Episode 282 - Diversity, Layoffs and Cocaine Hippos, Oh My!

We&#39;re back with a full Blue Team episode to start our Anniversary month off strong! Ian, Kris, Donovan, Brandon, Brent, Raph and Jamal start things off first with some words on the one and only Gerry Conway, creator of characters such as The Punisher, Jason Todd, Carol Danvers (as Ms. Marvel), Ben Reilly, Firestorm and so many others, who passed away at the age of 73. We then discuss Sam Kieth&#39;s passing a bit and the gothic inspiration of Gotham, pivot to Marvel&#39;s recent layoffs and what that may mean for the company, and for AI moving forward, the lack of black led ongoing series from DC (yes, there&#39;s a tracker recording how long it&#39;s been since that happened), bringing back up that old Dwayne McDuffie skateboard memo, recent reads including The Florida Hippopotamus Cocaine Massacre (yes, for real), Kevin Smith&#39;s Bizarro: Year None, Kris&#39; continued thoughts on Medalist, and so much more!Time stamps:RIP Gerry Conway: 0:04:35RIP Sam Kieth: 0:27:52Layoffs at Marvel: 0:37:1520th Anniversary of Comic Timing Plans: 1:03:09Diversity (or Lack Thereof) in Comics: 1:09:02Recent reads: 1:52:42You can support future releases of Comic Timing and get in on the occasional early releases of the show at http://www.patreon.com/ComicTiming. Video versions of most episodes are at http://youtube.com/@comictimingpodcast, along with Raph&#39;s new shorts series, Raph&#39;s Comic Catch-Up, so go ahead and subscribe if you haven&#39;t already done so.You can also follow Comic Timing on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/comictiming.bsky.social, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ComicTiming/, and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/comictimingpodcast. And please, if you can, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts; it helps attract new listeners! Finally, you can join in on the conversation at our Comic Timing Fans group on Facebook, which is a great place to hang out and talk comics.Follow Ian on Bluesky, and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/i_am_scifi. Brent posts regularly to YouTube on his channel, BK’s Bullets and can be found on Bluesky and Threads; Donovan is on Bluesky and Threads, writes for DC&#39;s blog and The Batman Universe, and check out his podcast, Questions: We Don&#39;t Have Answers. Kris is lampbane on Bluesky, and you can check out her various other works at http://linktr.ee/krisnaudus. Jamal is on Bluesky, Threads and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/jamalig