Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 16

Sheep Might Fly: Death at the Dragon Circus Part 3

New episode is up! Death at the Dragon Circus: Part 3 In Which Brennan is Not a Civilian

They used to be the Hammer and the Dove, a ruthless pair of living weapons for hire. Now they have reinvented themselves as Kurt and Inga Frostad, searching for all the key ingredients of a fresh start: a home, a community, a job that doesn’t require them to kill people. The Dragon Circus may be exactly what they need, as long as their old life doesn’t catch up with them…

PREVIOUS EPISODES:

Part 1: In Which Inga Was Not Expecting Dragons

Part 2: In Which Inga Learns To Fly

This novella was recently published in the ClanDestine anthology And Then: The Great Big Book Of Awesome Adventure Tales.

Thanks for listening to Sheep Might Fly! You can follow TansyRR on Twitter & Tumblr, like my page on Facebook at Tansy RR Books and sign up to my author newsletter. You can also support the podcast at Patreon for as little as $1 per month.

Dance, Princes, Dance, a novella originally broadcast on this podcast, gis on sale now! You can pre-order it now.

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Published on April 23, 2017 20:17

Justice League International #24 (February 1989)

THE PACKAGING: Justice League International trade Vol Four

THE CREATIVE TEAM: Keith Giffen (Plot & Breakdowns), J.M. DeMatteis (Script), Ty Templeton & Kevin Maguire (Pencils), Joe Rubenstein (Inks), Gene D’Angelo (Colors), Andy Helfer (Editor)

THE PITCH: it’s the second anniversary of the comic! And there’s a lot of old and new faces on the cover which… suggests something exciting might be coming, and soon.

CROSSOVER ALERT: Invasion is finished, but its effects are still being felt throughout the DC universe. A meta gene bomb/virus was set off, disrupting the powers of many of Earth’s superheroes and other meta-humans, including those who have the gene but have never had it triggered. Several of our characters are still feeling the effects even now the drama has calmed down.

JUSTICE LEAGUE ROLL CALL: Martian Manhunter (J’onn J’onzz), Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), Booster Gold, Fire (Beatriz DaCosta), Ice (Tora Olafsdotter), Green Lantern (Guy Gardner), Mister Miracle (Scott Free), Rocket Red (Dmitri Pushkin) Captain Atom, Hawkman & Hawkwoman, Maxwell Lord & Oberon.

GUEST STARS: Flash (Wally West). Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), The Creeper, Firestorm, Major Force, Big Barda, G’Nort, Wonder Woman, Power Girl, Elongated Man (Ralph Dibny), Animal Man, Metamorpho, etc.

THE STORY: We get two stories in this issue, each leading towards an exciting new development for the JLI.

In “The Road Less Travelled,” Maxwell Lord is still coming to terms with how the Invasion storyline revealed he has the meta-gene. While he has no particular interest in becoming a superhero (Captain Capitalist!) the idea of having the potential inside his DNA is very much on his mind.

Max becomes obsessed with the idea that Metron’s alien machine, the one that puppet-mastered him into creating the Justice League in the first place (in the hopes it would lead him to take over the world) may have known about this meta-human gene inside him.

Cursing himself for his recklessness, he returns to the literal scene of the crime, abseiling back down into the rocky caves where he murdered his boss and met his machine-possession destiny. Creepily, it appears he has been expected. Once he gets the computer working, it mostly spouts gibberish at him, but also makes it plain that a) yeah, it knew and b) Max hurt it.

Trapped by a rockfall and terrified to the point of panic, Max makes an accidental telepathic connection to Blue Beetle, who promptly sets out on a rescue mission with Ice. They reclaim Max (who is now bleeding from the nose, that’s gonna be important) and head for home.

It’s the least disastrous mission that the JLI have ever accomplished. Meanwhile, Oberon has a surprise planned for Max…

In “Across A Crowded Room,” Oberon throws a JLI recruitment party for past, present and future members, under the cover of a post-crossover open day.

Superheroes mingle, flirt, and argue. Green Lantern and Hawkman vie for the crown of Biggest Asshole At The Party. The theme of the evening is “this new team is crap compared to the good old days” and it extends to legacy characters like the Flash (Wally West) who is frustrated at his mentor’s old buddies treating him like the work experience kid.

Blue Beetle tries to chat up Wonder Woman, and is cheerfully rebuffed, but Hawkman uses this as an excuse for the fight he’s been itching for since he first set foot in this team. He then storms up to J’onn and loudly quits. About time, Hawkbrat!

The miniaturised Khunds from Oberon’s recent Die Hard make an appearance, having returned to proper size, but their attempts to wreak revenge are flawed by… well, the room full of superheroes. Even their retreat becomes a mess, because there is no space for anyone to fight properly.

The moral of the story is that too many superheroes can be as big a problem as too few! After some in person research and unofficial job interviews, Max and Oberon quietly put together a new team, to operate out of the Paris embassy, consisting of: Flash, Wonder Woman (part-time), Power Girl, Elongated Man, Animal Man, Metamorpho, a transferring Rocket Red (to be nearer home and his family) and as their leader… Captain Atom.

Roll on, Justice League Europe!

THE CHARACTERS: It feels appropriate for an anniversary issue to be separated into two halves: one about the past of the JLI’s founder and one about its future. It’s interesting to have a second bite at the Maxwell Lord origin story, and a testament to how good the writing can be in this comic that so much of the story is devoted to his agonised thought process. The meta-human gene is a game changer for Max, and it’s going to be fun to watch that play out in actual chronological order, in comparison to how I first experienced this story.

It’s also the Ice appreciation issue, weirdly enough. Lond overdue! Ice is probably the character who has had the least amount of story and page time in the current roster so far, and it’s nice to see the comic addressing this and giving her more prominence as well as working towards defining her character more thoroughly. We learn that she’s nice, sweet and helpful but not a complete pushover. While we don’t get to see them on the page, it is established that she uses her powers to free Max from being buried alive.

Blue Beetle expresses pleasure in having Ice along as a mission partner (Booster Who?) and Ice also has a great scene with Oberon in which they discuss how much she has proved herself since she and Fire both talked him into letting them join. There’s a cute little scene with Fire too, who is recovering from post-meta-gene-virus flu. Fire and Ice’s dynamic was set up really nicely in their first few issues, as a double act with Fire as the kooky wild ideas one (Lucy) and Ice as the sensible, scolding one (Ethel) but this has been largely abandoned for most of the last year. Time to bring them front and centre, as soon as we get Fire out of bed!

Oberon taking the lead with this membership drive has cemented him very much as Max’s Number 2, with J’onn running the team itself. No mention at all of Oberon’s friendship with Scott — he has transcended his Mister Miracle tie-in status.

Thank goodness Hawkman is gone. He was a terrible fit for this comic, contributing nothing but complaints since the moment he arrived. No mention of whether Shayera goes with him but I’m pretty sure she does? You can do better, Shayera.

I notice no one invited Hal to join anything. I place that information here without comment.

We don’t get much of a sense of the new crowd, and apart from Ralph teasing Wally, the characterisation that we see in these “new” characters doesn’t really reflect what we’re going to see in JLE. But all of that is still to come…

THE COMEDY: It’s not the funniest issue, and the least funny jokes are repeated far too often. Still, the humour mostly comes out of the character interactions in any case. The panel in which the Khunds and Justice League face each other in mutual surprise is priceless.

THE ART: Good faces. Good caves. Ice is starting to look a lot more like a person and less like a swimsuit with hair. It’s so weird seeing characters like Power Girl and Metamorpho being drawn by Maguire when that is not the art we’re gonna get next month… Both pencillers are on this issue, with Templeton doing the first story and Maguire the second. Some epic crowd scenes in the latter. Superhero parties are a great visual trope! The best ever example of these has to be Black Canary’s hen party by Amanda Conner.

THE KITCHEN SINK: It feels like a fresh start, and I’m excited.

BONUS CHARACTER HISTORY: Nope, I think I’ll save those for the launch of Justice League Europe…

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Published on April 18, 2017 14:09

Sheep Might Fly: Death at the Dragon Circus Part 2

New episode is up! Death at the Dragon Circus Part 2: In Which Inga Learns To Fly

They used to be the Hammer and the Dove, a ruthless pair of living weapons for hire. Now they have reinvented themselves as Kurt and Inga Frostad, searching for all the key ingredients of a fresh start: a home, a community, a job that doesn’t require them to kill people. The Dragon Circus may be exactly what they need, as long as their old life doesn’t catch up with them…

If you missed it:

Part 1: In Which Inga Was Not Expecting Dragons

This novella was recently published in the ClanDestine anthology And Then: The Great Big Book Of Awesome Adventure Tales.

Thanks for listening to Sheep Might Fly! You can follow TansyRR on Twitter & Tumblr, like my page on Facebook at Tansy RR Books and sign up to my author newsletter. You can also support the podcast at Patreon for as little as $1 per month.

Dance, Princes, Dance, a novella originally broadcast on this podcast, goes on sale this week! You can pre-order it now.

View more on Tansy Rayner Roberts's website »

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Published on April 17, 2017 06:27

The Fictional Mother

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Published on April 13, 2017 23:45

Justice League International #23: Gross Injustice (January 1989)

THE PACKAGING: We’re up to Volume Three of the JLI trade series! But don’t get too comfortable. In a few issues’ time (somewhere around April 1989), I’ll start dipping back and forth between Volumes Three and Four when Justice League Europe starts up.

THE CREATIVE TEAM: Keith Giffen (Plot & Breakdowns), J.M. DeMatteis (Script), Kevin Maguire (Pencils), Joe Rubenstein (Inks), Gene D’Angelo (Colors), Andy Helfer (Editor)

CROSSOVER ALERT: Check out my last post to get the lowdown on the Invasion storyline. This is part of the second stage of the crossover: Aftermath, which starts out with the post-Invasion clean up and ends with a scary alien blackout (spoilers, it’s a “gene-bomb” but we won’t find that out here).

JUSTICE LEAGUE ROLL CALL: J’onn J’onzz the Martian Manhunter, Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), Booster Gold, Fire, Ice, Green Lantern (Guy Gardner), and Mister Miracle. Not appearing in this issue but technically part of the team: Captain Atom, Hawkman & Hawkwoman, Maxwell Lord & Oberon. Who even knows his membership status but he’s sure as hell not here: Batman.

GUEST STARS: The Injustice League

THE STORY: Our core team are stuck on garbage detail, clearing up the detritus from the recent alien invasion from an unnamed tropical island. Guy Gardner gets impatient and ends up smashing a Khundian warship all over the beach in itty bitty bits. Mister Miracle is left to clear up the broken tech.

On another island nearby, Major Disaster reforms the Injustice League with his new partner-in-crime the Mighty Bruce. They salvage a crashed Thanagarian star cruiser but are thwarted by a bored Guy Gardner, who smashes through them and forces them to land.

J’onn accepts the compliments of the authorities as they take the Injustice League into custody… and they’re pretty sure it’s Guy’s fault when the whole sky goes black.

THE CHARACTERS: Yeah OK almost nothing happens in this comic, but it’s great. It feels like all the elements have come together and finally transformed this into the JLI that I remember. J’onn is world-weary, Fire and Ice have distinctly different personalities, and Guy Gardner is insufferable.

Even better, we begin the long, strained relationship between Blue Beetle and tropical islands.

I don’t really care about any of the Injustice League, but they’re fun and have good dialogue, and they match the tone of the current JLI so well. The theme of the day is failure: messy, creative and inevitable. Injustice!Fail.

THE COMEDY: The pace of humour, action and world-weary sarcasm balances perfectly in this issue. A lot of the comedy comes from the reactions and body language of Kevin Maguire’s art, which adds another dimension to the whole story.

I adore that, given that the only thing this issue *has* to do is end on a massive worldwide blackout, everything is staged to make it look like said blackout is Guy’s fault. Seems reasonable.

THE ART: The focus on facial expressions and dynamic movement make this one of Maguire’s best issues to date, even (especially) with nothing much actually happening in the plot. There’s so much colour and movement, it feels closer to the more recent artwork he has done with these characters, like the covers for the trades.

Fire stands out here — Maguire still hasn’t found his refined Tora Olafsdotter look in the long shots (he’s getting there in the close ups), but Beatriz is developing that stronger face and more sarcastic expressions that I associate with her. I appreciate that he is making Bea in particular a more active part of the story through her reactions and presence, even when there aren’t many lines written for her.

Then there’s Guy Gardner. I don’t think any artist has ever “got” Guy Gardner in the way that Maguire has, and I still don’t understand how he takes such a trainwreck of a character and makes him ten times more adorable with various quirks of his ugly, ugly face. Guy trolling Mister Miracle in this issue is kind of a masterwork, I’m annoyed at myself for how much I like him.

THE KITCHEN SINK: It’s just a really good issue, which is amazing considering it’s a throwaway middle of a massive event, in which nothing is really all that significant.

BONUS CHARACTER HISTORY: The Injustice League

Amazingly, this the first appearance of a group called the Injustice League, though there’s still plenty of baggage to unpack!

During the Silver Age (the 70’s, basically) there were several stories based on the idea of supervillains joining up to form a villainous counterpart to the Justice League: these were variously named the Injustice Gang, and the Anti-Justice League.

No one in the 70’s thought of the Injustice League which is a much better name.

Clearly, this version is intended to be a successor to those more famous/infamous groups, and in fact the Silver Age series by Mark Waid published in 2000 established that there was an early incarnation of the Injustice League featuring Lex Luthor and an alien named Agamemno, plus a bunch of other “greatest hits” villains.

This version was assembled from far less fancy and famous bad guys, and are sometime filed as “Justice League Antarctica” for reasons that will become evident… later.

Major Disaster was a minor Green Lantern antagonist in the 60’s, a crook who accidentally discovered GL’s identity and commissioned a collection of weapons that caused “natural” disasters (earthquakes etc.). Over-use of the weapons internalised that power, so he can create those disasters at will with a varying degree of control. He eventually went mad after Hal Jordan was replaced by John Stewart, thereby making Major Disaster’s knowledge of his secret identity both confusing and irrelevant.

Shortly before his appearance here, Major Disaster was part of a villain group called SKULL, appearing in the Outsiders as recently as 1987.

His new partner, Mighty Bruce, appears in this issue for the first time.

Big Sir, a giant with limited mental capacity, has been a go-to henchman since his first appearance in The Flash in 1984. He has super armour provided by the Monitor, which gives him great power but makes him highly succeptible to suggestion.

Clock King is a Green Arrow villain who uses clock-related gadgets to commit crimes. He first appeared in World’s Finest in 1960.

Multi-Man is a villain from the Challengers of the Unknown (1960) who drank an elixir called Liquid Light and gained an extremely high intellect along with side effects of occasional mental distress or derangement. Every time he dies, he is reborn with new abilities.

Cluemaster is the ultimate self-sabotaging Batman villain, a former game show host who deliberately leaves clues as to his crimes. He first appeared in Detective Comics in 1966. Cluemaster was to become far better known in the 90’s as the father of Stephanie Brown, who started her superhero career as the teenage “Spoiler” specifically to thwart her father’s crimes. She later made history as the first female Robin of the main DC universe, and for a long time was held up as one of the worst examples of the ‘Women in Refrigerators’ phenomenon, not only because she was killed off, but because of the shamefully disrespectful way her character was treated in that storyline and afterwards, as compared to the other “dead” Robin, Jason Todd. Later, after Stephanie’s death was finally retconned away, she served as Batgirl until the New 52 reboot made her history disappear altogether. In the current DC timeline, she eventually returned to continuity as Spoiler.

Big Sir, Clock King and Multi-Man all appear here for the first time since the Crisis reboot, and it’s not clear to what extent their powers/histories have changed since then.

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Published on April 11, 2017 14:45

Galactic Suburbia Episode 164

Download or stream the new episode now!

In which Galactic Suburbia becomes a five-time Hugo nominated podcast…

WHAT’S NEW ON THE INTERNET?

Hugo shortlist

Also the Nommo shortlist (from the African Speculative Fiction Society)

CULTURE CONSUMED

Alisa: The 45th; S-Town; Sea Swept, Nora Roberts

Tansy: Lotus Blue, Cat Sparks; Buffy rewatch

Alex: New York 2140, Kim Stanley Robinson; the Ancillary series, Ann Leckie; season 2 and most of 3 of Person of Interest; Last Cab to Darwin

Please send feedback to us at [email protected], follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook, support us at Patreon and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

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Published on April 09, 2017 04:53

Justice League International 22: Little Murders (January 1989)

THE CREATIVE TEAM: Keith Giffen (Plot & Breakdowns), J.M. DeMatteis (Script), Kevin Maguire (Pencils), Joe Rubenstein (Inks), Gene D’Angelo (Colors), Andy Helfer (Editor)

CROSSOVER ALERT: Invasion! This mass DC event was plotted by Keith Giffen in 1989, and involved two alien races, the Dominators and the Khunds, attacking Earth on the grounds that they are clearly a threat to the universe based on their weirdly high percentage of metahumans.

The story was told over a massive 3 issue mini-series of 80 page specials, with crossovers including many of DC’s most popular titles. Tie-in stories were branded as First Strike or Aftermath, marking out whether they occurred before or after the superhero ‘summit’ which is mentioned at the end of this issue of #JLI. (and you know, whether they were in Month 1 or Month 2 of the event)

Invasion! is notable for being the point at which the term ‘metahuman’ was introduced to the DC universe, which implies a genetic source for most superpowers, but is generally used as a blanket term for superhumans.

JUSTICE LEAGUE ROLL CALL: Oberon, Booster Gold and Maxwell Lord in Story A; J’onn J’onzz, Blue Beetle, Guy Gardner, Fire, Ice, Hawkwoman, Hawkman and Mister Miracle with a hint of Captain Atom in Story B

GUEST STARS: Wonder Woman

THE STORY: Oberon, Maxwell Lord and Booster Gold were the only members of the League left behind when everyone else was swept off to fight aliens, after the team returned from the Apokalips Space Adventure.

Booster is so busy sulking about being left out that he is easily overwhelmed by a squad of Khund mini-fighters (they are an inch tall), leaving Oberon to Die Hard his way through the embassy, conquering the feisty aliens with some old Blue Beetle flash-guns.

Meanwhile, the rest of the JLI are obsessed with how hot Wonder Woman is, which distracts them from fighting aliens. They somehow manage to rein in their incompetence long enough to assist in a rescue mission of Lt Etta Candy, and Diana shares a poignant moment with J’onn about the stupidity and wastefulness of war.

THE CHARACTERS: I’m so disappointed in these early Blue Beetle appearances, which continue to paint him as a lowkey sexist asshole. In fact, most of the dudes on the team are the same, but I’m especially surprised to see it with Beetle because I don’t remember that at all, and also he was my favourite and my best. What the hell, teenage me? Were you just sucked in by Nice Guy Syndrome?

Fire has a couple of fun moments with Ice — as always, these two characters are most interesting when they are talking to each other. Ice is weirdly jealous/mean about Wonder Woman’s awesomeness and the boys being hot for her, which suggests that the writers have simply not figured Ice out yet. Kudos to Fire for calling Ice out over hussy-shaming Wonder Woman, who can’t help the men being gross. Roll on 1989, this comic isn’t cooked yet!

The lack of Big Barda is sad. I got used to her being in the gang. Mister Miracle is not a good substitute.

THE COMEDY: A few cute moments here and there, but there are too many “jokes” about Diana’s sexual appeal, and the boys needing to keep in in their pants. Guy Gardner is one of the least offensive characters in this issue and he’s not even brain-damaged. Whut?

Also the issue is still trying to pretend that Hawkman being an asshole is funny, and that Shayera loves him that way and is in no way trapped in a boring, toxic relationship.

THE ART: Maguire is back! This issue isn’t especially inspired in any way, though I do like a few of the well-balanced group shots. The flying one in particular. The logistics of flying superheroes having to carry non-flying superheroes is one of my all time favourite visual tropes.

THE KITCHEN SINK: I want to keep Wonder Woman, but not if the menfolk are going to continually sexually harass her. Can we swap her for Hawkman? Also, while this is primarily an Oberon issue, there’s a bit of the classic Max Lord and Oberon double act dynamic at the beginning which is pleasing. Oberon is integrating completely into the team, so that it will make sense when Mister Miracle is quietly written out but Oberon sticks around.

The sexism in this comic is getting exhausting. Bwa-ha-ha-don’t.

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Published on April 04, 2017 14:30

Justice League International Annual #2 (1988)

THE PACKAGING: OK this is where is gets complicated. Annuals are notoriously difficult to fit into continuity, and I see the packagers of the JLI trades decided to give up on fitting this particular Annual in with any of the other 1988 comics, so it’s been collected all the way forward in Volume Five of the trades, along with the early Justice League Europes and Annual #3.

There’s nowhere to put it. Bialyan dictator Rumaan Harjavti is still alive, so it’s before JLI #16. Scott and Barda are living comfortably in suburbia with no Manga Khan kidnap plot in sight, which puts us back even earlier, before JLI #14. And yet this appears to be happening immediately after Green Flame and Ice Maiden officially become members of the League, which didn’t happen until #15. Oh and Guy is still brain-damaged nice!

Ah, comics continuity.

THE CREATIVE TEAM: Keith Giffen (Plot & Breakdowns), J.M. DeMatteis (Script),Bill Willingham (Pencils), Joe Rubenstein (Inks), Gene D’Angelo (Colors), Andy Helfer (Editor)

JUSTICE LEAGUE ROLL CALL: J’onn Jonzz, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Mister Miracle, Rocket Red (Dmitri), Green Flame, Ice Maiden, Guy Gardner, Batman. Captain Atom wasn’t invited, because Scott “couldn’t get in touch”.

GUEST STARS: The Joker. Rumaan Harjavti.

THE STORY: Everyone is indulging in their own comedy set piece. Barda and Scott planning a barbeque – and for once he’s the one modelling domestic failure as he repeatedly explodes their grill. Green Flame and Ice Maiden setting out to get a modelling gig. The Joker plotting something with a Bialyan dictator. J’onn and Dmitri dining at Little Odessa, to help ease our Rocket Red’s homesickness.

Meanwhile, Booster and Beetle come from another failed attempt to chat up Catherine Cobert at the Justice League Paris embassy, only to launch into a Get Rich Quick scheme (their FIRST! Be still my heart!) as a super-powered repo company.

Turns out, the Joker has been hired by Harjavti to take out the JLI. Which seems remarkably organised and downright respectable.

His murder attempts fail dismally, one after the other. The carbomb he sets to take out Booster and Beetle is pre-empted when they repossess a tank from some bad guys and accidentally take out their car themselves. He tries to shoot Green Flame with a sniper rifle, but her handbag breaks at the last minute, causing her to duck down.

Finally they all convene at the Free house (Beetle and Booster bringing Bea and Tora in their new tank) for a mildly awkward and uncomfortable weenie roast, which is interrupted when the Joker arrives and takes possession of the tank. As the JLI watch in horror, the gang that originally owned the tank come looking for it, and get into a firefight with the Joker that destroys a nearby house.

After Barda beats up the gang, the Joker attacks her flat out with the tank, which she and J’onn calmly demolish. Just as a demoralised Joker is pleading to be taken back to Arkham, the Batmobile arrives… and keeps going past the house, as Batman takes one look at the mess and decides he can’t be stuffed dealing with it all.

The only people who die are Joker’s various henchpeople, whom he murders out of frustration. So joke’s on them, I guess?

THE CHARACTERS: There’s a few important character beats being established here, particularly with Beetle/Booster and Fire/Ice breaking off into double acts in order to earn some cash. These dynamics will later become the default for these characters.

Barda and Scott are back to their ‘trying to survive suburbia’ schtick, which is always entertaining.

There’s a quite sweet scene with J’onn and Dmitri which addresses some of the issues of our Russian hero trying to get settled in America, despite being so far from home and his family.

Nice to see a glimpse of Catherine, who is about to become a whole lot more relevant.

Basically the whole premise of this issue, titled “Private Lives” is that we get to see what our heroes get up to when they’re not superheroing, which is fantastic but also the premise of the entire comic, so it just feels like an extra issue with a guest star who hangs around way too long.

THE COMEDY: Mostly the comedy of frustration, with random explosions. The art really holds back the tone of the comic, making it feel a lot less like a JLI comic than it should, considering all of the tropes it’s hitting.

Also, the Joker isn’t funny, even when he’s being thwarted by happenstance, so he appears in way too many panels for what’s effectively a one-joke premise

The funniest bit is Batman ditching them all, which perfectly sums up Batman’s relationship with this version of the Justice League, and goes very nicely with the Lego Batman movie I watched this weekend, especially their take on the Joker as a needy attention-seeking villain.

THE ART: Willingham’s pencils don’t suit this at all — everyone looks like they’re being played by a weird-faced 1950’s Hollywood actor, including the women. And I just don’t need to see the Joker in that many panels.

Oh and he draws Barda as fighting crime in a bikini instead of her amazing armour.

THE KITCHEN SINK: Too much Joker, not enough weenies.

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Published on March 28, 2017 14:15

Sheep Might Fly: Last of the Romanpunks Part IV

LAST OF THE ROMANPUNKS PART IV – download or stream the new episode now!

Seb is unhappily following the family tradition of cleaning up after the Julio-Claudian family and their many nasty secrets. Monsters! Swords! Banter! An Airship!

Catch up on previous episodes:

PART I.

PART II

PART III

“Last of the Romanpunks” was originally published in my short story collection Love & Romanpunk (Twelfth Planet Press).

The entire collection is now available in podcast form.

Check out:

Julia Agrippina’s Secret Family Bestiary/

Lamia Victoriana/

The Patrician

Sheep Might Fly is a Patreon-supported project! Thanks to all my patrons who pledge between $1 and $20 a month to make this podcast happen. If you enjoy my work please consider pledging your support.

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Published on March 27, 2017 03:10

Galactic Suburbia Episode 163

In which Alisa reads us all under the table (again) and the women of SFF are anything but Humble.

Download or stream the new episode now!

What’s New on the Internet?

Cheesecake can be cake if it wants to be cake. Especially if you do not belong to a pie nation. Also, pies need lids or they’re not trying hard enough.

GUFF race (until 17 April)

Paul Weimer is the DUFF candidate, hooray!

Women of SFF Humble Bundle – get this amazing bunch of SFF books now, only a couple of days to go!

CULTURE CONSUMED:

Alisa: Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell; Too Sharp, Marianne Delacourt; Missing Richard Simmons

Tansy: Dreadnought, by April Daniels, Mad Money, Iron Fist

Alex: Hawk and Fisher, Simon R Green; The Delirium Brief, Charles Stross; Logan; The Abyss;

Please send feedback to us at [email protected], follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook, support us at Patreon and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

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Published on March 26, 2017 12:50