We welcome back Randy Carter (from Swarm of Comics) for a soaring discussion on the Golden and Silver Ages of superhero comics!
The Golden Age of comic books in the United States spanned 1938 to 1956, beginning with the 1938 debut of Superman in Action Comics #1. And the Silver Age is generally considered to span 1956 to 1970. That period began with the publication of DC Comics' Showcase #4 (October 1956), which introduced the modern version of the Flash, Barry Allen.
For this episode, your Octo-hosts will each pick 1 superhero from the Golden Age and 1 from the Silver Age! As usual, you can expect plenty of deep cuts and rambling as we navigate this enormously important period of time. Nuff said?
Follow Randy Carter's Swarm of Comics, on his ongoing CGC unboxing adventures!
And if thrashy death metal is your thing... you gotta put Swarm of Eyes in your ear holes!
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Retro Ridoctopus is:
• Parasite Steve (read)
• 8-Bit Alchemy (listen)
• Coopster Gold (join)
• Nintenjoe (subscribe)
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All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile
For this episode of THE BRIG, we are joined by the writing team of Jesse Scoble and Devinder Thiara who rode in from the Great White North to promote their new weird western comic, DEAD MONEY!
Jesse is an award-winning game writer with credits on: Assassin’s Creed Origins & Odyssey, Far Cry 5, Watch Dogs 2, HyperScape, and Wizard101. TTRPG work includes A Game of Thrones d20, the Marvel Multiverse RPG, and Vampire.
Devinder is a tabletop RPG writer with credits on Dune, Conan, John Carter of Mars, and the new Marvel Multiverse RPG. A published short story author, he is a history buff, and a longtime fan of SF/fantasy.
Support Dead Money on Kickstarter and get in on this killer project before it explodes!
And sign up for the Dead Money newsletter!
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Retro Ridoctopus is:
• Parasite Steve (read)
• 8-Bit Alchemy (listen)
• Coopster Gold (join)
• Nintenjoe (subscribe)
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All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile
For this episode, we get in touch with our softer sides...
Get ready to hear a handful of super rad GIRL TOYS that go way beyond playing with dolls. Properties like the Care Bears, My Little Pony and Rainbow Brite have been slapped on as many things as He-Man or the Transformers over the years, and have had just as many reboots. And while we may mention the cartoons, our focus here is on the TOYS!
Parasite Steve is on assignment (wrestling crabs in the Outer Banks) but stepping in as guest host is the amazing and velvet-voiced Taryn Barber! A very long time friend of the show, Taryn is the President of Amalga-Mania and the mastermind behind all the incredible artisan soaps over at ACID KITTY! We are so happy to have her back!
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Retro Ridoctopus is:
• Parasite Steve (read)
• 8-Bit Alchemy (listen)
• Coopster Gold (join)
• Nintenjoe (subscribe)
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All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile
RELOAD!! RELOAD!! PER-KANNG!!
Whether you're aiming your NES Zapper at some 8-bit ducks or feeding quarters into an arcade to head-shot some video zombies, you're experiencing the white-knuckled action of a niche sub-genre of video games known as a LIGHT GUN GAMES or ON RAILS SHOOTERS!!
Tonight, with the help of our old buddy, Nintenjoe, we'll spotlight some personal favorites! We start with beloved titles like Duck Hunt, House of the Dead and Time Crisis and, as we are want to do, move to a bunch of obscure hidden gems that went under the radar!
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Retro Ridoctopus is:
• Parasite Steve (read)
• 8-Bit Alchemy (listen)
• Coopster Gold (join)
• Nintenjoe (subscribe)
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All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile
With the help of our pal Scott Clevenger (from The Slumgullion podcast) we dish all about four stylish 90's action/adventure films that were looking to the pulps of the 30s for inspiration! These movies featured heroic characters from a bygone era of pulp magazines, comic strips and serials!
We'll each present one of the four films while diving into their pulpy origins. By the time these films were made, these characters weren't as well known as in their heyday, but there would never have been a Batman without The Shadow, The Phantom or Dick Tracy!
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Retro Ridoctopus is:
• Parasite Steve (read)
• 8-Bit Alchemy (listen)
• Coopster Gold (join)
• Nintenjoe (subscribe)
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All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile
This week, down in that rusted out hull we call the BRIG… we are honored to have New York Times bestselling and Bram Stoker Award-winning author, Christopher Golden! Chris is the author of such novels as Snowblind, Road of Bones, Ararat, The House of Last Resort, 13 Buffy The Vampire Slayer novels and more comics than you can shake a RIGHT HAND OF DOOM at!
Since his debut in 1994 (with "Of Saints and Shadows"), Chris has written stories featuring such beloved characters as Hellboy, Buffy, Daredevil, Alien, The X-Men and so many more! We'll try to get him to talk about all that, his newest novel "The Night Birds" and how even after 30 years, he can still suffer from imposter syndrome!
WARNING!! WARNING!! This episode contains a surprise appearance of one of Chris' closest friends/collaborators! Chris had no idea!
Follow Christopher Golden on Facebook , Instagram and BlueSky and check out his official website!
And if battling shapeshifting Icelandic witches sounds like your idea of a good time, order your copy of THE NIGHT BIRDS wherever books are sold!
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Retro Ridoctopus is:
• Parasite Steve (read)
• 8-Bit Alchemy (listen)
• Coopster Gold (join)
• Nintenjoe (subscribe)
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All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile
Coopster Gold takes us back to our Amazing Animal Facts theme from last season, but with a twist! This time we only picked those creatures who have sadly joined the ranks of the EXTINCT.
We decided to leave the dinosaurs out of it, focusing on such fantastic beasts as Mighty Moas, Tasmanian Tigers, Woolly Rhinos and, of course, the poster animal for extinction, the Dodo.
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Retro Ridoctopus is:
• Parasite Steve (read)
• 8-Bit Alchemy (listen)
• Coopster Gold (join)
• Nintenjoe (subscribe)
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All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile
This time in the BRIG, we have an enormously talented artist, graphic designer and author of the novels Blood For The Sun, All The Dead Men, Lightning Wears a Red Cape and his brand new one: The Queen of Saturn and the Prince in Exile! All that and he’s a former Marine, a black belt in Krav Maga..
It’s Boston’s own… Errick Nunnally!
The Queen of Saturn and the Prince in Exile is a Black nerd coming-of-age novel set in 1970s Boston about a boy who struggles to learn the truth behind his mother’s claims of otherworldly origins in the smoldering aftermath of the Civil Rights era and COINTELPRO's dying breaths.
Purchase this awesome novel from our friends at Copper Dog Books or anywhere books are sold!
And check out the official website of artist, author, Errick Nunnally!
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Retro Ridoctopus is:
• Parasite Steve (read)
• 8-Bit Alchemy (listen)
• Coopster Gold (join)
• Nintenjoe (subscribe)
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All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile
Retroids, start your engines! This episode is all about driving and racing games! We're talking arcades, Atari, Super Nintendo, the N64, and into the era of Playstation and X-Box! As long as the game puts you behind the wheel, it counts!
Along for the ride is our old pal and former host of the Retro Ridoctopus cephalopodcast, Synopsis Grim AKA BOSS RUSH MODE!! So buckle up and floor that gas pedal. It's the finish line or BUST!
Later on, we'll brake for an Octoponder This, then gun it for another installment of Parasite Steve's BOOKSHELF OF THE DAMNED, featuring the fantastic "EIGHT CYLINDERS" by Jason Parent, which has been described as "a wild mix of Fury Road, Dante’s Inferno, and Lovecraftian horror". Get your copy here!
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Retro Ridoctopus is:
• Parasite Steve (read)
• 8-Bit Alchemy (listen)
• Coopster Gold (join)
• Nintenjoe (subscribe)
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All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile
Val Kilmer was an actor's actor. The rare sort of movie star whose focus was always on creating the best performance possible. Even when not the leading man, he through himself into every role, always elevating what had been written on the page into something special.
Over the course of an impressive 30 year career, Val was shaped by the Hollywood machine into a bonafied movie star. From lighter fair like Top Secret and Real Genius to performances in Tombstone, The Doors, Willow, Heat and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang... Val proved there was no genre he couldn't master. No character he couldn't make memorable and, perhaps most impressive, wholly his own. His contributions to the film industry are as vast as they are undeniable.
Val Kilmer passed away from pneumonia on April 1, 2025 at the age of just 65.
For this tribute episode, we discuss 12 of what we consider to be his most important films.
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Retro Ridoctopus is:
• Parasite Steve (read)
• 8-Bit Alchemy (listen)
• Coopster Gold (join)
• Nintenjoe (subscribe)
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All original heavy metal music by Enchanted Exile