So Tempted to Title This One Sex Trek...

0:00Hi, this is Michelle Fife, creator of Cobra, and you're listening to 11 o'clock comics. I'm like you were a shadowing the book from the Marlowe. Very beautiful. Yeah, I was like, what I was aiming for, so I was kind of perfect. Everybody knows what's up. Oh, folks, welcome to 11 o'clock comics.

1:01This is episode 1,051. I am David A. Price, and I am joined by... Kinky Carrot. Oh, so good. And that's what we're going to be starting off with. Yes, you are not... You are Kinky, and you do like carrots, but you are not Kinky Carrot. You are none other than my good friend, Jason Wood. Welcome, great to hear your voice. We are a Tussum, we're a dynamic duo tonight. Oh, yeah. Because it's... Man, I'm telling you, people are trying to keep warm way back when, because this month, this week especially, but this month, there are a slew of birthdays. Where I get my manicures, the owner, her husband's birthday is today, and her stepdaughter and her stepson, their birthdays are at the end of the month. My father's birthday, of course, was yesterday as well.

2:01As was mine, today is Vince's wife's birthday, which is why he is not with us this evening. So you get us, and you're going to love it, dammit, and we have some great, great books to discuss tonight. We have a lot of things in store for you. So I thank you in advance for hanging out with us, because you can be listening to anything else. And you're deciding to listen to us this episode, of course, as all the others have been, is sponsored by our good friends, including Max at cheapcraft novels.com, where you can get eight one of books at great, great discounted prices. Every week, you get your new releases, and I posted, Baker's Half-Dousen for the Slackers today, saved a couple to discuss right here, and now, I'm going to kick it off with Dr. Strange, Endless Nightmare Hardcover, for $19.49. When Steven Strange encounters a mysterious patient at his hospital who won't stop raving about how life is nothing,

3:02but the dream of a sleeping god, the rest of the world, is suddenly struck with insomnia. In order to prevent chaos from unfolding as the people around him become more and more desperate for sleep, Dr. Strange must embark into the mind of the madman who seems to have heralded this disaster, taking a psychedelic trip into the nightmare realm. Kevin J. Anderson, Rural Allen, and Patricia Martin, the creative team behind our trilogy of best-selling graphic novel adaptations of Dune, reunite to combine their creative talents once again, in this visually stunning, fantastical adventure that has shades of Windsor McKay's little Nemo, Dr. Strange Endless Nightmare explores the boundary between dreams and reality combining forces with an unlikely ally in order to end a waking nightmare that threatens to destroy the world. We also have, because I had to throw this in there, the new Titan's Omnibus Volume 1 Hardcover for $74.99

4:03in the wake of the Judas Contract and the explosive events that reshaped the original Teen Titans. The new Titans are a thrust nightwing starfire Donutroy, cyborg Raven, changeling Jericho, and they are allizing to the most dramatic turning point of their history from intergalactic wars to end supernatural horrors to street-level tragedy and deep personal reinvention. These stories explore what it means to grow up as a hero and what it means to survive the transition. The legendary return of George Perez to the Titans with Marvel Feminine ushered in a new era for these heroes from the origin of Wonder Girl and degrades into the introduction of new villains, the return of Deathstroke, new team members, the death of the Titans, and more, the end of Marvel Wolfman's Titans Odyssey begins here. This collects new Titans, 50 through 70, the new Titans annual, numbers 5 and 6, Batman, numbers 4, 36 through 4, 42, Hawk and Dove,

5:04numbers 11 and 12, Hawk and Dove annual number 1, Secret Origins, number 46, Secret Origins, annual number 3, Wonder Woman, numbers 47 and 48, and Material from Wonder Woman, numbers 22 and 23. And finally, Queen of Cosmos Comics Trilogy Hardcover for $32 even in this collection, Underground Cartoonist, Fine Artist and Muralist, Barbara Willie Mendez, Chronicles, Women Creators, Psychedelic Journey through Biblical Tableau, Modern Life, and into a fantastical interstellar future weaving in her own intimate stories of being an artist, mother, and grandmother, inspired by Jewish mysticism, Mendez presents a creation myth shaped by feminine, cosmic consciousness with new, immersive worlds, and a radical reimagining of this one includes an illuminating and entertaining interview with Mendez as well as the third never before published chapter of this trilogy.

6:04Those are your specials this week from www.chubegraphicnobels.com And, uh, well, I'm sipping on something. Are you having anything to drink tonight? Hail Yes, sir! Nice! Yes. I am drinking a 2022 but the anticipation of her being gone for the next five days, she went to the wine store and restocked the supplies. I was very, very grateful.

7:04Oh, that's sweet. Yes. I have not had, um, it has not been a good week for me wine-wise. I, um, the drink is real. It's sort of kind of. I, um, I picked up dinner the other night and while I was waiting I decided to have a glass of red. And it wasn't hitting right, so Jack gave me another glass and it was a little better. But just something I don't know, I don't know if my palate was off, I don't know. Maybe I- Maybe Jack's got up as one game. Maybe? Maybe, maybe I shouldn't, you know, maybe give me something more than a peanut or a wire. But it just, but yeah, something seemed off. Um, wife and I went out to dinner last night and they didn't really have much of a wine list so we stuck with cocktails. So yeah, I just, so instead of even trying my luck tonight and opening or reopening, uncoorking one of the bottles I already have downstairs, since, um, since it's my birthday week, month and, uh, and, and I received some sweet new photos of Rogue from Kevin.

8:11Thank you. I am, um, I decided to, uh, take the, uh, the Blantons off the shelf. So I am, uh, I'm enjoying some Blantons and when this is done, um, I have right next to me a can of my protein clear way, isolate lemonade. So that's, that's what I'm chasing it with. Oh, damn protein lemonade, you say? Yes. Okay. Okay. I hit those macros. So now we have, uh, we've got, uh, we've got some comics to talk about, um, events isn't here to go first, but I have to say, I, this was part of the, um, I believe it was last week. I mentioned this in the, uh, in the show specials. Uh, this is, uh, this was, this was a fun book. I, I really enjoyed this a lot. I mentioned I started reading it and, uh, and, and I finished it. Um, the other day and, and I couldn't wait to discuss it tonight. This is, uh, kicking carrot presents off the beaten path illustrated by a creator, Marie Son and, uh, and written by, um, Crel.

9:20And it is, it was, I really didn't know what to expect when I received it from a blaze, but, uh, but damn if I didn't have fun with it. And it's, it's, it's not, this is not a kids comic. This is an adults. It's a hard quarter on it. Yeah, there is, there is, there is, there is not only nudity, but there is, there is penetration. So, so be aware that, uh, that this isn't one of the, uh, if, if the kids are, um, if you're done reading, you know, Scotty's Osboks, you're not going to then go to this. This is a meal. But, uh, this was, um, the illustration style. And, and that's, and that's what was great. So, the illustration style is, it's, it's all, she, she's, this is all done through the Procreate app on her iPad using her Apple pencil. Uh, so it's completely digital. And, and with the backgrounds, you can kind of, you get that sense. It, it definitely feels, um, it, it, it feels like it was created, um, digitally.

10:22And that's not a slight, I mean, because the characters, the renditions are great. It's, it's got a very animated Disney-esque kind of look to it. Uh, and, and yeah, Lizzy, the main character, the one who's undergoing her sexual exploration. Yes. I have to be honest. I mean, I really enjoyed it too. We'll get, we'll get, obviously, we'll get into it in some detail. But I, I have to be honest. I mean, I, I wish she drew her a little bit less like it is. It was, it, it definitely, I think impacted my overall enjoyment of the book, because it made me feel completely unfairly a little creepy. Like, like, I, the book is absolutely meant to be just the opposite of that, right? Like the entire premise is sex positivity with, with no judgment and, you know, and, and lots of different body types and just embracing sexual exploration with, with, with no hang-ups and, and, you know, no embarrassment, no qualms, which is all great. And I'm, I'm 100%, I ride, for all that stuff, I ride her doctor all that stuff. But man, she looked like Ariel from, and, and I was like, like, just, I just wish she made her a little more all looking or just a little like different,

11:29like maybe a little less, like Disney perfect body. A little wild. Yeah. It's, I just, I have to say it, it definitely kind of fucked my head a little bit. Like, it, it, you explaining it reminds me of the, of, of the artists we'll see in artist Ali, who will draw April O'Neill or Lois Lane, or any, any, any female character, being bent over the hood of the car and, and, and, and so I, yeah, it, it's, I, so I, yeah, I don't, I do not knock your view on that at all because it, it definitely, I mean, the, and, and the other characters aren't as, as visually disney as, I mean, there's, I mean, there's, no, that's true. They're there, but, but her, her roommate, you know, Elsa does not really look like a character from, from any of the Disney features. And, and so there's, but, and that's, and that's another great thing I love about this book is that there's no body shaming. There's all torps, as Jason said, all different sorts of body type shorts, all chunky slender.

12:31It's, it's, you know, I mean, even, I mean, there's, here's a scene with a threesome and she's with one, one muscle bound dude and the other guys, you know, a little short, stocky, yeah, look and dude, and it, and, and it's, and, but how many love interest is very a fat, he's a very like a fat man like he's not, but he's that but he's, but he's, but he's like, he's a heterosexual man, but he's very, very feminine and in the way he presents, yes. Yeah, but, but yeah, as far as, so the story is basically Lizzie, the main character, she is, she's just gotten out of that, really bad breakup, She was with somebody for a long time. They're no longer together. She's moved in with Elsa. And they have a great relationship. Elsa is very sarcastic. She's older. She's a bigger black woman. And she definitely has a different outlook on life than Lizzie. But she's very receptive of Lizzie's transformations

13:33and learning experiences. And the conversations they have feel very real, just based on conversations I've overheard from people I know in my life. And Lizzie wants to explore and learn. And so she is, finally, after being apprehensive at first, she finally goes into the local sex shop. And basically, I mean, goes on a shopping spree. And she comes home with a whole bunch of toys that she cannot wait to try out. And we, as the reader, get to watch her enjoy. We're watching her enjoying trying them out. And I definitely appreciate that. I do like Marie's art style. There is no. And even the little things, because later on, you'll even see when there is a sex scene happening. The O is wearing condoms.

14:34So the responsibility, the being responsible aspect, is present as well. So it's nice to, it's just seeing Lizzie go from shy and not sure about this new world she may be entering. And basically, pretty much, I mean, she's interrupting yoga classes because the friend of hers is calling. And she's kind of giving her a breakdown on what to expect and what you can do with somebody you're not sure about. She's learned and she's grown so much. And they do a very subtle, you could tell there's been some time has passed from the beginning of this book to the end. And they're very subtle as to how they show that progression of time. There aren't sudden scene shifts and meanwhile, or later that day. It's all, you kind of just go along with it. Everything kind of makes sense.

15:34It's broken up into chapters. So you don't really feel overwhelmed from start to finish that this is some fast paced breakneck speed of going from zero to 60. I felt the pacing was good. And as I'm looking at some of the pages now again, and when I was saying that it looks digital, it's because of the backgrounds. The backgrounds are very out of focus. They're backgrounds. That's not the important part. They do make it look as though this is a lived in real environment because even if this was being filmed, you get that same effect where the people in the foreground are the focus. That's what you want to see. So it's nice to not just see a bunch of blank, white background boxes. You can tell that they're either at a diner or walking through a park or in a city. So it's a great presentation.

16:34But as far as this, I do hope we get more. I'd like to see more of Lizzie and her friends. I'd like to see Lizzie's growth. I'd like to see where we go from here. And more characters being introduced. But I really did have a lot of fun with this. And this is one of those things where it's not... It also doesn't feel like it's an instruction manual. There's nothing. They're not trying to teach you anything. They're not trying to... It's a very sex-positive book. But it's not like it's McLeod's understanding comics where you're going to take this and go and try these things out. It's a straightforward story. And I think it's very well done. And I do hope we get more. But I'm dying to hear your thoughts.

17:35Yeah, I mean, it's interesting. I've been reading a lot of the blaze stuff lately. I think that a blaze does an amazing job of still studying their books, because I buy a lot of them. I have to say, and before reading this, I was actually had a bit of a take where I was in the scene. I think a blaze is kind of... Kind of a weak sauce. Before I read this, I was like, my take was going to be, I've read a lot of the blazes here. And I feel like they import a lot of weak sauce stuff that looks exciting. And then I read it and I'm like, okay. But they're back on the... I'm not going to... They've gotten a reprieve, because of this one. So they get a reprieve. This is an import. It was originally published as Kingker Leachon. It's a German book. She's Maria Sonnis German. Came out in 2024. And this is actually, to your point about wanting more, none of these characters are new for this book. She's been making erotic content since 2016

18:41on her website. And I guess all of these characters have been a part of that journey. And kind of to your point about this really being a narrative and not being how to, interestingly, much of the content she's created over the last 10 years on her site is in effect more of a how-to. It's articles about sex positivity, different types of kinks and fetishes, guides on alternate sex lives and sexual positivity and that sort of stuff. So she's definitely living this life. This is not just a dalliance that she wanted to tell a story and this is really pretty much like her journey. I was reading about her like, I didn't know she was actually a manga for years, which I find interesting given that she's a German woman. She too many German women drawing manga, but she got her start as a manga car. And now she's been doing this. She's 40 years old, so she's a grown-ass woman. And yeah, I mean, like you said, this is a book that's very much like written for and by women.

19:42Like it is definitely, I mean, she makes the point of it is she views her market for this book as other women. Now I think Dapp and I are pro-positive that it's actually a far more, I think, university appealing work than maybe she's even realizing her as she describes it herself. So I just think ultimately, as you've already said, if you're just into a fun and I think genuinely positive look at sexuality and sex without any judgment, I think that this is it. This is not what I would call hot eroticism, right? Like, I mean, I love erotica. This isn't something that I think, at least for me, I didn't read this and I wasn't getting round up. I mean, I wasn't like, oh shit. It wasn't really like that. It was much more about like, oh, this is cool. Like, yeah, this woman's on this journey and it's kind of fun and titillating. And I like the way that she's handling it,

20:43like with, again, like there's just unbridled like positivity with each experience. And it's all okay. And some of the stuff she's into, that she tries, some of it's not. You know, there's a chapter where she's, there is a, most of the chapters are like her having like a first-time sexual experience, either with herself or a partner, sometimes men, sometimes women, sometimes both. But there is one character, which we alluded to already, that she sort of begins building an actual relationship with and we're left to believe that that continues after the book. And so we see him multiple times throughout the book and at one point, Lizzy, you know, introduces basically a big like, you know, like, Dildo and with the auspice of like, you know, like, pegging him. And he's like, I'm not a cop that life. Like, I'm not a cop. He's like, I'm not a cop. I like, I ain't no play, but not, not what you know. Like, I'm not a cop.

21:43And you know, and I really actually appreciated that because like, again, the book is so much about just this like unbridled curiosity for trying new things, which is an awesome message. But at the same time, I liked that she took the time to also make it completely okay in those situations to be like, no, that's not for me. But that didn't ruin the mood. You know, like, he didn't run out screaming, he didn't get mad at her. Like, they still, you know, slept together that night. It's just like, he had boundaries and she respected them. And I also liked that it was told from the side of a man telling the woman what his boundaries were. Right? Yeah. So I just, again, I think she just handled it really definitely, you know? And I think that I'll be blunt unless you're a prude. And you know, hey, everyone live your life. But if you're a prude, like, and you have any kind of open mind and it's about sex. I think this book is, it's worth your time, for sure. And I appreciate the fact that with Lizzie being the star,

22:45Elves is probably the only one with, in the book, the largest breast. But everything is natural. There's no, Marie's not going out of her way to make Lizzie appear stacked. And the super, super model type looking woman, she's very unassuming. She's got a great personality, bubbly personality, she's very outgoing as time goes on. But her body type is more or less, it's not necessarily a super athletic build, but she's fit. But again, she's not knocking people over with the top of her body. It's, I think that the way, no matter what type of person you're looking at in this book, everybody feels, everybody appears as if they be real. This isn't, there are no Hollywood stars walking really through.

23:50I mean, there are attracts people, but they're not necessarily made to look like they're about to step out of a movie. So it's nice to see that, as if you are reading this and you're curious yourself, or you want to explore your horizons, or you're interested in other people, it's nice to know that you're reading a story about people who could be your neighbors, just other people in your neighborhood. And I think that, because you could have had somebody, if Stuart Emman was drawing this, everybody would be hot. And sometimes that's a great story. But, and it's nice to look at, but this helped, I think everybody's features, the way everybody looked and carried themselves, helped me get more comfortable,

24:50sucked me into the pun intended, sucked me into the story a little better, made it easier to kind of take. But yeah, this was at Kudos to Blaze. For a publishingist, there was also, she has a Patreon, so these chapters where I believe offered there as well. But yeah, and I know what you mean about Blaze, because they have been, they can be hit or miss the times. There was, was it, Trees, Tressay, that adaptation that really didn't, then land the way I wanted it to. But I know that they've got that life on Mars book that I want to, or skate the Mars. I think Ian was reading it, but yeah, there are some of Blaze books that I want to check out, but they, a while ago, the track record wasn't, they were not going to edit, they were not knocking it out of the park with every, every solicit. But this, this is a good one. I appreciate them taking time,

25:52putting this, publishing it for the American audience. And I absolutely recommend it. So yeah, if, yeah, for sure. If, if, if, if you hadn't heard about it, or if you were curious, wanted to know what was going on, absolutely, check out off the beaten path, because I will, I'm going to keep an eye out now for, for other work, from Marie, and see where we go from here. Yes. And, DAP, just when a Blaze was, I was riddled to, to be out, this pulled me back in, and then, in the way that life works, karma is funny, a day or two after I read off the beaten path. I read another book from a Blaze, then I also think is wonderful. Oh. So Blaze, you're, you're, you're on the come-back trail dogs, you're on the come-back trail. Um, and it's interesting, like, I don't know a Blaze is business model per se, right? Like, I have no idea how, they run off and ever talk to anybody over there. But they have this, like, like, they're doing,

26:52like, a bunch of different things, at once, right? Like, they've obviously got the, they've got the Samarion, which is co-named without the name, which is kind of weird, but like, whatever, you know. Um, they've, they bought NBM, late last year, so they have that catalog, um, which in and of itself was a mix bag. They, they, they are doing these and happen for a while, imports, and they import from Asia and Europe and South America, like, they don't have, like, one cut. It's not like, like, one clear pipeline, they, they do import, kind of, wherever they can find stuff that they want to bring over. So it's interesting. And then this one, and I'm about to talk about, it actually was a comicsology original. Um, now, I guess, comicsology originals have been gone long enough that it might be worth an explanation to some folks, um, which is kind of weird, but, um, which is kind of weird, it shows you how long we've been doing this. Um, comicsology was a company that basically launched to sell digital comics. It was acquired many years ago now,

27:54um, by Amazon, uh, and was basically Amazon's main conduit for comic, digital comics for years and years and years, and then it subsequently basically had been shut down. I mean, it's, uh, it's all been rolled into Amazon proper, and all the comicsology people and everything are long gone, uh, or on to, they've moved on to do other things. So, um, but there was a time when comicsology had gotten acquired by Amazon, and I guess everybody still had delusions of grandeur, where they had a pretty big budget, and they started becoming a publisher as well, and they started doing the aforementioned comicsology originals. And we talked about a bunch over the years, um, you know, there was a ton of stuff that came, it came and went, um, some of it was pretty good, some of it was very forgettable. I do not remember this, like, this book, even this, this line of work ever even being solicited. So, um, does, so I have no opinion on, how it was received back then, but nevertheless, uh, thanks to a place, they have brought a print version of it to my, my hands,

28:54and I think too many of you are soon too. And that is sliced, which is, um, written by Rafael Scavone, with art by Guillermo May, Grande Zoli. You can imagine their Italian gentleman. Um, they are, although actually, I think Scavone is actually, um, I think he might be, uh, Brazilian, actually. Um, even though he is, Italian sounding name. But I'm pretty sure, uh, Guillermo is, uh, Italian. Um, it's a wonderful story. A dad, you gotta read this. You're gonna love this. This is like, this is, this is, this is tailor-made. You're gonna actually do it. Um, it is a story about two pizza-olos. Um, silver-olos. Yes. Okay, yep, yep. Yeah, and Pietro Pizzuti. And they are, uh, generational. They, they, we, we meet them as young boys. And Silvio is kind of a chubby kid, salt of the earth kind of kid, his, his dad, and Uncle run a pizza shop. And he's so into it. He's so proud of it.

29:54He loves pizza. And so he wears a pizza tie to work, uh, to school. And Pietro is a little guy who is a little bit of a more aggressive, bratty kid, and he's kind of feeling some kind of way about Silvio. In particular, because his family thinks that Silvio's family is in the mob, and doesn't like the mob, and so he cuts Silvio's pizza tie, his favorite tie. Makes Silvio very sad. And so we meet them as youngsters, and they're, they're like enemies, you know. And then we fast forward. And now, of course, the city has changed and we're like, the city has changed. The city has changed. The, the, what used to be like a little Italy area where every, you know, every, every, every vibrant stores, and there were tons of restaurants and pizza shops. There's now only the two pizza shops. Silvio's got one, and Pietro's got one, and they're both struggling. Um, they hate each other. It's like a Pat's and Geno's type of situation for you, and for you, and for you, and for you, but, um, but, but, not they're doing well, you know.

30:54Silvio and his daughter, his daughter, sort of his right-hand woman, she, she kind of helps them figure out the budget and stretch the bills, and his whole thing is he, um, he, he's, he's doing like a, if we don't deliver it to you in time, you know, we will, uh, you know, we'll give you the free pizza, and unfortunately, he's often giving away free pizzas, driving his daughter nuts. Her name is Sophie. And then Pietro, he's, he's trying to stay alive by doing like super cheap, like, by one, get one free Jones, which is, uh, equally bad business, and, uh, his mom Marta is all kinds of pizza is all kinds of, uh, down in them for that. And, uh, you know, Marta is a very weathered woman. She's, uh, she, she loves Pietro, and she's, she's there to support him, but she's a, she's a naysayer, lighting the lightsman tough for her, you know, she's kind of like, look at the, the, she's a glass half-empty type of person, and, uh, but she's a bit of a lush, you know, but, but she's got her charms, like all the people in this book are charming, um, which is, which is one of the things I enjoyed about it. But, you know, the premise

31:54is effectively that they're running dying bit. And, the reason the area is dying in many ways is because the mob kind of, like, ran it aground. Um, and they all, both families have ties to that world from the prior generation, but these two gentlemen are living very much, you know, just honest living at this point. Um, and then the book goes where I, I didn't really expect it to go. Like, I thought it was going to be a happy, happy, a happy, a happy, a happy, a happy, a happy a happy, a happy, a happy a happy, a happy, a happy, a happy a happy, a happy, a happy, a happy advantage and citizenship so much extra笔 and, and so manyQUAD so many нужd with a very very much to buy Silvio and Pietro out and both said no. And they're getting frustrated.

32:58And I guess because it's modern times and it's, you know, it's not the time they even joke like in the old days we're gonna just whack these guys. But like now they have to, you know, like they can't anymore because it's like screw you have it. So they've tried to buy them out. It's not working. So they're like, all right, well we got to like flush them out. We're gonna make them want to clear them out or sell. So the sun comes up with an idea and he opens up another pizza shop called Wonder Pizza. And it's very glitzy and modern and everything. And you know, evocative of the kind of like awful carbon copy pizza you see at malls where you pay seven dollars and you get the one slice and they've got the pizza shape slice and the cardigan cargated boxes right that fit just the one slice. And wouldn't you know if this place opens up seemingly overnight and it's packed and people are fucking flock into it and much to Silvio and Pietro's dismay. So Silvio's like, I gotta see what's what like, he tells the daughter, go get some of this license. He bring them back over. You know, bring them back. He opens it up. It looks

33:59weird. It's like almost looks like fake. You know, much like you would think of like the little see there like, you know, it just looks, you know, hardly like the homemade pizzas. He's gentleman, beautiful stuff up until these years. But he starts eating it and he's a, you know, he's a chubby fellow. He's a, you know, he's a living the, he's a needer. He's a, he's like, oh, it's weird. It doesn't taste weird. But then he keeps eating. He's like, oh, but it's, huh, but there's something about it and something about it. And then the next thing you know, do Dean like, 10 slices. Can't stop. Can't stop won't stop. Well, wouldn't you know, Don Tomasso's son has figured out a way to use a 3D printer to print pizza looking things that happen to be laced with what is effectively a legal because of the chemical compound version of like morphine. So they're basically selling pizza that's getting people addicted. Damn. And so it's working beautifully, right? And you know, so of course, then it becomes like a, well, wow, and we're really fuck now. But as any, any fun buddy movie happens, these two enemies,

35:05the enemy of my enemy is my friend. They, uh, they piece up. They piece it up. They get together, they bury the hatchet from their childhood, you know, they bond over their, their common ancestry and their common enemy. And they figure out like, let's, let's go for ours. Let's, let's, let's figure out how to fight back. Unfortunately, they don't really have great idea. Like they, they, they agree to work together, but they don't really have any idea how to beat this, this new jug or not pizza place. Um, but then Silvio's uncle, who has believed to have been dead for 20 years, he was a mobster is not dead. And he comes back. And I'll save the why he's back and where he was and all that. Cause that's a big part of the story. But he's back and he's sort of, he's become, uh, he's become a hippie. A piece and love kind of guy used to be a, like a, a mob and forcer. So, you know, he's kind of like found Jesus. I guess not really Jesus, but you know, he's kind of found a different moral path. But he comes back to help them and he's a little more, you know, he's a little street saviour. So he's got some ideas. Um, and then ultimately, just when you think it's all for naught, the, the tide turns and the book has a really wonderfully satisfying final arc.

36:10I'll leave that to everybody to read for yourselves, but it's highly satisfying. They, they actually end up getting a, another ally who kind of tips the scales in their, in their favor and, and the allies. I, I didn't see it coming. And it really made me smile. Um, and, um, yeah, and it, it's, it's just like a classic comedy, like, like, like comedy in the, in the, in the, in the, in the classic theater view where it's like, you know, they're, they're, they're under duress for a large part of the book, but, but there's still some levity to kind of keep you afloat. But then ultimately, you know, happy times, you know, happy times prevail. But it's not without, you know, they earn, they earn the hacking though, you know, it's not just like a happy, like they have to earn that. And, um, I just love the life, oh man, I thought I was life. I've heard, many other scovone books over the years. Um, so very familiar with his work. I love his, his, his, his perspective on the, the joy of humanity, even in dark times, that kind of seems to be an underlying

37:10theme of his. Yeah, I think he also really loves food. A lot of his books have been centered around food and restaurants and fishing and the like. Um, and I was completely unfamiliar with, uh, Germa, uh, grand grand as you know, um, but his art is just, just, just terrific. I mean, it's, it's, um, it, it looks like, you know, um, uh, it looks like something that you could find in like secretive-nim storyboards or like, you know, that kind of, that, that lush classic uh, 70s, early 80s European illustration style, um, where, where the lines are relatively few, but that makes, still makes the, the, the, the people on the page feel alive, extremely expressive faces, you know, very animated bodies, you know, skinny, bendy, um, it's just what, it's a type of illustration I love both in animation and in comics. Um, so totally on board for the art. And, uh, yeah, like I said, it's just a fun, vibrant food centric romp, um, and you know, being from

38:12Jersey who doesn't love a good mob story. So, uh, here for every bit of it and a really nice surprise, I ordered this just on the strength of the list it, because I thought that'd be fun like, tube dueling pizzyolos, which is how the book got the elevator pictures that it was tube dueling pizzy guys. Um, but it's much more than that as a bit conveyed, but I very much recommend it. It's actually a trade paperback. Um, well, I'm not much for trade these days, but, uh, but I'm, I'm glad I didn't let that put me off of it. So yeah, it's called sliced, um, and it is, uh, bioblaze and it's, uh, what's 1999 cover? So it's probably such a back like 12, 13 bucks at the, at the cheap graphic novels. So do check it out. It, uh, it did catch my eye, uh, a week or two ago, and I noticed it was, um, it was on the, uh, it was on the CGM list and, uh, yeah, it was one of the ones that didn't, didn't make the cut for posting it on the slack, but reading the solicit, um,

39:16definitely made me curious. So, um, I will definitely be true. And, and yes, and like you, I, I don't know if it's just a sign of age or just preference, but, um, yeah, I, if I have my preference, uh, I will take a, a hard cover over a paper belt. Oh, for sure. Yeah. I, it's usually depending on the type of story I'm reading, but yeah, I would like, I, I, I just, I like seeing a bunch of hard backspines on the, uh, on the shelf. It does sound, it sounds really interesting now. Good on blades. All right. Two for two. A blaze there, I say is on fire. Oh, but I'm the, um, I, I read some Tom Taylor detective comics recently. Oh, okay. That's because your boy's drawn it, right? Uh, well, oh, is he, is he going to do a Batman now? I don't know. Jimenez is doing fractions, Batman, but, uh, Michaela Jainin did, uh, some of the

40:18probably some, yeah, some of the, uh, some of the chapters here. This is a detective comics. This was an arc running through numbers 1,107 through 1,112. Um, it's, uh, the, the, the arc is basically it's called flight and, um, for full disclosure for those listening as far as what we do kind of behind the scenes. Um, we, we have our, we have our reading list, what we read for the weeks of the guys kind of, we can all kind of either plan on if we're going to tag on something or if we know, someone's going to talk on something that, uh, that, if it's, uh, if Jason can talk about slice of life and it's known to know, you know, we have any can tune out, but there are, there are times where, where some, where we might jot down another note or two and, uh, a couple of weeks ago, when I read this, I wrote down in my notes, uh, retcons and, and that's because this story is a bit of a retcon and,

41:27um, and it, so the story, as I said, written by Tom Taylor, there's art by Pete Woods, uh, Bruno, so Abdiass, uh, colors by Lee Louridge and, uh, and, and, and Michael Jannin and, um, the story starts with, um, Oliver Queen coming to Gotham and, uh, there's a, uh, there's a meeting about to, to happen, a merger of sorts, uh, but we find out that, Batman finds out that Green Arrow is in town, uh, because, um, there's a dirty cop who's shaking down a drug dealer who is going to, uh, take his drugs, take his money, and Green Arrow interferes, and throws him in the trunk of the aeromobile, but the drug dealer was Batman and disguise.

42:34So Batman's like, I'm really going to need you to let him out of the trunk. Like, let pretend like, you know, he escaped to, to a faulty latch or whatever, but he's got to get out of that trunk because, um, he, uh, he, he needs, I need him to keep doing what he's doing because it's a bigger fish to catch. So, um, so there is, I, I really do enjoy, especially when handled by, by, by solid competent writers, I do enjoy the back and forth between Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen. They pretty much are, except for, except for the politics between the two of them, uh, they are pretty much more similar than dissimilar. They're, they're wealthy, they rely on gadgets, uh, they're not powered, they're just extremely talented and skillful. Uh, they, they, they have their funky vehicles. Um,

43:40and this was, this was a situation where Taylor's really having fun, uh, writing the, the barbs that they'll throw each other. And, uh, I mean, just, just one example would be, um, the, where Bruce, Batman is telling the green area, you know, you can't just come to my city and start fighting crime. Green area, I was like, I'm a vigilante, but also your city. I don't see your name on it. And then like, you know, we just turned around and there's a whole panel of like, you know, Wayne all over the place and got them. It's like, okay, yeah, so all right, whatever, you know, point of taking, but there, there's also, um, there's a, uh, all these also in town because as, uh, spoilers for those of you who aren't reading JSA, um, Wildcat is dead. And Ted left his gym to Dina. So, uh, Black and Erie now has the gym. So she's in Gotham a lot more often. And so, uh,

44:43there's a, uh, while the gym will be open to the public tomorrow, tonight is just for family. So you have Connor Hawk, Dick Grayson, Sandra Cain, Barbara Gordon, Bruce, of course, Tim Drake, uh, Roy Harper, Stephanie Brown, Damien Wayne and, and Oli. So they're all here to basically, you know, just have a, um, and I remember, I don't know if it was a Reddit thread or I, I don't remember where it maybe it was even on Instagram or something, but, uh, there was definitely on the socials. There was, um, people had had an issue with this issue because, uh, there's a, um, Dina, uh, wants to know, you know, who wants to come into the ring with me and go a few rounds. And so Damien stands up and, and Bruce is like, no, no, no. Um, and, and Damien's like, all said, the guy's like, no, no, I, I, I, I got this. So, so Bruce and Dina are about to square up and, uh, and, and so boxing only fight to knock out with no hits. And, um, and so Stephanie's like, how

45:52are you going to know, how are you going to fight to knock out without hitting each other? And that's because Cass is going to be the rep. She's going to judge. So, um, there's a great double page spread of the two of them going back and forth where you would see if the punch, if they hit connected, where it would actually land. Uh, but they're, they're just having fun. Bruce and Dina just going at it. She does, it looks like she does kind of, uh, there was, there was a part where she would have bonked them on the nose, something fierce. Uh, but she, um, she, she ends up tapping them on the jaw. And after all of that based on everything else that was going on, uh, Dina was the winner. So, so that's pretty much through people up in arms is that not only, so it's a Batman book, but you're going to have black and airy beat Bruce Wayne in, in a boxing match. And it's like, first of all, he's not being Batman. It's not that they weren't out to kill each other. This was, this was an exhibition and, and, and Dina is a damn good fighter. And so you can't, you can't just

47:00be like, oh, Batman's better than everybody else. No, she knows your shit. I mean, I think that's, let's be serious. So, um, it's, it's absolutely fine. It's not like Bruce was like, oh, it's bullshit and kicking tables and just like, no, everything, everything's on the up and up. It was great. And, but there is something going around where, um, it's like, there just seems to be something else on, on Bruce's mind. And, um, and it's, it's also being at Ted's gym. And it's a, it's a sense of something from the past. And as a reader, you have no idea what the hell's going on. But at the end of the night, everybody leaves the gym, Ollie and Dina go one way, Bruce goes another, but they all end up as cemetery. And, uh, and so it's Bruce, Ollie and Dina, and they're looking at a tombstone, and, uh, and Dina says, I'm sorry. And, and Bruce was like, it was an accident. It could have happened to any one of us. And she's like, but it happened to him. And it, it felt like the four of us were going

48:06to be something. And Bruce was like, well, we were something. We were a team. And Ollie says, yeah, flight squadron Delta. And, and, uh, and Ollie, let's Dina know, you know, he loved you. And he's like, and she says, I know. And so this little girl shows up. And she's like, did, did the two of you know him? And so Ollie turns around and he's like, the two of us were, and of course, Bruce disappeared at this point. Um, so they're like, yeah, no, we knew him. And, uh, and the little girl's like, well, his headstone says hero. And Dina says, yes. And she's like, I don't think he was a hero. And Dina's like, well, did you know him? And the little girl's like, oh, I thought I did. And, and she's asking about him like that he's smile. And he says, yeah, no, he'd smile a lot. We didn't know him for as long as we would have liked. But you know, he was a good guy to be around. He was fun. And she goes, I wish I had seen that. And, um, so Ollie's like, well, how did you, how did you find him? She says, well, I found some old newspapers in, in my house. Someone had his picture in the paper. And I'm looking for anyone who knew him for his funeral. And, uh, so Ollie's about to try and find

49:08out who was this person to you. And, uh, before she could answer this, uh, this rolls old, old timey rolls, Roy's pulls up. Maybe it's a Bentley. And, uh, and he's two muscle head goons and suits come out of the car. And you're like, okay, you're gonna have to, you're gonna release the girl like you were we're taking her with us. And, um, and so Dina's about to step. And she's like, well, if she's in any danger, this old woman gets out of the car. She's like, no, no, she's not in any danger, but she's definitely in trouble. Um, I'm her grandmother. And, and she's like, I'm sorry, grandma. You know, I didn't mean to run out and out of that. So, um, they, uh, she, she tells, she tells Ollie and Dina, she's like, Mr. Queen. Uh, I apologize for, for disturbing you here in this place. Uh, and, um, and, and, uh, we're gonna exit here and, and, uh, we won't, we won't bother you anymore. After they leave, Bruce finally shows up again. And he hears everything that went on.

50:12Um, and we find out the person in the grave was known as Pryon. And so as, as this story continues, we find out that, uh, Pryon seemingly was homeless, uh, but he was a hero. He, he actually was, you know, he wore a mask and, and at first, Ollie was like, what the hell's a Pryon? And, and so Bruce is like, well, Batman says it's a Marine bird. And, and, uh, so we, um, we see how Pryon meets Batman, Green Arrow and, and Black Canary. Um, he's, he's a pretty skilled fighter. He, he, he takes down a couple of armed robbers. Um, he, uh, and saved lives in the process. Uh, but, you know, he, he almost, he's dressed more like Casey Jones than anything else. He's wearing like, you know, uh, uh, sleeveless, sleeveless members only jacket. He's, he's got knee pads on. He's wearing it up, but he, he's wearing a hoodie.

51:12So, he's, he's dressed as if, you know, he's ready to, to tumble, but nothing fancy. Wear a mask that looks like he may have like, you know, hot glued some feathers on too. So some of the feathers are falling off as he's talking. Um, and, uh, so he, he's like, they're kind of just hanging out a bit. And, and we, um, we cut to the present day where they're trying to find out more about who the, who this little girl was. Well, all this is happening. That merger that's going on with, uh, with Queen industries. Um, there's, there's a whistleblower. And so the company that, that Queen is talking to, they're in some trouble. And the whistleblower is all seem to end up dead. Uh, but there's one in particular who, who's on his way through Gotham and, uh, and, and, and, he's got the SWAT and everybody else in an armored padded car or everything. Looks like he should be

52:14safe and sound, but he's not, um, the, uh, the driver loses control of the van. It goes off the bridge. Uh, luckily, Batman, well, as they were leaving the cemetery, this is happening. So, uh, they're able to catch up. They, uh, what's funny is to be in Cognito, uh, Bruce drove to the, the cemetery in like this busted look and hatchback, which Oracle refers to as the hatch bat. And, and Bruce is like, we're not calling it that. And Ollie's like, we're absolutely calling it that. And, and so, so the hatchback goes off the bridge into the water because of course it's a submersible and, and, uh, so, they can air his screams under water, breaks the glass to the armored car and, and they free the, uh, they rescue the whistleblower. Um, and, uh, but they're not about to turn them over to the FBI

53:16because they might be compromised. Have no idea. They don't want to keep them in danger. So, they end up taking the whistleblower to, uh, Leslie Tomkins. And, um, so she's going to keep an eye on them, make sure he's safe and sound healthy and then black and air will keep him, um, hidden away at Wildcat's gym. Uh, so while, um, during one of the meetings with Queen and the company, the other company, he gives the, uh, he gives the CEO of that company a talking to and, uh, and he leave all disgruntled and that little girl shows up. And he's like, what the hell are you doing up here? Like, like, the building is under construction. Like, it's not safe and, and she's up here and, uh, she, she's over at the edge of, of one of the, uh, there's no windows or anything like, it's a straight drop. So she's over there, like, basically just like dangling off the edge. And I, it's like, no, no, step away. You like don't, I don't want you too close to the edge. And,

54:19and she ends up kind of like flipping them around and throws him off the building. And, uh, and he's, he's, um, he is able to save himself, but, um, and, and the way it's explained Batman's narrating it and, and it's a solid, solid job. Um, so while he's falling, we now also cut back to the past where Praion shows up at Wildcat's gym so Ted can also train him how to fight. And, and you know, this is old because it's the old green arrow outfit before the Van Dyke in the old red gloves of red boots green tunic outfit. Uh, and, um, Praion as Batman, if he wants this back and he opens up his hand and it's one of Batman's trackers. And he's like, I, I short circled it because, you know, I didn't know, you know, I got my secrets. I can't have, you know, like, finding out about me. So, um, so, so, so Oliver Green arrow is like, what do you mean you tracked me? He's like, well,

55:22I tried to track him, but I also followed him, but I don't know where to help you disappear. So, I mean, this kid, Praion loses is able to, to, to, to shake Batman off his tail. Um, so the kids talented. And it's, uh, we find out as, as the story continues that there was this whole other, I'm a call it an organization. And basically, Praion was brainwashed and, and, uh, almost like he was activated, which is what's kind of going on with this little girl because she seems to be, not only did she try to kill green arrow throw him off a building when he ends up, um, saving himself and then Batman intervenes. She starts kicking Batman's ass. And I mean, Batman's like, like, this is like, you know, League of Assassins type trading and, and, um, and so, and, and she also seems to have this ability, uh, where, um, she can produce energy from her fingers and green arrow

56:32steps in, tries to take her out with an arrow before she can kill Batman. She catches the arrow. And he says, nice catch, but that's not going to help because it ended up, um, it, it, it, basically, it's a, it was a smoke bomb, which also, um, included like little nannit trackers, uh, which black and area was joking that that might not be too reliable because the last time you used the end of chasing a squirrel for like a half hour, uh, there's, um, we find out when the girl escapes, when, when she gets away from Batman and green arrow, she, um, she runs down into the sewer and she finds, um, she finds this door. And so she's knocking on the door only to find out the door opens and it's Dina and the whistleblower. So if this is, if her job, if, if her task, if her assignment is to terminate the whistleblower, well, they just, they, they literally open the door to make that happen. But as the story continues, you find out what's going on with what, what, what, really,

57:36what this little girl is all about, her relationship to pry on, we find out what happens to pry on. The, uh, when they joked about the, um, the name of the team, uh, was like flight squadron delta. Um, the, the joke was that, uh, even though it's delta because it, it's, it means there's four of them. Um, it could also imply that, uh, that there were three other flight squadrons. And this is the fourth best. And these guys just didn't make the cut. Uh, we also see that Bruce decided to give everybody uniforms that kind of, they even had their own logo. So you had an arrowhead, you had a canary tail, uh, you had the bat wing and, and you had the pry on's feathers. So like there was even, I mean, so everybody kind of like wore, uh, a team uniform for the four of them together. But

58:40as, but it just got me thinking about retcons because it's one of those, I mean, there have been, obviously, there have been thousands of Batman stories. So there are still stories that haven't been told. So having retcon coming up with a character that we've never seen before. I mean, yeah, that's, that's, that's shades of, of blue marvel of century, of, of jewel A.K. A Jessica Jones. So I mean, there's, you can, it can work, especially if it's just, you know, if it's, it's one thing, if you're going to come up with Jessica Jones and, and insert her into the Avengers. And then, you know, she has our whole life, it's a full-blown character beyond that. Here, I mean, this dude shows up in like six issues. We may see him again. They may decide to tell an old story with the character, but, um, but it was just, it was, I read this as basically a Batman tale featuring characters, because I mean, even in the 80s, there was a Batman special where they introduced the character called the Raith. And that was basically, it was a very,

59:43the Raith is very, for anybody who hasn't read the, the Michael Golden story that was collected a few years ago, actually, it's, I think they even tried to bring the character back, but there, his, his, his life started. He wasn't, he wasn't rich, so he was, he grew up in poverty, but his parents were also killed and, and, and he trained himself. He was almost like a darker version of Batman, but, uh, but again, it was just one of those, one of those stories where you just read it and, and one about your day. This is similar here. I, I dug the Prion character and, but there also seemed to be a lot more to his backstory with his organization that was behind who he was and the grandmother and, and the little girl. Uh, so there could be, you know, a larger story that, that, that Taylor me want to tell. Um, but I didn't, even the art, I mean, Jannins art is, is great, but even, I mean, woods was solid here. Um,

1:00:45I'm, I'm not too familiar with, but I wasn't, it, it worked for this particular story, because there's a lot of action, a lot of physicals, a lot of feet getting kicked. Um, a lot of feet be kicking, but there's it, I wasn't really sure at first as I was reading it. It, why you couldn't maybe tell this story with an established character, but it wouldn't have made sense, obviously, because of everything else that went on in the story. Um, but it was just one of those things where I'm just like, they don't, I don't, Reckhands are fun, or they can be, and they can work, or they can feel like you're just trying to invent something that, that didn't exist back then, and, and it's, it's clunky, and it doesn't move the story along. This was, this is fine because it was a standalone arc, and, and again, it's not like, you know, they inserted him into the Justice League, and, and we've read hundreds of issues of Justice League, and this character never appeared, but all of a sudden we're supposed to believe that, you know, he was with the team for 10 years, but, uh, uh, Prion obviously wasn't in their lives for a long time. Uh, so I

1:01:53think Taylor did a, a fine job of introducing this character, giving you, giving you a sense of loss with, or three main heroes, and, and what, what Prion meant to them. Um, and there's some closure also as, as, um, that, that they didn't have when he died. Um, so as they dig through and, and learn more about his past, and where he came from, and, and, and everything that was pulling, manipulating him, it all, it all made sense because Dynah was extremely guilty. Dynah felt, Dynah thought she had killed him, and, uh, and, and we find out that may have, uh, they may have not, may not have been the case. So, um, all in all, it was a, it was a pretty entertaining tale, but it was, yeah, I just, I haven't read a, um, hadn't read a tale of story in a minute, and, and I know that, uh, I've, I've got those night wings to read, but, um, I gave this a shot, and I, I'm, I'm glad I did. It was, it looks great.

1:02:55It gave us a new character that, uh, I don't know if we'll ever see again, but, um, I also got a massive kick out of just seeing a relationship between, between this trio, um, especially between Bruce and Oli, but, but the three of them together, um, do great work, and, and, uh, I just, I, I, love their relationship they all have with each other separately and, and, and as a team, um, and I think Taylor has a good handle. I mean, obviously, you can write Batman, but I think, um, I thought his, uh, his green arrow, and his black canary, but his, but his green arrow, especially, was, uh, was on point. So, um, I don't know if Oli's an easy character to write. I don't think every character, I don't think every writer can handle Err, Err, has a strong handle on him because he can, he's snarky, he's, uh, he's a wiseass, he's, um, he's, he can have a sense of entitlement because of where he is or where he came from, but, um, but he is of all the heroes of all the

1:03:58account book characters I tend to, um, I lean toward, or I, I, I, I, I, I, I glum onto, um, it's the ones who actually kind of, um, care about the, the street level people and, and those who, whose actions that, that their actions may actually affect the people on the street. They're not, it's not the, uh, it's not the Iron Man's, it's not the Tony Stark's, it's not the, it's not the Mr. Fantastic's, it's not, it's, it's the Daredevil's, it's the Green Arrow's, it's the Spider-Man's, that those are the ones that, uh, that I tend to appreciate more because they are, they know what it's like to, to be struggling to, to, to come up from, this, start from the bottom. So yeah, it, but this was, yeah, the Tecte of Connick's, I thought Flight was a, uh, it was a pretty solid story. I, I know I rambled and went off her bit there, but yeah, and this was, uh, this was good stuff. Nice. I feel like a lot of the slackers have been big enough, detective. Good. Seems that way. Um, well, I have a Darcy Polgisto Rama,

1:05:07hmm, which also makes it two weeks in a row. We're talking about Dark Darcy. Yes. Um, yeah. Um, he's a hell of a writer, you know, he's a super creative dude, um, filmmaker, first and foremost, filmmaker turned comic writer with, of course, uh, the little bird and, um, uh, precious metal. Yeah, precious metal, thank you. Um, and first, because I don't have a ton to say about it, because we just got the first issue, but, um, we got the Carmen Bleat number one, which is the third in the ongoing collective of Darcy writing with the incomparable Ian Bertram on art. Ian, friend of the show, we had him on the show to talk about, uh, their prior collaborations, and we see him usually once a year at the, uh, near Comic Con dinner. Um, incredible artist, just, just like, like, definitely, and we, I think we probably told him this one, he's on the show. Um, definitely born in the wrong era. Like, like, should have been sitting in a chateau in France,

1:06:12you know, uh, you know, at a desk to the right of, of, of Mobius, just like chopping it up, right? Like, just, just the, you know, work that is so lush and, and, and, and, and detailed, uh, and, and, that's depth that it just, it, it, it, his art is so amazing that it kind of makes me mad because it's like, you see how much he cares about this, this art form, and then you open up 20 other comics and you're like, you know, like, like, yeah, that's, like, it's so good. It's like, it, it gets me angry because it's like, it, it reminds us of like, what this, did this medium can be when, when you have people who really are great and care. Um, but that's a side. Um, this is not, I assumed mistakenly, um, in pre-ordering this kind of just on the strength of the two gentlemen, involved that this was going to be another continuation of the, uh, birdverse, the little birdverse. Um, as far as I can tell it is not, now it might be, I guess, possible because we've only got the

1:07:15first issue, but I, I don't get the sense that it is. I get a sense it's a completely new world of fantasy realm. Um, and it's a, it is a very Von Polgist fantastical take on a very familiar concept, which is uh, our protagonist is a downtrodden young man who for some reason, we can't be, let the, let the learn maybe we never will, uh, is essentially, um, and enslaved, you know, surf kind of person is, you know, not much of a future lot in life. Um, and he is, uh, very much questing for a sword, uh, the common blade, a sword that is imbued in such a way that it would allow him to kill gods, which I am taking to presume would be the overlords that are, uh, the, the, the royal, the royal despots of this, of this story. Um, and for most of the first issue, we see him going from his

1:08:15downtrodden, farm and post-apocalyptic setting to being put into a cage and carried by these fantastical creatures, like kind of like dark, elvilic, and creatures, along with hundreds of other slaves and then him going into a dream state, or he pictures, you know, communicating with the spirit guys who kind of control the sword and trying to get the sword, etc, etc. Um, as you and I were discussing before we started recording, um, this is a story, uh, the first issue where the art is astounding, uh, and it, and it absolutely sucked me and captivated me. But I would be disingenuous till our beloved listener, uh, that I have a full grasp of the narrative, uh, at this first issue. Um, it is very, very, I think by design, um, more questions and answers, um, it just kind of plops us into this world with this fantastical situation and this incredibly lush, um, low five fantasy landscape that Bertram has created from his, his mind and his pencil and pen and brushes.

1:09:18Um, but, oh, I mean, I have faith. I have faith because the, the prior collaborations of masterpieces and, um, and I, I think this, what I did gather from the story is a story that is a tale is all the time and, and I suspect, uh, the joy will be in the, the, the ride and seeing the, the kinds of things that Bertram can create to emphasize the villains, the, the narrative wells that, that this gentleman with the carbon blade is, is seeking to vanquish. So great start, um, very much recommended, come along for the ride. It'll, it'll be a wild one for sure. Um, now the other von Pohlgeist, uh, to make this an O'Rama is also from image, uh, this month, but it is a, uh, original graphic novel hardcover, which, um, image is not all that often doing, but it's called the cutting garden. And as I was reading this, I thought, well, this is a book I got to get in the hands of our boy, because, uh, it's written by von Pohlgeist with art by Aaron Connolly. And this

1:10:25is Aaron's debut, this is her debut in comics. And it is, it is watercolor painted watercolor. Oh, yeah, I love that. Yeah. Oh, he's, yeah, I was literally, I'm like, oh my god, this, this art is, this is close to type R right here. Um, it's, um, it, I believe it's, let me, oh, just, so I don't miss quote, I believe it is, it is a, it's built on the book as a horror story. Um, a gorgeously rendered meditation and companionship family and sacrifice category. Or, um, I would say it's a horror story in the loosest sense. Um, it takes place in the 1930s in New Orleans. Um, a young, well, I don't know if she's that young. It's hard to say, because it's watercolor, but, but a woman is, is a florist. She's working on a bouquet, um, for a funeral. And she is, um, met by a, a young woman. I would say like pre-pubescent, like maybe like tweens,

1:11:30young woman named Adele. Um, and it's clear that, uh, there's something about Adele. She looks very ethereal, um, super pale, super bright eyes, very, very pale blonde hair. It looks almost like elfish, I guess, you know, in a way, way fish. Um, and, and then we're kind of flashed back to another time and we begin learning about Adele's story and then her meeting, um, a disillusioned jazz singer named Joesette, uh, and, and their friendship slash, I say friendship, it's, it's sort of friendship. It's maybe a little more, although you can't explicit there. Um, but they do end up becoming partners in life. Again, not like sexually or romantically, but like just like, you know, they, they begin traveling together, they, they, they into a home and renovated together and is going to live together. Um, and we just learn more and more about Adele and her history

1:12:33and how she came to be in New Orleans with this new woman, this florist and, um, listen, you know, if you've read as many vampire stories as I have, like this book felt instantly familiar, right? It's like, oh, I get it. Like this girl is probably a, she's undead because even like in the very beginning, it's something, there's a line to the effect of like, oh, but you invited, you know, type of thing. I'm like, okay. So she's like, she's a vampire. Um, and, and it's, it's all very familiar in that regard. Um, you know, I, I, I, I've read hundreds of, you know, vampire books and comics and, and seen, you know, it's just, as you know, it's one of my kinks. So I, so it's just, I was like, okay, well, like, okay, I've been here. Um, so it felt very like, uh, what's, I don't want to, how I was going to say where it was going to come off as insulting. It felt, familiar. That's the word I'll say. It felt familiar. Um, and then it takes its journey and, and interestingly, um, I guess the most fascinating decision that they make is that we never really,

1:13:39in any way are told explicitly that a deal is a vampire. But she doesn't seem to age. She's been around for a lot longer than 11 years. Uh, and mysteriously people around her keep disappearing and dying. So, so, I mean, you know, again, but they don't really ever show her doing vampiric things. They don't show her with fangs. They don't say the word vampire. So it's, it's, it's a choice. I think one that they certainly consciously made, but it's an odd one to me, maybe because I'm just just marked from empires, in the sense that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, duck, and I don't quite understand the, how, how obscuring the acknowledgement of that fact of it being a duck makes it any more interesting, you know, like, I don't, like, I, I, I, I guess they think it does. I'm not sure I would agree. Um, I would say the strength of this book for me was Connolly, uh, and it's a one hell of a debut. Uh, I think the ethereal nature of watercolor is

1:14:40perfect for this kind of story, which in and of itself is it's supposed to be ethereal and nebulous and sort of in the shadows, um, almost like we're eavesdropping on this versus being pointedly narrated the story. Um, so, you know, it, it has the same kind of themes that you would expect of a, of a, of a partnership like this, I think it deals with issues of intimacy and, and loneliness and, and, uh, longevity of relationships and, and, and, and, and, you know, all themes, I think we can all identify in some way or another. Um, I would say of all the things I've read of Darcy, um, inclusive of, uh, of our discussion last week, I, I think this is the, uh, the least compelling for me. Um, just because I felt like everything I've read by Vampolgeist is super creative and there's aspects to it that I've never read before and it makes you think, oh, well, I mean,

1:15:41no one else would have come up with this idea, right? Like that's kind of his, his, his, at least his lot in life as I see it. This felt very familiar in all fronts, you know, it just, it doesn't feel like there was anything new here. Um, it just felt like maybe he had this story in his back pocket and he wanted to tell it and he found a really beautiful painter, uh, to, to help tell the story. So, no shame at all in that, um, like I said, the books are the loan makes it worth a while, um, and it's a beautiful hardcover, well packaged. So, uh, I still recommend it if you're into that kind of thing, but I would say that even though I think it's ultimately a vampire story, I'm going to recommend it to people who prefer or who like ghost stories. This felt a lot more like a ghost story to me because of the way that they treat the subject matter and the way that they kind of, um, don't show the over-harrr, horror of being a vampire and what a vampire can do. So, so, uh, so a thumb up for, I guess, the most ghost-like vampire story I've ever read. The cutting garden.

1:16:43Okay. The fun pool geese me once. Shame on me. Fun pool geese to me twice. Or the other way around. Fun pool geese me once. Shame on you. Fun pool geese me twice. Shame on me. Unless the intro is long for the right. Yeah. Um, the, the, the, uh, the, the, uh, the Carmen blade, uh, uh, you did, uh, you did better justice than I could. I, it, it's, I mean, it is, it's, it's, it's a gorgeous book. I loved the look of Little Bird, loved the look of precious metal. And, and to your point, um, when precious metal was coming out, it, um, it, it did say on the cover from the world of Little Bird and, and Carmen blade does not have such a, uh, a, a, a, a branding on it. So, um, I, I do not think, and we can find out if that changes later, but I do not think it's part

1:17:50of that world. Um, yeah, I agree. Yeah. But it, it's, it, it is, it, I guess we were talking about before we had record. And it was, um, it, it, uh, yeah, I, I, there's not going to my head. I wouldn't be able to tell you what, what, what this first thing is about. I can tell you how beautiful it is. And, and how Ian draws an amazing double page spread of some body being ripped open. And, uh, and just I, it's the work he does with, with a pencil is I, I can't, from his mind, all the way down, it was fingers to what ends up on the page like how, how that can be, how it goes from one, one to the other. Are you able to convert the images in your head and, and just, I mean, you've got people in cages and, and, and the cage like morphs to their

1:18:50body. And it's just, it's, it's, I mean, it's just visually, that's just super appealing and interesting to me. And I, I, I can't take my eyes off that panel. I don't know, I don't necessarily know what it means yet, but it just, it, it's fascinating to look at. And, uh, and yeah, it is, um, of all the things that, uh, that do this little podcast of, of all the memories that I can hold on to and, and, and claim and be thankful for because of this little show is, um, is, is, yes, I mean, Felix is kind of enough to, to invite us to the dinners, but, but that, that one year when I had Ian to my right and, and we were talking about his work and, uh, and, and, and he was teasing us with, with preview pages of upcoming work. Um, that we couldn't say anything about until the series was actually coming out. It's, yeah, I, I, uh, I'm a sucker for anything Ian wants to draw.

1:19:55If I don't understand it, that's okay because I can just look at the pages, but yeah, I will be rereading. I don't know if I'll reread it again now or if I'll wait until the second issue comes out and then, and then read them back, back and, and, and see if, uh, things stick or click at that point, but, but as far as the first issue goes, there's, there were, there were questions and, um, but not the kind of questions that made me throw the copy of cars to paper across the room and, and say I'm out, I, I, I want to know more. So, um, they, did their job of getting me hooked because I, I got to figure out what the hell, where we're going with this and, and, and what it all means. So yeah, uh, more goodness from, from, from Darcy and Ian and, and, uh, and Madhalling's work on colors for that, but, uh, yeah, it's, um, I, I, I can't wait to see where we go from here. Uh, what else we got? Well, we did, um,

1:20:56this is, it's, I mean, I'm, I'm okay with it because of the story that's, that, that they're telling, uh, and I know if we, we're not even at the halfway market, but I wonder if, because it's been a minute since we've gotten anything, from the world of 100 bullets, if this story is, is moving slower than previous, arcs from, from this, from this series, from 100 bullets. Uh, the third issue, um, it's, uh, I mean, the things happened. It did, we, we got a few more things than, than, than just, you know, loop decking, Lano, but, uh, I was happy about, um, some shock jocks, but the, uh, there, there was 100 bullets, the US of anger, number three, um, by Brian

1:21:56Ezrallo and uh, Horde Orizo, um, the, it's, it's pretty much immediately after the funeral, loop is back home. His ex is, uh, is, is leaving again. Now that, uh, there, there, there's, there's sun is in the ground, but, um, but we get quite a bit of, um, Lano interacting with, with the racist, with the bigots, um, and, uh, and, and while he's mixing it up with the local Yokels, um, his, uh, his sidekick is back at the hotel with the, um, with the officer that they, uh, they kidnapped. But yeah, there's, uh, this is, I, I felt like this issue was one of those were, it, and it could be said pretty much any issue, but this, this one just made me feel like they are, they're setting things up now, so, so we can get the, we can get the ball rolling and, and we're, we're, we're leading to something now.

1:23:06I mean, the first issue was great to get you, reactivated to, to, to this world more or less, uh, the second issue was quiet, and, and, basically, it had to be because of the, uh, what was going on in that issue, what we were being shown, but, but this one, I think we're finally, uh, as, as I'm flipping through the pages, I, I think we're, we're starting to, to get to that point where now, now we know why we're here. Now we know we're reading this every month, then, and now we know why, why, um, why Brian and, uh, and, uh, and where I wanted to come back and, until the story. So that, that's what I'm hoping that once, that it got to the end of this issue, that, uh, the number four will, um, will, have me sit down and, and go, yeah, this is, this is what I love about 100 bullets. This is why I'm here again. Um, I thank you for trying to be nice and not say you didn't like the book.

1:24:12I appreciate that. You're allowed to say you didn't like that. It's okay. Um, because I like it for enough for both of us. All right. I like what that's okay. I think that was the case of bourbon. That was great. The whiskey. Well, now that it's seen out, this is a case of where I think the, the, the whiskey was a huge fun easter egg because it's called Rowanoke whiskey. And, and Rowanoke whiskey is a direct homage to the trust. And I, I mean, I suspected that, that after we saw Lono taking phone call from his, his bosses in that beautiful, uh, like, for modern, modern home, um, that it was, it was the trust, which of course was disbanded. Uh, at the end of 100 bullets, it looks like the trust never really, trust never dies. And ultimately, in this, we get the two white supremacists.

1:25:14Two white supremacist podcasters who are excited because they have a, a case of new whiskey delivered to them from a perspective new advertiser to Rowanoke whiskey. Rowanoke, of course, was the word which which unlocked all of the minute men who had their memories wiped when they heard the word Rowanoke. It's like a sleeper agent and triggered them back to their actual minute men identities. Um, so all tied back together very nicely. And, um, I, I thought it was incredible. I thought seeing these podcasters and before they go on air talking about how much money there is to be made and tying in these conspiracy theories together because they're getting great views and clicks. It's just evocative of the word we live in and literally the, the way that media works now or what media is all about analytics and engagement and clicks and views and it's not really about the truth or it's just about what works in the moment. And, um, yeah, that's not a condemnation of it. People got to, that's just the reality of it. Um, and I love that they were sitting there talking about it and basically expressing that like it's not even really believers in a shit that they speak about, but it makes them money. So they spit the bullshit.

1:26:28And, um, and it's a way to me. That's even worse. You know, I mean, it's just one thing to have your heart full of hate. It's another thing to have your heart full of just want to profit and be willing to propagate hate just so that you can profit. Um, yeah. So, yeah. Um, this is, um, you know, we see more of Lono in, in, and I love that he's, I mean, Lono was such a force of nature in a hundred bullets. And I've said before he was not my favorite character. Um, I thought he was, nor was he designed to be. Um, but he was good or bad or different about the character. He was just an absolute almost like primal force. I mean, he was just unbelievably strong and violent and aggressive and effectively like a heat seeking missile that couldn't be stopped just a heat seeking risk of attack or key. Um, and so it's interesting because now as he's older, um, he is a little more nuanced. He's, he's still a big dude physically, but he's nowhere near is hulking. He used to be just like the rocket that near going on 60 can't be as big as he used. And right, he's, you can't like your body doesn't allow for it.

1:27:35So he's still I'm sure he's still a tough motherfucker. I'm sure he's still highly lethal. But like he slowed down, right? and he needs a little more help. The memory is not as sharp as he needs to be. So I very much like that. I said this, I think we talked about number two. I mean, loop isn't really interesting character from the original series because so much of his narrative was about disavowing the opportunity to be a part of the Minutemen and the broader battle between the Minutemen as being, you know, were forever the arm of the trust and then obviously in much of the hundred bullets series about them rebelling against that and whether they're able to ultimately walk away or not. So, you know, I think, and then loop was really not really interested in that life, at least he was reluctant in his involvement. And he paid the price for it by then basically sending him to prison, right? And having a lino tour, try and get him to come around and backfired on them.

1:28:35So it's just fascinating to me to see him where he is now. You know, we haven't seen much from an action standpoint with him other than the sun's been killed. But clearly everything is setting up and where it's gonna be him and his presuming gang of drug, of drug pushers that he's now, the sort of kingpin of in his area, are going to be up against a bunch of white neo-nazis who I think I'm guessing somehow or another, the untimely demise of said POSCAT podcasters is going to be blamed or put on loop in his crew, like it's clearly showing up to be a very carefully manufactured race war. Yeah, I just feel the tension, man. In terms of, does it going slower? I don't think it is. I think it's an eight issue series. I think a number of the 100 bullets arcs were seven or eight issues. So I don't see it as necessarily slow moving in that regard.

1:29:37I think probably the thing that surprises me the most and maybe it's smart is that it's more of an intimate story so far. It's, we really haven't. That's a better word, yeah. Yeah, well, I mean, like we haven't, like we haven't really seen, it seems like three issues in that the characters that we've met are the characters involved. Now that obviously we could get some sprawl from here, but for now it's pretty much the same people that got embroiled in all the shit that went down. And if you won are the ones that we're still seeing and hearing and reading. So I would have, I guess if I had gone into this, I would have expected the first few issues each to introduce different groups of characters and why it kind of widened the net, but that's not how it's played out. So which is not a her or another. I just did, but it does feel a little more intimate than I expected. But yeah, man, I am obviously I'm an easy mark here. I'm really enjoying it. I think it looks beautiful. I don't miss the color at all.

1:30:37Even though the original was colored. So yeah, I'm here for it. I, you know, there are characters I would love to see get involved. And that's just like, that's just like wish casting. So I don't have any reason to think they will. It won't be there, but I was, I was not a fan of Brother Lono, the series that they did after. So I was, I was gonna ask if, cause I love it. It's a Lono centric. And so, but I don't mind Lono here in the sense that it's very much Lono operating as a agent for the trust. So, okay, like I want the conspiracy, you know, like I want the Medici's, I want, like I want that. So as long as we get some of that, then yeah, bet. So I was gonna ask if this, if, to use since you have read

1:31:38Brother Lono, if this felt more like a sequel to that, if this was a Lono story or if this feels like a one. No, and even as a role made the point of saying, when marketing this, when they announced it, that this wasn't gonna be a Lono book. I mean, in the sense that it wasn't gonna be just about Lono. Brother Lono is just a story about Lono after all of the craziness of 100 bullets, just kind of ranking havoc with no real purpose other than his own wants and needs. You know, that's why I say like this is much more of like Lono has been in some way, shape or form brought back into the fold of whatever the trust is, and is operating as their agent again, which is how all the men at Men Were at the start of the original series. So I'm guessing given that we're three issues in the eight, we probably won't get much in the way of how he came back into the fold, but certainly, certainly that is it. They big change from obviously how the series ended, where none of them were in the fold, because they blew up the trust, blew it up, metaphorically not literally, but yeah.

1:32:41So I'm here for a man like, again, I mean, but again, I'm gonna, I'm full, I mean, I'm a, you know, me glazing 100 bullets is like, you know, you glazing Calais, like it's, we don't, it doesn't take a lot. 11, you're right. Like I got it like I, I mean, I like, yeah, you know, I'm, it's gonna be hard for me to not come away smiling from this book, meet back. So, you know, no lies detected. Yeah. This week, well, yeah, actually this week, this week, two days ago, when we recorded this, Star Trek turned 60 years old. And, yeah, I meant to, I meant to mention that, to you, to say that's a pretty cool man, 16 years, it's the kind of nuts. Yes. And, hell, I remember when we were living in the old place and BBC America was playing a lot of the various Star Trek series.

1:33:43And it was a big deal because it coincided with their 50th anniversary. So here we are 10 years later. We are, we're, we've gotten some more Star Trek series X-Termine Plus and, and, you know, so it still lives. And while I may not, this current season of Strange New Worlds, there have been, there have been some, some solid episodes. Not everyone has slapped. So I, I, I'm hoping that they're just shaking off whatever they need to shake off. I'm, you know, hoping the rest of the season, we'll get some bangers. It'll, it'll, it'll, love a solid conclusion for this season, but that the final season next year, it's, it's, it's all gas, no break.

1:34:44So, but that said, this week, IDW published the Star Trek 60th anniversary special to one shot. And, and yeah, it's, it's an anthology. We love anthologies. And it's got a, a bang and creative team on some of these stories. And, and, and I love me some anthologies, especially if, if the subject matter is Trek. And, and so the, the stories here, they're from the various spin-offs of, of the Star Trek series. We, we've gotten in the 60 years. We've got, so we've got Escape from the Planet of Mud written by David Gerald with art by J.P. Boozeo, colors by Christine Franzen. And this is an original series era story. Although the Harry Mud drawn here looks more like the Ryan Wilson version from Discovery, the first couple seasons of Discovery,

1:35:48then the older gentleman who played Harry Mud in the 60s. But there we have a, then we have the Engineers, the Lemma, which is written by Dana Gould, art by Megan Levens, colors by Charlie Kirchoff. That's a story by Scott featuring Scotty. And while I, Spock may be my dude from the original series, especially in my day to day life, especially at work, Montgomery Scott's pretty much my spirit animal. You know, under promise of a liver do that, you know, that's what I, his work ethic pretty much. And this version, this, this season of Strange New Worlds, we've seen the, the young man who is poor trained, Scotty, on the series. Quinty, we're watching him grow from that,

1:36:55not quite still a cadet who's on a ship with one of his teachers, but we're seeing him grow into that confident engineer that we see James Doohan portray. Well, in the past, but down the line. So, so the Scotty story, it was also reminiscent of one of the annuals that DC published in the 80s, where it was a Scotty story and about the love of his life and how, from when he, he was on the Enterprise during the five year mission and then going into the motion picture era and the, and the, and the, the, the, the, the, the incident or the cadet that he had lost during the, during what went con attack the Enterprise. Then you also have a story called Sulu, which is written by Brian Michael Bendis

1:37:56with art and colors by Michael Gados. And this was, this was a story of just Sulu kick an ass, shirtless reminiscent of when he was running around with the, with, with, with the, the, the, the fencing foil, throughout the decks on, on, on that particular episode because you can, you can see him, shirtless sweating, running around with a little foil and, and he, here he was taking on a bunch of invaders on the Enterprise. Pretty much saving the day and, and, and, and at the end, Kirk tells him, you know, I owe you one, let me know, whenever you need anything, I got your back and, and Sulu's like, well, you can make me captain and, and Kirk is like, I think you just did that for yourself. So, that was a cute story. The Sess Quippadellian Gambit, I miss pronounced the hell out of that. That's written by Ryan North, art and colors by Derek Charm.

1:38:58That is an animated series tale, which was cute, but what was great about it is that even though it's, it's the Trinity, Kirk Spock and McCoy have beamed over to this ship that looks like it's pieced together from other ships. The, the aliens that they're facing are none other than the aliens that kidnapped Jordy. They are the, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, the packlets and those were the, basically, they were just, they, they were scavengers. They, they were the ones, and they are not intelligent. They're not very smart at all. They, they, you know, they think they're strong. They think they're smart, but, you know, they, they, they flick the wrong switch on their bridge and they're going to blow themselves up. So, they, the fact that, the fact that a race we see for the first and only time in the next

1:39:59generation, Kirk actually came across on the animated series. And at the end of the episode, at the end of this story, when, when, when they read the captain's log about this, this event, Riker says, so wait, you're telling me that, that, that Kirk just let them go. He logged the first contact with them and that was it. And, and now they've kidnapped our chief engineer. So this is happening during that Jority story. So while they were trying to figure out how to, how to rescue Jority from the packlets, Riker went and seized this captain's log entry from Kirk and, and he's like, I swear to God, if I ever get my hands on that man. And so you see Riker drawn in the style of that old filmation TV cartoon and, and, and, and so, so that was fun. The other stories include a bright new future written by Dave Baker, Art and Colors by Nicole Gow. And, and that is a story that takes place at the beginning of,

1:41:07not generations, maybe is it insurrection? No, the last next generation movie when Riker and Troy are married. And it's taking place at that moment when, when Picard is giving his speech and, and, and data is serenading. The newlyweds, we, we cut to, while all that's going on, we cut to Jean-Luc and Beverly sharing a nice moment together, dancing, talking about how they've known each other for so long and, and how they've grown closer and how they'd like to go grow, grow even closer. So it's kind of a bridge between the next generation movies and leading up to, well, well, leading up to the events that we find out happens during the Picard seasons when, when Jean-Luc and Beverly were actually together. And then there's the peaceful Klingon, which is written by David Walker,

1:42:09with art by the, it's course of brothers and, and that is a story of, of warf being adopted following the events of, of Kittimer, where his parents were killed, his parents died. And he was adopted by, by his, his human family, his human parents. And, and so it's, it's, he, he was angry because, you know, he's Klingon. And he's our humans. And what are they know about being in Klingon? And, and, and how are they going to raise a Klingon? I'm supposed to be a warrior and, and, and, you know, I'm supposed to die with honor and have this great upbringing and, and, and, but if, if I have parents who don't understand the ways of that, what's going to happen to me in the future? So that, the, the, the flips the tables. And so they were telling him stories that they thought were basically Klingon, Klingon lore. Um, they were kind of going at it from the wrong angle.

1:43:10And, and so warf was telling the stories and, and he was explaining to them what it means to be a Klingon. So he was teaching them and, and, and it was, it was, it was, it was a nice story. I thought walking to a great job with that. There's a search for season six written by Mike McMan with art, beautiful art by Mike Allred and of course colors by Laura Allred. That is a, um, that's a lower decks story. And, and, and they're talking about, and there's great, there's some funny sight gags. It's a funny little story about the, about the new captain on the ship. And, and what he, what he expects of his crew and how he, how he's making people go crazy, for example, Boimler can only concentrate when he's sitting down. So whenever he's having a meeting with the captain, the captain wants to have the meeting at the gym. So the Boimler is just like doing leg presses and, and so like he's got massive thighs. Now he's just, he's, he's, he's stacked from the waist down.

1:44:12Um, and, and, and Mariner was basically narrating that tale and it was, it, it, it, it, felt just like an episode of, of the cartoon. It was great. There's the, uh, where the map runs out, which is written by Megan, come, Marina, art by Marie Rollin and, uh, colors by JP Jordan. That is a, um, that's a story based on the Starfleet Academy. So it's a story featuring Genesis and she's talking to a fellow classmate, um, a, a, a, a, a book. Who is a Vulcan? And they're basically discussing, um, a, a, a book that, uh, that they were reading and, and she was, she was looking at it basically from emotion and of course being a Vulcan. He's, he's explaining things logically and, and, um, and sometimes there's an intersection and sometimes, you know, they're just, they're completely worlds apart. But you, um, you see Sam, you see the doctor, they, they, they throw a couple of other

1:45:16characters in there. There's a search for Archer, which is a story that takes place during the enterprise era. That, that's just a one page story. Uh, that's written and, uh, drawn by Chris Srenoglio and, uh, and then we have a, um, a story called Manifest Destiny written by Christopher Kent. Well, art, I love this art. I need to find out more about Isaac Sanchez and colors by Igor Monti. Um, I wasn't really sure what the hell this story was about at first because, uh, we're, we're, we're met with a, uh, a Betozoid who's basically kind of locked himself in the airlock, um, because he's just, he's, there's just too much going on in his mind and he's, he's just sensory overload. Um, and he's talking through his, uh, he, he's talking to his captain, Argus, uh, who's a Vulcan, uh, near the side of the airlock.

1:46:17Um, and there's also, uh, Picard is involved in this story. So I'm like, okay, so it's a Picard spin off, but you get to the last page and it's, it's, it's sort of kind of a setup. It says to be continued in, in Star Trek number one. So that's the new series coming out at the end of this month. Uh, so it's basically kind of just like a, a pretty little, though it's not illustrated by the same artist and then there's a couple of preview pages of the new Star Trek series at the back of this book. But, um, I, I had a lot of fun with this. I, there are times where, you know, some of the IDW Star Trek stories are not, not really feeling them. And, and a lot of times they'll, they'll do an anthology and the creative teams aren't always, uh, aren't always clicking. And, and they may be having fun. They may respect the prod, they may restrict the properties. They, they, they may have grown up on the franchise and, um, want to treat the, the, the work and the characters at respect, but what either,

1:47:21either the, it just doesn't sound right or the, just the, the art isn't really, doesn't really match what they're trying to do. Uh, but this one, this was pretty damn successful. Um, I am not, I'm not upset about this one at all. I thought, uh, I mean, you know, to see, to see Bendis writing a Star Trek tale. They got David Walker on here as well. I mean, there are, there are some people who know what they're doing and, uh, and, and a lot of the illustrations are pretty slamming as well. The, um, the one from Starfleet Academy by, uh, Rollin, Marie Rollin. I like the art, but it wasn't the likenesses, some of the likenesses were a little off. Uh, some of the perspective might not have, um, just not quite there, but overall for an anthology, the amount of stories in here. Uh, and for the creative teams, um, yeah, I, I, I, I, I, I met at this one. This was, uh, this was, this was a fun, this was a fun outing. If, uh, you know, 60 years old and, and you're going to time it come out this same week

1:48:25as that birthday, as that anniversary, then, uh, you're doing it right. I think, um, I think a lot of the, even the colors on, on, um, the, the story with, uh, Picard and, uh, and, and Crusher as they're dancing at the wedding. Um, it was primarily a, uh, a black and white tale with, uh, although instead of mostly black, it's, it's a lot of blue, a lot of blue who use some, uh, some pale gold. Um, but it was, it's, it was a, uh, it was a nice story. But no, all of them, I want to say all of them. I, I enjoyed, I did enjoy all of them and some do some more than others, but I mean, as far as telling stories on a variety of Star Trek spin offs, this was, um, this was a solid attempt and, and a lot of the, uh, a lot of the stories, a lot of stories hit the mark. So, um, great creative team, some great, uh, some really great stories and a preview of the upcoming

1:49:30Star Trek book that I'm really looking forward to. Um, yeah, I thought, uh, that it was a home run. I'm really happy with it. Look at you reading home run Star Wars comics. Star Trek comic book. Brilliant slip there. Brilliant slip. Oh, good. Well, I'm going to take you in a completely different direction. Okay. From, from space to final frontier, uh, to good old, uh, here on the ground earth animals. Um, so credit to, um, fanographics getting it done yet again. I know. I see. Uh, when I had this, when I had this, when I saw this on the list last week of, of new releases, I'm like, I know I have a feeling Jason's going to read this. Yeah, for sure. Um, it's, it's interesting. It's from their fan, uh, fanographics underground, uh, imprint. And I'm not quite sure why, um, I don't, like, I don't know exactly like what,

1:50:32why some things get, get the underground versus not. I, I was under the impression when they launched that line that it was more of, uh, uh, transgressive sort of stuff, the stuff that would have little commercial appeal. Um, but, but this doesn't really fit into that. I mean, it, this is as tame as it can be. So I don't know. Um, but that's a, that's a question for another day if I ever get to talk to the panorax people. But the book in question is grifters, floaters, and punks, a reimagined field guide for the 50 state birds. It's exactly what it sounds like. It is, uh, it is, uh, created by Keith Bendis, not to be confused with Brian Michael. I assumed a relation as well. Although you never know, maybe they're cousins who knows. Um, Keith Bendis is a name that, um, maybe doesn't, uh, uh, shoot off, um, you know, familiar, uh, cadence is for comic book readers, but, but he is a, uh,

1:51:32incredibly accomplished, renowned, um, illustrator. He has been, uh, basically one of the country's foremost editorial cartoonists, uh, for decades. Um, he's been, he's been doing editorial cartoonies since 1975. He's an old pit, for sure. Uh, the New Yorker, uh, sports illustrated Forbes, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Vanity Fair. He's pretty much been working nonstop ever since. So he's been, he's been doing editor of cartoons for 50 years. Um, but, uh, but he's also been known to, uh, to do graphic novelery now and then, and, and this is something that was up his alley. What it is is effectively, he starts the premise by talking about James Audubon and how, uh, back in the 1800s, Audubon, of course, did 435 watercolor plates of all the birds of America. And that, that, that became, birds of America became pretty much the go to book for, uh, for bird study,

1:52:33for 200 years. Um, and Audubon to this day is, you know, considered the, the, uh, both the pioneer and the best ever to it. Now, now, as we've learned more about the man and his life in the over the last two centuries, he wasn't, doesn't seem to be a very good, good person. But, uh, but that being said, that doesn't, I think, change the mark he made in terms of, um, being an atrist and, and, uh, uh, and establishing the value of that, um, that profession. So, bendis, um, says all apologies to Audubon, but he thought it would be fun to, uh, he had realized one day that the, um, that the, the US, the 50 state birds are really un, un, inspiring because in a world where there are hundreds of different bird species, like, there's like 10 different birds that are like the state birds. He said, like, one states, there's seven different states that have the cardinal as their state bird. And he was like, that's just really boring. So bendis decided to make a graphic novel in the style of the Audubon

1:53:34birds of America. So kind of like an old hot moof of birds. So that's, you know, that's what I was into it. Um, but each, each page is effectively, well, each two pages is effectively an introduction of bendis's state bird for each state. Um, now to be clear, these are made up birds. This is not like him just picking a cool bird saying this is why it should be the state bird. Um, these, this is his, this is more editorial cartooning. This is more humor or, uh, you know, then, then, then reality. Um, and, uh, yeah. And that's exactly what it is. So the page on the left is the name of the bird and a little, a little written blurb about the blurb bird and then the page on the right is the illustration of said bird. So, uh, I'll give you our, our two beloved states. There's the brown bill New Jersey and Michuguna. In late March, the Michuguna mating ritual takes place when the males of the species hang upside down beneath the patient female. The one who hangs the longest usually gets the girl. It seems rather dumb, but never underestimate

1:54:35a horny. And then New York, the orange beaked New York window sills found almost exclusively on the upper east side of Manhattan, usually congregating in flocks on the window sills of large apartment buildings on Madison and Lexington Avenue's. These rather large hunkers are easily spotted with their hunter green heads at dumpsters near any of the many restaurants in the vicinity. Their call is allowed, repeated siren mimicking the car alarms along park Avenue. So you get the drift. I will say I love the idea of this. I think the illustrations are fun. I'm pleased that this exists, but, uh, you know, I wouldn't say it's very funny. Like for a book that's attempting to be funny, I didn't find it to be particularly funny. I think those two I just read are illustrative of what I mean. They're, they're, he plays it really straight. Like there's not like, there's not an all-rated vibe here. There's not much satire here. It's, you know, I would say that the, uh, the Med magazine

1:55:40grates would probably be like rolling around in their graves, you know, at the idea of this. Like it could have been much funnier. Not to say he was attempting for it to be much funnier. I guess I was assuming it was going to be, um, than it is. Um, but like I said, a beautiful package. Uh, certainly the effort is there. The, the idea I think is wonderful. But, um, but I don't think you should go into this expecting to be busting a gut. This is more like, oh, this is cute. Then, uh, oh man, that was funny. So, you know what I mean? So, yeah, it is what it is. Um, but, uh, I'm going to bring this actually down to Florida in November and, uh, get handed off my dad and see if he, this might tickle him pink for all of them because obviously his, his obsession with words. So we'll see. But, uh, yeah. So, um, I would call this a mild win, but, but definitely not, not a ripro, not a riproaring, uh, romp of a hilarious time. Rifters, floaters, and punks. I was surprised that, uh, regardless of the imprint, I was a little surprised it was a

1:56:45fan the graphics offering. Well, I mean, um, Ben, this is done two other books at fan a graph. Probably his release. Gary, you know, being, you know, they probably travel in the same circles, you know, they both feel like they're like haughty, taughty kind of like, you know, look how funny I am. So, like, I can see that like just being like, you know, when he wants to do something, he's got a home there. I'm so clever. Yeah. Well, I think we're ready to bring this home. Okay, let's, let's, let's, let's bring this practice into the garage. Yeah. So, um, thank you again for hanging out with us this evening. Appreciate you all immensely. Reminder that this, of course, was brought to you by cheapgraphicnobels.com

1:57:47where you can pick up many of the books we were discussing tonight. Um, hit over there. And, but Max, no, we sent you. There's, uh, you've got plenty of nick and dents offerings. Um, there's just, there's the, there's sales constantly, uh, sign up for the mailing list. So, this way you're aware of when, um, of when those sales and specials are happening, uh, as well as you'll get, um, Max's picks before the week. Um, top five books and, uh, and, and, and his, his pick. But, um, we expect to have a full house next week. Actually, we should even, uh, have a guest stop him by next week, which I'm looking forward to. Uh, so yeah, in your travels, speaking of Star Trek, uh, this was, uh, this was when the issues were coming out, I really wasn't paying it much attention. I,

1:58:49I wasn't in love with the, uh, Francesco Trinkovia covers. So I kind of just, I wasn't sure, like not to judge a book by its cover, but, but that was the first thing I noticed. And I just say, I don't, I'm not really sure what this is about. And, and I'm glad I didn't pay attention to the solicits because I'm checking out the trade now, which collects the first six issues of Star Trek, the last Starship and, um, I'm glad I didn't judge a book by its cover because this was, um, this is one of those, uh, I really do enjoy the stories where you're not just, so much of the DC stories from, from in the 80s and even the 90s when, when they were doing the next generation book and, and the, also the, the ongoing original cast series, uh, they, they basically, they were, they were stories that, you know, could be told in between episodes. It

1:59:53was just, it was a day in a lifetime stuff. I mean, yeah, you had characters and they brought back other races that, uh, that they may have faced off in the past on the show, so building on that established continuity, um, but they were safe because just, just like, you know, sitcoms and shows in the 80s, you know, you gotta, whatever's gonna happen within that half hour, you're gonna reset it back so that next week, everybody can watch and no one's worried about missing anything. But this, what IDW's been doing lately, as evidenced in the, uh, in that one shot, I just mentioned, but the last starship, this is taking place, well it, I will say it takes place right after the burn, the burn, of course, we were aware of when discovery shunted itself into the, the second century, uh, we find out about the burn

2:00:54and, and how warp drive is, is going. This, we see some of the ships affected by the burn at the start of this particular story. Uh, so the remaining ships make it back to Starfleet and, and there's a handful of captains and now, um, they're trying to figure out where we go from here and, and, uh, and how we need to reach the other ships that are stranded out there and, and how we can still help those that, uh, rely on the United Federation of Planets to, to keep them safe and, and, and connected. So, uh, we're introduced to a new crew and when the captains, and Starfleet are trying to figure out where to go from here, uh, one captain in particular says we should look into transwar, but now like, well, that's, that's forbidden. We don't, that's not, it's not safe and it leaves us and our partners nearly defenseless because the Romulans

2:02:02are clinging on to anybody can attack and, and, and we're, we're not, we're not going to be able to get to anybody in time when I'm able to save anybody. Uh, so as soon as they mentioned transwarp, all of a sudden this creature appears, this creature we haven't seen since the second season of Picard because the creature I'm referring to is that new generation, the new species of, of Borg, which Agnes becomes as, as we see in, in Picard season two. Uh, so she's involved and, and, and there's a, and so she's offering to help, she's offering to help, to help Starfleet, even though the Borg, you know, were sworn enemies, um, new Borg, and she's not down with what they used to do. So she's like, I'm here to help you. She's like, all I'm asking for is access to something on, on, uh, at the Dastram Institute. And at first Starfleet's like, yeah, no, that's not

2:03:06where, I mean, it could be, it could be some plague you want to release. It could be, you know, schematics to some, some ship that we haven't created yet. Like, we don't, we're not just going to give you access to, and I, what do you got to lose? So they end up the acquiesce and Agnes, um, um, gets what she needs. And, uh, I'm not spoiling it because I think the 10th issue just came out recently, but, uh, also if you look at the back of the trade, you see someone's face, um, as you've seen his face on covers since the first issue. Uh, but basically, after Catechism burned, brings warp travel to a standstill and decimate centuries of unity. Uh, the dream of the United Federation of Plains collapses almost overnight. And so what Agnes wants to do, uh, in a desperate act, they, they Starfleet makes this deal with the board and Agnes resurrects James T Kirk.

2:04:13So now we have James T Kirk in the 30th century. And the captain that we meet, Captain Delacorte, that we meet at the start of this series, um, I haven't finished his trade yet. I, I, I just started it, so, um, I'm not quite sure. It's a younger James Kirk. It's not, it's not the one who, who, um, who was killed. Uh, and, and, but there are what, but there are neat things because there's a reference to him meeting God, which he did in, in, in, or apparently, in here, close, he met in the, in the, in the fifth movie. But yeah, it's, they're, they're definitely lancing and, and, and, and Kelly are definitely having fun with, with the lore and, in the history of Star Trek. This is illustrated, um, beautifully illustrated by, uh, Adrian Bonilla and it's, um,

2:05:14it's, yeah, I'm, I'm looking forward to, to getting through the rest of this trade, but, um, I, I'm not quite sure how much of, because of how old he appears, how young he appears. I don't know, I'm not really sure yet if the board resurrected him and he has all his memories of his full life, and it's just a younger version or if he couldn't have been resurrected from a younger version of himself because he didn't die when he was younger. So I just, I'm curious to know why they stopped, they have the young original series James T. Kirk and not, and, and not the older movie, although nobody wants to really have the older movie Kirk in their corner because it's not like, I think you can throw a punch, but it, it's, I'm, I'm really intrigued by the concept of Kirk in the future, uh, before discovery gets there. Like that's, I, I'm curious to see, and the

2:06:15fact, I thought of me even in many series, so I thought this was just going to collect the many series, but it's still going on and, and I even saw like, you know, issue 11, I don't know if, maybe it's a 12 issue series, I don't know, but I've seen future issues solicit, so I don't know how long this series is running for, but this was, um, this, this, this, this took me after the first couple of issue, after first couple pages, so I'm, I'm dying to finish the trade. This weekend, Star Trek, the last starship, uh, is my new travels for this week. Nice, yeah, it sounds really cool. Um, I have two, I'm gonna be quick first, and I'm sure you'll co-sign, uh, in your travels, if you haven't been, please dear Lord, watch the lanterns. Yes, I mean, we are, we are being blessed with a series that is so far from a writing perspective above the normal superhero sloth that we're handed, it's incredible. Um, the cast is just absurd. I like, I mean, this cast just makes me pleased to know, and I just, I think it's fantastic.

2:07:19Aaron Pierre is incredible, Kyle Chan, I mean, Kelly McDonald's fucking incredible. I mean, we even got our boy Garrett Dillahun in there. It's like, I like every, every person on the screen has given me joy in other big time series over their careers. It's great. Um, but hopefully I'm not telling any of you all of something you don't already, because it seems like it's something quite well both commercially and, uh, and, and critically. Um, and then, uh, on the comic front, um, just uh, in your travels, check out, um, you actually came in a few weeks ago, but I just got my copy, um, forever, which is, uh, missing in E has my modern words, R1 2 Do. Um, it's actually written by, uh, box brand, a written and drawn by box brand. Um, I have to say it's really cool to see box back doing this thing. Um, I think box like a lot of independent creators and, uh, you know, he had a tough time for a while. He had lost his job.

2:08:21I think he was very public about that and, and also his inability to find new work for quite a long time. Fortunately, he's, he's passed that phase of his life. It was a rocky few years, but he powered through as, uh, as, as, as, as should be commended. Um, and he's back in graphic novels, which is great. He's actually got two, uh, coming out this year. This one forever, um, published, both published by Top Shelf, and then he's got one, um, actually in a autobi, oh, not a autobi, a biocomic, um, I think next month, uh, about the Mark Marin in the WTF podcast. Oh, that's right. I mean, yeah, I mean on that too. But forever. And what's interesting is this one, um, the, uh, credits say Brian Bucks Brown, which is it? Yes. Because he's, so he's been Bucks Brown before. So he's going to buy his, uh, his government name. Full government name. Yeah. Um, it's sci-fi premise. It's, it's basically, um, I don't want to spoil much of it, but I will say that just to tell people in the book, the premise is a woman is diagnosed with terminal breast cancer. And, um,

2:09:30basically it's, it's, it's the story of what that kind of thing means to a person and their life partner and their kids and their friends and their family and coming to terms with it and how you live the last days of your life. But it doesn't really end there and hence the name forever. It's, it's, it's really a sci-fi story and a, and as much a lot of what Bucks does is, as you know, so for commentary, he tells stories, it's like a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. This is a story where in, in this version of, of the planet, um, you can basically have your, if you're dying, you can be turned into an AI. And it's, it's, it's, it, that's effective. What happens here? And, and it deals with that and it deals with the, the more quantities of that and and if and why you should do it and then what that means for your, your family who have you as an AI and, and, uh, you know, the obvious positives of that, but then also the very heartbreaking negatives

2:10:35of that and, um, it's just a really poignant sci-fi love story in a lot of ways. Um, and, and I think very timely, I, I actually suspect that this will be a very real thing in the, in the next year or two. I said, you know, if it's not already, you know, maybe super wealthy people, it's already a thing, but, um, but I suspect this will be a fairly common practice on this, um, because if you've ever lost a level and it can be really hard and people will often make choices to try and, um, ameliorate that loss if they can. And so I suspect that the box is being relatively crushing here as the often is. So, uh, enjoyed it quite a bit, you know, box is a first particular illustration style. It's very simple. Um, but it works. I think he's a very effective storyteller and, uh, I enjoyed this as I think, pretty much enjoyed just about everything box is ever done. So if you've been wondering what box is up to, it'd been up to, he's been hella busy doing two new OGNs and this is the first of the two that we're going to get this year forever by, uh, by Top Shelf. Nice.

2:11:40You said you were two? No, Lanterns in that. Oh! Okay, Lanterns is one of them. All right. Yes. Absolutely watch Lanterns. Um, yeah, I thought, uh, you know, I think it says more about the people who were complaining about the third episode than it does about the third episode itself. Well, bro, if you complain about the third episode and then you watched the fourth and it didn't make you very, like, I mean, I tell you. Yeah, because yeah, yeah, yeah. The boy was fucking banging. Goddamn. I know that if it's not that weekly, then I have to wait a week. I mean, we know that the manner is now. So that's cool. I'm glad like that wasn't the ultimate reveal. So that's fun. Well, you said it again. Um, I said, we know who the man hunter is now. It's just cool. Yes. So, you know, I'm glad that wasn't like the big mystery that was unveiled in halfway through the final episode. So yeah. Oh, man. Oh, it's so good. All right. Okay. So good.

2:12:42Thank you, everybody. Appreciate you hanging out with us. We will be back next week with more goodies. We can't wait to hear what, uh, what Vince is read and he can tell us all about it. So we will talk to you all soon. Everybody have a fantastic night and enjoy your weekend. That September, we will talk to you soon. Bye-bye. Peace. That's it for that one.