Sex Criminals Volume 3 Review

Hello everyone, TF2 and Mike here from the pull

bag here on the Geekcast Radio Network. I just

want to let everyone know that this is a sexually

explicit episode as we are talking about Matt

Fraction and Chip Zdarsky's Sex Criminals Volume

3. This is a disclaimer for any of you listening.

This will not be safe for work or any other situation.

Please, if you listen to our podcast and your

children are around, turn this off until they

are out of the room. You have been warned. Sexually

graphic content. Myself and Jeremy Fine talking

about Image Comics' Sex Criminals comic book

series. A sex comedy with other things in it

as well. So enjoy the show and you have been

warned. You've just jumped inside the pull bag.

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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. We are

spilling over into September here for Autobotly

August of 2019, but we're taking a break from

Transformers talk. I'm, of course, TFG and Mike.

Joining me for the first time in four years.

Four years? Five years? No, four years. Yeah,

that's right. Is Jeremy Fine. Hello, sir. Is

Mr. Hunnock Outcast himself? I don't know what

you're talking about. I've been sitting in the

corner the entire time just waiting patiently.

Uh -huh. Sure you have. And we are back and we

are here to talk about something we have been

talking about since 2014 and 2015. We're going

to be... Continuing on with a certain series

from a certain creative team, because this is

episode 369, had to do this, Sex Criminals Volume

3 with Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky. You know,

here's the thing, though. When he's not doing

Sex Criminals, he did a very interesting Howard

the Duck run. And, I mean, the guy is talented.

But I gotta be honest. You know, I love the first

volume of Sex Criminals. I'm just going to get

into the second one because they were kind of

bringing in the sex cops as we talked about offline.

This one, I got to be honest, I don't know. I

guess they're trying to bring in a Justice League.

We'll talk through it. Yeah, I'm not even sure.

Like, I just literally before we recorded this,

folks. I just finished reading this and I don't

know what I just read. So before we get too far

into it, I already mentioned Matt Fraction, Chip

Zdarsky, they are the creative team on this.

So this series, for anyone who may be listening

to this that has children in the room, stop listening

to it or make your children leave the room because

this series is rated adults only. Graphic sexuality.

Content is explicit in this book. I don't know

why this is as seen on late... This description

I got from Comixology as seen on Late Night with

Seth Meyers. Why the hell Seth Meyers would be

talked... Like, I love this book. I do. I love

Matt Fraction and Chip and what they did with

this. But Late Night with Seth... Saturday Night

Live Reject. Um, Iser, Iser and Harvey, Harvey

award winning or raucous sex comedy that time

magazine called comic of the year and Apple called

inappropriate for sale on iOS devices. Returns

in sex criminals. Volume three, three, the hard

way. So it turns out John and Susie aren't alone.

Other people who are around the world like them

freeze time when they climax. A self -appointed

group wants to regulate and control them through

fear and intimidation. John and Susie are falling

in love and want their freak flags to fly, but

if they are going to fight back, they can't do

it alone, and really, isn't that a metaphor for

the whole series? That we might all be alone,

but we're all alone together? I think so. If

you read only one comic... with a semen demon

in it this year, please make it Sex Criminals

Volume 3, Three the Hard Way, collecting issues

11 to 15 of the series. As you said, right off

the bat, I have not read... the first two volumes

again in preparation for this, I don't feel like

I should have, but since we waited four years

to do this or didn't really wait, I mean, life

happened for both of us kind of a thing, but,

um, yeah, uh, I am completely lost in this. This

is probably going to be one of the shorter episodes

because I, I, I just, I, I gotta be honest with

you as well. I skimmed through this when you

told me we were doing this again. I was pumped

because I thought this is an interesting idea.

Okay, you have people who have sex, and apparently

with their sexuality, they're able to freeze

time. Now, I just want to say really quick, there

is a sex comic out there that was made into a

movie, Barbarella, that kind of made fun of sexploitation

movies and showing the power of sexuality. And

it had fun with it. It was very tongue -in -cheek.

I mean, I know you know of Jane Fonda and all

that. But if you get your hands on the French

comics, the French comics went even deeper. And

they're easy to translate. And they tell some

interesting stories. And it's about the sexual

revolution. And literally using sex as a weapon.

And some better use of biological warfare. But

here, I guess they want to bring in superpowers.

And I guess they've done tastefully. Okay, and

the first one, they're going to experiment. The

second one was so powerful. What kind of villains

are you going to bring in? Are you going to bring

in conservatives? Are you going to bring in sex

cops like we talked about? What do you do when

you have the power to climax and you can freeze

time and use it to rob banks and do other things

and call it the quiet? It was a book I couldn't

shut up about. My parents, who would try to subscribe

to my podcast, asked me, What are you talking

about? And I couldn't explain this to them. So

it's like, no, you couldn't have the sex talk

with me. I'm not going to have it with you. Exactly.

I mean, the problem that I'm having with this

is that you kind of it's better as a miniseries.

And this would be great for maybe a few issues.

But I feel that they have run into a wall. I

mean, I did do a podcast about. sexuality in

comics for a now -defunct podcast that I can't

remember back in 14 or 15. And I came across

a lot of, like, these Tijuana comics from the

30s and 50s. And, you know, Fritz the Cat. This

is probably the most original idea, as I said,

and I go round and around and around. But this

one, again, we talked about this offline as well.

Is this going to be like a Justice League now?

Is this like... what heroes was supposed to be

like the nbc that there are other people with

powers and they're all going to literally come

together or it's just just like we don't know

what to do with our main protagonist anymore

antagonist or whatever yeah i love a lot of the

jokes i do um i love the internal dialogue i

love that they're you know that they they keep

this style of of all of that i do love that I

really like John and Susie as characters. I think

they're really cool. I love Chip's art style.

The thing that kind of threw me off in this one

is... The sad thing is I almost like it more

than what the story they're telling. So basically,

by the time we get to, let's say, what is it?

It's page eight, okay? When you see the guy going

into the massive continent of goods, you know,

market, and then it goes to Matt and Chip. talking

back and forth with a black background and white

text. So he goes into the pan -Asian supermarket,

and usually you'd get funny scene in a store

with a million jokes stuffed into the background.

But here's the thing. Chip is crazy and would

draw a million goddamn products. And because

he's Chip, every product would have a different

joke on it. It's in a different Asian language.

He does not speak. And at the very, very bottom

and lower text, no, I wouldn't. You don't know

me. Like, I enjoy their back and forth more than

I do this part of the story. Yeah, I feel, you

know what? I reference a lot and I turn it off

a lot because I don't know what else I could

really say that really hasn't been said about

critiquing the first several pages. It's kind

of like when I read Howard the Duck. the early

ones and you know steve gerber was driving from

um california and going you know somewhere else

and he decided to go through the grand canyon

and it's like how we're sitting next to him because

they were taking a road trip and he's like why

are you driving to the you know grand canyon

it's a rut and and that was the story it was

it was pretty much just the creator talking with

its creation people the same thing with this

that it's just you know You could tell a joke,

or you could just have the writers fight with

them, and it could be very Deadpool in a way,

too. But the problem I have with it is that I

don't know if it was just that they ran out of

ideas, or they don't want to make it. Because

nowadays, the term snowflake means everybody's

pissed off about something. So you can't do Asian

jokes anymore. So I don't know. Other than the

fact that... It's an orderly, seems like a nice

guy, and then behind the scenes, he's perverted.

Because it's a sex comic. Yeah. I don't get that.

I don't understand. I mean, I understand it,

but this whole thing with John and Anna and Susie,

I'm not... I don't... I must be missing something

here. I really must be... Maybe I'm so far out

of having read this series. And like I said earlier,

maybe I should have just read the first two volumes

again. So they end up in Miami, skipping forward

here. And the story ends up in Miami and whatever.

So do they. See, the problem I have is we eventually

skip to other characters. And there isn't really

a shift. There isn't really, hey, this is John

and Susie, but then there's this other girl who,

you know, climaxes by jumping off a bridge. Yeah,

here's what I got out of all this. Because the

only thing I can think of is that the title of

this one is called Manamee. Yeah. And, okay,

if we're going to go into sex and sexuality,

the only thing I can think of is that if the

first one was about... discovering yourself and

we talked about that because there's a whole

monologue about like after you ejaculate you're

in the quiet yep because you know okay the second

one was about the sex cops about people repressing

your sexuality because people there's a whole

thing about exposition you know that people like

to do it out in the open and and you're going

to get arrested for it okay fine this one seems

to be about fetishes and how perverted they are

so we're going to get other people that you're

not only alone that you have this power but instead

of freezing time what you can do with it when

you climax and we're going to have an orderly

that he's a very nice guy to his patients but

when he he's definitely into you know anime or

there's a whole thing with that i don't know

if i should really go into on this spot but the

point is is that okay he's into anime or he's

into different fetishes with Asian porn. So when

he ejaculates, he's going to have, like, these

little cutesy, I don't know, Japanese characters.

We have the other couple that, because he's having

an affair, and so when he gives this woman head,

she's able to have, I guess, the sex cops come

in and analyze, like, with his sexuality so she

can just monitor. Because I guess she feels that

if he's perverted enough and she gets him off,

that she's able to record other people who have

these powers, and when I climax, I choose it

against them as a biological weapon. As for the

one jumping off the bridge, I think that's self

-explanatory with what happened with David Carradine,

that choking yourself. I mean, there are people

out there that do get off with erotic peril.

A rock hero has become a big thing. And then,

of course, you have another couple that it's

interracial and they just seem like a nice couple,

but they're having problems in bed because it's

just different techniques. And that's the only

thing I can think of is that we're going to have

this really, we're going to either have a fucked

up Justice League or we're going to, I guess

we haven't really had a Lex Luthor or. you know,

whatever the case may be. And that's what, what

she's, you know, that, that woman's going to

be, because I didn't even bother remembering

her name. I just know that, you know, she wants

to get, I think, yeah, it's Alex. And she wants

the guy to give her head. So like time, but apparently

when she climaxes, she can freeze time as well.

Yeah. So that's, and they have the cops come

in to analyze the quiet. That's the only thing

I get out of any of this. Miami is because, well,

I go to Miami every now and then. Miami is kind

of interesting. Miami, again, because I'm living

in Florida, so every day is summer vacation.

If you go into the city, it's a party city. Especially

for young couples who want to party and get really

wild. I can understand why they go to Miami.

But again, it's just characters that are going

bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. And I'm not invested

in any of them. Yeah. The funny thing is, is

when we get to, I think it's either chapter 14

or chapter 15, whenever we get to the one woman

who is not interested, Like, she's not interested

in sex at all. Like, is the whole monologue.

Like, when we get to chapter 14 and we have John

and Susie doing their thing and, you know, they're

both at home and she has to go to work and he's

doing something with tools or whatever. I love

their interaction with each other. I think that's

great. That's obviously the core part of the

story, at least for me, because, hello, they

were the characters that we got introduced to.

Originally, so I want to see more of that. And

we kind of do in chapter 14 here. I still love

Chip's art. I love the colors. You know, all

of it looks amazing. So we get... Okay, so we

get the climax. uh from suzy finally between

suzy and anya or anna or whatever her name is

and then it goes to like they're they're they're

trying to have them have a confrontation in the

quiet and uh we get a comic version of matt fraction

and chip zadarsky and they have like i like this

part once i realized like oh so this is what

they're they're doing um okay sure fine i think

my funniest the funniest line in this chip has

it it's um matt yaction am i right i love that

i thought that was hilarious um but again i felt

taken out of the story because you're essentially

inserting the writer and artist into the book

to try to figure out what to do with the story.

I guess that's a joke. How many times have we

discussed this, or offline, or I know we've discussed

this in the past, where, you know, you break

the fourth wall, and sometimes it works, and

sometimes it's out of desperation. I can't begin

to tell you, especially since I've been reading

a lot of Deadpool again after watching Deadpools

1 and 2. I am putting together something like

the volumes of my top ten favorite Deadpool stories

because there's a lot of them. Too many. It'll

take me years. But again, there's an interesting

one that's called the Deadpool Killogy where

Deadpool is brainwashed by – what is it? Give

me a – God. Fuck. You know, the Nazis. Hydra.

Thank you. Deadpool is brainwashed by Hydra and

he's killing the entire Marvel Universe and he

actually breaks into the artists and the writers

and he's going to kill them so he can wipe out

all the comics. And the reason why that works

is because it's Deadpool and he can break the

fourth wall and get away with that. Here, I guess

it's kind of funny to put Chip and Matt in because,

okay, fine, but if it's like, well, we hit a

wall. then it's not funny anymore because I've

always seen these jokes. Even Jay and Silent

Bob, they did this with their animated series.

They ran out of jokes, and you see them in a

room with a book saying how to make cartoons

funny. It's a hit or miss, but if you don't know

what you're doing, you ran out of ideas, and

it's the best thing you can do. And it's not

even a drop the mic and walk away. It's take

the horse behind the bar and shoot it. Yeah.

Issue 15, the final issue in this arc. I really

dug this because we're at a point now in John

and Susie's life together where they're saying

that, you know, he's saying that he loves her.

You know, she's saying that she loves this with

them just being together, not just having sex

in order to rob banks. It's even said that one

of them would rather they just be together instead

of having to... have sex to rob the banks and

whatever else. So I love that about this. I think

it's super cool that we have the, um, the scene

in here where it's like small talk, small talk,

small talk. Like, like it's just nothing, which

it seems that this comic, I don't want to say

this comic has turned into nothing cause it hasn't,

but that scene of, you know, Small dick cock

talk, tit talk, hey, sorry, you know, all this,

all that. Like, that's interesting. And then

you've got the doctor here trying to figure out

this mystery of why the sex police woman would

steal his files and whatever. Yeah, I mean, John

and Susie at this point, were we rooting for

them to get together? I know in the first couple

of issues when they had sex and they actually...

felt the connection because again yeah how many

romantic movies or whatever it's like i haven't

met the right partner but we can both make each

other come at the same time or take her i mean

when when john finally had sexual susie in volume

one and we talked about that like he didn't want

to come right away i mean he was trying to really

hold it back before he could let everything out

he always said that he's he's enjoyed being with

her And again, we talked about how repressed

he was and that origin story in Volume 1, how

she said she didn't understand his sexuality

and how they both came together literally. And

now that it's no longer about robbing banks,

he is falling in love with her. She doesn't know

how to handle it because she just uses it as

an excuse. I don't even think it's so much as

robbing the banks. It's a thrill because... Again,

in volume one, when she said that she was discovering

herself for the first time, other kids were making

fun of her. And Sam Kitteson said this best,

mom and dad had no fucking roadmap. So I feel

that that, I want them to get together. There's

a lot of shark jumping in this volume, but I

don't, you know, if they get together at this

point, because that's the other problem too.

Give me 24 hours. I can give you stories of how

many times you root for these characters like

this to get together. It gets stupid where they

have to break up for a while. You know the drill.

It's so fucking monotonous. I don't care at this

point if they get together or not because there's

so much going on on the fetishes that don't work

for me. And I still don't know how the sex cops

have even... come to be? Are they trying to form

an injustice league? I have no clue. I'm completely

lost. It still doesn't make me want to not finish

reading the series because I need to see where

the characters go. Kind of like at the very end,

after this little cliffhanger of, you stupid

motherfuckers, we end there and we go to Tiffy

Thompson and Alex Hoffman. Matt interviews the

real sex criminals, the models and inspiration

for Chip and the Nation. Basically showing, you

know, that John and Susie are modeled after real

life people. I thought that was super cool. I

really dug that. I mean, you know what? Going

to conventions in Florida is awesome because

if you can't go to San Diego Comic -Con, it's

almost like every few months there's a comic

book convention. There's always an indie comic

-con because there are so many comic book shops

on every corner. And so you get all these indie

comics and you get a lot of people that... You

know, it's Florida, so people like to work out

around Miami. They like to work around Southern

Florida because, like I said, it's always summer

vacation. So they model. You got a lot of artists

down here. You got a lot of people who are aspiring.

You know, there's a lot of community theater.

You got a lot of aspiring actors and actresses

and artists and whatnot. So I've met a lot of

people who are inspiration towards these type

of things. I mean, not sex criminals, mind you,

but other, you know, comics. So I found this

to be cool that, you know, you write about what

you know, and it was a great interview, and I'm

glad that, you know, they look like John and

Susie in a way. Yeah, well, that's what they're

modeled at. That's what, you know, John and Susie,

you know. Which is great, and I think that's

cool, and I think it's like I've never seen them

at a convention. I've never seen them be headlines.

It's a shame. I know because, you know, it's

sex journals. But then again, it's Florida and,

you know, it's the home of the sex offenders

around here. So, I mean, I get an email every

week, no joke, that, you know, there's a registered

sex offender in your area. No, it's Southern

Florida. I mean, that's just the way, that's

the nature of the beast. But, you know, on the

other hand, some of the conventions do do so

like these really late night parties after midnight.

So I guess if they really wanted to promote sex

criminals, they could. But I think there was

like a total of five or six volumes at this point.

I know there are more issues than this. Yeah,

there's five volumes. There are 25 total issues.

After reading this, do you want to continue on

with the final two volumes? You know what? Here's

the thing. I'd be hypocritical if I said no.

And I feel like I'd be a quitter if I just said...

Again, I hate to be repetitious. How many comics

have I read or video games have I played? You

know me. That I quit and I go back 15 minutes

later and go like, fuck this, I gotta finish.

I mean, it's a train wreck. We all love train

wrecks. I really want to... Good, bad, or whatever.

I'm curious. If it doesn't or if it just is like,

you know, I hope it's not a coma dream or anything.

And I hope it's not an exaggeration. I hope they

do do something interesting with this. I'm kind

of curious what the orderly does with releasing,

you know, the fairies with his ejaculation. Because

I know that, you know, John and Susie were really

interested about that and like what they do.

we've seen frozen time. Now we're seeing fairies

come out of come. So what are they? Did they

grant wishes? They communicate? Is it like, you

know, like, can you, can you make this work?

Or is this just more really bad sex jokes that

are going to hit a wall? But I'm a gambler. I'm,

I've invested this much. Why not? And yeah, really?

I mean, it's been years, but I mean, obviously.

Oh yeah. That's the funny thing about the pullback

this year. We're into year six, and I'm like,

oh, I really feel like I should be finishing

up certain things. So we finally finished up

the nine -issue series for Superior Iron Man

with JT from Saskatoon earlier this year. We

finished up a few other things, and it's like,

hmm, episode 369 is coming up. Yeah. That'll

work. I know we talked about some other ideas.

Oh, yeah. There are plenty of other ideas down

the pipe. Actually, it's funny. The whole year

is pretty much planned out at this point. The

whole rest of the year is pretty much planned

out unless something major happens. What would

you rate Volume 3 on a scale of 0 to 5? You can

use half points as well. You know what? For something

like Sex Criminals, I've got to be a lot more

creative in this. The way I figure it, it's like,

okay, it's about sex. It's about sexuality. And

people like to do certain things after sex. They

either smoke after sex because it was so intense.

They like to cuddle because they like that closeness.

They go to sleep because they're exhausted. Or,

well, the other one goes to sleep. That other

individual wasn't satisfied, so they'll just

finish themselves off and just lie about it.

I'm going to give this a pity fuck. I'm just

going to say that this is what it is. It's a

two and a half because it had a great idea with

the manamee and with erotic peril. And then we

get the food analogies about – because we didn't

talk about the cinnamon buns, about the meme

put together and it looks like an ant. And again,

that's been food and sex and all these different

fetishes. They had a lot of great ideas. They

didn't come through. But I have hope, and I'm

going to be as professional as possible. And

professional speaking, it has potential. Let's

see what else we got. no, I'm just going to go

into the bathroom and finish myself off, so to

speak. It's just like, this is the most disappointing,

but you know what? Failure, you learn from your

mistakes. We got two more volumes, so bring it

on. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I'm kind of right

there with you. I'm like on a scale of like two

and a half to a three, because again, it's the

story that I think suffers in this, and that's

why I would give it the lower, the two and a

half. But Chip's art, the way he basically shows

the quiet or the whatever, this whole glowing

thing, I just absolutely love that bright, shiny,

and new kind of art style that he does for showing

that someone has gotten off. I just find that

art so interesting. Two and a half for the story,

three for the art for me. I know it's kind of

cheating, but it's my podcast. I'll do what the

hell I want to. That's why it's your damn show,

sir. That's right. Coming up, we're going to

finish off the IDW Transformers Universe in 370

and 370 .5 with Transformers Unicron and Transformers

Optimus Prime Volume 5, respectively. 371 in...

October, we've got the sixth volume of Mighty

Morphin Power Rangers from Boom Studios. Ryan

and I, Ryan Merkley and I, are going to tackle

Star Trek vs. Green Lantern 1 and 2, Volumes

1 and 2. And then Joe Reed and I are going to

get back to Superman Year 1 with Number 2, because

that doesn't actually... Well, as of this recording,

it's already been released, but... Well, not

as of the... As this podcast will be released

in September. Anyway, I'm screwing things up.

already and i told you not to do that so if you're

not supposed to i can't do it either damn it

uh time podcasting it's it's stressful folks

uh so that's what's coming up here inside the

pullback where can the people find you online

sir well i took a small hiatus because um life

and things came up which i'm not going to get

into but um i'm finishing up an accelerated nursing

program however um I am going to be putting the

show back onto Podbean in a few weeks, so the

way you're going to be able to find me in about

one or two weeks from this recording, just go

onto Google and type Hunnic Outcast, and it'll

take you to my Podbean links, all the archives,

new episodes. Twitter is Hunnic Outcast, and

Facebook, I have so many Hunnic Outcasts. pages

that I'm just helping out other podcasters right

now. I have something called the Podcasters Cafe.

Anybody who has a podcast that wants to promote

their work or network with other podcasters,

if you go onto Facebook and just type in the

Podcasters Cafe, that's where you'll find me

as well. I'm moderating that. And yeah, hunnockfeedback

at gmail .com. That'll be up and running again

about a week or two after this episode is out.

Got some interesting things, and I thank everybody

for their time and patience. I know that it's

been years, but I will slowly and surely start

to lean back into podcasting again. Yeah, as

I often say, life comes before podcasting. So,

you know, it is what it is. All right, folks,

make your greatest game in the comics, and we

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