Adam Ray on Growing Up in a Comic Collection and Reading Across Genres

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

to the GeekCast Radio Network. Hey, this is Tom

Waltz, IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle writer,

and you have jumped inside the pull bag. 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,

I think, because I don't remember, folks. This

is episode 538. I am, of course, TFG1Mike. This

time around, another comic reading origins episode.

And it is an offspring episode, because back

in episode 414, I had the lovely Steve J. Ray

on, and Steve and I talked about all kinds of

stuff in comics. And this time around, I have

his son, Adam Ray. And they are here to talk

about comics with me because they told me that

they have a riverboat journey. And I'm like,

you're only 28 years old. How can you have that

much of a riverboat of a journey? I'm 23. Come

on now. Oh, it's just me. That's just me. I like

to talk. So if you're willing to listen to my

sort of. incessant rambling about how being raised

by someone like Steve Ray could imagine, then

we have much to talk about. It's going to be

an insight into growing up in the household of

a person who has a 10 ,000 -part comic collection.

How big is that house? Because, oh my god, how

do you fit 10 ,000 comics in one house? I'll

tell you something. Between when episode 414

came out and now, not only did they have to move,

They had to downsize? Between 414 and now, they've

downsized quite a bit. So they have, like, two

bedrooms. And the bedroom they sort of leave

for me or for guests is also my father's home

office. And there are times when you have, like,

the closet full of coats and stuff and the double

bed in the middle. And, like, all of the bookshelves

just fill with his trades and full of his, like,

bagged and boarded, like, prize pieces. But then

you could build, like, a fort. Like a castle

out of all those bright, shiny, white, long boxes.

And then right in front of the place on the top,

he has this Dark Knight's Metal art short box,

which has the entire Dark Knight's Metal run

in it. So, yeah, the collection is immense, and

I know she would never listen to something like

this, but a big shout -out to my mother for living

with that for 30 -plus years. She would never

listen to something like this? Really? I wish.

It breaks my heart, but... As my father sort

of melee'd in his earlier episode, she's just

like, yeah, I get that people like comics, but

how can people talk about comics for over an

hour? I was like, mother, mother, your TV tastes

are questionable, but I'll admit she's a genius

in her own right, and there are things that we

can talk about, which is why I never want to

beat up or talk badly about people's interests,

even if they don't necessarily line up with mine

or my father's. Okay. Now, folks, I'm not trying

to turn this into a family affair, but I now

need to create a 30 -question format for television

shows just so I can have his mother on the podcast

to ask her about her questionable TV choices.

Oh, man. So you get that, and you get sort of

like home economics and intense cooking theory

questions. My mother could talk your ear off,

I guarantee it. Absolutely. That is so cool.

Oh, I mean, it's like... Moms are supposed to

support their children. It's only an hour podcast.

It's not going to, like... I'm sure she will

support me, and she's been very understanding

of all the writing I've done in and around comics

and all of the writing for fiction that I've

done in just many circles. So I'm very grateful

to have her. backing for it but uh she's one

of these people who would live in one of those

scandinavian houses where it's all minimalist

glass and white surfaces ever no knickknacks

no action figures mint in box no not a single

long box in sight she's very minimalist and very

very clean very clean i see i see all right so

adam writes for dark night news and besides the

fact that i had his father on the show right

after that happened i started reading the batman

white knight reviews adam was writing up for

that website and i was like okay he's got a story

like i agreed with almost every one of your opinions

on the on the was it beyond yeah when you were

writing beyond the white knight because damn

that third chapter that eight issues wasn't enough

for me i need more it's such excellent stuff

just like that real look of how things otherwise

should be In a world where things are quite hyper

-realistic, it's fabulous stuff. A lot of my

reviews have evolved onto a lot more light -hearted

and more in -continuity reviews. I'm reviewing

a lot of Catwoman and Batman Beyond at present,

and those stories are a lot more grassroots than

what you can expect in the current continuity,

but they're still phenomenal titles. Yeah, I

think I have the first two issues of Neo -Gothic.

I have not finished them yet. I need to read.

Between podcasting and everything else I do,

it's like I don't have time sometimes to catch

up, so I'm catching up. But, yeah, Neo -Gothic

is the second half of the story from, oh, it's

Colin Kelly and, oh. Jason Manzik. Jason, yeah,

there you go. All right, so first question. It's

kind of a stupid one, but it is what it is. Some

people do and do not know this, or they know,

but it's an oxymoron, folks, like me. Did you

grow up reading comics, and at what age do you

first remember reading or noticing comics? Yeah,

I'm going to try my best to not talk about my

father, but Steve Ray carries a huge reputation

in the comics discourse world. So, yeah, I grew

up reading comics and I was always aware of characters

in the DC and Marvel pantheons. But I'm going

to be honest, my first actual, I don't remember

this specifically, but I remember being told

this story by my parents over and over again.

My first real recollection of exposure to comics

was when I was like three years old with Thomas

the Tank Engine. They sat me down with that when

I was a little kid just to sort of get me used

to that format, but then I believe my father

put me on stuff like Batman Adventures based

on the animated series, and then some of the

more lighter -hearted Spider -Man stories that

were intended for little kids. Then as soon as

I got to reading age, I was probably way too

young to be handed stuff like Batman Year One

or uh returns like i was probably handed those

at like maybe like 10 or 11 years old but i was

sort of introduced to that and then as i grew

up i grew up with grittier stories such as the

animals on things in your game and sandmans into

my own forays into working in larger comic book

stores and reading everything that's off the

shelf so yeah my own my own brain works in a

huge merays of adhd so it's hard for me to read

as much as i would like but i can't remember

a time when there wasn't at least one comic story

in my life that i was just had open somewhere

yeah absolutely now question two folks we already

kind of know the answer to this but i i always

have to ask this because i like the way the end

of it is for i like the way i phrase it because

it's very uh It's very New York gangster kind

of way at the end here. So we know the answer,

obviously, already. As a kid, was there a parent,

a friend who just said, here, kid, read this

comic. Go away. You bother me. Well, that's a

good way to phrase it. But I know that my father

would never say, just go read this and go sit

in the corner. He would never admit this. But

that was but that attitude was how he he was

raised. Like he had like he had parents that

were either busy or dismissive. So he would sit

and read on his own. My father would never do

that to me. Sure, he buried me in reading material

since I was knee -high to a grasshopper, but

I always had his attention whenever I'd be like,

who's this character? Where did they come from?

I don't understand what they do. And it's just

like, that's Dr. Octopus. He has giant robot

arms. And I'm like, oh, cool. But he would never

dismiss me for it, but he would ply me with...

metric tons of reading material from a young

age yeah absolutely when you were a kid which

characters were your favorites uh probably the

characters that's done my favorites now um i

grew up reading like lots of light -hearted into

more meaty batman stories and of course with

who my father is i think the influence of him

is too good right now as i'm saying at my desk

in my own home office i can look up and i can

see a take the ferry to gotham gotham tourism

board poster right above my desk but I also deeply

appreciated when I was a kid the Bruce Timm Justice

League TV series. So that entire classic roster

all have a place in my heart, some to greater

extents than others. I particularly enjoy Hal

Jordan and John Stewart's Green Lanterns. I think

they've gone through real struggles throughout

their entire arcs, and there's a lot of sincerity

to them. But then switching to the other company

for a little minute... I want to actually ask

about this. What is so enchanting about Spider

-Man? Because he just grips so many different

kinds of readers. I think there's something so

universal about the bright blue and red that

really grips you, but then the relatable struggle

of him being a teenager is just... That's wasted

the test of time. I think it's the way certain

stories with the character are told. And I don't

have a... I say this in every episode, so the

listeners already know this. I was a cartoon

kid. I'm 43 years old now. I was a cartoon kid

in the 80s. I watched cartoons. I think I maybe

picked up one issue or whatever of Dark Knight

Returns or Batman. I remember being scarred by

a Batman comic as a young... This is too dark.

This is not the... The the Scooby and Batman

hour here. This is like, oh, my God. So for Spider

-Man, I think what it is, is it's not just that

he's, you know, the every care. He's not just

the everyday character. He's not just the kid

that got the powers. And it's more about who's

writing him, what story they're telling and how

compelling the story is, because certain people

get attached to it. Look, we we know Marvel does

the same thing. over and over and over again.

They go back to the origin. They go back to the

spider bite. They go back to this, that, and

the other thing. But let me tell you, 10 years

ago when we started this podcast, we started

with Superior Spider -Man because I was like,

no, technically we started with the end of Dan

Slott's run, 698 to 700. And then we went to

Superior Spider -Man because I, at that point

in time, I was like, OK, I know the Spider -Man

story. I know Peter's origin story. I need something.

Oh, they gave us something different. All right.

I mean, Doc Ock is Spidey. I mean, that's just

a genius. It was such an ambitious thing to do

just to sort of show that the hero's nature can

still be anyone and someone as vile as Doctor

Octopus can be redeemed. Yeah. Really ambitious

stuff. But I think. It came at the right time

and it was handled by the right creators. I know

so many others, I can think of so many other

times when a story like that could be told, but

I think another group might have just butchered

it or it wouldn't have made sense. So it came

perfectly so that it just really captured a lot

of readers and just really reinvented the character

at the right time it needed it. 100%. And I think

his, and the reason why the character, why everyone

loves the character so much is because He always

has that thing of whatever it takes. Yeah. Like,

yeah, I'm going to face this adversity. Yeah,

the hero spirit. I'm going to face this adversity

and conquer it. Sometimes I won't conquer it.

There are going to be plenty of it. He doesn't

win every fight against the Green Goblin or the

Hobgoblin or whatever. He doesn't win every fight

against Doc Ock. He doesn't win every fight against

Hydro Man, you know, all that. But I think that's

what. Between him and Grayson, between him and

– between Spider -Man and Nightwing, they are

the – like Batman is the legend. The X -Men in

their own right but as a group are kind of like

the legends to live up to. Captain America is

the – take Captain America and Batman for a single

hero for either company. They're the legends

to live up to. You don't really – like I've never

seen myself as Bruce Wayne or Batman. never i've

always seen myself as like in dick grayson's

shoes and and doing the more everyday stuff or

even though i don't have spider powers that would

make life a lot easier if i did but i don't i

know right so good yeah so good so but yeah i

think that's what it is it's it it's just the

the everydayness of it the Even though he has

superpowers, it isn't about the superpowers.

I always say to people right now, AI is evil.

All it should be used for is a tool. You should

not rely on it. It's not going to be trustworthy

in the future. I've never seen about AI. It's

true. It's so true because I read news stories,

even some reviews for trades. like um collated

anthologies and stuff and there are times where

like it's been edited by a person so it still

reads mostly real but you can tell that some

of it is ai not our sites not anything i write

for of course but um it does i'm not scared of

it but it is scary but uh but then again that's

why we read comic books all right they like we've

got characters like ultron to like be scared

of in terms of ai and like cybernetics don't

get any ideas Elon Musk oh lord but yeah i was

always aware of like your archetypal like true

resolute heroes like batman someone a lot of

characters a lot of people can aspire to but

let's be honest he's like fundamentally scarred

but so is nightwing but he has that hero experience

that he grew himself without batman's mentorship

so like i agree completely yeah those two characters

so strongly have that hero spirit despite all

the bad stuff they've been through yeah uh i

don't know if you'll remember this the only reason

why i remember this is because i'm i'm crazy

uh the end of the new 52 run the end of kyle

higgins's run the very last before we get to

before it got to i think it was issue 29 it wasn't

issue 30 it was issue 29 The end of that story

when he saves the girl, when Nightwing saves

the girl, and he has this whole monologue at

the end. It's like, oh, my God, that's right

there. Those two pages. What he says, I don't

have it pulled up or anything, but what he says,

like, I can hear Lauren Lester in my head as

I'm reading this. I'm like, that's why I love

that character. Same thing with Peter Parker's

Spider -Man. Whatever he's going through, he

will eventually make a speech about. being better

or doing better or doing the right thing like

you said the hero spirit and yeah that's why

those two characters i think are the ones that

people should be aspiring more towards than trying

to live up to a legend that has so many emotional

scars like no it's totally true oh yeah good

yeah because um like that one speech just It

sums up the character so perfectly that I was

blown away that it's not been said before. He

does this because he chooses to, but it's still

the right thing to do. It breaks him and it's

so difficult, but he handles and does the right

thing every single time. Real heroism. That's

why we draw to these stories over and over. 100%.

Alright, question four. It's the age -old question.

DC or Marvel? It's very close, but I think...

sort of to summarize my father's sentiment um

you'll get strong individual runs and individual

stories in marvel but by and large they know

that they have the reputation of their movies

to keep them in sales so they can sort of like

make their sales in comics back by having 111

million different varying covers which just seems

like a vapid crash cash grab in my opinion sure

you get stuff like death of dr strange and just

like vintage moon knight which will have really

deep cosmic stuff that just really pushes the

boundary. But most of the time, they'll sort

of repackage a mystery of the Fantastic Four

not sharing a page in their entire six -issue

miniseries just because they want to frame it

around the mystery of why the Fantastic Four

broke up. That was the last Marvel run I tried

to read, and I was like, no, they've been a classic

group since the 60s. We want to see all four

of them together. Don't mystery box me. You're

not DJ Abrams. yeah whereas with dc you get like

stuff that's within the continuity but you're

like because i'm reviewing catwoman i have been

since she left batman on the altar way back in

the pandemic you remember that um but it's just

been a such a real psychological sort of case

study for this character. I try and get the moniker

of DC's greatest thief just sort of over for

Catwoman because that's something that she deserves,

like world's greatest detective or world's greatest

archer or something like that. But it's been

such a sincere character study that you can really

feel that she's been through emotional turmoil

and she had to make the harrowing decision of

leaving Batman because Gotham City would be better.

Sure, he's gone off the rails and sat in the

chair and had this fever trip that all the Dick

Spank stuff was real. That's up to him. But you

get hot and real emotional stakes consistently

with DC. Well, Marvel hits on that majority of

the time. Also, in terms of the depth of the

characters and such, you have some of the greatest

rogues galleries in DC, specifically against

Batman, and then specifically against Spider

-Man. It's hard to take some of the heroes seriously

in Marvel because they've just been flipping

in and out of the Avengers consistently. I love

them both for very different reasons, but I'd

have to put DC just a little bit ahead if you

have to put me on the spot. Yeah, 100%. I mean...

Marvel's great. They are. We've done a lot of

really awesome Marvel coverage from many of the

Marvel – we've done Hulk. We've done all kinds

of Spider -Man stuff in the last 10 years on

the podcast. We've done some Captain America

stuff. We did House and Powers of X, which that

was amazing. But Marvel is like – with the comic

side of it, like you're saying, for – me and

probably for you it's like in spurts like there

may be a series or a run but there isn't like

something that started in 1975 going up to 2025

that you've read for that whole you know what

i mean like there isn't one story one whole thing

because and then we get into the whole point

of both of them oh look we need new number one

money reboot like that's just the nature of like

No, I know it is. These characters have been

around since the 80s, so you've got to justify

why they're not geriatrics trying to fight. If

you're getting tired, you need to reset time,

but then I think the way that you handle time

reboots is a big step of it as well. It feels

like another grandiose sort of failure of the

multiverse, like various crises. it can get sort

of stuffy and grandiose you can be you can be

sensible with like those reboots and I think

DC have handled them a little bit better than

Marvel have yeah absolutely and then you get

you know somebody like Sean Gordon Murphy and

just okay I'm gonna do my thing and I'm like

okay go ahead we've covered everything up to

everything up to von freeze we haven't gotten

to i've read all of it but we haven't actually

covered it more on the podcast but yeah man that

oh man that that beyond the white knight oh boy

his his batman beyond damn honestly anytime batman

beyond is in the comics i've really enjoyed it

from 10 000 clowns rest in peace norm to everything

else that that has been done it's just so good

because everybody has a different take on gotham

city of the future which ladies and gentlemen

the future is coming up pretty fast 2039 is going

to be here before you know it folks and i don't

see i don't see flying cars yet the trouble with

flying cars is they wouldn't really work like

if we want to fly we just take airplanes like

the like the real tech that's going to convey

as quickly is like because like like tesla and

all those companies they have real plans to get

us on mars by 2050 and if i'm not on if i'm not

getting like a coach ticket then what's the point

yeah exactly so what other publishers do you

enjoy reading oh i honestly this is going to

be a big insight into terms of how why i read

these days i read very very little marvel and

dc to be perfectly honest i will pick up the

weird fringe fantasy and speculative science

fiction stuff you got like boo i'm doing amazing

stuff right now like Really weird stuff, like

I had to walk past the trades for Cities of Magic

when I was at Thought Bubble a few days ago.

It was one of the hardest things I ever had to

do. But also to look out to the east, I read

quite a fair bit of well -made manga from the

weird wizards at Shonen Jump. I try to read broadly

and read loudly. I still have strong love and

appreciation for the superhero genre, and I'll

read good stuff. either for your views or because

I love the characters, but the stuff that I'm

reading for me is like weird fantasy and sci

-fi stuff. Very cool. I will make a suggestion.

Image Comics, the massive verse, Radiant Black,

Radiant Red, Radiant Pink, the stuff that Kyle

Higgins and his team are doing, I think, Mr.

Science Fantasy, or sci -fi, you would like that,

I think, a lot. I've heard really good stuff

about it. I've heard really good stuff about

it, so it might be worth my checking in. Yeah,

I think you would. Start with Radiant Black.

Start at the beginning. I think there are four

trades currently. I think the fifth one's coming

out. But yeah, no, I love, love those stories

from them. Print or digital, which one both either

or and why or why not when you read comics? In

a fundamental sense, as long as people are reading.

And people are reading fiction. I'm happy with

it. I have a literary, I have a creative writing

degree. So hearing the stats on how fewer novels

are being read pound for pound every year just

hurts my soul because that just tells me how

much more stupid the general populace is getting,

which is why I love comic books as a media because

it's fresh stories in a comparatively easier

to digest format, but coming out constantly.

That's why I love it and respect it. There's

something magical about going into a bookstore

and just getting in the smells and getting the

ambience of it, but I think as long as it doesn't

melt your eyes with the consistent looking at

screens that we do in our day and age and our

time to times, as long as you're reading something,

I fully support it. I know you're a big believer

in going digital, which I also totally respect.

It's a lot easier and you can you can get a huge

collection down without like filling up your

house to make a fort out of long boxes. But as

long as people are reading, I support it. My

fort's made out of Funko Pops, so there's not

much difference. But that's just the great thing

about those, that fortress of just like those

charming characters made real and just like cutesy

little. soulless black disc eyes yeah i love

it when people love things so as long as people

are reading one way or another i'm hell for it

for the record folks they don't all have soulless

black eyes there are some one some with soulless

white eyes and blue eyes depending on the character

so for generally he is yeah so yeah digital amazon

you bastards so It has finally happened, folks.

I was not planning on doing this on this episode,

but since it's so timely, I got the email from

Amazon the other day. Hello, comics fans! We

are running to let you know about upcoming changes

to the way that you will access and read your

Comixology digital comics. Oh, yeah. Oh, they've

been like... This is the final news. Like, this

is the announcement of the fact that as of December

4th, 2023, we will be merging the Comixology

and Kindle applications on iOS, Android, and

Fire OS starting today, which was November 4th.

Well, it was today. Wow. Oh, no, two days ago.

Starting two days ago. Any books previously purchased

on Comixology will automatically be visible on

your library to the Kindle app. The upgraded

Kindle app experience is available now. However,

you may continue reading your books in the Comixology

app until December 4th of 2023. So they're basically

giving us less than a month. So anyone out there

listening to the sound of my voice that still

uses the Comixology app and you want to keep

your digital stuff, get the Kindle app. I've

already switched. I think I even removed the

Comixology app from my phone. I don't know if

I did, but I know. Like, I've got my phone right

here. Entertainment, Kindle. And one of my biggest

issues with Kindle was at the time when they

first announced, I don't know when it was, 2014,

2015, whatever the hell it was that they bought

them. My biggest problem with Kindle was they

did not have the traditional standard, the one

thing that made Comixology the best. reader out

there which was the guided view where you could

go panel by panel story by story you'd actually

have to well if you were doing it on your computer

you wouldn't have to tilt your screen but on

phones you know you have to tilt your screen

and the images go bigger and wider depending

on what it is and you just get that this is why

i love digital so much this comiXology guided

view the guided view technology that they started

with because Instead of having to read a whole

page, I can read panel by panel and really get

immersed in the story. So that was my biggest

issue with the Kindle app when they first said,

hey, it's going to all be changing. So now that

this announcement happened, I'm like, okay, I'll

switch. And I went over and I looked and all

my stuff's there. I was like, Ooh, wait, it's

changed. It's better. It's good. This isn't zoom.

This is guided view. It works. Yay. I don't have

to burn the building down and stop the podcast.

Cause really when they announced they were taking

comiXology, I was like, when they took the website

offline, I'm like, you mother. Yeah. I was not,

I'm a bitter old man. Don't you know, folks,

I'm not that bad. I think you justified it. Cause

like, When you hear it's going to be taken out

from under you, it sounds scary because you don't

necessarily want to lose all, because you put

a lot of time and money into reading that stuff

and then buying the digital version so that you

can read them whenever you want. So them just

taking it over just because, there's a real possibility

that they could have just completely screwed

over the reader base. And I'm glad that they

didn't, but they very well could have. They very

well could have, yes. But yeah. Like you said,

I agree with you as far as, yes, read everything.

Read anything you can get your hands on, even

if it's just an instruction manual to put a hot

teapot together or something. As long as you're

reading, it doesn't matter. But some people are

so white -knuckle, steering wheel, holding the

wheel. Physical comics forever. Digital should

die. No, there needs to be a balance. There needs

to be a balance here. It's okay. You can have

your physical comics. You can huff the books

all you want and get high all you want on the

old smelling books, which are great. But like

I just said, digital for me is easier for me

to immerse myself in the stories. Speaking of

stories, who are some of your favorite comics

writers and why? So I read Alan Moore's Swamp

Thing and Alan Moore's Watchmen in very impressionable

ages. That sort of set my tone, not only as a

comic book reader, but as a human navigating

this unfair and kind of crap world. It's not

comic book storytelling. It's art. It's philosophy.

I think a lot of, especially of Watchmen, I think

a lot of it sort of informs my love for sort

of... acceptance of the superhero genre you really

got to suspend your disbelief a bit for me at

least for super here is to make sense in a world

like ours because there's very little stopping

them from becoming like tyrannical psychos that

will just take over because they have godlike

power and no one can go and mess with them yep

um that's why i love uh uh the the classic Alamo,

but also more recent Miracleman stuff, because

that is a vision of superheroes who admit, yeah,

humans suck, you don't know what you're doing,

we'll take care of it, we'll step in. And the

troubled nature of trying to handle that in their

own world. At the exact same time, Neil Gaiman's

sort of done wonderful things in the wider world

of, like, fiction of all flavours, and, like,

fictionalising history. and mythology through

his North Smith books. But like Sandman was the

exact palate cleanser I needed because my father

flung all that mountain of books because he had

all the singles for both stories. He flung those

at me when I was like 13, 14. And that's sort

of formed my decisions then. But then when I

look back to some of the classic stories, of

course, then he ordered wonderful things to make

Batman what he is today. You look at the ambitious

and wild things for artwork and for writing that

Christian Ward's doing for either the classic

like Aquaman or the weird cosmic trippy stuff

akin to your to your H .P. Lovecraft's in his

current Batman story there's a lot of stories

a lot of writers I really appreciate but also

looking east probably one of my favourite manga

series which I highly recommend is probably Chainsaw

Man by Tatsuki Fujimoto he's Again, it's a world

populated by devils, but it's sort of a metaphor

for oppression and degradation and injustices.

But it's almost a reimagining of the superhero

genre, but not really. I'm getting ahead of myself

because I know what the questions are going to

be. Like I said, I appreciate the show. I make

podcasts myself. I like it when someone does

it well. Yeah, they have... He handles cosmic,

trippy, heaven -hell -style stories in the same

energy of light -hearted, quippy stuff, but also

emotionally raw stories. It's the one story I'm

going to try and persuade my father to try and

pick up, because I know he doesn't go for manga,

but that might be one story. If he does appreciate

it, then I've done my job, but I'm not holding

my breath either way. Stories are hard to find,

which is why they must be held onto. What defines

a good story to you, Adam? It's funny you should

ask that. I wonder. One word. Characters. You

can dress up the world to be as fantastical or

weird or out there as you want. You can set it

in a hyper -realistic, grungy look of how things

are in truth. But if you don't care about the

people that are living these day -to -day stories,

then why bother reading? You really have to just

understand their struggles, understand what they

want, understand why they're doing what they're

doing. And if those questions are wavered on

and not consistently held up to, then you really

lose any reader. And that's another thing of

why... I still rate DC so high because even though

you have godlike characters like Superman, to

a lesser extent, Aquaman, you have a real sense

that even though they have lofty, grand responsibilities,

they still do their best to be true to themselves

and never let the struggles of Super Hero X just

really beat them down. no matter how many pounds

yeah it's hard to keep a balance and everything

but they do keep a balance specifically to superman

he can fight lex he can fight brainiac he can

fight dark side all day and still at the end

of the day he's he's a farm boy from kansas who's

going to save every cat and every tree no matter

how many times the meme is put out there because

that's just who he is he can go up against the

big stuff the world ending stuff and Just every

time I always flash back to the end of Justice

League Unlimited. Oh, yeah. No, Darkseid. You

still try to fight. Can't you see that it's hopeless?

That man won't quit as long as he can still draw

breath. None of my teammates will. Me? I've got

a different problem. I feel like I live in a

world made of cardboard. Always taking constant

care not to break something. To break someone.

Never allowing myself to lose control. Even for

a moment, someone could die. You can take it,

can't you, big man? What we have here is a rare

opportunity for me to cut loose and show you

just how powerful I really am. people come to

the story for you know you can read a blurb and

part of the blurb is oh what was the i know what

it was when uh when the solicits came out for

i'm always going to go back to beyond the white

knight because i'm just kind of hooked on it

right now uh when the solicits came out for issue

one for beyond the white knight something about

oh terry mcginnis works for derrick powers you

could hear my head spitting around So fast, like

faster than a Chuck Norris spin kick. I'm like,

wait, what? Terry is working for, wait a minute.

This is not, and I, and I know cause it's Sean

Gordon Murphy. I understand his Batman universe

is not the, and that's fine. But like it's lines

like that, that even though I've known Terry

for, oh my God, next year is 25 years since the

show debuted. Oh God. Feel old yet? I do. And

you aren't even that old. Well, you are. You're

three years older than, oh my god, you're only

three years older than that show. Jesus. But

yeah, stuff like that. Reading a solicit like

that is like immediately, okay, go to the local

comic shop, pre -order everything I can from

this series kind of thing. And that's, again,

character moments, character things, and that's

why the characters define the stories. Definitely.

So you go into one of your local comic shops.

What does a story have to have to draw you in?

You see something on the shelf and you're like,

oh, this cover or that cover. Once you get it

home and you read the first issue, specifically

the number one issue, what does that number one

have to have to keep you reading past the first

issue? For me to keep reading and because of

my own ADHD. Because of my very high standards

as a reader and writer of fiction, my standards

are quite high, so it needs a lot to keep me

invested. I need the inciting incident to happen

almost immediately. I need whatever is gripping

this set of main characters to be urgent, immediate,

and it has to be so fundamentally a personal

problem to them that it has to just grip them

immediately and they are immediately set into

action. I think a lot of my own personal problems

with like... weeklies or monthlies is that um

sure the issue is there but they have to still

drag that out and so it's like they're aware

of the problems they need to face but it's going

to take them a while before they even get close

to that i think one of the few times that's never

been done that's been done well is uh dan jurgens's

run of the actual like in canon and beyond stuff

because there was always like monster of the

week sort of like, over, like, three or four

issues each to his run. But then he'd circle

through them and stuff. But there would always

be breadcrumbs of the next monster creeping into

the last one. So you never lose any, like, tempo.

You never lose any sense that there's going to

be some sort of threat that he has to deal with.

At the same time, if there's not necessarily,

like, a super strong, like, problem they've got

to sort out, then... If the characters are compelling

enough so that they have lives that are interesting

and rich and deep, they sort of create problems

just by existing, then that can still be pretty

interesting and stuff. That's sort of a trope

a lot for Eastern storytelling for some of the

manga that I read. But it's very hard to keep

that interesting, but it can be effective when

it's mixed up. Yeah, absolutely. And that's why

I don't mind waiting for the trade. Look, I don't

mind supporting. the comics on a monthly basis,

but reading comics monthly is just like torture

for me because I want the whole, like this whole

thing now, and this has been going on for years,

but when Netflix, when I first got Netflix streaming

back in 2010, 2011, whatever, they gave you everything

all at once. And like, here, here you go. You

can do whatever you want with this. Here's all

13 episodes or however many episodes it's supposed

to be, whatever it is. Here's everything. Boom.

Binge if you want. Like, I am a binger on almost

every piece of content that I consume. And I

hate waiting. I don't mind waiting for the trade.

Like, if I'm not getting, like, Neo -Gothic.

Like, I haven't read the first two issues yet.

Am I going to? Yes, probably, because we'll probably

end up doing episodes here on the show about

it in single -issue form. But if I was, like,

really going to be a stickler and waiting for

that trade... I would never open those books

until the, and I'm perfectly fine because I haven't

got sucked into the story yet. If I get sucked

into the story and then I have to wait a month

or if something happens, like, you know, production

shuts down or whatever, you know, something stupid

happens and the book is delayed six months. It's

like, Oh God, give it to me. I know I get it.

Production is delayed. That's that sucks. But

like, damn it. So that's where my, whole i'm

not gonna i don't know if i have adhd i know

i have add so they're there but it's just like

oh my god but yeah no i'm perfectly fine waiting

for the trade if i haven't already started reading

the story honestly i'm the exact same like streaming's

really killed it for people with um bad attention

spans because why would you want to wait weekly

for the next episode of your favorite show i

want to watch it now yep oh that's why i haven't

that's why i haven't touched um loki or ahsoka

yet on disney plus i'm waiting for all of that

to fall to drop um so yeah like doing things

weekly for any story that you really care about

is murder so assume the quickest you can get

it into your face holes i'm all for it 100 who

are some of your favorite comics artists some

of my favorite comics artists are the ones who

like it works for the stories that they're telling

but they just make just genuinely beautiful art

it's fairly generic to say alex ross at this

point but to do oils of hyper realistic quality

for some of my favorite characters it's just

truly wonderful stuff but in terms of someone

who's working a lot more prolifically now i've

had the pleasure of having a few good conversations

with christian ward another fellow english creator

and just a very nice man but some of the some

of the color work and some of the like existential

trippy nature i like a lot of um A lot of very

out there artwork. I think... Oh, was it Dave

McKean who did Arkham Asylum with Grant Morrison?

Oh, I would have to look that up. Which Arkham

Asylum are we talking about here? The original

one, the Grant Morrison one. That's why they

refused to work together. Oh, I am not sure.

Yes, Dave McKean. Yeah, Dave McKeon. Yep, yep,

yep. Because, of course, Dave McKeon went on

to do the vast majority of the Sandman covers.

The weird, psychedelic, dreamlike sort of stuff.

And who's the artist that did this? Which artist?

So there's a very obscure sort of sci -fantasy

retelling of the Myths of King Arthur called

Starhenge, the Song of the Dragon and the Boar.

Arted and illustrated by Liam Sharp. It took

me like three hours. to read issue one, just

because I was staring at how beautiful the artwork

was. I was just going, because it felt like I

was getting the classic Arthurian myth of just

like Merlin, Knights of the Round Table, all

of that good stuff, framed around a blood space

war out on the fringes of the universe. But he

felt like he poured like a liter of LSD into

my eyeballs in the best way. I just stared at

it and stared at it. And then I read it. Phenomenal

stuff. I think the first trades are finally out,

so pick it up if you ever see it. Yeah, I'll

have to get that title for you after the show

so I can search for that on Amazon. Yeah, I am

huge for the Arthurian legend. I always have

been. I remember, again, going back because I'm

old, but in 1994, almost 30 years ago, I found

a copy. It was a really old, beat -up copy of

John Steinbeck's King Arthur and His Noble Knights.

And, oh, my God, just the way that he wrote that,

I mean, just so damn good. I actually have a

– I bought it a couple of years ago now. I have

a fresh copy of it, and I need to go back and

reread that. But I've always loved Arthur, Merlin,

even Morgana and all that, just the whole thing.

Just absolutely love it. Of course, one of my

favorite Disney movies is The Sword in the Stone.

I love all of those myths and do definitely read

Starhenge because it is that myth like you've

never even read it. Camelot 3000 did a lot of

good cosmic future fantasy stuff for that legend,

but this is something else. This is something

else. You will love it, I promise you. If you

love the legends, you will love this. I promise

you that. Very cool, very cool. Do you have a

favorite non -superhero title? So many. Honestly,

so many. Right now, I'm reading a lot of the

Boom Studios stuff, sort of the adaptations of

Magic the Gathering, my favorite trading card

game. I read a lot of, like, fantasy, antic stuff

set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons. Like,

the actual IDW Dungeons & Dragons comics are

very good, but I also am just a sucker for, like,

the adaptations of the Critical Role campaigns

and the Adventure Zone. Yeah, if it's like sword

and sorcery, I'm all over it. So superheroes

are still very close to my heart, but I read

broadly. I'm proud of how broadly I read. Yeah,

very cool. What is your favorite run or story

arc of a series? It's got to be Dan Jokins' strong

takes on Batman Beyond, no questions asked. The

voice kept calling me Bruce. In my mind, that's

not what I call myself. What do you call yourself?

Oh, yeah. I suppose you would. But that's my

name now. Hmm. Tell that to my subconscious.

There's something so rewarding about seeing these

characters that you and I personally grew up

with. I'd always seen and heard that, like, rave

rock music when I was three years old, not understanding

what the show around it was. But then growing

up with this character, like the high stakes

future version of Gotham, to then see it. in

uh the justice league and the tv series into

it being so good in the comics you get real looks

of what a future gotham would be like while still

weaving in damien wayne being ahead of the league

of shadows or like an aging john constantine

right now teaching the weird cat folk under gotham

magic yeah just getting the current characters

to just feel so lived in in this super outlandish

future version of gotham is so rewarding but

then again If we're talking about whole runs,

I would be a much more boring and much less intelligent

person without Alan Moore's Swamp Thing and Neil

Gaiman's Sandman. Those aren't comic book stories

to me. Those are philosophy. Those are art. I

need to go back and try Sandman. I've never really

had any... I always hear people talking about

it and I look at it like... Take Saga, for example.

Saga is the same thing. People always talk about

that. I tried reading and I couldn't even get

through the first issue of Saga. I don't know

what it is with my brain that just would not

let me. My brain just didn't wrap around that

story. But at some point, hopefully within the

next year, I will try my best to get to Sandman.

I will admit it is very dense. The psychedelic

artwork is not for everyone, and the weight of

some of the storylines are very dense, but if

you can stick through it, it will break your

heart in a way that you'll be thankful for. That's

the best way I can say it. Yeah, absolutely.

And yeah, Dan's run on Batman Beyond from, and

I'm just looking at the trades here, from Escaping

the Grave, Rise of the Demon, The Long Payback,

Target Batman, The Final Joke, Divide, Conquer,

and Kill. So good. first flight and the eradication

agenda in those eight volumes and all those issues

he wrote, like just, man, that story was just,

oh man. It feels like he was on that title for

like a thousand years, but 2016 is when it started.

Yeah. I mean, that's an eternity in this business.

That's an eternity to write for one character,

but the consistency with which he gave out that

character and just the. But the understanding

that he had of the wider DC universe to be able

to weave them in while still telling a sincere

future Gotham story. He was kind of flexing.

He was kind of showing off. But I can respect

it when it's done well. People are allowed to

toot their own bugles about how good they are

when they are actually that good at something.

100%. And yeah, what's so funny is the trade,

the final trade for Batman Beyond 2016 Volume

8, the eradication agenda. Just came out two

years ago in 2021. It finished off issues 43

to 50. So he wrote 50 issues of Batman Beyond.

And my buddy JT and I covered all of this because

JT is kind of my Batman Beyond buddy. We cover

all the Batman stuff except for the Sean Gordon

stuff. I had other people for that, which I now

have to find somebody else for because of real

life stuff. But it is what it is. But the Dan

Juergens run, man, it is, was, and will always

be so good. And that's what I love about people

coming to Batman Beyond in comics. Whether it's

in the main core continuity of DC, whatever they're

currently doing, or if it stands out. I've always

felt that it stands out than it is tied to New

52 or whatever the hell. Definitely. Kyle Higgins,

like I mentioned earlier, Adam Beecham and Norm

Brayfogle when they did the 10 ,000 Clowns, and

then Kyle came in and did his thing and all that,

and we had Dan, and now we have Colin and Jackson

and everybody. It's just, I mean, for almost

25 years, folks, Batman Beyond was a three -season

animated series, and for almost 25 years, we've

had... pretty damn amazing comics making new

stories in that universe which are so great they

are so great that's the amazing thing is because

of like the nature of bam and beyond because

they started that concept in the animated series

is like from the ground up it if it was done

by any other creative team like it could have

been like bizarre at best or just like forgotten

about at worst yep But I trust Bruce Tim to make

superhero TV about any team. Honestly, any team.

Because he did that, he did the original Batman

the Animated Series, he did Justice League. Those

characters are so true to form that it's honestly

in places as good, if not better, than some of

the stories that define them in the comics. Yeah,

100%. What is a comic you can read over and over

again, single issue or trade? I tried to read

Watchmen at least once a year just to keep myself

grounded and angry at the world. I was actually

given a first edition tray of paperback of it

by my father back when it was first collected

and it was so incredibly beat up that I feel

scared to read it. I read it with those white

gloves like people in museums that handle historical

documents. I just try to be very generous. Just

peel the page over because I don't want to like

desecrate any further because I read it properly.

I read all of the excerpts of the Under the Hood

novels and I read the pirate comics and I read

the psychology reports from the doctor that tried

to deal with Rorschach because Alan Moore, man,

he has no business being like so deep in a world

that he has every intention of just destroying

but also looking a lot like Rasputin. there's

an evil genius and um like some of his because

you turn to writing novels these days and some

of his novels are equally just as heartbreaking

and unexpected so i could read that forever i

could also read um certain excerpts of this one

thing forever there's specific stories from i

don't know i don't remember the exact number

of it but there was one um red hood outlaw issue

where he had broken off from the other outlaws,

and he was on his vendetta on his own, pushed

away all his friends, pushed away any influences

he had, just doing this himself. Bruce Wayne

catches up to him and lets him know that Arsenal

passed, and the emotion of that loss just felt

so real to me. When you get a single moment of

just humanity between two characters, that really

sticks with you. Yeah. Power of BC. Yeah. And

especially with Bruce, because usually Bruce

moments are no matter what other characters in

the scene, he always finds a way to just, you

know, hit you right in the throat with whatever

emotion he's going to make you feel kind of thing.

And I just why only because not not because we're

going to record this, but because of something

else. I was oh, I had recorded a separate episode.

We were doing. I think it should be out by no,

it's not out yet. It's coming out, uh, the end

of the month, uh, in, uh, November 30th. Uh,

my buddy who is not, well, I'd like to consider

your dad, my buddy, but no, I have too many Steve's

in my life. My buddy, Steve Megatron, he, um,

he and I did a 30th anniversary, uh, episode

for. Mask of the Phantasm, and in that he asked

me, doesn't the Phantasm show up later in the

shows? And I said, I think she does, but I don't

remember. Well, yes, but actually no. Yeah, she

does, because like I said, I went back and I'm

like, oh right, epilogue, because Amanda Waller

tried to kind of have her kill Terry's parents.

Amanda Waller doing Amanda Waller things. Well,

you know, it is – hey, as long as it's CCH Pounder,

that's all I care about. Like, seriously, she

isn't for – there's no – oh, man. I am so – I'm

not mad. I just don't know what to do with it.

So as of this recording, Marvel released the

Madam Web trailer, and I was like, what? What

is this? What do I do with this? I don't get

this. Like, what are you doing? I haven't heard

about this either. You haven't seen this? Oh,

my God. I will send it. They're doing a Madam

Web movie. Why? I don't know. Are they that out

of ideas? Probably. I don't know. It's killing

me. I saw the trailer yesterday. Whatever. Whatever.

And I'm over here thinking to myself, there has

only ever been one. madam webb in visual not

comics in in television cartoon film whatever

be quiet he is using his head at long last something

you may never learn to do and that was at the

end of spider -man the animated series when stan's

wife joan played the voice of the character throughout

spider -man and then at the very end stan himself

shows up so you know all that it's like and then

i look at this and i'm like what the are you

doing marvel okay sure clearly they are running

out of ideas because the quality of the movies

is so all over the place that like it's so hard

to keep up i i say this in every podcast i do

look if you sit there and put an end point on

your universe and you title the thing end game

That signals the end to me. Hawkeye was fine.

Hawkeye was a nice little story. I like Hawkeye.

That's cool. It was kind of nice seeing Falcon

in winter because I love Sam as Falcon. That's

fine. Everything else they've done so far, I'm

just like, eh, whatever. It's there. Honestly,

me too. Honestly, me too. Because now, the Death

of Doctor Strange is probably my favorite recent

complete Marvel run. And so I love that character

because, you know, cosmic trippy magic. But the

Doctor Strange movies have been just so... They're

not bad, but they're not good either. I don't

know how they handled the character. They're

trying to turn him into the linchpin for their

Marvel universe to replace Iron Man. But like

you said, Endgame, it should have been a well

-rounded ending. Even then, Infinity War was

better as qualities of films. I don't understand

it. So sure, Madam Wen, I'll... probably see

it i probably won't i refuse i refuse i won't

pay money for it i'll just wait for it to show

up on disney plus and i'm bored on a weekend

see i would never be that bored i would never

i would never let myself get so bored that my

my last resort would be like I will go back and

watch the end of Spider -Man the Animated Series

over and over and over again. You'll have a puddle

on my keyboard from me crying over the ending

of that show. Then you'll see me watch... Honestly,

I felt like that would just be an easier, better

way to wrap up the character. Yeah. Why make

a whole movie out of someone I guarantee nobody

knows? Like, for comic diehards like us, sure,

we know them. For the majority of people that

have only seen the movies, who the hell is this?

Who the hell is this, yeah. And movies are not

enough time, unless you have something like...

Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3. Say what you

will about Iron Man 2 and 3. Fine, whatever.

It is what it is. Iron Man 3, I will defend to

my last breath because it showed the psychological

effects that Tony has been suffering from since

he went into space at the end of Avengers in

2012. So that's fine. You line it up like that.

But generally, a single film, you don't have

enough time in two hours to give every... Joe

Schmoe off the street, all of the history that

you would need to give them to get them to even

be interested in that character. However, yeah,

I mean, it's just not enough time. And you mentioned

Dr. Strange. The only time so far in Marvel Studios

stuff that I've like really dug into Stephen

Strange is what if season one and guess what?

Yeah. Next month. Nine days straight. Finally,

after two frigging years, I've been waiting so

damn long. We are getting What If Season 2 next

month. And they are starting December 22nd. Nine

days. This kid puts on quite a show. I have eyes

on the target. He does not look all that threatening.

Looks can be deceiving, your highness. Are you

sure you do not want any backup? Nah, I'm great

with kids. You thought the story was over. But

it was only just beginning. I don't do sequels.

Normally. But things have gotten a little twisted.

In the multiverse. Who is this handsome dog?

On Christmas? What is this, Con Air? No, wait,

Under Siege? No, no, no, that's not it. Hey,

John McClane, focus! Yeah, that was actually

good stuff. They didn't have to care about studio

execs. They didn't have to care about following

continuity. They just told some random stuff

that accidentally tied all together really well.

That was good stuff. If they can keep any...

future drops like that that's why i'm okay with

loki uh for the majority of it it's so hard to

care when it's that all over the place 100 are

there any comics in the past or currently that

you wish you had not read them like oh my god

what did i just waste my time doing see now when

i listened to a my father's episode and a couple

other episodes of your show when you this question

got asked i had to really search my soul for

an answer because i've been fortunate that my

father's only fed me good stuff but i can think

of one thing that i like i don't mind that i've

read it it's added to my to my understanding

of the character but it's the most bizarre stuff

that i've ever read and my father who i know

will listen to this knows exactly what i'm talking

about so Normally, when something I love, DC,

and a storytelling media I love, manga, comes

together, that's usually a recipe, a recipe for

success, something that I would appreciate. My

father's in a privileged position that he gets

sent things to, sent physical copies of either

trades or independent hardbacks that he gets

sent to review for either Dark Knight News, DC

Comics News, or our website, Fantastic Universes.

We were sent Superman versus Meshi. It was a

Superman DC -licensed manga where the entire

plot line is Superman flying out to Japan and

losing his mind about how good Japanese food

is. That's it. That's the story. Oh my... My

father got about 10 pages into it and was like,

no, I can't do this, and gave it to me to review.

I read it cover to cover and wrote as positive

as a review as I possibly could, and you can

find that on my website, Fantastic Universes,

right now, because it just baffles me. There

was so much baked into it that could have been

fascinating. We have art styles that are clearly

homogen slash ripping off every movie under the

sun. There's a brief cameo of Steppenwolf that

looks just like how he is in the movies. icons

of, like, it's very clearly bit -modeled on a

Christopher Reeve Superman, and we get certain

images of, like, Batman from the Christopher

Nolan movies. That I love. That just brings in

all kinds of readers. I'm okay with that. We

get some really interesting, like, characterizations

of the Justice League. Batman's this hard -ass

who actually calls all the shots. Wonder Woman's

there as a sort of sympathetic character. Green

Lantern's missing in action. A Hal Jordan type

is missing in action. Is he, like, has he become

parallax? Is he lost in space? We don't know.

But none of those questions are answered because

the majority of the runtime is Superman loving

Tempura so much that his heat vision goes off

and he can't control his powers. And here's the

worst part. It's eight chapters, right? Volume

two is coming very soon. Oh, no. Oh, yeah. Oh,

no. So I don't hate that I read it. I'm glad

that I read it just for my own morbid curiosity.

But if Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of Spotless

Mind wanted to zap that out of my brain, I'd

be okay with forgetting it. Oh my god. I'm fortunate

that everything else I've read has been either

okay to good, but there's nothing that confuses

me more than Superman loving udon noodles. Because

there's moments, right? where he flies Batman

out to these restaurants, and Batman's like,

the soy sauce is dark like I am. I love this.

And he takes Aquaman to one of those conveyor

belt sushi restaurants, and Aquaman's using his

trident to get plates off of the conveyor belt,

and I'm like, dude, no. He's meant to be fighting

Black Manta with that trident. Don't do my boy

dirty like this. Bizarre. So bizarre. Oh my god.

That's about as bizarre as... Colonel Sanders

teaming up with the Justice League. But that

happened as well. That happened. That sounds

a hell of a lot better than Superman and Japanese

food, though. Like, we've covered that. That

was good. Those two, those three comic issues

that they did for the... Oh, that was so good.

It was so fun. I love that. Like, I'm just waiting

for DC to be like, here's the new McDonald's

promotion. Can you imagine Ronald McDonald? Batman

being in a comic. Yeah, they probably have to

take down the Hamburglar because he's taken all

of the patties out of everywhere. The Hamburglar

voiced by Mark Hamill. The Mark Hamill Burglar.

That's right. Oh man, that's so dumb. I love

it. God damn it. I miss you, Kevin Conroy. Son

of a bitch. I miss him every day. I cried like

I was working in a... high -profile central london

comic book store at the time and my boss came

up to me and was like have you heard the news

kevin conroy passed away and i collapsed behind

the comic book camera yeah yeah heartbreaking

well yeah very very heartbreaking but we actually

in 2012 got a chance to talk to him there's an

interview on the website with him and it's like

And again, folks, for people listening to the

sound of my voice, I'm sorry, but not everyone

that comes on this show knows these stories.

The way I phrase this is not to be disrespectful

to anyone else who has a story from September

11th, from the Towers, from whatever. But his

story, the way he told it to Steve and I, is

my favorite version of him telling that story.

and I'll send you the interview. Hell, I'll just

send you the story itself, but if you want to

listen to the whole interview, I'll send you

that too. But yeah, man, we had a chance to interview

him, and a couple of years ago, I think right

before, like 2018, 2019, whenever some anniversary

for BTIS was happening, I tried to reach out,

and I didn't get an answer. And the thing about

Kevin Conroy, folks... His private life was his

private life. Yes, he was absolutely on all the

time. Single greatest actor that loved the conventions

and loved all of us as fans and everything else,

but we didn't know. And then he wrote the DC

Pride story, and my buddy Ryan and I covered

that, and it's like, oh, holy shit. Yeah, but

I wrote a review for the DC Pride story for Dynamo

News as well. It was heartbreaking because, like,

you know his background. You know that he's been

lovingly married to his husband for years, but

you just didn't realize how badly under the thumb

and marginalized he was. It's just – it is heartbreaking.

Yeah. And, I mean, when the news came – like,

but I think my thing is, like, I can separate,

like, the person from the – like, yes, Kevin

Conroy will always be Bruce Wayne Batman, obviously.

But – I didn't need to know everything about

the man's personal life. I just needed to know

that that voice is always going to be, like,

you know what I mean? Like, I don't need, like,

take your favorite artist or your favorite song

or your favorite whatever. Like, okay, they're

giving me this thing in media. I love this. This

is great. I don't need to know. I don't know

that person personally. I know them through the

work that they've given me kind of thing. I don't

want to dig into people's personal lives. I'm

not a media journal that wants to just get all

the dirt. This isn't a tabloid, folks. You know

what I mean? And when that news came out, I'm

like, oh, really? I didn't even know. And I don't

want this to sound horrible, but I didn't care

because it was none of my business to know. That's

a good way to sort of think about it. I think

in my mind, hearing all of that, my heart broke

for him but that just made me appreciate him

a little bit more yeah we didn't we didn't need

to know all that it is heavy and it's a heavy

news to hear yeah but the fact that he still

gave his career defining performance his character

defining performance whilst going through all

of that just endless respect which makes me miss

him even more yeah 100 and nobody no again nobody

knew how sick he was nobody like that knew like

The reason why that news hit all besides the

fact that, oh, my God, it's Kevin Conroy. Oh,

my God. It's because nobody knew because he lives

his private life and his public life is all batarangs

and Batmobiles. And that's why I think the news

of him having been sick and then passing hit

all of us so hard is because. Nobody really knew

about it. And then you get the 4K version of

Mask of the Phantasm, and you have the I Am the

Night feature basically spotlighting him, and

it's like, oh, God. Oh, wow. Just, oh, man. Solely

missed. Just, man, just so missed. And then after,

you had gone to do some cooking duties after

the 9 -11 tragedy to help out. In New York. You

want to tell that story? You want me to tell

it? Sure. It's got a lot of foul language in

it. Should I clean it up? No, that's fine. We

are so, so explicit here at the Geekcast Radio

Network. Oh, really? Yes. Okay. Well, you know,

I live in New York. I live in New York, and after

the attack... Everyone wanted to help. I mean,

the thing that was amazing, you always see those

pictures of everyone running away from the buildings

as they were coming down with the cupboard. But

what you don't see any pictures of is everyone

running back. As soon as the dust cleared, people

started running back to try and, you know, help

people. And so I called. There was a number set

up. Everyone was being told to go to the Javits

Convention Center. That's where they were coordinating

the volunteers. So I went to the Javits Center,

and they already had everybody they needed. They

had such a huge turnout. They said, look, we've

got everyone we need. We have all the tunnelers.

We have all the diggers. We have overwhelmed

with volunteers. We don't need anybody. So I

was feeling so dejected. I was on my way home

thinking, what am I going to do? I want to help.

And I stopped off at a coffee shop, and there

was a guy there covered with dust. who had just

come from Ground Zero and said he was talking

to the waitress about how he was working in a

kitchen there. And I said to him, this is a total

stranger, I said, you know, I just came from

the volunteer place. They told me they didn't

need anybody anymore. He said, do you really

want to volunteer? I said, yeah. So he wrote

down this phone number. He said, call this number.

They need people. This is the kitchen at Ground

Zero. So I called them up, and they said that

they did need people. And they said, do you have

any restaurant experience? I said, I'm an actor.

Of course I have restaurant experience. What

do you need? You know, actors can do anything

in a restaurant. I said, so we really need cooks.

I said, well, I worked in a short order cook

when I was going through Juilliard. They said,

are you free now? And I said, yeah, between jobs.

They said, no, we mean right now, like tonight.

We need someone tonight. I said, yeah, I'll be

right there. So I ended up doing the night shift.

So like from 6 p .m. to about 6 a .m. And it

was a few blocks away from the actual pit. But

it was a big, big, like, cafeteria that they

had commandeered. It was a restaurant, I think,

called Nino's. It was a big old restaurant. And

they had taken it over, and all the work crews

would come in, covered with dust and soot, just

exhausted. And it was a very hot September. So

it was really, it was a very depressing atmosphere.

And there were these huge work lights set up

all over lower Manhattan, setting it up. It looked

like a moonscape. because it was a big search

site. And people would come in, and there was

just this sort of rumbling kind of melancholy

mumble going on, because everyone was so overwhelmed

by what had happened. And I was working this

night shift, and this guy who was next to me

one night goes, so I'm an architect during my

day job. What's your day job? I said, well, I'm

an actor. He said, yeah, but do you do some special

kind of acting? I said, I thought I knew your

name. I said, well, I really work in animation.

I do voices. He said, I knew it. You're Batman.

How did you know that? He said, everybody knows

who's Batman. I said, no, everyone does not know

who's Batman. He said, oh, my God, the guys are

going to go crazy if I tell them that. I said,

no one's going to care. He said, are you crazy?

He said, watch. So he goes out in the dining

room, and he goes, guys, guys, you're not going

to believe who's been cooking your dinners. It's

Batman. And there was this long pause, and you

hear it from the back of the auditorium. Bullshit.

And then someone else says, someone else says,

make him prove it. So I'm back in the kitchen,

right, in this big echoey kitchen, and I do,

I am vengeance. I am the night. I am Batman.

And there's this long, long silence. You hear

it from the back of the auditorium. Holy fuck,

that is Batman. We all started pouring back into

the kitchen and suddenly you hear this laughter.

And this guy's like, hey, you know that episode

where you and the Joker, you know, I watched

that show all the time with my kids. And you

know, hey man, what's that dated lady like? And

everyone wanted to know everything about the

show. And then the guy who had recognized me,

the architect, says, what's it like to be Santa

Claus? Because that's what happened. Santa Claus

just got here. And it was true. It was like suddenly

people had something else to think about, you

know? And so I emailed Andrea the next morning

at Warner Brothers and I told her what had happened

that night. I wrote it all as a story. And I

said at the end of it, you know, what we do is

not insignificant. We're already contributing.

And she said she circulated that all around Warner

Brothers. She said everybody at Warner Brothers

loved that story. It's just an amazing story

because, you know, a lot of, you know, and that

goes to like, you know, you know, sometimes we

will ask a question of, you know, do you get

recognized, you know, on this? Because a lot

of times voice actors, you know, in person don't

get recognized unless, you know, you're at a

convention and a big sign says, hey, this is

Kevin Conroy voice. You know, I mean, I assumed

I assumed this would be a completely anonymous

job. And for many years it was. You know, in

the early 90s, no one knew what I was doing.

It was when the Internet developed, and you could

just Google someone's name and then get the picture,

and suddenly everyone knew who was Batman. You

know, it's really since the Internet that people

know who's doing what. And for many, many years,

it was completely anonymous. And I was used to

it that way. I kind of liked it that way, actually.

This is Kevin Conroy. And I am the goddamn Batman.

All right. How large or small is your physical

comic book collection? I can actually give you

some specific numbers if you so wish, because

I'm one of those sad type A type people who likes

to scan and catalog everything. All right. Well,

if you want to, that's fine. That's cool. 51

specific comic book series that go across the

Batman 1 Band -Aid collections, like some trades

of bloodstained teeth. various anniversary editions

of Harley Quinn, and then weird sci -fantasy

stuff. And then I have a mixture of only 32 graphic

novels, the most recently of which was my lovely

girlfriend works at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre,

so she decided to treat me for my birthday with

the Deadpool Shakespeare collection, which was

a lot of fun. And then 179 volumes or trade paperbacks

of manga. Oh, wow. So my collection is definitely

modest, yeah. The Deadpool Shakespeare. It's

so dumb. I think you just broke my brain again.

Wait, you never heard about this? No, I've heard

a lot about a lot of Deadpool stuff because Ryan

Reynolds, Deadpool, whatever. But no, this is

the first time I ever heard about Deadpool Shakespeare.

Oh, yeah, it's so weird. I read it in a day because

it's that light and that much fun. So basically

it's. Deadpool wakes up in this sort of weird

alternate reality where every Shakespeare play

sort of like layered over each other. He wakes

up as though he's like Hamlet and he's got to

try and like fill out the plot of Hamlet. But

he makes best friends with Macbeth. Romeo like

punches him out because he tries to flirt with

Juliet. The witches give him like some magic

items that end up just being cursed. And he spends

a lot of the time after his first fight with

with Macbeth. His head gets cut off, so he does

a lot of the Alas, poor Yurik, looking at his

own head with his shoulderless body. It's so

dumb. He doesn't even properly end. It just sort

of gets to a point where, all right, cool, we've

played out as many Shakespeare things as you

can, so Prospero, the wizard from The Tempest,

just sends him back to his own world. But if

you want, like, ten minutes reading just to turn

your brain off, it's so much fun. So, question.

Do I need to read? This is in Deadpool World's

Greatest, right? Yep. Do I need to read the other

six volumes? Nah. Okay, because I'm one of those

types of guys. If I'm going to cover this on

the podcast, I need to start at volume one. I

need to start at the beginning. For that particular

trade, the first two -thirds of it is just the

standalone Shakespeare story. The last two issues

that I collected in that trade do tie into that

ongoing storyline. So that would be worth it

to cover the whole book. But for just Deadpool

Shakespeare is like four issues of really random

goodness. You don't need to be caught up too

much. OK, because have you written a review on

that yet? I might review it for my website, Fantastic

Universes, because we're on my website that I

co -manage with my father. We talk about everything

in the world of popular culture. So, yeah, I

could probably cobble together a review for it

and pretty soon. All right. Well, folks, I can

tell you right now, breaking news here inside

the pullback, coming in January 2024, episode

547, Deadpool Shakespeare with Adam Ray. I'm

writing it down right now. I'm more than happy

to talk about Deadpool Shakespeare and other

weird stuff in that world. More than happy to.

Because I need to experience this, because it

just doesn't seem... It's two very opposite ends.

Like, just... wow holy crap because a lot of

the actual text is like very closely lifted either

from shakespeare or written in the right verse

so that it reads like shakespeare but then again

you also get deadpool who like i don't know if

you do this because like i do and my father does

whenever we read certain comics if the voice

if the acting work around them is so good like

i cannot i could still hear kevin connor's voice

whenever i read yeah any hammer story yeah and

when i read deadpool and when we did Paul I hear

Ryan Reynolds because again that was the character

he always wanted to play and he did it so perfectly

so it's great hearing like eloquent reams of

Shakespeare and then Ryan Reynolds gets Ryan

Reynolds in Shakespeare saying that is what they

said yep so good so dumb you're gonna love it

I promise yeah there is there's one and I usually

put the audio in All the time, and I'll probably

put it around here somewhere, but when they were

doing the PG version, Once Upon a Deadpool, there's

an advertisement, a trailer, a teaser, whatever

you want to call it, of him with Fred Savage,

and he's reading him the book because the Princess

Bride and all this and all that, and Fred's like,

yeah, but at least it's not garbage like Nickelback

and then Deadpool, because it's Ryan, obviously,

and Ryan loves whatever. And it goes off. You

know, I've had it with you people with this Nickelback

hating stuff. And then they break into the how

you remind me. And oh, my God, I just I'm going

to be honest. I really like Nickelback. Like,

so do I. I mean, like, I don't get that. I don't

understand why people hate them. I think like

hating them is a bigger meme because it's easier

to do that than just to understand like what

the music's actually like. I always like I always

like that band. anything that's well made that

also has like a good like musicality and like

care for their instruments i'm all here for them

nickelback has always been like that especially

the more recent stuff they're a little bit more

out there and edgy because like very reminiscent

of imagine dragons another favorite band of mine

yep so yeah they don't deserve the hate that

they get no they don't not at all folks so once

upon a deadpool from marvel movies We are Marvel.

Yeah, but, you know, you're Marvel licensed by

Fox. It's like if the Beatles were produced by

Nickelback. It's music, but it sucks. Hey, that's

it. I'm done. I've had it with all this Nickelback

hating. You think that makes you cool with the

cool kids in school, Fred? No, it just makes

me right. It doesn't. They're overproduced, formulaic

ear garbage. Oh, really? You know who might disagree

with that? Facts. 50 million albums worldwide,

11th best -selling musical act of all time, Billboard's

most successful rock group of the last decade,

six Grammy nominations, 12 Juno Awards, those

count, six Billboard Music Awards, two American

Music Awards, one People's Choice Award, Canadian,

and a partridge in a pear tree. Sorry. I thought

we were just having fun. I didn't realize it

was a... You know, you were, um... You gotta

say you were nicer as a kid. Tired of living

like a blind man. Sick inside of a sense of feeling.

This is how you remind me. This is how you remind

me of what I really am. What is the one comic

you could never live without ever? So everybody's

safe, family, pets, all that, but the house is

burning down. What's the comic you're going to

run in and save? Probably that historical version

of Watchmen. Just because it's a first edition

print from 1991, back when the trade got first

collected. It's probably close between that or...

I'm just trying to think of my own collection

now. Yeah, I would be very sad and the flames

would be like peeling up and I would feel like

parts of my skin crisping before I inevitably

just pick up that historical document that is

Watchmen. There you go. What is the most money

you spent on a comic or a comic item? Comic item

could be statue, action figure, art, print, that

kind of stuff. Nothing at present. I think in

an ideal world, I want the Lego shadow box from

Michael Keaton's Batman Returns. huge lego model

where it looks like the bat symbol then you open

it up and it's the bat cave with all of the characters

the vehicles and all of that good stuff i would

love to own that one day but i think the actual

most amount of money i've downed on comic book

good stuff again just having a look at my collection

here i think it's probably just my like paid

subscriptions to keep up to date with um the

actual marvel and dc themed digital card games

Because that's consistent money that I got down

over and over again. I'm fortunate that in terms

of actual comics, I just need to ask my dad really

nicely and he'll loan me basically anything.

Well, I mean, you know, he's got 10 ,000 comics

in a two -bedroom house. Yeah. I don't know where

he fits it all. There must be some sort of subspace

something. No, he doesn't. That's the trick.

build a fort out of his collection all those

long boxes not only will it be like a reasonable

fort that you can stand up and move around in

it'd be fortified so if there's like a siege

or a zombie apocalypse there's nobody's getting

through that it's beautiful my mother hates it

so basically folks what he's saying is his parents

live in a comic book fort that isn't they don't

actually have a house it's just the books that

are built around them oh my god that's great

right this is so awesome what are you reading

right now and what do you think our listeners

should check out well if you appreciate uh trading

card games like i do boom studios who are a phenomenal

publisher in their own right um they are handling

uh the adaptation of the magic gathering trading

card game story I don't know why, but I feel

like their comics that come out weekly, and they

do hardback anthologies instead of just trades,

they're so much better than the actual licensed

story and the actual novels around the game.

Because it still has elements of the superhero

genre, because it follows wizards that are so

powerful they're basically gods, but they have

real -world struggles, and particularly in this

storyline, they're political leaders at the same

time, so they have to handle their phenomenal

cosmos. power whilst keeping their people that

they're running sort of safe. But the quality

of their stories are so much better than what's

actually going on in the main official story

of the game, because they have the audacity to

actually kill off main characters who are still

technically alive in the continuity of the game,

but aren't in the story itself. But in terms

of the classics run by Marvel and DC, I will

sing the praises of Tinny Howard's run of Catwoman

until the end of time. Being able to get a character

study of Catwoman in a real sense of feminist

appreciation is phenomenal stuff. And when you

get around to Neo -Gothic, you will sing its

praises like I do. I promise you that. Well,

I like the first half. What was the... Neo -something

or other. Neo -Gotham, Neo... I think so, yeah.

Whatever it was called originally, the first

six issues. So I like that. I just, yeah. Well,

we meet that Lumen character, and it leads perfectly

into Neo -Gothic as well. It's sort of showing

how grim and gritty that vision of Gotham is,

and that just makes a lot of sense to me. Yeah.

Was there ever a moment where you were, like,

done? Like, you just wanted to walk away from

it all with comics? I don't collect comics very,

like, heavily. Obviously, I collect a fair bit

of manga, but there's a lot of titles out there

and it's hard to keep up sometimes. But to give

up on that, that would be to give up on characters

that I've grown up with and to give up on stories

that define me as a person. So I don't think

I could. I honestly don't. So I usually ask this

because I have a toy. collecting story version

of this and that's where this question came from

and as you can tell folks from the entire episode

it's going to be a no to this question i already

know his answer their answer is going to be no

because uh hello do you have my parents get rid

of my comic story you don't um despite my mother's

best intentions no i've been i've been very Fortunately,

the collector's spirit has been drilled into

me by my father, and I actually turned his attention

to all of the database apps that I use so that

my father can catalog his collection because

he is in the process of downsizing his collection

a bit just to be able to cover certain costs

of things. But no, I hoard things. If it's something

shiny and important to me, you'll have to pluck

it from my cold, dead claws. Mm -hmm. Heroes,

heroines, anti -heroes, and heroines are villains.

What archetypes are your go -to reads? Because

of my own attitudes for how far you've got to

suspend your disbelief for superhero media, I

love the archetypal heroes, like your Justice

Leagues and your Avengers. But I will always

turn back to stories like Watchmen and Miracleman,

where... those characters are such phenomenal

cosmic powers that they have to be the squeakiest,

clean people ever to not just go off the rails

and become like your Miracle Mans or even Homelander

from The Boys, using that power to just sort

of become demagogues or tyrants. So I love the

stories, but they need to stay on the straight

and narrow, which is why I love the arc that

Batman's gone through during the Gotham War.

he's really got up on his high horse and just

went crazy from his own effects of just the,

uh, his, his seeing the, um, the wider continuity

coming into the world and the Batman of zero

and ours is like dark mirror conscience in the

back of his head. Uh, I think for that, then

for the same reason, villains need to have something

really grim just to justify why they enjoy. hurting

people and causing damage but there's something

so fascinating about them but I think the joy

of an anti -hero someone who does the right thing

in theory but ultimately still tries to serve

themselves just as much there's something really

satisfying about that kind of character as well

so as long as they're well written and compelling

then I can get behind most kinds of characters

that's the joy of a good story 100 % completely

agree. What is one item from a comic book you'd

love to have in the real world? So you can reach

into an Alan Moore comic or whatever comic and

you can just pull out something. I mean, stupid

examples I use are like Batarangs and things

like that. But what is an item you would love

to just have in the real world out of a comic?

I would love to take either the Batmobile or

Archie. For a joyride, even though I can't drive,

because it's not a mandatory thing for us here

in the UK to learn how to drive when you're a

kid. I'd say, actually, though, one of the fun,

light -hearted, high -fantasy comics I read called

The Adventure Zone. There's one wizard character

called Taco who has a wand called the Wand of

Switcheroo, where if you point at something or

someone, you swap places with that thing. So

just being able to mess with people, just point

at one and then switch places with someone. It

could be fun and really stupid. Oh, man. Yeah,

that would be crazy. All right, folks. He mentioned

the Batmobile. We're going to get to that in

a moment because we are now entering the comic

book fantasy fun land. Questions 24 through 28

are all fictitious and they don't matter and

the points don't matter and all that stuff. If

you could own any vehicle featured in a comic,

which would it be? And since you mentioned the

Batmobile, I will ask you to define which version

of the Batmobile you would want. I don't remember

which story it is, but there's a moment where

Batman turns to Nightwing and he says, all right,

let's get in the car. And it cuts away to a full

-page spread of Nightwing saying, cool, which

one? And it's just like a sea of cars just filling

up that page. Is that from Flash? I can't remember.

They do that in almost every one, so it really

doesn't matter which one it's from. I mean, Sean

even did one. I mean, because Sean's a car guy,

but, you know, it doesn't matter. That happens

in almost every Batman comic. It's true. I'd

say if I had to pick a Batmobile, it'd probably

be a misnomer because I want the tank from Dark

Knight Returns. Interesting. It's just so imposing.

You see that rolling up the street, you run the

F away. It's terrifying. Yeah, you're definitely

going to be running. For me, it's a tie between

any of the original TAS Batmobile to any of the

other ones he used. And then, obviously, because

I'm such a Beyond fan, like, oh, the fly. I know

it's just an upside. I know it's just an upside

down whatever. No, the car. Oh, yeah. His chauffeur

car is the upside down Batmobile. But the flying

Bat, like, oh, man, like, that would be so cool.

If you could live in any comic book world that

you would want to, where would you live? Well,

given my own sort of aspirations to try and make

it as a writer, I would love to be like a Jimmy

Olsen type writing copy and getting copies for

people in the Daily Planet. Because Metropolis

is prone to giant monster attacks, but it's very

well defended. Yes. Oh, we're not well living

Gotham. The crime race is through the roof. Yeah,

no, it's not. Not unless you're going to, you

know, bunk in the cave somewhere. No, that's

the only place where it's safe and even there

it's all that safe. Exactly. That's true. I mean,

people try to blow it up all the time and paint

giant red ha -ha -ha -ha -has all over it. Who

would be your top three comic pals to join you

and become a quartet? My characters from comics?

Yes. Ooh, that could be fun. Despite my asthma

and my spine problems from being 6 '4", I think

at least one combat lesson from Batman would

be worth it, and then I'd breathe it in and then

take a boxing lesson from Wildcat instead. Then

I'd go actually somewhere to some of the really

weird stuff from the manga that I read, because

your forger, the mother from Spy Family, She's

a paid assassin, but on the outside, she looks

like just a suburban stay -at -home mom. But

she has, like, superhuman strength and speed,

and it's never explained why. So I just want

to, like, understand where she gets all that

side of her powers from. And then... So it'd

be Batman, Yule Forger, and... Honestly... This

is going to be really out there, but I want to

go to a grim, dark future and get some science

lessons from Dr. Canis while Commandee the Last

Boy is out there fighting mutants. Oh, wow. That's

cool. That's awesome. Yeah, every time I ask

that question, people are like, ooh, and there

are so many choices. Too many choices, but it's

good to make yourself think of all of the compelling

characters from across decades or even centuries

of comics. Yep. And of course, after those lessons

with Batman, you've got to make him sing, Am

I Blue? I mean, come on. Definitely. If you could

date any comic character, which one would it

be? Ooh. I feel like I'd be chewed up and spat

out whole by any of the Sirens. Any of the Gotham

City Sirens. But a part of me would be okay with

that. But then again, I want to just hear some...

like horror stories from ancient Mars from Miss

Martian, because she seems so nice. She seems

so delightful. Yeah. Yeah. Any of the Gotham

city sirens, they could swallow us all whole

and spit us out at the same time. And we would

love every minute of it. It's like, no, we would

any of them. Uh -huh. And you, and you know,

it's just like it was literally. 40 years ago

in 1988 when Disney released Oliver and Company

and Cheech Marin as the voice of Tito the Chihuahua.

If this is torture, chain me to the wall. Well,

depending on if it's Ivy, she doesn't need to

chain you. She's just got, like, those strangling

bones that chain you to the wall. Yeah, true.

Oh, yeah, but the sentiment's the same. Sentiment's

the same. Like, we are here for this. Yes, please.

Oh, boy. I like it. I promise. Uh -huh. What

is the holy grail of comic book artifacts? A

Batarang, the Matrix of Leadership, Kryptonite,

Green Lantern's Ring, etc. Well, all of those

are really strong picks. I'd say another good

one would be specifically the sword Excalibur

from Starhenge that I was telling you about,

because it's not really a sword. It's a long

strip of metal that's shaped into a sword, but

it's actually the helm of Merlin's spaceship.

Interesting. Yeah, I think another great one

would probably be like a soda cans full of Lazarus

pit juice. Why would you want that? Oh, I don't

understand that. Because, like, what is that

stuff actually doing if it's bringing people

back from the dead? That stuff is scary. Yeah,

very. Like, that's why I'm like, no, stay away.

Like, give me six feet, please. Yeah, let Roz

take his baths anyway. Yeah. All right, folks,

we are exiting the comic book fantasy fun land.

Final two questions. If you could create any

comic storyline in any company, any medium, what

would you want to create and what characters

would you want to create it with? So basically

DC gives you the keys to the kingdom and says

there's no limits. At the very least, I'd love

to get another retelling of. that justice league

story where we got the main roster of the justice

league going to that future vision to see that

like a young bruce wayne teaming up with um terry

mcginnis yeah i think for me i would go to the

oh it'd be so good just to see like ah so you're

the future okay i expect that um but at the very

least like i would go back to the fine people

at boom studios because we know that they can

handle high fantasy and like pretty much any

storyline boomer excellent spot right now um

but i would tell Tell them to pay the attention

to a different card game I play a lot of because

nobody knows the story behind Flesh and Blood.

Just tell them to go and talk to those lovely,

charming New Zealander types and just to get

more gritty, more dark, and really tell stories

that no one would ever expect to see. But then

again, that would just be me. I have so many

independent stories that I would want to just

go back in time to pitch to 2000 AD. Yeah, 100%.

That's awesome. That's great. All right, final

question. What is one piece of advice you would

give the comics reading fandom in general? Talk

less, read more. You heard it here first, folks.

All right, we are going to go to a quick ad break.

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Let him go. He did everything you asked. No.

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can be found. So, uh, tell all our one. Tell

all our one. We are back folks here inside the

pull bag. This is episode 538. Mr. Adam Ray,

what have you got coming up on your schedule?

I have so many things across the great white

interwebs. For comic -flavored goodness, look

no further than my reviews on Dark Knight News

and Every Now and Then DC Comics News. Both Catwoman

and Batman Beyond Neo Gotham are in excellent

spots right now. But for my one true love of

PC and tabletop gaming, look to My Pride and

Joy, fantasticuniverses .com, the website that

I share with my father where we talk about everything

in the world of pop culture and all the things

that... tickle our nerdy fancies follow me on

twitter at is it tinkerer and follow me on twitch

.tv forward slash is it tinkerer where i stream

card gaming goodness including comic book flavored

things dc dual force and marvel snap uh you can

look to see me also coming up very soon as the

dungeon master for disaster on twitch .tv i am

involved in a lot of cool stuff very cool very

cool Coming up for us, folks, I don't know. It's

either going to be more Origins episodes or it's

going to be, hopefully, Void Rivals issues four

and five from Skybound. I have written down here,

and I forget who I was going to do this with,

Superman Unchained, which I think is the Scott

Snyder Superman from a few years ago, I think.

Yeah, that rings a bell. I think that's what

I'm talking about. Oh, no, it's weird. I just,

like, I see the title and I'm like... Okay, I

remember there was Superman Unchained, there

was Superman Unbound, there was Superman... Frank

Miller, don't you ever do that three issues ever

again. Oh, God, it's a whole other... I haven't

even read the third issue yet, because I knew

what happened. As soon as I read the solicit

for the... Oh, okay, the Trinity, got it. All

right, you bamboozler. Anyway... But at the end

of the year, folks, we are going to have a totally

tubular, turtletastic time as my buddy Joe Reed

and I are going to get through volumes three,

four, and five of IDW Publishing's TM &T Reborn

trade paperbacks. So that's how we are closing

out our 10th year here inside the pull bag. And

then in 2024, I will be spending all holiday

long. Figuring all of 2024 out because I'm one

of those people that will figure out a schedule

two years in advance of anything. At least I

know Deadpool and Shakespeare are going to show

up, so there's that. All right, folks. Thank

you for joining us here inside the Pull Bag.

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

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us nowadays. Apple and Google Podcasts. Leave

us reviews, please. Spotify and any other podcasting

client you choose to use. Follow us on X because

apparently Elon just had to give that to us,

you moron. It doesn't matter. He changed it.

It doesn't freaking matter to me. I've been on

there since July of 2008. I'll go down with the

ship. I don't care. The ship is going down. Yeah,

I know it is. And like I said in a more recent

episode of a podcast that probably hasn't been

released yet, I curate my social media so I don't

see any of the dumbassery and the stupidness.

Yeah, I keep apprised of things, but I don't

want to see all the drama, really. I don't need

to wake up and see people arguing over the fact

that, oh, Batman's cape should be this color.

No, it should be this color. Shut up. That's

what I meant when... Comics fans need to talk

less because the sort of that social media discourse,

everyone thinks that because they have a platform,

they have an opinion, but we don't need to hear

your opinion. Trust the creators who have been

chosen to create this kind of content. Trust

them. Leave them alone. Yeah. And that's why

I said, I don't know what to do. I don't know

what to think about that. That's my opinion.

I don't know what to do or what to think about

the Madam Web movie because. I'm dumbfounded.

So we are on X. It's at Geekcast Radio Network

at the pull bag for the show. I am at TFG1 Mike.

You can also find us on Facebook, facebook .com

slash Geekcast Radio Network and the pull bag.

Join us next time when we will be doing something

at this point. I don't know. I'm waiting. Like

I said, it's either going to be an Origins episode

or it's going to be that Void Rivals issue or

it's going to be something else. I have no idea.

So for now, I am TFG1 Mike with Adam Ray. Thank

you very much. As always, make your greatest

game of the comics, and we will catch you next

time. Mr. Wayne? Mr. Wayne! Terry, you're hurt.

Just groggy. Who did this? It was me. Destroy

it! Way ahead of you! Batmobile! Ignition! Sorry,

pal. But you're history. Who sent that thing?

It didn't say. Whoever it was. They didn't stop

at one. Seven against two. Pretty bad odds. For

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

Join TFG1 Mike and the rest of the comic crew

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

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now here inside the pull bag.