In this episode of Waiting on the Trade, guest host Suzanne Payne casts foresight, as we discuss the first volume of Rat Queens.

Explanations, Observations, and Links of Note

• Seriously, read the Wikipedia entry on Rat Queens if you want to get some sense of how wild this book’s publication history is. It’s a topsy-turvy mess, at least partially because …
• Artist Roc Upchurch was arrested for domestic assault during the book’s initial run. You can learn a bit more about that here and here.
• Upchurch and Wiebe did eventually come back for a Rat Queens finale. All published Rat Queens stories (including the “never-to-be-reprinted” issue 16) are collected in the Rat Queens Omnibus, which has a stupid tentacle cover because of course it does. It’s like the creators didn’t even read their own book.
• On a more upbeat note, here’s Sawyer IRL.
• Rat Queens did win a GLAAD award. I didn’t make that up!
• And finally, you have Pat to thank for the additional bit of audio at the end of this episode.

Follow-Up Recommendations

If you liked Rat Queens Vol. 1, we think you might also like:

• The Adventure Zone (in comic form).
• The Legend of Vox Machina.
• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

New to the show? Waiting on the Trade is a comics book club podcast, run by two gents who don’t have time for monthly comics. If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email us at [email protected].

You can also find us on:

• Apple Podcasts.
• Spotify.
• Google Podcasts.

As always, thanks for listening!

In this episode of Waiting on the Trade, guest host Kathryn Prince busts out her murder board, as we discuss Emily Carroll’s A Guest in the House.

Explanations, Observations, and Links of Note

• Here are links to the three Carroll webcomics we mentioned at the start of the episode: The Prince and the Sea, The Worthington, and When the Darkness Presses.
• A picture of Kat preparing her notes pre-recording.
• And that brings us to our first murder board moment. Does Sheila not look noticeably different in these two versions (one real, one in Abby’s head) of Crystal’s photo of her? (Also, compare to Abby’s mental image of her sister.)
• Pictured: A dragon breathing fire.
• Our next murder board moment: Does this picture depict an embrace or a pained struggle?

Follow-Up Recommendations

If you liked A Guest in the House, we think you might also like:

• Crimson Peak.
• Lore Olympus.
• The Nice House on the Lake.

New to the show? Waiting on the Trade is a comics book club podcast, run by two gents who don’t have time for monthly comics. If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email us at [email protected].

You can also find us on:

• Apple Podcasts.
• Spotify.
• Google Podcasts.

As always, thanks for listening!

In this episode of Waiting on the Trade, guest host Simon Payne joins us for a journey to the edge of space, as we discuss N.K. Jemisin, Jamal Campbell, and co.’s Far Sector.

This Month’s Discussion Questions

• How would you compare Jo to the other Green Lanterns from Earth?
• Which of the book’s alien races was your favorite (and why)?
• Which issue’s opening/closing quote is most fitting for the story?

Explanations, Observations, and Links of Note

• Here’s a quick bio on Sojourner Truth from the National Women’s History Museum.
• Our discussion of how a society without emotion would and wouldn’t function brought this Parks and Recreation meme to mind.
• In case you want an explainer of what a Dyson sphere is, here ya go.
• And finally, here’s Pat’s breakdown of all of Far Sector‘s issue-opening and -closing quotes, compiled in one handy Google Doc.

Follow-Up Recommendations

If you liked Far Sector, we think you might also like:

• The Foundation series.
• Citizen Sleeper.
• The City We Became.

New to the show? Waiting on the Trade is a comics book club podcast, run by two gents who don’t have time for monthly comics. If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email us at [email protected].

You can also find us on:

• Apple Podcasts.
• Spotify.
• Google Podcasts.

As always, thanks for listening!

In this special anniversary episode of Waiting on the Trade, we’re looking back at the (roughly) 50 comics we’ve read so far and finally doing what the fans have demanded: Ranking all the stories against each other. This episode has arguments, updates, discussions of artistic merit, and yes, a “completely objective” ranking of every comic from every regular episode of the show, from best to worst.

The Ranking Scale

Because Pat and I are us, we actually thought fairly hard about what our ranking scale should look like. Pat wanted a tier-based system, to be able to divide comics between tiers of quality more quickly, and I argued for an odd number of tiers, so completely average comics could land squarely in the middle tier.

When the dust settled, our ranking scale looked like this:

• A: A perfect or near-perfect comic. Go read this now!
• B: A good comic. You should read this.
• C: An average comic. It’s decent; you’ll enjoy it.
• D: A bad comic. You probably shouldn’t read this.
• F: A very bad comic. Don’t read this.

Pre-episode, we’d actually gone back and forth a couple times about whether to rank comics from best to worst within each tier. Day of, we decided that if we were going to go for it, we should go for it. So we ranked every comic from best to worst; the first comic in our A tier is the “best” comic we’ve read, and the last comic in our F tier is the “worst” comic we’ve read.

(In case the sarcasm hasn’t come through by now, we both feel that ranking these was tough and that our rankings are absolutely colored by our individual perceptions. Your rankings and feelings may vary, and we of course recognize that making any piece of art is hard! We’re not here to trash any comics or creators; we just wanted to have a bit of fun. Even in the comics in our F tier have their good bits.)

The Finalized Rankings

With that explanation of our system out of the way, here are the final rankings:

You can also view the rankings in spreadsheet form by clicking here. Do I feel slightly bad about pushing Pat into making DIE our top-ranked comic? No, I don’t. It’s that good.

A Special Thank You

As we mentioned in the episode, doing this podcast has been a blast, and we’re very grateful to all of our guest hosts, who have come on to discuss these now-ranked stories with us. The rankings have nothing to do with the quality of our cohosts; all the people we have been lucky enough to have on the show are fantastic. (And we thank them for putting up with us.)

I’d also like to thank anyone who has listened to even one episode of the show. Hopefully, we discussed one of your favorite books, and you enjoyed the discussion. Making Waiting on the Trade is something I look forward to each month, and I hope you look forward to receiving it in your podcast feed.

New to the show? Waiting on the Trade is a comics book club podcast, run by two gents who don’t have time for monthly comics. If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email us at [email protected].

You can also find us on:

• Apple Podcasts.
• Spotify.
• Google Podcasts.

As always, thanks for listening!

In this episode of Waiting on the Trade, guest host Trevor Doetsch takes us to a galaxy far, far away, as we discuss the first volume of Kieron Gillen, Salvador Larroca, and co.’s Star Wars: Darth Vader.

This Month’s Discussion Questions

• Has the Expanded Universe changed your view on Vader?
• What do you think about droids and their place in Star Wars?
• Does knowing how a story ends affect your enjoyment?

Explanations, Observations, and Links of Note

• I have a couple Vader-centric Kieron Gillen interviews to link you. One is pre-series, in which Gillen talks up his take on Vader and the logistics of working with the Disney Star Wars team. And the other is a spoiler-filled post-series retrospective. Both are worth a read.
• If you haven’t read and/or watched anything about Quinlan Vos, you should! The Dark Horse Clone Wars comics, especially, do a great job of tracking his journey through the conflict.
• At 19:57 (and other times), I say “between Episodes III and IV” when I mean “between Episodes IV and V.” I realized this almost immediately after we recorded. Please, Star Wars nerds, forgive me.
• Google autocompletes the phrase “why do battle droids” to “why do battle droids have personalities,” so it’s not just us who have that question.
• Thankfully, here in the show notes, I can tell you about how Star Wars renamed Jizz Music (yup, that was its name) to Jatz Music.
• Here’s that cutaway of the Solar Sailer that Pat found, for your perusal.
• And finally, if you’ve never gone deep on the Darth Jar Jar theory, you’re in for a treat.

Follow-Up Recommendations

If you liked Star Wars: Darth Vader, we think you might also like:

• Andor.
• Dark Horse’s Star Wars: Clone Wars comics.
• Timothy Zahn’s original Thrawn trilogy.

New to the show? Waiting on the Trade is a comics book club podcast, run by two gents who don’t have time for monthly comics. If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email us at [email protected].

You can also find us on:

• Apple Podcasts.
• Spotify.
• Google Podcasts.

As always, thanks for listening!

In this episode of Waiting on the Trade, guest hosts Mike and Ryan Drew get things rolling, as we discuss Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls.

This Month’s Discussion Questions

• What surprised you the most about this comic?
• How did 80-HD correctly identify Lil’ Petey’s grandfather?
• What is the most dastardly villainous act?
• Who is your favorite character (and why)?

Explanations, Observations, and Links of Note

• Dog Man (of course) has its own wiki, which helped me untangle the saga of Petey’s dad (aka Grampa, aka Crud).
• Here are those bookstore graphic novel sales numbers I mentioned, and here’s the Fresno County Public Library interview that Pat mentioned.
• And okay, we’re only eight minutes in and I’ve fired off a lot of links, but Kat Kong is so hilarious y’all. Kid me loved it; adult me loves it.
• Say it with me now: sepulchre.
• They put Grampa’s evil grin on the spine of the dang book! That’s how iconicly evil it is!
• Yes, we’re linking to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s explanation of behaviorism in the show notes. It’s Pat’s fault.
• Again according to the Dog Man wiki, 80-HD’s name is an intentional pun on ADHD, which Dav Pilkey has.
• And finally, here’s that hilarious Hellboy sequence I mentioned near the end of the episode.

Follow-Up Recommendations

If you liked Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls, we think you might also like:

• The Last Kids on Earth.
• Calvin and Hobbes.
• InvestiGators.

New to the show? Waiting on the Trade is a comics book club podcast, run by two gents who don’t have time for monthly comics. If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email us at [email protected].

You can also find us on:

• Apple Podcasts.
• Spotify.
• Google Podcasts.

As always, thanks for listening!

In this episode of Waiting on the Trade, guest host Callum Smith shows us his blazing moves, as we discuss Taiyo Matsumoto’s Ping Pong.

Explanations, Observations, and Links of Note

• Here’s that The Comics Journal review of Ping Pong Vol. 1 that Cal mentioned.
• I’m a noob, so I didn’t know the difference between seinen and shōnen manga before our discussion. But now I do!
• Want a detailed explanation of what long pips do and why players use them? Well, here you go.
• Here are some examples of Moebius’s art, if you want to compare with Matsumoto.
• The Comics Journal also has a thorough examination of Matsumoto’s work and style.

Follow-Up Recommendations

If you liked Ping Pong, we think you might also like:

• Sunny.
• Cross Game. (And here’s that electrifying smile Cal mentioned.)
• Dragon Hoops.
• Hikaru no Go.
• Haikyu!!.
• Run with the Wind.

New to the show? Waiting on the Trade is a comics book club podcast, run by two gents who don’t have time for monthly comics. If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email us at [email protected].

You can also find us on:

• Apple Podcasts.
• Spotify.
• Google Podcasts.

As always, thanks for listening!

In this episode of Waiting on the Trade, guest host Tyler Marifke helps us perform a post-mortem, as we discuss Jed MacKay, Lee Garbett, Antonio Fabela and co.’s The Death of Doctor Strange.

This Month’s Discussion Questions

1. Was this a throwback comic?
2. Was this book strange enough for you?
3. What is your favorite classic Doctor Strange-ism?

Explanations, Observations, and Links of Note

• Send me an email, and maybe I’ll tell you where the one good comic vendor at the Elkhorn Antique Flea Market is located. No promises.
• To confirm: Baron Mordo is the antagonist in four out of the first six Doctor Strange stories. No wonder those dudes dislike each other. (Nightmare appears in the other two; not a very well-rounded initial rogue’s gallery.)
• If you’re somehow lucky enough to not know what a turducken is, you can ruin your life by clicking here.
• And finally, Strange does say “By the hoary hosts of Hoggoth” twice in this book, and I can prove it: 1, 2.

Follow-Up Recommendations

If you liked The Death of Doctor Strange, we think you might also like:

• Jed MacKay, Pasqual Ferry (not Jesús Saiz, oops), and co.’s follow-up Doctor Strange series. (Here’s my review of issue 3; it’s good!)
• Altered Carbon.
• Welcome to the Circus of Baseball.

New to the show? Waiting on the Trade is a comics book club podcast, run by two gents who don’t have time for monthly comics. If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email us at [email protected].

You can also find us on:

• Apple Podcasts.
• Spotify.
• Google Podcasts.

As always, thanks for listening!

In this episode of Waiting on the Trade, we discuss the first volume of Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda, and Rus Wooton’s Monstress.

Explanations, Observations, and Links of Note

• Yup: Monstress is on that NPR Top 100 Graphic Novels list Pat so loves.
• Here’s that interview in which Liu talks about having to stop herself from pulling a George R.R. Martin, and establishing too many plot threads. Beware, there may be spoilers for later in the series!
• According to the Illinois Science Council, the “idea that your brain can be full is a myth.” So I guess I’ve officially lost that argument with my wife.
• Oops, we made another Ni no Kuni reference.
• And finally, here’s another interview and review we read in prep for our discussion.

Follow-Up Recommendations

If you liked Monstress, we think you might also like:

• The Night Eaters.
• Naruto.
• Fullmetal Alchemist.
• Parasyte.
• Kaya.

New to the show? Waiting on the Trade is a comics book club podcast, run by two gents who don’t have time for monthly comics. If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email us at [email protected].

You can also find us on:

• Apple Podcasts.
• Spotify.
• Google Podcasts.

As always, thanks for listening!

In this episode of Waiting on the Trade, guest host Kathryn Prince helps us unpack the complications of collaborative works and cancel culture, as we discuss Warren Ellis, Stuart Immonen, Wade von Grawbadger, and co.’s Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.

This Month’s Discussion Questions

1. Warren Ellis has leveraged his power as a popular writer to be a creep to a lot of young women. So, what are your thoughts on cancel culture in comics, given they are so collaborative?
2. Has the comedy of Nextwave held up for you?
3. Which Nextwave member is your favorite (and why)?

Explanations, Observations, and Links of Note

• Let’s get the important bits out of the way first, huh? Here’s a link to the original statement published by Warren Ellis’s victims on SoManyOfUs.com. And here’s a link to an article published on The Beat roughly a year later, addressing the situation at that time. And finally, here’s a Newsweek article about Ellis and the allegations against him, which includes a response from him.
• Because you likely need an upper after reading all that, here’s a picture of this episode’s “script” mid-recording, when the word BUTTS appeared in rainbow text with a fuchsia background. I dare you not to laugh at that.
• Can confirm: Transpolation is not a word.
• Here’s some additional insight on what happened with that Ellis/Villalobos Wildcats series that never materialized. The actual events weren’t quite what I said in episode, and the delay/cancellation happened before any of the Ellis accusations surfaced.
• We talked about Brandon Sanderson’s unique situation and beliefs enough that you might want to read this Esquire profile of him. Pat and I both read it and found it interesting.
• I’m not going to share images of all the references to past comics Pat found, but I will share Ultimate Captain America and Elsa Bloodstone lampooning him.

Follow-Up Recommendations

If you liked Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E., we think you might also like:

• Fratboy humor movies of the 2000s. (IMO, Old School did not hold up. Kat still kinda liked it.)
• The Manhattan Projects.
• Transformers vs. G.I. Joe.

New to the show? Waiting on the Trade is a comics book club podcast, run by two gents who don’t have time for monthly comics. If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email us at [email protected].

You can also find us on:

• Apple Podcasts.
• Spotify.
• Google Podcasts.

As always, thanks for listening!

Welcome back to Waiting on the Trade: The Dream Journal, a miniseries in which we’re discussing Neil Gaiman and co.’s original run on The Sandman. Joining Pat and myself for this trip through the Dreaming is our friend and frequent guest host Mike Drew.

In this episode, we’ve each brought a discussion question prompted by our read of The Sandman: Overture.

This Month’s Discussion Questions:

1. Was Overture a worthwhile addition to the Sandman mythos?
2. What is the biggest reveal in this volume?
3. What do you think The Council of the First Circle is all about?

Did you enjoy our discussion? If so, let us know by leaving us a review on your podcasting app of choice.

New to the show? Waiting on the Trade is a monthly comics podcast, run by two gents who don’t have time for monthly comics. If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email us at [email protected].

You can also find us on:

• Apple Podcasts.
• Spotify.
• Google Podcasts.

As always, thanks for listening!