Sewer Mutant

For Halloween, we take a look at Vamps by Elaine Lee and William Simpson, a 1994 comic book from DC’s Vertigo imprint that has a bit of crossover with the 1990s Bad Girls comics trend.

Today we’re continuing our exploration of the history of the Dark Age of Comics, but we’re jumping around the timeline a little bit to look at a couple things written by Steve Gerber: The Legion of Night with art by Whilce Portacio, and Void Indigo with art by Val Mayerik.

This one’s a mini-episode, with me going solo again to talk about the late Glen Hammonds, a hidden figure in the development and popularization of Outlaw Comics. Hammonds, who passed away of pancreatic cancer in 2020, was the proprietor of the comics retailer, wholesaler, and publisher Raw Comics and was a legit patron of the Outlaw Comics arts, spending thousands of dollars a year commissioning art to help the artists make a living.

My longer article on Hammonds: https://sewermutant.com/remembering-glen-hammonds-outlaw-comics-patron-83f590511002/

Credits:
Hosts: Klint Finley
Music: krudler.bandcamp.com

We’re finally diving into Frank Miller’s Ronin this episode. Love him or hate him, you can’t really talk about the Dark Age of Comic Books without talking about Miller. His work on Daredevil and Dark Knight Returns are two of the most important touchstones for the emergence of the period. But Ronin is arguably more important.

Music: https://krudler.bandcamp.com

From Epic to Vertigo to Wildstorm, the 1980s and 1990s was the era of comic book imprints. Klint flies solo to dive into this phenomenon of the Dark Age.

Music by krudler.bandcamp.com

We're joined by artist and illustrator Elinore Edge to talk about the first two volumes of ElfQuest: The Original Quest. We talk about the epic series' themes of home and belonging, Wendy Pini's incredible art and how it stood out against a sea of "house style" art from the big two, and how ElfQuest was the first comic to follow what is now the standard storytelling structure for most comics, especially independent comics.

You can read all of ElfQuest at elfquest.com

Music by krudler.bandcamp.com

Persepolis creator Marjane Satrapi passed away earlier this month, so we recorded an emergency episode to discuss her work.

In our second installment on Matt Wagner's Grendel, we dive into issues 1-20 of the ongoing series from Comico, as well as the Grendel: Devil's Vagary one shot. We begin with the second Grendel Christine Spar, continue to Brian Li Sung, and wrap-up with Captain Wiggins. We talk about the Pander Brothers, how 1986 is the most 80s year of the 80s, Wagner's experiments, and more.

We couldn't help it. We weren't going to read Grendel so soon, but irresistibly drawn to Matt Wagner's masterpiece. Once he started reading, he couldn't stop. Klint was soon sucked back into the world of Grendel too. In this episode, we look at the earliest Grendel stories from Comico Primer, the original black and white series, and the classic Devil by the Deed.

Credits:
Hosts: Klint Finley and John Ekleberry
Music: krudler.bandcamp.com

Full show notes and transcript: https://sewermutant.com/podcast-grendel-part-1/

This episode we dive into Manhunter by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson. This was essentially a Dark Age comic that happened to come out in the early Bronze Age (1973). This comic was ahead of its time in many ways.

Credits:
Hosts: Klint Finley and John Ekleberry
Music: krudler.bandcamp.com

Full show notes and transcript: https://sewermutant.com/podcast-manhunter/

Dive into Marvel's first graphic novel: The Death of Captain Marvel by Jim Starlin. We discuss:
- How this kicked off the character death trend during the Dark Age of Comics
- The birth of the direct market
- The roots of Cosmic Marvel
- Why Michigan punches above its weight class in the comics industry

Music by krudler.bandcamp.com

For a full transcript and show notes: https://sewermutant.com/podcast-death-of-captain-marvel/

This is an emergency episode where we pay tribute to the Maxx creator, Sam Kieth, who passed away on March 15th of complications with Lewy body dementia. He was only 63 years old.

In this episode we discuss three major Kieth works:

• I Before E, a collection of his early black-and-white work.
• Blood Hungry, a Wolverine story from Marvel Comics Presents that put him on the mainstream comics map.
• The first few issues of The Maxx.

Music by krudler.bandcamp.com

We dive into the rest of Warrior magazine and discuss:

• The lasting legacy of Alan Moore’s Marvelman and V for Vendetta
• Warrior‘s successors (including… Boom! Studios?)
• A surprising influence from Warrior on Watchmen that WASN’T by Alan Moore

Music by krudler.bandcamp.com

We can't talk about the Dark Age of Comics without talking about Alan Moore, so today we're diving into Warrior Magazine, the anthology that first published Alan Moore's groundbreaking V for Vendetta and Marvelman comics. Previously, Moore had worked mostly on humor strips comics and short sci-fi stories. Warrior gave Moore his first shot at writing the more serious, long-form superhero comics that he's known for today. In this episode, we look at some of the background and context of Warrior, Moore's work inside of it, and some of the other stories published inside.

Music by krudler.bandcamp.com

Sewer Mutant is back and we’re delving into the pre-history of the Dark Age of Comic Books with a look at Alack Sinner by Carlos Sampayo and José Muñoz. First published in Europe in 1975, this private detective/noir series laid the groundwork for Frank Miller’s Sin City and practically every other modern crime comic from 100 Bullets to Criminal.

The Sewer Mutant podcast is back at last! And I'm joined by a new co-host, John Ekleberry, who you might remember from the Sewer Mutant episode on James O'Barr. We're starting a podcast companion to the History of the Dark Age of Comics article series. This first episode is an introduction to the topic, then we'll be discussing a number of Dark Age milestones. Next up we'll discuss some precursors of the Dark Age, with an episode on Alack Sinner followed by a two-parter on Warrior magazine.

This month Miguel Ángel Espinoza talks about his RPG Nahaul, based on the Mexican outlaw comic Operación Bolívar.

Music by Krudler.

Show notes

Sunderland is a series of dystopian sci-fi graphic novels rendered entirely in woodcuts by Jon Renzella. Jon joins me this month about woodcut comics, end times, and Taiwan. Music by Krudler. Show notes: https://sewermutant.com/sewer-mutant-podcast-woodcut-comics-with-sunderland-creator-jon-renzella-a0483f764205

You've probably heard of The Crow, James O'Barr's tale of revenge that became a film, TV show, and pop culture phenomenon. But O'Barr did a few lesser-known works that I've been obsessed with for years. For this episode, I'm joined by John Ekleberry, a longtime James O'Barr collector behind the old fansite Shattered in the Head and more recently the James O'Barr collector site to unpack our shared obsession with O'Barr's work. Music: https://krudler.bandcamp.com

This month I talk with Eddie Raymond, the person behind the Strangers fanzine, distro, and publishing house. Eddie's tagline "A Celebration of the Forgotten and Overlooked" could well be our own tagline here at Sewer Mutant! Show notes here. Music by Krudler.