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Episode 688 - A Good Bad Idea f/ Jeremy Whitley
1.2k Plays4 months ago
The writer of the new OGN Navigating With You joins us once again this week to talk about Bojangles, tag teams, Bojangles' choice of tag teams, and, oh yeah, his comic. And a whole lot more, too!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction of Hosts
00:00:00
Speaker
Gladius, I'm bored. What plaything can you offer me today? He's got more Rocket Ajax to bring back his body!
00:00:20
Speaker
Terminate exit!
00:00:25
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome to War Rocket Ajax. This is the internet's most explosive comic book and pop culture podcast. The two of us, we're your hosts. My name is Chris Sims with me as always, Matt Wilson. Matt, how are you? Chris, I'm doing okay. I hope you are. I'm doing, doing okay. You're doing? I'm doing. And I'm going to keep on doing.
00:00:54
Speaker
Because it's all it's all you can do. It's all you can do. All you can do is do. Man, I'll tell you how I am. I had a conversation with my therapist that frequently involved the term futility this week. That's how I'm doing. But hey, it's time to do the show. And the show is fun. It is. And we've all been there. I've been there. I know exactly the feeling. and But it's the show is fun. The show is good. Normally people wouldn't be this insistent that the show was good, if the show was good. But it really is. We do have a good show for
Guest Introduction: Jeremy Whitley
00:01:37
Speaker
everybody this week. Our guest is a longtime friend of the show, ah Jeremy Whitley, who ostensibly is here to talk about ah his new comic, Navigating With You. ah But in reality,
00:01:53
Speaker
We talk a whole lot about Bojangles. Yes. yeah Isn't that exciting? Both on the show and in life. And honestly on this podcast. All all documented, all true. um Specifically, we talk about Bojangles and tag teams. And if you have no idea why we're talking about those two things, stay tuned. But Chris, before we get to that, before we talk to Jeremy, which should be a very fun time, we do have some business- I actually, not to pull the curtain back too far, but I already know it's a fun time. It should be a very fun time. We do have- It's in the past for us, and also it's simultaneously in the past and future for you, listener.
Patreon and Supporter Benefits
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Speaker
That's right. But I can assure you, it's a good time. It's a good time. Love, Jeremy.
00:02:44
Speaker
ah Before we get to that, our first order of business is thanking our newest supporters over on Patreon. That's right, Matt. These are all the people who have gone all the way down to 688 Gimmick Street, and you know what's there. ah Let's see, the post office was at 687. Yeah, so this is across the street from the post office. Across the street from post office. The t-shirt printer. The t-shirt printer is there. The t-shirt printer who said, you not that one.
00:03:15
Speaker
Well, there's one t-shirt printer that said, not that one. And then there's another t-shirt printer that said, yeah, fine, we'll do it. Yeah. Now which t-shirt printer is the one on gimmick street, ah ah this part of gimmick street? Whichever one we're using to print our t-shirt this year, which I'm not sure yet. Cause I put, I definitely sent an email saying like, Hey, let me get these shirts with this design. And I have not heard back yet. So we will see. All right. it's Honestly, sounds like, uh, gimmick street shirts could, could tighten up operations just a little bit. Well, you know, we're all going through it. You know what? That's, that's true. And that's fair, Matt. Yeah. Yeah. But while you're going through it, if this show has, uh, has given you a couple laughs and, and distracted you from your troubles, uh, for, for 90 minutes, 90 odd minutes on a Monday afternoon,
00:04:14
Speaker
then you can help us out by going to patreon dot.com slash War Rocket Ajax, where you can kick in as little as a dollar a month. That helps us do the show, helps us keep on producing all the stuff that we produce in the Klytus media family, like movie fighters, like comics catch up, like every story ever. ah the The great comics catch up that we had on those Dick Tracy books, one of One of my favorites, we've had some banger comics catch-ups lately. I have been told by listeners on Discord that the icon comics catch-up is ah an all-time classic. I think that was a great episode. A true banger. Yeah, I think that was a great episode. so And the only reason that we can do that and keep on doing it is that we ah that that you help us out.
00:05:05
Speaker
And most importantly, help us pay those gimmicks they do keep sending in the mail, called bills.
00:05:13
Speaker
Here's our newest Patreon supporter, Chris. It's Alex Smith. Hey, Alex! Thank you, Alex. Thank you very much to Alex. If you would like to be like Alex and contribute a little bit to the show, ah You can head over to patreon dot.com slash war rocket Ajax and as Chris said kicking as little as a dollar a month to make sure that we do This show every week all of those shows that Chris listed off just a minute ago as well as movie fighters and snack Situation all of those shows are made possible by your support on patreon and as a patron you get every single one of those shows totally and completely ad-free You get your own patreon feed of audio that is totally ad-free And you get all of those shows
00:06:01
Speaker
Also as a patron, if you are at various levels of being a patron, you can also get bonus content, ah stuff that we cut out of the show sometimes, and then I put up on Patreon, or stuff we specially record just for Patreon, or ah writing that we've both done over on the Patreon, or now spreadsheets. Chris has created a spreadsheet called spreadsheet survivors, where he is documenting every survivors like he has played and given all the info, sort of sort of giving the rundown of the experience of playing it. It is a very cool document ah that is a fun read. So if that is of interest
Challenges with Podcast Merchandise
00:06:51
Speaker
to you, if you would like to see that bit of Chris Simms work,
00:06:56
Speaker
The only place you can get it is our Patreon. There are also line stepping privileges for our segments, which currently include Every Story Ever and Thursday Night Raw. And then there are also physical rewards. um I will get those t-shirts printed somehow ah within the next a couple weeks. Hopefully I'll hear back from the t-shirt printer ah that we've been using for the last few years, but if I don't, I'll find somewhere to make them. don't you worry. ah So all of that stuff is possible by going to our Patreon, which you should do. If you are unable to help us monetarily, which we understand that not everybody can do that, you can help us out in other ways. You can leave us a five star review on the podcasting app that you use, whether that is
00:07:47
Speaker
Apple podcasts or YouTube music which is what Google podcasts used to be or Spotify ah You can't leave a written review on Spotify, but you can leave us five stars Or wherever you get your podcasts five stars would be a big help to us or also You can ah give us some nice word of mouth. You can spread the word about the show. Tell your friends and family about this podcast that you like and And how they should listen And we would be very appreciative of that as well. Chris, with that, it's time for some checks and recs. What do you say? Let's do it.
00:08:29
Speaker
Chris, what would you like to check in with this week? Matt, ah this past weekend, AC were out driving around and I wanted to ah swing by a ah local game store. So I did. They happen to be having a sale. So I got ah some nice hardcover books. of ah some things that I'm pretty excited about reading through for the the Dungeons and Dragons game that I like to play every week. The adult pretend game that I play with my grown up friends. Yeah. That's one of the things that is what it is. Wouldn't have it any other way. Indeed. And one of the things that I got was an adventure path
00:09:13
Speaker
from the makers of the Pathfinder role-playing game and that was apparently so popular that it was ah converted to 5th edition D and&D. It is called Abomination Vaults. I'm looking forward to reading through it and maybe even playing it or adapting some of it for my campaign. But it did make me realize that there has been a lot of Pathfinder content but has come out and honestly a lot of maybe third-party adventure content as well that uh i haven't seen i've read a lot of the official fifth edition uh was the coast adventures but haven't gone too far outside that so along with the abomination vaults i want to throw it out to the listeners anybody who's out there doing some gaming if you have a favorite adventure or adventure path from a publisher like Paizo or Cobalt Press or anybody, let me know. Because i kind of I feel like reading through some adventures, like when I used to go to lunch by myself when I worked at the comic book store, I would read adventures a lot when I was working there. It was fun. So
Update on 'Imposter Syndicate'
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Speaker
yeah, let me know. Let me know what's good out there.
00:10:29
Speaker
that I can adapt for my campaign. Because Matt, ah the campaign that I ran for you was actually based on a Pathfinder adventure path. so Yeah. oh And that was a fun one. Yeah. but They've got a lot of good ideas, and then usually one set of bad ideas in them, unfortunately. ah But yeah, if there's if there's a good one now, I do know I do know the one that has Baba Yaga where you do come to earth During the Russian Revolution. I do know about that one So so don't worry about it that one I got ah But any of the others hit me up folks, let me know Matt what are you checking in with this week? Well, Chris it has been a
00:11:17
Speaker
a bit of a long road, but I want to let people know, give them an update, that imposter syndicates, the the complete first two issues, the 42 pages of story that were promised in the Zoom campaign that we ran, ah is right at the finish line it's nearly complete all of the pages have been colored. I've done a lettering pass on the entire issue two. um it's the Rodrigo is making some adjustments to the lettering but once that is done and we get the PDF all together it is going to be off to the printers.
00:12:00
Speaker
and it's going to be ready to go. um I know that sometimes Zoop does ah like a last round of letting people get in on a project as it's going to print. So I don't know if that'll happen for um for imposter syndicate, but if it does, I'll let everybody know. If you didn't If you weren't able to get in on it the first time, ah you can certainly maybe grab a copy once um it's off to print. I'm very, very happy with how the art turned out, with how the story is conveyed. It's beautiful, absolutely beautiful. um
00:12:40
Speaker
People who got the first issue, because we we sent out PDFs of the first issue to everybody who who was meant to get those um when those got done, um know that we worked with a really great colorist named and Antonio Ramos. ah And he he has even outdone himself further on the second issue. um so Just wanted to give a quick update that we are very, very close to being finished and and should have ah that heading off to the printer very soon. And I want to thank everybody for their patience. Everybody involved in this project has a full-time job. So what would have otherwise taken ah less time than in the production of some comics ended up taking more just because ah we are all
00:13:38
Speaker
doing this in our spare time. ah So we hope it is worth it. and And I'm very, very proud of the finished product. i think I think it's great. And I would love for that book to continue somehow in the future, though I am not sure how that will happen. Hopefully avenues will open to make that happen ah once the book is out there. We'll see. Chris, it's time for some recommendations. What do you have to recommend? I would like to make a correction and a recommendation, or a co-recommendation. A classic co-recommendation, yes. A classic. One of our classic co-recommendations. Start the clock.
00:14:22
Speaker
ah Last week I was talking about ah Monkey Man and how much I enjoyed it, and I mentioned ah David Leach. And I couldn't figure out why I had it in my head. that he had done work on that film. And then I did figure it out when I went and looked at my own letterbox profile. ah And that is because in my COVID haze, I also watched The Fall Guy, which is which was directed by David Leach and is a similarly stunty action movie, although one with a vastly different tone. Very different tone. Yeah. I have since watched Monkey Man.
00:15:00
Speaker
ah since your recommendation last week, and it it whipped ass. ah Yeah. But it's also a very serious film. Yeah. ah The Fall Guy is very silly. ah It is based on a television show from the, I believe, early 1980s that I know about because I watched a lot of old television as a kid because that's what you did when you were a kid. But if you're my age, I did that. I watched lots of old TV all the time. So much old TV all the time. Yep. In a way that I don't think like, I mean, like kids today don't watch TV, they watch YouTube. But they're definitely not out here watching Get Smart. I was, but yeah, I was. Well, Matt, you're not a kid today. You're one year younger than me. That's true. Yeah.
00:15:58
Speaker
ah i I wish there was a place for the kids to watch Get Smart instead of skippity toilet or whatever they want. Get skippity?
00:16:11
Speaker
That's a crossover. Yeah. ah But I mostly had, I remember nothing about the show, ah but I do remember that it had that great theme song. Yeah, yeah. so i Sung by Starly Majors, as I recall. Yeah. ah That was a ah a great country song about being a stuntman. And let me tell you, there was a time in this country, when we were a proper country, that we made a lot of media about being a stuntman. Because we had we had Hooper. Matt? hu Hooper, yeah.
00:16:54
Speaker
ain't nobody can fly a car like Hooper. That was a movie directed by stuntman turned director Hal Needham. That's right, the director of Megaforce. ah And we had the five, I guess there's really only two. There's, there's Hooper and the Fall Guy? But it's kind of weird that there were two. But but that is when we were a proper country. When we respected stuntmen. Stunt people in this country. Stunt performers. Stunt performers? Which there's still no Academy Award for, which is bananas.
00:17:32
Speaker
travesty Somebody asked me why, ah like I was like, oh yeah, well the Academy Awards are bullshit. And they were like, why do you think that? And I was like, because Jackie Chan doesn't have all of them. Who has given more to film than Jackie Chan? Who's given more to this business? Great question, great question. Anyway, a great country song about being a stuntman that does not appear in the film until the closing credits, which was wild. i mean and they also But they also changed it because the original name checked like Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford. And they they just changed the line. So he's not saying like,
00:18:22
Speaker
ah I'm the Unknown Stunt Man who makes Eastwood look so fine. hu And I'm like, but, but Ryan Gosling is the star of this movie. He has a stunt person in the movie. Like, like in the filming of the movie, there was a stunt person doing all that. You could have said I'm the Unknown Stunt Man who makes Gosling look so fine. I don't know why they didn't. I don't know. Anyway, it was a fun movie. ah Lots of fun stunts. Lots of what I have to assume are very intentionally obvious shots of people's stunt doubles. Yeah. Would have to be. Would have to be. Which is very fun. um And it is a movie about the making of a movie on which Ryan Gosling's character plays a is a stunt performer. And I gotta say, I kinda wanna see that movie.
00:19:21
Speaker
I kind of want to see that movie, the star of which murdered several people. oh Very good time in that
Recommendation: 'The Fall Guy'
00:19:31
Speaker
film. if you if you want a But if you got COVID and you want to have a nice, smooth-brained evening, go see some very kick-ass stunts, that's the one to watch. I'm not sure that's the recommendation they want, but it's a good recommendation. Hey, we all gotta we all got put something on when we're not feeling good. That's gonna make us feel better. And if if your art makes people feel better when they're not feeling good, what else do you want? That's fair. That's a fair point. Matt, what do you have to recommend to the people? Since you're out here criticizing my recs. I'm not criticizing, I'm just saying I don't think they want their movie to be promoted as the movie to watch if you have COVID, but
00:20:18
Speaker
You're very much right when you say, what's better than to bring joy to people who are i'm feeling bad? That's that's very true. ah My recommendation is a music album ah that you can listen to on the many, many music streaming services that are out there. um When I talked about ah Chapel Rhones' Good Luck Babe on the show a few weeks ago, um several people uh started asking me on the discord about other music and specifically this album came up which i had listened to some of but had not listened to all the way through and now i have and uh i certainly can give it my recommendation it is charlie xcx's new album brat which um is good all the way through i think it's a solid album all the way through but has one specific earworm
00:21:15
Speaker
that I can't stop listening to and will listen to all the time. It is the song 360, which has a reprise on the album as well ah called 365. But the actual original song 360 is such a great song and um there's a video for it that is great. um It's all like, ironic fashion posing in in front of like cars that are on fire and stuff like that. Good stuff. Very funny. Um, but also the, the song itself is just as catchy as songs get. Also, I just want to put this out there into the world. I want to put this out there into the universe. Stone Cold Steve Austin, Charlie XCX, collabo.
00:22:13
Speaker
called 316. e
00:22:18
Speaker
The song 360, but it's about Stone Cold Steve Austin, and it's 316. That's a slam dunk, folks. There is definitely a target audience for that. It's me. That is this show, yeah. yeah ah But the rest of the album, ah Brat, is is very good. If you have not given it a listen yet, it is absolutely worth a listen. And and if and yeah, check it out. If you haven't checked it out, ah i've I've been listening to it a lot. um And Chris, there's a lot of good music out there. New Kesha song too. 2024 is the year I have cared more about current and new music than any other year this decade.
00:23:10
Speaker
There's so much good music this year. It's out of control. Amazing. All right. Those are our checks and recs, Chris.
Review: X-Men #1 by Jed McKay and Ryan Stegman
00:23:20
Speaker
It's time to talk about some comics. Let's do it. Chris, there's no textures choice winner this week because I had to read the comics I read in an absolute mad dash because I had such a busy day, but I did get a couple of red. Because we're in absolute mad love. I'm a total mad lad. ah But I did get a couple of books read, and ah one of those books was the new X-Men number one, um which I feel like if we had texted about it, um it might not have been so complimentary. Now, let me let me preface this by saying um this book is by ah Jed McKay and Ryan Stegman.
00:24:08
Speaker
and Generally, we have been huge fans of everything Jed McKay has done. At Marvel. I can't think of a book Jed McKay has written that we haven't really liked. This might be the first. It is certainly my least favorite Jed McKay comic. So far. Yeah. Yeah, I would agree with that. It's...
00:24:39
Speaker
It's weird to have read this exactly one week after I read the Doctor Strange issue that I'm still talking about, that i' I literally, this is not a joke, told my therapist about. With the god of dogs. With the god of dogs and how people's fear was so strong that it created a god, but their love of dogs was also so strong that it created a god. Yeah. because their love of dogs was stronger than fear. so im I'm going to be talking about that for a while. Uh-huh. And look. ah The Doctor Strange run has been great. The Avengers run has been good.
00:25:25
Speaker
ah Blood Hunt has been a blast. Blood Hunt's been a hoot, man. the the The Black Cat comics that we read. Fun. Moon Knight. Fun.
00:25:38
Speaker
I want to say that I think the reason we're not super hyped about this X-Men book might be that there may have been no way to pull off what this book is trying to pull off.
00:26:05
Speaker
But this one sure doesn't do it. Yeah. Like I was, I was reading this and thinking, like, I was thinking like, man, Jeff McKay is writing like 18 comics right now. Yeah. And I feel like something had to give. I will say this. It was fine. I guess it was kind of weird to see the X-Men just hanging around a cop. Like, Yeah. In Anno Domini 2024? I mean, i the the the notion, I think the idea is that they're just trying to make inroads in the community so they don't get run out of town. Cops? But it is weird that it is weird that it's a cop. The the thing is, I think this issue has some good ideas.
00:27:04
Speaker
i think there's I think there's some fun, good ideas in here. After Krakowa, where do they go? Alaska. Okay, great. Where specifically in Alaska are they? They've taken over a factory that used to manufacture sentinels. That's so great. That, I thought, was a pretty solid idea. Yeah. Who were they fighting against? Orcus? But it's a different division of Orcus that Their whole deal is now that they don't hate mutants, but they want to become mutants. And the mystery is, how did some of them activate their X gene as adults? I also think that's a good idea.
00:27:51
Speaker
The problem is, here's here's what I see as the problem of the book. Also, I think Ryan Stegman's art is largely good. I don't know that it's a perfect match for what this book is trying to be, but it's it's largely good.
00:28:05
Speaker
The thing that I think hangs this book up is it wants to be a clean break from Krakoa. But they're talking about Krakoa constantly.
00:28:22
Speaker
The villains are still the villains from the Krakoa era. Just changed, kind of. It's not a clean break at all.
00:28:35
Speaker
it's still totally hung up in the stuff that came before. And I think that's what muddles up everything. I think that's a good thought. But I think the, the obvious comparison that they're going for, like right down to the, you know, to the logo is with 1991 X-Men number one, right? Yeah. Yeah. And that wasn't a clean break.
00:29:10
Speaker
But that issue, like like, you know, all the stuff that happens in that is heavily like influenced by a lot of the stuff that happened before. Like they talked about the trial of Magneto and that one. Right. But but it it is a better break than this. And it's a better introduction than this. You would not know what Wolverine's powers are from this comic, which I'm not saying that, like, there is likely no one reading this who needs to know what Wolverine's powers are, but, you know, you could pretend.
00:29:53
Speaker
You could pretend like you were doing a number one, I think. oh it it It feels to me like, it yeah, like it does occupy this like really strange middle space, right? Where it's like, we want costumes that are reminiscent of the classic X-Men costumes from the 90s, but aren't actually those costumes.
00:30:20
Speaker
We want Juggernaut to have a costume that sucks.
00:30:25
Speaker
Juggernuts costume. I thought this was was this I legitimately thought this was J2 Like for a minute because I don't you know, I'm kind of behind it does look like the J2 costume it really does This was J2 and they were like bringing J2 into main continuity because he doesn't really seem like you know, Cain Marco Yeah ah It's But it's it's also like, OK, we're going to bring back the old characters from the 90s that you like, like Psylocke and Magic. But also, Quentin Quire is here. And like that's not a that's not a criticism of like mixing old and new characters. But it really feels like this book is trying to serve a lot of different masters.
00:31:20
Speaker
And as a result, it's it's kind of nothing you want. Yeah. I don't know why Beast looks like 70s Beast. He's got those weird black eyes. Yeah, man. Like he did in the 70s. Yeah. This is the Beast who was in Amazing Adventures. That's like 40 Beasts to go. Yeah. It's like 40% throwback, 30% like, Wolverine and the X-Men, they even refer to when it was the school with Kitty Pride and Wolverine overseeing it. And then like 20% just like talking about Krakoa and how they're not in Krakoa anymore. This book, more than anything else, gave me the feeling of
00:32:14
Speaker
someone who does like the X-Men a lot and has read a lot of X-Men comics, and because of that is like, what else is there to do? And again, im I don't know what, McKay might have a great plan, and I would not be surprised if that was the case based on all of the work that we really like, but that is kind of what it seemed like to me. Yeah, it i think it I think if you're gonna move on, move on. And this doesn't do that, and I think that's the biggest weakness. ah But maybe, yeah, maybe it's just a first issue jitters kind of thing, and by issue two, we'll be off and running. Yeah, here's the two things that I will say that I think include a fairly damning evaluation of this book. ah One,
00:33:13
Speaker
Fire-baptized species is not a good title for an issue. You did not have to to call it fifth Genesis or whatever, but but that is that's a weird mouthful for the first issue, I think. That's a relatively small thing. A thing I think is a larger problem is that I got a phone call halfway through reading this comic and then ah didn't realize I hadn't finished it. And I had not gotten through any of like the action stuff. I had a similar thing happen where I got about maybe two thirds of the way through the issue and then I had to
00:34:04
Speaker
do something else for a while. And I was like, I finished reading that right and realized I hadn't. Yeah.
00:34:18
Speaker
So that's not great. That's not great. That's not great. um But I have I hope I have hope I have hope for the Gail Simone book that's coming. And I hope that this book can pick up but As a first, this first issue was, it didn't do it for me, I am sad to say. Which, you know, is a bummer because I like all of these characters. I like the X-Men in general. I like Jed McKay. I don't dislike Ryan Stegman. Yeah. Well, okay. Since we do like Jed McKay, and we want to prove that, ah let's talk about Avengers number 16 now.
Discussion on Avengers #16
00:34:59
Speaker
Interesting that you should phrase it that way, Matt. Oh, no. ah ah This is a Blood Hunt tie-in. Yes. I should know. that This issue is good. I did enjoy it. ah My thought reading this was, it's weird that the book Jed McKay writes monthly is the worst Blood Hunt stuff that, A, that he is writing, and B, that I think I have read other than that Holt comic where Holt killed a dog.
00:35:29
Speaker
Yeah. Which was a Carrie Andrews one, not the ah Philip Kennedy Johnson one. Yeah. Now this is, okay, so he's, so he but he's also doing Dr. Strange. He's also doing Dr. Strange, which again, ty I will be talking about for months. Yeah. Yeah. Put, put bats, the dog biting a ghost and tearing him out of his body. Put bats, the dog being called a good dog by the dog God. on the but and Thursday Night Raw list. See what happens. Just realized Beast is wearing bike shorts in this X-Men comic, by the way. It's weird. Yeah. Um, wearing bike shorts and hanging out with cops. Let me say this. I have not read this particular issue of Avengers yet, but what I like about the Avengers blood hunt stuff is how it is a blood hunt tie-in that is specifically tailored to be an Avengers book.
00:36:27
Speaker
And in particular, a Captain America book where the vampires they're fighting are just vampires, they're Nazi vampires. Yeah, that's always fun. it's it's It does raise an interesting, it's an interesting solution of what do you do in the Avengers book when the Avengers are also the stars of the crossover? Right, and in this case, it's a different team. Yeah, in this case, it's like, eh, well, we'll just put some different Avengers on it. yeah And I think part of the problem is also that like, I like Hercules. I don't love Hercules as an Avenger. I don't like Quicksilver. Sure. Uh, love, love Kate Bishop, love Steve Rogers, but you know, but they're like, there's some characters in this that I'm like, yeah, it's fine. Oh, Quicksilver is going to do some stuff. Okay.
00:37:24
Speaker
they're they're They're trying to get Hazmat over. They're really trying to get Hazmat over. I like Hazmat. Yeah. You don't get Hazmat over. This book does a better job of getting Hazmat over than X-Men number one does of getting Quentin Quire over. And I would say Quentin Quire is objectively a better character. Quentin Quire is arguably already over, but yes. The best part of of X-Men number one was when they came back from the mission and Magneto, uh, Quinn Quire says something about Magneto, goes, I hope he dies on our missions. Like, it's funny, but it's like, I got to that part and I was like,
00:38:07
Speaker
would Magneto say it like that? No, Magneto would not say that. It's a, it's a very fun line. I don't feel like particularly the Magneto that we just saw in front of his memorial wall of people he's killed would say. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, you know he did. He did say it. He did. Anyway, uh, yeah, like this Avengers comic is, it's fine, but it's, it's weird how not as good as Blood Hunt it is. it It is. There's been some good stuff in these Blood Hunt Avengers issues, but it, it, it it very much feels like a tie-in.
Review: 'Barfly #1'
00:38:47
Speaker
Yeah. Blood Hunt by and large has been,
00:38:51
Speaker
incredibly fun and exactly what I want from a Marvel crossover. you know it's been It has been fun. It has been goofy. It has had a twist that I guessed 10 pages into the first issue, which is, hey, love guessing a twist. Makes you feel good. Makes you feel makes feel good, makes you feel smart. the The goal of a twist should be to make the reader feel smart. Yes.
00:39:21
Speaker
or surprised, i either one, but it's gotta be effective in one of those ways. i think I think you want, I think you, I feel like a good twist, the reader gets right before it happens. Yes, I think that's right, yeah. And then you feel smart because you got it before it was revealed. This one I got very early, but that's fine. I think I've heard a lot of fucking Marvel comics. Yeah, I think you can also have an effective twist that's like, a genuine surprise, but in hindsight makes sense. But those are the two good kinds of twists that you either guess right before or that you're totally caught off guard by, but then you go, Oh, I see why that happened. I see, I see why that was. Um, but nonetheless, uh, one last book we're going to talk about, uh, here is barfly number one from the world of minor threats, uh, by, uh, Kyle Starks and Ryan Brown.
00:40:19
Speaker
and Pat Noswalt and Jordan Bloom are also credited ah as story plotters. um This is a comic book about Shit Eater, who is a fly, like a big humanoid, big but not like totally human sized. but bigger than a regular fly. ah He's a fly who used to work for the entomologist who is a villain. And this book is about just how he is constantly um treated horribly all the time. And he's looking for ways to, ah you know, assert himself at his job flipping burgers at ah Burger Bite.
00:41:04
Speaker
And when he goes to a bar and a guy ah like makes him get up from his stool, a guy in a football uniform, makes him get up from his stool and says, his name is Gridiron Ghoul. And he's like, that's my seat. Like he goes on a ah a job to help some guys crack a safe and then they betray him after. So it's a lot of like, shit-eater um literally having to eat shit.
00:41:38
Speaker
um Well, figuratively having to eat shit, but I think he also literally does sometimes. Anyway, um there's a cool twist at the end of the issue. The art is great, and it's a Kyle Starks comic, so a lot of the dialogue is incredible. Every Minor Threats book so far has been a ah hit out of the park, a home run, and this is another one. Um, ah very, very fun stuff. And I'm so glad that we could be a small part of uniting Kyle Starks with Patton Oswalt and Jordan Bloom. So he could do this minor threat or he, yeah, he could do this minor threats book. Very fun. All right. Uh, all right, Chris, with that, it's time to move on to our interview. Talk to Jeremy Whitley.
Interview with Jeremy Whitley
00:42:34
Speaker
Let's do it.
00:42:56
Speaker
Joining us for the program this week is a good friend of ours, a good friend of the show. ah You will know him from a whole bunch of stuff because he's always got something cooking. It's Jeremy Whitley. Jeremy, welcome to the show. How are you? I'm great. Thanks for asking. I got, you know, I got a whole large Bojangles Cup of Mountain Dew. Okay, hang on. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on right there. Because Jeremy, we're gonna circle back to that a second. okay Jeremy, what you look, you've got a new comic coming out. It's great. yeah It's called Navigating With You. Here's the thing, Jeremy. I love you, bud. You've always got a new comic coming out and it's always great. That's just how you work. yeah yeah What I need to know from you in this moment, in this dark night of the soul that I'm experiencing,
00:43:52
Speaker
is why did I have to hear about what's going on at Bojangles from you and not my ah good friend, allegedly Matt Wilson? Wait, what's going on? I don't even know what's going on. All I'm guessing is Matt just doesn't drink big enough cups of tea or or Mountain Dew yet. He's on the mediums and the mediums don't have anything special going on. You gotta get the big barely fits in your cup holder cups from Bojangles. I usually get cheer wine, first of all.
00:44:26
Speaker
And secondly, yeah, I only ever get like the size that comes with the combo. I'm not getting large drinks. So what I don't know. I have no idea. Yeah, but I don't need that much. I don't need that much. Nobody needs that much. I mean, we're being real. If you want to get technical, Matt, you don't need Bojangles, and in fact, it's probably bad for you, as I contest. I need food, and sometimes that is the option. Hold on, no need is in their list of things that you have Bojangles. I think about that tagline, Gotta wanna need a... What is it? Gotta wanna have a need a Bojangles? Does it get a... Gotta wanna need a have a Bojangles? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think about that tagline,
00:45:15
Speaker
almost every day. I like I would think about like, oh, they changed it to its bow time. But at one time, it was gotta want to need to have a boat. Yeah, I mean, and it's neither of those taglines are inaccurate. It's they're both true. Pretty much all the time. That's true. Well, Jeremy, would you like to inform Matt? what they got going on on those Bojangles cups these days. Yeah, i so I stopped by the Bojangles on the way ah home from from dropping my daughter off at camp and got a large iced tea from my wife in one of their colossal
00:45:55
Speaker
immorally large cups and ah they had a special edition plastic cup ah that was advertising the great ah tag team that is Bojangles and the wwe WWE by featuring on each of these cups one of the wwe WWE's four great tag teams of all time. So each, each one of them has a tag team on it. There are four, would you care to guess who any of these tag teams are? No, I've, I've seen it. So Matt, this is a, this is a question for you. Well, I, okay. I did know that some of this, I knew about that there was like some kind of WWE partnership going on with Bojangles because there is an ad with the new day in it.
00:46:44
Speaker
Okay. Oh, okay. Great time came the new day. You didn't know this and you knew that these are removable or reusable cups. I didn't know about the cups. i had no idea but I had no idea about the cups. I've only seen the ad with the new day in it. You didn't know that these were reusable cups that could survive being mailed to Minneapolis, Minnesota. I had no idea that there were cups. There's an ad where like Biggie and ah x Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston are eating a chicken sandwich. And that's all I know. All right. I, and I just, I just Googled and saw what the four tag teams are. Yeah. The WWE is four greatest tag teams of all time. Okay. It is wild that none of them is the new day. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:47:32
Speaker
And then only like two of them are strictly speaking tag teams and the others are just like temporary team ups. I don't know. Okay, so here's here's what they are. I guess since we all know what they are, the guessing game is over. Listen, our closet, we don't have to guess Trump 5000 on this show. but ah You can certainly make your guess now and if you get it right ah get yourself a little reward One of those of an extremely large iced tea if you can go to Bojangles get one of these cups Okay, so the two that are like actual tag team actually They've all been tag teams it is weird that these are the four though. Yeah the Dudley boys
00:48:25
Speaker
I would say that's that's a solid, solid tag team, in many ways synonymous with with tag team wrestling in the modern era. 100%. The Heart Foundation. an interesting choice, but okay. That's Bret Hart and Jim, the envelope night heart. Right. One of them had a significant, I would say significant singles career outside of tag team wrestling, but you know, yeah, they, they, hear ta team here's my, here's my thing. They had a tag team finisher. Yeah. They, they started that they were, at they were a tag team first before
00:49:05
Speaker
Brett started his singles career. Yeah. So at least there's that. This is the weirdest one, the outsiders, which to my- Who were never a team in WWE? Exactly, to my recollection, were only ever a tag team in WCW. Because when they showed up in WWE, they were the three man version of the NWO. Yeah, I have a theory about that. Okay, we'll come back to it. The last one is the Brothers of Destruction, which is two single stars in a tag team. They might as well have put the two man power trip.
00:49:50
Speaker
What's wild to me is that there are so many tag teams I tend to think of as tag teams. That would be such a better fit for this. Yeah, such as The Legion of Doom, AKA the Road Warriors. Yes. First one that comes to mind for me. Yes. ah The Bushwhackers. Yep. Classic wwe WWE tag team, at least. I would love a cup with Demolition on it. ah Demolition, which was just the knockoff Road Warriors. Let's be real. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. But, you know, they had that cool song. They did have that cool song.
00:50:33
Speaker
ah Yeah, it's weird choices. Weird choices. I mean... oh Yeah. but I would say if you're trying to appeal to the kind of people who want to go to Bojangles right now, which is three dudes in their 40s on this show. um Shocking that the New Age outlaws aren't on there. Shocking but that the Hardys and Edge and Christian aren't on there.
00:51:04
Speaker
Those are obviously all because all of those people are in other promotions right now. It's wild to have the Dudley Boys and not have the Hardys or Edge and Christian. the Yeah, clearly the Dudley Boys is the tag team from the TLC matches that they felt like they could put on there. Yeah, the ones that I believe are are under contract with the Fed. Which is weird because Bully Ray is on uh on uh whatever that show is uh busted open or whatever gonna go classic i mean like the rockers right you know i mean they were they're not putting marty genetti on nothing right now dude okay sure yeah i mean that i sense i think mean you've been on the dark side of the ring you don't get to be on a cult okay here's one it's what's wild is that none of those are like
00:52:01
Speaker
All of those are from 25 years ago minimum, right? I mean, I guess Kane and Undertaker have had matches since, but like- Oh, in the great match against Generation X in Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, yeah. um But like, that none of them is like, like the Usos. Yeah, the Usos, the new day, like, I don't know, man, there's there's plenty of people who are tag teams. I guess, I mean, they've really been
Bojangles WWE Cups Debate
00:52:30
Speaker
pushing DIY lately, like, you know, I don't know, somebody who's who's held a belt in than the tag team wrestling match in the last 20 years. Yeah, that's, that's what I'm saying is like, you either want your kind of Alzheimer's or, or well remembered attitude era guys, or you want like current guys.
00:52:53
Speaker
And there's a lot of really good tag team wrestling, like where's, where's fucking, where, where are the Uso, where's the New Day? Or maybe we're gonna do like a trios. Maybe, it it is it is weird to me that New Day is in these ads, but not on the cups. Yeah. ah I do have a theory as to why the outsiders are on there. Okay. Bojangles does not exist in what were traditionally w WWE markets. True. Bojangles is a big deal where WCW was. Well, then you should have the Steiner brothers on the cup too. Yes. No, I agree. But I mean, you wouldn't want the Steiner brothers on a cup cause Rick Steiner said some really foul shit. I mean, yes. Yes. But I mean, you know, but they have, they have Rick Steiner on WWE TV. They have Rick Steiner on WWE TV now because of his son.
00:53:53
Speaker
Ugh, gross. Yeah. Yeah, man. Okay, then they'd get Arne and Tully on there. Arne and Tully, I would drive. I would make drive in Arne and Tully, for real. Because that's that's Minnesota as hell and North Carolina as hell. That's true. I saw Arne and his son at a Comic-Con recently. Mirror images.
00:54:27
Speaker
his His name should be AAA.
00:54:32
Speaker
ah probably Probably that would be considered Gibbic infringement in pro wrestling, but it's a good idea. Yeah, Quade maybe? um Maybe Quade, yeah. Quadeau. So what um'm what I need to figure out now, now that we've talked about this, you are both people I consider friends.
00:54:57
Speaker
So now the time has come, which one of you is going to send me these cups?
00:55:05
Speaker
I don't know how well these are go how well these would actually like transport in the mail. They are not high quality plastic cups. They are reusable in the the vegest possible sense. I have only gotten two of them. they Today I got a large drink and they put a and put it in a foam cup. and i like what what What is happening? Where's the Cubs? You need to go in there and be like, hey, how many people came here tonight to get a soda in a foam coat?
00:55:41
Speaker
Survey time. First you got to say survey time. Survey time. And how many people came to get a cup with the N-W-O? Another one for the bad guys. Shocking. By the way, that the length of that pause, Matt, I hope you left every second of that pause in after I asked which of you would do this for me, so people know how alone I truly am in this. We were both thinking about the logistics of trying to send these cups of mail. You know what? what think about Think about how much you love your friends and then they think about the logistics after.
00:56:20
Speaker
We don't want, we don't look, we we love you, our friend, and we don't want you to get like a package in the mail and open it and there to be the shattered pieces of an outsider's cup in there. You know what I mean? What tag team would you most like a commemorative cup of? Killer Bees!
00:56:47
Speaker
That's pretty good. That's a pretty good answer. I feel like I'd appreciate a a private party one, you know, for just for cops sake, like private party would make a good cup. Well, the cup is part of their part of their whole deal. Yeah, cups. Yeah. um My real answer is one I said earlier, Arne and Tully. That's good. That's good. And like, it's fine if they're w WWE branded ah ah brainbusters cups, you know, Yeah. an Alternately, Minnesota Wrecking Crew, maybe the Olean Orange version, that would be good too. That would be very good. I would appreciate that. yeah ah Mine, I would want... This would be an interesting brand deal for Bojangles Famous Chicken and Biscuits.
00:57:39
Speaker
But I, again, I would make the drive for Dr. Death, Steve Williams, and Terry Bambamb Gordy, the miracle violence connection.
00:57:53
Speaker
If Bojangles wasn't trying to expand nationally, I think they could get away with it. ah But yeah as we as we all know, bojangle is Bojangles is going to the West Coast, and I'm getting nothing in return. We talked about this, I think, before.
00:58:10
Speaker
They're not sending any any of the, I was just in California ah for for ALA and I did stop at ah one of their many fine burger establishments um where people actually seem to be excited about making burgers, which is a ah wild thing. um Now was this ah was this an establishment that named itself after prepositions?
00:58:40
Speaker
Yes. Yes. Okay. Yeah. And it was, it was ah it's the busiest restaurant i have I've ever seen, like fast food restaurant I've ever seen. And unlike the dozens of Chick-fil-A's with giant lines here, it actually earns it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Bojangles is the ultimate, not a sponsor, but could be. Oh yeah. to the point where I think they are not a sponsor, but should be. i I think by this point they owe it to us. They kind of owe us at least some of those cups. Agreed. Just sent direct to my house and if I could get ah one of those t-shirts that they had during 2020 when places started opening back up that said, risk it for the biscuit, I would also take one of those.
00:59:37
Speaker
Because I did try to buy one from my local Bojangles in July of 2020. They told you it's not for sale. Yeah, they said it's not for sale. And I was like, you know what, that's fair. I don't want to steal the valor. You you who have gone back to work so that I can come here and get some chicken biscuit. All you essential workers.
01:00:06
Speaker
we we should We should continue to call people who work at Bojangles and grocery stores and other places that feed us and make our lives essential workers. that We should never have dropped that. I agree. I agree. Oh my God, you know what tag team I want on a cup? I want high energy. I want cocoa beware and oh art. That's what I want on a cup. That would be a great cup too. yeah i so I swear when you said high, I thought you were going to say high voltage.
01:00:40
Speaker
What do you think is the worst tag team to put on a cup? American males. Oh, but that's oh, that's good. I would want that so bad. That's good, though. Matt, that's kind of the perfect answer. I think you got it. I just got to watch MXM Russell this weekend. So oh They're great. I have never I've literally never seen them wrestle I only know of them from YouTube and I think they're charming well, they've been they've been wrestling in DPW recently which is a lot of they do a lot of local shows in Durham and Raleigh and They just had the DPW tag team tournament this past weekend. So I got to see them and the Motor City machine guns and violences forever and ah The West Coast wrecking crew Oh and grizzled young veterans um so a great
01:01:32
Speaker
great bunch of tag teams out there, all of which I would drink cups of before I would get a cup with Undertaker and Kane on it. Yeah, that cup, you get that cup and you gotta like, I hope you're wearing like, I hope you're wearing like a like a some kind of pride merch or like something that says, cops thumbs down.
01:01:58
Speaker
Now, Jeremy, you've gotten these cups before. Um, so I got just this week, I got the, uh, my wife got the brothers of destruction cap, which I guess is the name of that tag team. Yeah. and That's the undertaking came. And then I got the, uh, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash won. So you don't get to choose? No. You were assigned a cup and given given that cup. okay You were assigned a cup at birth? I was assigned and N.W.O. at birth. ah yes ah Yes, the four genders. You were assigned N.W.O. for life.
01:02:39
Speaker
yeah Matt, did you have a follow-up question for that or just you were working out the mechanics? i was I was just trying to figure out if you got to choose your cup or you just were given a cup and now I know. Yeah. I think... Half the bet. Jeremy, you sent me you sent me pictures of the cup. And I did tell you, you might have thought I was joking, I did tell you, i am this is all I want to talk about on Thursday. Yes. Matt, we should absolutely recreate the Scott Hall and Kevin Nash pose. From the cup. In this picture, yeah. Okay, okay. The slimmest looking Kevin Nash I've ever seen. Next time we are in the same place, we we will make it happen. we Do you wanna be Hall or Nash? I mean, I gotta be Hall and you gotta be Nash, I think. Okay, his why is that?
01:03:39
Speaker
Cause you're big sexy. Okay. okay I just, I just, I just happened upon the wildest thing. Okay. I searched for NWO Bojangles cup, right? Okay. There are so many people online reselling these cups. Oh my God. On eBay, they're going for like 15 bucks. On Mercari, they're like 15, 25. There's one on Poshmark that I just found that is not just $50.
01:04:22
Speaker
It is presented as $50 marked down from $500. No, these are free cups that you get at Bojangles. These are free cups that you get at Bojangles. This says Limited Edition WWE Outsiders NWO Bojangles Cup. And it just says $50 and then next to it struck through is $500. I will send you both the link. That is so funny. Oh my God. man i was I was thinking I had to like try and get in on this pose somewhere, but.
01:04:57
Speaker
God damn it, that would mean I'd have to be either Hogan or Waltman and I don't really, I don't want to do either of those things. That's true. Yeah, you'd have to be six pack. It sure does say mark down from $500 on this Poshmark listing. Yeah. The fact that they thought they could get away with that is TMK trucking on Poshmark, we see you. We see you. Yeah. TMK trucking ah Made a wild choice when it came to reselling this cup. I will say if you want a Lionel Messi trading card though ah Holler they are your hookup. Yeah, I was just thinking I have this I have this $500 cup in my cup holder in my car right now it I should be getting on that Yeah, you gotta get you gotta to get on these posh mark resales.
01:05:55
Speaker
I It's not even like the first page of stuff they're selling on Poshmark.
01:06:03
Speaker
Designer cups. Okay. Hang on. They do have some, they do have some 80s wrestling magazines though. All right, that's that's worthwhile. That's worthwhile for sure. If they've got the one that that dusty ah that has Dusty Rhodes on it and it says, Dusty says, I'm gonna whip your Nazi ass, then I'm buying it no matter how much it is and I will be putting it on the company card. there Okay, there is a, Chris, I'm gonna have to take you to, there's a quote unquote antique store here in town that ah has like some old wrestling magazines for sale.
01:06:41
Speaker
ah So whenever you visit here again, we'll go there and look through them. All right. That sounds good. yeah you know You came up here last year for my birthday. I was actually asked if ah it if our good friend Ted Anderson asked if you were coming up again for this year. And I said, I didn't think so. But I mean, we've got some time to decide. We do. oh but But yeah. yeah oh Right. We have a guest. um Jeremy, in addition to Bojangles, what have you been up to lately?
'Navigating With You': Setting and Creative Process
01:07:14
Speaker
Oh, ah you know, not too much. Like I said, I was at ALA and I've been sort of running around promoting Navigating With You, which we talked a little bit about, but it's it's coming out August 15th. It is a graphic novel from Maverick, which is the YA imprint of Mad Cave.
01:07:33
Speaker
um but For people who are curious what it's about it is about two girls who move from different parts of the country to a medium-sized town in North Carolina Modeled after Durham where I live if if people didn't catch that um and they They are both starting a new school together and they bond over their shared love of this obscure manga that they loved as kids and neither of them have ever actually been able to get all the volumes and read the whole thing. So they make their own little book club to try and find all these volumes and read them all. And then the course sort of become best friends and then, you know, more than friends as well. It has that thing that I love anytime
01:08:23
Speaker
you know, there's a story about people who have a shared love of, of media where, you know, there's the, there's the comic within the comic. Yes. Uh, I, I, I love that and I love like the, the obvious change in style, uh, in the, you know, from the quote unquote real story and then the manga within the comic. um I think that's incredibly well done, ah Jeremy. Thank you. That was like from first draft, first pitch. I was just like, we we got to have it in there because I also love that one.
01:09:06
Speaker
things like that pop up in shows and they actually like in shows or comics or movies or whatever and they actually make it good because I hate it when they're like oh it's the best music ever and then this music sucks um but like I love in like uh oh turning red that came out a couple years ago that like their boy band music really feels like you know, 90s boy band music. um I was like, yes, this is, it's perfect. But with this, I was like, I want to include some of the manga because I wanted to like tie in with the story, but also I want you to get a chance to read what they were reading. And Cassio, who is the artist on this, um did both sections and and sort of effortlessly. Cassio Ribeiro? Yes. Yeah. yeah
01:09:56
Speaker
Yeah, he's a Brazilian and did um both parts of the art. And I sort of told him, you know, what I wanted. I wanted sort of this inky, weird, you know, 90s manga feel this like, ah this book that you kind of remember reading, but like, has, you know, strange elements like the spaceships and this for some reason look like steam trains. I said, yeah, that's that's the kind of thing I want. And I i feel like he nailed it. um It is such a distinct style from the style of the main story and so reminiscent of so many manga books from that era. yeah it's It's great.
01:10:46
Speaker
i i think yeah it's It's very, very well done. I was i was so excited about it. the only like The only thing that I pitched that we weren't able to do is initially I was like, I want the manga pages to be upside down so that when you get to them, you have to turn the book over and read right to left um and s flip through there. And my my publishers were like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then they like came to the point of of lettering it and printing it. And they were like, no, actually, that's that a terrible idea.
01:11:20
Speaker
I was like, right, right. No, I get it. it's ah It's a great, it's a great bad idea. It's a great bad idea is the, that is the philosophy of making comic books. Yeah. Yeah. Old, uh, old Robert Bididious has never come up with that one, but he could.
01:11:47
Speaker
Well, Jeremy, it's I like that you keep finding ways to sneak North Carolina into comics. I guess this isn't really sneaking. This is just where you chose to set it. Yeah. Which I'm wondering, like if like when I look through it, am I going to recognize places from where I used to live? I definitely think so. i I mean, Duke Park is in there in full. It is itself in in the thing. I had to play around with some of the locations to make them distinct enough from a thing that has you know trademarks. um But it was it was really interesting because, like I said, ah our artist lives in in Rio de Janeiro. And I was like, he is going to have no idea what Durham looks like.
01:12:37
Speaker
um they're They're pretty distinct looking. um So I was like running around with my daughter around town, just like taking pictures of strip malls on Guest Road. And I was like, let me let me take pictures of Southern High School, which is just a very boring, ugly high school. I was like, that's what I want to capture is this sort of like not really architecture, just sort of their quality of this. and then like translate that into that so like ah The Durham farmers market is in there um and yeah, ah Duke Park and a couple of other places They do go to a Wilmington at one point. and There's ah a bit of Wilmington in there as well. I Actually just got to that but i'm I'm flipping through it now just to see if anybody's box truck gets the top torn off of it.
01:13:30
Speaker
No, that the can opener has not made its way into a book I've written yet. Although I feel like that deserves its own like or our buck horror book. book? the the but is that is a common you know it did It all depends. It all depends on who the the the main character is. It's it's it's the classic Uh, tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into a sewer. Is the, is the person in the, in the book, the owner of the truck or watching the truck get, get, uh, de-topped? You know, when you think about it, the, the, uh, 13 foot overpass is kind of its own character. Yeah. I mean,
01:14:25
Speaker
You know, it's, I feel like it would be, it would have to be the actual subject of the story. You know, what is the motivation? Every time we drive under, um, like a bridge like that here in Minneapolis, like I literally two days ago, we were driving somewhere and we went under low bridge and I turned to AC and I went, I miss it every day.
01:14:51
Speaker
but that hanging bridge that just fucking destroys trucks.
01:15:01
Speaker
It's a special place. It's a special place. It's a special place and it has a special place in my heart. Now Jeremy, we did unfortunately talk about the pooch ankles cuffs so long that we are running short on time. But as I said, ah you always have phenomenal work. And just from flipping through it, ah I can say that navigating with you looks amazing. I love the manga style pages. I love the slight contrast to ah the main story art and
01:15:40
Speaker
I have nothing but the greatest confidence that when I sit down and read it, it will be another another instant classic from the Jeremy Whitley catalog. ah Thank you. yeah This one, it means a lot to me because it's it's a lot of like combined things that I've i've gotten over the the years of working in comics went into this. you know we had I've had so many people over the years come up to my table and just be like, hey, this is my best friend who I only know because of this comic that you know you wrote or you were part of, or I'm married to this person because of you, so it's your fault.
01:16:16
Speaker
um sorts of interactions and I was like, want to like bring that into a comic and you know we got to do all sorts of fun things like that and I got to bring in pieces of stuff that like I'd done on Wasp when I was doing that like we had a ah consultant who was helping us with you know one of the characters in Wasp that has CP and because one of the main characters in this, I was like, I want to use that same consultant and I want to talk about somebody who has a physical disability in a romance story as you know the main character, because it's done so rarely in general in these stories, but also in comics, that it was a cool chance to get to bring back that stuff and you know and include that in this big you know running around North Carolina reading books story.
01:17:06
Speaker
it's It's everything you like. Yeah. Well, we do have to give our listeners a chance to tell you what they like as we kick it over to them to see if they have any questions for you. And Matt, if the people want to get in on these conversations that we have with our friends, like Jeremy Whitley here on the show, how can they go about that? Well, Chris, there are two places you can go to ask questions. Bojangles?
01:17:32
Speaker
you I guess if you take your phone to Bojangles, you can ah go to Blue Sky or Discord while there. A lot of Bojangles do have free Wi-Fi, so ah go to Bojangles, if you have one local, then take you out your phone and go to Blue Sky, where we are at warrocketajax.bsky.social, or ah be a member of our Discord, and ah go to the listener questions channel there and wait for us to put out the call for questions on thursday night usually at nine thirty p.m. eastern time and then you can ask a question for a guest just like these questions for jeremy whitley and we're coming out of the gate the stone cold hcc oh boy an account that exists only to ask questions on war rocket ajax stone cold asks
01:18:25
Speaker
Don't y'all think losing the Super Bowl team, or the losing Super Bowl team should have to walk home buck naked? It's their own fault for losing. Sorry Jeremy, this is a question for you. I guess it's never at either of their stadiums. It's at a third-party stadium usually. so like And especially, I feel like in February that would cause a pretty high mortality rate. um Uh, on football players. So I, I'm going to say no, but I, I like, you know, where, where are you coming from?
01:19:05
Speaker
All right. There you go. Uh, they must be punished in different ways, according to Jeremy, uh, Margo city one on our discord wants to know what's a comic you love for that. For some reason, no one ever talks about.
01:19:22
Speaker
Um, you know, I was actually just weirdly, I was just talking about this the other day, so I don't know if that's, if it's true anymore, but, uh, just before Ms. Marvel came out and G. Willow Wilson blew up, uh, she was doing a book at, I think it was Vertigo called Air, um, which was a real weird, like international hopping mystery yeah i story. Yeah, and it was it was really good and really weird and got cut short because it, I mean, nobody was talking about it, unfortunately. um But it was a really interesting book and I think like ah people should check it out, especially if you know they they like G. Willow Wilson now, because she's done a lot since then. ah Chris, do you have a comic you love that nobody ever talks about? I mean, a lot of the comics that I love are
01:20:18
Speaker
are a little bit obscure, Matt, as you know. that's sure i We talk about it a lot, but I rarely see other people talk about Jack Sav, which, you know, is is, I am on record as that being a favorite of mine. oh Yeah, I've also, this is not like a favorite, but ah I did, I have asked several people, including people that I know were reading bad manga,
01:20:50
Speaker
in the late 90s and early 2000s, if they remember Sorcerer Hunters, and no one does,
01:21:01
Speaker
no one remembers it, Matt. I see, I see. ah i don't I don't know if I remember Sorcerer Hunters that much. ah Maybe I do. My two answers are not that nobody ever talked about it, but I think people should have talked about it a lot more. um The Future fanit Foundation book.
01:21:29
Speaker
and ah And ah Chris, you're your Dracula comic. Thank you, Matt. Matt, you are being very nice to me today, and I can only assume that it's because I was so hostile about the movie book ops.
01:21:48
Speaker
ah No, I'm just that nice. But yeah, Future Foundation and Dracula Unconquered, those are my two. Oh, thanks. ah
01:22:00
Speaker
And nobody talks about Copernicus Jones. Our next question ah is from ah Blue Sky, our friend Ben, francefurnin2.bsky.social. What's your favorite fictional sword? I got an answer to this one, but I think it's also probably Chris's
Favorite Fictional Swords
01:22:21
Speaker
answer. Because it's the Flame of the West, the longsword of King Allendale that was used to cut the ring from Sauron's hand by ah by his son. ah The sword that was broken and reforged, ah the shards of Narsil that then became, again, a reforged.
01:22:42
Speaker
ah Three Forged Sword, the beautiful, beautiful Andoril. And you know, Excalibur's good too. Yeah, sure, sure. ah My answer is less a sword than a heap of raw iron. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, I could have called this one. I feel like I know where this is going.
01:23:09
Speaker
ah It's the Dragon Slayer from Berserk. Chris, i so I assume your sword is the same as Jeremy's. I mean, buddy, you know that I do love Anduil the Flame of the West. you I know you do. I know you do. But I am also quite a a fan of ah many of the designs of the Master Sword. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. ah Centipede Damascus. On our discord wants to know if you've read any good new shoujo manga recently All right, I gotta think about that I Don't think I've read any recently I've been um I've been watching a lot of ah
01:24:04
Speaker
anime recently. my ah My eight-year-old daughter ah forcibly has made me start watching Delicious and Dungeon with her, um which is is a lot of fun. um And we've been jumping around watching a lot of other ah various types of of anime. She My 8-year-old Amara got really into the anime Your Lie in April, um which
01:24:40
Speaker
She, I think, thought was a fun show about kids who play the piano and violin and are falling in love. But from the first episode, I was like, oh, this girl got got manga disease and she's going to die tragically. um And that was, in fact, what happened. And my my eight year old's heart was was broken by this this girl's manga disease.
01:25:11
Speaker
uh secretly a summers squared wants to know this is also from our discord you're the captain of a federation starship what are you saying as you go to warp as in engage let's fly set a course for home or rikers give me warp in the power of blank do you guys have answers to this um i gotta think about it chris i feel like you got one in the chamber oh Yeah, I would i would obviously ah make the same motion as my dad, Captain Picard, and I'd say, ah praise Dale, raise hell.
01:25:53
Speaker
Mine would be one that I'm frankly surprised has never actually been used in a Star Trek show. Maybe it has, and I just don't know. But I would say, hit it. That is what Captain Pike says. Yeah. That's what that's what Captain Pike says on Stranger Worlds. He says, hit it. Nails it. He says, hit it. OK. OK, that's good. That's good. Somebody should say hit it, for sure. um then Then I would say, take us out. Jeremy, what have you got?
01:26:26
Speaker
um
01:26:29
Speaker
Man, I feel like I got to come up with something better than what I've got. um First thought, best thought. My first thought was, let's get the fuck out of here. I like it. That's good. I like it. Yeah. I feel like I'd have to be on the, you know, the M rated Star Trek show, but. I mean, they all are now. yeah it's It's fine. They say fuck on Star Trek now. I'm a lower decks captain. Let's get the fuck out of here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. One last question ah from our discord from Wiki.
01:27:05
Speaker
ah Jeremy, given that your book is about a bond made over comics, have you ever had a similar experience as your protagonist? So you talked about people coming to your table and saying that they've had those experiences, but have you personally ever had any experience like that? I mean, and I'm sure this is true for you guys, but like working in comics, I've made like 50 to 70 percent of my friends over like bonding either over my comics their comics or somebody else's comics that we've both read But yeah, it's always like
01:27:40
Speaker
Uh, you know, I just made, uh, just made a new friend over talking about, uh, Gillen and McKelvey's Young Avengers the other day. And I was like, this is the fucking best book that's ever been written. Like it's, it's amazing. Comes out the gate swinging. The page designs are great. And they're like, yes, I'm going to read all of that now. And now we're friends. So that's, yeah, that's our whole lives. Well, Jeremy. ah Not only have we bonded over comics. We've also bonded over bulljangles cups. Yes ahs That's that's what's true in life um Before we let you go, please let our listeners know where they can follow you where they can find your stuff and anything else you want them to know You can check out my website. It's just Jeremy Whitley calm for information about all the the stuff that I've got out um including all the various
01:28:35
Speaker
issues of My Little Pony and everything else that's out there. ah You can check me out on Blue Sky or Tumblr at Jeremy Whitley, and then on Twitter and Instagram at JRome58. This book, Navigating With You, comes out August 13th, so definitely pre-order that, check it out, and immediately after it comes out, you can actually catch me at ah FlameCon in New York, DragonCon in Atlanta or I will also be at Baltimore and and NYCC um and a variety of other things. So there's always somewhere to catch me.
Closing Remarks and Social Media
01:29:15
Speaker
So buy the book, come come get it signed and come hang out. Our guest has been Jeremy Whitley. Jeremy, thank you for coming on the show and indulging us with this very fun conversation. Always a delight to talk to you. It's always it's always a good time for bow time with you guys.
01:29:38
Speaker
Thanks once again to Jeremy Whitley for coming on to promote a book and then also allowing me to do something very different, which I did not discuss with either of you. That's what the show is. It is. Look, we like to have fun. We're just talking. We're just talking and having a good time. If you would like to get in touch with us, with a guest suggestion, or you have a listener question, or you want to recommend something for comics catch up, or in every story of our list, ah you can email us at our email address, which is warrocketpodcast.gmail dot.com. You can also ah get in touch with us on Tumblr at warrocketpodcast.tumblr dot.com. I mentioned where we are on Blue Sky, that's warrocketajax.bsky.social. I also mentioned our Discord, which you have to be a member
01:30:35
Speaker
of, you have to be invited to be a member of it. ah But if you ask us nicely, we'll give you an invitation to the Discord and you can join that community over there, ah which is very cool and and a fun place to hang out and talk and chat about comics and other things in this show and ask Lister questions and all of that stuff. Our website is warrockinhx.com and has every episode of the show we've ever done. WarRockitWiki.com is the fan run repository of all the information you could ever need about this show, War Rocket Ajax, so go there and but become informed. If you want to find me and my stuff, go to MattDWilson.net to find links to my comics, my books, my other podcasts, and my social
Where to Find Chris Sims
01:31:21
Speaker
medias. Chris, where can people find you? Everybody can find me by going to the-isb dot.com. That is my website, and it has links to all the stuff that I do.
01:31:35
Speaker
We'll be back next week. That's it. We're done. ah We'll be back next week with another show. And you should come listen to that too. We sure would appreciate it.
Final Thoughts on Social Issues
01:31:48
Speaker
Until then, do not forget Black Lives Matter. Trans rights are human rights. As are abortion rights. Drag is not a crime. And cops are not your friends. But we love you. We love you.