Jon M. Wilson on Reading 1,000 Comics in 2023

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

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So without further ado, it's time to talk about

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the pull bag. Any minute now, Brainiac will explode.

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Let's go. Hello and welcome to The Pullback.

It is 2024. This is episode 540. I'm, of course,

TF2 and Mike. And ladies and gentlemen, 2023,

I don't know what happened at the end there.

We were supposed to do a bunch of stuff. We didn't

do a bunch of stuff, but we're back. And 2024,

I have ambitious plans, and I don't know if they're

going to happen, but let's just say we may be

releasing 200 podcasts this year. That's a four

a week. uh -huh yeah i know technically that's

like seven a day or seven seven and seven days

something like i don't know seven and seven just

just drink people drink don't drink but yeah

anyway as you can hear returning from episode

533 is none other than mr john m wilson hello

sir how are you hello hello i'm back I don't

know what that means, but I'm back. He is back.

I would say bigger and better than ever before,

but I've lost 10 pounds the last few weeks, so

no. Slightly smaller than ever before. There

you go. Well, I mean, you yourself do ambitious

things between ninjas and bots and a thousand

comics in one year, and now you're like, we'll

get to your 2024 thing, but 2023. Was it really

always going to be 1 ,000 comics in one year?

Honestly, it was just a count. I didn't think

it would even get close to 1 ,000. And then as

we're getting closer to the end of the year,

and 800 was happening in the late fall, people

were like, do 1 ,000, do 1 ,000, do 1 ,000. I

think you're the one who started the rally cry.

I was like, I don't see how there's enough time

to do 1 ,000 comics. But then if you procrastinate

on enough other things. That's right. comics

can't be read don't watch any tv don't listen

to any music forget about your job you know yep

oh man so yeah uh i used to for years now i've

always done some sort of some sort of posting

progress on on the comics that i'm reading and

uh whether that just be covers or whatever i

used to do on facebook i do a lot more on twitter

now most of my comic stuff has been on twitter

for the last few years but then um in, in 23,

I was like, well, let's, let's put the covers

at least back on, um, back on Facebook for my,

you know, nerd friends there, especially since

people are moving away from Twitter. Yeah. Yeah.

So, uh, they're X -ing it out, you know? Yeah,

they are. Twitter's not their X. Yeah. So I started

putting groups of five because the way Facebook

displays photos, you can do five without anything

getting hidden. Yep. And, uh, so I just doing

groups of five and, um, as like I said, As the

year went along. But I got lots of Superman read.

I got some Marvel read. I got several projects,

a little bit of progress on. So I don't know

exactly what all you want to talk about. But

well, I mean, like you said, you have spreadsheets

and everything else. So I mean, we might as well

get the spreadsheets out. And how? So how did

you like? So I'm just going to I'm just going

to expose the pedantic sides of my brain here

for all to hear. In 2009. I started working on

reading Superman from the beginning. Now, whenever

I get into any particular franchise, I almost

always start from the beginning, and I try to

be as exhaustive as possible until I no longer

care. So whenever I started Superman from the

beginning, you know, of course, in the back of

my mind, I was like, it would be cool to have

read all the Superman comics, but I didn't really

fully consciously expect to eventually one day

read all the Superman comics. But as we moved

into 2023, I had just read The Death from 1992.

So I read The Death just after the 30th anniversary

of The Death. And I had done the Armageddon 2001

annual for Justice League because of Shag's JLI

podcast. And, of course, the Justice League stuff

I have reading along with my Superman stuff because

Superman's on The League for most of the time

it's in publication. Not where I am right now.

I'll make spreadsheets. I'll go through different

appearance lists. I like to use DCU Guide for

pre -crisis stuff. I use Mike's Amazing World

a lot, but his post -crisis stuff is not a fraction

as extensive. Of course, now it never will be

because he's passed on. DCU Guide is a great

place for appearances. I'll just make a list

and I'll get the comic title and the number.

I'll go to Mike's Amazing World and get the release

date. start collating and sorting and then i've

got um extensive digital libraries of most everything

dc had published before 2011 because that's when

i got these extensive libraries and so yeah there's

so much more more licensed digital availability

than there was when i started this project and

so i do go a lot more to the dc universe infinite

app and read stuff there but um i've also got

these huge collections of scans from you know

the mid to late 2000 aughts whenever there just

wasn't anything legit online so yeah i'll gather

those together on my pad and just start sorting

stuff so i've got a superman read -through project

which includes all the superman books of course

The Supergirl appearances, Superboy back whenever

he was a thing. Of course, he's a thing again

now in 1990s where I am now. But like the adventures

of Superman when he was a boy, I was reading

all of his stuff back then. And all of the Superman

families now that I'm past the death, that includes

Steel and the Eradicator. And like I said, Superboy,

he's got his own series now. So I just I've got

all these collated and collected and I'm working

my way through them. I also have been working

on a very slow Marvel read through project. That's

probably my number two project, but it gets a

lot less attention than the Superman read -through.

Because the Superman read -through, I could conceivably

catch up on Superman with some effort. Right.

When we get to 2024, I'll come back to that.

But the Marvel read -through, I'm just kind of

doing it as a secondary thing when I can. And

with that, I've got some old 60s and 70s TV shows

that I've always meant to go back and watch through

because I watched reruns as a kid. I watched

all of The Fugitive. And listeners out there,

if you like classic TV, if you like old black

and white TV, if you ever saw the Harrison Ford

movie like I did as a kid and it tickled your

funny bone about this idea, the Fugitive TV show

is fantastic. And the great thing is it's all

available on Archive .org. Archive .org has the

entire series. It's 120 episodes. It's four seasons

of 30 each. And I watched all of it just in sync

with my Marvel stuff. The Marvel read -through

started as part of Make Ours Marvel, the podcast

that Michael Kaiser and I were doing. That podcast

fell off the grid, but I've been slowly continuing

to work on it. I also picked up Dark Shadows.

So I've been watching a lot of Dark Shadows,

which is a 1960s horror supernatural soap opera.

So yeah, we read through Marvel. What else? Well,

so what was the first comic you read in 2023

that started this journey? Oh. Wow. Let's pull

out the photos. That's right. Okay, so I've got

to scroll through my iPad because I keep all

of my cover screenshots on my iPad. They're all

just there sitting, taking up space. Yep. Scroll

back to January 2023. So my first comic in January

2023. was Justice Society of America number seven

from the miniseries, whatever they were taking

place in the 50s. Also, the Superman Gallery.

I was just getting into the Milestone comics

at the time. But this is not all of the covers.

It's okay. Some of the covers have disappeared.

It's okay. I mean, it's not okay for your records,

but for the podcast, it's fine. What was the

1 ,000th comic at the end of the year last year?

Okay, so once I realized that 1 ,000 comics was

going to be a big thing, I sort of orchestrated

a special occasion. So I've been working on the

Superman read -through, and I'm post -death,

post -return. fall of metropolis battle for metropolis

the stuff i was reading from dc that was superman

adjacent like the league books and the legion

books and other stuff that wasn't superman adjacent

but i just wanted to reread or read through for

the first time like the sandman books and the

milestone books a lot of those had sort of fallen

behind superman in 22 Because in order to meet

that 30th anniversary of the death, I kind of

had to barrel through the Superman books and

everything else got left behind. So over the

course of 23, I slowly got all of that caught

up. And as I was approaching the end of 2023,

my other DC books right at the end of December

finally synced up with my Superman reading again.

And so that last week of December, all of my

DC got synced with all of my Superman. And I

ended up as comic number 1000. reading action

comics 700 which any superman fan from the 90s

knows that that is a really big deal issue and

i'd never read it before because my my post -crisis

superman experience ended shortly after bizarro

world whenever he starts getting sort of over

bloated because of his powers going haywire so

just before 700 but i had never actually gotten

to 700 before so yeah at the end of the year

i read action comic 700 um the beginning of the

fall of metropolis because there's this huge

storyline where the clones are dying their genes

are falling apart and lex luther of the time

was a clone of his previous self and so he was

dying um and so a lot of plot lines from the

first half of the 90s were coming to a head and

yeah that was pretty exciting and pretty fun

to hit 1000 comics at action comic 700 right

at the end of the year and right as all the other

dc stuff synced up i felt like i was like it's

all coming together yes Good old Hannibal used

to say, I love it when a plan comes together.

And yeah, I think it was me because I'm like,

okay, if you're going to read 800 plus comics

in a year, you can do 200 more. I think I said

somewhere around like right before Thanksgiving

or something. I knew from just doing the math

at roughly what average pace I've been taking

for the year. And so I knew how much faster I

would have to go to get through those last 200.

I just didn't think it was possible. I thought

900. Sure, I could hit 900 and pass it with no

problem. But I did those last hundred issues

probably in two weeks. Wow. And how did you find

the time? Well, school that out. Whenever my

girlfriend Mindy and I are watching TV, a lot

of times she'll get distracted by her phone or

something and we'll pause the show. And while

she's looking at Facebook, I'll just pull out

Sandman Mystery Theater and start reading. And

just 90s comics also generally don't take nearly

as long to read. Modern comics take even less

time. Really? You don't think so? Modern comics

take less time to read? I feel like I blaze through,

like we were talking about ninjas and bots earlier.

Uh -huh. Turtles comics and Transformers comics,

I feel like I blaze through those. So, I've been

covering both of those series since this podcast,

like we started episode, I'm remembering this

off the back of my old ass brain that's broken.

Episode 11 was more than meets the eye volume

one, I think. Yeah, episode 11, which was over

11 years ago now. I forget when we actually started

Turtles, but we've gotten through almost all

of it. We need to catch up. Oh, by the way, folks,

IDW has announced that after issue 150, Turtles

is done. Holy crap. You haven't seen this? No.

Oh, my God, yes. Breaking news for Mr. John M.

Wilson, folks. I've got to get this email out.

So 150 is the last issue? Hold on. Give me a

second here. So I've broken his brain, folks.

But yes, for immediate release, I received this

email January 11th, 2024. Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtles number 150 will deliver a double -sized

epic emotional finale. Los Angeles, California,

January 11th, 2024. The colossal and cosmic time

-consuming spoilers here, folks. Megalodon called

Armagodon or Armaga, whatever the hell. is trying

to erase the TMNT from existence. Now only the

brilliant and determined Donatello can potentially

skip the fearsome foe by erasing Back to the

Past in a double -sized landmark 150th issue

that celebrates more than a decade's worth of

compelling TMNT storytelling. Done, done, done.

Written by Sophie Campbell, massive epic and

emotional TMNT. Number 150 is the must -read

conclusion of the ongoing series, Fear Not, Shellheads,

because more will be revealed about what's next

for TMNT soon. This momentous milestone issue

will feature art by Armageddon Games' Vincenzo

Federici, longtime TMNT creatives colorist Rhonda

Pattinson, and letterer Sean Lee. Returning for

this giant issue are former series artist Dan

Duncan. Farrow Pay and Campbell is also going

to be doing art on this. Climactic Comic will

pave the way for the next mutation of TMNT storytelling

from IDW Publishing, but before looking forward,

it's important to visit the past. Just like Donnie,

IDW's TMNT ongoing series has presented fans

with more than 10 years' worth of brilliant and

critically acclaimed tales that captivated both

longtime and new TMNT fans with its exciting

and heartfelt stories. So, yeah. All righty then.

At least you now know that you have a finite

ending point for your podcast. See, funny, whenever

we started up, we had a little bit of confusion

because we knew that IDW had lost the Transformers

license. So we thought that they had also. No,

they have not lost the turtle. No, they're not

losing the turtle's license. They're just. Yeah,

I know. At the beginning of our show, we had

some confusion about that and we figured that

part out. So but to know that they are actually

ending it, that is, I guess there's only so much

turtles you can do. I mean, 150 issues, 10 plus

years. They have told so many stories. Joe and

I still need to catch up. We are only on. Reborn

volume, we're about to record volumes three and

four of Reborn, which I believe is issues 112

to 132 or something like that. Yeah, so he and

I are closer, obviously, closer than you guys

are to the end. But no, now you know, and now

you can say to Lane, hey, look, I found out this

information. We can now figure out when we want

to end this, because the IDW universe has ended,

obviously, like you said, with Transformers.

And you can obviously continue it with... You

could switch. You could continue with IDW Turtles

with whatever's next, and then you could go to

Skybound to do the Transformers comics at Skybound.

Holy crap, those are good. Those have been intense.

Oh my god, yes they have. Alright. So we definitely

we definitely have enough material, even if they

were to stop releasing comics yesterday. We have

enough material to last us for years and years

of podcasting. So it's not a concern there. But

that's that's interesting. One hundred fifty

issues and done. OK, that will probably be more

than enough to get us through phases two and

three of IDW if we last that long. Oh, yeah.

Most likely. I say that issue 65. Is around the

end of Phase 1 in my spreadsheet. I haven't tabulated

past... Issue 65 of Turtles, you mean? Or Issue

65 of Transformers? Issue 65 of Turtles is going

to line up roughly with the end of Phase 1 of

Transformers. Okay, so if I remember correctly,

61 to 64 was Street Phantom. 65... Isn't that

the one... It's when the Turtles Universe series

starts. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. Yeah,

it's issues 65 and then I think either 66 or

67 is the one of those three. It's got Splinter

on the cover with a Christmas tree. I know they

do a Christmas episode or Christmas issue, I

should say, at some point or another. So, yes,

one year, 1 ,000 comics. Let's get back into

this now that I've derailed the whole damn thing.

So Superman. Superman's your main go -to for

DC, pretty much? Yeah, if I were to pick favorite

franchises, I would say Superman and Flash are

my favorite DC franchises. I am on a Silver Bronze

Age read -through of The Flash. I've read a chunk

of his Golden Age. I want to go back and read

more. But I've been reading through his Silver

and Bronze Age. I'm in 1970. And I'll get to

his more modern stuff eventually. But for the

most part, it's Superman and his characters.

A lot of times I find myself liking Supergirl

more than Superman. So I think of the franchise

as my favorite, not just the one character. I

know two other people on the Internet who have

aspired and made some significant progress on

reading all of the Superman everywhere. I thought

I was the only one for the longest time. I found

two others. One gal has a website where she's

actually keeping track of her progress at theaspiringkryptonian

.com. And the other person is just somebody I

ran across whose name has escaped me right now,

but we've talked about the project every now

and then. Really? You're not going to mention

the number one Superman fan we all know and love,

Michael Bailey? He has not read as much pre -crisis.

His bronze age – I love Mike. He loves me. This

is not a slide. This is just talking numbers.

His pre -crisis stuff, he has some pretty extensive

bronze age reading and some amounts of silver

and golden age reading. But there's a lot. There's

a lot out there because there was a time when

Superman was in seven titles. going at the same

time you had superman action world's finest super

boy adventure justice league of america and um

legion of superheroes yeah um that's not right

because legion was not a separate title i feel

like there were seven but i'm only counting six

anyways oh yeah because uh because um marvel

not marvel dc dc comics presents oh yeah Oh,

I know what I'm miscounting. Superman's pal Jimmy

Olsen and Superman's girlfriend Lois Lane. I've

read all of those, too. So I guess that's eight

that he had at the end of the 50s. Wow, that's

crazy. So, yeah, 1 ,000. How many? Okay, not

counting Superman and not counting DC. How many

other publishers were you reading last year?

Definitely Marvel. I just was sneaking back into

an image reread. I've been doing a lot of Valiant

rereads lately. I love Valiant. Whenever Valiant

had its big relaunch in 2012, I had never heard

of them before. So I read the 2012 versions of

X -O Manowar and Harbinger and just fell in love

with the entire universe. And so I wanted to

read the 90s stuff. And the 90s stuff, while

it does have some 90s tropes, is really, really

good comics. And so that whole Valiant universe

is definitely worth the read. And so I was once

my Superman read through hit 1991, I started

doing a Valiant reread. And I thought about doing

a Valiant podcast, but it never came to be. There

was a time in 2000. 16, 15, somewhere around

there, where the idea of doing a Valiant Image

combined podcast had seemed really, really fun

and cool. And then I had Family Stuff in 2016.

I gave up podcasting for a year and a half. So

that just never happened. You can rely on the

Family Stuff concept. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. What

was your favorite that you read? Out of all 1

,000 comics, what's the one you would want to

reread the most? Wow. It's hard to pick individual

titles. I don't know about favorites. I loved

re -experiencing The Reign with everything before

it. I loved re -reading Unity in Valiant. I loved

the experience of everything coming together

at the end with Action 700. I think I finished

Transformers. Yeah, okay, so during 2023, one

of the things that I finished... was all of the

original run of G1 Transformers tie -in stuff

from Japan. Because I did an entire G1 rewatch

reread of all six seasons of the show and all

of the comics and tie -in media. And it was in

the year 2023 that I got through all of the Japanese

fiction that takes place after the sixth victory

season of the show. And so that was a really

cool accomplishment that I've now read all of

Transformers as it existed in its original incarnation.

And eventually I'll get into the G2 stuff, but

that's a whole other animal. But yes, that was

a really cool feeling. Were there any out of

the 1 ,000 that you don't think you'll ever read

them again? Like, I've read this, I've experienced

it, I may have liked it, I may have not liked

it, but it's not something I feel like I need

to revisit anytime soon. I feel that way about

90s Marvel UK titles. Like the Dark Angel and

the – just that Marvel UK branch for the 1990s.

There are some writers on there that would later

go on to do amazing stuff like Abnett and – what

are their names? Dan Abnett and – I forget their

names. They did all the Marvel Cosmic stuff 10

years later. But yeah. So there are those. There

were some really hard -to -get -through Justice

League titles during those JLE, JLA years, whenever

JLA was cooking with the gas because you had

Giffen and DeMatteis and other artists, and JLE

was just kind of la -la -la -la -la. So yeah,

I do remember that feeling. I do remember thinking,

wow, that is a comic that I have now read. i've

now wasted the last five minutes of my life reading

this comic this is something i never want to

read again like and look folks i'm not saying

this to be oh my god i'm trust me even though

i can be a negative person i always approached

the pull bag and all of my podcasting with this

like the stuff i want to cover and sometimes

unfortunately There are a couple of turds here

and there throughout. If you do everything under

a category, it can't all be good. Yeah, exactly.

Law of averages, people are going to have bad

days. Yep. What's that old line the Joker always

used? All it takes is one bad day. You know what

was more uneven than I was expecting? And I'm

still in the process of this. But did the Larry

Hama G .I. Joe run? There are some fantastic

issues in that, and there are some real clunkers.

And it's just a lot more uneven as a reading

experience than I'd expected. I read the Elongated

Man miniseries from the early 90s. That was really

fun. And I read the StarCore miniseries. It was

like a spinoff of Superman. And that was meh.

That was a bunch of meh. Oh, I know what I read.

And sat that down. I was like, wow. Lobo's back.

God, Lobo. It's not Lobo as a concept. There's

a lot of Lobo I've read that I enjoyed. Lobo's

back. I did not like Lobo's back. The second

miniseries he did where he's in, like, the afterlife

and stuff, I did not enjoy that at all. Whenever

his kids are trying to kill him, Lubbo Infanticide,

that was fun. When he's in the Gladiator games,

that was fun. But I did not enjoy Lubbo's back

at all. So, yeah. Yeah, I... I'm not too... thrilled

with afterlife stories when it comes to antiheroes,

superheroes, whatever, you know what I mean?

Like, keep that in the horror genre. Keep that

elsewhere. Go bust some ghosts or something.

Like, I don't know, man. Phoenix Wright. Like,

I don't know. It just doesn't... I think the

best, and this is probably something you'd have

to look into if you want to, I think the best,

quote -unquote, afterlife story I've ever read

for this show... I believe IDW still has the

stuff for it. It was a five -issue series by,

what was his name? Not Ryan Parrott. Ryan Ferrier.

It's called Hot Damn. Okay. It's about this guy

named Teddy who dies and goes to hell and all

that. Just look at it. I don't want to spoil

it. I don't know. You may or may not like it.

I usually try my best not to recommend things.

I usually try not to do negative recommendations,

but a good pal of mine, Beatles Diva, and I,

we covered it on the show years ago. It was hilariously

awesome. And if you want a completely different

comic from anything else you've ever read, Hot

Damn is one of those. Okay. Okay. You know, one

other thing I wanted to say is one of the favorite

things I did this year was, okay, so years ago

I read James Robinson's The Golden Age. I read

it because I like the Justice Society. I had

read a lot of the original all -star comics run

from the 40s. and I knew it was in some ways

a precursor to his Starman series, which is one

of those things I've been intending to read for

years. So in 21 and 22, as part of the Superman

read -through, I read through all of Roy Thomas'

Earth 2 works. So his triad of titles, All -Star

Squadron, Infinity, Inc., and Young All -Stars.

Of course, Crisis happens in the middle of all

that and shifts his scope. But the narrative

more or less flows through all three books. And

that was quite the experience. So then going

back and rereading The Golden Age this last year

was a completely different experience. Because

now there aren't 20 characters with backstories

that I'm just reading on the page. There are

20 characters who are people I have followed.

I know these people. I know their histories.

I know their adventures. And now to see where

they are after the war, it was more like following

up on experiences instead of just reading about

characters who have backstories. And so that

was really cool. If you ever want to read The

Golden Age by James Robinson, that's fantastic.

You should do so. If you can manage to squeeze

in all of Roy Thomas' Earth 2 stuff before you

do so, do that first. How many comics is that?

I don't know, 150? Oh, so it's a month for you.

Okay, got it. I mean, you're not wrong. Speaking

of 2024. Well, I mean, like. Like you said, when

I initially said, ooh, you're at 800 or you're

at 860, that means you have blah, blah, blah

to 1 ,000. You have to get to 1 ,000. I think

in one of the comments on one of your – I forget

which post it was, but I think what I'm like,

okay, it's now the day after Thanksgiving. You

have until December 31st at 11 .59 p .m. Eastern

to get that 1 ,000th comic done, and you did

it. Well, the crazy thing is in September is

when I hit 400. If you think 409 months, there's

no way I'd get to 1 ,000 by the end of the year.

Yeah, exactly. But I accelerated. Yeah, you did.

So going into 2024, I have two ambitious projects.

Okay. One is I want to read Superman every day

in 2024. As I go through my Superman read -through,

there's going to be something Superman every

day. Right. An extension of that is I like to

get through five years of Superman and other

DC comics in one year. I'd like to get through.

I'm in mid 94. I'd like to finish the year in

mid 99. Right. Yeah. So that's a lot, especially

as you go through later than I was like 1994

doesn't hold a candle to how many Superman comics

and related are in 96 and 97, 98. The other goal

I've set for myself, 2024 comics in 2024. Oh

my God, you're insane. I did the math. Ladies

and gentlemen, it was a joke. This is not my,

I do not take credit for this, but this is not

my fault. I said to him. I did the math. It's

only five or six books a day. If you can do five

or six comics a day, every day for the entire

year, you've got 2000 comics. There are 366 days

this year, so I've got one extra day of grace

period. Yeah. So when he posted his 1 ,000th

comic post at the end of the year last year,

I was like, okay, what's your goal next year?

You're going to be 2 ,000 comics in a year? Here

we are. Well, in 2018, I had a hashtag. I think

it was like 2018comicsread. And on the surface

level, it was the comics I've read in 2018. But

I really wanted it to be 2018 comics read. I

didn't make it. I think I fell a little bit short

of 2000. I think it was in the 18 or 1900s. But

I didn't really pay any attention as I went.

I just read as I could. So, so far I've been

making a concerted effort to read at least five

or six comics a day. I say at least because at

some point during the year there are going to

be days where I can't. So if I can do a little

bit more each day, then I'll be a little bit

ahead of the curve. And yeah. five or six comics

a day for a year. And there's nothing like that

pressure, you know, when September rolls around

in 2024. Okay, you've got this far to go. Get

it done. What I want to know, Mike, and maybe

you have an idea on this, how can I take all

of these things that I'm doing and make money

on it? I have no idea. Money? What's that? I

don't make money with this stuff. Are you kidding

me? Oh, you podcast? Do you make bank off that?

I'm like... No, I, I pick a couple hundred dollars

every couple of years for hosting. I lose money

on, on podcasting. Yeah, no, it's unless you're,

you know, you know, the president of hair club

for men and fear factor boy over there, you know.

You ain't making money at podcasting. I mean,

some people may make money at it that aren't

celebrities, but it's very, very rare. Companies

will pay people to do podcasts because they know

it's advertising for their product. Like a lot

of entertainment podcasts. There's like that

Foundation show on Apple TV. The Anne Rice vampire

show they did on Amazon last year. Those had

official podcasts and those people were probably

paid to do them. But they're also helping to

generate buzz and keep people interested in their

show. Yeah. Yeah. What I mean is like like you

and I and everybody else that we know that's

been podcasting for as long. I've been doing

this for 15 and a half, 15 and a half years.

We make enough money to cover the hostings. That's

pretty much it. Like we're not. We're not making

bank off this. We do it because we love doing

it. End of story. And that's kind of where the

genesis for this came from, folks, as far as

One Year, One Thousand Comics, as far as me talking

to John about it, because I wasn't sure if he

was going to do it on his own show at some point,

so I figured, hey, what a title that would be

for the pull bag. One Year, One Thousand Comics.

Let's go. Well, so for the record, if I maintain

my pace, then I will hit 1 ,000 comics on day

181. There you go. So that's right at six months

in, which makes sense because 2024 is just above

2 ,000. So halfway through the year, 1 ,000 comics.

So check with me on the end of June. There you

go. Well, yeah, we will have to – oh, boy, 2

,000 comics in one year. Damn. Ambitious. Of

course, folks, that doesn't count my own. Crazy

ambition. We are currently at episode 540. By

December 31st, I'm hoping to hit 700, which means

the math on that. Oh, my God. That's 160 podcasts

in a week. Yeah, 160 podcasts in a year for just

this one show. I don't know about that. But who

knows? There's going to be, I know, I will say,

I'll say it this way. I've been trying to do

this for years. I wanted to do a special spotlight

series on Nightwing, Dick Grayson Nightwing,

and I wanted to make it 90 nights of Nightwing,

so it would be 90 straight days of release. Of

course, that would all have to be pre -recorded,

pre -edited, and scheduled. can't do that on

a daily basis you gotta take about you know three

or four weeks or whatever and just pre -record

as much as you can and it would basically start

at his beginning as Dick Grayson Nightwing I

don't know if I would count the Superman stuff

but it just depends I think I I think I've put

the list out I haven't put it out publicly but

I think I have the list and i think i've gotten

up to like 671 episode like episode 671 of the

show so it isn't quite tonight because i'm starting

it i don't know whatever it's when you say the

superman stuff do you mean the the candor nightwing

character yeah yeah i think one episode about

that as a this is where robin got the idea originally

would be cool but not like Not like detailed

multiple episodes over individual issues. You

know, read a smattering of the issues and the

stories and where Robin and Nightwing are in

the same issue together and then say, hey, so

this is the kinds of things they were doing.

That might be cool. Yeah, I'm just looking at

this since I'm talking about it. And I don't

think I. Yeah, so what I was starting with was

Old Friends, New Enemies, and then 95 Volume

1, Bloodhaven. That's what I was starting with.

And it's basically one trade per one whatever

per episode for 90 nights from episodes 600 to

690. And I think, and I didn't count the Teen

Titans stuff, I know I need to. Don't come at

me, audience, I know. But I think I've listed

up to, yeah, I've only listed up to 657. There

should be more. And that's even with Infinite

Frontier, too. Wow. Huh. I could have swore there

was more Nightwing. Oh, well. I think he has

a lot more Titans than he has solo stuff. Yeah,

that's true. Well, we're not redoing Death of

the Family or any of that because that's not

the point is. And I even included his Batman

runs. Like Batman and Robin Eternal and Forever

Evil and screw you, Dan DeDildo. Let's see. Batman

and Robin Volume 1 when he was Batman. So it's

not like it's even the Grayson. Grayson. Agent

of Spiral. Give me a break. Sorry. I'm jaded

about that. They killed my guy. Don't kill him,

damn it. Morons. Anyway, so yeah, 90 Nights at

Nightwing, and I've got maybe in March we're

going to be marching toward the Murphyverse with

more of our Sean Gordon Murphy coverage with

Beyond the White Knight. I don't know, but yeah.

All right, folks, you heard it here first. On

the pullback, TMNT number 150 is the final issue

for that run. John is going to read 2 ,024 comics

by the end of the year. Hopefully. And if you

have a sadistic interest in following what I'm

reading, I am posting covers on Twitter at John

Reads Comics. There's no H. And I post daily

collections of what I read that day on my Facebook

stuff. If you're my Facebook friend, it's over

there. And if you're in any of the Facebook groups

like DC Comics fans, 1935 to the present or Superman,

the triangle era, I post stuff in there. So,

yep. Very cool. Very cool. I think we're going

to go to a quick ad break. Come back to close

the show right after this. Do you like the Transformers?

Yes. Do you like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

Cowabunga! Do you like IDW Comics? And comic

book podcasts? Then come check out Ninjas and

Bots. Each week we look at an issue of Transformers.

or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from their IDW

Comics incarnation, we drop episodes every Saturday

morning. Just like the cartoons we loved as a

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and at johnreadscomics .com. See you then. Hey,

welcome to the Last Comic Shop Podcast. A comic

book podcast that actually talks about comics.

Yep, each week we open the shop up and read and

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Oh, yes. Definitely lots of sound effects. So

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And we are trapped, hurtling through space in

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the entire run of the IDW Transformers Phase

2 comic. Which chronicle the events following

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So we figure we may as well read them all in

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We talk. Hello, Julie, what the heck are you

doing? Trying to make our spot sound more exciting

by adding explosions. Yeah, I'm pretty sure you

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I'm sure your insurance company will cover that.

No, they won't. No, they probably won't. Amazing.

A booby trap that actually catches boobies. All

right, folks, we are back here inside the pull

bag. This is episode 540, and for 2024, what

in the heck are we doing? I don't even see where...

Oh, there it is. All right, so coming up... I

don't know who I'm getting to do this with. I

don't remember who I asked or who... I said something

to somebody about this, but... We are going to

finally be tackling Scott Snyder's Superman as

he goes unchained next episode. We've got an

Origins with somebody. So anybody who's listening

to the sound of my voice, if you read comics,

you want to answer 30 questions about reading

comics, let me know. Why am I not talking unchained

with you? I don't know. Were you the one that

asked? I don't remember. That's the thing. I'm

one of those types of people that... If somebody

asks or if I say something to somebody and somebody

is like, oh, I'd like to be on that, whatever,

I go back to that. And I just have to figure

out who the hell I – who the hell I – I don't

know. Probably could. It wouldn't make any difference

to me because I don't remember who the hell I

asked in the first place. And that person really

isn't – Whatever, whoever that person was. Give

focus to whoever it was you already had the conversation

with. But if you want a third voice and the scheduling

works out, I will read the book. So we get an

Origins and 542 potentially. 543 and 544, because

the banners are already done, Joe Reed and I

are going to come back and we're going to talk

TMNT Reborn Volumes 3 and 4, which is issues...

God. One... 112 to 118 and then 119 to 127 or

something. I don't remember. I don't have it

in front of me. And then Adam Ray is going to

return. I did Origins with him last year. He

told me about Deadpool Shakespeare. So that's

something that's going to be a first for the

show. We're going to do Deadpool on the show

because we haven't really done Deadpool before.

I mean, you were making fun of Lobo earlier,

so if you're going to do Deadpool, you've got

to do Lobo. Has Lobo done Shakespeare? I don't

know, but they're basically the same person.

Only if Brad Garrett's voicing him. Brad Garrett

and Ryan Reynolds. Oh, can you imagine that movie?

Forget Wolverine. Deadpool and Lobo, Brad Garrett

and Ryan Reynolds. Holy crap, that would be amazing.

February, we... have no plans like i said i've

got a bunch of origins listed as placeholders

so again if you're a comic fan if you've been

reading comics for more than five years or longer

hell even if you've only been reading comics

for five months i will ask anyone the 30 questions

about comics so we've got four episodes in february

of this year hopefully in march we can be marching

towards the murphyverse where Uh, we've got a

lot of Murphy verse stuff to catch up on. We

got a white night, Harley Quinn, Batman beyond

the white night parts one and two, which includes

all eight issues of that white night presents

red hood. And then generation Joker, all six

issues. Wake up all six issues of generation

Joker. After that. I don't think we're doing

an Autobot April this year because Marvel U .S.

broke me and I refused Marvel U .K. Marvel U

.S. was bad. For me, it was bad. Which series?

Transformers Marvel U .S. Oh, God. You did not

enjoy the original 1980s Transformers comics?

No. Sorry. Okay. Sorry. Well, I will say this

about that era. For the first... 200 issues of

the uk run which a lot of those are just reprints

of the us books but like half of them are original

stories um for about the first 200 issues of

the uk run i really really enjoy the title and

then um after that the uk run really takes a

dip and the us run i don't know once uh once

the blank masters start coming out uh the book

just has too many characters to do anything that

feels character driven and so you just have masses

of bots doing stuff and that's one of my problems

with the 80s transformers comic is that after

a certain point it just no longer feels like

it's about characters and i'm not a big fan of

plot driven comics except in small doses Yeah,

my biggest problem was there were only five colors

or six maybe if you stretched it and there were

too many humans. You're one of those. Yes, I'm

one of those, Dan, but I want robots in my robot

comic. Thank you. Look, it's okay if the robots

have 80%. If you're going to give 20 % to humans,

no, get them out of there. Yeah, I would rather

a 90 -10 split, thank you, or a 95 -5 split.

So how are you even enjoying the Skybound stuff?

Because there's humans out the wazoo in that.

There are only two humans in that so far. Okay,

so there are more. There's Spike, Carly, Sparkplug,

and his military buddies. And they've had a huge

role to play. Did you read the first issue of

Codename Duke? I have not read Duke yet. I need

to get into that. I have not had time or the

funds to do that yet, but I will be doing that

over the next couple of months. So remember in

issue three, whenever Starscream was smashing

army planes? One of them was Duke's. And the

first issue spins out of those events. Oh, nice.

Very cool. Very cool. Very cool. So, yeah, folks,

coming up sometime this – well, I do know that

this podcast, after 11 years, is probably going

to go on a little bit of hiatus so I can get

all this stuff pre -recorded, pre -edited, pre

-whatever. But according to what I'm looking

at here, we are starting 90 Nights of Nightwing

in August. August feels far away. Yeah, it's

really not. It's going to sneak up and bite you.

Yeah, pretty much. And it will conclude right

after Thanksgiving if I can find enough comics

to do it. I'm still going to do it, but that's

a bummer. Oh, so you're still struggling to find

90 episodes of material? Yeah, so like, yeah.

You got so caught up with the alliteration, you

don't actually have the project together. Okay,

okay, so you definitely should do some pre -Nightwing

stuff. As like early episodes. Yeah, I know.

Not a lot, but some. I just need to move everything

around. That's all. All right, folks. John, you

mentioned your Twitter earlier. Where else can

people find your podcast and anything else you

do? Most of my podcasts have their individual

feeds by title, but you can find the entire collection

listed online at johnreadscomics .com. And you

can find everything on the mega feed for John

Reads Comics. So if you go to the website and

you see a show that looks appealing, it probably

has its own feed. And whether it does or doesn't,

go to the John Reads Comics feed and it will

be there. And again, there's no H in my name.

Don't put it there. Don't type it. You don't

need it. It's a linguistic artifact that doesn't

mean anything. Good thing your last name isn't

Stuart. Yeah. Yeah, I'd be critiquing people's

spelling all over the place and twice on Sunday.

Well, you'd have to get a green ring, don't you

know? I guess I would. All right, folks. Thank

you for joining us here inside the pull bag.

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

feedback for the show. Visit the website geekcastradio

.com where you can listen to and comment on all

of our content. Send us email to feedback at

geekcastradio .com. Here are all the ways you

can listen to us nowadays. Apple, Google Podcasts,

leave us reviews. Please, Spotify, and any other

podcasting client you choose to use. We are on

X because calling it X is just, it's... Eh, whatever.

It is what it is anymore. They're going to pry

calling it Twitter out of my cold, dead blue

hands. I know. Because that's what it is. Hey,

not my fault he wants to ruin what came into

popular culture. I will respect any person's

name transition with the utmost respect that

I can give. Twitter? Twitter is X. Twitter is

Twitter. Twitter is not X. Twitter is X. You

heard it here first, folks, from John. No. He

said it. He said it. I'm using it as a note.

No Freudian slip. Nope. Yeah, no Freud here.

At GeekCastRadio, at The Pull Bag, I am at TFG

and Mike on X. Become a fan on Facebook. Go to

facebook .com slash geekcastradionetwork and

also check out the pull bag over there as well.

Next time, like I said, it's probably going to

be Superman Unchained. I don't know. That may

end up getting moved. I'm not sure yet. For now,

I'm TF2 and Mike with John Wilson. As always,

make your greatest game in the comics and we

will catch you next time. Check those dudes out.

Dudes nuts. They're robots. Robots? Let's rock!

You've just heard the latest episode of The Pullback,

the GCRN's first comic review and discussion

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