We finally welcome someone from Archie Comics onto the show this week, as we talk with Alex Segura, director of publicity and marketing for the publisher, and writer of “Archie Meets KISS!” We talk to Alex about how he managed to snag the elusive band, Archie’s distribution policies, his top Archie books of all time, how Archie ended up becoming such a progressive company, and much more! Plus, a reading from Chris’ favorite magazine!
Dec 12, 2011•1 hr 30 min
It’s time for another roundtable comics discussion, this week with Chad Bowers of Monster Plus and Josh Krach of Troop Infinity! We continue to talk about the DC reboot with our picks for what new titles we’d like to see in the line (and, you know, write). Plus, we get into what Marvel’s recent turn of the axe on some not-even-published-yet books means for comics makers like us and get into the question of whether fans seeing sales numbers is bad for out-of-the-mainstream titles. Plus, we answer...
Dec 05, 2011•1 hr 34 min
Ming Doyle, artist of The Loneliest Astronauts and a story in the upcoming Fantastic Four #600, enters the official War Rocket Ajax records as our guest this week! We discuss the end of TLA, her new Star Trek webcomic with Kevin Church, why Benjamin Sisko is the best, the gender-based reasons for why her art is so stylish, the meticulous labeling of her kitchen, and much more! Plus, Chris once again gives big up to one of his haters!
Nov 21, 2011•1 hr 34 min
Fear Itself and Casanova writer Matt Fraction becomes our first Five-Timers Club member this week! We ask what he’d like other writers to learn from Fear Itself, what real-life stuff led him to subject matter, that scene from Casanova: Avaritia II, how he celebrated Halloween, how he’s preparing for Christmas (already!), how much visual stuff he puts in his scripts and a ton more! Plus, Matt and Chris become more and more exacerbated while talking about the nonsensical plot of Arkham City (which...
Nov 07, 2011•1 hr 32 min
For our super-spoooooky Halloween episode, Chris and Matt conduct an interview with The Tick, Tales from the Bully Pulpit and Hector Plasm writer Benito Cereno deep from the depths of a reception nightmare! We talk to Benito about the types of horror movies we like, our essential Halloween flicks, the spookiest candy, Halloween memories and much more! Plus, Chris and Matt discuss their scariest video game experiences!
Oct 31, 2011•1 hr 33 min
Comics Alliance editors Andy Khouri and Caleb Goellner sit down with Chris and Matt this week for a roundtable discussion New York Comic-Con, and things go to weird, weird places. Among the topics: Lack of cell phone and wi-fi at the convention center leading to caveman tactics, Conan on a sailboat, Catwoman’s “stripper idiom,” the lack of big news at the con, Andy’s debilitating con injury, whether the Marvel layoffs were foreshadowed at all at the con, the best Power Rangers season, which one ...
Oct 24, 2011•1 hr 32 min
War Rocket Ajax welcomes Wondermark creator and Machine of Death co-editor David Malki! to the show this week! You’ll hear how he creates his comics, how someone objected to that method, his early work using the Bic pen mascot, the amazing story of how Machine of Death got to number 1 on the Amazon sales chart, the best mustache to have, what fictional character he’d hang out with on a desert island, and much more! Plus, Chris reads more of the modern poetry that is the Thrasher letters column a...
Oct 17, 2011•1 hr 31 min
This week we welcome the team behind the webcomic Bucko to the show: Jeff Parker and Erika Moen! We discuss the often-raucous work environment at Periscope Studios, just how accurately Bucko depicts Portland, just what comics Juggalos are looking for these days, what Erika would most like to do if she was a guy, whether Bucko’s luck is going to change and much, much more! Plus, Chris and Matt answer a sexy question about Captain America!
Oct 10, 2011•1 hr 37 min
We celebrate the return of the War Rocket Ajax/Comics Alliance roundtable and the close of our unofficial Ladies’ Month by welcoming CA Editor-in-Chief Laura Hudson and correspondent Bethany Fong to the show to discuss just how DC fared with the past month of new number-one issues, potential tattoo ideas, what we’d cancel from the New 52, best-and-worst CA moments, and a ton more! Plus, find out what has laid Chris Sims so low this past week and find out what the iTunes hold-up is.
Oct 03, 2011•1 hr 31 min
G4TV’s Blair Butler, writer of the upcoming MMA comic Heart from Image, sits down with us this week to talk about going from comics criticism to creation, how she got her job as the only comics critic on national television, why she likes MMA more than pro wrestling, and, as you might expect, this week’s DC comics! And a ton more! Plus, Chris and Matt answer a listener question about their favorite character concepts with lacking executions.
Sep 26, 2011•1 hr 30 min
This week Dark Horse editor Jay Edidin comes by the show to talk about editin’ them books! Jay talks to us about the difference between being an assistant editor and an out-and-out editor on a project, what an editor on a collection of a webcomic actually does, running the Conan message board, digital comics, dealing with allergies and a ton more! Plus, Matt and Chris give more generally-focused big ups to haters and talk about another week of DC #1s!
Sep 19, 2011•1 hr 32 min
This week we welcome Chester 5000 XYV writer and artist Jess Fink to War Rocket Ajax! We talk with her about why it’s more fun to draw dirty things, Halloween costumes, how she’s making things difficult for male comics creators, dealing with copyright infringement and much more! Plus, our pals Evie and Aaron from the Awesomed By Comics Podcast sit in as our third chairs to celebrate an upcoming milestone show of theirs!
Sep 12, 2011•1 hr 32 min
This week we’re very excited to welcome Scott Snyder, writer of American Vampire and Severed, and who just wrapped up his run on one of our favorite books of the last year, Detective Comics! Scott talks to us about his upcoming work on post-DC-reboot Batman, how he get his start in comics, a nerve-wracking meeting at C2E2, how he got Jock and Francesco Francavilla to work on Detective, the Bat-Family’s favorite Elvis songs, and more! Plus, we welcome another member of the Ajax Hundo Club, Susan ...
Aug 29, 2011•1 hr 37 min
This week, we welcome back the Alec Baldwin to our SNL, outgoing Superman writer Chris Roberson, for his fifth appearance on War Rocket Ajax! Chris sits down with us for an in-depth discussion of his Superman #714, the last appearance of pre-reboot Supes, why the issue with Sharif never hit the stands, how his run ties in to All-Star Superman and DC One Million, Superman’s favorite movie, what Stan Lee’s really like, his upcoming Star Trek/Legion of Superheroes crossover, and much more! Plus, we...
Aug 22, 2011•1 hr 35 min
This week we’re proud to welcome the writer and artist of Tales Designed to Thrizzle and the upcoming Autobiography of Mark Twain 1910-2010, Michael Kupperman! We talk with him about his long-standing obsession with the author and his lookalike, Einstein, as well as performing his comics live, the Snake ‘n’ Bacon pilot for Adult Swim, the creative process, doing photo-comics and a ton more! Plus we take a ton of questions from Twitter to determine the winner of our book giveaway!
Aug 15, 2011•1 hr 38 min
In celebration of his brand new Punisher #1, Greg Rucka — writer of Detective Comics, Whiteout, Queen and Country, Stumptown, Gotham Central, Wolverine and a ton more — stopped by to talk to us about it his new webcomic and, of course, Batman. We get deep into the nature of those characters and heroism. Plus, why Wonder Woman’s DC’s best character and Superman’s so difficult to write. Plus, Chris and Matt answer a listener question about their old Carolina hometowns!
Aug 08, 2011•1 hr 31 min
It’s the first Monday of the month, which means it’s time for another War Rocket Ajax/Comics Alliance roundtable! This month, we welcome Comics Alliance’s own David Brothers and Andy Khouri to the show to talk about the madness that was San Diego Comic-Con International! Among the topics we cover are the huge reaction to DC’s response to a fan dressed as Batgirl, how tough it is to get into panels, everyone’s best and worst moments, post-Comic-Con doldrums, the lack of a big movie presence this ...
Aug 01, 2011•1 hr 34 min
Chris was away at Comic-Con International last week, but we made up for it by welcoming Adam Warrock, a.k.a. Eugene Ahn, back to War Rocket Ajax for a triumphant return! Euge talks about his recent adventures as a performer at Nerdapalooza, his upcoming Firefly mixtape, the effects of Nos energy drink on the body, the new Amazing Spider-Man trailer and music, music, music. Plus, Chris calls in for a report direct from San Diego!
Jul 25, 2011•1 hr 32 min
Name a pivotal comics character, and there’s a good chance Mark Waid has written one of that character’s defining runs. We were lucky enough to chat with him this week about lots of the stuff he’s worked on: Fantastic Four, The Flash, Impulse, Ruse, Empire, Legion of Superheroes, Kingdom Come, Spider-Man, his upcoming Daredevil run and more, and we barely get to scratch the surface. Plus, Mark and Chris get embroiled in an intense debate over Superboy! On top of all that, we answer some of your ...
Jul 18, 2011•1 hr 35 min
In this week’s episode, we’re delighted to welcome illustrator, designer and former Venture Bros. colorist Carly Monardo! She’s kind enough to talk to us about the creation of Strong Female Characters, the craziest things she had to color for Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer, the sad decline of video stores, her dog, pants in superhero costumes, and much more! Plus, as you may guess, we have an extended Big Ups to All My Haters segment about a small, independent movie Chris went to see last week....
Jul 11, 2011•1 hr 35 min
On this July 4 edition of War Rocket Ajax, Comics Alliance Editor-in-Chief Laura Hudson and Let’s Be Friends Again artist Chris Haley check in with us for the first ever, all-American War Rocket Ajax Comics Alliance roundtable! Among the topics we cover are the DC reboot, Comic-Con memories, and Chris Haley’s valiant, patriotic effort to get everyone to eat a Captain America donut Friday, #THEPACT. We also answer some tipsy listener mail and discuss the most American of pastimes: professional wr...
Jul 04, 2011•1 hr 32 min
After discussing his work on PunisherMAX pretty much every week it’s come out, we finally managed to snag an interview with Scalped, Wolverine and X-Men writer Jason Aaron on this week’s show! He even braved a deadly gas leak to talk with us about VHS cinema, crazy storytelling, characterizing the Punisher, his CBR column, collaborating with artists to create super-cool scenes, a hint about what Bullseye whispered in Frank’s ear and a ton more! Plus, we take on a hater who…well, um…has a point. ...
Jun 27, 2011•1 hr 35 min
This week we feature our first guest of the Comics Alliance era (who was also our first guest ever), Matt Fraction, writer of The Mighty Thor, the Invincible Iron Man, Casanova and Fear Itself! Matt talks with us about what it takes to get into the mindset of writing an event comic, the event comics that helped him create Fear Itself, tie-ins, why his Iron Man book wasn’t originally meant to be the “main” book, Van Halen’s greatest hit, weird television, and much more! Plus, we give our new CA l...
Jun 20, 2011•1 hr 39 min
This week, we begin a whole new era as the official podcast of Comics Alliance! For our likely influx of new listeners, Chris and Matt are retelling their origin stories while also answering some listener questions! If you listen closely, you’ll hear the sound of our brand new raised collars! You’ll hear our take on what we’d do as Two Kings, overrated comics (hello Hush!), what we’ll be picking up in the big DC reboot and what would get us to attend the Gathering of the Juggalos (nothing). PREP...
Jun 13, 2011•1 hr 20 min
It’s the last episode of War Rocket Ajax AS YOU KNOW IT! That’s right, folks. We’re taking next week off because we’ll both be at Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC, but we’ll be back the week after with some big, but good, changes to the show. Stay tuned. To cap off this era of WRA, Chris and Matt decided to have a little brodown to mourn the loss of “Macho Man” Randy Savage, answer a bunch of listener questions, rail against the great horror that is Blues Brothers 2000, and much more!
May 30, 2011•1 hr 30 min
This week we welcome South Carolina resident and writer of FF, S.H.I.E.L.D., Secret Warriors, The Red Wing and a ton of other stuff, Jonathan Hickman! Of course, we talk about the most important topic of all, barbecue. But after that, we get to Jonathan’s design work in comics, how he juggles all those books he writes, which FF character speaks in his voice, what he thinks Doctor Doom really ought to sound like, the mystery of what happened to Ed Brubaker’s jacket, and much more! Plus, we welcom...
May 23, 2011•1 hr 42 min
Superman writer Chris Roberson stops by for the fourth–count ’em, fourth–time this week to celebrate a special holiday with us: Miracle Monday! While he’s at it, he also talks with us about his writing process, juggling multiple projects, his favorite moment in the first Superman movie, what DC had to change about Superman #711, his eventful dinner with Michael Moorcock, and much more! Plus, we highlight our second hater in a row, and gush about how much we liked Thor!
May 16, 2011•2 hr 1 min
War Rocket Ajax chops into your life this week as we chat with Axe Cop co-creator and artist Ethan Nicolle! We discuss getting into the mindset of a six-year-old, comics and money, violence, deadlines, what to tell a concerned mom who disapproves of a story all about poop. Also: We get into it with a hater who challenges our comedy knowledge. We don’t take it well. Plus: A stunning account of how a bar of South Carolinian wrestling fans took the news of Osama bin Laden’s death, in case you were ...
May 09, 2011•1 hr 35 min
This week, we welcome out first video game creator guest, Jay Pinkerton, co-writer of Valve’s Portal 2, which is already, in my humble opinion, a contender for game of the year. Jay’s an old pal of ours, so he sits in with us for the whole show! He talks with us about his (and our) time in the early days of internet comedy, writing comics for Valve, following up the surprise success of the first Portal, working with Stephen Merchant and J.K. Simmons, music to write to, and a ton more! Plus, we e...
May 02, 2011•1 hr 53 min
Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt, the writer/artist team behind Oni Press’ The Sixth Gun and The Damned, sit down with us this week to talk about their comics, the best Westerns, collaborating, the power of a good margarita, the difference color makes, why supernatural stuff is a part of their stories and much more! We also welcome another member of the Ajax Hundo Club, Alberto DeJesus, and answer a philosophical listener question!
Apr 25, 2011•2 hr 1 min
