In place of my usual witty wordage, I’ve done an interview on Marvel, DC, Image, and Boom! (among others) comic book artist Dan Panosian in beautiful, living color. His artwork encompasses Captain America, The Flash, Spider-Man, X-Men, Prophet, Wolverine, Green Lantern, Irredeemable, and a couple issues of the fondly remembered Marvel Swimsuit Special, so you can be sure there was a lot to talk about.

His current book, X-Factor Forever is on shelves now. If the interview just wasn’t enough for you, check out his website at DanPanosian.com and his bountiful blog, the Urban Barbarian. If you’re in the LA area, you can see him and a smattering of other artists boozin’ and sketchin’ during a clandestine meeting of the infamous Drink N’ Draw Social Club held every Thursday night at Casey’s in Downtown LA.

But for now, press play on the video after the jump and be profoundly amused by his words of wisdom.

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For part one of this week’s Pull List, click here.

Timestorm 2009 – 2099: Spider-Man – Marvel – $3.99

Score: 4.5

After Spider-Man: A Short Halloween failed to get reviewed by the Pull List because it had been on the bottom of an eighteen book stack, I made sure that didn’t happen again with another Spider-Man one-shot. Unfortunately, this issue was nowhere close to the quality of A Short Halloween. This issue continues the ongoing “Timestorm” series which sent both Spider-Man and Wolverine in to the future and the Punisher of 2099 stuck in the modern age. After an explosion caused by a time-shift, young Miguel O’Hara has attained abilities similar to the Spider-Man of what he calls the heroic age. Resulting from the same explosion, another boy in his class has mutated in to a large scorpion-like monster.

At the same time, Peter Parker, our modern day Spider-Man sits in a rubber room with a straight jacket with a young mutant girl Shakti who can see in to people’s past and future. The two escape their holding facility before crossing paths with Miguel. As this run-in occurs an explosion goes off, forcing Spider-Man to go find out its cause and leaving Miguel and Shakti behind. Miguel is about to give chase when Shakti tells him he needs a disguise or his identity will be found out.

Miguel dons a costume of Spider-Man 2099 and rushes in to help Spider-Man face the scorpion creature that had been created alongside him. Before heading off to try and find a way home, Spider-Man tells Miguel to burn the costume as wearing it will bring nothing good to his life. Instead, Miguel mimics what Peter originally did and steps in to a fight arena to try and take on his time’s Human Torch.

The more I look at the issue, the less I like it. First off, it is very confusing as there are apparently three separate alternate 2099 continuities. While they all have the same basis, none of them matchup between this version where Miguel gains the powers as a youth, the original Spider-Man 2099 series, and the Spider-Man 2099 who had a brief stint in the exiles.

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These days it is sometimes tough picking out comics that are worth your hard-earned dollars, but here at The Flickcast we care about what you read.  So with that in mind this week’s Dave’s Weekly Comic Book Recommendations is dominated by a group of misfits, a little girl who kills giants, super-secret super-spies and an author who joins a think thank to dream up nightmare terrorist attacks.

The final issue of Umbrella Academy: Dallas hits stands this week and if you haven’t been reading it I highly encourage you to do so.  There’s a reason Gabriel Ba won an Eisner last year for this engaging read written by My Chemical Romance front-man Gerard Way.  For those of you ignoring it for its vague similarity to Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol, please put aside your opinion for five minutes and read this truly beautiful comic that is, well, better than Gerard’s band.

Mark Sable, the writer behind DC’s excellent mini-series involving the Teen Titan Cyborg, brings a new book from Boom! Studios called Unthinkable. The book involves Alan Ripley, a young novelist who joins a think tank after 9/11 to dream up the Unthinkable–or nightmare terrorist scenarios so his government can safeguard against them, but when his colleagues are being killed in scenarios they’ve dreamed up, Ripley takes matters into his own hands.  Part Tom Clancy novel, Sable’s comic asks the question: “Just because you write about action heroes, doesn’t mean you can become one.”

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This is part one of this week’s Pull List, check back tomorrow for part two. Check out last week’s Pull List here and here!

Pull of the Week:

Irredeemable #2 – Boom! – $3.99
Score: 8.5
After hearing all the buzz about this series, I went back and picked up the first issue as well as this week’s new release with issue #2. This issue picks up with Kaidan, a former teammate of the fallen hero, The Plutonian, on the search for any information regarding just who the new rogue used to be or what may be his weakness. Kaiden’s journey takes her to the ruins of Sky City, a place she and the Plutonian used to protect together, which is now just a scrap heap left in the Plutonian’s wake. Her journey takes her to a woman who was once the Plutonian’s girlfriend and in hearing the girl’s tale, Kaidan must also look back on her own experiences with someone she once considered a friend in order to see what may have caused him to snap.

Writer Mark Waid does a great job of overlapping super hero action on a gritty detective story. While the book has many of the standard super hero conventions that seemingly parody characters like Superman, such as his utterly laughable “secret” identity and the ability to fly to space in back in mere moments, the Plutonian is as far from the Man of Steel as they come.  Something has really snapped in this former hero, as witnessed by his actions in the first issue to one of his former teammates the Hornet, as well as the Hornet’s wife and baby. And while the actions of the Plutonian are gruesome in their own right, the scariest part about him are the moments left unseen and without description. Leaving only the aftermath as evidence, the reader is only given a small peek in to the obviously broken psyche of the man who was once considered his world’s greatest hero. Peter Krause does a great job illustrating the story in a style that resembles Dynamite’s The Boys. The two books actually share a lot in common with their takes on the super hero genre.

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