Episode Transcript
[00:00:08] Speaker A: It's the final countdown.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Oh, my.
[00:00:11] Speaker A: Don't say anymore. We will get sued. We will not be able to, like, don't. Don't do the. Don't even hum it.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: I, I won't. I, I will not go any further with the song or, or even talk about the movie.
Not based on the song, but totally used the song.
That's the only reference.
[00:00:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Fantastic film.
[00:00:38] Speaker A: So I want to say you're not going to hear this on Thanksgiving, but we're recording it on Thanksgiving.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Whoa. So it's a miracle.
[00:00:46] Speaker A: As we start. I have some surprises for Greg, though. On the podcast. You won't be able to see them, so Greg's going to have to describe.
[00:00:52] Speaker B: Okay, I will describe them to the best of my ability for you listeners because that makes the best audio formatted thing for your. Your theater of the mind. For your mind. Visual. Oh, it's packaging. He's pulling out packaging, people. This must be.
This must be one of those amazing things. I feel like the father from A Christmas Story who went to the high school in our own town of Puyallup, Washington. Amazing. Our hometown.
[00:01:24] Speaker A: One of the things I got you isn't here.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: Oh, no. Well, that's.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: This is like all presents.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Oh, it's fragile then.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, you saw the hat yesterday.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: Well, I didn't. Technically. I saw a picture. I didn't. I didn't see it like in.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: Well, if I. If I. You saw the new funny book for the beanie hat.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: A beanie hat.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: If they didn't send me one and I screwed up the order.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: Oh, no. He only ordered one for him. Yeah, it's a one of one.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: That isn't true. I ordered two. I thought I ordered two. I'm not good at ordering.
Well, you already have. I had to replace my hat. See, that's why it's for me.
[00:02:00] Speaker B: I have my hat on right now. Funny book forensics represent.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: Yeah, but I lost my hat. Yes, but we have new hats.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: New hat. They're. They're really special.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: They look just like the old hat.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: They're good hats. It's a good looking hat. It says Funny Book forensics on it. It's a nice. A nice hat. They're quality hats. If you're interested in these hats, all.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: I do is reach out and talk.
[00:02:22] Speaker B: To Dan about getting a cool hat.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: I will. Like again, now that we have this. I will. You know, if people want hats or hoodies or T shirts. I will.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: I know. Let them know there's a few of our listeners out there that Actually do have T shirts because they were lucky enough to score said T shirts at some events that we've been at.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: So now the hoodies I'm gonna have to, like, charge for.
[00:02:50] Speaker B: Yeah, the hoodies. They're a nice quality.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: Oh, this is nice looking.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: Since I saw you yesterday, of course. And not today. You saw me yesterday, and these came last night and they.
[00:03:01] Speaker B: They were delivered. Wow, that's a nice looking hoodie. And I.
[00:03:03] Speaker A: But that is your merry, merry Thanksgiving Christmas. That is for.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: Thanks Christmas Eves. I. I love it. It's great. It's a nice.
A big hoodie. A black hoodie with funny book forensics. It's like, it's like across the chest.
[00:03:20] Speaker A: Like, lighter than black.
[00:03:21] Speaker B: Oh, it's a. It's almost like a chocolatey gray.
I like it. It'll go well with the hat and the T shirt combination, so I can take off layers and still be representing the podcast. Wherever we go, whenever we want to rep the show, people will be like, wow, what is funny book forensics? And then we'll go into a whole thing.
[00:03:40] Speaker A: Or you could just wear it walking around and people would say, what is funny brick forensics?
[00:03:44] Speaker B: And I'll. I'll try to explain. It's a fun podcast. And then Dan will say, if you don't like this, then you're not gonna like that and get into an argument with them about comics.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: And then you can say. You can say also, like, you could say, where's my beanie cap? And I would say, I don't know, because I thought I ordered beanie cats.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: Didn't show up.
It looked really cool in the picture.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: You're supposed to. Yeah, you're supposed to have one too. The beanie caps are my favorite, actually.
[00:04:13] Speaker B: It looks well.
[00:04:14] Speaker A: Anyway, moral of the story here is we don't anticipate tons of people buying our merch, but if you're a loyal fan, I can hook you up with these various products and I will put some prices somewhere at some point.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: Pricing.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:04:34] Speaker B: And then you too can wear the funny book.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: I may even figure out how to let you order them yourself without going through me.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: Hey, look at that. Cut out the middle Dan.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I might. I don't know. Well, if I do that, you know, or.
[00:04:49] Speaker B: Or you can go through.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: If I do that, then I don't have to create the order.
[00:04:52] Speaker B: But if you go through the middle, Dan, then we could put that money back into the podcast and that just helps us.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: Well, if you go through the middle Dan, well, yeah, I mean, there's ways. There's ways we can do it.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: I'm trying to help.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: Greg does need a new computer.
[00:05:10] Speaker B: Greg does. Greg got an update on his computer that said that they're no longer servicing this computer that I'm used.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: So sad.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. It's the gift that keeps on giving people we love 2025.
It is. It's a fantastic year.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: Well, you could just buy yourself a computer.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: I could.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: I think you and, well, Anne, proprietor of the Retro Emporium.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: On Meeker street in Kent, Washington, both need new computers. So you could order them at the same time and have twinsy computers for Christmas.
[00:05:42] Speaker B: We probably will get twinsy computers for Christmas. But the.
I can't keep these things along.
Keep fixing them.
It is a sad. You know, I love fixing things. I'm a fixer. But taking apart these computers and then replacing things on them is getting tiresome, so. But they still work, so.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: Yep. You won't. Well, it's time for you to upgrade and it's time for us to upgrade. Yeah, well, I don't know if we can. I don't know if we can Upgrade from doing 12 episodes or 13 episodes on the Human Target.
That's quite the book.
[00:06:25] Speaker B: It is. That was a journey. That was an amazing feast for the mind.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: But today on Thanksgiving, we have a quick episode for you because, well, Greg has stuff to do.
[00:06:41] Speaker B: I gotta cook for Grandma Thanksgiving.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: But we wanted to make sure we recorded for our loyal and dedicated listeners and then we might record tomorrow. But Greg, Black Friday is real and Greg has to be at the Retro Emporium. So.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: Though you won't hear this to know that we did tell you on the last podcast that you could find Greg at the Retro Emporium. So if you go back in time to the one we recorded that's going to be released right after Thanksgiving that you would know or right before you would know to find Greg there. But now we're telling you in the future to go back in time and find Greg at the Retro.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: Most of the time you can find me at the Retro Emporium.
Like an old cell phone plan. Weekends.
[00:07:27] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, I found you there last night on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: And surprisingly, most people found me. Surprisingly earlier than most because Ann called and said, I need you here. And I got off one job and went directly there, so.
[00:07:44] Speaker A: And I sold Lance, loyal listener Lance, a Uncle Bonsai.
[00:07:50] Speaker B: Uncle Bonsai. For those in the Pacific Northwest, they know best. Uncle Banzai. Local legends.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: I didn't even get a commission on my sale. I told Ann I wanted my 70 cents.
I did not get a commission. I'm a little bit disappointed.
[00:08:09] Speaker B: Oh. Oh, I'm sorry, Dan.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: You know, it'd be interesting if I just sat back in the record room and just sold records to people.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: You're like, hey, you know, they got this over here. You might like this. You look like the kind of person that listens to this. How about you check out that?
[00:08:27] Speaker A: I mean, you look like the person who has a sense of humor for this.
[00:08:32] Speaker B: Have you ever checked out the WC Fields album?
[00:08:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
Well, we are ready.
[00:08:41] Speaker B: Oh, my.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: We have friends called Project Nerd.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: How did you get a actual copy?
[00:08:50] Speaker A: Oh, I backed the Kickstarter.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. That's what. That's. That's how this works.
It was a joke.
[00:08:59] Speaker A: Yes. You pay people and they send you.
[00:09:02] Speaker B: Is my lead into too. This was a Kickstarter book?
[00:09:05] Speaker A: Yes, yes. Project by our friends at Project Nerd. By our friend Iggy, who we work with and he promotes our podcast on his website.
So, yeah, it's cool. Juliet just joined us too, in the background. She's very excited, apparently. Yeah, so it's. Anyway, we've got this book called the Four. It's got a cool cover and we're going to review it.
It does have a cool cover.
And we've got a book done by Iggy and Yusuf. Idris on pencils and inks, Riffin on colors. I hope that I'm saying these names right.
We and our crack research didn't bother to ask Iggy how to pronounce anyone's name before we started this podcast. So pretty much we are.
Well, Greg. Greg doesn't have any excuses, but I'm just an ignorant white American male that can't say names. So I, I so Narcella Souza on the variant cover, Dan Olvera and Aaron. And see, we don't know how to say Iggy's last name, so we're not going to try to say Aaron's last name either.
I was going to go with Mitch Nyaki, but you. I think Mitchnaki said it in a much more Eastern Europe way. Eastern European way. Eastern Europe way.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: Mitchnaki sounds great.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: It might not be right. Might not be right. It may sound good.
It'll be like the time in debate in high school when I said St. Thomas Aquinas's name wrong over and over again for an entire debate round.
I believe it was a queenus. The judge was nice enough to let me know afterwards that that's not how the name is said I, but I say say it with confidence, and you can't go wrong.
[00:11:02] Speaker B: It's like the time where I think, like, I have. I might have. People have mentioned that I might have undiagnosed Tourette's at some point. And sometimes words sound good in my mouth. And Boutros Boutros, golly, sounded really good. And I kept saying it because it was the part of an impromptu speech. And I just kept the UN Secretary General, and I couldn't. I got stuck in a loop where I couldn't stop saying his name. And I think the person counted out that I said his name, like, probably 60 times, depending on the medication I'm on.
It rears its ugly head so.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: Well, the good news, sir, is that this comic has nothing to do with Boutros Boutros.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: That's very good. That word sounds really good in my head right now.
[00:12:04] Speaker A: But it does have to do with these characters called the Four.
[00:12:06] Speaker B: Yes, the Four.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Yeah, they look like four army people.
[00:12:11] Speaker B: They do the book. And I don't know if this is more of a discussion for afterwards, but I can just give my quick synopsis. But we'll go deeper into it. But it has a feel of the Mod Squad meets.
[00:12:30] Speaker A: Why are you.
[00:12:31] Speaker B: What? No, yeah. No, I won't. No, I just like looking at the.
[00:12:37] Speaker A: Go ahead. The Mod Squad meets. You can't stop now. You know, you're halfway in. It's like.
[00:12:40] Speaker B: I'm not. I'm done now. I'm done. You. You've already. You've. You've. You've. You've broken me.
You've broken me, Dan.
[00:12:50] Speaker A: That's something I never want to hear you say. And so the. Anyway, Location classified.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: Classified location.
[00:12:59] Speaker A: I've got the story. Yeah, I'm actually holding a book. C. I've got it. If I actually do release video, which I probably won't, I'm actually holding the button.
[00:13:06] Speaker B: I'm actually looking at it right now. Digital. Digital.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: Juliet is smelling your sweatshirt behind me.
[00:13:13] Speaker B: Well, you're gonna have Juliet.
[00:13:15] Speaker A: Yeah. If you're. If I do release this video, which I probably won't, but if I do, you'll see the dog in the background. Well, anyway, location classified here we've got some people and they're like, I hate it when take hostages.
And I have no idea who these people are.
But over the next two pages, they completely take out all the bad guys.
[00:13:43] Speaker B: To get them all.
[00:13:45] Speaker A: And, yeah, we find out the one guy is really excited about kicking ass.
Another guy's named BD and he, like, squishes people.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: He's a. He. He.
[00:13:59] Speaker A: He.
[00:13:59] Speaker B: Yeah, he, like, gets them and just.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: And there's two women and they shoot people.
And then we get a caption called they are an elite task force. There's no page numbers in this book. Seems to be a thing.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: I like that. No page numbers.
[00:14:20] Speaker A: With Kickstarter books, it's hard to see. I would like to say what page this is so people could know when people's names are shown up for the first time. But I don't have page numbers, so I can't tell you what page.
[00:14:32] Speaker B: Page numbers cost more money. Dan.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: Don'T you just leave the letter or put it down in the corner right here?
[00:14:42] Speaker B: I think it's pages four here.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: And it goes. You put a little round thing right here, like a. In the corner, and then you put a page number there.
[00:14:51] Speaker B: You could.
[00:14:51] Speaker A: This is kind of fun when I'm holding the book. So I can teach you where page numbers go in comic books.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:14:57] Speaker A: Since the beginning of time.
[00:14:58] Speaker B: Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate that.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: Yeah. I just wanted to let you know, since you are an author and all that, I thought I would help you upgrade your skill set by showing you where page numbers go.
[00:15:12] Speaker B: I. I feel so educated now. Thank you so much. It's a gift.
[00:15:17] Speaker A: I also feel like in the day of digital art, that you could put page numbers in the corner because your excuse is, oh, well, if we put page numbers, then when we do the graphic novel or whatever, we have to, like, redo the page numbers. Well, turns out, with layered graphics. I just wanted to teach you another thing. With layered graphics, you can put the graphic of the page number in the corner, and then you could delete said graphic and replace it with the numbers for the next edition.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: Oh, that's. That's extra work, Dan.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: Yes, it's not that much extra work.
[00:15:51] Speaker B: That's. That's all this. You know, it just.
It just.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: You should work to satisfy your angry customers that love page numbers.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Oh, just. Just Dan.
[00:16:04] Speaker A: Okay. So anyway, we meet Max, who is the guy calling everyone an asshole.
[00:16:09] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: Ruby, who is. Seems pretty confident this was never in doubt. She says beta. Who says easy with this kind of tech at my disposal. So she's pretty excited. So, Max, Ruby, Beta, and then bd. And he says, they are they puny humans. So apparently we have the Hulk, Max, Ruby, Beta, and the Hulk.
[00:16:37] Speaker B: The Hulk.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: And they make up the four, I guess. Yes. For now. Okay. I'm gonna figure out all their names by the time we get through this book, but you know? Yeah, that's my unusual story. So now, is this Beyonce they're singing?
[00:16:57] Speaker B: I think it might be, because players.
[00:17:01] Speaker A: Gonna play, play, play, and haters gonna hate, hate, hate.
Don't you take it off after that or something.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: I think you can only get so much in there before. It's just like we were saying with the final countdown, which we only referenced for that moment.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: You said it twice in podcast.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: I said, that's all we're going to reference. You can only use that much. And that's it.
[00:17:28] Speaker A: No, we're not going to talk about living on Venus or anything.
[00:17:31] Speaker B: No, that's it.
No more.
[00:17:34] Speaker A: Or standing strong enough.
Or maybe we'll come back.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: No to Earth.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Who can tell why? Okay, sorry.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: We're gonna get stricken.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: I don't know. I just.
I just felt the need for it, you know?
[00:17:52] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:17:52] Speaker A: It felt good.
[00:17:53] Speaker B: Shake, shake, shake. That's a different song. Sorry.
[00:17:56] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's a crappy restaurant.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: No, fish, fish, fish. Which is closed. They closed after three months. Dan.
I did the research.
[00:18:10] Speaker A: I know, I know.
[00:18:12] Speaker B: You know, very successful because they had no food, food.
[00:18:16] Speaker A: I was part of their. Their stunning success. Yeah.
I mean, shake, shake, shake was not the worst.
[00:18:26] Speaker B: It was okay, okay, okay. For you. I thought it was good, good, good.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: Well, you and Mike think it's great, great, great. Yeah. And I think it's.
[00:18:37] Speaker B: Your burger was good.
[00:18:39] Speaker A: Mid, mid, mid, burger was good, good, good.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: Your shake was.
What about those tots?
[00:18:45] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, if you're called shake, shake. If you're called shake, shake, shake, though, I feel like your shake should be.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: I think you were upset because your shake got there late, late, late.
[00:18:58] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, it was not cool to get my shake, shake, shake after everyone else had their shake, shake, shake for 15 minutes.
[00:19:06] Speaker B: So. So for people listening, we ordered and.
[00:19:10] Speaker A: Several shakes went out in front of us that were ordered way, way, way after, after, after. Us, us, us.
[00:19:16] Speaker B: We ordered shakes and we got our shakes for dessert, which we wanted our shakes with our food.
And we ordered shakes with our food and got them at like. I think we had both finished our dinner at that point. And then we had to power down milkshakes because we were leaving. And if you're ever powering down a milkshake, guzzling a milkshake, it's kind of uncomfortable.
[00:19:44] Speaker A: Yes. Well. And I was all about hate, hate, hate, because Greg made me wait, wait, wait to order.
And then the shake, shake, shake came late, late, late.
[00:19:56] Speaker B: And then we played after everyone.
[00:19:58] Speaker A: 888.
[00:20:00] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: See, I did triple Demon Rhyming I.
[00:20:06] Speaker B: I think I, that is.
[00:20:07] Speaker A: That was some triple demon entregan, right?
[00:20:10] Speaker B: That is great, great, great. I, I, I think the best part of the night, though, was trying to play. Is it a. Is it poop or is it a leaf under the table across from us? Because we didn't know what it was. After that guy left, I, I took a picture.
[00:20:26] Speaker A: I thought it wasn't poop.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: You thought it was a poop? It looked like a pile of poop.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: No, I thought it was.
[00:20:30] Speaker B: You thought it was a leaf? I thought it was a poop.
[00:20:32] Speaker A: I thought it was a leaf.
[00:20:32] Speaker B: I, it was hard to tell. And the guy. The way the guy got up and left so quick. It was like.
It was kind of funny.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: Well, back to the story.
[00:20:46] Speaker B: Oh, God.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
Like, guys, like, guns down. I'm here for Carter. I don't know who Carter is, but that's okay.
[00:20:57] Speaker B: Well, I mean, if you sing. He's singing a Beyonce song. He's there for. Oh, is he there for Ms. Carter or Mr. Carter?
[00:21:05] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:21:05] Speaker B: He's there for Cart.
[00:21:06] Speaker A: It makes sense.
[00:21:07] Speaker B: Iggy is a genius.
[00:21:09] Speaker A: Is this character.
Well, this character looks like Iggy at 70.
[00:21:16] Speaker B: Iggy put himself in the book, apparently.
[00:21:21] Speaker A: Yeah. So.
[00:21:21] Speaker B: Man, that's funny.
[00:21:23] Speaker A: Well, anyway, it's.
And then the four in the room talking, and they're. And BD's, like, aren't we elite task force? And beta corrects BD and says Ann elite because was easy. Mission says BD.
So basically, Carter gives them another mission somewhere in the Middle east, probably that same place in the Middle east where Iron Man's origin started in the movie.
Because, remember, that was just also somewhere in the Middle East.
[00:22:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:02] Speaker A: Yeah. So maybe they'll meet Marvel Universe. Marvel movie Universe, Iron man.
And we can have a team up in a cave.
[00:22:13] Speaker B: It's a party. It's rave.
[00:22:15] Speaker A: Anyway, the four seem fairly confident.
They've got to, like, scale a cliff and stuff.
And then we flip the page, but I don't know what page, so I'll show you.
And we have a young man. I. I'm gonna not. I'm not gonna lie. I don't like these two pages at all.
[00:22:38] Speaker B: Which one? The. The running.
[00:22:39] Speaker A: And we've got a young black man in a hoodie running. He runs into somebody and gets shot.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: Yeah, it's kind of disheartening.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: So, all right, we flipped the page. And I don't like these pages either. So got a man in a hot tub with three women.
[00:23:00] Speaker B: Smoking a cigar.
[00:23:02] Speaker A: I'm assuming I'm supposed to hate this guy. He has abs. Like, I'm trying to get in 52 weeks this year, which I don't think I'm going to make it there.
This guy must be sitting on, like, 8% body fat.
[00:23:17] Speaker B: He doesn't. All he does is just.
[00:23:19] Speaker A: I don't know how he maintains that drinking all that wine.
[00:23:21] Speaker B: He just. All he does is work out and.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: Drink wine and sleep with three ladies.
[00:23:28] Speaker B: Well, I mean, you know, he's. It's. It's all. That's part of the workout regime. You know, he's. You know, it's the. All that part of it.
[00:23:38] Speaker A: Well, the man. The men that murdered the kid in the hoodie come with, presumably, the guy's head in a bag or something, and this guy asks about the codes, and they say they don't have them, and he shoots them. And then he goes back to his hot tub and he p. Diddies his way back to the women and asks them if he wants to know about the time he met Taylor Swift.
Gross. Okay, don't like this guy.
I'm assuming Iggy's doing a fair job here because don't like the guys, and I don't like this guy. So if I'm not supposed to like these guys, we are doing a good job.
[00:24:25] Speaker B: Good job making. Making characters you don't like.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: So speaking of characters, I'm not sure if I like yet.
The elite are climbing up a hillside now, and I can definitely tell you there's one of the four characters I don't like. So anyway, Actually, there's two of the four characters I don't like, but we'll get there in a second.
[00:24:47] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:24:47] Speaker A: So, yeah, that's like one over two over four, which, if you divide that down, becomes one over two, and that becomes half or 50%.
It's a little fraction math for you.
So we got. Anyway, they're climbing hillsides art. By the way, we have been talking about the story. The art is sweet.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: Yeah, it's really good.
It draws you in. Even if you don't like the pages. You don't like the content of the page.
Like we're talking about. You can't deny the fact that the art is really good to make you not like.
[00:25:30] Speaker A: Well, I also think the arts driving the story. The arts driving part of the story, too. Right? Like, this guy looks like a complete douchebag. The. The guy in the hot. Yeah, I feel a little. Even though I don't know, the character's only there for two pages. The kid that gets Shot I. Feeling empathy. Like, it's. It's a visual. The thing I don't like about. It's a visual that's tied to pop culture that, you know, I. That's what makes me uncomfortable with it. But the arts, referencing things and driving things. So that obviously, I mean, that's good.
That's good. Pop culture art. Right. You should be referencing things and tying back to people's emotions and feelings in a comic. So I just want to know where it's going. Right. Because what I don't like is when you get, like, a throwaway page like that.
[00:26:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:17] Speaker A: It's kind of like the women in refrigerators thing. Right? Like, I don't want.
I don't like it when it's just a plot device, per se.
I don't know. But it could work out in a different way, so who knows, right?
I don't have enough of the story to know yet. So I won't pass too much judgment on that until I know what's going on with these codes and things and what the guy's looking for.
But we've got a mystery there. And then we've got. Three of the four are, like, climbing up this hillside, and then Beta, I guess, is the lookout and is letting everybody know where to go.
And they get really braggy about how they're gonna. There's not dozens of people in these cliffs, as they were told by Carter.
And they're heading up and they've got multiple cliffs, and they just go cliff by cliff, and they just start taking people out.
And BD is like, my knives beat your guns. I thought, that's cute. Okay.
And then they get to the top, and then Beta flies in and she falls on Ruby, and Ruby says, get off me, perv.
Gross.
Okay, so not liking her.
And then another one, the big BD guy that he kind of reminds me of. Big Sur from Justice League Antarctic.
[00:27:47] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.
[00:27:52] Speaker A: He doesn't seem like the brightest bulb.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: No, he's not the brightest bulb. It doesn't seem like that at all.
[00:27:57] Speaker A: We don't know. I mean, he might be. I don't know. But he says. So, Ruby, Beta finally made her move, huh?
Because she fell on you, huh? That means she wants to have sex with you. Huh.
So not liking that guy. Yeah, so I'm liking half of the four right now.
[00:28:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:16] Speaker A: But, you know, we'll find out. I don't know.
And then they get in here, and they get into the compound at the top and they beat everyone up. More cool art as you can see. I'll show everybody. Yep.
And. Or not show everybody, because who knows how this podcast gets released. But there's a. We are doing some video testing, y'all. That's why I keep joking about the stuff. But we'll see. Maybe we'll go on video at some point. But I did both wear funny book forensic stuff, so we could go on video if we wanted to. But we'll see Possibility.
Just know it'll come in the future. If it's not this episode, it's coming in the future.
And they get up in the room and. Beta. Didn't do her testing.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: Yeah, beta testing.
[00:29:16] Speaker A: You didn't do her test. See, you're not the only one who jokes. And there was a silent alarm, and the door is locked already. And this guy pops out and he looks very 90s. Oh, yeah, evil bad guy.
[00:29:35] Speaker B: Big, big mech suit. Looks like he came out of fallout.
[00:29:39] Speaker A: He had some pouches.
[00:29:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:42] Speaker A: What if he had some pouches?
[00:29:44] Speaker B: Pouches. Just all the pouches.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: And he says, max, I presume. And he's looking at Max. I'm not sure what Max did wrong, but yeah, so.
And we find out, and. Yeah, that's our first issue. I have no idea what's happening next.
I would like the next two issues because I want to continue the story, but I don't know right now. There's two of these characters I don't really like, one that I'm indifferent with, one I am fine with. And he clearly did something wrong because somebody wants to kill him or did something right. I'm not sure. I want to know what's going on with this guy in the hot tub. I want to know who this Carter person is and why he's sending these people on missions. I want to know where they're from.
[00:30:33] Speaker B: How they formed up as a team.
[00:30:35] Speaker A: And I guess, yeah, I don't know any of these things. And then the only thing, my only real criticism of this book, besides the just the couple plot points I talked about, is, man, the lettering is really big.
It's like it was made for my eyesight as an old man.
The good news is we won't be criticizing this book for over explaining anything.
So that's with this letter size. So that's good.
[00:31:12] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:31:13] Speaker A: I do think the art does a lot of the storytelling because it's a comic book and it should do that. So we like that.
But yeah, I mean, the lettering seems. I don't know, it seems maybe I'll become. Learn to love this lettering. But it seems huge.
[00:31:29] Speaker B: It does. It is. It. The lettering is kind of big. I noticed that even when I pull it up on a digital format, it's like, oh, hey, it's just.
But I don't know. I mean, it's choice, but it doesn't. It's. It makes it easier to read. Maybe that's the reason.
[00:31:50] Speaker A: Yeah. I feel like I fly through the book really quickly, though. I think one of the reasons you keep probably lettering a little bit smarter from. Smaller. Smarter. Smaller. Smaller from an art perspective is to help focus the reader on the art as well, instead of just reading straight through.
[00:32:07] Speaker B: To be able to focus in on all the stuff around the page to.
[00:32:13] Speaker A: Yeah, because if you just read straight through this book, you can read it in, like, five minutes, and you want.
[00:32:18] Speaker B: To be able to focus in on.
[00:32:19] Speaker A: All the details, but you need to be paying attention to what's going on. Yeah.
[00:32:23] Speaker B: Because. Yeah. I mean, comics is a visual storytelling format. And if you don't pick up on all those subtle things that are there, because there's a lot of things that are thrown out into the book to make you pick up on those little details that might help you understand things that aren't necessarily put into the discussion that's on the page throughout the characters or in any of the narrative boxes and stuff like that that are there, then you might be missing things.
[00:33:02] Speaker A: I will say something I like about this book is it's back to being just like a straight comic book. Like, there's no running thought bubble up in the corner where we're tracking through one character's thoughts of everything and explaining everything.
So if in a sort of mystery scenario like this, where we're setting up a plot and this is the rising action and we don't even know what's going on yet, I like that because it's not giving away too much, and I'm, you know, waiting for what's next. So I like the composition of the first issue as far as, like, just setting the table.
I mean, I might wish there was a little bit more there.
[00:33:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:46] Speaker A: I mean, in the backstory, I kind of just don't know who the characters are. I don't know if I'm supposed to be caring about them or not yet.
[00:33:54] Speaker B: I think, like, maybe we'll get that in the second book. Hopefully, little bit more detail about who these four are, why they were chosen for this team, what their.
What their designation is as to their expert and talents are. You're kind of, like, left at, okay, this person is a. This person's a tech person. This person's a sniper. This person is the brute force person. This person's tactical. Based off of your.
This is what I can see in the book. But you don't know that for sure.
[00:34:29] Speaker A: Right.
[00:34:29] Speaker B: So it's, it's just based off of assumption.
[00:34:34] Speaker A: I mean, it seems like a good D and D party.
[00:34:36] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:34:38] Speaker A: We picked our. We picked our, our classes and species. Make sure I get that right. Yeah, I don't want to get canceled. And.
And we picked them around the specific thing and here they're perfectly aligned. But yeah, I think, you know, I'm. Yeah. I mean, so basically with this book, it's a first issue. I had no idea what I was reading going in.
You knew a little bit more. I'm all right. I want to know more. I'm anxiously waiting for the next issue.
[00:35:11] Speaker B: Yeah, same. I feel like I, like I started to hint at earlier and then. And you're quick to give me the look. I will say I felt like this book had a feeling of a Mod Squad meets GI Joe meets.
You throw in any type of like 80s action type thing where it's like, be it Airwolf or like, I don't.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: Have time to bleed.
[00:35:41] Speaker B: Yeah, something like that.
And it's a group of people doing a thing. And maybe Mod Squad's not the best example because of the. I want to say the characters that are presented here, but you have a group going out to do something for some reason, and it seems like they're doing good stuff. Right. So. And they're an elite force, but it has a very GI Joe ish feel. And so I told Iggy, I was like, I feel like I'm reading a GI Joe, like, special mission story with, With.
[00:36:21] Speaker A: With what's interesting too. Like, I mean, where we're at in the story, it could completely flip. Right. I mean, the first thing we get is I hate people that take hostages and so they're taking out the presumably bad guys and then they go back to a base and then they go out and take out more presumably bad guys.
I'm not saying the story is going to flip this way, and I seriously doubt it will, but what if the story flips and the four are the actual bad guys?
[00:36:45] Speaker B: Right. I mean, that. That's totally. That. That could be. Maybe they're working. Maybe the.
They're. They're a subset of the bad guy that we don't like in the. They're working for the guy in the hot tub. You know, he's the string puller. For them.
[00:37:04] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know. I mean. And maybe the guy in the hot tub is the good guy. I seriously doubt it.
[00:37:09] Speaker B: I mean, he met, you know, outside.
[00:37:11] Speaker A: Of the guy in the hot tub. Yeah, outside of the guy in the hot tub that has people murdering kids and then sleeping with three people. We don't really know anything about the rest of these characters enough to decide if they're good, bad, indifferent. So I do like that we don't need it all in the first issue. Right. It's the Rising action, so we shouldn't know everything.
[00:37:29] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It's very. It very much hooked you.
[00:37:32] Speaker A: And with that said.
[00:37:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
Yeah.
[00:37:36] Speaker A: With that said, Yeah, I was gonna say you said it very much hooked you in. Yeah, I agree. And I was gonna say with that said, probably time to wrap this one up.
Greg still has a book out, the.
[00:37:48] Speaker B: Absolute Zeros Camp Launchpad that you can.
[00:37:51] Speaker A: Buy at the store. Absolute Zeros Camp Launchpad. That book.
[00:37:55] Speaker B: That book. I have copies at the store. You can get it at major book retailers if you want, or you can go to your. Your Barnes and Noble comic book stores. Your local comic book shop could get it if they wanted to. You could have them order it for you. You can go to Amazon.com you can go to Books A Million. If you're on the east coast, you can go. You can go almost anywhere. I even hear that you could probably go to. And I can announce this now. The Museum of Flight in Seattle.
[00:38:28] Speaker A: Wait, your books at the Museum of Flight.
[00:38:30] Speaker B: It will be. Yes, I know, right?
Yeah, it's amazing. Who would have thought it?
[00:38:43] Speaker A: It is amazing. I'm just shaking my head because somebody decided to start walking in and out of my house right now. So Juliet wants to let me know.
And I guess that's like, signals the end of the podcast. So we've got that. We mentioned the Retro Emporium on Meeker street in Kent, Washington. Hit it up for your Christmas gifts. We haven't mentioned Jiu Jitsu lawyer Paul yet, but Jiu Jitsu lawyer Paul at Certified Martial Arts. You can head there on 27th and Jackson or Slash Bridgeport in Tacoma if you want to train in Jiu Jitsu or just train yourself up. I'm on a journey right now to get to ABS at 50.
[00:39:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:20] Speaker A: Which. Well, we'll see news upcoming on that too. I may even be documenting that journey with Mr. Paul.
[00:39:28] Speaker B: Do it.
[00:39:29] Speaker A: So we'll see. But you can go meet Jiu Jitsu Layer Paul and. And all that there. He's headed off to Brazil, probably. He'll be in Brazil, I think, when this podcast releases.
[00:39:41] Speaker B: So he's gonna do some doing more.
[00:39:43] Speaker A: Jiu jitsu training, because that's what you do in Brazil.
[00:39:46] Speaker B: And eat good, good steaky food.
[00:39:51] Speaker A: I get. You eat steaky food, I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure he'll have some steak with a sword. So, yeah, other than that, I think that's it. So the four, you know, if you don't have a copy yet, go to Project Dash Nerd and get one.
[00:40:08] Speaker B: Get one. And check out their other Kickstarter, Esme.
[00:40:13] Speaker A: Yep. Which is advertised in the book right now. So, yeah, I mean, important. That's a. That's probably you should say, hey, Dan, why don't you open to the page that advertises Esme, she's back.
[00:40:28] Speaker B: So.
[00:40:29] Speaker A: All right, well, thank you, friends, and thanks, Iggy, for the hard work on the book and thanks for helping us out with our podcast by sharing it with the world.
All right, bye.
