
Best Comics Ever
By Dave Buesing (Comic Book Herald)


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06/30/20 • 44 min
This week on Creannotators, I talked with writer Steve Orlando about his upcoming MMA graphic novel Kill A Man, as well as his comics career and what comes next for Wonder Woman and creator-owned work.
On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics!
Kill a Man, a new 2020 graphic novel out from Aftershock comics, is the story of an MMA fighter on the road to a championship belt when he’s outed by a competitor during a press conference – ultimately, this leads the fighter to turn to the former fighter who killed his father in the ring, a queer black man himself, for help on his road to return and conquer the sport.
As Steve said in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter:
“We want to give the Rocky-type narrative to the LGBTQ+ community and say, loudly and unflinching, that we to deserve a hero that overcomes, goes the distance, and finds victory on their own terms.”
The graphic novel will be released October 2020, and as Orlando mentions in the interview, alongside National Coming Out Day, which is October 11th.
The Kill A Man Team Is:
Writer: Steve Orlando
Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Artist: Alec Morgan
Letters: Jim Campbell
Publisher: Aftershock
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Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com.
To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald
For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com
The post Creannotators #6: “Kill A Man” Deep Dive With Writer Steve Orlando appeared first on Comic Book Herald.
06/30/20 • 44 min
06/23/20 • 32 min
This week on Creannotators, I talked with artist Sanford Greene about the Eisner nominated Bitter Root!
On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics!
Related Guides:
Bitter Root is one of my favorite ongoing comics of the last couple years, and a current Eisner nominated work for best continuing series of 2020. Greene, Walker, Brown and team are telling the story of a black family of monster hunters in 1920’s Harlem, quite literally fighting racism and the depths of man’s hate, while trying to carve out hope for a future.
I talked with Greene about how work on Marvel’s Power Man & Iron Fist with David F. Walker led to Bitter Root, and a wide variety of topics including the complicated process of how the artist designs hate and fear manifesting in literal monsters, firstly seen via out-and-out racism, and later in the text through a more complicated legacy of generational trauma.
Bitter Root Is:
Writers: David F Walker, Chuck Brown
Artist: Sanford Greene
Colors: Sanford Greene & Rico Renzi, Sofie Dodgson
Letters: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Heather Antos
Backmatter: John Jennings
Publisher: Image Comics
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Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com.
To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald
For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com
The post Creannotators #5: “Bitter Root” Deep Dive With Artist Sanford Greene appeared first on Comic Book Herald.
06/23/20 • 32 min
06/16/20 • 38 min
This week on Creannotators, I talked with writer Darcy Van Poelgeest about Little Bird and the upcoming sequel Precious Metal.
On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics!
Related Guides:
Little Bird: The Fight For Elder’s Hope, one of my favorite comics of the last few years, explores a dystopic but parallel earth where the United Nations of America rules via theocracy, in a world rampant with “dark science” and genetic modifications including a resurrection gene. It’s a gory, visceral, poetic exploration of resistance against theocratic fascist regimes.
Little Bird Is:
Writer: Darcy Van Poelgeest
Artist: Ian Bertram
Colors: Matt Hollingsworth
Letters: Aditya Bidikar
Design: Ben Didier
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Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com.
To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald
For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com
The post Creannotators #4: “Little Bird” Deep Dive With Writer Darcy Van Poelgeest appeared first on Comic Book Herald.
06/16/20 • 38 min
06/09/20 • 38 min
This week on Creannotators, I talked with writer Ryan O’Sullivan about Fearscape and the upcoming not-sequel A Dark Interlude!
On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics!
Related Guides:
As much as I enjoy the work, I find Fearscape difficult to summarize. The actual plot points – impossibly arrogant literary plagiarist uncovers the mystical realm of fiction’s greatest Fears – don’t really do the style and voice justice. From the book’s opening epigraph – “To open with an epigraph is to declare oneself an echo” – straight into a text-only 9 panel grid decrying the overuse of that structure in comics, and the over reliance on the lessons of Watchmen, Fearscape’s self-aware ability to undercut potential criticism is extraordinary.
The book’s main character, Henry Henry, is an aspiring novelist, who works as a translator to make ends meet, yet early on we see even in translations, Henry can’t stop from “making improvements”. He professionally takes things that aren’t his, and attempts to make them his own, leading ultimately to a direct plagiarism (and of course, never taking accountability for his own actions – his hand is always “forced”). It’s a riveting literary saga, and my conversation with Ryan O’Sullivan was a delight. I hope you’ll enjoy listening!
The Fearscape team is:
Writer: Ryan O’Sullivan
Illustrator: Andrea Mutti
Colorist: Vladimir Popov
Lettering: Andworld Design
Publisher: Vault Comics
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Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com.
To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald
For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com
The post Creannotators #3: “Fearscape” Deep Dive with writer Ryan O’Sullivan! appeared first on Comic Book Herald.
06/09/20 • 38 min
Krakin’ Krakoa #57: Is Hickman’s X-Men An Alternate Reality?
Best Comics Ever
06/06/20 • 16 min
Since the launch of House of X and the Hickman era of X-Men, and certainly throughout my Krakin’ Krakoa exploration of X-Comics, the possibility of Krakoa as an alternate reality is a popular and potentially exciting theory. The ambition and vision of Professor X, Magneto, Moira MacTaggert and mutantkind is grand enough that it begs the question whether all this change is really happening in Marvel’s core Earth-616 timeline.
Today I’ll answer:
- Is the Krakoa Era an Alternate Reality?
- Who are the Omega Level mutants most likely to play a role in a Hickman era alt universe?
- If there is an alternate reality in play, what should it look like?
Potential spoilers for discussed comics may follow!
Related Reading Orders:
All Comic Book Herald X-Men videos
It won’t surprise me in the slightest if an alternate reality is in the works for a future state of the X-Men line, or even a future event. Truly, I look forward to it!
That said, I don’t think what we’re reading right now – House of X on into 2020’s “Dawn of X” comics – is an alternate universe. My reasoning is more practical than narrative. If this is all a part of an alternate reality, it would imply the entire Marvel Universe is also locked within this reality. After all, we have already seen the Krakoa era referenced in non X-Men comics, such as Valkyrie or Black Cat (I’m cataloging all these significant references in the Dawn of X reading order, so let me know if you see something missing!). While that would be cool as all get out, I just don’t think that level of linewide coordination is likely.
Let’s take one example – Empyre. The upcoming (apparently now weekly!) Marvel event includes X-Men tie-ins, which means the series very much occur in the same universe. There’s no denying it.
If Empyre occurs in the alternate reality of Krakoa era X-Men, that means two unlikely scenarios:
- Somehow the comics “history” of this alt reality is identical to the past of the known Earth-616 and
2) The major Universe-wide event happenings of Empyre will be in a presumably tentative reality set to be changed at a future time!
I’m here for it if it happens, but that’s a whole lot of coordination that would definitely shock me!
Otherwise, I can at least see the reasons people might think Hickman’s X-Men is already an alternate reality. For starters, House of X is a callback to the 2005 Marvel event House of M in which Scarlet Witch (at the urging of brother Quicksilver) created an alternate reality in which Magneto ruled the world, mutantkind was generally dominant, and Wanda tried to give literally everybody what they wanted (for example, Peter Parker is happily married to Gwen Stacy, and Uncle Ben’s doing great). Likewise, Hickman makes considerable callbacks to Wanda’s famous “No More Mutants,” which led to the Decimation of mutants, and Wanda’s newfound status as “The Great Pretender.”
Similarly, there remains broad skepticism that the X-Men’s behavior is aligned with the heroes we’ve known them to be in the Marvel Universe. I don’t necessarily prescribe to this theory – as Cyclops says in House of X #1 “Did you think we were just going to take it?” – but an alternate reality would offer an easy out here, and allow for the “return” of the real X-Men by run’s end (again, I highly doubt this outcome).
A mild alteration on this theme that I prefer would be the revelation that this Charles Xavier is actually one of the evil Charlie X’s from the Greg Pak written X-Treme X-Men during the Marvel NOW! Era, but again, I think it’s more likely that Moira just, in her words, broke him.
So ...
06/06/20 • 16 min
05/27/20 • 10 min
X-Men Dawn of X comics are back! Marauders #10 kicks off the return of post-Comics Shutdown X-Men, and it’s another great entry by Gerry Duggan, with art from Stefano Caselli and Edgar Delgado.
Today I’ll answer:
- What happens in Marauders #10 and what does it mean for the Dawn of X?
- Where’d the Marauders get a spaceship?
- Ok seriously, what’s the deal with Kate Pryde and resurrection?!
Potential spoilers for discussed comics may follow!
Related Reading Orders:
All Comic Book Herald X-Men videos
Marauders #10 focuses on Emma and the crew’s efforts to squash their many enemies, after the death at sea of Captain Kate Pryde. The proceedings begin with the Russian manufacture of mutant power dampening weapons, based on designs originally built by mutant and Krakoan ally Forge. This is a smart and much-needed focus, as it’s felt like mutant squelching tech has been available to every tom, dick and Igor throughout the Dawn of X.
I particularly like that it’s Storm who confronts Forge about the misuse of his designs, since it was Storm who was hit and depowered by this tech back in Uncanny X-Men #185 and explored in Uncanny X-Men #186 (“Lifedeath” by Chris Claremont and Barry Windsor Smith). This doesn’t come into play this issue, but having coincidentally just read Marvel Fanfare #40 last night, I do also like to point out that it was actually Mystique who set Storm up to get hit by that tech way back when, and that she cosplayed as Mohawk Storm during their nightclub meeting.
Emma kicks off the Hellfire Trading Company’s mission without consulting the Krakoan Quiet Council, standing them up and particularly leaving Sebastian Shaw out of the loop., It’s revealed that the prevalence of these new anti mutant weapons is the result of a kidnapped former Forge assistant, fortunately still somewhat loyal to Forge (despite working against his will for anti-mutant threats, he’s at least intentionally mitigating the weapon’s power so the effects are quite temporary).
Emma, Forge, Bishop and crew infiltrate an opposing vessel to destroy the technology and free the weapon designer. With Kate out of action, Emma steps into a more active role, taking out a variety of soldiers with Pyro and his “I know that’s a Marauders tattoo on his face but it suuuuuure looks like Blackface” look at her side.
One of the most memorable scenes involves Emma unbuttoning her top and confronting soldiers, before psychically ordering them to shoot each other in the kneecaps. With Emma weaponizing her sexuality, I didn’t find this as sleazy as it can often be throughout superhero comics history, and frankly it’s perfectly in character for Emma to own her sexiness as a weapon. That said, the strangest part is that she would need to? Emma’s a remarkably powerful telepath, and it seems odd to me that she would need to distract soldiers in this way.
Upon completion of the successful mission, Emma mindwipes the vessel’s opposing forces, not only so that they’ll forget the last month of their anti-mutant lives, but so that they will become accepting, tolerant, empathetic people towards mutants and all oppressed minority groups, specifically calling out gay, disabled and trans peoples. My first thought here was that I love Emma resolving threats with a dose of inclusivity, but I’ll admit this is also a bit of a Pandora’s box. Why not do something like this more broadly? Why not manipulate minds to remove hate and bigotry on larger scales? Surely with all the powerful telepaths at Krakoa’s disposal there are options here. I don’t think the intention is anything other than this confined gesture, but it begs the question about psychic control as a larger part of mutantkind’s plan.
The biggest development during the Marauders’ successful rescue mission is the reveal of the team’s dead ass spaceship.
The other biggest development is the reveal of the team’s dead ass spaceship. Bishop – looking absolutely dapper in his new Black Panther meets Red Bishop costume – asks Christian Frost about the ship and receives some relatively mysterious answers.
The ship is called “The Mercury,” which is the same name of the ship we’v...
05/27/20 • 10 min
05/26/20 • 36 min
This week on Creannotators, I talked with Tyler Boss about 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank, his work on Lazarus, and the upcoming Dead Dog’s Bite!
On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics!
Related Guides:
4 Kids Walk Into a Bank is one of my favorite comics to recommend to comics curious readers, and the current #54 on my best comics of all time list. It’s promoted as the tongue-in-cheek “torrid tale of child crime,” and one of the funniest and most impressive works of the last 5 years.
The 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank team is:
Writer: Matthew Rosenberg
Art: Tyler Boss
Flatter: Claire Dezutti
Letters: Thomas Mauer
Wallpaper Design: Courtney Menard
Publisher: Black Mask Studios
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Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com.
To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald
For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com
The post Creannotators #2: “4 Kids Walk Into a Bank” Deep Dive with artist Tyler Boss appeared first on Comic Book Herald.
05/26/20 • 36 min
Krakin’ Krakoa #55: The X-Men Dawn of X Story So Far! (May 2020)
Best Comics Ever
05/21/20 • 19 min
The Jonathan Hickman led era of Marvel’s X-Men began in July 2019, and continued through the end of March 2020 prior to all of comics – and in many ways, all of the world – being put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the return of X-Men comics imminent – Marauders #10 is scheduled for publication on May 27, 2020, followed by Excalibur and New Mutants #10 on June 10, 2020 – it’s a good time to look back on what’s happened in this new era of X-Men comics so far, and to refresh our memories on where the World of X stands heading into the hopefully glorious return of comics.
Today I’ll Answer:
- What’s the big picture in the X-Universe that you need to know heading back into X-Men comics?
- What’s the story so far in the ongoing comics?
- What are the biggest lingering threads in the Dawn of X?
Potential spoilers for ALL OF THE DAWN OF X may follow!
Related Reading Orders:
All Comic Book Herald X-Men videos
THE BIG PICTURE
In the aftermath of House of X / Powers of X, Marvel’s mutants (nearly all of them!) now inhabit the independent, sovereign nation of Krakoa. While there have been plenty of threats to the nation including the infiltration and assassination of Professor X, and a full-scale Brood invasion, Krakoa and mutantkind still stand tall.
Behind the secret plotting of Charles Xavier, Magneto, and Moira MacTaggart, with a leadership council that includes Jean Grey, Storm, Nightcrawler, Apocalypse & Mister Sinister among others, mutant pharmaceuticals have established global financial dominance, and mutant resurrection protocols have ensured at least the appearance of immortality for mutantkind. There are still many threats, but there’s also more reason to celebrate than mutants have seen in their lives.
Crucially, while mutants have had sanctuary before – they’ve even had islands before – they’ve never been quite so tentatively unified. Traditional “hero” and “villain” archetypes have largely fallen to the wayside on Krakoa, as frequently embodied by the central role Apocalypse plays in the nation’s government and course. The same can undoubtedly be said for Mister Sinister and Exodus.
Likewise, mutantkind is led from the shadows by the lifetimes of experience the artist formerly known as human ally Moira MacTaggert brings to the nation. In House of X #2 it’s revealed that Moira’s secret mutant ability is reincarnating across lifelines with all memories of previous lifelines in tact, giving her unprecedented tactical advantages preparing mutantkind for man-machine dangers that threaten to wipe them out. So yes, there are enough significant differences to Krakoa that it doesn’t feel exactly like a return to Genosha, Utopia, or Xanadu for the X-Men.
The Dawn of X Titles
Launch Titles- X-Men
- New Mutants
- Marauders
- X-Force
- Excalibur
- Fallen Angels
- X-Men/Fantastic Four (Miniseries)
- Wolverine
- Cable
- Hellions
- Giant-Size
- Children of the Atom
- X-Factor
- Empyre: X-Men
- X of Swords
The Story So Far – X-Force
The single biggest “death” in the Dawn of X came in X-Force #1, by Ben Percy and Joshua Cassarra, when human terrorists tortured Domino and used her mutant DNA as skin grafts to infiltrate Krakoa and assassinate Professor X. Predictably, he got better, but the impact led to the re-formation of the black ops X-Force unit of Wolverine, Domino, Quentin Quire, Beast, Jean Grey, Sage, Black Tom Cassidy, a...
05/21/20 • 19 min
05/19/20 • 57 min
I’m very excited to launch a new series, “Creannotators,” exploring the Image Comics comic Ice Cream Man in depth with book writer W. Maxwell Prince.
On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio/visual annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics!
Related Guides:
You can find the Quarantine Comix project we discuss at: https://www.quarantinecomix.com/
The Ice Cream Man team is:
W. Maxwell Prince
Art: Martin Morazzo
Colors: Chris O’Halloran
Letters: Good Old Neon
Designs: Ashley Walker
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Music for Best Comics Ever by Anthony Weis. Check out more music at anthonyweis.com.
To learn how you can support Best Comics Ever and receive more exclusive content from Comic Book Herald, check out the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookherald
For the Comic Book Herald reading club through every year of Marvel Comics, check out mymarvelousyear.com
The post Creannotators #1: “Ice Cream Man” Deep Dive with writer W. Maxwell Prince appeared first on Comic Book Herald.
05/19/20 • 57 min
07/01/20 • 15 min
What happens when mutantkind runs into their erratic god? Welcome to Krakin’ Krakoa #59 where today I’ll be exploring a Milestone in Marvel mutant history, the infamous Secret Wars II and the X-Men’s relationship to the event and to the all-powerful Beyonder.
Today I’ll answer:
- What happened when the X-Men met the Beyonder in Secret Wars II?
- What do these encounters have to do with the Hickman era of X-Men and the ongoing Dawn of X?
Potential spoilers for discussed comics may follow!
Related Reading Orders:
All Comic Book Herald X-Men videos
In 1984, Marvel launched a 12 issue standalone event series called Secret Wars, by Jim Shooter and primarily Mike Zeck, bringing a huge collection of Marvel heroes and villains together to fight on the mysterious, alien Battleworld.
While there the Marvel characters are told they’ve been brought to Battleworld by a being of immense power, the mysterious Beyonder, able to stand up to the likes of Galactus with easy, at least until Doctor Doom suckers him into losing his immense power (for a time).
It’s not my focus today, but there are some notable themes for the X-Men including:
- Continued allied relationships with Magneto, stemming from the conclusion of Uncanny X-Men #150
- X-Men vs. Avengers hostilities and feelings that the “human” heroes aren’t really doing all they can to support mutantkind
- Colossus being the biggest dweeb, and Wolverine and Nightcrawler taking issue with him falling head over heels for Zsaji, the mysterious healer, at the expense of “wait, isn’t she still way too young for him?” Kitty Pryde.
Enter Secret Wars II, the sequel event launching later in 1985 and running through early 1986, written again by Jim Shooter this time with art by Al Milgrom. As a whole, I dislike Secret Wars II almost exactly as much as I love the original Secret Wars, which is to say Secret Wars II currently sits among my 10 least favorite comics of all time (but no, it could not unseat Marville for the worst ever).
Secret Wars II is all about The Beyonder journeying to Earth to discover his purpose, and it’s a bloated monstrosity with tie-ins to nearly every Marvel book at the time to boot! The only things I really like about the main event are the time Spider-Man taught the Beyonder how to poop, the time the Beyonder built a machine so he could be his own Mom/Dad and birthed himself, and the sheer number of “Dave” panels I get to use for any occasion because the Beyonder made a friend named Dave.
Amazingly, Head of X Chris Claremont takes this premise, and the mandate for tie-ins across his X-Men and New Mutants and manages to salvage some pretty good comics and interesting ideas. A few notes upfront about this era of New Mutants – since New Mutants #18 kicked off the incredible “Demon Bear” saga the book’s in the hands of Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz, in what is inarguably my favorite stretch of New Mutants ever. Issue #30 is mostly focused on Sunspot and Magma’s starring turns as Russell Crowe in Gladiator, as well as Dazzler’s apparent literal addiction to fame. The Sienkiewicz Gladiator monsters are worth the price of admission alone.
More interestingly, things kick off with the New Mutants, Kitty Pryde and Rachel Summers sent to Limbo at the Beyonder’s behest following Secret Wars #1.
There are a couple really important developments here. 1) The New Mutants are becoming fully aware of Illyana’s Darkchilde ...
07/01/20 • 15 min
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FAQ
How many episodes does Best Comics Ever have?
Best Comics Ever currently has 323 episodes available.
What topics does Best Comics Ever cover?
The podcast is about Leisure, Hobbies, Podcasts, Books and Arts.
What is the most popular episode on Best Comics Ever?
The episode title 'Creannotators #6: “Kill A Man” Deep Dive With Writer Steve Orlando' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Best Comics Ever?
The average episode length on Best Comics Ever is 39 minutes.
How often are episodes of Best Comics Ever released?
Episodes of Best Comics Ever are typically released every 5 days, 7 hours.
When was the first episode of Best Comics Ever?
The first episode of Best Comics Ever was released on Mar 30, 2018.
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