2023 was kind of a rough year around the opulent Scotch & Comics estate, but we’re trying to enter 2024 at a different angle. And thanks to That Boutique-y Whisky Company’s Whisky Advent Calendar, we’ve come prepared. Armed with a small stack of books and fistfuls of tiny whisky bottles, your slightly-dimmed-but-not-completely-snuffed-out host Devin R Bruce takes you on a tour of various of tastes, sights, and emotions. Featuring comics such as The Compleat Terminal City, Vowels, Moving Pictures, Abandon The Old in Tokyo, and Vext. Though our path be plagued with terrors, we have puns on our side. So, so many puns. Scotch & Comics: five times the flavour.

Show Notes:

• There’s some cussin’ in this episode! We really earned the explicit tag.
• Look at Devin, using the term “art deco” when he doesn’t really know what that means, despite having asked multiple knowledgeable people and having read a couple of chapters in art history books.
• Fun fact: I visited Australia in 2014. That is a decade ago, for those of you who are bad at math or admitting how old you are.
• Hero Squared was co-written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis and illustrated by Joe Abraham. According to DeMatteis, it’s his favourite comic he worked on with Keith.
• Who’s Zauriel? Glad you asked! He’s an angel, from Heaven, who voluntarily falls to earth to protect humanity and join the Justice League. He was created by Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Howard Porter, and John Dell in 1997 for the JLA ongoing series. He kind of rules.

Different Whiskies Consumed:

• Benrinnes 17 year old, batch 7: Speyside, flowers and peat on the nose, really sweet at first and then the peat comes in; water doesn’t really smooth it out but the initial sweetness is dulled.
• Glenburgie 16, batch 8: Speyside, sweet and light nose of banana & vanilla, smooth & sweet taste, butter & spicy finish.
• Corowa 4, batch 2: Australian whisky; deep deep amber, reddest whisky I’ve ever seen (aged in Muscat casks), chocolate and dates on the nose, dried fruit taste, long finish with a little spice and sweetness.
• Port Dundas 8, batch 3: single grain Scotch whisky from a defunct distillery in Glasgow, nose full of raspberries and cream and graham cracker, very oaky with a little vanilla, short-to-medium peppery and raspberry cream finish.
• Glen Moray 12, batch 6: Speyside, grass and slight lemon nose, tastes like grass/malt and…Corn Pops?, light oaky finish.
• Loch Lomond 21 year, batch 5: Highlands, lemony and acetone nose, slightly sweet & spicy, sweet finish that disappears almost immediately.

Featured Music:

• "Iron Man” by The Bad Plus
• “Subterraneans” by David Bowie
• “Pieces of Me” by Jacksoul
• “This Traveling Around” by Lyle Lovett
• “Flipher Overture” by Esthero

Opening and closing theme is “The Graveyard Shift” by NoMeansNo. Album art by Brandon Schatz.

After a slightly extended intro extolling the virtues of Hedonism and Record Store Day, your host Devin R Bruce comes in with a platter of stories, featuring The Comic Book Story of Beer, Rogues, Creepy, and Elephantmen. Will this episode be defeated by hedonism, hubris, or (GASP) the dreaded hiccups? Only one way to find out!

Additional Notes:

• Hedonism is a blended Scotch whisky from Compass Box, who produces a variety of other delicious whiskies as well.
• I neglected to mention the publisher for CBSoS! It’s from Ten Speed Press
• If you think you don’t like sweet vermouth, you need the Cocchi, it’s AMAZING.
• Rob Roys and Grant Morrison! It’s all very Scottish.
• The Rogues: I was wrong! From Flash 126, they were created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino!
• For the record, I think Elephantmen is, in fact, pretty dang good.
• Article about mycelial communication: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/apr/06/fungi-electrical-impulses-human-language-study
• Definitely tried to be quieter after Rogues because my lovely girlfriend went to sleep and I can get pretty loud if I’m not careful.
• Fun Fact: 67% of Canadians prefer donairs to egg yolks and tabasco for hangover cures.
• Frank Coghlan Jr. was 25 when he played “teenage” Billy Batson. He looks it.
• Update: I do not have a new appreciation of Iron Man 2. It is still just as bad as it was the first and second times I watched it.
• I really need a new outro, now that I have abandoned Instagram and Twitter is a Nazi hellscape…

Featured Music:

• “Climbing Up The Walls” by Radiodread
• “Sweet Dew Lee” by Belle & Sebastian
• “Space Ghost The Twins & Blip” by SNFU
• “Three Renats, Slit Drum” by The Thai Elephant Orchestra
• “Cryin’ In The Chapel” by Elvis Presley

Opening and closing theme is “The Graveyard Shift” by NoMeansNo. Album art by Brandon Schatz.

Welcome back to Scotch & Comics! It's me, Devin R Bruce, coming to you with the first episode in...over two years? Really? It feels like shorter than that. So join me as I kick the tires and take this old podcast out for a spin.

In this episode I talk about a lot of different comic books, including: Jonah Hex: Riders of the Worm and Such from DC/Vertigo; Goodnight Paradise from TKO Studios; We Stand On Guard from Image; Dork from Dark Horse; Hex Wives from DC/Vertigo; and Three Fingers from Top Shelf. Which book made me surprisingly angsty and depressed? Which book explains the real reason for the death of Marilyn Monroe? Which book had an unexpected appearance by a late nineteenth-century giant of English literature? All these questions will be answered, and more. Plus: the debut of a new segment (which is also the first segment)! It's a bold, strange new era for Scotch & Comics. Thanks for being here.

Additional Notes:

• A quick guide to the Whisky Producing Regions of Scotland.
• The crest of Ballantine's Finest, a sight to behold.
• Bill Nye's confusing Canada commentary.
• I strongly recommend checking out previews of all the first issues from TKO Studios online. They're truly excellent.
• This episode was recorded the week before it was announced that Hex Wives was cancelled with issue 6. I'd still recommend the trade when it comes out, though.
• If you haven't heard it, the Thrilling Adventure Hour is a must listen.

Featured Music:

• "San Ber'dino" by Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention
• "The Kids Are All Right" by The Who
• "The Hideout" by Sarah Harmer
• "Chew" by Jello Biafra & NoMeansNo
• "Memories of You" by Charles Mingus
• "Chariots of the Gods" by Duck Sauce

Opening and closing theme is "The Graveyard Shift" by NoMeansNo. Album art by Brandon Schatz.

If I don't post a show on Robbie Burns Day then I feel like I'm probably doing something wrong. Also: hello! It's 2017 and I'm still occasionally rambling on about comic books while walking arm and arm with John Barleycorn. This episode John is rather silent but I talk about Astro City, The Anchor, Deathlok, and The Punisher MAX. It's a kind of a short episode but don't worry: the next one is going to be extra-long to make up for it. Just you wait.

Full show notes available on the website!

I've tried to write the show notes for this episode five or six times now and it always just comes down to me trying to not talk about how it's been a while. So I figure the less said the better!

Long story short: if you want to hear your intrepid host Devin R Bruce talk about awesome independent comic books like Polly & The Pirates, Bitch Planet, The Hypernaturals, and Injection, then this is the episode for you! Also if you are interested in the fantastic comics in Showcase Presents Metamorpho and the unbelievable talent of Ramona Fradon, that's here too! Enjoy!

Full show notes available at my website.

This episode of Scotch & Comics is trying something a little bit different. This episode isn't the result of a single evening's "hard work" but rather a handful of books spread out over a few days, then stitched back together. (It's fun to spend an entire evening sipping whisky and reading comic books, but sometimes it can be difficult to find five consecutive hours to set aside for that Herculean task.)

In this patchwork of an episode your intrepid host Devin R Bruce takes a tour of a wide variety of comic book stories, from Marvel and WildStorm's World War 3 crossover, Warren Ellis' rocketpunk adventure Ignition City, psychedelic espionage book Change, and Scott Morse's mind-expanding Strange Science Fantasy. Wrap yourself up in the warmth of this episode of Scotch & Comics. It's hypoallergenic and breathable, and made from 100% natural ingredients!

Full show notes on the website.

A little while ago I was talking with the ladies from the Boozy Boob Tube podcast, and I said that since I have a podcast where I drink and talk about comics and they have a podcast where they drink and talk about television, we should figure out some kind of awesome crossover. They agreed that it would be a good idea and a fun time, we just needed to come up with a show that I hadn't seen that was based on a comic book that they hadn't seen.

Then, iZombie happened. AND A PODCAST WAS BORN!

Full show notes on the website.

Gather around, podcast listeners, as I tell the tale of Episode 22 of the Scotch & Comics podcast, also known as...The Lost Episode! Abandoned shortly after it was recorded because of its strange aural qualities, it was thought that this episode would never see the light of day, but your intrepid host Devin R. Bruce was not going to let it go that easily. After searching the world for hints about the episode's location, he tracked it down in Marrakesh. After escaping an underground city of feral accountants and social workers, he dusted it off and has now sent it to you for safekeeping.

Thrill at the exploits of Bronze Age Superheroes in Adventure Comics #464! Gasp at the twists and turns of The Janus Directive! Shiver as your host revels in the finales of FF and Young Liars. Shudder at the strange audio happenings! All that and more in this very special episode of Scotch & Comics!

Full show notes available on the website.

Today may be "his special day" but that doesn't mean that your intrepid host hasn't thought of you listeners! Yes, on this very special thirty-fifth birthday episode, host Devin R Bruce has crafted an audio grab bag that is bursting at the seams with comics goodness! Open up and find treats featuring comics from such luminary creators as (in alphabetical order): Brian Azzarello, Richard Corben, Garth Ennis, Jae Lee, Sean McKeever, Peter Milligan, Sean Phillips, Eric Powell, and John Severin. (And even more!) Though the journey may get a little dark at times, Scotch & Comics will shine a light at the end of that tunnel. BUT DON'T GO INTO THE LIGHT!!

Full show notes available on the website!

It may have been six months since the last episode of Scotch & Comics but that doesn't mean that your host has gotten rusty. Or even gotten himself a Rusty Nail. (Ouch. I cut myself on that pun.) But in this special Robbie Burns Day episode, your host Devin R Bruce delivers an ode to comics. Specifically the comics Stormwatch, FF, Plastic Man, and Pretty Deadly. It's a guid a body!

(Note: there is some cursing in the musical interludes. If that is concerning to you.)