Mindless Ones

Best Batpod or bestest Batpod? You can support Walt on Patreon, or by getting your own rubber Batsuit made up and joining him as he patrols the city at night. 

You bring a lot of different theoretical approaches to comics in your show. Can you remember the first comic book that got your brain fizzing like that?

I first got into comics when I was in middle school thanks to an online friend with an FTP, so like any teenaged boy in the Aughts I gravitated toward comics with “Hell” in the name. It would be years before I understood the nuances of Mignola’s inking or why the Brits hated Maggie Thatcher so much, but the blend of folklore, pulp, history, and the occult in both Hellboy and Hellblazer instantly enchanted me.

(I’ll never forget reading the Newcastle issue of Hellblazer around the same time that I was first assigned Hamlet in school, seeing the demon say “Get thee to a nunnery,” and realizing that there was no inherent divide between fine literature and disreputable comic books.)

Was The Black Casebook always conceived of as a podcast?

Yep! It was inspired directly by my college buddy Nat Yonce’s show Collective Action Comics and Connor Goldsmith’s X-Men podcast CEREBRO, both of which I was listening to obsessively in 2021. Quietly fuming whenever Nat (playfully) slandered Batman had already given me the idea to do my own Batman podcast to correct the record, and when Nat reached out to have me do a guest episode about the politics of Batman—including fronting me the cash to buy a decent mic—my path was set. I finished recording my first episode directly after that interview. Blame him!

You’ve crossed over with Collective Action Comics, but do you feel part of much of a scene with other people talking about the form? 

I do, thankfully. Nat immediately welcomed me into his circle of lefty comics fans; Cole, Stu, and Nicole of the Marvelous! Or: The Death of Cinema podcast welcomed me into their MCU opposition movement; and more established writers like you Mindless Ones and Travis Hedge Coke welcomed me into the ranks of comics critics who like to do more than summarize new issues. I don’t know if it constitutes a scene, exactly, but I’ve been fortunate to join the somehow-not-insignificant quorum of Marxist comics fans on the internet. (Deniz Camp is actually a tulpa we summoned into existence a few years back—that was a fun afternoon.)

I’d like to get to know more folks in the industry itself, but I also don’t want to pull any punches for the sake of preserving connections or advancing my own career, such as it is. I never want to be in a situation where I have to tiptoe around, say, Tom King’s feelings in order to maintain access to writers and artists I admire.

Top 5 Bat artists? 

(Honorable mentions: Matt Wagner, Marshall Rogers, Paul Pope, Frank Miller)

5. Norm Breyfogle

4. Greg Capullo

3. Tim Sale

2. Darwyn Cooke

1. David Mazzucchelli

Top 5 Bat writers?

(Honorable mentions: Steve Englehart, Archie Goodwin, Alan Grant, Paul Dini) 

5. Peter Milligan

4. Scott Snyder

3. Darwyn Cooke

2. Frank Miller

1. Grant Morrison

What’s next for The Black Casebook?

More episodes, God willing. 2024 was my Rick Wakeman iridescent cape era of unsustainably long, self-indulgent episodes, so I’ve been trying to figure out ways to get the show back down to a manageable length (and more satisfying release schedule). I’ve learned by now not to promise too much, but I do hope to incorporate more interviews and guest episodes so as not to deprive my beloved listeners. I’m also working on some creative projects where I can, but those are, to quote my friend Sid Hudgens, off the record, on the QT, and *very* hush-hush.

Finally, if you had to fight any Batman villain who would it be?

The Riddler. I’m not sure I could take him, but I’d love the opportunity to find out.

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EVERYBODY INHERIT THE EARTH? WHY NOT?

What was the name of that guy..? You know, that guy with the…with the …you know all the words. That guy. Real talkative type. A regular wordsmith…what was his name? Chatterbox, he was. Flapping those gums all the time. Oh, what was his name?? It’s on the tip of my tongue. Bob? Bill? No….Blair? It was Blair I think. No, that’s not it…

BLURB!! THAT’S IT! BLURB!

Yeah. Hate that guy.

<ITEM> Explode into action! It’s 2020! New SILENCE! New DANGER! Old Gary Lactus & The Beast Must Die! Oof.

<ITEM> Bit of chat, bit of admin, bit of Sponsorship – Get down to the GOSH Comics sale which finished on 12th Jan! And a reckymendation for the Gossipmongers podcast.

<ITEM>Into the Reviewniverse with both feet! SPLOSH! Let’s chew the fat about Olympia, Milk & Cheese, Punisher: Soviet, Sandman Mystery Theatre, Pink Lemonade Holiday Grab Bag, Pirate Corp$, The Spectre, Sludge, Destroyer Duck and lot more you sexy sexpots.

<ITEM> Gary Lactus’ Best of The Decade!

<ITEM> SILENCE! Because The Film Has Started! and The Beast watched the recent Hellboy reboot and some of Shazam! Superheroes – they’re the great new fad that the kids can’t stop talking about!

THAT’LL DO PIGS

@bobsymindless
@frasergeesin
@thebeastmustdie

[email protected]

 

 

 

WE DON’T THINK SO, YOU SEEM STAR-SHAPED

For Sale:

Well-used  podcast, seen better days. Two careless previous owners.

Comes with fully formed opinions, little to no research, distinct air of desperation and unprofessionalism. Song function occasionally still works, but will need warming up.

Do YOU have space in your home to this well-loved antique? No real value, but may provide some entertainment to the mentally infirm

Contact: SILENCE! for further information…

<ITEM> Admin, Sponsorship, the Galacticats, Another Blue World by Jon Chandler, and a slap to your blubbery chops of course.

<ITEM> The Reviewniverse opens it’s arms, and clasps you just a bit too tight, so that you can smell the Extra Strong mints on it’s breath…talking ’bout Nameless, Wild’s End, Hellboy, Weird World, the Congress of Animals, Dogtanian and the 3 Muskerhounds, Maus, Magic, Michael Motion, David Bowie’s Balls, Captain America: White, Batgirl, Grayson, ‘Ghost’ comics, New Statesmen, Prince Comics, Epic illustrated and a whole lot more.

<ITEM>SILENCE! The Film Has Started! gives us a hot recommendation for superb new internet horror Unfriended from The Beast

click to download SILENCE!#158

Contact us:

[email protected]

@silencepod
@frasergeesin
@thebeastmustdie
@bobsymindless

You can support us using Patreon if you like.

This edition of SILENCE! is proudly sponsored by the greatest comics shop on the planet, DAVE’S COMICS of Brighton. It’s also sponsored the greatest comics shop on the planet GOSH! Comics of London.

CAN’T BELIEVE I USED TO BE MR STEVE AUSTIN ON THE MIC, SIX MILLION WAYS I USED TO RUN IT

Here I come to save the day, Disembodied Narratorbot X-15735 is on his way! No, no, not really I was always here. It’s you that went away fleshy ones. I was here and I always will be. Until the sun eats itself.

In this pre-pre festive edition of  SILENCE! (the podcast that comes to you in the form of a nano-swarm perched on the buttocks of a fly), The Beast and Lactus fire a cannonfull of comics shot across your bows.

But not before…

<ITEM> The SILENCE News has a live report from Danny Beastman, covering the terrifying Moore/Morrison Magickal War that threatens to engulf ALL the realities.

<ITEM> Voyage Into The Reviewniverse covers Evan Dorkin’s House of Fun (with a wee Pirate Corp$ diversion), Hellboy, Avengers, Hawkeye, Thunderbolts, Action Comics, Batman LOTDK, FURY: My War Gone By, Fashion Beast, Dial H, Amazing Spiderman, Avenging Spiderman, All New X-Men, Iron Man (gland!), and Black Acre.

<ITEM> Lactus takes on Jason’s Challenge in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.

<ITEM> The Silent Question comes from a Green Lantern…again.

Add in an appreciation from The Beast of Man-Thing and Steve Gerber in general, and you have a rootin’ tootin’ high falutin’ edition of SILENCE! Disembodied Narratorbot X-15735 wishes you a fond farewell, blows you a salty kiss and will see you on the flipside.

click to download SILENCE!#43

SILENCE! is proudly sponsored by the two greatest comics shops on the planet, DAVE’S COMICS of Brighton and GOSH COMICS of London.

 

It’s a slow one for us, so we have joined forces like Voltron, whatever Voltron is (I know what Voltron is because I bought a very cheap Voltron DVD the other week. It was a ripoff – Voltron is a load of old shit). This could get more like one of those old Sugarhill Gang tracks that goes on for ever actually, on eof those ones where they’re just talking about their socks, what they had for dinner, and, most rivetingly, about how their neighbourhood has got, like, a really cool bridge or some shit like that…

These are the comics that have hit us in our brainless brains this week.