Podcast (MMM)

Make Mine Multiversity #143: "Alf" #22 & 44 with Colleen AF Venable; or, Mellmak in the Middle

Knock knock. Who's There? Molossus. Molossus who? Molossus you glad you didn't meet Psych Major?

Welcome Back to Make Mine Multiversity: A Marvel Podcast! Each episode we’ll be looking at Marvel books, old and new! We discuss fun Marvel comics, Marvel news, Marvel history and, now, are putting the "mine" back into Make Mine Multiversity.

Make Mine Multiversity was a twice-monthly podcast that premiered on the first and third Friday of every month. Now we're shooting for monthly every fourth Friday. Ish.

For those who're new, each month I talk with a guest about a Marvel comic that's memorable to them. Sometimes they're personally meaningful, sometimes it's "I read this a few months ago and its still sticking around."

This month I welcome on Colleen Venable to discuss a comic I vaguely knew existed but didn't realize how much of it there was: "Alf." From sitcom star to comics "hero," it's everyone's favorite Melman. The two issues Colleen chose were, thankfully for me, X-men related.

I'm not going to try to do any of the puns Alf is known for. I think it might do my head in.

For some bonafides, Colleen is a comics writer and former designer for First Second Books. She's written "Kiss Number 8," the "Katie the Catsitter" series and is now writing the "Junie B. Jones" adaptations with art by Honie Beam (oh hey, there's an interview about that.)

Creator Credits

Big thanks to Comics DB for helping interpret issue #44's credits.

Writer: Michael Gallagher
Pencilers: Dave Manak
Inkers: Marie Severin, Michael James (#44 part 3,) & Ruth Leon (#44 parts 4 & 5)
Colorist: Marie Severin (#42,) George Roussos (#44,)
Letterer: Rick Parker, Brad K. Joyce (#44)

Reading along?

Here are some places to find the issues!

Bargain hunting on Ebay or your local back issue bin.

Yeah...that's the only legal place to find these things.

Next time

"Fantastic Four" (2022) #1-6 aka the start of the current era with Ryan North. Science! Comedy! Existential angst! You can find it collected as "Fantastic Four, Vol. 1: Whatever Happened to the Fantastic Four?" or on Marvel Unlimited.

The Wind-Down

Elias can be found writing here at eliasrwrites.ghost.io. Colleen can be found on most platforms @colleenAF, on her website, and her books are in stores now! The big one's probably the Junie B. Jones adaptations with Honie Beam.

Our theme music is “Excelsior” by Carol Romo and our audio editor is me, Elias.

The show is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, (Stitcher is apparently dead and buried) and other places so please subscribe! You can also listen above or download it here.

Until next time, excelsior!