Latest / 22 Panels - A Comic Book Podcast / 22 Panels & Psychocomicology: Joy, Resistance, Hope, and Survival Book Club & Support Group #8 - The Cartoonist's Club

Transcript

22 Panels & Psychocomicology: Joy, Resistance, Hope, and Survival Book Club & Support Group #8 - The Cartoonist's Club · 22 Panels - A Comic Book Podcast

0:02
Tad Eggleston: Good evening, everybody. Welcome back to 22 Panels and the joy…
0:07
Tad Eggleston: Resistance Hope and Survival Book Club, where tonight we will discuss Raina Telgemeyer and Scott McCloud's wonderful young adult
0:17
Tad Eggleston: Friendship slash How to Make Comics Book The Cartoonist Club.
0:23
Tad Eggleston: But… but I like what we started last month of, like, checking in on how everybody's doing, and I know that all of us have, like, things to check in with, so… so who wants to…
0:35
Tad Eggleston: Talk about how they're feeling, and… And…
0:39
Tad Eggleston: Give, give the words, or, or whatever.
0:43
Tad Eggleston: I should have had Lee introduce that, he does it better.
0:46
Lee: No worries, and I'll go ahead and jump in here. You know, it's a group effort, so we can have everyone sort of give their go at it. For me, I am…
0:56
Lee: I'm exhausted.
0:58
Lee: But I'm exhausted, more so mentally, more so… less so physically, because of the new undertaking, that me and Dr. Ramos and, maybe at some point you too, Ted, as we just talked about, with comic shop adventures, so…
1:16
Lee: Really looking forward to that, and with my, limited knowledge in comic books, I want to start growing that, but also at the same time.
1:25
Lee: get back into the gaming circuit and learning more about, Magic the Gathering, which is my,
1:31
Lee: One of my loves of gaming, so…
1:34
Lee: I am exhausted because there's just…
1:38
Lee: Only so much time in the day, and there's so much that I need to get done.
1:41
Tad Eggleston: Fuck!
1:42
Lee: Yeah, sort of thing.
1:43
Tad Eggleston: Why don't we have 36-hour days? Edgar, I thought you were God. When are you gonna give us 36-hour days?
1:50
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I mean, you can have 36-hour days if you, shape your time correctly.
1:55
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Re-evaluate how you time an hour. If an hour… you double it, you have two hours, and you have…
2:02
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I mean, it's just all a matter of perception, how you view it.
2:06
Tad Eggleston: I mean, I guess you're right, time is a construct.
2:09
Dr. Edgar Ramos: It's relative, remember?
2:11
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Some… somebody said time is relative.
2:16
Lee: Yeah, some guy.
2:17
Tad Eggleston: So how about you, Edgar? How are you?
2:20
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Yeah, I think I could echo that term. A quick plug, Psychicomacology has now officially,
2:28
Dr. Edgar Ramos: started, Modern Age Comics out in Algonquin, so we will start blasting some, TikToks and… Instagrams and…
2:39
Dr. Edgar Ramos: whatever social media is out there. But it's a lot, it's been a lot of work, and the learning curve is… is… it's an interesting… it's an interesting process. So, the idea of, happiness and good things is, is a good thing right now to kind of help me focus. You know, trying to run a few different businesses isn't very easy, let me tell you.
2:59
Tad Eggleston: Well, see, I'm gonna… I mean, I'll check in first. First, I'm relieved, because my wife is finally home after a couple.
3:05
Lee: Yes.
3:06
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Good.
3:06
Tad Eggleston: Dealing with stuff that kept her in the hospital while they did all sorts of tests and waited in between tests.
3:15
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I heard Sam.
3:15
Tad Eggleston: anxious, because I go back to work tomorrow.
3:18
Tad Eggleston: And I'm excited, because you guys haven't, like, let me do the tiring part yet, but now that you own it, I get to start jumping into…
3:26
Tad Eggleston: the fun parts, which…
3:28
Tad Eggleston: I'm starting to see some of my fun parts are your tiring parts, so I can't emphasize enough, let me jump into them.
3:37
Tad Eggleston: In fact, as I was rereading Cartoonist Club today, I had… an idea for… A store thing, where… where…
3:49
Tad Eggleston: You know, you could, you could do Cartoonist Club events.
3:54
Tad Eggleston: Where, where, where are you?
3:58
Tad Eggleston: bring the artists we know, my life, my wife, Joe, and or any of the many cartoonists that we know in Chicago, in on, like, a weekend for…
4:08
Tad Eggleston: For, like, let's make mini comics and or Christmas cards.
4:14
Tad Eggleston: That sort of thing. Just the idea that went through my head.
4:18
Tad Eggleston: Is it… possible December event, let me know if you want me to start.
4:23
Tad Eggleston: Setting it up, that sort of thing.
4:28
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Did, your wife did get her care package, right? I think my…
4:31
Tad Eggleston: Yes, she did. She did. She, she, she, she liked her, her…
4:36
Tad Eggleston: See, I got her the dog, what did Sam… Sam got her a different, weighted animal, and I can't remember what it is right now.
4:43
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Was it a Husky?
4:45
Tad Eggleston: Did she get two dogs? No, because I got her a dog, I think Sam got her a different animal, but I could be wrong.
4:53
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I, I, she, checked in with me, so I don't know, so I apologize.
4:58
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, no, that's okay. I feel bad, because I've seen it, I just don't remember what it looked like.
5:03
Dr. Edgar Ramos: That's even worse, Ted.
5:06
Lee: I was there when it was opened!
5:10
Tad Eggleston: But it's been…
5:12
Tad Eggleston: Like, like, the first two days home, Kelly and I were both asleep more than we were awake.
5:19
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I bet, I bet.
5:21
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, no.
5:23
Tad Eggleston: So thanks, Sam, very, very much for that, and I think Kelly actually even sent out a thank you card already. Oh, wow. That's how my wife rolls. She's… she's all about the thank you cards.
5:36
Lee: So, all this gratitude, it makes me wonder, Tad, because I believe, if our memory serves me correctly, and my, sort of, cognitive fatigue.
5:46
Lee: This was a book you recommended, right? Yes. One that represented Joy?
5:50
Tad Eggleston: Yo, this is totally a book that represents joy to me.
5:53
Lee: So, I'm curious, what about this book, character, story, represented joy for you?
5:59
Tad Eggleston: Well, I mean, you…
6:04
Tad Eggleston: Have kids that are just taking joy and creation?
6:10
Tad Eggleston: You deal with some fears, you know, there's the one kid that's… that's…
6:15
Tad Eggleston: Dad wants him to be focused on the math, and, like.
6:20
Tad Eggleston: is… Power. No comic books during the… and you've got, like…
6:26
Tad Eggleston: another kid who's… who lost her dad, and whose mom works really hard, you know? So they have struggles, but they also all find each other, and they find…
6:37
Tad Eggleston: This art form that they enjoy, and they both make friendships and art together, and… And, like…
6:46
Tad Eggleston: it brings me joy on multiple levels. The story itself brings me joy, but the way that they incorporate
6:53
Tad Eggleston: essentially, Scott McCloud's understanding comics into it means that they're also teaching a generation not just about comics, but how to make comics, why comics work, why comics are cool, why comics can do anything.
7:07
Tad Eggleston: You know, I love the things that Art was doing with, like, the choose-your-own-adventure comic, you know, you've got different endings depending on which way you fold it.
7:16
Lee: Yup.
7:17
Tad Eggleston: You know, the type of thing that you see mostly at the small press shows, but every once in a while you see an example of it in the mainstream, and I'll jump all over it, because it's the…
7:30
Tad Eggleston: The opportunity to show people…
7:33
Tad Eggleston: Even in the superhero world that, oh, like, comics are so much cooler than you think they are, even if you think they're cool.
7:40
Lee: Yeah.
7:41
Tad Eggleston: So yeah, that's… That's where my joy comes from with this book, is it's, like, this accessible way… 2…
7:52
Tad Eggleston: share… So much of my joy of the medium.
7:59
Tad Eggleston: You know, not just…
8:02
Tad Eggleston: I mean, because I do. I mean, I love so many of the stories told by the media. You know, most of the other books that we've read for this club have been about the stories.
8:16
Tad Eggleston: You know, with this, sure, there's a story there, but to me, it's about celebrating
8:24
Tad Eggleston: This medium that… that… Bring so many people together and creates such a wonderful community.
8:31
Tad Eggleston: I mean, I can't emphasize enough how much I think the comics community is just…
8:40
Lee: Position.
8:41
Tad Eggleston: a wonderful support network for anybody who's in and around it, you know? I mean, the number of
8:47
Tad Eggleston: I wouldn't know you guys without the comics community, you know?
8:50
Lee: Yeah.
8:52
Tad Eggleston: I was… I was texting with a couple of Eisner Hall of Famers about the Dodgers game.
8:58
Lee: What the hell?
9:00
Tad Eggleston: What the hell world do I live in where I text with?
9:06
Lee: Yeah…
9:07
Tad Eggleston: You know, for that matter, it's become one of the ques… you know, I thought it up.
9:11
Tad Eggleston: randomly, after… when I talked to Matt Wagner and Kelly Jones, who are, in and of themselves, comics legends, you know, it's become one of my questions that I ask, particularly the industry veterans, you know.
9:27
Tad Eggleston: My life has developed so many surreal aspects just because of this podcast.
9:34
Tad Eggleston: And the more I talk to other people in the industry, the more I know that I'm not alone in this, and that it never goes away, it never gets old, it never… you know, so tell me something that happened that never would have happened if you weren't
9:48
Tad Eggleston: a comics creator, or a comics editor, or whatnot, that… that happened, or became a regular thing that just makes you, like, pinch yourself and go, wait a minute, is this my life? Because my 10-year-old self wants to, like, pee in their pants right now.
10:03
Lee: Yeah.
10:04
Lee: It's actually funny, because, just regarding the comic, shop acquisition that, Cyclicia has, gone under recently, is, me and…
10:16
Lee: Edgar had this conversation, just like.
10:20
Lee: what's it like for you to, like, have this comic shop now? And it was like… And, like.
10:26
Lee: did you ever imag… he's like, did you ever imagine you would own a comic book shop? And I'm like, dude, it's so wild to me that just…
10:33
Lee: a mere 10, 12 years ago, I didn't know comic book shops existed.
10:37
Lee: And I jumped into it headfirst, Shea Pepperback single issues, I went down this whole rabbit hole of comics, and now it's just like, wow, like, how powerful comics are. And as you so…
10:52
Lee: Beautifully said, the medium is so important, and so much goes into it, which… Even though…
10:59
Tad Eggleston: so boundless, which I loved that this book brought out. There are no rules. She keeps, she keeps saying over and over again, there are no rules.
11:09
Lee: Yeah, and… So… there's so much that this also did for me. This book brought joy for me, and…
11:17
Lee: not just the… the sort of character arcs, if you will, of some of the characters. Linda really actually, hit me hard, and this, young… young woman.
11:28
Lee: Wow.
11:30
Lee: whom I can only think of as my clinical side comes in is more social anxiety. Such a high expectation of herself, such high standards, so that she's so shy, and she doesn't… or isn't able to relate to people.
11:44
Lee: Until she comes into this club.
11:47
Tad Eggleston: And…
11:48
Lee: going away from these sort of rules and guidelines and things like that, the most profound thing that I realized, and…
11:57
Lee: it was the, I think it was in Chapter 8 of 7 or 8, where it's the,
12:04
Lee: what happens between the lines when Ms. Fatima is like, oh, what happens here in these four different panels? And it's like.
12:11
Lee: Oh, it's the client's, excuse me, my clinical brain, turn that off real quick.
12:17
Tad Eggleston: No, it's okay.
12:18
Lee: It's the reader's brain. It's imagination, right?
12:21
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
12:22
Lee: You don't see it.
12:23
Lee: But you fill in those gaps.
12:25
Lee: And how often, and this is where the clinical comes in for me, is that we typically do that. We fill in the gaps where we either have that information or we don't. But it was such a cool freaking way
12:38
Lee: To illustrate that, and to elaborate on that.
12:42
Lee: Not just with these, artwork and these characters, but…
12:46
Lee: Even in some cases, the character's talking to you.
12:49
Lee: But just because Linda's on my brain right now, this, this young woman, I just recall, like.
12:59
Lee: her journey, and as someone that also sort of struggles with this idea of doing things right, I have to do them the right way. Right. If I don't follow them by…
13:09
Tad Eggleston: Perfect.
13:10
Lee: It's gotta be perfect, which is very…
13:13
Lee: contradictory, if you think about it in terms of therapy, because I think Dr. Ramos mentioned this last week, it was like, we work in the gray area. We're constantly in the gray area. Things are not black and white. And yet, I'm very much like, okay, it has to be this way, I gotta do it this way. And if I don't, I don't feel like it's right.
13:31
Lee: So I've definitely related a lot to Linda, But the more profound thing
13:39
Lee: With what she did and her journey is her little memoir about her family and losing her dad.
13:45
Lee: And how, ultimately, she was able to show that to this club, to this group, to…
13:52
Lee: Maybe even, say, her friends.
13:55
Lee: which that not only got her acceptance into that group, but also, when they first had their, about said Minicon, their comic convention.
14:04
Lee: Where her story also touched.
14:08
Tad Eggleston: Somebody.
14:08
Lee: an emotional level of someone else. And for me, it was like, I almost had that…
14:15
Lee: we call it catharsis. I had a very, like, emotional response, it's like, oh, shit, like, that…
14:21
Lee: That's all you ever really want, is to be able to be spoken to, to be understood.
14:26
Lee: but also be able to have that emotional release for yourself, with whatever that may mean to you. In this case, it seemed more like grief.
14:34
Lee: So, for me, it was… Again, something that seemed like
14:39
Lee: They say not to judge a book by its cover, but I definitely judged it. I was like, okay, this is gonna be a kid thing, come on, Tad, but I'll do it for you, because I love you.
14:47
Lee: But it's like, holy shit!
14:50
Lee: like… It was so simple, but yet so… brilliantly illustrated, And…
14:57
Lee: Just the way it was told was very impactful.
15:01
Lee: And I have a comment about the comic community, but I feel like I've been talking for a lot, and Dr. Ramos looks like he's about to fall asleep, so…
15:09
Tad Eggleston: So we gotta make him talk to wake himself up.
15:11
Lee: Yeah.
15:12
Dr. Edgar Ramos: How can you guys even see me?
15:18
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Need I… need I turn my camera off?
15:21
Dr. Edgar Ramos: No, I've been listening to,
15:25
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Your guys' comments about the book, and trying to…
15:29
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Phrase mine in a manner that doesn't sound, Well, just try.
15:36
Tad Eggleston: They're gonna go all Saga on it.
15:37
Dr. Edgar Ramos: True, true.
15:40
Dr. Edgar Ramos: appropriately. No, I mean, Saga just was terrible, and I can't say that.
15:45
Tad Eggleston: This is what I'm saying.
15:47
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I can't say that about this book. I think…
15:50
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Well, I'll give it a go, and obviously mind me, because I'm not the most,
15:55
Dr. Edgar Ramos: eloquent when it comes to vernacular here, but I… but I will make an attempt.
16:01
Dr. Edgar Ramos: It was good. It was a really good, like…
16:04
Dr. Edgar Ramos: happy-go-lucky read, like, oh, you know, it reminded me of, like, a little kid, like, the first time I tried to make, you know, my first characters, and my first, you know, comic, and trying to put it together, so it was very nostalgic in that sense, like, oh, you know, it was cute in that regard.
16:24
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I liked the characterizations, you know, the… I mean, obviously, I identified with the girl that was the loss of her father. I can't remember her name, but I think that was…
16:33
Tad Eggleston: That was Linda, wasn't it?
16:35
Lee: Yeah, there's London.
16:36
Dr. Edgar Ramos: and I think the word, Lee, is memoir, but .
16:41
Tad Eggleston: That was, that was, that was the character that I really liked, so I did like that… that story side, and I think that was… that was really good.
16:49
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I really like the diversity aspect, that they… it was a very well represented group, and I thought that was good. It was like, you know, I enjoyed that part, like, oh, that's cool to see, you know, it's something that I'd want my kid to read, and I remember, some of her books, and I always mess up, I butcher her last name,
17:09
Tad Eggleston: Talgemeyer?
17:10
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Algemeyer. My middle daughter used to read her… some of her scholastic books, I think Smile was one of them?
17:17
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Oh, and I can't remember the other one.
17:21
Tad Eggleston: child, drama…
17:22
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Dramas.
17:23
Tad Eggleston: I, I, I, it goes mothers and sisters.
17:26
Dr. Edgar Ramos: are the two. Oh, and sisters, I have, but I've never read them, and I never read the other ones, to be quite honest. But I remember them in my daughter's library, and it was funny, because I went back, and I still saw it there, and I'm like…
17:38
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Oh, wow. So my kid was reading this when I, you know, I didn't pick it up, didn't bother to, because it didn't… it didn't call my attention, because it was a kid's book, you know? Why would I read a kid's book?
17:47
Dr. Edgar Ramos: And it just raised so many flags for me, like, man, that's what people think about comics, is like, those are kid books, why would I… so…
17:54
Tad Eggleston: You just hit another reason why I picked this book.
17:58
Dr. Edgar Ramos: So it created this dilemma in me that I… because…
18:01
Dr. Edgar Ramos: as I started from the beginning, I was like, how do I say this without sounding, or without seemingly like I'm coming off like it's a negative book? And by no means do I mean that, it's just that it…
18:13
Dr. Edgar Ramos: it had the image for me, I'm like, oh, this is a kid's book, like, it's cute, you know, whatnot, and, and… but…
18:20
Dr. Edgar Ramos: what it created for me, or what it… it brought me back to the idea of how I perceived, you know, my daughter's books. Like, those are kid books and whatnot, and then here I am reading them as an adult now, and going, like, oh, this was pretty good, like, it was… it was a cute read. Now, mind you, I do have to say.
18:38
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I wasn't in the right mindset to read it. I needed something to really kind of… at the time, I needed something to really escape to. It didn't help me with that, so that's why I was like…
18:50
Tad Eggleston: Sorry about that.
18:51
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Wasn't the right time for me, but… but…
18:54
Dr. Edgar Ramos: But I can appreciate its worth, and obviously, I love Scott McLeod's work as well. So, when I was telling my daughter Ray, I'm like, so I read this, she's like, oh my god, I remember reading that! She's like, that was… all the kids were loving this book, and it was just kind of funny, because it created a dialogue with my daughter, who's, you know, she's, what, 21, 22, and, you know, I'm a 50-year-old man, so I'm like, it created dialogue with us.
19:17
Dr. Edgar Ramos: And it's… it's that, and I, like, it reminds me… this is why I bought
19:22
Dr. Edgar Ramos: a fucking comic book shop. This is why I do what I do, because…
19:27
Dr. Edgar Ramos: it's moments like this, it's not the book in and of itself, it was what it created, the dialogue it created, one between me and my daughter, two, the dialogue between me and my old self of, like, you know, that's a kid's book, I don't really, you know, why am I reading a kid's book? That the stereotype or the bias people have towards comics, and it was just like…
19:47
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Wow, you know, so it reminds me of the beauty of what books
19:52
Dr. Edgar Ramos: have, and we're specific to this one right now, the power that that book had. It wasn't the story in and of itself that I'm even talking about, because it was…
20:01
Dr. Edgar Ramos: those two thoughts that it created was my awareness of my own bias, when I used to say that same bias, and then the ability to engage in a conversation with my kid about her childhood and her reading. It was… it was a tender moment, but it was a great moment, like, wow, like, so… just a lot of thoughts and feelings about that, and you know, we talk about joy, hope, and resistance, you know.
20:24
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I don't…
20:25
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I… if I had to categorize emotions toward each particular word, when we talk about resistance, was the resistance of myself
20:34
Dr. Edgar Ramos: and seeing my own bias that, well, no, I have to read, you know, Tom King and Lemire, and I, you know, I'm much more into, like, you know, right now, calling Bun and looking at horror, and I like more adult, you know, books, and it's just, like, my own resistance towards the reality that all books can create moments and, and,
20:54
Dr. Edgar Ramos: dynamics in people that can reflect on their past life, or create conversations with others. But it was my own resistance towards that, so there's…
21:04
Dr. Edgar Ramos: the joy was the joy of seeing my daughter, like, laugh and giggle, like, oh, I remember reading that as a kid, and seeing her happy, relay… relaying a book she had as a kid, and now seeing, like, oh, you're reading? Like, that was a priceless moment. And hope, I'd have… I'd have to categorize the hope is…
21:24
Dr. Edgar Ramos: the hope that I don't ever forget that again. That I don't ever forget that kids… books aren't just for kids, even if they're scholastic books, you know, because that's what I, you know, see, or…
21:36
Tad Eggleston: To a certain extent, especially if they're scholastic books.
21:39
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Correct, or because the cover or the artist is known for certain styles or whatnot, like, a book is a book, and it's a beautiful thing, and you can learn from a child's book that, you know, only has one word, and it made me think of a book,
21:57
Dr. Edgar Ramos: right now, and I can't think of the name of it, but it only has the word moo in it.
22:02
Dr. Edgar Ramos: And, you know, and it's just like, wow, but you have to learn how to read this.
22:07
Tad Eggleston: Do you mean kind of like, I am Groot?
22:09
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Yeah.
22:11
Dr. Edgar Ramos: And it's just like…
22:13
Dr. Edgar Ramos: You know, books are amazing things, and this is why I do this, and this is why I invested in this, is that.
22:19
Tad Eggleston: Alright.
22:19
Dr. Edgar Ramos: they create these moments. If a 51-year-old, you know.
22:23
Tad Eggleston: quote, educated man can learn from something that says Moo, you know, or… Right.
22:27
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Well, anybody can, you know? I'm like, I'm by far not the smartest man, not, you know, anything, I'm…
22:33
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I'm learning to accept and humbly say that I'm just a man that just wants to keep on learning and understanding, but more so understanding myself to better help understand others, and it's books that really help create those moments for me. So yeah, so this book did a lot for me in that regard.
22:50
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I'm gonna… I, I have,
22:53
Tad Eggleston: a comment, and then a story to tell. My comment is, like, what Raina Telgemeyer does so well is she makes what I call true all-ages books, which is, yeah, they are absolutely designed to be read by
23:10
Tad Eggleston: Often very young children.
23:12
Tad Eggleston: And appeal to them, but that doesn't mean that they're without
23:18
Tad Eggleston: huge value for people of all ages. You know, too often when we say all ages, it means that there's nothing objectionable to any age. Well, like, it's different to not be objectionable and to be interesting. You know, bone is all ages, because…
23:36
Tad Eggleston: it's interesting to adults, and it's interesting to kids. The Simpsons is all ages, because it's interesting to adults, and it's interesting to kids, you know? And Raina Telgemeyer is just…
23:49
Tad Eggleston: Brilliant at that.
23:51
Tad Eggleston: But then, it particularly… and I love that you called it books, not even comics, because it reminded me of a story that my wife told.
24:01
Tad Eggleston: She teaches middle school, and each class, she'll start off with, like, the icebreaker, tell me your favorite, or…
24:09
Tad Eggleston: You know, everybody has to share something. And she told me about how she had two days running, where one day she said, what's your favorite comic?
24:19
Tad Eggleston: And almost everybody responded that they didn't read comics. Comics were for kids, blah blah blah blah blah.
24:26
Tad Eggleston: And then the next day, she asked what…
24:30
Tad Eggleston: what their favorite book was, and more than half the class listed a Raina Telgemeyer book, and more than three-quarters of the class listed a graphic novel of some sort.
24:41
Tad Eggleston: And she's like, these are all comics. And like, across the board, they were like, oh, we just thought they were books.
24:50
Tad Eggleston: Because in their mind, comics meant superheroes.
24:53
Lee: Yeah.
24:55
Lee: That was another thing that stood out to me, is like, because I don't remember reading this book growing up, so I'm like, I read this one… Well, this is… this is relatively new. This book came out this year.
25:05
Lee: Oh, well, that makes sense then. Right.
25:08
Tad Eggleston: Or maybe last year, one of the two. But…
25:11
Tad Eggleston: Rain has been for a while.
25:14
Lee: But this idea, like, comics can be anything.
25:16
Lee: I was like, yeah.
25:18
Lee: It has. So, how long have I been reading comics?
25:23
Lee: Without knowing that they were comics.
25:25
Tad Eggleston: I mean, did you read the Sunday Funnies?
25:28
Lee: I did, or my favorite part…
25:29
Tad Eggleston: comics.
25:31
Lee: 100%.
25:32
Tad Eggleston: You know?
25:34
Tad Eggleston: Comics, graphic novels, I mean, like…
25:38
Tad Eggleston: Anytime where words and pictures are used to… convey information together.
25:44
Tad Eggleston: is a comic.
25:45
Tad Eggleston: Or at least it can be.
25:48
Tad Eggleston: You know, Scott, in understanding comics, insists that single panel comics aren't really comics, but I disagree with him on that. I think that they often tell a story in a single panel.
26:04
Lee: For sure.
26:05
Tad Eggleston: Just, like, words aren't actually necessary to make a comic.
26:09
Lee: -
26:10
Lee: Nope.
26:13
Dr. Edgar Ramos: You know, what's funny to me is that…
26:16
Dr. Edgar Ramos: We almost treat comics and graphic novels and, you know, omnis and, you know, compendiums and…
26:24
Dr. Edgar Ramos: whatnot, we treat this world kind of like we treat the people that live in it as well, is that we all aren't American, we have to be, you know, Mexican-American, African American. We have to denote us by our ethnic heritage, but not just the fact we're all American. We have to say, no, well, you're Mexican-American. No, I'm American, that comes from…
26:43
Tad Eggleston: Bye.
26:44
Dr. Edgar Ramos: You know, why can't that be American-Mexican? Why does that come first? And it's kind of like, why… why are they not called books, you know, comic books, and why not they're books that, you know, feature comic art? Or, you know, like… like, why do we…
26:55
Tad Eggleston: To me, I actually prefer if we call them all comics, so that we separate them from books, just because…
27:01
Tad Eggleston: The medium is different, but I get what you're saying.
27:04
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Yeah, you know, I mean, and to me, I mean, I prefer, like, they're all books!
27:08
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Right? They're at general, they're all books, and there's sub-genres of them. I definitely agree, I'm not, by no means do I say that they're not different, there's not different, you know.
27:18
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Modalities in them, but…
27:20
Lee: But they're all…
27:21
Dr. Edgar Ramos: books, and that…
27:23
Tad Eggleston: Huh?
27:23
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Me, that's the key.
27:25
Tad Eggleston: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
27:27
Tad Eggleston: But yeah, no, that's…
27:29
Tad Eggleston: this is just… I love this book, I'm glad that you guys loved it, and you're right, I did kind of pick it out as a challenge, because it's like, I'd been… I'd been kind of nudging it for a while, and had everybody, like.
27:43
Tad Eggleston: God, no, no, let's do this serious book, and let's do that serious book. And it's like, I love these serious books, but there's a reason why I've been suggesting this book. I'm putting my foot down. I want to see what happens.
27:57
Lee: And I gotta say, I appreciate it, and again, even though the…
28:00
Lee: going back to my resistance, much like Dr. Ramos was like.
28:04
Lee: Yeah, it's like, come on, Ted, kid's book? Okay, I get what you're getting at with the joy, but it was legit, like, joyful, and…
28:12
Lee: Even now, reflecting back on it, especially when with you talking about the comet community, how…
28:20
Lee: It sounds like, in some cases, you can build other people up and provide that support.
28:25
Lee: And… or even provide those positive emotional experiences. I do forget this character's name in the book, but it was the…
28:35
Lee: the famous comic creator that came back to the Comic-Con at the.
28:39
Tad Eggleston: Oh, oh.
28:41
Lee: Is that Jackie? Yeah.
28:43
Tad Eggleston: Yeah. I mean, it was a fictional creator, so it's…
28:46
Lee: Yeah.
28:47
Tad Eggleston: Doesn't matter as much.
28:49
Tad Eggleston: But I think so, yeah.
28:52
Tad Eggleston: That was a great moment, when she started sending all the people from her table over.
28:57
Lee: Yeah, yeah. And then you just see the, like, the look over with the thumbs up, and it's like, that's so fucking cool. That is Jackie.
29:06
Lee: Jackie, okay, so this, comic creator, Jackie, was just like, man, that's such a cool fucking thing to lift up.
29:14
Tad Eggleston: Well, and, like, you've just hit on two of my favorite panels in the book, too, because I didn't bring up before with the… with the, in the, in the…
29:24
Tad Eggleston: and the chapter about the space between the panels, I love the one where it's got the two people waving to each other, but then it fills it in in the unexpected way. Yes.
29:35
Tad Eggleston: Before showing you the more expected way. Like, and that's one of the cool things about comics, too, is they can absolutely mess with, oh, let's show you a couple panels and make you think it's this, and now, no, it's not.
29:49
Tad Eggleston: But… but I also… I love… I love the bottom panel where they're meeting Jackie, because I've had that experience.
29:58
Tad Eggleston: Both as the oh-my-god person.
30:02
Lee: Like the kids are.
30:03
Tad Eggleston: and in Fatima's role of the, oh yeah, that's right, my friend is famous.
30:13
Lee: Yeah.
30:14
Tad Eggleston: I mean, I kinda… I mean, even thinking about, like, an Ed… it took a minute for Edgar to remember who he was, so there was a delayed response, but, like, I casually introduced Edgar to Eddie Campbell at.
30:28
Lee: Yup.
30:28
Tad Eggleston: at…
30:29
Lee: E2, E2 this year.
30:31
Tad Eggleston: Like, 5 minutes later, when he managed to Google him, he's like, wait a minute!
30:34
Tad Eggleston: Heated from hell!
30:36
Lee: Yep. Oh, that was… I was there, and I also was just like… I just remember you as, Edgar was talking to him. He's like, he's gonna shit his pants when he finds out who he is. I'm like…
30:49
Lee: Alright!
30:51
Lee: What can I say? My memory's failing me nowadays.
30:54
Tad Eggleston: No, it's okay, because, I mean, it's similar, like…
30:59
Tad Eggleston: I have a friend who's… who's a, like… A serious indie cartoonist.
31:06
Tad Eggleston: But he's enough of a cartoonist that, like.
31:10
Tad Eggleston: He knows his stature versus some other people's stature. And his wife's a smoker. And, like, anybody who's ever been a smoker knows that smokers get to know each other just because they're hanging out at the same spot having cigarette breaks together. So his wife would meet all sorts of people.
31:27
Tad Eggleston: That he might be afraid to introduce himself to.
31:31
Tad Eggleston: And, like, she was telling me about this one day, when I'd gone out, I had already quit smoking, but I have my sensory issues, so I'd gone out to hang out with her while she was smoking, because there were just less people. She's telling me about this, and how many times when…
31:48
Tad Eggleston: when she'd be just talking to somebody, like, Carl would come up, and, like, he'd talk to, and as soon as the person walked away, he'd lean into her and go.
31:56
Lee: That was a rock star!
32:00
Tad Eggleston: And I thought it was hilarious, but then… but then he came out, and then another friend of mine came out, and I said, hey, you know, talked to the friend, and introduced them to Carl, and whatnot, and the friend then went on to their hotel, and Carl leaned over to Kelly and went.
32:16
Tad Eggleston: That was a rock star!
32:23
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I never meet a rock star.
32:26
Tad Eggleston: What do you mean? I introduced you to rock stars.
32:29
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I'm totally kidding, totally teasing.
32:33
Tad Eggleston: But yeah, no, it's this weird world where… like…
32:41
Tad Eggleston: I mean, Raina Telgemeyer is a…
32:45
Tad Eggleston: Among the best-selling authors in the world now.
32:49
Tad Eggleston: of any books. We're not just talking comic books, right? You know, her books sell millions of copies and are translated into
32:58
Tad Eggleston: Dozens of languages.
33:01
Tad Eggleston: When she was at… CXC a couple years ago.
33:06
Tad Eggleston: I saw her checking in with so many people that were friends of hers.
33:11
Tad Eggleston: From, like, art school, and or when she was still sent…
33:16
Tad Eggleston: And, like, laughing with them, like, her status in the world had not changed at all.
33:22
Tad Eggleston: You know, people who were still selling their homemade comics, right?
33:29
Tad Eggleston: Or maybe a few steps up from that, but, like… I mean, it's like…
33:40
Tad Eggleston: It's cool when people… and part of it is that, like, comic superstardom, just like even most book superstardom.
33:49
Lee: doesn't actually…
33:51
Tad Eggleston: Make it so you can't go to the grocery store for fear of being recognized.
33:55
Lee: Yeah.
33:56
Tad Eggleston: Which… which changes the calculus a little bit, but it's still…
34:01
Tad Eggleston: Really cool to me when people can become wildly successful in their fields.
34:08
Tad Eggleston: But really not change a lot.
34:11
Lee: Certainly not.
34:12
Tad Eggleston: around their friends.
34:14
Lee: I mean…
34:14
Dr. Edgar Ramos: That's a humble thing, is… and I think that's…
34:17
Lee: It's a hard thing to do, I think, for some people, because unfortunately, We'll give you referral.
34:23
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Success or, recognition changes people, and in…
34:29
Tad Eggleston: No.
34:30
Dr. Edgar Ramos: And it's hard to not change with it, you know, because it… to a degree, yeah, I mean, I think I said it the first time, it changes you, whether you want to or not. It does change you. It's how you…
34:40
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Change is really the hard part, is how much you can do and how you handle that. It's difficult, yeah. And there's a lot of down-to-earth, but you know, there's quite a few that are, you know, a little too important to say hi to you.
34:54
Tad Eggleston: I'm not… I'm not saying it never happens.
34:58
Tad Eggleston: And again, like, I didn't manage to put the courage together to go introduce myself to Raina that time around, even when she was talking to friends of mine.
35:06
Tad Eggleston: And, like, she wasn't going out of her way to talk to everybody, but, like.
35:12
Tad Eggleston: The friends of mine that were friends of hers, that… that…
35:16
Tad Eggleston: That weren't necessarily rock stars, because they were friends of hers before the… you know, she didn't forget them either.
35:22
Tad Eggleston: Does that make sense?
35:24
Tad Eggleston: And for that matter, I've talked to a few of them, and, like, know that…
35:29
Tad Eggleston: oh yeah, I talk to Raina all the time, and it's like, that's just… weird and awesome.
35:37
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
35:39
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Yeah.
35:40
Lee: Well, it reminds me of the podcast with, Joe Kelly and Ken Namora on 22 Panels, right? It was like, I'm over here geeking out, and that's why, again, you don't hear me for the first 50 minutes of that interview.
35:53
Tad Eggleston: She's sitting there going.
35:54
Lee: It's… it's Joe Kelly. Bro, could…
35:56
Tad Eggleston: Well, and it… wasn't that, like, the first one that you were involved in? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, no, I mean, I remember, like, the first guest I had…
36:06
Tad Eggleston: I mean, the first guest we had, I think, was Christopher Sibella.
36:09
Tad Eggleston: And I like Sabella's work, but he's not even one of my rock stars, but… but he's… he's somebody who I appreciate that I was nervous as hell.
36:17
Tad Eggleston: You know? And then… and then, like…
36:21
Tad Eggleston: I remember vividly writing the email to Jeff Smith after he followed us on Twitter.
36:28
Lee: I'm like…
36:29
Tad Eggleston: Wait a minute, we got a follow from Jeff Smith? This can't be right.
36:37
Lee: But I remember that one phrase, like, after breaking my silence, and I know you had made, like, a comment, I was like, oh, he speaks!
36:45
Tad Eggleston: What?
36:45
Lee: And I'm talk… joke is like, you know, I'm just a guy, man, I'm just a normal dude, just talk to me, like, ask me.
36:51
Tad Eggleston: What?
36:52
Lee: And it was like, Yeah.
36:55
Lee: When you think about these rock stars, or these artists, creators, writers that are on the way to rock stardom.
37:03
Lee: that… to some degree, like, even Gene Ha, right? I remember meeting Gene Ha, and, like, he's… around there.
37:12
Tad Eggleston: Gene is so… I need to have him on the show still.
37:15
Tad Eggleston: But he's so down-to-earth. I've talked to him in person a few times.
37:21
Tad Eggleston: He's… he's such a cool guy.
37:23
Tad Eggleston: And a guy that we should reach out to
37:27
Tad Eggleston: In terms of coming to hang out at your store.
37:30
Lee: And or maybe make comics with people.
37:34
Lee: Yeah.
37:35
Tad Eggleston: That's… that's… Of the Instagram.
37:38
Tad Eggleston: He drew a picture for my daughter, yeah.
37:41
Dr. Edgar Ramos: A while back, so yeah, and he was very down-to-earth, and…
37:44
Dr. Edgar Ramos: wasn't charging anybody. I mean, you can tell he loves what he does, and it's just, like, help the store out, like, he's for the community. That's impressive to me. I love that about him.
37:58
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
37:58
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
37:59
Tad Eggleston: Well, I mean, I was talk- who was I talking to recently?
38:03
Tad Eggleston: One of the people out in Portland.
38:06
Tad Eggleston: Was talking about… Oh, I was talking to Todd Migniola.
38:12
Tad Eggleston: So, Mike's brother.
38:14
Tad Eggleston: Yep.
38:16
Tad Eggleston: And he was talking about how…
38:19
Tad Eggleston: he got welcomed into, you know, I think it's Steve Lieber set up a regular
38:25
Tad Eggleston: Just comic people get-together, where they could get together and…
38:29
Tad Eggleston: Hang out, and talk comics, and network with each other, and whatnot, and like…
38:35
Tad Eggleston: as Todd started writing comics, he was… Almost afraid to go, but…
38:41
Tad Eggleston: But he's like, well, I mean, my last name's gonna get me in.
38:48
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Is that right?
38:48
Tad Eggleston: And he was just blown away at how, like, yeah, some of them started talking to him because of his last name, but, like, very quickly, it just became he was Todd.
38:58
Tad Eggleston: And they were just talking comics.
39:00
Tad Eggleston: You know…
39:01
Tad Eggleston: That actually made me think, you know, Steve Lieber, who's just… I mean, Steve Lieber's a legend in his own right. He does, I want to say, a monthly…
39:11
Tad Eggleston: Like, office hours at a comic shop?
39:14
Tad Eggleston: We'll hang out for an afternoon at one of the Portland comic shops, and if you want to bring your portfolio in for him to look at and critique and whatnot, he will.
39:26
Tad Eggleston: You know… I mean, how cool is that?
39:32
Tad Eggleston: How cool is that for the… for the comic shop? How cool is that… is that for any aspiring author, or… or… or…
39:40
Tad Eggleston: or artists in… in the Portland area.
39:43
Tad Eggleston: And this sort of thing doesn't actually feel…
39:48
Tad Eggleston: Like, abnormal in the comics world.
39:51
Tad Eggleston: Like, like, if you heard that, like…
39:55
Tad Eggleston: Quentin Tarantino was holding court at the video store and wanted you to bring your short film in for him to look at once a month.
40:06
Tad Eggleston: I mean, first of all, I mean, he couldn't, because the line would just be too long.
40:12
Lee: Right.
40:13
Tad Eggleston: But, I mean, and that's part of how it works, is, like, you can be famous in comics and still not be so famous that you…
40:22
Tad Eggleston: can't maintain… A humble lifestyle.
40:29
Tad Eggleston: So it becomes more of a choice of who do you want to be.
40:32
Lee: Oh, yeah.
40:34
Tad Eggleston: You know…
40:36
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I just want to be a comic shop owner.
40:38
Tad Eggleston: Well, you are now.
40:40
Lee: You already made it.
40:41
Tad Eggleston: hate it.
40:43
Tad Eggleston: He made it!
40:44
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Now I gotta keep running it to make sure it.
40:46
Tad Eggleston: I just want to buy your comics for you, man.
40:49
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Well, we're expecting you to switch your pull list now to us.
40:53
Tad Eggleston: I will… I mean, I already told my shop that to stop ordering me stuff.
40:59
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I gotta…
41:00
Tad Eggleston: But also, I mean, I told you that I have a line on a multiple hundred dollar monthly pull list that we just have to send out to New Jersey. Hi, Andy.
41:10
Dr. Edgar Ramos: We're gonna give you guys some good discounts, and we gotta get…
41:14
Tad Eggleston: No, Andy doesn't even want the discount. He wants us to have the money.
41:17
Lee: I would…
41:19
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I, I, I do want…
41:20
Tad Eggleston: He told me that he intends to pay for the shipping.
41:23
Dr. Edgar Ramos: That's… that would be even better. I'd like to have a scholastic affair, fair… a fair. I'd like to have a scholastic fair.
41:33
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
41:33
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I think that would be really good, and I want people like Tegelmeyer and McCloud, and have them there, and talk about their books, and have, like, kids there. I, like, I think we always have adults showing up, which is great. I want kids there to see that.
41:47
Tad Eggleston: No, no, no, I mean, half of what I've been thinking about already is stuff aimed at…
41:52
Lee: I pledge allegiance to the…
41:55
Tad Eggleston: Any of the people at the comic shop?
41:57
Tad Eggleston: Who are there for their pull lists.
42:00
Tad Eggleston: who have kids, seeing the ads and going, oh, I gotta bring my daughter in on Saturday.
42:06
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Yep, that's… that's what I want. We got, you know, having…
42:10
Tad Eggleston: who don't realize that they share comics with their kids, because I'm, like, I'm sometimes blown away by that. The guy that has the $50 a week pull list…
42:20
Tad Eggleston: And thinks his kids don't like comics because they don't read superheroes.
42:24
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Yep.
42:25
Dr. Edgar Ramos: that, you know, they think they're two… it's on two different spectrums. It's like, they were doing the same thing. Right. Unifying that, absolutely, that's what I want to see.
42:35
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Right. So we will have a children's section and a children's little area for them, specifically.
42:40
Tad Eggleston: Oh, I mean, in terms of looking at stuff for building out stuff, I've had a very special focus on YA and children.
42:50
Lee: You know.
42:51
Tad Eggleston: Trying to figure out the best way to fill those out.
42:56
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Based on the…
42:57
Tad Eggleston: distributors that we have right now, and what distributors we might… I think Scholastic might actually distribute directly, so that's something to look into.
43:05
Dr. Edgar Ramos: We'll have a… we'll have a podcast just on this one day.
43:09
Tad Eggleston: Hey, no, what I should do, and it's actually been bouncing around in my head. I mean, right here, I have information for… for… for,
43:20
Tad Eggleston: Katie Pride of Books and Pictures out in…
43:24
Tad Eggleston: Portland. I know, I know Hank, who owns Bulletproof Comics in Brooklyn.
43:30
Tad Eggleston: patrick Brower at, at,
43:35
Tad Eggleston: Challengers Comics and Conversation, you know, I'd been meaning to do a roundtable of
43:41
Tad Eggleston: of great comic shop owners for a while, so, like, now we have an excuse. Let's do it where they teach you how to do your job.
43:50
Dr. Edgar Ramos: That would be great, I would love to learn that.
43:52
Tad Eggleston: I'll start looking at it, Edgar.
43:56
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I can… I can commit to that, that would be great.
43:59
Tad Eggleston: You know.
44:01
Tad Eggleston: But, I'm, I'm, I'm really glad that…
44:06
Tad Eggleston: I was able to surprise you guys with this book.
44:09
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I know.
44:10
Tad Eggleston: Edgar's already read next month's book and liked it as well.
44:13
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Oh, I… I loved it, yeah. I gotta admit, yeah, like, this one, it wasn't the story itself, it was the… what it did all around me that was just marvelous, and… and yeah, it was… it was… yeah, it was amazing to that regard. I… I appreciate that so much, so it's something.
44:30
Tad Eggleston: Well, but again, that's part of the marvel of comics, is that, like, you can appreciate them in a thousand different ways. Like, you can be, this story's okay, but I love these characters, or this art is amazing, and I love losing myself in it, but the story's.
44:49
Dr. Edgar Ramos: You know, or… I wish I could say that everything in between.
44:54
Tad Eggleston: Oh my goodness.
44:55
Tad Eggleston: One of these days, we will suck you into Saga.
44:59
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I mean, I guess if I… if I lose all mental capacity.
45:03
Tad Eggleston: No, no. What it really is, is we need to find you an independent therapist.
45:09
Dr. Edgar Ramos: For years.
45:10
Tad Eggleston: you to take the saga with you and go, why can't I read this? I know that this is a great book, help me get through my own issues.
45:17
Tad Eggleston: So that I can appreciate this book.
45:20
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I liked Runaways, I liked Why the Last Man? Not a fan of Saga, not a fan of Pride, either, for that matter.
45:26
Lee: Oh, stop it.
45:28
Tad Eggleston: Not a fan of which?
45:30
Lee: Pride to Baghdad?
45:31
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I did.
45:33
Tad Eggleston: Not a fan of Pride of Baghdad?
45:34
Lee: Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
45:36
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Oh, no.
45:39
Lee: You know.
45:39
Tad Eggleston: I mean, this is funny to me, because you're… you're… you're… you're the psychologist. You're the ones… one that wants to help people be in touch with the… and… and deal…
45:50
Tad Eggleston: Appropriately with their feelings, and books that make you feel things you don't like.
45:55
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Well, sadly, it just didn't make me feel anything.
46:01
Tad Eggleston: Saga didn't make you feel anything?
46:02
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Oh!
46:04
Dr. Edgar Ramos: It doesn't… I don't know why I did. I am not… I cannot…
46:07
Tad Eggleston: I mean, when we dug into this with Sheriff of Babylon, it turned out that it actually made you feel a lot of things, it just wasn't things you wanted to feel.
46:14
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Very different, but it was people, and it was like, oh, I got it, I got it, but the… it's these anthropomorphic ones that just don't… I… I can't… I can't do it.
46:22
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I don't know why. I mean, outside of the Thundercats, I really don't do the anthropomorphic.
46:28
Tad Eggleston: So you don't do Usagi either?
46:30
Dr. Edgar Ramos: No. I mean, so I used to read way back in the day, I liked Yusaki Hojimbo, I thought that was good, but I was a lot younger. I read some of the Turtles, the original series, I thought that was cool when I was younger. Got out of them, up until I read the newest one, the Turtles, the…
46:50
Tad Eggleston: Jason Aaron?
46:51
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Is that the one where he loses his brothers?
46:55
Tad Eggleston: Oh, oh, the, the, the, the Ronin.
46:58
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Ronan, oh.
46:58
Tad Eggleston: Last Ronin, yeah, yeah.
46:59
Dr. Edgar Ramos: That was amazing, like, it was like, I wanted to read more of it, like, that was…
47:04
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Oh my god, we can talk about that one… that one all day.
47:06
Tad Eggleston: Well, we'll have to do it sometime.
47:07
Dr. Edgar Ramos: And I just started picking… because of that, I just went back and bought, you know, the Omni, or the Compendium of Yasagi Ojimbo.
47:16
Tad Eggleston: Good.
47:16
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Read that.
47:17
Tad Eggleston: I love Usaki.
47:18
Dr. Edgar Ramos: And that helped me start… restart Lone Wolf and Cub, which I haven't read since 85.
47:22
Tad Eggleston: to our Loven off and cuff.
47:23
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I mean, I haven't read that in, what, 30-something years?
47:25
Tad Eggleston: Oh, yeah. I actually need to read some of his… I've read all of Lone Wolf and Cub, and I've read all of Lady Snowblood.
47:33
Dr. Edgar Ramos: But I've only read a couple of…
47:35
Tad Eggleston: volumes of Samurai Executioner, and only a couple of volumes of Path of the Assassin. So I need to… I need to finish those off.
47:44
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I read way too many of those.
47:45
Tad Eggleston: Frying Freeman's also supposed to be really good, and I don't think I've read any of that.
47:51
Dr. Edgar Ramos: it's causing me to reread some of the things I read as a kid, And re-reading them, you know?
47:56
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
47:57
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Kind of like Rundle.
47:59
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, Grendel's great. I need to read more Grendel, I haven't finished all of Grendel. You should read, though, like…
48:08
Tad Eggleston: Matt calls it Kelly's magnum opus, and Kelly calls it the best thing Matt's ever written. You should read their Dracula books.
48:18
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I've read the first two volumes, and they're outstanding. The third just finished kickstarting.
48:23
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I'll, I'm gonna, I'm gonna pick him up.
48:25
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
48:27
Tad Eggleston: I think they, they're… they… I think they released through Dark Horse when…
48:32
Tad Eggleston: So I think Dark Horse has them.
48:34
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I might… I may already have it, I just haven't.
48:36
Tad Eggleston: Matt Wagner and Kelly Jones.
48:39
Dr. Edgar Ramos: None of my reasons.
48:40
Dr. Edgar Ramos: the, the, the…
48:41
Tad Eggleston: Two that are available right now are…
48:44
Tad Eggleston: what was Book 1 called? I forget what Book 1 was called. And then Book 2 was the brides.
48:53
Tad Eggleston: And Book 3 will be the count. And it's essentially the Dracula mythos, only… from…
49:01
Tad Eggleston: more from Dracula's perspective, and filling in, you know, because Dracula itself is an epistle…
49:08
Tad Eggleston: epistolary novel. It's told through…
49:11
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Letters and through newspaper clippings and whatnot.
49:15
Tad Eggleston: So it kind of fills in some of the gaps.
49:20
Tad Eggleston: Is, is what they, they set out to do, and it's just, it's beautiful.
49:24
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I will take a read of it.
49:26
Tad Eggleston: But you guys have a meeting. We do. So, I gotta, like, let you go. But again, I'm so happy that I threw down the gauntlet, and that you guys picked it up, and accepted the challenge, and enjoyed it.
49:44
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Ready for that?
49:45
Tad Eggleston: because you guys are psychologists, I'm gonna tell you that…
49:50
Tad Eggleston: You should probably read the rest of Raina's stuff, too.
49:53
Dr. Edgar Ramos: My daughter has them in her library, I gotta… I'm gonna go pull them out and read them myself, just to see.
49:59
Tad Eggleston: They deal with… I mean, Guts is about, like, anxiety.
50:05
Tad Eggleston: It's literally about anxiety.
50:07
Dr. Edgar Ramos: My wife said that. She's like, you know this one's about anxiety. I'm like.
50:11
Tad Eggleston: Right.
50:11
Dr. Edgar Ramos: I didn't know, I'm like, okay, so now it has my curiosity.
50:14
Tad Eggleston: It's about getting sick because of anxiety.
50:17
Dr. Edgar Ramos: You know I'm gonna review the crap out of it clinically now.
50:20
Lee: Right?
50:21
Tad Eggleston: And you won't be the first one. I mean, like, like…
50:24
Dr. Edgar Ramos: We'll email her.
50:26
Tad Eggleston: I had been the one that was… was on the…
50:30
Tad Eggleston: I hadn't actually read any Reyna. I'd been meaning to, until the reviews for Guts started coming out, and, like.
50:38
Tad Eggleston: half of the reviews I was reading were from adults saying, A, I wish this had been around when I was a kid, and B, even though I'm not a kid right now, it's so valuable.
50:55
Tad Eggleston: So yeah, no, guts… and for that matter, you know, I mean, smile is about dealing with
51:01
Tad Eggleston: I mean, on one level, it's about dealing with, like, horrendous braces with headgear and all that stuff, but really, it's about, like…
51:08
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Reminds me of Lee when he was younger.
51:10
Tad Eggleston: Well, dealing with that… Being that kid that doesn't fit in as easily.
51:17
Lee: Yep.
51:19
Tad Eggleston: You know,
51:22
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, they're actually… I'll have to do this from time to time, because there are actually a lot of really great…
51:29
Tad Eggleston: middle grade and young adult novels, and, like, if you want to sell them at your store, and I know you do.
51:36
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Of course.
51:36
Tad Eggleston: Good to know them.
51:38
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Yeah, I definitely would.
51:39
Tad Eggleston: Because then you can't… then you can not just say, hey, I know this one sells a lot, or the kids like this one right now. You can talk to the parent, like, parent to parent, and say, hey, not only is your kid gonna love this because of this, it deals with this, and this, and this, and it's gonna help them.
51:59
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Agreed.
52:00
Tad Eggleston: No.
52:01
Dr. Edgar Ramos: Alright, I have to get going.
52:03
Tad Eggleston: Thank you guys so much for.
52:04
Dr. Edgar Ramos: It's a pleasure.
52:05
Tad Eggleston: for…
52:06
Tad Eggleston: Apology, this has been the Joy, Resistance, Hope, and Survival Book Club, and we will see you after the next page.