Interview with JT From Saskatoon on His Comic Reading History

Hey, this is Steve Blum, and you are listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Welcome to...

The Pull Bag. Join us as we dig out our latest

comics and discuss them with the rotating panel

of the GCRN crew. So sit back and enjoy this

week's Polebag. Hey, Bub, I keep telling you,

don't call me Wobby! Snicked. Hello and welcome

to the Polebag. This is episode five. I am one

of your hosts, Steve Joe and Mike, and joining

me once again is JT from Saskatoon. Hello. And

how are you today? I'm pretty good. You're, uh,

you're tired, aren't you? I am always tired.

Sick and tired of this world We are continuing

our origins series here in the pull bag where

this this is more so gonna be me interviewing

you about your Comic history back in episode

3 of the pull bag Steve and I kind of basically

just talked our history out So since my story

is kind of already out there on the podcast.

This is gonna be more interview style with you

Where At what age did you get into comics? Pretty

much from the get -go I would say just like once

I learned how to read I mean originally I would

imagine my mom and my dad started feeding me

like Richie Rich and Archie such like that because

I can remember like growing up I'd go and visit

my grandma in my hometown of McNutt and she always

had like these grocery bags full of like Archie

and Richie Rich comics that I would just read

over and over again ad infinitum, you know, cuz

I Just loved reading comics growing up, you know,

you know the the color the story, you know It

was just something that I did. I never really

gave much thought about why as a kid anyhow You

know and from there just kind of you know almost

took on a life of its own in a way I mean, I

just I started reading Archie and Richie Rich

and eventually, you know, once I found other

stuff like Spider -Man, Batman, Superman, I just

kind of, if it was a comic book, I'd give it

a try and never really did stray too far from

superhero comics, but, you know, that's kind

of the foundation is it just, I learned how to

read reading comics as a small child. Right,

right. What were some of the books that you were

reading as a kid like by the time you were like

seven eight, you know And you're you know when

you were younger. Yeah a little spider -man definitely

because like I said in You know the superior

spider -man episode. He's like my all -time favorite

comic book character cuz You know, I grew up

watching the old 1960 spider -man cartoon which

is still one of my favorite spider -man animated

series and It's just like there's a comic book

like Hell yes, but I mean Spider -Man Batman

definitely and Definitely influenced that because

I used to watch the old Adam West show growing

up I remember reading Team books back in the

day like that's always been a big thing for me.

I've always loved reading team books and I know

as a kid like my dad Yeah, my grandma on my dad's

side my grandma Elizabeth had like these two

boxes full of like what comics remain from when

my dad was a kid growing up and reading comics

like he still had the covers on him with the

old ink pad stamped from the drugstore that he

bought them from in my other you know hometown

of Yorkton which is like the closest city to

where we lived here in Canada and so you know

Justice League Avengers didn't really get into

X -Men until I got you know into junior high

and the cartoon was out yeah, so basically the

big three would have been like you know spider

-man Batman Superman definitely and Basically

what there was any number of teen books that

I read like freedom fighters Justice League Avengers

West Coast Avengers stuff like that Yeah, well,

that's cool. That's cool now what would you say

are like by the time you get into like high school

and stuff what was that kind of like had your

taste changed or had you did you gravitate between

companies or were you all because you seem to

be like oh i like everything i'm not just a marvel

guy i'm both but i mean was there like was there

a time where it basically you were like i don't

care about what marvel's doing i'm gonna go read

dc for the next year and a year and a half Or

whatever well stuff like that some friends of

mine even today like bug me a bug like, you know

I've always been a DC fanboy and a member of

the Mary Marvel Marching Society like I've never

You know, it's kind of like when we did in the

g -series music spotlight how I There's stuff

that I like and I'll always like like Nickelback

and you know Our lady peace and stuff like that.

Like I just read something. I like it whether

it comes from one company or another, you know,

I never It's there it's almost like a system

of political thought like I just I've never picked

a side You know, I've read ever I've cherry -picked

I've read everything a lot of stuff from DC a

lot of stuff from Marvel I mean back in high

school, you know stuff I read stuff from image.

I read stuff from you You know what would be

considered independent companies like Malibu

comics that you know gave us stuff like That

spun into ultraverse comics like prime and hard

case, you know, which at least in the 90s came

very close to Going to say neck and neck, but

definitely given some competition to the big,

you know, too Yeah, I mean in height like specifically

by high school. I was definitely way into x -men

Because of the cartoon and also because the idea

in x -men the whole idea of hating someone because

they're different I mean comic books I mean literally

comic books really shaped a lot of about me like

the whole you know concepts of right and wrong

and you know responsibility like from spider

-man and x -men which is kind of a racial tale

because you know humans hate mutants because

they have powers and they're different and I

never got that concept like why hate someone

because they're different so I was way into x

-men because of that and I remember in high school

the junior in high school I was also way into

this line of comics is called impact comics from

DC Which is basically a 90s remake of the old

like the shield the fly the Jaguar You know these

old kind of basically they were published by

Archie comics under the blue ribbon comics Label

back in the day. It was another line of superhero

comics and a lot of the short -lived stuff that

came out in the 90s like that You know the ultraverse

comics like I said like prime hard case and the

freaks the night man You know if it was a superhero

comic, I pretty much read it hell I even read

a comic that was called the ex mutants Which

it it sounds exactly it was basically exactly

what it sounds you and this one was even a remake

the original title from like the independent

comic in the 80s about you it's 100 years in

the future after nuclear apocalypse and there's

these group of mutants who are discovered by

this scientist who's in like this robotic body

and uses his magic science to turn them into

full humans so they're not walking around with

like all the other bumps and the boils and everything

and it's kind of like a post -apocalyptic superhero

story because now these guys are the freaks among

the freaks because they're, you know, normal.

And I think that's another reason why I got into

that like excellence, like the whole idea of,

you know, what is normal, what is different,

anything like that I really got into. And it

grew from there, really, as I go went through

high school, like I dipped into everything. I

think, and especially in high school, the one

thing that really got me it really By high school.

I really kind of solidify my taste as to you

know if it's a crossover I'd better be into the

story before I get into it Exactly you have to

start these at issue What whenever a crossover

happens you have to start at that first issue

you can't start in the middle of it Well, yeah

that exactly but it was more so the storyline

because I mean I loved reading crossovers growing

up. I mean There's stuff like, you know, acts

of vengeance, which was basically Loki, the Norse

god of mischief, teaming up with like Doctor

Doom, the Red Skull, Kingpin, Mandarin, and these

villains would go after other heroes that weren't

their normal, you know, their normal enemies.

They had stuff like that, which was like a cool

enough story, or there's even kind of a crossover,

without actually being a crossover, I remember

an amazing Spider -Man that, and especially in

the 90s when an artist named Mark Bagley who

him and Brian Michael Bendis had basically they

now have the longest on continuous run in a Marvel

comic book series they've broken that forget

the exact number of issues but they broke the

original title held by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee

on Fantastic Four with the ultimate Spider -Man

title and Mark Bagley has been one of those guys

like he's got this very clean style like you

know it's very dynamic and full -bodied, but

it's not like so cluttered and it doesn't look,

you know, it's very smooth and good -looking.

But there's this crossover where it's like Spider

-Man teams up with Nova Human Rocket, the Punisher,

Night Thrasher, the New Warriors, Moon Knight,

to fight the Secret Empire, which is one of the

dozens of secret societies dedicated to world

domination that you find in the Marvel Universe.

And it all happened in this about four or five

issues of just amazing spider -man You know,

so and I got into that because I was reading

Marvel I was reading Nova and the New Warriors

comics and getting way into Punisher in high

school and it's stuff like that that I Got if

I dig it I'll get into it hard wholesale But

there are so many crossovers in the 90s. Like

there's company -wide crossovers. There's you

know family of title crossovers would be like,

you know stuff that crosses over all the x -men

books or all the Superman books and If I didn't

like you said, you know if you you're gonna get

into it, you know I get into in the first issue

if I want to and I'd go hard but aside from that

it just I Really got picky like I really refined

my tastes as to what I wanted to read by high

school Think the only crossover I've ever read

Like like company crossover not mess because

obviously death of the family just ended and

we'll get into your what we'll get into what

you read today and a little bit but Obviously

death of the family just ended in the new 52

and that was a crossover amongst all the different

bad books But as far as company crossovers, I

think the only one I've ever read was the 90s

DC versus Marvel that for issue. Oh, yeah see

that see that's I love the DC versus Marvel crossover,

but speaking of the Batman crossover one of my

all -time favorite like just family title crossovers

was like, you know nightfall night rise and nights

and which is the whole Kind of trilogy of storylines

where you know, they introduced the con character

of Bane Bane and you know, you see him and Basically

track and then break the Batman and then you

get this new character That the interest named

Jean Paul Valier as real who's this? Assassin

for the secretive religious sect and he becomes

the new Batman, you know first he's wearing the

normal costume and then he's like hypnotic programming

starts to break his mind and he gets like these

funky like talon gauntlets they can fire Batman

shuriken out of and eventually he gets like a

bad 90s update costume with the You know the

one wrap of pockets or like pouches around his

thigh and then It just like updates for you know,

because it was the 90s and everyone had to get

be fresh and new and hip and By the end of it,

you know Bruce Wayne came back whoops a mess

and proved why he is the goddamn Batman But yeah,

but no DC Marvel see that's the thing I love

about DC Marvel inter company crossovers if they're

done well It's and really it's a matter of taste

is how well they're done. I love The thing I

love one of the things I loved about comics in

the 90s is that was kind of the last Era the

last decade where they were just plain fun in

a way for me like a lot of crossovers They didn't

necessarily make sense like there was a crossover

called blood ties where it was You know Magneto

was causing shit and the X -Men and the Avengers

team up to you know smack him around but I mean

Even for yourself, you know like DC Marvel that

was just that was like the aliens versus predator

the Godzilla versus King Kong You know sort of

fit me time. Yeah to team up And it was it was

a decent concept There's these giant cosmic beings

as one red one blue ones Marvel ones DC, you

know random characters are meeting I mean you

don't get like Full issue fights. They're done

pretty quickly, but they're pretty well matched

up I mean Lobo versus Wolverine Thor versus Wonder

Woman Or is it you know stuff like that Green

Lantern versus the Silver Surfing and they're

pretty close matched up and the result of that

after the third issue I mean Fans could call

in and vote on a 1 -800 number as to who's gonna

win a fight You know, so Hulk versus Superman,

you know, I believe Superman won that but pretty

much by giving the Hulk a hot seat I haven't

read in so long. I can't I might be getting that

wrong. But after the third issue what they had

is the brothers Combine and you got this what's

basically what's called a fifth week event, which

is a Special event comic that's published kind

of outside the normal storytelling structure

a series or a company and you have this line

called Amalgam comics where it was basically

You know you take Captain America and Superman

you get super soldier Wolverine and Batman becomes

Dark Claw One of my personal favorites in the

combo it was called the challengers the fantastic

is this old comic book created by Jack Kirby

called the challengers of the unknown combined

with the fantastic foreign it's just stuff like

that it's just like That poop insane ideas that

were just fun You know because if you start thinking

about comic books too much in the long run well

nothing really makes sense You know like why

does spider -man get superpowers? Why doesn't

he die of radiation sickness? You know how does

Batman not run his company into the ground stealing

all this money to make all his bat gear so Yeah,

yeah, you got to think with Batman though with

Bruce Wayne He's a billionaire You know, you

know, you know today you see Oh Avengers made

a billion dollars you when I think of Bruce Wayne

I think of a billionaire where he has billions

of dollars not just He's not just like he continues

to make deals. He continues to Find ways for

technology to make him money. I think of Bruce

Wayne like people think of royalty checks. Yeah

Any time your cartoon airs a rerun on TV, someone,

somewhere is getting a royalty check. Yeah, you're

getting a little bit of something, something.

I remember, at least in the previous continuity

of DC, because if we start talking about the

new 50T, I'll start screaming the word. Well,

we'll get into that in a second. Well, I'll try

not to. I'll refrain from screaming the F word

for five minutes straight. But they used to publish

these comics which called secret files and origins,

which has been a concept in DC comics since the

60s. But in the 90s, the secret files and origin

specials more or less replaced what is the annual

comic books that come out, which are the oversized

with like special stories were tied to an ongoing

storyline or something like that. And they have

this like two or three page story where Lucius

Fox is presenting Bruce Wayne with a shrinkage

inventory, which is basically a a list of all

the stuff that Batman has stolen from his company

over the years that are just made disappear.

You know, so there's stuff like a Hercules C

-130 transport plane that took off from Gotham

Airport and never made it to New York. Like a

whole bank of crazed supercomputers and you see

Robin like wiring stuff together. You know, a

McLaren racing engine. You see Batman and Robin

in the Harold the hunchback who was a character

in the 90s Batman comics that You know kind of

explain. Well, how does Batman keep all his you

know cars and good repair? Well, it's not just

Alfred You know It's stuff like that that I love

like yeah Batman He's making enough money to

cover it. But damn almost embezzling half the

time. And on that note, we're gonna hear something

from Wolverine and we'll be back after this.

Come here! I'm the best there is at what I do.

And what I do can't be imitated, copied, cloned,

or used without the express written permission

of the superhero squad in Marvel Entertainment

LLC. Batteries not included, all rights reserved,

terms, conditions, or restrictions apply. We

clear, bub. Yes, sir. Thank you, Wolverine, for

letting us know who you are. uh... and that there

is no substitute uh... so okay here in the poll

bag we will be doing eventual episodes about

dc pre and post new fifty two we will also be

doing an episode marvel then marvel now talking

about marvel before there quote -unquote new

52 relaunch But what are you as an adult? What

are you reading these days? We know obviously

you're reading superior spider -man. Yeah, what

are you reading the comics? Well in Marvel right

now. I'm reading superior spider -man Still reading

like some of the quartiles like Avengers uncanny

Avengers Wolverine and the X -Men the new uncanny

X -Men which they've restarted for like the fourth

time the last three years Iron man, I think I

said reading the new Thunderbolts, which is a

title I've basically read since it came out in

the mid 90s after is one of the titles that started

post onslaught Which is the I don't know if you've

ever read Thunderbolts have you Mike? No, okay.

It's basically at the original title was this

new group of heroes that debuted after, you know,

the Avengers and the Fantastic Four were thought

to have died fighting Onslaught, which was like

this psychic demon that was like a combination

of the worst parts of Magneto and Professor X.

And the concept is a decent idea. The execution

was a little flawed. And that's... Not to say

it was so bad, it was definitely flawed, but

it wasn't horrible either. And then the Thunderbolt,

by the end of the first issue, you see that you

got these new guys. There's a Citizen V, which

is an update character of an actual golden age,

like timely comics character, which is the company

that preceded Marvel. And there's Citizen V,

Techno with his cybernetic backpack, Moonstone,

Songbird, Mach 1. and Atlas and by the end of

the first issue you find it basically it's Baron

Zemo and the Masters of Evil disguised as good

guys and you know Zemo, this is Zemo Jr. Not

the original guy that had his hood glued to his

face. And that's the actual character, he's a

Nazi scientist who had adhesive X and Captain

America threw his mighty shield and Baron Zemo

had a hood glued to his face for the rest of

his days. So by the end of it, it's the master's

evil basically working on this plan for world

domination and eventually they're joined by this

new girl named Jolt who's got like these bioelectric

powers and eventually they're revealed as villains

and a bunch of them. It basically became this

idea of like villains seeking redemption for

the longest time and up until the current storyline

where it's the Red Hulk who Called it. I mean

if you haven't read the storyline yet spoilers,

I'm sorry, but it was General Ross the whole

time Yeah, General Ross became that which he

hated most. I mean it's comics. They're not really

big on originality in some respects Thunderbolts

he crossed over to DC On my podcast that you

know, it's kind of been on indefinite hiatus

for a while. We had an episode which is Not me

and my co -host Doug screaming the word fuck

for an hour I still I'm still against the idea

of the DC new 52 just the idea It's just I think

it was a lazy idea is like oh we want to bring

on new writers Yeah, so you the writers or new

readers so the writers should actually make an

effort and write decent stories It'll bring in

new people. No, let's just chuck like 30 years

of continuity because we're too tired of doing

our homework 30 years, more like 70 years. 30

years from like basically 1985 they had the crossover

crisis on infinite earths which was the result

of basically by that point you know the world

war two heroes were on earth two and captain

marvel and the marvel family were on earth s

and captain carrot and his amazing zoo crew on

earth you know googleplex or whatever so that

was an editorial decision is the whole crossover

storyline brought every character that DC was

currently publishing or had in their library

and consolidated into one storyline, one timeline.

So basically from 1985 onward, it was a whole

new deal. And by the time they did the new Flashpoint

and they rebooted the universes, Dan DiDio and

the other editors were like, well, we've got

to bring in new readers. Well, hell, let's just

start over again. So I'm against the idea I'm

not and and I will always kind of be against

it But there have been some pretty cool stories

that have come out of the new 52. I Mean not

everything has been gold well alright, so as

people already know and I'm you know, this is

more about you than me, but They did new 52 but

Because there were already storylines in place.

They don't well. Yeah, see that's Because there

were storylines that people had worked on for

a year prior they don't reboot Batman and or

Green Lantern and I because I am the only DC

books that I read pretty much are any of the

bad like I read Batman bad girl Nightwing Those

are the main three and then sometimes I will

pick up Batman and Robin Now that of course spoilers

Damien is dead. Thank fucking god. I hate that

fucking kid so much I'll probably be reading

that a little bit more, but Are you reading anything?

Like, do you like anything from the New 52? Well,

no, there is a lot of titles that I like in New

50, and I agree with you. My biggest sticking

point with the whole reboot, if you're going

to reboot your entire universe, reboot your entire

universe. Don't stop at two characters just because

you've been doing this for, you know, it bothers

me, is what I'm saying with Green Lantern, and

like, it's not that I don't enjoy the Green Lantern

storylines, which is one of the titles that I

still collect from DC, it's just... The logic

of it irks me, but I mean in DC I'm I'm still

a huge Justice League fanboy So I'm getting both

Justice League titles like JLA or Justice League

and Justice League of America just started coming

out I've been getting Batman pretty much since

the beginning. I've been getting Green Lantern

I've kind of been cherry picking some of the

other Lantern titles because of the crossover

that or The ongoing storyline that's going on

right now. Like yeah, the Guardians go mental

and create these zombie Like creatures called

the third army to wipe out the Green Lantern

Corps and start over because you know emotion

is the enemy One of the titles from DC that I've

really been digging is Unfortunately, it's it's

a they've gone in waves and canceling low -selling

titles and bringing new stuff on So it just was

announced. It's gonna be cancelled after the

next couple issues is DC comic presents, which

is Basically a title where they brought back

characters and concepts in a new 52 origins so

stuff like the challenges of the unknown blue

devil and black lightning, you know, they changed

the origin there the concept of Vandal Savage

that's been introduced in the new 52 is kind

of cool where he's kind of this Hannibal Lecter

ish type of villain but his daughter is like

an FBI profiler and has to Great not break him

but takes him out of prison to you know have

him help Track down this copycat serial killers.

I mean that was a cool story The the titles that

I've really kind of been getting into is the

the old Wildstorm slash image titles that Jim

Lee's Brought into DC because I mean it was you

know years ago in the mid to late 90s where Jim

Lee kind of seceded from image comics and you

know wildstorm comics it was his own universe

and then he famously kind of sold it to DC and

it was folded into the DC media umbrella but

the characters never crossed over very often

with the normal DC universe but in the new 52

now that he's like one of the main editors and

kind of one of those guys in creative control

they've been filtering concepts from image comics

like team 7 grifter voodoo I mean and they're

slowly slowly and it's I love a slow burn story

but sometimes it's maddening because I love the

characters so much and the idea that they're

very slowly rebuilding towards the debut of the

Wildcats which is a comic book that I've always

loved like I I wish I could find the crappy 90s

cartoon series on DVD because I love that show.

And because the Wildcats for those that never

read it is basically this title There's this

alien Cold War on earth and there's the alien

demonites who can like possess people and they've

got all sorts of weird powers and you know They're

trying to take over the world and they're opposed

by the Wildcats, you know, the or the wild covert

action team But with a name like that doesn't

really sound like they're gonna be under wraps

too much and you know, they're they're made up

of like Aliens and cyborgs it was it's such a

90s concept, but I loved it So I mean they're

building towards that they've also had a couple

of miniseries involving characters like the ray

of Phantom Lady and doll man and the human bomb

and these are all characters from another one

of the teen books I loved growing up called the

freedom fighters like uncle Sam and the freedom

fighters and There's other been other stuff.

I was reading Catwoman for a while and I kind

of dropped out of that was reading firestorm

Firestorm is a character I stopped getting the

regular titles like there are certain comic books

and this is across a lot of different companies

that I read There are certain titles that I can't

do single serving portions. I got to go buffet

on them if you get my meaning So basically you

don't collect certain titles. You don't collect

single issues. You wait for the trade Yeah, like

Firestorm I read probably Most of the first year

and I Firestorm always been a character. I always

kind of dug like visually. I love the costume

and the whole you know Split personality sort

of thing. I dug but yeah with the new firestorm

I've just been picking up the trades and once

you get out of Marvel and DC there I'm kind of

a little over the map with all the other companies

like IDW's got the license for Ghostbusters Transformers

and GI Joe, so I've been getting pretty much

all those comics there's stuff from like Top

Cal like I still get pick up again I pick up

the trades of which played when they come out

every so often because I've always loved the

which played comic any yeah like most guys who

started reading in the nineties it's like it

hit pretty lady not a lot of clothes you know

but it was even better in two thousand one when

Yancy Butler actually played her on TV because

holy crap yeah yeah but they never did like the

comic book version of the costume is Always like

an actual suit of armor, but no it was a great

show don't get me wrong so I've been collecting

that Robert Kirkman who's kind of The way he's

become an image thought partner You know he's

kind of grandfathered in kind of the way Captain

America was given founders status in the Avengers

even though he was Not there until a few weeks

later. He's a guy. I love the Walking Dead comic.

I love the TV show I mean you know go for him

He's kind of created his own superhero universe

within image comics and with stuff like invincible,

which is basically a Son the son of Superman

sort of story You know this guy mark you clone

There are clones, but it starts simply enough

it starts off as this This kid finds out he's

basically the son of Superman and goes from there.

He had this comic book ran for a couple years

that I absolutely love. It was called The Astonishing

Wolfman about this rich guy who gets attacked

by a werewolf and then this vampire trains him

how to use his powers to fight for good. There's

a whole flipside to why the vampire is training

him. It was just a goofy concept. It's a werewolf

superhero. That's awesome. But he also writes

one of my current favorite titles. It's called

Super Dinosaur. And it's kind of a little bit

of Johnny Quest, makes a little bit of like Power

Rangers about this kid, Derek. And his father

used to team with this other scientist named,

was it Darius Dark or something like that. Basically,

they find this new element that they call Dynor,

and they use it for all these weird and cool

scientific applications. And then the evil scientist

creates an intelligent -talking Tyrannosaurus

Rex, who's about 12 years old mentally, becomes

best friends with Derek, and eventually Derek

Super D and his dad, they go off and they fight

the evil scientist. It's very Johnny Quest but

I love the fact that when they're not fighting

like the design of the character is cool because

it's super nice or goes into battle with like

this super harness that's got like rocket launchers

and laser cannons and it's basically everything

that a 10 year old boy would want his pet dinosaur

to have. But it doesn't transform so it's not

Grimlock. No it's not Grimlock but I mean it's

kind of it's so I don't know if he wants to make

toys out of this, but it would be so cool if

he did just buy the different harnesses to put

on a Super Dinosaur toy, because he's got combat

armor, he's got flight armor, he's got undersea

armor. It's kind of like the Batman aesthetic,

but it actually happens in the comics. So wait

a second, this T -Rex is essentially, it's not

Grimlock because it doesn't transform, yet it's

Iron Man because it has all these different armors?

Damn right. Like the the made the first storyline

in the comic, you know He's got like his standard

armor and he's got like this little belt that

you see his little t -rex hands, you know working

Looks like arcade style joysticks, you know work

everything and the end of the first major story

arc the evil scientists like I Maddening I can't

remember his name right now unleashes a giant

velociraptor on our heroes so Super D gets this

huge version of his armor and It's just one of

those things is like, you know what? I don't

even care if logic doesn't make sense. This is

fucking awesome But I mean all those one of my

favorite comics that and it comes in two comics

Are my two absolute favorite comics right now.

Sadly one of them is coming to end. It's a comic

called hack slash Which I grew up loving Watching

80s slasher movies like horror movies like Freddy

Jason, you know Michael Myers Leatherface and

the idea is in this comic there's always that

one girl that survives a slasher flick and hack

slash it's this character named Cassie hack Who

mother her mother went mad? Started killing all

the kids that were teasing her daughter in school

and cooking them into the mystery meat at lunch

And when Cassie fingered her for all these murders,

she threw her head into a pot of gravy and died,

but then she came back as a slasher. And then

Cassie killed her mother and meets this guy named

Vlad, who's, he's not mentally retarded, but

he's kind of slow, but he's also built like the

wrestler Batista. So Cassie, sorry. Oh, jeez.

Yeah. Well, it's just this kind of it started

as a series of mini -series and spacey Cassie

and Vlad traveling around the country and they

fight different types of slashers like they even

run into Chucky and basically what Tim Seeley

the creator has done is he created this world

where he explains why Chucky and Freddy and Jason

they all exist in the same world and He builds

this mythology explains why slashers happen And

some of them it's pretty cool concepts like he

creates a one slasher called father sin or father

wrath who there's a this shrewish girl who finds

an ancient Tome of Jewish magic that she uses

to resurrect this For this fire and brimstone

preacher Who was killed by his you know, right

hand like altar boy because he got a little touchy

feely and he liked a cross dress and so this

basically it's she sends a zombie priest out

to exact revenge on all the people who ever wronged

her or you got stuff like this guy who was gassed

in a gas chamber and like a animal clinic and

then he comes back as this you know shovel -weaving

slasher but he can resurrect resurrect all the

dead and buried animals around this small town

it's just you could so make a movie out of stuff

like this if you're into the slasher It's just

you know it's coming to an end in the next couple

of months the last couple issues So I mean if

you like horror movies from the 80s you would

definitely love this title and if you love Hellboy

You would also love atomic robo And atomic robo

is basically what if hellboy was a robot and

the idea is that Nikola Tesla? Who basically

created you know, you know alternating current

because Thomas Edison was a massive lying prick

At least in the comic universe, you know, he

stole he's basically a patent thief and blamed

other people for a lot of his problems But atomic

row was this Nikola Tesla case of robot Who basically

in the 1920s and has gone through, you know every

major event in American history and it's very

much Indiana Jones Hellboy a lot of pulp style

action adventure You know by the time when it's

anything that's set in the modern day. He owns

Tesla dying, which is you know a company that

grew out of Tesla's original company back in

the day, and he surrounds himself with what's

called action scientists. Basically, it's G .I.

Joe, but everyone has multiple PhDs and they

fight violent science around the world. The two

of the major enemies of Tana Kropa, one is this

guy named Helsingard, is basically a Nazi scientist

who has cloned his brain dozens of times and

has caches of these brains floating in tanks

and Seek and save houses around the world so

when one dies another wakes up screws it self

into another robot body and attempts to take

over the world again and then there's dr. Dinosaur

a talking super genius velociraptor Who is nuttier

than a bag full of squirrels? Who claims that

dinosaurs were intelligent and he comes from

the past His highest he's gonna take over the

world with the help of the greatest technology

in the land VHS Hmm it's funny believe me I'm

kind of rambling here, but I Read a lot of comics.

It's hard to keep track some days. Yeah Apparently

so I know I hope we still have listeners at this

point I don't know. I think I kind of checked

out after the whole cross -dressing thing Yeah,

that's again. I if you like 80 slasher flex.

That's all I'm saying good lord All right, so

what's are is going to final question here what

are i assume is that i i know i haven't read

them all because obviously i've just getting

back in the comics since october of last year

i assume you've read all the must read works

right dark knight returns and idea of your dark

knight returns uh... the dark knight strikes

again should be burned Because I think that's

where Frank Miller lost it like I I know the

guy kind of learned at the foot of Will Eisner

who's Like the godfather of modern comic books

and storytelling but that spirit movie was just

Because I read some of the spirit comic books

I'm talking the original Will Eisner spirit comic

books not the crap that Brian Azzarello put out

through DC prior to New 52 like the the whole

with the whole spirit and Doc Savage and such

like that But yeah, I read a lot of the seminal

works. I mean stuff like Dark Knight crisis on

infinite earths Squadron supreme if you're into

Marvel is a pretty cool comic book, you know,

it's basically Marvel's version of Justice League

in a world where they try to fix everything and

it doesn't necessarily work properly. I don't

know, what else have we got? Oh, let's see. Little

thing called Days of Futures Past. Yeah, no,

I read that. I'm a big sucker for, like with

Amalgam comics, I'm a big sucker for alternate

reality sort of things. Like if I could have

one, say I have Mickey's stupid money and I could

buy like Mint copies of an entire run. I would

get the original run of Marvel's what if Because

I've always loved the the alternate like I said

alternate universe tales. So I loved what if

DC's else worlds You know with the the whole

concept like that like Kingdom Come and other

stories You know stuff like that like Marvel's

what if I think probably My first one of the

very first comics I remember buying on my own

like not the stuff that my mom and dad would,

hey, you wanna get a couple of comics, go to

the old spinner rack and grab something. One

of the first comics they ever bought with my

own money was an issue of what if, wherein it

was an oversized special issue where there was

four vignettes and it was what if the Fantastic

Four all had the same powers. So they had a story

where they all get Mr. Fantastic's power, the

invisible woman's or the thing. The thing one

was actually kind of a really tragic tale because

you know, they all become like hulking brutes

You know the read turns into you know, just basically

this kind of purple skin, you know Behemoth and

he's slowly losing his intelligence and eventually

they end up on Munster Isle and just live out

their days there I mean Johnny mutates into like

the original dinosaur roughhide version of the

thing Ben Grimm right away mutates into his like,

you know brick form that we all know and love

Sue Storm got the worst but she basically becomes

a man thing. Just like this big moss -covered

hulk, you know, just no emotion, no intelligence

whatsoever. Then the one, the final story is

what if they all had the invisible woman's powers

and apparently they all become agents of SHIELD

and they get captured. It's the story of Captain

or Doctor Doom captures them and... They basically

take out Doctor Doom and save the day. One of

my all -time favorite what -if tales, and this

is one just for the sheer absurdity of it, and

this is why I love comics, is there was a storyline

Fantastic Four in the 80s when John Byrne was

writing and doing the story. It was basically

the trial of Galactus. All the races of the universe

put Galactus on trial. In the what -if version

of this story, he's sentenced to become human

and basically banished into exile on Earth. Except

the form that he gets when he lands on Earth

is that of Elvis Presley. Sexy, black -suited,

jailhouse rock Elvis Presley. He lands in a trailer

park outside of Memphis, Tennessee. He is found

by an uber Elvis fanatic. He lives with her.

He watches all the movies. He watches all the

music videos. He listens to all the music. Elvis

is back and this is the best part of the story.

He still eats like fat Elvis like obscene amounts

of food He's just shoveling into his body and

he's got There's like why do you eat so much?

I don't know. I just have this huge gnawing hunger

in the pit of my stomach And I was like, oh my

god, this is brilliant Elvis is Galactus Galactus

is Elvis somebody get the fried peanut butter

and banana sandwiches Alrighty then yeah, I mean,

it's just I've always loved comics. I mean there's

There's the one art form in the world where you

can do Stop like absolutely insane ideas like

a guy with buttloads of mummy daddy issues and

he goes around dressed up like a bat and beating

people up and it makes sense or You can have

a comic book of a bunch of alien robots from

another world that transfer him into car planes,

trains, and automobiles, and it makes sense.

You know, an alien visitor from another planet

who gets superpowers because our sun is in a

different stage of its life than, you know, the

red giant star, which is basically the end life

of a star, and he fights crime and fights for

truth, justice, and the American way, and it

makes sense. Sometimes it makes sense. Stuff

like... Four baby turtles get covered in glowing

radioactive waste and grow up become butt -kicking

ninjas, and it makes sense How could you not

love this stuff? And with that we're gonna go

to a quick ad break and come back to close the

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I'm your host Ryan and I'm Chuck. That's right

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because knowing us is half the battle. So we

are back here in the pull bag, and that's it,

I gotta say... I read way too many comic books.

Well, yes you do, but I thought that you were

more... I didn't realize you were so off the

beaten path and more independent than The Big

Two or ID. I thought you were into the major

franchises, regardless of your feelings of rebooting

universes. I used to be. Everything comes and

goes. Like I said, I'm still way into superhero

comics, but I've expanded, obviously, out of

The Big Two. there's some for like x -men i've

always loved x -men but in the last few years

it just got to the point where they're they're

canceling x -men they're renumbering x -men they're

splitting up and you know cyclops is going to

go live out in this island out and just off the

coast of san francisco and well wolverine and

the x -men brought it back to the whole idea

of you know a school for mutants and wolverine

is now professor x which is like Still kind of

mind -boggling You know because the best there

is that what he does is now a schoolteacher But

yeah, I know I still love reading superhero comics,

but it's in the last few years You know a man

cannot live on bread alone basically so you know

I expanded my my case and Well, that's what I'm

doing and since episode 3 since Steve and I told

our story I find myself like Like I said, okay.

I'm only gonna I'm only gonna collect these characters

like when the iron man 3 prelude the two issue

preludes came out Leads up into the the new movie

this year. I was like, okay I have to get those

because I want to see what happens I'm like and

Steve got me into Batman with death of the family

with Batman 13 So I'm into Batman I'm into Batgirl

because of that and I basically pick characters

but since episode 3 of the podcast I find myself,

holy crap, I have to read Rage of the Dinobots,

and after the Rage of the Dinobots, this May,

they're starting Transformers Beast Hunters,

and now I have to go back and read stuff before

Rage of the Dinobots, which is Transformers Follows

Cybertron 6 issue digital series that's coming

out in trade. So I find myself that I just have

to keep reading more and more and more and more.

Where I find myself where I don't really give

a crap is like in Batman Beyond. when they do

three different stories and it's not just a Batman

Beyond story when they do like Justice League

Beyond and Superman Beyond. I thought those were

their own books. Hopefully they will be getting

their own books and get the fuck out of my Batman

Beyond. You got chocolate in my peanut butter.

That's right. Just expand. I mean there's so

many comics that I've seen that I would like

to try but you know I looked at my gut I go to

my comic book storage is eight street books and

comics here in Saskatoon. I got like a hard copy.

I got them to print off everything that I got

on my pull list right now. And then I'm just

like, damn, that's a lot. Like, that's a lot.

And stuff like that. So there's like some be

cutting some stuff off here and there. It's,

it's a lot of fun. I mean, If I could suggest

one title that if you want to read if you're

in DC If you want to go back and get something

I would suggest the Aquaman comic book Because

you're just saying that to be a dick you asshole

no no and I literally if you if you like stuff

in DC, it's literally like I Love the fact that

I've always kind of thought Aquaman was cool

because you know, it's King Arthur under the

sea and well, yeah, he can He's strong and he

can talk to fish. Basically, you're going to

mess with a guy that can send to school sharks

and jellyfish after your ass. Stuff like that.

There's so many different things out there. There's

superhero comics, there's comedy comics, there's

licensed comics like Transformers and G .I. Joe.

There's all sorts of things. They even got stuff

like... Jim Ballant who used to do Catwoman back

in the days got like this sexy witch comic called

tarot which of the black rose that for some reason

is Immensely popular although. I don't think

anyone really reads that for the story they read

it for the art, but Because it's you know sexy

time with witches yes one final thing Are you

have you seen the news about what's gonna happen

in Batman? Not yet. You haven't seen the news

about issue 21? No, I haven't. Wow, you've been

living under a rock. I don't get internet at

work, so... Yeah, okay, well, this shouldn't

be a spoiler for the listeners, since everybody

should know this by now, but... Batman number

21 in the new 52. Scott Snyder and Greg Capolo

are doing their second big storyline for this

year. And they are doing Batman zero year. Basically,

this is going to be his new 52 origin, but it's

going to be like everybody's done year one. Everyone

except for me, because I need to go back and

read it. But everyone's read Frank Miller's year

one or not year one. Did he do year one? He did

year one. No, that's a classic Batman story.

Right. Like everybody knows year one. OK. The

point that Snyder made in an interview that I

saw online was that no one really knows that

first year or that year, like the build up to

him putting the costume on. So that's the next

big thing starting in Batman number 21, is that

they're gonna be doing Batman zero year. And

I cannot wait. And he said that they're not gonna

change the origin, they're just gonna enhance

it and add little things here and there, but

they're not gonna like... It's not gonna be like

oh his parents didn't die. They're alive. This

is a you know a dream sequence They're not gonna

do anything like that, but they're it's gonna

be really interesting And I hope it's a hell

of a lot more interesting, and I hope it pays

off Ten times more than that sadly anti -climactic

ending to death of a family Yeah, so it's basically

it's like setting up the cave and such yeah setting

up the cave building the Batmobile me likey The

copy on DC's website, and I'll send you the link,

is, uh, Batman number 21. Witness the new 52

origin of the Dark Knight in Batman Zero Year.

Twists and turns around every corner as Bruce

Wayne takes the final steps towards his destiny.

And in the back -up story, learn more about how

different Gotham City was at this dangerous point

in time. I will, uh, see if I can find the actual

press release. I think it's on Twitter somewhere.

But anyway, um... Yeah, that's gonna do it for

this episode of the pull bag and I guess we will

catch you next time keep reading those comics

You just heard the latest episode of the pull

bag GCR ends comic book review podcast There

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