Latest / 22 Panels - A Comic Book Podcast / 22 Panels Episode #219 - Best of 2025 pt. iii

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22 Panels Episode #219 - Best of 2025 pt. iii · 22 Panels - A Comic Book Podcast

0:02
Tyler Johnson: Hey everyone, welcome back to 22 Panels. This is the podcast that aims to examine, explore, and elevate the medium of comics. I am Tyler, and across the interwebs.
0:15
Tyler Johnson: from me are Ted and Phil. Hey guys, how's it going?
0:21
Tad Eggleston: It's…
0:21
Phil: Oh, it's…
0:23
Tad Eggleston: Going?
0:24
Tyler Johnson: Oh, pretty good, I guess. I can't complain too much.
0:28
Tad Eggleston: I'm gonna give a quick plug to…
0:35
Tad Eggleston: anybody in the Minneapolis area, and I am…
0:44
Tad Eggleston: I should have thought about this before we started, because here I am forgetting the actual name of the place.
0:53
Tad Eggleston: longtime friend, Charlie Price… Has a print shop in… Minneapolis.
1:04
Tad Eggleston: called ArtPrice Studio, which is a co-op, but for the last few days, and I'm certain that they'll continue tomorrow, they have turned it into…
1:15
Tad Eggleston: Pretty much full-time t-shirt, poster, resistance pamphlet printing…
1:25
Tad Eggleston: operation, and so, like, anybody who…
1:29
Tad Eggleston: needs any of those things, or wants to help make any of those things?
1:35
Tad Eggleston: you, you can find him on, on Instagram.
1:38
Tad Eggleston: at… at Art by Price, or you can just, show up at the shop.
1:44
Tyler Johnson: Yeah.
1:45
Tad Eggleston: And, I'm pulling it up right now…
1:49
Tad Eggleston: It is 77th 13th Avenue Northeast Unit 202 in Minneapolis.
1:57
Tyler Johnson: Speaking of the Twin Cities, the Lieutenant Governor, Peggy Flanagan, was here in La Verne, my hometown, today.
2:06
Tyler Johnson: She was doing her… her rounds.
2:10
Tyler Johnson: So that was kind of cool. She was in the, the restaurant next to my shop, so I was very excited that she was there.
2:18
Tad Eggleston: Didn't come in the shop.
2:20
Tyler Johnson: No, nope. It was a very hush-hush thing.
2:23
Tad Eggleston: Gotcha.
2:23
Tyler Johnson: It was by invite only. They didn't want people to know she's touring small towns.
2:28
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, that's unfortunately reasonable.
2:33
Tyler Johnson: It's weird, so you… it's by weird invite only to go… to go to her speaking, you know?
2:38
Tad Eggleston: Right, right. So, yeah, this is episode 219.
2:46
Tad Eggleston: Tyler, just that…
2:47
Tyler Johnson: Time gone.
2:48
Tad Eggleston: Does that feel like an absurdly high number to you?
2:51
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, yeah, it does. It's been a… it's been a few years, Ted, since we started doing this.
2:57
Tad Eggleston: What if… what if I told you that the interview I did
3:00
Tad Eggleston: Last night was with great power 290.
3:05
Tyler Johnson: Really?
3:05
Phil: No.
3:06
Tyler Johnson: Wow.
3:09
Tyler Johnson: That's awesome. Good job.
3:10
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, this'll be Best of 2025, part 3. Start out with some news.
3:17
Tyler Johnson: Doesn't it?
3:18
Tad Eggleston: The Beat has a fantastic rundown of, the diamond bankruptcy one year later.
3:23
Tad Eggleston: San Diego Art Show caved to… The… the woke mob…
3:31
Phil: And will not allow AI art.
3:36
Tad Eggleston: In their art show. Previously, they had just said that you couldn't sell it. Now you can't even display it.
3:42
Tad Eggleston: All because they caved to the woke mob.
3:45
Phil: I, I'd say it's, it's.
3:47
Tad Eggleston: The tongue is firmly in my cheek, everybody. They pray for the woke mob.
3:55
Phil: I was gonna call it a snooze mob, because, anyway.
3:59
Tyler Johnson: It, it…
4:00
Phil: It was… it was the fastest turnaround. I think, I saw the story earlier in the day, and then the…
4:05
Tad Eggleston: It was fast enough that both stories were in the beats.
4:13
Tad Eggleston: Morning email the next day.
4:15
Phil: Wow.
4:17
Phil: Yeah. And apparently… see, here's the thing, I was imagining that it was Artist Alley, but it's, their art show, which is apparently a separate thing.
4:26
Tad Eggleston: It's much harder to enforce on Artist Alley, and yes, I would prefer that they do, but I think that…
4:36
Tad Eggleston: it's more likely that Artist Alley and that sort of thing really winds up being more… you'll make yourself an industry pariah.
4:48
Phil: I would hope so.
4:50
Phil: I would hope that.
4:51
Tad Eggleston: I mean, honestly, if I had… if I was somebody who even thought that doing AI art was a thing to do.
5:02
Tyler Johnson: Yeah.
5:03
Tad Eggleston: and I wanted to do, you know, to sell it at a con.
5:07
Phil: Right.
5:07
Tad Eggleston: I would buy a booth.
5:14
Tad Eggleston: Because… I wouldn't want to be anywhere near the artists.
5:19
Tyler Johnson: Right.
5:20
Tad Eggleston: and… I would make it clear that it was AI art, because… Yep.
5:28
Tad Eggleston: Even in buying a booth, and being more in the craft slash… Vendor market, rather than…
5:37
Tad Eggleston: You know, you just, you just invite all sorts of trouble.
5:42
Tad Eggleston: If you're not, like, totally on the up and up. And I say this understanding that, like, half the time when.
5:49
Phil: Artists have been outed.
5:51
Tad Eggleston: for… using AI in recent memory, it's turned out it's things like when Adobe
6:01
Tad Eggleston: renamed some of their tools as AI tools.
6:06
Tad Eggleston: You know, the lasso tool's been around forever.
6:10
Tad Eggleston: just because it's sometimes called an AI lasso, or whatever, like… Y-you know what I mean?
6:17
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, I mean, I've noticed that, too, in my Adobe stuff, that things have changed.
6:23
Tyler Johnson: Right. Like, all AI is not equal.
6:29
Tad Eggleston: like, generative AI? Bad, and generally noticeably bad. Yeah. Using a…
6:36
Tyler Johnson: Here's kind of back.
6:37
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, using a quote-unquote AI tool that's really just software that's good at finding the edges of things.
6:45
Tyler Johnson: Yeah.
6:50
Tad Eggleston: That's kinda different.
6:52
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, we've been using the lasso tool, and now they've changed the name since the 90s. I mean, that's ridiculous.
6:59
Tad Eggleston: Right, I mean, I mean, and I don't have the energy to track down every… but, like…
7:07
Tad Eggleston: It's why, particularly when I hear people get upset about
7:13
Tad Eggleston: AI usage in big comic stuff, it's like…
7:20
Tad Eggleston: If you're not showing me something, like, crystal clear.
7:25
Tyler Johnson: Yeah.
7:26
Tad Eggleston: If it's you heard something, or there was some AI signature in the digital, like.
7:32
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, because you can't buy Adobe software anymore, you rent Adobe software, so you don't control your metadata.
7:41
Tad Eggleston: You know what I mean?
7:43
Phil: I think in those instances, it's… it's… it's oftentimes very clear, just from the image, when…
7:50
Tad Eggleston: It has gotten much better.
7:53
Tad Eggleston: But I know some of the early stuff, particularly with animation, where so much of… I mean, the reason, like…
8:02
Tad Eggleston: Pixar… like… The line between computer animation and AI animation is a very fine one.
8:20
Tad Eggleston: You know…
8:22
Tad Eggleston: Pixar exists, and can put out movies faster, and so many companies exist, and can put out things faster.
8:32
Tad Eggleston: Because they made it so, okay, we can create a 3D model and then manipulate it, rather than having to
8:41
Tad Eggleston: create each frame over and over again. And then, we get even better at it, and rather than having to manipulate it by hand, we can give it a run command.
8:55
Tad Eggleston: Whatnot, and, like… So, at what point does it become… AI…
9:03
Tad Eggleston: again, obviously when it's plagiaristic generative AI, but, like, I remember there was some Netflix movie that everybody was upset that, like, one of the…
9:17
Tad Eggleston: And I don't remember which one, so, like, and I'll drop this in a second, because I've already put more energy into it than I actually, truly care.
9:27
Tad Eggleston: But… oh my god, one of the… one of the effects companies used AI, and it, like…
9:34
Tad Eggleston: Netflix acknowledged it, but then described what, to me, didn't sound like AI. It sounded like software.
9:43
Tyler Johnson: Yes.
9:44
Tyler Johnson: I agree, like…
9:45
Tad Eggleston: the idea of what AI is is very broad, right? So… It's very… I mean, and I also… I'm all the more frustrated because, like, I work in education, and everybody and their uncle's trying to sell AI into education, and, like…
10:03
Tad Eggleston: I'm just gonna say it, unless they're computer science teachers, teachers are not actually as a group.
10:11
Tad Eggleston: particularly tech-savvy. There are… there are some that are very tech-savvy, and there are many others that not so much.
10:19
Tad Eggleston: So, like…
10:23
Tad Eggleston: They… they don't know even the questions to ask to figure out what you're selling them. And that means that sometimes the people selling it to them
10:33
Tad Eggleston: aren't actually the tech… I mean, I was in a training where, like, I had to stop asking questions because the trainer didn't know any of the answers.
10:45
Phil: Huh.
10:48
Tad Eggleston: I also was not convinced that, like, I couldn't have described Oregon Trail without, like, actually naming it or using any of the… the obvious stuff, like, Mary has died of cholera, and not had her think that it was AI.
11:07
Tad Eggleston: Because her definition of AI and the different things she talked about using only the term AI was that fucking broad.
11:18
Tyler Johnson: Oh…
11:22
Phil: So she was saying that anything involving computers was AI?
11:27
Tad Eggleston: Essentially.
11:28
Tyler Johnson: Good.
11:29
Tad Eggleston: I mean, she was trying… I mean, like…
11:38
Tad Eggleston: She was trying to appear that she was saying other than that. I'm not certain that she understood that she was trying to appear, that she was trying not to say other than that.
11:48
Phil: Hmm.
11:49
Tad Eggleston: Does that make sense? I mean, Tyler probably understands better than I do, or you do, Phil, because he's probably been in more education trainings for tech, and you probably have had most of your tech trainings as tech trainings for tech people, so they know that if they're not
12:08
Tad Eggleston: Up on the tech side, they're fucked.
12:10
Tyler Johnson: Yeah. For the education here, we've had to have trainings on how to log into such and such program. Yeah.
12:20
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
12:21
Tyler Johnson: Oh, yeah.
12:21
Tad Eggleston: Sometimes a 40-minute training.
12:24
Tyler Johnson: Yes, it's no lie, Phil, like.
12:27
Phil: Yeah, I mean, I've been on the side of that when I was at the library, but yes, goodness.
12:32
Tyler Johnson: Tad is not exaggerating when he says teachers are not tech-savvy as a whole.
12:38
Tad Eggleston: Or at least there are just enough of them, and the older…
12:48
Tad Eggleston: I don't want to say more prestigious, I mean, they might be more prestigious too, but that's not the word I'm looking for. They've got more institutional clout.
12:57
Tad Eggleston: So, so, like, if they walk out of the training not understanding it, then, like.
13:04
Tad Eggleston: All hell will break loose about it being a bad training, whereas if 80% of the people are bored out of their mind for 50 of the 55 minutes of the training, but it took 55 minutes for the 3 people.
13:20
Tad Eggleston: To learn this thing.
13:22
Phil: I see.
13:23
Phil: Goodness.
13:24
Tad Eggleston: Alright.
13:25
Phil: That is… that is the most public school situation that I've heard about in a while.
13:31
Tyler Johnson: Yes, it's absolutely true, too.
13:33
Tad Eggleston: I love most things in public schools.
13:37
Tad Eggleston: Continuing education can be an interesting one.
13:40
Phil: Yeah.
13:42
Tyler Johnson: True, yep.
13:44
Tad Eggleston: Continuing education can be an interesting one.
13:48
Tad Eggleston: So, anyway.
13:50
Tad Eggleston: What kind of week has it been?
13:53
Tyler Johnson: Well, guys, let me tell you, in Minnesota here, I don't know if you guys have heard, but things have started to pop off.
14:02
Tad Eggleston: We had Ryan Carey on last week, Tyler. I mean, you didn't show up, but like…
14:08
Tyler Johnson: Well, line has changed since Brian Tell you. Ryan lives in that neighborhood.
14:13
Tyler Johnson: Yeah.
14:14
Tyler Johnson: But a lot has changed since then. It is, like… it is ground zero in just 3 hours from my doorstep is… it's insane, you guys. It's crazy.
14:29
Tad Eggleston: I was on a f- like…
14:31
Tad Eggleston: A, a friend of mine today…
14:35
Tad Eggleston: had us switch to an encrypted Zoom rather than texting, because it's relatively well known that all communications in the Minneapolis area are being monitored, and they're kicking down doors of
14:53
Tad Eggleston: Agitators.
14:55
Tyler Johnson: Oh yes, it is full-on Gestapo, you guys, and I am… there are listeners out there that are not from this area, or don't watch.
15:05
Tyler Johnson: news, it's absolutely real. Like, the… there is… the streets are being overrun by ICE, and Trump's now trying to bring in the full military.
15:16
Tad Eggleston: He hasn't quite fall… he hasn't quite pulled the trigger on that yet, but yeah.
15:20
Tyler Johnson: No, but that's on the… that's on the… that's on the docket, and… and my wife and I are, are thinking of real contingency plans. I mean, this is not… for us, this isn't just, oh my god, this could happen someday. Right now, we're going, hey, do we need to bug out of here? I mean, you know?
15:40
Phil: Wow.
15:42
Tyler Johnson: I mean, we both discussed it, you know, we would stay and fight in an instant, but with a 7-year-old daughter, we're like, we don't know what to do, you know what I mean?
15:54
Phil: That's understandable.
15:55
Tad Eggleston: Well, I mean, I don't want to be too morose, but one of the things I was talking about with my therapist today is…
16:04
Tad Eggleston: like… I love that the courts are saying no to things, and I love the people who Who…
16:15
Tad Eggleston: Hope and think that that might be enough.
16:19
Tad Eggleston: But, like… At some point.
16:27
Tad Eggleston: there needs to be a significant contingent of the Republican Party
16:33
Tad Eggleston: like, significant contingent of the Republican Party.
16:41
Tad Eggleston: That actually stands against him.
16:45
Tad Eggleston: and them, really, at this point. I mean, really?
16:49
Tad Eggleston: like… Given what's going on in Minneapolis right now.
16:55
Tad Eggleston: There are… there are 3 ways for it to end.
17:00
Tad Eggleston: for Trump, Miller, etc, to… somehow…
17:08
Tad Eggleston: DECIDE that they don't want to do it anymore.
17:14
Phil: feels…
17:16
Tad Eggleston: Very, very unlikely.
17:18
Tyler Johnson: Correct.
17:20
Tad Eggleston: for… enough Republicans in the House and Senate to decide… that…
17:34
Tad Eggleston: they're going to impeach, and they're going to convict, and they're not just doing it with Trump, they're doing it with Trump, Hegzeth, Rubio, Vance, Bondi, Patel, like…
17:48
Tad Eggleston: The whole way. They are decapitating the top, and then, for them to have decapitated far enough down in the Department of Justice.
17:59
Tad Eggleston: that… They actually will… Seek out the arrest warrants, And…
18:13
Tad Eggleston: that they'll have decapitated far enough down in the FBI that they will seek out Or that they will…
18:24
Tad Eggleston: Exercise the arrest warrants, And…
18:32
Tad Eggleston: that ICE… Border Patrol… And many of your local sheriffs
18:40
Tad Eggleston: Which are the part that get left out the most.
18:47
Tad Eggleston: Follow the law at that point.
18:49
Tyler Johnson: Right.
18:52
Tad Eggleston: Or… We can have armed conflict.
18:56
Tad Eggleston: Now…
18:58
Tad Eggleston: of the three at this point, I hate to say it, but, like, the armed conflict seems most likely, but I don't even know what that looks like.
19:11
Tyler Johnson: I mean, yeah, right now it's just small skirmishes popping up here and there around Minneapolis, but…
19:18
Tad Eggleston: Well, but they're not skirmishes, they're… they're people going through snowballs having the shit beaten out of them by people with guns.
19:28
Tyler Johnson: That's not a skirmish.
19:31
Tyler Johnson: I meant more so the size of each thing happening.
19:36
Tyler Johnson: It's not… there's a lot of cells of violent activity happening. That's what I'm saying.
19:43
Tad Eggleston: And I meant we… the nation…
19:47
Tad Eggleston: or the, the… I was in a history class this week where, where the teacher
19:54
Tad Eggleston: differentiated between nation, which is a group of people with shared language and
20:00
Tad Eggleston: customs and state, which is, you know, the sovereign set of agreed borders and laws and whatnot. If the state
20:11
Tad Eggleston: the big state, not the United States, Pushes the world enough.
20:19
Tad Eggleston: We're gonna find out what it's like to be the center of a war.
20:23
Phil: Yeah.
20:25
Tyler Johnson: Yes.
20:27
Tad Eggleston: I don't know if we're in a position where a civil war's that likely.
20:34
Tad Eggleston: I think…
20:35
Tyler Johnson: I think so.
20:37
Tad Eggleston: Well, no, because I… I haven't seen enough evidence that, that, like… Enough of the…
20:54
Tad Eggleston: Actual military would side against
21:01
Tad Eggleston: the government… Or even against… ice, etc.
21:08
Tad Eggleston: And… You know that none of the mercenaries are siding against…
21:14
Tad Eggleston: you know, Blackwater's not siding against The government, etc.
21:21
Tyler Johnson: Correct. And…
21:24
Tad Eggleston: You know, so, like, all of the weapons, or at least enough of the weapons that it doesn't matter otherwise, unless other countries get involved, are all on one side right now.
21:39
Tad Eggleston: This is the type of thing that keeps me up at night.
21:42
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, oh, yeah.
21:43
Tad Eggleston: I do want to emphasize to any of our younger listeners, or even just to Tyler and Phil, who I didn't want to, like, ruin your evening and give you gloom and doom, I both have great hope that we will get through to the other side and be a better nation for it. And, while I can't
22:03
Tad Eggleston: envision what that miracle will look like. I believe in miracles, if not necessarily the directly, divinely
22:15
Tad Eggleston: created ones, I am certain that there are options that I can't imagine… that I have not imagined that could still see us through to the other side without massive bloodshed, and I both pray and have great hope
22:34
Tad Eggleston: That one of them is what we see.
22:38
Tad Eggleston: But I don't blame the people who are scared shitless right now.
22:41
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, exactly.
22:44
Tad Eggleston: It just means they're paying attention.
22:47
Tad Eggleston: And I really wish more of them had been paying attention 10 years ago.
22:51
Phil: And…
22:54
Tad Eggleston: Or 20 years ago.
22:56
Tad Eggleston: A lot of this writing has been on the wall for a long time.
23:01
Phil: I couldn't vote 20 years ago.
23:04
Tad Eggleston: I understand, but there are many people alive who could.
23:08
Phil: Yeah, that's true.
23:09
Phil: And I absolutely agree that, you know.
23:12
Tad Eggleston: And many of the things that have been done that have led us to this point haven't even been Democrat or Republican, so… or specifically only Democrat, you know… Yeah.
23:23
Phil: Yeah, yeah, I get what you're saying.
23:25
Tad Eggleston: Barack Obama also failed to close Guantanamo, or…
23:31
Phil: Okay.
23:32
Tad Eggleston: get rid of Section 702, or shut down the drone program.
23:38
Phil: Yeah.
23:38
Tad Eggleston: You know, Bill Clinton signed the crime bill.
23:44
Phil: Yeah.
23:46
Tad Eggleston: You know what I mean?
23:48
Tyler Johnson: Yeah.
23:50
Tad Eggleston: So, yeah, anyway, back to comics. Comics are way better.
23:54
Phil: I really don't.
23:55
Tad Eggleston: to go that long. Tyler, you had to tell us how bad it was, and then I just went more how bad it was.
24:03
Phil: Even worse how bad it was.
24:05
Tad Eggleston: But you know what's good?
24:06
Tyler Johnson: What?
24:07
Phil: Congress?
24:07
Tad Eggleston: This looks really, really good. Comics the Magazine.
24:12
Tad Eggleston: The comic.
24:13
Tyler Johnson: It does look good.
24:13
Tad Eggleston: demanded is here. Do you love comics? Do you want to read more comics that you will love?
24:19
Tad Eggleston: Love? Do you wish there was a magazine you could pick up every month that also loves comics? Well, my dudes, all your wishes have finally come true.
24:28
Tad Eggleston: How to Make Absolute Batman! That's right, we're kicking things off with the hottest book of the century, with a look at the past, present, and future of Nick Drugada and Scott Snyder's absolute masterpiece. Featuring interviews with the creative team, an insane cover by Nick and Comics the Magazine art director Rico Renzi.
24:46
Tad Eggleston: Comics the Magazine is everything you ever dreamed of and more. Want to find out about the next big thing before the internet even knows? Want to discover the secrets behind the big comics you love and the indie darlings you have yet to read? How about the interviews with people who make the work that excites you?
25:02
Tad Eggleston: actual comics exclusive to the magazine. Maybe there's a comic creator who seeks external validation from actual sales numbers. All this and more in each and every issue of Comics, the Magazine.
25:16
Tad Eggleston: The next big thing is finally here. Key selling points? Look at that absolute Batman cover. Creator interviews about what you do read. Features on what you should read. Staff picks on what you will read. Actual comics you can read. Power ranking with real sales data. Maybe a price guide?
25:36
Tad Eggleston: Possible art instruction and classified? Comic size to fit on store racks.
25:42
Tad Eggleston: And this is comics, with an exclamation point, the magazine.
25:47
Tad Eggleston: edited by ADAM, with an exclamation point, Freeman, who hopefully I can get to come back on the show, and… and…
25:56
Tad Eggleston: talk about it, because comics, the magazine, sounds a lot like 22 Panels, the podcast.
26:04
Tyler Johnson: That was funny. Comics! The magazine.
26:11
Tyler Johnson: You were just being a weirdo.
26:14
Tad Eggleston: I had to lighten the mood after the…
26:19
Phil: I picked this one. This is a…
26:20
Tyler Johnson: I did, y.
26:21
Phil: Even… even zanier than I thought it would be, this is Electric Chair by Adam Falk, a one-man comics anthology featuring 36 pages of brain-melting psychedelia. Tune in and drop out to comic strips featuring cartoonists, back issue dealers, and Lou Reed.
26:37
Phil: It's gonna be, in stores March 25th with a final work cut off of February 16th.
26:45
Tad Eggleston: I should have mentioned, Comics, the magazine. Comics!
26:50
Tyler Johnson: Comics!
26:51
Tad Eggleston: Final order cut off of February 2nd, in stores on March 4th.
26:57
Tyler Johnson: Alright, the exorcism at Buckingham Palace, number 1. Let's scroll down a little bit, Ted.
27:06
Tyler Johnson: All right, from Hannah Rose May and Kelsey Ramsey comes the next installment in the Dark series that dared to possess a nation. First it was America, now England. It's 5 AM at…
27:19
Tyler Johnson: one at 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister gets a call that bolts him upright out of bed. The royal family has been lost at sea. Parliament and Buckingham Palace explode with action in the aftermath. Some suspect, the prince and his wife, the princess, were attacked
27:37
Tyler Johnson: I had read that wrong. Some suspect the prince and his wife, the princess, were attacked. Others whisper their tragedy was the result of a long-standing family curse.
27:47
Tyler Johnson: This is, going to be in shops. I gotta look at my thing here. Final order come up is February… March 11th? Yeah, final order come up is February 2nd, be in shops March 11th. Again, this is Kelsey Ramsey and Hannah Rose May from IDW.
28:05
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I liked, Exorcism at 1600 Penn, so… Yes. That was also Hannah Rosemay, so… Maybe.
28:13
Tad Eggleston: Alright.
28:14
Phil: That is me, Frankenstein, New World, Speed of Darkness, number one.
28:21
Phil: Called by Liz Sherman and Visins to save the new world, Frankenstein and Leeja begin using real energy to try and find her, but the Earth is being corrupted by a parasitic and powerful evil, and their time to stop it is running out.
28:34
Phil: This third mini-series of Frankenstein New World, features the return of creative Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden.
28:41
Phil: Thomas, Sengalski, Peter Burding, Michelle Madsen, and Clem Robbins, taking readers to a future as Dangerous As It Is and Chanting from the World of Hellbloy.
28:59
Tyler Johnson: A quiet place, storm warning number one.
29:03
Tyler Johnson: Phil Hester, let's see here…
29:07
Phil: The world ended in a hush. The creatures came for the cities first.
29:12
Tyler Johnson: But in Pearl, Iowa, a tiny town on the Mississippi, the mayor and townsfolk believe that someone… that's someone else's problem. Cut off from the chaos of the coast, they think they can ride out the storm.
29:25
Tyler Johnson: But Fire Chief Lonnie Fry knows better. The creatures that hunt by sound are coming west, and unless the people of Pearl take drastic action, silence won't save them, it'll bury them.
29:38
Tyler Johnson: Like I said, this is Ryan Kelly and Phil Hester from IDW. It'll be, final order caught off on February 2nd in Star Wars, March 11th.
29:51
Tad Eggleston: Alrighty, time for some… Oh, wait a minute, I forgot to pull up my last…
29:59
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, yeah.
30:00
Tad Eggleston: read enough things.
30:02
Tyler Johnson: I don't recall, you did.
30:05
Tad Eggleston: And this one's cool looking.
30:08
Tad Eggleston: Rafael Garcia, henchman.
30:11
Tad Eggleston: Number one, from Peter Murrieta, David Schrader, and Ben Herrera. What if life in a supervillain organization was less like James Bond movie and more like working at Walmart corporate?
30:25
Tad Eggleston: Rafael Garcia, Henchman, brings the old familiar tropes of a dark workplace comedy
30:33
Tad Eggleston: By way of brand new super… cinematic superhero universe.
30:38
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
30:40
Tad Eggleston: The office with the slacker absurdity of stripes.
30:46
Tad Eggleston: If the general in charge was more like Lex Luthor.
30:50
Tad Eggleston: In, final order cutoff is February 23rd, in stores, March 18th.
30:59
Tad Eggleston: Some graphic novels.
31:04
Tyler Johnson: That is the Court Charade from Flores Vesco, art by, Kiris… how do you say that?
31:13
Tyler Johnson: Paris Goet?
31:14
Tyler Johnson: From Abrams. From the New York Times best-selling illustrators of beauty and beautiful darkness comes a fleet
31:21
Tyler Johnson: tongue-in-cheek adult fairy tale graphic novel where love is found in the least likely places, and nothing is quite what it seems. This light-hearted, sharply-witted adult fairy tale is a delightful and quirky take on toxic workplaces, with a dash of puss in boots.
31:40
Tyler Johnson: Dialantics, and a little romance thrown in for good measure.
31:43
Tyler Johnson: Thorene is a poor but plucky daughter of a sickly nobleman who must make her way in the royal court to avoid being married off once her father dies. Although she is illiterate and owns only one dress, she manages to charm her way into the fickle queen's good graces.
32:02
Tyler Johnson: But the royal court is not a kind place for a country bumpkin.
32:06
Tyler Johnson: Philly, sweet, serene, must smarten up if she wants to survive the queen's fits of
32:12
Tyler Johnson: peak, the court lady's gossip, and the royal advisor's evil schemes. With nothing but her wits and the help of the friendly, handsome torturer's apprentice, can she find a way to save her job, save the kingdom, and find true love along the way? Or will she be forced to play the fool?
32:32
Tyler Johnson: Final order cutoff is February 9th on this book. It'll be in stores March 25th.
32:38
Tad Eggleston: My birthday…
32:39
Tyler Johnson: Abrams, yep.
32:43
Tad Eggleston: Creased Classic… er, creased comics from Brad Neely. Hungry Bridge Trolls, limousine werewolves, and other absurd characters populate these delightfully irreverent gag cartoons from the golden days of webcomics. Didn't know I was ever gonna read that sentence.
33:02
Tyler Johnson: The golden days… I was just going, wait, there are golden days already?
33:08
Tyler Johnson: Wow.
33:09
Tyler Johnson: What are… are we in the silver age right now of…
33:12
Tad Eggleston: Yay!
33:13
Tyler Johnson: Webcoming?
33:13
Tad Eggleston: Beginning at the dawn of the new millennium.
33:18
Tad Eggleston: The animator Brad Neely materialized as one of the funnier voices on the internet. YouTube hits like The Foul Mouth, George Washington, his demented audiobook retelling of Harry Potter and Wizard People, Dear Readers, and the alarmingly prescient Adult Swim TV show China, Illinois.
33:34
Tad Eggleston: starring the voices of both Greta Gerwig and Hulk Hogan, all reveal how Neely captured a kind of freewheeling online spirit that is fading fast.
33:45
Tad Eggleston: So this is gathered for the first time, along with his reflections upon his work, Crease Comics is a portal into a truly individual, creative mind and a snapshot of some of the best days for webcomics. This is from New York Review Comics.
34:00
Tad Eggleston: And in stores on March 31st, with a final order cutoff of February 16th.
34:12
Phil: Alright, next up is Hide and Seek by
34:16
Phil: Naono, Yoshiko? Little Hishori, so embarrassed about the hand-knitted wool pants his grandmother forces him to wear. Sweet Mari, so jealous about her baby sister. Cute Sachiko, so worried about the iron she forgot to turn off before leaving on a family trip. Normal human feelings, understandable mistakes, leading to a horrific disaster and
34:38
Phil: Garring regret. If you assume childhood is golden for everyone, you're wrong.
34:43
Phil: Dead wrong. From the back pages of otherwise bright and sunny shoujo magazines comes Hide and Seek, a collection of 12 tales of trauma by Naono Yoshiko from the early 1970s. With an essay by the author narrating her unique career in manga and the stories behind her emotionally indelible comics, Hide and Seek is the seventh volume of Smudge, a line of vintage horror, occult, and dark fantasy manga
35:08
Phil: curated and translated by award-winning historian Ryan Holmberg, published by Living the Line. That's gonna have one more cutoff of February 23rd, in stores March 25th.
35:20
Phil: From, is it Unsurvised?
35:22
Tad Eggleston: Well, it's… it's Living the Line… it's from Living the Line, it will be distributed through unsivilized, because…
35:28
Phil: Gotcha.
35:28
Tad Eggleston: Living the Line is very tied up in the diamond… Yikes.
35:34
Tad Eggleston: And uncivilized is helping run out.
35:38
Tyler Johnson: Can I ask you to go on to yours next? I gotta use the restroom really quick.
35:43
Tad Eggleston: Well, fine.
35:45
Tyler Johnson: We'll come back.
35:46
Tad Eggleston: to last call to leave Earth when Tyler's done peeing.
35:50
Tad Eggleston: Yes, I got a picture. Can you hear me?
35:51
Phil: He hasn't learned to bring… to bring a urinal with him.
35:56
Tad Eggleston: to… to…
35:58
Phil: Unlike some members of this podcast.
36:01
Tad Eggleston: Well, I mean, it's just because your wife doesn't let you back into the house.
36:08
Phil: Gets cold out there.
36:10
Tad Eggleston: So before we talk about the Last Call to Leave Earth, we'll talk about The Outsider, a secret history of comics unearthed within this moving biography of legendary comic artist Bernard Kriegstein.
36:24
Tad Eggleston: Comics in the 1950s is a nowhere medium for journeymen and artistically frustrated illustrators. Certainly, that's what Bernie Krigstein, a comics artist and out-of-step painter slumming in the sleazy comics industry to make ends meet, thinks. What starts as an escape
36:42
Tad Eggleston: attempt from a rut of cranking out comics takes successive leaps into tales of labor, organizing, and fighting tenaciously to realize the artistic potential of the medium. The Outsider is both a bird's-eye view of the comic book industry.
37:01
Tad Eggleston: In the 1950s, in an intimate portrait of one of its most militant artists, Joseph D'Esposito, explores the Jewish roots of comics and its lineage of Black women and other unsung heroes, such as Matt Baker, a black pioneer of the graphic novel.
37:18
Tad Eggleston: In the political hotbed of post-war America, the personal and the political weave
37:23
Tad Eggleston: vertiginously, culminating in Master Race, written by Al Feldstein and elevated into one of the few serious early comics works by Kriegstein's Formal Innovations.
37:36
Tyler Johnson: Alright, I'm back.
37:39
Tyler Johnson: Just wanted to let you know.
37:40
Tad Eggleston: I saw that.
37:42
Tad Eggleston: And then the beating heart of Christine's journey is his wife Natalie, a multifaceted character, who grapples with competing roles as steadfast partner, postpartum mother, ambitious writer. Other friends and foils include Stan Lee, Harvey Kurtzman, and Robert Kaniger.
37:57
Tad Eggleston: The Outsider is a story about dedication, frustration, ambition, anger, integrity, the 1950s comic book industry, all told in vivid strokes of melancholic blue.
38:10
Tad Eggleston: this is…
38:16
Tad Eggleston: FOC of February 9th, and in stores on… April 21st.
38:28
Tyler Johnson: Alright, now we're gonna go back to the last call to leave Earth from Cassio… I'm gonna mispronounce this, but Ribeiro, from Mad Cave.
38:36
Tyler Johnson: Rita, Carlos, and Lucas were merely friends until a pivotal moment changed everything. They photographed what many in the small town of Cambino deanta believed to be an alien. Years later, Rita, now thriving as a professional photographer, returns
38:54
Tyler Johnson: discover the truth behind that fateful day and its effects on their lives and the community. A troubled photographer, a fame-seeking UFO enthusiast, and a local cult member are all in pursuit of answers.
39:08
Tyler Johnson: But what they find could be more extraordinary than they ever anticipated. This is going to be in stores, or excuse me, final order cutoff of March 2nd, in stores March 25th.
39:22
Tyler Johnson: And, this is from Matt Cave.
39:29
Phil: Alright, then there's Space Relic Hunters from Ludovic Grun Dubois.
39:35
Phil: An exciting new space opera of blockbuster proportions from the creators of Warship Jolly Roger and On Mars. After an interplanetary religious war that devastated the galaxy 200 years earlier, four gods, nicknamed the Great Quartet decided to build a new empire. They established a violent and
39:55
Phil: progressive dictatorship annihilating all forms of religion other than that devoted to their own worship. The Divine Legions were created to enforce this order, but despite their surveillance, different species of aliens continued to secretly worship their ancient gods. The situation gave rise to a galactic market and alien relics linked to many now-banned religions.
40:17
Phil: That means smuggling and the birth of relic hunters. Aspiring up-and-comer Sia, a human, and Little Mercer, a masked alien of unknown origin, are among the best relic hunters in the galaxy, and they've joined for a new mission by Vitalius.
40:32
Phil: A former centurion who deserted the Divine Legions. It's gonna be a final order cutoff of February 23rd, and stores March 18th.
40:41
Phil: From Oni?
40:46
Tyler Johnson: Yep, for Money Press.
40:53
Tyler Johnson: Alright, DC Pride, we got collections, sorry about that. DC Pride, The Heart Wants, from… it just says from various artists and writers, but, DC's award-winning annual Pride hardcover Collection returns.
41:08
Phil: Written by Tim Sheridan, Vita Alea, Josh Trujillo, Sam Meggs, Maya Houston.
41:14
Tyler Johnson: Judd Ellison, S. Doyle, Jenny Blake, and more. Art by Emilio… Is it Pileo?
41:23
Tyler Johnson: Skylar Partridge, A.L. Kaplan, Mark Sarin, Vincent Cecil, and more. When a 100-year-old queer speakeasy-turned-bar-turned-restaurant and community space in Gotham announces that soon we'll be closing its doors.
41:38
Tyler Johnson: The generations of patrons come to pay their respects, including Alan Scott, the Green Lantern.
41:44
Tyler Johnson: After all, this is the place where he and his first love, Johnny Ladd, long ago carved their names into the basement wall before it all went to hell.
41:53
Tyler Johnson: And a love lost is never a love forgotten. But they weren't the only ones to put their names in the wall over the years. And suddenly, queer heroes, villains, and civilians alike from across the DCU. The question, Midnighter and Apollo, Harley Quinn, Green Lantern, Joe.
42:13
Tyler Johnson: Mulling, Bunker, Connor Hawk, and Blue Snowman among them, did find themselves spirited away to strange, alternate dimensions that seemed to provide this… the everyday…
42:26
Tyler Johnson: seemed to provide everything they could possibly want, but at what cost? In this oversized story of interweaving narratives, the vanished will need to come together and look into the very depths of the Star Heart.
42:42
Tyler Johnson: Is that what it says? Starhart itself, if they hope to escape that which ensnares them in this triumphant and timely story of community amid chaos.
42:53
Tyler Johnson: I'm gonna stop reading my voice is going out on that one. This is gonna be, final order come off of March 2nd in shops May 26th.
43:04
Tad Eggleston: Alrighty, oh, that was the first of the collections, wasn't it?
43:11
Tyler Johnson: Yeah.
43:11
Tad Eggleston: We're already nearing the end of the collections, cool.
43:14
Tad Eggleston: The Last Voyage of Sinbad from Richard Corbin and Jan Sternad.
43:22
Tad Eggleston: If you want to know all about this, go listen to some of our old heavy metal
43:27
Tad Eggleston: Book clubs, because it was… it was collected in heavy metal, so we've… we've talked about it.
43:33
Tad Eggleston: A drunken Sinbad runs afoul of an evil djinn, launching him into an epic adventure where, alongside a mysterious and sensuous woman, he battles monsters and the living dead of salvage… to salvage his mortal soul. It's Sinbad's final and greatest voyage.
43:51
Tad Eggleston: This is final order cutoff, February 23rd, in stores, May 26th.
44:06
Tad Eggleston: Which one was yours?
44:07
Tyler Johnson: There it is. There you go. I see it.
44:10
Phil: It's Orla.
44:11
Phil: From John Lees and Sally Cantorino, Orla is a rom-com creature-featured mashup about a lovely woman struggling to navigate the Seattle single scene when sometimes turning into a man-eating monster. Orla Bard is an antique restorer, romance novel enjoyer, and keen birder who has a secret. She is afflicted with the Ick, a monstrous entity dwelling inside her who violently emerges whenever Orla
44:36
Phil: Orla feels too stressed, angry, or afraid. She's unable to rid herself of this curse, and the ick needs to feed. So Orla has decided to use her powers to help other women by removing the worst men from the dating pool.
44:48
Phil: But when she finally meets a guy she actually likes, and finally has a chance at a love story of her own, will she be able to keep her inner monster under control? Finally, we're cut off of February 9th, in stores March 4th, from Madcave.
45:08
Tad Eggleston: Ready.
45:09
Tyler Johnson: Done.
45:10
Tad Eggleston: So, final order cut off on Monday, January 26th. We have Animan by Anook or Card, drawn in Quarterly, in stores March 18th. The College Tribe from Olivia Quartaro-Briggs and Roberta Ingranada.
45:24
Tad Eggleston: from Maverick Mad Cave, in stores February 18th. The Damnation of Charlie Winberger from Christina Blanch, Chris Carr, Chi at Source Point Press, I forgot to put in which day it's in stores. Death Fight Forever, number one, from Andrew McLean. Alexis Zritt.
45:40
Tad Eggleston: at Image Comics, in stores February 18th. End of Life, number 1, from Kyle Starks and Steve Pugh at Vertico DC.
45:47
Tad Eggleston: In stores February 18th. Florida Hippopotamus Cocaine Massacre number 1, from Fred Kennedy, James Edward Clark, and Mad Cave, in stores February 18th. Hot or Not from Jessica Campbell at Drawn and Quarterly, in stores March 18th. Lenore, Curse of the BB Yaga.
46:06
Tad Eggleston: From Roman Dirge, and Titan Comics, in stores February 18th, and Muppets Noir number 1 from Roger Landridge at Dynamite, in stores February 18th, and White Sky No. 1 from William Harms and Jean-Paul Maveringa at Image Comics, in stores February 18th.
46:26
Tad Eggleston: Crowdfunding right now, we have Epic, the superteen action comedy from Tyler James and Matt Zolman on Comics Tribe through Kickstarter.
46:36
Tad Eggleston: Until January 31st, Negative Burn, the anthology from Joe Pruitt et al. on Zoop.
46:44
Tad Eggleston: through February 5th.
46:46
Tad Eggleston: Leaded Gasoline, a Grindhouse horror comic from Patrick Kindlin and Lorenzo Rhee at Halo 8 through Kickstarter until February 6th, and Growing Up on the Spectrum from Tess Langston at Oneschi Press on Kickstarter through February 12th.
47:05
Tad Eggleston: A couple of fantastic Hondo bundles. Lone Wolf and Cub and other manga classics by Koiki. $18 will get you 63 volumes of manga, including all of Lone Wolf and Cub.
47:20
Tad Eggleston: All of Samurai Executioner, all of Lady Snowblood, all of Path of the Assassin.
47:27
Tad Eggleston: Fantastic deal, supports the Hero Initiative, available through January 23rd. And then also the Dynamite Character Crossover Comics. So, like…
47:40
Tad Eggleston: Army of Darkness and something, and Vampirella and something, and that sort of thing. $18 for 57 items. Now, this is… this is kind of weird, because some of them are, like, Issue 1 is an item, Issue 2 is an item, Issue 3 is an item.
47:59
Tad Eggleston: You know, so 3 items for 3 issues, and some of them are… volumes 1 through 7 are only one item.
48:09
Phil: That is quite the difference.
48:11
Tad Eggleston: And I didn't feel like going to figure out, like, how many pages you were gonna get, but it's a crap ton of comics.
48:20
Tad Eggleston: And it's to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and available through January 28th.
48:28
Tad Eggleston: So, only an hour in this time, let's talk 3 amazing books.
48:34
Tyler Johnson: Oh, is that all Orion is an hour right now?
48:37
Tad Eggleston: About that.
48:40
Tad Eggleston: Did you guys.
48:40
Tyler Johnson: Did you guys see my text in the… in the texting for myself?
48:44
Tad Eggleston: We're gonna stay concise, right?
48:48
Tad Eggleston: Yep. Yep. Well, we were gonna be concise last week, and we went almost 3 hours, didn't we?
48:57
Phil: It was… it was quite a while.
48:59
Tyler Johnson: That's brutal.
49:01
Tad Eggleston: Well, this is what happens when you have somebody who's literally in the neighborhood between George Floyd and Renee Goode, as…
49:09
Tad Eggleston: you're…
49:10
Tyler Johnson: Yeah.
49:11
Tad Eggleston: We didn't talk blocks.
49:12
Tyler Johnson: apart, man.
49:13
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, yeah, and Ryan Carey lives in between.
49:17
Tyler Johnson: Really?
49:18
Tad Eggleston: Yes.
49:19
Tyler Johnson: That's crazy!
49:20
Tad Eggleston: gap.
49:21
Tyler Johnson: Okay.
49:23
Tad Eggleston: So, yeah, we… and we… we… I mean, I guess we eventually got to comics a little bit?
49:31
Tad Eggleston: In a general sense?
49:34
Tad Eggleston: I think it started with, do you ever feel bad that you still read comics with everything going on in the world right now?
49:42
Phil: Yup.
49:42
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, kind of.
49:43
Phil: And the answer was definitely not, because, you know…
49:46
Tad Eggleston: Right.
49:47
Tad Eggleston: So, my top book of the week, it was so good. Beneath the Trees, Where Nobody Sees, The Rite of Spring, number 5 from
49:57
Tad Eggleston: mouth that Heidi W. Tyler is nodding his head.
50:01
Tad Eggleston: Oh man, the cliffhanger.
50:04
Tyler Johnson: Yeah. Ugh.
50:06
Tad Eggleston: Did you see that Samantha is gonna be in DCKO?
50:11
Tyler Johnson: No, that's crazy, that's awesome.
50:14
Tad Eggleston: She's in the boss fight episodes… er, issue. There is a Samantha Joker cover for the DCKO boss fight.
50:23
Tyler Johnson: Oh, that's gonna be a good matchup. Boom.
50:25
Tad Eggleston: Right.
50:27
Tad Eggleston: Right, right. Who knows?
50:28
Tyler Johnson: Plays his head off.
50:30
Tad Eggleston: I have totally fallen in love with Francesca Perillo and Stefano Cardicelli and their new book, Where Does the Rainbow End? number one.
50:39
Tyler Johnson: I bought that, I just bought that, too, and I haven't read it yet.
50:42
Tad Eggleston: It was so good. Was it good?
50:44
Tyler Johnson: Okay.
50:44
Tad Eggleston: You probably remember, what was it, the Robot Love Story was the first one that got released US-side that I just, like, I read on a whim and went, holy shit, this is good.
50:58
Tyler Johnson: Yeah. So, I'm glad to know that where does the rainbow end is worth it, because I have it in my pile, but…
51:05
Tad Eggleston: Oh, it's… it's… it was so good.
51:08
Tad Eggleston: So good. As was Babs, the Black Road South No. 1 from Garth Ennis and Jason Burroughs at Ahoy, which had Babs and her, her, her, her partner…
51:22
Tad Eggleston: Karaoke rapping for, like, 5 pages?
51:28
Tad Eggleston: Among other things.
51:31
Tad Eggleston: I mean, also, carnage and mayhem and that sort of thing.
51:35
Tad Eggleston: But yeah, it was fucking… Awesome.
51:41
Tad Eggleston: So, Phil, take a walk.
51:45
Phil: I'm, I'm too tired to walk, man. It's, it's past my bedtime. I'm just gonna say that I really loved Diet Loaded number 3 this week, it was fantastic, loved the, the extra gods rules about them in the back, and, yeah, I…
52:01
Phil: It's been a… been a heck of a rollercoaster, and that, I started reading from hell today, so that's, should go pretty well.
52:08
Tyler Johnson: Have you not read it before?
52:09
Phil: No, this is the first time.
52:11
Tad Eggleston: Okay. Yeah, you gotta remind me the other thing that I have to read.
52:16
Phil: I'm here, man.
52:17
Tad Eggleston: not find the time to re-read it from him again.
52:20
Phil: Because it's…
52:21
Tad Eggleston: It's not a short read.
52:23
Phil: No, it's not. Certainly. Yeah, I'll have to go with you on that.
52:27
Tad Eggleston: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, Tyler, have you read any One Piece this week?
52:33
Tyler Johnson: No, but I watched the live animation, or the live action, excuse me, on Netflix, and I was not as thrilled with it as the hype.
52:45
Tad Eggleston: Well, see, I not only did not read any One Piece this week, I didn't watch any live action or any…
52:52
Tad Eggleston: anime One Piece this week either, so…
52:55
Tyler Johnson: Okay.
52:56
Tad Eggleston: Well, you got.
52:57
Tyler Johnson: I'm ahead, because I… how they… I got to see how they did the live action, and it…
53:02
Tad Eggleston: You totally am.
53:04
Tyler Johnson: Oh, man, you know what, they didn't even try with, Usopp's nose. That character didn't… the character they used didn't have the big nose at all, which is huge for me. I think that needed to be part of his character.
53:19
Tyler Johnson: So, I thought that was weird.
53:28
Tad Eggleston: Alrighty, so, phil, any manga this week?
53:32
Phil: No, no, it was unfortunately not…
53:35
Tad Eggleston: You were trying to have that just… you were trying to have me just slide by you, weren't you? I saw you… I saw you… I saw you suck back into the shadows.
53:45
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, that's why he turned his lights off. You look like you're, like, a godfather waiting to, deliver bad news to your lieutenants, you know?
53:53
Tyler Johnson: Ayy, you!
53:54
Phil: Nice! Oh.
53:55
Tad Eggleston: Sleeping with the fishes.
53:57
Tyler Johnson: Yup.
53:58
Phil: That's me, I'm about to sleep with them fishes.
54:00
Tyler Johnson: You have a little light on your forehead, it's very mysterious.
54:04
Tad Eggleston: Alright, after taking a week off to vent and find ourselves, even though this week has only been…
54:14
Tad Eggleston: I'm gonna say 3% better than last week. 3? And that only… that only because, there has been enough resistance countering the insanity to make me feel like, you know.
54:31
Tad Eggleston: Hope is possible.
54:34
Tad Eggleston: So… yeah.
54:38
Tyler Johnson: let's get back to the best… Let's get back to comics, yeah. Let's wrap it up.
54:44
Tad Eggleston: starting with… best graphic novel. Phil, what's your three?
54:49
Phil: My three is Hello Sunshine by Kisey Young from Little Brown Ink. This is, you know, about a thick tone, about…
54:59
Tad Eggleston: They're not following me.
55:02
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, I'm reading it on my own side of the screen, because I am following, actually.
55:10
Tad Eggleston: No, I just noticed something. I'll give you a hard time about it in a second. I didn't mean to interrupt Phil.
55:17
Phil: I… to be honest, I still need to read this one. I asked the comic shop, and they… they couldn't get it through their distributors, so I've got to go to other means that aren't Amazon. Which one? Hello Sunshine? I've been looking forward to it for a while, though, so it's… it's definitely… and I've heard… I've heard nothing but great things, so…
55:36
Phil: Yeah.
55:40
Tad Eggleston: So…
55:41
Tyler Johnson: What, am I not following along, Ted? I'm sorry.
55:43
Tad Eggleston: I'll give you a second, I'll get the… when we get to you, I'll say so.
55:49
Tad Eggleston: Because it will be abundantly obvious when we get to you.
55:52
Tyler Johnson: Okay.
55:54
Tad Eggleston: Kid Maroon from Christopher Cantwell and Victor Santos at Vault, which I had really wanted to be my best…
56:02
Tad Eggleston: among my best miniseries of last year, but it got pushed back and then released all as a graphic novels, so it got to be among my best graphic novels of this year.
56:16
Tad Eggleston: This was just good on so many different levels. It was just a fun…
56:27
Tad Eggleston: Crime story, but then… like…
56:33
Tad Eggleston: Every layer you peel away looking at it, it just has more and more socio-political commentary and…
56:42
Tad Eggleston: human condition commentary, and yeah, I need to give it another read. It deserves so many reads, and I've so far only given it two, and that needs to be fixed.
56:55
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, Kid Maroon, Christopher Cantwell, Victor Santos at Vault Comics. So, Tyler, have you figured out
57:03
Tad Eggleston: what I'm gonna give you a hard time about, yet.
57:06
Tyler Johnson: No.
57:07
Tyler Johnson: I don't know, I'm struggling.
57:08
Tad Eggleston: So, what is your number 3 original graphic novel?
57:14
Tyler Johnson: The number 3 one, or the one I was gonna say first?
57:19
Tad Eggleston: Doesn't matter to me. In fact, in fact, either side will make this point.
57:26
Tyler Johnson: I… you just said that I didn't read them?
57:28
Tad Eggleston: No. Oh. No, no, no, tell us your pick, and then… Phil knows where I'm going, so he'll give you a hard time.
57:38
Tyler Johnson: What's… okay, out of Alcatraz, Chris Cantwell, and Tyler Crooks?
57:42
Tad Eggleston: Which, this is an amazing, amazing, amazing… limited series.
57:48
Tyler Johnson: Oh.
57:54
Tad Eggleston: It was 5 issues.
57:57
Tyler Johnson: Okay, I… I, I bought it as… I'm sorry, I didn't realize that, because I bought it… okay, same way, I'm gonna ga… I'm gonna guess, same with my other one.
58:07
Tad Eggleston: Only one of them. Only one of them.
58:12
Tad Eggleston: Yeah. Spectators in…
58:13
Tyler Johnson: Sorry, guys.
58:14
Tad Eggleston: a graphic novel.
58:16
Tyler Johnson: Sorry, guys, I am out of the loop on.
58:19
Tad Eggleston: It's stupid.
58:20
Tyler Johnson: No, seriously?
58:20
Tad Eggleston: Okay, don'.
58:21
Tyler Johnson: I just picked them up, and I assumed… I assumed that they were, standalone editions. I'm sorry.
58:29
Phil: That's understandable.
58:30
Tad Eggleston: I mean, you didn't manage to make it to the interview, but we had Chris and Tyler on before Out of Alcatraz started. I sent you… I sent you reader copies the first time.
58:44
Tyler Johnson: I know. I do not…
58:46
Phil: when it was coming out.
58:47
Tyler Johnson: I have no time to read that stuff, and when it was com… when it was coming out, I was literally opening my shop. I wasn't reading anything.
58:56
Tad Eggleston: No, this… this is totally… anybody out there who wanted to know how hard it is to open a comic shop, how much work goes into it, this right here.
59:09
Phil: Yep. Is the example.
59:12
Tad Eggleston: So, and…
59:12
Tyler Johnson: Both of these…
59:13
Tad Eggleston: You know what? I have… I have zero problem with you having…
59:17
Tad Eggleston: done out of Alcatraz, because it was amazing, and I hated living… leaving it off my limited series.
59:24
Tad Eggleston: thing, and by the way, Phil, you're not gonna be without, like…
59:32
Phil: Oh, I've prepared myself. Okay. I think it's a theme that I am… I am thumbing my nose at tradition.
59:41
Phil: Yeah, I have.
59:42
Phil: We'll get there. We will most certainly get there.
59:45
Tyler Johnson: So, the Out of Alcatraz, so both of these series that I… were series and not graphic novels, I missed the series when they came out. I totally did, because I wasn't really buying comic books for a few months. No, that's fair. So, I didn't realize that. I feel dumb now, but…
1:00:04
Tad Eggleston: I shouldn't, I just had to give you a… I mean, I haven't read the trade paperback, so what I don't know is, did they put the covers in between the chapters?
1:00:16
Tyler Johnson: No.
1:00:16
Tad Eggleston: Because oftentimes, when you're reading a trade paperback, when you get to the next chapter, it's like the cover of issue 2.
1:00:23
Tyler Johnson: Oh, you know what, maybe they did.
1:00:26
Tyler Johnson: I don't know, I don't know, I… it's… Maybe.
1:00:31
Tad Eggleston: I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make this beat up on Tyler Day.
1:00:35
Tyler Johnson: Well, anyway, out of Alcatraz.
1:00:36
Tad Eggleston: Tyler is running a successful comic shop in La Verne, Minnesota. If you're anywhere nearby…
1:00:42
Tyler Johnson: Just doing the social media part of it, it takes so long.
1:00:47
Phil: He's just… he's just making the argument that it reads better in trade. That makes it a graphic novel, right guys?
1:00:52
Tyler Johnson: Okay, okay, great. But out of Alcatraz, pick it up, Chris Cantwell and.
1:00:56
Tad Eggleston: Oh, it's fantastic. It's fantastic.
1:00:57
Phil: Oh, yeah. My number two, which is also the second time I've mentioned this one, is Anzuelo by Emma Rios from Image Comics. It's so good that I'd mention it twice. If you haven't read it, definitely pick it up. Incredible watercolors, incredible artwork.
1:01:13
Tad Eggleston: Fantastic.
1:01:13
Phil: Oh, yeah.
1:01:14
Tad Eggleston: My number two, and I, like, I hate that this is my number two. I want this to be number one, but I want the next book to also be my number one, and one of them had to come in second.
1:01:30
Tad Eggleston: So, my number 2 is Meredith McLaren's just… Brilliant.
1:01:39
Tad Eggleston: like… why… it's Y… it's YA, but I put it, like, more on the…
1:01:49
Tad Eggleston: the adult side of YA. I mean, a lot of people hear YA and they think middle grade, and YA isn't really, really middle grade. YA is supposed to be, like, high school, college, and I would say that this is, like.
1:02:04
Tad Eggleston: Junior and high school, college type… audience.
1:02:10
Tad Eggleston: And mostly, also, like…
1:02:13
Tad Eggleston: just because of the… the unspoken rules of marketing, YA is also like, oh, this would be literature if… if the protagonist was male.
1:02:25
Phil: Hmm.
1:02:28
Tad Eggleston: Have you noticed that, Phil?
1:02:31
Tad Eggleston: I know Tyler and I have…
1:02:32
Tyler Johnson: We've talked about it a couple of times.
1:02:34
Phil: I can…
1:02:35
Tad Eggleston: Definitely.
1:02:36
Phil: I could definitely see it.
1:02:39
Tad Eggleston: But, but Mediators by Meredith McLaren is,
1:02:44
Tad Eggleston: coming of age, horror story, bullying story, just so many layers, and, like, Meredith McLaren is one of my favorite artists to begin with, and… and this book is just…
1:02:59
Tad Eggleston: Next level from her.
1:03:01
Tad Eggleston: I love it. Everybody should pick it up from Oni Press.
1:03:06
Tad Eggleston: This one, which is also a fantastic
1:03:09
Tad Eggleston: Graphic novel, Tyler, so I'm proud of you.
1:03:12
Tad Eggleston: Easy graphic novel.
1:03:14
Tyler Johnson: Oh, man, if you want some… if you want some, titillating reading… Definitely not YA. No, it is, definitely not YA. My wife, happened to see what I was reading, and she goes.
1:03:29
Tyler Johnson: what… what is that? And I said.
1:03:31
Tad Eggleston: Is it like when my wife looks over my shoulder at the wrong time when I'm reading a Gilbert Hernandez comic?
1:03:37
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right.
1:03:39
Tad Eggleston: Why are there so many boobs on the page? Peg was like, Peggy was like…
1:03:44
Tyler Johnson: He's like, you're not even trying to hide it anymore. And so, spectators from Brian K. Vaughan and Nick Henrikon… Henricon?
1:03:52
Tad Eggleston: Nico. Nico.
1:03:54
Tyler Johnson: Did I write it wrong? Oh, I wrote…
1:03:56
Tad Eggleston: And neat.
1:03:56
Tyler Johnson: Oh, Nico from Image.
1:03:58
Tad Eggleston: Rick on.
1:03:59
Tyler Johnson: Henragon, yep.
1:04:02
Tyler Johnson: Girl.
1:04:03
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, spectators.
1:04:04
Tad Eggleston: Oh yeah, that book's fuckin'…
1:04:07
Phil: Yeah, it was really neat.
1:04:08
Tad Eggleston: Amazing. Amazing.
1:04:09
Phil: I had a… I had a good time. It was… it was… I… I had it on my list for a while.
1:04:15
Phil: But, ultimately.
1:04:16
Tad Eggleston: I had been reading it through the substack, and I got to a point where it's like, I have to stop reading
1:04:25
Tad Eggleston: A couple of pages a week.
1:04:27
Phil: Yeah. Because…
1:04:30
Tad Eggleston: this is too great of a big story, I need to…
1:04:36
Tad Eggleston: I need to wait for them to be done. And I kept paying for it, but not…
1:04:41
Tad Eggleston: Reading it. It'd be so different to read.
1:04:43
Phil: Like that. I can't imagine…
1:04:46
Tad Eggleston: bid.
1:04:46
Tyler Johnson: Exactly. It is.
1:04:48
Tad Eggleston: I did read it immediately when they finished it, which was, like, a year before it came out.
1:04:57
Tad Eggleston: to… to, like… purchases a… As an item.
1:05:04
Tad Eggleston: You know, I mean, initially, I actually… because they were…
1:05:10
Tad Eggleston: they were having a weekly release of whatever Nico had gotten done in that week, which would be anywhere between, like, 1 and 4 pages.
1:05:18
Phil: Right.
1:05:20
Tad Eggleston: Because it was what he finished in the week, not… you know.
1:05:27
Tad Eggleston: as Tyler knows for certain, and Phil's probably starting to pick up, particularly the artists that do everything, might do pencils on a batch of pages, and then go back and do inks on a batch of pages, and then go back and do colors on a batch of pages. They don't necessarily work exclusively one page at a time.
1:05:45
Phil: Definitely, yeah.
1:05:47
Tad Eggleston: But, and then they'd, they'd, like, put together a PDF every 100 pages or so, something like that.
1:05:56
Tad Eggleston: so initially, it's like, I… I… when they… when they put together the bigger ones, I'd read it, but, like, after I'd read the first half, I'm like…
1:06:06
Tad Eggleston: I need to just wait. I need to make myself wait.
1:06:10
Tad Eggleston: Because it drives me nuts not knowing
1:06:13
Tad Eggleston: And I have to go back and reread it again, because there's so much layered, and so much that…
1:06:19
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, this was so good, Tyler. And here I am, taking over your spot, talking about your book. What did you love about this book?
1:06:27
Tyler Johnson: Boobs. No, it was good.
1:06:30
Tad Eggleston: It was just the boobs for Tyler.
1:06:31
Tyler Johnson: No, I'm sorry. No, it was good. Brian came on as one of the best, so…
1:06:37
Tad Eggleston: He is.
1:06:39
Tyler Johnson: Yup.
1:06:39
Tyler Johnson: Alright.
1:06:41
Phil: Yeah, so, my question to, to you, Tad, is, have you, have you read my, my number one pick?
1:06:48
Tad Eggleston: I have.
1:06:49
Phil: You have? Oh, okay.
1:06:50
Tad Eggleston: the day it came out.
1:06:52
Phil: Really? Okay, I thought this one, slipped by.
1:06:54
Tad Eggleston: I had it be my book of the week on 22 panels that week. You must have, failed to listen.
1:07:03
Phil: Something like that.
1:07:04
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I mean, Before you were hosting.
1:07:06
Phil: Was it?
1:07:07
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
1:07:08
Phil: Okay. But yeah, it, it came out at, Reversal by Alex DeCampi, Skylar Patridge, Kelly Fitzpatrick, and Hassan Otzman, I know how. See, I…
1:07:20
Phil: I picked it up a while back, but just read it, and it was fantastic.
1:07:26
Tad Eggleston: I mean, Dr.
1:07:27
Tyler Johnson: I have not read it, so I'm gonna figure it out.
1:07:29
Phil: Oh, it's super good.
1:07:30
Tad Eggleston: It has been long enough that I had thought it was last year.
1:07:37
Phil: Oh, you thought it was 2024?
1:07:40
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, when I saw it on your list, I'm like… Early this year.
1:07:44
Tad Eggleston: It came out this year. I believe that it came out this year.
1:07:47
Tyler Johnson: Oh, it was March.
1:07:49
Tad Eggleston: I mean, I don't think it would have made my list anyway, but it didn't even occur to me to put it on my list. Yeah, it came out on my birthday this year.
1:07:59
Tad Eggleston: I read it for my birthday this year.
1:08:04
Tad Eggleston: I do remember that it flew under my radar. I found out about it when I got… like, I have a number of…
1:08:15
Tad Eggleston: creators that I… I follow on Amazon, so I'll get an email if they have a new release out. So, I found out that it was coming out when I got the… the…
1:08:28
Tad Eggleston: the alert that there was a new book from Alex DeCampi. It somehow missed it on final order cutoff, or in catalogs, or anything like that.
1:08:36
Tad Eggleston: But yeah, no, it was an immediate purchase, an immediate read.
1:08:41
Tad Eggleston: Because it's Alex DeCampi, and that's what I do with Alex DeCampi.
1:08:45
Phil: Oh, yeah.
1:08:47
Tad Eggleston: So… I suppose it's me next. I just sillily, like,
1:08:54
Tad Eggleston: made my screen big so that I could see you guys better, but…
1:08:59
Tad Eggleston: The problem with that is I made it so I couldn't see my rundown. Not that I don't remember that my top book of the year is Jesse Lonergan's drone.
1:09:10
Tad Eggleston: From 23rd Street and 1st Street. It's good. Yeah.
1:09:15
Tad Eggleston: I love Jesse Lonergan, and this is… like, I went back and checked, Tyler. This was my top graphic novel of 2023, too, when it was in its unpublished
1:09:29
Tad Eggleston: Form.
1:09:30
Tyler Johnson: Hell.
1:09:31
Tad Eggleston: he'd finished it on… on his Patreon.
1:09:35
Tad Eggleston: But… but he hadn't sold it yet, and he hadn't…
1:09:39
Tad Eggleston: like, done the editing that he… like, when he sold it, he… he evened out the portions, which…
1:09:46
Tad Eggleston: you know, the… which meant, making, I think, one of them longer and 3 of them shorter. Yeah.
1:09:53
Tyler Johnson: Pizza.
1:09:53
Tad Eggleston: He mined some pages, he added some pages, you know, he did some, some…
1:09:59
Tad Eggleston: So, that's how I justified making it…
1:10:04
Tad Eggleston: making it my favorite graphic novel of the year again. Thank you.
1:10:09
Tyler Johnson: Do you make the.
1:10:10
Tad Eggleston: rules, you can check. And… and…
1:10:13
Tad Eggleston: And that made it even harder for me to put it as the number one book in front of meat eaters.
1:10:18
Tyler Johnson: Because I knew that it'd been my top graphic novel of the year before.
1:10:24
Tyler Johnson: Oh, funny.
1:10:25
Tad Eggleston: But it's that good. It's that good. I couldn't help it.
1:10:29
Tyler Johnson: Yeah.
1:10:30
Tad Eggleston: So…
1:10:31
Tyler Johnson: Alright, my graphic novel slash not graphic novel…
1:10:35
Tyler Johnson: Not a graphic novel at all. In fact, it is Bug Wars, from Jason Aaron and Mahmoud Asrar from Image.
1:10:46
Tyler Johnson: it, it was cool. I like.
1:10:52
Phil: Yeah, I was interested in that one.
1:10:54
Tyler Johnson: thighs stories. You know, like, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids when I was a kid, was one of my favorite movies. Yeah. And just the idea of, you know, being this tiny, and experiencing our normal world, but from
1:11:08
Tyler Johnson: That height has always fascinated me, you know?
1:11:13
Tyler Johnson: So, anyway…
1:11:15
Tad Eggleston: Alright, now moving on, and I think Phil knows when I'm gonna give him a hard time, but we're… we're still a little bit away from it.
1:11:24
Phil: Just, it's coming up, it's coming up.
1:11:25
Tad Eggleston: It is, it is. The first, the first example of it is coming up.
1:11:31
Tyler Johnson: The first.
1:11:32
Tad Eggleston: I might let you get away.
1:11:36
Tad Eggleston: with.
1:11:37
Tyler Johnson: No, you won't.
1:11:38
Phil: I mean, what… They're all terrible is certainly a limited series, it's a miniseries.
1:11:43
Tad Eggleston: It is, it is, it is. So, best limited series, your three pick is, they're all terrible.
1:11:48
Phil: They're all terrible.
1:11:49
Tad Eggleston: so freaking good. And, like, a bold choice, but one I support, that you're doing it even though it's not done yet.
1:11:56
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, yeah, I'm… I… it's come… I'm excited to see the end of it. There's an issue coming out, you know, next week.
1:12:02
Phil: And that's the thing, is that, that speaks to… I haven't read a ton of miniseries this year, but that one is certainly memorable and worthwhile. Ramon Villalobo's Killing It on the Art, Colors by Tamara Bonvillain, and, you know, a script by some… some guy named Matt Ken. That's from Bad Idea.
1:12:20
Phil: But, yeah, it's been a heck of a good time.
1:12:24
Tad Eggleston: So, my number 3 book is Groupies from Helen Milan and Tula Lote at Comixology. Milan just…
1:12:38
Tad Eggleston: Think of a… trippier… What's the word I'm looking for?
1:12:56
Tad Eggleston: like, witchcraft-infused… version of Almost Famous if you took Cameron Crowe out of it.
1:13:05
Phil: Interesting.
1:13:06
Tyler Johnson: Okay. And that's great.
1:13:07
Tad Eggleston: Because it sounds pretty simple.
1:13:10
Phil: Interesting, yeah.
1:13:10
Tad Eggleston: the groupies more than the kid. So imagine you've got the band-aids, except that they're full-on groupies.
1:13:19
Tyler Johnson: Yep.
1:13:19
Tad Eggleston: and they're the center, but… but that we also have a superna… supernatural is the word I was looking for, but we have a super… a dark supernatural element as well. That's groupies. And Tula Lote's art for it is…
1:13:35
Tad Eggleston: Perfect.
1:13:36
Phil: Oh, yeah, she… that sounds like a serious shoe knockout.
1:13:39
Tad Eggleston: kills it. The collected edition is… is… On its way…
1:13:49
Tad Eggleston: not immediately… I feel like I saw it today. Is it on final order cutoff?
1:13:54
Tad Eggleston: No, it's on its way from Mad Cave. I forget why I saw it today. It's either coming out soon, but not…
1:14:04
Tad Eggleston: next week, or it came out last week, or… I don't know. But expect it soon from Mad Cave.
1:14:13
Tad Eggleston: Maybe they sent me a,
1:14:23
Tad Eggleston: I think I got sent in advance. That's what happened.
1:14:28
Tad Eggleston: So I could check my email to find out when it's coming out.
1:14:31
Tyler Johnson: Yup.
1:14:32
Tad Eggleston: But, it's… it's so good. I loved talking to Helen Milan. I… I'm gonna need to talk to her again now that it's over. I'd love to manage to get Tula Lote involved in that, that sort of thing. So, yeah.
1:14:49
Tad Eggleston: Cool. Tyler.
1:14:50
Tyler Johnson: Well, I went Skinbreaker, that's another one that's not done yet, but robert, we're gonna do… It's happening.
1:14:57
Tad Eggleston: Is it limited?
1:14:59
Tyler Johnson: Yeah.
1:15:00
Tad Eggleston: I hadn't paid enough attention, okay.
1:15:01
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, it's… right now, we have half of it, and he's doing it in two chunks, and so… Okay. Skinbreaker from Robert Kirkman and David Finch.
1:15:10
Tyler Johnson: From ImageCon, I believe it's gonna be 8. Right now, there's 4 issues out, and I've heard this is half of it, so…
1:15:16
Tad Eggleston: Okay.
1:15:17
Tad Eggleston: Okay.
1:15:18
Tyler Johnson: Yep.
1:15:19
Tad Eggleston: That would definitely qualify as a Limited, then. Phil, you're number 2.
1:15:25
Phil: My number 2 is The Voice Said Kill by Cy Spurrier.
1:15:30
Phil: Vanessa Del Rey, John Starr, the San El from Congress. That one is limited. It's, it's four issues.
1:15:40
Tad Eggleston: And I think done.
1:15:41
Phil: It is, yeah, yeah. I still need to reread it all at once, but it was quite a ride.
1:15:46
Tad Eggleston: I think you're gonna show some… some wishful thinking on this.
1:15:53
Tad Eggleston: going forward, but they so far have only announced 12.
1:16:01
Tad Eggleston: And it was… Yeah, no, they announced 6 more after they decided to go…
1:16:08
Phil: Boom.
1:16:09
Tad Eggleston: 6.
1:16:11
Phil: see, and here, I was hoping that, that, you know, I hadn't quite heard that it was 12, and I was hoping it would just be, open-ended.
1:16:18
Tad Eggleston: I am crossing my fingers. I would love for it to be open-ended, though at the same time, I would think that it would kill Eric Zawitski at some point.
1:16:28
Phil: Yeah, that's true. They'd probably have to take a break.
1:16:31
Tad Eggleston: So, my top limited series, or my second limited series of the year, and this was another case where I can't believe this isn't my top limited series of the year, but I just couldn't…
1:16:46
Tad Eggleston: Leave out what became my top.
1:16:49
Tad Eggleston: and not leave out. I couldn't even put it in the 2-spot, I couldn't do it.
1:16:53
Tad Eggleston: But Assorted Crisis Events, Dennis Camp, Eric Zawitzki.
1:16:57
Tyler Johnson: It's good.
1:16:58
Tad Eggleston: Image Comics. Actually, one of the reasons that I was late to this is I was reading the…
1:17:07
Tad Eggleston: advance of…
1:17:08
Tyler Johnson: The newer one? This week's issue, and… Yeah, my… I have this week's issue.
1:17:14
Tad Eggleston: Shit.
1:17:15
Tyler Johnson: I have this week's issue on my desk right now.
1:17:18
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, yeah, I finished reading issue 8 right before we started recording, and it might be the best yet.
1:17:27
Tad Eggleston: It's… and for that matter, I'm gonna… I'm gonna say it right here, I… I… at the beginning of 2024, I wound up…
1:17:37
Tad Eggleston: accurately naming… 3 of my top books inside of January. I'm gonna do it again now.
1:17:48
Tad Eggleston: If we do a single issue category next year, which I think we're planning to, I would be shocked.
1:17:57
Tad Eggleston: if… Asorder Crisis Events Number 8 isn't… on my list.
1:18:05
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, the series has been fantastic. It's weird, it's trippy, it plays with the medium.
1:18:12
Tad Eggleston: I just… I love it so much.
1:18:14
Tyler Johnson: much. It's a good… it's really good.
1:18:17
Tad Eggleston: Yep.
1:18:18
Tyler Johnson: Alright, so, the moon is following us.
1:18:22
Tyler Johnson: Daniel Warren Johnson and Riley Rossmo from Image.
1:18:27
Tyler Johnson: You guys dread this?
1:18:29
Phil: I have…
1:18:29
Tad Eggleston: I read the first couple of issues, and then just kind of fell off, not because I didn't like it, but because…
1:18:36
Tad Eggleston: I read so many comics that sometimes I will forget to read an issue, or miss an issue, or whatnot, particularly among the ones that I'm not subscribed to, as much as I'll try to snag here or there, or read on Hoopla, or…
1:18:51
Tad Eggleston: whatever.
1:18:52
Tad Eggleston: And then once I'd missed a couple of issues, it's like, okay, this is… this is not one that I'm gonna try to catch up now, it's one that I'm gonna read the trade…
1:19:01
Tyler Johnson: Yeah.
1:19:02
Tad Eggleston: Sometime. Yep. And that sometime has not come yet.
1:19:05
Tyler Johnson: Yeah.
1:19:06
Tyler Johnson: It's just fun. I mean, these parents.
1:19:08
Tad Eggleston: I enjoyed the first couple issues, yeah.
1:19:11
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, it's really fun. I like the art style a lot. I like the branding of the… I like the logo of the moon.
1:19:19
Tyler Johnson: I just like, oh, they put it all together. And then, plus, the story itself is a kidnapping story, and I, you know, the cascade is this mysterious… yeah, I won't spoil it, but it's awesome.
1:19:30
Tyler Johnson: So, yeah, the…
1:19:34
Phil: Alright.
1:19:35
Tyler Johnson: The moon's following us.
1:19:37
Phil: And, this is… this is now where we get to, the, you know, the anticipation and the countdown. My number one, my top limited series of the year is, gonna be Lazarus Fallen from Greg Rucka, Michael Lark, Santi Arcus, and Arianna Mare at Image Comics.
1:19:55
Phil: Darren.
1:19:56
Tad Eggleston: where I say it's a limited series is because they said it was gonna be 20 issues. It's just a 20-issue limited series. Actually, they said… they said…
1:20:03
Tyler Johnson: 22… 24.
1:20:06
Tyler Johnson: Where's the cutoff for limited issue… limited run?
1:20:09
Tad Eggleston: A, I'm pretty… I mean, but regardless of whether 20 or 24, I mean, two things. First, like…
1:20:21
Tad Eggleston: I think when Tyler and I first set this up, we said limited is 12 or less.
1:20:28
Tyler Johnson: So, if it's…
1:20:29
Tad Eggleston: Deliberately going more than a year, that's ongoing.
1:20:33
Phil: Okay. I can, I can agree to that.
1:20:36
Tad Eggleston: Second…
1:20:39
Tad Eggleston: I'm sorry, I don't agree with the idea that Lazarus, Lazarus X plus 66, Lazarus Risen, aren't part of
1:20:53
Tad Eggleston: the ongoing Lazarus series that Lazarus Fallen is a part of.
1:21:01
Tyler Johnson: I was just gonna suggest that, why did you pick the Fallen, which is the chunk of the bigger…
1:21:07
Phil: Okay, okay, so hear me out, hear me out. Lazarus, when it started, was an ongoing series, because we didn't know how many issues it was gonna be. It ran, 26 issues, it ended.
1:21:18
Phil: Lazarus X plus 66 was a limited series, because they declared… hold on, they declared it was 6 issues? It's a limited series.
1:21:27
Tad Eggleston: But, see, this would be a better argument if I hadn't…
1:21:31
Tad Eggleston: Already seen your ongoing choices, so we'll… we'll finish this discussion in a few minutes.
1:21:40
Phil: And this is where I want to cut you off.
1:21:42
Tyler Johnson: Sorry, I want to cut you off.
1:21:44
Phil: Say that.
1:21:45
Phil: Your pick for top limited theories, when we talked to the author, they said it was ongoing.
1:21:51
Tad Eggleston: No, she did not.
1:21:52
Phil: Yes, she did. Yes, she did.
1:21:54
Tad Eggleston: Said this is… this…
1:21:59
Tad Eggleston: is… 8 issues.
1:22:02
Tad Eggleston: I'm hoping…
1:22:05
Tad Eggleston: that we will continue doing more in the way that we do Pretty Deadly, or the way that we do
1:22:14
Tad Eggleston: Bitch Planet Now… That means that should they manage to come back.
1:22:26
Tad Eggleston: And should it be clearly continuous?
1:22:31
Tad Eggleston: I mean, cause, like, Bitch Planet, I consider an ongoing series.
1:22:36
Tad Eggleston: pretty deadly, I consider a trilogy of miniseries.
1:22:41
Phil: Yeah, I can agree with that.
1:22:44
Tad Eggleston: So, we don't know what FML will be yet.
1:22:48
Tad Eggleston: my top miniseries of the year. She has recently announced…
1:22:54
Tad Eggleston: That the next volume will actually be written by fraction.
1:22:59
Tyler Johnson: Whaaat? Woo-woo! Right.
1:23:02
Phil: That's wild.
1:23:03
Tad Eggleston: So we don't… don't know yet what this is. What we know is it's been a fantastic… limited series.
1:23:17
Tad Eggleston: Again, if it's back on my list next year, or it's back on my list the year after that, I could wind up with that new information.
1:23:29
Tad Eggleston: Changing how I think of it.
1:23:31
Phil: My understanding, while not explicit, was that I, you know, I imagine FML number 9 will exist after FML number 8. I don't think they're gonna renumber with different
1:23:44
Phil: But we'll see. We will certainly see.
1:23:46
Tad Eggleston: I mean, and I don't know either, and I can't remember if they guaranteed 8 or 9, because…
1:23:54
Phil: I believe she said 8 was the first trade.
1:23:57
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I'm checking right now.
1:24:01
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, 8 is the… the… Conclusion. The main event worthy conclusion.
1:24:09
Tad Eggleston: is… is… what?
1:24:13
Phil: I'm in Janai. I clearly would…
1:24:14
Tad Eggleston: The magical promise of youth bases down the sinister cynicism of today's world in FML's main event-worthy conclusion. Is the actual solicit text.
1:24:25
Tad Eggleston: For the book coming out March 11th.
1:24:31
Tad Eggleston: For that matter, huh, the solicit text for the book that came out January 7th, in the penultimate issue of FML.
1:24:43
Phil: I just… I'm just gonna sink into the darkness.
1:24:45
Tad Eggleston: People can't see the smirk on Phil's… and I, too, hope that it becomes more ongoing. But I also, because I talked to her, and was listening to her in email a little bit.
1:24:59
Tad Eggleston: with her assistant, because that's the best way to talk to her when you're not actually talking to her.
1:25:06
Tad Eggleston: Kelly's a busy, busy, busy woman.
1:25:11
Tad Eggleston: Until her kids have graduated college, and live on their own.
1:25:18
Tad Eggleston: And the world is a nicer place?
1:25:20
Phil: Oh, yeah.
1:25:22
Tad Eggleston: I don't think we should expect anything from Kelly to be ongoing.
1:25:26
Phil: Well, I still… I still consider a bitch planning on going, because she said that it will come back one day, you know?
1:25:31
Tad Eggleston: Right. Well, and it's had two volumes that were clearly continuous.
1:25:36
Phil: Yeah.
1:25:38
Tad Eggleston: And have a clear…
1:25:44
Tad Eggleston: Cliffhanger.
1:25:49
Tad Eggleston: it doesn't have an end. Now, we haven't gotten to 8, but I'm pretty certain 8 will provide some level of ending.
1:25:59
Phil: We'll see.
1:26:00
Tad Eggleston: Because I have read 7, and it felt like a penultimate issue. Now, it won't have everybody die, which means that they will still have stories to tell.
1:26:14
Tad Eggleston: But, yeah. Tyler, your favorite,
1:26:17
Tad Eggleston: And I'm behind on this, but I need to get caught up.
1:26:20
Tyler Johnson: So, Exquisite Corpses, you guys, it's great.
1:26:23
Tad Eggleston: God.
1:26:24
Tyler Johnson: 12 of the richest families in the United States get together on Halloween, and they each bring an assassin with them, okay? And then they set up in the… in some random town in the United States for the night, and let these assassins out into the community to hunt each other down.
1:26:44
Tyler Johnson: And then, yeah, Last Man Standing wins, and that person, who brought that assassin, that rich, wealthy person, wins some kind of bragging rights, I guess. I don't remember what they're playing for, but it's really, really awesome.
1:27:03
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I'm… I, like, I need to catch up, and I'm curious… I mean, aren't they playing at least a little bit for whoever wins is, like, officially in charge of the world?
1:27:17
Tyler Johnson: Probably. I gotta go back and read it.
1:27:19
Tad Eggleston: I feel like that was established early. Yeah. I'd have to… I'd have to… I'd have to re-look at it, too. But… but I think it's one of those… it's like, okay, here are the 12… was it 12 or 13? I don't remember.
1:27:32
Tyler Johnson: 12, yep.
1:27:33
Tad Eggleston: Here are the 12 families, and we collectively rule the world, but…
1:27:38
Tad Eggleston: A, you know we're gonna never agree on everything, and B, it's an even number, so we can't really put it to a vote. And C, like, even if we could put it to a vote, there'd just be massive backstabbing, which is also the problem with having a permanent leader.
1:27:55
Tad Eggleston: So, we're gonna have annual leaders, Decided by this event.
1:28:01
Tyler Johnson: Yeah.
1:28:01
Tyler Johnson: And, I mean, it's just… it's just insane, because, you know, there's lots of casualties,
1:28:09
Tyler Johnson: While these assassins are going after each other.
1:28:14
Tad Eggleston: Well, I mean, it felt like, in the part that I read, that it was pretty much just agreed that this town wouldn't exist when they were done.
1:28:22
Tyler Johnson: Yep.
1:28:23
Tyler Johnson: Yep, it'll be wiped off the map.
1:28:25
Tad Eggleston: Right.
1:28:26
Tad Eggleston: Right.
1:28:27
Tyler Johnson: And then they pick a new town for the next year, kind of thing.
1:28:30
Tad Eggleston: Right.
1:28:31
Tad Eggleston: So, alright, best ongoing series, and I've already given Phil a hard time for his top two here. So, good call on making your top one the ongoing, even though…
1:28:49
Tad Eggleston: The writer did tell us how many issues it will be. It's just way more than 12.
1:28:59
Phil: Wait, what's that? Hold on. No, no, no, it wasn't way more than 12, but let's stay to order. I… I am still living in a hopeful delusion that the FML is an ongoing series, and that we'll see FML number 9 come out after FML number 8.
1:29:12
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I mean, I'd love to see it as FML number 9, but I don't care if it's, like, FML with a subtitle number 1.
1:29:21
Phil: Sure, of course, of course. I'm here for it.
1:29:24
Tad Eggleston: Which I actually think is more likely. But, but, but, like, I'll give the… I mean, overall, I'll give this… I'll give this… this book as much attention as we want to give it. It's just fucking great. Oh, yeah. It really is. I mean, most of the reason I'm giving you a hard time is, like.
1:29:39
Tad Eggleston: You have at least one, to me, clearly ongoing series among your limited series, so why don't you swap it with at least one of the two?
1:29:52
Phil: What do you mean? Pretty clearly limited series, thank you. I will concede. Okay, alright, you got… I'll, I'll… you got me.
1:30:02
Tad Eggleston: You don't need to do it now, I'm just giving you a heart.
1:30:04
Phil: Very tough.
1:30:05
Phil: No, that's fair.
1:30:06
Tad Eggleston: In that mood where I'm giving people a hard time, just let me have it.
1:30:11
Tyler Johnson: Well, it is late. I don't mean it. It's midnight we're Phil. Phil, it's midnight, we're filled.
1:30:15
Tad Eggleston: Right.
1:30:16
Phil: Yeah. I'm turning.
1:30:17
Tad Eggleston: No, you can't move stuff, because you already listed the other ones. It would be weird if you'd, like, dumped assorted Crisis events.
1:30:25
Phil: And said something else aside. I'm still gonna… I'm still… I'm still gonna talk about it, I'm just… I'm just rearranging, you know?
1:30:33
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, yeah.
1:30:34
Tad Eggleston: Isn't…
1:30:34
Tyler Johnson: That's fun, Phil.
1:30:36
Phil: What?
1:30:36
Tad Eggleston: Lovely.
1:30:37
Tad Eggleston: My number 3 book… Of the year, and it's been so good.
1:30:43
Tad Eggleston: to have it back, and I… I actually, I don't think we put it in the news. Did you hear, Phil? Michael Lark had a…
1:30:50
Tad Eggleston: Minor stroke.
1:30:52
Phil: Oh, no!
1:30:53
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, I heard that.
1:30:54
Tad Eggleston: Oh, holy cow!
1:30:56
Tyler Johnson: Physically, he's okay.
1:30:58
Phil: gonna be.
1:30:58
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, no, he's going to recover…
1:31:01
Tyler Johnson: Yep.
1:31:02
Tad Eggleston: whatnot, but, like, Greg, and particularly his wife, are making it clear to him that, like.
1:31:11
Tad Eggleston: he cannot rush to get pages of the book done. It will wait, it is okay.
1:31:19
Tad Eggleston: So, we're probably gonna have a little bit long… I mean, first, our hearts go out to…
1:31:25
Phil: Absolutely.
1:31:25
Tad Eggleston: to Michael, his family, and the entire Lazarus family.
1:31:29
Phil: Good to hear that he's gonna be okay, and his health and sanity and all that is first and foremost, you know.
1:31:36
Tad Eggleston: But… but yeah, no, for me, it was… this year was…
1:31:41
Tad Eggleston: was weird for me, because as I went through all the ongoing, and there are so many good ongoing series this year.
1:31:50
Tad Eggleston: I still wound up… Having to make my top 3?
1:31:56
Tad Eggleston: feel like I was in a time machine.
1:31:59
Phil: Yeah.
1:32:01
Tad Eggleston: Because Lazarus could have been… One of my top ongoing books almost any time in the 20-teens.
1:32:09
Tyler Johnson: It was good.
1:32:13
Tad Eggleston: And Lazarus Fallen is absolutely my number 3… number 3 top ongoing of the year. Tyler, this was 4. This was hard to leave off, Tyler. Have you read the new issue?
1:32:26
Tad Eggleston: This week's… 13?
1:32:28
Tyler Johnson: Americana is…
1:32:29
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
1:32:29
Tyler Johnson: Nope, it's on my pile.
1:32:32
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
1:32:32
Tyler Johnson: Minor Arcana from Jeff Lemire, is one of those series… it's his, current ongoing series that focuses on this, kind of down-and-out, lady, and she goes back to help her mom run her, you know,
1:32:51
Tyler Johnson: what do you call it, like, fortune teller?
1:32:54
Tad Eggleston: Right.
1:32:54
Tyler Johnson: place. I mean, it's obviously a fraud, or her mom is a fraud, but she has real visions herself, you know, and so…
1:33:01
Tad Eggleston: So, which makes me go, is it obvious that her mom's a fraud?
1:33:05
Tyler Johnson: I thought it was, but it's not.
1:33:08
Tad Eggleston: Right. I mean, yes, that's… I mean, because certainly she even thought that her mom was a fraud, and there's still reason to think that her mom is a fraud, but there's definitely more reason to…
1:33:23
Tad Eggleston: question now.
1:33:25
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, yeah.
1:33:26
Tyler Johnson: Yep.
1:33:27
Tad Eggleston: But yeah, no, it's like Essex County or Royal City with, like, .
1:33:33
Tyler Johnson: Supernaturally twist to it.
1:33:35
Tad Eggleston: Supernatural tarot…
1:33:38
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, it's readings and, like, crystal ball shit.
1:33:42
Tad Eggleston: Right.
1:33:43
Tyler Johnson: It's just really cool, though, because…
1:33:45
Tad Eggleston: Love it.
1:33:46
Tyler Johnson: Because she's, you know, she's trying to make a life in this town, and she's trying to help her mom keep this crap shop alive, and, you know…
1:33:55
Tad Eggleston: Yeah. Yeah. So good.
1:33:58
Tad Eggleston: So good.
1:33:59
Tad Eggleston: So.
1:34:00
Phil: I'll have to catch up on that one.
1:34:02
Tad Eggleston: Yeah. So, Phil, you've got a new number, too. I do.
1:34:07
Phil: So, so, so, this is where… this is where the machinations unravel. My, my number 2…
1:34:14
Phil: ongoing series was a sort of crisis events by Dennis Camp and Aaron Zowitzki, and Joya Belair, and Sonance may know how, but upon receiving the devastating news that it will end with issue 12, I… I see, so here's the thing…
1:34:31
Tad Eggleston: I guarantee…
1:34:32
Phil: It's not, but… but I will admit…
1:34:35
Tad Eggleston: I have… I have only heard that they have been extended to 12.
1:34:40
Phil: You've successfully reclassified.
1:34:44
Tad Eggleston: Well, and the thing is, because it's essentially a series of one-shots.
1:34:49
Phil: Yeah, it does.
1:34:50
Tad Eggleston: Just a bit better.
1:34:51
Phil: with the limiteds.
1:34:54
Tad Eggleston: But I don't even know if they would want to go… Ongoing, that's true. Ongoing, ongoing.
1:35:00
Phil: Yeah, yeah. And, and so… And that's why I… I ultimately…
1:35:05
Phil: accepted the shift, and… I mean, Lazarus Fallen is now my number 2. I love it so much. Oh, yeah. It will be in the number one spot.
1:35:16
Phil: when it finally wraps, because it's… it's… I mean, it's an all-time… it's an all-time series for me. It… it… the reason I put it in number one limited was because I wanted to give both it and my number one pick number one.
1:35:31
Phil: But I couldn't.
1:35:34
Phil: And this is where we landed.
1:35:37
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, I know how that goes.
1:35:39
Tad Eggleston: Okay, I hate doing this, but I'm gonna do it. Even though we're recording, I'm gonna jump in with breaking news.
1:35:48
Phil: -Oh.
1:35:48
Tad Eggleston: Washington Post is reporting that the Pentagon has readied 1,500 soldiers to possibly deploy to Minnesota.
1:35:58
Phil: Oh, no.
1:35:59
Tad Eggleston: Although no decisions have been announced, soldiers with the Army's 11th Airborne Division in Alaska have been placed at the ready following Trump's Insurrection Act threat.
1:36:09
Phil: According to defense officials.
1:36:12
Tyler Johnson: Interesting.
1:36:14
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
1:36:15
Tad Eggleston: So, yeah, that… that was what, tyler was just saying, and… and damn it, Tyler, why did you have to be right?
1:36:25
Tyler Johnson: Well, I mean, we hear everybody's on the… on the edge, waiting for…
1:36:31
Tad Eggleston: Oh, I know.
1:36:31
Tyler Johnson: happened, because this… in the state, I mean, it's… yeah, it's… I don't know what's gonna happen. We don't know. Nobody knows. I mean, I feel horrible. I mean, I'm a few hours away, and I feel this nervous about it. I can't imagine what people are feeling like in the Twin Cities right now.
1:36:47
Tad Eggleston: Well, and like, my kids are grown up, so I'm torn between, like, thank God it's not in my backyard, and do I need to get in the car and… and…
1:37:01
Tyler Johnson: Yeah.
1:37:02
Tad Eggleston: joined the resistance.
1:37:05
Tyler Johnson: I, you know, if it came to your neighborhood, I definitely would, but I don't know if I would come all the way to Minnesota, for you, but…
1:37:14
Tyler Johnson: But it was…
1:37:14
Tad Eggleston: No, but that's what I mean, is… This is just the testing ground, you know?
1:37:19
Tyler Johnson: For other cities, for other blue cities.
1:37:21
Tad Eggleston: But that's kind of my point, because it's the testing ground, like, if we really, really want to send the message that…
1:37:30
Tad Eggleston: that this is not okay, it can't just be Minnesotans fighting the fight.
1:37:35
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, you're right.
1:37:37
Tad Eggleston: It can't just be Minnesotans standing there
1:37:44
Tad Eggleston: And showing that they're willing to put themselves in danger to say that this is wrong.
1:37:49
Tyler Johnson: Yeah. No, I would definitely be there,
1:37:54
Tyler Johnson: you know, because Sean's 20 now, I mean, he's… Right. He's in college, you know, but… but, you know.
1:37:59
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, no, I know. If I had a 7-year-old, it would completely change my calculus.
1:38:04
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, I'm like, I…
1:38:06
Tad Eggleston: Right now, it's more, I know that it would freak the hell out of my wife.
1:38:12
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. She would be a wreck.
1:38:15
Tad Eggleston: would freak the hell out of my wife, and, and, like, I'm gonna put this on the record, and my mom's gonna out me to my wife, but I'm gonna put it on the record anyway, like, and I'm not saying that it's likely that I'm going to leave tonight, but, like, more that's, like.
1:38:33
Tad Eggleston: Should I just be gone when she wakes up?
1:38:37
Phil: Don't, don't do that.
1:38:38
Tyler Johnson: No, you know.
1:38:39
Phil: That's… you wanna…
1:38:40
Tyler Johnson: Cheese your partner if you need to. I know. Take her with, make her go with.
1:38:44
Phil: Oh.
1:38:45
Tad Eggleston: Yo!
1:38:46
Phil: Whew, no.
1:38:47
Tad Eggleston: Whoa… She'd have… she'd have a fucking breakdown. She'd have enough of a breakdown if I was there.
1:38:53
Tyler Johnson: You're gonna have a breakdown if you go.
1:38:55
Tad Eggleston: I mean, she has a hard time when I go to local things sometimes.
1:39:02
Tad Eggleston: And she can sometimes… she can sometimes go to the local things with me if I pick out the right one and we put together enough of a plan, but she's much better at being the… I'm gonna make buttons, I'm gonna make signs, I'm gonna make t-shirts, whatever, hand them out.
1:39:18
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, you remember when we were late coming home from C2E2? She was, very worried about us.
1:39:24
Tad Eggleston: Yeah? I know.
1:39:25
Tyler Johnson: So…
1:39:27
Tad Eggleston: I know.
1:39:30
Tyler Johnson: Anywho, let's, let's wrap this up. I know it's horrible.
1:39:34
Tad Eggleston: No, it's, it's, it's… yeah.
1:39:36
Tyler Johnson: So, my number 2, and .
1:39:40
Tad Eggleston: it's another case of, I get to… to read ahead because of the fact that I have a podcast, and I arrange events and consult on… on… on stuff for,
1:39:52
Tad Eggleston: a comic shop, so the book I read before Assorted Crisis events.
1:40:01
Tad Eggleston: Today was the upcoming issue of Powers 25, and it continues to just be killer, and, you know, it's another one, like Lazarus Fallen, where it's not even the same name, Phil, but, like, it's a continuation of a long-going series…
1:40:19
Tad Eggleston: they haven't… I don't even think they've announced specifically how many issues that they've…
1:40:25
Tad Eggleston: I mean, I think they've said how many… Michael already has done.
1:40:30
Phil: Sure.
1:40:31
Tad Eggleston: That's, like, 8 or 10, something like that.
1:40:34
Phil: You know.
1:40:35
Phil: But I'd also say that if they said.
1:40:38
Phil: ahead of time, like, only 6, I feel like it could fit into…
1:40:41
Tad Eggleston: But they had said only 6.
1:40:44
Tad Eggleston: Or if they… if they… if they had Flat out said…
1:40:49
Tad Eggleston: something less than 12. Yeah. With the implication that…
1:40:58
Tad Eggleston: It wasn't gonna be until another 5 or 10 anniversary that they even thought of revisiting it.
1:41:06
Tad Eggleston: then I'd probably be calling it a miniseries. But the way they've talked about it is…
1:41:12
Tad Eggleston: We missed our baby.
1:41:14
Phil: And it's back. Oh, yeah.
1:41:16
Tad Eggleston: You know.
1:41:17
Tad Eggleston: And, this is where I'm gonna give a quick plug.
1:41:23
Tad Eggleston: to…
1:41:26
Tad Eggleston: the… the… well, first to our friend John Suntress and the Word Balloon Podcast. If you're not listening to 22 Panels, that's one of the better comics podcasts to listen to.
1:41:38
Tad Eggleston: him and… him and our friend David Harper of off-panel.
1:41:42
Tad Eggleston: Gotta plug the podcast hopes to come on our podcast.
1:41:46
Tad Eggleston: But Bendis has his book club on the Sunris podcast, and I'm part of that book club.
1:41:54
Tad Eggleston: And Bendis may have dragged a 22 Panels plug out of me in the most recent book club. And when he discovered that I had a podcast.
1:42:05
Tad Eggleston: May have indicated his intent to come, so…
1:42:08
Phil: Ho ho ho!
1:42:10
Phil: He'd be a fun guy to talk to.
1:42:12
Tyler Johnson: Sweet.
1:42:14
Tad Eggleston: Well, and, and, I mean… If we book him…
1:42:21
Tad Eggleston: A, I'm gonna try to get Mike to come, too, because I want to talk to both of them about powers.
1:42:26
Tad Eggleston: We've talked to Mike already, I love Mike, I want to talk to both of them about Powers. But Mark Pratt wants to talk to him about…
1:42:37
Tad Eggleston: Fortune and Glory the Musical, and… and that would be a fascinating conversation, so, like…
1:42:44
Phil: Oh, yeah.
1:42:44
Tad Eggleston: This is… this is what we want to happen.
1:42:47
Phil: Tyler, your number 2 ongoing series.
1:42:50
Tyler Johnson: It is a little series called Absolute Batman from Scott Snyder and Nick Dragata. This Absolute Universe is just killing it.
1:42:59
Tad Eggleston: It is.
1:43:01
Tad Eggleston: I mean, I… I laugh, because I can't argue with you having it as your ongoing, because it's really fucking good, and I still think it's the third best absolute book.
1:43:13
Tyler Johnson: Oh, you do? I'm not reading a lot of them, I'm just reading Batman, so I don't know how good they are. I mean, you gotta read Absolute Martian Manhunter. It looks cool, I really liked that art, like, the… there was, like, a 50s-style cover one. It looked really cool.
1:43:29
Tad Eggleston: And Absolute Wonder Woman has been amazing. And I'm amazed that you're not reading Absolute Flash. I'm behind on it, but it's Jeff Lemire. That's your boy.
1:43:40
Tyler Johnson: Yep, I have them. I'm gonna read a… I'm collecting them, but I'm gonna read it in trade.
1:43:46
Tad Eggleston: Okay.
1:43:47
Tyler Johnson: So, I just prefer to do it that way, but…
1:43:50
Tad Eggleston: That's… that's fair.
1:43:52
Tyler Johnson: But I am collecting the issues.
1:43:56
Tad Eggleston: I would, I would expect you to.
1:44:01
Phil: So, this is where, my number one series for this year is The Power Fantasy by Ken Gillen.
1:44:09
Tad Eggleston: And this is where I say that sometimes you can know how many issues it's gonna be, because
1:44:14
Tad Eggleston: I'm pretty certain he told us 36.
1:44:17
Phil: Well… So he said that.
1:44:19
Tad Eggleston: And that's still way more than 12, so it's an ongoing series.
1:44:24
Phil: And that's… and that's… It is ongoing, and it's… it's not even… here's the thing.
1:44:30
Phil: 36 would be the next, like, good ending. I'm hoping.
1:44:37
Tad Eggleston: No, he said 16 would be the next good ending, but he was pretty certain that sales numbers were enough.
1:44:44
Tad Eggleston: He said 36 was the next good ending after that, and probably actually the Last good ending.
1:44:53
Phil: Hmm. See, I didn't… I didn't get… I… I… again, maybe…
1:44:57
Tad Eggleston: The impression that I got was that, like…
1:45:00
Tad Eggleston: He wasn't ruling out the possibility that if sales were there, he could come up with a way to make it more than 36.
1:45:07
Tad Eggleston: But, like, 36 was the dream pie in the sky, if we're telling our entire story.
1:45:15
Tad Eggleston: This is how long it will be.
1:45:18
Phil: I don't know. I mean, I'm hoping for even more than that, you know?
1:45:21
Tad Eggleston: Damn.
1:45:22
Phil: I… I'm… I'm… I'm hoping this one could go to 100.
1:45:28
Tad Eggleston: And by the way, like, as we get to my top…
1:45:31
Tad Eggleston: top issue, top ongoing, and I just looked it up, because I had to.
1:45:37
Tad Eggleston: My top ongoing series this year? You know how many issues have actually been released this year?
1:45:42
Phil: Jira?
1:45:43
Tyler Johnson: 2?
1:45:44
Tad Eggleston: Two, exactly. Two.
1:45:46
Phil: Yep.
1:45:47
Tad Eggleston: One in January and one in March.
1:45:49
Tyler Johnson: Wow.
1:45:50
Tad Eggleston: And I don't care.
1:45:53
Tad Eggleston: Because A…
1:45:58
Tyler Johnson: I just, when I saw your thing, I had to go… I went and checked, because I'm like.
1:46:01
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, yeah.
1:46:02
Tyler Johnson: Did this come out this year? I had to look. I'm like, is Saga out?
1:46:07
Tad Eggleston: there are two things I'm gonna say. The first is…
1:46:14
Tad Eggleston: In a year where any saga comes out, I just have a hard time imagining anything knocking it out of…
1:46:23
Tad Eggleston: My top ongoing series.
1:46:25
Tyler Johnson: And listeners, that's been that way for years. I mean, Ted, you've had Saga as…
1:46:30
Tad Eggleston: Right.
1:46:32
Tyler Johnson: And…
1:46:33
Tad Eggleston: And second, Well…
1:46:37
Tad Eggleston: Only two issues have come out this year. We also did finally start the Saga Book Club.
1:46:43
Tad Eggleston: So, I, I have… Re-read the first 6 volumes and had in-depth conversations about them.
1:46:53
Tad Eggleston: Without knowing the ending.
1:46:56
Tad Eggleston: So… It feels even more ongoing to me than it has strictly been in
1:47:08
Tad Eggleston: the year 2025. But it's also not going away. It will finish, and yes, it is limited. It will be 108 issues.
1:47:19
Phil: Oh, but…
1:47:20
Tad Eggleston: That's WAYY more than 12.
1:47:24
Tyler Johnson: Yo.
1:47:26
Tyler Johnson: But, alright, my number one, and I kind of… this was like a dark horse, because I wasn't really…
1:47:33
Tad Eggleston: It was another one that went away for a while and came back.
1:47:36
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, he was. And so, when it came back… And it came back with.
1:47:39
Tad Eggleston: the new artist, because it's not… it's not Scotty Young doing art anymore, is it?
1:47:43
Tyler Johnson: No, but, the Scotty Young is the bulk of the series.
1:47:48
Tyler Johnson: And then,
1:47:50
Tyler Johnson: yeah, and it's I Hate Fairyland. So when it started coming back, I went back into,
1:48:00
Tyler Johnson: the Comics… not Comixology, but Global Comics, and caught myself up on I Hate Fairyland, and I am hooked. It is funny as shit.
1:48:10
Tad Eggleston: It is.
1:48:11
Tad Eggleston: It looks like it's Derek Landman on Art for Volume 9. I thought it was Brett Bean for a while.
1:48:20
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, Brett Bean…
1:48:25
Tad Eggleston: I think… took over… right after Scotty Young…
1:48:33
Tyler Johnson: Okay.
1:48:34
Tad Eggleston: But it might be Landman for all of this year?
1:48:38
Tad Eggleston: Nope.
1:48:38
Tyler Johnson: Which, there's only.
1:48:39
Tad Eggleston: Dean in January and February.
1:48:42
Tad Eggleston: And… Landman took over in June.
1:48:47
Tyler Johnson: Okay.
1:48:49
Tad Eggleston: So this most recent arc is Landman's first.
1:48:53
Tyler Johnson: Okay.
1:48:57
Tad Eggleston: But yeah, no, I gotta… I gotta be honest, I haven't… I haven't read any since Scotty's run ended.
1:49:04
Tad Eggleston: Or since his art run ended, and I've been meaning to go pick them up, and I haven't, and now I'm gonna have to, because if it made your top
1:49:13
Tad Eggleston: Top Book of the year.
1:49:15
Tyler Johnson: It's just, yeah, it's just one of those things where, I… it wasn't really on my radar. I mean, I've heard of the title, but then, as new issues started popping up on the shelf, I'm like.
1:49:27
Tad Eggleston: Oh, so you hadn't even read it.
1:49:29
Tad Eggleston: on its initial run. I didn't realize that.
1:49:32
Tyler Johnson: No, I read it all…
1:49:34
Tad Eggleston: Scotty Young fan. I assumed… I assumed when you were… when you were talking to that guy that wound up not being Scotty Young at C2E2.
1:49:42
Tyler Johnson: Phil, have you heard this story?
1:49:44
Tad Eggleston: it wasn't… that it wasn't just that you liked his covers, but that you had loved I Hate Fairyland.
1:49:51
Tyler Johnson: No, Phil, have you heard this story?
1:49:55
Phil: I, I have not, no.
1:49:56
Tyler Johnson: At C2E2.
1:49:59
Tad Eggleston: Verona Chris Schweiser's booth.
1:50:01
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, at Chris Schweizer's booth.
1:50:03
Tyler Johnson: A man walked up that we thought looked like Scotty Young, and I just started talking to him as if he was Scotty Young.
1:50:13
Phil: And the guy…
1:50:15
Tyler Johnson: Corrected me after a minute or so, but it.
1:50:18
Tad Eggleston: Well, what I loved is that not only was he not Scotty Young, he did not know who Scotty Young was, but based on the conversation he'd had with Tyler, decided that he needed to find out.
1:50:35
Tad Eggleston: At which point… at which point, we… we… we directed him to Scotty's booth. Or Scotty's table, rather.
1:50:44
Tyler Johnson: I was incredibly embarrassed, obviously, but it's funny now.
1:50:50
Phil: It's pretty amusing, yeah.
1:50:51
Tad Eggleston: I thought it was pretty funny then.
1:50:53
Tyler Johnson: I know, you did. You were… you were, like, your face was just…
1:50:58
Tad Eggleston: Well, because I was still…
1:50:59
Tyler Johnson: Exciting.
1:51:00
Tad Eggleston: I was… I was still trying to figure out if Scotty was at his booth.
1:51:05
Tad Eggleston: Or you started talking to him. Right. Okay.
1:51:09
Tad Eggleston: When you just started talking to him, and I think I was part of the conversation a little bit, because you started talking to him, like, oh, if Tyler's certain…
1:51:19
Tyler Johnson: I was not. I was certain, but I was wrong.
1:51:23
Tyler Johnson: It was funny, though. But yeah, so, no, I hate Fairyland. I, I was mostly a fan of Scotty's art, from… I like the way he does characters in the little… the kiddish kind of,
1:51:36
Tyler Johnson: reimaginings, you know? I've always really liked that style, and I've just really enjoyed it, so… But no, I really enjoyed I Hate Fairyland. The story is awesome, Tad. If you don't… you know what the.
1:51:51
Tad Eggleston: Again, I love the initial volumes.
1:51:55
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, okay.
1:51:56
Tad Eggleston: So, like, I just haven't gotten back to it. I need to.
1:52:00
Tyler Johnson: Yeah. Well, they…
1:52:02
Tad Eggleston: point of that.
1:52:02
Tyler Johnson: They pull her back into Fairyland, if you can believe it.
1:52:06
Tad Eggleston: Yep.
1:52:08
Tad Eggleston: Alrighty guys. Alrighty, so that wraps… Our best of 2025.
1:52:13
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, huh.
1:52:14
Tad Eggleston: So let's, quickly do some 3 books we hope will be spectacular, and then, like, get some sleep.
1:52:21
Tad Eggleston: Or play some video games, depending on how we feel.
1:52:25
Tyler Johnson: Are you playing video games? I'm going to bed.
1:52:27
Tad Eggleston: I think I might play some baseball before I go to bed.
1:52:30
Phil: It's sleep for me, too.
1:52:32
Tyler Johnson: Yeah. Crazy, Ted.
1:52:34
Tad Eggleston: Anyway, 3 books we hope will be subtracted together. I'm gonna start off with… there are actually 3 books that I know…
1:52:43
Tad Eggleston: are spectacular?
1:52:45
Tyler Johnson: Yeah. Coming out.
1:52:46
Tad Eggleston: this week, American Caper No. 3 from David Lapham, Dan Houser, and Laszlo.
1:52:54
Tyler Johnson: so good.
1:52:55
Tad Eggleston: Fucking great.
1:52:56
Tyler Johnson: Yep.
1:52:57
Tad Eggleston: Assorted Crisis Events No. 8 from Dennis Camp and Eric Zowitzki. If you haven't heard enough about it from us already.
1:53:05
Tad Eggleston: here we go, and I think I…
1:53:07
Tad Eggleston: I mean, a few minutes ago that, well, maybe an hour ago.
1:53:11
Tad Eggleston: Number 8 is so good that I would be shocked.
1:53:15
Tad Eggleston: If it's not among my top 3 single issues of the year.
1:53:20
Tad Eggleston: Really?
1:53:20
Tyler Johnson: Huh.
1:53:21
Tad Eggleston: And, and we also just heard about, Powers 25, number 5, continues to kill it. But, but the ones that I hope will be great, Miss Truesdale and the Rise of Man from Mike Mignola and Jesse Lonergan at Dark Horse.
1:53:38
Tyler Johnson: That's a… that's a Hellboy Universe title. It is, and it's a Jesse Lonergan title, and you put the two of those together, and…
1:53:46
Tad Eggleston: Fuck is it great.
1:53:47
Tyler Johnson: Yes.
1:53:49
Tad Eggleston: Save Now, number 0, AND They're All Terrible, number 4.
1:53:55
Tyler Johnson: I like how you sneak in, too.
1:53:58
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, yeah, and they still come in second rather than first, even with the two of them. Because that's how much I love Jesse Lonergan.
1:54:06
Tyler Johnson: Save now looks really good.
1:54:08
Tad Eggleston: Oh, it's so good. It's so good.
1:54:10
Tyler Johnson: desk earlier, and I'm like, I am… So good. Yeah.
1:54:13
Tad Eggleston: Matt, Kent, Juan, Jose, Rip, and Cano on Save Now, Matt Kent and Ramon Villilobos on They're All Terrible. It's from Bad Idea, fantastic. And then Love and Rockets Volume 4, Number 17. Like, this is… this is, like…
1:54:32
Tyler Johnson: So, my daughter saw the cover, it's sitting on my desk. My daughter saw the cover, and she's like, why isn't she wearing any pants? Have you seen the cover?
1:54:43
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, yeah, she's a doctor. She's sitting at the doctor office, yeah.
1:54:45
Tyler Johnson: So I said that to my daughter, and she's just like, why was they picked up the cover?
1:54:53
Tad Eggleston: So… What I was gonna say, the… I mean, yeah, great cover, and I love Lovin' Rockets, period.
1:55:02
Tad Eggleston: But…
1:55:04
Tad Eggleston: there is one ongoing series in history that I like more than Saga, and it's Love and Rockets. And yet, for some reason.
1:55:16
Tad Eggleston: it hasn't made… I don't think it's made any of my top series of the year lists.
1:55:21
Tyler Johnson: Ever, no.
1:55:24
Tad Eggleston: Because they only put out, like, 3 or 4 issues a year.
1:55:28
Tad Eggleston: I say, as I give Saga the top spot when they only had 2.
1:55:33
Tyler Johnson: Two, yup, yup.
1:55:34
Phil: Somebody's throwing out of excuses.
1:55:37
Tyler Johnson: Boom, boom.
1:55:39
Tad Eggleston: I don't… I don't… I don't have an explanation for… for why… why that is.
1:55:45
Tyler Johnson: That's funny.
1:55:48
Tad Eggleston: But, anybody who hasn't experienced Love & Rockets yet needs to. It's available in many, many forms. It's on Hoopla. There is no excuse for not…
1:56:00
Tad Eggleston: having subjected yourself to some lovin' rockets.
1:56:05
Tad Eggleston: Jaime and Beto Hernandez are among the greatest… visual storytellers.
1:56:13
Tad Eggleston: Ever.
1:56:15
Tad Eggleston: And it's just a joy every time there's new material from them.
1:56:19
Tyler Johnson: My favorite, I think it was Jaime Hernandez, when we did the, the Halloween special of, of, yeah.
1:56:30
Tad Eggleston: Jaime is a fantastic voice actor as well.
1:56:32
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, he did… he was Scary Terry. Was that his name?
1:56:36
Tad Eggleston: Gary, Gary.
1:56:37
Tyler Johnson: Gary, Gary.
1:56:38
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, Gary, he dropped the mic, man.
1:56:40
Tyler Johnson: It was fun.
1:56:42
Tad Eggleston: Totally nailed it.
1:56:44
Tad Eggleston: Totally nailed it.
1:56:46
Tyler Johnson: Good times. Man, you know what's fun about this podcast now is, after the few years that it's been going on, we can reminisce about people that we've talked with.
1:56:55
Tad Eggleston: It is a little weird that, like, we can reminisce about previous podcasts now.
1:57:00
Tyler Johnson: Yeah.
1:57:01
Tad Eggleston: That they… that they don't feel like they were yesterday.
1:57:06
Tad Eggleston: So, Phil?
1:57:08
Tad Eggleston: you're… size here. All new, giant-sized trade waiter slash graphic novel pick is…
1:57:15
Phil: I Am Their Silence by Jordy Lafebre, and Montana Kane is the translator over at Dark Horse. It's an intriguing-looking book and an interesting art style, European-looking.
1:57:30
Tad Eggleston: This… this got delayed a little bit. I feel like I've been waiting for this for a long time.
1:57:34
Phil: That seems like…
1:57:35
Tad Eggleston: Very much looking forward to reading it.
1:57:38
Phil: Toss.
1:57:40
Tad Eggleston: Though I will also toss out that we've got Leo rising from Archie Boniovanni?
1:57:46
Tad Eggleston: Who's also a Minneapolis
1:57:50
Tad Eggleston: native. I, I mentioned, Art by Price at the beginning of the, the…
1:57:58
Tad Eggleston: the show, and anybody in the Minneapolis area who wanted to… who help out with things could… could go there to do so. Archie was there today!
1:58:09
Tad Eggleston: Also, I'm hearing great things about Altamont from, from Harakana, and…
1:58:16
Tad Eggleston: Charlie Adlard of Walking Dead fame.
1:58:22
Tad Eggleston: That's… Episode 219… Fuck, man, 219 episodes. Oh, and Phil, you get some power fantasy this week.
1:58:34
Tad Eggleston: Right, yeah. It's a big week for me. Yeah, David Lapham's Good is Dead wraps up this week.
1:58:43
Tad Eggleston: Jacob Phillips wraps up every… Everything Dead and Dying.
1:58:48
Tad Eggleston: I can't remember who's writing that forum right now.
1:58:53
Tad Eggleston: We get the penultimate issue of…
1:58:55
Phil: Brown Ball.
1:58:56
Tad Eggleston: That's right, tape romble. Penultimate issue of Death to Pacheco, second issue of Briar Knight's Terror.
1:59:02
Tad Eggleston: Ninth issue of Exquisite Corpses.
1:59:06
Tad Eggleston: We get new Uncle Scrooge.
1:59:08
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, I saw that, too. In my pile, like, should I buy this? The daycare kids love it, when I buy the Disney issues for them, you know? There's the… there's the new, Lilo and Stitch that… or just Stitch, I should say, that's really popular right now with a lot of kids.
1:59:26
Tyler Johnson: I don't know why I'm pushing Disney comics, but…
1:59:31
Tyler Johnson: They're doing well.
1:59:33
Tad Eggleston: You know, I don't… Love Disney as a corporation.
1:59:39
Tyler Johnson: Yeah.
1:59:40
Tad Eggleston: But… Their characters are great.
1:59:48
Tad Eggleston: and when handled well, are particularly good for kids, and both Dynamite and Phanographics, which are the two companies that have been…
1:59:58
Tad Eggleston: putting out the most Disney stuff lately are taking the responsibility seriously. Yeah. They're not putting out stuff
2:00:08
Tad Eggleston: They're not putting out crap because they know it'll sell, because it's… Lilo and Stitch.
2:00:15
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, exactly.
2:00:16
Tad Eggleston: You know what I mean? Yep. The talent level has been legit.
2:00:22
Tad Eggleston: So, yeah.
2:00:25
Tad Eggleston: That's, episode 219 in the books. One of these days, we'll get back to, like, hour, hour and a half long episodes. I think it's gonna require a week where what kind of week has it been has us talking for less than half an hour.
2:00:40
Tad Eggleston: Yep.
2:00:41
Tyler Johnson: Yeah, I know.
2:00:42
Tad Eggleston: Which I dream of. I dream of that week.
2:00:45
Tad Eggleston: I dream of the week that feels like a week, rather than a year.
2:00:51
Tyler Johnson: Yeah.
2:00:52
Tad Eggleston: So… Me too.
2:00:54
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
2:00:58
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, as I said before, episode 219,
2:01:03
Tyler Johnson: Alright.
2:01:03
Tad Eggleston: listening, 6 comes before 7?
2:01:09
Tad Eggleston: And 6 times 7 is 42, and 42's the meaning of life, and… And… You know.
2:01:17
Tyler Johnson: No, anyway, we'll catch you guys after the next page.