I started Comic Reviews Outside the Cube more than a decade ago. I was already a comics fan, have been since the late 80s, and I was putting out reviews quite frequently. As soon as podcasts started popping up, I was interested in having one of my own. I already had an internet radio show and I even had a themed show where I played comic book related music. Over the years, I'd start to plan and plot with various friends- people in the comics industry and in the retail end of the industry, but it wasn't until the pandemic that I got my own podcast. I was the co-host of a podcast called Deep Dives and Deep Cuts, the History of Punk, Post-Punk, and New Wave: 1976 - 1986. As of this posting, I'm still a part of it.
Not a comic book podcast.
Still wanting my comic book podcast, I talked to an old friend about doing something with comics. He loved the idea, but I quickly figured out that he was more interested in doing a horror movie podcast.
Not a comic book podcast.
The horror movie podcast never got off the ground. I was researching old horror movies. I was watching old silent horror films from back in the day and since the podcast wasn't happening, I went back to reading my comics.
The X-Men's Krakoan Era was just getting off the ground. The entire mutant population was making a home on the island of Krakoa. It was bigger and bolder than anything in comics to date and I wanted to know how it came to be.
I bought an X-Men Omnibus and started reading from X-Men #1, 1963.
A year later I was still reading, so I got together my oldest friends and proposed that we read these comics together and gather once a month to talk about them, just like we did when we were in our late teens. I recruited Roger and Shane, brought in my wife, and a friend younger than the rest of us and we became the House of X Book Club. With the issues I'd already had trying to get a podcast together, I'd given up on that idea. In fact, I dreaded the thought of starting a podcast and having it phase into nothingness. I was dedicated to reading the X-Men, with my friends, and finding out how our favorite mutants got to the point where Krakoa was an island nation.
Someone suggested we make it a podcast. I was reluctant but I didn't want to let go of this wonderful thing I'd created. We were already recording our meetings, so even though we'd been meeting and talking about our comics since February 2nd, 2023, our first episode dropped on May 27th.
It's been a fun ride so far. We're almost two years in and our journey has taken us through all of the X-Men comics from #1 to #103, and a large handful of adjacent books, like the Defenders, the Champions, the Incredible Hulk, and the Avengers.
There were already many X-Men podcasts going on around us. Some of those like Jay and Miles Explain the X-Men have been around for a very long time. We aren't doing something new, but we are doing it in our own way. Roger, Shane, and I are readers and fans of the X-Men since the 80s. Rowan has always known about the X-Men and she has some background in comics, but she hasn't read a lot of them. Drew is a complete X-Men newbie. Everything he comes across in the comics is completely new to him. This is a fun group.
I have no intention of losing this wonderful thing I've created, so I continue to read X-Men. I connect with readers, fans, and other podcasters online, and I have given myself a challenge to stay up to date on all of the relevant X-Men. That Challenge is that I will read all of the current X-Men titles as they come out. The way I see it, it could only enhance a podcast that talks about comics that are over forty years old.
Check us out at the House of X Book Club.
On Instagram houseofx_bookclub
On Podbean
or drop us an email at houseofxbookclub@gmail.com
We're eager to hear your thoughts.
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