Weird Warriors Podcast

07/01/2025

Honoring Bob Wiacek, born on this day in 1953!

Wiacek attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City from 1971 to 1974. Wiacek got his start in the mid-1970s as a member of the "Crusty Bunkers" inking collective. For a short time in 1975–1976 he inked backgrounds (over Curt Swan's pencils) on Superman for DC Comics. He moved on to regular inking work for DC, and then in 1978 began a long association with Marvel which lasted until 1993.

Wiacek's first regular title was on Man-Thing issues #1-11, from 1979 to 1981, where he inked over Jim Mooney's pencils and then provided finished art based on Don Perlin's breakdowns. During this same period, Wiacek was the regular inker on Marvel's Star Wars comic, issues #16-37, working with Carmine Infantino.

In 1981, Wiacek moved on to be the regular inker on Uncanny X-Men, primarily inking Paul Smith in issues #159–176. Wiacek's next regular stint was John Byrne's inker on Alpha Flight, issues #15-29 in 1984–1985.

Overlapping with that job was Wiacek's work as inker for June Brigman on Power Pack issues #1-26.

In the years 1986–1989, Wiacek was the primary inker on X-Factor, issues #10-37, working with Walt Simonson. Wiacek then moved on to Sensational She-Hulk #1-11, reuniting with John Byrne for much of that period.

From 1990 to 1992, Wiacek embarked on his longest stretch as an inker, working with John Romita Jr. and then Bob Layton on Iron Man issues #258–283.

Wiacek's last long-term inking stint was on DC Comics' Orion, inking over Walt Simonson's pencils for issues #8-22, from 2001 to 2002.

Over the years, Wiacek has also inked comics published by Dark Horse and Valiant.

Wiacek taught first-year students at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art for a brief period in the early 1990s.

In 2022, Wiacek was awarded the Inkwell Awards Joe Sinnott Hall of Fame Award for his lifetime achievement in the art of inking.

Wiacek married computer analyst Ann Karavitis in November 1980. She died in 2012; together they had one son.

His work appears in two issues of Weird War Tales (51 and 53), and Rich got his signature in both of them!

06/01/2025

He's not wrong...

05/01/2025

Fanboy 4

Wartime Romances 9, Episode 80

Finster goes to court for selling a comic book to a minor. It presents the history of the Comics Code Authority (two pages of Marie Severin art) and the moral panic around comics, while also talking about how the N***s burned books and the efforts to keep literature alive (six pages of Russ Heath SGT Rock art)...

04/01/2025

Episode 82, Weird War Tales 62

to be released February 26, 2025

03/01/2025

Honoring David Morris!

David Morris being a stunningly common name, it is very difficult to find biographical info on what I would consider the right individual. Grand Comics Database lists his inking job in issue 61’s “Mind War” the only work he did for a major publisher. He did a one-page job in issue 152 of Cerebus and five issues of the story “Quantum” in Time-Bomb Comics, where he is the director. He is writer and artist on Memphis, S.O.E The Baker Street Irregulars and The Further Adventures of Schrodinger’s Cat, artist on the Foxglove Steampunk series and is the creator of the Norton the Dragon strip. He is currently working as writer/artist on the Steadfast and Tru Steampunk graphic.

02/01/2025

So, where abouts will we be when 2026 rolls around? Based on projections and Special Missions (which vary wildly depending on how productive Max is feeling), I'm guessing somewhere around issue 70. Will I be right? Only one way to find out... Remember this post next year!

01/01/2025

It's Weird War Tales #61! Featuring: Spongy Aliens! Final Sleep Pills! Iron Maiden! And...Breakfast #3!! What could it all MEAN, troops? Come on, you know there's only one way to find out; fall in and Get Clickin'! Our page is https://www.facebook.com/weirdwarpod Max is on Bluesky ...

31/12/2024

31/12/2024

Since you're getting an episode photo album on New Year's Eve, you're getting the "2024 Year in Review" post today. Twenty total episodes in 2024, ranging from Weird War Tales 48-60. The traditional Valentine's Day romance issue; four special missions (including SGT Rock, a "redeployment issue" and the traditional "fan-voted" Intel Report); and two Road Warriors episodes (most notably to the Star Trek set tour)! We met some legends in these pages (Jim Aparo) and said farewell to some (Russ Heath).

What does 2025 have in store? We pass the "halfway" point in the headline title. The romance episode is already lined up. Another Road Warrior trip is tentatively planned. Polish off the last of the "redeployment" issues? There's still two DC "Big Five" books that need to be covered. More legends are coming... Or I could get taken out in a tragic cross-country ballroom dancing accident on New Years Eve and the show will end in February when the "canned" episodes run out. Either way, be here! It'll be a ride either way!

29/12/2024

That you, John Wayne? Is this me?

28/12/2024

There's a small antique store almost within walking distance from where I live and I go visit quarterly to see what's new. In my last visit right before the holidays I found a collection of 16 "P/O Percy Prune Cartoon" postcards. These are probably fairly recent reprints, (published by "After the Battle" in London) but my interest was piqued and I acquired them. From the pack cover:

Pilot Officer Prune, Patron of the Most Highly Derogatory Order of the Irremovable Finger, was famous throughout the Allied Air Forces, not for achievement but for non-achievement. He was the fool, the mutt, the butt, the clot-doyen of all flying fools. He permeated the pages of the RAF's official and 'restricted' training memorandum, 'TEE EMM', in cartoons by Bill (Raff) Hooper who'd illustrated 'Forget Me Nots for Fighters' from lessons learned during the Battle of Britain. Pilot Officer Prune was "Willing- but Wet", "Dutiful- but Dumb", serving as an awful warning to all Allied Aircrews of what not to do in the air (or on the ground!) if you wanted to live. From the wreckage of his latest 'prunery', miraculously safe as ever, he contemplated with a hurt and puzzled detachment the eccentricities of a world which was never quite within his grasp, where his famous finger went unerringly to the wrong 'tit' and undercarriages never came down of their own accord! At war's end the Luftwaffe Staff had got on to him and awarded him the Iron Cross 'for having destroyed so many Allied aircraft'. Veteran airmen of all ranks still write to Percy, telling him of their own 'pruneries' of long ago- proving that there was, and is, a little bit of Prune in all of us!

Prune reminds me a bit of our own Sad Sack or Private Snafu and is a fun addition to my collection. See below for my favorite six. And nary a Killjoy to be found!

27/12/2024

Been a while since we posted a cartoon, and once I found one titled "Killjoy Was Here", I had to investigate, for obvious reasons. It's aimed at Air Force servicemen to not be jerks to the locals.

No, I was NEVER "that guy"...

Creator(s): Department of Defense. Department of the Air Force. 9/26/1947- (Most Recent)Series: Special Film Projects Relating to Military Activities, 1947 ...

25/12/2024

Christmas loot with show content (kind of!)! Looking forward to reading these, but I already have to cry foul for "100 Greatest": how on Earth is "Duck Amuck" in there (Bugs torments Daffy as the animator) and "Rabbit Rampage" isn't? (Elmer torments Bugs as the animator)? There is no way there are 99 better cartoons than that one...

25/12/2024

Merry Christmas! Our gift to you? WWT 61 on New Year's Day! Happy New Year! While the rest of you are "counting down", I'll be working on the album for the episode! March into the new year on a march into the future here!

24/12/2024

110 years ago tonight, an unofficial spontaneous ceasefire took place on portions of the Western Front, where soldiers from both sides set their weapons aside and walked out into No Man's Land to meet one another. I first learned of it thanks to the John McCutcheon song "Christmas in the Trenches" in the early 90's (which is still the gold standard), but many other groups have come out with songs commemorating the event (see link). The "In Flanders Fields" Museum in Cloth Hall, Ypres, Belgium (near where the event took place) has an outstanding exhibit I enjoyed five years ago. I've read books and watched movies about it, also. World War I was a phenomenal waste of life, and these songs make it all the more tragic... A "Weird War Tale" of the best kind.

Music video by Celtic Thunder performing Christmas 1915 (Live From Dublin / 2007 / Lyric Video). © 2023 Green Hill Productionshttp://vevo.ly/YzYhHy

24/12/2024

Ho Ho Ho

https://www.noradsanta.org/en/

23/12/2024

Episode 81, Wartime Romances 9

to be released February 14, 2025