August 18, 2026 • 9 mins
One of the more curious sides of any competition is how people attain success. And, of course, how they react to defeat.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Nke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
In August of nineteen ninety one, Marvel Comics released a
reboot of their X Men comics series, bringing the full
cast together for the first time with stylish new nineties costumes.
The comic quickly became the best selling comic of all
time and still is to this day. This should have
ushered in a new golden era for the company, but
(00:56):
curiously it was the beginning of their descent into bankruptcy.
X Men number one sold over eight million copies. Part
of this was because the product was genuinely creative. It
served as a climax to legendary writer Chris Claremont's sixteen year,
one hundred and thirty seven issue run on the comic,
(01:16):
which is one of the longest runs any comic book
creator has ever had. It also had him passing the
torch to popular new writer and artist Jim Lee, whose
characters with bulging muscles and multiple pouches on their costumes
came to define superhero comic book arts for the next
decade and a half. But it also sold well because
it had not one, not two, but five different covers.
(01:40):
These were marketed as valuable collector's items that fans would
want to get a hold of. Who knew how valuable
they might be one day. But soon Marvel was expanding
this practice to their other biggest comic, Spider Man and
various X Men spinoffs. They were raking in the money. Now.
This business model was the brainchild of Marvel owner Ron Pearlman. No,
(02:02):
not the hell Boy actor. This Ron Pearlman was a
businessman who had spent over eighty million dollars acquiring the
company in nineteen eighty nine, and Ron wanted to recoup
his investment, so he kept milking the fans for more
and more of their cash. He even started including trading
cards bagged with the comics, So now a fan wasn't
(02:23):
just supposedly buying multiple copies of the different covers, They
were also buying multiple copies just to get all the
trading cards. Some fans might buy as many as twenty
copies of a single issue. Ron Peerlman was forgetting a
fairly basic economic principle. If you produce a high quantity
of something that's supposed to be rare, its value is
(02:44):
going to plummet. Comic books aren't food or oil. They're
a luxury good. They're only valuable if people believe that
they are. And the idea that comics are valuable comes
from the comic books of the thirties, forties, fifties, sixties,
and even the seven This was before superheroes became box
office stars. Their comics were seen as cheap, disposable entertainment,
(03:07):
literally like any other magazine, and so people threw them away.
I'm sure you've seen the occasional headline where a rare
Superman number one from nineteen thirty nine sells for millions
of dollars today, and that's because it actually is rare.
There are only a few hundred copies left out there
out of the original nine hundred thousand copy print run. Marvel,
(03:30):
on the other hand, was printing millions of copies of
X Men number one and their other comics, and since
they were selling them as collectibles, they were being carefully preserved,
not rolled up and thrown away. By nineteen ninety six,
Marvel's revenues fell drastically as fans realized these comics weren't
worth anything. Marvel was still making all of these variant
(03:50):
covers in trading cards, and no one was buying them anymore.
To solve this problem, Ron Perlman hatched a crazy scheme,
filing for bankruptcy so that he could re organized the
company without permission from its shareholders. He was going to
then spend even more buying toy Biz, a toy company
that he thought could be used to increase Marvel's profits,
(04:10):
and the shareholders actually liked that part of the plan,
but they had no use for Ron Perlman's shortsighted business practices.
They simply fired him and went ahead with the acquisition
in nineteen ninety eight. The new leaders of the company,
toy Biz, executives like Ike Perlmutter and Avia Rod, would
lead Marvel into an even more curious history. As fast
(04:31):
as the company had gone from a record high to
a record low, it would just as quickly reach new
heights when Pearl, Mutter and Arod made major film deals
to lead movies like Sam Raimis spider Man and Brian
Singer's X Men, and of course this was just the
beginning of the company's legendary film history. It's a curious
case of a company that went from so big it
(04:51):
failed to too big to fail in only a few
years of time. Marvel seems to be a company that
always bounces back. With that in mind, if you have
a copy of X Men number one, maybe hold on
to it. It might actually be worth something someday. Just kidding.
Millions of people would have to suddenly destroy their copies
for your copy of the comic to be worth anything.
(05:13):
And if you're curious about getting into comic books, get
them because you want to have fun reading them, and
not because you think that they'll make you a millionaire.
(05:35):
You may think that sports team rivalries and post championship
riots are modern inventions, but sports mania is actually a
tail as old as time. The Roman Empire had no
Super Bowl or World Series, but there was chariot racing.
People from all over Constantinople would flock to a one
hundred thousand seat stadium called the Hippodrome to watch the
(05:57):
two top teams, the Blues and the Greens, race to
see who would win, and just like today's sports fans,
the rivalry between the two teams supporters sometimes turned violent.
In the year five point thirty two AD, a group
of Blues and Greens fans were convicted of murder after
a deadly riot. They were sentenced to be hanged, and
(06:18):
a crowd of chariot racing fans from both sides gathered
to watch the execution. The convicts took their turns going
up to the gallows, and the first five men were
swiftly executed. Finally, the last two, one Blue and one Green,
were led up to the platform, but while they were
being hanged, the gallows suddenly collapsed. They survived, and the
(06:39):
crowd went wild to them. This was a sign that
these two men were not supposed to die, and as
the executioners led the men away to await another execution date,
the two teams were finally united against a common enemy,
the government of Emperor Justinian, which was trying to execute
their divinely anointed heroes. A few days later, at the
(07:01):
next chariot race, rather than fighting each other, the Blues
and the Greens in the hippodrome appeared to be on
the same side as usual. While the charioteers were circling
around the track, all of the fans chanted Nika nika,
the Greek word for victory. But they weren't just talking
about the race. They were also talking about victory over
Emperor Justinian. Gradually, the anger reached a boiling point. United
(07:26):
with one will, the crowd streamed out of the stadium
and into the streets, and they rioted, setting every building
on the street on fire. The riot spread throughout the
city and it lasted for days, only gaining momentum as
time went on. After burning most of Constantinople, they converged
again on the Hippodrome, turning it into the headquarters of
(07:47):
their anti government insurrection. Meanwhile, Emperor Justinian panicked inside the
Imperial Palace, which just so happened to be directly connected
to the Hippodrome. He was only a matter of time
before the rioters would breach the palace, and if they did,
they would likely kill him. Justinian tried and failed to
appease them by firing several of his least popular officials. Eventually,
(08:09):
he gave into their demands and he freed the two
prisoners who narrowly escaped execution but by that point even
this wasn't enough to quell the fury that had taken
over the city. On the fifth day, the rioters appointed
a new emperor and seated him on a throne inside
the Hippodrome, and this was the last straw for Justinian.
(08:30):
He directed his military to launch a counter attack to
restore order. Justinian's generals descended upon the Hippodrome and barricaded
the exits, trapping tens of thousands of Rioters inside. What
happened next was a complete bloodbath. Within a day, the
Emperor's soldiers had killed thirty thousand people and the insurrection
(08:51):
was finally put down. To this day, the Nico Riot
remains the most deadly riot in all of sports history.
I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet
of Curiosities. This show was created by me Aaron Manke
in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the
(09:13):
Grim and Mild team, and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn
more about the show and the people who make it
over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find
a link to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book
available in bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook.
And if you're looking for an ad free option, consider
joining our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without
(09:36):
the interruption for a small monthly fee. Learn more and
sign up over at patreon dot com. Slash Grimandmild, and
until next time, stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Nke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
In August of nineteen ninety one, Marvel Comics released a
reboot of their X Men comics series, bringing the full
cast together for the first time with stylish new nineties costumes.
The comic quickly became the best selling comic of all
time and still is to this day. This should have
ushered in a new golden era for the company, but
(00:56):
curiously it was the beginning of their descent into bankruptcy.
X Men number one sold over eight million copies. Part
of this was because the product was genuinely creative. It
served as a climax to legendary writer Chris Claremont's sixteen year,
one hundred and thirty seven issue run on the comic,
(01:16):
which is one of the longest runs any comic book
creator has ever had. It also had him passing the
torch to popular new writer and artist Jim Lee, whose
characters with bulging muscles and multiple pouches on their costumes
came to define superhero comic book arts for the next
decade and a half. But it also sold well because
it had not one, not two, but five different covers.
(01:40):
These were marketed as valuable collector's items that fans would
want to get a hold of. Who knew how valuable
they might be one day. But soon Marvel was expanding
this practice to their other biggest comic, Spider Man and
various X Men spinoffs. They were raking in the money. Now.
This business model was the brainchild of Marvel owner Ron Pearlman. No,
(02:02):
not the hell Boy actor. This Ron Pearlman was a
businessman who had spent over eighty million dollars acquiring the
company in nineteen eighty nine, and Ron wanted to recoup
his investment, so he kept milking the fans for more
and more of their cash. He even started including trading
cards bagged with the comics, So now a fan wasn't
(02:23):
just supposedly buying multiple copies of the different covers, They
were also buying multiple copies just to get all the
trading cards. Some fans might buy as many as twenty
copies of a single issue. Ron Peerlman was forgetting a
fairly basic economic principle. If you produce a high quantity
of something that's supposed to be rare, its value is
(02:44):
going to plummet. Comic books aren't food or oil. They're
a luxury good. They're only valuable if people believe that
they are. And the idea that comics are valuable comes
from the comic books of the thirties, forties, fifties, sixties,
and even the seven This was before superheroes became box
office stars. Their comics were seen as cheap, disposable entertainment,
(03:07):
literally like any other magazine, and so people threw them away.
I'm sure you've seen the occasional headline where a rare
Superman number one from nineteen thirty nine sells for millions
of dollars today, and that's because it actually is rare.
There are only a few hundred copies left out there
out of the original nine hundred thousand copy print run. Marvel,
(03:30):
on the other hand, was printing millions of copies of
X Men number one and their other comics, and since
they were selling them as collectibles, they were being carefully preserved,
not rolled up and thrown away. By nineteen ninety six,
Marvel's revenues fell drastically as fans realized these comics weren't
worth anything. Marvel was still making all of these variant
(03:50):
covers in trading cards, and no one was buying them anymore.
To solve this problem, Ron Perlman hatched a crazy scheme,
filing for bankruptcy so that he could re organized the
company without permission from its shareholders. He was going to
then spend even more buying toy Biz, a toy company
that he thought could be used to increase Marvel's profits,
(04:10):
and the shareholders actually liked that part of the plan,
but they had no use for Ron Perlman's shortsighted business practices.
They simply fired him and went ahead with the acquisition
in nineteen ninety eight. The new leaders of the company,
toy Biz, executives like Ike Perlmutter and Avia Rod, would
lead Marvel into an even more curious history. As fast
(04:31):
as the company had gone from a record high to
a record low, it would just as quickly reach new
heights when Pearl, Mutter and Arod made major film deals
to lead movies like Sam Raimis spider Man and Brian
Singer's X Men, and of course this was just the
beginning of the company's legendary film history. It's a curious
case of a company that went from so big it
(04:51):
failed to too big to fail in only a few
years of time. Marvel seems to be a company that
always bounces back. With that in mind, if you have
a copy of X Men number one, maybe hold on
to it. It might actually be worth something someday. Just kidding.
Millions of people would have to suddenly destroy their copies
for your copy of the comic to be worth anything.
(05:13):
And if you're curious about getting into comic books, get
them because you want to have fun reading them, and
not because you think that they'll make you a millionaire.
(05:35):
You may think that sports team rivalries and post championship
riots are modern inventions, but sports mania is actually a
tail as old as time. The Roman Empire had no
Super Bowl or World Series, but there was chariot racing.
People from all over Constantinople would flock to a one
hundred thousand seat stadium called the Hippodrome to watch the
(05:57):
two top teams, the Blues and the Greens, race to
see who would win, and just like today's sports fans,
the rivalry between the two teams supporters sometimes turned violent.
In the year five point thirty two AD, a group
of Blues and Greens fans were convicted of murder after
a deadly riot. They were sentenced to be hanged, and
(06:18):
a crowd of chariot racing fans from both sides gathered
to watch the execution. The convicts took their turns going
up to the gallows, and the first five men were
swiftly executed. Finally, the last two, one Blue and one Green,
were led up to the platform, but while they were
being hanged, the gallows suddenly collapsed. They survived, and the
(06:39):
crowd went wild to them. This was a sign that
these two men were not supposed to die, and as
the executioners led the men away to await another execution date,
the two teams were finally united against a common enemy,
the government of Emperor Justinian, which was trying to execute
their divinely anointed heroes. A few days later, at the
(07:01):
next chariot race, rather than fighting each other, the Blues
and the Greens in the hippodrome appeared to be on
the same side as usual. While the charioteers were circling
around the track, all of the fans chanted Nika nika,
the Greek word for victory. But they weren't just talking
about the race. They were also talking about victory over
Emperor Justinian. Gradually, the anger reached a boiling point. United
(07:26):
with one will, the crowd streamed out of the stadium
and into the streets, and they rioted, setting every building
on the street on fire. The riot spread throughout the
city and it lasted for days, only gaining momentum as
time went on. After burning most of Constantinople, they converged
again on the Hippodrome, turning it into the headquarters of
(07:47):
their anti government insurrection. Meanwhile, Emperor Justinian panicked inside the
Imperial Palace, which just so happened to be directly connected
to the Hippodrome. He was only a matter of time
before the rioters would breach the palace, and if they did,
they would likely kill him. Justinian tried and failed to
appease them by firing several of his least popular officials. Eventually,
(08:09):
he gave into their demands and he freed the two
prisoners who narrowly escaped execution but by that point even
this wasn't enough to quell the fury that had taken
over the city. On the fifth day, the rioters appointed
a new emperor and seated him on a throne inside
the Hippodrome, and this was the last straw for Justinian.
(08:30):
He directed his military to launch a counter attack to
restore order. Justinian's generals descended upon the Hippodrome and barricaded
the exits, trapping tens of thousands of Rioters inside. What
happened next was a complete bloodbath. Within a day, the
Emperor's soldiers had killed thirty thousand people and the insurrection
(08:51):
was finally put down. To this day, the Nico Riot
remains the most deadly riot in all of sports history.
I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet
of Curiosities. This show was created by me Aaron Manke
in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the
(09:13):
Grim and Mild team, and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn
more about the show and the people who make it
over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find
a link to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book
available in bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook.
And if you're looking for an ad free option, consider
joining our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without
(09:36):
the interruption for a small monthly fee. Learn more and
sign up over at patreon dot com. Slash Grimandmild, and
until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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