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Saga Book Club #9 - Volume 9 · 22 Panels - A Comic Book Podcast

0:03
Tad Eggleston: Good evening, everybody! Welcome back to the Saga.
0:07
Tad Eggleston: Book Club, We're gonna talk about Volume 9.
0:13
Tad Eggleston: We knew we had to do it sometime.
0:16
Tad Eggleston: And this is the month.
0:17
Tad Eggleston: I may have sent out an email, To everyone, earlier today, That essentially just said, Every time.
0:28
Tad Eggleston: This fucking hurts. Every.
0:31
Tad Eggleston: Fucking time.
0:33
Tad Eggleston: And it's so goddamn beautiful.
0:38
Tad Eggleston: Cuz you gotta give Fiona a lot of credit.
0:42
Tad Eggleston: Hell, you gotta give Brian credit, even though I don't want to.
0:51
Tad Eggleston: For how beautiful they made.
0:54
Tad Eggleston: the most… gut-wrenching…
0:59
Tad Eggleston: horrifying. Was it really necessary? Can I come over to your house and beat you over the head with a baseball bat? Because that's what I feel like
1:13
Tad Eggleston: what, 10 pages of comics ever?
1:18
Marisol: Raise your hand if you've been personally victimized by Brian Vaughn and Fiona Staples.
1:23
Tad Eggleston: Let's get the class action suit going.
1:27
Marisol: As a whole group.
1:30
Tad Eggleston: I remember I was actually in…
1:34
Tad Eggleston: South Dakota, with my wife, visiting her family, my in-laws, when this… Issue came out.
1:45
Tad Eggleston: And even though I had a copy waiting at home, we picked up a copy at the comic shop there, because there was no way I was waiting to read the new.
1:55
Tad Eggleston: Saga.
1:57
Tad Eggleston: And, I was on a rocking chair.
2:01
Tad Eggleston: That was looking out at the… the cat's…
2:04
Tad Eggleston: So my wife was on a couch.
2:06
Tad Eggleston: But couldn't see my face, she could just see the back of the chair.
2:10
Tad Eggleston: My, my, my in-laws, or my, my mother-in-law.
2:15
Tad Eggleston: Feeds all the… they live on an acreage, and she feeds all the cats, so, you know, they often have as many as 10 or 20 cats that call their property home.
2:26
Tad Eggleston: And I like watching them.
2:28
Tad Eggleston: But so I read this issue.
2:31
Tad Eggleston: And then I was just really, really, really, really silent.
2:36
Tad Eggleston: For I don't know how long, but I remember my wife saying, honey, are you okay?
2:42
Tad Eggleston: And I just held up the last page over my head, And you went, oh dear.
2:50
Tad Eggleston: And, and stood up, and walked over, and gave me a hug!
2:56
Tad Eggleston: And said, are you gonna be able to read any more Saga? Or are you… are you quitting now? And I'm like…
3:06
Tad Eggleston: No, I think I have to keep going, but… Mother…
3:12
Marisol: Yeah, and then what made that last page worse was the… How many year hiatus? Three?
3:19
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, and they told… I mean, he apologized, like, the very next page, in lieu of letters.
3:25
Tad Eggleston: you know, it was a letter from Brian saying, I can't believe I'm doing this to you, but we're about to take it.
3:33
Tad Eggleston: Least a year off.
3:36
Marisol: Yeah, take that one.
3:37
Tad Eggleston: Like, no, no, no, no, no.
3:39
Tad Eggleston: Oh, no, no, no, no.
3:41
Marisol: You weren't allowed to take off and leave us on an ending like that.
3:47
Tad Eggleston: The idea that we were going into a 3-month vacationpalooza was bad enough.
3:52
Tad Eggleston: Right?
3:53
Tad Eggleston: But to find out that it was gonna be a year, and then a year became a year and a half, became three and a half.
4:00
Tad Eggleston: Oh my god, that was… And yet, it was a
4:03
Tad Eggleston: Comics in Conversation on midnight, on sale day.
4:08
Tad Eggleston: to pick up my copy, and I read it in the car before I drove home.
4:12
belle price: To be honest, from someone who read it, like.
4:17
belle price: while the hiatus was mostly over, like, when I got to that part, I think it was, like, February, the year they were gonna re-release, and I remember going to the top of the stairs and being like.
4:28
belle price: You're telling me you've been waiting 3 years for this? For the… for more, and we don't even… and Dad's like, yep, yup.
4:38
Tad Eggleston: And do you notice that none of us have even managed to say what happened yet?
4:42
belle price: Yeah, yeah.
4:45
Lee Woods: avoiding it.
4:45
Tad Eggleston: Saying it out loud is very, very hard.
4:48
Josh Eiserike: When I say it, I'll say it.
4:50
Josh Eiserike: I'll say it. So, my favorite character…
4:52
Josh Eiserike: the Will, of course. And for those who've been listening know that I'm very much Team Will. Finally, you know.
5:00
Josh Eiserike: got some… he got some, as they say, as some people say, and he murdered Marco after… Marco made the very heroic choice not to kill him.
5:14
Josh Eiserike: And I knew it was coming.
5:17
Tad Eggleston: Well, and like, they also fought after he ripped off…
5:21
Tad Eggleston: Prince Robot's head, after Marco made the very heroic choice of, let him go, take me in his place.
5:30
Josh Eiserike: Yes. Yes.
5:31
Josh Eiserike: And I knew what was coming.
5:35
Josh Eiserike: I hadn't read it since this came out, which I had to Google, it was 2018.
5:39
Josh Eiserike: And I know all of y'all are talking about, like, the 3-year break. My first…
5:45
Tad Eggleston: hammock.
5:46
Josh Eiserike: Yeah, well, my first daughter was born in 2016, my second daughter was born in 2019, so those 3 years, like that. Like, I was just like, oh, Saga's back, great, cool, I don't know…
5:57
Tad Eggleston: I think, actually, Fiona had both of her kids during that time, so… Yeah. It probably didn't feel that long to her either.
6:04
Josh Eiserike: Yeah, no, it was like, like, if you had told me it was 3 months, I'd be like, oh, cool, if you had told me it was 5 years, I'd be like, oh, wow, okay, cool.
6:12
Josh Eiserike: But no, it's, you know, it's absolutely, again, knowing it was coming, it's so well done, it's so shocking that that fight is so well choreographed, like, almost better than anything I've ever seen in a movie.
6:28
Josh Eiserike: and, like, I knew it was coming, and it still ripped my heart out.
6:35
Tad Eggleston: It was… It was… Yeah.
6:41
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
6:43
Tad Eggleston: All I can say, it was… well, and remember, it was, like, two issues, Dolph dies, and then they're looking for Squire, who ran away, and then…
6:56
Tad Eggleston: Yeah… Why?
7:01
Josh Eiserike: And a lot of loses the weight.
7:02
Marisol: There's just a lot of sadness in this issue.
7:04
Tad Eggleston: And why did it have to be so beautifully done that I can't even really be pissed off?
7:14
Tad Eggleston: I'm sad as fuck.
7:17
Tad Eggleston: But I'm not as angry as I wanna be.
7:20
Marisol: So…
7:21
Lee Woods: Josh, what did you…
7:22
Marisol: That's how they get you.
7:23
Lee Woods: You said you saw it coming?
7:25
Josh Eiserike: I'm sorry?
7:26
Lee Woods: You said you saw it coming?
7:28
Josh Eiserike: I knew it was coming, because this was… I was rereading it. The first time, I had no idea what was happening, and to Ted's point, it was like, Dolph dies.
7:38
Josh Eiserike: Prince Robot dies.
7:40
Josh Eiserike: So, you know, they'll beat, you know, they'll beat the will, and then they'll be on to the next adventure. No.
7:48
Josh Eiserike: didn't… didn't see it coming at all. Like, it was… it was shocking, and to your point, Ted, so…
7:55
Josh Eiserike: beautifully executed that I… I can't be mad, because it was just really, really solid storytelling.
8:05
Tad Eggleston: And again, I really want to be mad.
8:09
Tad Eggleston: I cannot tell you how much I want to be mad.
8:16
Tad Eggleston: But…
8:18
Tad Eggleston: And this is how even Brian gets away with it. Like, it's easy not to be mad at Fiona. She drew it so fucking beautifully, and she doesn't know ahead of time.
8:31
Tad Eggleston: Right? Brian's the one that's had this all planned out forever.
8:36
Tad Eggleston: Right?
8:39
Tad Eggleston: But… like… Taking the literal words from the first issue.
8:48
Tad Eggleston: And using them… For those flashbacks between the hand going through and just the hole.
8:58
Marisol: And that's what made it hurt a lot worse.
9:01
Tad Eggleston: It made it hurt more, but it was also so… Fucking beautiful!
9:08
Marisol: And not just the deaths, So I also found…
9:13
Marisol: The finagling that Prince Robot was doing… Through this whole issue.
9:20
Marisol: And what had struck me the most, besides everyone dying, when I had first read through, is… I forget what page it is.
9:29
Marisol: But it's the one panel where Prince Robot's talking to, Dauphin Upshur.
9:36
Marisol: about… Spilling the beans, telling their story, giving them everything?
9:42
Marisol: And it just cuts to his face.
9:46
Marisol: With the… oh my god, what does the text say?
9:49
Marisol: Things like, please say no, this story will be the end of us.
9:54
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
9:57
Tad Eggleston: Please say no, this story will be the end of us, please say no, this story will be the end of us.
10:02
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, no.
10:04
Marisol: And, like…
10:04
Tad Eggleston: For that matter, the little guide, where you see that, that… that,
10:12
Tad Eggleston: Landfall Secret Service has already completely fucked the story before it's even been published.
10:20
Marisol: Yeah.
10:21
Tad Eggleston: So you know that all of this is meaningless?
10:26
belle price: mention that Please Say No This Story Will Be the Death of Us, Bell Saga iOS background, panel. It's actually one of the ones that I've been looking at for the last four years. It's, it's on my Prince Robot.
10:38
belle price: It's an iconic one, it really is.
10:39
Tad Eggleston: It is.
10:41
belle price: It's a great panel.
10:42
Josh Eiserike: I will say, for me, you know, having not read this in…
10:47
Josh Eiserike: Since 2018, 8 years, or whatever that's been.
10:52
Josh Eiserike: Knowing what was coming, still shocking, still very emotional. The thing that actually shocked me the most, because I didn't remember it, was the story getting spiked, and why dolphinups, your story got spiked. I didn't remember that.
11:04
Tad Eggleston: Have you forgotten that entirely.
11:06
Josh Eiserike: Yeah. And, like, maybe, maybe I, you know, just a product of, like, living in LA and just, like, life being life, I was like, wait, it's a, it's a problem? These guys are in love? Like, who gives a shit? Like, like.
11:18
Tad Eggleston: Only on their planet.
11:20
Josh Eiserike: Correct, correct, and that's, you know, and that's also the world we live in. Like, I live in LA, so it's like, who gives a shit, right? Right.
11:28
Josh Eiserike: So that was… that was shocking to me, to, you know, sort of burst me out of my little LA bubble for a moment.
11:37
Tad Eggleston: But, but yeah…
11:44
Tad Eggleston: And, and, like…
11:51
Tad Eggleston: I want to talk about the covers and first pages, too.
11:55
Tad Eggleston: Because, really.
12:00
Tad Eggleston: Chapter 49. Like, we should've… we should've paid way more attention to Chapter 49's cover. We're all completely fucked.
12:11
Tad Eggleston: Breaking news, we're all completely fucked.
12:15
Tad Eggleston: Then every first…
12:18
Tad Eggleston: first pa… like, this is where they start a serious run of totally not safe-for-work first pages. Let's look at the Will's penis.
12:30
Tad Eggleston: And then, and then… Episode…
12:34
Tad Eggleston: Chapter 50 is the wonderful family photograph. So that's how you forget that we're all completely fucked. It's, oh, the family's back together, we got the Christmas portrait, beautiful! I literally have the non-trade dress version of this framed.
12:52
Tad Eggleston: Right? I have my, my family portrait of, of, of…
12:58
Tad Eggleston: throwing Alana and Hazel on the wall. And then you open it, and you know…
13:05
Tad Eggleston: Marcos, you know, these are ones that you have to be careful who you open them in front of. You know, Marco is giving Alana serious pleasure.
13:16
Tad Eggleston: I had to read this very carefully at school.
13:22
Tad Eggleston: And then, I remember,
13:25
Tad Eggleston: With issue 51, first of all, that's one of my favorite covers. I love that Upshur and Doff…
13:30
Tad Eggleston: cover. But, like, I opened it timidly, expecting another one, and instead get the, your daddy is a bad man trying for Hazel.
13:42
Tad Eggleston: You know, and then… Again, 52 starts with…
13:49
Tad Eggleston: Oh, we're out in the pool!
13:54
Tad Eggleston: Having fun in the sun, and… and they're playing their game of chicken, or whatever they call it, in the ocean.
14:04
Tad Eggleston: Like, all is good, except that, -oh…
14:11
Tad Eggleston: the… the… The will got away when… when… when she killed Dolph… And big, big, -oh… Squire ran away.
14:26
Tad Eggleston: And then we meet crazy snakes and vagina mouth.
14:32
Tad Eggleston: And then 53, you know, like, that cover, just Will's hand…
14:40
Tad Eggleston: you know, oh, we're fucked. And then the… what, Agent Gale?
14:47
Tad Eggleston: In the… it's like, oh god.
14:50
Tad Eggleston: Like, like, that… that is, like, the most ominous opening splash page of the entire series.
14:57
Tad Eggleston: It's like, oh, wait a minute.
15:01
Tad Eggleston: DOF is dead.
15:03
Tad Eggleston: The wheel is on the loose, and we're starting the issue.
15:08
Tad Eggleston: with Agent Gale in a parking lot.
15:12
Josh Eiserike: Very, all the presidents men.
15:14
Tad Eggleston: Right.
15:16
Josh Eiserike: Deep Throat.
15:17
Tad Eggleston: Ugh.
15:19
Tad Eggleston: You know? And then, just the end splash page there…
15:29
Tad Eggleston: like…
15:30
Tad Eggleston: I think we talked about this early on with Prince Robot. There's so many times in this series where, like, you could have killed his ass, and I would have been cheering.
15:39
Tad Eggleston: And somehow, we managed to get to the point where I really, really, really don't want him to die.
15:49
Tad Eggleston: And we rip his head off.
15:56
Tad Eggleston: And then we foreshadow, because while that's… Marco looking at…
16:04
Tad Eggleston: What just happened, and it's the… the robot blood on… Nim, that sort of thing.
16:11
Tad Eggleston: Essentially, that image is used 3 times.
16:16
Tad Eggleston: In fact, Anybody who read it in the… Collected edition… Fiona's thumbnails are there.
16:27
Tad Eggleston: 4… the last issue.
16:31
Tad Eggleston: At the back, and seeing, essentially, that image… mildly altered.
16:41
Tad Eggleston: Three times, it's just like… Ugh! You just keep taking us back.
16:48
Tad Eggleston: Only it's worse. Every time.
16:53
Tad Eggleston: Worse.
16:54
Tad Eggleston: Every time.
16:57
Tad Eggleston: And how dare you take… take that… original opening narration.
17:05
Tad Eggleston: the… the… the… the, my name is Hazel.
17:17
Tad Eggleston: I started out as an idea, but I ended up something more. Not much more, to be honest.
17:25
Tad Eggleston: It's not like I grow up to be some great war hero or any sort of all-important savior.
17:31
Tad Eggleston: But thanks to my parents, at least I get to grow old.
17:35
Tad Eggleston: Not everybody does.
17:42
Tad Eggleston: And now somebody else has to talk, because I need to, like, just cry for a minute.
17:50
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
17:55
Lee Woods: I…
17:56
Lee Woods: as I sit here in process, and sometimes in group therapy, you think of other people sharing their story and their examples, and going through their work, and sometimes when other people do their work, you yourself are doing your own work.
18:12
Lee Woods: And I was very…
18:14
Lee Woods: I was doing my own work there, listening to y'all talk, and I can definitely say, with 100% certainty, the first time I read it, and this time around.
18:24
Lee Woods: I was upset, like, with Marco's… Death.
18:29
Lee Woods: Yeah, I know… For me is, like, Looking back at it, Definitely sad.
18:42
Lee Woods: Definitely hurt.
18:44
Lee Woods: But, hell yeah, I was angry, because…
18:48
Lee Woods: It was one of the few times that, at least for me, in all the stories, right? Credit.
18:55
Lee Woods: to Brian K. Vaughan here, is that, at least to my understanding, we're conditioned to, like, think that the good guy wins all the time.
19:05
Lee Woods: And, this is a situation where… no.
19:09
Lee Woods: You didn't. I'm pulling for this.
19:13
Lee Woods: I'm pulling for this family, I'm pulling for these characters. How many issues now? 53, 54 issues? And now I see them not just lose, but die?
19:24
Tad Eggleston: Right?
19:25
Lee Woods: Yeah, I was angry. Still am angry!
19:29
Lee Woods: I think I'm more upset by the fact that I had to wait 3 years, because I definitely was coming in, like, every other…
19:34
Tad Eggleston: It was so hard.
19:35
Lee Woods: Every month, like, hey, saga out yet? Still on hiatus.
19:39
Lee Woods: So that, that sucked. But, yeah, no, for me, it was, yeah.
19:49
Lee Woods: But I think that was also, for me, the sort of connection I had with the characters up until that point.
19:55
Lee Woods: Because I think I even caught… I caught up, like, with the trades by, I think, volume 5 or 6, and then from here, I was doing single issues. So I was definitely going week by week there.
20:08
Lee Woods: So, for me, when I read it, it was very much a,
20:13
Lee Woods: a kick in the stomach. Like, it quite literally, like, it took it from me, so that I…
20:19
Lee Woods: I can't remember where I was, Tad, but I remember that feeling of, like, just a deep, sunken feeling.
20:26
Lee Woods: It's just like… What?
20:29
Lee Woods: Did I just read? This has got to be a dream, this has to be…
20:36
Lee Woods: some sort of alter state, alternate reality. I… again, denial is all about grief, right? But… yeah, for me, I was definitely angry.
20:49
Tad Eggleston: Marisol, didn't I make you read it in the store because I needed somebody to talk to?
20:54
Marisol: You did.
20:56
Marisol: I remember that. I absolutely did read it in the store, and I'm angry with you about it.
21:02
Lee Woods: You know, you know, Taz, some people pressure, like, peer pressure for, like, alcohol or drugs. You did this for Saga.
21:09
Marisol: pegando.
21:12
Marisol: Yeah.
21:14
Marisol: That was… that was a day.
21:16
Tad Eggleston: I needed to talk to somebody!
21:19
Marisol: And then school.
21:20
Marisol: hours, and we talked about Saga?
21:25
Marisol: Like I usually would be.
21:28
Tad Eggleston: Sucked.
21:30
Tad Eggleston: Ass…
21:31
Marisol: it hurt. And then you told me about the hiatus. Yeah. And then I just got angrier.
21:39
Marisol: It weighs?
21:39
Tad Eggleston: Totally changed the way… saga afterwards, too.
21:44
Marisol: I'm like…
21:44
Tad Eggleston: okay, here's the deal. I gotta recommend this to you, but you should read only the first 8 volumes, and then leave 9 alone until it comes back.
22:01
Lee Woods: That's interesting.
22:02
Marisol: is…
22:02
Tad Eggleston: Until you can read issue 55, you shouldn't read.
22:08
Tad Eggleston: Volume!
22:09
Marisol: That weights was… Brutal.
22:16
Tad Eggleston: It was… it was… so hard.
22:23
Tad Eggleston: So, redonkulously hard.
22:27
Tad Eggleston: I mean, thankfully, as we'll find out when we talk again.
22:32
Tad Eggleston: Cause I know some of you haven't read it yet.
22:39
Tad Eggleston: I think they came back…
22:42
Tad Eggleston: I think, like, literally one issue back, I'm like, okay. Though there were some pages in that issue, like…
22:52
Tad Eggleston: Let's just say I'm nowhere near done being mad at the will.
22:58
Lee Woods: Yeah, oh…
22:58
Josh Eiserike: Well.
22:59
Lee Woods: If there was any sort of affection.
23:01
Tad Eggleston: It… it gets worse.
23:04
Josh Eiserike: Well, remember, and we can have this out in the next episode, remember to your point, Tad, that, you know, the good guys… maybe it was your point, Lee, forgive me, I don't remember who said it. The good guys don't win in this one.
23:17
Josh Eiserike: But the mark of a great writer, in my view, is when you can see the villain's perspective.
23:24
Josh Eiserike: And the will absolutely thinks he's doing the right thing. Yes, he's angry. He's out for revenge.
23:31
Tad Eggleston: Right now, the scene in the next one is unforgivable.
23:37
Josh Eiserike: Okay, we'll… we'll get there. So far, I'm still… great character.
23:42
Tad Eggleston: Did you start reading forward, Lee? You're going nuts. No?
23:47
Lee Woods: I have not done it yet. I just… I love the back and forth. I love controversy, sorry.
23:52
Tad Eggleston: There is… here, I won't show it, but I'll tell you how many pages before I wanted to…
24:02
Tad Eggleston: To… to strangle the will with my bare hands.
24:07
Tad Eggleston: And frankly, in some ways, wanted to find Brian, and hurt him more than I'd wanted to hurt him…
24:18
Tad Eggleston: Four years earlier.
24:23
Josh Eiserike: you're looking, Ted, may I say one other thing?
24:25
Tad Eggleston: Sure.
24:26
Josh Eiserike: So, I do wanna…
24:29
Josh Eiserike: what really struck me in the reread, again, knowing what was coming, was I didn't remember that right before he's killed, and he makes the choice not
24:37
Josh Eiserike: to kill the Will, which he could have, like, that was his struggle the entire series, between peace and violence. And he chooses peace, and he has this beautiful moment of serenity where he's looking out the ship, at the planet below him, and he's kind of at peace.
24:53
Josh Eiserike: And then he… we realized he made the absolute wrong choice in this moment. And it works… oh, it works so well.
24:59
Lee Woods: Yeah.
25:01
Tad Eggleston: Okay, I'm looking in the trade paperback, and I'm doing the digital version, so obviously some things…
25:09
Tad Eggleston: are off, but digitally, and this is including cover, it's page 33 that I'm starting to
25:16
Tad Eggleston: But, but page 39, where it's like.
25:19
Tad Eggleston: Actually, in some ways, page 39 might be the first time that I'm ever pissed off at Fiona.
25:27
Tad Eggleston: Because it's like, okay, that's goddamn beautiful, but completely unnecessary.
25:35
Lee Woods: Talk about it next time.
25:38
Josh Eiserike: My, my tray doesn't have page numbers. Which, which image is that?
25:42
Tad Eggleston: Are you in Volume 10?
25:45
Josh Eiserike: Oh, no, I'm sorry, I'm in 9, I, I, I…
25:47
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, this is… this is me saying that, that, that, like…
25:52
Josh Eiserike: Look forward to it.
25:54
Josh Eiserike: forward to it.
25:56
Lee Woods: Oh, yeah, I think…
25:57
Tad Eggleston: Any ability that I had to sit there and go, okay, the will was just getting revenge, and blah blah blah…
26:08
Lee Woods: Yeah.
26:09
Tad Eggleston: I lose all of that for him.
26:12
Tad Eggleston: In the next… Volume.
26:15
Tad Eggleston: Hard.
26:17
Lee Woods: I think that goes back to your point too, Josh, right, is that it's sort of mark of a great writer, great writing.
26:23
Lee Woods: One and the same there, I guess.
26:24
Tad Eggleston: Great art.
26:25
Lee Woods: Great art, for sure.
26:27
Lee Woods: is… I'm…
26:29
Lee Woods: gaining affection for that character, right? And I've made it very well known that I did not like the Will, but he sort of grown me to some degree, like, I can understand him, right? Especially for the sort of abusive sort of childhood.
26:43
Lee Woods: Especially that volume.
26:45
Josh Eiserike: On Earth, I believe.
26:47
Lee Woods: On a presumed…
26:48
Tad Eggleston: There's a good argument.
26:49
Lee Woods: Or, yeah, I don't know.
26:51
Lee Woods: in that, like, he comes in, like, it's like, okay, I can understand this guy, but then he does the thing with Marco, where, again, the character that we know and love.
27:02
Lee Woods: All these different chapters later.
27:04
Lee Woods: Right? It's like, yeah, he 100% felt he was doing the right thing. I 100% agree with that.
27:10
Lee Woods: And… And I think that's a sort of,
27:14
Lee Woods: His own sort of, like, we are all… we are all on our hero's journey to some degree, and he's on his, in that way.
27:22
Lee Woods: So, I don't disagree with you, I think he's right, and yeah, I… obviously, for me, I definitely did not like him, and I think that really…
27:31
Lee Woods: It's like, I see the bright side, and then you brought me back down, right? So…
27:36
Lee Woods: That was definitely a ride for me, and especially just that, going back through it.
27:43
Josh Eiserike: What's interesting is exactly what you just said, is how I felt about Prince Robot.
27:49
Josh Eiserike: I… I did not like him when I first read it.
27:52
Josh Eiserike: And when he died, I was like, okay, that was, that was cool, that was a cool death.
27:56
Josh Eiserike: this time, I was like, oh, I'm starting to really like this guy! And then he's just a weasel, and he's about to betray everybody.
28:05
Josh Eiserike: And, yeah, exactly the same thing. It's like, nope, nope, you almost made the right choice, you almost were heroic, and then, no, no.
28:16
Marisol: Well, that's kind of Prince Robot's thing, isn't it? Hadn't he always kind of been a weasel, to some extent?
28:22
Josh Eiserike: 100%.
28:24
Lee Woods: Yeah? Yeah.
28:28
Josh Eiserike: But he was a weasel on the side of the angels, he had that great relationship, he was like, oh, he's got his family now, like…
28:34
Marisol: I do enjoy that they gave him that, I guess, mini redemption arc?
28:39
Tad Eggleston: And, like, his weaseliness this time feels less weasley.
28:45
Tad Eggleston: He's resisting, but he's also trying to balance his own family, and his own family isn't even just Squire, it's Squire and Petrichor, and he's already lost his wife.
28:58
Tad Eggleston: And, like, we don't know how much he was really gonna sell them out, because we don't get far enough.
29:07
Tad Eggleston: You know… I mean, initially, when he went to sell his story to the reporters, I thought he was…
29:15
Tad Eggleston: I mean, I remember back to when I was reading initially, I thought he was gonna pull one of those, oh, well, they won't say it, but I'll give it to you.
29:25
Tad Eggleston: But… but no, he offered them a different story. He's like…
29:29
Tad Eggleston: I have a story that's almost as good.
29:32
Tad Eggleston: You know, is that… is that worth it? So, like, I'm not at all certain that he was actually about to give…
29:40
Tad Eggleston: everything up.
29:42
Lee Woods: Interesting.
29:44
Tad Eggleston: But he was also clearly trying to weigh this life that he could taste.
29:54
Tad Eggleston: This new life that he could taste, where he was with the woman that he loved, and… and…
30:00
Tad Eggleston: Had his son, and they had new identities, and they didn't have to be on the run, and…
30:08
Tad Eggleston: Everything else was behind them.
30:13
Tad Eggleston: And suddenly, this… Fucking freelancer was back?
30:18
Marisol: This fucking guy.
30:22
Marisol: Just comes to rip it all away.
30:25
Tad Eggleston: You know, so I felt for him.
30:32
Tad Eggleston: you know…
30:34
Marisol: And I feel like the previous…
30:37
Marisol: Volume does a lot for his character in that regard, because you see that… He's trying
30:46
Marisol: The man has something akin to a traumatic brain injury, and is full of trauma and anger, yes, but he is also…
30:55
Marisol: Doing the best that he knows how.
30:58
Tad Eggleston: And he clearly He cares for his son.
31:01
Marisol: Of course.
31:04
Lee Woods: Sorry, I think that's one of the things that…
31:07
Lee Woods: On the read-through, again, it was his willingness to try to be a better parent.
31:14
Lee Woods: Be that sort of better…
31:17
Lee Woods: To me, a person, to some degree.
31:21
Lee Woods: Take that what it is as a robot person, I guess.
31:25
Lee Woods: But yeah, it was very interesting to kind of see that, again, that sort of affection, it's like, yeah, he's trying to do better, like, I can understand that. And then, boop!
31:34
Lee Woods: He… Denied.
31:39
Marisol: This is why we can't have nice things.
31:42
Lee Woods: Thanks, Brian. Thanks, Fiona.
31:45
Marisol: God damn it, Brian.
31:48
Marisol: We love you, though. Your stories are great.
31:52
Tad Eggleston: Matt and Belle, you're awfully quiet. Bell's giving us some. Matt, I've barely heard you at all.
31:58
Matt: Oh, I'm here, I'm listening, it's all good.
32:02
Lee Woods: Don't, don't you, don't you say it's all good?
32:05
Matt: Christmas!
32:05
Lee Woods: Sorry.
32:06
Matt: It's not all good.
32:07
Tad Eggleston: It is… it is not at all good, Matt.
32:12
Marisol: You can lie to yourself, but don't lie to a book club.
32:15
Lee Woods: Exactly.
32:18
Lee Woods: Put that on the rule board.
32:19
Tad Eggleston: You and I have very different definitions of good, if you think it's good right now.
32:28
Tad Eggleston: I mean, again, like…
32:31
Tad Eggleston: like, reading this, I mean, there was the trauma of just, like, how fucking beautiful and painful it was.
32:38
Matt: Yes?
32:39
Tad Eggleston: But also, it's so impossible to read… yet, without also thinking of all of the time in between.
32:46
Matt: Yep. Agreed.
32:48
Tad Eggleston: How long we sat on.
32:52
Tad Eggleston: How… I mean, because here's the other thing, like…
32:56
Tad Eggleston: Since I started reading Saga, and I, and I, I… I… I got in…
33:03
Tad Eggleston: Right before the fourth trade came out, so the first 24 issues I did in trade.
33:08
Tad Eggleston: Right.
33:10
Tad Eggleston: But since then, I have always reread the whole thing.
33:16
Tad Eggleston: Like, before… in the 3 months between the end of…
33:21
Tad Eggleston: Volume 8, and the beginning of Volume 9? I read all 8 volumes again.
33:28
Tad Eggleston: And, like, as soon as I finish reading issue 54, it's like, I cannot touch this until one week.
33:37
Tad Eggleston: Before issue 55 is slated to come out.
33:44
Tad Eggleston: And as it turned out, I think I read it all on Monday and Tuesday.
33:48
Tad Eggleston: before 55 came out, because, like, I wasn't willing to sit with that… I read volume… I mean, it was a midnight open.
33:57
Tad Eggleston: to get issue 55, I think I got out there early enough that I read Volume 9 in the car, waiting for Challengers to reopen. Went in, bought 55, read it in the car, drove home because I had to work in the morning.
34:16
Tad Eggleston: And yes, I drove an hour to and from… A comic shop to get…
34:22
Tad Eggleston: To not have to wait till first thing the next morning.
34:26
Marisol: That's dedication.
34:29
Tad Eggleston: Oh, wait, though. Oh, no, I actually just remembered something, because I have Challenger's, wi-Fi.
34:37
Tad Eggleston: I actually had read it before I walked in, because it turns out that Comixology works on East Coast time. So as I was in the car…
34:46
Marisol: No.
34:46
Tad Eggleston: At, like, 11 o'clock, it popped up on my Comixology.
34:54
Tad Eggleston: But I still stuck around to buy the issue, and then turn around and go home.
35:01
Tad Eggleston: But then it became, like, I mean, it was how I discovered that Comixology released at 11, and it became the first book that I would regularly stay up until 11 on Tuesday night.
35:12
Tad Eggleston: and buy a digital copy, even though I had… a physical coming.
35:18
Tad Eggleston: Just to be able to read it ahead of time.
35:22
Tad Eggleston: Just to be able to know everything before I woke up the next morning.
35:29
Lee Woods: So, I, I need, I need to ask this, because, Matt, as…
35:33
Lee Woods: an experienced, sort of, saga reader up until this point, right? And bringing Belle to the comic book shop.
35:40
Lee Woods: to watch you. I'd love to know, sort of, your reaction, too, especially
35:46
Lee Woods: you're reading it, but also, Bell, for you, your first time reading it, Again, I like to…
35:52
Lee Woods: love to know kind of your experiences, especially… it's weird, because now, I kind of noticed a trend between… with the exception of Marisol, Ted, myself, and Josh have our cameras on, so we see each other, but Matt and Belle don't have their cameras on, so it's, like, kind of hard to get a read on y'all.
36:13
Tad Eggleston: They're like, that's right. And they're staying off, because we're crying.
36:17
Marisol: Yes.
36:18
Matt: Because that's what we do, when she…
36:20
Marisol: Why? I've had my camera off. Let me flip you?
36:28
Marisol: I made soup.
36:30
Lee Woods: Oh, very nice.
36:30
Tad Eggleston: Oh.
36:33
Lee Woods: He's pushing this whole thing.
36:34
Marisol: time.
36:41
Lee Woods: But yeah, what was y'all's experience reading that? I'm curious.
36:50
Marisol: I know is this, for me, the first time reading through it.
36:54
Marisol: You, as Tad said, he made me read it in the shop.
36:57
Marisol: So sorry. It was…
36:59
Lee Woods: Right, yep.
37:00
Marisol: Such a gut punch.
37:03
Tad Eggleston: I know it was selfish, but I needed it.
37:05
Marisol: You gotta wait. You gotta wait.
37:10
Marisol: Because the whole… the thing that got me… was… How…
37:18
Marisol: Marco died, more than anything, but than the fact that it was the Will who killed him.
37:24
Marisol: It was the fact that Marco had spared this man.
37:28
Marisol: And he is now rocketing through space in what is essentially A big ol' jellyfish.
37:35
Marisol: And, oh wait.
37:36
Tad Eggleston: on top.
37:37
Marisol: Yes, and away from his family.
37:41
Marisol: And that is the last thing he ever sees.
37:48
Marisol: like, Alana and Hazel and all of them have… nothing of Marco to… I guess to…
38:00
Marisol: To grieve and to bury.
38:03
Marisol: Because he had taken his shield and all that with him.
38:06
Marisol: Right. And he went up to confront the will.
38:11
Marisol: So that, I know, was…
38:13
Marisol: Thing that hurt a lot, this issue, at least for me and my first time reading it.
38:18
Marisol: But now reading it again… What grabs my attention is just…
38:24
Marisol: The brutality of the fight scenes that we see with this issue first, with, like…
38:33
Marisol: the little scrap we have of Shure and
38:37
Marisol: Yanfei, is that how you say her name?
38:41
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I think so. Janth?
38:43
Marisol: yante, when they're… Right.
38:46
Marisol: And she's threatening, like, Squire and all them.
38:49
Marisol: And they're rustling with the little gun, and…
38:52
Marisol: You know, she's got half her face charred off.
38:55
Marisol: From a very well-placed flare.
38:58
Marisol: On Upshur's part.
39:02
Marisol: And it's just… All of them, at that end, just looking up at the rocketing jellyfish.
39:09
Marisol: And then… the brutality and, I imagine, anger that the will had to have
39:18
Marisol: to literally tear off Prince Robot's head from his shoulders.
39:23
Marisol: I guess even in a fantasy world, that does not seem like a very easy thing for one to do.
39:29
Marisol: At all. There's… there's a lot holding a head to a body via the neck.
39:37
Marisol: You gotta be either… Incredibly powerful, or incredibly pissed.
39:44
Marisol: to just… Viciously tear someone's head off like that.
39:50
Marisol: And it did by, like, by the final image on,
39:54
Marisol: Prince Robot's face, that, like, flower with the one…
39:57
Marisol: Pedal that was kind of, like, floating off away a little bit.
40:02
Marisol: I… Felt that that was kind of…
40:07
Marisol: Oh, I'm unsure if that was just… robot… in a way.
40:15
Marisol: showing some gratitude for Marco wanting to save his life.
40:20
Marisol: Or if a part of him knew that…
40:25
Marisol: Regardless of what Marco said or offered.
40:28
Marisol: He was going to die.
40:35
Josh Eiserike: Prince Rogue.
40:36
Marisol: Okay.
40:36
Josh Eiserike: stock, right?
40:38
Marisol: Yes, he killed the star.
40:39
Josh Eiserike: Oh, yeah, so totally justified. Sorry, Barisol.
40:42
Marisol: Go ahead, go ahead.
40:45
Lee Woods: I'm just thinking about the anatomy of a robot person. It's like, I wonder if their heads are a little bit more delicate than ours, but I don't know.
40:53
Marisol: Maybe, they got them big ol' TV heads.
40:56
Marisol: And blue blood, apparently.
40:59
Josh Eiserike: Blue bloods.
41:01
Marisol: Literally.
41:04
Marisol: Absolutely, buddy.
41:09
Josh Eiserike: Can I ask everybody a question?
41:11
Tad Eggleston: Sure.
41:12
Josh Eiserike: So, you know, I was thinking about this, and you know, in my mind, like, the hiatus was just kind of a blur of, like, living with, like, you know.
41:21
Josh Eiserike: very young human beings.
41:25
Josh Eiserike: But this does, you know, it does really, in my view, hearing this conversation, feel like it adds to, like, not only the trauma, but just, like, the anticipation.
41:35
Josh Eiserike: Right? Like, you know more is eventually coming, you don't know when it's coming. Do you all think that this…
41:42
Josh Eiserike: Saga 54 stands up there with, like, kind of the great pop culture cliffhangers, not in, like, monthly comics, because you'll come back the next month. I'm talking, like, Empire Strikes Back, Infinity War, like, up there? Tad says yes, without even hesitation.
41:58
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
42:00
Tad Eggleston: I mean, I honestly can't think of a… of a pop culture cliffhanger in my lifetime that I was… because Empire, I saw it in the theaters, but I had to be… I had to be taken out in the middle to be changed and fed.
42:18
Josh Eiserike: Oh my god.
42:20
Tad Eggleston: like… I mean, I think Infinity War's nothing compared to this.
42:27
Lee Woods: Wow.
42:29
Josh Eiserike: I would… for me, like.
42:31
Tad Eggleston: I mean, among other things, I had no doubt that, like, the second half of Infinity War was gonna involve…
42:39
Tad Eggleston: them winning.
42:40
Josh Eiserike: Sure.
42:42
Josh Eiserike: For me, like, I'll also add, the novel, the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter, the sixth one, the penultimate one, I thought had an awesome cliffhanger, and then pretty much.
42:51
Tad Eggleston: I read them all, so…
42:52
Josh Eiserike: Pretty much the exact same cliffhanger, but the one that got me was, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2.
42:59
Tad Eggleston: Okay.
43:01
Tad Eggleston: I can see.
43:02
Josh Eiserike: And I guess, and I guess Brian… Bryan Singer's X-Men 2, and boy, X-Men 3 and Spider-Man 3…
43:08
Josh Eiserike: You'll learn.
43:10
Tad Eggleston: I could say… There are a couple of points in the Wheel of Time series.
43:16
Tad Eggleston: That felt like this.
43:18
Tad Eggleston: Including one where it wasn't because of…
43:26
Tad Eggleston: Belle says she was also a yes about Saga, but she's writing…
43:30
belle price: Yeah, Saga's one of the great cliffhangers, I'd say.
43:35
belle price: Just in what I've consumed for media.
43:37
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, but even with the Wheel of Time, I think… I think Brandon Sanderson managed to construct one almost as good at the end of the first of the three books he did, but the one that actually feels this good is less in the text. I don't remember feeling it at the end of the text.
43:56
Tad Eggleston: We'd been waiting 5 years for book… 10…
44:02
Tad Eggleston: And word came that Robert Jordan had died.
44:07
Tad Eggleston: So, like… The hiatus felt like…
44:12
Tad Eggleston: it felt… I mean, and for me, it was even weirder than that, like… like, I hadn't checked in a while, and I discovered that my RA was a… was a Wheel of Time fan, and so we went online to figure out if there was any new news.
44:29
Tad Eggleston: That, about when, when the next book was coming.
44:33
Tad Eggleston: And… the new news was it had been announced, like, 3 hours earlier that Robert Jordan had died.
44:41
Tad Eggleston: And it's like, oh.
44:43
Tad Eggleston: Oh.
44:46
Tad Eggleston: But yeah, I can't… I can't think of a movie, I can't think of another com… maybe… like…
45:01
Tad Eggleston: Going into the final arc of Transmetropolitan?
45:07
Tad Eggleston: Maybe… Going into the final arc, a preacher?
45:19
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
45:22
Tad Eggleston: I mean, I remember the final arcs of those being, like…
45:28
Tad Eggleston: Gotta get this issue right now.
45:31
Tad Eggleston: Reads.
45:34
Tad Eggleston: And for that matter, with Preacher, I switched over to single issues only for the final arc.
45:42
Tad Eggleston: you know, I was late to preacher, and I read most of it in trade.
45:48
Tad Eggleston: But, like… Having… having gotten to the end of that… I think, what?
45:56
Tad Eggleston: 9th trade at the time, and the way they were set up that… at that time.
46:02
Tad Eggleston: It's like, no, no, no, no, I'm not waiting for…
46:08
Tad Eggleston: I don't think Walking Dead had any moments like this.
46:12
Lee Woods: In the show…
46:13
Tad Eggleston: They went the reverse, where they ended out of the blue.
46:19
Tad Eggleston: But they also somehow managed to end… like…
46:25
Tad Eggleston: If not entirely happy, at least satisfying.
46:30
Tad Eggleston: and not… Horrible?
46:35
Tad Eggleston: And I think that was actually right before this?
46:38
Tad Eggleston: Which made it really weird, because for the longest time, like, I was certain that Saga would have this happy ending, and I couldn't see it for…
46:47
Tad Eggleston: for Walking Dead. And suddenly, in a very short period of time, I went from, oh my god, Walking Dead pulled off the happy ending.
46:57
Tad Eggleston: And I'm not at all certain.
47:00
Tad Eggleston: that Saga will anymore.
47:02
Josh Eiserike: Well…
47:03
Josh Eiserike: I do want to address that. I'm going to slightly change subjects. I predicted on the last episode, just sort of off the cuff, that I think this is going to end with Hazel becoming a mother. And this volume…
47:17
Josh Eiserike: actually clarif… like, I feel even more convinced, simply because right before Marco dies, she's like, I never want to have kids. And I'm like, oh, it's gonna… it's gonna end with you having kids. That's how this book ends.
47:33
Tad Eggleston: Possible.
47:34
Josh Eiserike: Yeah, we'll see.
47:36
Josh Eiserike: We'll see.
47:38
Lee Woods: I… with the question, it's a good question.
47:41
Lee Woods: because I, at least in my head, I think about cliffhangers as sort of planned, right? That every show, or typically books, like, on a weekly basis, they have a cliffhanger to keep you coming back, right? It makes sense.
47:58
Lee Woods: And that… this whole 3-year hiatus, maybe it skewed my perception a little bit, is I don't see it as a cliffhanger because it seemed like the… the hiatus was, like, unplanned to be as long as it was.
48:12
Lee Woods: Which doesn't have anything to do with anything, because you still had to wait.
48:16
Josh Eiserike: Well, it was gonna be a year.
48:19
Josh Eiserike: Right? So, like…
48:21
Tad Eggleston: Gonna be a year.
48:22
Tad Eggleston: Which actually makes me wonder if… because I know that Fiona had two kids during the hiatus. I wonder if she just realized she was pregnant, and that's…
48:32
Tad Eggleston: And that my whole fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, Brian, I need a break theory is wrong, and it was really, I'm pregnant, Brian, I want to get ready, I want to spend some time with my baby when…
48:43
Tad Eggleston: And, like…
48:49
Tad Eggleston: But, who knows?
48:51
Tad Eggleston: One day, I'll get to ask those questions.
48:54
Lee Woods: someday.
48:55
Lee Woods: But I will definitely say, if we talk about the cliffhanger in terms of anticipation, like…
49:01
Lee Woods: Yes, I was speechless for about 2 hours after I watched Infinity War.
49:06
Lee Woods: Yes, I anticipated that. I rewatched Walking Dead after I learned about the Season 6 ending with the introduction of Negan, and I'll leave it at that.
49:16
Lee Woods: So I was…
49:18
Lee Woods: anticipating that. I would definitely say, if that's the sort of caliber, I 100% would say that Saga is up there in terms of cliffhangers, because for me.
49:28
Lee Woods: Which, at the time, I was not on any social media, I was not on any sort of comic news.
49:34
Lee Woods: Of that sort, so I had no idea about the hiatus until, like, literally one random day, a government person told me, he's like, yeah, they're on hiatus.
49:43
Lee Woods: I was like, do we know how long? And they were like, no.
49:47
Lee Woods: So, yeah, I would say that it would be up there as a cliffhanger, for sure.
50:05
Lee Woods: I think we're gonna be on a good cliffhanger for this next one.
50:09
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I literally have nothing else to say at this point.
50:13
Josh Eiserike: Can I make… can I make one more, sort of.
50:15
Tad Eggleston: You may.
50:16
Josh Eiserike: one related point, I grabbed it off my bookshelf.
50:20
Josh Eiserike: This was not the time Brian K. Vaughan broke my heart the hardest, so I do want to give a shout out, to this, to this page and panel in Runaways.
50:31
Josh Eiserike: This wrecked me.
50:32
Josh Eiserike: If you guys have read this, when,
50:35
Josh Eiserike: Gert does, I mean, it's Marvel, so she gets better, eventually.
50:40
Tad Eggleston: And I think that's why it didn't wreck me the same way.
50:43
Josh Eiserike: It… it… it wrecked me because… It's Brian K. Ball's Runaways… Felt like such a singular…
50:51
Josh Eiserike: Point of view, that it didn't really feel like once he leaves, like.
50:56
Josh Eiserike: this book, it'll kind of fizzle out, and that's pretty much what happened until Rainbow Roll came back, and she was like, I'm gonna bring back Gert, which I thought worked. I thought worked really well.
51:06
Tad Eggleston: I was actually gonna make another caveat there.
51:10
Tad Eggleston: I had also read this issue BEFORE I read Runaways.
51:15
Josh Eiserike: I read both when they were coming out.
51:19
Tad Eggleston: Runaways was something that… that… that I didn't… it was… it was in the period that I wasn't reading comics because I had children to pay for. Right.
51:29
Tad Eggleston: And it was one of the things that I filled the saga hole with. So, like…
51:37
Tad Eggleston: I already knew his ability to do that kind of shit.
51:39
Josh Eiserike: Yeah.
51:39
Tad Eggleston: to me.
51:41
Josh Eiserike: Yeah, so that's… that was me coming to Saga. But, you know, in this conversation.
51:49
Josh Eiserike: I do find myself agreeing about, you know, the Saga 54, anticipation for 55, cliffhanger, intended or not, like, I… I think it is up there as well.
52:02
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
52:07
Josh Eiserike: And then I… I… if everybody's still speechless, I have one final question.
52:12
Josh Eiserike: I'm going way back. This is to, the cover to 49. I love movies, I would not…
52:20
Josh Eiserike: totally call myself a cinephile. That's vertigo, isn't it?
52:26
Tad Eggleston: The Hitchcock 40?
52:28
Josh Eiserike: 49, the.
52:30
Tad Eggleston: Always have that feeling, yeah.
52:31
Josh Eiserike: Yeah, like, I don't know if that's intentional, I assume it is.
52:34
Tad Eggleston: Oh, I almost certainly… I almost guarantee it is.
52:37
Josh Eiserike: Like, like, is… here's the question. I'm not… I love Hitchcock, Vertigo's not my favorite. Is there a deeper meaning there that I'm not seeing, or is it just like, oh, here's a cool visual?
52:48
Tad Eggleston: I mean, how does this arc feel to you?
52:53
Josh Eiserike: Great.
52:54
Josh Eiserike: in terms of storytelling, terrible in terms of, like, how it ends, but I mean, think about it, like, they're on, like.
53:01
Josh Eiserike: a beautiful water planet with, like, a theme park, and, like, you know, they're having fun, and everything seems great for everybody, and then you have, like, you know, Prince, or Squire almost get eaten by this, you know, sarlacc pit. I'm not gonna call it what y'all called it, but you…
53:16
Josh Eiserike: You know what I mean.
53:19
Tad Eggleston: I'm sorry, it just looked a lot like…
53:21
Josh Eiserike: No, they…
53:23
Marisol: It actually was a little more classic with it.
53:25
Josh Eiserike: That was intentional. That was intentional. That was 100% intentional.
53:29
Josh Eiserike: And yeah, and then it just, it just turns into a horror show.
53:33
Josh Eiserike: By the end.
53:35
Tad Eggleston: You know, I mean, I,
53:38
Tad Eggleston: I will also say that it almost goes back and forth, and that's a very vertigo-like feeling.
53:44
Josh Eiserike: Yeah.
53:47
Tad Eggleston: I think… I mean, when I went through the covers, I noted that, like…
53:53
Tad Eggleston: I think that that cover telegraphed everything to come.
53:58
Josh Eiserike: Yeah.
54:00
Tad Eggleston: And we just weren't paying attention, slash…
54:03
Tad Eggleston: Slash got that nice, happy family photo with the next… And we're suckered into believing, oh, everything's gonna be okay for a while!
54:14
Josh Eiserike: I'm trying to think back, like, Vertigo's just about, like, death and obsession, right? Like, he's trying to recreate somebody who… I don't know, maybe I'm reading too much into it.
54:21
Tad Eggleston: I don't remember. But yeah…
54:33
Lee Woods: Well, I'll… I'll leave this for my final thought, that,
54:38
Lee Woods: I am taking on more patience, so if y'all need this…
54:45
Tad Eggleston: Nope.
54:46
Lee Woods: Thank you, thank you, Ted, for laughing at my joke.
54:51
Marisol: Everybody be sure to schedule your therapy time with Lee.
54:56
Tad Eggleston: For those of you out there who need psychiatric help, Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at Modern Age Comics in Algonquin, Illinois, they have a couch.
55:09
Lee Woods: We do, in fact, have a couch.
55:18
Tad Eggleston: Alright, 5 seconds for anybody that wants to say anything else.
55:25
Marisol: This was a great A shoe, even though it hurt a lot, and now I get to be in my feelings for the next hour or so.
55:31
Marisol: And I can't wait till we get to the next one!
55:34
Josh Eiserike: Masterclass of Storytelling.
55:36
Josh Eiserike: Complete masterclass, I… and this time I know it's only gonna be…
55:41
Josh Eiserike: A month or so, until the next one, so…
55:45
Tad Eggleston: I might read Volume 10 tonight, just because I have to.
55:54
Tad Eggleston: I'm just saying, like, anybody else? I mean, we could come back, like.
55:59
Tad Eggleston: this weekend, for the next one, as far as I'm concerned.
56:08
Tad Eggleston: But, yeah, for the Saga Book Club?
56:12
Tad Eggleston: On 22 Panels. We will see you after the next page.