The Fantasticast at 100: The Fantastic Guest Hosts (Part 1)

This week, we released the 100th episode of The Fantasticast. In a break from showcasing tropes of The Fantastic Four (nearly) ever day, we're celebrating this milestone with a week of special blog posts taking a behind-the-scenes or sideways look at the show. Today, we take a look at our friends...

One of the joys of running a podcast is being able to chat with my favourite podcasters. Over the past three years, I've had the hosts of many of my favourite shows come and join Andy and myself on the show. My podcasting career started by guesting on other people's shows - Teenage Wasteland: An Ultimate Spider-Man Podcast and Amazing Spider-Man Classics, both sadly departed - and before we'd recorded our first show, I'd already pencilled in a number of podcasters to join us on the show.

I've been very lucky with guest hosts on The Fantasticast. Nobody has turned me down*. Everyone has been up for reading comics of varying quality (Should I apologise to everyone from the Strange Tales era for forcing those strips on them?), writing detailed synopses, and singing the Airwolf theme at the drop of tenuous segue. I've had the opportunity to record with podcasters, bloggers and artists that I respect, and had the most amazing time whilst doing so.

So, I'd like to thank every one of our guest hosts from the past three years, offer a reminder of when they turned up on our show, and let you know where they can be found today.

*Someone managed to agree to be on the show then fail to turn up for the record. Twice. Which is even more embarrassing when you realise that he lives in the same house as Andy. But we love him anyway, the work shy fop...

Joshua Lapin-Bertone was the first podcaster to join us on the show, jumping on board for Episode 6. A former member of the Amazing Spider-Man Classics crew, I first met Josh at about 2 in the morning when, having had about four hours notice, I turned up to join the team on one of their earliest episodes. Josh has been a great support to the show, never short of a good word, and never afraid to utter that good word in public. We subjected him to the first appearance of The Wizard and his alarming facial hair, the Puppet Master and his alarming lack of any hair, and Alicia and the creepiness of having her look just like Sue Storm. Josh can currently be found as a member of the Comic Book Film Revue podcast, and has just launched a new podcast covering the TV series Gotham, over at BatmanUniverse.net.

Donavan Morgan Grant was our second guest host, joining us for Episode 8. Amazing Spider-Man Classics was a huge influence on The Fantasticast (and, in fact, an early episode features Andy and I 'meeting' for the first time, when we both have e-mails read out.), so it was no surprise that another former member of the crew would join us on the show. Together with Don, we broke the fourth wall for the first time as Doctor Doom met Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and were introduced to the villainous Paste-Pot Pete. Ahh, the days when paste was regarded as the supreme weapon... Don and Josh still podcast together on their Gotham podcast at BatmanUniverse.net and at the Clone Saga Chronicles. You can also catch him on the phenomenally successful The Next Dimension: A Dragonball Z Podcast.

J. David Weter was our next guest host, joining us for Episode 10. I first encountered Dave as the host of Superman Forever Radio, but it was his Incredible Hulk podcast, focusing on the work of Peter David, that led me to ask him to join us for this show. Fantastic Four #12 was the first 'crossover' book in modern Marvel history, as the recently-cancelled Hulk found himself in the best-selling Marvel book. We had great fun with secret identities, the lack of effort taken to conceal those identities, and were introduced to one of the greatest villains ever to appear on the show - The Acrobat, or, ZANTE! Dave's taking a break from podcasting at the moment, but you can check out his most recent show, Dave's Daredevil Podcast, or read his contributions to the Legion Of Super-Bloggers.

Considering the influence of Amazing Spider-Man Classics on this show and the fact that he gave me my first podcasting breaks (both on ASMC and Teenage Wasteland: An Ultimate Spider-Man Podcast), it was pretty inevitable that Jon M. Wilson would turn up as a guest host for the show, which he did for Episode 16. Our longest episode to date saw us tackle the first two Marvel superhero annuals of the 1960s. One was a tightly-written superhero epic that made use of the extended page count to develop characters and present a superb plot involving the invasion of New York by Atlantis, showing off some of the best artwork produced to date by Jack Kirby. The other was Strange Tales Annual #2. If I were to list all of Jon's past and present podcast projects, there would be no room to showcase other hosts. So, I'll settle for his latest shows - Avengers Inspirations and The Star Wars Saga Cast.

We took a break from podcasters when we invited David Wynne onto the show for Episode 21. I'd met Dave at the first London Super Comic Convention, about 8 weeks into the show, and we bonded pretty quickly over our love of classic comics and podcasts. Flash forward a few months, and knowing that I had an episode involving Hitler, the first modern appearance of Nick Fury, and... er... Strange Tales... I couldn't think of a better person to invite on. Dave's appearance coincided with the arrival of inker George Roussos onto the book, and it was great to have an detailed artistic perspective on the change in inker. Dave's current work includes providing artwork for the superb podcast Rachel & Miles X-Plain The X-Men, and the webcomic Spacescape.

Another dead cert for joining us on the show was Michael Bailey. From Crisis To Crisis has been the keystone for so many podcasts - it was mine and Andy's first podcast we ever listened to - and we wanted to have Michael on for something special. Little did we know that two planned episode would explode into four, meaning that we rounded off our first year of the show by devoting the entirety of December 2012 to Mike's episodes - 25, 26, 27 and 28. It was the first great Marvel crossover, as the Hulk and the Avengers turned up for a truly epic smack down. Grandiose storytelling in the Mighty Marvel Manner doesn't get any better than this. There were also some issues of Strange Tales to round out the episodes. From Crisis To Crisis still continues on its mission to chronicle the post-Crisis Superman comics, and Mike's solo show Views From The Longbox recently featured myself on a Forever Evil retrospective. You can also check out Mike's blog at Fortress of Baileytude.

Our second year of guest hosts kicked off with Shawn Engel, who joined us for episode 31. Shawn leapt onto the podcast scene with his Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner-focused podcast, Just One Of The Guys. We asked Shawn to join us for the Fantastic Four's first crossover with the X-Men, and for a Strange Tales issue featuring the most underwhelming team of super-powered henchmen in Marvel's entire history of publishing. As well as chronicling the 1990s Green Lantern comics, Shawn also wrangles a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine discussion podcast, Listen To The Prophets, and is a co-host on Parallel Lines: The DC Comics Tangent Universe podcast.

Dave Walker is the final guest host we'll look at today, and he joined us on episode 33. Dave become the first (and only) guest host to cover an issue featuring the line of dialogue that he recorded for the trailer - in this case, the unforgettable Burgomeister and his warnings about the castle of Diablo. Talking of Diablo, the big surprise this episode was that the second-rate sorcerer's debut appearance was a pretty decent comic, helped by the inks of incoming inker Chic Stone. We also covered another Paste Pot Pete story in Strange Tales, but at this point, I'd struggle to describe any of the Paste Pot Pete stories from Strange Tales. Dave is the host of the Wally West podcast, Flash Legacies, and is part of the panel for Who True Freaks.

We'll take a break here, and return tomorrow to take a look at the second batch of guest hosts who have helped Andy and myself get through the last 100 episodes.

The Fantasticast at 100: In Pursuit Of Happiness

This week, we released the 100th episode of The Fantasticast. In a break from showcasing tropes of The Fantastic Four (nearly) ever day, we're celebrating this milestone with a week of special blog posts taking a behind-the-scenes or sideways look at the show. Today, we take a look at the first thing we ever released...

One of the first things I did when planning the Fantasticast was to try and come up with a unique idea for a trailer. I knew that I didn't want a portentous narration (although I ended up flirting briefly with one in the final edit), I didn't want obvious music, and I didn't it to be boring. There were a lot of podcast trailers around at the time that hit at least one item on that list, and with the amour of podcasts I was listening to, I was hearing those trailers a lot. The idea that stuck with me was creating a very brief narrative of The Fantastic Four's origin, then showcasing several notable villains. I'm still not sure how good a trailer it is for the show as it is now (it's definitely too long, and it does rather suggest that we're dramatising the issues rather than analysing them), but I think that as an interesting and repeatable piece of audio, it stands up.

The key to this, I think, was in choosing the right piece of music. As great as the acting is in the trailer, without the driving escalation of the music behind the voices, the trailer is simply a collection of villainous pronouncements. But the music - the introduction and orchestral break from the Divine Comedy track In Pursuit Of Happiness - is what holds the trailer together and makes it, if I may be a little vain here, something a little special.

The Divine Comedy are a special band for me. They were the first 'current' band that I started following, off the back of their hilarious song 'National Express'. Pretty much the only constant element in their music, aside from vocalist and front-man Neil Hannon's amazing voice, is their refusal to conform to any kind of genre. Their 1999 Greatest Hits album was a wonderful mix of deliberately-cheesy pop, dark and twisted love songs, Noel Coward remixes, and stunning orchestrations. And this is where I first encountered In Pursuit Of Happiness.

I love this song so much. It's the lead song from A Short Album About Love, and for the most part, it's a gleefully joyous song about confessing the feeling of being in love with someone for the first time. It's upbeat, it's got a great piano riff, and it's even got castanets. Neil Hannon's vocal is, frankly astonishing - the way he he ends each verse on the word 'happy' makes my spirits lift no matter what the mood, and his attack on the third verse is just wonderful. But something starts to happen to the lyrics in that third verse: "Hey, I'm not so blind / that I can't see where we're all going / and it's no fault of mine / if humankind reaps what it's sewing." There's a darkness coming into the song, which resonates throughout the instrumental section, which lasts for nearly two minutes.

The orchestrations on this section are utterly gorgeous. There are so many little touches that I love during this section. The staccato of the xylophone. The way the drummer sounds like he's having the time of his life without ever once overpowering any element of the orchestra. The brass section drives the entire piece, gently discordant and keeping the darkness from the lyrics present throughout. And then there's the climax to it all, that driving crescendo that was so damn good, the BBC nicked it for their science and technology magazine show Tomorrow's World. I love and adore this section of the song, especially when the brass kicks in at the top of the melodic progression to top it all off.

As anyone who's listened to an episode of the show will be aware, the climax of the song stops suddenly. Normally, Andy and I then chime in with a grand 'Hello!' and rapidly improvise an introduction. But the original song ends with a dark coda:

“Hey, don’t be surprised
If millions die in plague and murder
True happiness lies
Beyond your fries and happy burger”

 It's a perfect example of the Divine Comedy's refusal to be categorised, to turn on a sixpence and flip the mood of a song entirely.

The music gave me everything I needed for the trailer. It opens brightly, underscoring the theme of being explorers that runs throughout the best Fantastic Four stories. It starts to darken as the villains appear, and the final section starts to build as the villains get stronger, ending pretty damn epically when Galactus appears. The final notes, underscoring the battle cries of 'Flame On!' and 'It's Clobbering Time!' still make me shiver with delight three years later. It was only later that I remembered the use of this track for Tomorrow's World, an incredibly happy and appropriate coincidence.

I'm very proud of the trailer. I consider it to be pretty unique, and whilst I am certainly biased, I never tire of hearing it when it turns up in other podcasts. This is due partially to the great acting of various podcasters who volunteered their voices, but mostly to the music, which worked better than I ever could have imagined. I've taken delight in including the whole song a couple of times in the show, and I hope you'll click on the above video for an amazing live performance.

A Request For Help...

Hi folks, It's Steve from The Fantasticast here, as always. In lieu of a panel chosen from an old Fantastic Four or Strange Tales comic today, I'm taking a few moments to ask you, our readers and listeners, to help us out.

Don't worry - I don't want money!

Andy and I put a lot of time and effort into the show to make sure it comes out every week. As well as the 3 hours (or so) recording time we spend every couple of weeks, there's the time spent reading the comics and writing our synopses. I then sit down and write the notes of history and the Marvel Universe for each episode, as well as summarising the Bullpen Bulletins and letters pages, a task which can sometimes take a lot longer than you might think. Following the recording, I then spend 4-5 hours per episode (8-10 hours per record) editing the show into shape, tidying up our stammerings and editing out more libellous content than you could imagine.

It's a big job, and it's a pleasure to do. Your e-mails and other feedback tells us that you enjoy what we do, which makes us want to do it even more.

So, where do you come in?

Again, don't worry - I don't want money!

What I'd love for you to do is to spend a couple of minutes talking about the show. You could tweet about the show (with a link), you could share one of our posts on Facebook, you could tell your friends at your local comic shop. And more than anything else, we'd love for you to go to iTunes, and leave a rating and a review.

With 80 episodes covering over 2/3 of the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby collaboration on The Fantastic Four, we'd love to become known to more fans of the team and fans of comics. We'd love for you guys to lend us a hand in growing the show. Please do take a moment to help spread the news about our show and how much you enjoy it.

Thank you!

LQOTM: Your Favourite Non-Fantastic Four Fantastic Four Stories

It's time for another Listener Question Of The Month! We're still looking at your favourite stories, having asked for your favourite under-rated stories and your favourite issue that showcases the team.

This month, we want to know your favourite non-Fantastic Four Fantastic Four stories.

To clarify, we want to know your favourite stories from books featuring the Fantastic Four that aren't the core Fantastic Four title. Pretty much everything is fair game for this one. The main spin-offs (Strange Tales, Marvel Two-In-One, The Thing, Fantastic Force and FF), mini-series, guest-appearances, alternate continuities (Fantastic Five, Ultimate Fantastic Four, etc) and more.7

There's no limit to the number of stories you can submit, although for the sake of reading the e-mails when we review the feedback, try to keep your thoughts reasonably succinct - as we've proved over 80-odd episodes, reading out loud isn't as simple for us as it should be!

Send your feedback into fantastic4podcast@gmail.com or leave it in the comments below.

 

Hello and welcome to the 45th episode of the show. This time around, Steve and Andy are once again joined by Christine Hanefalk of The Other Murdock Papers to examine the guest appearances of Daredevil in the Fantastic Four. Well, half a guest-appearance at least. In Fantastic Four #40, the team, along with the Man Without Fear, take part in the Battle of the Baxter Building against none other than Doctor Doom. Then in Strange Tales #134, everybody's favourite non-interferer turns up to interfere. That's right, The Watcher is back.

This is our final episode covering Strange Tales as a core Fantastic Four title, and instead of leaving on what you might assume to be a down note (come on, there is a small chance that the story might be pretty good), we decided to produce a list each of five things that weren't terrible about Strange Tales.

Check out The Other Murdock Papers here, and follow @Chris_TOMP on twitter here.

Feedback can be sent to fantastic4podcast@gmail.com (please do send us an e-mail - we're doing a feedback show next week). It can also be left in the comments below, or over at ffcast.libsyn.com

Listen to the episode below, or click this link to go to the libsyn page for the episode.

[audio FF_Episode_45.mp3]

We are now available on Stitcher, both through Stitcher.com and through their app.

The Official Fantasticast Competition Post

As announced on episode 35 of The Fantasticast, we are running a competition with two great prizes: Digital copies of every Marvel NOW issue of Fantastic Four by Matt Fraction, Mark Bagley and Mark Farmer, and of every Marvel NOW issue of FF by Matt Fraction, Mike Allred and Laura Allred. All you have to do to be in with a chance to win is to like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter. It's a simple as that. Once we reach 150 Facebook like and 300 Twitter followers, we'll draw two names from a largely-metaphorical hat, and give away the comics.

Now, there's no official closing date for this competition. The faster we get our likes, the faster we'll give away the comics. On the flip side, we take no responsibility if this competition drags on so long that the codes expire... If the competition closes between the release of Fantastic Four and FF, then I'll ensure that the FF winner isn't penalised by the closing date and include that month's code. However, the prizes are not guaranteed to be equal, as the Age of Ultron issues, any annuals, and any production delays/double-shipping may alter the number of issues published up to the end of the competition.

The prizes will take the form of the digital codes that came free with my copies. I'll peel the stickers off and e-mail the codes to the winners. The stickers are still there, I promise! I was going to give them to Andy, but he can buy his own comics and I think you guys would like them more! They are redeemed through the Marvel website, and can be read in a browser or through the Marvel apps for Android and iOS.

Please share this page to spread awareness of the competition and of the show.

Good luck!