Dear Watchers: an omniversal comic book podcast

Oh, my God. Where's my lanyard? I need my pass. Uh,

okay. The line's so long. Yay. I'm finally

in. And welcome to Dear Watchers, an omniversal

comic book podcast where we usually do a deep

dive into the multiverse.

Listen to that crowd. We are traveling

with you and 200,000 other people through the

stories, the worlds, and the conventions that make up an

omniverse of fictional realities we all love.

And your watchers on this journey are.

Me Guido and me. I'm

cosplaying as Rob today. Or should

I be cosplaying as our third guest, the

man responsible for literally the

artwork for every single comic book podcast on

the market?

Everyone ever.

Every single one. Everyone. It is

Elliot from Elliot comic art.

Oh. Hold your applause, please. Thank you. Thanks, guys.

Hi, everyone. Hi, dear. Watchers fans out

there. I'm really excited to be here and to be

recording live with you guys. Usually I'm trapped in my

bedroom or sometimes even my bathroom when I record.

One of your 15 children are knocking on the door

trying to get in.

And if you are joining us for the first time, we have

three parts of our journey through the

Con multiverse today origins of the

story, exploring multiversity, and pondering

possibilities. So thank you as we look back

on New York Comic Con 2023.

And remember, we want

you to leave us a five star review. Thanks to

Lisa from Comic Book Couples Counseling podcast for

telling us to say exactly that.

And so please leave us that five star review

wherever you're listening, and thanks for joining.

Before we get started, this is our special

episode on New York Comic Con.

Hold on. That deserves some applause.

Minor applause for that one. Oh, no, there's a little bit

more. It picked up at them. Yeah, exactly.

So New York Comic Con 2023

is under our belt and really exciting.

Last year, we did two bonus episodes

from New York Comic Con. We decided this year to make it, uh,

one regular episode. So we

are at episode 117

on New York Comic Con. So let's start with, as

we do in every episode, our backgrounds. So

what are our backgrounds with New York Comic Con?

I'll start even though I'm asking a question. I'll start? Because

I have the longest, uh, New York

Comic Con. 17 years old, and I've gone to everyone

except one. When a dear friend made

the decision.

To get married overnight, you were about to say mistake.

But that's rude.

I was thinking it, but, uh,

it's the only year I missed. I could not figure out

a time to get there for more than an hour, so I skipped it. So I've

been to 16, including the special editions that they've

done, and I'm always looking forward to

it. Every year, as I posted in one of our many social

media posts about this Comic Con, I get a little

teary when I walk in the door. The first time every single year.

It's a very special place for me. So,

Elliot, you're our guest. You go next.

I can't remember when I moved to New York City

in 2008. I think I went the

next year, and I went either two or three times. And that's back when New

York City comic Con was a little bit smaller. It didn't

have a lot smaller. My gosh, I remember going

and I just had my list of comics I

wanted to find. So on the main floor, I would just go long

box diving. And I collected Brian Michael

Bendis's entire daredevil run in single issues, which

I then sold when I moved out of New York City. But I used to go

with a former colleague, and then this is

my third time in a row post pandemic

with you guys. And it was my New York City Comic Con. Was

my first ever Comic Con.

And like you, Guido, there's only

two occasions when I get, like, a

stupid smile on my face. One is at a Bruce Springsteen concert

I've been many times, and I'm like, okay, I've been to a

concert. And I walk in, and immediately I smile. And I did the same

thing yesterday. I walked down into artist alley, and I get this big

grin on my face when I see the names of all my

childhood and current, um, heroes out and about.

This is why we're all such dear friends, because

Rob is the Bruce Springsteen concert. I'm the Comic Con.

And so you get both.

You're the amalgam of together.

The only reason why I'm.

And Rob, what is your New York Comic Con

history?

The first year I went to New York Comic Con, I

went through the organization geeks

out, which is a great

LGBTQ nerd

organization out of New York City. They're still at New York

Comic Con. They had the table this past week,

and I wasn't even a full member of the

organization, but I was doing a show at the time, and they just

gave me a ticket, which, to your point,

Elliot and Guido, how much smaller comic Con

was, uh, over a decade ago, that they were just like,

here's a path for a day. It was my first time there,

and I was promoting this

queer nerd variety show I was doing

at the time called queer not Cool.

And that was actually the variety

show that I met Guido at

mhm ten years ago.

Oh, my gosh. So we can credit New York Comic Con with

our life together.

That's awesome.

Exactly. In a strange,

roundabout way. What can't New York Comic Con do? Yes.

And then I think all the years I've known you,

Guido, I've gone at least one

day. And for the past several years, I've really

gone all four days.

I remember the days when you were like, I think you're

nuts for going four days. There's not enough

to do for four days. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And now

here you are.

Uh, well, we were also saying over this

week how much older we have gotten, because

I would then hang out with friends that night and maybe

watch movies, horror movies, because it's always

during Spooky season. Or go out to the gay geeks in New

York or geeks out or some events that they did. I

couldn't imagine being on my feet any

longer or staying up late and watching something

after going to Comic Con now.

Yeah, we were all taking, um, pain relievers and putting our feet

in Epsom.

Salt bath last night while we watched.

Loki and turned it off at 930.

Exactly as we all started to fall.

Asleep during the episode on the couch.

All right, well, with that, dear watchers, we

are through the metal

detectors and taking the escalator

down into this week's episode, episode

117. And let's check out what's happening at

New York Comic Con, which truly is like

traveling to an alternate universe.

Very show.

You're going to get the answer to all your

questions.

Our amazing story begins a few

years ago.

And we've got our musical cues because we're going to use our three

segments in this episode.

We're going to start with our origins of the story. So

looking at some things that are a little maybe

nostalgic for us, looking back at things from

the past that highlights this

con. Yes, at this con. So, Guido, why

don't you kick us off?

Well, I'll share my first and the biggest. And

again, for those following our social media, there's videos,

there's photos, because

unexpectedly, the Slayer's

presence brought Buffy back

into this con. Buffy, which debuted

26 years ago, now coming back

as an Audible series, being able to go to

the panel and have original cast members, we did a

photo op with the original cast members. It was

really incredible. And I'm more

excited than ever. We started listening to Slayers. It

actually might show up in a near future episode because it's

a really cool multiversal story with Buffy.

But it was just so cool to see

this resurgence of Buffy

with a lot of the original cast and be

around a ton of Buffy fans.

There were so many people as moved or excited as

I was in that panel. I went to it alone, and it

was kind of fun that I got to be there alone because it was a little bit of, uh,

a religious experience for me. I'd say

having tara. Spike

drusilla. Cordelia

Clem all up there, and

Anya, I mean, three of my favorite characters,

drusilla, anya and Cordelia were three of my favorite characters. So

having them on stage and then being able to do a photo op with some

of them was so cool. It was so cool.

So get ready. We're going to be rewatching Buffy very soon.

I've never seen it.

I can't understand it. I really

can't. I can't understand it.

It's in my retirement plan.

And I think these Audible series

or radio plays, basically, and

comics, these are a great way to bring back these

classic characters in a new form

that's not on TV and kind of remember them

like we did. Because I know this show is set

in 2013. Right.

Well, they're an okay way. Like, it's fun. We

started listening to it. It's fun. Do I want it to be a TV show?

Yeah, absolutely. I want it to be a TV

show. But it is fun because

perhaps they wouldn't be able to get these folks in a

TV show. Or maybe there'd be a worry about

de aging them, um, CG or

makeup wise or something. So, yeah, it does open the

door more, but I would have rather a

TV show. Maybe that's what they're waiting. Well, one day, Sarah

Michelle Geller will make her way back and be on the TV show.

But in the meantime, it's a really cool series that

we will have a lot more to say about in a future episode.

And it was really special to be able to have those moments at New York

Comic Con. Totally. Uh, it surprised

me that they had such a large presence. We did the

Immersive activation, which was great, the

Bronze, and you got drinks, and

they did a tarot card reading, and you worked

out with Slayers and took pictures with them, and they

had, like, the high school lockers. So

they just have done so much promotion.

And it was cool to have that experience.

Ball Sharpie is my first origin

of the story thing, because it's also

horror, uh, related, and also someone who had, I

felt like, a big presence at the Con, which was

I got to go to the John Carpenter

conversation in the main

stage. And I just love John

Carpenter. Uh, he is definitely one of my

favorite directors. And to

see the person who created or co

created Halloween this close to

the Halloween season, it just

felt great to see him walk out to some of the

iconic synthesizer music that he

himself composed. And

he's a character. He's very I'd

say ornery he's not

into being interviewed. And after about

three questions from the official

moderator, he just said, let's just take questions from the

audience. So, really, the next 45

minutes, I'd say, were just questions from the audience. And

there were some really good questions, one of which I want to

get to in one of our future segments on this

episode. And it was just fun to be in the

same presence. I think it's the same thing you were experiencing, Guido,

someone that you've just absorbed

the art that they've created. And just to be in the

same room as that person, even if you're not really

interacting with them, it just feels

so special.

Well, and he's cool because he does, in other ways that you'll talk

about, have a kind of tangential presence

at Comic Con for you through

his wife's comic book company, which I know you'll

talk about. But it was cool that this year he was the

focus, and it was nice. I'm sure that he wasn't

promoting something specific. So you

got to really just hear about him

and from him. And it wasn't like he was on the press tour

for Halloween.

No, he's so over it at

this point. He hasn't made a movie in a while, and he might not make a

movie again. So he's just saying, yeah,

Hollywood is not the great place to work. He wants to

just focus on making music, which he

seems to love to do. And I am going to touch on a

lot and which I love. And I bought some

signed vinyls of them from,

uh, the great record label Sacred Bone. So I'm

actually going to touch on John Carpenter in each of my segments.

Oh, m my. And

as you pointed out, one thing I want to say. You didn't use this as

your segue. You pointed out that while I was in the

Slayers panel with the legend

Charisma Carpenter, you were in the John Carpenter

panel. So we were both in Carpenter panels

featuring icons of the last

few decades in horror. Thank you.

Charisma Carpenter and John Carpenter. No relation.

But thank you both. No, that I know of. I don't think

so.

While you were there, I was at work.

I'm a teacher, and I was like a Carpenter building the

futures of young.

Yes, that's true.

Thank you. All right.

Furiously scanning Twitter and Instagram to see

everything that you are missing. But what didn't you miss? Elliot,

what was your first origin of the story item?

Well, for me, I started collecting comics in middle

school, which was the early 90s. So there

are many people that I just

like they're just in my bones as comic creators.

So, like, walking by Eric Larson and Will Sportaccio

and even Rob Liefield and.

Watching Eric Larson draw, because I didn't know until

you pointed out that he draws a really particular

and different unique way. Being able to see it

in action is like, whoa, cool.

Yeah, it's so cool. And even, like, seeing Rob Liefeld's

original buxom

Captain America drawing, that stuff is really fun for me

and really nostalgic. But I'm going to focus on I guess my

first one is, um, if you listen to

spectales podcast, too. My grail tale was about

the experience of meeting some of these artists and creators. And

that's really, for me, uh, what I love and being an

artist. Alley and so, uh, a couple years

ago, when The Dawn of X came about,

with the Hickman era and Krakowan era of

X Men, I was reading everything, and in

X Force, there was an issue. Do you remember what issue

it was? It was early on I don't like five or

six, where Joshua Kasara, the artist.

And Ben Percy, the writer, created

a tiki bar in Krakoa called the

Green.

Lagoon that everyone immediately wanted to go to.

It was awesome. And they did a full page spread. And I

just had this idea for, like, a Cheers style

emblem. And so I drew this

emblem of the Green Lagoon and put it on a t

shirt. And it got the attention. Uh, I tagged Josh

Cassara and Ben Percy, and Josh

Cassara reached out to me and

bought it and

bought the t shirt and shared a picture

of him wearing it. So I brought the T shirt this

year. My T shirt. I brought it and had Ben

Percy and Josh Cassara sign it. And

when I met Josh Cassara guido, you got it on video for

Exc. It was so funny because he was so excited to

meet me. I was like, wait a second, wait

a second. He was so excited, I couldn't even get a word in. He

was telling me how he's worn it enough that he

can't wear it anymore.

His wife wore it to

bed. Yeah, he wanted a picture of you with the shirt to send

to her.

Yeah. I was like, what is going on here? And then, so I got a picture

of him signing, uh, it. And Ben Percy told me it was the coolest

thing. He'd signed all con. And that was just

really those interactions for me were awesome. So it's something from

a couple years ago, uh,

that still means a lot to me. And just to have an

artist, a professional artist, say that they love

what I did, inspired by their work was really

fun for me.

You have to get it framed now, Elliot.

I know my wife will be really excited to have a framed T

shirt.

At least it's one you'll be in.

The basement with all my other stuff.

For a long time.

Yeah, that was a really cool

moment. And you have to bring back a limited

release of that tea because they both want them.

So you're going to have to find.

A way got to figure out to.

Skirt those copyright,

which Joshua Katara thought

were BS. You have his approval.

There you go. That's all I need.

Um, and speaking of X Men yeah, guido, I

think your next Origin of the Story

item is also X Men related.

No, it's not. I'm going to hold that one

back.

Okay.

Instead sorry for your failed segue

there.

Mistakes are okay.

Instead, I'll go with a comic that was really important

to me and getting to meet someone who's really rare at Cons.

So my next past item is going to be

seeing Jeff Johns, who is, I

think, slightly controversial. Maybe M

is not the nicest person to work with. I'm not sure.

I know he's sort of, like, on the edge, I feel

like, of someone who's going to be

canceled. But I

really like his work a lot. And Infinite Crisis,

I think, is just one of the best events I've talked about it

on here before. We've never covered any component of

Infinite Crisis, but I think it is a

masterfully orchestrated event at

DC that got my

adult love of DC firmly

in place. And all of the love I've had for DC over the

last few years is because it calls back to things in

Infinite Crisis that he created and did with those

characters. And so having him in New York, Comic

Con, and he's creating really great books with Ghost

Machine in an image imprint that

I've really enjoyed. And he was there mostly promoting

that. But he signed Infinite Crisis for me and it was just so cool

because I think he is a legend and

he's created really cool characters. Rob, he

works so much in the Justice Society, which you love. I mean,

he's for sure one of the architects of

DC over the last 20 plus years.

And it was neat to meet him and get him to sign

Infinite Crisis.

Yeah, I couldn't have cared less

about Green Lantern before he was on it.

Oh, yeah, a lot of people were having him sign that Green Lantern

rebirth.

Yeah. Uh, I got really into Green Lantern during that time.

And, um, yeah, he's just really good at

structuring comic stories

and taking stuff from old DC and making it

fresh and new again.

That's as cool that the Ghost Machine and people

should read Geiger and Junkyard Joe is. What he's

doing there is taking almost like pulpy tropes

of comics and turning them into really

interesting modern stories. So he's doing the same thing, like

taking what people know and love about

comics and superheroes and then

telling a slightly different story

with them. And that's like a whole shared universe he's

constructing. So it was really fun to meet

him.

What about you, Rob? What's your other blast from

the past?

Well, I was a couple years younger than you,

so when you were reading comics and I

was reading comics then too. But the thing I was really

reading were Goosebumps. I was

a huge fan of the Goosebumps

books. They were the

first books that I would follow

when they would come out. And I was a little kid, but I

would knew when the next one would come out and I would go to the

Barnes and Noble or did they even sell them at

Sears maybe, I don't know those kind of stores and

go and grab the Goosebumps books

and I would just devour them. And I think I read all of

them multiple times and just read

62 or something. Yeah, there's 62 in the

original series and I had the

good mind to actually save

all of them.

So up in our parents who did not

get rid of them.

Yes. So we have all of the original

62 as well as some of the other offshoots from around

that time. And we were saying how,

like, John Carpenter and Slayers had this big presence

at the Con this year, and Goosebumps did too. There was a

Goosebumps panel, I guess.

Because the Disney Plus series, but

there was the musical that you went to to

learn more about.

Yeah, we didn't get to go to the panel, but there was a musical,

a new musical, great Broadway talent based on The

Phantom of the Auditorium, which was my favorite of the books because I

love Phantom of the Opera musical theater. And

then the really cool thing was down in Artist Alley

was Tim Jacobus. I think that's how

he says his name. And he did the original

art for all 62 original books. And

everyone if you know Goosebumps, you know you know

those covers.

And the covers were just like painted, sort of

meant to look almost like those more adult

horror or even romance novels with the painted

covers, but in a kitty horror way

with lots of skeletons.

And there were some times where the covers were better than the books.

So you just like, oh, ah, that cover is so

great. But yeah, he was down

there selling some prints. So

I got a print of the camp jelly Jam,

which is just this terrifying image of this camp counselor. It always

spooked me as a kid. And then he had

original art, and I got a sketch of

the iconic Slappy, who we were

also on Friday when we got there, there was an

army of slappies giving out Goosebumps books. So

it all felt connected in that way. So I'm

super glad that I got to meet this person who is

truly imprinted on my childhood.

And we'll have to watch the Disney Plus series and see yeah,

definitely Green.

Queen Justin Long, so I

definitely want to watch it. And Elliot, what about

you? What's your other take from the.

The? Well, this was a surprise. So Guido and I were

down in Artist Alley for about 4 hours, and then

we needed a break. And so we went up to

wander the main floor. And as we're wandering the main

floor, I looked at a book. I picked it up,

and the woman behind the counter was like,

oh,

are you familiar with this book? I said, no, I just know the author. And she's

like, oh, Jean Lewin Young. He's right here. And I looked

over and he was there signing

books. And

as a teacher, I've taught American born Chinese

in middle school. Uh, and

I didn't have my copy. Uh, I left it,

uh, where I moved. And so I bought a new copy and had him sign. It was

just really cool to meet him. And I think that book

is phenomenal. I like all of his work. Superman, Smashes the

Clan is a phenomenal book by him. He's just a great

storyteller. And so I had him sign it and had a

really nice he drew the monkey prints in it for me.

And he was appreciative that you've brought it into the

classroom.

That was a cool just it's kind of like

my Jim Lee story that I told on spectales. Just when these

creators who, uh, I admire so

much when they find out I'm a teacher, which is a very

underappreciated profession in our culture. Well,

no, it's appreciated, but not, uh, with

money.

Not valued.

You're right. Not valued. Uh, it's just

always funny to me when they're like, oh, thank you so much for bringing

this to my classroom and talking about with your students and things like that.

Uh, so that was a really fun moment and it was a surprise. I didn't know

he was going to be there. He was only signing there for

like an hour or two brief, and the line was

it was only three people long. But I was like, uh, this guy's

amazing. And the Disney Plus series is really fun, too, if people haven't

watched it.

Well, Guido, you queued us up that you had one

more blast from the past.

I do, and it's a special one. So

just the fact that we got to finally meet in

person and talk to Lenorzan, the

voice of Rogue from the X Men animated series,

and I saw she wasn't there any other day. So we happened to

stumble past and see her and got

her to sign a picture, took a picture with her,

chatted with her for a bit. And she is

someone who anyone who watched X Men the Animated

Series. Her voice plays in your head

when you read Rogue and Will forever and

ever and ever. But beyond that, she was

just nice to talk to. And we talked a lot about

the power of stories to bring

multiple perspectives in and

we were talking about the state of the world and things

moving away from love and inclusion.

And she was saying that how could anyone watch X Men

and not feel like that's what we need to fight

for? And so it was a nice conversation to

talk about, really, the power of stories.

And she was great fun and kind.

Yes. So amazing. Love her.

And yes. Let us take the

escalator up past the pro lounge, past

all the cosplayers, and explore some of our

current finds and obsessions.

You so I will kick

us off. And I went

to the Our Flag Means

Death panel. Well, uh, kind

of asterisk because they weren't actually able

to talk about the HBO queer

pirate show Our Flag Means Death. But they had

six actors from the show, including Rees

Darby, the star. And it was fun.

Is that in some ways makes it

better?

Totally.

That the strike is influencing how

people show up in the press. I hope there's

permanent changes with that.

Mhm. Yeah. So what was really fun was because

they really couldn't talk about the show or

really any of their experiences on it, and they had a lot

of wink wink jokes about that. What they did

was they played basically an hour long game where they all

had paddles with whiteboards

on them, and the moderator would ask them questions like

who would order the most expensive meal at a

restaurant, who is the most adventurous, who

would be friends with aliens. And they

all played which of them on the panel, or

maybe some other people on the show would fit in. And it was

just a really fun way because I like when

they talk about the shows. But of course, a lot of it's very PR,

and in some cases they.

Have scripted and, um, they have talking

points that they're hitting on all the.

Know they've known each other for decades, but in many of these

shows, they only know each other for three months. So what are they really

going to say about each other? So this was super

fun. Did also a photo op with Reese Darby, who

I love, who has a great podcast on cryptids as

well, the Cryptid Factor. And I'm just mildly

obsessed with him. And that whole cast, you could see

everyone is playing a version of themselves.

They're just so well cast that they are bringing their

personalities to the characters that they're playing on

that show. So lots of fun.

And the second season is on now, and we're loving it.

I mean, that show is one that everyone

will enjoy, whether you're watching it for the

humor or you're watching it for the

pirates or you're watching it for

the comedy, kindness and

love and identity

watching whatever most recent episode we watched the other

day. I was thinking, my gosh, how did they take a

show that is so enjoyable and so

fun and yet put so much heart

in it? And it's dark and weird and absurd and there's

violence, but it's like, I don't know, there's so

much heart in it.

And that was the last thing Reese Darby

said. The last question the moderator posed

was who would get lost in their

imagination? And he just said,

well, he loves that he gets lost in his imagination

because the world is not a great place

right now. To have this place in his head that

he can escape to, and then for have that come

out on the show and he just kind of touched on what

you just said, Guido, that the show is very

much about kindness and that it's trying to

put that out into the world. And that was such a

great message to end this panel

on.

Well, and without being very heavy handed, I actually don't think

I thought about this until you shared that comment. It almost

feels like we're living in an age of piracy, right? Like people

just do whatever they want, whenever they want.

People have no boundaries. There's

violence, there's just offending people

and selfishness. The

show actually. Feels quite current, even though it's

taking place during a kind of historical moment. They

even have some real historical figures in it, but they're

playing with that. It definitely

feels very relevant to find

community in a, uh, moment when

people are sort of just fighting for themselves

and fighting against each other.

They need to put that on a promotional thing because you just sold me on the

show.

I've been trying to tell you.

You didn't tell me that.

That panel sounds really awesome.

Yeah, it's great.

The panels that you've went to sound I mean,

I don't go to panels when I go to Comic Con because I'm only there usually for one

day. Hopefully next year. Uh, that won't be

so. But just hearing from

the actors and creators sounds

like a good time.

Yeah, it is.

Nice.

All right, so who's next? We both have queer

icons on our list. Next.

Well, you go.

That's a good segment. I don't have a queer icon.

Yeah, you do. You have the architect.

Uh oh. Well, yes.

Some of the biggest queer storytelling coming out.

I'll go. I'll go.

You go.

So I'm going to combine a couple. And again, no, uh,

surprise here. This is my interactions in Artist Alley. But

for things I'm just currently excited about and have been for a

while, I got to meet and talk to Tom Taylor, philip

Kennedy Johnson, and Joshua Williamson,

all three of these guys. I'm a huge Superman fan, but

to be honest, I've never really been a

fan of Superman comics. Death of

Superman in the 90s. But I was really into

image and some marvel. But Superman's

always been more in the entertainment, like live action

cartoon entertainment realm. But Philip Kennedy

Johnson and Tom Taylor and more recently, Joshua

Williamson, I think, have done so much for Superman comics.

They're fun, they're exciting. They get the

character, and they're moving them forward. And I think Tom

Taylor's done such an amazing job. He didn't invent

John Kent, but he's making John Kent's

queer story.

He invented his queerness.

He invented his queerness. And just

seeing for me, the connection with Superman as a

parent, and no matter what the story

is about the trust that parent and child

have and seeing your child as an individual, all

these things, I just got to talk to Tom Taylor and say,

I will read anything he writes.

M philip Kennedy Johnson, I think, has done an amazing job. I'm going to read The

Hulk, which I have no interest in reading.

Johnson. And I think Joshua Williamson's run on

Superman is really fun. It's bringing back a lot of the feel of

the Superman animated series. It's just having fun with the

character and the relationship with Lois

Lane and, um, making Lois Lane continuing

her story as it's

Superman and Lois's story, which a lot of great

Superman stories are doing. So just

to see all three of them, they all signed. I

brought as many Superman comics as I could fit in my

backpack. And they all signed and were so generous with their

time. Um, it was great to just shake their hands

and say thank you.

And Tom Taylor and Philip Kennedy Johnson. I think

as someone who's not nearly as big a Superman fan

as you, but has read it for so many

years, it never

felt to me even those iconic especially I'd say

those iconic stories of the 90s don't have, um,

emotional cores. They're very action oriented. These

writers have put so much emotion in Superman

whether it's through the John Kent storytelling of Tom

Taylor or the parenting or Philip Kennedy Johnson and

even in the war world saga and then coming

back to Earth and having the adopted children and how

he connects with Supergirl and the other Superman

and sort of the family, the chosen family of

the Supers, if you will. They both put

so much heart into these stories. And that

has made me love Superman more than I ever

yeah.

Yeah.

And, uh, DC really

batting a thousand because my present

that I just love and

was so excited to meet was getting

to meet G. Willow Wilson, who is writing Poison

Ivy. We have discussed poison ivy on

here. We covered Poison

Ivy a few times and have mentioned

that in her extraordinary series,

it is one of the really rare

things in comics, where it's announced as a limited

series. It's then announced as a longer

extended limited series, then turned

into an ongoing series. And I

don't know how often that has happened in comics in

the last 25 years. So it just

speaks to how successful this series

is, how behind it DC clearly is.

It is so good. I told her that

I never cared about Poison Ivy, and she made me

love this character. I actually even

considered buying Poison Ivy's first appearance from our local

comic store. And then someone bought it before me

because I just love her. And it's

all G. Willow Wilson's writing the creator of Miss Marvel,

who I think many people were there and excited about

that aspect of her career. And she has some

cool creator own stuff going right now. But Poison Ivy

is the ongoing it could be the

ongoing that I most look forward to every month, honestly, because

it's so fun and easy to read. Great

story. Again, great heart with her and

Harley's relationship and what that means. But good

action, little bit of horror. So my current

favorite comic is probably Poison Ivy. And getting

to meet you, Willow Wilson, was so cool.

I feel like Captain America coming out of the ice and Sam

Wilson telling him all the stuff and adding it to the list.

So you're going to be watching our Flag Means Death and reading

Poison Ivy this week. All right.

Yeah. A very gay week for Elliot.

Happy to be here.

Well, my next thing was my second John Carpenter

related thing. So for me, one thing that I

look forward to every year at New York Comic Con is

picking up my copy of John

Carpenter's Tales from a

Halloween Night. And this is

a horror anthology put out by

Storm King, the comic book company run

by Sandy King carpenter with John

Carpenter. And it's just a great

anthology of horror stories. It's

lettered by Janice Chang, our friend from the

pod, who I got to see at the Storm King

table. And I picked up the exclusive New

York Comic Con 2023 cover by the

great Cat Skags. Great cover signed

by John and Sandy and many of the

creators inside the book. And

for me, it's just I don't know. I love that

Comic Con always comes around Halloween. It feels

like a preview part of the Spooky season.

It does, uh, sort of feel

like.

Yeah, cosplayers is like trick or treating when you're going to

Artist Alley. Right. Crafting, all that. So, yeah,

it just is part of the Halloween season. For me, it's almost

like I don't know, I was thinking it's like the Hess

truck at Christmas when you were a kid.

It's like, oh, what's this weird thing that I have to get

that's part of that? And it's like, oh, for this. And I've already

read one of the couple of the stories. And the second story,

especially was it

actually was quite creepy. So I'm looking forward

to diving into the rest of it.

That's fun. So I'll share my next

present because you two have something in the present

that's tied together. So I'll share that.

Uh, every year I like to get at least one commission.

And this year, it is from an artist

who I think I hope is

getting a ton of work. I think she's one

of the most extraordinary artists, uh, in comics

right now. And I've thought this for a few years. That's

Carmen Carnaro. And

Carmen has done X Men

red. She's done Captain America. She's

done Captain Marvel is probably her longest

interior, ongoing work. But she does

covers. She just

is stunning. She's done some X Men

work, of course. Stunning, stunning stuff.

And we asked her to do a commission of

Promethea. And it's beautiful.

And she's just an artist that I hope

everyone pays attention to and follows and I hope

keeps doing amazing work because I

think she draws characters

and action and faces and

everything I think is just perfect. It's art, but

it has so much movement. And

she's a future legend, I suspect, or

at least I hope.

And the commission she did for you, uh, um, Tom

King, I know you're listening. So,

uh, she needs to be in the rotation for Wonder Woman.

Oh, my gosh. I couldn't imagine

there's a looseness in.

Grace because she uses watercolor, too,

in her pencils that just fits. She's so good

at action, but so good at emotion and

faces. Yeah.

There's a softness, but with heavy lines.

She'd be fantastic on Wonder Woman also.

That is okay. All right.

We'll have to email Tom.

Yeah, we'll let Tom, um, know

Carmen should be in line on that book.

All right, so one more thing that is

worth paying attention to in the present at New York Comic

Con. Which of you is starting?

I'll start. Which is that

we concluded our

Saturday night with a great

panel on comic book

podcasting. And that was

yeah,

it was organized by friend of

this podcast and all around amazing

podcaster. Past guest botter

Milligan from the short box Podcast.

And it had the guys from the Oblivion

bar, our friends Brad and Lisa

from comic book couples counseling.

Yeah. Past guests, Troy Jeffrey Allen,

who is a YouTuber as well as a comic book

creator himself. And I thought

it was just really it was just

wonderful to be in this room of people who I've listened to,

who I can consider friends.

And I just love some of the things they said. Like, Troy

talked about he had a friend that was a

YouTuber and was, like, just getting sick of doing

YouTube. And then Troy said, well, do you know that everything

you're saying is super negative and maybe

that's why you're getting sick of doing it? And it was like,

oh, it's nice to hear from

people who are in this medium or trying to put stuff out

in the world and trying to put

positivity. Not that they're always going to be positive about

everything, but they're not going into it just to tear

things down. And I thought that was such

great piece of advice. And the other thing I thought

was hearing from Lisa from Comic Book Couples

Counseling and just saying the one thing that we can all bring

to our podcast or to whatever we're doing is just

bring yourself, bring me. Because

we're all reading the same books, right? So the one thing that

we can all do is just bring our own

perspectives and what we want to get.

Out of this great point and moment that really

resonated with me a lot when she said that, because I think

it's true. We all have our own unique

individual lens. And that's what's interesting.

As she said, there's not a way to

objectively review or analyze or talk about

books. It's just who we are

refracted through these books. And that's cool.

That stuck with me, too. And it's what I love about your podcast

and what I love about comic book Couples counseling and all

the podcasts I listen to. I try a lot, but a lot

of them are just, like, reviewing comics. And it's the ones

that, uh, inspect tales.

They're so unique and they're so your personalities

and what you love. And it struck

me at, uh, that point, too,

when they were talking about

you guys are always positive on here. Even if there's a what if

story or some else worlds that you didn't really like, there's some

way that you're talking about them that's not like slamming like the

art wasn't my favorite is a nicer way of saying the

art sucked and the artist

and writer. No one's making crappy comics, uh,

on purpose. But just to continue to talk about that. And I

agree, Rob. It was fun for me, that

panel I went into it being like, I'm going to go support the

people that support me. I do a lot of art

for all the podcasts that were there, which.

Was kind of that exist.

Yes. Oh, yeah. All of them

and listened to them. But I

still learned. Uh, and I have to shout out

to this panel, too, was we were just

talking, um, about this this morning. There's

so many identities and

different types of people that are attracted to comics that are there at Comic

Con. Yet most of the creators and panelists are

straight white men. To

have a panel especially. I said this to Lisa

Gullickson afterwards. Every time Lisa

speaks about her experience

podcasting, she comes at

it with Humility. And she has an authority that she

doesn't know. She realizes that I sit up and listen to it.

Gives me chills when she speaks because

I don't get to hear from women in the comic book

world that much, like even seeing Carmen and G. Willow

Wilson. And so I really

appreciated hearing her and her speaking

up and adding to the conversation. And

actually, I think elevating it like she talks about mental health and she's

making the podcast that she wants to. And, uh,

it was an awesome experience. I got to meet Botter for the first

time, which was great. I think he's another person

that is really talented and also

comes at this podcast through Humility, as do

many people.

In the podcasting world and is a vanguard. I mean, he's

had a show for more than ten years, over 400

episodes, and most podcasts

are less than half that age. So he really

started before this was a thing. And that's really cool.

And he's still so kind and generous and

supportive of everyone who's doing it.

And just to hear too from Aaron and Chris who

do the Oblivion Bar and the rise that they've

had because of what they do and everyone's kind of doing it for their own

reasons, I got to do some artwork for them. So it was really

fun to meet them in person. And yeah, it was just a nice

way to end the Saturday evening.

Well, mhm, before we end this podcast,

let's travel down to the lower

levels of Comic Con, past the

food court, spend $18 on a burrito,

and we will explore what's coming in the

future.

Will the future you describe

be averted, diverted? Diverted.

And pro tip, if you ever go to New York Comic Con, go to

the Indian food in the food court because there is

literally zero people waiting in line, and

it's pretty great for food court food.

I have to say.

I will say, I didn't tell you this, Rob, because you weren't with

Elliot and me the second day when we went there. The guy

recognized me. That is how few people go

through that counter. And it's shocking because Indian food is

my favorite food in the world. But the guy was like, you were here

yesterday. I was like, yeah, you'd think

he's seeing thousands of people, but he's not. There's

a big pizza. Uh, french fries and burger. Burger,

yes.

Straight women.

That's just our little tip there.

Well, in the future oh, you're starting. You

start.

Oh, yeah, yeah. I'll kick us off with my final John

Carpenter related item, which

was that people were asking him a few

cases in the Q A about

whether he would do sequels to his work. And of

course, there's been sequels to Halloween and Escape from New

York. People were saying, like, they live right now,

given the world that we live in, that should have some

kind of sequel. And he said, the rights are all kind of

tied up in different things. And, of course, Roddy Piper is

no longer with us, but someone was saying, and he

was agreeing that it would actually make a great

comic. So I would love to see a

they live comic.

It's weird, too, because there's been the big Trouble in Little China

comic. Uh huh. I think there's

been the thing comic. They did a Thing comic comics.

And mhm. Maybe that one's rights holders aren't

willing to work with a publisher because that one definitely

is well suited to comics.

Totally and totally. With the current

capitalist world and things.

I love and see that the

algorithm totally.

You make it more the AI version.

Mhm yeah, I'd love to see that. And then the other thing someone asked

him is if he would ever consider doing

a shared universe, which we've talked so

much about on this show, and he said, well, all these rights

are also held by every different person, so if he did it,

he would just be sued. But I would love to

see people just kind of coming together, because

who wouldn't want to see the various Kurt

Russell characters? Like Snake Plissken

meets the character from The Thing

and Kurt's character from The Thing, and all

these worlds kind of coming together

in one would just

be, well, yes. Um, not in the John Carpenter world, but.

Yes, I guess I got into the Kurt Russell, not

into the Kurt.

Russell world, where he's from overboard.

Miracle. Right? The guy from

Overboard.

Yes, exactly. Yeah. Captain Ron. Captain

Ron has an eye patch, and so does Snake Plissken.

The council of Kurtz. That's exactly

the council of Kurtz. My next T

shirt.

Exactly. But, yeah, I'd love to see a bunch

of the so, you know, and he said

the one thing that he's learned in the industry is

never say never. So maybe one day the

money falls in and the right people are

in control and that would be pretty awesome

to see.

There's an optimistic part of me that hopes

this confluence of the strikes at

the same time that the whole industry is

just changing and being sort of broken

and AI all these things could make it

that maybe that kind of thing won't be so hard in a few

years. Maybe companies will find a

way to be almost looser with

their IP. They'll see ways that they can make money with it, but

not necessarily retain

such tight control in a way

that I think a lot of people often say this is not what the

intent of these copyright laws ever was.

And so we need to go back to

more almost like music and sampling. There needs to be

more fluidity with some of these things totally.

That will come. And what about either

of you?

I'll share one future thing, which

is I got to talk to

Keon Tormi and

Tim Sheridan briefly and unexpectedly.

I was having Keon sign

a adventures, uh, of Superman John

Kent issue that he drew, and then

Tim Sheridan happened to be there and they had just been on the

panel talking alan Scott and the

upcoming series about alan Scott queer

Green Lantern and some of what Tim

was saying, my gosh, was

so perfectly resonant with me and

I'm sure Rob, who wasn't there at the time, and many

people about trying to find more

messy, darker, grittier, queer characters

at the big two publishers in Superheroes. And

that's his goal with Alan Scott. And I have a feeling

that our, uh, listeners will be hearing from them soon

also. So I'm excited for the series, I'm

excited for Tim and Keon, and I'm excited for

this conversation to just be getting

started.

That was a fun moment for me to watch,

um, because when

Guido said that he loved Alan Scott, tim

Seeley got so excited. Tim sheridan. Oh, sorry. Different

Tim Sealy. Sorry Tim's.

Tim.

Uh, Sheridan got so excited, he wanted to jump across

the table, give Guido a hug. And then they started talking about Alan

Scott. But, uh, he posted a picture of us on

his Instagram, um, saying what a great time he had at

Comic Con. And we were the first picture.

And I happened to just get the issue that has the preview of

Alan Scott in it signed by Jeff Johns. And so then I got

Tim and Keon to sign right around the drawing of Alan

Scott on the so because the new issue is not

out for a few weeks, but I can't wait

for it.

It really is the fun part about this con because these

guys can walk out on the street and no one knows who they are

mhm, and when they're there, they're major celebrities. But they're just as excited

to meet their fans. Can you imagine going up to like, Chris Evans and him

being so excited to see you? Or like, hey, I

love America. Like, yeah, so does everyone else.

But it's just these really cool moments of

connection that are really yeah.

Yeah, I agree.

I think we share a future one. So I'll start with one

of my recent favorite things to do when I go to

Comic Con is to discover I'll walk

by a table. I've heard of the artist or writer, and

they're selling some of their work. And I'll pick up something new that I've kind of

heard about but I haven't ordered or bought in a

comic shop. And I like to save it there. And I'll get it signed. And I've never read it

before. So Charles Soul is someone I've read all of

his Marvel work but, um, hadn't read 8 Billion Genies. And

they were selling the hardcover there. And so I just

stopped by, talked to him. He started giving me

the hard sell. And I was like, I'm already going to buy it. I just wanted

to talk to you. So he signed it. He and the artist

named Ryan Brown. Oh yeah, Ryan Brown. Thank you. Uh, Ryan Brown

signed it. And it might be my train

ride, uh, back to home.

Uh, yeah. It was optioned and would

make such a good

TV series because it's just a, uh,

great setup. So if

anyone hasn't read it, like Elliot, it's another thing

to add to the list because it's

really digestible starts and ends, but

has a great, great setup where you can just

wonder about all the other stories that could be told in it.

And what's cool is they love it so much that they told me that they

decided to he and Ryan Brown decided to make a New

York Comic Con exclusive comic. So they wrote a single

issue also and just produced it. And Charles Soul told me

it's his favorite work he's ever written. It's the best thing he's ever

written.

Oh, cool.

I was like, okay.

And I haven't read it yet. I have it but haven't read it yet.

Here we go. Well, my

last future thing was I went to

the image horror panel and

got to hear about a few upcoming books

that definitely sparked my

interest. So one book is

called Parasocial. And it's written by

Alex DeCampi, who was on the panel and

illustrated by Erica Henderson.

And as Alex described as kind

of a new modern take on

the misery story, the fan and

the celebrity. Only here the celebrity isn't

a great person because often in these

stories, the celebrity is very vaunted and

the fan is just a bad guy. And here it's not

as black and white. And I think being at

Comic Con, you see so much of this

fan culture and you were kind of just talking about it. Elliot when

you're going up to someone and

saying how much I like your work, and social media

has even broken that down even more. So I'm

really curious to see how this takes

on that, because I think it's such an

interesting topic in general. And then,

um, the other book was the one hand

by Ram V and Lawrence Campbell,

who are both on the panel. And they

describe this as being very influenced by

the movie Seven and by the movie

Manhunter, which are both huge movies for me that I love.

And Seven was such a huge influence on me growing

up. And it's a dark, serial killer,

noir thriller story. And it

looks really interesting. The

art looks very noir. So I'm just

definitely interested to pick up both of

these stories and explore.

Something new that's

cool, exciting.

Should I go first?

Yeah, we have the same thing. We're excited about the future. Our

last share.

So I was in line for David,

uh, Nakayama, who is an amazing

cover artist. And I bought the first issue

of Wonder Woman, written by Tom King with interior art

by Daniel Sempere. So I had him

sign it. And I'm excited because I haven't read

it yet, and I've been waiting this is one of

my well, I haven't ordered it. No, it just hasn't been delivered

yet.

Oh, you haven't gotten it yet.

Okay. Uh, I preordered it.

Uh, so then I thought, oh, I know Tom King and

Daniel Semperia here. I can get all three of them to sign it, which I

don't normally do. And for some reason, 2023 has

been the Comic Con of signatures for

me. So then we were over in line for Tom King and Mitch

Jared's and Daniel Sempari. So

they signed that, but I was also last in

line, and so I had to hold a

little cardboard last in line sign. And

the guy told me I had to tell people that Tom King is no

longer signing. So I had to turn people away.

You broke lots of hearts.

I was working really hard. And so I told Tom King that, and

he signed it. But just standing in front of him and

were like they were like middle school boys. They

were hilarious and inappropriate and their, uh, publicist,

or whoever was there was just, like, rolling her eyes. And

it was just kind of a funny moment to see

these two creators who write such great things. But then I got

Daniel Sempare to,

um, sign Wonder Woman. And

so I'm excited to read the book because I've heard really good

things, and it was just a fun moment to talk to all

these creators who are really excited about this

book, which I don't know why, but Guido does because he has read it.

Yeah, I've read it. And this is my last thing because

I am so excited for this run. It's only

one issue in and the

setup is phenomenal. The art.

No spoiler is wild. I

bought a page of it. I told

Daniel Sempere, and he said it was one of his two

favorite pages in the issue. So I feel extremely lucky

that I got that one. And

it just fires on all

cylinders. And Wonder Woman is we've

talked about this before. She's struggled to

have iconic runs for whatever

reason. There have been really extraordinary stories that

many people have told over the years, but there

hasn't been, uh, a, uh, seminal run.

And I think this has the potential to be it. I hope

it lasts for a long time, because

it's a great twist in the universe and

a great writing of her character.

And, my gosh, that art. Until Carmen takes

over, daniel should stay on because it is

really incredible. So that's what I'm excited

about, the future

of mhm.

And any last thoughts?

I'm already excited for next year

again.

Me too.

Just having this conversation.

If anyone from Readpop is listening, I really need this

Comic Con weekend to be put over. The

long fall weekend, columbus Day, Indigenous Peoples

Day, because I need to come.

For two days for people traveling, for

people working.

No, you'll get so many more people. You'll get me for more

than one day. I have to go home today and get

ready for school tomorrow.

I am not clear why that is, but next

year, it's again late in October,

and that is not exciting.

Well, I will say the really exciting thing

for me is getting to go with you guys.

You're so generous. You get to go. Number of days. And I always

feel like a little bit of royalty when I come, because, Keto and

Robbie, you're always like, what do you want to do next? It's your

day. It's your time. And I just feel like I get it's like

the equivalent of going to a spa for the day, except

you leave in pain.

Yeah, exactly. It depletes all of your energy.

Right.

But my emotional bucket is filled and exactly. I

never get to spend that much time with you guys, so it's double. I

get to be with two people I love in

a place that I love, surrounded by

a huge number of nerds. Like, I don't feel nerdy

there because there are so

many huge geeks. It's so much fun to it's like a

200,000 person affinity group.

Well, and we've said this before,

but I think what's so extraordinary

is there's no one unkind there.

It actually makes me want to cry

because I don't know why it is, but

there's so many just people being themselves.

There's so many queer people, people of all

ages, people with disabilities. There's

so many people, and everyone is just

kind. I've never encountered someone who's like, get out of my

way. I've, uh, never at a Comic Con have I ever

encountered someone and as soon as you leave Comic Con,

you do, and. I do. I get on the subway and I'm like, get

the hell out of my way. I'm in a rush. But at,

uh, Comic Con, no one is

like that.

They have asshole dampeners

there.

Someone has telepathy and makes everyone just

feel good.

Uh, your cell phone doesn't work, and

your assholeness is maybe that's the

secret.

When people can't exist in their

lives online, they're feeling kinder towards one another in

person. I don't know, but it's such a

pleasant place to be.

I never feel stressed by we sit on the

floor. Someone asks you if they can use the charger that

you're using.

It's not my charger.

No. And you just grab food wherever you

can sit wherever you can. People are helping each

other. It's really incredible. Uh, and that makes

it very special.

We need special music for it. It is the most wonderful time of

the year.

Someone needs to write a parody song of Most Wonderful Time of

the Year about Comic Con.

All right, Rob, you're the music, uh, guy.

Well, and I always love when you come to

Elliot, because I don't have the

patience or to stand on some of those Artist Alley lines.

So I'm very glad that you see Guido come company

while I can run off someplace

else.

I'm his handler.

Exactly. Well, I want to say one more thing that Artist Alley

makes me think of. And Elliot, you mentioned something like

this, but the other thing that I think makes Comic Con

special, and it was a good reminder to me,

even though, like, you said and like Lisa said on the panel and all

the panelists, like, focus on what you

love. And we do. But going through Artist Alley

just reminds me that not everything has to be

for me. And M I liked

having that reminder this weekend. There are artists

who are doing work that I don't like,

and that's okay. People love it. There's people

lining up to get it, and that's special

to me, even though it's not my thing. And it just is a

good reminder. Like, not every story needs to be for

me. Not every piece of art needs to be for me. And

I appreciate being reminded of that or

that.

You don't have to be the biggest fan. We'll just keep

quoting Lisa this whole episode, because Lisa also said on

the like, sometimes it's like, how many

Spawn villains can you name? And it's like, you don't have

to be the biggest fan. Uh, when I went to the R, flag

Means Death, there were so many people dressed like

characters from the show. There were people that had puppets that

were characters from the show. But you don't feel

like, oh, wait, I'm a lesser

fan because I'm not dressed like

a character. I could be a fan of this without

being that. But if they want to do that, that's great, too. But it's

not like, okay, you're not a fan of this show because

you're not doing cosplay or. You don't know

every character. There were people behind me that were like, oh, my God,

that's such a vigo thing to say. And it's like they

clearly are invested in this in a way I'm not. But

I don't feel like a lesser

person because I'm not into it into the same

level that they are.

Yeah. Thank you guys for having me. Yeah, I can't wait

till 2024.

Well, it's right around the corner. And, uh, thank you.

Dear Watchers for listening. You can see our

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another trip through the multiverse.

And in the meantime, in the words of Uwatu,

keep pondering the.

Possibilities in the Indian.