Hellboy, Grace & St. Augustine

Today on the Podcast we shift gears from Hell, Demons, Monsters to something sweeter -- ok, it still has monsters but no demons. It's Zita The Spacegirl, Ben Hatke's bestselling graphic novel, first published in 2011. We chat about sci-fi, friendship, virtue and I dunno, other stuff. Today on Truth, Beauty, Comics!

Today on the podcast, after a bit of a summer vacation, we're back and we're reading a few short & spooky Hellboy stories from the first Omnibus Edition: The Wolves of St. August and The Chained Coffin.   

Karem of the yellow hills has murdered Ruthye’s father in cold blood. She’s out for justice and revenge but she’ll need help. Ruthye and Supergirl, who’s dealing with her own trauma, will join forces to hunt down Karem, on a trail that will lead them across a galaxy to the final showdown. It’s basically True Grit in Space. Today on the podcast we into this 2021 miniseries from Tom King and Bilquis Evely: Is it a triumph or a wet bellyflop?

Two daily newspaper strips, beginning as gag-a-day comics centering on the romantic foibles of their central characters, would feel the irresistible call of adventure: Popeye would step into E. C. Segar’s meandering Thimble Theater and transform it into something more like Treasure Island, with pirates, lost treasure and hamburgers. Wash Tubbs, a short, bespeckled, girl-crazy lead character of Roy Crane’s strip, would eventually meet Captain Easy and follow him on one thrilling adventure after another, pushing them both to the limits of endurance. In selections from the Smithsonian collection of newspaper comics, we find both of these strips caught up in adventure on the high seas: Popeye in comedic fashion, Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy in a harrowing tale aboard the doomed whaler “Jonah”. We're reading through The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics by Bill Blackbeard and Martin Williams.   If you're listening to this episode, we recommend viewing the video on YouTube to follow along as we read though the comic pages: https://youtu.be/wAFk5R_sf_s   Read along with us here: https://www.amazon.com/Smithsonian-Collection-Newspaper-Comics/dp/0874741726/

What do you get when the Spawn of Satan carries a rosary? You get Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, a half-demon, half-human creature adopted by a kindly, devout catholic and raised to fight supernatural evil as a member of the ​​Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. Today Hellboy is a bestseller but his debut was a long-shot. Mignola was miserable and not playing to his strengths drawing typical super hero stories. Hellboy was his chance to draw what he loved: monsters, gothic castles, cemeteries, and churches with a gruff protagonist inspired by his father at the center. In March of 1994, Hellboy: Seed of Destruction hit the shelves. Today on Truth, Beauty, Comics! We're reading from the Hellboy Omnibus, available on Amazon. If you want to follow along as we flip through the pages, watch this podcast on Youtube.

After bursting on the scene in the first decade of the 20th century, newspaper comics were exploding in popularity: Weekend sections went from 4, to 8, then to 16, and even 32 pages in 1935. And all those pages made room for a flood of new strips by a talented group of cartoonists: Long-running stories, increasingly complicated characters and plotlines filled the newsprint. We’ll see the first appearance of Barney Google, Blondie, Uncle Walt and Skeezix – characters who still appear in newspapers today. With a massive, colorful canvas to explore and seemingly endless creative possibilities, comic strips would never again be so glorious as these prewar decades. We're reading through the third chapter of the Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics by Bill Blackbeard and Martin Williams.   If you're listening to this episode, we recommend viewing the video on YouTube to follow along as we read though the comic pages: https://youtu.be/OsSWxE1uYn4   Read along with us here: https://www.amazon.com/Smithsonian-Collection-Newspaper-Comics/dp/0874741726/

Up until now the world of Bleach has been contained to Ichigo's hometown, high school and circle of friends. That changes in a big way in Volumes 7 & 8 when we finally meet more of the mysterious Soul Society, who show up to arrest Rukia and bring her to justice. Ichigo will have to get stronger quick if he wants to rescue her from these warriors with seemingly unlimited powers.   Today we wrap up the first arc of Bleach discussing Volumes 7 & 8 on Truth, Beauty, Comics!

Yellow Kid, Little Nemo, Buster Brown – the first few decades of American newspaper comics saw a youthful cast of precocious heroes, villains and every shade in between. Subject matters ranged from the urban, practical jokes of Buster Brown to the vast, intricate dreamscapes of Little Nemo in Slumberland. In its first decades comics entered the world in a glorious explosion of art, vernacular dialogue, and whimsy. We're reading through the first chapter of the Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics by Bill Blackbeard and Martin Williams.   If you're listening to this episode, we recommend viewing the video on YouTube to follow along as we read though the comic pages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LxevUsMq-4   - https://www.amazon.com/Smithsonian-Collection-Newspaper-Comics/dp/0874741726/

Ichigo Kurosaki has been acting as a soul reaper for several months now, but how much longer can his secret last? It seems inevitable that his friends will discover the truth, and, more concerningly, new enemies will too. In volumes 4, 5, and 6, Bleach’s world gets bigger, raising questions about friendship, heritage, and the balance between good and evil. We're talking about it today on the podcast. We're reading from the Bleach 3-1 Volume 2, available on Amazon.  

It’s the holiday season in Duckburg and money is in short supply: Donald only has five dollars to scrape together for Christmas presents but nobody has it worse than the kids of Shacktown, the place where people in Duckburg live who are down on their luck. In a burst of Christmas Spirit, the ducks decide to throw a Christmas party for Shacktown with turkeys and a toy train. But to raise the money for the party, they’ll need twenty five dollars from Uncle Scrooge and it’ll take a miracle to get him to part with it. In this story Carl Barks channels Charles Dickens and creates “A Christmas for Shacktown”, one of the best comics in his bibliography.