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Episode 727 - Literal Cards and Archery f/ Jeremy Whitley
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On this week's show, we're very pleased to welcome back Jeremy Whitley, editor of the Aces and Aros Anthology, which is funding now on Kickstarter! We talk about editing vs. writing, self-discovery, how he got involved in the anthology, and lots more!
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Transcript
Introduction and Zencastr Promotion
00:00:00
Speaker
This show is recorded using Zencaster. If you are a podcaster or you want to be a podcaster and you want to be able to record remotely, you can do so using Zencaster.
00:00:12
Speaker
They also have hosting options and you can let them know that we sent you. Follow the link in our show notes or in the episode description and sign up for an account on Zencaster now to start recording your own podcast.
Hypothetical Gifts Discussion
00:00:28
Speaker
Right, I'm bored. What plaything can you offer me today?
00:00:39
Speaker
got War Rocket Ajax to bring back his body. Terminator X's go, go!
00:00:53
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome to War Rocket Ajax. This is the Internet's most explosive comic book and pop culture podcast, and we are your hosts.
00:01:04
Speaker
My name is Chris Sims. With me, as always, is Matt Wilson. And Matt, if I was going to get a birthday present from a friend that was maybe a little bit late, I think I would like, I don't know, like ah like a cool sword or ah ah a cool hat, right?
00:01:19
Speaker
What it about you?
00:01:26
Speaker
but ah ah Well, I still have some volumes of Berserk that I don't have. okay Okay. That would be that would be good. Cool hat. I'd take a cool hat.
00:01:37
Speaker
Okay. All right. Maybe I can find a cool hat. I mean, like all the questions I ask here at the top the show, these are just for funsies. Yeah, totally hypothetical questions. So, yeah.
00:01:51
Speaker
So let me just... Berserk.
Jeremy Whitley Guest Announcement
00:01:53
Speaker
Cool. Hat. Anything? Any other answers to the question? Maybe... Some art?
00:02:04
Speaker
If... I was going to get art... The person who is giving me art should have thought of that a couple months ago. That's probably true, yeah.
00:02:16
Speaker
So for Christmas, that's more likely. That makes sense. I do actually have... I did purchase recently two pieces of art for myself.
00:02:31
Speaker
that I did think about sending you one as your birthday present, but then I was like, ah but i but I got that for me. And I would feel bad about it.
00:02:45
Speaker
I bought ah Matt Diggs's, from his Amalgam month, I bought Spider-Boy and Dark Claw. yeah And I thought about sending you Spider-Boy, but those are good I was like, no, I bought that for me.
00:02:59
Speaker
Whatever you get, Chris, will be with love, and that's what matters. That's true. That's true. speak Speaking of love, we have a guest on this week's show who is the editor of an anthology about people expressing love in their own way. It's the Aces and Arrows anthology, edited by Jeremy Whitley.
00:03:28
Speaker
And we are going to talk to him about that anthology, um as well as other topics in our interview later in the show. And it is a very cool, very good conversation.
Patreon Details and Perks
00:03:39
Speaker
So everybody ought to stick around for that. I agree. Chris, before we get to that, we do have some business to take care of here at the top of the show, starting with thanking our newest supporters over on Patreon.
00:03:52
Speaker
That's right, Matt. Now these are the people who want to support the show. And what they do is they go to patreon.com slash warrocketajax where they can kick in as little as a dollar a month to help support the show, help support movie fighters, snack situation, all the fun stuff that we do here on the program.
00:04:09
Speaker
And most importantly, help us keep paying those gimmicks they keep sending in the mail called bills. And one of the things that they can do stake a claim on the ah the Gimmick Street urban revitalization project that's ongoing.
00:04:28
Speaker
That's right. You can join the Gimmick Street Preservation Society if you are at the $15 level on Patreon. And Chris, I'm going to tell you, this is the last naming rights suggestion that I have gotten. I know that there are quite a few more people who have purchased naming rights.
00:04:49
Speaker
for Gimmick Street, but they haven't sent them to me yet. So if you are at that level or higher, please send me as a Patreon message your suggestion of what, or it's not even a suggestion. You get to name an address on Gimmick Street.
00:05:08
Speaker
Josh Ramsey named, what is it, 727 Gimmick Street, Chris, and I will read Josh's full message. I knew immediately that I wanted to name slash build something on Gimmick Street so I re-upped my level 2 t-shirt because i it's ah it's nearly time for that too.
00:05:27
Speaker
I wasn't sure what my spot on Gimmick Street was going to be for a while. After much deliberation, I've decided to donate my place on Gimmick Street to the Gimmick Street Parks and Rec. My donation requires them to place a small park with a pond for the local community to skip rocks after realizing their baby was in his 20s and not a baby anymore.
00:05:46
Speaker
They can skip rocks across the pond for other reasons, of course. So it's the rock skipping pond. The rock skipping pond. That's good, because I've just been thinking again about how heaven and hell are the same place and God and the devil are the same person. ah Yeah, but something Doctor Strange really said. Something Doctor Strange said to Johnny Storm the Human Torch.
00:06:11
Speaker
the least likely character in Marvel Comics to receive that information? But I've been thinking about it again. So maybe i need to take a trip down to 727 Gimmick Street.
00:06:23
Speaker
So thank you for that, for giving me a place to go and skip some stones. And if you go down there to the Stone Skipping Pond, you can also get on your phone and go to patreon.com slash warrocketajax.com where you can donate an amount as small as $1 a month to help support this show and everything else that we do.
00:06:47
Speaker
Our newest Patreon supporter, Chris, is David Austin. Austin! That's right. Thank you, David. If you would like to be like David and help us out here, ah you can go to patreon.com slash warrocketajax and...
00:07:06
Speaker
Offer up as as little or as much as you want per month to help us ah here on the show. At just a dollar a month, you get every single episode of every single show that we do completely ad-free on your own special Patreon feed ah ah four your four for Patreon that you can also put into all the podcast apps that you use.
Personal Excitements and Heroes Con
00:07:30
Speaker
At the $5 level, you can get bonus content that could be... ah Outtakes that I cut out of the show and put on Patreon exclusively.
00:07:40
Speaker
That can be stuff we record, especially for Patreon. That can be writing that Chris and I have done. All of that stuff is over on Patreon now. And if you join up at the $5 level now, you can get the whole backlog of bonus content that we've done there, which is sizable.
00:08:01
Speaker
So go check that out. At the $10 level, you get line-stepping privileges for our segments, which currently include Every Story Ever and 1 to 10 of Swords. At the $15 level, you can get naming rights for Gimmick Street.
00:08:14
Speaker
And then the $20 level is that coveted t-shirt level. I am gathering t-shirt sizes. from listeners as we speak.
00:08:25
Speaker
And as of the week that this episode is going up, i my plan is to order the t-shirts. So ah we've got the design locked down ah by David Wynn. It's beautiful and funny, and you're going to love it.
00:08:42
Speaker
ah So hopefully you're at the t-shirt level and you can get this year's shirt. If you're unable to help us monetarily, you can help us out in other ways. You can go to ah social media and spread the word about the show.
00:08:56
Speaker
Tell folks about it. Give us some good word of mouth. You can give us a five-star review on the podcasting app that you use. You can just IRL talk to your friends and family about this show, War Rocket Ajax, and tell them to listen.
00:09:09
Speaker
And tell them to back us on Patreon, which ah would help a whole bunch With that, Chris, it's time for some checks and recs. What do you say? Let's do it.
00:09:23
Speaker
Chris, what do you have to check in with this week? My wife's back, Matt. Great. I know. i was gone for a week, and then she was gone for two weeks, and I missed her very much, and today she came back, and I'm very happy about it.
00:09:43
Speaker
I'm very happy to hear it.
00:09:47
Speaker
That's it. I'm very happy. Love my wife. she's She was gone and now she's back. Checked out. Very excited. I was very excited. She was very excited to see me and the dog. It's good times.
00:10:01
Speaker
Excellent. How about you, Matt? What do you got going on this week? Well, Chris, ah this kind of happened at the last minute. I was not necessarily expecting for this to happen, but ah back in March, maybe, um i contacted um Heroes Con to say, hey, I don't know if you have any tables still available, but I'd love to have one ah because I have a book that...
00:10:28
Speaker
i I want to sell to people if they weren't able to get it um on on the Zoop campaign. And I was told at the time, like, oh, well, if we have a cancellation, maybe maybe a table will open up.
00:10:40
Speaker
And lo and behold, mere... Hours ago, as we were recording of this episode, I, in fact, was told that a table had opened up for Heroes Con from June 20th to the 22nd in Charlotte.
00:10:58
Speaker
And so I will be having a table there. It is table a a six eighty And if folks listening to this are going to be in Charlotte for Heroes Con, you can come see me and come to my table and buy my stuff, which I would really like for you to do.
00:11:15
Speaker
um But also, big news, I am at table AA680 in the same section as ah Howard Mackey, Tom DeFalco, Daddy Fingeroth, Todd Nock, John Workman, a lot of 90s comics guys.
00:11:40
Speaker
Ron Frenz is over there, too. You're in the Spider-Man section? I'm in the Spider-Man section. I don't know that that was on purpose, but that is where I am, in the Spider-Man section. now desperately trying, through process of elimination, to figure out whose table that was that opened up.
00:12:00
Speaker
Who couldn't make it to Heroes Cup? Bob Budiansky?
00:12:07
Speaker
ah J.M. DeMatteis. I took his table. mean That would be a good table to have. That would be a good table to have. i yeah I think he'd probably get a bigger table. He'd probably get an end cap.
00:12:21
Speaker
He might. ah but Whatever the case, whoever's table I got, I will be at AA680 at Heroes Con. so If anybody wants to come see me, they can do that.
00:12:36
Speaker
and And we'll have a good time at Heroes Convention 2025. Is there anything you want people to bring you? just ah Just, you know, if you listen to the show, say so and let me know.
00:12:51
Speaker
and and bring your good feelings with you. I always put in like my convention bios, I always put ah how I take my coffee.
00:13:07
Speaker
huh And i only one person has ever brought me a cup of coffee, and it was my accountant. ah Interesting. ah But like also, I feel like i would probably not actually want to drink a coffee that a very nice stranger brought me.
00:13:28
Speaker
I had not had eyes on it the whole time. I don't know that I want anyone to bring me any item of of food stuff or anything else because if I request it, I'll get like, I mean, I might not get any, but like there's the possibility I'll get like a dozen and and i I don't know that I want a dozen of anything um um ah except for donuts.
00:13:55
Speaker
If you want to bring me donuts, goat go go watch. Donuts.
Local Donuts and Kindness
00:14:00
Speaker
That's right. Uh, so, okay. I'll request that donuts. Best.
00:14:07
Speaker
One of the smartest things I've ever heard is, and stop me if we've talked about this on the show before, Matt, but, uh, uh, Justin McElroy, who does a podcast.
00:14:19
Speaker
Like when the, uh, my brother, my brother and me podcast goes on tour, ah Justin McElroy, the, the thing that he has put on the tour writer is best local donuts.
00:14:31
Speaker
That's such a good idea. Yeah. And he said he said that it's it's the best because if they're doing like two nights in a city, like if they're doing the Adventure Zone and then they they do like im a Mabim Bam show after, then inevitably someone sees the donuts that have been brought and goes, oh no, those aren't the best.
00:14:52
Speaker
And then tomorrow there's a different donuts. A different order of donuts from another place that someone else thinks is the best local donuts.
00:15:04
Speaker
That's so smart. You know that's a treat for Justin, because Justin has really slimmed down. He really has. In the last couple years. Honestly, like inspiring.
00:15:15
Speaker
like i but good Good on him. but hey this is This is a pro-Justin McElroy podcast. Best McElroy. Best male McElroy.
00:15:28
Speaker
Yes, a fair distinction. Yeah, i would I would still probably put Sydney the top. Let's make some recommendations, Chris. What do you have to recommend? Matt, I have been playing a lot of video games about Kazuma Kiryu.
00:15:45
Speaker
You sure have. And I've recommended all of them that I've played here on the show. And i am I am happy to announce, if you've you've been getting tired of kind of the same thing, I'm happy to announce that I am not recommending a video game starring Kazuma Kiryu this time.
00:16:06
Speaker
i I'm not even recommending a ah video game starring Ichiban Kasuka this time What I am recommending is Like a Dragon Isshin,
00:16:20
Speaker
which is the spinoff title that all of the characters and voice actors from the Like a Dragon slash Yakuza series are...
00:16:38
Speaker
essentially playing different roles as real-life historical figures. So it's kind of like the Yakuza version of Hamilton. o ah I had to try really hard to make it through that.
00:16:56
Speaker
But yes, in this one, Kazuma Kiryu will be playing the role of Ryoma Sakamoto, and ah you are a samurai in Samurai Times.
00:17:08
Speaker
um Interestingly, Ryoma Sakamoto also apparently does not kill people, despite the fact that you start this game fighting with a sword and gun.
00:17:21
Speaker
There is a move where you... kick a dude against a wall, pin him there with your foot, slash him with your sword, and then unload a pistol into his chest at point-blank range. That rules!
00:17:34
Speaker
But I'm also... i have a lot of trouble believing the game when the fight ends and then that guy is just kind of like holding his tummy a little bit and is like, oh sorry, we messed with you, samurai.
00:17:52
Speaker
We thought you were just some Mangy Ronin.
Recommendations: Video Game & Movie
00:17:55
Speaker
mrson There's a lot of very cool moves, but it's a very fun game. There's also a full farm simulator thrown in there for some, for, for like a dragon reasons.
00:18:07
Speaker
They're never, they're never happy just making one game. They've got to, they've got throw in a baseball simulation or a farming sim or racing game.
00:18:18
Speaker
Or all of Virtua Fighter 2, for some reason.
00:18:25
Speaker
Puyo Pop is in the house. Like a Dragon Isshin. For some reason, I played this, I might have even recommended it on the show before, when I bought it. ah Because I did buy it not long after it ah originally came out. Although this is the ah current day remake, I believe. The original Like a Dragon Isshin was PSP game.
00:18:46
Speaker
oh like a psp game ah But I only played it for an hour, and then I wanted to play something else. I don't know why I bounced off of it at the time, but I was in the correct headspace ah this time around, and I am finding it to be, honestly, in the the the top echelon of Like a Dragon games for me.
00:19:13
Speaker
ah For sure. So, give it a shot if you haven't. It's good stuff. And Kenny Omega's in it. And also, uh, uh, uh, Raul Coley is in it.
00:19:26
Speaker
Like him and Kenny Omega are like little soldiers you can recruit. And also there's like some VTubers and a cosplayer in there. It's wild, Matt.
00:19:39
Speaker
Very wild. What have you been up to? Well, Chris, uh, I want to recommend a movie um that I watched as part of my birthday festivities.
00:19:52
Speaker
um I did most of my birthday celebrating on Saturday, June 7th, rather than Sunday, June 8th, my actual birthday. Because on Sunday, June 8th, I just took the day to kind of like veg out and be home and play more blueprints my ah recommendation from last week.
00:20:12
Speaker
I did like the way you pronounced that. You pronounced like that like the way Young Craven would. Mm-hmm.
00:20:23
Speaker
But on Saturday, I saw a movie and went to the Brazilian Steakhouse. Two great things to do. And ah the movie I saw was um the movie Friendship, starring Tim Robinson,
00:20:37
Speaker
And Paul Rudd and Kate Mara. Now, if you've seen the trailer for this movie, you probably have a sense of it being like...
00:20:54
Speaker
fully a comedy. Because all of the like pull quotes from reviews are, like, this is the funniest movie I've ever seen, and so on and so forth. And it is very funny. um It definitely has the feeling of like a feature-length I-think-you-should-leave sketch, um even though it is not written or directed by Tim Robinson. It's it's written and directed by director who...
00:21:20
Speaker
different a director ah who Andrew DeYoung is his name, and this is his feature debut. um But he's been involved in other movies that you I am familiar with and that are that are fun and funny.
00:21:40
Speaker
Kind of in the realm of all comedy, or i guess TV shows. like He directed episodes of Pen15. he directed episodes of Our Flag Means Death. Stuff like that.
00:21:51
Speaker
What the trailer doesn't quite indicate, though, is how much of a horror movie friendship kind of is.
00:22:00
Speaker
Like, most of the funny stuff in the movie is dialogue. And specifically what I assume are improvised lines that Tim Robinson says.
00:22:11
Speaker
For example... There's a part in the movie where a character tells Tim Robinson's character, Craig, that he's going to go get some Rolos and a Red Bull. And Tim Robinson says, I worked with Red Bull once.
00:22:28
Speaker
They were really mean to me. And that's just so funny.
00:22:35
Speaker
ah There's a line at the very beginning about orgasms that is also like unbelievably funny. But... but The movie itself is like ah horror movie, but not like a somebody's gonna kill you horror movie. It's a social horror movie about like meeting a friend that you really admire and then the worst possible thing happening after that. If you've seen the trailer, you probably know sort of what goes down.
00:23:07
Speaker
But... um it's, it's that kind of horror. It's that, it's the horror of like you fuck up and then everything goes bad after that.
00:23:18
Speaker
Um, and, um, it really is quite a journey, uh, from that point on. I loved it and, and thought it was a lot of it ah fun to watch. Um, even though like it's very kind of, it makes you uncomfortable, like on purpose, it makes you uncomfortable.
00:23:37
Speaker
Um, So just know that going in, that like it's a little bit scary. It definitely makes you uncomfortable, and ah it's it's you know not for everybody.
00:23:51
Speaker
um But it was very much my kind of movie. When we went to see it on the Saturday afternoon, there were some older members of the audience who walked out of that saying, like,
00:24:06
Speaker
Out loud, I have no idea what I just watched.
00:24:11
Speaker
Even though they said, we had a conversation with one woman who was like, I know who Tim Robinson is, but I don't know what it was I just watched. I don't know what she was expecting. You think she was at home being like, there's a new Tim Robinson movie out. It's supposed to be nuts.
00:24:28
Speaker
Supposed to be nuts. ah I don't know, but but whatever the case, like she she did not know what she was in for. um But I had a a very good time and and thought it was it was very, very good to watch.
Marvel United Pride and Supergirl Discussion
00:24:44
Speaker
So if if you think you're like me, um go see Friendship, or I'm sure it'll be on somewhere to stream ah pretty soon. Yeah.
00:24:55
Speaker
That's my rec. Chris, it's time now to talk about some comics. What do you say? Let's do it.
00:25:03
Speaker
We actually texted about a few different comics this week, Chris, but the first one mentioned, and someone actually contacted me to tell me to read this because of this reference, um was about the Marvel United Pride special.
00:25:24
Speaker
ah which is is a very enjoyable book ah that has stories about Mystique and ah Destiny and Nightcrawler.
00:25:38
Speaker
And there's a another story about Sarah and Black Cat. There's also ah story about ah Steve Rogers and Arnie Roth.
00:25:50
Speaker
And...
00:25:53
Speaker
I think that's all of the other stories, but the the the lead story is by Al Ewing, and it's very much one of Ewing's Marvel Universe, you know, Eighth Universe kind of story. it's It's Captain America of the Railways, Escapade, and other heroes of the Marvel Universe in this story.
00:26:14
Speaker
It ends up with the Queen of Nevers also being the Queen of Always, which is awesome. um But also there's a part where young Loki shows up in this, and ah the villain of the story is Hatemonger.
00:26:29
Speaker
And so to scare Hatemonger, he he um appears as the man who killed Hatemonger, the original Human Torch.
00:26:38
Speaker
And what does he say ah when he appears as that? Lying with his dying breath. Lying with your dying breath. As Hatemonger burns up.
00:26:52
Speaker
And if you want to get us to pop for a comic, man... i i wish he would have included...
00:27:05
Speaker
Oh no! Don't tell anyone, though you've been torch-burned me to death. Oh no! No!
00:27:17
Speaker
that' That's like, that is like fully, believe that is what happened in real life now.
00:27:28
Speaker
Yeah. i refuse to accept any version of Hitler's death that does not involve him but literally crying and pissing his pants while he is burned to death by the human torch.
00:27:41
Speaker
And lying with his dying breath. Lying with his dying breath. Fuck that guy. There's ah there's ah another great part of this comic where ah the this version of Captain America, the Railways Captain America, um is beating up a Hydra soldier.
00:28:00
Speaker
And he says, you come for one of us, you come for us all. I don't know if that's a reference to Spider-Man 2002, but I'd like to believe it is. the The scene that I have said many times, if you don't like that scene, you don't like superheroes.
00:28:16
Speaker
But he follows that by saying, trans rights, your rights, Escapade, are human rights. and Now that sounds familiar. Yeah. And then ah Loki says, see, Captain America said that.
00:28:27
Speaker
um And then Escapade turns into the Queen of Nevers. And it's great. Because Escapade can switch powers with ah people that they're close to. and yeah And everybody's close in a cosmic sense.
00:28:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:45
Speaker
it's It's good. but The more Al Ewing comics come out on a single day, the more I am utterly convinced that Al Ewing is the best writer working in comics right now.
00:29:00
Speaker
We're going to talk about another Al Ewing comic that yeah definitely bolsters that opinion. yeah that That also talks about the 8th Cosmos. Uh-huh.
00:29:11
Speaker
um But yeah, the whole Pride special is... is An enjoyable read, but nothing, honestly, nothing tops to that panel of...
Giant Size Amazing Spider-Man Review
00:29:20
Speaker
No! The hate monger does go, no!
00:29:26
Speaker
So that is pretty funny. Next up, we're going to talk a little bit about Supergirl number two. This is the the second issue of the Sophie Campbell run on Supergirl.
00:29:36
Speaker
And we speculated a little bit last time about who the fake Supergirl in this story is and and what reveal ah that might be and when it might come.
00:29:48
Speaker
It is right at the top of this issue. yeah it It is ah someone that Supergirl saved from death Candler.
00:30:01
Speaker
In the first issue, yeah. In the first issue. Her name is ah Lesla Lahr, and she didn't think that Supergirl was nice enough about saving her life. she She didn't make her feel special enough when she saved her life.
00:30:18
Speaker
um And she's a big fan. So... um And she keeps getting rejected for high-level jobs and stuff in Kandor. So she goes to Midvale and but becomes the soup the Supergirl of Midvale and like takes over her life.
00:30:36
Speaker
Which is an interesting ah concept. and An interesting way of of dealing with this character and and making a second Supergirl. nothing Nothing that we guessed.
00:30:47
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, nothing at all. But I loved it. And also, i don't know if the bunny is named in the first issue, but the bunny is definitely named in this issue, and pet from Kandor being named Candy is fucking funny.
00:31:08
Speaker
that's such a great That's such a great crypto joke. yeah love Love him. love I love Candy the bunny. Candy the super bunny.
00:31:19
Speaker
The thing that we texted about is ah the fake Supergirl having Titano in a Pokeball. yeah Yeah, she throws a Pokeball and Titano's in it.
00:31:31
Speaker
And Titano comes out. You know Titano the Super 8 with kryptonite eyes? Yeah. yeah This comic's great, and I love it. um it This is maybe...
00:31:44
Speaker
the highest praise that I can give a comic. But reading this comic now feels like reading Impulse when I was 15.
00:32:03
Speaker
Like, it's it's that kind of clever, that kind of accessible, it moves really quickly, it's fun and goofy, and the the art is gorgeous, obviously, ah but it's it's gorgeous in a style that you don't see everywhere in DC Comics, in the way that, like, Umberto Ramos' art was really fun in a way that you didn't see a lot of the time elsewhere in DC Comics. Like, it's...
00:32:36
Speaker
it
00:32:38
Speaker
Supergirl coming out now is as good as comics as I remember them being. yeah Which is a a heck of a trick to pull off. Also, ah there's a whole sequence of this issue of... Because Supergirl's costume gets messed up. It got messed up last issue by the fake Supergirl.
00:32:58
Speaker
Because she has like cosmetics that allow her to change like the molecular structure of things, including herself. um And so she that's how she makes Supergirl's costume into one that has a P on it instead of an S for phony.
00:33:14
Speaker
and And so, um because her costume gets ruined, Supergirl has to like go try on a bunch of other costumes to see what she's going to wear now. And um one of them is the movie's costume, ah the Supergirl movie costume, which is very funny.
00:33:32
Speaker
I'm pretty sure all of these are... like Because the the way that Kara is standing in this and the way that the pages are laid out, I'm pretty sure that all of these were like
00:33:47
Speaker
from old Supergirl comics where fans sent in designs. So these are all designs that have appeared in Supergirl comics before.
00:33:59
Speaker
But the very last one where she's got the headband is definitely the movie the Supergirl movie costume. Well, the headband's the Crisis costume. She didn't have a headband in the movie. Oh, is that the Crisis costume? Okay. Yeah, that's the costume she was wearing around Crisis.
00:34:12
Speaker
But I love the one with the shorts that she wears. The shorts and the little super wedges at the end. Uh-huh. That's a great suit. Well, the the yes, the one with the shorts and the super wedges is definitely like a ah comics costume from some point, because I remember it.
00:34:29
Speaker
I can't quite place what it's from, but... ah At no point does she wear the 90s Supergirl costume, which, with the like halter top.
00:34:41
Speaker
The crop top and and but the animated series costume? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. the The one that was also in the
Spider-Man Comics and Humor
00:34:49
Speaker
animated series, yeah. Yeah, I like that suit.
00:34:52
Speaker
But yeah, it's it's very fun. what ah What a fun comic book. um Finally, we're going to talk about Giant Size Amazing Spider-Man No. 1. Which um has ah four stories in it.
00:35:06
Speaker
ah The first one's by Kevin Smith, which I, despite having some like jokes that don't land in it, it's by Kevin Smith and Giuseppe Comunicoli.
00:35:18
Speaker
um Which ends up being a, and well at first it's a Spider-Man vs. Mysterio story.
00:35:25
Speaker
Where Mysterio fakes having a bunch of other villains there in the Sinister Six, or perhaps the Sinister 69?
00:35:35
Speaker
Look, I regret to inform you that Kevin Smith made me laugh on purpose for the first time in like, 20.
00:35:50
Speaker
15 or 20 years. yeah The Sinister 69, I hate to say it it got me. i i laughed out loud for real.
00:36:04
Speaker
ah But in that fight, Spider-Man's costume gets ripped like right above the butt. And so he goes to see the Fantastic Four and asks if they can make him a new costume that doesn't just rip up all the time.
00:36:21
Speaker
And so they make him a costume out of unstable molecules, ah which prevents his costume from getting all ripped up. Now, I don't think this is going to stick. A key component of Spider-Man is that his costume gets ripped up.
00:36:35
Speaker
Yeah, his costume gets fucked up all time. it's It's a Spider-Man thing. it's it's I don't think that's going stick. But I do think this is the best story Kevin Smith ever wrote for comics.
00:36:46
Speaker
Probably so. Probably so. i mean like hey In addition to actually laughing at the Sinister 69, the highest praise I can give to this story is that before I looked at the credits, I thought Joe Kelly wrote it.
00:37:02
Speaker
And I could buy that, yeah. I could buy that. Now, there is, there there are, I mean, you talk about jokes that aren't land. There's a real funny, real funny ha-ha bit, Laughy-Assy, Laughy-Assy, where ah the the joke is that superman or the the spiderman Spider-Man calls Mysterio a girl.
00:37:22
Speaker
Yeah, there's there's some of that. And that's funny. There's some of that. That's funny. Hmm, yeah.
00:37:32
Speaker
But no, the Sinister 69 actually did make me laugh. And then i i ah i can't I... can't tell you how much it hurts me to say that. The second story is by Al Ewing and Mark Buckingham, and it is another 8th Universe 616 story about Spider-Man waking up on June 16th at 616 in the morning.
00:37:58
Speaker
ah where ah he also meets ah the Wynn from the Gods series, who tells him about how they like have to save the universe from this attacking ah hostile creature called the Naternivore.
00:38:16
Speaker
And that leads to Jim Hammond, the original Human Torque, showing up. Also showing up! I thought he was going to do it again. i did too. I really did. i really, really thought it was going to happen again.
00:38:28
Speaker
I read this one before I read the Pride special. And I knew, like, we had already talked about how that happens in the Pride special. So I was like, is he going to do it in this one?
00:38:42
Speaker
But that leads to a team, a very fun team of, I think, current or like recent Rocket Raccoon. More or less current Ms. Marvel. um It's Annihilation-era Rocket Raccoon. Okay, Annihilation Rocket Raccoon.
00:39:01
Speaker
So like 15 years ago? Current-ish Ms. Marvel. Storm from like the 80s. And Thing from fucking 1962. Yeah, it's it's Thing from FF number one.
00:39:16
Speaker
Yeah. And Jim Hammond, the Human Torch. have to team up to fight the and and defeat this Eternivore. And it's it's a blast.
00:39:27
Speaker
And and it it introduces the concept of 616 Day. ah Al Ewing's great, dude. Al Ewing's great, man. he ti He's got it.
00:39:40
Speaker
He's got it. um Then there's a Chip Zdarsky story. It's ah Chip Zdarsky and Cafu. And I don't know if you thought this as you were reading this, Chris, but did you kind of feel like this was introducing a character with sex criminals powers into the Marvel Universe?
00:40:02
Speaker
You know, I didn't. But it is. Yeah.
00:40:08
Speaker
That's, oh man, Matt, that's, I think you, I think you cracked it. i think you got it right. That's very funny. Yeah. um He never gets an official superhero name.
00:40:21
Speaker
I think called Rapid. Well, Spider-Man says he should be Captain Rapid, or Iron Man says he should be Captain Rapid. And then he's like, oh, drop the captain.
00:40:32
Speaker
So maybe he is just Rapid. um but Look, I love Chip. I love Chip. We are we are a pro-Chip podcast. Rapid is a bad superhero name. Don't call him that.
00:40:44
Speaker
um I think he might get a different name at some point in the future. But but but I do like that he's like, I have a job. but I have a kid. like I'm not going to be a superhero. oh Yeah, but he he doesn't have to fuck to do it, but he can essentially stop time or...
00:41:02
Speaker
or make Or slow down time considerably so that it looks like he's doing everything really fast, or it seems like he's doing everything really fast. but I mean, in all fairness, we don't know that he doesn't have to fuck to do it.
00:41:18
Speaker
We just don't see it. Yeah. Yeah. um But the whole time I was reading the story, I was like... Chip, I see what you're doing. like
00:41:31
Speaker
You're creating a a guy who start starts out as a thief, but ends up becoming a hero um who, by all it tits for all intents and purposes, has sex criminals' powers.
00:41:45
Speaker
he we so He can stop time. yeah he or Or slow it down by a lot. Slow slow it down a lot, yeah. Yeah. um The one last story in the book is by ah Mitsuyasu Sakai, with art by Gerard Sandoval.
00:42:03
Speaker
And it is um essentially just like a three-page preview for Kid Venom. Kid Venom team-up book.
00:42:14
Speaker
Which, you know, it ain't exactly for me, but it is a fun little story. It does have Takuya Yamashiro in it. Who is Toy Spider-Man. Sure does. it's it's ah It's a real Spider-Verse kind of story, for sure.
00:42:28
Speaker
And i'm i'm always I'm always happy when when the Emissary of Hell shows up.
00:42:36
Speaker
Alright, Chris. Those are our comics reviews. Oh, let' also, wait. root Real quick about this last story. yeah ah This is where something is is happening and someone says that it's Klinter's fault.
00:42:52
Speaker
And I guess nobody explained to Mitsuyasu Sakai about lettering on when you have C-L-I-N-T right next to each other in a comic.
00:43:07
Speaker
Uh-huh. And so I really had to, like, especially since, like... His dialogue is in like creepy Venom text, so when he says, it's not me, it's Klinter's doing, I did have to look at that word balloon real close?
00:43:27
Speaker
don't know, maybe, i don't know who Klinter is. Well, I mean, is that is that is that their fault, or is that the letterer's fault? I mean, it's a thing you don't do in comics for a reason, even though, i mean, there's a very famous comic book character named Clint. but um Also, did you want to say something real quick about Batman Dark Patterns?
00:43:49
Speaker
Oh, yes. um Real quick, this book continues to be great. There is a panel in this where ah Batman says, it's becoming hard not to notice a pattern. And I really wish he would have said, it's becoming hard not to notice a pattern.
00:44:04
Speaker
A dark pattern of Batman dark patterns. That's it.
00:44:11
Speaker
All right.
Interview with Jeremy Whitley
00:44:13
Speaker
That's our comics review segment. It's time now for us to talk to Jeremy Whitley.
00:44:33
Speaker
Joining us for the program this week, we're very excited to welcome back a friend of the show. A friend of ours. Someone who sent me Bojangles Cups with the greatest tag teams in history and also the Brothers of Destruction.
00:44:48
Speaker
Jeremy Whitley is back to talk to us about the fully funded anthology, Aces and Arrows, which you can get now on Kickstarter.com. Jeremy Whitley, welcome to the show. How are you?
00:45:02
Speaker
Take heed, strugglers. I've come. Yeah, I noticed, this wasn't where I was going to start the interview, but I did notice, following you on Blue Sky, that you have been reading Berserk lately, and I believe you said something like, things are getting kind of depressing, and you were not at the point where things had gotten depressing yet.
00:45:22
Speaker
No, I was like, oh, everything's going so well suddenly in this book, it would be a shame if suddenly everything... fell apart like because i i am crossing over between the the collected volumes nine and ten of berserk i am reading on hoopla so i can read three volumes a month from durham county library because that's the only way they have it is digitally for a while i was reading only that and she loves to eat and she loves to cook which is a interesting pairing of books to read together
00:45:56
Speaker
hey a i can I can see that. I can see that being a being a little bit of a tonal whiplash. Yes, but I decided that given the year we're having so far, i was going to start greeting everybody.
00:46:10
Speaker
take heed, Struggler. It's a good greeting. Solid greeting. It's very good and makes us all feel like we're in the struggle together. So I'm
00:46:24
Speaker
encouraging you to continue to do that yeah that you know as soon as uh i had heard about your man the the skull knight from this podcast yeah and when he showed up and was like struggle contend wriggle that alone is the sort of the one who confronts death i was like it's my new motto for the year yeah man as soon as you see the skull knight i feel like the natural reaction to be like, is to be like, want to be that guy.
00:46:53
Speaker
That's my boy! He he is like, he is the coolest guy in the entire thing. And there is a dude with like an eight foot long sword and a robot arm.
00:47:05
Speaker
So I feel like that is saying something. Yeah, he's like, You know, Guts is like your favorite wrestler, and the Skull Knight is the guy that just like, he shows up and the roof comes off the place. You know, like, yeah like you don't think to list him, he's just that cool.
00:47:22
Speaker
Guts is like Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Skull Knight is like Prince.
00:47:30
Speaker
like Just on a different kind of plane of things. ah But you're not here to talk about Berserk. Look, if you want to talk about Berserk for the next half hour, we can do that.
00:47:41
Speaker
I'm not going to stop We've proven it, that we can do that. Yeah, but you are you are here to talk to us about Aces and Arrows. And I mentioned before that you sent me some Bojangles Cups oh from from North Carolina, where I used to live, where we used to hang out.
00:47:59
Speaker
And I know, and I think people who are familiar with you know that you are a man of of the king of sports, professional wrestling. How much of Aces and Arrows was inspired by the 2012 total nonstop action storyline Aces and Aids?
00:48:19
Speaker
Enough that people who are excited about the concept of that should buy it, but that's exactly as much. Ha ha ha! just Just as much to sell you the book if you if that makes you want to buy it. If that will make you buy the book, then absolutely.
00:48:36
Speaker
You'll you' have to like really get into the themes to see how they connect. I don't want to spoil it for you, but you know, if you know. you know I am going to have to scratch off several listener questions already, because they have done the same thing where they asked about aces and ace from TNA. Oh, boy boy.
00:49:00
Speaker
You knew what show you were coming on. A storyline that inexplicably involved Brooke Hogan. ah and That's all great storylines do, right? Yeah, right, exactly. Look, y'all are yall are talking a lot of shit.
00:49:17
Speaker
Aces and Apes was actually pretty good. For TNA. mean, yeah, for TNA. I mean, you know, well, no, I think it was good for pro wrestling in 2012. Actually, I'll say that.
00:49:28
Speaker
Okay. Was it did as ruthlessly aggressive? It was ruthlessly aggressive. It did ask you to really get behind Ken Anderson as like, as though he was Kenta, you know?
00:49:46
Speaker
it's It's definitely the most over Bully Ray has ever been, ever. It's honestly, like, he did great work in that. He, like, really did, like, Bully Ray, underrated singles performer.
00:50:00
Speaker
I mean, and honestly, oh I'll at least show up for any storyline in which Taz is involved. I'm a i'm a mark for Taz and the color orange, I guess. I don't know.
Themes of Aces and Arrows
00:50:12
Speaker
But I digress.
00:50:16
Speaker
Matt, I don't like it when you get all Laffy-assy, Laffy-assy.
00:50:21
Speaker
but He's a real referential, Laff Jones. We did the same thing. Oh, man. I'm going to have to call Joey numbers to find out about this.
00:50:33
Speaker
oh But no, Jeremy, talk to us about the actual ah impetus and and formation of ah Aces and Arrows. Which, by the way, I do love that on the Kickstarter page, there is there are ah enamel pins of playing cards in the, uh, asexual pride colors and a quiver of arrows in the, uh, aromantic, uh, cover, uh, colors.
00:51:01
Speaker
That's great. That's fun. We, we've made ourselves seem really cool. Um, Yeah, so Lifeline Comics, if if people aren't familiar with their work, they are Kat Kalamia and Phil Falco, who have done a whole bunch of anthologies that are similar in nature to this one, starting out with Biovisibility.
00:51:23
Speaker
Transphoria is a big one. They did a hairology. which was all stories about hair. They do sort of these open submission anthologies, most of which had to do with a social issue of some sort, it something of some importance.
00:51:37
Speaker
Aces and Arrows, they particularly wanted to do an anthology ah all about stories for you know asexual and aromantic people, about bi and for asexual and aromantic people.
00:51:52
Speaker
They, I, I've known Kat for a while, cause Kat used to do comics criticism as all great people did at some point. True. True. Yeah. So I've heard, but then, uh, so she's, she got into writing comics and, uh, working on these anthologies. so And, I had recently done a story for Marvel through their, uh,
00:52:14
Speaker
unlimited stuff. We did a romance story with Gwenpool where she sort of came to terms with the fact that she was asexual as well. um And it was a cool thing where everybody on the story, including myself, including our editor, are people who identify as being somewhere on the asexual spectrum.
00:52:33
Speaker
And that was the first the first book like that I'd ever done. um And it was it was so interesting because there were a lot of things that you know we that i wrote into the story as sort of jokes and felt like witty observations about my my own life.
00:52:47
Speaker
And then I would get these emails back from my collaborators that were like, I'm in this picture and I don't like it. or Or some sort of like, oh my God, I never put this together.
00:53:00
Speaker
i grew up... really, really, really fascinated with Rogue and Gambit and how it was the sexiest thing ever that really want to they that they had this sexy relationship where they couldn't touch each other.
00:53:13
Speaker
and And my my artist wrote back and was like, oh my god, i've just i need to go see my therapist. it became sort of a big thing for us and was the thing that, you know, i I wanted to do more stories like this.
00:53:28
Speaker
And so, um, Phil and Kat sort of contacted me about wanting to do, ah you know, stories about asexual folks, neither of them identify that way. And, uh, you know bringing me on as sort of co-editor on the book.
00:53:40
Speaker
Uh, and so I was, I was really excited to get the chance to do that. Editing is not something I do a lot. Um, but it was really fun because I got to read sort of all these different submissions of people coming from,
00:53:51
Speaker
all sorts of different directions with what they wanted to do with the stories, you know, these big sort of genre stories, these slice of life stories, these important stories about, you know, themselves. um In addition to all these other things um and like really get to sit down and have this like this wide variety of different,
00:54:14
Speaker
ace and arrow stories that like, uh, I've, I've never seen before. I've never read them out there in the world and, and get this chance to do, you know, a hundred page anthology full of a bunch of these stories. i don't mean this in a, a judgmental or, or disrespectful way at all.
00:54:33
Speaker
And I'm prefacing that. You'll not understand why i preface that when I ask, but from a like from a a crowdfunding and like sales pitch stand standpoint, do you find this to be a difficult sell to be like, Hey, we're doing a hundred page anthology.
00:54:54
Speaker
Nobody has sex in it. Um, you know, I, I feel like starting out, I was, I was sort of worried about that in that, like, um,
00:55:09
Speaker
it is sort of by definition unsexy, right? If sex sells, then we're sort of I guess, selling the competitor in some ways.
00:55:20
Speaker
We're selling the alternative. We're counter-programming, right? Have you had enough of sex?
00:55:27
Speaker
There's got to be a better way. I think it also is just like, part of the the job with this was finding stories that like cover sort of that full range of, of all of the different, you know, sexualities and ah things that fall under that ace umbrella. Like, you obviously myself, I am, you know demisexual, which is ah pretty different than straight up asexual. It's just, you know, it has a lot more to do with,
00:56:00
Speaker
emotional connection before anything like love at first sight or anything like that. um And so like, one of the biggest things to me, one of the coolest things was that we get a lot of people coming from different directions, their own sort of take and spin on things.
00:56:18
Speaker
And there are definitely stories about like, there There were definitely submissions of, like, i don't know where I fit in in romantic relationships, and and everything is hard, and everything is terrible.
00:56:31
Speaker
And, like, not to trivialize those, but also, like, ace people have pretty full and pretty weird lives. We're oh we're an odd bunch.
00:56:44
Speaker
And, you know, as speaking for myself, obviously, like Sex is a thing I have and do enjoy. i have two kids. Obviously, at some point it's happened. i am I am happily married.
00:56:56
Speaker
um And there are a lot of people on this anthology that are, but there's a lot of people that have very different experiences. So I think not focusing it on it as ah as a lack, but as a yeah you know a unique quality, a unique unique way of looking at the world.
Editing Anthology Experience
00:57:17
Speaker
You said you don't edit very much, Jeremy. I wonder how you think of yourself as an editor. Editing is not a part of the comics making process we talk about on the show very much.
00:57:32
Speaker
And I think being an editor can mean a lot of different things. Like, some editors are very hands-on and... help craft the story from the start.
00:57:45
Speaker
Some other editors are more just kind of like facilitators where, you know, they get a story pitch and they say, make the story and just let me know how I can help you.
00:57:58
Speaker
So I'm, I'm curious where you fall, uh, you know, on that spectrum of like a more hands-on editor or more hands-off editor. Are you,
00:58:10
Speaker
giving kind of copious notes or are you kind of just like letting people make their thing and, and trying your best to help them get that done?
00:58:21
Speaker
Yeah, I, I think, I think interestingly, the answer is my writer brain wants me so much to be sort of the the copious notes person, the person that reads a story and goes, you know what's wrong with this?
00:58:34
Speaker
you know You know what I would do if I were doing it? It's sort of like that's my writer brain. And i think one of the the thing I had to overcome doing this is like, all right, I'm an editor. These are important stories to these people. Like these are, you know, they're babies. It's not as if I'm stewarding an IP or something like that. um So like having to turn off that part and go like, all right, what is the story they want to tell? And what is the best way that I can help them tell it?
00:59:06
Speaker
um And sort of like, you know, helping them sand down the edges and and figure out like, all right, you know, you... the most important thing you've, you've done in the story is sort of this image here, but you sort of like jump through it halfway through the story. So like, let's sort of refocus towards this thing and, and, you know, make, make the story that you want to tell rather than, you know, the, the first version of it that comes out.
00:59:33
Speaker
Um, Which is a thing I think I'm pretty good at just from having the experience of, you know, having written comics for 15 years and ah being somebody who, like, as a writer constantly overwrites has had to cut 100 pages from a story before, ah twice now.
00:59:51
Speaker
um And so, like, having that experience of of knowing how to do that and... um Being able to like boil it down to, like all right, if I can't get anything else on the page, what is the thing that people have to take away from this story?
01:00:08
Speaker
And then finding the you know the ideas, the panels, the images that... help get there the best. So, I mean, for the most part for this, they were very light notes. ah One of the stories that I edited was written and illustrated by my friend and frequent collaborator, Emily Martin, who I also, you know, co-host a podcast with.
01:00:29
Speaker
And, and Her stuff was like already very like visual in the storytelling. um And the biggest thing I had to do was just be like, hey, the artist that you have on this, who is you, is pretty good.
01:00:45
Speaker
You should let them tell the story and the art a little more and like ease off the the telling a little bit and just have faith that your artist is going to know what to draw.
01:00:57
Speaker
this i like that you... You had to you you had to to kill the gym shooter that lives inside you.
01:01:08
Speaker
I do it every day.
01:01:12
Speaker
Every day I wake up and kill the gym shooter inside me. Listen, there there were a lot of people who wanted to do that, circa 1984. I...
01:01:23
Speaker
I want So Bad to title this episode Kill the Jim Shooter now, but I cannot do that. but Hey, I'm on the record as a generally pro-Jim Shooter guy, as a reader.
01:01:35
Speaker
i It will be misread if I call this episode that. The metaphorical Jim Shooter. Yes, yes. You've got to shoot the shooter before the shooter shoots its shot.
01:01:47
Speaker
Wise words. Wise words to live by.
01:01:53
Speaker
Jeremy, I'm interested in how many of the stories in the anthology are literally but about aces and arrows.
01:02:08
Speaker
Was that intentional going in, or was that something people just were like, well, it's called Aces and Arrows. How about I put aces in my story, or how i how about I put an archer cards or an archer in my story? yeah I don't think that we knew that was the title of the book when we solicited stories for it. We were just like, it's archer.
01:02:29
Speaker
Asexual and aromantic anthology. And then a lot of people wrote stories ah that involved arrows um and in aces. there's There was a couple of stories involving cards And a couple of stories involving literal arrows.
01:02:46
Speaker
It was really interesting because you would think like you'd probably get a lot of overlap on the um diary style comics. the This is what my coming out was like story comics.
01:02:57
Speaker
But what we actually got was a lot of like weird thematic overlaps or like fantasy story overlaps where like Yeah, arrows popped up several times, but also like there were multiple stories about sirens and succubi.
01:03:13
Speaker
And I guess ace people as a group are very proud of the fact that we, I guess, would not be prey to these imaginary creatures that seduce you through song or magic.
01:03:28
Speaker
Yeah, but I'm not having a look. I am an award-winning comic book critic. ah But I am not having a lot of trouble figuring out the subtext in these. those Those seem pretty pretty right there.
01:03:45
Speaker
yeahp There was several people that immediately were like, you know what's great about being ace? Don't get fucked by any demons. Not today, demons.
01:03:56
Speaker
Listen, ah you know, take your wins. I... i If if that that's a strength, for sure, to not ah be... If you were on that boat with Odysseus, wouldn't be a problem.
01:04:12
Speaker
yep You know, I've never... ah God, this this should tell you how I view myself and my life and what is important to me. Because I don't think I've ever discussed this at all on the show.
01:04:28
Speaker
But I... also kind of came to the realization that I am on oh the A-Spectrum as well. And the reason I mention that is because I was with some people and the subject came up and I had to explain the Dover Boys because I did that like turn away and put my hand up like when the Dover Boys ride past the the bar in the classic Looney Tunes cartoon, The Dover Boys.
01:05:01
Speaker
Yes. Okay. And I just like, i thought that was really funny. ah it kills in the right crowd. Yeah.
01:05:12
Speaker
I, I, you know, I think this is very like telling of, of who, who we generally are as people. I mean, you know, Jay edited and loves to tell the story about like coming to the realization that he's trans watching speed racer.
01:05:30
Speaker
um And for me, it was like writing a comic and like looking up, like wanting in Raven pirate princess, I was like, I want this group of characters to have different sexualities to be a full kind of spectrum and sort of trying to study and understand what demisexuality is.
01:05:48
Speaker
And just having this moment where I was like, I mean, isn't that just everybody? yeah, having the slow realization over the course of multiple days that, uh, no, it isn't, it isn't just everybody. That's just how my brain has always worked and how I kind of assumed some other people's brains worked.
01:06:08
Speaker
Uh, but no, this is, uh, this is who I am.
Personal Stories and Asexual Representation
01:06:13
Speaker
Yeah. The having a realization that everyone in the world does not think in a way that you have taken for granted, it doesn't,
01:06:23
Speaker
That doesn't have to involve one's sexuality or gender identity or ah serious things of that nature. But it is always a weird feeling regardless. yeah Yeah. like like I remember like there was a TikTok of someone who said, like Hey, neurodivergent people, do you have a favorite burner on the stove? And if so, why is it this one?
01:06:48
Speaker
And I was like, that's... I don't like that you know which one's my favorite. Wait, which one is it? It's the right front. Interesting. what's Do you have a favorite burner on the stove, Matt?
01:07:00
Speaker
It's left front. e See, that's good. that's why we That's why we work together so well. Mine is left front because that one is the large one on mine. If the right wasn't smaller, i would use that one. but I have a burner that ah has a big and a small
01:07:21
Speaker
And you can change it depending on where you set the knob. That's left front, babe. Yeah, left front. And so it's actually a functional reason why it's the one I always use.
01:07:34
Speaker
Mine is the it's the the quick boil burner. So it's the very powerful one. But that is it's the one I use regardless of what I'm doing and whether that is the appropriate burner to put it on. Yeah, I use left front for everything almost.
01:07:47
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Unless I'm just putting something on to boil, in which case I put it in the right front. The left front is for any active cooking. so Is that... Now, now okay, okay.
01:07:59
Speaker
Here's my question for you. See, we're getting into we're getting to some deep shit now. Alright, I'm ready. The real shit. Is it so you can hold the handle with your left hand while you stir with your right?
01:08:12
Speaker
Yes. At least partially. Yeah, I mean, that is the that is the bigger one on my stove, so it's the one that makes sense. But also, like, yeah, ah i can hold the I can hold the handle with my left and stir with my right.
01:08:25
Speaker
And, yeah, it's also, like, my my wall is to the left so that I'm not, like, over the sink or anything like that and out of the way of of everything else. So we are getting deep now.
01:08:40
Speaker
I've got to take a sip of my coffee. so ah hal ever That's free ASMR you're getting right now. yeah You're welcome.
01:08:52
Speaker
the friends there There you go. You got it. just Just because you're on the ace spectrum doesn't mean you can't do ASMR. eight That's the next anthology is Ace SMR. Ace SMR. I'm sure that would make wonderful comics.
01:09:06
Speaker
and yeah that's That's the podcast that goes with the comic. okay Comics about sound. Now, Jeremy, aside from your own, do you have any favorite representations of asexuality and aromantic in comics?
01:09:29
Speaker
Ooh.
01:09:33
Speaker
Well, I am I'm directly or indirectly responsible for, for two of the best known ones in Marvel. Uh, uh, so ah can't like, those are, those are my own. Um, you know what? There is, um, I was talking about, she loves to cook and she loves to eat.
01:09:55
Speaker
There is a, uh, supporting character, like the third main character in that book. who is an asexual lesbian, um, who is, I post the same picture of her several times online.
01:10:11
Speaker
let me see. Uh, yes. Uh, Konami Yakko, uh, is, I will post pictures occasionally of her where she is saying,
01:10:25
Speaker
I nothing like something like nothing makes me matter than people messing with my, my gay friends. They should just be able to, uh, to live their lives and not be messed, not be bothered, but her eyes just say kill.
01:10:39
Speaker
ah And that's, uh, she's my favorite because she is is both ace, but also like aggressively, uh, supportive of her, of her queer friends.
01:10:53
Speaker
that's look that's a That's a big mood. Yeah. She's like, i don't I don't want to do any of that stuff, but just fucking let him do it. him alone.
01:11:06
Speaker
all I am personally very fond of that ah Chip Zdarsky-Erik Henderson. No, Chip Zdarsky-Derek Charm story where Jughead ah falls in love with Sabrina, but only while she's dressed as the mascot of a burger restaurant. Yes.
01:11:19
Speaker
So she's just a hamburger with legs. Wonderful. That's extremely good. So relatable. Yes. Also, obviously, if we're making like ah an asexuality in Comics Hall of Fame, Batman R.I.P.
01:11:35
Speaker
Yeah.
01:11:38
Speaker
Read it again, listener. Yeah. Read it again. Just take my word for it. ah So, Jeremy, what's next? What? after this, I know this is kind of the big thing that you've got, uh, going right now, but you are someone, uh, you and I used to, to hang out, uh, a lot and, and work together when I was living down in Durham.
01:12:01
Speaker
Uh, we would, we would go to the coffee shop and write, uh, across the table from each other. So I know that you've always got like, you're always working like four or five things ahead. So what is, what's, what's the next thing?
01:12:16
Speaker
um So there are there are things that are announced. There is... ah So the first... The Dog Night is already out. Dog Night 2 and 3 are currently being worked on. I've i've written both.
01:12:29
Speaker
um The second one is is finished being penciled and currently being colored. And the third one is already being penciled. um So those are coming along.
01:12:40
Speaker
I co-wrote, or actually also I have the third book of School for Extraterrestrial Girls, which I do with my buddy Jamie Noguchi. It should be out late this year, early next year.
01:12:52
Speaker
i am working on some more stuff with Mad Cave that hasn't been announced, but like Navigating with you, which I talked about to you guys last time I was on here. Uh, just, it, it was honored by Stonewall for, um, got a Stonewall honor and they're going to be presenting that at the, at ALA this year, which is super cool.
01:13:16
Speaker
Um, so I'm working on some more stuff with them that is, is related to that. And then, um, i have um'm I'm working on a Marvel thing that's not been announced yet, but I am very excited about ah with artist Bailey Underwood, who is is great and is drawing the hell out of some so Marvel stuff.
01:13:36
Speaker
And I am co-writing a book called ah The Dashing School for Wayward Princes, which will hopefully be out in the next year or so. um ah co-wrote that with my my buddy Ben Kahn, who was also my other co-host on Progressively Horrified.
01:13:50
Speaker
which is all about a a school for princes that teaches ah toxic masculinity. Because they're not toxic enough. They're you know much too nice to be princes.
01:14:07
Speaker
I don't know what could be toxic about believing that you had the divine right of kings. And with that, I think it's time for us to kick it over to some questions from our listeners. And Matt, if the people want to get in,
01:14:20
Speaker
On these conversations that we have with friends like Jeremy Whitley here on the show, how exactly can they go about that? Well, Chris, there are
Listener Questions for Jeremy
01:14:26
Speaker
two places you can go to ask questions for our guests here on War Rocket Ajax. The first is Blue Sky.
01:14:32
Speaker
Follow us at warrocketajax.com on Blue Sky. And wait until Thursday night, usually 9.30 Eastern Time.
01:14:44
Speaker
ah that's six thirty pacific And if we have a guest, we'll put out the call for questions there, and you can ask a question on Blue Sky, or you can also ask questions on our Discord. You have to be invited to be a member of our Discord, but if you ask us nicely for an invitation, we will send you one, and then you can join over there and be part of that very cool community of War Rocket Ajax fans, and ask a question for our guests just like these.
01:15:12
Speaker
For Jeremy Whitley. Our first guess. Our first question. I should say. Comes from Ted Anderson. On our Discord. and Ted wants to know.
01:15:24
Speaker
How many actual arrows. Like from a bow. Would you estimate you have fired in your life? o I was a scout at one point in my life. And my dad is a gigantic nerd. Who took me to Renaissance festivals growing up. So.
01:15:42
Speaker
probably like I've never done archery as like a thing that I do regularly but probably i don't know but between 100 and 200 total I'd say that's pretty good yeah that's a lot that's a respectable number of arrows i would say I've probably shot a dozen I've shot bullets that's I was gonna say fewer than 10 for me probably oh like only ever at the Renfair Yeah, i I'm talking about real arrows. like This doesn't include Nerf arrows or toy arrows. No.
01:16:22
Speaker
Pedro Valor on our Discord wants to know, where are we on beanbag chairs in the year 2025? In theory, four are practically against. like I like the idea. I've never gotten on a beanbag and then been glad i was there when I had to get up.
01:16:36
Speaker
Correct. chart like that's That's not good for your back. Being on the beanbag is fine. Having to get up from the beanbag is a nightmare. Almost always.
01:16:47
Speaker
It's kind of like life, man. It's exactly like life. MargoCity1 on our Discord says, Jeremy, how does it feel to be such a lovely and wonderful person? P.S. A friend of mine has a story in your anthology.
01:17:03
Speaker
How does it feel? Um...
01:17:09
Speaker
sweaty at the moment. um It's very sweaty to be a lovely and wonderful person. ah I, you know, that's, that's a lovely compliment. I really appreciate it.
01:17:22
Speaker
ah i am mostly tired and sweaty though.
01:17:28
Speaker
We're all there. That's where we all are right now, I think. Hot Spring Summer on Blue Sky says, Question for you all. You are tasked with allocating one superhero from the last 25 years to the Golden Age, forever altering hero comics as we know it.
01:17:46
Speaker
I am sorry for this task, but who do you choose? Okay, so who do who do we send back from today's comics as they are now be in the Golden Age?
01:17:59
Speaker
Yeah. And are we guaranteed that they would succeed? I mean, they're going to forever ah alter hero comics, so... Okay. You would have to guess.
01:18:10
Speaker
Just want to get the parameters. so ah Jeremy, any thoughts?
01:18:17
Speaker
I mean, I i would want... i want to send America Chavez... um Just because i feel like she said a lot of things straight earlier on in history.
01:18:32
Speaker
But I'm going to say Gwenpool because that's really going to fuck things up. And is plausible. Yeah. I can imagine it's happen.
01:18:43
Speaker
Exactly. And I can imagine a story where that happens. It would be weird to send the character Gwenpool back to comics that are before Marvel Comics existed, as we know them.
01:18:56
Speaker
yeah Chris, do you have a thought of who to send back to the Golden Age? Look, it's like I always say, every time I read any news story, she would be a lot different if Goku was there.
01:19:09
Speaker
Oh, man. man. oh man
01:19:14
Speaker
Imagining Goku in a Golden Age comic is pretty bananas. Yeah, mean, Stardust the Super Wizard is what that is. Yeah, pretty much. I was gonna say, Dragon Ball is like halfway there already. yeah What if there was a dude who was strong?
01:19:30
Speaker
The end. My first thought is Squirrel Girl. e Because... Doreen's just nice, you know? Yeah. Go back and read a lot of Golden Age comics, and a lot of those heroes are not nice.
01:19:47
Speaker
Doreen is nice.
01:19:50
Speaker
Doreen's like, oh, come on, man. Factors. is my favorite part of that character. They're like, oh, that sucks. do that. Would love to see the Jack Kirby cover from 1940 of Squirrel Girl Punching Hitler. Absolutely.
01:20:06
Speaker
put that in a museum. Franz Ferdinand 2 on Blue Sky says, if each of you were a Street Fighter 2 character, what would your stage be? I feel like i might be stealing somebody else's answer to this, but it's outside the Bojangles.
01:20:22
Speaker
I mean, that's... I like that idea. It's in front of the car line at the Bojangles parking lot, you know? That's very funny, because mine that immediately came to mind was inside a Waffle House.
01:20:36
Speaker
yeah I mean, Inside of Waffle House is already more or less a Street Fighter stage as it is. yeah i don't so I don't know if you guys have this same feeling I do, but sometimes I go to comic conventions in places and I see a Waffle House there.
01:20:53
Speaker
and like i did ah I did the Fayetteville Comic Con this last year, and i I was driving by the Waffle House and I was like, I'm not tough enough for that one. I can't survive the Fayetteville Waffle House. I know that exact Waffle House you're talking about. That's the S-tier rake, super hard mode Waffle House. Every time I do Dragon Con, I walk past the Waffle House it's in downtown Atlanta, and I'm like, nah, man.
01:21:21
Speaker
Nah. not going to do that. My Street Fighter stage, I have to keep up appearances of always having meta answers for everything, so my Street Fighter 2 stage is an arcade full of Street Fighter 2 cabinets.
01:21:36
Speaker
I think it would be fun if yours was like just the cameras on the other side, so you just see a big Matt Wilson in his living room.
01:21:47
Speaker
And like there's a little Matt Wilson fighting, but in the background there's like a ah big Matt Wilson. Now that, that's wild. that's That's weirder than Street Fighter ever got.
01:22:00
Speaker
And I like it. Yeah, that's that's like ah that's like a Smash Bros. stage. ah Stone Cold HCC, an account that exists only to ask questions on War Rocket Ajax, wants to know, How in the crap do you cancel a Columbia House Records membership?
01:22:12
Speaker
They've sent me the Batman Forever soundtrack nine times now.
01:22:19
Speaker
I mean, Stone Cold, that's got Kiss from a Rose on it, man. and yeah why would you Why would you want to cancel that? If somebody just delivers you Kiss from a Rose every couple months.
01:22:30
Speaker
If I was just getting ah copy of the Batman Forever soundtrack every month, that's everyone I know's birthday and Christmas taken care of forever. Can you move it to like vinyl now?
01:22:43
Speaker
Is that a possibility? You can do a Columbia House vinyl of the Batman Forever soundtrack? the The postage on that's going to kill you. i do I do have to note that Stone Cold spelled Columbia like the country Columbia.
01:22:57
Speaker
but Hey, man. how they do have a There's a vinyl version there is a vinyl version of the Batman Forever soundtrack out there in the world. $38.00.
01:23:09
Speaker
That's not bad. That's not bad. Not bad at all. You can also have Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me. The U2 song on the on the soundtrack, that's right. yep There's some PJ Harvey.
01:23:24
Speaker
Brandy is on that soundtrack for some reason. i don't Everybody knows the song The Riddler by Method Man, right? Of course. I don't think those were in the movie. those That's music from and inspired by.
01:23:36
Speaker
um I remember when I was in elementary school, and for some reason that I don't recall, a um cool girl who was high school age drove me and a friend of mine from school to um the Hardee's up the road from school.
01:24:02
Speaker
And she had the Batman Forever soundtrack in her car. And we both, me and the other kid, both tried to impress her by singing, ah by by showing her that we knew all the words to the songs on the Batman Forever soundtrack.
01:24:16
Speaker
Knew all this all the words to the end is the beginning is the end? ah the Smashing Pumpkins? You know it, buddy. that's that's really That's really impressive. it does I'm looking at it now, it does have an R. Kelly song on it. That's not...
01:24:32
Speaker
Wonderful. That's not the best. i This has also reminded me that at the time that Batman Forever came out, my aunt was a regional manager for Carol's, the company that owns Burger King.
01:24:45
Speaker
um And so for for Christmas, I got a full set of the Batman Forever glasses with the ah you know the Riddler and Two-Face and everything on the the frosted glass glasses.
01:24:59
Speaker
Yeah, I'm familiar with them. I'm keeping an eye out. I've got Robin, but I need the other three. if anybody's got If anybody's got those laying around and you don't need them, I'd like them.
01:25:15
Speaker
wonder where mine went. my i'm Surely my parents have them sitting in one of the many, many boxes of of junk in their house somewhere. Trivialad, we only have time for one more question, so I'm going to ask this one.
01:25:28
Speaker
um I'm having to skip over some others, ah so apologies. Trivialad asks, who's the most high-profile Marvel or DC character you could see being revealed to be Ace or Arrow and having the change stick?
01:25:43
Speaker
Having the change stick is the hard part. That's the big sticking point, I feel like. yeah because Because you could introduce it for any number of characters, but then I feel like it it that would get changed for for some of the the really big guns.
01:26:02
Speaker
Yeah, because the obvious answer is Batman. um like there's no There's no doubt that that is a feasible answer for that question But yeah the moment that somebody needed to do, say, a large summer event where perhaps somebody was going to get married but didn't, um we would all forget about the fact that the Batman was ace or or aromantic.
01:26:33
Speaker
Also, I think maybe maybe for Batman it works best if he... is, but doesn't have an awareness of it. About himself. Like, something about Batman knowing everything about everybody but himself is interesting.
01:26:50
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That makes... That makes perfect sense. Who
01:27:00
Speaker
else makes... I really like that one panel from the... ah the brave and the bold, uh, tie in comic where, uh, Batman is hypnotized into almost marrying. I think it's wonder woman.
01:27:12
Speaker
And, uh, at the end of it, he says that he was able to break out of the hypnosis because there's only room for one lady in his heart, lady justice. Yeah, that, that makes perfect sense to me.
01:27:27
Speaker
Um, i I think that is the obvious answer. I think the one that you could get away with that would actually stick is Martian Manhunter.
01:27:38
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. ah Like, there have been stories that definitely try to, like, bring Martian sex into Martian Manhunter's story. I'm thinking of... ah that There was a Martian Manhunter story from, like...
01:27:57
Speaker
Or a series from, like I don't know, maybe 2016 or something like that, that did that. But I think it makes sense for him to be an Ace or Arrow character, for sure.
01:28:10
Speaker
Yeah. Hmm. Much to think about. but Our guest has been Jeremy Whitley. Jeremy, it is always so very nice to have you on the show.
01:28:22
Speaker
And we love to talk to you. Before we let you go, please tell all of our listeners where they can find you online, how they can follow you, and how they can back the Aces and Arrows Anthology, which is funded and then some.
01:28:38
Speaker
So if they if they back it, um they're more or less guaranteed a book. Oh, yeah. almost Almost the whole book is is already drawn. It's currently mostly being lettered right now.
01:28:50
Speaker
um My story's been done for months. So, yeah, it's on Kickstarter right now. It's called Aces and Arrows, an asexual and aromantic comic book anthology.
01:29:02
Speaker
It's pretty easy to find, even though that is a mouthful. um If you're having any trouble finding it, you can find me on Blue Sky at Jeremy Whitley.
01:29:12
Speaker
I am posting links to it quite a bit. Right now we're, I think, just around $200 short of hitting our stretch goal of $50,000, which will give everybody three posters of and would give everybody free posters of the comics cover as well. So it's a big you know Ace Pride poster.
01:29:33
Speaker
um So definitely check that out. And yeah, follow me on on Blue Sky at Jeremy Whitley, or if you're still on Tumblr, I am on there as Jeremy Whitley. And if you're not already listening to Progressively Horrified, my podcast about scary movies and progressive politics, that is still going on, and and both of the hosts of the show have been on there for as guests as well.
01:29:59
Speaker
Wait, was I on there? Oh yeah, you talked about Dracula. Oh yes! i look Because I have this thought in my head, like, man, I've got to watch a scary movie so I can talk to Jeremy about it.
Dracula Discussion Reminder
01:30:10
Speaker
I forgot I was on there to talk about Dracula. Yeah, and of course you're welcome to come talk to us about Dracula again anytime. There are so many more Draculas. There's a lot of Draculas out there.
Conclusion and Thank You
01:30:20
Speaker
Our guest has been Jeremy Whitley.
01:30:21
Speaker
Go check out the Aces and Arrows anthology on Kickstarter. Jeremy, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me.
01:30:31
Speaker
Thanks once again to Jeremy Whitley for joining us on the show this week. Go check out the Aces and Arrows Kickstarter. It's already funded, so you can just get it. Yeah. You have nothing to lose.
01:30:46
Speaker
And so much to gain. And so much to gain.
Podcast Closure and Next Episode Teaser
01:30:50
Speaker
And Matt, we have a lot to gain from this show, from our next episode, because this one's at an end.
01:30:57
Speaker
But the next one, that's right it's just beginning. That's right. And we'll be recording it just before I leave for Heroes Con, so it's going to be a light edit.
01:31:10
Speaker
But see you then, everybody. and We will see you then.
Contact Information and Social Media
01:31:14
Speaker
If you want to email us, you can do it at our email address, which is warrocketpodcast at gmail.com. That's where you can send every story ever lists, one to ten of swords entries, or whatever else you want to contact us about.
01:31:28
Speaker
Maybe you want to sponsor the show. We would love to hear from you if you do. We're on BlueSky, WarRocketAjax.com there. We're on Tumblr, WarRocketPodcast.tumblr.com.
01:31:39
Speaker
As I mentioned during the interview, you can join our Discord, so I would invite you to do that. Our website is WarRocketAjax.com. It has every episode of the show we've ever done. WarRocketWiki.com is the fan-run repository of information about this show, WarRocketAjax, that you should visit and ah learn, read and learn.
01:32:01
Speaker
Because there's lots of cool stuff there.
Social and Political Messages
01:32:04
Speaker
If you want to find me and my stuff, go to mattdwilson.net. That's where you'll find links to my comics, my books, my other podcasts, and my social medias. Chris, can people find you?
01:32:13
Speaker
Everybody can find me by going to the-isb.com. That is my website. It's got links to all the stuff that I do.
01:32:22
Speaker
See you next week, everybody. We'll see you next week, folks. think we're going to probably talk about swords. It's going to be fun. So be there for that. And until then, do not forget that Black Lives Matter. Trans rights are human rights.
01:32:33
Speaker
As are abortion rights. Drag is not a crime. Diversity is not the problem. Cops aren't your friends. Abolish ICE.
01:32:43
Speaker
We love you. We love you.