IDW Jem and the Holograms Review

Hi, this is Christy Marx, creator of Gem and

the Holograms, and you're listening to a truly

outrageous podcast with Mike Aimee and Nicole.

It's Showtime, Synergy! Ladies and gentlemen,

welcome to a crossover episode between The Pull

Bag and Showtime Synergy. And you might be asking,

wait, Showtime Synergy just kind of started.

DF2 and Mike, why are you ever in a crossover

already? Well, because Jim and Holograms has

their own comic book series ongoing from IDW

Publishing. Joining me is Nicole Computer Problem

Hailstorm. Hello. Aloha, how are you? You sound

like you're ready to explode. Implosion! Implosion!

Implosion! Well, it hasn't technically been a

while since we have the crossover between the

Underbase and the Pull Bag going on, but it has

actually been a while since Lady Rek has been

on the Pull Bag. I don't even... What was the

last episode you were on? It wasn't your Origins,

because that was two or three years ago. I don't

remember. But Lady Rek is here! We are here to

talk about IDW Publishing's Gem in the Holograms,

issue number one. Hopefully we get through this

without a computer burning down. Exactly. We'll

go out and shoot it later. Target practice. Sounds

cool. And yeah, we've got Gem in the Holograms

number one came out in April. No came out in

March. I'm sorry came out in March and they released

a Holographic foil box set with this and what

you could get with this for $25 is you can get

the regular cover for the issue plus Which is

cover a you can also get covers B C D and E the

B C D and E are done by Amy Meberson and they

are Yeah, yeah, Meberson and they are one each

of each of the holograms plus 12. It's Jim and

any of the three holograms. I keep wanting to

say four because four total holograms outside

of Jim because of Rhea, but yeah. Math. Yay.

Yeah. Yeah. Who knew it works? That's right.

So what what did you guys think of the fact that

this number one has 12 overall covers, Amy. Oh,

lots of choices. You can, you know, pick your

poison or pick all of them or pick one of them

or pick three of them. I mean, there's a lot

of choices here. And you know what? To be honest,

I really liked seeing quite a few of these were

teased around the Internet. We weren't sure if

you were going to actually get them as covers

or not. But like some of the stuff that we saw

was like. Hey, this is kind of cool. I like seeing

that. I really like that too. Ooh, I like that.

Ooh. So I'm glad that they have so many choices

for covers. Nicole, what about you? I enjoy it.

I like to see the different artists interpretation

of Jim. I think it's really fun and vibrant.

And it's still not as bad as I seen it. I'll

never forget when Mars Attacks first came out,

they had 67 covers. Whoa. Yeah. Now, there's

just insanity. At least 12 is pushing it for

me, but 67? Oh, my lanta. Yeah. You know, I'm

a part of a Facebook group on, well, Facebook

called Gem and Friends, and on there - It's not

on Twitter? Most of the people, no, it's on Facebook.

Funny. Funny. A lot of the people on there are

like, oh, 12. It's just too many. It's just too

many for just the first issue. Why didn't they

spread these out? And I have to say, the other

six covers that are the variant covers outside

of the four hologram issues and the regular one.

And the subscription coverouts, you know, the

other six are all convention exclusive or store

exclusive stuff, which I think is great. Honestly,

I think that's really interesting. It gives you

an incentive to go into your store or go to one

of the cons. So absolutely love that. I got to

check my statement. I apologize. It was only

58 covers that they did. Oh, okay. But still.

58 covers! That's a lot. It's insanity. Of course,

you know, if you think about it, it's Mars attack.

We're just going to be insane with covers. You

know, it's part of the gimmick. Exactly. So out

of the three of us, Nicole and I did get the

five cover box set. Sadly, Amy did not. I know,

I'm the traitor. I also got the sub cover. Oh,

you did? Okay. I'm the misfit. The sub covers

are alright, but it... I don't know, it's a little

weird for me. The box set itself is nice. It's

a nice hard kind of plastic, not plastic, but

cardboard. And it's got the Sophie Campbell style

gem on it with, you know, she's holding the microphone

and her hands coming out of the star and it's

nice and shiny. It's got the gem and the hologram's

logo on the back of it. And inside of that holds

the five covers, the regular cover, and then

the four hologram covers. First of all, what

do you ladies think of the holographic font for

Gem and the Hologram's logo on the issues? I

like it. I haven't seen pictures of it, to be

honest. I like it a lot. It's really cool. It's

shiny. It's very shiny. Are one of the links

that you sent us, like... It's kind of one of

those things you gotta see in person because

it's... Yeah, yeah, it should it should show

you I'll click on a minute. I'll give you Sorry,

it might It might I'm not sure but the sorry

go ahead carry on So cover a is the main cover

and it has Jim and the holograms Jim Shayna Raya

or not right? Jim Shayna, thank you and Kimber

uh... and they are rocking out and what i'd notice

about this the discovery is that uh... before

you even open the book you can clearly tell that

this is going to be a very pastel looking art

style i don't have a problem with it i think

it's great i think it's nice and bright and the

way it should be because let's face it ninety

five percent of comics today there's a lot of

dark comics out there so i'm glad this is kind

of bright note the all of that So Amy Meberson

has done the four, she's done other convention

covers for this issue, but she's done the four

hologram covers B, C, D, and E. Cover B is Aja.

What do we think of Aja, Nicole? I think she

looks adorable. She doesn't look anything like

her character inside the foot, but she looks

adorable. Well, no, but these are kind of variant

cover kind of things. Yeah, you're right. And

I did kind of complain about that as well. I

like how if you look in the background, they

have two different style choices from what you've

seen in the 80s cartoon. I enjoyed that comic.

Each cover has that as well. Cover C is our favorite

character in Kimber. Yeah, it's awesome. I like

Kimber's look. It's interesting. You know, all

of these covers have two different background

styles where you see two different looks for

the character. Then cover D is is gem herself

and I forget if it was you Amy or you Nicole

asked me Wait, why is gem covered? And again,

it's got two fashion choices behind it with her

kind of popping out on it and cover E is Shayna

and She's kind of rocking out on this Yeah, the

hair almost looks like cotton candy. I love it.

Yeah Yeah Do you have a favorite cover out of

these Nicole? That out of the character covers.

Mm -hmm. I like Aja. I think she's really adorable

Very I really like that one. It shows off a lot

of her personality, too What about you Amy um

I like all the covers. They all have such a flavor

to them that each style is very unique. It's

kind of hard to pick because they're all really

great. They really are. It's a girl band, so

shiny and pretty. It totally works for me. I

would have a hard time picking. The other covers

are a couple convention exclusives, a couple

of store exclusives. One that I know Nicole probably

wants to bring up is the Emerald City Convention

Exclusive by Agnes Garbowska. It's what if gem

was, you know, what if gem in the holograms were

ponies? It's adorable. Little chibis. So cute.

I like it because it has synergy on it. Yeah.

Oh yeah, that's right. That is interesting. Very

awesome. It's just like, it's hard to pick on

all these, because each one of the artists just

does something different. And each one of them,

it's just unique. And so you're like, oh, I like

that. I like that too. Oh, I like that. Or a

bunch of girls we can't even pick. Except Mike,

you know. We'll make you an honorary girl for

a day. There you go. Or for a podcast. Wow. Okay,

the only cover that seems to really make people

angry is the yesteryear exclusive by Amanda Conner

with colors by Paul Mounts. Well, because they

always, you know, they've been saying, you know,

hey, Jim, she's a hologram. Why is she putting

on makeup? And the way I look at it is it's a

cover showing a backstage kind of thing, like

before they get ready for a show. Yeah. I don't

see it as, you know. She doesn't. Oh, she does

have like a little something in her hand. Like

she's. Yeah, she's got a, yeah, she's got a,

uh, looks like a, yeah, some sort of brush in

her hand. Maybe synergy made a mistake. She's

acting. She's got to act like it, right? Maybe

that's somebody in the room like you know interviewing

them before they you know go on stage Sure Out

of the other covers that aren't in the box set

or the other the character covers out of the

it can be out of the exclusive covers I think

my favorite is the WonderCon exclusive because

that's really the classic gem and that's the

image that IDW has been pimping this series out

with Since they announced it So absolutely love

that Alright, so getting into this Did you guys

have any any initial? Impressions before like

when when you first read the solicits for this

did you were you super excited? Were you super

scared? Were you what was your feeling Nicole?

I I had confidence that they were gonna do well

III Read a couple of the backstory things and

I was like It's not my 80s cartoon, but I trust

that they'll do something well with it. I was

more excited than scared. I was just excited

that I'd get in general comics. Yay! What about

you, Amy? I just love the fact that John said

that John Barber, who's senior editor, said that

this is the comic that he's always wanted to

do. I was like, awesome! No, it's one of those

things that it just seems like... Okay, cool.

They're doing a gem comic. Well, that's outrageous.

I see what you did there. You can't be a true

gem fan without using that word at least once.

But yeah, it was one of those things that we

just like, cool, they're gonna do a gem comic.

Wow. And you know, maybe this will be, and I

can't remember if I've said this before or whatnot,

but like maybe this will be like the start, you

know, I kind of think back. You know, because

we've done Transformers reviews and stuff like

that. But you remember back when they first,

when IDW first got the license and they announced

a movie, I wasn't there. So this is like my first

time to be able to see something like that. The

movie's coming out. We've got a comic book. It's

like, wow, the fans are about to explode out

of the wallpaper, you know? Anybody that's ever

watched the show, like three seasons, there you

go. Yep. It's one of those things, so we'll see

how fun it is. I mean, we have, you know, My

Little Pony went exploded like crazy. Why not?

Why not Jem? Why not Jem? Here you go. There

you go. Also in this in this comic, we have the

bios for the characters for Jem and the holograms.

And I love that Ross Campbell or I'm sorry, Sophie

Campbell did this. I think it's really cool.

I'm not sure since she's a hologram why the height

has to change on Jerika. I think it's just for

more secret identity. I mean, because - I'm not

complaining. I'm just questioning is all. Go

ahead. Sorry. Yeah, I was just saying I think

it's just for secrecy. Because height makes a

big I mean especially a few inches. It makes

a big difference in a person Yeah So we open

the comic up and we get We get the the creative

team you got Kelly Thompson and writing Sophie

Campbell on art story by Thompson and Campbell

colors by M Victoria Roboto letters by Robbie

Robbins and edits by John Barber and we have

the first title of the story we have Showtime

part one and We open up and we see Sophie's art

style. What do we think just looking at this

this first page here Nicole? I love it. I love

all the colors. And I mean, you get a sense of

personality. This is my only gripe about the

artwork. Jerrica is supposed to be the oldest,

but she looks the youngest. She looks like she's

short. She's supposed to be 23, right? She looks

like she's 14. It's the way that she's... dressing.

It's how she's acting. It's a combination of

a couple things. Because I thought the same thing.

I thought she looks younger than Kimber. Yeah.

I'll grow into it. But I just think that they

need to make her look a little bit older. Not

only that, she looks like she's really out of

her element. She does not look like she's one

of the rest of them. Yeah. She looks very uncomfortable.

Yeah, and maybe that's what they're going for.

She looks uncomfortable unprofessional She doesn't

look like she's like been this is what they've

aspired to unless they're just really that low

-key and they're like, hey Whatever works whatever

works for you You know, maybe we need to see

her jamming out like in their garage. I Yeah,

that's true. I It was odd to see her. She looked

like the one person that does not fit on this

page exactly You know, they did it. She does

not look like she's comfortable right there.

But that's the thing, is that then they say on

here, as you go on, you find out that she's like

really, like she's having a moment. She has stage

fright. She has stage fright. Yeah, she's having

a moment where she's just, she's clamming up

and she can't do anything and they're like, what's

wrong with you? We need to see that. We need

to see her like jamming out. But maybe they'll

do that eventually. and here's the thing we probably

should talk about the whole stage fright story

angle because I remember when the announcement

first came out and then the solicits came out

everyone was like stage fright why does she have

state why would you write I remember a lot of

people complaining about the stage fright thing

I think it adds character to her it isn't I mean

Jerrica in the you know in the classic 80s show

never showed any of that. I mean, she was always,

she was always busy. Yeah, she was always busy

with work and the business and all that. But

the few times that she did like actually do like,

I think she had her own song or something like

that. Yep. There were a few times. There were

a few times. So she can, you know, Jim can sing,

so can Jerrica. So as we go through here we see

that you know, we see Kimber and Jerrica kind

of bonding and Kimber is trying to build her

up and give her confidence and She's also kind

of yelling at her as well Yeah, it's like if

she if she can't do this it changes it for everybody

they can't continue forward they will have to

pursue something else in fact, she Basically

says it we're all probably gonna break up and

go our own ways then So it's like hey not to

not to put too much pressure on you Jerrica But

if you don't do this, we're gonna break up the

band before it even starts Yeah, I was actually

all right with the stage fright. I thought it

was a good idea. Yeah, I think it was a good

idea myself It's a different element, but it

worked. It was a good move. It was a good move

Something I mean, I don't expect it to be exactly

like the show. I want there to be different things

in it because I wanted to have its own voice

and right from the get -go I think this has its

own voice. Absolutely. It really really does

and it's one of those things where I don't know

how often the stage fright is going to come up.

Obviously they have to bring it up. Only when

she's here. Well I know but... Don't want to

jump ahead here, but I'm gonna jump ahead to

the end because when we get to the end of the

book It seems like when she is Jim You know she's

ready for for anything what I'm saying is is

the stage fright going to be a Storyline, you

know, is it gonna be the driving force of every

single issue? No, I don't think it will be but

I mean that's just a legitimate question that

like I understand why it's here now, because

it's here now to set up. It's the opening set

up for her and for the holograms. And so she

goes, Jerrica goes off and is on her way home

or whatever, and Kimber and Aja and Shayna are

all... Well, Kimber and Aja end up arguing. And

Shayna ends up being the voice of reason. Just

hilarious. I love how slowly madder and madder

Shayna gets until she has to slam her fist against

the wall. She clangs the tambourine. I love it.

I would totally do that. I love the designs of

Shayna, Ajah, and Kimber. They're all very different

women. They're all not, you know, standard, you

know. So I love how Sophie has done that and

the colors and the facial expressions on all

three of them are just amazing. They work so

well together. They don't look like Barbie dolls.

They look like individuals. Mm -hmm. Absolutely.

And I like that. I mean, you know, the originals...

In the original show, they all look the same.

They have the same body build. Everybody's the

same height. And for all practical purposes,

I guess that made that really easier on the animation,

if you think about it, because they're all the

same frame. It makes it easier to animate. But

that's why opening this up and seeing them being

so unique in themselves, it's a breath of fresh

air, I think. absolutely most definitely is so

Jim I'm sorry Jerrica drives home she overhears

them having their conversation and stuff yeah

so she's like pressure too much go home and she

goes home in the rain right there's always a

rain you know well there kind of has to be the

gloomy day It's a very gloomy evening here, and

there's thunder all around. She's soaked to the

bone. Yeah, and we see her, you know, kind of...

I don't know, it seems like the lyrics are coming

out of the guitar. I know it's her writing, but

she doesn't have a notebook with her. She has

the guitar on her lap. Well, since it's so far

away, I kind of imagined that she was like singing

it and humming it. Maybe it's in her mind, and

that's what she's writing. My only problem is

they're a band, right? They probably know about

acoustics. You would never put that much equipment

into a room with glass. True. Yeah, but she's

playing on her guitar. Well, no, look at all

the equipment they have. It's a recording studio.

You would not have a recording studio with that

much glass. Yeah, yeah. Well, they could just

be storing their stuff there. Maybe that's not

really their recording studio. Maybe that's what

it is. It's a storage room. They're checking

out a few things they want to have it set up

a little bit Or you know what they could plug

into headset Yeah, so they could like hear it

that way Yeah, so the storm knocks the power

out on all of a sudden this pink purple thing

pops out of nowhere and She's having a dream

just yeah Yeah, yeah, really yeah, yes synergy

does kind of look like 70s She kind of looks

like the rainbow smoke from the movie how high

So We get synergy here, which is she looks absolutely

amazing absolutely very sci -fi Yep, very sci

-fi You know when she explains that you know

she's you know the ultimate audiovisual entertainment

synthesizer She says that this room is equipped

with a rot holographic projector. I believe the

storm rebooted my system We should really invest

in a backup generator We I like how she said

we instead of you it's like yeah, I like that

from the get -go oh and we get to the holograms

and they're trying to figure out where Jerrica

would go and then they all know obviously the

home studio so they all get back there and well

well Jerrica and Synergy are talking some more

Jerrica Synergy hands her or shows her where

this box is that her father was gonna give her

and lo and behold it's the gem star earrings

Wait, we gotta go back page cuz I gotta notice

something. What's that? I'll just still control

of driving. Haven't we learned? Always drove

in the cartoon and they've got her driving in

here as well. I love it Well, maybe she's a better

driver. I hope so. Or we're about to see the

beginnings of some fun times behind that wheel.

We need some conflict, right? Exactly. One of

them gets in a car accident. Guess who was driving?

Aja. Aja. This only happened a dozen times in

the cartoon. Yeah. Who was driving? How does

this woman still have a license? I don't know.

So we get to the Gemstar earrings and they look

great and then that's when Kimber, Aja and Shayna

come in and see Synergy and Aja's like, is your

friend glowing? I love it. So crazy. I love all

their reactions to Synergy where they're like

uh... what's going on here i really did it uh...

what i love is the next page here we have uh...

synergy telling them i will show you help you

understand asia please press the number seven

nine six three seven four nine into your father's

jupiter jerica wait notice as a in your father's

jukebox and i'm like oh my god when is tommy

two -tone gonna show up because as soon as i

i had to read that panel over and over i'm like

you know that sounds awfully familiar eight six

seven five yeah uh -huh nice what does it mean

the the number that she has azja pressing of

the jukebox it's seven nine six three seven four

nine and what i Equivalated it to was eight set

eight six seven five three. Oh nine Jenny That's

what I thought they meant Yeah, it was like a

little reference like that. Oh, that's cool Nice

little 80s nod there. I hope they do more of

those. Those are really awesome. Yeah So music

reference, there you go, you know So the jukebox

opens up to reveal this It's the Batcave. That's

what I was thinking. Kind of is. They're superheroes,

this is awesome. And I think it's Kimber that

even asked, was Dad a superhero? See, Iron Man,

was Dad Iron Man? And I want to know how IDW

got permission to actually use the words Iron

Man. Because it's a Marvel property, but if you

also look in the back of the section it has Marvel

in it Under the production Hmm go in the back

there anyways I don't know I thought was only

the name. It's not like they have the yeah, I

mean Yeah, it's not like they're doing it. I

mean there's so many things that that say Batman

or Superman yeah, but you still had to pay for

that license Hmm Maybe they found a way around

it because it's not iron man one word It's iron

man two words cuz like iron man is two words

is two words. Yeah, okay my bad Skills are here

a comic books here There's also iron man lifting

Maybe they were you know, maybe it wasn't just

iron man Iron Man. Iron Man lifting. Iron Man

the Iron Man, that's just... You can tell it's

after midnight, folks. Yeah. Well, and I don't

talk to adults often. Wow. Oh, boy. I'm still

getting over my mom brain from being pregnant

and, you know. I have a newborn at home, what

can I say? I haven't talked to anybody for two

months. No. We've been on at least one podcast.

I was going to say, that's technically not true.

So we get to the next page after we get the reveal

of the Batcave and Jericho's... It's the Gem

Cave. Yeah, it's the glitter and gold cave And

Jerrica says show it show us what you can do

synergy as you wish Jerrica, and I can just so

hear the voice from the cartoon series That was

just so awesome And she shows you know the hologram

and shows herself and Asha is such a skeptic

total pod people time. I love that Kimber is

excited about I don't know what Shayna thinks

about it cuz Shayna just doesn't say anything

right here, but Kimber's like do me do me and

she turns Asha and Shayna into Kim into multiple

Kimbers and it's like it's a room full of Kimbers

yeah and I think Shana is way too speechless

at this point because she's just in... No, yeah,

I'm not saying in a bad way. I'm saying that

she's utterly speechless and just kind of like,

oh my God, what have I gotten myself into? Yeah.

So we get them, you know... You know Jericho

saying do you know what this means? I can I can

fix all I mean our problems with this and I was

just like slow down You know I can be someone

else we can shoot the video we can do anything

Be anything and that's when we get the reveal

Because it's showtime and Wow, yeah Wow. This

last image is kind of awesome. I wasn't expecting

Synergy to be standing there when I first saw

this, but that's kind of cool. Brilliant. I like

it a lot. She's ready to rock and roll, ladies.

Let's get back to the, you know, recording studio

or wherever it wasn't to work because she's ready

to sing them pipes. Woohoo! It's showtime! That's

right. The comic also includes a letter from

Kelly Thompson. Obviously, I won't read through

that, but people who buy the comic can read that.

And it goes through the four bios for the characters.

And then we have, at the very last page, we have,

next month, introducing the Misfits. Will Jerika

have what it takes to lead her underdog group

against the mega -popular band? Alright, so let

me ask you ladies. What do we think of? The direction

and I'm not saying this because I want I don't

want this to be the cartoon I wanted to have

some similar resemblances to the original cartoon

But you know it I wanted also as you said Amy

to have its own voice What do we think of Jim

and the Holograms being the kind of? You know

nobody knows this you know this kind of early

Unknown band and the Misfits are actually the

ones that are the big popular band. I That's

exactly what they had in the show. I thought

Yeah, that the the Misfits were an established

band and Jim and the holograms was the were the

new one the new the new people coming because

they were like Hey, we don't recognize these

people where they come from Well, yeah, they

were they were okay they were new but I'm saying

like in the context of this where they're actually

entering a misfits contest I like it. I like

it. I think it's a good idea Because it's it's

pizzazz I mean this sounds very much like a misfit

move. We're like we want to we want to Blow everybody

out of the water come try to compete with us

I Agree, I think it's gonna be fun Competition

is always good, and I enjoy it. I look forward

to it. What other things do we want to say about

this first issue? Were you guys happy after you

read it? Are there any major concerns you have

as far as the story? Well, let's just say this.

The minute I finished it, I had to get on the

horn to you and say, I want to say something

about this comic. I like this comic. I can't

wait to get the second one. I was like, I was

just so, I didn't really have any expectations.

I thought I'll just wait till I see something

and then I'll make my decision on whether or

not I'm liking it, whether or not I'm like, oh,

I'm still not working for me. No, no, no, no,

this is totally working for me. Because I just

thought of all the possibilities. I wonder if

the Limp Lizards are going to be in this band.

Oh, I knew you were going to do that. You knew

I was going to say that, right? I knew you were

going to say that. We want the Limp Lizards,

man. Even if it's just a nod to them, if they

have them in there, I'll be like, oh my gosh,

I love these guys. Okay, so for the pull -bag

listeners that may not be listening to Showtime

Synergy, first of all, go listen to Showtime

Synergy, our new Jam Review podcast. Second of

all, in our Jam Review podcast, there is a band

in the old cartoon series called the Limp Lizards.

There are a couple of bands, actually. Well,

yeah, but the Limp Lizards is the main one. that

is just always kind of showing up every now and

then. And they showed up for Battle of the Bands

in the original opening story arc. And ever since

then, Amy has just been like, oh my God, I want

the Limp Lizards. It's a thing. What can I say?

It's a thing. Nicole, any... Any issues? What

were you feeling after you read the book? Anything?

I loved it. I thought it was a really good origin

story. The only thing I have a problem with is

Jerika looking 14 instead of 23. I mean, when

her and Kimber are sitting there talking, you

would think Kimber is the older sister. When

Jerika is supposed to be, what, five years older

than her? I don't know. just need to make her

just a little bit older. That's the only thing

that I had a problem with. She looks like she's

the awkward, the awkward older sister. Yeah,

she isn't quite like she's got like social learning

skills that are kind of a little off. Well, she's

supposed to look awkward, but she's I just want

her to look older, a little bit older. I don't

know how they she just looks way too young to

me. But that's my only that's my only gripe.

She still looks adorable. I think she looks cute,

but. She just looks like the younger sister.

She just looks too young. Well, of course, if

you look at the bios, the bios say everything.

Maybe she is the younger sister, but no. That's

what I thought at first until I saw the bios.

I'm like, oh, she's supposed to be 23. So that's

my only gripe. And it's fairly minor, I'd say.

I'm pretty sure. grow to enjoy it, so it's not

biggie. All right, so since we brought up the

bios, it'll be the last thing we talk about here.

Let's just go ahead and go through these. We

have Jim, 23 years old, lead vocals, guitar,

songwriter, loves her sisters writing the smell

of old books. The sound of waves and rain, peaches

and chocolate. Hates public speaking, dog -eared

books, cold showers, tabloids and onions. Her

guilty pleasure is bubble baths, her prized possession

is the gem star earrings. Voted most likely to

do the right thing. Deepest secret, well the

gem is the secret holographic alter ego of Jerrica

Benton created with the help of synergy. Now

you know when they put the bubble baths in there

that there's going to be a bubble bath scene

eventually. I just thought typical girl. We have

Aja here. She is 5 '5", lead guitar, backup vocals,

also plays piano and drums. She loves sports,

motorcycles, vintage cars, shoes, photography,

and the latest tech gadgets, and fish tacos.

She hates whiners, incompetence, texting, and

rats. Gross. She's not good like TechRat. Poor

TechRat. I see what you did there. That's gonna

be interesting to see how... What they bring

in, yeah. If they bring those guys in. And when

they bring them in and how they're gonna use

them. This is why I got to the end of this and

just went, oh my gosh, it's a whole new world!

Wow, this is so much fun! I can't wait! I can't

wait! Asha's guilty pleasure is extreme nachos

Her prize position is a limited edition Les Paul

supreme guitar in Caribbean blue She was most

voted most likely to be the next MacGyver Her

deepest secret is she sometimes feels like a

jack of all trades, but a master of none We have

Shayna. She is 22. She is 5 '2". Drums and backup

vocals. She also plays bass. She loves fashion,

New York, Paris, sci -fi movies, British period

dramas, long baths, and sushi. Sounds like my

girl. She hates alarm clocks, flying, baking,

and snakes. I'll put the snakes. She still sounds

like my girl. Her guilty pleasure is she sees

dark chocolate Bordeaux Wait, what? Candies.

Oh, okay. Sees dark, yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. Sees

dark chocolate Bordeaux candies. It's like, oh,

yeah. That sounds good. It does. I think I'm

gonna have to rate the chocolate bar after this.

Oh, okay. What I'm about to read here is kind

of for all the guys at this point because her

prized possession is a Revenge of the Jedi poster,

totally rare. She was voted most likely to be

the next Lagerfeld but way prettier and not a

dude. Deepest secret, not completely sure she

wants to be in a world -famous band. And Kimber

is the youngest out of them all. Kimber Benton,

age 18, 5 '9". Keytar, backup vocal, songwriter,

also plays piano and guitar for instruments,

loves writing, girls, lawyer shows, animals,

swimming, surfing, also pizza, coffee, ice cream,

and red velvet cake. Ooh, I can see. That I can

totally tell. She's got red hair. She loves that.

She hates political shows, spiders, heights,

and fish. Fish are so weird and gross. What are

gills even? So gross. Her guilty pleasure is

binge shoe shopping. She looks like a shoe girl.

She really kind of does. Her prize possession

is extensive pajama collection. She was voted

most likely to get whatever she wants. She sounds

like she is going to be the diva of the group.

Her deepest secret is she loves trashy romance

novels, but doesn't hide it. She is an open book.

Brilliant. Um, I, I, if she has a pajamas with

the little, you know, in the, in the TV show,

she had the pajamas that had the window in the

backside. Yeah. That's going to be funny. I would

really like to see that. Overall. Have got to

give issue number 105 because this was just an

amazing first issue It really was it sets everything

up it Teases the misfits, but it doesn't give

it away right away because obviously issue 2

is going to be You know focused on the misfits

I Absolutely love this story so far and I cannot

wait until We have more. A couple of things before

I let Amy and Nicole give their final thoughts.

I did, because I know a lot of people out there

are saying, what about Rhea? Where's Rhea? The

first arc of the series is going to take us through

issue six. The second arc of the series starts

at issue seven. Rhea will come into play in the

second arc. Or are you, do you know that for

a fact or are you just making it clear? I asked,

no, I asked Kelly on Twitter. Oh, okay. There

you go. Ask Kelly Thompson on Twitter But isn't

that how the show was like that too. I mean you

come in till season two, right? Yeah, you will

be the end of season one beginning of season

two, but yeah, yeah, so I mean I It makes sense

that they I mean come on let them let them build

the world let them Know they don't have to show

all of their cards all at once So yeah, I'm kind

of glad that they don't have that yet So it's

kind of cool. I'm alright with that What would

you rate issue one, Amy? I think I'm gonna go

with what you said five because like we've got

great conflict We've got personality. We've got

you know characters Everything is setting up

We've getting everything in the first issue like

this for the band You know, it's a great character

piece too because like each of the characters

you get to see a little bit of them. And like,

you know, they have personal consequences. Uh,

you know, the only, the only thing I see that

is what, um, Nicole has mentioned about Jerrica

just seeming like she's not, you know, she doesn't

look like the older sister. She doesn't act like

the older sister. She's she just looks like,

you know, Yeah, she doesn't she's just I don't

know older sister. She does not have the older

sister vibe at all She acts like the inner sister,

but maybe she will though, but yeah true true.

I don't know I mean I've given time to build

it because I mean it obviously hasn't changed

my effect because I'm gonna give it a five anyhow,

so But I'm just saying that's the only thing

that just seems We'll see where they go with

it Mean if they if they if they start I'm really

not worried that they're gonna have a problem

with it art is great I've just I'm just tickled

that we're getting this and I've got are you

tickled pink? I am I am totally tickled pink

and there's a lot of pink in this first issue.

So um Yeah, I love it give me more of it What

about you, Nicole? I'm going to knock it down

just a little bit. Not a whole lot. I'm going

to give it a four and a half because it did throw

me off a few times thinking Jerica is supposed

to be the oldest one. It really, like I said,

it's cute artwork, but I just want her to be

a little bit, look a little bit older. I know

there's a lot of people out there that look younger

than they are, but it kind of threw me off, especially

when Jerica and Kimber are talking to each other.

And like you said, maybe it will come back and

in the future, it will work out. But as a first

issue, it threw me off. You can still have stage

fright and be the older sister. Well, I know.

No, it's not the whole stage. It's the look of

her that has thrown me off. For me, it's not

the whole stage fright. Yeah, it's not the stage

fright thing. It's just her being. I was just

thinking, you know, maybe what if, what if they

say, well, she's got to have the stage fright?

I was like, well, yeah, but you can be the older

sister, still have stage fright. You can be an

outgoing person and still get stage fright. So.

But I think that's what this first issue is doing

though. It's the way I look at the first issue

is yes, it is a focus on all four of them. But

the main focus is on Jerrica and her finding

a way to get over her stage fright in synergy,

you know, when synergy comes along. And she does.

And that's, you know, problem solved. Well, yeah.

Well, yeah. I'm sure there's going to be more

than that. Yeah, sure, too. But the way I'm seeing

this... Get her over that one little thing right

there. We're going to move forward then. Right,

yeah, and the way that I'm seeing this first

issue is it's the story of how she is insecure

about herself, she is, you know, she's not feeling

it, she's not, you know, and she needs the encouragement

from the others. So maybe in this one moment,

she can't be the big sister, even though she

looks like, you know what I mean? It's. Yeah,

I understand that, but she's got to look just

even the look. She looks 14. She's supposed to

be 23. Like I said, you guys could. It threw

me off in that one moment. Okay. And I agree

with what you're saying. She does look even younger.

I mean, even if she was looking the same age

as Kimber, she's not. She's like. She looks younger

than that. And it's just how Kimber, like, huddles

herself over her a little bit. She's the Tulsa,

so she's gonna always do that. Well, no, I understand

that, but the way that her interactions with

her, it threw me off. Like I said, it's still

a great comic. I'm giving it a four and a half

out of five. That's pretty dang good. It was

just a couple of moments that it took me out

of. Not a big gripe. It's really good comic still

I gushed over everything I Mean the artwork is

beautiful. It's great. I love the look of all

the girls Synergy looks beautiful and her funky

hair. Love it, and I definitely look forward

to the next one And we will be back later in

April when Issue number two comes out because

issue number two is also going to have a five

cover box set featuring the misfits Yeah, my

girls Yeah, we're gonna have four classic covers

by Amy Maverson for the character covers The

main cover will be done by Sophie Campbell, and

I'm not sure I'm not looking at it right off

the top of my head who is doing the sub cover

But and I also did ask John Barber on Twitter

Issue number two was also going to have 12 car

covers. He said nope eight so That's okay, they're

they're so awesome they don't need 12 covers

to show themselves off If you look at it you

get the five so you get the regular cover you

get the four character covers and then you get

the sub cover so that's six so there's two additional

retailer or convention if there's going to be

one might be a retail incentive the other might

be a either a retail exclusive or a convention

exclusive cover so i don't know yet all is i

know about so far is the um the regular cover

and then the character covers at this point so

All right, I think that's gonna do it for us

here on the pullback and Showtime synergy We

wanted to take this this last moment to kind

of bring up a sad moment in gem history We're

gonna give a moment of silence as we close out

here, but recently I think it's as of March 30th

or 31st Roger Slifer passed away For those that

don't know Roger Schleifer was a writer on Jim

and holograms. He was also a comic book writer

editor Had done dozens of stuff to do with Yu

-Gi -Oh and all that kind of stuff He had gotten

into a hit -and -run car accident a few years

ago, and he has been in a coma ever since and

he sadly Passed away a few days before we recorded

this That's just You know we we had talked about

this on Showtime synergy and either the first

or the second or maybe even the third episode

of the podcast but That's just it's just so sad.

I really was hoping that he was gonna pull out

of that Actually, it seemed like it was kind

of a freak thing. I'm I went on the Facebook

page to find out One of his relatives has been

updating the Facebook page You know for ever

since you know, he moved closer to her and she

basically said that it was just one of those

things that she got a call and they said that

he was having a hard time breathing. They called

an ambulance and he passed just suddenly in the

ambulance ride over to the hospital. So it was

all, it's just very shocking because he wasn't,

it seemingly, from what I understand, he wasn't

showing any signs of any problem. or any distress

days before it was just kind of like she just

got this random call saying oh he's having some

issues and we're sending him to hospital and

and then to find out that he didn't make it so

it's just one of those i'm pretty speechless

about it i just like wow um definitely send support

and love to his family members and close friends

absolutely Alright folks, that's gonna do it

for us. We're gonna close out with a moment of

silence for Roger Seifler. Sorry to end on such

a sad note, but... Well, we had to bring it up

because I don't remember which Showtime Synergy

episode it was in that you had talked about.

Yeah, yeah. The Facebook page. It's gonna be

at least in the middle of the show and not for

a couple months. You've just heard the latest

episode of the pullback the GCR ends comic review

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