Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] Speaker A: Well, Travis, we accomplished something last time that I haven't managed to accomplish with Greg.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: What is that?
[00:00:15] Speaker A: We had a lost 14 minutes of podcasting.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: We lost it.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: Yeah. The. The beginning.
Sad.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Are you serious?
[00:00:26] Speaker A: Yeah. So we come in halfway through a joke, which is hilarious, but it was my fault. Travis was trying to cover for me, too. If you remember, if you listened to the last episode, you know, Travis was trying to cover for me, and I totally said, no, that was my fault, so. Well, you're not a Legion of Superheroes fan, but when this happens, we say, computer took the podcast.
Imputo. Took the podcast Imputo. Yeah, you could say Ultron if you're, I guess, a Marvel person.
Yeah, it's whatever computer supervillain wiped us out.
We could go.
Yeah. What we needed was like, yeah.
Yes.
How about.
How about SFTP?
No.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: Cannot bring work here.
Look.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: How about.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: Your pop 3 is killing me.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: The what?
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Your pop 3 is killing me.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: SMTP.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
And your Snowflake. It's pissing me off.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: All right, we gotta stop.
I don't even know that one.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: Oh, that's like your. Your Snowflake. Yeah, it's a thing. I don't know what it does, but it's a thing.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: You know what port is?
[00:01:50] Speaker A: No, I don't know what port. It's on. Tables go there for something.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: Tables go there.
[00:01:55] Speaker A: I don't know. All I know is, yeah, it's something that boring.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: Everybody listening to this right now.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: It's something that makes it something more complex. Like, if it goes into Looker, I can pull tables and make my own reports, but if it goes into Tableau, I've got to have a software. Software engineer do it. And that's just.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Oh.
Oh, my God. Dynam.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Yeah, everybody's really bored now. Like, they're like, what are they talking about? Look, look, here's all I have to say. If anybody's bored by this discussion right here, you have to understand that spreadsheets are amazing.
I love spreadsheets.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: No, no.
[00:02:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Greg outlines his writing in the spreadsheets.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: Oh, my power query at home.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: No, I'm not talking about power query. You. You write in word docs with blocks and paragraphs and page. Well, you write in pages, right? And panels.
And Greg writes in a spreadsheet with pages and panels.
[00:02:57] Speaker B: That's because spreadsheets that work.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: And I hear, yeah.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: Power queries that go into math, Excel spreadsheets, and then I write power shells and draw the data out to create and generate reports back into spreadsheets.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: Can you like? Yeah. See, you're gonna. I do the power Queries, but I don't do the powershells.
[00:03:20] Speaker B: Yeah, it's not fun.
[00:03:22] Speaker A: I'm not as cool as Travis. Well, we already knew that anyway, and it's just goes without saying.
But Travis is much more advanced than me. And you know what being more advanced than me means? That means Travis as a kid picked better comics to read. That's why he picked.
[00:03:39] Speaker B: Okay, comics. You've got a few that you brought before that I liked.
All right, we should start.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: I just can't believe I never got you into Legion of Superheroes.
[00:03:48] Speaker B: But I might get there. I might get there.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: You all just like to make fun of me about it. That's. See?
Oh, look at Serum.
And your roommate has made his first appearance on the podcast.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Was he?
[00:04:01] Speaker A: No.
So that's good.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: You guys missed out. I put Prince in front of him.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: Yeah, it. Well, you know, I mean, we'll have to make appearance. My dog probably will not make an appearance today, so. Gotta make up for that.
So we are in power. Back into the storm. By the way, another brilliant start to a funny book forensics podcast. I. If I could say so myself.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, we started.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, yeah, we've. We've definitely started. We are. We have talked about Power Query, Excel spreadsheets, comic book writing. See, we snuck it in there. Like, you know, I. I actually. I mean, this. I'm gonna start on. I'm gonna start being jokey for a second. I've seen how you write, and I've seen how Greg writes the outlines, and I kind of like both.
[00:04:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:51] Speaker A: But I feel like what you do is for a more advanced writer. Like, I feel like when I'm starting out, like, that little spreadsheet thing works because it makes me force things into the blocks.
But you already understand the building blocks in your head. So I think when you're writing, you can just see the page.
I can't see the page.
[00:05:12] Speaker B: You know? You know, it helps is if you're using Word, so you can use other applications. Because I've used, like, all other software I've used. Because there's one piece of software I'd use when I was younger that we all use.
Man, my brain just blanked out. But now I just use Word for everything now, which. Stop. I don't need both Mr. Gold in my life.
But now I use Word for everything.
I know that a lot of people get a little frustrated with me freezing Word, but, like, I'm not writing movie scripts anymore, so.
[00:05:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:52] Speaker B: I also. I am a pretty good fan, though, of there's a little app called.
Yeah, I forgot the name of the piece of software about Word today.
So I use Word. I just use style sheets. So I use the navigation.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that makes sense. I mean, honestly, like, if you're writing, I think it's just you write what fits your style best and what you see and. Yeah, I don't know how I'm getting into writing, but I do want to talk about writing a little bit into the story as we get into it, because the story here starts to take a. I don't want to say drastic turn, but we're to the point in the story. We're at issue four, Right. And we've had a lot of rising action. This story. There's been a little bit of conflict, but we haven't gotten to the big battle yet. Right.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: Yeah. We're in a transitional issue.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: Yeah. And we're going to transition into that.
It's almost like this story without spoiling anything, because we're about to cover it. It's almost like this story. If you were thinking about this story and you were writing it, it's almost like this story has a false climax and then an actual climax to it.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: Well, sort of what I would say is closer to is that you have your first, your A story and your B story, but they're running linear.
[00:07:08] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:09] Speaker B: Right. So B was always there and underlying. Right.
But B hadn't actually happened yet because it was interrupted by the A story.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:24] Speaker B: What's happening is you're resetting back to issue one of the new story.
[00:07:29] Speaker A: Okay, so we had an arc, and we kind of. And we're going to wipe out that. And the climax for that arc is going to be coming up quick. So let's jump right in. So we're in into the Storm, number four, aptly named because Storm has now appeared.
[00:07:44] Speaker B: So.
[00:07:46] Speaker A: Well, Storm is here. Storm was here last episode.
[00:07:49] Speaker B: So Storm. Storm is into the. Storm has Storm in it.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: So we get the crashed brood ship on the ground, and everybody's standing in front of it, and Storm asks them all, are you all right? And they're like, yeah, but Mayhem, I kept calling Marad. Murad's the mom, Right. Mayhem's the daughter.
[00:08:09] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: And I get that. Right. I mess it up every single time.
And they're doing exactly what you said they should do at the start of every book. But Mayhem, she's a snark princess, bad guy kidnapped, Frank's sleeping body. Isn't it amazing how when you have kid characters, they can catch you up to the story really quick.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: The first page of every issue.
[00:08:30] Speaker A: Yeah, quick.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: This is everybody. Well, this is who they are. This is their relationships.
To be fair, this was sold as floppies, and I held them, the floppies as well. So that is a standard.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: And also, I think it's good because it establishes that. That. That big battle we just mentioned. Right. So, hey, Storm, you were fighting this big battle. While you were fighting this big battle, this other thing happened over here, and we're here.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: Okay.
And.
[00:09:02] Speaker A: Now all of a sudden, we have a good reason because Storm has blasted down the brood ship, and now we're going to have the big battle in story A, which is a big battle with the brood. Well, in story B, I think I'm following your storyline.
We have mayhem off with coffee and Franklin's body. So we've got the two threads going on. Right, right. All right, so Storm is here, and she is ready to beat the hell out of some brood.
[00:09:31] Speaker B: You know, real quick. This has a 2, 3 splash.
[00:09:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: When I was younger, these were impossible. Pretty much.
There was always. Because of the binding. Right. So 1112 flash was really common.
Or, sorry, 12 13.
It's 12 13. I can't remember.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: I can tell you, but there's no page numbers in this comic book. So when there's no page numbers of comic book, it's really hard to reference the page numbers.
[00:10:00] Speaker B: You know, that's what makes them great.
And this kind of slash used to be very, very rare, so it's kind of cool to see right away. We're just. Bam. Get into it.
[00:10:12] Speaker A: Yep. And we're into the battle, and. Yeah. And. And why not? Like, we've worked up. We've worked three issues up to the battle, so, you know, we might as well jump in now.
[00:10:20] Speaker B: We have a reference to Uncanny x men number 165 that goes back to the idea of what I was seeing earlier about the Time Alliance.
[00:10:28] Speaker A: And. And one, we have Storm in the mohawk, in the leather. So.
[00:10:35] Speaker B: It'S reaffirming what we've been saying, which is this takes place in the past.
[00:10:39] Speaker A: Well, it was written for you. It wasn't written for a new reader, but they give you enough that a new reader could pick it up.
[00:10:47] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: So before I. I jump into this, actually, let me.
I know you're a huge fan of June Brigman, so that's. That goes without saying, because you grew.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: Up talking about my tweet.
[00:11:01] Speaker A: Yeah. You grew up on her work.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:04] Speaker A: Tell us why this 80s art, which is now 2020.
It's 2022, right. This one. Or is it 2024? I keep messing it up.
Was it last year or. Anyway, I'll grab it in a second. But the.
When you're looking at this art, it's 2024.
So it was 2024. It wasn't two years ago. Yeah, it's a very recent book. Right. Okay. Release date January 24, 2024 for the first issue.
How come her.
Her art holds up to now?
[00:11:42] Speaker B: Oh, I'm irritating.
In my opinion, it's the same reason. For instance, Neil, Adam's heart will hold up most of the time.
[00:11:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:51] Speaker B: Because in their style, there is less era specific stylings.
[00:12:04] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: You know, so an example, this is in the late 90s, there was this real big movement to make giant hands and giant feet and tiny stems.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: Yeah, right.
[00:12:15] Speaker B: And now, you know, when you see that art style, it's old.
[00:12:22] Speaker A: Okay, Right.
[00:12:25] Speaker B: Joan, Neil, a couple of other artists, you know, they don't get the fanfare of someone who does that sort of thing, you know?
You know, look at, look at Todd's work. It's even changed recently. You know, like go to his 90s stuff and he has that, like, angles where there should be curves stuff going on.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: Yeah, right.
[00:12:47] Speaker B: But he's modernizing from that a little bit. You know, the thing is, this is more timeless, right? This is generally good proportions, generally recognizable for the faces. There's nothing in here that's overly stylized that makes it very specific in that way. I think Complicor is, is kind of like, well, like science fiction.
What do you mean by science fiction, Charles?
How the hell did you come up with that? Well, let me tell you, the ultimate enemy of science fiction, right, Is science.
When you read a good science fiction book that has science explained in it at the time, when that science seems viable, even if it's in the future, you go, whoa, this book's so cool. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This is how they teleport. This is how the doors open. This is how they're traveling through space, through this thing. Right. And 20 years later, Jesus Christ is kind of dumb, you know, like, it's over. Right. You. Because the enemy of that in some ways, I would say comic book art, specifically as a medium, the ultimate enemy of style is Stein, you know, And I'm not saying June doesn't have style. I'm saying Neil doesn't have style. What I'm saying is their specific style is clean enough to where it's hard to pinpoint an era where this style was popular.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm looking specifically what Drew the question was this panel here where Julie Lightspeed and Storm are kind of in a close up. Like Julie's in the back, the background and Storm's in the foreground. And who. And I feel like you could drop that Storm right next to Dave Cockrum's work. Right next to John Byrne's work. Right. And it would fit right next to maybe Silvestri too.
Yeah. And you know, and maybe not Jim Lee.
[00:14:52] Speaker B: Well, I mean, look, so with Jim Lee, you. You have two errors of Jim Lee. Right. That they're very recognizable. You have a modern Jim Lee and then you have Wildcats Jim Lee.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm thinking X Men Wildcats Jim Lee.
[00:15:04] Speaker B: Yeah. And I don't want to make fun of him right now because, like, I get the joke. Right. Crosshair, Crosshatch. Crazy. Right. And he's a little less on that now.
But at the same time, like, you know, you can tell 90s Jim Lee from modern Jim Lee, because style is the enemy of style.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: Well, Jim Lee was also smart enough that he never has to draw again unless he just wants to.
[00:15:31] Speaker B: Yeah, he's pretty cool, man.
[00:15:33] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, Todd conventions.
[00:15:35] Speaker B: And I stare at him like this.
[00:15:37] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, but that's, I mean, that's, I think what you're fitting. Yeah. I would also argue, you know, that Neil Adams is kind of famous.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: Yeah. I miss talking to that guy. I used to talk to my colleagues all the time. Really. I know other people have problems with him. I get that.
Somebody goes in your comments, they're like, I get it, man, I get it. But he was always very cordial, him and his wife, to me, they were very nice people for like 18 years. I ran into my conventions and talked to them.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: I see. What a blessing. Now, see, I, I don't. I've told the story before on the podcast, so I won't tell the long version, especially when we did the tribute to Neil. But I walked up at Emerald City, I mean, like 10 years ago, right. And was talking, got in line, you know, and of course people complained because Neil charged for everything back then. And, you know, he's Neil Adams. He can charge for everything. Plus, he was not working for one of the big two at the time. Right. So, you know, charge for your autographs. He earned it. But I go up and I bring him an adventure comics cover that he did really early in his career.
And I said, I bet this is, you know, you probably haven't seen this today. And he said, no, I've seen 10 of them. And he was just kidding with me. Like, he's. And then we start chatting and Greg's standing there and Greg's just watching. And Neil and I chatted for like 15 minutes. There's this huge line behind me. And I was like, Mr. Adams, you know, should we, you know, should I let the line go? He's like, no, I'm talking to you right now.
I could see why people would think he was a jerk. But at the same time, I'm having like the. The dream moment of my life talking to Neil Adams, right? And we're talking about comics history and all sorts of, you know, different things, right? And going to plot point. I mean, we got in depth. Like, it was a crazy conversation.
[00:17:26] Speaker B: I. My most distinctive, though, I was in San Diego and I was in breakfast as right before he died. One of the. One or two years before he died, maybe three. I don't know. Those are all. They all kind of put together. But I wasn't going to say anything. As I walked past his table. Table and interrupt him and his wife having breakfast. He was, hey, I was not expecting that. I said, good morning. I was like, thanks, man. Thanks. Good morning. I continued on. There was a. Good luck with that guy.
[00:17:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:57] Speaker B: Especially nobody come up to Seattle. It was kind of like, you know, he expect to see me at that point, you know, so. Because that was my home con.
I am going to say, like, going back to this, though, you may get an artist some of the time. Say you're Fred Travis is full of shit with his style is the enemy of style. But, you know, it has been my experience being around comics for a long time, that a lot of people who get really over stylized styles once their style falls out of favor and it gets overused, you know, you don't see them getting as much work because they're casinos old. I hope they are like June.
And if he's saying it, because I know Neil's style did go through a dated period, you know, because those other guys were doing stuff like that with the big hands and big feet, you know, tiny stims. But, like, I think that the more levelly proportioned look of comic books, a traditional look, is something that if you learn it, it will always be good for you to fall back on if your style that you've chosen to go down ever stops getting you gigs.
[00:19:03] Speaker A: Well, I think, you know, thinking too. Let me add one more person into it. Let's add Gil Kane into it, right?
Like, I think Gil Kane by a lot of people, if they looked at his art would. Somebody would say, oh, that's old. But I think you can drop Gil Kane page into literally any period.
[00:19:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: Because the faces are so real.
Like, it's just crazy. I mean, it's different than this. Right. But I'm just saying, like, you're talking about. Don't overly stylize. He didn't. Like, the faces just looked real as hell.
And I feel like there's a place for that anywhere in comic. Well, not in every story, but there's a place for that somewhere in comics at all times. Right.
[00:19:47] Speaker B: I agree that.
I was just thinking about somebody else.
I won't say, dang it, I'm gonna be quiet. I'm gonna be really quiet.
[00:19:58] Speaker A: You're being nice to people. Yeah, well, I was gonna call out somebody, but then I can't find it while I'm looking it up, so that's okay. And not call them out in a bad way. I was just thinking of the 90s period. I was thinking the minute you started Talking about the 90s or art style, I was thinking of Impulse.
[00:20:16] Speaker B: The big hands, little sims, you know, when I was first writing comic books, and a lot of the guys that were trying to be comic book artists that I knew at that time, you know, I was out here failing as a writer. They were getting gigs at least with that big hands, big feet and small stems. But I hated it.
I'm going to say that, by the way, in the very. The pitch deck for my power patch has that style. So I should shut up.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: Well, I mean. But, you know, it's. I think it's okay, though. Like, I felt like that style was great for Impulse.
I don't know if it was great.
[00:20:50] Speaker B: I can see the issue. I can literally see the issue. Thinking of Robbie, like, how.
I think I know what cover you're talking about. I think I own it.
[00:20:58] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, it was. It was. Again, it's the right thing for the right character at the right time. Right. That, you know, you can have that, too, I think, to your point.
But another point, too, is like, you know, and our art is always something like. That's up to the viewer, reader, whatever, like to prefer.
I like to live in a world where I can prefer a lot of different art styles.
For me personally, it's when it gets too.
Too loose is when I start to fall off. Like when it's just really loose, uh, that's when I start to fall off. Either that loose artist to Me needs a really good anchor to hardline those. That loose drawing. Or I'm gonna just fall off, like when it's really blocky, when it's really just kind of undefined.
[00:21:48] Speaker B: Are you making fun of Frank Miller right now?
[00:21:51] Speaker A: Uh, no.
Something I'm kind of making fun of.
[00:21:56] Speaker B: I'm making it actually very specific.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: If I was gonna make fun of somebody and you want to talk about somebody whose art style has evolved substantially over time.
I'm kind of in my head imagining early Ty Templeton right now, and his work really got better over time, I thought. But I mean, I think some people would argue. Well, we loved early. His early stuff. And then, you know, it got stylized and it was stupid, you know, like, I don't know.
[00:22:24] Speaker B: You know, that is. I mean, if you want to talk about artists, that grew on me later, right.
When I was younger, I did not like Jay Lee.
By the way, nicest guy in the world, table of crafts from many times. I've never said a word to him.
[00:22:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:41] Speaker B: But when I was younger, his art. I didn't like his art. Now that I'm older and more mature, I really appreciate his stylized look. It's a stylized look that doesn't feel dated to me like the other stuff does. It feels artistic. So that's the other thing I want to point out, you know, like, you know, his never felt his.
His very unique way of using blacks in his lines.
Doesn't feel stylized. They feel him. They feel like this is his. Who he is.
[00:23:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
Oh, yeah. I love. He just did.
There is a Crypto the Last Dog of Krypton book right now.
And of all the people I would thought never pick to do covers, Jay Lee would not be the person I would ever pick to draw a Crypto the Last Dog of Krypton cover yet they did, and they are brilliant.
I. I was. I was like, I'm not going to like this. When I saw, you know, who was. I was like, there's no way I'm going to like this. And it's. I don't mind J. Le. Right. Like never Minded Jaylee at all.
But I didn't think that was the right for the. The story for crypto.
Like.
And it's really great.
I was gonna drop one to you too, but yeah, it's. It's really. It's really cool.
And anyway, just.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: It's just weird that he's grown on me so much.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: I should get back on the story.
[00:24:14] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, get on the story.
[00:24:15] Speaker A: But I just wanted to take an aside. I Mean, here, look, I know we talked about a bunch of artists, but that was a little mini tribute to June. Right. And the art style in this book, because it's. It's held up so well. I mean, we mentioned the faces and things like that. I will get back into the story, though. Brooder surrounding Storm. And Storm is like, I'm on the Storm planet. Like, she's like, kids, skedaddle.
Go call the.
Yeah, kids, skedaddle. Let's get out of here. You go find Frank and you go find Frank. And the Power Pack team goes. They got to go find Coffee and Frank. And Storm is knocking out some brood taking names, using the planet completely. Got this.
There we go.
And then she says, oh, well, we gotta have the Storm moment, right?
We flip to one where there's a square panel on the COVID of her talking, a corner, and then a full page splash. Not a splash page, but a full page. So, like, are you seeing the one I'm talking about? The square panel in the corner.
[00:25:27] Speaker B: Yep. It's essential of the.
[00:25:29] Speaker A: Yep, yep. And of course, we gotta get our line in right. Like it's a Storm movie here on Earth or in space, so many of you might pose a problem. But on this world, I am the Storm.
And then there we go.
[00:25:45] Speaker B: I want to roll back one page.
[00:25:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:47] Speaker B: This so far is the only flaw I found in this comic.
So it's a lettering issue.
There are two characters talking out of this, out of frying.
And only because I know the voice of the characters can I tell who's saying what.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: Ah, yeah.
Why do grownups always want us to be careful? And especially when that. Or especially when what they're doing is much more dangerous.
[00:26:19] Speaker B: Right.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: Who are the characters?
[00:26:21] Speaker B: Right. Who's thinking? Well, Jack said in the first line.
[00:26:25] Speaker A: Okay, but I don't.
[00:26:26] Speaker B: But so if it was Jack continuing the same line, you would have bolted the two balloons together.
[00:26:33] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:26:34] Speaker B: Right. But it's obvious someone else on the ship.
So I really think the second one here is.
I was gonna say Katie.
Man, it can easily be.
I just forgot one of the kids names.
[00:26:57] Speaker A: That's so Julie. Julie.
No, it sounds more Julie to me.
[00:27:02] Speaker B: It sounds very Julie, you know, and so.
But like, then what you should have done and so. Oh, wait, you can fix that. Swap Julie and Katie and the. The. And the interstential, you know, or something. But man, it's. That's a lettering problem right there. That's the only flaw I found. I would like to say.
I don't mean it's a bad thing. There's nothing all that bad about it. There is something else that's going to happen here a little bit later. I'm going to point out, too, that's a sneaky little trick that I think people should know how to do because it's being used well. And those will come in a moment.
[00:27:39] Speaker A: So I will say, like, I. I get I. Again, we're gonna. The flaw I have in this book. And, you know, again, it's. These are small flaws. To be clear, we love the book, so.
But it's funny book forensics. So we do dissect these things a little bit. No pun intended. Pun intended. Really intended. But, like, it's.
The next couple pages are really wordy to me.
And we have talked about the scripts being a little heavy.
And so, you know, I'll say that. And if I was reading the whole script, we would never get done with this book.
Yeah.
[00:28:16] Speaker B: I'm gonna say something on that Storm one that. Rolling.
[00:28:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
Did you crackle or something? Would have used a Crocomb, like, last issue. Didn't we have a Crocomb last issue?
[00:28:30] Speaker B: Yeah. Just seems like it'd be a snappier sound effect.
I'm gonna call Tom Morzanchowski and ask him, what is the sound?
[00:28:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
Now, while I did say the next two pages were a little wordy, I'm gonna go back on that a little bit because I do think we get a whole page. It's a nice moment with the family, which is what Power Pack is about.
Yeah.
[00:28:53] Speaker B: This looks pretty good.
[00:28:55] Speaker A: And so, you know, they're giving us a little. They're giving us a little bit of a recap. They're also telling us a little bit how they think about grownups again, of course, Jack is just like, grown ups are stupid, and I want Storm to fry everyone.
[00:29:11] Speaker B: Again. This is a.
This is June using the panels to help narrate the story.
[00:29:19] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, and you go through.
I love how Jack's just watching out, right? And he's like, watching Storm. And then his older brother and sister are like, what's wrong? And. And Alex is just wearing it on himself. I'm 13, and I'm supposed to keep Reed safe. He didn't say, I'm 13. But we just went through that in the story. I'm so. And Julie's like, not to mention Storm showed up to help us. And.
And. And Katie's like, oh, no. What if mayhem finds time the test? And you have said this to me. And now I. Now I see I can't unsee it. Because then Jack goes, don't say it. If it's anybody's fault, it's Kofi and Jenna's fault. Jack is the only voice of reason ever.
[00:29:59] Speaker B: Every time, man.
[00:30:00] Speaker A: Like, everybody's like, oh, whoa. Is like, Alex is like, I should have been responsible. And Julie's like, yeah, we should have been better. And Katie's like, yeah, and mom and dad won't be safe. And Jack is just like, yeah, you all. We're. We are the problem solvers.
They are all the problem makers.
[00:30:22] Speaker B: I love chat to death, man.
[00:30:24] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I'm really like, Jack is rapidly becoming my favorite character of the group.
I mean, back to when he stomped on the. The. The Brute's head.
[00:30:35] Speaker B: Everybody else forget.
[00:30:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:38] Speaker B: Take care of.
[00:30:41] Speaker A: And the funny thing is, like, he's not written like a traditional hothead. Right. Like, he does some hot head things. Because you always have to have the Johnny Storm of the group. Right. When you have four, they're more like.
[00:30:52] Speaker B: Take action things and hothead things, you know?
[00:30:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
But then he has, like this calm rationality to him too.
Caesar's hanging out. Yeah. Caesar has joined the podcast. If you're not on video.
And we flipped the page and. Or I don't know if we flipped the page. I flipped the page because I'm on a single screen. Travis has the book. And we get back to Mayhem Ship. And Mayhem is torturing Coffee with those electronic strips taking off. Storm is beating up all the brood, but now Franklin is there. Franklin's like.
Franklin's like, torn up. I could do more mayhem, but my powers are so scary, my mommy and daddy put a stopper on them. Does he know that?
[00:31:43] Speaker B: I guess he does say he does in this comic.
[00:31:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:47] Speaker B: I've not been paying attention long enough on the I this Fantastic Four era, because I can tell what it is, you know?
[00:31:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:56] Speaker B: Not my favorite FF4 era.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: Well, no, because that was Franklin in it.
You're so dead to me.
You get so sad. That's why they had to put Franklin in a cooler comic. See?
So anyway, Franklin is.
Franklin is. Is reasoning it out. Not bad for a four year old. He decides to go get help, which I think makes some sense.
And he goes back to Storm and he said, oh, it didn't work, Storm. We didn't save De Jenna. And now Mayhem capture Coffee.
And Storm is just busy beating the hell out of some Brood ships. She's in full on head of the Morlocks, kicking everybody's ass. Storm.
And, and. And Franklin goes, that's why Katie Made my superhero name tattletale.
Because all I'm good for is telling.
[00:33:00] Speaker B: Y.
[00:33:01] Speaker A: And here's your favorite. I know this is your. I know this is your scene because I'm here. That's why I'm. That's why I'm not. I'm not breezing over it, Travis.
And Storm says telling has been useful so far, Frank, and you've been very brave.
See, I just see Travis little tear welling up here.
[00:33:21] Speaker B: Actually, I'm waiting for the next page because that's where something really smarts then.
[00:33:24] Speaker A: All right, well, we'll flip to the next page. We'll just summarize this page by Frank goes and grabs, lets Storm know what's going on. Reports to the grown up. I like a good tattletale.
And goes back to the ship.
[00:33:39] Speaker B: All right, so there it is, right? You have a narration box on the next page, right. That completes the sentence from the word bubble below. From the last page.
[00:33:49] Speaker A: The power pack gets there.
[00:33:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I just.
I like that use.
I'm not going to lie, though. I've used that to hide my, like, adr.
[00:34:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:02] Speaker B: But no, something I think that people should know is that, you know, the voice. That's another narrative tool used sparingly. But they. I think they use it twice in this issue. And I really like that. And it was good to see that use the ads, you know, especially page to page. Right. Because we're changing chapters. Right. He's at this location at the bottom of the bottom right of the page. And then we move to the top left. He's in a new location, but we're carrying over, you know, the voice from the last scene. Right?
[00:34:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: So it's really. It's really quite well done in this book. And they do it one more time, I think, in this issue.
I don't think we've seen it before in the book.
[00:34:44] Speaker A: Well, I will also say as we go down to the bottom of the page, we were just saying that Jack was not a hothead, but here he is telling Katie that she needs to blow up the ship with the Powerball.
[00:34:55] Speaker B: No, no, that's not why.
She's got too much power again.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: And the other kids are like, we can't do that. We're gonna kill everyone.
[00:35:05] Speaker B: Jeff's pointing out something really smart. He's not being a hothead. He's pointing out that Katie's glowing again.
[00:35:10] Speaker A: Ah.
So, well, we flipped the page and we go back to the swear on my boot camp. I just ran over it. Yep. Ran over it. So we go Back to the ship. I do that to Greg all the time.
So we go back to the ship and mayhem is like, threatening. Frank is like, you got to re enter your body.
And he's like, my friends will come and they'll stop you.
And she's like, I don't think so.
And she knows the ship is there and she puts some sort of electrical field on it and she takes them with her and they're going back to the Snark world.
And boom. We get some really amazing coloring, by the way.
[00:36:02] Speaker B: Yeah, the warp.
[00:36:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:04] Speaker B: Yeah. That's some freaking like,'60s TV show of sci fi going on there.
[00:36:11] Speaker A: That's. That's straight out of the.
You know, it's fun. We were just reading the crazy ass Jimmy Olsen books, the Jack Kirby ones, the My Pals.
Yeah. And there was some crazy art like this on a couple of pages in. In those books, like with the coloring like that. Yeah, it was a little wilder, but. Yeah, that's. Anyway, I love this. I love when outer space stuff looks outer spacey.
[00:36:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
Was tripping out.
[00:36:44] Speaker A: And we get back and of course they announce we've arrived. And we get, that's your mom's secret hideout, so we know exactly where we're going.
And she said, that's the remains of the Technocrats. Of the Technocrats satellite. I wish. Can we just say, don't we all agree that we wish the Technocrats satellite was like that right now?
[00:37:10] Speaker B: Are you joking?
[00:37:13] Speaker A: No.
[00:37:17] Speaker B: I have so lost.
[00:37:19] Speaker A: That's real life. I wish the real Technocrats had their.
[00:37:21] Speaker B: We're living on an asterisk. Or they were all living on a satellite away from us.
[00:37:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, that would work too. Yeah, I'm good with that too. Let's just put them in one of the X spaceships and send them away.
[00:37:33] Speaker B: Let's go live on Mars.
[00:37:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
That.
Yeah.
What was that? Don't look up.
The end of that was fantastic.
[00:37:47] Speaker B: You know what's funny is that movie came out and now I feel more like.
Yeah, I was one of those people who said that it took me too far. And now I'm like, how are you, Rowan?
[00:38:02] Speaker A: Yeah, no, the ending was dead on. Anyway, so we are now getting back and the kids have been pulled in.
[00:38:11] Speaker B: Right.
[00:38:12] Speaker A: And we get a reference back to the Power Pack Holiday special.
[00:38:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
Yeah. I would look to see if I could find the floppy of that. I don't know. I didn't find it yet, but I know it exists.
[00:38:29] Speaker A: And they reference that that was destroyed. So that's when they beat mayhem. Right.
And Now Murad is haul. No, they beat Marad. I keep messing it up, I'm gonna mess it up.
Yeah, they beat Murad. And now Mayhem. Mayhem has Frank's body and coffee and dragging them into the super. The super villain hideout here.
And the team flies the ship, flies Friday in to go take care of business and save them. And boom, here they come, flying right out of Friday, all suited up, ready to go.
[00:39:06] Speaker B: Two of the bots ready to go. We be fast and they be slow.
[00:39:11] Speaker A: And they immediately find dejenna and start unwrapping her because her sister doesn't care about her.
Or cousin, whatever. Cousin, sister, cousin, cousin. And Frank's still talking to. Still annoying.
Using the Tattletale power to the maximum, Right? Just annoying the hell out of. Out of Mayhem, right?
[00:39:34] Speaker B: It is a superpower.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: Storm's mad and she's coming back and she's gonna get you.
And Mayhem is fully focused, ignoring the kid.
And he's like, whatever you want to do, it's. It won't work. Nah, nah, nah, nah. You can't steal my powers, not my body. He's just being all the four year old he can be is very four year old.
And she is completely ignoring him. Just hauling them off, just moving right through.
And then he's like, what is. They put. He puts Frank's body in a little cocoon thing and grabs a gun and says, what's that thing? And she. And she says, you'll find out soon, Ghost child. Now enter your body. Do it or your pal coffee dies.
And that's why we don't let evil cousin sisters have guns.
[00:40:30] Speaker B: No, but that angry face from.
No, I got the names move stuff. Mayhem.
[00:40:39] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:40:40] Speaker B: Is really good.
That's a really great fit face.
[00:40:43] Speaker A: That's meme worthy as is. She's been fed up of listening to a four year old for the last five minutes and has gotten to the to the end of the rope and.
[00:40:53] Speaker B: Is now ready drawing right now.
[00:40:58] Speaker A: Well, we flip back the page, and the team is still getting De Jenna unwrapped.
And Jenna recounts. I was frozen, barely conscious from the Broods neuro scramblers. But I think she said that when she has the power she needs, her clan will start a snark war and destroyer of worlds. And. And. And.
[00:41:22] Speaker B: Yeah, well, Mayhem was raving while she fled the Brood ship.
[00:41:30] Speaker A: Oh, sorry, I missed that. I. The only people that rave in these books are melters.
[00:41:38] Speaker B: All right, we'll move forward.
[00:41:40] Speaker A: That melt things. And so little girls that grow up to be empress of the galaxy yawning. Geez, it wasn't that boring. Well, anyway, now we're back in and Alex's man down. At the bottom of the page. Jadina says she wants power, but what if it's not a weapon? What if she wants Frank's power and Katie immediately. His tattletale power.
And no, like, nobody wants that.
[00:42:15] Speaker B: That's so dumb.
[00:42:17] Speaker A: Yeah, five year olds. The rest of them are like, no, no. They're trying to steal his real power.
I just don't know how this is gonna go.
So we get back and Frank's still trying to reason with. With Mayhem. It is not going well as a four year old. Yeah. Mayhem is like, I'm gonna take care of business, though. Frank sounds much more logical than Mayhem does.
[00:42:45] Speaker B: Got some thought bubbles, though.
[00:42:48] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and he's. He's thinking, this is sad. Mayhem's probably lying and I'll be dead anyhow, and I won't. I don't want to be dead.
[00:42:57] Speaker B: This is pretty intense.
[00:42:59] Speaker A: He goes back into his body because, you know, nothing like a big grownup and mean sister lady, cousin lady intimidating a 4 year old.
And he goes back to his body. He's like, power package coming. Storm said maybe they'll get here.
And the next page we flip. I love this flip by. I love this flip, by the way, because it looks like they're flying in to get Frank. But no, they're flying in to get coffee. So they find coffee, they unwrap him.
Now we're there. Now they've got to get in there to take care of business.
Now Katie can unleash one of those.
[00:43:40] Speaker B: It's a pretty fun picture of her, though.
[00:43:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, yeah. She's ready.
And we get in there and we are in full super villain battle plan art here. We've got Frank in a purpley tube. We've got Mayhem in a purpley tube.
We got some. Something's gonna happen. Some power transfer has begun. They tell us we don't even have to figure it out, but you can see it just by the art. I don't even know. They need to tell us a power transfer is happening.
Because those are power transfer comic book tubes. If I've ever seen them in my life.
Is like, yep, I just thought about.
[00:44:22] Speaker B: Something in my head. Sorry about comic.
[00:44:25] Speaker A: Well, maybe you need some power transfer tubes in the comic.
[00:44:29] Speaker B: I just need to be careful because I don't want to give away what happens in the comic.
[00:44:33] Speaker A: Well, I will not talk about it, so. Plus, there's no page number, so I couldn't reference where we're at in the comic anyway.
So we will flip the page again as Power Pack explodes onto the scene. But we won't flip the page because that's the last page.
And we don't know what's going to happen because right now, Mayhem is trying to steal Frank's powers, and this cannot possibly go well.
[00:44:59] Speaker B: Yep. And this page, we have that variant cover that electron rules with target again.
[00:45:04] Speaker A: Oh, there you go.
And we are going to be into the storm number five next.
[00:45:10] Speaker B: Number five.
[00:45:14] Speaker A: So we wrapped up one. So we wrapped up part A. That was Storm beating up the brood. Right. And now we're into the other subplot, I guess. But it's not a subplot now. So the subplot becomes the main plot. Right.
[00:45:25] Speaker B: This is the last issue coming up.
[00:45:28] Speaker A: Yep.
Yeah. Next podcast, you will get the conclusion. We'll find out what happens with the power transfer. Travis wants to talk about it right now.
[00:45:37] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, there's my house.
[00:45:41] Speaker A: But we can't do it yet, because if we did it, then you would know and then you wouldn't come back to listen. But we want you to come back to listen. So you don't get to know.
You should know that.
So you don't get to know if you know or not, because you got to come back to know things.
[00:45:59] Speaker B: Isn't that the note? Are you trying to be great right now?
[00:46:03] Speaker A: No.
Why would I ever try to be Greg?
[00:46:07] Speaker B: All right. Sound very Gregy.
[00:46:09] Speaker A: I am an esteemed member of the media. Greg just presses the button.
[00:46:15] Speaker B: The button?
[00:46:16] Speaker A: Yeah. I can get you a shirt, too, that says I press the button.
But anyway, we are about to wrap this one up.
[00:46:26] Speaker B: Yes. I will drag this one ending out.
[00:46:29] Speaker A: Well, I will for a second. Travis has two Kickstarters out.
[00:46:34] Speaker B: Hell, yeah. Yeah. I just got some art back from one of the. From one of those sets, so that was cool.
[00:46:39] Speaker A: So what are we looking out for again?
[00:46:42] Speaker B: All right, so we've got anthology called Bad Future. You can find that on Kickstarter. Just type in Bad Future Future.
It is a cyberpunk anthology. It means several other creators. And then I have a book that is based on the 1992 movie Nemesis. It takes place between the movie Nemesis 1 and Nemesis 2.
It's Albert Pugh's nemesis.
So it's very cyberpunky. Circus robots, people betrayal, gangs, you know, know all the stuff. You want. Cyborgs lot.
[00:47:20] Speaker A: No Cyborgmans. No cyborgman. Just cyborgs. Right.
[00:47:25] Speaker B: Cyborgman hasn't been by the house in a while. That's true.
[00:47:28] Speaker A: You know who Cyborgman is?
[00:47:29] Speaker B: No.
[00:47:30] Speaker A: Cyborgman was in Harlequin.
[00:47:32] Speaker B: Oh, that sounds. Oh, my God.
[00:47:37] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:47:38] Speaker B: Transforms into a car.
It's very painful.
[00:47:44] Speaker A: Yes. Anyways, Amanda Connor is a national treasure.
[00:47:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
Wait, who's Amanda Connor?
[00:47:54] Speaker A: The writer. The artist.
[00:47:56] Speaker B: Oh, okay. Sorry. You're. You're just. I'm trying to remember my old stuff.
[00:48:01] Speaker A: Here, and then I throw names.
[00:48:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Names are not my friends.
So, you know Cyborg man, half of coming out on Kitchener.
So you can check out my Cyborgman comic coming out on Harley Quinn. HBO Max with.
What am I talking about?
[00:48:27] Speaker A: Cyborgman.
[00:48:31] Speaker B: Nemesis.
[00:48:32] Speaker A: Oh, Nemesis. That's right.
[00:48:34] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:48:34] Speaker A: You should check out the Kickstarter. You should get notified, you know, and.
[00:48:38] Speaker B: Or. You know.
Yeah.
[00:48:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
See Travis Notifications, Kickstarters books. It happens.
[00:48:49] Speaker B: I'm stacked. Thinking about Harley Quinn seasons.
[00:48:52] Speaker A: Well, I read it in the comics before it was in the Harley Quinn.
[00:48:55] Speaker B: Seasons, so I'm just thinking about how. How cute freaking Poison Ivy is. I'm just saying.
[00:49:03] Speaker A: I have no idea.
She must be amazing.
[00:49:11] Speaker B: Hottest girl of cartoons today.
[00:49:14] Speaker A: Well, anyway, Greg has a book, Absolute Zeros Camp Launchpad, where they watch the Harley Quinn series. Oh, they cannot legally do that because you can't put that in your book.
Yeah, there's that. You can buy that. Greg also owns a store with Anne, The Retro Emporium in Kent, Washington.
You go there if you want to see Greg. Send Greg good vibes, please.
He'll be back soon.
[00:49:42] Speaker B: He needs the good vibes and.
[00:49:46] Speaker A: But send him some good vibes. Greg is fine, but please send him some good vibes and him and his family and.
Yeah, I have nothing for sale.
And I. Oh, Jiu Jitsu Lawyer Paul. How could we forget Jiu Jitsu Lawyer Paul? He'll. He'll take.
[00:50:05] Speaker B: I guess. I. I remember that. We have to talk.
[00:50:08] Speaker A: He'll take care of you for all your Jiu Jitsu needs. Or your legal needs, especially employment law. Hit Jiu Jitsu Lawyer Paul up on Jackson, slash Bridgeport and 27th. Caesar approved. Caesar approved.
[00:50:24] Speaker B: I saw Stella just.
[00:50:28] Speaker A: See.
So it's. It's all good. Yeah, that's all the plugs for now. I live in my basement and I never leave.
[00:50:39] Speaker B: The moon. Turned my girlfriend into Code Lord.
[00:50:42] Speaker A: Maybe I'll make an appearance. I don't know. It could happen.
Look, I have all these Justice League International Omnibi right here.
[00:50:49] Speaker B: Omnis die.
Oh, look at your Legion collection.
[00:50:54] Speaker A: Oh, there's many legions. Yes. And see, it keeps going. But I figured, you know, what to end this podcast. I want to remind Travis, he was mentioning the 90s.
And right here, if you want the art, Travis is talking about.
[00:51:13] Speaker B: The Zero.
[00:51:14] Speaker A: Hour Crisis in Time Omnibus is your book.
[00:51:18] Speaker B: Well, very.
Oh, is it a lot of 90s?
[00:51:23] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:51:23] Speaker B: Big hands, big feet, small stims.
[00:51:26] Speaker A: That was DC's. That was DC's. You remember that? Maybe you didn't. You probably didn't read it. That was zero. That was DC's launch. Everything back to start again in the 90s.
It wasn't so great. But I do have the omnibus, so it's all good. Anyway, you know what? We said we weren't going to extend this out podcast over. It's done. Goodbye. We're leaving. Goodbye. No more. Why? We're. Don't. Why are you still listening? Stop listening. Stop, stop, stop.
