Latest / 22 Panels - A Comic Book Podcast / 22 Panels Episode #214 - The Pedestrian

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22 Panels Episode #214 - The Pedestrian · 22 Panels - A Comic Book Podcast

• 0:02
  Tad Eggleston: Good morning, everybody. Welcome back!
• 0:06
  Tad Eggleston: to 22 panels.
• 0:08
  Tad Eggleston: Episode number 214.
• 0:13
  Tad Eggleston: Where we will later discuss the pedestrian, and across the interwebs.
• 0:21
  Tad Eggleston: is Phil?
• 0:23
  Phil: Or this cat.
• 0:24
  Tad Eggleston: Now, now, now plastered to the wall, so they can't get away?
• 0:29
  Phil: Yeah, that's… you know, you know who's happiest about that? It's my little buddy here, Squeaks.
• 0:33
  Tad Eggleston: So, I… realized something this week. I had a major epiphany.
• 0:45
  Tad Eggleston: What's the meaning of life, the universe, and everything? What's the answer to the ultimate question?
• 0:50
  Phil: It's 42.
• 0:51
  Tad Eggleston: Okay.
• 0:53
  Tad Eggleston: So what is the ultimate question?
• 0:56
  Phil: Oh, that is… how many roads must a man walk down?
• 1:02
  Tad Eggleston: It's the product of 6-7.
• 1:06
  Phil: Gasp! Holy crap!
• 1:08
  Tad Eggleston: Oh my goodness.
• 1:10
  Phil: You're onto something, Ted. You're, you're, you know, this is…
• 1:14
  Tad Eggleston: Cooking with gas, baby!
• 1:16
  Phil: Check it again, it can't be true, it's impossible!
• 1:21
  Tad Eggleston: Cooking with gas!
• 1:23
  Phil: Yo.
• 1:25
  Phil: -Oh.
• 1:26
  Tad Eggleston: Oh, God, I want to skip the news this week, but let's not completely skip it.
• 1:33
  Phil: There's no joy in the news.
• 1:34
  Tad Eggleston: So, so, somehow we're in a situation where Netflix as the next owner of DC is the…
• 1:42
  Tad Eggleston: best-case scenario? As…
• 1:46
  Phil: Liz.
• 1:47
  Tad Eggleston: Paramount Skydance put in a hostile bid, in large part because
• 1:54
  Tad Eggleston: the president wants them to, so that they can fix CNN.
• 1:59
  Phil: Is… is that… is that part of making Rush Hour 4 the Abomination? Or… or… I don't even want to know anymore, really.
• 2:07
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, yeah, so… so that's, yeah,
• 2:12
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah. That's… I'm gonna leave that, and you put in Man Fuck Disney, and I'm assuming that that's the,
• 2:20
  Tad Eggleston: they somehow thought… like, and I'm hearing… I'm hearing conflicting reports. On one report, they were paid for their IP library. On another report, I saw that they're paying OpenAI.
• 2:34
  Phil: Yeah, it's… it's one of those things where, quite frankly, I don't care which direction the money is flowing. I do think it's worse if they're paying OpenAI than OpenAI paying them. Either way, don't do deals with that devil, you know? That is the enemy. It's the tool of fascism.
• 2:52
  Tad Eggleston: I mean…
• 2:53
  Phil: Destroying culture and society.
• 2:54
  Tad Eggleston: Like, actually… I… I… I will make a… a… Minor.
• 3:06
  Tad Eggleston: Counter-argument to that.
• 3:09
  Tad Eggleston: if Disney made… A deal where they license their properties at a significant
• 3:22
  Tad Eggleston: Market value.
• 3:25
  Tad Eggleston: It would set a baseline for other people to either Ask for, or sue for… for properties.
• 3:38
  Tad Eggleston: That they own that had been…
• 3:41
  Tad Eggleston: You know, I don't know if there's a way to put the Genie back in the box.
• 3:46
  Phil: And so, so, here's the thing, I mean, the… the… so, like, there's already lawsuits going out, in terms of suing these companies for their abuse of copyright material. From the people I've seen, it seems like the giant corporations were kind of the biggest
• 4:06
  Phil: wall in that battle, so to speak, of they had the most pull, and I'm a little distressed by there being a deal coming out of this.
• 4:15
  Tad Eggleston: But what I'm saying is.
• 4:16
  Tad Eggleston: deal was… Disney was getting paid a crap ton of money.
• 4:26
  Tad Eggleston: That would be positive for other creators.
• 4:29
  Phil: If the deal is…
• 4:31
  Tad Eggleston: Disney is paying!
• 4:35
  Tad Eggleston: for this. That's very bad for us.
• 4:39
  Phil: Yeah.
• 4:40
  Tad Eggleston: creators.
• 4:41
  Phil: I guess… I guess we should… we should probably… probably delineate whether… which direction that is going, because that's a pretty big, different situation.
• 4:49
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, it sounds like they actually bought into OpenAI.
• 4:52
  Phil: That's what the headline sounded like, yeah.
• 4:56
  Tad Eggleston: Which means that people now suing are suing not just OpenAI, but Disney.
• 5:03
  Phil: Yeah.
• 5:04
  Tad Eggleston: And that's not a… that's not a good place for creators at all.
• 5:08
  Phil: Yeah, so at least the portion of the Wall Street Journal I can read before it hits the paywall is that Disney is making a $1 billion investment in OpenAI, and will allow the AI platform to use its characters and properties to generate
• 5:24
  Phil: Bullshit. This 3-year licensing deal will let users generate Visio using Sora, short form.
• 5:32
  Phil: Yeah, platform more than 200. So it sounds like, it sounds like to me, I mean, when someone invests in something, that's them putting money into it. So it does sound like the worst-case situation.
• 5:43
  Tad Eggleston: worst case. I'm 99% certain this is the worst case.
• 5:45
  Phil: Yeah, so it's, it's basically like…
• 5:48
  Phil: I… I… it's funny, my parents… oh, we heard… we heard something where… where DC and Marvel said they're never gonna use AI, and I kind of balked at it, because of shit like this!
• 6:00
  Tad Eggleston: Well, I mean, I mean, DC and Marvel might never want to use AI.
• 6:05
  Phil: And I hope they don't have to, but because situations like this. But those people, but those people may… may be considered…
• 6:14
  Tad Eggleston: expendable, I mean, the really… I mean, here… here are… are… Two possible best-case scenarios.
• 6:27
  Tad Eggleston: Because they're talking about putting user-created content up on Disney+.
• 6:33
  Tad Eggleston: That stuff could be really bad, and or require a lot of… .
• 6:47
  Phil: It's, it's, it's very.
• 6:48
  Tad Eggleston: We're gonna call it… I'm actually gonna call it censorship, because that's what the people who get censored will call it. Curation was the word that I was looking for. Right, right, right. Because, like, people will put into Sora, Mickey fucks Spider-Man.
• 7:03
  Phil: Sure.
• 7:04
  Tad Eggleston: Sure.
• 7:04
  Phil: I don't even, you know, it…
• 7:09
  Phil: One of those rare curiosities that if someone lovingly hand-drew that, I would, of course give… I would look at it, you know?
• 7:17
  Tad Eggleston: Go look at the, the Air… Air Pirate Funnies?
• 7:21
  Phil: Air Pirate Funnies? Okay, alright. That were a major lawsuit between Disney and independent publishers in the 60s. Okay, alright. Air Pirate Funnies.
• 7:34
  Tad Eggleston: Very funny.
• 7:38
  Phil: But yeah, I mean, I've heard of… I've heard of stuff like that going along for a good while, of, you know, the Bibles, those sorts of things. They parodied it in Watchmen, that's how I know about it. Right.
• 7:47
  Tad Eggleston: But, .
• 7:51
  Phil: So, I mean…
• 7:52
  Tad Eggleston: It could blow up so horribly.
• 7:56
  Tad Eggleston: That… that… that you suddenly have corporate people downplaying AI as the next thing.
• 8:05
  Tad Eggleston: Also, it's enough of more… Corporate…
• 8:21
  Tad Eggleston: What's the word I'm looking for?
• 8:24
  Phil: Bullshit!
• 8:25
  Tad Eggleston: Well, yeah, but no, I'm looking for a more.
• 8:28
  Phil: Joe.
• 8:28
  Tad Eggleston: Specific word.
• 8:29
  Phil: Sure, sure.
• 8:30
  Tad Eggleston: I'm thinking of Monopoly law.
• 8:33
  Phil: the corporate, consolidation? Right, that's the one.
• 8:39
  Tad Eggleston: word I'm looking for, consolidation, that should we ever have
• 8:44
  Tad Eggleston: an administration or Congress or… or courts that… that care about
• 8:51
  Tad Eggleston: antitrust law, or, or, God forbid, right, new antitrust law.
• 9:01
  Phil: He could be a major target.
• 9:02
  Tad Eggleston: It could be a major target. And, like, one of the things about laws that… that…
• 9:09
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, like, the argument from the corporate side is, like…
• 9:15
  Tad Eggleston: Oh, you can't… you can't slow down innovation.
• 9:19
  Tad Eggleston: And… and, like, that's… that's ignoring the part where, like.
• 9:24
  Tad Eggleston: To write good laws, you often have to have people do things that you go, that's bad.
• 9:31
  Phil: Yeah, it, it, unfortunately, the law is largely reactive, as opposed to, predictive.
• 9:38
  Tad Eggleston: Well, kind of, unfortunately, but, like…
• 9:42
  Phil: I think it's just how it works as a mechanism, really.
• 9:46
  Tad Eggleston: You know, some things you can be predictive about.
• 9:49
  Phil: Yeah.
• 9:50
  Phil: I don't think we want to about laws.
• 9:51
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, other things… well, I'm even just talking about laws. Some things, you know, you can see the writing on the law really easy and be predictive.
• 10:00
  Phil: Right.
• 10:01
  Tad Eggleston: And other things, like, it takes somebody doing them to go, oh, this is bad.
• 10:07
  Phil: Yeah.
• 10:08
  Tad Eggleston: Then you would think that the, the…
• 10:10
  Tad Eggleston: The duty of the lawmakers would be, this is bad, how can we prevent it from happening again?
• 10:19
  Phil: Yeah, and that's where our system of lawmakers are so…
• 10:24
  Tad Eggleston: Well, and that's… what kind of week has it been? I don't even know.
• 10:27
  Phil: Damn.
• 10:30
  Phil: Saw the president put on a funny hat, so we're apparently in that stage of the presidency.
• 10:37
  Tad Eggleston: I didn't even catch that one.
• 10:39
  Phil: It's not worth it.
• 10:40
  Tad Eggleston: I just caught the drivel.
• 10:42
  Phil: Yeah.
• 10:43
  Tad Eggleston: And, you know, they now seem to have pivoted to…
• 10:48
  Tad Eggleston: to, you know, I mean, for, for a, a… millisecond.
• 10:54
  Tad Eggleston: it seemed like even Republicans might… might have trouble with, like, War crimes on top of… Murder.
• 11:04
  Tad Eggleston: And they seem to have already pivoted to… Fuck you guys.
• 11:12
  Tad Eggleston: We'll do what we want.
• 11:15
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, it's kinda… it's kinda… it's kind of their only movement. We have a governing party that's made up of Eric Cartmans.
• 11:23
  Phil: a huh?
• 11:25
  Phil: Yeah.
• 11:26
  Phil: It's pretty.
• 11:28
  Phil: Pretty dim, pretty desolate.
• 11:30
  Tad Eggleston: So anyway, let's talk about some new-to-order books.
• 11:33
  Phil: That sounds so good right now! Holy cow. Alright, first up, we've got The Center Holds, number 1, by Larry Hama and M.D. Bright, coming up.
• 11:46
  Tad Eggleston: actually.
• 11:47
  Phil: marks.
• 11:48
  Tad Eggleston: Mark Bright's final.
• 11:50
  Phil: Oh, right! Yeah, yeah, Mark has…
• 11:53
  Tad Eggleston: last year. He did. He was… he was one of the major artists at Milestone.
• 11:59
  Phil: Yes.
• 12:00
  Tad Eggleston: So that was the biggest thing that caught me about this.
• 12:04
  Phil: I do remember he was co-creator of Quantum and Woody? That's not Milesfield.
• 12:08
  Tad Eggleston: Right, too.
• 12:09
  Phil: Milestone, that's valiant. Yeah, but yeah, he's a huge, huge influence. In a world where superheroes have become commonplace, heroes are required to join a union or else face serious financial liability for the damage caused during battles. Enter the Superheroes Union, a team of genius
• 12:25
  Phil: cyber psychic, Lakshmi, the mysterious Keeper.
• 12:30
  Phil: And child prodigy Nekotron, among others, as they battle villains and bureaucracy alike. And though the delicate balance of mitigating damage while saving lives is already tough enough, they've got their own worries with a constant stream of villains rising to challenge them.
• 12:46
  Phil: Yeah, so this one looks absolutely incredible. The final rotor cutoff for it is going to…
• 12:52
  Phil: be very soon, final cutoff, December 22nd, coming up on us, in stores, February 11th. Boom Entertainment, the center holds.
• 13:01
  Tad Eggleston: Alright, this one is literally my birthday present.
• 13:06
  Phil: Nice. I had a feeling you'd be all over this.
• 13:08
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, yeah. I'd be shocked if you weren't.
• 13:10
  Tad Eggleston: Daredevil No. 1 from Stephanie Phillips and Lee Garbit.
• 13:16
  Tad Eggleston: You can bury the bodies, but never the ghosts. Hell's Kitchen is full of secrets, but no secret stays buried for long. As a fearsome new supervillain named Omen has targeted Matt Murdock, it will be his alter ego, Daredevil.
• 13:32
  Tad Eggleston: Who takes the hits, but beware, the mysterious new player isn't all that they appear. A secret Daredevil will have to learn quickly as he scrambles to settle into a life
• 13:43
  Tad Eggleston: and status quo we've never seen him in before. Look alive, Marvelites! An all-new and unprecedented era of Daredevil starts right here.
• 13:54
  Tad Eggleston: Final order cutoff on this is January 12th, which is actually my dad's birthday, and it's on sale March 25th, my birthday!
• 14:04
  Phil: It's a family affair.
• 14:07
  Tad Eggleston: This cell.
• 14:09
  Phil: Alright, now we've got Love Ignited, the 2026 one-shot, script by Patrick Horvath and Olivia Dufault, illustrated by Chris Burnham and Danny, coming from Ignition Press, debuting its first anthology,
• 14:28
  Phil: And an oversized hunk of burning love spanning from the depths of the ocean to the far reaches of space. Emotions run hot in romance, and some people go to extremes for the person or creature they desire.
• 14:39
  Phil: That is gonna be a final order cutoff of December 15th. We're already past it, or about to be past it, unless you're listening this Sunday night, Monday morning, on sale in stores February 4th.
• 14:56
  Tad Eggleston: Murder drones from Wyatt Kennedy and Joe Meekyong?
• 15:00
  Tad Eggleston: Based on Glitch Productions' global animation phenomenon created by Liam Vickers.
• 15:07
  Phil: And now streaming on Prime Video.
• 15:11
  Tad Eggleston: That part, I don't care as much about. Wyatt Kennedy and Jiomia Gyeong are pretty awesome.
• 15:16
  Tad Eggleston: Why Kennedy did Knights,
• 15:23
  Tad Eggleston: Jimmy Young, they've got his eye and… or Eve, yes, Eve is what I know that I love from them.
• 15:29
  Tad Eggleston: Unleash the record-setting comics adaptation of the series that you have watched 330 million times, blah blah blah, whatever. This is the part that I want. Murder drones! In the far future of the desolate exoplanet-designed Copper 9… designated Copper 9, the humans are long gone, but the robotic worker drones that created
• 15:48
  Tad Eggleston: They created to mine the planet's resources are still hard at work.
• 15:51
  Tad Eggleston: Together, they have managed to forge their own makeshift society, or so they thought, until a previously unknown kind of robot, the dreaded murder drones, are activated by the long-forgotten human scripted protocol to disassemble any worker that deviates from its original programming.
• 16:10
  Tad Eggleston: But when a rebellious young worker drone named Uzi forms an unlikely alliance with two disassembly drones, serial designations N and V,
• 16:19
  Tad Eggleston: Can they, together, uncover the secrets of their own origins?
• 16:24
  Tad Eggleston: and stop the spread of the unsettling mechanical virus known as the Absolute Solver. Robots, violence, teen angst, mad science, love lost…
• 16:35
  Tad Eggleston: Doors, hormones, and chaos.
• 16:38
  Tad Eggleston: What more could you ask for? A pen, perhaps? It's a clicky pen. Ask your kids. They'll get it.
• 16:46
  Tad Eggleston: From Onei Press, FOC is January 19th. In-store date is February 25th.
• 16:55
  Tad Eggleston: I'm gonna make myself read the comic first, but I actually might have managed to convince myself that I do want to watch the video.
• 17:03
  Phil: Oh yeah, I'm definitely intrigued by the video here, so I might go the other way.
• 17:07
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:10
  Tad Eggleston: So… Sum.
• 17:14
  Tad Eggleston: graphic novels, I am doing my re-read of Brinks.
• 17:20
  Phil: one.
• 17:20
  Tad Eggleston: through 5 right now, but we'll talk about Brink 6.
• 17:24
  Tad Eggleston: From Dan Abnott and INJ Colbert.
• 17:30
  Tad Eggleston: After 20 years of being forced to live in cramped, overcrowded space stations, existence for the human race is tense, often spilling over into madness. Sex are rife.
• 17:41
  Tad Eggleston: And Bridget Curtis of the Habitat Security Division investigates their reach and influence over the remaining inhabitants of each space-faring vessel.
• 17:50
  Tad Eggleston: Can she stop the encouraging chaos as it works to snuff out the remnants of humanity?
• 17:56
  Tad Eggleston: brink Volume 6 from Dan Abnett and INJ Colbert. Final order cutoff is
• 18:06
  Tad Eggleston: January 5th, in stores, on my daughter's birthday, February 25th, from Rebellion. Like I said, this is just, like, a cool…
• 18:18
  Tad Eggleston: like, space, noir… Sounds really fast.
• 18:21
  Tad Eggleston: Space noir, police procedural type… Thing.
• 18:26
  Tad Eggleston: Fans of the Expanse.
• 18:27
  Tad Eggleston: Right.
• 18:29
  Tad Eggleston: Except that I think it might be before that. How much… how much preview do I get? This is short.
• 18:34
  Phil: Yeah. I know The Expanse, the books, were out a while before the show, but yeah, no, that sounds great, I would love to talk about it.
• 18:42
  Tad Eggleston: Brink has also been going for quite a while at this point, so…
• 18:46
  Phil: Pass.
• 18:47
  Tad Eggleston: I can't speak for certain, because I'm not an expanse guy, I don't know it that well.
• 18:52
  Tad Eggleston: So…
• 18:54
  Phil: All right.
• 18:56
  Tad Eggleston: Preview copy of this, too.
• 18:57
  Phil: Oh, nice, there we go, I'll check this out. This is Crazy For You by Paul Throw and Steve Lafler. Money, Women, Power, and rebelling against the Golden Years. These are some of the perilous and alluring patterns that weave their way through Crazy For You.
• 19:12
  Phil: In this double feature of Love and Obsession, two short stories by the acclaimed writer Paul Thoreau are adapted by veteran cartoonist Steve Laffer.
• 19:21
  Phil: Minor… Minor Watt is a high society satire lampooning the perverse relationship between art and the art market, and what happens when the joy of owning is outstripped by the thrill of destroying.
• 19:34
  Phil: Siamese Nights is a tale of infidelity, infatuation, and exoticism, blending into an intoxicating midlife crisis siren song.
• 19:44
  Phil: Little choices and self-betrayals built until a quiet leitmotif rolls into a shattering crescendo. Laffler's bold and expressive style effortlessly captures the pulp exuberance adorning Thoreau's stories and the profound vulnerability underlying his characters. Crazy For You will stop you in your tracks right before it blows you, or bowls you over.
• 20:04
  Phil: Final order cutoff of January 5th in stores, March 18th from Fante Graphics Plus.
• 20:12
  Tad Eggleston: Yes, this looks very good.
• 20:16
  Tad Eggleston: And you took my Dave Baker book?
• 20:18
  Phil: I, you know, I, I, I mean… It's okay. It's okay. It's okay.
• 20:22
  Tad Eggleston: Baker.
• 20:23
  Phil: I, I knew, I knew you did that. When I recognized the name, I tried to, try to, to hype them. This is Halloween Boy, last of the Halloween Boys, from Eisner Award-nominated writer and illustrator Dave Baker, of Mary Tyler Moorhawk fame, comes the collected voyages of the man known only as Halloween Boy, an adventurer without a past and a combatant of the impossible, working as an archaeologist for hire, magical ghost hunter, and
• 20:48
  Phil: super scientist, explorer, Halloween Boy has a simple mission.
• 20:51
  Phil: help those who cannot help themselves. From routine artifact resources gone wrong, to helping the surviving members of an ancient religion enact a cosmic funeral dirge, Halloween Boy finds himself operating as the patron saint of the impossible. And yet, just how long can he win in this never-ending battle before things spiral out of control? When the dark secrets of the demon who lives finally rear their ugly heads?
• 21:15
  Phil: Find out in the pages of this thrilling compendium. Halloween Boy, Last of the Halloween Boys, collects issues 1 through 5 of Baker's self-published Halloween Boy series for the first time in Premium Edition. Final order cutoff.
• 21:27
  Phil: of May 4th in stores, May 27th, this one's way on the horizon. It's 2026, y'all. Coming out from Oni Press, this looks fantastic. The cover.
• 21:38
  Tad Eggleston: And I messed up and put it with graphic novels rather than collections.
• 21:43
  Phil: Oh, well, you know, it's just that exciting.
• 21:46
  Tad Eggleston: read far enough. Yeah.
• 21:47
  Phil: That's okay, you know? But, there is… there is a masked adventurer wielding a sword that has the face of a vampire on the hilt. It's just wild.
• 21:57
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, yeah.
• 21:58
  Tad Eggleston: Stimulus from Daniel Friedman, Robert Samuelin, Stefan Rialdini, Tom Coker, and Filia Bertuchin at Dark Horse Comics.
• 22:09
  Tad Eggleston: A blood-soaked briefcase full of cash, a mind reader hellbent on crime, an errant soldier turned hitman, earthly homunculus, crystal woman.
• 22:19
  Tad Eggleston: Men Made of Stars, Deviant Frog People, Sorcerer's succubi, Advanced Space Force fighter pilots, avenging vampires, sentient sentimental AI Constructs, alien voyagers, the demigods spawn.
• 22:33
  Tad Eggleston: Of a heartbroken angel's.
• 22:35
  Tad Eggleston: Cyber-enhanced mercenary thieves, death races, unfulfilled ancient prophecies, lost fowlers, stolen principles, and the supernatural plant known as Seafarer that ties them all together. Series of original stories written by Daniel Friedman, featuring an esteemed roster of international audiences.
• 22:56
  Phil: International audiences for mature audiences. International artists.
• 23:00
  Tad Eggleston: Artists, yes, sorry.
• 23:01
  Phil: or mature audiences. That's okay, that's okay.
• 23:04
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah. Yes, it does.
• 23:06
  Phil: That was a…
• 23:07
  Tad Eggleston: Final order cutoff of January 26th, in stores April 28th.
• 23:15
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I think this one still cocks as a graphic novel, because I don't think it's ever been printed separately.
• 23:20
  Phil: Exactly, yeah. There we go.
• 23:22
  Tad Eggleston: And I'.
• 23:22
  Phil: Thank you.
• 23:23
  Tad Eggleston: The other one a graphic novel, because they were all independent like, sell-at-the-table comics. Anyway… Okay.
• 23:32
  Tad Eggleston: just covered myself here. Yeah. In terms of actual correct collections, we've got… Pop?
• 23:39
  Tad Eggleston: Kill… killing your thirst?
• 23:43
  Tad Eggleston: Mad Cave's best-selling, creator-owned series is collected into a beautiful hardcover edition with an all-new cover by Dave Johnson, guaranteed to unleash the fizz in your pop. Imagine a world where two dominant and competing cola companies, each worth billions, are owned by former Siamese twins.
• 24:01
  Tad Eggleston: who have been separated and now harbor such intense hatred for each other that they hire assassins, saboteurs, and espionage experts to interfere with one another daily. This is the story of brotherly love gone Ahri, and the people they recruit to do their dirty work.
• 24:19
  Tad Eggleston: Collected for the first time in a stunning hardcover format with an all-new cover by Dave Johnson that said that at the beginning.
• 24:26
  Phil: It's that important.
• 24:27
  Tad Eggleston: This is from Jimmy Palmiati and Juan Santa Cruz from Mad Cave Comics. Final order cutoff is January 19th in stores on February 11th.
• 24:41
  Phil: And there's a pug on the cover. What's not to love?
• 24:44
  Tad Eggleston: Yep, yep.
• 24:46
  Phil: Alright, next up we've got the Queen of Cosmos comics with an X trilogy from Barbara Willie Mendez. Masterpiece of Hallucinogenic Storytelling, Queen of Cosmos comics trilogy, collected for the first time in a single volume.
• 25:02
  Phil: In the title, Underground Cartoonist, fine artist, and muralist Barbara Willie Mendez chronicles women creators' psychedelic journey through biblical tableau.
• 25:15
  Phil: Modern life, and into a fantastical, interstellar future, weaving in her own intimate stories of being an artist's mother and grandmother, especially in the never-before-published third volume.
• 25:27
  Phil: Inspired by Jewish mysticism, Mendez…
• 25:30
  Phil: presents a creation myth shaped by feminine cosmic consciousness with new, immersive worlds and a radical reimagining of this one. Includes an illuminating, entertaining interview with Mendez, as well as the third never-before-published chapter of this trilogy, final order cutoff date, January 5th, in stores, February 11th.
• 25:51
  Phil: from Fantagraphics Books.
• 25:54
  Tad Eggleston: Yep.
• 25:54
  Phil: Or Phantographics Underground? Phantographics.
• 25:57
  Tad Eggleston: I'm a fan of graphics, yeah.
• 25:58
  Phil: Yeah, those guys.
• 26:00
  Tad Eggleston: We've got a shorter final order cutoff list for this week. Oh, I knew I forgot to do something, too.
• 26:06
  Phil: Gasp.
• 26:09
  Tad Eggleston: Because, lunar is actually not doing another final utter cutoff until January, for the holidays.
• 26:17
  Phil: Oh! So…
• 26:19
  Tad Eggleston: So these, these final order cut-offs are just from PRH. You've got Archie vs. Minor Threats from Path & Oswalt, Jordan Bloom, Timmy Heague at Dark Horse.
• 26:28
  Tad Eggleston: in stores April 21st. We've got the Center Holds No. 1 from Larry Hama and MD Bright at Boom, in stores February 11th, and I can sell you a body from Ryan Farrier, George Com…
• 26:40
  Tad Eggleston: Ambideus at IDW through January 27th.
• 26:47
  Tad Eggleston: some crowdfunding that I forgot to put in our notes again, because, you know…
• 26:52
  Tad Eggleston: It's just been that kind of week, but there is new stuff, so we will…
• 26:58
  Tad Eggleston: We will quickly get to it. We have the Freak Squeal, the complete chaos Curriculum.
• 27:05
  Tad Eggleston: from Magnetic Press.
• 27:10
  Tad Eggleston: What if Superhero School was more than a gothic liberal arts college run by sadistic professors and filled with misfit monsters? That's the premise of Freak Squeal, a wildly invented comic saga that blends MAGA flair
• 27:25
  Tad Eggleston: Western comic grit and sexy Franco-Belgium charm into one glorious
• 27:31
  Tad Eggleston: Chaotic Universe. This is from, Cult Comics… er, from, Florence Madu.
• 27:38
  Tad Eggleston: At Magnetic Press.
• 27:43
  Tad Eggleston: And already at $59,000 on a 75.
• 27:47
  Phil: Wow.
• 27:48
  Tad Eggleston: goal. That's incredible. And through January 2nd.
• 28:09
  Phil: Alrighty, looking up more Kickstarters.
• 28:12
  Tad Eggleston: And there was at least one more that I wanted to do.
• 28:18
  Tad Eggleston: Because…
• 28:20
  Phil: form applies.
• 28:24
  Phil: And in searching for the at least one more, it looks like Ted found a.
• 28:29
  Tad Eggleston: At least it's more profit.
• 28:30
  Phil: Possibly? There we go.
• 28:33
  Phil: Kickstarter's an incredible place.
• 28:36
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, we've got…
• 28:37
  Phil: So much to find.
• 28:38
  Tad Eggleston: Which season? A witch horror comic anthology?
• 28:43
  Tad Eggleston: From Lifeline Comics, 150-plus page horror anthology about witches, warlocks, and familiars with some of the biggest names in comics, a forward from Amber Benson.
• 28:58
  Phil: It's…
• 28:58
  Tad Eggleston: Oh wait, no, this campaign ended. I'm sorry.
• 29:01
  Tad Eggleston: This is one that I already did. Sorry. Forget that. It was December 2nd that that one ended.
• 29:11
  Tad Eggleston: The one that is still going is from Chile to the edge of imagination, Joe Doroski and Rodriguez, two comic giants raised in Chile, present their new graphic novels in a joint dual launch. So you have Cosmocosm.
• 29:27
  Tad Eggleston: Or Cosmocasm from visionary Alejandro Jodorovsky.
• 29:33
  Tad Eggleston: Alright, wait.
• 29:34
  Tad Eggleston: No.
• 29:35
  Tad Eggleston: Cosmocasm is what it says, gotcha.
• 29:39
  Phil: The projects are Cosmo Pirates.
• 29:42
  Tad Eggleston: From Joe Dorosky with… who's the artist on it?
• 29:47
  Phil: Tell us.
• 29:48
  Tad Eggleston: the artist here.
• 29:50
  Phil: It says…
• 29:50
  Tad Eggleston: Oh.
• 29:51
  Phil: Pete Woods.
• 29:51
  Phil: Oh, yeah.
• 29:53
  Tad Eggleston: Decades after petting one of the most beloved and highest-selling science fiction graphic novels of all time, The Inko, the prolific and legendary Alejandro Jodorosky makes his return to sci-fi with the wild space opera brought to life by acclaimed American artist Pete Woods.
• 30:08
  Tad Eggleston: And then The Chasm of Resurrection. Gabrielle Rodriguez from Lock and Key unveils a haunting period horror penned by French writer Hiroji.
• 30:19
  Tad Eggleston: And then… And unfortunately.
• 30:24
  Tad Eggleston: Doesn't look like it'll be an add-on, so it's only at the $150 tier or higher.
• 30:31
  Tad Eggleston: Is an autobiographical short story.
• 30:35
  Tad Eggleston: By Jodorowski, illustrated by Rodriguez, and hardbound in a rare, exclusive art book.
• 30:43
  Phil: That's so funny that they say it's similar to Jodorowski comics, The Eyes of the Cat and Angel Claws.
• 30:48
  Tad Eggleston: clause.
• 30:49
  Phil: I have the eyes of the cat.
• 30:51
  Tad Eggleston: Damn.
• 30:51
  Phil: That's one of the few… yeah, it is really great. It was exciting.
• 30:55
  Tad Eggleston: So… so… yeah.
• 30:58
  Phil: Limited to 199 copies.
• 31:01
  Tad Eggleston: I haven't.
• 31:03
  Tad Eggleston: I haven't.
• 31:07
  Phil: Oh, no, is Tad… Tad… Tad might be changing his pledge.
• 31:11
  Tad Eggleston: Wow.
• 31:12
  Phil: He's signing into things.
• 31:15
  Tad Eggleston: It's…
• 31:15
  Phil: Who knows what he could do?
• 31:16
  Tad Eggleston: It's so annoying that there won't be…
• 31:21
  Phil: There's no other way to obtain this book.
• 31:23
  Tad Eggleston: You gotta go up to…
• 31:26
  Tad Eggleston: And I think the 199 is the signed version. The book plates are limited to $199.
• 31:34
  Phil: Such.
• 31:35
  Tad Eggleston: So, I'm not going that high.
• 31:37
  Phil: Okay.
• 31:38
  Tad Eggleston: But… but I haven't… I mean, it was particularly hard, because it was also the first level that didn't have an early bird discount.
• 31:47
  Phil: Oh, yeah. Well, and it's, it's really interesting that, you know, well, okay, these are, these are fascinating, layers, but it's funny how the 150 level, you get both books plus the third autobiographical story, but you don't get the slipcases!
• 32:03
  Tad Eggleston: No, no, that's the… that's the next level.
• 32:07
  Phil: It's 230, you gotta get those slipcases back in, so this is… this is a…
• 32:10
  Tad Eggleston: Right.
• 32:11
  Phil: Masterful, masterful layering of, of rewards.
• 32:14
  Tad Eggleston: Well, I mean, where it was really hard is, like, the first level…
• 32:20
  Tad Eggleston: like, the Cosmocasm bundle is $100.
• 32:26
  Tad Eggleston: So it's 50 for that… For that extra… story.
• 32:32
  Phil: Yeah.
• 32:32
  Tad Eggleston: Which, in and of itself, isn't horrible.
• 32:36
  Phil: But where I couldn't pull the trigger immediately was, like.
• 32:40
  Tad Eggleston: The early bird… Cosmo Pirates was 80.
• 32:47
  Tad Eggleston: So it became 70 for that extra.
• 32:52
  Tad Eggleston: So, yeah. Right now, I'm just at the digital level, and we'll see what happens.
• 33:00
  Phil: So, does this mean… so this means humanoids is doing okay?
• 33:04
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
• 33:05
  Phil: Okay. I know we talked about it a little bit before, Eric, I just.
• 33:08
  Tad Eggleston: It actually… it sounds like… They learned from other people's bankruptcies.
• 33:14
  Tad Eggleston: And had a… had a Shell Corporation available for their… their books to be shifted to? Okay. Should… should their attempts at… at…
• 33:28
  Tad Eggleston: movie stuff, Run them into trouble.
• 33:32
  Phil: Okay. I don't normally enjoy the words shell corporation, but let's hope you're good in this time.
• 33:39
  Tad Eggleston: You know?
• 33:42
  Phil: With great shell corporation comes great responsibility.
• 33:45
  Tad Eggleston: I don't either, it's truly nuts, but, like, at least it was to save their back catalog rather than…
• 33:55
  Phil: Exactly. Yeah. It's one of those… if it ends up saving a beloved comics publisher, I'm sure it's…
• 34:02
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, really, I think that, like…
• 34:07
  Tad Eggleston: the things should be separated more, and… and or it's just, like, dumb to spend money to try to go get into a different business.
• 34:18
  Tad Eggleston: Either your stuff's good enough that somebody will spend money to come get you.
• 34:23
  Tad Eggleston: Or…
• 34:24
  Phil: But it's all the rage these days.
• 34:27
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah… Yeah.
• 34:30
  Phil: Yeah.
• 34:34
  Phil: That's… that's… this is where… when… when are we gonna get a 22 Panels movie adaptation, Tad? Your… your Hollywood guys are all over this, aren't they?
• 34:43
  Tad Eggleston: No.
• 34:46
  Phil: It's… are… your holiday guy… your Hollywood guys are the same as your scheduler, aren't they?
• 34:53
  Tad Eggleston: I mean… like… I have Hollywood guys, but…
• 34:59
  Tad Eggleston: But… they don't really work for me.
• 35:03
  Tad Eggleston: And, and, and, like, I mean, I suppose if they actually saw something
• 35:09
  Tad Eggleston: worth producing, we could talk, but, like, I don't know what the 22 Panels movie would be.
• 35:16
  Phil: It'd probably be, like, a comic book version of the Between Two Ferns movie.
• 35:21
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, okay.
• 35:22
  Phil: Yeah. Yeah. But, like, serious instead of.
• 35:25
  Tad Eggleston: Did they actually make a movie out of that? I didn't know. They did, yeah.
• 35:29
  Phil: There was, I'm pretty sure I watched it.
• 35:31
  Phil: I don't think it was a fever dream.
• 35:33
  Tad Eggleston: Okay.
• 35:35
  Tad Eggleston: So, amazing books this week.
• 35:38
  Phil: There were some amazing books this week. Absolutely.
• 35:41
  Tad Eggleston: It was, it was an overall light week.
• 35:44
  Tad Eggleston: Though, not for me, because the first,
• 35:50
  Tad Eggleston: Lone Wolf and Cub hardcover, and the fourth…
• 35:53
  Tad Eggleston: Akira hardcover both came out this week, so… so, even though there were less… Single-issue comics.
• 36:04
  Phil: It might have been hard to cover the costs.
• 36:06
  Tad Eggleston: My, my bill wasn't particularly lower.
• 36:17
  Tad Eggleston: But yeah, no, Assorted Crisis Events No. 7 came in on top, though it was really close with Ms. Truesdale. They're kind of 1 and 1A,
• 36:27
  Tad Eggleston: Because as much as I loved the… the… story in Assorted Crisis Events.
• 36:33
  Tad Eggleston: And just play… I mean, this one I felt like played more with just storytelling.
• 36:41
  Tad Eggleston: And weirdness than strictly with the comics medium.
• 36:46
  Tad Eggleston: than some of the other issues, which didn't make it any less good, but Ms. Truesdale and The Rise of Man both played with
• 36:59
  Tad Eggleston: the Miss Truesdale books have kind of played with, like, the Conan mythos inside of the Hellboy. I mean, not…
• 37:05
  Tad Eggleston: explicitly the Conan mythos, but, like…
• 37:09
  Phil: A more soy source.
• 37:10
  Tad Eggleston: The Hyborian Age.
• 37:12
  Phil: Yeah, yeah, those guys.
• 37:14
  Tad Eggleston: And… Given that it's Jesse Lonergan art, like, he doesn't know how not to play with the medium.
• 37:22
  Phil: I was gonna say.
• 37:24
  Tad Eggleston: So, like… I, I loved the, the, the…
• 37:30
  Tad Eggleston: the Miss Truesdale Hyborian Age series that came out already, and… and this one's starting out really, really good. Magnola and Lonergan are a really good pairing.
• 37:42
  Tad Eggleston: And then… Kinda in… in 1C?
• 37:48
  Tad Eggleston: But definitely… Definitely two-way.
• 37:51
  Tad Eggleston: But, but we'll give it 3, because, you know, that's how the numbering goes. Sandro Sisters, number 10, Greg and Fake, Mark Copern are off.
• 37:59
  Tad Eggleston: at Floating World, they continue to kill it with their Eisner Award-winning Best Series.
• 38:07
  Tad Eggleston: And, I enjoyed this issue, and laughed, and laughed, and laughed some more.
• 38:14
  Tad Eggleston: So, take a walk, Phil.
• 38:17
  Phil: Yeah, I also very much enjoyed Assword of Crisis Events number 7.
• 38:21
  Phil: It was… it was a very, very interesting issue, just because it… it was one that…
• 38:29
  Phil: Has really stuck with me after reading, and kind of…
• 38:33
  Phil: made me consider and think about what the… the larger metaphor was for, of someone who keeps finding dead bodies of himself that he needs to dispose of. It's just a massive inconvenience.
• 38:44
  Phil: I'm also hoping that some of the little Easter eggs, are building towards a larger narrative. Like, I know it's been… it's been a loosely anthology series so far, but with, you know,
• 38:58
  Tad Eggleston: Right?
• 38:59
  Phil: a flyer about some sort of evil emperor from another… another dimension. Yeah, I, I, I, you know, I want to know what the deal is. I want to, like…
• 39:09
  Phil: I've noticed a while ago that the mysterious stranger, you know, the heavily bearded guy with goggles and what looks like a jetpack is popped up in every issue, but I want to know his story, you know? I want to know who he is.
• 39:23
  Phil: You know, and yeah, that was the biggest comic I read this week. I'm gonna be reading They're All Terrible number 3, after this. I'm excited for that one.
• 39:33
  Tad Eggleston: Good.
• 39:34
  Phil: Yeah, yeah. And, of course, I'm… I… before, I'll probably be next week, re-reading all of The Voice Said Kill in one hunk, now that it's all out.
• 39:44
  Phil: But, but yeah, and of course, Looming on the Horizon is, from hell. I have my copy. It is in my hands. The terrors can begin. And, yeah, I just also wanted to say, check out the Beats Best of 2025 comics list. They're.
• 39:59
  Tad Eggleston: dead.
• 40:00
  Phil: Absolutely.
• 40:00
  Tad Eggleston: Outstanding.
• 40:01
  Tad Eggleston: I've read about 70% of them, and…
• 40:04
  Phil: Wow.
• 40:04
  Tad Eggleston: And… and all of them are… all of the ones I've read are… are… like…
• 40:09
  Tad Eggleston: Definitely among my favorites of the year.
• 40:12
  Phil: Yeah, there's…
• 40:13
  Phil: And not only that, they've got multiple lists, because I saw now, they…
• 40:17
  Tad Eggleston: Oh, yeah.
• 40:18
  Phil: Habi has the, best of manga and manhwa, which was exciting, too. So, so yeah.
• 40:24
  Tad Eggleston: They'll have a Best YA list at some point, they might have best category lists at some point.
• 40:28
  Phil: Oh, yeah, yeah, it's their, their…
• 40:31
  Tad Eggleston: They keep us covered. They keep us covered.
• 40:33
  Phil: Absolutely. How, how's, how's One Piece doing, you know?
• 40:37
  Tad Eggleston: Kind of in the same boat. We're in, we're in, were becalmed.
• 40:47
  Phil: The calm?
• 40:48
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, we're, we're in, we're in, we're in becalmed water.
• 40:52
  Phil: Oh.
• 40:52
  Tad Eggleston: When there's no wind.
• 40:54
  Phil: I don't know.
• 40:55
  Phil: switches.
• 40:56
  Tad Eggleston: kind of…
• 40:57
  Phil: drifting.
• 40:57
  Tad Eggleston: drifting.
• 40:59
  Phil: Is that… that's what's happening in the narrative, or is that… is that…
• 41:01
  Tad Eggleston: No.
• 41:02
  Phil: That's us.
• 41:03
  Tad Eggleston: No, I still haven't… I still haven't moved.
• 41:07
  Phil: I was gonna say, it is… it is a dead heat between snail and slug right now. You know, this is an incredible, incredible invertebrate race.
• 41:16
  Phil: Right.
• 41:18
  Phil: Oh, yeah. Mop Psycho 100 is picking up, you know. I think I might need to sit down and read a couple full volumes,
• 41:28
  Phil: You know, because it… it just… it continues to tickle and delight me. It's just so goofy and strange. I… I don't know if there's anything else I've read quite like it. Yeah, it, you know.
• 41:42
  Phil: It's a… Quite compelling.
• 41:48
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
• 41:49
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, yeah.
• 41:53
  Tad Eggleston: So…
• 41:54
  Phil: This week… this week we're talking about.
• 41:58
  Tad Eggleston: Responsibility time.
• 41:59
  Phil: Yep, sorry, sorry.
• 42:00
  Tad Eggleston: time.
• 42:01
  Phil: We gotta, we gotta, we gotta introduce the section.
• 42:04
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, it makes it easier for me to find it when I'm making chapters.
• 42:09
  Phil: It's a good point. It's a good point. You know, a little signpost, but yeah, it's the pedestrian.
• 42:14
  Tad Eggleston: The Pedestrian from Joey Esposito, Sean von Gorman at Magma Comics.
• 42:20
  Tad Eggleston: I… this has been on my radar all year, and I hadn't gotten to it, so I… I wanted to, and I'm glad we did. What are your thoughts?
• 42:30
  Phil: I was… intrigued and… compelled, you know? It's one of those where…
• 42:41
  Phil: I… it's… it's interesting, I… I want to see where they keep going, because I felt like…
• 42:46
  Tad Eggleston: Definitely feels like a prologue right now.
• 42:48
  Phil: It's a bit of a.
• 42:49
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, both books that we read.
• 42:52
  Phil: I think.
• 42:52
  Tad Eggleston: their first issue served as the… I mean, it's funny, because that became part of what we talked about with the seasons last week, where the first issue…
• 43:02
  Tad Eggleston: is somewhat complete with the tease of Moore, and the first arc is somewhat complete, but with the tease of Moore.
• 43:12
  Phil: And that's…
• 43:13
  Tad Eggleston: And neither the issue nor the arc…
• 43:16
  Tad Eggleston: Can completely stand on its own.
• 43:19
  Phil: Right. Well, and I will say, to contrast last week's great responsibility with this one, whereas last week felt like, you know, we kind of ended it mid-narrative, and it was just gonna be a continual thread, this one at least does feel more… like, I feel like the story they were telling at this time, this is…
• 43:35
  Phil: you know…
• 43:36
  Tad Eggleston: And with that… with that twist thrown in the la- and, like.
• 43:40
  Phil: The epilogue. Yeah, the epilogue.
• 43:42
  Tad Eggleston: up the next, right.
• 43:43
  Phil: And even a lot of their signposting, I, I feel like I have an idea of…
• 43:49
  Phil: you know, the types of things I want to learn about from this series. Whereas the seasons was more of, I have no idea where they're going.
• 43:57
  Tad Eggleston: No, no, it was very, very much. Meet the season!
• 44:02
  Phil: Yep, yep, yep. But no, this one.
• 44:04
  Tad Eggleston: They're a modern Stone Age family.
• 44:06
  Phil: It did, it did have a little bit of that to it. But but this one, no, it's… I mean, I'm really compelled because…
• 44:15
  Phil: So… even though I have…
• 44:20
  Phil: I think it's fair to say that I've disconnected from Marvel and DC at this point. The superhero remains,
• 44:28
  Phil: An idea that is compelling to me, and trying to find what is special and interesting about the superhero
• 44:36
  Phil: just completely disconnected from Marvel and DC is…
• 44:39
  Tad Eggleston: Well, and, and…
• 44:40
  Phil: What's going on.
• 44:40
  Tad Eggleston: And that's why I've disconnected from Marvel and DC, like, universes more than I have from…
• 44:47
  Phil: Yes.
• 44:48
  Tad Eggleston: individual series here and there. Yeah. Because there is still… and it becomes even more interesting where
• 44:56
  Tad Eggleston: with something like the pedestrian, where it's like.
• 45:01
  Tad Eggleston: I'm not certain that he has powers. I think he has powers?
• 45:05
  Phil: I'm convinced he has powers of some sort.
• 45:09
  Tad Eggleston: But…
• 45:10
  Phil: There's definitely something weird going on.
• 45:13
  Tad Eggleston: Well, and he's very…
• 45:20
  Phil: Mysterious.
• 45:21
  Tad Eggleston: Well, I was gonna say rule-based, like, the stopping for the stop, or for the don't walk, the…
• 45:28
  Tad Eggleston: The fast walk across the street, rather than running, even though there is
• 45:36
  Tad Eggleston: indication that he can run otherwise, and then you find out that, that, like, he seems to patrol in a very specific pattern that makes his… Right.
• 45:46
  Tad Eggleston: like… I'm seeing a lot of neurodivergence in this character.
• 45:51
  Phil: Yes, and I guess what I find interesting and compelling about this is that, so, like, most of the independent… most of the superhero comics you see at this level of comics publishing, you know, at indie, small press.
• 46:06
  Phil: They are very clearly signaling, hey, this superhero… this is a superhero that's kind of like another character.
• 46:13
  Phil: This is not bad. This, this, the pedestrian character is not…
• 46:17
  Phil: is not a clear analog for any other superhero out there. They are doing something very different with both.
• 46:27
  Tad Eggleston: Well, and for that matter, like, my best guess initially for who he was got blown out of the water at the end.
• 46:36
  Phil: Okay. Though that was telegraphed a little bit, too. Yeah.
• 46:39
  Tad Eggleston: Like, I'd started wondering, oh, wait a minute, maybe this isn't… though now there's an element of me that's, like, wondering, is it possible that he's both?
• 46:49
  Phil: Yeah, it's very much a, what's going on here?
• 46:54
  Tad Eggleston: I love the mystery through the kid's eye. There's just so many cool things about this book.
• 47:00
  Phil: They were probably my favorite characters, the two kids are quite fun.
• 47:03
  Tad Eggleston: I think I like their babysitter even more.
• 47:05
  Phil: The babysitter's also awesome, and that's one thing that's also compelling, is that we're seeing this character through observers around him.
• 47:12
  Tad Eggleston: And there's definitely gonna be so much more to the crossing guard.
• 47:19
  Phil: Yes! Oh, yeah! Like, that's the other thing, is that… is that it's clear that there's a larger story that these people want to tell,
• 47:25
  Tad Eggleston: A larger story, a larger universe.
• 47:28
  Phil: Well, and they're engaging, again, with the superhero concept and mythos through the idea of the symbol, you know, the power of symbols.
• 47:38
  Tad Eggleston: Well, yeah, and in, like, smallish suburbia, rather than a big.
• 47:43
  Phil: Yes, because it's not about… it's not about the big, flashy powers and punching, because like you said, we're not even entirely sure that he has powers.
• 47:52
  Tad Eggleston: Right.
• 47:53
  Phil: But it's about, you know, the way it connects people, and, you know, the feelings we invoke in each other as a society, and those sorts of things, you know? It's about heroism. It's about how… how do you know what being a hero is, and what does it take? It's compelling, it's great.
• 48:11
  Tad Eggleston: Right. Yeah. And it's… yeah, no, I'm glad that I finally got to it, because I wish I'd been plugging it harder.
• 48:19
  Tad Eggleston: all year, I know that should it… when it reappears, I'm pretty certain it will,
• 48:27
  Tad Eggleston: We'll be all over it now.
• 48:29
  Phil: Oh, absolutely.
• 48:31
  Tad Eggleston: Cause, like, this was really good stuff.
• 48:38
  Tad Eggleston: Is a collected edition available yet?
• 48:41
  Phil: I'm not sure. I know it is definitely available on Global Comics with a Gold Member subscription, so if.
• 48:47
  Tad Eggleston: And the first, the first issue is available for free.
• 48:50
  Phil: It is, on global comics, without a.
• 48:54
  Tad Eggleston: The trade paperback is… Oh! Final order… Oh, no, final order cutoff was 12-16-28.
• 49:02
  Phil: those laps.
• 49:02
  Tad Eggleston: Four! So, yeah.
• 49:05
  Tad Eggleston: It, it, it has been in stores since February.
• 49:09
  Phil: let's hope you picked it up, let's hope, if you're a store listening, that you ordered it. But yeah, it was a good time. I mean…
• 49:15
  Tad Eggleston: There's a good chance you still can.
• 49:17
  Phil: Yeah.
• 49:19
  Phil: Certainly hope so. And not only that, they had some really incredible, varying cover artists going on. I enjoyed seeing each issue. They did.
• 49:26
  Tad Eggleston: I liked the, the stuff at the back where they, they showed… or no, that was a different… I read Death to Pacheco, and… and.
• 49:36
  Phil: Aye.
• 49:37
  Tad Eggleston: I had Henry Barajas at New York Comic-Con taking pictures with a lot of his, variations.
• 49:43
  Phil: Oh, okay.
• 49:44
  Tad Eggleston: artists.
• 49:45
  Phil: They did have the pictures of the creative team, in the back of this one, though, and they look like… they look like fun guys.
• 49:50
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 49:51
  Phil: Cool to talk to.
• 49:54
  Tad Eggleston: Hmm, so… I am gonna… I'm, like…
• 49:59
  Tad Eggleston: This is the advantage of me having access to…
• 50:07
  Tad Eggleston: Lunar and PRH accounts now, is I can tell people… any comic shops listening right now…
• 50:19
  Tad Eggleston: The pedestrian Graphic Novel!
• 50:24
  Tad Eggleston: Does appear to be…
• 50:27
  Tad Eggleston: Insta… let me actually go here. This is where I want to go to find out.
• 50:41
  Phil: Where are you going?
• 50:42
  Tad Eggleston: No, it's backorder. It's on backorder at Lunar right now. Oh, no!
• 50:49
  Tad Eggleston: But, but, this is where I'll say backorders often affect…
• 50:57
  Tad Eggleston: Affect how quickly the next print run…
• 51:00
  Phil: Okay.
• 51:00
  Tad Eggleston: will happen.
• 51:01
  Phil: There you go.
• 51:02
  Tad Eggleston: And sometimes, like, I mean, particularly in the post-Diamond Age, more… more comics… Publishers are storing less…
• 51:17
  Tad Eggleston: Copies of their stuff.
• 51:20
  Tad Eggleston: at… the… distributors…
• 51:27
  Tad Eggleston: than they did before. Though, oh, this is painful, it is currently unavailable at the Magma website as well.
• 51:36
  Phil: Oh, no. So… so… How is Wanna doing?
• 51:40
  Tad Eggleston: get… well, I know that Magma…
• 51:43
  Tad Eggleston: Has had a recent sale?
• 51:47
  Tad Eggleston: Or, they currently have a 20% off everything sale, and they've got a sale going with distributors as well.
• 51:54
  Phil: To raise funds.
• 51:57
  Tad Eggleston: But I know that they also have…
• 52:00
  Tad Eggleston: New books in the pipeline that have been solicited, so…
• 52:04
  Phil: Okay.
• 52:05
  Tad Eggleston: They… they… seem to have cash flow problems, thanks to…
• 52:12
  Tad Eggleston: to… to stuff that they didn't get back from Diamond?
• 52:16
  Phil: Hmm… that's a bummer.
• 52:18
  Tad Eggleston: It's always…
• 52:19
  Phil: It's always hard to, to, to… Ugh, well…
• 52:24
  Tad Eggleston: You managed to lose your consignment stuff, and the banks got their money, and you didn't?
• 52:30
  Tad Eggleston: Damn.
• 52:33
  Phil: Yep.
• 52:34
  Tad Eggleston: So much wrong with bankruptcy law.
• 52:36
  Phil: Yeah, yeah, that, that's…
• 52:38
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm in favor of there being bankruptcy law.
• 52:42
  Phil: Sure, but… Yeah, when was the last time it was updated, or reformed or modernized?
• 52:49
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, I would be willing to bet way more recently than we think, just not for the people that we want it to be.
• 52:57
  Phil: That's a good point, and it's a really great point. It's probably outlined for corporate protections and various other expansions of those sorts.
• 53:05
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, most famously, The banks got paid in front of…
• 53:12
  Phil: Yeah.
• 53:13
  Tad Eggleston: the… the… Pension fund when United went through bankruptcy.
• 53:20
  Phil: Oof.
• 53:22
  Tad Eggleston: You know, they essentially wiped out their pension fund.
• 53:25
  Phil: God.
• 53:26
  Tad Eggleston: But…
• 53:29
  Tad Eggleston: The billionaires still got paid.
• 53:31
  Phil: Yeah, no, I'm sorry, I laugh at that, because, so last year, my day job, changed insurance to United.
• 53:40
  Tad Eggleston: Oh, I was, I was talking United… Airlines.
• 53:43
  Phil: Oh, airlines! I was thinking healthcare!
• 53:46
  Tad Eggleston: I was talking United Airlines.
• 53:48
  Phil: Oh, okay, okay. But we're switching back.
• 53:51
  Tad Eggleston: I don't know if UnitedHealthcare has a pension fund.
• 53:54
  Phil: I mean, I… I… God, I don't know. Unitedhealthcare is a terrible service, I would never recommend it for anyone.
• 54:03
  Tad Eggleston: Is… is there any healthcare that's truly good right now?
• 54:08
  Phil: I mean, I've… I've… felt…
• 54:11
  Phil: good about Blue Cross Blue Shield, but it's also gotten more expensive over the years, so that's hard to…
• 54:17
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, okay, let me rephrase.
• 54:19
  Phil: Yeah.
• 54:20
  Tad Eggleston: Compared to a system in which everybody could just go to the doctor if they needed to go to the doctor.
• 54:28
  Phil: Sorry, I'm so… You know, like…
• 54:30
  Tad Eggleston: The ones they have in most of Europe?
• 54:32
  Phil: I was so deeply embedded in our American nightmare that I forgot an alternative existed, Tad. I'm so sorry.
• 54:39
  Phil: Yeah, yeah. Oh, would I… would I prefer a functioning medical system? Absolutely.
• 54:47
  Phil: Yes. Please. Please.
• 54:49
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, this is… this is so much a part of my day-to-day life, with… with my wife figuring out.
• 54:56
  Phil: Huh.
• 54:56
  Tad Eggleston: The stuff with her blood, and with me figuring out the stuff that's autism versus the stuff that's bipolar, and…
• 55:05
  Tad Eggleston: what I can do to manage… each…
• 55:09
  Phil: You know, and that's… that's funny, because, I mean, I… well, I… I don't want to… I don't wanna mansplain to you, but, no, I… my, in-laws, have… have bipolar in the extended family, so it, you know, some techniques and…
• 55:24
  Phil: Struggles over the year, you know, knowing that, consistency and routine helps a lot, you know, consistent sleep schedules and.
• 55:30
  Tad Eggleston: Oh, yeah, no, no, absolutely.
• 55:31
  Phil: Right, but, but…
• 55:33
  Tad Eggleston: No, I mean, I've been bipolar… I've been diagnosed bipolar for 30 years.
• 55:39
  Phil: Yeah.
• 55:39
  Tad Eggleston: good at overall on that side, but… So…
• 55:46
  Tad Eggleston: Bipolar is one of the things that people got misdiagnosed as when they were autistic, before autistic was…
• 55:56
  Phil: Interesting.
• 55:58
  Tad Eggleston: as broad of, like… in the era that I got diagnosed bipolar.
• 56:03
  Phil: Huh.
• 56:04
  Tad Eggleston: It was one of the common misdiagnoses of people… Get an autism spectrum disorder.
• 56:13
  Phil: Okay.
• 56:14
  Tad Eggleston: years later, once the DSM had been updated to include them.
• 56:19
  Phil: I see what you're saying.
• 56:20
  Tad Eggleston: However, there is also a subsection that is both autistic and bipolar. I very much fall into that subsection. Okay. Where this gets interesting…
• 56:32
  Phil: Yeah. It's already interesting.
• 56:35
  Tad Eggleston: But where it gets really interesting for me.
• 56:38
  Phil: Yeah.
• 56:39
  Tad Eggleston: is… Sometimes the symptom… Is caused by something more on the autism sensory side.
• 56:52
  Tad Eggleston: And sometimes it's caused more by something on… the… manic, depressive side.
• 57:04
  Tad Eggleston: And… The best way to cope with it is not always the same.
• 57:10
  Phil: I can see that. That's… that is very interesting.
• 57:13
  Tad Eggleston: So I have to spend that much more time going, okay, why am I feeling, behaving, whatever in this way? What was the inciting…
• 57:25
  Phil: Right.
• 57:27
  Tad Eggleston: And that they layer on top of each other, too. It's just…
• 57:31
  Phil: Right, right.
• 57:33
  Phil: Yeah.
• 57:35
  Tad Eggleston: And, you know, because we don't research either one of them enough, and the healthcare system is hard enough with things that you can take a blood test to…
• 57:49
  Tad Eggleston: To… to say that you have… Like…
• 57:54
  Tad Eggleston: navigating the system to get help is… is hard. I mean, it's been a huge, huge part of my last year, has been coordinating my care between
• 58:07
  Tad Eggleston: You know, cause the system is not set up To coordinate your care.
• 58:12
  Phil: Exactly, yeah.
• 58:13
  Tad Eggleston: It's set up for all of your specialists to be their own little islands. Yep. But…
• 58:19
  Tad Eggleston: But that really doesn't work when you have Neurological stuff going on.
• 58:26
  Phil: Totally, yeah. You need… if you're seeing multiple specialists at a certain point, you need them to cross-pollinate.
• 58:34
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah. Yeah.
• 58:35
  Phil: Yeah, and you don't, you don't wanna, yeah.
• 58:38
  Tad Eggleston: So, yeah.
• 58:39
  Tad Eggleston: And, and, and the system's just, like, like, you have to, you have to manage to build that yourself.
• 58:45
  Phil: Yeah.
• 58:45
  Tad Eggleston: The system's not set up for it in any way, shape, or form.
• 58:48
  Phil: Yeah.
• 58:50
  Tad Eggleston: Though, I did hear about a thing that just made me sad.
• 58:53
  Phil: Apparently, what's, what's, what's really…
• 58:57
  Tad Eggleston: common among the uber-rich is concierge healthcare, which I don't know exactly what that means, but it sounds like
• 59:06
  Tad Eggleston: It means a system where you have a person who coordinates everything across.
• 59:14
  Phil: Yeah, if I had to… It's like, why does this have to be only for the uber-rich?
• 59:18
  Phil: Well, I… I mean, it's… we got… oof, unpacking all that. What I assume that means is basically, yeah, someone who is, like, scoping out and planning different healthcare-related activities, you know, various scans and procedures,
• 59:38
  Tad Eggleston: Well, and facilitating communication between doctors and.
• 59:43
  Phil: Yup.
• 59:44
  Phil: scheduling home visits for their blood boys, all that sort of thing, yeah. And then the other, the other piece of it is that it is astounding to me
• 59:55
  Phil: the amount of, like, these… these uber-rich, sub-industries that pop up that are very clearly just padded to, extract money from their… their customers, because…
• 1:00:09
  Tad Eggleston: They totally are.
• 1:00:11
  Phil: And, like, just we average, everyday people are also exposed to these sorts of businesses. Like, I went to a… a couple weekends ago, we went to a craft fair down in the city, in Nashville, and one of the booths was a full-body scan.
• 1:00:27
  Phil: And I looked at it, I was like, what the fuck? There's someone selling pottery, and artwork, and vintage clothes that they've restored, and you're out here trying to scam people with your full-body scam.
• 1:00:40
  Phil: who let this happen? Who… who included this charlatan in your artist craft fair of… of local honey and… and…
• 1:00:51
  Tad Eggleston: I paid for a table.
• 1:00:52
  Phil: Exactly!
• 1:00:54
  Phil: Is, what the fuck?
• 1:00:56
  Phil: They had a… they had a, if you want to get scanned now discount. And I… I just looked at it, I told my friends there, I was like.
• 1:01:02
  Phil: Nobody talked to that man. Oh my god.
• 1:01:05
  Tad Eggleston: Let's… let's…
• 1:01:07
  Phil: I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
• 1:01:08
  Tad Eggleston: Let's talk about books we hope will be spectacular. I think it's time to talk about books we hope will be spectacular.
• 1:01:15
  Phil: Let's move on from the medical nightmare to comics again, please. Yeah, yeah. I'm so sorry.
• 1:01:20
  Tad Eggleston: I am really, really looking forward to Endeavor number 2 from Stephanie Phillips and Mark Lehming.
• 1:01:27
  Tad Eggleston: It's like, Horror at sea, all of the adults have van… I mean…
• 1:01:37
  Tad Eggleston: The setup is you're on this, like…
• 1:01:41
  Tad Eggleston: It's, it's a, it's a reconstructed with, with, with… Modern… touches…
• 1:01:53
  Tad Eggleston: version of the Endeavor, and they're going on that voyage. So it is like that uber-rich thing, except that we also have, like, one family where… I mean, it's not clear that they're not relatively rich, but they're actually there more for the history…
• 1:02:09
  Tad Eggleston: That sort of thing, and it was something that they had… head, booked before… Their mother passed.
• 1:02:22
  Tad Eggleston: Because it's, like, a dad and his two teenagers
• 1:02:26
  Tad Eggleston: That they decided to do… It's kind of a family… recovery thing.
• 1:02:36
  Tad Eggleston: anyway, after Mom had passed, you know, rather than… than… than canceling the trip. But… but the, like, the… the rest of the…
• 1:02:45
  Tad Eggleston: the… Guests on the boat are, are, like… Snobbish rich people.
• 1:02:54
  Phil: Hmm.
• 1:02:55
  Phil: But then…
• 1:02:56
  Tad Eggleston: like, kind of where Issue 1 ended.
• 1:02:59
  Tad Eggleston: All of the adults are gone, and you're just down to the kids.
• 1:03:05
  Phil: Wow.
• 1:03:06
  Tad Eggleston: And it also kind of feels like the…
• 1:03:10
  Tad Eggleston: there is one explicitly autistic character, which I just love. Yeah. And it kind of feels like she'll be taking
• 1:03:20
  Tad Eggleston: Center stage.
• 1:03:22
  Tad Eggleston: So I'm really looking forward to, to, to Issue 2.
• 1:03:27
  Tad Eggleston: To see where that goes. Stephanie Phillips is amazing, so, you know.
• 1:03:33
  Tad Eggleston: this very… this could have been all Issue 2s, because, like… We have die number 2.
• 1:03:44
  Phil: Oh, yeah.
• 1:03:45
  Tad Eggleston: We have… What else did we have, number 2?
• 1:03:52
  Tad Eggleston: That one wasn't.
• 1:03:53
  Phil: The Devil's Trigger? The Daredevil.
• 1:03:55
  Tad Eggleston: Daredevil Punisher, Devil Straker number 2, Liquidator number 2.
• 1:04:00
  Tad Eggleston: And then there were some, some other, like, interesting number ones, etc.
• 1:04:09
  Tad Eggleston: Some fours. There were a lot of interesting books for this coming week.
• 1:04:14
  Tad Eggleston: But… But WrestleHeist is coming out, so number one got slipped in here, because,
• 1:04:21
  Tad Eggleston: I love me some Kyle Starks.
• 1:04:24
  Tad Eggleston: And when Kyle Starks is solo, you know he's… Gonna be crazy.
• 1:04:30
  Tad Eggleston: That one does sound really fun. The only… the only crazy…
• 1:04:33
  Tad Eggleston: the only two artists that I've seen Kyle work with that he's as crazy funny as when he just works on his own are… he did a book with Erica Henderson, and he did a
• 1:04:43
  Tad Eggleston: He's done a couple books with Chris Schweiser. So, like, those are the ones… I mean, I love Kyle Starks, period, but if I see him…
• 1:04:51
  Tad Eggleston: solo, or with either of them, it's like, BOOM!
• 1:04:54
  Phil: Nice.
• 1:04:56
  Tad Eggleston: So Rezle heist, I'm, I'm all over. And then Issue 2 of Space Scouts with Matt Kent and David Rubin.
• 1:05:05
  Tad Eggleston: From Dark Horse.
• 1:05:07
  Tad Eggleston: is this week as well. Looks amazing.
• 1:05:12
  Tad Eggleston: Also collected this week.
• 1:05:17
  Tad Eggleston: Among other things.
• 1:05:19
  Tad Eggleston: Is Red Before Black from Stephanie Phillips and Gordon Suzuka, which is, like, probably…
• 1:05:27
  Tad Eggleston: was not only a really good book, but probably the book of 70s that… that his…
• 1:05:33
  Tad Eggleston: Flown most under the radar recently.
• 1:05:36
  Tad Eggleston: So, I, recommend that people go pick that up from Boom Studios. So, Phil, what you got?
• 1:05:42
  Phil: First up, for the actual official all-new, Trade Waiter pick, I have selected Erie Archives Volume 12 from Dark Horse Comics. When you got names like Doug Monk, Bud Lewis, Steve Skeets, Al Milgram, Bernie Wrightson.
• 1:06:02
  Phil: Esteban Marato, Alex Toth, Wally Wood, Richard Corbin, Will Eisner, Neil Adams, Tom Sutton, Ken Kelly, Paul, Neary, and Sam Julian. It's hard to pass up. That's a whole, that's a great piece of comics history right there, if that is up your alley. Yeah, of course, Erie Archives, collecting the issues of creepy.
• 1:06:25
  Phil: From way back in the day.
• 1:06:26
  Tad Eggleston: I… I was out at, Modern Age Comics yesterday, sorting through some of… their.
• 1:06:41
  Phil: Collections?
• 1:06:41
  Tad Eggleston: Back issues. Back issues? Yeah, Edgar bought a collection that had a lot of independent stuff.
• 1:06:48
  Tad Eggleston: It was sorting it and seeing what was in it.
• 1:06:50
  Phil: Very exciting.
• 1:06:51
  Tad Eggleston: I brought home a couple issues of Heavy Metal, and one of them… one of them had the… the obituary for Wally Wood in it.
• 1:07:00
  Phil: Oh, wow, fortuitous.
• 1:07:02
  Tad Eggleston: Mmm.
• 1:07:03
  Phil: And then, of course, it is, the… the biggest week of single issues for me of the month. We got Diaload at number 2, and then Power of Fantasy 4. I'm sorry about that.
• 1:07:17
  Phil: And The Power Fantasy 14 from Kieran Gillen, Stephanie Hans, Clayton Coles, Ryan Hughes for Di, and then Gillen, Casper Wingard, Coles, and Hughes for The Power Fantasy. It is… it is quite the double feature. I am loving it. It's… it's very exciting. Very exciting.
• 1:07:37
  Tad Eggleston: Alright. For, 22 panels. This has been Phil and myself, and we have discovered that
• 1:07:47
  Tad Eggleston: The product of 6-7.
• 1:07:50
  Tad Eggleston: is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. 42.
• 1:07:54
  Tad Eggleston: So, put that in your spoon and eat it, I guess?
• 1:08:01
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah?
• 1:08:02
  Phil: Gonna keep me up at night.
• 1:08:06
  Tad Eggleston: I might have been welcomed to the dark side when I shared that with somebody.
• 1:08:10
  Tad Eggleston: So, for 22 panels, we will see you.
• 1:08:19
  Tad Eggleston: After the next page.