#dennis mcnicholas

[calvincell]

I’ve been making my way through my 3rd re-listen of the incredible podcast - Batman: The Audio Adventures & just appreciating once more not only how terrifically written it is by showrunner Dennis McNicholas but also incredibly well acted by all of the amazing cast. For any unaware, the podcast is an audio fiction blend of comedy & superhero drama that was previously only an exclusive for HBO MAX subscribers back in 2021 but now both released seasons are freely available on literally every podcast app including on MAX’s own YT Channel itself, no subscription required.

In particular, I love the Harvey Dent moment we get in Season 1 - Episode 6 - “The Whale of Damocles”:

I have to first off praise the inspired creative choice the series makes to give Two-Face the dynamic that his personas are essentially like constantly bickering twin brothers - arguing, name calling & posturing but still inseparable at the end of the day.

In the scene in question, Harvey’s binary obsession has allowed The Penguin to easily lure Dent to his favorite pier on the Gotham Wharf, Pier 2, to prevent a planted bomb from destroying it. Batman arrives soon after as Dent’s desperate search brings him to the most perilous part of the pier. Batman is so earnestly trying to appeal to Harvey to stop that he almost can’t prevent slipping into his Bruce Wayne voice when we then get an excellent memorable moment (@ ~31:50) where we get a glimpse at the tortorus psychosis Harvey is living through:

Harvey gives this tragic peek into his mind as he extols the awe-inspiring & nightmarish gospel he shares with his violent other half. It’s not only a very well written torrent of mad thoughts but also brilliantly & emotionally performed by Harvey/Two-Face’s VA: Ike Barinholtz. Batinholtz truly makes Harvey sound simultaneously mesmerized, terrified & sorrowful - on the verge of tears as he tells his former friend about the completely fractured way he views the world now & Batman’s actor Jeffrey Wright matches it with his desperate pleas to Harvey’s true self colored by the unflinching compassion he has for Dent.

For how invested the show is in genuinely trying to revive a bit of the Adam West era charm and fun camp & IMO successfully making the show legitimately funny, I believe it’s also equally in touch with the aspects of the franchise exemplified in shows like BTAS ie the darkness of the setting & emotionally resonant tragedy of both Batman himself and the different members within his rogues gallery. The show is not just sharp on a comedic level but also earnestly intriguing & engaging dramatically as well.

I have no doubt sung this show’s praises before but I don’t plan to stop anytime soon because I truly believe that the series is a must listen for every fan of Batman, superheroes & audio fiction/audio dramas generally. From top to bottom, the series is a brilliant production and stands to me personally as amongst the best content within the umbrella of DC Comics at least within the last decade.

[graphicpolicy]

Preview: Batman: The Audio Adventures #6 (of 7)

Batman: The Audio Adventures #6 preview. As Haly's Circus reopens, Gotham City is in chaos! #comics #comicbooks #batman

[why-i-love-comics]

Batman: The Audio Adventures #5 - "Here We Go Round the Sickly Fear" (2023)

written by Dennis McNicholas art by Anthony Marques, J. Bone, & Dave Stewart

[nfcomics]

BATMAN THE AUDIO ADVENTURES SPECIAL no.1 (one shot) • cover art • Tom Haskard [Oct 2021]

Story By Dennis McNicholas, Bobby Moynihan, Heidi Gardner, Paul Scheer, And More Art By Leonardo Romero, Juni Ba, And More Ah, you hear that beautiful racket? That’s the music of Gotham City—the largest city in the world, the big gargoyle, the treasure of the night—anyone who calls it a crime-infested hellhole is dead wrong. No way hell has such great pierogis. So join us here (hear?) as we bring you the stories behind the stories behind the hit HBO Max scripted original podcast with this sensational prequel one-shot, written by the very creators and talent who lent their voices to the show. And unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know that after years of rumors we find out not only is the Batman real, not only is he one of the good guys, turns out, he’s gonna be a cop! With special appearances by King Scimitar, Stoveplate Sullivan, Billy Wristwatch, and others directly from the podcast, this oversize special brings you deeper into the mysteries behind Batman: The Audio Adventures!

(W) Various (A) Various (CA) Tom Haskard

[dccomicsnews]

“Till Human Voices Wake Us and We Drown” Writer: Dennis McNicholas Artists: Anthony Marques, J. Bone Color Artist: Dave Stewart Letterer: Ferran Delgado Review by Eric Lee Batman: The Audio Adventures #7 ends the series with a finale so over-stuffed that it may leave readers confused and frustrated. As I've previously said, Audio Adventures suffers from too many subplots, and it's very difficult to track them all. In this issue, most of the plot threads tie together but it's still an ultimately disappointing endeavor. The problem is that the disparate plots are all jammed pack into one issue that it is difficult to give sufficient storytelling space to them all. Threads like the Penguin- Robin- Scarecrow feud gets resolved so quickly that it could easily be missed. With such an underwhelming conclusion, one wonders why writer Dennis McNicholas dedicated so much time to the subplot. [gallery columns="6" size="large" ids="183074,183075,183076,183077,183078,183072"] Batman is Useless Even the main plot with Batman and the Demon's Brood suffers a shockingly abrupt ending. Batman unfortunately doesn't do a lot in the issue to stop the villain's bloody rampage. In the end, he feels very ineffectual and inconsequential. I don't want to make everything about the issue all doom and gloom, though. The art has always had a wonderful cartoony, quality to it. Anthony Marques and J. Bone have great storytelling skills and make visually jumbled scenes easy to follow. However, the dark tone of the Demon's Brood plot seems to clash with the fun art style. It's hard to say this comic is lighthearted when it depicts bloody mass murder. The cartoony style makes me suspect the series will be accidentally categorized in the kid-safe section of a comic shop only for a horrified parent to discover people getting eviscerated in it. Conclusion The entire series feels like a strange mish-mash of plots that barely connect, wrapped in a beautiful, but also inappropriately cartoony art. It should be no surprise that Batman: The Audio Adventures #7 would've been any different. Images courtesy of DC Entertainment (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();

[dispatchdcu]

Batman: The Audio Adventures #6 Preview

Batman: The Audio Adventures #6 Preview #batmanaudioadventures #DCEU #dccomics #comics #comicbooks #news #dcuuniverse #art #info #NCBD #amazon #previews #reviews #batman #darkknight #capedcrusader #brucewayne

Batman: The Audio Adventures #6 Preview: As Haly’s Circus reopens, Gotham City is in chaos! Batman’s investigations reveal that monster serum has been leaking all throughout the city and the trail leads back to none other than Killer Croc! Meanwhile, Robin finds himself face-to-face with Scarecrow! Written by DENNIS McNICHOLAS Art by ANTHONY MARQUES and J. BONE Cover by DAVE JOHNSON Variant cover…

[about-faces]

Reading through that article just makes me appreciate how rare and wonderful Batman: The Audio Adventures is. So many creators want to do their own edgy, subversive takes on these characters and properties, and then there’s Dennis McNicholas, who went, “Hey, what if we just told a really good Batman story and had fun with it?”

God. Fucking. Damn it. It’s Beware the Batman all over again. Except this time, people will actuality SEE this lousy take on Harvey.

I really didn’t have any faith in a Timm-produced “Batman, the way I always wanted to make it” HBO show with JJ Abrams producing was going to be my cup of tea. But this? Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Thanks to @maxwell-grant for giving me the heads-up here, so I can steel myself for what will likely be the most prestigious take yet on Harvey as a jerkass politician.

[esperata]

[geekcavepodcast]

“Batman: The Audio Adventures” Gets Tie-In Comic Series

Audio-series Batman: The Audio Adventures is getting a 7-issue tie-in comic that will also be written by series writer Dennis McNicholas. McNicholas is joined by artist Anthony Marques and J. Bone.

The tie-in comic Batman: The Audio Adventures picks up after the season finals of the audio-series and “follows a string of attacks that have plagued Gotham City’s seedy underbelly, sending criminals into a panic. But it's not Batman who is striking at the heart of the city, it's a group of mysterious assailants on the hunt for an ancient artifact. As Batman hunts down these assassins, he finds clues that keep drawing him to their true goal: the sword of King Scimitar!” (DC Comics)

Batman: The Audio Adventures #1 (of 7), featuring a cover by Dave Johnson, September 27, 2022.

(Image via DC Comics - Dave Johnson’s Cover of Batman: The Audio Adventures #1)

[pensive-prince-of-shadow]

Dick bullshitting his friends about Batman in Batman: The Audio Adventures Special (2021).

[creaturesfromelsewhere]

Goth Talk

Sometimes when I travel and folks learn I currently hail from the Tampa Bay area, they point at me and announce with great enthusiasm, “Oh, oh - Goth Talk!”  And then there is a brief shared memory of the most obscure recurring SNL skit from the late 90′s.  Although many people wave a dismissive hand and declare that Goth Talk was merely a rip-off of Wayne’s World, I prefer to think of it this way: Wayne’s World was the prototype and proof of concept while Goth Talk was the polished, commercial product.  A niche product to be sure, but a well crafted niche product.

For those not familiar with this admittedly obscure bit of pop culture, Goth Talk was an SNL skit portraying a goth cable access show hosted by two high-school aged teens, Todd aka Azrael Abyss, the Prince of Sorrows (Chris Kattan), and Denise aka Circe Nightshade (Molly Shannon - looking really hot as a goth, btw), in Todd’s family’s garage.  Although the two are desperate to present themselves as living in a sinister and gothic world, they live in Tampa, Florida.  All that pesky sun, sand, and hockey - not exactly the stuff gothic dreams are made of - the real world of Tampa is constantly intruding upon their flimsily constructed dark world, to great hilarity.

My introduction to Goth Talk was totally random.  Brushing away the cobwebs in that corner of my memory brings me back to some small gathering of acquaintances in someone’s living room while the TV was tuned in to SNL for background noise, barely audible over our music.  Suddenly, everyone’s attention was grabbed by the TV faintly playing ‘Bella Lugosi’s Dead’ by Bauhaus - so incongruous an event that it demanded one’s attention, even if for only a momentary glance.  On the screen was presented the title card, in gothic font Goth Talk.  Conversation ceased and somehow our music faded and the TV volume increased.  

We sat transfixed by a skit that seemed to have been written specifically for us.  Sitting in bewildered amusement, we chuckled and smiled for the brief 6 minute skit.  This particular episode featured guest host Rob Lowe and a god-awful video he had shot in a park, but only part of it since volumes 1-3 had been taped over.  When the skit ended and reality started back up, there was a moment of silence from our little group, then one of the girls gave voice to the thought running through all our minds, “Did...did that really just happen?”

We instantly became die-hard SNL fans and religiously tuned in week after week awaiting the return of our new distraction, but it took quite a few weeks before our TV friends returned for another visit.  Only then did we catch the beginning of the skit with the Sunshine State Cable Access gag we hadn’t noticed the first time.  Jeff Goldblum was the guest on this segment, and this one was just as hilarious as the first.

Unfortunately, the segments were not a regular enough occurrence to keep us watching for them and I only finally saw the segments I’d missed while I was doing what passes for research on this little blog.  I’d seen the Sarah Michelle Gellar episode where they argue whether Tampa or Orlando is more sinister (spoiler - the answer is neither) and I’d seen the Christina Ricci one where Todd, excuse me, Azrael Abyss, the Prince of Sorrows, has a ‘living’ funeral.  However, I’d never seen the ones with Lucy Lawless, Steve Buscemi, or Charlize Theron until recently.  On the one hand, it’s sad that only 7 segments were made but on the other hand, it’s amazing that 7 segments were made considering the target audience is so tiny.  

Details of the sketch’s origin are, well, sketchy.  Apparently the idea was conceived by Chris Kattan, but it was left to SNL writer Dennis McNicholas to flesh it out into a full skit.  McNicholas being from Tampa, knew of the local goth scene and, appreciating the dichotomy of goths baking under the Florida sun, decided to set the skit in Tampa.  The rest, as they say, is History Channel.

One might think after watching all 7 Goth Talk segments, that Tampa must only have 4 or 5 goths in the whole city, but in an ironic twist, it actually has quite a few.  Difficult to lock down numbers for any nocturnal species, but you can get an idea of population at The Castle goth club in Tampa’s Ybor City neighborhood.  Friday and Saturday nights find The Castle filling with scores to hundreds of the darkly inclined.  All these goths in the same sunny Tampa Todd and Denise seemed so alone in?  Who’d have thunk it?

Will we be blessed (cursed) with a Goth Talk revival of some sort?  Hell, they made a Mary Katherine Gallagher movie, after all. Sadly, even within the deepest, darkest servers of the interwebs there is nary a whisper of a revisit to Todd’s parent’s garage, but one can always hope.  Perhaps a Super Bowl commercial?  Perhaps a skit on Jimmy Fallon?  A cheap one-of 6 page graphic novel?  The cards are silent for now, but one never knows what the next shuffle will reveal.  As I’m an incurable optimist, I like to think Azrael and Circe will visit us again.  I’ll keep an eye out for them at The Castle, just in case.

“So until next time, beware the daylight.”

-CreaturesFromElsewhere  2/10/2021

[smashpages]

Out this week: Batman : The Audio Adventures #1 (DC, $3.99):

Dennis McNicholas, Anthony Marques and J. Bone continue the story started in the Batman: The Audio Adventures podcast.

See what other comics and graphic novels arrive in comic book stores this week.

[graphicpolicy]

Preview: Batman: The Audio Adventures #5

Batman: The Audio Adventures #5 preview. Batman scours the city in pursuit of the Demon’s Brood, who will not be satisfied until the sword they seek is purified with the blood of 13 souls #comics #comicbooks #batman

[why-i-love-comics]

Batman: The Audio Adventures #7 (2023)

written by Dennis McNicholas art by Anthony Marques, J. Bone, & Dave Stewart

[scienceninjaturtle]

BATMAN: THE AUDIO ADVENTURES #3

Written by DENNIS McNICHOLAS

Art by ANTHONY MARQUES and J. BONE

Cover by DAVE JOHNSON

Variant cover by MICHAEL ALLRED

$3.99 US | 32 pages | 3 of 7 | Variant $4.99 US (card stock)

ON SALE 11/22/22

Batman must venture into the sewers as he hunts for the fabled sword of King Scimitar. But he quickly finds a devolving Killer Croc who won't let the caped crusader steal his child! But all Batman sees is...a doll? Meanwhile, Robin gets kidnapped while trailing Scarecrow. Looks like both heroes need a good doctor, but the only one to be found is a little...strange. All this and more in the next installment of your favorite audio compendium!

[dccomicsnews]

“Fair in a Handful of Rust” Writer: Dennis McNicholas Artists: Anthony Marques, J. Bone Color Artist: Dave Stewart Letterer: Ferran Delgado Review by Eric Lee Batman: The Audio Adventures #6 continues to meander, with multiple subplots that seem to have no conclusion in sight. The main crux of the series continues to be Batman trying to stop the Demon's Brood cult killing people. This is the most exciting ongoing plot, because it seems to be the most focused. The twist at the end of the issue is a genuine surprise and thrilling. However, beyond that there's little else this issue offers. Too Many Subplots The problem with the series is still the same as in previous issues: there are way too many subplots, and they're all disconnected. So far, the only plot that really had a junction point was the one featuring Killer Croc and Batman. However, that quickly branched in different directions and haven't intermixed since. [gallery columns="6" size="large" ids="180594,180595,180596,180597,180598,180593"] The other stories barely have any relation at all to the main narrative. We still don't know what the Penguin's mission for Robin is, or what Scarecrow's planning. All of these ideas seem interesting on their own, but when they're inserted into this series, it slows all of the other plots down. In essence, the pacing of the series has been really slow because the multiple stories making it drag. It taxes the patience. Bright Fun Art The bright spot continues to be the art team of Anthony Marques and J. Bone.  The bright colors and designs makes this book a ton of fun to look at. It's currently one of the more visually interesting Batman books. Conclusion While the main narrative of Batman versus the Demon's Brood provides a solid adventure for Batman: The Audio Adventures #6, these other aimless storylines really drag its pacing down. Not even the wonderful art can save this plodding series. Images courtesy of DC Entertainment (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();