War Rocket Ajax #112: Joe Keatinge Talks ‘Glory,’ ‘Hell Yeah’ and CM Punk [Podcast]

This week on War Rocket Ajax, up-and-coming writer Joe Keatinge joins us to talk about how he came up reading comics in the '90s, and whether or not his love of pro wrestling impacted the violence of comics like Glory and Hell Yeah -- and you can listen to the whole show, right here at ComicsAlliance!War Rocket Ajax #112: Ninja Turf with Joe Keatinge

(WARNING: Contains NSFW language)

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At the top of this week's show, Chris and Matt are both back from a fun Free Comic Book Day full of free stuff and barbecue! Chris is getting ready to go to a comic book convention in Myrtle Beach during Bike Week this weekend, so... look forward to reading about that experience in the weeks to come. Plus, Chris's review of Avengers prompts the return of our fan-favorite segment, Big Ups To All My Haters!

When Joe joins us, we get to talking about the violence that you can see in his work and whether it stems from a love of wrestling:

I think a lot of that comes from being ten years old when Image Comics first came out, and just being really, I guess emotionally scarred but in a positive way, when Violator ripped out Spawn's heart, and that kind of stuff was happening. That Savage Dragon / Overlord battle, it just had a huge impact on me.

I think it's funny because people talk about kids' comics, and when I was a kid, that's what I wanted to read. I wanted to read, like, "aw, Shaft just stabbed a dude in the eye with a pen!" It's awesome.

Hell Yeah is really those moments, those huge emotional bursts in my head when I was a kid reading '90s comics, finally realized or reacted to in a comic 20 years later. The first five issues especially are very consciously me doing a world where the '90s super-hero stuff happened, and issue 6 forever on is what happens afterwards.

Wrestling is huge on me, and I've had people call me out on that. It's not conscious, but I can't really deny it either, you know what I mean? Since it's such a big thing that I'm so into. It's like real-life super-heroes. Well, not "real-life," but live-action anyway.

Plus, find out about how he pitched his ideas to The Rob Liefeld himself, and how the Rob reacted to the direction the creators behind the Extreme relaunch wanted to take!

Show Notes:

Follow Joe Keatinge on Twitter and check out his website!

If you're still on the fence about Glory, here's CA's review of Keatinge and Campbell's first issue.

Chris's apparently controversial review of Avengers.

The trailer for Ninja Turf is basically the best thing that has ever existed:

Ninja Turf is also mentioned on the card Tom "Biff Tannen" Wilson gives to fans.

See more gorgeous art from Ross Campbell.

Read Tom Scioli's American Barbarian online!

Chris's Rec: Smash Boom Bang: The Songs and Productions of Feldman-Goldstein-Gottehrer

Matt's Rec: The Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty

Comics Reviewed:

Batman #9: "I think Batman's a hoot. I was talking about it this weekend, and I really like that Scott Snyder's Batman feels so different from Scott Snyder's Detective Comics. Detective Comics was very much a detective story -- the Commissioner Gordon stuff, the crazy mystery of the dead whale in the building. I really enjoyed it. The idea behind these two titles, at least sometimes, is that Batman is the super-hero book and Detective is the detective book. It's not always like that in practice, but Snyder definitely goes with that. This is a comic where Batman puts on his crazy robot suit and makes his robot dinosaur stomp on dudes."

The Tick #100: "There's a lot in the book of Invincible being amazed at how insane the world is, but there are little moments that point out how crazy Invincible's world is as well. There's a great last page reveal that I won't give away here, but it's a riff on Immortal Iron Fist. It's so funny, and Benito, you did a great job."

American Barbarian HC: "Scioli is a guy who always gets compared to Jack Kirby, and he's a guy who I think it's safe to say loves Jack Kirby, and there's definitely a huge influence. But the thing that's great about American Barbarian is that you can see that the influence isn't just the art. It's the idea that you can go out and make your comics and make your stories. I feel like he does that in American Barbarian, and there's so many great ideas in here."