Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Yeah. No more Grant Morrison.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Yes. No more Grant Morrison. We are done. We're done with that.
[00:00:13] Speaker A: And I even worked out. I just, like, I was in such a hurry to get to you. I just left my workout certified Jiu jitsu rash guard on.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: You're just like, I am. I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm worked out, and I'm ready to podcast.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: Let's go. Let's go. Like, I didn't want to miss this. Like, this is exciting.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: It is.
[00:00:32] Speaker A: I have never read these books.
I haven't.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: This is. This is a treat.
Yes.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: I don't know. I don't know if it's a treat. It's something. It's something they.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Dude, this is. This is something like.
I don't know. Like, I. I think it was weird because it's one of those. It's odd to me that it's a book. It's. It's in this universe of stuff that is totally your thing, but it's something that I have read because I was like, you've read?
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Yeah. Should we clue them in?
[00:01:10] Speaker B: I mean, I. I suppose. Yeah, we probably should tell them what we're going to read as we're done with the Grant Morrison stuff. We're done with where? We're done with that. That Flex Mantello.
[00:01:24] Speaker A: Well, let's sort of talk about why I haven't read this too.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: So.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: Yeah, we're done. Like, yeah, we're too. Well, we're going to do Jack Kirby in dc.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: Whoa.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: And what. We're doing some Fourth World stuff. And there's some really good reasons why I have never gone back and read all this stuff. Now, I have certainly read some of the Jack Kirby stuff.
[00:01:44] Speaker B: So.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: So, specifically, I haven't read the Fourth World stuff. Now. I've read Commandee.
We read omac.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: So I had read some of the other Jack Kirby stuff. I'd read the Demon, but I have never gone back and read the Fourth World stuff. And there are a couple reasons why. Okay, number one reason is we were introduced to Dark side. It's kind of just a comedy of, like, timing. We were introduced to Darkseid as kids in the Superpowers TV show and the Superpowers characters. And I thought Darkseid was like a mustache twirling villain and obsessed with Wonder Woman. Yeah. Which is not this at all. No, there's no bondage here. Well.
Well, not in these books. We haven't got to Lash arena yet. And the. The. What are Big Barda's friends called? The.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: Oh, I'm trying to.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: I should know. I should know this from the JLA books.
[00:02:46] Speaker B: I'm trying to think.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: I don't recall off top of my head, but the. They were in the orphanage with Granny Goodness. But they're the. Watch.
Female theories.
[00:02:56] Speaker B: Female fairies.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: Which is interesting because Wonder Woman's golden age daughter in Infinity Inc. Was called email Fairy Fury.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: Fury.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: I don't think you need the qualifier. Yeah, it's fairly obvious. Yeah, but so there was that and then I think the other. You know, so my. And then I started Legion in 84. Or was it 83? But I. My first issue was the Starboy 306 issue and so the reintroduction. And now I'm going really crazy. Hey, we're going to talk about Darkseid, right? Yeah, okay. Eventually. But we're not going to talk about Darkseid.
[00:03:41] Speaker B: Kind of sort of, but not quite. Not exactly, but we'll get there, we promise.
[00:03:45] Speaker A: But Darkseid appeared in Legion of superheroes in 293 and 294. And my first book was 306in would have been. It was cover date December 83. So that book would have come out in the summer, which makes sense because we were on a camping trip. Right. And so I got that and. And then that was my first book. And then I didn't get another one until like the next year and then I started collecting them. So I missed the dark side appearance in the Legion until I had to go back and buy those books a few years later.
And then when I bought those books, I mean the Legion story, the great Darkness Saga is a great story.
And it's interesting now because in the back in the front matter we're. We're reading this out of an omnibus and the issues so have. We're. We're looking at both. Both we've got twofer but the omnibus has a lot a good front matter. Also I've got this really cool book called Old Gods and New.
[00:04:45] Speaker B: It is cool.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: And you have the PDF version if you so desire to read through it too. I have been. Has. Has all these cool like concept art pieces. Like check out that original concept art of Darkseid. So Metron. And. And so. And then you know, the other thing. And then I. I pulled out just for fun just to rub it in checklist. Because you don't have this and this doesn't come in PDF.
[00:05:17] Speaker B: No, no.
[00:05:18] Speaker A: But you know, just kind of thinking about how far into this book you know these books would be and if you were going in Order, you know, looking at everything Jack Kirby has done.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: Right.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: How far do you have to get until you get to the 70s?
[00:05:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: And that's just. It's kind of crazy when you start to think about it.
[00:05:41] Speaker B: So much work. He. He put so much work in.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: And this actually listed in alphabetical order, which is sad because I wish it was in chronological order.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: Ah. So that.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: I mean, I don't. Because I feel like that'd be more confusing, but it'd be really cool to be like. Just open it and be like, oh, the Fourth world is like, three quarters of the way through. Right.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: Boom. Yeah.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: And if you don't know who Jack Kirby is.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: Well, you could refer back to previous episodes in which we talked about him.
[00:06:20] Speaker A: Yeah, well, also. Yeah, I think, like. And we can give folks a quick refresher. Right. So Jack Kirby created. We mentioned this in the past, but Jack Kirby created Captain America.
He worked with Joe Simon a lot. And we mentioned this way back in past episodes. And I'll grab an episode number later at some point, maybe put it in the episode notes. But we.
And then. Oh, when we were talking about omac. So you go back to the OMAC episodes and get some of that history with Jack Kirby. We give you a little bit of the history on, like, how Jack came to DC during those episodes. So we don't spend a ton of time on how Jack came to dc. Except I do have a couple of other points on that because I have new material, so I have the omnibus front. So. Mark Evanier, like one of Jack Kirby's proteges, basically, Jack Kirby had his own studio in LA when he was doing these books for dc. So he's sending his stuff. So he had a couple people working with him to help him, you know, get things back and forth across the country and.
And really wanted to mentor young artists. And there were a couple of things that Avenir said in this one. He said that is really interesting to me is, you know, Marvel just basically lowballed him. And it wasn't that, like, DC gave him a great rate to come over.
They gave him work, and that was the fundamental difference. So they gave him. He said they gave him the same page rate basically as everybody else. They just promised him a minimum amount of work that he would give them. But then also he had to produce that work.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:57] Speaker A: So it was more like just. It was more like a guaranteed contract saying, we want you to do this work, as opposed to him getting, like, a ton of extra money for it or something like that. But in that. That guaranteed money is nice because that gives you the room to create and be free.
[00:08:16] Speaker B: Yeah, totally. And it's having that. That steadiness, too, as a creator. You're, like, able to be like, all right, cool. I know that I've got this lined up, and then there's something next. And there's something next as opposed to, well, is it coming? Is there something else?
[00:08:33] Speaker A: Right.
[00:08:34] Speaker B: So.
[00:08:35] Speaker A: And I feel like that, like, I mean, both. Some people argue, well, if you don't know what's next and you're trying to make money, you're going to be more creative because you're going to try to create something that will sell to people. And I. But I think that statement is correct. I don't think you'll be more creative. I think you'll be creative in a way that produces something that somebody wants.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: Yes and no. Because I. I mean, you will. You will create things that some people want, but not all people. And the right.
[00:09:03] Speaker A: But you have to sell it. Right. If that's your bread, if that's how you're getting to eat.
[00:09:08] Speaker B: But not necessarily do people want it when it comes out? They might want it 10 years later, and then all of a sudden it becomes popular.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: But you're trying. If you can't eat, you're trying to produce something that somebody's gonna buy right then.
[00:09:21] Speaker B: True, true.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: Whereas Jack, in this case, could do whatever he wanted. So to speak.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: So to speak.
[00:09:31] Speaker A: But there was some caveats. Yeah, there were some caveats to it.
[00:09:36] Speaker B: They were. And they were oysters in a can.
[00:09:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, even more than that, the other thing, too, before we get into the caveats, is that Jack Kirby apparently hated it when people would say, like, I'm going to do Captain America in the Kirby style.
And he said, basically paraphrasing, if you were really doing in the Kirby style, you would create something new.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: Oh, just right there. Make something.
[00:10:10] Speaker A: That's Jack, he said, that's me. I'm always pushing and creating something new. So he wanted to come into D.C. and make his own universe.
And so when we read omac, we were past his. Him making his universe right now. He was creating small universes or small stories within that. He also. Yeah. Wanted with these books, though, is he wanted them collected into graphic novels, which was not a concept then. So when he was writing these stories, he was trying to build it for, like, this big. I wouldn't even say this big omnibus. But, you know, here's this. He wanted this. He wanted his stuff sold at the bookstore.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:49] Speaker A: And he Wanted a longer arc story that would be created into something like this.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: And, and just for those only listening and not seeing this on, on the YouTube, the omnibuses are, are giant. They are huge and heavy. Dan asked if I had read out of the omnibus when we were doing the pre show and I said no because I was doing stuff with my grandma and I needed something that I could just easily have on my lap. So I read it on the computer because honestly, two dogs and a grandma and trying to get her tea and everything else, every time I put that thing down, I'm losing a page. I mean, yes, there are bookmarks, but it is heavy, it is big, and you know, for me it was just easier to use the computer. But if you do get a chance to find one of these omnibuses, I strongly encourage it because they are fantastic.
[00:11:36] Speaker A: Do we call them Omnibi or Omniby? Omnibuses?
[00:11:40] Speaker B: Omnibus.
[00:11:42] Speaker A: Omnibus.
[00:11:43] Speaker B: Omnibus.
[00:11:44] Speaker A: Not Canadian. So is it Canadian American or proper American?
So omnibuses, Omnibi or omnibuses?
[00:11:53] Speaker B: I don't know. We'll leave that to the listeners to decide.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: Okay, well, maybe we'll put up a poll.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: A poll?
People like polls.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:03] Speaker B: Option three.
[00:12:04] Speaker A: I like polls.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: Yes, everybody does.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: Are you sure?
[00:12:08] Speaker B: I mean, I know you like polls more than most.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: Yeah, well, anyway, so Jimmy Olson does too.
[00:12:17] Speaker B: Yeah, that's true, he does.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: I mean, he likes a poll of the leadership. Well, so Jack Kirby apparently comes into dc, he's like, I want to create my own universe.
And D.C. editorial is like, hold on.
And this is some of the information coming from the John Morrow edited book.
John Morrow, you may have heard of him. To Morrow's Publishing. Oh, yeah, Old gods in you.
[00:12:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:48] Speaker A: And apparently, yeah, Jack comes in and they're like, now hold on, we do want you to create some new things, but you're Jack Kirby and you're going to write some of our existing stuff too.
And what I had always heard in the past is Jack Kirby took the lowest selling book.
And I think I said that last podcast and said, just give me your lowest selling book. And that was not correct. That was corrected in the omnibus front matter. He didn't say, give me your lowest selling book. He said, give me a book that doesn't have a creative team on it right now because I don't want to take the job away from somebody else.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: Oh, that's that. Yeah, solid.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: Oh, cool. Yeah, that just makes, that makes the story better.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: Yeah, because that's like I, I, I want to do something, but I don't want to take anything from Anybody. And I. Yeah, I just want to do this thing. Let me do it.
[00:13:50] Speaker A: So we get. So he picks up Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen because, well, how that's the COVID says. And Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen through this, through the Silver Age had been a.
I would say like a cross between 60s Batman, like space Batman and Superman books. It was an interesting book. So you would get. I grabbed a couple of my Jimmy Olsen here. Oh, yeah. Now, of course, some of them may have vision of superheroes time. Yeah, yeah, I do have a checkerboard one, but I have a. I don't have any 10 centers with me, but I do have a 12 center here. And this is Jimmy Olsen right here using kryptonite on Superman. And as you can see, the legion of super villains. See the legion of super villains in the background. Yes, yes. They are making a random appearance. I'm not sure why the legion of super villains from a thousand years in the future are showing up with Brainiac and Luther to be.
To help out Jimmy Olsen here beat up poor Superman.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:14:57] Speaker A: But they are the convention of the anti Superman gang. Oh, may. May later be known as Inter Gang.
[00:15:05] Speaker B: Intergang.
[00:15:06] Speaker A: Wait, no, no. Very different, as we will find out in our next few issues.
But Lex Luthor is the chief of the anti Superman gang here, as you can see.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:15:18] Speaker A: And Cosmic King is the crime commissioner. Saturn Queen is over space raids. Lightning Lord is over espionage. I've never thought Lightning Lord had particularly good espionage powers. Casting throwing lightning at people is kind of an out front.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: Like, yeah, it's like, oh, hey, I'm gonna be really, really stealth, but I'm gonna throw lightning. Got it.
[00:15:43] Speaker A: And Brainiac is the director of new crimes. As you can see the director of new crimes. So that's very important.
You probably can't read this because it's gonna show up backwards on the screen. So that's fine.
So the director of new crimes now, Jimmy Olsen, also tended to get really strange powers in his book.
He became a turtle once.
He also had a serum very similar to. And now I think that the Justice League office should have gotten a little mad here because he had a serum very similar to one Elongated Man.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: Oh.
[00:16:20] Speaker A: But if he drank his serum, he became a lasty lady Nasty Lad. And you can see that's Elastic Lad, I should say. Yeah, it is a stretch. And as you can see here, he's gotten all of the legion of Superhero ladies. Well, not all of them, but to fall in love with him because that's. That's what we do. And Superman wants him to go back to the 20th century, but they're. Oh, look, it's Fortress lad. We probably shouldn't talk about Fortress lad.
[00:16:48] Speaker B: Yeah, skip.
[00:16:52] Speaker A: All right. And then.
And here's another one, very typical, like Jimmy Olsen annual type book. But this is an 80 page giant here. You were looking for checkerboards.
[00:17:03] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: Another example of Jimmy Olsen where he's a cowboy and a singer and a millionaire. And. Yeah, he's. He's got.
He's the star of impersonations. He might be the master of disguise.
[00:17:19] Speaker B: That's why he's a turtle. Turtle.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: Y. Turtle. That is why he's a turtle.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. I have that single issue of him in a band or, you know, singing and stuff like that as a single issue. It's a good one.
[00:17:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I love it. Yeah, he's. And so the Jimmy Olsen books were, you know, they were part of the Superman office very, very much in the vein. They had, you know, Superman's girlfriend, Lois Lane. So at the time, they had Superman's girlfriend, Lois Lane, they had Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen. They had Adventure, which Supergirl was in when this came out.
They had Action, which Legion was backups in. That's where we read the drug story with Jim Shooter. And then they had Superboy. And then down the road.
Down the road. And I actually, I think this is about the time. So when they hired Kirby, I think this is about the time they switched Legion over as a backup for Superboy, which does make a hell of a lot more sense than being a super backup in action, but would have gotten a lot more exposure in action. So, you know, I do think, you know, sometimes I think these old editors and their cigars, we make kind of fun of them for how they controlled the Superman office, but I think they were savvy, right? Build. Build a property up and then move it over. So people follow up, build another property up. And in this case, I wasn't as much a build a property up. It's just like, Jack, you have to do one of our big books. And he says, fine, give me Jimmy Olsen. Which is weird because Jimmy Olsen doesn't seem like a very good fit for Jack Kirby.
[00:19:00] Speaker B: I don't know. I mean, it's. It's got.
There's something there.
There's. It's. It's. It's. It's like a house with good bones, right? You know, you got. Got a house you can remodel and do stuff to and. And everything like that. Jimmy Olsen, he's been around for a while and you can, you can definitely work with it and, and, and mold that, mold that clay a little bit.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: You know, but with so much Superman, like legacy stuff like that, seems like it would be a hard book to grab, right?
[00:19:37] Speaker B: There is a lot of Superman legacy stuff. But maybe it's time for Jimmy to branch out on his own a little bit. Maybe that's what, that's what, you know, Jimmy needed, was a little Jack there to help him, you know, become the, the Jimmy Olsen.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: A little Jack or a little Jack and Coke?
[00:19:59] Speaker B: Well, I mean, a little bit of both. Who knows?
[00:20:01] Speaker A: I mean, based on this issue, it was probably not the liquid coke either.
[00:20:07] Speaker B: This one in the next one for sure. Whoa.
[00:20:09] Speaker A: The powdery coke. Yeah. Well, I think the really cool thing about this. And we'll get into the issue, we just want to give you a little bit of front matter on this because. And we'll try to tie in some of the Jack Kirby fun facts as we go through these issues too.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: I can, I can tell you, I, I, I honestly. You want to know why I'm sure Jack Kirby did pick Jimmy Olsen as the book he wanted to cover? 100% no duck bills. He didn't have to draw a duck bill. He didn't have to draw there. Jimmy Olsen has a regular face. No, no Bill involved. Regular nose and anything like that. Regular mouth. No duck bill.
[00:20:47] Speaker A: You know, I wonder if he could have drawn that Savage Dragon Destroyer duck crossover.
[00:20:53] Speaker B: Oh, man. Yeah.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: Because just thinking, like, I wonder if, like he could draw a Finn as well, maybe.
[00:21:06] Speaker B: I would love to see that, like in, in his style. No, I mean, you know, just be interesting.
What would he have done?
[00:21:17] Speaker A: So the dogs have joined the podcast.
My dogs joined first for once, which is different.
[00:21:24] Speaker B: I know. My, my dogs will join shortly, I'm sure.
[00:21:29] Speaker A: Well, anyway, let's get into. We are in Superman's expal, the new Jimmy Olsen 133. And we have Kirby is here. And they had run a series of advertisements that said Kirby is coming and your books and exciting. Not like Donald Trump. But if you've been watching the Daily show, which nobody does, so I just catch the clips. Yeah, but we've got Jimmy Olsen riding on a tricycle like a, like a.
[00:22:04] Speaker B: Like a trike, Like a, like a motorized, like a, like a three wheeled motorcycle. For people not seeing this, there's. Yes. Not like a tricycle. Like, like, you know, like a child's tricycle.
[00:22:18] Speaker A: And yeah, he's like, Jimmy Olsen's our leader. He Gives the orders and gun him down. Jimmy says. And they're fighting. He's. They're trying to run over Superman.
[00:22:26] Speaker B: Oh, my.
[00:22:27] Speaker A: And we're also introducing the Newsboy Legion. I don't think we're introducing them. I feel like they were around before.
[00:22:33] Speaker B: Reintroducing. Yeah, it should be reintroducing new. New version.
[00:22:39] Speaker A: New version, I guess. Yeah. I honestly. Well, we'll get into that.
I mean, bringing back the Newsboy Legion was a choice.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: It was a choice. I, I, I, I enjoyed it.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: You know, when the Newsboy Legion was.
[00:22:58] Speaker B: First appeared, I'm gonna say pro.
[00:23:03] Speaker A: 30S, 40s, 30s, 1942 stars now in Star Spangled comics, actually in 1942.
And, and the.
[00:23:17] Speaker B: They could sing and they could dance and they, they went on strike to make sure that everyone would pay for their papers.
[00:23:23] Speaker A: Yeah, do, do you know, by the way, Stargirl fans, Star Spangled Comics number one was the first appearance of the Star Spangled Kid and Stripesy.
So if people have been watching Stargirl, those characters date all the way back to October of 1941.
[00:23:44] Speaker B: Holy cats.
[00:23:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Which is crazy. So, I mean, it just shows you that if you are a certain former Washington state football player slash comedian, that you've been kept in a crypt and like, brought back.
Thanks, Sean McHale.
Wow.
Anyway.
[00:24:13] Speaker B: Hey, he was on almost five. Yeah. I mean, you're just kidding.
[00:24:16] Speaker A: Exactly. You're just gonna let that go?
[00:24:18] Speaker B: Well, anyway, so don't forget about the wondrous whiz wagon.
I'm going to start calling my Prius that. It's a Wiz wagon because it's.
[00:24:31] Speaker A: Are you going to take them on? Those little dolls that tilts and pees out the back?
[00:24:35] Speaker B: Like, oh, I mean, you know.
Yeah.
Wow.
[00:24:42] Speaker A: If you flip. This is a 15 cent cover, by the way.
If you flip the page, we could, you could win prizes for cash from the Olympic sales club.
[00:24:51] Speaker B: Sweet.
I love it.
[00:24:55] Speaker A: And how cool is this, by the way? We get to the first page and we get who's in here. Jimmy Olsen isn't guessing. He knows when he steps through the door, he will be in on the two scoops of the century. Number one bears the name of a team that made big news in the fighting 40s. Ah, yeah. The second is a story as bizarre as the strange subcultures evolving in today's swiftly changing world. It begins here in an old slum garage. So Jack Kirby, by the way, was, I believe, 51.
Early 50s. I may have that wrong.
[00:25:32] Speaker B: Special guest calling.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: I know his early 50s.
Yeah.
[00:25:36] Speaker B: Special guest is Calling.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: Ah, Travis on time. Yeah. He's like, they're recording. Let's call right now.
That'd be Travis Webb, Greg's co author on Starlight and future author of many things that involve cyborgs.
[00:25:54] Speaker B: Yes.
He has an affinity, if you've listened to the show before, to call right when Dan and I record.
[00:26:02] Speaker A: Well, he knows.
[00:26:03] Speaker B: He knows.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: It's a habit. I think he ignores my messages.
[00:26:07] Speaker B: I think it's because we have a thing on. Like, there's a Google reminder for podcast, and he's just like, hey, let me call.
[00:26:18] Speaker A: Well, we could invite him on to talk about Jack Kirby and be fine with that.
[00:26:22] Speaker B: Yeah, next time, for sure. Remember?
[00:26:25] Speaker A: But we get. We get Jimmy Olsen, Superman's pal, brings back the Newsboy Legion. Oh, not the legion I was wanting.
[00:26:36] Speaker B: No, not the Legion you were wanting, but the legion that you got.
[00:26:40] Speaker A: I mean, if Jack Kirby wrote the Legion of Superheroes, I might. I might die.
[00:26:46] Speaker B: He might die.
Why? Why would you die?
[00:26:51] Speaker A: Of happiness.
[00:26:52] Speaker B: Of happiness. Okay.
[00:26:54] Speaker A: The. But it's also cool when you open a book and you're like, it's written and drawn by Jack Kirby.
The end.
[00:27:02] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That's all you need.
[00:27:03] Speaker A: Vince Coletta inked it. They had a couple of inkers.
Here's something, though, that is really interesting. And we do. We have a super. Well, we don't have a Superman face yet. So we'll get there.
We flip the page and we get. We get introduced. We start getting introduced to a giant car.
I feel like Jack Kirby has to have giant cars and everything.
This is like the Fantastic car on steroids.
[00:27:29] Speaker B: It is so cool.
[00:27:32] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, I don't know how I feel about this thing. It's. I mean, it takes up two pages.
[00:27:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
You open the book, and then, bam. You're like, whoa, look at that.
[00:27:45] Speaker A: Well, it's also too kind of a shock to readers. Like, I mean, if you're reading Jimmy Olsen, and I'm not sure if anybody was, but if you're reading Jimmy Olsen, not a lot of people were. But if you're reading Jimmy Olsen, all of a sudden he pops into this giant car with all these kids walking around.
[00:27:59] Speaker B: Mm.
[00:28:00] Speaker A: I mean. And you kind of discover they're not really kids in a second. Yeah, but some of them are, and some of them aren't.
[00:28:07] Speaker B: They're kid like, but not quite kids.
[00:28:11] Speaker A: But they're basically, like, telling Jimmy that they're the Newsboy Legion and they're building the Wiz wagon and kind of introduced to it. One of the things I do like about Kirby is without doing like a roll call initially, he'll do a roll call panel on the next page.
[00:28:30] Speaker B: Mm.
[00:28:31] Speaker A: But he gives you a little bit of their personality before you even get to the role call.
[00:28:35] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. In the dialogue. It's great. And you're like, you. You kind of get a taste for who these. Who these. These newsboy Legion characters are.
[00:28:46] Speaker A: And it's not a. It's not a, like, 90s crappy book from a company that started with I and ends in where it's like, here's the first page. Here's my lineup of generically named X Men.
[00:29:08] Speaker B: Follow them.
[00:29:08] Speaker A: If they have no personality.
Yeah. It. And we'll. We'll develop. Trust us, we'll develop their personality for you over the next 10 issues. And it's like we get a little bit of it also on page four. I didn't know this, uh. I didn't know this that. That it was introduced here, and I probably should have. Um, but Jimmy says when My new boss, Mr. Edge, assigned me to the story, I thought. I always thought Morgan Edge was in the mainline Superman books. He went to work for, what is it, WCBS or whatever. W. Yeah.
And that was introduced here.
[00:29:48] Speaker B: Jack Kirby.
[00:29:50] Speaker A: Jack Kirby made them work for the new company.
[00:29:54] Speaker B: Ah.
[00:29:55] Speaker A: Or the new leader, Galaxy Broadcasting. Yeah. Which is.
And, you know, all throughout the 70s, Superman books, you see him working as a newscaster instead of a reporter. So it puts another element in. How can Clark Kent make it back to broadcast the news at 5:00 if he's out being Superman saving the world?
What kind of excuse will he make today?
Which you kind of have that element. But. Yeah. What I was reading in this. The Old Gods book was that this one here was that originally DC Editorial wanted Morgan Edge or Jack Kirby wanted Morgan Edge to be a villainy character. And we'll see how it goes. We'll see who wins. And D.C. editorial wanted Morgan Edge to be an ongoing character.
And I don't mind introducing that now. So then, like, as Jack Kirby writes this character, let's see what he does.
[00:30:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:52] Speaker A: With the character to meet the needs of Editorial. But this is another cool thing, is when he introduces a concept, it's so good that they're like, oh, yeah, that makes sense that Modern updates the character and we get. We get introduced to Mr. Edge and he just looks like an asshole.
[00:31:16] Speaker B: He does. I. I really love the. The panel. The. The two panels side by side of Jimmy and him. Because, yeah, Jimmy's in the stance and then Edge is In the stance. And they're. It's. It's very. The. The juxtaposition of them together and apart is just great. It's just so good.
[00:31:35] Speaker A: And the other part of it too, I think, like you're looking at Jimmy and you can tell Jimmy's smile is genuine, and you can tell Edge's smile is not genuine.
[00:31:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:47] Speaker A: Even though they're basically drawn in the same way.
But there's a slight head tilt on Jimmy where he has a more natural pose and where Edge's pose is more fake and rigid. Almost like he's forcing the smile.
[00:32:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:06] Speaker A: And shoulders are relaxed. And it's just amazing what Kirby can do just with a little tiny shoulder movement. Right?
[00:32:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Just a. Just a slight body roll. It's like, oh, wow. Humanize the person. Make them. Make them more, you know, more real. And then you've got this other person that's just like, wow, he's a plastic man.
[00:32:29] Speaker A: Yeah. And they have a big discussion about whether Jimmy should be covering this special event in the wild area.
[00:32:36] Speaker B: Oh, the wild area.
[00:32:38] Speaker A: Going to this wild area. Apparently this wild area is very dangerous because it's where the wilds are.
[00:32:43] Speaker B: The wilds.
[00:32:45] Speaker A: Yeah. We get the introduction at the very moment in the luxurious offices of Morgan Edge, president of the Galaxy Broadcasting System, new owners of the Daily Planet. I did not know that they introduced it right here.
[00:32:59] Speaker B: Right here, right now. It's happening, Dan.
[00:33:04] Speaker A: So there's a lot of introductions in these books as we'll go through, but here's another one. So as soon as they leave the room, Edge's posture relaxes and he goes into evil Edge. And he's. He calls Intergang. Intergan. Also introduced here, by the way. So long term Superman villains.
I believe they were black lighting villains too.
[00:33:26] Speaker B: Correctly, I think maybe. Yeah.
[00:33:28] Speaker A: And the.
We get Intergang here and Morgan Edge is his. As soon as his posture relaxes, he looks more evil. Eyes furrow, his brows furrow.
And he calls a hit on Clark, Kentucky.
Oh, yeah. And very. You know, I was watching some Dragon Ball Z today.
[00:33:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:55] Speaker A: I'm on episode 46. I believe you got a lot to go.
[00:33:59] Speaker B: Was a lot of screaming, a lot of yelling.
[00:34:01] Speaker A: Well, I. Not yet. Not in this episode. Because in this episode, I'm gonna mess up the name Dart. Is it Dadrios? It's like one of Frieza's henchman.
[00:34:13] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:34:14] Speaker A: Like, rips a Nemec's heart out.
[00:34:16] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
[00:34:16] Speaker A: And I was like. I was like, is this a children's cartoon? Like, yeah, yeah. I watch. I get to watch Dragon Ball Z when I go to jujitsu Lawyer Paul's certified martial arts to train. So I get to. That's my. That's the only time I'm allowed to watch Dragon Ball Z. So it's incentive to go train. But anyway.
Yeah, so Clark Kent gets hit by a car.
[00:34:45] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
[00:34:45] Speaker A: By the way, there is a lot of dialogue in these books. Yeah, it's.
[00:34:50] Speaker B: It's a lot. You would think. You know, Kirby, you're great with the. With the art, where all these words coming from. I'm just joking. I'm just joking.
[00:34:58] Speaker A: I would say that, though. I mean, like, look, it's Jack Kirby, but we can still.
No, I like the thought balloons that are coming across.
I could use a little bit less of the description of bubbles, because we get.
We literally get a. Meanwhile at the hall of justice. 1 Meanwhile, Clark Kent makes his way through the busy streets of Metropolis. I don't really need that word bubble, because I can see him walking through. So really, all I need there is. You know, we've criticized other writers for this. Right. And if Kirby's editing his own stuff here, and he's not totally editing his own stuff because this is going through the Superman office. So it's not as much when he was, like, doing OMAC and stuff.
[00:35:43] Speaker B: Right.
[00:35:44] Speaker A: But yeah, I mean, still, there's a lot of text there. And then.
And then, you know, we get a. Preoccupied by his thoughts. Clark does not see the car. Like, no, we don't need that line because we can see it.
I mean, I would rather have that. Yeah. Because we. And even the bystanders are saying, look out. You know, like, so we don't need. Anyway, there is a little much text for me to my preference, but, you know, that's okay.
We flip the page. Clark gets hit by a car. We flip the page, and we get a commercial for the Lee Rider.
[00:36:18] Speaker B: Whoa.
[00:36:20] Speaker A: And his friends in the western movie set.
[00:36:23] Speaker B: Mm.
It's a cute little. Little ad.
Made me want to go get some lead dungarees.
[00:36:32] Speaker A: I mean, it's no frighteners.
[00:36:34] Speaker B: No frighteners, but frightening nonetheless.
[00:36:39] Speaker A: And plus, at least for now, the story is kind of coherent, so.
[00:36:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:36:44] Speaker A: Well, anyway, Clark gets hit by a car and his glasses fall off, and the first thing he does is make sure he gets them back. So nobody knows he's Superman.
[00:36:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Can't let that cat out of the bag. Gotta keep it under wraps.
[00:37:00] Speaker A: But he obviously survives. And the car speeds away.
Typical day in Tacoma right there.
[00:37:06] Speaker B: Yeah, typical Day or kiss.
[00:37:08] Speaker A: That wasn't a good joke.
Well, anyway, meanwhile in the. Fantastic car.
[00:37:18] Speaker B: You mean the Wiz Wagon? Get it.
[00:37:21] Speaker A: Right.
Oh, my bad. Meanwhile in the. What was the bike in Captain America called?
[00:37:29] Speaker B: Oh, the.
Oh, man, I keep getting that mixed up with the one from the fake Lobo one.
[00:37:38] Speaker A: Yeah, the fake Lobos bike. Shitty Lobo. Yeah.
[00:37:42] Speaker B: See a Lobo riding the fake Captain America bike.
[00:37:48] Speaker A: Riding the fake Lobo bike.
[00:37:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:53] Speaker A: But anyway, we get.
They're in the whiz car and they're talking about how they use magnetic repulsion. Oh, and by the way, I did forget to introduce these guys. So let me go back a couple pages.
[00:38:03] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:38:04] Speaker A: And we get the. The Newsboy Legion is Gabby Junior.
[00:38:11] Speaker B: Oh.
[00:38:14] Speaker A: He says, my dad was the handsomest of the original cast.
And he looks like he's a teenager or like a 13 year old, maybe 14 year old.
We get big words who looks like a full grown adult.
[00:38:28] Speaker B: Big words.
[00:38:30] Speaker A: And he. Because he's really smart. We have another guy that's just called Tommy.
We have a new. A new guy who doesn't. Isn't a legacy character. His name's Flipper. Dipper. Flipper Dipper because he's hip on scuba diving.
[00:38:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:49] Speaker A: And we have Scrapper Jr. Whose dad was Scrapper.
[00:38:57] Speaker B: Kind of like a scrappy dude.
[00:39:00] Speaker A: I believe. The Newsboy Legion. Their whole point originally though is that they delivered newspapers.
I mean, I guess they could still do that now.
[00:39:08] Speaker B: They could.
[00:39:10] Speaker A: But apparently if they succeed in their mission, they get to keep the Whiz Wagon. So sweet. Yeah. So, well, they're. They're off in the Wiz Wagon and whizzing around without the protection of Superman for now.
They get on the water, we get introduced to more of the characters that are talking. We're learning more, more of their personalities.
And we run into the man in the iron mask and Dr. Doom.
[00:39:41] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
I thought they ran into DAF Funk.
Oh, that's who I thought. I thought it was like all around the world.
[00:39:51] Speaker A: I thought we were getting a team up.
[00:39:53] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
Team up.
[00:39:57] Speaker A: Well, they even call themselves. This one guy's like, we got visitors. Iron Mask.
[00:40:01] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:40:03] Speaker A: Picnickers. Picnic pickers. Picnic. Picnickers.
[00:40:08] Speaker B: Picnickers.
[00:40:10] Speaker A: I hate to spell picnic. Maybe that's how you spell that. It's like, pick, Picnickers, pick.
It's like extra long socks maybe.
[00:40:18] Speaker B: Yeah, extra long socks.
[00:40:20] Speaker A: Well, anyway, or recruits. And they drop them in and we get a commercial for Universal Monsters Models.
[00:40:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:32] Speaker A: Oh, no, we don't. It's Barnes Barnabas from Dark Shadows.
[00:40:36] Speaker B: It is. It's a model for. For dark shadows, which is cool. Glows in the dark.
[00:40:45] Speaker A: And we get some. We get some full on Mad Max action going.
[00:40:51] Speaker B: Or on motorcycle. Motorcycle on car action. Yeah, it's very.
[00:40:55] Speaker A: You think the Mad Max people read these Kirby books and were like, this is cool. We should make a whole mini.
[00:41:02] Speaker B: Totally. I mean, you got people on motorcycles just going after a car. Get it? I want it.
[00:41:12] Speaker A: I think it was really cool, too. Like, I'm pulling out, like, oftentimes when you look at the coloring, like in the omnibus, and I'm pulling it open, like, it doesn't translate very well. Yeah. You do get some brighter colors in the original newsprint, but the way he colors this, it's very set up. I've got the omnibus for you. I don't have the. I'm not going to try to show you the tablet screen, but these colors are pretty close.
[00:41:39] Speaker B: Oh, they're. Yeah, they pop.
[00:41:42] Speaker A: And they. I think they did a really good job coloring in the omnibus, but also, like, the way he goes with a lot of the purples and yellows, it's not as prone to get washed out when they update it.
[00:41:54] Speaker B: Right.
[00:41:55] Speaker A: And creates a really, like. It creates a really cool scene here when you're looking at it. So anyway, I got myself distracted with colors because it's so pretty.
[00:42:07] Speaker B: It is. It's like su. It's like. Honestly, it's a super cool book to look at.
[00:42:14] Speaker A: Well, I don't know, though. It's a kind of a weird story so far, though. It is a super cool book to look at these. The Iron Mask guy and is this like Iron Mask and shitty Doctor Doom?
[00:42:26] Speaker B: Is that kind of sort of?
[00:42:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, they lose in, like, three panels, so. Yeah, it's not three panels, but like three pages.
[00:42:34] Speaker B: They get it handed to them by. By a handful of kids.
[00:42:38] Speaker A: Yeah, a handful of kids and. And a boy reporter.
[00:42:42] Speaker B: Mm.
[00:42:45] Speaker A: So the cameraman and the newsboy Legion beat up these two guys and they find out and we. Jimmy should had the residuals of his broken hand here after he hit the guy in the mask through a few.
[00:43:01] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:43:01] Speaker A: But it doesn't last very long.
And then these other folks show up and they're like, we're called the Outsiders. SE Hinton.
Lawsuit.
[00:43:19] Speaker B: I'm Soda Pop and this is Ponyboy.
[00:43:23] Speaker A: That would have been hilarious.
[00:43:25] Speaker B: Now you're our boss.
[00:43:28] Speaker A: I would have died.
[00:43:32] Speaker B: Soda Pop? What kind of name is that? Pony Boy?
[00:43:35] Speaker A: I mean, it's the names in here.
[00:43:37] Speaker B: Yeah, totally.
[00:43:38] Speaker A: Sort of said pop would have been Hanging out with scrapper.
But the.
[00:43:44] Speaker B: You rumble fish.
[00:43:47] Speaker A: Anyway, clearly, like, so, so much is stolen from this book or not stolen from this book. I just don't know. So these folks come in here and they, like, beat the leader immediately in three pages. And these other folks come up and are like, where are the outsiders? And they're like, take me to your leader. And he's like, you are the leader now because you beat up our leader.
And I'm thinking, like, in three pages, Kirby just did the entire Morlocks storyline.
[00:44:20] Speaker B: That was like three books.
[00:44:22] Speaker A: Yeah, we just did it in three pages.
Storm, you're in charge now. All right.
Claremont just took and stretched out the. Yeah.
[00:44:33] Speaker B: Stretch it out to. So it was like. Was it three books? It was. It was a pretty good amount of books to get to that point.
[00:44:44] Speaker A: Well, we are.
[00:44:47] Speaker B: Well, that's why he's the king. That's why Kirby's the king, Dan.
[00:44:50] Speaker A: He is the king. That's factual. Okay, so we are getting to. We get Morgan Edge finding out that super or that Clark didn't die in the accident. What? And Clark's, like, at home and he's like, my new boss is baffled. He can't figure out what happened. But since I don't have to go to work, since I don't have to return to office, I'm going to go save the world. See, if nobody had to return to the office, they would spend time saving the world more.
[00:45:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:18] Speaker A: I'm going to send this over to a certain CEO right now.
[00:45:21] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:45:22] Speaker A: Let them know if you just didn't return the office, you'd save the world. Now here's crazy thing. Yeah. We do get a Superman face finally.
[00:45:31] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh, we do.
[00:45:33] Speaker A: And in these Kirby books, they literally went through.
And because of Kirby's square faces, they had originally Al Plastino, and then, you may have heard of him, Murphy Anderson.
So when you're looking at famous artists, there's two of them, like, two big ones, but they had them go through and redraw Superman's face in Jack Kirby's books to.
[00:46:02] Speaker B: To make it more like fitting into the rest of the Superman stuff.
[00:46:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:08] Speaker B: How do you. How do you redraw Jack Kirby stuff?
They're like, I really want to be a fly on the wall on that. On that conversation. Guys, we're gonna need you to go in and just. Just touch up Jack's work.
[00:46:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:23] Speaker B: You want us to what?
It would be like, either you want us to what? Or you.
I.
Huh?
He's gonna punch me right well, it's.
[00:46:36] Speaker A: Good news is Murphy Anderson and Alblastina were in New York and Jack was in la. So.
[00:46:46] Speaker B: They had, they had a couple miles apart.
[00:46:49] Speaker A: Well, basically what we're saying is Jack would have had to have taken the Elastic Lad serum to, to punch them.
[00:47:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:01] Speaker A: So, yeah, it's, and I think it's. Anyway, I love, always love when we get a Murphy Anderson reference because I remember a conversation. I've shared this on the podcast before that jujitsu lawyer, Paul. I got him a book for Ron Randall to sign. One of the JLE books, Justice League Europe books. And Ron grabbed the COVID or grabbed the book and said, this was my favorite. And we were like, why? It was just a random book. Like, we went and got a dollar book. We just wanted to get something for Ron to sign for Ball.
And he's like, Murphy Anderson inked me.
And he was so excited. And I would say, Ron Randall, not yet friend of the pod, but friend of Greg. And yeah, he said, knows who I am.
[00:47:54] Speaker B: He, he's a really nice, He's a, he is, he's a, he's a great guy. He's a. I, I, I guess you could, I can, I can say he's a great mentor because he's, he's taught me a lot.
He is, he's fantastic.
[00:48:09] Speaker A: I think the big thing he taught you is to make sure you have your book ready to go when you do your Kickstarter.
[00:48:15] Speaker B: Make sure it's ready to go. And then just also too, like one of the first things, I think one of my early cons, he just came up and he just like, looked over everything and then, you know, he's just like, all right, it looks like you're ready. You got your stuff out now put our best foot forward. That kind of thing. And you know, just like, and he was just, just super. He's, he just brings an energy to it and he's just so genuine and nice and I don't know, I just, I could just sit there and listen to him just chat with people all day.
[00:48:48] Speaker A: And has been running his story since the late 80s. I mean, trucker is a long, you know, you talk about that building something and that somebody may want later, and he kept building that thing.
[00:49:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:49:01] Speaker A: This is what you said earlier in the podcast. And now he sells. And every time he lists that book up on Kickstarter, when he lists a new, you know, a new edition, he sells it and people want it. Also LGBTQ friendly.
[00:49:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:49:16] Speaker A: Stories it is. Which is from a creator of his Generation makes me happy.
[00:49:22] Speaker B: One of my favorite things to. To see at conventions is just the. The amount of love that he gets from people that have found his books or were given his books and their stories for them.
So just good stuff.
[00:49:41] Speaker A: Well, well, Superman goes out and.
I'll get back to the story. Superman goes out and he tracks down. This is a new use of Superman's power. He tracks down the car by looking at heat waves. I guess he backwards heat vision.
[00:49:55] Speaker B: I was like, what the heck, Superman? What did you. Did you drink a syrup?
[00:50:01] Speaker A: I know, yeah. Maybe he had some red kryptonite around. I don't know. But we flipped the page and you too could join the. The CBS Direct Marketing Services record club.
[00:50:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:13] Speaker A: And get record. Columbia is the Columbia house. Remember these guys?
[00:50:17] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:50:18] Speaker A: This is when they sold actual records at Columbia house.
[00:50:21] Speaker B: Good album choices too.
[00:50:23] Speaker A: You could have gotten Three Dog Nights, wizard of Orange, Simon Garfunkel. Garfunkel, yeah. Johnny Cash, Isaac Hayes, Hot Buttered Soul, Led Zeppelin.
Do you think hot buttered soul turned into like hot buttered like bread? What was it? Rolls? Was that on south park and maybe, I don't know.
Tom Jones, James Brown, the Doors.
[00:50:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:50] Speaker A: Iron Butter, Iron Butterfly. They only had one song and it was really, really long. Yeah.
[00:51:05] Speaker B: DJs favorite song.
Gotta go to the bathroom. Yeah.
[00:51:10] Speaker A: Put it on.
[00:51:10] Speaker B: Click on and go. Yeah.
[00:51:12] Speaker A: Do you know like, the origin of that is like it was supposed to be in the Garden of Eden and they were so drunk when they were singing it, it sounded. They couldn't tell what the words were. That's how.
And now you hear it because you know if you're in the Garden of Eden Baby, don't you know that I love you?
[00:51:32] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:51:34] Speaker A: Joe Cocker on the next page.
[00:51:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:51:37] Speaker A: He'll left. He'll lift you up where we belong.
[00:51:40] Speaker B: Yeah, he will. That's what he does.
[00:51:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
At least. Well, not until the 80s.
[00:51:49] Speaker B: Not until the 80s.
[00:51:51] Speaker A: Yeah. He was hanging with your friends back here.
[00:51:54] Speaker B: Yeah, back then.
[00:51:55] Speaker A: Little help? Little Beetle covers.
Well, anyway, we get some matter.
[00:52:03] Speaker B: Hell yeah.
[00:52:05] Speaker A: Jack Kirby continued. Since this issue introduced the erratically new Jimmy Olsen, we thought it appropriate to offer a brief bio of the man responsible.
[00:52:14] Speaker B: Ah.
[00:52:17] Speaker A: Did I sigh in a weird way?
[00:52:20] Speaker B: You did. But that's okay. It's not a weird way. It's just a, you know, thoughtful happiness.
[00:52:25] Speaker A: It's like. Sure.
[00:52:26] Speaker B: Reminiscence. Yeah, yeah.
[00:52:30] Speaker A: It's like.
[00:52:30] Speaker B: It's good stuff.
[00:52:31] Speaker A: And then we get Jimmy Olsen's pen pals.
[00:52:35] Speaker B: Jimmy Olsen has pen pals?
Does Jimmy Olsen write to every single one of them.
[00:52:41] Speaker A: Well, get this. I couldn't let another day pass without commenting on Jo129.
[00:52:51] Speaker B: Jimmy Olsen, 120 month.
[00:52:53] Speaker A: Oh, well, that's what it says.
[00:52:56] Speaker B: Jimmy Olsen, Dan. Jimmy Olson, it says.
[00:52:59] Speaker A: Okay, anyway, the COVID magnificently rendered by Kurt Swan and Murphy Anderson.
[00:53:04] Speaker B: Oh, Kurt Swan.
[00:53:06] Speaker A: Yeah, he. Did Kurt Swan ever draw Superman?
[00:53:09] Speaker B: I don't know.
Could have.
[00:53:13] Speaker A: Let's think about that. I bet there's probably a book back there about him somewhere.
Well, anyway, Superman looks and the trail ends and he runs in.
[00:53:23] Speaker B: Oh, I thought you were going to talk about how it was a really good Jo story.
[00:53:27] Speaker A: No.
So Superman.
Those are not for podcast time. So the.
He runs.
[00:53:36] Speaker B: That's what the writer said.
[00:53:39] Speaker A: He goes into the woods by himself.
[00:53:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:44] Speaker A: And he runs into that guy from X Men.
[00:53:49] Speaker B: Oh, that dude.
[00:53:50] Speaker A: Yeah, the really racist caricature of an Australian.
[00:53:55] Speaker B: Oh, a.
[00:54:02] Speaker A: Yeah, let's not bring up the X Men character right now. They tried. Look, they tried. It didn't always work. They tried to introduce characters from around the world. It didn't always work. It didn't always work, but they tried. And in this case, we're going to give them credit for trying. Anyway, this guy is like, I dig your costume. Not original, but definitely in the groove. Like, he doesn't think this is Superman and he sprays him with gas.
And then Superman comes in and these guys try to shoot him. The Red Fox to Blue Patrol.
[00:54:37] Speaker B: And because they're in the woods and.
[00:54:42] Speaker A: See, and Jack Kirby's writing, Superman is the squarest, most like, boring guy ever. I have a hunch I've wandered into a dropout society. Anything can happen here.
Next tomorrow night on Newsmax. I tell you how every hippie damn hippie is going to destroy America, and we have to make it great again.
[00:55:01] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. No, no. Superman sounds like. I. I know. He does sound like he does come across that way, but then he's like.
[00:55:10] Speaker A: It'S for real, brother only. It stands for peace. Something you should dig. He just changed it. So that's weird.
They like his. His costume. And then after he beats up these guys and they start running away, he's like, there are no rules here. This is a place of complete anarchy. So Superman has wandered into Burning Man.
[00:55:31] Speaker B: He has.
[00:55:32] Speaker A: There's a forest there.
[00:55:33] Speaker B: It's a. Yeah, it's not in the desert. It's the forest.
[00:55:35] Speaker A: It's.
[00:55:36] Speaker B: It's like going to Happy Valley.
[00:55:40] Speaker A: Sedona here.
[00:55:41] Speaker B: Huh? Well, Happy Valley here. It's like Burning Man.
[00:55:46] Speaker A: I was thinking he's going to Sedona.
[00:55:48] Speaker B: Okay, Sedona. Just.
[00:55:51] Speaker A: Well, somebody's got some crystals to share with him, and. Yeah. Anyway, all of a sudden, Jimmy bursts in with his.
What'd you call it? I called it a tricycle.
[00:56:01] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, It's a. It's a. Oh. Now. Now.
[00:56:04] Speaker A: Now it's separated.
[00:56:05] Speaker B: So now he's on his own motorcycle. So now.
[00:56:07] Speaker A: Is it a motorcycle? Is it a trike?
[00:56:09] Speaker B: So it looked like he was on a trike at the. On the COVID but now he's on his own motorcycle, and he's like Superman. Get him.
[00:56:17] Speaker A: Well, we flipped the page, and because the Internet doesn't exist yet, we get ads for records that replay some of the greatest sports moments.
[00:56:24] Speaker B: Whoa, man. You could listen to your favorite Howard Cosell moments.
Actually, that'd be kind of cool. I would.
[00:56:32] Speaker A: That would be very cool. Or maybe it's like the NFL guy.
[00:56:36] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. I. You know, I kind of would like that. But.
[00:56:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I kind of would like that, too. Like, that's not terrible.
[00:56:43] Speaker B: Not terrible.
[00:56:45] Speaker A: Well, anyway, they surround Superman on the bikes, looking like a scene straight out of Mad Max. Except this came out before Mad Max, so Mad Max probably just stole from this.
[00:56:54] Speaker B: Mm.
[00:56:55] Speaker A: When did Easy Rider? Easy Rider was after this.
[00:56:58] Speaker B: Was it after this?
[00:56:59] Speaker A: I think, like, 71.
[00:57:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:57:02] Speaker A: Well, anyway, we get Jimmy, and he's like, oh, you're the leader of the wild bunch. And Jimmy has a domino mask on that's blue. Now he is. So he becomes the leader, and then Superman's standing there, and they shoot him with kryptonite gas. Because apparently the outsiders have obtained kryptonite somehow and be able manufacture a kryptonite g. Okay, I will say there are some parts of the story I didn't like up to this point. Like, I'm not a super big fan of the Wiz car and the. The weird. Like, we use the Whiz car. That's our.
[00:57:39] Speaker B: Oh.
[00:57:39] Speaker A: If we go do this story for Morgan Edge, we get to keep the Whiz car. Right? That just seems kind of weird.
And, you know, that's awkward. But when we're going through the Wizard.
[00:57:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:57:55] Speaker A: So you're going through the Wiz Car, and that's weird. But then we're getting into this piece here and all the Morgan Edge pieces.
[00:58:03] Speaker B: And you got weaponized kryptonite gas guns.
[00:58:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, where did they get this? So the Whiz car isn't my favorite plot point where they're getting all the kryptonite to that just seems to play on a Superman trope. But it does allow Kirby to take Superman out of the story.
[00:58:20] Speaker B: Boom. Zap Z out.
[00:58:22] Speaker A: And we're back to Morgan Edge.
And Morgan Edge is going to report on the project. So we're going to find out. Okay. Oh, one of your favorite pages is next. Okay, so, yeah, the karate, judo, boxing, saat. Isometric stunts for a dollar. Or do you want the Muscles of Steel?
[00:58:46] Speaker B: I kind of want.
[00:58:48] Speaker A: How about. What are you looking for?
[00:58:50] Speaker B: I, I, I'm looking at like hypnotic control. And I really like the Secret Agent Periscope.
[00:58:56] Speaker A: I want the seven foot monster for a dollar.
[00:58:58] Speaker B: Oh, seven foot monster for a dollar. What about the, the boomerang?
[00:59:04] Speaker A: I mean, this. Oh, you know, here. What, the phony cast?
[00:59:09] Speaker B: Oh, the phony. Yeah, there's only. I, I, I. No, nobody wants that.
[00:59:17] Speaker A: I hope. I think, I think this one didn't age well. The skinhead wig.
Yeah, the name of that didn't age well.
[00:59:25] Speaker B: The name of that didn't, didn't age well.
[00:59:29] Speaker A: All right, well, anyway, back to the story. So they've knocked out Superman and he wakes up with it, finds out it was a bit of a mistake. Perhaps he's hanging out with the legion and they're like, hey, what's going on? Superman and big, big words.
We belong to the newsboy Legion. Friends and colleagues of Jimmy Olsen. Jimmy runs his things here. Oh, yes. And you wanted to know where you are. Well, welcome to habitat. What? And whoa, we get some crazy ass Kirby art here on this page. Full page spread of the coolest treehouse ever made.
[01:00:10] Speaker B: It is pretty awesome. It's very like just if you imagine Robinson Crusoe, but 10 times better.
It is her family.
Swiss family Robinson. Yeah, that's the Robinson Crusoe.
[01:00:25] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and even like future state too. I mean, obviously the trees. But if, if a certain author was reading this, the stacks kind of look like this too.
[01:00:36] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The stacks do look like that for sure.
[01:00:40] Speaker A: So definitely kind of with the running up. And this is the.
We get Jimmy lecturing Superman. He says there are many mysteries here in the wild area, but they're only part of the story. I was sent to get Superman and Superman's like, well, well, if it isn't young Attila the Hun and his barbarian horde.
Dude, Superman, you are a dick.
[01:01:05] Speaker B: Chill. He's got no chill. Superman, man.
[01:01:09] Speaker A: He is the biggest jerk in the story. Like, it's ridiculous.
[01:01:13] Speaker B: It's like he, he feels. What is he, like the only adult? And this is like the Lost Boys. And he's coming off like Captain Hook.
[01:01:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Or like Lord of the Flies or. Except he's not helping solve the problem.
[01:01:25] Speaker B: No, he's gonna get hit with that conch in the head.
[01:01:29] Speaker A: He should get hit with it. Because at the beginning he's like, I don't know if Jimmy Olsen can go out and do something on his own. And then he's like, jimmy Olsen, you're such a jerk. Like, I mean, they did shoot him with kryptonite, so, I mean, he might be a little bit mad.
[01:01:42] Speaker B: Just a little bit. It's just a little. Hit him with the crystal blast.
[01:01:48] Speaker A: But apparently in the wild area, there's some sort of mountain of Judgment. They have to, like, fight against what or go find. So, yeah, we get the next page, and it's all about them trying to figure out how to go get to the mountain of Judgment. And Jimmy's like, rev up the vehicles. Let's go get him. He says, nothing will stop us. Readers, this is what Jack Kirby says. Don't miss our next issue. Not if you want to make the wildest, fastest, most exciting run over the Zoom way to meet the terrifying Mountain of Judgment.
Did Mountain of Judgment fight Mountain Fiji in glow?
[01:02:29] Speaker B: You know, quite possibly. That would be an epic showdown and throwdown, if you will. I don't know. Who's the.
Okay, you tell me. Who is.
Who's our. Who's our face and who's our heel?
[01:02:45] Speaker A: I think Mountain Fiji is always the baby face.
[01:02:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. So she was not a nice.
[01:02:52] Speaker A: Yeah, Mountain Judgment is the evil, I think. Well, she could have teamed up with Attila or Matilda the Hun.
[01:03:01] Speaker B: Sorry, Matilda.
[01:03:02] Speaker A: That was always Mountain Fiji's enemy.
[01:03:06] Speaker B: Oh, a little. And would it be a tag team event in which Mountain Fiji.
[01:03:12] Speaker A: Well, if she tagged up with Little Fiji, Little Fiji always took the loss. So.
[01:03:16] Speaker B: Ah, no.
[01:03:20] Speaker A: I'm trying to think of who we could get to fight with Mountain Fiji, though.
Well, that's. We can save that discussion for a different day. We'll have to think on that.
[01:03:29] Speaker B: Think about it.
[01:03:30] Speaker A: What is.
[01:03:31] Speaker B: You think about it, too.
[01:03:33] Speaker A: And what did you think about this issue?
[01:03:35] Speaker B: I. I liked it a lot. I thought it was. I mean, this is probably my hunting time, going through it. So it was just like familiar faces, old friends, the.
I. I really. I really dig the art. I really like the.
How Jack brings out the characters and you're not beat over the head with them as you kind of get to know who they are and stuff like that.
You know, you get a little bit of A taste for these. These types of characters and stuff. And even the. The new, like, you know, the ones we meet at the beginning and the ones we meet near the end, you know, it's. You're just. You're. You're slowly introduced.
[01:04:22] Speaker A: I would say, in contrast with the books we read recently, which I'm not going to name.
[01:04:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:04:29] Speaker A: But you can listen to the last four podcasts if you'd like to go back to that adventure.
[01:04:34] Speaker B: Right.
[01:04:34] Speaker A: This is weird and different, but. And the story brings things to me that I'm not necessarily expecting, but it's coherent and I can follow it.
[01:04:45] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:04:46] Speaker A: Like, each step makes sense. Like, sometimes there are some things that I'm like, oh, come on. That, like, the kryptonite gas was ridiculous. The whiz car plot in. But like the Morgan Ed, the overall threads. Right. The, like, evil, you know, newspaper or news station owner working with the background, setting this up probably isn't going to like some utopian society out here. Makes sense. This is a thing that's sitting outside of what he can control in Metropolis. So I'm building a little bit in here, guessing what's maybe going to come next, because I don't know. Greg's read these and I haven't, but with the Morgan Edge character, it sort of makes sense. This is something that his gang couldn't control so he'd want and doesn't understand, so he wants to get rid of it. So he sends Jimmy Olsen to investigate so he can eventually get information and figure out what to do with it. And, you know, Jimmy is not savvy enough to know that. So Jimmy's going in. And then we even get sort of the classic Jimmy Olsen kind of Jimmy Olsen doesn't change into stretchy Jimmy Olsen.
[01:05:52] Speaker B: Yeah, no, no.
[01:05:53] Speaker A: But Jimmy Olsen changes into, like, a weird gang leader in the story. So you get some of those classic Jimmy Olsen tropes where Jimmy Olsen just sort of stumbles into something.
[01:06:04] Speaker B: He becomes whatever he needs to become to make the story happen. And honestly, you kind of gotta love it, but you gotta like the direction that he's given by Jack. And Jack gives Jimmy. Like I said at the beginning, I joked. But the molding of clay, you're seeing this Jimmy Olsen form up into something that you haven't seen before, which is you've seen Jimmy do different stuff, but have you really seen him in this type of role in the past?
[01:06:37] Speaker A: Juan, this is. Is this the start of the Bronze Age? Well, it is, but it started the Bronze Age for Jimmy Olsen. Right. This is also like Jack's transition from Silver Age Marvel Comics, right.
To Bronze Age DC Comics. And I mean, it's a logical cut point. You know, it's interesting where if you're. It's hard to define, like, the Silver Age and the Golden Age and the Bronze Age, but if you honestly, I mean, you could make the argument, yeah, the Golden Age starts with Superman, right. In action comics, so 1939. But you can basically track Jack Kirby's career and define each of the ages, right? So if you look at Jack Kirby's Superman, superhero comics and romance comics from the Golden Age, you look at, you know, Fantastic4 Number one, basically, as, you know, near the start of the Silver Age, Right. Most people argue it's the showcase issue with Barry Allen, but. But with the Marvel. I mean, the Marvel.
[01:07:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:07:40] Speaker A: Silver Age starts with that. And you can argue the Barry Allen issue is the start, but clearly Marvel is the driver for the Silver Age, right?
[01:07:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Fantastic Four, definitely. Like, that's.
That.
[01:07:52] Speaker A: That's.
[01:07:52] Speaker B: For me, that's.
[01:07:54] Speaker A: That's it.
[01:07:54] Speaker B: But.
[01:07:55] Speaker A: And then Jack really, like, driving in right here as we get into the Fourth world stuff, you know, the start of the Bronze Age. And. And, you know, there's other arguments for it, right? Is it the Green Arrow, Green Lantern Green Arrow. Is that the start of the Bronze Age? We reviewed that before the super. You know, I don't think it's a Spider man drug story. I can make an argument for it, but breaking the code, like, you know, that could be it. But I think here when you. It's. It's the different type of storytelling, right? It's Jack coming in and saying, I'm going to create a novel. I'm going to create this large story that you follow and which is way ahead of its time. And we're going to see. We're not going to get far enough into the Fourth World, but we can, Greg and I. I mean, it's history at this point. We can tell you being ahead of your time isn't always a good thing.
[01:08:41] Speaker B: This is true. Because.
[01:08:43] Speaker A: At least for your book.
[01:08:44] Speaker B: Because it is. And like I said, you can create something that you enjoy and people might enjoy, but it might take a while for it to catch on.
[01:09:00] Speaker A: But Denny O'Neill and Neil Adams had their Green Lantern Green Arrow book canceled, too.
[01:09:04] Speaker B: Yeah, that's true. That's true.
[01:09:05] Speaker A: It wasn't just this book. Yeah, Spider man persists because it's Spider Man.
[01:09:10] Speaker B: But people. I mean, people have come back to this, this book and. And these stories and picked them Back up and reread them and hunted them down and, you know, push them forward. So, I mean, they're not. They're not necessarily.
[01:09:26] Speaker A: It just proves you don't necessarily have to have commercial success to write a good story. And these stories persist over time. And, you know, one of the tiebacks I mentioned of why I've never gone back and read these is because my exposure to Darkseid was different, but also, like always, something I've wanted to go back and read because the dark side portrayal in Legion of Superheroes was so good.
And I'm like, who is this? Just who is this? Like, I've always just wondered, who is this? And of course, I've gotten the later stuff. I had the Dark side book up here that I grabbed the other day right there. The John Byrne version.
[01:10:06] Speaker B: Yeah. And I've gotten.
[01:10:08] Speaker A: I've gotten Darkseid in, like, Final Crisis. I've gotten Darkseid in a couple of Legion stories. One really good and one Quiet Darkness, which was not as good. Not nearly as good. It's just quiet. We've got Darkseid now in. In D.C. being the impetus with Mark Wade's all in. And they're looking at, you know, you've got the special where Darkseid is the impetus. We're gonna have a Dark Legion, theoretically. And we've got the Absolute Books. And we've got the Absolute Books out where the Batman Absolute Book went to like a fourth or fifth printing.
[01:10:42] Speaker B: Hey.
[01:10:43] Speaker A: And so. Or Absolute Batman, you know, so. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting. I know there. It feels like they're doing the same thing as Marvel did with.
In the. In the 2000s, but still, I mean, when you get a book that goes to fifth printing in a comics world today, I mean, great. You know, we want that because we want that. You want that as a creator because that generates interest in the medium, so.
[01:11:06] Speaker B: And as a reader, you want it because it just means other people are picking it up. And then when other people are picking it up, that just means there's going to hopefully be more of that out there, because, you know, when people read it, then they want more of that created or more stories.
[01:11:21] Speaker A: I kind of hate it. I kind of hate that it's the Batman book. But that's okay.
[01:11:25] Speaker B: You and Michael Tanner both.
[01:11:29] Speaker A: I wish it was the Superman book. Well, he doesn't wish it the Superman book.
[01:11:32] Speaker B: So, I mean. But he doesn't like Batman.
[01:11:36] Speaker A: So the.
[01:11:37] Speaker B: But I don't know.
[01:11:38] Speaker A: I mean, do we like the new, different Batman? So anyway, I Do I think we're gonna. Yeah. I think this is a good ending point for here. It's exciting if you've, you know, never. This is a great starting point for you. So we'd recommend one of two things. You can read these on the DC Comics app, but if you can get a hold of this giant omnibus, it's the Jack Kirby it's the Fourth World by Jack Kirby Omnibus Number one. There's two of them we highly recommend. Hey, you're going to drop some money on an omnibus. We get that. But you get a lot.
You know, it's also. It's not just the stories in here. You get some good front matter and back matter. You get all sorts of stuff. Like you get little bios of the characters in the back. Like, it's. It's just. It's really cool. So anyway, I'll just say, you know, worth it. And then also mention that I highly recommend Old Gods and New Herbie's Fourth World from tomorrow. So you don't have to buy the book version. They have a PDF that you can buy as well. So I would highly recommend grabbing that. Just. If not just for the words, but for the. Just the amazing concept art that's in here. So we're going to be using a lot of these resources as we talk about the books as well. So we're going to try to stay informed to the best of our ability. And then I guarantee some of you are going to be like, screaming as I talk about these books. Dan doesn't know what he's talking about. What is he. What? This doesn't make sense. He got this fact wrong. Well, yeah. I mean, give us a shout out on Blue sky, on Facebook, on Instagram, let us know if we did screw something up and correct it. And we welcome that. Right. That's not a bad thing for us. If you have a new insight or a new idea, please share it with us.
[01:13:30] Speaker B: Yeah. Conversation is open.
[01:13:34] Speaker A: And on that note, the next few. This one went. This one went a good distance. We might shorten these up as we go through the books because we won't have as much Jack Kirby stuff to talk about. But I doubt it. Cause they're amazing. So. But on that note, I'll just say, I'm Dan. I do this podcast. I also do a podcast called ABs at 50 every couple of weeks as I journey to lose some weight and keep losing it. So I'm excited to do that. Greg does things, I do things.
[01:14:03] Speaker B: I write. The current book that's out is absolute zeros Camp Launchpad. And hey, if you're in the Seattle area and you want to come see Michael Tanner and myself, you can come find us at.
[01:14:16] Speaker A: You could have come found them.
[01:14:17] Speaker B: Oh, this is going to air after the fact.
[01:14:20] Speaker A: Well, wait, what day, what day is that?
[01:14:22] Speaker B: It's the 12th of April.
[01:14:24] Speaker A: You could have come found them at. You can wait.
You can.
You can indeed. Because you will be listening to this podcast magically on the 6th of April. And that means you could come on the 12th of April and you could come see Greg Smith and Michael Tanner at the Museum of Flight.
[01:14:47] Speaker B: Yeah. For Yuri's Day. And come see us for doing an author talk from two to three. And you can come and check out the museum, see all the cool stuff that they got going on there for families and all the cool flight stuff. And then, you know, listen to Mike and I talk about writing and working together and our book and other stuff and yeah, spend the day and do that.
[01:15:11] Speaker A: And then on Sunday the 13th, you could go to see.
[01:15:14] Speaker B: Oh yeah, you could come to the Retro emporium downtown Kent on Meeker Street. Yeah. And you can see Green Jelly, previously known as Green Jello. And they will be there signing things. You do a meet and greet with them starting at $20 for bringing your own thing, $30 to get a CD and $40 for a album, like a record.
[01:15:37] Speaker A: Now at this point, would you call them Moldy Green Jelly?
[01:15:40] Speaker B: No, no, no. Well, they suck anyways. But that's. I mean, if you listen to them, you know, Green Jello sucks. But yeah, no, I. Man, this is like 13 year old me super excited. I get to go do a thing at the Museum of Flight. My dad would like flip his lid if he was still alive and then get to go meet Green Jelly because like 13 year old me was just listening to that and is listening to that in his. In his Walkman, so.
[01:16:11] Speaker A: Well, that's very cool. And you have some feature announcements coming soon, but we'll hold off on those for now. And just know that Travis and Greg have some books in the works and we'll hear about them in the next few months.
[01:16:22] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Excitement, excitement. I was going to say there was something. Oh, there was something else.
There was something else.
Something else.
[01:16:31] Speaker A: That's all we get for now.
[01:16:33] Speaker B: Okay, dad, that's all you get.
[01:16:34] Speaker A: Yeah, we're turning off the podcast, so.
[01:16:36] Speaker B: I'm sorry, everybody better quickly. No, that's it.
[01:16:39] Speaker A: Go see Jiu Jitsu Lawyer Paul at Certified Martial Arts on Jackson slash Bridgeport and University Place, 27th and Bridgeport.
Go train. Get strong.
[01:16:51] Speaker B: Get strong.
[01:16:52] Speaker A: Choke people out. He went to a big competition in Florida, and I have some questions about the seating because he went against the number two seeded person in the first round and put a big leg lock on them, and then in the second round, he lost to the person that won the tournament.
[01:17:08] Speaker B: Wow.
[01:17:08] Speaker A: If you beat the number two seed, you shouldn't go against, like, the best person in the next round. That seems a little crazy.
[01:17:14] Speaker B: Seems kind of weird.
[01:17:15] Speaker A: But he also lost on points. That person couldn't, like, choke him out or do anything to him.
[01:17:20] Speaker B: He couldn't do anything?
[01:17:22] Speaker A: No. So jujitsu lawyer Paul still not submitted.
[01:17:29] Speaker B: Interesting.
[01:17:30] Speaker A: Yeah. So watch out for this guy.
[01:17:32] Speaker B: Points.
[01:17:32] Speaker A: All right, so we'll shut up next time. Jimmy Olsen, 134. We'll be back. More Kirby greatness.
Bye. It.
