Interview with Brad Filicky on Comic Reading Origins and Favorites

This is Phil Lamar and you are listening to the

Geekcast Radio Network. Hi, this is John Barber

from IDW Publishing. You are listening to The

Pull Bag. You've just jumped inside The Pull

Bag. Join TFG1 Mike and the rest of the Comet

crew here at the GCRN as they make their great

escape into comics. From DC, Marvel and Image

to IDW, Bloom Studios and Xenoscope, we have

everything right here. We cover things like Transformers,

He -Man, Superheroes, TMNT, and Radiant Black.

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

all inside the pull bag here on the Geekcast

Radio Network. So without further ado, it's time

to talk about the comics we're reading right

now, here inside the pull bag. Hello and welcome

to The Pullback. This is episode 515. I'm, of

course, TF2 and Mike, and joining me this time

around for his origins in comic reading is Brad

Felicki. Hello, sir. Hey, happy to be here. How

you doing? Pretty good, pretty good. How are

you, sir? I'm hanging in. I'm pretty good. That's

good. That's good. Brad is one eighth, one ninth,

one tenth. I don't know how many hosts are on

the Dark Knight News podcast, but he's one of

them. Listen I'm like, okay, I'm looking at the

description. I'm like, okay, there's like three

hosts listed listen to the show. It's like seven

people. Yeah Yeah, we go we go back and forth.

We get a lot of people on there Steve me Kendra

Yeah, yeah, and then sometimes the owner the

site Damien has been coming on more frequently.

So yeah, we got and Seth so and Kelly. We've

got a lot of people coming in to join us. Two

or three, folks. Two or three is the magic number

for podcast hosts. Sometimes four if you have

a good enough ranch wrangler. You've got a cowboy

in there that can throw some rope over some people.

That's fine, but anything more than five is way

too many. Yeah, very rarely do five of us get

on there at that at one time. So yeah, you're

probably right on that one Boy, yeah, we've we've

wrangled some stuff over here sometimes and yikes.

It's it's it's work. It's it's a juggling act

So we are here to talk about as I said Brad's

origins in reading comics and all that good stuff

So did you remember or not did wow, that's not

even the right fucking question In technical

difficulties, let's move on, shall we? Kicking

off the questions, did you grow up reading comics

and at what age do you first remember reading

or noticing comics? It would have been in 1982

and I would have been at that point 8 years old.

I think that you could consider it growing up

in comics. What led me to discover comics and

I come back to this one moment in my life that

changed the direction that seemed so unimportant

at the time but turned out not to be the case

is I was in second grade, was in the fall running

in recess and I happened to just look down at

the right time and notice that somebody had dropped

a GI Joe action figure on the ground. Something

just came over me that I picked it up and I remember

after recess we got to watch a Video, I don't

remember what the video was but I remember having

this figure in my pocket and just kind of on

a whim deciding Okay, I'm gonna start collecting

these these GI Joe toys now and You know a few

months later I was into it got some of the action

figures and I was in our local pharmacy. I grew

up in a small town in Ohio. We had kind of a

mama pop pharmacy there that had, you know, those

days had the pole, the spinner rack, I mean,

and I happened to glance over, was looking at

it, and there was a G .I. Joe comic, and I thought,

wow, what's this about? And it was issue 10 and

in that issue, I think Scarlett and maybe Zap

and Snake Eyes end up in the Cobra town of Springfield

and they get captured and they're given hallucinogenic

drugs and I had no idea what was going on. I

was eight years old, but it definitely left an

impression. To this day, Larry Hammes wrote on

G .I. Joe is still one of my favorites in all

the comics and that was my intro. Then there

was another store in town that was kind of like

a convenience store called Lawson's and they

sold comic books in there too. I was in there

one day with my dad and I thought, �You know

what? I'm going to check out something beyond

the G .I. Joe comic and I got an issue with Spiderman.�

That kind of started me off and then I was sick

at home with the flu around that time as well

and I'm the baby in the family, so all my siblings

are a lot older than I am, but my sister was

out and she brought home a bunch of comics for

me to read while I was sick in bed. I can't remember

every issue that was in that stack, but I know

there was a few issues of ROM Space Night. That

I really liked I remember the the concept of

the diaries really freaked me out and that that

debt to this day remains kind of my holy grail

of something I want republished is the Marvel

ROM space night comics because from what I understand

there's a lot going on with the rights to that

particular character so Marvel can't really do

anything with that series and that's a shame

because I'd really I'd really love to reread

that again in like a trade paperback. I'm surprised.

Yeah, I'm surprised IDW didn't get the rights

to reprint that from Marvel because they reprint

all the TMNT stuff. They did a ROM space night.

I don't know if it was an update or something,

but I remember a couple of years ago when Hasbro

still wanted to create their shared universe

at the time. There was a ROM Space Knight one

-shot. It wasn't what you're talking about, but

I remember seeing ROM in comics in the modern

day, and my thinking is, why doesn't IDW have

the rights to that, to reprint those? That's

weird. Yeah, and the Space Knights are still

part of the broader Marvel universe. I mean,

they were just in, I want to say Empire, maybe,

or one of those... crossover events. Space Nights

played a part and I remember thinking, �Oh, that's

cool. Space Nights are still around.� I really

would love to see IDW or somebody republish those

Marvel issues because I really want to reread

those. Then back to the, �How did I start reading

?� That just kind of got me That just got me

reading. That was a very important time in comics

at a very formative age because that's when comics

as a medium, as they say, grew up. That's when

Frank Miller started getting big, Dark Knight

Returns. A few years later, Watchmen and things

like that. As I was growing up and learning more

about the world, comics were a very interesting

window because they were also growing up as a

medium. It was a very cool time to be in to comics,

I think. I'm very glad for that. I mean if you

were eight years old and into music in 1968 when

or You know when the Beatles first came out or

something like that when when rock music really

grew up, you know It was been kind of the same

effect But that was a very important time in

comics that I'm very honored to have taken, you

know Taken apart and when it was when it was

actually happening. Yeah, very cool. Very cool

So you basically just found it on your own. There

wasn't like a parent or a friend or someone who

just said, here kid, read this comic, go away,

you bother me. No, in fact, I think I got people

into comics. I remember my best friend at the

time, I got him into it and we would, you know,

that, that, that store that was the convenience

store that I was mentioning. We would go there

every Wednesday, and the ladies who worked there

knew us, so we would quote unquote hide issues

around the store so nobody else would buy them.

But realistically, we were probably the only

ones buying the comics, so they just let us do

it. The ones we wanted, we couldn't buy at the

time and things like that. That was our thing

to do. 60 miles south of Cleveland, but my sister

ended up moving to Cleveland. And when I would

go and visit her on the weekends, there was a

comic shop. And that was the only, at that point

in time, comic shops were kind of rare. At that

point, for all I knew, that was the only comic

store in the entire state of Ohio. It probably

wasn't. But sometimes my friend would go with

me. And at that time, when you would go to a

comic shop, The comics were almost a month ahead

of what they were in the pharmacies and convenience

stores and things like that. You felt like you

were participating in something really special

because you got these issues when they were kind

of new, newer than you realized. That was always

fun. The spinner wreck doesn't really exist anymore

in normal stores You generally have to find a

comic shop to find comic books and that's kind

of that's kind of sad It is kind of sad, but

it's like hmm At least you'd be supporting a

small business kind of like I know there are

big Comic book stores out there like Midtown

or whatever. You know what I mean? Like I know

there are huge conglomerate comic stores, but

there's nothing like finding that one shop which

is like a complete hole in the wall and is very

eclectic but still has everything that you want

it to have as far as books go. See, and this

is the problem. Now I live in New Jersey, kind

of right outside of New York City, so I have

access to things like Midtown Comics, for instance.

And yeah, it's kind of a bigger conglomerate,

but the one good thing about a place like Midtown

Comics is they have everything. Every book that

comes out every week, you know it's gonna be

there. There's a mom and pop shop that I go to

in New Jersey, and that's not always the case.

So I go back and forth. I love supporting the

smaller stores, but I like to be guaranteed that

That it's gonna be there when I go in so yeah,

I kind of go back and forth But I definitely

agree that it's good to support the small business.

Yeah, absolutely And I swear this I I wrote this

question back in 2013 before I even met Ed Kender

or anybody else So I'm not stealing a play out

of your playbook here DC or Marvel, you know,

man, I I'm not I'm not just saying this to be

diplomatic But I do go back and forth. I really

do. Everybody says that because it's about characters.

It's not about the company. I have zero loyalty

to eat like I'm not picking one or the other.

You know, and I've said this on the DC News podcast

too. I said, you know, you're going to be very

hard pressed to find a comic book fan out there

that only buys Marvel. or only buys DC. I don't

think you're going to see that now, which I think

is healthy. But when I first got into comics,

I was definitely a Marvel guy because the Marvel's

concept of the world outside your window really

appealed to me. And I'm a pretty short guy, so

I could always relate to Wolverine. being short

and cranky. I could relate to Peter Parker just

getting beaten down by life and just having the

same struggles that most teenagers have, especially

teenagers that read comics or aren't people that

read comics. I think Marvel was my go -to at

first. Plus, when I got collecting at 82, thinking

about this is really Makes me feel old because

Marvel the Marvel Universe at that point was

only 20 years old. That's not that big I mean

so that continuity was a lot easier to keep contained

and I like that idea, but you go to the DC characters

and Not only some of them I could not relate

to Superman Um, you know, but also the characters

were older and with that comes a little, you

know, a little bit of hokeyness in my mind at

the time. But then, you know, I was talking about

the whole, you know, the, as the medium was growing

up or whatever, most of that stuff came from

the DC side of things for, you know, those characters.

can really stand for big, big metaphors in ways

that sometimes Marvels cannot, I think. And that's

why when you start talking about superhero books

that are studied in colleges, Kingdom Come comes

up. You know, Dark Knight Returns comes up. But

you might not see Craven's Last Hunt. Death of

Gwen Stacy something like that, you know as good

as those stories are they don't have that same

kind of I don't want to say scholarly or literary

but it has that kind of that that ability to

stand for these bigger metaphors and a lot of

writers can really use that so that really turned

me on to DC and Also around the time I think

what got me into DC Initially it was Crisis on

Infinite Earths because I was collecting around

that time and that seemed really complex and

mind -blowing what they were doing with that.

So that turned me on to the DC characters but

at first I was a Marvel guy. Then now I think

I'm in a phase where It also kind of depends

on what you're talking about. If you're talking

about movies, I generally tend to lean Marvel.

If you're talking about the comics, I tend to

lean to DC. I think that right now DC is doing

some really cool things with the characters.

And if I was going to have to sit down with a

comic, I would choose a DC book over a Marvel

book if I had to. You know, you mentioned you

never really could relate to Superman. And I

understand that completely, but like, who can

relate to a foreign alien? Oh, sorry. But it's

one of those things where, you know, we've only

in a decade of this podcast, we've only ever

covered Superman. Think most recently in the

last five years of our like it's just never been

like it's not that I dislike his comics or anything

It's just I've always been Superman in movies

or Superman in animation or Superman in TV or

whatever kind of thing and yeah, you're right

generally Marvel movies DC comics I've read plenty

of like when they did Marvel now and see that's

the problem like you were mentioning, you know

back in 1982 Of course, I didn't know a damn

thing. I was two years old at the time, but back

in those days, like you mentioned, it was only

20 years old. Well now, it's like what? 40, 50,

60, 70, whatever the hell it is now, you know

what I mean? You know what I mean? But we had

all this choice, and then because they're trying

to chase that new number one money, it's like,

DC. This is the seventh reboot in four years

Yeah, that's that's my that's that's my conundrum

too is because I I Love that DC can hit the reset

button on their continuity I love that they're

willing to pull that trigger. I just wish they

wouldn't pull it so often. Meanwhile, I think

Marvel Needs to do that More often they don't

really never really go that route and I think

they I think at this point they they need to

The most recent Secret Wars was close, but no

cigar. I think they really just they really need

to do like a rebirth situation. Yeah. And again,

like I said, for me, it's it isn't about either

company, whether they reboot or not. For me,

it's about a character like specifically, I'll

say Terry McGinnis, Batman Beyond, or even Tim

Drake, Batman Beyond, when they did when God,

who was it? Who did the Tim Drake Batman Beyond

we covered it damn it. I forget off top of my

head Tim Sealy I think it was at first and then

it changed that's what it is But anyway, like

Batman Beyond specifically I've I will follow

that character Wherever he goes in comics because

I like that character. I like that universe that

universe doesn't necessarily need to have a reboot

for it even though the old like Going from, let's

say, New 52 to Rebirth, yes, Batman Beyond Rebirth

was a thing, but it had no overall, and I know

they've introduced Terry into the main DCU now,

and that's fine, but the Batman Beyond comics

have always been separate to me, even though

they're still in the DC universe, because it's

not something I need to read 20 years or 70 years

of stuff. I go back and forth with the concept

of continuity in a way and I think a lot of comic

readers might say the same thing. For me personally,

I see it both ways. Some of the best stories

are stories that are told that are outside of

a basic continuity, Dark Knight Returns being

an example of that. But I like a connected continuity

and story because I like that it can have bigger

stakes. I love when big things pay off that they've

been planting in different comics over the past

year or something. An example I come back to

a lot is a series that a lot of people don't

talk about anymore, but Infinite Crisis. I really

like how they led that up. They had these little

crumbs around in a lot of different series before

it lit up and then it all paid off. To me, that's

the fun part of reading comics. I think they

both have their benefits. I get what you're saying

about following characters around, but I think

for me, what I do is I would follow writers around.

Right now, for me, the two Toms, Taylor and King,

anything they write, I'm going to want to check

out. You know, I've listened to your podcast.

I know you're a big Nightwing fan This run on

Nightwing man is just has been incredible. I

Have the first sure I think I have the first

volume of the series the first trade I need to

catch up with it and My buddy Steve Megatron

who co -created the G sarin with me. I mentioned

this to him I've mentioned this to other people,

but I first mentioned it to him recently and

he just like took a pause for half a beat and

said, no, you're nuts. Don't you dare. And, you

know, somebody tells me, don't, don't I dare?

Well, then I'm going to dare. But at some point,

and I don't know who I'm doing this with. I've

mentioned it to several people. I want to go

back to the beginning of Nightwing. When I say

the beginning, I mean like 96 or whenever it

was like when he, when Dick Grayson was first

Nightwing. So I assume it's the 96 run. It might

be before that. I forget. And I basically want

to do 90 nights of Nightwing. So you'd have one

trade per podcast per day for 90 days. Oh, wow.

Yeah, I know. It's a task, and it's ambitious,

and it's whatever. I just like the alliteration,

90 nights of Nightwing. That's really all for

each and why I want to do it. But I also want

to read the comics, too. Like, it's not that

I don't want to read the comics, but for me,

with Nightwing, it begins with... Now, I love

s'mores as much as the next guy, but I'm fresh

out of marshmallows. What do you say we call

it a night? DCAU and TAS and Lauren Lester as

the voice, and then it continues with him becoming

Batman in Gates of Gotham. I love Gates of Gotham.

That was so... And then it begins with Kyle Higgins

is run on new 52 and I have followed Kyle since

I first read that run I followed him to Power

Rangers. He's now doing Radiant black and all

the stuff with the massive verse over at image

So I understand your me saying all of this is

to say I understand the whole thing of following

writers or following creators on various things

because If you've liked what they've done before

you're gonna want to see what they do next. Yeah

Alright, so what other publishers do you enjoy

reading? I like Image. I think Image has really

grown into something special. I had waves of

comic collecting, so I mentioned I started in

82, and my first wave ended, and I know this

year specifically, It was 1989 because I had

gotten my first girlfriend. The Batman movie

came out that summer as well. So I was all about

Batman I probably had ten Batman t -shirts by

the end of that summer But so it never really

left me and then the second way started when

image launched because I thought This is cool

to be in on the ground floor when a whole new

big comics universe is starting would have been

there like to get the first issue of Fantastic

Four First issue was Superman or something like

that. So I I got I had this thing where I would

get every image book and that lasted for a few

years so and that kind of petered out with whatever

all this thing that happened with the delays

and just it just It was a mess as we all know

But I think image has really grown as a company

I like like some stuff on Dark Horse Like Black

Hammer, I think Dark Horse does some good things

Boom Studio, I've liked their Dune stuff. I think

that there's a lot of value in a lot of the smaller

companies up there. Completely on a random whim,

I didn't even know you were such a radiant black

fan until I started listening to the podcast,

but before I did, I had started reading I think

Image has something special. I always say that

if Marvel and DC are like your NBC, ABC, big

network television, and HBO is like your, I'm

sorry, if Black Label is your HBO, then Image

is like your AMC Kind of thing and I think that

there's I think that's a very healthy Place to

be because as you can say the stories aren't

too kiddy and they can be original and you know

a lot of the creators like I think every creator

has control over Their characters and what they

do with them So I think image does a lot of a

lot of really cool things And I really liked

it when they would have their first volumes all

like $10. It would really be a good jumping off

point to Check out their series. So yeah, I like

image a lot Yeah, yeah radiant black launched

a day after My birthday why forget which year

it launched off the top of my head, but literally

it launched February 10th and I'm like You bastards,

you couldn't have launched a day before, but

I understand whatever it is. I think February

10th was a Wednesday that year, whatever, obviously,

because new conflict day is Wednesday. But yeah,

Kyle Higgins and Image and just everything that

man does. I have not checked out Ordinary Gods

yet. I need to. I have not checked out what's

the other one he did recently. Oh, there was

another one. But yeah, Radiant Black, I am all

in on that. I'm all in on... the Massive Verse.

I need to catch some of the other titles. I've

read the mini -series related to the Radiant

so far, but I need to catch up with Rogue Sun

and some of the other stuff. Yeah, Rogue Sun

was fun. I did read Rogue Sun in the first volume,

and the first volume of Radiant Red and the first

two of Radiant Black. So that's where I am in

the Massive Verse, so I'm getting there. Yeah,

yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I am current on Radiant

Black. I am all the way up to issue 22, so I'm

eagerly anticipating the catalyst war coming

this summer. Yeah. Well, because Kyle, because

I follow Kyle on social media, he's, and rightfully

so, I'm not saying anything wrong with this,

hello, but, you know, he's hyping up the catalyst

war with issue 25 of Radiant Black coming in,

I think it's July or August, I forget which month.

But yeah, yeah, no, I absolutely love that love

that that book. It's very it's It's not what

you think it is folks. We don't know what it

is yet. Yeah, it's a joke in the in the radiant

black discord The radiant black podcast discord

and whatever else it's like we don't know what

it is You won't tell us what it is because you

know you think it's one thing and then it does

this like whole left turn and I was like Okay,

and then they're doing because he wants to because

Kyle wants to do so many of these awesome things

like Who the hell thought a comic book would

ever do a full -on blacklight issue for number

10? It was just so cool, so fun. It's refreshing

to have something like that amongst all the other

comics. Yeah, it's cool to see these creators

be able to stretch their legs and really get

into it. It's kind of funny because I don't know

if it's still like this, but if you are a writer

getting into comics, Seemed like before you would

get in with your own self -created thing and

then you know you made it when you got assigned

to write Batman. And now it seems like you start

with the superheroes and then you go to image

and then you can have your own, you know, imprint

and things like that. Yeah, it's kind of reversed

at this point. But, you know, hey, you get to

cut your teeth on Batman or Nightwing or Batman

Beyond and you get to tell a story like Kyle

even worked on some of the Batman Beyond books

that we've covered. So, you know, I mean, again,

great, great storytelling. Yeah. Alright, this

may or may not be a sore subject now considering

what's going on with digital comics lately, but

print or digital? Which one both either or and

why or why not? Oh man, I gotta stick with print.

There's nothing like having that book in your

hand. I still haven't vibed with the experience

of the digital comics. that I forget what they

call it, but where it kind of moves with the

panel, the digital comics. The guided view, the

comics. The guided view, yes. And I, depending

on the comic, that I actually like. I read a

few Walking Dead issues, and because Walking

Dead is such a cinematic comic, it almost, it

was done so well that I almost felt like I was...

You feel like you're in the book. In the book,

yeah, or watching a motion comic, remember when

those were around. So that experience I kind

of liked, but... To me, there is nothing like

having that book in your hand. Going further

than that, I would rather have a trade paper

book in my hand than an individual issue. For

me, I have to stick with print. I have too many

Funko Pops to stick with print. Again, audience,

I'm sorry. I don't tell these stories before

we start the recording, so you're going to hear

this probably every episode. I was doing, I started

this podcast on print. I didn't want to go digital,

whatever else, and a bunch of people talked me

into it. A bunch of people talked up the Comixology

Guide and View a decade ago, and we were doing

our first and only at the time Punisher Month,

and I am sitting in my chair holding the omnibus

of welcome back frank yeah yeah all the issues

and that's omnibuses uh trades fine five six

issue trade paperback fine omnibuses that are

like you know 35 pounds like the weight of a

small chihuahua like no thank you i fell asleep

because the book got too heavy it had nothing

to do with the Content to the book the physical

book got too heavy. I fell asleep It fell out

of my hand crashed to the floor and then like

20 minutes later. I was on comicsology .com at

the time I'm like, okay fine. I'm signing up

for this. I'm done with it. Yeah, that would

do it Those are the best you don't definitely

want to take those out of the house and I like

to and I whenever I leave the house I always

if I don't have something that I can read Whether

it's a book, a comic, or whatever, I get antsy.

But I wouldn't be throwing that in my backpack,

that's for sure. No, no, no. It's like, you got

rocks in your pockets. Make it weight, more heavier.

That's like number one, oh lord. Alright, who

are some of your favorite comics writers and

why? I know you mentioned the two Toms earlier,

but you want to expand on those or you want to

say other people? That's fine. Well, I'll go

into my favorites during my waves of comic collecting.

So the first was, like I mentioned, Larry Hammer's

run on GI Joe. Love Larry Hammer. You know, I

remember Watching the cartoon and thinking this

is so stupid compared to the com but the comic

is so much more sophisticated Why aren't more

people reading the comic? You know, but I loved

his run on GI Joe. I loved Chris Claremont's

run on uncanny x -men One of my favorites and

then This is where it gets a bit cliche because

I gotta say my favorite three of all time or

when I was a little older in college and I discovered

well First of all, I discovered Watchmen way

younger than I should have and it was a great

experience. I remember riding in the car to visit

my grandma and I got in the Watchmen out of the

library. Why they would let an 11 -year -old

kid get Watchmen out of the library, I have no

idea. But just reading it, my parents had no

idea what was going on in the story. I wasn't

reading it out loud, but I was just reading it

and it came over me like this is about something.

I didn't know what. You know, too young to really

grasp what it was about, but I felt this like,

this is about something. So I got to go, you

know, and that, and then I read it. And then

when I was in college, something came over me.

It's like, I need to read Watchmen again. So

I got to start with that way was Alan Moore.

And then I discovered Sandman. So Neil Gaiman

is huge and I got a fill out my trinity with

Garth Dennis because I absolutely love Preacher.

When I graduated college and moved out to New

York, I collected a little bit but then stopped

a while and then, of all things, I discovered

Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I worked at a music

magazine for years. Years and years and I would

always get these They would have giveaway CDs

and I would take CDs every week and go down and

sell them at a record store and I noticed that

they one time when I did that they had Buffet

the Vampire Slayer season one on DVD for really

cheap and I thought man I'd heard about this

show being good. Why not check it out? which

led me to and I He's fallen certainly, but led

me to be obsessed with Joss Whedon and then it

was announced that he was going to be writing

Astonishing X -Men so I picked that up and I've

always liked I loved his run on Astonishing X

-Men and Another one is Warren Ellis who was

also very problematic this time, but I loved

Transmetropolitan some of the stuff with the

authority and storm watch and Some of his stuff

was really good even though he's another one

that has certainly fallen It's always it's always

weird because I can I Generally out of the stuff

that I like either reading or watching if if

the creator has fallen from grace like these

have I Can separate the content from the person?

and still like the content. For me, it's about

the content. It isn't about the... Somebody says

to me, oh, Chad Kroger from Nickelback is gonna

do a reggae album by himself. I'm like, I don't

know about all that, but okay, fine. You know

what I mean? I don't care what they do in their

personal life. Okay, yes, if they're monsters,

if Bill Cosby's a monster, fine. That's very

problematic and very horrible and he should be

in jail, all that. Still, that doesn't take away

for me what Cliff Huxtable that character was

on that show. Yeah, I'll tell you right now.

If Warren Ellis had a book come out, I would

probably check it out because I thought he was

that good. So, you know, with that wave, that

was a wave that when did Astonishing X -Men come

out, like 2005, maybe 2006? But that was that

that I've been collecting. Ever since since yeah,

so that wave is still going and with this wave

now with getting involved in the podcast I think

some of my favorite writers currently are the

two Toms Tom Taylor Tom King rambi James Tennion

Those are like the the top four And I think some

of those some of those guys to me they hearken

back to those 90s comics That I really loved

Steve J. Ray who you had on the podcast he turned

me on to Justice League dark and I believe that

was That Ram V at the time or was it James tiny

and leave it was Ram V but I remember reading

that first trade and I felt like I was reading

it's like you know one of those Sam almost like

a Sandman comic from the 90s that that 90s era

of DC horror so yeah, I I think those are my

top comic writers throughout my experience of

reading comics. Very cool, very cool. What defines

a good story to you? You know, it's a lot of

different. I think using Preacher as an example,

I think when I'm reading a story that things

happen in the plot or the dialogue is really

good in a way that makes me think, how did they

think of that? That always stands out to me.

There were so many moments like that in Preacher

and Sandman that kept me just coming back. I

can't wait to see what this writer does next.

One of the reasons why I'm a big Batman fan and

a big Walking Dead fan is villains. I'm very

drawn to a good villain. I think a hero is only

as good as a villain he's fighting against. and

nobody has a better Rose Gallery in comics than

Batman. To me, you're going to announce, and

I know we're supposed to be talking about comics,

so I'm sorry if I keep veering into movies here,

but if you're going to announce who's playing

Batman, I care less than who gets announced to

play the villain and who the villain's going

to be. I think the villain is a really good measure.

I think Kirkman, I guess he could be another

one of my top writers because I really did think

he did a great job with Walking Dead and Invincible.

With Walking Dead, he almost created a whole

big sub -genre of villains. There's some villains

I see and think, �Man, that's like a Walking

Dead villain.� To me, that was pretty impressive.

It has to have a good antagonist. Going back

to watchman if I if I sense that the story is

really about something Even if I'm not sure at

the time what it is. I think that that draws

me in I think maybe certain surprises that are

that makes me want to say what's gonna happen

next, you know, I'm on these my seat What's gonna

happen? What's gonna happen? I think that That

draws me in so I think those things are the biggest

That I can that I can point out other than that

it might just be something that I'm not even

aware of That draws me in. That's funny you say

draws you in because that was the next question.

So what defines a good story and what draws you

in? So basically, you read a first number one

from whatever, like what does that number one

have to have to keep you coming back for two,

three, four, five, six, however long the thing

goes? I think it has to have good characters

and a hook. Like something that that makes you

want to know what's going to happen next. I think

when it comes to a first issue, it's a lot of

what happens in the plot and maybe if the issue

is left on a really clever cliffhanger, I think

that helps when it comes to first issues that

I really like. TV show example would be the first

episode of The Shield when, spoiler alert, but

the first episode when you choose the guy, I

was like, oh my God, I gotta see what's happening

next. So if you can end a comic like that, then

you've got me. Absolutely. Love The Shield. Gotta

get back to that one. We started celebrating

20 years last year over on our other podcast,

and we covered, I think, the first two seasons

of the show. Oh, I love the shield. There ain't

no FX like the shield. I don't care what came

after it on FX. I know damages. I know other

things came after the shield. But without the

shield, you wouldn't have all the stuff that

the FX originals had. You wouldn't have the Americans

as much as I like the Americans. It was definitely

groundbreaking. It doesn't get the credit it

deserves because it kind of came out in the shadow

of the Sopranos. But yeah, definitely. Yeah,

it came out in the shadow of the Sopranos, but

you had, I mean, okay, technically you have to

pay a certain amount for the cable package that

has FX, but HBO at the time was also, you know,

premium, ultra premium kind of thing. And I know

the Sopranos did a lot, but I'm pretty sure Tony

Soprano, because he's the criminal in that show,

I'm pretty sure no cop grabbed a Bag of cocaine

or weed or whatever it was from the guy I'm pretty

sure Tony wouldn't let any cop grab his balls

like like Vic Mackie just you know ripping like

oh god so good Anybody wants the image? I know

you guys are working on your own massive verse

stuff But like if you want to you know 20th anniversary

of the shield you want to guys want to do a comic?

Please put that I'd print money right there.

Yeah, for sure. Who are some of your favorite

comics artists? Growing up, they still stick

with me more than current artists is John Byrne

and George Perez. I was really bummed when George

Perez... His work, his post -crisis work on Wonder

Woman was great. Just like I love John Byrne's

post work on Man of Steel and his work on Fantastic

Four. When I first started collecting, he was

like the template that I kind of compared other

artists to. Now, I wish I was better with names.

The artist who, the puzzle box, Joker puzzle

box, I think is great. I think Jock's work on

One Bad Night. or One Dark Night was great. I'm

such a story guy that I like artists that drive

the story. That's why I don't like my art super

cartoony. Like the recent Harley Quinn, I like

the book and Batgirls, the art is just a little

too cartoony and it's not that it's not good

art. It's just for me, I like something a little

more grounded when it comes to the art. Yeah,

absolutely. Steve Dillon is another one. He's

run his work on Punisher, and of course Preacher

was just mind -blowing. Absolutely. Do you have

a favorite non -superhero title? I got a stick.

Well, I would stick with two. Preacher being

the big one. Sandman, I wouldn't necessarily.

I think Sandman is kind of superhero -y, so I'm

not going to bring Sandman into it, but I think

definitely Preacher and probably Larry Hamm is

GI Joe would probably be my two favorite non

superhero comics and I like a few like Some of

the stuff that Jeff Lemire's done that our superhero

like the Essex County trilogy was was really

good And what's his name Burke factor or dirt

factor of the guy who did my friend Dahmer and

trashed He's like he's great Those are some of

my favorite non -superhero books. The funny thing

about Preacher is that what I think made me such

a fan is how over -the -top it is, sure, but

the blasphemous stuff, that didn't resonate with

me as much as just the love story. I don't really

respond to love stories that much. Intrigued

me like why I'm reacting so strongly to this

love story in this book when all this other stuff

is going on But yeah, I can't Tell you how much

I just I absolutely love preacher and You know

people say that you know it It could be problematic

now, but I never felt even reading it that He

wasn't poking fun at the right people, you know,

he was he was really having things to say about

power and religion and things like that beyond

saying things about you know, our space and Humperdew

and things like that, you know, it all seemed

to have a reason and Yeah, I've never read preacher.

I've heard nothing but good things about it But

I will say I say this in every podcast. So listeners,

I'm sorry. I Don't believe anything was meant

to hold up to whenever today is. Like, it's not

supposed to. You're supposed to look at it in

the time that it was made. Like, again, I will

reference the Cosby show. Yes, the man himself

is a monster, but that show taught me how to

trick or treat. That show taught me to be slightly

less afraid of the dentist. That show, you know

what I mean? Like, you're supposed to look at

it in the time that it was made. And when was

that made? The mid 90s, early 90s, whenever it

was. And the 90s were... About on par with what

I know about preacher like Gangster rap on the

left and surf culture on the right and and and

everything else in the middle. Yeah What is so

when I say this like take a specific character

title or what like Batman 1940 to 2011 or whatever

else. When I say this, think of a series. What

is your favorite run or story arc of a series?

I really love the Mutant Massacre X -Men kind

of side series. I love that. Jason Aaron's run

on Thor was, I think, one of the best run on

superhero comics. It's certainly bigger than

an arc, even though with War of the Realms, I

think it was kind of an anticlimactic ending.

But the lead -up to Jason Aaron's run on Thor

was just incredible, and I was never even that

much of a Thor fan until I read that, so I really

loved that run. Season of Mist and Sandman was

great. I loved Civil War. The original Marvel

Civil War series was really great. It was so

great it needed a sequel. Yeah, which was not

so great. I don't think anyone has ever said

anything nice about Civil War 2. One of the reasons

is that you were never going to be as good as

the first. Which also actually makes me another

one of my favorite writers is Mark Millar. As

far as artist goes, I'm having a little bit of

a brain fart, but the artist for the Civil War

series I loved. That picture of Peter Parker

taking his mask off in front of everybody should

be more iconic than it is. Yeah, but that's another

one of my favorites. Crisis on Infinite Earths

was incredible. Batman, you're one. Yeah, I mean,

I think that that's another one of my favorites

would be the arc of the Governor arc in Walking

Dead was one of my favorites too, thinking about

it. Very cool, very cool. What is one comic you

can read over and over again single issue or

trade I always come back to to X -Men issue 211

I wore that issue out that was that was the start

of the mutant massacre that was where the marauders

were introduced and that Crazy scene where After

a night crawler gets injured really bad by riptide,

Colossus grabs him by the neck and breaks his

neck and says to Harpoon, Harpoon, make peace

with your god's little man, you're next. Granted,

I was young when that came out, but I could reread

that issue. In fact, a few years ago, back pre

-COVID, when Marvel had those dollar issues,

True Believers, I think is what they were called,

that issue was one that they made and I was so

happy to go and pick up that issue again. That

is one of my favorite individual comics and GI

Joe issue 11 is another one of my favorite. That

was the issue where they introduced a lot of

the second wave characters. So you had Snow Job,

Gung Ho, and you got to see the first glimpse

of Destro, but it was only his gauntlets. It

takes place in the, I believe in Alaska, somewhere

in the snow. It's Alaska or the Arctic. And it

was kind of like this chase issue down a oil

pipeline. Because Cobra Riot was going to put

poison into the pipeline, and I just thought

it was a very well -written issue. I think those

two individual comics stick out to me. Trades?

Probably the first three preacher trades I would

reread. Those are some of my favorites. Very

cool, very cool. I love how he continues to say,

folks, I have two, I have two, I have two. Okay,

Two -Face, all right, I get it. You have a scarred

coin. Scarred coin, all I can hear in my head

is the late, great, amazing Heath Ledger. Would

you like to know how I got these scars? Oh, boy.

What a shame, but what a performance. Oh, yeah.

So we got to ask a few negative questions, because

there are a lot of negative things in comics,

but we try to make these fairly OK. But are there

any comics you avoid altogether? You go in the

comic shop and you see this, this, this, and

this, and this, but then you see three other

titles. It's like, I don't want to go anywhere

near those. I think I'm not a big fan of like

franchise crossovers But the funny thing is like

I say that But if I can find like a collection

a trade that's cheap enough. I'll check it out

Like I did enjoy and I can say I did enjoy like

infestation remember when like I think was Star

Trek Transformers and like I like when all those

came together and I liked when they brought mask

into the IDW GI Joe. That was kind of fun. And

as good as I hear they are, I haven't read the

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Batman. Oh, you

need to. Yeah, I know. I hear it's really good.

No, dude, you need to read those three trades,

volume one, volume two, or hell, just go back

and listen to our episodes that we did. Yeah,

I should. I should, because I think I heard you

talking also about what was it, Power Rangers

meets Godzilla. That to me sounds kind of fun.

I don't know. Yeah, it sounds kind of fun. I

don't know if we're actually going to cover that.

You probably heard me talk about that in the

Power Rangers TMNT episode, because I think that's

when we were like, oh yeah, by the way, coming

up next is blah, blah, blah. Not next on the

podcast, but next for the next crossover kind

of thing. And for me, all as I every, I'm not

a Kaiju. I'm not like Jeremy. I'm not like Mr.

Fine over there. I don't do. Godzilla, I don't

do any of that stuff. I thought it was okay as

a kid, whatever, fine. But for me, Godzilla begins

and ends in Austin Powers and Goldmember. Run!

It's Godzilla! It looks like Godzilla, but due

to international copyright laws, it's not. Still,

we should run like it is Godzilla! Though it

isn't. That line, that quote with the two guys,

with whatever, and I know I'm doing really bad

accents, folks. I'm sorry. I will probably put

the clip in or something so you can hear what

the actual clip is. But like, seriously, that's

where my enjoyment of Godzilla Begins and Ends

is in Austin Powers and Cole. Yeah, generally

I'm not the biggest fan of franchise crossovers,

but Batman TMNT was really good. The two TMNT

Ghostbusters ones were really good. What else?

Transformers Back to the Future was okay. Transformers

Terminator was interesting, but it wasn't like...

anything to write home about. I don't know. It

just depends. It depends on who's writing it.

It depends on what the story is. It really just

depends. Sometimes, sadly, you end up walking

away with like, yeah, I could do without having

read that, I guess. It's kind of like the junk

food to a real meal kind of thing. I think that

comics can be a real meal, but I think some of

those crossovers are more junk food. It doesn't

mean they can't be fun, and if I can't find them

cheap enough, I'll pick them up, but I don't

get drawn to that. And sticking with the whole

two thing, I guess the other thing that I don't

really go after is maybe certain franchises or

things that I didn't grow up with or that came

out a little too late. or things like, a good

example would be Power Rangers. I didn't really

grow up with Power Rangers, so I don't really

seek that kind of stuff out, but other than that,

I'm willing to check out almost anything. Yeah,

and when I say he's way too old folks, I'm not

insulting him. I'm saying it as a fact. If you

were eight years old in 1982, I was two years

old in 1982. I was 13 when Power Rangers debuted.

You would have been 16, 17. Yeah, you were way

past the age of being interested. I was still

hooked on after school specials and things like

that going from going from being 12 to being

13. Oh my God, you're a teenager now. Oh no,

the worst thing ever. Yeah, and it's funny that

age when you're in high school, when you think

you're too cool for school, because that led

me to have to discover things like the Batman

animated series, things like that later, because

at the time, I couldn't be bothered. But now,

I remember when that started coming out on DVD,

I was so excited because I'd always wanted to,

I'd come around and really wanted to check it

out. And you're a Batman Beyond fan, Batman Beyond

was another one. I would have people come out,

oh, you gotta check this out, it's so good. I'm

like, yeah, yeah. And certain, okay, the overall

series is okay -ish. I will say there's probably,

out of the 52 episodes that Batman Beyond had,

there are maybe, 20 that are really, really good.

Yeah, I would agree. The rest are kind of, they're

okay -ish, some are da... I will never watch

Rats again. Nobody listening to the sound of

my voice can ever pay me enough money, not even

one billion dollars! Nobody could pay me enough

money to watch Rats ever again. That's funny

you bring up that episode because I think in

the early days, correct me if I'm wrong, but

I believe Batman Beyond, this was before HBO

Max came out, but I think it was on Netflix for

a little bit. It might have been. One of those

services and when they brought it on, I was like,

oh cool, finally I can watch this and the episode

where I stopped. with rats. So when they brought

it back on HBO Max, I started the episode after

that and went through it. But yeah, Rats was

the one who was like, I'm out for now. And The

Rat King is my least favorite TMNT. villain guy

character or whatever because I just I don't

do rats. I'm like Indiana Jones. I don't do rats.

I don't do snakes. I don't do any of that. No,

not even going to happen. You know, and yeah,

no, just rats. No. Are there any comics in the

past or currently that you wish you had not read

them? Oh, man, I. a little bit of holy terror.

Frank Miller's holy terror wasn't so good. I

could have used those minutes back in my life,

I guess. But not to get political. And I didn't

read the first issue. Somebody just posted a

few pages from it. And it was this conservative

activist made this comic where Osama Bin Laden

became president of the United States because

liberals wanted to be. And I read those two pages

that they posted and this is the worst thing

I've ever read. I definitely want those few seconds

of my life back. But yeah, I think other than

that, I think I can always get a little something

out of what I read. Yeah, absolutely. I mean,

I, you know, over 500 episodes, a decade of doing

this thing, I can maybe say one or two things

I would never go back and read again. Most of

like if I had a hankering to go back and read

something I probably would but half the time

I don't because I read it for this when we do

comic reviews I'm reading it literally the day

of the night that we record so I have the the

freshest things in my mind and. I'm old, folks,

and my brain doesn't work so well, so I need

to have it as close to the recording time as

possible so I know what the hell I'm talking

about. How large or small is your physical comic

book collection? Well, if you're talking comics,

not big. That's one thing that I'm okay with

purging is comics. Now, I'm talking comics, not

trades. Trades, I have a lot. Six rooms full,

folks. Probably. It's a whole house. Oh, it's

no joke. No, I know. I have a lot of trades and

those I plan on keeping. I don't mind getting

rid of my... Comics themselves are hard to store,

I think. They're heavy. I don't mind purging

those and getting those back out into the ecosystem

of collectors. Comic collection itself is small,

but my trade paperback collection is huge. Yeah,

it's just one of those things and honestly. For

the most part, the trades are better because

you don't have. Specifically through DC and Marvel,

you don't have the monthly advertisements in

them. Sometimes you have cool interstitial pages

between each issue or you have a trade where

it'll show the variant covers between each issue.

Sometimes the variant covers are at the back.

Yeah, trade paperbacks or hardcover trades, whatever,

hardcover collections, they are so much better

than the single issues as far as collecting them.

And sometimes reading them too, because you're

just getting the story. I agree. I love not only

that, but you get a bigger chunk of the story

in one thing. Monthly comics are the slowest

moving stories. There because you have to wait

a month and you get a tiny sliver of the story

then you gotta wait another month It's much more

rewarding for me to read a bigger chunk of the

story at one time So that's that's what I love

about trades, too It just you get more of the

story and feels like a more complete experience.

Yeah, absolutely so Everybody is safe humans

pets whatever you have in your house, but the

house is on fire What is the one comic book you

could never live without ever? What's the one

comic you would run in and save? I think it would

be my copy of Absolute Watchmen. I think that's

probably the one that I would grab. Very cool,

very cool. What is the most money you spent on

a comic or a comic item? Comic item could be

a Batarang, a Green Lantern ring or battery or

a statue or whatever. You know not too much I

Probably I know I spent 50 bucks on an omnibus

the DC had those those villain issues out. Yeah,

it was like they Put those all together in omnibus

and I found that for I think 4950 I think that

was that's up there with what I spent. I don't

really spend a whole lot of money on on individual

issues, because I got into comics because I actually

like the stories. I'm not in it to be a collector

and trying to make money. Well, yeah, and again,

that's why the comic item part of the, because

you never know. You might go to a convention,

you might end up dropping $500 or however much

it costs to get a Hot Toys Batmobile or whatever

kind of thing. I mean, I probably spent over

50 on a couple of DC hoodies. Or comics hoodies

at close count. Very cool. That counts as an

item. Yeah. Absolutely. You've talked about this

already a little bit. It's like he kind of read

the questions beforehand, folks, but he didn't.

Was there ever a moment, and I know there have

been at least two, that you were just done with

comics altogether? Yes. And no, because I think

that even in those times when I would not be

collecting, I always kind of stayed in the realm

of the culture. Like I said, I stopped in 89,

but then I was all in on the Batman movie, getting

the t -shirts and loving the soundtrack. And

so it didn't quite go away. And then I mentioned

I worked with the music magazine. Well, what

got me into As much as I love comics, I love

Stephen King just as much. I am a huge Stephen

King freak. I love Stephen King. I had a friend

come up to me and he said, �Hey, you like Stephen

King. I got to make you a copy of this band Anthrax

because they have all these songs that are based

on Stephen King books.� I said, �Oh, that�s cool.�

And then I get into Anthrax and then I realized

that they have a song about Judge Dredd, which

is I Am the Law. And one of the things, so I

was like, oh, I've got to go and read some Judge

Dredd books. And then getting back a few years

later than that, then Image came out. So it was

never too far from our radar. And when I did

end up moving to New York, and when I stopped

collecting then, I would still every once in

a while pop into like Midtown because I wanted

to pick up, I'm a huge Why the Last Man, which

I guess Brian K. Vaughn is another one of my

favorite writers come to think of it. But I would

always go in to pick up the new Why the Last

Man trade, trades, the 100 Bullets, a lot of

that, the Vertigo stuff. So even though I wasn't

collecting as much, I was still kind of within

the game. still checking out the culture. But

so it always stuck with me. So I never was like,

I'm done. But there were just times when, yeah.

Yeah, so yeah, I think I was always, it was always

on my radar. Very cool. Very cool. What are you

reading right now? And what do you think our

listeners should check out? Well, I mentioned

the two things, the run on Nightwing and The

radiant black I'm really liking them. I'm just

really liking how human it all feels even though

they're these superheroes that drama thing, you

know being the loser kid who's all their friends

are more successful than they are and Then you

get all this responsibility and then this with

her on the radiant red side you have a husband

who's kind of a loser and you got a do what you

got to do and that's what I really responded

to in those stories is just how human they felt.

So yeah, I'm really liking Radiant Black, really

liking Nightwing. And I am really liking, and

I just picked this up yesterday and started reading

it, is Cami Garcia's Robin book, like her YA

Teen Titans books, I just really like. I think

they're really good stories. I think they would

be, I know we have a Titans TV show, but I think

that they would be a good show. And Pickle's

artwork is another one. I love his artwork on

that too. So I guess he could be another one

of my favorite artists. So I'm really liking

that. I've been rereading some, you know, I,

during, When COVID first started and up until

maybe last year, I was getting almost everything

that DC put out. Now, I'm going back and rereading

that as trades or the collective deductions or

the issues as they're all piled up instead of

just one issue at a time. kind of enjoyed the

Aquaman series, the Aquaman Rising and Black

Manta, and I really like the recent run on Wonder

Woman and the trial of Amazons and the Nubia

things and the Wonder Girl. Yeah, and I mentioned

the Jason Aaron run on Thor was good. The Tom

King run on Batman I read not too long ago that

I really liked and I really liked Doomsday Clock

I know this it seems like I haven't read too

much recent stuff, but those are the things that

I'm thinking that recently I really That I've

really responded to I did I didn't think that

Doomsday Clock was gonna be as good As it was

but that's some really some really great moments

Absolutely Heroes heroines anti heroes and heroines

or villains. What archetypes are your go -to

reads? You know, I want to say villains, but

I think that a lot of series A lot of villain

series themselves aren't always as good as if

the heroes not there So I think I would go between

antihero and villain But you got to be careful

with the antihero thing because the antihero

thing has been done so much To someone's been

done to death and especially recently. So you

got to really do that. Well And sometimes the

anti -heroes have real -world things going on

with them even though they shouldn't, but it

is what it is. Well, Radiant Red is a perfect

example of that. Yeah. I think that kind of an

anti -hero in a way that's done well. Yeah, no,

absolutely she is. She is very much so. Do you

have a, and I know you've gotten rid of your

comics over time, but did you ever have a, my

parents got rid of my comic story? I have not,

and I am so thankful. My parents always respected

that. In fact, I have comics back in Ohio that

were the first comics I ever bought, so I still

have all those. The stuff that I've gotten rid

of is a lot of the newer stuff, so I still have.

Some of the stuff that I got in the 80s when

I first started collecting, they never threw

it away. My brother -in -law tells me these stories,

all these issues that would have been worth so

much money now. He went to summer camp and came

back and his mom had thrown out all of his comics.

He has a story, but thankfully, I do not. I dodged

that bullet and I'm so thankful that I did. They

really understood. My dad used to always joke.

He said, most kids, when they got money, they

would go and buy candy. He said, you always buy

comics. I said, yep. Absolutely. What is one

item from a comic book you'd love to have in

the real world? Hmm. Do they work, or just like

a... Yeah, it's functional. Because I would almost...

The Green Lantern Ring would be hard to say no

to, because you could do so much with it. Yeah,

exactly. I mean, it might be cool to have the

Batmobile to drive around, but I'd want something

that could really have some practical application,

so I almost want to lean towards the Green Lantern

Ring. Yeah, I think that's what most people lean

towards. I don't know, for some odd reason, as

long as I could duck in time, I'd want a Batarang,

just because. And then after I threw it like

once and it hit me in the face like you'll poke

your eye out kid I'll just mount it on the wall

All right, we are now entering the kind of fantasy

funland and of course question 24 You kind of

just answered it if you could own any vehicle

featured in a comic, which would it be? I would

say the Batmobile or a fantastic car or a Quinjet

I don't think I'd go as far as wanting the X

-Men's Blackbird, but having something that could

fly might be nice and convenient. Yeah, the Batmobile.

You can't go wrong with the Batmobile. Absolutely.

If you could live in any comic book world that

you wanted, where would you live? Maybe in the

world of The Preacher. But if I could get out

of it real quick there was this there was a series

that I wanted to come out 2007 maybe called fell

and it was just about And if I think was Warren

Ellis just about this investigators detective

in this city. That was like the worst nightmare

Collapsing Civilization City ever there were

you know dead babies hung from walls and it was

like just it Just to see that for real for just

like a minute and to get the hell out, that might

be interesting. Or I would also scratch that.

I think really I would probably go to The Dreaming.

I think that seeing that the library with every

book that was ever even thought of, I think that

would be really cool and it would be cool to

meet Cain and Abel and go pumpkin head. Morpheus,

so yeah, probably the dreaming. It's probably

where I would go. Very cool, very cool. Who would

be your top three comic pals to join you and

become a quartet? I would say Wolverine. Maybe

Cassidy from Preacher. And maybe Steve Rogers

to keep us all on the straight and narrow. Because

with those, it'd be easy to get up to some shenanigans.

Yeah, except any time any Wonder Woman. Yeah,

that's true. Of course, the problem with having

Wonder Woman on your team is if you did something

to offend her or to do her wrong, she would just

throw that last of a truth around you. Yeah,

that's the danger. And then the danger of having

Steve Rogers, not really a danger of having Captain

America around, the danger of having Steve Rogers

around is, holy shit, language! Yeah, yeah, you'd

get lectured a lot. Yeah, you'd get lectured

a lot. Why do you need that fourth whiskey sour?

Because I want it. Yeah. Because I want to enjoy

myself, get your stick out, get you and your

stick out of the mud. If you could date any comics

character, which one would it be Kitty pride

Really? Yeah Well, then I would give you my second

thing. I'm not I'm not talking age -appropriateness

here I'm talking because when you think of comic

you think of most people in their early 20s.

So I'm gonna say okay, I was still because I

Kitty pride was the first nonfiction character

that ever had a crush on It was just something

about her back in the day that I really like

that never has gone away. I would agree. If I

was going age -appropriate, there are not too

many female superheroes in their 40s, so it would

be hard. I fell in love with because I was always

a cartoon kid, not a comics kid. So in order

to get me into comics, I had to hear that sweet,

sexy Jennifer Hale as Black Cat in Spider -Man

the Animated. Oh, I'd do anything for that one.

Anything for that voice. She'd be up there, too.

Mary Jane. Yeah, yeah. And Magic from The New

Mutants. She'd be up there. Yeah, definitely.

I can definitely see the black hat thing for

sure. I'm with you on that one. Yep. What is

the holy grail of comic book artifacts? Examples

could be Batarang, Matrix of Leadership, Kryptonite,

Green Lantern Ring, et cetera, et cetera. I can

cuss on this. I'm super liberal, but I would

still love Jesse Custer's Fuck Communism from

Zippo. I think they actually make it. I think

they have editions of the Zippo that they have

made, so I should look to see if I can find one,

but I always got a kick out of that. That would

be cool. That's fun. That's interesting. All

right, we are now exiting the comic fantasy of

Unland. If you could create any comic storyline,

what would you want to create and what characters

would you want to create it with? Think it would

be cool for a civil war in the DC world just

to see How that may work and I think that you

would have to have an opposite size You would

have to of course have Batman Superman instead

of Captain America and Iron Man. Yeah, I think

that might that might be fun So are you saying

like in the real world having a storyline come

true or one that I would want to well Yeah, basically

DC Marvel whoever gives you the keys to the kingdom

and tells you that money is no object What story

would you create? Yeah, that would be a fun one,

a DC Civil War. I think I would like to really...

Pardon if I'm contradicting myself here, but

I would love to see a Marvel -DC crossover where

it has real impact on both of the universes moving

forward. So it's not just like a throwaway But

it really has an impact and I seem like they've

been kind of hitting at something like that For

a little while now. I Still have my theory that

that's somehow planned but with everything that's

going on at DC That's kind of tricky to say but

I yeah if I had the kings of the kingdom I think

I would I would I would do that Yeah, I I miss

I have that it's in It's in my closet currently

because I don't have my bookshelves set up But

I finally was able to reacquire a couple of years

ago the classic 90s DC versus Marvel Marvel versus

DC trade I got that off of Amazon for like a

hundred bucks But those four issues in the 90s,

I remember reading that that was big First time

ever that those two because that was with I think

it was with the Beyonder or somebody like the

Beyonder Bringing the two universes together

to stop a common foe or whatever the hell it

was But I got if we get it we're gonna eventually

cover that on this podcast at some point. It's

gonna be but But yeah, like a modern -day My

thing with teaming DC and Marvel like if you

team the heroes up from each universe, it's like,

okay Batman Iron Man I kind of get that but who

would Superman and Captain I don't understand

the comparison between soup and cap I never have

yeah I think it's just because they're both kind

of like Boy Scouts Boy Scouts yeah and I'm not

interested in I wouldn't even be you know if

I was gonna do that story I wouldn't be interested

in like who's fighting who Marvel I would be

more like them teaming up Yeah, that's what I'm

talking about. But there's always what would

happen if Superman fought Thor. I don't care

about that. I just want a good story where they

have to team up. You want to find out what happened

between Superman and Thor. I was going to say

Marvel vs. Capcom, but that's not a thing. It

is a thing, but Marvel vs. DC video game is not

a thing. That would be interesting though. have

a video game with the two that would be that

would be fun yeah you're doing like an injustice

yeah that would be really cool yeah that would

be fun i think that's almost like that's the

kind of the the medium where those kind of crossovers

really work is in video games like the you know

some marvel versus capcom uh mortal combat versus

dc that kind of stuff that that those kind of

crossovers are a lot right that's the one that

it was mortal combat versus dc yeah that's right

i remember that now I remember people were like,

oh, I'm going to play a superman. Well, I'm going

to play a scorpion. Get over here. Yeah, yeah.

There you go. Scorpion. All right, final question.

What is the one piece of advice you would give

the comics fandom? Give things a chance. Don't

write them off before you had a chance to at

least check them out, whether it comes to a creative

team being announced or somebody playing a character

in a movie. Don't be so quick to write it off.

That's a big thing because you're going to be

missing out on a lot of good things. I think

Solo is a movie that had its problems, but it

wasn't as bad as it got made out to be. It did

not deserve to do so bad at the box office. That

really messed up the Star Wars franchise. Stop

with the toxic fandom. Really give things a chance.

Give things a chance beyond one issue. to try

to have patience and stick around and let things

get better. I think with today, the attention

spans are so narrow. Things like TikTok and Reels

and Facebook, things like that. I think that

you could really miss out if you don't give things

a longer chance, too. Yeah, I had been trying

to over the last couple of years I'd say over

the last three years or so back in 2012 we got

a chance to chat with Kevin Conroy and over the

last like somewhere from 2017 to 2021 or so I've

been trying to get him back on the show for a

new interview and one of the things because I

usually end up having guests do promos for us

and stuff like that. And sometimes I'll have

them say various lines and, you know, you're

saying this thing about TikTok and all I hear

in my head is Kevin Conroy, get off my lawn.

Oh, I still wanted to record that. Oh man. What

a loss. Yes, very much. One of the great losses

of our time. Alright, we are going to go to a

quick break here and hear some ads and some other

stuff and we'll come back with Brad to close

the show out right after this. So, get Altered

Get Geeky with the Altered Geeks. Every Friday

on the Geekcast Radio Network. Because the world

needs another movie podcast. The Geekcast Radio

Network presents for your listening pleasure,

The Cinema Geeks. Hosted by Amanda, Kevin, Matt,

and Dan. Each week, we dive headfirst in the

landscape of movies as we discuss movie news,

play movie games, go in -depth on reviews, and

even have a top 10 countdown or two. Also, don't

miss our director retrospective series, where

we review noted director's movies, film by film.

Bottom line is, if you love movies and love podcasts,

you need to experience The Cinema Geeks. You

can find us on iTunes, or geekcastradio .com.

Hey, welcome to the last Comic Shop Podcast!

A comic book podcast that actually talks about

comics. Yep, each week we open the shop up and

read and discuss a comic. Sometimes we pair that

up with comic book movies or TV shows. Or not,

lots of times it's just comic books. And sound

effects. Oh yes, definitely lots of sound effects.

So tune in on all the major podcasts and platforms,

The Last Comic Shop podcast, or check out our

library of evergreen shows at www .lastcomicshoppodcast

.com. Hi everyone, I'm here to tell you about

the DC Comics News podcast. Here every week to

talk everything DC. Movies, TV, comics, and everything

in between. But don't just take my word for it,

here are a couple of our sponsors. Listen to

the DC Comics news podcast. It's audio justice.

No, no, no. It's audio chaos. These wackos are

crazier than I am. Well, maybe you're both right.

Regardless, you can catch us on every kind of

podcast platform. Apple podcasts, Google Play,

Spotify, Stitcher, and everywhere you find great

podcasts. So, um... Can I go now? Let him go.

He did everything you asked. No. It's true, Batsy.

I know everything. And kind of like the kid who

peeks at his Christmas presents, I must admit,

it's sadly anti -climactic. All right, we are

back here inside The Pull Bag episode 515 and...

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here with Brad Felicki,

the man of the ultimate either or question on

Facebook. Some of them choices, I'm like, meh.

I gotta say though, you answer most of them.

I respect. You know what's funny about that is,

you know, I just throw those out there and it's

funny to me the ones that actually get traction

and people respond to. Some people just ignore

all of them. Some that I think people would ignore

get like 20 answers. So it's yeah, it's That's

part of the fun All right, so you've got dark

night DC Comics news and whatever else you want

to promote so Yeah, you check out DC Comics news

calm. I am doing news stories doing It's a little

writing for Merck with the Movie Blog, which

is our editor Josh's website on the DC Comics

News podcast. I'm also on the Harley Quinn Mad

Love podcast, which is part of the DC Comics

News podcast network. We've fallen behind, but

we'll get back up on that Harley Quinn podcast

at some point. You can follow me on Twitter at

FlickyB1, I'll spell that out, F -I -L -I -C

-K -Y -B, and the number one. I don't know if

it's code or to promote my Facebook page, but

you can check me out on Facebook, just Brad Flicky.

I do a lot of either or questions, my question

of the day. Yeah, and sometimes I'm on the Comics

in Motion podcast. I've guested on a few of those

podcasts as well. So I'm out there. Very cool,

very cool. Any final thoughts, any final words

you want to give to our audience before I run

through the closing? I'm just going to say what

we say at the DC Comics News podcast, and that's

to read more comics. Keep the medium alive. We

wouldn't have all these... Huge movies if you

didn't have the source material You're gonna

find that so much of these movies that you love

is based on source material So we still need

those comics to generate that source material

for these movies. So please go out there read

and discover It's it's more varied than you realize

and more complex than you realize so definitely

read more comics absolutely absolutely yeah it's

definitely more complex than we realized considering

Warner Brothers had to put a gun to DC which

is gonna be a good thing I think because it's

been abysmal up till now yeah and canceling of

the bad girl movie almost broke my spirit oh

that was just the absolute worst I'm like what

you're gonna cancel the good movie and then Continue

on with a movie that has a criminal for a star.

Exactly. And don't get me wrong. I mean, I think

that the Flash trailer looked amazing, but that's

that's a risk. That is a risk. And you had a

perfect introduction to Michael Keaton's Batman

again to the background movie. The whole thing

is just for a tax write off. It's absolutely

disgusting. Yeah, it's ridiculous. You could

have just replaced the one person because they

don't want to be known as whatever, but you could

have just replaced them with the better Flash

actor in Grant. Yeah, I would have been there

for that. Yeah, exactly. I don't know about this

Miller. I don't want to drink that beer, thank

you very much. All right. Thank you for joining

us here inside The Pull Bag. If you'd like to

get in contact with us, leave feedback for the

show. There are several ways to do so. Visit

the website, geecastradio .com, where you can

listen to and comment on all of our content.

Send us email to feedback at geecastradio .com.

Here are all the ways you can listen to us. Nowadays,

app on Google Podcasts. Leave us reviews, please.

Spotify and any other podcasting client you choose

to use. You can follow us on Twitter at geecastradio

for the network at The Pull Bag for the show.

I am at TFG1Mike. Become a fan on Facebook, go

to Facebook .com slash GeekCast, Radio Network,

and also check out the pull bag over there as

well. Join us next time in as we'll be discussing

something. I have something written down, but

I don't know if I'm gonna get it recorded in

time, because as of this recording I have four

podcasts I need to edit still. So I got 512,

513, 514, and now this one. So yay, lots of work

for me, folks. Sometimes I wonder, but that man

won't quit as long as he can still draw a breath.

None of my teammates will. For now, I am TF2

and Mike with... Brad Flicky. As always, make

your great escape into comics and we will catch

you next time. 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 Pullback. Send us an

email, feedback at geekcastradio .com, follow

us on twitter at ThePullBack and at GeekCastRadio.

So until next time, make your great escape into

comics and unleash the geek in you.