cool. So I don't know what the plan is for this. I know 11 issues have been solicited. I don't know if they're gonna do the whole 12 or 13 killers. And that's kind of how they're doing it, or if it's an ongoing or if it's like a maxi series. Whatever it is, I don't know. I'm here for it. I think Expensive Corpses is fun. I think the way they released it was fine with, you know, the. The special edition bag one and all that stuff too.
[00:41:39] Speaker B: So.
[00:41:39] Speaker A: And I know the first volume, people were disappointed because it's only the first three issues, but the first issue is like 56 pages.
Yeah. And so the next volume that comes out is actually issues four through eight. So it is five issues. So, like, it's going to balance out in that sense. So Exquisite Corpses is number four for me from. From Tiny and Walsh and a team of other people.
[00:41:58] Speaker B: There we go.
Number four for me. And this is on, like, most people's list. Absolute Batman.
[00:42:04] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:42:05] Speaker B: Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo by DC Comics.
So I wrote the first issue. I got a solicitation for issue one.
I read the first issue and was like, God, great, great Capoulo's art. But I don't love what they're doing with it. And Scott Schneider needs his Batman card revoked. And I don't get it. And I'd already placed my order and was like, well, I got too many of those damn things.
And everyone came running. We had people I've never seen in my life coming. Absolute Batman came out. I'm like, yeah, well, you're gonna be disappointed, folks. Here you go. Whatever.
[00:42:35] Speaker A: Hey, take this garbage out of here.
[00:42:38] Speaker B: And they're all standing on my porch again. Ready to go. Let's go. And absolute Batman for the year was definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, the top selling comic of the year for us. And the whole time I kept bad mouthing it. Oh, my God, I don't know what the hell's Wrong with you people? So finally the trade came out. I promised everyone in here that, yeah, I will read the trade when it drops. And over the trade and went. Son of a. That was fun.
Damn it.
And I had to eat my words.
Do I think it's a great Batman story? I think it's the best Batman story. No, for me, this is not it. Yeah, I have a lot of, like, I have a lot of issues with it being Batman, but on the, like, fact, this is another dimension or another world or another universe where completely different story of Batman to a degree. I mean, you know, they're very different. He's.
He doesn't have, like, his mom's still there. He's not rich. He doesn't have that Wayne wealth.
[00:43:34] Speaker A: The.
[00:43:34] Speaker B: The black mask in it is fantastic for being this creepy, creepy killer that puts out this, like, game in Gotham where you put on the helmet, a mask comes to you, you put on the mask, and it's like a video game. And you're out killing people for money. And there's like, here's your targets. The more of them you do like, the more money we pay you, and you get actual money for it. He's causing all this, like, chaos and anarchy and Gotham, while the only person that is really equipped to stop him is Batman. And you're getting the whole Batman story to this, like, new world build.
And it was. It was a fun read, I have to admit. It was a really fun read. I am looking forward to volume two.
[00:44:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:15] Speaker B: Absolute Batman, for me, still hit the number four because, I don't know. I'm too much of a Batman purist, probably.
[00:44:22] Speaker A: Well, I'm glad.
Like I said, I went to do it, and I will, and I probably will be one of those ones. Hopefully we'll come back on here next year, and I'll be like, so I got to read Absolute Batman. And you're right. I'll put it at 10A because. Or 10B or whatever, because I can't take the place of something else. But I would see that it could be in the top 10 because I could see that a lot of people. It wasn't just variant hunters or. Or, you know, those kind of people. It was people, like, wanting to get the story A. The book's worth money. Issue 1A is worth money.
[00:44:49] Speaker B: But it just sold for 300.
[00:44:51] Speaker A: But it was more. A lot more. People were, like, pissed that it's worth so much money because they just wanted to read the story. That was the thing. It was like, they were like, oh, I hate the fact that it's that.
[00:45:00] Speaker B: Good, like, we have sold things of the tenth printing. We're still selling printings of it of the first one. People are just like, oh, I just want another copy of it. Or I've heard it's good. I want to read this first issue.
We have some Batman Day ones which are, we're still selling them for just the 299 cover price. Now. We gave them away on Batman Day. Initially it was like, well, whatever's left can go to backstock.
But people are still in here lugging absolute Batman out.
We have another store I deal with down in Mass. And he messaged me and was like, hey, I have actually have spare first prints if you want them for your shop. And I went, yep. And I bought them all from them. And we had to upcharge a little bit because he just charged me cover price for everything. But people were static when I'm like, oh, yeah, I've got issues, you know, 2 through 12, first print sitting here if you want them. And we're just charging like a couple bucks extra. And people were just snagging them left and right.
[00:45:53] Speaker A: Yeah, that's, that's crazy. And that's cool. I, I, that's me. That's the dc. It's technically what the DC version of the ultimate version of, of Marvel.
[00:46:01] Speaker B: Yeah. It very much just feels the ultimate Marvel universe built into the DC side.
[00:46:06] Speaker A: Which to me I've always been a fan of because I've, like I said to me, I'm a purist in the sense that I understand you can't change the entire history. You can't start over. It would be a very abrupt thing. But like, this ultimate or like alternate universe things is great to me because I feel like a new story or a new version of something fixing some things or what would happen if this happened this way. Yeah, the what if, what ifs of it all. It's cool. And I think maybe that's also a place for people to come in if you're not a big Batman person. Like, is this a great place to start with? Like, this is not the Batman that you already know. It's a Batman story.
[00:46:35] Speaker B: Yeah. You just want to try some Batman. Try something. This is it. You don't have to worry about all the previous background and storyline.
[00:46:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:40] Speaker B: You have a fresh start. So it's, it's great.
[00:46:42] Speaker A: It's pretty cool. And so, yeah, like I said, I don't have, you know, over the years, I, you know, I've softened on my hate for D.C. in that sense, I don't hate D.C. but, you know, I mean, I've softened on that, and I think this is one of those ones that actually would pick up potentially next first trade of absolute Batman over something else in the Marvel side right now, because it just. I just don't. There's nothing exciting.
[00:47:01] Speaker B: I recommend it. And, you know, we might very well just do it for book club because it's so freaking popular.
[00:47:05] Speaker A: Let's do it. Let's figure it it out.
[00:47:08] Speaker B: February book.
[00:47:10] Speaker A: There you go. I had one in my head.
[00:47:13] Speaker B: February still.
[00:47:15] Speaker A: Final Boss number three. Paul's knowing my freaking.
[00:47:20] Speaker B: Yeah, you, you love for this comic.
[00:47:22] Speaker A: Oh, gosh. So. So I get advanced copies, right? So that's part of my duties here at Capes and Tights. And I.
There was three comics on a list of advanced copies I could read for trades that are coming out that I was like, oh, I want to read this. And so of those three was reading the entire news from the fallout, and I was like, cool, I got to do that. I've read first two or three issues. I want to read finish that. No Man's Land.
Szmon Kravinsky, who is a phenomenal realistic artist, as well as the stories are pretty good. Those two are on the list. I was like, oh, cool, I'll read those two. And then there's a third one where I'm like, if I have time, I'll get to it. Whatever. And so I emailed off to Margo over at Image Comics. I'm like, is there any recommendation recommendations on next thing for images coming out that I should put on my list? Whatever. She's like, you have to read Final Boss. I was like, okay, I saw this cover. I'm not a huge in, like, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat kind of person.
[00:48:11] Speaker B: You know what? Picture of the book.
[00:48:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll give it a shot. Oh, my God, Paul. I, I, I, I don't. It's not the comic book of the year to me for this year because there is only two. I mean, we're recording this on December 22nd. The second issue technically comes out Wednesday. And so, like, technically, there is only one issue, so I'm recording this. But I've read the first fire. Entire first five issues. So the first two issues that come out this year and then the first three of next year, and it's. Oh, my gosh. And I will say, just taking into account the first two issues, it's amazing. So, like, yes, the third, fourth, and fifth issues are being great.
So even if I didn't see those. I probably still would have had it in the spot at number three. But Tyler Kirkham, he's known for his Marvel DC work. People know him for his variant covers a lot or his cover art because he's a phenomenal artist. But his story is great and it adds heart to it. Meaning that, like, like you mentioned earlier that there's people who write comics because they have passion for it. Daniel Warren Johnson has passion for. For Transformers, and that's why he does so well and he did so well with Do a Powerbomb because he's a huge wrestling fan.
Kirkham is probably a massive. I don't know him personally, a massive Street Fighter fan and massive Mortal Kombat fan, I think what's going on here. But it also has like a mystery part of it, an adventure part of it. There's like a superhero feel to it.
[00:49:27] Speaker B: It.
[00:49:27] Speaker A: It's. It's just action packed. The kills are brutal. Just what you want to see out of like a brutal Mortal Kombat, you know, like the finish him kind of like kills like that, that thing. They are brutal. And I think it's really cool. It has like, at the end of each chapter or. Yeah, each chapter in the trade where each comic is like, what their stats are and like, what they've improved or just like always, stamina's gone up or whatever. So, like, each issue has that, like, feel to it at the end where you like, like the kills and what he did in that comic book where he. Where what, what stats? His stamina, strength, whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so. It's really cool. It's like, it's nostalgic in a sense too.
I am just here for it, man. Like I said, it's one of those take risks if you're not into something. Like, enough people are talking absolute Batman. If enough people in your sphere are talking about it, take a risk, give it a chance. Because this is one of those opportunities that, that it wouldn't even been on my radar if I wasn't just like someone from. I just asked for recommendations and Margo's like, read it. I'm like, okay, cool, I'll read it. And I got into the first issue, I'm like, I didn't stop. I just flew through five issues because it was like, so much fun to read. And the artwork is phenomenal too.
[00:50:33] Speaker B: So because we have one copy of first, print a cover left and see.
[00:50:37] Speaker A: I. I mean, said, hey, if you have it. Because like I said, I'll get the Trade too, because I just think it's so. It's so good. And this is one of those ones where a lot of times I find myself reading like five issues of an ongoing or a maxi series, and then it just falls off my radar because there's just so much going on.
This is one of those ones where I see it on a pull list. I'm like, okay, cool. It's coming, it's coming. I'm gonna read this next thing because I just.
Again, there's just so much going on, and I think it's so much fun.
It's a visual medium, so it's story plus artwork. And I think that this visual medium, which brings this. So cool. And I would love to see this as a movie or a TV show or something because I think it'd be so, so cool to watch. But it would be very expensive to make because the kills are very brutal. A lot of special effects in, in this, in this, in this series. Yeah, that's number. Number three, Final Boss by Tyler Kirkham, who does art and story in this.
[00:51:22] Speaker B: Oh, it's crazy.
Number three to me. G.I. joe.
[00:51:26] Speaker A: Oh, there you go.
[00:51:27] Speaker B: Joshua Williamson. Tom Riley, Image Comics, Skybound Comics.
I'm a huge, huge GI Joe fan. This is like my childhood vibes is GI Joe, robocop and Batman and all of this. So a GI Joe comic starting off fresh for me is phenomenal.
I can tell you. It's not your little kids. GI Joe.
People die. Joe's Joe's die. Like, first issue, I was shocked. Like, oh, my. You can't kill him. What the hell just happened?
This is like an adult what if kind of GI Joe, and it has that kind of crazy sci fi stuff. And the Joes are. Are ill equipped with the fact that Cobra is terrorist organizations out there and they've discovered a new weapon they can use. So they're firing these, you know, plasma guns, energy guns, whatever, the way that they always had the pew pew cannons, but they're. They're killing people with them and running around the globe causing terror and. And the U.S. government is combining and trying to figure out what they're going to do about it. And the formation of GI Joe has started of the best of the best. These. These guys. And then it's. It's a fun read.
It does intersect with Transformers.
I almost wish it intersected a little less with Transformers. While I love the Transformer world, I would love if this goes more into a G.I. joe story, but it was one that I could not put down.
Love the ride I already had loved the Duke single and the Cobra Commander single from last year. And then getting the, the whole GI Joe team up together and the edge of the seat waiting for some of the characters that you know are going to come that haven't come in yet.
They've got me like a hook line and sneaker man. GI Joe for me. Number three.
[00:53:12] Speaker A: I don't know what Skybound paid for the rights to this comic book series and these, these characters, but it is probably worth it. I don't care how much.
[00:53:20] Speaker B: A little bit to Hasbro too though. They must like love this because they're starting to get, get figures based of Skybound stuff.
This was the 80s deal. You printed the comics to sell the toys.
[00:53:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:53:33] Speaker B: And it's almost the same idea. I think Hasbro might be like, thank God we're getting to be able to move more product because people are picking up these comics. Like, you know what I need to figure my favorite GI Joe.
[00:53:43] Speaker A: I mean, you gotta think that in the net it can't be like tomorrow, but like in the next few years. 10, 5, 10 years. This movie is based off of these stories.
Like, you know, they think like this is not one of those things where like there has to be some sort of something like from the comics, you know, whatever. Like I could see them making and hopefully Michael Bay is not attached to it. But making a Transformers and then think about it, how much money they can make off it. You don't. Like I said, I agree with you in the sense that maybe a little more separation. But we know that that's the way it's going to work. We do that in like crossovers from Marvel and dc. Sometimes you're like, why do they have to include this character? This is an oddball character. Like there's a lot of times they go too far and sometimes they go too far in these kind of story arcs. But one comic now if you say they're all interchangeable, hopefully Skybound gets more sales because they'll get bgi, Joe Bot and Transformers and all these ones bought because that.
[00:54:29] Speaker B: I know there's talk of like an adult driven animated series based off of the Transformer stuff and hopefully they'll start getting the GI Joe stuff.
[00:54:35] Speaker A: I think it would be great. I think about the thing about like you could actually have a character like a GI Joe movie that maybe was actually good.
[00:54:41] Speaker B: Oh, weird. I mean there hasn't been.
[00:54:43] Speaker A: It hasn't been a real life 1.
[00:54:44] Speaker B: GI Joe itself hasn't been. Been a prominent thing. No talk about it in Here where Transformers stayed prominent with kids and stuff. Yeah. Ninja Turtles to stay. Comments always coming out. GI Joe really kind of faded to.
[00:54:54] Speaker A: The background in the. The latest G.I. joe movie.
[00:54:57] Speaker B: It didn't work well.
[00:54:58] Speaker A: The G.I.
[00:54:59] Speaker B: Joe action movies. Yeah, they did the last one.
[00:55:01] Speaker A: The last one didn't even have GI Joe the name attached to it. It was just Snake Eyes, right?
[00:55:05] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:55:05] Speaker A: It was like not even like even close to like. Yeah, it was just. So I think this could be a huge. For everything. And I think again, I agree with you in the fact that, that it's cool. It's kind of confusing still because they're still continuing the other run at the same time as this one. But like.
[00:55:18] Speaker B: Right, okay. Initial original American Hero run is still.
[00:55:22] Speaker A: Can we just wrap that up? I don't understand. Like, can we just get to a point where we wrap it up? But it must be. Still be selling.
Yeah, now, whatever. I don't have any. It's not my. I don't have any skin in the game anyway, so it doesn't really matter. But to me it's always kind of annoying when I'm. I am buying G.I. joe. Not the. The ongoing one that was.
And so like you're always like, I'm doing my polis. I'm like, is that the.
[00:55:42] Speaker B: What is this?
[00:55:43] Speaker A: Oh yeah, the Real American Heroes after the other one. And also it's like number 315.
[00:55:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:55:51] Speaker A: So number two for my list was another one that I was like screaming from the top of a mountain for people to read because I loved it. I was sending out to confidant people like yourself or someone else. Like, you need to read this one of the. I reviewed it for our website. One of my novel reviewers for the website, I emailed her and was like, this is not a full on novel, but like you should read the this. And it actually made top books of the year and top comics of the year because it's a called. They considered a graphic novella. So it had a lot of story in it, but also illustration. So it kind of meets both categories. And at the end of the day I was like, you know what? It meets both lists. I think it's on both lists. It's not my number one comic of the year, but it's in there. It's not my number two book in the year. It's Lookout from AWA Studios. It was their fear. Was it? I have no Hair there. Fear. Future of Fear inaugural story which is like a Vertigo entertainment, not Vertigo comics, but vertical entertainment combination of this guy who Makes films or are working together with AWA on this stuff. But it's from Dan Baye and Tim Bradstreet. You know, Tim Bradstreet's a veteran comic book artist. His illustrations are ever relasant to him that there's times where I'm like, is this a photo?
But it's cool. So it's like got like paragraphs of stories and you're reading and you flip the page over. It's a big splash page of artwork and maybe there's a piece of artwork in between paragraphs and stuff like that. But it's about a lookout tower, one of those fire lookout towers that are in the mountains. And it's a remote job and there's this mysterious list of rules that the guy finds at the very beginning. And he's like trying to like someone playing a practical joke on me is someone not playing a practical joke on me. And come to find out they're not.
Hits the fan. It's a horror. It's. It's jump scares in there. There's horrifying moments.
I know this was made from a combination of comics and film, like the people who worked on this thing. So it obviously screams that it could be made into an amazing horror film. But this is actually based off of a story this guy wrote. Dan wrote for a thread on Reddit that someone saw and was like, can we. Can you expand on this a little bit and make it into the story? And he wrote the story and got attached with Tim Bradstreet, which is like insane.
And it's phenomenal. So it comes in like a magazine format and it's pretty cool. Like I said, it's like not a graphic novel, not a comic fully. It's not a novel fully. So it's like a mixture of everything, but it is qualified. It's out by a comic book publisher and it's called a graphic novella. So it's a graphic novel in a sense, and it's just phenomenal. There's just this eeriness to it. There's the scariest creepiness to it. It won't be for everybody in the sense that there is a lot of time text. However, what I will say is it's not the same to me as someone named Jonathan Hickman.
And in that sense that you open a comic book from Marvel to get panels of comics and you're trying to squeeze in more stories so you add entire page of text, that's not the sense. This is written in a way that it's supposed to be written this way. And so you're telling the story in novel format or novella format.
It's different in my opinion, because I think that when I go to open a comic book comic and not expecting that. And also, this is me being like, I don't have enough pages in this comic book to tell that story, and it's cheaper for me to do it this way. So I'm just gonna tell you a story on a page. And that, to me, is a little bit different. Like, you're trying to get all the words out in this one, you know, comic book page. This is, like, purposely. Yes, yes. It's done that way on purpose. And the artwork's phenomenal in that sense. The only thing I hate about is this magazine format, so it's, like, hard to put places somewhere, but yeah. So look out. AWA Studios. Number two on my list from Dan Bay and Tim Bradstreet.
[00:59:29] Speaker B: Number two for me, I returned to the absolute universe with Absolute Wonder Woman by Kelly Thompson. Hayden Sherman.
It's funny. So Garrett, that works here, he's not. He. He does a lot of the TCG stuff. He does a little less on the comic side, especially over the years, but this was his book of the year. Like, Paul, you gotta read this.
And I'm like, well, I'm gonna read all the absolutes as I'm going.
So finally I was like, well, I really need to pick up absolute Wonder Woman. I know Garrett's really excited about it.
So I started reading it. And, yeah, I couldn't. I could not put it down. The artwork in this book is phenomenal. It's. It's got that, like, sort of painted vibe to it.
Wonder Woman was raised in hell.
She is, like, almost like the first daughter of hell.
And she uses, like, the evil dark magic as her weapon. But the eternal good of Wonder Woman still comes through where she is still a hero. It's not like the, oh, she's evil.
But you definitely would not want to screw with this version of Wonder Woman. Any version of Wonder Woman is fairly terrifying if you're. If you're on the bad guy side. If you decide to be like, you're going to be a villain.
This version, probably the scariest, yes.
But it is phenomenal. And, like, the storytelling of this book has been just great. Like, I can't put it down. I love the going back to her as a child, and she's already on playing with demons and stuff, and all of these, like, evil creatures, most of them just kind of, like, follow her around as a Child. But you still get, like, mom that is taking care of her. This. The. The, like, her mother in hell is like, oh, dear, don't run too far over there. That, like, Hydra is gonna get you. And you see, like, the tent, like, it wants to eat her. And, you know, as it grows up, she's like, fighting that thing. Like, it's just crazy.
Great storytelling.
I love the, like, I don't know, it switches over to, like, the news broadcast of what is happening. We're shocked. We don't understand something's attacking us. And then she said, what the hell is. Is this woman doing here?
[01:01:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:01:27] Speaker B: And then they're like, good God, she's killing all these things in the utter fear that they get across of the people in the world that are, like, looking out. Because, I mean, something you've never seen before, this floating demon comes to you and tells you that the world's ending is going to take over. And you're like, is this real? Am I really seeing this? You know, they do a great job of this, like, real life perspective of it. Yeah, just great. I could not it page to page. I could not stop reading this book. So. Absolutely. Wonder Woman for me, asked for number two.
[01:01:59] Speaker A: It's again, one of those ones I wouldn't jump on normally because it's a DC comic and I just don't gravitate towards that. But Kelly Thompson is a phenomenal comic book writer as well as. So Hayden Sherman is the artist on a lot of these. Absolute Wonder man who. Hayden is a phenomenal horror writer or horror artist. And so he did into the Undying.
[01:02:18] Speaker B: I think that transitions really well.
[01:02:20] Speaker A: And as I said, I think it works. I think is where you're putting this location of this comic book in the story and the backstory of this thing and adds that, like something that I think that I was talking to other people. Like, I wish they did more. Like, I wish there was more horror in or horse style or less conventional artwork. In Big two, we talked about news from the fallout. Like, there's no. I'm never gonna be a Marvel or DC comic that's in the mainstream like that. Like, I did think it's kind of cool. Like, take some risk on the artwork. People want their superhero artwork, but in the same sense, there's other stories that might work.
[01:02:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
Let it flow and tell itself. Like, yeah, yeah.
[01:02:54] Speaker A: So I'll go with my number one.
[01:02:55] Speaker B: Paul.
[01:02:55] Speaker A: We're there. And then you'll do your number one. And I tell you right now, this is like one of those ones that where a sequel is just as good as the first one, if not better, in my, my opinion. And that's Beneath the Trees where Nobody Sees. Right Of Spring is my number one comic book of the year by Patrick Horvath. And it's, it's that it I just chatted with actually comes out after this episode. So you'll actually get to hear it with Greg Katzman from idw and, and I told him. I was like, I hate to say it, but I had a little bit of lack of faith that Patrick was going to be able to do this. Like it to me screamed a little bit like super successful. So let's make a sequel kind of like thing where it's like, oh, we made a lot of money off this. A bunch of prints, bunch of whatever's hardcovers, all that stuff. Let's make some more money off of this. And you know, IDW has been known to do some of this stuff in the past with different things and using characters that they have have rights to to print things. And I said, and I read the first issue and I got to the end of the first issue, I'm like, I was wrong. This is amazing. How the hell does some people's like my whole thing about Del Mundo and Del Mundo's artwork about not just really good artwork, but like how his mind works to make these scenes what they are.
[01:04:03] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[01:04:04] Speaker A: Patrick's. Horvath's creating a sequel that the first story felt so good that I was like, oh well how is he gonna do this? And I'm like, oh my God, he does it so well.
And so there's an eight year time jump. It's a sequel to the cozy horror. It's a serial killer bear. Obviously we talked about that last year on this thing too. But he's now facing the digital age. The Internet has now been invented and there's risks that go along with that. It seems like he's playing with people. You get a little bit or see she. Sam is playing with people too. I also think that you get a little bit more backstory to what Sam, why Sam is the way that she is and how she became this way. Her first kills, all that stuff are in this story. But still it's the freaking richest scary style artwork that still makes it go, oh my God, she just did what she did and she looks like a freaking bear. I'll also get into this. They play a lot into the idea that there's. We talked about it in book club. There's actual like bears in the Woods. But Sam is also a bear. And in this series, the spoiler on this, there's bears that kind of like, come into the city, and they're very scared about the bears coming into the city. And they just. They just talk about the bears coming into the city. They're like, oh, there's wild animals in the city. We need to do something about it. And you're like, you're a bear.
[01:05:16] Speaker B: Wild animals.
[01:05:17] Speaker A: You're talking about another bear.
And so it's just funny in that sense. And so I think it's. It's like that Dexter meets Richard. Scary. I don't know, man. I just. I wasn't like, to me, I was like, oh, yeah, it's pretty good comic. And then I read up to what we're at now. I almost emailed Greg that IDW was like, I know the next issue comes out out in January, which is like issue five, I believe. I think five and six, about January, February. So, like, the first four issues came out this year.
I was like, I only review for the website issues one and then trades. Like, I don't issue two, issues two, three, and four. I think it's hard to do. I think I could tell you, hey, this is good setup for the story. And then, you know, I could do a trade.
[01:05:51] Speaker B: And then this is the Go read the trade. The story.
[01:05:54] Speaker A: So I can't reading.
Reviewing issue four is kind of hard where you don't know where it's going.
But I'd say right now I almost emailed them, so can you just send this to me? Because I want to read it now. Like, I'm not going to review it, but I just want to read it right now. Can you send me whatever you have? Can you send to me?
Because I'm just ready for it to continue. And I think that, like, obviously it could be shit the last two issues, but I doubt it at this point. Like, this is just so good, man. I'm talking about, like, I'll tell you right now, it's. It's one number one for me, but it's like number one by a distance. Like, it slid into number one and stayed there. Like, it's no way that it was being touched.
[01:06:27] Speaker B: Huge oversight on my side. Yeah. Because I know I'm gonna read this.
[01:06:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:06:32] Speaker B: And I'm so good. I'm gonna read the trade. When the trade drops, I'm gonna read it. And it's funny because we almost always sell out. In fact, I had people in digging through back issues trying to find Beneath the Trees and the, the first volume is usually in one of our staff picks. Somebody has it in the staff picks.
And I guess I just missed it all together that because, because it was one of the things I think I put in my head. I know when the trade drops, I'm gonna read it.
[01:06:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:06:57] Speaker B: So for doing this year in review, I just overlooked at all the other.
[01:07:00] Speaker A: Because the trade doesn't come out to like the summertime. Because February.
[01:07:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:07:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:07:04] Speaker B: And I think I completely sort of just forgot about it. So shame on me.
[01:07:08] Speaker A: It is like I, I, like I said, I don't know, it might be like, you know, it's obviously personal opinions on people, but like there's something about it that just screams like they also part of it has to do with probably that they did it. Like they, they subverted my expectations in the sense that they actually, I mean, I don't.
[01:07:24] Speaker B: Because I, I was with you. I love the first one and I was like, I'm kind of surprised they're doing the sequel.
[01:07:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Because you're gonna wait till July 21st.
[01:07:32] Speaker B: Successful.
[01:07:33] Speaker A: Like July 21st is when the next the trade comes out. You got a long time to, to do that. So you'll have to either read your single issues or wait until that comes out because it's, yeah, it is. You're so, it's, I think it's January and in March. So the last issue comes out in March. But yeah, I, I, I will now say make a third one. Like just keep doing this. I don't care.
The idea that they skip eight years.
[01:07:59] Speaker B: Or a horror single episode style series of this, like a little miniseries of this done.
[01:08:06] Speaker A: And it has to be animated.
[01:08:10] Speaker B: Oh my gosh, man.
[01:08:13] Speaker A: Keep it up, man. Also, spoiler alert. It will come out before this episode comes out. He was our most popular episode of the year. So I had him on. I, I included the last two weeks of last year, those episodes, because technically your first, like real big listeners are the first week. But then it like picks up in January. So like they're not released in 2025. But they were like the, they were in the bulk. Like I wouldn't consider like. Yeah. And so number one was him in December and then he came back on like July or June or something like that. And he was number two or number. Number four. So he's number one in four of the top episodes of the year. So like he's also a super popular podcast guest, so we'll have to get him back on.
[01:08:53] Speaker B: But yeah, very awesome.
[01:08:54] Speaker A: Beneath the trees where nobody sees Right. Of Spring. Are you gonna surprise me here? What's going on here?
[01:08:59] Speaker B: Number one for me was on your list. Exquisite Corpses.
[01:09:02] Speaker A: Okay, so I thought you were gonna go that way when you said that we probably had the top comic. I thought you were gonna say that.
[01:09:07] Speaker B: So. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, like, like, I mean Tiny has to be on my list apparently. Like I can't have a list without it without James on there. So. James Tyons image exclusive Corpses. You covered it earlier.
I don't know, it's got the page turning vibe to me. It's got your like edge of your seat horror, suspense.
The idea that these 13 families, it's like it gives you that like, I don't want to say political, but political like haha. That like everything in our government, in our country is all fake. None of us. Yes. None of it's real. And actually everything is being run by these original 13 families. The richest families in our country and each one belonging to a certain state.
And then them like having this sick game that they come up with every five years on Halloween. They turn a killer loose. Rather they create one themselves. Like, well, you know, we specifically breeded this child to be nuts. Yeah. Like, wow, that's disgusting. Or we've gone out and paid to get the pop killing serial killer out of prison and turn them loose.
All of these different things. So what a, what a crazy story. And I love the idea of Exquisite Corpses. The art style is that you pass along the art, someone does it and that's what the story is. We pass along and it grows and it changes and it's different.
For me, I, I can't wait for more of it. Yeah, I think there's probably, in my humble opinion, I don't, I don't know, but I think it's gonna be 13 issues, first three coming out and trade one and then do five and five would make sense for your trade release.
[01:10:33] Speaker A: Yep.
[01:10:34] Speaker B: But yeah, I love it. The first issue is extra, so you get the bonus. So getting that first trade of being three issues. Don't feel like you're getting shorted. Yeah, the first trade is.
[01:10:45] Speaker A: It feels the same because it's the same length.
[01:10:46] Speaker B: It feels like any other one you pick up.
So for me, James Steinman, Exquisite Corpses.
[01:10:51] Speaker A: It's, it's, it's. And it also, like I said, for us as Mainers, it's like, it's kind of cool. That's space in me.
And obviously they also aren't gonna base it in an actual town from the thirteen colony. Like first thirteen, you know, they're not gonna base it in South Carolina if that's one of the first one of the people that's killing it. They're not gonna do their own state. So obviously picking a remote place in a place that they can pay off the cop.
[01:11:09] Speaker B: Yeah. And the place is controllable, you know, you can get in there and you. And I like the. The characters in it and you're following these like keen boys and like, oh my God, what's gonna happen to them and this family you feel bad for all while all of this insanity is taking place. Place.
[01:11:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:11:23] Speaker B: So I don't know. I. That was. That was my book of the year exclusive corpses.
[01:11:27] Speaker A: So again, if we do a average of everything, I think that ends up being our book of the year exclusive corpses because it was number four for me and number one for you. And that's like our list that works that way in that sense.
[01:11:41] Speaker B: Right?
[01:11:43] Speaker A: Yep. Those are. Frame was the other ones, which is both horror, which just doesn't. Not surprising to me at all.
[01:11:47] Speaker B: But no, no.
[01:11:48] Speaker A: So quickly. I'm just gonna run through quickly. So number one, that's our top list. You can. I'm gonna put it online. We're gonna release this episode, but we're also gonna release maybe a week later, a couple days like after the next week, a physical print version of it. So if you forget what we said here, you can go look at that on the website.
Runners up. For me it was a Marvel comic book, Cable Love and Thunder, Love and Chrome, written by David Peppers, which we love over there. One that actually fell out of the top 10 for me was far down Below from Mad Cave from Chris Condon, but Behemoth from Dark Horse. Jay Martin did the artwork on that. Who's a phenomenal artist. I was a fashion school serial killer, Masterminds, murder, podcast, American Caper, Archie versus Minor Threats, Godzilla, which is actually surprising to me that it actually made it run around. You'll do bad things and we're taking everyone down with us. That was all ones that I had like in contention. That's a pretty long list. But like, I was like, ah, some of them were. Worked their way in there, some of them didn't. Some were just really good. But I wanted to mention. And so those are the list of my runner ups. Do you have any runners?
[01:12:47] Speaker B: So my runner ups is very short. I did want to mention I did not get a chance to read the new Amazing Spider Man Run.
I was going to have to get into that.
So that was my only real Marvel book that I was like, oh, we kicked off the first issue of Main Spider Man. We have a brand new storyline this year. And I was going to read that. We actually sold out of the trades and I'm waiting for a reorder to get my copy.
So I'm going to say that I would have done that. TMNT has been terrific. I've really enjoyed still Ninja Girls going. I was like, I said I was trying to get away from Ongoing and my big shocker, that's always on my list and I'm gonna at least mention it. Something's Killing the Children. Yes. Because it is the greatest read. We're gonna have like 100 issues of it. I can't wait for more of it.
Something's Killing the Children is. Is always my top book.
This year, I want to say, you know what? I really want to try to read more books, different books, and get other stuff on the list. So I still have to include Something Is Killing the Channel Children.
[01:13:43] Speaker A: I think you have to.
[01:13:44] Speaker B: And that's the thing.
[01:13:44] Speaker A: As we talked about that one, there's a couple other ones that are out there that are, like somewhat ongoing or things like that. Like, you just can't.
[01:13:49] Speaker B: I'm a James fan.
[01:13:50] Speaker A: Well, World Tree was great, too. And World Trees, the longer, you know, issues and all that stuff, like, it's one of those ones. It's like, it's hard to do that and it's hard to pick the. The comics that came out this year for that one. Are they the best ones and stuff.
[01:14:02] Speaker B: So I think there could be, like an arc that really hit if you had an arc to hit. And I loved the stuff from Something Scaling Children this year, but none of the arcs to me were like. Like, this has got to go in my.
[01:14:11] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. If you're a Tinian Tiny fan, it's a huge year coming up. A couple years coming up, too, because you just signed another deal with Netflix or other animation stuff. So, like, you're getting a World Tree show. We're getting a Lolo woods show. We're getting a. We're getting a news story called Tipsy Dragons, which is like an adult anime series that's not been anything else. It's an original story for TV or streaming. So there's a bunch of stuff. Obviously, we're getting Something Killing the Children. We're getting all that stuff. Stuff. We're getting all kinds of stuff in the tiny universe of things. And again, if you join book club, we were dreaming the deviant right now, which I could also see Being some sort of like movie or something. Like, come on. Like, it's. That seems like a really cool thing.
[01:14:50] Speaker B: But yeah, explicit Corpses would be.
I don't know. You can do live action. You do animated. Like, I almost think animated would be fun for exclusive corpses to do this animated horror and do your single episode of each. I honestly, it reads like you're watching TV series.
[01:15:06] Speaker A: I honestly would hate to say, like in the kind of spider verse, but grittier version like that, that, like that, like cool. Like comic booky. Like, like the kills could be like some of the killers are definitely very.
[01:15:17] Speaker B: Very like, I don't know beyond out of this world craziness. So, like, I feel like you'd have.
[01:15:22] Speaker A: That if you made it live action. It would look almost like the Mario Brothers movie from 1993 where it's like they try but they can't. You know, that kind of thing. Which, by the way, reminded me. I was in the office the other day. We talked about it or company. Oh, that's why we've not done that one yet. On the reviews.
[01:15:37] Speaker B: Good question.
[01:15:38] Speaker A: Like, it's. It's a great movie to review because it's horrible, but it's also like I.
[01:15:43] Speaker B: Ever hear it's really bad.
It is really.
[01:15:47] Speaker A: That was one of those movies artwork on it.
[01:15:49] Speaker B: I love it. Bob. Yeah, that is one of those movies that I knew was. I knew it was bad when I.
[01:15:53] Speaker A: Was a kid, like, but top 10/20 comics of the year, actually top top 18. 18 comics of the year, if you think about it that way. And Exquisite Corpses I think takes the top list if you have to. If we to pick a comic book of the year for the podcast, I'll put Corpses up there. Even though writer Spring was phenomenal. So go read those books. But read everything on here.
[01:16:16] Speaker B: Big two Beneath the Trees is my fault. So really, in some respects, if you.
[01:16:20] Speaker A: Had to pick a Big two publisher, that kind of took the year.
DC took the year for Big two publishers. I was up in the air on who the. The independent publishers would be there. But Image, I think, I think it has kind of fallen in a couple years. But this year they did some pretty dynamite stuff. Dark Horse to me was really, really good to me. One of the ones that made some good comics but kind of fell off the. Fell off the top tens and they didn't have one in there was Mad Cave. They all like were in my runners up. They were good comics. They just. None of them like, none of them were like the Excel comics of the year. And that's not. But yeah, again, three or four of them were in my runners up. So they were obviously really good comics. It's just didn't make top 10.
Yeah. So Galactic Comics and Collectibles at galactic comics and collectibles.com for now at 547 Hammond street in Bangor, Maine.
Yeah, we'll see. I'm just teasing that out there, Paul. We'll see.
[01:17:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:17:07] Speaker A: Happy Merry Christmas, Paul. Happy New Year. All that stuff. Thank you so much for a great year on the podcast doing movie reviews and other stuff. We have more coming in 2026. Can't wait. We have some anniversary movies we're doing which would be kind of cool. It's the 10th anniversary of the Deadpool movie.
[01:17:22] Speaker B: Movies.
[01:17:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:17:23] Speaker B: Mario Brothers should probably make the list for crappy movies.
[01:17:25] Speaker A: Oh, we're gonna do Motu, the sequel.
[01:17:28] Speaker B: Animated ones coming, right? The Mario Gal. Yeah. So it makes sense we watch it.
[01:17:32] Speaker A: To do it right around that time around it. Yeah, we got for sure. We've got Motu on there. We've got other ones too. And yeah, I think that we've got.
[01:17:42] Speaker B: Some anniversary movies a day complete until I've seen Dolph Lunders with a giant sword killing alien robot.
[01:17:47] Speaker A: And to be honest with you, they're not the same quality, but they kind of remind me the same way the Mario Brothers movie in that movie where there's like they try to take it cheesy. It's a weird take.
[01:17:57] Speaker B: Trying to make it real world.
[01:17:58] Speaker A: Yes, it's a weird take on an animated movie. It's like it's animated thing. It's like one of those things. It's like, okay, someone was trying to be really artsy with it and it didn't pull on work. But Motu's awesome. I think it's far better than Mario. But Mario's just fun to watch because it's like so bad.
But yeah. Top 10 comics of the year.
[01:18:14] Speaker B: Well, Justin, this movie sucks because this is our normal.
[01:18:18] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And it wasn't. It was a really good year. I think that there's a kind of fun year. I tell you what. Exclusive Corpses to me was really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really good. And so was right of Spirit Spring. But everything else was like there could have been pushed. I think it's one of those weird things that it could have been, you know, like a fifth comic. Could have been a seventh comic. I don't know, like, you know, one different issue or one slightly different change in the book. Yeah. Could have changed things. It's really weird. And obviously there's some books.
[01:18:41] Speaker B: I'm numbering mine and saying exactly where they fall. For sure. Yeah.
[01:18:45] Speaker A: And we definitely missed them at the door. We have. We definitely missed them. So. But thanks again, Paul. Happy New Year and see you in 2026. Thanks, everybody.
[01:18:53] Speaker B: Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Here. Love you guys.
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