The Oh Gosh, Oh Golly, Oh Wow! Podcast

On this our final week, talking Excalibur #125, “Tying the Knot,” we’ve got a wedding we don’t love concluding a comic book series we do love, in sickness and in health, till death do us part… And in honor of this mess of mixed feelings, we’re doing the only appropriate thing, which is hold an Irish Wake – a celebration of life over the open casket of our beloved Excalibur. To that end, our regular discussion of the issue will be augmented with commemorations of the deceased from friends new and old.

A certain someone called Zack Jenkins, aka the cohost of the Battle of the Atom podcast, aka the former EiC of ComicsXF, aka the Bad Boy of X-Men podcasting, joins us to fete Excalibur #124, “Someone,” featuring bachelor and bachelorette parties and much bacchanalia and the return of several somones, but unfortunately, only one of those someones gets creamed.

This week’s guest, writer, critic, and game designer Armaan Babu, helps us find the joy we’ve lost talking Excalibur #123, “Lost and Found,” featuring the extended Calvin Rankin cameo nobody asked for and Meggan saying yes to the dress. Topics include comics publishing in India, the timeless joys of Nightcrawler, and why it might make sense for a shapeshifter to want a wedding dress after all.

This week, we can’t do much better than mimic enjoying Excalibur #122, “The Search, Part 1,” but we’re fully focused on enjoying the company as we count down our final four with returning guest Dr. Michael Hancock, here to reminiscence about his first issue of the series, purchased off the rack at the 7/11 when he was but an impressionable teen! What’ll Michael make of this one now that he has a fully developed brain? You’ll have to listen to find out!

This week, our silly podcast about a seventh-tier X-Men comic from 30 years ago is more deeply embroiled in contemporary geopolitical events than it has any right to be, as the team jets to Israel to hang (and quarrel) with its national superhero Sabra in Excalibur #121, “Friends Like These.” Scholar of comics and Jewish diasporas Gabrielle Lyle is here to help us navigate this tricky terrain, talking Jewish histories of superheroes and what superheroes gain or lose when they become explicit representatives of a nation.

Welcome to our latest (last!) Holiday Special! Join us as we answer YOUR questions, reflect on the year that was, and draw for PRIZES!! Please note: this is the unedited audio version. Find the video version here.

Because no one asked for it: it’s Gosh Golly Wow, Love Connection (?) Edition, where old-fashioned comic book romance meets modern-day podcast technology! In honor of the anticlimax of Kitty Pryde and Pete Wisdom’s torrid affair in Excalibur #120, “Current Events,” we answer some very real listener letters and solicit some very live calls all about ROMANCE. Is our romantic advice worth a parting glance…? You decide!

Excalibur #119, “Preludes & Nightmares!” feels more like a sequel than a prequel, but maybe that’s just the effect of us being haunted by 133 episodes. But social psychologist and comics scholar Dr. Eric Wesselmann is here to help us keep things fresh, talking Jungian jumbles, Ben Raab’s crusade against the avant-garde, and the proper tools for drawing on the human body. Plus—previewing the breakup we’ve all been waiting for!

We’re besieged by Bamfs gone bad in Excalibur #118, “New Year’s Evil,” and playwright and toy scholar Jonathan Alexandratos is here to help us have the smartest dang convo about bite-sized, upsettingly horny Nightcrawlers you’re ever likely to hear, exploring the long history of our cultural distrust (and disrespect!) for toys and convos about them, and why scholarship on toys is its own kind of play.

This week, we’re doing what we do every week, which is celebrating the most unique bond any two beings can possible share—the bond of FRIENDSHIP. But it’s an especially wet form of friendship in Excalibur #117, “Amendments,” featuring part 2 of Kurt Wagner’s epic showdown with his iconic arch nemesis, the Sidri, this time, with 100% more Colossus. Comics scholar Dr. Lee Easton helps us untangle this epic tale of brothers in arms thrusting, parrying, and sploorching their uniquely friendly love across the page.