Details, credits, errata: This week we’re delighted to have the great comics writer Mark Russell on the pod to discuss another 1980’s classic action movie, Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 sci-fi satire Robocop, much of which has come to pass in the years since its release. Mark calls it the best of the superhero movies; we are inclined to agree. It adapts and sends up all kinds of cool and weird comics without smoothing out any of their rough edges, and, of course, manages to be very much its own thing. Verhoeven is the creator of the controversial “Jesus Seminar,” a really unusual enterprise that is worth examining. Mark writes movingly about Christianity in a number of his terrific comics and has a new book coming up called Not All Robots with superstar artist Mike Deodato; we’re adding it to our pull list. His comics with artist Richard Pace about Jesus’s return to earth as a superhero sidekick, Second Coming, are wonderful; Vol. 1 is in print and Vol. 2 is currently being serialized and will be out in November. Mark is also writing one of Marvel’s terrific Life Story miniseries, this one for the Fantastic Four.
Our image on the website this week is taken from the sales page for Knightscope, a technology company that sells mall cop robots like the 300-lb K5, pictured here, which recently ran over a toddler in a mall in California and tragically drowned in Washington, D.C. If you see one, kick it.
Our theme song is Louis Armstrong and His Hot 5’s Muskrat Ramble, made freely available by the Boston Public Library and audio engineering shop George Blood, LP through the Internet Archive. Robocop is copyright 1987 MGM. Brief audio excerpts are used herein for purposes of review. All other material is copyright 2021 Sam Thielman and Alissa Wilkinson.
This is a free episode! We’d love it if you subscribed!
Episode 47: I'd Buy That for a Dollar