022.4 - Sunday Sunday Sunday at Comic-Con-con-con

[00:00:00] Speaker A: What are we doing? [00:00:01] Speaker B: I think we need to do the episode. [00:00:06] Speaker A: So, like, intro the episode. [00:00:09] Speaker B: Yeah, the. Hi, this is Bryce Rankins, and this is Brian Romero. [00:00:13] Speaker A: Yes, this is. [00:00:14] Speaker B: And you're listening to episode 22.4 of Sneaky Geek. [00:00:18] Speaker A: There's four of them. [00:00:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Nice. [00:00:21] Speaker A: Yeah, they're like clones, but they're not. [00:00:24] Speaker B: But they are not even. But not even clones. They're not even clone boys. Start the episode. [00:00:29] Speaker A: Fine. [00:00:55] Speaker C: And we're going. [00:00:56] Speaker B: And we're going, re going. Shit. [00:01:02] Speaker A: So I always tell people, well, first, people always ask, like, how's comic Con? It's like, well, I always equate it to Vegas. They're like, vegas? I'm like, okay. Leading up to it, you're like, I'm excited. [00:01:15] Speaker B: Let's do this. [00:01:16] Speaker A: Let's go. And you're there for the first day. And you're like, okay, yeah, this is what's going on. And you're there the second day, like, yeah, okay, cool, I'm here. And the last day, you're just like, get me the hell home. I'm not ready for this to start for another year. Yeah, that's what I tell people. So, of course, Sunday, you're just like, we have the badge for the Sunday. We got stuff that we can do. [00:01:40] Speaker B: Usually. [00:01:40] Speaker A: You can get some good bargains, though. That's the day where people don't want to ship their stuff back, so they'll make some good deals with you. [00:01:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I cut a deal on Sunday for some shirts for a pretty good price last year. This year, I spent the end of my exhibit hall day in one booth, like, trying to get giveaways. But it was fun. It was cool. I enjoyed it. But at the same time, there was the issue we talked about yesterday with how people seem to get around free stuff. Although I will say in that same vein, there were some really cool moments in that same thing. But when people asked me about Comic Con, we were like, how was Comic Con? And I had such a good time at Comic Con. Now that I've had three weeks to rest and catch up on sleep, I can say that it was definitely one of the best cons I've ever had. Cool. But when everyone was like, how was Comic Con? My initial reaction was like, I don't. [00:02:36] Speaker A: Want to talk about it because I. [00:02:37] Speaker B: Was so burnt out. [00:02:39] Speaker A: Exhausting. Four straight days of, like, nonstop, basically. [00:02:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:43] Speaker A: And you're feeding off everyone else's energy, too, so that helps. Everybody's pretty much on the same page the last day. So when everybody's feeding off that same energy, it's disaster. [00:02:53] Speaker B: Yeah. They claim Sunday, it's family day, don't they? [00:02:56] Speaker A: That was. Yeah, it was for a while. I don't know if it still is, but yeah, it was always kids day, I think they called it. [00:03:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, yeah. I don't think they probably had special little events, but I don't know what else families do on the floor for family. [00:03:09] Speaker A: I wonder if kids day was started initially because not enough people were going to comic Con back in the day, so it encouraged them to bring their families. Stuff like that. Like, oh, let's bring the kids. It'll be something fun to do on a Sunday, on a weekend. And now it's like you can't even get a badge. So it's like, is that still even a thing they need to have? I don't know. [00:03:26] Speaker B: Correct. What's your plan here, kids? Yeah, I don't think I would ever take my five year old to Disneyland. Dave has what he calls the con mitzvah. And he'll bring his kids to cons as they're getting older and stuff. But their first actual con, where they get to decide what they're doing and they get to decide how they're going to handle it. They're basically mitzvah age for that. To Spencer's was a con. Was like an actual comic con. I don't think it was San Diego, but it was a con. Wondercon mo. Hers was Vidcon. That's what she's into. And he was like, I guess this is your con mitzvah. That's really cool. Because it's outside of his realm of knowledge and expertise. [00:04:13] Speaker A: He still had a great time. [00:04:14] Speaker B: Again. When I see little, little kids and strollers and stuff, I'm like, dude, what are you doing? No way. Yeah, it's like they don't have a babysitter. That's probably why. [00:04:22] Speaker A: Yeah, I can see that happening. [00:04:24] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, you still have to pay for the kid to get in, right? I don't know how that works. [00:04:29] Speaker A: It's free under a certain age. Yeah, it's free under a certain age. [00:04:33] Speaker B: They should beast type of kids. [00:04:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Do you do anything on Sunday? Did you go anywhere? I did, yeah. So I'm super into comic books. [00:04:41] Speaker C: I don't know if you guys knew this. [00:04:42] Speaker A: What? I keep it on the download. [00:04:51] Speaker B: Superman, right? Yes. Yeah. [00:04:52] Speaker A: I picked up the Superman book on Friday, but there was an X Men comics panel that I was super down with because that's my shit ever since I was a kid. It's always been X Men. [00:05:02] Speaker B: Who was on the panel? [00:05:03] Speaker A: We had a bunch of writers and C. B. Sibolski, who's the editor in chief at Marvel Comics, was narrating, moderating. He was moderating, which is cool because he was also narrated a panel. [00:05:19] Speaker B: And now he talks. Say hello. He finished with the thinking, said Ed Bruv. [00:05:28] Speaker A: He's basically the narrator on arrested development. So he wrote this book. [00:05:32] Speaker B: He didn't. I think it's honestly the greatest thing I've ever written. [00:05:37] Speaker A: It was, yeah. So, no, it was really cool. They talked about some upcoming books and some events that are coming up. Extermination. So Bendis was writing X Men for a bit, and he brought some of the X Men back from the past to be like, hey, look what you guys did in the future. Yeah, all new X Men. It was interesting, and I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. Basically, from what the panelists and everybody were kind of saying was best thing in the. It wasn't. Now they're going to fix it with this event, which is what they kind of alluded to without really saying it. But you caught the. [00:06:16] Speaker B: There was some subtext. Oh, yeah. [00:06:18] Speaker A: So they announced that. They announced or they announced. It's been announced. But they showed some covers and stuff. It was really cool. But they announced X Men Black, which focuses on some villains with backup stories with apocalypse. So they're all going to tie things together. And then they announced that uncanny X Men's coming back. We haven't had an uncanny X Men book in about a year now, so I'm pretty sure it's all going to start tying together to that. [00:06:38] Speaker B: So it's pretty cool. That's cool. [00:06:39] Speaker A: And then we also also got a con exclusive x 23 number one variant. And it's pretty badass. [00:06:44] Speaker B: It's a good book. [00:06:45] Speaker A: Go check it out. [00:06:46] Speaker B: Cool. [00:06:46] Speaker A: Good read. So that was the only panel. Was there a line for that panel? Yeah, it was huge. Yeah, luckily I got there early enough. And, yeah, it was funny on the way over because we parked it. It was the last day, so we packed up everything from where we were staying and then I was coming back. [00:07:03] Speaker B: From my mini confluence. [00:07:07] Speaker A: Your spirit quest. [00:07:08] Speaker B: Yeah, my spirit quest. And we were planning on getting out of there at like nine. And I don't think we ended up leaving until like 1010 30. Yeah. [00:07:16] Speaker A: And no, the panel was supposed to start at 1030. [00:07:20] Speaker B: That's right. So we ended up getting out of there around 930. We wanted to leave around eight. So it's the con on time, because I really wanted this panel. It took work to set up, and so I'm coming off of this experience, and we start walking. And I was on my third or fourth major special research task on Pokemon go, which means I have to find a ditto. And I was just trying to catch as I was walking, and then I wound up catching a ditto. Finally, after, like, a month and a half of trying, and I catch his ditto. And then Tate, who had just gotten back into Pokemon, goes like, oh, a ditto. Oh, my gosh. Because when he left Pokemon go, ditto wasn't even available yet. So he's super excited. He's like, brian. And Brian's like, you're too slow. And I kept going. [00:08:02] Speaker A: I did not stop. [00:08:03] Speaker B: We did not see Brian until after the panel. [00:08:04] Speaker A: No, he went around the corner. I was on a fucking mission. And I'm like, I've done that quest. I need my x men stuff. I love you guys. [00:08:13] Speaker B: But, yeah, I felt by Saturday, the I love you guys, but bye was kind of like if we wanted something and there were people slowing us down, it didn't matter. If you're my best friend. Yeah, I'm dealing with this right now. I will see you later. [00:08:28] Speaker A: I know where you live. [00:08:29] Speaker B: It's fine. Yeah. [00:08:31] Speaker A: So that was the only panel I really wanted to see. Everything else was just trying to find good deals on the floor and then just trying to close out the day. [00:08:41] Speaker B: Close out the day in a way that wasn't exhausting, because I don't want to walk anymore. And that's why I was really happy to be at that booth getting the giveaways, because I was like, I need to stand in one spot and not do a ton here. I didn't get to really appreciate some of the stuff that was going on at some of the places because I was, like, constantly shuffling. [00:09:01] Speaker A: There's so many things going on. [00:09:06] Speaker B: Honestly, just to go back real quick because I didn't talk about it, I wound up getting the signature of the man who created Luann, which is a serial comic that runs the newspaper. Oh, yeah, one of my favorites when I was in high school. It's one of those ones. It was like, you read it. It's, like, right underneath peanuts in Garfield. [00:09:21] Speaker C: And there was. [00:09:22] Speaker B: And at least in my paper, and that was really cool because I saw it. And Luann's special to me because it was given to me by my friend's mom, and she's passed away and stuff. And that sort of those moments of being able to really stop and talk for a second were getting rarer and rarer and rarers of people because everyone's on the move now. It's like they're still shuffling constantly and it's still annoying for your legs, but now there's no chance to stop. Right. Which is even. Reed, what'd you do on your last. [00:09:51] Speaker A: I hit all the activations in downtown that I could, because I spent Saturday. [00:09:55] Speaker B: At wired, so walked wired shut down on Sunday. [00:09:58] Speaker A: Yeah, wired. That's true. [00:09:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:59] Speaker A: So there was no safe haven for me. There's no sanctuary. So I had to walk around and like everybody else. But I did the comic con experience. No, we have fun. I did the comic con experience, which they do every year. That's the thing that's attached to Petco park. [00:10:19] Speaker B: Oh, right. Cool. [00:10:19] Speaker A: So there was like a cloak and dagger activation, which the lines are always crazy. [00:10:22] Speaker B: So I describe activation because I've never heard of that. [00:10:25] Speaker A: It's like a marketing term. It's essentially, I guess the way I describe is also experience, quote, unquote, where they're trying. A good example of the activation was of the south by southwest. I think it was south by southwest. They did the westworld HBO activation where they built like a western town and stuff like that. They did a south park one a couple of years ago where they built south park. [00:10:44] Speaker B: I remember that. You could go into the upside down last year. [00:10:47] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:10:47] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's cool because you don't actually have to have a badge to go into that. No. If you're just, let's say you only got a two day badge. That's how I spent my Saturday last year, was walking around the activation. [00:10:58] Speaker A: And you see them popping up more outside of conventions too. Like they had the ready player one experience down in Hollywood. They also had the id house. [00:11:05] Speaker B: Cool. [00:11:06] Speaker A: Those were things that were in Hollywood that weren't attached to any type of comic con. But, yeah, they had the cloak and dagger activation where in the show, I guess when they touch hands, they kind of blow apart from each other. So it was like a thing you got in a harness and you would walk toward the other person, and when you touch, it would blow you back. Like, you'd fly back. [00:11:23] Speaker B: Did you get to do it? [00:11:24] Speaker A: No, the line was. [00:11:27] Speaker B: Amazing. [00:11:28] Speaker A: The lines to do anything, you pick, like, I swear, you pick like two or three things. And if you want to do those, you stick to it. Yeah. It's like you can reserve now there's reservations now you can do online. [00:11:38] Speaker B: I want to do the Jack Ryan one. Right. [00:11:41] Speaker A: I heard that one. [00:11:44] Speaker B: Helicopter at the end. [00:11:45] Speaker A: I heard that was really. Just really tough to get into. There's stuff now you can reserve online. So I did the Comic con experience. That was cool. It's almost like, a little, like, carnival fair is the best way to describe it. [00:11:58] Speaker B: Run by, like, weird hecklers who. [00:12:01] Speaker A: Come on now. Yeah. [00:12:03] Speaker B: $10. $10 for a shot. You want to impress your girl, don't you? Step right up. Get those muscles. We put them good use over here. [00:12:10] Speaker A: This tasmanian devil plushie could be yours. [00:12:14] Speaker B: I always want to be one of those carneys who operated the water gun. [00:12:18] Speaker A: Game, where it was essentially a race. [00:12:20] Speaker B: Where people were squirting, trying to hit a target and step right up. Or the horse racing. One where you roll the balls. [00:12:27] Speaker A: And number one. [00:12:28] Speaker B: Number one. Number two, choosing the lead. [00:12:29] Speaker A: Twos in the lead. [00:12:30] Speaker B: And three. [00:12:31] Speaker A: Three, and then four. [00:12:32] Speaker B: Here's your blush. [00:12:34] Speaker A: I like your version of Comic con experience better than the one that we're workshopping here. Better than games. [00:12:43] Speaker B: I don't really like carneys, but now I feel like it could be a little more exciting. Oh, we got a mutant over here. We got the popping. Superman, over here. Superman. Superman. [00:12:53] Speaker A: Here's a big pikachu. [00:12:57] Speaker B: After the activation. [00:12:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I did that. And then I ate at tinfish, which I love for lunch. It's a fish place. And they had. [00:13:05] Speaker B: Did you get ten fish? [00:13:06] Speaker A: No, I got the fish and chips. [00:13:08] Speaker B: Were there ten of them? [00:13:09] Speaker A: No. Tin. There were not ten exists because it sounds. [00:13:15] Speaker B: Because it spelled the. [00:13:16] Speaker A: I got the large order, and it was about, I don't know, six and then a ton of fries. But I was lucky. I found a spot under a fan. [00:13:23] Speaker B: Yes. [00:13:24] Speaker A: I made out of fish. Not tin. There was not wrapped in tin foil. [00:13:26] Speaker B: But not even in tin foil. [00:13:28] Speaker A: No, I know there was no tin in. [00:13:29] Speaker B: Did you demand your refund back? [00:13:33] Speaker A: I venmoed a friend, so I'm like, it's a hard situation for a refund. You're in a sticky situation. [00:13:39] Speaker B: That's fair. [00:13:39] Speaker A: So that was pretty much it. I just did the activations. [00:13:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:41] Speaker A: And you were like, there's that dragon Ball super dragon Ball Z activation outside. We went back on Sunday, actually, because we had to see tatoff. He had caught an early flight that. [00:13:52] Speaker B: Afternoon, missed the activation the day before. [00:13:54] Speaker A: So we were like, hey, you got to come. You have to come check this thing out. [00:13:56] Speaker B: And then we wound up playing the fighting game, and then we learned how to play. [00:13:59] Speaker A: Play the card game. And now we're into the card game a lot. Too much. Well, they got you. [00:14:06] Speaker D: That's exactly what they wanted. [00:14:08] Speaker A: That's it. [00:14:09] Speaker B: And the day before, they gave us a card for it, and we were like, oh, that's kind of cool. But we also got, like, a card for the final Fantasy game and a couple of others. But then when we learned how to play, it was like, well, now we got this, and I now have a goku card, which is a con exclusive. [00:14:20] Speaker A: And they're like, oh, you can have four max in your deck of any card. We're like, well, guess we have to go get a few more first taste is free. [00:14:27] Speaker B: Yeah, totally. And then they were like, you go here. This is where the booth is. We go to the booth, and it's like, oh, yeah, if you try this deck, it's this. And they kind of had a quick explanation of how the premade decks work as well. They were running the gandh about, oh, they were. [00:14:39] Speaker A: And they got us bad. They got us bad. [00:14:41] Speaker B: Oh, it was so cool. [00:14:43] Speaker A: But it was really fun. [00:14:44] Speaker B: And it was actually not expensive at all. [00:14:46] Speaker A: No, it was very inexpensive compared to magic. And I started looking up stuff after the con, and those were con exclusive prices. If you go anywhere else, they're regular priced. They're a hell of a lot cheaper, probably. [00:15:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:01] Speaker A: But it was really cool. [00:15:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Anyway, we got to go play Mario party. So before we do, Nick, did you do anything on Sunday, or did you just be like, I need to leave. I was able to walk the floor a little bit more. I tried to actually get into a Riverdale signing, which did not happen at all. Yeah, I wanted to see the cast. It's such a great show. Did you really like it? It's a weird murder mystery and take on Archie characters. Okay. So that was basically what I did. I did not buy anything this year. That was the first time I. Good exclusive, but that was it. I wanted to get out of there. [00:15:33] Speaker A: Yeah, it was a long trip home. [00:15:36] Speaker B: Well, that's Sunday. [00:15:37] Speaker A: We're going to. Sunday was real quick. In and out, basic. Not everyone's staying the whole day. [00:15:43] Speaker B: No. [00:15:44] Speaker A: And even if you were there, you were just kind of dead. [00:15:48] Speaker B: And then we drove home and took a long time. We dropped Tate off. Let's send him off to the airport on a lift midway through the day. [00:15:54] Speaker A: How long did it take you to get back? [00:15:56] Speaker B: Like 4 hours. [00:15:57] Speaker A: It wasn't traffic, but. No, it wasn't traffic. This guy had some stomach issues. Then we got hungry. We took our time. We'd have to be back. [00:16:03] Speaker B: Yeah, we were relaxing, and then the next day, we kind of chilled and hung out, and then we went home. You guys want to go play some Mario party on our stream? Yeah, I do. That's the goal. Cool. Thanks, guys. Yeah, thanks. Join us a couple more con details when we do our interview episode. [00:16:17] Speaker A: Yeah, look forward to that. [00:16:20] Speaker B: Thanks for having us. Yeah, cool. Thanks for being here. [00:16:22] Speaker A: We have fun here. [00:16:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Good guy. All right, everybody say, bye, Reed. Bye, Reed. Bye. You stay at home, too. Stay classy, San Diego. We're waiting. Thank you. Okay, so that was our conversation with Reed and Nick. Yeah. Short lived because we desperately were trying to get to Mario party. [00:16:45] Speaker A: Plus, we didn't really do a whole lot, as you heard. [00:16:47] Speaker B: Yeah, Sunday was kind of a short day for us. But this wouldn't be complete without a little word from our friend Dave. Yes. [00:16:55] Speaker A: Just a little word. Probably, like five minutes. It's a little longer than that. [00:16:59] Speaker B: It's probably an hour, but it's good stuff. Yeah. Good shit. [00:17:02] Speaker C: Here we go. [00:17:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, so we are here with Dave. [00:17:06] Speaker C: Ziggler and his jazz hands. [00:17:08] Speaker B: Jazz hands, Dave. We have actually recorded four separate episodes, all on San Diego Comic Con, and each one for a corresponding day. So we did Friday, we did Saturday, we did Thursday. And we went through a couple with Tate. Couple with our friends, Nick and Reed. But of course, you were there, and we got to get your hot take on the whole. [00:17:27] Speaker C: My hot take? Three months later. [00:17:29] Speaker B: Three months? Yeah. Can we put this back in the microwave briefly and maybe take care of. [00:17:35] Speaker C: Yes. [00:17:37] Speaker B: Good. Yes. [00:17:39] Speaker C: I have plenty to say. Well, maybe not plenty. Well, yeah, I got things to say, Brian. [00:17:44] Speaker B: And I could barely remember three weeks later. Hell, the day after Comic Con, we didn't even want to talk about it. [00:17:50] Speaker C: Well, I had plenty of adventures. Some of which I remember, some of which I don't. [00:17:54] Speaker B: Oh, man. [00:17:55] Speaker C: Well, it's a big event. And let's see, I've been to probably 30 of these. I'd have to go back and do the math, but probably 30 of them. [00:18:05] Speaker B: Wow. [00:18:06] Speaker C: And apart from the big highlights, they all kind of run together well. And sometimes even the highlights run together. Like, I can't remember, did this happen. [00:18:16] Speaker B: At this show, or did that happen? [00:18:18] Speaker C: Yeah, I remember that I met David Carradine at my first Comic Con. [00:18:25] Speaker B: That you had no other comic con to worry about. Which one that happened at. [00:18:29] Speaker C: Right, exactly. And when I was talking in class yesterday or Thursday about meeting Tom Kenny, I couldn't remember if that was last year or the year before. And I think it was last. [00:18:39] Speaker B: So I think it was actually the year before. Was it I think you talked about it happening the year before last year, because our first episode last year was a Comic con episode, which I just realized this is going to have to be a tradition now. Oh, no. I have to go to Comic Con and talk about it. Oh, what a horrible life that is. [00:18:59] Speaker C: Well, okay. That kind of proves my point, I guess. [00:19:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Anyway, so this year's comic Con, did you go on Tuesday or Wednesday? [00:19:10] Speaker C: I went down Tuesday. I always go down a day early, hang out with my friend Adam Bishop, who taught next door to me for 13 years, and then moved to point south because he managed to escape Bakersfield's gravitational pull. That makes me sad. I mean, I'm glad that he is living someplace that's a lot more beautiful and a lot cleaner air and all that. [00:19:33] Speaker B: Right. [00:19:35] Speaker C: He just missed my buddy. [00:19:37] Speaker B: Anyway, so you went and hung out. [00:19:40] Speaker C: So I always go out and go down a day early and hang out with Bishop. And then I continued on down to help finish setting up the booth. I was there Wednesday for preview night. [00:19:49] Speaker B: And how was it? [00:19:50] Speaker C: It was good. It was a little busier than it has been in years past, even though they've capped the number of preview night tickets. [00:19:58] Speaker B: Right. [00:19:58] Speaker C: Which I think was a good thing. But I feel like I sold quite a lot of comics, and that was different from years past because a lot of the exclusives were available for preorder and things like that. [00:20:12] Speaker B: Right. Because they did that lottery system this year. Right. [00:20:14] Speaker C: They did the lottery this year, but some of them were also doing preorders, like online. [00:20:19] Speaker B: Okay. [00:20:19] Speaker C: And so there was less stampede to. [00:20:23] Speaker B: Get because you knew you were going to get it, so you didn't have to worry about being first. [00:20:26] Speaker C: Exactly. Either knew you were getting it Wednesday night or you weren't, so you might as well go buy some comics. [00:20:32] Speaker B: Yeah, that's good for you. It's good for the goose, I guess. [00:20:36] Speaker C: I don't think that's how that aphorism goes. [00:20:39] Speaker B: Is that not how that goes? [00:20:41] Speaker C: What's good for the goose is good for the gander. [00:20:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:44] Speaker C: Not what's good for the goose is what's good for you, but whatever. Well, I mean, I guess in this case, I'm the. [00:20:52] Speaker B: You're. Well, I don't know. In this case is Steve the goose. [00:20:56] Speaker C: This is a terrible. [00:21:02] Speaker B: Out. Yeah. Can we cut and that? [00:21:05] Speaker A: Nope. Nice try. We're keeping that b raw mouth. [00:21:11] Speaker C: So let's see. Oh, one other notable thing about Wednesday, and I think I showed you this picture, and this is terrible. So he'll put this up on the instagrams. This episode goes live. The Deadpool toilet seat covers, which on the one hand, they joke on the toilet seat cover. Well, this is all that Fox could afford for promoting our movie. [00:21:36] Speaker B: Right. [00:21:37] Speaker C: On the other hand, that's a high quality print job on really thin paper. [00:21:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:42] Speaker C: So that probably wasn't cheap. [00:21:44] Speaker B: No, probably not. And those ran out. I mean, were those in the bathrooms? Yeah, those ran out at some point. [00:21:49] Speaker C: Those were. [00:21:50] Speaker B: I never saw them. [00:21:51] Speaker C: If they lasted till Thursday, I would have been surprised because I saw people walking through the hall with handfuls of them. [00:21:57] Speaker B: Oh, shoot. Shit. [00:22:02] Speaker C: But I saw and did a lot of things that I wanted to see and do. [00:22:07] Speaker B: That's good. [00:22:08] Speaker C: There was one thing that I didn't. Pissed me off. [00:22:12] Speaker B: Really? [00:22:13] Speaker C: Yeah. So long time listeners may recall that I have a massive crush on Alex Kingston, and so does my wife, who plays river song on Doctor who. [00:22:22] Speaker B: Alex Kingston plays River song, not your wife, right. No, I kind of like the ambiguity. [00:22:30] Speaker C: Well, yeah, we'll just let that go. And so my friend Scott, who works at the booth with. [00:22:36] Speaker B: Yep. [00:22:36] Speaker C: Has a friend who has an autograph booth at the show. [00:22:42] Speaker B: They just bring in celebrities to sign stuff. Yep. For money? Yes, I would assume so, if it's a booth in the exhibit hall. [00:22:49] Speaker C: And keen memoried, listeners may recall that Jodie Whitaker was at the show this year making her comic con debut. And there was a picture that went around the social media of her and Alex that was taken on the floor. That was not an accident. I mean, they didn't just happen to run into each other. Alex was there for one day to do a signing. [00:23:15] Speaker B: Oh, man. [00:23:16] Speaker C: And Scott's friend who runs that Booth did not tell Scott until the day after. [00:23:21] Speaker B: I said, scott's friend messed up. Yeah. [00:23:22] Speaker C: I said, homie, you need better friends. And Scott's like, yeah, I do. Trying to remember what this guy's name. Oh, Froggy. That was the guy's name because he sounds like a frog, apparently. I've never met Froggy. [00:23:35] Speaker B: Oh, does Froggy know that he's called Froggy? Yes. Okay, good. Yes. I had a friend named squeaks when I was a kid, and he was aptly named. [00:23:42] Speaker C: Did squeaks know he was named squeaks? [00:23:44] Speaker B: Everyone called squeaks. Squeaks. [00:23:46] Speaker C: I think that's kind of the sitch with Froggy. [00:23:48] Speaker B: Gotcha. [00:23:49] Speaker C: But I was like, man, you need a better friend because Froggy just done us dirty. When are we going to have the opportunity to meet Alex Kingston again? [00:23:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:57] Speaker C: And Scott was in concurrence with that assessment. [00:24:00] Speaker B: Man. [00:24:00] Speaker C: When I told Charlote, she swore, like. [00:24:02] Speaker B: Me. [00:24:05] Speaker C: And she said, scott needs better friends. I said, that's what I said. So that was a bit of a bummer. Let's see, what else. I got quite a few comics on my list, but unlike years past, where I came home with this giant ass mountain of comics, much smaller mountain. [00:24:24] Speaker B: Good for you. Last year, you had talked about how you wanted to do that and failed. Yes. You wanted to do that this year, and I was worried that you wouldn't make it. Good job. [00:24:33] Speaker C: And I got generally higher grade copies of some early thors, a couple of fantastic fours, the two amazing Spider man wolf ones. I didn't get the two really expensive copies of the two Spiderman ones. 124 and 125. The man wolf introduction issue. [00:24:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Those are right after Gwen Stacy dies, right? [00:24:56] Speaker C: I think so. [00:24:57] Speaker B: She's in 121, right? Yeah. [00:25:01] Speaker C: But I'd seen them at a dealer for one was like 75 and one was 90, and I was like, I was going to get them. I was like, I mean, they're good, but they're not perfect. [00:25:13] Speaker B: Got you. Which might be. [00:25:15] Speaker C: Maybe my expectations were a little high, but I found the two issues for 30 and $35 that I thought looked better than the 90 and $75. So I was like, yes, I'm taking those instead. [00:25:29] Speaker B: Right on. So forgive my ignorance, but is there anything other than first appearance? Is there anything special about this particular set of issues? [00:25:38] Speaker C: It's funny you ask that, because maybe I've talked about this before, maybe I haven't. When I was a kid, back in the stone age, when people bought records made of vinyl, right? There was a company called Power Records. [00:25:51] Speaker B: And it was run by dinosaurs. [00:25:53] Speaker C: It may very well be. And power records did live, like, full cast adaptations of comics. [00:26:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:01] Speaker C: And sometimes they included comic books. [00:26:04] Speaker B: Cool. [00:26:05] Speaker C: Sometimes they did not. And the one that I had was big ass. 33, 33, and a third lp that had the mark of the man Wolf, it had fantastic four story the way it began, and it has a Captain America story, and a phoenix shall arise. Now, when I was a kid, I didn't realize that these were adaptations of actual comic stories. And years ago, I stumbled across the Captain America issue, bought it, got it signed by the writer Tony Isabella, one of my favorite writers. And then, of course, I was looking for the Spider man one, of course. So I found those, and I decided I was going to get the Fantastic Four one this year as well. And that story is called the way it began, and it's a retelling of the origin of the Fantastic Four. [00:26:54] Speaker B: Okay. [00:26:54] Speaker C: And so I'd done the Google search. Okay. The way it began, issue 54. All right, cool, I can do that. But then I got there and I was like, 54? That's part of the Black Panther introductory story. I'm like, no, that's not right. That's not right. There was no black Panther in this Fantastic four story on the record, so I had to look again. This time I found the right issue. Found the issue. [00:27:17] Speaker B: What's the issue? [00:27:18] Speaker C: I knew you were going to ask that. Fact check, fact check. It ended up being issue 126. [00:27:24] Speaker B: All right. [00:27:25] Speaker C: And so I found that at a great condition, great price, found a few other Fantastic Four books. [00:27:32] Speaker B: Were these just randomly chosen to do this? How did the record company make this decision? [00:27:36] Speaker C: I don't know. I think they generally went with self contained stories. Yeah. Even though the Spider man mark of the man Wolf story, that's a two parter, but it takes up one full side of the record. And, man, when I was a kid, the climax of that story scared the shit out of me. [00:27:55] Speaker B: Really? Yes. [00:27:56] Speaker C: Well, because spoilers for a 35 year old record, at the end, Spidey rips the man wolf's moonstone off of him. It's bonded to his chest, and he just makes this horrifying howling noise that scared the sweet Christmas out of little ten year old Dave Ziggler, however old I was probably a little younger than ten, but yeah. So it was really cool to find those. And I think I'm going to add the rest of the comics that those records adapt to my list. [00:28:29] Speaker B: Do you still have those records? [00:28:31] Speaker C: The record is at my dad's house. [00:28:33] Speaker B: Okay. [00:28:33] Speaker C: And I keep meaning to ask him to make a digital copy for me because I don't have a record player, but he does. [00:28:40] Speaker B: Okay. [00:28:40] Speaker C: And he's got one of those fancy new record players that you just plug. [00:28:44] Speaker B: Into your computer and it'll trans. Oh, man, how cool would that be? That'd be super cool. Yes, you probably will cry, possibly after. [00:28:52] Speaker C: I'm done being terrified by the man wolves. If you want, I can send you a copy of that. [00:29:00] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely. Put a little of it on the instagram. [00:29:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:08] Speaker B: Sampling. [00:29:10] Speaker C: Let's see what else. There was an awesome cosplay this year. I did not take as many photographs of the cosplayers this year as I have in the past, but there were some really good ones. I'm a sucker for a good Dr. Fate, and it turns out it was the same Dr. Fate that I took a picture of at Wondercon. [00:29:27] Speaker B: Oh, really? Yeah. [00:29:29] Speaker C: But also a dude Kyle's playing as Hyperion, one of Marvel's Superman knockoffs, and he was just happy that I recognized him. I'm like, all right, cool. Oh, I'm not really going in chronological orders. [00:29:44] Speaker B: No, we're kind of just going highlights right now. Okay. I mean, do you have. [00:29:47] Speaker C: I met DJ Lance Rock from. [00:29:52] Speaker B: He legit DJ Lance Rock. [00:29:55] Speaker C: It was legit DJ Lance Rock. At first I thought I was like, hey, DJ Lance Rock thinking was a cosplayer. But then he just came to life. He was wearing the suit. He didn't have the hat. But I'm like, oh, my God, this is really fucking DJ Lance Rock. [00:30:11] Speaker B: Yes. Did you go to Yogavagaba in concert when they came town? [00:30:15] Speaker C: I did not. [00:30:16] Speaker B: Okay. Just curious because your kids would have been of age at that point. [00:30:20] Speaker C: Yeah, the kids were the right age for it, and we were Yogabagaba fans here at the Ziegler house. I think that, I don't know how I missed them coming. I don't think I knew that they were in town. [00:30:31] Speaker B: But you got to see him in person. [00:30:33] Speaker C: Yes. He was super cool. [00:30:35] Speaker B: That's awesome. That's super cool. [00:30:38] Speaker C: Let's see, what else? [00:30:41] Speaker B: Golly. What else? [00:30:42] Speaker C: Oh, one company had or one booth was a movie memorabilia auction company. [00:30:48] Speaker B: Okay. [00:30:48] Speaker C: Did you see that booth? [00:30:49] Speaker B: I believe so. [00:30:50] Speaker C: They had one of Christopher Reeves Superman suits. [00:30:53] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, I did see that. [00:30:55] Speaker C: Indiana Jones's hat. Oh, the Rocketeer's helmet. [00:30:59] Speaker B: The Rocketeers helmet was my jammy jam. I loved the Rocketeer when I was a. [00:31:03] Speaker C: Yes, yes. Let's see. Oh, Power Ranger movie helmets. Took a picture of that for Nate because Nate's awesome. Took him to power morphicon at the end of August. But that's probably a different. [00:31:17] Speaker B: Yeah, let's see. [00:31:18] Speaker C: Okay, what else? Oh, so let me throw in a couple of comments about. Because Biron mentioned that he wanted your. [00:31:27] Speaker B: Take on a couple of things. [00:31:28] Speaker C: Yeah, let's talk about the Teen Titans. Go to the movie, please. [00:31:32] Speaker B: Let's. [00:31:32] Speaker C: So I was talking to a customer at the booth, and the name tags flip around on the lanyards all the time. And he had a Teen Titans go wristband. [00:31:45] Speaker B: Oh, cool. [00:31:46] Speaker C: Tucked in the back of his name tag. And I was like, teen titans, go. I saw the movie at Vidcon, and. [00:31:52] Speaker B: At that point at Comic Con, it. [00:31:54] Speaker C: Had not been theatrically released, but apparently, and I didn't realize this, they did a showing at Comic Con, which makes sense. And he mentioned that he had seen it, he liked it, and we were kind of chitchatting about it. And this older fella, I guess I'm not really one to say older fella, because I'm getting fairly old, but this. [00:32:12] Speaker B: Guy probably this Guy was a little older than you. [00:32:15] Speaker C: I'm only grayish. He's gray. [00:32:18] Speaker B: Yeah, he was gray. [00:32:18] Speaker C: He was gray. He's like, you guys saw Teen Titans go to the movies, and we're like. And I'm like, yeah, where'd you see it? Like, he was trying to get chesty with. [00:32:27] Speaker B: He was a little aggressive. I was there. Yeah. [00:32:29] Speaker C: And I said, at Vidcon, oh, well, what'd you think of it? [00:32:35] Speaker B: And so I was like, I really. [00:32:36] Speaker C: Liked it because I did like it. I liked it a lot more than I expected to. Yeah, Teen Titans go is on here a lot because the Ziglets like it, and they like the OG Teen Titans series. [00:32:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, and truth be told, the meta humor of Teen Titans go. I know it was initially very jarring to have Teen Titans turned into what this was, but the way that they've approached acknowledging that tonal shift, I think has been really, really clever on their part. So it's not as though the show runners don't know, but there's still ample hatred for the original or for the Teen Titans go in regards. [00:33:13] Speaker C: But those people aren't the target audience. [00:33:15] Speaker B: Absolutely not. [00:33:16] Speaker C: The Ziglits are the target audience. [00:33:18] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:33:21] Speaker C: I'll throw it out there. Just like when we talked about the prequels in Star wars. Yeah, those are made for target audience, not me. [00:33:28] Speaker B: Yeah. He loves Jar Jar Binks. Yeah. [00:33:30] Speaker C: Which I still don't understand. But it's okay. I don't have to. Again, I'm not the target audience. [00:33:35] Speaker B: I met somebody who, I met a grown adult who said their favorite film was phantom menace. She said it was the first one she ever saw. It was the one she saw in the theater. She was my age, so she was 6th or 7th grade when it happened. She loved C three Po. It worked, and she kept that. But I feel like so many of us are kind of tainted by just mob mentality about that sort of thing. [00:33:59] Speaker C: I think that's a fair assessment. [00:34:00] Speaker B: So I think even if you're not completely the target, I'm not the target audience for Steven Universe, but I tell you what, I can go toe to toe with almost any kid who is the target audience about Steven universe knowledge. [00:34:11] Speaker C: I'm not the target audience for the golden girls, but I love the. [00:34:15] Speaker B: I love the golden girls. We should do a whole episode on the Golden Girls. [00:34:19] Speaker C: I'll be your. I mean, I really liked teen titans go to the movie. [00:34:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:25] Speaker C: I thought that it was a nice balance of the goofy stuff that Teen Titans go always brings to the table and a bit of a broader look at that version of the DC Universe. I love the challengers of the unknown. They are d list characters that get quite a bit of screen time. [00:34:46] Speaker B: I think you might have even mentioned the challengers of the unknown to the old guy. [00:34:51] Speaker C: I probably did, because they were funny. And I'm a sucker for Jack Kirby creations of which the challengers of the unknown are one. Well, or four, I guess. But anyway. And so it's like, I'm glad you liked it. I produced it. I'm like, oh, yeah, now that you mentioned that, I remember seeing you on the stage because he had just walked off. We're coming in just as he and the cast were walking off stage. And he's like, here, I'm doing the new Thundercats show. Give it a try. Don't hate. And he hands me. He slides a thundercats sticker over. I'm like, all right, cool. I'll check it out. [00:35:25] Speaker B: Cool. Yeah. [00:35:26] Speaker C: And the art style, I think, throws a lot of people off on that new thundercats because it reminds me of Steven Universe, honestly. [00:35:34] Speaker B: Oh, is it? [00:35:35] Speaker C: Yeah, but I'll check it out. I mean, it is. [00:35:38] Speaker B: I didn't realize all that had happened. I was too busy razzing Tate because, as you know, Tate had made his remarks about the varied issues he has with some rumors he had heard on the Internet. We'll just leave it at that. That story has been told. And he suffered enough. [00:35:55] Speaker C: So there was that. [00:35:56] Speaker B: And then Brian came to you at some point, speaking of your version of stories, Brian came to you at some point after just deciding he didn't really need a Superman comic. [00:36:06] Speaker C: Well, it was a particular trade collection, as I recall. I don't remember which one it was now, but it was one that was either out of print or hard to come by. And he'd been looking for it for a while and he mentioned that he had found it at one of the other booths. I'm like, cool, how much? It's like, I was like, $10. All right, well, let's see it. I didn't get it. What? I didn't get it. Why not? Well, I thought, I was thinking I'd look to see if I can find it for a better price. Blah, blah, blah. I'm like, dude, hey, how many other booths have you seen that book at? Well, none. Exactly. You ain't going to find it for a better price. Here because you ain't going to fucking find it. So here's what's going to happen. You're going to keep looking, and you're not going to find it. And then you're going to decide some hours later, oh, I better go back and get it. And somebody else will have bought it. So not only will you have not gotten your book, but even worse, someone else is going to be reading your fucking Superman book. And he's like, God damn it, you're right. So he honks on off, goes, buys the book, brings it back. He's like, I got it. I'm like, there. Don't you feel better? Yeah, I do, actually. [00:37:18] Speaker B: Yeah, he came back with a pretty big grin. [00:37:23] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:37:23] Speaker A: Thanks for the wisdom, Dave. [00:37:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, so let's go in order Thursday, did you get to any panels at all this comic con? [00:37:31] Speaker C: No. [00:37:31] Speaker B: Okay, Thursday, did you meet anybody or sell anybody anything of note, or did you kind of just go over that? [00:37:37] Speaker C: I actually got to spend a lot of time in artist alley. [00:37:40] Speaker B: That's cool. [00:37:41] Speaker C: Yeah. And I spent a lot on sketches this year for my sketchbook. [00:37:45] Speaker B: Okay, so that's where the comic con money. You finished your starman one, so now you're on to your justice league, Justice Society of American Justice Society. [00:37:58] Speaker C: And I've got a kind of a whatever type sketchbook. [00:38:01] Speaker B: For those of you who aren't aware of previous podcasts where this has been discussed, Dave takes a sketchbook and themes it after one particular superhero or superhero group in order to have multiple artists do their renditions of these characters all within one contained sketchbook. It's an idea you got from somebody. Right? [00:38:18] Speaker C: I had seen it kind of floating around for some time, and it was in 94. 94. No, four. I was kind of starting to run out of gas on Comic Con. It was always the same stuff, the same people, the same vendors. And then I thought, you know what? I'm going to get a sketchbook. I'm going to get a sketchbook, and I'm going to make it a theme. I'm going to make it Starman, because Starman, as long time listeners may recall, is my favorite character, right? And Tony Harris, the co creator and designer of Starman, was going to be at the show that year. [00:38:53] Speaker B: Cool. [00:38:54] Speaker C: And so I said, here, I'm starting a themed sketchbook, star man. It seems only right that you break it in and do the inaugural piece. [00:39:03] Speaker A: He's like, oh, that's really cool. [00:39:04] Speaker C: So he did a star man. And then three or four years later, now maybe it was more like five years. Five years later, I went to Wondercon, when it was still up in the Bay area, because he was going to be there, and I had a particular and more complicated piece in mind. I wanted him to do american gothic for me, which is piece with a farmer and his wife. But I wanted Jack and his farmer's daughter. Actually, fun fact, it might be his daughter anyway, but I wanted it with Jack Starman and his girl Sadie. And I went prepared. I brought my reference image of american gothic. I brought my reference of Jack and Sadie. And he's like, yeah, okay, that sounds really cool. All right. And I've got the original frame right over there. [00:39:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:53] Speaker C: And I've got a nice big photocopy of it hanging on the side of the file cabinet in my classroom. Yes, you do, because I like it. [00:40:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:02] Speaker C: And when he was doing that, I showed him the book. He's like, oh, did I do that? I said, yeah. And so we kind of embellished it a little bit, added some gray tone and this and that. So it was really nice. [00:40:14] Speaker B: That's super cool. I didn't know that. Right on. So this year, you had your Justice Society book, because your Starman book is full. [00:40:23] Speaker C: And then I had, like I said, kind of the whatever book. And that was for if I had artists, someone already working on the JSA book, and just give me a few more options. And so for that one, I started with Sanford Green. He was the artist on the most recent Power man and Iron Fist series, which I really enjoyed. It was very well received, and so he didn't really have time to do what I kind of hoped. What I was hoping for and what I'm going to try and pursue later was, like, a back to back of Danny and Luke, with Danny with his flaming fist and just hanging out, looking tough and being bros. Yeah, it was kind of like a bust shot, like, from the waist up. I mean, he didn't really have time for that, but he did put a sweet ass iron fist in there. [00:41:13] Speaker B: Cool. [00:41:14] Speaker C: It sounds really dirty when I say it like that. [00:41:19] Speaker B: Maybe I'll cut that part out. I'm leaving that to your discretion, Brian. [00:41:23] Speaker C: Anyway, and then I got a couple of nice pieces for the JSA section. One guy, Dan vessenmeyer, I think is his last name, does Lego style, like minifigs. Oh, cool. And he'd done a couple pieces in the Star man book for me, but this time I got him to do the golden age star man with the cape and the cosmic rod. It looks really cool. And then I got a Stargirl versus Johnny sorrow piece from Bill Walco. That is. [00:41:53] Speaker B: That is really good. [00:41:54] Speaker C: Super amazing. [00:41:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:57] Speaker C: And then Sean Forney, who did a Dr. Fate piece for me earlier in the book, did a really sweet looking Alan Scott Green Lantern. [00:42:05] Speaker B: Which one's Alan Scott? I mean, I'm looking at him, but. [00:42:07] Speaker C: Alan Scott is the original Green Lantern. [00:42:10] Speaker B: Got it. Yeah. [00:42:11] Speaker C: The very first. [00:42:12] Speaker B: I was going to say the cape seems strange, given everything, but, yeah, he looks fantastic. Gosh, the work on that is so. [00:42:24] Speaker C: All. The Dr. Fate piece earlier in the book is also. [00:42:27] Speaker B: Man, seriously good work here. You should get pictures of all those and send them to me so I can put them all on a mass post to coincide with this episode. Yeah. So that we have all that. All right. So then you got the sketchbook filled out. [00:42:41] Speaker C: Well, not filled out. [00:42:42] Speaker B: No. You got some sketchbook continuation action. [00:42:47] Speaker C: I got tops put out these Marvel Cinematic Universe. [00:42:53] Speaker B: Oh, did they really? [00:42:55] Speaker C: Yes. And it was a pack of, I think, 15. [00:42:59] Speaker B: Like a booster. [00:43:00] Speaker C: Yeah, like a booster pack. And each one was movie poster for one of the MCU movies. [00:43:07] Speaker B: Cool. [00:43:08] Speaker C: Yes. They sold out super early every day. I didn't know about them. The first day. Friday morning, first thing. That's what I did when the show opened. Saturday morning, first thing. That's what I did when the show opened. And Sunday morning, first thing. [00:43:23] Speaker B: That's what you did when the show. [00:43:26] Speaker C: Know, I gave one to my budy Rob for. [00:43:30] Speaker B: Just because Rob's the best. [00:43:32] Speaker C: Because Rob's awesome. I also got Rob's birthday present. [00:43:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:43:36] Speaker C: Rob is so hard for me to buy for because he always does such a great job with my birthday gifts, and I always feel like I'm just stinking the joint. He's a. He doesn't have he. So if he wants something, generally he goes and gets it. [00:43:57] Speaker B: Right. [00:43:58] Speaker C: And so it's hard for me to keep track of what he does and doesn't have and this and that. But this year, one of the Alex Ross exclusives to show was the redesign that he did for the, you know, and kind of like one of the studies that he did as he was redesigning the suit, they made a print of that. [00:44:18] Speaker B: Oh, cool. [00:44:19] Speaker C: So I got that. [00:44:20] Speaker B: Is that a limited print? [00:44:21] Speaker C: Yes. [00:44:22] Speaker B: How many? [00:44:23] Speaker C: 25. [00:44:24] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. Yes. [00:44:26] Speaker C: It's another way that Scott came through for me because he had to go over and get. [00:44:31] Speaker B: Clearly, some of Scott's friends are good for his buddies. Yeah. [00:44:34] Speaker C: Another friend of Scott's has every single Alex Ross sketchbook ever. [00:44:39] Speaker B: Wow. [00:44:39] Speaker C: From when they were first, the six by nine or whatever fold and stapled to when they started with the square bound soft covers, to when they went to the hardcovers with different content. [00:44:52] Speaker B: Wow. [00:44:52] Speaker C: So Scott's like, that's what I got to do. I'm like, well, since you're going over there, here's my money. Would you get me one of those Spider man prints and a hardcover sketchbook for me? Yeah, sure. So Scott ended up getting number three of the 25. [00:45:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Were they sold from 25 to one? [00:45:14] Speaker C: No, they were sold. [00:45:15] Speaker B: So he got there. Nice. [00:45:17] Speaker C: Yeah, he was right there. [00:45:19] Speaker B: Right there in the thick of it. So speaking of Alex Ross, the gas lamp corridor has a lot of really cool stuff, and that Chuck Jones little gallery there had some really fine work, including some from Alex Ross. Did you get to gaslamp at all other than to go get your favorite pizza in San Diego? [00:45:36] Speaker C: Gas lamp pizza. Double thumbs up. That's so great. I did not really get into the gas lamp much during the show. Let me think here. No, I didn't really. [00:45:53] Speaker D: I had actually spent a little more. [00:45:55] Speaker C: Time in the gas lamp the weekend before Comic Con because I took Charlote to San Diego to see the cubs for her birthday because they were in town to WHOOP up on the padres. [00:46:04] Speaker B: Yeah. As many baseball teams do. Yes. [00:46:09] Speaker C: So we got to spend a little time in the gas lamp that day. But I didn't really get to during the show except, like I said, to go get the pizza. [00:46:16] Speaker B: Right. [00:46:16] Speaker C: But it's always fun to get out and see how the buildings get wrapped, the different things and all the pop up joints that have different experiences that I can't do because I don't have the time to stand in line for. [00:46:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Because it's like 9 hours just to walk through a mockup of the upside down. [00:46:36] Speaker C: Yeah. Or whatever it is. There was one that they did several years ago that I wanted to try. It was an assassin's creed obstacle course. [00:46:46] Speaker B: Oh, cool. [00:46:46] Speaker C: Yeah, that was really. [00:46:47] Speaker B: I think they had a walking dead obstacle course this year. [00:46:49] Speaker C: They've done the Walking Dead obstacle course in the past one year. They did it through Petco park. [00:46:54] Speaker B: Oh, cool. Yeah. [00:46:55] Speaker C: And I did not get to do that largely because I didn't bring enough. [00:46:59] Speaker B: Extra clothes to be able to sweat up the joint. [00:47:02] Speaker C: To sweat the joint up. [00:47:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:04] Speaker C: Because I didn't plan for that. So there's an art museum there on fifth, the name of which escapes me when the opportunity presents itself. I always make a point of hitting it during Comic Con because there's always such great stuff in there. [00:47:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:20] Speaker C: The Chuck Jones gallery is also very good. [00:47:22] Speaker B: Yeah. They had an artist actually painting in the gallery, and he told me he wasn't even going to finish the piece until the next show that he was moving to. He just worked on it from show to show to show, and so different people saw different parts of the progress. [00:47:33] Speaker C: How long had he been working on it? [00:47:34] Speaker B: From the way he talked about it, it sounded like he'd been working on it for a couple of weeks at that point. Wow. If I'm remembering it correctly, it was a shot of the carbonite freezing chamber from Empire strikes back. So there was a lot of reds and little hints of blues here and there, but all around. I mean, he had great technique also. He was really cool. And he talked to me about kind of his process and stuff for a little bit while we were there, so that was nice. Is it just finished products in this art gallery that you were talking about? Yes. [00:48:06] Speaker C: Okay. In fact, there's one that I saw several years ago that I wish I could remember. This artist's name. It was part of his shtick. One of the recurring motifs in his work is, like, school notebook. [00:48:29] Speaker B: Like, doodles from when you're a kid. [00:48:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:32] Speaker C: And letters and things like that. And I know that I have this piece in my phone somewhere. So the artist's name is Adam Greener. And like I said, one of the recurring motifs in his work is, like, notebook paper. And there's one piece in particular that he did, and these things are giant. [00:48:54] Speaker B: Really? [00:48:54] Speaker C: Yeah. So I don't know if he. Yeah, 38 by 46 inches. [00:48:58] Speaker B: Does he make the paper look like this? [00:49:00] Speaker C: I don't know. He must, because, well, I mean, look at it. It's got the shredded fringe on the side and everything. [00:49:07] Speaker B: Man, that's so good. [00:49:08] Speaker C: And this one in particular, it's called fortress of solitude. And it's a letter that he wrote in 2014 to a girl in class. I assume he is older than. [00:49:24] Speaker B: Older than the type of person who would write a note in class, I. [00:49:28] Speaker C: Certainly hope in 2014. Yeah, but it's. [00:49:32] Speaker B: Now he just goes to public schools. Yeah. [00:49:35] Speaker C: That would be so weird. But it's talking about he's comparing his love for this girl to Superman's love for Lois Lane. And there's a drawing of Superman, Lois. [00:49:47] Speaker B: Down on the bottom. [00:49:48] Speaker C: Yes. And I love it. It's so great. [00:49:51] Speaker B: That's awesome. Yeah. [00:49:53] Speaker C: Let's see, what else. I had my traditional rock and Baja lobster dinner with my friends PJ and Brooke. PJ is a friend of mine from college, and Brooke is his lovely wife. [00:50:05] Speaker B: Right on. Yeah. [00:50:06] Speaker C: Every year, no matter what. That's one of the things we. [00:50:09] Speaker B: That's nice. I feel like there's so many people who go to Comic Con every year, but don't go to San Diego otherwise. Well, generally that's to, other than that week before phenomena. [00:50:23] Speaker C: Yeah, but I mean, when I go to Comic Con, I go to Comic con, right? I don't go to go to the zoo. I don't go to go to SeaWorld or anything mean. You know how many times I've been to the beach in San Diego? Zero. Well, zero during Comic Con anyway. [00:50:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:41] Speaker C: Because that's not what I'm there for. [00:50:43] Speaker B: One of the things I've noticed about Anime Expo, especially when it was down in Anaheim, was that a lot of know would extend their stay and they would say, yeah, we come, we go to anime Expo for three days or four days, however long they decided. And then as soon as that was done, they would all go to Disneyland because Disneyland's right there. And now I think that's probably a little bit less now that it's at the Staples center. [00:51:09] Speaker C: But yeah, there's not a lot going. [00:51:10] Speaker B: On at, I mean, it's not like it's that far to go from the Staples center in downtown to get into Orange county and go to Disneyland. But it certainly was a very popular thing back when it was still in Anaheim. [00:51:21] Speaker C: Well, I'm sure I feel like people, particularly from the east coast, are inclined to either come out a little earlier. [00:51:28] Speaker B: Stay a little later, certainly. And I think there's something really cool about it too, because these are a bunch of people who, a lot of them met, like cosplaying and things like that. And so now they're like, oh yeah, we'll meet up tomorrow. We'll go ride Splash Mountain together or whatever, hang out in real life. Yeah. So there will be a whole bunch, right after the 4 July, there will be a whole bunch of people in Disneyland who are there because of anime Expo. And sometimes they're really easy to spot. [00:51:55] Speaker D: But I can dig it. [00:51:56] Speaker B: Yeah, it was pretty cool. Okay, so we got what you did day to day. We got what you did in Gaslamp or what little you did in Gaslamp and rest of San Diego last year. We talked about some of the issues that were starting to arise with Comic Con and the way Comic Con was run. And a lot of those issues, I think, probably are still kind of prevailing. But there's a few of the things we talked about that I feel like Comic Con as a company did their best to try to fix. Did you think they improved on anything this year? [00:52:25] Speaker C: I like the giveaway lottery. Really? I think that a lot of people. [00:52:28] Speaker B: Were upset about it. [00:52:30] Speaker C: Well, sure, because that means that you don't have an excuse to act like a fucking barbarian. [00:52:39] Speaker B: It's true. We've said it a couple of times in the previous three episodes. People are weird around free stuff. [00:52:44] Speaker C: Yeah, well, and it's not free. [00:52:47] Speaker B: You're. [00:52:47] Speaker C: You're. You're trampling people for the opportunity to give somebody else your mean. It's funny. Disneyland has been doing pops giveaways. Not giveaways, but exclusive pops pop exclusives out of the wonderground gallery store they have in downtown Disney. [00:53:05] Speaker B: I didn't know that. Yeah. [00:53:06] Speaker C: And apparently. Well, I found it out in June when I took Morgan to Anaheim for Vidcon. I dropped her off the convention center. And then because we were running a little bit late for the panel she wanted, then I went and parked at Disneyland and walked over and I cut through downtown Disney because why not? [00:53:29] Speaker B: Well, pokemon go. Yeah. Actually spin some. [00:53:33] Speaker C: And, you know, since I have an annual pass, I can do that sort of thing. But there were all these people in very carefully taped lines, and I was like, what the hell are all these people doing? [00:53:48] Speaker B: There's a line in downtown Disney now. Lines never cease. [00:53:52] Speaker C: I know. So I asked someone who's waiting, what are you guys waiting for? Oh, these pops, blah, blah. I'm like, okay. All right. And so this weekend just passed as we record this, on September 29, right. [00:54:09] Speaker B: After community day with the chickarita. Yeah. [00:54:11] Speaker C: During community day, they were also doing another exclusive drop. [00:54:16] Speaker B: How smart. [00:54:17] Speaker C: And some dudes were running to get in line, and they ran over some lady and broke her foot. Yeah, I know. [00:54:28] Speaker B: That's terrible. [00:54:30] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:54:32] Speaker B: So Comic Con, getting rid of the introducing the lottery system has some merits. All right. [00:54:37] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. I think that they are heading in the right direction with the wristbands for Hall H. Yeah. One of the things that I've actually, with Vidcon, I saw some things that maybe be harbingers of things to come with Comic Con. [00:54:52] Speaker B: Good things. [00:54:53] Speaker C: I think so. [00:54:54] Speaker B: Okay. [00:54:54] Speaker C: Because one of the things, it's not. [00:54:56] Speaker B: Often I hear Harbinger used in a positive light. [00:54:58] Speaker C: Well, with Vidcon, when we checked in, we didn't get lanyards, big ass plastic chipped name tag like we do at Comic Con, but we got little wristbands with a little plastic chip on and that had all of our meet and greet information loaded onto it. And we checked in and out and so instead of having to stoop down and kind of bang our name tag on the. [00:55:26] Speaker B: I like the stooping and banging. [00:55:32] Speaker C: That one definitely has. [00:55:33] Speaker B: I didn't mean it that way. [00:55:38] Speaker C: Anyway. So instead of the really do like it, though. [00:55:43] Speaker B: Carry on. [00:55:44] Speaker C: Instead of banging your name tag on the reader, you just tap it with your wrist and you're in. And then when it's time for your meet and greets, you go down. You get through the security checkpoint there. They had us go through a metal detector because sometimes fans are obsessive. But then when you get in the line for your meet and greet, each of the staff workers had a reader. Okay, yes. This is where you're supposed to be at this time. There you go. Get in line. And I could see them doing something like that for things like Hall H or for the panels. They cleared the panel rooms at Vidcon between panels. [00:56:23] Speaker B: Ax does that, too. Or at least they used to. [00:56:25] Speaker C: And I think that is not as time consuming as some people seem to think it would be. [00:56:30] Speaker B: Right. [00:56:30] Speaker C: And I know that with Vidcon, we're dealing with exponentially smaller crowds. [00:56:35] Speaker B: Sure. [00:56:35] Speaker C: But it doesn't take that long for your volunteers or your security to just. [00:56:39] Speaker B: Go, okay, red rope it. Yep. Let's go. Thank you all for coming. We really appreciate you. Please make your way to that exit while you just chain gang. So we called it in, the restaurant security business. [00:56:52] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. And so I could see them with the increasing prevalence of these handheld scanners. Just saying. Okay, here you go. Thank you. [00:57:01] Speaker B: Come on in. [00:57:02] Speaker C: Come on in. [00:57:03] Speaker B: I genuinely appreciated the scanning options that were available for booths this year, too. Like, they'd say, hey, do you want to enter a giveaway? And I'd be like, well, I don't really have time. They're like, no, seriously, just show me your badge. And then. And they'd scan your badge, and you're entered. You're good. I said, how many times can I do this? Once a day. I said, okay, I'll be back tomorrow. Yeah, that was really cool. So they've moved to a wristband. Yeah. I really like all my hanging lanyards, though. I got them all displayed. [00:57:28] Speaker C: I think that. I'm not saying that necessarily, that you need to have one or the other. I mean, like I said, even at Vidcon, we still had lanyards because we needed our name tags. [00:57:39] Speaker B: Right. I also like them because it gives me a place to put all those free pins that they give out. Right. Which are not the enamel ones. [00:57:48] Speaker C: Yeah. Pins have made a big comeback. In the last year or two, which I did not expect. I think it's cool. I just didn't expect it. But, yeah, I think that we are not far from the days of clearing the rooms between panels, which I think would be super awesome. And if you are signed up or if you've registered for your panels for multiple panels in the same room, and you've received multiple panels in the same room. Great. Just exit. Walk around. There you go. And one of the other things that Vidcon did, they had their meet and greets nailed. Like what? Those windows were going to be nailed down two months before the show, and then they did what's called the meet and greet lottery. And you go in and you rank your top 15 choices. [00:58:36] Speaker B: Oh, you told me about this. Yeah. [00:58:38] Speaker C: You rank your top 15 choices in order from one being, I really, really want to meet this person, to 15 if there's nobody else available. [00:58:51] Speaker B: Okay. That sounds kind of cool. [00:58:53] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:58:54] Speaker B: That's how you wound up meeting John Green. [00:58:56] Speaker C: Yeah, because I told Morgan because I didn't know any of these YouTube people except for John Green. Yeah. And I was kind of familiar with. [00:59:04] Speaker B: Hannah Hart and a little familiar with Liza Kosh because Bryce is a little obsessed. I'm not obsessed. I just think she's really cute and funny. She's amusing. [00:59:12] Speaker C: You told me to meet her and. [00:59:15] Speaker D: Give her your number. [00:59:16] Speaker B: I did not say give her my number. I just know. Let her know that I existed. I just wanted her to know that I existed. [00:59:22] Speaker C: This is a podcast. [00:59:24] Speaker B: I've moved on. [00:59:26] Speaker C: And so those of you who are not here in the moment aren't seeing Shabba stare off dreamily into space again. [00:59:37] Speaker B: Okay. [00:59:38] Speaker C: Anyway, and I told Morgan because I didn't know any of these people except for John Green. I said, you put John Green first at number one, and then you fill in the rest, and she's okay. [00:59:49] Speaker B: So she likes John Green, too. [00:59:51] Speaker C: Yeah, she does. She is a nerd fighter. I believe that is the chosen term for the fans of the Green brothers. [00:59:57] Speaker B: Wonderful. [00:59:58] Speaker C: So we got to meet John Green. We got to meet Hannah Hart. [01:00:02] Speaker B: And she's fantastic, too, actually. [01:00:04] Speaker C: Super sweet. Oh, God, I loved her. I'm a fan. But. And then there were two other people that we got to meet, and, well, one of whom I let Morgan do the other two by herself, because after a certain point, I was ready to just hang out in the parents lounge. [01:00:23] Speaker B: Was there a parent's lounge? [01:00:24] Speaker C: Yeah, there was a parents lounge. No kids allowed. [01:00:27] Speaker B: No, you're out of. [01:00:27] Speaker C: They had a know. They had a lot of places to sit, charging tables. [01:00:32] Speaker B: Nice. Yes. [01:00:33] Speaker C: So it was really nice. [01:00:34] Speaker B: All the things for everybody's con mitzvah. [01:00:37] Speaker D: Yes. [01:00:37] Speaker C: And I feel like Comic con could, I mean, they'd need to shorten their timeline a little bit, but they could do something similar with the panels. [01:00:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I think pre registering for a panel is a really cool idea. The problem that I see with execution is that they fail to implement a system that says, yeah, you preregistered, but you're not here, you're done. I understand a five to even 15 minutes grace period. But if after 15 minutes you've got empty seats and people have registered, you need to open up the lineup. And if somebody shows up, they should be given first in line option so that they can possibly get back in and have a better chance. Sure, because they preregistered. But it seems to me like one of the first counterarguments to the idea of preregistering is, well, now you have empty seats because someone pre registered and then didn't show up to the, then. [01:01:24] Speaker C: It'S just like a fast pass at Disneyland. You've got your fast pass line and your standby line. That's easy. [01:01:30] Speaker B: Yeah. And then single rider, an ADA. Yeah, I see that there's downfalls, but I also, there are ways, there's so. [01:01:39] Speaker C: Quickly ways around, ways around the difficulties that you are anticipating. [01:01:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Anything else? Anything else that you think could be improved upon? You got the line queue opener. Line queue opener. You got the line queue system that they've got where you kind of pre register for your panels. You clear the room properly. [01:02:04] Speaker D: Yeah. I really think that since the technology exists like we see at Vidcon and like, you know, Vidcon is an exponentially smaller show than Comic Con, but I think it's doable. And I mean, hell, they could, they could pilot it at Wondercon for a year or two. [01:02:21] Speaker B: Yeah, why not? [01:02:22] Speaker D: Wondercon uses the same space that Vidcon does. They're both at the anaheim convention center. [01:02:27] Speaker B: Both owned by the comic con company. [01:02:29] Speaker D: Vidcon isn't. [01:02:30] Speaker B: No, Wondercon is. Wondercon would be a good opportunity because. Absolutely, they've seen it work in that space. So why not experiment with that space with a con they run with a. [01:02:41] Speaker D: Smaller crowd because the numbers at Wondercon are sizable but nowhere near what they are at. [01:02:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, they still bring in some pretty big names, but nothing. Oh, absolutely. You're not making your huge announcements at that time, debuting trailers nearly as much there. [01:02:56] Speaker D: Well, sure, because Wondercon is still primarily a comic con much less celebration of. [01:03:03] Speaker B: The popular arts, as the science say. [01:03:05] Speaker D: Exactly. I hear people complain, and I think maybe we've talked about this again, but maybe we haven't. People complain about, well, there's no comics at Comic Con, and that's just bullshit. You get the experience that you look for. If you want the comics, they're there. [01:03:21] Speaker B: Yeah. You get out of it where you put into it. That's what you said last year. [01:03:24] Speaker D: Yeah, you got to hunt them down. But Wondercon benefits from not having to deal with the video game guys and the movie guys and all that stuff. [01:03:37] Speaker B: We were lucky to even get an agents of S-H-I-E-D-L panel when we were at Wondercon, to be perfectly honest, it was great. [01:03:42] Speaker D: We had a good of the. Honestly, that's one of the reasons that I like Wondercon for the Ziglitz Khan mitzvah. It's a big show, but it's not so big that I feel as a parent that it's not safe for them to roam the show floor and roam the convention center by themselves. Like when Spencer did Wondercon for his con mitzvah several years ago, I had no concerns about letting him wander up to the panel rooms and do all that stuff by himself. Yeah, he knew the know, you stay inside the convention center, you check in when you're supposed to check in. Didn't have a cell phone, so when I said check in, he had to come down to the booth and he knew that if he missed his check in, then he would be sitting in the booth for some length of time. But, yeah, I think Wondercon would be a good space for the Comic con people to test drive that kind of panel management system, clearing the rooms and. Yeah, I know the rooms are smaller at Wondercon than they are at Comic Con. [01:04:44] Speaker B: Sure. [01:04:45] Speaker D: But do it on a smaller scale. You can do it on a larger scale. [01:04:48] Speaker B: Yeah. We met two people while we were there, actually three people who had gone. And they went into hall H in the morning on Saturday, and they spent their whole Saturday watching panels in hall h. It's all they did. They said they enjoyed every single one of the panels. There were some that they were less interested in others, but they still wanted to be able to watch all those. But I think they got the most out of it. And I see the downside of allowing people to do that for sure. What I don't agree with at all are the people who do that but then leave going to the bathroom air quotes. [01:05:24] Speaker D: Right. [01:05:24] Speaker B: And then come back while I'm waiting in line and I'm three people from the door, and I'm being told no, because those 15 empty seats in there are people who have been at the bathroom for 2 hours. [01:05:35] Speaker D: Yeah, well, and one of the other things maybe it's times for them to think about doing is streaming the panels. [01:05:41] Speaker B: They really ought to have other rooms because they do the panel recap. I don't understand why you can't just do a live and the indigo room. [01:05:47] Speaker D: Like the overflow room. [01:05:48] Speaker B: I have no intention of getting up and asking a question at most panels I go to. [01:05:52] Speaker D: Right. Well, but I think if they start streaming so that you can watch it on your phone, for example, even if you watch it later that night back at your hotel room, I think that alleviates a lot of the problems. I mean, sure, maybe they black out the preview reels or the trailers or whatever. [01:06:12] Speaker B: Fine. [01:06:13] Speaker D: How hard is that? [01:06:14] Speaker B: I mean, most of these things are being streamed anyway by people in the panel. I can't tell you how many different live streams of the steven universe panel are available online. The whole subreddit was blowing up with which one's the best stream. And there were. [01:06:30] Speaker D: Watch them and find out. [01:06:32] Speaker B: Yeah, but there were options. So if you're going to have that anyway, why not take the marvel approach to making sure that you don't have your stuff leaked too soon and just put it out? [01:06:42] Speaker D: Yeah, put it out. If Comic Con invested in the ability to live stream these things out, that's another way to alleviate these crowding issues. [01:06:53] Speaker B: Hell, they could open up a streaming service for the con for the month of July to the month of August. Charge $40. You can see anything you want, any of those panels, because I know that one of the reasons they're not doing that, I guarantee you, and I'd bet cold, hard cash, that one of the reasons is they fear that streaming it will make less people go to Comic Con. And I'll tell you right now, plenty of people would probably, if they had access to all of that, would probably say, I'm not that eager to go to Comic Con now, because I don't have to worry about that. [01:07:23] Speaker D: I will bet you money that that is not the case, that it's not. [01:07:27] Speaker B: The case with what SDCC is worrying about. Yeah. Really? Yep. I've said I'm going to bet money. You said you're going to bet. We're. [01:07:34] Speaker D: I don't know how we'll resolve the wager. However, here's why. There are always going to be people who want to get in who can't under the current system. Hell, if I wasn't working for Steve, I would have stopped going several years ago because getting tickets is such a. [01:07:55] Speaker C: Pain in the ass. [01:07:56] Speaker B: We had three people monitoring a lottery to get in this. [01:08:02] Speaker D: I mean, at some point, Steve's going to retire from slinging comics, and then I'll be strictly Wondercon, and that's fine. That's just the way it is. And for every person that you say won't want to go once the content is available online, I say at least three people want to take their place. [01:08:26] Speaker B: That's true. That's absolutely true. Because there's so many people who don't get to go. I could see plenty of people who are like, I'm kind of sick of the crowds, but I love if I can get into the panel, it's worth it. [01:08:36] Speaker D: And not even just for the panels. People go who want to meet their favorite creators who are at the show. Met my hero on accident, no less. Yeah, I mean, a lot of people like me who don't go to panels anymore, who are there to, well, I'm there to work, so maybe I'm not the best example, but people who are there to see and be on the floor to buy stuff, to check out stuff, to meet artists, to do all that hell, even to try out the video games. [01:09:05] Speaker B: I mean, I did. There are 20 minutes to play that Spiderman game. It's fantastic. Now it's out. Everyone gets to know that already. [01:09:13] Speaker D: So, yeah, I stand by my position that for everyone that you say won't go because the content is available, at least three are ready to take their place. [01:09:24] Speaker B: Yeah, you are absolutely correct on that because there's probably a good tens of thousands of people who want to go and can afford to completely and don't get to because of circumstances. That's fair. I do think that comic Con has displayed some sort of aversion to this idea because they do a stream directly onto the screens at the con, and if they're doing that, then they have the capabilities. And yet they've not taken this step. Why haven't they taken this step? And we can postulate about it all we want, but we'll never know the actual answer. But do you have any theories as to why they wouldn't stream by now, why they haven't figured this out? [01:10:04] Speaker D: I don't have anything I can point to with any authority as a reason why they haven't done that. I think that, honestly, there's probably some reluctance from the movie studios and the comic companies that have know, here's our agents of S-H-I-E-L panel. Here's our Godzilla versus Kong panel. Here's our whatever panel. And maybe they're the does. [01:10:33] Speaker B: If you're going to do this, there is a certain degree of monitoring that they probably have to do in order to do it live. The guy who played Danny Rand said something. He referred to his kung fu instructor as his own Mr. Miyagi. And there's a whole slew of problems with that. But when it know, suddenly they have to play damage control. And the one saving grace of a company where you have that incident happen is that it's not available online immediately. And so you don't have to worry about monitoring the panel going out live to say, like, oh, you got to know, you got to cut the feed with that eight second delay of football or whatever. [01:11:14] Speaker D: Out of curiosity, and I'm not trying to be obtuse, why was that a problem? [01:11:18] Speaker B: Mr. Miyagi is a karate teacher, for one. And it felt like it was kind of. They felt it was racially, don't. The Internet gets angry for everything, so don't be surprised. [01:11:31] Speaker D: I guess I'm not. [01:11:33] Speaker B: He had said something else. [01:11:34] Speaker D: I don't know if surprised is the right word. I just don't understand. [01:11:37] Speaker B: Yeah. But regardless, of course, there may be more context to that particular situation. Either way, there was something insensitive. If there was something insensitive said by a particular cast member or there was something that leaked that went a little bit too far in the conversation or a joke that was said that may have been taken out of context for pr purposes. A company might be reluctant to let a full hour and a half of. Anybody can ask any questions. Panel situation. [01:12:07] Speaker D: Of course. On the other hand, if you allow the stream, then the argument can't be made. It was taken out of context because here's the context. [01:12:18] Speaker B: Sure. Either way, I think they should, and I think it would alleviate a lot of the hall problems. I think, if nothing else, they should do a live stream on big screens in another hall. At least if you're at Comic Con and hall h is filled, there could be an additional seating area somewhere in the Marriott or something where you could sit down and watch the panel from, essentially the quiet room of the movie theater. You're in the children's quiet room of the. [01:12:47] Speaker D: They still have quiet rooms in movie theaters? [01:12:49] Speaker B: A couple of them at least. I've seen them. [01:12:51] Speaker D: I remember the old Barstow twin cinema when I grew up having twin cinema. You don't say two screams, wow. Was this before or after the del taco after. [01:13:03] Speaker B: Were you there for the del taco? [01:13:04] Speaker D: Del taco has been there for as long as I was there. [01:13:07] Speaker B: I know, but were you there for when it was built? Because that's the original Del taco. [01:13:11] Speaker D: The original del taco was built, like, in the late 60s, early seventy s. I didn't show up till 74. [01:13:16] Speaker B: Right. [01:13:16] Speaker D: That's when we arrived in Barstow. I was born in 72. [01:13:20] Speaker B: This is a podcast. We shrugged. [01:13:24] Speaker D: But anyway, yeah, I remember the quiet room, and I remember as a kid, not really knowing what it was like. Why is there a room with a window? And then one time, I don't remember what movie we were watching. Maybe it was Flash Gordon, crying baby a few rows up. And I remember thinking, the hell? [01:13:40] Speaker C: Why won't that kid shut up? [01:13:42] Speaker D: Mom got up, I watched her carry the crying baby up the aisle, and I watched her go into that little room, and I'm like, oh, because now. [01:13:51] Speaker B: I can't hear that crying baby. [01:13:53] Speaker C: Got it. [01:13:53] Speaker B: All right. Yeah, but maybe an additional room streaming that way. If you're still reluctant to give it to the masses who aren't going to Comic Con right off the bat, not that those trailers aren't immediately all uploaded by the companies themselves, then at least give the ability for those of us who can't make it into hall h, the hundreds of, if not thousands of people lined up from the convention center all the way to the hotel, at least those people, if they can't get in, have the alternative to go. I'd like to go into this room. And you know what? It's a smaller room, maybe easier to clear it out. So if you want to try the clearing every time, give it a whirl there. Why not? Yeah, there's lots of options. And I think with the advent of keeping people across the street like they did this year, and some of the scanning usages they did and experimented with for booths individually to enter you into competitions with the QR codes and stuff, I think we're getting to a point where Comic Con is starting to try. [01:14:53] Speaker D: Address those crowd issues, which is nice. [01:14:56] Speaker B: Because they really don't have any financial gain in the matter other than just satisfied customers and returning people, because they don't. I mean, fact, the matter is, Disneyland doesn't have to make everything great. Look what Six Flags magic Mountain does. Six Flags Magic Mountain is kind of crummy in a lot of ways, and there's a lot of things that have gone unaddressed, and until people stop going there, they have no real reason to stop doing it. Except for that one year they had the gang problem or whatever, and then suddenly zigzags goes, maybe we should spruce up the joint. But Disney has no reason to make these benefits, to make these improvements upon their park, other than the fact that they might be able to have a more popular day in the middle of, I don't know, April or something. February is February. The down. [01:15:43] Speaker D: I mean, April's already starting to warm up. [01:15:45] Speaker B: That's fair. That's fair. The trick to Disneyland is to go on a rainy day. Everyone clears out on a rainy day. Just don't ride California screaming on a rainy day. It's like having needles shoved into your face. It's the worst. [01:15:56] Speaker D: The hell's California screaming? [01:15:58] Speaker B: Oh, sorry. The incredit coaster. [01:15:59] Speaker D: Oh, okay. Oh, that's right. That's what that was. Well, I won't ride that anyway. [01:16:03] Speaker B: Oh, no. [01:16:04] Speaker D: I don't ride roller coasters. [01:16:06] Speaker B: Yeah, that one's got a massive loop in it, too. [01:16:08] Speaker D: I don't ride any roller coaster. [01:16:10] Speaker B: It's so good. [01:16:11] Speaker D: Which is what I was about to say about Magic Mountain. I don't go to Magic Mountain because I don't ride roller coasters. [01:16:16] Speaker B: That's fair. My point being, and it certainly took a long time to land this plane, but my point is that Comic Con has nothing to gain financially as far as improving ticket sales, really, by fixing some of these problems, because there's always going to be two or three people willing to fill the slot. So it's nice, given that comic Con could just make people deal with it, that they're still trying to make improvements. Well, sure. And it seems to me, from both you and, I mean, I don't want you to speak for Steve by any means, but it seemed the two of you both seemed a little bit happier with the way the con was handled this year than you did last year. [01:16:52] Speaker D: There were things about it that we liked. If I remember correctly, they did not raise the cost of the dealer booths for next year, but I still think they charge way too much for that. I understand that they have operating expenses and stuff like that, but I stand by my statement from last year that given the amount of money they have in reserves for a nonprofit, they could definitely stand to charge exhibitors. [01:17:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:17:22] Speaker D: So. Because not everybody can be Lucasfilm or the Alex Ross. Right. The Alex Ross Booth, brother of David Lee. Right. I will say the Alex Ross booth was really nice this year. It had a very museum like quality to it, which I liked. It was a nice little. It felt like an oasis of civility in the ocean of crass commercialism that Comic Con frequently is. Now, a few of those. I say that with the recognition that this island of civility charges $800 for a print or for an original Alex Ross painting. But still, it was nice. And they had the Kingdom come Lego mockup on display, and I was able to get some answers about that. [01:18:10] Speaker B: Neat. [01:18:10] Speaker D: Their ultimate goal is to get the set made. They were using the idea mechanism that Lego has. [01:18:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Is it called Moc? [01:18:20] Speaker D: No, my own creation is. When you build your own. [01:18:24] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's what Moc stands for. [01:18:26] Speaker D: The idea mechanism is you put your idea for a set up on the. [01:18:32] Speaker B: Lego using their generator program. [01:18:34] Speaker D: Yeah, using their generator program. [01:18:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:18:36] Speaker D: And people vote on it. And once it gets, I think, 10,000 votes, then it starts working its way up the. Okay, well, is this something we want to do? [01:18:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:18:47] Speaker D: Okay, cool. That's how we got, like, the ship in the bottle set. [01:18:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:18:51] Speaker D: Things like that. That sits currently on my mantle, which. [01:18:54] Speaker B: I actually haven't gotten a chance to look at yet. I'll have to take a look at super damn recording. [01:18:59] Speaker D: It was a fun build, but there were a few things that were kind. [01:19:03] Speaker B: Of a pain in the ass challenge about it. [01:19:05] Speaker D: A challenge. That's a better way to put it. [01:19:06] Speaker B: I like that idea, though, because there's such a passionate community for Lego. And we've talked about him before on the podcast when Scooter was on, and he's just into minifigs. Like, that's his know, there's. I'm on the Lego subreddit and me, too, every time I get on there. And, you know, some of these projects where they'll do the moc, but then they'll have a list online of all the sets. So if you want to order those pieces to make it, you can work on it. And I like the idea that this is Lego encouraging play, which is literally what Lego means. Is it? Yeah. I didn't know that. Yeah. I mean, fact check real quick. But, yeah, I believe Lego is danish for debris. Sorry, forgive me. It is an abbreviation of the words leg and goat, which mean play well. So their name means play well. I get where this grows within their company, that it's something that's really neat. And it's cool that somebody as prolific as Alex Ross can make use of that. [01:20:12] Speaker D: Right? [01:20:13] Speaker B: That's fantastic. [01:20:14] Speaker D: I mean, if that set comes to pass, I am definitely going to be picking that up. [01:20:19] Speaker B: It is, to this day, one of my favorite DC stories. [01:20:24] Speaker D: So good. [01:20:26] Speaker B: Well, anything else about Comic Con, that really stood out. Do you meet anybody this year of. [01:20:37] Speaker D: Fame and, like, at the booth? [01:20:39] Speaker B: At the booth? Sell to any strange men offering you large wads of cash via a bounceery type person behind him, the wonder guy. [01:20:51] Speaker D: Ice cream guy. [01:20:54] Speaker B: Nothing like that. [01:20:58] Speaker D: Steven Siegel came by the booth again. He's a regular visitor to our booth. Love dealing with him. Fun fact. His wife. See, if I remember this correctly, his wife was involved in speech and debate and knows Helen Acosta, who is the speech and debate coach at BC for some years. [01:21:17] Speaker B: Oh, really? [01:21:18] Speaker D: Yeah. Charlote debated for Helen in college, so that was funny. But yeah. Steven Siegel, he's part of man of action studios that created Ben Ten. He also wrote I kill Giants, which is an amazing story. I need to see the film version that just came out. God, it's a heartbreakingly beautiful graphic novel. Well, it was a miniseries first, but it's beautiful. Let's see who else? We always see Sergio Aragonis. He's a longtime contributor to Mad magazine. He does a lot of the doodle, the margin drawings. He's the co creator of Gru the Wanderer. [01:22:06] Speaker B: Oh, really? Yeah. How long has been Gru running? [01:22:11] Speaker D: Oh, easily 20 years. Probably like 30, because I remember it coming. It has to be at least 30 because I remember reading it in the. When I was in high school. [01:22:21] Speaker B: Wow. [01:22:22] Speaker D: At least that long. Let's see, who else? I did not take many books to get signed this year. No, I don't think I took any, now that I think about it. No, that's probably not true. He only took something I got to meet. So here's Max, Allen Collins is a writer. He's a novelist. He also does some comic book work. He wrote the Dick Tracy strip for a long time after the original creator, Chester Gould, died. [01:22:53] Speaker B: Wow. [01:22:54] Speaker D: He's very. Oh, the graphic novel road to Perdition. He wrote that. [01:23:00] Speaker B: I did not know that the road to Perdition was a graphic novel. [01:23:03] Speaker D: Yes, it was so good. The movie obviously takes some liberties like these things do, but in fact, road to Perdition, the film is one of the better adaptations of a graphic novel, certainly. And he had come by the booth, and I don't remember if it's Steve or Scott that knows him, but I was not at the booth when he came by and I was like, son of a bitch. I really missed him. And I think I remember him being a guest, seeing that he was going to be a guest at the show and absolutely forgetting to bring one of his novels because I'm a huge fan of his quarry novels and he and I were heading in opposite directions by the booth, and I was like, hey, you're Max Collins. And he turns around, he's like, yes, I am. And I'm like, I'm a huge fan. [01:23:54] Speaker C: Blah. [01:23:55] Speaker D: Just spit it all out. He's like, oh, thanks. I really appreciate that. By the know, Titan has the new collection for the quarry miniseries that I did. [01:24:04] Speaker B: At least you didn't almost cry in front of. [01:24:06] Speaker D: That was not going to happen. I like Max. I like Max's work. [01:24:10] Speaker B: I did that over at the comic society of. Yeah, yeah. [01:24:14] Speaker D: Do tell. Or did you already tell that one? [01:24:16] Speaker B: I don't even remember if I actually told it. But the short and skinny of it is that when I was a young lad in high school, my best friend's mother would cut out copies of Luann from the. [01:24:28] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. And so you met Greg Evans. [01:24:30] Speaker B: I met Greg Evans. I walked past and I was like, oh. I saw there was just a picture of Luann in, like, a superhero outfit. And I said, oh, Luann, I love Luann. He was like, you really? And I was like, yeah, I do. And he was like, oh, I created her. And I was like, oh, my gosh. No way. So I told him the whole sad story about how I used to get this comic because my best friend's mother has since passed away from kidney cancer. And it was one of those things that I was, it took a long time for me to look at a Luanne comic again because it was such a great shared experience between her and I, because I followed Luann and I went through some very similar troubles at the same time. And it was just really cool. And I thanked him. And then he introduced me to his daughter, and she was lovely as well. And then I went on my merry way. But as I'm telling him the story of, like, you have to understand, you not only were there for me when regular life was hitting me in the groin, but then you were there for me in a way after I had lost somebody. And I didn't necessarily take solace in Luanne comic after she was gone, but anytime I look back, I look back with, know there's just this warmth in your heart every time you pick one of those up again. So, yeah. Told him that immediately welled up with tears, and I walked away, and I was like, all right, I'll see you later. Keeping my composure. And I broke down around the corner, just, oh, God. Yeah, I'm a mess. [01:25:53] Speaker D: He's super nice because the cartoonist society of America booth is right across the aisle from ours. [01:26:02] Speaker B: Is that common? [01:26:03] Speaker D: It's every year. [01:26:04] Speaker B: Every year. [01:26:05] Speaker D: Every year they're in the same space. [01:26:06] Speaker B: Where poke around there a little more often if I want to meet people. [01:26:09] Speaker D: Like, yeah, well, I got to meet him. I met him for the first time a couple years ago, and I told him, know, as a high school teacher, I appreciate the strip because Luann sounds like my. That's what I said. I don't know how you do it, but it's really great and I really appreciate it. And enjoy. You know, we had a little chat about school and about teenagers and blah, blah. But let's see. Remember back at the beginning when I said sometimes the events run together and I can't remember quite what year it is? [01:26:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:26:43] Speaker D: I can't remember this one either. But the actor Zach Gallifinakis. [01:26:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Zach Galifinakis. Yeah. Yeah. [01:26:49] Speaker D: Well, his brother Nick is a cartoonist. [01:26:52] Speaker B: Interesting. Yeah. [01:26:53] Speaker D: He does cartoons for the Washington Post. In particular, he does cartoons for Carolyn Hacks'column. Carolyn Hacks is an advice columnist. Oh, cool. For the Washington Post, and she's nationally syndicated. The Californian was carrying her column on Sundays. I don't know if they still do. [01:27:12] Speaker B: For those of you who don't know, the Californian is short for the Bakersfield Californian, which is the newspaper of our, at least of Dave's current residence, since the rest of us are all over the rest of the state anyway. [01:27:25] Speaker D: But Nick and Carolyn were married at one point, and now they're divorced, but they're still good friends. And his cartoons appear daily with her column. [01:27:37] Speaker B: That's really. [01:27:38] Speaker D: And so obviously, he's in regular contact. And I just kind of wanted to introduce myself to him and just say, hey, if the opportunity presents itself, would you please tell Carolyn that her column has gotten me through some just, you know, what happened next. [01:27:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:27:58] Speaker D: I just started crying and I said, I don't need anything. I just want you to, if you would please pass that along. Because in a lot of ways, she was a lifesaver. Wow. She was a light shining in the darkness in some dark times. [01:28:11] Speaker B: I think I've seen a cut out of one of her responses somewhere in like, a binder or something like that of yours, have they not? [01:28:18] Speaker D: Yeah, I'm sure it was on a door. Yeah, I've got stuff all over the place. We get those moments. [01:28:30] Speaker B: It's one of the great parts about Comic Con. Yeah. [01:28:34] Speaker D: Two years ago, Elliot Magan was one of the guests, and he's the writer of some of my favorite Superman stories. He's my all time favorite Superman writer. And he was just as good a human being as I had hoped he would be. And he was upbeat and outgoing. [01:28:53] Speaker B: Wonderful. [01:28:54] Speaker D: Yeah, just know. And I didn't cry then, although I might now, apparently. [01:29:00] Speaker B: So this is a podcast. And that Liza Koshi look that I was giving off. Dave's giving one. [01:29:05] Speaker D: No, Dave's just trying not to start crying. [01:29:08] Speaker B: If you'd told me that I was going to go to Comic Con and I was going to meet Steve Bloom and the writer of a comic strip that I read in the paper and I was going to cry at one of them, I would not have guessed that it was the latter because I met him and I got asked if I could please move along by the security because I was making the line long. But we were talking shop and all that. But we talked for quite some time about what his voice acting class lends itself to. And I opened with, hey, I'm going to try my best not to gush here, but you kind of shaped various actions of my life. Much of my wanting to be a Voice actor is because of your performance as Spike Spiegel in cowboy Bebop. And so you're talking to this guy who is frankly kind of responsible for some of the major directions you've. I kept it together. At the end of it, I said, hopefully I'll see you in the booth, while he simultaneously said, hopefully, I'll see you in class. And then he went, oh, no, I like that one better. And then I walked away and I was like, it was really nice meeting you. And I got a signed print from Steve Bloom, which I paid for. Guys got to make his money while he was at the class. And I got a signed print from Greg Evans, and I didn't pay a dime for that. He was just like, oh, yeah, of course. And he signed a picture for me and handed to me. I'm like, for me? You mean it? Gee. Mr. You mean it for real? Anyway, so I walked away from that quite the happy camper, and I slid that into the sleeve of my Steven universe art and origins book, which I did not get to sign because I still have not gotten to have a real legitimate conversation with Rebecca Sugar, but I did walk alongside her and tell her a quick story. [01:30:51] Speaker D: Well, hope springs eternal. There's always next. [01:30:54] Speaker B: Sure, for sure. Great times. Yeah. [01:30:56] Speaker D: Well, and I mean, did I tell you? Have I told the Dwayne Swarzerski story? This was probably three or four years been. I used to subscribe to Men's Health magazine, and they used to have this feature, it was like, rules to live by, kind of know. And it was a list of. [01:31:15] Speaker B: Perhaps that's the thing I'm thinking of. Cut out. [01:31:18] Speaker D: Well, that is definitely up. But the Carolyn hack stuff I have. [01:31:22] Speaker B: All over the place. [01:31:25] Speaker D: One of them was a list of after. Maybe this is a little heavy. [01:31:29] Speaker B: I don't know. [01:31:29] Speaker D: You can decide to keep it or not. But in the aftermath of my divorce, when I was a single dad half the time, because I have my kids half every other week. [01:31:38] Speaker B: Sure. [01:31:39] Speaker D: Not every other weekend, I have them half the time. And I was struggling, and I was not sure how I could navigate being a single dad and giving the ziglits the things that they needed to become good people. Sure. And I saw that list, tore it out because it spoke to me about how to be a good man, because I wanted to be a good father and a good role model. But at the same time, I was feeling really broken inside. And that's not their fault, and that's not their problem. So how can I navigate my brokenness and still handle the business of being. [01:32:24] Speaker B: A dad, being a good example and leading? [01:32:28] Speaker D: And that list was a roadmap in a lot of ways. And I never really paid attention to the name at the know. But Dwayne took over the writing chores on the immortal Iron Fist after Matt fraction and Brubaker left. [01:32:52] Speaker B: Oh, and fraction and Brubaker's run for the record is fantastic, right? So good. That's a big shoot of film, right? [01:32:59] Speaker D: Well, I was not really familiar with Dwayne's work. I kept getting the book, and I also got the collected editions. And I still had this thing in this list in my desk. And I pulled it out one time just to kind of check in and refresh, and I noticed the name at the bottom. And so I like, what are the Ods? Really? So I just tucked that into my collected edition that I was taken to Comic Con to get signed. And so I'm at the Archie comics table because they were publishing Dwayne's current kind of. I've never met this guy. I didn't know what he looked like. But I'm just kind of at the appointed hour, just sort of milling about, and this dude walks up, and guy behind the table is like, hey, dwayne, blah, blah, blah. He's like, yeah, where do you want. [01:33:51] Speaker B: Me to set up? [01:33:52] Speaker D: And so he's waiting for a minute. And I said, excuse me, are you Dwayne Swzirski? And he's, I said, and I took the list out I said, this is going to sound weird, but did you write this? And he looks at, he's like, yeah, I haven't seen that in years. And I just told him the story, and he's like, oh, my God, that's great. I said, I'm a hugger. Can I give you a hug? And he's like, absolutely. And I didn't make his shirt wet, but I got a little misty. I'm a little misty now. [01:34:22] Speaker B: Much like you did with the john coffee at. [01:34:26] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [01:34:28] Speaker B: Anyway, carry. [01:34:33] Speaker D: Know, once he got situated, I was like, will you sign this? Like, sure, absolutely. You know, today, blah, blah, he signed my book. He's like, thank you so much. You made my day. I said, dude, you helped make my life. You helped make my kids life better. I could never repay that. Thank you. And so we get these moments when we're open to them. I think of all the things that had to kind of come together for that particular moment to happen, and it's just beautiful. Yeah, exactly. [01:35:12] Speaker B: It's beautiful. [01:35:13] Speaker D: That's one of the things I love about this hobby. These beautiful moments can just happen, and. [01:35:19] Speaker B: It'S nice when they happen in a way that's private. And that's something that I really know, because if you'd put me in front of an entire audience, I certainly wouldn't have. And that's honestly one of the hardest parts about watching the Steven universe panel. I went back and I watched it on YouTube because, again, it was available, and half the questions are people going, you've really changed my life. Thank you so much. And it's a little hard to watch. It's a little hard to watch. People have these borderline breakdowns about this, and you want to hear these questions of, like, where are these characters coming from? Where's their inspiration? And instead, you're getting this just, like, group therapy of this whole thing. And so in that regard, I can get kind of frustrated when people are taking that time to go through these private moments, but at the same time, I'm very much guilty of going to somebody and saying, listen, I was massively, creatively inspired by what you've done, or this got me through a hard time in my life, or things like that. And if you can do it with some composure, I think you can do it in a way that doesn't put them on the spot. And they can really appreciate those moments, too. I remember I met Tom Kenny. [01:36:24] Speaker D: I did, too. [01:36:26] Speaker B: And we've talked about our meetings of Tom Kenny, but I'm not one to typically ask for a lot of signatures from most people, and for him, he had just gotten done recording something for a kid, and I said, hey, I don't want to bother you or anything. I just want to let you know that I really appreciate the work you do, and I know you work your ass off to do it and just thank you. I just want to shake your hand and say thank you. And he was like, dude, you rock. You rock, man. And he started walk away after saying thanks, and then he turned around. He was like, you rock, dude. And then he walks away. And it's nice because you work so hard to make these creative moments or to dispense this advice in a way that's really productive. And then you set it off into the world, and you hope that somebody gets moved by it or touched by it. And sometimes these things. Okay. I draw a comic about the troubles of teen life, and I'm sure he's heard a million times, thanks. It really helped. I was going through some similar stuff, but at the same time, it doesn't make my. Hey. This was a huge bonding thing between myself and one of the matriarchs of my life, and I'm glad that I could have it, and I'm glad that you facilitated it and that your hard work allowed for that. I think that that's important, and I think it might not be a driving force for why they start, but it certainly, for me, would be a driving force for why I would continue to put the work in that they do. [01:37:56] Speaker D: I feel like there are some similarities between that aspect of the creative community and teaching, because in both, you just kind of put your stuff out there, and you never really know what happens. Greg Evans spends however long he does on each strip, and out it goes. Yeah, maybe he hears that his work is influential. Maybe he doesn't. I get these kids for a year, and I got to send them out to the next thing. Maybe the work that I do with them makes a difference to them. Maybe it doesn't. [01:38:35] Speaker B: Not to be super emotional, Dave, but I kind of argued my way into college. When I went to undergrad, I had to walk into the dean's office, and I had to say, listen, grades are not an accurate representation of intelligence, nor of the subject matter. And I went through and I explained all the reasons and everything that had happened in undergrad so that they fully understood. And she said to me, she said, well, you came. You were well dressed, you're very well spoken, and had a lot to say. I see that you might have this faltering grade in English. But you also have four years of speech and debate as well as mock trial. You clearly understand these areas in a way that is arguable. I'm going to get you an appointment with the dean of admissions. And then I went in and I talked to him, and he gave me a plan, and we went through. And I started college. And now I'm in grad school, going to be a teacher. But I argue the way that I can, and I say what I can because it got drilled into me for four years by this comic book nerd that is now one of my closest friends. I get it. And after six months of teaching, six months, not years of teaching or anything like six months of having Miss Brady's class, I went through the philosophers when going into modernism, and I spent one day on each. We spent one day, we talked about Marx, how he influenced the next guy. The next day we reviewed Marx for maybe three, four minutes, went on to Nietzsche, Proust, sartre, etc. And this one kid who said a word in class messaged me out of the blue a year and a half later, and I'd get messages from once in a while like, hey, Mr. Rankins, we had Socratic seminars in college today, and I wouldn't be able to handle them if we hadn't done them in your class as often as we, you know, that's great. I'm glad I could teach you a skill. But this kid was like, nietzsche was such an exploration of how to look at life that I had never taken before, and it really changed how, like, viewed the world. And I'm like, ryan, you never said a word. Why did you ever say anything in. You know, you're right. You put this out into the world, and maybe it comes back and they say, hey, thanks. And they give you thanks when they stop by your classroom, or maybe they repeatedly ask you to record in all hours of the night in their podcast. But I certainly hope that the appreciation I felt hearing my student and the countless ones I'm sure you've heard in your life, I certainly hope that that feeling goes across to these guys. And I think that that, hopefully, is why they go to these cons. Because if it's not, then it's going to be real awkward for them while they're there. [01:41:05] Speaker D: Right? [01:41:06] Speaker B: Well, now that I've made you cry and we've had this, God damn it, we will see you next week. [01:41:14] Speaker A: Well, now, that was a great. God damn it, guys. So I edit most of the episodes now, and I didn't hear any of this before. And going through. I was sitting there on my off time at work editing, and here I am tearing up at the desk because you guys are just being so open and awesome. [01:41:37] Speaker B: Thanks. I appreciate that. Yeah. So, aside from that, I wouldn't call it a downer. It was more heartwarming. Yeah, it was very. [01:41:47] Speaker A: Yeah, it was very open. [01:41:49] Speaker B: Yeah. There was vulnerable. Yeah. But, I mean, it's not as though this isn't something close to our hearts. Like, it's bound to happen eventually. [01:41:57] Speaker A: If you listen this far, you know, we'll get a little deep into. [01:42:02] Speaker B: And that's. But that's cons. And that's the whole thing. [01:42:05] Speaker A: That's kind of the whole reason we do this thing is this is the stuff that we love, that we interacting with at the cons, and that's what the cons are for. Just like Reed said earlier, it's the best friend thing. [01:42:19] Speaker B: Like potential best friends surrounded by thousands of potential best friends. [01:42:24] Speaker A: Yeah. And if everybody's feeling on that kind of level all around, that's what the community is for. [01:42:30] Speaker B: Yeah. No, the con was probably the best part of my summer. If I have to be really critical of the whole three month ordeal, I would say that great things happened at that con. Terrible things happened, too. My whole episode of feeling like death was kind of crappy. But at the same time, it made Sunday all the better, aside from my achy joints. But looking back, hindsight's we delete all the really frustrating things from our brain and we go, man, that was nice. I'll do that again. [01:43:01] Speaker A: So if you guys haven't seen online yet, they're starting to update on next year's registration. I'm like, cool. [01:43:07] Speaker B: I don't know what I'm going to. [01:43:08] Speaker A: Be doing or if I'm going to have the money for it, but I. [01:43:10] Speaker B: Want to go back. We talk enough about the industry. I'm going to try to push for press passes. Yeah. So legitimize us. Yes. Which is what you should do right now. You should like our page. You should like our Instagram Sneaky Geek podcast. You should like our Facebook page Sneaky Geek podcast. You should go to Soundcloud and you should comment on your favorite part of this episode and start conversations with each other. And if you haven't reached out to us to say, hey, I like your podcast, or, hey, your podcast is garbage, or whatever, you should do. So our email is [email protected]. [01:43:44] Speaker A: Drop us a line. [01:43:45] Speaker B: Yeah, drop us a line. Or drop us a comment. Or drop us a DM slip into our dms uncle. So yeah, definitely do all those things, please. Because the more you like us and the more we, well, frankly, the more we work when we have lots of listens. I'm always like, I got to edit. I got to do my thing. But this is the new season of Sneaky Geek, season two throwing his arms into the air. This is dramatically. [01:44:13] Speaker A: Yeah, we're still doing that. [01:44:15] Speaker B: Yeah. So we got season two. Who do we talk to this year? I mean, we have interviews from all over the place. [01:44:21] Speaker A: We got Ming Chen coming up. [01:44:22] Speaker B: Ming Chen. Super excited about Ming Chen's episode. We got Eric, who we all trash talked in the comment section on the podcast page. Well, we got him on because he happens to be an expert in Coheed and Cambria. So we'll have that one coming up soon. We have an interview with E. K. Johnston, who has written the new Padme Amidala book that will be coming out in February. And she wrote the Ahsoka book, which was narrated by Ashley Eckstein. I thoroughly recommend you check that one out. [01:44:51] Speaker A: Oh, man, there's a venom movie coming out. There's a new season of Doctor who. There's a Star wars live action show that's coming out called the Mandalorian. Dave Filoni is directing an episode. They got Bryce Dallas Howard directing an episode. They got Tyka from Thor Ragnarok. So we're definitely going to talk about all that. [01:45:11] Speaker B: Definitely going to be talking about that show. We're going to know how much we love Star wars. [01:45:15] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. We're going to try to get a mutants episode in. [01:45:18] Speaker B: Yep. Because we got all sorts of cool mutant stuff happening on television and a new dark Phoenix trailer dropped earlier last week. We will probably get ourselves into the Star Trek Discovery realm because we, well, I freaking loved that show and we haven't done Star Trek yet somehow. [01:45:35] Speaker A: Yeah. So we'll probably get that one going. We got wondercon coming up this year in March. I believe we're trying to hit that one up. [01:45:43] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll do our best to cover cons. We'll do our best to cover premieres, trailers, shows like we always have, as well as some you should be looking into and some historical stuff with all the facts that we can possibly muster. [01:45:56] Speaker A: So thanks for joining us with season one. We're glad to bring you season two. If you guys have any other suggestions on what we should cover and talk about again, please drop us a line. [01:46:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Very publicly so that everyone can see that you're talking to us. Because we put our hard earned time, and sometimes our hard earned money into making this podcast. [01:46:17] Speaker A: We're glad to do it. [01:46:19] Speaker B: We love doing it. It's one of the best parts about 2017 for me was getting this all up off the ground. And it's not like we didn't work at it for two years before that. No. But anyway, we adore you guys. We're really glad to be back, and we will do our damnedest to keep this going as consistently as humanly possible. Yeah, that's all I got. Yeah. [01:46:46] Speaker A: Nice work. [01:46:47] Speaker B: Thanks, guys. So this is a podcast, and we just high fived. Oh, yeah. Our channel. Bow bounce. [01:47:17] Speaker C: Bow bounce. [01:47:19] Speaker B: Bow. Bow bounce. Bow bomb. How are the Froot loops? Donuts.