Origins with Jesse W. Jackson on Comic Book Origins and Current Reading

Hey, this is Thompson Thaller, creator of Long

Distance, and you are listening to The Pole Bag.

Welcome to The Pole Bag's Origins episodes. Join

us as TFG1 Mike grills this week's guests on

just how they got into reading comic books. This

town deserves a better class of criminal. And

I'm gonna give it to him. Hello and welcome to

the pull bag this is yet again another origins

episode and it is October already 2015 is almost

over ladies and gentlemen and the pull bag has

had a few setbacks with my Moving and everything

else and sadly we didn't get Supergirl September

done My plan was for us to do Supergirl September

with Michael Bailey the new 52 Supergirl series

And then over on Remote Control, the current

new TV podcast for the DCR, and we were going

to review the pilot for Supergirl on CBS. But

sadly, that didn't happen. Michael may still

come back and do the pilot episode for Supergirl,

but I am, of course, DFG, Mike, and this is an

Origins episode. As I said, for those of you

who don't know what the Origins episodes are,

I basically get friends, people I've known for

years, or complete random Twitter strangers.

To come on the show and talk about how they started

stopped or are continuing reading comics or you

know all that kind of stuff and Through my interview

with the long -distance writer Tom Zoller. Yes.

I said his name right. Yay His last name anyway,

yeah We have Jesse Jackson with us. Hey, Mike.

I am thrilled to be here talking comics. So throw

me on the list of I am a Kara Zor -El longtime

fan. So if you need someone to talk Supergirl,

I will be glad to join you. It's not that I didn't.

I mean, Mike, when I were going to do that, it's

just because of I had been on a waiting list

for this apartment. Yes. And all this crap happened.

just couldn't get to record because at the time

I was living with three other people and Don't

you don't you hate it when real world interferes

with your podcast thing or you're you're being

geek like come on, dude. Hey Don't get me wrong.

I'm absolutely grateful Yeah, what my friends

did and help you know moved in with me and helped

me out after my mom died Don't get me wrong.

I'm super grateful for that but Everyone that

has known me for the last seven years or so that

I've been doing podcasting, even though GCRN

has only been online for six and a half years,

everyone knows I'm a podcast machine. If I didn't

need sleep or eating, I could do this. I could

record 24 hours a day. I really could because

I just absolutely loved doing it in the last

five or six months. It was a constant hassle

to be able to schedule around, you know, the

guests and, you know, my friends and whatever

else. And then figuring out when the roommates

are going to be home or when they're not going

to be home or blah, blah, blah, blah. But anyway,

we're here to talk comics. Was there, the first

question I usually ask is was there a parent,

a friend, a complete stranger that said, here

kid, here's a comic, go away, you bother me.

So I just tweeted this and so if someone is in

their TARDIS and goes back to Now when did they

say they recorded this because I don't know when

you're gonna release this I just tweeted I'm

gonna tell my grandmother story and Looking at

the schedule this may be a double episode week

on the 7th of October most likely so One of my

earliest memories is my dad was in the army and

we moved around a lot and my mom would often

go back to Rose Pine, Louisiana, which is just

about an hour away from Fort Polk, Louisiana

and my grandmother was the manager of a post

-exchange, which is picture an on -base target,

okay? With the different soldiers and the people,

the dependents of soldiers could come by, you

know, the commissary is the grocery store and

the PX is kind of dry goods, where you go pick

up things. And she managed that. And I would

get in her car, she would drive me to work, she'd

go early. and I could go to the spinner rack

and I could pick every comic I wanted and I would

go get a thing of Oreos or chocolate chip cookies

and a thing of milk and I would go back to her

office. She would rip the covers off the comics

so that she could get credit. She would turn

the covers back in to get credit the statue of

limitations as well over right and I I'm sorry,

but no the statue limitations is never over So

I have this technically she murdered comic books.

That's murder in the first degree Oh my god,

so I had this pile of comic books without a cover

and for the longest time all my none of my comics

had covers, and I would go in the back of the

warehouse, I'd take these big boxes of soap powder

and kind of build a fort and I would read comic

books all day long. And so that is one of my

earliest memories of comic books. And I read

everything. I read superhero comics, I read Archie

comics, I read Casper and Wendy and Little Hot

Stuff and Richie Rich. If it was a comic book,

I read it. I give my grandmother wonderful credit

for her. She was glad that I was reading and

so she helped feed my habit. What was the first

comic you ever read? Do you remember? No, I cannot.

I always admire people like JLA 1780. I know

it must have been a Superman or Superboy book.

As long as I can remember, I love the Legion

of Superheroes and I can remember those All those

arts back when Jim Shooter was writing it and

such I can remember, you know, they had a Captain

action comic book when I was in the third or

fourth grade and I was so it had nothing to do

with my Captain America action figure but I remember

reading this comic book of Captain action that

was so cool and but no, I can't remember my first

comic book whatsoever it I can It has always

been comic books. In fact when I was on the fifth

or sixth grade, I remember this and I'm sure

Before my dad passed if I had asked him this

he would have never remembered but we were living

in Fort Knox, Kentucky at the time and We went

to Mammoth Cave, which is this beautiful massive

cave, you know National Park and We went on a

tour and it and when we came back my dad was

telling my mom about some of the souvenirs that

you know the people bought and and She said well,

what did Jesse Wayne buy because in my house?

I'm Jesse Wayne one word my dad is Jesse and

I'm Jesse Wayne and he said a GD comic book Hicks

say GD You know, so it just as long as I can

remember and and They didn't understand that

I could rip through a comic book very quickly.

You know, it's like, we just bought you a couple

of comic books. How can you already be done with

them? Some are very fast reads, but yeah, no.

You know, I've been here in Kentucky for 22 years

or something like that. I did not know you were.

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I went to Manmouth once

or twice. So, what part of Kingdoms are you in?

I'm in Louisville. Oh, okay. The actual city.

Not out in the boonies, thank God. Part of Bourbon

Country? Do what? Part of Bourbon Country? Yeah,

part of, yes. So, okay, what, as a kid, what

comics did you gravitate towards? Was it superheroes?

Was it Archie? Was it... Transformers or anything

like that. What was it when you were a kid? Yeah,

it was always So I I'm I'm older than dirt. I

graduated in high school in 1977 so in fact one

of the Mike one of the traumatic moments in my

life and This is when I first understood inflation

is when I first started buying comic books, when

my grandmother wasn't mutilating them and giving

them to me, is my parents could give you a quarter

and you could buy two comic books because they

were 12 cents each. And when they went to 15

cents, I could only buy one. My buying power

was cut in half. And in my mind, I didn't care

about the dime. I just know I used to be able

to get two comic books. Now I only can get one

comic book. It's always been superheroes for

me. It has always been Batman, Superman, love

Jimmy Olsen. You know Lois Lane the gosh when

I'd get those 25 cent Giants that had only one

new story, but in the back were all these golden

age stories You know, I just loved it. So yes,

it's always been superhero stories Was there

ever a point between high school, college, whatever,

later in life as you grew older, did you ever

grow out of it, or did you ever stop reading

comics? So, I'm so glad you asked me this. You

are just, you are, unfortunately, or fortunately,

depending on your perspective, you are just,

you are hitting the highlights. My mom just...

hated comic books and mostly because of the mess,

you know, just where do you store them and what

do you do? And you didn't I did there weren't

long boxes back then you just had them piled

up and and she always felt like it was a waste

of money and She was a little bit better at if

I bought book books, you know paperbacks and

things like that, so When I started in high school

junior high high school Did not have access to

comics very easily and just quit buying them

Because they just weren't there. They weren't

really accessible and I remember junior senior

year I got There was a flash where You know Barry

Allen had to change his face where he had this

dark hair because there was this trial thing

and I started picking up a few things about that.

But when I moved out of the house and before

I got married, there was this time period where

I could buy as many comic books as I wanted.

I no longer lived at home where my mom was telling

me I shouldn't be wasting my money on comic books

and I wasn't married yet. Your wife is like,

�No, you can't buy comics. We need to pay the

electric bill.� For that three or four years,

it was, �Oh, I can pay the electric bill next

week.� There was not a local comic shop in Charles,

Louisiana. Pappy's which is a convenience store

and you'd go the spinner rack and you'd try to

pick out the comics that you you know, okay Yeah,

I don't have this one. I don't have this one.

Yeah, I need this one and then you'd go to Like

a mini mart and go through you there'd be two

or three convenience stores. You'd have to go

through to try to get them all and Then there

was a guy who had bookworms Apple Which was a

record store in the local You know paraphernalia

head shop where they would sell And he Chester

is the comic book guy pictures the Simpsons comic

book guy and that was Chester he owned the record

store and he And so what he did is He was driving

like 60 miles to Beaumont, Texas to pick up his

comics. And he said, well, if I start selling

comics at the store, even if I don't make any

money, at least I don't have to drive. I can

get it myself. So he started selling. And all

of a sudden, you know, this is the time where

first comics was doing John Sable and, you know,

the Oh the em2 and and there was mage And so

these comics that were not on the newsstand They

were comic shop only I was getting for the first

time and so all of a sudden There now he didn't

have a pool bag He just had the comics and so

you'd have to walk down the aisle like oh, yeah

this one this one this one and that's when I

had a Fed my habit You know, just full force

at this point. It's kind of funny. You move out

of your parents' house and then, oh crap, I'm

getting married. Yikes. I had a closet filled

of comics, just tons of comics, and I took them

to a used bookstore and I said, I want to sell

them." They said, �Well, all we can give you

is like ten cents a book or something.� I said,

�That's fine.� I sold all my comics, my Teen

Titans, my Legion of Superheroes, my Supermans,

and all these books and got enough money for

the down payment for my wife's engagement ring.

And I always joke that I don't know if she was

happier that I got rid of all the comics or that

she got an engagement ring. Wow. Wow. That's

crazy. Thank you. All right. So after you're

married, as you're getting older, where did you

jump back in? And how did your interest Re -emerge

itself. So I continued to buy comics and and

you know, we even when we were struggling we

had You know in 89 we had our only child And

You know Like all young married couples, you

know, we struggled money -wise, but we always

found money for comics and kind of started going

and buying stuff and you know I remember being

so involved with this is certainly before Chris

was born but when John Byrne took over Superman

and I was so excited that you know he was getting

such comic books were getting mainstream publicity

about him doing you know and then certainly The

Dark Knight and watch death of yes and all these

these different batman year one and all these

different things and um and I'd grown up in a

really small town and so had really never gone

to many conventions. Then living in Dallas, all

of a sudden you started getting a little more

access to conventions. Keith's Comics, which

is still my comic shop of choice, would have

different people come in. Jeff Smith came in

when Bone had only been two or three issues in

there. He said, it's Bugs Bunny meets Lord of

the Rings. That sounds fun. Terry Moore was just

finishing the first Strangers in Paradise miniseries.

I was talking to him and I said that at the time

I was buying a lot of Marvel, buying a lot of

DC. Easygoing guy, but every once in a while

when I'm done, I'm done It was secret wars 2

and the Beyonder had been at our world and The

whole issue of spider -man was Peter Parker holding

a steno pad that had turned gold and Debating

on whether he should sell it to pay for Aunt

May's medical treatment And I'm going, okay,

you aren't spinning it on hookers and blow. Why

is this even a debate? And I quit reading Spider

-Man after that issue. And I did not go back

till J Michael Stravinsky started writing it

because I'm a huge Babylon 5 fan Stuck with the

whole time and then they did the whole where

Yeah, where they you know him and Mary Jane weren't

married anymore and you know and all this stuff

and I went I'm done again so So yeah, that's

where I get to and and I started getting to more

and more and you know And now I'm going to sound

like the music guy, right? Like, oh, I don't

like popular bands. I just like the... But you

know, I really did start finding that the independent

books, and not because they're independent, but

because it seemed like it could tell a story.

They were beginning, a middle, and an end. Versus,

you know... I love Clark Kent, I love Superman,

but that story can't end because it's the machine

that pushes money. So you're gonna have you just

got to keep that going and what kind of how can

the character really change? You know, what's

the arc you're gonna show? And from in jeans

and a sweatshirt or I put him in black and silver

armor or Hell hath no fury like Nicolas Cage

and Superman lives. I mean, you know and and

you haven't gotten to me this yet, but I So when

they did the new 52 Mm -hmm. I looked at myself

and I said do I really want to go through another

Another reboot and I did I went cold turkey I

Quit buying I bought the star man. I mean the

it wasn't star man. It was Why am I drawing a

blank on the guy from star man the villain you

know, that was Jane Robinson wrote the book.

Anyway, I read his because I love James Robinson's

Star Man. And but I didn't buy hardly any books

and I still don't. I do not buy. I just said

I don't care anymore. It is. Go ahead. See, that's

the funny thing is for me and three years of

the pullback, everybody knows my story by now,

but. For me, it was the Joker. It was my buddy

Steve who created the network with me, Steve

Megatron. He got Batman 13 at the time and it

was like, oh my God, the Joker's back and he

wants his face. Why doesn't he call Optimus Prime

or something? You know, I read Steve's written

review and I'm like, okay, I like the Joker.

I can kind of hear Mark Hamill's voice coming

out of Scott Snyder's writing. That's fine. I'll

check it out. So I jumped in and I, after reading

13, I jumped in and in and in. I ended up in

Nightwing shoes. I ended up in Batgirl's boots.

I ended up in all the characters that I grew

up loving with the DC animated universe for the

most part. um and it was all well and good everything

was going great and then forever fucking evil

had to happen yes where they essentially killed

and revived Dick Grayson only to turn him into

the Nick Fury of the DC universe without the

eye patch oh my god see so I you know during

the During the early 90s, I discovered comic

book fandom and I started writing letters. I

won a Baldy once. I was so happy. I joined a

Titan Talk APA. For those of you who may not

remember, it was an amateur press association.

write fan fiction, or you would comment on other

people's fiction, do reviews of comic books,

and you would make 45 copies of your contribution,

mail it to a central mailer. They would all put

it together and take your 45 copies with everyone

else's contributions, put them all together,

and then mail it back to you, and you would have

a fanzine. where it had people's fiction and

fan artwork and comments and critique of the

previous issue's stories. I'd gotten to be a

lot of friends and I love the Teen Titans. Dick

Grayson was my favorite character. I loved Robin.

I loved when he became Nightwing, the original

story that it was kind of a tribute to Superman

who he felt like was an uncle because back then,

right? That, you know, when Batman and Superman

didn't hate each other, you know, and that's

two or three reboots ago. And so I and I. I feel

guilty every once in a while that I don't buy,

you know, Grayson or Dick Grayson's book because

I, you know, support the character. Don't. Don't.

We're talking about this. I don't like to hate

watch TV shows and I don't like to hate read

books. And if I'm not enjoying the story, I just

quit. And especially when part of my loyalty

was into the comic shop. I'm like, God, if I

quit buying this comic, that's less revenue they're

going to get. But then you find so many other

comics that you can buy from them. Yes. And that's

exactly it. And not to give Tom Zoller more love

than you've already given him. You know long

distance has not a shred of superhero or you

know Comic book, you know quote -unquote references

it only does I mean they they reference certain

things like TV shows and stuff like that But

it's not like with Tom Zoller and his two series

that I know of with love and capes and long distance

They are two totally different. It is and he

wanted to that and you know, I was kind of lucky

enough. I found the email last I sent it to him

where he said I'm thinking about doing this book

that's you know about a couple and he's got powers

and and you know it's kind of like Lois and Clark

without the sucky parts and and you know kind

of you know talked about so I was there from

the beginning and you know I just Love loving

capes and I was so proud of long distance because

I think he pushed some other muscles creatively

and You know and did it but you know if you and

I've seen this from other people if you want

to read a good Superman and Lois story go get

loving capes and What do you see it as the Incredibles

I Mean come on I mean, Mark essentially is Mr.

Incredible, Darkblade is Frozone. I mean, yeah,

sure, Abby doesn't have any powers, but just

the whole thing, because I've only read the first

volume. I haven't been able to get the other

three volumes yet. I want to, but it's... Anyway,

so I finally finished reading the first volume,

and... Did you just smile? It's just so amazing.

It's not as amazing as long distance, but it's

still amazing. He set himself up every four panels

as a joke and somehow he was able to build the

story and do the humor. I see totally your Incredibles,

but I just see this as the Silver Age Batman

and Superman. And the Justice League and and

he told the story right Amazonia was supposed

to not be in the rest of the books But she was

so popular that he brought her in and did stuff.

So yes But exactly going back there is so much

You know, you can find you know such amazing

stories and it's out there and You know, like

I just found rat Queens which is sass and sorcery

and I'm like this is so funny and it's so interesting

and you know lock and key and So there's a lot

of fun That are still telling you a good story

That's not necessarily You know see my my biggest

problem. Well my biggest problem with Marvel

is that I? Feel lost in Marvel right even when

they, even before they did Marvel or all new

Marvel, when they did Marvel Now and they did

whatever reboot to get number ones again or whatever

else. Yeah, I want to go back and read all the

Iron Man trades that they did in 2012, 2013,

whatever, because I like, ever since Robert Downey

Jr., I kind of like Iron Man now. You know, that

kind of thing. The Spider -Man thing. I'm so

spoiled by John Semper Jr.'s 94 Spider -Man cartoon.

I've seen every single story anyone can ever

do with Spidey and any of his villains. I did

not need to read, you know, 100 of the 700 issues

of Spider -Man just to get, you know, oh, this

plot from The Sinister Six or this plot from

The Vulture. So with Spider -Man, I jumped on

at 698, 698 to 700. Okay. And then I went into

Superior Spider -Man. Superior Spider -Man is

kind of, but not really what they did with Grayson.

It's taking Doc Ock and putting him in Spider

-Man's body, and we're exploring how Otto would

deal with being a superhero. That was awesome

and interesting to me. And then, oh, guess what?

Hey, we have... the unamazing Spider -Man 2 coming

out, so guess what, we're going to revive Peter

Parker from the dead, and blah. Like, this is

why I don't like the Marvel stuff when it comes

to superheroes anymore, because it's either I

don't wanna see just another random story, you

know, a random villain of the week story with

any of the main characters, and I don't wanna

see just so many flip -flops. And... Right now,

the only books that I will read that are Marvel

-based are the Star Wars stuff. Most of it. Princess

Leia kind of fell off for me. I read Mark Waid's

Princess Leia mini -series and I liked it. I

get that. I'm someone who went through when Superman

died and They actually you know, this was back

when they used to have to put the little triangle

on the titles You know so that you could read

them in the correct order because all the books

were connected and you had the four, you know

replacement Superman and you know when Kal -El

came back and he had the long hair and you know,

I Felt like there was an arc and they were trying

to tell something You know, but for the longest

time, you know Barry Allen was the only you know

hero that never came back. He came back, you

know Kara Zor -El, you know, I remember crying

in crisis when you know Superman's holding her

and I remember the Brainiac five, you know the

Legion SU with him mourning her and You know,

they kind of retconned that he's always known

she was gonna die even though you know, he had

a crush on her and they kind of talked about

that in the books. And now then it's like, okay.

And if you go to the well too many times, and

it's a classic statement and it's true, everyone's

book is someone's first book. And I applaud if

you're any age, but I'm going to say in your

teens or your 20s and you're loving these stories,

great. I'm glad for you because I remember with

my teens. I don't even remember the title, but

when Peter Parker had the extra arms, I'm like,

holy moly, and then, of course, I couldn't find

the next issue because there wasn't a distribution

that was first. I was in Germany. My dad was

stationed over there, and I remember getting

that and going, oh, I've got to find the next

issue. I've got to find the next issue. What

happened? Sound just like Daffy Duck. Yeah. But

OK, so that's my problem with Marvel. My problem

with DC is they started something with the new

52. They gave me a dark. People say the Gail

Simone run of Batgirl is super dark and there's

a lot of comedy in the Gail Simone writing. There

really is. Yeah, the visuals are dark and yeah,

it's friggin' Gotham. It's supposed to be dark.

I mean, you know, but there's a lot of funny

stuff in Gale's run. So I started with that and

then obviously Nightwing and I'm a huge, like

I already said, DC Animated Universe, Batman

the Animated Series, Superman the Animated Series,

Justice League, Batman Beyond, all that stuff.

Except for Teen Titans, that's not in continuity

at all. Raven even told me so, but it's not in

common. I am glad for George and Marv that that's

been incredibly successful for them financially.

It hasn't clicked with me, but my son is now

26 and he was a young When the animated series

was first out and we would watch them together

and You know, that's as good a Batman as you're

ever gonna get You know the gray ghost I still

choke out choke up when they you know, they had

Adam West doing that voice, you know And and

you know when Bruce Wayne says the gray ghost

was my hero and he still is I'm getting choked

right now I look at some of the comedy bits in

Batman the Animated Series and Superman the Animated

Series. World's finest was groundbreaking, that

three -parter that eventually turned into what

they cobbled it together into a movie. The one

line that always creeps into my head is, where's

Superman? He's out at sea. Never around me you

need him. And it's Kevin Conroy and it's Tim

Daly and it's Dana Delaney and it's Lauren Lester.

It's all those people. Ephraim Zimbalist. It's

all those people that made what Bruce Tim and

his team did for nearly, let's see, technically

JL, you ended in 04 or so. Almost. 12 years between

92 to 2004. I've had a crush on Dana Delaney

since China Beach and I loved her in Mask of

the Phantasm. I remember going to see Mask of

the Phantasm in an almost empty theater. I loved

her and and I just there is so much goodness

and about those series and you know and You know,

Adrian Barbeau is Catwoman and you know, it just

and yeah, you're right I mean to many people

and I'm gonna raise my hand, you know, Kevin

Conroy is Batman I, you know, I have him saying

it himself. This is Kevin Conroy, and I am the

goddamn Batman. I mean, you know, when I interviewed

him in 2012, I'm thinking to myself, what can

I get away with asking him to say that he'll

actually, because you know how some voice actors

are. Some, some, and I'm not throwing any of

them under the bus. Certain people. just won't

but kevin is is amazing uh... you know but with

comics and with dc like i was saying earlier

you know so bad girl brought me in and i was

like okay cool and and dc i this is who i'm gonna

be bad girl nightwing batman every now and then

because let's face it in my personal opinion

death of the family was very sadly anti -climactic

at the end of it You know so I'm like alright

cool great, and then they're like well guess

what we're gonna reboot again and guess what

we're gonna Do we're going to kill your favorite

character what pisses me off so much about the

DC thing with Dick Grayson and tell me Mike share

Is that they and I've said this many times before

They never let Kyle Higgins write the story he

was going to write. With Death of the Family,

he was originally going to have Dick be based

in Gotham still and have amusement miles so he'd

have his own circus so that aspect of the Dick

Grayson, you know, origin stays true. Oh no,

guess what? The Joker's gonna come in and fuck

everything up. Okay, then I'm gonna take him

to my hometown of Chicago. Forget Bloodhaven,

we don't need that city. Let's go to Chicago,

the best city on earth or whatever, you know.

And they spent, what was it, 20, 20 to 29 in

Chicago, and I'm like, yes, do more of this.

Let's find out, oh, guess what, no. Lex Luthor's

gonna kill him, bring him back to life, and then

he's gonna become the Nick Fury, the DC, it just,

oh god. So after that happened, I pretty much,

I needed to go elsewhere. I essentially said,

and we are an explicit podcast here, so I'm just

gonna go ahead and say, I essentially said, fuck

DC and Marvel, because I just was so jaded with

Batgirl changing completely. And with Nightwing

going off and being the character, quote unquote,

character of Nightwing going off and being dead

and Grayson going on to be a super, I was like,

I don't care. What else is out there? And then

I found Transformers. I found Turtles over at

IDW. I found all this cool stuff at Image. I

found all the, you know, I found, you know, Xenoscope

with their Grim Fairytale stuff. And I'm like,

there's so much choice in comics. You don't have

to be limited to. just superheroes or just, like

for me at this point, it's franchises. It really,

really is. Gem and the Holograms, Transformers.

Like I said, turtles, all that stuff. I recommend

you try Rachel Rising from Terry Moore. He's

the same guy who did Strangers in Paradise. That's

a horror book. And Echo is a kind of science

fiction book he has. Echo is already finished.

You can buy that in one trade paperback. And

it's a really interesting action adventure kind

of book. I'm a big Terry Moore fan. Um, I obviously

love strangers in paradise, but that's an epic

love story. Um, yeah i'm right there with you

and and don't get me wrong, right like I On Southgate

Media, I did a Daredevil fan podcast and we watched

two episodes at a time and I absolutely loved

their take on Daredevil. And I can't wait to

see Jessica Jones. I still read Powers. I like

that gritty take and it's a different side. I

think there's an interesting story going on there.

You know, I was there at Ant -Man. I'm gonna

be there at all the you know when they have the

superhero movies I yeah, I'll be at the superhero

movies, but I can't There's certain superhero

click. I want to give the Supergirl series from

new 52 an honest try and I have I have read the

first trade Last daughter of Krypton And I have

all the other ones for the most part. I just

haven't been so busy having it around. I want

to give that an honest try and whatever, but

it's just with the characters that I absolutely

love, DC essentially ruined them for me. Yes,

I know that feeling. Between Batgirl and Nightwing.

But now it's like, if you'd have told me two

years ago, that I would have read long distance,

or Love and Capes, or any Transformers comic,

honestly, because I just, two years ago, I just

wasn't even, well, maybe more than two, you know

what I mean? It's one of those things where it's

like, at this point, I am more into anything

that relates to my childhood than whatever current

politically correct storyline the big two have

to do, and not even politically correct. You

know, company correct. Let's call it that. Company

correct. Oh my god. We have a movie coming out.

You know, like I already said with the Peter

Parker thing. It's like, just no. I hear you.

When they did the Lois and Clark, the new series,

isn't there a new series titled Lois and Clark?

On TV? I don't think so. No, no, no, no. Comic.

I don't know. Comic. Yeah. I think... Ladies

and gentlemen, I'm not looking at any information.

I'm just sitting here talking. So I believe there

is a new, it might be a mini series thing that

DC is doing. I don't know. Cause I know the bat

might series that they're doing is a six issue

mini series. There's a series right now called

Lewis and Clark. And I really thought it was

going to be something to the effects of what

the Dean Cain, Terry Hatcher series was. Apparently

it's not. I know a lot of people give Lois and

Clark the TV series a crap ton of grief. That

series was awesome. It sure was. Dean Cain was

a great Superman. Terry Hatcher was a fun Lois.

And we are spoiled now. I'm going to sound like

an old fart now. We are spoiled with how much

good comic book TV we're getting. I mean, you

know and and you and I'm not here if you have

a problem with this but overall, you know arrow

is pushing things as much as they can flash giving

it we had Constantine, you know, we're now gonna

get Supergirl, you know, we're You know, there's

agents a shield You know, we've agent Carter,

you know, there are So many and they aren't campy

and nothing's wrong with camp. I love that, too

I loved Batman back then and I love the tick

when it was on the live -action tick, right?

They're trying to tell good stories You know

set in these universes and it's just it's a golden

age for comic book fans Mean television today

is now. I know a lot of people were My myself

included we were hit or miss on Gotham season

one But let's let's face it Gotham season one

was really trying to find its it was and you

know, I love you know Donald Logue, I loved him

in Terriers, and he's perfect at Bullock. And

a couple seasons in, a couple episodes in, the

second season, they seem to have found a little

something, right? Yeah, yeah. It's doing a hell

of a lot better. Will say this and I don't condone

anyone do this, but I will say this when that

mysterious CBS hack or leak or whatever happened

way back when This summer and oh my god a high

-quality version of the Supergirl pilot ended

up being online for people to find I have it,

you know I couldn't I couldn't resist and I've

seen the full the full pilot episode of the series

and It, I'm telling you, man, it's going to be

CBS is superhero show because it's, it's going

to be, it's on the same level, but it's more

super heroic than Lois and Clark was. It's on

the same level of goodness as Lois and Clark,

but it's more of dealing with care. Obviously

it's Kara because it's super girl. It's not,

you know, my only wish. And I know this will

never happen because I know the news a few months

ago was fake. And I know he'll probably never

do it, even though he's not doing anything right

now. In the pilot, they say Superman's name,

this isn't a spoiler, they say his name so many

damn times, by the time everybody finished watching

the pilot, they're like, can they just show him

and stop saying his name already? First of all,

and this isn't a spoiler either, because it was

in the news, you got Dean Kane as her dad, and

you've got... Helen Slater as her mom, as her

earth parent. Yes, and I saw that and I said,

okay, whoever's there, they're getting it, right?

This is so much goodness. Yeah, absolutely. With

this series, they keep mentioning Superman, they

keep mentioning the cousin. They don't actually

say it by name, but they say him, and they say

this, and they say that, whatever else. They're

playing the pronoun game, essentially. My one

wish, and I know this will probably never happen,

is that Welling shows up in the suit. I know

it'll never happen. I know it's wishful thinking,

but just... So you got Supergirl coming from

CBS, Flash, and Arrow Season 3, I... need to

wait until it hits Netflix to watch again, because

Arrow Season 3 essentially made me say, screw

this show. It was too much Batman influence.

It was just too damn dark for, don't worry about

it, I love dark shows, I really do, but Arrow's

turn just went too dark, and I think... Now looking

back on it, he needed to do that dark turn to

what the lightness that's gonna happen in season

four. The Flash, oh God. The Flash is just hitting

it on all cylinders. Absolutely love that show.

Absolutely. So what, pulling it back around to

comics, what... Currently are you reading what

currently are you getting from your comic shop?

So I'm getting I Finished I went through fables

in the trade paperback. So I just finished reading

it I still I still read daredevil because I I

like the character and I'm a big Mark Wade fan

So I buy Daredevil. I get the Doctor Who comics

because I do a Doctor Who podcast and I want

to see how they're doing. I just finished getting

Long Distance. I get Astro City. I think Astro

City still gives me my cape fix. Is well done

powers I still do You know, I do I'm watching

Rachel rising which is the horror book from Terry

Moore And then I will Every once in a while.

I'll hear that something's good and I'll try

it out, you know my You know, I love saga and

you know so a little bit more of the independence

and so I don't go too outlandish but still you

know a fair amount of superhero books and some

other stuff so yeah I still keep my my hand in

so to speak. Were you ever a Turtles fan at all

or no because I know you're slightly Beyond the

audience. Yeah, my my son loved the Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles as a kid the cartoon show He was

born in 89. So like in the 90s I I loved the

concept of the turtles more than the actual books

and So yeah, I've never kind of read the books

or you know I've seen certainly enough of the

cartoons and you know during the 90s the live

actions, you know, I took my son to and you know,

he had a Donatella stuffed doll that I bought

because it had the LSU colors on it. It was you

know purple and gold and so we're but we're originally

from Louisiana and So yeah, so just a casual

fan I'll say this, I know a lot of people would

recommend the old stuff, but if it didn't really

hit you back then, give the IDW series a try

from the first issue because it completely, I've

been reviewing that series for the past year

and a half, almost two years now, and the series

has been going on for four years. It's a complete

love letter to every aspect of TMNT. Okay. It

has stuff in it that that you just would like

for me. I remember when I first picked it up

and I know people are sick of hearing the story.

But anyway, when I first picked up the very first

trade and I opened it up and I'm like, oh no,

as much as I love Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird,

I do not want all red Eastman and Laird turtles,

all red bandana turtles. For this entire series

my buddy Joe who does the the podcast with me

that will you review the series? He's like no.

No, it's okay. Just go with it. Keep an open

mind. You'll be alright and The reasoning for

why they did that and how the color codes came

in later. Oh god. It was so it's just so good

Everything about that series is so good. I will

have to check it out Another one if you're interested

you can check out Kyle Higgins is run on Batman

Beyond it's called either Batman Beyond 2 .0

or Batman Beyond Universe, okay That was a really

good run, okay? That was pretty awesome, so all

right I think that's going to wrap it up. So

you didn't ask, but it's very clear from my answer.

It was DC, right? Yeah. I forgot to ask the most

important question. Marvel, DC, or any other

company, and obviously it's DC. Yeah, it was

DC growing up. It always was. In fact, I was

making a presentation at a conference, and they

had me write an introduction. And I said, Superman

over Batman, Star Trek over Star Wars, DC over

Marvel. And the guy reading it looked at me like,

you really want me to read this? Yes, I'm proud

of my crit. Of course I do. I think I'd have

to do the reverse of Leonard next generation

over original series and obviously per card over

Kirk area There you know, and there's an interesting

discussion to have I certainly think Patrick

Stewart is a better actor than Shatner, but there

is something about that original series that

they took a lot of risks and they told some great

stories and There is something about you know

Shatner's Kirk. That is something pretty interesting

So yeah, and and don't be wrong I'm gonna be

like everyone else at the new Star Wars movie

and and I'm excited about seeing it But you know,

it's it's Trek over Star Wars for me The whole

thing with with Star Wars I've heard I've seen

a few news stories that potentially a certain

actor from the prequels will be joining episode

8 and How why he's dead Is he gonna be a force

ghost throughout the entire damn movie that makes

absolutely zero sense to me whatsoever So anyway,

thank you for joining us here in the pullback.

That's gonna do it for this episode of the origins

You're also gonna hear later on today. You can

hear the gem and the holograms outrageous annual

number one review So that's it's gonna go on

there. Jesse. Where can the people find you online,

sir? I just want to thank you Mike. This was

a Blast. I thank you for having me on the show.

I love talking comics. It is my my first best

love. And so this is a great show and I appreciate

you having me on. I am at Jesse Jackson DFW on

Twitter. I am I do do a couple of. He said doo

-doo. Yeah. And if you follow me on Twitter every

once in a while, you'll see that someone throws

political stuff my way, because with a name like

Jesse Jackson. And I always have to reply, no,

no, no, I'm the Jesse Jackson obsessed with Dr.

Who and Bruce Springsteen. I do do it. I do do.

I do do it again. I am a host. co -host of Next

Stop Everywhere, a podcast all about Doctor Who.

I do Storming the Castle, a podcast all about

ABC show Castle. And I'm grumpy about the way

the new season is going, but we're trying to

get past that. And my latest podcast is At Set

Lusting Bruce. podcast much to Mike's surprise

about Bruce Springsteen is music and his fans

and So I'm kind of all over the board on podcasting

You can find us on Twitter at the pull bag also

at geek cast radio I am at TFG when Mike on Twitter

What else what else what else? Yeah, I think

that's gonna do it for this episode of the pull

bag and make your great escape into comics and

we will catch you next time The rat. Where's

Lois? She was here just a second ago. Probably

scared witless, poor thing. Don't worry. I'll

have you out of that thing in no time. Okay,

let's see now. Do I disconnect the black wire

or the white one? Lois, I thin you got some splaining

to do. Tuckie, if we're gonna be partners and

we're gonna be married, I want to be part of

the act. Lois, there are thins I do. You can

do. Me superman. Me superwife. Us super in trouble.

Could you hold this argument till later and get

us out of here? I knew this was gonna happen.

First you know who I am. You've just heard the

latest episode of The Pull Bag, the GCRN's comic

review and discussion podcast. There are several

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