The Rantcor Pit 6: The Force Will Be With You...Always

Welcome to the last feature of 2013.  The JediCole Universe is proud to present...

Hot on the heels of our all-stuff-bad-about-Star-Wars episode we are pleased to bring you the counterpoint to that show.  With this episode Cole "JediCole" Houston and Eddie Medina discuss, indeed gush about, all of the ways that Star Wars hit its mark.  Repeatedly!

More often than not the original trilogy brought so much good to the big screen and even the prequels had something to offer.  Your hosts dig deep into their memories of Star Wars to bring up the best aspects of the Saga from high concepts to just really cool scenes.  It is little wonder that a poorly regarded little low-budget movie became a part of the cultural landscape worldwide when all of the things George Lucas did right are taken into account.

We ran a little late on this week's episode again due to the constraints of our Earthly holidays.  We will be back on our bi-weekly schedule beginning with our next episode on January 10, 2014.

The Rantcor Pit and all of your other JCU favorites will be back in 2014!

JCU Sunday Funnies #38

Want to see Bobby Blakey's art and his own humor including the newly relaunched Last Stop?  Check out six years of the strip plus new material right here!

Hey Kids, Comics Back Issue Bin (#0-72, Annual #1)

Hello and welcome to another Back Issue Bin for Hey Kids, Comics!  Andrew and Cole are taking a week off after entertaining and enlightening comic book fans so we can ring in the holidays.  To fill in this week they thought it might be a time to let long time listeners and newcomers catch up on 72 issues (and one annual) of the show!   As you can see from the show titles, we have covered a lot of very diverse ground in just over a year of this weekly show with only a few skip weeks in our history!

Discover for the first time or relive the history of Andy's labor of love with one of the most engaging podcasts on the subject of comic books that can be found anywhere on the internet...

The Back Issue Bin

#0 Get to Know Us!

#1 Comic Shop Confidential: Why I Hate Fanboys

#2 Comic Shop Confidential: What’s So Bad About Human Sexuality?

#3 Comic Shop Confidential: Women in Comics

#4 Comic Shop Confidential: Faith in Four Colors

#5 Comic Shop Confidential: Holding Up a Mirror to Reality

#6.1 Fails to Astonish – Part 1

#6.2 Fails to Astonish - Part 2

#7 Star Wars Colebration: A Study in JediCole Houston

#8 Comics, Commerce, and the All-Mighty Buck: Embossed Foil Laser Cut and Bagged With Exclusive Trading Cards

#9 Comics, Commerce, and the All-Mighty Buck: Collection Equals Tuition

#10 Comics, Commerce, and the All-Mighty Buck: The Long, Strong Arm of Marvel

#11 Comics, Commerce, and the All-Mighty Buck: The Never-Ending Eulogy

#12 Comics, Commerce, and the All-Mighty Buck: Pandering for Paychecks

#13 A Geek’s Journey

#14 HKC! Presents 1

#15 Marvel’s Great White North

#16 Sensing Comics: Intro

#17 Sensing Comics: Insights on Sight

#18 Sensing Comics: You’ve Got the Touch

#19 Sensing Comics: Did you Just Hear Something?

#20 Sensing Comics: Something Tells Me I’m Smelling Something Good

#21 Secret Origins: The Andrew Farmer Story

#22 Tales to Admonish

#23 A Christmas Stocking Stuffer

#24 That Darn Bat

#25 Cinema Obscura

#26 It Came From the License Part 1: Hey Kids, Star Wars!

#27 It Came From the License Part 2: Take That, Nielson Ratings!

#28 It Came From the License Part 3: Reading Your Movie Night

#29 It Came From the License Part 4: Books, Games, and the Public Domain...PLUS!

#30 It Came From the License Part 5: Tales from Toyland

#31 Creator Spotlight #1: Frank Miller Time

#32 Hey Kids, All-Con!

#33 To Kill a Robin

#34 Secret Origins of Hey Kids, Comics!

#35 The Ballad of Bobby Blakey or What Do You Do With a Big Dumb Gorilla?

#36 Bring on the Bad Guys!  The Dark Side of Comics

#37 From Funny Books to Graphic Fiction Part 1: Children of the Yellow Kid

#38 From Funny Books to Graphic Fiction Part 2: Seduction and Salvation

#39 From Funny Books to Graphic Fiction Part 3: Comics Are Super, Man

#40 From Funny Books to Graphic Fiction Part 4: Turning Points and Changing Tastes

#41 From Funny Books to Graphic Fiction Part 5: Not Kids Comics - Tijuana to Omaha

#42 Heroes Come Home - Animated

#43 Heroes Come Home - Live Action

#44 The Hero's Journey

#45 Recommended Reading #1

#46 HKC! Team-Up #1: Justice League

#47 Summer Fun Special

#48 Play Ball!

#49 Forging Steel

#50 The Year of Living Comicsly

#51 Continuity is Not Absolute: Nothing Lasts Forever

#52 Continuity is Not Absolute: I Didn't Know We Had One of Those! 

#53 Continuity is Not Absolute: Out of Character, Out of the Blue, Out of Whack

#54 Continuity is Not Absolute: The Dicey Hand of Death

#55 Continuity is Not Absolute: When it Sticks

#56 About a Toy

#57 HKC! Team-Up #2: The Avengers

#58 What?  No Pictures?

#59 Creator Spotlight #2: Good Bill Willingham

#60 Deconstructing Comics: I Need a Hero

#61 Deconstructing Comics: To Prove a Villain

#62 Deconstructing Comics: Lean on Me

#63 Deconstructing Comics: What's Love Got to Do With It?

#64 Deconstructing Comics: All in the Family

#65 Comics That Go Bump in the Night

#66 Hey Comics!  What's For Supper?!

#67 Seven Deadlies: You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry

#68 Seven Deadlies: Enough is Never Enough

#69 Seven Deadlies: You've Got What I Want

#70 Seven Deadlies: Look Upon My Works, Ye Mighty

#71 Seven Deadlies: A Big Meal and Then a Nap

#72 I Want to Talk 'Bout the Animals

Annual #1 The Best Comic I Ever Read

As you rifle through the myriad back issues know that we will be back in 2014 with even more surprises!  

JCU Sunday Funnies #37

Want to see Bobby Blakey's art and his own humor including the newly relaunched Last Stop?  Check out six years of the strip plus new material every week right here!

The Rantcor Pit 5: Force Fails

It is a week and nearly a day late, but as promised here is the latest edition of The Rantcor Pit!  We think you will find the subject matter is most befitting of the break in scheduling and the fact that timing did not permit any leeway for editing the show.  This episode is presented effectively as it was recorded.  The holidays (Wookie Life Day not withstanding) are really throwing things off!

Even if you like the Star Wars, you don't always like everything about the Star Wars!

For even the most hardcore fan there are times when Star Wars just does not deliver.  From the myriad nit-picking-worthy aspects of the prequel trilogy to the Expanded Universe, there are many places where the magic of the Saga lost some luster.

Your hosts Cole "JediCole" Houston and Eddie Medina join forces to root out everything Star Wars that comes from points as far from the bright center of the universe as might be possible to find.  Be it unnecessary nods to other films or plain bad characters on screen and in literature, there is much to find fault with when it comes to George Lucas' baby.  And yet we can't always content ourselves to pointing out the bad stuff as you will discover...

Hey Kids, Comics! #72 - I Want to Talk 'Bout the Animals

Welcome to a new issue of Hey Kids, Comics! in which we get wild!  And we get domestic, too.  In other words, as the title of this week's show suggests, we talk about animals in comics.  From the mundane to the super-powered, the amazing fauna of comic books.

A veritable legion of pets (super and otherwise), companion animals, and incidental creatures are discussed.  Andrew and Cole even reveal their all-time favorites!  So settle down with your favorite animal and join in on the unique fun of an issue of the show that we did not think would fill an hour.  We should have known better!

JCU Sunday Funnies #36

Want to see Bobby Blakey's art and his own humor including the newly relaunched Last Stop?  Check out six years of the strip plus new material every week right here!

The Rantcor Pit Holiday Announcement

Preparations for Wookie Life Day and our own holidays here on Earth have really thrown off our schedule here at the JCU and most specifically with The Rantcor Pit. 

As a result we have had to postpone this week's episode until next Friday.  The good news is that there will be two back-to-back episodes of your favorite new Star Wars podcast over the next two weeks.  Tune in on Friday, December 20 and Friday December 27 for the next two episodes!

Remember, the Force will be with you, just not this week...

Hey Kids, Comics! #71 - A Big Meal and Then a Nap

At the end of a story arc exhaustion can tend to set in 'round Hey Kids, Comics! way.  Other times we just work up a mean appetite that won’t be sated.  Either way the conclusion of this arc is upon us and we prepare to bid adieu to the mortal sins of man with an examination of sloth and gluttony.  Are you prepared to dig into this smorgasbord of comics or do you just want to settle into the Comfy Chair and enjoy yourself while your hosts do all the work?

What Would Matter-Eater Lad Eat?

Regardless of your approach, Andrew “Just Five More Minutes!  Better Make it Ten!” Farmer and Cole “Pass the Biscuits and Gravy” Houston take a long look at  the remaining Deadly Sins.  This issue rounds out a story arc that would make the wizard Shazam proud of us indeed.  So exactly how do these two sins of excess, at opposite ends of the spectrum, play out in comic books?  Find out as we digest gluttony and sleep off sloth.

As a special surprise, You Are Here artist Bobby "Eat or Sleep?  I Can't Decide!" Blakey joins the fun with a different take on Professor X, among other great insights.

JCU Sunday Funnies #35

Want to see Bobby Blakey's art and his own humor including the newly relaunched Last Stop?  Check out six years of the strip plus new material every week right here!

Hey Kids, Comics! #70 - Seven Deadlies: Look Upon My Works, Ye Mighty

To quote the Dauphin in Henry V, “Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin as self-neglecting.”  While acknowledging pride as a sin, France’s ambitious prince feels it to be the lesser of two evils.  This is all well and good for Shakespeare, but what are we to do?

Explore pride in comics, of course.  Seven Deadlies continues in this issue of Hey Kids, Comics! that Andrew “I’m the King of the World!”  Farmer and Cole “I’m the King of the Universe, So There!” Houston could not be more smug about presenting.  Who are the most vain and prideful characters in comics?  What role has pride played in the successes and failures of such characters?  We shamelessly display a total lack of humility in staking our pride on this being the best possible examination of those and other related topics.

Whadjathink? - Dallas Buyers Club

Cost of Living

Welcome to another edition of the movie podcast modeled on the drive home from the theater.  Your hosts Catherine Houston and Bobby Blakey join forces to discuss the new Mathew McConaghey real-life drama, Dallas Buyers Club.  

Cole "JediCole" Houston joins in on the conversation that is, like all episodes of Whadjathink?, spoiler-rich.  If you've seen this amazing movie then give a listen to the thoughts and feelings that three seasoned movie-goers had after seeing it themselves.

SPOILER ALERT!

JCU Sunday Funnies #34

Want to see Bobby Blakey's art and his own humor including the newly relaunched Last Stop?  Check out six years of the strip plus new material every week right here!