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Episode 713 - Violence in Black and White f/ Kel McDonald
979 Plays4 days ago
Longtime friend of the show Kel McDonald joins us on the show this week to talk about the new story in their series The City Between, as well as their new video series reviewing Berserk from the beginning! And, of course, werewolves.
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Transcript
Introduction & Podcast 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
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00:00:28
Speaker
Titus, 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!
Wrestler Entrance Music Debate
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. My name is Chris Sims. With me as always is Matt Wilson.
00:01:06
Speaker
Matt, if I had to wake up to the sounds of one professional wrestler's entrance music every morning, a la Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.
00:01:23
Speaker
And it just had to be something to get me out of bed. the The song in Groundhog Day being I Got You, Babe by Sonny and Cher. Yes. I would pick John Cena's The Time Is Now.
00:01:35
Speaker
That would be good alarm music, because it's like, it comes in hot with the horns and everything. Yeah, it's it's it's got like a little... like you know It's got a little... dome and don't don't don't buck it So it's not like...
00:01:51
Speaker
ah fully like I don't know if you were going to say Stone Cold Steve Austin's, but the glass break would be an alarming wake-up. That's not how I want to start my day. It would get you, for sure. yeah Now, here's here's my question.
00:02:04
Speaker
Yes, sir. Does it have to be a song original to that wrestler, or can it be a licensed song that a wrestler enters has entered to?
00:02:17
Speaker
I think a licensed song might be Cheating. ah given the spirit of the question. That's fair. so So also Sprott, Zarathustra, toes that line, right?
00:02:32
Speaker
um I'm going to say that one that one doesn't count. That one doesn't count, even though it was Ric Flair's entrance music for many, many, many years.
00:02:44
Speaker
Many years, yes. Became deeply associated with... okay if it's If not that, then then the Four Horsemen theme.
00:02:56
Speaker
That's a good one. The one that has a little, like, Cruel Summer breakdown in it? There are two different versions of the Four Horsemen theme.
00:03:07
Speaker
I'm thinking about the one that they played on Nitro that opened with that, like, wailing guitar. The one that goes... burn out
00:03:16
Speaker
right Yeah, that one. yeah that's yeah That's a good one. You'd be setting your alarm for four. That's right. it It'd be 3.59 and then you'd look at your clock and you'd be like, how ironic.
00:03:35
Speaker
Double Every time I wake Oh my god. i forgot I forgot I had to get up out of bed this morning. Coffee maker, get out here!
00:03:49
Speaker
Yeah, that Four Horsemen theme, underappreciated.
00:03:54
Speaker
Like, the the most, like, ah power ballad style guitar. And then, yeah, it's got that little, like, to to almost, like, steel drum breakdown yeah and it.
00:04:09
Speaker
yeah i I think referring to it as the cruel summer breakdown really gets across what it is. I would agree, yes.
Guest Appearance & Comic Discussion
00:04:18
Speaker
We've got a great show for everybody this week. Our friend, longtime friend, Kel McDonald is back on the show this week to talk about a new chapter or new series of chapters in ah their comic, The City Between.
00:04:37
Speaker
But also... a video read-through of Berserk that they are doing that people can go check out and follow along with.
00:04:48
Speaker
So ah we're going to be talking about both of those things when we get to our interview segment a little later in the show. But first, Chris, we have some business to take care of. The first piece of business being thanking our supporters over on Patreon.
Patreon Support & Benefits
00:05:03
Speaker
That's right, Matt. No, these are the people. who, in times gone by, in olden days, would have to go all the way down to 713 Gimmick Street. And, of course, you know what's there.
00:05:15
Speaker
This is directly next to the sheets in the Wawa. Yes. That are across the street from each other. Yes. Which apparently are words incomprehensible to non-Americans.
00:05:29
Speaker
Oh, oh. and it's Like, Nando's is any better. that Matt, literally the example I threw out there.
00:05:41
Speaker
All right, all right, fine. you You have Greggs with two Gs on the end. Great, sure. Chris, do you know what's at 713 Gimmick Street?
00:05:53
Speaker
oh Sure, Matt, sure. I know it's at 713 Gimmick Street. Oh, I know what's there. I know what's there. yeah It's the British Consulate. It is the British Consulate.
00:06:04
Speaker
Yeah. it's where It's where we mend relationships relations between our two nationalities, our two nations. Yes. ah it is it's It's part of Gimmick Street's diplomat district, but which actually does include the Wawa and the Sheets.
00:06:22
Speaker
Right. but Having the Wawa and the Sheets coexist directly across from each other – Our way of trying to show peaceful coexistence, yeah. And the Wawa, like all Wawas, is technically – it counts as the territory of the state of Pennsylvania.
00:06:44
Speaker
I mean, Sheetz does too, it's but it's more what it's Western Pennsylvania. Yeah, but it not it doesn't have the it doesn't have the diplomatic community. Correct, yeah. It's just been revoked.
00:06:56
Speaker
You don't have to do that, though. You don't have to go down to the British Consulate. You don't have to to exchange your dollars for pounds sterling or pence or shillings or any of that nonsense money.
00:07:11
Speaker
You can give it to us instead by going to patreon.com slash warrocketajax and kicking in as little as a dollar a month to help us keep doing the show, help us ah keep doing all the things that we're doing, getting the comics that we get, ah talking but to all the people that we talk to, and most importantly, pay those gimmicks they keep sending the mail called bills, because ah they do keep sending them.
00:07:35
Speaker
I don't like it. I don't like that they keep sending them. I don't like it. Chris, here are our newest Patreon supporters. First up, I'm going to take a guess at the pronunciation of this name.
00:07:48
Speaker
Beta Beatrix.
00:07:51
Speaker
Thank you, Beatrix. It's spelled B-E-A-T-A. So that's I don't think that's Beta. I think that's Beta. i I think so.
00:08:04
Speaker
Beatrix, you can let me know if that's correct. And then also, Tony Brandel. Thank you, Tony. Tony is ah the artist that we met at the Renaissance Fair a few years ago. ah ah creator of the Rabbit Hero.
00:08:21
Speaker
That's right. I still have a piece of art from Tony on my ah on my shelf by my desk. As do I. So, Tony, thank you very much for... For kicking into the show here.
00:08:32
Speaker
If you would like to be like Beatrix and Tony. And help us out here on the show. You can as Chris said. Head over to patreon.com slash warrockandajax. And kick in as little as one dollar per month.
00:08:43
Speaker
To make sure that we do this show weekly. That we do every story ever specials monthly. That we do comics catch up. And movie fighters and snag situation. The new movie fighters should be coming this week.
00:08:56
Speaker
ah We did, in fact, watch the Roger Corman Fantastic Four and had a fun time doing it. ah So that episode should be coming ah very soon.
00:09:08
Speaker
Possibly our most shocking episode ever. Agreed. So watch out for it. All of those shows are made possible by your support on Patreon. And as a patron, you get every single one of those shows every episode that we've done completely ad-free.
00:09:25
Speaker
ah You get your own feed that goes straight to you. You subscribe to it. Patreon sends you the RSS. You get it on your your phone or wherever you listen to podcasts, and you download those ad-free episodes that are just for you.
00:09:41
Speaker
Also, as a patron, you can get bonus content. That's bonus audio that we record special sometimes. Sometimes it's outtakes from the show that I will snip out and put on Patreon that only patrons get to listen to.
00:09:57
Speaker
Sometimes it's writing that Chris and I do. We've both written a few things over there on Patreon. Chris, quite a bit more than me. um So... You get all that at the $5 level. At the $10 level, you get line-stepping privileges for our segment.
00:10:14
Speaker
Right now, it's just every story ever um because Thursday Night Raw submissions are closed. But ah we will be starting a new game a little bit later in the year that you can also step the line for if you're at that level.
00:10:30
Speaker
And then above that, physical rewards, which include t-shirts, ah which I think we have a pretty good notion of what the 2025 t-shirt is. And it's pretty good. So you're going to want it.
00:10:45
Speaker
I'm just going to tell you right now that you're going to want it. If you are unable to help us monetarily, You will not get any of those things I just listed off, but also we we understand that not everybody can do that right now.
00:10:58
Speaker
And if you can't, you can help us out in other ways. You can leave us a five-star review on the podcasting app that you use. ah Maybe... It's Spotify, maybe it's Apple Podcasts, whatever you listen to podcasts on.
00:11:15
Speaker
A five-star review for our show would be very helpful to get more people listening. Also, word of mouth. Tell your friends and family about the podcast that you like and that they should listen to as well. And also, they should make they should back our Patreon.
00:11:32
Speaker
That would be a great help to us as well.
Anime & Gaming Experiences
00:11:36
Speaker
With that, Chris, it's time for some checks and recs. What do you say? Let's do it.
00:11:44
Speaker
What would you like to check in with this week, Chris? Matt, I often text you. Text message is ah method by which we often communicate. and It's probably the most often way that we communicate.
00:11:58
Speaker
True. Even though we talk to each other regularly. for about two hours every, multiple at least once a week, usually multiple times. the I will often text you and I'll say, Matt, what watch?
00:12:14
Speaker
And I can only imagine that you hate this question.
00:12:19
Speaker
it it There's a wide array of things I could say.
00:12:26
Speaker
And it's hard it's hard to choose sometimes. That is true. Yeah. it's it mean it's it's all It's just weird to me that you never get it right.
00:12:39
Speaker
I am and looking for... I've been looking for something new to watch. I just re-watched Dragon Ball Super and watched all the Tournament of Power stuff that we... they we talked about back when we reviewed the Tournament of Power for Comics Ketchup.
00:12:52
Speaker
ah And I watched the the Netflix ah new Ramah 1.5, which was quite good. And then i decided that it was time for me to finally give something another chance.
00:13:08
Speaker
I know several people, including Kel McDonald, including our our buddy Jordan Witt, who love Yoshihiro Tagashi's Yu Yu Hakusho.
00:13:22
Speaker
And this is something that I have started like four times and never got more than two episodes into. Just doesn't hit for some reason. And watching it, I'm like, this, the guy who made this married the woman who created Sailor Moon.
00:13:41
Speaker
So there has to be something of merit about it. But it just hasn't clicked. Until I sat down this week and committed to watching it. So that is the next step on my anime and manga journey, Matt. I'm watching Yu Yu Hakusho, Spirit Detective.
00:13:58
Speaker
Okay. Gonna find out all about the Spirit Gun, and why why Ricochet does it as his signature move. I'm very excited about it.
00:14:09
Speaker
Okay, great. i In the interview, Kel is going to say that Yu Yu Hakusho is their absolute favorite character. um Manga of all time. so Well, Shonen.
00:14:21
Speaker
Shonen, correct, yes. i I should have specified. So hopefully this time it it absolutely clicks. it's it It does have a lot of real dummies.
00:14:34
Speaker
lot of bozos in old Yu Yu Hakusho so far. ah Matt, what have you been up to this past week while I have been ah watching anime? I have been playing Japanese video games.
00:14:47
Speaker
In specific, I have been continuing to play Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth, which I am still not ready to recommend yet but because I have a lot of game left to play.
00:15:00
Speaker
And I want to get further in the game before I finally make my recommendation. But I do want to give an update because I've talked about how in the first Like a Dragon game i hit the minigame that I got addicted to and just kept playing, which was the buy and run businesses minigame.
00:15:27
Speaker
Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, likewise, has a minigame that it forces you to play. That ground the rest of my game to a halt, where I basically stopped playing one game so I could play a different game for about 10 hours.
00:15:48
Speaker
Okay. Before I then went back to the other game. So it's sort of kind of similar to the business minigame from the first one in that you have people that you have to keep happy And you are growing an enterprise.
00:16:11
Speaker
But this time, instead of like buying properties and and employing and running them, this time you are sent to a small island, which you then have to clean up and make into a resort
00:16:32
Speaker
It is very reminiscent of Animal Crossing in many ways. And look, in almost any other game, if the game I was playing, Ground to a Halt, and then I had to play a different game where I put like buildings on an island and constructed fucking, I don't know vans that sell coffee or whatever...
00:17:03
Speaker
I would probably hate that. I would be like, this is busy work. This is just stretching out the game. For whatever reason, in the Like a Dragon series, you put that shit in front of me and I'm like, yeah, let's go.
00:17:20
Speaker
and I will clear trash out from an island, beat up invading pirates, and build shops and restaurants and...
00:17:32
Speaker
various other attractions so that people will come visit and sleep in a tent for three days on this island as a resort. and like It's a tent at first, and then you get as you get more money, you can buy nicer lodgings for your guests.
00:17:55
Speaker
There's also an element to it where you have a house that you go and decorate. And the nicer you decorate your house and the more stuff you put in it, the more health you have for when you fight the pirates.
00:18:14
Speaker
It's brilliant and so like shockingly fun. It gives you the option to quit. like Once you basically do like the most basic first steps, it gives you the option to quit and go back to the regular game.
00:18:33
Speaker
I did not do that. And i i am going back to the game with like 500 grand in in game currency to spend.
00:18:46
Speaker
Yeah, man. I mean, look, that's Yakuza. That's like a dragon. That is a video games franchise that is only kind of interested in you playing the actual game they made.
00:18:58
Speaker
Right.
00:19:00
Speaker
It was fun. i i just finished that part and had a lot of fun doing it. But I'm ready to get back to the regular actual game now.
00:19:12
Speaker
And I will report more when I get further along and probably make a recommendation then. ah Speaking of recommendations, Chris, what do you have to recommend this week? Matt, I would like to recommend a video game.
00:19:25
Speaker
To you. And this is a a video game that I mentioned on Retronauts and caused some confusion because the game is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Splintered Fate.
00:19:41
Speaker
ah that's Get it? You get it. do. Yeah, you get it. it's ums it's a It's a reference to Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions. Exactly. Exactly.
00:19:52
Speaker
Exactly. The reason it caused some confusion is that I referred to it as a Hades-like.
00:19:59
Speaker
And ah Jeremy Parrish was like, well, Hades is a roguelike, so do you mean it's a roguelike? And I mean and i said, no, I mean it's a Hades-like. Because it is exactly like Hades, except with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles instead of ah your Greek mythological fuckboy.
00:20:23
Speaker
It legitimately plays exactly like Hades, but Splinter has been kidnapped, and so you are going around beating up the Foot Clan as one of four Ninja Turtles, and if you get the DLC, Casey Jones.
00:20:38
Speaker
And I feel like I don't need to say anything else about it, because you listening to this have almost certainly played Hades, but So you know what this game is?
00:20:51
Speaker
It's pretty enjoyable. It's also pretty shameless in just being just being in that. like You know how after Breath of the Wild came out, ah that Phoenix Immortals Rising, I think?
00:21:06
Speaker
Which is yeah just Breath of the Wild? Yes. A game that I appreciate, because if you can make Breath of the Wild, you should. Even though someone else already made it, like if you can make another one, you should.
00:21:20
Speaker
That game's great. But yes, go check out Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Splintered Fate ah if you, like me, really enjoy Hades, but ah are waiting until Hades 2 is out of early access so that you can play the entire game when it's done.
00:21:38
Speaker
ah It's also co-op. which could be of interest. Does it have to be co-op? It doesn't have to be co-op. You can absolutely play it. I've been just playing it by myself. It does have a ah couch co-op and online co-op, though. So, Matt, if you get it, well you would have to get it on Steam.
00:21:56
Speaker
Yeah, that ain't happening. Yeah. So... Matt, what would you like to recommend to the people, if not Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth, a game where it sounds like you are acquiring infinite wealth?
00:22:08
Speaker
That's right. i that okay Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth is a game that takes, I'm certain, 100 plus hours to finish. What I'm recommending is a game that you can finish in around 20 minutes.
00:22:27
Speaker
If you you You know, go through it at a decent clip. um But you're going to keep playing it because you're going to be looking for all the different endings.
00:22:38
Speaker
It is also a game from 12 years ago, but I only just played it because it only just became free on the PlayStation Store. And that is the Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe.
00:22:53
Speaker
I had never played The Stanley Parable before. I had heard a lot about it. It is a game that comes up in video essays about video games all the time. Constantly, yeah.
00:23:04
Speaker
Constantly. And I get why. i I'll say it. It's a game that I had kind of ignored for a long time, or avoided for a long time, because it it's one of those games about video games, right?
00:23:22
Speaker
that at first glance feels like it's kind of up its own ass. you know But it is actually really clever, really well done, and and continually makes you want to try to see how it's going to subvert your expectations.
00:23:46
Speaker
So if you've never heard of The Stanley Parable, because you've never watched a Jacob Gellar video, or or a Game Maker's Toolkit video.
00:23:56
Speaker
It's a game where you play this like office worker named Stanley. You wake up in your office, or your you start in your office, and there's a narrator who's telling you, like, Stanley woke up and his office was entirely empty. He didn't know what was going on, so he...
00:24:15
Speaker
Went through the office and blah, bla blah, blah. So the narrator's like talking about what you're doing as you're doing it. Then you walk into a room with two doors, and the narrator says that Stanley took the door on the left.
00:24:29
Speaker
You can take the door on the left and continue doing what the narrator says, or you can take the door on the right and completely... you know Go against the narrator's ah prescriptions of what you're supposed to do. business for yourself.
00:24:45
Speaker
you can You can go into business for yourself, brother. In that way, it's it's essentially like a choose-your-own-adventure where, depending on what you choose and depending on where you go, you get different endings.
00:24:59
Speaker
Your relationship with the narrator changes. um There's a lot of cat of like commentary about choice in video games in it. But in addition to that, there's a lot of kind of like stuff that is still surprising even when you're playing it like the 10th, the fifteenth the 20th time.
00:25:22
Speaker
And the Ultra Deluxe version, which was the kind of revamped version for consoles that was made a couple years ago, has this running gag about sequels, specifically.
00:25:36
Speaker
um There's a Jacob Yeller video called Games That Hide Their Own Sequels. And the Stanley Parable is discussed in that. And in Ultra Deluxe, you can find an area where suddenly you're in the Stanley Parable 2.
00:25:57
Speaker
And then that portion of the story kind of like goes from there. And spirals and escalates. And it's it is genuinely well-written, funny, well-thought-out, and has like surprises in it that I did not expect.
00:26:19
Speaker
And like there are things you can do and choices you can make that you wouldn't necessarily think... would be included in the game. And then you're like, I wonder if I can do this. And then you do it and, Hey, you can actually.
00:26:35
Speaker
Um, so, you know, I played it for like a few hours on a Saturday afternoon and saw most of the endings and had a really fun time in the process. So,
00:26:50
Speaker
i I don't know if it's still free on the PlayStation Store. I think it was one of the kind of like monthly games on PlayStation Plus. But if it is, um it's worth grabbing and and playing.
00:27:02
Speaker
Because kids it is it it is a good, kind of fun, pick-your-brain kind of game for a few hours.
00:27:15
Speaker
All right, Chris, with that. It's time to talk about some comics. What do you say? Oh, let's do it, Matt.
00:27:23
Speaker
If you heard Chris have a particular glee in his voice when I kicked it to the comic segment, it was because this week Jenny Sparks came out, which was our Texter's Choice winner, and which I did not read because i will not.
00:27:41
Speaker
Chris, you you have screenshotted panels from that comic, and texted them to me, and I consider that psychological warfare. I wish you could see the smile on my face right now. Honestly, yeah sad day.
00:27:56
Speaker
Sad day, because the last issue of Ginny Sparks was this week. yeah i I wish it was ongoing. Because i I do feel like if we can concentrate all the bad into one comic, then the others have to be good, right?
00:28:15
Speaker
I think that's why, remember? If only that were true. Remember this year started, like the first week of comics this year, we were like, comics are back, baby. Comics are good. There was one really good week of comics very early in the There's been other good comics, but like, yeah, there was that there was one really great week.
00:28:34
Speaker
I think it's because all the bad was in Jenny Sparks.
00:28:39
Speaker
An interesting theory. An interesting theory. You should read it. It's atrocious. I will not. It's so awful, Matt. It's... it's oh Okay, so this ah this issue reveals that it was all a plan the whole time.
00:28:58
Speaker
all the All the random people that were in the bar with Jenny Sparks and Captain Adam, that Captain Adam was holding hostage, they were actually there as a plan from from Jenny.
00:29:12
Speaker
Because that's the way that you yeah trick Captain Adam, who is just Dr. Manhattan now. ah is You just you you pick these people and you put them in there.
00:29:26
Speaker
And so then he destroys the entire multiverse and then remakes it.
00:29:33
Speaker
Because that's what he does. So that's what he does. And that's how Jenny Sparks wins. And then I guess Captain Adam fucking dies. It makes sense.
00:29:46
Speaker
I love it.
00:29:49
Speaker
It sucks so bad, dude. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait minute. Yeah. Is it Captain or is it Dr. Manhattan in the DC universe now?
00:30:02
Speaker
Well, this is a black label book, so who knows? Hyper time, baby. It's hyper time. I'm just saying that if if Dr. Manhattan is in the DC Universe, which I think he is, then why does Captain Adam need to be Dr. Manhattan 2? To fight Jenny Sparks.
00:30:23
Speaker
Oh, that makes sense. Spirit of the 20th century. Right, right. Okay. So wait, have they been this in this bar for the whole series? Yeah, man, they've been in this bar for the entire seven issues.
00:30:36
Speaker
Lord have mercy. Also, at one point, ah Superman calls Jenny Sparks Jennifer Sparks, which is so weird.
00:30:47
Speaker
Oh, man. Buddy, it's the worst. that it It opens with a splash page. Page one of this last issue. Splash page. Jenny Sparks smoking a cigarette with her British flag tank top That has a boob window. Uh-huh.
00:31:10
Speaker
And it's just ah no background. Black background. ah Yeah, I mean, you know, great great art by Jeff Spokes. but Costume aside, like, really well-drawn stuff.
00:31:22
Speaker
And then it's just got, like, a Bible verse on it. It's got some stuff that Jesus said. And a picture of Jenny Sparks. As you have pointed out in the past...
00:31:36
Speaker
Tom King got the full page rate for that. You get your full page rate for that, Matt.
Comic Critiques: Jenny Sparks & New Gods
00:31:40
Speaker
Yeah. Even if you do a bad job. Even if you just put a quote on it. Yeah, because that's your rate.
00:31:48
Speaker
Yeah. You get your full page rate for that.
00:31:53
Speaker
So yeah, I guess Captain Adam destroyed and remade the world a bunch of times and then decided not to do that anymore. And I don't, I literally don't understand it But that is how Jenny Sparks won, because it was all a plan?
00:32:08
Speaker
My face hurts from smiling so much right now. You screenshotted a panel and sent it to me. That is, I guess, Jenny just holding a ah ah matchbook from that bar.
00:32:23
Speaker
Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. In which she is saying, you don't fight life, you live it.
00:32:31
Speaker
and Beautiful. Beautiful. that Don't fight life, live it is what I expect to see in some like ah like a manufactured piece of art that somebody bought at and like like at Michael's yeah yeah and put in their bathroom.
00:32:56
Speaker
Yeah. You don't fight life. You live it.
00:33:01
Speaker
Matt, you either get busy living Or get busy fighting life. Yeah. Oh, buddy, it sucks so much.
00:33:13
Speaker
I'm delighted.
00:33:16
Speaker
ja Jenny Sparks is is the comic of right now in every way. Don't cry because it's over. laugh because another prestige Tom King Black Label book is coming very soon, I'm sure. Oh, can't wait.
00:33:37
Speaker
like that Like, here's the thing. There are some Tom King books that are great, honestly. there's Mr. Miracle, I still think that book is good.
00:33:49
Speaker
like Yeah, it's really good. The Omega Men is still good. Yeah. There are some Tom King books that are, like, offensive. Like, Heroes in Crisis was so bad that it looped around to being the opposite of what I think it wanted and ended up being, like, genuinely upsetting.
00:34:11
Speaker
yeah This book doesn't fucking matter at all. It sucks, and it's the dumbest thing in the world, and that's fine. that Something this purely in every way bad can exist, I think should be hope for us all.
00:34:27
Speaker
And I do mean that purely in script. The art is actually very good, except for the Jenny Sparks costume design. Incredible. Incredible. It was all a plan, Matt.
00:34:39
Speaker
It was all a plan. All right, ah let's talk about a comic that is actually good. um The New Gods, number three. This book continues to rule. It is also absolutely beautiful.
00:34:55
Speaker
And, okay. This issue has some, like, cosmology, mythology... Old God's backstory stuff about the origins of New Genesis and Apocalypse.
00:35:14
Speaker
But it's got the second world in it. It's got the second world in it, yeah. Which, isn't that where Shaq Fu took place? What's the second world?
00:35:26
Speaker
ah This is by Rom V with art by Riccardo Federici and Evan Cagle. ah for the flashbacks and the present-day sequences, respectively.
00:35:39
Speaker
And, like, I appreciate the cosmology stuff. I appreciate the kind of, like, mythic look back at the second world. I do think we're on the verge – this issue's on the verge of losing some narrative momentum because it is so focused on that.
00:35:59
Speaker
Because the the the Mr. Miracle going and looking for this kid, who might be the new Darkseid stuff, is only kind of in here a little bit. Yeah, ah i I felt the same way. I enjoyed the Second World stuff, ah like, for what it was.
00:36:17
Speaker
But it took me a minute to be like, is did I miss something? to Did Scott and Barta go find that kid already? And when we get back to that sequence, I am reminded that all you really need to do to make me love a comic is just have Big Barta smash some shit.
00:36:38
Speaker
Oh, yeah. And ah that does happen here.
00:36:44
Speaker
That said... Those flashback sequences look cool as shit. No, they look great. like There's a real Mubius quality to them in some ways.
00:36:56
Speaker
I was going to say, it's kind of Mubius-like, yeah. which ah That whole sequence is framed as a story being told to Metron.
00:37:10
Speaker
It feels more Marvel than DC to me in a weird way. I mean... Yeah, for my it kind of should. Yeah, well, yes, because, but right.
00:37:25
Speaker
It reminds me of the the sort of like recent cosmic Marvel books, particularly like the Jason Aaron run on Thor.
00:37:36
Speaker
that that What artist am I thinking of here? Oh, it's Esad Ribic. Ah, yes, yes, yes, yes. yes Esad Ribic. I'm thinking of somebody else named Andrea, who also, I think, does this kind of style of art.
00:37:51
Speaker
But this this art absolutely reminds me of the Esad Ribic Thor art. um And so, it yeah, it interestingly reminded me of like recent Marvel books.
00:38:07
Speaker
Yeah. Which is just ah an interesting an observation. It's not good or bad. It's just an observation. Yeah. Yeah, and I think like it it does tonally have that kind of feel to it, and i I wonder how much of that is just because that's the story, or how much of that is a conscious decision to make it feel like Cosmic Marvel, but in this very DC book, because that is what the fourth world is.
00:38:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's a good question. I appreciate what this book is doing, and I like it a lot, and I'm going to stick with it. I hope that some narrative momentum comes back in the next issue.
00:38:48
Speaker
that's yeah That's the main thing. All the stuff with Scott and Barda is – it's the stuff that I'm here for, really. Yeah, yeah. One last book that I'm going to talk about. You haven't quite had a chance to read it yet, Chris, but you should. It's X Factor No. 7. Well, Matt, that's a book I like.
00:39:06
Speaker
And so yeah ah you you asked me today, you were like, hey, what comics did you read? And I said, I read Jenny Sparks No. 7 six times.
00:39:18
Speaker
This is by Mark Russell and Bob Quinn, the regular creative team on the book. But it is a One World Under Doom tie-in. And what it's about, Chris, is the X-Factor team being sent to what used to be Genosha.
00:39:33
Speaker
But Genosha got destroyed. So it's been taken over by a tech billionaire. Oh, God. And renamed Gagosha. Ha ha ha ha ha!
00:39:49
Speaker
Uh-huh. The entire island now is run by a supercomputer operating on an algorithm that gives people jobs based on the algorithm.
00:40:00
Speaker
Everyone who lives there was kind of like an outcast, like someone who couldn't find work elsewhere. So they go Gigosha and they get a job and they have to agree to terms of service.
00:40:15
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. that include having an impprintt implant be put in their brain that allows their body to be taken over at any point that they that that it is decided.
00:40:29
Speaker
It is such a perfect story for right now.
00:40:36
Speaker
Yeah, the thing I really like about Mark Russell is the subtlety.
00:40:43
Speaker
So, essentially... ah the The government is worried that now, or X-Factors handlers are worried that now that the Doom has taken over, Doom
00:41:00
Speaker
Doom's going to get his hands on this technology, on this supercomputer. And so they want X-Factor to stop it. And X-Factor works with a team of Chechnyan mutants to try to retrieve this computer and destroy it.
00:41:17
Speaker
ah It's a one-off issue. It's super fun. It's got all that Mark Russell stuff that you want. Where it's like... Yeah, not especially subtle satire.
00:41:34
Speaker
There's one um series of caption boxes that says, how do you fight an entire nation that is that has signed itself away in the terms of use?
00:41:45
Speaker
It's good, dude. I like fiction because it allows me to escape from the world that my mortal body is trapped in. Uh-huh. X-Factor, good.
00:41:59
Speaker
X-Factor, good. My favorite of the relaunched from the Ashes X-Books by a long shot. Yeah. Alright, that's it for a comic segment, Chris.
Kel McDonald's Comic Projects
00:42:13
Speaker
That means it's time to talk to our good pal, Kel McDonald. Let's do it.
00:42:36
Speaker
us for the program this week we are very pleased to welcome back a friend of the show Always a fun time for us to talk to a friend of ours, even. They are here to talk about their upcoming projects, but also to talk about Berserk.
00:42:52
Speaker
Because that is, there's a related project that you're doing right now. Kel McDonald, welcome back to the show. How are you, Kel? I'm doing all right. How are you two? Besides the world being on fire.
00:43:04
Speaker
You know. I stopped asking Matt, how are you at the top of the show every week? That's how I am.
00:43:14
Speaker
I still have to ask the guest, though, because it's only it's only polite. Well, I've been doing well. I've been still working on trying to get in better shape. Still working on one-punch-man goals.
00:43:26
Speaker
how's that How's that coming? here you like I haven't seen you in a while, so I assume you're just like super ripped now. Yeah, clearly. um I did have to buy new shirts because they all don't fit because my shoulders are too big. Did you did you flex and the sleeves flew off like Kinshiro in Fist the North Star?
00:43:43
Speaker
They did rip. It might have just because the shirt was old, but the button-up shirt I used usually wear to conventions, I put it on and then I heard a rip and I was like, well, that's not good. I mean, that's it's not good that you have to get a ah new shirt, but it is pretty cool, though.
00:44:02
Speaker
That's pretty rad. But again, it might have just been because it was an old shirt. I can do 100 squats. I am at 40 sit-ups.
00:44:13
Speaker
I'm still working on push-ups. So, getting there. that That's awesome. 100 squats is no joke. Yeah, I think I'll be able to do 100 sit-ups by the end of 2025. Alright, well have to check back in and let us know. Now, yeah here is my question for you.
00:44:32
Speaker
Yes.
00:44:34
Speaker
Do you want talk about your projects first, or you want to talk about Berserk first? Let's talk about my projects first, because I feel like we'll talk about Berserk until we run out of time. Probably so. If Matt and I are any indication, that is how it tends to go.
00:44:49
Speaker
So you've got a new ah a new ah chapter launching, right? Yeah, so City Between, my gay werewolves in the future, started a new story arc, um which is called Glass Diamonds.
00:45:03
Speaker
ah It's about ah Rebecca from the first story in The City Between, who's a werewolf bodyguard. Getting hired by a pop star with robot legs.
00:45:14
Speaker
And that just started online recently. um i wrapped up um Shards of Reflection, which was the story right before it, which was about a newbie vampire and was a little bit more experimental. So this one's getting back into my bullshit, ah my more usual bullshit.
00:45:33
Speaker
I feel like you see robot arms a lot, but I have been noticing more robot legs lately. I specifically picked robot legs because since they're a pop star and our have to do like dance routines, I could do...
00:45:54
Speaker
like So one thing while looking into prosthetics, a lot of stories do with robot arms or robot legs have like the one model that the person just has all the time or any cybernetic part. It's like an implant that's permanently in them.
00:46:14
Speaker
But if you think about it, glasses are a prosthetic. And we switched those out for fashion reasons as well as fixing our eyesight.
00:46:26
Speaker
So i was trying to do robot legs that she can have like... These ones are for doing this type of dancing. These ones are for like when she's just doing regular walking. Like, so in one of the opening scenes, ah there's Rebecca goes in her dressing room and there's like five different robot leg sets that are clearly for different purposes and go with her outfits.
00:46:54
Speaker
So just kind of approaching it from that angle of they don't necessarily have to be permanent implants. They can be swappable That's interesting, because that's you know something that ah that my wife, AC, said like couple of years ago, was that like it really ah changed her perception on things when she realized that glasses are a mobility aid for people, yeah and that it's just one that's been around long enough that we don't think of it that way. Like like you said, we don't think of glasses as a prosthetic, but they absolutely...
00:47:30
Speaker
You know, yeah it that is what they they are. Yep. And how commonplace they are and how they are affected by fashion and how they are affected by ah different purposes. and you know Yeah.
00:47:43
Speaker
And what also got me on thinking about this is if you look at runners in the Paralympics, they have those cool hook-shaped prosthetic legs. it's So it's also partly like...
00:47:54
Speaker
Well, if you're making them specifically for one purpose, they don't necessarily have to look like a regular leg. And I watched some videos that went over different prosthetic leg designs for different purposes. I learned that those those special hook runner legs are really bad for balancing.
00:48:13
Speaker
So usually the Paralympics cuts away right after they're done running. But usually they all like fall over or sit down almost immediately after they're done running because they're hard to stand in.
00:48:28
Speaker
They're made to run and not to stand. That makes sense because they're like they're kind of springy, right? Yeah. Yeah. yeah so Yeah. So I was looking into that, and it's also part of the one of the reasons why I was doing that for this next story is Since it is the future, i've done several werewolf-focused supernatural side of things, and I'm like, ah let's build up like the future side of this world a little bit more.
00:48:54
Speaker
Get a little bit more into tech. um The fact that there are no cars. Yeah. Fuck cars. Everyone takes public transit. It's better for the environment. like How do you go about researching something like prosthetics? Is it just like... do Is it literally...
00:49:12
Speaker
Boy, you can tell my approach to writing. yeah Is it but literally just that you sit down and you type prosthetics into a search engine and just start reading? Or was there something that you went looking for specifically? or did you i asked Blue Deliquanti for tips because Blue did a lot of research for o Human Star.
00:49:35
Speaker
So I sort of cheated and copied Blue's homework a little bit. ah But that was a good jumping off point. And it's also, I'm not getting into the nitty gritty of prosthetics.
00:49:45
Speaker
The plot, and main conflict of Glass Diamonds is, ah so Rebecca gets hired to be bodyguards for the very wealthy,
00:49:57
Speaker
Not because they actually need that much protection. ah It's they want to show off that they could find and afford to hire a werewolf to be their bodyguard.
00:50:08
Speaker
um I frequently use the example of... um It'd be like if you saw a celebrity showing off that they have a pet cheetah. they don't It's completely unnecessary, but it's there to show off how extravagantly wealthy they are.
00:50:24
Speaker
And so Rebecca is being hired by this ah pop star because she does it ah she does actually need protection, but her brand is all about being independent and self-sufficient. So she is using other people using Rebecca as a prop as a cover to hide that she needs security and more protection.
00:50:50
Speaker
So her being an amputee is part of, she's trying to be like uninspiring symbol and that is conflicting with her, the pop star's needs as a person.
00:51:02
Speaker
But also Rebecca's not good at social situations. So also part of the conflict is this is a situation that needs a scalpel and Rebecca is a chainsaw. um So Kel, to prepare for this and... and Get this story exactly the way you wanted it to be and also really get into this it's this scenario. um How many times did you watch this, the landmark 1992 The Bodyguard?
00:51:33
Speaker
I actually have not seen the bodyguard. ah I was asked if I had seen the bodyguard when I released fame and misfortune. Cause that's Rebecca protecting a different pop star.
00:51:43
Speaker
um And um yeah, I have not seen the bodyguard also because Rebecca hates the people that she works with. So I believe the bodyguard is a love story.
00:51:55
Speaker
it is but So that's also contradictory to what I was going for. look We can keep talking about your stuff as long as you want, Kel. You are our guest, and I would not be so rude.
00:52:07
Speaker
But I am going to ask this. if If this becomes a segue, that's up to you. Okay. Were you, like, looking at prosthetics like, wow, you could put so many cannons in these things?
00:52:20
Speaker
No, I was looking at ballerina prosthetics and I was looking at weird fashionable ones, not ones with cannons in them. But ah we can segue to Berserk and Guts' prosthetics.
00:52:35
Speaker
ah Because I did talk about that in the first episode, that ah Guts is also an amputee. definitely. and Significantly ah violent amputation.
00:52:49
Speaker
yeah so self amputation Yes. Yes. ah a A thing, if people don't know, you recently launched a... ah it's I know it's a video series.
00:53:02
Speaker
So it's live on Twitch, and then I save them and put them on YouTube. ah um Right, I was trying to think of the word that isn't podcast, because that's not... It's streaming show. It's a streaming show. Streaming inter-tontent.
00:53:14
Speaker
I mean, I think people have called those a video podcast, but yeah that feels wrong. lot of the podcasts that I listen to um have switched, have pivoted to video. And I was like, don't know how i feel about this. but Never going to happen for us.
00:53:34
Speaker
Good. no you You don't need to. It's weird that people are doing it But ah we're doing it because then I can have the panels that we're talking about on the screen.
00:53:45
Speaker
um Right. It is difficult sometimes to speak about a purely visual medium in this audio format that Matt and I have ah chosen for ourselves.
00:53:56
Speaker
ah But I was watching it I was watching the first episode. And we talked about this a little bit before we started recording. But ah it's you and and Bones. Yeah. Yep, my friend Bones Leopard. So we're calling it the Wolf and Bones Comet Club.
00:54:10
Speaker
um And right now we're reading Berserk. um And the plan is when we are finished with Berserk, we will read a different classic comic that we've been meaning to read.
00:54:21
Speaker
We don't know what it will be yet, um but we're going to read Berserk until we are caught up or until it is too violent for Bones. that that is ah That is something that is said on the show. And then you ask Bones if they know about the Eclipse.
00:54:36
Speaker
And they don't. ah And the only thing they know is that the villain is pretty. Yes. Which, look, very true. yeah Correct. If violence is going to be a problem.
00:54:50
Speaker
so So this is the thing. is Before doing the show, um Bones and I were talking about it. And Bones is bothered by violence, but usually not violence in manga because it is black black and white art.
00:55:08
Speaker
So Bones... Doesn't think they can watch the anime. But... So far, has been okay with the manga.
00:55:19
Speaker
ah They said that... um One of the heads getting squished in the manga... If that was in color, it would probably have bothered them. That... Like, I... i i get that.
00:55:34
Speaker
Because... I mean, you know I am someone who, very famously... I don't like ah scary movies. But I have... virtually no problem reading horror comics or violent comics at all, ah even though I don't like yeah know a a very particular brand of gore that you get from like a slasher movie. If that happens in a comic, I'm fine.
00:55:55
Speaker
But the the distinction of being in black and white just reminds me of like stories about how pro wrestling was censored in European countries, where if anyone was bleeding, they would they would put a black and white filter over it.
00:56:12
Speaker
I know that. It's just like, the dude's still getting his head squished. But it's something about, like, um so for me, i really don't like pus or stuff that, like, implies infection.
00:56:29
Speaker
i had a much harder time watching snakes on a plane than... Any other like slasher movie. Because like as soon as someone gets bit by a snake and that, they like start to swell up and like their wound oozes. And I was like, I can't do that. That's gross.
00:56:47
Speaker
We all got our stuff. i do i I kind of understand. like There's something...
00:56:58
Speaker
That I feel like we naturally have more of a reaction to if we see red blood. Instead of... And like... Yeah.
00:57:10
Speaker
The color of brain matter and stuff like that. Instead of, um you know... Line art. like it's If it's black and white, it's very clearly like line art. Yeah. Yeah.
00:57:23
Speaker
But even if it's video in black and white, and the blood just looks like dark gray, it does not have the same impact, I feel like. Same kick it. Yeah. yeah I believe you said on the show on the show that the premise is ah that you're always going to be reading something that one of you has read and the other hasn't.
00:57:44
Speaker
Oh, as long as one of us hasn't read it. So if we find something that both of us haven't read, we can read it together. So I think Bone suggested that we read Rose of Versailles after Berserk, since it influenced Berserk.
00:58:02
Speaker
And um so that might be what we do second, but we got a lot of Berserk to get through first. I mean, my my suggestion, honestly, if you're taking them, and yeah I assume you're not because I can't imagine wanting, if it was me wanting a suggestion, but if it was my suggestion, ah Fist of the North Star, because that's what I'm berserk with, and it's hilarious.
00:58:26
Speaker
Well, so to, for variety's sake, I was actually trying to think of American comics that one of us hasn't read ah Well, in that case, the Mark Groomwald run on Captain America can highly recommend. Well, so, like, I was thinking of suggesting that we read the Dark Phoenix Saga, because I don't think Bones has read any X-Men.
00:58:49
Speaker
i mean, that's, if you're going to read an X-Men, that's a good one. But I think we'll do Rose of Versailles first, probably. um So it's something that I haven't read and Bones has. and And then I'll bust out some X-Men.
00:59:02
Speaker
How much Berserk have you read? have you are you Have you read all of it that's out? No. I do own all of it that's out. ah Because I've been getting the big chunky hardcovers. But I read... um I read up to... The kids turning into elves or fairies.
00:59:21
Speaker
um and Yes. And then a little bit after that. but ah So I did get to the lady that's... so
00:59:33
Speaker
self-harming and is clearly a fetish, but she says it's for God. Uh-huh. Yep. She does become a very interesting character. no, I was interested. It was just like, that's that's I don't remember her name, and that's the easiest way to sum her up in the...
00:59:55
Speaker
chapters that I read. Yeah, that's Farnes. She's going through a lot. she yeah She's definitely going through it, yeah. she's Here's what's great about Berserk.
01:00:07
Speaker
Everybody in it's going through it. Yeah. At all times. Yes. um every Everybody but Isidro, who... Well, I guess Isidro is also going through it, but he's trying really hard to not to not seem like he's going through it.
01:00:23
Speaker
Isidro is too dumb to realize he's going through it, I think. He is extremely dumb. yeah I love dumb characters. ah Yeah.
01:00:34
Speaker
The other thing, um my favorite shounen is Yu Hakusho. So if Bones hasn't read that, I might be like, Bones, we gotta read Yu Yu Hakusho. We should talk about that another time, because i as as people have heard elsewhere on this very show, ah have recently started diving into Yu Hakusho. I love Yu Hakusho so much.
01:00:59
Speaker
I love it so much. Kubar is such a fucking idiot, idiot and I love him. He's the best character in anime um ever made. um I think that would be, like, Matt, that might be a project for us, is to figure out who the the dumbest and best characters are, because there's, I mean, but you don't look like Goku's on that list.
01:01:20
Speaker
The best dumb characters? Yeah. Who maxes out the X and Y axis of of really not that bright and also a great character? Yeah, i I like it. I just, i I wonder what shape that would take.
01:01:36
Speaker
Kel, if you're looking for American comics to read for your show, I have um a large list that I can share with you that great might might be helpful for suggestions and ideas. problem with American comics is since Bones and I went to SCAD...
01:01:55
Speaker
A lot of the big ones we had to read for college. um Right. So that's why I was like, alright, so what's a classic, a big, like, sort of pillar of comics on the American side of things that Bones and I haven't read?
01:02:11
Speaker
ah chris Chris jokingly said... Or maybe not jokingly said, the Mark Grunwald run on Captain America. There are already um several podcast episodes documenting those, though.
01:02:24
Speaker
But Squadron Supreme, I think, would be a great... Squadron Supreme does own Super Hard. Yeah. And I haven't read that one, so that might be a good one.
01:02:35
Speaker
it is It is Mark Grunwald's masterpiece. Good to know. do you Do you want to read a good one? Like, like, because there's very few comics that are as good as Berserk.
01:02:47
Speaker
I mean, i always want to read good comics. I don't want to, like, um, I, uh... Okay, you don't have the disease that I suffer from. Yeah, I remember once someone suggested that I read Crisis on Infinite Earth, and i was like, why would I read something that I have only heard bad things about? Like...
01:03:10
Speaker
You don't need to read Christchurch. No Christchurch. That was literally the question that I asked the person. Why would i read something that I have only heard bad things about? Why would I suggest myself to that?
01:03:22
Speaker
There is a comics fan of a certain age that I want to say is probably ah generation before us.
01:03:34
Speaker
Like, people who were like pre-teens or young teenagers when Crisis was coming out who love Crisis because they read it then.
01:03:50
Speaker
And it felt like such a big shift in change for DC Comics for them. But like, objectively, looking at Crisis as a story yeah no does not work.
01:04:03
Speaker
An interesting thing about a lot of like, comics is that a lot of comics are important and not good. And I don't know if that's something that other media has. Like, is there an important television show that's also not good?
01:04:23
Speaker
Well, I can tell you an important movie that's not good because it's really, really racist and it helped ah revitalize the Klan. I mean, yeah, I guess that is true. I guess I did forget about that.
01:04:34
Speaker
Yeah. i think there are more yeah I think there are more important movies that are not good. because Yeah. They started a technique or something like that. ah Yeah, like like like... Over time, Gone with the Wind, i think... I hate Gone with the Wind. It's gotten harder to watch and less good. i My mom loves Gone with the Wind, so I saw it when I was 15, and I've hated it ever since. like I was like... i I hate this. And then I tried to read the book because maybe the book is better. And no, it's all awful. I hate it. Okay, so I guess there's a lot of things. I guess I'm just, I am only thinking about comics and then like TV shows I like. so
01:05:21
Speaker
um yeah but My point was, I think it's more true of movies than then probably TV shows. I think there are TV shows that are important but aren't good by modern standards.
01:05:38
Speaker
Or they're important because they're so long-running. The Mod Squad, I guess, was a show that like broke some racial barriers but probably wouldn't be very enjoyable to watch now.
01:05:51
Speaker
Yeah.
01:05:54
Speaker
It's... um yeah It's interesting to think about because, like, i mean, Matt, you and I have talked about this so much, but, like, Crisis. Very important.
01:06:05
Speaker
Not actually a good comic book. Like, not a good story. Harry Osborn doing a drug. Very important. Not good. The Case of the Chemical Syndicate.
01:06:17
Speaker
Incredibly important. You can skip it. You do not need to read it. Also, are these important... to the DC universe, or they important to comics as the medium?
01:06:32
Speaker
That's an interesting question. Because when think classic comics... Because when I was thinking classic American comics, I was thinking... i don't know if Bones has read Contract with God, but maybe we should read that. Like, that is what I think, like, important to the medium.
01:06:52
Speaker
I don't necessarily think, um... stuff that shakes up the DC universe to go back to Crisis on Infinite Earth. It shook up the dc universe, but that didn't, like, change the comic industry.
01:07:07
Speaker
ah Well, mean, it it it depends on what... The comics medium. Yeah, like, did it change the medium? Probably not. But did it, like, did it change how certain stories were told and what audiences expected from certain stories? And...
01:07:26
Speaker
Like, I mean, you know, Secret Wars yeah is what like maybe the most important comic of the last 50 years. And it's... I mean, Secret Wars is actually pretty good.
01:07:40
Speaker
you know It's seven, i think. um Well, Case of the Chemical Syndicate changed DC Comics and comics. Yeah. ah But, like...
01:07:53
Speaker
But yeah, like it's it's hard to make that distinction, especially when you're so deep in it. um But like ah there i mean great there are great examples of like important comics that change the medium that you wouldn't want to read now. And were bad then, but I guess people didn't realize it. like Like so many Crumb comics...
01:08:17
Speaker
like That's another guy I hate. um Yeah, exactly. like he's He's important, arguably, but do you want to read those comics? I don't think so. No, no.
01:08:29
Speaker
His work is important and good. That's true. ah While we were... the So the first episode's up on my YouTube for people that missed it live. And um while reading Berserk, um Bones was pointing out a lot of, oh, I recognize that this clearly influenced this other manga that I'm reading now. And...
01:08:54
Speaker
and um So it's Bones is having fun with that. Like, seeing, okay, this like influenced all these different things. Yeah, the the the the lasting influence of Berserk is kind of wild to think about.
01:09:13
Speaker
Yeah.
01:09:16
Speaker
So many modern video games are just doing Berserk. And I'm... i I'm hesitant to admit how recently I put together that Cloud from Final Fantasy VII is just guts.
01:09:35
Speaker
Yeah. Like, the Buster Sword is just yeah the Dragon Slayer yeah with ah but the with a different kind of point on the end.
01:09:47
Speaker
Yep. Yep. Yeah, I mean, you you and ah you and Bones have the the sword conversation early on, too, talking about I think you literally say that the reason Cloud has a big sword is Guts. Yeah, yeah.
01:10:02
Speaker
Like, that's why he has a big sword, yeah. I talked about... people say that you should could or should skip the Black Swordsman arc, and those people are wrong.
01:10:13
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I don't think you should skip it. Yeah, because we talked about in the first episode how... important you introduce someone to a story is, like, to set their expectations. um And if you skip the Black Swordsman arc, you have so long until Nosferatu Zod shows up.
01:10:35
Speaker
So someone could very easily be reading the Golden Age and being like, this is a really cool historical fiction story, and then be annoyed when magic shows up. And...
01:10:50
Speaker
well and And also, like like the Black Swordsman arc is setting your expectations. Yeah. like yeah like and it You know where Guts ends up. Right. So you know, like I actually think that him fucking that demon lady is the perfect opening to Berserk because it's um this is how violent it's going to get. There's going to be demons and um Guts has hate in his heart.
01:11:13
Speaker
See, i would I would say don't skip the Black Swordsman arc. But guts-fucking the demon lady is one of the things that feels weird about it. Because of what we then get in the Golden Age arc.
01:11:27
Speaker
like it it's the It's the thing that in retrospect doesn't seem like... Well, it shows that he did not have a plan when he first started. Well, yes. Yeah.
01:11:39
Speaker
Which, um I'm a big proponent of getting rid of the illusion that writers of these large... pillars of sci-fi and fantasy have giant plans all to it's all planned out to begin with uh whereas a lot of the best ones don't have a plan or adapt as they're going i love disc world um and some people suggested that disc world has like planned world building and i'm like no there's a disc world novel where time explodes and then is poorly stitched back together to explain any inconsistency in the previous books
01:12:18
Speaker
we We speak fondly of Larry Hama, one of the best ever do-it, who was asked how far ahead he planned arcs in G.I. Joe and said, two pages at most.
01:12:29
Speaker
I like to plan stuff, but I um like to leave breathing room to adapt. shit and move on. So, uh, to bring it back to my work, I like part of the way I'm writing the city between is each story is about a hundred pages long and those are planned individually. Cause I want to know how long the story is going to be,
01:12:55
Speaker
but Usually, ah while working on a thing, I'll come up with a detail that is unimportant to the story I'm currently working on and then I like put it aside to save for later, and then slowly develop um different stories from that. So part of the reason why City Between jumps around, main character-wise, so I can...
01:13:22
Speaker
develop these ideas that I had while telling a different story. Well, Kel, we came full circle, which I think is the perfect chance for us to kick over to some listener questions. Yeah.
01:13:38
Speaker
If you would like to ask a listener question here on the show, ah you can do it all and in two different places. One is by going to Blue Sky.
01:13:49
Speaker
We're on blueskyatwarrocketajax.com. And you can follow us there and ask a question at Thursday night at 9.30 p.m. Eastern Time or 6.30 Pacific.
01:14:02
Speaker
You can also ask questions on our Discord. If you are a member over there on our Discord, you can ask questions. If you are not a member of our Discord and would like to join, ask us for an invitation, and we will get you one.
01:14:14
Speaker
All of our questions this episode are coming from Discord. Our first one, Kel, is from Christmas Cole, who is keeping Christmas in their heart all year long.
01:14:27
Speaker
Kel, are you familiar at all with Baldur's Gate? Oh, yeah. I fucking love it. Yeah. The question is, the question is does Baldur's Gate need more wolves? It does. ah There is, in Baldur's Gate 3, I was reading up about cut content.
01:14:45
Speaker
And there is a companion character that it being cut, I feel like is a personal attack against me. um Because she was a werewolf bard.
01:14:57
Speaker
And I'm like, I hate that this character isn't in the story anymore. I i i need this character right now. why Why can't I have this character in my life? So yes, Baldur's Gate needs more wolves and it needs more werewolves too.
01:15:13
Speaker
The boss dog of Earth-9, Patrick O'Duffy, asks, what if Guts was a lycanthrope? What would be his savage fursona? Would the Dragon Slayer transform into, like, really fucked up claws?
01:15:29
Speaker
I don't see why not. i I'm a big proponent of werewolves can have whatever powers work best in the story. Guts wouldn't be in a great position as a werewolf in the city between because they don't regrow limbs and prosthetics don't change with you.
01:15:44
Speaker
But if he was a werewolf in Berserk, I see no reason why he could not have giant claws ah or um shape-shifting prosthetics that go with him.
01:15:56
Speaker
i I don't want to spoil the story to come. Yeah, don't want to spoil it for you, but Guts got that dog in him. He kind of becomes a werewolf. good for Good, good, good. I'm so excited. Thank you. um
01:16:14
Speaker
It's not moon-based. It's rage-based. Great, great. Awesome. Wonderful. He's a Hulk wolf. Good. Yeah, he's kind of a Hulk wolf. he he Good.
01:16:27
Speaker
Yeah, I'll leave it at that. yeah I'll leave it at that. I don't want to spoil anything for you, but yeah in a very real way, he kind of is a werewolf. I'm so excited. Very exciting. Very, very exciting.
01:16:40
Speaker
ah Lokified on our Discord, Lucas Brown says, Since the movie Sorcerer isn't about sorcery, but a truck full of dynamite, what would a similarly titled movie about a called Werewolf be about?
01:16:56
Speaker
So I recently watched a movie called wolf hall The Snow of Wolf Hollow or something like that. And it looks like it's going to be about werewolf.
01:17:09
Speaker
um But actually it's a about a guy in a fursuit.
01:17:16
Speaker
Okay. mean, I... Kel, I have some bad news about most movies about werewolves. No, like, it's like... The cops investigating what they think is a werewolf, it turns out to just be a guy in a fursuit.
01:17:31
Speaker
but so it's So it's like the twist from The Village? Yeah. but Huh. It was a movie that I would not say is good, but is interesting.
01:17:47
Speaker
Okay. My dad loved the movie Sorcerer.
01:17:54
Speaker
ah Professional Cat on our Discord says, My wife wants to know why werewolves are only affected by full moons at night. You can see the moon during the day.
01:18:06
Speaker
Well, it's because the full moon represents Nazism. o And if you go back to the original Wolfman movie from the 40s, the guy who wrote it was a Jewish man that escaped Germany right before the Nazis took over.
01:18:24
Speaker
And he has he said in interviews before he died that the full moon represents Nazism, and it rising was turning Talbot into a monster, much like how the rise of Nazism was turning him into a monster in the eyes of his neighbors.
01:18:40
Speaker
So the rising part is part of the key.
01:18:45
Speaker
So so but ah the werewolf wasn't the Nazis. Yeah. No, the werewolf is Jewish, and if you think about it, the other werewolf in the movie is Romani, and they are both marked with a star.
01:18:57
Speaker
So, it's not subtle. Gandalf Cush Chesterton asks, Who is the best werewolf actor? really like Teen Wolf.
01:19:09
Speaker
MTV's Teen Wolf. Tyler Posey was a very good werewolf. If you have not seen MTV's Teen Wolf, it's like a shounen anime but live action. The power of friendship makes you a better werewolf.
01:19:21
Speaker
um And I very much enjoyed that.
01:19:28
Speaker
Robert Secundus on our Discord says, Would it be cool if Guts had a second, smaller secret cannon hidden in the socket of his missing eyeball?
01:19:38
Speaker
Sure, why not? That would be great. Yes, actually, that would own. I'm pretty sure that is JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. yeah I bet it is. um i think you're right.
01:19:51
Speaker
You could tell me anything was in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and I would believe you. Buddy, I think I described to you that one episode where you think the guy's weird superpower is that he ah has like a little drone that he can shoot bullets around, but his actual superpower is that he kills you in your dreams?
01:20:11
Speaker
Yeah, like... i i think I might be making this up. I might have dreamed this, but I think I saw an episode, one of the only episodes of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure I think I've seen, i think was about a character who lives in puddles. Uh-huh.
01:20:28
Speaker
Yep. And after I saw that, I was like, that's what I was like, you could tell me anything about this manga or this show. Has anyone told you about the vampire that hid inside the living horse?
01:20:44
Speaker
No.
01:20:46
Speaker
There's a part where they're trying to escape vampires, one of which is Jack the Ripper. ah And they they got their carriage. It's the first one, so it's in Victorian times. um And so they're telling their carriage to...
01:21:01
Speaker
go faster, like, yeah, go faster, horses. And then when they get into a tunnel and there's no sunlight, the horse's head explodes because there was a vampire hiding inside the horse.
01:21:14
Speaker
Because there's no sunlight inside the horse. Right. That's true. It's like a whole new twist on the Trojan horse story. yeah But you should just, with no context, just watch Stone Ocean.
01:21:31
Speaker
I maybe, maybe Jojo's bizarre adventures. What I get into in 2025. My favorite Jojo's bizarre adventure um is the fourth one.
01:21:46
Speaker
Okay. You, you can skip around um because it's basically, it's a lineage of Jojo's and each one has their own story and you don't necessarily need to know the other stories to get the you can You can pick which one interests you the most. um And I like 4 because it's a bunch of dumb teens looking for a serial killer.
01:22:08
Speaker
Is that ah is that ah Golden Wind? No, that's Diamond is Unbreakable. That's my favorite title, which is maybe my favorite title for anything. Golden Wind is about dumb teenagers trying to hide from the mob.
01:22:24
Speaker
I like the through line of dumb teenagers. Yeah. They're not all about dumb teenagers. That's too bad. Stardust Crusade is about... About dumb adults and a cool teenager?
01:22:35
Speaker
Yes, dumb adults and one cool teenager. um And they're traveling from Japan to Egypt to stop a super vampire.
01:22:48
Speaker
ah Alyssa, Mistress of the Dark, asks, I just want to know what Kill thinks about Sonic Unleashed. If they already have opinions, that's cool, but even funnier if they don't know about it. and chris and I do know about Sonic Unleashed.
01:23:01
Speaker
um I have multiple friends that have the brain disease that makes them care about Sonic. Oh no!
01:23:11
Speaker
Just last night, I had the plot of Sonic 3 explained to me. And ah so Sonic Unleashed, it's fine. that Is that the one where Sonic's a werewolf?
01:23:24
Speaker
Yes. Is that the connection here? Okay. Yeah, that's the connection. ah And um I think that Sonic has had a lot of trouble moving to three d Because it is harder to go fast in 3D.
01:23:38
Speaker
um so For literal decades. Yeah, that's why like Sonic doesn't quite work in 3D. It should have stayed 2D. Yeah, because Sonic Mania is the best one.
01:23:50
Speaker
Sonic Unleashed gameplay kind of reminded me... ah that The werewolf part reminded me of the fight, the combat in Kingdom Hearts. um which, it's not bad, it's just, oh, they saw Kingdom Hearts was successful, and they copied their homework, and it's fine.
01:24:14
Speaker
So-called HCC, an account that exists only to ask questions on Warrock and Ajax, says, if people go to dinner on a first date, don't you think they should break up while pooping?
01:24:26
Speaker
I don't know how to respond to that. I don't know. ah Yeah, it there's a there's a weird kind of sense to it, but I've had to read it like six times to find it. Does Stone Cold think that if you're in love with someone, you don't ever poop?
01:24:42
Speaker
I think it's metaphorical. You date, you you fall in love while eating, No, I get i get it. i get that part. But it's it doesn't have to be the same food.
01:24:55
Speaker
But i mean it should be, which would put a real tight time limit on that relationship. yeah That does put a real tight timeline on the relationship. That is true. Our last question will come from Chris Kaiser, who asks, What's the least appropriate place you've read Berserk?
01:25:15
Speaker
Chris adds... ah For me, it was an opening the opening page one during my daughter's gymnastic class. I didn't know. i um only read comics at home.
01:25:28
Speaker
So I've not read Berserk in any place that is inappropriate. um Because those big hardcovers are heavy. yeah And then the e-books are on my computer. So I can't bring them places, really.
01:25:44
Speaker
oh I believe I've mentioned this on the show before, but I did um i did read it on a plane. And it was the... it like I popped it open and it was the story where all the children are turning into bees. and there's So there's like a lot of naked people and guts-murdering people.
01:26:05
Speaker
was one of those things where I like opened it up and I was like, well, I don't have anything else to read. And then i was like, well, maybe I should sit here in silence. trying to think, because I have read manga on a plane.
01:26:16
Speaker
I've read any inappropriate manga on a plane. Or like if someone looked over my shoulder, they'd be like, what the fuck are you reading? um
01:26:26
Speaker
think the stuff I've read on a plane has mostly been Dragon Ball and um Red Sled. um So both of those are fine if someone looked over my shoulder.
01:26:41
Speaker
i've I've been lucky with my decisions on what to read on a poem. Likewise, I have never read Berserk anywhere at home. Take that advice, listeners.
01:26:54
Speaker
Read Berserk in the comfort of your home. I am tempted, since we share panels online, if there's stuff that you can't show on Twitch.
01:27:05
Speaker
ah Do you know about the oops, can't show that in a Christian manga joke? yeah i I don't know where it's from, but I do know the... i'm not familiar with seeing that bar. I'm trying to find that bar so I can like pop it on any dicks in Berserk ah as that shows up. Oh, man. where' you You'll have to cover one whole page.
01:27:30
Speaker
Yeah. Wait till you get too up to going into the mindscape, bud. Yeah. Yeah. Our guest has been Kel McDonald. Kel, it is always a blast to have you here on the show. It's always very fun to talk to you. It's always be here. I'm glad to hear that Guts is a werewolf. um Yes.
01:27:48
Speaker
Please let our listeners know where they can find you and how they can support you. All my comics are on KelMcDonald.com. I am on Twitch, so if you want to see Bones and I read Berserk live, it is Thursdays at 3 p.m. Pacific Standard Time at twitch.tv slash KelMcDonald.
01:28:09
Speaker
I um also post all of my stuff on my Patreon at patreon.com slash KelMcDonald.com. I do have a blue sky, but I hate social media, so I'm mostly just reminding people when I update shit on blue sky.
01:28:24
Speaker
Yeah, that's where all my stuff is.
01:28:27
Speaker
Alright, our guest has been Kel McDonald. Kel, thank you so much for joining us, and come back anytime.
01:28:35
Speaker
Yep. Thanks once again to Kel McDonald for joining us, and thank you, dear listener, for joining us for the show this week. ah We appreciate you inviting us into your homes, and we hope you are back next week when we will have another guest.
01:28:55
Speaker
Wow. Incredible. Two in a row. I know. it's it's It's a great time to be an Ajax listener. ah Well, at me in one specific regard.
01:29:14
Speaker
If you'd like to email us about maybe you have an idea for a guest that you would like to suggest, or you would like to introduce us to somebody, um or if you want to sponsor the show, or if you want to send us an Every Story Ever list, or if you want to just drop us a line with a listener question or anything else, you can email us at our email address, which is warrocketpodcast at gmail.com.
Community Engagement & Social Justice Messages
01:29:38
Speaker
We're on bluesky at warrocketajax.com. We are on Tumblr at warrocketpodcast.tumblr.com. And you can join our Discord. As I said during the interview with Kel, you can just ask us for an invitation to our Discord on any of the places I just mentioned.
01:29:58
Speaker
And you can then get an invitation and join over there and be part of that very fun community.
01:30:09
Speaker
WarRocketWiki.com has all the information you can need about this show, WarRocketAjax. It is our fan-run wiki. WarRocketAjax.com is our website and has every episode of the show we've ever done.
01:30:21
Speaker
If you want to find me and my stuff, go to MattDWilson.net. That has links to my comics, my books, my other podcasts, and my social medias. Chris, where can people find you? Everybody can find me by going to The-ISB.com.
01:30:34
Speaker
That is my website. It has links to other shows that I do. um It has things that I've written. It has comics. It has places you can buy those comics. It has all kinds of stuff. In fact, you can even find out how you, too, could hire me.
01:30:50
Speaker
Because I don't currently have a job. Other than and this show. That's going to do it, everybody. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being here.
01:31:00
Speaker
We'll be back next week. Until then, do not forget that Black Lives Matter Trans rights are human rights. As are abortion rights. Drag is not a crime.
01:31:11
Speaker
Diversity is not the problem. And cops aren't your friends. But we love you. We love you.
01:31:30
Speaker
want everything to flash.