It’s the Bat Economy Stupid

00:11 Speaker A: I was ready to hit the.

00:13 Speaker B: Yeah, but you were talking about House of Vinyl.

00:16 Speaker A: You, you got me in the conversation. You started asking me a question about where to bring certain things that I myself, we cannot carry at the Retro Emporium. And I was giving you other options like I would any other customer, saying, hey, here's another place that you can also do business with. Because that is what we like to do at the Retro Emporium is put people where they can get the help they need if we cannot help and satisfy their needs with their retro items that they're seeking or trying to re home.

00:47 Speaker B: Well, now that you've gotten that full advertisement in, you were also mentioning House of vinyl on 6th Avenue in Tacoma.

00:54 Speaker A: Yes, that. Yes, that is correct. They also have fantastic selection of records and other audio equipment.

01:01 Speaker B: Ah. And the Gamor specialize in records and retro things. But they have audio equipment.

01:07 Speaker A: They do. And records, they have some very nice high end audio equipment. So if you're looking for things. And I do believe they do repairs.

01:14 Speaker B: Yes. Because I was telling Greg I am inheriting a real to reel player that my grandfather owned and I and have no idea what to do with this thing.

01:24 Speaker A: You could also you. We could just put the podcast on reel to reel, Dan, and then mail it out to people.

01:32 Speaker B: Those are big.

01:33 Speaker A: That's fine. People want that retro feel. Maybe that's what we should do. Listeners. Do you want us to mail you reel to reel tapes so you could have the podcast live in your home just like that, classic recording style. No, they don't tell Dan and Dan will figure out how to record the podcast on reel to reel.

01:52 Speaker B: No, they don't. They really don't.

01:53 Speaker A: They really don't.

01:56 Speaker B: They really don't.

01:57 Speaker A: They really really real to real don't.

02:00 Speaker B: They really, really, really, really, really, really don't.

02:02 Speaker A: You should make a reel about your reel to real. That would be so real.

02:09 Speaker B: They real to. Oh God. Okay. Yeah, we're um, yeah, so we're back and we're talking about absolute Batman number four today because we love Beefy Batman.

02:19 Speaker A: He's, he's looking, he's looking so, so beefy and spiky.

02:27 Speaker B: Well, I have some, I have some bad news and I have some good news. Okay, so bad news is I was sad because I went to Nick Drodda's Instagram to see if there were pictures of Beefy Nick Dragoda. Yeah. And I didn't see any workout pictures of Nick. Nick Drota.

02:43 Speaker A: So nothing.

02:43 Speaker B: Nick. Yeah, I, I just, I've seen convention pictures A lot of amazing art. If you go to Nick Dragoda's Instagram, there is some, Unsurprisingly, there is some fantastic artwork there. But now, Nick, we're looking for the beefy Nick pictures to go along with the beefy Greg and not this Craig, obviously. Beefy Greg Capullo and beefy Phil Jimenez pictures. We were looking for the beefy Nick Dragota pictures. So I, I mean, I. Deliver the goods, Nick. Deliver the goods.

03:20 Speaker A: The only beefy Greg you got here is my pot roast face. My big pot roast head.

03:27 Speaker B: That was not what I was thinking, but sure.

03:29 Speaker A: Oh, okay.

03:30 Speaker B: That could be. And then I, I. There's something else I have to talk about very quickly, because the way Instagram works, these videos just keep running in the background and they're really distracting me. And it's like I'm waving my arms here, but then I'm watching my arms wave over here, and it's all up. So already got us canceled. Good job, Dan. So anyway, last week at the end of the podcast, we had a debate about whether or not the zombies in 28 Days later are actually zombies. And turns out we had some listeners lay in. Weigh in. Lay in. Not lay in.

04:11 Speaker A: They laid in.

04:12 Speaker B: Now lay in is my future. Future with one Phil Jimenez. That's what we're talking about there. Weigh in a completely different thing. By the way, Phil, if you're out there listening to this podcast, offer for that date still stands right here. I'm right here. I can, I've got, I've got 250,000 air, my airline miles on Alaska. I can get to New York in a heartbeat. Let me know, we'll be there. We can go out, have a little bit of fun, and then have a little bit of more fun maybe if things work out.

04:47 Speaker A: So.

04:47 Speaker B: And I'll go to the gym with you. We'll have a good workout and be great. That's what I was talking about for workout and workout is nice workouts. Yeah, we gotta work. Yeah, I need my guns to be as big as his guns. Right, There you go. That's. That's it. So we had a little debate about where Greg was, of course, wrong about whether or not the zombies in 28 Days later are actually zombies. Greg's position is

05:12 Speaker A: that they're not zombies. They're people infected with a rage virus. And we'll get back to that in a moment, please, Dan. Right, continue.

05:20 Speaker B: And clearly we've established the movie was in the 2000s, and they would only be, you know, struck with rage viruses in the 1990s, because, you know, it'd be XXXTREME RAGE. So that's. You know, it's not. But anyway, I'm gonna do my best here because I don't have full names. Well, this one I kind of do as this looks like. Alan Blandon says, this is on Instagram. Thank you, Alan. I appreciate you responding to our short. A 28 days later is a zombie movie the same way that Road Warrior is a Western. It embodies all the tropes and narrative expectations, despite not technically having the main thing the genre is named after. So is he saying I'm. Are they saying I'm right or you're right there?

06:02 Speaker A: I think they're saying it's a movie that follows a recipe, although it doesn't have the thing, the one ingredient in it. So it's like having, like.

06:15 Speaker B: Oh, it's like vegan chocolate chip cookies

06:18 Speaker A: or like a Parmesan that's using eggplant instead of chicken. It's the thing that you think you're getting, but it's not quite it.

06:26 Speaker B: Oh, I was saying vegan chocolate chip cookies because that's impossible, because cookies are made with butter.

06:32 Speaker A: Ah. Not vegan chocolate chip cookies, then.

06:36 Speaker B: They're not cookies. They should call them something else. They could be. They are delicious confection. The vegan chocolate chip cookies from Trader Joe's. Quite good. Not expensive. But they're not cookies because there's no butter.

06:46 Speaker A: I don't even think they're chocolate unless it's dark chocolate or carrot.

06:50 Speaker B: Well, you don't have to have. No, you can have chocolate without the milk in it.

06:54 Speaker A: Can you?

06:55 Speaker B: Yeah, you mix it with something else, which is probably mixed with vegetable oil. That probably makes it really terrible for you.

07:02 Speaker A: That's a bigger debate. Why would you eat it?

07:06 Speaker B: I bet they're mixed with, like, Cool Whip.

07:08 Speaker A: Cool Whip is. Is kind of delicious when you put it in the ninja slushie and you throw in your condensed milk, and then you throw in your chocolate milk, and then.

07:19 Speaker B: Wait, wait. Why would you mix vegetable oil, hydrogenated vegetable oil with sugar with real milk?

07:27 Speaker A: Because once you put all those things together, you know what you end up with? A Frosty Dan. A delicious homemade Frosty, just like you'd get at Wendy's.

07:38 Speaker B: I see. Okay. That was sort of. Well, anyway, Alan, thank you for chiming in. We appreciate that.

07:44 Speaker A: That's a. That's a fantastic answer. I really like. Means that we're both right.

07:49 Speaker B: Means that I'm right.

07:50 Speaker A: No, it means that we're both Right.

07:51 Speaker B: No, it means that I'm right.

07:52 Speaker A: It means that I'm right.

07:54 Speaker B: Means that I'm right.

07:55 Speaker A: It means that you're wrong.

07:58 Speaker B: It means that I'm right.

07:59 Speaker A: It means that you're not.

08:02 Speaker B: Justin Pl. I've now, now forgotten how to respond. Justin Pl. 89.

08:10 Speaker A: Yeah.

08:10 Speaker B: Says for all intents and purposes, they are zombies.

08:17 Speaker A: Okay, that's one for Dan.

08:19 Speaker B: That makes two to one.

08:20 Speaker A: That. That makes one to one to one or none to one?

08:24 Speaker B: Well, then, okay, well, either we both got one last time or we both got zero last time. What is it?

08:30 Speaker A: It's kind of like the Mariners getting the World Series this year.

08:33 Speaker B: So I'm going to say two to one, but actually, no, I agree with you. It's one to zero because the Mariners never score points.

08:41 Speaker A: Oh,

08:45 Speaker B: so that's where we're at there.

08:46 Speaker A: Oh, wow.

08:47 Speaker B: It is. It is true.

08:48 Speaker A: It is true.

08:49 Speaker B: You know, they fired Dan Wilson and the entire coaching staff, but did not fire Jerry Depot.

08:56 Speaker A: They didn't get rid of the person

08:57 Speaker B: that put together the whole team.

08:58 Speaker A: Wow.

08:59 Speaker B: No, they. And they have not gotten rid of Bizardo yet. If we don't get rid of Bizardo, I.

09:04 Speaker A: If we go into another season with them, I. I mean, and then the

09:07 Speaker B: Seahawks lost to the team from Washington. Like, what the hell? Anyway, okay, I'm not talking about sports ball right now.

09:14 Speaker A: It's. It was a bad week. The Sonics are doing great, though.

09:18 Speaker B: No. And the stupid Astros got to the playoffs. The Rangers completely choked and the Astros got to the playoffs going 81 and 81. I hate the Astros so much.

09:33 Speaker A: It is.

09:33 Speaker B: It is stupid last rose. Well, last I was checking here. Let's do a quick update before we read the other fine comments from our listeners. We're going to go to a little MLB app right here and see, just. Just to check in to make sure that the White Sox are still defeating the last rose.

09:49 Speaker A: When.

09:49 Speaker B: When? Good news, White Sox six. Last rose three. Okay, so we're getting them out of there. All right, so we get to another post on the great zombie debate. We go to Facebook, and Ryan Fudge puts a meme up that completely supports me.

10:07 Speaker A: I don't know, does it support you or does it. Does it also.

10:12 Speaker B: I am telling the truth, and it is Jack Nicholson saying you can't handle the truth, therefore it supports me.

10:18 Speaker A: I think that's. You're. You're. You're looking at it through a lens of. You want it to be true, but it might not be true.

10:25 Speaker B: I am fact the truth, and it Says you can't handle the truth. So it's clearly communicating to you, Ryan. Thank you, by the way, that you are wrong. Greg.

10:34 Speaker A: I don't know. I mean, I hung out with Ryan this weekend and I think he, he might have a different view. Then again, we didn't talk about it.

10:43 Speaker B: Oh.

10:43 Speaker A: So.

10:44 Speaker B: Okay, well, I'll call this one neutral. Again, zero to zero. Perfect. All right. And then the best post, of course, from Ray Couch. Classic virus induced zombies. Fun fact. Zombies before George were typically still alive. Oh, I think we're both right again.

11:03 Speaker A: Oh, it's true. Zombies were alive. They were only under us. Like, like a, kind of like a, A drug. They were, they were being utilized by people to, to go out and do things. They weren't actually dead. They were.

11:19 Speaker B: So that makes me right and you Right. Okay.

11:23 Speaker A: And, and just to weigh in, uh, Danny Boyle viewed traditional slow moving zombies as daft because people could easily out walk them, which led him to write Alex Garland to create. I, I knew this before. To create fast sprinting infected driven. The infected driven by rage. A rage virus in 28 days later, not technically zombies boil. Many fans note that the infected are not actually the undead, but living humans suffering from incurable rage virus.

11:53 Speaker B: Wow. We, we. Now let's, let's go back on this. You and I both agree that there are fast and slow zombies. Yes.

12:00 Speaker A: Yeah. In Train to Busan. Yeah. Yeah. But not, not in 28 days later. They are.

12:05 Speaker B: You're just saying they're not zombies.

12:07 Speaker A: They're not zombies.

12:07 Speaker B: You're just saying they're zombie. Like, zombie.

12:09 Speaker A: Like in a sense that you would be like, oh, hey, they're zombies. But they're not because they're alive until they're not.

12:16 Speaker B: Well, the way I see these four posts, it's me 1 and you 0.

12:20 Speaker A: But then, then you look at classic marriage fashion, Daniel Boyle, the creator of the movie.

12:26 Speaker B: Well, first off, if you understand literary and movie criticism, you know that the author's intent is irrelevant to the critic. So in fact, I learned that many times in every class I took where I tried to mention the author's intent. And they constantly tell me it's not about author's intent, it's about audience reception.

12:44 Speaker A: It's so true. I know because I wrote a nice, A nice book about mutants that were infected about zombies.

12:53 Speaker B: Now it is.

12:54 Speaker A: It is. It is a zombie book.

12:56 Speaker B: I said they were mutants.

12:57 Speaker A: Oh, yes.

12:59 Speaker B: That was happy at the end of the debate because I was trying not to, like, rage you up at the end.

13:04 Speaker A: You didn't Want to be raged.

13:05 Speaker B: No.

13:06 Speaker A: You didn't want me to have the rage.

13:09 Speaker B: That was. I was concerned about you. You were. You're. That's the. That's the hardest I've seen you debate for something in a long time. So I was a little concerned that I touched a nerve or you generally, you just let me win and then we go on. But generally.

13:24 Speaker A: Yes. But you know what? There was. I was reading after losing in unnecessary debates

13:33 Speaker B: because used to that for.

13:35 Speaker A: Oh, I mean, yes.

13:37 Speaker B: Forever Jobber. I mean, I'm not even invited. So what am I gonna say? I.

13:40 Speaker A: You'd have to. I mean, if.

13:42 Speaker B: If.

13:42 Speaker A: If you. If you come back, you're probably going to be on my team, and you know what that means. We'll lose. Jobber status.

13:50 Speaker B: Hey. But the. The most important thing is Michael Tanner doesn't think I'm even on his level to even step into the same room or be on the same panel or be in the same universe as him. I'm not even allowed to go to the same comic cons as him. So, you know, if he wants to lower himself and come onto this podcast and, you know, talk about a comic book or have a debate about something, you know, he's always welcome. But. I know, I know, Mike, you'd have to lower yourself to come down to our level, so. Well, my level, Greg, of course, is on your level. That's why you're writing partners. But you'd have to lower. And I get it. Lowering yourself to come here. It's just something you don't want to do. But I'll challenge you to lower yourself. If I'm so bad, just lower yourself. Come on this podcast. And that's right, that'd be Michael Tanner, author of lots of things like Orcs in Space, Junior Braves of the Apocalypse, a few things.

14:41 Speaker A: Yeah.

14:41 Speaker B: And stuff.

14:42 Speaker A: Absolute zeros. Why can't I think of the. The. The. The one. Battle Grapple. Battle grapple.

14:54 Speaker B: Battle grapple.

14:56 Speaker A: It's basically like if. If Star wars had wrestling. That's the best way to describe it.

15:02 Speaker B: Yeah. So anyway.

15:03 Speaker A: Well, you know, though he did say that you had to. You had. It's almost like. It's like going up the. The ranking system. You have to. You had to defeat or you have to. You have to have on another Michael before you have that Michael. So you have to have Mike woods on the. On the show before you have Mike Tanner.

15:24 Speaker B: I'll let my assistant Greg take care of that for me.

15:28 Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. Wow.

15:30 Speaker B: By the way, I also wanted to introduce a New segment, this podcast.

15:34 Speaker A: What's that? What's the new segment?

15:35 Speaker B: Well, I got my DC cards here. Some. I have a lot of them. Yeah, as you're aware, I have a few.

15:44 Speaker A: No, just a couple.

15:45 Speaker B: Yeah. And see, I originally got these sleeves. Yeah. But then they got these cool sleeves.

15:53 Speaker A: Yeah.

15:53 Speaker B: Unfortunately, it's not the Bullet logo, but you know, still. So I thought it'd be good. Another 19. Just like last week where we were putting posters in frames. I thought I'd try out a new system here to keep me interested in what's going on. So we're going to put cards in sleeves, see, during the podcast. So we're going to take card out of sleeve, see, like this card out

16:17 Speaker A: of sleeve to put into another sleeve. Does this game play like Pokemon or Magic the Gathering or.

16:22 Speaker B: No.

16:22 Speaker A: Or no.

16:23 Speaker B: How does it play? It's a deck building game.

16:27 Speaker A: So you gotta build.

16:28 Speaker B: Start out with a big pile of cards. And you only start out with a few 10 cards. And then you have to add cards and get rid of cards until you have the enough card points and stuff to win at the end or do things. Hey, like here, look, here's a special card I got. It's an I Vampire card. Cool. Yeah. See?

16:45 Speaker A: Better put that one in a sleeve.

16:47 Speaker B: Well, it's going in a sleeve right now. Should I put it right next to the microphone as I do?

16:50 Speaker A: Oh, geez. This is not this. Listeners, please make him stop.

16:58 Speaker B: Wait, I know you said you liked it, so. No, last week you liked putting posters in. No, because you said how nice it looked at the end.

17:07 Speaker A: It did look nice at the end. Listening to it was horrific.

17:11 Speaker B: Okay, well, what if I just start out by taking the cards out of the sleeves and making a pile of these sleeves in the cards and then I can put the cards in the sleeves.

17:19 Speaker A: Are you going to lose a card in between?

17:21 Speaker B: No, no. They're right here next to me and my drink. See?

17:26 Speaker A: What if you drop a card into your old fashioned.

17:29 Speaker B: Oh, right. That's impossible because it's in this cool yeti cup.

17:32 Speaker A: Oh, so it won't fall in.

17:34 Speaker B: Yeah, I don't want to show you the other side of this yeti cup.

17:37 Speaker A: Oh, see something terrible on it.

17:40 Speaker B: Yeah. Wow. Might say where I used to work.

17:46 Speaker A: Oh, I see. Okay, yeah, we don't want to see that.

17:49 Speaker B: No, I don't want to have to edit that out. That part of the podcast.

17:53 Speaker A: That's why my water bottle has a

17:54 Speaker B: bunch of stickers on it. Yeah, I should put. You know what?

17:57 Speaker A: I have some.

17:58 Speaker B: We can do that during the podcast, too. I have a whole bunch of stickers over here and yeah, we could throw a sticker on it.

18:04 Speaker A: That's.

18:06 Speaker B: Let's see. Got these.

18:08 Speaker A: Oh, yeah, put that on there. That's a good sticker.

18:12 Speaker B: I like this one. Okay. This is a good brand of stickers too. Yeah.

18:17 Speaker A: Yes.

18:18 Speaker B: Oh, it doesn't quite fit over the whole thing.

18:20 Speaker A: Well, now you need. Oh.

18:22 Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I did. Look at that. Look at that.

18:25 Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. Perfection.

18:27 Speaker B: We saw the army, by the way. For the people that know where I used to work before, this is literally the best bonus or gift I ever got. In all of my work there, and in all eight years that I worked there, this was the best thing that I ever got from them.

18:49 Speaker A: It's. It's kind of sad, but it's also kind of nice because it is a nice cup.

18:53 Speaker B: It is a very nice cup. I had to. I had to get it back. It was at Jiu Jitsu lawyer Paul's gym. No heat. He removed it.

19:03 Speaker A: Borrow it.

19:04 Speaker B: And it was borrowed for weeks. I couldn't find it. And then I was lifting heavy giant bags at the gym this weekend and found it. And I restole it back.

19:14 Speaker A: Oh.

19:14 Speaker B: For myself.

19:15 Speaker A: And you're like, don't you take my things? Because I know just because you teach Jiu Jitsu doesn't mean that I don't know somebody who can get it back from you through.

19:27 Speaker B: Yeah. Roman Sionis. Oh, because if he keeps taking my stuff, I'm going to have him fight him. Yes. So throwing it out there like that, that seems fair. Yeah. I mean, that seems fair.

19:45 Speaker A: That would be a match to watch.

19:48 Speaker B: I love these little thick sleeves, by the way.

19:50 Speaker A: They're very nice. Make the noise with it just like.

19:53 Speaker B: Like this.

19:55 Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Do you like that, people? Do you like that? Do you like the. Do you like what Dan is bringing to the show with this? Oh, my.

20:02 Speaker B: Well, I'm feeling like a winner because we've established. So first, the last row is lost. I established that I am so far the winner of the great zombie debate. So this is perfect. The voters have decided.

20:15 Speaker A: The voters have this. Oh, my goodness. People, I demand a Rick.

20:22 Speaker B: I. I awarded one pass to Grit City Comic Con. Sorry, Grit City Comic Show.

20:31 Speaker A: Grit City Comic Show.

20:33 Speaker B: You heard me right? You didn't hear the other thing you heard? Grit City Comic Show.

20:37 Speaker A: Good course. Correct.

20:38 Speaker B: I like it. Grit. Grit City Comic Show. Sean is one winner of a Grit City Comic Show. All right, so, Sean, you know, you're out there and we will Be happy to see you in November if you would like to win, quote, unquote. I actually discovered, Greg, that I thought I bought six passes. I did not buy six passes.

21:03 Speaker A: Oh, how many did you buy?

21:05 Speaker B: 12 of them.

21:06 Speaker A: Holy.

21:08 Speaker B: So I've given away two.

21:10 Speaker A: Two. That means there's 10 left to get.

21:13 Speaker B: Now do I need to keep one for myself or did you take care of that?

21:20 Speaker A: I thought I took care of it.

21:24 Speaker B: Okay.

21:24 Speaker A: But we should hold on to one just in case.

21:27 Speaker B: I see. Okay. That means I have.

21:30 Speaker A: We'll be talking. We'll be talking to. To one of. One of the people

21:36 Speaker B: soon.

21:37 Speaker A: Later. Yeah, not long.

21:39 Speaker B: That means I have. That means I have nine left to give away. Yes.

21:43 Speaker A: Nine. That. That's three more than you thought that you had.

21:46 Speaker B: That is. Yes. So reach out to me.

21:49 Speaker A: Well, with the two that you've given away already, that's. That's actually 9, 10, 11. That's. That's more than you still thought you had. So that's actually. That's amazing. That's. Reach out to Dan.

22:01 Speaker B: So if you want to go to Grid City comic show on November 7, 2026 in Tacoma, Washington, at the convention center, super easy to get to. Really easy parking. Unless you're vending.

22:14 Speaker A: Nah. Yeah.

22:15 Speaker B: If you're not vending. Super easy parking.

22:17 Speaker A: Yeah, we've, we've. We've dealt with this. This is fun.

22:21 Speaker B: But we're not vending. Right.

22:23 Speaker A: Well, I mean, tabling. Cabling is similar but different.

22:27 Speaker B: Well, yeah, but we've learned. We'll just park in the regular parking garage and bring our stuff up the elevator. We're not going to go through the vendor line.

22:33 Speaker A: No, no, no, no.

22:35 Speaker B: That would be stupid. We don't have enough things to put on the table to need to do that. We can take them up the regular elevator. But we have learned. And anyway, we've learned that part's really easy. So very. Come join us in Tacoma. There are a whole bunch of people coming.

22:51 Speaker A: There are a lot of good folks that are going to be there. It is well worth the show. And if you like, if you like comics and collectibles and other things like that that are like, you know, like to dig through the bins and other things like you would in an old, old comic book show, this is the place to go if you want to actually meet people at their. At their tables and stuff like that. There's going to be a lot of various folks there, a lot of great artists, great writers.

23:19 Speaker B: You know, they've added some people recently I have seen.

23:22 Speaker A: Do you have some names?

23:24 Speaker B: I do. They added Scott Collins, who I'm definitely going to go talk to.

23:28 Speaker A: Yeah.

23:30 Speaker B: And they added one of our favorite creators, Ron Randall.

23:34 Speaker A: There you go.

23:35 Speaker B: Who doesn't usually come to this show, but I'm glad he's coming this time.

23:39 Speaker A: Very cool.

23:40 Speaker B: And Scott Collins. I mean, if you haven't seen Scott Collins art, you're missing out. Whether he's doing the pencils or the inks or both, he's fantastic. And it's very Kirby esque, to say the least. Do you agree with that statement?

24:00 Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I have a feeling Dan's gonna be walking around glad handing some folks, seeing if they'll want to come on the show at some point.

24:09 Speaker B: Dan may have some Legion of Superheroes books for Scott Collins. Dan.

24:13 Speaker A: Dan. Dan's gonna bring. He's gonna be the guy that has the little basket behind him. Excuse me. I just have a book or two for you to sign. And he pulls out.

24:21 Speaker B: I've met Scott before, a few years back. He's great. We were talking about working with, like, Keith Giffen and stuff. Don't I have a piece of art? Did I get it from Klish or him? I think I got it from Klish, actually. I always get. Sometimes I used to. I'm sorry. Scott Collins and Scott Klish. But sometimes I would get you all confused, even though you're completely different.

24:43 Speaker A: Very different, but very similar. Their names are both Scott.

24:47 Speaker B: I may be buying something. Let's just say that.

24:49 Speaker A: Yes.

24:51 Speaker B: Yeah.

24:51 Speaker A: This is a great show to pick stuff up at, too, from folks while you're there. There's a lot of folks doing. Doing stuff and. Or they have things at their tables.

25:01 Speaker B: Yeah. And you're not even listed on the comic creator page.

25:04 Speaker A: Oh, wow. Well, then I need to change.

25:07 Speaker B: Yeah. You probably need to reach out because you are also a comic creator that will be there.

25:13 Speaker A: I know.

25:13 Speaker B: And you're as famous as some of these other comic creators.

25:16 Speaker A: You know, I'm just. I'm just me. I. And, you know, just.

25:21 Speaker B: You should let them know the page.

25:24 Speaker A: All right. It's probably on me for not getting information back.

25:29 Speaker B: I'm going make an abrupt turn from taking all these punch cards out of here. These. They're very exciting.

25:34 Speaker A: Oh, punch. Like, are they for punching or are they for, like, punch cards?

25:39 Speaker B: They're starter cards. Yeah, they're very.

25:41 Speaker A: I see. Cool.

25:45 Speaker B: Well, absolute Batman number four.

25:49 Speaker A: Number four.

25:51 Speaker B: I'm ready for the whole review right now.

25:53 Speaker A: Okay, let's do it.

25:56 Speaker B: This is Scott Snyder's best writing. I, like, literally were what? Issue 4 of 6 here almost cried reading this book the first time, read it again, and was like, wow, I understand why I like this. I've read, you know, I've expressed in the past that I haven't always been a huge fan of Scott Snyder's writing. We'll get into Nick Dragrotta's art in a second here. But because, you know, obviously it's a combination of creators making a book perfect, Right. And we haven't even reviewed it yet. Usually I'd say this is. Then this is a perfect book.

26:40 Speaker A: It is. It is one of those things that you read and, like, I'm pretty sure a lot of other people can agree. No notes. Like, you just read it and you're like, yep, nope, this is it.

26:53 Speaker B: This is.

26:53 Speaker A: This is the template. If you're looking for a. If you're looking for something to go, how do I write something? This is something one of my editors in the past would have said. Grab this and take a look and look at how they do the movement, look at how they do the dialogue, look at how they do all these different things and crib that for your future stuff. Because this is how you make a good book.

27:25 Speaker B: And not only that, this is a serial. They don't reference everything in the first three issues, but they do. And I know that sounds like a weird statement, but they don't visually reference everything in the first three issues. Yeah, but you know, it's there, right? Like, it's, it's. It's not wrapping yet because we're at story part, you know, four. Right. But after issue three at the end, when we get this, you know, hey, I'm going to take this money. Right? We don't reference it at all. And you just know they don't reference the decision. You just know at. By the end of, by the end of issue four, you know, if he really said yes, Right. Like, if he's really saying yes, you know why.

28:18 Speaker A: Mm. Yeah.

28:22 Speaker B: And you know why he wouldn't. And that's the greatest thing about this issue. It's like I mentioned, I felt like sometimes Scott Snyder stuff jumps around a little bit. And this could have in the past been what I was talking about, right? Like me not falling. Like, why did, why did we just ignore everything that happened in the panel. Last panel of issue three.

28:42 Speaker A: Right.

28:43 Speaker B: But we didn't. Nothing in this. But nothing in the pages of this book ignores what happens in the last panel of issue or second to last panel. Right. Of issue three. Because it's telling. It's Giving you the background on how we would get to that decision.

29:01 Speaker A: Sometimes I think when you have good, like, good follow through with the story, you don't need that reference. You don't need that, that, that kind of like lighting, if you will, into the next book. And it, it just brings it through because the reader, the writer is, is believing so much in the reader's intelligence that they're going to just carry it on. And I, It's a, it's, it's a testament to the trust factor on both sides.

29:34 Speaker B: Right.

29:34 Speaker A: That the, the reader trusts that the writer is going to tell them a good story, that the writer trusts that the reader understands the assignment.

29:43 Speaker B: Yep. And it's really clear that. It's really clear to me, too. I think one of the things DC has been focused on is at least they say they are. I just. Legion of substitute podcasters. I'll give you a shout out, shout out that they just did a. They, they didn't get to meet this week, so they played a episode from the past and they had some actual Lost episodes. They lost some episodes off a server. So they lost this episode. And I'd actually not listened to it. And it was about Legion Lost number one, and not the good Legion Loss number one, the shitty one written by Fabian Nicienza and then later other writers. Sorry, Fabian was a shitty story. But they were covering the new 52 relaunch issues of Legion and Legion Lost, which was a bad time for Legion, I thought, because I thought they'd kind of finally gotten a role with their first. I think they had been out like 12 issues. And then, you know, DC resets the universe and people had great hope for that new 52. And we know that excitement was a disaster. Right? It was disaster, financially disaster for characters. That was the 52 issues where Superman reveals himself to the world as Clark Kent. And then they delete that Superman.

31:00 Speaker A: It's like, hey, it's me, everybody. Okay, we're done. We don't need you anymore.

31:05 Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, they literally delete him at the end. Tomasi deletes him. And that's how you get the Super Sons and that's how you get everything else, everything out of it. So, I mean, maybe we could argue it's great because we had to do those things to get everything out of it. But yeah, I mean, financially, just a disaster. I know there was some good Batman stuff in there that people liked and that's. Hence we're talking. I wasn't a big fan. And again, now we're talking about Snyder again. Right. But I will say that, you know, listening back on that podcast, the point I was about to make is they were talking about, like, continuity. Right, Right. And putting together a story. And, you know, they were super hopeful for the start of that universe. Right. They're like, okay, we can see the threads here. We can see where this is going to go. We can see where everything. And we were saying that with the first three issues of this. Right?

31:59 Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.

32:01 Speaker B: Well, you can.

32:01 Speaker A: You put it all together and you're like, okay, I'm getting it. It's all laying out.

32:07 Speaker B: And now we're not saying we can see where it's going to go. We're saying they're taking us there, and it's great.

32:14 Speaker A: Yeah. And we haven't even started talking about it yet, people. 32 minutes in.

32:20 Speaker B: We've definitely been talking.

32:22 Speaker A: Tasted it. We've. You've tasted it. Now we're going to feed it to you.

32:26 Speaker B: We've definitely been talking about it. By the way, back of the book, you watched this, didn't you?

32:32 Speaker A: Creature Companion Commandos. What?

32:34 Speaker B: Yeah. You never watched this?

32:36 Speaker A: No. What is this?

32:38 Speaker B: They did a cartoon Creature Commandos.

32:40 Speaker A: No, I didn't watch this.

32:42 Speaker B: Yeah, it bridges Suicide Squad to the rest of the new DC movies.

32:48 Speaker A: Can I. Is it still streamable?

32:51 Speaker B: Yeah, it's on Max, or whatever they call themselves.

32:54 Speaker A: Okay, well, I have that. I can do it. I know what I'm doing.

32:58 Speaker B: By the way. Yeah. Would you like to. When Paramount and HBO merge.

33:03 Speaker A: Yeah.

33:04 Speaker B: What is going to be the new name? Is it going to be Max Mounting

33:09 Speaker A: or Mounting to the Max Ax or Mount? Max Mount. Max Max Mounts. I don't know.

33:21 Speaker B: But skin a Max Mount.

33:26 Speaker A: Skinny Max mounting. I don't know, Dan. That's a lot to. That's a lot to unpack. And I'm in my George right now. It's like. I don't know. I don't.

33:42 Speaker B: Oh, boy. Well, I don't even like them.

33:46 Speaker A: I don't know why I put them on today. It's that it's, like, hot and cold, but not, like, hot enough to be like full shorts, but not cold enough to be, like, full pants. So I figured jorts is the way to go, but, man, I gotta throw these things away, people.

34:01 Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I left my shorts on after my walk, too. But I've got. I was. I was in the Northwest Tuxedo.

34:08 Speaker A: Okay, so you're.

34:09 Speaker B: Cargo shorts and a hoodie.

34:11 Speaker A: Cargo shorts and a hoodie. See, the. This is. This is like Suburban Dad. Not even Suburban Dad. This is Like, I'm going to a Fish concert. Or maybe just a Grateful Dead cover band. I don't know.

34:29 Speaker B: I mean, I. I had a. I had a colleague at work that follows Fish around and. But she would love your comment.

34:38 Speaker A: You know, my old roommate, like, that's the. She just ended up at our house one day after. She's like, oh, my car broke down. Gonna stay with you guys. It's like, why are you here in Longview? Fallen fish. Cool.

34:55 Speaker B: And then she stayed and.

34:57 Speaker A: Yeah. And then my roommate married her, and now I have a. An adult godson. Two adult godsons.

35:06 Speaker B: Well, we have a Batman cover.

35:08 Speaker A: Yeah.

35:10 Speaker B: And then we're never gonna see that again. The rest of the issue.

35:12 Speaker A: We're never gonna see that Batman. I mean, we will. We will see that Batman.

35:16 Speaker B: You watched Righteous Gemstones, right?

35:20 Speaker A: Seeing some Righteous Gemstones, yes.

35:22 Speaker B: Did you get through the first season?

35:25 Speaker A: Not every episode.

35:26 Speaker B: But did you get to the flashback episode? Were there little kids and were he.

35:33 Speaker A: Or maybe.

35:36 Speaker B: Okay, explain. Well, you know, Danny McBride writes the same script for everything.

35:42 Speaker A: Yeah.

35:43 Speaker B: Right. So they're doing Righteous Gemstones, and if you didn't watch the series, it's, like, about. It's making fun of prosperity gospel and, you know, mega churches and things like that. And, yes,

35:58 Speaker A: they.

35:58 Speaker B: His mom had passed away, and that was part of the series. And you find more about it. And then they do a flashback episode to where his mom's still alive and she has cancer. And it's written in a completely different form. It's heart, you know, pulling on your heartstrings. It's, you know, it's. It's just. I watched it, and I'm like, real story, right? So you're like, you know, you go. You know, and Danny McBride has real stories, but, you know, you go from a Danny McBride script. And then I watch that, and so I'm. I waited to watch the credits to see who wrote it. Danny McBride wrote it.

36:37 Speaker A: Holy.

36:38 Speaker B: And I was like, what? And I. It wasn't the same reaction for this script here, huh? But we're going through this story, right? And then all of a sudden, we open with this. The angriest kid in the world. And again, he should be right.

36:57 Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, of course.

36:59 Speaker B: And we've got the court, you know, reading in the background. They're mentioning that Mr. Chill, obviously Joe Chill, that's who shot his dad. He just watched him do it. And we're getting the flashback here, and a tear comes into his eye. And then we flip the page, and we get back to our nice denizens. Of Crime Alley. And we get some gangsters threatening them. Hey, you know, we need to collect. You know, they're trying to collect money to protect them. And one woman stands up to them. And then a really freaky 1940s Batman

37:37 Speaker A: shows up

37:40 Speaker B: and saves her. Gets in a fight with everybody, is carrying a gun. So they are giving complete homage back to the golden Age. Early Batman. Right?

37:50 Speaker A: Right.

37:52 Speaker B: And he's got red eyes, and he blocks the bullets with his cape and knocks people out. He goes to shoot somebody and, oh, he screes. He. He screeches like a bat. Yeah, he goes to shoot somebody. You get a quick interlude with his dad, right? So he's talking to Thomas Wayne, and he's talking to him about bats, and he's making this bridge design out of bats. I'll flip the page up really quick for people that can't see it. And then we go back to his fight, and he flies away, and he says, you know, he's got the gun, everything. This is all wrong. What are you doing, Bruce? And he's like, it's just theatrics. So he goes home, he throws everything away. He throws the gun away. He throws the teeth away. Throws the eye thing or the.

38:43 Speaker A: The contacts.

38:44 Speaker B: Contacts away. And he starts training again. But in this case, it's not just training. He is getting beefier. He goes back to the gym to become beefy Batman, but he's also training himself in engineering. He's reading books, he's reading philosophy. And he's decided that Batman needs to think bigger. Right. Like, going out and just beating up the bad guys in his mind isn't enough. Right. It doesn't actually solve the issues. Right. And the issues we've seen so far in the series, we've seen issues with billionaires, we've seen issues with large organizations, crime families.

39:22 Speaker A: Yeah.

39:23 Speaker B: And this Batman didn't go to the Himalayas or something and, like, try to study with monks or center himself. This Batman stays in Gotham and tries to figure out how to help the people that he grew up next to the whole time, which is what we've been establishing through the first three issues. And so we start to get this idea of how beefy Batman becomes beefy Batman. But not just that, but the why. Right. And what he's doing. And so he starts tracking how guns get into the city. So he is so freaked out by the fact that he was going to shoot somebody, he's like, I'm just going to get rid of the guns.

40:12 Speaker A: Yeah. And take them off the board.

40:16 Speaker B: And of course, we know it's impossible to pass reasonable and responsible gun legislation.

40:21 Speaker A: It's true. Can't.

40:25 Speaker B: The tide may be turning, but we can only hope.

40:29 Speaker A: Can only hope.

40:31 Speaker B: By the way.

40:32 Speaker A: Yeah.

40:33 Speaker B: Side note, as far as crime is concerned, are you following the Texas Senate race at all?

40:40 Speaker A: I. Let's see.

40:41 Speaker B: James Talarico vs. Ken Paxton.

40:44 Speaker A: A little like, a little bit. I. I've caught some things here and there.

40:50 Speaker B: Ken Paxton bragged in an interview that it's not fair to say he only gave a sex offender who raped a boy, little boy, for two years, a one day sentence. In fact, his office recommended a 60 day sentence. In fact, they did recommend a one day sentence. It's in the court records, apparently. And the judge had to say, no, we're not doing that,

41:22 Speaker A: people.

41:23 Speaker B: Fellow lawyer, by the way.

41:24 Speaker A: Jeez,

41:28 Speaker B: if you're from Texas and you're listening, please vote. Do not let that man into the Senate.

41:42 Speaker A: What you need is, is you need the, the people's. The. The people's Batman.

41:48 Speaker B: Yeah, we do need the people's Batman. And to be equally critical, our wonderful junior senator spent a whole bunch of time helping draft and pass a law to reinstate the wonderful parts of the, like nature, amateur nature of college sports. So, Maria Cantwell, thank you for thinking that's so important.

42:09 Speaker A: I have. I have had thoughts about her for a long time.

42:14 Speaker B: Oh, I have many thoughts about her right now. All of them are Batman related. Notice this triggers when I'm reading this page because Bruce gets on here and he's like, I'm going to solve the problem.

42:25 Speaker A: Better candidates, people. Better candidates. There's better candidates out there.

42:29 Speaker B: I'm gonna solve a problem, right? Like, I'm gonna figure out how to choke these guns off. So he figures out that it's one trucking company, they're bringing the guns with produce because they don't really weigh produce that closely or the weight's going to vary, right? So they can bring it in and he goes out and he gets himself a. A bat car.

42:50 Speaker A: Yeah, little. Little R.C.

42:52 Speaker B: batmobile. A little R.C. baby Batmobile. He spends a grand, which, you know, to my recollection, he doesn't have a lot of money, but he spends $1,000 on a jack, attaches it to the car, slides in under the truck and then throws the trailer up and stalls at the truck. And that's his initial solution. And he beats up the guys driving the truck and gets rid of all the guns, presumably. And we flash back again, and this is where he's all still bright eyed and young. And he's working on his Bat Bridge and he's showing it to his dad and he's like, see, this thing will hold up anywhere. You can drop it into places, we can bring it to countries that need this. You know, if a bridge goes out, we can fix these things. And he's stressing about out about it. And his dad says, you know, sometimes you don't. Or he. Bruce asks. I mean, I think so how do you know what anything is at its core though, right? And his dad says, right, sometimes you don't. Sometimes it's trial and error, you know, before we were born, all I wanted to be was a doctor, a heart surgeon. He's like, seriously, why? He said, when I was a kid, my dad, your grandpa, he drove the 6:39 bus route six days a week. On his day off, though, the two of us would go down to the amusement Mile Walk on the pier, and there was a guy there who sold these frozen bananas dipped in chocolate.

44:29 Speaker A: Huh.

44:30 Speaker B: Are we having an. Is this Arrested Development?

44:33 Speaker A: Right. There's always money in the banana.

44:40 Speaker B: Banana shacks on fire. I told you, there's always money in the banana. Anyway, but it's just. And then we. He discloses that, you know, his dad dies of a heart attack, massive coronary. And that's why he wanted to become a heart surgeon, but he ends up becoming a teacher instead. And, you know, we talked about that before, but Bruce wants to establish this bridge and he keeps working on it. And then we get the flashback to him in court and Dragoda again mixes back the amusement park. Right. And Snyder. Right. I mean, this is both script and art.

45:26 Speaker A: Yeah.

45:26 Speaker B: But mixes the amusement park with the courtroom scenes.

45:31 Speaker A: Yeah.

45:31 Speaker B: And they're pulling from all these threads that they've been establishing for us right. Throughout the book. And we get this big smiling guy and he kind of looks like Bruce does on the stand in a weird way. But Bruce is basically, you know, identifies that he lost his innocence that day. Right. You know, it was perfect. Everything was great. They were talking about the giraffes. He'd won the. The science contest. He got to take everything. And he says on the stand. And I knew in that moment, I knew that this was as happy as it ever. As it gets. Ever. I wanted to stay in it, never leave.

46:08 Speaker A: Yeah.

46:10 Speaker B: And we flip the page and Bruce is leaving Gotham City. Right. And we see a lot of interesting things on this page.

46:21 Speaker A: Yeah.

46:22 Speaker B: But he's trying to identify. He's going across the bridge and then he, you know, he's looking at what happens out there, but he's also coming back into the city to identify where. What makes the city work. Right. The people that are there. Who's being impacted by negative events in the city. What real workers do. Right. We're establishing, again, a very different Bruce. Right. This is not Bruce that lives out. Out in way.

46:50 Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Not, not away from everything, but this is a Bruce who is seeing and living and being everything with everyone and trying to be as in touch and as much of a part of everything as he can be and to understand

47:10 Speaker B: the why behind what's impacting people. Right.

47:13 Speaker A: Yeah.

47:13 Speaker B: And we get some, you know, people line dancing. We get some folks out, looks by a school. He leaves town. But, you know, I think that's symbolic. Right. Because he comes back to see everything. We've got some folks at a construction site. We've got some broken down part of town. We have a Smile Company warehouse down in the bottom corner. I don't know if you caught that.

47:35 Speaker A: Yeah, I did.

47:37 Speaker B: And Smile Company, they bring your packages smiles up. Yeah. If the smile is down, they delivered it wrong.

47:45 Speaker A: They did.

47:46 Speaker B: And just.

47:47 Speaker A: They always do. At my house.

47:48 Speaker B: Yeah. Yes. I, I in fact had a. We have a. We're on the postal route. That always changes.

47:57 Speaker A: Yeah. And you're.

47:59 Speaker B: You don't have a dedicated mail person.

48:01 Speaker A: Oh.

48:02 Speaker B: And so you know how at my house there's like a brick, you know

48:08 Speaker A: that, that area that kind of like is a walk in. Yeah, yeah.

48:13 Speaker B: Where you could just put the package there and nobody would ever see it from the street. Right. They put the package in the window of the door.

48:21 Speaker A: That's smart.

48:22 Speaker B: So everybody could see it from the street.

48:24 Speaker A: That is not good. That's kind of like at our place where we have the bin that opens up that you can put the packages in.

48:31 Speaker B: Yeah.

48:32 Speaker A: But nobody ever uses the bin. They haven't used it like for like a year. And. And it's like, come on, people.

48:42 Speaker B: Well, in my case, it's like you had a decision to put it in the worst possible place.

48:47 Speaker A: And, and yeah, and you did, you did.

48:49 Speaker B: Like there were a lot of options. All of them better than that.

48:53 Speaker A: They could have put in the backyard.

48:56 Speaker B: Yeah. It would have been interesting. Maliwa, the Malinois was not here comfortably asleep next to me though. She is very happy. Yes. The Malinois. The Malinois would just bring me the package though. That'd be.

49:15 Speaker A: With a hand attached to it.

49:16 Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know. Like.

49:20 Speaker A: Well, if you could read their mind, it'd be like, there was a man in the yard. I brought you the box, but I took the hand to chew on because it shouldn't have been. The man shouldn't have been there. He screamed a little. A little. Just a little.

49:41 Speaker B: You know, she's afraid of fences.

49:43 Speaker A: She afraid of it.

49:44 Speaker B: She won't jump over them. Yeah.

49:47 Speaker A: Which is good.

49:47 Speaker B: I think this is a good thing. Like.

49:49 Speaker A: Yeah. Just build her own small fences.

49:53 Speaker B: Her owner, who Jiu Jitsu lawyer Paul, is quite fond of the. That'd be Jiu Jitsu lawyer Paul we mentioned many times here in Washington. He can handle your employment law cases. In fact, everybody that works in one of these places here.

50:12 Speaker A: Oh, yeah. One of those places he can definitely,

50:14 Speaker B: probably represented right now by Jiu Jitsu lawyer Paul.

50:17 Speaker A: Oh, yeah, definitely.

50:19 Speaker B: But, yeah, the. The Malinois. The Malinois owner was thinking that it would be a good idea to make sure she knew she could jump over a fence because she's, you know, trained to hunt for electronics and stuff.

50:32 Speaker A: Yeah.

50:33 Speaker B: And I was like, well, that could be good as part of that job. But as far as, like, keeping the Malinois, I think it's a bad idea to have the Malinois figure out that. That she likes jumping over fences.

50:44 Speaker A: Yeah. No, you want the Malinois to not,

50:47 Speaker B: like fences, to defer to the fence, I think.

50:50 Speaker A: Oh, there's a fence. I got to. Somebody help me. Yeah. I got to have somebody help me with this.

50:56 Speaker B: Yeah.

50:56 Speaker A: I do not pass.

50:58 Speaker B: Otherwise. The Malinois owns the neighborhood, I think.

51:00 Speaker A: Oh, yeah. For sure.

51:01 Speaker B: Or at least every ball in the neighborhood. Like, I would come back out to the backyard, and there would be 5,000 tennis balls in the backyard.

51:10 Speaker A: I. I know. I know. When I've come over the couple times and just. She always wants to play.

51:16 Speaker B: Oh, yeah.

51:16 Speaker A: Always wants to play. And it's like, between her and Juliet, it's like. Okay, okay.

51:22 Speaker B: Okay.

51:22 Speaker A: My arm is getting tired. I am. Thank you for the toy. Okay. I'm getting tired now. It's been an hour. Can we stop?

51:30 Speaker B: Yeah. Endless, endless toy getting energy. And I think we're avoiding this next page because it's. Oh, yeah.

51:39 Speaker A: It's freaking sad as hell.

51:45 Speaker B: We get some, by the way.

51:48 Speaker A: No.

51:48 Speaker B: Alfred in this book.

51:49 Speaker A: Right. I don't. If he might show for a panel.

51:54 Speaker B: Yeah. But we haven't seen. So far. So far, we're halfway through. We haven't seen any of the Gotham crew.

52:00 Speaker A: No, it's just all Bruce.

52:03 Speaker B: It's all Bruce.

52:03 Speaker A: Bruce building.

52:05 Speaker B: Bruce building. Good. Yeah. We did some world building. And now we're doing some Bruce building.

52:10 Speaker A: Yeah.

52:14 Speaker B: He mentions, I'm going to start by where we see the warehouse that looks like at the Smiley Package Company. And he's thinking, you know, they're hurting. They're feeling like no one sees them. Like they're at the mercy. This is referring to the people of Gotham. Of all these forces that seem beyond their control, powerless. Some are angry at everyone who let them down. And some are scared and hunkering. It's bad. And then we flip to Bruce in the courtroom and he says, you killed that happiness, Mr. Chill. Forever. I'm not staying for anything you have to say. I don't care what made you do it or do what you did. I just need you to know that I hate you. And the judge says, Mr. Wayne. And Bruce says, I hate. I hate you. Of course, it's not, because we don't do that in this book. I hate you. You hear me? And then we flash back to Bruce's trip out of town where he's hiking with the bats.

53:17 Speaker A: Yeah.

53:18 Speaker B: And it's a.

53:21 Speaker A: It's kind of powerful page, though, in a sense, because, I mean, there's a lot of. A lot of rawness.

53:29 Speaker B: Well, and then we get another page where his dad's there, and he's explaining the bridge. And then he's training, he's working on his gear. He's testing his bat thumb thingy. And then we get another page and then it flips back to his dad and he's like, stop stalling, kid. Let me see it. And he shows him the cool bat bridge. Right? The final version.

53:53 Speaker A: Yeah.

53:56 Speaker B: And, you know, he's talking to his dad. I forget if it's right here, if it was earlier, but he's talking about how, you know, bats are the only mammals that can fly. It's on. It's. It's somewhere in here.

54:13 Speaker A: Yeah.

54:14 Speaker B: But he has made this really cool thing. We get a quick flash to young Batman looking at the trucking company guy who's at a gala. Lot of text here. I'm not going to try to go through.

54:29 Speaker A: Yeah, it's a lot.

54:30 Speaker B: But he's basically saying, this is where all the rich people go.

54:34 Speaker A: Yeah.

54:35 Speaker B: And then we get back to that and we see he's put buzz saws on here. He's a little kid, right. He's putting really cool things on his bridge. Oh, yeah, yeah. He's. He's. He's a little kid. He's still got all the hope in his eyes. Right. He's like, I'm Making this cool thing. And then we flip back to current day Batman with the police. Or not current day. Sorry, past Batman past. It's not quite current day, but identifying that guy. Oh, that's where it is. Sorry, it was the second last page. Bats. He says it's the only mammal on earth that flies, dad. The only one. It's this crazy little creature that shows us we can beat anything holding us down. And suddenly in this universe, the bat is both a symbol of fear, but a symbol of hope, which I know they've established that in regular Batman at times, but the inspiration here is that he's using this to show that you can overcome anything as opposed to

55:41 Speaker A: Ray scaring people. Yeah, you can do anything.

55:48 Speaker B: And then as we see Bruce grow up, he goes back to the jail and he wants to see Joe Chill. And he's finally ready, after all that realization about understanding the people around him, to hear him say, what do you want to say in court that he skipped that day?

56:14 Speaker A: Yeah, it's a

56:18 Speaker B: damn.

56:19 Speaker A: It is. It is.

56:20 Speaker B: Damn group. Thank you, artists.

56:22 Speaker A: Yeah. It is such a, an emotional book. It is such a, a book of, like, it just, I don't know it. If you thought you knew, like, I mean, if you thought you knew where the story was going in the last book, this one takes you through a different, a different portion of Bruce and explains you something without shows you, but doesn't tell you. Yep.

56:58 Speaker B: You know, and the whole thing is I wasn't even mad. I was a little bit mad at the end, but I wasn't even mad till the end that I didn't hear about him accepting the money. Right. Like, you're not mad about the stutter. Stop. And that's why I was referencing that, that episode of Righteous Gemstones too, because the same thing's kind of happening there, right? Like, something big happens and they have that flashback and you're not even mad about it because the story is so good.

57:25 Speaker A: Right. And you're just going with it. You're going with it because it's, it's bringing you along through every panel, through every, through every bubble, through every movement that you're going, you're just like, okay, okay, okay. And then it ends and you're like,

57:45 Speaker B: and, and who, who wouldn't like this Bruce Wayne?

57:49 Speaker A: I, I, if you don't like this Bruce Wayne, let us know. I want to know because I, I, I really need to find out. I, this is like, honestly, like, if you, if you read other Batman and I've read another Batman, if you've read. If you've read other Batman, you, you have this idea in your head of what Batman is, who he, who Bruce Wayne is, what he does. This is just a very different take on it, on the character, on, on why, his reasons and, and why, which is based on his, you know, it's that, you know, the nature and nurture environment situation. He has two different sets in both universes, but in this one, it's, it's a very, the, I think, I think this is one that more people can kind of just go, oh, yeah, I understand that one.

58:57 Speaker B: If Darkseid's goal was to take away all the advantages that these characters had, which was part of the goal of, like, creating this universe, right? Yeah, he fucked up.

59:07 Speaker A: He just, he just gave this, he gave Bruce Wayne more advantages, right?

59:13 Speaker B: I mean, without the money and without Alfred there babysitting him, right, the entire time, he becomes stronger, he becomes more focused. Now this could be his downfall too, right? Like, I obviously, of course, if you say Dark Knight returns and we've already had Bruce Wayne become a Nazi, so, you know, that already happened. I know you disagree, but I would say that's what he is at the end. He has his own army.

59:41 Speaker A: I, I, I would say it's, it's, that is one perception and one opinion. And you could also say he.

59:52 Speaker B: Well, if we go to author's intent, as you wanted me to do earlier.

59:58 Speaker A: Yeah, but see, that's how you won your debate. So, I mean, we could, we could, we could.

01:00:03 Speaker B: A good debater is happy to use his opponent's arguments against them when convenient. Wow, Dave, did I teach you anything?

01:00:11 Speaker A: You taught me nothing.

01:00:14 Speaker B: That's actually, that's actually true.

01:00:16 Speaker A: But you know what, Dan?

01:00:16 Speaker B: I let sir do all of that.

01:00:18 Speaker A: You know what? You know what? Right now, you know what I have, I have the high ground. Yeah, and your legs are cut off in the lava.

01:00:28 Speaker B: Well, I could see the point I was going to make is I could see this Bruce Wayne's potential for corruption. And I think they're kind of hanging it out there for us, right, with the, the money, right? Because he doesn't have all the advantages that the other Bruce Wayne has. So how does he. We know he has a motivation right now, and he's young, and his motivation right now is to work for the people of his city to make it better, to build things for them, right? To make sure they have a good experience in life, to be sort of that beacon of hope. That's that bat, right? To create, like that bridge and the bridge is very symbolic too. I don't think we've discussed it, but there's a reason that Scott Snyder has him. Making a bridge is a science project, right?

01:01:16 Speaker A: Oh, yeah. No, it's. It's a very symbolic piece. It is his, if you put it into debate terms, his bright line. It is, it is what bridges the gap between the two. It's what helps people to get from point A to point B and makes the movement happen.

01:01:37 Speaker B: And we're also establishing a new value set. But I could also see how this Batman could become corrupted in the future, because if things don't work out, you have. He's using the symbol of hope. If things don't work out, he's had this damage as a kid. Right. But if things don't work out, where does he go?

01:01:56 Speaker A: Where does he go? You think, you think he would, you think he would slide back into previous form of Batman and run, Run back to guns or run to something different?

01:02:10 Speaker B: I don't know. Does he just stop? Does he go work for somebody else? Does he try to control everything? You know, if his goal is to make sure everybody is happy, does he keep deciding that. Well, you know what? I couldn't do this myself when I was trying to stop the big guys. So do we need the flock cameras now? Do we need the red light cameras?

01:02:28 Speaker A: Kingdom come, Batman?

01:02:30 Speaker B: Do we need.

01:02:31 Speaker A: Yeah, we need. We need sentient Batman robots.

01:02:36 Speaker B: Do we need the cctv?

01:02:38 Speaker A: Yeah.

01:02:38 Speaker B: To.

01:02:39 Speaker A: To be running around the city. To. To be doing everything.

01:02:43 Speaker B: Yeah.

01:02:44 Speaker A: And then.

01:02:45 Speaker B: Yeah, Kingdom come, Batman. Yeah. I. Where, you know, where does this character go? Or does this character go, you know, further, the other direction? Right. We should have a place where we can operate in freedom. And so, you know, where does the character end up? I. I don't, you know, I genuinely don't know. Right. And that's, that's great. I mean, I think that's, that's good storytelling. I don't know yet. And I want to know that.

01:03:13 Speaker A: And that's, that's, that is what makes like this book and this story so good because. Just keeps you invested to want to read the next issue, to want to keep on with the series and then series wise. I mean, honestly, like, you know, you know, you've seen my reading habits. I'm gonna jump back on and, and continue to read more. But like, it is one of those things that this continues to go. And I had, I had conversations with other people that this book series, the storyline wise, draws you in and makes you want to know more and really good. Yeah, yeah, so, yeah.

01:04:01 Speaker B: So whole creative team. You know, I just say we've done four of these. Thank you.

01:04:09 Speaker A: Yeah. A plus.

01:04:11 Speaker B: And in fact, this wasn't Nick Dragoda's art on this one.

01:04:14 Speaker A: It wasn't? Oh, wow, you fibbed on me.

01:04:18 Speaker B: No, it was Gabriel Hernandez.

01:04:20 Speaker A: Walter Gabriel knocked it out of the park.

01:04:24 Speaker B: Yeah. So they've credited Nick on co authoring this one.

01:04:29 Speaker A: Okay, so.

01:04:31 Speaker B: Or co plotting, which makes sense.

01:04:34 Speaker A: Well, yeah, no, I mean, well, and honestly, like, I mean, but this one, you could see that, and you could see a little shift. I, I saw that when I, when I picked up, when I, when I picked up reading on this issue, I was like, there's a shift in this. But it made sense art wise because you're telling a different portion of the story, and it kind of needs to be different to take you out of the main story to explain what's going on in a sense. Right.

01:05:02 Speaker B: And Gabriel, both penciled and inked.

01:05:06 Speaker A: And honestly, like, even though it was a, a little, a little different, it marries up with everything that's going on so well. It is so good. Who did the colors? Because these colors are fantastic.

01:05:22 Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, that's what I was about to say. And Frank Martin on the colors was these color, the colors were fantastic.

01:05:28 Speaker A: Honestly, like, people, I think you sleep on colors so much. Like, if you, if you are paying attention to who's coloring your books, if you are reading a book and you're like, man, this just stands up so good. It is because the coloring is, is done by somebody who can make it pop and make it look good. A lot of people can color. A lot of people can do things. Oh, I can color. Yeah. I can color too, but I can't make a book look like this. And, and this, it, it, it makes it, it just puts a tone on the story. And the way that the, this, this, the way that he, he put the colors in on the story itself, it just made the bright parts bright, the dark parts dark, and the darker parts darker.

01:06:20 Speaker B: Yep. So it's, it's, the story is, is good. And we'll get some of our questions answered in issue five. They start to wrap some of the things up in five and six. Yeah, but yeah, I mean, honestly, if you were, if you're gonna relaunch Batman, which is what they're doing.

01:06:44 Speaker A: Yeah.

01:06:45 Speaker B: I couldn't ask for a better start.

01:06:48 Speaker A: You, you really can't? I mean, like, this is this. I, okay, I, I, I slept on this. No lies, listeners. I am kicking myself for not picking

01:07:06 Speaker B: this up sooner you're saying that you're as lame as Nightmaster?

01:07:10 Speaker A: I am as lame as nightmaster. Dan. 100 correct. Lame. What's his. What's his power set? What's his. What's his. I mean, like, what's his ability?

01:07:23 Speaker B: He has a flaming sword.

01:07:24 Speaker A: Flaming sword. But what. What's his damage?

01:07:28 Speaker B: He's Nightmaster. Ask Gail.

01:07:31 Speaker A: Okay.

01:07:32 Speaker B: Ask Gail. Simone. Yep.

01:07:34 Speaker A: I'll send a message. How come Nightmaster's so weak in this game?

01:07:40 Speaker B: How come Nightmaster so weak in general? Just ask Gail that straight up.

01:07:44 Speaker A: Why isn't it. Why is Nightmares so weak?

01:07:47 Speaker B: Anyway?

01:07:48 Speaker A: Ah, Dan, I appreciate that you brought this to the show that you got me wanting to talk about this and read this because this good stuff, by

01:08:02 Speaker B: the way, about things we're supposed to read. Have you gone to the comic shop and ordered the second printing of Legion of Superheroes Number one? Because, in fact, there are no first printings anymore.

01:08:14 Speaker A: So my work schedule has drastically changed. I will, I guess, go tomorrow.

01:08:20 Speaker B: All right. And. And make sure you get the Jonah Hex ordered, too, because I will.

01:08:24 Speaker A: I will drive up there on my way back home and I will. I'll do the weird loop and go. Go get whatever I can while I'm there. I will go support the shop and I'll buy all the books that I have been sleeping on.

01:08:43 Speaker B: Which shop are you going to?

01:08:44 Speaker A: I am going to. Oh, shoot. I was about to call it his old name.

01:08:52 Speaker B: Federal Way.

01:08:53 Speaker A: Yeah. Why can't I think of its new name? I am.

01:08:56 Speaker B: You could just meet. You could just meet me there tomorrow.

01:08:59 Speaker A: I can meet you there tomorrow. Well, I don't think you're gonna be there at, like, 1:30.

01:09:03 Speaker B: No, I'm gonna be there around 4.

01:09:06 Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I. I am. I. I'm working a weird schedule because I have a phone call with people in China.

01:09:15 Speaker B: Wow.

01:09:15 Speaker A: Big.

01:09:16 Speaker B: Big shot.

01:09:17 Speaker A: I know.

01:09:17 Speaker B: Big shot.

01:09:18 Speaker A: Yeah, I know. Oh, my gosh. Why can't I remember the name? Dan, Look.

01:09:28 Speaker B: Look, Greg.

01:09:30 Speaker A: What is that?

01:09:31 Speaker B: Where's Teal?

01:09:32 Speaker A: Where's Teal?

01:09:33 Speaker B: There's no Teal. It's Clarion. The witch boy.

01:09:35 Speaker A: Oh. Oh, Witch boy.

01:09:38 Speaker B: Shouldn't Teekle be on his shoulders? It's the best part of Clarion. Why, every good witch needs a cat, right?

01:09:45 Speaker A: Oh, yes.

01:09:47 Speaker B: Anyway, you were saying?

01:09:49 Speaker A: I'm trying to think of. I can't think of the name of the shop now.

01:09:53 Speaker B: That's hilarious.

01:09:54 Speaker A: I know. They changed their name and now I can't remember their name.

01:09:58 Speaker B: Well, you can come back next week and let everybody know.

01:10:04 Speaker A: No, I'm gonna find out right now.

01:10:09 Speaker B: Well, while Greg looks up the name of the shop, it's probably a good time to. One mention. One more time.

01:10:17 Speaker A: Phil.

01:10:22 Speaker B: Oh my God, I'd love to train with you in New York. I mean, if you're in Washington, I'll. I'll take you to the gym too, so we can come lift bags together. Heavy bags together and everything else. Anyway, you were saying, Greg?

01:10:38 Speaker A: Midgard Comics and Games. That's where I'm going tomorrow. Federal Way. Midgards Comics and Games. If you're there around 2, 2:30, you might see Greg at the shop. Planning on doing a pop by pop in, picking up some stuff.

01:10:57 Speaker B: So you're gonna pop in right when they're sorting their order?

01:11:01 Speaker A: Exactly. That's what I plan. You know, honestly, back in the day when it was Fantasium and Paula ran the shop, I would just. I would honestly. I mean, like, I hung out all the time. She was like, do you just want to work here?

01:11:15 Speaker B: She's like, go away.

01:11:16 Speaker A: Like, and. And it was like right before I got this job and I was like, I'm getting a job, a different job. I can't work here. I felt bad because honestly, like, what is, what is the dream? The dream really is to work at a comic shop.

01:11:31 Speaker B: Right.

01:11:31 Speaker A: So. And. Or either work at or own one. And like I. And it was right there. But I could have been working with all of my friends. But.

01:11:49 Speaker B: Well, speaking of which, I think I've discovered something. I'm gonna have to throw this card away.

01:11:55 Speaker A: What is that?

01:11:56 Speaker B: It doesn't have the correct name on it.

01:11:58 Speaker A: Who? What? Who is. I can't see it. I. The glare. Shazam.

01:12:04 Speaker B: Yeah, it's the wrong name. They miss as a misprint.

01:12:08 Speaker A: It's a misprint. It means it's worth more money. Dan, better put that in a sleeve. Better believe.

01:12:14 Speaker B: Well, I'm taking it out of sleeves right now. Put it in, Crinkle some sleeves.

01:12:19 Speaker A: Grade it. Grade it there.

01:12:23 Speaker B: So. All right, well, on that note. Okay, so we are. We're almost done. We are so close to being done. In fact, we only have a couple of more things to talk about. Number one.

01:12:39 Speaker A: Yeah.

01:12:40 Speaker B: If you are a fan of comic books.

01:12:42 Speaker A: Yes.

01:12:43 Speaker B: And you are a fan of Greg.

01:12:45 Speaker A: Oh, me?

01:12:48 Speaker B: Yeah.

01:12:49 Speaker A: Oh, yeah.

01:12:51 Speaker B: And you're a fan of Travis.

01:12:53 Speaker A: Yeah.

01:12:55 Speaker B: You should go to guy who's down the show. Comics books, Comic Overcast, comicbooks dot com. Yeah, let me get that right again. Yeah. Over. That's three words, right? Overcast, Comic, comic books. But it's all one word.

01:13:09 Speaker A: Yeah. Dot com.

01:13:12 Speaker B: Yeah. So. Oh, man, I am in so much trouble.

01:13:17 Speaker A: What did you do?

01:13:18 Speaker B: Oh, there's. There's something. Just got a message. Ah, shoot.

01:13:25 Speaker A: Did you. All right, well, Steak.

01:13:26 Speaker B: Did you do something wrong? I did make. I'll tell you in a second show. Yeah, I know I did something. Well, anyway, you get started.

01:13:40 Speaker A: Yeah.

01:13:41 Speaker B: Greg wrote that with Travis.

01:13:43 Speaker A: I did.

01:13:45 Speaker B: Won Brett Wadelli on art, but. Yeah. And you could learn more about the future. Amazing book coming out. Albert Pun.

01:13:57 Speaker A: Yeah.

01:13:57 Speaker B: Catastrophe. Return of Alex Reign. Oh, what?

01:14:01 Speaker A: The Catastrophe of Return of Alex Reign.

01:14:03 Speaker B: That's the book title, right? I finally got it right.

01:14:06 Speaker A: No, he did not get it right. It is not right. Again. Again. We're gonna have to have Travis on the show again to set you straight, Dan.

01:14:15 Speaker B: We have to have Travis on the show.

01:14:17 Speaker A: Travis is gonna have to come back on the funny book forensics.

01:14:21 Speaker B: Are you sure to set you straight?

01:14:24 Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know if he can set you straight, though. Well, Mickey. Correct.

01:14:32 Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, and. Oh, and we just got a message from listener Jason.

01:14:42 Speaker A: Yeah. Who will.

01:14:44 Speaker B: Who? I've been on his podcast before.

01:14:46 Speaker A: Yes.

01:14:48 Speaker B: He said he's a little bit nervous about the new hex. It's going to be supernatural in nature.

01:14:53 Speaker A: Oh, like the show supernatural. It's going to have two brothers on it and they're going to be driving, I don't know, an Impala around with, like, crossbows and I don't know what that means.

01:15:06 Speaker B: We'll find out, but it could be bad. Well, we will go ahead and note that you can also find Greg at the Retro Emporium in Kent, Washington.

01:15:18 Speaker A: It's true.

01:15:19 Speaker B: If you want to talk to Jiu Jitsu lawyer Paul, you could always have the phone number looked up ahead of time.

01:15:27 Speaker A: Oh, what's the phone number, Dan?

01:15:29 Speaker B: Because that would be smart.

01:15:30 Speaker A: Tell me the phone number. You should. I want the phone number. Is it start with 253?

01:15:35 Speaker B: It does start with 253.

01:15:36 Speaker A: I knew that. Part 4475-2536-5644-7575.

01:15:45 Speaker B: You talk to the wonderful Kelly and get yourself an appointment. If you're having some employment law problems or some other issues, here's a question right now, licensed in Washington, California, and maybe in the future, New York, New York.

01:16:00 Speaker A: I'd love the fact that he'd be licensed in New York. Do you know how many book publishers are in New York?

01:16:06 Speaker B: That would be. That might be useful to you someday if you ever wrote things.

01:16:10 Speaker A: Shut up. No, I was gonna. I was gonna ask here's a question. Say you are going to the doctor, right? Or some appointment.

01:16:25 Speaker B: Say an eclipso.

01:16:27 Speaker A: An eclipso. Oh, man.

01:16:29 Speaker B: On the way.

01:16:29 Speaker A: An eclipso is like, hey, your. Your co. Payment is $30, but. And you pay $30. But then there. And. And they make you sign. Calypso makes you sign a thing that says that your payment is $30. And then they send you a. You were late to payment for $40 because you needed to pay $40. Could Paul represent you if you signed a thing that said you were paying $30, but they want you to pay $40?

01:17:04 Speaker B: In fact, he could. And bam. In fact, Paul, in the past, I did a lot of the research actually on this one, but I believe that you were aware of this. I had a zombie debt collector come after me.

01:17:20 Speaker A: Yes.

01:17:21 Speaker B: Stupidly co Signed on someone's student loans.

01:17:24 Speaker A: Yeah.

01:17:24 Speaker B: Then stopped paying them. And then I had to make an agreement with that company to pay the balance of $15,000 thousand dollars.

01:17:31 Speaker A: Good Lord.

01:17:33 Speaker B: I paid that balance of $15,000. And then they sold the debt to another company and that company came after me for $2,194, which was the interest we agreed that I didn't have to pay. Wow.

01:17:50 Speaker A: So somewhere they believe that you needed to pay them $2,000 that wasn't there for $15,000 that you shouldn't have had to pay on. Because it wasn't really your debt.

01:18:01 Speaker B: So in fact. In fact, we didn't have to go to court or anything. Paul reached out to that company and I settled with them for $1,000.

01:18:11 Speaker A: Wow.

01:18:12 Speaker B: For harassing me and bugging me and pulling my credit and invading my privacy illegally. And then another company did the same thing and then. And we settled for $2,500.

01:18:25 Speaker A: I like it.

01:18:26 Speaker B: And then that same company did the same thing again.

01:18:29 Speaker A: What?

01:18:30 Speaker B: And we settled for $7,500.

01:18:33 Speaker A: Oh my gosh.

01:18:34 Speaker B: And if they ever bug me again, I have a piece of paper that says they will pay me $7,500.

01:18:40 Speaker A: Oh wow. That is so.

01:18:43 Speaker B: Yes. If a. If a debt collection company has come after you and they are harassing you, we can absolutely represent you. I.

01:18:55 Speaker A: Well, you know the Squatcho man, he had to go. He had deal. That's why he hasn't been around. He heard his. He hurt his leg and he's been laid up for a while in the Himalayas, hanging out with his Himalayan friends there.

01:19:13 Speaker B: His Himalayan sea salt?

01:19:15 Speaker A: Yeah. Well, no, they. They. You know, they put the sea salt on everything.

01:19:18 Speaker B: Like. Likes pink things all the time.

01:19:20 Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so they, but. But he's been resting and so I

01:19:24 Speaker B: thought about the Squatch a man. It's that kind of guy.

01:19:26 Speaker A: He's.

01:19:27 Speaker B: Anyway, anyway.

01:19:29 Speaker A: Oh yeah, yeah. So he, he had to go to physical therapy and physical therapy said that he owed all this money for appointments that, that, that he paid for because you know, I'm a nice guy and I give him money to pay for those physical therapy appointments.

01:19:51 Speaker B: Well if a debt collector is coming after the squacho man and it's for a debt that they have no evidence that he actually owes and can't create a trace for it and can't establish it and he has the right to question both that debt collector and a right to question the original person collecting the debt. And this is something you can do on your own certainly. But sometimes it helps to have a lawyer.

01:20:16 Speaker A: Then I'm going to tell the Squatch a man to give Paul a call. I 25344

01:20:25 Speaker B: come on. Wow. You've like I'm ways I was laying

01:20:29 Speaker A: you up with the rest of the number.

01:20:31 Speaker B: Yeah, well I'm way off of that. I already closed the number down.

01:20:34 Speaker A: So come on, you know, this is the, this is the deal. We do the thing where I, I didn't know.

01:20:39 Speaker B: I didn't know we were doing the number again. There's no prep, no preparation for that at all.

01:20:43 Speaker A: I mean it's not in the notes but it's in the.

01:20:46 Speaker B: It's 2532-5656-6564-5447 five do you just messed it up. Let's try that again. 253-656-4475 that's the number. And I will say Paul, Paul does a lot of employment law right now. But if you, if you reach out he can also, you know, refer you out to somebody else that can get you some help. And don't try to do these things with these debt collectors alone. Don't go online and look up how do I, how do I fuck with debt collectors? Yeah, just get a professional take care of it for you. There are statutory fines for debt collectors doing illegal acts. And a nice strongly worded letter from a lawyer can take care of that for you. And sometimes it's even worth say, you know, know I'm not soliciting Paul for this. I want to be very clear. But debt collecting, serious stuff you can. Sometimes it's even worth just to pay a lawyer the like, you know, a couple hundred dollars to write a letter for you and have that sent out. So 100%. Do it, people and do something about it. Don't sit on that letter, you know, especially when they're trying to collect illegal debts. You need to do something. So anyway, this, this, this legal moment was brought to you by no one because I don't give legal advice. But what I will say is do not sit on a debt collector's letter if you don't and if you don't, genuine, if you genuinely don't owe that debt, go after them. They're scumbags. Them. They're absolute scumbags.

01:22:13 Speaker A: Put them in a leg lock and then throw.

01:22:16 Speaker B: Yeah. Or just, you know, they're scumbags. I'll just say.

01:22:19 Speaker A: Yeah. All right.

01:22:21 Speaker B: So I think we've, we've covered a lot tonight. We've covered debt collection for way too long. I know what happens to you if you buy too many of these DC cards. Yep.

01:22:33 Speaker A: You gotta sleeve them.

01:22:35 Speaker B: Yeah. And then unsleeve them and then sleeve them again.

01:22:37 Speaker A: You gotta unsleeve them and then re sleeve them. How many cards came pre sleeve that you have to unsleeve to re sleeve?

01:22:46 Speaker B: Unfortunately, none of them came pre sleeved, which, you know, you could actually do

01:22:49 Speaker A: that you already you that you had to get the cards unsleeved and then sleeve them to them in the new sleeve.

01:22:57 Speaker B: Yep. So pre sleeving.

01:23:01 Speaker A: Go pre sleeping.

01:23:02 Speaker B: You know, I'm gonna leave that whole debt collection part in this podcast because I really think it's an important thing for people to understand.

01:23:08 Speaker A: It is important. And I honestly brought it up because it's a real. Is a real question and it was a real. It's a real situation that I think some of our listeners data might not know it right now.

01:23:19 Speaker B: It's a real situation.

01:23:21 Speaker A: They know somebody that could be in that situation and they're going to hear it on the show and it's going to come back to them and they're going to be like, God damn.

01:23:30 Speaker B: Yeah.

01:23:30 Speaker A: Where I hear that.

01:23:31 Speaker B: And in fact, a. A person that you coached on a debate team actually had their identity stolen this year.

01:23:40 Speaker A: Oh, geez.

01:23:41 Speaker B: And had to go through that. Somebody bought a truck in their name.

01:23:45 Speaker A: Oh my gosh.

01:23:46 Speaker B: Three states away and had to go through all that. And it is a pain in the butt. Here's a piece of non legal advice.

01:23:54 Speaker A: Yeah.

01:23:54 Speaker B: Everybody should know. Lock your credit.

01:23:59 Speaker A: Lock it.

01:23:59 Speaker B: Sorry. Now freeze it. Sorry, sorry. Lock is the wrong word. Freeze it. Your credit with all three major credit bureaus. That'd be Experian, Equifax and Transunion. You can go to Their website freeze your credit. What that does is if somebody applies for credit in your name. Yeah. They cannot run the credit report because your credit is frozen. And then they have. You have to unfreeze it. So can you still get credit? Yes. You just. It's really easy. You just go to the website, you unfreeze it. I bought a car last year. All I had to do was go to the. The day I bought the car. I went and unfroze my credit for one day, bought the car, left was done, and then went back on my business. And then my credit and, you know, credit was frozen again. So don't leave, you know, it's a scary world out there. Don't leave your credit unlocked and be happy and love the Batman book. And I'm gonna say this on what

01:24:51 Speaker A: you just said, that that coincides with if you're. If you're. If you're like email or any other thing has been, like, hacked or you feel like it's been compromised in any way, sh. Shape or form, your phone's been stolen, any of those things, do the same thing.

01:25:13 Speaker B: Take action.

01:25:14 Speaker A: Because if you don't, you're going to end up in a world of hurt. Same thing happened to my wife.

01:25:21 Speaker B: So change those passwords.

01:25:23 Speaker A: Change them.

01:25:24 Speaker B: Do the annoying two factor authentication. I know it's hard to do it.

01:25:28 Speaker A: Be like beefy Batman.

01:25:30 Speaker B: Get sprawling and be like beefy Batman and help yourself and help others. So that's.

01:25:36 Speaker A: Yeah.

01:25:36 Speaker B: And, you know, I just feel spirited after that beefy Batman book. Absolute Batman number four. Great book. Good book. We should wrap this thing up. I think we're. We're in. Because I will keep straying off onto current events right now.

01:25:49 Speaker A: Yeah.

01:25:49 Speaker B: But just remember, folks, I have one thing to leave you with today. The Atlanta Hawks NBA team is not the Iowa Hawkeyes women's basketball team. That's all I have to say.

01:26:01 Speaker A: Wow.

01:26:02 Speaker B: Everybody have a wonderful night or day listening to us. All right. Jack Smith, we love you. Keep prosecuting, buddy.

01:26:11 Speaker A: Bye.