In 2019 Shelfdust asked over a hundred comic book critics, podcasters, vloggers and commentators to pick their personal, subjective favourite ‘first’ comic book issues of all time. From their choices we counted down the top fifty entries, which you can find here! But we’re not leaving it there. Now the list is over and we know which comics made the list, we’ve invited critic and podcaster Matt Lune to host a weekly show right here on Shelfdust! Each week Matt will be sitting down with a different comic critic to look at every comic which charted into the top fifty, one issue at a time.
This week it’s time to clock in for the day shift, as we look at the comic which ended up in 22nd place: Gotham Central #1 by Greg Rucka, Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark, Noelle Giddings and Willie Schubert!
It’s almost a running joke by now that the Gotham Central Police are hapless to the point of being completely irrelevant – particularly when supervillains get involved in matters. But what Gotham Central did was take that concept and apply it to real people, who were tired, underfunded, and working day-to-day in situations which could result in their deaths at any moment. It’s a hugely tense series as a result – but luckily Osvaldo Oyola is back this week to talk it all through with us!
You can listen to the episode:
Come back next week….. as Matt will be talking to Nola Pfau about Batman & Robin #1!
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Osvaldo posts his thoughts (and those of guest writers) on popular culture, race, and gender on The Middle Spaces, focusing on popular music and comic books. You can find him on Twitter here!
Matt Lune is a critic and podcaster who has written for publications including PanelXPanel, The MNT and Multiversity. You can find him on Twitter here!
This podcast is made possible thanks to the Shelfdust Patreon page! To find out more, head to our Patreon page here!
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