Celebrate the season with a special holiday spotlight episode of JSA in the 90s, featuring two Christmas tales from the 1990s! Jose Rivera and The Irredeemable Shag discuss STARMAN #27 (1996), as Jack Knight stars in “Christmas Knight”, written by James Robinson with art by Steve Yeowell and Wade Von Grawbadger. Then, Steve Givens joins the show to discuss THE FLASH #73 (1992), spotlighting Jay Garrick and Wally West in “One Perfect Gift”, written by Mark Waid with art by Greg LaRocque and Roy Richardson. Plus, we wrap up with YOUR listener feedback!
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Thanks for listening! Join the fight for Justice… and candy canes!
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Great show and great stories by the guests. Weirdly, you were talking about the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol. My father in law is visiting, and we just watched that one last night!
My absolute favorite version!!!
Thank you! Yeah, Starman is deeply personal to me. Like I mentioned in the episode, without it I wouldn’t have gotten serious about writing and everything that came from it 🙂
My dad’s preferred version of A Christmas Carol is the 1951 version as that’s the one he grew up with. He often says others (minus the Patrick Stewart one) can’t hold a candle.
While you confirmed that you meant that Jay wouldn’t have had time to explain the situation to the doctors, the initial comments about how he could have gotten the correct doctors so fast reminded me of a scene in JLA 193. It was the fist comic I had seen Firestorm in an I don’t know who he was. Barry tosses a Rubik’s Cube in the air, runs to Central City Penitentiary, checks TO Morrow’s cell, then read the prison records to discover Morrow had been missing, then ran back to Manhattan in time to catch the cube. Firestorm was incredulous and Wonder Woman placed her hand on Ronnie’s shoulder saying, “Firestorm, why do you think they call him the fastest man alive?” That is still the greatest example of how fast the speedsters are, in my mind. Secondly, I didn’t see the star on the tip of the church indicating the way as a trope. Especially because in a small box on the splash page it says, “Dedicated to Denny O’Neil— who wrote ‘em best”. Granted, I feel that way because I recently listened to DC’s Special Cast where they covered the Denny O’Neil penned story where the star appeared over the manger and pointed out the bad guy to Batman, saving the day. I’d go so far as to say that’s the All Star moment of the book in conjunction with the O’Neil mention. Lastly, I recall the first time I watched the Justice League Animated episode “Comfort and Joy” and seeing Wally trying to get a DJ Rubber Duck and wondering if it was inspired in part by the story of Wally trying to find a gift for Linda. Awesome episode (both Comfort and Joy and JSA in the 90s) again. I can’t wait for the next series.
Great episode with wonderful guests! It was a pleasure to hear Jose talk about Starman, because I know he’s a huge fan. I feel a bit guilty that Cindy and I have dropped the ball on the Starman Chronicles, and I appreciate the kind words. But the reason is as Shag pointed out, that’s one dense series, and its difficult to cover it in a manner that seems worthy and fitting! No promises, but maybe one day we can get back to it now that JLUCast is essnentially done. We covered this issue on Super Mates years ago, and it’s definitely one of my favorite holiday comics, and I loved revisiting it here. Oddly enough, Ryan, Captain Entropy and myself just discussed ANOTHER Steve Yeowell drawn Christmas comic on Batman Knightcast! It’s Steve Yeowell week!
Always a pleasure to hear Steve talk about The Flash! I’m in the same boat with him on this issue. I bought it off the stands at the local Begley’s Drug (where my future mother-in-law worked) and was flipping through it before buying it. The last page nearly knocked me to the floor! At the time, I kind of WANTED Barry to come back, but after Waid made Wally THE Flash with this very story, I wish he’d stayed dead for good. Loved that you brought up Jay’s “I call people by their names” moment later on. I still get chills just thinking about that!
I also agree the pseudo-splash is better than the cover. I liked LaRoque’s work, but the anatomy could get a little wonky sometimes. But I guess that was just the “look” of this Flash series, beginning with Jackson Guice.
Again, great episode Jose, Steve and Shag. Made my final work day of the year Merry and Bright!
Chris, you are always a class act, man! And no worries about the podcast. You and Cindy do so many shows and I always look forward to your House of Franklinstein episodes every October. It’s been a joy getting to know you and Shagg with Starman because for the longest time, I was the only person I knew who not only read the series but enjoyed it. Sure, there were people on the old DC Comics message boards, but you never got that personal interaction that I get with you guys.
Shagg said it and you reiterated it’s a dense series. I like to go back to it once a year not only for the story, but also to remind myself what inspired me all those years ago to want to get serious about writing and yeah, it’s a lot to process, especially around Stars My Destination.
I’m rarely on podcasts and I don’t love the sound of my voice, but I’m so glad how this one turned out. I think towards the end I got more comfortable going off my gut than going off the notes and I have to credit Shagg for that. But I’m mainly here to thank you for your kind words, Chris and say yes, sometimes I still listen to those old Starman episodes of yours and it makes me happy!
This issue of Starman is my favorite holiday comic. The best part was Hope meeting Charity and laughing about how the trinity is complete . Faith, Hope, and Charity. It’s those moments that made this book feel so real
With the Flash issue, I remember reading it and loving the fact that Jay and Wally were sharing a story. I’ve always had an affinity for Jay Garrick even when I didn’t know a lot about him. He was the original Flash and that was enough to get me excited to read a story with him in it. And that last page was such a shocker! I can only imagine what it must’ve been like for people reading it when it came out. Barry Allen showing up at your door when he’s been dead for a while? Everyone’s faces in that scene say it all. Ah, the good times before we got flooded with Barry Allen post-Final Crisis and Flash: Rebirth
So to lose all of my nerd cred, I haven’t read the entire Starman series. I did get the first year or two, and the final year, but that’s about it. It *is* on my to-read list, but as noted, its denseness has kept it on hold. But if a podcast gives me an excuse to read along, I’ll jump at it.
That all means that this was my first time reading that issue, and dang, why is it so dusty in here, making my eye water? Excellent choice for a seasonal episode.
And a great issue of the Flash. Of course, I have this entire run, but it’s fun with this issue being in Mark Waid’s first year on Flash. (If only he’d known where it would lead to today.) He just hit the ground running on this series, and never stopped. Just so good.
I did have a thought about Jay bringing doctors and nurses. I choose to believe Jay personally or professionally knows the people he brought. He has the personality that I can see befriending all kinds of people in Keystone, or even a network of rescues who are willing to “pay it forward” when he needs them. Yes, Wally could do the same sort of thing, but I don’t see him being that good at networking, said with love as Wally is my favorite Flash 100%.
Now I think it was touched on that the pregnant woman’s name was “Maria”, but not sure if it was commented that husband “Joey” is an on-the-nose play on “Joseph”. So yes, Waid went all-in with the metaphors here.
Excellent episode as always, with great guests and discussion. Merry Christmas, Shagg!
Funny in. The you said marvel vs dc . The past couple of weeks I’ve bin wearing my green lantern zip up hoodie to work and I use a marvel back for work . I thought you’d enjoy that
Typeo backpack
Great show! One of these days, I will read more of Robinson’s Starman. I think I have read the first trade and really liked it, but simply haven’t picked up more. Robinson is someone who has written some fabulous comics (particularly The Golden Age and I know that Starman and Leave It to Chance are both very well-regarded) and worked on the awesome Stargirl TV series, but he also wrote the Cry for Justice miniseries. I find most of his work to be somewhere in between those two extremes.
Man, The Flash family has some pretty good Christmas comics. There is this one and the “Present Tense” short that you mentioned in which Wally tries desperately to remember and search the world what Linda wanted for Christmas. Also, there’s “No, Bart, There is No Santa Claus”, a nice little Impulse story. Max tries to convince Bart that Santa isn’t real, but Bart points out that, in a world where super-powers exist, why is it so hard to believe in Santa. “Secret headquarters. Red suit. Travels at super-speed. What’s so improbable about that?”
Hope y’all enjoyed a very merry Christmas and will enjoy a Happy New Year.
Great episode, guys!
I love Yeowell’s art on the Starman issue, which is surprising because I am usually not a fan of his work on mainstream series. I always see him as more of an indie or Vertigo artist.
It brings up a question – Do you have an artist/writer whose work you typically aren’t a big fan of that knocked it out of the park for you on a specific issue or arc?
I have a specific example in mind:
1. I tend to not enjoy the work of Brian Azzarello, finding it too dark and cynical for my taste, so imagine how surprised I was when I really enjoyed his take on Wonder Woman in the New 52. Now, mind you, it had brilliant art by Cliff Chiang, which didn’t hurt, but he still deserves credit to an imaginative run.
Love the Starman coverage!
Top Christmas podcast, nice one Shag, Jose and Steve!
I loved the Starman series too, bought it as it came out and have it all in trades. This was an especially nice story, I’m such a sucker for sentiment.
As regards the phrase ‘in my cups’, it’s honestly not a phrase you hear in the UK unless you’re watching Shakespeare. I guess Faith was put in an olde worlde mood by all that pseudo-Dickens flirting with hubby Clarence.
And we get a classic Flash issue too, goodness me, I remember being excited when that page came along; Wally was doing great but I hated the horror of Barry’s death, his dying all over the DCU, shrivelling, then properly snuffing it with no heroes around to bear witness. So I was glad to see him back. As for this issue’s main business, it was lovely fluffy fare.
Shag, I’m surprised to hear you knew ‘Barry’ was coming back, my memory was that it was a massive surprise. Maybe comics shop staff were told?
I’m no fan of Flash artists not bothering with speed lines, the heroes look lifeless.