Origins with Mike Laidman on Comic Origins and Reading History

let's do this let's do this right the first time

pre -show what was the pre -show so everything

you saw before that was pre the show which makes

a pre -show this is kevin conroy And I am the

goddamn Batman. You've just jumped inside the

pull bag. Join TFG1 Mike and the rest of the

comic reading crew here at the GCRN as they make

their great escape into comics. From DC, Marvel,

IDW, Boom Studios, Xenoscope, and more, we have

everything you wanna read right here. Transformers

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

DC superheroes like Batman, Batgirl, Nightwing,

and Batman Beyond? Yep. We have those too. How

about TMNT from IDW and I Hate Furland 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 360 .5. That's right, a .5 episode.

I am of course your host TFJ on mic. And today

I have... Well, we have the first pullback Origins

episode since Jesse Raz was on the show in 2016.

It was March of 2016. So basically, holy schnikes,

it's been three years and four months since we

did an Origins episode. On top of that, my guest

today, well, I've been begging him for the entirety

of this podcast's lifespan to be on this show.

That's six years of groveling. persistent emails,

thousands of hits on social media, and who the

hell knows how many voicemails, no not really,

you may have heard his voice before. on the GCRN's

sister network up there in Canada, eh? That's

right. From This Week in Geeks, the Untitled

Mike and Lara Project, it's Mike Laidman, holy

shit! What? How did you get that guy? I don't

know. Oh my goodness! I mean, I've put all this

work into it and everything else. I heard he's

very reclusive and doesn't do many podcasts these

days. I heard he's got 43 podcasts of something

called Part -Time Nerds, Full -Time Dads. That's

true. That is true. I definitely do have that.

Yes. So Mike Laidman is back, folks, and welcome

both to the GCRN and Twig listeners. It's been

at least two years since you and Laura did your

little special thing for 10th anniversary of

Twig. Because the 10th anniversary was 2017.

That's right And it's been even longer than that

since the Mike and Laura project episode 112

I think was I know we ended on such a random

number like you gotta come back and do 113 like

if it has to end end on 113 You know what? I

mean the reason the the the show Ended and just

kind of you know didn't continue on and we never

had another episode is just One day Laura just

decided that she was done and and it's not you

know She's not like I hate everybody and I hate

podcasting about it But she just it we were busy

and it was finding the time to do it was just

Not as easy and she's like, I don't know what

we have anything else to say. So she just kind

of She was done. And then with that, I was just

kind of like, well, I really liked doing that

podcast. So I just kind of fell into this like

I don't want to plug anybody kind of like mood

for a very long time. And then, I mean, there

was that one point when we did the the 10th anniversary

thing, which was just, you know, a quick one

off little one thing. Yeah. Yeah. And we actually

there was there was a point when Laura was was

doing Twitch for a little bit. She did Twitch

for about a minute. and we actually almost revived

it then. For if you if you look if you go back

to the untitled Mike and Laura project Twitter

because it's still up There is like a tease of

us reviving the show on twitch. It's literally

just the logo But it says twitch on it and and

then we never did anything with it It was that

logo and then nothing ever again And and basically

what what happened was we were talking about

doing it and I did some planning and I was like

well If we're gonna do it on twitch, we're gonna

have to have like graphics and stuff And I was

looking into like putting together graphics Packages

and all that fun stuff and then all of sudden

Laura's like no, I'm done with twitch and it

was like, oh, okay. Well I guess there goes that

again. So that was the end of the the comeback.

We had the the single tweet that that teased

we might be coming back and then we never came

back. And and that was kind of the end for a

very long time. And a friend of mine who I have

been doing the part time nerds full time dad's

podcast with his name is Chris Blonsky. He and

I have known each other for years. We went to

high school together. We actually did a radio

show together in college called The Weekly Draw.

It was named after the the comic that I did for

the school paper And we talked about comics,

movies and video games. And he was like, man,

I really liked doing that show with you. And

I mean, now that we have kids, we got kids stuff

to talk about. And at the same time, because

we got kids, we're going to be busy as hell.

And I want an excuse to keep hanging out with

you. So we put this aside about an hour a week

for us to get together, catch up on each other's

lives and talk about whatever the nerdy news

of the day is. And sometimes it's it's comics

and actually very rarely it's comics because

I'm the comic guy on the show and he's one of

those fans we actually address this on the most

recent episode he is a comics adjacent fan in

the sense of like. I like Batman and I like Spider

-Man, but you like Batman in the sense that you

like watching the movies and you like watching

the cartoons, but like you would not be caught

dead with a comic in your hands. That's that's

that's the kind of comic fan he is. But we talk

about video games on the show. We talk about

a lot of tech stuff. He's a lot more like into

the gadgets and things. So so anytime there's

any sort of like Macworld conference or something

like that, we talk about that kind of stuff and.

And I, you know, I'm big on video games still,

so we talk about video games. A big theme throughout

the show is that now that we have kids, we don't

have the time to play video games, which is quite

true. I have quite the backlog that is amassed,

and I've actually stopped buying games because

my backlog is getting so unsustainable. But we

talk about that kind of thing. It's funny, because

a perfect example is, I don't know if you're

familiar with the game Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

I'm familiar with the Assassin's Creed franchise

because I've heard you and a bunch of other people

talk about it, but I've never actually seen that

specific game. Well, Assassin's Creed Odyssey

is the most recent Assassin's Creed game. I bought

it on Boxing Day and I it took me three weeks

to beat the tutorial. The tutorial. The tutorial.

Wow. Yes. The tutorial. Because I had so little

time to actually play a game. I'd pick up play

for like five minutes, 10 minutes. I mean. newborns

are a lot of work. They they do eventually stop

becoming as much work like we actually pre recorded

our first four or five episodes. And it was funny

because we were going to release them and just

kind of have a buffer because when we started

recording the podcast, we recorded a few episodes

before we had the kids. And then it was going

to be like that way. We have this buffer built

up where we can talk like we can just release

episodes when the kids are born. And then that

way, you know, we can still you know not miss

a week kind of a thing and funnily enough is

both of our kids were born in the same week and

like they should have they were supposed to be

born months apart but they were born in the same

week and we blew through all of our our backup

episodes at once and uh yeah so so we just didn't

record anything for a month and then all of our

our backup episodes all rolled out and then we

we just started doing them on a weekly basis

so That's, that's hilarious. Yeah. I would think

that, you know, you know, you say that Laura

felt that there was nothing else to say. I'm

still waiting on the history podcast. Plus now

that you guys have a kid, you can talk about,

like, I know you're doing the, the, the dad thing

on, on the, on the show with Chris, but like,

you guys could talk about what it's like to be

parents. Like the way I've, I've always viewed

Mike and Laura was that the show. basically mirrored

what was going on in your lives. It's basically

a snap. Each episode is a snapshot of what's

going on that week or that month or at that time

in your lives. You know, hey, if she's not interested,

she's not interested, that's fine. You know,

whatever. uh... so comics uh... first of all

mike does his order used to do his own comic

mike stupid comics dot com yet that's another

thing that's changed in the year since you've

been trying to get into the show i have to stop

doing that i know the reasons you want to be

on the show exactly uh... But basically, give

everybody a quick rundown of what Mike's Stupid

Comics was. So Mike's Stupid Comics was originally,

the reason the name is dumb, it's that dumb,

is because it was originally a place to hold

my comics that I did in high school. I did a

whole bunch of comics that were just about the

guys that I was sitting with at my table at lunch.

And it was just stupid, stupid comics. And when

I graduated from high school, people were like,

man, I really like those comics, I hope you like...

put them somewhere so that I can still read them.

So originally Mike Stupid Comics was a GeoCities

website that hosted a bunch of comics I'd used

to draw on my lunch hours in high school. And

eventually I started doing a comic on the site.

And it was kind of because at that point, a friend

of mine was like, oh, you have a web comic. And

I'm like, well, yeah, I put comics on the Internet

music. No, no, no. You have a web comic. And

I'm like, what the hell is a web comic? And he

explained to me that there was this universe

of comics online, like, you know, Penny Arcade

and Mack Hall and then Megatoke, all of these,

you know, famous web comics. And I looked at

them all and I'm like, oh, actually, this is

a thing. So I started doing my own web comic

as well on the site. And of course, because the

only people who were currently reading the comic

on the site were the people who were in the comic

because I was You know, the comics were about

them, right? They were like, well, keep doing

the comics about us. So the comic is all about

like me and my friends. And then it got to a

point where I'm like, well, I want to tell my

own stories. But, you know, like all of my characters

are my friends. And they're like, well, you can

tell your own story, but. Keep the comic about

us So all of it and that's the thing like I was

reading all these web comics like the ones that

I named Mac Hall Penny Arcade mega Tokyo all

of the main characters of those comics were the

writers and the artists of those comics and And

I thought that that's I thought that's what web

comics were like I thought that all web comics

were autobiographical Comics and so I'm like,

okay. Well in that case, I guess this has to

be autobiographical too. So I made the comic

about me and And even though like at the time

I had you know no idea there were other comics

out there that had nothing to do With the you

know the people who were actually writing and

drawing and they were actually you know original

characters original stories So I got into the

point where I'm like, okay Well, I want to tell

an original story But I'll use the characters

that already exist because people are already

reading it I was like 50 50 comics in at that

point and then I added a storyline and I think

that's why when you actually read the comic that

like the villain of the story doesn't appear

until like halfway through like the second chapter

because again it was not originally planned to

be a long -form story comic it was originally

like a small you know four panel joke of the

day kind of comic at first and then eventually

when i started i decided i wanted to tell stories

in it i actually completely changed the art style

there's actually a comic in in the story where

the art style changes and like like like everybody

acknowledges the style changing where they're

like whoa what just happened kind of a thing

and then from that point on it's in the new style

and then it it continues onwards and it becomes

this whole thing about like evil billionaires

and like trying to find this girl that he doesn't

know the name of that was the other thing that

i thought was really funny is um is because that

was another thing that i read in all of these

stupid web comics was they all were about Romance

all of the main characters were after somebody

like the mega Tokyo definitely Another comic

that a friend of mine. I met him in college He

was writing a comic and he had a love interest

that was not a real person as well So I'm like,

okay. Well, I guess I need a love interest who's

not a real person So I incorporated that into

the comic as well The character of Hannah is

not based on a real person and she is the main

character who is me she is his love interest

and and it was really funny because actually

I was dating Laura when the show, when the show

or no, sorry, I was dating Laura when when I

was working on the comic. And what happened was

it was really funny. The timing, how it worked

out is Laura and I were friends, obviously, before

we were dating. And she found out that I drew

this comic and she's like, Can you put me in

your comic? because everybody else was in this

comic she knew all my friends were in it so i

was like i can i can definitely put you in the

comic and i thought about it and there was this

one scene where there was this one -off character

who was supposed to show up and they were only

there to just be there for a second and then

they were gone they were gone from the story

forever and and they were just there to do this

one scene and i'm like it's a perfect spot i'll

just throw her in she'll be there as a cameo

and she'll see it and she'll laugh and she'll

show her friends and i'll see it and and that'll

be it well i decided to put her into this role

before we were dating and literally the week

we started dating was the week that the comic

with her in it went up so i remember when it

happened is my friends started messaging me being

like So you're just gonna put every girl you

like in a comment Because it was really funny

because it was just timing wise it worked out

that way is we didn't actually start We started

dating the week that she appeared in my comic

So it was just really funny how that worked out

and everybody and of course at the in the moment

in the scene That character was it was there

to do one thing very important and then bow out

and never be seen in the story again, so Not

only does she show up, but she suddenly becomes

the most important character in the comic for

like two pages. And then again, she's gone. But

the thing is, is people reading this or reading

this one page a week and don't know this. So

they see me introduce this girl who is my new

girlfriend. And then she becomes like the super

best character of the comic. And everyone's like,

oh, my God, Mike, come on. Like, what are you

doing? And then it turned out like, OK, no, she's

done. She's not in the story again. And she never

does. She never does reappear. but it was just

really funny how that worked out and also it

was really funny too because now I'm actually

dating somebody and I'm writing a comic about

me dating this imaginary person it's like this

is really weird but but yes so that comic eventually

did end because it was kind of like I was sort

of done telling stories and that in that in that

world I wanted to tell stories That had my own

characters in them and not you know I have to

make this person act like this person because

it's really my friend Chris You know that kind

of thing right so So I wanted to to do that and

I actually I do have ideas for comics that I

have talked about I think before publicly But

I for whatever reason it's the same reason I'm

not podcasting all the time and the same reason

I don't I don't play as many video games I used

to do is it's because I just don't have time

but you know every so often work and life and

exactly kids and marriage and there's just There's

just no time and you have to decide what you're

gonna work on or what you're gonna do for yourself

or for whatever You know, yeah, and you just

gotta it's time management. Yep. So I'll go ahead.

I've said that you know All of June of this year

for the pull bag. It was all kind of Sort of

pre -recorded there were delays there was this

there was that I backdated a few posts because

you know by the time I was pre -recording something

that should have been released in June it was

like the middle of July and whatever and it's

like you know and I have a cat like it's not

like I have you know kids or whatever I mean

my wife and I you know Karen and I we do all

kinds of crazy stuff and whatever but it's like

Right now we're in the middle, like I've said

in other shows, we're in the middle of trying

to sell our house, potentially move. You know,

it's like, when life takes over, I've said this

since day one of podcasting, life comes before

podcasting. And if life is happening to you,

you have to focus on that. But at the same time,

you still need some sort of outlet to deal with

it. And that honestly, podcasting is my outlet

for dealing with it, whether I'm talking about

You know, Optimus Prime and Megatron or Batman

versus Iron Man or whatever. You know, it has

to come in there somewhere. Yeah. All right.

Getting to the questions. Yes. Did you grow up

reading comics? At what age did you remember

first reading a comic or noticing comic books?

I can tell you the first comic I ever read because

it was an important comic. so basically You and

I actually were talking before the show about

the the speculator market when you know There's

a newsworthy thing that comes up like for example

the death of Superman Where people who don't

read comics the normies come out of the woodwork

to buy all the comics. Yes Well that happened

to my parents and they bought me the very first

Tim Drake Robin issue which was, I believe, Batman

436, something like that. So back in like 1989.

So it's not the first issue that has Tim Drake

in it, but it's the first issue he dresses as

Robin. Right. And my parents bought it and they

were like, yeah, this is supposed to be worth

money. And then they gave it to a child who then

destroyed it because he read it over and over

and over again. So that was literally the first

comic book I ever read. And I can't recall if

I actually knew anything about comics before

that. I don't remember if I remember Superman

or Batman. I remember Batman like obviously I

had that Batman comic and I remember Batman being

a thing that that my life kind of revolved around.

Once I really started to get into comics, it

kind of came from this babysitter. My parents,

they sent us to this babysitter, my brother and

I. And looking back at that babysitter, he was

also kind of like. not not him but the the the

babysitter her husband was kind of like a weird

dude that who on one hand got me into comics

and wrestling but at the other hand I probably

shouldn't have been talking to that dude because

I'm fairly certain he had a room full of Nazi

paraphernalia at his house but but that's neither

here nor there I trust me I didn't go in that

room and I don't I don't partake in that kind

of stuff but he introduced me to comics and I

remember trading cards. He had a big box of trading

cards, and he was collecting the entire set,

the entire run of trading cards, and he had so

many doubles. And he was like, here, you can

have my doubles. And it was the Marvel Series

2. Oh, yeah. And I had I still have them. I still

have a wallet full of like one of those old card

binders full of the old cards. And he gave me

all of his doubles. And that's where I first

found out about the X -Men and where I first

found out about Spider -Man and Captain America

and all of the Marvel characters. And I remember

really liking Wolverine because his mask looked

like Batman's mask. And I was like, yeah, yeah,

he looks like Batman. And that was like really

my first introduction to all of the Marvel heroes,

which is really funny because now I'm like all

about Marvel and outside of Batman I couldn't

care less about DC as it stands but my first

trip ever to a comic shop was through this guy

I went to he went to funnily enough as we were

talking about the death of Superman he was on

his way to a comic shop to buy the death of Superman

books and I ended up buying Shadow of the Bat

number one which I mean Shadow of the Bat stopped

You know, I stopped running a long time ago,

but that was another book. It was like, oh, this

book is going to be with money. Well, let's give

it to this child and watch him destroy it because

he reads it over and over and over again. And

and that was really like those were my first

two comics. And I remember buying for myself

the first comic I ever bought myself was X -Men

number eight. And this was Jim Lee after the

after they did the relaunch. Like it wasn't Chris,

Chris Claremont, because he was gone. And it

was whoever took over afterwards. And it was

this comic where Wolverine and Ghost Rider and

the rest of the X -Men are fighting the brood

in New Orleans. And and I remember that because

the art captured my imagination. And the other

thing, too, was that it was the first time I'd

ever seen Wolverine in his blue costume. Like

everything I'd seen up to that point with like

all the trading cards and stuff was Wolverine

in the brown costume. And blue was my favorite

color. So when I saw him in the blue costume,

I'm like, what is this? This is amazing. I love

this. And then not too long after that, that

was when the Batman animated series came out

and then X -Men, the cartoon. And it was really

funny because I remember so many people talking

to me about like because I would talk at length

about X -Men because I had these trading cards

and nobody knew what I was talking about. Nobody.

None of the kids I went to school with knew X

-Men until that cartoon came out. And I'd never

heard about it until one day when I was like,

hey, that guy that you were talking about with

the claws. He he's on this show that I watch

on Fox and I'm like I didn't get Fox at the time

I had like the basic over -the -air TV and I

got I got global in Canada, which which had Batman

the animated series But nothing nobody had no

none of the main networks in Canada had x -men

You could only get Fox if you had a decent enough

cable or signal to pick up Fox and I did not

so So he's like, yeah, yeah, there's a there's

an X -Men cartoon on Fox and and I kind of like

I need to watch this whenever I can and my grandparents

had Fox So every time it was like, hey, do you

want to sleep over your grandma's tonight? I

was like, yes because I can watch X -Men tomorrow

morning so so I was watching X -Men and Batman

the animated series whenever I could and I also

really got into the X -Men toys like even though

the X -Men cartoon was not around in Canada,

we still have or at least like if you didn't

have access to Fox they still had the x -men

car like toys the action figures the old toy

business figures and I was collecting those and

I found out about wizard magazine because somebody

told me like oh yeah they talk about when the

new toys are coming out in wizard magazine so

I got that because I wanted to to know when the

new x -men toys were coming out and as I read

through wizard magazine I just kept buying wizard

magazine after wizard magazine and it You know,

there's all these stories in there about comics.

So I learned a lot about comics without ever

having read the comics like I knew about Dark

Knight Returns. I knew about Watchmen years before

I ever read them. Same with like Squadron Supreme,

Squadron Supreme. These were all books that I

knew about and major story arcs. I knew about

days of future past years before I ever read

it. Things like that. And and then eventually

I remember there was an article in Wizard where

they were talking about Ultimates the ultimate

spider -man and and it was like, oh, yeah, it's

this brand new world where you don't need to

know you don't need to know like the the characters

history and I'm like well I know some of this

history because of these these trading cards

like it's funny the characters that I gravitated

towards because of these trading cards Venom

was a character that I knew a lot about because

of these trading cards So back in the day I remember

my brother had the venom lethal protector number

one and I remember that I always wanted to get

it from him so I could read it and he's like

no you can't you can't read my venoms like they're

gonna be worth money and he like you know he

had the bags and everything and I'm like please

I'll trade you my my one shadow of the bat over

and over again you know that kind of thing And

so I knew about a lot of the Spider -Man characters.

Obviously, the cartoon had been out by that point,

and I'd been watching those characters in the

cartoon. And when I first heard about the Ultimate

Universe, I was like, oh, OK, this sounds like

something that would be a great time to kind

of get in. I know about Spider -Man. I've read

random Spider -Man comics. I would find a comic

here or there at the grocery store. You know,

like my my pre comic shop days are so random

and scattered and all over the place. Like I

have just random X -Men comics. I was reading

the the the Eric Larson Wolverine run from the

like the late 90s, early 2000s, where like he

he like where it was where he became death for

apocalypse. And then they did that alternate

universe thing where they did a couple issues

where it was the Fantastic Four, but with Wolverine

in the Fantastic Four, because remember there

was that one period of time where Wolverine,

Ghost Rider, Spider -Man, and the Hulk were the

Fantastic Four? They did this story during this

Eric Larson run where it was like an alternate

universe and Wolverine was still part of... of

the fantastic four and they did this comic where

it was like oh yeah what they've been in the

fantastic four years and they reference like

they reference events that never happen and i

was like this is fascinating i want to see more

comics in this universe um but eventually the

ultimate spider man stuff came out but i i didn't

know of any comic shops in my area comic shops

to me were a very few and far between rare thing

and uh at the time The only ways i could find

stuff like i said was at the grocery stores and

there was a store nearby where i used to hang

out with some friends where they would sell these

i can't remember what they were called they were

collections and they were. I think they called

them the ultimate comics, magazines, and it was

it was the first couple issues of Ultimate Spider

-Man. So I found it and at first I thought it

was the first issue of Ultimate Spider -Man because

of the cover for it. But it was like issue one,

two and three and like a magazine sized format.

And then those issues just kept coming out. And

I got a few of those. And then they introduce

the ultimate x -men comics in those as well so

once i actually found that i had the first six

issues of both i actually found out that there

was a comic shop not too far from where i live.

And that's when i started going comic shops and

because i was like i need to keep reading these

ultimate x -men and ultimate spider -man books

cuz i think they're great and. And that's when

i actually started doing comic shops for the

first time. And then from there it became a little

this needs to go in my pull bag and this needs

to go in my full bag and that kind of thing.

And I didn't I didn't go too crazy at first.

It was mostly stuck to ultimate comics to the

to the point where actually for in regards to

the ultimate Spider -Man ultimate X -Men. I have

almost entire runs of both books. Cool. I'm missing.

Of course, I'm missing the ones that like, you

know, are worth the most. I'm missing like the

first six issues. of both runs. I have I have

all those. And then as time went on, I just kept,

you know, adding more and more books because

I was still reading Wizard at that point. And

you know, Wizard was saying, hey, this is a good

book. And I'd pick it up. And sometimes I'd listen

to the people at the comic shop. Same with Walking

Dead. I have an almost entire run of Walking

Dead. I'm missing the first 12 issues of Walking

Dead. Of course, again, the ones that are worth

money. But yeah, I know. So I was. I've been

reading comics for four years and and as I've

said I've mostly stick to to Marvel a lot of

Marvel stuff I do every so often pop into some

of the big DC stuff like I have gone back and

I've read Watchmen I've read Dark Knight Returns

I did read what was the one after it Dark Knight

Strikes Again? Yeah, you know when that came

out I remember reading all -star Superman and

all -star Batman because those were big deals

One of those it was a bigger deal than the other

I Have I've been getting some of the not been

getting but I did get some of the other offshoot

stuff like some of them I shouldn't say offshoot

but just non DC non Marvel stuff. I was really

big into Irredeemable, I don't know if you know

irredeemable at all. That was a dynamite Yeah,

I'm actually rereading it right now because of

that bright burn movie that just came out So

bright burn is essentially Superman. If Superman

was a bad guy kind of a thing. Right. Right.

So this irredeemable is the story of Superman.

If Superman snapped from the pressure of being

Superman and became a mass murderer. And it's

phenomenal. And if I remember from the ending,

I seem to remember I didn't like the ending because

the ending is very weird. It gets it gets very

like. metaphysical and like oh you're part of

somebody's dream or some some weird thing because

up until that point it plays as like oh this

is Superman when when Superman goes nuts and

and they take a lot of Moments from superman's

past and they present them in a more realistic

way in the sense of like like perfect example

is Superman is adopted by you know a kind Kansas

couple right and then he has they find out oh

this baby has superpowers well let's let's protect

this baby and make sure that everything is everything

is you know perfect for him and and he learns

how to do the You know how to do everything nice

and blah blah blah blah in irredeemable. They

are afraid of him So they give him away they

they send him to he bounces from foster home

to foster home because everyone the second he

does anything super powered they freak out and

they get rid of him because they like I can't

handle him like and he does things that are you

know to him he's doing good like a perfect example

is the one woman who adopts him has a husband

that beats her and he stops the husband by like

you know Using laser vision on and because of

that the the wife Because he's like I love you

mommy. I you know, I want to protect you and

she's like, holy shit My son is a monster. Oh

my god and it's like that that Twilight Zone

episode where everybody's like really nice to

the kid the superpowers because he'll do things

to them if if you know, they say something bad

about him and and he's like everything's great

for him like he's like, yeah, I finally have

a mommy who loves me and she like shoots herself

and because she can't stand to be you know she

can't stand the pressure because she thinks she's

gonna say something that's gonna set him off

and he's gonna you know laser eye her and stuff

and and another great example of like things

that would happen a little more realistically

is there's a there's a Lois Lane analog as well

in the story and he he has a Clark Kent alias

that he uses as well and she's like oh yeah I'm

the cuz the the Superman character his name is

the plutonium And she's like she becomes the

Plutonians girlfriend just like Lois Lane and

and he's he eventually takes her aside as his

alias and he so you like. I want you to know

I love you and I want to marry you. She's like,

what are you talking about? I'm the Plutonians

girlfriend. You need to back off. And he's like,

but it's but this is here's the great thing.

I'm the Plutonian all along. And she's like,

what? You've been lying to me. I hate you. You

know, so it's you know, like you've been lying

to me for all these years kind of thing. And

he's like, what? No, you know, like that kind

of thing happens to him. And and then in the

end, what what actually drives him crazy is he

somebody bitches at him. for being like, hey,

you know, why weren't you here five minutes sooner?

My boat got dinged or something like that. Right.

And and and he freaks out. He's like, can I have

five minutes a piece? He flies out into space

and and he's just quiet. You know, he can't hear

everybody asking for help for like 10 minutes.

And then he comes back. And it turns out this

insane disaster happened while he was gone. And

because he was gone. You know it got it got way

worse than it could have been had he been there

to prevent it and it also turns out that it was

his fault that it happened because there was

like some guy who was super critical of him that

was like that guy's like he's got like a god

complex he shouldn't be around and And he keeps

like when aliens invade us and he stops them

He doesn't give us any of the alien tech like

we're like schmucks that you know We're monkeys

that are gonna shoot ourselves in with the face

with a gun And then so he gives this guy a thing

and he's like look, you know if try it and from

what I understand this piece of technology is

not bad and You know, it'll be fine and then

that turned thing turns out to be like a mass

weapon and kills like a ton of people and and

then they find out like somebody finds out that

it was his fault and That's what makes him go

off the deep end and he basically goes to metropolis

and levels it and like every you know It's it's

really good. It's a really good book and there's

like 12 volumes of it Highly recommend it. I

said from what I can recall. I'm reading rereading

it right now and I'm still enjoying it but I

remember the ending when it ended and I read

the last page I was like Huh, just like all right.

That's how that ends like I get where they were

going with it, but I wasn't the at the time I

don't remember being the biggest fan of the ending

but Maybe maybe some time in perspective will

have changed some things and I like it a lot

better this time Alright, so we've answered whether

you're Marvel or DC, which is your favorite and

why. You mentioned Dynamite and Irredeemable.

What other publishers do you like or what other

stuff from other publishers are you reading currently?

Currently I am reading... Nothing nothing absolutely

nothing and it's just because of the timing and

this is actually what kind of got us Talking

in back again in the first place is this is the

first time I've been reading nothing and it's

because that my wife Laura We met at a comic

shop And part of the main reason the comic shop

that I was buying ultimate spider -man she didn't

work there at the time but eventually she did.

And when she worked there while we were dating

she managed to convince her boss to give me her

store discount. And I was buying everything everything

when I had the store discount well when she when

she stopped working there I could no longer afford

it and I cut my box back to just. two books the

two ongoing books that I was reading because

because irredeemable I was actually reading in

trades so I was just buying the trades as they

came out and there's a few other books that I've

been reading like saga which of course is also

now on hiatus so you know I'm not reading that

because it's on hiatus but I was reading the

two books that I was reading That I kept reading

because I was reading spider -man and I was reading

x -men and I remember at the time being like,

okay This is good, but it's not the greatest

but at the same time it was like yeah, but I'm

getting it with a huge discount So it's worth

it, you know, well once I wasn't getting the

discount anymore I was like, okay This is kind

of isn't worth it and I need to be a lot more

choosy because we're like looking at getting

married buying a house and things like that so

I cut my bit my books down to only invincible

and the walking dead both image comics, both

written by Robert Kirkman. And in the ensuing

time, both of those books have ended. And currently

I have no books in the queue. Like I said, I

still... I still pull the occasional book like

Saga or Life is Strange, Life is Strange, which

is based on a video game. That is something else

that I'm reading. And I've been reading the Dark

Horse Legend of Korra books, but those are all

either graphic novel form or trades. So I'm no

longer pulling individual books anymore. So OK,

I can give you one big suggestion. OK. IDW's

TMNT series, the main ongoing. You start with

that start at the beginning start with volume

one and I'm telling you if you're if you were

ever a Turtles fan at all from anything from

the 87 cartoon from the films from the 2003 from

the original comics that Eastman and Laird did

what IDW is doing with the Turtles is amazing.

Is that the one I feel like I followed a little

bit like I heard about something that happened

and then I went back and I like kind of looked

through the storyline to see what happened. I'm

trying to I'm trying to for anyone. I mean, I

guess I don't know. Do you want me to say things

that are possibly spoilers? Sure. It's like,

yeah. Didn't like Raphael like lose an eye and

like Donatello die and stuff like that. Is it

that series or is this a different one? I don't

know if Raph lost an eye because I'm a little

behind myself. I am up to issue 80 of the series.

OK, this would have been a long time ago. Okay,

then Donatello did die in the IDW series, but

he was brought back. Okay. He died at issue 44.

They brought him back in issue 50. This is the

one that's written by Tom Walz, Kevin Eastman,

Bobby Kernau. Bobby Kernau was also the editor.

Art style varies from like they get all kinds

of like Dan Shoning. God, the list is endless.

We've covered every single thing that IDW has

done with the Turtles for five years now on this

podcast. So not only is there comics you can

read, you can listen to reviews of it if you'd

so choose. But yeah, so IDW, start at the beginning,

start at volume one. I'll send you the link on

Comixology later. I'm sure you can go find a

physical copy. Since you've answered some of

these questions, I'll ask you now, print or digital?

Like we now live in the digital age where Comixology

is kind of the biggest one. I mean, I know Amazon

and Comixology kind of coexist, but, you know,

and Marvel and DC have their own apps and services

and whatever. But when you're reading a comic,

do you need to feel the actual comic or are you

OK looking at a computer screen or whatever?

It's hard to say because I've done both. I feel

like like in the sense of. Well, so after after

I stopped buying so many comics and I was only

buying the two comics those comics that I was

buying became the quote -unquote important comics

to me and I was still reading comics through

less legal means and In those cases I was I was

reading on my Surface tablet And I was reading

them, you know, you just stand it up and read

it there. And I had no real like there's no issue

reading, you know, reading comics like that.

But I don't know. I mean, it's kind of interchangeable

for me. Like I guess we're like I said, there's

a lot of stuff that it's. if it's important to

me i want it you know i want to hold it in my

hand i want to put it on my shelf like a perfect

example is those kora comics the kora the kora

show I love that show. It's one of my favorite

television shows of all time. So when they were

actually, you know, producing a sequel to it

in book form, I was like, Well, I have to have

it. So I you know, those that was important to

me that I have those books, I have them on my

shelf that I can look at them forever whenever

I want to. But at the same time, I'm also a big

fan of The aliens franchise and there is a ton

of Dark Horse aliens books and actually what

it when I ended up doing recently is I don't

know if you've heard of the library service hoopla

hoopla They have digital comics and I've been

reading old trades of aliens comics in In hoopla

and I've been using reading them on my phone

or on my tablet and in those cases I mean that's

fine. That's something for me. It's like okay.

I just want to know the story to me It's it's

a disposable medium in the sense of like I'm

gonna read this alien comic, but I'm never gonna

want to read it again You know so it's kind of

like in that sense. It was a nice snackable moment

of like okay. I'm gonna eat eat this. It's because

I said snack. That's my problem. I can read this

and then it can go away and I don't need to worry

about it kind of thing. Like those Korra comics,

I'm going to read those over and over and over

again over the years. So I think that's the difference

for me right there. If it's something that's

important to me, I want the physical version.

I want it on my shelf. I want to be able to show

it to my friends. That kind of thing. If it's

something that I'm just going to read once and

be done with, then I don't mind being in digital.

Absolutely. I remember when we started the show,

when we started the pole bag, I was going to

the local comic shop in Louisville at the time

of The Great Escape and I was getting whatever

I was reading at the time for the show or whatever,

mostly Batman stuff, some Spider -Man, whatever,

and then I eventually found Comixology and I

just kind of never looked back because... I was

tired of having boxes upon boxes of physical

comics, right? Because again, it goes to what

you just said. You're going to read it once and

not read, especially single issues. You're going

to read the single issue once. Like if you have,

like, again, IDW, you look at their like IDW

collections where they're all hardcover collecting,

whatever, you know, whether it's Transformers,

Turtles, whatever it is, but they're hard bound,

hard back. collectible books that you put on

a bookshelf. You know, wasn't doing that. I was

just doing single issues, issue by issue kind

of thing, and I'm like, really don't, I like

going to the comic shop and I like, you know,

talking to them and whatever, but really don't

care for physical comics anymore. And then it

was the point where I ended up, I was reading

for the show and I've tell this story. million

times at this point, so for all you listeners

who have heard it before, tune out for a minute.

I was reading Welcome Back, Frank, writing The

Punisher, Welcome Back, Frank. I'm holding it,

I'm reading it, all of a sudden my eyes droop,

my left hand laxes, the book falls out of my

hand as I'm sitting in the chair reading it.

It wasn't because of the story of the book, it

was because of holding, the thing is 12 issues

in a In a hardcover heart whatever paperback,

whatever it is trade paperback like My arm is

getting tired my face. Oh crap. I need to just

go put this down right? Try to read it later

or get it on comedy. Yeah as soon as that happened

I'm like, I just need to go digital less space

less this less that yeah It's so much easier

and I I read to enjoy them, but I also mainly

when I'm reading stuff I read it to talk about

it on this is the Out of all the shows that GCRN

does, this is the one that has been going, as

I said earlier, the one I've kept up with the

longest. It's the one that I don't feel like

I'm running out of ideas, because there are so

many comics over the last 80 -something or more

years, and there's so many new comics and so

many different things coming out, and just going

towards franchises or characters or whatever.

But that IDW TMNT series, that's something you

might want to check out if you were ever a Turtles

fan. You know what? It's funny, because I talked

about Hoopla and how I thought Hoopla was the

greatest thing in the world. My local library

actually changed service providers, so I don't

have Hoopla anymore. And actually, if I remember

correctly, I had those Turtles comics in my poll

list. They were in my watch list. So I was going

to read those once I finished with all the Aliens

comics that I was reading. Yeah, so there you

go. The thought had crossed my mind, but I never

got to it in time. Who are some of your favorite

comics writers and why are they your favorites?

Well, I guess a perfect start would be Robert

Kirkman. As I said there, the two books that

I was still reading when I dropped everything

was Was robert kirkman both books, uh invincible

is actually one of my favorite superhero stories

of all time I know I went on at length about

irredeemable Uh, but that's again. That's what

i'm currently reading Uh, or at least currently

rereading but invincible is is fantastic. I don't

know if you know invincible at all invincible

i've seen it invincible is essentially superman

if he was spider -man okay, so it's it's not

it's not super boy, but it's it's like It's it's

Superman's power set, essentially, but the lifestyle

of Spider -Man. So it starts off with him being

in high school and like talking to girls and

stuff like that. And then. And then you know

from there he goes off into college and stuff

and like and he tries to get a real job and things

like that but it all doesn't work out because

he's trying to balance his life is invincible

and so it's very very much like spider -man although

it goes into very dark places like it doesn't

it goes to things places that you would never

go with. You know spider -man actually or Superman

for that matter like a perfect example is right

off the bat The reason he has the Superman superpowers

is because his father is a superhero that is

very popular and very well -known named Ultraman

and Ultraman is Essentially Superman as well

He has the origin of Superman he came from a

different planet, but he's not he wasn't like

raised here He came from another planet as part

of like the planet or the his planets Like cultural

exchange program or something where they go to

other planets and they protect them and stuff

and he's like I really like this planet I'm gonna

stay here and I'm gonna help you know help with

you guys because you guys have so many monsters

and stuff for some reason so So he takes over

he becomes his small not takes over but he becomes

like a big popular superhero he's part of like

their version of the Justice League because of

course there's like a version of the Justice

League where there's like an Aquaman where he's

like he's literally a fish man and and there's

like a Batman character and a Wonder Woman character

and the Green Lantern character and all this

stuff and And then his son gets the superpowers,

too And then the first story arc builds to the

fact that it turns out his father is not there

to make the world better for humans. He's there

to actually conquer the planet. And he's been

biding his time getting the planet ready for

takeover. And he's been waiting for his son to

become of age and get his superpowers so that

the two of them can take over the planet together.

And in the in the process, Ultraman kills a lot

of people. And I like that entire Justice League

like. that fake justice league all of them they

all get killed like all sorts of stuff and then

from there it just becomes like him dealing with

that like like because the main character invincible

his name is mark so it's him dealing with that

like oh my god like my father was actually like

this tyrant from space and and it turns out unlike

superman's planet which blew up and everybody

who was like superman died there's an entire

planet full of superman level Monsters out there

who are eventually going to come one by one to

this planet and kill like try to take it over

So he he you know has to fight them off and then

he becomes involved in like, you know global

inner Intergalactic politics and stuff. So it's

kind of get some Green Lantern stuff in there.

That's what that's I love that comic for years

and Walking dead. I was a big fan of I mean what

I'm not a big horror movie guy But when it came

to horror movies zombies was something that I

was always fascinated with I actually wrote a

zombie comic at one point that almost came out

at the same time that Walking Dead came out.

I was back in college where I was making a comic

and I came up with the idea for the zombie comic

where everyone is useless. Okay, if every time

you I mean walking dead is a perfect example.

The main character Rick Grimes is police officer

That's a very useful set of skills to have in

a zombie apocalypse. My characters were all like

I worked at a fast food restaurant I'm a taxi

cab driver like like nobody has a skill that

is useful in the world where zombies take over

nobody's a marksman, you know, nobody has survival

skills and and that was was the hook for mine

was that all of the The characters were essentially

useless and any character could die at any point

in which essentially walking dead came out It

was like oh shit. Well, he not only did he do

my story, but he did it better You know, so but

anyway, yeah, so the walking dead came out and

I was a big fan of that and I hopped on the board

with that and Yeah, so I've loved I love Robert

Kirkman. I've loved I'm just trying to think

of other there's obviously this big Lot of people

I was again. I was more an artist than a writer

So I gravitate a lot more to a lot of the the

artists versus the writers There's a lot of books

that I would buy specifically because the writer

a perfect example is Ryan Otterly who is the

artist for almost the entirety of invincible

a different artist does the first I think 15

or so issues and then Ryan takes over and I was

in love with Ryan's art and Ryan is currently

drawing amazing spider -man Oh sweet and I want

to get into spider -man because I know he's drawing

it and and I know whoever is writing I I'm a

fan of whoever is writing because they are whoever

they are whoever is writing is clearly Knows

what they have with Ryan because they are making

him draw characters that he excels at drawing

that kind of character So I've been looking at

the art that he posts on Instagram and Twitter

and I'm like, oh my god Like why aren't I reading

this book? It's one that I definitely want to

hop into but like a perfect example is he posted

a thumbnail from a most recent the most recent

issue and it is a scene of I think it's MJ. The

art's black and white, so it's hard for me to

tell. It's MJ at a Broadway show, and the Broadway

show is fantastic for the musical. So there's

like... Fanta there's like Broadway versions

of like the Fantastic Four like singing on stage

and like Galactus is there and it just it's just

looks phenomenal and it's it's like, okay This

is the kind of stuff I want to see and he's and

he's been drawing stuff with venom and like Ryan

Olly if one thing that was he was really good

at is drawing grotesque monsters So him drawing

venom who was one of my favorite characters.

He's always done an amazing venom So just to

see him doing venom now is like, okay now I gotta

I really should hop on this. I believe they're

doing a big story with carnage right now so he's

drawing carnage as well so it's like oh these

are characters that are tailor -made for his

style so it's something I've been meaning to

hop into but again it comes at a time and now

that I you know now that I have a baby who you

know he's got to eat and go and do things it's

also a very but babies are very expensive as

well so so picking and choosing when I'm going

to to read these things is you know It's a struggle.

I gotta say I'm trying to think of who else You're

talking about the 2018 Amazing Spider -Man series,

right? Yes. This is the one that's currently

ongoing right now That would be Nick Spencer

on art with Ryan Writing right with Ryan on art.

Yep. Yeah, and they also brought his Inker on

board to clip rapper. I don't know. Not a crap

burn is why is that looking dead anyway? Whoever

the anchor was is also the anchor on invincible

and they work very well together. Their work

is phenomenal together. So yeah, it's funny.

Yeah, the way I wrote these questions out favorite

writers and why next question favorite artists.

Well, there you go. There you go. I was also

going to say I was saying Jim Lee. Jim Lee's

X -Men was. Was like my life for a long time

like I loved that art and and I mean obviously

the the art of the animated series There's based

on his design. So I mean like the Jim Lee style

is what I think of when I think of x -men even

though I mean nowadays he's way more known for

Batman, but to me Jim Lee is x -men and he's

always x -men I'm just trying to think who else

sticks out. There's a lot of people like I follow

a lot of artists on Instagram and stuff. I'm

really bad with names. That's also my greatest

weakness is like I know people's styles more

than I know their actual names. There's a group

of guys. They work out of what is called the

Raid Studio. I believe it stands for like Royal

Academy of Illustration and Design or something.

Those guys are a collective of artists. They're

all Canadian artists, if I remember correctly,

or at least the main guys are Canadian. Those

guys, their work is all phenomenal. They all

work out of the studio together. They do a lot

of Marvel stuff. I love that I'm blanking on

naming a single one of them. I follow them all

on like Twitter and Instagram, but I could not

for the life of me. because I'm again names were

never my forte I was always like oh I recognize

this I recognize you know that kind of stuff

I always I always really liked Mark Begley's

work again I said I was a big fan of of the Ultimate

Spider -Man run. So his work was fantastic. Obviously

I'm a fan of Ultimate Spider -Man to the point

where I read every single issue and I have almost

every single issue. You'd have to say I'm a fan

of Bendis as well. The Qbert brothers, both Qberts.

I know Joe was kind of a big deal. But I was

never a big fan of Joe in as much as I was a

big fan of his sons with Adam and Andy those

guys were both phenomenal, so So, you know You

mentioned earlier about how you're not really

because of time and whatever about not reading

anything or picking up anything Yes, but was

there ever another moment in your life it before?

everything that's happened in the last six, seven,

eight, nine, ten years where you were just like,

I'm done with comics. I don't I'm OK. I don't

I want to focus on video games or I want to focus

on whatever else. I would say so. I feel like

it's around the time that I stopped because I

said I was doing the. the reading less books

right and I remember because like I said I was

still reading comics by a less than legal means

and That was really where things just kind of

ended for me was I was reading so many books

that they just kind of faded out and Then I stopped

reading for a long time until I ended up on this

library service And I found that they had you

know all of these back trades and stuff And then

I started, you know, hardcore reading into it

to everything again. So with the exception of

The Walking Dead and Invincible during that period

of time and then the occasional like saga trade

or or something like that, that period, I think

that was around 2016 around around the time Civil

War two happened, I think was when I stopped

reading. Just like it was just like there's too

much going on and I'm just so far behind and

I just I just let it all go and just. You know,

I'm like I got movies to watch What is one comic

either single issue or collected edition trade

that you can read over and over again We've kind

of already covered this with your Cora mention.

It's true At the same time I invincible I've

reread invincible a bunch of times a lot of my

my boxes my comic boxes are Just slapdash like

everything is in them you know like you won't

find uh you know nothing's alphabetical blah

blah blah invisible and walking dead get their

own boxes because i reread those and i reread

them quite a bit so i i have those in in their

own boxes just so that it's easy to access them

and read those so those are some books that i

can read over and over again uh i'm trying to

think of uh because i have a fair bunch of books

in trade as well that I tend to reread a lot.

Why the Last Man is a great book that I, yeah,

there you go, that's another book. Brian K. Vaughan,

that's another writer that I can talk about whose

work I really enjoyed. Why the Last Man is a

book that I have all of those in trade and that's

a book that I reread a lot. I was a really big

fan of the Scott Pilgrim books. I would read

those over and over again. So in trade form,

I read those a lot. But yeah, single issues,

mostly if it was Ultimate Spider -Man and Walking

Dead and Invincible, I would read over and over

again. And then trade form, I got all these other

books that I'll read. Are there any comics that

you've read in the past or in the present that

you wish you hadn't read them? This is a new

question, folks. I just came up with this today.

I mean, I don't want to cause negative light

or whatever, but I mean, there are plenty of...

There've been a few comics in my lifetime that

I wish I had not picked it up and it's nothing

major It's like it's not like death of Superman

or look like we've already mentioned Dark Knight

return like right right like but like you know

You read a comic and it by the end of it. You're

like that's kind of off -putting I wish I hadn't

read that you know what there's a couple that

spring to mind, but then I think about it And

it's like like all -star Batman all -star Batman

is a trainwreck, but at the same time There are

redeeming qualities about all -star Batman. For

example, Jim Lee's art is phenomenal. Also, the

writing is such a train wreck, it's entertaining

as hell to read. Like, I will say, under no circumstances

is All -Star Batman a good comic, but it is drawn

phenomenally, and it's so memeable with all of

its weird shit in it, like goddamn Batman and

when like... You know, he calls Robin retarded

and stuff like like it's just such a weird book.

But at the same time, I don't wish that I had

never read it. I feel like a lot of the early

mid 2000s X -Men, because that was stuff that

I was collecting. And I remember looking back

at that period and being like, I don't remember

any of those stories. Any of them, you know,

like I have them, you know, like. I have all

of these books. I think it was like they did

this whole relaunch where like Colossus and Nightcrawler

came back to the team for the first time in a

long time. And I was like, man, this is great.

And then I don't remember any of those stories.

Couldn't tell you one, you know, like stuff like

that. Just just it's not so much that I hated

it, it's just that it was so so mediocre that

I just don't you know, I don't remember it. So

it was kind of like I probably could have, you

know, done something more constructive with that

time. How big is your comic collection? How many

boxes do you have of physical stuff? Too many.

Yeah, that's a good question. I am looking at

a rather large IKEA shelf that is filled from

top to bottom with trades and manga. uh to be

fair some of this is my wife's but most of it

is most of it is mine uh so there's that and

that's just those are just trades and manga uh

additionally i have just here in front of my

feet i have one two three four seven eight nine

ten ten short boxes and at my parents house i

have i think it's 14 long boxes of comics that

i keep telling my parents i will come get one

day Which I would like to there are still a lot

of great comics in there that that are still

at my parents house that I'd love to reread like

Marvel zombies. I have my Marvel zombies collection

is all at my parents and so is so is Most of

my ultimate spider -man's most of my ultimate

X -Men's as well is still at my parents house

that kind of thing but yeah, no, I have a lot

of comics and I should probably get rid of a

lot of the chuff that I'm probably never gonna

reread just Okay, so heaven forbid this ever

happened. I have to preface this, so just to

make sure people that are listening don't really

think I wish this on anybody. I don't. Heaven

forbid this ever happened, but the house burns

down. You and the family are all safe. Everybody's

safe outside. However, What is the one comic

you could never part with ever? So basically,

the question means if your house was on fire,

what comic would you go in and save if you could

only save one? Good question. Good question.

I feel like I would save Walking Dead 19, which

is the first Michonne, because it's like the

only Walking Dead I have that's actually like

worth anything. It's not because it's not like

I want this book because it's like I can't live

without this one issue of with Michonne in it

It's it's just that that one would be worth money

and I could sell it and start rebuilding things

You know luck luckily for the most part when

it comes to comics a lot of my my stuff is is

As much as it's my favorite a lot of its replaceable

I don't think I own anything that's that's so

like rare or out of print that I couldn't find

another another version of it to replace it.

If I was unhappy, like, Oh, no, I lost, you know,

my watchman's gone. I'll just go to the store

and pick up another watchman. You know, that

kind of thing. But Well, I don't know. I guess

those essential books. I have some really nice

old essential Marvel collections, like I have

the old essential X -Men and the old essential

some old essential Wolverines. And I'm pretty

sure that those are long out of print and you

just can't get them anymore. And the few that

because I remember the few that I had don't have.

Like I have like essential x -men one through

eight, but I'm missing like seven and I think

seven is like seventy dollars or something like

that because Because the the essential collections

are so rare now It's it's literally just black

and white reprints of old x -men comics But but

it would be collections of like 50 issues at

a time, right? So I guess they don't want those

Those, you know giant collections when they can,

you know sell 15 collections for the same price

or the for way more money than they would sell

an essential collection. But that stuff's all

great. I've been rereading through those as well.

I have a shelf that's outside my bathroom, and

on the shelf is what I'm currently reading kind

of thing. Oh my god, he reads comics on the toilet,

folks. Hey, why not, right? It's a quick read.

What was the most money you ever spent on a comic

or a comic item? This doesn't necessarily have

to be a single issue or a trade or a collection

They give me like a print a sketch an autograph

something like that. Oh good question good question

I'm trying to remember I Know I bought an issue

of Superman Red Sun For way more than it was

worth Because I remember I was buying there was

a time when I would go to cons and I would fill

in like gaps in my collections like if I had

You know issue 22 and on of a story if I could

go back and get issue 1 through 22 You know,

I would go and do that and I remember going to

a con and buying It was right after Superman

Red Sun came out and Superman Red Sun at the

time was like a super hot book I remember and

I bought I think issue two for like 20. No, I

think it was like 30 bucks. And this is like

the issues were not that expensive when they

came out. Like it was not a thirty dollar comic.

But I remember buying it for like thirty dollars

and then somebody else was selling the entire

series for like twenty five dollars. So I bought

like all three books for like twenty five. So

I think that that's the most I can remember paying

for something like I bought. I've never bought

art from anyone, despite the fact that I have,

you know, I'm a big fan of, you know, a lot of

artists. I feel really weird about going to meet

artists and meeting celebrities like any time

I've ever been to a con and everyone's like,

oh, man, I went and I got pictures with Bruce

Campbell or something like that. I'm like, have

fun. I'm here to look at things to buy. You know,

I've never been like. Even if one of my favorite

artists is at a con I don't go and I don't get

there You know that get them to sign my my books

or anything like that Like I don't have any signed

books or anything like that Even though I've

been it I've been at many cons with Jim Lee I

was gonna I I almost got Brian Michael Bendis

to sign Issue 13 of ultimate spider -man, which

is the issue where he tells Mary Jane that he's

spider -man And it was my favorite issue of the

series So I was gonna get him to sign that but

for whatever reason at the last second. I'm like,

no Didn't do it so But yeah, so I don't have

any like wacky like I have prints I've signed

prints, but prints are not anywhere near as expensive

as original art, right? So well, yeah, but I

mean even like I have I Have an original art

piece. I think I spent maybe 20 or 30 bucks on

but I mean, it's a full color thing, but it's

just one little panel Well, I one thing that

you know one thing I have that is actually I

would say this as the item. It's not even mine.

It's my wife's. But at the same time, it also

didn't cost us anything. At least if I remember

correctly it didn't cost us anything I mean I

might just not have been told how much it costs

to shield my to shield me from the cost but like

we mentioned earlier Laura used to work at a

comic shop and one day for I think it was it

was either free comic book day or the store anniversary

they would bring in somebody they bring in an

artist they bring in a writer or something like

that and This time they brought in Jeff Lemire

and Jeff Lemire was doing Sweet Tooth at the

time, and Sweet Tooth was like one of my wife's

favorite stories of all time. And Batwoman was

also Laura's favorite ongoing comic at the time.

And while he was there, he was giving out sketches

and just doing like simple sketches. And Laura

was kind of like his liaison, like she was there

to make sure that everything was good for him,

like she brought him drinks and kept checking

on him the entire day. And at the end of the

day, he asked her like, Hey, who's your favorite?

Character kind of thing. She's ago. I love batwoman

and at the end of the day he gave her this this

ink this beautiful ink drawing of batwoman and

it hangs in our in our living room and So I would

say that that would probably be the thing that

is deemed worth the most but at the same time

We paid nothing for it. It was a gift from Jeff

Vermeer, which is which is phenomenal. Yeah,

that is very much All right. What are you reading

in your bathroom and what do you think our listeners

should check out that you've been reading in

your bathroom? Well, like like I said, at the

top, I've been rereading Irredeemable. Irredeemable

was fantastic. A lot of the books I would recommend

I've actually already talked about on the show.

I would recommend invincible. I would recommend

Why the Last Man if they want to go something

a little more current. I was. Was reading saga

their most recent saga has been great I've been

reading the life is strange comic which is based

on the video game Which is is interesting if

anybody knows the life is strange games there's

more than one ending to that game and The book

follows a specific ending and I was very intrigued

to read it because it is not the ending that

I got So I was like, how does this book continue

kind of a thing and they'd actually do it in

a very in a very good way where it's like it

takes both endings. Like this strange is somewhat

about time travel. So how they were able to actually

incorporate both endings into the story was was

very well done. So I got to say I was a big fan

of that. It's very true to the characters as

they were in the game as well. I'm just trying

to think of anything else. Again, I'm not reading

a lot of current stuff, so it's hard for me to

know. I'm just kind of looking at my shelf and

being like, what sticks out is really great.

You know, that kind of stuff. If you can get

your hands on the essential X -Men collections,

it's a great way to get some of the most phenomenal

X -Men stories of all time. Days of the Future

Past is in there, Dark Phoenix, you know, all

of that stuff is in those early issues. So it's

all great stuff. Awesome. All right. So at the

top, we talked about Mike's Stupid Comics and

all the stuff you created and everything else.

If you could create any comic storyline, what

would it be, and what story would you want to

tell with those characters? Whatever characters

you end up coming up with, or if you want to

use, you know, Batman, Superman, whatever. Right,

if I could tell a story using other characters.

Okay, bye! Don't know. I don't have a story for

that, but I mean I do have a story that I have

wanted to tell for a while It's it's the idea

that I that I have I mean I can give you the

basic gist of it so that nobody runs away with

it And it's like this is my original idea copy

But but the idea for the story was I'm a big

video game fan And you know video games are a

fairly important part of my life and is it's

what I like to do to relax So I wanted to incorporate

something from that into into a story so I came

up with this story that is essentially Mortal

Kombat and it's Mortal Kombat if one of the fighters

in Mortal Kombat was there by accident so Mean

you take the story of of Mortal Kombat or the

story of Street Fighter where it's like oh, I

mean I mean first of all Fighting games up until

recently in video games have had no stories whatsoever.

It's literally like oh, there's a tournament

That's the story and and Occasionally you get

some flash of backstory of like you know this

dude doesn't like this dude because he hit him

once you know something like that right so I

wanted to do a story that that where it's like,

oh, it's a tournament and all of the people that

are there are like the greatest fighters in the

world. But the main character of the story is

just an average person who gets invited to the

tournament because they happen to share the same

name as like a prominent fighter in one of the

disciplines. So they get invited by accident.

And that person is actually like like a pro gamer.

as well so they think they're being invited to

a pro gaming tournament and then it turns out

it's like an actual like life or death fighting

tournament where like the only way to advance

through the through the tournament is to kill

your opponent essentially so it's just like some

like it's this girl and she's like what is happening

you know and at first she thinks that you know

oh this is just a really cool tournament until

She's like they're really went all out on the

design and then like people actually start getting

murdered and stuff and she's like, oh wait What

is happening, you know, so that that's the story

that I one day hope to tell Going back to if

I ever get back to comics, but I've been doing

designs on and off I have a Google Doc that's

the first like 12 pages written that you know

one day I'll get I'll get back to it and I'll

fill it in more it's it's it's a lot more of

a finite ending You know where it's it it has

a beginning it has a middle it has an end Unlike

Mike's stupid comics were just kind of ran for

a few years until I was like, well, maybe I should

finish it. And I made an ending point. This is

something that I had an ending in mind when I

started it. And I've actually told it to some

people and they're like, that's really it's a

comedy, obviously, because it's, you know, like,

you don't accidentally invite someone to a death

tournament and it's it's played straight. Right.

You know, so. Yeah, no. But yeah, so that one

day I hope to tell that story and do that. But

I mean, if I was to ever actually tell a story

myself, I wouldn't even know where to start.

I feel like the best character that would work

for me, Spider -Man, because all I can do is

tell awkward jokes. And I mean, that's all Spider

-Man does too. All right. Last question. What

is the one piece of advice that you would give

the comic fandom and comic creators in general?

Hmm. Just have fun with it Comics or comics are

fun. Don't be so serious. I see a lot of people

that that you know are really angry about a Lot

of things like, you know, there's a character

that there's a slight change and then that character

you know, like I get the change is hard sometimes

but you know, like take it easy at the end of

the day if there's a If they turned the character

that you like into, you know, a black girl and

you're suddenly not cool with that because it's

been a white guy your entire life, just read

something else. You know, just. Oh, my God. Riri

Williams reference. Wow. Oh, my God. I feel like

since then, there's been more than one character

that's like that. Well, yeah. For a second there,

I thought you were going like Little Mermaid,

but I'm like, oh wait, no white guy and okay.

Yeah, it's definitely honestly I wasn't even

trying to actually You know cuz I was thinking

about was for whatever reason I was thinking

of like Hal Jordan as the example of the guy,

you know, like I don't know it doesn't need to

be taken as seriously as some people take it

and Like, see, the thing was, okay, again, I

have been so emotional, ever since my buddy Joe,

who does the Turtles comics podcast with me on

the show here, ever since he said, you know,

check out IDW volume one, read it. When I first

read it, I'm like, red bandanas, please. I come

from the cartoon where it's each individual.

He's like, don't worry about it. It's okay. It

works out. I'm like, okay, fine. Read it, read

it, read it, read it, read it. I've read it for

five, six years now. I've read it. We've been

covering it for at least five years on the show.

And there's been a change recently to a human

female character that if you're living under

a rock, you probably don't know what's going

on. But basically one of the female former foot

clan members got turned into a turtle. This is

not a spoiler the news has been everywhere folks,

so It's it's okay She got turned into a turtle

because she almost died and Leo's mutagen or

Leo's mutant blood saved her but she got turned

into a turtle Everybody's like, oh my God, it's

Venus to Milo. It's turtles the next mutation

all over again. No, it's not. I'm on that side

of the fence of I have to defend this change

because I know what I don't know what they're

going to do, but I know because I've interviewed

Tom Waltz once. I've interviewed Bobby Kernel

twice. I've talked to these, these creators and

I'm like, whatever they're going to do, they

have a reason for doing it. This isn't the nineties

anymore. This isn't just, oh, we need to put

in a female turtle because we need to be PC or

we need to force this on people so they accept

female Ninja Turtles or whatever. It isn't that

at all. And it's like, oh my God. And it's like,

some of these people. But yeah, you're right.

Just have fun with it. Read what you want to

read. You know, attach yourself to the characters

that you think you want to, you know, doesn't

necessarily have to be Marvel, DC, IDW, Dynamite,

Boom Studios. Dark Horse, Image, whatever. We've

covered a lot of stuff on this show. And we will

continue to cover a lot of stuff on this show.

Where can the people find you online, sir? No

currently you can find me I'm usually myself

on most social platforms so you can find me on

Twitter at Mike Laidman and You can find me on

Instagram at Mike Laidman But you can also find

me doing a podcast called part -time nerds full

-time dads at part -time nerds full -time dads

calm and you can find us on the seldom ignored

part -time nerds full -time dads Twitter account

PT nerds FT dads as well as the Facebook page,

which is also slash PT PT nerds FT dads We just

felt that was just too much typing in those cases

But yeah, we have we have new episodes every

Thursday So awesome. Yep, and I will put the

links in the show notes and all that stuff So

you check out what Mike's doing you can go check

out what he's tweeting about or Instagramming

about or whatever uh... i met you if you like

on twitter you can call it the poll bag at the

cast radio at this week and geek uh... for the

respective network twitter's uh... face book

same thing face book dot com slash the cash for

your network this week and keep the poll bag

uh... coming up we've got uh... for the end of

july end of july we've got uh... episode three

sixty one and three sixty two three sixty one

is batman t m and t two with Joe Reed and myself,

and then the next TMNT arc, Kingdom of Rats,

with Joe Reed and myself, and then we kick off

Autobotly August 2019 with episode 363, which

is continuing on with the Transformers Spotlights

from IDW, Blaster, RC, Mirage, Grimlock, and

Wheelie. Make your greatest game in the comics,

and we will catch you next time here inside the

pull bag. Ta -ta okay, ta -ta Later everybody

because I'm probably definitely going to use

that in the intro Hello everyone and welcome

to part -time nerds full -time dads, I'm Mike

layman and I'm Chris Blonsky and we're two dads

who also happen to be nerds we certainly aren't

Experts, but we are hmm Sorry, go ahead. I could

have saved it in editing. Yeah, yeah with that

gap, but you ruined it. I did We certainly aren't

experts, but we are open to fuck Just start from

the top man You've ruined it. You've ruined it.

Hey everybody and welcome out to oh I did it

again. That's what I did last week Welcome out

to welcome around to welcome out Hello everyone

and welcome to part -time nerds full -time dads.

I'm Mike Leibman and I'm Chris Blonsky And we're

two dads who also happen to be nerds. We certainly

aren't experts, but we are open to shit Mike

this is the 26th episode this should just be

rolling off the tongue at this point I'm centering

myself. Yes, focus, focus. I'm not doing the

whole dead thing again. We certainly aren't experts,

but we are open to sharing our experiences with

other nerdy dads out there in the interest of

keeping our kids alive. How are you sir? Good

Mike my stopwatch for this show is completely

ruined though With all those false starts and

stuff that we had I'm gonna blame it I'm gonna

blame it on Daylight Savings Time because today

is the first day the day we're recording After

Daylight Savings Time has taken effect. That's

losing an hour of sleep. I'm a tired boy lousy

luck You've just heard the latest episode of

the pullback The GCRN's first comic review and

discussion podcast. There are several ways to

get in touch with us and leave feedback for the

show. You can visit the website geekcastradio

.com where you can comment on the episode and

all of our different podcasts. You can rate and

leave a review for the show on iTunes. Be sure

to leave us feedback. Become a fan of us on Facebook.

Facebook .com slash the pull bag send us an email

feedback at geek cast radio comm follow us on

Twitter at the pull bag and at geek cast radio

So until next time make your great escape into

comics and unleash the geek in you