Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

Tag: housekeeping

What We Talk About When We Talk About Talking About Stuff

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Hello!

We’ve mentioned before that we love our commenters here, and we do–you are some of the most consistently interesting and civil folks on the web. However, we want to take a moment to establish a few ground rules in context of some trends we’ve been seeing:

  1. This is not your personal blog. Keep comments germane to the post and the discussion.
  2. No linkspamming. If you post a link, it needs to have context–included in the comment–related to the conversation or the post. See above re: this not being your personal blog.
  3. No AI. No links to AI “art.” Seriously.

We’ll be enforcing these pretty rigorously, so if your comments aren’t getting through or are disappearing, consider how they may be interacting with the above guidelines.

Stay awesome!

Much love,
J&M

As Mentioned in Episode 157 – Melted to Slag

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Listen to the episode here.

Art by David Wynne. Contact David to purchase the original!
I’m trying to imagine the Punisher in a bunch of different man-on-the-street segments, and it’s never not funny. (Uncanny X-Men #272)
Dramatis Personae and their dramatic wigs. (Uncanny X-Men #272)
Oh, dear. (Uncanny X-Men #272)
“Also, Nightcrawler had a ghost friend briefly.” (Uncanny X-Men #272)
One of Hodge’s more pronounced Mojo moments. (Uncanny X-Men #272)
Okay, that’s legitimately impressive. (Uncanny X-Men #272)
[Insert Rocketeer reference here.] (Uncanny X-Men #272)
MIND, SPIRIT, and BODY! (Uncanny X-Men #272)
Seriously, though, how is Wolverine’s mask staying on? Discuss. (New Mutants #97)
‘Kay. (New Mutants #97)
Zowie! (New Mutants #97)
Scary Rahne is so good. (New Mutants #97)
“Topless Havok will lead us to victory!” (X-Factor #62)
Included for scale, mostly. (X-Factor #62)
Neither of you deserve her. (X-Factor #62)
Wonder Twins Powers, go! (X-Factor #62)
Damn, that’s satisfying. (X-Factor #62)
That, too. (X-Factor #62)
Spoiler: It’s the second one. (X-Factor #62)
NEXT EPISODE: Jay and Miles take a three-month hiatus. See you in August!

157 – Melted to Slag

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | RSS

Art by David Wynne. Contact David to purchase the original!

In which the X-Tinction Agenda reaches its Return of the Jedi; Wolverine is a weaponized nuisance; HR would like a word with Gambit; Havok gets framed; Cameron Hodge is the great unifier; Genosha is revolting; you don’t get to make a threatening speech about someone else’s powers; Jean Grey is tired of your bullshit; and Jay and Miles may or may not dive into the Siege Perilous!

X-PLAINED:

  • The Law of Conservation of Plot Elements
  • Uncanny X-Men #272
  • New Mutants #97
  • X-Factor #62
  • The Story So Far
  • Glasses fashions in comics
  • The difference between Batman and the Punisher
  • How to tell that something has gone terribly wrong
  • Acceptable pants
  • Some really sketchy judicial process
  • A ruse
  • Several retcons concerning Wolverine
  • Consequence-free impaling
  • Chekhov’s genetic engineering
  • Louise Simonson’s final issue of New Mutants
  • The relative durability of mutants
  • A number of prescient threats
  • This one time Jay and Miles got paid to throw a bunch of printers down a flight of stairs
  • Summers Brothers team-ups
  • A very cathartic fight
  • Thoughts on books as physical artifacts and collecting comics
  • Places to jump into long X-series on Marvel Unlimited
  • Our plans for the hiatus

THE PODCAST WILL BE ON HIATUS DURING MAY, JUNE, AND JULY, 2017! SEE YOU IN AUGUST!

You can find the visual companion to this episode on our blog.

Find us on iTunes or Stitcher!

Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is 100% ad-free and listener supported. If you want to help support the podcast–and unlock more cool stuff–you can do that right here!

We’re in the process of migrating our official shop to TeePublic! Click over to check it out! (You can still find the designs we haven’t moved yet at Redbubble.)

IT LIVES!

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We woke up this morning to this amazingness in our Twitter stream:

cosplay

This is not a photo of us. This is a photo of listeners @StudentofWhim and @Biscainer, who decided to celebrate the new title and URL by cosplaying as the versions of us from our cover art, which is unquestionably the most awesomely Borgesian thing that has ever happened to us in nearly two years of X-Plaining the X-Men.

Speaking of the new stuff, if you’re reading this, it means that we are now at our fancy new URL, xplainthexmen.com! (We almost went with JayandMiles.com, but someone pointed out that we’d have to change it again in a dozen or so years when the Littlest X-Perts come of age and take over, so that just redirects here.) In theory, all of the old links will keep working, but here’s a quick-reference list of where to find what:

iTunes should be showing the correct title now or within the next few days; and your feeds should update automatically.

We’re still working on getting Patreon and Redbubble updated; we’ll let you know as soon as those are moved over (for now, they’re right where they’ve always been).

Obviously, this is a big shift, and it’s involved a lot of coordination, so please pardon any hiccoughs in the days ahead; and let us know if anything’s running wrong, or if you notice the wrong name anywhere!

A Brief Heads-Up

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Art by Russell Dauterman.
(Dauterman / Sotomayor)

Jay here!

A quick heads up: for the next few weeks I’ll be out of town, getting and then recovering from top surgery (Yay!).

Here’s what to expect:

PODCASTS: Business as usual! We’ve recorded ahead a few weeks out, and the splendid Elisabeth Allie is going to be filling in so that I can take a few consecutive weeks off. Miles will be handling the copy and visual companions for an episode or two; please be nice to him as he gets his sea legs.

VIDEO REVIEWS: Miles is flying solo while I’m in Florida! Depending on the concentration of books, video reviews will go up either weekly or every other week. Also, I stole the external mic so we could record episode 93, so, that might be a thing. SORRY, MILES!

EVERYTHING ELSE: Blog and social media will probably be pretty quiet for at least the first week; and you should expect significant delays on e-mail correspondence. If you need to get in touch with us about something time-sensitive between now and January 23, please e-mail xplainthexmen(at)gmail(dot)com with “ATTN: MILES” in the subject line.

XO,

J

November Shirt of the Month: ALL OF THEM!

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Oh, dang, y’all.

We were going to wait to announce this until November proper, but we were so excited waiting for the beginning of Secret Convergence that we decided to jump the gun and launch a couple days early.

November’s shirt of the month is… ALL OF THEM. Every shirt of the month ever, back in our store. Check out the designs below–and then read on for a big announcement about the future of the Shirts of the Month!

NIGH INVULNERABLE WHEN BLASTIN’ – The shirt that started it all!
Designed by Dylan Todd
LILA CHENEY LIVE AT WEMBLEY STADIUM – We made this shirt just so we could get one.
Designed by David Wynne
WHAT WOULD PETER CORBEAU DO? – In the end, there’s only one question that really matters.
Designed by Dylan Todd
WHAT’S NEW, SHADOWCAT? – We’re guessing the answer is “a costume.”
Designed by David Wynne
MY OTHER SHIRT IS A DEMON BEAR – Off the map and on to your torso!
Design by David Wynne
DEMON BEAR LEGGINGS – Because you demanded it!
Design by David Wynne
NOBODY KNOWS I’M A CLONE OF JEAN GREY – But really, aren’t we all?
Design by Dylan Todd
THREE WOLVERINE MOON – Yes, we are aware that wolverines are not wolves. That’s what makes it funny.
Design by Tyler Crook
X-GAMERS – Who needs a Danger Room when you’ve got a Monster Manual?
Design by David Wynne
I SURVIVED SECRET WARS – Crossover events come and go, but poop jokes are forever.
Design by Dylan Todd
616 OR BUST – The multiverse is waiting!
Design by Katie Moody and J. Rachel Edidin

SO, HERE’S THE BIG NEWS:

When we started doing shirts of the month, we were really excited; and over the last ten months, we’ve had a lot of fun and put out some rad shirts. But we’ve noticed two problems:

  • FIRST: The nature of the Shirt of the Month program means that either we have to pull some of our favorite designs after just a month; or we swamp the store.
  • SECOND: Because of the first problem, there are designs–ones we really want to do and suspect you’ll really want to wear–that we’ve been sitting on for ages, both because we don’t want them to disappear and because we’re swamped with the monthly stuff.

Fortunately, one of the nice things about being our own bosses is that we get to make the big calls. To that end, here’s what’s going to happen:

  • During NOVEMBER and DECEMBER, every shirt of the month (and the Demon Bear leggings!)will be on sale in our shop; and we’re also putting those designs on some new products!
  • Beginning in JANUARY, we’ll be adding some of those shirts to our permanent selection and phasing others out. We’re not yet sure which; so if there’s one you’ve got your heart set on, NOW IS THE TIME TO GET IT.
  • From January on, there will be no more shirts of the month. Instead, we’ll be adding new designs–and sometimes phasing out old ones–as we come up with ideas we want to do.

THAT DOESN’T MEAN THE END OF LIMITED-EDITION SHIRTS.

  • One of the things we want to start doing in 2016 is collaborating with local printers to do limited-edition shirts, probably on a pre-order system. They won’t be monthly–but they also won’t be constrained by Redbubble options, which means things like full-bleed designs and a larger size range on limited editions.

EDITED TO ADD: Yes, all our other shirts are still up, too! You can find the whole kit ‘n’ kaboodle at the shop home, or just the shirts of the month over here.

Elle & Graeme Guestsplain!

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Packing

Rachel here! Miles and I are moving house this week! While we’re swimming frantically through a sea of boxes, the podcast will continue unabated, thanks to the guest X-pertise of two friends of ours: Elle Collins of Into It and Graeme McMillan of Wait, What?. Elle and Graeme will be recording episode 69 this weekend, talking about Beast’s solo post-Silver-Age adventures!

Since Miles and I will mostly be unplugged for the next few days, we’re following a slightly different policy than usual in our call for questions. If you have a burning Beast question–or any other question–for Elle and Graeme, please either:

We’re really excited for this one–in addition to being some of our favorite people in the Multiverse, Elle and Graeme each brings an encyclopedic collection of comics know-how and critical perspective, and they collectively cover some of the most significant gaps in Miles and my X-perience (see: the subject of this episode!).

New Milestone Goals!

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Quick update to let you know that we’ve added a new set of milestone goals to the Patreon!

Screen Shot 2015-04-15 at 2.43.12 PM

  • PODCAST WIKI – $2750/month
    Wondering which questions showed up in which episode, or where to find that one cold open about Fantomex? When we hit this goal, we’ll start work on an exhaustive wiki and question index!
  • WEBSITE REVAMP – $3000/month
    We’ll ditch our DIY setup and hire an actual web designer to revamp (and regularly maintain and update) the site!
  • A/V UPGRADE AND NEW PROJECTS – $3300/month
    We’ll upgrade our video production setup, and start producing some new video and audio content–including some larger projects*–in addition to the podcast and video reviews.

When we first launched the podcast a little over a year ago, we had no idea how large it would grow, or how quickly; and since then, it’s been a nonstop race to keep up. As a result, a lot of what we’ve done has felt less like building something to last than improvising a series of on-the-fly fixes–for instance, our very rudimentary (and mobile-unfriendly) website.

So, while previous milestones have been all about offering more content–posts, merch, recaps, video reviews, and more–this series of goals is all about creating a better and more sustainable infrastructure from which to run the current stuff and launch some projects* that we’re really, really excited about. Hiring a professional to build us a website that works. Organizing and indexing the mountain of material we’ve covered in a year+ worth of podcasts. Shifting more of the organizational and administrative hours to AdministratriX Tina, and using some of that time to get new stuff up and running.

Rachel & Miles X-Plain the X-Men is entirely listener supported, and that means that everything we do here is possible because of you. Thank you for helping us get to where we are, and helping us stay ad-free and independent–and thank you in advance for helping us continue to grow!

*Top secret, at least for now; but SO COOL. Seriously. Hardcore pipe-dream stuff; we’re kinda freaking out at the idea that we might actually get to do some of these for real.