“Pulp Lives! Robert Greenberger Talks Thrilling Adventure Yarns Vol. 5”

The pulp revival is back — and bigger than ever.
In this new interview, veteran editor and writer Robert Greenberger returns to talk about the Kickstarter launch of Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2026, the latest installment in the hit anthology series celebrating classic pulp adventure storytelling for a modern audience. Greenberger breaks down what’s new in Volume 5, including:

• All–new short stories from top science-fiction and comic-book writers
• The series’ trademark mix of heroic adventure, mystery, sci-fi, supernatural thrills, and classic pulp action
• How each volume brings together creators from across comics, novels, and genre fiction
• Why pulp storytelling still hits a nerve with today’s readers
• The challenges — and joys — of editing a multi-author anthology in 2025
• What backers can expect from the Kickstarter: tiers, exclusives, stretch goals, and behind-the-scenes extras

Greenberger also reflects on the legacy of pulp fiction, the modern resurgence of serialized adventure stories, and how Thrilling Adventure Yarns has become a home for both legendary creators and fresh voices. If you love comics, sci-fi, classic pulps, or creator-driven anthologies, this conversation gives you the full story behind the new volume — and why this Kickstarter is worth jumping on early.

► Support the Kickstarter https://tinyurl.com/36et4m6j
► SUBSCRIBE for more creator interviews, book launches, and deep-dive genre conversations

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, everybody, Welcome back, Time Forward Balloon. The Comic Book
Conversation show John Sutris with You. Robert Greenberger joined me
Monday night. Robert has been doing a lot of great work.
Of course, back in the day he was a great
writer and editor for DC Comics and Marvel. These days,
he is part of a writer collective called the Crazy Eights,

(00:21):
and they have a brand new anthology out that Robert
is editing, the Thrilling Adventure Yarns, and it's a bunch
of pulp inspired short stories that hit all the different genres.
No superheroes this time, but a lot of superhero writers.
When you hear the lineup of people that are in
this and it's big and this is the fifth Thrilling

(00:44):
Adventure Yarns. So great opportunity to talk to Robert. We
talked about the stories, we talk about the authors, and
we also got to get in some Star Trek story
in there, because he wrote Star Trek comics and he
wrote a couple of Star Trek novels as well, so
I got to ask him about some of the new
things that event happening in Star Trek. Robert Greenberger on
the show Today Word Balloon word Balloon is brought to

(01:07):
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(01:30):
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(01:53):
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(02:16):
Patreon dot com slash word balloon. It's a great way
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Balloon Listeners Patreon dot com slash word Balloon. Thanks for
listening and thanks as always for your support. Welcome back
to everybody time again for word Balloon, The comput Conversation Show.

(02:40):
John Stutris hero is happy to welcome one of the
crazy as back to word Balloon. It's Bob Greenberger. Fantastic writer,
fantastic editor. He's got a new kickstarter of a fantastic
anthology in a continuing series, Thrilling Adventure Yards, the twenty
twenty sixth edition. Bob, Good to see you, Welcome.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Back, Thanks Sean, good to see you.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
I was going through the list, Bob, And as usual,
you've got a lot of the great, as Claude Rams
would say, usual suspects, but a lot of them are
also word balloon writers. And here I'm actually first gonna
put up the shot of the cover and uh here,
let's see here, where the hell is it there?

Speaker 2 (03:19):
It is?

Speaker 1 (03:21):
I think there it is. There we go, but we'll we'll,
we'll go through the list here. Great, I like I
like the distressed uh uh rainkles on the cover. That's great. Man.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Well, you know Aaron Rosenberg, the book designer and an
author for the book.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
You know, he he gave it that field since it's
a tribute to the golden age of the pulps.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Those books are not in mint condition anymore.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Absolutely, my guy, I don't even know. I know they
still do pulp shows. It's been a while since I've
gone to the local one.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, I think the big one is in Pittsburgh every fall.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yep, I knew that absolutely. Jerry Conway and and Storenko,
I know, used to go to that one, and I
don't know if Jerry still goes because I think Jerry
last time I talked to him, was saying that he's
trying to sell all of his pulps and everything, which
I understand. The generation's under us. I don't know how much.
I mean, they appreciate the genres, but I don't know
how much they appreciate the original material.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
Really good question. I mean, you know these days you
say the pulps. Maybe they know it, maybe they think
it's related to the Tarantino film.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
They certainly may have heard of Doc Savage, the Shadow,
maybe the Spider in G eight and after that. You
have to educate them. It's where Tarzan was born, and
it's where you know, lovecrafts Capulhu was born. That's where
you know Conan came from.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
And the building blocks of Superheroes obviously came from the pulps.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Oh absolutely. You know, if you look at the first
like two years of comic stuff, you know, from like
thirty five to thirty seven, even thirty eight before Superman,
it's all pulp inspired stuff, especially the Shadow.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
No question. Uh, well, you know, of course Doc Savage,
Man of Bronze, Superman, Man of Steel, both at the
Fortress Solitude.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
Siegel has absolutely admitted to having read those. I mean,
you know, very influential, you know. He uh you know,
he nearly got sued for ripping off Phil Wiley's Gladiator,
uh for you know how powerful that figure was. Uh,
you know, but back then everyone stole from each other, Yeah, Siegel,

(05:30):
at least they added enough original elements that it caught on.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Hey, our t bear is watching it. Good to see
you are one of the one of the good guys. Absolutely, man,
that's nice. Sorry, very cool. Well, and again, uh, let's
I want to go through some of the writers and
I'll let you fill in the bunks of the rest.
But as far as word Balloon constant guests, you got
Paul Kopperberg, Michael jan Friedman, H Keith DeCandido, Max Collins

(05:59):
and and JMD Dematias and Steven Grant, to say the least.
And I know there's even more. God, this is big.
How big is this book going to be?

Speaker 3 (06:09):
You know, the twenty twenty two edition was mammoth. I
let it swell in size. It's one reason why I
did not get rich off that particular campaign. Let's just say, yeah,
I was deficit spending, but you know I stunned down
for twenty five. This one's going to be a little
bigger than the twenty five book. But I'm optimistic I

(06:32):
will get him off funding to you know, make this worthwhile.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
You're about halfway there on the account.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
And in fact, yeah, I hit fifty percent just before
dinner time tonight.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
So I'm bengrant. That's fantastic, man. I will let you
fill in some of the other writers that you want
to promote. But obviously these are a lot of great
not only great comic book vets, but people that know
how to write a good short story as well.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
Well, you know, returning from previous time, some people like Trek,
Derek Tyler, Attiko who, since he wrote for me, did
the autobiography of Ben Cisco, which was you know great,
from the Star Trek Fans from Crazy Eight, Roulskuled Chumero,
Mary Fann, Mike Friedman, Paul Koppenberg, Aaron Rosenberg, Hildy Silverman.

(07:18):
But also you know, one of the big pulp writers
these days is Will Murray.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
Yes, who's gotten some nonfiction books on the Shadow, but
has been hired by the Edgar Rice Burrows Estate to
do some original works for them, you know, so having
Will back a lovely touch.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
Keith the Candado was back with his version of a
Doc Savage type character. But newd of the book which
has been excited as Max Allan Collins, who wrote a
Sherlock Holmes story and with his buddy Matthew V. Clemens.
But I've been trying to get Max in this book
for you know, since the second volume. So catch him
at the right time. It was a stroke of luck.

(07:58):
Also the book is a well known science fiction fantasy author,
Esta Friesner, who added a fun series of anthologies called
Chicks and chain Mail, which was fine for the comic
book world. I have Mark Demdis, I've got Steven Grant,
but I also have a list of Quitney, who was

(08:18):
a Vertigo editor before she went on to writing a
bunch of comic book stuff, and that writes original fiction
on her own. Baith Cato, who is new to me.
She was referred to me by one of the gang,
and she's another science fiction writer. And she just turned
in her story last week and that was fun, and

(08:40):
since last morning crazy oppressed. Welcome Don Christopher the Abbott,
who has been making quite a nice career writing Charlote
Comb's past teaches, but I got him to write something,
not Holmes. He actually wrote a fun little horror story.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Oh that's cool, that's cool. And again, no, all these
guys are and women are terrific writing genre fiction and
have been for for quite some time. Now. You gotta
you gotta murder his row Man, and I wonder it's
funny you mentioned that Max wrote a Strock home story.
A lot of these characters are starting to fall into
public domain? All right, any are there any pulp heroes

(09:16):
have you? Have you used any public domain pulp heroes
in your collections? No?

Speaker 2 (09:22):
Not yet? Okay, and actually Arsen Lupin the French Criminal. Sure,
that's him on the cover and as well. Yeah, so
that's a loop in cover. Mary Fan really wanted to
write a story with him. So I've got Holmes and Lupin.
It's the first time I'm using PD pulp characters.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Do you keep an eye out to see who is
going to fall in public domain?

Speaker 2 (09:47):
For?

Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yes, I don't stay right next is it next your month?
He's Falcon twenty six?

Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yes, yeah, there are some songs I remember. I think
the earliest Popeye falls.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
In pay That'd be a great uh if somebody would
be fun to see somebody write a pulp Popeye story.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
So yes, I do keep an eye on what's hitting
public domain, but I also have to be careful for copyright.
You know, I'm sorry trademark purposes. For example, Steamboat Willy
is in PD. That means I could do something with
Steamboat Willy as he appeared in that one car too.
I can't do the rest of Mickey mouse, you know,
and I really wish people would do something other than

(10:31):
a horror film with these p D characters, like we
need to blue Blood.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
And Honey and one I noticed that to me, there's
a Popeye horror movie.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
So we'll you know, we'll see. It's gonna be years
before our more familiar characters are available.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
Sure well. And also there the great thing about the
pulp heroes are that they are basic enough that you
can take the idea of them and turn them into
your own thing, which again and a lot of your
collective has done in the face as well.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
I mean, you know, Roberty Howard gave us basically the
archetypical sort of sorcery barbarian that people have been dining
on ever since in one flavor or another.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Absolutely, man, absolutely, I want to talk about some of
the premiums that you're offering over it this this volume
of three.

Speaker 3 (11:23):
A lot of it's the usual mix where people can
get tuckerizations having a character in this story named after
them or you know, whoever they designate. I'm selling bundles
of digital material by some of the contributors, So I've
got three different bundles of a mix of material or
the Mega.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
Bundle where you can have it all. You know, you
can buy all five volumes of the book in ebook
or paperback or hardcover.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
You know.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
The fun thing that you are going to be the
stretch goals, where I can include additional stories lesson who
we consider our patron saint, the men who helped create
Doc Savage for the Street and Smith. There's still a
bunch of his unpublished short stories, so I've got one
of those lined up. And Adam Troy Castro, who has
written some wonderful short science fiction. He's written some Spider

(12:19):
Man novels. As memory serves, He's got a great story
for me, Zach, the longest story in the book. If
we can reach that goal, and of course I want
to get it illustrated. You know that last time we
had to do some p D pulp art to illustrate
the stories because I didn't get that much funding. I

(12:40):
really am hopeful this time that my factors go. You know,
I really do miss the original art, so here have
more money.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
Would you would you ever entertain trying to adapt any
of your stories or others into audio drama?

Speaker 2 (12:57):
Why are its expensive?

Speaker 1 (12:59):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (12:59):
I would love to do this as audio with multiple
you know, narrators and all, but do the proper production
to be anywhere close to what people are buying from
audible and elsewhere. Uh, that's an expense. I just haven't
had the appetite for yet. Not that I rule it out,
but yeah, no, audio is like you know, the next

(13:20):
front here.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
I understand, and I I'm you know, I'm a sucker
for good audio. In fact, I just enjoyed they did,
and I'm sure they It wasn't cheap to make the
Paramount people made that star trek Con Audio Drau.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah, I mean, you know.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
Nick Meyer came up with the story and Kirsten Byer
and David Mack did a lovely job turning into this
great nine part radio drama. I really really hope it
did well enough that Paramount commissions.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
More, no kidding, man, especially as you know, again, it
was great to hear George Taka in his nineties come
back as Sulu and Timorrow stated a great job as Tuvac.
And I think, let's take advantage of these great actors
and well, you know a lot of them can still
do on camera for that matter as well. Yeah, from
the eighties and nineties, it's like you know, don't don't

(14:07):
let these guys, you know, and and you know, I
keep hearing that maybe Shatner might do like an animated
thing or something like that. It's like, you better hurry.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
I think that just revived Kirk in you know, one
of their miniseries, So anything is possible.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
I actually Lancy and Kelly will likely be back. We
talked about the first issue a couple of months ago,
and uh and IDW has caught me up on the
next issue actually is coming out this Wednesday. But yeah, yeah, yeah,
so yeah, we'll get to start trek talking in a
little bit and everything.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
Now.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
I want to give you your due for the thrilling
in Venttory yards.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
Oh so thanks. I appreciate that. You know, the the.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
The biggest stretch call is similar to what you guys
are offering on your Patreon, which would be six months
after the book comes out. I'd love to have a
book club chat with my backers and some of the
not some of the authors.

Speaker 5 (15:04):
But you know, that's the pipe dream. That's like the
ultimate stretch goal. I understand, guy, that'd be yeah, that'd
be great though, absolutely, man, get them all. You know,
it's hurting cats trying to get all the authors together.
I mean, it's you know that, just to get together.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
So yeah, I can.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
I don't know if I can get all of them,
but I can get a handful of them to participate,
which I think would be tremendous fun. But again, you know,
that's like way up here at this point, I'm at
fifty percent, so I just want to make sure I get.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Gold Amen, absolutely halfway there, everybody. It's yeah, you know so.
Uh And obviously you're offering a digital version as well
as a hard version.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
People can buy buy it as an ebook, and I
would send out the pub and PDF versions automatically as
part of that setup. Uh. Plus paperback plus hardcover. You
know you you've got a favorite format. I'll fill it crazy.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
It's how long have they been together? That collective of rights?

Speaker 2 (16:03):
This summer twenty twenty sixth of our fiftieth year. Wow,
that's well for the loosest, most disorganized collection of authors.
You know, you know, it's not quite f true, but
it's certainly you know, we're all doing our own thing
and supporting one another. But it's not like we're an

(16:26):
LLC and we have money rolling.

Speaker 6 (16:28):
In and we need accountants in all, but we have
managed to put out over eighty titles in our collectively
around our you know, the number of authors we have.

Speaker 7 (16:42):
That speaks to, you know, something sustained, finding an audience
for this stuff. You know, everyone is continuing to write
their own books, are contributing to each other's anthologies because
a we love doing the work, we enjoy each other's company,
and we think there's an audience for our ideas.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
I couldn't agree more, man, I mean, growing up, I
was a big fan of and I don't even know
how many of these are still in existence, by things
like Ellery Queen Magazine and Hitchcock Magazine and as them
off AD one and you know.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
Those three are still being printed as far as I know.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
Okay, okay, And I wonder too.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
The monthly mystery magazines had you know, nowhere near what
they used to be, or the s F books you
know back you know they're the last of the pulps.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
Agreed, Yeah, that is kind of what they evolved into,
no question. And and really, as a young mystery reader,
that's how I got exposed to a lot of stuff,
not only the new stuff, but the stuff they would reprint,
as you know, a.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
Lot of the comic book people like Danie O'Neil and
Might W. Barr, you know, to them, writing Batman was cool,
but getting a story sold Delliery Queen Mystery magazine, that
that was a nice little feather in their caps.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
No question, absolutely, man, Now you've been crazy. It's been
self publishing since ub Yeah. And isn't it interesting, Bob,
Because as I speak to other authors, it seems to me,
I mean, certainly everybody would rather get the advance and
you know, the money up front to uh, you know,

(18:18):
from a publisher that's willing to put out your stuff
and everything. But it really does seem like the self
publishing world. You've gathered this audience and and thankfully they
still support when you have new stuff.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
Right, I mean, you know, you're fronting the money to
a cover artist and a book designer and maybe spending
a little on marketing or even just hosting your website. Uh,
you know, so the cost is so much smaller than
the major publishers. Of course, they've got marketing teams chirp
and you know, can can do floor displays and get

(18:54):
front of the store you know, positioning. We're you know,
we're hopeful that they just buy a copy to put
on the rack, you know, but we can do what
we want and don't have to don't have to fight
with the marketing people go, well, great idea, I don't
know how to market that right?

Speaker 1 (19:13):
Absolutely informed? Yeah, or or a publisher telling you, yeah, no,
go a different direction. It's like no, you guys got
to really stay true to what you write and and
just put it out there. So so that's great. How
has it been. Have you tried to market specifically to bookshops?

Speaker 2 (19:32):
It's been hit or miss. I think bookstore dot org
has been a boon to us and other self publishers
because they can order our stuff through them and then
the local bookstore gets a piece of the action and
everybody's happy.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
Okay, that's cool.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
Well you know that that's been a nice little game changer.

Speaker 3 (19:56):
I have no idea, you know, I don't look at
the financials for any one else's material, and I need
I'm a little behind them receiving data on my own releases.

Speaker 6 (20:09):
So I can't tell you what has changed did not change.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
But you know, I do know I get a nice
little bit of money every month from Amazon for the
e books I have exclusive there, and that helps every
little bit he counts.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
Sure, absolutely, Now I know that again, you know, I
lean on Star Trek that a lot of you guys
should get together for surely every year.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
Right, Yeah, that's that used to being Maryland. Now it's
in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And the next year I'll leave is
the second week of July twenty twenty six, and of
course being the sixtieth anniversary Star Trek, they've already started
announcing pretty much any guest star who's still alive.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
Oh that's great, Well that's good, and you know, man,
all right, and Bob, forgive me, I because I talked
to several people I think when when Peter David passed away,
and I can't remember for you we did talk, didn't
we we did talk? Yes, there you go. Yeah, and
the unfortunately one of the one of the crazy as
that is no longer with us, obviously.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
And yeah, now that said, you know, I'll promote this,
uh you know these days Kickstarter has you know, you
can buy the book and then they have a whole
laundry list of add ons. Yes, and one of the
add ons we have available for this campaign is there
was a limited five hundred copy edition of the Complete

(21:29):
Howling Mad, which was the original novel The Howling Mad
that Peter wrote from I think it was Berkeley back
in the eighties. And then he did a sequel short
story that appeared in an anthology called Otherwere Keith de
Candado co edited, and that's out of print, both are,

(21:50):
I believe, So with Peter's widow's permission, we put the
two in a nice little, a numbered hardcover limited edition
and we're making that availables and that on. So if
you buy the book and you want to, and the
money for that will go to Peter.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
Peter's that's terrific. That's great man, that's excellent. Yeah, no, big,
you know, great, great loss and wonderful, prolific writer for
for so long. In uh, in comics and in in
in novels and short stories, absolutely all three.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
Uh so any any any sci fi in the current volume?

Speaker 2 (22:31):
Any what?

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Any sci fi stories in?

Speaker 2 (22:34):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (22:34):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (22:35):
Yeah. Bet Cato wrote a science fiction story as the
Freezoner Russ called Chamiro. I think Hillby's is going to
be science fiction. I haven't seen hers yet. But you know,
the weird thing about this is after the twenty twenty
five book came out. I pulled my backers and I said,

(22:57):
what do you want? More of? What do you want? Yeah? Like,
who else do you want? Sure in the book and
I was fifty to fifty between more SF and less SF.

Speaker 8 (23:07):
Interesting, crazy, So I definitely upped my crime quotient hence
Looping and Holmes among others, and sort of trust you
that continues to be an evergreen, you know, evergreen genre.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
How about Westerns?

Speaker 2 (23:27):
You know, we don't have.

Speaker 3 (23:28):
One any this time it didn't pull terribly high, and
no any I would have taken one, because there's still
an audience for it, but sure.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
At this time, maybe next time.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
All right, fair enough, that's cool, that's all right.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
My goal is to continue to do these as long
as it makes a little bit of money to make
it worth doing the break even it doesn't make.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
For this camp for the sweat equity, and also I
got to make a little something.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
I don't know, if you know my buddy Doug Klaubat
from suburbs of Chicago, but he only by name, Okay,
he's a yeah. He's a big painter and pulp aficionado
as well, and has done his share of not only
covers of books, like yours, but also even cover art
for collections of old time radio and things like that.

(24:17):
And I remember a project he was talking about, and
I wondered about some of the more even fringy pulp subjects,
like because he was even thinking like it'd be fun
to have a medical character or a deep sea diving character,
things like that, not out.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
Of the realm of possibility.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
You know.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
Somebody wanted to, you know, suggest that when I talked
to writers, especially people I'm reaching out to the first time.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
I say, you know, this is more like All Story magazine,
where all genres could be included. And that's where Towards
End first appeared.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
Oh I didn't know that was a real pulp all story. Yes, yeah, wow,
I have nineteen twelve, I believe. Yeah, well that doesn't
surprise me given when Burrows was was cranking that stuff.
Not a lot, but it was at the beginning of
the nineteen hundreds, So yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Who were some of the like the editorial heroes as

(25:15):
far as you know, the great the great editors of
the Paul Bera.

Speaker 9 (25:18):
You know what's interesting is many of them wound up
going into comic books, you know, so so a lot
of the early ones. You know, one of the one
of the ones that made an influence on young fan,
Julie Schwartz, was a diminutuate, diminututive man named Ray Palmer.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Of course, so Julie named the Silver Age Adam after him.
And you know, Weisinger left the agency that he and
Schwartz were running for SF writers to join Standard Publications.
That's where I believe he met up with people like

(25:59):
Jack Scheff, you know, all of whom wound up moving
over to DC Comics. You know, that's where John W. Campbell,
the great science fiction editor for you know, decades, got
his start. Hugo gernsback, of course, who created the science
fiction genre effectively for magazine purposes. Now, I'm sure there

(26:23):
are others I'm forgetting at the moment, but you know,
it's interesting things like The Shadow of Duc Savage and
Spider and G eight and the others that had more
to do with you know, just getting it out every
month or twice a month is needed. And I'm sure
there were many editorial hands on these, you know, getting
getting an editorial voice was harder to identify.

Speaker 1 (26:46):
I'm trying to remember the name of a pulp writer
that was still around, like in the eighties. Jack is
his first name, Williamson. It probably was Jack Williamson's the guy.
He was the guy that I believe was talking about
l Ron Hubbard, who if people, you know, they know
him from Scientology, but they may not know that he
was obviously a great or at least a prolific if

(27:09):
not great, sci fi writer, and and the one it
was like, oh yeah, we'd sit around in the poker
games and Hubbard would say, hey, you know, if one
of us were smart, we'd start a religion.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
And then he well, Actually, the way Schwartz tells the story,
Hubbard was writing SF for the pulps in all the
late forties and there was some cocktail party where it
came out that, you know, starting a religion was a
great tax dodge, and that's in Schwartz credits that conversation

(27:42):
to starting Hubbard on the Scientology business.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
Fantastic. Why not? Absolutely, man, that's battlefield Earth, everybody, al
Ron Hubbard, the man behind Scientology.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
You know. The thing is is that, as with any religion,
if you get something, you know, if you give it
faith and you get something out of.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
It, who's to say, totally understand. I understand as well,
but it is it is interesting. I mean, God only
knows what. Yeah, the guys, the guys that wrote you know,
the the the the Bible and stuff, who knows if
that was a side hustle and while they were shepherds
or whatever.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
You know, the idea of.

Speaker 3 (28:27):
First century you know, side hustles is an interesting one
because back then you were, you know, just farming to
live exactly.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
So is any any sort I'm sure there's some aspiring
writers watching or listening, any sort of open submission to uh,
you know, after each.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
One ends, I hear from a number of people who
would like to write for me, some of whom are
at the beginning of your careers.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
We have not made it open submission, and maybe time
to consider that.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
This series goes to a sixth month. See if I
can open it up and take one or two stories
and try and help the next generation alone.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
That'd be great. Bob, that's six six volumes, are you
that's fantastic? This is the fifth, so yeah, one, that's fantastic. Man.
So yeah, there you go. Everybody, so nice, nice little
you know, rent some space on your bookshelf for some
of these great these great volumes and stuff, and like
you said, you've got bundles where they can get all
the previous four as well.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
Yeah, well you can catch up easily.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
It's very cool. Why not? Indeed, why not? So thrilling
adventure yarns. And this is again for volume the volume
that comes out next year. What's the what's the release
date that you're looking at? Potentially mar getting.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
It to to make its debut? Sure leave in July
twenty twenty six. It gives me bring to edit and
polish and make sure everything is spot on, because you know,
I have this day job as a high school teacher
that sucks up a lot of time.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
Do you for your and now was it a writing
job as far as your high school teaching job?

Speaker 2 (30:09):
Only as part of teaching how the students how to
write good essays, are good reflections and all? We offer
a creative writing elective, but I'm not the teacher for that.
And my honors freshmen have talked me into letting them
try their hands at a short story when we do
our short story unit in January. So yeah, this is

(30:29):
gonna be a little.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
Bit have any of your how long have you been
teaching now? About.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
It's my ninth year at the current school, twelve year overall.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
Okay, have any of your students gone on to success
as writers?

Speaker 2 (30:43):
Not that I'm aware of.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
Not.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
No one has come back and told me they've succeeded.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
So how many of them are aware that you write
alongside teaching? Oh?

Speaker 2 (30:52):
They do, they do once they realize. I've been to
DC and Marvel on staff and they see some of
my books on the shelves. Not all of mine, but
a handful. They keep looking at them. Go, you've been published,
You've got all these books, You've got a Wikipedia page.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
What are you doing here? Writer reality? You know, especially
especially sadly in today's age.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
Man, My answer to that question is always, you know,
I like.

Speaker 1 (31:20):
To eat exactly. No, I get it, man, And I
know it's uh, it's certainly it's it's not the way
it was cut every now and then there's a documentary
about uh, the writers of you know there is when
we were kids, or even before, and when, sadly, our
society was much more literate that that it that it
curly is. I mean, hey, listen, there's still readers. That's

(31:41):
why the word balloon exists, and that's why thank god
what you guys do and everything is still happening, but
it's certainly the way it was.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
No, not at all. I mean the literacy rate has
has started to dip. The number of people who say
they read for leisure.

Speaker 3 (31:55):
I mean, the statistics came out a couple of months ago,
and there's threateningly low. You know, definitely scrolling on your
phone or tablet, you know, has superseded reading and losing
yourself in a good book.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
But also it seems and it really happens more in
other countries, like I know that like South Korea really
got into the phone as far as you know, reading
things off of there. So beyond the traditional platforms, are
there places like there are for web comics and things.

(32:31):
Are there kind of like platforms like that for pros?

Speaker 2 (32:37):
I think there are.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
You know, certainly every phone can have a kindle lap
on it, so they oh, yeah, that's Drakes or Cobo
or you know, similar stuff.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
But no, something like a web tune's for pros. I
don't think there's a major platform for that. I think
that's one of the things Google, I'm sorry Google, Google.
Amazon was trying with their vela program.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
That yes, fish and burned yes, yeah, it's that I
actually bought. I actually bought a couple, so yeah, you know, well.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
You know, you know, once I read about it, I
went to the Crazy eight guys and I said, you know,
there's this new platform kindle. Uh, maybe this is an
opportunity for us to bring in some new new readers.
And we did a series of stories set in the
world we created called Prism and again this much. But
it really rapidly developed into romance important and not seriously,

(33:36):
and it did not take off the way anyone had expected.

Speaker 3 (33:41):
Uh So when they folded the platform, we took the
nine stories we had published there, wrote several more and
put them out in a trade paperback last summer.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
Oh JD is saying substack certainly is a place for
I guess that kind of stuff, which I guess would
make sense.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
Yeah, I mean, I follow a handful of newsletters I
had followed like Brian Volano over there to you know,
read his spectators, So I guess that's one way to
do it.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
Are there any Are there any superhero stories in the
current volume?

Speaker 2 (34:17):
Uh? No? He had two in the last book, won
by Mike Creeman, one by Elia and Maghan. This time,
no one pitched me any super stories, so not this
time closes. We've got is Keith the Candada's Doc Savage Pestiche.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
That's cool, No man, I'm I'm curious to see it. No,
Keith's Keith's become one of my one of my favorite
go to guys amongst your your your compatriots.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
So he gives good interview.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
Well that too, and also, yeah, I love that. It's
so funny. My buddy Mitch from Terrific on you know,
Mitch Alick. Uh, He's like, you ever have anybody on
with Star Trek to push us back and disagrees with you.
I'm like, yes, Keith the Kenda like, he's a first
defender of modern trek and I love it. And I'm like,
and I'm glad that he comes out and uh and

(35:05):
does that. And also just everything he writes, I know
he was doing something. Who I know someone recently was
putting out a new volume of Weird Tales. I forget
which publishing.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
Yeah, No, Weird Tales, which is the original you know,
one of the original great popes really has got revived
a few years ago now. Jonathan Mayberry is the editor
of it, and he's still putting out maybe quarterly and
keeps having stories in the most recent ones.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
And Bob thinking of John and some of the others
that that are part of your volume, and they're doing
original books, they also do tie in novelists and not
even novelizations. Original stories are based on license, you know,
existing things and and you've had You've had your moments,
haven't you was I mean obviously starting totally.

Speaker 2 (35:55):
I mean, you know, most recently. Oh gosh, what was
the less tie in I wrote for page It goes
back a little while, probably the Planet of the Apes
and the Predator anthologies from a couple of years back.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
Oh wow, that's cool. You gonna are you gonna see
the new movie Predator?

Speaker 2 (36:18):
Really would like to people who have been telling me
how good it is. I'm herek time is you know,
suddenly not as available as I thought. Well, it's not
just somehow life has gotten busy, so you know, like
I haven't seen the Springsteen movie yet, the bunch of
movies that I just haven't gotten to yet.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
You know, honestly, also, I don't know about you. And again,
you know, we're from that generation that did go to
movies maybe a couple of times a moth and things
like that. I find it less and less likely just
given what's out in the theaters. But I did see,
and I'm always happy to mention this because I think
as we get closer to a reward season, I feel
like I'm kind of ahead of the curve. Having seen

(36:58):
the new Ethan Hawk movie Blue Moon about Lorentz Heart,
I thought it was great. I really thought it was great.
You know, it's Richard Linkletter the director, and it plays
like a play. It's all in real time. And for
people who don't know Blue Moon, you know, the song
I forget who did it? Starts with the Now the

(37:20):
band in the fifties, but of course goes back to
the thirties. Yeah, but regardless, Yeah, it's it's the night
that Rogers and Hammerstein hit big with Oklahoma. It's opening
night of Oklahoma, and everyone's at Sardis and you know,
Bob Nos Sarties. I know Sarties, but for those who don't,
that's the big hangout after the theater crowd, you know,

(37:41):
And that's where all the great Hirschfeld caricatures were. And
now modern artists alongside the Hirschfelds are there and everyone's
just waiting for the reviews and Richard Rogers former well,
I guess was still technically working with Lawrence Heart. Lawrence
Hart was his previous collaborator on these musicals and popular songs.

(38:05):
And he's just kind of sitting there watching his former
partner just having ship come in and everyone just raving
about Oklahoma, and he's kind of the forgotten man and
you know man and and also Hawk totally uglies himself up.
He's playing really short.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
Yeah. I read about how they used practical effects to
make him appear short compared to everybody else, to help,
you know, reinforce the real Heart. So yeah, not that'd
be worth looking at.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
You know, it makes me want and because again we
grew up in that five channel world, three channel world
in sub cities. I remember that Mickey Rooney movie they
made about Lawrence Heart in late I don't remember it. Yeah, yeah,
I think it's called Words of Music in fact, but yeah,
it makes me want to see that again. But yeah,
I think you know, you know how it is, man,

(38:58):
They put pretty people in makeup and it's like, all right,
best the actor, best actress. You know, it's like no problem,
it doesn't take.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
Much for it's predictable, but it's good now.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
He was really good. And also speaking of Sherlock Holmes,
the actor and I forget his name, the British actor
that played Moriarty in the Cumberbatch Sherlock, Oh sure is
Richard Rogers, okay, and he's and he I can't. He's
got to get a supporting actor as well, because yeah
they were. Bobby Counterval is in it as well, yeah

(39:29):
I really And also sorry everybody, but really it's nice
to see a movie that's not a reboot or a sequel,
or an animated movie or a superhero movie or a
horror movie, and it's like, you know, they're adult movies,
not porn, but there are movies for an older audience.
And it sucks because it really feels like the rest
of the world still is in that business. I always

(39:52):
see new movies coming out of England that are still
you know, movies for adults and not just you know
pop movies.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
You know, well, you know, one of the key differences
is British films goes for mid budget, mid range films.
They don't try and go for the biggest popcorn movies
because they can't scale up the way Hollywood can.

Speaker 3 (40:14):
And they've made so many wonderful, charming films that my
wife and I will sit and watch, you know, unfortunately
at home, not in the theater.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
Yeah, no, I hear you, man. Absolutely. And also yeah,
it feels like Hollywood has abandoned the mid budget of films.
I've been again, this is something I've been talking about
for years here at War Balloon. So and it's a
shame because again, you don't you don't need it. And
also we mentioned practical effects and things like that. It's like,
you know, good lord, we're about to see I believe

(40:44):
it hasn't officially been announced, but we're about to see
star Trek Chain's hands potentially. They certainly, well, another movie
is supposedly in the works.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
Well they named they've named the people who are writing
and directing, so that that's a step forward. But they've
the other writers and directors over the last decade, so
who can sell it?

Speaker 1 (41:03):
Yep. And that's the thing. And it just seems like
and I just remember when Harve Bennett was producing the
original Cast movies and you know, it was not they
weren't big budget movies, but they were smart stories. And
it's like that's what you come for for Star Trek,
it doesn't need to be you know, one hundred million dollars,

(41:26):
one hundred and fifty million dollar budget movies. You can
tell a smart sci fi story. God, remember Moon a
couple of years ago, Sam Rock, Well, that was of course,
that was a reasonably budgeted film, and they did quite well,
or at least it was a great It was an
effective story at the very least for me.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
I think JJ Abrams and Bad Robot just didn't have
the right handle and the right attitude towards the Star
Trek feature films, and they waited way too long between films.
So the cast was aging out fast when it was
supposed to be the guys at the beginning of the career.
What a properly reboot was supposed to be. You know,
after two misfired and then three was really good but

(42:05):
too inspired mint the box office for three wasn't what
it needed to be. You know, they sort of shot
themselves in the foot. So I think, much as I
liked a lot of that cast, I think it's time
to start over.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
Totally agree, man. Honestly, when they made the announcement of
no more Calvin movies, I'm like, yeah again, no, the
time has passed. And honestly, man, again this is my opinion,
Kurtzman secret hideout to people in charge of modern Star Trek.
They've had eight years and it's like, and they're gonna
get nine or ten, depending on how long they stretch
out strange new worlds and this new show Academy, and

(42:44):
it's like, Okay, you've made your statement with Star Trek.
Time to leave because they've divided the audience in the
worst way. And I don't you know, but I don't know, man.
I was you know, I'm only a couple of years
younger than you, and it seemed like, yeah, we had
our frustrations initially with Next Generation, but again, it was

(43:05):
a different television world. They would get twenty six episodes
a season, and even of those first two seasons, there
are good episodes in there. When you only have a
ten of season now it's that much harder. But also
they've really gone so far to stray from the template
of Star Trek and oh no, no, nobody wants anymore.

(43:26):
And it's like, that's not right. I'm sure they would
if you wrote better stories. I don't know your opinion
on what they've been doing.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
You know, Straights of the World. Season three was so mixed.
Some episodes were good, some were like growners and it.
You know, given what they established in the third season,
they veered further and further away from the Rodenberry star
trek that is supposed to be Dovetailing two. And they've
got a season four and an abbreviated season five to go.

(43:56):
Flour is already shot. Yes, they're working on five.

Speaker 3 (44:00):
I have had six episodes to wrap it up, and
it's like, I don't know how they're gonna put all
the pieces back and make it work.

Speaker 2 (44:07):
When you get to where no man has gone before.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
Well, I gotta be honest, man, especially having lawn Noonian Sing.
I mean I I and it's a great character that
is poorly named and much like Michael Burnham, Hey, it's
Spot's sister, and it's like no, no, sorry.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
Having Noonian Sing.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
If they did something with it that would be interesting,
but they really hadn't.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
Yeah, but again getting us to it's just and and
and for everybody, Sorry, I don't I always use this,
and I don't mean to be like light about the name,
but it's like it's like, hey, you know, I used
to date a woman named Susie Hitler, and I mean
they're gonna they're gonna be They're gonna be Condonian sing.
And of course Spacey was made decades ago, so it

(44:55):
doesn't fit. My assumption is like they used to do
on Uh Voyager and Deep Space nine, we're gonna get
somebody from the temporal ups and actually they've already set
that precedent on Strange New Worlds. But that's my feeling
that one of those agents is going to show up
and tell on I don't know how to tell you this,
but we've done further research. You don't belong in this timeline.

(45:18):
See you later and they'll be memory wife and everything
will be fun.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
We'll see I mean, you know, I like Christina Chong.

Speaker 3 (45:25):
I think she's doing you know, yeah, when she's given
some good material, it's great. Yes, I don't know why
they're obsessed with Spock as a lover boy, because you know,
them being friends and dancing, that's one thing, But the
start of romance after just breaking off with Chapels like
this is.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
Not the Spock I remember and to bring I mean,
it's a like man, everyone used to complain, Oh my god, Kirk,
you know jumping from bed to bed. It's like, hey,
I think Spock in this iteration is certainly running him
a close second. My god, a lot of action for Spock.
I mean, I'm sure, hey listen, you know, hey, Ethan,
that's a good look. Good dude, I respect that and everything.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
That's all I can say.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
Hey, JD wants to know I haven't seen it yet.
Have you seen del Toro's Frankenstein.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
No, it's on mind Netflix. Q. I like the fact
that it is one of the more faithful adaptations from
everything I've read, But you know, it's all gonna come
down to the performances of the writing. And sure look
forward to it.

Speaker 1 (46:30):
Yeah, I know it sounds like a great cast. Del
Toro obviously is a man that respects and and tries
his best at horror, and I think succeeds more times
than I. I didn't see his Nightmare, Alle did you?

Speaker 2 (46:44):
I didn't well remember, so let's say I didn't you know?

Speaker 1 (46:48):
I was man, I'll tell you the original. Especially for
being an old movie, the Tyro power movie disturb me enough.
I kind of didn't want to see a remakeer like,
it's just like nos Ferantu last Year two years ago,
I'm like, I don't know if I want to see
somebody more grizzly say it again.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
Remake was very atmospheric.

Speaker 3 (47:08):
It evoked the feeling of the German.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
Silence, you know, when that was made in nineteen twenty two.
I think it was.

Speaker 3 (47:17):
So I give them credit for that, because it really
wasn't modern day take on that storyline and that feel.
You know, I wish more people had brought a unique
atmosphere of their storytelling. Del Turo always does that, but
I wish more filmmakers did that.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
I agree. I you know, also though, especially with that
collective of the monsters the Universal did in the thirties,
it's pretty impressive that Hammer twenty years later was able
to have the success they did when the Brits did
all of their versions of the big monsters and stuff.
But I think for myself, I can't deny that I've

(47:56):
got that Jack Pierce, Bud Westmore, Frankenstein, whether it's Glenn
Stranger or Scarloff in my head, Lagosi. I mean, I've
appreciated some of the great draculas we've gotten, Yeah, but
it just seems like sometimes it's that aesthetic. I also
thought that Unfortunately, Benizio del Toro will misfire with the
Wolfman movie that he made. But yeah, I just feel

(48:18):
like those templates are so burned in my brain because
of you know, Saturday night horror films like Spiguli Hosts
and things like that. You know.

Speaker 2 (48:28):
But I took my juniors and we did Frankenstein. I
you know, we'd talked and I pulled the room, and
it's like their version of Frankenstein is that Bud Westmore makeup, sure,
and the fact that he didn't talk and you know
all the movie tropes, you know, at best maybe somebody
knew the monsters, but that was about it. And so

(48:51):
when we got to the book, it was, you know,
such an astonishing revelations of them that it's nothing like
the films, even that you know, the Great Hammer stuff
with Luke Cristopher Lee.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
Yeah, no, I agree. I was lucky enough to be
part of a show called Profits of Science Fiction first
and the first episode was Mary Shelley and I love that.
They're like, yeah, making sure he was kind of the
first science fiction writer. When you think about it. Bus
pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
Absolutely, I mean, you know, that's how I teach it.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
That's great man you know, I was thinking about.

Speaker 3 (49:20):
The premise of the film, it's bringing life to the
dead using science and alchemy, and she definitely you know,
gloss over how just some references because you know, science
hadn't caught up yet.

Speaker 2 (49:36):
But you know, it was a reaction to what was
going on in the real world and the early eighteen
hundreds because that's when they started figuring out about electricity
and you know how electricity can can make the muscles
like a frog's leg jump, because they were starting to
understand physical forces on the human body or animal bodies.

(50:01):
And you know, she distrapolated form that to write her story.
That's science fiction.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
I agree, how much genre fiction are you able to
work into an English Department curriculum?

Speaker 2 (50:14):
More so in my introduction to LID class.

Speaker 3 (50:17):
So right now we're reading The Hobbit, and when we
did the short story unit, it's all the doping stories
from the collection of writers in.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
The American lit class. It's a lot harder. The best
closest I get to it is we definitely do a
Raymond Chandler story in the spring.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
Outstanding the Best Man That was I mean grown up
on the movies. And then when I started really reading
detective fiction. It really you know, Chandler immediately became an
immediate favorite.

Speaker 3 (50:49):
You know, if I had the time, I've got I've
designed out a genre unit where we do a western
and a war story in a science fiction and horror.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
And I never had the time. I always run out.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
I understand, Well, eventually, eventually, that's all right, school year kids.
You mentioned dystopian stories, and I've been I am stunned.
And really, Gabe Hartman and I like to do obscure
movies or movies that have just like people have forgotten about.

(51:24):
And I'm betting you know this movie. And in this
era of fear of AI, how come no one has
remade Colossus the four Been Project? Remember that involved in
that movie.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
It really was one of the first cautionary tales about computers.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
Yeah, yea great.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
By the time the novel was written, you know, computers
had started becoming part of the mainstream. Yes, they were
large UNIVAC type things, and you know, you did the
tapes and you know some people would know the back
computer or someone.

Speaker 3 (51:59):
Know, you know, computers from the news and IBM was
the behemoth.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
But yeah, that really was a wonderful production. There was
like a movie of the week. If I remember.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
Totally, I remember it being a three thirty afternoon movie. Absolutely.

Speaker 8 (52:19):
Man, No, I remember it on Prime Time because I'm all,
that's well, but I don't I wonder if it was
a theater I assumed it was a theater release.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
I mean we're pretty young when it came out. I
mean it was a feature film. Okay, there you go. Yeah,
that's what I thought. And also three books. I didn't
realize there are three novels.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
Well. The interesting thing is, since we're talking Star Trek.
The movie was directed by Justin Sargent, who handle some
of the better episodes of the original series.

Speaker 1 (52:46):
Absolutely, no question, man, uh no, it's a it's a tight,
it's a type little movie. And it's like, that's why
when you said dystopian, it made me think, because again,
it's from that era of Omega Man and Planet of
the Apes and all that stuff where, hey, guess what,
if you're coming for a happy ending, you're not gonna
You're not gonna find it in this movie.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
So you know that, really, you know, every now and then,
every generation you get those kinds of cautionary tales. And
with Netflix movie about the missile crisis, that just the Houseamite,
don't look up as No, No, the House of Dynamite,

(53:27):
the one that just came out, which is telling the
story of a nuclear missile attack against the US. And
it's told the same story in eighteen minutes from three
different points of view, the guys at the radar station,
the military, and the president.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
And it's at been getting really good buzz. But but
we haven't had that kind of a nuclear cautionary tail
pretty much since Nick Meyer's the day after.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
True Man, What Man? Now there was a television events.
Holy cow, he'd.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
Actually scared Reagan, So.

Speaker 1 (54:05):
Absolutely, I think, yeah, that's interesting though, this new one
it kind of sounds like a new spin on fail safe.

Speaker 2 (54:11):
Basically, it's not hows dynamic. Sorry that's the where is it? Anyway?
Just came out getting great reviews. It's been out about
three weeks on Netflix and I haven't seen it yet,
but everything I've read about it, you know, for me,
it's must watch.

Speaker 1 (54:27):
What are you watching streaming wise? If you have time
to watch anything streaming wise?

Speaker 2 (54:31):
My wife want to carve out a couple hours every
every night to sit together and detox, you know, So
you know, currently we just watched the fourth parter about
the assassination of James Garfield, which was wonderful.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
I'm just starting it. I I'm Matthew mcfaden, one of
my favorite guys.

Speaker 2 (54:51):
Well it's Michael Shannon and Bradley Whitford. Yeah, so the
Offerman's wonderful as Chester are.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
Anyway, So we just finished that last night. Well, currently,
we finally started the new season of The Witcher High Anxiety.
Just finished The Diplomat with season three, which was great.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
I got two to go on The Diplomat. I like
to Diplomatic is one of those shows. I love it.
I don't betch. I like to savor these things and
stretch it out as long as possible as I love
The Diplomat.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
Yeah, you know when they all drop it once, we
don't spend every night watching all of it. We definitely
dole it out because we want to enjoy it, you know.
So we put six seven, eight shows into rotation and
we'll watch two or three of something, you know, of
different shows depending, but we feel like we definitely try

(55:48):
and end on lighter stuff. And I have to say,
we're catching up on a show we missed when it aired,
originally called Never Have I Ever, which is a sit
created by Mindy Counting about an Indian high school girl
in California. It is. It is funny and charming, and

(56:11):
as a writer, I am amazed at how much emotion
they can ring out of a twenty three minute episode.

Speaker 1 (56:17):
That's cool, Jady confirms. By the way house in Dynamite
is the title, Oh thank you Jad so very cool. No,
but that sounds cool. That's good. I gotta be. I mean,
I'm hitting this with Mindy because she kind of let
me down with Velma, the Scooby Doo things she tried
to make the enemy.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
Yeah, yeah, No one bets one hundred thousand.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
Well, no, absolutely, man, and no, I had a good performer,
good writer normally and everything. And like you said, nobody, Hey,
I didn't know. Chris Chibnall, the showrunner for Jody Whitaker's
Doctor Who Run, did broad Church, which was excellent.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
Yes, yes, which is why I think That's one of
the reason I was incredibly pointed by what he did
on Who because of how good broad Church was.

Speaker 1 (57:04):
Man, and also he did episodes of Life on Mars,
the original that John sim British Life on Mars, which
is much better than the half season we got with
ABC unfortunately.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
About entertaining, and I would have taken more of each.

Speaker 1 (57:19):
Yeah, I hear what you're saying. I don't know. I
just you know. Sometimes they take the script, the original scripts,
and they give them to the Americans or vice versa.
And like whenever Harvey Kaitell was giving a line that
Philip Gleisner did properly on the British one, like oh,
once you give your girl a twirl, and I'm like,

(57:40):
Kitell doesn't say that, there's no way, help kit tell whatever.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
You know.

Speaker 3 (57:44):
I'm One of the great things about streaming is we're
now being exposed to a lot of international television.

Speaker 2 (57:49):
We have not had the privilege of scene previously. So
when you get these hit shows and suddenly they're doing
English language versions of them, it's like, what the original was? Fine?

Speaker 1 (58:01):
I so agree, man. And my favorite example of that was,
of course, we have friends Steven MOFFATTV doctor who creates Coupling,
which absolutely is single singles in England, and then NBC's like, hey,
let's do Coupling, and it's like you've got friends. Relax, No,
it doesn't work, man, it didn't work. No, it didn't.

(58:22):
It absolutely didn't work.

Speaker 2 (58:23):
I mean, there was a French show I really enjoyed,
Call my Agent. Okay, now I just read that, and
there's going to be an American version. It's like, that's
a little too inside baseball, because America is nothing but Hollywood.

Speaker 1 (58:36):
Yeah, that's true too. I remember Billy Crystal and Josh
Gadd did the comedians and it was based on like
a Swedish comedy and stuff. How about all the great
crime that comes out of the cold, the cold countries
like Norway and Sweden and all that stuff. I'm always amazed,
a man, they do bleak quite well.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
Actually, given their weather, I'm not surprised.

Speaker 1 (59:00):
And the closest I didn't know that Laughing Policeman that
Bruce Dern Mathol movie was based on one of those
kind of cold weather country movies.

Speaker 2 (59:12):
Not sure I knew that.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
I was surprised to learn that because I always give
it up to math I mean, I love his comedies
and stuff. But Charlie Vereck laughing policeman, you know, it's
like no, actually, you know, give him the right script.
And of course taking a pelem one two three, and I.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
Was just about to bring that up because that is
it's not a comedy, but he plays it with just
enough sense of humor because he's the everyman in that. Yes,
you know, Matthew Wins with Robert Shaw, who is just cold.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
It's amazing that I always called it dirty Barney Miller.
It's like r rated Barney Miller, basically because it's these yeah,
weary cops. They are like, all right, I don't know
how I was gonna, like, you know, hijack a subway
and think he's gonna get away with it, but all right,
that's what we're dealing with today. Fine. You know, there
was an.

Speaker 2 (59:59):
Artic just recently that reminded us all that as far
as the police are concerned, Barney Miller is still the
closest show to their experiences.

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
Such a fan, Ron Glass was because of Firefly and
Serenity at a comic con one of my friends that
I went to and I got to I got to
talk to him. I'm like, Ron, I'm so sorry, man.
I'm like, you might be sick of it, but can
I be the one hundred million person to say how
much I missed Barney Moller? He goes, I never get
sick of it. That's totally.

Speaker 10 (01:00:29):
You know, when when Jim McCord came to one of
the sure Leave conventions because he had been on Battlestar Galactica,
he and I talked at him twelve We didn't talk
Galactica at all.

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
Ken McCord, right, Kip McCord, Sorry, ke wait, that's all right, No, no, no,
you can't sorry man, And again I'm not trying to,
you know, but but yeah, kept McCord absolutely man. And also,
wasn't he wasn't he the guy's dad in Far Escape?
I think he was? And he was like an astro act,
just like John Crichton was on Far Escape and stuff

(01:01:00):
like that. I like Far Escape. I thought Far Escape
was a weird, weird showing the best way and again
and every man put in that kind of strange situation
and so normal surrounded by all the insanity and stuff that.
Oh yeah, you know, yeah, fun show.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
Yeah, well you built up it's fan following, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
No question, no question. Well again, based on our conversation
and your taste, Bob, I think Thrilling Adventure You Aren't
would be something that people would absolutely find great to
check out. What else do you want to say about
the book before we wrap up.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
Well, in the hour we've been talking, went up one percent,
so fifty percent, So thanks everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
The system works, Bob.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
You know, I I grew up loving the Pulps, which
I discovered through comic books.

Speaker 11 (01:01:51):
And being able to, you know, do these and find
people who shared that affection gratifies me. And hopefully I'll
just you know, keep rolling these out as I ease
out of teaching into retirement.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
Beautiful man, Well that's a that's a nice that's a
nice way to look at it. And again it's the
fifth volume. Everybody that's watching and listening, I am putting
the link in the chat, and I know it's a
it's a long relist, but it's there for you. It's
here on screen, but it's also there in the chat.
And again, go to Kickstarter and look up Thrillly Adventure

(01:02:27):
Yarns twenty twenty six and it should take you to
this great project from a Bob Greenberg and the collective
that includes again some of our favorite writers of not
only comics, but also short stories and novels as well.
You did it again, Bob, and I and I wish
you luck with this, and I know it's gonna be Yeah,

(01:02:47):
it's gonna be a great volume when you're ready with
it and everything. So no, thanks for pointing as always, man,
but I'm back. It's having me on sure, man, No,
come back. You're always welcome when there's something new to
talk about, Bob. And also you tolerate my Star Trek comments,
so that's that's a big ques anytime. And hey, listen,
if you have Amazon Prime, do yourself a favor and

(01:03:10):
watch Bob as one of the talking experts on for example,
the Icons Batman documentary series and Bob's Is that the
only one you did with for Brian Bob, that's the.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
Only one for the Icon series. Yeah, I mean I
I've been a talking head. There was a one hour
special in the Batmobile a couple of years back when
I was on that as well.

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
I think that might be available on HBO Max in
their in their DC section.

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
Yeah, I think they aired on the CW so I'm
sure it's owned by Zaslab and Company.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
Yeah, there you go. Yeah, and it's not. I have
a feeling I've seen it on YouTube as well, so
hunt around for that. But definitely, Bob is one of
the the big talking heads on Icon all about the
history of the Batman movies. Uh, and it's uh. As
I've told you before, you did a hell of a
job about that thing. So thanks so much, my pleasure man,
Bob Greenberg. Everybody thrilling Adventure Yarns twenty twenty six. That

(01:04:10):
is the active kickstarter that deserves your attention. To make
sure you check it out and support it. Thanks for
watching tonight. Philip Kennedy Johnson, another fantastic writer coming on
tomorrow to talk about DC and Marvel stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
You know, at the Baltimore Comic Con, I wound up
on half my panels would fill up and turns out
to be a really.

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
Nice guy, sweetheart of a guy, Renais Suntsman. And also,
you know, it's great mentioning the fact that you teach
high school. He's going to be at a local suburban
Chicago high school this coming Saturday as a one day
convention that is supporting after school programs, and hey, man,
that's how I got in a radio after school programs

(01:04:49):
and I'm a big supporter of that stuff. So I'm
happy to have Philip on and talk about that and
what he's doing with the Hulk and Superman and Batman
and Robin so that will be tomorrow night on Word
Balloon Live. Until then, everybody, thanks for watching and listening.
Stay safe, stay happy, stay healthy,