Hi, I’m Chris Sims: Writer, Podcaster, and World’s Foremost Batmanologist

A portrait of the author as Archie Andrews, photo by Aidan Sullivan

A portrait of the author as Archie Andrews, photo by Aidan Sullivan

I’ve been writing on the Internet for over a decade, and for most of my twenties, I wrote the ISB as a daily comic book and pop culture blog. If you’re looking for those archives, you can find them right here, warts and all. If not, here’s a little more about me.

I Write Comics

You can find most of my recent comics work, both solo and alongside my tag-team partner Chad Bowers, in the sidebar. Together, we’ve written Marvel’s X-Men ’92, the Oni Press original graphic novel Down Set Fight, and more. Alone, I’m primarily known for my two all-ages adventure stories, Dracula the Unconquered and Radical Guardian Skater X.

If you’re looking for more, you can head to my author page at Comixology, where you can find other short projects and incomplete series, including Subatomic Party Girls, the rock ‘n’ roll space adventure that Chad and I co-created with Unbeatable Squirrel Girl artist Erica Henderson.

I Make Podcasts

Well, usually the other person I’m recording with is the one in charge of making them, but “I show up and talk into a microphone at least once a week” didn’t quite sound right. I’m the co-host of:

  • War Rocket Ajax with Matt Wilson. This is the Internet’s most destructive comic book and pop culture podcast, which has been destroying eardrums since 2009. In each episode, Matt and I catch listeners up on what we’ve been doing this week, review a handful of the week’s comics, and then dive into an interview or set about ranking the best and worst comics of all time. Ajax is also supported on Patreon.
  • Movie Fighters with Matt Wilson. In this monthly podcast, Matt and I sit down to watch a bad movie and talk about it. We’re pretty sure that there is no other podcast with this premise, and that we are definitely the only ones on the Internet cracking jokes about bad movies. This is also the source of the hottest segment in podcasting, Snack Situation, where we talk about what we’re snackin’ on. It’s also supported on Patreon.
  • Sailor Business, with Jordan D. White. This is the podcast where we sit down with a guest each and every week to watch an episode of the classic 1992 Sailor Moon anime and talk about just why it is that we love it so much. Since Jordan and I are well aware that we’re both straight men talking about a show created by and intended for an audience of women, our guest is always a woman or nonbinary. Sailor Biz is not currently supported on Patreon, but you can support it through our monthly t-shirt club, featuring only the finest obscure jokes.
  • Xena Warrior Business, with Allison Stock. It’s a spin-off of Sailor Biz, but we’re watching every single episode of Xena: Warrior Princess with friends to talk about how great it is. This one will be supported on Patreon soon!

I Write Other Things

I once wrote a review of a comic book that featured the phrase “You have to get out of here! Your vagina is haunted!” If you’re here, there’s like a 94% chance that you’re looking for that.

Since 2010, I’ve been the Senior Writer of the Eisner Award-winning ComicsAlliance.com, the absolute best source for comic book opinion and commentary. I write there every day (and you can find everything I’ve written here), but here are a few long-form columns I’ve written:

  • Ask Chris: CA’s longest-running column. Every Friday, I answer a question from a reader, diving into topics as varied as the complicated history of superhero comics, the best Ninja Turtles, and at least two times where I’ve just straight-up written fan-fiction. If you’re looking for something I’ve written that’s not about a haunted vagina, it’s probably one of these.
  • Bizarro Back Issues: A continuation of what I did most of the time here at the ISB (and what most comics bloggers were doing in the mid-2000s), looking back at some of the weirdest old comics I’ve been able to find.
  • Ranger Station: An episode-by-episode guide to Power Rangers, comparing it with its Japanese source material from the Super Sentai franchise.
  • Electric Bluegaloo: A critical look back at one of the most ignored eras in all of superhero comics, that period from 1997 to 1998 where Superman had electric blue powers.
  • The Transformed Man: A longform look at IDW’s Transformers: Robots In Disguise and Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye from the perspective of a reader who has always kind of hated the Transformers. Spoiler warning: I end up liking them a lot.
  • The Batman ’66 Episode Guide: Detailed breakdowns of every episode of Season 1 of the classic Batman TV series, including comparisons with the specific comic book stories it was based on.
  • The X-Men Episode Guide: A detailed look back at all five seasons of the X-Men animated series.

I’ve also written for other outlets, including Cracked.com, Uproxx, Yahoo Movies, PrismComics.org, and others. Also, I was on The Daily Show once to talk about Batman.

I Do Some Other Things, Too

You can find me on Twitter and Tumblr. If you need to contact me, just send an email.