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, Deadpool: Bad Blood, the Oni Press original graphic novel Down Set Fight, and more. Alone, I’m primarily known for the all-ages adventure stories I write with art by Steve Downer and  lettering by Josh Krach, Dracula the Unconquered.

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.

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 spinoff show in podcasting, Snack Situation, where we talk about what we’re snackin’ on. It’s also supported on Patreon.
  • Apocrypals, with Benito Cereno: the podcast where two non-believers read through the Bible and the Apocrypha, but we try not to be jerks about it. After ten years of doing podcasts, this is the first one I’m editing, which it turns out is very difficult! Anyway, we spend a lot of time comparing the Bible to superhero comics, because of course we do. It’s supported on Ko-Fi, so feel free to make a love offering.
  • 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 supported on Patreon, with rewards that include bonus content for everyone and very cool pins.
  • 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. Since it’s a sister podcast to Sailor Biz, it’s supported through the same Patreon.

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.

I’ve been working as a freelance columnist since 2010, and you can find most of my current output here:

  • Polygon: If you would’ve told me that the first column I’d write for a major outlet after being let go from CA would be tightly focused on Sonic the Hedgehog, I… probably would’ve believed you? I’ve since written a few other things there, too.
  • Looper: Comic book and pop culture listicles and other fun stuff. Fun to write and hopefully fun to read, and I try to bring the same kind of feeling that I had in stuff like Ask Chris.

From 2010 to 2017, I was the Senior Writer of the Eisner Award-winning ComicsAlliance.com, until we were all fired unceremoniously by the company that, it turned out, was severely underpaying us. I wrote there every weekday (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 answered 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 just straight-up wrote 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. Sadly unfinished, but made it up to episode 74 and included the 2017 Power Rangers movie.
  • 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 written elsewhere, too, including Verge, 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.