The Best Comics of 2024: Early Edition w/ Ben Kingsbury of Gotham City Limit - The Short Box Podcast Ep. 443

00:01
in this episode of The Short Box. Ben, if you could give a grade to this year in comic books, you know, thinking holistically in terms of like the titles that have come out, the creative teams that have supported it, like what would you grade? A plus. It's not even close. Best stories. I mean, literally the best stories, best comics, best characters across the board.

00:23
more publishers than ever before, writers who could be doing anything, writing novels, writing TV shows, writing movies, literally, Jeff Johns, James Tinian, David Papio, so I can go through the list in names of guys who are just so talented, Scott Snyder, I mean, Jonathan Hickman, best writers ever. So I mean, it was an A plus hands down.

00:49
intro music plays

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and a one and a two and a three screen fades out. And here we go. Yo.

01:25
That's how we started so welcome to Gotham Yo short box nation welcome back to the podcast You know the deal by now new Wednesday new comic book day new arcade sounds. I just made a high score You know the arcade is registering that but yeah new comic book day means new

01:52
Podcast days really quick is that gonna go off the whole time? No. Yeah, we should probably turn it off It's the pac-man machine. Oh, you know, it's got that of arcades. I forgot all about that thing. So let's try it Yeah, yeah, well bottom, you know, it's not a day at the limit unless you just get some random pac-man noises We're just pushing me to the limit. So here we go. Let's try one more time, baby And a one and a two and a three yo short box nation and welcome back to the podcast You know the deal by now. It's new Wednesday, which means it's new comic book day

02:21
which means it's new podcast day. Thank you for present play. And if this is your first time tuning in, well, welcome to the show. My name is Bodder and this is the Short Box Podcast, the comic book podcast that brings you the best conversations about your favorite comic books with the people that put their blood, sweat and tears into making them. And on special occasions like today, we also talk to the people that put their blood, sweat and tears into selling them. That's right. This is episode 443. I always lose track. We're at 443. We're getting close to 450.

02:51
But today's episode is 443. And we're gonna get a head start on all of these end of year, best of year discussions, because in the next couple of weeks, everyone is going to be inundated, whether you like it or not, with a bunch of best of year listicles and podcasts and clips talking about this year and recap in general. But I'm getting ahead of all of that, all right? We're gonna talk about what this year has given us in terms of comic books, the amazing creative teams that have come out.

03:21
the amazing publishers and companies that have made it happen. We're talking about the best of comic books in the year 2024, way ahead of time, all right? And for me to do that, I decided to, I decided to get out the house, right? I wanted to do this one a little different. I'm not recording this one at home. If you're watching the video version, you're like, I know exactly where you're at. Get the ball rolling, buddy. But for our audio listeners, on rare occasion, it's very rare now that I get to leave the house to record an episode of the podcast, right?

03:49
Con season has slowed down, so I'm not doing much traveling there. Not doing many live shows nowadays. So the opportunity to do a short box field trip is far and few between, but today I got to go ahead and make a drive out to one of my favorite places in all of Jacksonville and probably all of Florida at that, right? I'm talking about my local comic shop. I'm here at Gotham City Limit, Jacksonville's premier shop for comics, collectibles, toys, and a whole lot more to talk with someone.

04:16
that is incredibly appropriate for an episode like this. You heard him a couple episodes back, an episode 435 that was released in July. I'm once again joined by your favorite comic shop's favorite comic shop owner, the one and only, Ben Kingsbury. I'm gonna give Ben, the video listeners are probably gonna hear this quote. They're gonna get a whirling of proud applause. Well, you know what, I can hear it in my head. That's the best part about being bipolar. Man, am I feeling good today. Bodder, thanks for coming, man. We're gonna take this place to the limit.

04:45
Ben, yeah, I'm gonna keep the preamble and the intro short today, because we got a lot to talk about. And unless you wanna be here with me all night, you better get started, because everyone knows I like to talk. All right, Ben, so last time, so all right, once again, we're here to talk about the year 2024 in comic books. We're talking about the best comics, the best series, the best creative teams, the publishers that made it happen, all of the good stuff. We had an opportunity to do something like this a couple of months back in July, when we did our mid-year check-in with you.

05:15
I told you I'd be back in December to do this. And we wanted to do this recap end of year thing a little early because today, which is Monday, December 2nd, when we're recording this, this episode goes live on Wednesday, December 4th, which means that we are four days into the legendary.

05:35
25 days of Christmas Gotham City Limit Sale. Is it 25 days or is it all of December? Well, yeah, I mean, that's how we used to do it. When we turn this place into an Advent calendar every single year, that was kind of the idea. I did that back in the day when I was by myself hanging letters up on the door. This year, we actually decided to make it even a little bit better. Obviously, one of the big things that we do around here is that we just enjoy having a local shop. And...

06:02
Whenever we can give back to the community or take care of the community, that means more to us than anything else. I mean, Jonathan will tell you, my general manager here and everybody else who works here, if we love money, we wouldn't own a comic shop, right? That is not the reason that we started a comic shop. So this December, we're upping the ante even more. Every single day through December 24th, it's literally 20% off everything at the limit.

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And then each day on our social media, we'll add a bonus item. So like today on Mondays, we always sell our incentive variants for half off. Well today we sold them at 60% off. So you can follow Gotham City Limit on our social media if you're lucky enough to take it to the limit here in person. But we're rocking the sales of the entire month. And then we'll add new ones each day to just kind of spice it up a little bit. But we figured, you know,

07:00
Instead of trying to get someone out here on a Monday or a Tuesday or a Saturday, ooh, I miss that sale. We always rock our books 35% off anyway, the hardcover trade paperback and omnibuses. We said, you know what? 20% off the limit for everybody the entire month. That way when you're ready to shop for Christmas, you pick that day, you come in, you get hooked up. Can I say as a, obviously a frequent shopper, I get a lot of my Christmas.

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shopping done here like especially when it comes to like my nephews and things that I can't figure out what in the world they're into well it's a big joke with my family because everybody gets stuff from the limit so my mother has more Harry Potter cookbooks that she'll ever she'll ever need her entire life I mean I don't even like Harry Potter last year I think I bought an Elvis book for my dad I was like whoa my dad like it this place Elvis brand new one let's do it so no a hundred percent

07:51
Actually, nephews and nieces are the most fun to shop for because in this age, in this era, they didn't just grow up playing with action figures. So last year was like one of my favorite Christmases of my life simply because I got to take Thanos and Green Lantern and Wolverine and Spider-Man and my six-year-old and eight-year-old nephews who really never play with action figures.

08:16
had the time of their lives just running around the house with a couple figures. You didn't need an iPad, you didn't need a game. It literally was that easy. They're like, Uncle Ben, does he fly? I'm like, absolutely. And they just ran around the house with him. And your multiverse, he sure can. Yeah. Ben, are you an easy person to shop for? Like, I was asking. Oh, I am the dumbest easy person to shop for, 100%. I mean, actually, what makes it hard is I probably, most of the stuff I like, if I want it, I own it already. So when it comes to this,

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this kind of stuff. But in my older age, I've literally shifted into practicality gifts. So like anywhere I shop, if you got me a certificate for that place that I already went to. But really what it comes down to is what people actually know about you. And Jonathan always hooks me up. Man, it gets me the best presence ever. So yeah, in terms of that stuff goes

09:12
If you know me well, then it's very easy. I have some very easy likes. We'll jump into it, but basically everything I love from the 80s is all coming back. So we'll get into it later on in this podcast, but yeah, if you find something from 1982 to 1994, in this genre, there's a good chance that I'm into it.

09:31
Yeah, nostalgia cord is back, man. It's strong. The member berries, dude, from South Park. Yeah, I got my member berries. I got member berries, dude. Get your member berries. All right, Ben, so we're recording this early December. Last time we chatted was in July. So we're looking at August, September. A couple months have passed since then. How have the last couple months since we chatted, how have they gone for you, how have the shop been? How are you doing? Well, we're doing real good. I guess so the last time we chatted, someone had just driven their car through the front of this place a couple of months

10:01
So, um, literally feels like a lifetime ago now. Right? Wow. It wasn't that long ago. It was last March. Wow. That was this year. Oh, wow. Yeah, that was a, it feels like it was eight years ago because it was so insane and so crazy. But, um, so I was actually commenting today that I can't believe it's December already. The last two months specifically, October and November have just flown by. They've gone by quicker than anything. But, um, you know,

10:29
This year has turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I ended up, St. Tana is back and she's done with her physical therapy now on her knee and she's recovered. Obviously she's dealing with things that she's going to deal with her entire life. She's a superwoman in that aspect. But Chloe and Jonathan here have really made this place so much better. And then honestly, the competitors that we have in town.

10:56
One of them stopped selling new comics this year, brand new stuff, and another one continues to kind of do what they do in their own world where they're not really interested. So we have just continued to get busier and busier to the point where I make jokes all the time with Jonathan. I'm like, Jonathan, you have to be mean to three people today because I can't fucking handle this business right now. So no, it's been awesome. This place is a blessing in disguise every single year.

11:24
We raised a bunch of money for the local Humane Society this year, my dog Pacer obviously is the spokesperson of this place, he won their contest and is gonna be going on billboards across the city next year. Raised $16,000, we raised almost $2,000 in here for the Jacksonville Humane Society. So we really do in terms of what this shop is, it's very much a community place and it always has been and it'll continue to grow like that. But it's been a...

11:54
blur since the woman drove her car in this place, but honestly, it has been all uphill. We have been, or downhill, I should say, we have been cruising and really just working our ass off to get more people to enjoy this place and to get to come up and be a part of it. We had multiple people in here today, didn't even buy anything, but they just come and hang out, oh, it was on this side of town, oh, I got 15 minutes to kill. That kind of stuff is really cool to me.

12:23
You guys have found your squad, your trio, right? I was like, man, they're kind of like the 90s bulls. Yeah, well, hey, man. Jonathan is your Scottie Pippen. I think Santana might be, she might be, oh my god, I'm drawing a freaking blank. No, she's our, she's, what's, Bill Cartwright, the center. Yeah, and then Will Perdue back then. Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan, Terry Hodges shooting some threes.

12:48
I feel like Dennis Rodman. Dennis Rodman, that was the one you were trying to get to. I know I'm missing it. Well no, Santana is our Dennis Rodman because Santana sabotaged me all the time. Santana, if you're listening to this, I know what you did to me. No, well, Jonathan also is our Dennis Rodman because he likes to hide some of our cool stuff, but no matter what, you gotta have these people. I am very picky. I've told this to Jonathan, I've told this to Chloe, I've told this to Santana, but if you work here, it means I really love you as a human being.

13:16
because this is my only, the only place in the entire world where I kind of control what happens in here. And I have been beyond fortunate to find amazing people. And they all kind of come out of nowhere, much like many of the opportunities that we kind of jump on. You don't really know what's about to happen. Something, they stop in, you meet them one time and you say, you know what, you got the personality, the fit. And now I can actually.

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have other people open and close this place. I can leave for a couple days. I can ignore my email. I can say, hey, talk to, I mean, Chloe has surprised me so much, came in here as just an awesome college student, and now will take you over to a random short box in here and find you exactly what you want. Yeah, so now they're awesome. But that's the dream team, man. Yeah, but that's all that matters really in here in terms of making this place operate. It is the people behind me. Without friendly neighborhood, Jonathan,

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I mean, he puts away all our DC, puts away all our Marvel. He checks all this stuff in, he goes through ordering. He double checks my ordering to make sure I, he hides things from me, he knows he could sell for double later on. I just take a little guy over here, it's Jonathan. But yeah, people are the best. It's what makes this place awesome. And then I know we built this place on personality, so I refuse to have people that don't have a personality. Well said. Now, I guess Ben, thinking about

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2024 holistically, has this year been easier? Would you say this year has been easier or harder in terms of running a shop, maintaining it? And I guess just like thinking about like the industry as a whole. Well, unfortunately, it has been harder, not because the industry is bad or down. Money wise, everything's been a little bit harder, I think for everybody, right? And now you have 499 comic is pretty standard. You know, you get somebody who has a pretty big pull in here

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and 70 or 80% of their comics are $4.99 instead of $3.99. Spawn and Todd McFarlane and some of those still hold at $2.99, a few. But in terms of that aspect, it has been a little bit harder, but they have brought back, and like I said, I brought this up earlier, they've literally brought back some of the classics that have defined what American pop culture is for about 40 years now.

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and are introducing it to a whole new group of people. And man, do we have a lot of young people starting polls now. A lot of people from UNF come over. We're close to the college here in town. And we have really started a nice little pipeline of kids, just 18, 19, 20-year-olds, who were born in 2005. Bader, OK, just so you know, they come in here. They were born in 2005. I'm like, oh my god, get out of here.

16:04
I think my back just went out. Yeah, 100%. But it's really inspiring seeing young people. And so what some of the comic book publishers have really been able to do was get a younger crowd involved in comics again. And what I mean by that is they brought back all the fan favorites, the stuff that makes me want to own a comic shop. GI Joe, Transformers, Thundercats, Silverhawks is coming, Space Ghost, so popular again. I mean, these things are more popular than...

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Captain America or just plain Black Panther or even Doctor Strange. Having product like that showing people, TMNT is one of the top selling comics of the year so far and getting young people involved in that again. He-Man and Masters of the Universe are back. The Turtles of Grayskull is a fantastic thing. Then Naruto and TMNT was a smash hit success to get another type of crowd to read an American comic book.

17:02
It's been, they've only done one issue of that so far, but that was a very, very successful crossover that I think is gonna resonate. And I bet in 2025 and in the future, we're gonna see a lot of manga, anime style characters mixed with American characters, because American companies have tried to sell manga, manga, whatever, however you actually pronounce it, but we like our floppies.

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So if they can translate that to American floppy comic, then I think they're going to have a lot of success, because obviously One Piece, Naruto, Demon Slayer, those characters are infinitely popular. Agreed. And I mean, the kids, air quotes, the kids you're talking about, these college students, that is what they grew up with. 100%. They were there for the start of Naruto, or One Piece, or the explosion. And I think just anime becoming very mainstream and popular. So.

17:58
Yeah, I guess it will be interesting to see what other companies latch onto that and do more crossovers. I'm curious, how have Compaq Comics done for you? DC's attempt at the manga format or size. Yeah, so books are just a little different here than they are in other places just simply because we sell them for so cheap. So yes, they're awesome.

18:18
And the best part about those DC Compact books are the awesome stories they tell. So, you know, everywhere from Kingdom Come, all the way down the line through Dark Nights of Jern, and everything. It's like for 10 bucks guaranteed hit too. Joker, Killing Smile, and all that stuff. So those books are awesome and fantastic. But in general, now once we got past the initial order of them, you know, we probably got five to 10 of each one that came out. Once they're sold, we kind of wait for people to reorder them from us. Kind of always looking for the new one. Okay.

18:48
But I will say they've done some things that tie together to some old stories. So like if you loved Batman Long Halloween, they're literally doing the sequel where they're giving tribute to Tim Sayles. Hush 2. Right, right, with Jim Lee on it and anything Jim Lee touches seems to turn to gold right now. Yeah. But you brought up TMNT being a really high seller. It got me thinking about an article I seen today. DC had announced, hey, Absolute Batman, you know.

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best-selling comic of the year. I think they said they sold more than 400,000 copies. Well, I've seen a bleeding cool article today, and I guess take that for how you will, that said that actually Ultimate Spider-Man could realistically be a contender. And I was just curious, you know, whether that be Absolute Batman or Spider-Man. I guess it's no surprise. I think maybe even refreshing, right? It's like, yeah, the two biggest, you know, IPs out there, the two biggest comic characters.

19:45
From your perspective, what was a bigger seller? Or was there maybe a third option? No, I mean, I think what comic companies kind of accidentally ran into was the problem that they have with their legacy characters. And that is we get a lot of people, even today had someone come in and buy the first four issues in the new TMNT run that's going on. And they like, when you come in here and you're not familiar with how the comic book industry works, this is like walking into a shop where you don't speak the language.

20:15
There's so much cool stuff and you're like, ooh, I would like that, but I don't even know what's the difference between this cover and that cover and this one. And so it can seem overwhelming. Well, what has happened with that is a lot of people don't wanna start a Batman story or start amazing Spider-Man story. Even if we tell them it's a new story arc, people wanna kind of feel like they know all of it. Cause no matter what, you read an amazing Spider-Man, we're on 950 something right now. And if you haven't read,

20:43
Something that happened in the 80s and 90s, they might reference it, but there's so much history. So what the absolute and ultimate universes have been able to do was capture the magic of what Spider-Man and Batman are, and then be able to tell a story from the very beginning that no one needed to know anything else except everything's in here. And that has happened with ultimate Spider-Man, ultimate Batman, or absolute Batman, absolute Superman, has actually been the one that is...

21:13
been the most surprising because Superman has been falling apart a little bit in terms of like readability. It's a Superman's a little bit of an old time character and you know and they were having a hard time for the last 20 or 30 years that's why you saw Superman in a blue lightning and you see Superman with them. They really trying to get Superman for a modern era and I think absolute Superman is exactly what they were looking for there. I guess I'm not surprised to hear that like a new number one will bring in like.

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new fans and garner that level of sales. I'm always curious about how many people that come in buying the new number one stick around for say up to issue three or four or even like past that. Well the good news is that because of the popularity of them, it's very easy for us to say, hey you're getting this one but if you want to make sure you get the next issue, go ahead shoot us an email. We'll get you on the poll and we can guarantee it.

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But like anything else, after the first couple of issues, you find out who really wants to keep reading the story and who does it. But if anything, I have been adding people to every poll. Absolute Batman, Absolute Wonder Woman, Absolute Superman, every time an issue comes out so it hasn't gone downhill. And the ultimate stuff, ultimate Black Panther, ultimate Spidey, those continue to stay pretty much at their level.

22:34
You know, another thing we learn here, Botter is like 90% of the people who buy fucking comics here don't even read anything. You know what I mean? They'll come in here like three years later and be like, I actually missed issue 12. And I'm like, well, Brett, that came out three and a half years ago. So I wish you had let me know earlier. I'll see if I can find you a copy. But in terms of readership, you always do tend to lose a few people as the stories continue because people like minis.

23:01
Unfortunately, you can't make Absolute Batman just 12 issues. You gotta cook this. Scott Snyder says he's writing it for years. However, that is a hard thing for sometimes for the standard collector to stay up on because a comic every single month for years is quite a commitment to make. And we all have commitment issues. If you're in a comic book, you probably got some commitment. You probably have some issues. You probably got some serious issues, comic-wise.

23:31
What was a title, a series that came out this year that caught you by surprise in terms of maybe coming out of left field being really good or selling more than you thought? Yeah, well, you know, Boom Studios in general, ever since Some's Killing the Children came out, the first couple issues of anything they do, people buy. This is what used to happen with Image Comics and it doesn't happen as much with Image anymore as it used to.

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So, Boom Studios has kind of taken images place in terms of, if a number one comes out, what came out the other day? Fadeaway Jonathan, and we sold 25 copies. And I mean, was it a cool comic? Sure, but I didn't think it was a comic that was gonna sell 25 copies the first two days we were open. So, Boom Studios has kind of taken the mantle of that. My favorite comic that is going on, miniseries wise, that...

24:25
We only have six people on the poll for, and it's Image Comic, which is bonkers, Stand Still, Lee Lowridge. And we're only, I think, four issues through right now of an eight-part series, but it is about a guy who steals a watch where he can stop time, stand still.

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And the story's been phenomenal. It's a great little independent comic there. And that's one that I highly recommend to people. If you're looking for a random independent title, the Reed Standstill is the one. I'm interested to see how it ends because that is always the hardest part of a story, is the ending. I was thinking about like this year in total, right? And I, for some reason, went back to like the, the Men's Health article that came out a couple months ago where they asked 50 different comic creators what's their favorite comic.

25:13
or their favorite series, how they recommend their recommendations. And a lot of these recommendations were like self-contained graphic novels, you know, like Charles Byrne or Daniel Klaus and, you know, things like that. And it got me thinking that does the shop, does Gotham skew one way or the other when it comes to floppy selling more than, say, trades or graphic novels and collected editions, or are they on par?

25:36
Well, we're a little bit different than maybe every single shop you'll ever walk into. In fact, I've never walked in another comic shop where they have offered hardcover trade paperback and omnibuses at 35% off all the time. That came about in a weird way. When I first started this place, the reality is that people have the internet with them everywhere they go. It's super easy to go online and be like, hey, look, this guy with no overhead is selling these books at 30% off.

26:04
You know, right now, will you match this, Ben? Of course I will. You can't say no when you own an in-shop, like a brick and mortar store. So we just decided to implement it all the time. Like our sale in December right now, it's 35% off books all the time here. So we have hardcore collectors. Hardcover books and omnibuses are as collectible as comics. They're only printed one time.

26:28
And so for that aspect, I have people that drive over from Tallahassee once a month and buy thousands of dollars worth of hardcover books from us. We stack them up for this guy, Jason. And then every week he'll send us Facebook messages, pictures of like 10 more books he wants, and we'll stack them up in the back, and then he'll come in one Saturday from Tallahassee, buy them all.

26:49
You know, and he has a local comic shop in Tallahassee, but they're not willing to give him this deal. Interesting, wow. So it's worth the gas and all that. Yeah, so in terms of that, floppies still sell better than independent, but remember in the 90s, they never put out six issues of a floppy. A month after, six issues of a floppy just came out. Much like old VHS used to take years, used to take years for you to get a story, not anymore. That floppy is available. So...

27:18
If you want to catch somebody up, hey, we're on Transformers 13, but look at this sweet Gotham City Limit exclusive Transformer trade paperback by Daniel Warren Johnson. You get the first six issues there, then we search through the box, find the other seven for you, and you're off and running. So I think in terms of that stuff, we actually love all of it. Hardcovers, trade paperbacks, omnibuses, and then floppies as well. We don't discriminate. Whatever you want, we're going to get it for you. What would you say is the hardest thing you have a hard time moving or selling?

27:47
Funko Pops, that's why you don't even see them in here anymore because It just dawned on me used to have a wall of wall and look what it's morphed into the stuff that sells Anime and manga and one-piece figures Well, it's not that the very exclusive ones are still highly sought after the problem was like anything Yeah in the 90s is like beanie babies all over again you you make

28:13
Even today on FOC ordering, which I do every single week, final order cutoff for the week, there's like, must have been 55 new Funko Pops they're putting out of like, who is buying six of each one of these? Like it's everything you could think of, legend NFL players, new NFL players, every TV show you've ever heard of. So I think that right there is probably something that we just kind of.

28:38
moved away from. And then in terms of since COVID action figures are still highly collectible. They're just really hard to keep in Walmart target. They literally get stuff now before some of the smaller shops and that was never the case before. You know, so Can I proudly say that there's been a few times I've gone to a Target and temptation has almost gotten me. I've seen a figure I'm like

29:06
I haven't seen this at Gotham yet. Do I buy it here? Right, because they might have it. Jonathan will do that all the time. Jonathan, I'm watching you, Jonathan. Shame. He doesn't know I have a secret camera in this cool scully cap. Ha ha ha.

29:20
I saw you, Jonathan, buy all that Rafael Tiantista. Just like last time we recorded, I think Jonathan was in the background. He was, yeah, Jonathan is actually doing work. You're overworking him, Ben. Let this man go home, Ben. Can I just tell you the smartest thing I did this year? I spent $46 and made Jonathan 750 General Manager business cards, and now this motherfucker beats me here every day. All right, this is the best $46 I ever spent, John.

29:45
I don't know whether to applaud that brilliant or call it. It's gonna help for Jonathan. I might call 911. He's still laughing, okay? And he got married this year, so congratulations, Jonathan. You too, Bodder. Congratulations, my friend. We were talking about Ultimates real quick, and I do wanna bring up one point before we move. Ultimate Black Panther is my favorite of all the Ultimates. Ultimate Spider-Man is amazing. Ultimates is amazing.

30:11
But Ultimate Black Panther, for whatever reason, the way they re-imagine Killmonger, Storm, the way they're using Black Panther, the way they're using the gods from Egypt as Moon Knight, it was just a really cool new way to take on... And then I realized I went back to look at the writer because I was like, wait, who wrote it? Brian Hill? And then I found out, man, he's writing my favorite new Blade Red Band comic that's going on right now. And...

30:39
He might be my favorite author that I don't really know that much about. Jonathan, what was the other title you told telling me he wrote? Oh yeah, AWA Studios, Chariot. It was like a modern Knight Rider comic where the car had AI and was alive. And it was probably the best of the AWA stories studios comics, which speaking of we haven't heard from AWA in a while. We're not really sure what's happening with that company in terms of like producing comics still. But yeah.

31:07
Amazing writer, awesome stuff. So if you ever have a chance to go grab anything that he's writing or you want the new Blade that's coming out right now, the Red Band they've done two issues of, highly recommend. Okay, on the topic of AWN and just thinking like publishers, if you could give an award to one publisher for being just overall great this year, I'm talking in terms of the comics they're putting out, but also maybe the way they do business and books, like just holistically.

31:35
What publisher are you giving the best of your award? Okay, well, Image, Ghost Machine Comics are the best written and then card stock comic books that are out there. So I give credit to DC for making their variant covers all card stock because there's a real disconnect between the companies that make comic books and then.

32:01
all the way trickle down, pass the distributor, pass the retailer to the consumer where they blame us for the condition of the comic. And the reality is, there's paper shortages, they print on this crappy paper, the cover is the same material as the interior and you're shipping it UPS ground. I mean, how are these things ever gonna get here in a perfect condition? So...

32:24
Companies, and then they do it with their Spawn Books, Image still does, where they make them this hard card stock for $2.99. And then Marvel, even if, DC still puts out a floppy, standard $3.99, cheap floppy, but if they, everything else is card stock, if Marvel moved to card stock, I mean we're already charging $4.99 a comic, so I really wish that these companies would all switch to a card stock cover. It would make selling comics much easier.

32:52
shipping make them much easier. They can withstand more. They're just better quality. So I definitely in terms of putting out a product that resonates with people, Image Comics really does make a quality comic book for the price. But again, I give Boom Studios a lot of credit because somehow they have captured the new number one market and they really are. Boom Studios puts out a new number one. Everyone is buying that. But that card stock comic

33:21
Cover is like so key. It changes everything. I agree. There's something about picking up a book that's got like. You feel like, okay, I'm paying 4.99 for this. I'm totally fine with that. You know, speaking of, I will give DC a lot of credit. I love foils. Okay, so they have been pumping out the foil cover and then Polly bags are back, botter. So they're doing Polly bag. What was the first blood hunt Polly bag they did?

33:47
Okay, Bloodhunt, the whole point of Bloodhunt was just so that Doctor Doom could be Sorcerer Supreme. Their story fell on its face at the end. But like most Marvel stories, they have to keep them going so you can't really have an ending. But Bloodhunt, the first one the Polly bagged, I mean, I could have bought a thousand of those and those things would have all sold out. It was hot fire. A lot like Absolute Batman number one or Absolute Wonder Woman number one or any of those. You know, the last Polly bag I bought was, I think last week I ended up picking up the

34:17
Christmas special? Yep. With a scented one. With a scent. Did you open it? No, cause I- Okay, no one knows what the scent is, cause no one will open it. So I should've told everybody it's peppermint. All right. Well, Chloe sold me on it, because I'm like, what's the deal with these? She's like, oh, every single one is a different scent. One might be cinnamon bread or ginger cookie, then one might be peppermint. No one knows if any of that's the true though, bottom. And I bought it with the intention of like, hopefully getting gingerbread scent, but-

34:45
That's the problem with poly bags. Me and poly bags, I'm like, well, I can't open this. No, as soon as you do it, it's worthless. It's like anything else. It's so crazy how that works. I mean, people still bring in cable, number one, with the card in the poly bag. You know, you get those. I was talking to Jonathan earlier. And my prediction for 2025 is that we get the holographic cards on the front of covers again. Remember, you used to do that in the 90s where they did it. And you know those are coming back. There's zero chance they're not going to.

35:14
I mean, Amazing Spider-Man 1000 is technically not 2025. It's about 44 more issues, so we're doing the math. It's about 14 months away, so that puts us January, February, 2026. But Amazing Spider-Man 1000 might have the most comic book covers of any comic in the history of comics. That's my prediction for that. I know Gotham City Limit is gonna try to employ Tyler Kirkham to do one. Because I mean, shit. We just sent him a bunch of comics to get signed. He's such a cool dude.

35:42
texting me about just random things. He loves the industry. He literally loves making artwork for it. And so having somebody who's passionate about it, who's willing to make cool stuff for us, is a dream come true. No, I mean, that's one hell of a fifth man to have on the team, which got me thinking, because you actually had Tyler Kirkham come out to the shop, do a signing. I think I was out of town or something. I missed it. I hated that I had to miss it. But I wanted to know.

36:10
What have you done differently this year? And what are some of the standouts when you think about like just different events or different ways to promote the shop and get people in here? I mean, I'm thinking, you know, Free Comic Book Day was a great turnout, Black Friday sale, Tyler Kirkham. What's been your favorite, you know, new thing you've tried out? This year having Tyler Kirkham at the shop was like one of the coolest things that we've ever done. It was incredibly busy, but it wasn't even about again, making money. It was just such an...

36:39
an awesome event to be able to take this tiny little shot that we started, you know, and then you know what my proudest moment of that entire event was? Clearing this place out enough to have wraparound lines for the entire event, but nobody had to be outside in the Florida heat because you know in June it was unbelievable outside. So just being able to get this place ready to go, having Tyler here was fantastic. You know, we've taken another step in terms of.

37:07
You know, we do exclusive comics and people always ask, what's the next one you're gonna do, Ben? But I don't look at it like that. I literally just look for cool opportunities, whether it's the Geiger hardcover book that we did with the new Ghost Machine, The Transformer. We did a trade paperback book. Like that's so cool to me, not just doing a comic. But then doing Destro, Tyler Kirkums for the new G.I. Joe. The very first comics I ever got, I was six years old in the hospital dealing with a blood poisoning issue.

37:35
And my mother got me a GI Joe and a Transformer comic. So just the fact that we did five Destro exclusive covers, Destros two, three, four, and five were the only place in the entire world that did a retailer exclusive for the last four issues of that five-part mini series. So if you collect all of it, you literally all have to do is buy the regular covers, the incentives, and the Gotham City Limit retailer exclusive, and you own all the Destro covers two through five. Then we did that tie-up.

38:04
Cobra Commander with Tyler for GI Joe 1. And now we have the entire Cobra team. And the very first comic ever, I was at GI Joe Comic, and now 45 years old, I get to make GI Joe comics. It's literally the coolest shit ever. So, been the best year ever, man. We are just, and hopefully we'll just find some more, because I don't even know specifically what I'm gonna do in 2025 past, you know, we had that first Coast Con here in July last year, and that was a huge success.

38:31
I'm currently in talks about becoming the major sponsor for that thing. As you should. You know, cause that's what we do is new comics. And then who knows where we can grow that Comic-Con to be hopefully to rival some others. You know, it's going to take years of preparation and work. I think that's the most, I think that's the logical next step is for Gotham to be the, you know.

38:50
spearheading the next biggest comic convention. Jacksonville should have something. You know, when we had Tyler Kirkham here, we had people from all over Florida drive all over, up here to the city just to come and check out the shop. Never been here before just to meet Tyler. And you know, Jonathan and I, we travel all the time to go to other shows in Florida and close on the panhandle. So having an opportunity to create something in Jacksonville is 100% a goal.

39:17
On that topic, what's your favorite comic shop that is in Gotham? Like when you think about shops that you visited and maybe like, you know, looked at and like, oh, I kind of want to implement that. Or I like the way they do this. Like what is a shop or two that comes to mind that has really impressed you from one shop owner to another? Or even just from like a fan perspective? Yeah, no, Third Eye Comics in Maryland. I don't know if you've ever heard of them.

39:41
I went to the one in New York. So I'm imagining it might be similar. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They have a main one right outside Annapolis, Maryland. And that was probably the inspiration for mostly what I do here. And what I mean by that is they were like the friendliest, nicest people when I walked in the place of any comic shop that I've ever been in. And you know, we just added another guy to absolute, to,

40:06
Ultimate Spider-Man and Amazing Spider-Man. And literally the reason he has a poll here now is because he was trying to collect the last 50 issues of Amazing Spider-Man and he would go into shops and they would kind of be like, it's in the box over there. You know, and he came in here and we dug out all the issues from the back and we hooked him up and we told him what it is. Oh, this volume is different than that one. And oh, you need to get this and here's that cover. And he was like, I just gotta tell you, that is.

40:33
the best experience, I didn't get that anywhere else, every other place I went, and so that's what I got from Third Eye when I went there. They treated me, and one of the reasons I started this place is because I love the old shop down the street, but they just didn't really seem to want the personality that should come along with retail, and in this business, if you don't fucking love it, get out. We've crossed off a lot of the questions I had for you, but I decided to do something a little different with this episode.

41:01
because you are known for submitting some great questions when it comes to the interviews I do. I mean, you managed to stump Jason Aaron earlier this year. Yeah, you had a hell of a- Don't you fucking patronize me, Bodder, all right? All right.

41:17
Who's the worst question ever, Jonathan, okay? I can't hit a home run every time. I think that's what he said on there. He's like, this is the worst question I've ever been asked, but I'm gonna take it. There was some other question I had originally, but then it didn't work or something, and then I was last minute. My point is that, I mean, we've, I've interviewed Kelly Thompson this year, you had a great question for her, Scott Snyder most recently. You always have great questions for my guests, and I decided to turn the tables on you. Oh no.

41:41
a few loyal listeners to submit some questions. And you know, I just put a call out, hey, I'm interviewing one of the best comic shop owners in the game. What would you want to know about? That's awesome. So I got a few questions. And some of these names that you're familiar with. First and foremost, let's go with this question from my guy, Drew. All right, Drew had a question for you. He wants to know your thoughts on variant covers and the growth in popularity and oversaturation of them in the direct market today and throughout the years. Do you see?

42:08
variant covers getting better or worse next year? And I guess overall, just what are your thoughts on variant covers? OK, it depends. And we were talking about this earlier before we started. It depends on what the goal is of the publisher. And sometimes I am very confused as if the publisher of some comics, Marvel and DC, care about actually selling good comic books, or if they just care about the print number.

42:35
before it goes out and then once it's in shops, they could give a shit. And that is my humble opinion and that that's where they are mentally. So the variant covers with the different artists give them the ability to hit higher numbers. Like TMNT had 300,000, right? But there must've been 60 plus retailer exclusives for TMNT number one. Each one of those minimum 1000 print run.

43:05
So now you're talking right there, just alone, a 65,000 of that 300,000 number, right? Then you had your A cover, then you had a Kevin Eastman variant, you had a C cover, a Gonzo, a D cover, and an E cover for all of them. So I think the variants literally exist so that the publisher can see a higher print number when it first comes out.

43:32
I see it eventually going back to where it came from, which is one or two variants. They definitely over saturate the market. There is no doubt about it. The artwork's amazing, but Jonathan and I saw something just a couple weeks ago that I don't think I've seen before. David Nakayama had two variants on the same book. A Harley Quinn comic, he had two variants of the same issue of Harley Quinn, and I don't think I've ever seen an artist have two variants on the same book.

44:01
So yeah, 100% they're over saturated, but, but, and I only say but when whatever I said before that was a lie, so but, fuck are they so cool and they make so many awesome books and I buy them just based on the artwork all the time. In fact, we all have picks of the week for reading and then we have varying picks of the week where I literally say.

44:21
Who cares what this book's about? You should own it just for this sweet art. Sometimes it's nice to have a piece of art. Yeah. For a portable, you know. Yeah, so that's, are the variants out of control? 100% before COVID, DC made an A cover and a B cover, didn't even do an incentive variant. And then it's all spawned out of the last four years to try to re jumpstart the comic industry. And while it is awesome and I love it, and they really do make some amazing things.

44:49
A majority of the Marvel and DC comics I buy are just for the cover and not for the story. Interesting. If you had to list off, who are some sure shots when it comes to, hey, if this guy or this person is doing the art for this very cover, this movie. Number one this year? Yes, like movie. Number one, Scotty Young. Hands down. We were talking about this earlier. I love Alex Ross and he crushed it when he did his...

45:15
timeless variants and then when he did that X-Men homage, the four part series, so he's very popular when his stuff comes out, but Scotty Young is the most popular variant artist there is right now. It doesn't matter what book he does. Currently, The Amazing Spider-Man is in the eight desks of Spider-Man and he's doing a cover for each issue where it's like killing the spider. And we get 40 to 50 copies of it and sell out every single week it comes out. But J. Scott Campbell.

45:43
incredibly popular, Todd McFarlane, incredibly popular. Todd McFarlane is still doing variant covers? Oh yeah, Knights of Samurai, he'll do random covers for image books. Oh yeah, but whenever he does a variant, we get a lot of people who wanna collect that one specifically. I guess I have to be disrespectful, it's like, I guess those are just names that are, I guess, synonymous, right? Like they're kind of like the old guard? Yeah, but those are still the kind of, yeah. But no, I mean, new, Kendrick.

46:13
You know, he seems to be incredibly popular. Art germ. Oh yeah. Yep, lyrics. David Nakayama. You know, I think I have two pain points when it comes to variants. For one, sometimes it messes me up in terms of like, did I already get this issue? Because it looks different, you know, because sometimes I don't pay attention to the issue number, I should do a better job of that. But like I can tell you, like this year, I've definitely picked up multiple copies of a book because the variants look like they were completely different.

46:42
book or the next issue. And then I think the other point is that there's so many artists that do variant covers, it's a little disappointing sometimes when they aren't also doing the interiors or the series themselves. Well, I mean, that's my whole experience in the 80s and 90s, just pick up a cool comic book and the interior, I was like, what the fuck is this? It's not even matching it. So it happens with us with a lot of times, a kid will pick up a comic and be like, oh, is the Disney character in it? And I'm like, no, that's just the Hulk.

47:09
comic, not the fucking deal with Goofy on the front. But that's what we got going on. I guess some of them are like exclusively variant cover artists, you know, like they have never done. No, and that's just what they, and that's what they do. I mean, Nathan Sursdy was a tattoo artist now who became very popular kind of on the secondary market. I mean, there's so many cool ones though. Greg Land is very popular, but some old, not old names, but who have re-emerged in 2024. Dan Mora is an alien.

47:38
Okay, he not only does all these covers, but he's doing all the interiors for multiple books at the same time. And then Dan Pinojian must be an alien too, because his artwork is everywhere. And his Captain America, Dr. Doom variant, where Doom is sitting in the throne with a half broken bloody Captain America shield on the front, they were doing these Doom variants across all the covers, is my comic cover of the year, from last year.

48:05
It is phenomenal. It's Doom and the Throne, the bloody Captain America shield. But Pinochon, I mean, vicarious all the way through all the Marvel and DC stuff he's been doing. He does a bunch of independent comics. Ivan Tao is very popular, you know, independent writer. Alan Quall we've worked with before. He's fantastic. And then my man, the myth, the legend, Tyler Kirkham. I mean, that G.I. Joe Cobra is so good. I mean, a foil Cobra. Get out of here.

48:32
All right, moving on to the next question. I think this one comes from our guy T-Mix. He didn't sign out like he normally does. So I apologize if I got this wrong. But someone sent in some fan mail, and they want to know. This is a two-part question because we can't talk about Ben without mentioning Pacer the Amazing Shop Dog, who, if you've been watching the video version, you can see him kind of rolling around with us today. Yeah, he's laying down now, but he's not walking around. First part, what made you pick Pacer out of all the other dogs? Second part.

49:01
What is your must read pick from this year? Okay, so firstly I went to Jacksonville Humane Society. I was always gonna, I loved, I did rods when I was younger and I loved huskies for some reason. And so I would watch them on TV and I was always gonna own a husky named Pacer. That was the idea. And then 14 years ago, when I decided I was actually gonna get a dog, I was like, I don't have $2,000 to.

49:29
pay for a husky breed and then is a, although I know people that have huskies in Florida and I wholly am fine with it, it's not really the best temperature for a husky to live in. And I was like, man, we can go get a dog from the Humane Society. So true story, two cages back next to each other. One dog had like spot, like a big black eye and I pulled him out and I was hanging out with him. He was sitting on my lap.

49:55
And then the woman who worked at the place was like, oh, we have a hold on that puppy, because they have until tomorrow to come back and get him. And I was like, that's fine. I put him in and I pulled Pacer out of the crate. He sat on my lap and I was like, well, hey, Pacer, how's it going? And we walked into the office and four hours later, Pacer came home with me. So it was, yeah, and I have pictures of it. That's the best part about iPhones is that, and the worst part is that every picture you've ever taken for the last 14 years is on there.

50:25
It's out there, but I have literal pictures of the day, August 12th, 2011, when I picked Pacer up, 4.44 p.m. time stamped. But that's how I ended up with Pacer, the amazing shop dog. And he literally just started by coming up here on Wednesdays. I didn't bring him every single day. And then people were just upset they didn't get to see him. And I was like, why am I not bringing my dog here every single day? And now he comes here. He's the dog of the year.

50:51
He's almost 14 years old. People remind me all the time they're just here to see him. Yeah, so it's awesome. Move, Ben. Yeah, they literally, is your dog here? I bought lobster for him. Actually, this is a true story. Somebody came in here. I'm usually off on Saturdays now. Somebody came in here on Saturday, and they said to me, oh, I thought Jonathan would be here and not you. And literally what they said to my face, I was like, dang, dude.

51:14
But what can I do for you? Then he said I'm looking for this comic and I fucking found that comic dude Ever you all right Quick for your answer part two has pacer always been this chill always he's always just follow me around He's literally was born and bred to be a shop dog. That's what I truly believe and God put him on my path and Somehow we turned him into this amazing shop dog, but I have a second dog

51:43
and I call her prisoner 7718, because that's my address. Because she doesn't leave, she gets a couple square meals a day, she gets a little fenced in backyard time. That's it, you ain't going anywhere else, prisoner. 7718. Can't stop. Yeah, that is, that's a true story. But yeah, Pacer's the best, he follows me everywhere I go, he doesn't care at all. All right, and then the second part of that question was, what is your must read pick from this year? Okay, well, Rook from Ghost Machine is so...

52:11
Good, Jeff Johns. Obviously, Geiger I highly recommend. And then I brought it up earlier. Standstill is a huge one. But then I go back to this thing. I've been talking to some other people and a couple other guy, another gentleman here, Jared, who was in here earlier in the shop, and he gets a lot of eclectic stuff. Magma Comics, a really tiny independent one. Very small. Put out three really cool comics when they first came out.

52:37
Principles of Necromancy for you fucked up people. If you wanna go on a journey, they'll take you somewhere else. Principles of Necromancy is for you. Scale Trade was awesome, cause it was like, kind of like the ivory sale of elephant tusks, but dealing with dragon scales. And so it was a cool story. And then the other one, Silicon Bandit. So those were the three that they put out originally. They have a couple others going on now, but those are really cool. And then Stand Still, like I said, from Image Comics, I would highly recommend in terms of.

53:06
picking up the first couple issues and jumping in. Blade Red Band is one of my favorite new ones. They're all polybagged and that's one of the only ones I collect because obviously some comics don't tell anybody but I take home and read them and bring them back in here. You know what I mean? So, but those polybags, I gotta be committed if I'm gonna read that motherfucker. Am I buying it or not? Ben, I feel like you, you know how lately there's this, you can buy whatever.

53:31
Ed Brut Baker's read version of this book. And you're like, why would I ever buy that? Ben, I feel like you could probably capitalize on that. If you were to have a little section titled Ben's Reads, pre-owned by Ben. Okay, well, I'm glad you brought that up because I've always had an idea of having reader copies and having when I get into a large, when I grow in some facility, because we're never gonna stop growing here, that's the reality. Man, wouldn't it be cool if you paid like,

53:59
Let's just throw a number out there, $30 a month. And then I had reader copies, and you could just come in and hang out in the shop, have some lazy boys and spend an hour in here just reading, have a section. Obviously, it would have to be bigger. This place isn't big enough to do all that. But that's 100%. I love that idea. I got some people who bring me back comics after they read them. And then I hook them up. I don't give them much, because I'm cheap.

54:24
But I give them a little sore credit. Like, oh, you want to sell me a comics? As long as it's a good price. But yeah, that would be awesome. I mean, that's the coolest thing. I mean, that is 100% what I've done different this year than I've done any single year I've owned a comic shop. And that is every single week, power through 20 to 30 comics. Literally every single day. It's amazing though. It's made my mornings so great. I wake up.

54:50
I got the percolator with the espresso already ready to rock. Turn on the oven, let the dogs out, pour this espresso, sit down and for an hour, just power through some amazing comics. You'll see it occasionally on my social media where I take pictures with my coffee mug in the background. That's what I do every morning and what a great way to wake up every day. Ben, that puts you about, on the conservative side, about a thousand comic books every year. On the high end, 1,500 comics every year.

55:17
Yeah, and I'll tell you what else it does. It forces me to talk to Jonathan about him because I'm like, Jonathan, wait, what happened in that book? You know, I mean, listen, I don't know if this happens to you, but when I, it happens to me specifically with Marvel Comics, I read a Marvel comic, a month later, if they didn't have that synopsis, I would have no fucking idea what's going on. You know what I mean? And I'm like, I just read your last comic and I don't know what's happening. All right, moving on.

55:45
Our next question comes from our good friend, Bob O'Griffin, and he wants to know, what has been your favorite memory from the last five years of the shop? Now I gotta really, really quick before you answer that. Ben, have you been in business for five years? Am I correct? No, no. January 2nd will be seven completed years. Okay, then I must smoke on socials. So we're on, we're right smack, we're not to our seventh completed year yet, but we're right dab in between our sixth and seventh year.

56:14
Man, that's a tough one, but it's still gonna be one memory that I think I'll have for the rest of my life. And that was the very first year I opened this place, had no idea about comics, I remember. Somebody came in to buy bags and boards from me. And the old shop sold bags and boards for like 20 cents or 25 cents a piece, and I didn't, individually. And I was selling 100 pack to somebody, but I didn't.

56:42
I hadn't even put it in an inventory. It was like the first week I was open. Like I said, I didn't really even know what I was doing in the comic industry. I quoted the guy the wrong price and he kind of made fun of me to my face like, oh, well, there's no way it costs that much. Then I went through and I actually ended up losing that pull customer. He went to another comic shop. I remember that memory. That early beginning part of my career here.

57:07
I was a little rocky on whether or not I should even own a comic shop. I didn't really know how ordering went. I knew I loved to collect comics, but I didn't know the industry. I didn't really even understand grading comics. I understood it, but not really to the point I do now. I got nominated because of all the awesome people that come in this place. Every award we've ever won is because the people who come in here go online and vote for us. It has really nothing to do with us and more with the awesome people who come here.

57:36
But we got nominated for best new business with the Florida Times Union that first year I was open. And that August of the following of my first year, they had it at the Florida theater. They rented it out. I was single at the time, so I didn't have a significant other. I was literally running this shop by myself. I had no other employees. I used to just close on Monday so I could have one day off. And we won best new business.

58:04
And I screeched out, I was by myself in this theater, and I screeched out and I ran up on stage and I had my Spider-Man jacket on, and I was holding my plaque, best 2018, and that memory's still on social media, and that's still my favorite memory of running this place, because that was the night I decided that I was, that I made the right decision to own a comic shop. And so that was like the mental motivation I needed to grind.

58:31
And now, you know, here we are seven years later and we're still grinding. Mondays, working all the time. But that's why you do this. You don't do this to hire a bunch of other people to do the work for you. You do it because you actually wanna be here. But that's my favorite memory of anything that's happened to me in this place. And then my second favorite memory was convincing Jonathan that he actually wanted to work here. It took me like two fucking years. Yeah, that was a great memory. Those are awesome. Yeah, but that was, that's probably it for me. And that guy?

59:00
that chastise you for the bags and boards, he no longer has a comic shop. No, I promise that's probably the truth, you know. So, that's probably my favorite memory and then my other favorite memory, I'm just gonna throw the secondary one in there because I like to talk, was when Tyler Kirkham came here. It's on my social media.

59:17
two different things, him declaring that, I said, hey Tyler, what'd you do today? I took it to the limit, so fucking cool, I'll never get over that. And then I was recording when Tyler pulled up and all the people were in here, people started loading up the shop at like eight in the morning, he didn't get here till 11, and then when he pulled up I was recording, I walked in and I said, hey Jacksonville, Tyler Kirkham, and the whole place went crazy, and that's a really cool video to watch because that.

59:43
you know, just is another thing that could have never happened if we just decided as a group that we were going to keep doing this thing. Those are awesome memories. All right, moving on, we got another question from my good friend, Chris Hacker from the Oblivion Bar podcast. He wants to know, Ben, what are Ben's thoughts on Marvel and their recent six, eight months slate of titles? Okay, so, well, we talked about this a little earlier. I talked about it. Sometimes I'm not sure who Marvel's trying to sell a comic to.

01:00:13
I have seen a natural growth though in Marvel specifically that they have just started over the last six months writing comics for adults. That the majority of the stuff, the Red Band, the adult stories, the... I mean, because that's the reality. The reality is you shouldn't write a comic to get a...in a 16-year-old's world, you should write a badass adult story that a 16-year-old will love to read.

01:00:42
And that's what I've seen them do more recently, especially with their Red Band stuff. But just in general, across all their titles, they have really taken it to a next level. And they're writing many TV shows inside their comics. And that's been the best part of what Marvel has transitioned into. They have a few titles, NYX and a few other things that I feel like they just make to make so that they can say, hey.

01:01:09
equal representation, we made these comics and we did this. But in general, I've been very impressed with the adult storylines and the actual TV episodes that the comics feel like as opposed to where back in the day you were kind of telling individual stories in each comic and right now it is kind of this played out, four, six issue mini TV series. Do you find the one and done stories sell better?

01:01:38
or might be easier to sell than say like, you know, a multi-part story. It depends on what it is. I think mini-series sell way better. People are much more willing to say, oh, is this six parts? Sign me up. Something digestible. All the time. In fact, when they don't tell us how many issues it is and we're just kind of like, I don't know, that's when it makes it a little bit harder. So clear cut kind of what you're doing, smaller stories. And then occasionally a one-shot works. It's Jeff, that shark.

01:02:08
He's so popular. It doesn't matter. They put him in Venom War. They just make a random comic that has nothing and they sell out of the character every single time. So, you know, there's some random stuff like that, but. Okay. All right. One last question from the audience, right? This one comes from Walt, big Walt, chiming in here. Are there independent books early in their run or coming in the next few months I should check for? Who? Okay. Independent books come in on the run.

01:02:37
What was the new Jeff Lemire title I was talking about earlier, Jonathan? Arcane? Fire? Oh, well he does the minor arcana and then he does a bunch of other stuff. I thought I had written down, maybe not. Oh, Absolute Flash! Yes! Thank you, Ben, for writing your own note and then forgetting for 15 seconds. Sorry, podcast listeners. But now I remember the whole reason I wrote Absolute Flash, because if there's one character in DC...

01:03:06
that is just impossible to read right now, it is The Flash. Even with their all new, all in storylines where they're starting brand new story arcs, nothing is more confusing than The Flash universe. None of the characters are on any timelines, everybody's from the future or from before. It's just so convoluted that I literally read the brand new issue of The Flash and then in the 90s if you had asked me, I would have told you The Flash was my favorite DC character.

01:03:33
and now I just buy occasional Flash variant covers because they're cool. But the comic itself hasn't been good for years, in my humble opinion. And so the absolute Flash, and it's being written by Jeff Lemire, is something, I know it's not independent, but that I can't wait for. And then in terms of what they grow the Ghost Machine universe with.

01:03:54
I would say anything image titles, Ghost Machine related. They started the horror stuff, The Hide Street, and some of the other titles, The Rocket Fellers. But that whole little mini universe is amazing, fantastic, and you can't go wrong. Well said. Kind of on a similar note, when we recorded last, it was, I think, either the Deadpool Wolverine movie was coming out or hadn't come out was one of those two. It was like very close up to that movie.

01:04:21
So I wanna know thinking holistically, you know, this past year and knowing the power of like comic book media on say TV or movies and kind of like comic book related things and how that can sometimes drive traffic to the shop and new people coming into a comic shop. Have you, is there anything that came out movie wise, TV show wise that you definitely saw an increase in like foot traffic? Like did the...

01:04:45
For example, did the Penguin show bring someone looking for Penguin comics? Yes, well, people that were in that saw that there was a Penguin story, which is actually phenomenal by Tom King, was just a great story. And Penguin, the TV show, is phenomenal. I watched that. In terms of bringing people into the shop, it's actually the ones you wouldn't think about. It's Transformers 1, that animated movie they just did recently. Yeah, yeah, that word just went. Yeah.

01:05:15
Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Brothers. These movies actually drive a whole new group of people into a comic shop that had never been. Godzilla, woo! Godzilla drives people in here. But what are they looking for? Are they looking for a comic or just anything? Collectibles, toys, all that? Oh yeah, and that's how it works. But a lot of times,

01:05:38
Whether you're a Mario brother or Super Mario Brothers fan. Well, they make younger stories for them You know kind of collected edition books that they do form. They don't necessarily have that but then while they're here They just made an eye like Popeye. You know Which has been the artwork inside it is phenomenal

01:05:57
It's a reader too, you know? But that kind of stuff, it naturally leads them down some other paths. But yes, when Transformers, like that one movie, that brings kids in who want to read Transformers that want to collect comics. They just kind of want to, oh, you know, we just wanted to see what this shop was all about because from the outside, man, it's painted on the outside. It is a hidden room in here. You wouldn't even know what was going on from the outside. So...

01:06:22
Those animated movies have really driven a lot of people in. And then, yes, Wolverine and Deadpool, the movie itself. Let me tell you what a disconnect there is between Marvel and their comics, because the year that they released Deadpool and Wolverine in the movie theaters, you think all you would do is produce a bunch of really cool. And then, you know, you're like, oh,

01:06:41
Deadpool comics to go along with the Wolverine ones they do and what they did in Deadpool was kill off Wade Wilson and make his Daughter Deadpool which was cool for one issue and now I'm hammering buyers cuz everybody wants Deadpool not his fucking daughter So yeah, I said no that's that's actually something that happened this year true story

01:07:02
So Marvel did not release any new Deadpool number one. No, so they yeah, well they they didn't they know they do Wolverine Deadpool, they've done multiple collected editions World War three Deadpool Wolverine They did in the back of multiple Marvel comics for a month weapon extraction So where they told a story but a couple pages pages at a time through different Marvel comics you had to collect and actually coming out this week

01:07:31
Deadpool Wolverine Weapon Extraction, the legitimate comic. They're putting it all into one collected comic and it comes out this Wednesday. So, you know, it wasn't a case of there was no like synergy, but it just wasn't directed in the right place. Well, yeah, I mean, listen, there's no reason that you should have messed with Wade Wilson as Deadpool until next year.

01:07:52
in my humble opinion. But yeah, they made Deadpool team ups. They're letting Rob Liefeld do a Deadpool comic, you know, finish up his run there. So yeah, Deadpool's everywhere, Wolverine's everywhere. If I get an action figure of either one, gone. Yeah, incredibly popular still. That movie crushed it. And I'm hoping it's gonna bring about a lot of success. I mean, honestly, I've heard a lot of hype, which we haven't had in a lot of years about Marvel movies with Captain America and the Sam Wilson movie. So I'm hoping that.

01:08:21
topic in terms of movies. Looking at the distinguished competition with DC and their cinematic universe of James Gunn now spearheading that and kind of being the central figure. I feel like he is doing a really good job already of, you know, I think he's got like Tom King involved with some of the writing, especially with the Supergirl movie. I think...

01:08:42
I seen something a couple weeks ago where he invited like people like Scott Snyder and a bunch of other comic writers to come see like the Superman set and meet some of the actors. So he definitely wears his love of comic books, love of the art form on his sleeve and is trying to at least show appreciation for the people that actually work on the books. Like

01:09:03
I guess have you seen any of that kind of trickle down as people are getting excited for the Superman movie, these DC movies? Or do you foresee that being a big help? I actually foresee that exact thing happening. And for the same reason that the Marvel Cinematic Universe took off, this is why the Marvel Cinematic Universe took off, in Ben K's humble opinion. Because they got the average person to be interested in the stories they told on the big screen.

01:09:32
they created a monster. It was never about the comic book reader. We were already showing up. They just started creating fantastic movies with great directors that were well written and that's why the Marvel Cinematic Universe became such an amazing thing. And then more recently, they seem to have dropped off a little bit, but the stories haven't been quite as gripping and it almost got too confusing. So...

01:10:01
I digress back to James Gunn, but his Peacemaker is like one of my favorite years of TV ever. The Penguin was phenomenal. I can't wait for the new Peacemaker. I think what Superman's going to do is really change DCEU. I think James Gunn with crypto.

01:10:20
and his ability to bring in the side characters and then make a movie with no origin where you're just straight into it is gonna make Superman the most relatable he's ever been to modern pop culture. And I seriously cannot wait. They couldn't have picked a better guy to run the DCEU. I mean, even Creature Commandos and some of the other animated stuff that they have coming out looks phenomenal. And everything that he puts his hands on seems to be entertainment gold because the guy just gets entertainment.

01:10:49
I agree. Ben, if you could give a grade to this year in comic books, thinking holistically in terms of the titles that have come out, the creative teams that have supported it, and also how business has been going, what would you grade? A plus. It's not even close. Best stories. I mean, literally the best stories, best comics, best characters across the board.

01:11:11
more publishers than ever before, writers who could be doing anything, writing novels, writing TV shows, writing movies, literally, Jeff Johns, you know, had they've all done this stuff, James Tinian, you know, Paul, David Papio, so I can go through the list and names of guys who are just so talented, Scott Snyder, I mean, Jonathan Hickman, blah, blah, blah, the best writers ever. So I mean, it's, it was an A plus hands down. Okay. Looking towards to 2025.

01:11:38
What is Gotham City Limit doing to push the limit even further next year? Well, we are going to, I think for the limit itself in terms of growing, is going to be find creative ways to make this place larger. So we do have starting in January, I'm going to take a spot over next door to this place where I can then move all of that over. But I really want to create a social media platform.

01:12:06
outside of this place. We're on what not a lot. There's eBay Live and some other online sales. So for the limit, we want to continue to grow. And then I would love to start going to some Comic-Cons, being a part of the actual comic community outside of Jacksonville, not just here, but traveling to some other places and checking them out, being a part of it, maybe getting tables, selling exclusives, because we just love the industry itself. So in terms of Gotham City

01:12:34
what we've got going on. But really what I'm focused on is this place because you wouldn't believe it, but we get so many new customers every single day. Every week we get at least three people who come in who are like, we drive past this place every time, we just never stopped in and now, you know, and they come in and they check it out or they went to the old shop down the street.

01:12:56
and they had no idea this one guy got lost on Southside looking for Gotham City limits because he was trying to go the whole place. Is this the same place? When did you become a Peruvian restaurant? It is, but it's not. In terms of what we've got going on here, and then again, there's going to be some stuff that I don't even know I'm going to do yet because I literally wait for, I see opportunities and then I'm like, that's a great one. I don't second guess it. I pounce on it and then I try to make it work.

01:13:23
So I mean, that's probably what we, in terms of what Gotham City Limits got planned. And then, the next thing I think would be creating a more usable comic poll list. You know, cause the reality with all these variants and it's, what's up? All right, Jonathan, we love you. Thanks, man. But without, you know.

01:13:50
without kind of creating something that is more customizable, obviously they've made pull lists for people, but something that we do here that I've never experienced in any other shop is the day before, Monday and Tuesday, even on Wednesday when new comics come out, we allow people to send us emails making requests for comics they want. And so there's a...

01:14:13
a little bit of a struggle in that and just that we'll print out 65 different emails going into a new comic Wednesday and start pulling covers for people. Hey, you want this variant? I'm looking for this incentive. I'm looking for this A cover. But I would love to, I'm working with someone, create a program that was customizable for our shop that allowed people maybe through our website to go in and request things and it automatically kind of put it in order where I could just do.

01:14:43
Taking this place technologically to the next level, I think, is probably where we're headed. We've got a new POS system back here and we're going to, you know, being able to go on the road and do some other stuff, I think, is where we're headed. That's right. As a techie, that makes me all excited, especially a means to like be able to manage your pull list because I want to lie, Ben, sometimes sending you that.

01:15:04
Last minute text like, Ben, could you put that up? Well, Bada, you got my personal text message number, so there's not a lot of people who get to text and straight to the phone. I love the honor. Exactly, so you are VIP, my dude. So in terms of the comic books coming out in 2025, what are you most excited for? You know, honestly, I haven't really looked. This is early December. How far are you looking at? Well, you know, I used to go through a previews magazine every single month.

01:15:33
and then make a list of all the new comics that I think people might be interested in, try to make a previews list earlier. And the reality is I'm so busy now that I don't do that anymore. I'm literally about three weeks to four weeks out because I'm ordering every single Monday for about a month out. Most of the comics we ordered tonight come out mid-January, late-January. So I'm about that far. One previews.

01:15:59
I occasionally see stuff online because people will share social media with me and be like, oh, this is coming out. I'm like, oh, I hadn't even heard of that yet. So I do not have my finger on the pulse in terms of what's going to come out next summer or next fall that you're definitely going to need. However, I do know that Dynamite Comix continues to make Silverhawks is coming out. And then I have a feeling there's going to be a number of other.

01:16:28
titles in that vein from some of the 80s projects that I love coming out as well. And then, like I said earlier, the DC stuff that they're doing, Absolute Martian Manhunter and Absolute Flash are...

01:16:44
are probably the two biggest titles DC wise that I'm generally looking forward to. I can't wait to see what they can do because those are two characters that could be hugely popular and if they write great series, they're gonna be great. And then one that got the most, occasionally we'll put up on our social media new comics and covers that are coming out when they're on FOC, The Ultimate Wolverine. Got the most interaction of any social media posts that we put up in terms of ordering.

01:17:13
that's coming out, I think that one's gonna be giant. Yeah, I mean, Wolverine sells itself at this point. Already, and then they've teased it that he's like the winter soldier of this universe. And then like, is it Logan? Is he Russian? Like what, you know, it could be really cool. He's got so many layers of badassery. It's like, okay, that book's just gonna print money. I guess I'm gonna give you an opportunity. Is there anything that we did not cover? I mean, we went through my entire list. We got through some audience questions.

01:17:41
Is there anything that you want to say before we wrap up about this year in comics? Well, I just think that it's really important for every single person who's ever listening to the comic podcast to go back to the roots of why they started in comics. And that is because you love it. You know, the money part of comics is actually the downside of it.

01:18:05
You know, it's cool that they can be collectible and that later on they can be valuable, but sometimes it ruins the hobby of what's going on simply. So what I tell people all the time is, because they'll be like, which cover should I get Ben? And I'm like, the one that you love the most. The one that you looked at and was like, damn, that was so cool, I gotta have one of those. That is the whole point of being in the comic industry. And then find yourself a shop.

01:18:35
where you just get to go be you. Where no one's mad if you just stand there and talk to people, if you bring up a random conversation. If you go to a shop right now and they are disinterested in talking to you and they really only care about money, go, I know every city's got one, whether or not you're lucky enough to live in Jacksonville or Maryland, what Third Eye Comics are, or Graham Cracker in the middle of the country, Graham Cracker's stores.

01:19:00
But that is kind of the whole point of all of this stuff. You didn't start a podcast on this stuff because you thought, oh, this is gonna be the easiest way for me to be the most popular person in the country. It was literally like, what a cool opportunity it would be if I could continuously make a podcast about stuff that I love. And so for me, comics in general, this entire community is about the people and the passion.

01:19:30
and remembering, hey, you know, I love this. When people come in and they're upset about spending money on comics, I'm like, oh man, you don't need to. And if it's causing you distress, then maybe let's find a new hobby. Now, I don't want to kick anybody out of this place. I want to sell comics to any single person who comes in, but that really should be the whole point of it. And when you look at covers and when you read comics, it should make you happy. It shouldn't feel like a chore. So going into 2025, just...

01:19:59
I want you to be reinvigorated about what the hobby is to you and what you like, and you're not doing it because you're fear of missing out, but simply because it's something you want. And then look out for one cover coming out next year, X-Men 10 by Ryan Stegman. I might have shared it with you. I think I did. Is it the Cyclops one? Yeah, Cyclops.

01:20:20
So far, it looks like it's going to be my cover of the year. It's phenomenal. I think it's just a standard A cover, but that's something else that you can go look up on the internet and be like, God damn, that guy Ben knows what he's talking about. I think one thing I wanted to mention too is I know there's a lot of listeners right now who don't have the fortunate opportunity to live here in Jacksonville, Florida. And they're like, man, I wish I could take it to the limit. And they can.

01:20:44
Yeah, literally anytime. Our online shop generally is for most of our exclusive comics, right? And so that's what, but if you reach out to us, if you go to gothamcitylimit.com, we have a contact us now page. It has a message board that literally just shoots messages to our shop email that everybody has access to. If you reach out to us, we can take it to the limit from any place in the world. What's the furthest you've sent some comics out to? Australia. Wow. Oh yeah.

01:21:12
Like a full pull list type of, or a bunch of books? No, a guy who collects every single Tyler Kirkham cover that comes out. Wow. That is pretty interesting. But we sent him to Canada. You know what? We were talking earlier about what my favorite memory is. One of my most proud things that happened in the shop is when someone moves from here, and then it says,

01:21:35
Let's just keep my poll going. I'll get calls from people. There's nowhere in the city I want to get this from. I'm just going to keep it here. And we're going to ship it out once a month. But somebody just moved to Washington state. They kept their poll. I got a guy, shout out to Stanley Peak, older gentleman, lives in New Hampshire. And he'll just send me texts like, Ben, so glorious day. Stanley's world has just been delivered to my front door.

01:21:59
And I'm like, you know what, man, it's a beautiful day in Vermont today, 60 degrees outside. I'm like, that is so cool, Stan. Yeah, so you can literally take it from anywhere you want if you're looking for anything at all. I implore you, just send us an email. The worst we're going to say is no, but what ends up happening is a lot of times we have just about anything anybody's looking for. So yeah, whether you live in Jacksonville or not, there's zero reason you can't take it to the limit. There we go. And we're going to go ahead and end it on that.

01:22:29
To our video watchers, thank you so much for watching this. To our audio listeners, thank you so much for listening. We just took you to the limit. Continue to read good comic books, continue to make mine in your short box, and I'll catch you next week, all right? Peace.

01:22:45
There you have it short box nation. That's the end of the show. Thank you for hanging out. Thanks for being here. And a special shout out if you made it this far. If you enjoyed this episode and you have some thoughts or comments that you wanna share with us, write us at theshortboxjaxx at gmail.com. And if you really liked this episode, help us spread the word, share this episode with a friend or someone you know that loves comics as much as we do. And don't forget to leave us a five star rating and review on Apple podcasts or Spotify.

01:23:13
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01:23:40
Speaking of our Patreon community, I want to give a big shout out to our current members, including Adam Chaitani, Tony Aupi, RC Gamet, Blake Simone, Blythe Brumleaf, Bo Evers, Brian Brumleaf, Chad Lannenberger, Chris Hacker, Chris Jinx, Kenny Myers, David Morales, Triple D Mystic, Dominique Jackson, Errol White, Edbot 5000, Generation Jaguar, Greg Hopkins, Greg Ligtig, Henry Hernandez, Hershel, Hydrus96 aka Mac J. Sinner.

01:24:09
Jeff Frimmett, Jerome Cabanatan, Joshua Miller, Justin McCoy, Kara Reichardt, Cassie Whitley, Corey Torteson, Matt Godwin, Amanda Marin, Nick Wagner, Podcasters Assemble, Stephen Gamet, T-Mix, The Wait For It Podcast, Thomas Pandich, Thurian, Trey Namo, Walter Gant, Warren Evans, and Zach Armour. Thanks again to everyone that listens and supports this show. Be sure to come back next week for a new episode. And most importantly, take care of yourselves. Read a good comic.

01:24:38
and continue to make mine and yours short box. I'll catch you soon. Peace.