On this July 4 edition of War Rocket Ajax, Comics Alliance Editor-in-Chief Laura Hudson and Let’s Be Friends Again artist Chris Haley check in with us for the first ever, all-American War Rocket Ajax Comics Alliance roundtable! Among the topics we cover are the DC reboot, Comic-Con memories, and Chris Haley’s valiant, patriotic effort to get everyone to eat a Captain America donut Friday, #THEPACT. We also answer some tipsy listener mail and discuss the most American of pastimes: professional wrestling!

The Rundown

• If you’re curious about how DC’s new TV commercials might look, here’s what they went for back in ’93.
• Our favorite inanimate objects from superhero movies! Laura’s. Sims’. Haley’s. Matt’s.
  
• You can see all of photographer Joey Miller’s pictures of Haley’s THE PACT day (including the one above) here. Here’s one of Matt’s.
• To prove Matt was not kidding about the Baskin-Robbins Hydra sundae, go here and click on the “Captain America” tab.
• Dusty Rhodes’ famous “Hard Times” promo. CM Punk’s work-shoot promo from last week. David Shoemaker’s column about that promo. All about the term “kayfabe.“
• Chris’ checks and recs: The Art of Wrestling podcast
• Matt’s checks and recs: Chikara Pro Wrestling, Louie season 2 (sadly, the new episode isn’t up just yet)
• Music used: John Philip Sousa’s “Washington Post” march, “Real American,” Rick Derringer

Comics Talked About:

• Batman Incorporated #7
• Dungeons and Dragons hardcover
• Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #6

Shameless Self Promotion:

• The @FakeAPStylebook book, Write More Good, is still available to buy right here!
• Check out Sims at The ISB, Comics Alliance, his webcomic Awesome Hospital, as well as the complete Solomon Stone at ActionAgeComics.
• Check out Matt’s Fake e-Etiquette Twitter feed, his Tumblr and his blog.
• Check out all Euge’s music at AdamWarRock.com.
• Check out Max Huffman on Twitter, or at his site.
• Check out Rusty Shackles on Twitter, or at his site.

Please leave us a review on iTunes if you have the time! Also, remember to send in your listener questions to warrocketpodcast_at_gmail.com!

After discussing his work on PunisherMAX pretty much every week it’s come out, we finally managed to snag an interview with Scalped, Wolverine and X-Men writer Jason Aaron on this week’s show! He even braved a deadly gas leak to talk with us about VHS cinema, crazy storytelling, characterizing the Punisher, his CBR column, collaborating with artists to create super-cool scenes, a hint about what Bullseye whispered in Frank’s ear and a ton more! Plus, we take on a hater who…well, um…has a point. Plus, we welcome Hundo Clubber Clayton Johnston to our third chair!

The Rundown

• You can find more of Jason’s thoughts (when he’s not addled by natural gas) on Twitter and his blog!
• As promised, here’s the car from Corvette Summer.
• The famous column in which Jason Aaron told Alan Moore to go fuck himself.
• Wikipedia characterizes Kansas City barbecue sauce as “thick and sweet.” Until Jason takes us on a barbecue tour, I won’t believe otherwise.
• Clayton’s checks and recs: Registered Weapon’s “Date Night,” Notes, Man Factory’s Street Fighter II opera
• Chris’ checks and recs: Reddit’s “Batman academic,” Akira the Don’s “The Life Equation”
• Matt’s checks and recs: Getting back on Tumblr, Four Lions
• Music used: Man Factory, “Where Is Ryu?”; Akira the Don, “The Life Equation”; Killer Mike, “Ric Flair”

Comics Talked About:

• Gates of Gotham #2
• Superman #712
• Butcher Baker: The Righteous Maker

Shameless Self Promotion:

• The @FakeAPStylebook book, Write More Good, is still available to buy right here!
• Check out Sims at The ISB, Comics Alliance, his webcomic Awesome Hospital, as well as the complete Solomon Stone at ActionAgeComics.
• Check out Matt’s Fake e-Etiquette Twitter feed, his Tumblr and his blog.
• Check out all Euge’s music at AdamWarRock.com.
• Check out Max Huffman on Twitter, or at his site.
• Check out Rusty Shackles on Twitter, or at his site.

Please leave us a review on iTunes if you have the time! Also, remember to send in your listener questions to warrocketpodcast_at_gmail.com!

This week we feature our first guest of the Comics Alliance era (who was also our first guest ever), Matt Fraction, writer of The Mighty Thor, the Invincible Iron Man, Casanova and Fear Itself!  Matt talks with us about what it takes to get into the mindset of writing an event comic, the event comics that helped him create Fear Itself, tie-ins, why his Iron Man book wasn’t originally meant to be the “main” book, Van Halen’s greatest hit, weird television, and much more! Plus, we give our new CA listeners a taste of a fan-favorite segment!

The Rundown

• Follow Matt Fraction’s empirically best Twitter account and check out his also very nice website!
• Here’s the far-too-fascinating Wikipedia page for My Two Dads, in case you were confused. And here’s the one for Dinosaur Train. It’s nuts.
• “Dad is great! Gives us the chocolate cake!”
• What you get when you Google “Van Halen yacht dwarf” (after Fraction’s tweet).
• Answer our question: How fast would Four Loko cough syrup kill you?
• The Batman vs. Superman Wikipedia description.
• Chris’ Checks and Recs: Going to Comic-Con, replaying Mass Effect, Art Brut’s “Brilliant! Tragic!”
• Matt’s Checks and Recs: Chikara Pro Wrestling show, Superman audition?, the Michael Caine-off from The Trip, The Influencing Machine
• Music used: “Jump” by Van Halen

Comics Talked About:

• Batgirl #22
• Sci-fi Double Feature
• Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown #1

Shameless Self Promotion:

• The @FakeAPStylebook book, Write More Good, is still available to buy right here!
• Check out Sims at The ISB, Comics Alliance, his webcomic Awesome Hospital, as well as the complete Solomon Stone at ActionAgeComics.
• Check out Matt’s Fake e-Etiquette Twitter feed, The Content Farm and his blog.
• Check out all Euge’s music at AdamWarRock.com.
• Check out Max Huffman on Twitter, or at his site.
• Check out Rusty Shackles on Twitter, or at his site.

Please leave us a review on iTunes if you have the time! Also, remember to send in your listener questions to warrocketpodcast_at_gmail.com!

This week, we begin a whole new era as the official podcast of Comics Alliance! For our likely influx of new listeners, Chris and Matt are retelling their origin stories while also answering some listener questions! If you listen closely, you’ll hear the sound of our brand new raised collars! You’ll hear our take on what we’d do as Two Kings, overrated comics (hello Hush!), what we’ll be picking up in the big DC reboot and what would get us to attend the Gathering of the Juggalos (nothing). PREPARE YOURSELVES for a new era of War Rocket Ajax!

The Rundown

• You really need to check out Kittyzilla’s Handmade Stuffs. They are crazy neat.
• The Nas song that inspired the question. The Tenacious D song in which the phrase “kickass duke” was coined.
• Superman singin’ his song in Final Crisis.
• Here’s iFanboy’s helpful master list of DC reboot titles.
• Chris’ Checks and Recs: Heroes Con, sickness, Moon Diver, Torchlight
• Matt’s Checks and Recs: Birthday, engagement, Super 8, Epic Meal Time
• Music used: “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin

Comics Talked About:

• PunisherMAX #14
• Weird World of Jack Staff #6
• Empowered Special: Ten Questions for the Maidman

Shameless Self Promotion:

• The @FakeAPStylebook book, Write More Good, is still available to buy right here!
• Check out Sims at The ISB, Comics Alliance, his webcomic Awesome Hospital, as well as the complete Solomon Stone at ActionAgeComics.
• Check out Matt’s Fake e-Etiquette Twitter feed, The Content Farm and his blog.
• Check out all Euge’s music at AdamWarRock.com.
• Check out Max Huffman on Twitter, or at his site.
• Check out Rusty Shackles on Twitter, or at his site.

Please leave us a review on iTunes if you have the time! Also, remember to send in your listener questions to warrocketpodcast_at_gmail.com!

It’s the last episode of War Rocket Ajax AS YOU KNOW IT! That’s right, folks. We’re taking next week off because we’ll both be at Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC, but we’ll be back the week after with some big, but good, changes to the show. Stay tuned. To cap off this era of WRA, Chris and Matt decided to have a little brodown to mourn the loss of “Macho Man” Randy Savage, answer a bunch of listener questions, rail against the great horror that is Blues Brothers 2000, and much more!

The Rundown

• Deadspin’s “Dead Wrestler of the Week” series is really good, and their piece on Randy Savage is must reading. Be sure to watch the 20-minute video of promos.
• The title track off of Randy Savage’s rap album, “Be a Man.”
• Who does the better Transformers noise? U-Decide!
• If somehow you missed out on the horrible evil that was Blues Brothers 2000, here’s the trailer. And here’s Dan Aykroyd’s crazy crystal skull vodka video.
• A question in this episode and a visit to a local place made me start a barbecue blog. It was inevitable, I guess.
• Mutual Rec: L.A. Noire
• Chris’ Rec: Art Brut, Brilliant! Tragic!
• Matt’s Rec: Twin Peaks on Netflix WI
• Music used: “(Them) Changes” by Band of Gypsys

Comics Talked About:

• Amazing Spider-Man #662
• Detective Comics #877
• Secret Avengers #13 (Hearsay!)

Shameless Self Promotion:

• The @FakeAPStylebook book, Write More Good, is still available to buy right here!
• Check out Sims at The ISB, Comics Alliance, his webcomic Awesome Hospital, as well as the complete Solomon Stone at ActionAgeComics.
• Check out Matt’s Fake e-Etiquette Twitter feed, The Content Farm and his blog.
• Check out all Euge’s music at AdamWarRock.com.
• Check out Max Huffman on Twitter, or at his site.
• Check out Rusty Shackles on Twitter, or at his site.

Please leave us a review on iTunes if you have the time! Also, remember to send in your listener questions to warrocketpodcast_at_gmail.com!

This week we welcome South Carolina resident and writer of FF, S.H.I.E.L.D., Secret Warriors, The Red Wing and a ton of other stuff, Jonathan Hickman! Of course, we talk about the most important topic of all, barbecue. But after that, we get to Jonathan’s design work in comics, how he juggles all those books he writes, which FF character speaks in his voice, what he thinks Doctor Doom really ought to sound like, the mystery of what happened to Ed Brubaker’s jacket, and much more! Plus, we welcome yet another Hundo Club member, Luke Herr, to the show! And it’s our 69th episode so expect things to get…saucy.

The Rundown

• Check out Jonthan’s blog and follow him on Twitter!
• We didn’t get to talk too much about The Red Wing on the show, so here’s a preview on Comics Alliance.
• Heroes Con, June 3-5 in Charlotte, NC! We’ll be there.
• A glimpse at the “dark” Chris and Matt.
• Luke’s Rec: Dead Winter collection
• Chris’ Rec: My Two Dads (and that’s real)
• Matt’s Rec: Moon Diver
• Music used: “Future Reflections” by MGMT

Comics Talked About:

• Herc #3
• Gates of Gotham #1
• Rocketeer Adventures #1
• PunisherMAX #13
• Amazing Spider-Man #661
• Walt Disney Treasury: Donald Duck Vol. 1

Shameless Self Promotion:

• The @FakeAPStylebook book, Write More Good, is still available to buy right here!
• Check out Sims at The ISB, Comics Alliance, his webcomic Awesome Hospital, as well as the complete Solomon Stone at ActionAgeComics.
• Check out Matt’s Fake e-Etiquette Twitter feed, The Content Farm and his blog.
• Check out all Euge’s music at AdamWarRock.com.
• Check out Max Huffman on Twitter, or at his site.
• Check out Rusty Shackles on Twitter, or at his site.

Please leave us a review on iTunes if you have the time! Also, remember to send in your listener questions to warrocketpodcast_at_gmail.com!

Superman writer Chris Roberson stops by for the fourth–count ’em, fourth–time this week to celebrate a special holiday with us: Miracle Monday! While he’s at it, he also talks with us about his writing process, juggling multiple projects, his favorite moment in the first Superman movie, what DC had to change about Superman #711, his eventful dinner with Michael Moorcock, and much more! Plus, we highlight our second hater in a row, and gush about how much we liked Thor!

The Rundown

• Check out Chris Roberson’s website and follow him on Twitter!
• If you didn’t pick up the Elric Free Comic Book Day comic Chris wrote, the whole thing’s on CBR right here.
• You can get relatively cheap used copies of Elliot S! Maggin’s Miracle Monday on Amazon! If you just want the high points, there’s a short summary on Wikipedia.
• Here’s that infamous set of notes in which Jim Shooter discussed the sex lives of the various members of the Legion. Read at your own risk.
• The Awesome Hospital strip that brought out the hater.
• Mutual Rec: Thor
• Chris’ Rec: Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse comics
• Matt’s Rec: Doctor Who season 6
• Music used: “Funky Miracle” by The Meters

Comics Talked About:

• Batman Incorporated #6
• Amazing Spider-Man #660
• Superman #711
• Flashpoint #1

Shameless Self Promotion:

• The @FakeAPStylebook book, Write More Good, is still available to buy right here!
• Check out Sims at The ISB, Comics Alliance, his webcomic Awesome Hospital, as well as the complete Solomon Stone at ActionAgeComics.
• Check out Matt’s Fake e-Etiquette Twitter feed, The Content Farm and his blog.
• Check out all Euge’s music at AdamWarRock.com.
• Check out Max Huffman on Twitter, or at his site.
• Check out Rusty Shackles on Twitter, or at his site.

Please leave us a review on iTunes if you have the time! Also, remember to send in your listener questions to warrocketpodcast_at_gmail.com!

War Rocket Ajax chops into your life this week as we chat with Axe Cop co-creator and artist Ethan Nicolle! We discuss getting into the mindset of  a six-year-old, comics and money, violence, deadlines, what to tell a concerned mom who disapproves of a story all about poop. Also: We get into it with a hater who challenges our comedy knowledge. We don’t take it well. Plus: A stunning account of how a bar of South Carolinian wrestling fans took the news of Osama bin Laden’s death, in case you were wondering.

The Rundown

• If for some reason you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to check out AxeCop.com and follow Axe Cop on Twitter!
• Ethan also has his own website where you can buy his non-Axe Cop work and see a gallery of his art.
• I tried and tried to find a version of it to use on the show, but it seems no mp3 version of the Axe Cop Theme by Stepdad exists.
• Here’s the Comics Alliance article we discussed in the haters segment, and in case you haven’t heard of the WTF podcast, I mentioned, here you go.
• Chris’ Rec: “Thirteen Women” by The Renegades
• Matt’s Rec: Peggle
• Music used: The Unicorns, “Child Star”

Comics Talked About:

• FCBD Richie Rich/Kung Fu Panda
• FCBD Avatar: The Last Airbender
• Fear Itself #2

Shameless Self Promotion:

• The @FakeAPStylebook book, Write More Good, is still available to buy right here!
• Check out Sims at The ISB, Comics Alliance, his webcomic Awesome Hospital, as well as the complete Solomon Stone at ActionAgeComics.
• Check out Matt’s Fake e-Etiquette Twitter feed, The Content Farm and his blog.
• Check out all Euge’s music at AdamWarRock.com.
• Check out Max Huffman on Twitter, or at his site.
• Check out Rusty Shackles on Twitter, or at his site.

Please leave us a review on iTunes if you have the time! Also, remember to send in your listener questions to warrocketpodcast_at_gmail.com!

This week, we welcome out first video game creator guest, Jay Pinkerton, co-writer of Valve’s Portal 2, which is already, in my humble opinion, a contender for game of the year. Jay’s an old pal of ours, so he sits in with us for the whole show! He talks with us about his (and our) time in the early days of internet comedy, writing comics for Valve, following up the surprise success of the first Portal, working with Stephen Merchant and J.K. Simmons, music to write to, and a ton more! Plus, we examine the fallout of that Action Comics #900 backup. You know the one. And Dracula MAY show up. You’ve been warned.

The Rundown

• Here’s that Portal 2 comic Jay mentioned, and the Left 4 Dead comic he wrote, with art by Michael Avon Oeming! And one of many Team Fortress 2 comics.
• In all seriousness, unless you’re like Chris, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be playing Portal 2.
• Here’s that piece about assembling an Ikea desk on Jay’s old site.
• Because of a computer theft a few years ago, I lost almost all my old JayPinkerton.com forum comics forever. But I did manage to find a couple. Sadly, the best thing I have ever made, a comic featuring a woman with a tennis ball for a face, will never be seen again.
• Jay’s Rec: The Comics Cube in Bonney Lake, Washington
• Chris’ Rec: The Beastie Boys’ Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2
• Matt’s Rec: New socks

Comics Talked About:

• Amazing Spider-Man #659
• Batman Incorporated #5
• Detective Comics #876
• FF#2
• Action Comics #900

Shameless Self Promotion:

• The @FakeAPStylebook book, Write More Good, is still available to buy right here!
• Check out Sims at The ISB, Comics Alliance, his webcomic Awesome Hospital, as well as the complete Solomon Stone at ActionAgeComics.
• Check out Matt’s Fake e-Etiquette Twitter feed, The Content Farm and his blog. You can also buy his book, Hate You Forever, on Lulu and Amazon.
• Check out all Euge’s music at AdamWarRock.com.
• Check out Max Huffman on Twitter, or at his site.
• Check out Rusty Shackles on Twitter, or at his site.

Please leave us a review on iTunes if you have the time! Also, remember to send in your listener questions to warrocketpodcast_at_gmail.com!