Comic Books Are Burning in Hell Episode 13

This time around, Joe McCulloch, Matt Seneca, Chris Mautner and Tucker Stone are talking about one thing only, but that one thing is a big thing, 30 years big: Love and Rockets, by the Hernandez Brothers. Their own personal Hernandez beginnings and their take on the most recent installment are included. Also jokes? JOKES.

This is JOE MCCULLOCH

This is CHRIS MAUTNER

This is MATT SENECA

This is TUCKER STONE

Download Comic Books Are Burning In Hell Episode 13

Comments

[Rob Clough]

This was a great show with lots of perceptive commentary. This is a must-listen podcast for me. Tucker's right that I don't bring the hate hammer down too often, but Flight and Amulet provoke me.

Regarding the Killer story, I think Joe nailed it in saying that this is metacommentary. Gilbert's revisiting his past in a way that takes the piss out of his own work and perhaps even thumbs his nose at nostalgics. At the same time, the Palomar movie was funded by Pipo, who has very specific reasons to be pissed off at her old nemeses Chelo and Luba. That's why she was taunting Chelo to actually see the movie.

I referred to Tonta as "Bizarro Maggie"-- a Maggie without the charisma and cuteness who wound up as a perennial second banana, as noted on this show. She's a young punker about the same age as Maggie who even has her own Rand Race-type teenage crush in that punk rocker. Jaime told me we will see a LOT more of her.

[Jeet Heer]

Yeah, I also thought Tonta was a variation on Maggie pushed to the extreme. And Frogmouth is conversely a variation on Penny Century, a beautiful narcissist who causes trouble wherever she goes (although Penny marries a billionaire while Frogmouth hangs out with skeezebags). So Tonta/Frogmouth are a lowrent version of the Maggie/Penny Century team.

Great show by the way.

[Jog]

I just like to state for the record that I did not mean to denigrate the heroic struggle of today's pornographers - my intent was only to draw a distinction between the bygone prevalence of 35mm projected theatrical pornography and the diminished state of the theater-going 'adult' experience today. Never in a thousand years would I criticize the digital efforts of our present generation, so many of whom struggle to make ends meet in a shifting landscape - alas! Forgive me, porn folks! All of you listening! Forgive me!

Thank you, and God bless America.

[Jason Michelitch]

Hey, just so you know, it doesn't seem like the iTunes feed has updated since episode 11, and it actually sent that one twice. Not that I assume there's anything you can do about that, because iTunes is a shitstorm, but, y'know: information. Here it is, for you.

[mateor]

Looking forward to this one.

Just as a notice, I can never download the podcast (as in, get a copy to take with me on my wifi-only tablet). The links only take me to a browser tab that plays the show.

I can download them through my terminal using wget, but I know that isn't the first thing casual users try.

Linux Mint and Ubuntu 12.04, with Mozilla and Chrome fail to download, for me.

[Jason Michelitch]

mateor, do you try right-clicking and selecting "save as..."? That always works for me. If you just click the link, it will take you to a browser player.

[mateor]

No right click action my machine. Probably work, if i pulled the menu up manually. I usually use a text browser in the terminal when i can so i am not super-versed in the GUIs.

The long hold to "save link" does the trick on the Android devices though.

I just found it odd that the download link defaults to a player, maybe the rest of the world knows all about it. Once it happened, i just went to the terminal to wget w/o experimenting.

Listened to the podcast. Was suprised when i got the feeling that you fellas thought the end of vol.4 was a happy ending of any sort. Maggie looks happy, but i couldn't see much joy in her finally settling in with Ray as a result of his incident. She has cast herself as his caretaker, and why, because of guilt. Sounds like a recipe for resentments she can never air, since it sure as shit ain't Ray's fault he can't take care of himself.

Look at the way Jaime sets it up as a suprise. You think Maggie is mourning until she gets home. I read it as her trying to put up a strong/happy front. I don't buy head injuries as the basis for a healthy relationship, she has consciously resisted being where she ends up for 20 years.

[Bob Temuka]

I dunno, mateor, I definitely thought v4 ended on an up-note. There is a certain amount of caregiver guilt on Maggie's part, but she does genuinely love Ray, even if she's been denying it for most of her life. She deserves to settle down in middle-aged bliss, it's not all about the head injury.

Terrific podcast this week. Great point about the appeal of reading L&R in a non-linear fashion. The storytelling has been all over the place for the entire history of the comic, so it doesn't really matter where you come in, you're never going to get everything in nice, neat order. The use of flashbacks and other time twisters invigorate the storytelling, on both brothers' part.

(My introduction to their work has a particularly messy timeline - it was a British reprint that took a bunch of Jaime stories from the House of Raging women /Wigwam Bam era and totally mixed them up, so one minute Maggie is leaving Ray behind, the next they were lying naked in bed together. It took me YEARS to figure out the right order.)

I look forward to more podcasts that focus on one creator's work in particular, it leads to a more focused and in-depth discussion. It also helps that you've got someone like Joe involved, who keeps things on track. It's funny how often one of you other guys will get lost explaining some wild and rambling high-falutin' theory about the comic form, only to have Joe step in and push things right back to the goddamned point....

[Eric Reynolds]

Yes, I'm late to the game, but this was a great episode.

Tucker's explanation of how he's discovered L&R in fits and starts, out of "order", it reminded me of Building Stories, because like he said, I'm not sure it matters what order you've read the Maggie stories in or if you've read them all. You can enjoy the individual stories and then further enjoy their greater resonance the more you go...

Tucker's knowledge of contemporary porn production standards was truly impressive.

I wish I could have sat in on this discussion! It amped me up, in a good way.