Zenescope Entertainment 10th Anniversary One Shots

Hey, this is Samantha Newark, and you're listening

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everything you want to read right here. Transformers

comics? Yeah, we cover that. He -Man? Yeah, sure.

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and Batman Beyond? Yep, we have those too. How

about TMNT from IDW and I Hate Ferland from Image

Comics? Yeah, we have all that here. Plus, so

much more. It's all inside the pull bag here

on the Geekcast Radio Network. So without any

further ado, it's time to talk about the comics

we are reading right now here inside the pull

bag. Hello and welcome to The Pull Bag. This

is episode 310. I am of course T .F. Joe and

Mike returning from The Pull Bag's graveyard

is J .T. from Saskatoon. I'm back! Dear God,

I'm alive! I don't know. After reading these

next six comics, I'm not sure if you would be

alive at the end of this. Oh, my inner nerd...

inner OCD fiend or at war is like I want to read

the rest of these comics we don't have time we

want to read the rest of these comics because

oddly enough for all the years that I've talked

shit about the grim fairy tales line after reading

these I some part of me wants to go back like

you know some of these stories are well some

of these stories are oddly compelling and some

of them I'm like eh You know Like Steampunk Van

Helsing and Ninja Werewolf Red Riding Hood Yeah,

I kind of want to read those comics The rest

of them So just to get this out of the way folks

scrim fairy tales for those of you that don't

know from Xena skill of entertainment It's basically

horror versions of your favorite fairy tales,

and you might be saying to yourself if you've

been listening to this show or any of the GeekCast

radio network shows, but TF2 and Mike, you are

anti -horror everything. In general, because

I was scarred as a child by Freddy Krueger and

Jason and Michael Myers and all of that, yes,

I am very not a horror film genre person. I just

can't deal with it. However, the characters in

these stories and all of this stuff, it's basically

fairy tale horror theater. Sexy fairy tale horror

theater. Yeah, exactly. It's okay. I can deal.

I love the story. Now, this is not the first

time I've delved into this. For two years, I

don't know how many podcasts, 2015 and 2017,

I did the Robin Hood series from Xenoscope. I

don't know how I even first found out about Xenoscope

Entertainment or the Robin Hood series or Pat

Shand or any of those people. From 2015 to 2017,

writer Pat Shand had been writing Robin Hood

for them. And I'm like, oh, okay, cool. I like

this take on Robin Hood. It's essentially twisting

the fairy tale to the point of having a female

Robin instead of a male. and it turns everything

around and on its ass and whatever else. So I

read the original like three or four or five

trades that Robin Hood was in, then she had an

ongoing. So we did all the ongoings in 2017 and

Steve Megatron decided to tap out of fairy tale

horror theater and I'm like... What weird person

can I get to cover this shit with me? Because

this isn't for everybody. Oh, oh, oh! Over here!

Mike, pick me! Pick me! And I figured, you know,

the weirdest person in Canada. Oh, wow. I just

stole that title from Dodd. Um... Okay, yeah,

probably. Well, I mean... For my whole take on

this is like for years when I say talking shit

about this these comics It's not like I'm putting

them down. It's you know It's like you can't

really talk shit about cheesecake because cheesecake

makes everything better and I certainly would

never talk shit about cheesecake You know, but

I mean you got stuff from like the bad girl Comic

uprising in the 90s with stuff like witch blade

and lady death You know, R .I .P. Brian Polito.

You know, there's a place for it in comics, obviously.

There are fans for this certain genre of comics,

certainly. And I like looking at the nice art.

That's good. It's just... There's a fine line

between too little and too much, and Xenoscope

Grim Fairy Tales straddles that very well. Now,

they're... Actually, they're on, like, the good

side of the fence. On the other side, you got

stuff like... Jim balance tarot which of the

black rose which you know, he's His partner I

don't think they're actually like married or

something But his partner is like this full -on

wiccan the comic is very well informed in the

ways of wiccan and all the rights and everything

unfortunately 98 % of the females that appear

in this comic have huge tracts of land So much

so that they should be falling down face first

every time they stand up straight shared huge

tracts of land Bountiful harvests indeed Mountain

you between those peaks. Okay, I'm done. Yes.

So this series like I And I've seen these all

the time at the comic store. I flipped through

them now and again I'll admit like Mike was saying

Robin Hood with a why? Because you know, it's

a female what first grabbed me about some of

these covers was Greg land has done a number

of these covers over the years and I love me

some Greg land art and I flipped through them

and I mean the story seemed interesting. It's

just, you know, it's like, why don't you watch

this TV series? Why aren't you reading this comic

book? Well, I've already got so much other crap

on my plate. You know, there's stuff that I had

like I, I watched so much TV. I haven't watched

the almost the entire second season Lethal Weapon.

You know, so yeah, and that that's a whole other

ball of wax. So I'm like, I And I did read through

these and I rather enjoyed what they had, you

know, a little confusing because it's, you kind

of need to know other stuff in this series. So

here's the thing, folks. What we're covering

today, three years ago in 2015, Xenoscope Entertainment

celebrated their 10th anniversary. What we are

covering today is the six one -shots, the six

one -shot issues, the 10th anniversary specials

that They had released back in 2015. They released

them from about May through about December. So

they would release one every couple of months

or so, celebrating their 10th anniversary. We

are reading Snow White, Cinderella, Red Riding

Hood, Alice in Wonderland, Van Helsing, and Death.

That is six, right? Yeah. I can't count today.

I can't count on the other day, but still. Um,

yeah, the Xenoscope covers, the variant covers,

oh god, so good. Like, I get it. And they specifically

say in this, you know, age is 15 +, honestly

it should be age is 21 +, but that's beside the

point. Um, some of the main covers are a little,

they show a little bit of stuff, but not much,

but the variant covers, some of those variant

covers on any of these, not just these issues,

but any of the Xenoscope stuff, Oh my god, and

some of the specialty stuff they've done. Like

they've done Comic Con covers and things like

that where certain characters are at San Diego

or at New York or wherever. So very cool. Oh

yeah, like I was doing some research before we

started recording here today and I found, if

I can get the link to goddamn work, I'll put

in the chat for Mike to see. It's a variant cover

from Fan Expo up here in Canada. from a couple

years ago, and it's basically Van Helsing done

up to look like a sexy Captain Canuck, you know,

who's our own Captain America, except he doesn't

have a shield. But yeah, no, I mean, these are

all kind of all over the map in terms of genre

and content and not to knock female characters

in comics. Some of these females I found to be

rather lacking and we'll get into that in the

stories and others I'm like, I kind of want to

see where these stories go. So Exactly. All right,

so we're starting with Snow White's 10th anniversary

one -shot I am NOT the biggest fan of Snow White

and the Seven Dwarfs from Walt Disney. It is

by far one of Disney's worst films ever It's

just all over the place and I don't want to get

too far into my dislike of it. If people want

to listen to why I dislike it, they can go back

almost 10 years to Tooncast episode 29 and listen

to that. I'll put that link in the show notes.

But this I was open to. I was interested in and

whatever. So creative on this. The story is done

by Joe Brucia and Ralph Tedesco. Writer is Lou

Iovino. I assume that's how he pronounces his

name. I've talked to Lou on Twitter. a couple

of times, originally when I read the Cinderella

story. Um, uh, artwork is Manuel Pitano, uh,

colors are done by Vivian Tabouche, uh, letters,

editor, all that good stuff. Um, so basically

we open up in the, uh, Tillamook State Forest

in Oregon, and we have, you know, the tree cutters

and Here's a dwarf with an axe. Well, this couldn't

possibly end badly You could have been killed

what are you doing out here I came to help you

Now the first thing I got to say about this particular

dwarf with his axe Reminded me of the dwarf and

axe from the comic book series skull kickers

because he looks pretty much just like him and

Well, never laugh at a small person in a crazy

situation guys because Next thing you know is

his eyes go red. He's a Zool MFer, Zool. And

then the other six come out and they're all like,

yeah, I'd be darkening my pants about now. Yeah,

because that ain't no Maurice Lamar's grumpy.

That's a really evil grumpy. They're all just

grumpy. Yeah, probably. Yeah. And then the Huntsman.

comes out of the forest who is like this modern

lumberjack looking dude. And he goes to town

and the dwarves and then they swamp him and this

nerd walks, walks out of the forest with a book

and magics the huntsman into the book. Yeah,

magics the huntsman into the book. Yeah, magic

sounds good. It's just like, there's more work

to do. And then this, ooh, ominous. Yes. We go

to Arcane Acre, Green F in Pennsylvania, where

there's yoga going on. Question, Mr. Blanchard.

Uh -huh. What's Arcane Acre? Part of the Grim

Fairy Tales universe. I have only ever read these

six issues and the Robin Hood series I have not

been I have not had a chance to dive into the

rest of Grim Fairy Tales at this point So I'm

gonna go out and let him guess. This is like

some sort of Oh crap what the the school in Harry

Potter God It's not Hogwarts that but it's like

this sort of thing That's a sad fucking thing

that I know the name of a school of movies that

I've never even seen and you don't remember it

That's why I said it look it slipped my mind.

It happened There's a lot of things that slip

your mind that I even live in that country too

long Hey, you don't talk shit about Canada, sir.

I Don't care how much of an idiot our prime minister

is he's leagues better than the origin office

you got going on right now Yeah, yeah, I asked

me I listen again Anyway, I'm guessing from the

setup from what I read in these comics. I'm guessing

this is a Hogwarts like situation is all So yeah,

we got sexy spooky yoga going on Sella who is

in this universe like I said from the research.

I haven't read a lot of these comics. She's a

reincarnation of Snow White Yeah, she's, yeah,

she's a version of Snow White. It's the chosen

one. Yeah, the crazy thing here is, all is I

can think of, now, okay, so the three ladies,

the one in the center is the, not the main, but

it's the yoga teacher person. I forget what her

name is off the top of my head. You got Celia,

or, Sela on the left, and Sela's daughter on

the right. Okay, now, if this was a different

universe, the chicken red would be... Catherine

Sela would be Celia basically cruel intentions

the hell out of this shit I'll say I thought

you were going for like a charmed reference there

Cuz I think the redhead if I'm looking at the

wiki right this is Belinda who's like yeah an

evil She's like the evil opposite of Sela. Yeah.

Yeah, and they're kind of working together now,

so So Sela has a major brain fart and falls over.

Yeah, pretty much. She couldn't hold the pose

And You know, she has to contact the realm of

mist and drew Anna She needs to talk to her about

Shakespeare or something Yeah, so and again as

I've never really read anything other than these

six comics in Zynoscope. But from my years of

reading comic books, you know, I can I'm guessing

the Realm of Mist is something that ties the

world of stories together. And Geron is kind

of like the ruler overall. Kind of, yeah. What

I got from these six stories or at least this

one story is that there are four realms. There's

Earth, there's Mist and there's two others. I

mean, I remember Myst from the Robin Hood days

when I was reading those so I knew exactly what

was going on as far as her having to go to Myst.

We, you know, so we get Drana telling her about

Earth and how Earth is the youngest realm and

all of this stuff and it's a binder's duty to

collect the most important stories of their time.

The ones that have the power to influence and

shape the collective consciousness. That's not

creepy at all. like this is kind of similar to

the plot of Wes Craven's New Nightmare, which,

as the last original film in the Nightmare franchise,

dealt with the idea that Freddy Krueger isn't

a thing, but the idea of this dream demon that

preyed on humanity's souls was captured in the

form of Freddy through the medium of film. Kind

of like what they're talking here about binders,

but in a more Inclusive thing like not just scary

stories, but just stories in general like yeah

stuff that can change your mind which is cool,

and then we see You know Sela's version of Fahrenheit

451 where she stabs a book with what I'm guessing

is Excalibur Could be who knows No, they wouldn't

have crossed over that much. I don't think so.

It's not Excalibur, it's just a sword. It's just

a magical sword. So we go back to Jorana and

Sela and Sela's act in like a way more cryptic

version of the witch from the Power Rangers movie

and like just Barely giving her any hints and

cell is just like, you know, it's screw this

noise. I'm out Yeah, and her trust is wearing

thin as the situation always ends with the hero

and the mentor figure and we go Yeah, and we

go back to the real world and Hansel and Gretel

in Mabel's house of pies and your lord Hansel

must have like the diabetes real bad. Yeah he

must have lost three legs oops too soon yeah

too soon like but i mean seriously this guy looks

bigger than some people we know and you know

Hanson Gretel's like giving him you know the

gears he's like ah come on lighten up sis and

then the dark nerd because i don't think he actually

got a name the dark nerd comes in with the evil

grumpy who now seems to become rabid grumpy because

he's got some foam at the mouth going on and

He chases Mario out Yeah, is that that's goddamn

Mario Mario Social faux pas just like sticks

his finger into like into the pie and he's like

Of course, I'd find you in a house of sweets.

How delicious. And I'm just like, creepy. And

if you've never read it, like the last couple

of years of like the Batman comic when Bruce

Wayne and Dick Grayson were splitting the role

and then the early first couple of years of the

new 52, this guy is throwing off a serious James

Gordon Jr. vibe, like Barbara's evil psycho brother.

And he kind of looks like him, too. Like, it's

it's creepy how much this guy looks like Evil

James. Yeah. But the dark nerd starts to suck

Hansel and Gretel in and then Sela shows up and

trying to reclaim the book, because apparently

this book that he's using to suck up all these

stories is hers is her original book, which,

according to the argument she had with Tyrannus.

Something happened that she had to destroy the

book and this guy has been selected as the new

binder. Yeah. And then the dwarves don't look

like dwarves. They look like somewhere between

vampires and goblins. Yeah. You know, with the

eyes and the ears and the fangs. Yeah, it's the

green vampire goblin. He's a hobo. Hobo pyre.

Thank you, I'll be here all week Please don't

tip your waiters folks. Yeah, it's really just

looking at these loot things that we we nippers

they they kind of remind me of Like they should

be saying well smile yourself. What's all your

soul from like evil dead an Army of darkness

because that's can they kind of look like deadites

too, but you know sell it gives them the business

And then she escapes with the book And she goes,

Well, she's got her a new book. And after all,

before she escapes, you know, Hansel and Gretel

have been sucked into the dark binders book.

Sorry, dark nerd, I can't call him dark binder.

And she escapes. He's like, No. And then he just

kind of, you know, mopes off to wherever he mopes

off to. And then Sela goes home. I don't know

if she's in a committed relationship with Belinda

or they just happen to be sharing a bed. It's

heavily implied something's going on there. Yeah,

something is very much going on there. I don't

know. Eh. I don't judge, you know. Find your

happy where you find your happy, folks. That's

right. But she tells Belinda to go get Shang

and then we meet. Shang who's like this Asian

dude with like the sweet Asian handlebar mustache

and You know, I have no knowledge of finders

Huh, I can't believe I didn't make that connection

But you're losing your touch dude, I It's true.

Anyway, they get this nice little explanation

from Sela that Durana told her about the binders

and that whole, you know, each generation of

chosen binder gathers each realm's most important

stories, dot dot dot. But I read that in my head.

I heard the narrator's voice from like the from

the opening narration of like the first couple

of seasons of Buffy. But like once a generation

a girl has chosen one girl in all the world to

fight the vampires and the evil forces of darkness

She is the slave and I'm like Okay, I kind of

doubt Sela's voice is gonna change like that,

but let's move on And he's like a nerd in the

basement essentially Jeez, we had a stereotype,

guys. I like that, and he's like, you know, Master,

perhaps you should... No! I will not be kept

from my prize! It's like, no, I will have that

amazing fantasy 15! You know, it just... He's

like a dark evil nerd. This guy's like a bad

haircut and a Superman t -shirt away from being

super bitch prime. Yep, pretty much. And that's

the only way I'll refer to that character. I

know he's not actually called super bitch prime,

but I refuse to call him super boy DC comics

reference folks look it up. Yeah, but it so he's

essentially trying to gather all these stories

Because once he gathers in that book that allows

him to travel to the other realms of like Oz

Neverland and Wonderland and mist, you know,

he he wants to Take over the world of course

And then we have this thing with Shan and sky

who's still his daughter and Like they're going

to do this thing and you should get to the training

field She's like, okay, and then she just you

know hauls ass and leaps through the portal and

they essentially Well, it's comic -con except

it's for puppets cuz it's puppet con Well, the

dwarves would fit right in yeah Now there's there's

got to be a lot of furries in this place is all

I'm saying You see the giant cookie monster or

the giant Grover or whatever the hell that is

They're killing everyone run the giant puppet

of that one family It's either cookie monster

or Grover because it looks a hell of a lot like

cookie monster. It looks like both Yeah, it's

it's Grover's head on like cookies body. Yep

pretty much But they go it's like you they have

the standard. You're not supposed to be here.

It's too dangerous You have to go back now. They're

killing everybody run. Okay, stay close that

at You've ever read a comic book slash seen a

movie slash experience life, you know this This

has been used a billion times before Easy, but

you know, they go charging into battle Against

the evil dwarfs And then all of a sudden they

can throw death rays at her, and they've... We

don't even know what story this is. It's like

some old dude, and I'm guessing this is supposed

to be Geppetto, because they're at PuppetCon.

Yeah, probably, yeah. I'm just looking for my...

You know? This gets sucked in, and then it's

like, Binder! Face us, you coward! It's like,

no, no, no, his name's Dark Binder. Dark binder

it's like dark helmet get it right ladies And

then you have like everyone's fear of getting

like sucked under the bed by the monster under

there where sky gets like swooped up by the dwarves

and What happens to her she's taken away to his

evil basement of solitude and she gets tied up

basically he's like oh what's your story my mom's

gonna kick your ass ah the guardian's daughter

yada yada yada and uh she's like oh i can get

you where you want to go and she puts him somewhere

but it's not where he wanted to be yeah it's

like the bitch tricked me no shit sherlock and

i love it when villains who are so self -assured

Their plot and they're like they couldn't possibly

stop. Why do you have a gun pointed at my head?

You know So it basically appears in arcane acres

with some of the other cast members and a Shang

and Seldon Belinda and he summons like some nasties

and Like a demonic scorpion a demonic satyr and

what looks like the horror monster pumpkin head

with hair and they or it's like some werewolf

satyr thing and you know they all fight and they

win the day yep actually i think the the beast

with the hair might be like a demonic version

of like the witch from hansel and gretel maybe

i don't know but she's not sure either but they

have like sella floating in the air you know

eyes glowing and energy crack crackling off her

one hand like buffy in that I know it's like

season five. And she straight up runs through

the dark binder. Yep. It's just like, and then

no three rings needed. Yeah. And she. Good one.

See, I approve. Just golf clap, just uh huh.

But so so grabs the book and opens a portal and

sky steps through with the hatchet and she's

like, you know, like Brad Pitt in in in Gloria

faster. She got her scalps. Yeah. And they're

like, well, what goes what happens now? And how

do you do this is like, what do you mean? You

want me to open a portal to miss? So I opened

one here instead. I don't know. Just happened.

So there's more about her powers that they don't

know that they'll have to find out. We'll find

out at some other later date. Yeah, and then

they have, they go to this prison where, because

they mentioned another binder will be chosen

and they don't know how many stories are still

out there. And it's like this dude who, the three

blind mice. Yeah, the prison is in Florence,

Colorado. What the, how in the hell did you three

get in here? Maybe you got enough varmints around

this joint I'll go on it's right there. What

are you blind? Yeah, cuz he like reaches for

the mice and then they gets sucked up into the

journal that he was writing in which I think

it more because you when you first see it it

just kind of looks like a little notebook thing

and then it morphs into like a full -size tome

and The prison guard's like, keep it down or

I'll thump your skull. He's like, got it boss,

I'll be quiet as a mouse. Yeah, but the guard

calls him Faulkner. Would that be William Faulkner?

Is that name supposed to be like a famous...

That's what I thought. It could be a reference

to such. Right, but that's what I'm saying. Okay,

think of... a different famous writer other than

Shakespeare because they mentioned Shakespeare

earlier in the story so like Chaucer or whomever

like that's what I'm wondering if they're you

know T .S. Eliot or something um yes the Snow

White thing was interesting I thought it was

kind of fun um it is probably one of the six

stories that you need to read more to find out

about kind of thing like I understand they're

calling these things one shots but a couple of

them number one two of them tied together number

two some of them need more explanation and Snow

White is one of those out of zero to five I'd

probably give this a three and a half I'd give

it a solid for, I mean, the story's interesting,

writer, like the story by Lou Iovino, and the

artwork by Manuel Pretano, and Vivian Tybush.

It works, you know, it's not always, it's not

all flawless. But I mean, this for the art carries

the story. The story is kind of interesting,

you know, there's this evil version of Sela.

He's trying to suck up all the stories to like,

You know become a cosmic big bad, you know There's

a scale and there's escalating stakes and this

is what happens when fairy tales go bad You know,

it's it's kind of cool and interesting in that

respect. So yeah, I'll give it a solid four and

you know looking at some of the the alternate

covers that Well, yeah, I can see why a lot of

guys collect these It's just The cool thing for

me on these is that the alternate covers, at

least for these and most if not all of the Zuniscope

stuff, I don't know recently, but I'm pretty

sure they still keep up with this. They usually

put all four covers, whatever they are, in the

main book, like right in the beginning, under

the, you know, the story so far page, the creative

page. Like the Cinderella storybook that's coming

up next is all four of the covers here. So that

is very, very, very cool. And it's interesting

to me to note which cover Comixology decided

to give me or which cover Xenoscope gave Comixology

to give to people who bought the stuff. Cause

like I have cover B. I was not expecting to get,

I don't care either way. That's awesome. But

I just assume everything, you know, gets cover

A most of the time. Yeah. Snow White was good.

There are ones I enjoy more, but very, very interesting.

Cinderella, it's one of those time jumpy tales.

I don't like that. Like, it's like, oh, this

is now. Here's three hours ago. Here's a day

ago. Here's a this ago. Here's a that ago. And

it's essentially, you know, the whole thing of

her and her stepmother and stepsisters kind of

with, you know, Few twists here and there, but

this is Cinderella reunions Yeah Again you look

at the alternate covers These I think it's the

third one by what's his name just looking at

the credit here Paul Paul green if I hadn't seen

Paul green I could have sworn that was J. Scott

Campbell art You know, and it's very similar

to that It's very black cat slash mary jane -ish.

Yeah From jscott camel. Yeah, no when I think

jscott camel either go to gen 13 or danger girl

But that's besides the point, you know, we got

lou ayavino writing again ryan best and uh, diago

Dalbello If i'm pronouncing that correctly and

dear god, I hope I am and this is another one

and this is for me Like it says, the story so

far, like Mike said, this is one you would have

had to read some comics previously. I'm not necessarily

against coming into the story part way and then

doing the trip back because, you know, you've

seen this 100 times in like TV shows and movies.

So can you really be pissed at comics for doing

that? But she's basically fighting a giant pumpkin

monster. And you got the new the new I'm guessing

this is the Faulkner. This is the new dark binder.

Who's got like yeah, yeah You got like him. He's

got a magic Indiana Jones whip that's tied up

the stepsisters and the stepmother and Cinderella

for some reason has like this sexified You know

bare midriff ninja sword Ensemble going on and

you know, she slices up the pumpkin real good

and Then we go back to where Prince Charming

died three days before. Yeah, see, this is what

I'm talking about. This is what I... It was fine

while I was reading it, but when I review the

comics, it makes me so upset having to keep track

of all of this. It's not that hard to keep track

of it, but just... I mean, they're right. They

had a purpose writing the story this way, but

you think... Absolutely, yeah. With anniversary

issues, do you think it's not so much one step

removed, but it's... Kind of its own little island

so it can be incredibly confusing To read something

like this and not have any bloody idea what's

going on and thankfully in the very beginning

it does say on the creative page with all the

covers and the creative team it does say these

events happen after Grim fairy tales number 112

and it even says at this one panel, you know

when Cindy's like God damn it, this isn't over,

not by a long shot. It says, Editors note, grab

your copies of Grim Fairytales 111 and 112 to

catch all the action. So it does give us points

of reference to go back and see it, but like

you just said, these are 10th anniversary one

shots. A one shot is not supposed to connect

to, it could connect a little bit, but it's not

really supposed to, like, I shouldn't have to

feel like I have to read 80 Years of Superman

just to get a Supergirl story from the CW. Yeah,

no, that's exactly right. I mean, this, it can

be a one shot tie in, but it's essentially like

issue 113B going into 114 like that. Yeah. So

anyway, Prince Charming's dead. This punk looking

chick with the hairy forearms drags Cindy off

and we see the dark binder is like I can feel

it. So potent. Like he just literally the way

they dry this draw this guy with the hood and

everything. He just looks he looks like this

creepy Buffalo Bill thing. It's like it puts

the lotion on its skin or it gets the hose again.

You know, like this guy is even more he's full

on serial killer versus, you know, the dark nerd

from the Snow White one. And, you know, he's

he's hunting Cindy. And we see that like these

orcs or trolls or whatever saying, you know,

apparently their former leader Malek is gone.

Malek is gone. And Punky Brewster here, which

is until I get a name, that's what I'm calling

her. And she, you know, knocks some sense to

him, goes talk to Cindy. Apparently Cindy is

supposed to take the lead of the Dark Horde.

Yeah. And I'm pretty sure they can expect to

cease and desist from Hordak any day now. Well,

that was the evil Horde, so Dark Horde. They're

infringing on their copyright, Mike. Not really.

The coolest thing for me, although maybe it was

a rights issue, but the coolest thing for me

about this story, what I absolutely loved about

it was Lou incorporated Jack and Gus, even though

they're not named Jack and Gus. Yeah That was

hilarious. Yeah So Cindy stocks off Because she's

gonna kill the binder and she's like, I'm not

a leader. You don't want me to be a leader I

ain't gonna be no leader and you know goes off

to do her thing. We go to mist where the dark

binder shows up to Seal up I guess fairy godmother

in the book And then we go back to Cindy's place

where the mice are now the size of Master Splinter

and making the stepsisters and the mom do all

the thing. And I love, I don't care what else

I don't like about this comic. I love stupid,

goofy things. When Cindy busts in the door and

goes bippity boppity boop, bitches, I'm just

like, yes, yes, I needed that. Thank you. And

then they're like, Cindy, no, I missed you boys.

keeping them in their place. Don't worry, we've

been keeping them in line. And then you see them

just sitting back in the kitchen, like Cliff

and Norm, you know, nibbling on some cheese.

And then the dark binder maps in out of nowhere

and slices one up and I'm just like, God, damn.

Like that, that's some unnecessarily violent

shit. I mean, okay, it's just because giant anthropomorphic

mouse. I think Master Splinter and it's like

that scene in the first Ninja Turtles movie where

Shredder backhands it. I'm just like, oh you

bastard So Cindy goes to the fairy godmother's

house, which is on fire and exploding and whatever

and She's then like, oh I need to get she basically

pulls a Luke. She pulls a Skywalker like she

goes away Something's on fire. She goes back

to it. It's on fire So she runs home and We have

this giant dragon flying off I Wonder I love

the name is like fly slender. We have what we

came for. I wonder if he has a brother named

libel Yeah In printed slander or noise, it's

slander spoken print. It's liable. Yeah He takes

off we see Max the one mouse that got shanked

first Just does the classic, you know last just

long enough to you know info bomb Cindy and then

dies I'm sorry And then of course Cindy goes

and in Cinderella of course Cinderella has like

a big -screen TV and a security system And then

she goes to arcane acre where Belinda's having

Like they're flashing back to the events of the

previous comic and then Cindy shows up and it's

like I've got the place loaded with explosive

I got nothing to lose Yeah, and she wrangled

some information out of them and They you know

info bomb Cindy about the dark binders And it's

all your fault too and then she throws this like

I don't know if it's like a chocolate bar or

something that's just like a detonator. No, it's

not a jet. I thought she just went up like I've

got bombs and she's holding it like it's in and

then it's like a fake out. So it was a detonator,

but it wasn't actually connected to anything.

It was almost like I don't want to say a zippo

lighter, but it kind of when she throws it, it

kind of looks like a zippo lighter, even though

it doesn't have a giant red button on it. But

she wrote lipstick. Screw you. Yeah. and then

come back here stop wait he doesn't understand

the danger and then she camps out of there on

the pink ranger's shark cycle yeah pretty much

you know and she's completely unprepared yep

who knows maybe we'll get lucky and we'll take

each other out fingers crossed it's like yeah

because one thing that is coming we haven't really

mentioned folks coming across this one in the

explanation of the dark binders we see that falconer

was somehow drawn to the proper I guess another

dark book and Like he escaped from prison and

there's like some demon involved that killed

Malik and has corrupted this guy so we get that

and then that's when it's As you see him as he

goes off with the magic whip and the cloak of

evil and all that Yeah, but so this is for your

sake more so than the listeners what listeners

I'll remind you of this as well Malak I've run

into before with the Robin Hood series because

he is a part of mist and he's a part of the mysticism

and the magic and all of that Cindy used to be

his assassin Cindy was She's pretty dark girl

even though she's dressed in blue and white and

she's got the long blonde ponytail Leia kind

of style thing going on, you know slave Leia

kind of style ponytail, but Like she was his,

that's why this whole scene right here where

she's envisioning him or where the binder is

basically trying to trick her into doing this

and they almost kiss is because they were pretty

much kind of sort of, you know, master and slave

relationship kind of thing for a while. Like

she would always do his evil bidding and things

like that. So that's kind of why this is happening

now at this point. Because like I was saying,

like the one thing we haven't really mentioned

is that Cindy's kind of a bitch. Yeah, she is.

Like this is there is no kind of she is a bitch.

OK. This is like what if season one Cordelia

was the Slayer? Because this is like, you know,

what if Charisma Carpenter in her full bitchy

glory was a ninja assassin? You know, so yes,

Cindy, you know, pieces out and we go back. to

the beginning of the story just after she's slain

the giant pumpkin tentacle demon. And then, you

know, Faulkner has summoned, you know, Prince

Charming. And it's almost like she's getting

all like weak at the knees or so it appears,

because she runs the guy through and it turns

out to be somebody else. And it's like, I'll

never belong to anyone ever again. And then Faulkner

lets loose a murder of crows from the book, which

is a Really cool visual I have to say that's

one of my favorite bits in this comic that this

literal murder of crows come out and it's Everything

that you know, Alfred Hitchcock wanted to do

with that movie Yes, and all I can think of is

the Incubus album and Papa Roach getting away

with murder. Oh good one and it's like Faulkner's

lost he's going to like use his magical whip

to sucker into the book and For once in her misbegotten

life, the evil stepmother, you know, completely

redeems herself. Yep. To quote a movie of Jim

Carrey's and just gets like the standard supervillain

neck snap. Yep. And then he gets run through

by the sword and then escapes on slander. Yep.

Although I see him here where he breaks in and

like roar. Start I want to start calling him

Sauron because that's all I can think of now

is Sauron from x -men TAS I wanted to call him

small God like if this thing talked I'm pretty

sure he would sound like Benedict Cumberbatch

and All as I'm thinking of is Sean Connery is

Dragonheart in Dragonheart or Drago. Yeah, Drago.

Yeah, so Basically, Cindy says goodbye to her

mother, gathers the magic whip that Faulkner

left behind, takes the evil stepsisters back

to the orc army, and basically makes them everyone's

bitch. Like, get them their strongest mopping

bucket, and then, you know, Punky Brewster's

like, oh, you're back! And Cindy decides to take

command of the Dark Horde. Yeah. It's a little

bit of a strange ending like it's almost too

abrupt of an ending for me It's Honestly, the

ending of this this one shot reminds me of the

ending of the Like two -year run of some right

Jack that IDW put out a few years ago where it

Instead of they end the series kind of Jack has

become that image of the bearded Conan from the

end of the Conan the barbarian movie where Arnold

sitting there in silent and like Jack's got like

the Scotsman and all these other recognizable

characters from the series and they're just gonna

he stopped looking for a way back to stop a coup

and he's gonna start stop them in the here and

now and it's just left open -ended it's a definitive

ending but it's also open for more stories and

that's very much What I got from this last shot

here You know Cindy's story I will give probably

a three out of five I enjoyed it I did but it's

the ending the end like I Needed more of an end

like I didn't need like a happy ending because

none of these things are happy endings are supposed

to lead into other things, but I need more of

an ending, other than she's going to lead the

dark horde. Well, it would probably be more satisfying

if we read like that, because I think the original

run of Grim Fairy Tales was like 125 issues,

if I read correctly. And and you kind of probably

have to read large parts of that and probably

a couple of miniseries to understand what's going

on here. And then maybe you would be able. and

not in any negative way, but then you would be

able to accept this as the end of the story.

Because honestly, folks, the other four issues,

we don't go back to the dark binder at all, which

for my inner nerd and my inner OCD fiend is kind

of maddening because, you know, I have no intention

of going back and reading the last 13 years of

this series, but I kind of want to know where

the story goes from here. See, here's my thing

with Red, um, Van Helsing and Death. They're

all what they're supposed to be. One -shot glimpse

in the life stories. They're not connected to

anything and that's fine. Red was, Red Riding

Hood One -Shot 10th Anniversary Xenoscope Special

was the first one that I read and it was my favorite.

Like it was the only one I had read at the time.

Eventually gone back and I you know obviously

since you know when these first came out two

or three years ago I had first gotten all of

them anyway But I've never actually read the

others because the only reason why I read the

Red Briding Hood one was because she crosses

over into Robin Hood's world a few times and

so does Van Helsing and Cindy and all the other

characters, but like I had not really like the

way that Robin and Red are I had to read this

and I absolutely love it. As soon as I read Cindy's

story and Red's story, because as I just said,

I read Red Riding Hood first and read Cindy after,

I immediately contacted the writers on Twitter

saying, hey, I love this story. I think this

is great. Does the Red story tie into anything

else? Jeff Massey said, oh no, it's just a complete

one -shot story kind of a thing. And I had talked

to Lou Iovino saying, hey, absolutely love what

you did with the story. Thank you for putting

the mice in there, that kind of a thing. So yeah,

I will say this right now, folks. I was going

to save this for the end, but I'll say it now.

This Red Riding Hood story made me want to pick

up other Red Riding Hood stories. I've got two

trades, Code Red, which is written by Pat Chan.

And Red Agent, which is written by Lou Iovino,

JT and I will be covering these as the next Xenoscope

specials whenever we get down to that point in

time. Because this year in the pull bag is very

fully loaded at this point. So anyway, Red riding

hood. Well, before we get into Red, I agree with

you. I give it a solid 3 overall for the Cindy

one shot. Yep. uh was it ryan let's see no that's

not the ryan drost was that the ryan drost drost

the art is the only thing i really didn't care

for it's almost like from page to page it's not

uneven it's just and it's not rough it's just

off a lot of times like Compared to what happened

in the snow white one. It's just kind of soft

and Man so but yeah red riding hood one shot

You got the nice sexified cover. Oh That's not

only a sexified cover. That is a Basically, so

for anyone that doesn't know red riding hood.

Her real name is Brittany waters This Red Riding

Hood cover is essentially Britney Spears as Red

Riding Hood. I have no problem with that I don't

have a problem with it either because hello red

catsuit. That's the whole point. Yeah, I'm just

kind of like hello nurse I like the story so

far Britney Waters ninja psychiatrist werewolf.

Yep Sorry, there was an image comic series called

ninja cowboy Viking or cowboy ninja viking which

is just as gleefully batshit insane as it sounds

and i highly recommend it that's what i thought

i read this but it should read ninja psychiatrist

werewolf bounty hunter because she's a supernatural

bounty hunter in los angeles dear god why is

this not a tv show on netflix i know right like

i don't care what sarah michelle she can be like

the evil matriarch of some vampire clan like

let's flip the script but I mean come on it's

a ninja psychiatrist werewolf bounty hunter I

my inner child is just sitting there more please

you know clapping like the monkey with symbols

exactly uh story is done by joe brusher ralph

tedesco writer on this is jeff massey artwork

is done by chris johnson colors by leonardo passalati

i'm probably butchering that um so yeah red riding

hood Bail jumper Matt Nat the Pizz Pizzamire

my latest prey I Really I know oh how mighty

have the yada yada yada I Love TV shows with

like, you know, you got the omniscient narrator

so I could totally sing this work in the show

and I I think it works in this comic and She

doesn't look altogether ridiculous in the all

red Jumpsuit new katana strapped to her back,

you know guns and I just love that last panel

where she she the Pissmeyer is You know knocked

over mine. He's like son of a beach. It's like

you just failed mime school buddy turn in your

makeup Yep, pretty much and I love how she does

the it's kind of like Clark Kent issues She does

the left and the right check. Make sure there's

no one else and There's that subtle how they

do the split thing and I love the the coloring

in this issue is one of my favorite things because

whenever she wolfs out you know she gets like

the big hairy forearms and the claws but her

face gets this golden tone to it that's supposed

to like denote the fur but it she doesn't look

like all you know shaggy or nothing and I think

that's a really cool design and aesthetic choice

and she you know she's like Great, he pissed

himself. And he's coked up. Yep. And then he

starts turning into Spider -Man. She's like,

I like that spider. Or yeah, the Alamagor...

Alamagordoid, an honest -to -god ant -man. Yep.

And I'm just kind of like... Really? Yep. And

she basically catches him and she runs into this

Russian brute bounty hunter. I still like when

she catches up to Pizz who he's like, she ain't

coming. She ain't coming. I lost her. Ahem. Ah,

shit. Yeah. And you just see it like literally

like his face is about to fall off when he irk.

And then we get this guy Reinhardt or I guess

Reikhart. Just call him Reik or Rick. I don't

care. I want to call him Zangief. Yeah, pretty

much. He's basically a black bearded Zangief.

So Zangief. It's a great. So yeah, Zangief is

a bounty hunter. Balejumpers throughout the world

know me as Master of the Hunt. But please call

me Rick. No, we're calling you Zangief. Moving

on. He's a combination of Zangief and Craven

the hunter. Well, at least he has the good fashion

sense not to wear like a lion for a chess piece.

I don't blame Craven for that and I'm not knocking

them, but I can totally hear Diedrich Bader's

Craven voice coming out of this guy like from

from Ultimate Spider -Man Zangief will get you

But anyway, he starts schmoozing Britney and

he's like your reputation precedes you miss Winters

the scum of LA speak of you often is like, I

can hear you, you know, and it's like, just boots

him right in the face. And he drops it that he

knows about, you know, the werewolves and vampires.

And, you know, they're they're the supernatural

types that she goes after. And I, the whole look

at her face where she's like, you know, smug

cocks, you're arrogant, a total dick, and he

knows that it's all I can do not to wrap my legs

around him right here and now. And it's like,

That's an aspect that you know, I've always wondered

why they don't mention it more in a lot of vamp

or werewolf comic stories like You know because

you think about like maybe vampires and werewolves

like whether you're in human form or their monstrous

form Like certain impulses have to be cranked

to 11 You know, so and I like how it's really

subtle how she's biting her lip and she's thinking

about it And she's just like god. I want to phone

this guy right now But he's like, here, take

him in. You're yours. And then he basically elicits

like, come over to my place. I want to track

down this evil vampire threatening Los Angeles.

We'll have dinner. We'll schmooze. And then it's

almost like you didn't see it before, but it's

almost like this mystical orange Hummer just

poofs in out of nowhere. And it's like, come

on, his time. I got paid, bitch. He's like, buddy,

you don't know the half of it. Then this is by

far my favorite shot in the whole book in all

of these Is right before she goes into her house?

Office house, whatever that first shot with her

on the bike. I mean if that's not Southern, California

I don't know what is oh, yeah, son the orange

the colors the draw the lines on it So very cool

bill bill summons bill Yeah. Red Moon Investigations,

No Recovery Too Strange, Brittany Waters, MD,

Bond Enforcement Psych, and Psychiatric Counseling,

License and Insured. Now I gotta let people know

that she means business. And then we meet, possibly

one of my favorite canine companions that I have

ever seen in a comic book, a wolf named Cleese.

If he's not named after John Cleese, I will eat

my hat. Will ask Jeff Massey on Twitter find

out for you Like that's literally like where

else you gonna like I don't know of any other

place that somebody would name a companion after

but she's like, oh, of course, I missed you get

big silly and she's just That's kind of adorable

that you know, she's got this giant wolf and

then she's got the old man in the kitchen is

like you bring the cheese whiz girl and I forget

Do we actually get his name here? At some point

we do, not right away. Okay, I'm just gonna call

him Walter Mathau, because he kind of reminds

me of Walter Mathau. I'd say more Jack Lemmon,

but okay. I don't think I know. Lemmon, that

works. But he's like, he's eaten like he does

the spray cheese on the cracker and eaten his

bacon. And he's asking so you know what's going

on? She tells him about Zangief. and mentions,

I had some friends who ran into him. Had. Yeah.

And he's like, well, you know, did he see you

in your other form? He's like, no, I was careful.

Keep it that way. He's an odd one. And it's,

you know, I still like that. He does that sniff

and it's like it's revealed at the end of the

comic, but he gets a sniff and he's like, I'll

tell you right now. You need a shower. Mm -hmm

because I love that that's no way for a self

-respecting young flower of womanhood to smell

and I was like damn because I know how how much

of a problem how my grandfather's senses were

dulled before he passed and Like how Frank is

Brittany right now that he's like you shower

move. Yeah She's like look, it's not you is it

me you wound me girl. I'm a vegan Vegan you eat

meat all the time. You're eating bacon right

now in front of me Of course, I'm eating. Of

course I'm eating bacon. It's bacon, but I don't

eat human, right? Not anymore. So all of a sudden

it's like okay Is this guy a cannibal is he a

werewolf something apparently he well He still

loves his bacon and don't we all And it's like

I like how he puts down. He's like obviously

cares for he's just like what's wrong with you

It's not like you to get all worked up He was

like, come on, talk to the old man. And because

of her past and her stories that led up to this,

like the one connection here is the Hibokorp

or Hibokorp or whatever it's supposed to be and

her having to leave it because she realized what

monsters they were. That kind of a thing. So

that's why she's feeling less of herself at this

point. Yeah, and she's like dressing it down.

It's like I mean, I'm grateful for what I have

Don't get me wrong refer my head Hugh Cleese

and then he's like deadly ninja skills barely

control feral rage a huge rack I'll just let

go Dirty old men. They're never not entertaining

Although at this point I kind of thought of more

like Matthew Perry's Oscar from that odd couple

remake Well, it's Oscar and Felix is him and

oh As Oscar no, yeah, you meant to say he won

an Oscar. I'm like that show wasn't that good

No, it would have won an Emmy if anything, but

I get what you're saying. So yeah, so Old man

is my house my rules behave Yeah, but he's like

he's just giving her like look, you know, I've

been around longer than most you you got to be

careful Now go shower you're stinking up the

joint and the old man's trying to eat and then

I Mean, yeah, like when you say the Britney Spears

red cat suit like she must have like wiped that

thing down with Lysol and talcum powder because

she basically Has a probably it's probably like

the Simpsons. You're like she has a whole closet

of the same outfit It's just like Monday Tuesday

Wednesday So she kind of loads up says goodbye

to Cleese Don't eat the furniture. I love that

Don't piss in the she was talking to both of

them. Not just the her wolf there I'm pretty

sure she's just talking to Cleese because she's

like keep an eye on and will you for me? I'm

gonna go see a man about a wolf. Don't eat the

furniture So I mean she certainly could have

meant that for him, but whatever so so we go

to you know Casa de Zangief You know, they have

a nice meal. He takes her into his study shows

him the trophy room my first kill in North America

the Sasquatch much easier to track than the media

would suggest and Then the jackal open I was

like like the only jackal I know is from the

Dave Coulier Run on America's funniest people

and it never looked demonically evil He's like

I still have the scars and the swiftness So,

and after mentioning the Sasquatch, apparently

whenever Zangief kills one of these creatures,

he absorbs their power. Or their abilities. He's

like, he's like the parasite, except he doesn't

look like a giant purple man eater. Or purple

people eater. There you go. And then he figures

out, you know, what Red is, what Brittany is,

and he's like, love. Shit, shit, shit, shit,

shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. and then that's

right after she's like wait is this fresh and

he's already killed the werewolf that he had

propositioned her about earlier right and he's

like yeah and you see Leo with this creepy creep

you know long ago i swore a bloody oath to rid

the world of monsters such as this monsters such

as you britney waters and then she run he's like

run she's like oh shit oh shit oh shit and she

runs and of course he's got evil bald henchmen

so she has to escape and she has to leave her

sword behind she's got her she's got a sig sour

pistol silver bullets although i love the oh

really look when she looks over shoulders like

and he's unleashed the dogs how thoughtful Well,

yeah, because I mean, he pulls up this battle

axe that just kind of looks badass. And he sends

the dogs after and like this is like the equivalent

of like some villain in a James Bond story, sending

a bunch of henchmen and dogs after bond, and

then bond killing them all and then drawing down

the villain and him. Oh, this is most unsporting

007. Yeah, like how isn't always funny how the

bullies and the bad guys cry foul on the rules

when they get a bit yeah he's like yeah i've

never thought there'd be more of a fight and

the last words sick him what yeah sick him get

it off get it off get it off you know and then

she i love you see these things like these are

all like i don't I think they're supposed to

be St. Bernard's or Russian Wolfhounds or something.

Something, yeah. I'm thinking or Tibetan Mastiffs

maybe. And yeah, I know a lot about dogs, folks.

I watch a lot of animal rescue videos. I learn

things. But they come up and these dogs have

all straight gone Cujo. Oh, yes, they have. You

know, Stephen King reads his comic. He's like,

damn, that's pretty good. Like he's shouting

these were like command were words to the dogs

which basically heals them all and he sends this

one big one after them and then they've all gone

after him she's wolfed out and kind of taking

them down a peg and He tries to take her out

and I like how she only had this taser left.

She gets him in the side of the head And he shoots

her with a silver bullet, which is kind of a

dick move Because you know she's the hero of

this piece And and he's tells her to run and

then she's ninjaed her way back in and he notices

just before she lands that the sword is missing

from the scabbard and he says bullshit boy, which

I Don't know exactly what it translates to in

Russian, but basically oh shit Yeah, and she's

like leave never come back my city my rules so

yeah there are two women in history that i remember

bushing away from it's linka from captain planet

and natasha from boris and natasha from rocky

and bullwinkle i don't know what it means though

off the top of my head i have to look it up yeah

somebody wants to do that for us please comment

on the post uh so basically they get into a giant

fight he you know like you said he basically

tell you know she basically says get out of time

you know there can only be one mistress of daunt

and she walks away we get an epilogue where you

know she comes home she stopped for cheese whiz

and bandages and oh damn kleese is okay he's

alive thank god Out cold and then Zangief's got

You know Jack up against the wall with the battle

axe And he's like he healed old man and also

he's the motherfucking Hulk Yeah, pardon my French

Yeah, but I mean literally this he's just turned

into the friggin Hulk of werewolves remember

remember you're a vegan not to me i'm not nope

i like that someone bigger yeah and i just like

how she goes back and she's just petting cleese

and he's all like a big puppy dog yeah you don't

even need to see like i love the the letter how

they have his screams and the the sound effects

of the crash and the crunch the crunch sound

effects in that and it's just like it illustrates

the gore without actually seeing the gore yeah

yeah it does which is really really cool like

i don't mind like blood certain things on comic

pages and things like that and these three comics

alone have shown more blood guts and gore than

i'm usually used to seeing a lot of times but

i'm fine with it because i've already read these

for the story and now i'm just kind of looking

back at them to remind myself for the story.

Red, um, she gets a five. Hell, I'd almost give

her a ten or an eleven or whatever, but like,

zero to five, she gets a five. Like, I love this

story. This is the one issue I can go back and

read it for the story. I just absolutely love

this. I love the art. Uh, yeah. Well, don't sugarcoat

it, Mike. How do you really feel? I'm gonna punch

you in the nuts. No, I agree with you it's a

solid five the art Doesn't the only thing that

really bothered me is some of the backgrounds

were either too plain or on that last page where

You know the it's just a solid background, but

there's no sense of scale or design because they're

in the kitchen so I'm assuming that's like the

backsplash of the wall or something it's just

it's kind of often but yeah it's nothing I'm

taking points away this is definitely the most

entertaining the most fun the most cohesive story

that we've read so far Absolutely. We're going

to take a quick break. We're going to come back

with the final three stories after this. Join

them each month as they talk about classic cartoons

and interview legendary voice actors like Jim

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Alright folks, we are back in the fourth One

-Shot. We're going to talk about the 10th anniversary

special for Alice in Wonderland. I did not know

where the hell this one was going to go. However,

before we get too far into it, Joe Bruscia, Ralph

Tedesco on story, Donald Ju? Writing artwork

is done by Gregble Watson Colors by Eric Arseniga

I could be mispronouncing that I'm sorry Arseniga

Arseniga Arseniga I don't know Arsenio That's

the first thing I thought of but I don't think

that's true So yeah Alice in Wonderland Covers

are kind of creepy The only super sexy one is

cover D but because one of them, the main cover

is her and the clown behind her with blood against

the light. The second one is her with the clown

either behind the mirror or behind the door.

The third one is the clown with the tea party

and the white rabbit. That's full -on Alice in

Wonderland, obviously. And this takes place in

Chicago in March of 1952. And we have a little

boy with his family basically getting beat the

hell out of. Okay, then. Yeah, this goes my first

comment on this page. It echoes something that

Linkara said about a spine in a comic book character,

like after the husband, who's clearly a drunk

and abusive, has locked the young boy in his

room at night because he's scared of the monsters.

The boogeyman in his closet the mother stands

there and leans back Like something's pushing

her back like that. Like her spine's almost at

a 90 degree angle. I was like seriously How much

booze did you drink woman? Yeah Yeah, and then

we go back to the room and Tweedledee and Tweedledum

or The juggernaut and his twin brother in Alice

in Wonderland cosplay they come out Well, yeah,

I'm just saying they're like the size of the

mother love and juggernaut. And then the little

kid runs for the closet and he ends up in wonderland

and he walks right up into a stew pot, which

kind of gave me flashbacks to Indiana Jones and

the temple of doom, like with the monkey brain

stew and all that. And then we get a kind of

roughed up Alice like comes out and rescues the

young lad. And looking more like Gert from I

Hate Fairyland than anything. And it's like,

ah, give me a hand for this stuff. Five second

rule. And then they go to like this. Let's call

it the giving tree on crank. Yeah. And Alice

has got a place in there and then the grasshopper

comes out and. Yeah, she's got this monster grasshopper

dude or something or other. Yeah, and he takes

a look inside the kid's head and You're an odd

one aren't you boy? I have a use for someone

like you and he basically elicits a promise is

like oh You know let you go home if you keep

Alice company and then he literally back ends

the kid to back to reality And then one of the

most horrifying and that's saying some one of

the most horrifying things I've seen yet in this

series where this kid who you know before kids

were calling others fags and pussy and all that

swish apparently meant the same thing and this

kid has forced our boy to uh is my name's fudge

packer and what do they do they pump it and this

kid's literally gonna like violate this kid Yeah.

And then, did we get a name for the boy already?

Not yet, no. Okay. We do not actually get a name

until the very end of the story. Eventually when

we get to where it's him visiting Alice, she

starts calling him JW. But we do not, that's

the whole point of this story. It's not like,

when I first, I was like you when I first read

this, I'm like. What the hell is this kid? What

the hell is this kid doing? Like, you know, he's

basically, you know, killing his quote -unquote

friend that makes him do these horrible, horrible

things, which I do not have any issue with him

killing this other kid that's basically raping

him. But, you know, the smile with the blood,

and then we cut back to him in bed, and then

he goes to Alice here. she starts calling him

JW, but we do not actually get his name until

the very end of the story, which is the best

way they could have done this because I was shocked.

Like, okay. So again, I didn't catch that. Go

ahead. Sorry. I was going to say I didn't catch

that 1952 the first time I read this story. So

I thought this was set in like maybe the seventies

or the eighties or something. But once the reveal

happens, it all makes sense. Like, so, you know,

it's, you know, the boy and the boy starts in

his dreams, keeps going back to Wonderland and

keeping Alice company and hanging out. It's like,

Oh, everyone has a best friend here. Do you have

a best friend? Yes. His name is Kurt. And we

see him murdering the fudge packing fudge packer.

Then it's obviously like years later and he's

like I have a job now. Oh, what do you I bet

you meet all sorts of nice people I make a lot

of friends. Everyone says I'm doing a great job.

I got married was the ceremony wonderful Yeah,

and then it's none of it's really real. It's

like literally just as of the piece They're in

some shitty hotel and they're all almost ashamed

afterwards. He's playing up the story for Alice,

but basically what is happening is Alice is essentially,

like you said or you alluded to earlier, the

Gert or the Peter Pan in Wonderland kind of thing

where she's not aging at all. He is. He's slowly

aging and changing and he's going through his

life, his mundane life, but he's playing up the

story to her like it's this great big thing because

she has always wanted to go to the real world

and can't or whatever. Yeah, but after the marriage,

when we get back to the boy, he is grown into

like, Dear God, this is the you just see the

grease oozing out of this man's pores. Like,

this is like quite possibly one of the ugliest

human beings I've ever seen in a comic book.

And trust me, that statement will make sense

when we get to the reveal. Oh, yes. But it goes

there again, like he's moving. He's, you know,

Moving making a new getting a new job He's starting

a career working with kids and then that was

really one of the more disturbing panels It's

like they're sitting there. No words. No words.

You're my best friend in the world That's a little

creepy. Yeah, it is And you know we get to a

point where he's moving around and we see this

bus and this guy get off the bus and he's like

You know need to make some cash son kind of a

thing and we have all of this again we have the

tree and him going to the tree and Alice is not

there the monster grasshopper dude is you know

Alice is in the real world I haven't done anything

to her cross my heart up to die so now dude is

gonna go find Alice but before this happens he

actually killed his little companion there lots

of It's super creepy Well, I mean the grasshopper

is like, you know Bring your back here and then

everything go back to the way it was it's like

no I won't do that do light I've already chosen

you he wakes up and this guy has well First of

all, that's a creepy ass clown picture. I'm thinking

that's bozo the clown over the guy's bed, and

he has skinned the young dude so he looks like

something out of Hellraiser. Oh god, yeah. And

then he's like screaming at the grasshopper in

the window and, you know, you did this to me!

You made me bad! I didn't do a gosh darn thing.

And then you see him dragging the corpse into

the crawlspace under the house and burying it.

And we flash forward to a few years later and

Hey set me up with another yeah, Chicago September

78 Yeah, and the guys like you sure buddy. I

think you might have I wanted a drink not an

opinion And then he sees Alice and it's just

It's really uncomfortable in a way Yeah, it does

because her boyfriend is basically trying to

stand up for her or whatever the guy that she's

with and this just makes dude really really angry

and uncomfortable and whatever else and i mean

if this guy's supposed to be a clown he's not

trying that hard because he's kind of got like

reverse kiss makeup going on and that's about

it i mean there's no there's no nose it's just

these white bits there's no red nothing like

come on have some pride in your work yeah so

this dude stalks them stalks them they're actually

having sex in the back seat of his car And Steve

is his name, apparently. Boyfriend. Yeah. So

they're having sex in the backseat of his car.

Dude comes up, basically kills Steve and chloroforms

her and kidnaps her. Oh, boy. Yeah. And she wakes

up as he's. Clearly, we're in, like, the 80s

now or something, because when you look, if this

is it said, Mark, it said 78, but you looked

over. You look over on the TV stand, that's a

VCR and a Nintendo. So I guess the artist was

just having some fun there. That might have meant

to be a Colecovision, who knows. And I love how

the crawl space has become a full -on basement,

because now he's like standing straight up underneath

the house. You know, again, sense of proportion.

But he's burying the bodies, and he's like, she

doesn't remember, and he's talking to the...

grasshopper and he brings her before the magic

mirror and you know she all of a sudden like

she snaps back and she remembers and jw and you

did this and he stripped him of his sanity like

she's putting all the blame in the grasshopper

and he's blaming her and then you get like this

x -ray shot of like the couple of dozen bodies

under the house and it looks like he's like she's

like don't do well it'll be better we'll get

together he's like no it can't work that way

but i know another way and he like heroically

throws himself back into wonderland well yeah

no this is like the way it ends is like that

twist at the end of like a great horror movie

or tales from the crypt episode he's like silly

boy no one's ever saved from wonderland like

you could with the grasshopper you could hear

tim curry's voice coming out of this thing and

i'm talking like frankenfurter era young tim

curry from the 70s like you know and then alice

like wanders away and he's like i'm gonna deal

i'm returning you to the real world and you know

this isn't a punch and goodbye and he wakes up

and jw John Wayne Gacy yeah she basically goes

into hear the news radio in other news today

a nor a Norwood Park man is confessed to murdering

33 people and burying them in a crawlspace underneath

his home if true the crimes would make him the

most prolific serial color in American history

his name is John Wayne Gacy and it's this final

shot is by far my favorite of the whole book

i love the story i think the story is really

cool and fun but her standing next to the mirror

of him oh it's so cool and and and it's really

got that bittersweet sad tragic ending from like

i said a great horror movie yeah stuff like this

it's like the classic v end and the end morphs

into a question mark and what makes it a little

more sad and almost pathetic in that he redemption

in this story. The fact that he was lying to

Alice all those years as he was growing up, you

know, because he was being a complete and utter

shithead. So it's just Yeah, but this is definitely

my favorite ending to these books. I'm giving

it a four and the arts fairly solid. And I think

the art really works in the favor. Once you find

out it's John Wayne Gacy and why the guy looks

so greasy and disgusting really kind of drives

that point home. So straight up four for me.

Yeah, exactly. For me, it's about a four and

a half. I absolutely thought this was great.

I was not really expecting this at all. Like

I was not expecting any of these stories to tie

in like to. The one of the most prolific serial

killers of all time like I was not expecting

that at all Yeah, so All right, Van Helsing.

Um, I Like Liesl I do or Liesl or whatever her

name is please whatever they go Great character.

This story was weird though This story was very

very weird. This was actually the first time

I had read this like in preparation of this podcast

I had not read this one at this point. It's cool,

but very confusing Yeah Yeah, it's basically

a grim fairy tales version of HG Wells is the

time machine You're not wrong well, that's what

it says in the book you've never experienced

HG Wells the time machine quite like this Like

I said. Ralph Tedesco, Joe Brucia on story. Writer

is David Wall. Artwork is by Anthony Spey. Colors

by George Cortez. Covers are amazing as always.

I think my favorite is cover C. That one is very

cool. It's her and her time machine. I like the

second cover by Pasquale. where it's, uh, she's

surrounded. She's doing like the classic hero

pose and surrounded by vampires and other denizens

of the dark. But, uh, yeah, we, we get into the

story. It's London, 1844, Lise. I heard Lisell.

I think I'm just going with Lise. Lise is, you

know, the daughter of Abraham Van Helsing, and

she's working on some cool steampunk vampire

hunting gear. And she's got the time machine

from the time machine sitting in the corner there

and like this is just her ordinary lab and then

she does like the hidden switch and slides down

the proverbial back pull to the bat cave and

she's got her you know armory and she's been

told by the men to stay home and keep the home

fires burning because her dad and i guess his

apprentice or her boyfriend no it's her cousin

marcus a cousin you know But then she decides,

screw this, I'm a strong, confident woman who

don't need no man. And she gets into her sexy

steampunk vampire hunting outfit and basically

has what looks like rocket propelled snake -steak

launchers. And she gets into the battle and there's

that awesome shot where she does like the crouch

superhero landing and fires went off and just

boom out like Wesley Snipes would be proud at

that shot is what I'm saying. And she's like,

you know, Marcus tries to save her and then she

saves him and he gets well. She she saves him

once where she like slices the head off the one

vampire and then he goes to protect her again

where the vampire just comes in like and then

this is like These vampires are closer to see

like fright night vampires folks like classic

80s vampire film highly recommended But because

they get like the big ol like shark lamprey mouth

just latches onto Marcus's neck and you know

we go to the funeral and her dad's trying to

console her and she's just really broken up about

the whole thing and she's gonna fix the time

machine and she's gonna go back and save them

and her dad's like no don't do it it's you mustn't

and she takes off and she lands in the future

2044 instead of 1844 and this is again when you

talk about the time machine like this she wakes

up in the machine and there are holograms directing

people through the museum which her home has

become and this is I haven't seen any of like

the 60s and 70s versions of the time machine

movie I've seen like the Guy Pearce one from

the early aughts where he wakes up in the future

and Orlando Jones is playing this hologram that

like directs people around the museum so there

she's kind of in that future and she's all like

what's going on here and She, you know, pimps

out and no one in the couple of hundred years,

no one has found her secret stash of vampire

hunting gear. And wouldn't you know it, she has

two nuclear powered batteries just sitting in

the corner, chilling, not breaking down or causing

an accident at all. Sure, I like I know I know

nothing about science so maybe that would actually

have and they're not when she says radium power

supplies, which is What they refer to such materials

before everyone just called them nuclear materials?

I was gonna say yeah, because unless it's you

know a Flux capacitor that goes 1 .21 gigawatts.

We don't know shit about science for time travel

folks All we know is when this machine gets up

to 88 miles per hour. We're gonna see some shit.

Yeah So she gears up and gets back into her steampunk

sexy cosplay costume. I'm a guy. I don't care.

I know. I know somebody listening to this. It's

like somebody listening to this and just judging

us for our language. It's like, how dare they

be, you know, attracted to anything. How dare

they have any misogynistic thoughts or whatever.

But hello, it's Hot chick in a sexy steampunk

outfit. Hello It's like women's like I am NOT

to be ejectified then don't dress like that cuz

you're giving the anyway Entirely another episode

but just before she I like her comment just before

she You know bounce out of there. She's like

they really need to get their facts straight

Portraits of her like talking about portraits

of my mom and everything clearly decades later

than her death You know and I'll pick it up with

a curator in a couple hundred years, and she

tries it again, and she kind of lands back, and

you would have to ask the writer or the artist,

because when she crawls out of this cave, and

it's all kind of, the building's kind of caved

in on her, and she sees London is burning, and

it's desolate, and it's a post -apocalyptic kind

of thing, and this shot I would put money is

based almost entirely on the alternate version.

and the alternate ending to Army of Darkness.

Where Ash takes too many drops and wakes up 100

years later, I slept too long. And everything's

messed up and the deadites have taken over. Yeah.

But something happens that she's gone back in

time, but she's gone to an alternate timeline

or she's changed something because there are

now these like albino vampire monkey things,

which are essentially the Morlocks from the H.

G. Wells tale, because she runs up and she meets

up with her dad and Marcus again, you know, Marcus

has got like a ponytail and a badass beard. You

know, they tell them like the Morlocks are vampires

and they're stronger than normal vampires. And

at one point, one of the Morlocks looks like

a cat man or something when he jumps on her.

Yeah, he does. and then she has to kill Marcus

to save Marcus kind of thing because this one

woman who is with the part with human gut bit

and this is my one nagging fact like you know

either you turn it's usually stated in the story

whether you have to be dead for three days or

you have to be bit by a vampire and wait 10 minutes

to turn into one and they don't really mention

that because literally like five minutes before

in this battle, this pregnant blonde lady, at

least I think she was pregnant, gets bit by a

vampire. Then she vamps out, bites Marcus, and

he gets her in this death hug and tells Lise

to like do it, and she runs him through with

this gun. And then she tries to go back. to 1884

again or at least earlier than she originally

arrived here and she comes out and it's 1944

and the Nazis have invaded and then she's like

put take her away with the others no no and not

the end and I was like god damn it now I have

to wait and see if they wrote finish this story

because i want to know what happens like come

on an ass kicking sexy vampire victor an ass

kicking sexy victorian lady vampire hunter fighting

evil nazi vampires dear god why is this not a

movie yeah exactly and it's specifically a movie

from the 1970s because this is like a hammer

whore schlock explanation type of movie you could

have made this in the 80s but it would have looked

leaned way too far into Roger Carmen territory,

and I love the man's work, but I don't think

he would have done it nearly as much justice

as it needed. No. I like this story. I do. I

love the art. I think the story was kind of cool,

but the back and forth time travel stuff, like,

if they would have said that it was, I think

at one point they had mentioned, oh, it could

have been a possible alternate reality. because

hello we all know how time travel works you don't

go further into 1985 b you go backwards you go

back to 1955 to fix it so 1985 b doesn't exist

well yeah because when she went back from the

future she said it for the same day that she

left which was june 3rd she was in june 3rd 2044

she said for june 3rd 1844 and she got back to

that time but something it's like when Marty

went to 1985 be you know something else must

have happened yeah and then when she tries for

when she tries the machine again she accidentally

goes forward a hundred years to 1944 and the

Nazis never actually invaded Britain like that

so something else must have happened right That

being said I agree with you that I find really

no fault with the art here the the writing and

the characterization like the interactions between

like, you know 1844 be Marcus and her dad You

know, there's Like they treat her like she's

their least but this isn't But it's that that

human interaction. It's really well done. It's

heartfelt it it's sad when you see like the the

blonde lady gets bit and then You know she gets

up and bites Marcus and She gets that classic

kind of hammer horror looking where that she

gets the kind of slight pig nose kind of Morbius

looking, you know bites Marcus he's like And

she's like exquisite, you know some very good

vampire tropes here and it's all mixed up with

this crazy kooky kind of spooky time travel story

that i'm definitely gonna have to track down

what comes after this because i want to know

how this turns out yeah the the only thing that

was missing from this was you know those meddling

kids that's really all that was missing from

this this all we needed was a talking great dane

And a kind of sexy do -it -all with glasses.

Exactly. Well, we've got that with Leese. Oh

my god. Leese says Velma. That's funny. Ooh,

Velma is a vampire hunter. God, Velma the vampire

slayer. The fan fiction practically writes itself.

It pretty much does. Yeah, I enjoyed this one.

It's not one of my most favorites out of these

six though I basically have three that I absolutely

love and the other three I could take her leave

Yeah, I'm I'm this one's a solid four for me,

you know, it's not as good and awesomely entertaining

and over -the -top as red was but it's literally

it's Just you know, it didn't treat it didn't

trip at the finish line. It was just not as fast.

Yeah, as read, you know, it's just like the flow

and everything in here is good. But it's, it

stumbles in the whole time travel narrative.

And, you know, you don't know why she overshot.

Well, she the strap broke and she hit the control.

So that's why but why did she go back to an alternate

1884? Like what happened? And then she goes forward

for some reason. And it's the Nazis and you know

but yeah overall it's a solid four the writing

the art it all works i love the art i love half

of the writing i do not love the time travel

aspect of it because it is just silly and very

tropey and because of that i'm sad to say yeah

i have to give it a two and a half you know I

love her as a character and I love her as a character

and I love her interactions with the other characters

that I've read It's not about her or her stories.

It's just about this one specific story. So maybe

other Van Helsing Stories, I'll like more this

one. Not so much Yeah, I mean the whole idea

of time travel stories in comic books like you

you can have time travel But it literally you

can go forward. You can go back you can have

decisions made differently that, you know, you

can have a future where the X -Men survive and

the mutants are accepted in society, or you have

days of future past, or you have like DC comics

where there were three different versions of

the Legion at some point, and eventually I have

to explain that there was this, you know, MacGuffin

character, like, you know, futzing with things

in the time stream, and that's why the the modern

day which is on the single track can interact

with like three different versions and remember

the three different versions so you just have

to keep a very solid eye on what you're trying

to do with the story and have at least a quote

-unquote logical explanation as to how this works

exactly you know the final issue we're going

to talk about is the death one shot These covers

I like them, but they're not as Interesting as

some of the other ones have been Yeah, I do appreciate

like this is a straight -up like, you know heavy

metal Iron Maiden style cover Oh, yeah, you got

these demons coming up out of like tar to drag

down this sexy Grim Reaper You know and how does

she keep those clothes on because she must go

to the same wardrobe Place as Vampirella, you

know, probably got some double -sided tape working

on there But yeah, no, I like this cover They

don't really have I think this is like cover

a by Mike Crump. This is the sexy cover like

you get Cover B is just like a straight -up Grim

Reaper sitting on a throne by a pile of skulls

Then you get this Anubis looking Egyptian deity

thing with you know, redhead death in chains

and, you know, the cleavage. And then you get

this other one where she's in some sort of courtroom

and there's this demon lawyer and it's just she's

crying and the mascara is running. So apparently

this is like a Greek name for death. Like I don't

know if it's Karis or Karis. I'm going with the

Karis of death. We'll go with that. Yeah. so

this and this is a straight up this is a one

shot this is if the character is involved in

any of the grim fairy tale stories this is something

that's essentially removed from any ongoing narrative

it's entirely encapsulated in this one shot like

the red riding hood one yeah you know i'll say

that right up front we start in a trailer park

of course the only thing that's missing is sean

hunter red. No, I'm just like, oh, that's good.

I like that. But yeah, we're there. And you know,

they go, it's a bunch of rednecks. And there's

this, you know, hot redhead sitting there and,

you know, getting more attention than either

of the blondes and the blondes are definitely

showing more than her. But you know, Mary Jane

just works it. Oh, yeah. And she You know, basically

it's like she's insinuated in here because she

said she was hanging with a friend and that's

not really real and Basically, she's come to

kill them because they're kidnapping pets and

selling them on the black market Yeah, and then

they which was all good and then they took a

baby and I love you know redneck Brittany There's

like bitches a cap. Yeah and then you get Not

Merle Dixon Or no, not Daryl Dixon charges her

with a knife You know what happens to nosy horse?

They get cut to pieces and it's just like oh

This is I've seen enough horror movies. This

is not gonna end. Well, yeah And I love you know

a lot of times when the villain takes the knife

they pull out and it's bloody I love the fact

that when she pulls it out there's not one drop

of blood on it and everyone's like just you hear

that a collective such as that and she kills

them and then she morphs into you know the sexy

Grim Reaper costume you know summons a bunch

of wolves they eat the rest and then Abaddon

Yeah, she goes off whistling this tune. And I

like how she goes from having like the solid

redhead and then she gets like the heavy eye

makeup and like the red and black streaks in

the hair, which I just find that really attractive

for some reason. And, you know, the Anubis looking

dude is called Abaddon. He comes out humans are

so very creative. What song is that? Perfect

day by Lou Reed. I was like, Oh, good choice.

Love me some Lou Reed And he's like, what are

you doing here? And it's to discuss my music

He's like, yeah, you need to come with me. Oh

And she's like, oh, it's that time. Is it? This

is me being cordial Don't test me and then she's

just like, okay So she goes to the court of death

or the court of the dead or only a court of the

dead and you get like uh uh Hades pool of souls

from disney's hercules swirling around in the

middle there and then this little you know demon

bailiff the all souls rise and the grim reaper

shows up yeah looking like a boss yeah and he's

like basically i love how Charis Abaddon is he's

the Reaper of Mist Thanatos Reaper of Neverland

Anku Reaper of Oz and Pesta Reaper of Wonderland

then they're all very individual and the designs

used for each You know, I could see them working

like mist what little we saw in the Snow White

thing I could see Abaddon work in there Thanatos

what looks kind of like an evil Peter Pan So,

Neverland. The only ones I would switch were

Pesta and Anku. I think Anku were looking more

like an evil Oz from like the classic film. And

then you look at Pesta. I think Pesta would almost

look better in Oz, but that's just me. And basically,

Charis is on trial for interfering with humanity.

Like, she's not doing her job, right? Yeah. And

her punishment is she will... Quote -unquote

become human or somehow some way basically what

they do folks is they quantum leap her They basically

make her Sam with no al Yeah, exactly what they

do see I totally it's like that makes so much

sense I was wondering why You know, but it's

like this seems so familiar Why it's like no

she is she is Sam. She is quantum leaping through

this thing and I Love that that is so Especially

her first where she's basically leapt into the

body of Aunt May Pretty much. Yeah, you know,

there's this pain in my chest What is like Betty?

What are you trying? Oh my and she looks in the

mirror and it's this old and she's like this

is this is the end for isn't it and she dies

of like a heart attack and It's just the pose

that she lands in I was like look I get she's

a sexy grim reaper Would she really be yeah,

well, it's not creepy like this tool cheesecake

shot, which I'm not opposed to But you see the

way she fell she's falling onto her chest What

did she have like the rigor Morris gave up all

of a sudden? she like flopped up like a seal

and landed on her back in that pose like Did

she roll around or something like it? It doesn't

quite make sense and then she wakes up again

and she's like this mob guy Who's being sent

to sleep with the fishes. Yep So that was part

of the story which was Then she ends up in prison

and she's supposed to shank this guy, but she

doesn't she gives that over to him So she'll

be the one that that is the prisoner that ends

up being shanked because she's a white supremacist

basically basically You see her go through all

these other gnarly deaths. Yeah, all these other

gnarly gnarly deaths They even made her quote

-unquote jump into a shark Like they even jump

the shark with her like I don't think she'd jump

to serve that that is I know I know reference

to jaws Well, you know obviously but hello the

comic jumped the shark because it's it's shark

Yeah, she's not wearing a leather jacket and

is not, you know, surfing on the shark, but still,

same thing. So yeah, she has all these other

deaths, and then she's put into a place where

it's supposedly happy life. Well, she's a battered

woman, obviously. Well, it doesn't say that right

away, but I'm saying, like, when she first wakes

up, she's like, oh. What the hell happened to

you? You know yes, she is a better woman because

you do see the bruises in the in the mirror But

it doesn't outright say that directly because

the focus is the child at first is the daughter

and You know they have all this stuff, and then

obviously then that is when you know the boyfriend

the whatever you know goes in the battering and

the whatever and the whatever whatever and gets

to a point where he ends up hitting the daughter

and Because it's like two days later, and she's

helping you know the the daughter with homework,

and he stumbles in he's like Food on the table

yeah, yes You know cuz he's like is you trying

to take you find another man to tap that house

just like oh, yes You're just such a big strong

man now aren't you? You know she gets killed

So that puts that pulls her back to it pulls

death Charis back to her realm But the woman

gets killed which means the daughter is left

to be with the man And this is the life lesson

of this whole thing of you know help stop it

help this help that send me back Send me back

send me back and they go to the court and the

courts like yeah No, you're not getting sent

back. She tells them all that she's learned and

she understands that she cannot play quote -unquote

God with her powers and whatever else she gets

Avedon to send her back she fixes it so so the

woman doesn't die so the daughter isn't left

motherless she fixes it in a way where she doesn't

have to kill the guy she basically makes him

get arrested oh no he's dead Look that last shot.

What's what's tied to the tree? Yeah, I do like

the fact that like and I don't think she's like

Possessed a body like she's designed as a cop

and she's sitting there and I just love that

sly smile on her face and he's like It's like

everything's fine lady. I was talking to her

tell her everything is fine, baby, and she's

like having experienced this tells Tara, you

can take your life back and save your daughter

and Tara's like, no, he's hit me and my daughter

again. She's just like, you're coming with me.

And then it goes back to, you know, og death,

talking to Avedon and the rest. And he's like,

you know, you guys are futzing with the program,

right? And he's like, Well, sometimes you need

to futz with the program boss. He's like, and

you all feel this way? Yeah. Okay. Okay, let

it play. And then you have that thing where she's

singing the Lou Reed song. And, you know, asshole

McGillicutty has been dealt with rightly this

time. Yep. I mean, I've seen a lot of over the

years reading comics and TV and movies and all

that. I've seen a lot of Grim Reaper stories.

This is the first one. It's just like, yeah,

I actually have no problem with this. Yeah, I

love this story. I think the story is super cool,

super fun. So yeah, that's the 10th anniversary

One Shots for Death. I have to give it a five,

just like Red, because I absolutely loved it.

I thought this was a really, really cool, cool

story. Like we've been saying on our podcast,

we want to be able to find other stories with

some of these characters. And I will be looking

out for them so we can do future stuff with each

character, hopefully. Not all of them, but at

least Death and Red and maybe Alice, who knows,

I don't know. Yeah, no, I give this a straight

-up five. Just gonna look up the artist here

quickly so I say it correctly. Gregbo Watson.

Yeah, Gregbo Watson. Yeah. Great. I like his

art. See, there's it's not cartoony, but it's

soft. Like it's just all these characters look

exactly like they would in a low budget horror

movie. You know, like they look kind of gross

and like the bad guys look gross and disgusting.

The good guys look, you know, normal and More

or less put together have got it all together

Especially when you get to the month like the

mother and the daughter bit there at the end

like I like the brief interludes with like You

know Aunt May and then the mob hit and the white

supremacist. Yeah you know stuff like that I

I would like to know like you see they got the

jaws reference in that like that double page

spread of the jaws and the electrocution and

The in the middle with the car accident and her

on the bike that is like a scene straight out

of the final destination horror movie series

If you check if you ever check those out Mike,

I would highly recommend they're not really gross

It just plays with the idea death has seen the

first one Second one is the only other one you

need to see I've seen the first one and I was

I was over The second one is one of those rare

horror sequels. It's not as good as the first

It adds a bit more and it's just ludicrously

entertaining But yeah, see the only one I'm concerned

about not concerned concerned But I would like

to know what's the story with the hanging and

the freak sign? What was was she is that she's

supposed to be a dude there and he was gay Is

this like a weapon less men's fist three reference,

you know something like that so Mean overall

the art was great solid, you know the characters

I'd like to see more with like Abaddon Abaddon

seems like a cool dude, you know, he's a Reaper

and all but he just seems like he's just a solid

guy Absolutely All right, so I think that's gonna

do it for us here inside the pull bag This is

gonna round out our June coverage coming up in

July. We've got a bunch of stuff folks July is

fully loaded. It's gonna probably be multiple

episodes each week. We've got episode 311 to

316. Episode 311 is myself and Dane Lamont from

Punish Your Body Count talking about The Flash

Season 0, which took place during the... it was

part of the DC digital shorts thing and took

place during the first season of The Flash. Then

Dane is gonna return the next week talking Cowl

Volume 2. in episode 312 because Kyle, Chicago,

312, yada yada yada Steve Megatron and I are

going to do Nightwing the New Order which is

by far easily the best comic since Kyle Higgins

left the Nightwing series because he returns

to write Nightwing the New Order. And then JT

will be back for episode 314 and 315 where we

break up the long payback arc of Batman Beyond

Rebirth, issues 14, 15, and 16 in episode 314,

and then 17, and 19, and 315. So double dose

of Batman Beyond. And then I assume it's going

to be Ryan in the Unevenful Mergley. I don't

know, but we're going to be tackling the, I believe

it's Boom Studios, the WWE Volume 1 comic in

episode 316. The only problem with this is I

don't think the WWE comics right now, or at least

when they first started, I don't think Stone

Cold's in it. That's the whole reason why I put

it in episode 316, because of Stone Cold, but

I don't think he's in it at all. No, if that's

the one I'm thinking about, I believe that's

like it's set in... Like the current era WWE,

you know, like there's actually one of the more

recent arcs They had this two or three as she

run with focusing on Bailey. Yeah, you know and

I like her cuz she's a hugger I Can't wait until

Sasha just beats the shit out of her Hello I'm

sorry. I don't I don't agree with that Mike.

Well, I'm sorry. You don't agree with it, but

you know Yeah, it is Boom Studio's WWE. Yeah,

absolutely. Oh my god, they're already up to

18 issues of that thing. Very, very cool. Ooh,

Volume 2 is out too. So yeah, that's what's coming

up in July here on The Pull Bag. And then as

always, Autobotly August. Autobotly August is

kind of cut back a little bit this year because

I had to rethink my idea for the Transformers

spotlights that they had done a few years ago

and those are going to be done next year in Autobotly

April and Autobotly August. So all 31 spotlights

will be reviewed in 2019 here inside the pull

bag for the Transformers IDW stuff. At some point

I want to do the Amazing Spider -Man 797 -801

or whatever that red goblin arc is, I forget.

I think it doesn't end at 801? Technically it

ends in issue 800 and 801 is Dan Slott's farewell,

so it could be seen as the epilogue. Okay, yeah.

Essentially, yes. Talk about a cover that I absolutely

love. That Greg Land cover for 800? Oh my god.

it's just beautiful yeah yeah greg land's cover

for amazing spider -man eight eight eight hundred

and um frank cho yeah frank cho was the other

one that i absolutely loved for the uh variant

covers for amazing spider -man 800 where can

the people find you online sir uh they can find

me online uh bi -weekly at best on the comic

con of sirs podcast And you can always find me

on Twitter and Instagram at JT from Saskatoon.

Absolutely. I am at TFG1Mike on Twitter. Follow

at The Pull Bag on Twitter at GeekCastRadio as

well. Go over to GeekCastRadio .com. Check out

all of our podcasts. We do. We've just celebrated

nine years online this past June 1st. And for

now, make your great escape into comics and we

will catch you next time here inside The Pull

Bag. You've just heard the latest episode of

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into comics and unleash the geek in you. We combine

your speed with my speed. If you throw me forward

at your fastest, then... I might just break the

dimensional barrier and get back home. What?

What do you mean, like... a race? Yeah, I guess.

Then you can keep up, girl of steel. Oh, just

you watch Scarlet Speedster. Right.