Funny Book Forensics 385 Flexing Our Emotional Muscles

[00:00:06] Speaker A: Well, I picked this book, these books. And you're already laughing because I've told this joke once because I thought, ah, Flex Mantala Muscles. Fun. And I thought, Grant Morrison. Now I've read the book and I've thought, Grant Morrison. [00:00:23] Speaker B: You did it to yourself, Dan. You did it to yourself. No one picked this but you. [00:00:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, like hot take. This is terrible. [00:00:34] Speaker B: No, it's great. I. I'm enjoying it. I. I love, I love it when we get to read something fun and interesting and wild such as this. Because I know that. [00:00:47] Speaker A: So great. I would tell the history of comics in a way different way than this is telling it. [00:00:52] Speaker B: Oh my gosh. No, this is. I, I love it. Each and every moment, every single page, every single panel, every dialogue box. [00:01:03] Speaker A: Okay, so I don't hate all of it. It just doesn't make any sense. [00:01:09] Speaker B: Oh, but it does. [00:01:12] Speaker A: No, it doesn't. It doesn't make any sense. And they made fun of the Legion of Superheroes now. So now I'm really pissed off. [00:01:19] Speaker B: They didn't make fun of them, they just kind of talked about them. [00:01:26] Speaker A: They made fun of them. [00:01:28] Speaker B: We'll get there. [00:01:33] Speaker A: We're there now. [00:01:35] Speaker B: Welcome. [00:01:35] Speaker A: Now, forensics. That's great. I'm in. We're talking about Flex Mentalo number two and a Grant Morrison. And Frank, Is it quietly? I keep saying quietly in my brain. I think it's quitely right. [00:01:55] Speaker B: I think it's frankly. [00:01:56] Speaker A: Or is it quitley? [00:01:57] Speaker B: That's a good question. I have. [00:01:59] Speaker A: You're sat next to him at a show and so you know how to pronounce his name. [00:02:03] Speaker B: No, I have not. [00:02:05] Speaker A: Okay. It does say Britain's top comic team, which I think is a direct shot at the Sandman. Oh, creative key. Oh, did you know they're bringing the Sandman Monthly book back? It tells us that during this. [00:02:20] Speaker B: Timely. [00:02:22] Speaker A: Yeah, it seems like a shot at Neil Gaiman, right? I mean, timely or is it a shot at. Is it a shot at the Dark Knight Returns? No, they do that next issue. Sorry, that's next issue. [00:02:38] Speaker B: Next issue. [00:02:41] Speaker A: I mean, well, it's a comic. Greg and I have discussed this already. I am not going to try to go through this page by page. I know, I'll go through a page by page, but I'm not going to trouble read anything here. [00:02:53] Speaker B: This is last, last episode we went through. [00:02:57] Speaker A: We talked for an hour and a half, page by page. [00:03:00] Speaker B: This issue, we're going to truncate it a bit and just kind of discuss. Discuss and discuss. [00:03:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I think like One of my problems is like right off the bat I'm going to give away a little bit of the book. Right. This is supposed to be some sort of critique of the Silver Age of comics, right? Except they immediately start talking about the Bronze Age right off. [00:03:28] Speaker B: You have to talk about the Bronze Age to get to the Silver Age, Dan. [00:03:31] Speaker A: Or did we just not delineate those two in this time period? [00:03:34] Speaker B: I don't think we delineated those two in 96. [00:03:37] Speaker A: Was, in 1996 was the 70s considered the Bronze Age? I think the 70s was considered not the Silver Age. I mean I always understood the Silver Age going away mostly with like Dave Cockrum. Right. And you know, doing D.C. and, and, and, and X Men. And then also obviously with the evolution of the, the drug comics. Right. When you had the Green Lantern, Green Arrow in Spider man, it just seemed to line it the Silver or the Bronze Age from the Silver Age. And we've talked about that on past episodes. He does make fun of fans in this book saying, well, fans call it the blah, blah, blah Age. Well, don't make fun of us. Yeah, that's what it's called. Whether it's fans or a classification system, that's fine. I don't know. This book makes my head hurt. Maybe it's supposed to. [00:04:33] Speaker B: You're going on a journey, a trip, if you want. [00:04:36] Speaker A: That's not enjoyable. [00:04:39] Speaker B: Is it not? Or is it? [00:04:42] Speaker A: No, I don't need to go to school every time I read a comic reading comic book. [00:04:46] Speaker B: But that's what I thought we were here to do. [00:04:49] Speaker A: Oh God. Okay. You know. [00:05:01] Speaker B: I know it is, it, it is a lot to digest. The book itself is a lot. And I think that's what Grant Morrison is. He's trying to compact into these few issues so much and it's such a deep process. [00:05:20] Speaker A: Well, we also get like references to a lot either Bronze Age or even Modern age stuff in this book. It, it's, and I know we've reclassified, so I'm going to make fun of my own self. Right. Because I just made fun because I used to always call them modern Age. I know the 80s have a different name now, but you know, it. Okay, well, let's, let's jump in. I, I don't know. I feel so down after reading these books. That's, that's just. [00:05:53] Speaker B: Oh, I mean, I think I, I, I think you, I think you kind of should because the, the narrator, they're depressing. The narrator of the book kind of brings you there. [00:06:07] Speaker A: Is it drug addict dying, drug Addict. [00:06:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:11] Speaker A: Who's thinking all these things? Yeah, it's, it's. It's weird too, because let's go back to the introduction of the Flex Mentalo character we mentioned. Like, you know, living on the Danny, the street, you know, fighting the men from nowhere. And then all of a sudden, now he is a hetero masculine figment of somebody whose imagination who's dying. Right. Okay. Well, the cover's cool. [00:06:39] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, It's. It's a space cover. It's. It's like. It's out of this world, man. [00:06:47] Speaker A: It's very silver age. I mean, very much represents the expansion even of superhero comics into space. I mean, that's been critiqued so many times. It's. It's ridiculous. But you know, you think Batman flying into space with his bat spaceship and even look at the super friends. It seems like everybody could just go into space on their own. You have aliens and you have. In the silver age, a lot of silver age, especially the 50s, like Batman and 60s Batman. They can't be Batman. Right. It turns from the golden age serious Batman who had a gun to Batman fighting aliens and it get the Batman 66 TV show eventually. Right. I mean, that's just one example. There's so many examples of this. I mean, the legion was ridiculous. They do make. They do poke fun of part of the legion that, you know, is easy to poke fun at in this book. One thing I will say about this book is more as. As I'm reading more of the critique. I do think there are some things that we have criticized lesser authors for picking apart. And I feel like if. I feel like in this book, if they're going to do a metacritique of the history of comics, don't take sheep shots like go for the metacritique. Right. There's a place in this book where they're making fun of the legion of superhero tryouts in the silver age book that's been made fun of by everyone. [00:08:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:20] Speaker A: Including every freaking crappy Internet article that's out there. You know, we've. We covered an entire issue where there. Well, one sort of an issue, but where they were, you know, writing a whole meta critique of that already that came out before this book. I won't say the author's name, but Kurt Swan and Ty Templeton drew it. So. [00:08:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I think. I think with the. With. With Internet articles. And this is just my own. My hot take. Just because I've gone through my own. My own dealings with the shop and a lot of Internet articles. Revolving around the shop this week. But I think a lot of times Internet articles are just copy and paste of an old article and then replacing a few keywords and then it's the same article. It's just redone by someone else. That's. [00:09:14] Speaker A: Well, I do see a lot of that too and yeah, that's why I get tired of top 10 worst heroes. Here's three legion of superheroes applicants. Worst things about the Silver Age. Oh, the legion had tryouts. Hahaha. Well, yeah. I mean it's a silver age. It's different storytelling. It. I don't know. Yeah. Every time I see a top 10 article, I just want to punch someone. I should start writing them. You, you could, you could top 10 reasons we hate Guy Gardner. Top 30 reasons we hate Guy Garden. You could top 100 reasons we hate Guy Gardner. [00:09:51] Speaker B: And then, and then you'll start seeing your same article redone by 20 other people. [00:09:56] Speaker A: No. Just stealing my work. Yeah. Without crediting me, I'm sure. [00:10:00] Speaker B: Yep. That's. That's what happened. That's. That's exactly what happened with the shop and Rhoda, they thing. And then it got redone by four different news outlets. I would also. [00:10:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Somebody asked me today, by the way. Somebody asked me today how I felt like about the new Superman movie. [00:10:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:18] Speaker A: And I said, well, crypto. [00:10:21] Speaker B: Hey. [00:10:22] Speaker A: And then I went on a 20 minute rant about Guy Gardner and Nathan Fillian. It's like to share what's happening in real life. [00:10:31] Speaker B: Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. [00:10:35] Speaker A: Yeah, it was. Well, maybe we should get into this book. Yeah. [00:10:43] Speaker B: Let'S get into the book that this, that the astronaut is reading right now on the COVID Got to do. [00:10:49] Speaker A: Two more issues of this after this. [00:10:50] Speaker B: Yeah, we do. I'm excited, Dan. And you listeners should be excited too that you get to hear me be excited and Dan, be well. Dan. [00:11:02] Speaker A: Can I. Can I just tell you how happy I am? A colleague of mine, I recommended King Falls Am too. And they had listened to all of it in like three weeks. [00:11:14] Speaker B: Oh wow. [00:11:16] Speaker A: Kind of like you did. [00:11:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:17] Speaker A: When you listen to it just shot and they're to the last episode, the last two episodes. But they don't want to listen to them because they don't want it to be over. [00:11:26] Speaker B: Don't want it to be over. I'm gonna. I probably might go back and re listen to it again. [00:11:33] Speaker A: We get an ad for Sandman. I hear that was good. Can I tell you how dumb I am? I didn't know where this. I didn't know. This is where Sam Keith got his big break. [00:11:52] Speaker B: Oh. [00:11:57] Speaker A: Should tell you how much Sandman I've read. Yeah, that'd be none. That's it. Wrong for me to admit this on the podcast. [00:12:05] Speaker B: No, that's fine. You can. You can admit that. That's okay. [00:12:11] Speaker A: You've read a bit. I've read nine bits. [00:12:15] Speaker B: Yeah. But I mean. And. [00:12:19] Speaker A: Yeah, the thing is, Sam, when Sandman came out, neither of us were reading Vertigo. Yeah. [00:12:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:26] Speaker A: Or anything. I mean, it wasn't even Vertigo yet, right? [00:12:28] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it wasn't until. It wasn't, honestly, until I had. Had gone to Vancouver and my friend at the shop there had made some slight suggestions. So, like, on our way to dnd, he made a list and then I went back to the shop with him the next day and pulled a bunch of books for me, so. And there I was. [00:12:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Sandman came out in 1989, so definitely. Yeah. I was reading Legion and the Dark Lead, you know, the new Legion, but I had not ventured into this. Yeah. Genre. I think if you would have recommended a. I think. And even if you'd recommended it to me two years later. Right. I think I would have probably just said, it's a fantasy book. No, thanks. [00:13:20] Speaker B: No, thanks. Yeah. [00:13:23] Speaker A: I don't know, it's just weird. It's weird that it's one of the things I've never gone back and read. Also, just random side note, I got a notification today. All four GI Joe omnibus. [00:13:35] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Abstract. Oh, shipped all of them. [00:13:40] Speaker A: They are. They are on their way. [00:13:42] Speaker B: On their way. Go, Joe. [00:13:45] Speaker A: I paid way too much. Anyway, I don't know why I'm saying, ah, we get to the first page and I'm not going to read this, but if you'll recall, we had a narrator who is on a suicide hotline overdosing on everything. Painkillers. He's on everything. [00:14:05] Speaker B: He's on. He's on. [00:14:06] Speaker A: Painkillers, Acid. [00:14:08] Speaker B: He's on. [00:14:09] Speaker A: He's. [00:14:09] Speaker B: He's been smoking pot. He's been doing everything. Hash. [00:14:14] Speaker A: Is acid and LSD the same thing? [00:14:16] Speaker B: Yes. [00:14:19] Speaker A: But mushrooms are different. [00:14:20] Speaker B: They are. [00:14:22] Speaker A: What happens if you take LSD and mushrooms at the same time? [00:14:26] Speaker B: I don't think it would be a good idea. Not advisable. [00:14:30] Speaker A: That was a trap and you stepped out of it. [00:14:35] Speaker B: Not advisable. [00:14:39] Speaker A: Well, anyway, he's like trying to navigate the phone and he's telling this sort of history of weird dreams. He's had one of them where a whole bunch of little boys are pooping in an alley and yeah. Where he's afraid of the things in the fishbowl. [00:15:06] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It's a very disturbing scene. The whole thing. It's. [00:15:13] Speaker A: And then we get. [00:15:14] Speaker B: We. [00:15:15] Speaker A: We flip to a page after the fact, Part two, My Beautiful Head. And we see Flex fighting the. What was the. Guys. It's the Kryptonite, man. But he can't call it Kryptonite, so it's called Menalium Man. [00:15:33] Speaker B: Mentalium Man. [00:15:36] Speaker A: He gets. Here's my first critique of the book. Anyway, we find out it's part man, part robot. It's his rogues gallery. He's recounting his. His discussion with the fact and trying to find Faculty X, which I assume is the X Men. And now he's going to try to find the Legion of Legions soon too. [00:15:57] Speaker B: Yes. [00:15:58] Speaker A: We flip the page and we get an ad for the best. The least anti trans Ace Ventura movie. Totally Ace Ventura. When nature Calls. [00:16:16] Speaker B: Yes, yes. [00:16:20] Speaker A: And we get an ad for the Invisibles by Grant Morrison. Can't wait for that one. I'm definitely going to be going back and reading that after this. Then we whisk away from the battle with the Metallium guy and we get a whole summary of dialogue about Flex thinking about Faculty X. Doomsday Clock ticking down to zero hour. When did zero hour happen in DC? Wasn't it 96? [00:17:00] Speaker B: I think so. [00:17:01] Speaker A: I'm looking for more things here. Every time I read this now. Yeah, I had to read this one twice. [00:17:07] Speaker B: I. I think it. [00:17:08] Speaker A: Maybe that's why I'm so bitter. [00:17:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Because it's. It's little Easter eggs everywhere from different aspects of different comics in every. [00:17:17] Speaker A: In every after zero hours. So that's probably very intentional. Doomsday Clock, obviously a reference to some book called Watchmen. And we get another Watchmen reference in the book with that. Heroes on the moon. [00:17:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:34] Speaker A: Later on. So not the spoilers thing. We get Flex and he's in the. It looks like the town made from the things in the fishbowl. [00:17:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:47] Speaker A: And a little boy asks him for his name. Wally Sage asks him for his autograph and he says, Flex, Metalla is in trouble. And then we get back to him fighting Mentalia, man. And. Okay, here we go. Here's my first annoyance. Right. Critiquing all the different types of Kryptonite is like one of the easiest shots at the Silver Age. It is just one of the things that everybody attacks about the Silver Age. And we talked about this on a different podcast, but the pink Kryptonite. [00:18:23] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:18:24] Speaker A: Yeah. And immediately goes for that. Okay. [00:18:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:35] Speaker A: But here I didn't think it was funny because, like, the Supergirl issue, when Peter David actually introduces it, and it's like Superman's winking at Jimmy and whatever. That's kind of cute and funny. This is. [00:18:50] Speaker B: It just falls flat. [00:18:52] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. There's all these different kinds of kryptonite. Okay, cool. Next page. Our guy is back in the. In the alley and the dogs are very angry. [00:19:12] Speaker B: Oh, no. [00:19:13] Speaker A: About something. [00:19:18] Speaker B: Dogs are angry. This is no good. Can't have that. It's. At least my dogs are quiet and not angry because I don't know why. [00:19:28] Speaker A: The dogs were yelling, but I think they're yelling at this book because it's so terrible. [00:19:33] Speaker B: Oh. [00:19:37] Speaker A: Anyway, we've got our guy dying here, and he refers to all the heroes looking down from their satellite headquarters, which is either a reference to the Justice League in their satellite or Crisis on Infinite Earths, because it looks more like that actually in the art to me. [00:19:55] Speaker B: Kind of. [00:19:56] Speaker A: Heroes are gathered on the satellite. [00:19:58] Speaker B: Got a Batman looking guy. Got a. Got a bunch of different characters that look very much like analogs of everybody from Crisis. [00:20:07] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's fine. In the weird thing, though, is, again, it's okay for the critique to jump around. Like, that's totally fine. But I thought we were critiquing the Silver Age and we're well into, like, things that are, you know, 10 years before the book, as opposed to, like, 20 or 30, which. That's fine. Speaking all of Comic Stan, the narrator, continues. The narrator, main character, He's. [00:20:37] Speaker B: He's got main character energy, as the kids say. [00:20:41] Speaker A: Yeah, well, he's still. He's telling the people just to listen to him. [00:20:45] Speaker B: Just listen to me, man. [00:20:46] Speaker A: And he just wants to talk about comics, so, I mean, I get that. I think there's been times when I've just wanted to talk about comics and nobody else wants to. [00:20:54] Speaker B: I know. [00:20:57] Speaker A: That's why we're here. [00:20:58] Speaker B: That's why we're here. [00:20:59] Speaker A: Yeah. So. [00:21:00] Speaker B: And if you. If you downloaded this podcast, I'm sorry for you. [00:21:05] Speaker A: We are definitely talking about a comic. I'm going to talk about more comics. We get anyway. We get a reference to kind of putting away your toys in a matchbox, but to Nanoman Comics in Stellar Comics. Here's a part I will read, he says, alone in my bedroom, teaching myself to draw superheroes, listening to Radio Lichtenstein, changing from a child to a teenager. Do you know what Radio Lichtenstein is? Because that's clearly a reference to something, right? I mean, it's not just Radio Free, a Radio Free Europe reference, is it? [00:21:44] Speaker B: I don't know. I, I, I am not familiar. [00:21:48] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, no, it's a real thing. Radio Lichtenstein, often shortened to Radio L, is the public radio station of Liechtenstein. [00:21:56] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [00:21:57] Speaker A: Is the first and primary station to broadcast in Liechtenstein. The primary podcast is local news, world news, music, sports events and podcasts. Okay, well, there you go. It is a real thing. [00:22:09] Speaker B: It's a real thing, folks. [00:22:12] Speaker A: So it was founded in 1995, though. [00:22:16] Speaker B: Interesting. [00:22:18] Speaker A: So this was put out in 96. So is that an analog or like. Yeah, no, I'm. [00:22:23] Speaker B: That he was making something up and. [00:22:25] Speaker A: It was actually real and it became true. [00:22:28] Speaker B: It became true. Wow, that's, that would be crazy if he, if he like, like predicted. [00:22:36] Speaker A: He's spanning the multiverse. Okay, yeah, he, he, he threw something. [00:22:40] Speaker B: Out there and it became real. [00:22:42] Speaker A: Everything, everywhere, all at once. [00:22:44] Speaker B: Exactly. Oh my gosh. Hot dog fingers for days. [00:22:49] Speaker A: Welcome to the Power Hour, featuring your right to royal, right royal ruler, Ken King. [00:22:54] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [00:22:58] Speaker A: I mean, it could be true. Okay, wait. So I'm reading back in this wiki article. The station aims to showcase Liechtenstein culture, entertainment and music and other aspects of Lichtenstein. Its musical music style is described as adult contemporary of the mix of 70s and 80s songs. Sounds terrible. [00:23:19] Speaker B: Sounds great. Sounds exactly what I listen to on. [00:23:21] Speaker A: A daily basis, like Jack fm. [00:23:27] Speaker B: Kind of. [00:23:27] Speaker A: Does that even exist anymore? [00:23:29] Speaker B: Sure, yeah, it does. It's on my radio in the car. [00:23:34] Speaker A: Of course it is. [00:23:36] Speaker B: Of course. [00:23:36] Speaker A: Touch your heart. [00:23:37] Speaker B: Why would it not be? [00:23:39] Speaker A: Because my radio defaults to 1077 before I can plug in a podcast. [00:23:44] Speaker B: The funky monkey's not around anymore. [00:23:47] Speaker A: Darn. Well, anyway. [00:23:53] Speaker B: So I'm gonna get my jams at. [00:23:57] Speaker A: We flip the page and we get a nuclear bomb scare reference, which is cool. And it looks like all the superheroes are now in a bomber overlooking the earth. [00:24:10] Speaker B: Oh, man. [00:24:11] Speaker A: And this guy can't get anybody to listen to him about what's happening. And then we flip a page again and we get to what's presumably the gentleman's area of a city. Yeah, and I don't see anything on it. [00:24:36] Speaker B: It says, gents. [00:24:37] Speaker A: He does say, maybe that's the bathroom. It's the bathroom. It's the bathroom. I get it. Well, we do get into the bathroom too, but now I don't see any women on the street, do you? [00:24:49] Speaker B: Doesn't look like there's any women on the street. [00:24:51] Speaker A: Except we do have one in the bathroom, so that's Fine. [00:24:54] Speaker B: But. [00:24:59] Speaker A: We get a guy who's about to shoot up with something called Crystal talking about how it's an imaginary story. That's an easy reference. All the Superman stories in the Silver Age that were not in their main line were called an imaginary story. So you'd be like, what happens when Lois and Lane and Clark Kent are married and their kids grow up? An imaginary tale. So that is pretty common. That one is pretty easy to pick out. Yeah. But they do a little inside critique of it and say, well, I heard it kills you. But they're referring to the crystal. But you're not going to listen to me. This is the real story. So back again, the narrator sort of trying to split with reality. Right. There is another reference in here. This character looks strangely like somebody he references because at some point I'm forgetting which page, but he says, I think it's this one. He says, I'm the last boy on Earth. [00:26:05] Speaker B: Uh huh. [00:26:07] Speaker A: Do you know what that's referencing? [00:26:09] Speaker B: I don't. [00:26:11] Speaker A: You don't? Come on. [00:26:12] Speaker B: I don't. [00:26:13] Speaker A: One of Jack Kirby's most famous, at least DC characters. [00:26:19] Speaker B: Oh, is it? Hold on a second, hold on a second. No, no, no, no, no. [00:26:32] Speaker A: Commandee, the last boy on Earth. [00:26:34] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Oh, he does kind of look like. [00:26:41] Speaker A: You know, who, who, who Commandee's grandfather was in the Jack kirby verse. [00:26:45] Speaker B: No. [00:26:47] Speaker A: 1 person named Buddy Blank. [00:26:49] Speaker B: Oh, tell me more. [00:26:54] Speaker A: Well, we did like six podcasts on it. Six or so. Because when Buddy Blank gets zapped by a special satellite, he transforms. [00:27:11] Speaker B: Oh my gosh. No, no. Omac. Yeah, no. [00:27:22] Speaker A: That'S why killing me here. Well, anyway. [00:27:24] Speaker B: Well, I was almost gonna say. I almost was thinking it was omac. I was close. I almost said. I almost said omac. [00:27:33] Speaker A: I was that close. [00:27:34] Speaker B: I was that close, people. If I. If I said, oh, Dan would have said, no, you're wrong. [00:27:41] Speaker A: No, I would said, no, you're right. But anyway, yeah, yeah, he says, sometimes I feel so low like the last boy on earth. Oh, Mac, I don't want it real no more. So, yeah, and this. He looks like Commandee. [00:27:59] Speaker B: He looks like Kirk. Like a grown up commandeer cabin. [00:28:07] Speaker A: So we get an advertisement for Saint of killers. A preacher special. We get an Advertisement for the 21st century is here. Matrix caught deep by DC Comics. Which, by the way, we'll have to tell this story someday because that never happens. [00:28:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm. I'm sitting there looking at all this stuff and I'm like, they all sound. [00:28:29] Speaker A: Awesome, but yeah, like an ongoing Series by Howard Chaikin. Like that sounds amazing. Yeah, I. I would, I would do that. [00:28:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:44] Speaker A: And I'm not exactly sure what happened here. We may have to dive into. We may have to phone a friend on this one. [00:28:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Because I'm. I mean. Yeah. It just. It all sound like. All of these sound interesting. They all sound interesting. [00:29:03] Speaker A: Well, we'll find out next episode. So I'm not going to spoil it. It actually doesn't come out under the Matrix label. It comes out under a different label. I'm not exactly sure why I just looked it up. Cyberella runs 12 issues. That's it. So there's your imprint right there. [00:29:22] Speaker B: Okay. [00:29:24] Speaker A: Okay. [00:29:26] Speaker B: More to come. [00:29:26] Speaker A: Well, our Tiffany leaves the the restroom and heads up the stairs and runs into Flex. And Flex asks Fur or she asks Flex if he's looking for some hot action. And he says that the only woman he loved died a victim of the war against something. Something he's not really sure. And once she finds out that she can't get anything from him, he. She sends him down to take care of her friend who's dying, presumably. And druggie Commandee says, you can't kill what's already dead. And then looks very commandy as the blonde hair comes back out and everything. And then he says, I just remembered how to turn on my solo vision. Do you know what that's referencing? Because I didn't get that. [00:30:37] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:30:38] Speaker A: Okay. Well, he's become cosmically aware. So like one hell of a drug induced coma. [00:30:47] Speaker B: Whoa. [00:30:49] Speaker A: And then we get back inside and they're all like, his solo vision burned me. And Flex is going to get him to a hospital and then Flex remembers. Or well, we're not quite there yet. So he's in his drug adduced coma and he remembers he can see a sky full of them and he looks up and sees the legion of legions flying through the sky. Lots of superheroes. [00:31:26] Speaker B: Lots of them, yes. [00:31:27] Speaker A: This is sort of the author's mind expansion. Like imagining all these cool things they could create. [00:31:33] Speaker B: Maybe. [00:31:35] Speaker A: And then we flip the page and one of my favorite things that happens about this book is we get an advertisement for Aztec. And why is this important? [00:31:50] Speaker B: I don't know, Dan. Tell me. [00:31:53] Speaker A: Well, Greg, Aztec was an amazing product. [00:31:59] Speaker B: The. The car. Yeah, I thought it was really cool looking. I mean, I couldn't believe Pontiac put out such a cool looking car. You could put a tent on the back and camp in it. So neat. [00:32:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I'm happy because Aztec was created by Grant Morrison and Mark Miller. And just in our discussion of this book and how much I appreciate reading it. Yeah. Aztec was Aztec the Ultimate Man. Volume one lasted a whole ten issues of Cool. And Grant Morrison kills Aztec off in his Justice League run. [00:32:44] Speaker B: I see. [00:32:46] Speaker A: So created in 1996, death in 97. 2000. [00:32:52] Speaker B: 2000. [00:32:53] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah. [00:32:57] Speaker B: 10 issues. [00:32:57] Speaker A: So, yeah, apparently people thought this hero was amazing. I mean, with that outfit that. I mean, I would say that perhaps the people that created the Pontiac Aztec used this costume as the inspiration for the design. [00:33:16] Speaker B: I would say probably. I mean, it looks very similar. [00:33:21] Speaker A: Yeah. He is the one who waits. [00:33:24] Speaker B: He is the one who waits. [00:33:25] Speaker A: He is the one who waits. [00:33:27] Speaker B: If you drive an Aztec, you'll be the one who's waiting too. [00:33:31] Speaker A: That's fair. He is the one who waits. Do you think that's Walter White under the costume? [00:33:38] Speaker B: It could be. It's his alter. [00:33:39] Speaker A: Alter ego, the Aztec. [00:33:42] Speaker B: Yeah, when he. When he's. When he's not cooking meth with Jesse, he's like dreaming about being a superhero. And he dogs this costume and he's like, I'm the Aztec. I'm the one who waits. I mean, but it's funny because it's not. But he's like waiting tables. But in this costume, the Aztec is. [00:34:01] Speaker A: Only the kind of convoluted superhero that the minds of Grant Morrison and Mark Miller could combine to create. Right. He has a helmet with vision related powers. Is he seriously stealing? Stealing? Peacemaker's gimmick? Come on. It is. What the hell? Of all the gimmicks in comics you were going to go for to steal. Especially at this time. Stealing. Peacemaker's gimmick. [00:34:27] Speaker B: Let's. Let's take it. [00:34:29] Speaker A: Also is a mini Cerebro, apparently. And it says. Hang on, I gotta read this. [00:34:34] Speaker B: Okay, read it. [00:34:35] Speaker A: One helmet provides vision related powers, enhanced mental abilities. Looks cool. No, it doesn't. It doesn't look cool. [00:34:47] Speaker B: He's wearing a starfish on his head. [00:34:50] Speaker A: Oh, well, maybe that's his problem. He went against Starro and got stuck to his head. [00:34:55] Speaker B: And a star on his face. [00:34:57] Speaker A: Number two, magic mirror. Not just an emblem. It's an occult power source on his chest. Number three, the city build on a rich man's whim. What dark secret does it hold? Capitalism defeated by the Aztec. 4 costume loaded with weaponry. Oh, I'm sure. And it has big gauntlets and big feet. Gauntlets and pockets. I don't see an. Well, I don't see any pockets, but I see a belt. It's a 90s costume. That's for sure. [00:35:28] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:35:30] Speaker A: And five, a gargoyle. Weird. It says meeting with Destiny this June and that Destiny would be a 10 issue run. [00:35:39] Speaker B: Well, I mean, in the 90s gargoyles were cool because all the kids in the 90s love gargoyles, right? [00:35:46] Speaker A: I mean, only if you were an ex Star Trek Next generation actor and you needed voice work. [00:35:51] Speaker B: That's true, but I mean, I can't wait till the live action comes out. [00:35:56] Speaker A: Live action gargoyles. [00:35:58] Speaker B: I mean, I'm hoping, or I mean maybe they'll make a really cool animation like, like a, like live action animation. I don't know. My fingers are crossed. [00:36:09] Speaker A: Well, we get an, we also get an house ad for Paradox Press is 100% true. [00:36:15] Speaker B: See, now that's something I would have read. [00:36:18] Speaker A: But you didn't. [00:36:19] Speaker B: I didn't, but it's something I would have picked up if I saw it because it looks cool. [00:36:25] Speaker A: Well, we flipped a page. In his drug addled state, the commandee says they loved us. They always loved us. They come, they've come to save us all. They're going to take me with them because Command. You always wanted to be a hero, right? I guess. And then Flex is like, hey, this man gave me a piece of paper with a magic word on it. [00:36:48] Speaker B: But. [00:36:48] Speaker A: He can't find it and the guy falls into piss and dies. [00:36:54] Speaker B: That sucks. [00:36:56] Speaker A: Now I do think it's interesting because if this is a critique of the Silver Age that spans a little bit further, but Shazam Gets brought back in the 70s, right, as Shazam, Not Captain Marvel. But yeah, you know, once DC sues Fawcett Comics into oblivion, Captain Marvel does disappear. It's almost like the magic word was gone. So, you know, okay, am I trying to, am I trying to look at this too literally? Is this my problem? [00:37:23] Speaker B: I mean, maybe yes, maybe no. I don't know. I mean, listeners, you tell us if you think Dan is looking at too literally listeners. [00:37:32] Speaker A: Oh, please read this so you can enjoy this just like I am. I mean, it is fantastic. [00:37:38] Speaker B: I think, I think honestly, like I, I personally, I mean, at this point in the book, I'm personally enjoying all the subtle references or not too subtle references to things. And when Dan points out the things that I don't understand, I'm like, oh, wow. Yeah, that makes sense. But for the things that I do pick up on. And I'm sure if you're a listener and you go back and you're like, hey, I'm gonna give it a going to say, oh, wow, yeah, no, that's pretty interesting, pretty neat. Along with the artwork and other stuff. [00:38:09] Speaker A: Well, somebody's going to know more of these references than us too. Like we have fans of the show that know more about comics than we do, and that's fine. Yeah, but we flip the page and we get the hard sell. [00:38:20] Speaker B: Uhuh. [00:38:21] Speaker A: Now we get them. Get the narrator. I've got a theory about comics. Right? It all started back in the 30s and 40s. Yeah, they call it the Golden Age. Collectors I'm talking about. It was pretty simple then. Muscle men in costumes, idealized masculine figures. The Charles Atlas hard body, homoerotic wish fulfillment. Then came the Silver Age, when superheroes were reinvented. And that's when it started to go a bit weird. Strange transformations, multiple realities, dreams, hoaxes. It was like the hard body began to turn soft. The masculine linear is becoming fluid. Stamina always changing shape. And all that stuff was like a sad pro, like a prophecy of the arrival of LSD on the streets of America. The comic writers and artists intuited the social transformation of their work. [00:39:10] Speaker B: It's. It's crazy that he got a picture of Robbie Williams in there holding a banana. I'm like, I knew he put that in there just for you, Dan, because he's singing that song in your head that you love so much, your favorite song. And that's why you want to go see that movie where he's a monkey. [00:39:32] Speaker A: I hate you talking about his life story. Oh God. All right, well, I got tickets. [00:39:41] Speaker B: I got tickets for us to go see that. [00:39:44] Speaker A: No, you didn't. [00:39:45] Speaker B: I did. You're like, you're questioning it because is it real or is it not real? I mean, it's Robbie Williams. [00:39:54] Speaker A: I mean, I can get us tickets to go see Fuel and Lit at. [00:40:03] Speaker B: White. I'm too old. [00:40:05] Speaker A: You do it in your hands. [00:40:08] Speaker B: What? [00:40:09] Speaker A: It's in your hands again. Bleed out. [00:40:16] Speaker B: Oh, man. [00:40:16] Speaker A: It's feel, man. [00:40:18] Speaker B: I know it is. [00:40:20] Speaker A: What? Or were you just wondering where your car was? Is it in the front yard? Did you come in through the window? I did. [00:40:27] Speaker B: Oh, exactly. [00:40:30] Speaker A: Well, tell me why. [00:40:32] Speaker B: Oh my God, why? I have. [00:40:36] Speaker A: You know the songs? Yes. [00:40:37] Speaker B: No, it's the irony is I have the. The CD in the car. [00:40:41] Speaker A: Well, you know, it's on a Wednesday night in the middle of February, a week ago. [00:40:46] Speaker B: Ah, it's. [00:40:48] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll get us tickets. [00:40:49] Speaker B: The ironic. No, no, no, no, no. [00:40:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll be getting us tickets. Oh, no, fine. I'll take your wife anyway. [00:40:57] Speaker B: So she'd be like. [00:41:02] Speaker A: So we're there now. Here's something, too. I do like this. Well, I don't. Like is a strong word. We get some more satire. And comic books were definitely a form of escapism. I think definitely for me, probably still a form of escapism. I'm not going to say that I haven't read a whole bunch of comic books as I'm doing some transitionary life planning recently, because sometimes it's more fun to read comics and clean my office. And comics are fun. [00:41:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:43] Speaker A: But at the end of his life, this man is concerned that we're back to our narrator. Not commanding. [00:41:50] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:41:51] Speaker A: That asking, you know, just making the challenge. Why didn't comics. Why didn't superhero save us from the bomb? And, you know, that was always tough in the golden age. You couldn't really write a comic where the superheroes saved you from Hitler. Right. Because Hitler was real and the Nazis were attacking the world. And if you have the. How did you dance around it? You know, and when they did try it in the Superman quest for peace, that went well. [00:42:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:25] Speaker A: Wakes up and desires destroy all the bombs. [00:42:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:28] Speaker A: And, you know, and then later versions of Superman, you know, it's interesting because, like, quest for peace was not well received, but they have had later versions of Superman do that. But he's always evil when he does it. Right. Like, they just actually did a movie adaptation of the video game. What is wrong with my brain? In the middle of the podcast. Why is it freezing injustice? And in that version. Yes. Superman goes and forces peace on everyone and destroys everybody's weapons. And he's evil when he does it. Right. Yeah. Why? I. I mean, I do contemplate this. This is a fair contemplation. Right. Why are you evil if you're stopping war? [00:43:09] Speaker B: I think it's because. [00:43:10] Speaker A: Stopping the military industrial complex. [00:43:12] Speaker B: I think it's because of the idea that Superman's using his power to take away free will. [00:43:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Free will to murder each other. Doesn't sound like it's such a great thing. [00:43:22] Speaker B: It's what makes people human. I hate. I hate to argue it that way, but it's. [00:43:28] Speaker A: And maybe we should reconceptualize that. I feel like I could give more people free will if they didn't have the mass weapons to murder people, and they would actually ascend to a higher level of thinking. [00:43:38] Speaker B: Give me a three point. You wouldn't be making an extreme plan. [00:43:43] Speaker A: The what? [00:43:44] Speaker B: Give me a three playing plan. [00:43:47] Speaker A: You know, I don't have a solution here. I don't have Superman to go destroy him. For me. [00:43:51] Speaker B: Well, super that's my plan is Superman's going to destroy all the weapons and enforce peace. Well, I win. [00:44:00] Speaker A: And now he's getting even more. Why didn't the comic stop mom and dad from fighting? Yeah, this part gets really dark. Who was in the wash house with me? I feel sick. Is that the pills I took? I'm dying now. So he switches back from telling that story and feels like he's holding the hands of the aliens he doesn't like. Well, we flipped the page and now we're totally back into a Flex Mentalo comic again. [00:44:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:30] Speaker A: And Flex is at a bar and he's trying to find the Fact. Again, not the hunt. The fact. [00:44:39] Speaker B: The fact. [00:44:40] Speaker A: Not the spirit. The Fact. He's trying to find the Fact and the bartender is basically giving him the complete run around. And here's where we get one more dig at the Legion of Superheroes. Because Morale Kitten has come who's tattooed an entire. Her entire body to look like a cat so she can join the Legion of Legions and try out for them. And then she seems to maybe know where the Fact is. But she's really hyped about the ultimate super team with Lord Limbo the Gentleman Gorilla, Rex Ritz and Sparkly the Grammar Boy. Glamour Boy. You know, you know when you're several minutes into a. A shitty comedy routine and it still hasn't hit. Yeah, that's where we're at right now in this book. Because, like the meta analysis is okay, but none of the jokes are funny. [00:45:40] Speaker B: It's like a video that you can't skip. [00:45:43] Speaker A: Yeah. And like this, this character, like this veiled attempt. Like I've seen better done mock ups of Legion triads than this for sure. And I like. My argument with Grant Morrison is that I am. This is the same way I feel about a lot of things in academia. I'm clearly just not smart enough to get it. If I was just smarter, this would be funny and it would make sense. [00:46:11] Speaker B: I don't think so. [00:46:15] Speaker A: Well. [00:46:18] Speaker B: You'Re very smart, Dan. [00:46:19] Speaker A: And I don't think I just got postmodernism. I would be cool. [00:46:23] Speaker B: I, I don't, I don't think, I don't think that's the case. I think it's. I, I think it's just that. It's just, it's a, it's, it's a fire hose effect. It's just so much stuff that there's no way, there's no way anyone is going to take it all in. [00:46:43] Speaker A: It's a. Well, we Flipped a page to get even more. We meet an astronaut on one of the last Apollo missions. He's now a drunk. And when nobody cared about the Apollo missions and he says he was at the moon. Oh, and we flip the page and we get an ad for. Click here. Experience the new DC Comics Online on America Online, where you can chat with the likes of Chuck Dixon and Ron Mars, Mark Wade, Alex Ross, Dan Raspler, James Robinson, Grant Morrison. Whoa, Chuck Dixon again. I mean, two times. Can we go back in time so I can chat with these folks on America Online that I couldn't afford back then? [00:47:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:22] Speaker A: Well, now we get an interlude in the form of a letters page on. [00:47:27] Speaker B: My mom's American Online more often. [00:47:29] Speaker A: Yeah, you would have. Well, we get a. We get an interlude with the form of a letters page. In this case, this is where they'd be giving you the real history of a hero or something like when they were relaunching a book. In this case, we get a completely fictional version of. Of Flex and we find out that Flex was created by. I have so many this page. I think why I came into the podcast with a bad attitude was this page right here. [00:48:01] Speaker B: Okay. [00:48:03] Speaker A: Because we get two main characters here. In the page that created Flex. We've got Chuck, the chief Fiasco, who is the artist, veteran artist, who created him. And we get the ambiguously gay owner of the comic company that's trying to create, originally creating homoerotic art. And then it blossoms, pun intended, into a comics line. Because I guess all of the GIs are secretly gay and want to read these things. I. Okay, yeah. [00:48:50] Speaker B: It could be the sour taste in your mouth to. [00:48:54] Speaker A: I. [00:48:54] Speaker B: After reading this, I was. [00:48:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm like, awesome. I mean, I get it. I don't know. Again, I'm thinking. I was thinking of things. I mean, early on we did the Heavens to Murgatroyd books, right? That was really good. This is. This seems like a cheap attempt to makes, again, make something funny. That's not like, it's just really sad. And maybe if it wasn't supposed to be funny, that's fine. But I found it to be really sad. Like, as we learn, eventually the gay man goes crazy, of course, because gay men can't function in any sort of capacity because that's how this is written. And this was pretty stereotypical of the time you. You know, this is like an Alice in Wonderland type gay scenario where the gay man can't function off his pedestal. Right. Like as soon as he tries to do something. And anyway, the gay man gets into publishing, his comics become. He goes crazy. They introduce lines of heroes called Lady Liberty. How do you like this one? The Jap Smasher. That was fantastic. Yankee Poodle Andy and the Fighting Skull. So let's just make it even worse in here. And then Chuck Fiasco says he was drunk and stoned all the time, gambling all his money. Eventually he says that the Ashley Dubois, the publisher who's. He never says he's gay, but is clearly gay by everything they allude to, goes crazy and thinks the Nazis are going to win. And so they publish. Instead of being sued by DC Comics out of existence like Fawcett, they publish comics where the Jap Smasher is changed into. Is tortured and becomes superhero. H I R O. [00:50:53] Speaker B: Uh huh. [00:50:54] Speaker A: Yeah. And I assume this is written for shock value. [00:50:59] Speaker B: Probably. [00:51:00] Speaker A: It's again, it's like the bad comedy act doesn't work. And now we're. Now we're throwing abject, you know, racism into it. [00:51:12] Speaker B: Yeah, it's very Howard Stern. [00:51:15] Speaker A: So now we've got the. The gay stereotype and we've got racial slurs and racism. Let's just throw it all into one page here. This is fucking fantastic. [00:51:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:51:29] Speaker A: Anyway, they released some comics that implied that The Axis one. Those comics were shipped, apparently, and couldn't be pulled back when the allies won. So the company goes out of business, they get put on trial for treason, and Ashley dubois dies in a gay sex dungeon. Did I miss anything? [00:51:52] Speaker B: I don't think so. I think you summed it up. [00:51:58] Speaker A: I. What? [00:52:00] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. It's. It is a horrific thing to put in a bunch. Again, where's the editor? Like what? [00:52:13] Speaker A: Well, we flip the page in the. We flip the page. Astronauts. He's the watchman on the moon. Oh, hey. [00:52:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:52:21] Speaker A: And then he's like, nobody believes me. Nobody believes me. Superheroes exist. And then Flex runs into Superman as they leave the bar, mean Clark Kent and. Oh, God, why am I still doing this book? [00:52:41] Speaker B: Because. [00:52:45] Speaker A: Is it because I'm a completist? [00:52:47] Speaker B: Yes. [00:52:52] Speaker A: I mean, this is like eating milk, man. [00:52:56] Speaker B: That's cheese. [00:52:58] Speaker A: No, I wasn't thinking of the cheese. I was thinking of the nasty, chunky old milk that's in your fridge that you think it's still good and you take a sip and there's like crunchy bits in it. That's what this is like. [00:53:09] Speaker B: Like the time when I was in college and my. My college girlfriend made chocolate chip cookies and we didn't have any milk, so I went to the store to go get milk and I Just grabbed the first milk that I saw, and I got home and poured myself a glass to have with the cookies, and I was like, awesome. And I dunked the cookie and pulled it out, and it was the thickest milk I ever saw. But I went for it anyways and didn't realize I had bought buttermilk and threw the cookie in my mouth. [00:53:36] Speaker A: Wash it down. I mean, that went better than I thought it was going to go, but. [00:53:44] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, no. Adam comes in, he's like, what did you do? And I'm just, like, half pukey. And it was just like. And he looks. And he was like, you're drinking buttermilk. You're disgusting. [00:53:58] Speaker A: They don't sell buttermilk at the store anymore. [00:54:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I don't know. It was the 90s, but, yeah, it was gross. [00:54:09] Speaker A: Well, anyway, we get. We get to the next page after he leaves the bar, and there's a man outside the bar who looks like the Question. Hey. As the face. Yeah, but not the fact. [00:54:24] Speaker B: Not the fact. [00:54:25] Speaker A: That's a fact. And he. He tosses seven silver coins into his hand. I wonder what that's a reference to. And he calls. I make up the seven. They didn't say seven silver coins. But he says, I. He says, what happened to your face? And he says, I sold it for secret knowledge. See, the Question Men call me the Mystery Pilgrim. Oh, well, they used to, anyhow. And now they just call me asshole if they can get. Call me anything at all. Guess I was just lost my way in the dark. But he says, you're almost there, Flex. You're a couple blocks from the fact. And he says, if you get there, it's a teleport tube. It leads to Satellite hq, a Faculty X, and Legion of Legions. So maybe we'll get to go see the satellite. [00:55:18] Speaker B: Oh, hey, a teleport tube. Like a boom tube. Yeah. [00:55:24] Speaker A: All right. Kaboom. [00:55:27] Speaker B: Kaboom. [00:55:29] Speaker A: And yeah. And then we get back to our boy in the alley. [00:55:41] Speaker B: Not doing good. [00:55:42] Speaker A: And he looks like he's not doing so well. [00:55:47] Speaker B: No, he is. He is not right. [00:55:50] Speaker A: And he basically says he's collapsing into it and it's taking him to hell. And we get next issue. Crisis on Earth Omega. Oh, boy, we flipped the page. We've got some advertisements for some Vertigo books that are all much better than this one just by default. Literal default, I have no idea. Oh, except probably the Invisibles, which is written by Grant Morrison. And we get an ad for Good and Cocky, some wonderful albums that I've never heard of. [00:56:28] Speaker B: You never heard of Tracy Bonham? [00:56:30] Speaker A: I've heard of Tracy Bonham, but I've not heard of this album. [00:56:33] Speaker B: Oh, Pulp. [00:56:37] Speaker A: And. Yeah, there we go. So that's it. Well, it was a comic book with references to things. [00:56:51] Speaker B: I'm just glad that I didn't pick this. This is. This is great. And Alyssa didn't pick this. Dan picked it. Everyone. Dan. [00:56:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I. Listener. I, I, I definitely think that maybe some. We need a, like, Godzilla and King Kong palate cleanser soon. [00:57:11] Speaker B: Something. Oh, my gosh. This is. [00:57:16] Speaker A: And there are two more issues of this. [00:57:18] Speaker B: It's. It's wild. I don't know. I mean, like, if anything, I mean, it's a. It's. It's. It's an interesting retrospective of comics history. It's. The artwork is. Is very magnificent. These are the things I have to say. Confusing as hell and problematic in places. [00:57:43] Speaker A: Slightly problematic. [00:57:45] Speaker B: There's a. There's and, and, and. And it has a. It's. It's like. You ever listen to an Afghan Wigs? You ever listen to an Afghan Wigs album? [00:57:58] Speaker A: No. [00:57:58] Speaker B: It sounds really good. And then you listen to the lyrics, and it just makes you sad. [00:58:04] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I think. I think this book makes me sad. I would say that you should read it and look, if you like the episodes where I hate everything about the comic, well, you are in luck. You're here. [00:58:19] Speaker B: You're here. [00:58:20] Speaker A: I, I will definitely get to the next issue. Hopefully, I won't hate everything in that issue. I did read a little bit of it, and I don't hate everything so far. So there's a start. I mean, but they have a Dark Knight Returns cover on the next issue. [00:58:40] Speaker B: So, I mean, everything can't be stuff that you love. That's. [00:58:47] Speaker A: That. [00:58:48] Speaker B: I mean, it's. Comics are life. And if it's. If, if comics are a representation of life, some in some way, it can't always be what you love. It can't be always, like, you know, it can't be perfect all the time. [00:59:02] Speaker A: You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you'll get what you need. I didn't know what I loved or needed in this book, so. Oh, yeah, you did. [00:59:14] Speaker B: You just didn't know it yet, Dan. You didn't know it. If you look inside yourself, that's where the bright shines. I don't know. You're like, just, I'm done. Shut up. [00:59:33] Speaker A: Yep. I mean, I'm done with this book, so. [00:59:37] Speaker B: I mean, you're done with this issue? [00:59:40] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, yeah, I'm done with this year. Right. We had to do more of the book. [00:59:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:59:49] Speaker A: Yeah. All right, so quiz question. [00:59:52] Speaker B: Okay. [00:59:53] Speaker A: For you. [00:59:54] Speaker B: Okay. [00:59:56] Speaker A: We brought up Mark Miller. What's the best thing he wrote for dc? There aren't very many things he wrote for dc, so this should be really easy. [01:00:09] Speaker B: Hello there. I, I couldn't tell you. [01:00:15] Speaker A: Red Sun. [01:00:18] Speaker B: Hmm. Didn't read it. [01:00:21] Speaker A: What? [01:00:22] Speaker B: Didn't read it. [01:00:26] Speaker A: We ever have to do Mark Miller. That's what we'll be reading. [01:00:29] Speaker B: All right, that's, that's fair. [01:00:31] Speaker A: Because, you know, do you know the premise for it? [01:00:34] Speaker B: It's Russian Superman. Yeah, I mean, but I didn't read it. I know, I know what the book is, but I didn't read it. I, I, I, my, I, I've read one, maybe two of his things. [01:00:50] Speaker A: You don't like him, do you? [01:00:52] Speaker B: I don't. It's not that I don't like him. I just, I, I, I, I, I read a lot of other things. That's a fair assessment. I, I. [01:01:05] Speaker A: Did you know that Grant Morrison created Damien Wayne? [01:01:09] Speaker B: I did not know that. Valeria, we'll have to read some of that. No, you don't want to, you don't want to. Don't want to watch him jump into a well of, of sadness and try to. [01:01:32] Speaker A: I'm just gonna keep saying what he says until the end of the show. Yeah. [01:01:36] Speaker B: Okay. Okay. [01:01:38] Speaker A: Well, that wraps up a fun and joyful episode of Funny Book Forensics where you got to experience the abject joy of this comic. [01:01:52] Speaker B: Oh, yes. [01:01:56] Speaker A: And we can't bring you to wait to bring you back again and again and again for, for more of it. [01:02:01] Speaker B: Yes. Excitement. I'm excited. [01:02:08] Speaker A: Let love bleed out in your hands. In your hands. [01:02:13] Speaker B: Yeah. My car's in the backyard. [01:02:17] Speaker A: I climbed in through the window and found this book. [01:02:23] Speaker B: Why are my clothes off? [01:02:26] Speaker A: It's a good question. Why am I pooping in an alley? [01:02:30] Speaker B: Because an alien's holding my hand and. [01:02:33] Speaker A: Well, whatever happened to our sidekick gang anyway? [01:02:37] Speaker B: I don't know. They disappeared. [01:02:40] Speaker A: I was expecting them to show off this issue. [01:02:42] Speaker B: I was expecting them to. I think they're just a one time deal. Unless they show up to help Flex later in the story, maybe, who knows? More to come. [01:02:59] Speaker A: Oh, and by the way, I'm gonna apologize for the last two episodes. Apparently I'm ignorant, but if I misgendered Grant Morrison, I apologize in any of the two episodes. [01:03:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:03:16] Speaker A: Because they prefer they them, so they them. Okay, I probably screwed up and I apologize because I didn't know. So I just pulled up an article about it, and I will adjust that moving forward. [01:03:34] Speaker B: Fair. [01:03:36] Speaker A: Anything else you'd like to add? [01:03:39] Speaker B: I. I am good. [01:03:42] Speaker A: Well, Greg is the author of two fan multiple books. One is Absolute Zero's Camp Launchpad. You can buy that now. [01:03:51] Speaker B: You can. [01:03:52] Speaker A: It's about kids who go to the third best base camp. [01:03:56] Speaker B: It is a pretty fantastic camp. Probably the worst, but for them, it's the best. [01:04:01] Speaker A: And that's fun and you should read it. And you could also go get Junior Braves of the Apocalypse because it's still fun. [01:04:10] Speaker B: If you like kids fighting zombies. Who doesn't set you. [01:04:15] Speaker A: And go buy issues of Starlight, which the Kickstarter has done. So you could go buy them on Amazon even if you wanted the PDFs. [01:04:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Is it there? [01:04:23] Speaker A: I think so. [01:04:25] Speaker B: Oh, wow. See, these are things that I'm unaware of. [01:04:28] Speaker A: I don't know. You want me to look live while you plug some other stuff? [01:04:32] Speaker B: Got anything else? I don't think I have anything else to plug. I mean, just. [01:04:40] Speaker A: Just that. [01:04:41] Speaker B: And then the upcoming episode of the Grind Bin that's getting released shortly with Michael Tanner of Absolute Zeros and Junior Braves of the Apocalypse. But. And. [01:04:56] Speaker A: Yeah, Starlight, issue three, by Travis Webb and Greg Smith. Kindle price, $5. [01:05:03] Speaker B: Hey, Amazon famous. [01:05:07] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I just couldn't talk about it on Amazon for a while and I forgot. Okay. Only five of them are here, so I'm not sure why. [01:05:16] Speaker B: Probably because we could only upload. Or, like, they were only able to put so many up. [01:05:24] Speaker A: Or Travis just got bored and forgot to put the other three or two up. [01:05:27] Speaker B: Maybe. Maybe. I don't know. [01:05:31] Speaker A: I'll talk to Travis. You can buy all five for 22.99. But wouldn't it be better if you could buy all seven? [01:05:39] Speaker B: I mean, it would be better, but who doesn't like an adventure? [01:05:45] Speaker A: Who doesn't like ending on the happiest book of the series? Number five. [01:05:50] Speaker B: That's right, number five. [01:05:54] Speaker A: Well, I would say if you love this podcast, you could also hear me talk about losing lots of weight and being buff on abs at 50 with Jiu Jitsu War. Paul and Greg. [01:06:10] Speaker B: What? [01:06:11] Speaker A: You're healthy now? [01:06:12] Speaker B: I haven't been there yet. I mean, I, I. Greg, when are. [01:06:17] Speaker A: You coming for your fitness assessment? Next Tuesday. [01:06:20] Speaker B: I. I fit in his assessment. [01:06:21] Speaker A: Next Tuesday or next Monday? Oh, you are off next Monday. [01:06:25] Speaker B: I am not. I am not off next Monday. We get Monday's off Monday, but we are not. [01:06:32] Speaker A: Well, you're gonna have to just take My day off. [01:06:35] Speaker B: I can't. I've already taken tomorrow off to take Baba to the doctor. [01:06:42] Speaker A: Well, it's time for you to come down after you finish work on that Monday. [01:06:50] Speaker B: We'll see. We'll see, we'll see. We'll see. He's trying to guilt me. He's trying to. He's trying to guilt me into this. [01:06:56] Speaker A: I'm not guilting you. I'm. I'm making you uphold your commitment. [01:06:59] Speaker B: Trying to make me uphold this commitment to be on his. Be in his quest. [01:07:04] Speaker A: You don't have to be on my quest. You need to be on your quest. That's what this is. If you don't want to be on a quest, that's fine. [01:07:10] Speaker B: I'm on the quest. [01:07:11] Speaker A: You know what your quest in the future can be? To digest Grant Morrison comics. I can give you a whole bunch. [01:07:18] Speaker B: Okay. [01:07:20] Speaker A: And my quest will be abs at 50. [01:07:24] Speaker B: Abs at 50. [01:07:26] Speaker A: So. Well, I'll be doing an update this week. Paul. Mr. Paul is out of town at the Kyotera Jiu Jitsu week long. Something where all the Kyotera affiliates go to San Jose and all try to break each other's legs in necks. [01:07:48] Speaker B: Oh, wow. Is it like the. The. The big Cobra Kai fight but for Jiu Jitsu? [01:07:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. I think that. I think that's it. Okay, so he's there. And so we probably won't record this week, but I will. I will promise a status update. Okay. So if you pay attention to the ABS at 50 YouTube channel, you can get a status update on where I'm at. Where is Dan and cool. You'll know because I'll be there. Did you know that your comic on Amazon, Starlight, says the reading age is 15 to 18 years old? [01:08:32] Speaker B: I did not know that. That's. Not that. It should be 18 to or. Yeah, it's. [01:08:39] Speaker A: It should be. [01:08:39] Speaker B: It's an adult comic. [01:08:42] Speaker A: You may want to have one. Travis Webb adjust. [01:08:46] Speaker B: Oh, boy. [01:08:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:08:47] Speaker B: Oh, Travis. [01:08:48] Speaker A: The thing I find mid podcasts that stress you out, which I am always stressed. [01:08:58] Speaker B: Starlight not a children's book. That's. Yeah. So many children coming up trying to buy Starlight for me at comic conventions, and I'm like, not a kid's book. Parents, please. Having to put that in. [01:09:10] Speaker A: You're like, no, these ones right here. You can read this one. [01:09:14] Speaker B: All these over here. This is not a children's book. The COVID looks like a kid's book. It's not a kid's book. [01:09:19] Speaker A: It's not a kid's book. Well, all right. I am done. [01:09:25] Speaker B: All right, me, too. [01:09:26] Speaker A: I guess we will come back next week. Maybe we will do issue three and four when it's an episode, because, wow. I want to be moving on to happier times. [01:09:40] Speaker B: It'll be. It'll be, like, at four times speed. Yeah. He's doing four pages at a time, people. And this happened. Change, change, change, change, change. Okay. And this happened. Yeah. You're like, no. Yes. [01:09:59] Speaker A: Yes. Oh, my gosh. All right, let's end this. I will. I will. I will be back with Greg next week. Bye.