The League Asks Me Anything pt 2

More questions on camera nd from the live chat. We get more into comics, trek podcasting and more 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody, Welcome back time again for word Balloon, the
Comic book Conversation Show. John Santris here with another chapter
of Asking Me Anything. A great little thing that I
did on Tuesday night talking to the League of word
Balloon listeners, the patrons of word Balloon through patreon dot
com slash word Balloon three dollars in up allowed you
to come on camera with me, and a few people

(00:21):
took advantage of that. Over the course of both part
one and part two, you're gonna hear from Mark pract
a fantastic playwright that lives here in Chicago. He's done
three great comic book history plays, one about Bob Kin,
one about Seduction of the Innocent, the worthm Trials and
Bill Gains, and then finally the House of Ideas with

(00:44):
Stan and Jack. He's working on a fourth. He talks
about all that, and we're planning a word Balloon later
on with other comic book playwrights like Crystal Skillman and
a few other people that he mentions in this part two.
A couple other people pop on the show, and people
ask me about podcasts and other thoughts on comics and
Star Trek of course, and a few other things. It

(01:06):
was really gratifying how many people were there, how many
people have since watched it after the fact on YouTube
and Facebook, and the nice compliments that I got for
the show on Patreon and also on my email. So
thanks everybody forgetting it and understanding what I was doing.
It's so funny. A friend of mine it's like, is

(01:27):
that a Reddit thing? Ask me Anything? And I'm like, well,
I know it happens on Reddit. I'm not the craziest
fan of but when it comes to the Reddit platform,
I think there's a lot of unfortunate conversation. They're with
good stuff as well, and that's kind of why it's like, well,
I don't need that. And if anything, again, it's an
audio and video show. Rather than type out answers, it's
much easier for me to answer these questions extemporaneously, which

(01:50):
I did. Ask Me Anything, Part two coming your way
today on word Balloon. Word Balloon is brought to you
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(02:11):
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(02:31):
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(02:54):
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
com slash word Balloon. So here. I'm gonna bring on
somebody else right now that is a patron and I

(03:15):
appreciate that and a fantastic playwright. Mark Pratt. How you doing,
I'm great.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
How are you?

Speaker 1 (03:22):
I'm doing all right? Man, Thanks for coming in.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Oh, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
We're going to eventually arrange an interview with Mark and
Crystal Skillman. I don't know if there are others like
you guys that have written comic book related plays, but
it would be great to have a discussion at least
with the two of you. Is there someone else, Mark,
that that you can think of that's another playwright, Like.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, there's a Lenny Schwartz who is in Rhode Island
who he's written. He's written plays about Bill Finger, just
like I did in the Creation of Batman. And he
also did a play about Steve Ditko and another play
he just did this last spring about Siegel and Schuster.

(04:06):
And then also in Los Angeles there's an our Fantasy
Theater that are doing a musical about the fifties comic
book Crackdown and Easy Comics. And these are people that
I've gotten to meet over the last couple of years
and it's been really fantastic. So yeah, like I know

(04:29):
that we've talked about trying to get a panel at
like San Diego or C two E two or whatever
have not been approved yet, but I think they'd all
be really interested in that conversation.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
I agree with you Man. Remind people Mark has been
on before, but Mark has done a trilogy of comic
book history plays. Tell people about your place, Mark.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, I've written three plays. They are called the Four
Color Plays. Now they were the trilogy, but it looks
like they're might be another one coming, hopefully I'm working
on it. But the first one was called The Mark
of Cain and it was about Bill Finger and Bob
Kane and the creation of Batman. And then the second

(05:15):
one was called The Innocence of Seduction, and so that
was about the fifties comic book scare and the creation
of the Comics Code Authority, Bill Gains, doctor Frederick Wortham,
all that fun stuff. And then last year we did
The House of Ideas, which was about Stanley and Jack
Kirby and the creation of Marvel Comics. All really big hits.

(05:39):
So a lot of people seem to enjoy them. I
know you saw the second two, and they've all been
published by sort of a inc. If you want information
on them, you can go to my website, which is
Mark Hyphenprott dot com. There is a page there for
the four color place that puts away no, no.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
No, And honestly, again I can attest for the last two.
And of course good friends of mine did see the
Mark of Kine as well and then really loved it.
And I'm sorry I wasn't able to get to that one.
But by the way, so Mark's last name for people
who might look up his website is.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
P R A C H T.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
For the audio audio right, And yeah, no, they're great.
And also, I mean I've always appreciated live theater, and
especially in the small spaces that we have compared to
New York and Broadway and things like that, and we
have our big theaters like good Men and things, but
it's always the inventiveness in a small space of how
people can convey performing a live production. Yeah, a lot

(06:46):
of credit.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
Mark, Yeah, well I appreciate that. Yeah, it's it's been.
It was about one hundred CE theater and it was
it was great fun and it was it was really
rewarding for myself. The cast was. It was exciting to
see comic book people come and experience theaters, many for

(07:07):
the first time. But actually what was also really exciting
was that theater patrons just love those shows. Brian Pastor,
who's the artistic director of CityLit Theater where we did them,
he constantly is telling me about subscribers and patrons who

(07:27):
come up and they say, I couldn't have cared less
about comic books. I didn't know anything about comic books.
But I love those people and that they were just
charmed by the shows, and that is incredibly gratifying to me.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
I hear you, man, No, and I understand because again,
at the end of the day, these just stories about
people and the things that happened to them in their
career and in their lives. You know, Matt Baker, fans
would also find a lot in innocent of the seduction
or innocence of this, that they would find interesting as well.
I know you did. That's something man, you touched on
the line of personal stories and while and I'm assuming

(08:04):
in Mark of Kane as well, but certainly in the
two that I saw. And yeah, God, we've got a
great group of actors here in Chicago that are wonderful. Mark.
I'm so bummed. A good friend of mine who's an
actor who saw at least one of your plays was
telling me how disappointed he is that all the Chicago
met Chicago Fire shows, et cetera are now bringing in

(08:26):
uh even for those bit parts LA actors and not
going to Chicago. And it's like, man, you guys suck
because we I mean again, we've we certainly have had
a tradition going back decades, if not one hundred years
of a very important theater, live theater h environment and
culture and uh continues. And thankfully there are other productions

(08:51):
that happen in Illinois so that they could you know,
come from the local pool, and certainly commercial work still
happens and things like that. But yeah, that was It's
really really dumb in my I mean yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
Like I can't, I can't argue with it. I mean,
like I had I did my little bit on Chicago Fire,
so uh, you know, like there was a there was
a way for you to at least get you know,
a few minutes on screen and sometimes kind of exciting
stuff to do, and and you know, I I had

(09:26):
a big fight scene that was pretty exciting. So I mean,
you know, I also had a it was on Chicago Fire.
It was I think it was season four episode seven,
teams called what happened to Courtney?

Speaker 3 (09:41):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (09:41):
Oh, I I had broken my niece's neck and shoved
her body down a chimney. And uh, it's been long
enough now I can probably talk out of school, Like, uh,
there was no explanation as to why I had done this.
And it was right when they were trying to start
Shook Hogo Justice, which was the DA show, and they

(10:04):
were like, well, the idea maybe is that we're going
to bring you back. We'll have a trial and then
we'll explain some of this stuff. And I was like, Okay,
that sounds great. And then like a week later they
announced that Chicago Justice had been canceled.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
So did it make s haepen on the air?

Speaker 3 (10:19):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
I don't think I ever watched Chicago Justice.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
I think I think it was like five or six
episodes or something like that. It did not. I mean,
it just didn't catch on. I mean, but I actually
I know several people I know, I do know some
people here in town who have pretty major recurring parts.
The wife of one of the captains is she's she's

(10:45):
from here in town, and she's she's on several times
a year. So but yeah, but it is absolutely true
there it's but it's like, not that I'm some big
expert on this, but uh, you know, there's been a
real downturn in product all across the board.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
So yeah, yeah, it's a shame. No, you're right about that. Man. Again,
I know that from my other friends that are screenwriters
and actors, and yeah, it's it's you know, I I
honestly wonder, Mark. I don't know all your thoughts are,
but I really wonder if ten years from now the
major networks are still doing scripted television.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
I I hope, So, I mean, like I hope, you know,
I have I could. I have many thoughts on this.
I think that I do think that AI like, it's
scary to me the things that I see people can
just make, you know, and but it's all, it all

(11:44):
feels very soulless. And you know, it's my real hope
that at a certain point people realize how soulless some
of that stuff is and then they realize that, you know,
they need the real people telling real stories. And and
you know, that's part of the reason that, like I've
put most of my efforts into theater over the last

(12:04):
few years, just because you know, going into a theater
and seeing people live in person. No one does I you.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
Know, scripts was a comment, but it is.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
It's it's funny because sometimes I feel that way, and
sometimes I feel like people really do they want to
be able to put in this thing and say I
want you know, like when the Fantastic Four movie came out,
you know, there was a lot of people who were like, oh,
if it would look exactly like Jack Kirby artwork and

(12:43):
and everything would sound like Stan Lee, then I'd be
so excited. And it's like, I understand that absolutely, but
it's also that's not that's not real. Jack and stan
aren't here anymore. And and Jack's artwork as genius as
Jack art where it is, if you saw it in
real life, it would probably be kind of disturbing.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
There's one actor that I really felt, well, actually, there's
two different actors or people in pop culture that I
felt had Kirby faces. One was Gary Conway, who was
the Captain of the Ship and Land of the Giants.
He had those Kirby eyes, and I also felt, well, three,
here's a third guy, Patrick McGowin really looked like a

(13:26):
Jack Kirby face, and from music from music. Robert Palmer
also could have been a Jack Kirby character.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
Have you ever seen the The Kirby Prisoner, Like, I've
only seen a couple of pages of it, but it's fascinating.
But yeah, I agree with that. But you know, there
is sort of like when I think about some of
the like the machinery and things like that, like I'm
I'm thinking that probably AI could crank out something that

(13:59):
looked kind of like that, but it would look utterly
unreal because it was utterly unreal. You know, I'm sorry,
I'm just gonna If you need to go to something else,
let me know.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
But I got to, Yeah, what else did you want
to think about? Mark?

Speaker 2 (14:16):
You know, it was funny I went to you know,
just talking about Jack Kirby artwork. I was lucky enough
this summer was out in LA and I saw the
exhibit at the Skerbal Community Center in LA, the Jack
Kirby Heroes in Humanity, and wow, like, if if anybody

(14:37):
is going to be in La, like, the exhibit is
there through I think March of next year. It is spectacular.
They have tons of original artwork, tons of They have
some stuff about Jack Drew costumes, designs for a production
of Julius Caesar. That's some California College did and they've

(15:01):
replicated one of the costumes. It's pretty cool. But they
have the entire issue of I think it's X Men
number seven, the original art on the wall, and it's
it's just spectacular. But you know, when you look at it,
you're like, man, like, how would that ever look in
three D? You know, like if it was a three

(15:21):
dimensional thing, it would just be like, you know, that's
all nice.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
Yeah, somebody said about cgiuh, it looks real but feels fake,
and then that I believe it was on Gilbert one
of the old episodes of Gilbert Gottfried's podcast. They were
comparing like Peter Jackson King Kong versus the original Willis
Cooper King Come. It's like, you know the and And

(15:48):
the funny thing is when you watch the original and
you see that model and it has that kind of
stop motion movement to it and stuff. The fir moves
because it's the thumb print of somebody the doll to
ext position, so even on you get these like little
moments of like the fur moving, so it looks it

(16:09):
feels more real than the sea looks more real. But
but obviously we're we're desensitized.

Speaker 2 (16:15):
It's a tactile sense. It's almost like the wind is
going through is fur or something. Yeah, and it yeah,
it's one hundred percent true. It's I have many arguments,
many arguments with people about this, but I always said that, uh,
the thing in the Fantastic Four should always be a costume,

(16:40):
because like I feel like they're they're a family, and
there's something about the relationships, like you do the Hulk,
and the Hulk is this massive thing, and but you
look at like those original drawings that Kirby did and
like a lot of times the thing shorter than mister Fantastic,
you know, And and I feel like this idea of
making him this big thing that's bang uh that uh,

(17:06):
that it doesn't quite feel tactile. And in the room
with the other three, it's always kind of ugly. Like
as much as people can pooh pooh those Tim Story
movies from early in the two thousands, like Michael Chikliss
was was great and and that costume maybe didn't look
exactly like the comic book, but it worked.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
You know. No, I agree with you. I think I
think aesthetically, I like a lot of the things that
were in those Fantastic Four movies. And but I but
I gotta say I enjoyed. I enjoyed the new movie
and you know that. And Thunderbolts are good. I think both.
I think both companies right now are in great positions
to continue to make good movies. But again, I think

(17:48):
it's uh, the well, I'll just wait for streaming. I
don't need to see it in the theater. I think
a lot of people have sadly gone that way. I mean, honestly,
more coming and it's worse obviously for live theater, and
it has been for decades more. But no, I Kevin
Smith said something and I have to agree with him
that I kind of wonder if movie theaters are going
to go the way of vinyl and music on vinyl,

(18:10):
where it's going to be a specialty thing for just
real movie files to really want to go and see
movies at the theater. I mean, I'm looking forward to
Eddie Muller bringing back the Noir Festival next month. Yeah,
and I'll certainly be there for that. But yeah, I mean,
as I was saying earlier about Spinal Tap too, It's
like I'm not sure if I'll see that in the

(18:31):
theater or not. And man, I'm sorry that it did
so poorly.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
And well, I happened to see Spinal Tap through this
last weekend. Really, I you know, it's one of those
things that I heard, like I got a little worried.
I listened to like two reviews because I saw it
on Saturday, and I saw it, I read I like
listened to two reviews and I was like, you know,

(18:56):
and there was you know, somebody was like, you know,
it's not great, it's not bad, but it's really nice
to be with these guys again. And I quite honestly,
I just sort of jumped into it as a fan
who wanted to see those guys again, and and on
that level it was completely fulfilling and worthwhile for me.

(19:21):
I enjoyed every minute of it. I think it's worth
going and seeing as soon as you can. And certainly,
like you know, that's like, you know, we talk about
you because I think you're absolutely right. I think that
eventually movie theaters are going to be like, you know,
god helpless, hipster central, you know, like, oh I see film,

(19:45):
you know, I see film on film or whatever, you know,
And but at the same time, you know in a
lot of ways that that can't be a terrible thing,
because you know, so many people have forgotten how to
see things in public. You know, I think everybody sits
down in front of a giant screen and they think, yeah,

(20:08):
they think they're in their living room, and yeah, we
we have that problem in live Feeder as well. I mean,
it's a little better because like there's this person in
front of you talking at you. But you know, I
think that uh uh specific. Look like a few years ago,

(20:30):
I did. I was playing I was playing the creature
in Frankenstein at City Lid, and right in the front
row was this couple. Like it's right, It's like this
dramatic moment, I've killed the first person that I've killed
in the show, and I'm standing there and I'm holding
this knife and a bible and this couple in the
front literally dead front row center starts going while Ala Mama,

(20:56):
and I was supposed to toss down this knife and
it just sort of have happened to fly right at
their feet. Stage manager talked me and said, you know,
don't do that, and I'm okay, all right, fine, but.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
You know, I reminds me there's a there's a great
showbiz story where Steve, Steve Lawrence and Edy Gourmey, the
couple that were sung and dance people back in the day. Uh,
they were playing in Vegas and a patron had their
hand on the stage and Edie Gourmey purposely walked over
and stepped on the ladies hand to hand off the stage. Honestly, man, no,

(21:37):
I hear you and unfortunately audience etiquette and you know
you might have heard this. John Campy is one of
my favorite YouTubers that pays attention to movies and TV,
and he said that, you know, AMC hears you of
that there are two men that the previews and commercials
and everything is too long, so they're shortening things and
what they're getting rid of is the recorded Please off

(22:00):
your cell phone, please stay quiet. And it's like that's
the one thing you got to keep because again, we
are raising a generation of people that have no theater
experience it none whatsoever. And it really said really well,
and yeah, I mean you know what, what you know,
what are you going to do? I mean like that
you can't deprogram a generation like overnight. But yeah, you

(22:23):
know I think that. But to speaking about Spinal Tap two,
if you like me, pontificate.

Speaker 2 (22:34):
Is that, you know, that's exactly the kind of movie
that I think needs are support. You know, it's it's
a it's a mid budget or even low budget. I
don't I didn't read what their budget was, but I
mean it's sort of got a kneche audience, and you
know it it doesn't really need to make that much
money to be profitable. And so if even like anybody

(22:58):
who said, hey, I remember Spinal Tap, it was funny,
I should go see this, and then they're like, you know,
I'll just wait, I'll just wait, you know, but if
all of those people just went to the theater, he
you would have a theater full of people who were
engaged with the product. I mean, and I hate to
call a film product, but I mean that's what it is.

(23:20):
And engage with the product and are are you know,
invested in it, and it would push it towards being
even marginally profitable, you know, and I think, you know, look,
it was never gonna there was no way that that

(23:41):
movie was ever going to be a massive hit, right.
It's the original.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
The original didn't make money, you know, so yeah, initially, yeah,
but I mean it was to VHS and DVD and
the like.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, it was one of those movies that you know,
when I was in high school in the eighties, was
always you know, there was the Multiplex was showing the
midnight movies and it'd be like Rocky, Horror, Spinal Tap,
Coligula and you know, RoboCop or whatever, and yet like

(24:15):
Blade Runner whatever it was. But I mean, but even
at that, like, that's exactly the kind of movie that
people like. If if I could say, you know, liked,
Disney is gonna make money on Fantastic for no matter
what right, They're just going to They've got a hundred

(24:35):
different revenue streams coming in. But a movie like Spinal
Tap two needs needs your support, you know. I mean
I just got I just got my my Criteria edition
four K of the original in the mail today. I
don't know if you caught. I like posted it because

(24:57):
it was the first time ever that I've had to
update the ware on my my four K player to
get the disc to play. And it was I kid
you not, I kid you not update one point eleven.
And I was like, Okay, well, if it's update eleven,
that's there's nothing more perfect if you're doing it to

(25:20):
play spial tap.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
So very true. That's awesome. I you know, the when
it came out on DVD, it literally was the first
DVD I bought, and I bought it around sadly and
ironic timing that we're talking about this September eleventh, and
that's that's what prompted me to buy a DVD player,
because it was such wall to wall coverage of the tragedy.

(25:43):
I'm like, I got to watch something else. And the
great thing is and I'm sure it's the case on
the Criterion four K thing, the uh the other footage
that they filmed, i'd be I wonder what it looks like.
But regardless, it really is a second that's really a
second movie. Oh yeah, and so many eight scenes that
didn't make the final cut but are still so entertaining

(26:04):
and that I may't even be on I don't know
if it's still on YouTube or not, but I know
for a while all those interestinges on YouTube.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
Well, I mean, I know I had I had a
Blu ray that I was up, you know, I was
double dipping, but it had the like ninety minutes of
extra footage. But the one thing that this Criterion disc
had that that didn't have and that I was super
excited about. Is they have the twenty minute like proof

(26:31):
of concept film that they made, the spinal Cap, the
Last Tour or whatever it is. I haven't I haven't
sat down to watch it yet. But I'm also reading
I'm reading the Making of book right, I'm I'm exposing
myself as a massive spinal tap.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yeah, these guys are truly all four of them, and
I'm including Reiner obviously, you know his body of work
speaks for itself. But as I was saying earlier, I'm
a massive Christopher guest fan and going back to the
National Lamput Radio Hour when I was a little kid,
and Harry Sheares a genius of Michael McKean is a genius,
and I'm thrilled for them. And I also believe, I

(27:09):
hear what you're saying, and I agree with you as
far as box office goes. But I do believe that
these guys are gonna they'll they'll they'll see money. And again,
I thought their owners of the movie, and I think
they're they're gonna they're gonna be okay with what money
they from this new movie.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
Oh, sure, no, I think they'll be fine. But I mean,
and I think that ultimately, like every single person that
every single person that bought that Blu Ray that I
the four K that I just bought, is gonna buy
it when the next when the second one comes out.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
But you know, like.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
It's it's it's just as as a theater person, you know,
it's that experience of sitting in a theater with a
group of people who are like minded, because especially when
it's accommedy. Man, even my wife who's not the biggest fan,
but you know, we were in the theater and there

(28:04):
was there is ten fifteen people in there with us,
which was pretty good for a Saturday afternoon, I guess.
But you know she was like, man, that's the kind
of movie you want to see with a full house,
where like when the laughter starts, it just feeds on
his cell. Yeah, And no matter what you're watching sitting

(28:26):
at home on your couch, even if it's with five friends,
you don't get that experience. You don't get that lift,
you don't get that feeling of I'm part of humanity
and then everyone around me is just like you know,
like in a way we're all there you know experience.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
No, when I saw when mel Brooks came to the
Chicago Theater and they ran blazing saddles before the Q
and a yeah, I mean, and again I used to
when I was in high school. I would go to
all the revival theaters. We had the Varsity and Evan,
we had the Parkway in the city facets with show

(29:04):
old movies and things, music box with show old movies
three penny when it was still around and it was great,
or cult movies as well, and yeah, man, no, it's
again unfortunately home home media has kind of made that
experienced window. It got worse because of COVID, and it's
gotten worse because of all the strikes and the the Again,

(29:25):
I think people have turned their backs and it's a
shame because no, it's.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
That Yeah, I mean, you know, like I've always said
that that that strike, the SAG strike, which you know,
I have a vested interest in that, but I've always
said that, you know that that strike was absolutely necessary.
It had to happen, But it also happened at like
the exact wrong moment, right right when we were starting

(29:53):
to get some momentum back. Uh. It just it stopped
everything all I mean, like I remember, like not that
this is not that this is you know, important or
anything like that, but that I was going to San
Diego Comic Con that year and the amount of like

(30:14):
simmering anger from people about like, well, these people didn't
come because they're on strike or blah blah blah, you know.
And I'm like, and you're you're sitting there and you're
going like, man, these are the people who pay you,
you know. And and I don't I don't want a
bad mouth it because it was absolutely necessary and it
was something that needed to happen. But it really I

(30:38):
think that it there was there was a relationship with
the audience that was already damaged and that continued to
get damaged. Yeah, I agree, And it was just one
thing after another.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
So I totally agree Mark. Absolutely. Man, Listen, I'm gonna
let you go because someone else is waiting to come on. Absolutely,
and then we'll talk, we'll message each other and we'll
make this comment.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
You know, I can get you contact information, we can
get this set up. I would love to do it.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
Yeah, man, No, No, definitely, If not this month, definitely
next month. We'll make it out.

Speaker 2 (31:11):
Just let me go back, man, thanks jeving me.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
Thank you for everything. Mark It is hey, no problem,
play right Mark uh Pract everybody fantastic stuff. Absolutely check
out his work and markpract dot com. It's p R
A c h T Mark Pract. So there you go.
Before I get to another patron that is going to
join the broadcast, a couple of comments be things. Says

(31:36):
I still remember seeing Casablanca as part of a Fathom
thing fifteen years ago. The whole theater was packed and
it was amazing scene with all those other people. Absolutely, man,
I mean, you have those great little key lines in
movies that any old movie or new and it's just
so great to get that audience reaction. And there are
so many wonderful small moments in a movie like Casablanca,

(31:58):
with the pickpocket that just shows up and is right
at the beginning of the movie, and then he shows
up again, and the guy that's the major d of
Rick's place, as soon as he bumps into him, he's
like grabbing his you know chest, where's my wallet, you know,
sort of make sure my money's still there. Just a
little bits of business like that again here and that
in the theater with everybody, you know, cracking up. Nothing
like it man. Prince Parker says, I love my little

(32:20):
hipster theaters in Seattle. I love my little hipster theaters
here in Chicago, man, so I hear you. Ridy says
I just saw the sixtieth anniversary showing of the Sound
of Music on the big screen at Flick's brew House.
Very cool. That's great, man. I haven't got Alamo yet
here in Chicago. That's you know, within the you know,
this year I think is when it opened and stuff.

(32:41):
I haven't had the opportunity to go there yet for
a showing. Anyway, Let's let's get back to another patren
who's joining us, and that's Jim McGowan. Jim, Welcome to
word Balloon. Thanks left for coming in. Man, you get
your your microphone's on mute. There you go, going good man,
Thanks so much. Thanks for the support on Patreon.

Speaker 4 (32:59):
Absolutely absolutely. I guess question for you, has anyone talked
to you about AD free tiers yet or has that
come up yet about what ad AD free tiers for
your Patreon supporters?

Speaker 1 (33:14):
Oh? No, they haven't. And I'll be honest, because I'm
a one man band, I I haven't. I haven't done that,
and uh, you know, I'm sorry. I don't mean to
like deny you guys. I hope, I hope the ads
are not intrusive, but they do pay the bills, and
that's kind of why. And I mean, truly, my audience

(33:36):
isn't that big that I can offer it as a tier,
and I hope to grow my audience and eventually reach
that that point. But you know, I I really am
at the at the good graces of people like yourself
that are patrons, and I genuine appreciate That's why I
started the magazine. Sure, that's when I started the book
club to give you guys a few more things as

(33:58):
a thank you for the support I honestly do have.
And no, no, I'm not trying to shame anybody, but
there are people that follow me on Patreon that don't
pay time, and I appreciate the following, but I also
am like, well, you know, again, if you're a Patreon,
you don't need to be a Patreon to watch or
listen to word Balloon. But I but I generally appreciate it.
And again, we're in a we're in a really weird

(34:19):
media place right now that I hope gets better, and
I'm hoping that of course my content is worth the
price of admission.

Speaker 4 (34:27):
Oh, it absolutely is. Uh, yeah, it's uh. There are
other outfits like the guys that used to reply all.
They have different podcasts that where they they and my
guess is it's it's a scale issue, like they probably
have more people, so it makes more sense for them.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
So yeah, anyway, just thought, No, I appreciate it. Man,
what else is on your mind?

Speaker 4 (34:49):
A question for you on this and you can abstain
from answering this question, right. So I've seen interviews like
the Greg Rucket interview is fantastic, that was you know,
really raw and everything. And then you've had interviews with
with Dan the DIO before and plainly you know you
get along with well with both of them from a

(35:10):
journalistic standpoint, How how do you walk that type ro
because you're kind of on both sides of the eclosion there, So.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
Fair question, And I did. I did mention it earlier,
but I'm happy to mention it again. Sure for people
maybe that are joining us that didn't hear me the
first time. I first of all, I genuinely it greatly
sympathized with what Greg went through, see and and I
appreciate and believe that all of his complaints are likely
very very and I'm not not likely are definitely that sure.

(35:41):
It's not the only person that had their problems while
working at DC under the deal and with Jeff Johnson.
Jeff Johns is another guy that I get along with
and every year. All that said, again, I I do
think that in business there are clays and there are

(36:02):
the cool kids, and they're not cool kids. Not that
Greg isn't cool, but you know what I mean in
terms of there's just always like a clique that all right,
these people work together and they're always going to do
this stuff. And it's a shame because obviously Dido, John's
and ruccall work together on fifty two and we got
an with Grant Morrison and Mark Wade got a hell

(36:22):
of the story. Mark Wade is another guy that had
his problems with Dan to DIO and you know, but
it's now back with the company because it's a different regime,
so I can. I can compartmentalize my relationships with Dan
and Jeff and Rucca and will continue to do so. Also,
I do think that the only type of person that

(36:45):
I do have problems with having on are a lot
of these people that, unfortunately are part of the comics culture.
Some of them have been very experienced, some are newer
to the thing. But they punched down. They punched down
at women, they punched down on people of color, they
punched down it people of differ an orientation, and I'm against.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
That, right.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
So if they've really come out and said this person
sucks because of who they are, I don't have time
for that. And then unfortunately my former guests are people
like that. And then it help because in some of
some cases I missed talking to them because I had
great conversations with them. But yeah, man, that's so there.
So that's my kind of journalistic line. Sure for a

(37:25):
better sense here you go.

Speaker 4 (37:27):
Awesome, Well, thanks so much.

Speaker 2 (37:29):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
Great questions, man, and truly I appreciate and again, thank
you very much for the patriot support. I really really
appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (37:35):
Absolutely. You're the best podcaster out there.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
Man. Oh God, bless you. Son. Have a good night,
Thank you, bye bye. I hope Jim comes down and
everybody comes back and are we liking this? Is this
okay to do shows this way? Maybe this is gonna
be a good thing for us to do once a
month and I'll check in and everything and and talk
about things. Radio Dorma says, I saw a taxi driver
and clockwork George on the big screen this week. Nice

(37:58):
way to go man, Good for you. You know, I
got to pay attention more to what the music box
is playing as far as revivals, and got to be honest,
by the way, Emmy's didn't watch. I mean, I like
the shows that I like, but and I like Nick
Burghatzy too. I hear he wasn't that great of a host.
I don't know what everyone's thinking if they watch the
Emmys and stuff. But yeah, you know, by the way,

(38:23):
as far as we're talking about TV and streaming, really
excited here. I got my notes here. King of the Hill,
the revival on Hulu is so good Man, way to go.
They haven't missed a beat writing and performing. It is
so great that everybody is back. I love that Bobby

(38:43):
is older now and in his twenties, and Connie and
Joseph and you know, I got it. It's just it's
really really great, and I really appreciate where the story's gone.
I love the idea that Hank Hill spent however many
years in Saudi Arabia doing pro pane and suddenly fell
in love with Soccer's minor spoiler. But truly, if you're

(39:05):
not watching, if you love King the hell, I'm sure
you're watching it. It is so great. I'm excited for
Tulsa King to come back. I think that show has
been amazing, and as much as I disagree with his politics,
I love Stallone and I think he's perfect in that show.
And it truly is probably one of my favorite Taylor
Sheridan shows. When you talk about Yellowstone and things like that,
but it's it's excellent. Oh that's nice. Bete Things is

(39:28):
enjoying this. He says, this is really cool. Thank you man.
Radio Dormo says, I don't know if I feel about
having definite answers to what where, what Hank Hill would
think of the modern world. So I haven't watched the show.
Oh man, No, it's great, man. And again, you know
what's awesome. Bobby is so interesting as a twenty somethingter guy.

(39:49):
And I think that is Pamela At. I can't remember
her name. I want to call her Advil, but of
course that's the pain reliever she had that FX show
where she was on camera. But and she's in. I
want to say she's in, say anything with Kusak back
in the day. But she's great. Everybody, Nancy, Jimmy or
Kathy and Jimmy is still great as as you know,

(40:11):
his wife and everything. Shame of me. Hank's whaf as
Cotton used to say, Hank and Hank's whaf. You know, no,
I love it, man, It's it's excellent. And again I
like kind of savoring it. I'm only halfway there. I'm
doing the same thing with only murders in the building.
I'm taking my time with the show because I love
it so much. I don't want it to end. I mean,
that's as much as I you know, watching to get

(40:32):
frustrated by Star Trek and Strange New Worlds. The fact
I got to wait a year for scripted on camera
Star Trek bums me out. Thank god the con podcast
is going on so well. Rudy wants to know. Have
I seen season two of Food Bar? I didn't like
it as much of the first season, you know, Rudy,
I hear you because I started watching it and I'm

(40:52):
about halfway through and I stopped, and I want to
get back to it because I still like it enough,
great cast, wonderful acting, and again another guy Arnold. Don't
agree with this politics. I don't need to. He's funny
and it's a great action show, and I love the
crew that are surrounding him. I love his wife. I
love that Scott Thompson from Kids in the Hall. It's

(41:14):
this great therapist that works with the CIA. It's a funny,
funny show. But I agree with you that maybe it's
not as strong this season. You know, I'll be honest.
Only Murders season four too much stunt casting and it
was just like, Okay, get back to the story. Although
I loved when Ron Howard showed up. That was just fantastic.

(41:34):
And this season's story is intriguing, so I like it.
But yeah, them making the movie about them and stuff
that season didn't really do it for me. But I
do love this Doorman murder story. And I've only watched
the first two episodes, but I'm confident I love the
stick on Apple. I thought Owen Wilson's show was great,

(41:58):
and I really enjoyed the Mark Maren was did a
great job acting. By the way, I understand why Mark
Maron is stopping a podcast because he's done a lot,
and also he's got other things going on, and I
can appreciate him feeling kind of burnt out. I'm not
burnt out. It's been I've got I got four years
on Mark Maren and I'm not stopping anytime soon. But

(42:18):
good for him. Congratulations. By the way, I have no
malice towards the celebrity podcast Why would I. Podcasting is great.
As I've said a million times, the best and worst
thing about podcasting is anyone can do it, and for
better or worse, that's the product that we get. Sometimes
that's good. Sometimes it's not so good, but that's okay.
And and truly, even the attention that the celebrities get

(42:42):
for their podcast I remember, uh, I forget when magazine
Conan was on the cover of at Conan O'Brien and
it was King of Podcasts and all these podcasters that
are who's only been doing it for a couple of years,
and it's like, it's Conan O'Brien. He's got a big audience.
Mark Maren even at the biggest comedian, but God bless
him for growing the audience as much as he did.

(43:04):
That's great, man. These people have awareness, They they they've
been around, they've been on camera. People know who they are.
SmartLess Another great podcasts I love where everybody knows your name.
You know Sam from Cheers Again, idiot Ted Danson. I'm
sorry what he's not as on as much as initially thought.
But Ted Danson does great interviews in great conversations. I'm

(43:26):
looking for great conversation as we all are on these
video and audio podcasts. That's all the criteria I need.
And is it a subject that I'm interested even again,
a guy I don't agree with, Joe Rogan is a
very curious guy, and again I don't always agree with him,
but I give him credit for being innately curious. Bill

(43:47):
Maher is an interesting guy. I don't always agree with him,
but I but I again appreciate his innate curiosity and
when he has a guest on, especially on his podcast
Club Random, I'm listening. If it's somebody I don't give
a damn about, I don't listen. I'm sure you are
all like that with word Balloon, and that's totally cool.
And again that's why I really appreciate everybody that's watching

(44:07):
and making comments. Mario says, not sure what I expected
by this format, but it's really good. Oh thanks Mario.
That's really kind man. And Rudy says, so you're one
of the Mercury seven of podcasters, you know. Honestly, Rudy,
I've made that comparison, and forgive me everybody, because I
don't mean it like I'm an astrot or anything like that,
but I was there that around that first year. Leol
Laport started at OH four and Adam Curry started in

(44:31):
O four. I started in OH five. As you know,
my twentieth anniversary this year, so yeah, I do kind
of feel like I started, but I do love Wow. Man,
I've been I've been doing this since twenty fifteen, and
it's like, yeah, I was having my tenth anniversary in
twenty fifteen, so again it's cool. Hey, people that are
brand new, welcome to the pool. Jump in the water's fine.
Have something to say is my only advice that if

(44:54):
you really feel the need to put out a podcast,
you need to have something to say. And there are
tons of comic book podcasts out there, there are tons
of television and movie podcasts, there are tons of rewatch
podcasts and things. Every subject under the sun is being covered.
I think that's great, but again you need to have
something to say, and also you got to show up.
I mean, I've been showing up now for twenty years.

(45:16):
So Rudy says he was more of a Gemini of podcasts.
He started late in two thousand and six and ended
it in until twenty or ended making it until twenty eleven. Okay,
very cool man. No, and that's what I always say.
Two thousand and five to two thousand and nine, you're
in the Mercury seven. Then you're a Gemini guy. And

(45:41):
after that it's like all right, you know again, people
are still discovering the medium. There are still people that
haven't heard their first podcast, but it continues to grow.
And that's why I believe in this format and why
I'm still doing what I do. And plus I'm getting
the positive feedback that I've been looking for and it's
a great way for me to express my opinion, have conversations.
I've always wanted to have talk to very interesting people

(46:04):
and find out what makes them tick. I'm not I'm
not interested in the Marvel DC horse race. Sorry, I
don't care. I don't care. I don't care what book
is number one, even when much like Star Trek even
when I'm I wouldn't say suffering, but not enjoying a
certain writer or arc or whatever. Okay, you know they'll
there'll be another arc. There have been moments of Captain

(46:25):
America that I'm like, I'm not feeling same with Iron Man,
all right, but now you know, things are good again.
So whether it's movies, TV or comics, you know that's
that's that's the truth. What else did I want to
talk about? Anything else? I mentioned the Emmys? Oh man,
how about on the business side everything? You know, guy,

(46:47):
we're still trying to figure out what Paramount is now
that Skydance has bought them and are starting to exert control.
And it's been very interesting to compare what happened to
Colbert and him getting lost. I get I'll get to
that in a second. But man, south Park they're not

(47:07):
letting up many are. They are as raw as they've
ever been, if not more wrong, And I'm thrilled. And
it sounded like David Ellison had a quote saying, I'm
loving start South Park right now. So you're not seeing
a government influence of Wow, that's too far, at least
for now. As far as Colbert getting let go. It sucks,

(47:27):
and I really enjoy all of the talkers. Colbert and
Seth Myers are my favorite late night hosts no District.
The only guy that I really think is just happy
to be there is uh Is Fallon, and I've always
had this love hate thing with Jimmy Fallon. I just
think he's a little too He's forgive me everybody, if

(47:48):
you love Jimmy Fallon, that's great. He doesn't seem that
intellectually heavy. I think Kim is a little smarter. I
know Colbert, it seems is definitely smarter. When they did
that Fox or whatever they called their during the strike,
when all the talk show hosts did their podcasts and
we're all talking together and stuff, Fallon just seemed like
the weakest guy. By the way, I love John Oliver,

(48:09):
and thank god John Oliver's out there, and I'm glad
John Stewart is back on a weekly basis doing what
he does best. But I do understand the economics behind
Colbert's show being canceled, because beyond the show itself and
whatever editorial direction it takes, that at Sullivan Theater is

(48:31):
this giant, really expensive thing, and I got why they
did it. When Letterman joined CBS, and it made a
lot of sense. I don't know if it's economically given
how so many people watching are not watching at ten
thirty at night like we did in the pre internet world.
Starting my live thankfully. And I do think these late

(48:53):
night shows as well survive with segments, you know, living
on YouTube and the other platforms Facebook, TikTok, whatever, Instagram.
But I do think that, Yeah, I don't know. And
also a minute when I was watching all this spinal
tap coverage for the movie opening last week, it's so obvious.
It always was a platform for a guest to come

(49:14):
on to a late night show and promote their thing.
Hey this is my book, Hey here's my movie, Hey
watch my TV show, this is my album. Fantastic. That said,
it really feels more and more like a commercial for
the big thing, and especially when it has to be
because of commercial television. In six minute increments, you're not

(49:36):
getting a lot of content. Again, Hi you doing, everybody?
Welcome to the word below. That's where podcasts are where, That's
where Brian Benison I can hang out and talk for
two hours, for example, So b things fallon always feels
kind of t he as a late night host. Yeah,
I agree, and SNL live streams the opening monologue on YouTube.

(49:56):
I didn't realize that. Again, I am really really interested
in what that's going to happen with this Sketch Live
show that they're planning for British television. Again, I wonder
how it will do British television. As far as sketch
comedy goes is brilliant. Everything ron Atkinson came from there,
of course the Pythons, but everybody in Canada, the kids

(50:16):
in the Hall. Sketch comedy is amazing. Live sketch comedy though,
that's been a challenge ever since Milton Berle and Sid
Caesar back in the forties. So yeah, that's what they
have to, you know, go against. Rudy says that the
things is right about Fallon seeming like a t he yeah,
when he ruffled Trump's hair, It's like, okay, I preferred

(50:38):
when Letterman had Trump on and made fun of the
fact that, oh, you're so anti China. I notice your
times are made in China. Anyway, that's my little, my
little comment. Hey, Carry's here, how you doing Carry? The
evolution of late night has been crazy, looking back to
Johnny Carson with all the different segmentcy and on the
show that we have now, it's incomparable. I agree. You know,
it's funny watching Antenna TV, especially when they show the

(50:59):
ninety minute episodes and Carson would have guests, but he
would also out, let's do a little sketch here, I'm
Art Fern and the Late Night movie and Floyd Turbo
with his editorials and all this other crazy stuff. And
I'm glad that Carson used to Flex's comedy muscle Man.
You want to go back watch Old Jack Parr and
Steve Allen's if you can find them on YouTube. I
think they're fascinating to watch. Liam. How you doing. Apologies

(51:22):
if someone's asked already, but how's your Word Balloon book
coming along? Oh glad you've asked, Lian, Well, if you
don't know. Of course, for the patrons out there, I've
been putting out the Word Balloon e Magazine and I've
been transcribing interviews and collecting those. Eventually they will make
the basis for the Word Balloon Book. And the more
I think about it, and I'd be curious what people

(51:43):
watching and listening think. And by the way, if you're
hearing this after the fact, feel free to email me
on everything that we're talking about today, John atward balloon
dot com. That's my email and I'd be happy to
address any thoughts you had on the subjects. So what
I'm discussing tonight, But regarding the look my plan is,
I mean, it's funny. One of my best friends, my

(52:04):
buddy Chucky Checkie, Yeah Checking. If you listen to the
AI podcast, Chucky is a recurring subject and point of
humor on the show. Chuck. Chuck is a great He's
been a very good friend of mine for twenty years now,
and he really is a great help to me, especially
when I go to conventions like C two E two
and terrific on in Connecticut. Well, he can sun everybody

(52:25):
coming your way next to August Mitch Allick's Terrific hun
You should definitely check it out if you're in the
Tri state area or thinking about going to Connecticut in August. Anyway,
Chuck is like my de facto producer, really kind of
keeps me on my toes, handles the equipment and everything,
and is just there as a great guy. But anyway,
Chuck asked me years ago, do you have enough material

(52:46):
for a pod for a book. I'm like, I've been
podcasts at that time. I'm like, I've been podcasting for
fifteen years. I think I got fifteen books. My plan,
and i'll even let you in on this, is to
potentially even do a series of books. My good friend
Paul Kapperberg has released a series of autographs or interview
books that he's put out with both current and past creators,

(53:08):
and I think we both have different editorial points of
view that our interviews will be different. I've been a
fan of books and magazines with comic book people interviews
since I came back to the hobby in the late nineties.
Always was a fan of the Comics Journal, always a
fan of Alter Ego and all the TwoMorrows magazines that

(53:29):
have their interviews, and including my differend Ed Cato and
what he's doing with Retro Fran currently as the editor
of retro Fan. It's excellent. And my ambition is to
not only dip into current conversations that I'm having, but
also great ones that I've had in the past. In fact,
the next E magazine and likely a chapter in the

(53:49):
First Word Balloon Book will be one of my conversations
with Marty Pasco, where Marty really goes through the history
of DC in a way that I don't think has
been covered in and a lot of the other DC
history books that have come out over the years. And
I think Marty had a very unique perspective on that,
both as someone who worked for the company from the
seventies through the early two thousands and knew everybody that

(54:13):
he knew, but also again even getting the secondhand stories
that he got. You know, really I envy Paul Levitt's
Pascal the Living Bronze Age Creators that managed to meet
and really get to know a lot of those Silver
and even Golden Age creators while they were still around
and get their straight stories and stuff. I thought that

(54:34):
was all pretty neat. So Yeah, the book is coming along.
I hope to have a product available next year. I'm
still debating. Given the nature of the book market right now,
I'm a little gun shy about making a physical book.
It might be an ebook again, which I think is
very still doing quite well. I think Kendall is a

(54:55):
boon to the publishing world. I might self publish. In fact,
I don't like the idea. Again, man, you're giving you
guys some real insight of where my brain is. Not
that I'm any this is all knucklehead brain, and someone
could convince me otherwise. I don't like the idea of
signing with a publisher and go, Okay, that's great, we'll
put it out in two years. That's kind of what

(55:16):
happens a lot of times with books. I don't want
to wait, and I also feel like you don't need
to wait. The guy that wrote The Martian and Project
Hail Mary, which is going to be a major movie
with Ryan Gosling next year, he's self published, and I
found an audience. And I do think given that I
have the podcast and the awareness that's out there in

(55:36):
the culture about word Balloon, but also the comic book
stores that are aware of the thing, I might make
a limited print run and sell it to stores to
sell that way and everything. But I also believe in
this digital platform that now I've been podcasting on for
twenty years, and I do think that there's enough of
us that are savvy enough to buy an ebook. So

(55:59):
if you're not, again, if you want to sneak of
the word Balloon book, become a patron just three dollars
a month. Here's the commercial everybody three dollars a month.
You get the E magazines as they come out. I've
had four issues so far, or five issues. There's one
in the can that is waiting to happen, and the
Marty Pasco thing is about to happen as well. So
more great stuff coming. So there you go. Jim says,

(56:22):
totally indy public. Absolutely, and he says, yea, I should
be writing lots of books. Well, thank you, man, Mario
says John. I think I speak for a ton of
people here that would love your physical word balloon book.
Well we'll see, man. Another thing people have asked too
regarding the E magazine is oh, can you put some
images and stuff? You know, DC and Marvel they're very
litigious and also even from a fair youth standpoint. I

(56:44):
don't want to get into that. Paul doesn't put images
in his book. They're just a straight up, you know, interviews,
and I think Titan might have put a few images
here and there. They over the years did great books,
like all these people wrote and drew Spider Man, all
these people wrote and Drew Marvel, All these people wrote

(57:05):
and drew DC. Great books. Again, they were among my
first comic book, interview books, and then again Tomorrow's in
a comics journal and those people, by the way Amazing Heroes.
And I always tell Wade when I talked to him
and Busic the few times I've met him conventions and
stuff when they contributed to Amazing Heroes. That was such

(57:27):
a great magazine that Fanographics put out in addition to
the Comics Journal, and also David Anthony Kraft's Comics Interview. Man,
if you want to read some great stuff, read his
back issues from the eighties and nineties. You can find
him on name Day and they're all excellent. So keep
all that in mind. B Things says, I self publish
my comics and things with print on demand through Amazon

(57:50):
and Ingram's Spark. It definitely takes efforts to design the
book nicely, but it's a nice way to have a
real book available. I hear you man, you know, and
Jim says, either Vellum or Atticus are great formatting softwares. Well. Again,
people are helping me with the E magazine and I

(58:11):
like what they're doing. But I do have other friends
in the publishing world that when I am ready, I
will show it to them and have their thoughts as well,
great men and women that I have tremendous respect for them.
They have long careers in publishing, very successful careers. So
I got my people to talk to and figure out
what the best course is. Carrie says, talk to me

(58:33):
about things. When you're working on it. I can introduce
you to publishing or discuss the best ways to self publish.
I can also keep with an editor as well. Well,
I've got a couple of editors that I really like
right now, Carrie, So I appreciate that. But again, more voices, absolutely,
And she also says Ingram is excellent, So that's good
to hear. Yeah, there you go, man. But no, everyone

(58:58):
that means a lot that you're all like in agreement
that no, this, this content is worth happening. You know
that's this is the thing now. And again, not only
for myself telling convincing myself, but also if there are
other podcasters out there. I'm reminded of the great baseball player,
manager and broadcaster Lou Boudreau. For you youngsters out there,

(59:20):
for your young people out there that have just gotten
into podcasting, think about your brand, think about your content,
and don't just limit yourself. If you've got content that
would work on, you know, as a written product as well,
and that's kind of how I'm trying to treat word Balloon.
In fact, I had a discussion yesterday with one of
my main editors and he's like, you know, for the

(59:42):
longest time, you marketed yourself as just a podcast and
a podcast network. You really need to think of yourself
as a brand. That's what I'm trying to do. Everybody,
That's what I'm trying to do. Oh, you know all right,
Marios says, yes, Kurt Busick would be a great interview. Sadly,
Kurt does not do podcast interviews anymore. I got it
once back years ago and I want to say, like

(01:00:03):
six and had a great conversation with him about Astro
City and Superman Secret Identity, and we even shared our
love of Robert Parker Spencer Detective novels. But I've tried
a few times, and I did talk to him face
to face to the convention and he said, no disrespect,
but I just don't want to do it. I love
Jim Chung. Jim Chung is one of the best artists

(01:00:25):
of the last twenty five years, and I would love
to have him on a word Balloon podcast. He doesn't
want to do podcasts, no problem. Jimmy As I always
tease him about it. I'm like, can I still say
Alodia convention? It's like, of course you can't. I'm like,
that's fine. Dan Buckley would love to talk to Dan
Buckley as the publisher of Marvel. He's you know, He's like,
I don't know, man, you know, I've prid something I

(01:00:45):
said might bite me in the as. I'm like, Dan,
can I talk to everybody else? Of course you can't.
Then I'll never ask you again. I love Dan Buckley
and I love what Marvel does. And by the way,
Cebe Sebolski is another friend, and truly I think I
think he's doing a great chats editor in chief. I
think both companies now it's really I don't even know

(01:01:06):
what Disney and Warner's expects from DC. I was having
this discussion. I don't know if it was on the
air R I don't know it was off there with
my editor. We were talking about how back in the
seventies when the DC implosion happened, and there really was
concern that maybe they would just stop doing comics all together.
Paul Levitz's publisher of DC, went to Warnerson said, don't

(01:01:27):
think of us as a profit division of the company.
Think of us as an intellectual property laboratory. We will
come up with ideas and you can exploit them in
TV and film and licensing, making toys, making birthday cakes,
making birthday cards, bed sheets for kids. And he's right,
and that's how both DC and Marvel should be looked at.

(01:01:48):
And again, I don't mean that in terms of simplify
the product and don't make quality product for those of
us who are still reading comics and enjoying comics. No, no, no, please,
because again, that's where the idea is come from. That's
where Secret War is coming from. That's where Doomsday is
coming from. That's where James Gunn Superman came from, and
Peacemaker as crazy as it is. So I am all

(01:02:11):
for all that stuff. Rudy asked, when when I have
my buddy Rain Wilson on the pot. Rain and I
went to high school together. We were not friends, but
we weren't enemies either. When we were in Sereno de
Bergerac together, he played Christian and I was a spear carrier.
I was one of the soldiers that was in Serrho
and Christian's Army, but I was closer to my friend

(01:02:33):
Jim True, who played Sereno, who is also a television
Jim True Frost is his professional name. He did Affliction
with James Colburn and Nick Nolty. He's in a singles
the Great Nineties movie that Cameron Quote directed. He's the
elevator operator in the Hudsucker Proxy that the Coen Brothers made.

(01:02:53):
So Jim and I are closer, and I keep meaning
to like pull the trigger and get Jim on the show.
I am a assuming that there will come a time
where Rain Wilson and I are at a convention together
or something where our paths will cross, and I will
gently remind him. You might not remember me, but my
senior year year junior year, we were at the same

(01:03:14):
high school he was. His family traveled a lot. They
were of the High Faith, and they would go from
city to city. So I think he went to several
high schools before he ever settled down to wherever he
settled down. But I absolutely admire Rain. I think he's
one of the few bright spots of discovery. His Harry
Mudd was quite quite good and really dark and interesting

(01:03:36):
and of course all of his television and film work.
I love it all. No, Rain is great. I've been
very fortunate. I have several friends that then went on.
There were theater buddies of mine. We were all in
theater classes and did plays and radio together and stuff,
and they've gone on to have successful work. A lot
of my friends, my friend Janet Vandergraf became a great

(01:03:58):
comedic actor in Canada. I mentioned Jim true Foss, my buddy,
my buddy Hirsh that David Hirsch pardon me, Andy Hirsch
brothers Andy became a great actor and is still doing
quite great work on television and film. So you know, yeah,
I've been lucky that way. But you know, someday we're
both we're both young enough still that I bet Rain

(01:04:20):
will eventually be on warbalone b Things says. I'm start.
I'm working on starting a podcast. While I don't do interviews.
At the moment, I was wondering what the right and
polite way to invite people on. Do you pay them?
I do not pay them. I was very fortunate to
start when there were only a handful of comic book podcasts.
Having the radio background that I did, I absolutely promoted

(01:04:42):
that fact to these people that I'm working at, you know,
radio sports, radio jobs, and it certainly helped. You just
have to go to wherever their contact information is and
ask them politely. It's it's tough. And also you might
want to start with some of the artists ally, people
that are indie creators that could use all the publicity

(01:05:03):
that they can they can muster. But you know, go
to conventions, introduce yourself and have a business card, be professional,
you know, try and try and present yourself as you know,
well as you can. And I said, this is a
big fat guy. It's the truth. But yeah, you know,
I just just absolutely and you know, don't forget the

(01:05:27):
the the key thing though, it is folks, because again
it is such a combative time. And sadly the combative
time has not only gone into our politics, but it's
in every facet of our life. I mean, I bet
knitting groups have people that don't like each other for
their opinions. It's stupid. I wish it wasn't that way.

(01:05:47):
All that said, though, don't have a guest on that
you disagree with the way they're writing a character or
drawing a character. And I've seen and heard this many times,
and I always say, there are a guest on your
show and the operative word is guessed. You don't consider
word balloon is my living It literally is my living room.
I'm broadcasting right now from my living room. Uh. You

(01:06:09):
you wouldn't invite someone to your house and in your
living room and sit them and gown and go you
know why you suck. You're not gonna do that, and
you shouldn't do it on a podcast. You really shouldn't.
It's you, and you can find ways to explain your
disagreement without insulting the person I mentioned earlier, Keith the Candido.

(01:06:30):
We disagree about Star Trek New Star Trek. That's okay,
And again, I want to know it is different even
on the even on the Trek Watch show. I want
to hear different opinions. I don't want everyone to go, yeah,
I agree it suck. Yeah, I agree it sick too. No,
that's not that's not interesting, that's boring. Let's let's talk
about it and also do it without any actual malice.
And sometimes and that's a different form. But when you

(01:06:51):
have a guest on, I don't. I don't think it's
a good idea to have a batman artist or write
around and go, yeah, I really hate what you're doing.
I mean, that's just stupid. And you know, right, all
the cable news shows do all that crap. It's stupid.
Jim Gray a great sportscast here for CBS for years.
He used to drive me nuts. And I could say

(01:07:12):
this both as I wouldn't say I'm a colleague because
I was radio doing local radio and he's a big
network guy. But we were at the fights. Here's an
old story. I may have told it before on the show.
You'll remember Pete Rose and all the problems with gambling. Obviously,
and back in nineteen ninety nine baseball had an All
Century team because it was the end of the century.

(01:07:32):
Let's get all the all stars out there and let
the fans foot for who needs to be on the field.
This is at Fenway Park, and Pete Rose got voted in,
but he was banned from baseball. What are we going
to do? So Bud Sealing, the Commissioner's like, all right,
special dispensation. We'll let Pete Rose on the field. So
Pete's there. Jim Gray does the interview, and do you
think you have something to say to the fans about

(01:07:53):
the way you disgrace the game with gambling. Not those words,
but essentially that was the intent. Pete Rose like, I'm
here to celebrate baseball. I'm not here to talk about that,
and he went off. Well. About a month later, we're
all in Vegas, all the boxing people, and I'm there
representing sports radio, and we're all in Vegas for a
Mike Tyson fight. I forget which fight. It was ninety

(01:08:13):
ninety nine either or two thousand, definitely in that period,
and all of us are sitting around at the night
before the fight, a bunch of US reporters. It's me
and my buddy, Johnny Saracino from USA Today, Walie Matthews,
Great News Day New York writer Bron Borges from the
Boston Globe. Jim Gray is there as well, and one
of the guys like, hey, Jim, what was that crap

(01:08:35):
with Pete Rose? You know Jesus Many, Wait, what are
you doing like hitting him with that stuff now? And
he goes, yeah, but it was great television. And I
couldn't help it because I'm a big mouth and really
was like the junior guy there. But I'm like, no,
great television is getting an answer to a tough question.
You didn't do yourself any favors man, And it was
like Sutris is right, there you go, Jimmy, there you go.

(01:08:55):
Even John knows so. And literally the next night the
fight happens. Tyson has an easy knockout and Jim Gray
is in the ring with Tyson and well, Mike goel,
how'd you feel about the fight?

Speaker 3 (01:09:08):
Yeah, listen, listen before we get into that. First of all,
you what very disrespectful to Pete Road in that off
star interview, and I'm like, the convicted rapist is telling
you about your behavior.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
Look at the marapal. All that said, Jim Gray in
the Boxing Hall of Fame as a broadcaster deserves it.
I am a flea on the ass of boxing as
far as my history in boxing is concerned. So there
you go. It hasn't heard Jim Gray at all. But
I bring up all that to say you'll get you know,
think about it. If you do want to disagree with

(01:09:40):
a guest, think about it and try and find the polite,
most polite way of going. You know, I didn't understand
where you were coming from with this story. I didn't
understand where you're coming from drawing the character. I heard
a guy who wouldn't went up about Moonlight that the
writer described his costume as white, and he's like, well,
you know, it's always been silver. It's always been silver.

(01:10:02):
Who the hell cares? Shut up? Nobody gives it. Damn.
I'm sorry you do. But again, it takes all kinds.
So so there you go. Rudy says one of the
maintenants of war Balloon that you brought on people whose
work you like, and it's worked very well for the pot. Yeah. Man,
I mean honestly, I I and I and I love
when a critic will pitcheon on me. Well he only

(01:10:22):
talks about DC and Marvel, Well, then you're not listening
or watching. You only have guys on, Well, then you're
not listening or watching. I am proud to say that
I think Warbulin has always been diverse, it will continue
to be. If I like something I got, I gotta
like the book. It's that basic. I've got to like
the book. If you're you know, folks, I'm not an

(01:10:43):
X men guy. I'm just not. I wish I was,
but I'm not. And uh, that's that's why I don't
have very many X men Creators on I I you know,
when when my friends have written or drawn the book,
I've done it. I was telling a friend the other
day valdlandro I love that guy, and I love It's alright.
But for the longest time that was one of his
main gigs was X Men, and I'm like, oh, Fal,

(01:11:06):
I'm not reading your stuff. Man. Your stuff looks great,
but I have no I have no frame of knowledge
to really have an interesting conversation with you. Then he
started working with Kelly Sue on Bitch Plannet. I'm like,
all right, there we go. Now we're cool, so everything's good.
Saying b things says that makes a lot of sense.
Thanks for the advice. I'm glad man my pleasure. Stanley. Yes,

(01:11:26):
you're right, tough combative interviews are entertaining. I respect that,
but again, you don't want to ambush somebody. And sorry,
if you're looking for tough combative interviews, maybe that's not
what word balloon should be for you. I don't mind
sharing my opinion, and certainly, as I've said before, when
it comes to Star Trek, I'm very happy to give

(01:11:48):
my opinions. They don't upset me, they don't give me
adjita literally for my heart or figuratively. But all that said, yeah,
I'm sorry, it's out there, and I will I will
call balls and strike as I see them. And I've
also had people that work on Strange New Worlds, both
the actors and even a writer recently as well, and

(01:12:10):
even the Bridges who are doing the excellent IDW Voyager
post show mini series right now. In the comics, there
were consultants on Prodigy. Won't happen to like Prodigy, but
I think they worked on the other shows too. I
could be wrong as consultants, but yeah, I mean, you
know again, Robbie Thompson writing Strange New Worlds, nice guy

(01:12:31):
like him a lot. Not liking the show, I'm sorry,
And again I can still have a conversation without crapping
in the punch bowl, as I like say. I know
it's gross, but that's usually my metaphor for that. Harry says.
One of my female creator friends was blindsided when she
got on the show and they decided that their controversial
question of the night was do women belong in comics?

(01:12:53):
Since she had to defend herself, Good lord, Honestly, if
that's the best you can come up with, don't podcast, Okay,
that's that's alongside Biff Bang Pow. Comics aren't for kids
anymore and all that stuff. Comics are for everybody. And
that is my attitude and that is my belief. And
I can disagree with people who have different points of view,

(01:13:16):
but they have every right to publish the comics they do,
and I include the comics gape people on. But again,
if they're being rude or mean to other people, I'm
not interested in talking to them. Sorry, for a minute,
I thought about interviewing Richard Meyer when things were hot,
and I decided against it because the guy was being
at jerk and and and punching down and also just

(01:13:39):
being mean about people of color and orientation and women.

Speaker 2 (01:13:44):
That's ridiculous'icuous.

Speaker 1 (01:13:46):
I'm so glad that there are more and more other
voices than just white males in comics these days. Everybody else,
and I don't mean to generalize by saying it, but
just put everybody else under that umbrella in a positive way,
that everyone's out there and getting their stories out, the
stories they want to tell. That is wonderful, wonderful. So again,

(01:14:11):
my only no, I'm not a shit in talking to
you is if you're mean, it's that simple. Don't be mean.
You know, infinite entertainment. If you had to erase a
run from your memory so you could read it for
the first time again, what would you choose? The Dark
Knight returns Frank Miller. Watchman another great one that just

(01:14:32):
surprised me with every issue, Tom King and was it
Gabriel Wata that did the Vision MATSI series that got
Tim all the attention that he now enjoys today. Those
are three that come to mind. Here's a reach back,
and I forget who the artist was. Nick Fury versus
Shield the Bob Harris Prestige format miniseries was great. I

(01:14:56):
love that story. So there's a few. I don't think
of what else? You know? Again, I mean, I'm entertained
by a lot of that stuff. But the books that
really really Planetary excited me. I thought that was wonderful.
By the way, Lansing and Kelly, who do those great
IDW books search because I don't think DC will ever

(01:15:17):
trade it, but they did. Their one of out Signers
was essentially a sequel to Planetary. Check it out. I
think it's amazing. I truly think Planetary was such an
exceptional book, and that was the exciting thing about the
early two thousands. I came back to comics, I suppose
I started when I heard that Kevin Smith was doing

(01:15:40):
a really good run on Daredevil, and that got me excited.
And then I discovered Casada was doing that Man in
the Iron Mask Iron Man story, and that's when I
discovered Bendis and Daredevil Wake Up, and I went back
and got Ultimate Spider Man and that crop Brubaker and
Rucco were working on monthly Batman Detective than the regular
Batman title. That's when I discovered those people, and then

(01:16:03):
later on Gail Simone suddenly became one of my favorites.
And yeah, so that era in general was so exciting
and was so great to see that comics had again
gotten past that image period and no disrespect to those creators,
which seemed like the art was more important than the story.
Story suddenly became important again, and I realized it's a

(01:16:25):
sea Saw And now, you know, I kind of think
it's even now. I could tell me if I'm wrong,
but I really do think that the attention is as
much about the stories as it is about the art. So,
you know, Jim mcgrease. Polanetary was fantastic. Get it for
the Cassaday art alone. Absolutely, Johnny would Yeah, we missed Johnny.

(01:16:47):
Johnny was great. Never had him on the show. I'm
really regretting that a couple of wonderful people that I
met and had a little bit of connection with at
shows that I never had on the show that have
sadly gone. Darwin Cook was always kind to me. John
paul Leone was always kind of me, and we were like, yeah,
we'll do it, we'll do it, and then we never did.
I would say Cassidy is another guy like that, and

(01:17:07):
it breaks my heart. And also that they're not I
mean obviously that they all died young, and I wish
they were still around because they all did incredible, incredible work.
So if it entertaiment degrees, the early to mid two
thousands was a great time for comics. Yeah, I think
it brought a lot of us back. Man, would I
ever do a show Stanley ass where I ranked my
favorite comic drums. It's a thought, maybe, you know, for

(01:17:31):
something like this where I'm doing like kind of an
ask me anything thing. Possibly, Ah, thoughts on the Tron movies,
B things I love the Tron movies, and I'm excited
for tront Aris. I really am. There's gonna be one
of those movies that I definitely will see in the theater.
I appreciate again. You know, I was from that arcade era.
My god, we had tilt in suburban Chicago and glen Coe,

(01:17:54):
Illinois was my go to arcade. So you know everything
that you show you in the first movie about Flynn's
Arcade and stuff like that, Are you kidding? I love
that stuff. That was amazing, and I would blow my
allowance left and right. I mean the best was. I
had this really sad period. I'm fine now, but when
I got let go from the Score, actually I quit

(01:18:16):
the Score and went to Sporting news radio. I was
in a really deep funk, and I really did see
a psychologist for a while, not a psychiatrist. That's when
they prescribed too, this is a psychologist. And he said,
you know, do stuff that you like. So I would
go to arcades and I would put a twenty dollars
bill in the token thing and it would pay out
like a jackpotsh this big, big rain of tokens. And

(01:18:40):
I remember this little kid just going looking at me. Shocked,
and he's like, did you put a twenty dollars bill
in the token machine? I'm like, yeah, don't grow up
to be me, kid, but I did. I used to
all the eight big video games, and I love the
bars that have a Mitch at Terrificon had a great
room of arcade and they had the old Star Trek

(01:19:02):
video game that you could sit down and everything and
shoot it Kleon chips. Are you kidding me? Good lord Ah,
I'd love that. Infinite Entertainment wants to know. But yes,
the Tron movies, I love them. I love all three
or I love both all two of them, and I'm
excited for the third one. Infinite Entertainment. Am I watching

(01:19:23):
Alien Earth? Very good show, you know, deep confession kids
beyond the first movie. Never saw Aliens, never saw the
other sequels. I don't know. I'm not inclined. As much
as I hear how good it is, I'm not feeling it.
And that's why I'm letting Wayne talk about it when
we do Trek Watch. We're gonna do a Trek Watch
on Thursday, by the way, so there's that. Jim says

(01:19:47):
the Tron Arcade game was great with the four different stages.
I loved the original with the weird black and white faces,
with the pastel colors. Yeah, you know, that's the cool
thing about the original Tron was the fact that all
of all the effects, well a lot of the effects
were practical.

Speaker 2 (01:20:04):
There was some.

Speaker 1 (01:20:04):
CGI in it, of course, and very early CGI. But
I kind of liked the uniforms and the way everybody looked.
I thought it was cool. It may not age well,
just like Babylon five space scenes and people is really crappy.
Well that's all we had, man. You know, I'm more
interested in the story, and I loved, I mean, even

(01:20:25):
as goofy as the first Tron story was. Tron Legacy
was a lot of fun, and I really appreciate. I mean,
I know, Jeff Bridges, you know, d aging makeup a
little funky and and it's gotten better. Things have gotten
better since. But I but I love that Jeff Bridges
came back, and I guess he's gonna be in aries
as well, which is great. No, I'm very very excited

(01:20:46):
for that. And yeah, also as the rooty points, oh yes,
Bruce Boxliner as Tron and Alan in the movies. No,
I love that. I even liked the cartoon that Disney
made to support Tron legacy. I'm a big fan. I
think the Tron franchise is quite good, Mario says, And

(01:21:07):
you know, I thought about playing him, but you know
something finding him on YouTube, he said, I saw the
one minute reviews that you've done today. You should do more. Yeah,
that's the plan, man. You know, I was talking about
it earlier in the show that rather than because someone
had asked, you know, I'd love it if you do
a Twilight Zone rewatch. I think it was Pete Biser
that said that, And I'm like, I don't know if
I do a full length show, but what I would

(01:21:29):
because I really do feel like they're well covered. But
I do like doing one minute little things. I did
it because I interviewed Bud Schulberg and he made the
movie face in the crowd that Andy Griffith was in
and it's the most dark, dramatic Andy Griffith performance you'll
ever see. And I made a one minute thing. I
made it one also about the Heart of the Fall,
Humphy Bogart's last movie, So I did too. Currently about

(01:21:50):
Star Trek and I'll tell you one is a review
of Charlie x one of the first season episodes. The
other was just my suggestion, based on my love for
Star Trek Cohn, that they should consider doing a prequel
about Steff from Cochrane and get James Cromwell and Alfrey
Woodard back as Ze and Lily, and let's find out

(01:22:11):
what happened to lead to them building the Phoenix, the
first warp drive ship, because I don't buy that they
just got random spare parts post World War three. I
think there's a potentially there's a story there. I would
love to see it, and I'm loving Star Trek Cohn.
As I said earlier, Mario says, I watch Sneakers my

(01:22:31):
favorite Redford movie. What rare Redford movies should I watch? Well,
I would say Downhill Racer Him and Gene Hackman is
an excellent movie. I'm a big fan of. I don't
know how well known it is these days, but The
Candidate from the early seventies is a quite good movie.
Gabe Hartman and I are going to discuss our favorite
Redford movies coming up very soon, and we'll have a

(01:22:52):
scene missing component in our discussion as well. Jim says,
I couldn't get past the Aliens with the Larry Fine
here Babylon five. Yeah, I know, Jaman though, Yeah, you know, honestely,
I hear you, Jim. That's what drove me away from
Babylon five when it was the first season and I'm like,
I'm not digging this. When it came to TNT, and

(01:23:13):
they did before they started doing the new episodes, they
had the kind of a clip show explaining that the thing.
Then I was intrigued and again you got to get
past the makeup and really get to the story. Yeah,
because the Centauri with those ridiculous fan hairdos, really have
this incredible, very Roman Caesar esque sort of the knives

(01:23:40):
out for your for your haters politically storyline that is
fantastic and really comes to massive blows in the fourth
season when there's a calligulous sort of emperor Emperor Cartagia,
and Alondo, the character we've been following since the first season,
has to do what he can to get that guy
out of the throne. It's truly Babylon five if you've

(01:24:04):
never seen it, and it's because of those visual issues,
I would say jump right to the second season. There
aren't things about the first season, or even better to
go to a website and say, like, what key first
season episodes of Babylon five should I watch? You don't
have to watch every one of them, and also watch
in the beginning the movie they made that ties in

(01:24:25):
scenes from the first two seasons, but also gives us
more backstory on well led up to the television show story.
I love Babylon five. I wish to god they get
everything straight and we'd either get a reboot or a
retelling or a continuation of the story. It truly is
a fantastic franchise of sci fi that deserves more attention

(01:24:50):
and acceptance. And I'm thrilled that I got my JMS
interview to talk to them about it. So there's that.
Let's see here, what else? What else have we got?
As I look at some of the new comments, Yeah,
Mari says Bat one five, season three or four great
episodes of any genre, not just sci fi. That's the
thing that I think most of the general audience is

(01:25:12):
starting to realize, and as evidence by the dramatic series,
dramatic writing, Emmy that and.

Speaker 2 (01:25:20):
Or got.

Speaker 1 (01:25:22):
Television's growing up again. That's my frustration with Star Trek
All this great sci fi is happening on shows like
the Expanse and Foundation and Silo and all these other things,
and all Star Trek New Star Trek as far as
the film stuff, not the animation. I do think even
lower dex Is, I came to love it. And also
Prodigy had some great ideas in exceptional storytelling. Otherwise were

(01:25:46):
getting member berries and really dumb down science fiction. On
Star Trek. That sucks and I won't deny it. Thoughts
on Peacemaker, Creature Commando's and the upcoming DCU Slate, I'm
for it. I think James Grunt is excellent, and I
really really love Creature Commandos, and I'm glad it was
an R rated cartoon. I'm glad Peacemaker is an R

(01:26:07):
rated show. I love Superman and he gets it. That's
you know, that's that's our shorthand on the AF podcast.
This guy gets it, this girl gets it. He gets it.
And I hope to God because again we're hearing rumors
that Warners might be sold either to Paramount or Netflix,
and that there's a possibility that with that sale, James

(01:26:30):
Gunn would suddenly not be in charge anymore. I hope
that he stays with it. I hope that they understand
and see the positives that I think he has been
bringing to, you know, the new DC product. I didn't
mind the Snighter verse. I won't say that I was
an Ardent fan because I felt like visually it was great,

(01:26:52):
It's kind of Star Trek. Visually it's great, not great storytelling.
I thought Affleck really got jobbed and should have gotten
some more interesting Batman storylines. I also think that now
I'm blanket again. Henry Cavill was fantastic as Superman and
Gal Gado was great as wonder Woman. They and the
first wonder Woman movie was great. Man of Steel was decent.

(01:27:13):
Batman v. Superman. They tried to shove too much stuff
in too quickly. You don't have to. You don't have
to immediately catch up with Marvel, and I'm sorry I had.
I didn't like Ezra Miller as the Flash I have
no and I'm not talking about their personal life and
their personal problems. I didn't like the characterization of Barry
Barry Allen as portrayed by Ezra Miller. I'm a grant

(01:27:36):
gusting guy. By the way, the c W run that's
some of the best superhero stuff that television ever saw,
and that decade I think will go down as a
very great decade in superhero television, and well it should.
And hats off to my friends like Sterling Gates and
Mark Guggenheim that were directly responsible for some of the

(01:27:58):
best stories that we got during that period. Grant Gustin
was amazing again, I'm blanking Steve Stephen Ammel fantastic as Zero, Everybody,
Melissa Benoy's unbelievable as Supergirl. Everybody was just so good.
William Crest is a black lightning great show. That woman. Well,
you know, they can't all be great, but I give

(01:28:20):
it up to them for that crossover episode where Kevin
finally got to play an on camera Bruce Wayne, which
was fantastic. Still best animated Batman voice ever, so be
he thinks, says, it's not really rare. But I love
All the President's Men as far as read from me,
so of course, great movie. You know what's amazing The
Paper wasn't know the Post that Ron Howard made about

(01:28:44):
or no, Spielberg made excuse me about the Pentagon papers,
which is the Washington Post thing that they dealt with
prior to Watergate, and All the President's Men. If you
fall asleep to the post and it's a double feature,
and you wake up and all the President's men it's
going going on. You think it's the same movie. That's
how good Spielberg was. He really made it looks as

(01:29:06):
visually accurate as all the presidents men did back in
the seventies. So no, I love that movie. It's a classic.
Let's see b Things says Babylon five is great. Shakar
and Ivanova are my favorite characters. Great storyline. Chakar goes
from being this real jerk to get the character turns

(01:29:27):
and all of a sudden he's a prophet and you
understand where he was coming from, and you understand his
anger and his frustration. Very much a lot of analogies
to the modern world in terms of countries occupying other countries,
planets occupying other planets, in the case of Babylon five,
really really great stuff. Tell you what, I will ask
for one more round of any new questions and mention

(01:29:51):
these things, and then I think we'll wrap up, because
my god, we've been talking for two and a half hours,
and hey man, really everybody, thanks love for sticking with
it and asking great questions. Ridi says, it's I'm that
WB never made a DVD of the Crisis crossover episodes.
We'll never see. Never Rudy, we will see. Jim says
Azramilin did not have enough charisma in any of the movie. Seley,
I agree, and also I felt like I understood making

(01:30:15):
Barry Allen kind of hyper and scatterbrain because of the speed.
It all makes sense, but it just wasn't funny or interesting.
And in the Flash movie to have two Barry Allen's, well,
that was two annoying characters. And it's a shame because,
as I was telling Sterley Gates last week, I thought
the new Supergirl was fantastic, and I also, of course

(01:30:36):
Michael Keaton come on coming back as Batman, that was great.
I just didn't. I didn't like that Barry Allen. And
it's a shame because I appreciated Barry's story and it's
heartbreaking and it's someone who wants their mother at a
young age, as I did. I could totally relate to
all that, and I'll even admit getting sentimental and sad
at those moments, but otherwise I just didn't feel it
for Azra Miller as the Flash. If an Enter did

(01:31:00):
you ever catch the Batman Braven Bowld cartoon. I sure did.
In fact, I had the show owners of the Brave
and Bold cartoon back in the day. Why am I
blanket my buddy who then took over DC Animation after
Bruce tim and was really like the main producer. Shame
on me. I love that. Michael Tucker or no, Tucker
is his last name, but him and Mike Jollennick came

(01:31:21):
on Ward Balloon a couple of times, and Tucker has
been on Sense a few times. Shame on me, everybody.
I apologize again, Rocket, James Tucker, thank you, Rudy. There
you go. Yeah, so James Tucker and Mike Jellenick we're
on while Braven Bowl was going on. In fact, we
had a great discussion about the Justice Society episode from
Brave and Bold and they're like, hey, I don't know

(01:31:43):
how to break into everybody. We're doing the Golden Age Batman.
We're doing that forties and fifties fun Batman from that era,
and it's like, yeah, it makes sense. Of course, even
the cartoon visually looked like all that great fifties Shelley
Moldoff and etc. Artwork and everything, So yeah, absolutely m
two times TV says, how do I read my comics?

(01:32:06):
I'm be getting into omnibuses lately. Well, I'm omnibus is
cut off of the circulation of my legs. When I
read them, I appreciate them, but after the tashm DC
history books, I'm like, yeah, let me, let me, let
me stick to my iPad. So I'm doing I'm doing
it digitally on my iPad and stuff be things. Wants
to know what my dream movie is to see it
for forty X none. I'm sorry, I had my I

(01:32:30):
saw the flash that way. Everybody kind of knows. I
told the story on the thing and literally, I'm you know,
I didn't know what to expect and I'm not a
child anymore, So there you go. Ctinly wants to know
if I like doing interviews in person or online more. Well,
the only thing that we're going, I mean, I wouldn't
I wouldn't mind if we have the opportunity to sit

(01:32:50):
down and do a lengthy interview like I'm able to
do online. But I feel like at conventions they're there
for all of you. They're they're there for the fan
and especially the people that bought tickets and I would
feel whether I have a press pass or I'm a
speaker at a convention that as much as I enjoy
talking to everybody at the show, I stopped doing floor

(01:33:12):
interviews literally fifteen years ago at least, maybe even earlier,
because it's not enough. I mean, you know, right, Thomas
for years was like, well, I can give you ten minutes.
I'm like, well, Roy, I need to talk to you
for at least an hour. There's too much to talk about, man,
So no, I prefer And also, you know, they're at home,
they're relaxed, they're ready for a long interview. I'm home,

(01:33:32):
I'm relaxed, I'm ready for a long interview. So I
like this And honestly, as likely you all know, I
started doing video during COVID to get away from, you know,
the misery that we were all living in. We're in
miserable times again. Unfortunately, folks, it hasn't gotten better since
COVID cleared up. That's one of the reasons why I
keep doing video, and that's why I appreciate you all
coming in and watching and listening. All right, final questions.

(01:33:54):
Rudy wants to know if Brad Miller Brad Meltzer. Sorry,
Brad Miller, a friend of mine from back in the day,
on the schedule anytime soon. Actually, I saw that he's
got a couple of new things coming up, and it's
been a while. I'd love to have him back. Opinion
on K pop Demon Hunters now watching and Mario don't
have any don't have an opinion of it, I'm sorry
to say. Uh so, Yeah, I wish I wish I

(01:34:15):
had a better answer for you. All right, I'm gonna
wrap up. Uh you ever, everyone's been amazing and I
want to thank all of you for being here and
watching and listening. And the on camera people that came on.
I felt bad. There was a guy that was waiting
to come on early and then he and he and
he left. I think it was Sean, And I'm sorry
about that. Seawan. I wish I wish i'd gotten you
on camera. I'll do this again, I'll do you know,

(01:34:37):
how about if we do this like monthly or I
do it? Ask me any anything? So? Uh oh, Prince,
what is that You didn't even read mine? Yeah? I did,
I run, I wrote, Prince, I read I've read several
of your comments. What are you talking about? Don't be silly,
you know, don't let's let's not get petty. Okay, did
I miss something? I don't know what else you wrote
the hair we are uh oh am, I gonna talk

(01:35:01):
about Deadpool Batman. Sorry about that, Prince. It's good to
see the big two playing together for the first time
in twenty is. Yes, yeah, I'll certainly read it and
then and form some opinions. I do know. I'll be
talking about up to others who are writing a couple
of the DC and Marvel crossovers, and they'll be on
so yeah, don't worry. You know, the conversation will definitely

(01:35:23):
come up. And I'm glad that, you know. I want
to thank DC and Marvel for giving me the access
that they do to their books. So b Things says,
thank you very much. I appreciate that. Oh, he says,
listening to me guide him through college and grad school
life in general. We're Bloon has taught me so much
about comics and art and storytelling. That's nice. And everyone
else is saying this was fun. Thank you infinite ra

(01:35:44):
he says, please do it again. I will, I promise guys,
we will absolutely do that. And yes, Ridy is absolutely
right if this were not all yet podcasts. I like
Pink very much. Lois one of the best lines ever
in Superman indeed, So yeah, you know, I hope everyone's
going to enjoy watching Superman and on Max this weekend,
and I'll be back on Thursday with a Trek watch,

(01:36:07):
and we'll get more in depth in that final episode
of Stranging Worlds and thoughts on the season three of
Stranging Worlds, and also the con podcast, which I really
am enjoying. So don't worry, it's not just going to
be frustration on my part. I have positive things about
current Star Trek that are actually good. All that more
coming on the next word Balloon Live coming your way

(01:36:27):
Thursday night at nine o'clock Eastern, just like this eight
o'clock Central Time and six pm Pacific. Until next time. Everybody,
Stay safe, stay happy, stay healthy.