Episode 32: The Atom's Homecoming Crisis!

Welcome back true believers....

I know.... I had my third anniversary episode and then I disappear for a couple of months.  Sorry about that.  I'm hoping I've got this issue sorted out and I can get back to a regular release.

But enough with that...  I now bring you Episode 32: The Atom's Homecoming Crisis!

First up on we look at Geekin' With Head, I take a look at DC and their various reboots.  They started it with The Crisis on Infinite Earths.  Then they had Zero Hour as the Crisis didn't fix their problems (due to issues I talk about this episode).  Then more recently they had Flashpoint which rebooted in to the New 52.  And most recently they had Rebirth.  Why so many?  What happened?

This episode I talk about that and also what I would do if I was placed in charge of DC Comics with Head's DC Rebirth.

Then we have "What's In Head's Longbox?", where we continue our Atom coverage with his next appearance... The Crisis on Infinite Earths.
The Atom appears in issues 5,8,9 and 10 (According to Mike's Amazing World of Comics).

Not one of the covers of the comics, but a really cool poster for Crisis.  Use to have this on my wall at work at one point.

Writer: Marv Wolfman
Penciller: George Perez
Inker: Jerry Ordway
Letterer: John Costanza
Colorist: Anthony Tollin (Carl Gafford issue 10)

Reprinted In:
Crisis on Infinite Earths HC (1999)
Crisis on Infinite Earths TPB (2001)
Crisis on Infinite Earths:The Absolute Edition HC (2006)

I only briefly touch on the actual story of The Crisis.  During this episode I mention a couple of other places to learn more about The Crisis on Infinite Earths:

Interdisciplinary Comics Studies

Chris and Reggie’s Cosmic Treadmill

And Michael Bailey's and Scott Gardner's Tales of the Justice Society.  As I say Michael and Scott only are up to issue 4 at this point, as they've had to taken a hiatus, but I'm hoping they return soon as I'm enjoying it.

Then I go to At The Movies With Head.  This month I give an overview and my thoughts the newest Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: Homecoming.  Listen in and see if I liked it or not....

I close out the show with: "Where’s Head Going?"

This episode, I look at the podcast: Hollywood Babble On hosted by Ralph Garman and Kevin Smith.

And once again, this month I don't play a final song.  Still debating on whether I want to do that at this point.

But if you're in a band and would like your song played on the show, feel free to get in touch with me (music@HeadSpeaks.com)

As always, all copyrights and trademarks are their respective owners.  No infringement implied or intended.

If you like the show, be sure to rate us and leave some feedback on iTunes.

You can listen to Head Speaks on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, or at my website: http://headspeaks.com
 (or on the link at the top of this page).
You can visit our blog directly at http://head.headspeaks.com
Please check out my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/headspeaksheadcast
You can also check me out on Google + by looking for Head Speaks.

E-mail me any bitches, moans, and gripes to: head@headspeaks.com  Any and all comments are welcome.

If you want to record a message you can send it to me at head@headspeaks.com

Also check out The Headcast Network which is available on iTunes.
Come, take a listen.

Be sure to join me next time for another fantastic episode of The Head Speaks HeadCast as we check out the Atom in The Atom Special number 3!

See ya next time.

Episode 21: Cartoons of my youth part 2!

Greetings constant listeners.

Welcome back to Head Speaks and to Episode 21: Cartoons of my youth part 2!
(Editor's note... I realize that I accidently put an apostrophe in the title on iTunes.  Opps)

This month on Geeking With Head, I decided to spend about 50 minutes or so where I continue to talk about and playing more cartoon intros from my youth (the 60's - 80's).

This is the second part of a multi part episode (not sure how many episodes yet...).

This episode I talk about the following shows (each link goes to the Wiki page talking about the show):

1. Centurions
2. Tennessee Tuxedo
3. Fractured Fairy Tales
4.  Voltron
5.   Dungeons and Dragons
6.  He-Man
7. Spider-man and his Amazing Friends

Then on Where Is Head Going?  I look at a buddy's podcast... Ryan Daly's Secret Origin Podcast
I showed up on episodes 14 and 28, and I have at least one more appearance scheduled in the next month or two.

Finally, our final song is 19, by Paul Hardcastle.

As always, all copyrights and trademarks are their respective owners.  No infringement implied or intended.

You can listen to Head Speaks on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, or at my website: http://headspeaks.com
 (or on the link at the top of this page).
You can visit our blog directly at http://head.headspeaks.com
Please check out my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/headspeaksheadcast
You can also check me out on Google + by looking for Head Speaks.

E-mail me any bitches, moans, and gripes to: head@headspeaks.com  Any and all comments are welcome.

If you want to record a message you can send it to me at head@headspeaks.com

Also, I now have my own network.  The Headcast Network is available on iTunes.  You can either subscribe to Head Speaks by itself or subscribe to the Network where all of my shows will be posted.  Not only can you get Head Speaks, but you can also get (on one convenient feed):

1. G.I. Joe: A Real American Headcast
2. Task Force X
3. The Starman/Manhunter Adventure Hour
4. Alexis Speaks

Come, take a listen.

Be sure to join me next time for another fantastic episode of The Head Speaks HeadCast!

See ya next time.

Episode 16: The Irredeemable Grayson

Greetings constant listeners.

Welcome back to Head Speaks and to Episode 16: The Irredeemable Grayson

This episode I continue my fourth episode of my four episodes on my kids.  This month I conclude with my youngest son, Grayson Robert Moss!

My son Grayson Robert Moss...  yes named after Dick Grayson!

On Geeking with Head, The Irredeemable Shag and myself, continue living in the past with our  second part of our two part epic, where we talk about what we both consider the Golden Age of comics, 1985-1995.  Come see what we think, then let us know what you think!

Shag can be found on his own podcast entitled The Fire and Water Podcast.  On the web he's at http://firestormfan.com
When looking on the social medias, look for the hashtag, #FWPodcast
I suggest checking out his site and podcast.

The Fire and Water Podcast.

Firestorm Fan's website!

And for our closing song, we play "You Talk To Much" by Run DMC (which I should have played two months ago when I talked about Steven Moss, as this is one of his favorite songs).

As always, all copyrights and trademarks are their respective owners.  No infringement implied or intended.

You can listen to Head Speaks on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, or at my website: http://headspeaks.com
 (or on the link at the top of this page).
You can visit our blog directly at http://head.headspeaks.com
Please check out my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/headspeaksheadcast
You can also check me out on Google + by looking for Head Speaks.

E-mail me any bitches, moans, and gripes to: head@headspeaks.com  Any and all comments are welcome.

If you want to record a message you can send it to me at head@headspeaks.com

Be sure to join me next time for another fantastic episode of The Head Speaks HeadCast!

See ya next time.

Head's Geek Credentials

Here's a little more about Head.  Basically this time, I'm going to go over what I call, my Geek Credentials.  What makes me a geek (in my opinion).
Originally this post consisted of two parts.  My comic origins and then my favorite superheroes.  But I noticed I started meandering and it got a little long, so I decided to split this in to two parts.  So this week I'll cover how I got in to comics and next week, I'll delight you wonderful readers with the best superheroes comics have to offer.
 
So, let's get started on my comic book origins, or what I call...

"How I got in to comics, by Head"

I've always liked superheroes.  Besides Star Wars, my earliest good memories are of superheroes.  While I didn't get in to comics proper until I was a teenager (when most boys are dropping comics for girls and cars), I've always liked superheroes.  I remember as young boy (1st and 2nd grade) watching the old Adam West Batman shows (in rerun of course).  Me and my cousin (Larry Park), would play Batman and Robin during recess (again, back in 1st and 2nd grade).  We had a half buried cement pipe as our Batmobile and a jungle gym as our Batcave with a Batpole.  Fun times.

I also have early memories of coloring in a Batman coloring book with my Aunt Val, laying on my grandmother's living room floor.  Batman seems to have been big for me as a kid.

Also growing up I enjoyed watching superhero cartoons.  Whether it be the Superfriends (again, with Batman), Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, The Fantastic Four or Plasticman, I enjoyed them all.  And let's not forget the other superhero live action shows: Captain America (I vaguely remember this), Shazam, Isis and The Incredible Hulk.  And while I didn't collect comics, I got the occasional Fantastic Four, or Incredible Hulk or Amazing Spider-Man at the odd yard sale here and there.

Looking back, I think there were two things that ended up getting me in to comics as a collector (instead of just a tv superhero fan).

First, in the early-mid-eighties, one of the shows I enjoyed watching was G.I. Joe (also The Transformers, but that's for later).  In 1985, I went back to Nebraska with my grandparents to visit some relatives (my grandfather's brother and his family).  While hanging out with my cousin (Brad, if I'm not mistaken), he had some G.I. Joe comics and G.I. Joe toys.  We read his few comics and played with his G.I. Joe toys almost the entire time.  When I left, that time left an impression with me.

The other thing that happened, to influence my love of comics, was in the mid-eighties (around the first part of 1985, if I'm not mistaken) a friend gave me a HUGE box of various comics.  They contained books like Amazing Spider-Man, Justice League of America, a lot of Superman and Action comics, Batman, and other assorted titles.  I read through these and enjoyed them.  In fact, I may have read through some of them multiple times.

Eventually all points lead to the beginning or some such nonsense.  'The Beginning' of me collecting comics.  One of the first comics I bought off the rack was G.I. Joe #58 (in 1987).  I was in Fresno with my mother and the asshat she was married to, eating (at a little dinner butted next to a Thrifty's on the corner of Ashlan and Blackstone (neither place is there any longer)).  After I got done, my parents were still eating.  So to kill time, I went in Thrifty's to look around.  I wandered in front of the comic rack they had there and decided to look at the selection.  Then one comic grabbed my balls and made me look at it.  The comic as I stated above.  G.I. Farkin' Joe!  This comic featured Cobra Commander's new Battle Armor.  The cover stated boldly... "COBRA COMMANDER -- REBORN!", with Cobra Commander standing in front of a body in a hospital bed.  I remember the Commander from the cartoons.  For a weeny, he was pretty cool.  So I decided pick it up.  Shortly thereafter, me and my mom was in K-Mart in Merced, California and I was looking at their comic selection.  At the time, they had some slightly older comics, 2 or 3 in a bag for a special low price.  One such bag was a G.I. Joe bag, containing issues 51, 53, and 55 (55 called Unmaskings, showing Cobra Commander, Destro and Snake-Eyes taking off their masks).  This I had to have.  So I added these to my meager collection.

As I said earlier, I also enjoyed watching Transformers.  Right after I found the above mentioned G.I. Joe comic (issue 58), I was in a Circle K (I believe).  There they had the comic Transformers: Headmasters.  They had just introduced Headmasters in to the cartoon, so I was intrigued.  So I picked up the series as they came out.  When the series ended, issue four referred the dear reader to the regular Transformer monthly.  So of course, I started following the Transformers.

A short time later, I found a comic shop in Merced (I think at the time it might have been called Bobby's Sportscards and Comics (or something like that).  It eventually turned in to Cop-A-Comics, my usual comic haunt for the next 20 years).  Also a block away was another comic shop (I forget the name, but it was ran by two Samoan brothers if I remember correctly).  I went in to both places looking for back issues of both G.I. Joe and Transformers.  From that moment I was addicted big time.  I was stopping in there whenever I could checking out new issues and back issues.

Another comic I need to mention, as it further pulled me in, was when I started collecting Spider-Man.  Specifically Amazing Spider-Man 314.  This was released in April of '89.  This comic grabbed me, as it featured Spider-Man and his wife Mary Jane getting evicted, with a Salvation Army Santa standing nearby.  I can't explain it, but something about this cover by the legendary Todd McFarlane, drew my attention... the next thing you know, I had all of the Spider-Man titles on my pull list.

Anywho.. that's how I got drawn in to comics.  Every week or two (hell when I lived in Merced, I was there almost daily) for the next 20 years, I would go to Cop-A-Comics in Merced, CA.  It was ran by the greatest couple.  Lonnie and Ann Cox.  They were a sweet couple.  Sadly, they've both passed on to the Great Comic Book Shop in the sky, and Cop-A-Comics has closed its doors *sniff sniff*.
I only stopped going when I moved to Fresno and couldn't afford to pick up comics anymore.  8(

Luckily I've found other avenues to access my comic fix.

Other comics I feel that need a mention here are:

As I said, G.I. Joe will always hold a special place in my heart.
The Fury of Firestorm
The Atom ('Sword of the Atom' and 'Power of the Atom')
Ostrander's first Suicide Squad book
Giffen and Demantis' Justice League run
A Death in the Family (the death of Jason Todd at the Joker's hands)
The Killing Joke (another Batman and Joker yarn)
 Hawk and Dove (with Dawn Granger... you'll read more about this next week).

Alright... I guess I'd better call it quits there.  But I could go on all day.

Continued next week in Head's Geek Credentials 2

Until then, remember...  After these messages, we'll be riiiighhht back!

- Head