Contraband Review

Hey, this is Frank Todaro, otherwise known as

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Hello everyone, TFDU and Mike here, and I just

want to say that Steve Megatron and I recorded

this review a long time ago. So, things have

happened since we recorded this review. My wife

has passed away. I wasn't really looking to edit

this, so this is pretty much put together the

way it was recorded. To Thomas and all the creators

of Contraband, I'm sorry. We apologize multiple

times in this episode. But yeah, enjoy this episode

that was supposed to be out like three months

ago. Hello and welcome to The Pull Bag. This

is episode 433. That's right folks, 433 episodes.

I am of course TFJR Mike joining me as always,

Steve Megatron. Hello, sir. Yo. Yo. It is the

second to last week of October, second to last

Wednesday in October. Halloween is coming up

and we have something kind of scary to review

tonight, sort of. How should we? Talk about this,

like the whole process of getting the, like,

okay, so we get submissions all the time to GeekCast

Radio. You've told me we get submissions to review

content and to do things. Quite often, actually.

Sometimes we get them and sometimes we do them,

but sometimes we're not so thrilled with the

content. Sorry, content creators. But we try

to be as honest and like as nice about it as

we can like even if it's not something that necessarily

strikes her fancy Yes, and as always I want to

remind the listeners that this podcast as most

of the ones that I do anyway are is explicit

So we won't be beeping any shit bastard damn

things anyway Yeah, we try to be as nice as we

possibly can but I was having a hard time with

this. So what we are reviewing is called Contraband.

It is a graphic novel. It is written by Thomas

J. Behe, B -E -H -E. So Thomas, I'm sorry if

I have butchered your name. The illustrator on

here is Phil Elliott. The anchor is Ian Sharman,

the toner is Cherie Donovan, and the cover was

done by Marcus Hall. Or Hall. I assume it's Hall

because it's H -O -H -L. And it was published

by SLG Publishing out of San Jose, California.

And I'm just going to read the back of the trade

because the thing is Thomas sent us the PDF to

this and then like a Month after a couple months

after he checked in with me again, and he's like

hey, would you guys like? Complimentary physical

copies and I'm like sure so I sent him my address

your address We got him It was not the size.

I was hoping for and I was honestly thinking

it was going to be a single issue comic It is

a full trade paperback coming in at 146 pages

or so. So, contraband. Toby has filmed the wrong

people on his phone. Caught recording an illegal

video transaction, a self -styled citizen journalist

is forced to hunt down a female activist sabotaging

the country's most controversial cell phone channel,

Contraband. His search leads him into a voyeur

underground where profit -hungry youths prowl

city streets filming violent events to satisfy

our society's accelerating demand for sensational

content. Hmm. So Contraband is a... More violent

version of YouTube Basically real life I Mean

there's really no way of going around it Yeah

I'm just gonna say it up front It took me forever

to read this thing and I know you have and you

don't you'll mention this when you have your

your say I was born legally blind. I have optic

atrophy, which is nerve damage to my eyes. No

Lasik, no nothing could ever, yes, I can get

glasses and I can get corrected up to a certain

point, but I will never ever have decent enough

vision. And that's just one of my problems. So

Thomas sent us this physical copy after he had

sent us the PDF. And this book is tiny. Literally,

for me to be able to see, May 1st, London, in

the opening of chapter three, the book is literally

less than two inches away from my nose. Good.

Well, and it says mature readers, and I get that.

Of the mentality of it doesn't necessarily need

to be mature to be good. Mm -hmm And I'm not

sliding anything like I like some of the like

I like the cover I love the cover I love the

cover because it kind of shows, you know the

differences and in some of the stuff but that

could have also been explained on the inside

too, but I feel like that's the whole gimmick

in McGuffin is what the cover shows And I know

that that's what it's intended to do because

you have this like almost James Bond ish multi

-use Cell phone cell phone that looks like a

Sony Ericsson Without being called one And and

I get it like they're using it as a gun there.

They're having it as you know, this miraculous

way of using it I I struggled watching it or

like reading this because it's it's very much

like what we're living through and Honestly,

the just watching the news and watching the internet

is depressing enough. Yep I don't and I and I

feel this within this isn't just this comic This

is a lot of material that's out now whether it

be TV movies and comics a lot of them are Going

in this direction and I get it like to some degree.

Yeah pop culture mirrors reality However, in

some instances, these things do have a silver

lining. They do show the error of the ways and

ways to recover from it and kind of rise out

of it. I don't see this necessarily as like a

sci fi type thing. I see this is like basically

an action thriller. Like it's it's James Bond.

It's text. You're a tech in the form of the cell

phone. Yeah, it's gun but otherwise for all intents

and purposes it's basically an action thriller

and I and I and I'm not knocking like the concept

per se But I some of my some of my gripes are

as you mentioned like the tiny text and like

when I'm thinking a trade paperback I'm thinking

much larger Just the normal size. This almost

looks like the eight and a half by 11. Yep. Folded

in half. Yeah. Whereas the other ones are the

taller paper. And I think part of what hurts

this too, there's no color. I was just getting

into that. It's very hard for me to discern what

is going on. Between panels because of the fact

that it's black and white because the fact that

the text is so small Like I I can see my screen

just fine and it's slightly bigger text than

this But it's also lit up. It's backlit Yeah,

but there's other colors around it Like I use

the dark theme because then I have the white

text if I have like all white and I'm trying

to decipher What's around it? I can't see the

details. I can't read it. It has to be some kind

of broken up. And I think that that's part of

a detractor for me on this. And I see where there's

so much gore and brutality in it, which, again,

it mirrors what's going on now. If I were making

the choice to go out and pick a comic, I don't

think I would pick this because of the fact that

it's kind of depressing to read. Yeah. I was,

again, it's taken me a while because this got

released on May 10th of this year of 2021. And

I'm very happy for the creators that they got,

you know, something out. And yes, I am appreciative

that they decided to ask us to review it for

free, but part of my vision issues, and yes,

I know technically with the PDF I could zoom

in, but I have never been good with PDF readers.

I just never have. I've never cared for them

because I'm not a PDF file kind of person. So

we receive this for free. I still, in order to

be able to review this properly, went onto Comixology

to search for it, and I still paid $3 .99. And

$3 .99 for a trade paperback for 146 page, that's

amazing. But the thing of it is, is as you've

said, this story, this, it just, I don't know,

it, it just feels like, And I don't know where

Thomas is from. I don't know where the other

creators are from I mean it says on the back

of the book that the company is based out of

California But the fact they based it overseas

and it's a like if you're going to make a modern

-day Action thriller that sort of mirrors real

-world events and I know you're gonna groan when

I say this At least place it in North America.

You don't necessarily have to put an orange troglodyte

reference in there. It's almost as bad as an

incompetent old man that can barely speak. I'm

not going there. It's very reminiscent of the

leadership that the two that we've had here.

The discord and the strife that have been caused

by the idiocy of two different establishments,

it's festered the same type of mentality that's

going on in this book. And again, I get the storyline

of what it's trying to do. And I like certain

ideas in it. I do. don't like, if they would

have said this is America's largest, cause again,

as Americans, we are people who not necessarily,

not all of us love violence, not all of us love

super sensational content, but we also do live

on this whole, give it to me now, give it to

me now, give it to me now, instantaneous content

thing. And the idea of contraband being Like

as soon as you uploaded it reaches millions of

people kind of thing and I understand that they're

they're Predicating this on the fact that people

prefer violent content over somebody Screaming

at the top of their lungs about a toy company

or about a comic company or about a movie or

about a whatever or if we have a podcast But

do you know covering whatever like having to

have? the quote -unquote sensational content

has to include violence. Yeah, that's true. Yeah,

I mean, we have fans that are butthurt over every,

you know, genre of whatever it may be that's

getting rebooted, whether it be He -Man, Transformers,

Star Trek, whatever. But it's ultimately there's

there's places for discussions to be had on those,

whereas I don't. Don't know. I just don't I don't

like the concept of having a Yes, I know like

things like Batman. It's violent transformers

are violent. Yes, there are elements of it in

there, but there's also not I mean this this

comic series is predicated upon the fact of Sensational

violence filmed for a video sharing service.

That's what it is and I understand that Getting

back to the whole black and white thing, I cannot

read. I don't care if it's the old newspaper

comics. I don't care if it's comics that, you

know, from 1939, 1938, 1957. I am not a black

and white comic kind of person. I'm just not.

I need bold colors, great inking. great line

drawings. Perfect example is if people look at

me on social media, most of my things or most

of my profile images are the image that TV's

Mr. Neil made for me and the one that you used

the background for. So it's me in a gray looking

shirt with a night wing symbol and a purple background

behind me. Neil... Obviously had to draw me from

a photo that I gave him and every once in a while

I will do I will switch that up to the Drawn

for you know, it's kind of like I'm not a bad

podcaster I'm just drawn that way, you know that

kind of thing the old Jessica rabbit, you know,

whatever but generally I like final pieces, I

like to see the colors over the lines and everything

else. And the lines in this were fine. The tone,

because apparently you need a toner in a black

and white comic, because you have to have multiple

tones of black and white. The tone was good,

and I got it. But at the same time, I still didn't.

Over on the pullback origins, which people would

have heard a couple couple last month that I

did I ask a question What does the story have

to have to draw you in? It has to hate like if

I'm going like if I'm going into the comic book

store the actual physical comic book store And

I picked this up and I look at the front I'm

like, oh, okay. It's a cell phone with all of

this size design and whatever and the cover and

I'm not sure if this cell phone cover is the

original cover or if it's the first cover or

if there are multiple covers because the cover

on Comixology and the cover that's in our PDFs

is completely different from what the physical

copy is. So if I'm going in here and I'm looking

at this and I'm thinking ooh contraband cell

phones are contraband that's cool. Go and I read

the back. Okay, cool. Maybe while I'm at the

comic shop. I'll flip through the first one two

or three pages and I might see all this black

and white and I'm like Not really for me I Don't

know I mean it's kind of got some of the you

know horror thriller aspects of You know some

of the way that they have things set up in here,

but they also have Some of it Set up like I mean

if it bleeds it leads like the news. Yeah, which

it's only because That's all they do It's kind

of sad yeah Like and there's scenes in this that

it's just I don't know. It just it stirs up bad

emotions in me just because Just because the

world is in a dump Yeah, where it's at and So

did it like so much division. I just I don't

know. I don't think it's I Yeah, I don't think

it's really fitting It's fitting for the time

in a sense, but like I don't I don't want to

relive it in a comic Yeah. So, Thomas and everyone

else, we're sorry that we didn't give it a more

glowing review. We're sorry we didn't look at

the full -on intricacies that you tried to put

into the story, but after about chapter six,

I was kind of done, and I kind of skimmed through

the rest of it just to get to... Like chapter

11 12 almost to the end To find out what the

end would it's kind of like you know how back

in the old days somebody used to say to me there's

Somebody I know you used to do this. Oh, I read

the the end of the story first So that way I

know what I'm in for if I want to read the actual

little story kind of thing and When we first

meet the character of Toby he's this Coffee shop

internet cafe employee and by the end of it.

He's the hero and that's great. I think that's

cool I think that you know them defeating and

figuring out and all of this and everything else

that happens in this is cool and fun and interesting

But take some of these premises put it about

a thousand years in the future or something like

Remember that I'll have to see if I can find

it to put it in the audio I doubt I will but

I might remember that old PlayStation commercial

I forget if it was play I think it was when PlayStation

2 launched or something There was an old PlayStation

commercial where they were like, oh the PlayStation

9 Just beam it into my head kind of thing that

commercial was more sci -fi than this trade paperback

was Yeah, I mean I feel bad I really do because

I don't want to dump on somebody's yeah, yeah

Yeah, but yeah, and I just didn't personally

enjoy it no and I I Enjoyed the mystery of it

at first and then all of the violence came in

and I'm like Hmm. Okay time to fast forward I

don't know. Like I said, if this may be some

people's cup of tea, it's not ours. On our GCR

and universal ratings scale, I would probably

give it a two and a half out of five stars. I

would give it probably a two just because I have

so many. Things that that tend to Push me out

of it while I'm trying to read it, right, right

So folks we are gonna take a quick break You're

gonna hear some ads and some other stuff and

we're gonna come back and close out the show

after this I've had a hard time figuring out

what I'm doing on October for the show so I am

And I'm specifically doing this because I want

the Beast Wars episodes to be better for us.

And I don't want us to just say, oh, well, this

is issue seven and this is everything that happened.

And then that's it. That's why I'm doubling up

the issues. So we do seven and eight and then

nine and 10. So nine and 10 is basically going

to be the Halloween episode for the pull bag

this year at the end of next month. Cause usually.

Issue seven's already out. Issue eight comes

out this month. It comes out next week, I think.

And then issue nine, usually they come out the

last, second to last, or the last week of the

month. So pushing it to that is, yeah. 2913 edit.

Alright folks, we're back and seriously, if you

would like to check out Contraband, I will put

the link to the Comixology page in the show notes.

It may have not been for us, but I'm sure someone

out there likes it. I mean, they have, you know,

they have the dude from 30 Days of Night, Ben

Templesmith. with a quote on the back of this

and then Ain't it cold news, broken frontier.

And so people like this. People enjoyed this.

It's just not in our wheelhouse. And maybe I

should have said no, but Thomas was a little

bit insistent at first on asking if we were going

to review it and Honestly, that's another reason

why it's taken so long besides the fact that

I usually plan out the pull bag a year in advance,

most likely. I mean, you have some variations

within, you know, six months or so. But I mean,

for the most part, you do. Yeah, I mean, catalog

like in backlog episodes quite a while. Yeah,

because I'm like, oh. Want to read in trade the

trades are already out. There's so many comics

that I need to get to There's so many things

I need to read that I haven't read yet, you know

and Also, you know us doing our monthly things

and whatever that we're doing if we're reading

monthly series like Transformers Beast Wars or

radiant black It is what it is I wish Thomas

and the team the best of luck I hope They have

received everything they need they they want

to receive with this. I hope they get more success

with it I hope whatever they come come up with

next is something completely different than this

Yep, I hope next time they use color Because

next time I'll be and I get it color is expensive.

Yes But I mean I the covers honestly more enticing

to me than what's inside it Yep. And I feel horrible

saying that. I do too. To a certain extent. Again,

I'm sorry. And I'm sure this podcast will either

not get any listens or we'll get some sort of

hate mail or something. Or nothing at all. Or

nothing at all, like most of my content does.

Right. Thomas, like I said before in the emails,

you are still more than welcome to come on to

the pull bag and do your comic origins and talk

about the book and everything like that. Just

because we give a negative review doesn't mean

we think the people behind it, like we have a

negative view of them because it's... the story

you created that we dislike. It's not you as

a person that we dislike. We don't even know

you. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, so if

you still want to come on and do the origins,

that's that's more than fine. But most likely

after listening to this, you're like, yeah, fuck

those guys. You cast radio network. What the

hell is wrong with them? Anyway, where can the

people find you online, sir? Well, they can find

me on the Twitter's at SCP 21. I'm at TF2 and

Mike, you can get all the other in in fuck. You

can get all of the other information in the outro.

Make your greatest game into comics and we will

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