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Episode 755 - Just Timbits f/ Kel McDonald
905 Plays1 day ago
Longtime friend of the show Kel McDonald is back this week to discuss their new Cities Between collection, Shards of Reflection, which is funding now on Kickstarter! Before we get to that, though, we talk a lot about what we're watching, good questions to ask that aren't "How are you?" and New England's love of Dunkin'. Plus a whole lot more!
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Recommendations
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. They also have hosting options and you can let them know that we sent you.
Introduction to War Rocket Ajax Podcast
00:00:18
Speaker
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.
00:00:28
Speaker
Lightest, I'm bored. What plaything can you offer me today?
00:00:38
Speaker
got War Rocket Ajax to bring back his body. Terminator X is here!
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.
00:01:04
Speaker
That's right, Chris. And I have a question for you yeah it's a show. i Matt, I am full of answers. I hope so. What food trend of, I don't know, any period...
00:01:18
Speaker
This could be any food trend of any time. It could be current. It could be from 10 years ago. it could be from 50 years ago. Okay. What food trend would you wish to make permanent?
00:01:32
Speaker
Hmm. Hmm. do you have Do you have an example or your own answer? I have my own answer. Okay. Because I'm not i'm not sure what food trends I am... aware of.
00:01:45
Speaker
Okay. the one This is sort of a current one, ah even though I think it's kind of on the downswing.
Guest Introduction: Kel McDonald and Kickstarter Discussion
00:01:52
Speaker
like We're kind of past the peak of it, but I would like to keep it. It's hot honey.
00:01:59
Speaker
Like spicy honey? Yeah. Yeah, that's a good one. like but Hot honey is is good. like I feel like hot honey is is a very trendy thing that could...
00:02:11
Speaker
come and go, and and and might go away, even though there's like brands of it now. Like Mike's Hot Honey or whatever. But I really do think it's like good. It should be a new food that we just have all the time. Because like I like it.
00:02:29
Speaker
I want to keep it like Hot Honey on a pepperoni pizza, that's beautiful. yeah there're Honestly, ain't a lot of ways to fuck up, honey. Yeah.
00:02:41
Speaker
Honey, pretty good. But like a little bit a little bit of spice in that honey? That's good shit. little bit spice in that honey is good. um I'm going to say flavor blasting. ah
00:02:55
Speaker
Like ah the flavor blasted Doritos? Yeah, because i feel like i feel like nobody else used that technology, and I feel like if that technology was available to us all the time...
00:03:06
Speaker
then why weren't we flavor blasting everything? Why couldn't I go into a restaurant and order like a flavor blasted Prosecco? ah a nice flavor blasted Bordeaux?
00:03:20
Speaker
Or a flavor-blasted ribeye. Remember when things were 3D and flavor-blasted? I do remember that. I would love to see more 3D food. yeah Yeah, let's get more 3D food in the world. Hey, get more 3D food out here.
00:03:38
Speaker
we're out We're out here eating two-dimensional food? Are you kidding me? Like a pfft, pfft. Ridiculous. Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. We have a great show but this week, Matt.
00:03:49
Speaker
We really do. ah We have one of our favorite guests, a friend of the show, a friend of ours, Kel McDonald, is back to talk about their new Kickstarter for the newest book in the City Between series of comics. It's called Shards of Reflection.
00:04:10
Speaker
We will briefly talk about that book and to otherwise talk about TV shows we are watching and and whatever else we want to talk about ah when we get to the interview segment. And it is it is a fun conversation, and you should stick around for it.
00:04:25
Speaker
But Chris, but before we get to that, before we do that, we do have some business to take care of here at the top of the show. The first piece of business being thanking our newest supporters over on Patreon.
00:04:36
Speaker
That's right, Matt. And it's not so easy, is it?
00:04:40
Speaker
Benito learned that last week. Yeah, you you both. Benito had a lot to say last week about me, including accurately predicting my reaction to it.
00:04:53
Speaker
These are the people who want to support the show. They want to help the show out. They want to help us keep doing everything and paying those gimmicks. They keep sending in the mail call bills, and they can do that and plant their flag as members of the Gimmick Street Preservation Society.
00:05:08
Speaker
By going to patreon.com slash warrocketajax and kicking in as little as a dollar a month to help us keep doing this show and help me specifically keep living indoors.
00:05:20
Speaker
That's right. I mean, you're also helping me do that, but at this particular point in time. Very directly helping me. You're very directly helping Chris do that. We have one new Patreon
Gimmick Street Ideas and Tribute to Pets
00:05:35
Speaker
supporter to thank.
00:05:35
Speaker
That is Murray McCulloch. Thank you, Murray. If you would like to be like Murray and help us out here on the show, you can do that by heading over to patreon.com slash warrocketajax and kicking in as little as a dollar a month to make sure that we keep doing this show every week, that we do ah the comics catch-up specials monthly, that we do every story ever specials monthly, and that we do whatever Movie Fighters is going to turn into um this year.
00:06:05
Speaker
It might turn into to a podcast that me and Kel McDonald do. Might be. Might be. As we'll find later. Now, Matt, did we have anyone ah planting a flag here at 755 Gimmick Street?
00:06:17
Speaker
In fact, we do not have anyone who has sent in a a location on Gimmick Street. As a member of the Gimmick Street Preservation Society, you can choose what goes at an address on Gimmick Street. So...
00:06:34
Speaker
if you say, send one in right now, as you're hearing this, you might get it, be able to choose what is going to be at seven 56 gimmick street. Um, because we don't have any submissions for what to put on gimmick street, uh, from any gimmick street preservation society members.
00:06:54
Speaker
Um, so it's us up to us to decide what's at seven 55 gimmick street right now. Well, i I think that it is only right that, uh, Across the street from the Bowberry Biscuit Sullivan Sims Memorial Dog Park yeah is the Count Chocula Serino Memorial Cat Park.
00:07:16
Speaker
or Which I guess i guess a cat park is not a thing that exists, so maybe it's like a... A cat cafe. Oh, a cat cafe! That's so cute! A cat cafe. and Yes, it is Count Chocula Serino's...
00:07:30
Speaker
Memorial Cat Cafe for good kitty cats. In a shocking turn of events, mere days after the loss of Biscuit, ah but one of Benito's cats passed away. I think a day after the loss of Biscuit.
00:07:50
Speaker
Unbelievable. um And so our condolences and and ah sympathies with Benito and family. Yes, very much.
00:08:01
Speaker
And yeah, Couch Ocula Memorial Cat Cafe at 755 Yemmick Street. I think ah Benito put it best when I texted him after I saw the news.
00:08:14
Speaker
And he just said, rough week for the boys. Yeah, man. I hugged both Harrison and Eleanor very close to me all week. They are, they are as of now, doing okay, but Harrison is also 15 years old, so, you know.
00:08:31
Speaker
It'll happen one of these days, but but they're still here for now, and and I love them very much, and I let them
Patreon Benefits and Personal Updates
00:08:37
Speaker
know. Now we've got to talk about people giving us money. At the $1 level of our Patreon,
00:08:44
Speaker
You can get ad-free episodes of the show, every single show that we do, every show that we put out, At the $1 level, you get your own feed on Patreon of ad-free episodes. At the $5 level, you can get bonus audio. That is stuff that is exclusive to Patreon, stuff that we record that is only for Patreon. Chris, we have a set of Gordies, Gordie categories, that we did not get to on the Gordies, that um at some point we will need to sit down and record some bonus audio of us here.
00:09:17
Speaker
addressing those Gordy categories, those will be exclusive to Patreon, along with many other things that are just on Patreon. so These are are these like the technical Gordys. these Yes, these are the extra special, um un-televised ah Gordy categories that we'll we'll get to in some bonus content coming up.
00:09:37
Speaker
At the $10 level, you get line-stepping privileges for our segments, which currently include every story ever, and one to ten of swords. At the $15 level, you can join the Gimmick Street Preservation Society and name and address on Gimmick Street. At the $20 level, you get everything that I just said, as well as an annual t-shirt.
00:09:55
Speaker
We will be deciding and discovering what our 2026 t-shirt is in the very near future. ah The 2025 t-shirt is ah pretty cool. I have one more of those to send out.
00:10:09
Speaker
ah that I have not been able to send out because I've been mostly stuck at home ah caring for my injured wife. but But she's getting better, starting physical therapy fairly soon. so hopefully like Rough month for the boys.
00:10:26
Speaker
Rough month for the boys. um I will be sending out that that T-shirt as soon as I can. And we'll be talking about what the 2026 t-shirt is ah very soon. If you're unable to help us monetarily, you can help us out in other ways. We understand why that might be the case.
00:10:41
Speaker
You can leave us a five-star review on the podcasting app that you use, whatever that may be. Or you can spread the word about the show, tell your friends and family, tell everyone you know, hey, there's this podcast. It's very good and I like it. It's called War Rocket Ajax. And they have a Patreon that you should donate to even if I can't.
00:11:00
Speaker
See how easy that was to say? Those are words you could say to a person. That's correct. Chris, now that we have taken care of that business, it's time for some checks and recs. What do you say? Let's do it.
00:11:16
Speaker
What would you like to check in with this week, Chris? I will say I did appreciate Benito doing the the stings. Acapella? Yes. Last week.
00:11:30
Speaker
He did one that was like the guitar riff. And then I doubled that up and put it at the end of the interview. I i was really hoping he was going to do the the but yeah at the end, too, and everything. but But ah very fun. You know what's not fun is what I'm about to talk about. Look, we we try to be fun on this show. This is our our fun time goofing up, talk about comics show that we like.
00:11:57
Speaker
And occasionally we we talk about some serious stuff, but this is going to be a little bit of a rough one. for the next couple minutes. But again, like I said, last time I was here, that's what's going on in my life.
00:12:11
Speaker
So here we go. Matt, January 2026 was the worst month of my life that I can remember. Uh, in terms of things happening. Yeah, man. I, I started the month off by getting laid off.
00:12:25
Speaker
Yep. And I have remained, unemployed, up for now. ah Hashtag hireable. There is an ongoing occupation of my city by fascists who are trying to assault and kidnap and murder my neighbors, ah which is not fun. I got tear gassed.
00:12:47
Speaker
ah Yeah, let but let me say in no uncertain terms, fuck them. Fuck them. Yeah, for sure. i got tear gassed while I wasn't even I wasn't even like out observing.
00:13:00
Speaker
I was just driving to the vet. So that sucked and has made dealing with everything else harder. And then, as you mentioned on last week's show, and we've already talked about a little bit, ah Biscuit died last week. That's why I was not on the show.
00:13:17
Speaker
um It was a very sudden illness. She a... but she had a ah really aggressive, really advanced cancer in her face that, uh, had, uh, gotten into the bones of her, her nose and her, her orbital bone and were were pressing on her brain and
00:13:44
Speaker
kind of went downhill really rapidly. Um, and, um we made sure that she had the, the,
00:13:56
Speaker
best last week she could have. She had ah she had a Culver's Butterburger. She had pizza. She had bacon-wrapped hot dogs. She had a a bunch of of deli meat and cheese.
00:14:10
Speaker
oh And yeah, we it's
00:14:20
Speaker
there there was nothing we could have done. Um Like and we we even asked like, Hey, if we had caught this any earlier, like, could we have done something? and the bet was like, do not beat yourselves up.
00:14:31
Speaker
There isn't. So that happened. And I will say that was the worst I have ever felt, uh, was saying goodbye to biscuit.
00:14:43
Speaker
Um,
00:14:46
Speaker
I will also say that it means the world to me, that I had ah so many people, both you know friends oh friends in real life and people who have met Biscuit, people who have are just friends of mine that were saddened by this and expressed condolences, but also that there were people who are just listeners of the show.
00:15:11
Speaker
Or listeners of Apocrypals, or listeners, ah you know, people who just follow my work, who, it was apparent even to them how much I love my dog.
00:15:23
Speaker
And the fact that people were willing to, or people were compelled to, like, reach out and express condolences and say that they are going to miss Biscuit meant a lot to me.
00:15:35
Speaker
Um, you know i got I got some very nice condolences. Friends of ours sent flowers. Our friend of the show, Daniel Kibblesmith, sent a cake, and he texted me, ah it's I had to do something, and I thought you would like a cake.
00:15:54
Speaker
ah And that cake? Very good. It does mean a lot that it was apparent to everyone that Biscuit was loved and that we did our best to give her the best possible life.
00:16:06
Speaker
And, yeah, man, the worst I've ever felt about anything. I've been really broken up.
00:16:19
Speaker
um I also, this is not, I would not include this in the list of bad things that happened ah in ah ah January, but I also started a new fairly intense treatment for treatment-resistant depression.
00:16:35
Speaker
Which is, you know, maybe I'll maybe i'll talk about that at ah at another time. But that's also been, you know, i folks, if you've ever tried a new medication, do you know that that can also be an adjustment.
00:16:51
Speaker
So, yeah as we go into February, I'm hoping things oh get a little better. Because January, i don't know if I could take another January after that.
Personal Projects and Book Recommendations
00:17:03
Speaker
But thank you to everyone who said something nice. Thank you to everyone who ah just offered up a kind thought about ah Biscuit or or just agreed with me that, like, hey, man, that's a lot.
00:17:16
Speaker
That's a lot to deal with at one time. yeah And I know, like, Ben Rowe checked in with me, and ah I believe the ah Apocrypals Discord ah was asking if there was, like, a particular...
00:17:33
Speaker
Like Animal Shelter, wanted donations in Biscuit's name sent to. And I just said, donate to your local animal shelter. Because we all have them and they all could use it. oh But thank you to everyone. um I'm going to miss Biscuit forever.
00:17:48
Speaker
ah We are going to go meet a dog. on but like this weekend. It is quiet in this house without a dog.
00:18:00
Speaker
And we were initially talking about like you know waiting a little while, because i I don't want to put the pressure on on a new dog of being of you know of being biscuit too. well like you know why aren't Why aren't you also my my soulmate dog? ah But also, they're dogs. They don't know what pressure is. so So I think, you know,
00:18:24
Speaker
we're we're going into this eyes open. um I also cannot imagine what this dog would have to do to not come home with us. After his foster mom said, yeah, he's been with us for 18 months. um But you know, people who are looking to adopt, they just always overlook him. And I was like, wow, you just said the magic spell that makes me adopt a dog.
00:18:46
Speaker
ah By telling me that this one has been overlooked and and needs a buddy. so ah you know We're going to go ah ah look at a dog and ah hopefully oh you know moton move into that phase.
00:19:05
Speaker
ah But again, you know i have a I have a portrait of Biscuit that ah our our buddy um Jordan Witt got us for ah Christmas one year, like ah like a commissioned piece of art of Biscuit hanging on my way wall above my bed.
00:19:19
Speaker
So it's like...
00:19:24
Speaker
I will miss Biscuit forever.
00:19:27
Speaker
But yeah, I'm also not working and also like, you know, there's fascists. So it's been a rough time. lot going on. Yeah. But I am still here.
00:19:40
Speaker
You are still here. We are still here. ah And we're going to try and have some fun here on the show and and talk about fun stuff. I hope. Matt, please tell me that when I ask you what you have to check in with, it will be something fun.
00:19:56
Speaker
Well, it's it's not a necessarily for a fun reason, but it's a fun thing. I built a scooter. Oh, cool. Yeah, a but a big box um big box with a scooter in it came to my house, and I and i built it. I put it together.
00:20:13
Speaker
and ah And now Marlene um wheels around the house on a little scooter. Love that. Yep. Uh, we actually, ah we actually earlier this evening went to a place that wasn't the doctor and, um, and like we're out in public and she could get around, um, which is progress and very good.
00:20:41
Speaker
Um, it is still like two more weeks before she can put weight on her foot again, but we're getting there. We're getting there. Uh,
00:20:52
Speaker
Don't mess around with with trimalleolar ankle fractures. o That sounds bad. Yeah, it's ah it's ah you broke it means you broke three bones in your ankle. That's that's that's more bones than I like to break.
00:21:07
Speaker
that's That is too many bones to break. Which I'll tell you, that that number, it's fat zero. But it did lead to me building a scooter, which was very, know, you know you you find You find your fun where you can get it. Now, my question for you, Matt, is do you think even after the ankle is healed, yeah do you think this scooter was going to continue being un an addition to your home?
00:21:32
Speaker
Probably not. I i imagine we'll we'll give it to somebody else who who needs it or or donate it to some some medical supply.
00:21:43
Speaker
just you Somebody that distributes medical medical supplies to ah the people that need it. i mean look you You say that, but also but also Scooter Marlene.
00:21:54
Speaker
That's true. Marlene could become a permanent ah scooter traveler. um yeah I don't know. We'll see. We'll see how things shake out. we'll see all things shake out Time for some recommendations, Chris. What do you have to recommend?
00:22:08
Speaker
I would like to recommend – I did listen to the show last week, and I heard that you talk about how you wanted to read more books – yeah And obviously that was on a ah show that was guest hosted by oh someone who is a noted fan of books.
00:22:23
Speaker
Mr. Book, yeah. Mr. Book. Mr. Book isn himself. Benito Sereno. And I would like to recommend you a book that Benito got me for Christmas.
00:22:35
Speaker
Perfect. And I would extend this recommendation to every everyone who's listening to the show. Because I had a blast with it. I tore through it in um a matter of days.
00:22:47
Speaker
I think it took me three days, start to finish. ah The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman. ah It is an Arthurian fantasy novel.
00:22:58
Speaker
that takes a very hyper-time approach to Arthurian legend. like There's a whole thing in the the the back where Grossman's like, yeah, like I know they don't know what blueberries are, because those are from the Western Hemisphere, but you know it's more fun to call it to to make that joke and to play with the timeline. It is a book that opens in the middle of a fistfight.
00:23:27
Speaker
Like, sentence one is someone getting punched in the face. That's how you know that it's a book for your boy, Chris. Yeah, that's like ah that's like ah a prose book that opens like a comic splash page. Exactly. yeah ah The plot is that there is a a young wannabe knight ah who has traveled to Camelot from out in the sticks, and ah he manages to arrive,
00:23:57
Speaker
just after Arthur has died.
00:24:00
Speaker
And so the whole book is ah this young hick knight dealing with the aftermath of of what you know as the end of the Arthur story. right It's really great, really breezy, really fun, um very readable, but also very compelling.
00:24:23
Speaker
ah i haven't read, i don't think I've read anything else by Lev Grossman. I know that he's ah ummen or primarily known for The Magicians, I think.
00:24:36
Speaker
And the only experience I had with that was, ah there was, I think, a Netflix show that I watched a little bit of, and I was like, ah not for me. But this, it's exactly for me.
00:24:47
Speaker
It's a book called The Bright Sword. that's That's how, for me, it is. It's got swords in the title, Matt. Pretty great. Highly, highly recommended.
00:24:59
Speaker
i think you would get a kick out of it. I would love to ah to talk ah about it ah with you, as I was also texting Benito I read the book and having a very good time doing so.
00:25:14
Speaker
ah So check out The Bright Sword. it's It's a good one. It's a very, very good book. Highly enjoyable. Matt, what do you have to recommend to the people? Chris, my recommendation is also book.
00:25:26
Speaker
um Now, you described the book that you recommended as breezy. ah Mine is not that. um I talked about it on the show last week. I finished reading it, and um it was extremely compelling.
00:25:43
Speaker
ah And in some ways, not the book I expected it to be. it' is it is it a book that's maybe a lot hornier than you thought it was going to be? It is. it's It's a book that's sort of a surprise romance story. ah It's House of Leaves. Yeah. House of Leaves is way hornier than you think it's going to be.
00:26:05
Speaker
Well, like, so did you, have you read all the way through House of Leaves? I don't believe I've gotten to the end, but i'm okay I think I'm about 75% of the way through. so So I'll say this about House of Leaves. It's, it's um ah the ending is sort of by necessity disappointing, because The ending is a bunch of appendices and indexes that don't continue the narrative.
00:26:33
Speaker
And only sort of tangentially relate to these the two, I guess you would say two, possibly three concurrent narratives of the like main text of the book. like like One of the appendices is just a bunch of poems.
00:26:54
Speaker
that the guy who found the manuscript that is the book, who Johnny Truant, ah that his mother wrote, which the title of the book comes from one of those poems.
00:27:12
Speaker
But aside from that, it's like, the the poems, i I certainly don't necessarily see a way that the poems work. directly relate to what's in the book proper.
00:27:25
Speaker
Um, they, they're just flavor text kind of more than anything. And so like, once you finish the narrative and you get to the, ah the appendices, I ah personally, i was kind of looking for more ways to tie everything together in that material, which it's kind of there, but not really.
00:27:47
Speaker
Um, it is It is a very dense text. It is a very um meticulously put-together book. The stuff where it's ergodic, I guess, the stuff where like the pages are sideways or in a spiral or there are only a few words on a page or like they're kind of all over the place on the page, that is...
00:28:18
Speaker
more about just generating a feeling than I thought. it but like i Part of me thought it was going to be a lot weirder in that regard. But a lot of it is just kind of like to to create a feeling of claustrophobia or or to to kind of give you a sense of scale and space.
00:28:38
Speaker
Because like if you don't know what House of Leaves is about, it's about a documentary that may or may not exist about an impossible house. like, like a, a, a door suddenly appears inside a house, this family's house. And if you go through that door, it's, ah you go to this like huge, dark, cold, um, chamber that seems to just keep going and going and is impossibly big.
00:29:09
Speaker
And so like a lot of the parts that have like ergodic text, um,
00:29:18
Speaker
speak to the sort of design of that space, which is very cool. Like, like that hooked me very much. um But yeah, I sort of had a sense that it might be weirder.
00:29:34
Speaker
that's but That's wild to me that you went into House of Leaves and you finished and you're like, not as weird as I thought. it it That's kind of how I – Pretty straightforward. Yeah, big house.
00:29:45
Speaker
I mean, it is weird, but like I think because it had been so built up for me, um like I kind of wasn't expecting so such – what ended up being a pretty straightforward narrative. Mm-hmm.
00:29:58
Speaker
Well, there's there's that narrative, and then there's the narrative of Johnny Truant, and then there's the narrative of Zampano that is also underneath all of that. um Part of it is, like I wrote a book that kind of does that, not to that degree, but like Supreme Villainy has like the footnotes and like an author who then has like somebody operating behind them.
00:30:27
Speaker
So so like reading it was a trip for me, like after having written Supreme Vility. But yeah, i mean House of Lies is great. it's It's definitely unlike most other sit-down-read-a-novel kind of experiences. And like I was going back to it every opportunity I got to try to finish it, because it was very, very compelling. Yeah.
00:30:54
Speaker
So I think you should finish it, Chris. it's it's it's a great It's very good. I definitely intend to. It's one of those things where I kind of like put it on pause so that I could read something a little lighter and then haven't picked it back up yet. But I've got a bookmark in there.
00:31:07
Speaker
Okay. Okay, great.
Comic Reviews: DC Comics and AEW Crossover
00:31:09
Speaker
i'm I'm honestly just waiting for the movie. but The movie that the book is about? do the No, I want thee the filmed adaptation of House of Leaves.
00:31:23
Speaker
So it's going to start with Johnny Truant finding all of Zampano's notes and and pages. Exactly. yeah Yeah. Okay. Great. You got it.
00:31:35
Speaker
And then once they get to – I hope they use a lot of practical effects, especially for that pit that is deeper than the earth. Yes. Yes. Chris, those are our checks and recs. It's time to talk about some of the comics of the week.
00:31:47
Speaker
Let's do it.
00:31:50
Speaker
you do You know we had to do it. um There was no way we weren't going to do it. We're going to talk about DC cross AEW number one. ah the the Finally, the DC Comics superheroes and the wrestlers of AEW have joined forces in a comic book by Steve Orlando and Travis Mercer.
00:32:14
Speaker
This book could be better. But it is fun. it's It's fun. And I especially like... the The last page reveal really sold me on it in a way that the preceding 30 pages had not.
00:32:33
Speaker
Which I think is a flaw. Yes. The first page, I think, has a pretty great hook. Which is that an intergalactic...
00:32:45
Speaker
wrestling champion who has been defeated by Mercedes-Benz Monáe who cheated. name's Decelia Starshame. Rather than let Mercedes-Benz Monáe have her title, she um destroys it a cataclysmic explosion, and then all of the shards of that belt go like all over Earth, and so the heroes and the wrestlers have to go find those shards. Yeah, it is a it is a plot plot like The mechanics of this plot should be in the Marvel Universe.
00:33:20
Speaker
It is a very Marvel-esque storyline. Yeah, story just because like mechanically, there's a lot of like, oh, this is this is you know a power, ah like like an Infinity Gem situation. Very much so.
00:33:35
Speaker
And I think that...
00:33:40
Speaker
That's so weird to say, because that's such a a weird niche. It's not even a complaint about the book, but it is like a weird niche thing to think about while reading this.
00:33:52
Speaker
But also, having read this, I am more convinced than ever that Steve Orlando is the most you-and-me creator that I don't believe we've ever spoken to.
00:34:02
Speaker
i would agree with that, for sure. Yeah, I mean... like Steve Orlando has done most of the AEW comics. I think all. If not all, yeah. yeah And Steve Orlando has also done like a bunch of other comics that we really like. like Steve Orlando.
00:34:21
Speaker
That Midnighter book? Yeah, had the ah the the subway pirates from Manhattan Guardian come back yeah in that Midnighter book. um But it's – what I find fascinating is just like – Steve Orlando clearly wanted to do the AEW comics. yeah like Like somebody was like, I'll do it.
00:34:44
Speaker
You know, when this became a ah project and and like it's it seems very obvious that Steve Orlando like was the one who shot their hand up and was like Yeah.
00:34:55
Speaker
um But this is this is like a superhero teaming up with a wrestler. Yeah, and it's weird because – every page, or every few pages.
00:35:06
Speaker
It's weird because they the the the whole plot – it's JLA Avengers, right? Like there's a there's a a ah like a bunch of MacGuffins that everybody's got go get, so they've got a pair up.
00:35:19
Speaker
ah one Justice League one ah member of the All Elite Wrestling roster. Classic jsla JSA team up. I'll just say it's Nightwing and Will Ospreay. It's Guy Gardner and Jon Moxley. Honestly, pretty appropriate.
00:35:38
Speaker
Hawkgirl and Hangman Adam Page is my favorite duo, I think. That one, to me, doesn't make any sense. I don't dislike it. I also don't know how you arrived at it.
00:35:51
Speaker
ah Jon Stewart, Green Lantern, and Swerve Strickland. ah Orange Cassidy and Harley Quinn is pretty great. Orange Cassidy and Harley Quinn, I have complicated feelings about.
00:36:06
Speaker
Zatanna and Timeless Tony Storm. That's pretty good. Timeless Tony Storm, the greatest professional wrestler of our era. ah My favorite piece of dialogue from the comic is um when Tony Storm is called a degenerate fool.
00:36:23
Speaker
And she says, Degenerate fool! Get it right, Johnny! I'm a degenerate legend! Yes, that's very in character. Very much in character for Tony Storm. um Willow Nightingale and Wonder Woman.
00:36:35
Speaker
ah Batman and Darby Allin, which you've made the point that Batman is the closest that DC Comics has to Sting. Right, but my my problem is, I cannot deny that Batman is the closest thing that DC Comics has to the icon Sting. But I also think Batman would fucking hate Darby Allin. He ah absolutely would, yeah. I think you're right.
00:36:58
Speaker
He would think he's a fucking idiot. He's like, you need training. Yeah. And then there's ah Kenny Omega. We just see Kenny Omega fighting Bane. Is he not teamed up with anybody?
00:37:10
Speaker
He's with somebody. I'm sure. I don't know, man. He's the best bout machine. He sure is. Yeah. um And then Aquaman and Mercedes-Bene. um And then, yes, the last page reveal, as you mentioned. He might just be fighting Bane by himself, actually. i think he is. I think he is. That's very funny. Yeah.
00:37:31
Speaker
But then the last page reveal is that Mercedes-Benz, who is a heel, ah is teaming up with Lex Luthor ah to to go after the belt themselves.
00:37:45
Speaker
Which, yeah, that makes perfect sense. That was my favorite part, because, oh, right, yeah. You've got all of these characters, but it is established not only that Mercedes-Benz is a heel in real life, but also she's a heel in the comic.
00:38:00
Speaker
And it's, it it like, they say, like like, yeah, it's technically her championship. She didn't cheat to win it, but she is recognized as the current champion.
00:38:11
Speaker
Yeah, that's how pro wrestling works. That's how pro wrestling works. um Here's the thing. This book raises a question that I don't think it should have raised.
00:38:24
Speaker
But if you raise it, you have to give a better answer than this. Which is that it raises the question of why is the Justice League teaming with professional wrestlers?
00:38:37
Speaker
Yes. the The answer is but because? Well, the answer is because the MacGuffin is a wrestling belt. Yeah, but like i I forget who it is who points it out.
00:38:50
Speaker
Someone's like, yeah, we don't have power. No, it's Mercedes-Benz Monet. It's like, we don't have powers. we like this we should not do this. And that is correct.
00:39:03
Speaker
like i I like it, and I feel like the only man answer you have to give is, like well, yeah it's an AEW-DC Comics crossover. like But much in the same way that, what was it, Phase Clan?
00:39:18
Speaker
The Batman Phase Clan book? Batman was like, I'll fucking play computer games. I don't play no fucking Sega tapes. What is this shit? Like, there was a reason.
00:39:31
Speaker
Whereas in this, it's just like, don't know, man. If it's a wrestling belt, they're going to good they're get a team up with you to go get it. I fucking love Hangman Adam Page. Do not get me wrong.
00:39:43
Speaker
That's nothing but respect for my champion, Hangman Adam Page. I... Don't think he's on Hot Girl's level. Probably not. You're probably right. Here's my here's my big question.
00:39:57
Speaker
Why don't the wrestlers look like themselves? The likenesses are are the weakest part of this comic. like i the The superheroes, the DC superheroes, all exactly on model.
00:40:10
Speaker
Willow Nightingale might as well be anybody. ah yeah ah Adam Page could be could be John Constantine. Kenny Omega doesn't look like Kenny Omega at all. Yeah, and he's also wearing like that weird jacket that I think he only wore once.
00:40:28
Speaker
Yeah, I think you're right. He's not even wearing tights. He's wearing like cargo pants. I think they gave the artist like one piece of photo reference. well it's It's weird because like there's a lot of latitude in how you draw Guy Gardner.
00:40:43
Speaker
Sure. Where he'll still look like Guy Gardner. you know A lot of it's the costume... yeah Guy Gardner doesn't have a specific nose. You know, we kind of know what he looks like because, because Kevin McGuire drew a bunch.
00:40:57
Speaker
Kevin McGuire is one of the best to ever do it. But like, if you draw this guy and put him in that jacket, we as comic book fans are like, yep, that is Guy Gardner.
00:41:08
Speaker
You know, same with Hawkgirl, same with Batman, same with Jon Stewart, same with Harley Quinn. They're comic book characters. When real people show up and they don't look like themselves, it's a lot more noticeable.
00:41:21
Speaker
Yeah. Like... Like, Orange Cassidy kind of looks like Orange Cassidy, but that's because he has, like, a uniform and the sunglasses and all of that. Yeah. Like, the... The the more cartoonish the look is...
00:41:38
Speaker
the better they look in the comic, because it's because there's more that you can get as far as signifiers. like Darby Allin and Orange Cassidy are easily identifiable. Tony Storm does not look like Tony Storm.
00:41:54
Speaker
I mean, she's wearing Tony Storm's clothes. She's wearing Tony Storm's... I will say, Mercedes... Looks like Mercedes. i could I could point at her and say that is Mercedes-Benz. Kenny Omega is off the fucking map, dude. Well, I mean, part of it is, like, ah for Willow Nightingale, maybe more than anybody, but, like, I feel like Swerve Strickland is also in this category. Like, that don't look like Swerve at all, either. like Yeah.
00:42:20
Speaker
but Willow Nightingale has extremely identifiable tattoos. Mm-hmm. And in the in the pages of the comic, she has none. like She's got like some lines on her arm.
00:42:33
Speaker
Well, on that page, but on a different page, she's got no tattoos at all. Yeah. like ah i like I understand that like this this book had to come out on time, and that's part of it. But like if you're going to make put real people in your comic, I – Where's Greg Land at?
00:42:53
Speaker
It almost makes me wonder if it's a thing where they couldn't look exactly like the people the real people. But I mean, I don't know why that could be, because they're in here as who they are.
00:43:05
Speaker
but but Because that like you know they own their own likeness rights. Yeah, but the action figures look like them. That's true. ah So I don't know. like And again, this is ah the art team on this is Travis Mercer and Andrew Dollhouse, letters by Josh Reed, covers by Lucas Meyer,
00:43:23
Speaker
And, again, i don't know what the timeline was on this book. I don't know what the but like what artistic pressures he is under. And I'm not trying to... I'm really not trying to throw him under the bus. The art is good.
00:43:38
Speaker
Yeah, the the art is good like all the Again, all the comic book characters look exactly like who they're supposed to look like. It's just the like the the likenesses or lack thereof is weird. Yeah. it's it It's less of a ah criticism of of you know Travis Mercer and more of like why is it like that? you know yeah i mean look i'll ill I'll say this.
00:44:04
Speaker
She's wearing Tony Storm's clothes. That's not what Tony Storm's body is shaped like. That's fair. Yeah.
00:44:13
Speaker
Like, you know. But I did appreciate the the reveal at the end. Now, I will say That looks like a different title belt than the one we saw on the on the first page. That looks like destroy that looks like the AEW World Championship is what it looks like. Well, the the one on the on the oh the last page looks like the w WWE Championship.
00:44:39
Speaker
Oh, yeah, kind of. And kind of looks like it's been just like Photoshopped on there. Yeah. That page is not great. Yeah. But again, I don't know what the constraints were.
00:44:50
Speaker
i will i I don't want to be mean to it, but the the likenesses, which would be so important to this. it's like I remember posting about how um you know ages ago, this might have been on on the Blogspot days, there's ah the WCW comic that Marvel put out, and there's a page where Sting is looking in a mirror and making a different expression.
00:45:17
Speaker
yeah And it's like, that's the level of care we are taking with this. I mean feel like Steve Orlando's taking some care. We do know what ah what what mirrors do in WCW.
00:45:30
Speaker
but Maybe it's not all that surprising. That's true. Sometimes the Ultimate Warrior's on the other side of that mirror. Mirrors in WWE turn you evil. That is true. yeah That's what happened to Mercedes-Benz all those years ago. ago Certainly in NXT, ah Mirrors Turn You Evil. i don't know all right Do Mirrors do anything in AEW yet?
00:45:49
Speaker
I don't know. I don't think so. I don't think we know yet what they do. must Speaking of ah DC Comics crossovers with other media properties, let's talk a little bit about DCKO Boss Battle, um which is a comic book where the Joker fights Annabelle from Annabelle.
00:46:09
Speaker
Yes. And that's why I wanted you to read it. Yeah. Like, okay, so this is a this is a this is a very weird single issue ah tie-in to DCKO.
00:46:23
Speaker
It's bizarre. Okay, it's by Jeremy Adams with art by Ronan Clique, Carmine DiGiomenico, Kieran McKeown, and Pablo M. Collar.
00:46:35
Speaker
ah with colors by Hi-Fi and letters by Tom Napolitano. It is an issue that takes place between issues three and four of DCKO.
00:46:47
Speaker
And it specifically freezes time. Mm-hmm. like it it just flat out says that time has been frozen after the end of DC KO number three. And then it gets back to the exactly what happened at the end of DC KO number three again. So like, just so we can do this thing.
00:47:13
Speaker
But it can it has no impact on the story of DC KO. Yeah. um Here's what I'll say about this, Matt. This comic's bullshit.
00:47:24
Speaker
Okay, tell me why. And I feel like that's a that is a harsh statement. ah But this comic's fucking bullshit and is a coward's book.
00:47:34
Speaker
o And I'm sorry, i don't mean to be mean. Because again, i don't know if it is necessarily the fault of the creators. Because I feel like a lot of these characters that are being published, like they're brought over from other like Warner Brothers properties, like ah like dudes from Mortal Kombat, but there's also like, you know oh, we've got Annabelle from Annabelle in here, we've got some IEW characters in here, we've got some Archie, Sabrina the Teenage Witches in here.
00:48:04
Speaker
I don't know what the corporate negotiations were. yeah i the The one I'm most surprised to see in here is Red Sonja, who I guess is an IDW character now? IDW currently holds the license, yeah.
00:48:17
Speaker
Okay. And then Vampirella's in here too. iel And Homelander. Yeah, and Homelander. um And here's the thing.
00:48:29
Speaker
All of these fights, like, you know, Wonder Woman vs. Red Sonja, or the Joker vs. Annabelle from Annabelle, or Superman vs. Homelander,
00:48:42
Speaker
They're all fucking draws. they're all they're all They're nothing. They're fucking nothing. They just end. Yeah, and I will say this. I don't care what the fucking negotiations were.
00:48:52
Speaker
As we've said many times, we can only judge the comic that that we have. If you can't have Superman beat Homelander clean, get the fuck out! yeah If you couldn't make happen...
00:49:05
Speaker
happen then you're Then you're doing bullshit. You're doing bullshit, dude. Well, it's very weird because the World Forger and Gorilla Grodd show up and they're like, oh, we got to um make you fight other people for a little while.
00:49:21
Speaker
Yeah, which is fine. Which is fine. which Which is fine. But then they see like cracks starting to form in the ground and they're like, oh no, Darkseid's going to win. So they just stop the fights, all of them, in the middle.
00:49:36
Speaker
Before they can end. Before we can know who truly wins between the Joker and Annabelle. I mean, the Joker and Annabelle one is at least, like, Joker keeps waiting for Annabelle to do something. And that's actually pretty funny, because, like, at the end of it, he's freaking out because he keeps thinking she's moving.
00:49:54
Speaker
Which, I mean, is like what happens in an Annabelle movie. But, like... the it's It's so funny. It's so fucking funny that the Joker walks into this house. He he like appears in front of this house. He walks into the house, and he immediately sees Annabelle, which is a doll, and he goes, this is who I'm fighting. and he's He's like, I wish he would have said, oh shit, you're Annabelle from Annabelle.
00:50:23
Speaker
Yeah. you're You're the fucking Warrens oh scam. Yeah. Although that would be a Raggedy Ann doll, not the movie Annabelle.
00:50:34
Speaker
Look, all I'm saying is, like, it it especially gulls me. Because, i like, I don't, I don't, like, if you want Wonder Woman versus Red Sonja to be a draw, first of all, that's stupid.
00:50:51
Speaker
Wonder Woman would win. Like, Like, come on. Like, fucking come on. I think the DC superheroes are probably going to win all of these, right? Even the Mortal Kombat one. If you need it to be, like, a little tense, I'll give you Vampirella going over Batwoman.
00:51:10
Speaker
ah Or, fucking, i don't i don't know who this I don't know who this murderous teddy bear is. um But, like, if you can't give me Superman cleanly winning...
00:51:23
Speaker
against Homelander, that's fucking stupid.
00:51:29
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Like, the fact that there are no winners at all in this comic book is pretty much bullshit. It's annoying, and also that one in particular is morally reprehensible.
00:51:44
Speaker
True. Like, Superman should definitely be Homelander. Like, I feel like Garth Ennis wouldn't write it that way. Absolutely not, Yeah. but like So you think it's probably editorial edict that nobody can win? I think it's, hey, we want do a big crossover where they all fight, but it's all going to be a draw.
00:52:03
Speaker
Which is kind is cowardly. It's kind of no fun. yeah kind of It's it's it's the the problem with every crossover. And it's it it sucks. Because you know what?
00:52:15
Speaker
Say what you will. It's not a good comic. But Batman versus Spawn, Batman beats Spawn. He sticks a Batarang in his face and then Spawn's got a fucked up face for like the next 20 issues of Spawn.
00:52:31
Speaker
Alright, we're almost out of time, but we do want to quickly talk about ah Batman No. 6 by Matt Fraction and Jorge Jimenez. um Which fucking rules um this this whole run has been incredibly good.
00:52:45
Speaker
um but Batman fights some some Monster Men. um some of Some of Dr. Hugo's strangest Monster Man. ah You know, classic.
00:52:57
Speaker
Absolutely classic. ah And also, he gets he gets super mad at Damien. Yeah. This comic does one of my favorite things that you can do in a Batman comic, which is when someone is kind of presented with um like irrefutable proof that Batman is Bruce Wayne. Yeah.
00:53:18
Speaker
and But they can't like they just can't figure it out? like They're like, no, that can't be what it is. Because ah the the thing at the end of the last issue was um ah the the doctor that Bruce Wayne is on a date with sees Damien call Bruce Wayne father. Damien as Robin. Damien as Robin, yes. She sees Robin call Bruce Wayne father.
00:53:43
Speaker
And then she's just like, man, I don't know why you let your kid hang out with Batman. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, I love that. look like I will, I will, you know that I am not a fan of the, uh, the Tim Burton Batman movies, but I will always defend, uh, and pop for, uh, Batman taking his mask off and Christopher Walken going, Bruce Wayne, why are you dressed up as Batman?
00:54:08
Speaker
Like, cause I think that's perfect. Cause like, of like, of course you wouldn't think that. Right.
00:54:17
Speaker
ah And then we learned that the Doctors got more going on. then yeah Boy, don't they always, though? than Than it seems by the end. ah so Rough month for the boys.
00:54:29
Speaker
Rough month for the boys. ah Great issue of Batman, though. A great run of Batman so far. ah Every issue of Banger. Alright. Speaking of Banger comics, we're going to talk to a creator of Banger comics for a while.
00:54:46
Speaker
Kill McDonald. A banger smith, to be sure.
00:55:03
Speaker
Joining us for the program this week, we are pleased as the proverbial punch to welcome back one of the best friends of the show, I would say. Kel McDonald, welcome back. How are you, Kel? I'm hanging in there in these these times. Yeah, i I guess I stopped asking Matt how he was the start of the show. Maybe I should just, I don't know. I gotta figure out a new way to get into interviews, because we all know.
00:55:31
Speaker
We all know. Just ask me about shows I'm watching. That's how you can open it up. What what are you watching that's fun? yeah well and I know that you ah you talked to me a little bit. um I have not been ah watching anything new.
00:55:45
Speaker
i am currently in the 13th season of Law & Order Special Victims Unit because that is a great show to just have on ah in the in the background of your life. But I know that you did message me about ah ah what what Benito only refers to as Dunkin' Egg.
00:56:02
Speaker
Yes. Oh, i I started watching that ah because you messaged me about it too, Kel. Yes, everyone needs to go watch it. Yeah, it's great. Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, in case people don't know.
00:56:14
Speaker
My initial question for you, Kel, was does it have a good sword? It has a humble sword that is doing its job. ah it it It has a sword that's been passed down.
00:56:28
Speaker
Yeah. From one night to another. He parroted a sword from his mentor. It has a penny in the handle. Because his mentor was from a place called Penny Tree.
00:56:39
Speaker
um So it is humble and simple and getting the job done. Simple sword for a simple hero. i can I can get behind that. I can get behind a humble sword.
00:56:50
Speaker
Yeah. i I've said on a previous episode that I love a tall and a small, and think it's giving me that. ah it's It's absolutely a tall and a small kind of show.
00:57:03
Speaker
Now, i am I am given to believe that it is ah it is funnier than one may expect. ah It is funnier than Game of Thrones, but it is not a complete comedy.
00:57:15
Speaker
um That's true. so it's It's lighter than Game of Thrones um tonally. Okay, Chris, I will tell you about a gag in the first episode. Okay, tell me about a gag, Matt.
00:57:28
Speaker
There's a gag in the first episode where... That's what you're here for, right? Kel, to listen to Matt tell me about a gag from a TV show I haven't watched. well we're We're working together to get you to watch it, I guess. Okay, okay.
00:57:41
Speaker
All right. So they do like a cold open, like an episode of Game of Thrones. And they sincerely, genuinely start playing the Game of Thrones theme music.
00:57:53
Speaker
Okay. like it the The Game of Thrones theme music starts playing. um Like like dunk Duncan, Sir Dunk, is about to like start his adventure. Or it's like going to go into like a montage of him doing nightly things.
00:58:10
Speaker
right And then the Game of Thrones theme abruptly cuts off. And he is behind a tree shitting. not kidding He has explosive diarrhea. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I rewatched it with a friend.
00:58:28
Speaker
um And right before the cut, he makes like a face. So ah it's it's a hint something's going wrong in his tummy. The YouTubers that I like that do like a recap Game of Thrones...
00:58:44
Speaker
all things Westeros-related YouTube podcast, ah they described it as, this is basically the opening of Shrek. and That's pretty accurate, yeah. Now, if you told me that this happened and then they started playing All-Star, I would be i would be watching it right now.
00:59:01
Speaker
The plot is basically a knight's tent. Okay, alright. I was blown away by the fact that there was like a needle drop joke. Yeah. yeah that I was not expecting that at all.
00:59:15
Speaker
And then like the title is just like put up on screen and there's like no opening theme. I do feel like it it would not be it would not be unheard of for somebody to be like taking a shit on a Game of Thrones. like I feel like that was the selling point of Game of Thrones. like It's fantasy, but like people take shits.
00:59:37
Speaker
What I really like is stuff like, Dunk is kind of dumb, but also completely sincere. um And it's making hard for people it's making it hard for people to manipulate him or make fun of him. like There's a part where two sex workers are giving him a hard time and making fun of him for being poor. And he just goes, why are you being so mean? And then they feel bad and apologize. That's pretty good.
01:00:05
Speaker
You know, as i noted as a noted a Goku fan, you know I love a character who's dumb but completely sincere. He's got a little bit of Goku in him, for sure. Yeah.
01:00:17
Speaker
yeah Yeah, no, I'm liking it. like it tall and a small, and Night in the Seven Kingdoms is delivering that. Well, Kel, we love it when a guest brings their own questions for themselves to the show. What else are you watching? What?
01:00:33
Speaker
um Anything that lets us do less work. yeah ah um Well, I only have my HBO on when there's a Westeros show. So now I'm catching up on all my HBO shows. So I just watched the last season of The Righteous Gemstones. Oh, right. You asked me if I had watched Hacks, which Yeah, watched Hacks, which is also on HBO.
01:00:58
Speaker
Righteous Gemstones is kind of like if Game of Thrones took place in Charleston, South Carolina. There are a couple of people in Game of Thrones smarter than the cast of Righteous Gemstones. oh to no ma'am I don't know, man.
01:01:11
Speaker
I don't know. I guess it is very similar to Game of Thrones like when they talk about different regions. like as As it is when that's in that scene where BJ's family comes and ah Judy says, They're evil dad. They're from Asheville.
01:01:27
Speaker
yeah It's very funny. God, that's such a funny joke. That's such a funny joke that I can't imagine anyone who's not... from North South Carolina laughing at?
01:01:39
Speaker
Hacks is the only TV show that says my hometown correctly. The main character of Hacks, Ava, is from Waltham, Massachusetts, like me. And every other time Waltham has been mentioned on television, they say it wrong. They say Waltham or Waltham. I'm like, well, clearly someone on this show grew up there because I've never heard it said correctly before.
01:02:08
Speaker
That is, ah yeah it's it's always weird to see the place where you are from or the place where you live depicted on television. I don't know exactly what that's like because no one will ever make anything about the small town in South Carolina where I grew up. i mean, Matt, there have been shows she and set in Shelby.
01:02:28
Speaker
Well, one. Yeah. that's saying that's That's more than I got. yeah That's more than some of South Carolina is ever going to get, bud.
01:02:38
Speaker
But, you know, I there i have seen stuff. I have seen mentions of, like, Columbia, which is close enough, and places that I've been. um i guess largely in Danny McBride projects. ah One of the hardest jokes I've ever laughed at was in ah his like first movie, The Foot Fist Way, where um the the wife talks about how she got drunk, like, real drunk, like Myrtle Beach drunk.
01:03:06
Speaker
And that is, like, I think about that all the time and laugh, but I cannot, again, cannot imagine anyone else laughing at of it as evidenced by this show.
01:03:18
Speaker
So, ah Hacks does not take place in Waltham. It's just, they're they're comedy writers in l LA. So, ah it's just one of them is from Waltham, so has said a couple of times. And I was like, no one has ever said it correctly
Discussion on Coffee Shops and Kel's Work
01:03:32
Speaker
before on television. I am a agog. i think she does go back to Waltham in one episode.
01:03:38
Speaker
Yeah, like, she visits her mom in one episode. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the inside of the house, so you don't actually get to see what Waltham looks like. True. Because it's boring. That's why I left. um but i was going to say, like when like when I imagine you, I only imagine you living in Portland.
01:04:05
Speaker
ah well i moved around a lot after college um so i've lived a lot of places um portland one because there's reliable public transit um and it doesn't snow Interesting. Interesting.
01:04:17
Speaker
ah Because I hate snow. i i can I can tell you a place where you should not live. Yes. Yes. I believe we talked about it last time I was in Minneapolis. um Oh, yeah. Yeah, probably so. Because you suggested it, and I said, no, there's too much snow here. i mean, you're look, you're not wrong. It is nice. I do like it here.
01:04:37
Speaker
But, no you know, I like snow. When there's no snow. I went home to visit my parents for the holidays and a friend that now lives near my old hometown and I were hanging out and we ran into my uncle at CVS and I asked, hey, do you know a good like coffee shop where we could like sit down and like draw? And he's like, no, this isn't that type of town.
01:05:01
Speaker
i Yeah, i' I'm so familiar with that. Like, for the for the few weeks – well, it wasn't a few weeks. It was like a week and a half, maybe, that I had to go back um to Shelby to live with my mom last year or year before last um because of the hurricane.
01:05:22
Speaker
um I was like, oh, I'll just go work in a coffee shop. There's one here, right? And my mom was like, oh, no, that's closed. No.
01:05:32
Speaker
and There was just not. There was just not a place I could go. Look, i don' I don't want to brag, but Sumter did get a a Starbucks in 2014. So I had specifically asked for a coffee shop that isn't Starbucks.
01:05:46
Speaker
Dunkin' Donuts isn't really a coffee shop that you can sit in. True. um um But I said not Starbucks because um the workers were on strike and we weren't crossing that picket line. Correct.
01:06:00
Speaker
And also, there aren't that many Starbucks because we got Dunkin' Donuts, so why would we need a Starbucks? Is that like like regionalism of of Massachusetts being really into Dunkin' Donuts? That's true, then That is 100% true. That is why if I had a Night in the Seven Kingdoms podcast, it would be Westeros Runs on Dunkin'. That's really good. That's a good, that's, that's like almost a name so good that we would have to do it.
01:06:28
Speaker
Well, if you want to do it, Chris, I'm i'm i'm all for it. um i could Look, I could use another podcast to do. i think i think that'd be fun. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah, no, Massachusetts. It's basically the further you get away from Massachusetts, the less Dunkin' Donuts's there are.
01:06:44
Speaker
this is This is interesting to me. because like Although I guess it shouldn't be. right because like i fucking love Waffle House. But i don't ah like i don't know if it's a thing for people who aren't from Waffle House areas.
01:07:05
Speaker
like Is it a stereotype that you would have about about people that, like, they'd be really into Waffle House, in the way that, like, it's a stereotype to be into Dunkin' Donuts. I don't think the Waffle House thing is as strong. I feel like it's, um... Because if there isn't a Waffle House, people usually have IHOP.
01:07:23
Speaker
Um... IHOP, a trash temple to a false god. Yeah, um... so So I feel like you either got Waffle House, or you got, um IHOP.
01:07:40
Speaker
but So, like, with Dunkin' Donuts, as the the joke about a Starbucks being across the street from a Starbucks, like, Dunkin' Donuts had already done that to Boston.
01:07:53
Speaker
Like... they So that they didn't really have a foothold to get in. ah to the And also, um Boston is not on a grid. Boston streets were determined by drunk cows. And so a lot of the times, people actually gave directions based on how many Dunkin' Donuts is you would pass.
01:08:14
Speaker
Interesting. Interesting. Because it's like, you're going to go down the street, you're going to see Dunkin' Donuts, you're going to take a right, and then you're going to, like... go through two lights, and then there'll be another Dunkin' Donuts, and then you'll, like, so... Because you can't say, like, go north or go west or whatnot.
01:08:34
Speaker
Kel, did you see the, was it, like, 2015 Power Rangers movie? Yes. 2017, I guess? Wow. ah That 2017. Oh, no, then I didn't... No, I don't think I did see it. There's a part where it's very clear...
01:08:50
Speaker
that the script was written before all the product placement was finalized. Because Rita Repulsa, as as as played by Elizabeth Banks, asks where something is, like a MacGuffin that she's looking for, and the guy says, it it's a Krispy Kreme?
01:09:14
Speaker
And there is a great moment where Elizabeth Banks goes, Krispy Kreme? But also he says, yeah, it's a diner. And that's, like, I could not pay attention to the rest of the film. That's wrong. Yeah, no, that's wrong. It's insane.
01:09:28
Speaker
I also think Krispy Kreme is gross. I like actually like Dunkin' Donuts' as donuts because their glazed have just like a very thin level of glaze. Every time I've had a Krispy Kreme donut, I need to wash my hands afterwards, and I'm like, that's gross. Okay, well, we can we cannot agree, but we respect it. That's a region that's definitely a regional difference, because like...
01:09:56
Speaker
i I grew up hour... ah an hour and change away from the headquarters of Krispy Kreme. So there is a that's how it goes. don There is a Dunkin' Donuts right near the San Diego Convention Center. And a few years at San Diego, ah the past few years I've been tabling with Alina Pete and Sam Logan, who are both Canadian.
01:10:18
Speaker
And I told them I was going to Dunkin' Donuts. And since they're Canadian, they don't have it. And I was like, it does basically taste like Tim Hortons. Yeah, they they got the Tim Hortons.
01:10:29
Speaker
and And then I brought a bought a box of Munchkins, and I brought it back to the table, and they confirmed that I was correct. It does basically taste like Tim Hortons. Yeah, it's it's it's just Timbits, baby.
01:10:42
Speaker
Yep. It's just Timbits. Hey, everybody? It's just Timbits. I hope they're all enjoying this Duncan talk. I'm not going to lie to you, Kel. I would fuck up a box of Munchkins right now.
01:10:59
Speaker
There are no Dunkin' Donuts as in Oregon. There's, I think, there there is a Krispy Kreme in Minnesota, but it's new. and you don't trust it. it's new and it's out in the suburbs, so it's apparently always like always full. ah So once ah once things thaw out, I might have to drive over to it and see if I can...
01:11:23
Speaker
get ah get a messy donut that'll make me wash my hands. that That terminology I don't i don't love. But um it is the truth. Well, ah other thing I've been watching is Fallout. I've been keeping up with the Fallout show.
01:11:39
Speaker
I have not watched any of that how is that. How is this new season? I did like the first season quite a bit. i feel like with Fallout, both the first season and this new season... um I like the individual episodes, but I don't think the big picture comes together very well.
01:11:55
Speaker
um And i do I do care a lot about the big picture when it comes to shows. um Also, I can't take the ghoul seriously because I'm just thinking of Uncle Baby Billy. Uncle Baby Billy such a good character. he is! And I love that there's nothing...
01:12:19
Speaker
in the world funnier to me than a character named Uncle Baby Billy. Like, that's so good. Yeah. That's genius.
01:12:30
Speaker
Jeff's kiss. ma ah What is your favorite name of a character that you've ever come up with, Kel? Okay, of my characters...
01:12:42
Speaker
Matt, I assume that yours is probably Capernous Jones. I do like that name. there i have other names that I've never put in anything, but like I'm i'm like holding on to them.
01:12:54
Speaker
there's ah There's a character that I like started a book that I put this name in it and that I wanted to use, but I never used it, so I'm holding on to using it someday in the future, and that's Eponymous Prelog.
01:13:07
Speaker
I would love to use that name somewhere sometime. That's pretty good. Also King Oblivion PhD. That's a good one. I mean, it's just it's just like not Doctor Doom. But ah yeah. yeah Copernicus Jones is pretty one of probably my favorite. yeah
01:13:27
Speaker
That's good one. don't know. i So ah the werewolf detective in the city between his name is Connor Burke. um And I like that a lot um because it rhymes with a jerk, which he is. Sometimes, sometimes folks, it's that simple.
01:13:43
Speaker
Yeah. um But also, he is, ah so all the werewolves are the proletariat, and he's a cop, so he's a class traitor. ha ha ha ha!
01:13:57
Speaker
ah tracks attracts He grew up in a rich family and um Burke's peerage is the list of all the noble families in England.
01:14:08
Speaker
um So it's working on multiple levels. His name is letting subtly letting you know that he sucks in multiple ways. He sucks and is a class traitor? Yeah. Nice.
01:14:22
Speaker
Well, Kel, I think we should probably, at least ah briefly, um talk about your your new Kickstarter yeah for Shards of Reflection, ah which is yeah the newest chapter in ah the City Between, the fifth book in the sort City Between series. yep um So the City Between is, um for those who don't know, ah is supernatural stories in a futuristic city. Most of them are about werewolves. um They all stand alone, um so you can read them in any order.
01:14:57
Speaker
And Shards of Reflection is about a newbie vampire who is looking for who made her into a vampire, um which is complicated because in City Between World, when a vampire feeds off someone,
01:15:09
Speaker
They also get their memories. So since she is new at being a vampire, she does not know which memories are hers and which ones are people she ate. Right.
01:15:22
Speaker
And Kel, I really got to give you um a lot of credit for coming up with a bold new idea um in in this book. um And that's that when a vampire sucks someone's blood,
01:15:39
Speaker
it feeds on them, it's kind of like sex.
01:15:48
Speaker
See, what I was thinking with the memories thing is a vampire is taking someone's life. And what is your life other than an accumulation of memories? True. Yeah, I mean, that is an interesting new twist. And and I'm, you know, obviously I'm joking around. I do um i do like the whole concept, like,
01:16:07
Speaker
I really feel like there's like a ah great, the the way this starts is like, it kind of sets up this like notion of like the, it being like the one night stand that you regret.
01:16:21
Speaker
Yeah. And, um, I, I love, I do love that. Like the, the sort of regretfulness the next morning after like, Oh, what did I do? Yeah. That is genuinely brilliant. And I love that element of it.
01:16:41
Speaker
And I also tried to write the narration that a new reader might not know which person is the vampire in the situation. ah Yeah, yeah. It also, like, evolves from there into being more kind of about, like, a more genuine ah romantic involvement that, ah you know...
Monsters as Societal Metaphors
01:17:03
Speaker
it's is going on and, and the mix of those things is really interesting. And like, I don't know, this is one of the more relatable vampires that I think I've ever seen in anything.
01:17:15
Speaker
ah ah Because i I didn't want to do though vampires are inherently evil. um To contrast the werewolves or the proletariat, obviously vampires are um the 1%, though I say capitalist, because it's not that they're inherently evil, but their powers reward them being selfish, abusive, and just a shitty person in general.
01:17:40
Speaker
Vampirism is capitalism. there's a lot of There's a lot of using people involved. yeah Exactly. In the other city between stories that are werewolves, it's not commented on, but if someone is paying attention or goes back now that I've said it to in this interview, um in every single story where a werewolf is the main character, they are either helping another werewolf or...
01:18:04
Speaker
getting help from another werewolf. Whereas in Shards of Reflection, um the main character, Mina, is getting some advice from an older vampire, but he's mostly letting her flail on her own and doesn't really give a shit about what she's doing.
01:18:23
Speaker
Yeah. I want to know what sort of people you think other monsters are. Werewolves are the proletariat. Yeah, so part of why I don't like zombie stories is frequently the way that they are depicted in modern zombie stories is um the unwashed masses. Like, it's really leaning into that libertarian, Iranian ideal of the...
01:18:51
Speaker
the public is awful and only wants to steal from the brilliant main character who can take care of themselves. That's why I don't put zombies in my stories is because I'm kind of sick of zombie stories leaning into that.
01:19:09
Speaker
And then I've been working on a pitch with Meredith McLaren where we have magic as a metaphor for inherited wealth. So that would be where witches and whatnot come from.
01:19:21
Speaker
Kel, I'm going to give you, this is ah an easy one, this is a softball for you. Because we're friends, and and I think it's it's important to, you know, just kind of lob you a good one. Kel McDonald, fix zombies.
01:19:37
Speaker
I think if you're going to do a better zombie story, um I think Chris Robertson in iZombie actually did a good job. um So I don't need to, because he did. Yeah. a All right. All right. Fine.
01:19:51
Speaker
Yeah. I zombie is pretty good. I zombie is pretty good. Cause that like turns it into a metaphor of losing yourself, um, an identity, um, rather than like disdain for the masses. And I also think, um, if you went for like an older version of zombies,
01:20:12
Speaker
like closer to like the voodoo or origin of zombies, that would work better too, because again, it's someone getting like abused and controlled by the upper crust in the system. it makes the zombie sympathetic, um rather than just an excuse to shoot indiscriminately.
01:20:35
Speaker
There is a really incredible episode of the television series, Evil. about zombies that does that does a really good job of getting back to that original idea and also has like the biggest downer ending of the entire series.
01:20:57
Speaker
ah But highly recommend if you have not watched that one. I think you would enjoy Kel. I will have to check it out. it is ah It is a tough nut to crack to take zombie stories from...
01:21:11
Speaker
something about a collective and make it into something about an individual. Because, i mean, iZombie does it. um but But it is tough. like I think there are... i think that's why i don't like it, because it's like a personality-less mass.
01:21:31
Speaker
Yeah. um I think there have been times when it has succeeded as like a commentary on something other than just like... you know, the mob. as as not like Not like organized crime, but like, you know, the mob of mindless people. The unwashed masses. Yeah, yeah, yeah. i um Like in you know in Dawn of the Dead, the original Dawn of the Dead, like the the idea of them is like representing consumers. Capitalism and consumerism, yeah. That's tough. it's It's a tough dot to crack to to kind of get away from that conception of them. Yeah.
01:22:10
Speaker
um that That would be interesting to dig into ah as as a challenge, as a writing challenge, I feel like.
Listener Questions and Humorous Debates
01:22:19
Speaker
Part of why I like werewolves is the collective organization.
01:22:24
Speaker
So they're still individuals, but working together makes them stronger. Yeah. The power of friendship makes them stronger in MTV's Teen Wolf, and that's great. Yeah.
01:22:37
Speaker
now that we've Now that we've at least talked a little bit about your Kickstarter, which, ah when does that start? right As we're recording this, it's still... Yeah, it's launch Monday morning. So this is going to go up, and it's going to be live on the first day. Okay, so it is it's live right now that this is that this is... The episode is live. So everybody go back in on Kickstarter right now.
01:23:04
Speaker
um Okay. Now, Kel... We need to take some questions from our listeners. um If you want to ask a question on the show like these you're about to hear for Kel McDonald, um you can do it in two different places. You can go to our Blue Sky page, which is just warrocketajax.com on Blue Sky, and look out for the call for questions there. Or you can join our Discord um You have to be invited to be a member of our Discord, but if you ask us nicely for an invitation, we will get you one, and you can join over there and go to the listener questions channel of our Discord and ask questions there.
01:23:47
Speaker
ah Just like these questions you're about to hear for Kel McDonald. ah Pedro Valor on our Discord. We talked about public transportation ah just just moments ago, and and it it being a key part of why you moved to Portland.
01:24:04
Speaker
ah Pedro wants to know, what's your preferred public transportation to take, bus or train? i like the subway. i like um ah so Also, this is relevant to City Between, because part of City Between's city design is I hate drawing cars. We've we've talked about it. yeah I have jokingly said... um City Between is a future where everyone takes public transit and horses have gone extinct. So I don't have to draw either. But yeah, so I like trains.
01:24:32
Speaker
um I'm pro-train. ah We should have more of them. ah Yes, I also like trains. I also like trains. Yeah. Ben Gully, our good friend, ah asks on Blue Sky, for everyone, what would be your equivalent of Spider-Man putting on his killin' clothes?
01:24:59
Speaker
Man, I don't have killing clothes. yeah would you So because we write a because I write about werewolves, them putting on their killing clothes is actually them taking off their regular clothes.
01:25:11
Speaker
That makes a lot of sense, yeah. ah AC, my my loving wife, did once refer to me as the Baba Yaga of comics blogging. So I think it would be like, you know, like firing up WordPress again. Right.
01:25:27
Speaker
Y'all went and turned me back into the old me. Yeah. It's like, it's like the, like the, the closest equivalent to Spider-Man putting on his killing clothes is that one little John video where Ice Cube opens up a secret chamber in his house and he's got like his Raiders cap in there.
01:25:46
Speaker
I don't have what you would call killing clothes. And sure. Sure. And I don't... I mean, look, I do get mad, but a lot of like me getting mad on this show is kind of like getting mad for entertainment.
01:26:02
Speaker
Here's how you know if I'm really mad, okay? Here's how you know it's serious. Here's the sound I make.
01:26:16
Speaker
That's it. That's the whole thing. and And I'll probably be a little quiet. And that's how you know. Like, I won't change clothes or anything, but I'll i'll just be, like, a little bit quieter, and ah and I'll make that sound.
01:26:32
Speaker
Robert Secundus on our Discord wants to know, Kel, what are your favorite cities in fiction?
01:26:40
Speaker
Um... Well, obviously I like New Matlaw, which is where the city between takes place. Of course. But, uh... Other cities that I like.
01:26:53
Speaker
I like Ankh-Morpork from Discworld. So the thing is, is I like a lot of nitty gritty, like infrastructure details. And usually fiction doesn't deal with those because not everyone is a weirdo like me. Yeah.
01:27:11
Speaker
Whereas like Discworld went on long enough that Terry Pratchett did like get into the nitty gritty details. Like ah my favorite Discworld book is going postal, which is all about revitalizing the post office in this fantasy setting.
01:27:27
Speaker
um So um probably I'm going to just stick with Ankh-Morpork. Great. That's all we need. ah Stone Cold HCC, an a account that exists only to ask questions on Warlock and Ajax, has this riveting query.
01:27:47
Speaker
Y'all think Jeph Loeb's got a long Halloween, if you know what I mean. and don't know what he means. I actually also am not quite sure what Stone Cold means by that one, Matt.
01:27:58
Speaker
I'm going to assume... it's It's a reference to ah penis size, and I wouldn't begin to guess. I don't i don't think we could even speculate. yeah and that's it's Hey, Stone Cold, that's rude, and you're better than that. Your mother listens to this show, Stone Cold.
01:28:16
Speaker
that's true That's true. Mrs. HCC listen to this show. Mrs. HCC listens to this show? is that is that is that what you want? you want your mom to hear that got a garbage mouth? Is that it? Wash your mouth out with soap.
01:28:30
Speaker
Uh, Assassin, Dope Dog, and Cub from our Discord wants to know, who would Sir Merrick hang out with among the Knights of the Table Round? I'm drawing a blank on my Arthurian lore. oh buddy. I only know Gawain. Like, I only remember, like, the big guns. Matt, how many Knights the Round Table do you think you could name? And I have a i have an advantage on this.
01:28:55
Speaker
based on something that came up previously in the show that we, in our linear time, have not discussed yet. So Matt, how many knights do you think you you can name from the round? I mean, max, like, seven.
01:29:09
Speaker
Hit me. Let's do it. Count them off. Count them off? Like, start naming them? Yeah, do it. All right. Lancelot. Big one, yeah. Gawain.
01:29:21
Speaker
Galahad. Yeah. I'd say those are the big three. um Robin. Robin. Sir Robin i'm appearing in this picture. um Yeah, right. um Fuck. I might top out at four, actually.
01:29:42
Speaker
I'm sure there are other ones that if you said their names, I would be like, of course. Seems like you forgot about Bedivere. Oh, Bedivere of Percival. Percival, yeah. there's um because there's So there's Gawain, but then Gawain has a brother whose name is spelt very similar to him. and I can never remember because I could not figure out how to pronounce it.
01:30:02
Speaker
Because they're all Morgan Le Fay's kids from um when she didn't fuck her brother. um and um Samson is Gawain. Is it Gareth? And then who's the third guy? I'm so bad with names, but I can like tell you what all of them did.
01:30:22
Speaker
this is This is me talking about the Legion of Superheroes. Yeah. um Oh, Mordred. what Mordred was a Knight of the Roundtable. That's that's correct. I feel very bad about this because I wrote Misfits of Avalon and i read several King Arthur things back to back. um ah ah to before writing that.
01:30:47
Speaker
Anyway, Chris, you you got more? I got Tristan. Okay, Tristan. I got Constantine. i got i got ah Sir Easton, if we're counting DC Comics.
01:30:59
Speaker
Oh, okay. Yeah, sure. you know this You know The Shining Knight. i I am well aware of The Shining Knight. I think we gotta count them. ah ah Jason Blood.
01:31:10
Speaker
Okay, alright. Yes on Blaze, as he was known back in in Camelot times. ah Well, Assassin Dope Dog and Cub on the Discord says um I didn't name either of these because they were not the ones I could have named off the top of my head. um Sir Palamedes and Sir Dendon would have formed a ah little group of Outsiders with Murak.
01:31:39
Speaker
Like Batman and the Outsiders? How many of Batman and the Outsiders can you name, Matt? um ah Well, there's Katana.
01:31:50
Speaker
things that's correct i think I think if you really tried, you could probably get all the Outsiders. I probably could, yeah. um Looker. looker ah Let's go back to...
01:32:03
Speaker
I do like the who's a better detective question. um All right. We'll come back to that one. But before that, I do. I want to ask ah from Blue Sky. um Gregory Paul Silber says, I have a presentation about werewolves due in a few weeks for my medieval animals class.
01:32:22
Speaker
What's the best and or most quintessential werewolf movie I can discuss? Well, for medieval werewolves, none. i'm Sorry. um Because movie werewolves don't follow medieval werewolves.
01:32:35
Speaker
Basically, um the a lot of the stuff that we think of as werewolf things, like the full moon... transformation. um Those are all got made for the Wolfman the
Detectives and Media Discussion
01:32:47
Speaker
1940s. So if you want medieval werewolves, um you don't get movies. You get um stories about magic coats or magic belts that let you go and turn into a werewolf or um folklore like this. Claire which I adapted into a comic. You can read it for free on my website. So sorry that I can't help you with movies. Cause movies have, you
01:33:11
Speaker
all followed um a 1940s werewolf, not medieval werewolves. Since you specially requested this question, i don't usually ask two questions from the same person, but okay Assassin, Dope, Dog, and Cub also wants to know, who do you reckon is the better detective, Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade?
01:33:30
Speaker
um I'm going to go with Philip Marlowe. How do you feel about that, Matt? I think, here's the thing, I like Marlo better as a character.
01:33:42
Speaker
But you think Sam is a better detective? Yeah.
01:33:48
Speaker
I like, I think it was Sam Spade where the description is that his face is all triangles. I believe that is right. I love that description of a character. Yeah.
01:34:00
Speaker
So, I'm more leaning towards Marlo. Okay. Great. I think Marlowe's stories are more compelling than Sam Spade's stories, generally. Get his triangle face out of there.
01:34:12
Speaker
Yeah, because because they're more character they're more character-based stories. Whereas the Spade stories are like often mostly about the mystery.
01:34:23
Speaker
um And I think I like noir better when it is more of a character piece, usually. i do also like the U-Core piece of media question.
01:34:34
Speaker
Okay. Then let's ask that one. HotSpringSummer on our Discord says, a Question for all, what is the most UCOR piece of media has ever been? o Interesting.
01:34:48
Speaker
Interesting. Kel, k do you have one in the chamber for that? Yes, I do. I recently read a book called No Gods, No Monsters, which is about anarchist werewolves. It's fucking great. I used to tell people that really what I want in life is...
01:35:04
Speaker
a TV show that's like Mad Men, but with werewolves. And what I meant by that is sort of like character focused, smaller stories that build to something bigger. And there's a lot of like symbolism or like literary styling and metaphor going on. But I also want werewolves to be there. Um, and no gods, no monsters gave me that. Um, it's about, um,
01:35:33
Speaker
the world finds out monsters are real, um, because some anarchist werewolves reveal themselves. And then it jumps around to like a bunch of different people's reaction to the news while building how society's reacting as a whole.
01:35:49
Speaker
um so like it, lets you know that there's this ah university professor who, like, falls down a QAnon hole because if the government is hiding the supernatural, what else are they hiding? um And then, like, there's a co-op bookstore where, like...
01:36:07
Speaker
One of the people who ah works there ah wants to be a good ally, but is afraid deep down, and that's like preventing him from actually helping. um So it's just like everything I want in the story.
01:36:22
Speaker
um Meaningful, crunchy character bits, painting a big picture with tinier pieces, and werewolves.
01:36:34
Speaker
Chris? I mean, there's a lot of stuff that we've said is kind of like, you know, like, oh, this is like, this is like it was made just for us. But like, yeah, I feel like it has to Chip Zdarsky's like fail safe story, which is a sequel or not necessarily a sequel, but it answers a question raised in Mark Waid comic from like 19 or from like 2001, maybe. Yeah.
01:37:06
Speaker
a Tower of Babel. And the answer is that Batman did build a failsafe to take himself out if he needed to, but because he knew about it, he had to make himself forget. So in order to remember it and beat it, he has to go down into his secret Batcave underneath the Batcave and unlock the Batman of Zoranar. So it's a Batman story with all this shit that I like that really only makes sense if you've read Batman at least three other Batman stories from the past 20 years.
01:37:40
Speaker
that's That's, I would say, right up my alley. Yeah. ah I don't know if my answer's cheating, because I think it helped form my taste and loves.
01:37:55
Speaker
But I don't think there's ever been a piece of media that I thought was more immediately for me. um And I knew it when I was, you know, six years old.
01:38:07
Speaker
um And that's ah Who Framed Roger Rabbit. e Oh, Who Framed Roger Rabbit's fucking great. Yeah. To this very day. Yeah. Like it's, it's, it's cartoons and noir and like, like silly, but also dramatic. And like, I mean, a thing going on blue sky where someone broke down how hard it is to composite Jessica rabbit, like rubbing that guy's head during her sexy dance. Um,
01:38:42
Speaker
with the scarf and it's just, it's like a technical masterpiece on top of being a great story. Yeah. It's, it's God, it's incredible. Like when I was, you know, a child, I didn't even realize how difficult it must have been to make. Uh, but, but it's that and and incredibly good movie to boot. Like, yeah, yeah.
01:39:09
Speaker
The best. One more ah thing I want to ask you about, Kel, from our Discord. This is from Derek. Does Kel have thoughts about ah Sumiki Ogami's Not-So-Ordinary Life?
01:39:21
Speaker
I did see that. I had not heard of it before. um I'm going to check it out after we are done recording. um So I will at least read it and have opinions later. ah yeah it It appears to be a manga about ah ah werewolf romance, it seems.
01:39:42
Speaker
but But I don't know for sure. ah Right now I'm editing a pretty cute werewolf comic for Seven Seas called a wolf's A Werewolf Tale, A Wolf's Daughter. And it's about a girl who's always been different and then she figures out it's because she's a werewolf. um And the the queer subtext is quickly becoming text. um But that's a very cute werewolf manga for folks that want some werewolf mongos to read.
Kel McDonald's Projects and Podcast Wrap-Up
01:40:18
Speaker
Our guest has been Kel McDonald. Kel, it is always so fun to talk to you here on the show and always nice to have you here. Before we let you go, please let all our listeners know where they can find you, how they can but back your new Kickstarter and anything else you want them to know.
01:40:35
Speaker
ah Well, um you can read all of my comics at KelMcDonald.com. um The ah Kickstarter will be up Shards of Reflection um when this is live.
01:40:47
Speaker
um ah You can get all of my books from there. um I also will have limited time t-shirts in the Kickstarter. um And um I'm going to hold Chris to Westeros Runs on Duncan. LAUGHTER
01:41:07
Speaker
So stay tuned for that. All right. Our guest has been Kel McDonald. Kel, always an absolute pleasure to talk to you. ah Go check out that Kickstarter, everybody. Thanks for having me.
01:41:19
Speaker
Thanks once again to Kel McDonald for joining us for the program and having a good time talking to us. Yeah. Thank you, Kel, for coming back. were You're always welcome here. And it was it was great to talk to talk to them.
01:41:34
Speaker
If you would like to get in touch with us, you can do it at our email address, which is warrocketpodcast at gmail.com. That is where you can send listener questions, send every story ever lists. Let us know if you want to sponsor the show or get in touch with us about any other old dang reason.
01:41:50
Speaker
You can also get in touch with us on Tumblr. We're there at warrocketpodcast.tumblr.com. We're on Blue Sky, as I mentioned earlier, warrocketajax.com. We are on...
01:42:06
Speaker
Discord, you have to be a member of our Discord and invited to be a member of our Discord to join over there. But if you ask us nicely for an invitation, as I said, you can be a member of that community, ah which is full of very cool and very fun people.
01:42:24
Speaker
You can also message us on Patreon for a Discord invitation or if you want to get in touch with us about something. Our website is warrocketajax.com and has every episode of the show that we have ever done.
01:42:38
Speaker
warrocketwiki.com is the fan-run repository of all the information you could ever want or need about this show. War Rocket Ajax. Go check that out. If you want to find me and my stuff, go to mattdwilson.net to find links to my comics, my books, my other podcasts, and my social medias.
01:42:54
Speaker
Chris, where can everybody find Everybody can find me by going to the-isb.com. ah That is my website. There's links there to the stuff that I do. There's a bunch of stuff there for you to read. And there's ah there's you know a Ko-fi link there.
01:43:08
Speaker
yeah You know, it's got a little extra change burning a hole in your pocket. But yeah, find it all there. The-isb.com.
01:43:20
Speaker
We'll be back next week, everybody. ah It might be time to get back into Hickmania. I think it might be. I think it's time for 2020 Hicks. I like it.
01:43:31
Speaker
I like it I'm glad. I'm glad, Matt. ah Let's do that next week. Please be here with us as we dive into the next section of ah the Hickman run on Fantastic Four.
01:43:44
Speaker
Until then, do not forget that Black Lives Matter. Trans rights are human rights. As are abortion rights. Drag is not a crime. Cops aren't your friends. Fuck ICE.
01:43:56
Speaker
Free Palestine. We love you. We love you. Yeah.