Catching up with Cesar: Comic Shop Haul, Moebius Appreciation, and Comic Collecting For Dads - The Short Box Podcast Ep. 473

00:01
In this episode of The Short Box.  What Dave Chappelle is to comedy, where he could just, when you think it's like, he's just telling a freaking  story that you think isn't going anywhere, or he can take anything, anything, and make a joke out of it,  Mobius can do with  whatever. You could be like,  I wanna do a story about this.  C'est le moment,  I can do that.

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intro music plays

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Record mode activated.  Oh,  buttery vocals.  Okay,  I can't believe we had the willpower.  Are you, you're already recording?  Always. I love it.  ABR baby, always be recording. Please don't ever say that again. ABR. Oh my god.  Oh my god.  Let me re-set it off.

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Oh, you beautiful, lovable, amazing, supportive, rich, um, giving, listeners of the show, that keep us fed, our bellies full, our heads anointed, in the name of the Kirby, the Stanley, and the holy items are on hand. Yo, patrons, oh, nevermind, this is gonna keep going. I have it loaded to just keep playing through. Yo, hey patrons, welcome to a special

01:47
Bonus episode of my boy, my man, my right hand man. He's back in the building. Please turn to page 287. We're reading the first book of Warlock. He's here to wax poetics about all things comics, baby. I'm talking about the return of C-C-C-C-Codero, Dero, Dero. How's everyone doing? I hope everyone is doing well.  I'm actually, I'm actually really kind of giddy. Yeah, you are. Cause this is a kind of, I didn't know you, you sprung this on me. You sprung this one on me. Like just.

02:16
The idea of what oh, it's what we're gonna do. I'm not gonna say it. But yeah, yeah, I'm excited man. Man's gonna have you back. How are you gonna have you in my ear holes right now? it feels good for me to hear your voice in my ear holes right now Imagine the listeners right now. Yeah, just just turn the speaker all the way up. Oh orgasmic. Don't worry about it. Um, you know Yeah, we got the Howard Cernic comics here Did you just Tom Hanks me

02:46
Oh my god, oh my god, he's out of control.  You know, I could do Tom Hanks the whole episode if you like. Oh god, oh god! You know what movie I watched, speaking about Tom Hanks I watched? Hit me.  I don't think it's the first time I've seen it, but it was the first time I consciously paid attention to it. League of their own. oh shit. League of their own.

03:07
Yeah, League of their own is great. What does he say? uh He signed the baseball. Don't get the clap. Jimmy Dugan.  Um, life had, had shared that, uh, growing up she was in, uh, she played softball and she said that was her favorite movie. It's great movie. She watched it like a bunch of times. then it got me thinking like, do we don't really see a lot of  all female sports movies. Like, can you name some more? Hmm.  Bend them like back.  I'm thinking of a stick it with Missy Paragrams.

03:37
Stick it say a Gymnastics movie.  Oh good. Why you pull this one out of your ass whip it the roller derby movie Oh whip it. That's a good one. Okay. Okay. Yeah,  yeah, more Elliot page Chris and wig and Julia Luis was in this you said bend it like Beckham That's another one um That's three. I can't think of no you got him. You got him  ding ding ding ding ding ding. now League of their own was spectacular But we're not here to talk about you could argue bring it on

04:04
You could make an argument. Cheerleading requires athletics. You're absolutely right. We ain't knocking that at all. No,  that was a stupid man. That was a light warmup question from a boy's seat. Dude, I think I broke my brain trying to think of that, me anything harder.  Hey, look, we're not here to talk about our favorite Tom Hanks movies. That's for a separate podcast. We're here to talk about comic books.  What would that podcast be called?  You're listening to Hankin. That's a good Hankin Chiefs. Stranded of Hank. Something like that. Castaways. Castaways. Podcastaways. Done.

04:34
Done deal. Trademark. Yeah. It's changed. You owe me a trademark. We are here to talk comics. Me and Zazer had a chance to finally have our best friend day, just hanging out, kicking it. Patrick and Spongebob all day. back in team up mode. What did we do today so far? So far we had a spectacular breakfast. We had a a wonderful breakfast. At Johnny Angel's Diner, if you're here in the Jacksonville, North Florida area. First time for you, third time for me getting the same thing.

05:02
Oh my god, homemade hash browns or corned beef hash. Amazing. We had a wonderful day at the diner and then we went to a beautiful comic book shop. It old school. It felt good. was like, man, I feel young again. My knees suddenly felt The bad back club was back. We were back, baby. Hashtag two old dudes in a Wu Tang shirt. Hashtag your knees is cracking. All right, to say as low as a point, we did go to a comic shop today. One that is called Cosmic Comics. It's here in Jacksonville, Florida.

05:31
Now they used to have be situated in a different spot, but they recently moved. Their new address is 8301 Cypress Plaza Drive Suite, which doesn't mean anything to anyone that doesn't live here in Jacksonville. Thank you. ah It is run by a dude named Bobby, who I admittedly, I've been to the shop when they were at the old location. I haven't been to the new one.

05:51
So that's why me and C went today. It was his first time, also my first time at this new location.  But man, had a wonderful time at this shop. This was a great A shop. What would you rate this shop? Oh dude, 10 out of 10, dude. nailed it when you were like, this feels lived in. Very much. Like the idea of when you talk about a comic book store,  at least for me, when I think of one, I think of this might date me, but here's the image. You walk in.

06:16
ah a funny noise will happen that's attached to the door like a little thing or something, Right. Or in that case at that shop, it was the, star Trek, uh, teleport. Right. It was like,  you know, like when you're, you get on the bridge of the enterprise and the floor is carpet and it's old  and it smells like, uh, veterans  in the best way possible. It like a a hundred percent VA disability

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mixed with  my mother's basement  and you can hang out there as long as you want.  No one cares. The bathroom may or may not work.  Um, so, you know, don't embarrass yourself is all I gotta say.  And,  uh, it's got everything  back issue you can imagine. Not just like, Oh, we're a conflict store. So we have a few back issues. No, like we, I found some treats.  found some sweet treats.

07:12
Yeah, and OK, and that leads us to what I sprung up Is that a good segue? Good segue? I toss it up to you, Alleyoop there. Look, spectacular shop, a lot of variety. I'd also give it a 10. Solid $5 boxes. Let me get good $5 box. Dude, $5 boxes, quarter boxes, $1 box. Very family friendly. I think the best thing about this comic book story is that it feels like if I was a little kid, it reminds me of the experience I would want my first time going.

07:40
I don't got much money, if at all. Let's say like, know, hey, you got $5. Usually that's the death sentence. If you're like a little kid and your dad's like, all right, here's some, here's five bucks. And you're like, I can't buy nothing for $5. If you like comics, that was never the case. You could always go to a dollar bin and find something neat. know, like silver age. I got, I bought stuff from the quarter bin. Like I was like, man, this is perfect. Like you could find stuff if you were a kid, you know, and

08:06
Anyway, yeah. High recommendations to Cosmic Comics if you live in the area. Great selection of back issues. A lot of great vintage toys too. uh Just feels curated, old school, all that good stuff. But I sprang up on Cesar and Idea for this episode here.  I said, hey, let's look for some stuff. We're obviously going to buy some comics and change our life. Sure, we're going to be irresponsible fiscally. let's not show each other what we bought until we get on the pod to talk about it. So what I'll also do too is since this kind of is a little visual element here, I will have a couple of photos in these show notes.

08:36
of our hall and the things that we're talking about if you need that visual reference. I was wondering how you were going to do that. Okay. I guess I'll ahead and start with a  ASMR with the paper bag.  All right. So the first thing I picked up and technically you pointed this out and I said, see if you don't buy it, I'm buying it. But I have never seen a Superman Mobius statue. Yeah, you sure bought it all right. Until now.  What do you think about the depiction of Mobius' version of Superman? I like it because it's weird.

09:03
Very much. slender, alien-like. He does look like an alien. the idea of something that I've always thought of as far as Superman is concerned is, yes, I understand from a Greco-Roman mythology perspective, the aesthetic is he's gonna be jacked. He's gonna look like muscles upon muscles, and that's gonna be also a throwback to the strongman, to wrestling, to all that stuff that makes superheroes superheroes. But if you just go from a

09:33
mythological standpoint, technically speaking, he gets his powers from the sun. So he really wouldn't have to look strong,  just  be strong. So it's interesting to see what  strength looks like through a French comic book  maker's perspective. you know,  Jean-Gerard Mobius is not afraid to draw a more slender, ropey build soups. ah

10:00
just because he's like, probably like, why can he not be, you know,  athletic, you know, that is their strength there, you know? I feel like, yeah, you're right, man, like no arguments. A big part of the other reason why I ended up buying this is, as you know, I am really big into buying like very uh stylized Batman statues. I've got like- Stylized everything though. You like style. You enjoy the artist's  eye for stuff.  So  I've been thinking about making a,  like a Superman collection.

10:31
of stylized interpretations of Superman. So what's the old adage? A fool and his money are soon parted. I wrote that. understand. They based it on me. throwing that out there. So, okay. That was my big haul here. This one cost me 50 bucks, which wasn't bad. I ended up, you know, and it's awesome that you've decided to give that to me as a birthday present. Wait, what? Wrecker scratch. You know, it's October 24th. Anybody who's listening.

10:56
be a crisp 21 years old. Ooh. Crisp, Give me those cartilage in them knees. OK, and then I hear some of the back issues I ended up picking up. Oh, haven't seen these yet. So one of the things that I am always on the hunt for Are we taking turns? Yeah. OK. Yeah, how about that? I'll go and then you go. Or do you want to go one by one? No, I don't care. One by one. Let's do one by one. One by one? OK. So I am always on the hunt for Marvel hip hop covers. And I was not expecting to find any of them at this shop.

11:26
I don't know why, just cause he had like more vintage golden age stuff. seeing like something modern and kind of niche like this was pretty cool. But I picked up this X-Men 92 issue one hip hop cover and the cover is supposed to be based off of. Oh, come on. Come on, man. Here it is. You know what I love? Dead air. That's my favorite thing. It's not far side. It is.

11:52
It is on the tip of my tongue, but I'll figure it out. But anyways, it's one of the Marvel hip hop covers for the X-Men 92 series when Marvel decided to do a comic series based on the X-Men animated series. So well before X-Men 97 came out, they relaunched the series and this was one of the books that got a Marvel hip hop cover. Why am I blanking on the name of it? I'm trying to stall time. It's Souls of Mischief, the album 93 till infinity, which makes sense because this comic was 92, X-Men 92 till infinity.

12:22
That is one more to the hip hop variant collection. But anyways, all So that was one of my pickups. I picked up this random. I think you'd get a kick out of this. I picked up this random issue of Quasar. Nice. It's Quasar number 17. Do know why I picked this one up in particular? Let me look at it again. I don't. OK. Fun fact about this issue. On the cover, it's Quasar and there's a bunch of speedsters on the covers as well. led. It makes you believe that it's going to be a comic book about.

12:51
a very fast race. Quicksilver is on here, Captain Marvel's on here, the wizard, speed demon, et cetera. Well, fun little fact, in this issue of Quasar, the Flash makes an appearance. What? A cameo, but not by name. They call him, like, he goes by buried alien. Oh, Buried alien. So Quasar's like, he's an extra dimensional, perhaps an alternate Earth, like the wizard. That is it's a good little fun shout out. That's so cool. I've been in this, like, inter-company.

13:20
anything that know, Marvel and DC crossover, I'm all about buying them. So little cameos stuff like this is just fun.  Yeah. It's the parents of the flag. are actually married.  That's the most amazing part about this. found someone that loves my dad. is intense. I found someone that's willing to let me go buy a Superman Mobius that you in a random issue of quasar for a flash, not cameo. Wow. Okay. I will pass the baton to you. got a couple more, but you go first. Okay.  So,  uh, my

13:48
I'm going to keep it light here. Kind of mainstream. My big thing that I bought was the trade  of Nick Fury, Agent of Shield done by Jim Steranko. Here, a little bit of... Oh, that sounds super good. That sounds super good. Yeah.  If you know anything about uh Jim Steranko and his run on Nick Fury, then you know that it is  trippy if you don't.

14:17
The cool thing about it is that he  was  an illusionist  and an escape artist  and a jack of all trades and a comic book historian and all these things.  And he's sort of the guy that put doing  odd pop art  and optical illusions in comics,  specifically a weird guy to do it.  Nick Fury, Agent of Shield is such a war comic.  It's kind of a leftover war comic.

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And you got a guy going, all right, now let's get trippy with it. Since the 60s, why not? I mean, are you looking it up right now? Well, I'm trying to look up.  When I think Jim Sterenko, I think about this  one comic I picked up. He designed Indiana Jones. There you go. That's his claim to fame. Yes, famously.  Look up Jim Sterenko concept art Indiana Jones, if you look it up. That second one. Oh, These are incredible. That's the thing right there. That's the. Wow, these, I don't think I've ever seen these. Yep.

15:17
These are incredible. Indie with a black leather jacket and the cigarette coming out of his mouth. Fucking know what? Jim Sarenko and Neil Adams both had that air of confidence with them because they were making way more money on the design and marketing side or doing advertisements and concept art. When it came to comics, was that infamous story of Jim Sarenko slapping his shit out of Stan Lee. No. Bob Kane. Oh, Bob Kane. OK. OK.

15:42
I don't think he had beef with Stan I think with Stan Lee, was just more, he stood his ground like, no, that's not how it's gonna go. They worked together. Yeah. Yeah. But I say all that to say that both of them I've heard are like, were very much like, you know, super confident and didn't need comics per se. They just did it cause they loved it. And they were able to bring over the things they were doing and advertising and you know, everything else into comics. The photorealistic stuff and, and they could just turn it whenever they needed to.  Um,  anyway, so.

16:11
I didn't have it in my collection and I had just watched Thunderbolts with my wife and Valentina de Fontaine plays a big role in that movie and she famously is Nick Fury's love interest in this comic book series. That's a solid trade. Yeah, she has the crazy Tulsi Gabbard white hair streak going. To be honest, this is the sign of how good that shop was. I'm already thinking about going back to pick up the things I did not pick up this run.

16:38
One of them being that essential Captain America volume two, that was all the Jim Sterenko covers. It also had that stuff in it too. Yeah. Yep. Okay.  I almost bought it. I went to, so do another one. Sure.  Okay. Well, while we're getting on the fine art, I managed to find  DC's secret origins  with the Brian Ballen cover and it's got

17:01
Oh, that's a great cover. the front, you have a framed picture of the Justice League and in the foreground, you have all of the members, well, at least a few members of key members of the Justice League sitting around a table inside of a restaurant, it looks like, as their alter egos. But it's Brian Ballin doing the artwork. So if you know anything about his work in the 90s for DC. His stuff, especially for DC in the 90s, like this is to me, this concept right here.

17:30
This feels so Norman Rockwell, you know, like he noodles and he he's like one of the guys that will spend five hours on like a hand, you know,  like you're like, geez, what was the premise for the series? It's just everyone everyone's origin story. You know, I don't even know what it's like reprints. I think so.  Oh, actually, it's not. I don't know. Actually, I mean, there's a look like a superman. No, I think it's like a best of because it's like anthologies. Yeah. Damn, this is really good. Yeah, you can't have it.

17:58
I actually, I'll trade you my movie statue. No, no, no.  This is great. No, this cover is  stupid good. It's, one of those like, you know, a picture's worth a thousand words. it's. Yeah. It's something. It's a piece of artwork that if I wanted to frame it, I wouldn't mind  having it framed. have another Brian Ballin. mean, he's kind of my guy, my guy, far as if I'm going to have something comic related framed in my house, it's going to be that I have the,  the, legend of the dark night where the joker's holding up that joker ass cat dude.

18:27
I can't see that in the dark, I've seen a couple of them cats here in Springfield. Dude, I walked.  shit was  leaning against my bookshelf in the middle of the night and I was walking by and I had to, I think I had to get up in the middle of the night  to feed my daughter, you know, a bottle of milk or whatever. And then I came back to the room to sort of groggy and it caught my eye in the peripheral and I was  like,  God damn it. Like fucking scared me. That cat is definitely a Florida man's cat. That cat.

18:56
from Brian Bowen's cat is definitely tweaked What else did I pick up?  I ended up picking up the man called Nova or Nova issue 12. It's got one of my favorite covers of all time where it's Nova  about to fight Spider-Man in what looks like a bookcase.  I wonder who drew, all if you had to take a guess, who drew this? I'm thinking Ramita. That looks like a Ramita to me. It does. Or Ross Andrew. know what, I'm gonna go Ross Andrew. Ooh, Ross Andrew with a U.  Let's see.  He's opening up the book.

19:25
ever so delicately grabbing the pages.  That's not true, he's manhandling I'm sorry, it's Sal Basheema and Frank Giacchio, however you say that. But dude, I am a sucker for old Nova. I love the old costume. I am just a fan of the concept, Richard Ryder being so brash and just like hotheaded. The whole human rocket element. This is one of my favorites. I just love this cover.

19:48
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's it's classic Marvel, you know, like this is Bronze Age. Marmar Wolfman is the writer. Marf Wolfman. was easy pick up right there. That's good. That's solid, All right. Oh, man. You go. I got you. Ready? You ready for this?  I had to get this.  Electra. What is that? The first issue? Yeah. And this was the issue number one epic imprint done by our boy Bill Sienkiewicz. Just a little while ago.

20:17
Yeah, Epic was that line from Marvel where they were putting out more of their mature titles, more of the experimental stuff. they're trying to compete with Heavy Metal Magazine. Let's see what else came out, Barry. Let's see what Wikipedia's got. I know that, if I'm not mistaken, like I said, Akira came out through this line. Some of the, it looks like Alien comics came out through this line. A lot of the Punisher trades from back in the day, like 80s and 90s, also came out through Epic.

20:45
Was Epic a Jim Shooter thing? Was this during his run? I feel like he's... I found a dedicated Epic. Yes, I knew it. So Dreadstar, Jim Starlin. Yep, you're right. This was Jim Shooter's spinoff of the successful Epic Illustrated magazine. Okay, so it started as a magazine and then it became its own line. Electra Lives Again is on here. The Groot Chronicles by Sergio Aragones was printed.

21:13
Via this, that Havoc and Wolverine meltdown series from Iron Man Crash. Yeah, there's a lot of good stuff on here. Okay, now this is a solid, and you can't go wrong with Billson Kevich. No. Was it Frank Miller that wrote Electric Assassin? Mm-hmm. This is as good as comics gets right there. Okay. All right, the other thing I'm always on the hunt for is just random promo comics from like events, things, know, products. I got one. This is funny. So this next one that I got is just the most random promo comic, but.

21:43
You know, as a Florida man, it spoke to me. Hit me. Marvel superhero island adventures. So it was a Marvel comic that they would give out at Islands of Adventure in 1990. That's great. it is so fucking 90s. On the cover, you've got Hulk, Spider-Man and Doctor Doom with a  roller, what looks like Island of Adventure all behind them. Come to Florida, true believer. OK, written by Michael Stewart, layouts by Sal Basheema, pencils and inks by Steve Peele.

22:13
Colors by Paul Mounts. Classic 90s right here. I don't even know what the premise is, but I'm here for it. Cause it looks like Hulk, Doctor Doom, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man all show up. Bro, this is, on man, history right here. There's an evil villain melting everyone's ice cream. Okay. There's a couple of different stories. So there is a Spider-Man story penciled by Chris Bocciolo. Oh, come on man. This was a come up right here. Hey, let me see it real quick. No, no, go wash your first. You're smart. Okay. What about you? Okay.

22:43
I'll see your promo comic and raise you another promo comic. It is a Kirby. Whoa. Tops. What was the deal? All right. So Tops, the card company ended up publishing their own comics and what gave Kirby like his own, you know. Dude, who hasn't given Kirby a shot with stuff? Yeah. So this is nightglade? Who the hell is nightglade? It doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Just the art is all I care about. So you got Roy Thomas in here. got Kerry Conway.

23:13
Don Hec? Yeah. Get outta here.  Don Hec. I don't need Don Hec. You know he's your boy Kirby's birthday a couple days ago. I know. He would have been 108 years old. So it doesn't look like Kirby did... I just want the cover.  Yeah, I mean, absolutely. It's a Kirby cover for sure. Yeah, if it looks like trash, it's probably Don Hec. Well, yeah, it looks like it's supposed to be meant to be done in the style of Kirby.  Okay. Let me look at it. No, this cover though is insane. Kirby's proportions... Bro, give me my book back.

23:41
Why are you trying to steal my Also the way that he'll just position, just the body parts. That head is tilted at such a weird angle, but it's so Kirby. You forgive it. Yeah, this is weird. Weird ass character. Yeah, this is Don Hec, dude. And in Kirby interior. Yeah, I know it's just trash when I see it. I already told you how I felt about Don Hec filling in for Jack Kirby and Thor, and you were like, you're reading all of Kirby's Thor run? I'm like, I thought I was, and then Don Hec shows up.

24:10
Okay, last but not least, once again, just random kind of promo kind of comics. I guess in the early 90s, late 80s, Marvel was doing their own version of Time Magazine and it was like, it was just called Marvel. This one is the 1989 year in review comic with a sick Todd McFarlane Spider-Man cover. Oh, that's beautiful. It looks like a Time Magazine. Spider-Man's on the cover answering fielding questions from reporters. got J. Jonah Jameson in the back, obviously.

24:37
But the entire book is basically like a, just a recap of what was going on in Marvel in 1989, with storylines and story arcs were also being, I mean, it's mainly like an editorial book with some pictures as well. But it looks like this issue covers what was going on in Iron Man. Anything else that sticks out. There's an article called Congress versus the Real Superpowers. I don't know, this is just one of those like, just kind of interesting, like, you know, a little snapshot back in the time. Yeah.

25:07
Your boy Quasar is in there too. And a lot of Todd McFarlane, I think this was probably when Todd McFarlane was still at Marvel. But I mainly got it because 1989 was my birth year and there is a sweet house ad for the Mignola. Triumph and Torment? No, this is just a random house, like a travel guide for Dr. Doom Latveria. Oh my says come to Latveria, place of beauty and order. Oh, I'm here for this. Actually he had a 1987 year in review. I might go back for that.

25:36
Come on man Marvel. I know that's so cool. Why don't you give it? Now that I look at it. No, you're not getting it. mean if you wanted to make fun of me for being a Marvel bias like just fucking shill you absolutely could. The Superman statue sets it all. have no problem with you supporting Marvel from the 80s 60s 70s and 80s and even into the 90s. No problem at all. All right, did you have one more? I have two more. Oh, well hit it. The floor is all yours my friend.

26:06
This.

26:09
Just because I like the design, I got Comics Greatest Worlds, Dark Horse Comics,  this is week number three, and it's Ghost. I've always liked the way this character looks. At least the covers have always been good. I know Adam Hughes did Ghost for a long time. Wait, so wait, this is Comics Greatest Worlds, so it was like a Dark Horse anthology series? Kind of. This looks sick. Yeah, take Take a first spin.

26:34
Yeah, Ghost is one of those weird characters that I could give five farts about the story, but the art's always good. like like a little premium paper. Okay, it says, uh, script by Mike Richardson. Art by Lee Weeks is the my gosh. Prologue sequence. Mike Richardson is, uh, Mr. Dark Horse himself. Oh, word. Yeah, he's the, uh, the, publisher. EIC, bro. And then main story is by Jerry Prosser. Pencils by Adam Hughes, baby. Dang. Yeah. This is a good little pickup, dude.

27:03
When I went to HeroesCon, um I stopped by Adam Hughes' table and he had all of his original art in uh a little binder poster book.  Adam Hughes is so good.  It was like a reminder, like, yo, Adam Hughes is one of my faves.  And I don't think I give him enough credit. The ah with the exclamation point? Always, such a great sign. His style is great. The original pages were like black and white, but clearly the watercolor, the inking was great, the scale. Oh my god.

27:32
Beautiful  and uh I got one more it is uh star reach number two and The cover is done by Neil Adams I really only got it because the cover is done by Neil Adams and I love space opera  weird stuff Let see that star reach. All so what's the deal with these cuz these comics?

27:52
We're in the naughty box. It was in the box. Not all the other. Yeah, just because it's got a girl that's half naked on it, but she's not doing anything sexual and there's nothing sexual there. I'm sorry. I stepped on your toes. Star Reach. What is it? I don't know. No, it's an anthology book. Oh, it's a black and white anthology book. a sci-fi anthology series. Sometimes fantasy because the next issue or the next couple issues deal with.

28:21
Elric of Melnibonet and you know, lot of like weird fiction and it's all sort of done in that classic sixties,  uh, Warren publishing style. Dude, the art in this is spectacular, especially this first story by Dig Giorgiano. I have another star, a star reach that Frank Brunner is the artist.  Our boy, Frank Brunner famous for his run on Dr. Strange. Yeah, man. And you know, he's, he's still, he's one of those, he's another one those cool guys that just noodles and noodles and noodles. Like he will.

28:51
work six million hours on just the face on an eye, you know, and they'd be like, all right, got to keep drawing the rest of this person. And it's just like, man, you're  so detailed. Dude, today has been an interesting day of just coincidences and, and, know, references and signs. So there is a Jim Starlin, I think story in here first and foremost that looks absolutely trippy. But then there's a story by John Workman. Do you remember when I brought up, when we were in the shop, was like, Hey, if you see Cosmic Odyssey, you let me know. And you were like, what'd you looking for those for?

29:20
And I was like, Hey, I bought that from the Inker of Cosmic Odyssey. His name was John Workman and he's got a story in here. think he's pretty rad.  Pretty rad. Yo, you got some good stuff in here, man. I think we have a very solid haul and I didn't really spend an arm and a leg. I a little more. think I went in there like, I'm going to spend 50 bucks. Spent double that, but I ain't mad at what I got. Yo, big shot is a Cosmic Kindness. Yeah, man. didn't expect it. These have been in my like  Holy grail list for a while and they were just in a box, man. Here you go. Let me ask you something.  How?

29:50
What's your relationship been like with, I guess, collecting? know, like doing something like today where we went out, you know, spent a couple hours at the shop, back issue digging, stuff like that. How has that been like for you since fatherhood?  And just like your overall relationship with collecting?  This is interesting because I wanted to talk with you about this.  There's anyone that's been to my house knows that for the most part, up until at least

30:19
maybe three months ago, my house looks like a comic book store. I'm more or less now and of the mindset that if my obsessions are starting to creep into uh common areas of the house, there's a problem because then your significant other, wife, whatever, is living inside your obsessive brain 24-7. So it's not good. ah So I've managed to get rid of a lot of things.

30:45
like a lot of things and to make room for things that matter like, you know, peace of mind and less clutter and not just clutter.  Like I said,  it's not so  much getting rid of things so much as making room for things that matter. That said,  I have a lot of cool stuff. So where do I draw the line?  And I've found that a lot of the mainstream comics that I own that I know aren't going out of print, I have no problem getting rid of.

31:14
because you know, they'll always be, there will always be a hardcover fatal attractions. There will always be a hardcover extinction agenda, executioner song or age of apocalypse. Right? Like those aren't going away. There will always be a central Spider-Man, you know, insert whatever. And  for Batman, of course, like  you're never gonna, Batman is going to never stop printing out stories ever. Old story. They'll always get re, you know, so I know problem getting rid of a bunch of that stuff. So we're,

31:44
Which in reference to your question, where I draw the line is  some of the more rare stuff,  like some of this stuff, like  the odd, like French influence comics, like stuff that is like sort of like neat and sort of rare and  a rare antiquity, if you will.  That's kind of where I draw the line. So when I go to a comic book shop, I'm not really looking for anything new because it's not going to,  it's not going to keep real estate in my house.  I can always find it, but you know, I can always buy it digitally.

32:14
So that's fine.  So I'll read new stuff if I can buy it digitally or find it on the library app. Or  if somebody wants to let me borrow a trade or whatever, that's kind of where I go. But as far as collecting, I don't really do much unless it's like something that's like, OK,  I need to have this in my,  I want to display this. I want to put this up on the wall in my office. And

32:41
Yeah, I mean, that's kind of it, you know, and you've mentioned fatherhood. That's exactly the reason why I'm not like, I'm sure, like, obviously there are fathers out there who are collectors and that's fine. I have a lot of stuff  and it's, I mean, a lot of stuff and a lot of cool stuff. So we were talking about um Indiana Jones and what kind of solidified it to me was  there's a scene in Last Crusade where Indy is trying to reach for the Holy Grail, right?

33:10
Right before that scene, Ilse Schneider,  the Nazi stooge,  she falls to her death trying to get, he's like,  I can't hold you. You remember? Are you familiar with the scene? Okay. So now it's his turn to try and reach for it. And now his father, who he's had,  you know, a troubled relationship with to say the least, his whole life, his dad put  stuff,  and you know, we're talking, we're not talking about just regular ass stuff. We're talking about stuff attached to the transcendent. We're talking about a divine image.

33:41
but he put it above his son.  And Indy has spent his whole life chasing not just stuff, but rare antiquities, divine images.  And now he's got one within his grasp. He's like, can just reach it, dad. And he's like, he's like, Junior, can't  hold you. And he's just like, I just almost got it. And he just goes, Indiana. It's the first time in the movie, maybe his whole life.

34:12
that his father acknowledges him and  basically gives, if you watch that movie thematically, Sean Connery gives Indy a new identity to rip. Cause the only way he can get rid of it is if he's like, I'm going to call you by, I'm going to acknowledge who you really are and who you really are isn't the chasing of stuff. You're my son and I love you.  And he says, let it go for him to say it. The guy who put it.

34:41
You know, he knows more than anyone how much that is worth. And he says, let it go.  So I'm watching that and I'm like, I feel like the universe is like telling me like, you know, Indiana, like, let it go, you know, cause what I'm, I can't take any of the shit with me. All this cool stuff that I have, like, yeah, it's cool. It's great. I consider it art. It's not cheap. It's not, you know, like  some of the books I mentioned earlier that are

35:10
you know, very mainstream and they're not going anywhere. Stuff I have is weird and esoteric, you know? So  I've always prided myself as somebody who's like, okay, yeah, I'm not shallow. I don't attach myself to things, yet my house was cluttered. So, okay, a lot of yappening happening, but not a lot happening. So I essentially was like, I gotta get rid of some stuff. So I did. And now the line I draw is essentially, if it's  super, super, super esoteric and rare and there's room for it,

35:39
then I will have it. if I have something,  something that I want to get new, then something that I already own has to go. And I feel you on that. I think I've started to adopt that, that gym mentality or that phrase calories in calories out. Sure. So I tried to, what I've been trying to do better at is if I'm buying new stuff that piques my interest, I want to  add something I'm trying to also like make room for by getting rid of something old or something that doesn't bring me as much. can tell from the amount of statues you have in your room.

36:10
But you know, it's a curated thing. And I think I,  because uh I told you a couple of months ago, I had sold like a, like six short boxes, like six short boxes, a couple of like magazine boxes. And it was just  kind of difficult to sell that stuff. And it was just a lesson in like, you know, just trying to keep up with like all the new stuff, you know, just having sporadic bouts of just, you know, spontaneous purchases.  you know, like that stuff is something that you have to think about. Like at some point you're to have to think about what am I going to do with it? Am I going to continue to let it like take up space?

36:39
Or am gonna sell it or do something? It was kind of difficult to sell those books. Like you learn very quickly,  new comics especially if they're not a key or first appearance or whatever they may be or rare, you know, like they lose their value instantaneously. It's like driving a new car off the lot.  So I've been trying to get better at like having a focused mission for like what I go out and collect. So I feel like  I'm  hyper-focused on only a few certain things. So like the hip hop variants.

37:08
old milestone comics, know, like Marvel and DC crossover things. Like I'm trying to be a little more picky about what I go out and buy. And, you know, just show a little more self-control. Because it's going to be a reflection of you, at least for the time being, right? Like the books that you own, quote unquote, they serve a purpose, right? And like all things that serve a purpose, sometimes when they are finished serving a purpose, they move on, right? So that's kind of where I'm where I've looked at my things. Like I'm like, oh man, I got a lot of cool stuff.

37:37
those things have served their purpose.  I'm, you know, I'm someone else can discover them. Someone else can have this cool thing, you know, like. I think I'm also at the point of like, let me actually read or engage with the things that I have been buying. And I mean, I've, I've, I've saved a lot of money doing that. Right. Like who would have thought like actually using the things that you've spent instead of like just letting them amass, like especially like uh reading, like my book books. I have bought so many books and novels throughout the years.

38:04
And I'm like, I'm gonna get around to it at some point. I've started to enforce like, well, now is the time. And if you're not,  if this is not the moment and you don't have that same fire for it anymore, well, I guess it's gonna be  sold, traded off or donated. I've really gotten into like the donated uh aspect as well. Yep, cause then you feel good. Oh yeah. Right? Like then you're like, oh yeah. And I'm a natural gift giver. I love giving gifts. I love buying shit for friends anyways.

38:28
That's cool, man, because that Superman is looking right at me. everything I just said will go out the window if you will just freaking give me that thing. The joy of the Superman is still so new. Just fuck what I said the last five minutes. so new. And it's just looking at me. He's like, Potter, take me to Krypton. That's so weird. It talks to you. See, I wanted to hear about what have you been reading lately? Because you are very good at always having something to read.

38:55
whether it be like an old trade or you get into these like mindsets and rabbit holes. So what's your current obsession? Believe it or not.  I supported the Kickstarter for the  heavy metal compilation. Yeah. Look it up. Can we both agree that Kickstarter is one of the most dangerous sites that all this,  you know, all this spiritual kumbaya shit we just finished talking about, you know, in terms of saving money and that's another one.  Kickstarter will throw all that shit out the window. You log into Kickstarter. It's like,

39:23
Hey, guess what? Your favorite artist has a brand new artwork that's only $200. it's. Talking to you Daniel Warren It's 200 bucks, yes, but you get a hardback cover every quarter. Oh, this is what this, okay. yeah. Let me find this. metal and anthologies. It's yeah. It's got a bunch. I know it when I see it. Okay. Let me tell, what do you get? Yeah. So you get a hardcover book and you decide at what level you want to commit. I'm like, I just want a year's worth of heavy metal.

39:53
um And you get four um You get four hardcover uh issues and each issue has it's salted and peppered with old stuff  and new uh European comic book creators doing stuff  and thank God it's not run by Kevin Eastman  So there's no fucking furry porn in it  or weird ass uh Advertisements for uh just regular ass porn and you know, hey if that's your thing

40:23
cool, but it kind of discredits the artistic  credibility of Heavy Metal Magazine, which was known for high art uh and not exploitation.  So anyway, it's good.  I'm enjoying  getting those. How many issues have you gotten so far?  One, but the second one is going to be hitting my mailbox in about a couple of weeks.  And it's fun because they have interviews with Mobius  and Drillit and a bunch of other people.

40:54
who worked on the book and it's just, you know, do you see like old school pictures of like all these like cool ass French authors, you know, authors just sort of like, like just chilling in black and white. And it's a, it's one of the, it's one, it's a neat experience. So I've been reading that and what else? Why, why are you thinking that? Can I, can I interject here and say on the topic of heavy metal, one of the books that I have been reading a lot lately,

41:21
is this book called The Comic Book History of Comics, Comics for All. So this is volume two. It's written by Fred Van Linty with art by, who is the artist? Ryan Dunlavy.  And it is, as it sounds, a graphic  novel comic about the history of comics. They put out two volumes. The second volume focuses on comic books from around the world. So there's a dedicated heavy metal chapter. Cool.  It tells the story of how heavy metal came about.

41:50
you know, how World War II had a big impact on uh European comic publishing, the popularity of 1010.  then... um Yeah,  And I ended up learning it. I mean, it's been extremely informative. Also a very fun way of like reading about the comic book history in fucking comic book form. uh But I think one of my biggest takeaways in learning about the history of heavy metal is that uh just how after, I guess, World War II, the French society

42:20
was like, hey, we're not going to be supporting American comics anymore. Oh, okay, okay. Let me take a step back. A few big lessons I got out of that was how important World War II was introducing, you know, American comics, superhero comics at that to like, you know, different parts of the world. know, American soldiers and GIs would be, you know, would get comics sent to them or bring comics with them. And they're sharing it with like, you know, the allies, you know, Frenchmen and other Europeans and how that influenced them. But then after the war,

42:50
France was like, we do not support American comics. We don't want to import those because they're violent. They're for kids. We don't want to corrupt the music. Frenchies. But that's interesting, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. look at what's in something like heavy metal and how celebrated that is. Then it's so punk rock that heavy metal is nothing but violence. Yeah. So I found that contradiction a little funny. But dude, it's a great book. I think you thoroughly enjoy it. Yeah, it looks cool.

43:18
I'm on another chapter. think they also have like a chapter about, you know, the rise of manga. Uh, the last chapter I read was actually about, Oh, uh, 2000 AD, the formation of 2000.  That's another, that was the other thing I was going to tell you that I'm reading is I'm kind of combing through, uh,  what's his name?  Cam Kennedy's work through 2000 AD,  uh, Cam Kennedy who did, uh, Boba Fett, uh,

43:47
the Boba Fett mini series. also did  Light and Darkness Wars.  guess 2000 AD is now on my radar extra heavy.  know Blake,  Simone, shout out to Blake, is somewhere listening with a smile on his face. Cause he's always,  when we went to Heroes Con,  he was on the hunt for anything 2000 AD. And I guess I had never really seen like just the physical magazines.  You know, like they're magazine size, know,  newspaper prints like.

44:15
You know, not at, I don't know what I was thinking, like what they would look like, but they're like very short, very small, like comics.  Grant Morrison, Alan Moore, mean, Mark Miller, pick your, pick your favorite edgy  British guy. They've  I wrote for 2000 ID before it was cool. know, like, know, speaking about our good friend, Alan Moore in this book, you know, they talk about 2000 AD, there's a, you know, a chapter, a couple of pages dedicated to Alan Moore.

44:43
and they break down like, you know, Miracle Man and the whole lawsuit and the legality of that. And it made me real, and they were talking about how his run  on  Marvel Man or Miracle Man, depending on where you're at, was like his  testing ground for, you know, what would become like the  deconstruction style. His freaking claim to fame, deconstructing superheroes.  But I never read Marvel Man or Miracle, have you ever read that  stuff? The first trade I did.

45:11
I guess I'm gonna try to like hunt those down or at least give those a read. I was a little lost because I wasn't familiar with uh Marvel, well, Miracle Man to begin with or Marvel Man, because I knew,  I know that he is  a,  basically the answer to Shazam, right? Like,  so,  you know, not to get down a whole tirade, but, or a rabbit hole, but  apparently he, he literally was Shazam. Supposed to be.

45:38
But then uh when DC sued Fawcett over the rights to uh Marvel Man and Shazam and all of that, Fawcett, while they were printing Shazam  and things, they were also sending those comics to  the UK and Britain and Europe. And eventually when they got into the lawsuit, Fawcett was like, you know what, fuck it. We're not gonna be doing superhero comics anyways. They're not selling anymore. We're into trade paperback stories and mass market trades. So eventually the Fawcett,

46:07
No pun intended. The faucet got cut off for the UK publisher and they're well shit, they're still selling over here. Where's the rest of them? So they had to shift and change his name to uh Marvel Man. Marvel Man?  Marvel Man. So they just like remixed the transforms with a word just like Shazam. Instead of Shazam, it's Kimota, which is Atomic's back. Grant Morrison also wrote for them.  He did a lot of things there for 2000 AD.

46:37
Okay, so you brought up 2000 AD, I brought up Alan Moore. I was going down a track, but I forgot. Oh, Kickstarter. Speaking of Kickstarter, the last thing I- You broke too. Oh, super broke, especially after supporting this one. The last Kickstarter I supported was the art of Mike Del Mundo.  He put out an art book of all his Marvel stuff. Are you familiar with Clover Press and all of these  Marvel art books they've been putting out? Mm-mm. Please don't do this to me. um

47:02
Sarah, Sammy, I'm sorry, I'm taking food out just bought the art book for Marvel Rivals.  What the hell? Wait, what? That shit is so crispy. Yeah, all the concept art from Marvel Rivals. you... I swear, remember you're talking about being better about managing our, you know... No, that  I can justify because I'm trying to design... A little secret thing. I'm trying to design some characters. Don't worry about Okay, okay. So, have you played Marvel Rivals? Nope.

47:30
No interest. No interest. I actually played it because it was a free download. I don't care. And I'm not the biggest first person shooter, especially online. Fucking hate it. I get like performance anxiety. You're the only guy I know. That's like, oh man, OK. Bada, you're the best. You're the best. Give me some time. me some time. I'm getting some cold water on my face. I will say the Marvel arrivals, I mean, you can speak to it. The concept are the character redesigns. Yeah, it's cool looking. It's cool.

47:58
I like the way it looks. Marvel's  gotten hip where they're like, hey, manga and anime can't eat our lunch if we become one of them. Oh boy. Marvel rivals. I mean, have you seen the new Marvel fighting game? That's essentially Marvel versus Capcom, but minus the Marvel Capcom side? No. Here, let me show you. Oh my God. It's called Marvel Tokon Fighting Spirits. What? It's Marvel versus Capcom. It's like Marvel's like, hey, Capcom, we don't technically need you to  a dope fighting game.

48:28
We'll just use Peach Momoko and we'll be good.  Is she the one doing the concept art? It damn sure looks like, I don't know who did the concept art, but it looks like something out of a Peach Momoko comic. So  the thing about this game is that it's a 4v4  and  I've watched the video about the fighting mechanics and it's very interesting how they utilize all four different characters.

48:55
I have no faith that the soundtrack will be as jazzy and fucking funky as the original but it looks cool. Okay. Yeah That does look cool. Yeah, but Marvel rivals. I played it for a few I was okay. I'm not an overwatch guy same. That's the thing You know, that's the thing is that I don't play any of those games I just like the character designs and I  I like the the Inspiration I get just from looking at them.  Okay, that's fair enough. I kind of curious what this art book looks like but

49:24
What else do I got? What other topics do I got? Have you been reading or do you know anything about the Absolute Universe? DC's Absolute Universe or like Absolute Batman?  No,  I can't. None at all. I don't like the story. I don't like what they've done.  The only absolute thing I've seen that interests me slightly is Wonder Woman. Absolute Wonder Woman is my favorite. That's the only one that I've read. I've read the first issue and I was like, okay. You would actually  really like

49:52
absolute wonder woman just because of how much they like that first issue okay well the rest of the series gets super the time I'm reading it's just like on in the background all I hear is this

50:07
It's like, hey, let's take Wonder Woman, raise her in hell and teach her dark magic and give her a badass big, you know, Final Fantasy style sword. I mean, yeah. It's great. It is. mean, they lean in heavy on the mythology.  right. Yeah. It's and Hayden Sherman,  he's the artist for this. This dude is one of my favorite artists currently right now. His, his comp is the things he does with his compositions and panel layouts and action. Yeah. Spectacular. Yeah. Pegasus is like a fucking.

50:35
Dead ass horse. it's like, what the fuck? It's like  the revenge of our tax, man. Man, I was actually speaking about, uh, uh, our tax. Um, let me show you what I bought. Oh no, you bought a horse drowning in the swamps of sadness.  Here we go. Here we, uh, ladies and gentlemen, bottom Milligan very irresponsibly has left his post  and has left me to flounder around like a  sad man to figure out what, what do you have there? That is, that is, that looks like it should be mine.

51:05
First Coast Comic Con.  is, what's the name, that dude's name.  There's a vendor named  Comics from Jerry or Jerry's Comics. And I want to say he's from Daytona. Oh. He's been there twice now.  Jerry.  And this dude has the dopest selection  of like  magazines, like  comic magazines, Marvel magazines, but specifically, specifically Mobius books.  You  bastard. So I picked up the NCAL issue two from him.

51:36
And then he's got our Zach you got our Zach. Yeah, I got I got two copies of our Zach How many of these Mobius books do you own these numbered movies?  I have I have that our Zach but it's in French. Okay, I have actually gave me a copy of that  I have the airtight garage. That's a I've never read airtight garage  And I have the long tomorrow uh

52:03
I mean, what can I say about movies that we haven't That we haven't already said episode. I can't believe you don't have that memorized. But Arzak might be one of my favorite of the Mobius ones. It's what influenced the movie. Arzak was what they took for the last segment. For? Heavy metal cartoon. Oh, OK. OK. It's like the chick is scantily clad and she's riding a freaking bird. That's why the bird looks like that in the South Park  parody.  Oh, yeah. Yeah. Have you seen any of his Western comics, Blueberry?

52:32
That's another one that I want to  do.  What's the premise for blueberry airtight garage? It doesn't matter.  It doesn't matter. reading the words anyways.  I don't fucking care. No airtight garage is like a garden variety fantasy, sci-fi fantasy, ah know, fish out of water, guy fish out of water. um What Dave Chappelle is to comedy where he could just, would you think it's like, he's just telling a, just a freaking  story that you think isn't going anywhere  or he can take anything.

53:01
Anything and make a joke out of it. Mobius can do with whatever you could be like  I want to do a story about this Sit the mall I can do that. Okay. See we've been recording for an hour I think we've got an episode but  I will look to you and see we've got all the meat off the bone I think I think we did is there anything any other topic we need to discuss anything you want to say to the listeners? Yeah, no, it's  you know, it's always it's always a pleasure man chopping it up with you I feel like this is uh, it's one of the rare times that we're actually talking about just comic books

53:31
You came over what 11, we'll call it 11 30 is four 30 now. We've been hanging out for five hours. Prior to us hitting record, it was mainly life shit. I was like, wow, we haven't talked about comics once in this hangout. we are professionals and we save it. We save it for the cast. Yeah. And with that being said, Hey listeners, thank you so much. You guys are awesome. I hope you enjoyed this special bonus episode. Big shout out to Bobby at Cosmic Comics in the Jacksonville, Northeast Florida area. Check it out. Take a look at the show notes.

53:59
I have a photo of our hall. You can go ahead and put visuals to the audio.  And that's what we got for you. That's the episode for today. Come back next week or so for another new episode. We love you. Thanks for hanging out. Hugs and kisses.  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 want to share with us,

54:26
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54:55
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55:40
Big shoutouts to the patrons. And with that being said, that's it. That's what I got for you this time.

55:55
Thanks for listening, tune in next week for another episode, and most importantly, take care of yourselves, read a good comic, and continue to make mine and yours short box. I'll catch you soon. Peace!