Collective Action Comics

About Collective Action Comics

Corporate capes? Working class heroes? It's a podcast about radical politics...told through some not so radical comic books.

Publisher

Collective Action Comics

Category

society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

14 Jun 2021

Latest episode

22 May 2026

Latest episodes

1 of 45 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   22 May 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Vol.3 Bonus #4 - Action Comics No.1094: The War of Art

   Host Mark Waid and guest Kourtney Smith discuss the nuanced portrayal of heroism and the line between progressive storytelling and jingoism in Action Comics #1094.

2. 

   18 Dec 2025

   Vol.3 Bonus #3 - Knightfall (with The Black Casebook)

   “But, at night to Mohammed, he confessed his doubts: It will not be as we dream, when those of us who survive finally get there. Corrupt politicians have already ensconced themselves. They are waiting for us—waiting for us not as brothers but as our masters. They will use us." – As told to John Berger, "Two Recumbent Male Figures Wrestling on a Sidewalk" "For a moment, he actually feels he can’t go on, can’t function anymore, living two lives with enough stress for ten but less than enough sleep for one." – Doug Moench, BATMAN #484 The United States is a broken empire. It just doesn't know it yet. The 1990s marked the full bloom of the international counterrevolution, whose mission to destroy the gains of the 20th century had just seen its first major victory in the destruction of the USSR. With no systemic power to oppose it, capitalism molted the old skin of social democracy, unveiling its truest form to hollow fanfare and a dead-eyed audience. Bereft of an external enemy worth organizing against, unsatisfied with the empty calories of the video game war, confronted with the grim realities of vaunted liberal democratic values, Americans tried to make sense of life at the end of history. Whose triumph was this? Even superhero fans found themselves yearning for—but never quite finding—meaning in heroes whose integral, inflated violence now seemed both superfluous and insufficient to the moment. Despite having "won" the Cold War, maybe what American audiences needed to see was one more domino fall. ---------- Special thanks to our Lovable Sidekicks: Better Possible Futures, Kourtney Smith, Walt Lewellyn, Kafka, The Black Casebook's Very Own Nightwing, JD Lunt, Ambird, Mr. Pig from the Intervention, Travis Armstrong, Chris Marks, Wirecats, Sheeee-itttt, VoidTek, Mars Hottentot, Richard Bell, TakoTuesday, Joseph, and Knife Money ---------- Email: blackcasebookpod@gmail.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlackCasebook Bluesky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile/blackcasebook.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackcasebookpod/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/blackcasebook/posts ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cacomixpod.bsky.social Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

3. 

   6 Oct 2025

   Vol.3 Bonus #2 - Superman (2025): Culture, Contradiction, and the Politics of Memory

   "What the hell is water?" Art, music, literature, drama. When the frontiers of human potential slam against capitalist industry, a force that can't be stopped confronts an object that can't be moved. Capitalism twists and redirects culture and imagination into a revenue stream, limiting to its flow the ideas we're allowed have and drowning all the rest. At the nexus of pop culture and "Pop Culture" struggles Superman, swimming against the current. ---------- Special thanks to our Lovable Sidekicks: Better Possible Futures, Kourtney Smith, Walt Lewellyn, Kafka, The Black Casebook's Very Own Nightwing, JD Lunt, Ambird, Mr. Pig from the Intervention, Travis Armstrong, Chris Marks, Wirecats, Sheeee-itttt, VoidTek, Mars Hottentot, Richard Bell, TakoTuesday, Joseph, and Knife Money ---------- Email: collectiveactioncomics@gmail.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveactioncomics Twitter: https://twitter.com/CAComixPod Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cacomixpod.bsky.social Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/collectiveactioncomics

Inside a recent episode

Vol.3 Bonus #4 - Action Comics No.1094: The War of Art

Published 22 May 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] In the dance, the blue casts a stark contrast against the red flesh of the subjects. Even more than the dark outlines of the dancers, the empty sky defines the activity and existence of that which it is not. but the barrenness of Matisse's sky does more than highlight the bodies dancing beneath it. It praises them. It communicates the joy of togetherness and of wild action performed as one by virtue of it having none of those qualities that the dancers have. More importantly, though, it does so in a way that only the keen-eyed might notice. After all, who goes looking for what's not there unless they're deliberately trying to find it? […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.8 / 5

52 ratings

Spotify

4.9 / 5

102 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 24 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

11

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

92

Contact Collective Action Comics

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.