Category Drew Baumgartner

Drew Baumgartner, Co-Editor-In-Chief
drew@retcon-punch.com

Location: Milwaukee

History With Comics: Drew grew up with Superman pajamas. His best days were when he never had to change out of them. He fell in love with Batman the Animated Series when he was 5. He had never read a comic in his life, but started reading Batman trades when he was in high school. He continued to pick up trades and one-offs throughout the 00’s, but never got into the monthly swing. After almost a decade of being an outsider looking in, Drew seized upon DC’s relaunch to start picking up monthlies.

Apr 17 2015

Convergence Round-Up: Week Two

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Today, Shane leads a discussion about Convergence 1, Aquaman 1, Batman: Shadow of the Bat 1, Justice League International 1, Supergirl Matrix 1 and Superman: Man of Steel 1.

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“Never half-ass two things. Whole ass one thing.”

-Ron Swanson, Parks and Recreation.

Shane: Success comes from committing wholeheartedly to a goal, and that’s true in everything — even comic books. If the first week of Convergence focused on setting up the event with slow-moving exposition, the second week lurches startlingly forward, throwing the story in multiple directions. But even as the main event strives for greatness, its sister titles stumble along, burdened by continuity errors and contradictions between stories, almost as if the writers sped through their research. If Convergence was designed to celebrate specific eras of years past, what does it say that half the books seem to betray that history? And that begs the follow-up question…if the stories are good enough, does it even matter?

Continue reading →

Apr 17 2015

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina 2

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Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina 2, originally released April 15, 2015.

“[Horror movies] urge us to put away our more civilized and adult penchant for analysis and to become children again, seeing things in pure blacks and whites. It may be that horror movies provide physic relief on this level because this invitation to lapse into simplicity, irrationality and even outright madness is extended so rarely. We are told we may allow our emotions free rein… or no rein at all.”

Stephen King, ‘Why We Crave Horror Movies’

Patrick: I’ve always found it hard to explain the appeal of a scary movie — even to myself. Generally speaking, I don’t consider myself a fan of horror. Why add to the anxiety in my life, right? But I have to admit that most of my most memorable moments watching movies have been forged during flicks that scared the shit out of me. Sixth grade super camp — outdoor screening of The Birds. Eighth grade, all-night movie fest, my first viewing of The Exorcist. My reactions to these movies transcend logic, appealing directly to my baser impulses. But fear is not the only thing human beings feel deep down past their rational cores; sex appeal is equally illogical. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina 2 plays with the concepts of sex and horror and takes advantage of the reader’s lizard brain reaction to both. Continue reading →

Apr 16 2015

The Fade Out 5

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Today, Drew and Spencer are discussing The Fade Out 5, originally released April 15th, 2015.

One of the most dangerous of literary ventures is the little, shy, unimportant heroine whom none of the other characters value. The danger is that your readers may agree with the other characters.

C.S. Lewis

Drew: I’ve been quick to praise Charlie Parish as the ideal audience surrogate, a virtually featureless cypher we’re free to project all of our emotions on to. Part of that falls out of his role as the protagonist, no more or less aware of the mystery at the heart of The Fade Out, but writer Ed Brubaker has carefully cultivated a character who’s conflicted about just about everything — he supports multiple readings so well because he’s feeling multiple things at any one moment. It’s a remarkable feat, but his openness also makes him a waifish anchor for the series. I’ve often seen that as more of a feature than a bug, allowing the series’ tone to vary widely based on the influence of the supporting cast, but as the cast begins asserting their opinions in issue 5, they run the risk of running away with the story entirely. Continue reading →

Apr 15 2015

Weekly Round-Up: Comics Released 4/8/15

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Look, there are a lot of comics out there. Too many. We can never hope to have in-depth conversations about all of them. But, we sure can round up some of the more noteworthy titles we didn’t get around to from the week. Today, Patrick, Drew and Spencer discuss The Surface 2, ODY-C 4, Descender 2, Darth Vader 4, Spider-Woman 6, and Ant-Man 4.

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Drew: I couldn’t tell you why, but in 5th grade, my teacher had the class watch Phase IV, a ’70s sci-fi film where a team of scientists battles a hive of sentient ants. I’m sure I watched plenty of movies that year that I can’t remember, but something about the images of Phase IV have stuck with me — a testament to director Saul Bass’s background in graphic design. Then again, I think I’m also intrigued at the melding of sci-fi and bugs, these tiny aliens that move unnoticed beneath our feet. That combination — sci-fi and bugs — are exactly what this Round-Up is all about. Continue reading →

Apr 15 2015

All-New Hawkeye 2

Alternating Currents: All-New Hawkeye 2, Drew and Spencer

Today, Drew and Spencer are discussing All-New Hawkeye 2, originally released April 8th, 2015.

Drew: I’m sure many folks have forgotten Cursed, the one-season NBC sitcom about a man cursed with bad luck in its pilot episode, but I’ll never forget it. Not because it was particularly good — I’ve actually forgotten almost everything about it — but because of its abrupt title change. Suddenly, Cursed, the high-concept sitcom about bad luck had become The Weber Show, a series so generic, its most distinctive characteristic was apparently the presence of former Wings star Steven Weber. That was my first lesson in the dangers of a narrative tying itself to a limiting premise, a problem I’ve found to be relatively ubiquitous in modern culture. All-New Hawkeye is far from the disaster that Cursed was, but as issue 2 strains against the flashback structure that worked so beautifully in issue 1, I find myself wondering if that structure is more of a prison than a springboard. Continue reading →

Apr 13 2015

Saga 27

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Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Saga 27, originally released April 8th, 2015.

Grace comes home drunk some times / and beats on the doorway to my guts. / I fumble with the locks / ’til the wound opens up. / She falls in, laughing: “Honey, I’m home.”

I wince as she stumbles up my spine / leaves a trail of bruises on my ribs. / I choke on her dancing on my tongue / she kicks out a tooth. / “Honey, I’m home.”

She lights a cigarette inside my head / blows all the smoke into my eyes / until she sees a tear. / Then she sighs: “just what I thought — another fragile Buddha”

Stuart Davis, “Grace”

Patrick: The language of love and the language of violence are uncomfortably similar. I’d also argue that they are two cultural constants we never really understand. The impulses to nurture and destroy are down deep in the human subconsciousness, ungoverned by rationality. Bryan K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples explore this through Marko’s bad fadeaway trip in Saga 27, suggesting that pacifism may mute more than Marko’s passion for violence, but all of his passions. He wakes up with a clarity, but is that a clarity to be celebrated or to be reviled? Continue reading →

Apr 10 2015

Convergence Round-Up: Week One

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Today, Patrick leads a discussion about Convergence 1, The Atom 1, Batgirl 1, Batman & Robin 1, Harley Quinn 1, Justice League 1, Superman 1 and Titans 1.

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“Life – it’s literally all we have. But is it any good?”

-Forrest MacNeil, Review.

Patrick: If the first week of Convergence has taught us nothing else, it’s that DC is not bringing back characters and concepts of yesteryear to watch them frolic around in their native environments. The premise of Convergence — multiversally displaced cities forced into combat with each other — looms large over the all the tie-in issues. That’s what DC Comics is for the next two months: not a bunch of old things you remember, love and/or tolerate, but something new, wild and frustratingly untamed.

Continue reading →

Apr 10 2015

Nameless 3

Alternating Currents: Nameless 3, Drew and Patrick

Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing Nameless 3, originally released April 8th, 2015.

It’s like the goddamn “Exorcist” meets “Apollo 13”!

Grant Morrison, Nameless

Drew: One day, I’d like to write an essay defending allusions as the defining artistic device of our time. That’s not to say allusions haven’t been used well throughout history, or that allusions are ubiquitous in all contemporary art, but it’s hard to deny the prevalence of allusions in modern pop-culture, from sampling in hip-hop to the naked homages of Quentin Tarantino. It makes sense; allusions are the natural, artistic extension of the hyperlinks we’ve come to expect throughout our daily reading. In that way, remixes and pastiches are the distillation of our time, simulating the experience of living in an overstimulating world, combining countless inputs into one meta-narrative we might call our lives. Nobody does this kind of remix better than Grant Morrison, whose career is as much defined by his ability to reconcile unwieldy continuity as it is by his affinity for impenetrable density. Nameless 3 showcases both of those sides, meditating on a whole host of sci-fi inspirations before spinning into a wickedly self-aware web of confusion. Continue reading →

Apr 9 2015

Deadpool 45

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Today, Taylor and Drew are discussing Deadpool 45, originally released April 8th, 2015.

Taylor: At the risk of sounding trite, a funeral is an event where people come together to celebrate the life of someone who has passed on. Even though most funerals are more somber than celebratory, the very nature of the event is to recognize someone who has died and to give those who remain closure. The much heralded Deadpool 45 is the issue where Deadpool dies and in many ways it acts like a funeral for Deadpool, even before the man himself has died. It offers closure to those who have read the series the past couple years and also reminds us just how much we ware going to miss the Merc With the Mouth, even if we know he won’t be gone for long. Continue reading →

Apr 8 2015

Weekly Round-Up: Comics Released 4/1/15

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Look, there are a lot of comics out there. Too many. We can never hope to have in-depth conversations about all of them. But, we sure can round up some of the more noteworthy titles we didn’t get around to from the week. Today, Drew, Spencer, and Patrick are discussing Uncanny Inhumans 0, Arkham Manor: Endgame 1, Batman Superman Annual 2, Ufology 1, The Woods 12, and Kanan: The Last Padawan 1.

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Drew:  Jonathan Hickman’s dueling runs of Avengers and New Avengers has at many times served as an extended exploration of what Neitzsche called “master morality.” Specifically, those titles have examined how the morals of rulers might be at odds with what we understand to be moral in our everyday lives. Charles Soule tweaks this notion slightly in Uncanny Inhumans 0, examining how Black Bolt’s Kingly duties — especially dealing with the end of the world — conflicts with his familial ones. Continue reading →