The Corner Box

Outlaw Energy or the Season Finale on The Corner Box - S3Ep56

• David & John • Season 3 • Episode 56

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0:00 | 1:15:03

Three seasons, zero missed weeks, and one comic book genie later, David and John close out Season 3 by making three wishes for the future of comics. They tackle disappearing comics history, the sanding-down of the medium’s rough edges, and the need for better journalism and conversation around the people actually making the books. Daniel Clowes, Peter Bagge, Chris Ware, Frank Miller, Jim Starlin, Moebius, and Richard Corben fuel a bigger question: now that comics finally won the battle for cultural respectability, did they lose some of their outlaw energy along the way? Then David raids the back-issue bins for Larry Hama’s The Center Holds and the gloriously bonkers 1975 Atlas comic Planet of Vampires, while John wrestles with Green Arrow, The Invaders, Death’s Head, and the beautifully confusing excess of 1993 Marvel UK. It’s a Season 3 finale about preserving comics history, protecting the medium’s weird edges, and remembering why the stuff nobody quite knew what to do with was often the most interesting stuff on the rack.


Captions:

[06:24] — Save Comics History — "I'd like to see all of the Moebius comics be in print, in English, and available." — John. John’s first wish becomes a larger argument for keeping important comics available instead of letting major pieces of the medium’s history disappear into expensive back-issue bins.

[18:43] — Bring Back the Personality — "My wish is that in the next couple of years we learn the right lessons from things like Absolute Batman." — David. A Taco Bell encounter somehow becomes an argument for personality, risk, and why comics get boring when every rough edge gets sanded away.

[19:42] — More Outlaw Energy — "My top wish is going to be more outlaw energy in comics." — John. From Eightball and Hate to Frank Miller and Jim Starlin, John makes the case for the rebellious, idiosyncratic streak that once ran straight through alternative and mainstream comics alike.

[26:55] — Stop Sanding Down the Edges — "It's the shaving off, the rounding off, the sanding down of the edges and the roughness and the garage band rock and roll of it that we are in danger of losing." — David. Success isn’t the problem; safe sameness is, especially when it costs comics the personality that made them worth noticing in the first place.

[30:07] — Oh, We Won — "It's like, oh, we won. You know, the battle was the fun part." — John. After decades of fighting for comics to be taken seriously, John wonders whether finally winning that fight changed some of the things that made the medium exciting.

[34:33] — Empty Calories — "It's super convenient. It's empty calories, ultimately, I think." — David. David’s final wish turns toward comics journalism and why meaningful creator conversations matter even more when instant answers are easier than ever to get.

[57:46] — Planet of Vampires Is Insane — "That's just the first issue, man. It is a roller coaster ride. I'm not kidding." — David. Larry Hama, Pat Broderick, astronauts, nuclear apocalypse, cannibalistic nomads, fascist dome-dwellers, and blood harvesting send David headfirst into the Atlas Comics rabbit hole.

Splash Page

[00:24] — Three Seasons, Zero Weeks Missed: David and John celebrate the Season 3 finale—and the proud comic book tradition of boosting the numbers by relaunching with another #1.

[03:10] — Three Wishes for Comics: A suspiciously teapot-shaped lamp produces a comic book genie and three chances to fix something about the medium.

[06:24] — Keep Comics History Alive: Moebius, Richard Corben, Lloyd Llewellyn, Marvel’s kung fu magazines, and the frustrating reality of important comics becoming difficult or prohibitively expensive to read.

[15:19] — Bring Back the Outlaw Energy: A Taco Bell employee leads—somehow—to Absolute Batman, Eightball, Hate, Chris Ware, Peter Bagge, Frank Miller, Jim Starlin, and an argument for keeping comics messy, personal, and unpredictable.

[30:36] — Comics Need Better Conversations: David’s final wish calls for stronger comics journalism, better creator interviews, and more places willing to seriously cover the medium.

[35:54] — Sledge Hammer! Meets Marvel: David discovers Marvel’s bizarre 1988 Sledge Hammer! comic, complete with horror parodies, terrible puns, fake Spider-Man, and some revealing artifacts from Marvel’s late-’80s publishing machine.

[49:57] — The Larry Hama Rabbit Hole: The Center Holds leads David straight into Atlas Comics and the wonderfully unhinged 1975 sci-fi apocalypse of Planet of Vampires.

[59:47] — An Evening of Misbegotten Comics: John closes the season with Green Arrow, The Invaders, Bloodlines, Death’s Head, Death Wreck, and the beautifully confusing excess of early-’90s comics.

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Dive Deeper Into the Back Issue Bin:

Moebius (Jean Giraud) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Giraud) - The massively influential French cartoonist at the center of John’s first wish: make his major comics readily available in English and keep them in print.

Richard Corben (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Corben) - David points to the preservation and presentation of Corben’s work as a model for how historically important comics can be thoughtfully restored and reintroduced.

Daniel Clowes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Clowes) - Creator of Eightball, Ghost World, and Ice Haven, whose journey from alternative-comics outsider to celebrated graphic novelist drives John’s discussion of comics becoming respectable.

Chris Ware (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Ware) - The acclaimed cartoonist behind Jimmy Corrigan and Building Stories, discussed as a creator whose success helped comics aesthetics cross decisively into the literary mainstream.

Peter Bagge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Bagge) - Creator of Hate and former editor of Weirdo, whose preference for comics’ outsider identity becomes a key piece of John’s “outlaw energy” argument.

Art Spiegelman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Spiegelman) - Maus creator and RAW co-editor whose push toward artistic and literary legitimacy becomes part of the conversation about what comics gained by becoming respectable.

Françoise Mouly (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7oise_Mouly) - Publisher, editor, and RAW co-founder discussed alongside Spiegelman in the history of bringing alternative comics into the broader art and literary worlds.

Frank Miller (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Miller) - His Daredevil work represents the kind of intensely personal, creator-driven mainstream comic John sees as part of comics’ missing outlaw streak.

Jim Starlin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Starlin) - Writer/artist behind landmark Thanos and Adam Warlock stories, cited as an example of a creator doing deeply individual, occasionally bonkers work inside mainstream superhero comics.

Mike Allred (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Allred) - His pre-Madman work becomes John’s example of fascinating comics that feel more interested in following their own instincts than fitting neatly into a market.

Larry Hama (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Hama) - The veteran creator behind G.I. Joe, Wolfpack, The Center Holds, and Planet of Vampires becomes the unexpected connective tissue running through much of the episode’s back-issue discussion.

M.D. “Doc” Bright (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Bright_(comics)) - Artist and co-creator of The Center Holds, praised for his final comics work and his role in shaping the series’ characters an