Army Of Crime

Army of Crime returns for Season 2! The theme for our second season is "Attack of the Modern Age", and what better place to start a freewheeling tour of the modern age of comics than with Watchmen, the New York Times bestselling comic that catapulted Alan Moore into the pantheon of all time great comics writers. Join us as we attempt to read Watchmen with fresh eyes and disentangle the comic from the cultural legacy that has grown up around it. Music is by Free Rap Beats. Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444. Topic for this episode is Watchmen by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins.

All pods have been cast for Season One here at Army of Crime headquarters. Our retrospective episode looks at Hellboy, Nat Turner, Hellblazer, the upcoming Dune film and uh, cattle. Your interprid hosts are heading back to the workshop to get started on Season Two. Stay alive out there, kids.   Music is by Free Rap Beats.   Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com.   Topics for this episode include Hellboy, Hellblazer, Dune, Nat Turner, First Cow.

La Marseillaise is a 1938 French film from director Jean Renoir about the French Revolution. Wolverine/Nick Fury: The Scorpio Connection is a 1989 graphic novel by Archie Goodwin and Howard Chaykin. Music is by Free Rap Beats.  Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com.  Topics for this episode include La Marseillaise, The Rules of the Game, Wolverine/Nick Fury: The Scorpio Connection, Judge Dredd: Judgement Day and Copra.

This episode we look at two starkly different takes on historical fiction. Unconquered is a Technicolor epic from 1947 directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Gary Cooper and Paulette Goddard. This film represents an extremely Anglo-centric history of the United States, ostensibly telling the story of Pontiac's War from the perspective of a frontiersman and an indentured servant. Nat Turner is a four issue mini series written and drawn by Professor Kyle Baker about a violent slave uprising led by the titular enslaved man turned violent revolutionary and messiah. Nat Turner is both historically accurate and emotionally searing on a technical and thematic level.  Music is by Free Rap Beats.  Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com.  Topics for this episode include Unconquered, Nat Turner, Sign of the Cross and The Nightingale.

The Star Wars saga began over 40 years ago with the release of Star Wars (later re-titled A New Hope) in 1977. Now, decades later, Star Wars has spanned nine films in the main storyline, multiple spin offs and countless TV shows, video games, books, and comics. Rise of Skywalker certainly represents a technical and cultural achievement, but is it any good? Join us as we try to parse out the end of the Skywalker saga and decipher what exactly has made Star Wars such an unstoppable juggernaut of pop culture.   Music is by Free Rap Beats.   Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com.   Topics for this episode include Rise of Skywalker, The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and Star Wars: Clone Wars.

This episode we look at the black and white historical fantasy comic book Mort Cinder and the Taiwanese New Wave film The Terrorizers. These works together show a variety of people's lives subject to the invisible gears of historical and social processes, as well as pirates, jail breaks and even the Battle of Thermopylae.  Music is by Free Rap Beats.  Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com.  Topics for this episode include Mort Cinder, The Terrorizers and Frank Miller's Sin City.

Hell is other people. Hell is also ourselves. It is also, I suppose, a magical realm where evil creatures and the like live. This episode we examine the Steven Soderbergh joint Unsane, which is possibly about an insane person, corrupt institutions, and how awful people can be for twisted reasons. Then, we take a journey through the Roger Stern written and Mike Mignola drawn Marvel story Dr. Strange and Doctor Doom, which involves a titanic team up of gnarly neophyte necromancers into a mystic maelstrom against Mephisto.    Music is by Free Rap Beats.    Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com.    Topics for this episode include Unsane (available on streaming), Dr. Strange and Dr. Doom, available in print or digital, and The Limey, available on disc.

Hell will no hold no surprises for you after listening to our episode about the 1971 film The Devils, directed by Ken Russell. Repeatedly censored and often out of print, The Devils is a searing and phantasmagorical look at early modern witchcraft trials, demonic possessions, church-state power and the depths of human viciousness. Fascinating, outrageous and offensive to many, The Devils is not a film easily forgotten. Note: As this film is based on real events that happened in France in the early 1600s, we will be discussing the plot in full and getting into what might be considered spoilers. Music is by Free Rap Beats.  Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com.  Topics for this episode include The Devils (available on streaming).

This episode we look at Other Mothers and other types of dangerous characters. From witch haunted American woods to the Nazi controlled streets of Paris, nothing is what it seems in Coraline and Flight of the Raven. Coraline is a stop motion animation film adapted from a Neil Gaiman novella and directed by Henry Selick. Flight of the Raven is a beautifully illustrated story of La Résistance written and drawn by French comics creator Jean Pierre Gibrat. Talking cats! Fast talking cat burglars! Jumping circus mice!     Music is by Free Rap Beats.    Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com.    Topics for this episode include Coraline, (available on streaming or disc), Flight of the Raven by Jean-Pierre Gibrat (available in print), Anomalisa, directed by Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman (available streaming or disc), and Kubo and the Two Strings directed by Travis Knight (available on disc).

Hellboy returns! Wakanda Forever! This episode we check out the Hellboy Animated films, featuring the voices from the 2004 live action film and an assortment of vampires, witches and monsters. Then the King of Comics gives a guided tour of Wakanda, home of the Black Panther. It's Bronze Age Kirby at his most artistically powerful in a lesser known run on the character he created decades earlier. Immortal samurai, vampires, monsters and punch ups abound!    Music is by Free Rap Beats.    Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com.     Topics for this episode include Hellboy Animated, (available on streaming), Black Panther by Jack Kirby (available in digital or print), Newsboy Legion by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon (available in print or digital), and The Demon by Jack Kirby (available in print or digital).

In this Halloween adjacent episode, your brave co-hosts take a deep dive into the Garth Ennis written and Goran Sudzuka drawn horror comic book A Walk Through Hell. The pervasive existential nausea that resulted may take weeks to fully fade. Our most macabre episode is probably one to listen to with the lights on!    Music is by Free Rap Beats.    Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com.    Topics for this episode include A Walk Through Hell volume 1 (available print and digital) and A Walk Through Hell volume 2 (available print and digital), Caliban by Garth Ennis and Facundo Pericio (available in digital or print), and Helllblazer written by Garth Ennis (available in an omnibus or as volumes 5-8 of Hellblazer).

This episode takes us into the reaches of outer space and the depths of the Warsaw sewer system. First we examine the acclaimed comic New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke that celebrates the Golden and Silver Ages of DC comics, followed by the film Kanal, a harrowing saga about the Polish resistance in the last days of the Warsaw Uprising, directed by Andrzej Wajda.    Music is by Free Rap Beats.    Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com.     Topics for this episode include Kanal, (available on streaming), New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke (available in digital or print), Army of Shadows directed by Jean-Pierre Melville (available on disc or digital), and Ashes and Diamonds directed by Andrzej Wajda (available in digital).

More King Arthur! This episode we are looking at the complex and critically accliamed French comic Equinoxes and the animated movie The Sword in the Stone, an animated adaptation from the novel The Once and Future King. This episode has it all! Time travel! Airports! Multi-level socio-political narratives! Talking animals!  Music is by Free Rap Beats.  Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 and on the web at armyofcrime.com.  Topics for this episode include Sword in the Stone, (available on disc or digital), Equinoxes by Cyril Pedrosa (available in digital or print), The Once and Future King written by TH White (available in digital or print), and Peplum by Blutch (available in digital or print).

More Hellboy! This episode we look at two "coming of age stories". The first is Hellboy: The Midnight Circus, written by Mike Mignola and drawn by Duncan Fegredo, in which a young Hellboy begins to glimpse the dark outlines of his cursed life. We also look at the love story/post-apocalyptic film How I Live Now starring Saoirse Ronan and directed by Kevin Macdonald. Evil circuses! Angst! Bildungsroman!  Music is by Free Rap Beats.  Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 or on the web at armyofcrime.com.  Topics for this episode include: Hellboy: The Midnight Circus (available in print or digital) (written by Mike Mignola and drawn by Duncan Fegredo), Hellboy Omnibus Editions, created by Mike Mignola and collected in Volume 1 (print or digital), Volume 2 (print or digital), Short Stories Volume 1 (print or digital), Short Stories Volume 2 (print or digital), Volume 3 (print or digital) and Volume 4 (print or digital), How I Live Now, (available on disc or digital) and Hope and Glory (available on d

This episode we explore the Matter of Britain through the fantasy film Excalibur, directed by John Boorman. Then, we take a deep dive into the Matter of Hellboy, by way of Hellboy in Hell, the culmination of decades of storytelling by legendary comics creator Mike Mignola. Music is by Free Rap Beats.  Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 or on the web at armyofcrime.com.  Topics for this episode include Excalibur, directed by John Boorman, available on disc or digital. Hellboy in Hell, written and drawn by Mike Mignola, available in print and digtal in an omnibus format. Camelot 3000, written by Mike W. Barr and drawn by Brian Bolland, is available in print or digital. The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects by Mike Mignola, available in print and digital.

Take a look at the steampunk/dark fantasy styling of Hellboy 2: The Golden Army with us, and then take a stroll through Krazy Kat, the comic by George Herriman that was chosen by Comics Journal as the best comic strip of all time.   Music is by Free Rap Beats.  Find us on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444 or on the web at armyofcrime.com.  Topics for this episode include Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, directed by Guillermo del Toro, available on disc or digital. Krazy & Ignatz 1916-1918, written and drawn by George Herriman, available in print and digtal. Hellboy: The Crooked Man collected in Hellboy Short Stories Omnibus 2 in print or digital. Flash Gordon by Alex Raymond, the first volume is available in print as well as the complete series.

This episode we talk about what could have been and what might have been with the Star Wars spin off movie Solo, and then grapple with the complex and critically acclaimed work of comics journalism, Palestine, created by Joe Sacco.  Music is by Free Rap Beats. Find us on the web at www.armyofcrime.com and on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444. Topics for this episode include: Palestine, written and drawn by Joe Sacco (available in print), Solo, directed by Ron Howard (available in digital, disc, and dvd), Star Wars: Dark Empire, written by Tom Vietch, art by Cam Kennedy (available in print and digital) and Death in Gaza, directed by James Miller (available on dvd).

This episode we are checking out Batman: Ego, a collection of Darwyn Cooke's Batman stories and the film Bitter Victory, a World War 2 film about divided loyalties and the fog of war directed by Nicholas Ray. Ego also features Selena's Big Score, a top notch crime thriller starring Catwoman.  Music is by Free Rap Beats. Find us on the web at www.armyofcrime.com or on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444.  

In our tenth episode we look at an EC comics archive, Spawn of Mars and Other Stories, and an animated movie about chickens escaping from a POW camp, Chicken Run. Spawn of Mars features the top shelf sci-fi art of comics legend Wally Wood and Chicken Run is directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park, co-creators of Wallace and Gromit. Music is by Free Rap Beats. Find us on the web at www.armyofcrime.com or on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444.  

Join us as we take a look at the 2017 comic series The Goddamned, written by Jason Aaron and drawn by R.M. Guera, a sort of post-apocalyptic Bible story, and the 1963 Roger Corman directed horror film The Raven, which features an all star cast of Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff and a young Jack Nicholson. Music is by Free Rap Beats. Find us on the web at www.armyofcrime.com or on Twitter at @armyofcrime and @dustin44444.