Episode 117 - Sunshine Superman

The March 1986 issue of Amazing Heroes, guest edited by Mark Waid.

After many years, I’m happy to say we have got Mark Waid (@markwaid) as a guest. And what better subject to discuss, fresh off his new book Dark Crisis - Big Bang, than the concept of continuity and the multiverse. Why has the idea of multiple worlds become so popular in the last decade or so, when it was something often thought as troublesome years earlier? We discuss how omnipresent it is now, in comics, movies and more. We also talk about the original Crisis in 1985, including Mark editing an issue of Amazing Heroes all about the post-Crisis landscape at DC following the series. There’s also talk about Hypertime and other attempts DC made to try and “simplify” continuity over the years and how things are going the other way now. There’s also a deep-dive on things like The Super Sons, The Inferior Five, Cancelled Comics Cavalcade and more. We also discuss Mark’s current books at DC, including Batman-Superman World’s Finest, Batman vs Robin and the upcoming Shazam (don’t call him Captain Marvel).

It was great to talk to Mark after seeing him for a few years and almost 25 years I sold him his weekly comics when Mark lived on the East Coast. Hopefully, we can get him back on the show in the future for more deep dives into DC lore.

Episode 107 - Children of the Night

Good Night, Funny Man. RIP Gilbert Gottfried.

It was a bittersweet podcast to do, reliving the life and career of the great Gilbert Gottfried with Longbox Heroes’ co-host Joe Sposto (@joesposto). Most of our memories revolve around Gilbert’s 122 appearances on the Howard Stern show. We discuss our history of hearing Gilbert on the show and many of his famous incidents over the years: Dracula Gottfried, the Jerry Seinfeld voicemail, arguing with Amy Heckerling’s assistant and many more. We also go over many of his other credits: from animation to TV to celebrity roasts to commercials. to his podcast and what futures does it have with his passing. We were both huge fans of Gilbert, so we hope we did his memory justice.

It’s been quite a while since Joe has been on the show, so we also caught up some of our other common interests. We talk about about what comics Joe and Todd have been discussing on their podcast and what he’s been enjoying lately. There’s mention of One-Star Squadron, Word’s Finest, The Nice House on the Lake, Marvel’s Spider-Man books and a few others.

There’s also wrestling chat, mainly about the success of Eddie Kingston, who Joe has been watching for almost 20 years in Chikara and other promotions. We also discuss about the folly of hate watching, watching what content you like, whether it’s new, old, international or some combination of all of it.

And we couldn’t not mention Marvel Puzzle Quest. We mention my passing day 3000 of playing, with Joe not far behind, the choice of new characters being introduced into the game and is it still fun to play after almost a decade of being around.

Apologies for the lack of formal introduction and the occasional cough throughout the show. Our long chat and the wacky spring weather left my voice a little froggy.