Jon M. Wilson on Comic Origins and Reading History

Hi, this is Kevin Conroy, and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. You've just jumped

inside the pull bag. Join TFG1 Mike and the rest

of the comic crew here at the GCRN as they make

their great escape into comics. From DC, Marvel,

and Image to IDW, Boom Studios, and Xenoscope,

we have everything right here. We cover things

like Transformers, He -Man, Super Heroes, 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 pull bag. This is episode

533. This is the pull bag. It's episode 533 and

I don't know what the hell just happened there.

But I'm, of course, TFG and Mike. Joining me

this time for Comic Origins is John M. Wilson.

Hello, sir. Hello, Mike. How are you? I could

complain, but it doesn't help, sadly, so I'm

okay. How are you? I am making it. We're recording

on Sunday, so there's a whole work week ahead

of me. I'm not really loving that aspect of life,

but, you know, we're going to push on through.

Yeah, push on through to the other side. Oh,

boy. And John and I have only ever actually done

one other podcast before when we jumped inside

the rod pod with another John over on Married

with Comics, watching cartoons, whatever they're

doing now. They do a whole bunch of stuff over

there. But yeah, so we're here. Comic Origins,

as always, 30 Questions All About Reading Comics.

Did you grow up reading comics, and at what age

do you first remember reading or noticing comics?

I know that we had some random comics as a kid.

I don't know exactly when those happened, but

my earliest memories, solid memories of reading

comics are in the late 1970s, Lancer published

those three paperback books that collected the

first 20 issues of Amazing Spider -Man. They

did this for some other series as well, but I

had all three volumes of Spider -Man. I'm pretty

sure I got them when I was six. And I had the

chicken pox, although that may just be because

I've told a story that way so many times that

that's just the way it is now. And I read all

three of those 50 times if I read them once.

Amazing Fantasy 15, 1 through 7 in the first

volume, 8 through, I don't know, 13 or 14 in

the second volume, and then on through 20 in

the third volume. They were my primer on comics

and on Spider -Man. Steve Ditko at his finest.

They're basically what inspired my love of comics

for the rest of my life. And then when I was

around 11 is when I went to my first comic shop.

My dad took me to a shop called Treasure Isles

in Denton, Texas. It doesn't exist anymore. And

we looked at, gosh. The first thing I went to

look for was the latest issue of Amazing Spider

-Man, and I was gobsmacked that we had jumped

from 20 all the way to 341. And a lot of stuff

had happened in between there. And I read comics

for the next couple of years. I remember when

Maximum Carnage was coming out, I remember missing

a chapter and not really caring and deciding

that maybe I was done. And so after that... It

was just a handful of things like Spider -Man

2099 and the Marvel's miniseries until basically

all of my comics consumption was looking at covers

of the Walden books and the B. Dalton's and the

Borders all the way up until 2008 when I started

getting comics again. So as a kid, that's basically

it. Yeah, very cool. So you'd say it was your

dad that got you into it kind of thing? Yeah,

pretty sure my dad got me those three volumes,

and then he took me to the comic shop. He liked

comics as a kid, too, and I tried to share with

him my current comics, but as a kid, I don't

think I realized that adult dad did not have

the same love for comics that kid me had, and

that was just weird. I didn't understand it,

but yeah. So when you were a kid, which characters

were your favorites? Spider -Man, obviously.

Lots of Spider -Man. My brother read Batman and

Daredevil and Captain America, so I read those

two. We had the collections of the Mirage Turtles

series, those early Eastman and Laird issues

before they handed the creative control over

to whoever wanted to do an issue that month.

Yeah, I'd have to say Spider -Man was by far

the top. I did try other stuff. I read some Ravage

29 Diamond that was coming out. I had the Superman

archives, so even though my love for Superman

didn't really blossom until later, I did have

some passing interest in him as a kid. I read

The Death, and it was his Armageddon 2001 annual.

That led me into an interest in getting all of

the Armageddon 2001 crossover series, which I

did. I got all of them except for the acronym

Legion issue, which I did not read until 20 years

later. So, yeah, as a kid, by far, it was Spider

-Man. Very cool. Very cool. All right. The age

old question. Gun to your head. DC or Marvel?

Both. Why do we have to have tribalism? For me,

it's never been about either of the companies.

It's been about whatever characters. Right. So,

like, Terry McGinnis, Batman Beyond, Bruce Wayne,

Batman, as long as it's sort of Kevin Conroy

adjacent, Iron Man, whatever kind of thing, Spider

-Man, obviously. But, yeah, I mean, some people

are, you know, either or. I feel that historically,

and this has changed somewhat over the years,

but speaking in the long term, Marvel has been

better about presenting their stories as a unified

narrative. And DC has been better about telling

individual stories about their characters. And

I like that. But both of those are different

approaches. They both have their values, pros

and cons. So I do like Marvel's. You know, you

can start at the Fantastic Four number one and

the Incredible Hulk number one and all those

early heroes and just start reading through and

you're going to get an ongoing tapestry. I like

that about Marvel, but that is not at all to

say that I don't love, you know, a lot of the

stuff that happened at DC. I love the. The multiversal

aspects of DC, the legacy characters. Um, even

though every time a reboot happens, it's annoying.

I do like that. We have different versions of

our different characters that have their own

flavors and twists to the rules and stuff. Um,

it's kind of like, it's kind of like else worlds,

but instead of being, what ifs they're like,

okay, this is the next version now. Yep. And

there, there's, there's some merit to that. It's

not everyone's cup of tea, but I kind of like

it. Yeah. That's the one thing about DC that

I've, I mean, we started this podcast a decade

ago, two years after they started New 52. And

my biggest problem with both companies before

I started the show was, oh, my God, 70 -plus

years of stuff that I need to – no. So, you know.

That's why I was never really, like, so negative

about the – I'm kind of negative about how many

relaunches Disney – wow. DC has done since 2011

the last – Right. They've done, like, six or

seven relaunches, which I understand. They want

that number one issue money and whatever else.

But overall, like you said, what I love about

that is that we get various writers whom I end

up following, like Kyle Higgins. He did a run

on Batman Beyond. He did an amazing story. Dan

Juergens did his run. We're currently in the

middle of Colin Kelly and Jackson Lansing doing

their runs. So I like that I don't necessarily

have to read the previous writers, creators'

runs. Specifically to Terry and Batman Beyond,

it's all just kind of, hey, let's just do a new

take or do a new tale on it because it's Batman

of the future. You don't know what the hell's

going to happen. in 2049 or oh wow we're really

getting close we get past batman beyond future

i don't know what the future the future is not

as future as it used to be no it's it's very

much at an end the future's end you might say

Yeah, and New 52 happened just a couple of years

after I started getting back into comics. So

I was primed and ready. I wasn't young biologically,

but I was young in my comics fandom. When you're

a young comics fan, the big exciting things are

big and exciting. So whenever they were relaunching

everything, I bought every single DC issue for

months and months and months. I was reading the

entire line for at least a year. And eventually

time just caught up with me and I had other things

I had to do. But getting into the nitty gritty

nuances of the continuity and what was true and

what was no longer true for Superman. That was

just that's just my brain likes that sort of

thing. And so I was really, really into it. And

of course, I held a podcast to do adventures

with Superman, which. You know, we go in detail

up until the end of the Grant Morrison Action

Comics run, and then I did a few more episodes

after that, but yeah. Very cool, very cool. Yeah,

and with Marvel, it just, like, they've done

reboots as well, but they haven't, it's been

a major thing when Marvel did the first, I think,

what was it? They went from Marvel then to Marvel

now or whatever. It was right around. But those

are creative directions. Those aren't changing

the continuity. They're just, hey, big push to

get everyone on board with our titles. We're

doing lots of exciting things, which DC has also

done, but not to the extent. And because so many

of their relaunches are continuity shifts in

Marvel. while there might be details of their

history that they sweep under the rug and ignore,

they, for the most part, make it feel like whatever

you were reading last year happened in the comics.

It happened to the characters. This is the next

year for them. Yeah. And again, it's a way for

them to go after that new number one money without

doing what DC always does, which is just... can

consistently reboot so i remember when we hit

700 for asm it was like oh okay and we don't

have to mind well we actually do have a 701 to

800 probably because i do remember issue 800

too but like at that time when issue 700 was

going to happen it was like okay this is it next

time you see them it's going to be a number it's

going to be a number one i'm like oh okay Yeah,

I have to say that although I fully and totally

understand the marketing and editorial reasons

for them and I get that, I do not like the constant

new number ones because it just makes – so right

now in my read -through missions, I'm either

in the 60s or the 90s, depending on what series

you're talking about, for my various read -throughs.

And I'm dreading. getting to post 2006 because

the number ones come every couple of years and

just I'll have to trust that people on the internet

have cataloged all of this dutifully formally

so that I can find it all yeah I think also it's

not just and I say it as kind of a joke but it

is true they are going after like the new number

one issue money where it's not just us comic

book fans or fanboys. They want the general public.

They want people who aren't comic book fans to

be able to get attached to it and whatever else.

But it's also a change in creative teams. Like

when 700 is the end of Dan Slott's run. And then

who was it? I forget who took over after Dan

did. In an era where number ones are a thing,

yes, the new creative team deserves their time

in the spotlight. So whenever just pulling names

out of your Abnett or Lansing or Lemire or Bendis

or anyone takes over a title, sure, they're just

as worthy of a new number one as the last guy

was. It's just from an indexing, cataloging,

completism, trying to keep track of everything

point of view. We're on volume 27, it seems like,

of these things. That's the other thing I could

never understand. I understand going from issue

700, going back to issue one, but that issue

700 is the end of, let's say, volume 27. This

new number one is the start. I never got the

volume. I can understand ending at 700 and then

starting a new number one, but you put whatever

overall volume. I'm like, oh, my God, I just.

I think the volume is just the count of which

new number one this is. Right. And it started

back whenever there was X -Men number one and

Superman number one again. Yeah. Whenever those

happened, those were, I think, the first notable

volume twos. Yeah. And then it wasn't until Heroes

Reborn. Right. Marvel has specifically said once

Heroes Reborn happened, the floodgates were opened

on number ones. And it's just a matter of time

before every single title in their lineup eventually

got rebooted. Daredevil and X -Men held out for

the longest, but they eventually got rebooted

as well. Yeah, crazy. What other publishers do

you enjoy reading? Valiant. I'm a diehard apologist

for Valiant. I wasn't there in the 90s when they

were happening. I first learned about them whenever

they relaunched in 2012, maybe. um and i've since

gone back and read a lot of the 90s valiant but

oh my gosh um those are some solid comics i want

to do a valiant comics podcast but i don't want

to do it alone and i want somebody who knows

the material better than i do to do it with um

and but yeah i'm currently in my second read

-through of the valiant line for the 90s and

it's just the some of the things i like about

them is They're taking these superpowers concept

and genre and not necessarily doing superhero

stories with them. They're doing other kinds

of stories. So costumes are not a big deal, even

though a lot of their characters certainly have

a visual look. And fighting a bad guy each issue

is still a steady trope. But they're doing a

lot of different kinds of stuff with them. In

the early 90s, whenever they were first starting

out for those first couple of years, every issue

had date and time stamps, and they worked. Like,

you could take the various series and line them

up by date and time. And although they only rarely

made references to each other, the references

to each other worked. And they did the big Unity

crossover, which I'm just starting my reread

of. which brought all of the various lines together

into a big story. And then they went their separate

ways again. And it's just, it was good stuff.

So Valiant is there. Of course, I did all the

pouches for a couple of years. So 90s Image is

also my thing. I don't think I'm as into it as

I used to be. But I was reading, I mean, when

I went to the comic shop, Eric Larson was doing

Spider -Man. Right. When I went to the comic

shop, that look was the current thing. So it's

kind of in my blood. Um, and so I did all the

pouches and image comics podcast for a couple

of years and it's, it's probably the, of all

the different series I've done in the past, my

most likely to be revived podcast. Um, and so,

you know, spawn and savage dragon, I'm not super

big on images, superheroes. I mean, they're okay,

and I find merits in them where I can for the

podcast. But it's more like the Savage Dragon

and Spawn and Max and Bode. And I haven't read

their Turtles series yet, but I'm looking forward

to the Turtles. Oh, there's another one I'm really

big on is the Ninja Turtles and Transformers.

I'm actually in the process of getting together

a launch. for a podcast with a friend of mine

named lane and we're going to be talking about

the idw series for the ninja turtles and the

transformers and that's going to be lots of fun

well if you need someone to talk to about that

we've covered my buddy joe and i have covered

every sing i tell this story on every podcast

folks so if you're hearing the sound of my voice

just fast forward a couple minutes When I was

starting out the show and I wanted to figure

like I was already kind of doing Transformers

from IDW and whatever else at the time back in

2013. But Joe was like, hey, you should check

out the Turtles books. And I was like, OK, maybe

I will. And I'm thinking here it's going to be

your standard red, orange, blue, purple. I get

the first issue and I read it and I just kind

of like full stop. And I said, no. Four red bandanas.

Nope, not happening. He's like, it's fine. Give

it a chance. It's worth it. Here we are 10 years

later. We've covered everything up to the point

of issue 100. We have covered everything in the

– not relaunch because it didn't relaunch. It

just continued over into it. But issue 101 to

120, I think we're also – we've got that. So

this will be our chance to do our journey through

it. Yeah, no, no, absolutely. I'm just saying,

like, that initial episode that you guys do,

if you wanted to have somebody on who's been

there already and made the journey, I'm not trying

to invite myself on. I'm just letting you know

that I've been through the muck and the mud with

these shellheads. I know what this stuff is.

Actually, the red masks, I kind of love, because

that's where the concept started. I know. With

the mirage. That's a lie. Mirage started in black

and white. Yeah, Mirage started in black and

white. When they went to color, it was red. When

they were colorized and collected, they went

red. And whenever they went to color, they were

red. So you have never read the IDW Turtles?

Nope. I'm reading them. I read a few issues a

few years ago, but I'm reading them pretty much

for the first time. So like I said, I'm going

– like that was my initial thing was, oh my god.

Because for me, I was a cartoon kid. I was an

87 David Wise. You know, 80s cartoon turtles.

That's why I like the four different colors.

I never got it. I never read. I was I was seven

years old when that cartoon premiered. So I never

I still to this day have never read any of the

original Eastman and Laird books. I eventually

will at some point. Yeah, they're worth it. But

when I was going through this first and Joe was

just like, no, just full stop. Don't even worry

about the just don't even it. It works. I'm like,

OK. And I don't want to spoil it for you because

I want you to have the same. No, no, no. Not

trying to say anything that happens. I'm just

saying it's for me. I was like, by the time I

got to that point, I was like, oh, oh, oh, OK.

Yeah. That series. I'm surprised. I think Joe

and I have done in 10 years. We've done well

somewhere close to. 100 episodes covering that

whole series that they're doing. And I think

we've cried at least multiple times every episode

because of things that they've done in that series.

So that is so cool. What's fun is reading the

letters columns in the old Mirage comics. Because

when that cartoon hit, the comics fans were not

happy. And the editors were like, hey. If there's

enough room for Dark Knight Returns and the Batman

66 TV show, then there's enough room for this

comic and the Turtles cartoon. And it's for different

audiences, so you don't have to like everything.

Yep. But yeah. Absolutely, absolutely. So not

into the image superheroes at all, so you're

not going to try any of the new stuff they're

doing? No, I like the image superheroes. They're

just not as big of a push for me. So the Wildcats,

of the different things I've read, so Wildcats

and Stormwatch and Youngblood, I like. OK, I'm

not a creator slagger. I do not like to jump

the bandwagon to slag off on creators, but the

Liefeld stuff resonates with me the least. I

do tend to enjoy like the Wildcats and the Stormwatch

more. Stormwatch probably the most of the ones

that I've read. And of course, I've only read

Image Comics up to like 1994. So a lot of the

stuff that like really started to click and make

them really cool, I haven't gotten to yet. Like

Alan Moore on, is it Mr. Majestic? I haven't

gotten to that yet. Whenever Stormwatch starts

introducing like the little girl. who's like

every century or whatever i just haven't gotten

to those stories yet but i will um so i'm talking

about the current state the like as of two years

ago so two years ago image comics along with

kyle higgins marcelo costa and a bunch of other

people started what they're calling the massive

verse This is Radiant Black, Rogue Sun, Radiant

Red, Radiant Pink, Radiant Yellow. It's all this.

It's their new superhero universe. You have not

read any of the current stuff. No, this is the

first time I'm hearing anything about them. I'm

looking at the Wikipedia. Really? Oh, my God.

I've not heard anything about this universe before.

Yeah, you should check it out. Start with Radiant

Black and then go from there. No, it's... And

the funny thing is about the Radiant Black stuff,

where actually my buddy Joe and I, I convinced

him to come on to Radiant Black with me because

the previous hosts that I had for that aren't

doing it anymore. And yeah, so we just released

Volume 3's episode. So Volume 3 is issues 19

to 24? No. That's Volume 4. Yeah, Volume 3 is

13 to 18 of Radiant Black. So, yeah, it's super

interesting, and one of the running gags for

Radiant Black is we don't know what kind of comic.

Like, it's a superhero comic, but it's a this

comic. It's just a running gag, like, we don't

know what it is yet kind of thing. It's really

good. That's all I'll say. Good, good, good.

Yeah, I've not heard any of this. I will be very

much looking forward to checking it out. Yeah,

it is so cool. The way they started off, and

this was in the promotion, so this isn't a spoiler.

Nathan was $38 ,000 in debt out in L .A. and

no more jobs, no more acting, no more writing,

no more this, no more that. So you know what

he did? He moved home. It gets so good and so

interesting, so fun. Print or digital, which

one both, either or, and why or why not? Space

and money. Space and money. Space and money make

me a digital fan a lot more than a print fan.

I understand the desire people have to hold comics,

and I do occasionally like the feeling of holding

a comic and reading it, but also I can lay down

with my iPad in the dark. Yep. I can download

stuff. You get the subscription services. You

can pull down comics where the individual titles

are free because you've made the subscription.

There are other ways to get comics, especially

old comics. I in no way, shape, or form advocate

getting copies of comics illegally when it costs

somebody money. But old stuff, when it's not

costing anybody money? I have no problem with

that. And so, yeah, getting comics and just having

them on my iPad and reading them easily. Yes,

I'm a digital person all the way through. I remember

when Michael Bailey was talking on from crisis

to crisis in the early years, 2009 ish about,

you know, or maybe it was maybe it was on one

of his back to the bins or views from the long

box episodes. He was talking about whenever the

tab, whatever reading comics on the tablet becomes

easily accessible endeavor, he's going to be

doing that. And within two years, I was reading

comics on the iPad every day. And I still probably

break out my iPad and read comics on it every

single day. Yeah, that's amazing. I think Kindle

for comics has gotten better now, but I've been

a comiXology fan. For the longest time. And it

sucks that Amazon bought them out. And even if

Amazon still wanted to buy them out. They didn't

have to change anything. If they wanted to Amazon

brand it. And I say this every episode. So again.

Folks listening. Sorry. All you had to do was

put Amazon in front of Comixology. So Amazon

.comixology .com You didn't have to change a

damn thing. But they had to change a damn thing.

But I still love. As long as my Comixology app

still works, I still love using Comixology for

digital, and I've been using them on my phone.

The only reason why I'm saying this is because

the Samsung S9 Ultra tablet was just announced.

I'm thinking of saving up and buying... I don't

know why I'm thinking of saving up and buying

this thing, only because I want Comixology on

a larger screen, because the problem with the

transition from Comixology to Kindle Comics is...

The guided view isn't exactly what it originally

was, and even though I miss being able to sit

here in front of my 32 -inch flat panel monitor

and see comics the way they're meant to be seen

digitally kind of thing. The guided view, in

my experience, very much depends upon whoever

programmed that particular issue. Right. Because

there's somebody sitting in front of a screen

determining where the panels are going to be

for the guided view. Yep. There is a certain

art to that that not everybody can do. And I

get frustrated doing guided view whenever I get

through a page and realize there's a part of

the page I never saw. So I have to zoom out and

figure out what caption I missed. So yeah, I

do like the iPad because of the larger screen.

I can look at the entire page pretty easily,

especially if I have my readers on. my glasses

and or i can pinch zoom into whatever part of

it i want to do um i was a big fan of the comic

zeal app for scans but sadly with the latest

ios versions there are problems with the comic

zeal app and i had to change apps and uh there's

a certain functionality that comic seal had that

was genius that no other app reader that i've

been able to find has so i'm currently reading

um Or using, rather, what is the app that I'm

using so I can... I think it's Chunky. Chunky

for comics. But yeah, I've got the Sgt. Fury

70 open right now. Cool. Who are some of your

favorite comics, writers, and why? Favorite writers.

Favorite comics writers. Okay, so I think...

writers that i first realized as writers were

why i liked the comics were neil gaiman on the

sandman todd mcfarlane on spider -man and spawn

um later as an adult grant morrison on the action

comics run and i want to go back and read some

of his earlier dc stuff i just haven't done it

yet um oh fucking um jmd matthias is is a man

after my heart and i got to tell him at dragon

con um was it last year yeah because his work

on spider -man his child within work and the

um the vermin character And the stuff he did

with Harry Osborn and the ghost of Norman, um,

as an abused child reading my heart and other

people's characters and other person's characters

and other people's words was, was very meaningful.

So JMD Mateus goes down in the books as one of

the people that I not only enjoy, but like has

meant a lot to me. Um, Jerry Conway and Roy Thomas

are probably really big for my Bronze Age. But

Roy Thomas really depends upon which book he's

writing and what years he's writing it. Because

early Avengers and X -Men, Roy Thomas is a chore

to get through. But once you pass issue 50 on

the Avengers, there's a turning point and it

becomes really, really strong. And once Roy Thomas

gets an artist on the X -Men that makes those

images pop better. and those stories resonate

more visually, they become a much more interesting

read. But the first series of X -Men, the one

through 66 X -Men, I love them the way you love

the child that is really hard to get along with.

Okay. Because there's a lot of that series that

is hard to get through. But there's also a lot

of it that I really, really like. Very cool,

very cool. Anybody else you want to bring up?

Oh yeah, it's kind of a cliche, but man, Ultimate

Spider -Man was my jam for so long, so I have

to say Bendis. I realize that as his career has

gone on, he's fallen out of favor a lot with

a lot of people, and I just don't know a lot

of his newer stuff, but I do love me the first

10 years of Bendis' career. Scott Snyder on Batman.

Greg Pak. Greg Pak is a modern writer that I

do very much love. His work on action made me

happy. I've read other stuff by him that made

me happy. Gene Luen Yang, or maybe Yang, on New

Superman and other stuff. New Superman is an

underrated gem, and Gene Luen Yang does not get

enough credit for doing some really cool stuff

there. Anyways, yeah, I could go on, but I think

that's a good list. So let me ask you, this is

a slight follow -up. I have not read it yet.

I have it. I want to read it. I want to cover

it on the show at some point. But since you say

you like Snyder's Batman, what did you think

of his Superman with Unchained? I would tell

you if I could remember what happened from one

issue to the next. Boy, it's that forgettable,

huh? uh less the forgettability and more the

five months of waiting between issues well yeah

i waited for the trade so i have i have not gone

back and read the trade as a whole i was doing

my uh superman new 52 podcast and unchained was

kind of on the horizon whenever i stopped making

episodes so i was going to be rereading the whole

because i have the hardcover somewhere um or

i could just you know read the issues online

all together contiguously but um but yeah I remember

liking it whenever it was starting, but they

took two years to put out nine issues. It's only

nine issues? Yeah. I thought it was ten. But,

okay, no, you're right. I mean, I'm not saying

you're not right, because I'm actually looking

at the thing here. Wow. Wow. I'm right there.

Superman Unchained, one to nine. God. Okay, so

a year and a half because it says June 13 to

November 14, but it felt like two years. That's

nine issues. It should have been nine months.

It was 18. Oh, my God. That's ridiculous. All

right, folks. Coming later this year to the pull

bag, John and I will be covering Superman Unchained.

I am down for it. Let me know. Because I've never

– I've always – because, again, we come from

reading Snyder's relaunch of Batman and – my

buddy Ryan and I covered most of Snyder's Batman

run and, uh, my buddy Steve and I, that, that's

how the pullback started was Steve showed me

the cover to issue 13 of Batman. All right, you

got, you got me. I can hear Mark Hamill's voice

coming out of that Joker face. Okay, I got it.

Death of the family. I'm there. And when they

say, it's kind of like when, It's kind of like

when Slott went from Spider -Man to Iron Man.

He did that Tony Stark Iron Man series for Marvel

after the Spider -Man run he had. So for me,

that's the same thing with Snyder, where you

take a certain writer and you've had him on a

certain character for so long, and then all of

a sudden he's on this other, obviously, huge,

big name, top three, you know, Holy Trinity,

all that stuff character. It's like... I'd like

to see what Scott has to say about Superman after

all this Batman stuff. So sometime in the future,

folks, that'll happen at some point or another.

I will definitely be down for that. Awesome,

awesome. What defines a good story to you? Okay,

so I've been on shows before where we rate stories.

And I'm usually pretty easy to please. I need

to be able to follow it. And if your visuals

are making it hard to follow the story, that's

a big strike. So although I'm not a huge art

critic and I'm not a huge art person, the art

has to at least be readable for me to be able

to enjoy the story. So the plot has to make sense.

When I go back to write my synopsis for a podcast,

if I can't figure out how we went from one place

to another, that's a problem. And good stories

are going to emotionally impact the characters.

I want somebody in the story to be different

at the end than they were at the beginning. And

the problem with the traditional serialized superhero

stories is that a lot of that has to be faked.

Because characters can't really change much over

time. It's the illusion of change. But I want

that illusion. I am currently in the process

of making a Babylon 5 podcast with Blaine Dowler

that's going to be releasing in 2024 because

we're doing Babylon 5 30 years later. And one

of the huge tenets that he had for the episodes,

whoever other writers would write them, because

he wrote 90 % of the episodes himself. j michael

straczynski did uh is that at the end of the

episode at least one character had to be different

had to be changed by what happened right um and

so that's important to me but the difference

between a four -star comic and a five -star comic

for me is emotional impact did you make me feel

something did you make me um If I'm telling this

story to somebody else who understands the character,

am I going to get choked up? Because I wear my

emotions on my sleeve, so I get choked up pretty

easily. But that's what's going to really sell

it for me. Continuity, the changing of the costumes.

I did not get hung up on that at all. That is

fine. That is part of the game. Give me your

rebooted continuities. But I need the stories

to resonate with me. And the thing is, is that

when people were slagging off on the new 52,

I was enjoying Superman stories. I was enjoying

Supergirl stories. I was moderately enjoying

Superboy stories. And so that didn't. The fact

that everything had been rebooted just didn't

bother me because I was having fun with the characters.

Yes, things were different, but so what? Yeah.

I actually wanted to do this with Bailey for

years and years, about a decade ago, obviously.

But I wanted to cover a new 52 Supergirl with

him. And I don't know what it was, but it's been

so long that it hasn't really clicked with me.

And I have all the trades. Digitally, thankfully,

I have all the trades. Sorry, go ahead. So I

have them all, and I didn't realize it was –

not that this really – it should not matter to

me, but how do you feel about men writers writing

men or men writers – like the whole gender thing

as far as like – I'm not saying men should only

write men or anything. I'm not trying to be controversial

here at all. But, like, I had just gotten off

of reading Margaret Scott writing a bunch of

Transformers stuff, and I really enjoyed that.

And I know – is it Mike Johnson? There were two

Mikes. There were Mike Johnson and Michael –

there were two Mikes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah,

yeah, yeah. So it was one of them, and I had

read some of his other stuff, and I started reading

the first trade, and I'm like, this doesn't –

I've got to go back and give it a second try.

But yeah, that might be something else we do

in the future. Who knows? Yeah, it's not that

men should only write men, but women should have

the opportunity to write in general and especially

to write women. Absolutely. 100%. So yeah, I

can see what you're saying there. I think a lot

of the conversation about that was in a different

place in 2011. We were just starting to gain

some awareness as a fandom and as an industry

that, hey, there are a lot of voices that need

to be heard as creators. And a lot of those changes

were just starting to happen. The Supergirl costume,

when it came out, I didn't mind it. But looking

at it now and realizing just what's going on

there. I do have some problems with it. But like

I said, I'll move past the costume if your stories

are interesting me. And I was enjoying the stories.

Maybe I'll feel differently if I were to go back

and read them now. What I did find disappointing

is that the mics talked in interviews by having

a four -year story plan for Supergirl. And one

of the mics left after 18 months and the other

left after two years. So whatever their four

-year plan for Supergirl was, it never got realized.

Michael Green and Mike Johnson. Yes. So Mike

Johnson was the one that I had read some other

stuff that he had done. And I had just come off

of reading, like I mentioned, Margaret Scott's

run on like Windblade and some of the other female

Transformers characters. And I was just like,

I can't. Read Mike Johnson's – again, I've got

to go back. I've got to try it again. And I never

shored up those plans with Michael Bailey to

cover that anyway, so it doesn't really matter

at this point. But it was just one of those things

where it was a little weird to me, and you keep

mentioning how the costume doesn't matter to

you, and that's great. That's awesome. But let

me ask you this. Nightwing blue or Nightwing

red? I will fall on the blue preference, but

I won't not read it. I will not read a Nightwing

series because he's wearing red. You know, it's

like him wearing red is not going to stop me

from reading the comic. But I do. I mean, Nightwing

ever since he became Nightwing, he's always been

blue themed. It's like, yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Superman's wears a blue costume with a red cape.

You know, that's that's that's Superman. And

Nightwing has always been. blue so whenever he

went red for a little while whatevs but i prefer

my blue yeah i grew you know we all grew up watching

most of us that are in superheroes and whatever

else and most of us that are geeks grew up watching

dcau batman superman all that stuff and i grew

up with nightwing blue on tv with lauren lester

voicing the character and that is what i do love

however It's not necessarily because of the fact

that it's the red. It's, again, this was my debut

to Kyle Higgins was New 52 Nightwing and how

much he loves the character and how much he loves

the DCAU and how much he loves that version.

So he was trying to make his version, not necessarily

that, but, like, it's in that same, like. Every

time I read one of Kyle's issues, and I've actually

had, and I'll put the clip in here somewhere.

When we interviewed Loren Lester back in 2013,

I actually had him read a line of dialogue from

one of Kyle's issues for New 52. Because I think

it was issue 19. Yeah, I know exactly what it

was. It was issue 19. It was when he was going

up against the Prankster. It was right as he

was doing the Chicago arc. And like I said, I'll

put the clip in here somewhere. But what he says

is, he says, I like s'mores as much as the next

guy, but I want a marshmallow. So what do you

say we get out of here for the night or something?

He says something, but like I had Lauren do that

line, and I have that clip, and I'm just like.

This is why I love Nightwing Red so much because

I can hear – and I have never really read any

of the Nightwing stuff other than Kyle's. I want

to. I did start reading the Rebirth stuff that

– oh, who was the first? It wasn't – oh, God.

Who was on the first part of Rebirth? I don't

think it was – Tim Seeley. Yeah, it was Seeley.

And then it moved to somebody else. But I actually

have a whole plan. I have a whole document filled

where I want to just spend 90 nights. 90 nights

of Nightwing and just have it all have to be

pre -recorded. But basically I want to release

a comic episode of this show for 90 different

nights for 90 nights of Nightwing at some point.

And I want to start at the very beginning because

I haven't read any of the old original stuff

like the Chuck Dixon stuff and things like that.

But, yeah, I always – anytime anyone brings the

costume up to me, I'm like, I grew up with the

blue in the cartoons, but comically, red is my

favorite. Who knows that? I don't think that's

going to change because that's my – I may enjoy

some of the other Nightwing stuff, and I love

the cover that they did for 78 of the current

run or the whatever run. The Rebirth run, where

one of the covers of 78 is all of the various

versions of him, including the Superman uniform

version, like from Robin to this to this, and

the red one's in there. So it's basically him

climbing up the wall. It's all his various versions.

Yeah, I enjoyed that Nightwing series. They did

the Return to Alien Circus. Of course, the death

of the family was a big thing then. That issue

19 you were talking about, I thought it was really

fun that they did that issue 19 where every single

comic that month had a What the Fuck Gatefold

cover. Yep. That was just a fun. I mean, gimmicks,

people can slag off on gimmicks, but also they

can be really fun. Yeah, absolutely. What does

the story have to have to draw you in? So what's

the thing that whatever the first issue is that

you read that that has to have for you to come

back for the next issue? Not be bored. Okay,

so if I read your first issue and I close it

and I can't think of who the people are and what

the people did, I'm not going to care. So whenever

I finish a first issue, I want to feel like.

I'm beginning to get to know the characters as

people in the comic, who they are, what their

plight is for the story. I resonate with characters

and the story that they're on. The principles

of storytelling, I was going to say mechanics

of storytelling, but mechanics are really part

of it, are something I think about a lot. And

so I just, when you're starting out, I need to

care about your people. Right. Because if I want

to go on, if you're going to ask me to go on

a journey with them, then in the very first scene

that you give me, you have to make me care. Yep.

And that's one of the difficult, when we were

talking about Image Comics earlier, one of the

difficulties I had with a lot of the superhero

teams in Image Comics, and we're talking about,

you know, 90s Image. Yeah. But for the most part.

Those characters are visual designs, power sets,

and pun names. Okay, right. Well, that's what

the Pundits were, I mean. Yeah, right, right?

Yeah. But they're not people. And whenever I

fell out of Spider -Man, it's because Maximum

Carnage was a very plot -driven thing about villains

going haywire. I wasn't resonating with any of

the people anymore. The characters of Spider

-Man that made me love Spider -Man, I wasn't

resonating with the Spider -Man comics anymore.

So I stopped reading. So I will – if I'm doing

a completism thing for a podcast, sure, I'll

go through it and I'll talk about – and I'll

pull out what I can and I'll enjoy what I can.

But that's why I enjoy some of the other books

Image did in those early years more than the

superhero books. Yeah, absolutely. Who are some

of your favorite comics artists? Eric Larson.

See, the problem is I'm going to think about

names, and I'm going to completely forget about

some of the stuff that's really left an impact

on me. I'm going to pull out an early Superman

artist that I really love. Let's go with Fred

Ray. Let's go with, oh crap, the guy who went

over and did Starman. Let's see if I can find

a name real quick. Kurt Swan? Kurt Swan's okay.

I'm thinking earlier, though. Jack Burnley. Jack

Burnley is my favorite Golden Age artist. So

Jack Burnley is fantastic. When I was in the

90s, Eric Larson and Todd McFarlane were there.

I really like Ross Andrew. But in the modern

comics, there are so many artists out there that

I have really, really enjoyed. But I haven't

really mentally cataloged their names. And so

I'm doing a huge disservice to the last 10 years

of artists because I just can't think of their

names. But also, to be fair. I don't read hardly

any modern comics these days. All of my reading

right now is in back issues. I haven't read a

comic that was published post -1993 in years.

Oh, boy. Except for like for podcasts, the Ninja

Turtles and Transformers stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Transformers I've been reading more of. But for

superheroes, yeah, it's been a minute. Oh, I

do like me some Jim Lee. I know he's cliche,

but I do like some Jim Lee. uh it's whatever

he was designing the to the new 52 stuff i was

down for that um but yeah i i love a lot of artists

whose name are not occurring to me right now

yeah absolutely all right so since you mentioned

that you don't really outside of what you're

doing for podcasting you don't really read modern

comics number one I don't read comics unless

I'm recording a podcast for them anymore. I'm

going to have a Geekcast Radio episode about

this, but the fact that we call everything nowadays

content, no matter what that content is, whether

it's a YouTube video, whether it's a television

show, whether it's a movie, a comic, a video,

it's all content now and everything else. All

right, perfect example, okay? I'm not even there

yet. I haven't even gotten there yet, but I bought,

and this is specifically because of the special

things that... Oh, Johnny and Marie Severin,

both of them. They're very different, but I love

them both for different reasons. Johnny Severin

brought a flavor to Sergeant Fury and the Nick

Fury Agent of S .H .I .E .L .D. series that I

really loved, and Marie Severin has a... great

flair to her that was very much needed whenever

she started doing comics. Anyways, go on. So,

with Radiant Black, they have issue 10 and issue

24? Yes, issue 10 and issue 24. They were specifically

blacklight issues. So if you have a blacklight

flashlight, if you buy Radiant Black number 10,

the single issue, and Radiant Black number 24,

the single issue, you can read them under a blacklight,

and that is so freaking cool to me. And that's

why sometimes I will have physical comics, but

most of the time it is, like we already said,

it is kind of digital all the time. Does the

blacklight effect not carry over to the digital

version? No, it does not. It's specific blacklight

paper. Um, I mean, you can see the colors. I

mean, you'll see, you just won't see the, the,

the reaction to black. Yeah, no, I, I tried that.

It didn't work. Okay. Um, but, but yeah, I mean

the, the artists, man, like I, I, I can think

of several, but I can't think of like, I don't

want to, oh man, so good. Uh, do you have a favorite

non superhero title? The Max and The Sandman.

Very cool, very cool. Those are easy answers.

There's probably other stuff that I really like,

but The Max and The Sandman will go. Oh, and

Bone. Bone, okay. Yeah. What is your favorite

run or story arc of a series? So the simplest

example would be Night of Owls, Court of Owls.

That's an arc in Snyder's series, or Death of

the Family is an arc in his series. What's your

favorite for a story run? There's so much that

I have a hard time with questions like this whenever

the potential – Could be anything? Yeah. Like

whenever I – okay, so I'm on a Superman read

-through project. I've read every single Superman

comic from 1938 into 1993. And whenever I got

to the end of pre -crisis, I kind of celebrated

on social media quite a bit. There were a lot

of people coming out of the woodwork because

my tweet about finishing pre -crisis Superman

got some attention. And people were like, what's

the best parts? And I'm like, that's not how

comics worked in pre -crisis. You didn't have

runs of comics. You had every single issue as

an individual story. And whenever there's that

many stories, it is impossible for my brain to

pick a favorite. So, gosh. Favorite Spider -Man

story. Okay. The way I'm going to answer that

is the biggest eye -opening arc I had for my

Superman read -through. When I got to stuff that

happened in Superman that I had no idea had happened,

I really enjoyed. Two things. One, the Supergirl

backups in the Silver Age. Uh, whenever she went

on like a nine issue run of, um, Superman was

ready to introduce her to the world because really

super girl was hurt with his secret weapon and

she loses her powers. And for the next nine issues,

she's dealing with the fact that she no longer

has powers. And during the course of that story,

she gets adopted because previously she hadn't

let herself be adopted because who would want

to adopt a super girl or she felt like it was

unfair. right to ask earthling humans to take

care of a supergirl so she gets adopted that's

what becomes linda danvers uh and then at the

end of that story she gets her powers back and

it culminates in the uh famous cover of superman

and supergirl running through the ticker tape

parade flying the ticker tape parade right um

but the fact that supergirl was doing serialized

storytelling in the early 60s um that was a big

thing for me and it was a solid story The other

really big eye -opening thing for Superman for

me is in the 1970s when Clark Kent starts dating

Lois Lane. Not Superman. Clark Kent and Lois

Lane get together, and they're together for about

a year of comics. If I remember correctly, it

starts in the story arc before Superman 300,

so like 296, and goes for a year. Where she –

because historically Lois Lane rejects Clark

Kent. But the reality of that is that she doesn't

nearly reject him as much as people say she does.

And in the Bronze Age, they're friends. And in

the mid to late 70s, they fuck. So it's – it

was – A very pleasant surprise that I wasn't

expecting. I don't know if I can give you favorite

stories, but those were eye -opening stories

for me. Very cool, very cool. What is one comic

you can read over and over again, single issue

or trade? Ultimate Spider -Man. I've read through

Ultimate Spider -Man probably five times. Early

Ditko Spider -Man. post -crisis superman the

uh the jurgens ordway uh stern era basically

everything from after burn leaves until the death

and return to me that multi -year run of superman

is one of the greatest achievements in comics

it's not every single issue is good but as a

whole as a storytelling hole yeah yeah fantastic

cool Probably 70s, 80s X -Men too because that's

just solid work. Are there any comics you avoid

altogether? Like you go into the comic book shop

and you see seven of your favorites and you see

two of the ones that you may not know that well

and you kind of maybe read the back or read a

blurb or something and you're like, yeah, that's

not for me. When I see people online celebrating

comics that are all about exploiting the sexuality

of women, I'm like, why are you even reading

that? So if your cover is all about balloon boobs,

I have no interest. At the same time, there are

a couple of titles that got a following that

I'm kind of morbidly interested in just for curiosity's

sakes, like Terra, Witch of the Black Rose. I

might read that someday just because I'm really

curious why that was so popular. But, yeah, if

your cover is babelicious, you're fighting an

uphill battle for me. Okay. All right. Are there

any comics in the past or currently that you

wish you had not read them? There were some issues

of Lobo that I read recently that I put that

down. I was like, what did I just do? Yeah. And

there are other issues of Lobo that I found very

fun and enjoyable. So it's not the genre or the

style overall. It's the character. It's how the

character is written or how the character is

portrayed, right? Yeah, like Lobo's Back was

a miniseries where he dies and tears up the afterlife.

Issues two and three of that, I was like, wow,

that was definitely a comic that I read. I have

rarely been angered at an issue. There's an issue

of Amazing Spider -Man, the Amazing Spider -Man

Annual, I want to say 14, where it has Spider

-Man and Doctor Strange fighting Doctor Doom

and Dormammu. And I was all about that, except

Spider -Man and Doctor Strange don't fight Doctor

Doom and Dormammu. they barely if i remember

correctly because it's been a while since i read

it and got angry at it but i believe the heroes

barely meet dr strange is captive the entire

time and most of the stuff that spider -man does

is to the henchmen of dr strange and dormammu

and just like everything that's promised on the

cover didn't happen and i've closed the comic

and i was like wow i was just lied to yeah And

I was angry at that comic and I don't get angry

at comics very often. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

It's just, it's one of those things where like

people use this more like for movies or TV shows

or whatever. God, I wish I had that hour and

20 minutes back after watching that crap tastic,

whatever insert, whatever here kind of thing.

The last airbender live action. I have very rarely

walked out of the movie theater upset. And Avatar

The Last Airbender live action left me upset.

Now, I had a friend I told that to, and he sat

down and watched it. He said it wasn't that bad.

He didn't know why I was reacting so strongly.

So maybe it's just a context thing. Maybe. Who

knows? Yeah. How large or small is your physical

comic book collection? Physical? Yes. Probably

300 or less. Really? Yeah. It's not that big.

Cool. Well, all right. Well, since you threw

that number out there. It used to be bigger.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But things have

happened over the years. Right. Yeah, well, you

know, things happen. Comics got to get sold,

all that stuff. Or maybe tragedy happened. Hopefully

not. So you were on this. I've been trying to

figure out where to put this. And I guess telling

everyone that you have 300 comics, I guess this

would be a perfect place to put this. You were

on a mission to read as many comics as you can

this year. You said something on social media.

I think it was on Facebook the other day. I've

read over 400 comics in the half of the year.

It's not even done yet. And I'm just like, okay,

that was one of the main – besides I love getting

anyone's origin stories for these things, but

that was one of the main reasons why I wanted

you on. I'm like, 400 comics in six months? Really?

So I occasionally like to keep track of how many

comics I'm reading and or what comics I'm reading.

And so like in 2018, I was doing this, and I

tried to make it a thing to read 2018 comics

in 2018. And I came about 200 shy of it. Wow.

So this year I was just – I've just been keeping

track. And early in the year, Lane, who is going

to be my – she already is, but we haven't published

yet – my co -host on Ninjas and Bots, she was

also counting her comics. So she's like, I think

that's about how many I've read. And so we've

kind of been neck and neck. We both have been

in the 400s lately. So we post how – in Facebook,

if you put five images up, they'll show all five

of them. If you put more than five up, they do

the little plus thing. So every time I read five

comics, I just put the five covers up there.

I don't like flooding people's feed, and I'm

not sure how many people that are friends with

me on Facebook actually care about the comics.

So I don't do this every year, but that's what

I was doing this year. But yeah, I have read

400 -odd comics since the year started. Wow.

And those are digital. Right, right, right. Yeah,

yeah, yeah. The new ones are things that I've

bought off of Comixology. The old ones are things

that I've found other ways. Yep. Absolutely.

What is the one comic you could never live without

ever? So, Everybody is Safe. All humans, pets,

whatever, they've gotten out of the house, but

the house is on fire and you have to run in and

save one comic. What are you saving? I don't

think I would. I have the internet. Okay. I finally

did get my own copy of Superman 75 recently.

So that's kind of cool. Cause I didn't, I first

read the death of Superman through the trade

that came out at the end of 92. um i read it

that christmas so i didn't have the issue superman

75 i recently got my own copy of superman 75

off the racks and i've got a copy of the max

number one and the max is important to me because

my brother jim liked it he died in 2016 so a

lot of the things that he was into that i was

into because he was into um are precious to me

um so if i had early issues of sandman they would

be in my prize prize collection because i only

care what a neil gaiman and sam man are because

of my brother jim um and so yeah i don't have

i honestly don't have a lot of emotional attachment

to my physical collection because everything

is replaceable and everything so much of it is

online So I'm not one of those guys that has

a huge connection to his comics collection as

a physical entity. But those are the things that

come to mind. Very cool, very cool. What was

the most money you ever spent on a comic or a

comic item? Comic item could be anything you

get at conventions or, you know, whatever. I

found the Transformers UK run. all complete 332

issues i spent two thousand five hundred dollars

wow but i have the entire 332 issues of the transformers

from marvel uk and that is a fantastic thing

to have and to read it's a fantastic thing to

read but also to have you know what I'm saving

that in a fire. I'm going back for that. You'd

have to use a shrink ray on it to get it out

of the house, all 332 issues at once. The box

is very tightly packed and very heavy, but I

can do it. There you go. Was there ever a moment

where you were completely done with comics, like

you just walked away? Yeah, after Maximum Carnage.

I stopped collecting. So we bought a few lingering

things. Like I bought the next several issues

of Spider -Man 2099. And we did buy Marvels when

it came out. But other than that, I was done

buying comics. I did not buy superhero comics

again until 2008. When Dark Horse did a Star

Wars comics relaunch. And for those who know

Star Wars comics, I'm talking about the relaunch

that involved Legacy and Rebellion. and um the

knights of the old republic so i'm thinking that's

i'm thinking that's around 2006 i was reading

those and that's when i got back into comics

was that star wars comics relaunch and then after

iron man came out i started reading marvel comics

uh and that's basically when my adult comics

reading habit began so from 1993 or 4 until 2006

or 8 i did not buy comics wow But since then,

I've been reading comics pretty much every day.

Absolutely. So what are you reading right now,

and what do you think our listeners should check

out? What am I reading right now? What should

listeners check out? Listeners should check out

the Ninjas and Bots podcast at johnreadscomics

.com, where Len and I are talking every week

about either an issue of the IDW series of Transformers

or an IDW issue of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Things I'm reading right now, dude, I did a Facebook

post a couple weeks ago about all the different

reading projects I'm on. Once I wrote it all

out, it was so huge. So I'm doing a Marvel Universe

read -through, and I'm in 1969. Eventually, very

soon, I'll have read every single 1960s issue

of Marvel Universe, which I think is pretty cool.

I'm reading through Bronze Age Batgirl. Silver

Age Flash and Green Lantern and Teen Titans.

I'm reading through The Outsiders. Listen to

the Outcasters podcast. So that's something I

recommend. I'm reading through Blue Devil and

Shag over at Once Upon a Geek has just started

a semi -regular retrospective on Blue Devil.

Blue Devil is fantastic 80s comics. I've already

recommended Valiant. I'm reading a lot of 90s

stuff. So the various Justice League tie -ins,

G .I. Joe, Legion of Superheroes, Spider -Man

2099, I'm going to recommend every day and twice

on Sunday. I'm reading the Superman Death and

Return. I'm currently, I'll eventually speed

back up on this, but since the death, which I

got to just after the 30th anniversary of the

death, I've been reading the Superman comics

as they came out. 30 years later. Oh, wow. So

I'm nearing the end of the reign of the Superman

series story, which it's, it's August now. So

he died in November. He started fighting doomsday

in October and the rain's not going to be fully

done until the end of August. Wow. So that's

basically a year that the death and return happened.

Um, I've recently started reading the milestone

comics again from nineties, highly recommend

things like icon and static. Um, Blood Syndicate

is not one of my favorites, but I understand

it resonates a lot more with the kinds of things

that Dwayne McDuffie experienced as a kid. And

yeah, IDW, Transformers, and Turtles, because

that's what I'm podcasting about. Very cool,

very cool. Heroes, heroines, antiheroes, and

heroines or villains, what archetypes are your

go -to reads? I mean, I'm a superhero fan. To

me, in my mind, I don't think that superheroines

and superheroes are two different genres. But

with the increased attention being paid to female

superheroes, I am all about that. So whenever

I saw the Flash movie recently and Supergirl

was on there, she was great. She needed at least

another half hour of screen time. The Captain

Marvel films, the fact that the Marvels is coming

out later this year, or maybe it's early next

year. I don't know. I'm really excited to see

that. Later this year. It's November this year.

November this year. Fantastic. So excited for

that. So superheroines, we need to be showing

a lot more love. I was surprised at how much

I enjoyed Supergirl in the 1960s. And there have

been times. There have been times when I've wondered

if I actually like Supergirl. as a character

more than superman because i've enjoyed the stuff

they've done with her so much um so she is pretty

great and um if i ever do another spider -man

chronology podcast the various spider women and

spider girls will all be included i know that

jennifer um Jessica Drew and Jennifer Carpenter,

basically their connection to Spider -Man is

through the name only, but I feel like they're

spiders, so they should be included. Absolutely.

Do you have a My Parents Got Rid of My Comics

story? Oh, you know what? One more thing to answer

that question, sorry. On Alpha Flight, Vindicator

Guardian, Heather is... The Vindicator slash

Guardian. Mac is Heather's origin story. Mac

is not the hero. Heather is the hero. That's

my take. Anyways, go on. Do you have a my parents

got rid of my comics story? So I've already mentioned

the whole a word as an abused child. One of the

things that my dad did whenever I. Blew off my

scholastic responsibilities. Right. Was to take

my long box and make me walk with him out of

the house and down to the dumpster. Oh, no. That

is abuse. Yikes. So that was. And yeah, I'd made

some stupid decisions, but also I was a fucking

child. Yeah. Children make stupid mistakes because

they're children. And as a middle school teacher,

soon to be high school teacher, that's one of

the things that I'm not allowed to forget. And

I feel like some teachers do forget this. Children

do stupid stuff all the time because guess what

they are? They're children. Yep. And school is

not the most important thing in their lives.

It's one of them. It's not the most, but it is

one of them. They need to learn to give value

to it. Yes, we all need to learn to give value

to the things that make our lives happen, our

jobs or whatever. But 12 -year -olds haven't

gotten there yet. No, they haven't. Not at all.

What is one item from a comic book you'd love

to have in the real world? The mourning band

for Superman's death. Oh. I would love to have

the arm band. That the black armband with the

red shield on it. I'd love to have that. There

aren't replicas of that out there somewhere.

They didn't do some sort of anniversary thing.

Actually, for the anniversary, I thought I had

ordered the 30th anniversary special because

there were editions of the 30th anniversary special

that came with the armband. I really thought

I had ordered that. I was expecting it to come

in the mail. And when it didn't, I went back

to my emails and couldn't find the order. So

I guess I thought about it. Oh. It didn't actually

do it. All right, folks. We are now entering

the comic book fantasy fun land. Yay. These are

five questions that are all fictitious. It's

kind of like how Drew Carey always says on Whose

Line, you know, the questions are made up and

the answers don't matter anyway or whatever he

says kind of thing. If you could own any vehicle

featured in a comic book, which would it be and

why? The Spider -Mobile. Because why the hell

not? If you could live in any comic book world

that you wanted, where would you live and why?

I want to live in Superboy Prime's world where

I am Clark. Okay, there you go. Who would be

your top three comic pals to join you and become

a quartet? Comic books characters to be my friends?

Yes. Oh, dear. High school Peter Parker. not

adult Peter Parker because high school Peter

Parker was kind of a tool and adult Peter Parker

I think sometimes is more of a tool. Actually,

flavor that with ultimate high school Peter Parker,

not amazing. Who else would be my friend? I'm

45 years old, but I hang around with school students

so much that I think of friends in terms of school.

Right. So I'm thinking about younger characters.

Like, I think it'd be really cool to hang out

with Kamala Khan. She seems like really fun.

And you know what? On my hangout group slash

superhero team, Carol Danvers. She is somebody

I think I would just respect the hell out of

and want to help us. Very cool, very cool. So

the last 30 years have not happened in your life.

If you could date any comics character, which

one would it be? Wow. Well, I have to take Mindy

out of the equation because there is no place

for Mindy. Well, okay, so hot redheads, we're

going to go to Mary Jane then, right? Probably.

Or Barbara. Yeah. you know what 30 years ago

me didn't know barbara very well but modern day

me does know barbara pretty well so yeah um if

we're going pre -mindy if i can't have mindy

because we're earlier than mindy then we're going

to say barbara there you go well i mean because

you know again this is all fictional it's all

made up yeah it's all made up right whatever

but you know What is the holy grail of comic

book artifacts in your opinion? A Batarang, the

Matrix of Leadership, Kryptonite, Green Lantern

Ring, etc. Oh, if I were in the comics world,

what would I want to have as like a as like a

artifact? Yeah. I want Superman's cape. There

you go. All right, folks. Not not one of not

one of Martha Kent's capes. Much love. Much love

to post -crisis Martha Kent. No shade whatsoever

on all the capes she made for Clark. But I want

a Kryptonian indestructible cape. Or Golden Age,

one he chemically treated so that it was indestructible.

I always thought it was that force field around

his aura. It wasn't the actual fabric. It was

some invisible force field that... Yeah, that's

how his costume stayed intact, but his capes

were not skin tight. That's why his capes would

get shredded, but his costume stayed intact.

But it makes sense if his – again, it's your

choice. Fine, I'm not trying to take jokes away

from you. All I'm thinking is, oh, I miss Kay

Callen. I miss that Martha Kent. I miss – oh,

look, say what you will about the moron that

played the character in the 90s, how moronic

that person is in real life nowadays, but – Lois

and Clark, Martha, and Jonathan were amazing.

They were pretty great. I'm actually going to

be going back to that series soon because it's

August, and September 93 is when Lois and Clark

started. So I'll be starting that soon with Mindy.

She loved that show, and I have not seen past

the first season. Really? Oh, man, you were in

for a treat. I mean, I saw the occasional episode

growing up. But I haven't sat down and watched

Lois and Clark past the first season. Alright,

we are now exiting the comic book fantasy fun

land. Two more questions. If you could create

any comic storyline, what would you want to create

and what characters would you want to create

it with? So basically, whatever comic book company

it is, they give you the keys to the kingdom

and they tell you that budget doesn't matter.

I am not a storyteller. Okay. Okay. This is going

to be not just a different path, but we're in

a different forest now. Okay. I would like to

find a way to graphic novel slash comic book

adapt and make interesting the stories of the

early Final Fantasy and or Zelda games. Oh, wow.

If I could find a way to turn those – because

the games themselves are not very plot -driven.

But there's a – especially the Final Fantasy.

The Final Fantasy world of the original game

has a lot of really cool ideas. And it has been

adapted into a light novel in Japan that I still

have yet to read. But I did some fan fiction

adapting the first Final Fantasy game. And I

would like to realize that project at some point.

In this fantasy world, I believe. Yeah, absolutely.

That would be awesome. What is the one piece

of advice you would give the comics fandom in

general? Stop hating. Stop tribalizing. Stop

fucking putting what used to be against what

is. Go out there and try to find stuff that you

enjoy. If you don't enjoy it, try something else.

And if you're either a have tried everything

or be are tired of trying, then just enjoy what

used to happen and let that be your zone. Stop

hating on change. Because every single person

out there who's buying comics right now. They're

being made for that audience. Yeah, absolutely.

Those are the people who are loving them. So,

yeah, my advice to comics audiences is stop being

that guy because that guy's really annoying.

Absolutely. All right, folks, we're going to

go to a quick ad break here, some stuff and some

ads and some other things, and we'll come back

to close the show right after this. Shut up.

Beyond the Night is the GCRN's latest review

podcast. We are covering everything in the Knight

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XRG. New name, same... Hey, welcome... 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

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check out our library of evergreen shows at www

.lastcomicshoppodcast .com We are back here inside

the pull bag on Geekast Radio. Mr. John Wilson,

sir, what do you got coming up? What do you got

going on in your podcasting stuff that you're

doing? Okay, so all of my podcasts that I've

done are over at johnreadscomics .com. There's

no H in John, or you can search John Reads Comics

on your favorite podcatcher. Most of the shows

have their own feed, but that's the mega feed.

I need to get out the last several issues of

Superman in Crisis. That is when I... As a Superman

reader who had read every issue of Superman,

I was hitting Crisis on Infinite Earths, and

I wanted to memorialize that. So beginning with

January of 1985's issues, I started podcasting

every single issue of Superman -related stories

from the beginning of Crisis on Infinite Earths

up to the end of pre -Crisis Superman with whatever

happened to the Man of Tomorrow. is a really

stupid place to live uh i have several episodes

of that that have not yet come out even though

they're supposed to come out between april and

june of this year so those are coming out soon

okay super superman in crisis is going the episodes

exist i recorded them a year ago two years ago

i should put them out there yeah um so that's

coming soon ninjas and bots is my current uh

podcast that is just now starting up that's going

to start releasing in september and so lane and

i are going to alternate weeks between an issue

of transformers and an issue of ninja turtles

from the idw series from 2006 2011 respectively

and um we've recorded a lot of episodes of this

other show so it's it is happening it is coming

but the Release schedule is very specific. So

Babylon 5, 30 years later, is slated to release

in 2024. So next spring, if you have watched

Babylon 5, or if it's one of those things that

you just feel like maybe you should watch because

you're a sci -fi fan and just haven't yet, here's

an excuse to watch it. Whenever we started the

podcast, I had never seen but a handful of episodes.

Blaine has watched... the whole series multiple

times and has a lot of behind the scenes resources

and stuff so it's basically an intro cast it's

he is the uh knowledgeable one i am the newbie

and we're going through babylon 5 with each episode

of coverage releasing 30 years after the episode

that was released so um that's starting in 2024

because that's when the first proper season started

Um, those who know Babylon five know that the

pilot film came out a whole entire year before

the first season started. We didn't do that.

We're just going to release, we're going to release

our pilot film coverage a week before episode

one. So that's coming up down the road, Babylon

five, 30 years later and, uh, ninjas and bots

and everything I've done over the last, what?

14 years. as a podcaster is available on john

reed's comics so go check that out very cool

very cool there will be a show link in the show

so thank you for joining us here inside the pull

bag If you'd like to get in contact with us or

leave feedback for the show, there are several

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I'm at TFG1, Mike. Are you still on? X. Yes,

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Become a fan on Facebook. Go to facebook .com

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because I just need to fill time and all that

good stuff, so I will have somebody else walking

through these 30 questions. For now, I am TFG1

Mike with... John Wilson. As always, make your

greatest game in the comics, and we will catch

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until next time, make your great escape into

comics and unleash the geek in you. So how'd

you do Batman's voice? Precise muscle control.

Plus, I have a pretty good ear. Don't do that

again. Any minute now, Brainiac will explode.

And guess what? You're going with him. No, Darkseid.

To get off this rock, you'll have to go through

me. You really are a glutton for punishment.

Time and again I've beaten you, humbled you.

What makes you think today's outcome will be

any different? Because this time, I won't stop

until you're just a greasy smear on my fist.

Let's go.