Comic Book Couples Counseling Podcast

When observing comic books, the miracles come in big or small ways. This week on the podcast, we’re discussing a resurrection we previously thought unimaginable. Stephen R Bissette, who gained legendary status working on titles like Saga of the Swamp Thing, crafted his masterpiece in the mid-nineties. Tyrant was meant to run fifty issues or more, but only four saw print before disaster struck the industry, and Bissette pulled up stakes, leaving comics to focus on family and a more financially stable situation.

We’ve spent years searching for Tyrant in the dollar bins, picking up an issue here and there. As much as we love Bissette’s work on Swamp Thing, Tyrant represents the artist at his purest, most thematically forward. Even at four issues, Tyrant is a masterpiece, expressing the agony and beauty of life, as we follow a Tyrannosaurus Rex from conception to birth. It’s easy to mourn the story we did not get, but we must also celebrate the story we did. It is enough, and thankfully, we’re not the only ones who thought so.

Chris Stevens, of the newly formed Lighthouse Press, convinced Bissette that now was the time to re-release Tyrant in both a Complete Edition and a Deluxe Artist Edition. Stevens also hired cartoonist Jim Rugg (who recently shot a Stacks video with us) to oversee the production of these new additions. Together, they’ll hopefully bring a massive new readership to Tyrant and give this lost masterpiece the recognition it never got.

We’re extremely happy to have Stephen R Bissette, Jim Rugg, and Chris Stevens on the podcast this week. Together, we place Tyrant in the context of its creation and explore why now is the time for its resurrection. We discuss the themes Bissette excavates in Tyrant and where the story was going before he had to pull the plug. We also discuss the heartbreak of pulling the plug and all the humanity within and without its pages.

The 90s comic book scene. You had to be there. The Image Revolution. Pouches. Rob Liefeld and Spike Lee making Levi's commercials together. The Death of Superman was going to pay Brad’s way into college somehow. The distribution implosion. The speculator flight. Devastation. Apocalypse. Something our earthbound dinosaurs also understood quite well.

Please recognize the miracle that is Tyrant’s resurrection by visiting the Lighthouse Press Kickstarter page and signing up for notification of its official launch. Also, follow Stephen R Bissette on BlueSky and Facebook. Follow Jim Rugg on Instagram. Follow Lighthouse Press on Instagram and BlueSky.

This Week's Sponsors

The Future is Calling! 2000 AD is the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, with new issues published every single week! Every 32-page issue of 2000 AD brings you the best in sci-fi and horror, featuring characters like Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, and more. Get a print subscription to 2000 AD and it’ll arrive to your mailbox every week - and your first issue is free! Or subscribe digitally, and you can download DRM-free copies of each issue for only $9 a month. That’s 128 pages of incredible comics every month for less than $10! Head to 2000AD.com and click on ‘subscribe’ now – or download the 2000 AD app and start reading today!

Other Relevant Links to This Week's Episode:

Subscribe to the Comic Book Couples Counseling YouTube Channel

Watch The Stacks, Comic Creators Name Their Favorite Comics

CBCC on The Brave and The Boys

CBCC on Dollar Bin Bandits

CBCC on Pop Culture Squad

Support Your Local Comic Shop: Secret Identity Comics in Chester, England

Comic Book Club: My Boyfriend is a Bear at Meanwhile...Coffee in Herndon, Virginia, on 2/1 at 3:30 PM

Comic Book Film Club: The Phantom at the Alamo Drafthouse Winchester on 3/15

Final Round of Plugs (PHEW):

Support the Podcast by Joining OUR PATREON COMMUNITY.

And, of course, follow Comic Book Couples Counseling on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Bluesky @CBCCPodcast, and you can follow hosts Brad Gullickson @MouthDork & Lisa Gullickson @sidewalksiren.

Send us your Words of Affirmation by leaving us a 5-star Review on Apple Podcasts.

Continue your conversation with CBCC by hopping over to our website, where we have reviews, essays, and numerous interviews with comic book creators.

Podcast logo by Jesse Lonergan and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.

Here’s your first warning: Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite of Spring spoilers ahead! Patrick Horvath returns for a full spoilers breakdown of the sequel series to IDW Publishing’s smash hit. Together, we consider the cartoonist’s joyous relationship with beauty and horror, where Monica the Duck finds herself in the last panels of the final issue, and why we were so wrong about George the last time we spoke with Horvath. Or, were we?

Sequels are a terrible, stressful thing to attempt, but we all know why they happen. Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees was too damn successful to be left alone, and thankfully, Horvath, the book’s shepherd, returned to his drawing table with passion and a mission for his characters. Rite of Spring is not only better than the original series, but it must also be considered as one of the best comic book sequels of all time. And it’s because it might leave certain readers fur-ious (sorry, not sorry) regarding where Horvath leaves (or drags) certain characters.

Patrick Horvath is not afraid to hurt his comic book kids. However, as we discuss, there is as much love and beauty in his series as there is grotesque horror. Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite of Spring is a deeply human book, and as such, it stirs profound feelings within the reader. Also, yo, another sequel is coming. What can we expect? We put that question to Horvath, too.

All six issues of Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite of Spring are out now from IDW Publishing. Continue this conversation with Patrick Horvath by following him on Bluesky, Instagram, and his Website.

This Week's Sponsors

The Future is Calling! 2000 AD is the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, with new issues published every single week! Every 32-page issue of 2000 AD brings you the best in sci-fi and horror, featuring characters like Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, and more. Get a print subscription to 2000 AD and it’ll arrive to your mailbox every week - and your first issue is free! Or subscribe digitally, and you can download DRM-free copies of each issue for only $9 a month. That’s 128 pages of incredible comics every month for less than $10! Head to 2000AD.com and click on ‘subscribe’ now – or download the 2000 AD app and start reading today!

Other Relevant Links to This Week's Episode:

Subscribe to the Comic Book Couples Counseling YouTube Channel

Watch The Stacks, Comic Creators Name Their Favorite Comics

CBCC on The Beat: Why Comics Needs Its Own Criterion Closet

The Ultimate Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees Spoiler-Filled Episode

Patrick Horvath at NYCC 2024

Our First Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees Episode

AIPT reports on The Stacks

CBCC on Dollar Bin Bandits

CBCC on Pop Culture Squad

Support Your Local Comic Shop: Secret Identity Comics in Chester, England

Comic Book Club: My Boyfriend is a Bear at Meanwhile...Coffee in Herndon, Virginia, on 2/1 at 3:30 PM

Comic Book Film Club: The Phantom at the Alamo Drafthouse Winchester on 3/15

Final Round of Plugs (PHEW):

Support the Podcast by Joining OUR PATREON COMMUNITY.

And, of course, follow Comic Book Couples Counseling on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Bluesky @CBCCPodcast, and you can follow hosts Brad Gullickson @MouthDork & Lisa Gullickson @sidewalksiren.

Send us your Words of Affirmation by leaving us a 5-star Review on Apple Podcasts.

Continue your conversation with CBCC by hopping over to our website, where we have reviews, essays, and numerous interviews with comic book creators.

Podcast logo by Jesse Lonergan and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.

Friends, we’ve got a special episode for you today. Comic book icons Wendy Pini and Richard Pini join the podcast for the first time, and they hang out for a lengthy, deep dive conversation into Elfquest’s origins. Their romance began in the letters column of Silver Surfer #5 (1968), materialized as the result of a clandestine cross-country road trip, and solidified through creative collaboration, which would also challenge their partnership.

Elfquest is nearly fifty years old, but it's as vibrant and relevant as ever. These comics are waiting for anyone already caught up in the Romantasy BookTok discourse. It's a profoundly philosophical work, bashing against humanity’s great worries, ready to absorb those anxieties and potentially process them toward action. However, as much as you’ll find yourself in Elfquest, you’ll discover Wendy and Richard Pini, too. Like the best stories, it’s autobiography masked as fiction.

As new readers ourselves, we can guarantee Elfquest’s contemporary grip. Chief Cutter’s journey from the forest to the desert and the greater world beyond found us just when our lives were thrown in upheval. So, it was more than a pleasure to chat with Wendy Pini and Richard Pini about their great comic book saga, how it came to be, and why they continue as its shepherds.

Over the last few years, Dark Horse Comics has gathered Elfquest: The Original Quest into four beautiful hardcover collections. Recently, they also published Elfquest: The Final Quest in a glorious hardcover omnibus, and Elfquest: The Hidden Years will receive a massive Gallery Edition Hardcover in July. Call your local comic shops asap.

To stay abreast of everything Elfquest, make sure you’re following them on their website, Instagram, and Bluesky.

This Week's Sponsors

This February, Dave Stevens’s The Rocketeer soars again in a brand-new story written by John Layman, the genius behind the foodie cannibal detective series Chew, and illustrated by Jacob Edgar, who drew Plastic Man: No More and has a very cool J. Bone/Darwyn Cooke style. The new series is called The Rocketeer: The Island. Our skybound hero, Cliff Secord, leads a dangerous search and rescue mission. Who’s he looking for? None other than Amelia Earhart! The first issue crashes into comic book shops on February 25th, courtesy of IDW Publishing.

The Future is Calling! 2000 AD is the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, with new issues published every single week! Every 32-page issue of 2000 AD brings you the best in sci-fi and horror, featuring characters like Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, and more. Get a print subscription to 2000 AD and it’ll arrive to your mailbox every week - and your first issue is free! Or subscribe digitally, and you can download DRM-free copies of each issue for only $9 a month. That’s 128 pages of incredible comics every month for less than $10! Head to 2000AD.com and click on ‘subscribe’ now – or download the 2000 AD app and start reading today!

Other Relevant Links to This Week's Episode:

Subscribe to the Comic Book Couples Counseling YouTube Channel

Watch The Stacks, Comic Creators Name Their Favorite Comics

CBCC on The Beat: Why Comics Needs Its Own Criterion Closet

AIPT reports on The Stacks

CBCC on the Comics Matter Podcast

CBCC on Escape the Mojoverse Podcast

CBCC on The FAQS Project Podcast

CBCC on The Pop Culture SquadCast

Support Your Local Comic Shop: Secret Identity Comics in Chester, England

Comic Book Club: Batman: The Court of Owls at Meanwhile...Coffee in Herndon, Virginia, on 2/1 at 3:30 PM

Comic Book Film Club: The Phantom at the Alamo Drafthouse Winchester on 3/15

Final Round of Plugs (PHEW):

Support the Podcast by Joining OUR PATREON COMMUNITY.

And, of course, follow Comic Book Couples Counseling on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Bluesky @CBCCPodcast, and you can follow hosts Brad Gullickson @MouthDork & Lisa Gullickson @sidewalksiren.

Send us your Words of Affirmation by leaving us a 5-star Review on Apple Podcasts.

Continue your conversation with CBCC by hopping over to our website, where we have reviews, essays, and numerous interviews with comic book creators.

Podcast logo by Jesse Lonergan and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.

This week, comic shop employees from all over gather in Glendale, California. It’s time for ComicsPRO, the annual event designed to “promote the progress and development of comic book retailers and improve the condition of the comic book industry.” It’s one of our favorite times of the year as we eagerly sit by our computers waiting for announcements from publishers and the good word from our LCS pals. Sadly, we cannot be in person this year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t bring you exclusive information. Thanks to writer Zack Kaplan, who’s on the ground at ComicsPRO, we’re there by proxy. And he’s dishing on his big announcement, extending his partnership with Dark Horse Comics, bringing us the final chapter in Kill All Immortals and two more new titles, Only The Savage Are Left and The Smart Division.

Kill All Immortals is a nifty, nasty look at the boot standing on our necks: the billionaire class. The comic imagines a universe where various immortal clans have gobbled up control of the economy, but one is starting to crumble from within. Frey Asvald, daughter of Erik the Red, can no longer sit idly as her family consumes the planet. She wants to help us poor mortals, but in doing so, she exposes herself and others to tremendous violence. And can you really keep your hands clean when attempting global, capital G, Good?

On this week's podcast, we discuss the state of comic book retail, a bizarre occurrence involving our local shops, and the anxiety of putting new books into readers' hands. Zack Kaplan gives us the skinny on Kill All Immortals as well as his two new titles at Dark Horse. We dig into our collective billionaire woes and consider one particular violent action committed by Frey in Kill All Immortals Volume One.

Kill All Immortals is written by Zack Kaplan, illustrated by Fico Ossio, colored by Thiago Rocha, and lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. Covers by Oliver Barrett (although the header image above is from variant cover artist Tula Lotay).

Make sure you’re following Zack Kaplan on BlueSky, Instagram, and his website.

This Week's Sponsors

This February, Dave Stevens’s The Rocketeer soars again in a brand-new story written by John Layman, the genius behind the foodie cannibal detective series Chew, and illustrated by Jacob Edgar, who drew Plastic Man: No More and has a very cool J. Bone/Darwyn Cooke style. The new series is called The Rocketeer: The Island. Our skybound hero, Cliff Secord, leads a dangerous search and rescue mission. Who’s he looking for? None other than Amelia Earhart! The first issue crashes into comic book shops on February 25th, courtesy of IDW Publishing.

The Future is Calling! 2000 AD is the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, with new issues published every single week! Every 32-page issue of 2000 AD brings you the best in sci-fi and horror, featuring characters like Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, and more. Get a print subscription to 2000 AD and it’ll arrive to your mailbox every week - and your first issue is free! Or subscribe digitally, and you can download DRM-free copies of each issue for only $9 a month. That’s 128 pages of incredible comics every month for less than $10! Head to 2000AD.com and click on ‘subscribe’ now – or download the 2000 AD app and start reading today!

Other Relevant Links to This Week's Episode:

Subscribe to the Comic Book Couples Counseling YouTube Channel

Watch The Stacks, Comic Creators Name Their Favorite Comics

CBCC on The Beat: Why Comics Needs Its Own Criterion Closet

CBCC on the Comics Matter Podcast

AIPT reports on The Stacks

CBCC on Escape the Mojoverse Podcast

CBCC on The FAQS Project Podcast

Support Your Local Comic Shop: Secret Identity Comics in Chester, England

Comic Book Club: Batman: The Court of Owls at Meanwhile...Coffee in Herndon, Virginia, on 2/1 at 3:30 PM

Comic Book Film Club: Blade at the Alamo Drafthouse Winchester on 2/15

Final Round of Plugs (PHEW):

Support the Podcast by Joining OUR PATREON COMMUNITY.

And, of course, follow Comic Book Couples Counseling on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Bluesky @CBCCPodcast, and you can follow hosts Brad Gullickson @MouthDork & Lisa Gullickson @sidewalksiren.

Send us your Words of Affirmation by leaving us a 5-star Review on Apple Podcasts.

Continue your conversation with CBCC by hopping over to our website, where we have reviews, essays, and numerous interviews with comic book creators.

Podcast logo by Jesse Lonergan and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.

The movie-to-comic path doesn’t always work out, but IDW Publishing is quickly proving itself to be the place to run to with your adaptation. Their latest cinematic comic book sidequel, A Quiet Place: Storm Warning, features script and layouts by industry veteran Phil Hester and pencils and inks by Ryan Kelly. Hester comes from that Alex Toth/Harvey Kurtzman tradition, embracing visuals and having faith that silence can carry as much story as 200 word balloons.

A Quiet Place stakes its narrative on silence. If you caught the first film in a theater, you undoubtedly remember the awkwardness of attempting popcorn consumption while Emily Blunt on screen quiveringly descends the basement stairs before OWWWWW! The nail in the foot! One may think removing audible sound from the equation would ruin the experience; however, Phil Hester did just that when he pitched his take to editors, adapting that scene specifically.

The stairway nail bit, told as a comic by Phil Hester, proved undeniable. He got the gig, and then he got to work formulating his spin-off characters and plot. As the first film took inspiration from Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, so does his arc, pitting a small town politician against the local fire chief. This time, they’re also sister and brother, adding a dramatic sharpness that can only cut when family is involved. Of course, what does familial pride matter when creatures are raining from the sky?

Phil Hester joins the podcast for the first time this week. We discuss the challenges of adapting a cinematic concept to the comic book page, how he always embraces silence, and why Jaws is just the best damn movie ever made.

A Quiet Place: Storm Warning #1 arrives in comic book shops from IDW Publishing on March 11th. It's written by Phil Hester, illustrated by Ryan Kelly, colored by Lee Loughridge, lettered and designed by Nathan Widick, and edited by Heather Antos.

Make sure you’re following Phil Hester on Bluesky.

This Week's Sponsors

The Future is Calling! 2000 AD is the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, with new issues published every single week! Every 32-page issue of 2000 AD brings you the best in sci-fi and horror, featuring characters like Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, and more. Get a print subscription to 2000 AD and it’ll arrive to your mailbox every week - and your first issue is free! Or subscribe digitally, and you can download DRM-free copies of each issue for only $9 a month. That’s 128 pages of incredible comics every month for less than $10! Head to 2000AD.com and click on ‘subscribe’ now – or download the 2000 AD app and start reading today!

This February, Dave Stevens’s The Rocketeer soars again in a brand-new story written by John Layman, the genius behind the foodie cannibal detective series Chew, and illustrated by Jacob Edgar, who drew Plastic Man: No More and has a very cool J. Bone/Darwyn Cooke style. The new series is called The Rocketeer: The Island. Our skybound hero, Cliff Secord, leads a dangerous search and rescue mission. Who’s he looking for? None other than Amelia Earhart! The first issue crashes into comic book shops on February 25th, courtesy of IDW Publishing.

Other Relevant Links to This Week's Episode:

Subscribe to the Comic Book Couples Counseling YouTube Channel

Watch The Stacks, Comic Creators Name Their Favorite Comics

CBCC on the Comics Matter Podcast

AIPT reports on The Stacks

Support Your Local Comic Shop: Secret Identity Comics in Chester, England

Comic Book Club: Batman: The Court of Owls at Meanwhile...Coffee in Herndon, Virginia, on 2/1 at 3:30 PM

Comic Book Film Club: Blade at the Alamo Drafthouse Winchester on 2/15

Final Round of Plugs (PHEW):

Support the Podcast by Joining OUR PATREON COMMUNITY.

And, of course, follow Comic Book Couples Counseling on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Bluesky @CBCCPodcast, and you can follow hosts Brad Gullickson @MouthDork & Lisa Gullickson @sidewalksiren.

Send us your Words of Affirmation by leaving us a 5-star Review on Apple Podcasts.

Continue your conversation with CBCC by hopping over to our website, where we have reviews, essays, and numerous interviews with comic book creators.

Podcast logo by Jesse Lonergan and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.