Digital Strips Podcast 293 – Book Club – The Rack, Second Edition

This episode is all about standing tall! This could be in part because I was trying out a new standing recording station, or it could be … ok, it’s completely about that. Don’t worry, once the novelty wears off (I’m estimating somewhere around the halfway point between episodes 300 and 400) it won’t even come up.

Sticking to tradition, we both found something comics-y to talk about for our first segment:

The only news story that came to mind was one quickly alluded to on Twitter. Ryan Estrada announced there that the next collection for The Whole Story, the pay-what-you-want digital graphic novel collection that Estrada orchestrated and participated in (or single-handedly created, if Steve is to be believed) will launch on January 1 (13:22). You’ll want to put down as much as you can for this collection as indicated by The Whole Story’s Twitter account

Our next bundle is going to be launched on January 1st, and it will be so amazing you will pee your pants with joy.

If there’s one game series that will empty your bladder before you’re quite ready, it’s Castlevania (and Steve says my segues are terrible). Playing Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest well into the evening used to make me an incredibly jumpy young lad, something about the change from day to night was just so foreboding and and disquieting. So what better to help us jump from segment to segment than a remix of some classic sounds from the series?

Genre comics are tough to review, let alone Book Club (yep, that’s a verb now around these parts) and The Rack is proving that fact I just made up true. Among our questions and discussions in this second edition of The Rack Book Club:

  • Have the characters developed in this passage of time compared with the first?
  • Can you tell the guys apart?
  • Noses: A sly commentary on the disfigured, gangly nature of our beloved sub-species, or just some oddly-shaped appendages?
  • Lydia looks to be much more thought out and stylized in her character design. Does this have anything to do with the spin-off which she received?
  • Pop-culture references are not jokes and serve as a common crutch for genre work. Has The Rack escaped this cliche yet?

We also ramble about …

  • Validating Steve’s delinquency
  • More vacations on the horizon?
  • xkcd as an M&M (or an Eminem)?
  • Steve wants to spank all the bad video game genre comics

Listen in and leave your comments on any topic as well as comics you’d like to see reviewed below!

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Digital Strips Podcast 285 – Book Club – The Rack, First Edition

So despite my moniker of “The Geek”, I’m actually super cool. Well, I mean, I’m not cool now, I do a webcomics podcast and occasionally wear black socks with shorts, however I was super cool growing up. Well, actually not so much super cool, but I was cool enough to not have any friends. A fact that prevented me from getting into Dungeons & Dragons, comics, and Magic the Gathering until much later in life.

As such, my experience with the nerd-mini-Mecca that is the comic book shop is one completely untainted by nostalgia and it’s cousin, whimsy. This makes me probably the worst person ever to review a comic like The Rack, which takes place almost exclusively in a comic shop and with comic shop people (on the other hand, I still totally love Our Valued Customers, so go figure).

Jason, on the other hand, is a jerk and a bully and was never cool so he knows comic shops like the back of his hand so he was all for this little foray down memory lane. We talk about where the comic works and about the dangers of such a niche comic. We speak of the importance of character development and how it related to comics and sitcoms. We yammer on about states and pricesses and parenting and race relations (trust me it makes sense in the moment).

Join us, please.

Show Notes:

Joe Love Crappy Movies
Another Video Game Web comic
Mercworks (the decison)
SnowFlame
The Loneliest Astronauts

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