Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

Category: Blog Posts

ECCC Show Diary: Day 1

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LOOK AT THESE GLORIOUS NERDS
LOOK AT THESE GLORIOUS NERDS

FIRST DAY OF THE SHOW PROPER!

We were expecting Thursday to be pretty quiet, but, no. You were NUMEROUS AND ENTHUSIASTIC, and IT WAS AWESOME. Here are the highlights:

  • Got up at stupid o’clock to feed the meter
  • Came back, showered, and put on grown-up daytime clothes. ONE OF US IS WEARING A TIE. MUCH ADULT VERY PROFESSIONAL.
  • Moved the car, because Capitol Hill has no parking. Damnit, Seattle!
  • David had caught inevitable international-travel plague, so we dropped off ibuprofen at his hotel, then…
  • …got lunch at a sushi place that we are fairly sure was actively attempting to make us leave. JOKE’S ON THEM. WE ATE SUSHI AND THEN PAID FOR IT AND THEN LEFT.
  • Went and set up our table.
  • DID A LOT OF CONVENTION.
  • I got two new Cyclops Has a Good Day sketches, from Cully Hamner and David Wynne. Yesssssssss.
  • Miles got a super sweet Silent Hill poster from Mondo…
  • …and I got Miles a super sweet Thors poster from Peter V. Nguyen
  • Once the show let out, we met up with Scott Koblish, and wandered off to get dinner…
  • …then practiced the cold open in an empty parking lot.
  • Our friends Katie and Douglas were hosting a karaoke night to celebrate both the show and recent amazing professional projects (THEY ARE AWESOME! GO KATIE AND DOUGLAS!), so we headed down.
  • Did you know that Miles sings Blondie? Miles sings Blondie. HE IS VERY GOOD AT IT.
  • Also, Al Ewing sang “Let It Go,” and possibly manifested a whole sci-fi rock musical just by being the weirdest and Britishest person in the room.
  • ANYWAY. We are very tired and slightly tipsy, and it is probably time for sleep. OUR LIVE PANEL IS TOMORROW (today; it’s after midnight) at 5:30 PM IN ROOM T304, AND YOU SHOULD ALL COME.
  • Seriously. KINDA FREAKING OUT about this cold open. It is by far and away the most ambitious one we’ve ever done.

PHOTOS:

Jay's first sharpie knuckle tats of the day, for a friend who used to co-run one of our favorite video-game websites EVER in high school. HI, NICH! YOU ARE AWESOME!
Jay’s first sharpie knuckle tats of the day, for a friend who used to co-run one of our favorite video-game websites EVER in high school. HI, NICH! YOU ARE AWESOME!
Miles drew Bill the Lobster. Your argument is invalid.
Miles drew Bill the Lobster. Your argument is invalid.
Jay drew Magik. This was part of a pair, but the other one's in Miles's phone, and we're tired, so we'll post it later.
Jay drew Magik. This was part of a pair, but the other one’s in Miles’s phone, and we’re tired, so we’ll post it later.
A++ milk stout.
A++ milk stout.
DID YOU KNOW THAT SEATTLE HAS AN X-MEN BURLESQUE SHOW? These two are part of it, and they are awesome!
DID YOU KNOW THAT SEATTLE HAS AN X-MEN BURLESQUE SHOW? These two are part of it, and they are awesome!
Lush stuff I tried today! Needles and Pines Shower Jelly smells like camping, but not unpleasantly so; and No Drought dry shampoo is my new best convention friend forever.
Lush stuff I tried today! Needles and Pines Shower Jelly smells like camping, but not unpleasantly so; and No Drought dry shampoo is my new best convention friend forever.

ECCC Diary: Day -1

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books

Jay here! A lot of you have written to say you wish you could be at ECCC this weekend. We can’t bring you with us, but hopefully we can give you at least a virtual window (and try a new X-periment on the blog) with a show diary!

Today we:

  • Drove up to Seattle from Portland
  • Dropped party stuff off–and picked up a few books–at the super awesome Phoenix Comics
  • Got our badges and worked out our table set-up! We are experimenting with more vertical arrangements this time, since we’ve only got half a table, and it is a little terrifying. Also, I broke the vase our sign goes in, but was able to repair it with a whooooole lot of duct tape.
  • Got David from the airport. It’s his first time in the U.S.! We went to a restaurant with $5 martinis and very okay barbecue and compared national stereotypes and were generally pretty excited about finally meeting after most of a decade of being Internet friends!
  • Bought groceries. Grocery shopping for cons is always super weird–by the time we get to the store, we’re tired and fuzzy, and it turns into a sort of surreal vacation-like fugue state. This time, we spent a lot of time looking at Spider-Man toys, then mostly bought granola bars, because we are boring adults.
  • Finally got into the place where we’re staying. We’re crashing at a friend’s place while she’s out of town, and her locks are suuuuuuper sticky, so there was some frantic messaging and experimenting, and I was briefly extremely worried that someone would think I was trying to break in. BUT WE DID IT, and we figured out the trick to mostly maybe making the outdoor key work. Kind of. We hope.
  • AND NOW WE ARE IN BED. Oh! And listener BLL, who works at Lush, sent us a ridiculously amazing package of fancy bath-type stuff, which we then forgot to try, but we brought it with us! And I am totally going to try at least a few things every day that we’re here, because it all smells amazing. (I am a creature of capital-H Habit, and am baffled and intimidated by fancy bath products, but BLL included both a detailed guide and a bunch of X-Men references, so I am ON TOP OF THIS.)

PHOTOS FOR YOU:

Our table! We set everything up, took a photo, and then took most of it down, because we didn't have a dropcloth. BUT! We have a photo, so we will know where it all goes tomorrow.
Our table! We set everything up, took a photo, and then took most of it down, because we didn’t have a dropcloth. BUT! We have a photo, so we will know where it all goes tomorrow. That’s our friend Rue is in the background. She’s awesome.
Lush stuff I tried tonight! The toothpaste tabs are super weird, the charity pot lotion is AMAZING, and the lip balm both smells and tastes kind of like lemon frosting!
Lush stuff I tried tonight! The toothpaste tabs are weird enough that I’m having trouble getting past the novelty to determine whether I actually liked them, the charity pot lotion is AMAZING AND I AM IN LOVE WITH IT, and the lip balm both smells and tastes kind of like lemon frosting! (Guest starring my sweet Spider-Man travel toothbrush.)
Two very tired X-Perts who have to get up very early tomorrow to move their car. GOOD NIGHT, INTERNET!
Two very tired X-Perts who have to get up very early tomorrow to move their car. GOOD NIGHT, INTERNET!

 

As Mentioned in Episode 103 – Warwolves of London

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Listen to the episode here.

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop, or contact David to purchase the original.
It’s the front-cover equivalent of the slow-motion hero walk. (Excalibur #1)
Hi, Widget! (Excalibur #1)
Kitty is ridiculous and also awesome. (Excalibur #1)
Nigel “The Worst” Frobisher. (Excalibur #1)
Aw, man. (Excalibur #1)
Welcome to the perfectly ordinary lighthouse full of perfectly ordinary rooms! Hope you survive the… (Excalibur #1)
“No one can move in Rachel’s costume except Rachel” is going to become a running joke over the course of the series. (Excalibur #1)
Somewhere there’s a universe where Meggan grew up watching Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23, in which this scene went very differently. (Excalibur #1)
Vixen, never change. (Excalibur #2)
The Warwolves are awful, but also fairly delightful. (Excalibur #2)
Oh, dear me. (Excalibur #2)
HIJINKS! (Excalibur #2)
Well, that happened. (Excalibur #2)
This cannot POSSIBLY end well. (Excalibur #2)
Alan Davis covers are the best covers. (Excalibur #3)
SOMEHOW TEAM VIXEN’S OUTFITS GOT EVEN BETTER. (Excalibur #3)
And so it goes. (Excalibur #3)
Well done, Kitty. (Excalibur #3)
Well done, Kurt. (Excalibur #3)
FRIENDSHIP! (Excalibur #3)
Including this panel purely for Kurt’s dashing outfit. (Excalibur #3)
PERFECTLY NORMAL LIGHTHOUSE. NOTHING TO SEE HERE. (Excalibur #3)

LINKS & FURTHER LISTENING:

Jay & Miles Review the X-Men, Episode 79

10 comments

Week of March 30, 2016:

In which Jay draws a line in the sand, Rogue hits someone with a bear, Toad develops nuance, and you should totally come see us at ECCC!

REVIEWED:

  • Uncanny X-Men #5 (01:48)
  • *X-Men ’92 #1 (05:30)
  • All-New X-Men #7 (10:19)

*Pick of the Week (15:05)

You can find our full ECCC lineup over here!

Come join us on Imzy!

Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. These video reviews–and everything else here–are made possible by the support of our Patreon subscribers. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

As Mentioned in Episode 102 – Baby Race 2000

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Listen to the episode here.

Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop, or contact David to purchase the original.
Okay, then. (X-Factor #32)
I wanna hang out there. (X-Factor #32)
Please note that Boom Boom pauses to put on sunglasses before doing cool cool stuff. Boom Boom knows what’s up. (X-Factor #32)
MVP. (X-Factor #32)
Well, that’s certainly one way to do that. (X-Factor #33)
In Boom Boom’s defense, shopping is terrible. (X-Factor #33)
Go set something on fire for justice, kiddo! (X-Factor #33)
BEAST! We missed you! (X-Factor #33)
Y’know, most people would just send a C&D. (X-Factor #33)
Kinda answered your own question, there, buddy. (X-Factor #34)
Nanny and the Orphan-Maker walk the line between sad and terrifying SO beautifully. (X-Factor #34)
N’astirh got no time for your rationalizations, Hodge. (X-Factor #34)
Later, he’s going to go home and listen to Stabbing Westward in the dark. (X-Factor #34)
Aw. (X-Factor #34)
It’s okay. He’ll be back. (X-Factor #34)
Yes, Warren, we get it. (X-Factor #34)
Welcome to the State Home for Gaslighting. Hope you survive the… (X-Factor #35)
Worst. Orphanage. Ever. (X-Factor #35)
GAH. There is literally nothing in this issue that is not wildly unsettling. (X-Factor #35)
The orphanage is a metaphor that is also a real fictional orphanage. (X-Factor #35)
‘Kay. (X-Factor #35)
Sometimes you gotta prioritize. (X-Factor #35)
NEXT WEEK: Excalibur goes ongoing!

Welcome to Imzy, J&MXtX-M! Hope You Survive the… You Know.

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survivetheexperience_cliche

Jay here, with a brief break from our regularly-scheduled programming! Along with a handful of other podcasts and communities, we’re part of a very small closed beta for a new community-oriented social platform, Imzy; and we’re very pleased to finally be able to invite you to join us!

If you’ve been around long, you may have noticed that we keep a pretty tight lock on the social media we use. We don’t have a Facebook page. We use Tumblr very casually, and largely to boost and crosspost material from our website. Our YouTube comments are permanently disabled; and we do everything we can to direct discussion to the comments here.

There’s a reason for that: it’s incredibly important to us to have our community spaces be fun, civil, and safe; and for those qualities to be supported at an infrastructural level. The community that has come together–largely independently–around this podcast is freaking amazing. You are some of the most engaged, enthusiastic, and all-around nice people we’ve ever met, on or off the Internet. And we want to keep it that way.

Which is part of why we’re excited about Imzy. It’s explicitly oriented around communities–think the rough structure reddit with actual oversight, infrastructure, and active anti-harassment tools. If it works the way we’re hoping it will, it’ll mean a community that you can post directly to–not just comment on our stuff–and a lot of new ways to engage.

Not only is this so far shaping up to be a pretty cool platform, but you also get a totally sweet bribe for joining us there, because Imzy commissioned an X-clusive giveaway t-shirt from the always-amazing Dylan Todd:

I KNOW, RIGHT?!
I KNOW, RIGHT?!

Here’s how it works: Click over here, and enter your info; and we’ll get back to you with an official beta invite ASAP! We’ll also have physical cards with invite codes with us at ECCC.

As I wrote above, we’re pretty excited about this community, but mostly? We’re really looking forward to seeing you there. <3

 

As Mentioned in Episode 101 – Not Bad, Just Drawn That Way

5 comments

Listen to the podcast here.


Art by David Wynne. Prints and cards available at the shop, or contact David to purchase the original.
Magneto, you know that’s not gonna work. (New Mutants #67)
Teenagers, amirite? (New Mutants #67)
BLEVINS, STOP THAT. (New Mutants #67)
Chessboard cover. Take a drink, or manipulate your friends and loved ones in a complex tactical gambit. (New Mutants #68)
Eep. (New Mutants #68)
Aw, Illyana. (New Mutants #68)
There’s either a whole lot or very little going on here, and sometimes it’s difficult to work out which. (New Mutants #68)
Basically any PUA forum. (New Mutants #68)
Aw, Rahne. (New Mutants #68)
There are a few ways to read this scene. You do you. (New Mutants #68)
The problem with this era is that we can’t describe anything as “sinister” without implications. (New Mutants #68)
Aw, Rahne. (New Mutants #68)
If I had a dollar for every time I’d seen this exact scenario pop up in Seventeen Magazine‘s “Most Embarrassing Moments”… (New Mutants #68)
Spyder then posts a long string of rants on Twitter, in which he refers to women exclusively as “females.” (New Mutants #69)
INFERNOWATCH, AHOY! (New Mutants #69)
Haven’t we all got eldritch abominations inside us, when it comes down to it? (New Mutants #69)
You’re a good kid, Bobby. (New Mutants #69)
This is a man who’s one bad day away from writing “Surrender Dorothy” in the sky with iron filings. (New Mutants #70)
That doesn’t even… y’know what? Never mind. Let’s just run with it. (New Mutants #70)
And you thought your family reunions were rough. (New Mutants #70)
There are too many reasons that this doesn’t make sense to list here. Go listen to the episode. (New Mutants #70)
NEXT EPISODE: Decapitatoin and baby theft with X-Factor

Jay & Miles Review the X-Men, Episode 78

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Week of March 16, 2016:

In which the parts of Extraordinary X-Men are greater than their sum; All-New X-Men is the new New Mutants; you should totally come see us at Norwescon and Emerald City Comic Con; and yes, we are aware that it should be Luis Buñuel, but it’s been a long week.

REVIEWED:

  • Extraordinary X-Men #8 (00:25)
  • *All-New X-Men #6 (05:56)

*Pick of the Week (12:18)

Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. These video reviews–and everything else here–are made possible by the support of our Patreon subscribers. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

Counting to 100

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final

Dear Everybody,

On April 13, 2014, we posted the first episode of this ridiculous little podcast: two nerds, at a table, explaining the convoluted continuity of one of our favorite comics.

Almost two years later, it’s like looking back from a different universe. Our weird hobby has become a part-time job. We’ve interviewed some of our favorite creators; traveled across the country; thrown parties and panels; shown up in an actual X-Men comic; been part of an enormous crossover; and explained a quarter of a century of comics continuity. We’ve gone from an audience of friends and family to around 15,000 regular listeners–who, together, have become one of the coolest and tightest-knit communities we’ve had the privilege to be part of.

And you’ve been with us through a lot. In addition to all the stuff above, you turned out for two (soon to be three!) live episodes. You’ve been there through our tenth wedding anniversary; a gender transition and name change; and–as of this week–100 episodes of Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men.

Thanks are in order:

To you, listeners, for sticking with us through 100 episodes of time travel, crossovers, and clones.

To our Patreon subscribers, who let us keep doing what we do ad-free and answerable only to our listeners.

To Kyle Yount, our current producer, who makes us sound way better on the air than we do in the studio.

To Bobby Roberts, our first producer and podcasting mentor, who set one hell of a high bar, and without whom it’s fair to say that none of this would exist in the first place.

To our illustrator and friend David Wynne, who’s bridged what we do back from the audio to the visual.

To AdminstratriX Tina, mistress of the spreadsheets and question files.

To the creators, guest X-Perts, and co-hosts who’ve brought their voices and ideas to our show: Elisabeth Allie, Kris Anka, Marguerite Bennett, Chad Bowers, Elle Collins, Russell Dauterman, Kieron Gillen, Dennis Hopeless, Graeme McMillan, Peter V. Nguyen, Annie Nocenti, Paul O’Brien, Jeff Parker, Greg Rucka, Kieran Shiach, Chris Sims, Si Spurrier, G. Willow Wilson–and last, but far from least, today’s guest: Chris Claremont.

To our off-air partners in crime, Katie Moody and Anna Sheffey, who are just the absolute damn best.

And to the many, many other friends and collaborators who’ve helped make Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men what it is.

Here’s to the next 100.

Love,
Jay Rachel Edidin & Miles Stokes