Nerd Culture Podcast

Welcome to our final audio review for the New 52, covering the last week of releases.

It’s been a massive undertaking but I’ve really enjoyed analyzing all of the titles and judging them on the virtues as stand alone comics, but also as brand new #1 introductions to the characters and their new universe.

There have been some hits (Batman, Animal Man, All Star Western), some misses (Dark Knight, Blackhawks, Hawk & Dove), and some utter rubbish (Catwoman, Red Hood, Voodoo), but overall a decent bunch of titles.

What is more important is the stab in the arm this event has given the industry. As of this writing, Justice League #1 is on its 3rd printing and some of the other titles have exceeded 200,000 copies. Something almost unheard of for a long time.

As before, this is the unedited version of our coverage from the podcast, featuring the opinions of the entire crew that had to be cut from podcast to reduce its length.

Due to the long length of the recording I have split it into 2 parts for your convenience.

After listening to the review, how about leaving a Comment or send send us an email at feedback@nerdculturepodcast.com? We would love to read your opinions, especially now that we’ve finished.

Track 1 – Audio Length: 58 mins

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Track 2 – Audio Length: 57 mins

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Welcome to part 2 of our coverage of the New 52 from DC Comics.

Our decision to post an unedited version of our New 52 review on the website proved quite popular, and since I again had to edit quite a bit of quality opinion from the NCP Crew in order to get our latest podcast episode #8 down to a reasonable length, we decided to do it again as another Audio Review. So if you would like to listen to our full conversation on the travesties that were Catwoman & Red Hood & the Outlaws (amongst other things) then here is where you can do it.

Due to the long length of the recording I have split it into 2 parts for your convenience.

After listening to the review, how about leaving a Comment or send send us an email at feedback@nerdculturepodcast.com? We would love to read your opinions.

Track 1 – Audio length: 76 mins

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Track 2 – Audio Length: 87 mins

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The Sixsmiths

Story: The Sixsmiths

Released: October 2010

Publisher: SLG Publishing

By: J. Marc Schmidt & Jason Franks

What you need to know

The Sixsmiths are a family of suburban Satanists who’ve fallen prey to the global recession. Now their life is in turmoil: Ralf needs to find a new job; the twins, Cain and Lilith, need to survive the public school system; and Annie needs to keep them all sane and under budget. Meanwhile, their estranged elder daughter Jezabelle is having her own crisis of faith.

The Sixsmiths strips are available on-line at www.thesixsmiths.com as well as the graphic novel from SLG Publishing. This review will focus on the graphic novel.

What we thought

DAVID: Sixsmiths is a comic that every parent should read. How many comics show the good old fashioned family values the Sixsmiths family have? Love and respect for each other, the perils of under-age drinking, supporting your family, teen angst, making friends, the list goes on. And more importantly, it’s funny as Hell (see what I did there!).

CRYSTAL: This is an interestingly amusing take on suburban life.  The Sixsmiths aren’t all that different from any other religious family, except the object of their worship happens to be the Lord of Darkness himself.

DAVID: I agree. It just goes to show that no matter our background or denomination, we all have the same wants/needs and tribulations, and it is how we deal with them that defines us.

CRYSTAL: While we laugh at the ridiculous things the Sixsmiths do in the name of religion, it brings to mind how bizarre some of our more ‘standard’ religions can be.

DAVID: Definitely. Are the Sixsmiths’ rituals and beliefs any weirder than any other religion out there? True, I can’t think of any that service faulty photocopiers by deflowering a virgin over it, but I know my job would be a lot more interesting if that was all it took!

CRYSTAL: I knew you’d like that bit. My favourite was the guy’s t-shirt that read ‘SARCASM is a little bit mean’

DAVID: I did notice that too. And that brings us to the art. I like it, it has a nice clean, newspaper strip style to it that is easy to follow and has all the detail you need.

DAVID: I have been a fan of both Schmidt and Franks since Egg Story and Mr Black respectively. They obviously had fun with this book and work well together so I am interested to see what else they come up with. They are on a winner here and I can’t wait to read the next installment 4 Lukes

CRYSTAL: I really liked this as well so I’ll also give it 4 Lukes

What do you think?

Have you also read the Sixsmiths? Do you agree or disagree with our opinions? Let us know! Send in your thoughts to feedback@nerdculturepodcast.com, or leave a comment on this post. We would love to hear from you!

Welcome to another Nerd Culture Podcast Audio review!

This time we’re discussing the first batch of releases of the New 52 from DC Comics.

In order to get episode #7 of the Nerd Culture podcast down to a reasonable duration I had to edit quite a bit of quality opinion from the NCP Crew and that made me very sad. But luckily, both Richo and Crystal thought of a plan. Why not post the original edit of the segment as an Audio Review! Think of it as the Director’s Cut  🙂

After listening to the review, how about leaving a Comment or send send us an email at feedback@nerdculturepodcast.com? We would love to read your opinions.

Audio length: 74 mins

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JUSTICE LEAGUE #1

Story: Justice League Part One

Released: Oct 2011

Publisher: DC Comics

Writer: Geoff Johns

Penciller: Jim Lee

Inker: Scott Williams

What you need to know

The first of the New 52!

Set 5 years ago, part one sees the first meeting between Batman and Green Lantern during the former’s chase of a nasty looking follower of Darkseid and attempted evasion from Gotham authorities. After some quarrelling, Green Lantern reveals that there is another possible extraterrestrial on Earth, in Metropolis. The heroes decide to team up and confront him.

On a side note, we are also introduced to football star and future hero Cyborg, Vic Stone.

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