The Best Comics of 2023 and What to Expect in 2024: A Recap with Ben Kingsbury of Gotham City Limit Comic Shop

The Best Comics of 2023 and What to Expect in 2024: A Recap with Ben Kingsbury of Gotham City Limit Comic Shop - The Short Box Podcast Ep. 414 

[00:00:00] Intro plays

[00:01:17] Badr: Yo, Short Box Nation. Welcome back to the podcast. Thanks for joining me and happy new year. I hope the holidays treated all of you very well, and I hope you're already off to a good start in this new year.

[00:01:29] Badr: I know I'm excited for what this new year will bring, and I'm glad to have listeners like all of you along for the ride. Now, if this is your first time tuning in, welcome to the show. My name is Badr and this is the Short Box Podcast, the comic book talk show that brings you the best conversations about comic books and pop culture inspired by comics.

[00:01:47] Badr: This is episode 414 and despite it being the official first episode of 2024, this episode will actually serve as an opportunity for all of us to take one last look back at 2023. And acknowledge and highlight all the best comics and moments from that year. So what I'm saying is, in true short box fashion, I waited until the very last minute to turn in my homework.

[00:02:09] Badr: So this is basically a best of year episode. And helping me with that task of recapping a whole year in one episode is Ben Kingsbury, who you just heard in the intro. Ben is the owner of the 

[00:02:20] Ben Kingsbury: award winning comic shop. 

[00:02:22] Badr: Gotham City Limit, which is not only located here in Jacksonville, Florida, it's not only my personal local comic shop, but they are also the official sponsor of this here podcast.

[00:02:31] Badr: Many of you will also recognize Ben's voice because he's also the voice of our Fistful of Comics segment. You know those energetic and wacky voicemails we play when we give our comic picks of the week? That's him. That's Ben. So if Ben's help, we're talking about our favorite comics, our favorite creative teams, the surprise sleepers and breakout titles of 2023, and we're discussing the comics coming out in 2024 that we're most excited for.

[00:02:55] Badr: Ben also breaks down the best selling and most pulled titles in his shop and reflects on the lessons he's learned this year as a comic shop owner. Which, uh, to be honest, is my favorite part of this whole conversation. Ben is an open book, he wears his passion for comics and the industry on his sleeve.

[00:03:11] Badr: So getting to hear him talk about running a comic shop, and what he's learned through the last six years of keeping Gotham City Limit open, it's, it's good stuff. The other fun thing to note about this episode is that it was recorded at Gotham City Limit. So if you want to watch this interview unfold, or maybe you're just curious what the shop looks like inside, be sure to check out the uncut and extended video version of this episode over on the ShortBox YouTube channel, which is linked in this episode's show notes.

[00:03:36] Badr: Speaking of the show notes, you'll also find time stamps for the different topics we talked about, and links to all of the comics and titles that we talked about, just in case you want to take a look for yourself, or if you want to add them to your reading list. With that said, you're in for a great interview.

[00:03:50] Badr: That's all I could really say. I couldn't think of a better way to kick off the new year than hanging out with Ben and talking about comics and the industry. I don't think any more preamble is needed. Let's go ahead and start the show. Here we go. 

[00:04:02] Ben Kingsbury: You know, Ben, I feel like you are over 

[00:04:03] Badr: This has been overdue.

[00:04:05] Badr: Now, I said in the intro that you, uh, uh, are the voice of our Fistful of Comics segment. You know, I think we try to do that at least twice a month. So, long time listeners are definitely familiar with what you got going on and, and you know, the passion that you've got for comics, but this year, 

[00:04:19] Ben Kingsbury: you know, I wanted to 

[00:04:21] Badr: have one last recap and look at the year and I figured, you know, who better to 

[00:04:25] Ben Kingsbury: have than you?

[00:04:26] Ben Kingsbury: It's, uh, it's a fun experience because I read so many comics. Uh, yeah, you do. I'm sorry to 

[00:04:32] Badr: interrupt him. You told me today that you finished the entire Invincible series. Not just like the first volume or compendium. You read the entire series this year. In 

[00:04:42] Ben Kingsbury: addition to everything else. 147 issues, they put them in three compendiums.

[00:04:47] Ben Kingsbury: So that makes it very easy when they have those whole books. You don't have to hunt down individual ones. But. But because of the popularity, I mean, I'll just backtrack. I started this comic book store because every comic store I went into before I had this place, I couldn't tell if they gave a shit if I was there or not, you know, and then, and then people don't, their wives, their husbands, their brothers or sisters, whoever they live with.

[00:05:12] Ben Kingsbury: I don't want to talk to him about the coolest new comics. People legitimately want a place to escape life. That's why I was saying life is hard. Life is a comedy or a tragedy depending on how you want to look at it. Everyone needs an escape. And uh, that's what I think the whole point of a comic shop is supposed to be.

[00:05:31] Ben Kingsbury: But, uh, I read so much. I mean, this morning alone, I think I read 11 comics that came out this past week. I legitimately try to read almost every new comic that comes out every week. Two reasons. One, how do you sell something if you don't know what it is? You know, people find out real quick, you're a fraud if you try to BS people into reading stories.

[00:05:53] Ben Kingsbury: So I always, when people say, Hey, what's a good recommendation? I give them one. And then one of my go to kind of jokes or lines is I wouldn't lie to you. I want you to come back. So. So that's really important to me. Do you have a ritual 

[00:06:06] Badr: when it comes to reading? Like, is it at, you know, dinnertime? Is it a late night 

[00:06:10] Ben Kingsbury: kind of unwind thing?

[00:06:11] Ben Kingsbury: Yeah, I have a percolator of espresso coffee brewing in the AM. And I sit down with my espresso and I read comics. So you're more of a morning type. Morning at night, man. I'm done. I'm tired. I'm done. You eat dinner. You watch a TV show. Yeah, it's pretty much the end of the night. It's hard for me. You know, you ever do that where you're like half falling asleep or trying to read and you're like, I just need to put this down.

[00:06:33] Ben Kingsbury: I've become the 

[00:06:34] Badr: opposite now. I have really gravitated towards reading comics at night time. You know, and it's an opportunity for me to just, like, unwind. That's my way to unwind, is I'll read my books until, like you said, I start dozing off and then I know it's time to go. And then I'll pick up in the morning, 

[00:06:50] Ben Kingsbury: wherever I left off.

[00:06:51] Ben Kingsbury: Well, owned in a business, it doesn't matter if it's a comic store, a guitar store, uh, you own an auto dealership, you got your own bakery, it really doesn't matter. There's a lot of anxiety and stress that goes along with it. So in the morning, the reason I enjoy it is because I know my day is about to get started.

[00:07:08] Ben Kingsbury: I know there's an email in there that, uh, I'm going to have to get to, and it kind of gives me an hour to wake up and just. Get my mind off of it, the everyday thing. So, uh, the morning time is for me, but in reality, it's whenever I can find time. I respect that. 

[00:07:25] Badr: Now, Ben, folks that aren't here in Jax might not know that come January 6th, you're going to be celebrating six years of this incredible place called Gotham City Limit.

[00:07:36] Badr: How does it, how are you feeling right now? I mean, with the year coming to a close, knowing that you're going to celebrate a huge milestone in less than a week, like, how are 

[00:07:44] Ben Kingsbury: you feeling about it? Uh, I gotta throw a party, so a little panic. You know, just because, uh, I want to make sure I get it right. The reality of all of these events, whether it's our free comic book day we do here, uh, Batman day, um, getting a, an awesome award, um, having something like our six year anniversary party.

[00:08:06] Ben Kingsbury: When I get to it, it's, uh, That's when you start thinking about, you know, all you put into it. Uh, it's hard to notice change in life when you're involved in it every single day. But when we do these, uh, big events, I get to go post old pictures. And that's when it really hits me. You know, we've been doing this for six years, but I break it up into two three year leases, basically, in my head.

[00:08:30] Ben Kingsbury: The first three years I had no fucking idea what I was doing. I mean, literally, I read comics, but I didn't know how to run a comic store. I didn't even know how comics were really ordered when I first started. Obviously, there used to be an old shop down the street called Gotham City Limits. And, um, the man who, man and woman who owned that, he was going to retire and shut it down.

[00:08:52] Ben Kingsbury: I got my pole there because I'm, uh, two miles from here, which is very nice, by the way, being close to work. Um, and. He was shutting it down and, and literally in my head, I thought, well, if they can keep this fucking place open, I gotta be able to keep a comic shop open, even if I don't know what I'm doing, just because of my love for it.

[00:09:12] Ben Kingsbury: And, uh, I I'm a people pleaser. I really do like to try to take care of people. I think that's a big part of any kind of subscription business. You're going to be a part of, and without the people, none of those words matter. Like I, and I don't win an award or we don't win an award here because we're the best.

[00:09:30] Ben Kingsbury: We win an award because we've made the biggest influence on people and they were willing to go vote for us because that's how you win. You don't win by yourself. I mean, I created 25 different emails to vote from every single morning, but, but How bad do you want to fucking win? You know what I mean? It's uh, I wanted to win pretty bad.

[00:09:51] Ben Kingsbury: Pacertheshopdog. com You know, I mean, I did a ball, baby. I respect that. Yeah, so, I mean, that's really Believe me, I was only 25 out of probably a thousand votes, man. Right, right, right, right. But so, like I said, I break this down into about three years. The first three years, Was learn the business. I mean, I was a newbie.

[00:10:07] Ben Kingsbury: I embarrassed myself a couple of times with customers. I can think about specific moments when I first opened, where I thought I knew what I was talking about, or I thought I knew what I was doing. I mean, shoot. Now DC does incentive variants. When I opened this place, DC did not do an incentive variant.

[00:10:24] Ben Kingsbury: It was not a. thing that they ever did. They did an a and a B cover, and now they have morphed into these monsters of retailer exclusive incentive variants. So the first three years was me by myself in here. Uh, you know, the desk used to be back in the back of the shop. He used to have a couple of pinball machines.

[00:10:42] Ben Kingsbury: This place used to be pretty empty. There weren't all these giant bookshelves and all this cool product in here. And uh, That's where my focus was learning how to, to run a comic shop or what would be successful. It might work. And then the last three years is I really feel like where the growth has been, and it's because I've gotten some amazing people.

[00:11:02] Ben Kingsbury: I mean, you know, friendly neighborhood, Jonathan. He's the best comic shop employee, period. I mean, I never, I couldn't ask for anybody who cared more about comics. I mean, that's one thing you want when you're a comic shop owner. Get a comic addict. Cause he's gotta show up just for his pull. Right? So, he can't say no, even if he's feeling tired, like, no.

[00:11:22] Ben Kingsbury: So, I think that that, um, that's the difference in the three years, or in the six years that we've gone through. And now, every single time. Um, every single month, I'm just blessed and lucky to have this place. I can't believe we're going into 2024 already. The holidays seem to go by so quickly, man, uh, you know, it's before I know it, it's December 31st, we're moving and grooving, rocking and rolling in 2024.

[00:11:47] Ben Kingsbury: And I have a personal saying, and that is if you're ripe, you're rotten, which means. We're not ripe. We're not even close to ripe. Like I might be good at selling comics. I might love comic books. I might love having a comic shop, but there is a lot of room for growth for us in here. And, um, so, you know, for that, in that aspect, I mean, I cannot wait.

[00:12:08] Ben Kingsbury: I literally, um, wake up every day, kind of excited. I mean, this is my happy place when I leave for a couple days, four or five days and I come back, man, I cannot, I cannot believe how much I, uh, how much I actually miss just being in here, talking to people. You know, I tell people all the time, I say they started interrupting me while I'm talking.

[00:12:27] Ben Kingsbury: I was like, I pay 2, 000 a month in rent. So, so I can talk for you to talk. This is my happy place too. So. Look, I want to take a 

[00:12:37] Badr: huge step back, because I don't think I've ever heard, uh, this, this from you, or this story from you, but what is your first, uh, conscious exposure to comics? What's like your first memory of reading or 

[00:12:48] Ben Kingsbury: holding a comic book?

[00:12:50] Ben Kingsbury: Uh It's it's crazy because it's tied to trauma when I was six years old, I got an infection, a blood infection in my left hand. Somehow we weren't sure how it happened. Um, and overnight my hands swole up to a point where I had to have emergency surgery. I'd have an emergency blood transfusion. Six years old.

[00:13:10] Ben Kingsbury: I was in the hospital for uh, For five days, and my mother brought me Transformer comic books. This is 1985. So 

[00:13:20] Badr: they were probably 

[00:13:21] Ben Kingsbury: published by Marvel, right? Yeah, back then. You know, to be honest with you, off the top of my head, I'm not even really sure. But she brought me Transformer comic books, and I think that was my first exposure.

[00:13:30] Ben Kingsbury: And then from there, I became obsessed with babysitting, uh, caddying, anything I could do mowing lawns so that I could go to the comic shop. In the, in the eighties and nineties, comic shops were very much card shops, you know, that kind of thing. Now, uh, you still carry cards, magic, and all those kinds of other things.

[00:13:50] Ben Kingsbury: But back then it was basically baseball, football, that kind of stuff. But that's literally my first, uh, that I really remember. And then. Um, Amazing Spider Man, Kraven, Last Hunt, The Breaking of the Bat, and The Death of Superman are three major moments in comics that have an effect on me to this day. Um, and then I went back and read Old Spider Man, and, um, there's something about The ability to draw strength in real life from moments that you've read about.

[00:14:23] Ben Kingsbury: So, when Spider Man is trapped, um, and he's giving up, and he does, and then he thinks about Mary Jane and Aunt May, and he gotta do this, I can't give up, and And those moments, literally, I do think about in my real life when I'm having a hard time and I think, you know, you can do this, you can get through this, you just got to make it happen.

[00:14:44] Ben Kingsbury: And I draw inspiration from some of these stories. And I think that's the whole point, right? Of, of telling stories is to let everybody know, Hey man, we're different generations, but we're all the same. You know, everybody who grows up thinks they're living a brand new world, right? They think that this is my experience and no one's ever had that.

[00:15:02] Ben Kingsbury: And it couldn't be further from the truth. Couldn't be. And I know I thought like that with my parents. Like, they don't know me. They've never lived my life. They don't know it's a new world. And then you get a little bit older and you're like, now history repeats itself. And I think that's kind of the point of a lot of these stories is to let you know, Hey man, you got people in your corner.

[00:15:20] Ben Kingsbury: But it literally goes back to that Transformers, which is so cool because now Transformers, I can't believe how popular it is. I mean, I had 13 people on the poll. Now I saw 130 copies every time it comes out. Wow. Wait, 130 copies of each individual issue. Wow. All right. And we had, how many people would you say are on the, on the pool of those 130?

[00:15:40] Ben Kingsbury: Close to about 65 now. Wow. So half of that is just walking customers. Yeah. I mean, well, Robert Kirkman, okay, the creator of the walking dead is maybe the single greatest, uh, thing that ever happened to comic stores. And he misses the fact that people just used to go in on new comic book day and see what was new, right?

[00:16:00] Ben Kingsbury: And comic stores used to just carry product and be like, all right, I think this is going to be popular. That artist is cool. This writer is popular. That's a cool topic. Let's be a good salesman and saleswoman and let's sell some comics. Right? And then the internet. Created it. Hey man, I know what's coming out in two months and before the comic is out, it's leaked on Twitter or X, you know?

[00:16:23] Ben Kingsbury: And so he loves the fact that are, he wants to get back to having comic shots where people just have walk in guests. It's not just polls. So for me, the biggest growth that we've had is having the product for walk ins because not, cause man, you know, this as well as anybody who's ever owned a poll.

[00:16:41] Ben Kingsbury: Everybody knows this, that it's really easy to get out of control. Oh yeah. Right. Add this one, add that one, add this one. You come in, you haven't been in for three weeks and all of a sudden it's 190. You're like, what did I do? Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, no, no, Ben. I'm here to pick up comics and I pay my mortgage.

[00:16:58] Ben Kingsbury: And so, you know, when COVID happened, Robert Kirkman put out a comic called Negan lives a one shot to do with walking dead, and he just sent them to comic shops, um, based on what we ordered of the last walking dead issue, just to make shops, to make, get, make some money when void rivals came out. That kicked off the entire energon universe.

[00:17:17] Ben Kingsbury: He didn't tell a soul what it was about. He didn't solicit it as the beginning of the energon universe. He didn't solicit it as GI Joe and this huge giant thing that the product now new product they have. He just put it out and then. Boom, like wildfire, it took off. So I think that has a lot to do with it.

[00:17:34] Ben Kingsbury: He's making moments 

[00:17:35] Badr: in comic books, you know? Right. I want to say like, that was the Heroes Con weekend. And that whole weekend, I remember that Friday or Saturday, I was on the hunt for like the Void Rivals, like Void Rivals 1, right? Off the bat. Very, very beginning. I just remember there was like a certain energy, um, to the convention and just people chattering, you know, talking about like, did you pick up Void Rivals 1?

[00:17:56] Badr: Oh my god, you know, they're bringing back Transformers. And I mean, we're going to just a little ahead, but we're, we're about to get there. I think the inner John universe is probably my favorite thing in comics this year. 

[00:18:06] Ben Kingsbury: I have a few favorites, obviously, but those are comics that when they come out, I read immediately, you know, and another one going back to Robert Kirkman, this has been going on for a couple of years, but I never got to read the walking dead from the beginning.

[00:18:19] Ben Kingsbury: And they'd been reprinting it every two weeks in color, which is nice and holy shit. It's like literally one of the best stories ever written. I can, it comes out. I already got next week's walking dead that comes out. Jonathan pulls it out of the box for me. Like, here you go. Here's your walking dead.

[00:18:34] Ben Kingsbury: Cause I know you want to read this. Uh, I never got to read it from the beginning and it is just spectacular. That's just his writing. The characters, the overall, and then in color, I think it gives it a whole lot of life. I started picking it up in black and white, like near the end when I first started this place and to be able to go back to the beginning in comic form in the way it was intended, you know, cause that break.

[00:18:59] Ben Kingsbury: People don't like breaks anymore. We get Netflix streaming and Disney plus and Hamill watch all seven seasons in three weeks. Yeah. Binge watching man. X Files is my favorite TV show of all time and Holy smokes. I couldn't wait till the following Sunday. There was something about anticipation. About waiting about, Hey, it's coming.

[00:19:18] Ben Kingsbury: Oh, is this the week it's out? Oh, it's almost Sunday. You got to give yourself something to look forward to. So in that aspect, um, I, I really love comics for that, but the way he is just transformed transformers and GI Joe to make it a mainstream thing is literally the most spectacular thing I maybe I've ever witnessed in a comic shop.

[00:19:41] Ben Kingsbury: What does a comic shop 

[00:19:42] Badr: owner's pull list look like? What, what's on your pull list off top of your head? Like what, how many titles, 

[00:19:47] Ben Kingsbury: what's on your pull list? Okay. So now I, um, collect specific series that I have a lot of interest in, but I read. Everything, right? So it's morphed. When I first started this place, 2018 true story, I pulled one comic of every single title that came out the entire year.

[00:20:06] Ben Kingsbury: And then the next year I was like, why the fuck did I pull all these dark horse? Like, what, what is this title? Why did I even pull this thing? You know, why make it happen? And then, so comic collecting is very funny because there's money in it. Uh, but if you're motivated by money, you're going to find a lot of disappointment because it's highly volatile.

[00:20:25] Ben Kingsbury: It goes up and down. You got to love this stuff. You got to be a part of it. Um, but. What I do find right now is that I read DC stories almost before I read anything else. Um, not for collectability, not for anything else, they have the best writers. Chip Zardaski, Tom Taylor, um, you know, Joshua Williamson, uh, the list goes on and on.

[00:20:49] Ben Kingsbury: Um, you know, and those are, Hickman, when Jonathan Hickman writes a comic book. Pulling all of it. Like the, the fall of the house of X and all the rise of the powers of 10 that's coming out. And then when he originally did that decorum, all that stuff. Um, so, um, it just depends on the specific ones.

[00:21:08] Ben Kingsbury: Obviously I collect off Spider Man, I collect Batman for myself. Um, big major characters, uh, that, that I love. Uh, and now honestly, I'll collect comic books just for the cover and then I'll read just about everything I can get my hands on. Who are some of your favorite artists then? Well, I mean, it's simple.

[00:21:26] Ben Kingsbury: My favorite artist of all time is the Norman Rockwell of comic book collecting, and it's Alex Ross. All day. I read Kingdom Come, and Mark Waid and Alex Ross wrote Kingdom Come, and it just, every panel was painted so beautifully, and it was like the most, like, elegant, just, and then everybody wanted to see Superman and Shazam.

[00:21:50] Ben Kingsbury: So, uh, Alex Ross, my favorite, uh, you know, uh, character or artist, period, in comics. Anything he does, you know, he does all those timeless variants this year with all the villains. He did that connecting cover set of the 91 X Men homage. That was by far probably the most, uh, requested pulled comic. Didn't even matter what the comic was.

[00:22:12] Ben Kingsbury: In fact, you could probably couldn't even find anybody tell you what for comics it is because it doesn't fucking matter. It wasn't about that. It was about the art on there. Uh, but now, I mean, listen, Jorge Jimenez. Have you 

[00:22:26] Badr: ever, really quick, on the topic of Jorge Jimenez, because I got to see him in person at New York Comic Con.

[00:22:31] Badr: He's a fucking model. He's a model that happens to draw really 

[00:22:34] Ben Kingsbury: well. Holy shit. I follow him on social media. I'm like, he's the prettiest human on the planet. He's the best fucking dude in comics. He's doing sit ups while he's drawing stuff. No, so, okay, doing covers is, is, is an amazing talent, but Being able to draw interiors to the level that he does is what separates him from a lot of the other artists, in my opinion, but, you know, the J.

[00:22:57] Ben Kingsbury: Scott Campbell's and, uh, um, uh, Ivan Tao so popular now and, uh, some of the newer aged people, uh, I. One of my favorite, obviously, is Tyler Kirkham. Uh, I still have an affinity for men and women that draw with pencil. Like, I know they can draw on pads and I know they use that because it's a little bit easier to supplement their work, add some colors in the back.

[00:23:21] Ben Kingsbury: It's obviously still art, real art. Those people are incredibly talented. You know, Sweeney Boo, a new modern one, uh, that I think exclusively basically draws on. iPads or, you know, uses some technology along with it. But man, people that can draw pencil and ink, the Jim Lee's, the Todd McFarlane's, the even Rob Liefeld for, you know, he is such a, he has such a fractured fan base.

[00:23:46] Ben Kingsbury: It's so funny. There's people that would die on the cross for him and then other people that just can't stand him because he picks fights with people on social media, you know? So he kind of creates that. Um, but, uh, Tyler Kirkham. He's done so many of our exclusive covers here. I've 

[00:24:03] Badr: said it all the time.

[00:24:04] Badr: You might as well just hire Tyler Kirkham as a, he's basically a, uh, honorary, 

[00:24:08] Ben Kingsbury: uh, real goal. That man's coming to my shop and we're going to blow it up. I mean, that's one of the things I really want to do moving into 2024. If you, if I was. If you give me truth serum, the next step for me is I have some really cool, um, relationships with some artists and writers.

[00:24:25] Ben Kingsbury: And now it's time to take this thing to the next level and start bringing them into Jacksonville. I know people talk to me about mega con all the time and collective con that's coming here into town. Um, but. What would really separate us as a shop and as a community would blow Jacksonville up a little bit.

[00:24:43] Ben Kingsbury: Just start bringing some of these guys into town, guys and girls into town and let them meet some of these people who buy all their stuff all the time. So, um, you know, that, that's, uh, one of the major goals for us here is to start having some of those people in there. So you don't have to go to mega con and pay 125 and stand in line for three hours.

[00:25:01] Ben Kingsbury: Cause God knows I fucking hate standing in lines. I like, literally as an adult now, like he can't get me to go to Disney World anymore because I'm just not going to stand anywhere for 15 minutes for a two minute ride. I co sign both of that. 

[00:25:12] Badr: I'm not a big fan of lines, and if we can bring, uh, you know, com amazing comic book talent to Jax, I'm all for it.

[00:25:20] Badr: Ben, real quick, before we get into talking about 2024, I want to go ahead and go through some of these categories for, you know, best of year, you know, we're talking best of year and 2023. So I've got a few categories. Some of these are like, you know, just your standard best of year categories that most people will be familiar with.

[00:25:35] Badr: I threw, I sprinkled in a couple of, um, unique ones for the shop and for yourself, but let's go ahead and tackle the first one I've got on here. Favorite single issue of the year. And you know, I phrased him as, as favorite because I firmly believe, actually, you actually might be an exception to the rule because when it comes to best of year lists, 

[00:25:54] Ben Kingsbury: I don't know, I look at those a little funny 

[00:25:55] Badr: because I'm like, unless you've read everything with a critical eye, then it's not really a, you know what I'm saying?

[00:26:01] Badr: It's like, it's kind of hard to say that this is the best comic of the year because it's like, well, did you read everything? Like, how are you gauging that? But you actually might be an exception because you've read probably every single comic. So. Yeah. When you think favorite single issue of the year, 

[00:26:15] Ben Kingsbury: what comes to mind?

[00:26:15] Ben Kingsbury: Well, so it's funny you bring it up like that because, um, obviously when I, when you gave me a couple of the questions to, uh, kind of give me a heads up about what we might be talking about, it's hard to remember if it's this year or not. Right. So you start thinking back on stuff and ends up being a little bit more modern.

[00:26:34] Ben Kingsbury: So then as a, you know, A good comic shop owner. I go online, I start searching comics of 2023 and try to get some opinions from other people. And realize there's a whole lot I didn't read. Uh, what's it? The Enfield gang massacre. Uh, that Texas blood. That is one story that. Uh, people die on a hill for, uh, when it, when that Texas Blood came out, and then now the Enfield Gang Massacre.

[00:27:00] Ben Kingsbury: A lot of people have really strong opinions about it. It's nothing I ever read. So, it's something that eventually I need to get back to. Two comics really stand out to mind, because They kind of caught me off guard. The first one, uh, came out about a month ago. It had no press at all. It was, uh, John Ridley, if I'm correct in saying his name, and it was called ministry of compliance and it was 60 pages.

[00:27:27] Ben Kingsbury: It is, uh, no ads. Um, I didn't know. Anything about it. They put out very little information in terms of like solicitation. Just kind of was one of those, um, and when I read it, it blew me away. In fact, that week, I think every time, you know, I have a pick of the week in here, but every time someone asked me, I would say this is literally one of the best comics I've ever read in my life.

[00:27:51] Ben Kingsbury: Wow. And, and I'm a little worried because the You know, comics are you read one and then you get to the second issue and you're like, wait, is this the same story? I was reading from the first one. They don't always just pick up where it left off Um, but it had so many twists and turns in it in the first issue.

[00:28:08] Ben Kingsbury: It was well written He jumped right into it And, um, it's got a little bit of a extraordinary sense to it in terms of like, it's not just, uh, focused on planet earth. And so, uh, it blew me away. I, I read it because, um, it's a brand new comic. And then it was like my singular goal to get everybody who reads comics to read it because every single person who I did end up recommending it to came in here and talk to me about it.

[00:28:36] Ben Kingsbury: It was that good and then another one that came out and it's crazy because they do so much Batman that it almost is like overkill. In fact, if I had like one thing for 2024, it'd be like, do less Batman, right? For DC is like, come on, man, you got so many cool characters. Yeah, I think that's applicable every year.

[00:28:53] Ben Kingsbury: Right? Yeah. It's just like, I mean, it's also make another Batman, but Batman gargoyle of Gotham. It came out on Batman day week this year. Raphael grandpa. Holy fuck. Man, he redrew Batman. It's a year one style story with Batman. So his cape and cowl are so cool. The artwork is very unique. In fact, he, uh, there's a new villain in a cult cry tune, which when I first heard cry tune, I'm like, Oh my God, how.

[00:29:20] Ben Kingsbury: fucking cheesy, right? But then it's like this old school animation, like think Steamboat Willie, like black and white where animation started. That's where this villain kind of gets his MO from. And, uh, it was, it's a Bruce Wayne year one. Uh, he wants to kill off Bruce Wayne. He wants to fake. Bruce Wayne's death cause he just wants to be Batman 24 seven and he gets his ass kicked by this guy the whole first issue like three separate times and uh, the second issue came out just last month.

[00:29:53] Ben Kingsbury: But that first one, Batman Gargoyle of Gotham, uh, blew me away as like literally one of the best, uh, single issues of comics. Again, I think what ends up happening is, if you have expectations, it's hard to meet them. But if you go into something where it's like, hey man, I'm just reading it to read it, and then you read it and you're like, holy shit, that was amazing.

[00:30:13] Ben Kingsbury: Yeah, those are good. So, those would be my two favorite, but again, it's so hard to remember what I read last February. Right. You know, like, wait, did this one come out this year? Was that at the end of December? Did this happen? You know, obviously deceased. The DC storyline is my favorite single, uh, DC storyline since kingdom come Tom Taylor, and they finished that up with war of the undead gods this year.

[00:30:39] Ben Kingsbury: Um, so I always gravitate back to that storyline as well, uh, because. If you take all these awesome characters that are, have been here, have these huge legacies, it's so great when they can write a story where it's unpredictable and characters can die. So that's the kind of unfortunate part when you read Batman or Spider Man, you know they can't kill him off.

[00:30:58] Ben Kingsbury: So you take that drama off the beginning, but if you write an Elseworlds story and Batman dies in the first issue, you're like, give it to me. I got to see where this goes. For this category, 

[00:31:08] Badr: my favorite single issue of the year, uh, is, is kind of a tie, it's between Conan the Barbarian, the new series that launched with, uh, I think Titan Comics, uh, I think, I want to say it's, um, uh, Jim Zub, 

[00:31:20] Ben Kingsbury: uh, 

[00:31:21] Badr: and new artist for me, Rob, Roberto de la Torre, art, I'll just be honest with you, the art alone, is what makes it my favorite single issue.

[00:31:30] Badr: This guy is like the living reincarnated John Buscema. It, and I mean, it reads like an old school Conan. I mean, it's got that vibe to it. Art is beautiful. It's in color. Um, I think it's a personal favorite for me because I remember going through my dad's comic books when I was first starting to read and he had nothing but Conan, like all the old black and white magazines.

[00:31:51] Badr: And he was so adamant about having me read those and like study the line art and like, you know, for him, he, I remember him vividly saying like, you know, in these magazines, you can't hide behind the color boy, you know, it's straight black and white. So, you know, reading this new series, it was like a nice.

[00:32:06] Badr: It's like kind of like trip down memory lane, but also like, you know, this is a modern kind of Conan retelling, but also still, uh, pays homage to the classics. And I don't know, just something about this artist. 

[00:32:17] Ben Kingsbury: I'll be honest with you. I don't, I didn't know a lot about Conan and, uh, Conan is one thing that, um, I have, uh, it's been brought to my attention because when it comes out, man, it brings people that you haven't, they'd never come into a comic store before because it's got that kind of, you know, do you, do you ever see that fire and ice?

[00:32:35] Ben Kingsbury: It's an animated movie from 1983. I want to say I watched 

[00:32:39] Badr: it for when we did our Frank Frazetta spotlight episode. Cesar was like, you have to watch this. And when I watched it, I was like, yo, did 

[00:32:47] Ben Kingsbury: they just copy Conan? Yeah, well, it's a heavy metal kind of Conan. And I'll be dead honest with you, I'm a truth teller.

[00:32:53] Ben Kingsbury: I'd never seen it. Before and someone came in here and you know, like the barstool sports pizza scores, right? Uh, what's his name? Uh, somebody came in and they were like, I just lowered your comic book store. Cause you've never seen that thing. I thought you were cool, but you've never seen fire and ice. So I went home that night and watched it on Amazon prime.

[00:33:12] Ben Kingsbury: And I was like, Holy shit. How did I animation is, is still 

[00:33:15] Badr: holds up to today. Still to this day. And Benny, you know, you said something in the beginning where you were like, you know, how can I sell books I haven't read? It's interesting because that is part of, like, the comic shop culture. It's kind of like that pulling the nerd card.

[00:33:27] Badr: You know, I think in the extreme, you know, people take it way sometimes to the way too far, where it's like, oh, you don't know this, then you don't know shit. You're not a part of the group. Oh, yeah. But when it's done right, it's encouraging, where you're like, oh man, thanks for putting me onto this really cool thing I, you know, was either, you know, overlooked, you know, wasn't I skipped or whatever.

[00:33:44] Badr: So I do appreciate that. You are willing to take recommendations and sometimes even like kind of a challenge, like just now, you know, like, Oh 

[00:33:51] Ben Kingsbury: yeah, I'll show you. Well, I, I want to, you know, I'm not going to jump ahead to one of the questions you asked, uh, uh, or that we might get into here. Um, but I find stories from, uh, in the past that I've never heard of.

[00:34:03] Ben Kingsbury: You ever heard of port of earth? Was that, that was written by thousand, 14,015 written by Zach Kaplan. Yes. 

[00:34:09] Badr: Jacksonville Zone. Yes. Yes. That dude's 

[00:34:11] Ben Kingsbury: just doing a big deal and holy smokes. It was so good that I went on a hunt to just get everything you ever heard of Uber? I mean, I've got it on my phone. Okay.

[00:34:20] Ben Kingsbury: Yeah, exactly. No, but there's a comic, uh, that came out, um, called, uh, back in the 2010, 2011 mark called Uber, where basically, instead of World War II ending. Like we know it did the Germans created a super soldier serum and they started creating these soldiers that Dom and it, so it continued the war. They actually continued the war.

[00:34:44] Ben Kingsbury: They invaded America. The Americans and the English were trying to steal the secrets from the Germans and never heard it before in my life. And then I go on these massive hunts to find all of these stories to read. Um, that's my favorite part. Obviously I want to lead people when they come in, they want to say, Hey, what's new.

[00:35:01] Ben Kingsbury: You know, what's going on, let's check it out. So then I read it, I know it. But I learned so much from people. Again, people like Jonathan. Like I say, you know, it's not just that he's a friendly guy and he loves his stuff. He's, he's legitimate. He knows all of his, his comics. He knows the storylines. I'm like, hey, Jonathan, when did this happen?

[00:35:22] Ben Kingsbury: He's like, oh, that was Greenlander number 14. I'm like, dude, you're the fucking, you're walking Google, dude. He's the best. I guess I should also warn 

[00:35:28] Badr: our, or not really warn, but give our listeners a heads up that you might want to have your notepad app ready, maybe a pen and paper. Cause I feel like there's going to be a lot of recommendations flying at you.

[00:35:38] Badr: I'll try my best to, um, have the timestamps in the show notes or a list somewhere, but, uh, Ben to your point, let's move on to the next category. Favorite 

[00:35:47] Ben Kingsbury: limited series. Okay. Yeah. So I was thinking about this really hard, uh, and my favorite limited series. They came out because I didn't want to just be Marvel DC, right?

[00:35:59] Ben Kingsbury: Even image has gotten so popular that, um, it's almost a third arm of the major comic book companies. Boom Studios, Sarah Gailey, Liana Kongus, Kangas, I'm sorry, I butcher names all the time. I just go for it. You know, that's what I tell people. Know your station. It's a five part series. You ever heard the theory that, uh, Flintstones and Jetsons happen at the same time?

[00:36:26] Ben Kingsbury: Yes. One of my favorite fan theories. Yes. One of my favorite things, too. When I heard that, it blew my mind, and now that's all I think about. Know your station is set. Where it is on these huge space stations, earth's been ravaged. The billionaires got to leave earth and live as a part of this new community and outer space.

[00:36:46] Ben Kingsbury: And there's just these everyday folk who are their hand and feet. You know, they do everything for them. It's a murder mystery, uh, mixed with some AI and. It, uh, I had no idea about it. Didn't know boom studio, small distribution company, uh, read the first issue. And then when that came out every month, it was one of the first things I read.

[00:37:09] Ben Kingsbury: So if you really want to go check out a cool new story, a series this year, no, your station was unbelievable. I'm adding to that. So then I have one more. That I really love and there's a reason I love it because man, James Gunn made peacemaker fucking cool . I don't even know how he did it, to be honest with you.

[00:37:30] Ben Kingsbury: It's kind of unbelievable that he did. And then they wrote a miniseries, peacemaker this year, and it's the smartest thing that anybody's ever done. He made the entire DCEU connected, so they wrote that peacemaker show. It got my girlfriend. Wanting to watch a TV show every week. She does not watch or go to this stuff.

[00:37:52] Ben Kingsbury: In fact, she'd Appreciate not hearing about it. You know what I mean? And that Peacemaker comic series that they wrote was like I was hearing John Cena in my head Are you talking about the Kyle Starks one that came out? Yeah, recently. Yep. The six part series, uh, Peacemaker Kills or, uh, uh, I know which one you're talking about and I'll look it up here.

[00:38:15] Ben Kingsbury: Yeah, I can't remember the title off top of my head, but because of the obscurity of a character like Peacemaker in general and then their ability to write comics that matched the TV show where you could literally hear the characters in your head, I couldn't wait for that. It was amazing. I 

[00:38:33] Badr: think I found it.

[00:38:34] Badr: It's called, uh, Peacemaker Tries Hard, and it is written by Kyle Stark's art by Steve, uh, Steve Pugh. Um, I'll echo what you just said, because Peacemaker, the TV show, I think my expectations were No, actually, my expectations were 

[00:38:47] Ben Kingsbury: pretty, like, 

[00:38:47] Badr: pretty high, because I loved the Su the last Suicide Squad movie.

[00:38:50] Badr: It's probably one of my favorite superhero, um, movies ever. And that won Blythe over, but she Did not believe that the Peacemaker TV show was going to be, you know, worthwhile. Boy, when I say after, I think by episode two, that was, you know, hey baby, everything, shut down 

[00:39:08] Ben Kingsbury: everything Peacemaker is on. I mean, look, and I don't admit when I cry very often, but when that fucking eagle hugs him, every time I lose my shit, I can't handle it.

[00:39:20] Ben Kingsbury: It is life. He's like, or what's her name? It's like, I can't believe it. An Eagles hockey. You know, like it was, it blew me away. And that's just one little, little tiny part of the entire story. And John Cena, right? I mean, a lot of people unlikely un no. I mean, you know, most of the people who come in for whatever reason, I bet he is an awesome guy in real life.

[00:39:41] Ben Kingsbury: But a lot of people, I don't really like him or I don't really like his stuff. Boy, did he just nail the character more than you possibly ever could have. You just got me thinking, I think it was 

[00:39:51] Badr: maybe the first episode or second, when the eagle first hugs him and he goes, Hey, 

[00:39:54] Ben Kingsbury: take a picture, take a picture, take a picture.

[00:39:57] Ben Kingsbury: He's like, nobody's there? He thinks his dad's there? No, no, it's amazing. It's so good, man. It's fantastic. Every character, judo master, all the way down to the helmets. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Alright, I'm going to chime in here and 

[00:40:09] Badr: say, I don't know if this is a limited series. It looks like it might end with issue nine.

[00:40:13] Badr: I don't see any further solicitations, but Local Man, uh, it's put out by Image Comics. It's written by Tim Seeley and Tony Fleeks. Um, hopefully I'm saying that right, but. I think, uh, sort of like how you describe Peacemaker Tries Hard, it is a very intelligent book. It's a very well written book. It is about a, uh, superhero, and it's like a love letter to, like, 90s extreme image.

[00:40:36] Badr: Um, it is about this dude named, uh, Jack Xavier, I think. Uh, Jack Xavier, but he goes by Cross Jack and his ability is that much like Bullseye, he never misses his target. Um, uh, but they do really interesting things with that power set, but he's part of, he gets recruited to be a part of like this extreme image 90s era team.

[00:40:54] Badr: And, uh, he's got, he does something where he gets kicked off the team and he's got to go back home to like this small town. Um, and his parents are looking at him as a failure and he's not allowed to like. Do any more crime fighting. So, and obviously things are going down in this, uh, small town. Um, 

[00:41:11] Ben Kingsbury: and I'll leave it at that, but.

[00:41:13] Ben Kingsbury: You know, friendly neighborhood, Jonathan, I was picking his brain earlier. He, that was one of his recommendations. He loves it. I read the first, 

[00:41:20] Badr: and this is like a, this one kind of took a minute to like really latch on. But for some reason I couldn't stop reading it. You know, like I read the first issue, second issue, and I was like, all right, this is not bad.

[00:41:29] Badr: This is pretty good. And I think it wrapped up. It had his first run, uh, it was like first four or five issues. And I was like, Oh, that's pretty good. I don't know if I'll go back. Cause I noticed it came out with like a gold number one. I recently read the gold number one and I consumed the rest of them.

[00:41:44] Badr: And I'm actually a little saddened, right? I'm trying to hold back tears on the camera. Cause I don't know if this is going to be a, if it stops at issue nine, I 

[00:41:50] Ben Kingsbury: think I'll be really upset. I hope it keeps going. But it's fantastic. Just like you said about image. The covers they've been doing, they've been doing double sided.

[00:41:59] Ben Kingsbury: Yes, because you get 

[00:42:00] Badr: two stories at once. It's the current story and then the other side 

[00:42:03] Ben Kingsbury: is the extreme image era. It always looks like an image comic from 1991. Yes, yeah, yeah. It's still not worth anything. 

[00:42:11] Badr: So to your point, it's also a, it's really meta and the premise is executed really well. So local man is mine.

[00:42:19] Badr: Ben, this one is specifically for you, because last time I was in the shop and we were kind of brainstorming the categories. You brought this one up because you already had an answer before we had a 

[00:42:27] Ben Kingsbury: category. I knew it. It was the easiest question of the day. Tell me what's been your 

[00:42:31] Badr: favorite comic book cover from 

[00:42:33] Ben Kingsbury: 2023.

[00:42:34] Ben Kingsbury: Okay. It's simple. It came out last month. It's Fantastic Four number 13. I already prefaced it by telling you that the Norman Rockwell of comic book art, Alex Ross, is my favorite. But holy shit, I, in comics, in terms of comics, I don't know what is more comic book than Dr. Doom writing a Dr. Doom T Fucking Rex painted by Alex Ross.

[00:43:01] Ben Kingsbury: It's like single that when I saw it, in fact, uh, solicitation, I ordered this stuff about a month and a half before it comes out, I bought 40 more copies of fantastic for, I only get about 40 copies of fantastic for in general, 40 to 50. When Alex Ross is doing the covers, people buy them just for that. So it probably sell about 10 or 15 more.

[00:43:19] Ben Kingsbury: I got 40 more copies. I got a hundred total copies of that cover and I sold. Every single one of them in the first week, simply because of the cover. I can't even tell you what's in the fucking issue. I honestly, I can't even remember. I've been reading fantastic before, the kids got teleported out for a year.

[00:43:36] Ben Kingsbury: They're back, uh, Ben Grimm, blah, blah, blah. Alex Ross painted Dr. Doom, riding a T Rex as Dr. Doom. The T Rex has a Dr. Doom cape on it and a mask. He's shooting lasers. And actually, now that I bring it up, he is actually writing a T Rex in that comic. So it is not just the comic book cover, but it was, it's, when I saw it, I knew I was going to sell it month and a half before it came out.

[00:44:02] Ben Kingsbury: And then when it came out, I sold it like hotcakes as easily. My favorite is the first thing I think of. I bet there's a hundred other ones. If you brought one up, it'd be like, Oh shit, I forgot about that. Or, Oh, what about this cover? But. Alex Ross painted Dr. Doom riding a Dr. Doom T Rex. I mean, I think every little boy loves dinosaurs anyway, and, uh, easily my favorite comic book.

[00:44:24] Ben Kingsbury: In fact, I've tried so hard. I have no footprint on X, okay? Like none. I got, like, a couple hundred people that follow me. I I focus more on, like, other social media platforms. Uh, I've tried so hard to be like, my favorite what's your favorite comic book, uh, cover of the year? We'll start, you know, one of those posts.

[00:44:41] Ben Kingsbury: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I get no fucking engagement. I get nobody to even share one thing. I get a couple likes on my thing. I just kept throwing that picture out there. I went on other, um, people's ex accounts. And every time they asked what your favorite cover was, I kept posting that thing. Like, it Spreading the gospel.

[00:44:57] Ben Kingsbury: It's the one that is in my head. And, uh, that's my winner of the year. I have, uh, three copies personally for myself of it. How crazy would it be to own the original art for that? Uh, no, man. It's, uh, okay, I actually have a goal in life to own a original piece of artwork of Kingdom Come. Oh, wow. From Alex Ross.

[00:45:17] Ben Kingsbury: That'd be epic. I mean, they go for 20 plus K. You know, and I'm just not in the financial position in my life where I need to be dropping 25k on a piece of artwork, you know, I bought, uh, original art, um, from our exclusives from Tyler when we did the moon night, when we did the amazing Spider Man, you know, that's one of my single favorite covers of all time.

[00:45:37] Ben Kingsbury: And the ripping of the spider suit that we've homaged a couple of different times in here and I bought that original arc and there are four or 5, 000 and every time I spent four or 5, 000 on original art, I was like. The fuck am I doing? But, but, I gotta do this, I gotta do this, you know? Yeah, that was a little special because it's tied to the shop.

[00:45:55] Ben Kingsbury: Right, it's my exclusive one. Uh, but yes, owning any, um, now I really do like that, man. Owning comic book art, original art from actual comic book covers is like such a cool 

[00:46:07] Badr: That's definitely something I want to get into, but I'm timid because of, because of that exact same reason. I've seen like What those prices go for, where they can go, 

[00:46:16] Ben Kingsbury: and it's not easy to flip.

[00:46:17] Ben Kingsbury: So it's not like something that you hold on to. And then you're like, Oh man, uh, so last year, no, what, two years ago, I spent 12, 000 on a F 15, amazing fantasy 15. And, um, that in my head. I could sell that any day of the week. Yeah, it's an investment. Like, you know, but comic book art, while it is awesome, it's not something that you can just, Oh man, I really need five grand.

[00:46:44] Ben Kingsbury: Let me go try to sell this original piece of artwork. Cause, you know, those specific covers that I own now. I, I have a vested interest in them. They're in my shop. They're also first appearances. So they're very, very cool. They're just not easy. And I probably have to send them off the heritage auction.

[00:46:59] Ben Kingsbury: Original 

[00:47:00] Badr: comic art is like a niche within a niche, you know, like there's not that many people that, that I personally know and probably safety free, uh, say. Safe to say for you as well that that collected 

[00:47:09] Ben Kingsbury: one person who has a poll here who collects, um, comic, our original comic art, and he's been collecting Dr.

[00:47:17] Ben Kingsbury: Strange since the seventies. He gets, you know, I mean, if Dr. Strange is part of the cool thing about having a comic shop. And one of the reasons I think that we, uh, end up succeeding a little bit here is because of customer service. You know, we talked about this a lot, but. He just, if Dr. Strange is in and he wants a copy of it, but he's got a, he's got two kids and a wife and a job and he can't go through X Men, original X Men or some new title and between Jonathan and I, we pretty much read everything that comes out every week and we come in and we're like, Ooh, grab one of those Dr.

[00:47:52] Ben Kingsbury: Strange is in it. You know, kind of an idea for our, our, our pull customer. And I know he collects original Dr. Strange art, but he's the only one that I've met in the six years that, uh, tries actively. But if you think about it, that should be like the, that's the cream of the crop. That's way better than getting a first print of something at a nine, eight.

[00:48:11] Ben Kingsbury: There's only one. Oh, yeah. And you've got, that's 

[00:48:13] Badr: the one. Agreed. All right, let's move on to our next category, which is favorite creative team from this year. Um, if you don't mind, I'm, I'm gonna lead this one 

[00:48:23] Ben Kingsbury: because you, 

[00:48:23] Badr: you killed it on the covers, uh, the cover category. So I feel like I got to contribute 

[00:48:28] Ben Kingsbury: something.

[00:48:29] Ben Kingsbury: And you're probably, this is, this is a hard one because You like a lot of writers, a lot of artists, but like together, who's the best team? So I'm interested to see what you have to say. This is an easy 

[00:48:40] Badr: answer because I think I've said it before and, but the thing is they continue to just show why. And I feel like some of our listeners already know what I'm going to say, but Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, once again.

[00:48:52] Badr: This year, I was thinking about it today that they don't have a monthly title. They're doing like this now, it almost feels like maybe quarterly, like these quarterly graphic novel drops. This year alone, I know they came out with Night Fever, and then most recently, uh, Where the Body Was. And they might have dropped one in addition to that.

[00:49:12] Ben Kingsbury: You know, those are I think those are the last two. Okay, those are the last two. Yep. 

[00:49:15] Badr: I really like, like that, that frequency because it builds anticipation. Um, the product that I am getting is probably, you know, three, four months worth of comic books. Those graphic novels are about, you know, what, 90 pages?

[00:49:27] Badr: About, maybe 60, 90 pages. Um, and it's quality. You know, it's a nice hardcover. It comes with those, uh, little, uh, art prints. And These two, Night Fever and where, especially where the body was, they just don't miss. They're like the best creative team in comics. They continually show you why. The story 

[00:49:45] Ben Kingsbury: is amazing, you know, the art.

[00:49:46] Ben Kingsbury: Well, they're tied together. Yeah! You know what I mean? They're one. Like, if you think of one, you think of the other. And that's, uh, that's why I was saying it's very hard because I can think of like, Ooh, I love Tom Taylor in this. And ooh, I love, uh, Chip Zardaski in that. Or ooh, Joshua Williamson, man, I love his writing.

[00:50:01] Ben Kingsbury: But then the artist is kind of different. They don't have that, Team connected to 'em and to your point, those books they put out, they put 'em out in hardcover. That's what I'm saying. So they're limited edition, they're beautiful books. He puts out book plates for every single one. So you get a signed book plate from both art artists and the writer.

[00:50:22] Ben Kingsbury: Uh, that's, um, one of the, the two that I thought of to be honest with you was that was, it 

[00:50:28] Badr: feels elegant. Elevated is the word. I think anytime I see like a new and you know, I feel like it's appropriate to call it like a brew baker joint, you know, like, you know, the Quentin Tarantino joints. Um, so this year I give them that category.

[00:50:40] Badr: I think they were my favorite creative team just for those reasons alone, but consistency and just consistency. I think they get a lot of points, um, for me on that. So 

[00:50:49] Ben Kingsbury: Ben, what about you? What was your favorite? That's, uh, unfortunately I'm not going to steal any of your stuff. I really do those. It's hard for me to think of combo teams because like I said, they're usually separated, but one combo team and I've already brought him up.

[00:51:03] Ben Kingsbury: I brought both of them up already on this. The modern Batman run since chips are Dasky and Jorge Jimenez. The interior artwork is. It's like seeing a cover every time. There's just not many interior comics and then Chips Ardasky is writing Batman stories that I've been waiting for, for like four years.

[00:51:25] Ben Kingsbury: Is Horaham and I still doing the interior? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, and it's amazing. It's so good. It's, it's some of the best stuff ever. Uh, like it seems, like I said, every panel seems like it could be a comic book cover. And that's, I mean, you remember the 80s and 90s, right? You got this sweet comic, he opened it up and you were like That's not the art that's on the front of this thing.

[00:51:45] Ben Kingsbury: I 

[00:51:45] Badr: don't think that applies to just eighties and nineties. I feel like it is really prevalent 

[00:51:48] Ben Kingsbury: now. Sometimes it's true, especially with how many different cover artists we have, but that's, that was the only other team that literally came to mind besides the know your station team. And the reason I say the know your station team, Sarah Gailey and, um, Liana Kangas is because the artwork that Liana did for the story.

[00:52:08] Ben Kingsbury: It like, is this, uh, it's not watercolor, but. The way the art is, it matches exactly the way the story needs to be told. And so for that, I mean, I, I know that, uh, I had some interactions with them on, on social media, awesome people. That was the only other, like, creative team, besides Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, that I could think of every single time, like, together.

[00:52:31] Ben Kingsbury: I like what you just 

[00:52:32] Badr: said. The art looks like What the story should be. And I think that's a good sign of a creative team where it's like, Can you imagine any other artists doing this? Like, uh, I think Saga is always like an easy example that I use. Can you imagine anyone else other than Fiona Staples doing Saga?

[00:52:49] Badr: It's like, no. Like, her style matches the story exactly, and I think that's why Sean Phillips and Ed Brubaker are that for me. It's like, If you were to tell me Ed Brutbaker's teaming up with anyone else, I'd be like, excuse me? I mean, I know he's done in the past, but where he's at now, it's like, no, Sean Phillips and, you know, they're like, they're one.

[00:53:07] Badr: Um, so, but Sadarsky and Jorge Jimenez is a really good, is a really good pick because I didn't think they were, I think it goes to consistency. I think that's like a big factor when I think about, you know, favorite or best creative teams for the year is like, have they been putting in the work this entire year?

[00:53:22] Badr: And it 

[00:53:23] Ben Kingsbury: sounds like they have. I mean, if you read a lot of comics, A lot of times, especially when you're trying to get through some stories, you're reading that fast read, right? You know, you're powering through it there. Those comics that we're just talking about here. I break down the panels because those tell a story.

[00:53:41] Ben Kingsbury: And that's the important part about comics is that the artwork is supposed to, so you shouldn't skip over it. And, you know, like I was saying, the artist, uh, she's amazing on know your station. She's not the most technically. Amazing artist you've ever seen. It has a bleed style to it, but the story has a bleed style to it.

[00:54:02] Ben Kingsbury: I don't even really know how to explain it other than like, just like what we were talking about before. It really just, it fits so perfect that it made it seem like you couldn't have done it in another way. Well said. All right, Ben, 

[00:54:15] Badr: we're going to shift gears here and talk about, this one is more so for you.

[00:54:20] Badr: I don't know if I could really chime in on this one, but what has been the bestseller or most pulled comic book in Gotham City 

[00:54:27] Ben Kingsbury: Limit? Well, so if we're just going to talk, this is a kind of a two part question or a two pronged question, because if we were just going to say what's the most pulled comic, then it's easy, Amazing Spider Man.

[00:54:36] Ben Kingsbury: There are more people on Amazing Spider Man the pull than any other comic. What's the number for you? Uh, 114. Wow. Yep. And so, and that includes, uh, B covers, C covers, you know, this, you know. But it is by far, especially from a comment that kind of sucks in general recently. I mean, I'm just being honest. It doesn't, they don't, it's almost like The quality's always in question.

[00:55:00] Ben Kingsbury: They put it out every two weeks and so they're like, just put one out. And it really hasn't. There's been a couple stories throughout the year that have been great. They brought the clone back the dark web. There's been some good Spider Man stories, but amazing Spider Man and Batman are the two most popular titles like in terms of pulled numbers, you know, but that's not what I think of when you ask me that question.

[00:55:23] Ben Kingsbury: When you say what's the most popular thing this year? I try to think what is what was popular that nobody wanted. And then all of a sudden, I had people breaking the doors down, right, to try to get. And one of them was Spider Man, just plain Spider Man number seven, the first appearance of Spider Boy.

[00:55:43] Ben Kingsbury: Ramos did a variant cover with, it was a secret spoiler variant. And I had people calling me from Orlando, who said they were driving, if I would hold them a copy, they would drive up here and buy it from me. Wow. Uh, it, it created this chaos around this character, Spider Boy, and I think it had something to do with the popularity of Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy, and how expensive their first appearances are now, for a modern comic.

[00:56:09] Ben Kingsbury: I mean, you're talking about characters that are around 2010 and 2014, and now people are paying thousands of dollars for their first appearance. first appearance. So you got 

[00:56:15] Badr: people looking at Spider Boy like, I'm not gonna miss the boat this time. 

[00:56:18] Ben Kingsbury: Like, this is gonna be the new Miles Morales. Gotta, gotta go.

[00:56:20] Ben Kingsbury: I'm not missing out and it caught on like wildfire and they did three print runs of Spider Man number seven. But in terms of like, what was the best selling or what people really wanted there? That's one of them. Another one was eight billion genies, uh, Charles soul image title. And the reason I bring it up is that.

[00:56:42] Ben Kingsbury: Nobody signed up, not one person signed up for the poll, and by the time it was over, we had 40 something people on the poll for it, which for an independent comic is a very big number, and, um, I couldn't get, I think they did 8 print runs of the first issue, 8 fucking print runs, and I couldn't keep any of them in the shop.

[00:57:03] Ben Kingsbury: Wow. Dang, 

[00:57:05] Badr: and now that you bring it up, I think I remember trying to get a copy of 8 Billion Genies because the hype 

[00:57:12] Ben Kingsbury: was so real. Yeah, it's funny. I think I came in here 

[00:57:14] Badr: and asked, and I forgot who was working. I think it might have been Ian. I think Ian just like scoffed. I was like, oh, I actually got a, 

[00:57:20] Ben Kingsbury: I got a laugh out of Ian.

[00:57:21] Ben Kingsbury: Yeah, that's, that's hard to do. Yeah, exactly. No, it was one of those, um, another one that real modern, very recent, Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees. Again, not one person signed up for that poll. 

[00:57:38] Badr: And talk about such a deceiving comic. I mean, granted the cover kind of tells you what it's going to be about, but if you're, if you're flipping through those early pages.

[00:57:45] Badr: You know, and you're not really paying attention. It's like, oh wow, it's watercolor. It looks nice. You're almost looking, you're like, oh, am I reading a Ashley Lanny Hoyt, you 

[00:57:52] Ben Kingsbury: know, illustrator book? So beautiful. Some bears and anamorphic stuff. You know, you got the couple guys who get all the animal comics.

[00:57:59] Ben Kingsbury: You're like, that's for them, you know, um, but it has a Dexter. This is what it is. It, to me, it very much is a Dexter murder mystery story. So the story is amazing. You want to read the story, uh, but nobody signed up for that title. And then, uh, now everybody comes in looking for it. We're on the second print of the first issue, the second issue totally sold out.

[00:58:21] Ben Kingsbury: And that's when, you know, you have a really legitimate comic series when the second issue sells out because everybody buys the first issue just in case. Damn, 

[00:58:31] Badr: yeah, that's something me and Drew, when we used to work at the shop, that was something that we would always try to stress to people, especially like, you know, folks that were just collecting for, um, you know, monetary sake, is that the first, the second issues were always extremely expensive on like, You know, um, uh, the, the aftermarket or secondary market, because your point, everyone gets the first issue, but you know, that's when you could really tell like, all right, where are the true believers?

[00:58:55] Ben Kingsbury: So that's a, was a huge learning curve for me. When I say I started this place, I had no idea what I was doing. That's what I mean. I mean, I knew I could order. This cover. Oh, number one. X Men red, number one, blah, blah, blah. I was naive in thinking that if the first issue was popular, that I better load up on the remaining issues because everybody's going to want them.

[00:59:17] Ben Kingsbury: And I learned real quick. In fact, I had a customer who used to come and he had a pull here and he doesn't anymore. And this is one of the mistakes I made. He would give me lists and he just wanted the first issue of everything. And I didn't understand. I just didn't understand that that's what he wanted.

[00:59:36] Ben Kingsbury: I thought he was giving me his list for what he wanted, and then he wanted to get it. So he would come in, and I'd have the second issue, or the third issue of the series, that he had the first one, and he was a nice guy, and he didn't really want to tell me no. You know, I mean, he wouldn't be like, hey, I didn't want this stuff.

[00:59:53] Ben Kingsbury: I thought, you know, honestly, I thought that's what he wanted. Cause he got the first issues, all of these things. I couldn't imagine just buying issue one, but he was a strict speculator until eventually he just never showed up again. So he just ghosted me. He fucking ghosted me. He's 

[01:00:10] Badr: like, I'm at seven in the shop and Ben's 

[01:00:11] Ben Kingsbury: going to give me 60 worth of books.

[01:00:13] Ben Kingsbury: He's like, I didn't want all this shit. And I don't want to have a conversation with him about how I don't want this. That's a true story, I still remember it, I know his name, I won't say it on this thing, but yeah, I got fucking ghosted by a comic book collector like an ex girlfriend. I'm so glad 

[01:00:30] Badr: that you came prepared for that question because me looking at it, I'm like, Bader, come on.

[01:00:36] Badr: Bestseller. Most pulled comic. How's it not gonna be Batman or Spider-Man. Right. Very good way to, uh, uh, make that category fun. 

[01:00:42] Ben Kingsbury: Um, I mean, because it's boring. Everybody already knows Spider-Man and Batman and I don't know why I didn't immediately kind of rephrase 

[01:00:47] Badr: it, but that was a really good choices.

[01:00:49] Badr: Thank you for that. Moving onto the next category, which is, uh, I think we've kind of covered, um. Covered, uh, talked about this in, in different pieces and ways, but let's just tackle it directly. What's been your favorite accomplishment or moment in the shop from the year? I ask that with this in mind, what I really respect about what you do with Gotham City Limit is thinking outside of the box, whether it be the events you throw or whether it be the, the, uh, retailer exclusive variants that you do, or any of the other things you do with like the community in mind.

[01:01:21] Badr: Um, you do a lot of great things. And I think, you know, It's, it's more than a shop when I come in here, it's like, you know, part of the community, it's part of, you know, the city, um, and you're always thinking outside of the box and I think that also has an effect on me cause I'm thinking like, okay, how can I, you know, think outside the boxes, Ben's doing it.

[01:01:37] Badr: So curious to hear from you personally, you know, out of all the things you've done this year, you know, in the name of the shop, what's been your favorite 

[01:01:44] Ben Kingsbury: accomplishment or thing? Yeah. So another pretty loaded question, right? Because it's funny how you think back on moments. And, um, before and during has no effect, but when I can, like, just take a deep breath and go home and actually think about everything that's happened, that's when it hits me.

[01:02:06] Ben Kingsbury: Uh, so, you know, just recently, right? The most recent thing is I got Joshua Williamson to do with 30 second promotional video for the shop and it doesn't seem like a big deal, but just to hear him talk about Gotham city limit, I just want to go tell my 12 year old self, like, Holy fucking shit. They're going to talk about your comic store, about a brand new comic.

[01:02:29] Ben Kingsbury: Like it's just, it's hard for me to believe. Right. Um, obviously the greatest thing that I, that the shop has won is best of Florida. Um, you know, it's, It's hard to be best at anything. Uh, it's hard to be best of Jacksonville. It's hard to be the best comic shop in your area. Uh, it, it is a testament to the people.

[01:02:50] Ben Kingsbury: Uh, I still remember, uh, when, you know, uh, being very nervous about when, you know, maybe winning the award, it, it just shows, um, the impact. That we've had with some of the people who come in here because they were willing to go on there and vote, you know, that stuff matters to me, but to this day, the most, the greatest thing that ever happened to me 2018, um, was it florida times union had their awards program and they had best new business.

[01:03:17] Ben Kingsbury: And, uh, I, I got nominated, I got people in the shop to get us nominated, and they had it at the Florida Times Union Theater, uh, the big award ceremony, they, um, had stage, he set up, I had my Spider Man suit coat, right, I was sitting in there, um, my I didn't have a girlfriend. I was single. Uh, I ran the shop by myself.

[01:03:40] Ben Kingsbury: I went to this award ceremony by myself and much like I do, I talked to fucking everybody in that place, right? Because I'm the Spider Man suit coat. Everybody's come up, talked to me, whatever. I was soaking it in because I was nominated for Best New Business and Best Unique Business that year. And I swear walking in there, I thought, you We can win best unique business, best new business.

[01:04:01] Ben Kingsbury: There were a bunch of cool businesses in Jacksonville. And I was like, there's zero chance that we're going to win that award. I really was focused on winning best unique business. And, uh, they called out Gotham city limit for best new business. And I fucking screamed. Oh, wow.

[01:04:20] Ben Kingsbury: Fuck yeah! Like, I, I couldn't fucking believe it. And, uh, I walked up to that stage, I got up there, I got my award, there's a picture of me, it's the biggest goddamn smile you'll ever see on my face, and, uh, that was the, by far, the best thing that's happened to me in this shop, just simply because it was the motivation I needed to just Man, just keep going.

[01:04:41] Ben Kingsbury: You, you did this. Best new business. They can never take it away from you. Especially because I love the old shop for what it was, but they sucked in general. Okay, like if we're gonna be dead honest, they weren't very friendly. It was a dark, dingy environment. So what we came out of, obviously I started a brand new business, started Gotham city limit here.

[01:05:03] Ben Kingsbury: You know, I hate when people call me Gotham city limits. I have this like thing in my soul. In fact, I stopped doing business with some people. If after I correct them, they still start, keep calling me Gotham city limits, like on an email or anything that I give them, I give them one chance. I'm like, we're Gotham city limit.

[01:05:20] Ben Kingsbury: And if you can't get that right, you're not getting any more of my fucking money. Right. But, uh, yeah, so all the awards, all the things, I mean, free comic book days are amazing here. I get done and I'm like, Holy fuck. That was so awesome. We had so many awesome people out here. We had a great day, but, uh, Unexpectedly winning best new business in 2018 was the best thing that's happened to me in this shop.

[01:05:41] Ben Kingsbury: Yeah. I was, I was, I was very proud of that. Very proud. 

[01:05:45] Badr: As you should be, man. It's well deserved, and goddammit, we're giving you one of these. 

[01:05:49] Ben Kingsbury: Absolutely a round of applause. Yeah, it's a tough question, because there's so many things. You know, you were here for Batman Day. Uh, and, uh, for, uh, some of our low Comma Chef days, you've come here on free Comma Day and interviewed people.

[01:06:00] Ben Kingsbury: We have, uh, when we do sidewalk sales, you've been here to talk to people about, uh, things that they, that we got going on in here and you see the chaos and the fun of it. All those, all those things kind of add up into one big giant thing. Um. But it's the people who come here that make the comic shop. I could sit here all day by myself, you know, reading comics.

[01:06:21] Ben Kingsbury: That's not what, what, what makes this place. It's the heart and soul is the, the locals and the people who come in and hearing, you know, comic shops, you hear from people. Who are from out of town who, uh, just stopping in and they'll, they'll just give you, they'll say something to me like, man, I wish I had a place like this in my town and I love, that's like my favorite thing to hear because that means it's your first experience in my shop.

[01:06:44] Ben Kingsbury: You'd never been here before, but this is what you were looking for. And I tried to set up a shop that I would want to go in. You just raised the bar. 

[01:06:51] Badr: whole point. Well said. I love that. Thank you for sharing that, Ben. So I'm going to go ahead and go on a ledge here and say, based on everything you've shared that you do not buy into the whole, you know, comics is dying and you know, that whole rhetoric that we've seen, I mean, judging from.

[01:07:07] Badr: My conversation with Heidi McDonald a few episodes ago, and she talked about, you know, she's always heard it throughout her years in journalism, but something about it this 

[01:07:15] Ben Kingsbury: year just feels a lot more prevalent, uh, maybe even a 

[01:07:18] Badr: little more toxic than normal. What are your thoughts on the, the state? Of, of comics and, and comic industry from like a retail side, like, do you, do you feel like there's any, uh, there's any legs to, I feel like I've said legs to that topic so 

[01:07:33] Ben Kingsbury: many times, I'm, I, I catch myself, so bear with me, but 

[01:07:36] Badr: yeah, do you feel like that there's any legs to that?

[01:07:38] Badr: Or is it completely, uh, dismissive of, of all the great things that you've got to experience? 

[01:07:43] Ben Kingsbury: No. Well, I'll say this. Uh, I believe that the reason that some people have a negative connotation on stuff is that sometimes some stories can feel like, uh, we're going to tell you what you're going to like. Right?

[01:08:02] Ben Kingsbury: Uh, and so sometimes you can read a story. Sometimes you can feel like, like Spider Man, like we talked about that. Sometimes I feel like they write Spider Man not with the people who want to read Spider Man in mind. And so, I can see the eventual, um, kind of like, not demise, but like, Hey, you know what? I'm just gonna drop this, cause it hasn't been very good.

[01:08:25] Ben Kingsbury: And even though Spider Man's super popular, and we, we definitely have lost people off the Spider Man title, because it just hasn't been very good stories. But what I will say about comics in general, is that we've never had better writers or artists. Who want to make a living doing this? I mean, what I think about now is like Jim Lee used to walk around in the nineties, you could have walked down the sidewalk and no one would have given two shits, you know, now people will pay hundreds, hundreds of dollars to meet him, they'll pay hundreds of dollars for his comics, they'll pay thousands and thousands of dollars for his original artwork.

[01:09:03] Ben Kingsbury: Um, so there is a, um. There's very much a celebrity feel to the comic book world that I don't think existed before, I think Megacons, those kind of things. Um, and then independent stories, I think, really, uh, have brought more people into the shop. Because the Marvel and DC stuff sells itself. Right? And they know that they put Batman on the cover.

[01:09:27] Ben Kingsbury: They put Spider Man on the cover. They put Thanos on the cover. These things sell naturally because they're legacy characters that people have been a part of, but it really is the independent stories and the comic book writers themselves that have taken it to the next level. Now it's not cheap. It is, that's probably the hardest part in the comic industry now is that, you know, comics used to be, what, 2018, DC said 2.

[01:09:53] Ben Kingsbury: 99, hold the line, hold the line at 2. 99, that was kind of their thing, and Marvel had gone to 3. 99, now 7. 99 is normal on a DC book, and Marvel books almost exclusively now 4. 99, 5. 99 How much 

[01:10:07] Badr: was that, uh, how much was that, Hickman number one for, uh, whatever, I think it was Gods or whatever it was, but Oh yeah, 

[01:10:12] Ben Kingsbury: 9.

[01:10:12] Ben Kingsbury: 99 

[01:10:13] Badr: I remember coming in and when you told me that I, I think I was like, man, no, no, no, this book right here and you're 

[01:10:17] Ben Kingsbury: like, no, no, that is the price. It's 10 now. So I think that's the hardest part, um, of the industry is the price and trying to keep people, um, you know, financially in a good place. Um, but I've, I get so many people who come in, this is my first time.

[01:10:36] Ben Kingsbury: You know, a new generations of people who have never been in a comic shop, you know, we've talked about this. I know on many a podcast. I know I've done F. O. C. Picks of the week where I said, what's the hardest part? People come in and they don't know where to start. You know, they're like, they see all this stuff and they see, you know, Batman 135.

[01:10:54] Ben Kingsbury: They're like, well, dude, I can't go back to Batman number one, you know, and I'm like, you don't have to, you could start right here. All you got to do is, um, is pick up this storyline from right here. Um, but That's it. We, we have the best artists, the best writers, and people who are passionate about the business.

[01:11:11] Ben Kingsbury: And so I, I only see, and you know, I think numbers are inflated, right? Because now when Moon Knight comes out, there's five covers. So it's not just Moon Knight cover a you're selling, you sell 70 of those, but I got 15 of this cover, 10 of that one, 10 of this one, 10 of that one, and all of a sudden you bought 125 instead of 70.

[01:11:32] Ben Kingsbury: So I think the number wise, I think there's been an uptick and I think, uh, variant covers have a lot to do with it because now, man, there's not many covers transformers G. I. Joe void rivals beneath the trees. They all have variants. Every comic has a variant cover to it now. So, um, I try to think back to when, uh, new stand comics were out and they told you not to collect those because they weren't the direct edition.

[01:11:58] Ben Kingsbury: And now everybody Pays more money for newsstand comics scarcity less collected. Uh, I try to tell people that I think second, third, fourth and fifth print runs are and beyond are kind of some of the fun ones to collect because the print runs are so tiny that they're the ones 20, 30 years from now in terms of like, um, going up in value that I think really happen.

[01:12:23] Ben Kingsbury: Um, but in general. Uh, the stories have never been better. The art has never been better. Um, unfortunately, since COVID, when we, um, disrupted every industry in the world, there's not the same amount of paper. There's not, like, literally these comic book companies are printing comic books on different paper every week.

[01:12:46] Ben Kingsbury: So the quality Unfortunately, I think has gone down a little tiny bit because they don't have a choice, you know, every week they got to print millions of comics and they, that's why you've seen some of those magazine size comics recently, you know, the ones that are a little bit larger, which is absolutely the bane of my existence.

[01:13:02] Ben Kingsbury: I won't even get into it here, but like nobody is in a magazine store, right? Can I, 

[01:13:08] Badr: can I admit, I remember when I first heard you say that about like DC black label being, you know, magazine size. And I think even like, you might've said something about distillery. Uh, And I remember thinking, damn, I 

[01:13:18] Ben Kingsbury: really like these sizes.

[01:13:19] Ben Kingsbury: Yeah, it's cool for the artwork. It makes our work better. You know, you get bigger, larger, but it is a pain in the ass to store a comic book shop owner. I can't even put it in a pull box. So it's very hard. And then I know there are great stories out there that I have two people in here that collect every single Marvel and DC comic that comes out.

[01:13:39] Ben Kingsbury: They don't have a pull list. They say. Every title of Marvel and every title of D. C. I want to cover A. O. That is so expensive. So I have two people that do that in here and they don't collect those anymore. Those magazine size ones because you can't put them in your box. And simple as that. So you've, you brought 

[01:13:58] Badr: up some, some points that I feel like I've, I've echoed here on the show as far as like the plus, you know, comics aren't dying, you know, it's really a matter of like.

[01:14:05] Badr: How can you say that when there's so much good writers, artists, so many good titles out there? You might have to do a little more digging. And if you're only looking at surface level, like big two, then yeah, you might be a little disappointed, but I think there's gems among those. But I, I know we've had conversations, you know, talking about the headaches you go through as a retailer and on the business side.

[01:14:26] Badr: So I'm going to ask a question that I've. That I love because I've borrowed it from David Harper. I've heard him ask it on his show to retailers. And I always think it's a fantastic question. Um, so shout outs to him, but if you had a magic wand and you could change one thing or maybe whatever, a few things, however many come to mind, but one primary thing from a retailer perspective that would make your life easier and make comic books even bigger or even better to sell, like what would be that change you'd want to see in the 

[01:14:52] Ben Kingsbury: industry?

[01:14:53] Ben Kingsbury: Okay. So it's, it's one major thing. And, uh, uh, you did not prep me on this question, so you put me on the spot here a little bit, however, um, it's one thing that Marvel and DC, I think, do pretty well right now, that independent companies, and I call everybody not Marvel and DC independent, even though everybody's independent, it's kind of a silly title, you know, but we always do that, the big two, um, a synopsis in front of the fucking comic book, because when a number one comes out, I sell out.

[01:15:24] Ben Kingsbury: Okay? And then, if I don't have any more number ones, no one's picking up an independent story. And I'm like, just put at the beginning of the second issue, what happened in the first fucking issue! I'm watching TV shows that I just watched, and I watched the recap of the show I just watched, cause The recap gives me everything I was supposed to learn from the last episode.

[01:15:47] Ben Kingsbury: So recaps, like just off the top of my head, there's so many different things, right? I mean, price of comics, blah, blah, blah, all the little things, uh, shipping, uh, comics, and that's the one that we've had numerous talks about the nightmares of that to the shops in good condition is obviously huge one. But man, if some of these comic book companies that do, especially if you're not Marvel and DC, if you just do a recap, then people could pick up two through six and then they could go look for the first issue on their own.

[01:16:17] Ben Kingsbury: Or I could try to find a forum, but you could just pick up the story and start reading. And in between, a month in between comics, especially if you read all the time, you get the second issue and you're like, wait, what the fuck was the first issue about? I don't even, you know what I mean? Like, it's almost intimidating.

[01:16:35] Ben Kingsbury: You're like, want to go find the first issue and try to reread it. Cause it's been a month. Real life has happened. Everything's gone down. So if there's one thing I could do, I put a recap in every single comic book of the previous issue. Yes. Two paragraphs, let me know what I need to know, and now I can move forward reading it.

[01:16:53] Ben Kingsbury: That is a 

[01:16:54] Badr: great suggestion, and one that I don't hear echo too much. I mean, to your point, you could have easily said, oh, price of comics would help out, which I mean would Right. Price of comics, you know, shipping in better, uh, condition. But a recap. I, I do miss those when I flipped through, like old, you know, nineties.

[01:17:10] Badr: Books especially, I feel like Marvel was really good at it 'cause they would have like the gatefold, you know, it'd show you every single character. A para you might, as you know, basically gave you the whole like, background. Um, but you don't really see that too often. I, I think at all, um, now, yeah, I mean Marvel and that 

[01:17:24] Ben Kingsbury: would be a big help DC do occasionally do it.

[01:17:27] Ben Kingsbury: In their comics. And so that does help like, Hey, you know, this just happened, let you know what's going on. And so I know they've picked up, but, um, even, even skybound an image where I love void rivals and I love transformers and I love GI Joe, uh, the new Duke series, I don't know why you don't have previously.

[01:17:47] Ben Kingsbury: This just happened this character this happened this happened boom and we're gone and now no you can pick it up Because that's the most intimidating part You don't want to start a story in the middle if you don't know what's happening and it's very hard to pick up a comic book in the middle and read the comic book and actually know what's happening because Comics are told through words, but they're also told through the story and the artwork.

[01:18:11] Ben Kingsbury: So a lot of times something happens in the art that isn't in the story. And if you don't verbalize that to someone later on, they'll never know that that is a great point. Wow. 

[01:18:21] Badr: Excellent point. Alright, last but not least, Ben, we've been talking about 2023, you know, recapping it in retrospect. When you look at next year, or this year, when this episode comes out, 2024, what are the comics that you're excited for?

[01:18:35] Badr: That you feel that everyone listening right now should put that on your radar? Cause you know, I guess this kind of brings us back to, to fistful of comics is, you know, what are your picks for 

[01:18:43] Ben Kingsbury: 2020? And it's kind of like, you know, this is like a live segment of that. Right, exactly. But I don't get to hit reset when I'm recording it, I got to redo this.

[01:18:54] Ben Kingsbury: You won't use that one. Yeah. So there's a couple of things. Uh, the first one that instantaneously came to mind was exactly what we talked about earlier, the energon universe. Cobra. Now, there's gonna be a five part series, Cobra. The first, the, you know, the Duke one that you're, that, that you picked up today, and I'm, I'm not sure if you read it digitally, uh, but the first issue, you know why it was so good?

[01:19:18] Ben Kingsbury: Cause, it wasn't cheesy G. I. Joe. I felt like I was reading Jason Bourne. I was very 

[01:19:25] Badr: surprised by the ending and how rather violent it was. Like, it was mature. Mature is a better word. Mature it was. 

[01:19:30] Ben Kingsbury: But even the fight that he had. Between in the in the warehouse where he saw some of the the machines being built.

[01:19:37] Ben Kingsbury: It was awesome Dude, the art was great, but i'll go back to cobra is the first one that i'm looking forward to I think it's january 17th Obviously, uh when joshua williamson did our little live promo video for the shop, he asked me if we wanted to do G. I. Joe or Cobra and I yelled out Cobra at him, you know, like I do, uh, but, uh, cause villains are sometimes, I mean, Darth Vader is my favorite character of all time.

[01:20:00] Ben Kingsbury: There's just something about like the, the, the nature of a villain that, um, is, is enticing and fun for me. But the reason I look forward to Cobra is because at the end of some of the transformer comics they've had. And at the end of Duke, they have like the first two pages of Cobra, and it's not just an evil villain.

[01:20:21] Ben Kingsbury: This guy finds Energon on Earth and is using the Energon to form Cobra. So it's. In an ingenious way to write these stories. You're not just writing, Oh, it's the good guys and the bad guys. It's not America versus Russia or whatever. Every story we've ever, every movie we've ever seen in the eighties and nineties.

[01:20:43] Ben Kingsbury: So I'm so looking forward to Cobra because. Even though I don't even know how they're going to do it. Just the way that they preface it in the way that I read Duke makes me believe the Cobra series is going to be, the Cobra commander is going to have a layer to him more than just that cheesy mask who yells out Cobra and kind of seems like a dimwit, you know what I mean?

[01:21:02] Ben Kingsbury: Almost like the star scream of the transformers, right? Like, is Deathstroke really the bad guy in Cobra? And I'm like, nah, I think Cobra Commander is going to be this evil genius and it's really going to give him a layer to it. So I cannot wait for that. Uh, I am super excited. And Joshua Williamson fucking crushes.

[01:21:19] Ben Kingsbury: The guy just knows when he has a passion and he's writing about something he's passionate about. It's easy to tell and it's fantastic. So that's my absolute number one thing that I think you can sign up for this January is Cobra number one, the five part series. And then eventually when these two five part series are over, we'll get G.

[01:21:35] Ben Kingsbury: I. Joe ongoing. Uh, the next one that I'm thinking about that I'm very excited about is Thundercats Dynamite. And, uh, I love Thundercats that are growing up. Uh, it's another one of those Voltron He Man style stories, but the buzz. Uh, from people on previews magazine, I can't tell you how many people come in here and talk to me about thundercats now are like, Oh, can't wait for the thundercats.

[01:22:00] Ben Kingsbury: Oh, I haven't. How have you seen that coverage Tara? I'm like, Oh man, so you know, like those kind of things. And so thundercats, I don't even know what it's going to be. I don't know. I'm hoping in the same vein that G. I. Joe and the energy on universe has reinvigorated because part of what transformers makes it so good is that people are intimidated.

[01:22:18] Ben Kingsbury: They're like, they've been doing transformer stories for 40 years. That's I don't know all the Transformers. I know Optimus Prime. I know Megatron. You might know Soundwave or a couple random characters, but like when people who know Transformers start talking to me, I'm like, holy shit. I do not know Transformers like you do.

[01:22:35] Ben Kingsbury: That's what I'm hoping that Thundercats brings, similar to what Transformer did, that they really modernize it and bring it to a new, a new group of people. So I'm really looking forward to that. And then past that, the next one, Avengers Twilight. It's, it's Alex Ross. Uh, it's Chip Sardaski. Um, it's coming out, um, Wow, this is new to me.

[01:23:00] Ben Kingsbury: Alex Ross is doing the interior? Uh, I know he's doing all the covers. I'm not sure who's doing the interior. We'll have to look it up specifically. Well, you had me at Chip Zdarsky. But Chip Zdarsky's writing the Avengers story. And everything Chip Z writes is great. It really is. The guy's got a passion for comics.

[01:23:18] Ben Kingsbury: He knows how to tell great stories. So, Avengers Twilight, um, coming out, I think, end of January, early February. That's probably the third thing that I say. Definitely, if not anything, the Alex Ross covers are fucking spectacular. Wow, oh wow, it's Daniel, uh, Akuna. Yeah, Daniel Akuna, yep. Chips Zdarsky and Alex Ross covers?

[01:23:39] Ben Kingsbury: Alright, sign me up. Yep, so those are my three. Cobra, uh, Thundercats. And, uh, Chip Zdrawski, uh, doing the Avengers Twilight. The only other thing that I would bring up, and this will tie into our last point, and we'll get into it on our last question, is the Ghost Machine universe that is coming from Image.

[01:23:57] Ben Kingsbury: I'm glad you brought that up. And I can't wait, because I didn't naturally read Geiger when it first came out. This leads right into our last question. But that universe Junkyard Joe, Geiger. Wow, is that stuff great. Yeah, and I think, I mean, we briefly 

[01:24:13] Badr: talked about it before we hit record, but it is so good to see Geoff Johns back into, you know, what he does best with comics, writing, pulling in, like, you know, some of the best talent.

[01:24:24] Badr: Um, he seems passionate about this. I love the, um, It's the only word that comes to mind is like structure or mission of Ghost Machine. Like the fact that all of the creators co own everything, that they're bringing on the best talent to build out this world. It's a shared universe at that. Um, it's exciting.

[01:24:39] Badr: It's definitely exciting 

[01:24:40] Ben Kingsbury: to see. And Geiger's been really impressive. So like, just in terms of like a, a universe that I'm excited about, Ghost Machine would be the universe that I'm all in on. Good stuff. Now those are some 

[01:24:49] Badr: solid picks, Ben. And I guess that brings us to, what is our last question? 

[01:24:54] Ben Kingsbury: Oh, wasn't from this year.

[01:24:56] Ben Kingsbury: You know, why not? Let's go 

[01:24:57] Badr: ahead and do it. I was going to wrap this up, but why not? I'll make it quick. Why not? Let's go ahead and do it. Ben, what was your favorite comic that wasn't from this year? That 

[01:25:06] Ben Kingsbury: you discovered for the first time? Yep. Two. Geiger. Um, I sold it, but I didn't get too many copies. 20, 25, 30 copies, I think, when it originally came out.

[01:25:17] Ben Kingsbury: And it sold out. So I never got a chance, I sold my copy, so I didn't get to read it from the beginning, so I just never read it. And then, uh, somebody said, Ben, you need to, I picked up the trade paperback and I read it, and it was like, uh, Fallout. I don't know if you ever played that video game. Which, by the way, the trailer 

[01:25:34] Badr: for that animated, or that live action looks amazing.

[01:25:36] Ben Kingsbury: Amazing, but Fallout Vegas. Because it's literally a guy who gets trapped outside a bunker, right? His family's in the bunker. He ge turns into this radioactive superhero. That's such a badass design. Even the villain is in New Vegas, and he's like got a fucked up face. Just like, it was like, it was very much stolen from the video game.

[01:25:55] Ben Kingsbury: Alright, I'm just gonna say it. Alright, he very much stole from the video game, but whatever. But it was fantastic to see it. And it was great. Uh, the, the, the layeredness to the villain or to the hero, his two headed dog, obviously I got to think for animals. So, you know, that part of it, so that Geiger, and then it led into junkyard Joe.

[01:26:14] Ben Kingsbury: And so now the ghost machine, like we were talking about previously, uh, that was absolutely fantastic. And then I found this year we're talking about, I don't know how to pronounce his name, Garth Enis, Garth Enis, say whatever you want to each that around, but. Someone this year introduced me to the single greatest animal story ever told red Rover, Charlie, and it is Garth Enos.

[01:26:39] Ben Kingsbury: It is one trade paperback. You'll read it in 30 minutes tops. It's a very quick read. Uh, you go through some rollercoaster emotions. I'm not even going to get into it. It's three animals that are, uh, they consider all the humans feeders. They wake up the next day and the apocalypse has happened. All the humans are gone.

[01:26:59] Ben Kingsbury: And so they go on this adventure to try to find humans, feeders, whatever. And then they go into this giant world where they interact with other animals, good and bad. And it is the single greatest animal story. Um, I keep buying it. In trade paperback in volumes of 10, I buy 10 at a time and I am sold out currently because when people come in here and they ask me for one story, I think they should read.

[01:27:23] Ben Kingsbury: I give them red Rover, Charlie, and then they come back and they're like, that was fucking crazy, Ben. Damn. So that, that's it. That's that'll probably wrap up the store. You want a cool thing. Come to Gotham city limit. I'll get you red Rover, Charlie, 35 percent off. It's the only thing I do better than Jeff Bezos.

[01:27:38] Ben Kingsbury: Fucking books cheaper than Jeff Bezos. So that's it, man. Always here. But that that's, that's, uh, leading into 2024, man. Read Red Rover, Charlie Garth Ennis, Garth Ennis, whatever, however you say the guy's name, he's fantastic. I love it. Yeah. And it's good. 

[01:27:51] Badr: That's some good homework to end on. You know, obviously I'm going to have.

[01:27:54] Badr: Links to the socials, to the website and the show notes like I always do. But do you have anything in closing to say to the listeners? Um, I imagine a lot of folks that shop here are probably listening to this as well. Do you have any parting words as we begin a 

[01:28:07] Ben Kingsbury: fresh new year? If you want to be a part of the limit, it's very easy to do.

[01:28:12] Ben Kingsbury: You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram. X, uh, tick tock, any social media platform there is, um, and you can become a part of this place. We obviously ship, we do this, but you don't have to be local to Jacksonville to, to be a part of this community. You can literally be a part of it, um, just from the outside through social media.

[01:28:35] Ben Kingsbury: And then. What we do here is customer service. So there is not a bad question. If you go to Gotham city limit. com right now, there's a contact us, a contact us page now on there where you put in your information, your phone number, your email, and you can literally shoot us any message you want. From anywhere at any time, it comes straight to the shop email.

[01:28:58] Ben Kingsbury: Everybody who works here has access to it. We pull all that stuff and we make it happen. But I encourage you that if you go, if you live in a place where you don't have a comic shop or your comic shop doesn't have a passion for the stuff that we got going on here, that you can take it to the limit this year, simply by just being a part of what we've got going on online.

[01:29:22] Badr: I love it, and I've been dying to say this, I'm glad you finally said it, but Shortbox Nation, I can safely say all of you have taken it to the 

[01:29:30] Ben Kingsbury: limit today. Absolutely, and you know, I'm gonna finish this just like I finish everything, say, with great power comes great responsibility, and always take it to the limit!

[01:29:39] Ben Kingsbury: I love it. Ben, you've been 

[01:29:40] Badr: fantastic, I'm glad we finally got to make this happen. Hey man, you're an 

[01:29:43] Ben Kingsbury: amazing guy, I really appreciate 

[01:29:44] Badr: you stopping by. Hell yeah. There you have it short bikes nation. That's the end of the show. Thank you for hanging out Thanks for being here and a special shout out if you've made it this far If you enjoyed this episode and you have some thoughts or comments that you want to share with us Write us at these short bikes jacks at gmail.

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[01:30:20] Badr: So leave us a review. Now, if you want more content, like bonus episodes or perks like. early access and commercial free episodes, and in some cases, free comic books, consider joining our Patreon community at patreon. com slash the short box. It's an easy and very affordable way to support the show and get rewarded for being a fan.

[01:30:39] Badr: Once again, sign up at patreon. com slash the short 

[01:30:42] Ben Kingsbury: box. Speaking of our Patreon community, I want 

[01:30:44] Badr: to give a big shout out to our current members, including Adam Chetani, Tony Ayupi. R. C. Gammett, Blake Simone, Blythe Brumleaf, Bo Evers, Brian Brumleaf, Chad Landenberger, Chris Hacker, Chris Jinks, David Morales, Triple D Mystic, Dominique Jackson, Errol White, Edbot 5000, Generation Jaguar, Greg Hopkins, R.

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[01:31:32] Badr: Thanks again to everyone that listens and supports this show. Be sure to come back next week for a new episode, and most importantly, take care of yourselves, read a good comic, and continue to make mine and yours short box. I'll catch you soon. Peace!