Robots From Tomorrow!

Pow Pow Press Roundtable

Today’s show has not one, not two, but THREE Canadian cartoonists on the mics ready to chat with Greg. Luc Bossé, cartoonist of Gary, King of the Pick-Up Artists and publisher of Pow Pow Press, Thom, cartoonist of such Pow Pow works as VII, Casa Rodeo, and the upcoming Botanica Drama, and returning guest François Vigneault, a cartoonist whose Pow Pow work includes the French language edition of his sci-fi classic Titan, but is here today in his capacity as Pow Pow’s Marketing Manager. As you can probably guess, the running theme here is Pow Pow. More specifically, Editions Pow Pow, a Montreal-based publisher with the goal of spreading the work of Quebec cartoonists to bookshelves of French- or English-speaking readers across the globe.Pow Pow came to our attention thru François, but it KEPT out attention with books like the ones previously mentioned, but also Cathon’s The Pineapples of Wrath, Sophie Bedard’s Lonely Boys, and Éloïse Marseille’s Naked: The Confessions of a Normal Woman. The goal of today’s chat is to be nothing less than the best English-language primer on Pow Pow – how it came to be, what it is, and where it’s going. __________ Robots From Tomorrow is a comix podcast recorded deep beneath the Earth’s surface. You can subscribe to it via iTunes or through the RSS feed at RobotsFromTomorrow.com. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel at this link. Follow Greg and the show on Bluesky. Stay safe and enjoy your funny books.

The Greatest Bronze Age Superman Stories, Part 3

Today’s episode is the third of three looking at the best Superman stories of the Seventies to the mid-Eighties with the DC3Cast’s very own Vince Ostrowski! Vince & Greg dive into what makes the Superman of this era different than his more modern incarnation and give you gem after gem of Super-Tales of the post-Silver Age / pre-Crisis Man of Steel. Crises! Birthday presents! Planets exploding! Planets not exploding! Team-ups great and small! All that plus one last imaginary tale on today’s episode!  __________ SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL  Comics referred to in this episode are: Action Comics #544-546, 554, 583 Superman #385-386, 400, 412-414, 423 Superman Annual #11 DC Comics Presents #61, 82, 85, 87 Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, 11-12 (of 12) All comics are available as individual issues on DC Universe Infinite except for Superman #385-386 and 400, and Action Comics #544-546. Action Comics #544-546 and 400 are collected, either in full or excerpts, in the Adventures of Superman: Gil Kane or Superman: A Celebration of 75 Years collections. __________ Robots From Tomorrow is a comix podcast recorded deep beneath the Earth’s surface. You can subscribe to it via iTunes or through the RSS feed at RobotsFromTomorrow.com. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel at this link. Follow Greg and the show on Bluesky. Stay safe and enjoy your funny books.

Alex de Campi on FULL TILT BOOGIE

Having just talked about the early days of 2000AD, we thought it would be fun to chat with someone with a strip running in the Progs right now. Starting with Prog 2367 was Book Two of the strip “Full Tilt Boogie”, the continuing adventures of teen bounty hunter Tee, her grandmother, and their cat as they criss-cross the galaxy. Drawn by Eduardo Ocana, colored by Eva de la Cruz, lettered by Annie Parkhouse, and written by today’s guest. She is a multi-hyphenate creator whose CV would take the entire show to lay out in detail, so with her indulgence I will paraphrase. A writer of prose, comics, poetry, film and television, she is also a director and collaborator and obviously a multi-tasker of the highest order. She has mashed up the Archie gang with the Predator, worked with Duncan Jones, and edited an anthology of soldiers autobiographical stories about their deployments. While not afraid to roll up her sleeves and do all manner of creative jobs herself, her eye for collaboration has led her to working with such talents as Carla Speed McNeil (on No Mercy) and Erica Henderson (on the pulp horror Dracula Motherf**ker and the more recent Parasocial), as well as the aforementioned Ocana even prior to “Full Tilt Boogie”. Greg tried to keep this episode’s conversation coherent but because today’s guest is Alex de Campi, with so many avenues for questions and straight-shooting answers, it was no mean feat. Find out how he did and more on today’s chat! __________ Robots From Tomorrow is a comix podcast recorded deep beneath the Earth’s surface. You can subscribe to it via iTunes or through the RSS feed at RobotsFromTomorrow.com. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel at this link. Follow Greg and the show on Bluesky. Stay safe and enjoy your funny books.

The Greatest Bronze Age Superman Stories, Part 2

Today’s episode is the second of three looking at the best Superman stories of the Seventies to the mid-Eighties with the DC3Cast’s very own Vince Ostrowski! Vince & Greg dive into what makes the Superman of this era different than his more modern incarnation and start giving you gem after gem of Super-Tales of the post-Silver Age / pre-Crisis Man of Steel. Intercompany crossovers! Intracompany crossovers! History lessons! Horror on a superhero scale! All that plus a REALLY big missile and more on today’s episode!   SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL  Comics referred to in this episode are: Superman vs The Amazing Spider-Man Superman and Spider-Man World of Krypton #1-3 (of 3) DC Comics Presents #1-4, 26-29, 36 DC Comics Presents Annual #1 Superman Annual #9 The Phantom Zone #1-4 (of 4) The Phantom Zone and World of Krypton minis, as well as the DC Comics Presents issues, are available as individual issues on DC Universe Infinite. Superman Annual #9 is not available digitally or collected in any English-language reprint. The two DC/Marvel crossovers are also unavailable digitally, though they were reprinted at standard comic book size in both the Crossover Classics vol. 1 collection from 1992 and as individual reprints in 1996. They will both be included in the upcoming DC Versus Marvel Omnibus, and presumably available digitally at some point afterwards.

2000AD - The First Dozen!

As part of his Someday Reading Project, Greg takes a look at the first dozen programmes of The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic: 2000AD! Do those early installments still hold up? Was Dredd the leader of the pack… or the runt of the litter? What controversial boys’ adventure comic paved the way for Tharg and all that Thrill-Power? All that and more on today’s bite-sized episode!   SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL  Rebellion/2000AD’s First Stories Digital Bundle __________ Robots From Tomorrow is a twice-weekly comics podcast recorded deep beneath the Earth’s surface. You can subscribe to it via iTunes or through the RSS feed at RobotsFromTomorrow.com. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel at this link. You can also follow Greg and the show on Bluesky. Stay safe and enjoy your funny books.