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April 29, 2025 • 14 mins
Dean Phillips Owner of Crypton Comics at 125th and Center joins me in studio to talk all things Comics! Trading, collecting, reading... what ever you do, do it on Free Comic Book Day!
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, It's Lucy Chapman. Thanks so much for once again
joining me on a podcast for Here's More, And we
are definitely talking about more of some of the stuff
you're already hearing on KGAR. It is Free Comic Book
Day coming up this Saturday, and I've got Dean Phillips,
owner of Krypton Comics, in studio with me today.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Dean, Welcome, Hi, good to have you here.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Thanks so much for coming and hanging out because we're
going to talk about comic books. And you and I
were talking to just a little bit ago that a
lot of people they may not get the idea of
what exactly what's the big deal about comic books? They
started the very first comic book, I want to say
nineteen twenty three or nineteen thirty three. Does that sound familiar?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
There were funny books even earlier than that, you know,
but the American comic book was in the very early
nineteen hundreds.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
You know, asked me how I know that?

Speaker 2 (00:57):
How do you know that?

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Pawn Stars Stars And before we get into Free Comic
Book Day, Pond Stars is something my husband and I
watch all the time, and sometimes they're bringing in these
comic books and we're we are battling back and forth.
It's gonna be It's like that's gonna be worth three
hundred dollars, now it's gonna be worth fifty dollars. And
it's always shocking that they're either much lower than we

(01:19):
thought or much higher than we thought. And so is
it tough to kind of know what to collect if
you're collecting comic books?

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Oh, you know, I've always told people, you know, do
what you like. If it winds up being worth something
later on, great, But you know, concentrate on the characters
that you know kind of resonate with you. And you
can't go wrong with something that you enjoy already. If

(01:48):
you like Spider Man, collects Spider Man. If you like
Donald Duck, collect Donald Duck. It really, you know, it's
always great when something you've invested in becomes worth some money.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
That is great advice for anything, really, anything you want
to collect. You are at Krypton Comics about one hundred
and twenty fifth and center. Free Comic Book Day is
coming up this weekend. You've been there for over twenty
twenty years. No Comic Book Day has been going for
over twenty years. You've been there for thirty over thirty.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yes, I've been around for thirty one years.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Thirty one years, so you kind of got you kind
of got to see. This started in Omaha, this comic
book I'm not going to call it a frenzy, but
it's a popular thing.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
It's become a little piece of pop culture for sure.
A lot of movies and TV shows that I would
have just died for when I was a little kid.
You know, we had maybe Spider Man and the Hulk
and that was about it, you know.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
And the Archies. Yeah, yeah, the Archies are a comic book.
I will stand on that. And what kind of an
impact have the movies had on the comic book industry.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Well, obviously it's brought it into the pop culture spotlight.
A lot of people they claim to be comic book fans,
but they don't necessarily read the comic books, but they
do go to the movies, and they wear the T
shirts and they buy the cereal and things, you know,

(03:22):
and things like that. And certain movies have really impacted
the industry, the Michael Keaton Batman movies, The Amazing Spider
Man with Toby McGuire, Weirdly Enough, Men in Black, which
was a comic book first.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Did not know that?

Speaker 2 (03:40):
And three hundred that the Gladiator Gladiator movie, it was
a comic book first, and that drove people into the
stores to buy those books.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
What is the speaking of I didn't know that. What's
the most surprising, maybe even shocking thing that you learned
about comic books? Maybe probably early on when you first
got into the industry, something you didn't know. It's like,
what is going on here?

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Well, for me, it was that there were there were
places dedicated to comic books. You know. I always thought
that you had to buy them at the drug store
or you know, back when kmart was was a place
that there was actually a store around in town that

(04:31):
you just had comic books and the whole place was
full of them. And for me that was having so
as a kid, I had no idea.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
So you get to go into the store with like
minded people there, you guys, everybody in the store is
excited about comics or or something that might be related
to comics, like some of the action figures or I
don't know if they're called action figures, but some of
the other merchandise that goes along with the comic books.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yes, and we do a lot of that at the store,
you know, even video games now, you know, but we
do specialize in the Spider Man video games and Batman
things like that, you know.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
Now descript on comics, do they have any some of
the nostalgic stuff, original stuff that is for sale or
even just on display.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
We have a pretty good section of vintage comic books,
you know, dating back into the forties and fifties, and
a lot of toys and we do, you know, back
into Star Wars and you know, some of the earlier
nineteen seventies type toys as well, so kind of a
nostalgia you know section as well.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
That's the Star Wars you brought Star Wars up that
back in nineteen seventy probably seventy five seventy six, when
George Lucas was just kind of getting this all off
the ground to get this film made. That he thought
enough in advance to to license and market some of
the merchandise that could come out of that movie. And

(06:05):
I don't know what made him more the movie itself
for all the merchandise. I'm gonna say merchandise, probably.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Probably the merchandise. He was very very sharp.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah, So do you see a lot of that coming out,
maybe you'd get some of the again, the action figures
or the T shirts or something before the actual comic
books or the actual movies actually even come out.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yes, and I've even heard that there have been some spoilers.
Uh oh, you know, like you might see a weird
Darth Vader that ruins the scene, you know, from the
new movie that was going to come out. You know,
things like that.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
And I imagine that comic book and ficionados get very
upset with spoilers.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yeah. Yeah, Although they do spend a lot of time
on the Internet trying to find the spoilers, they also
get angry when when confronted with a spoiler.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
I would think that hanging out in a comic book
store would be even if you aren't really familiar with it,
would be kind of interesting because of some of the
stories that you would get some of the stories of
the movies. And you talked about there on the internet
looking for spoilers are also looking for Easter eggs. So
and if you don't know what an easter egg is,
it's something that the director or the producer will put

(07:20):
into a movie that doesn't seem to fit in any way,
but it has some kind of meaning with the with
the movie or with the story itself. I think the
just as an example, and you can tell me if
I'm wrong. I think that the Superman in all of
the the Seinfeld episodes, that's kind of what an Easter
egg might fall into that category. It's just something you're

(07:43):
always looking for.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, it is. And there's things in like Guardians of
the Galaxy movie where they walk past and all of
a sudden there's a character that they don't even acknowledge,
but all all the nerds go, oh, man, did you
see that character in the background. Holy moly, that's that's

(08:06):
really great.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
I love that. Can you do you have? And it's
not just kids. I'm sure you have all ages that
are that love comics and spend time at Krypton comics.
Do you do they get together and play some of
the games that are kind of associated with comics, like
some of the magic cards. I can't remember the name

(08:28):
of them, but something magic game cards. Are you familiar
with that?

Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yeah, there's a game called Magic the Gathering. That's it
kind of like Dungeons and Dragons, but with cards. You know,
certain cards have more power than the other, and just
certain cards do certain actions, and so yeah, we have
quite a few days where the you know, people will
come in and play that. And then Pokemon is very

(08:56):
big right now, still big, hasn't hasn't gone away. It's
it's been big since the nineties.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
So Krypton Comics isn't just about coming in and buying comics.
You can meet new people, you can learn about some
of the things because of all of the people that
are just kind of hanging around.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
Yeah. I actually met one of my best friends to
this day at a comic book store. And I've even
had I've got a couple of customers that got married.
They met at my store on a free comic book Day.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
I love that. Did you have to move some of
the tables around to get them to get you know,
the dresses are big. Oh now wait, were they in characters?

Speaker 2 (09:36):
They were dressed as characters and they met each other
and they fell in love and got married.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Oh, I love that. That is a great story, you know,
speaking of dressing like characters. You on free Comic book
Day this Saturday. You've got some special guests that will
be there.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yes, I do. We have Karen Ashley. She was the
second Yellow Power Ranger in the TV show, and she's
going to be bringing all kinds of really cool Power
Ranger memorabilia for sale and doing our autograph and things
like that.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
Oh, very cool. And you've got an.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Author, yeah, Culin Bunn. He's kind of a master of
horror and suspense, but he does write some mainstream stuff
like Deadpool and some other really cool comics as well.
And he's going to be there.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
Oh that is exciting. He wrote Deadpool.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah, he wrote some of the dead pools.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Oh my goodness, that is one of my favorite movies
of all time. I just a little side note. I
put the trailer of Deadpool on my page, on the
kgo R page, and I got a message from my
boss and he says, yeah, you might want to take
that down with all of the swearing in it. Oh.

(10:52):
I didn't watch the whole thing excited to take it down.
So maybe not for little kids, but it is such
a great movie, so well written.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Oh yeah, I mean, and they make sure that they
really talk to the comic book fan, you know, sometimes
even directly in the movie.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
That's right, yea, I remember doing that, talking right to
the audience. I mentioned earlier a little bit about Pond stars.
Do you watch it and do you just think what
would I would give them? I would give that guy
more for that than they're going because they have to
make money because they're a pond place. I'd give that

(11:30):
guy more than or not he's way overpaying.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
I watch it and I think I kind of I
like to play the game that I think a lot
of people do. It's like, Oh, that Tiffany lamp, I'm
going to say it's worth ten thousand dollars. Just I
have no idea what a Tiphany lamp's worth, you know,
and then you just wait and see what the expert
comes in and he goes it's worth twelve thousand dollars,
and you're like, oh, I was so close. You know.

(11:54):
You kind of play the estimate game.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
What do you think about their experts When it comes
to the toys in the.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
Comics, it's either pretty good, I really do I know
Steve the toy Oh yeah, expert. Yeah, And he's very knowledgeable.
We've we've talked many times, been over to his house
and everything.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
So I think he's probably a big enough celebrity might
come to next comic books day, I think because people
know who he is.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Yeah, I'd love to bring him in and do a
big toy buying event.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
You know, what do you want people to know about
Crypton comics.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
That everyone's welcome come on by h you know, and
especially on a day like Free Comic Book Day, you
don't have to buy something. We'd like you to, but
you don't have to buy something. You can come in
and get some free comic books and maybe even if
just one of them resonates with you, maybe we'll create
a whole new fan.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
Tell us about Comic Book Day that's this Saturday, ten to.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
Six, ten to six. There you can get and free
comics out of our selection that we have. There's Spider Man,
you know, some Batman. I mean that there's there's even
some independent stuff. There's the Diablo comic based on a
video game that our guest writer, Culin Bunn actually wrote

(13:18):
that book. So we've never had a writer and a
free comic book in the room at the same time.
So that'll be kind of an interesting thing.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
And I've been down to I think two of them
now and they are always a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
We usually get a lot of people. There's a it's
a it's a kind of a party atmosphere. You know,
there's a lot going on. You know, so there's people
in costumes posing for pictures, and there's you know, maybe
a celebrity in the back, and and then there's a
We have a lot of local artists that come by
as well, and they'll do, you know, some free sketches

(13:54):
for you, you know, so you can you know, come
up with a list of your your favorite who's your
favceavorite character, and then one of these guys will dry
up something really cool.

Speaker 1 (14:05):
Well, Dean Phillips of Crypton Comics, it has been such
a pleasure talking to you and I've learned a lot
about comics today.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
Well, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
We are going to be out there as well on Saturday.
I'll be out there from one to two. You can
come out, spin the prize wheel and win some prizes,
get your free comic books, and meet some celebrities at
Comic Book Day. Free Comic Book Day at Krypton Comics
one hundred and twenty Fifth and Center,
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