Comic Book Couples Counseling Podcast

It’s a topic we discuss a lot. When you love comics, you eventually want to make them. Curt Pires heard Franklin Jonas professing his love for the medium on a podcast. Immediately, he recognized a kindred spirit. Pires invited Jonas to play. The result is the new Image Comics series Fireborn, spinning out of Pires’ massive comic book playground, Lost Fantasy.

Maybe you’ve already read the logline: Fireborn is Invincible meets How to Train Your Dragon meets Absolute Batman. Whoa, okay. That’s a lot, but what does that actually mean? On this week’s podcast, we get into it with Franklin Jonas and Curt Pires. We break down those other stories and consider what they owe to Spider-Man and his Amazing Fantasy #15 debut. Where do you begin when creating an F’d up Peter Parker?

And did we mention the hot takes? Franklin Jonas has them! We give the musician the space to profess his passion for comics, champion his all-time favorite Daredevil run, and explain why not enough of you are reading the current JSA monthly written by Jeff Lemire.

In Fireborn, Aaron Hillburg is a rich kid who runs face-first into Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. He answers the call to action, but when will he reject it? With great power there must also come great responsibility. One issue in, we got part one of that statement. Is part two coming?

Let’s geek out about what comics can do that no TV pitch can ever contain.

Fireborn #1 is out now from Image Comics. It’s written by Curt Pires and Franklin Jonas, illustrated by Patrick Mulholland, colored by Mark Dale, and lettered by Micah Myers. Make sure you’re following Franklin Jonas on Instagram and Curt Pires on BlueSky and Instagram.

This Week's Sponsors

Everyone loves to talk and debate about comics, but few people get to see what it’s actually like behind the scenes. Now, IDW Publishing is changing that with the launch of IDW Studios. The first monthly show is CreatorxCreator, a free-flowing, fun and honest chat between two comic book creators as they discuss their craft, process, inspiration, and what life is really like as a creative. The second monthly show, Superlatives, brings IDW’s knowledgeable and spirited editors head-to-head to debate each of these categories, with another editor stepping in as the moderator to pick the winner once the pros have made their arguments.

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

Previously on CBCC: Henry Barajas and Rachel Merrill on Death to Pachuco

The Four Color Fantasies Charity Sketch Cover Auction

The Literacy Volunteers of the Winchester Area

Comic Book Club: Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees at Meanwhile...Coffee in Herndon, Virginia, on 5/3 at 3:30 PM

Comic Book Film Club: Paying For It on 4/26 at the Alamo Drafthouse in Winchester, Virginia.

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.

Comics don’t just happen. Artists will them from nothing. As you’ll hear from Henry Barajas and Rachel Merrill in this week’s podcast, comics arrive at your local comic book shop through tremendous persistence and imagination. The next time you cross your shop’s threshold, possibly to grab a copy of Barajas and Merrill’s Death to Pachuco, out now in trade paperback from Image Comics, take a moment to thank the makers. Each book on the rack is a tiny miracle.

In Death to Pachuco, Barajas and Merrill tap into history, detailing the 1943 Sleepy Lagoon Murder Trial and the Zoot Suit Riots. It’s a Chicano noir, heavily inspired by classic Hollywood tales, but springing from a perspective frequently silenced or ignored. Their private eye, Ricardo “Ricky” Tellez, fancies himself a Sherlock Holmes type, complete with a nearly debilitating drug addiction. He’s caught in the racial tensions boiling over during wartime Los Angeles, hunting for a killer, while navigating a femme fatale.

This week on the podcast, we chat with Barajas and Merrill about balancing fact and fiction, style and reality, and why humanity frequently allows fear steer its actions. We discuss the magnificent amount of will and persistence it took to materialize Death to Pachuco and how it feels to see it collected in trade paperback, finally.

Death to Pachuco is written and lettered by Henry Barajas, illustrated by Rachel Merrill, and colored by Lee Loughridge. The book featured several variant covers from folks like Sarah Gordon (see episode art), Tula Lotay, Ben Passmore, David Lapham, and others.

Make sure you're following Henry Barajas on BlueSky and Instagram, and Rachel Merrill on BlueSky and Instagram.

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!

Everyone loves to talk and debate about comics, but few people get to see what it’s actually like behind the scenes. Now, IDW Publishing is changing that with the launch of IDW Studios. The first monthly show is CreatorxCreator, a free-flowing, fun and honest chat between two comic book creators as they discuss their craft, process, inspiration, and what life is really like as a creative. The second monthly show, Superlatives, brings IDW’s knowledgeable and spirited editors head-to-head to debate each of these categories, with another editor stepping in as the moderator to pick the winner once the pros have made their arguments.

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 Word Balloon

Comic Book Club: Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees at Meanwhile...Coffee in Herndon, Virginia, on 5/3 at 3:30 PM

Comic Book Film Club: Paying For It on 4/26 at the Alamo Drafthouse in Winchester, Virginia.

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 an episode we’ve wanted to have for a while. Zoe Tunnell joins the podcast this week to discuss her new IDW Crime series Seven Wives and examine how easy it is to fall into cult-like behavior. As massive fans of (fictional) crime, we’re excited for Zoe Tunnell and her comic book collaborators to launch the new IDW Crime imprint with a locked-room mystery. It gives us an excuse to rattle on about Agatha Christie, Knives Out, and our devilish, guilty pleasure, True Crime.

Seven Wives’ murderous opening features the Dunn family patriarch receiving forty-nine stab wounds at the altar of his Fundamentalist temple. The suspects, the titular wives, and maybe an offspring or two. Detectives Aguilar and Halwell get to work interrogating everyone on the compound, granting Seven Wives a killer structure, and a thrilling excuse for Zoe Tunnell to beef up her three-issue mini-series with a meaty, messy character study.

We’ve followed Zoe Tunnell for years, enjoying her comics criticism and her plunge into comic-making. We discuss how one skill prepared her for the other, her passion for crime stories and locked-room mysteries in particular, and the empathy required to understand cult stories. While we couldn’t have imagined the subjects we’d explore, we always knew Zoe Tunnell would find her way onto the show.

Seven Wives is written by Zoe Tunnell, illustrated by V. Gagnon and Maria Keane, and colored by Antonio Del Hoyo. IDW Publishing drops the comic in shops on May 20th. FOC (Final Order Cutoff) is Monday, April 13th.

Follow Zoe Tunnell on Instagram, BlueSky, and her 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!

Everyone loves to talk and debate about comics, but few people get to see what it’s actually like behind the scenes. Now, IDW Publishing is changing that with the launch of IDW Studios. The first monthly show is CreatorxCreator, a free-flowing, fun and honest chat between two comic book creators as they discuss their craft, process, inspiration, and what life is really like as a creative. The second monthly show, Superlatives, brings IDW’s knowledgeable and spirited editors head-to-head to debate each of these categories, with another editor stepping in as the moderator to pick the winner once the pros have made their arguments.

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

Previously on CBCC: Klaus Janson

A SKTCHD Guide to Pronouncing Creator Names, Vol 1

Read The Beat, Friends!

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: Paying For It on 4/26 at the Alamo Drafthouse in Winchester, Virginia.

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.

Okay, it’s time to press pause on your life and press play on this week’s episode. Klaus Janson is an icon. He’s worked in comics for over fifty years, radically shaping characters like Daredevil and Batman, while working alongside other comic book greats such as Frank Miller, Dick Giordano, Gene Colan, Dennis O'Neil, Grant Morrison, Bill Sienkiewicz, Brian Michael Bendis, and many, many more. He’s worked within the medium from multiple angles as penciler, inker, colorist, writer, and teacher. By thriving through comics, he’s also collected a million stories to tell. We got a few out of him today.

We’re honored to have Klaus Janson join us for our 350th episode, especially during a time that sees his first North American art exhibit on display at the Philippe Labaune Gallery in New York City. You have until April 11th to witness more than one hundred Klaus Janson pieces, reflecting a lifetime of dedication to our favorite art form. If you’re looking to extend the 40th anniversary celebrations of The Dark Knight Returns, a book that continues to shape the entire industry and a few others as well, then you owe yourself a trip.

Klaus Janson takes us all the way back to his time before comics, and how two unique jobs prepared him for his life at the drawing board. We discuss his collaboration with Frank Miller on Daredevil and The Dark Knight Returns, a few of the projects he’s proud of that don’t necessarily get the most attention, and how comics have shaped him as a person.

Also, we spend this episode’s introduction discussing our recent excursion to WonderCon in Anaheim, California. With multiple conventions fighting for your attention this weekend, we consider what WonderCon offers that other gatherings don’t, as well as some of the comic book news revealed across multiple panels. Absolute Crisis?

Please say Thank You to Klaus Janson by following his Instagram.

This Week's Sponsors

Everyone loves to talk and debate about comics, but few people get to see what it’s actually like behind the scenes. Now, IDW Publishing is changing that with the launch of IDW Studios. The first monthly show is CreatorxCreator, a free-flowing, fun and honest chat between two comic book creators as they discuss their craft, process, inspiration, and what life is really like as a creative. The second monthly show, Superlatives, brings IDW’s knowledgeable and spirited editors head-to-head to debate each of these categories, with another editor stepping in as the moderator to pick the winner once the pros have made their arguments.

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

Previously on CBCC: Ethan Young on Demon Run

Follow the Pop Culture Maven on YouTube

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: Paying For It on 4/26 at the Alamo Drafthouse in Winchester, Virginia.

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.

You love to see it. Cartoonist Ethan Young (Dragon Path, Nanjing: The Burning City) places a huge bet on himself. He’s reclaimed the rights to his main character from the graphic novel series The Battles of Bridget Lee, originally published at Dark Horse Comics, and planted her in a slightly altered landscape with a much more mature (i.e., violent) tone. The new comic is called Demon Run, and you have till April 3rd to make your orders for the first two issues on his website.

The Battles of Bridget Lee: Invasion of Farfall first hit stands in 2016. Ethan Young has made many more comics since then, worked extensively in animation (including Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man), and significantly evolved his style. Why is he going back to Briget Lee? Why is she battling demons now and not alien invaders? Why is Demon Runfilled with gnarly, grisly action and not sanitized for the YA market? Most importantly, why is Ethan Young taking on the burden of self-publishing?

All these questions and more are asked in this week’s Comic Book Couples Counseling podcast. We’ve admired Ethan Young’s comics for many years now. His appearance on the show is a long time coming, and we’re excited to see him morph Bridget Lee into the Demon Run concept. You’re damn right, we were two of the first to pre-order the comics via Young Illustrations.

In addition to bookmarking his website, make sure you’re following Ethan Young 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

Previously on CBCC: David Dastmalchian on Through

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

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.