The Short Box Podcast Ep. 403 - Comic News Recap: Transformers #1 sets records, Bill Willingham vs DC, Hickman's Ultimate Spider-Man, and NYCC Tips for First-timers 

 
[00:00:00] intro music plays

[00:00:11] Badr: That was a good little warmup. Let's get this thing started. Let me go to my actual notes.

[00:00:27] Badr: Because I need to re remind it how to intro the show. It's not memorized. Yeah. Burnt in your brain by

[00:00:32] Ed: now. Yeah. Line? Yeah.

[00:00:35] Chris: I think

[00:00:37] Badr: I can deliver that a little bit better. Alright, here we go. Yo! Shortbox pod podcast? What am I doing? Shortbox Nation. Welcome back to the podca see what I'm saying? I need, I need my script.

[00:00:49] Ed: Yeah. Line? Who put a question

[00:00:51] Chris: mark on the

[00:00:54] Badr: prompter? Line. Alright, Short Box Nation, welcome back to the podcast. Thanks for being here. If you're new to the show, welcome. This is the Short Box Podcast, the comic book talk show that brings you the best conversations about comics and pop culture inspired by them.

[00:01:09] Badr: This is episode 403, and my name is Badr. I'm reporting to you live from Short Box HQ here in, uh, it's kind of gloomy today, gloomy Jacksonville, Florida. Still humid as hell, though. And in the studio with me on mic number two is the especial Edmund Danczar. What's up? What up, Ed? Making your first, uh, uh, season, what are we, season nine?

[00:01:28] Badr: Season nine? Season nine appearance. Is this a season premiere? Uh, no, no. Season premiere was two episodes ago with 401. I have no idea. We're a little late on that one. I wasn't here. Was I here? True. No, no. It was an interview episode. My season premiere. Yeah, it was. My debut. Man, come on. Ed's season premiere.

[00:01:46] Badr: Yay! For whatever season number one. Hey guys all show up at? Yeah. Ed's season nine premiere. And on mic number three, we got a good friend of the show at that, Chris Hacker from the Oblivion Bar podcast back on the podcast. Duval! Oh

[00:01:59] Chris: wow. Could've used a little work on that. Regional. Sorry, I tried. I'm from the Midwest, everybody.

[00:02:06] Chris: I, I, I can't. I don't have it. That's exactly how I

[00:02:08] Badr: Midwest people do

[00:02:11] Chris: Duval? Nice to meet y'all. Uh, yeah. Duval, y'all. Hello,

[00:02:17] Badr: everyone. Listeners, as you can tell, we're in a great mood. We're recording on a Friday evening, um, you know, so it's a celebratory, celebratory vibe right now. Everyone's just finished a hard, you know, work week.

[00:02:30] Badr: We popped a couple of drinks, uh, got the, what is that? We got some, uh, ranch waters. We got some amitas, uh, what you sipping on, Chris?

[00:02:39] Chris: I'm drinking an Alani New Kim 8. This is the Kim Kardashian version of the Alani New. And I bet you're probably thinking, Chris, uh, why the hell are you drinking a Kardashian Alani New?

[00:02:48] Chris: You're a 32 year old white male in the Midwest. Um, they taste good. I don't know. They just gave me that little, they give me that little something that I need every time that I'm, I'll tell you right now. Alani knew if you're listening right now, and I know that you are, please reach out to us at the oblivion bar podcast, because you've been the lifeblood of our show since 2021.

[00:03:07] Chris: I'm going to try this out. What's this? It's good. It's called a Lonnie new a L a N I N U.

[00:03:13] Ed: So it's probably better than the gas station, Bahama mama I had before coming here,

[00:03:17] Chris: probably. They market to the 22 year old, you know, influencer white chick that usually, you know, like that, that's what their target audience is.

[00:03:26] Chris: But, uh, you know, it's, it's for everybody. I like to believe, you know, for the people, yeah. Lonnie news for the people, just like Wu Tang.

[00:03:37] Badr: Oh, you saw the shirt. You saw the shirt. There we go. You got to have the concert at the festival weekend. We got an easy mission today. Today we'll be recapping some recent comic news and announcements from this past month.

[00:03:48] Badr: So we're taking essentially, we're taking one last look at the month of September. And all the different developments and the things that have happened in the comic industry before we, you know, finally move into the spooky season. Alright, we're looking at September and seeing all the different news.

[00:04:01] Badr: What, that wasn't a good spooky one? I guess. Are you just, are you over spooky

[00:04:05] Ed: season? No, I just, I didn't know we

[00:04:07] Chris: were doing that again. We call it spoopy season over at the Oblivion Bar. Spoopy.

[00:04:10] Ed: Spoopy? What is that supposed to mean? That's another, like, cute word for spooky that... Oh. I don't understand.

[00:04:14] Chris: Guys, it's the chem aid.

[00:04:15] Chris: Sorry, it's the chem aid. I don't understand it. keep

[00:04:18] Badr: going, Bob. I apologize. Chris is, Chris is in tune with it all, man. He's got all the list finger on the pulse.

[00:04:24] Chris: Yes. Culture. I keep up with the teeny boppers. What can I say? You know, it's, uh, it's the algorithm on TikTok, I think.

[00:04:33] Badr: Yeah, we got a lot of things to talk about today.

[00:04:35] Badr: Take it away, Jon Stewart. What do we got? We've got things to talk about. And if you're looking for a specific topic, I highly suggest you check out the timestamps listed in this episode's show notes. Or you'll find, uh, you'll also find a link, uh, to the video version of this podcast. So if you're someone that likes to watch your podcast as you listen to them, we got it on YouTube.

[00:04:53] Badr: Now, before we take off into the main event and get to talking about the comic news and developments and all these headlines going on, Let me shout out, let me take a quick minute to shout out all of my New York peeps, alright? Specifically, all of our listeners in New York, and our listeners planning to attend at New York Comic Con this year.

[00:05:11] Badr: Maybe I should have been more specific about that, because there's some people that are probably in New York, right now they're like, I do not fuck with New York Comic Con, it's too crazy. So to our listeners that are planning to attend New York Comic Con, Yo, exactly, that's probably how they're acting.

[00:05:24] Badr: But to our listeners that are planning to attend New York Comic Con, I'd like to go ahead and make the formal announcement on the podcast that Chiboy is gonna be at New York Comic Con. Ayyy. Alright, I, I, bucket list item, alright? I can, I, I, and I mean this too, like going to New York Comic Con has been a bucket list item for me since, you know, starting this podcast.

[00:05:44] Badr: Not only am I gonna be at New York Comic Con with, with, with Drew and Blake, uh, who you guys heard on the HeroesCon, uh, recap episode, but... Your boy also gets to do a panel. Alright, I'm, You spend all day on the phone anyhow. I pressed the wrong button.

[00:06:01] Chris: As a long time listener of the short box, I feel like that happens once an episode.

[00:06:05] Badr: Look, you spend all day on the phone anyhow. Smooth sailing. Buy your tickets to your comic con right now to catch me at the panel. No, we got a panel. It is called the Awesome Power of Comic Book Podcast and How You Can Start One Yourself.

[00:06:17] Badr: It's taking place the Saturday of the convention. Uh, from 6 to 7 p. m. They gave us the late night spot. Midnight run at New York Comic Con. I got to cut my teeth. I got to cut my teeth first. I get it. I'm going to take what I can. All right. That's an all star lineup too, right? Yo, come on, man. We're talking about the power of, of podcasting in the comic book space.

[00:06:35] Badr: And not only am I going to be hosting it. But I've got Chris Hacker on the panel

[00:06:40] Chris: as well. Hey, I heard about this panel. This sounds pretty awesome. And Bader, while we're on the topic, if you don't mind, I don't mean to like, Oh man, it's not my show, Ed. It's not my show. I'm

[00:06:48] Badr: here for Chris. I'm sorry. And we are not taking away Chris.

[00:06:51] Badr: I'm kicking my feet up today.

[00:06:52] Chris: I just want to, I just want to ask, let's do a quick brainstorm while we're on the topic, if you don't mind. Okay. Uh, I would love to do something other than just like hearing our expertise on the, on the medium of, of comics and, you know, podcasting. I want to do like a giveaway.

[00:07:07] Chris: What are your thoughts on doing something like that at the panel, like something to incentivize people, even if they barely care about what we have to say about

[00:07:13] Badr: podcasting? Yeah, just, just sit in a chair until we take the photo. So it looks full. All right, that's what we need. Exactly. That's all we want.

[00:07:21] Badr: Now we got to tell the story. We absolutely have to do a, uh, a giveaway and especially considering the lineup. All right. So not only is Chris, this is back to the listeners, not only is Chris going to be there along with his cohost, Aaron, um, we've also got, uh, Brad and Lisa Gullickson from the comic book couples counseling podcast who we had on the podcast.

[00:07:39] Badr: I think earlier this year and Troy Jeffrey Allen from Rexco comics and previews world is also on the panel as well. It's a pretty stacked a panel of talented. Podcast hosts and comic lovers and whatnot. If I do say so myself, I'm really excited and proud about the panel that we're going to be throwing.

[00:07:58] Badr: I know it's going to be a good time. So, yeah, no, it's very exciting. Chris, we absolutely have to do a giveaway. We got to figure out details for that. I know you've got plenty of cool stuff to give away. I'm going to try to match. I'm going to try to match that. I'm definitely going to try to match. I think I'm going to bring some Gotham City Limit exclusive comics.

[00:08:13] Badr: I got tons of short box merch, but I think we can even take it up a notch. Take

[00:08:17] Chris: it up a notch. We have our friends at Omnibus and whatnot, both are bringing things to the panel to give away at the panel. So, and, talking to Christian Ward two nights ago for the show, he'll be there. Come on! He's coming to the panel.

[00:08:31] Chris: So, yeah. It's gonna

[00:08:32] Badr: be a big deal. I'm calling it right now. The best panel at New York Comic Con is gonna be the Awesome Power of Comic podcast and how you can start one. Saturday, 6 to 7 p. m. Chris, I am curious though, you know, as a first time, tentatively, tentatively, first time going to New York Comic Con, what would What can I, what can I expect?

[00:08:51] Badr: And I'm sure this could be an episode all on its own, so I'm putting you on the spot with a difficult challenge of trying to, like, give me, like, just one piece of advice of what I should expect. How can I prepare best for one of the biggest comic conventions that takes place?

[00:09:06] Chris: This is, uh, one of my favorite kind of discussions in the comic world, convention going in general, is, uh, you know, San Diego, of course, is known as this, like, Movies and there's a little bit of comics anymore, but it's mostly about movies.

[00:09:19] Chris: New York is for your comic fan. Uh, and I think it's best best shown in their artist alley. You know, again, San Diego has maybe 3 or 4 rows of maybe I'd say 40 to 50 artists. Artist alley at New York Comic Con is 400 plus. I mean, you go to the New York Comic Con website right now and it is every walk of life on the East Coast and otherwise go into New York Comic Con.

[00:09:39] Chris: It's going to be really incredible. I will say, and I know this is not maybe not the answer that you're looking for. There's really no way to prepare yourself for New York. You are just Kind of enduring the entire time it is sensory overload. You're going to have this giant cloud of FOMO over your head the entire time.

[00:09:56] Chris: But I think at the end of it, when you, when you look back on your experience, and I hope that you have this, cause I have this every single year. I've been in New York comic con four times. You're always happy with your experience because you are around like minded folk. Uh, you're getting to, you're getting to meet creators that you wouldn't get to meet otherwise.

[00:10:12] Chris: Um, and I'll say, uh, just, this is a personal thing for me, my favorite experiences from these conventions, but specifically New York is after the convention, getting together with these people that you just spent time with at the convention, talking about comics. You know, letting loose going out for a drink or two meeting creators at these different publisher parties.

[00:10:31] Chris: Like, it's all New York is just this incredible beast. And I'm so excited to hear, you know, your experience at the end of it all, you know, and obviously that's getting to hang out as well for the first time you and I in person. Yeah, there's

[00:10:42] Badr: going to be a lot of, uh, physical first meetings at this one. I'm really looking forward to it.

[00:10:46] Badr: It sounds like. Everything I love about Heroes Con on steroids is, is how I'm taking it, you know, uh, uh, convention for the comic heads and, you know, comic lovers, but even larger, yeah, like, yeah, I've heard a lot of, like, stories as far as, like, yo, it's three floors, Yang won't get past, like, the first floor on the, you know, your whole weekend if you're lucky.

[00:11:04] Chris: It's artist alley on the basement. You've got the main floor on the, on the middle, like the, the main, what you think of comic con, that's the middle floor and the top floor is more comics, more board games. It's just Javits center is insane. I think last year they had 72, 000 people there. Uh, it's just, it's madness.

[00:11:21] Chris: Um, I, I'm very excited again to get your, I want to get your first reaction. Day one. Are you going Wednesday? Is that preview day? Are you going Wednesday? So,

[00:11:30] Badr: uh, listeners, I promise we have a show for you. All right. Just ride, ride along. All right. You're hanging out with the boys today. My plan. So we, we fly in on Wednesday and my most immediate plan.

[00:11:41] Badr: This is like a personal like thing I need to go do when I get there on Wednesday. I think we get there around like one ish. So our Airbnb ain't going to be ready for a couple hours. I'm going to catch a train, or maybe an Uber, or a cab, or something, to Brooklyn. I'm gonna go to the Brooklyn Library, because currently, right now, they have a Jay Z exhibit.

[00:12:01] Badr: That has taken over the Brooklyn Library, and I have to go see this. So that's what I'm doing on Wednesday. But I will be ready for Yeah, boy! Yeah, I will be ready. It's almost like a little, like, uh, pilgrimage for me. Like, I gotta go see this. Um, but I will be ready for all the comic goodness the rest of the week.

[00:12:16] Badr: I don't think I'm gonna do the preview night on

[00:12:17] Chris: Wednesday. You need to get pizza while you're in Brooklyn too, because whatever anyone says about New York, Manhattan, the best pizza is in Brooklyn. So if you're going to get pizza, go, go while you're in Brooklyn.

[00:12:26] Badr: Done deal. All right. Once again, to our listeners that are planning to attend New York comic con, that'll be there.

[00:12:33] Badr: Please come on out to our panel. Once again, the awesome power of comic podcasts and how you can start one yourself Saturday, October 14th, PM. I'll have a link in these show notes. So you don't got to memorize that. Now that we've got the shameless plug out the way, let's get this show started, all right?

[00:12:48] Badr: We got some comic news to talk about, we got headlines to talk about, some recent developments, and all that. I want to start off this conversation. With Daniel Warren Johnson's Transformers number one opens with over a hundred and fifty three thousand orders This was the headline for a bleeding cool article about two weeks ago September I think 19th is the date for this article or 14th So about a week before we put out our episode of Daniel Warren Johnson, which was the last episode If you haven't heard our interview with Daniel Warren Johnson I highly recommend you go check that out after you finish this episode.

[00:13:23] Badr: So Daniel Warren Johnson is doing a Transformers book. It comes out October 4th, which is the first Wednesday in October. And already, all right, already, he's already got 153, 000 orders in mid September. I can only imagine what it's at now. You know, it's probably closer to. I don't know, 175 or something like that.

[00:13:43] Badr: But apparently it set a record for Hasbro. It is Hasbro's, according to the article, this is not only a record for any Hasbro licensed comic launched a century, but also the top selling debut for Skybound outside of Walking Dead. Which is, I mean, look, you got two records in one? That's pretty damn, uh, incredible.

[00:14:01] Badr: What a

[00:14:01] Chris: year for Hasbro, by the way. With this and Barbie, like, both breaking insane records.

[00:14:05] Badr: If I was an employee at Hasbro right now, I'd be like, my bonus better look nice. I want to read this, this little, um, excerpt from the, uh, article. And you guys tell me how you, um, how you take this, all right? It says, according to article, Transforms number one debut number happened with the ever popular.

[00:14:23] Badr: Retailer variants at less than 20 percent of the total print run for transformers, number one, and no ratio variant above one, one to 100, despite many other big launches and reaching years, relying on variant ratios as high as one in 1000. So the way I'm taking that is that. Transformers number one, just the base cover is selling hot.

[00:14:44] Badr: It's not like a, a case of like a big, whatever, maybe Marvel or DC book that has a one in one thousand variant, which force kind of drives up those numbers, right? I know a lot of retailers sometimes will go ahead and order a thousand of one book to get that one hyper exclusive variant because they know they could sell that and maybe make up.

[00:15:03] Badr: Some of that, you know, a large chunk of that money they spent on ordering a thousand cover or copies That's how I'm reading this and if that's the case, I mean that's even more impressive right that there's no Gimmicks, you know, no asterisks next to those numbers, you know, yeah, it's like no this is you know 153, 000 copies No bullshit, no, you know, working the system on our end, Skybound, and is doing their thing with the marketing.

[00:15:29] Badr: There's natural hype and excitement for Daniel Warren Johnson for a new Transformers book. Um, it's just getting me even more hype. I think this whole rollout... For Transformers, for this, really the whole Interjohn universe, has been exciting to like watch, with Robert Kirkman at like the helm and all that, and Skybound.

[00:15:46] Chris: Robert Kirkman and Daniel Warren Johnson really are transforming Skybound over there. And everybody stands up and claps.

[00:15:53] Badr: Much more than Meesey Eyes, ladies and gents. Yeah, exactly. But actually, speaking of Robert Kirkman, as we know, um, Robert Kirkman and artist Lorenzo de Felici, I think that's how you say his name, but they were in the six figure order numbers too, they had a whopping, you know, 101, 000 copies before the close of the FOC, uh, for, uh, Void Rivals number one.

[00:16:13] Badr: So about, about a month before the release of Void Rivals number one, they were already in 100, 000, you know, copies. I wish I had something to kind of like juxtapose this to show why that's a big deal, but it was a lot harder to find out how much comic. Units have sold this past month. I'm fine. I like, that might be a topic for another day, but I was trying to like, look up like, well, you know, how many copies of Batman sold last month so I can, you know, put them side by side, but that was a lot harder to find.

[00:16:36] Chris: But, you know, it's interesting about that. And this is, I worked in a comic shop, shout out to the fancy shop in St. Charles, Missouri. I worked at a comic shop for three years. There is no data on what these comics are selling, uh, you know, bleeding Cool or a I P T, uh, comics beat.

[00:16:52] Badr: I thought Comic Cron would have that.

[00:16:54] Badr: I feel like I used to be able to go to comic cron.com and get the units sold, like, Hey, here's, you know, the top five books that sold this month. You know, Batman sold a hundred thousand units or something. But I can't find

[00:17:04] Chris: any of that, so I know for a long time. They were, because again, Marvel, DC diamond, even Lunar Penguin Random House.

[00:17:11] Chris: No one releases these numbers. What they do is, and again, how these, uh, how these, uh, comic sites get their numbers as they actually reach out. They have like people in different markets. They ask actual comic book stores, how many they ordered. And that's how they kind of roughly, it's kind of like the good way to.

[00:17:29] Chris: Uh, uh, compare this for everyone who, you know, podcasting their download numbers. Those are so obscure. You don't really even really know. You're just kind of piecing it together from different platforms. That's very similar to what, you know, the, the comic industry is doing with transformers here. Like I see here again, like you had said that it, you know, 153.

[00:17:47] Chris: A thousand units, that's not that's probably not even accurate. Could be more could be less. I mean, I think it's probably around somewhere in that, but there's probably plenty of small mom and pop comic stores that didn't contribute to this rough estimate. Um, and then kind of along with that as well, I wanted to point out that this is actually 499 as well.

[00:18:04] Chris: So that probably has something to do with. I know it's only a dollar compared to the normal 399, but a comic, you know, the 1st issue being 499. I think that that. That makes a big difference whenever you're talking about a comic that sells as much as this did. Yeah, let's go ahead

[00:18:16] Badr: and do some math real quick.

[00:18:16] Badr: Let's just round it up to a clean 5. So 5 times 153, 000. We're looking at 765, 000. Yeah, I'm just looking at a million dollars worth of sales right there. Yeah,

[00:18:26] Chris: and that's just it. That, I would, I would dare to say too that this number of 153, 000... I think it's definitely gone up by now. It was definitely gone up and it's also not accounting for people who are buying multiple covers.

[00:18:35] Chris: I am being, I'm one of those people. I will be doing that. I think they're only there. This is like an estimate for someone who's going to buy the first issue, right? Like just one cover, uh, which again, if you've seen these covers, not only Daniel Warren Johnson's cover, every cover is fucking baller. Like they're all awesome.

[00:18:52] Badr: Just a little more, uh, background for anyone listening that maybe isn't quite aware of the Transformers role. It's, it's part of the larger new Interjon universe that Robert Kirkman and, you know, folks like, uh, Daniel Warren Johnson are launching. So, Void Rivals being the flagship title to, uh, kick off this new Interjon universe.

[00:19:10] Badr: We got Transformers number one coming out October 4th, and in December, we get the G. I. Joe aspect of it with the launch of Duke number one, which is being written by Joshua Williamson and Tom Riley. They just put out a, the cover for number one, or it was my first time seeing it like this week, uh, cover looks gorgeous.

[00:19:27] Badr: Uh, you got Duke on the cover and you got a cameo from Starscream in the back as well. Kind of showing you like, hey, this is all connected. We got G. I. Joe. You're going to see Cobra. You're going to see the Transformers. Synergy. Yeah, all of that. You know what I'm saying? That is what this book is being powered by.

[00:19:41] Badr: It's not being powered by Energon. It's being powered by Synergy. Yeah. So it's really cool to see, you know, um, a shared. You know, this shared universe happening and it makes so much sense to it doesn't feel at I mean, Ed, you tell me, does it feel out of place for you to see Transformers and G. I. Joe together?

[00:19:56] Ed: No, because IDW did it. I mean, they, they did a crossover when they had the, uh, the IP. So it's definitely a natural fit. And yeah, like I said, it's It's it's a, it's a big, it's a huge get for Kirkman. And I think as, as I think as quality as the IDW run was, it was, you know, a lot of people liked it. I think this is kind of breathe his new life into those, the franchises with, when I heard Daniel Warren Johnson, who's probably done like my three favorite books the last three years, like Wonder Woman, Dead Earth, Beta Ray Bill.

[00:20:29] Ed: And do a power bomb. Now he's doing this guy's like, he's just killing it. He's just

[00:20:34] Badr: on a streak, dude. His greatest hits album. It's like insane. And I

[00:20:37] Ed: would like if someone, he and he, and that's not like the first artist I would say, you know, I'd really like to see him draw transformers because I think if his work is more like organic and, you know, and usually you see the transformers comics, everything's so technical and precise, but I cannot wait to see Optimus Prime suplexing Starscream and doing all these wrestling moves.

[00:20:56] Ed: I cannot wait to see Transformers. It's going to be like when I was a kid, playing with the toys. Well,

[00:20:59] Chris: as someone who's read the first issue already, I can tell you, you're definitely going to get that.

[00:21:05] Badr: As someone who's already read it, I'm looking forward to going into the shop still on, on Wednesday. Well, I guess the day this episode comes out.

[00:21:11] Badr: So go into that shop today. And fucking pick up like multiple

[00:21:15] Chris: copies. It is so good. As you're listening to this, Botter's buying 7 covers of Transformers. Including the 1 in 100 ratio.

[00:21:21] Badr: Yeah, as you're listening to this, I'm making bad financial decisions before I go spend all my life savings at New York Comic Con.

[00:21:27] Chris: So that being said, uh, patreon. com forward slash the short box. Thank you, sir. Make sure you subscribe, like, and follow.

[00:21:34] Badr: And you mentioned that they've already done this in IDW. What do you think the IDW creative team is looking like? They're like, guys, we did that 10 years ago.

[00:21:42] Ed: It's probably like dark, dark horse of the star Wars and the aliens and all those, all the properties, they just got ripped away from them.

[00:21:50] Ed: They probably not

[00:21:50] Badr: feeling great. All right, let's turn the corner with this, uh, with this next topic here. Ed, you got something that you want to bring to the table. Uh, I'mma, I'mma toss it to you. What you got for us today? Okay, this is the

[00:22:00] Ed: date. September 14th, 2023. Damn, a

[00:22:03] Badr: lot of shit happened September 14th.

[00:22:05] Badr: We should have recorded this, like, you know, on September 15th.

[00:22:08] Ed: Um, Bill Willingham's Fable. Critically praised series. Hugo nominated. Multiple Eisner award winning. The controversy here is basically, he said with all his dealings with DC and basically chasing royalty money and, and just kind of this kind of ambiguous ownership.

[00:22:26] Ed: So one side says they own one, one side says they own the other. So he's supposedly, this is his creator owned work. So with all of his frustrations with DC over the years, he basically said, Hey, public domain, you guys want to write fable stuff. Go for it. That's kind of some weird loophole he thinks that might work, which I don't think will.

[00:22:46] Ed: It's such a, it's just a strange move. And on top of that, it's, it's an interesting move on releasing this in the public domain when the characters in the story are public domain characters like Rose Red, Snow White, Prince Charming. So it's, it's, it's definitely a, a, uh, they're kind of like at this stalemate where like said, basically I read his kind of.

[00:23:07] Ed: His I. P. Manifesto. Basically, the issues he's had with D. C. Was, you know, he's basically royalties. They never consulted on any new additions they release. He'd always have to chase them down. They never consulted on what artists they would put to his work. So very obviously very frustrating things. And I guess when they wanted to do the believe the 20th anniversary, Dan DiDio was bringing him in and He got fired during these negotiations.

[00:23:33] Ed: They tried to give him a work for hire contract, which would essentially revert those rights to DC. And it basically said, Oh, we didn't read your contract. We thought we owned it. It's just 20 years bro, you know, so I kind of understand his frustrations and he's pushing 70 So he's not a spring chicken. So he's not gonna battle this monolithic Warner Brothers, you know, you know, Jim Lee's got the sword out He's ready.

[00:23:59] Ed: He's on his throne of swords waiting,

[00:24:02] Badr: but I Love that. I love that your joke about Jim Lee on Iron Throne has survived all these years Uh, you're onto something. He's clawed

[00:24:09] Ed: his way to the top and I applaud him. This is not a negative. He is playing chess his whole career, but this is such an interesting thing is 'cause according to some, there's been some, like copyright paperwork come up and the language looks like it's, they both co-own it.

[00:24:26] Ed: So one can't do any moves without the other one's permission. So like, if they wanna make a movie, They have to get his approval and his, and, but he can't go to like image and do a fables miniseries or spinoff. So they're kind of at this stalemate and it's just a, uh, it's just, to me, it's just a fascinating story on IP and, and he has this kind of, um, in his manifesto, he basically has this IP theories, like, you know, you should only own it.

[00:24:56] Ed: You know, 20 years, it's time to, you can either sell it and the person you sell it to can only own it for 10 years and then it should be available for the public to use. So he basically said things should only be tied up in like, you know, the IP should only be tied up for like 30 years at the most and it should be for the world to, to do with what they want.

[00:25:15] Ed: So it's interesting philosophy. It's an interesting situation in DC, just kind of finally did a corporate statement saying that, you know, we still own fables. We own the intellectual property, you know, we will not, you know, it is not part of the public domain. You basically is full of shit. Can't

[00:25:33] Chris: do this.

[00:25:35] Chris: They own this. This is the thing about this whole ordeal. And I, we were talking a little bit before the recording here. I purposefully tried to stay away from anything, Bill Willingham, because he's a, he's a bad dude. For instance, Bill Willingham at a Uh, panel at Gen Con this last year, or excuse me, it was in 2016.

[00:25:52] Chris: Uh, apparently there was this, uh, movement where it was, it was a bunch of different creators. And apparently, anytime that someone who wasn't white or male, Bill Willingham would purposefully interrupt them with defensive comments about whatever the topic was for this panel. This is from multiple first hand accounts, and that's just one little tip of the iceberg of his many years of just saying very outlandish, questionable things on social media.

[00:26:14] Chris: The guy is, um, out of touch and I think that this whole thing about him giving up the rights to fables is him getting ahead of the narrative saying, I want to get this out of my hands. Uh, I want to give it back to the people because DC is so horrible. And I'm not saying I'm not defending DC. I'm not defending any big publisher here, but I'm saying this, this is definitely on Willingham.

[00:26:35] Chris: He's not a good dude. And that this whole thing is a ruse for him to, for the rest of his life say, Oh, I gave it up. And so they fired me. I don't want anyone to think that. I don't want creators to like speak out against No, and it's their thoughts or anything, you know?

[00:26:50] Ed: And from your point of view, I know it's hard to separate, especially in situations like this, separating the artist art from the artist, especially when the artist is still around and is in our lives, in our time.

[00:27:00] Ed: You know, as much as I love HP Lovecraft, Kind of a piece of shit, you know, but he's

[00:27:05] Chris: rats in the walls. It's pretty fucking racist

[00:27:07] Ed: But he's probably one of the most influential science fiction a genre creating author Yeah, you can't take away and I can't take away the work and I agree with you like said bad, dude But I see what he's saying.

[00:27:21] Ed: And just even seeing some of that paperwork, it has both their names. So it's like Bill Willingham and DC. So they're, they're kind of stuck in this awful marriage, you know, until he's gone. And like I said, it's, it's just a weird, it's more of the, the move. And I, and that's an interesting, I didn't think about that.

[00:27:39] Ed: That angle you're coming from, but that is definitely something to think about for sure.

[00:27:43] Chris: I don't want to not like comic creators. That's the worst thing is that I like, this should be a space where we escape and we should, uh, it's for progressive thoughts. It's for people who are, uh, giving voices to the.

[00:27:55] Chris: Uh, you know, the disenfranchised, uh, and when you have someone like, again, a Storanko or a Willingham who are just these out of touch, don't just want to force their terrible views on people. Anybody who disagrees is not intelligent. That's I've heard, I've heard him say that on social media. Come, come at me with an intelligent thought.

[00:28:15] Chris: I think he is, is like his favorite terms on Twitter or X, whatever we're calling it. Yeah,

[00:28:19] Ed: and unfortunately now it's like we see all sides. We see the negative and the positive. You know, we don't just see clips or magazine interviews where they're on their best behavior. You know, you see all the ugliness out now.

[00:28:31] Ed: And that's an unfortunate thing with social media for sure. It's one of those things where I kind of have to like, I'll just look at the work and then kind of I don't need to know about their personal

[00:28:44] Chris: life. It's unsurprising,

[00:28:47] Ed: but it's, it is disappointing. So, cause I was like, first, my initial thing was like, Oh, I had a boy bill.

[00:28:52] Ed: And then when I started digging in, you know, like the stuff you brought up, it's like, Oh, really? All right. Well, this is going to be awkward.

[00:28:59] Badr: So where is it at right now? Right now, it's just like kind of in a weird

[00:29:02] Ed: limbo. It's like a Mexican standoff kind of thing. There's kind of like, they're just at a, they're kind of at a, and I think that's what he does.

[00:29:09] Ed: And like I said, it, it's, it's possibly it could be in the guise of young creators can use my, you know, my creation to create their own stories. And I could, he could be trying to white knight himself or make himself look

[00:29:21] Chris: good. That's exactly. Yeah.

[00:29:22] Badr: And DC is on the side, like we'll shoot, sue this.

[00:29:26] Ed: Oh, there's two bad people.

[00:29:27] Ed: It's like, Who's worse? You know, it's like in a hard place, right? Yeah.

[00:29:31] Chris: Yeah. Yep. Interesting. Are you guys familiar at all with the deal that, um, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons got for Watchmen back in the day for Vertigo as well with DC Comics?

[00:29:41] Badr: Yeah. Wasn't it, uh, to the tune of as long as the men of DC or Vertigo stopped publishing Watchmen, the rights would revert back to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, but DC, that's why every year we get like a different.

[00:29:56] Badr: Watchmen, Omnibus, Absolute Edition. Is that the

[00:29:59] Chris: gist of it? Yes, you're absolutely right. And that's, that's essentially the same deal that everyone got, including Willingham, got in the 90s with Fables, because it was a Vertigo title. And essentially what it is, is exactly what you said, Botter. It's the moment that it goes out of print for eight months or longer.

[00:30:13] Chris: Oh, I didn't know about that. 100% It goes to the creator. And that's why, again, if you work, if you go to a comic shop, you see multiple versions, 10th anniversary, 15th anniversary, any reissues. Oh, this is a

[00:30:23] Ed: hard cover. Oh, there's behind the scenes stuff. Oh, there's

[00:30:26] Chris: another, so many versions of fables and what Willingham is essentially trying to do.

[00:30:30] Chris: He is like a poor man's Alan Moore here. He's trying to, like you said, add white knight himself and go, no, no. I gave up the rights. Cause I am tired of the establishment. That's and again, I, I will, this will be the last thing I say about it. That's not at all what's happening here. He is trying to get ahead of his bad, bad behavior, and it's gross, but we know.

[00:30:49] Chris: Bill, William, I'm talking to you. We

[00:30:52] Badr: know. We see through the facade, buddy. You don't even know

[00:30:56] Ed: these characters! So it's kind of similar to the, uh, Sony Spider Man thing, too. They keep putting out Spider Man. Tangentially related Spider Man

[00:31:03] Chris: movies. It's the same thing with, uh, um, uh, Dick Tracy, uh, I'm forgetting the actor who played the character in the early nineties.

[00:31:11] Chris: He just, uh, so he put out the movie in the nineties and then every couple of years, he'll put out like a 10 minute YouTube video. And that suffices as his retention. Those are so weird.

[00:31:21] Ed: He talks to himself. He interviews himself as Dick Tracy.

[00:31:23] Badr: He's like... Hey, see ya, darlin

[00:31:27] Ed: Yeah, see? Nah. Warren Beatty. That's what it is.

[00:31:30] Badr: Warren Beatty. Thank you. Yes. I guess in closing, DC can still put out, I'm assuming, Fables material, right? Like, they can still put out books, and...

[00:31:37] Ed: According to Willingham, basically, they can do, you know, and, and additions, but he has to... Approve. Kind of consult on them or approve them, and he gets royalties from them.

[00:31:48] Ed: Interesting. Which is something he said he always had to kind of chase down, because they would, like, not report what they sold, you know, kind of like, fudge the numbers so they didn't have to pay him and stuff. Which is...

[00:31:57] Badr: Pretty shitty too. This is definitely a nuanced topic. Uh, you know, like, like Chris had said in the beginning, you don't want to...

[00:32:02] Badr: You definitely don't side with the big corporation that's screwing, like, you know, the artists and the creators. But then at the same time, you're like, Yeah, but I feel weird rooting for a guy that I fundamentally don't really agree with. It's like that

[00:32:13] Ed: South Park, the shit sandwich and giant douche. It's like, well, you gotta vote for one of them.

[00:32:17] Ed: You gotta take one side.

[00:32:18] Chris: It's like both sides suck. This is a bad comparison. Uh, have you guys seen the documentary about Amber Heard and Johnny Depp? No, I have not. It's the same. It's the same thing. Everybody decides behind Johnny Depp, but the dude didn't do any. He did some pretty terrible shit too. And everybody gives, you know, and Amber Heard's not, you know, victimless here either.

[00:32:35] Chris: They both were being terrible people to each other. And it's the voice of public opinion sided with Johnny Depp. And that's why we all in our head cannon think that he was correct in this whole thing. When in reality, he was a drunk. Like he did terrible shit too. I think when

[00:32:48] Ed: she shit in the bed, that kind of like turned everybody.

[00:32:50] Ed: I was like, what'd she did? What now? Oh, I don't know.

[00:32:54] Chris: The captain's back? How dare

[00:32:56] Ed: you? That's foul, Amber Heard.

[00:32:59] Chris: Amber turd. Nice. Sorry, that was a low hanging fruit. I apologize.

[00:33:04] Ed: That's why you're a broadcast

[00:33:05] Badr: professional. That's why Chris is on this show. Alright, so it sounds like, uh, if you are a fables... Fan, it's going to be a rough couple of, it sounds like a rough couple of years for you.

[00:33:14] Badr: But you might be getting

[00:33:15] Ed: some nice new additions coming up. Yeah, a little

[00:33:17] Chris: concentration. Wait for eight months after William dies and you'll get your fables back, right? Don't worry. It's fine. There's

[00:33:21] Ed: going to be a mini series, a movie, there's going to be action figures.

[00:33:26] Badr: All right, Chris, take it away, man.

[00:33:28] Badr: You got something for us too. What's your news piece?

[00:33:31] Chris: So we have the return of Ultimate Spider Man. And this was a big news. It was big news for fans of Spider Man big news, big news for people who love the original ultimate Spider Man with Brian Michael Bendez and, and Mark Bagley, uh, this time around, though, we've got Jonathan Hickman, fresh off the back of the house of 10 powers of X X Men universe revamp, uh, and then also artist Marco, Marco Chichetto, who recently finished up Daredevil with Chip Zdarsky.

[00:34:01] Chris: So, uh, we have a panel coming at New York comic con, uh, it'll be essentially. Kind of the laid out plans of what this essentially is off the back of the ultimate invasion, which again was written by Jonathan Hickman. This is the return of the ultimate universe from the early 2000s. And, uh, Brian Hitch, of course, on art for that ultimate invasion.

[00:34:20] Chris: Uh, there's not really a ton of news about the ultimate Spider Man coming back. It is the only ultimate title that's been announced thus far. And I'm assuming we'll get more information at this panel at New York. Uh, I, I bring all this up guys, because I'm conflicted. Uh, and I, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this because I am a giant fan of that original ultimate Spider Man from back in the day, again, by Brian, Michael Bendez and Mark Bagley, 160 issues of amazingness, like it's between that.

[00:34:48] Chris: It is just, it's, you can read it at any point in your life and it just, it hits the same or better every single time. Uh, it lasted for 11 years. Brian Michael Bendis, uh, shameless plug came onto the show and I had to ask him about his ultimate Spider Man run. And of course he created Miles Morales during that run.

[00:35:05] Chris: There's just, there's so many incredible things about that original ultimate Spider Man, and that is why gentlemen. I am not looking forward to this, uh, and Jonathan Hickman very rarely does wrong in, in the comic universe. I can't even honestly think of something off the top of my head where I go, man, that's an odd decision by, by Jonathan Hickman.

[00:35:23] Chris: I'm gonna jump in here real quick. Potter,

[00:35:24] Badr: go ahead. I wanna hear. I'm gonna jump in here real quick. Hickman doesn't, he doesn't produce bad quality in my opinion. He does produce very complicated quality where you're not sure if you're enjoying it. You know what I'm saying? You're like, I don't know if I'm having fun as much as I'm like, having to really decipher this new language or, like, is this good?

[00:35:41] Chris: Is this bad? Or do I, am I just too dumb? Like,

[00:35:46] Badr: That, that's it. On his worst days, just make you feel stupid. You know, it's never like, terrible quality. It's just like, This is really dense, and I think I just wanted to escape. I think I just wanted to escape. And Spider Man's definitely a character you're like, I go into it knowing, I just want to feel good.

[00:36:01] Badr: I want to be inspired and feel good. And Hickman's very dense, world building story style. It'll be a very interesting, I think, you know, meshing of styles. At the very least, the art's going to look beautiful. Marco Cecco is insane. I saw the announcement the day they made it, or shared it on Twitter, and I did get hyped.

[00:36:21] Badr: My first initial reaction was like, what? Hickman on, like, one of my favorite characters of all time? And then as it like kind of just settled in and you know, I'm, I'm thinking about like, you know, his infamous Avengers and secret, you know, new Avengers run and even like, uh, ultimate invasion, like his most recent one.

[00:36:39] Badr: I don't know if I want all that with Spider Man, you know, it's like, I just want a really cool rogues gallery, some apocalyptic

[00:36:44] Ed: nightmare coming,

[00:36:45] Badr: Spider Man fighting God, you know, like, you know, all these houses.

[00:36:49] Ed: I haven't read him in a while. How's his timeliness? Is he still?

[00:36:53] Chris: Disappear, uh, you're talking about, are you talking about Spider Man or John?

[00:36:56] Chris: I

[00:36:56] Badr: think he's talking to like, as far as meeting his deadlines and stuff.

[00:36:59] Chris: Oh, sure. I mean, I think for the most part he's on time. Uh, I know a lot of times they give him plenty of time. I followed

[00:37:04] Ed: some like creator on stuff. He just like never came back.

[00:37:07] Chris: It was like, what happened? Yeah. East of west at the end, kind of few and far between.

[00:37:11] Chris: And then, um, well, so here's, what's interesting about Hickman at Marvel is that he's Mr. Fix it. Since his career back at the beginning of the ultimate universe, he, you know, he wrote the ultimates volume two after. Um, Mark Millar left the title. It was Jonathan who came in and took that over. Then, of course, we've got, uh, The Avengers.

[00:37:29] Chris: You had, you had that Avengers run there. Fantastic Four, a title for a long time, was unsellable during the 90s, after John Burton left it in the late, in the late, uh, 80s, early 90s. They even cancelled it for a bit, didn't they? They did, yeah,

[00:37:40] Badr: exactly. Cancelled the Marvel's first family. They was like, get the hell out of here.

[00:37:43] Chris: Well, and that, of course, was because Fox owned it. It was the same thing with the X Men. Uh, and then, The Secret Wars, which is my favorite, uh, event title of all time. The 2015 series, yeah. Yeah, just a culmination of everything and then, uh, Mr. Fix it comes in again with the X Men and recreates the X, you know, the, the X Men universe over at Marvel.

[00:38:02] Chris: And I think for the better, we're seeing the destruction of that right now. And I think that the ultimate universe, the ultimate Spider Man title being revamped here and it being kind of the launch title with this new revamped ultimate universe is a direct. Response to Zeb Wells is amazing. Spider Man.

[00:38:19] Chris: Yeah. As someone who read the first couple issues and was completely off from the title. And I'm not someone who likes to generally be negative about the, you know, the comic industry in general. I only like to talk about things that I like. I will say. Uh, this Spider Man title is not great right now. It's not

[00:38:35] Badr: good.

[00:38:36] Badr: I haven't collected Spider Man, you know, for a minute. So, seeing this Hickman news, I'm like, oh, this might be the first time I collect Spider Man on my pull. For the first time in, like, years. But in that context, Chris, that makes a lot of sense. You know, you call him Mr. Fix It. And Hickman has done that.

[00:38:53] Badr: That is his track record with Marvel. And, but, but it's also interesting that this is the, this is an ultimate title and not the main run, but I think it just lines up to what he's doing for ultimate invasion and bringing back the ultimate universe and getting to like, that is his sandbox. So I do get it in that regard.

[00:39:09] Badr: So there is a little bit of curiosity in like how this will sell compared to the main. You know, main line who I think right now is that Wells is still writing

[00:39:17] Chris: still on it. I, so I think that what you're saying right there was a prerequisite for Hickman agreeing to be on the title. He didn't want to come into that continuity and whatever Zeb Wells has done and what Nick Spencer did before him.

[00:39:27] Chris: He doesn't want to be tied down. That's that's always The Hickman's thing is that if you want me on this title, if you want me to come in here and give me car, you better freaking wipe the slate clean. I need something new. Let me play my own playground. Right? And I think that's what I find most interesting.

[00:39:42] Chris: I think about this again, revamp of ultimate Spider Man is that we don't know who Spider Man is. Miles Morales is in the normal universe. Peter Parker is in the normal universe. So who is going to be this ultimate Spider Man? Cause I don't know if you guys have read ultimate invasion, but they, this ultimate universe is a new.

[00:39:58] Chris: Ultimate universe. It's not the 6 1 6 0 or excuse me, 6 1 6 6 1 1 0. That's the old ultimate universe. This new one is 6 1 6 0. So it's a brand new universe. Oh my God, my head hurts. , all new type .

[00:40:12] Ed: So basically, 'cause I haven't followed any spider stuff in a while. So basically, 'cause I always as very casual Hickman reader.

[00:40:20] Ed: I always see him as more of like, like you said, either a Mr. Fix it or a big picture, big event, super heady, super heady, like apocalyptic, almost, you know, what is God? Yeah. And him doing like a, I guess like a street level kind of more personal character, which he's just working, you know, one borough of New York, you know what I'm saying?

[00:40:41] Ed: Is that seem too small? But, but is he basically. Expanding this new ultimate universe is he basically kind of the architect for this new ultimate universe now, so he's gonna start here and then kind of branch out this. I think that is a safe assumption. Okay, I'm just kind of like I said, I haven't been following it, so I'm just like, and it's not miles morales.

[00:41:02] Ed: We don't have

[00:41:03] Chris: miles. We don't know. We don't know for sure, but I'm gonna bet that it's not miles because miles has his own title. But

[00:41:08] Ed: technically he's a different, and this is a different ultimate universe. So it could

[00:41:12] Chris: be miles could pop back up in this new ultimate universe. And it, you know, it could not even be the same.

[00:41:16] Chris: Or whoever the prowler could be.

[00:41:17] Ed: Oh, that could be, Oh man. That's

[00:41:21] Chris: interesting. So I think what I'm going to call my shot here, everybody, and this just popped in my brain, Ed, while you were talking. The two titles that Hickman is working on now, because he's not with the X Men anymore. Like I said, they're destroying the house of 10 powers of X that that's like their new event.

[00:41:34] Chris: That's coming out during the winter is the destruction of the house of X, right? That's the new thing they're promoting. The thing that Hickman's working on in the normal universe is this new title called gods. That apparently is kind of the kind of a kind of a revamp, a re analysis of the gods of the Marvel

[00:41:49] Badr: universe.

[00:41:49] Badr: And the original solicitation, I think they were comparing this gods project. It's supposed to be like the Sandman of like the Marvel Universe. So like very like, you know, obscure, heady, you know, characters dealing with, like you said, like gods and demigods and like, uh, you know, reality and stuff like that.

[00:42:06] Chris: And then the other title he's working on the most, like you said, at the most street level character in Marvel with Spider Man over in the Ultimate Universe. And he's going to be also kind of spearheading that is like the overarching architect of that universe. I think at some point in the future, within the next five to seven years, we're going to have another Secret Wars type of event between these whatever these gods are going to play in the ultimate universe at some point.

[00:42:29] Chris: I think he's setting something up for the ultimate universe and the normal universe to clash in some way, maybe not the destruction again like it was in Secret Wars, but something where they definitely bleed into each other in some way.

[00:42:40] Badr: That is a fair assumption right there. It'd be interesting to revisit this.

[00:42:44] Badr: Episode whenever years from I mean, you know, Hickman, he's like a, uh, at least a two year investment, you know, like you're not going to see the fruits at least if they keep them on this long. And if like his plans are that big, we're not going to see the, the, uh, the final picture until like years from now, but it will be cool to see him flex.

[00:43:01] Badr: You know, a different, I don't know if it's going to be a different, it's Hickman, man, like, this dude can probably write, he can write anything, but to Ed's point, it does seem like a departure from the larger themes and, and bigger stories that he does, but who knows, maybe he'll have fucking Spider Man fighting, uh, you know, maybe he will have, Galactus, issue one, yeah, what if God was one of us, I say all that to say, I am very, this piques my interest big time.

[00:43:29] Badr: One of my favorite writers with one of my favorite characters and a badass artist. Let's not like, not give Marco Cecchetto his props as well. It's, it's creative team wise, looks stellar. And I think this is safe to say probably a good jumping on point for readers of all kinds. Can I tell

[00:43:46] Chris: you my one reservation with this?

[00:43:47] Chris: Is that if it is successful, Marvel, as they often do, We'll learn the wrong lesson and they will keep expanding in the ultimate universe. And then we will have double titles for the X Men, for Captain America, for Thor.

[00:43:59] Badr: And I was thinking about the situation with, um, House of X, Power of X, right? Hickman comes in, writes maybe some of the best X Men in years.

[00:44:09] Badr: You know, huge seller, uh, had everyone talking. I know like in my circle, we were all reading House of X, Power of X, every week, you know, talking about it. And then, you know, to see, like, what happened to that, where Hickman's, like, alright, you know, I've got a three part, or three act story, and then eventually editorial, the Marvel editorial's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, we can't stop this cash train now, like, come on, what are you doing?

[00:44:30] Badr: Chris, now you got me worried, now you got me worried that they're gonna milk this shit

[00:44:34] Chris: for all it's worth, that

[00:44:36] Badr: they're gonna milk this for all it's worth. And it's going to end up being terrible, but at least I'll stay on board for the Hickman stuff. That's

[00:44:43] Chris: like, I love comics and I love Spider Man. I'm like, but business and money.

[00:44:48] Chris: Yeah,

[00:44:48] Badr: that is a part of comics. You can't overlook at times. All right, good stuff. Thank you, Chris. I'm going to wrap this up on a, on a really good note. Not saying that we haven't had good news, but I want to wrap this up on a very good note. The last news item that I'm going to share before we go into our next segment.

[00:45:03] Badr: Rick Remender signs three year exclusivity deal with Image Comics. This comes from a Comics Beat article that I read this week. Effective immediately, all future creator owned projects from Rick Remender and his imprint, Giant Generator, will be exclusive to Image Comics. Now, my first reaction to seeing this was like, what's the difference?

[00:45:22] Badr: You know, like, 20 image titles. Like, that was my first reaction, like, this is news? Right. It doesn't remember drop all of his stuff on image, but this essentially gives, uh, image comics exclusive rights. Like they are going to put out his books, all of his creator own stuff. Um, and I think it just makes it more official, right?

[00:45:41] Badr: Like I think prior to this deal being announced, remember was actually. Uh, in negotiations and talks with the big two. You know, Marvel had put on the table having him write X Men and DC offered him Batman. Uh, and actually, I'll just read this art, um, this quote from the article from Remender talking about that deal.

[00:45:58] Badr: I've recently turned down very generous offers to write X Men and Batman. And while flattered, that would ultimately be a step backwards artistically and not where my heart is at.

[00:46:09] Ed: Man, that's some clout to have, right? X

[00:46:11] Chris: Men, eh, thanks, but no thanks. You can have Batman. That's fine. I'm doing other things.

[00:46:17] Chris: When I

[00:46:17] Badr: think creator owned comics and, you know, like a, uh, uh, like a poster boy for, for image and what it stands for and really just like success in comics, Rick Remender is someone that immediately comes to mind. You look at all the success he's had, all the titles he's worked with, the respect that other creators give him.

[00:46:35] Badr: I mean, hell, Daniel Warren Johnson, uh, last episode spoke so highly of Rick Remender. I think he said something to the effect of like, Being super impressed by how he's able to churn out creator owned books. Uh, you know, especially when you consider how much it takes out of you as a creator. Um, the fact that he's doubling down on creator owned work, that he wants to like, you know, own this stuff and he's serious about it.

[00:46:59] Badr: And, you know, he's, he's, you know, uh, so serious about it that he's willing to do an exclusivity deal with Image. I think it speaks a lot, man. And I think it also speaks a lot about image and their respect for their creators. And now, Grant, I know image isn't perfect. And

[00:47:13] Ed: it's only three years, so it's not like, like I said, that's not in the scheme of things.

[00:47:17] Ed: That's not a long time. But I, there's a quote in that article. It's like, I like this quote. He's like, he wants to like build his own house. I got it

[00:47:26] Badr: right here. And I think it's worth reading this full quote. Image takes no ownership, so my partners and I co own 100 percent of our properties. It's short term versus long term thinking.

[00:47:35] Badr: You want to build your own house? Make something that your children will inherit? Image is the only place. This contract is me saying that I bet on myself. I bet on my collaborators. I bet on my characters. Stories and owning what we make. Exclusively. With all we've got, like our lives are on the line. Put that shit on a shirt, like, man.

[00:47:55] Badr: Yeah. Front and back. That gets you inspired,

[00:47:57] Chris: man, at like Now let's go in the second half and win the game!

[00:48:02] Badr: Facts. And when you consider, like, his output, too. Like, that was something, um, Daniel, uh, Daniel brought up, was his output. And a mass majority of that being creator owned. Like, he and his relationship with image, like Dates back way further than, than I thought, you know, I'm, I'm familiar with like that 2013 2012 image renaissance period where, you know, he was in the middle of that, you know, he put out Black Science, Deadly Class, Lowe, uh, Tokyo Ghost with, with, uh, Sean Murphy, um, Seven to Eternity, you know, with Jerome Opinion, like those are all like hits, hits, hits, Well, you can go back even further, you know, in 2005, he, I think, first got on board of Image with Fear Agent, uh, and then he had some other titles, I'm not quite familiar with, uh, Sea of Red and Strange Girl, I've not heard those.

[00:48:51] Badr: Oh,

[00:48:51] Ed: I love both, Sea of Red is like a pirate story, and Strange Girl is like, um, there's a thing in, um, oh man, there's a thing, I think it's like a... A Baptist thing where, um, and the word escapes me, but basically everybody gets sucked up to heaven who is a believer and everyone else gets stuck on earth while everybody with rapture rapture.

[00:49:14] Ed: Thank you. So that's basically she is left there as a child and like her whole family get raptured up and, and basically demons take over the world. That's one of my, I think that's the first thing I read of his is either strange girl or fear agent

[00:49:28] Chris: or one of those read a righteous thirst for vengeance.

[00:49:31] Chris: I have the first issue, but I haven't, I've only read the first issue. They just came out with the deluxe edition. It's really freaking awesome. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, I mean, again, just reading the first issue, but I've seen many people who have. Caught up and read the entire thing and it's, they said it's one of his

[00:49:45] Badr: best.

[00:49:45] Badr: So, oh, wow. Wow. I didn't even have that on the list, but that's what I'm saying is Rick Remender, when it comes to like bodies of work, this is a very consistent, hardworking dude. And he is someone that you would want to study as a, as a creator, whether you, I mean, as a writer and just, I think as a creator in general, cause his eye for, for artistic talent.

[00:50:06] Badr: Is I think it's right up there with Mark Millar, we've talked about Mark Millar has an insane eye for really good artistic talent recommender is just as strong when it comes to like who he decides to collaborate

[00:50:19] Chris: with. I think that's like a true testament to some of the best writers like you're saying another example that comes to mind right immediately is Tom King here recently like.

[00:50:27] Chris: Every single Tom King book, you know, that if you don't for whatever reason, if you don't like what Tom is writing, you know, you're going to love the way it looks. I mean, human target, Mr. Miracle, strange adventures, um, here more recently with love everlasting, um, like everything that he's been putting out again, it's a, it's a beautiful, I, I mean, I love Tom King, but the book is always.

[00:50:48] Badr: I would say, like, Rick Remender probably has one of the strongest bodies of, like, work out there. I mean, some of the stuff is not my favorite. I'll admit, like, Lowe didn't really resonate with me. I like Tokyo Ghost a lot. Black science, classic, deadly class, you know, classic, um, no pun intended.

[00:51:04] Chris: People love Seven to Eternity.

[00:51:05] Chris: I didn't love it myself, but that's like one of the outliers, you know. Rick Remender is like one of, whoever your favorite comic creator is, I bet you Rick Remender is probably in their top five. Oh, for

[00:51:16] Badr: sure. His work ethic is insane because he's got two comic series right now. There's Sacrificers, which is on issue three, which is really good.

[00:51:25] Badr: That one is also really sad, also really sad. Um, yeah, it's that first issue. Oh boy, I'm like, whoa, PTSD

[00:51:32] Ed: from my child to slavery. Oh, first issue. We're starting here. Sorry, son. And after I beat your ass, now I'm going to give you up

[00:51:40] Badr: and he's got, he's got another book coming out this month. Uh, October. He's doing with Andy Sandberg.

[00:51:47] Badr: Um, damn, I, I don't got the name here in front of me, but it's like, uh, something roller skater or something like that, but I say all that to say. Rick Remender, you know, I love seeing his name pop up in headlines cause it normally means either it's going to be a new project or he's got something cool going on with his imprint.

[00:52:03] Badr: And, um, the fact, you know, just knowing that. He's going to continue his relationship with image and it's on good terms and they're just as excited to have them on board. I'm, I'm really curious to see if this means that we're going to get more series or more projects from him or they're just going to double down on what he's currently doing.

[00:52:19] Badr: I know one thing they're doing,

[00:52:20] Ed: if I can share it, uh, deluxe hardcovers of three titles. So they're doing a deluxe hardcover of Black Science issues 1 through 16, Low issues 1 through 15, and The Complete Tokyo Ghost. Getting that part of that exclusivity too is like, and. If you have the cachet he has is like they'll publish these additions up front, you know, you don't have to prove yourself You know, he's proven himself easily.

[00:52:44] Ed: So you get these nicer additions and on top of trades and stuff So I'm looking forward to these deluxe hard. I love a

[00:52:50] Chris: deluxe heart. Oh, yeah I don't even care if I don't really love the series. I give me that looks hardcover. I got that strange I

[00:52:56] Ed: have the omnibus of that hardcover omnibus of strange girl.

[00:52:59] Badr: I don't know about you guys, but When I really like a series that is how I show how much I love it. You know, it's like nah I buy it for the eighth time.

[00:53:09] Ed: I got the singles, the paperback, the hardcover,

[00:53:11] Chris: the special. I have Saga and four versions of your guys I know exactly

[00:53:14] Badr: what you're talking about. It's like, what's the difference?

[00:53:17] Badr: You don't understand. This one comes with one extra sketch

[00:53:22] Chris: It comes with the script for issue seven, how dare you?

[00:53:27] Badr: That's a silent issue, Garrett.

[00:53:30] Ed: Doodles on a napkin, he scanned

[00:53:31] Badr: into this. Can I also, uh, uh, admit that I don't really think I understood how long Ricker Mender had been with Marvel, neither.

[00:53:39] Badr: Yeah. 2005 to 2007, he's with Image. And then from 2007 to, I believe, 2014, 15 ish? He's with Marvel, and he left with After Axis. Yeah, I do remember that story. And then he goes back to Image, and he, you know, has another fucking renaissance period, but, I mean, even all his Marvel stuff was like, huge. X Force, fantastic.

[00:54:00] Badr: You know, I still talk about that series to this day. Uh, his Venom run, I haven't read all of it, but I know people that swear by it. Um, uh, his, uh, what Frankencastle series? Oh, you know what I'm saying? Like

[00:54:11] Ed: Legion

[00:54:12] Chris: of monsters. My favorite. The uncanny X Force. What you were just saying is one of my favorite.

[00:54:16] Chris: It's one of the easiest recommends when it comes to like an X Men title. And I'm not like an X Men expert. There's there you go. There's something. An expert. I've done it again by golly. No uncanny X Force. Easy recommend. Great creative team. Great art. Uh, really like I remember thinking, cause I've recently reread it and I remember thinking, remember just, he gets every single voice, like everyone from Deadpool to Psylocke to Wolverine to Phantom X.

[00:54:44] Chris: Everybody has their own personality. Everybody has their motivation. It's just, it's a great series. Agreed.

[00:54:50] Badr: Hard agree. I'm looking forward to seeing what this deal means in terms of new stuff, of collected things. But regardless, shoutouts and Image. I think I'm going to take a page from Chris's book. I'm going to put this out into the universe.

[00:55:04] Badr: I'm going to have Rick Remender on the show at some point. I was going to say before the year is over, but I definitely want, I think it would be a really cool opportunity to talk to Rick Remender and just pick his brain. He'd sound, you know. That's a Hall of Fame guest. So I'm putting that out there in the universe.

[00:55:19] Badr: Remember, come on, come on the show, man. Let's talk. Let's talk.

[00:55:21] Chris: Rick, we know you're listening.

[00:55:23] Badr: Come on the show. I'm seeing them at New York Comic Con. I'm just going to stalk them. All right. Come on the show. Come on the show. Come on the show. I think as far as headlines and news go, I think we've covered a healthy amount.

[00:55:33] Badr: I want to get into our next segment and talk new comics. Uh, but, but this goes out to the listeners. If you feel like we missed something glaring and in true, uh, short box fashion, what's going to happen is. This episode is going to come out and some big piece of news is going to happen the same day. And we're going to look crazy because it's like, I didn't talk about, you know.

[00:55:52] Badr: Uh, you know, uh, you got to talk about Hickman joining DC or something like that. But if we missed, uh, something glaring, or if you've got like a topic or a headline that you want to get our opinion on, I invite you to email us or send us a DM on Twitter or Instagram, right? If you want to get our opinion or you want to share a headline that, you know, maybe we should, we should have talked about, let us know, be a part of the conversation.

[00:56:14] Badr: Well, with that out the way, let's go into our next. Segment and talk about all of the glorious great new comic books that are hitting shop next month. This will be our first fistful of comics in, in the brand new season. So, you know, we gotta bring in the intro music.

[00:56:31] Badr: You can either have a mouthful of tea or a fistful of comics. ,

[00:56:36] Ben Kingsbury: eh, eh,

[00:56:38] Badr: fistful of Comics, is a segment dedicated to helping all you comic curious newbies and loyal Wednesday warriors. Take your comic shopping experience to the limit. By helping you find the best new comics and starting points that you simply can't afford to miss.

[00:56:52] Badr: And since we work smarter, not harder here on the short box, we call on the assistance of a man that takes pride in living life's at a limit. And that includes comic books. I'm talking about Ben Kingsbury, the owner of Gotham city limit, Jacksonville's premier comic shop. Ben has kind of done all the hard work for us, right?

[00:57:11] Badr: He's compiled this week's list of top three new and worthy comics that any. Fan that are worthy of any fans time and attention. So whether you are a diehard comic reader, you got a pull list, or maybe you're someone new, maybe you're looking to get into the world of comic books. This list is a great place to start.

[00:57:28] Badr: I've got previews for each title that we'll be talking about and sharing listed in the show notes in case you want to look at any of the previews or just follow along with the segment. Check the show notes. Let's go and get some music going and see what he's got for us today. Good morning, good

[00:57:42] Ben Kingsbury: afternoon, or good evening, short box listener.

[00:57:45] Ben Kingsbury: I'm Ben Kay, representing the home of the adventures of Alexander Hamster. Gotham City Limit, Jacksonville, Florida. We're about to take it to the limit. Let's do this. First up, AWA Studios. Alright, the writer's strike is over. All these AWA Studios comics you should be collecting. Keys alert. They're all gonna be movies.

[00:58:08] Ben Kingsbury: They're all gonna be TV shows. You know that's how this works. And, um, I don't know if you know this, but Sex sells in business. And Red Light, number one of a Four part series seems like it's going to be no different. Sarah Cho wrote it. Uh, if you've read Chariot, if you read Hit Me from AWA, Chariot's amazing, like a modern night rider.

[00:58:30] Ben Kingsbury: Anyway, back to Red Light, futuristic AI, sex workers, murder, mystery, intrigue. Oh yeah. And sex sells some bad ass covers. AWA Studios, Red Light, number one,

[00:58:44] Badr: check it out. Come on, he started off a little spicy. All right. I'm looking at the previews for this one right now. And, uh, it's a sexy cover.

[00:58:51] Chris: Can I tell you guys, this is, uh, maybe one of the most unsurprising things.

[00:58:55] Chris: I saw, I saw a red light. I looked at, you know, of course we're talking about it here. I'm looking it up and the writer is a brand new writer, Sarah Cho. Uh, I don't know if that strikes a chord with either one of you gentlemen, but that's the wife of Frank Cho. Yes. Okay. Who is probably the horniest comic creator in comics.

[00:59:11] Chris: I love Frank

[00:59:11] Badr: Cho. Yeah. We're gonna, we're about to find out he gets it from his wife. That's what we're about to find out. Wife approves. Oh yeah, yeah. Of his horniness. You know, I, I saw the last name and I don't want to assume, but I was like, I wonder if she's related to Frank Cho. All Cho's are related.

[00:59:24] Badr: Yeah. Edmund Danzart said that, alright? Taiwanese, American. I'm half Asian, I

[00:59:31] Ed: can, I can speak

[00:59:32] Badr: for the Cho's. Thank you, yes. All right. Once again, that was red light issue. One is coming out through AWS for issue limited series. This book comes out on November 1st. Let's move on to his next pick, which he goes a little mainstream.

[00:59:48] Badr: We, we mentioned DC comics this episode and a little spoiler warning. It's a DC comic book. You might've heard of it.

[00:59:55] Ben Kingsbury: Next up DC comics presents Batman one 39. Now, why would I say Batman one 39? Well, let me tell you one of the cool things about owning a comic shop that's only a handful of years old. We still get so many new comic readers.

[01:00:11] Ben Kingsbury: And for the first time walking in here, these modern comics can seem like a different language. Do I start there? Look at that Spidey. What about Sensational? Help! Where do I start? Batman 139, perfect place to start. It's still Chip Zardaski writing it. He's writing Gotham War right now, which is fantastic.

[01:00:30] Ben Kingsbury: However, this is a brand new story arc. Batman, Joker, more brutal than ever. Mind Bomb begins here. Oh yeah, and cover H, bat symbol foil variant. That's all I'm gonna say. You better get one pre FOC. Come to The Limit. We'll hook you up.

[01:00:48] Badr: Batman139. Ben is the type that, actually I've seen it, he will mail your comics.

[01:00:54] Badr: If you want to set up a pull list at Gotham City Limit, he will absolutely honor the discount and mail out the comics. All right, but Batman number 139 comes out November 7th, uh, it looks like, uh, you know, much to his, uh, point, it is a 40 page comic book, uh, you know, it says, new story arc begins, and I feel like that is one thing I'm noticing a lot of Chip Zdarsky's Batman run, there's like multiple jumping on points, so I do like that they're, you know, we're trying to get this Batman guy popular.

[01:01:22] Chris: Are you guys, are you guys keeping up with this Batman run with Chip Zdarsky?

[01:01:26] Badr: No, man, and that is, I do feel foolish for not being honest, and I, cause I love Chip Zdarsky and Jorge Jimenez is one of my favorite artists and comics now, it's just that I'm also reading like, I feel like two other Zdarsky books, and I'm like, how many books is this dude doing?

[01:01:43] Badr: He's doing like, New Born, New Burn, he's got like another image one I don't know. Public domain. There was, matter of fact, there was one at the shop this week that I have never heard of. Uh, and I can't recall the name of it. I'll find it here, but it's like, how many books is he writing? Are you reading Batman, Chris?

[01:01:59] Chris: I am. Well, I'm not up to issue 139, but I've read all the failsafe stuff, and I read up to the, the issue that I think a lot of people were really, you know, craving and talking about for a long time. It was, I'm trying to see here really quickly. I think it's Issue 131, which was the um, I don't want to spoil it for you guys, uh, people at home if you're listening right now on your radio or in your headset, check out Batman 131, get rid of it by itself, it's the end of the failsafe run, and it is insane, there's a little, you know, in a world where we're very, uh, oversaturated with multiverse stuff, we get a really cool multiverse moment with Batman that I think, uh, not only is a cool moment within itself, but it also sets up this next multiverse.

[01:02:41] Chris: Uh, ARK with Batman and Chip Zdarsky writing it with, um, uh, you know, a fan favorite, uh, Xuronar. I don't know if you guys are familiar with Xuronar in the Batman universe, but he's like the op he's like, uh, He's like the, uh,

[01:02:53] Badr: Bizarro. Is he like the Batman with the purple and and yellow? Okay, from the

[01:02:57] Chris: Grant Morrison run, right?

[01:02:58] Chris: So basically, anytime Batman goes to sli and and Xuronar's whole thing is that he's like an unhinged Batman. Uh, anytime that Batman Bruce Wayne goes to sleep, Zurn R comes to life. It's the same person, but it's a a almost like a personality. Yeah. All of Batman's He can't even

[01:03:12] Badr: sleep! Yeah. All of Batman's intrusive thoughts come out at night.

[01:03:17] Badr: Freaks come out at night. No rest for this guy. Iron Rogue I found the name of the other Chibs and Darksky book, uh, from Image. It's called Capterra, Universal Truths. That is the thing about Chips Zdarsky. It's like, you can go outside right now and lift a random rock up and you're going to find a issue of some Chips Zdarsky book that you did not know about.

[01:03:35] Badr: This dude

[01:03:36] Chris: writes so much. For you to see mini by Chips Zdarsky underneath this rock. And it's funny because he was like, he was just the funny guy that drew sex criminals for a long time. And now he's like. The top writer in comics, or one of them at least, like, it's kind of wild. He went from being,

[01:03:49] Badr: oh, Chip to, that's Chip, MF, and Zdarsky.

[01:03:52] Chris: Yeah, Eisner winning Chip Zdarsky.

[01:03:55] Ed: And it's, and it's, and it's cool to see he transcended that, that could have, kind of pigeonholed him, you know? Now he's working on, yeah, Daredevil and Batman, it's,

[01:04:03] Badr: it's wild. And writing his ass off on Daredevil. Like, I'm, I'm halfway through that run, and it is... It's like one of the best Daredevil runs I've ever read.

[01:04:10] Badr: It's

[01:04:10] Chris: fantastic. For a character that has often had amazing runs, both, I would say Daredevil here with this but also Batman and like both, I would say at the two publishers, the two characters who have gotten some of the greatest concurrent runs over and over and over again are Daredevil and Batman. And Sadarsky, I can't really say for his Batman because he's still very early on in it, but his Daredevil run is a top five Daredevil run of all time.

[01:04:33] Chris: I will say that

[01:04:34] Badr: concretely. Yeah, it's going down in history for sure. All right, let's get back to this list. We got one more from Ben's list and this one comes from Vault Comics. It is, it is a comic series that I need to go back and revisit, especially with this. All right, let's hear it. And

[01:04:50] Ben Kingsbury: last but not least.

[01:04:51] Ben Kingsbury: Vault Comics presents Barbaric Wrong Kind of Righteous number one This double sized one shot introduces an all new talking bloodthirsty weapon, Flail! I cannot wait. They've already got a bloodthirsty sword, a bloodthirsty axe. Barbaric is fantastic. Vault Comics has been crushing it. Again, another perfect place to jump on.

[01:05:16] Ben Kingsbury: They've got to trade paperbacks out of the earlier volumes of Barbaric if you'd like to catch up. But great place to start. Barbaric, wrong kind of Righteous No. 1. Well... I'm still Ben Kay representing the home of the adventures of Alexander Hamster. And did I mention all her copies of said Alexander Hamster are signed by both writer and artist.

[01:05:42] Ben Kingsbury: This is Gotham City Limit, Jacksonville, Florida. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility and always take it to the limit.

[01:05:50] Badr: So we might have to explain. Yeah, yeah, please. You want to explain it? Alexander

[01:05:54] Ed: Hamster reference. You might not know. Um, I don't know why I didn't mention Jonathan. I was like,

[01:05:59] Badr: man, just deliver the punchline.

[01:06:01] Ed: Jonathan is a long time comic book. He's been, he's been in the comic book shop. I think it's

[01:06:07] Badr: safe to say at this point. Jonathan is a Jax comic. Yeah. Like, kinda like, I don't know, a legend, it might be a little much, but definitely an icon. You know, when he's 70 years old, we can call him a legend, but for sure a staple in the comic community.

[01:06:21] Ed: So he wrote a children's book, which was illustrated by our very own Ashley. Um,

[01:06:26] Badr: and he's basically Published artist. Ashley Laney Hoy, come on.

[01:06:30] Ed: So basically he self published a children's book, which they are selling at the shop. So that is the Alexander Hamster. He mentioned everything but who did it. And...

[01:06:43] Ed: And... But I wanted to just credit because it's, our family is involved in that, so...

[01:06:48] Badr: Ben sometimes thinks two steps ahead. He might have been expecting us to do this. Oh, just fill it up? Okay. He just threw it up in the air. We gotta dunk it. Yes, if you are, uh, you know, I'm going to stop saying if you're just in Jack's, because if you email or reach out to Ben and want to buy one of these, uh, Alexander Hamilton books.

[01:07:04] Badr: He will absolutely Hamster. Hamilton. He does What did I say? You said Alexander

[01:07:09] Ed: Hamilton. He's in his presidential series. Imagine a kid's book.

[01:07:14] Badr: Alright, yes. Speaking of bad dudes. Alexander, uh, Hamster books, um, done by Jonathan Sanders of art by our very own Ashlani Hoy. Um, you know, either hit up Ben at Gotham City Limit or shoot me a message and I can help arrange that.

[01:07:29] Badr: Is, uh, Ben's pick, by the way, Barbaric, Wrong Kind of Righteous, number one, comes out November 15th as well. If you've been reading the Barbaric series, I think this was a series that Ed championed, uh, when it first came out.

[01:07:40] Chris: Yeah, I want to echo that. Sorry, I want to echo that really quickly, that Vault has been doing some really interesting stuff here recently.

[01:07:45] Chris: Like, uh, Barbaric, of course, is maybe one of the obvious answers, but they also did the plot recently, which was a horror anthology, which was really good. Uh, obviously Donny Cates did his Inceptor run through Vault at one point. Uh, there's just like, I'm looking through, what's the other one that, uh, Vagrant Queen, I think, I haven't read that, but I've heard it's very good.

[01:08:02] Chris: So, I really like what Vault's doing. That was one of his picks too. Oh yeah. Ben's picks, yeah. Oh really? Okay. Yeah, so, I, Vault, keep an eye out for them. I think they're doing a lot of really interesting stuff.

[01:08:12] Badr: The Blue Flame came out through Vault. It was written by, uh, Cantwell, and that was when I championed.

[01:08:17] Badr: I, yeah, Vault is, they've been, they've been killing it. Um, but gents, I want to hear from, from both of you out of the three options. We got red light, number one, Batman, one 39 and barbaric, wrong kind of righteous. Uh, which one piqued your interest? Which one is, would get put on your pull list? Uh, Chris, let's go to you.

[01:08:33] Badr: Which one? Uh,

[01:08:34] Chris: I, I mean, Batman is an easy answer. That's a, that's a layup. And again, like we've already said, Chips and Rusty's killing it from every angle. So, I'm not gonna say that. Uh, I've been lonely lately, so I'm gonna say Red Light Number One.

[01:08:49] Chris: I I genuinely A man's got needs, baby! I like the spice. Gonna feel the warm embrace of a comic book. Uh, you know, this, it seems interesting. Uh, you know, I, I feel like comics or media about sex can often be stereotyped as for lonely nerds in their mom's basement. But I think this, especially written by an all female creative team, I think is really interesting.

[01:09:11] Chris: And I think... Um, this being Sarah Cho's first outing, let's see what she's got, you know, I'm curious and AWA, like I said, is comic book nepotism works, right? Exactly. Who's your husband again? Uh, no. Uh, and also I should have said Frank Cho had a cover for both Batman and this series as well. So, uh, there you go.

[01:09:28] Chris: But, um. No, I like, it looks interesting. And again, AWA, uh, I think it was Ben that said that this would be eventually created or at least going to be optioned for some kind of television series. So, or movie or whatever. So, uh, I'd be willing like shot in the dark. We've already said vault puts out quality stuff.

[01:09:44] Chris: Batman is Batman. I think just based on my own curiosity, I would pick red light as the one that I would add to my

[01:09:49] Badr: pool. All right. Now I like the justification and I think a good phrase, sex positive comics. I think that's a good place for it. We don't kink shame here.

[01:09:56] Chris: All right. I don't yuck anyone's yum.

[01:09:58] Badr: It's a medium that can tell any type of story, even the spicy one.

[01:10:02] Chris: I'll tell you, the only one, the only thing that I don't like is like the Jungle Fever. Have you guys seen those comics at comic stores?

[01:10:08] Badr: Jungle Fever? You know what? Wait a minute. Yes. When I used to work at a comic shop, we had a, um, we had a I don't know about this.

[01:10:15] Badr: Uh, Ed, this was like Universal Superhero Days. So you know we had all these books. We used to have a Oh, those were in the back. No, no, we had a short box on the floor and the corner that had all those books and Jungle Fever was among them. Jungle

[01:10:29] Chris: Fever? I gotta look that up. Just ask, next time you're at the comic shop, Ed, ask for the variant cover for Jungle Fever and see what they think.

[01:10:36] Chris: Not the

[01:10:36] Ed: Spike Lee movie. Not an adaptation of the Spike

[01:10:39] Badr: Lee movie. No, even though I would probably pay for it

[01:10:41] Ed: to see that too. I'm thinking of the Stevie Wonder song right now. Hold on.

[01:10:46] Badr: Uh, Ed, do you want to give us your pick? Which one gets your voter confidence? You know what?

[01:10:50] Ed: I thought I was going to be the only pervo, pervozoid here, but I, yes, thank you.

[01:10:57] Ed: A brother, a true

[01:10:58] Chris: brother, powers combined, pervozoids,

[01:11:00] Ed: rollouts, pervozoid. I, I want to echo that sentiment with you because I'm definitely going to pick up that barbaric and I, and I love that series as sporadically as it has come out, but I do like the, uh, the artist, um, her name is escaping me. Um. Hold on, sorry.

[01:11:22] Ed: Oh, the artist

[01:11:22] Badr: is, uh, Priscila, uh,

[01:11:24] Ed: Petratris. Petratris. Another Brazilian artist that's killing it. Oh,

[01:11:28] Badr: so it's gonna be

[01:11:29] Ed: awesome inside. But I do like her work, like, Chariot I read, and Hit Me I read. And I believe those were both, like, an all female creative team. And Hit Me is another kind of like, like you said, a sex positive comic.

[01:11:42] Ed: Huge fan of, you know, like I said, everyone's done it. I'm a big fan of pinup art and like, so that's, that has such a historical part of, you know, comics, that kind of thing. And having an all female, you know, an all female team doing it. That's, that's definitely, that's definitely a cool thing to see. Um, so it can't just be, Oh, there's another pervert over here.

[01:12:03] Ed: You know, but it's I like that kind of stuff. I like the spicy stuff. I even like kind of, like I said, I grew heavy metal, man. My dad gave me that stack of heavy metal when I was a kid instead of give me the birds and the bees talk. It's like, here you go. Read this. It's ruined your future relationships forever.

[01:12:19] Ed: Um, but yeah, I have to go with, I have to go with the, I have to echo What you said to,

[01:12:26] Badr: all right, I guess I'm going to tow the company line here. And, uh, Batman one 39, it's a new story arc. So now I feel pretty good about like being this late, you know, like being this behind with Batman comics that I could just jump in here and be straight.

[01:12:38] Badr: Even though I'm going to probably take your advice, Chris, and, uh, at least read the last story arc. But also a, a big reason to, I'm looking at the other available covers for this Batman comic, and there is a cover E that features, uh, it is titled Bane McFarlane Toys Action Figure Card Stock Variant. And it is the, it's an action figure of Bane and Batman reproducing the infamous, you know, yeah, Kelly Jones, uh, Bane breaking Batman's bat.

[01:13:05] Badr: Is this gonna be a thing where there's gonna be like these McFarlane toys? Yes. Uh, uh, uh. Heck yeah.

[01:13:10] Chris: There is? Yeah. Yeah. Who do you think? It was in the last solicitation, DC previews, almost every cover from like October to December has a McFarlane action variant. I

[01:13:20] Badr: am here for that shameless. Company synergy right there.

[01:13:23] Badr: Do you remember

[01:13:23] Ed: the brothers at Image? Who's helping

[01:13:26] Chris: who out here? Man. Come on, man. Remember who sits on the

[01:13:29] Badr: throne. Yeah. That is essentially that Charlie Day, uh, meme. When it comes to Jim Lee. Alright, he's got this conspiracy figured out. It's

[01:13:36] Ed: not, he, he had his plan. He, like, he's

[01:13:38] Chris: the mastermind. I was going to say this earlier.

[01:13:40] Chris: I want to quickly say, good Vin, don't lead. I love Jim Lee, but he didn't get to the top on accident.

[01:13:46] Badr: Okay. With that being said, uh, once again, just a quick little reminder, uh, all of the comic books that Ben has selected this week will be in the show notes. So if you want to take a look. For yourself, go in the show notes, check out the previews, they're, they're all fantastic picks.

[01:14:00] Badr: And if any pique your interest, man, do yourself a favor, go to your local comic shop, get these comics on your pull list. Or, if you wanna, you know, shop at one of the best comic shops, you know, not even one of the best, the best comic shop this side of the Mississippi, go ahead and check out GothamCityLimit.

[01:14:13] Badr: com. They got exclusive variants, they got comics for sale on their website, and I'm sure if you wanted to join the Gotham City Limit family, Ben would set you up with a pool and some sort of mailing thing. Don't take my word for it, because the last thing I need is Ben to be like, Hey man, I can't fucking mail comic books out.

[01:14:29] Badr: I

[01:14:29] Chris: run a comic shop. I've never done that. Do you know what flat rate goes for right now? Oh my god. Can I, can I pull a Cesar really quick and just like, fully e break into something, like, just completely flip the format and just... So I know how much Botter loves that. That's why I want to do it.

[01:14:45] Badr: Well, let me, let me ask you, let me ask, well, for a minute, I thought you were going to say, I thought you were just going to do some random voice that no one asked for.

[01:14:51] Badr: I'm not that? That would have been a true Cesar. Let's roll

[01:14:55] Chris: out.

[01:14:56] Badr: I can't do it like him. Let me ask you this, Chris. Is it something that, that you think we should share with the general listeners or do we save it for Patreon? I'm going to let you decide.

[01:15:05] Chris: Uh, okay. Yeah. Let's tease. I'm going to tease everyone.

[01:15:07] Chris: Listen right now. I have a very special recommendation. Head over to patreon.com/the Short Box podcast. Two dramatic music, the short box

[01:15:17] Badr: Bubu.

[01:15:18] Chris: If you want to hear my recommendation for the, the, you know, the Fistful of comics segment, head on over

[01:15:24] Badr: to. Alright. No, I like that. Patreon. If you want more, if this wasn't enough, if you're like, yo, I really want to hear what Chris has gotta say, uh, then join us over on our Patreon, right?

[01:15:32] Badr: Mm-hmm. , we're gonna stay on the mics for a little longer. We'll do champion season. We'll nerd out a little and we'll just catch up on what we're reading and watching. So if you want to hear that conversation, Head over to patreon. com slash the short box in the meantime. Thank you so much for listening.

[01:15:46] Badr: Thank you all of you for your support. Take care of yourselves. I really mean that. Go read your comic books. I mean that as well and continue to make mine and your short box. We'll catch you next week. Oh, one more thing before I say peace. Make sure you check out Chris. All right. Chris and Aaron over at the oblivion bar podcast.

[01:16:02] Badr: I'm have links for their show in the show. I didn't say that because Chris has been on like three times now. You're ready to know where to find them. Right? Oblivion bar podcast. Check them out. Besides that we'll catch you next week. Peace.