Episodes

  • Alan Moore’s Best Single Issue Story? | SWAMP THING #32 (DC Comics, 1985)
    Aug 17 2026

    Steven wades into the murky waters of the bayous of Louisiana where a spaceship has brought some confused aliens into contact with DC’s mopey muck monster in a story that will shatter your heart into a million pieces. SWAMP THING no. 32 was written by Alan Moore and drawn by Shawn McManus.

    COMICS ROT YOUR BRAIN! is a deep dive into ‘80s comics (plus a few notable exceptions). In this podcast, screenwriters Steven Bagatourian (AMERICAN GUN) and Christopher Derrick (STAR TREK: PICARD) discuss their favorite books, runs, and creators from the Bronze Age.

    Become a CRYB! Member on YouTube for only $2.99 a month and unlock awesome bonus videos… Don’t sleep!

    Alan Moore’s Best Single Issue Story? | SWAMP THING #32 (DC Comics, 1985)

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    + Check out our YouTube channel to get a look at some of the fantastic art featured in our episodes. Visit ComicsRotYourBrain.com to sign up for our newsletter, Letter Column. You can also find us wherever you stream your favorite podcasts.

    + We appreciate your support of the show via Patreon: ComicsRotYourBrain

    + For even more cool shit, read Chris's Substack (cinema, comics, and culture) - THIN ICE




    ©2024 Comics Rot Your Brain!







    #comicbooks #comics #graphicnovel

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    1 hr and 33 mins
  • Manhunter: The Loudest Silent Goodbye in Comics
    Jul 30 2026

    In this episode, Chris gives a eulogy to Archie Goodwin and the final MANHUNTER story, the one Goodwin plotted but never lived to script. Walt Simonson drew it anyway. Every page. Without a single word. "The Final Chapter" first appeared in 1999's MANHUNTER: THE SPECIAL EDITION, collecting the Goodwin/Simonson run from DETECTIVE COMICS no. 437-443.

    COMICS ROT YOUR BRAIN! is a deep dive into ‘80s comics (plus a few notable exceptions). In this weekly podcast, screenwriters Steven Bagatourian (AMERICAN GUN) and Christopher Derrick (STAR TREK: PICARD) discuss their favorite books, runs, and creators from the Bronze Age.

    Join our CRYB! Family for only $2.99 a month on YouTube - once you’re a member, you’ll unlock awesome bonus videos… Don’t sleep!

    SHOW NOTES 00:00 - Cold Open 00:30 - Intro 01:49 - History of Manhunter 06:30 - Simonson's Decision 08:15 - What Happens In The Story 18:13 - Inspiration and Impact 20:05 - Final Thoughts

    #dccomics #dccomicsuniverse #bronzeagecomics


    Drop us a line!

    Support the show


    + Check out our YouTube channel to get a look at some of the fantastic art featured in our episodes. Visit ComicsRotYourBrain.com to sign up for our newsletter, Letter Column. You can also find us wherever you stream your favorite podcasts.

    + We appreciate your support of the show via Patreon: ComicsRotYourBrain

    + For even more cool shit, read Chris's Substack (cinema, comics, and culture) - THIN ICE




    ©2024 Comics Rot Your Brain!







    #comicbooks #comics #graphicnovel

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    22 mins
  • 19-Year-Old Wunderkind Artist Gives Musty Superhero AWESOME New Costume!
    Apr 14 2026

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    + Check out our YouTube channel to get a look at some of the fantastic art featured in our episodes. Visit ComicsRotYourBrain.com to sign up for our newsletter, Letter Column. You can also find us wherever you stream your favorite podcasts.

    + We appreciate your support of the show via Patreon: ComicsRotYourBrain

    + For even more cool shit, read Chris's Substack (cinema, comics, and culture) - THIN ICE




    ©2024 Comics Rot Your Brain!







    #comicbooks #comics #graphicnovel

    Show More Show Less
    2 hrs and 3 mins
  • STEPHEN R. BISSETTE Interview! Tyrant, Swamp Thing, Taboo, Kubert School, and More!
    Apr 9 2026

    https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxONuw60a0sJXul6nw7-lmlyjgB-lkn5C&si=nqCc-4aNAl6ZsKid

    The legendary Stephen R. Bissette joins Chris and Steven us for a CRYB! interview discussion spanning the breadth of his historic career as a writer, artist, editor, and publisher. Topics covered include SWAMP THING, TABOO, the Kubert School, and countless other things, all on the occasion of the first-ever collection of Bissette’s landmark indie classic, TYRANT (1994, Spiderbaby Grafix). Lighthouse Press and its publisher, Chris Stevens, have just launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring this magnificent work back into print, with the help of design guru extraordinaire, Jim Rugg! Everybody, please go and support this Kickstarter here…

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/comicslighthouse/bissette-tyrant-deluxe-editions

    …and enjoy our nearly three-hour discussion with one of the true living legends of the comic book art form!

    COMICS ROT YOUR BRAIN! is a deep dive into ‘80s comics (plus a few notable exceptions). In this weekly podcast, screenwriters Steven Bagatourian (AMERICAN GUN) and Christopher Derrick (STAR TREK: PICARD) discuss their favorite books, runs, and creators from the Bronze Age.

    STEPHEN R. BISSETTE Interview! Tyrant, Swamp Thing, Taboo, Kubert School, and More!

    SHOWNOTES/TIMESTAMPS 🎙️

    00:00 - The Trance
    01:14 - Theme Song
    01:28 - Episode Intro
    06:22 - ‘80s American Comics
    14:15 - Mainstream Comics Today
    21:06 - Jenette Kahn & Paul Levitz
    28:26 - How ‘80s Comics Were Made
    33:31 - Working with John Totleben
    48:21 - Creating TYRANT alone
    01:01:54 - TYRANT as VR Experience
    01:16:57 - Putting Creators on the “Right Comics” (Joe Kubert, Lee Elias, Russ Heath, Doug Wildey)
    01:30:25 - Steve Perry & TIMESPIRITS
    01:35:35 - Horror Comics in the ‘70s & ‘80s (CREEPY, EERIE, TWISTED TALES, TABOO)
    01:44:37 - Keith Giffen/José Muñoz controversy 
    02:05:40 - Teaching at the Center For Cartoon Studies
    02:17:10 - The TYRANT Kickstarter!
    02:29:34 - The Font Lettering Plague in Modern Comics

    Drop us a line!

    Support the show


    + Check out our YouTube channel to get a look at some of the fantastic art featured in our episodes. Visit ComicsRotYourBrain.com to sign up for our newsletter, Letter Column. You can also find us wherever you stream your favorite podcasts.

    + We appreciate your support of the show via Patreon: ComicsRotYourBrain

    + For even more cool shit, read Chris's Substack (cinema, comics, and culture) - THIN ICE




    ©2024 Comics Rot Your Brain!







    #comicbooks #comics #graphicnovel

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    2 hrs and 50 mins
  • This Artist Made The Most Shocking Marvel Comic Ever, Then Disappeared - UNTAMED (Epic Comics, 1993)
    Feb 16 2026

    Join Steven as he goes on a ride-along with an odd couple of hyper-violent cops, braving the squalid urban underworld of the futuristic, philosophical crime story that is UNTAMED (Epic Comics, 1993) ; written and drawn by Neil Hansen, this comic is a madly ambitious and profoundly bizarre piece of mainstream comic art that was somehow willed into existence by the passionate vision of one man.

    COMICS ROT YOUR BRAIN! is a deep dive into ‘80s comics (plus a few notable exceptions). In this weekly podcast, screenwriters Steven Bagatourian (AMERICAN GUN) and Christopher Derrick (STAR TREK: PICARD) discuss their favorite books, runs, and creators from the Bronze Age.

    This Artist Made The Most Shocking Marvel Comic Ever, Then Disappeared - UNTAMED (Epic Comics, 1993)

    Drop us a line!

    Support the show


    + Check out our YouTube channel to get a look at some of the fantastic art featured in our episodes. Visit ComicsRotYourBrain.com to sign up for our newsletter, Letter Column. You can also find us wherever you stream your favorite podcasts.

    + We appreciate your support of the show via Patreon: ComicsRotYourBrain

    + For even more cool shit, read Chris's Substack (cinema, comics, and culture) - THIN ICE




    ©2024 Comics Rot Your Brain!







    #comicbooks #comics #graphicnovel

    Show More Show Less
    2 hrs and 19 mins
  • The X-Men Comic That Changed Everything: LifeDeath
    Dec 7 2025

    Uncanny X-Men #186 — “LifeDeath” — remains one of the boldest creative swings in Marvel history. Instead of battles and villains, Chris Claremont and Barry Windsor-Smith deliver a quiet, emotionally devastating story about identity, trauma, and the cost of rebuilding yourself after everything is taken away.

    COMICS ROT YOUR BRAIN! is a deep dive into ‘80s comics (plus a few notable exceptions). In this weekly podcast, screenwriters Steven Bagatourian (AMERICAN GUN) and Christopher Derrick (STAR TREK: PICARD) discuss their favorite books, runs, and creators from the Bronze Age.

    In this video, Chris examines why LifeDeath is such a groundbreaking moment in the X-Men's long, fabled canon — from Storm’s loss of her powers, to Forge’s haunted past, to the painterly visual language Windsor-Smith used to redefine what superhero comics could look like in the 1980s.

    If you love the X-Men, Storm, Forge, Claremont’s writing, Windsor-Smith’s art, or deep-dive comics analysis, this issue is essential, and its legacy still echoes today.

    #XMen #MarvelComics #comichistory

    Drop us a line!

    Support the show


    + Check out our YouTube channel to get a look at some of the fantastic art featured in our episodes. Visit ComicsRotYourBrain.com to sign up for our newsletter, Letter Column. You can also find us wherever you stream your favorite podcasts.

    + We appreciate your support of the show via Patreon: ComicsRotYourBrain

    + For even more cool shit, read Chris's Substack (cinema, comics, and culture) - THIN ICE




    ©2024 Comics Rot Your Brain!







    #comicbooks #comics #graphicnovel

    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 5 mins
  • You Will Believe A Man Can DIE… Again & Again
    Nov 28 2025

    Chris and Steven journey to the surreal realm of the undead with the zombie-esque trapeze artist extraordinaire, DEADMAN (DC Comics, 1986), in this four issue mini-series written by Andrew Helfer and drawn by the incomparable Jóse Luis Garcia-López.

    COMICS ROT YOUR BRAIN! is a deep dive into ‘80s comics (plus a few notable exceptions). In this weekly podcast, screenwriters Steven Bagatourian (AMERICAN GUN) and Christopher Derrick (STAR TREK: PICARD) discuss their favorite books, runs, and creators from the Bronze Age.

    You Will Believe A Man Can DIE… Again & Again

    Drop us a line!

    Support the show


    + Check out our YouTube channel to get a look at some of the fantastic art featured in our episodes. Visit ComicsRotYourBrain.com to sign up for our newsletter, Letter Column. You can also find us wherever you stream your favorite podcasts.

    + We appreciate your support of the show via Patreon: ComicsRotYourBrain

    + For even more cool shit, read Chris's Substack (cinema, comics, and culture) - THIN ICE




    ©2024 Comics Rot Your Brain!







    #comicbooks #comics #graphicnovel

    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 51 mins
  • Before The Terminator came Marvel's KILLER CYBORB | Captain America - The Deathlok Saga
    Oct 19 2025

    See how this run reframes Cap’s identity through the lens of a cyborg from the future.

    The Deathlok Saga | CAPTAIN AMERICA #286 – 288 (DeMatteis & Zeck). In this first episode of CRYB! Season 3, Chris dives into one of Marvel’s most haunting time-travel/identity stories. He examines how J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck transform a sci-fi popcorn thriller into a meditation on what makes a hero human.

    COMICS ROT YOUR BRAIN! is a deep dive into ‘80s comics (plus a few notable exceptions). In this weekly podcast, screenwriters Steven Bagatourian (AMERICAN GUN) and Christopher Derrick (STAR TREK: PICARD) discuss their favorite books, runs, and creators from the Bronze Age.

    👉 Like, comment with your theories about Deathlok, and subscribe for more episodes!

    Support Our Patreon - / comicsrotyourbrain


    Drop us a line!

    Support the show


    + Check out our YouTube channel to get a look at some of the fantastic art featured in our episodes. Visit ComicsRotYourBrain.com to sign up for our newsletter, Letter Column. You can also find us wherever you stream your favorite podcasts.

    + We appreciate your support of the show via Patreon: ComicsRotYourBrain

    + For even more cool shit, read Chris's Substack (cinema, comics, and culture) - THIN ICE




    ©2024 Comics Rot Your Brain!







    #comicbooks #comics #graphicnovel

    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 3 mins