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Comics Catch-Up #61: Dick Tracy: Big City Blues
1.3k Plays6 months ago
We're catching up again, and this time we're covering the three Dick Tracy issues from 1990, two of which serve as a prequel to the movie, and one that's a movie adaptation!
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Comics Catch-Up'
00:00:00
Speaker
Oh my goodness, Connie! Now this is the back of the world! This is Comics Catch-Up!
00:00:24
Speaker
We read the comics suggested by you, the listeners of War Rocket Apex, that we have missed. Oh, hey. I haven't seen you in a minute. Let's catch up. This is Comics Catch Up. It's the show where I, Matt Wilson, and Chris Sims, who is here with me. Hello. We read the comics. Calling all Matt's. Calling all mats. We've got a crimes. Caption box with an arrow pointing to my wrist. Two-way wrist radio. Two-way podcast commuter. Two-way podcast microphone.
Dick Tracy Comics Overview
00:01:10
Speaker
As Chris implied, as Chris ah so subtly hinted,
00:01:15
Speaker
we are reading for this comics ketchup the show where we read the comics that we didn't read the first time around uh we're reading the dick tracy movie adaptation comics kind of i guess you would just call this three issue series from the year 1990 uh big city blues Because it's two prequels. Yes. and like Pretty meaty prequels and a movie adaptation. I realized a while back when we were first talking about doing these comics, reading these comics for this, that I only had the third one. And that's because the third one was the movie adaptation. The first two issues are prequels explaining
00:02:11
Speaker
the status of gang hierarchy in the city. And also ah giving some backstory of Breathless Mahoney and how she became like a singer in Lip Spandless's club at the Club Ritz. So it is all of that prequel stuff. Dick Tracy is pretty, um, Unchanging like yeah, no, he is a an extremely reactive hero. He he is Exactly the same in these prequel comics as he is in the movie and otherwise that said Boy are there multiple times in this where he just like lies to criminals so that he can like get information out of them or
00:03:08
Speaker
otherwise be a cop. Yeah, man.
Creators and Prequels Discussion
00:03:12
Speaker
um John Francis Moore and Linwin and Kyle Baker said ACAP. And also like, he just kills a dude in this too, right? ah So, so yes, you you mentioned the creators. John Moore and Kyle Baker are the creative team on the prequel comics. John Moore, who I've only ever seen credited as John Francis Moore. But in this he's credited as John Moore for some reason. Yeah, but it's it's him. It's that guy. It's that guy. Who is kind of like the modern Dick Tracy guy, right? Is he? Is he or am I thinking of somebody else?
00:04:01
Speaker
I think you're thinking of somebody else. Joe, Joe Staton did the art on the newspaper strip that for the run that was more recent and was really good. Okay. John Francis Moore has... Okay. For some reason, I thought he did a bunch of other Dick Tracy, but... He might have, but I don't think so. He wrote a bunch of X-Men comics in the 90s. Yeah, John Francis Moore is a, he is a name that if you are a comics reader like us, you will recognize in in the same vein as like a, ah a Val Semkis or a Lynn Strzewski. One of those guys who like was never like one of the big names, but you're like, wow, that person wrote a lot of comics. Yeah, yeah.
00:04:51
Speaker
Damn, I'm trying to think, Max Allen Collins is who I'm thinking of. Max Allen Collins wrote the the Joe Satan run, yes. That's who I'm thinking of. I got them confused. Three names, that's why you started going by John Moore. Some people would stop confusing him with Max Allen Collins. Yeah, I guess so. ah Okay, that explains it. yeah It's kind of wild that we get, first first of all, it was kind of wild that that the idea of doing comics prequels leading up to a movie adaptation. And then the movie adaptation is written by Lin Wien. It's not... John Moore is gone by issue three. Which seems bizarre, but it's like... Lin Wien is the editor on the two prequel issues. And then... This is Watchman. Yeah, and then he writes... That's what Lin Wien was editing.
00:05:49
Speaker
And then he writes the ah the third issue, which is the movie adaptation. All through reading this, I kept thinking about like, remember how there were like like, it feels like such a 2010s thing to be like the official comic book prequel to this movie. Yeah. Like like there were ones for Fury Road. Yes. There were ones for a couple of other things, but the idea of doing not just a comics adaptation, which seems very 80s and 90s, but the comics prequels and then having them lead into it was not something I have seen a lot of, I feel like. Usually see one or the other. Yeah. And okay.
00:06:35
Speaker
Compliment sandwich time.
Kyle Baker's Art Style
00:06:36
Speaker
Okay. For these prequel issues. Good thing. First piece of bread of the compliment sandwich. Kyle Baker is amazing. ah make amazing yeah I could look at the cover of the ah book one of Big City Blues for hours because it's a perfect Warren Beatty caricature as Dick Tracy holding a gun being hugged by a 1940s mob lady.
00:07:16
Speaker
a mall, if you will, who's like, she's he's like, clearly protecting her from flat top who's like, shadow, overshadowing both of them. And she has the most exaggerated face you've ever seen. Yeah, next to this photo realistic war. Yes, yeah it's her mouth is so big. She's screaming so loud that you don't even see the bottom of her mouth. She's like, got her arms around him and her ah arm is covering the bottom of her mouth. It's so gigantic and her hair is huge and like, but it works. And like that's one of those, uh, Ghostbusters action figures. It's exactly what it looks like. Yes. But that is the art throughout this whole thing where it's like the people who were played by real actors, like the characters who were played by real actors,
00:08:13
Speaker
look like those actors in the art. Otherwise, these are the most exaggerated, cartoonish,
00:08:25
Speaker
like Dick Tracy looking characters, but in a totally different style from the original Chester Gould. Yeah. um I thought you were going to say you could look at this cover for hours because you love those big pants. Those are those pants are huge. He got big pants. He got big pants. like Those are zoot suit pants. It's so weird to see Kyle Baker like draw a photo-referenced Warren Beatty head on a Kyle Baker character body.
00:09:05
Speaker
Which is weird, because he doesn't do that with any of the other characters that show up in the movie. Like Tess, the kid, Big Boy, he just draws them. Well, he yes. I mean, Big Boy doesn't look like Al Pacino. Yeah. Tess kind of looks like Tess from the movie. Breathless Mahoney isn't like a caricature of Madonna, but she looks like Madonna. Like it's, yeah Warren Beatty is the only one who like. Warren Beatty is the only that one who is like full on, that is the Hollywood actor Warren Beatty. Yeah. Where he's like meticulously drawn to look like Warren Beatty. But there are some like, like big boy is a caricatured Al Pacino, right? Like you could tell that that's meant to be Al Pacino. The guy who is the mayor from the movie,
00:10:03
Speaker
looks like the mayor from the movie or the guy who's running for mayor. Uh, but then that the people who were not so much played by actors in the movie or who are at least like more outlandish looking, uh, like, okay, prude face is played by an actor in the movie, but he's got heavy, heavy makeup on in the movie and everything. All of the characters who are in that kind of, Dick, Tracey, Milia, like that that style of like, you know, flat top and prune face and and all those dudes. Like, they look like, they look like these are the drawings that those characters in the movie were based on. Yes, very much so. They look like cartoon characters, lips, even. Yeah, like mumbles. Doesn't look like Dennis or Dustin Hoffman.
00:10:57
Speaker
yeah But he he looks like the makeup that Dustin Hoffman is in to be Mumbles. And I guess Big Boy looks like but like a comics version yeah like a comics version of Al Pacino. Yeah. Yeah. but they're not
00:11:18
Speaker
It's very interesting that the Warren Beatty face is so photorealistic. I love it. And I love, like, there's no credited colorist on this. Oh, Kyle Baker did all the art and the lettering. And the lettering, yeah. the The lettering is like, so distinct. Like, I don't know if I love it, actually. But it fits the feeling of the book. Perfectly. It is very much the Kyle Baker lettering. like It's the same lettering you would get in Cowboy Wally or any of his like any of his stuff.
00:12:02
Speaker
yeah ah which Kyle Baker is kind of at the simultaneously the perfect choice to draw this book and a book wild choice to draw this book. Yeah. what like I remember I tried to look up today to see if I could find the movie on streaming to watch it before we were talking about it. But I don't think it's anywhere currently. Let me see. If it was anywhere, it would probably be did be Disney Plus. um But but i I remember you and I watching it. And one of the things that we liked about it was that it was
00:12:45
Speaker
you like the very colorful and very stylized like that is an element that they took from Batman 89. Yeah. And you know, like that, that, that one tweet whose author I can't recall who was like, it's so wild that Batman 89 was like a huge success. And instead of saying people want more superheroes, they said people want more characters in the forties. And so that's why we got the shadow of the Phantom Dick Tracy and all those. Yeah. Um, And the one thing that Dick Tracy really took and I think did well from 89 was that it is a very visually stylized and stylish movie, like lots of bright colors. So the comic does look like the movie. It does. It looks like a Kyle Baker comic. I was going to say the colors are vibrant. Yeah. Like everything is so bright. Like even like
00:13:46
Speaker
The trash cans in an alley are like bright green. Like pastel green, you know, like it is. Visually stunning the whole book and and beautiful in many ways. ah I adore the art in this like. It is. So like I remember having the movie adaptation book and it like really really capturing my imagination With this Kyle Baker art um It's um it's beautiful Here's the here's the meat of the compliment sandwich. Here's the here's the not so good part Who needed this story? It is it's weird and it's weird that like like you mentioned this and
00:14:42
Speaker
but so truly bizarre that we get an origin story for everyone but Dick Tracy. Yeah, Dick Tracy is static. Dick Tracy is totally static throughout these prequel issues. He is who he is. He has his position in the police department. It is all him. Everybody else is moving up. like at the Like in the first issue in shit that we don't even see like this is like we're kind of in media race in the first issue but He's been like put on desk duty because he was copping too hard. Yeah, and you know, that's cool. Um But yeah, like if anything the first two issues are the origin story of big boy caprice Well, it's it's certainly big boy caprice going from
00:15:40
Speaker
like a Lieutenant Enforcer in Lips Manless' organization to breaking off and doing his own thing. So that in the movie, when he kills Lips, I guess that's supposed to explain that, but you don't i you don't need you don't need that. Yeah, I never felt like, yeah, it's a gang war. Yeah, but you do, but you boy, boy, do you get it? Boy, do you get all the, uh, the gang war is the main focus of so much like survivor series 97. Yes. It's, it's the gang war. It's trip. Tess's dad dying. Like Tess has an arc in the prequels, which is cool. Like, cause Tess doesn't get a lot to do in the movie. It's an origin story for the kid.
00:16:38
Speaker
Cause we see where the kid originally came from in the prequel and like how Dick Tracy and Tess ventured to find him. It's an origin story for Breathless Mahoney. And yeah, it's just a lot of gang inter fighting, getting us to the place of where things stand in the movie. wild. Okay. Can I, do you have, do you have the other piece of bread and the compliment sandwich? That was, that was the, that was the bread. That was the meat. Okay.
Dialogue and Movie Adaptation Critique
00:17:17
Speaker
The, the, the, who needs the story. The other piece of bread in the compliment sandwich is I largely think the dialogue is very accurate, not only to the movie itself, but also to like,
00:17:35
Speaker
1940s cop fiction. and And comics from that era, even where like choke is in parentheses. ah that There is a great joke in this where the two cops see a thing and they go gasp choke. Yeah. ah In the classic easy comic style, like that's a very good bit. And I wonder, I can't remember if that's in a wean issue or one of the more issues, but Very clutch. Yes, it's It's definitely a comic made by people who love The pulpy Crime action comics of the era Yeah, and have read a lot of them because in addition to being like throwbacks to dick tracy itself It's also throwbacks to you know crime suspense stories and stuff like that Nice, and I love that. I mean I
00:18:33
Speaker
that's that's gonna get me every time, you know? um he Here is what, i I have a question for you. Okay. and And very similar, like this is kind of springing off your who who needed this story. Yeah. Idea. um
00:18:52
Speaker
As someone who only had the third issue, the movie adaptation. Yeah. And like had very fond memories thereof. How did you feel about the fact that the first two issues are so much better? It's interesting for sure. I remember reading the movie adaptation issue a lot when I was a kid and loving it, but that was because I had seen the movie. Yeah. Now reading it again, it is impossible to understand if you haven't seen the movie. Yeah, no, it's very much that that ah Tom Shioli
00:19:34
Speaker
Uh, they have compressed so much of this. Yes. Uh, but like necessary. The first two issues. No, absolutely not. Pretty good. Pretty good. Like, like interesting character dynamics. My biggest complaint, my biggest complaint other than the sort of it just being unnecessary. Uh, and And that's a problem with a lot of prequels, right? The reason the earlier part of the story wasn't told the first time is because that's not the important stuff, you know? It's not the important stuff, but I kind of feel like this third issue being so compressed and like, I mean, we're talking about an extra size issue. It's gotta be, I didn't count, but it's gotta be 48 pages, right?
00:20:35
Speaker
It's more. It's way more. It's like 60 something. 64 maybe? And we're talking pages that are all on an either nine or six panel grid. Yeah. But when but when Breathless Mahoney shows up as the blank with the you know the blank face mask as as basically the question,
00:20:58
Speaker
it It's nonsense in the comic. like It's kind of nonsense in the movie, but at least like there's ah some explanation of it. In this comic, if you haven't seen the movie, you do not know what is happening. Yeah. I almost feel like they did two other 64-page comics. to just try to get you the backstory of why Big Boy would kill Lips Manless and why Breathless Mahoney would become the blank and like...
00:21:34
Speaker
what the deal is with Sam Ketchum. like yeah but but sam is Sam is barely in the movie. yeah like Pat Patton and Sam Ketchum barely in the film. There's a whole backstory for Sam in in these prequel issues, a character who is in two scenes of the movie. ah But like here's the thing. Why was it not just a three issue adaptation of the movie? I don't know. I do not know. But, but I do feel like I do feel like the first two issues where they're not doing movie backstory stuff or or theyre they're not doing movie adaptation stuff and are just doing backstory are better. They're better than the movie. Is, is that because
00:22:28
Speaker
The movie's not very good. Is it because the movie's not very good? Is it because, yeah, it's harder to adapt a comic from a movie than do an original story? Or is it because it's John Moore writing those two issues and Lin Wing writing number three? I mean, Lin Wing isn't a bad writer. He's not. I think it's just a much harder job to adapt something than to write an original story. My guess would be that Len Wien, I think, uh, look, we've got, we've got, we know, we have friends, we have people dear to us in our lives who love Swamp Thing. Oh Swamp Thing is good. Swamp Thing is good. Yeah. But I think, I think Len Wien's strength is that he's a very good editor.
00:23:26
Speaker
and a better editor than a writer, probably. And I don't think he's a bad writer. I think that's probably true. You know, I think you can say like, Lin Wien wrote House of Secrets 93 or whatever it was, but he edited Watchmen. like For better or for worse, he was the editor on that um and and edited a bunch of stuff. I would guess he did the adaptation because that is kind of like if you're a writer and editor, it's kind of easier. like That is a better skill set for taking a screenplay and turning it into a comic because you're essentially editing it.
00:24:05
Speaker
and then you know you have to like Obviously, you have to translate it into an entirely different medium. Film scripts and comic scripts are very different. And and it's not impossible. like We've talked about this before. Movie adaptations, movie comic adaptations are almost always bad and almost always don't make any sense if you just read the comic. Yeah. Because A, they you're not doing it based on the final draft. Yes. You know, yeah lead time means that you are working with what is likely you're going to have shit in there that's not in the movie. And B, like, it's it's translating one work to another one. It's the Scott McLeod thing of, like, if William Shakespeare and Michelangelo did a comic, it would suck. I don't think he says those exact words. He might. That might be actually be a line from Understanding Comics. Billy Shakespeare and Mikey Buenorati
00:25:05
Speaker
Uh, their comic would blow chunks, I think is how McLeod puts it. I mean, he ain't wrong about that. Yeah. Cause like it's, you know, it it's more than being a good writer of one thing and a good artist of one thing. It's, it's a skillset. So I feel like that's probably why Len Wien did the third one. I don't think John Moore is that much better a writer than Len Wain, which again, don't think Len Wain is bad. Don't think John Francis Moore is bad. But if I had to guess, I'd say that's why he did it that way. But boy, these first two issues are so much better. Yeah, i I have to chalk it up to, I think, that's a story that was written for comics.
00:25:57
Speaker
Yeah. And the movie adaptation is a movie adaptation. And that's, that's it. The number one thing is the pacing. The pacing is so much better because it is a story. And again, dense story is like, like, you know, one and two are the same length and generally have like pretty packed pages, again, a lot of six panel grids. But also like- They have a lot of pieces to move, right? like Like you have to get Breathless Mahoney from literally arriving in the city, like holding a bag full of oranges or a basket full of oranges.
00:26:49
Speaker
to being Lips Manless's, you know, number one top singer. And she's gotta like, her his his number one goil, where like, she even has to like overtake his previous top goil, you know? Like, you have to move big boy from low level, grunt, working for Lips to, you know, wanting to start his own organization in opposition to Lips. Yeah, you have to go from like, there's a lot of stuff that has to happen based on the chosen starting point of those prequel issues. So yes, they're extremely dense and like have a lot going on.
00:27:44
Speaker
Um, which leads to, okay, I have two additional complaints. Oh, let me finish this thought real quick. Okay. Even just looking at the pages. Yeah. There is no page in the movie adaptation with fewer than five panels. And most of them are like, like I said, nine panel grid, six panel grid, just packing it in. There's a lot of dense pages in one and two, but there's also like splash pages for the action or three panel pages or like there the pacing is so much different and so much better, which you can tell just by literally thumbing through it. Yeah. Yeah. It feels like a comic. Feels like a comic. Yeah. And not like a story from another medium.
00:28:44
Speaker
masquerading as a comic. yeah um So okay, a couple of other small complaints about these, both of which I think are not really these books fault, per se. One we've already mentioned, and that is that Dick Tracy is such a fucking cop throughout this whole thing. He shoots up but he shoots gangsters right at the beginning of issue two. like It's just like fully, no, he shoots one or two and issue one too. Like, it's just- I think he does the most egregious cop stuff in the movie adaptation. Well, the movie ends with just a huge gunfight. So yeah. But I mean, like he, you know, he fucking like lies in traps, uh, roughs up suspects.
00:29:42
Speaker
Oh yes, I mean he does that throughout this. And also, after he does a bunch, of at the in the first issue, because you said like he's on desk duty at the start of this, at the end of the first issue, he gets put back on active duty because he shoots a bunch of gangsters. Yeah, man. like That's kind of just like the Dick Tracy storytelling style. Uh, so it's, again, like it's not really these books fault, but boy, does it stick out ah here. Yeah. The other thing is, and again, other characters will literally tell him shit like Tracy, his lawyer is going to have a field day with this, that, that crooked lawyer, that defense attorney.
00:30:33
Speaker
ah yeah Yeah, the attorney is in here a lot. He's Pruneface's lawyer. What's his name? It's such a funny... It's Sabina. Sabina, yeah. Sabina is very funny. Also, Pruneface's full name is given in this as Lorenzo Prunesty. Also very good. Put more of that shit in my movie. Oh man, Lorenzo Prudesty. Oh, love it. Uh, anyway. The other complaint I have, which again is just part of this type of storytelling, but it's how you know that this was a comic published in 1990 and not one published in 2024. The gangsters are like openly sexist.
00:31:25
Speaker
Like, they say a lot of, like, sexist bullshit. Uh-huh. And it's not like there wouldn't be a story now where they did that too, but they would get some kind of comeuppance for it, right? Yeah, I mean, like, like, trace Tracy's not entirely, uh... Innocent. Innocent of that. Like, particularly when, like, he's leaving the opera and Tess is like, Tesla's like, Oh, maybe I should join the, the police force. So you fucking pay attention to me. Oh yeah. That's right. You wouldn't look good in the uniform, but you look good in that dress. Yeah. Yeah. They make some choices. They make some choices. And, and this is not a saying that, that we think
00:32:24
Speaker
the the creators, John Moore or Lynn Wien or Kyle Baker, would agree with anything they're saying. Like, obviously these are things that they think these characters would say in this time period, right? Yeah, i think I think they are ah they are indulging in ah these are these are characters of their time, because that's how it was back then. Because that's how it was back then. But if this was... im going to speak Tracy was around. Okay, if this was a comic being made now, And let's be honest, a movie being made now. First of all, Dick Tracy would not be saying the sexist shit. It would just be the bad guys. It would just be the bad guys, yeah. Two, the bad guys would get some kind of comeuppance for it. Where like,
00:33:15
Speaker
one of the women would like get revenge on them or or so get one up on them somehow you know like but here it's just like part of who they are yeah is that they're sexist assholes and like it is what it is it's probably what gangsters of this type would have been like at the time it's just a little weird and jarring to read it today as as a matter of course, you know? Yeah. um I think the page the page with the fewest panels in these prequel issues has three. Yeah. I mean, they're they're all very dense. The big bomb goes off. there I mean, there's a there's a couple of splashes in number two for sure. I think in number one as well. Oh, there's one with two. There's there's one with two where the mole is revealed, which got that character design. ah Yeah.
00:34:14
Speaker
No, it's wild to see what what the movie could have been like if it had committed even harder. And and to its credit, the movie committed pretty hard to weird fucked up looking freakos. Yeah. Speaking of fucked up looking freakos, just to show how dense these first two issues issues are,
00:34:44
Speaker
the there's a whole subplot of in in these that we haven't even mentioned yet we're like there's this gangster who keeps getting plastic surgery to change his face so we won't be recognized so dick tracy does the same thing to try to like get into the the the underworld and like learn about this part of the underworld and like who's getting the plastic, giving the plastic surgery and everything. He doesn't get plastic surgery. He wears a mask. A Mission Impossible mask. Yeah. He gets a Mission Impossible mask, but with the hope of like, Oh, they're going to do plastic surgery on me. But just before it starts, I'm going to escape. Right. find guy Yeah. yeah ah But then he gets like injected with sedative and almost does get his face
00:35:37
Speaker
cut off before ah he gets broken out by Sam and the boys. um But yeah, like, there is so much going on in these issues.
Overall Enjoyment and Art Appreciation
00:35:49
Speaker
I think it is a mixed bag.
00:35:56
Speaker
But all in all, I would call these fun to read. The first two especially I think are they're not all time classics. But I mean, like, I enjoyed reading them. And I thought the, the, the plot of everything was actually pretty fun. And I i honestly liked, you know, the the idea of, oh, Tess's father gets killed. yeah And so even though he's on a desk job, Dick Tracy's gonna be like, I gotta find the guy who killed my girlfriend's dad. like that's a like That's a legit cool story for a Dick Tracy arc. like No, it's not that the story itself is bad or that the pieces don't fit together. I think they fit together surprisingly well. And I think that they ah set up where the characters are in the movie beautifully. Yeah.
00:36:54
Speaker
It's also a story nobody needs. Also a story nobody needs, yeah. Yeah. But to quote Alan Moore, but aren't they all?
00:37:13
Speaker
All right, Chris, let's rank. i I guess we'll just call all three of these issues. Dick Tracy, Big City Blues. They are all of a piece. they are all They certainly do tell a single story. Weirdly enough, that story is about Big Boy Caprice. Yes. it it is Big Boy is the main character. He's he's the character with the arc. He has an arc, yeah. And also he gets ah kind of the best moment, which is after he kidnaps Tess, which is in the movie.
00:37:45
Speaker
where he kidnaps Tess and ah is just kind of like yammering at her the whole time. In the comic, it it comes off a little bit better because he seems very apologetic about it. He's like, Listen, I'm sorry, I got to kidnap you. I was really hoping this wasn't gonna go down this way. I'm just trying to kill your boyfriend. yeah Like, it comes off a little bit better in the comics. I know that he does do that in the movie, but it's a like, he is kind of
00:38:11
Speaker
another weird thing they took away from Batman 89, the villain is the star. I will say this about the third issue. There's the whole like, we talked about like Kyle Baker having the really, really exaggerated art. And that is true. It is toned down a bit in the movie adaptation issue. It is. And the lettering is a little different. And I think it's a matter of Disney Comics really wanting to put the best foot forward in the movie adaptation issue because they knew that's the one more people were going to read. Yeah, I'm almost certain I also had this. And I wouldn't have gotten it at a comic book store.
00:38:57
Speaker
I would have gotten it at a gas station. Newsstand, yeah. yeah The only way you would know that this is ah not a one shot adaptation of the movie is like, there's not a number three on the cover. It's in the indicia. It's in the indicia. Yeah, that's it. The cover is just essentially the movie poster, yeah drawn by Kyle Baker. um Big pants. real big pants. Also, he got fucking cargo pockets on that trench coat. The spray of bullets going all around him is out of control.
00:39:37
Speaker
But yeah, the only book three is ah the book, it says book three on the credits page yeah above the indicia and that is it. um But nonetheless, I think this is pretty good. I think it is fun to read. I think it is also, I think the star of the show here is by far the Kyle Baker art. Uh, I think that's the reason to, to read it, the reason to look at it, the reason to remember it, to be honest. Yeah. I mean, honestly, Kyle Baker does a bang up job and it's like, it's worth checking these out just to see it. Cause I swear there are pages in here that Kyle Baker colored with a crayon. It sort of looks anything so good. yeah Like he does like the, the highlights and blushing on people's faces.
00:40:32
Speaker
it It looks like he's doing it in crayon. It's gorgeous. There are definitely parts where it may not be the whole page, but like little little details and highlights absolutely do look like crayon. Like I'm looking at a page from issue three right now where a cop is walking into ah but the club, the Ritz and turning on a light. And the like shading on the wall behind him is this kind of like purplish color that absolutely does look like he just kind of lightly went over it with a crayon. Yeah. Like there's a lot of color bleed too. Like there's a really good, like anytime ah big boy, it it might just be with big boy, but like anytime you see big boy smiling, a little bit of the, the skin tone is on his teeth. And that's like,
00:41:34
Speaker
That's like such a good thing of A, like kind of evoking off-register printing, like you would get in a newspaper strip, and B, also like a great visual representation of Big Boy being this kind of like gangster with pretensions of being legitimate. You know, like it's all, he's all facade. oh Also, um a very funny thing that happens in this that I can't remember if it's from the movie or not is when we see the headlines in a newspaper that is called The Daily Paper.
00:42:10
Speaker
That's fucking funny. I don't remember The Daily Paper from the movie or not, but I know there's a lot of like spinning headlines in the movie for sure. Yeah. The Daily Paper is really fucking funny.
00:42:25
Speaker
Where do we rank this? I think... Good Lord Choke. Good Lord Choke. That's what we get from that one panel. Where's the part of the list that's, like, fun and good, but also kind of inessential? I feel like of all the things we take into account, Matt, we can't start going, did this story need to happen? Because that's none of them. That's true. That's a fair point.
Comparisons and Show Support Information
00:42:51
Speaker
But I mean, like i I don't know if this breaks the top 1,000 on the list. ah Number 1,000 right now is Bishops Crossing. Is this better than Wait, I have Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers at 1,000. That's at $9.99 for me. Oh no. All right. what is what What comic did I not put on here? I'm missing one.
00:43:22
Speaker
No, if if Bishop's Crossing's at 1000, you have one more than me. Yeah. That's at 999 for me. Yeah, so I would have one more above it. Right, so you have one that I don't. Oh, right. We'll figure that out later. Yeah, either way, is it better than Bishop's Crossing? I don't know. I mean, it doesn't have Malcolm and Randall in it. Yeah, I mean, Bishop's Crossing pretty good. I mean, it's not. It's it's at least 1,000. It's number 1,000 on a list of comics. I don't care. It's pretty good. ah I would put it above Captain Victory, though. Yeah, like, I'm looking like, my 950 is ah underworld unleashed. Yeah. And I mean, that also didn't need to happen. Okay, my 950 is also underworld unleashed. So it's got to be somewhere in there.
00:44:21
Speaker
Okay. Between 950 and 1000. What do you have at 975? 975 is the invisibles. Okay, same for me. Okay, interesting. What do you have at 990? Sandman preludes and nocturnes. Same, okay. Okay, what do you have at number 998? 998 is Swamp Thing 32. Yeah, what do you have at 993? 993 is Defenders Volume 3. That's what I have. Is 996 Silverstar? Yes. 997 DC Special Series Number 8? Uh, yes. Wait, so how... I'm so confused. ah Do you have something else at 999? 999, I have Captain Victory.
00:45:13
Speaker
Yes, at $9.98 you have Swamp Thing 32. Yeah, and at $1,000 is Bishop's Crossing. Oh, so those are just switched. Oh, is that what happened? Yes, those are just switched. Well, then I guess the number $1,000 is Captain Victory. Bishop's Crossing is $9.99. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm glad we figured that out. Thank you for listening to us figure all that out. I mean, this is kind of like, you know, It kind of goes around there, I think. i I would put it above Captain Victor. I would rather read it again. i would I would certainly rather look at this art more than the art of a lot of things in this neighborhood. Yeah. I'm i'm feeling strongly that this is the new number 1000.
00:46:04
Speaker
Okay. So not as good as Bishop's Crossing. Not as good as Bishop's Crossing above Captain Victory. All right, so in at the number 1000 spot, the coveted, the first of the quads, but we have Dick Tracy, Big City Blues. Yep. At the first of the quads, that puts it at roughly the two thirds point of the list. There are 1548 entries on the list.
00:46:39
Speaker
All right. 1990s Dick Tracy number one to three. All right. And that was some good discussion about these Dick Tracy comics a long time coming also. And also that is this is going to be our June and July comics catch up. We will just get back on it monthly in August. Um, if you listen to three 64 page issues, I think that's, that's a lot of reading. That is a good chunk of reading. Uh, ah the the
00:47:12
Speaker
we'll We'll be back in August with another catch-up. You can listen to our regular Ajax episode to know ah why we couldn't do one in June. There was a good reason.
00:47:24
Speaker
ah If you want to support this show and keep us catching up on comics that we missed the first time around, you can ah support us on Patreon. by going to patreon dot.com slash war rocket Ajax and kicking in as little as one dollar a month to support this show every month to support the weekly war rocket Ajax show every story ever specials monthly movie fighters and snack situation all of those are made possible ah by your support on patreon and do you get cool rewards for being a patron you can go check out the patreon to see all of that
00:47:59
Speaker
Our website is warrocketajax.com. It has every episode of the show we've ever done. You can contact us by email, warrocketpodcastatgmail.com. That's where you can recommend stuff for us to read for Comics Catch Up. You can also do that on our Discord, which you have to be invited to join. But if you ask us nicely for an invitation, we'll get you one. We're on Blue Sky, warrocketajax.bsky.social, or on Tumblr, warrocketpodcast dot.tumblr dot.com. WarRockitWiki.com is the fan-run place to get all the information you could ever want or need about this show, War Rocket Ajax. If you want to find me and my stuff, go to MattDWilson.net. You can find links to everything I have done there. Chris, where can people find you? Everybody can find all of my stuff by going to THE-ISB dot.com. That's my website. Downset Fight, 10th Anniversary Edition, in stores now? Get it. Better than the Dick Tracy movie adaptation. I'll say it. I would agree. I will strongly agree.
00:48:58
Speaker
Downset Fight, an absolute joy to read. Downset Fight, definitely triple digits. Definitely somewhere in the triple digits, but we will never rank it because we're never going to rank our own comics. We shan't rank it, but it would be in the high triple, to the well, the close to the top triple digits. We did. Yeah. Copernicus Jones, I won't even venture. double digits. Thanks for listening, everybody. For instance, number 14.
00:49:31
Speaker
i low ah Boy, it's not you cannot buy it anymore. So if you own it, cherish it. The current number 14 is Hellboy pancakes. So I hope you I hope you understand what a compliment I'm giving you, Matt. it i I think i I would not put it there. yeah You know what, that's good. That's fair. Bye, everybody. Bye, everybody. Good catching up. Good catching up.