Show #207: The Venture Brothers Series 6 & 7

Anything is possible, as long as you got FAMILY. We've followed the deranged exploits of the extended Venture clan all the way to their denouement in this last set of series. A new locale and a fresh start beckons, paring down the enormous cast to its comedic core before turning them loose with all the carte blanche a billion dollar super science corporation allows. Almost fated to be forever left unresolved on a cliffhanger, can those Venture boys keep their place in our hearts until the upcoming feature length finale bids them a fond farewell? Could such a thing ever be completely satisfactory? Is there a shameless reference they haven't wedged in yet? We ponder the answers to some of these and more over a Post-Podcast Repaste from that nice Italian place on the corner!

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Drawn Or Alive #5: The Tick VS The Tick VS The Tick

 Masked avenger Brian Smith answers the clarion call of justice as the unstoppable force meets the immovable object meets the inevitable cliff edge! A Drawn Or Alive first, it's a triple header of titles all adapting comic crazy Ben Edlund's big blue maroon as he thwarts crime in animation in 1994 before becoming larger than live-action in 2001 and 2016 respectively. With Edlund himself pitching in rather than working these ideas out on the page each version could be deemed the realest deal, but what makes each Tick... tick? There's no time to waste chum, as evil is out there handcrafting mischief for the swap meet of villainy!

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Show #203: The Venture Brothers Part 2

 
Arch-villain Brian Smith is unleashed to cast a wiser eye upon the awkward transitionary phase of the Adult Swim darling in our second retrospective chunk, comprising series 2 and 3. While we get a better sense of the cartoon it would become, and the ambitions of Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer for it beyond an outlet for coarse humour, The Venture Brothers still had a lot of growing up to do. The good news is you get a whole lot more: more dumb-voiced duos! More genuine pathos! Ever more oblique cultural references! And more to come way down the line with the prospect of a movie to cap off the whole lot. It's bigger, it's louder, and it's got an appetite for a Post-Podcast Repaste to match!

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Show #200: An Emotional Animation Exchange! aka No Sea For Old Lastman

 Against expectations this abberation in animation appreciation has racked up 200 instalments (plus about that amount again in extra-curricular activities) and we're in a celebratory mood. And what's a party without favours, as we each perused our respective repositories of cartoon knowledge in search of a fitting gift for each other. Dwayne classes up the joint with an Oscar winning adaptation of Hemingway's The Old Man And The Sea; Niall blows it all away via the spectacle of French action adventure Lastman; both invite moments of profundity and true kinship! These podcast boys have become podcast MEN.

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Show #198: Night Hood, aka Les Exploits d'Arsène Lupin

His grandson may be the one who gets all the attention these days but the OG Arsène Lupin was no slouch by any stretch. Maurice Leblanc's seminal gentleman thief character got his day in the sun back in 1996, taking a few noirish cues from spiritual successors such as Batman and Diabolik to thwart the real villains in a stylish 1930s setting. But is this incarnation the genuine article or merely wearing an elaborate disguise? Comic criminal chronologies, righteous disparagement of law enforcement and a mysterious Post-Podcast Repaste are the calling cards by which our infamy shall be known!

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Show #176: Battle Angel Alita (1993)

Us? Jump on a bandwagon? Perish the thought! We're merely embracing our new cyberpunk present and getting into the spirit of things with the Battle Angel Alita OVA!

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James Cameron's long gestating adaptation of Yukito Kishiro's classic cyborg manga is tearing up cinemas around the world at last, so we thought we'd look back at the last time Battle Angel Alita, aka Gunnm, appeared on screens in this two part OVA that gives you the broad strokes of the story in fairly short order. Considering it served as a design influence for the live action how well does it capture the essence of the original manga? Comic comparisons, real world dystopias and fashionable director photos are taken apart!

Show #165: WildC.A.Ts

Back from a hiatus that totally involved a covert mission to bodyguard the president's space laser, Niall & Dwayne return with a new rude attitude that's a perfect fit for the WildC.A.Ts!

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After some upfront disclosure regarding where we've been and where we're going we dig into one of the products of the last era when superhero comics were a cultural juggernaut. But can WildC.A.Ts the TV show mirror the underdog success story of its printed counterpart? Bankrupt bad guys, pint-sized powerbrokers and an evolving mission statement await in this collector's edition episode!

THE SHORT VERSION

Wild AND covert

Complex characterisation

Anti-crime tactics

Show #164: The Iron Giant

A towering behemoth whose mighty powers can bring destruction or salvation! But enough about Brad Bird already, this one's about The Iron Giant!

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Having conquered the realm of prime time cartoon sitcoms the ambitions of Brad Bird turned to bigger things, and challenges don't get much greater than directing an animated feature during a period when such a thing was a hazardous undertaking if your name wasn't Disney. So how did they pull off this now well beloved tale of a boy and his bot? Failure is fomented, tears are shed and visitors from the stars are venerated. It's heavy stuff!

THE SHORT VERSION

Aspirational figures

Very special agents

Sad robots

Show #150: Justice League (2001)

Martin Schneider shares in the festivities of our 150th episode, and what better way to celebrate an assemblage of all that is great & glorious about cartoons than with a rousing retrospective of Justice League!

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We've come a long way from our humble origins and have hopefully become something bigger & brighter than what we started as. Such is the case with Justice League, which took the baton from its DCAU forerunners and gave us a shining example of comics adaptation and excellent television, animated or otherwise. Have these merits withstood the test of time? After we get done talking about dream casting choices, indecent supervillains and sneaking filth into family friendly shows you may just find out!

THE SHORT VERSION

 Serious storytelling

Hirsute heroes

Motivation

Show #147: ULTRAFORCE

Pouches? Ponytails? Shredded jeans? SLIME? The Nineties called and they want ULTRAFORCE back!

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Recent pop cultural trends have shown there exists a need out there amongst some audiences for their comic book media to be stern, mature and taken seriously. However history has proven that this is not a new occurrence and just like the early to mid 1990s this approach more often than not left them ripe for ridicule. Ultraforce is an exemplar of this heady period where common sense feared to tread and naturally we fall down a rabbit hole of questionable business practices, even more questionable fashion choices and a whole lot of weird ooze.

THE SHORT VERSION

Slimy supermen

Misunderstood monsters

Stealth saxophone

Show #146: Mission Hill

We just about found the time to prise ourselves off the couch and reappraise our misspent youth on a little trip to Mission Hill!

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Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein were some of the hottest TV comedy writers going in the 90s. Fresh off what are widely viewed as the best seasons of The Simpsons, surely their own original show about folks their age with all the material they weren't allowed to use on their other gigs would be a huge success right? I'm gonna bet you are unlikely to have heard of Mission Hill until this very podcast so naturally there's a bit of a story behind why that is, not to mention how similarly styled programmes met a similar fate and just what ARE the 18 to 25 age bracket watching these days?

THE SHORT VERSION

Bright lights, big city

Cutting wit

Great representations

Show #142: Skeleton Warriors

Jake Bourke joins us from within his ancestral tomb to rise again with the Skeleton Warriors!

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Remember He-Man? Gary Goddard certainly did and he seemed unwilling to let go of the idea if this short lived cross-media franchise is anything to go by. With some striking visual motifs and a pretty cool action figure line where could it have gone wrong? Skeletons on rocket bikes, animal anatomy, the nature of evil and more are discussed under a haze of questionable audio quality!

THE SHORT VERSION

A solid concept

Tony Jay's Cosmic Golden Skull

Missed cross-promotional opportunities

Show #140: My Love Story!

It's the springtime of youth and first romance and nowhere is that better exemplified than in the aptly titled My Love Story!

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In a sea of samey-looking shoujo comics it's a treat to have one that has a more diverse view of love & attraction, and for it to be so exceptionally well realised as My Love Story is just the icing on the cake. Takeo and Rinko buck nearly all the well worn trends as they navigate the complexities of their first relationship, though the sugary sweetness and occasional dearth of dramatic stakes may prove challenging to some. Then again, being called TOO nice is hardly a major complaint against an otherwise outstanding show.

THE SHORT VERSION

Handsome boys

Thirsty girls

Amazing likenesses

Show #132: Space Ghost Coast To Coast

It's a star studded spectacular as we are joined by special guests Joseph Wade and Libby Cudmore for a special late night talk show on Space Ghost Coast to Coast!

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While we are saddened by the recent passing of an intregal creative talent to this cult classic, we also take this opportunity to celebrate and appreciate how this cobbled together Frankenstein of a TV show made for the spare change in your back pocket somehow went on to touch the hearts & minds of millions of insomniacs around the globe, not to mention opening the floodgates for Adult Swim and a whole host of other surreally humourous late night cartoons and providing a surprising shared cultural touchstone for our weird adolescences.

Joseph's Twitter

Libby's Twitter

Watch Space Ghost Coast To Coast here!

THE SHORT VERSION

Special guests

Format pioneers

The sublimely ridiculous

Show #128: The Adventures of Tintin - The Secret of the Unicorn (2011)

Originally slated for a now aborted theme but it's always a good time to have Anthony Askew on to talk about The Adventures of Tintin!

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Herge's roving reporter Tintin had been adapted for animation and the big screen many a time before receiving the blockbuster treatment courtesy of Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. Away go the fanciful comic doodles and in come high resolution motion capture models of terrifying unrealism. What doesn't get left behind is the pulp adventure spirit of the original stories, delivering energetic action set pieces at a steady pace without derailing the plot, coming strangely full circle seeing as the director of Indiana Jones is at the helm of a film about one of its key inspirations. Give them a couple of years and we may even get those planned sequels!

THE SHORT VERSION

Amazing likenesses

Heroic sea captains

Improbable action

Show #123: GI Joe (1983 - 1985)

Honouring America's annual tradition of celebrating their independence by blowing things up, it's a sample party platter of the GI Joe miniseries!

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While we're not entire strangers to GI Joe we deemed a franchise as venerable as this one was worthy of a closer look, removed from the bizarre influence of secret snake people and back to good old fashioned red lasers vs blue lasers. The results surprise even us as we find both a fond portrayal of the American ideal embracing all cultures & backgrounds and even stranger goings on than a dozen GI Joe movies. All that plus sailor scam artists, impressions of famous actors and the subliminal message to kids with destructive younger siblings everywhere!

THE SHORT VERSION

Cartoon combat

The lighter side of the fight against international terrorism

Workplace romances

Show #119: Black Panther

We put the civil in Civil War as a minor difference of opinion erupts on the subject of mad motion comic Black Panther!

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Didn't intend on having two superhero themed shows come out one after another but these things keep getting made! Before that bandwagon though there was Black Panther, a TV adaptation of the comic recounting T'challa and his country's rise to prominence against all comers. Equal parts clumsy political allegory and groan inducing quip fest it remains notable for being an instance of placing an African hero at the fore, a trend we hope continues in the future.

THE SHORT VERSION

Black Panther beats up -everybody-

Peculiar prosthetics

Allegorical robo-zombies