2:03

Hello, my name is Connor Kilpatrick and

2:05

this is my co-host Josh Flanagan. I'm

2:08

here. I'm really here. And

2:10

welcome back to my Fanboy Pick of the Week. This

2:12

is episode 109. Happy New Year

2:14

everyone. It's our 19th

2:16

year of doing this show

2:18

and our 24th year of my

2:20

fanboy. 24 years of my

2:22

fanboy. Total. Yikes,

2:25

Josh. They just, they hear this

2:27

every week. It's just a number. It's a lot. I

2:30

know. It's funny because I sometimes

2:32

in my head still think of the show as a

2:34

relatively new thing we do. And so when I

2:36

wrote it down, I was like 19 years of the show and 24 years of fanboy.

2:38

That can't be right. Nope. That's

2:41

right. You know what got me was on the Patreon, or I'm

2:43

sorry, on the Discord, someone asked,

2:46

almost offensively, is this

2:48

rain of fire thing that you like, is that just

2:50

a bit or do you really like it? Which

2:53

I mean, in what era, where have we not

2:56

seen anything but 100% sincere about rain of

2:58

fire being a kind of

3:00

masterpiece? Anyway, the point was it came

3:02

out 21 years ago. And I was

3:04

like, I remember that afternoon though. Like

3:09

me and Nick and Tom

3:11

went to Encino. I

3:15

mean, like I can picture my, we parked

3:17

behind the thing, walked past the

3:19

gap, you know. Oh, I

3:22

remember going to. Yeah. It's

3:24

weird. Yes, it is. I just don't

3:26

think it was 21 years ago. I think it was probably five years ago.

3:30

No. Everything after 2003 is when it all

3:32

becomes like, 2003 is

3:35

the inflection point for me. Like everything after that

3:37

is just happened. So

3:41

anyway, this is our 19th year tune of the show. Welcome.

3:45

Where are we? Okay. Every week,

3:47

one of us picks the books we like the best. We're always

3:49

rusty coming back, even though it's only been like two

3:51

weeks off, three weeks off

3:53

and we've been doing this for 19 years and yet still it

3:56

happens. Speak it up kid. Like

3:59

the best. stack of comics called it the pick

4:01

of the week. And we'll talk about that book other books in

4:03

the week. Maybe the patron pick, maybe it's a listener mail, maybe

4:05

maybe all kinds of fun things. Spoiler warning, this

4:07

is a review show. Josh, you

4:09

had to pick the first pick of 2024

4:11

and apparently before we're

4:14

starting you need to run

4:16

down. How are you doing Josh? I'm

4:19

much better. I know that if you

4:21

listen to those last few shows of

4:23

last year you might have thought, is

4:27

he dying? And I might have agreed with

4:29

you for a bit. After I had

4:31

been sick

4:34

and thought about it then I got RSV. Like

4:37

it was just, it

4:39

was horrible. But

4:41

but now I'm starting to finally feel like myself.

4:44

And it's... Thank

4:47

you for dying. Which is nice. I

4:50

went through, I had a nine week size

4:52

infection and then a really bad winter cold

4:54

right at the end. So the last like

4:57

nine shows I was sick for

4:59

last year. I

5:01

was miserable. I was sick for two and a

5:03

half months straight. It really

5:06

took a mental toll on me as well. Sure. During my

5:10

birthday, during the holidays, like

5:12

it was like it just wiped out. The last quarter of

5:14

the year is like my busy quarter just wiped it out.

5:17

And I finally started feeling

5:19

better like right before Christmas. And

5:22

so I'm much better mentally. I'm in

5:24

a good place. Let's talk

5:26

about some comics. I bought equipment. I have

5:29

a mute button now that I didn't have before. Oh I'm sorry

5:31

I was in a good place until I

5:33

had to read some comics on the Kindle app

5:36

over there. Can we not? Can we just accept

5:38

it? Because I don't want to... Just I, my

5:41

wife, there was one night where she was like

5:43

I want to read some comics. I gave her

5:45

the iPad and she's, after about

5:47

five minutes I hear, how do you read on this? It's

5:50

fine. It's miserable. Like it's not great.

5:52

There's no other option. I don't, this

5:55

horse is dead. It's miserable.

5:57

You're flogging it. It's not dead.

6:00

It's only been like three weeks since this has been there.

6:02

It doesn't matter. There's no other option.

6:04

It's the biggest media company in the world.

6:06

Nobody else is coming along. This is where we live.

6:09

I'm just saying at one point I thought, should I

6:11

go back to paper? Like that's how bad I hate

6:14

this app. You're

6:16

not going to get me doing that. Pick

6:20

of the Week is, and I'm guessing this was the

6:22

surprise for you. Beware of

6:24

the Planet of the Apes number

6:26

one by Mark Guggenheim, art by

6:28

Alvaro Lopez, color by Brian Valenza,

6:31

and Travis Lanham on letters. You added a word

6:33

to that title. I

6:35

did. Yeah, it's just beware of the Planet of the

6:37

Apes. He's not beware of the Planet of the Apes. Just

6:40

get it. Just so everyone knows. Beware of the

6:42

Planet of the Apes number one. Okay, right. I

6:44

wrote it correctly. No, you wrote it correctly. You just went off

6:46

on a thing. That's fine. So

6:49

you might be wondering why. I

6:51

saw on the cover of this thing, and just

6:53

now I'm looking for the book. I found it

6:55

quickly. Thank God. I

6:58

read that this takes place in the classic

7:00

Planet of the Apes story. I thought, oh,

7:02

that's interesting because that last Planet of the

7:04

Apes story, I don't know how the hell

7:07

Marvel got the license. I guess it's Fox,

7:09

so that's how. Just because they

7:11

got a license means they have to do it. There have

7:13

been very good Planet of the Apes comics over at Dark

7:15

Horse, some in the classic universe.

7:17

I've been to the comics. I've been to the

7:19

comics. I've Gabriel Harvand in them. Yeah.

7:22

It's a prequel to the original film is

7:24

what it is. There's Dr. Zayas.

7:26

There's Cornelius. Is it

7:29

Zara? I

7:32

opened the book to the very first page, and

7:35

it looks like a 60s comic. I

7:37

thought, is this a flashback thing? It

7:39

looks like Kirby, like

7:42

a workaday Kirby, not blow you away Kirby.

7:47

I sort of double checked. I was like, oh, this is a thing. Here's

7:50

the deal. This

7:53

is nothing

7:55

new. It's like, first

7:58

of all, Planet of the Apes is a fucking great movie. The

8:01

original plan of days movie is I

8:03

remember the first time I saw it. I was blown away I was

8:05

like that was amazing. I understand why people are still talking about it

8:07

and This just lives

8:09

in that world. But the thing is this Here's

8:13

what I came up with we I think

8:16

there's been a there's been a rush

8:18

of nostalgia in this show recently and

8:20

it For me, it isn't so much about

8:22

like oh, this is how it used to be Except

8:25

in the fact that we have spent so

8:27

many years reading comics that we've seen everybody

8:30

try to reinvent the wheel in every possible

8:32

way and Sometimes

8:35

you don't do that You

8:38

just use the wheel Right

8:41

and in the wheel instance You

8:43

know, it's like it's hard

8:45

to beat the hot dog You

8:48

can deconstruct the hot dog or the donut. Let's

8:50

let's take the donut The

8:52

donut is a thing that when done

8:54

perfectly in a normal way with fuck

8:56

chocolate frosting and yeast. It's great and

9:00

Meanwhile, there are places and they're like we should put

9:02

bacon on it and we should put Froot Loops on

9:04

it and we should garnish It with with truffle all

9:06

this shit. It's like just no, I just want the

9:08

donut so in this case, it's it's

9:10

a comic book that is Fully

9:13

the thing that it's supposed to be or would

9:15

have been Back

9:17

in 19 like wins the first movie 66 68 something

9:19

like that you know

9:22

if this comic book could come out around that time, this is kind of what

9:24

it would be and There

9:27

is a simplicity to that which

9:29

really tickled me and I did think it was very

9:31

well done Mark. Ooggenheim is a veteran And

9:34

and he just sort of did this

9:36

story about you know, the apes find

9:39

a bunch of humans You know They live

9:41

in a little colony and they're outside of the

9:43

forbidden zone Whatever some of the apes like them

9:45

the rest of this it's a it's

9:47

a not terribly Obscure Metaphor

9:53

for race relations. No, it is not

9:55

in any way and I

9:59

just I just really enjoyed it

10:01

and I got to the end and I thought,

10:03

man, where's the next one? And I hadn't expected

10:05

it and it was just so pure. I'm telling

10:07

you that first page really got me and

10:10

I just thought, oh, this looks just like a book from the 60s,

10:12

but not even like... But that's the only... It

10:14

should be noted that's only two pages

10:16

of the book is like that. Yeah, but the rest of

10:18

it... I want people to be clear, they don't go to

10:20

this book looking for a 60s, like it's

10:22

only the first two pages and then it goes back to

10:24

my... Yeah, I know, but I don't think it was even

10:27

like intentional. It's just like, let's just keep it simple, stupid

10:29

kind of thing in the best way. Well,

10:31

it's a flashback to the movie. So they go 60s for the... Charlotte

10:37

Heston flashback and then they go to the modern

10:39

stuff for the... Then

10:41

there's a couple of panels here and there when they flash back

10:43

to Heston, it's always in the 60s style. Yeah.

10:47

And I just

10:49

enjoyed it. I enjoyed the simplicity of it and after I was

10:51

like, God, could that be the big of the week? The

10:54

reason was, it kind of excited me more

10:56

than a lot of the other stuff

10:58

I read. And it should be noted, I read

11:00

a lot of comics. Normally I come back after this

11:03

and I am way, way, way,

11:05

way behind and I'm not. I'm pretty well caught

11:07

up. And for the vast majority

11:09

of comics I read, I've actually been really enjoying them,

11:11

sort of not having to read them under the gun.

11:15

I've surprised myself. But

11:18

I got here in this sort of book, I

11:20

wasn't really thinking about that, that in a way

11:22

isn't really anything special, made me really happy. And

11:25

it's that sort of just

11:27

simple thing that

11:30

it's not trying to impress me.

11:33

It just is what it is. And

11:35

there was something nice about that for

11:38

me. This is funny because this is not the first time, I

11:40

don't even think it's the first time that any book has been

11:42

picked. Like a fairly certain... For sure not. ...old

11:44

co-host Paul picked it at least once back in

11:47

the Hardman days. Those

11:49

were good books. I was funny because when

11:51

you made this to pick I went to look forward to read it

11:53

and I went to look at the Boom Studios books and I was

11:55

like, where is it? So

11:58

I didn't find it for some reason. second. But

12:01

I just can't get into the world. I've always,

12:03

I try. I try. I'll read the

12:05

comics occasionally.

12:08

I've tried several of the films. I just

12:10

don't care. It's one of those things. It's

12:14

like Doctor Who. I just try and I don't care. It is

12:16

what it is. It's a fine comic. I

12:19

had another problem with it, but I just finished it. I was like,

12:21

yeah, that's good. That was fine. But I just

12:24

don't care. All

12:26

the recent movies were good, but it wasn't the

12:28

same as the old movie. The first one's amazing,

12:32

and it's kind of diminishing returns after that. In a big

12:34

way. But to me, that first

12:38

movie and that Jerry Goldsmith soundtrack, I think it's just

12:40

wonderful. Oh, yeah, the first is a classic. I like

12:42

the first movie, but I tried the

12:45

first Tim Burton movie and I tried the first whatever,

12:47

the new one, the Franco movie. I

12:49

don't remember. I

12:51

didn't care. I just don't care. It's just what it is.

12:54

Some people just don't care. I'm one

12:56

of those people. Yeah, I'm not like a

12:58

giant fan. But you get into

13:01

these Marvel licenses. You love the

13:03

Aliens books. You love the Predator books. They've

13:05

been really strong because they've been putting pros on

13:07

them. For years and years, so

13:09

many of those licensed properties are done by folks on

13:11

their way up who don't quite have it who don't

13:14

... We talked about this when

13:16

we talked about Hunger in the Dusk, is

13:18

that there's just people who are professionals who've been doing

13:20

this for a long time are better at it.

13:23

A lot of times, those historically

13:25

over the 2000s up until five, 10 years

13:28

ago, those

13:32

licensed books were always crap in

13:35

some way. Either the art was ... They

13:37

don't pay the page rates. They don't put the

13:39

money into it. It's more about keeping ... That

13:41

was always more about like, we've got the license.

13:44

We've got to do it. Nobody was going for

13:46

it in that way. I

13:48

don't think they are here necessarily, but

13:50

it's just skill. It's

13:53

meat potatoes. It's that perfect donut. Not perfect.

13:55

It's a great donut. happy.

14:00

It is a little bit hard to quantify. But

14:02

I also, when I looked at the books, I said, okay, I think

14:04

this is a pick. And then I was like, yes, it is. I'm

14:06

sticking with it. And I enjoyed my books this week. So there's no...

14:09

I'm the guy who goes to the donut

14:11

store and has to wade through the artisanal

14:13

hipster donuts and goes, can I just get

14:15

the glazed? Yeah. Like, come

14:17

on. You know what I'm talking about. I

14:20

know exactly what you're talking about. Every artisanal,

14:22

crazy, crafty donut has disappointed

14:24

me. Every single

14:26

one. And it's not... It's because you

14:28

got to do the right thing. It's like when you

14:30

watch cooking shows, they're always like, make an omelet. Like,

14:33

that's the thing. You know, that's what it feels like

14:35

to me. And this is an omelet cooked

14:37

well. That's the third food metaphor. Follow...

14:40

I'm hungry. It's dinner time for me. Follow the

14:42

House of X number one, which you

14:44

put on the list, which is almost as shocking

14:46

as your pick of the Were the Pony game.

14:48

I nearly reached out to Ron today going, are

14:50

you reading this? I'm

14:53

not kidding. I just... I

14:55

finished this book and I was like, this is

14:57

fucking great. How would you do this? What happened?

15:01

It's good. Did

15:04

the RSP change your personality in your

15:06

brain? Did that happen? Certainly for a

15:08

time. This

15:11

was... So I think what's happening

15:13

here is we're now reaching

15:15

the crescendo on the Krakowa

15:17

era as it's known. And this is now... We're entering

15:19

the fall of the House of X, which

15:22

I think House of X was one of the first books

15:24

in that series. I think we're getting another fall book next

15:26

week. But as we reach

15:29

the end of this era, as the

15:31

X-Men face off and look at the orcas, we have

15:33

the Trial of Cyclops here. And

15:36

this is another Jerry Duggan joint.

15:39

I enjoyed this

15:41

as well. I like this a lot. I've left Lucas

15:43

Wernic. Art was strong. I'm looking at

15:45

page seven where we talk about

15:48

the basketball special and how that's like a direction

15:50

point for the X-Men. That was a great page,

15:52

that angle on the whole ring thing right at

15:54

us. Wait, is

15:56

it this one? Oh, it's the... You

15:58

said seven. So... When we go

16:00

from eight into nine. Nine was one

16:02

of the most impressive things I read all yak. Her

16:05

as we week like there was a. I.

16:08

Mean on like a cinematic style cut.

16:10

It was one of the better paid

16:12

strands I've seen in some time because

16:14

that the motion shifts on you as

16:16

you know it almost feels like something's

16:18

wrong. But that's that. That. Page

16:21

with Wolverine and all the speed

16:23

lines and he slices that dude

16:25

up. That is a wonderful one.

16:27

two punch. Ah. If

16:29

great trying to. That. That if I

16:31

had to make a pic of a week different, it

16:33

probably would have been based on that page To. Read

16:37

it is. it's a lot of fun I've I've enjoyed

16:40

this era of immensely. Rather than

16:42

we are getting a lot of fun doing it. And

16:44

you know that a lot of. I'm.

16:46

Just flipping through this like a forgot will ring

16:48

that are fucked up in is like you get

16:50

burned and so like he's like has burned during

16:53

the site and B C or may have just.

16:56

We've. We've been getting logan back, which has

16:58

been nice. They. Try to attack

17:00

the i live in Cracow itself and it's like.

17:03

Human. human owed persona that was fun.

17:06

I. Just six were and are entering the final stage of

17:08

the story. I'm looking forward to seeing how it results in

17:11

what the next. Generation of The X Men,

17:13

as. I. Think that's a I'm picking

17:15

and choosing which books I read on this.

17:17

Very careful you're in. For the most part,

17:19

I don't think I'm reading anything. He doesn't

17:21

have Gerry Duggan his name on it because

17:23

I wanted to feel like the core story

17:25

and so when I looked at this as

17:27

okay, dog ends his writing it. That's good.

17:29

but I just think she's. She's

17:32

picking and choosing. The.

17:35

Right amount of X Men and

17:37

time for me. And they

17:39

emit in liked his other characters

17:41

around from that extended sort of

17:43

claremont. I

17:45

almost called it a jazz fest. Slice

17:48

of said the air allow August. Two

17:51

steps back. Everybody will. Thousands

17:54

of characters who I don't know

17:56

about and don't hair, you know.

17:58

And and then when? The main characters

18:00

show up. They be so mired in the i

18:02

can know what everybody's doing here. And

18:05

when they go you know some

18:07

a sizes and different characters like

18:09

it's also. Classic In

18:11

like the comic, the villains in this

18:13

are ridiculous. Threat. Like that

18:15

that guy. Wow. fuck what's his name?

18:18

The doctor? whatever with the speed on

18:20

his face. Yes, he's such a cartoon

18:22

villain. The window

18:24

noise in Los are barely ever. yeah, I mean

18:26

like and you just they're just like you just

18:29

gonna accept this. Ah, You know

18:31

that it's It's what it's supposed to me.

18:33

It's really good. I

18:35

mean that the and Lauren as Nails are taking

18:37

on her dad's I just saw her dad. who

18:40

knows I can keep track but per Dad's role

18:42

as Magneto and of as I was a fun

18:44

were like ending sort of cliffhanger and this is

18:46

a five issue miniseries. wish I was surprised by

18:48

that is is one issue special but. Hey,

18:51

you know, let's end this whole thing and

18:53

style. I could still lose interest sir. But.

18:56

This is about now. Moment.

18:58

Now it has been dragged in all for

19:00

me. Can I tell you something? I don't

19:02

read any of the taxpayers of his exit

19:05

bucks on a never have. I.

19:07

Read him when Hickman did them. I That's when

19:09

I stopped. But. I every

19:11

single x and book has this text ages.

19:13

It has a memo or email thread or

19:15

so or history. I don't read a single

19:18

one I don't want in the most cynical

19:20

way possible. Is that I'm

19:22

thinking like you're trying to say you're given

19:24

me extra pages but you're not. I.

19:28

I leaguer Bullshit. I

19:30

assume the I'm in the read it gets his patriot

19:32

for those are places that are they are sitting in

19:34

Qaeda. No.

19:36

Certainly not or the never learned is a

19:38

letter as is or if they're designing and

19:40

but I'm not convinced that the writers writing.

19:44

For known I mean like that seal think that something

19:46

like they tell the desert put together. By.

19:49

I don't I to skip all at all.

19:51

Like I said, I'm entirely. I'm. ah

19:54

cynical about i will say out of

19:56

all that city design i've seen everything

19:58

in the design on these books isn't

20:00

so bad relatively

20:02

speaking because they're they have they have a style

20:05

they're very the same you never know you're reading

20:07

an excellent book they're a

20:09

peak Hickman I mean that's that's what it is but

20:11

that's what it is circles it is it's

20:13

America 755 so I thought this I didn't get it right sorry

20:20

I thought we haven't talked about this book at all

20:23

yeah I think what no you and I have not been

20:25

on at the same time and talked about this but when

20:27

I came out I don't think so because

20:30

it's never come up so I've never had

20:32

a chance to sort of has but we

20:35

we can we can okay whatever neither one

20:37

of us were our best last year for

20:39

two years so could have been any time or not

20:41

at all I think it's one of the things

20:44

that lined up like on shows I didn't or we didn't put it

20:46

in the show when we were either

20:48

way I'm curious what

20:50

you think about it because I don't know I

20:54

I really enjoy the flashback story sure

20:56

I don't really care as much

20:58

about Cap fighting this demon yeah

21:01

as model well I feel like we've seen before

21:03

somewhere recently but I feel like that's a name

21:05

that's been used in like you

21:08

know this the vertigo universe or something like that's

21:10

not that's not a name I don't know but

21:12

I really like young Steve

21:14

Rogers in 1939 New York fighting

21:17

the Bund and

21:19

with Meyer Lansky and with my

21:22

landscape as a hero and Baron von

21:24

Strucker and Baron Zemo like I really

21:26

like this best story which

21:29

is even though it's weird to have my landscape you sort

21:31

of one of the heroes but it feels a little

21:34

on the nose for me in that like

21:36

like the Steve stuff is just straight out

21:38

of that first movie yeah the other stuff

21:40

all really happened except for you

21:42

know Strucker and yeah there's there's

21:45

people dude so I don't mind

21:50

going back and forth I like the modern

21:52

stuff to

21:54

the extent of I like I like him

21:57

being with Sharon the fuck

21:59

is she wearing That's

22:01

her like, I know, you gotta get

22:03

to the core of things. Because

22:09

she was like the, I forget what story it

22:11

was, but she became like the, did

22:13

she become like the crime lord of Madripoor

22:16

or something at one point? I don't know, but look at page 22

22:18

and 23 then. No, I know, it's terrible. Say your

22:20

stuff is dumb. I get it. She

22:24

looks like Lockjaw, what's the guy with

22:26

the claw? When

22:30

did Misty Knight become the fulcrum of the

22:33

entire Marvel universe? I don't know if

22:35

she's everywhere. She's everywhere. And

22:38

she knows everything. She's like, I don't

22:40

know, it's weird, whatever. I don't really mind it. The

22:43

Doctor Strange thing I thought was really funny. My

22:46

other comment was just that I did, on several

22:48

times I turned the pages and I was like,

22:51

too many fucking words Michael Straczynski.

22:55

Like there's so much

22:57

exposition in certain parts of this. It

22:59

goes away, it's heavy at the beginning

23:01

and it sort of gets better. Like

23:04

the thing is, Straczynski is my least favorite

23:06

writer in comics, right?

23:08

Oh wow, of all the writers. Well,

23:11

I mean like of anybody who's worth a damn. Because the thing

23:13

is, he's worth a damn. It's

23:15

just that historically over the years,

23:18

I feel like he hasn't delivered when it counted. And

23:21

so he can make you love a thing and then

23:24

it always either leaves or

23:26

it falls flat or like

23:28

there's things in this that are great. But

23:31

there's other things in it that it's just

23:33

too much. Like he likes, like I

23:36

feel like you can see where he's in love with

23:38

his own words. And that has to do with sort

23:41

of knowing, like hearing him talk about

23:43

stuff. And you know, he has

23:45

a swagger and he's supposed to and it's here.

23:50

You know, but I always give it a chance. Yeah,

23:52

there are things I really liked

23:54

about this issue. I really liked the, so this

23:56

whole time in the

23:58

flashback. young Steve isn't

24:00

getting beat up by this one boond guy.

24:03

And first of all, boond

24:05

is really fun to say. And

24:08

so let's just, let's just slow, slow pedal that just in

24:10

case. I'm just saying maybe part of their success in the

24:12

thirties was, it was just a lot of fun to say

24:14

boond. Yeah. Um, you

24:17

know, marketing is important. So there's one

24:19

guy's been tormenting him. And then when

24:22

Steve is trying to stop there, the whole

24:24

thing is that Von Strecker and Von, uh,

24:27

very Nima, Von Strecker are going to blow up that

24:29

his work. Where in

24:32

real life there was a giant American

24:34

boond rally. And

24:37

in this comic world, they're going to blow it up and they're

24:39

going to make martyrs out of them. And it's going to be

24:41

almost like an American version of the Rex tag. Right.

24:44

And this guy's like, that

24:49

means if you don't know what that means, a

24:51

shame on you and B, uh,

24:53

you got a lot of reading to do. But

24:56

the guy's like, I'm not, I didn't sign up for this.

24:58

Like I didn't sign up for killing people

25:00

and I've kind of liked that. It's like you

25:02

can, you know, not every bad guy

25:04

has to be a hundred percent evil. And he's,

25:07

he's so, I liked the shape of him. Well, you know, there's,

25:09

there's, there's a line and this is too far. And, and

25:12

that was good. And again, Meyer

25:15

Lansky is a good guy in this. And

25:18

he's not fine. It's just, I'd like it a lot.

25:20

I thought the Dr. Strange bit where he's the doll

25:22

was funny, but also kind of stupid, but kind of

25:24

funny. It

25:26

was, it was, it was like one

25:29

step too much. It's

25:31

like, you know, like don't show too much. Like

25:34

one or two too many jokes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

25:36

But then one of the couple of them would

25:38

land anyway. No, it was funny. It was well

25:40

done. The art was,

25:42

this was a film artist. This is going to be a theme

25:44

of the show. Len Medina filling in for Jesus. Um,

25:47

not, uh, Jesus. Marino is either regular.

25:50

I believe so. Uh, it wasn't

25:52

as good, but, um, page 23, you got a

25:54

squat ass cap. He looks like hell boy. As

25:59

the same page. Like in Sharon's why does she

26:01

have a chin thing? What is what is

26:03

going on with that communications? Anyway,

26:06

I enjoy this book. It's it's much

26:08

better than the previous volume Yes,

26:12

I didn't finish that I actually stopped reading.

26:14

Yeah. Yeah, we posted I Just

26:17

you're right. Like the demon part is It

26:21

I don't see the flashback then everything we go now is caps

26:23

being torn by the demon I go never why yeah, and I

26:25

don't need I don't want to find out that the

26:28

demon was part of the earlier story It doesn't need to

26:30

be so I thought you know if we're doing Where's

26:33

it one of the one of the books to be Miller the other

26:36

cat hydro cap becomes the new Flag

26:38

smasher and I was like, that's alright that works for me.

26:41

Right but like the villain here should be something

26:43

like that because If

26:46

you're talking about parallel structure, you've got the the

26:48

story before is, you know, that kind of evil

26:51

It's really evil. Right? Exactly. And

26:53

so right exactly So that's weird

26:56

to have it in the other thing, but no

26:58

all things equal. I'm reading it. I Just

27:01

opened the wrong comic up. But what's that? I think for seven

27:03

hundred eight, which means gonna take a few minutes to open The

27:05

right one up. First of all,

27:07

I love the cover by Alex Ross of

27:09

the giant brain. It's just

27:11

so very 60s sci-fi Chasing

27:17

the people that ask before You

27:20

know what's interesting reading this issue. This is Ryan

27:22

North and Yvonne Fiorelli and So

27:24

finally here we have the moment in which everyone returns

27:27

The the building the back to building returns

27:30

the people return. I found

27:32

myself Kind of

27:34

going. Oh Man, I kind

27:36

of liked the way it was going with just the

27:38

four of them yeah,

27:41

I was really enjoying that dynamic to have all the

27:43

kids back and You know in

27:45

the in the real world should these

27:47

people be real obviously very happy that all their

27:49

children have returned But as just

27:51

in my fake comic world, I'm really just reading these stories

27:53

I was like, oh man, I was really kind of just

27:55

enjoying this tight cast of the four of them and now

27:58

we've got I mean I

28:00

know two ways on it and one is

28:02

that yes, you're right I guess but two

28:04

is that they're motivating factor this entire time

28:07

and the tension that was going into the

28:09

background Was that

28:11

this other story was happening and then two

28:13

is because I have an affection for these

28:15

characters I wanted to see their work rewarded

28:18

like I Felt for

28:20

them, which is kind of interesting Two

28:24

things that I really liked about

28:26

this and it's such a broken record at this

28:28

point to be like Ryan North Fantastic Four is

28:30

so fucking smart. I can't stand it opening

28:33

up with a

28:36

60s talk show Dick

28:39

Cavett type show where the guest

28:41

is an incredibly intelligent person talking

28:43

about Complicated and intelligent things which

28:45

is a real thing that happened

28:47

and does not happen now. No

28:49

was such

28:52

a cool Thing

28:54

because a the Fantastic Four born out of

28:56

that era Yes, you

28:58

know you have a guy come on and they talk

29:00

about physics Carl Sagan was a regular guest

29:02

on talk shows, you know I

29:06

know that there's no digress Tyson or whatever, but it is not

29:08

the same like dick cabin Yeah,

29:11

I mean they would have real thinkers on

29:13

those kind of thing I just thought that's really

29:15

beautiful as a thing to sort of call

29:18

back to Um secondarily,

29:21

I really liked it took me a little while there.

29:23

I remember what the hell was going on But

29:26

I really liked that the

29:29

meta mind the the quote-unquote villain

29:33

our conception of it changed through the story and it

29:37

became At

29:40

first you thinking that reads just humor him or

29:42

whatever, but they're not there They're you know, like

29:44

no you're you're you're something special We're not going

29:46

and and so then what

29:48

happens to it is is really sad

29:51

and it's a wonderful an efficient

29:53

reversal of Expectations that

29:55

happens in this that

29:57

that I mean that's deft That's

30:01

really creepy this version of it where it's

30:04

the China brain which is the concept of the in

30:06

the 60s talk show of this Almost

30:10

like a human computer Like

30:12

where that where intelligence gets scattered across multiple nodes

30:14

of people and I thought that was interesting within

30:17

the how having the computer It's not a new

30:19

concept having this you know someone a

30:21

creepy a creepy entity inhabiting Oh, you know a

30:23

sweet little girl or whatever But it like I

30:25

thought the way that the if the way that

30:28

these random people in New York Were talking to

30:30

the domestic for through the meta mind was creepy

30:32

and good Yes, it was and I

30:34

kept going that wouldn't happen and then I was like

30:37

that would happen Because they're

30:39

getting stupid rewards that aren't even like a

30:41

real thing Right, but I I

30:43

was like I can't tell myself that wouldn't happen because

30:45

I don't believe it A couple of other things when

30:47

I by the way just flipping through this as I

30:49

flip through it I was like I can't believe this

30:51

much happened in what seems like this

30:53

few pages. It's kind of amazing You

30:56

have that wonderful page Where

30:59

they they write a note to doom and

31:01

just the subtle way which that is Portrayed

31:05

because he wants to like he'd want to know that the kids

31:08

are back and okay And

31:10

that's all they give you just a little bit and

31:12

then finally like after the letters page. There's one more

31:14

little page Where like

31:16

we get that little? Cliffhanger,

31:19

you know like well could be this

31:21

problem and then we close the issue

31:24

Um, that's a fucking master class.

31:26

It's a wonderful comic It's

31:28

it's better than we deserve It's

31:32

I I did finish reading this going. You know what we've

31:34

said it many times But i'll say it again

31:36

This is what the what I said in my head and i'll send you

31:38

on the show If we've had so

31:40

many years now of good fantastic for comics

31:42

and it's been just wonderful You

31:44

people don't understand them You probably do because you read comics

31:47

just like we do but like it was it was a

31:49

desert and I'm including the hickman Running that because it may

31:51

have been great, but it wasn't It

31:54

was not for you. No, it wasn't fantastic for

31:56

uh, you know in the way that

31:58

I understand it. They weren't in blue I

32:01

don't like yeah, yeah, it's true. They weren't white There's

32:04

a dragon guy. They were just walking around the

32:06

city in your white outfit It's it I

32:09

mean that's a nice in the shadows my

32:11

kid wanted some white Chuckies, and I was

32:13

like dude That's

32:15

not gonna work for you. He got them and

32:17

they're brown as shit already. You got a water

32:21

It's only so far you can go though. They're the white

32:23

ones not the natural color. There's a difference. I

32:26

have the white ones Yeah,

32:28

you're an adult that's

32:30

true, you're not running around patreon.com/I

32:34

fanboy. Hey everyone. We're back. We're

32:36

back with another year of shows

32:38

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32:43

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32:49

Helping us just you know keep the show going

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32:53

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had a bunch of new people join the last one they had

33:20

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33:23

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33:25

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33:28

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Hopefully this is this year. We'll add a couple more if

33:58

I'm gonna come slash support is our PayPal And

36:00

they all seem to be in small low

36:02

ceiling rooms and they were comprised completely of

36:04

close-ups And I was like this is terrible

36:07

Like this is worse than a than

36:10

a Marvel TV show hallway fight. It was It

36:13

was it was really like short-cutty and I thought

36:15

this is not the bombass I kind of fight

36:17

like it was in that it was like in

36:20

a regular room with a low ceiling and then

36:22

I was like And so like the fight would

36:24

start and and kingpin and tombstone Immediately

36:26

just get into a bear hug that lasts seven

36:28

pages It was the

36:31

wall like the brutality of it because they

36:33

were in close-quarter combat. They were headbutting They

36:35

were biting like it felt like a brutal.

36:37

No, there was no dynamism to how it

36:39

was Shown though.

36:42

It didn't give I don't know if that's what this is about, right?

36:44

It's a gang war in the streets in New York It's not like

36:46

it's a big tiny room, but there was like a bunch of people

36:48

like it I don't know. I just I think I

36:50

think it could have been done better. I just

36:52

did no it could be page four or Location

36:55

for apparently now pages are called locations

36:58

They don't like that Kingpin should

37:00

be the tallest guy in that shot He's

37:03

he's all the only person taller than this Peter he's

37:05

you know shorter than tombstone shorter than she Hulk like

37:07

he should be the biggest guy in that room and

37:11

That's he's just too short There

37:15

is a thing about and you're not wrong, I'm not disagreeing

37:17

with you, but there is a thing where Kingpins

37:21

one of those characters could be drawn a much different ways,

37:23

but he does have to be tall and

37:25

big and posing I don't disagree with you. They're also

37:27

the moment where he yells at typhoid Mary which totally

37:30

goes counter to their relationship as shown

37:32

in action books, but They

37:36

covered that really nicely though with how she

37:38

ended that bit Right, like it

37:41

makes you mad and you fight so good and I

37:43

was like that's actually really good But why is she

37:45

typhoid Mary again? I had to read her whole

37:47

Wikipedia page after that Wait a

37:49

minute She's gonna put

37:51

Mary again the accent books She's got that

37:53

late 80s comic indie comic book

37:56

hair that was just like that Matt

37:58

Wagner It's terrible That's

38:00

what all the women look like from like 88 to 91. And

38:03

it's terrible. Yeah. I

38:08

know what you're talking about like with that page of

38:10

like the two faces, if you're

38:13

on digitally, page 16. But

38:17

like all the rest of them, like it's

38:19

just too close quarters. Like the rooms are

38:21

too small. They're both in exactly the same

38:23

location. The colorist just did one in pink

38:25

and one in green. It's like he was on a

38:27

deadline and had to go quick. Maybe.

38:32

Anyway. But it's also, I mean,

38:34

it's not a big climactic battle in the story. We

38:36

still have, this is going to end in March. It's

38:39

not that. It's just, I just thought it was

38:41

boring looking. When

38:43

I saw Thanos on the list, Thanos number two, I thought, am

38:45

I reading that? I did read that. I

38:48

did too. I had to like do a lot of research. I

38:50

was like, I never read one. We're good. I

38:52

thought we did. Wasn't it

38:55

a picture pic? I didn't read. I looked through it. I'm fairly

38:57

certain we talked about it. I

39:00

don't trust you, but I also don't trust my

39:02

memory. What

39:04

I think about this book is, this is like

39:06

the Christopher Cantwell all stars in that every

39:10

major character in this book is a broken

39:12

genius. And

39:14

that's what he excels at. So in this issue we have

39:17

Reed and Dr. Strange and Tony Stark and Emma

39:19

Frost all dickering. I know you had Bruce Banner

39:21

in the mix, all dickering in the very

39:24

entertaining Christopher Cantwell

39:26

way, especially enjoyed the scene where nobody wanted

39:28

to call in Bruce Banner. They were all too scared to. And

39:31

I just thought, this is like he's taking every

39:33

character type that he is really

39:36

good at known for writing on television or whatever and putting

39:38

them in a room together. And I thought

39:40

this is enjoyable in that sense. Birds

39:43

of Prey number five. I've

39:46

enjoyed the hell out of this series up to now, but

39:48

I don't know if I have anything to say about this

39:50

issue. So please. What about this comic and

39:53

the next one? We'll

39:55

talk about Birds of Prey number five and I guess

39:57

parallel Shazam number seven, but I'll do

39:59

them separately. separately, is

40:01

that this was the first

40:03

issue with a fill-in artist and the artist's name

40:06

was Aris Dean and I read it quickly, I

40:08

thought it said artist Dean. I just did, I

40:10

thought I screwed up. No, it's like

40:12

art calls by artists. I was like, yeah, the artist did it. No,

40:16

very, very, very, very different style

40:19

than has been on the book so

40:21

far from Leo, who

40:26

is it? Leo Nardo. Who

40:29

is it? Leo who? Leo not going to work here anymore. Leo

40:33

may have loved... No, that doesn't sound

40:35

right. You say

40:37

what you're saying, I'm going to look that up while you're doing

40:39

it. Dart before in the previous

40:41

issues was magnificent. Yeah, it's

40:43

the cover artist. It's

40:48

Leonardo Romero. Okay, there

40:50

you go. Leonardo Romero and Geordie Bolero... He played

40:52

the Joker in the 60s, right? And

40:55

the previous style is very

40:57

sort of grounded and the colors

41:00

are muted and this

41:02

is like totally different and

41:04

not necessarily bad but

41:07

the colors are really bright and

41:09

garish and the art style

41:11

is very sort of sexier, like in the

41:13

very first panel we're looking right up Dinah's

41:17

scratch and

41:20

it was just a whiplash and I don't

41:22

know why you would go that different for

41:25

a film artist. I

41:27

feel like you need to try to find someone more

41:30

closely in the style of the book. I mean it

41:32

may have been a last minute business is who we

41:34

get. There's all sorts of things that can happen. It

41:38

doesn't feel like a last minute film

41:40

because these pages are jam packed with art. I

41:42

don't even mean like that but like given the

41:44

schedule you got to get somebody in, this is

41:46

who's available, we'll have to go with this. I

41:49

don't know. I mean at that point

41:51

it's almost better to have the book be late because

41:53

it's a certain type of book and you're going in

41:55

a different direction with the art. Again, I'm not Saying

41:57

the art's bad. I'm

42:00

feel appropriate and better than you.

42:02

I suggest this is just around

42:05

style. It's a bummer because it

42:07

happened and I'm guessing maybe. Maybe.

42:10

The original artist Lake in the like had

42:12

to get off earlier couldn't get to the

42:14

Swan are like they are way behind them

42:16

as all sorts of things could happen. But

42:18

you want an artist on the whole arc.

42:21

And it was a good. The art was really

42:23

a big part of what made this the the

42:25

book Great! The script does a lot of work

42:28

but. I'm and I have. I

42:30

agree with you. And.

42:33

Also the effort of it's sort of panel

42:35

else are still some bonkers on of i

42:37

didn't that so he could ways is very

42:39

busy a lot happening but. As

42:41

well as bit a man the same thing for Sam

42:44

says and or seven. Mark Waid,

42:46

and previously had been dead more, "I don't

42:48

know kicked and more can try everything even

42:50

though he was fairly try and" This

42:53

was the big issue in which. says. Their

42:56

Mark the Captain fights Black Adam and Eve

42:58

assume that forever to Big action Issue

43:00

hamstrung by Gordon Suzuka who is a

43:02

great artist. Not. A big superhero

43:04

guy. Not a big action

43:06

guy. More. Of an indie

43:09

comics vibe guy. And

43:11

so. This was a big

43:13

disappointment and I go big fan. Going said

43:15

Sucre as month away. say the name but

43:18

that's all I can do. Think

43:21

that's right. Well, there's economic

43:23

Zuma, have it with the doses as a

43:25

But the thing is every time I see

43:27

Goran Suzuki I get excited because I think

43:29

it's gonna be gore and par love and

43:31

Brother and Eight Assists is this was disappointing.

43:34

Again, like not a bad artist but bad

43:36

for the book. Like a bad choice. Yep

43:39

and. Promises. This in better

43:41

to switch on to have Gourds Zuko job birds

43:43

of prey. And. Or his

43:45

team drop Sam. It

43:48

that might have been more appropriate than than

43:50

this and he also likes of Aca goran

43:52

didn't. Couldn't. Figure out how he

43:54

wondered draw the captain himself into the

43:56

faces constantly different. as only

43:58

one point of were uttered Where

44:01

the um, the face actually looked like Captain

44:03

Marvel or should look like... You can call

44:05

him Captain Marvel. You

44:07

should. I'm trying to be good. No.

44:10

But the face is totally different every time and there was

44:12

one point, there was like a profile

44:14

shot where they were like, oh that looks like Captain Marvel

44:16

is supposed to look but the rest of them didn't. It

44:18

just was kind of a mess and again, from an artist

44:20

I really like, just not the

44:22

right book for that artist. Just not right.

44:26

And uh, it was disappointing. You're

44:28

not right, Goran. Look at you. You're not right.

44:31

I stand for it. I

44:33

stand for it. A terrific artist. Star Wars corner,

44:36

Darth Vader, number 42. While

44:40

the break was away, the Dark Droids

44:43

storyline, which was the big event

44:45

that was going across all the Star Wars books,

44:47

which was also great. It

44:49

was great. I don't know how much you enjoyed

44:51

reading comics on the break. I'm telling you,

44:53

I really did. I mean maybe it was just because

44:55

I was so miserable all the time that I could

44:59

escape in those things. Excuse me.

45:03

And Darth Vader, it sort of touched on it.

45:06

Basically a bunch of droids, a droid takes

45:08

over everything and the idea is that they want to start

45:11

to be able to take over... They take

45:13

over all the droids. They want to be able to take over organics too. And

45:15

one of the ways they get there is by going through

45:18

people who are somewhat organic and robotic. And as you know, Darth

45:20

Vader is one of those characters. So the last issue was this

45:22

thing where... What about

45:25

Lobot? Yeah, he was taken

45:27

over. He's one of the reasons that they could get into,

45:29

quote, the meat. It

45:32

was a really good story. And at

45:34

the end of the last issue, it looked like they took over Darth Vader. And

45:36

as we get to this one, it turns out that no, of

45:38

course you didn't take over Darth Vader. He took over you. Whatever

45:43

it was. But there's this ongoing... You know

45:45

how the... It's

45:48

in the prequel actually. It's like the Sith always

45:51

to their... They have a kid try

45:53

to take each other. That's kind of what this book

45:55

is. It's just Darth Vader being

45:57

fucked with by the Emperor constantly.

46:00

And goaded into trying to get

46:02

more power so that he can work out the word

46:04

boss He

46:06

is but it's ridiculous. It's 42 issues of

46:08

this run There

46:11

was another 30 something of the other

46:13

one and that's all it is. It's like

46:16

They've made a very good choice on this

46:19

is Greg Pock and Adam Gorham They've made

46:21

a very good choice of this to not

46:23

try to get deep about Darth Vader, right?

46:26

It's not what's going on. It's

46:28

it's the Palpatine's a dick Invader

46:31

and like there's a bunch of

46:34

like Imperial hangers on who are like, yeah

46:36

We'll fuck with Vader and Vader kicks the

46:38

shit out of him, which palpatine also loves

46:41

That's all it is What

46:44

is the time frame in this again? This

46:47

one is um, I

46:50

want to say either before or after Empire but

46:52

in the middle of them So

46:55

again is Luke also attacked for having the

46:57

metal Yeah, like they basically the idea is

46:59

they have adventures in between it, but it's

47:01

all been very careful To

47:05

not it doesn't change any of the story doesn't

47:08

doesn't really add a lot Luke hasn't lost his

47:10

hand yet No,

47:12

no, no, you're right. So it's all pre-empire. I

47:14

think he's not a to not a man. What's

47:16

also made a metal He's I'm also I'm

47:18

getting mixed up. I'm also reading that Zahn book. You

47:20

gave me last year the the scoundrels book I'm not

47:22

even far in but that takes place in the same

47:24

time period. So I was trying to make sure I

47:26

didn't screw that up but no

47:29

guy said like it's not It's

47:31

it's smart because it is not trying to

47:34

explain or elucidate anything that happened to me

47:36

It's just separate adventures, which is

47:38

kind of what we always wanted and we were

47:40

kids I want to see adventures of this it's

47:42

not enhancers and and and trying to get

47:44

deep on it. That's not what's happening Anyways,

47:48

you know, this has been great for a while and you know that

47:50

whole event was good and this is another good issue So

47:53

those books gonna talk about those other books we could admit

47:55

mention all kinds of other books We've got a perspective of

47:57

the story and love everlasting, but we don't have time for

47:59

that We have to go

48:01

to the Patreon picks. patreon.com/iFamboy, every patron of the show

48:03

gets a vote every week. They had a bunch of

48:05

the rundown. This week the winner, far

48:08

and away, was Pine and Marimac, number

48:11

one from Boom Studios, written

48:13

by Kyle Starks with art by Fran Galom

48:16

and letters by Pat Brussaux, and

48:19

another Kyle Starks book, another

48:22

publisher. Let's jump

48:24

in. Did you notice that they're called

48:26

the Kents? They're

48:28

the Kents, and her name is Linnea, L-I-N-N-E-A,

48:32

which I'm not convinced is an actual

48:34

name, but at some point they said

48:36

they're the Kents, and I was like,

48:38

huh. And it's not

48:40

like there's a metaphor going on here, although

48:42

she doesn't not look like Lois Lane in

48:44

the current comics. So

48:48

this is a married couple, Private Eye Team.

48:50

The wife was a homicide detective whose

48:52

sister went missing when she was a child that

48:55

spurred her on to become a cop.

48:58

Her husband is a, was

49:00

a boxer, who was okay, not a great boxer, but

49:02

was a boxer nonetheless. He's the muscle,

49:04

she's the brains, and

49:06

they are Private Eyes. She moves

49:08

back to her hometown, which normally means they

49:11

moved to some podunk place out of nowhere,

49:13

but instead it's a really wealthy

49:15

community, you know,

49:17

in a natural area, like imagine a Colorado

49:19

or where I live up by Lake

49:22

Winnipesaukee. There's a place called Wolfborough and like rich

49:25

people live there. It seems more like that, because it's

49:27

James Port, established 1752. Sounds

49:30

like it's more like a Maine, like a wealthy

49:32

Maine town. Right, but like, you know, rich

49:35

people buy property and they live there, but it's also, there's

49:37

an element of sort of counties and

49:39

stuff, and there's a biker bar, and it's, you know, you make

49:41

it up, it's whatever it needs it to be. And

49:46

one thing that I think was great is

49:49

the relationship between the husband and wife in this, I

49:51

think is my favorite part of it, is

49:54

that like he is utterly committed to her.

49:57

He's not in charge, she is, but... given

50:00

the chance, he will beat some fuckers up and he'll beat

50:02

them up good. Which

50:05

is just a little bit of like, that's Kyle Starks

50:07

there. Like he's always gotta have a really tough guy

50:09

somewhere. That's true. His

50:11

name's kinda boring here. But in this, you know,

50:13

you have it. I

50:16

thought it looked really good. I

50:19

know that, I've heard the name Frenkel on somewhere.

50:21

There's some other book that we read. It looks

50:23

like, what does it look

50:25

like? It looks like a book that, looks

50:28

like a Mark Miller book. I wouldn't be shocked if

50:30

Mark Miller snaps up this artist at some point soon.

50:33

But it is just like regular people done in

50:35

a... Exaggerated.

50:38

Exaggerated, almost animated, cartoony style,

50:40

I think. But

50:42

kinda sketchy at the same time. Kinda loose

50:45

and like, you know, you can see,

50:47

it's digital but you can see the art of

50:50

it. So,

50:54

you know, I'm trying to remember what the

50:56

story is because I'm remembering situations. Some

50:59

people come in and they say... There's a girl missing that's similar

51:01

to what her sister went through. We find out at the very

51:03

end that she's like, she's hidden

51:06

in this facility in the woods

51:08

of clearly Maine. Someone

51:11

has abducted her and her turn will be soon. It's,

51:13

you know, creepy and dark. What's

51:16

funny about it is that she's like, I'll take this one. And

51:18

he's like, we don't do that. And then she's like... Okay, they

51:20

only do non-serious cases. They do,

51:22

well not not, but they do cheating spouses and

51:24

they do frauds. They don't do murders, they don't

51:26

do kidnappings, but now they are. Well,

51:29

the thing with this is she's like, this is just like my

51:31

sister. And I was like, you actually just said it. Like

51:34

you told us, I don't think you needed to,

51:37

but you know, that's fine. There's

51:39

a long scene in the middle where

51:41

a guy comes in and like he's

51:44

trying to get them to find his wife cheating and

51:46

it turns out he's an asshole and she turns the

51:48

tables on him, which has nothing to do with the

51:51

plot whatsoever, but it was very enjoyable. You

51:53

know, we learned about the character, Sue, that. I

51:57

actually, my least favorite part was the husband. I

52:01

thought he was kind of a caricature

52:03

and not as well-rounded as

52:05

the other characters in the book he

52:09

is almost comically in love with his life and

52:13

Not that it's the bad thing, but it's so

52:15

like kind of he has no other personality than

52:17

that I would suggest and

52:19

I don't think that you're wrong, but I

52:22

feel like it's a comment on the

52:24

female character That is

52:26

always this person in this situation It's

52:30

the kind of thing like what's her name Betty

52:32

in? Rocketeer

52:35

or almost literally

52:37

any female character in Betty

52:40

Draper or Yeah,

52:44

like like just the women like Like

52:46

smart intelligent women who are around people who are

52:48

completely fucked up and like that the male lead

52:50

of any given TV show. I Don't

52:53

know like I kind of think they made him that

52:55

way on purpose like he's he's like he's like the

52:57

family dog In a way.

52:59

Yeah, he almost feels like a character

53:01

from another Kyle Starks book It's not this one because

53:04

this one is more sort of ground and

53:06

realistic than the stuff he's written in the past And

53:08

this he feels more exaggerated Like

53:11

he said lots of serious head injuries and there's

53:14

nothing else to his personality, but Like

53:16

making her a drawing You

53:18

know, yeah, I think it'd be much more

53:20

interesting if he was more of a human being So when he

53:22

does get to like Terminator mode, it's much more interesting than Maybe

53:25

for me anyway, but I didn't just

53:27

like it. I thought this was fun. I didn't love

53:29

it I thought it was solid now. I'll keep reading

53:31

it, but I will disappointed. I didn't love it, but

53:33

I did like it a lot because I Like

53:37

Kyle Starks work, but one of

53:39

the things I like about him is you don't really know

53:41

what to expect Mm-hmm, and

53:44

he can do wacky and he's

53:46

done enough sort of down-to-earth II things and

53:49

there's This is pretty

53:51

straightforward, I mean honestly it's it's private detective

53:53

story I mean they were gonna find hopefully

53:55

it's not gonna be like all the other

53:57

wish we find out the demon

53:59

who controls into the world or whatever, who knows? But

54:02

you know, it's pretty grounded, but there's a

54:04

little bit of his unique

54:08

perspective, I think, in here. I

54:10

really like the art. I thought

54:12

the art was fantastic. Yeah,

54:17

I enjoyed it. I didn't love it, but I really liked it.

54:20

So Pine and Merrimack, number one from

54:22

Boom Studios, ratings. Ratings

54:25

at a five. I just thought of the part where

54:27

they explained the name of their detective agency and the

54:29

title. Like, what is it? The

54:31

streets, it's where they connect.

54:34

It's pretty good. Four.

54:39

I'm gonna go three and a half. Sticking with

54:41

it. It's a soft four. Yeah.

54:45

Creepshow. Maybe I

54:47

saw them in Creepshow. Yeah,

54:51

I'm gonna read the next one. Yeah. patreon.com.

54:55

You can vote to add the book to the

54:57

rundown if you're a patron. Everyone can, please do.

55:00

Thank you for voting. Let's also keep

55:03

the patron power. Patron love, glory to the patron power. This

55:05

is the reward that you get if you're a patron at

55:07

the $5 or higher level. It's not really on the rewards

55:09

tier. It's just something we do for fun. And

55:12

I thank you for being a patron. So this week,

55:15

the winner is Gabriel Joseph. He

55:17

has two names, two

55:19

first names. Gabriel Joseph is

55:21

a human old-timey stock ticker. What I mean by

55:23

that is if

55:25

you ask him a question, his

55:27

mouth will open and an old-timey stock ticker will start

55:29

coming out with the stock ticker noise and it'll have

55:31

the answer on it. It could

55:34

be short if it's a short answer, but if

55:37

it's a long answer, and also it comes out in

55:40

the backwards order. So like, you know, you're used to reading left

55:42

to right, but the stock ticker comes out, you got to read

55:44

it straight as it comes out. So

55:46

everything's backwards. Does

55:49

that make sense? I'm just, all I'm thinking about is

55:51

where this came from. It

55:53

does. It did nowhere. It came from the depths of my

55:55

brain. Yeah, that's

55:58

fair. high to

56:00

15, 15 places, it was just coming out. Does

56:06

he keep a glass? He

56:08

doesn't have a dome over his head. Glass cover over his head.

56:11

No. Should

56:16

have. I just love an old sock ticker. I know.

56:19

You could, like, if there was like a quiz where

56:23

they said, we're gonna give you the name of a

56:25

bunch of things and you tell us if Connor likes

56:28

it or not. Like, it

56:30

was like, likes it, doesn't like it. And they

56:32

said, old timey sock ticker. Pretty much old timey

56:34

anything, I'm pretty safe to go with. But

56:36

it's like, that's got everything. It's sort of

56:39

just far enough that it's not quite in

56:41

our lifetime. It's a New York City thing.

56:44

It has to do with ostentatious wealth.

56:47

It's patently ridiculous and you'd like to

56:49

have it in your living room. I

56:51

would love it. I know. You know,

56:54

you could be like, hey, Gabriel, did

56:56

Connor and Trash ever talk about Captain America? And

56:59

it'd be like, the answer would come out. So

57:02

that's also part of it, is the knowledge.

57:05

Well, there you go. But Gabriel doesn't know what

57:07

it's the ticker that does. Yeah. Think

57:10

about that for a minute. I mean, well, here's the thing. Is the

57:12

ticker part of him? It's

57:15

a mystery. You

57:17

have to ask the ticker. Can

57:20

the ticker be removed and he still lives? I

57:23

don't even know where it would be. Instead

57:26

of magic, it comes, just appears. It's

57:29

not like he's got a spool of paper in his stomach that sticks,

57:31

it just comes out. It does stop

57:33

though. It's not constant, right? Right.

57:36

It's not constantly regurgitating. Question's

57:39

answer to stops. He's gotta remember

57:41

to breathe through his nose or he gags. Yeah,

57:43

if you get a fluffy nose, it's all over. patreon.com/FM

57:46

boy. Thanks for being a patron, Gabriel.

57:49

You can be one also at the $5 high level to get

57:51

your own superpower live on the show. Thank you very much. Do

57:54

you wanna do one or do you wanna wrap it? It's

57:57

two, one. Do the first one. Scott.

58:00

from Portland, Oregon, one of our regular

58:02

letter writers, Scott Ritson. I've been thinking

58:05

about this question basically my whole life. I'm

58:07

very pedantic and I try to keep it to

58:10

myself, but whenever someone calls

58:12

a trade paper back collection a graphic novel, it

58:14

makes my teeth hurt. It's not a big

58:16

deal, but it's technically wrong. It

58:18

made me wonder though, do you ever find yourself getting

58:20

pedantic about anything in the world of comics? This could

58:23

be how people talk about the industry, characters, or creators,

58:26

whatever follows your pedantic boat. This is

58:28

your chance to talk about it in a safe space. I

58:30

mean Scott, I know you're familiar with the

58:32

show. There

58:35

are no examples of

58:37

that. I mean the

58:39

very easy one, the very, very easy

58:41

one is we're super pedantic about the numbers, about

58:45

the Marvel numbering or any re-numbering, it's

58:47

mostly Marvel. I'm

58:50

really, really pedantic about the

58:52

titles. I'm

58:54

very pedantic about saying the proper title, I

58:56

think comic fans in general, it's not

58:58

just comic fans, but for whatever

59:01

reason always drop the direct and indirect articles

59:03

off the titles themselves and call it Amazing

59:05

Spider-Man to The Amazing Spider-Man. I'm very thin

59:07

about that. Do you always write The Amazing

59:09

Spider-Man? Yeah. You

59:11

know there's such a thing as colloquial shorthand though. Yeah,

59:14

but it's not the title of the book. The title of the book

59:16

is The Amazing Spider-Man. Same thing as Human Target. I'm

59:20

going back to the videotape motherfucker. It's not

59:23

a registered revenge, it's a registered revenge. It's

59:26

interesting, that's all. I'm very pretending about the title though. We

59:31

always called you the captain, but I think we know what you were captain

59:34

of. A danticism. Is

59:36

that correct? Is that the noun of that? I don't

59:38

know. If

59:42

I had to pick, I'm sure there's lots of things, but the

59:45

only time I ever post

59:47

about comics on

59:49

Instagram is when there are

59:52

lettering and layout mistakes which makes things difficult

59:54

to read. It drives

59:56

me insane. But is that being pathetic? I

59:59

think so. because I think most people, including you,

1:00:02

don't really care about it that much. But

1:00:04

when I see a professional comic book

1:00:06

artist and team put

1:00:09

together a page that does not

1:00:11

read correctly, it drives me insane.

1:00:13

This is all they're there to do. It is

1:00:15

the most important thing to do is to make

1:00:18

sure that it reads clearly. And

1:00:20

you can see where someone screwed up and

1:00:24

then I really like to sort of figure out who, like

1:00:26

if the letterer made it worse, usually the

1:00:28

letterer does their damnedest to help. I've

1:00:31

talked about left-hand panel stacking, but that's just an example

1:00:33

of it. And there's times where you can make that

1:00:35

work. They did it better in older comics and newer

1:00:37

comics for some reason. It's

1:00:39

like storytelling mistakes in

1:00:42

a professional book drive me insane.

1:00:45

I hate it. And

1:00:47

I will point it out every time. There's

1:00:50

one. I do what I mentioned. I even

1:00:52

said Amazing Spider-Man in the show. My point is I

1:00:54

use it when it's like the official use of something

1:00:57

like in the show notes or the scripts or whatever.

1:00:59

But I'm not. But if you're using the version

1:01:01

talking, then you don't need to use it. But

1:01:03

when we write it out. Right. Like

1:01:06

on the website or whatever. That I agree with. Yeah.

1:01:09

So people don't even do that. Anyway,

1:01:13

I mean, there's a million things. I

1:01:16

can't think of any more. Like we're

1:01:18

both, we're both annoyed

1:01:21

about the thing we talked about and

1:01:24

the other one doesn't care. Like

1:01:28

it's such a good example of being pedantic.

1:01:31

Can I say about the worst one in my personal life that is

1:01:33

not the Disney comics? Like if

1:01:35

I'm gonna get divorced, it's gonna be this. Whenever

1:01:38

anybody says you're doing good, I

1:01:41

cannot help myself. I go, well. Well,

1:01:44

yeah, it was just grammar. Everyone should be pretending to

1:01:47

have grammar. Lindsay will like, you did real good. And

1:01:49

I was like, well, shut up. It's

1:01:51

not correct. People

1:01:53

don't care. Yeah, I have that problem with less and fewer. I'm

1:01:57

not good at that. I know there's a difference, but I don't

1:01:59

trust. myself to get it correct. I'm

1:02:03

always saying fewer in my breath, fewer. Daylight

1:02:06

saving time. I

1:02:10

do, there's another one I do, if

1:02:12

they say somebody was hung,

1:02:14

I go hanged,

1:02:18

because if somebody has been, you know,

1:02:21

like killed by the noose, you've been

1:02:23

hanged, not hung. Right, whereas

1:02:25

if you're well endowed, then

1:02:27

you're hung. Exactly, Thomas Chain for example.

1:02:29

All right, well that was fun one

1:02:31

to start the show, to start the

1:02:33

year off with. As a reminder, so first

1:02:36

of all, thanks Scott for writing it. As

1:02:38

a reminder, we wiped clean the

1:02:40

slate of emails last year, so we only have a handful

1:02:42

in the email box right now, but if you, this is

1:02:44

a great chance now to get your email in it, now

1:02:46

that the year started off with

1:02:48

less competition, contact us at fanboy.com is your place to

1:02:50

send us an email in, get on the show. We

1:02:52

thank you very much. You can also write in for

1:02:54

our media splode show, but put media splode in the

1:02:56

title so we know, or the subject line,

1:02:58

so we know what email's for. And

1:03:01

here's where we plug other shows, we just haven't

1:03:03

figured it out yet. We've

1:03:05

just started back on, Ron's

1:03:07

on vacation, we haven't scheduled a media splode record

1:03:10

yet, there'll be a media splode later this month.

1:03:13

Oh God, is there supposed to be a book

1:03:15

splode? Yeah. Well we have

1:03:18

to figure what that's, we

1:03:20

were just on vacation, mere days ago. Not only

1:03:23

that, but you asked stuff before, like you were

1:03:25

asking about stuff before New Year's, and I was

1:03:27

like, fuck off, I'm not answering this now. I'm

1:03:30

not even thinking about it, and if I'm behind, I'm

1:03:32

behind, it's also I was sick, go fuck yourself. We'll

1:03:35

need to figure out when the

1:03:37

media splode is and when the books, did

1:03:39

we talk about a book before the year

1:03:41

ended? Might have, it's gone now. I

1:03:43

was, I was, I was,

1:03:45

I had a fever for days. In your RSV fever

1:03:48

stupor, you think, I think you suggested a book, we'll

1:03:50

figure it out. There will be a book splode, and

1:03:52

there will be a media splode this month. Well,

1:03:54

when those happen, we'll let you know. Same thing with

1:03:56

the patron hangout, we just, we just are not

1:03:58

ready yet. You gotta get your shows. This

1:04:01

is like a soft launch in a restaurant. We're

1:04:04

not quite ready yet. It's all about the service.

1:04:07

Yeah. You

1:04:10

can find our library over 1,300 shows and

1:04:15

counting over at ifanboy.com or

1:04:17

wherever fine podcasts are sold,

1:04:20

distributed, available for download, or

1:04:22

otherwise presented for

1:04:24

your perusal. You can follow us at ifanboycomics

1:04:26

on Instagram to find out that the pick

1:04:28

of the week is before the show comes

1:04:30

out sometimes. You'll get the best of the

1:04:32

week in panels. That should be coming back

1:04:34

at some point, provided there's a lot going

1:04:36

on all the time. We're on vacation.

1:04:39

We're on vacation. Follow us individually

1:04:41

at C.O. Skillpatrick on Instagram and

1:04:43

J.A. Flannigan on Instagram. That's

1:04:47

it. That's for me. I'm done with

1:04:49

that. Subscribe to youtube.com/ifanboy. You'll find our old

1:04:51

video shows plus this show plus the all

1:04:53

media year-round that we put up there for

1:04:55

the first time this past week or this

1:04:57

past month or whatever happened. You

1:04:59

can find all that stuff at youtube.com/ifanboy. You can find

1:05:02

our old videos, our old nonsense and shorts. There's

1:05:09

probably donut talk there. I don't know. That

1:05:12

was a long time ago. Anything could have happened. I don't

1:05:14

remember any of it. So check

1:05:16

it out. Please consider writing an

1:05:18

interview or star rating an Apple podcast or Spotify or if you

1:05:20

get your podcasts. I hope you're hearing this if

1:05:23

you're an Apple podcast listener because apparently they added a thing

1:05:25

where if 15 days go by between

1:05:27

you listening to a show, they

1:05:30

just stopped downloading it to your system. So that's

1:05:32

cool. So hopefully you're

1:05:34

listening to this and hopefully the majority of our

1:05:36

listeners are Apple podcast users. We'll

1:05:39

see how that goes. We

1:05:41

took like two weeks, two and a half weeks off. Mandated

1:05:47

pod fade. I will tell you my friend,

1:05:49

I made liberal use of my mute button

1:05:53

because the call hasn't been that bad but

1:05:55

I've talked more than I have in some time. You

1:05:58

didn't hear me have a. quick head

1:06:00

of Albuterol, for example. You didn't hear that.

1:06:02

I did. There was one cough early on

1:06:05

and I almost made a joke about you not using that

1:06:07

mute button, but then I let it go. So I couldn't

1:06:09

get down here to get off that, so good job. It's

1:06:11

my problem. I've saved myself tens of

1:06:13

minutes of editing. And I figured you'd edit it out, so I

1:06:15

was like, why at some point making a joke, it's gonna get

1:06:17

it out anyway. Fuck it up. Good

1:06:20

job, this was fun. I look forward to this. I look forward

1:06:22

to reading the books, look forward to talking to you. I look

1:06:24

forward to talking to you

1:06:26

all out there in podcast world, and so I'm excited

1:06:28

to be back. I was excited to

1:06:30

share the fact that I had really enjoyed so

1:06:32

many comics in the meantime because I have

1:06:35

a bit of a reputation, I believe. Well, in the

1:06:37

past, usually you're like, nah, we're on brick, I'm not

1:06:39

reading anything. And I'm almost like, you're gonna screw yourself,

1:06:41

and you did it and you had fun. I

1:06:43

think I read half my books because

1:06:45

of the whole Kindle issue, but I'm

1:06:48

making my piece of it and I'm gonna catch up. And,

1:06:52

you know, I think I read. It's

1:06:54

slow, but I'm working it out. Yeah.

1:06:59

All right, well, thanks everybody for listening. We'll be back

1:07:01

next week. Until then, I'm Connor. I'm Josh. Don't

1:07:04

touch anyone. Keep the mask on. Seriously,

1:07:07

it's so... And

1:07:10

if you do, stay away from Josh and anyone in his family.

1:07:13

Next year, starting in late October, we're just

1:07:15

putting a bubble over the house. I'm

1:07:18

not doing this. It happened last year. Last year, I had like

1:07:21

two months off before my job and we were all

1:07:23

sick then too, and this was work. I'm sorry. I'm

1:07:25

just talking about it. Well, there you go. I'm gonna

1:07:27

learn how to play drums now. I

1:07:31

am. I got a drum. Enjoy

1:07:38

Josh's hammer. Hoh. Vocal

1:07:45

auxiliary sound you