Sunday, March 24, 2013 Filed in Events, Heroes Con Panels, HeroesCon, Video
;)
HeroesCon, Nathan Edmondson, The Activity, image, panel Tuesday, March 19, 2013 Filed in Audio, Events, Geek Trivia 
Again, Adam and Shawn venture out into the cold unknown to test their skill at being true geeks and once again they (thankfully) fail. After winning the first Borderlands’ Geek Trivia Night ever, they now claw and bleed to simply avoid last place.
Runtime 22 minutes 20 seconds
Borderlands, adam, geek trivia, shawn, trivia Thursday, March 14, 2013 Filed in Review 
Tell me if this story sounds familiar: in order to save their child’s life desperate parents put their infant son into a small craft and him adrift. That child is then found and raised by a loving couple as their own and this child will one day grow up to be a protector of people. Did I just give a brief summary of the story of Moses or Superman? Harry Brod’s new book “Superman is Jewish?” poses such questions in an attempt to answer the question of not only if Superman is Jewish but what makes a character Jewish. How about if I throw in that his creators were both Jewish? How about if Kal-El is very similar to the Hebrew words for “voice of God”? How about if you look at the character as the wish fulfillment of displaced European, Jewish boys in the 1930’s and 40’s? Clark Kent is a first-generation outsider who appears as a weak and book-worm like figure who in all reality sheds this image to become a fountain of power. NOW is Superman Jewish? Or is he not Jewish because it’s never specifically stated in the comics?
;)
Mr Brod’s book starts focused like a laser and then slowly diffuses outwards becoming more and more broad as you continue to read. After discussing Superman specifically he moves on to such characters as The Thing (what is The Thing if not a retelling of the Jewish story of the Golem a creature of mud to protects his people), and Spider-man (a character who is driven by a guilt because his inaction caused the death of his Uncle Ben, who lives in Forest Hills a mainly Jewish area of NYC in the 1960’s, and is a glasses-wearing, nerd-like social outsider who was created by Jewish Stan Lee with possible input by a Jewish Jack Kirby). He then takes a tour of a few of the most prominent Jewish creator’s works such as Will Eisner and Art Spiegelman, and finally finishes up discussing Jewish comics in general.
Let’s be honest here, books such as these are in essence very long, (hopefully) well-researched, thesis papers so in my mind there has to be a compelling reason to read a book like this. So, is the book worth reading? I believe it is. I suppose the casual reader might be happy just reading their comics and taking them at face value. But for a group of people who claim to be passionate about an art form as most comics readers proclaim to be, to not want to dig deeper and find a possible hidden influence on some of comics’ most popular characters strikes me as wrong.
I enjoyed this book. It was never dry but instead came across as almost conversational in tone which;)
always makes it easier to read a book of this type. The author does an excellent job of exposing the bedrock upon which comics has been founded and this book is worth reading just for the chapter on Art Spiegelman’s Maus alone. The analysis in that chapter and the details in story structure, panel layout, and background details will give any reader of that seminal work a reason to go back and reread. I can recommend this book to any reader who wants to gain a deeper understanding of this art form we all claim to love so much.
Harry Brod, Jewish, Superman, The Thing, spider-man Tuesday, March 12, 2013 Filed in Audio, Discussions ;)
This week Adam and Shawn catch up on comics. They enthusiastically discuss current events in comics as well as what they are currently reading.
Runtime 53 minutes 51 seconds
adam, comics on the couch, discussion, shawn ;)
Cover by Ryan BrowneThis week Adam was lucky enough to get an interview with Ryan Browne to discuss his Kickstarter for his epic creation, God Hates Astronauts. Ryan is also artist on Smoke and Mirrors (IDW), will be doing a few issues of The Manhattan Projects (Image) and will soon be taking over art on Bedlam (Image).
Runtime 24 minutes 14 seconds
Independent, adam, interview, kickstarter Wednesday, February 27, 2013 Filed in Audio, Discussions ;)
This week the Dollar Bin presents to you the Upstate Comic Book Club. The club is an excuse for comic fans in Greenville, SC to get together and have topical comic discussions. It’s like a podcast, but without the microphones (most of the time). We wouldn’t normally record this, but we were saying goodbye to a friend who was moving away and I wanted to get his 2 cents on some things before he left. Also the whole thing that happened in Batman Inc.
Runtime 36 minutes 59 seconds
adam, batman, discussion, shawn, upstate comic book club