The League Asks Me Anything pt 1

It's my version of the mailbag page at the back of old comic books. 

In this on-camera AMA with my Patreon supporters and live chat audience, we dug into every corner of geek and sports culture:

• Boxing: The big focus was on the much-anticipated Canelo vs. Crawford bout, with breakdowns of styles, stakes, and legacy.
• Comics: We spanned the decades — from the Silver Age of the 1960s through today’s modern runs, talking creators, characters, and the shifts in storytelling across generations.
• Television: Plenty of love for sci-fi and genre TV — Star Trek, Babylon 5, classic reruns, and today’s wave of streaming shows.
• Film: We reflected on the passing of the legendary Robert Redford, looked ahead at some of the biggest upcoming releases, and revisited the old-school geek movies that set the stage for today’s pop culture landscape.

It was a lively back-and-forth with fans driving the discussion, mixing history, commentary, and plenty of fun tangents — the perfect example of what happens when the Word Balloon community gets together to talk shop.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everybody, welcome back time again for word Balloon, the
COLPU Conversation show. John suntris here. I had a couple
of guests back out last minute this week, and to
scramble and give a new content, I decided to do
and Ask Me Anything show and it went really well
the patrons of word Balloon. If you're a subscriber three

(00:21):
dollars or more, you could come on camera and talk
to me directly. Otherwise, there were great people in the
chat that ask great questions and I managed to have
a nice lengthy discussion with both the typing chat people
and the people on camera as well. And I'm presenting
it in two parts as far as the audio goes,

(00:41):
so I hope you'll enjoy it. We covered a lot
of stuff. We talked about the boxing that happened last
weekend Canelo Alvarez and Bud Crawford, a big title fight,
a big historic boxing match that the underdog won, so
that was cool to talk about. But of course talked
about Star Trek, talking about TV move, these comics, a
whole bunch of stuff with the League of Word Balloon

(01:03):
listeners as I like to call you all. So it
was wonderful doing it. I'm glad everybody had a good time.
It seems like it and I'll do it I think
maybe monthly. So tell me what you think of this,
if you liked it, or if you didn't like it,
John atwordballoon dot com. But right now part one of
AMA ask me anything on today's word Balloon. Word Balloon
is brought to you by Alex Rossart dot com, the

(01:24):
official showcase for the legendary comic book artist Alex Ross.
From timeless Marvel and DC heroes to stunning original creations,
Alex's artwork captures the power and humanity of the world's
greatest icons. At alex Ross dot com, you'll find beautifully
crafted prints, posters, and exclusive, one of a kind pieces
you won't see anywhere else, all direct from the artist himself.

(01:48):
Celebrate your love with comics and pop culture with art
that defines the medium. Visit Alex Ross dot com today
and bring a masterpiece home. Wordbollain is also brought to
you by the League of Word Balloon Lists. I'd love
for you to join us at Mypatreon Patreon dot com
slash word Balloon For just three dollars a month or more.
You'll get exclusive access to the Word Balloon e magazine

(02:11):
featuring transcriptions of some of my best conversations. Plus you'll
be part of the Word Balloon Book Club, where Brian
Michael Bendison myself sit down every month with our listeners
and viewers to dive in deep into a great graphic novel.
It's a fun way to support the show and get
more content you can't find anywhere else. The League of
Word Balloon listeners. Check it out today at patreon dot

(02:34):
com slash word Balloon. Welcome back everybody, time again for
another Word Balloon Live the Comic Book Conversation Show, although
Word expand beyond Comic Book Conversation. Tonight, John Sutris with you.
I decided to do and Ask Me Anything episode because well,
you know, I really haven't done that before, and I

(02:55):
figured I'd give everybody an opportunity to talk, either in
the chat or even if you're a patriot of Word
Balloon and you subscribe at the three dollars or more level,
you can join me live with Conversation. And I see
a couple of people waiting backstage to join me. Whatever
you want to talk about, if it's okay, I don't
want to talk about today's politics and really what's been

(03:16):
happening for the last week or so. You can find
that other place. This is a fun conversation. I don't
want to get into anything heavy. I do have my
own opinions, but unlike others on social media, I'll keep
it to myself. That's just me. And again, if you
want to speak of mind, God bless you, but not
my place, not this forum. I do want to start

(03:36):
and mention the sadness about Robert Redford, and I will
get to a couple of people that are waiting background
in just a second. But man, that bums me out.
I mean, he was eighty nine. He had a good run,
of course, a wonderful body of work. Nobody can argue
with his impact on the culture, from God even going
back to the very early sixties in television to his

(03:56):
last movies. I just think he was incredible only the
movies he started, but the movies he directed as well.
Gabe Hartman and I will likely be talking about Redford
in the days ahead and give you more of an
in depth retrospective. But if you want to talk about
Redford and tell you some of your favorite movies for me,
three days of The Condor still sticks with me. Is
one of the greatest suspense espionage movies and political movies ever,

(04:22):
and it riveted me back in nineteen in the seventies
when I watched it. I think I didn't see it
until it was on VHS in the late seventies. But man,
and honestly, listen, Redford's amazing faith Dunaway is amazing everybody,
Cliff Robertson, John Houseman, But for me, Jobert Max von
Seedau's character, the icy Assassin that is pursuing Redford. Oh

(04:43):
my god, what a character. If I could draw comics,
I would be drawing Jobert inspired assassin comics left and
right and writing them because man, and just oh, if
you haven't seen it, what a turn at the end.
It is such a great movie and it really holds up.
So yeah, if you if you have thoughts on that

(05:04):
or other things as well, happy to to mention that.
So here, first of all, I will address some of
the comments already in the chat and JB. JD is
watching and I appreciate that JD. And Matthew says, good evening,
thank you, everybody. Ben says, hey, John, love the show.
What we what we what would be your dream book

(05:25):
team or character and who would be the creative team
on it. Well, I really want a modern, straight up
Nick Fury Senior. I'd be happy very much with an
ongoing I love the people that have worked on it
over the years, where whether it's been Nis or Elis
or Goren Parlat. From a an art standpoint, everybody that

(05:45):
I know that has touched Nick Fury in the recent years,
whether it's Nick Fury Senior or Junior, has done a
great job with with spy stuff. I'm I'm a secret agent,
spy guy. I can't help it. Man that's grew up
with the Bond stuff, grew up with all the great
reruns of Man from Uncle and the Prisoner and all
that stuff. It stuck. I mean, even the cheeseball stuff
like matt Helm and Flint. And now I'm fascinated in

(06:10):
searching for the British knockoff movies and American knockoff movies
that happened during the boncraze, trying to grift on that,
and some of them are really good, Deadlier than the Male,
which you can find on YouTube. Fantastic movie. Richard Johnson
a wonderful British character actor plays this amped up version

(06:31):
of Bulldog Drummond. Bulldog Drummond was just a straight up
detective back when he was first created in the I
believe thirties, but they reinvented him for a couple movies
and also another great Richard Johnson movie, different character, but
another spy movie, Danger Route. But that's kind of been
my thing lately, is trying to find these other movies,
even ones made by Italian makers in Spain. I'm all

(06:53):
about that, and of course to be great source for
that kind of stuff. So that's kind of neat. Oh,
I even see some box questions. Fantastic. But first I
want to I want to get to some people that
are joining me, that are here backstage. Rudy, good to
seeing Rudy. How you been man?

Speaker 2 (07:09):
Good John? How are you doing?

Speaker 1 (07:11):
Doing excellent? And I hope I'm not echoing if I am,
I've got my earbud so, but I hear my external
speaker hearing us. So am I am I echoing right
now for you?

Speaker 2 (07:20):
No? No, no, fantastic.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
How you been man, Rudy. Of course I knew Rudy
in my comic book shopping days when I used to
live in displays and I would go to comic Experience.
Was it that one, Rudy, or was the Evanston store?

Speaker 2 (07:37):
It was a comics revolution, myn Prospect.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
There you go. Yeah, the my Prospect story. Absolutely, man.
So so that's cool. Yeah, yeah. What's what's on your mind, Rudy?
How you been.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
Good? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (07:50):
I actually I wanted to ask you since we just
had the fight recently, So I think Canel Alvarez should
go ahead and retire, take some time off, just some
golfing and take it easy.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
Now he does seem to be interested in, you know, golf,
and I can appreciate that. You know, I don't know, Rudy.
I mean, he has been doing this for thirty five years.
Matthew asked the same question of what I thought about
the fight Saturday night. It was, you know, it's one
of those fights. I don't know if you felt this way, Rudy,
but for me, it's one of those anticipation fights where

(08:26):
you're on the edge of your seat and you're like,
all right, something big is gonna happen, and it doesn't,
but it holds your attention through the twelve rounds. And
so I really was expecting an explosion. As limited as
Kenelo's offense was, I think he still has enough in
the tank if he wants to continue. But we always
forget the guy's been fighting professionally for twenty years and

(08:49):
maybe maybe it's time, maybe he should consider maybe he's
burnt out, you know, thirty five, A lot of a
lot of fighters will retire in their mid thirties and stuff,
and he's got to prove. I think he's been expert
in every weight division. And yeah, hey man, listen, I
expected him to be Crawford because he was just naturally bigger.
All hats off to Crawford. Great fight and excellent performance.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yeah, I was really surprised I Crawford. I honestly, I
thought Crawford was beating him to the punch. I thought
he looked faster. I thought Canelo looked like he was
looking for his shots. But I think he's just lost
enough now where I think really good fighters can take

(09:34):
it to him. And Crawford did not seem to be
scared of Canelo's punch at all. And I think once
he realized that he wasn't going to get hurt, then
you know, the fight was his.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, but I do think Crawford is one of those
exceptional fighters and certainly the best of his generation in
the weight classes that he's been in. And I and
that said, I would, I would if I I don't know. Again,
I don't know what Kanelo wants to do. I'd like
to see him against somebody else of top caliber in
the one hundred and sixty eight pound division. I still

(10:08):
think he's got enough. But again, you know, even if
that's it and he has burnt out and you know
it's time to retire, guy's got nothing left to prove.
I mean, he he beat a lot of the greats.
I give him so much credit early in his career
for fighting Floyd Mayweather Junior at that time and being
willing to risk his undefeated record, which has been annoying

(10:29):
the hell out of me lately, as you might know, Rudy.
I mean, there's a lot of champions out there that
are much more interested in maintaining that undefeated record rather
than fighting the best. I really felt, with the Saudi's
pumping the money that they have been in boxing, that
we might see more guys willing to risk the o
and for a minute it seemed like that was the case,
but it seems like we're back to safety first again,

(10:50):
and it's like, you know, they asked for this paper
of new money for these BS defenses and stuff, and
it's like, now worth it? Man, are you are you
subscribing to his owne or anything like that.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
No, No, I don't, you know. I every once in
a while I think about it. But you know, honestly,
I think I think Canelo is one of the uh
the exceptions. I think he's like what boxing used to be,
where the great champions didn't talk anybody. He's willing to
put his title on the line. He'll take on difficult
fights and he'll he'll back it up and uh and
you're right, I don't think he has anything to prove

(11:21):
at this point. I think he's still good enough where
you can still take on good fighters. But yeah, I think, uh,
you know, time you know is undefeated against us all,
so uh.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
Yeah, I would wouldn't mind seeing him keep fighting.

Speaker 3 (11:34):
But if he wants to go ahead and retire and
enjoy the rest of his life, h I think he's
done enough to prove that he's won one of the
great champions of all time, and uh, you know, he
definitely deserves a great rest of his life.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yeah, and he'll he'll get in the Hall of Fame.
I don't think there's any doubt that he'll make it
in the Hall of Fame and everything. You know. It's
it's funny because Matthew asked me other than the commentary,
what I thought about the fights before the and yes,
Crawford won, but Max Kellman's like, his whole reputation is
biginna is on the line tonight for Crawford, and it's like, no,

(12:07):
it's not. Crawford already proved he's an all time greades. Well.
I can't stand Max Kellerman, I will say it. I
think his hyperbole is annoying. I do think he knows
his stuff, but I also think he's full of bluster.
And also I hate pre prepared catchphrases, and I'll never
forgive him. When Canelo fought Gannadi Gilufkin and he's like

(12:29):
he's winning the show, but is he winning the fight?
It's like, shut up, shot, they don't score the show. Okay.
By the way, I will give Crawford a lot of credit.
And I did say this on X that I really
felt his dominance over Canelo was more impressive than Sugar
Ray over Marvin Hagler. Sorry I do I mean? And

(12:50):
again taking nothing away from Leonard or Hagler again, all
time greats, but there's a case where Leonard was stealing rounds.
Crawford dominated front and center, and then if Hagler hadn't
given up those first four rounds, I think it would
have been a lot tougher to come up with a winner.
And dare I say it might have been Haglar. So
there you go, man, Yeah, I was.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
I was still impressed with it. Easily could have been
a very different fight. It could have been a disappointing fight,
and and I was entertained, and and I gave a
lot of credit to Crawford.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
I was very impressed with how he performed in that fight.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
I hear you, man, I hear you any any any
nerd things you want to talk about before I let
you go, Ruddy, Uh, I just.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Want to say, uh, I love to talk with with Rukay.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
I loved how open he was and boy he was
pulling no punches and there was some great stuff that
came out of that. And uh yeah, I mean, if
that's what we're gonna hear from Rutcuy, I want to
hear him back as much as possible.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
Well, you know, Greg is never afraid to speak his mind,
and I was surprised. I wasn't surprised at his feelings
because he and I had private discussions before. But that's
his choice, and I understand. I really respect the fact
that Greg understands that I am still friendly with both

(14:10):
Dan and Jeff John's and I have every intention to
maintain those friends. A lot of people were like, you
should never have those guys on again. That's like, yeah, homie,
don't play that way. No, it's okay. I mean again,
these are clicks and anybody. I think in any business,
there are groups that get together and there's the cool
kids and the kids that get ignored. I saw it

(14:32):
broadcasting a million times, and it's shitty, I'll say it,
but it's unfortunately, that's just the nature of the beast.
I'm really sorry that it upset Greg to the point
that it did. I had no idea he was at
that level, and I truly feel bad as a friend
of his that I didn't realize it had gotten that bad.
So I that is terrible, and and you know, yeah,

(14:55):
they are. The circumstances are what they are. The good
news is Greg's doing great. He's writing great stuff and
will continue to do so. And the DIO has got
his career going and Jeff's got his going, so you know,
so be it. That's simple. But yeah, there you go. Cool.

Speaker 3 (15:13):
Yeah, the fact that Greg's okay, I think that's that's
the best thing, you know, even even if he took
a break from writing, you know, or just decided to
stop because of his health. It just the fact that
he's doing better, and you know, that's that's the most
important thing and great to hear it.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yeah, And I don't think he really did take a
break maybe, And I forgive me if he had said
that in the show. I forgot that, But it seemed
to me that stuff was still coming out just from
other companies and he was working on not he did.

Speaker 3 (15:41):
But I wouldn't have begrudged him at all if he
decided to take a break and take care of himself.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
And we'd all rather have that than than anything.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
Else, it seems, you know, honestly, again, based on my
personal conversation with Greg, he's in a much better place
and and he's busy, and I can only leave it
at that. That I do know that he's busy and
look forward to when he can talk about that, and
that will likely come up. And by the way, everybody,
if you're not reading Cheetah and Cheshire or Cheshire and
Tita and Cheshire, Rob the Justice League Fantastic mini series,

(16:12):
it's him and Nicholas Scott. It's great. It really is
one of my favorite current books from DC. Gotta say
Greg made the analogy years ago. I don't know if
you remember this, Rudy, but he compared Marvel and DC
to the Tortoise and the Hair, and he's like, Marvel's
the hair, Marvel's nimble, Marvel can the justin juke and
move faster and stuff. And this is even years before

(16:34):
Disney bought Marvel, that Greg made this comparison. But every
now and then Tortoise, all of a sudden, you suddenly
look and the guy that was behind you is suddenly
ahead of you. I kind of feel. And I do
have a couple favorite Marvel books, like, for instance, I
love what Zadarski's doing with Captain America right now. I
love well, of course, Ryan Nort's Fantastic Four is amazing.
I love Philip Kennedy Johnson's Hulk. All that said, I

(16:56):
gotta admit I'm reading a lot more DC right now
than I am Marvel.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah as well.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
And DC has had that reputation for a long time,
and that's going back to even when I was a retailer.
And you know, they're do a very good job of
being stewards over their books and especially their graphic novels,
and maintaining their properties and able to translate them into

(17:22):
IP in a in a pretty good way and still
sell books because of it. I know, with Marvel, the
movies are great, but they don't always necessarily move the
comics when the movies are doing well. But DC has
always done a really good job at translating whatever little
movie sales they get into book sales very well, and
I've always appreciated that.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
I'm stunned. I read today and I didn't realize. Maybe
the news was out earlier that Superman streaming is going
to start Friday and it's going to be on regular
HBO on Saturday. And it's like, man, that's fast.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
Yeah, yeah, that seems to be seems to be the
case these days, and you know, I'll, like many people,
I'll be there watching it as soon as it comes out.
I thought the movie was great and you know that
and fantastic for but to see a Superman movie that
hit all the write notes, that gave us a Superman
that is Superman again, and the stuff with the Kents,

(18:21):
I think the Kents were great. It really felt like
the message got back on track and James kind of
clearly understands what it means to be Superman and the
joy and the hope that really comes with Superman and
not just a symbol of hope, but actually somebody who
gets it.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
Well, are you okay with Peacemaker being as hard are
as it is compared to Superman being a good safe Pg. Thirteen.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
I am actually, you know, I'm someone who believes that
there's room for all of that in comics. If you
you know, if you do a good job and write
good store, I think you can have good rated stories
and comics.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
I think you can have good g rated comics and
everything in between. There's you know, there's an audience for
all of it. And I think comics is a medium.
You know, it's not just kid books and and you
know comics should be for everybody.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
Well, but also the television product I think should be
for anybody and everybody as well, and you know, so
yeah for the you know, for the parents that are like,
whoa what, you know, what can I show my kids?
Showing my adventures with Superman the great animated series that's
sitting on HBO Max right now for a streaming standpoint,
And I'm sure we'll be back. I don't know if
it will be back right now for another season. I hope. So.

(19:38):
I think it's been a great show. But yeah, I
mean there's there's plenty of kid friendly material to show
your kids. And yeah, again, man, you know, I've been
reading and watching and listening to this stuff for for
over fifty years now, and yeah, I think there's room
for everybody and every every type. I'm glad that both

(19:59):
companies are once again leaning into our rated material in film,
television and also in the comics. I'm really glad that
Palmiatti and Dan Panosen are about to do Frank Castle.
Made no sense to me why putting Frank on the shelf.
I disagreed with that. I thought that was an overreaction.
But I'm glad that Frank is back, so so that's good.

(20:22):
And yeah, I feel the same way. I think Peacemaker
deserves its audience, and you know, and it's weird because
it actually disturbed me more than the Boys, maybe because
in the back of my head this is DC. I
don't know, but yeah, I don't know. But I'm looking
forward to you know, gen V and season five of
the Boys coming back as well. All good stuff, all

(20:42):
good R rated superheroes.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
Oh I am too. I love the Boys, big fan
of Jen B And yeah, I get you with Peacemaker.
I think one of the reasons is the Boys just
kind of seems a little more hyper reality, where Peacemaker
seems a little more, a little more grounded in certain ways.
So when there's something that's shocking, it really feels shocking,

(21:04):
where with the Boys that you just it's kind of
expected and and almost kind of just not really as
based in reality, so you're not as you don't feel
it as much, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
No, I get you, man, I get you. Good points, Rudy.
I really appreciate it, man, thanks for thanks for stopping
by and uh and saying hey, yeah, thanks.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
I get a lot of people to get to so yeah,
I appreciate the time.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
We actually mostly in the chat, but I am gonna
I am gonna kind of lean on that and also
get to other subjects that I was going to bring up.
But yeah, you know, so if anyone else again, the
the link to come on is on Patreon for my patrons,
and if you're not a patron of word balloona this
might be another incentive for you to become a subscriber

(21:47):
and do that and you can be on camera just
like Rudy was. But dude, thanks a lot, great seeing you,
and I hope everything's going well.

Speaker 3 (21:54):
Oh yeah, everybody's going things going great, and yes, everybody
please become a patreos viber. John's put out great work
for many many years. You know, he's been there since
pretty much the beginning of podcasting. You were one of
the third podcasts I never listened to. You were the
inspiration for when I was doing podcasting. I listened to
word Balloon, you know, back in two thousand and six,

(22:17):
and you know, I jumped in right after that. I
was like, I want to do this too. So, yeah,
you were one of the two first podcasts, was you
and Leo Laporte with This Week in Tech And oh wow,
so glad I'm glad to hear you still doing this
after all these years, and this really is your medium.
I mean, and you know, you know, I go back
to the score days as well, but podcasting is really

(22:39):
where things are now.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
It's crazy how tame radio has gotten. But I get it.
You got corporate masters. You can't you can't speak your
mind like you could in the nineties and we had
corporate masters too, but it is a different world and
I think unfortunately companies are a little more restrictive in
that way. That's why podcasting works. And you've seen a
lot of mainstream people heading a podcasting so they can

(23:04):
speak their mind and the audience is following them. So
there you go. Thanks a lot, Rudy. Great seeing you,
and you're really kind for the kind words.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
Thanks buddy, all right, Thanks John, have a good night.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
You too, Buddy. Thank you very much. Other comments, and
that was really nice to Rudy. Jad says for Redford
some of his favorites three Days of the Condor and
of course Butch, Cassie and Sundance Gid. I completely agree
with all of that, mon boy, and forgive me, I
don't know, I never know how to say your name,
my friend, but Mon Boise wants to know, do I

(23:40):
still get front floppies every week? Or am I a
digital reader? I am a digital reader. I have to
admit it is very rare that I pick up hard
comics anymore. And the reason why is I I like
the convenience of reading on my iPad. Uh and it's
and also when people send me their books, I actually

(24:01):
asked them send me PDF, send me digital access and things,
because it's it's just easier, and I really, you know,
I can just sit with my tablet and read stuff.
I love how great they look at the on the tablet.
I remember when, you know, everybody was putting digital comic
side and at first your phone was the only game
in town, and you had to read it like this,
and I'm like, wow, what's that going to do to

(24:22):
splash pages? What's that going to do to high impact, emotional,
big you know images and things. And the good news
was then the iPad came and it's like, oh okay,
and yeah, it's smaller than a regular comic page, but
you know, I think it's I think it's cool that
we have this opportunity and stuff that you know, we
can read with that kind of ease. So I am

(24:44):
a little disappointed that the digital product is the same
price as the hard paper and the rising costs of
comic book issues is still a reasonable issue to be
worried about. But here we are. So what can you do, Ephraim.
Who's my favorite Star Trek character and why? Well, it

(25:05):
depends on the on the series. If you're talking about
the original series, Scotty hands down the Miracle Worker. I mean,
just a man and just you know that great moment
in Doomsday Machine, if I only had phases fasers, you
got him already charged the pack and it's you know,
that's Scottie Man. Scotty always comes through. I wish I
like Scotty Moore on Strange New Worlds. He's a kid,

(25:27):
and I'm sorry, it's dumb that they made him a kid.
And it's again the Cannon thing. Good news, everybody. I'll
try and limit some of my Star Trek convenions. Tonight
we'll have Mitch and Wayne and Franco hopefully on Thursday,
and we'll talk about the last episode of Strange New
Worlds and the whole season. You can imagine that I
was not pleased with the final episode of the season

(25:50):
and the season in general. So next gen. I'm a
Riker guy. I love Will Riker and man talking to
Franks as I did a couple times of conventions and
here on Werdblin has just been a treat. God, there's
so many great ones on Deep Space nine, but I'm
a Ben Cisco guy, and getting to meet Avery Brooks
as they did with such a treat Enterprise. I really

(26:14):
love Scott Bacule in general, and I'm always rooting for him,
but I also felt that that Mayweather was so underused.
Was that Mayweather right, the navigator, the boomer who you know,
grew up on cargo ships and everything, you know. I
thought he was great and they should have They should

(26:35):
have given him more to do, and that's a shame.
I had no favorites on Discovery. Captain Pike was my
favorite on Discovery, and then he went to Strange Your
Worlds and has become a supporting character on his own
TV show whatever. Picard season three, really loved Todd Stashwick
as Captain Shaw and loved how much of an instigator
he was, And hey, guess what, I'm not buying into

(26:58):
this Enterprise d is the greatest if ever rab Rah
you know, group of fans you might have in Starfleet.
I'm not one of them, and I think you guys
are full of it, and no, I'm not gonna help
you with your little bs. A little mission and stuff
that was excellent, and then of course he makes the
turn and that's great, you know. And also you know, again,
he's we're supposed to not like him. We're supposed to

(27:19):
not like the fact that he's mean to seven of nine.
So there you go, lower dex, lower dex. I really
like Rutheford. I really love how happy he is and
I'm glad he's there, and I just appreciate your just
He's just an upbeat guy and stuff, and I love
him and and Tendee together. I think they're very cute together,
more so than Mariner and Boimler, although Mariner and mostly Mariner,
grew on me as the show progressed. Sam with Boimler

(27:42):
and Prodigy, it's just a great show. I mean, I
really don't have a single favorite character, other than of
course Admiral Janeway, who I'm always happy to see. H
Did I mention Voyager, I'm a two VAC guy. If
I didn't mention Voyager, I love two vok so and
I'm really happy he's back on Star Trek con. So
there you go. From a few of my favorites camp

(28:03):
favorite comic runs of so many man, jeez, you know
Kribbean Leon on the original FF run, John's Goyer and
Robinson on JSA back in the early two thousands. Loving
what damn Slot has done on Spider Man, love him
now on Superman. I think that Superman Unlimited or Unchanged

(28:24):
or whatever the hell it's called is a great series.
So I'm a big fan of all that. Here, I'm
gonna let somebody else come on from the patron chat
Pete Biser. How you doing man, Good to see you.

Speaker 4 (28:34):
What's happening, John, how you been? I'm doing great. Thanks
for doing this, by the way, I think it's it's amazing.
I mean, we we listened to you all the time,
so to be able to talk, that's that's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
Well, thanks for all the support you've given me over
the years, Pete, I really appreciate it. What's on your mind? Man?

Speaker 4 (28:51):
Just listening to all the questions, you know, I'm I'm
I'm curious. I was gonna I was going to talk
to you about Star Trek and see if we can
get you to possibly go into some kind of a
group therapy to kind of wean you off of the
of the product.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
But you know, I.

Speaker 4 (29:09):
Guess, you know, like sports, you know, you got to
be a fan in the good times in the bad times.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
So well, that's truly, And you know, it's so funny
because some people are like, you know, I'm really worried
about you, John, I I don't want this show to
overstretch you. You know you did you had the heart attack
last year. Are you okay? I'm fine. I don't know.
You know, again, it's sports to me, and but I
you know, it doesn't it doesn't upset my sleep. Yeah,
I'm okay. And honestly, I'm always rooting for good episodes

(29:35):
and every now and then. Unfortunately it's only every now
and then. God, you know, I actually ran an experiment
and I didn't want to bring it up on Thursday
when we when we all talk, but I wanted. I
asked chat GPT to write a strange your world scenario
and I kind of say they did a better job
than what we got this season. They're like, it's like, uh,

(29:57):
what if they encountered a world where half the planet
is in the Renaissance age and the other half is
in a very modern futuristic technology age, and something is
dividing the planet and it turns out there's some sort
of energy source at the core that is causing this.
And you know, now the Enterprise crew has to kind

(30:17):
of integrate the two different societies into something. And I'm like,
wait a minute, can they do that? It doesn't that
violate the prime directive or whatever. I mean, It's happened,
and it gave an explanation. Well, but this technology that's
causing this wasn't a natural progression. Therefore they felt justified.
But they even came up with subplots for Spock and

(30:38):
a few A Pike is negotiating with the two things.
I'm like, I'd watch that in a second.

Speaker 4 (30:43):
Doesn't doesn't doesn't sound awful, doesn't sound awful. I just
wanted to bother you with three quick things. Number one,
you hit on it a little earlier. I got my
neon itchy bon welcome email earlier tonight, so I'm going
to go explore Number two. I'll give you my quick
Redford story. So I was walking around New York a

(31:07):
couple of years ago, pre COVID, and we were walking
past the Museum of Modern Art and there's some photogs
that were standing outside, so I had no idea, you know,
what was going on. So h go up and say
what's happening and they're like, it's a movie premiere and
Robert Redfords can be here in a few minutes.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
And we're like, oh okay.

Speaker 4 (31:26):
And my wife, who was.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
She was hungry.

Speaker 4 (31:34):
She's like, yeah, no, it's okay. We don't we don't
need to wait.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
We don't need to wait.

Speaker 4 (31:37):
So we go half a block down the road, John,
and the limo pulls up and there's Robert Redford and
you know, gets out and you can barely see him, right,
And I was like, we just missed seeing Robert Redford.
I'm a huge Twilight Zone fan. You know, he's he's
a big deal, like you know, all the movies and
everything like that. And she goes, I saw him.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
I was like, he was like this, he's like that.

Speaker 4 (32:01):
So either way real close to seeing him.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
So there you go.

Speaker 4 (32:05):
There, there, there's my there's my story.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
For you that uh that Twilight and John is so
great there is Oh okay, oh did I drop for
a second, that's right? And yeah, man, he's young man. Immediately,
the gravitas that he brought to the screen, you can't
help but look at him. He's a beautiful man.

Speaker 4 (32:28):
I've been I've been thinking about it a lot lately.
Last thing I'll leave you with is I worked at
a Borders bookstore a long time ago, right when I
was out of college, and it was a big party
weekend for me, and I was the guy being Johnny
College that would entertain the the people that were coming
in to do signings. And it was the clubman weekend

(32:51):
that conflicted with a with a big party at my house.
And they asked me if I wanted to chaperone Jack,
and I said I can't. I'm busy and being a
huge fan that I am, I look back and that
has influenced the last twenty years of my life and
that anytime I have the chance to go do something
John when it comes to something like that.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
I go do it.

Speaker 4 (33:11):
Because he was dead pretty shortly after that, and I
looked back and I was like, I went and I
got drunk instead of hanging out with one of the
greatest actors I know. He's a you know, a reoccurring
theme for you guys on the show, but yeah, like
what was I thinking, you know, so too close? We
missed opportunities with some Twilight Zone guys, which I know

(33:32):
I mentioned it in the comments for a show, but
I would love to see you and Gabe and the
crew go through it. I don't know if it's episode
by episode, but I just watched the serling like live
TV episodes and then went over to kinescope. You guys
did a great job. There's nobody else on the internet
that's doing that so well.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
You know, I just feel like the Twilight Zone is
so well covered by so many other people. That's why
I avoided doing any sort of watch for it. You know,
It's funny I just started doing I don't know if
people have seen it, but I just started putting out
little minute reviews of Star Trek and I did Charlie
X for the first one, and I'm coying with the

(34:12):
idea of doing that with shows like The Zone, Outer Limits,
even Space nineteen ninety nine potentially and not going through
the whole series, but maybe my favorites and just here's
you know, and also I don't have a lot to say.
I mean, you know, most people know how cool they are.
And stuff. But I hear you about missing missing opportunities.
When I was in college, my friend worked at in Joliet,

(34:34):
suburb of Chicago's Big of the Raalities and Square and
Gregory or was it, No, it wasn't Peck. It was
it was Carry Grant Carrie Evening with Garry Grant, and
I missed it and he died a couple months after that,
And so I hear you, man, no, no, no, When
you have those opportunities, you got to jump on them.
And God, I took a date to see Sam Moore

(34:55):
of Sam and Dave at City Winery, our local City Winery,
and it's like, we got to see him. Now, I'm
glad I saw mel Brooks. I know he's still going
God bless him and stuff, but I got to see
mel Brooks. And one of my old college friends is like,
I got to drive my kid back to school, and
I'm like, hey man, this might be the only chance
we ever get to see mel Brooks live. Are you
really going to miss that? And he goes, yeah, you're right,

(35:16):
my wife can drive my yeah.

Speaker 4 (35:19):
Yeah, yeah, kids kids listening, Yeah, if if somebody is
coming through town. I just saw the Who last week.
Those guys are are holding on, but I mean go
see go see these people before like they decided to
finally hang them up.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
You know, ringoes behind me.

Speaker 4 (35:34):
But like that dude's still out there too, So either way,
I just want to leave. You know, have you be
able to answer all these other questions? There's some good
ones I see.

Speaker 2 (35:41):
I just want to.

Speaker 4 (35:42):
Say thank you. I look forward to just watching your
show live every time you're out there and seeing you
at shows and uh, you know, love that to be
able to be a Patreon person, and anybody that's watching
this on YouTube, go check out John's Patreon page. There's
some cool stuff. Finely deserves your cash. Go help out.

(36:03):
And you know he's a good dude. So thank you
for everything, Pete.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
I really appreciate man. It was really kind of easy
to pop in and give your stories and as always,
truly yeah, you've been a big supporter of the channel.
I greatly appreciate it. So thank you. All right, take
care Johnathan, you too, dude. Peep eyeser everybody, and there
you go. I got the crawl. I always forget to
put up the crawl. So yeah, if you're not a sponsor,
if you're not a Patron. I hope you'll consider that.
Uh and do that for me at patreon dot com.

(36:31):
Slash word balloon, no claymore. You do not have to
be on the show if you pay, you could pay
more not to be on the show. How does that sound?
And Prince Parker gives one of my favorite phrases at
a boy damn all right man. By the way, you
know how I always say I'm hip. That doesn't mean
I'm cool. That means I understand what someone is telling me,
because I happen to say. You know, you read your

(36:53):
sometimes you read the reviews, and of course very kindly.
There are many more positive than negative reviews. But somebody
put I'm hip, No you're not, and it's like, yeah,
believe me. I'm a nerd. I know I'm not hip.
When I say I'm hip. It's a reference if you
don't know. It was to a Flintstone episode where Superstone

(37:17):
they're Superman parody and there are two gangsters that are
gonna pretend one of them is gonna pretend to be
super Superstone and all right, Rocky, you're gonna put the
costume on and you're gonna be out there for the kids. Yeah, Yeah,
I'm hip, I'm hip, and then he keeps saying that
over and over again, and I just love that. That
just cracked me up, and they kept saying it over
and over again. So that's where I'm hip comes from.

(37:39):
JD wants to know he's listening to Star Trek con
the audio drama on YouTube. Yeah, two episodes in. I
love it. I think it's great. So there you go.
Here's another new product of Star Trek that I'm actually
a fan of. They're doing a great job. It is
such a great show. I think the acting is well done.
I love the framing that it is Captain Sulu and

(38:00):
the Excelsiors sending this historian to City Alpha five to
find out the records that Marlon mcgivers left behind of
what happened to con civilization before it all went to crap.
When Sulu and Captain Terrell show up and we find
out things are bad, it's great. It's two episodes in.
There's a real kind of Roman emperor sort of like

(38:25):
you know, everybody's got the knives out and waiting for
their opportunity to seize power. There's that kind of element
in there. Excellent dynamics between Khan and Marlon mc givers.
They're not just in love. That's a complicated relationship. I'm very,
very impressed. I shouldn't be surprised because, of course, and
why am I blinking? Star Trek two director and time

(38:48):
after time director of course wrote this the story, and
then it got rewritten to be this. I think it's
an eight part podcast, but shame honey. Somebody in the
check can remind me, of course who who were talking about.
But yeah, I mean and also, by the way, if
you've never read his Sherlock Holmes novels and seeing the

(39:08):
seven percent solution, Nicholas Meyer, thank god I thought of it,
all right. I beat you, guys, Nicholas Meyer. But yeah,
the story is great, and of course it is because
he gave us the wreath of conn stories, so he
knew what he was doing. Vic Zombie wants to know.
Do I read Star Trek novels? Yes, I do, and
he recommends well. I had Andy Mangles on recently and
the ones that he co wrote are fantastic. And I

(39:30):
also think Peter David's novels were always excellent. My buddy
Mike jan Friedman, who's been on the show many times,
I think his Star Trek novels are great. Diane Dwayne
was a great Star Trek novelist. So any of those authors,
I would honestly say, because I could even think of
one shot authors that did quite good work on all
the different iterations of Star Trek in novel form. If

(39:51):
there's a subject you want, I would read the synopsis.
At worse, it's just going to be decent. So no,
I'm that much of a Star Trek fan, and I
do read all those. Harvey Pea Carr's ghost wants to
know if I've ever heard the short lived punk band
The Broadways. I have not. I was a new wave
guy more than I was a punk guy. But that's

(40:14):
that's just me, you know. So Yeah, I agree with
Rudy Rhee, says any Peter David always Gold absolutely man. Yeah,
it sucks that he's not around anymore. He was part
of that writer collective as well, that included Mike can Friedman,
my buddy, Paul Kupperberg, my buddy Bob Greenberger, a few

(40:35):
other people. Crazy eight is the name of their writer's imprint,
and every now and then, like Robert will put out
an anthology of short stories and all those guys will
be in there. Another great Star Trek writer that has
been on the show, Keith to Can Didito, excellent writer.
I also appreciate on Facebook he's doing a rewatch of

(40:55):
Babylon five and giving great reviews along with his reviews
of New Star Trek as well. And you know, again
there's a guy that I have on that we disagree
about Star Trek, and that's okay. You know again, if
you if you like New Star Trek, God bless you, man,
more power to you. Rudy is right. Peter David's Babylon
five books were really good as well. One hundred percent

(41:16):
Man really fleshed out a lot of the end of
the story and giving us that information between the last
episode of the regular show and then Sleeping in Light,
which you know was twenty years later. So so that's
that's cool. Stanley wants to know who my favorite comic

(41:36):
book characters are? Got it? You know, I'm I'm I'm
big on the classics, and again I've gotta to be honest.
I started with DC. I really, it took a couple
of years before I was introduced to Marvel. But you know,
so Superman and Batman certainly on the Marvel side. I
love Spider Man. I really love Iron Man. I'm a

(41:56):
massive Iron Man fan. Captain America, though, is my guy
Steve Rogers, and I've appreciated when other people have worn
the mask. That's why I'm intrigued by Zadarski's current story.
And I think this is really cool. And I appreciate
kind of the retelling of Steve's origin now putting it
in the two thousands, and that he comes back post
nine to eleven. That's very interesting. And Chip will be

(42:18):
on in a couple of weeks to discuss what he's
doing with Captain America. And we've got this new guy who,
because of September eleventh, joined the army in a very
Steve Rogers like way, kind of a scorn, a guy
that got the soldier formula and became this two thousands
Captain America. What's his deal? I'm enjoying hanging on every

(42:39):
moment of that story. Birds of Prey is an excellent book,
and Kelly Thompson is killing it in that book and
making me think about characters that I really never gave
a damn about. What she's doing with Big Barta and
Cassandra Kine in particular in that dynamic is just excellent,
and I really enjoy every issue she writes, and I'm

(43:01):
enjoying the Absolute line very much, and I appreciate the
differences that are happening in there. I gotta get more
into the Ultimates line, and I know we're gonna have
the It sounds like a wrap up to the Ultimate,
the New Ultimate Universe, or some sort of big event change.
I know Hickman's going to be involved with that. But yeah,
you know, Prince Parker is a fan of New Star Trek.

(43:22):
It's good. I was remotely interested until Discovery came on.
Way to go, Prince, I think that's great. Rudy wants
to know what my favorite Legion character is. I'm a
Monel guy, and I know that sounds boring because you know,
he's got Super Boys powers and everything, but I really
not only did I appreciate my heart went out to
him when I was a little kid and I was
reading the reprints of him and the Phantom Zone and

(43:44):
stuck there for a thousand years, but I also really
love that they've made das kind of this planet that
is a little more elitist and not as as welcoming
as certainly Earth or other plants, and that's well, maybe
not Earth today, but dead least the idea that we're

(44:05):
a one world of many nations. But Jackson's kind of
elitist attitude and stuff. It makes an interesting wrinkle. I
didn't like the way he was portrayed in Supergirl. I
wish they had done a better job. But I love
him in the comics and when James Robinson put him
in the twenty first century, because it was the early
two thousands and as you know, Superman's like, hey, I

(44:26):
gotta deal with new Krypton. I need you to take
over for me. Yes please. And I also loved back
in the day when Colleen Dorin was writing Monell. So yeah,
I'm a big Monell guy. I like Brainiac five. He's cool.
Jeremy wants to know. I was wondering if you've seen
spinal Tap. Yeah, I'm somelady. You brought that up, Jeremy.
I was going to talk about this what I thought

(44:47):
of the original. If I like this is spinal tech,
I recommend speaking Jeremy. I'm glad to hear that, because
I got to be honest, it's so weird. You know,
they really did as I understood that they would do
the whole publicity tour, and you know, I saw him
on Kimmel and a couple of the other shows and
on podcasts and things, and I love those guys. I

(45:09):
was college. I was the perfect age for this is
Spinal Tap. It came out in eighty five. I was
in college, and of course I went to see it.
I almost feel like and I was concerned and Jeremy,
please tell me if I'm wrong, but I feel like
this movie might be a little too self aware. And
I heard that like McCartney, Oh, I'm a fan, and

(45:31):
it's like, no, you weren't. I mean, I kind of
see Spinal Tap as one of those heavy metal bands
that only my uber friends that are massive fans of
heavy metal know these bands, like my friend Sarah and
my friend Patrick, Like they will rattle off metal bands
like I've never heard of them. And I always felt

(45:51):
Spinal Tap was kind of like that, where they have
a they always had a cult following, but we're never
that big and I don't buy that Paul McCartney and
I don't know how Elton. I just felt like it
might be too self aware of the joke. This time around,
and that's what's keep me that and also the fact
that it's likely going to be on streaming in the
next couple of months. Do I need to see in

(46:11):
the theater? And sadly that's in the back of my
mind for every new thing that comes out these days.
So I don't know. Oh, Rudy says, when am I
gonna get Ruttles movie? Well, we got the rentals specials
that they did on British TV and those are sitting
on YouTube and everything. I don't think we need another
Ruttles movie. And I think they played out the Ruttles
plenty back in the seventies and in the eighties. So yeah,

(46:33):
but I but so yeah. But This Is Spinal Tap
is a brilliant movie, and it ushered in all those
wonderful other movies, even though Reiner did This Is Spinal Tap,
and I'm glad he directed the new one. But you know,
it really made people aware of Christopher Guest beyond his
National Lampoon Radio Hour audience and albums, and that was

(46:55):
a small audience. And then of course you know, we
got him a little bit on the time that he
was on Saturday Night Live. But yeah, no, he's a
genius and I really love pretty much all of his movies,
Guffman and Mighty Wind and all these movies. The only
thing that I thought was just kind of a misfire
was that Netflix series Mascots that he did, where it's

(47:17):
just almost because it was like, you know, a multi
part mini series, it wasn't as interesting. Speaking of which, though,
of that era of comedians and stuff only murders in
the building. I'm glad it's back for the fifth season.
I'm taking my time with it. I kind of like
to bank a few so I've only watched the first two,

(47:38):
but I'm really glad and it looks like everything's still
going in the right direction and you know, way to
go for running that string out and everything. I think
it's a great show. I love Martin Short. He's probably
my favorite SCTV castmember. He and Dave Thomas, who I
had the pleasure of having in a long interview and stuff. Oh,
Jeremy's got to comment regarding Spinal Tap two and McCartney,

(48:00):
he says, I actually enjoyed McCartney's appearance. He has the
funniest line of the film, and he's believable in being
someone who knows the band either Elton not as not
so much, but he's entertaining as well. Also has nice
clips from the original film and appearances from the people
from the original in the same character as Oh, that's great.
I'd like to see more of Bobby Fleckman, who was

(48:24):
of course the Nanny before she was the Nanny. So
how you doing, radio dormouse, Nice to see you, thanks
for jumping in. But yeah, that's great. I want Artie
Fupkin to be there, of course, Paul Schaeffer from Pauling
my records don't spoil, don't tell me if they are.
I want to find out for myself. I can't get
Sir Dennis Eaton Hog though, the great Patrick McNee who
certainly passed the Mortal coil. By the way, again, another

(48:46):
great spy show from the sixties, The British Avengers. I
love that show. I even loved the early even before
Kathy Gail Honor Blackman on the show What Survives from
the first season where it's Patrick, me and the Doctor
who are the adventurers, and I really love that big finish,

(49:07):
much as they've done with Doctor who went back and
grabbed the scripts of The Avengers and made a lot
of those early episodes. So yes, Rudy, Yes, I interviewed
Tony Hendra. You know, I'm really sad regarding Spinal three. Yes,
I did, absolutely, They're they're manager Liam. You know, Tony
Hendra has a very complicated backstory and I'm really sorry

(49:28):
to hear that because I from a from a comedy standpoint,
I'm such a fan of his. He was a big
part of the National Lampoon Radio Hour and the National
Lampoon albums, and when I spoke to him, he brought
back the people that now own the Lampoon brand are
really good keepers, unlike the idiots in the nineties when

(49:48):
we got those terrible like John Lovett's movies National Lampoons,
you know, presents a field trip and it's like crap,
but it has a National Lampoon name on it, a
loaded weapon crap, you know. But he was doing audio comedy,
sketch comedy the way you did on the National Lampoon
Radio Hours. And you can find the feed is still
up on uh, you know podcast things platforms like I'm

(50:12):
sure it's on Spotify, but if not, definitely on on
Apple podcasts and things like that. And a third of
it is interesting, a third of it is just okay,
and a third of it sucks. That's what you get
with sketch comedy. That's pretty much every Starting Night Live,
you know episode these days. By the way, how about
the mass exodus of SNL And at first of time,

(50:32):
I you know, some of them are like, all right,
I gotta be honest, you didn't make much of an impression.
The likelihood is a lot of people that did make
a big impact on SNL go on to do great
movies and TV in other areas, and I expect that
to happen with some of the people that left. But
that said, and they it replaced with five more people.

(50:53):
I'm like, dude, there's too many cast members. Pare it down,
my god, these thesee your players are never going to
get to a level on SNL if all they're doing
is HI, can I take your order? And that's kind
of where they're left in a lot of ways. And also, man,
I was talking about clicks before at you know, any
company you work in, it's obvious, and I think that's

(51:15):
what Devin Walker was talking about when he said there
in their live is toxic. You get these clicks and
if you're not with the cool kids, then you're not
Your material is not going to get on and it sucks.
And also I can't imagine trying to write for SNL.
And I'm a guy that wrote some comedy parodies in
sports radio days and stuff. Guys like Rudy that heard
me back in the day can can tell you whether

(51:37):
whether they were good or not. But you know, I
just think that it's it's really tough. And also those
like just because the show has to get on and
has to be live, they have these you know, hell
nights of like pretty much twenty four hour writing before
everybody presents their ideas on Wednesday. Rough really rough man.
I certainly can't couldn't survive. And that that's why I

(52:00):
always appreciated making things and then putting them on the radio,
because to do it live, you really are at the
at the you know, expense of the audience, whether they're
gonna like you or not. That's tough. That's really really tough.
So Prince Parker says that Sonela is an institution at
this point, Sketch comedies hit miss It's why people like

(52:22):
certain ras absolutely Matt one hundred percent, and you know,
every year certain life is good. You know, it's like,
well it's not, and again even well it sucked. For
the last twenty years, no one hasn't. And honestly, for
people who are looking for DEI, it's been the people
of color and the women that have truly been a
lot of standouts. I think Michael she is amazing. I think,

(52:44):
of course, oh again, now don't blanket again, good burger,
come on, Keenan Keenan Thompson. Keenan Thompson is incredible and
Ego who I'm so bummed. I'm not gonna even try
and and pronounce your last name, but I'm so bummed
that she's leaving because I think she's she's been amazing.
She's gonna have an amazing career. Maya Rudolph's been amazing,
Kate mckinning was amazing, Cecily Strong, I mean, all these

(53:08):
women truly have just been incredible for the last fifteen years.
I'm a big Bill Hater fan, of course, I'm a
big World Forte fan. You know all these people. But
the good news is I'm elevating as I'm talking. That's
how much I love SNL. I'm really curious to see
how the British SNL is going to be or a

(53:28):
version of SNL that Lauren is producing, what they put
together and how it's received, because that's interesting. There's always
been great British scratch comedy, obviously in the Pythons, and
we mentioned Tony Hendra who was in that college group
right after the Pythons in Cambridge, the same college that
Idol and Clice and the first guy that passed away. Shame.

(53:53):
I'm Graham Chapman, Rockhead Tonight kids. I apologize. Yeah, Prince
Parker says that you know SNL had Eddie Murphy come
back and the third of his bits were funny. Yeah,
I agree with that. By the way, I'm sorry that
one year that Gene Doumanian was the producer, the year
after Lauren seventy nine, eighty or eighty, I think that

(54:16):
was the season. But you know what I'm talking about,
worst SNL season ever. It's such a shame. And the woman,
despite being Lauren Michael's assistant and also later going on
to produce a lot of successful Woody Allen movies in
the eighties and nineties, just not funny and had Eddie
Murphy as a featured player and had to have the
rest of the cast go no, that guy, that guy's good.

(54:37):
He needs to be more oh oh okay, and it
was too little, too late. So Stanley wants to know
what I'd like to interview more Hollywood people. Well, define
Hollywood people. I like talking to writers, and the reason
why I like talking to writers are, and I've said
this before, they are the keepers of story and character.
While I appreciate the opportunities I've had to talk to

(55:00):
the celebrities and the on camera people that I've had
to talk to, certainly the Deep Space nine and then
next Gen people that I've spoken to has been a
wonderful treat. But the they and especially after they've been
on a show for a long time, I think they
have a better sense of a character. I'll be honest.
I've had a couple uh interviews with actors and that

(55:23):
I didn't release because honestly, they didn't have much to
say about the story of their character, and I was
kind of disappointed in that, so I I blanked them.
Radio Dormouse wants to know if I would like to
interview animators. Yeah, sure, yeah, I mean again, a couple
of my friends are have been involved in animation. Do
you mean do you mean the artists as far as animators. Maybe, yeah,

(55:45):
I really I haven't done that as far as of
artist animators, but you know, again, writers of animation, I
certainly have talked to them over the years and and
always appreciate that. Yeah. Again, I'm just having been a
writer myself in many parts of my career, not only
writing commercials, but as I said, I would write sketches
and parody commercials for sports, radio and things. I'm more

(56:09):
of a writer's guy, and in fact, when it comes
to art I try to and really in the last
few years even more so, talk to more artists. In fact,
Lee Garber, who's been doing work with my buddy Joe
Anderson and just has a distillery book, Big Burn, I
want to say that the trade is coming out. I'm
gonna talk to Lee pretty soon. So Mario, good question.

(56:34):
When are you going to interview Frank Miller? Well, I
got an update. Frank and Celene Thomas, Frank's producer, were
in Ireland and talking to my good friend Owen McCauley
and did a wonderful masterclass for Owen's school media school
that he runs. And he's like, hey, you know SNTRIS
really wants to have you guys on, and I did

(56:55):
help them when they made their new Frank Miller documentary.
They want to get in touch with Ken Viola, who
made that comic book Master's eighties documentary that Frank was in,
and they had lost touch with him. They didn't know
how to contact him. So I gave him that and
I said, hey, just you know, you don't have to
thank me, just come on the show. Well, Owen talked

(57:15):
to Selen and Frank and they're like, right now, we're
running the documentary in the festivals, all the film festivals
and at conventions, and eventually they will find a streaming partner.
When they find a streaming partner, like that's when we're
going to talk to John fantastic, That's great. I got
no problem with that. I'm a patient man. Let it
happen when it happens. I'm just really happy that Frank

(57:38):
is in a such better place. I saw him last
year at the Rosemont, Illinois Fan Expoke Chicago convention and
had a really nice conversation with him and Selene. Selena
and I are both old movie fans, so we were
talking about all black and white movies that we love.
But no, it's Frank's really in a much much better
place and the guy's a genius writer. You don't have

(57:59):
to agree with his politics. I don't agree with all
of his politics. I don't care. You know again, I
can separate the art from the man or woman, And
you know that's why, that's why I'm bombed that the
Red Hood writer got launched because I was really looking
looking forward to it, and forgive me, I will use
the day pronoun because I'm not sure which pronoun they use,
but sounded intriguing and was really looking forward to it,

(58:24):
and unfortunately the person got fired. Let me just say
regarding how you know, some comments lately have cost people
their jobs. When I worked at CBS, I worked at
them a couple different times with them in the nineties
when I was in sports radio and then when I
was doing traffic on the news station. It wasn't an
issue in the nineties because the innert net was in

(58:47):
its infancy as far as now, and this was this
was ten years ago when I joined twenty fifteen, and
they're like, listen, we're not telling you to hold your opinion,
but do understand, especially for you on air people. You're
representing the company, and so ask yourself, do I need
to say this, Is it going to make a difference

(59:08):
or whatever? And again you'll forgive me, folks, because I
can appreciate, well, no, because we need those voices out there,
we absolutely do. But when you're working for a company,
you do you know, I get that. Hey, if you're
working for the man, you know, the man's gonna sometimes say, well,
that doesn't agree. And also they have to cater to
everybody as much as they can. That's the trouble with

(59:28):
mainstream media. This is the problem that they have and
it was never an issue before, but now in this
more divided world that we live in, it is and
that's unfortunate. But you can think globally, enact locally. Would
be would be my comment? Would I interview? Dave sim
says Radio Dormos. I don't know, man, I'll be honest.

(59:50):
I've read some service. There are some people out there
that punch down in their comments and thoughts, and those
people I have a problem with. And I you know,
there is somebody that actually his comments managed to come
on during the Greg Rucca interview. I'll let you rewind

(01:00:10):
and see who I'm talking about, and I used to
be friends with the guy, but really, in the last
ten years, the guy has really been punching down and
really established himself as kind of a emperor. I believe
he even uses the analogy on his website or on
his videos. You know, man, whatever you think, what you want,

(01:00:30):
that's okay. But again, I just think there were being
mean to people that were not as a well known
in the comic book world, for example. So yeah, I
don't know if I'd talked to him, but I can appreciate. Again,
Rated Rmis's Service is my favorite comic. I highly recommend it.
That's cool. Stanley, what era of comics is your favorite?

(01:00:52):
Do you think modern comics are weaker? I do not
think modern comics are weaker. Quite the contrary. I am
thrilled again as I guy that started reading comics nineteen
seventy three. Yeah, that was when I and I think
maybe earlier than that. As far as hand me down
comics with no covers that my older cousins would give

(01:01:12):
me Betty and Veronica and even some DC Superman stuff
from probably you know, before I was born. That all
that said, no comics have grown up with me and
now in my senior years. I love what's coming out
right now. I think it is such a great time
where people can really tell individual stories, their own personal
stories alongside the superhero stuff. Forgetting, we're getting great superhero

(01:01:36):
stories right now. So yeah, I honestly there's never been
a bad era. The only time that I kind of
checked out was the nineties, mostly because that was the
especially early in the decade. I was out of college,
I didn't have any money. But also, I'll be honest
that art was more important than story period. They kind

(01:01:57):
of lost me. And I respect all the image guys
that I've had on the show, but I really did
kind of miss their moment as far as being a
contemporary reader of their work. So that would be the
only era. I mean, I loved Crisis, and I love
Secret Wars and a lot of stuff that was coming
out then. I love Watchmen, I love Dark Knight, I

(01:02:19):
loved Mouse. I was so thrilled to read Mouse. So
JD says he began reading comics in nineteen sixty seven.
Oh there you good dude, doing better than me. B Things,
you aska do I have a favorite Star Trek character?
I answered this before B Things, but I'm happy to
repeat myself. I would say Scotty for Tos. Did I
answer for the next thing, Yeah, I said Riker, although

(01:02:40):
of course we all love Data and I'm a big
Jordy fan as well. Voyager, I would say, well, first
Deep Race nine, Cisco and O'Brien. Gotta love O'Brien. Voyager.
I'm a big two VAT guy, you know, Enterprise, I'm
a big archer guy. But I also like Mayweather and
Malcolm was cool, you know. And as far as New

(01:03:02):
Trek goes, I like Captain Pike on Discovery. I just
am trying to find more stories about him in strange
New Worlds. I feel like they're kind of short shrifting
him and especially in that way. But we'll talk more
about that later. So let's see here. Rudy says, I
was never a fan of Rob Liefeld's work, but I
always appreciated his word balloon appearances. Seems like a decent guy. Yeah,

(01:03:24):
I like Rob, and I hear what you're saying, but
I really appreciate his enthusiasm and excitement and everything. I think.
I think he's great. Mark. I see you back stage,
so I hope you'll connect your devices, and I'll put
you on screen in a second or two. But radio Dormers,
would your grease start trek? The original series is a
horror show, like the apperison of Other Limits in Twilight,

(01:03:46):
shown with ongoing characters. I do think some of those
episodes were absolutely horror episodes, but not all of them,
you know. I don't think there's any horror in that
Taste of Armageddon, for example, a great episode that I
think holds up very well, and I really think a
lot of them do even more so today. So there

(01:04:07):
you go, and our boutis our watching. Know what I
like to interview Chuck? Yes, of course that would Robert Beltrant.
I'm a big fan of his, even Eating Raoul. Okay,
I'm gonna stomp there for part one. And if you
didn't know, Eating Raoul is a Robert Bell Trand movie
from the eighties, very early in his career, very very funny,
dark comedy. I absolutely recommend you look it up and

(01:04:27):
check it out if you like black comedies. Meaning you know,
it involves a lot of death and things like that,
but it's very very crazy and funny. So anyway, strange
place to leave it. But the reason why I left
it there was. We're going to start part two tomorrow
with Mark pract a fantastic Chicago playwright who did three

(01:04:49):
comic book related plays, and we have every intention of
doing a longer word Balloon talking about his plays and
Crystal Skillman's comic book based plays and a few other playwrights,
and we'll do a full discussion. But that's what opens
up part two of the AMA, and a whole bunch
more from the chat and even a couple more people
on camera as well, So I hope you will join
me for AMA Part two, which we'll post tomorrow. That'll

(01:05:12):
do it for this episode of word Balloon. Thanks for
listening until next time. Word Balloon is a copyright feature
of Shaky Productions, copyright twenty twenty five.