This week, the boys are pretty tired and almost succeed in making the episode shorter, which admittedly fails mostly because James decides to immediately create dead air space, then fill it, then antagonize Brandon.  But that's not all!  You also get discussion of a TV series that's already been canceled!

Wait, come back!

After checking in with each other, James and Brandon talk about recent TV, from John Oliver's worryingly incredible young run on Last Week Tonight and how HBO is actually being adventurous with digital video, the ambition of Teen Titans GO! doing an episode with physical, non-animated puppets and finally, the amazing, emotionally resonant, criminally underwatched Enlisted, which balanced wacky humour with genuinely important, tear-inducing discussion of emotionally complex topics around the military.  If you can find it, watch it; the show may be back on another network next season, but it's probably over, and if it had to go out, "Alive Day" was about as good a series finale as you could hope for.

After this, the boys discuss comics and DC doing something good!  We're as surprised as you are!

This week, the boys sit down with longtime friend of the site and acclaimed writer Kieron Gillen, writer of books like Phonogram, Young Avengers, Iron Man and the brand new, first-issue-out-today The Wicked + The Divine from Image Comics.  Kieron stopped by to talk about the genesis of the book and the dark emotional threads going through all his work, compliment his collaborators (except McKelvie) and then read some poetry.  It is as delightful as you want it to be in your dreams.

Find Kieron online at:

Twitter: @kierongillen

Tumblr: Another Way to Breathe

Web: the workblog

This week, the boys have finally recovered from the bleak existential horror of last week's Curt Pires episode and are ready to talk about less controversial topics, like politics in comics... aw, crapdammit.

More on that later.  First, James and Brandon talk about their weekends; Brandon attended the Edmonton Cat Show, while James attended his first Pride Parade after spending a morning carrying a literal ton and a half of cement blocks, which in retrospect wasn't a great idea.  Beyond that, James has surprised himself with how much he's enjoying WWE Legends' House, the pro wrestling reality show that last week might have become the smartest, most genuinely affecting reality show on television.  Seriously.  Last week's episode made a commentary on the art form of professional wrestling and the medium of reality television.  Plus, they talk about Cosmos and how Neil deGrasse Tyson's bedroom eyes make it all worthwhile.

Finally, after discussing the comics of the last week, the boys get serious and talk politics.

Stay with us here!

In short, comics writer Chuck Dixon and Paul Rivoche wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed decrying how liberalism has ruined superheroes, and the liberal comics internet immediately set about themselves mocking it and arguing it point by point.  Here, the boys suggest that getting into a blow-by-blow of political talking points is maybe the worst thing to do, because it ensures the discussion gets stuck in a pointless cycle of accusation instead of agreeing on the common ground: moral relativism and ambiguity in superheroes is a problem, and while we might disagree on the political responsibility, we're all invested in making things better.  The only way to do that, of course, is having the tough, long discussions instead of the easy arguments.

Also, James talks about being a socialist.

This week, the boys sit down with friend of the show Curt Pires, writer of LP, Theremin and the upcoming POP, coming this summer from Dark Horse Comics.  At least, that was the plan.  And sure, there's definitely some talk of that; Curt is excited to promote his upcoming project and James and Brandon, having seen the first issue, are right there with him.  Everybody wants to sing the praises of Jason Copland, Pete Toms, Ryan Ferrier and Dylan Todd, as well as their work on this pop art extravaganza.  That happens.

To a degree.

More than anything, though, this episode goes off the rails and it gets dark.  In a hurry.  As soon as the episode starts, it's a discussion of immoral TV and it only goes downhill, whether it's a discussion of war crimes, nihilism, snuff films or the movie adaptation of Marmaduke.  Big ups to Curt for going on this journey with us, and big ups to you, listener, for doing it, too.

Find Curt online at:

Twitter: @curtpires

Web: curt pires dot com