The Comic Panel Podcast

Welcome all! We are so glad you are listening to this mind-altering episode. I know we haven't been the same since!

For this episode we are continuing our theme of Mystery comics by reviewing the comic Homunculus by Hideo Yamamoto!

Homunculus is the story of Susumu Nakoshi, a pathological liar, who looks down on humanity while living out of his car. Nakoshi wears a suit around the other homeless people in the park but remains emotionally dependent on his car. He’s approached by a suspicious medical student, Manabu Ito, who pressures Nakoshi into undergoing an experimental surgery called Trepanation where by drilling a hole in the skull the sixth sense can be awakened. Ito explains that he has no scientific proof that spirits and ESP exist but believes it on an instinctual level and wants to rid himself of that childish belief (and fear). However the surgery is successful in that Nakoshi begins to see another version of humans when he uses only his left eye. Unsure of whether he’s losing his mind, Nakoshi and Ito begin to explore how these visions connect to reality.

We now have a Substack! If you like our show be sure to subscribe as that will be our new home for keeping up with our show! You'll also be able to listen to the podcast on Substack! You can still find us as The Comic Panel Podcast on Apple Music and Spotify! more of us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Our title is The Comic Panel Podcast. Be sure to tune in two weeks from now for the next book in our theme of Mysteries!

Music by Charles Shomo on Pixabay

 

Welcome all to The Comic Panel. We are so glad you are listening to this episode and we know you'll enjoy this one! We are starting a new theme this episode, the theme of Mysteries and for our first book we are reviewing "My Favorite Thing is Monsters" by Emil Ferris.

This is a graphic novel is set in 1960s Chicago and follows young Karen Reyes as she attempts to unravel the secrets behind the death of her German neighbor Anka. Despite Karen being in elementary school, the story doesn’t shy away from adult topics, and Karen learns Anka was raised in a brothel and suffered extreme abuse before surviving the Holocaust. Everywhere around her Karen encounters complex and sometimes misunderstood people. Through her love of art and monsters, the young girl tries to understand her own identity and place in the world. The story also incorporates real life events like Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination and the reaction as part of its exploration of societal expectations and issues.

If you liked this episode be sure to follow us on Twitter @thecomicpanel1 and listen to more of us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Our title is The Comic Panel Podcast. You can also listen to us on ksuaradio.com or 91.5 FM in Fairbanks, Alaska. Be sure to tune in two weeks from now for the next book in our theme of Mysteries!

Music: "Always Yours (feat. The Parrisian & Parris Fleming)" by The Parrisian feat. Parris Fleming

Welcome! I'm so glad you guys are listening to this wonderful and hilarious conversation where four friends talk about the best and worst moments from the last four books. 

If you haven't been following, we've been on the theme of "Comics Based on Video Games." The books we read for this theme were "Street Fighter: Sakura Gives It Her Best" by Masahiko Nakahira, "Sonic: Scrapnick Island" by Daniel Barnes and Illustrated by Jack Lawrence, the Team Fortress 2 comics written by Jay Pinkerton and Erik Wolpaw with art by Heather Campbell and Maren Marmulla, "Batman: Arkham Knight" written by Peter J. Tomasi with art by Victor Bogdanovic, Ig Guara Bobson Rocha, Art Thibert, Julio Ferreira, Guillermo Ortego; and "Assassin's Creed: Awakening" written by Takashi Yano and drawn by Kenji Oiwa. 

If you liked this episode be sure to follow us on Twitter @thecomicpanel1 and listen to more of us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Our title is The Comic Panel Podcast. You can also listen to us on ksuaradio.com or 91.5 FM in Fairbanks, Alaska. Be sure to tune in two weeks from now for the start of our next theme!

Music: "Cued For Liftoff" by Dan "Lebo" Lebowitz and Tone Seeker

Hello all! Welcome to our final book in the theme of "Comics based on video games". We hope you've been enjoying them half as much as we have recording them! Today's review is of the manga "Assassin Creed Awakening" based on the video game Assassins Creed Black Flag. 

The protagonist of our story is a young Sejin who's DNA is used to explore the life of one of his ancestors, Edward Kenway, a former english noble in the 18th century, who turned to piracy in order to strike it rich and provide for the love of his life. When Edward's ship crashes on an island everything he had worked hard to acquire was lost. As he shuffles through the wreckage he finds a man wearing fancy clothing who is about to die. Edward assumes his identity which starts him on a trajectory of meeting the Templars, a group dedicated to controlling humanity, and then the Brotherhood, a group dedicated to stopping the Templars.

Meanwhile in modern day, Sejin believes he is participating in beta testing for a new immersive video game created by Abstergo, the company that invented the Animus. In reality, the Animus is a device that unlocks the genetic memories of the user's ancestors, and Abstergo is really a front for the modern day Templars. Sejin wants to prove that this video game is terrible because his mom made it, the woman who left his family. It quickly turns out, though, that Abstergo isn't being entirely honest, this isn't a video game at all, and his mother could be a victim? 

Was this a good adaptation? Did it make us want to read more? Find the answers by listening to this episode of The Comic Panel!

If you liked this episode be sure to follow us on Twitter @thecomicpanel1 and listen to more of us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Our title is The Comic Panel Podcast. You can also listen to us on ksuaradio.com or 91.5 FM in Fairbanks, Alaska. Be sure to tune in two weeks from now for retrospective on our theme of "Comics based on video games"!

Hello all! Welcome to the next episode in our theme of "Comics based on video games". We hope you've been enjoying these episodes at just a fraction of the joy we get from making these episodes! 

Batman Arkham Knight (the comic) takes place in the Batman Arkham games universe and set between the end of Arkham City and before Arkham Knight. It begins right where the Arkham City ended with the death of the Joker after a climactic final battle with Batman and the subsequent chaos that ensues. Batman continues to juggle long nights as a vigilante and early morning meetings as his alter ego Bruce Wayne. While Wayne is bogged down in new plans of a brighter future for his city, Batman’s every step is shadowed by a more ruthless vigilante who is ruthlessly killing criminals. All while that is going on, Penguin, Harley Quinn, and Bane are all scheming to take over Gotham in the power vacuum left by Joker's death.

If you liked this episode be sure to follow us on Twitter @thecomicpanel1 and listen to more of us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Our title is The Comic Panel Podcast. You can also listen to us on ksuaradio.com or 91.5 FM in Fairbanks, Alaska. Be sure to tune in two weeks from now for the next book in our theme of "Comics based on video games"!

Hello all! We apologize for the terribly long time it took for this episode to come out. It seemed it took almost as long for this episode to come out as did this comic to finish! And just like when this comic was finished, we all rejoiced that there was finally an ending. 

All jokes aside, for our second book in the theme of comics based on video games, we are reviewing the Team Fortress 2 comics. These comics takes place in an alternate 1972 and focuses on a company called Mann Co. and the mercenaries who have been employed by that company over the years. Mann Co. is notable because they have a large stockpile of Australium, a golden metal that can be used to keep someone alive past their normal lifespan. After a hostile takeover of the company it is revealed that someone has stolen all of the Australium from the vault and it becomes a treasure hunt to find the remaining supply between the mercenaries (Soldier, Pyro, Demo-man, Heavy, Sniper, Spy, and Scout) working for the mysterious Administrator and their competitors, the Team Fortress Classic team, working for Grey Mann, the new CEO of Mann Co. All while the previous CEO, Saxton Hale, works to try and regain control of the company.

If you liked this episode be sure to follow us on Twitter @thecomicpanel1 and listen to more of us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Our title is The Comic Panel Podcast. You can also listen to us on ksuaradio.com or 91.5 FM in Fairbanks, Alaska. Be sure to tune in two weeks from now for the next book in our theme of "Comics based on video games"! 

Music: "Chase the Sun" by Bel Tempo

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the second episode in our theme "Comics based on video games"! We've been enjoying recording these episodes and we hope you've been enjoying listening to them. 
In today's episode we cover Sonic: Scrapnik Island. Sonic and Tails crash land on Professor Robotnik's abandoned lair known as Scrapnik Island. As they attempt to find their way off the island they are introduced to a community of robots made to resemble Sonic and many of his pals known as Scrapniks. As the Scrapniks help Sonic and Tails recover from the crash they meet a Scrapnik that is all alone. Turns out, this Scrapnik still has a lot of Professor Robotnik's programming running on his OS, so he turns on Sonic and tries transplant his brain into Sonic's body. Sonic, with the help of Tails and the rest of the Scrapnik's are able to escape and remove the programming from the loner Scrapnik. 

Is this comic good? What did we think of the art? Did it meet our expectations? Does it give us insight into what the games are like? Find out all this and more in our fantastic review of Sonic: Scrapnik Island!

If you liked this episode be sure to follow us on Twitter @thecomicpanel1 and listen to more of us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Our title is The Comic Panel Podcast. You can also listen to us on ksuaradio.com or 91.5 FM in Fairbanks, Alaska. Be sure to tune in two weeks from now for the next book in our theme of "Comics based on video games"!

Welcome everyone to our first review in our new theme of "Comics based on video games." For our first book we are reading Street Fighter Alpha 2: Sakura Does Her Best. 

 

Sakura is an aspiring street fighter. She has the will and the dedication to learn everything she can because ultimately, she wants to meet the man who inspired her, someone she doesn't even know the name of. In order to meet this man, however, she must win the tournament, which means having to street fight. Can she succeed over such skilled opponents? Will her best win her the opportunity to meet her hero? Find out all this and more in this fight-tastic review. 

 

If you liked this episode be sure to follow us on Twitter @thecomicpanel1 and listen to more of us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Our title is The Comic Panel Podcast. You can also listen to us on ksuaradio.com or 91.5 FM in Fairbanks, Alaska. Be sure to tune in two weeks from now for our next book in our theme of "Comics based on video games"!

Music: "Stake Out" by Alex Jones/Xander Jones

Hello everybody! Welcome to our retrospective to our theme of Cults. For those who don't know we do this at the end of our themes. We take a look back at the comics we've read and compare them and give any final thoughts we have on them. The books we revewed for this theme have been 20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa, Ultimate X-men by Peach Momoko, Loving, Ohio by Sam Beck and Matt Erman, and Luna by Maria Llovet. It has been a lot of fun recording these episodes and we hope you have enjoyed listening to them. 

If you liked this episode be sure to follow us on Twitter @thecomicpanel1 and listen to more of us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Our title is The Comic Panel Podcast. You can also listen to us on ksuaradio.com or 91.5 FM in Fairbanks, Alaska. Be sure to tune in two weeks from now for our final book in our theme of cults!

Music: "Why Why Why" by Ryan Stansik and Kanika Moore

Welcome all to our last book in our theme of Cults! We hope you've been enjoying this series of episodes as much as we've enjoyed recording these episodes. In today's episode we are reviewing "Luna" by Maria Llovet. 

Teresa is a young woman plagued by prophetic dreams that connect her to something powerful. Something divine. She finds herself among the company of the Family of the Sun, a cult formed around Lux, a troubled man who inducts his members by using his blood to get them addicted to him. Her time at the cult brings her to the truth of herself, the entity behind her dreams, and the entity's connection to this cult.

If you liked this episode be sure to follow us on Twitter @thecomicpanel1 and listen to more of us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Our title is The Comic Panel Podcast. You can also listen to us on ksuaradio.com or 91.5 FM in Fairbanks, Alaska. Be sure to tune in two weeks from now for our final book in our theme of cults!

 

Music: "Claim to Fame" by The Grey Room / Clark Sims and "60s Underground Organ Rock" by Julius H. from Pixabay 
Sound effect: "Page Shuffle Transition" by AFX_Photography from Pixabay