We start by talking about Amish sexting. That’s right. Amish. Sexting.
Joe has had a pair of epiphanies,so we begin by talking about DC’s reboot and what Joe has been thinking about it. This leads into how hard it is to buy comics if you aren’t reading Previews, planning ahead and knowing what a publisher’s long term publishing plan is. This happy note leads us to our sponsors, World Wide News and Dreamhost (where you get $20 of your first year of hosting if you use the code KRAYZ). We also give a quick plug to Chris B and remind you that it’s long past time for you to order her CD. You should go do that while Joe and Cory talk about
Black and White Comics!
We start by talking about where comics started and why they were color in the beginning. Most comics were either color or “Duo-Toneâ€. Mostly because they knew Duo Damsel would become a popular character!
OK, no one knows who Duo Damsel is, but YOU come up with a joke about Duo-Tone. I dare you.
We get into how EC went to Black and White magazines with MAD and how they tried to go black and white with all of their books, only to be killed by poor distribution. We then discuss Jim Warren’s magazines like Creepy and Eerie, and how they created the idea for black and white magazines aimed at older readers to try to get wider distribution…but by the end of 1976, it was pretty much over. I’d also like to take this moment to apologize from my drunken co-host who spends a lot of the episode making loud crashing noises. Being straight edge, now, I’ll never do that to you.
At the same time, there were small direct only publishers who were publishing in black and white for cost reasons. When we get to the 80’s, the X-Men is the #1 selling book, indy books are doing well in the direct market and Frank Miller was the most popular artist in comics…so a couple of guys decide to parody his stuff with “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Cory explains how a slow news day made it a HUGE selling comic. As Cory discusses how these parody books became big investment items, Joe starts spouting theories about Gilligan’s Island.
Cory even talks about his time writing for one of these companies, with some facts that may surprise you. All of this and the usual shenanigans in Part one of our discussion on the history of black and white comics!
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