Tom Scioli on The Twilight Zone, Godzilla, and more

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, everybody, Welcome back time again for word Balloon the
column for conversation show John Centris here Tom Solely joining
us Man Tom Solely. I remember A Godlind being one
of the first books that really hit my radar back
in the day when I was just getting a word
Balloon started, I had Joe Casey Onwell, twenty years later,
I've got Tom on now. But man, that's such a

(00:22):
wonderful Kirby influenced cosmic book. Well, Tom is still playing
around in the cosmic world, but has certainly moved on
to bigger and better things. He's got a brand new
issue of the Twilight Zone from IDW. Issue too is
out and it is excellent. It just came out last
Wednesday and absolutely worth your time if you're a massive

(00:43):
Twilight Zone fan. We have a lot of Twilight Zone
talk in this conversation. We also have his new Godzilla book,
which is fantastic because not only do we get the
big Kaiju, but we also get a few literary heroes
from many different decades facing the big green, pretty neat stuff,
and finally, a wonderful new space opera that Tom has

(01:05):
written and drawn for Image Comics. Lots of great stuff,
plus lots of rerun talk because Tom and I can't
help it. We are from that five channel world and
we learned a lot about pop culture through our rerun watching.
Biggest part of the discussion as well, Tom Soley really
talking about some great sci fi and cosmic stuff and

(01:26):
more on today's word Balloon. Word Balloon is brought to
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(01:48):
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February of twenty twenty six, Welcome back, everybody. It's time

(02:09):
again for another word balloon Live the Compook Conversation Show,
John Centrists here, Tom si Only joining us, Tom She
Only or ce only how do I say it to
Shuley shuy? So the eye is silent, that's just like
my eye, and my name is silent, right, Tom Sholey.
It's a pleasure.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
It's great to meet you again.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Indeed, I know we were just talking off the air.
I met Tom years ago and he did an incredibly
great Captain America for me, and the reason why I
asked for it was I know how much of a
Curly Kirby Affictiononado he is. And man, I'm psyched to
talk to you about your current slab of books, Tom,
because you're really killing it. But first of all, I
want to let people know they likely already know that

(02:51):
the Total Recall Show with Tom, is that your brother
that's with you on that show?

Speaker 2 (02:55):
It's not. We have very similar last names.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
But we're not related at all, matt Zi only different
name altogether. But I think it, yeah, sounds sounds almost identical.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
So and he says it's so fast.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yeah, they brothers, you know. So. But that's great, man,
And you know you're you're traveling in the same territory
as I am. Tom, And I love that because I
really believe that twentieth century pop culture doesn't get enough love,
and there's got to be something for our age demographic
and slightly younger and slightly older for us to reminisce about.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Yeah, I mean, I just talk about what I want
to talk about, and that a lot of it happens
to be that, you know, but I do, like we
just reviewed did a review of Wicked that hasn't gone
up yet, so I mean still a little bit current.
But yeah, my interests tend to be in the previous century.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Let's just say.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
That, as evidenced by some of your current books. And dude,
you're you nailed it on the Twilight Zone. Congratulations got
I love everything about this black and white choice. The
story in which you not only drew but wrote is
absolutely something that I think if you were around in

(04:08):
the early sixties they might have Rod Serling might attacked
you for this.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Then, Wow, high praise, Thanks so much, John, Yeah, I
I you know, I just it was such an honor
to be chosen to be part of that because it's like,
I mean, the Twilight Zone, you know, forget about it,
that's like one of my all time favorite things.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Did you ever read the Gold Key comics back in
the day.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
I have a few of them, and the one that
I sought out, you know, a few years back with
is there's there's like a Frank Miller one. He might
have done too, but there is a Frank Miller one
and it's got it's got like a Kirby swipe in it.
It's got there's like a Kirby drawing of the thing

(04:50):
in a by plane and so you know, Frank, it's
a character in a byplane and it looks like I mean,
you know, I guess there's only so many ways you
can draw a byplane, but it's kind of the exact
same cropping and frame, and he's such a Kirby fan.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
I imagine it wasn't a coincidence.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
You know. I remember seeing them on the stands and
maybe I bought a couple back in the day. But
it's something I've never gone back and looked for. But
I absolutely respect it, and really just the output of
Dell and gold Key and everything. You know, they had
cool people like I didn't realize until I talked to
him that Lenn Wayne had written a couple of star

(05:27):
treks for them.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
Yeah, I you know, that's it's such a huge body
of work. And it's not really part of the canon
of comic books, you know, sort of comic book fandom
sort of decided a long time ago what the canon is,
and it's it's sort of built off of that, and
it's just not part of that. But there is a
lot of a lot of great stuff. I mean, I
really love the Tarzan comics, and you know Magnus Robot

(05:54):
Fighter you.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
Know, no, I agree, and nah, brilliant artists and and
then you know, and I know you Star Trek fan
as well. It is funny to look back and it's like, yeah,
they gave those books to these Italian artists, and all
they gave them were like photographs, and you just have
these implausible things like the Enterprise in Space on Fire
or beautifully painted covers though always for gold Gate.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, and I've only really scratched the surface of that
stuff too, Like I probably have you know, a couple
dozen of those issues. But still that's just like a
drop in the bucket, you know, to what they were producing.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Absolutely, And also they reprinted them, I believe, time and
time again over the years too.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
Yeah. Yeah, and there's some like nice like sort of
thicker like volumes where they put them together.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
I have a couple of those too.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
That's cool. Well, back to your story, I will let
you reveal as much as you'd like. It came out
last Wednesday from IDW everybody, second issue of the twild Zone. Sorry, Tom,
I thought you were the ongoing guy, but you're in
for this issue. But again, you packed a lot in
this whole issue.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
Man.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Thanks, And yeah, I mean a really cool part of
the series is that each issue is a different you know,
creative team or solo creator, as a solo creator in
my in my and I think there's a couple other
solo creators coming up. But I thought that was a
really smart way to do it, you know, treat it
like the show, where you know, you'd have you know,

(07:21):
a different writer, a different director, you know, for for
all the episodes. And again it was it was a
real challenge too, like it. I mean, I spent I
spent the summer basically working on my issue, and it was,
you know, just a high I had a high bar

(07:41):
to get to, so, you know, I wanted and there
were a lot of a lot of you know, targets
you have to hit. When you're doing Twilight Zone, it
has to feel like a Twilight Zone has to look
like at twilights, and you have to sort of ask
your question, ask yourself, like.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
What is that exactly?

Speaker 3 (07:54):
You know, like I think we all have a sense
of what it is and what it isn't, but to
like really, you know, hone in on that and be
able to you know, create something new in that in
that form.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
It didn't surprise me that, of course you're doing a
space expedition story and man, not only you know, especially
on the cover and really the design of the astronauts.
They're on a strange planet. I you've got that wonderful
thing just like this the show. And in fact, I
even watched your preview that you did about it on

(08:30):
Total Recall where you said, yeah, I used to crack
me up that you know, they just like land on
a planet, pop over the etch and all right, here
we are. We're on a planet and everything, and yeah,
and he's threw in that line, oh you know that's
all right. Hey guess what we got a we got
an oxygen like atmosphere. We'll be okay.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, yeah, that was at least some kind of lip
servers to it. But yeah, there are little quirks of
Twilight Zone that I you know that I felt like, well, yeah,
this because initially I did think of them coming in
with like space suits and all that, and I thought, well,
you know what, you know, it's they usually have a
ball cap or or just nothing, you know, just like
a jumpsuit. You know, there's there's like the great episode

(09:09):
I think it's called The Lonely where it's it's a
guy who's on like a prison asteroid. He's on a
prison asteroid and he's just you know, he's just again
dressed in a jumpsuit. And then the astronauts who deliver
him supplies every couple of months, they have football helmets.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
You know.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
That's that's their their gear on an asteroid. It's not
even like, oh this is an earth like planet or something,
it's an asteroid.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
Absolutely. I think that was Jack Wrton from Jack Gordon. Yeah,
one of one of my favorite character actors in.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
It, right, yeah, he's great, yeah yeah, and you know.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
That's the thing. He also also did that baseball Twilight Zone,
the Mighty Casey where they have the robot playing baseball.
Right yeah, so no it kills me and and truly
it's funny you mentioned the base at I think of
Rocky Jones. I'm sure you've watched from the fifties. Have
you watched Rocky Jones and all that low budget they

(10:07):
made movie well they made it was it was an
afternoon half hour Cliffhanger show. Oh okay, And then they
stitched them together to make movies of the adventures. Mystery
Science Theater years ago did like two of the adventures
Crash of the Moons and I forget the name, the
name of the other one, but oh man, no, it's
it absolutely is that Wallywood fifty Yeah, and in fact,

(10:29):
I really think your spacesuits evoke that Wallywood design, although
you got the helmets there on the cover, but yeah,
you know it was literally guys and T shirts and
ball caps on Rocky Jones.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
Yeah, yeah, I guess that's that's what they thought the
you know, the future of space exploration was going to be.
It was I guess, like you know, grease monkeys or something.
It was like, you know, it's just like this is, yeah,
this is what guys who work in a garage and
fix up your car look like. So these are the
same guys that are going to be you know, taking
a banner or wrench or something to to a spaceship.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
That's great. Art bout is our watching us? My man?
Uh and and says he likes your work and he's
a fan. So that's cool. Thanks, excellent. Have you met
him yet on the convention in the circuit?

Speaker 3 (11:15):
If I did, it would have been like years and
years ago, way way at the beginning, Like I I know,
we've done you know, some of the same shows, especially
especially back in the early days like probably I don't know,
Pittsburgh Comic Con or some of the Ohio shows or something.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
But yeah, just like a space.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
You're a Pittsburgh guy. So who's no worries man? Who's
who's still out there?

Speaker 2 (11:39):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (11:40):
You know Jim Jimmy Rugg is still out there? Is
is Dave Whactor?

Speaker 2 (11:43):
Is he still in Dave Wactor?

Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah, Dave Wactors Uh, you know, still still in Pittsburgh,
Ron Friends, Pat Oliffe, Uh, yeah, there, you know Pittsburgh.
And then there's just like a whole new generation of
like Pittsburgh comics people that I'm you know that I'm
not aware of. You know, it's just you know, Pittsburgh

(12:05):
Comics has has gotten so big that it's.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
It's really like a big.

Speaker 3 (12:09):
You know, it's like there's you know, worlds within worlds,
even in a you know, relatively small city like Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
That's great. How many pages long is this story? Because
my god, there's a lot of back matter, alternate covers,
and also a nice little preview of what's coming in
issue three. But like, I know, you're like over twenty pages.
How long is the story?

Speaker 3 (12:31):
Yeah, it's twenty two, which is nice because you know,
the standard is twenty so it's nice to have those
extra extra two pages. You know, I needed every bit
of real estate because I did want it to, you know,
at least in general, have like the rhythm of a
Twilight Zone episode. And you know, it wasn't like, oh okay,
you know, to be continued, you know, next issue, but

(12:52):
to have it, you know, be like you sort of
sit down with this comic and you get the full
Twilight Zone experience in one sitting.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
So twenty two pages was nice.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Well you nailed it, man, And again you know people
will definitely feel that Zone aesthetic. And uh, the O
Henry twist at the end I think is great, and
a couple of different places where it twists at the end,
and it was it was very effective. And also forgive
me because I mean, this is consistent from what I've
seen on some of your other books, and especially some

(13:22):
of your recent books that we're going to talk about.
But there was almost a do you know that religion
the guy who used to do the religio religious comics
Jet is a jet shift, I want to Jack chick Chick.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah, Jack, Yes, I.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
Don't know why, but your face is kind of reminded
me of Jack Chickenson interest that.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah, I'll have to take a look at that. I mean,
uh wow, yeah, that's yeah. I mean and the Jack Trick.
The Jack Chick comics are black and white, Son, and
also they are wide, They're they're wide, and I used
mostly you know, wide panels for this, and it was
uh dialogue driven, you know that. Uh so that's interesting.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah, I hadn't thought of that, but I was.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
In uh, in writing it, I was thinking more in
terms of you know, dialogue and oratory and and and
you know, speechifying, because that felt like Twilight Zone. Like
my my comics tend not to be as you know,
as as you know, wordy or or or both. They

(14:26):
tend to be sort of mainly action driven. But again
it there was a cadence that felt like the twilight
Zone that I, you know, wanted to play with.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
Do you have specific writers of the Zone TV show
that you really gravitated to. I mean, I'm a Richard
Matheson fan, I'm a.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
Truth and yeah, yeah, Matheson's the big one I think of. Again,
I don't I have so many favorite episodes and I
couldn't necessarily say like, oh, who did you know which one?

Speaker 2 (15:01):
Like?

Speaker 3 (15:01):
But but there is sort of this twilight Zone voice,
you know, this twilight Zone just just you know, way
that people communicate with each other, which again is doing
a twilight Zone thing. There's so many different Twilight Zones.
I mean, there is that sort of iconic twilight Zone
the original run that we all know and love, and

(15:23):
then even within that, there's maybe like a set number
of episodes that are considered and then you can sort
of get outside of that, and then it doesn't feel
quite like twilight Zone anymore. And again, like I'm a
fan of the Twilight Zone movie and I'm a fan
of the Twilights, like the eighties TV series.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
I haven't seen the newest one yet.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
I do want to check it out, but they you know,
the eighties series doesn't have like it's It's twilight Zone,
but it's it's eighties twilight Zone, so it doesn't. But
you know, there's certain things that are just unique to
that late fifties early sixties world that you know, I
love and is great. But I understand why somebody making

(16:06):
a show in the eighties or making a show now
wouldn't feel like, oh, well, you know, we've got to
make sure the acting is a certain style of acting,
and we've got to make sure the lighting is a
certain kind of like I understand why people wouldn't want
to hit adhere to that, but that was an ingredient I,
you know, wanted for my you know my you know

(16:27):
first and you know, possibly only.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
Try it a twilight Zone story.

Speaker 3 (16:32):
You know, if this is it, if this is the
only time I get to do a twilight Zone story,
you know, there's certain you know, notes I want to hit.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
I don't blame you, man, And again I think you did.
And you know, there's the reason why the classic run
continues in syndication and on streaming and table on the
various sallets and things. I got the chance to talk
to two writers of the eighties show over the years
Marty Pasco and JMS jos right, yeah, and you know,

(17:02):
and I know I remember UPN had their version in
the early or late nineties or early two thousands that
the same showrunners Deep Space nine was doing. I rebar
uh And then of course Jordan Peel's won. I gotta
be honest, man, I was kind of let down. And really,
if there is a successor to that Twilight Zone vibe,

(17:23):
it's that Black Marror show on Netflix.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
Interesting. Yeah, yeah, oh for sure, And I'm sure that's
part of the pitch.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
I mean, yeah, again, I haven't seen Jordan Peel's twilight Zone,
but I've seen you know, his movies, which would you know,
which I guess is why he got the job, as
you know, taking over the Twilight Zone, because they would fit,
you know, really nicely into the Twilight Zone format.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
Agreed, And that's I think why, unfortunately myself, I was
kind of let down by by whatever factors went into
his thing. Be right. I think for your issue, you
really get that that cadence of the original series, and
I'm assuming that Serling, even though he would get something
from a Mathieson or a Charles Beaumont or some of

(18:10):
these others that you know, he would story at it
and kind of tailor them into what he was looking for.
Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know if you have you
really dolved into the Yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
I mean that that's the sense I get that he'd
sort of you know, put his spin on it and
it you know, it was ultimately his show, and and
and he had been working in television, you know, for
a really long time by that point. So I think
you do get really good at seeing that big picture,
you know, and and and figuring out a voice in

(18:42):
a way to uh, you know, collaborate with people and
and and get people to uh, you know, bring their best.
But there definitely does seem to be a consistent voice,
even though there are a lot of different writers.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
And then you know, just some of the things.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
Of Serlings, you know that that precede the Twilight Zone
and then and then things that came after, I mean,
particularly the Twilight Zone script. I've read, uh Surlings, not Twilights,
his Planet of the Apes script. I've read Surling's Planet
of the Ape script, and yeah, it's it's that's it's
that same voice, you know.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
Yeah, it's a shame, you know, I'm really glad Dana
Gould adapted Yeah Surling's screenplay. I got to interview him
about that, and it's it would have been a cool movie.
And of course we got that uh makeup test that
has been and Edward g Robinson.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
Edw Yeah, Edward g Robinson's in it. Yeah, yeah, I've
seen that. Yeah, that is that is really fun to see.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
And it's very Twilight Zone feeling in terms of where
it could have gone. I never read the original novel.
I don't know if you.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
Have, I have it. Yeah, it's it's excellent.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
I like it a lot that that screen test felt
a lot like the Eye of the Beholder episode of
Twilight Zone. Just the doctors there and they're they're in
their sort of you know, doctor gear, and I don't
know that the acting that the conversations really felt, you know,
like it, you know, it was just sort of like

(20:07):
a next door neighbor to that to that show.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
Agreed, And I also think just the whole vibe the
society felt felt more alien and akin to the various
times that you would see alien races on the Twilight Zone.
So yeah, no, it felt more sling. And again I
still like to finish product that we got, you know,
from the show, movie and the subsequent I'm I'm an

(20:31):
Original five fan. I have rooted for the newer stuff.
The Burton movie was, you know, and I really kind
of hated how much he was shitting on the makeup.
Hey dude, that gay went an oscar and rightfully so,
and yeah you get the makeup down your story not
so much.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yeah, I'm a fan of of that original stuff. And
I love the TV series too. The I mean, I
knew the TV series before I knew the movies because
the TV run they'd run them all the time. And
then when I finally like saw like just a little
piece of the first movie, and I was like, wow,
this is really uh you know, this is this really
feels grown up and like it felt like a wow,

(21:14):
like it was it was the correct order to watch
them in because the TV series was more of like
a kid's thing, and then and then the movie's series.
The thing I've seen lately I've seen recently that I
really liked was the director's cut of Conquest of the
Planet of the Apes. It's on the Blu Ray and
it's amazing. I Mean, I always loved Conquest. It was

(21:34):
you know, that was sort of my second favorite of
of the of that original thing.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
But the director's cut is tremendous.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
I mean I think, uh, you know, it was going
to get an X rating or something because it has
like scenes where they they shoot the apes in the
face and stuff. You know, but it's it's a really
strong statement. The you know that that director's cut and
and and the you know, going back and watching the
original version does feel you know, compromised. It feels like,

(22:02):
you know, they kind of turned things down.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
Yeah, yeah, but now we must put our weapons down
and right, and you.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
Know, yeah, because he's at the end of the director's cut,
he's preaching for just all out war and you know,
destroy the human race and stuff. But yeah, they they
they tone it down, tone down the rhetoric.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
And then we get Battled the fifth movie, which really
is like it's such a cool, weird movie. And then
I have a ton of respect for the director and
right now, the British guy, and he's got three names
and I forget it at least something, you know, uh,
I forget his name. But man, it's interesting because he
certainly was hampered by a shoe string budget. And also

(22:43):
it was rated G the Right, the near X that
the Conquest.

Speaker 3 (22:50):
Got the the Yeah, the Battle for the Planet of
the Apes feels like a companion to beneath the Planet
of the Apes, you know, because it's got the the
mutants and it's not it's not you know, great, but
there's so much you know, good stuff in it.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
Yeah. No, I have a one hundred percent man. No,
Like I said that Original five, it's so funny, but
you could say that about Bond as well, the Conner's
and everything. And also, I mean I love the Lesenby film,
and I think you're a real Bond. Oh yeah, you're like, no, no, no,
Honor Majesty's Secret Services are great, great movie.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yeah, it's good.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
He just he just had to follow up Sean Connery,
like somebody had to take that one, and somebody had
to take that one for the team, uh you know,
and so you know, of course people are gonna say, oh,
this guy is no Sean Connery. But yeah, I thought
I thought he was great, and I thought I thought
that was, you know, one of the strongest Bond movies
just in general, just you know, putting aside who's playing Bond,

(23:46):
it was you know, all kinds of great set pieces,
great villain.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
Zabalis, you know.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Yes, great blowfelt, fantastic blowfelt. I mean, that's the thing.
And Diana Rigg is great. And Peter the director who
was the editor on a lot of those early conneries
and stuff. Again, that's that's what I'm saying. It's like,
I know, nobody's going to be Sean Connery obviously, and
we certainly know that, but he's like Lazenby is surrounded
by this movie.

Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah, And and it advances the story of James Bond too,
which is very rare. In a James Bond they're usually
just sort of like throwaway adventures. But this one actually
there the character you know, has has an arc and
and you know, you know, ends up in a different
place than where he started.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
Absolutely. Man, well let's let's get back to your books
and everything, because you've got to watch stuff that has
come out in the last few months and and hey,
that's tom that's great, man, Because truly we could point
people that maybe have read some of these other things
and point them not only do last week's twilight Zone,
but also got the Godzilla monsterpiece theater hilarious And man, folks,

(25:00):
if you if you wonder what it's almost your League
of Extraordinary Gentleman and that it's uh and why let
you describe it because it's it's really great. Now I'll
get into the details of it, but I mean this
is a very wide, sprawling epic in your in your
art style.

Speaker 3 (25:18):
Yeah, it's it's Godzilla versus the Great gats Spy. And
so it sort of starts there. It's starts, you know,
and it and it again. I tried to you know,
match the themes of both things, like sort of line
up the themes of the Great gats Spy with the
themes of Godzilla. So it is it feels almost perfectly
natural when Godzilla, you know, steps into Gatsby's world. But

(25:42):
then it it uh, from there, it you know, blossoms
into this uh you know, just this grand adventure across
on reality, across uh you know again. Yeah, like like
the Extraordinary Gentleman, you know, just letting sort of all
you know, all of fiction sort of seep its way

(26:04):
into this you know, sort of global battle between you know,
two big genes.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
We've got steampunk heroes, we've got diesel punk heroes, leading
right to the atomic age. Battye of Godzilla but it
is set in that Gadsby period. Ironic timing given that
our president just had a great Gatsby party. Where was Godzilla? When?

Speaker 2 (26:28):
Interesting?

Speaker 1 (26:32):
But I mean it's right there on the cover, So
I mean, I do want to point out that not
only is Gadsby and their Sherlock Holmes is in there. Uh,
there's somebody that is revealed, if you don't know, with
a D on the back of his cape. And then
also the uh, the the time how do you how
do you put it? Because I my, my, my balls

(26:52):
are short. But the guy from the h U L's
Time Machine story.

Speaker 3 (26:56):
Yeah, that in that in the book, I called him
the time Machinist. I think in the uh in uh
the time Machine, he's referred to as the time traveler.
But the time traveler just, you know, felt a little generic.
You know, you know, there's lots of lots of you know,
people that are you know, time travelers. Time machinist felt
felt right.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
But you got the Gatsby certainly right of it. He's
finding for Daisy and uh uh and yeah, it's a
big thing happens and it becomes a very it's the
the f Scott of Fitzgerald of it all is still there,
but alongside this crazy monster sci fi movie that you've
decided to layer on top of it.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
I mean it allows for a nice through line, like
I mean, you know, god some you know, some of
the best Godzilla stories have some kind of you know,
human drama that's being played out, you know, in the
midst of this like larger uh you know, catastrophe.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
So yeah, that was it was.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
It was kind of a perfect fit that, you know,
like it fit better than it had any right, uh,
you know, fitting it really you know, the Godzilla and
the Great Gatspe worked really well together, and Godzilla in
that in like a nineteen twenties American city kind of.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
Millie like that.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
That worked really nicely too, and it it felt pretty fresh,
like I would have imagined, well, somebody's done something like this,
but I don't think that exact you know, like that
that's that's ever been covered in the you know, how
many years has Godzilla been around at this point, seventy
seventy five or seventy okay.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
Yeah, yeah, well fifty four, so yes, yeah, there you go. Yeah, no, absolutely, man,
And you know, Marvel obviously when they had the license
and then you know, you had Dumb Dumb dug In
and shield Fight, Oh yeah, which was fun.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
Stuff was fun.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yeah, absolutely, But this is like there's like two different
layers of the idea of lost generation, which was so
important to the World War One, of the World War
One veterans coming back from World War One, and Jay
Gabsy Gaspy represents that. But you could say that too
about the time Mechanic as well as and sorry if

(29:08):
you did say.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
Time mechanics, time machinist, but yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
Time machinists.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
My apologis good too.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
That's a good name. Where was that to help you?
Then the time machineists a home and I mean that's
the thing, man, It's like, all these guys represent an
interesting period and then to throw them into nineteen twenties
America against this thing that we only knew about during
the Atomic Age and to see how it all kind

(29:35):
of plays out. And that's what I mean, man, because
it's a little bit of this steampunk era suddenly finding
themselves about twenty to thirty years beyond their best years.
And then also this threat that we know best from
the Atomic Age. So yeah, all the time kind of
converges into this crazy period in the twenties.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
Yeah, that is it is kind of fun to think
about because there are you know, certain people I mean
just you know, you know, real world world figures too,
but that we sort of think of as part of
a certain era. But you know, it's like, well, you know,
you know they maybe you know, lived into other eras
that we don't associate them.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
You know.

Speaker 2 (30:13):
There was at one point.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
I know, they were going to do an Indiana Jones
movie that where it took place in the fifties. I mean,
they ended up doing that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
But it began as like, okay, what's Indiana Jones doing
in the fifties, and so let's have him show up
in like a cheesy Flying Saucer movie, like like a
Flying Saucer story, which is how that began. And then

(30:37):
it became something else but again, and then even the
most recent Indiana Jones and seeing him watching hr Puff
and stuff on TV and listening to the Magical Mystery Tour,
I think, you know, but it's like yeah, why.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
Not, Yeah, no, I'm with you, absolutely, I know. It's
don't get me wrong, Dalad Destiny has its flaws. I
don't hate it as much as others do, and it's
I mean, I don't know, I'd have to I'd have
to think of where i'd put it in the five sure,
but you know, I think it's I think it's slightly
better than Crystal Skull. But again, I think all the

(31:12):
problems that I heard. My buddy Gabe Hartman was the
storyboard artist on Okay, and you know, he he told
me the real kind of you know, they they had
stuff that they were going to shoot in completely different locations,
and then because of COVID, they had to you know,
juke and change things, and that's among the reasons why
the budget ballooned his you know how big it.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
Became a sure, yeah, yeah, I mean I enjoy all
that stuff, like I enjoyed all of them.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
I loved the Star Wars.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
Sequel trilogy that I know everybody, like you know, everybody's saying,
you know how awful, Like I love that too. So
I'm always surprised when, uh again, I never thought i'd
see the day where an Indiana Jones movie would sort
of underperform.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
I thought that was like one.

Speaker 3 (31:55):
Of those things that but again, it's just you know,
times change tastes.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
Yeah, well weren't the older end of the nerd demo man,
And I mean it's twenty somethings to get into with
the same zeal that we do. I mean right now
modern Star Trek classic example. And I won't drag you
into a massive conversation, but no, no, don't worry. Don't worry.

(32:22):
But I do want to acknowledge on the Total Recall
Show that you tucked up the lack of the nineteen
eighty and I absolutely appreciated your fresh eyes on it
because I remember watching it as a kid when it
was still on ABC. And if people don't know that
was the sequel to the original, and other than Lauren Green,

(32:46):
it was really, unfortunately just hampered by budget constraints. Tom
does a great deep dive on it on The Total
Recall Show and there's only one really really good episode
and that's the Return of Starbucks where Dirk Benedict did
come back. I mean, you know, they put it at
six o'clock in the evening Central Time, and that was
the kid's hour, so it could be violent, so literally,

(33:08):
as I understand, and watching the various behind the scenes
documentary that exists that like even having a laser gun
like split a tree. Well that's kind of violent, and
is it It's like Jesus Man.

Speaker 3 (33:21):
Yeah, at that point, At that point it becomes like
what Saturday Morning cartoons were back then, like what they
couldn't show on you know, super Friends or something.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
You know.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
I always say the Captain Marvel Shazam show is so tame.
It makes the first two seasons of Superman in the
nineteen fifties look like pulp fiction. Yeah, on a gun play.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
You know, it's interesting.

Speaker 3 (33:47):
But because my like, you know, I guess this is
just natural, but I came from all that stuff. Like my,
there weren't a lot of comic books around the house
when I was a kid, so I knew all these shows,
and so it was sort of perfect because the comics were,
by comparison, so sophisticated, grown up.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
They didn't talk down to you. You know, they were exciting.

Speaker 3 (34:11):
So it was kind of like perfect where it's like, oh,
you know, oh I like Shazam.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
And then and then you know.

Speaker 3 (34:16):
You start you know, checking out the comics even even
like the comics for the forties and stuff, and it's like, wow,
that's the same. SAME's true of Ninja Turtles, Like Ninja Turtles.
You know that you see the cartoon and it's it's
fun and it's you know, goofy and campy or whatever.
But then you discover the comics and it's like, oh wow,
this is the real stuff.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
Absolutely are you uh have you? Have you done it?
I know you've done Transformers in g I, Joe, have
you done any Turtle stuff?

Speaker 3 (34:42):
I have not done any Turtles. I mean I I
that's I mean, that's something I'd enjoy.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
I like that.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
I've done some tributes to the like I've done for uh,
Fantastic four Grand Design. I did a cover that was
a tribute to issue you one of Ninja Turtles. I think,
I actually I think that the cover never ended up
being a cover, but it ended up being you know
that that sketch of the cover ended up being part

(35:08):
of the back matter of Fantastic for Grand Design. But yeah,
I mean no, I've never done anything like official with
the Turtles. Although I did get the Xerich Grant from
Peter Laird for my first comic, The Myth of ad Opus.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
So so there's there's a Turtles there.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
That's awesome, man. Though you know, I honestly, my first
awareness of you was Godlin and and you you're man.
I remember talking to Joe, you know, twenty years ago
when I was first doing word Balloon, and I'm just like, hey, man,
I go, I love this design that Tom's doing and
everything about it. And certainly Godland a great example of

(35:47):
your Kirby influence right there. But that's wonderful that you
got the Xeric grant. That was and people don't know
that was this great thing that Eastman and Laird did,
giving out, you know, these grants to get a firing
creators their first books.

Speaker 3 (36:03):
Yeah, I mean it was just Peter Laird. Yeah, Kevin
he had a different, uh like a different approach or
a different philosophy for sort of helping out, but they
both had their own separate like ways of helping out
you know, comics creators.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
And uh yeah, it's funny. You know, I just talked
to Joe Casey not too.

Speaker 3 (36:22):
Long ago about the new uh I'm not new, but
the the Albert Pune Captain America. They that the family
released like his his work print. It was like this,
you know, kind of raw but very like wonderful version
of that movie that uh, you know, just just came
out this year and I'm very excited about it, and

(36:43):
and I've been kind of, you know, telling people about.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
It and so so me and Joe were talking about
that that's great.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
Man. No, I saw your review of it, and I
I also reviewed it here on my show.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
Okay, I'll be check that out.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
Oh man, it's it is so good and I so
agree with you. I think Terry Baby was the first
creator that I saw raving about it. And you know,
we all, especially those of us that saw it either
as a bootleg or VHS or whatever back in the day,
it's like, oh man, you know whatever, and no, you
see this director's cut, and like you said, it is rough,

(37:16):
but it's it's clean enough that if you really want
to get the story, and it is one hundred times
better than what the final cut was, and way, you know,
way to go Cannon for it would have been a great. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah, no, it's it's true.

Speaker 3 (37:30):
I mean, I because what it is is very risky.
It is it takes a lot of chances. It's it's
rough around the edges, but I think it's it's a beautiful,
like exquisite thing.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (37:41):
And then but but for the actual released version, they
made something much safer and yeah it is. It is
funny because that you know, original version of the Captain
America movie that came out all those years ago. I
might say it's like the worst superhero movie ever met,
you know, it's like pretty far down the list, but
this one is like that. It's like one of my
one of my favorite superhero movies of all time.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
I saw in your review You're like, I don't know,
it's my favorite Captain America movie. And I'm like, no,
I understand me, because it's there's a purity to it.
And even Matt Salinger, he's listen, he's not a great actor.
Chris Evans can run circles around, but there's a very
earnest performance. And again in that director's cut, I think

(38:25):
you get that feeling of this guy is lost in time.

Speaker 3 (38:29):
Yeah. Yeah, that lost quality like really really works in
this in this version.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
My theory is because then I'm glad we're making this
tangent we'll get back because there's yeah, sure there's more,
there's no more time stuff to talk about. But also
my theory is the reason why they made the Skull
Italian and suddenly it was this whole Italian story rather
than it being Germans and Nazis. I'm guessing there probably
was some investment money from Italians and that might be why.

(38:59):
And I'll so it seemed like they maybe did a
little shooting in Italy.

Speaker 3 (39:02):
I'm not sure, yeah, could be, although like that element
didn't seem as glaring in this other edit. Like this,
this version moves so fast that you don't really have
time to think about, you know, things, think about the absurdity,
which which I think is very smart, like it you know,

(39:23):
keeps moving where the other one was kind of ponderous,
and so you have plenty of time to like get
a really good look at that costume and like, you know,
see the seams in it, and you know, and and
the performance.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
And the sets seem more like sets.

Speaker 3 (39:37):
You get to see where they get you in and
out of them really fast. It's also because I mean,
some people have talked to about it are asking me like, oh,
so there must be like some amazing new scenes in it.
And I don't know how much new there there might
There might not be any new material in a new
It's just it's just all the same stuff just cut
in just.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
A much smarter way.

Speaker 3 (39:56):
And we're not we're not accustomed in this day and
age two, less is more. We really are like, oh,
you know, bigger is better, but this is you know, this,
this is a really good, you know, demonstration of you know,
just you know, reductive reductionism or you know, keeping things simple, agreed.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
And I it's funny, I thought that there might be
a couple different scenes because I seem to remember more
scenes of Ronnie Cox and Ned Baby together as adults,
as opposed to that kind of uh you know, all
the President's men kind of phone conversations about hey, you know,

(40:42):
I think I saw the guy. We'll get to the
bottom of it. Ned go out there and investigate, and
I love and again I think it works better. And
Ronnie Cox is Ronnie Cox is great and everything, you know,
managed to seem pretty credible. Throwing a bunch in one
of those fight scenes at the end of the movie.
You know, yeah, I like him a lot, that's uh no,

(41:03):
I really do. And also you have this red skull.
You have a bit of sympathy for him because it's
he's got this Italian background. Well, they were dealing with
fascism in Italy, as you know, I mean, you know,
in the whole Mussolini thing, and as a kid he
was kind of, you know, against his will, indoctrinated into
that whole thing. And so there is kind of this

(41:24):
small bit of this Red Skull sympathy as opposed to
you know, the pure hate of Johann Schmidt.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
Mm hmm. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
And I mean the Red Skull, you know, over the
years has gotten sort of like an official you know,
backstory and official canon. But for a lot of years
he was kind of like the Joker, where there wasn't
really you know, a set. There's been a couple of
different versions of who he is and and and and
you know, eventually, you know, somebody came like a Roy
Thomas or somebody came along and like you know made

(41:53):
sort of like like a grand you know thing that
made all those little pieces fit. So, yeah, you know,
why couldn't this be one of the you know, origin
stories of the Red Skull.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
I'm cool with it. Ken Dog is joining us and says,
the only other thing I could think of the Mats
was he was a jock in Revenge of the Nerds.
I didn't remember that. I thought this might have been
it for him.

Speaker 3 (42:15):
Well, yeah, this that Captain America felt like a jock
like that, you know, the Matt Sallenger what it felt like. Okay, yeah,
that's that's a valid approach to this sort of superhero
that is is essentially like a super athlete.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
Yeah. And also, I guess I know people would make
fun of the fact that his ears, you know, clearly
were fake, but I guess the reason why was they
actually didn't have his normal ears, but the mask kept
shifting on him so it would screw up. So that's
why they're like, all right, we'll do this, and it's
it's such a great low budget solution. And listen, there's

(42:53):
there's still elements of it that are absolute cheese. But again,
given when we grew up in everything, it's like, hey,
you know something, there were a lot of cheap things, you know,
as far as TV and movies back then, And but again,
I think the good stuff supersedes the bad stuff.

Speaker 3 (43:07):
Yeah, I'm it'll be interesting because it's so this version
is so new and it's sort of just filtering through
the culture a little bit. So like I'm looking forward
to like a larger conversation because as of now, it's
just like those few of us who were willing to
sort of plunk down the you.

Speaker 2 (43:23):
Know, thirty bucks or whatever to get get the Blu Ray.

Speaker 3 (43:26):
But like I want to I want to hear what
other people. You know, when when Joe told me he
got a copy on my recommendation, I was like, uh oh,
what's kind And then and then he loved it too, So,
you know.

Speaker 1 (43:37):
Especially someone who's opinionated as Joe, I was really you know, honestly,
I love another book of yours, the image book that
came out and there we go, everybody Xanadax another fantastic
sci fi thing. And I would tell people that if
you enjoyed Godland, then I think the same vibe or

(43:58):
at least a slightly similar vibe in this As you say,
Space opresented at I don't want to give it the
proper title, but I was wondering. I'm like, oh shit,
I hope he and Joy is still cool. And obviously
you guys are still cool. So that's great to hear.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
Oh yeah for sure.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
Yeah, yeah, it's interesting that that is an interesting pairing
thinking about uh Space Opera's Anadax across the Unknown Dimensions
of the Galaxy and Godland, because there is.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Especially just looking at the covers, just just now.

Speaker 3 (44:29):
They're both sort of you know, referencing, you know, sort
of more like sci fi magazine or sci fi paperback
than comics covers. I guess Jack Herby's Star Warriors, Uh
was kind of like that too. I kind of had
the sort of sci fi you know, paperback kind of
approach to it.

Speaker 2 (44:48):
But yeah, I mean that's that's my that's my genre.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
That's my genre of choice is sort of you know,
space opera sci fi. And it's nice to you know,
get back to that and do you know, do a
project in that vein.

Speaker 1 (45:06):
Well, people can pick up the trades of both Space
Not Presented X and also the Godzilla Monster Piece Theater.
They're both out now and again also that that Twilight
Zone is also out now. So there's a good handful
of things. Man, tell me about your again, your love
for Kirby. I was well aware of it with Godland,

(45:29):
but then you went on to do the biography of
Kirby that you did, and that's really cool. I meant
to talk to you about that, and then of course
suddenly I looked up and like, I'm sure that it
was that like five years ago, ten years ago? How long?

Speaker 2 (45:40):
Yeah, it feels like just yesterday.

Speaker 3 (45:42):
But I think it was because it was you know,
pandemic tot like it got you know, got a curveball
like a lot of things because of the pandemic.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
So yeah, it was twenty those five years. I can't
believe it.

Speaker 3 (45:54):
Yeah, it feels very recent to me. But yeah, that
was that was a labor of love and and something
that was again maybe like outside my comfort zone. I'd
never done a you know, biographical thing before, but if
I was going to do a biography, Kirby was the
perfect subject to start because I mean, so much of

(46:17):
my my you know training came from you know, studying
Kirby and you know, studying his work obviously, but studying
his life too, So that that was it was pretty natural.
And it's, uh, you know, it's a it's a story
that you know, needs needs to be out there, you know,
as as accessible to as many people in as many

(46:37):
different forms as possible. So that was my you know,
I make comics, So I made a comic about Jack Kirby.
Maybe you know somebody else will make, you know, a
biopic or a documentary or something that that you know,
but a video game where you get to be Jack Kirby.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
And that's excellent. Man.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
No.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
Here are a couple more comments from the chat. Uh
I like right Louill Loule. Mike G says there's terrible
deficit of space opera. Well Tom's got you covered with
what sure? Yeah, and kem Dog has your Twilight Zone
right in front of him, so that's awesome. Nice here.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
Yeah, Yeah, it's interesting.

Speaker 3 (47:18):
Yeah, the deficit of space opera because it is, you know,
it's my genre of choice, but it is a little
bit of an uphill battle. It's had its uh, you know, moments,
but it's not exactly a like an easy seller persistent
because there are in terms of space opera, there there
are these like larger brands that have sort of you know,

(47:42):
solidified to the point where it's like, oh, well, if
I want to check out space opera, I'll watch one
of the many you know, Star Wars things or one
of the many Star Trek things. But it's you know,
there's there's there's room for all kinds of all kinds
of things. You know, absolutely space opera.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
But also I really love your indie style doing these
things because there might be an expectation for god, you know,
when Walt Simonson was doing either Star Wars or Galactica
or you know, some of the other more you'll forgive
the air quotes realistic you know artists and everything, but
I love that your style and they and maybe it's

(48:20):
intimidating for some other artists to attempt that kind of thing,
but man, you throw yourself right in there and unbelievable
city scapes and unbelievable interplanetary monsters and action.

Speaker 2 (48:32):
Thanks.

Speaker 3 (48:32):
Yeah, yeah, it's interesting you bring up Simonson because he's
I mean, that's kind of you know, we sort of
know him from from Thor primarily but space opera. I mean, yeah,
he cut his teeth on Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars,
and then he didn't, you know, he had his own
things Star Slammers, so that was and then even his
Thor run Beta ray Bill starts with basically like a

(48:55):
space armada straight out of you know, Star Wars or
Battlestar galact you know, meets Thor.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
Like it feels almost like, I know, did it.

Speaker 3 (49:03):
Start as a pitch when he was doing Battlestar Galactica
of like, oh what if Battlestar Galactica comes to Earth
and the first person they come across his thor.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
Well. Also, I just loved when he introduced betare Bill
and it's like, whomsoever be they worthy? And it's like, well,
why does it just have to be you know, Don Blake,
Why can't it be this guy that is worthy? And
all of a sudden he gets the power and everything. No,
I it was such a wonderful All the different experimentation

(49:35):
that Walt did during the Thor run was just crazy
and it's so funny. I'm sure you've had your moments
with Walter as well. He's just such a decent, normal
guy and I'm sure coming out of him. Well. Uh, Now,
was it a foregone conclusion that with the Kirby book
you'd eventually do with stan book as well?

Speaker 3 (49:55):
It wasn't a foregone conclusion for me. I think the uh,
the publisher really wanted stan Lee book and you know,
as a as a follow up, and I I just
that wasn't I mean I just didn't.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
I wasn't.

Speaker 3 (50:06):
First of all, I wasn't ready to jump right into
that same world, you know, right off the bat.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
Uh. You know, so I sort of, you know, got
involved with some other things.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
But the more it kind of you know, simmered in
the back of my mind.

Speaker 3 (50:21):
I just, uh, you know, woke up one day and
I'm like, I have I have an approach, Like I
I have a concept for a stan Lee biography that
I would want to tell that you know that, and
and so it did. But it took me a while
to come around, and so of course they were they
were very happy, you know, to hear that that I
did have, you know, a take on stan Lee?

Speaker 1 (50:47):
Who was your publisher for these.

Speaker 3 (50:50):
Ten speed they uh, sure, yeah, yeah, you're you're familiar
with them. And and when I when I first signed
on with them, uh, graphic novels were like a relatively
new thing for them that they were kind of starting
to get into. And now they have their own, you know,
separate you know, yeah, graphic novel line at this point now,

(51:12):
which is nice, nice to see, a nice you know,
to be.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
A part of. I met them years ago. But yeah,
I appreciate everything they do, and they've really expanded the
idea of graphic novels and not just the original fiction,
but to be you know, kind of documentary style comic
books and things alongside the the original stories and things.

(51:37):
Oh here, Mike, she wants to know, are there others
that you would like to do bios on?

Speaker 2 (51:44):
Yeah, sure there's.

Speaker 3 (51:45):
I mean, I my follow up to Jack Herby, that
Jack Herby book would have you know, if I had
my brothers would have been about autobinder. I would have
done an autobender book because after doing a Jack.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
Herby bio, I thought, okay, I'd like to do a
writer and auto binder. I thought, I thought it would.

Speaker 3 (52:06):
Be really interesting, and I did some work on sort
of an auto. So he's one. I mean, you know,
Ditko is an obvious one. He's you know again, I
wouldn't know where to start. I mean, I guess I
have a little more of a handle on, you know,
telling a story about Ditko since I've been to the

(52:27):
you know, the Steve Ditko Cohn and I've met some
of his family and sort of you know, walked his
same streets that he grew up in and stuff, so
I have a little more of a handle on him.
But still like, yeah, that's that's a tall order.

Speaker 2 (52:40):
You know, he's one.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
I mean, just you know, you name it, like any
any comic book person you could you could name, could
have a you know, there's a story to tell there.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
And again I didn't.

Speaker 3 (52:52):
I mean Jack Kirby, I knew I could do a
Jack Herby, no problem, but anything beyond that was sort
of like, oh, you know, can I do this? And
so I, I, you know, did a stan Lee book.
So now I'm not, you know, I feel like I could,
you know, pretty much tackle any any subject.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
I it's ironic timing that you mentioned at obinder, because
literally a week or two ago I re released my
one interview I did with Bill Shelley, who did.

Speaker 3 (53:18):
Okay, yes, yeah he did. He did two great books.
I mean I think it was maybe two versions of
the same book or something like. I have both of
them and I've read one of them and I haven't
I haven't read the other yet. But yeah, he did
a great Auto Bender book.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
I didn't realize he did a seconde about Bender because
of course I have his Kirtsman book as well. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
Yeah, I'll have to pull it off my shelf. But
it is like, I feel like, there's the one book
he did, and I don't know which came first, but
there's one that it seems more like a mass market
kind of thing, and then the other one seems more
sort of like Fanish, like, Okay, this one's for the
fans with all the little every little, you know, bit
of trivia that you'd ever want to know about Auto Bender.

Speaker 1 (53:58):
That's hilarious. Man, No, that's cool. So are you what
do you what? What streaming shows are you watching? Now?
You know, there's that new one that's on Apple, and man,
I keep forgetting the name of it, but it's not
it's not Rampart. It's like it has some like word
from the from the Pledge of Allegiance in it, and
it's supposed to be a really good sci fi show.
Maybe somebody in the check can write it down for us.

(54:19):
But I you know, I'm talking about it all or
I don't know if you have Apple?

Speaker 2 (54:22):
Yeah? No, yeah, I I I yeah.

Speaker 3 (54:24):
I'm trying to think what what streamers I'm watching at
the moment.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
I mean, I I have been.

Speaker 3 (54:31):
I have my box set of Battlestar Galactica, and I've been,
you know, anytime I need to throw something on, I've
I've been putting those on, you know. After I did
Galactica nineteen eighty, I'm like, let's let's get back to
the you know, to the real stuff.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
All right. Now I'm gonna all right now, I gotta
get nerdy with you, but especially the original Galacticus series
that when Count Ibi Patrick mcne's wonderful devil character shows
up and they've got the wreckage of what is some
sort of ship, yeah, that on the planet, and it's
and it's Starbuck, it's Apollo, and it's Shiba, and of

(55:04):
course Sheba came from the Pegasus.

Speaker 2 (55:06):
From the Pegasus, yes, you know daughter, yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
Yeah, And and they never really reveal it, but I
know there are fan theories that that wreckage that is
on the thing might be the wreckage of the Pegasus.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
Have you ever yes, uh, John.

Speaker 3 (55:21):
Lately I've been going so deep into Galactica. I I
read one of the Galactica novels I want to read,
and it was it was phenomenal. I want to I
want to read more. I've been reading the uh you know,
Rob Liefeld's Maximum Press Battlestar Galactica comics.

Speaker 2 (55:36):
Like I've been going so deep. So yeah, I'm aware
of that theory.

Speaker 3 (55:39):
From what I understand it is, it's a fan theory,
and that the thing and so the thought was that
she finds there's something horrifying in there that they don't
want her to see and that the fan theory is
that it's her father's you know, dead body or something,
but they said it's it's actually it was like a
like a hoofed create. It was supposed to be some

(56:00):
sort of you know, satanic demon or whatever, and and
that you know, the censors felt that was a little
too extreme, so they cut that out. So so that's
that's as as far as I understand it. But again,
that's an amazing fan theory. And you know, why not
you know why you know, if someone's.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
Doing a follow why not follow up from that? It
is a good one.

Speaker 3 (56:19):
But uh but yeah, the because the alternative is that
you know, Commander Kine still out there, you know, fighting
the good fight. So that's kind of like, you know,
if you're going to do like another like a follow
up to that, it would be kind of nice to uh,
you know, have him in the fray, but.

Speaker 1 (56:36):
A living legend. Absolutely, man, No, that's a great you know,
I am with you. On the original series, there are
some really great episodes and then there's Bobby Van and
Ray Bulger as really annoying robots.

Speaker 2 (56:48):
Right.

Speaker 3 (56:49):
Yeah, it seemed like when I when I was a kid,
it seemed like anytime that was on in I guess
it was on the Sci Fi channel, it would be
that episode, you know, like I wanted to see, like
the really great episodes, but somehow, whenever I'd be there,
it would be Yeah, Ray bulgerd as a dancing robot.

Speaker 1 (57:06):
Yes, when you say you're reading the novels, are they
the uh the ones that Richard Hatch was doing?

Speaker 2 (57:13):
So I do want to read those.

Speaker 3 (57:15):
I mean I was at a secondhand bookstore and I
found it's called the Cylon Death Machine.

Speaker 2 (57:20):
It's an adaptation of the gun on ice Planet Zero.
And it was terrific.

Speaker 3 (57:26):
It was so good and it was it gave you
everything you wanted because it was you know, you have
the basis, the basics of the episode, but then it
goes down all these other roads and like enriches the characters.
There's a sequence in it, and I thought, is that
in the episode, because because you kind of don't quite remember,
but you can totally see it. You can totally see

(57:46):
dark Benedict and stuff. But it's imperious. Leader is has
a like this AI generator and based on the information
they've gathered about the book Galactica fleet. The AI can
can create like approximations of the different people, so they

(58:08):
have but they're all kind of hazy. But then they
have a lot of information about Starbuck from like some
things that happened in some of the episodes, and so
the Starbuck AI is is very like and so imperious.
Leader will have these conversations with this Starbuck AI and
try to like get information, even though it only knows
what they know. It doesn't but maybe he can get

(58:29):
something from these conversations. And the Starbuck hologram is like,
you know, teasing him and tweaking him and and he's
getting infuriated by this. And it's just these amazing scenes
that are in this novel, but as far as I know,
don't exist anywhere in like the actual shows.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
God, I gotta I gotta see if the Internet archive
has you know, PDFs of the original novels, because you know,
I mean how the Richard hatch ones look for those
that second an interesting? Yeah, but my god, they're like,
you know, if you try to get it from like
an Amazon third party, it's like seventy five dollars for
you this. You know, it's interesting. I'm not that interested.

(59:09):
That's okay, but I do remember those adaptations. They're kind
of like the James Bush Star Trek novelizations. Yeah, that
were coming out in the seventies. And also, my god,
that cover art for those Galaxica nomalizations.

Speaker 3 (59:21):
Yes, Foreta was great paintings that probably you know, go
for you know, millions of dollars.

Speaker 1 (59:30):
Now, I'm sure. No, that's great, man, that's hilarious. No, man, again,
this is why it was great to really dig in
beyond talking about what you're doing now with his own
but also again, everybody, I want to recommend Tom's wonderful
show total recall. It is fantastic. And do you do
audio as well as video?

Speaker 3 (59:50):
No, we just do video. I mean I audio. You know,
I'll get to that at some point.

Speaker 2 (59:55):
You know.

Speaker 1 (59:55):
Yeah, well it's my my comics.

Speaker 2 (59:58):
Work takes up most of my time.

Speaker 3 (01:00:00):
Then it's like whatever's left, you know, we can do
do some videos and stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
Well, and also I give you credit because I can't
shut up, as evidence by this already hour long conversation.
But yeah, no, you're you know, hey, man, if you've
got six minutes on something, you do it. If you
got thirty minutes on something, you do it. And that's great,
and I think that's really terrific. You know, I'm really finally,
and I say this to you as a fellow podcaster,

(01:00:25):
how long have you doing total recall? I mean, how
long has it been?

Speaker 2 (01:00:27):
I think I guess five years. I think we started
like it was like a pandemic project kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
So, yeah, well that's pandemics. When I started doing consistent video,
yeah and yeah. So but again, beyond having the comic
book interviews, I'm like, yeah, but you know, like you said,
you know, I want to talk about stuff that I'm into.
We mentioned, we mentioned the Twilight Zone. Everyone knows the
obvious episodes, but one of my favorites and why I

(01:00:53):
love the original show especially, you know, I know they
had the one season of hour long episodes, but the
half hours. There's that one episode dead Man's Shoes with
Warren Stevens m hm, the Gangster you know, the bomb
finds the gangster shoes and yeah, it's possessed. That's like
a tight, little twenty minute film noir.

Speaker 3 (01:01:13):
Yeah, you know, yeah, they were like little movies. The
one I keep telling people about because I only saw
it for the first time very recently. I didn't know
it existed. Is the one where the guy's got a
wax museum in his basement of serial killers and it's tremendous.
It's such a great episode.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
But it's not.

Speaker 3 (01:01:33):
It's not one of the ones that is in like
a heavy rotation or that people talk, you know, it's
not like to serve Man and I beholder and it's not.
It's but to me, it's like, this is a great episode.
It's it's funny, it's scary, it's uh creepy, you know,
it's just really great.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
Martin Botham, Absolutely, Man, it's no, it's terrific. And I
think that fourth season of the Hour ones it's hit
and miss, but it's like, well the whole series was
hidden and most mostly hit and no, there's really great
hour lands. I love the one with the guy who
is the lead in the seventies show Swat the Parallel

(01:02:11):
where he's the astronaut that goes up and he comes
down to a parallel Earth and there's just small little
Steve forest, some small slight like he goes up and
he's a major and he comes out, how you doing
pernel And he's like yeah, and also you know he's
talking about President Kenny. Who the hell is John Kennedy,
you know? And it's yeah, that's right.

Speaker 3 (01:02:29):
That's the sub genre of Twilighttone episodes that I was
trying to do was the one who like you go
up in a spaceship, you land somewhere and something weird's
going on, you know, And and I figured, like, that's
that's a strain of Twilight Zone episode. But I felt
like it sort of is one that would that plays
to my strengths. And also, I don't think because I

(01:02:51):
didn't really know what everybody else was doing for theirs,
so I thought, I don't think anybody else is going
to be doing that, like like I don't think we'll
all be tripping over each other trying to be the
guy who the space operators. I think everybody else probably
wants to do one of those, like you know more
sort of like Okay, something really weird is happening, and
you know something you know, maybe supernatural or whatever, you know,
because the spaceship ones are sort of like their own,

(01:03:13):
you know, their own little thing.

Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
Totally agree, man, And again that's I mean, I focused
on dead Man's shoes, but I really am like I've
been focused when I when I do. I'll do like
minute or two minute reviews because it's just me narrating
and showing some screencaps or whatever. But I'm like, you know,
I don't I don't have an hour to say about this.
And also I feel like a lot of things have
already been like covered, and certainly the obvious ones like

(01:03:38):
to serve men and things like that, and it's like, no,
it's these it's these little gems. Another great space one
that your story reminded me was of was Elegy Where
did you go to that pintoid? So it's got that
five to it in a very different way, but it's
it's an echo of that kind of storytelling. Which and
The Invaders, of course with Agnes more Ed another good one.

Speaker 3 (01:04:00):
Yeah, that's That's one of my absolute favorites is The Invaders,
I mean because it's just so much fun. Like so
many of these and I mean they have done this,
but so many of these episodes you could expand into
a whole movie, but like just this movie of just
make a movie of like like a lady in a
cabin getting attacked by these little like flying saucer guys.

Speaker 1 (01:04:18):
It's you know, so great, absolutely, man, all right, kem
Dog's all over the place with his memories of Twilight Zone,
and I agree the Christmas episode with our Carnie fantastic.

Speaker 2 (01:04:29):
Now, I grew up with the eighties version.

Speaker 3 (01:04:33):
I it was maybe a little bit older when I started,
when they started running like marathons and stuff, and that's
that's when I started watching the originals. But I grew
up with the eighties version. So I saw the eighties
version of that of the Santa Claus episode, and I
loved it, you know, because of some of the eighties
ones were remakes and then some of them were originals,
and that one, I mean, don't sleep on the eighties

(01:04:55):
Twilight Zone series.

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
It's definitely worth checking out.

Speaker 3 (01:04:57):
And it's aged nicely also, because that eighties video quality
now has sort of a creepy nostalgic quality to it
that it didn't have, you know, at the time. But
it certainly aged the way the way the original Twilight
Zone did.

Speaker 2 (01:05:13):
But they did a really nice remake of that.

Speaker 3 (01:05:15):
And then yeah, years later when I saw that Art
Carney one, and I was like, oh, this is great,
this is you know, this is where that came from.
And yeah, you got Art Carne in it. The the
The video quality of that Art Carney episode is interesting too,
because I think there were some episodes that they may
be like shot on video or instead of film, and
I think that was one of them. So it's kind
of it's in that grouping of Twilight Zone episodes that

(01:05:37):
have that sort of like you know, daytime drama, soap
opera kind of look to them.

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
I was really glad they found the actual video tape
because when they used to show them in syndication, they
look like fift these kinescopes that are you know, shot
from a screen, so it has that kind of washed
out look when you saw it then. And man, there's
that great one with Inger Steven where she's the daughter
and wants to leave the house and the parents are like,
oh no, you can't leave. Yeah, I don't want to

(01:06:05):
tip it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:05):
For right, Yeah, yeah, we don't want to get vent.

Speaker 1 (01:06:07):
Yeah. But it's but it really you're right, it feels
like dark shadows and especially black and white dark shadows
and everything. Yeah. Yeah, pretty neat man, So I am
absolutely with you on that. Pete iSER has a comment.
He says, serving love stories of going back to a
middle aged guy's past, with which if made today would

(01:06:27):
be the ninety ninets. You're right about them.

Speaker 3 (01:06:29):
Oh yeah, I don't don't want to Yeah, I don't
want to think about that kind of stuff, but I do, Like,
for years, I've been thinking about, am I ever going
to do my American graffiti?

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
You know?

Speaker 3 (01:06:41):
And it's like, you know, and George Lucas, I think
he might have been he might not even have been
thirty when he did American Graffiti, but it was like
he made it in the seventies, but it's about the
early sixties, so that that's such a short Like when
he made it, it probably felt like, oh yeah, I
remember all that ancient stuff, but it was only you know,
maybe like ten or so years in the past. But

(01:07:01):
but yeah, my American Graffiti. And it's like, okay, well,
if I would have made you know, my American Graffiti
in in you know, like my twenties or something, that
would have been the eighties or nineties, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:07:11):
Like so it's yeah, but we never know.

Speaker 1 (01:07:16):
Yeah, there's some sitcoms that they rerun on like in
Temi TV or Me TV, and man I forgot how garish.
I mean, every every decade has its you know, fashion
like oh god, what were we thinking, and sadly I
was a child that they stuffed in the leisure suits
back in the seventies and everything. But man, like all

(01:07:37):
the crazy like primary colored jackets and then crazy shirts
and Cosby sweaters of the eighties and nineties, it's like, yeah, man,
it's like I don't like I watched jud Hirsh's Yeah,
jud Hirsh, Dear Joe, Dear John, and I love Taxi.
Taxi is great to me and and still feels timeless.
But man, dear John, nineties, how you doing Here's nineties four?

Speaker 2 (01:07:59):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:08:00):
Yeah, I mean I grew up with sitcoms and like
I loved, like I watched every sitcom and knew every
single you know, just I just have the TV on constantly.
And then when I went to college, I didn't have
a TV there.

Speaker 2 (01:08:13):
I just sort of stopped watching TV.

Speaker 3 (01:08:14):
And then when I would, you know, go back home
and stuff, I found the sitcom genre just so obnoxious,
Like I couldn't take like the laugh track was so like,
oh no, stop, you know stop, and I just I
guess I was like, you know, you know, hypnotized or
something into it. And once I broke the hypnosis, I
could I couldn't go back, and I never really went back.

(01:08:36):
I never really got into a sitcom after, you know,
the one, the ones I sort of grew up with Tom.

Speaker 1 (01:08:43):
Honestly, I think they're trying really hard still on network
TV with sitcoms, and they are insipid and thank god,
only murders in the building on on Hulu and and
Disney and some of the other you know, Ted Lasso
on Apple. I mean, you know, technically you can kind
of see them sitcoming or shrinking, you know, but they

(01:09:06):
feel different enough. God, you know, they were really smart
NBC with the good Place and the fact that it,
you know, would only be like ten episodes of season,
and it's like, no, that's all we can really handle
in a season as far as making it. And thank
god the network was why is enough to go? That's fine,
You're giving us a gem. We weren't expecting it. We
were expecting an other clone, shithead sitcom like Poor and

(01:09:28):
I actually, in my sports radio days, I met Kevin
James and he was a really sweet guy. He really was.
He's this very down earth, good good guy. Him and
Tim Allen and all these iterations post their primes of
you know, King of Queen's or Home Improvement. I mean
that Tim Allen show now with Kat Dennix, shit, and

(01:09:49):
then Kevin Kevin James every time he tries to do
a new show, shit.

Speaker 3 (01:09:54):
Well, I mean King of Queens still feels like a
new show to me, Like I you know, I'm just
that out the loop for for sitcoms that it's like, sure,
oh is that show still.

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
Hard years ago? Yeah? Well, and it's funny because literally
last night I noticed they did a Raymond special because
it's been twenty years and it was a clip show,
but everybody was there and it was cute. But it's like, yeah, man, no,
that's again when they try now, I think it's uphill,
and I really think again, I think a lot of

(01:10:26):
us are just kind of done with the format.

Speaker 3 (01:10:28):
If we did the math the that reunion show might
there might be more time between that reunion show and
its first run than between like the Laverne and Shirley
reunion special.

Speaker 2 (01:10:42):
Like that kind of math. I hate to do. That
kind of math is really depressing.

Speaker 1 (01:10:47):
I never saw that one. That's you know what I
did like and it's it's don't get me wrong, everybody,
it's shit. But it was from the nineties when they
did the Odd Couple movie and at poor Jack Klubman
had you know, was still kind of recovering from him.

Speaker 2 (01:11:02):
Right, yeah that surgery.

Speaker 1 (01:11:04):
Yeah yeah, it was like one of his vocal courts,
like literally removed one of his vocal courts. And man,
I was so pleased that he even came back and
did like a later Outer Limits I believe of the
nineties Outer Limits and stuff, because man, that guy does
not get the credit for being the great dramatic actor.
Even Quincy doesn't get its due for being a really
relevant seventies you know kind of show and everything. But

(01:11:27):
that nineties movie, you know, it was still them and
you know their chemistry Randall and Klugman and it and
again mostly shit. But they they're just moments that I'm like,
kind of like you with Galactica nineteen eighty where you're like,
you gotta sit through the ship. I want to I
want to see the two parter where the cylons all,
you know, make it back and William Daniels this is silon.

Speaker 3 (01:11:48):
Yeah, yeah, it's I mean it's it's like I had
avoided that Galactica ad nineteen eighty four years because I
just heard how horrible it was, and finally seeing it,
it's like, Okay, I get what people are saying, but
it's not it's not that there's something here.

Speaker 2 (01:12:04):
You know, there's something there. You know, I'm getting something
out of it.

Speaker 3 (01:12:06):
I mean, maybe it's just that they start off strong
and then they become like kind of a slog for
a while, and then they get like interesting as the
as the episode starting to wrap up.

Speaker 1 (01:12:17):
Well again, like you, like you pointed out, it became
the Space Kids, and oh we got to protect the
Space Kids from being revealed, and it just you know,
I didn't care. I'm like, no, man, where's the goddamn sidelines.
Let's go space battles, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:12:31):
Yeah, yeah, And they had they had enough John Dykstra
footage left over that they could sort of stitch a
little bit of that kind of stuff together.

Speaker 1 (01:12:41):
Did you ever see Rev Brown's horrible sci fi movie
where they're using a lot of John Dykes Drigalactica stuff.
No the name of it.

Speaker 3 (01:12:50):
You're giving me homework now, because I'm gonna have to
go check that out. I mean, I was just watching
The Red Brown Captain Americas because I had such a
great time with the Albert Pune. I thought, well, maybe
maybe those red brown ones are good too, but you know,
maybe they get a bad I watched them there. You know,
it's there's nostalgia there. There's just you know, very little action.

Speaker 1 (01:13:10):
Have you had the chance to meet him in all
any of the cons.

Speaker 2 (01:13:13):
Because now he does the circuit, Yeah, he does the circuit.
No I haven't.

Speaker 1 (01:13:16):
I went to him, and truly it's it's a shame
because he was built just naturally like he looks like
Steve Rogers posts super Soldier formula. And I told him
that and he was so sweet. He was at Terrifica
on a show that I frequent every year, and I'm like, man,
they really did you dirty, because you could have been

(01:13:38):
a great great Captain America and it would have made
a great series. And he came around his table and
he hugged me. That's nice.

Speaker 3 (01:13:45):
Yeah, he looked the part. I mean all that stuff.
You know there's something there.

Speaker 2 (01:13:50):
There's definitely.

Speaker 3 (01:13:50):
And the motorcycle stunts were really fun in the first
one and then the second one.

Speaker 2 (01:13:55):
The costume is you know just about perfect.

Speaker 1 (01:13:58):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:13:59):
There just wasn't enough action.

Speaker 3 (01:14:00):
There's like the one action scene that gets that's become
like memes because like he'll throw a shield at somebody
and then their reaction will be so over the top.
But that was like the only action scene in that
second movie.

Speaker 1 (01:14:14):
It's like, it's like Nicholas Hammond's Spider Man show that
like the promise was there, but unfortunately they just didn't deliver.
And again that's not Rep's fault. And much like Matt Salinger,
there's an earnestness to his Steve Rogers. Then I'm like, again,
it's a shame that a better show wasn't built around
him and everything. What are you gonna do? Yeah, but yeah,

(01:14:37):
I know that that movie I'm talking about, the sci
fi movie. I can't remember the title of it, but
it is an episode of Mystery Science Theater and if
you are gonna watch and I would recommend watching it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:47):
That Mystery Science Theater version. Yeah, that's interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:14:50):
Those I mean, those Galactica special effects are so great
and so much fun, but they just like they're like
I know, Dykesterra left after like a couple episodes, and
they just kept recycling the same ones and maybe shooting
a couple more.

Speaker 2 (01:15:07):
But if they just had a.

Speaker 3 (01:15:08):
Little more of a range, you could have like all
the puzzle pieces to just make you know, almost like
an endless number of those things.

Speaker 1 (01:15:14):
I don't know if you ever saw what the Sci
Fi Channel did an incredible behind the scenes hour of Galactica,
and the problem was ABC just rushed it to series.

Speaker 2 (01:15:24):
Yeah, so they were just because they had movies.

Speaker 3 (01:15:26):
They were rolling out movies. And so those first two
movies are phenomenal.

Speaker 2 (01:15:32):
They are, you know, really good.

Speaker 1 (01:15:35):
No, and then again and that's why they really just
like you said, I mean, after Dyster left, they kind
of were screwed and they just had to rely on
a lot of using the same footage over and over again.
And and you know that's when we get the shitty
Ray Bulger Bobby Van. You know, it's a shit because
that has a great idea. As far as the main

(01:15:56):
story of that, I think Randolph Mantude was one of
the Earth Sleeper you know, things that they find. But then, yeah,
how are you It's like go away.

Speaker 3 (01:16:09):
All of these shows like Battlestar Galactica and even Star Trek, they.

Speaker 2 (01:16:14):
Say, like, why did they cancel this show? This show
is so great?

Speaker 3 (01:16:16):
But then if you watch, like you know, you can
see the episodes where it's like they made the decision
to cancel because it's like, yeah, this this show isn't
what it was.

Speaker 2 (01:16:25):
I guess we got to just you know, pull the plug.

Speaker 3 (01:16:27):
Batman, the Adam West Batman should have should still be
running today, like it should have never ended. But you
do you watch those last bunch of episodes and it's like,
I guess, you know they kind of you know, had
to do it.

Speaker 1 (01:16:40):
The wind up Mice the Pied Piper, which literally is
the last two episodes or one episode it was after
No I. And also the budget got smaller. It's fall
to the point where the layers were just like black seat,
you know, sets that maybe had a couple of backdrops
of like you know, silk screen hurt and that's about

(01:17:01):
it and everything. It's like, yeah, no, it's it's a shame.
And then you know, maybe we would have gotten that
fourth season if if NBC, if they hadn't struck the
sets and struck the bat game and destroyed it.

Speaker 3 (01:17:11):
Yeah, I just I would have loved what it to
have seen what it might have evolved into. And again,
thinking about some of these you know Japanese series like
the the Super Sentai, like the Go Ranger and stuff
and how those those ran for decades and stuff and
what those became and you know again that just that
just doesn't that doesn't happen.

Speaker 1 (01:17:32):
No, No, unfortunately. Well dude, honestly pleasure getting to know
you on this conversation. Uh, Stanta, is there anything in
the works that you want to promote?

Speaker 2 (01:17:42):
You know what?

Speaker 3 (01:17:42):
Uh, there's nothing that's like ready to you know that's
been announced, you know, but uh, you know, I'm busy,
I'm doing stuff, but yeah, nothing nothing to announce. I
had a very busy, you know, past couple of years.
I mean there's all those I'm trying to think if
we missed anything, but all those books we talked just
from yeah, Jack Kirby to stan Lee to you know, Godzilla,

(01:18:06):
Space Off, Presented Acts, all that. Like it's it's been
sort of NonStop. And so you know, about a month ago,
I finally had a break in my schedule and I
took some time off and I was like, you know,
just to kind of because it was just go go
go for so long and ride my bike. I'm still
like riding my bike around a lot. As you know
that the winter kind of like holds off a little.
You know, it's still it's still kind of nice. But yeah,

(01:18:28):
now I'm sort of getting back into the grind and yeah, well.

Speaker 1 (01:18:32):
Yeah go go yeah. Busy as good and as Kem
Dougg just said, hey everyone again. Twilight Zone just out
last week from IDW. You definitely want to check that out.
Grab these trades though. Honestly, the Godzilla's Monsterpiece theater very funny,
but really, especially if you were if you read Great

(01:18:53):
Gatsbe back in high school, you will certainly appreciate that
Tom keeps the flavor of it. And also this wonderful
space opera Xanadax really just really fun stuff and in
your indie style, but giant scoped ideas, and you even again,
even a twenty two page story like the Twilight Zone,

(01:19:14):
the scope is incredible. But Godzilla and Xandadax, those those
are epic stories by a guy knows what he's doing.
So Tom, thank you so much for coming on. And
I hope you had fun, and I hope you'll come back.

Speaker 3 (01:19:27):
I did, John, This was a great conversation. And you know,
if I read any more of those Galactica novels, you
know we'll have something more to talk about.

Speaker 1 (01:19:36):
Let me know Man exactly all right, everybody thanks a lot.
Tomorrow late ninth show because he's doing a signing, but
Gabe Hartman is really itching to talk about his new
Batman Aquaman, and I forget who else is in the comic.
I gotta read it, but it's out tomorrow Wednesday, and
Gabe wants to talk about it, so right there before Thanksgiving,

(01:19:57):
we got one more new word balloon live before the
Hollow Day weekend, so hopefully you'll join us tomorrow night.
Until next time, everybody, stay safe, stay happy, stay healthy,

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