Episode 105 - Reviews of Henry&Glenn Forever&Ever, Masterful Marks, and Wytches #1 - a podcast by Stergios Botzakis & Derek Royal

On this week’s episode of the podcast, Andy and Derek explore the worlds of hardcore cohabitation, biographical brilliance, and wood witches. They begin with Henry & Glenn Forever & Ever, the new collection from Tom Neely and friends (Microcosm Publishing). This follows Neely’s original minicomic Henry & Glenn Forever and collects the four-issue miniseries published between 2013 and 2014. For those unfamiliar, this is a situational satire of metal rockers Henry Rollings and Glenn Danzig, working from the premise of their love for one another and placing their relationship in a variety of different sitcom-like scenarios. Tom Neely created the original, and more narratively substantive, stories of Henry and Glenn, but he has many of his artist friends — such as Mark Randolph, Ed Luce, Johnny Ryan, and Noah Van Sciver — contribute short pieces as well. Some stories are better than others, but the Two Guys conclude that the book as a whole is hilariously fun. Next, Derek and Andy turn to Masterful Marks: Cartoonists Who Changed the World, a collection of graphic biographies edited by Monte Beauchamp (Simon and Schuster). In fact, they spend a good chunk of this week’s show talking about this book…and there is a lot to discuss. It’s composed of sixteen short comics that present the lives of such luminaries as Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Jack Kirby, Winsor McCay, Charles Schulz, Walt Disney, Osamu Tezuka, Chas Addams, Dr. Seuss, and Hergé. These biographies are written and drawn by impressive creators in their own rights, such as Nora Krug, Arnold Roth, Frank Stack, and Denis Kitchen. The guys discuss most of these biographies, but they particularly highlight two of their favorites: Peter Kuper’s take on Harvey Kurtzman and Drew Friedman’s look at Robert Crumb. In fact, the latter is not so much a biography of the legendary artist as much as it is a story of Friedman’s experiences and relationship with Crumb. Much like Kuper’s, this is more than a straight-out biography. It’s a personal and even self-reflexive narrative. Finally, the Two Guys get all excited about the new series from Scott Snyder and Jock, Wytches (Image Comics). They point out that while this could have easily been a Vertigo title, Snyder is apparently wanting to try his indie chops over at Image with a new ongoing series. And he and Jock have started off impressively! What makes the first issue of Wytches so engaging is its elaborate setup and its emersion in the everyday. Both Andy and Derek mention how the world that Snyder sets up reminds them of their own childhoods and the kind of creepy wooded areas that fueled their own imaginations. They’re both on board with this new title, and they hope — they expect — it to be another in Image’s growing line of perennials, following the likes of The Walking Dead, Saga, and Manhattan Projects.

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