Baltimore Comic-Con 2016

Hey, this is Greg Berger and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. You are now on

the inside of what I like to call the circle

of trust. We are all connected in a great circle

of life. You know something Bert? I think you

and I are going in circles. It feels like we're

going in circles. The circuit is now complete.

When I left you, I was but the learner. Now,

I am the master. Because it's a circle. Yeah,

we heard about the circle. Yes, we're familiar

with shapes. Hi, this is Chuck. This is Greg.

And this is Dan, and we are talking circles.

Brought to you by Cast Radio Network. the podcast

that is undergoing the plague. Yes, we are all

kind of a little bit sick under the weather,

but we're going to power through and maybe us

recovering from the epicness that was Baltimore

Comic Con. This is the third year in a row that

we went there and we have a lot to report on

the comings and goings of that in our second

segment. But before we get to that, how's the

week been going for you guys? Week has not been

the greatest. As you mentioned, we're all a little

under the weather. So I think we can all agree

it could have been better. I think Greg probably

had it the worst as I'll let him articulate,

but I was feeling kind of shitty myself, but

was able to go to the doctor and get some good

medicine. So I'm pretty much back to like 95%.

So not too, too bad, but. Just enough to get

excited for NFL kickoff weekend. So I'm super

stoked for that. Nice. Greg, how's things going

with you? Pretty, pretty freaking awesome, Dan,

as you can tell by my voice. We have now have

Sexy Greg on the podcast. Yes. He's going to

break out into some blues soon. We just got a

call they want you to do a rollo commercial Sure,

but yeah, I've been really sick I even went to

ride to the emergency room in an ambulance because

I Nearly passed out and threw up everywhere So

that was a lot of fun and I spent a lot of time

in the freaking ER Don't know why I felt fine

as soon as they got me on the ambulance and they

had IV in me and Sticking me with other meds.

I felt completely fine, but they took me to the

hospital just a throat infection Essentially

and so the infection like really took advantage

of me Yeah, not fun but Well, that sucks. Yeah,

it was I've been sick myself my and well what

you mentioned is Greg and Chuck are both down

at my location for Baltimore Comic Con and my

son was sick. I'm good. I think he is patient

zero in this case. Uh, he had a cold and eventually

pink eyes. So he was out. He was out for this

week. But, uh, see, I saw him rubbing his eye

and his eye was very, uh, like had a lot of junk

goop in it and stuff. I figure there was something

up with the eyes. He was, he was rubbing them

a lot. Yeah. We took him to the doctor and, uh,

got him dropped. I think I will say that there

are a few things more difficult in the world

than trying to put on. drops in a 16 -month -year

-old. He closes his eyes really well. He's just

like, you know, like shut them and like they're

hard to pry open them. I feel like I'm like the

guys from Clockwork Orange trying to pry his

eyes open just to drop in these these eye drops

but uh Dan you should try a 31 -year -old me

with eye drops. I haven't tried that yet, yeah.

Might be a little bit more challenging. One girlfriend

I had she was trying to put drops in my eye and

she was like hitting me she's like, why don't

you just leave them open? I'm like, it's not

me. They just close automatically It's a reflex,

you know, it's how it goes and then she was like

look at Stan Lee and then she dropped them in

there But yeah, so that's that's been crappy,

but it has been a week of comics like, you know,

we went to Baltimore Comic -Con which was a great

time and which buying and listening and hearing

about comics and also got to read a few and Chuck

I know you did too. I just wanted to bring one

up real quick and it's during Baltimore Comic

-Con one of the panels that I went to was the

Boom panel from Boom Studios. They didn't really

go over much regarding releases or that. They

wasn't really focused on, hey, look at what's

coming out for us. It was more of a discussion

-based thing. But one thing that Frank Cho was

there, and he has a new series now with Boom

that just came out this week, Skyborne. It's

the first like series that Frank Joe has had

that has not been a Marvel series for some time

now I think it's almost been ten years or so.

He's you know had an exclusive deal with With

Marvel he's been doing Hulk and Savage Wolverine

and even at the panel He was mentioning that

I felt good to kind of take a break from Marvel

and do something different and new He has also

been doing Wonder Woman variant covers, but he

is off that now since Him and who was it? Greg

Rucka were having like issues with each other,

so he's off that now. Oh really, interesting.

So Skyborne number one, it's kind of a little

hard to explain. I know Greg, you... Picked it

up and have not read it yet. So I'm gonna I've

been reading the back of my eyelids for most

of the week Yeah, so I will I will hold off on

any type of spoilers But just giving people the

kind of the premise of Skyborne. It is created

written and illustrated by foot Frank show So

it does look great. I mean, I will say that from

right off the bat I am a fan of Frank Joe's art

and say what you will but he can draw women really

well and the focus of this the who seems to be

apparently Who will be perhaps the main character

in the story. It's still yet to be determined

is this woman character who basically the book

opens up and she is requesting this sword from

this bald individual and There apparently is

something important about the sword. We don't

really know what and They don't want to give

it up She's willing to pay for it, but they feel

like that it's too important to give away so

it leads to a pretty kick -ass action sequence

and without giving it to anything away. I was

actually kind of surprised in just how it's not

like overly gruesome, but it is certainly a mature

book in that end. I don't know if you guys remember

in Con Air they have that Nicolas Cage has that

thing moment where he like uses this palm of

his hand to like Hit the guy's nose to kill him

instantly by like jamming the brainstem thing

into the back of his or the nose Into the back

of his brain or whatever. I don't even know if

that's actually real But let's just say they

kind of take that idea and like into the next

level because she's almost like a Wonder Woman

with With street clothes and like but has nowhere

straight in a way so far in this issue Really

much of this issue is really in one kind of extended

action sequence all over trying to get this sword

and what it means and you know They think they

have it and further things happen So it does

kind of lead at leave on somewhat of a cliffhanger

and makes you think okay Maybe this is going

in different directions and expected there is

not a huge amount that go on in this issue with

that though I I tend to prefer first issues that

focus more on characters or at least giving the

idea of what the story will be. Here you get

little elements of it, really, but it's a fun,

enjoyable ride, but there's not much more there.

There are, let's say, certain reveals of certain

things that could be interesting if done well,

so I certainly will be picking up at issue two.

But overall, I wouldn't say it's anything...

drop down amazing. Like I said, it's a fun read,

quick read. It looks great. But, you know, it's

not nothing that I wouldn't say this is like

a new level for Frank Jo. It could be, potentially,

but as a first issue was more just, hey, we're

gonna have a lot of fun with this book. And it's

almost like Frank Jo has been with Marvel, so

he's not been able to kind of hit the level of

violence that he likes to do with his drawing,

and he decided to turn it off this issue kind

of right away. So I would recommend it, give

it a shot for the first, and see what you think,

but. Because at least it's gonna look good knowing

Frank Cho. Like you said, he does draw women

very well. And his action sequence, like his

action set pieces and staging looks great. I

mean, he's a veteran, he's one of the best in

comics today. So he knows how to stage action

to be fluid and easy to follow and fun. But like

I said, as a writer, I think that's where, as

of right now, he's not... His his writing is

not at the same level has his artistic ability,

but it can't he could get there if the story

develops Further as issues go on. So yeah, he

has very expensive commissions. Let me tell you

Sketch cover for $800. I think I saw you will

do a sketch cover for $800. This comic was a

lot cheaper than that. Yes And he sketched all

of it. So that was the cover and it's all Dan.

I know I know I know we'll get to that next way

to Way to work the system Dan. Yeah. Yeah, I

found a loophole. You should probably exploit

this I know I know actually I went to a store

and they had them everywhere. It wasn't really

yeah this might actually catch on and it will

but only for a small segment of the population,

so but I know I read something more recent and

Chuck, I know you also, even though you were

down with the sickness, you had some opportunity

to read some of the books you picked up from

Baltimore Comic Con. So I'd be interested in

hearing what you read and what you thought about

it. Well, I was able to, I was able to pick up

a couple of newer Avenger stories. I say newer,

but it's not really newer. They're like five

years old, but new to me. Cause I kind of like

that's. Like right before that was when I kind

of stopped reading the new stuff Yeah, is this

still Bendis right for Marvel? One of them is

Bendis. One of them is Mark Millar or Miller,

however, you say it so I guess I'll just talk

about them quickly because people it's probably

freshen people's mind they probably remember

these stories, but the first one is Ultimate

Avengers it's from Ultimate Avengers number three

number one through six and it's like this it

caught my eye because It had Blade on the cover

and it was, you know, talking about this sort

of organized vampire takeover and everything.

And obviously I love everything to do with Blade.

I love all the movies and everything. I like

a lot of stuff in the comics with Blade. So I

was like, I'll pick this up, but it looks pretty

interesting. You know, can't be that bad. I like

Mark. I like Mark Miller and everything. So I

got to say I was pretty disappointed with this

book, to be honest. So is this in the ultimate

universe or is this in the 616 being this this

is in the ultimate universe It's it's ultimate

avengers and they talk about the ultimates and

there's a lot of weird crap going on that I was

kind of lost like I know I read the first couple

ultimate stories, but obviously there was a lot

that happened after those yeah, and you know

in this story there's like a there's like a clone

of the Hulk and There's all these random things

And so they kind of start off with Blade and

he's tracking these vampires and there's something

big going down and basically they start biting

the superheroes and turning them and stuff and

they get the clone of the Hulk and they get a

couple of other big shots. They end up getting

Daredevil but it's like this new weird Daredevil

that I didn't know. It's like this new kid. And

they they ended up biting a stick So they got

him to turn and it's like it's just kind of weird

story and at first I was kind of on board but

like really as it goes along I started to notice

like kind of how disappointed I was in the writing.

Yeah, it just seems like I Guess it seems like

a really low reading level to me like I don't

know The dialogue is extremely simplistic and

like it's even kind of like corny at times Like,

it just didn't feel very mature to me. It seemed

like a very simplistic story. I was looking for

something deeper, something a little darker,

especially with Blade involved in that whole

part of the Marvel Universe. So it was a little

bit disappointed. It was a pretty cool story.

You know, Captain America actually plays a significant

role in it, which is kind of surprising. Blade

was not the type of Blade that I'm used to. Thought

he was like softer than he should have been and

stuff like that wasn't quite as gritty as I like

but Yeah, I was I was just curious if if you

had ever come across that story or any of you

guys or anything No, I kind of Stopped with the

most of the ultimate stuff after like the volume

to everything. Oh, so I yeah Yeah, I I never

read any of the ultimate stuff Yeah, it was it

was really strange. I mean, I think you know

the premise for the story is a Good idea. I think

it could really work but like for whatever reason

to me it just seemed like too simplistic and

it felt like It was written for someone much

younger than me for some reason like I guess

compared to some of the other stuff I think the

Ultimates was supposed to be like the gateway

for younger kids to get into Marvel comic books

and stuff I feel like at this point, like at

this point in the timeline where this story took

place, I felt like they would have, like, sort

of advanced a little bit, I guess. But I don't

know. It wasn't quite what I was expecting. It's

still a decent read. But enough about that one.

The second one I'll talk about is this is from

the mainstream universe right before the siege

storyline. And this is a Dark Avenger story.

And the reason I picked this one up is because

it's about Molecule Man, and I love Molecule

Man. He's one of my favorite characters for whatever

reason. I think he's really cool. So I was like,

all right, I'll check that out. You know, I'm

kind of familiar with the Dark Avengers. You

know, that's right around the time where I kind

of stopped reading. And so I was sort of familiar

with them, but I had never read this particular

story. This one is written by Bendis. Gotta say,

I kind of enjoyed his writing in this one. I

really, I really liked it. I liked him, you know,

dabbling in the crazy with Norman Osborne and

Sentry. I think there's a lot of cool, you know,

I don't know what you would call it, but it's

sort of a mirror effect there, like where they're

both kind of crazy. But Norman Osborn's more

of the evil crazy. So you have him trying to

help Bob Reynolds. It's like, that's not the

guy that you want helping you with your mental

problems. I really enjoyed the writing in that.

And I will say, though, it sort of ruined it

at the end as in classic Ben just fashion, I

guess. But they basically they just made century

just way too powerful. Yeah, that was a common

theme for a good, you know six seven years Yeah,

and like I understood that he you know when I

was reading it was it was starting to get on

my nerves a little bit then You know and they

made him like really strong, which is fine, you

know Superman level strength something like that.

He's got the power of a million exploding sons,

whatever that means and But in this story like

I mean I hate to give anything away, so spoiler

if anybody wants to read this, skip ahead half

a minute. But at the end of the story, Bendis

has sentry defeat Molecule Man. He kills him.

I'm like, no, that doesn't happen. Like Molecule

Man is literally one of the highest people in

the Marvel universe. Like he's easily top and

maybe even top five most powerful. He's way up

there, like he went toe to toe with the Beyonder

and everything. So it just seems like they're

making up powers for the Sentry because he's

like, you know, he finds his new power in the

story that he can manipulate molecules. And I'm

like, like, that's convenient. OK. It's kind

of like the little kid that you're playing a

game. It's like, oh, I have that power, too.

It's like, no, you can't just. Oh, you have this

new unstoppable power. Well, I have that too

now. So, yeah. Oh, yeah, he did this entry Yeah,

and I was curious of your thoughts Dan cuz I

know that was kind of a favorite character of

you for a little while but I don't know if you

got away from him for the same reason that I

did or Like you first started basically because

I think I'm mystery behind him like when the

New Avengers like the New Avengers first we launched

and he was just just like Um, I don't know it

like I like the look of him I thought you know

like I like kind of where he was headed but I

do think it they just ran out of things to do

with them like he was a little over too powerful

then and Like his character was it was the ultimate

plot contrivance where it was like whatever you

needed at the time he was able to do and I think

like Don't know I liked where it started unlike

most people to know everyone hated them begin

with but even I had a turn on it when it just

became evident that He was more hindrance to

nearly every story than it helped and I think

it's a big reason why they eventually killed

him off spoiler Yeah, and it I kind of liked

him in the beginning too and I think actually

they had a good thing going with you know his

whole mental instability and trying to You know

battle the void and taking over and everything

like that's a good kind of plotline for them

to go with and I think they should have kept

going with that instead of just giving him more

powers I think that that storyline became Confused

and they didn't really didn't have a focus on

it. It was kind of all over the place. I think

yeah, and I don't know if I don't know what the

reason for that is if it's you know, too many

different writers or if it's what I have no idea

but I was reading some interesting things online

about it after I read this and there were a lot

of like fan theories circulating that the Sentry

was the Beyonder and they're like oh that would

explain how he has all these like powers and

everything like that and you know obviously you

can't really say for sure that that's the case

but it just seemed kind of annoying because As

a Superman fan myself, I hear a lot of people's

complaints that, you know, Superman has all these

random powers and he's just unstoppable and everything.

But I feel like Superman is very stoppable. He's

very vulnerable to certain things like magic,

obviously kryptonite and things like that, certain

telepathy and stuff. So, but the sentry to me,

like they just took that to a whole other level.

They start giving him matter manipulation powers

and You know, now he's on the level of like a

Beyonder or something like that. That's just

like, it's too much for me and I really couldn't

enjoy the character because I felt like it kind

of ruined the story at the end. Cause like, you

know, one of the reasons why I like Molecule

Man is this guy that's so immensely powerful,

but he just wants to be a regular guy, kind of

left alone, kind of like the Hulk, to be honest.

And he meets with... psychiatrists and he gets

his stuff under control and he's You know kind

of just live in an apartment hanging out live

in his life and I thought that was like a cool

dynamic with that character but They tried to

make they try to give like the century his powers.

It just seemed like it totally ruined the centuries

characters along the way so yeah, I'd be kind

of interested in like if you ever read secret

war secret wars, whatever it was called most

recently because the Machio man plays a part

in that he's not like the major focus but he

certainly um he's kind of like in the background

i would say without giving anything away so yeah

but yeah he's he's an interesting character so

again that was uh pretty surprisingly good writing

by bendis but really just fell apart at the end

just kind of it's always what happens with his

stories he's like the tony romo of comics He

gets a lot of paper cuts. He just powers through

them. Right. Gets broken bones, too, for some

reason. I don't know. Nice. All right. Well,

anything else you guys want to talk about before

we take a quick break? Nope. All right. Well,

we're going to take a quick break. When we come

back, we're going to talk about everything that

went happened at Baltimore Comic -Con. And it

was quite a busy con. We'll get to that in just

a sec. Hey guys, this is JD from the In Session

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medias at InSessionFilm .com. So join us every

week. We'd absolutely love to have you. All right,

and welcome back. Yes, we are going to go over

Baltimore Comic -Con 2016, the third year that

Talking of Circles has attended. the con uh and

i guess let's kind of just overall overall impressions

of the comic con this year does how does it stack

up the years past i mean obviously a lot not

changing year to year your some new guests some

old deaths returned but uh greg i know for you

it was an eventful con for multiple reasons for

kept quite busy so overall what were your thoughts

on baltimore comic con 2016 Yeah, it doesn't

really change much. There's a lot of different

guests that kind of get pushed in and pushed

out. But I enjoyed it as per usual. And like

you said, I was very productive. When I go to

these cons anymore, I'm mostly looking to get

on the commission lists of different artists.

And I had a gold mine. I was signed up for three

before the show. Stephen Rowe, Ransom Getty,

and I am forgetting the third person. But yeah,

there's so many on my list that I am seriously

forgetting people that I commissioned from. Still

have yet to get the commission from Ransom. Super

sweet guy. But he was so indecisive and like

I commissioned him before the show and I still

haven't gotten the piece. So I'm still waiting

on that. I saw part of what he's working on and

it looks really awesome. The Stephen Rowe piece

is really sweet. I got magic. and she is descending

down like these floating pieces of ground. It

looks pretty sweet and there's like fire, like

sparks from a fire going off behind her and it

looks pretty freaking awesome. Oh, the third

person that I commissioned before the show was

Mike McCone. I saw him on... periscope painting

a World War Hulk or Planet Hulk whatever you

want to call where he's got the gladiator costume

on and that looked friggin sweet so I asked him

to do something like that for me but just with

pencil and ink and pen and ink and so I got a

pretty sweet Planet Hulk going on. That one was

pretty awesome. I think that was one of my favorites

of the one you got. Oh very cool. And then I

also got, I commissioned from Buzz, who I was

kind of scared to go to because I've read online

that people have had bad experiences with him,

especially if he didn't finish it at the show

and trying to pick it up and have him ship the

piece to them and they're not getting it everything.

But he managed to finish mine during the show

and everything. So it was, it was no big deal.

He was also very cool. He was very talkative

with me and very open and sharing about stuff.

And I got him to do an Amanda Connor Harley Quinn

turned out pretty sweet. It's a little bit rougher

than everybody else's. It's not as focused and

detailed. It's a little bit more sketch quality,

but it's really cool. He also ran out of the

smaller paper that he was supposed to use for

mine. So he upped me up. level on the size of

the piece, let's say. So I got upped in size

for free, which was pretty awesome. I also stopped

off at Ed McGinnis. He's mostly known for his

illustrations of the Hulk. I think he's very

popular for that. He's also been doing Spider

-Man and Deadpool comic that's out. It's a mini.

And I got a Nightcrawler from him and it came

out pretty freaking sweet. It's only an eight

and a half by 11, pen and ink situation. I always

thought Ed McGinnis was an older guy. No peace.

He's probably about maybe five to 10 years older

than us. Which probably to a lot of people listening

to this is is an older person, but he's an old

soul That Nightcrawler was pretty sweet too.

Yeah. Then I also got David Peterson who does

a comic called Mouseguard and he doesn't really

do like people, sketches of people or anything

like that. You have to have it like some kind

of creature or animal or something like that.

So I went with Perfect Solution. I thought I

got Rocket Raccoon and I think he came out pretty

sweet. He's a little bit more towards the realistic

side. Looking of a raccoon Kind of if you ask

me it came out really freaking sweet Yeah, I

think that was of all the ones you got I thought

that was one of the one of the best just Just

because it was a unique interpretation of the

character, for sure. Yeah, it's definitely unique.

That is definitely one of my favorites as well.

Then I also got, I don't know how I managed it,

I got on Yannick Paquette's list. He was like

one of the last people I went to for whatever

reason. It was just how I kind of planned it

out to loop around the con efficiently. But I

was able to get on his list and I got this beautiful

back girl of Burnside from him. I found out from

his Twitter that somebody commissioned a piece

of Wonder Woman and they got it stolen out of

their car. So you got to be careful and keep

your eye on your stuff, people. Let's see. I

don't know where all my stuff is. Oh, and I also

got a beast by Tom Rainey. It's like the old

school beast, not the stupid cat looking beast.

It's more ape like beast. There's a lot of watercolor

going on on that one. And that one came out.

Really sweet, I thought. Really cool perspective

shot of his hand kinda coming down in front of

him and he's kinda like leaping up in the background

and everything. I also got from Brandon Peterson,

I got this awesome Emma Frost. Gorgeous, it was

one of my favorite pieces. It was a nice watercolor,

had these great lines going on in the piece and

everything. Yeah, and we were just wanted to

know which costume Emma Frost I wanted. I didn't

really know offhand. So he's like, well, there's

the usual like lace corset kind of situation.

And he's like, but there's also this other one

there. It's kind of comes to an X and everything

He's like not a lot of people get that one. I

go Brandon whatever Whatever you want to do whatever

sexiest because that's how Emma Frost kind of

go. She wears whatever sexy And so he went with

the the X kind of design and it came out freaking

sweet. I'm very happy with that one. I kind of

have a rule that I don't like to go back to people

after I've gotten a commission from them. So

I'm kind of like one and done. Let anybody else

like everybody else have a chance. But I'm kind

of thinking I want to go back to him and get

kind of an Emma Frost kind of in the opposite

direction that this one's facing in a black costume

instead of the white costume. I think that would

be pretty neat. But I really loved the commission

I got from him. So just a question before you

move on. So when you get like commissions like

this I was just kind of curious like how much

like Do you give them in the sense of what you

want? Like you just tell them the character and

they go with it? Or do you like, I want the character

in this version of the character and you can

kind of go nuts with that and go, okay, I want

this character like this in this kind of pose.

Like you could kind of go nuts with it. I really

don't like to do that. I don't like restricting

the creativity of the artist. I really like the

artist to have fun with the piece. So they could

kind of like, for example, at the Boston Con,

I asked Ryan Bodenheim for a Sentinel. That's

all I asked for was a Sentinel. Like his prices

are for single character, like most of the artists

are. It's priced for a single character to be

drawn. And all I asked for was a 90s Sentinel.

And so he's like, OK. Then he went off and he

was like, yeah, so I was gonna do him crushing

a car But then I decided to go this different

route and I'm having a lot of fun with it So

I'm hoping you like it and he showed me what

he was doing and it was the Sentinel fighting

at least 10 X -Men like it was crazy and so I

loved that so that's why I like to go in that

direction because I could have had him just having

him crush in a truck or whatever and restricted

him down to that, but instead I just let him

go free and I got 10 extra X characters on that

and it's freaking sweet. I think it's one of

my more favorite pieces that I actually own and

he's not like a super well -known artist either,

but it's definitely one of my more favorite pieces

that I have. Yeah, I saw that that like that

the Sentinel itself is pretty awesome the detail

on that and that is it yeah, it's like I Just

want the action figure of that because it looks

so cool. So it's yeah But basically you had a

very bit busy con I mean now that you're moving

into this the hobby of a collector art or whatever

not our original art It's pretty it's yeah, it's

Yeah, it's pretty difficult to arrange all of

it and get the pieces, and then it's expensive

beyond that. But I'm working on commissions already

for New York City, so we'll see how that goes.

Very cool. Chuck, for you, I know for Baltimore

Comic -Con there's a lot going on. I don't know

if it was your first panel, but I know you did

attend at least one panel for me, but overall,

what were your thoughts on Baltimore Comic -Con

2016? I had a great time. I did go to a panel

that was actually the first panel I've ever gone

to at a Comic Con, because usually I kind of

just go nuts like looking for stuff out on the

floor. And like, I feel like no matter how many

times I comb through the aisles, I always miss

something. Like when I when I go back through

and look, I'm like, holy shit, how did I miss

this? Like, I never saw this here. So it's just

kind of crazy because there's like, you know,

one hundred and some vendors there or whatever.

But. So now I thought I'd switch it up this year

and try a panel out. And I went to the DC panel

with you and I thought that was really cool.

I had a good time with that. I don't know if

you're going to talk about that later, but yeah,

I'm probably going to that a little bit too.

So yeah. So I enjoyed that. It was cool seeing

all the creators up on the stage sort of interacting,

having a good time. It was actually really funny

too. So that was a plus. But yeah, I had a lot

of. Yeah, sorry, but yeah, it was interesting

because I went to that one and then I also went

to the Marvel one and like it'll uh, anyways,

i'll get to that in a sec. So yeah So yeah enjoyed

my first panel. I thought that was really cool.

Um found a lot of cool things that I was looking

for. I know like every year I sort of take my

master list, what I call my master list, and

that's like the individual back issues that I'm

looking for to kind of finish off my collection.

And every year is kind of dwindling down and

I was able to cross some more things off this

year, which was awesome. You know, I've obviously

found some trades and hardcovers which is one

of the main things I go for there because like

there's tons of places that have them for like

five dollars and ten dollars so I pretty much

just try to stock up on trades and hardcovers

and The trick is though to not buy too many in

the morning because you have to carry them around

all day I think that's a dig at me Well, I kind

of did it too Maybe not quite as bad as you but

I did it's terribly bad and to kind of interrupt

you I have a story of how nice these artists

are I was over at Ransom as per usual I that

was kind of a stop every day for me because I

Never had my piece ready for me. But uh, like

I was standing there talking to him for a while

He was like, oh, so how was your day going? I'm

like good, but I was stupid. I bought graphic

novels way too early He's like, I'm like a lot

and I turned my bag towards the front of me and

showed him and it was like this messenger bag

that's like edges kind of popping out and barely

staying closed and everything and he's like,

oh man That is a lot. That is not right that

you're carrying that much. Dude, just put them

down here. I'll watch them for you. You could

go walk around the con. And he's like, you could

leave it here. No problem. It was towards the

end where we were about to leave anyway. And

he was kind of my last stop. And I was like,

no, it's all right. Thanks, Ransom. But he just

kept insisting. And I'm like, no, no, no, I'm

good. But it was very sweet of him to like offer

a spot for me to put my bag. Really don't get

that option, but he was he was very kind and

sweet enough to offer that to me Yeah, that's

pretty cool. And I mean what he didn't tell you

is that he was gonna sell it for you, but A lot

of cool trades a Lot of stuff that uh was actually

pretty hard to find for me over the last couple

years for some reason like I found a you know,

the Thunderbolts classics, like the first thing

with Baron Zemo, Citizen V or whatever. Yeah.

Those are kind of hard to find. And I actually

ended up finding the first three volumes, which

is awesome. I'm super stoked about that. And

the amazing Spider -Man Civil War, the original

one with like the split cover with the white

on the bottom. Also really hard to find for some

reason. So I was able to find that. I don't think

it's too hard to find, Chuck. It's right in my

closet, I believe. Well, if you're fortunate

enough to have it, yeah. So, yeah, that was pretty

cool. Obviously, you know, every year I try to

get a couple of signatures from artists and writers

and stuff. This year I was only after two guys.

I go see Jim Starlin every year because he's

awesome. He's such a nice guy. I had a couple

more things for him to sign. The new OGNs he's

doing, the Thanos original graphic novels. I

took a One of them that are a couple of them

that I was missing signature on. So I now have

the whole set signed and the new thing he's working

on the infinity entity, which was a little mini

series he did. And then I had something old signed

as well. And it was a funny story about that

because I first went to Steve Engelhardt. for

signatures and he's a writer that's worked on

a lot of stuff probably mostly well known for

working on Avengers stuff and in the 70s and

80s and stuff and also did a bit of Silver Surfer

which I am a huge fan of and that that third

volume of Silver Surfer which was pretty popular

he did like the first 30 or so issues something

like that and so I thought well you know, when

I get some signatures, like a lot of times I

like to get stuff signed that not a lot of people

are getting signed because it sort of makes them

more unique. So, you know, a lot of people are

getting their Avenger stuff signed by Engelhardt.

That's the most thing thing he's most famous

for. So I took a few of my Silver Surfer issues,

like the first three from that run and those

and everything. And I also had an old Captain

Marvel issue that he worked on and It was very

neat because Captain Marvel when Captain Marvel

was a man, correct? Yes I mean like the actual

like Marvel like the Cree Captain Marvel Okay,

I was just wanted to specify for the onion right

now good good catch and this was Captain Marvel

number 33 Which is sort of famous because it

was one of the first tellings of the origin of

Thanos It's not the first appearance of him,

but it's one of the first tellings of his origin.

And the artist on that book happens to be Mr.

Starlin. So I got a sign by Engelhardt. And then

when I went to see Starlin, I took it over to

him. And he's like, oh, you got some new stuff

and some old stuff here. And he goes to sign

the Captain Marvel. And he's like, he looks at

it and he's like, Oh, look at that. He's like,

Angleheart took my spot. That bastard. That was

hilarious. So he just kind of found a little

different spot there and he signed it. But the

other cool thing was, well, it was kind of cool,

but kind of upsetting. But as I, uh, you know,

as I got my sort of moment in the sun to talk

to Jim Starlin for a couple of minutes, uh, I

started talking to him a little bit. and you

know that's kind of like your that's your me

time with the artist when you get up there you

get to ask a couple of quick questions you know

it might be like a two minute conversation but

that's like that's like your moment to shine

you know and uh you know as i'm talking to him

this really annoying guy behind me just like

completely leaps in our on our conversation and

just absolutely talks over me and completely

monopolizes the whole conversation. He starts

this whole back and forth thing with Jim Starlin

the whole time he's signing my books. And I'm

just like, really? Like, come on, you know? And

it really kind of pissed me off. But the cool

thing was, I think Jim Starlin kind of felt bad

that I didn't really get to talk to him as much

as I wanted. So while he was sort of... Fielding

the questions of the other guy. He started doing

a little doodle a little sketch inside the cover

of my one book Which was pretty awesome. So he

just kind of did like a little side profile shot

of Thanos and I seen the other people in line

kind of like perking up and they're like looking

over his shoulders, see what he's doing. I'm

like, yeah, that's my book right there. Um, so

kind of made up for it a little bit, but, um,

you know, I didn't say anything to this guy because

I had overheard him that it's the first time

he met Jim Starlin. He was like really excited,

you know, kind of. bouncing off the ceiling and

everything. So I'm like, all right, whatever.

I'm not going to be a jerk, even though he kind

of was a jerk. You know, I'll be a bigger person.

But, you know, I just kind of want to remind

people, like, if you get to that situation and,

you know, there's somebody in front of you, that's

kind of their moment to talk to the artist. So,

you know. Really try not to kind of butt in on

that because it's, it's really disheartening

when you wait in line that whole time to talk

to your favorite artists or writer or whatever

it might be. And, you know, somebody else just

kind of leaps in and basically steals your thunder.

So just kind of keep that in mind if, if you're

going to con and be respectful of the other people.

So yeah, just don't be a jerk. That's a good,

that's good. Basically. Yeah. You know, common

courtesy. So that was awesome. That was pretty

cool experience. Um, Also found a couple of pretty

neat toys from my kind of reminisce of my childhood

I found the Ninja Turtles set that I've been

looking for for a long time which is based on

the the cartoon from the 80s and 90s and Brought

those home. I got a good deal on those and they're

staying right in the package because they look

awesome in the package They got all the all the

deco from the cartoon on it everything and it's

got that logo the big splash logo and stuff and

Those are really cool. I've been looking for

those for years and I was able to find a good

deal on them. So that was a high point and That

was I was about it except for you know a couple

of a couple of you know maybe uh celebrity run

-ins which we might get into a little later yeah

you know you know just saying kind of a big deal

was all you're saying but right yeah so i had

some like on this year like last year i i went

to a lot of panels and i want to kind of do a

do that again like this year because i had a

lot of fun and that kind of almost really springboarded

me to get into a lot of comics i wanted to otherwise

uh For example, I was in the Valiant Pit panel

last year and I've been reading a lot more Valiant

since then. So I wanted to go to a few again

this year and... One was obviously like the DC

panel that Chuck mentioned, and there was a good

amount of talent in the room. We had James Tinney

in the fourth, Tom King, who's now writing Batman,

Dan DiDio, who's currently the editor for DC,

and a few other people as well. So it was interesting.

It was just fielding questions. I wasn't sure

what exactly was going on, but they kind of introduced

each other, and Dan DiDio had some... general

questions he was giving everyone and that there

were some I guess some reveals there one being

that apparently there will be a legion of superheroes

comic written by someone who was At the in the

panel, um, he didn't reveal who so I guess it's

some sort of game that they're playing of uh

I've never really read legion of superheroes.

I know a lot of people are huge fans of it, but

uh Even based upon our comment section from episodes

previously, but maybe if that does come out i'll

pick it up But what was interesting is that panel

and I went to the marble panel, which was like

the next day And uh in that was like mark ray

mark way greg pack charles soul And something

else I'm forgetting but it's similar again I

guess I went into that thinking with the Marvel

new relaunch or not I guess it's not even a relaunch

that the Marvel now United we stand divided we

fall. I forget what it's called That's coming

out in October that they were and I kind of do

like kind of an overview of what's coming up

and that wasn't really the case. It just kind

of fielded some questions and they did have a

moderator who was pretty awful. He just like,

I don't know, it felt like he didn't want to

be there or his questions weren't very good.

He just had no control of the room to the sense

of Charles Soule kind of just took over and was

the one kind of leading the charge. So, but what

was interesting though, because the questions

that were in this room were almost like, I felt

like this was like the first time people, some

of the people there like Soule, other human beings

in real life and didn't forgot they weren't on

the internet um they weren't like super rude

but it was like one guy was like bringing up

regarding the mutants and the X -Men, and he

was going off on how he feels that the X -Men

or the mutants are getting killed by Marvel because

of DC. Two or three people asked them, it's like,

when you write your comics, you have to write

them the way Marvel Cinematic Universe tells

you how to write them. These are just writers.

These guys aren't the people who are in charge

of the bigger decisions. They're just like, hey,

all we can tell you is what we write our books

about, and that's never happened. Charles will

actually like when the guy was asking the question

regarding The mutants you kind of stop them halfway

like I get this question a lot and he kind of

runs down It's like all right. Let's look at

the amount of Marvel books that are the X -Men

right now and you know uncanny all -new extraordinary

all the Deadpool titles Wolverine old man Logan

all -new Wolverine. He's like they're not going

anywhere and he's also gonna be writing the new

event that's coming up because that's Always

a new event, but the I think the one that's gonna

kind of reveal what happened to Cyclops So I'm

interested in picking that up. There are some

new things coming out in them with the new Marvel

relaunch I do look like they could be good Mark.

Wade's gonna be writing champions, which looks

like it could be fun like a little almost like

it Avengers young, like young Justice, but with

Avengers characters. Yeah, that looks pretty

sweet. So that, it was just like the, it just

like, it was like, in the DC panel, there was

just this hope, and everyone was super positive.

And overall, more, most of Marvel was positive,

but it did seem like it was almost like, it,

like, why aren't the comics better, in a way?

And, and I think it was unfair to the writers

in a little way, because, you know, they're spending

their time, they're coming out. If free answering

questions, and I think the people that were on

that board all have really good comics right

now like None, I don't love mark weights all

new Avengers, but he has some good stuff. I love

his scarlet witch comic That's that's been amazing

and I love Charles holes Deadpool big packs totally

awesome. Hulk is okay So I don't know that was

just interesting And I also went to the Valiant

panel. I didn't go to the, unfortunately I only

went to, they had two, I don't even know where

it was. I was able to get to the first one, which

was just like a breakdown of Valiant, like a

history of Valiant. It was like Valiant 101 for

new beginners. And I wanted to go to see if they

were like, because I've not read Valiant like

for a very long period of time. So I wanted to

see if it could fill any holes I wasn't aware

of. And it kind of did. And it was kind of cool,

just they gave you a secret password. And if,

you went up to their booth and you gave them

this password that you got a free comic and Valiant

has what's called gold editions and they're like

editions of their comics that are gold that you

can't buy uh you have to earn them and I was

able to earn a faith number one uh gold edition

which was kind of cool so by giving them the

password but so that was fun and I also went

to boom had a nice panel uh again like they what

I like about boom is that like last year they

I guess they do it every year they just kind

of pick a topic They discuss it, and they were

just talking about creating new worlds. This

was the big thing they talked about. They had

Frank Cho there, and he brought up his book,

Skyborne, and what that was like to do that.

And that was interesting, too, seeing all these

writers. Hope Larson was there, too. I guess

she has some books for Boom, as well. And they

had a few announcements. They did announce that

Grant Morrison, who just finished his Claws miniseries,

he's going to have a special. December with that

series, I guess it's gonna be claws in space

And and then also this there's a King Kong book

that was a limited series But now it's going

on going and I've read the first issue of it

and I wasn't super impressed But I might I might

pick it up again and see if it gets any better

But really though the best thing I think I did

the I was able to do in the entire con Was I

went to Tom King had a panel. It was just him

and his editor and they were talking about Sheriff's

of Babylon and Tom King is just an interesting

guy For those that don't know he's the kind of

like the hot new guy in Marvel or in comics right

now He's currently writing vision. He has he's

now the new writer on Batman. He wrote Nightwing,

you know Megaman He like he's only been in comics

for a short while but he kind of is a lot of

his books are super super help High -regarded

right now. I would say like Sheriff's of Babylon

is one of the best comics like Like I in the

last years that I've read it's this drama that

takes place in Iraq shortly after the invasion

there and What I didn't know until recently was

that Tom King actually was in he was in service

He was in the CIA and he was stationed in Iraq

during this period of time and it's not necessarily

a story exactly about what he did but Anything

of that nature and what's interesting he was

talking about this book since it does kind of

deal with elements of his time there like it

actually has to be approved by the CIA before

it can go out so like before the book can be

released to public they have to give it a pass

which was kind of interesting so one thing he

talked about was that there's a certain element

of the book where the CIA is there and They are

kind of going through this mission and he's like

I could I could bring the reader into the CIA

room That they use like their Intel room, but

I know what a CIA room looks like So either I

have to make the right artist draw it lie and

draw a fake in a fake manner that doesn't reflect

it or for real and have it rejected so instead

he chose to just have the people kind of waiting

in the waiting room as everything was going on

so it was it and It was interesting in that end

so in his story of his life like he started as

he always wanted to be a comic book writer he

started like as an intern I think for Dark Horse

or DC or Marvel and then after September 11th

he joined the army became the CIA and then he

started as a novelist and uh it was it was really

intriguing and I don't want to like You know

give it give all the stories away or anything

like that or I would say if you go to comic -con

and he's having a panel go because he also just

talked about his process and how he chooses to

do certain things he's very open and honest and

like what like people would ask like why did

you do this and he would kind of explain why

I took this from this comic and I really like

what this hat like the way he did it and the

way I approached it and it almost made me understand

comics on a different level than I think I did

previously so even if you're a comic book writer

or Designed have desires to be comic book writer

I would you know have the opportunity to hear

him speak Do it and if you have it not reading

his comics do it, too I actually kind of want

to pick up his novels. I guess he has two that

he's written so far So I had a lot of high hopes

for that and I was really looking forward to

it. It was really Intriguing conversation. It

was just two guys in a room talking. So That

was quite cool. But beyond that I too got a number

of comics. I was looking for some cheap graphic

novels and picked up a few that I want to get

into. I'm really happy to pick up some Birthright,

Volume One, Rat King, Volume One. I've heard

a lot of good things about those series and also

was able to catch up, get caught up with Walking

Dead. I'm two graphic novels behind. It was great

to get the two newest ones for five bucks. I

was kind of proud of that. But because this one

guy had like pretty much every image series for

$5 which is awesome, so that's impressive I was

very happy that I got a They had a Archie booth

set up and they had a whole bunch different Stuff

for Archie like the new Mark Wade stuff with

Fiona Staples graphic novel Sabrina the teenage

witch jughead Afterlife with Archie they had

all those for 15 bucks last day last like three

hours or so they knock the price down to five

bucks, so I picked up the Narchi graphic novel

and Sabrina the teenage witch graphic novel.

So that was pretty awesome. Yeah, it was nice

and I Wanted to go get him too, but they weren't

accepting card and then I like I'll just get

cash But it was like a five dollar Fee and I'm

like, you know what? I just had a principal the

fact that it's actually gonna cost me the same

amount of money to get money That I would to

buy this comic. I'll just wait. So I Was kind

of regretting that decision, but we're gonna

do should have been smarter and had cash but

you know I can't always win. Shoulda asked Dan

I had cash on me. Cash never leave home without

it. It's fine. I mean I read some of those already

so it was more of a I'm gonna buy it and not

read it so maybe I shouldn't even do that but

but I guess one question to ask you guys I know

you bought a lot of a lot of comics the two of

them Chuck you already read is there anything

that you are chop what are you chopping at the

bit the most are you most excited about to catch

up with? Book wise comic book wise. I should

read in those Thunderbolts volumes, I think,

to kind of back and check those out. It's been

a while. I don't think if you can even remember

everything that you got. I seriously don't. I'm

sitting here thinking I'm like, I don't know.

I am looking forward to that, that Archie and

Sabrina, the teenage witch, because I do know

those offhand. I know I picked up Greg Rucka's

Lazarus. I'm interested in that. Yeah, I got

that too. I'm really intrigued by that. Yeah,

it seems interesting. I just don't remember what

else I have in that pile. Yeah, I know you got

Deadly Class, so I'd be interested in what you

have. Yeah, Deadly Class. There were a lot of

ones I picked up for five bucks that I know you

recommended and were really high on. So I got

a bunch of those and I'm very interested in reading

all the ones you have told me are really good

and seeing what my own opinion on it is. So if

you hate it, at least it only costs you five

dollars, I guess. Exactly. Exactly. And it's

a lot of product for five bucks. Yeah. Yeah,

it's true. Though one thing with Comic -Cons

is that you always have celebrities that you

show up. And I think Baltimore Comic -Con doesn't

put a huge amount of emphasis on celebrities.

They usually have I think six at the most and

they're never like, they're never, I would say

like the A -list celebrities. Not that these

people aren't great people or anything like that,

but you're not getting Robert Downey Jr., Samuel

L. Jackson, but you know, you do get people that

are very much part of the comic book world in

some instances and some people that we do highly

respect. And I know Chuck, you did have a pretty

infamous run -in with one of those. I don't know

if you wanted to talk about it at all. If I can

contain myself, I will. This is like the Eliza

Dushku situation all over again. Well, let's

just say, you know, remember that desert island

episode we did where we had to pick someone to

spend... I'm changing my answer to this person.

Well, it was funny because it was on a Sunday,

last day of the con, obviously. um and it was

kind of like down to the last like half hour

I think uh us three had decided to sort of meet

out in the lobby at a certain time and I was

just kind of walking around making some last

minute rounds um wasn't really looking for anything

in particular I pretty much found everything

already And I think it was it was even like there's

like 15 minutes left. So I'm like walking around

I'm like, I'm gonna go over by the celebrity

area and um, you know, there's somebody there

that kind of wanted to just kind of get a glimpse

of even if I could and That was of course Haley

Atwell who was obviously, Agent Carter and aka

Captain America's girlfriend in the movies and

stuff like that. So I just kind of walked over

there and I knew they charge a lot of money for

everything, you know, autographs and photos and

all that stuff. And I really didn't want anything

to do with that because I don't like paying that

much money for that stuff. So I kind of walk

over there and there was a huge line for the

dude from Game of Thrones, the Hodor guy. Um,

there was a huge line for that guy. I'm like,

well, that's weird. And, uh, I think, uh, Candice

Patton was there from flash too. She puts Iris

on flash. Wasn't too, you know, excited about

meeting her or anything. So, um, I was like,

well, I wonder if Haley Atwell is still here.

And I kind of look over at the last table and

I see this, it's kind of far away. So I seen

this like, you know, woman sitting at this table

and there's like two people. you know, waiting

in this little tiny line. And I'm like, no way

that can't be her. I'm like, there's two people

in her line. Now it was the end of the day, like

they were getting ready to close like very soon.

And so I walked by the table where the lady sort

of taking the money for everything. I think it

was like sixty dollars for a photo with her or

something. And I'm like, I'm not doing that,

but. I asked the lady, I'm like, you know what?

I'm like, it can't hurt to ask. So I go up to

the lady. I'm like, I'm like, hey, I'm just interested

in, you know, just meeting Haley. I'm like, you

know, just to say hi or something. I'm like,

is there any charge for for that? And she's like,

no, no, you can come on back. And I'm like, really?

And she's like, yeah, come on back. So she showed

me where to go and I. You know, I just had to

wait a couple of minutes because there was only

two people in front of me and The staging girl

had me waiting there at the one thing and then

she sent me up to her So it was cool. I got to

talk to her for a minute and I asked her I got

to ask her a question and I think it was something

silly Like would you marry me or something like

that? No, I I had asked her What was more fun

to work on the Captain America movies or the

Asian Carter TV show? What was kind of more fun

for her? And I think I really caught her off

guard. She didn't really know quite how to answer

it. It was kind of funny because it was like,

if anybody's gonna be stuttering and tripping

over themselves here, I think it would be me

because I could literally feel my face like glowing

red. I was like, so like, I was blushing so much.

Maybe that's why she got all nervous. She's like,

oh my God, this poor kid like crushing on me

right now. But it was me she you know, she's

saying that I think she kind of had a little

bit on the show because just because it was so

much More stretched out and you got to do a little

a lot more With the filming everything there

was a lot more involved in it and everything

and you know She met a lot of great people and

everything like that. So he said a little quick

conversation she has the cute British accent

in real life as well, so And I'm still sticking

the fact that that That's where I got my cold

from. I think I got my cold from Haley Atwell.

Chuck, I'm not sure if you want to reveal this,

and we can have Dan edit it out if you want.

I forget where I'm going with this damn Shit

stopper single. Yes No, no, I remember now. Yeah,

you you were you were telling me that you you

wanted to tell her how Beautiful you thought

she was and you were having an issue trying to

come up with How to say that to her but then

you told me like before that like what you were

Well, you thought of her and everything and I

thought that was the the perfect way to do it

So so do you want to reveal what you what you

said to me before the? Do you remember? Well,

what's what's our rating on this show? No, it

wasn't x -rated. You're a classy guy I didn't

really want to tell her that, because I felt

creepy for some reason. I don't know why. I went

up to Agnes Garboska and it was like, I'm going

to be a creepy guy for a second here, but I just

wanted to let you know you are absolutely gorgeous.

She was totally cool with it. She did that little

girl down face thing, embarrassed kind of thing.

Thank you. Which made her even more adorable.

So I like. Yeah, I don't know like I just I don't

really like to say those type of things too much

to to strangers obviously best celebrities it's

I just feel like you know an oozing fanboy and

they probably get that crap like all the time

so I kind of like just wanted to shy away from

it, but If I were to tell her it would be that

you know You know, it's not just like some celebrities

you meet and they look totally different than

on camera, you know, whether it's just the makeup

or You know the angles and lighting and stuff

like that But I think she really truly does have

a natural beauty to her as I stood there like,

you know two feet from her face She really is

like absolutely gorgeous So see and I I thought

that and maybe people can leave in the comments,

but I thought that was an absolutely it would

have been perfect for you to say to her. I thought

that was very well said. Yeah, very, very natural

beauty. She was very sweet, very nice. And, you

know, I didn't want to pull out my camera and

kind of take a selfie because they're actually

sort of being like jerks with that. Even like

behind the waiting line, which was like 50 feet

away from the tables where they were You have

the regular con goers kind of walking by and

people were trying to just kind of like hold

their phone up and zoom in a little bit and You're

not even gonna see anything that well because

it's so far away but you know the guy would come

running up to him waving his arms like no pictures

no pictures put your phones away like they're

kind of being jerks about it and You know, especially

I knew, you know, not paying anything. I didn't

pay the money to get the photo and everything.

I'm like, if I pull my phone out, they're going

to like tackle me or something. Like like Steve

Rogers is going to come out and like hit me with

a shield or something. So that he tried to do

that when you tried to kiss her. That was the.

Well, let's just say that she's she's no longer

Captain America's girlfriend. Told her I knew

all the hot spots in Baltimore. So we showed

her a good night Yeah, and so we also had another

run -in with a another celebrity I bring John

up to John Aston, you know the guy Rudy Sam wise

We were Chuck and I movies goonies so many so

many things we were You know, I think at some

place again looking at graphic novels and you

know Just quarter people start walking by and

we're like, oh look at Sean Aston with a group

of people, I guess he just does that. It's a

thing, since the Lord of the Rings, I don't know.

But no, he was like periscoping, and I guess

around the con, because they announced it on

the announcer table thing. And he stopped there,

and he was talking upstairs, and he was kind

of going back and forth with them. And he was

just kind of standing there, kind of taking photos,

and just kind of just watching, and then... I

have my phone out and he kind of turns around

and looks at me and like keeps this walking right

towards me and I always thought he was kind of

making fun of me because I was taking a photo

of him like right there which hey you know maybe

so and but then he like he kind of zooms in and

he's like looking like Pushing the phone back

and forth on my chest on my chest and I'm like,

what the hell's going on here? He's like, I'm

sorry I'm just trying to get a photo of your

excited my Baltimore dirt Orioles jersey on you

know of where we're at and you're like how they

do last night that they win I'm like, yeah, they

did. It's like great and he walked away. I'm

like that was weird So it's like Sam why's that's

for advice from me So I don't and but uh, it's

funny cuz I have all these bad photos of him

like looking the other direction But when he

was legitimately right in front of me, I didn't

take a photo So, what are you gonna do? You were

too confused by his weirdness. I was, and I was

actually trying to find his Periscope to see

if I could find that clip, but I forgot that

I don't know what Periscope is. You just have

to Google down Periscope. Exactly. It'll show

up. I went to his Facebook page. Good movie.

Facebook page, but I didn't see it there. I don't

know if it's like a thing like... It's where

you have to watch it and it goes away if it's

not live. It stays up for about 24 hours Because

that's how I I actually watched Mike McCombs

own Painting last night again. I did not commission

any more from him. But yeah, I watched him do

the painting on periscope it's it's you watch

it kind of Live as they're doing it and then

it stays up on periscope for about 24 hours So

I could have I could have checked it out, but

I did not so I was looking for it and I ended

up finding another video where like I guess while

he was in Baltimore he was doing some sightseeing

and He went to this like I don't he went to this

like historical Building. I don't know exactly

what it was. It's not a place that I've ever

been to I don't know if it was, it was something

pretty significant historically. It wasn't Fort

McHenry or anything like that, but it was something

else. I guess he's into history. So he had a

video about that and I was like, oh, you know,

maybe the, the Comic Con one will be on here

too, but I couldn't find it. So. Yeah, but it

wasn't, he seemed like a nice guy. I mean, just

like it was kind of random. He's very small,

small dude. So. See, what Dan didn't tell you

is that he was zooming in because Dan had the

ring on a necklace hanging down and he was looking

for Precious. Yeah, it was an eventful con. I'm

excited. It's our fourth time in a row going,

third time with talking in circles. relatively

known for its, you know, it's the most comic

book of a comic cons. They had the Harvey Awards

there as well, which I thought were just, I didn't

realize how prestigious those actually are. They're

probably not the same levels as the Eisners,

but they're not that far off. Yeah, and they

had Jim Lee and everybody there and like other

artists and creators that weren't at the con

were at the Harvey Awards. And it's like, well,

why can't they show up at the con as well? I

think Tom King did win, if I'm not mistaken,

and won the Best Writer. And Valiant was interesting

because they had 50 nominations, but they didn't

win anything. Who won shit? It was Valiant after

it? Yeah, yeah. I was actually at the one panel

when it was at Valiant and the guy was like,

I actually think it'll be impressive if we have

50 nominations and win nothing because it'll

be notable on that end. And then that happened.

So I don't know if he was trying to just to play,

you know, set himself up. Be pessimistic. Yeah,

have low expectations, but you know, what have

you. So, in the one category, they actually had

four out of the five nominations, but Chip Zardosky

won for best humor book, I guess, for Howard

the Duck, which is really good. But they had

like four of the books in that, which is probably

why they lost, because they probably just split

the vote, so. But I don't know. Anything else

you want to bring up regarding Baltimore Comic

Con? You mentioned about like those other artists

being at the Harvey Awards and stuff like, you

know Why couldn't they come to the con? Could

you imagine if Jim Lee was there like that crazy?

His line would have been like around on the outside

of the entire room There were quite a few lines

that were pretty huge. I lined up for Lemire

and That line was forever and he was signing

Every book that you brought up to him. We had

one guy that like I was super close to the table

I'm like, yes only a couple more moments but

no not really because this one guy came up and

he put like a handful of comics up on the table

and he's signing, Jeff Lemire signing, signing,

signing, signing. He gets down to the bottom.

The guy pulls out another freaking huge staff

and puts it on the table. And I'm like, are you

freaking serious? That is just, that is like,

he's only concerned with himself. Like that guy

has his head up his ass. I saw him a couple of

times during con and I just want to punch him

in the face. Yes, I just wanted to mention that

to a couple more common courtesy things like,

you know taking huge stacks like I mean, I realize

you want to you know, meet your artists You don't

know when you're gonna meet them again and everything

but it's it's kind of like it's kind of a jerk

move with that many like, you know, you're talking

people's like stacks of like 40, 50 comics, like

that's just getting ridiculous, you know? I try

to keep it like five or less, to be honest. That's

minus five or less. My little, you know, that's

kind of like my little limit. And New York City,

I'm taking like one comic for each creator. And

that's not me being courteous. That's that's

me being courteous to my back, I guess. Yeah,

I don't want to carry a whole. huge stack of

them the entire time. So I'm trying to limit

myself on that. And even people like, you know,

looking through boxes, sort of, this sort of

happened to me, like, you know, you kind of have

to go quickly because there's other people waiting

to get in there and look through the boxes and

things. And, you know, I had these couple of

like, younger, like high school kids and they're

like, Like pulling everything out of the box

and they're like talking about it. Oh, yeah,

this was really cool. And it's like so slow I'm

like, I was like, I want to say something so

bad. I'm like, dude, other people are waiting

to get in here There's like three of us standing

here and you guys are like having conversations

Bye or get out of the way, right? Like, you know,

you flip through the box You should know what

you look for and you know, just a minute and

you move to the next one You know, you can't

really take all day to look through this stuff

Yeah, but most of the people I honestly were

really great though Yeah, we got some cool pictures

of cosplayers and I usually don't ask the cosplayers.

I kind of just like stop when other people stop

to take a picture. I kind of like mooch off of

the that moment. So I jumped in and I take a

little picture and everything. But the cosplayers

are always great. Like they're always willing

to do pictures with kids and all that stuff.

So I think most of the people are really great

there. So definitely another great year. Yeah,

I see. at one spot like picking up comics and

there was this one guy who I think had certain

social issues or something like that but he was

just talking to the one store owner and I guess

someone called the one vendor about like everything

about like every book he was looking at and endless

amounts of stuff and the store owner was very

courteous and you know I'm guessing he probably

deals with that a lot being a comic book comic

book store owner but it was just like I felt

bad for the guy because it's just like he's not

stopping and he's just talking about everything

like it randomly with no apparent reason from

one thing to the next it's like I'm talking about

a TV show and then now I'm talking about this

other comic that was interesting. Was it like

the neighbor kid from Home Alone when he gets

in the van and starts asking a billion questions?

Kind of, yeah. What kind of van is this? Does

it get good gas mileage? How fast can it go?

It was like that, but then he would answer his

own questions. that's funny but yeah so very

cool all right well i'm gonna bring this episode

to a close and uh if you want to get in contact

with us there's a lot of different ways to do

so you can email if you back at kikasperator

.com or go to talk go to kikasperator .com and

comment on the episode post we're also on facebook

and twitter just search talking in circles ccrn

you guys are also on twitter what are your twitter

names i am I am at the Create Forge or if you

want to check out the art I got at the convention,

go to Comic Art Fans and check for Greg Bepler.

There you go. And I'm at Smooth Revolve. But

that'll be it for this week. We'll be back next

week. Same time, same channel, same podcast for

you to follow up for now. Well, this has been

Chuck or Haley yet wants new boyfriend. This

has been Greg or the Typhoid Kid. And this has

been Dan, and we've been talking in circles.

We'll see you next week. We've been talking in

viruses. Yeah. Hope this doesn't actually, you

know, get people sick. It'd be terrible if it

transmitted through the computer like that. It'd

be very contagious. But I -I -I wish no -like,

my greatest -well, maybe my greatest enemy, my

-my colds, because it was -ugh. I don't know

who my greatest enemy would be. That's the top

five. Top five best enemies. Your real life enemies.

Brian Michael Bennett. The one girl I work with.

Oddly still, Dr. Doom. It's weird.