13 Years and 580 Episodes: The Pull Bag Anniversary Celebration

Hey, hey, hey, it's Chaos Queen here, and you're

listening to the Geekcast Radio Network. Hey,

it's Jesse Rass, and do you love comic books?

Do you have opinions about comic books? Do you

like hearing opinions on said comic books? Then

you need to make the great escape, and it's a

small leap into another world. We call the Pull

Bag, and you'll only find it here on the GCRN.

otherwise known as the Geek Cast Radio Network.

You've just jumped inside the pull bag. Join

TFG1 Mike and the rest of the comic crew here

at the GCRN as they make their great escape into

comics. From DC, Marvel, and Image to IDW, Boom

Studios, and Xenoscope, we have everything right

here. We cover things like Transformers, He -Man,

Super Heroes, TMNT, and Radiant Black. Yeah,

we have all that and so much more. It's all inside

the pull bag here on the geek cast radio network.

So without further ado, it's time to talk about

the comics we're reading right now here inside

the pull bag, because this is going to be episode

580 of the pull bag. That's right, folks. You

are here in a live recording of the pull bag.

I'm of course, TF2 and Mike. From the Geekcast

Radio Network, you are here live with me, and

unfortunately the pullback listeners don't get

to see all this junk that the video viewers are

going to be seeing. How about a Cybertronic Spree

patch? A Cybertronic Spree Ravage booklet? So

there's that. This came in the mail the other

day, so I gotta watch this. Love this series

with Christian Slater. Can't believe this complete

series is only two discs. That was crazy. My

favorite film from 1993, and no, it's not Jurassic

Park. Airborne. So there's that. And then we

get into the comics in which begins my journey.

Oh, wait, I gotta go back over here to Facebook

because it is the pull bag and I need to get

this. Come in, come in, go back, go back, scroll,

scroll, scroll. You ever just realize, folks,

that half your time online is just scrolling

the doom scroll of life? Alright, so, comics,

folks. The only physical comic books I could

find... in my closet, unfortunately, because

I don't, like... All this stuff back here, all

this, it's Funko Pops. It's toys. It's all that

stuff. It's not actual things. It's not books.

It's not DVDs. It's action figures, or inaction

figures, technically. But anyway, all the stuff

that the people on camera can see, it's toys.

All of the comic books that I could find that

are in my closet, I wanted to find other ones

that I know I have, like the Radiant Black issue

number 10, which was the Blacklight issue, the

first Blacklight issue that Radiant Black ever

did. I actually, in the process of pulling out

these comics that you'll see here in a minute,

I found my Radiant Black box. When they originally

did the Radiant Black box, I could have brought

out the Radiant Black bath bomb that they originally

did. Not doing that, but I do still have my Radiant

Black bath... Radiant Black box from when they

did that. So, yeah. The comics that I found that

I pulled out. The double -size issue 1 and 2

that they originally put out for... Go beyond

the Gotham, you know, DC Black Label. Batman

Beyond the White Knight. This is the showcase

edition number one. This, I forgot, this is issues

one and two of Batman Beyond the White Knight.

Because I kept looking for issue two. I'm like,

where is issue two? Where is issue two? Why am

I missing? It's... Both issue one and two in

this one issue. I forgot about that. That is

so freaking cool to me. I love Sean Gordon Murphy's

Beyond His White Knight Universe. Love that stuff.

Absolutely love it. We've covered it on the pull

bag before. It's in past episodes. I'm trying

to think. Come on, brain work. I want to say

it's... Oh, what episode number is that without

me having to look it up on the schedule? I want

to say it's episodes 317 and 318 of the pullback.

I could be wrong. I'm most likely wrong in that.

But I have never gotten to cover Beyond the White

Knight yet. I don't think I ever started this.

I'm pretty sure I haven't. So gotta cover this

at some point. So we got the first two issues

in this showcase edition. And then I thought

I got I'm gonna have to look inside the ear because

I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure if I got like spoofed

or Something. Because, like, I thought, I didn't

realize this was a regular cover or what, but

when I walked into my local comic shop here in

town, when I walked into the Danger Room here

in Anderson, Indiana, and they gave me the Batgirl

cover, I was like, okay, I'm in love. Look at

this, folks. This is just amazing. Just amazing.

Absolutely love this. This is one of the best

covers ever. So, yeah, absolutely love, love,

love, love it. And then the other comics I was

able to pull out of the closet at the time, I

think there were more of these. I could be wrong,

but my buddy Ryan Drost. He's doing a new one.

I think they just finished up, but Stealth Hammer.

My buddy Ryan Drost did this series called Stealth

Hammer, so I have his first two issues. So I

got that for this one, and I have the second

issue here for this one. And there's a bunch

of postcards and stuff in the back for both of

these, actually. If I can turn around. Both of

them have postcards in the back, so I absolutely

love that. I believe we covered the first series

on the podcast. Obviously, he's doing the second

series now. And, yeah, then we have Livio Ramondelli's

Pencil to Color. So this is Livio Remendelli's

Pencil to Color, and this is all of his covers.

This is showing you how he makes his covers for

his Transformers and I believe his other stuff,

his creator -owned stuff. Sorry, Livio, I'm blanking

on the title at the time. And, of course, everybody

in here is like, or everybody watching this after

the fact of this not being a live video anymore,

Mike, you moron, just take it out of the thing.

Of course, that's what I would do. Is it mostly

his Transformers stuff? What is the name of his...

Oh, God, I'm so sorry, Livio. Yeah, it's pretty

much his Transformers work. Pencil to color.

Why can't I think of his creator -owned stuff?

But yes, it is very much his... I love that series.

Why can't I think of it? We covered it. Hahi

Prime and I covered it on the podcast. Watch,

I bet you I can remember the dang... And yes,

I know this bag is... The board's fine. The bag

is failing. Why can't I think of the dang...

I don't know. Anyway. And then my buddy Tony

Wolf. Good old Tony Wolf. Green point of view.

And other stories. Memoir Tales from the Wolf.

I've got his book. So those are the actual comic

books that I have physical copies of currently.

I do more digital comics. I have so many. Comixology.

And yes, I still call it Comixology even though

it's called Kindle Comics now. But anyway, The

Pull Bag, March 5th, 2013. Now, The Pull Bag

actually has goings -back almost a year prior,

because in 2012, Steve Megatron and I did a little

miniseries on Geekcast Radio. Geekcast Radio

is the flagship show of the Geekcast Radio network,

geekcastradio .com. We did the Death of the Family

Batman New 52 issues 13 to 17. We covered those

on Geekcast Radio as episodes. At the end of

that run, Steve was like, okay, we can't have

this permeate Geekcast Radio. If you want to

cover comics, we need to put it somewhere. We

need to do something with it. I was like, okay.

Sure. What do you want to do? You want to create

a podcast? What? What are we doing with it? He

said, well, let's think of stuff. Let's advertise

stuff. Let's figure something out. So this is

what I wrote up last year for the 12th anniversary

on Facebook. I'm going to read this verbatim,

and yes, I'm reading from my phone. This is why

I had my phone out on Facebook earlier. 13 years

ago today, March 5th, 2013, Steve Phillips VO,

a .k .a. Steve Phillips and I, launched The Pullback,

only on the Geekcast Radio Network. Thank you

for all the arts and all the podcasts over the

years and everything else in between, Steve.

13 years and 579 episodes later. Here we are.

And I go on to say here is episode triple zero

at the time, the introduction. 13 years ago,

and neither of us knew which one of us was going

to take the lead on this show. It turns out it

was me, TFG1 Mike, from the Geekcast Radio Network.

My goals with the pullback were always to not

be predictable, to not be the same old podcast

that covers The Dark Knight Returns just because.

I have no issues towards the story or the art,

but the legacy, like, oh my god, you're not a

comic book podcast unless you cover it. Right.

Uh -huh. Uh -huh. And I still, to this day, don't

think we've ever covered The Dark Knight Returns.

Maybe one of these days. Thank you, Michael Powers,

for coming up with the name of the podcast. So,

we went through names upon names upon names.

Steve went through art upon art. At one point,

it was going to be called The Pull List. Because

you go into the comic workshop and you have...

a pull list and you know you tell them what you

want and they pull it and they add it to your

pull list and that's the list you have and you

can always go in there and change it and everything

else and whatever you can take things off you

can add things to it and yada yada yada so it

was going to be called tpl at one point well

after doing massive amounts of research and that's

the other thing folks research your podcast name

check itunes apple podcasts but itunes apple

podcasts whatever same thing check spotify check

youtube check google check everywhere on the

internet that you can and be sure to hydrate

be sure that your podcast name is Nothing like

any other name out there. Also, be sure to trademark

it, copyright it, whatever you need to do, so

that it is yours. So anyway, we couldn't use

the pull list because it was too similar to another

title. We were having trouble and we were just

posting all over social media, hey, what's a

good title for this comic podcast? We want it

to sound cool. We want it to be this. We want

it to be that. We want it to be an acronym. And

our good buddy, BoothNinja81, a .k .a. Michael

Powers, was like, what about the pull bag? The

pull bag? Oh, yeah. Because you can jump inside

the pull bag today. A light bulb went off in

my head. And I literally, I've been six foot

one practically my entire adult life. I've been

somewhere between 300 and almost 500 pounds my

entire adult life. So I'm a bigger guy, obviously.

I do count as obese, obviously. But literally

when he said the pull bag. What you just saw

me do with, oh, jump inside the pull bag today.

I literally ran around my apartment in circles.

I jumped up out of my chair when I read what

he said. And I was like, huh. I was saying it

over and over and over. I wrote out every single

permutation of how I could say it on the podcast.

So thank you so much, Michael Powers, for that.

I wanted TPB to have a different edge to it.

I wanted it to stay modern at the time in 2013,

to discuss the comics we were reading at the

time, whilst also allowing ourselves to dive

deep into the past. I did this with Back Issue

Classics. Anything before the year 2000 was under

Back Issue Classics. At the time, I also wanted

an interview series. I and others who helped

me came up with, at the time, 25 questions about

how our podcast guests got into and out of reading

comic books. I called it Origins in Comic Reading,

folks. This is how GCRN Origins started. It started

with the pull bag. With Origins in comic reading.

And now, in 2026, we have Origins in comic reading.

We have Origins in all things Transformers. We

have Origins everywhere. We have television Origins.

We have... podcast origins, we have toy cast

origins, we have origins all over the place with

GCRN. It all started with The Pull Bag. To this

day, that series is still going strong, and back

in 2019, we rounded it up, we rounded up the

questions to 30 instead of 25. We've covered

our favorite characters, we've covered comics

from DC, Marvel, IDW, Image, and more. Batman,

Iron Man, Nightwing, Batgirl, Spider -Man, Superman,

Transformers, Jem, TMNT, and so many more. 579

episodes is more than that in actual comic issues.

We used to go issue by issue, then I started

waiting for the trades, because I wanted the

whole story all at once. Thank you to anyone

who has ever listened to the show. To many friends,

guests, and co -hosts. So many friends, guests,

and co -hosts to thank. Kendra Hale, Jesse Raz,

Benji Richards, Bethany Kessler, Ryan Drost of

Star Joes, Jonathan and Maggie Schaefer -Hames,

John M. Wilson. One in 1 ,000 comics! Whoa! You'll

have to check that episode out, folks, and learn

all about that one. Dave McIlvenny, Edward Hale.

Carter Mann, Mike O'Sullivan, Kevin Thompson,

Michael Bailey, Shag Matthews, Delvin Williams,

Donovan Morgan Grant, Brad and Lisa from Comic

Book Couples Counseling, Comic Book Couples Counseling,

that one time in 2018 I was live at Jay's Comics

in Grayslake, Illinois, what an adventure that

was, and so many more. Thank you to all of you

for everything. And so many more to thank. But

rest assured, you all are amazing. From listening

to and being on the podcast and so much more,

what a journey this has been. 579 episodes. Just

21 to go to reach 600. And oh boy, y 'all will

not believe I have. The plan I have for 600.

Some might already know of these plans. I've

been plotting this since 2022. Remember, folks,

to always make your greatest scape into comics.

I can't thank everyone enough. So, yeah. 579

episodes. This is episode 580. I have moved the

TMNT coverage that Joe Reed and I are going to

do down the line. We'll get to it when we get

to it. I want to get back into this podcast.

It's been a year or so since I've been able to

do anything with it. And I miss being able to

do stuff with it. This episode is going to have

a very special podcast art. Steve Megatron made

me a template where I can pick my favorite six

covers over the last 13 years of covering comics.

So if you're listening to this on any of the

podcatching clients you choose to use, Apple,

Spotify, whatever it is, you will get that podcast

art. Or if you're listening on geekcastradio

.com, You'll get that podcast art. But yeah,

I love comics. I love being able to read comics.

For the last almost three years, even though

I haven't been doing stuff with the pull bag,

I've been doing stuff with my buddy Jesse. Uh,

and our other friend, Ryan, Ryan, um, uh, the

uneven flow. I mentioned Ryan Merkley earlier.

Same guy, Ryan, the uneven flow Merkley, my buddy,

Jesse matrix prime and Ryan. We've been doing

Jesse's podcast, uh, another comic review. We've

been doing that almost three years this coming

June, and we've been covering the entire Energon

Universe comics from Skybound, Image Comics slash

Skybound Entertainment. So it's all Transformers,

G .I. Joe, Void Rivals. So I have been doing

comic book podcasting, I just haven't been doing

it here inside the pull bag, because Joe Reed

and I, another... quote -unquote claim to fame

that the pull bag has is that January 22nd 2014

the pull bag published IDW publishing Teenage

Mutant Ninja Turtles volume 1 we published that

podcast where Joe Reed and I reviewed that comic

book trade paperback and when Joe got me to read

that I opened it And I come from the Ninja Turtles

side of things, where it's the cartoon, so it's

the multicolor. It's the, oh, chaos. You put

all my turtles over there on the table, and I

have a giant wall of Transformers right here,

so I can't easily reach them. So, anyway, if

you ever watch the 1987 cartoon, all the bandanas

that they wear over their eyes, over their foreheads

and stuff, They're multicolored, so Leonardo

is blue, Donatello is purple, Raphael is red,

Michelangelo is orange. In the original comic

books that Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created,

all of the bandanas are red. So when Joe Reed

suggested that I read this comic book from IDW

Publishing in 2014, even though IDW had the license

since 2011, Uh, when we got to the point of reading

this in 2014, I got the trade paperbacks for

volumes one, two, three, and four to prepare

for the podcast here for the pull bag. I read

the first like six pages or whatever, the first

page of, of the volume, a full stop. And I messaged

my buddy Joe and I'm like, dude, red bandanas.

Really? Full stop. That's all I said. He messages

me back and says, dude, it's worth it. Keep going.

I'm like, okay. But if you so much as... And

obviously, this didn't come across through in

text and my sound effects didn't come across

through in text. But, and here we are. 2026.

Well, we did get to cover the Armageddon game

opening moves last year. We're almost to the

end of the original IDW Publishing TMNT run.

We've covered almost everything in the main run.

That main run ran from 2011 to 2025? 150 issues?

But because between my arm surgery last year...

God, I can't even see this. Between this surgery

I had last August and between Joe's life stuff

he's got going on, we've had to postpone the

rest of the turtle stuff. So I'm moving it around

so that way the podcast can continue. That's

the whole point of this whole story. So now that

I've moved the turtle stuff around and postponed

it for later, I now have to create a whole new

schedule between episode 581 to 600 because the

plans for 600 to 690, well, let's just say they

involve a certain DC Comics character. Where

he might be a Gray Sun, and he might be a Nightwing,

and I don't know if they're going to work, because

it's all... It's going to require a lot of...

time, love, and tenderness. I can't just believe

I made a Michael Bolton joke. Anyway, so... And

Steve is going to kill me if I do it, but oh

well. As long as the artwork is different every

time, it doesn't matter. Anyway, yeah, so 580

episodes, folks. We are here. This is the 580th

episode for you people listening to the podcast.

For you lovely people watching the live stream,

thank you so much for watching it. I'm sorry

the first 11 and a half minutes were boring as

hell. But yeah, so that's, I think that's going

to do it. No ad break this time for the podcast

listeners. Usually I will put in an ad break

when I'm doing my podcast editing. So you lovely

video viewers, you are kind of getting an inside

baseball look at how I'm publishing or how I'm

doing the, like, normally I would just come on

here and talk. But at the beginning of this,

when I did start the podcast thing, I did do

the whole, hey, I'm TF2 and Mike and you're listening

to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So there's that.

So, yeah, to end the podcast portion of the video

segment, I will say thank you for listening to

The Pull Bag. You can reach us on all the social

media stuff. We're on Twitter. We're on Facebook

and all that good stuff. Check us out. Be sure

to visit geekcastradio .com for all your podcasting

needs from me and my friends and make your great

escape into comics and read comics today. Thanks

for listening as always, folks, and I will catch

you next time. 122, 122 and an eight? 122 and

an eight. Terrific. Where the heck is 122 and

an eight? You're standing on it, dude. Just slip

it down here. Give me that. Hey, this is the

10. The tab's 13. You're two minutes late, dude.

Ah, come on. I couldn't find a place. Wise men

say forgiveness is divine, but never pay full

price for late pizza. Alright folks, I know this

episode was a little unconventional because,

well, it was originally a YouTube livestream,

but there you go. 13 years of the pull bag once

again. Huge thanks to Steve Megatron, the co

-creator of the Geekcast Radio Network, with

me, my best friend in the world, for allowing

me to go on this crazy 579 episode, 580 episode

journey, and all that awesome stuff. I've been

TFG1Mike, and yeah, here's to more. We got new

episodes coming up. I have pushed back the TMNT

coverage. We will get to it. We will always get

to it. Joe Reed and I will definitely do so,

but we got a bunch of stuff coming up here inside

the pull bag. We got 20 episodes to 600. 600

will hit this year in 2026. So thank you, folks,

for listening. As always, we've got plenty more

where this came from. We got 20 episodes to go

to 600. So make your greatest skit in the comics

and jump inside the pull bag today. Catch you

next time. Now, I love s'mores as much as the

next guy, but I'm fresh out of marshmallows.

What do you say we call it a night? You've just

heard the latest episode of The Pullback, the

GCRN's first comic review and discussion podcast.

There are several ways to get in touch with us

and leave feedback for the show. You can visit

the website geekcastradio .com where you can

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at geekcastradio .com. Follow us on Twitter at

ThePullBag and at GeekCastRadio. So until next

time, make your great escape into comics and

unleash the geek in you.