Catching-up with Chris Pt. 1: The Olympics for comics, Collector talk, and September 2024 comic picks

Chris Hacker (The Oblivion Bar) joins me this week for Ep. 436 to catch up on life, podcasting, the Olympics (and what an Olympics for comic collectors would look like), and the hurdles of buying original comic art. We also look ahead to September's previews, and with Ben's help, pick three of the must-buy comics!

Watch the unedited/ extended video version of this episode on YouTube!

Want to know what it was like attending SDCC this year, and how the Eisner Awards went? Listen to part two of this episode on Patreon, and hear Chris recap the big moments from his SDCC trip. 

Ben's Top 3 Comic Books for September 2024:

• Spirit of Vengeance #1 
• Star Wars: Darth Vader #50 
• Venom Lethal Protector #1 

Get early access to future episodes, and listen to hundreds of exclusive bonus episodes, over on our Patreon Channel. Try a FREE seven-day membership: Here!

SUPPORT THE SHOW: 

• MERCH SALE! Get 20% off your next purchase from our merch store by using the discount code: “YOO“
• Take your comic shopping experience to the limit, by shopping online at Gotham City Limit!
• Join our Patreon Community and get VIP treatment, bonus episodes, and other perks and rewards! Try out a free 7-day trial, here. No pressure 

Proudly sponsored by Gotham City Limit!


Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Transcript

Catching-up with Chris: The Olympics for comics, Collector talk, and September 2024 comic picks - The Short Box Podcast Ep. 436

00:01
intro music plays

00:31
And a one and a two. Do I remember how to do? You short box nation. Welcome back. You know, thanks for tuning in today, man. I just want to say, I am deeply appreciative of the folks that, that make Wednesdays a, you know, a routine thing, you know, like that press play on Wednesday mornings are like, all right, let's see what the short box is up to. Let's see what type of bullshit botters got for me this week. I really appreciate that. That is something about

01:01
podcasting that I think goes under appreciated sometimes as a as a creator and a host is That you have built this rapport with you know with people that you some of you know some you don't know some you you haven't met yet and They give you the time of day. You know there's so many different distractions out in the world You know there's all these things fighting for your attention. You know you know they've got the best fucking video games in the world they've got

01:28
millions of movies at the, you know, they could easily access movies, shows. I mean, don't even get me started on like YouTube content and you know, social media. So I just wanted to give a big shout out to all the short box nation peeps that tune in on a regular weekly basis. I appreciate it. If you're new, well welcome to the show. My name is Badr. And this is the short box podcast, the comic book talk show. That brings you the best conversations about comic books with the people that put their blood, sweat and tears and the making them

01:56
And those conversations also extend to the people who put their blood, sweat, and tears and all of their free time thinking about them, championing them, and talking about them to whoever will listen. This is episode 436, and today I am joined by the co-host of one of the best comic book podcasts out there. Talking about the Oblivion Bar podcast. I've got returning guest and good friend, Chris Hacker on the pod. What up, Chris? Hello, hello. Very loud.

02:24
You deserve that. You deserve all that. They're too loud. They're too happy I'm here. That's what happens every time I show up here on the short box, which is often everybody, if this is your first time listening to the short box. I am here at least every other week, so I'm happy to be here. And as a weekly listener of the short box, I will tell you, and Bartir, I told you this in our secret group chat with Greg Lichtag. It's not really secret anymore since we bring it up every time we ever record. We bring it up literally every time we are together on the show. First kept secret in all of comics.

02:53
It's our secret little comic group chat. I brought up in the chat that I really love these freeform episodes that you've been doing, specifically with Drew, who is always like, it's always fun to have him on, because as I've told you before, and Drew, I hope you're listening to this, and I may have even told you this at, was it New York last year, that Aaron, my co-host on the Oblivion Bar, and Drew are copasetic. They are kindred spirits, these two. They bring this sort of chaotic but special sauce to each of our shows, whereas you and I,

03:21
who I think are pretty fun people overall, need some kind of levity in our very deliberate and organized and structured formats. Well said. I've been thoroughly enjoying recording with Drew on a more regular basis. It makes me feel like we're, I don't even remember how old we were, but it makes me feel like 2012, 2013 era, just recording the pod, just to have something to do with Drew and Walt.

03:49
you know, whatever topics came to mind came to mind and we were okay with tangents. And it's a lot of fun because to your point, like Drew provides a lot of brevity. He's like, he's like, he's like a box of, you know, not to, I guess bring a forest, a gump quote to this. He's like a box of chocolate because you really don't know what you're going to get or what he's going to say. Some of it is very like coherent and like, wow, that was a really smart perspective. Other times it's like, what the hell are you trying to say?

04:17
Aaron's the same exact way. Yeah, it's like, oh, that's right. Your filter broke when you were five years old. That's right. Whatever comes to mind leaves your mouth very fast. Back to the listeners. So obviously, I've got Chris Hacker here with me. And we don't have a particular singular topic that we're covering today. I haven't had a chance to talk with Chris on the pod for a couple of weeks. I mean, obviously, we text pretty regularly. But we haven't had a long form.

04:47
Yeah, yeah, hourly. We haven't had a long form conversation, and a lot, I feel like, has kind of transpired in the past couple of weeks, that I'm just curious to catch up with you on. So, I wanna hear, you were lucky enough to go to San Diego Comic Con this year, I wanna hear how that went. The Olympics. USA, USA. We're actually recording today, the closing ceremony, actually happened, but they're gonna be doing the primetime broadcast in a sec, so.

05:12
That's kind of top of mind for me and I've got a fun game to play centered around the Olympics with comics and last but not least But I reached out to Ben Kingsbury the owner of Gotham City Limit I've reached out to him to have him send in a couple of his Comic book picks. So these are books that are coming out next month in September That he feels pretty strongly about that people should check out. So these are great entry points for new readers maybe something a little interesting for

05:39
long time readers, regular Wednesday warriors, and Ben has just got such a great perspective and view on comics. So we'll hear from Ben later on this episode. But that, I think, is for the most part what we'll be covering this episode. I guess I should use this opportunity really quick. So if we brought up my recordings of Drew, if you are someone that's been listening to the podcast for a while and you miss hearing Drew more regular, or you're just looking for more extra

06:06
episodes. The weekly episodes come out every Wednesday. I try to do a good job of dropping something every Wednesday, whether that be a short box classic, a Patreon preview, or one of these regular episodes. I've got a whole lot more on the Patreon. Patreon.com slash the short box. It's also the best way that you can support what I got going on here. Chris will tell you, podcasting is not cheap. And to do a good podcast, like I firmly believe this one is, is also not cheap.

06:33
and any support we can get from our listeners. It's a nice motivator. Obviously, we use it to cover hosting bills and equipment and et cetera, but it's also a nice motivator to know that people enjoy what you got going on and don't mind chipping in a few things. I am actually going to be taking a page out of Chris's book because Chris treats his Patreon subscribers and patrons really well. And I'm going to be sending out a care package. I'm going to be sending out some comics, some stickers.

07:00
I got a couple of other cool things. I've been going through my collection lately, Chris. You know this. And I have found so many just cool little promo items, little like with special edition cards that came with a comic. So I've got a ton of those. And I think I'm going to try to pack something interesting in every package that I can. But at least you'll get a comic and a sticker if you're a Patreon subscriber, just as a thank you for the many months of support and just being our number one fans here at the Short Box. So.

07:29
That's what I got to say. Chris, how are things going on at the Oblivion Bar? You had your latest episode is with a damn near S tier, not even A list, but like a S tier comic book creator. I also know he's someone that you, that's been on your bucket list. I won't ruin the surprise. How are things going at Oblivion Bar? We are actually on, we're actually on a little bit of a hiatus currently. It's our first hiatus in almost five years, which is insane to think about. We have...

07:58
been going strong since April of 2020. And as some people may or may not know, not to trumpet dump live here on the short box, but I'm currently going through chemotherapy for colon cancer. It's going really well. Whatever was there has gone officially, but I wanted to sort of step away for a moment, take care of that, get that out of the way and move on with it. Aaron is also in the process of not only, well, he's already in process out of the army after a successful and valiant 20 year career in the army. So now he's trying to figure out.

08:27
what to do next. If he was here right now, he would tell you that he doesn't know. That's fine. He's been what? You said 20 years in the Army? 20 years. He got in at 17 years old. When you put it that way, it's like, yeah, I think it's completely fine that he doesn't know what he wants to do. This is something that he's been doing since he was a fucking teenager and he's dedicated his whole, basically his whole, at this point, his whole life to. I'm sure whatever he gets into next will probably be something

08:57
definitely is someone that wants to make an impact and do good in the world. Absolutely. The benefit of his incredible service to the country is that he gets that sweet pension, baby. He gets that check every month. Not to mention, he doesn't have to get a job like you and I. He could get whatever. He could really do a passion job and still get that Uncle Sam check

09:27
I'm so proud of him and I'm excited for him to figure that out. Of course, like you said, that's tough, but I have no doubt that he will. Along with that, part of the reason, I would say the main reason why we've taken a break from the podcast, it's only two months. We're coming back in October, guys. It's not really that long. I will say that when we come back, we have a couple of knobs turning in the background, a couple of cool things. We're sort of recalibrating and I'll say in a very offhanded way, rebranding. It's exciting.

09:55
And I will say that we've already sort of announced when we're coming back, which is October 17th, but it's going to be exciting. It's going to be very exciting to showcase what we've been working on since before we stopped and then during that stoppage. Damn right. Chris is one of the hardest working podcasts hosts in the game. So you know, when he says all of these secret messages and indecipherable comments that he's actually put in the work and thought into it. So I went to the beach today and I decided to bring

10:24
David Harper's sketched zine. For those unaware, David Harper, he is the guy who runs the incredible comic book website sketched and he runs the weekly comic book interview podcast called Off Panel. He's been a guest on my show, on Chris's show. He does amazing work. Everything we're talking about. Top of the mountain everybody. And David put out a sketched zine last year and it was like, you know, like it had like an article from the website he had transcribed.

10:54
this interview of Kieran Gillian in the pod in this zine as well. And I was like, man, this is a great idea to take one of my like favorite interviews, transcribe it into like, you know, print or for print. And maybe you make a zine, maybe like make a short box best of zine, you know, like my top five favorite interviews and written format and maybe hire like an artist to do. So it's like something I've gotten the backburner. But Kieran Gillian was talking about like taking breaks and he doesn't necessarily just like cold.

11:23
quit Turkey being, you know, he doesn't stop being creative. He just shifts his focus to something else. So instead of writing like, I think he was, the interview in particular was being done at the tail end of his judgment day, his X-Men judgment day storyline. And he was saying like, he takes on some of these like big projects as you know, there's a deadline at the end or there's an end in sight. So he, you know, he hustles, he puts in the work. It's like a, you know, a hurdle, a relay race.

11:51
And then he's able to like, he knows there's the end in sight. And then he'll like shift gears and he'll like maybe work on like a premise for an RPG game, a tabletop game or write a TV show script or, you know, like he dabbles in other things to flex like his other creative muscles. But they all relate back to what he does with writing and writing comics and things like that. So thinking about you taking a break, you know, putting the oblivion bar on pause, like deal with some life stuff and.

12:17
also like recharge and maybe approach from a different angle and then reading like David's interview with Kieran, it got me thinking like I might just take the rest of August off or a clean break in September. So I can, I don't know, like come up with something different, you know, like I love doing the pod, but I do feel like I'm kind of repeating myself, you know, it's like interview, interview, interview, maybe a little, I think I might do more casual ones that don't require a lot of prep and I can just kind of express.

12:45
things and talk about certain topics, but I don't know, I'm feeling like the need for a nice recharge. You know? Yeah. You know, it's funny about us creative folks is that we get into ruts where we're constantly just churning out ideas and projects and we find small victories again, as I said earlier, we find value in a lot of that, but the moment you make a stop and that's where I'm at currently, you come up with a lot of incredible ideas. Damn, that's what I want. That's what I want. Yeah. I feel like...

13:13
I have a list of ideas. I keep a separate notepad of ideas that are related to short box and segments and cool topic ideas. But I'm so focused on the weekly grind. It's like, okay, I got to get this week's episode up. I got to clip it to promote it. I don't have the spare time to make the other ideas pop off or just see even if they don't go anywhere to really see how they work fleshed out. Yeah.

13:41
I feel like we've built the hype up so much for this, but I'm going to reveal it right now. Yeah, yeah, please. In the conversation that my most recent interview was with Brian K. Vaughn, writer of Saga, Pride of Baghdad, Paper Girls, Couple Seasons of Lost, a lot of things, right? And he mentions, like we would specifically talk about it for about 10 minutes about how him and Fiona, his Fiona Staples, his artists and co-creator on Saga, they purposely take these deliberate pauses from Saga to keep the band together. Because isn't that, that's what's most important.

14:10
And I think he finds a lot of value in that. I was already planning this stoppage with the Oblivion Bar, the sort of hiatus, but when he said that, I was like, God, it makes so much sense to me. He totally just, he rationalized it in my head right there in that moment as he said it. And I am so for folks taking a break from their passion, their love. The Oblivion Bar is that for me. I think the short box is that for you. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves as creative people to continue the...

14:38
Because we're always told like, if you take a break, if you don't constantly put things out, you're gonna lose eyeballs, you're gonna lose ear holes, you're gonna lose that attention of your listenership. I don't find that to really be true anymore. And not to mention, you and I don't have like these, not to say that we don't enjoy our listeners and we don't appreciate the listeners that we have, we don't have these like millions of listeners that we're gonna lose 100,000 people that don't hop off when we take a month break. That's not the case at all. I think if nothing else, we have a very tight knit, a very supportive listeners and followers.

15:07
that understand that we need that break, especially for moments like, of course, when I'm going through, but also even if it is just like, let me take a moment to recharge my batteries. Right? Yeah. And I guess maybe this speaks back to maybe I just need to have faith that my listeners will probably fill that void with maybe something. Maybe the listeners are even thinking like, it would be nice to take a break from Botter so I can go catch up on Bear season three. You know? They can't miss you if you don't leave. You know? That's awesome.

15:37
But you know, big ups to you about getting Brian K. Vaughan. I know that is, you know, one of your favorite writers. I know that must have been a huge moment. I listened to the interview. One of your best for sure. I thought the questions were well thought out. Brian K. Vaughan is also, I mean, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Very smart, very charming, really grounded too. Really, I liked his perspectives about bringing in like his experience as a parent and bringing that into Saga, I thought was really interesting.

16:06
Did you leave that interview with any new perspective, any new knowledge or tidbit that maybe makes you appreciate his writing more or maybe just appreciate Saga in a differently? Absolutely. Yeah. I think something that I felt like I already knew, but he says very deliberately in the conversation. I asked him at one point, I'm like, for people who have read Saga, I'm not going to spoil anything for anybody that hasn't, but there's a very huge thing that happens in issue 54 of Saga. I know, you know, Bodder-

16:34
He knows what I'm talking about and maybe people listening right now do as well. But I asked him, I was like, what was the chatter like between you and Fiona on the eve of that event? The Wednesday that issue 54 came out, were you nervous? Were you apprehensive? Was there any doubt in your mind? And he was like, I love our readers. I love our fans. They get our tattoos. They get tattoos of our characters on them. They invite us to their wedding, but I can't think about them. This is, you know, like.

17:01
what we do with saga is for the betterment of the story and to think of them would be to diminish the story in a large way. I feel like I kind of already knew that because there's one thing that I know about Brian and I respect it so much as not only a creative person but as a comic book fan that when you read his work, whether that be Ex Machina or Saga or Spectators that his story over on his substack with Nico Henderson, he does not hold anything back. If more than anything else,

17:31
in your face about certain topics and is so unabashed in his approach and his plot lines that, I know for me personally, and Bart, you may have felt this at some points, you know, in your creative venture that like, if I put this out to people, if I put this out into the ether of the internet and to the space and time in the universe, and people don't like this or they react poorly to this, I will never recover from this. And Brian K. Vaughn, to me, and I guess me now in a certain stretch,

17:59
has never given off that idea. He's never given me that apprehension. And I respect that so much that he is willing to just show his underbelly to his readership. And it has always been for the betterment of the story. And it's also made people like myself and a lot of other folks in the world, giant fans of his. Because as you said earlier, he was a part of a bucket list of like him, James Gunn, Chris Evans, Jim Lee. There's these creators, people in my nerd world that if I ever got them on the oblivion bar, I will die happily one day.

18:28
And Brian K. Vaughn was the tippy top of that list. He always was there. And somehow he was the first one I got of that crew. I don't know if any of those ever happened, like any of those conversations ever happened, probably not. But Brian K. Vaughn, if you had asked me four years ago, and if you had asked me yesterday, who's the number one person you wanna have on the Oblivion Bar at some point, it would have been Brian K. Vaughn. Well said. I think for me, Jonathan Hickman is that to me, where I really respect that he is confident in his storytelling, and he's kind of unwavering. He looks like someone that

18:57
doesn't listen to the audience in the best way possible. You know, like he's not on, I know actually he's not cause I had a chance to host a panel with him and he said that he's not on social media. I mean, I don't think he is period. I don't think he's got a Twitter. I don't think he's on Instagram. I think he's just communicates via his sub stacks. But I appreciate that solitude and like that focus on telling your story and the one you want and you know, kind of throwing caution to the wind in terms of like, will this please the audience? Will they get it?

19:25
I guess he's one of my white Buffalo interviews. Now, like I said, I already had a chance to do a panel or host a panel with him and Scottie Young. So that kind of scratched the itch, but you know, it's like, I still, I could do a whole Hickman interview, focus interview easy. You know, there's so many questions I want to ask him. Hickman scares me. I don't think I want to have him on the show. He is way too smart for me. I'd be like.

19:49
So, East of West, it's like Civil War but guys, and he's like, well, let me go on this 40-minute bottle log about why you're wrong. It's actually about Christianity and capitalism. And you're like, damn it, I knew I should have said capitalism. I should have said the universe, damn it. All right, Chris, I want to move on to our next topic. Fun little game, adding a little brevity here. I guess I could speak for you because you're wearing a USA shirt. So, I think it's safe to say you've probably been on the...

20:16
Olympic on the Olympic hype train. Have you been watching a lot of the games? Have you been watching like the prime time stuff that comes on at eight? Truthfully, I keep up sort of passively, of course, I keep up with USA Basketball. I think that's the one that I've been most interested in, but I did watch the four by 400 of both the men and the women last night. Obviously, I watched the championship game between USA Basketball and France. And then I like sort of keep up here and there through podcasts and just

20:44
sporting apps and all the things. But to speak on what you just said, I'm going to go with my t-shirt. I don't know if you can see here, this is the USA number nine. This is Tyrese Halliburton who played a total of like three minutes for USA basketball this entire Olympics. But hey, still a gold medalist. I'm right. This is all the matter at the end of the day. I mentioned this on the bonus episode with Drew this week, but I have been obsessed with the Olympics. I think this is safe to say the first year where I have consciously.

21:13
and rabidly been seeking out the Olympics. Like I'm watching as many of the games in the morning, in between meetings that I work from home, or I'm definitely making sure to catch the prime time broadcast at night. Speaking of which, I think we've got, right after we finish this, I'm gonna go watch the closing ceremony. YouTube TV, I can watch any time, but so I've been really into the Olympics this year. It's something about watching the absolute best in the world compete.

21:43
you know, the over, just the incredible emotion, you know, that is shared from these athletes after the races or after the games, whether that be like pure bliss exuberance or, you know, the complete opposite where it's like heartbreak and, you know, just like this anger. It's been absolutely incredible to watch the Olympics. I think it's also made me feel real patriotic, you know, even more patriotic. Are there specific events that you've really loved? So I would say, I think my, I was talking to Blife about this.

22:13
It's hard for me to pick a favorite because I kind of went in like, let me just watch everything. Anything that's on, let me watch. But I think I've really gravitated towards track and field. I did not know I'd be this invested in like watching Gabby Thomas, Sydney McLaughlin. Love saying that name. Sydney McLaughlin LeBron, you know, Sha'Carri Richardson. And then watching like gymnastics, you know, I'm like, I was watching all of them. Jordan Childs, Suni Lee, you know, Simone Biles. It's...

22:40
It's been like amazing the women this year and I think life told me a stat that the that women have won 60% of the medals. I don't know if that's gold or overall medals, but they've won a lot of award You know awards this year So it's been awesome watch like some badass women just like absolutely represent for USA and win at their game I was also watching swimming every night, you know, Ledecky is Absolutely mind-blowing the men's swimming has been great, too

23:07
But if you talk to Michael Phelps, he's disappointed in the swimming team. He's like, we need to dominate it. Yeah. We're like, dude, yeah, we know you got like nine medals in one year. Yeah, please, chill. But we get it, you know? I forget the name of the French kid that was winning all the gold medals. But, you know, even though, you know, USA all day over here, but it was something about seeing, and I wish I could recall his name, but, you know, he's French and to watch him win in his home country and like the roar of the stadium. Anyway, I'm going on too long.

23:37
cannot wait for 2028, but I've been watching the Olympics as I'm organizing, like my comics. I think I might've shared on the main feed that I have been absolutely just focused and obsessed with organizing my books lately. And it's all because our good friend, Greg Ligteig of the First Issue Club, who couldn't be here today because he had a bad gas station burrito and it fucked him up, all his plumbing up.

24:03
Those gas station churros will get you every time. Just Colace, that's all they do. Keep his coal in your thoughts and prayers. That's right. But Greg put me onto the CLZ comic app. So he brought me into the fold of circa 2015 or whatever. That's so surprising to me that you've never heard of CLZ. I was using this in like 2014. I had heard of it. I guess I just never cared because I guess I never saw myself like, I was like, there's no way I'm going to organize all my books and go through every issue.

24:33
crazy. Fuck that. I've got way better things to do like the podcast. But I'm a sucker for a barcode scanner. And that was a Greg selling point was that the CLZ app has a great barcode scanner. So I have been like catalog. I took all I counted today. I think there is, I have nine or 10 short boxes that I pulled from my storage unit, lugged them in my little cross track Subaru cross track, brought them all here. I don't have enough room in my studio. So my room has literally been like filled with comics.

25:02
I've gone through every single box, scanned them, cataloged them. There's a couple issues that aren't in their library, but I've had the Olympics on in the back and it got me thinking, what would an Olympic for comic collectors look like? It wouldn't be some extremely physical thing, but there are some things- You wouldn't have to be a specimen to do it. I want to quickly go back before you continue on. I just want to say, you're talking about the

25:30
also a model. Why is that a thing, firstly? The modeling contracts have to be ready for people like Sydney McLaughlin or Gabby Tom. I mean, come on, man. It's like, there's your next Wonder Woman right here. These women could really actually be from Themyscira. There's just like six to 180 pounds soaking wet, but can run less than 10 seconds, 100 meters. But also I was going to say about Simone Biles, who's one of our greatest Olympians and one of

26:00
US participants is just a walking thigh. She's just muscle. I feel like if I would have been punched her, it would break my knuckle easily. You would break before she flinched. Exactly. All right. But anyways, it got me thinking about, man, if I could make a comic book, an Olympics for comic collectors, what would that look like? Think of all the physical things that, because owning a comic collection is physical and you don't realize how physical it is until you have to move.

26:28
or you're trying to organize your books and you're f**king bending and picking up boxes and flipping through books and things like that. So this was a topic. A full short box is a, that's a good amount of weight. I would say, how much do you think a short box weighs? I would say- 50 pounds maybe? 50 pounds is, you know what? I can go with 50 pounds. Yeah. So I brought this topic up to Drew when we recorded our bonus episode and we came up with like a couple of games. Like what would be in the comic book Olympic games? And I'll share a few.

26:56
with you and I want to hear what else you would add to that. If you want to hear the full list listeners, go check out this week's bonus episode of Drew. So two that came to mind that I thought were pretty good was one that is based on the long jump. Imagine like a long jump, a long box long jump where you stack long boxes end to end and you compete based on how far you could jump over a number of long boxes. I think I've got a solid

27:27
I think I could jump over three long boxes. I think I got that. Yeah. So are we talking like lined up from front to back or side to side? OK, gotcha. OK. Because I mean, get the most, the maximum length. We're about this, I mean, you're taller than I am. We have a similar body style. I think I would probably do about three myself. I think I got a silver medal. I got a silver medal in me, for sure. Yeah. I might even do a little bit less than you. I'd do like two and a half maybe. I'd probably hit failure at three. You know what? Actually, I feel like I'm being too modest.

27:56
I might have, you know, we're on a comic podcast. I'm using my imagination. You're a modest guy, you know? I got, everyone says it about you. This is a humble motherfucker, this guy. I think I could definitely get a silver. I'd be able to win the silver easy with the long box. And I think, you know, there's, you know, there'll be the long box long jump and then a short box short jump. And I think I definitely can clear like a solid eight short boxes. I think I would be like the Maria Sharapova to make a tennis reference for some reason. I'd be like the Maria Sharapova of the comic long box jumping because

28:25
I would only clear like one and a half, two, but you would see those slow motion, like you'd see like me and my spandex and just all the motion happening in my muscular body. And there'd be like TikTok, you know, thirst traps all over, just all over the place. That'd be me. My hair flowing in the wind. That's funny. What about, what did they call the pole vault? Not the pole vault. Oh, actually a pole vault would be pretty cool. A pole vault or what's the one where you're jumping over?

28:54
the bar itself. High jump. Okay. I think you can also apply long boxes and short boxes to either one of those. And imagine trying to clear like 10 stacked short boxes. Yeah, that would be tough. I actually have a very, I have to show you this sometime. This is not at any point, this does not matter to the show. I have a really disgusting scar on my inner thigh, my inner right thigh. From trying to do a long box jump? No, I'm trying to do a high jump and I scraped myself with a spike one time.

29:24
I do like that though. I think that's really cool. Can I give you one? Yeah, please. Jump in it. When you were talking about this, it made me think this is sort of sacrilegious to the idea of being a comic fan, but what about like CGC disc throwing? CGC like slab throwing. That'd be great. You could like disc that thing out, right? Yeah. And then extra points if it lands and it breaks and frees the comic book. Now you got a raw. If you can get it from slab to raw, gold medal all day. Yeah. If you regrade it, it's a higher grade. You get an extra medal.

29:53
You know, in CGC, they got like the banners and the special markings. Like, it's just an Olympic medal, where it being, you know, to indicate it was used in the comic book Olympics. OK, what's another one? Let me and Drew thought of it. OK, I was watching a couple of like strongman competitions. You know, the, what is it, the bent over rows? Is that what they call those? But imagine, and it's based on something I had to do. I live in an apartment where I have precisely 18 steps.

30:21
I have stairs, 18 steps. I know this because every time I'm coming home from the gym after leg day, it's the most painful experience. And I've counted them every single time. But it got me thinking. And I had to lug a couple of short boxes up and down these stairs. And at some point, like we all do, I got a little cocky. I was like, I'm tired of doing. I'm not going to do eight back-to-back trips. I'm going to try to save a couple of trips. So I was able to stack two full short boxes and walk up these stairs pretty well. And it got me thinking, this could be an Olympic comic book game, too. Oh, yeah. It's short box stacking.

30:51
How many do you think you got in you, Chris? I could probably, so here's the thing. Here's a little backstory. I think I could do another, I think I could do a solid three. I might be able to push it to four, but not by much. Okay. Yeah. I was going to say three and here's why I say three, because for almost 10 years of my life, I was in the bar industry. I was a bartender specifically, and I would often have to refurbish the beer cooler, right? I had to bring up cases of beer. And I think those beer...

31:19
cases, what often I'm going to say glass beer here, I would say they would roughly weigh about 45 to 50 pounds. So about the same weight as a short box. And my secret talent and this is not like strength. I think it's all like, I don't know, form, I guess you would say. I could carry three sometimes. If I got cocky, I would try to carry three. I could carry two comfortably. It would be strenuous, of course, but it's like not hard. But three, if I was feeling cocky and I was feeling

31:46
Cocky and lazy, I would try to carry three. It would be higher than my head. So I'd have to just hope and pray that I'm not walking over something or I trip. I've never dropped a case of beer in my life, but yeah, I think I could maybe do three, four if you gave me a smelling salt or something. Or if one of the track and field girls were watching us do the event, I'll try to do four.

32:15
Sidney McLachlan was watching me lift some short box. I'd go for 10. I'd go for absolutely 10. OK. And then another one that comes to mind is, Drew came up with this one, but flipping through a short box could also be an Olympic sport. Because it's about speed, dexterity, I think, as well. Finger strength. Finger strength, right. I think the rules we're thinking of, you have an entire short box filled.

32:44
90 to 100 comic books. I think 90 to 100 if it's like they're all bagged and boarded, I think you get a little more than 100 if they're not bagged and boarded. But imagine having a short box full of full short box in front of you and you have to flip through every single issue and to add a little bit of complexity and difficulty. You also have to like lift the book up past the title banner. And imagine trying to break the record of that. 8 seconds flat.

33:12
Like, can I offer like an alternate event to this right here? I think it would be cool if you had like five long boxes and you had to pull out 10 issues of a series. So you have to flip through all of those books and you have to find those 10 issues while flipping. And then the timer ends when you hit, when you get those 10 issues. A little, a little hide and seek. Yeah. Okay. I was, I told Drew the one game I probably would never, you couldn't pay me to the play is organizing a long box. Like imagine.

33:40
a randomly assorted long box that you have to sort in record time. I just, oh man, my assorting game only makes sense in my head. If I was to bring you over and show you my short boxes, you'd be like, what? Universe. Yeah. Like is this, this is clearly not ABCD. This is AZFDC Marvel, you know, you know, whatever it is.

34:04
Chris, how do you get your comics organized? Do you do it by publisher, by creative team, or is there, is it a special blend in your head? Well, we talked about earlier about how I don't really have a ton of single. Same. And I think that's what makes like organizing those issues a little more interesting because I had to come up some creative ways myself. I have five short boxes and I, the way I have it sort of organized right now is I have, there are certain creators, cover artists specifically that I will buy a lot of, for instance, Daniel Warren Johnson,

34:34
I, at one point I was a giant Donny Cates collector. I'm not proud to admit that, but I did that. That's part of me. Uh, I have like certain creators that I will always Jen Bartel, another cover artists that I will often get, Rose Besh, Peach Momoko, and I have tabs for those. Then I have CGC slash con issues that I know at some point in my life. I want to take those and get those eventually graded and pressed and maybe slapped, what have you.

34:59
And then I have this giant miscellaneous collection of just, there's literally no method to this madness. It is just, I picked it up on a whim, old issue of House of Secrets, sure. Most recent variant for demon days, okay, fine. Like it's that kind of crazy. So that's kind of my organization. When it comes to my trades, these are all in order by hero. So I will often do hero A through Z, and then I will try to organize

35:28
the trade by oldest run to newest run. And then obviously this is not comics, but for books I do Dewey Decimal, so I do by author. Oh, wow. A little Dewey Decimal system. Your elementary school teacher or librarian would be very proud of you. That's right. Here's some of my boxes I've got. I've got a completely Marvel box, a completely DC box, image box, and then I have an indie box. So this one has like boom.

35:56
Dark Horse, IDW, and then like some other smaller publishers. So I was able to get that into a short box. But my two favorite boxes I have are these boxes that I've just labeled personal. And these are books that to no one else would they have any value or significance to. But for me, it's like an Ashcan, a comic book that a friend made, a comic book that might've been given to me. Like I've got a couple of the ones that you've like.

36:24
Like your Phantom Road, Oblivion Bar variant cover is in there. I've got like all of my Gotham City limit, you know, exclusive variants in there. Ashcans also fit perfectly in a regular sized bag and board. That's my little like collector, you know, tip is, you know, I try to put everything in a bag and board and I find that Ashcans fit really well in there. But then I've got like my Marvel hip hop variant collection in there. I've got, you know, like these are books that I would sooner grab these.

36:53
and they probably have less monetary value than say like the Marvel box or DC box. But these are the ones that I can't replicate. I can't like duplicate or find them out in the wild. You know, CLZ doesn't even have them listed. There's not a cover price, you know, value to them. So do you have like your, you know, you know, knock on wood, this never happens, but houses on fire, I've grabbed, you know, family and friends, you know, you know, love the ones out of the house.

37:21
I need to go in and grab one box. Do you have like your safe box? You know, truthfully, I don't know if I do in terms of single issues. The only comic, if my house is on fire, I would grab my dog Toby. I would probably grab my Alex Malieve, Dr. Doom that's sitting right next to me. And then the only comic that I would grab, which is over here in my case, I have a case, like one of those, I guess display cases you would see at a comic shop. A lot of times they put statues and such in. It's mostly all graded.

37:50
books of both Silver Surfer and Doctor Doom. And the only one that I would grab would be my Fantastic Four Annual Number Two, signed by Stan Lee, that I got signed at Cincinnati Comic Con in 2016. So that would be the only, I think that'd be the only single issue that I would grab in a heat. Did you get it signed by Stan Lee himself? Yes. Oh wow, how was that experience? This is a whole nother episode we could do, but this was in 2016, so a lot of folks who are in the know, know that Stan, towards the end of his life, was being terribly,

38:20
terribly taken advantage of. And for me, luckily, he did, I did witness him sign it himself, but there have been stories of people like taking his hand and literally making the signature, which is so fucking gross. But for me, that was a really cool experience. Truthfully, my entire moment of meeting Stanley is sort of blacked out and lost into the ether of time. But I do remember being very excited about it and thanking him whenever I met him. And he was really nice. Stan was a total stand up, really fun, energetic guy, even at the age of 90.

38:49
I think it was a year before he passed in 2017. So yeah, it was a cool experience. And I have that signed by him, that annual number two, which is for all the CGC heads out there. It is a 5.0. I have not had it pressed or anything. So I'd be curious, maybe some point in my life, maybe I'll get it pressed and see what that does to it. And then also part of the event that I went to offered a Humberto Ramos cover he did for Amazing Spider-Man during Dan Slot's run that is also signed by Stan Lee.

39:19
Oh, those are solid picks, man. Mine are like... Yeah. I think I've got the first comic book my dad ever gave me. It was Fantastic Four 162. And when I tell you, if I was to go get this graded by CG, they'd send it right back. They'd be like, we don't want to do negatives, sir. Yeah. Which I know that that is a very, it's not an expensive book. I've actually owned a way better version of it because I just wanted a nicer one. But I wouldn't want to lose that one in a fire.

39:49
Actually, the more I think about it, I don't know if I have an exact thing. There's a lot of things in here I would love to keep. But I think, you know, I actually one thing I'd probably grab is behind my left shoulder, I guess camera right is the original artwork for the short box gauntlet logo that Ed did. And he gave it to me like years ago. You know, he was one day he was like, hey, I just remembered I have the original, you know, art piece for the logo here. You can have it.

40:18
So I think that shit like that, you know, like a lot of my collection I could easily kind of like find – maybe not easily, but I could find them. I was told that my hip hop variant covers are going for a lot. I got the Miles Morales one which is the homage to Nas Iomatic. Apparently that one alone is, you know, 200 bucks up. So yeah, you know, I wish Greg was here because I'd probably talk a little more about like, you know, how fun it's been like cataloging my books and getting an understanding. You know, I think as a collector.

40:48
I have always been, I was so icky thinking about like my books from a monetary value, thinking about comics in that light. Because I think there's a lot of that angle or that side of comics has been like the big thing on YouTube. Like a lot of like big comic channels focus on that aspect. And I've always felt like, you know, there's a lot of really good people doing it. And then other times I'm like, some people get into this for the wrong reason. But

41:13
I think the middle ground that I've found is that I'm spending a lot of money on these books. Comics are not cheap. And I think it would be foolish not to at least have an idea of what it's worth, like you know, have it, you know, respecting that side of comics. You know, because comics has always been like the amalgam of art and commerce, a very interesting business structure that is comic books. You know, so it's like I've always just looked at, appreciated them for the creative angle, the stories, the art.

41:43
But then I think I'm now learning to appreciate it more from like, okay, these are these, some of these things hold value. There's a whole market to it. This is a culture in itself. So CLZ app has been fantastic where I can put all of these books back in the storage unit for safe keepings, but I know what's in them, right? I can actually kind of look at my collection and that's been fun. Yeah. Just to pick up what you're saying there, I've always wavered myself on this idea of like what...

42:09
books do I collect, right? Like I go to a lot of cons. I have access to, I work for a comic sketch art. So I have access to a lot of like con exclusives that people will like go, they'll create an entire schedule around getting this one book signed by this one creator. And I could just walk up to the person and that's not beyond me how lucky I am to have that opportunity. But like it is one of those things where when I think about what I've been collecting, and I think this might even be a good transition to one of our points about like what we've been collecting recently. So.

42:39
I've never bought a book with the anticipation that I will at some point sell it in the near future. That's not to say that I haven't sold books. I've sold plenty of books for a lot of money. For instance, I said this on Twitter the other day and it's the comic that I regret selling more than any other comic I've ever owned, which is Fantastic Four number 48, first appearance of Galactus and Silver Surfer. I had it at a 7.0 on CGC. I bought it for $700 in 2014. I sold it in 2017 to fund a move to St. Louis in 2017.

43:08
and it was almost instantly worth three times that because that was when Disney bought Fox and I sold it for 700. So I sold it for the same amount that I bought it for, but it was not only was it heartbreaking because anyone who knows me, bought or you know this quite well. I love Silver Surfer. It's my favorite character in the world. It's my favorite comic book character overall. And to have that at one point and then to sell it within two years of owning it, it was such a kick in the nuts just on face value. But then to see how much it was worth almost immediately

43:38
just a true gut punch. But to say all that, I've sold comics here and there and a lot of times it's for a good reason, but I always collect on the basis that it's something that I want to keep forever and a lot of times it's not ever for a resale value in any sense. Well said. I don't know, maybe I guess I am looking to make room for more. Now that I've kind of got an idea of what's in my collection, I can avoid double dipping in certain instances.

44:06
But now I'm kind of excited to like, kind of like have some challenges where I'm like, okay, well, I know I'm going to be collecting for the rest of my life. Like, let's try to complete a run. Let's see about like hunting down like characters that mean something to me, you know, like kind of building now that I know what's in my collection, I know what I can trim, you know, some of the fat I can trim. And I want to just have a very concise collection. And I feel like I it's pretty concise. If you look at my collection now, you'd be like, this is definitely Bodder's collection.

44:33
There's a lot of hip hop involved in here. There's a lot of Street Fighter. It's very favorite writers kind of driven, favorite artists kind of driven. So I think it's just been fun being reintroduced to my collection. So big shout outs to Greg in the C of Z app. I want to briefly say as well, I feel like this is sort of a subconscious distancing that I try to do when it comes to people who, because like you said, it's commerce and art joint at the hip.

45:02
this medium is the comics and the creators, they know this very, very well. There was a time that you could walk up to Jack Kirby and get a free sketch. Nowadays, if you want to get a commission from the aforementioned Rose Besh, that's going to cost you a couple of grand because they know how much this is worth. They know that some neckbeard is going to buy this commission and flip it online if they charge nothing. That's interesting for one thing, but also we shouldn't be embarrassed to seek out things that are valuable.

45:31
I know a big get for me at San Diego Comic-Con, and we'll talk about it here in a bit, I'm sure, was the absolute Batman Ashcan by the upcoming… You're a lucky man. …it's upcoming in the fall. I got it signed by Nick Chagada and Scott Snyder, and that was exciting for me. I did the same thing at San Diego last year for Transformers number one with that Ashcan. This is fun. And of course there were something, but we shouldn't waver from that. I try not to look down on people who view comics as a business, because it is.

46:01
And just because they don't love the Fantastic Four as much as I do, doesn't make them any less of a fan in their own way. It's something that I've sort of come around on and I know that I'll never be that person that goes to cons and just buys a bunch of exclusives and sells them online, which was an Olympic event that I was going to offer. It would be con variant exclusive resale speed. How quickly can you sell that variant online? That's actually pretty good. I like that one a lot. But I'm not ever going to be that guy.

46:29
I'm not saying that someone who is, is not, is not, they're not less of a fan than I am. I guess I'm, I'm also, I know there is a forthcoming move in my life where your boy is getting married in October and buying a house is in the very near future. So I'm trying to get well ahead of, of things and not be caught by surprise like I was moving from my apartment and having to lug my entire collection.

46:56
I guess I'm trying to think of like, you own these books, these books are your responsibility, whether they mean something to you or they've got resale value or whatever, I do have to figure out how I'm going to maneuver with them. So having an idea of like, what's worth something, where I can recoup some money, I feel like it's all part of like this ecosystem. I'm trying to embrace it and not feel icky about the commerce side of comics. But it is a collectible hobby. So I think it comes with it.

47:25
Yeah, and I'll say sort of my last thing on this whole thing is, you know, comics have been since its inception, a buyer's market. Very rarely will you be able to sell a book more than you bought it for. Very rarely. I am facing that. I am experiencing that big time. Facebook marketplace is a very humbling experience when it comes to selling comic books. You know, when I sold my collection, I sold it for a annoying, miserable amount compared to what I paid for it. And I thought it was worth way more. But

47:53
It's the same way with original art. And Bart, you know this, a lot of folks listening to this, I'm sure probably go out and want to get commissions. And I'm a big, big collector of original art. It's one of my favorite things to do at cons. I actually, shameless brag, I actually recently got my Stan Sakai Usagi Ojimbo from San Diego Comic-Con framed. I'm looking at it right now. It's one of my most prized original pieces now. But one of my other big ventures at San Diego was to try to get a Darwin Cook original. And people don't know Darwin Cook.

48:21
Darwin Cook passed away a couple of years ago and he was a legend when he was alive. So imagine trying to find an original piece from him now. And I went to, I would say the biggest art collector, he's widely known as the biggest art collector, Albert Molina, I think is his name. He is the art collector for, he is the art dealers for Jim Lee, Bruce Timm, the big guys. If he is a big, big person that you and I could not.

48:49
our bank accounts together and buy a piece of, he is the dealer for that person. I found a couple pieces from Darwin Cook in his booth and I'm like, hey, listen, I have some original pieces because he has promoted all over his booth. I accept trades. I'm willing to barter, but let's talk. I was like, I have a couple pieces. I show my Alex Malieve, Dr. Doom. I show him my Christian Ward, Dr. Doom. I have a bunch of originals. He was like, I'm not interested in any of this. I don't want-

49:18
I have a Scotty Young Miles Morales over here. I have a Ryan Stegman Swamp thing I have a Daniel Warren Johnson Trunks Commission on the wall right now. Wait, wait, is this all stuff you've got or he's got it? I have this is all of my original art He didn't want any of it because he's like if it's not a published piece by a legend I will not take it and those were him legendary enough Clearly not. I mean, I don't know how an oil painting of dr. Doom

49:43
in today. Like this is Sanico Comic Con. Robert Downing Jr. just announced that he was Dr. Doom, not even four hours earlier. And he's like, I don't want this piece of shit. Why are you bringing this up to my booth? Yeah, that's the that is like, I got humbled. It was a very demoralizing experience for me because of like, I could easily trade my Darwin Cook. I'm sorry, I could trade my my Malive Doom, which I don't want to do, by the way, like it's as I said earlier, but off the principle, you're like, I'll show you buddy. I can show it was like board. I showed I was like, would you be willing to even like look at this?

50:12
And he goes, no, no, no, I can't take it. It's a commission. I don't want it. It had to be a page. It had to be a cover. That is what I love about comic book culture. There is all of these, you know, pockets, you know, that you could just live in and be a fan in. And I think original art is a space that I'm very interested in. I follow Jimmy Palmiotti on Twitter and he shares a lot. I guess he started collecting original comic art.

50:42
like fairly early and he talks about the pieces he's owned. You know, we're talking like Bernie Wrightson pieces, Billson Cavage pieces, a lot of like famous 90s comic artists. He's owned like a lot of pieces and he sold them like, you know, throughout the years to fund a house, to, you know, fund this. And he got out of the stories he shares, you're like, man, these are, it's kind of cool that he's able to like use.

51:07
Not only does he work in comics, and not only does he revere these people as his peers and friends and also as a fan, but comics has quite literally funded his life in a lot of different ways. Yeah, but I guess I'm looking to dip my toe in, and I'm sure there are levels to that, like you just mentioned, but yeah, owning an original art piece, I guess I don't make the distinction right now between.

51:34
I don't care if it's a commission or an original published piece, as long as that shit looks amazing. That was me for a long time, but apparently that's not good enough for a Darwin Cook. Albert had this Darwin Cook Wonder Woman that looked exactly out of New Frontier. It was probably a, I would say a four by eight a piece and it was an orange, origin black. I don't even know how he did this, but it was incredible. He wanted $6,000 for it. Wow. Yeah. And those price tags are just a different.

52:03
beast, a different level. Yep. Moving on to our next topic, which I think is a great segue. And maybe this is where we'll wrap it up. I know that I wanted to ask you a couple of questions about San Diego Comic Con. And maybe we'll record like a little, a couple of minutes for Patreon. But I think our last segment for this particular episode. Let's get into Ben's list. Like I said, I reached out to Ben Kingsbury, the owner of Gotham City Limit, the best comic shop here in Jacksonville, Florida, and all of Florida at that. I reached out to Ben.

52:32
and asked him to provide me three picks for new comics. So three new comic picks that he feels everyone should be on board for, whether you're a new fan looking for a good entry point or maybe a loyal Wednesday warrior looking for something new. So these have a final order cutoff of the following Monday, which would be the 19th, I believe. These books come out September 18th, so you gotta get your order in by next Monday, August 19th. So with that being said,

53:01
Here we go. He sent in three voicemails. Because you know Ben is a salesman, he can't just send in a list. He's gotta tell you why he picked. He did give me a preface that these three picks for this month are all Marvel. He said there wasn't a lot of diversity to choose from, but I think he wanted to go for a Marvel theme, so if you're a Marvel head, yo, this is right up your alley. So here is his first pick here. Here we go, Ben Kingsbury, what you got for us?

53:26
Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, short box listener. However you're listening and wherever you're listening from, I'm Ben Kay, representing Gotham City Limit, Jacksonville, Florida. Time to take final order cutoff for brand new comics to the limit. Here's my three you shouldn't miss this week. First up, Marvel Comics presents Spirit of Vengeance number one.

53:53
And this is a good one if you're a Ghost Rider fan, probably a must read. We're talking about a story that features some of the most iconic characters who have ever carried the Spirit of Vengeance mantle. Johnny Blaze, Danny Ketch, Robbie Reyes, even more recently, The Hood or Kshala. The premise is intense. The Spirit of Vengeance is back for one explosive ride through the darkest corners of the Marvel Universe, and there's a twist.

54:21
This tale has a particularly strong connection to not one but two Ghost Riders, making it a story that's been years in the making. Don't miss out, Marvel Comics Spirit of Vengeance number one. Also, there's a Shalak variant cover that is going to fly off the shelves. You're welcome. There we go. Look at Ben giving us the insider tips early. I will say that he mentioned that it involves two Ghost Riders.

54:46
I'm just looking at the stopster. I don't know what the hell is going on in Ghost Rider right now. I was just about to say the same thing. I have no idea. But it looks like all of the Ghost Riders are showing up. We got Johnny Blades, Robbie Reyes, Danny Ketch, Parker Robbins, Kushala, I think is in. Yeah, I mean, like all of them, all the most recent ones. One thing I've noticed about these Benz picks this week that all of the creative team are writers and artists I am not familiar with. And I wonder if it's their kind of breakthrough moment

55:16
You know, they're new on the scene. This particular title, Sabir's Avengers Number One, is written by Sabir Khurzada and artist Sean Damian Hill. I'm not familiar with either one of them. What about you, Chris? I'm not familiar with either, but also Sabir is the writer of two of these books. We'll talk about the other one here in a moment. But yeah, I'm not familiar with his work. That's interesting. Oh, you know what? I'm so sorry, I was just looking it up. Speaking of Ms. Marvel.

55:42
He was actually the writer on Ms. Marvel Mutant Menace. He was the co-writer along with Ms. Marvel herself, Iman Velani. So that's where he came from. Okay, that's cool. All right, so he's no stranger to writing like big flagship characters. Okay. So once again, that was Spirits of Vengeance number one that comes out September 18th. If you want to make sure that you don't miss out on that, final order cut off for that is August 19th. All right, moving on to his second pick. What else do you got for us? Let's see what else we got. Next up.

56:10
Marvel Comics presents Star Wars Darth Vader number 50. That's right, the highly anticipated conclusion of the longest running Darth Vader comic series ever ends here with issue number 50. Writer Greg Pak promises to bring everything full circle as the Dark Lord of the Sith unleashes his true power in a battle that fans have been eagerly waiting for. But what battle have fans been eagerly waiting for, Ben? Well, let me tell you.

56:39
probably the only person in the galaxy who can match Vader's strength and ruthlessness, none other than Emperor Palpatine himself. As the schism imperial erupts, Vader harnesses the unfathomable power he's accumulated throughout the series, setting the stage for a showdown that promises to shake the very foundations of the Empire. But that's not all. This issue also ties up loose ends and provides shocking twists.

57:06
for some of the most beloved and intriguing characters in Star Wars Universe. We're talking about Luke, Leia, Sabi, Ochi, Zed, Sly Moore, and the other key members of the Shizm Imperial. The stakes have never been higher, and there's not a better character in comics than Star Wars Darth Vader. Number 50. Don't miss out. I love how Ben is able to... Obviously, he's reading some of the solicitation.

57:34
But he reads it exactly as how the solicitation is meant to be read, like very dramatic, very like, and then this episode of Darth Vader number 50, you know? If you're listening right now, get that thing. Come on, man. And then he adds his own little flare in it. I will say I am absolutely impressed and floored by how long Darth Vader has been. I guess I shouldn't be that impressed because it's Darth Vader. He's like the coolest villain in the world. I guess I just didn't expect that.

58:03
Star Wars comics would still be going on this long. As someone who was reading them when they first got to Marvel and I was reading that OG Charles Soule Darth Vader run, which was exceptional. I love that run. But I had to hop off when they relaunched it and then kept relaunching. I actually might check this out, this big 50th issue celebration. Because Greg Pak is also involved. I'm not familiar with the artist, Raphael, I think that's Linco or I- Linco, yeah.

58:30
Yeah, so once again some new faces over there at Marvel. Yeah, and both of these last two, Spirit of Interest number one and Darth Vader number 50, both have a Derek Chu one in 100 ratio variant. So that's pretty cool. Derek Chu, killing it in the cover game right now. Yes, he is. When you're being put on one in 100 ratios, that means you're in high demand. Marvel would not put that cover as the highest ratio if your books were not selling.

58:57
Alright, so that was Darth Vader, Star Wars Darth Vader number 50. It also comes out September 18th. Once again, final order cut off for that would be August 19th. So get that on your list if you want it. And last but not least, Ben's final order pick of the week is a strong contender, a strong way to wrap up this trio. Here we go. And last but not least, Marvel Comics presents Venom War.

59:25
Lethal Protectors number one of a three-part series. Well, the main story Venom War just kicked off, but I'm looking forward to this three-part series. Silver Sable is one of my favorite Spider-Man villains ever. The Lethal Protector series from the 90 where we had Venom without his big lizardy tongue, Silver Sable and Spider-Man are some of my favorites. And this three-part series.

59:52
has the return of Silver Sable, assembling a high lethal mercenary squad known as the Symbiote Squad. But who makes up the Symbiote Squad? I'm glad you asked. How about the Life Foundation Symbiotes? Scream, Riot, Agony, Lasher, and Phage. This is gonna be a no holds bar battle to the death for a number of these Symbiotes. So if you're a fan of Venom, Silver Sable, or any of the Symbiotes, I list it out.

01:00:20
This three part series is for you. Venom or lethal protectors. Number one, let's take the symbiotes to the limit. Love that. Great way to wrap it up. I have a special place for the original venom lethal protector. I will never from like the nineties with the, with the Mark Bagley interior. I think it was Jay. Yeah. Maximum carnage. Is that the storyline that these guys all showed up in? I believe so.

01:00:47
I think so, but I'm talking about the original Venom Lethal Protector with the badass red foil cover, iconic cover at that. I will never forget pulling that from a long box, a dollar long box at that as a very young kid and being blown away by the red foil. It's like, oh, look how bloody it's going to be. Love that story. I don't know if I'm going to get any heat for this, but Venom is one of those characters that I have often had. I've been at odds with.

01:01:17
I feel like it's saturated. We've been over saturated with Venom. The Marvel so wants us to love Venom and I get it. As a 90s kid, it's hard not to love him in some aspects. He's got one of the coolest designs. But I feel like besides the Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman run, the lot of the Venom lore is sort of steeped in nothingness. And I could be wrong. I'm not like an end all be all know it all about Venom, but I feel like he's most interesting in that run with Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman.

01:01:45
Real quick on this lethal protectors cover here, shout out to my boy, Kreese Lee, we were just talking about a moment ago. We were on the cover of this. So there you go. And it's a killer cover too. Good way to bring it back. All right, well this Venom War Lethal Protectors number one also comes out September 18th. So as you can see, September 18th is gonna be a big new comic book Wednesday. So if you wanna get this on your pull list in time, final order cut off once again, August 19th.

01:02:13
So those three comics once again are Spirit of Vengeance number one, Star Wars, Star Vader number 50 and Venom, Lethal Protector number one. I'll have links to all of these so you can preview the pages and I'm sorry not the pages but the covers and see the things that me and Chris are talking about in these show notes. Which of those three are you most excited? Are you going to pick up any of those? Has Ben convinced you to go out to Gotham City when these come out and pick up one of these? Well, I will definitely probably be at Gotham City limit on that Wednesday because I rarely miss a Wednesday.

01:02:40
All right, realistically, if I'm being 100% honest, I will probably pick up the Darth Vader. 64 pages. Gotta love you a good little milestone issue to jump in on. I do want to see what's going on with Darth Vader. And I think it's the probably strongest contender out of these three that doesn't rely on, you know, like venom lethal protectors, I think it's relying on like an older story and that kind of nostalgia. It's a tie-in. Yeah, and much, oh, it's a tie-in. Well, even more reason not to.

01:03:08
Spirit Avengers, I think you said it best. I have no idea what's going on with Ghost Rider. So I'm going to go with Star Wars, Darth Vader. What about you, Chris? There are two comics that I feel like are just in a constant flux of reboots and it's Ghost Rider and Shang-Chi. Those two books, I feel like are rebooted every six months for some reason. Usually it's like the same creative team for some reason too. I know Gene Yun Lang was on Shang-Chi for a long time, maybe still is, but he's done like three Shang-Chi number ones.

01:03:36
And it's the same way with Ghost Rider. It feels like Ghost Rider, they just keep switching up who the Ghost Rider is. And I think they just recently done it. They've done it again with the hood taking over as the Ghost Rider. So spoilers for anybody who's not reading Ghost Rider. I am not obviously, but that's just what I've heard through the nerd grapevines. And, uh, but, but all that to be said, I will say Spirit of Vengeance is one of the books that of the three would be the one that I would be the one to be the one to take off the shelf and probably pick up just based on the fact that it has all of the Ghost Riders, uh, real quick, just kind of on that topic.

01:04:06
You don't have to elaborate if you don't want, but which is your favorite Ghost Rider? Who? Johnny Blaze, easily, because Method Man went by Johnny Blaze. That's his nickname. I think it's the one I'm most familiar with as well. And Johnny Blaze is such a cool ass name. Johnny Blaze. Yeah. I have a soft spot for Robbie Reyes, I think, even though he's the newest one. That Trad Moore run that he had in his creation for the all new, all different. Design wise, he's got such a slick design. Yeah.

01:04:35
in your face. I feel like you also have to go ahead and just pick up Venom War Lethal Protectors number one. Just off the strength that it's Kreese Lee and you got to support. He gave you that cover free. So, got to pay it back in some way. I wonder if he'll give me the cover for this Venom War Lethal Protector. I'm just kidding. All right. So, I'll have links to those books in the show notes. Big shout outs to Ben for taking the time to submit the list, record the voice recordings. I mean, there's no...

01:05:04
better comic salesman than Ben. So big shout out to Ben, and maybe I'll see you at Gotham City Limit on September 18th when all these books come out. Chris, I think that is where I wanna wrap up this particular episode. If you wanna stay on, we can talk about your San Diego Comic-Con trip, the highlights, the things you learned, the things you picked that we can go into a little more detail there. Give the patrons, the number one supporters, a little extra episode this week. But I wanna say thank you.

01:05:32
for being a fantastic guest co-host. Thank you for, and thank you for what you do for the Comic Book Podcast world, man. The dope ass content that you put out pushes me to put out dope content, and I hope you come back from break even more energized and recharged. Do you have any closing words, anything you wanna say to elicit this? Yeah, I mean, firstly, thank you so much for having me on like all the time. I obviously love coming on, I wouldn't keep coming back. And I think we've got.

01:05:59
You've become quickly one of my best friends, not only in the podcasting world, but overall. I think you and I, as I've said in this conversation and just overall, that we are kindred spirits in this podcasting comic book world. I think it always provides for a fun conversation. I always love coming on here. I'm sad that Greg couldn't be with us tonight, but I hope that in the next installment that I'm on here on the Short Box, we have the entire Comic Gent crew and we can nerd out once again. We'll make it happen.

01:06:27
All right, folks, I'm going to have links to Chris's podcast, the Oblivion Bar, in the show notes. You can check out the Brian K. Vaughn episode, which I highly recommend, especially if you're a saga fan or someone that needs a little more saga in your life. He doesn't do interviews ever. The last one that I've heard from Brian was in 2021 with the aforementioned David Harper over on Offmail. That's right. That one is a good one. So check that out. I have links to that in the show notes.

01:06:57
comic books that Ben has shared and recommended. And as far as short box, I might just take next week off, all right? Maybe I'll start my little recharge hiatus a little early. Like I've said in the last, the Patreon preview episode, I'm gonna do my best to have something on the main feed every week, but don't be surprised if that slows down. You might just get more Patreon previews, you might get more short box classics. But if you wanna ensure that you get your steady stream of short box,

01:07:26
episodes into your IV become a member of the patreon patreon.com slash the short box patreon.com slash your short box And one more time for good measure patreon.com slash the short box You'll get a bunch of bonus episodes me and drew have been recording more regular and frequent Episodes together. So if you like this kind of carefree episode I did with Chris and you need just a little more insanity and What the fuckness through this episode check my episodes out drew

01:07:55
You also get early access and I am, like I said, in the middle of sending all of the patrons a nice little care package. I'll be sending out a comic or two and some stickers and short box stuff. What was that URL? What was that URL again? For the fourth time, patreon.com slash short box. I've also got it linked in these show notes. Love you guys. Be well. Take care. Read a good comic book. My outro is coming in now to double down on all these things I've already said, but why not? Catch you guys around, right? Peace.

01:08:24
you

01:08:27
There you have it, ShortBikes Nation. That's the end of the show. Thank you for hanging out. Thanks for being here. And a special shout out if you made it this far. If you enjoyed this episode and you have some thoughts or comments that you want to share with us, write us at theshortbikesjaxx at gmail.com. And if you really liked this episode, help us spread the word. Share this episode with a friend or someone you know that loves comics as much as we do. And don't forget to leave us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

01:08:55
or wherever you get your podcast. It takes two minutes tops and it would mean the world to us. So leave us a review. Now, if you want more content like bonus episodes or perks like early access and commercial free episodes, and in some cases, free comic books, consider joining our Patreon community at patreon.com slash The Short Box. It's an easy and very affordable way to support the show and get rewarded for being a fan. Once again, sign up at patreon.com slash The Short Box.

01:09:22
Speaking of our Patreon community, I want to give a big shout out to our current members, including Adam Chaitani, Tony Aupi, RC Gamet, Blake Simone, Blythe Brumleaf, Bo Evers, Brian Brumleaf, Chad Lannenberger, Chris Hacker, Chris Jinx, Kenny Myers, David Morales, Triple D Mystic, Dominique Jackson, Errol White, Edbot 5000, Generation Jaguar, Greg Hopkins, Greg Lichthaig, Henry Hernandez, Hershel, Hydrus96 aka Mac J. Sinner.

01:09:51
Jeff Frimmett, Jerome Cabanatan, Joshua Miller, Justin McCoy, Kara Reichart, Cassie Whitley, Corey Torgeson, Matt Godwin, Amanda Marin, Nick Wagner, Podcasters Assemble, Stephen Gamet, T-Mix, The Wait For It Podcast, Thomas Pandich, Thurian, Trey Namo, Walter Gant, Warren Evans, and Zach Armour. Thanks again to everyone that listens and supports this show. Be sure to come back next week for a new episode. And most importantly, take care of yourselves. Read a good comic.

01:10:20
and continue to make mine and yours short box. I'll catch you soon. Peace.