Episode 97: Static Shock

It's gonna get pumped and we gotta sing some songs. Um, so yeah for Valentine's Yeah, just you know fellas Time's Day. Yeah. I was about to say you called me and if he and I actually talked about like random things for like a half hour, and he's like, what are you doing? Because we're both we both like weren't we didn't have

dates and I would be annoying. I felt bad for the other Super Punch team who had to fly to the TBS studio in Atlanta because like j D is married, Alex has a girlfriend, Kelly's married, and I was like, y'all abandon all your your your spouses and significant others to do this show on Twitch. Yeah, but I mean they're married, so yeah, it's like it's Valentine's Day every day. Yeah. Um. That other voice on the other side of the mic

is l A based illustrator and writer Crystal Savage. Thanks for joining us, Thanks for having yeah, of course, thanks trying to be here. Yeah. No, this is gonna be another fun one. It's been fun month Black History Month. Went to get some black creators in here so we can just be talking about what we do. I think it adds like another like element of flare to it.

Like we were talking about Milestone with Ed and there were so many parallels with starting up and pitching your own uh comic book company you with like even selling a TV show or something like that. And I'm sure the steps in trials and tribulations making a show like Static, you'll have a lot of insight on the illustration and writing side, even with the episodes just rewatching it. Um, And I know I'm totally jumping the gun, but um, I noticed, like the first they're the way they break

up the seasons. Back in the two thousands, those shows typically had a twenty two episode run, so saying like season one is like twelve eleven or twelve episodes, and then season two is eleven and twelve episodes. That signal to me that that was and then also that the art style did not change until season three, because you've

seen cartoons. First season, it's just yeah, but if it's good enough and they get enough viewership, they get their season two, they get a budget increase, everything looks amazing. You know, maybe they get a few more episodes, who knows. So it makes me think that season one and two is actually one season that they split into two so that they could make it for syndication. Maybe completely untrue.

I don't know, but I remember when I was at DreamWorks that did happen with a few shows that were supposed to go a little bit longer, but they decided to end the run. They had two seasons, but they would split them into four seasons by doing taking the twenty two episodes into to twelve episode seasons. So that's how you make your syndication. Still, but I could be totally off base, but everything like this whole thing with

shows only having thirteen episodes ten episodes, that's very recent phenomenon. Okay, that's very that's that's actually, you know, just for more insider baseball talk. That's kind of been the whole thing with w g A bargaining because you know, you used to have these longer season runs, so that would you know, take care of the year if you only did the

year of writing. But now you have the shorter run season, some seasons as short as eight episodes, and if you don't write for the rest of the year, that eight episodes worth of money isn't the same. Yeah, so so we have to you know, bargain and kind of get more minimums or higher pay for shorter runs and stuff like that. But yeah, no, that's it's it's yeah, it's

funny how I know. It's interesting because there's like two sides of of media where you get the front face and consumer side of what we see, digest enjoy and pretty much yeah, it's just there to enjoy, but then there's all the back stuff that happens that and it's so funny to see because you know, same thing and this will be I guess kind of molded into what I'm gigging out about, which is the fact that my one of my favorite games, Apex Legends, who uh a

friend of mine many. Hugopion has been writing on got Game of the I think it was Multiplayer Game of the Game Year or the first person Shooter Game of the Year at the DICE Awards, And it was interesting seeing because you know there's a game that BioWare was made, uh and by Aware if you don't know them, they did the mass Effect games, the Dragon Age games, and as recently they you know back when That's Effect wanted to the first to games even before that, but that

those were the games. Yeah, like in grade school, that's when they were like known as like, oh this is this is you know when that's because you know, video games kind of started in the like two thousands, two thousands tend to have that stand culture behind publishers where it's like we can trust these guys. But you know, with the newest mass Effect started a little earlier than yeah, because I'm okay, I'm about to get forty this year. I'm going to tell you honestly, when I think it started.

That was squar Sauce Fault with Final Fantasy. They started with Final Fantasy seven, and people were like, oh my god, I can trust Squares offt to make this amazing game because they were the ones that changed everything. Yeah, we get games on disc because of Final Fantasy seven, We get games going across years because of Final Fantasy seven, And they were able to build so much after Final

Fantasy seven came out. They was making movies that was like, we're gonna make her gates, We're gonna make fighting games, We're gonna make you know, shooter games. We're gonna make not just RPGs. And they really like all of that happened because of Final Fantasy seven, and people like glumped on the Square Soft and that just that was it listening. That's what Square Enix used to be called the Square I remember, yes, Square Soft. Well, when they turned into

Square enixs, I was like, who are you? Who is this? But yeah, but so now but with the Anthem, it was kind of a flop and they've been trying to rework it. It's kind of a Games of the Service game similar to Destiny, And there were so many people who were like, oh, by aware is is this and that? And we can't trust them by where this? By where

that bay? And it wasn't until Jesse Cox came on, go, well, I know that Anthem was rushed by e a. So I'm wondering if the suits that rushed by Aware to make this game and thus making an incomplete game, are without jobs anyone, anyone, And it's like, yeah, that's what. Really, you're blaming BioWare when it's not even their fault and you know I'm not gonna rush the job. Are still working, they are collecting, they check. Oh yeah, they that FIFA

check that FIFA check. Keep them, keep them afloat, baby, They're fine, You're fine. Don't worry. What are you nerding out about doing? Um um? Well, A couple of things. One, I'm glad that our prediction was right, that Matthew Cherry Ascara like like nostradamit's over here. I mean, I was scared that I was going to jinx in by saying he won it because we recorded the day before, and I'm like, he won. I'm hoping that's the power of speaking.

He literally did Another thing, I want to give a shout out to our friend and Short's The Voice of Sonics is opening this weekend, so so shout out, go check out the Sonic movie. And people are enjoying. Yeah, it's a it's a it's a family friendly movie. I don't think it's supposed to be groundbreaking, so um, just enjoy it and then uh, finally, this just feels like

I'm just shouting out movies. What I was getting out about was actually that I went with Malcolm Barrett if I'm on Oscar to night after I saw After I saw Matthew, when I checked out, I left, we were like I've done, and I went and um, I went to see Birds of Prey and I did love many different things about it, but one was the sheer amount of fighting they had, like the fight choreography. I mean, it was just like it reminded me of there's two

types of DBZ episodes. There's one where they stand around and talk and there's one where they fight the entire time. And that's what it felt like. It was like majority fighting. I felt like, I'm probably going to see that tonight after this. Yeah I haven't. Yeah, I gotta see this. I'm gonna record track with Lamar. But then I got to get my hair cut. I got you know, it's that I've been working so much. Yeah yeah, yeah, but I like, I wake up, go to the gym, because

you know, your boy never sleeps. You boy got to get them gains. But I'm writing on this sci fi show, Great Debate, who you might you might see some folk, you know, you might see some folks on that show. Just just gonna say, I've meant a text to see if I can announce some of the people. Because the tickets are available. Yeah, you can buy tickets for the live taping. So usually the ticketing sites will say who's gonna be on it? Uh, and we have Yeah, we've

locked a few apps. Uh, you know, but it's you know, I might wanna might wanna hop. Yeah. But so I've been doing that from like ten thirty to five thirty, sitting in an hour and twenty minutes of traffic from Culver to Burbank to shoot my yeah, because then I shoot my late night on Twitch super Punch from seven to eleven. Then I jet home, try and get a

little bit asleep. But because you know me, like I like one night, I was playing Apex till like two problem and then like, yeah, last night, like I did all that. I got home at two and I was like, let me watch one episode of again Tomas Wow. One episode. But then I knew I screwed myself because they were like,

this is the one hour special premier episode. On my point, if you want to know, you want to know something so funny when people get honest at our podcast is only an hour, which I think is like the perfect time is, um, I'm writing on this show. I do the same thing where I'm in this writer's room for Netflix until like six pm, like you know, it's dark out, And then I agreed to do someone's podcast and it was it was ram but like it was two hours long.

So I was sitting there until nine pm thinking like I need I feel so bad, I need to not agree to do this. I was like, this is there's no topic that I need to sit here that you need to hear me talk about for two hours of just straight Yeah, I know it depends on the topic. Well, I mean I hear you, but also like, as a working person, I cannot. That's why like all of our guests like you and everyone that comes in is like

they're busy people. They're doing stuff, and so we try to give give you all info and bite sized amounts and then get out of there. So, um, Crystal, what are you getting out about this week? I love dead Dead demons, the dead Dead Dead destruction. It is a

manga by any assano Um. If you read good Night Mr. Poom Poom or um Stollen in with the other one that came out, it's this crazy slice of life manga about basically, these aliens just showed up over Tokyo huge mothership and did absolutely nothing, and of course people thought they were about to get invaded. They were freaking out and nothing happened, so then they started to just get used to it it and go on about their daily lives.

But that's not gonna just sit. It's like, it's just like the craziest thing I've ever seen is about these four high school girls that are just trying to decide if they still want to go to school in the face of this, because they know they're like, we're gonna die for sure, there's something's going to happen, or if they're gonna try to pursue romantic relationships, or if they're going to try to stop these aliens, or if the aliens are actually a problem. Because there's some reveals later on.

I'm on book seven, I know there's like a couple of more volumes left, and a lot of things have been revealed about the aliens and what the government is doing. Donald Trump is in there. Yes, comic is amazing and I recommend it to anybody to read it. And our style is amazing too as well. So you say it was a manga, Yeah, maa, okay, I love whenever they drag us Please Death Note went and had Donald Trump in it too. They did shot you have to it's impossible now you can't not drag Look at what look

at what's going on over in America. Yeah. Well it's so funny too, because like my buddy Pierce is over in Japan right now, and when he when Donald Trump was meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister, and I was like, oh, what's this And my buddy was like, he's just as bad. He's our Donald Trump. I was like, yeah, yeah, really yeah, it's just as bad as Donald That's what Pierce said. So wow, he said it's very like he's very nationalist,

say something, you know, so same thing. It seems like it was just some weird kool aid that went into all the different world leaders where it's like we just got to get supernationalists and be about us in our roots, but really not our roots, just the primary race that we want to I mean, we don't really have I mean our roots aren't anyways. I was going to say, I love that Bong June Hoo kept calling the Oscars like a regional. Oh yeah, it's funny. It's still show.

Yeah he's still swept. He was like, thanks, and I'm out. Yeah, he's very liable to keep checking Americans. We need it. And if you like to parasite of, I'll check out snow Piercer, check out the host. You know that he's got some other hits to check out. Pierce is my favorite. I just want to tweet gifts that are like respect. People that have seen it will get that. Send me respect gifts. I'm still freaked out, but I guy, we'll

look so. Um. I was going to say, before we though hop into static Shock, I kind of would love the audience to know a little bit more about you, Crystal pursuing you know, being an illustrator and writing comics. So how did you get into this field and how did you also? Sorry, second question, when did you decide to pursue it professionally? Honestly, I always love comics. Um. I told you before that I grew up reading my

dad's comic book collection. He had bookcases and bookcases and bookcases of comics, and um, I just read all of them whatever I could. And I got a little older, felled down to manga black hole, never to be seen again. But and I thought for a while, I was like, oh wow, I'm gonna be an animator because I always love cartoons and I went to school for it. Um. And I did finally come out here, super duper late.

But I came out here. Where are you from? I'm from Chicago, originally from Chicago, born and raised, and um, yeah, it was a culture shot coming here. But that's what's at the point. UM. And I started working at Universal. UM. Then I ended up at DreamWorks. Um they were doing some Netflix shows. They're doing a bunch of Netflix shows now, um. And then a couple of other smaller studios after that.

But I had always loved animation. I always love comic books, and those two kind of tend to go hand in hand, Like I don't know anybody that's in the comic that does said doesn't love animation, and vice versa. UM. It is a related but similar, related but different skill set because with animation, especially storyboards, which is what people used to compare to comics. It's all about a your camera,

where's your camera gonna be at? So I did my time at some animation studios, but honestly, one of the things I learned, I mean because the way, and you guys know as well, you work on a project for a certain amount of time, and then you're hustling for the next next project, which means you're hustling for the next paycheck. And I realized that I can do that, and it's cool, but I'm always gonna be working on somebody else's ideas and somebody else's stories and somebody else's dreams.

I have a finite amount of time on this earth, and I don't want to spend it telling somebody else's story. I want to tell on my own stories. So I uh got together with my friend that you know, he was the only other black person on our product to Netflix, I mean at uh DreamWorks. We're doing a show for Netflix that DreamWorks, and Uh, I was like, yo, let's

just do this comic together. Like, you know, we're both obviously still working, but we're like, we need to be working towards something for ourselves so that we're not constantly be beholden to some big name studio or any other studio for you know, So, did you all have to meet up on because you're still working full time. I'm just trying to give I know this helps our listeners that are also trying to pursue a creative absolutely, so, were you meeting up on weekends? Always on the weekends

we meet up. We have it scheduled. And this is the thing that you absolutely have to do if this is something that you're interested in, especially if you're working with somebody else one, you have to respect their time and your energy and your own. Don't make unrealistic goals or expectations about this sort of thing. It is going to take the time that it's going to take, and the more research that you do ahead of the time,

the better that your situation will be. Um And you want to make sure you're working with somebody that actually wants to do with that isn't just like, oh, well, you know, I could do a draw a few pictures here and there. You want somebody that is committed to the project as you are, that sees, yes, I see value in this. I need to be doing something other than you know, just working for somebody else. It also helps if that person has their own ideas that maybe

they want to get out there. Because my partner, he's a board artist, so of course he's a board artist, are writers too. He has a lot of great ideas. So after we're done with this first one, this are comic fantasmic gore, we're coming out with. Um, I'm pushing him because he had this game that he was working on. Um, I'm pushing him to produce that one next because I say why not? Why not? And that's also you should ask yourself why not? So yeah, um, so yeah, we

meet every weekend. Uh, we have a do an agenda ahead of time because I'm basically the captain of this ship at this point. So have our meeting agenda, we hit our points and everything, and then we have our assignments to go back to when we go back into our normal nine to five lives. Um. Of course, you want to make sure you're carving out some time to yourself to work on stuff. And it is so hard.

It's so hard, especially and this is the hardest thing because I was working in production, but he's uh, in the on the creative end, you're expending a lot of creative energy too. If you're on doing design, if you're doing boards, even if you're if you're writing for somebody, you're expending in a lot of creative energy for somebody else, And it's hard to recharge and work on your own stuff. But you have to, like, I feel like I have this story to tell. Yeah, I think people is going

to resonate what else? So for me, So this Netflix show that I'm working on right now, which is great. I can congratulation to see a girl. Yeah, I cannot wait to for everyone to see it. Um, but it's not my show. I have a separate show that I get to work on this spring that's mine. But this show and so you're there all day. You're using your brain,

which is like the most exhausted. You don't realize because you're sitting right the whole time, but you're pitching ideas and I go through so much coffee because everyone in the room got there because of their talent, right, So everyone is like some of the best writers in that room, and you're having to pitch alongside them, which is great, but you need to bring your a game every day.

And so and so we're going to wrap up at the end of February, beginning to March, and my team my reps were like, hey, so, do you want to go work on this other show after And I said no,

And they said, I'm sorry, Can we ask why? And I said yeah, because I just you know, I'm I'm I just did these several months on someone else's show, and there's no way I can work on my own stuff if I'm like, you know, I have this And I'm saying that from a place of like, yes, I've been able to stash away a little bit of money from from this show so that I can I can you know, keep moving on so that I can take

some time off to work on my stuff. But yeah, I'm so in the same way where I think that to them was like, don't you just want to make money? And I was like, well, actually, I don't mind making less money for a month, having a month off or two if I can like sit down and recharge and like actually make my own scripts. And I totally agree. It's like it's really hard. You have to do both.

You have to do both when you're coming up, but there's a certain point where you're like, you know, when am I actually going to set aside time to work on my own stuff and just a piece of advice, if you can give yourself three months. Yeah, I don't

know if you can, that might not be possible. But if you can give yourself three months, because you need a month to decompress all of what you just did and get back into your own headspace, and then a month to like really get into working and then and then having two months just to just push all your

stuff and then jump back into that nine o five game. Sure, but that's what I would suggest, Like if you can get and you know, with this business, we get a show or a gig or whatever, and in that ends and you might have a little bit of time off,

and I say, use that time off to push your projects. Like, yes, obviously make the connections, call to people, network, whatever you're doing to get your next gig, but make sure you have something that you're working on, because you know what, you might be in a meeting with somebody and they might ask you they do if you have something to pitch and if you've worked on that, hey you're ready

to go. I was gonna say, I also have a rule that I made just recently this past month, and I have Sunday is off, Like it doesn't matter people, and I feel bad. But people will be like, hey, I'm throwing this thing and I'm like I cannot go. Like I won't say why. I'm just like I'm so sorry, I can't make it. And I'm like, because every Sunday somebody will have a thing, ye every Sunday somebody want to do, like oh, can you record my show? Can

you do this? And that I'm like, this is just so I can't do this to myself if I don't give myself one single day where I do absolutely nothing. However, on that day, I do feel really bad and guilty about it. I think it's because we were raised to like just constantly feel we have to hustle, and so even on my Sunday, my day off, I still I'm like, oh, I could be doing more, and it's like, no, you literally use your brain week. Your brain will not be as good this week if you don't take this day off.

It's so funny because it's like a mix of a little bit of both in the sense that like, sometimes I'll get the ball rolling on something and so you get the momentum going, and then there's that period where like you're not doing something before your next thing, and you're just freaking out about and you're like depressed and you're like, why am I not doing any more when I'm not doing it? And then you begin the next thing,

you're like, I'm so exhausted. Why didn't rest? True? And you're like, uh, you know, it's so hard to just accept it and rest, and like, maybe watch an episode of static Shock into our topic static Shock. I think that's good just because we're going to be talking about the animation and the episodes and stuff. So what was your first introduction two Stock? I think I caught an

episode like I was just again. It came out in two thousands, so I was twenty safely tony by that time, and um, I was not watching a lot of American cartoons. I was like, um, we were calling ourselves old taku back in, but y'all call it weaves. Yeah, yeah, you didn't involved in the weaves even though yes, I when people started calling each other we'ves, I was like, well, it's funny because I have a friend writing for the Anime Awards and they don't. They're not letting her call

each other weaves or we abows. They don't. Yeah, they they they're like crunchy rolls, like no, unacceptable. I think because remember we'ves kind of started as like a derogatory and then we took it, so I think they're still like originally yeah, but I guess it's more I always is probably I always just equated it to like a non Japanese person that has like latched themselves on, which I'm not necessarily saying is bad. It's kind of more self aware that you're when you call yourself a weed.

I'm very aware I'm not Japanese and I'm obsessed with anime and their culture. Yeah, And that's that's the kind of way it was taken because we was originally those people. We we all knew as as anime fans, growing up as anime fans. We all knew that person who like would would would just like squeezing kawai and Japanese phrases. And I'm going to go to Japan. Yeah, no, you're not, You're not. I'm finally going this year though, Gangang. Yeah,

Brody is ahead of me. He's he's learning to speak Japanese and literally a week, Yeah, I started wearing like Japanese clothing and all of that I'm not saying that you. I'm just saying, like, Japanese in college, because yeah, I took through sizes of Japanese in college. I took one and dropped out because I was like, this is harder than Spanish. Yeah, to me, it was just a term that like, I'm very self aware of what I'm doing. But every anime fan goes through there and you get

deep into Japan. I'm going to become a manga artist. I'm be animated, and then you like, all right, calm down. Yeah, it's fine, especially if you start watching K drama z, like historical K dramas and you're like, Japan was terrible, Oh my god, they killed the whole royal family. But you know, I say that if you want to cure anybody or there, we've status, let him watch them historical K dramas and they will be like, all right, get

some balance. But yes, static shock, that's that's what happens when we get weaves talking about regular animation, we just go back to the animate something. Hey, no, listen, stack shock was everything from the simple fact that, and I've said this a whole bunch of times to y'all, I was tony when it came out, and I was annoyed because I wanted that show. When I was a teenager, I was watching Sailor Moon, Dragon ball Z, Rhona Warriors, all that jazz, and we didn't have black superheroes. He

had Storm from X ME in the nineties. That was a dope cartoon, right, But what happened after that, it was like nothing, That's what it was. Something happened after the nineties where everything gets super white all a television and it just went, Okay, we did that. We're done with this part of you know, history and entertainment. Everything's back to being white. And for a long time, you didn't really see a lot of, you know, different faces of color on the screen. But Static Shock was clearly

an exception. And I do remember just me, why couldn't I have this when I was like a kid coming up. But it was a cool little show. It was such a cool show the first two seasons, like I said, kind of look a little struggle, you know, um, And but that's typical. You know, the show gets a better budget in the second season and then you start seeing better animation and everything, even the music yet better. Especially like the third season, it was like, oh, okay, okay,

I'm watching. I'm singing alone, you know. Um. But one of the fun things about Static that I absolutely love, and like every animated show has like their own little background music going on, but like it with the introduction to the bad guy, they got like their own little music like move get out, Like it's like a dude that's like I forget which one was he had all of his density problems or whatever. He can no no, no me no evon with the shadow corn rolls. Yeah,

he was so tight. He was a good back. Did you know his Um, I was watching, I was like, I recognized the voice of his you know, the brother rubber band man. That's Dwayne Wayne from a different world. Yes, Like I heard that voice. I was like, I know the voice that I was like, I was like, that sounds like the Dayne Wayne. I looked it up Cadine Harrison of course, so um. Static Shock Also, even though

it came out in two thousand's it did. I noticed that it follows quite a nineties format for cartoons, which was a lot of modular episodes where it's like, you know, just the singular, singular story and not an overarching story. So you get that a lot in the nineties, and then you also had things like, um, the best friend that was like, I'm the geeky best friend. That's that's a sidekick, but also a little bit jealous of the superhero friend that. In course, in subsequent seasons they get

magic powers too, so that happened. But it was cool because his best friend was the white guy, because normally is like the best friend is the black guy. And I got all these little jokes, and I got all of these little you know, quips or whatever, and then I'm just like jealous of this white man with his magic power. So they were like, we're gonna flip it. He flipped it, and I was like, that's cool because

you know, come on, yeah, it's good to see. Yeah, but you know, we're the character Static from Static Shock came out of the Milestone comics that we were talking about last week, which it was. It was wild to me because I, you know, ed had this deep knowledge of Milestone. I didn't even notice it because I was like, my dad refused to buy me comics, so that's kind of why I deserved it. I wasn't doing well. I was a class count clown. That's why I must stand

up now. But so since I couldn't like go to comic bookshops often, I just would you know, online manga's downloading animate like that. So so like I was in two comics, but I didn't fall so the way I got a lot of my comic book stuff with Spider Man the series, X Men the series which back then, remember they were following stuff that was happening in the comics. Well, so like I was able to communicate with kids who were reading the comics because they were just taking stuff

from it. And funny enough, Static is no different, like you know, they're they were like minor changes here and there. But the character Virgil, and I think what made him so cool to us is he was he was the Spider Man. He's a young kid, really into science, really smart. He you know, it was an act of heroism how he got his power because he went to stop his

friend from at the Big Bang, you know. And I think in the cartoons, wasn't it like it was let me see you because hopeing was Virtual was getting bullied at school, right, and then they were gonna, uh these other gangs were like protected him. But he said in exchange, you gotta do something for me, and the courced him down to the docks or wherever the Big Bank took place, and the whole fight broke out and in Kablamo, right, he gets his powers. But that to me was just

like it was such a nineties thing. He was like, because there was a lot of media that came out, this is what's happening to our black Yeah, they're being

coerced into these gangs by other dangerous black youths. Well, that's what was funny because that's now knowing the actual origin of the Big Bang, Like the Mouthstone version, I was like, ye, there's no way they were gonna let that be in the TV show because the the the Milestone version is that all these gangs came out to have the one battle, and then the government wanted to do experiments on black people, so they went ahead and threw these chemicals on them and it ended up giving

them powers that backfired on them. You know, someone, It killed a whole bunch of people. Show No kids TV show. When I watched, and I had a feeling when I was watching, I was like, they're letting some of Dwayne come out, but they're definitely filtering out a lot. They're definitely giving us what they think that we that is acceptable. Well, also, it's harder to make, you know, statements like that, especially in the nineties for a kids show, because they can

now use that excuse. They no longer have to be like, well, we're not comfortable. They can say the kids, you know, they're not gonna get the nuance of this type of thing. They might think the cops are bad or something. Hitting Duyne's like exactly, wait a minute. I had to ask about that because I forgot which season it was the

dad started dating a cop. I was too through when I was like, really, we're gonna do this storyline when he's dating this and then like the way they set it up though, I was like the whole time, because um, something happened, somebody broken or no, these people that had this suitcase with these special chemicals or whatever gets robbed by these kids that don't really know any better, but they got powers, right, So, um, Static is in the area and it's like, you know, non descript black man

gets snatched up by the police. It's literally what this introduction to the girlfriend is. She snatches up Static and Static is like, well, Virgil because he's not static at the time. Um, they wanted to look in his backpack. He had his constume in there, so he's like, I'm not gonna show them my constume. I still have my secret identity. So he runs away from the police and I'm like, lord, I'm watching this like you could get shot, young man, you know, but run, I get why you're running.

Run faster well, And then like his daddy yells and him like I told you, Like, the conversation is less like, um, what how I would have framed it If I were a parent, I would be like, I'm gonna need you to stay away from the police in general. Okay, I need you to not even if you see him you crossed the street and go someplace else so that you don't have to run from them if you can't, if

you can't. But like she he was mad at him for like running from the police and not being like a good upstanding citizen in Da da da, And I'm like, is this really a black dad? Yeah, I'm confused. It was just such an it felt to me incongruous with

like something that I think a black creator like. But it was still pushing that narrative of like the police are ultimately good guys, and we gotta be you know, working tandem with law enforcement to like, you know, they were still pushing the officer friendly trope yeah, which we know is not the truth and has never been a truth for black people ever, so you know, but okay, yeah, it's but you know, it's That's why it's like, I love the idea of revisiting Static because I do like,

you know, exploring those things in an interesting way, like you know, um, the vigilanteism versus police and like what one can do to help for the community, because I do think there are people who do sign up to be cops and you know, want to help the community, but they're like, you know, like in those in those complex subjects I think are the spirit of what Milestone

was all about. But we'll get more into the TV shows and at breakdown specific episodes and moments right after these messengers and we are back, we're talking about Static Shock, both the TV show and the comic and the character. And I just wanted to say about the TV show.

So the co creator, Michael Davis, he runs an annual panel at SDCC and its title is The Plot Against Static Shock, and it looks to revisit Michael Davis's repeated allegations at the character he co created Static Shock, one of DC's most successfully published by black characters, and one that headline is successful cartoon has been sidelined at the publisher, even as his popularity is maintained. Actually, our friend Joe Star kind of tweeted something about this because it was

in the animation field. There was a talk and animation Twitter about how um somebody just essentially tweeted something that was like, oh, um, sorry, we have to cancel the show because we didn't sell enough merch. And the character and the creator was like, well, you didn't make any merch and they were like, well, sorry about that. And Joe Star was like, oh, the static shock syndrome or something.

He probably didn't say syndrome because that's but he was like, Oh, this is the static shock like phenomenon or whatever that he was kind of hinting at, And I guess that is kind of hinted at in this panel. Well, yeah,

it's so funny because that is something important. I think we've brought it up in past episodes where we talk about these older cartoons, but a lot of these cartoons aren't kind of judged by the powers that be on the same metric as regular TV shows that like, you can have good viewership, but if you aren't selling toys, then it'll be canceled. But if you are choosing not to Yeah, if you're choosing not choosing to market and sell the toys, then you're basically building something to fail.

You know, well, I've seen that, and we've all seen that. Isn't that what happened with Young Justice? Exactly what happened with Young Justice? And then or I think also symbiotic Tighten or something like that, um and a lot of shows, if you don't make money from the merchandise, then you're gonna get canceled. But like you said, if you're not making merchandise, then how can anybody go and buy it? And I don't know what a show like Static Shock if they get to four seasons, there no, there's no

way that children would not have wanted those toys. There's no way. Absolutely, I don't believe that in any way, shape, form or fashion. They just made that A hundred percent sounds to me like they made the conscious decision and say we're gonna give you X amount episodes, We're gonna fulfill our contract and we're cutting you loose. We're done with it. That's what that sounds like to me. And then,

of course fans are fans. If they love something, they're gonna love it, and they're not gonna stop loving it because you refuse to make merchandise for it. They are going to complain to you about it. And if Static Shock is seeing a resurgence and popularity, yeah, now they may be convinced at this juncture to be like, Okay, I guess we can put out some merchandise for this. But it does I can totally see because the show came out and then you didn't see anything else. I

feel like, I don't know. Maybe it's the thing with DC is like trying to push their core superheroes. They try to catch up with Marvel, and they're not gonna like, you know, although you know, Black Panther came out and did number so maybe like, oh, we got these black heroes in the closet over here, maybe we just pull them on out and like show them to you see, remember, give us the money. I can see that happening. I

could absolutely see that happening. But um, I'm very interested in what like, I would want to see that panel about Yeah, I wonder if if there's one where that's recorded, I'm gonna find that and watch that because yeah, that's the thing. I believe it. Well, I was gonna say, diving more into the TV show. So you mentioned ebon Um as one of the villains. Can you tell people little roles? Can you tell people a little bit more? To me? Like, I felt like as a villain he

had the most potential. Um. I mean, they only get the four seasons. I would have liked to see more with that character because he was brothers with another villain, Rubber Bandman, who eventually turned good. Um. Ebon had these shadow powers and uh, he had a gang of other villains working with him, and he was kind of recruiting meta humans to be in the gang. He was like, you guys don't even look like humans. That He was like, uh,

evil callisto. Remember with the morelocks. You know, it's like you don't fit in with society, so just you know, run with me. Yeah, but instead of like trying to lead like a normal life off on their own, he was like, run with me and commit crimes. Was just like, how are we supposed to live in life and be happy if we're over here constantly robbing banks or whatnot, Like,

how is this supposed to work? Yeah, you know, I'm not getting there, but but you know, for the sake of the cartoon, yes I get it, but you know, nobody in the group say it. This is stupid. But it's so funny because it shows how dynamic villains have been, because yeah, that was a lot of like a lot not just static. Just across many of our superhero cartoons. Their main goal was to rob banks and rob banks, people rob banks and and and it's so funny it

goes to change where like the what was that movie? Gosh, it was so good. It was by the same people who did Cicario, and it was the movie about the brothers who were robbing banks, and oh, it's so good. Um in the movie, we eventually well I don't want to spoil it because it's a good one, but like we eventually are like, oh, banks are bad, and then banks banks are foreclosing homes and just eating off of it.

So so it's funny because I'd love to see this revisited where you do get like Ebon who's robbing banks, but you find out that he's doing it because he's like this bank is evil because of this, like banks are evil. Yeah, yeah, we could do a whole episode on that. Yeah, over draft fees and how they are a scam. Yeah, over draft fees And can you tell me about Hot Streak a k a. Francis Sto White villains angry. He's like this angry white dude and I don't know why he was so mad. I mean, okay,

so I'm picturing Eminem. He was almost except with hair and flames. They were flames, and he had flames on the side of his face. No um, and uh. He just always had a stink attitude at all times. He starts out as one of the bullies. Oh my gosh, she looks like a young guy Fieri, a slim guy guy. He does look like a night you know who he reminds me of. He reminds me of the villain and

good Burger, Um, the what's his name? The guy that works at Mondo Burger y'all will know remember on megamind the dude that he was the nerdy um cameraman that gets the magic powers. And he looks like he looks like that dude in syndrome. He had like all of them the well he was before them, so they look like him. But yeah, he always had like a sting attitude for no reason to me, like he was just like they go Virgil call some problems, you know, like just for no reason. He would come to school. I'm

kicking death today, like start camping. This was a school kid. This kid looks like he's in college. This goes along with the nineties. It's like when Freddie Prince trying to play a sixteen year I mean like, well, you know, you know he's a kid because he has a backpack. You know. Now, I don't know any kid that has a soul patch. Like I said that, I was like, what's going on with his facial hair? This man, Oh god, he looks like he goes to the club and just

puts pills and girls drinks. He looks like, oh my god, I'm sorry. If hot Streak is somebody's favorite, I don't imagine.

So wait, what are his Okay, So he's a fiery temper and he has flame paths, and he is one of the ones that's like he's like the recurring villain that's like the most irritating I think from what I've seen for Static is like when he shows up, he's more of a problem than like the other ones, like Puff and Um and one with the big old boots, the ones with the size sixteen ft like he would just be like smacking him away, Let get out of here.

But then uh, Hot Streak would show up and it would be like a bigger fight, you know, he would have to work a little bit harder for Hot Streak. And of course while searching pictures of him, I stumbled upon some Hot Streak tumbler. Hot Streak stands by the way, the movie was Hell or High Water. Oh my gosh, y'all are wild. I should have already want the tumbler. That was the problem that only comes up on the Google images. I guess there's a couple of people doing

some things. You need to go. Hot Streak was definitely like I love that he still had like the sagging pants. Everybody, everybody, the adult everybody did. I think somebody even made a Joe live Are you gonna pull your pants up? Yeah? And he's like, no, I'm not. What was her name? This is what was the name of scars Son? And like the Lion King, the second, well I'm talking about I don't know anyway, someone did static shock, like but of that guy. It's like a lion version of static shock. Anyways,

that's an interesting crossover. You know that. I love you Tumbler for giving me the most cross overs. It'll be like I used to have this artwork. It was like Jack Skellington as Iron Man. It was like, whoever needs this overs? I do who the worst part of fan fiction done in it? I love him. I love how the wilder the better. Okay, So so we had hashtre dctor Nemo, which one was Dr Nemo? Which one was

what was he doing? What was this? Doctor? Nathan Flack was a renowned quantum physicist who theorized existence of a type of matter called de quantified plasma or quantum juice. Oh so he might be one that might not have made in the show show, but it was in the comics. Yeah, because the quantum juice was in the show was in the comics, and that's what And that was across. Yeah, that was so across. Milestone of this guy was the guy who like you know, made the Big Bang happen,

whereas like in there it was like chemicals. What was his name like it was Ajax Chemicals, I think, And he was like an evil old rich dude, looked like, you know, like a healthier Mr Burns. And uh, he had a son that was, you know, could not live up to his father's expectations. And his company was involved in like the actual whole bang baby situation. And I, of course if that's the case, like you were saying before that it was a government conspiracy thing, is the

reason why their bang babies. And they definitely weren't gonna allow that on the show. It makes sense that Dr Nemo is not I didn't see him in those Also, don't google the term bang babies without safe right, Like, don't do it to yourself. I would you how I could have warned you not to do so, I was going, hey, this is on iheart's WiFi. Um, So, Rick Stone, did we talk about him in the last episode, because this is a close friend of Virgils who later comes out

as being queer. Uh. And it says that first Virgil is unable to deal with Rick's homosexuality, but later comes to deal with his own homophobia to save Rick and a bunch of other gay people from a gay bashing being orchestrated by Hot Streak and his cohorts. Now was this I mean he looks like I said, what is that? What is the movie where they're like they it's a dude Wears My Car where they go into the seven elevens. They're always like extreme stuff over that. He looks like that.

But um Rick is his friend that gets the magic power, gets superpowers and he becomes Gear. On the show, Yeah, like um and the other girl like it's interesting Like the first season, um he was just like the quipping, smart, atlicky best friend that kind of had like little jabs

for Virgil. And you also saw that he was a little bit jealous of his powers because there was an episode where there was an old man that had powers that could give other nonpower people powers and he gets powers and he like you know, tries to show static up. They eventually like work it out, but he loses those powers and it's not until like season three where he becomes Gear and his powers is like I'm smart, so he makes like gadgets and stuff. So um and there

was no like I'm secretly queer. Not that was not that in the show. That was what it was two thousand they weren't gonna let that happen. They weren't gonna be honest about it, but the other one freed to Um. She was in like the first episode and she was kind of introduced is like the friend also slash love interest, um,

but she disappeared after like a couple of episodes. And then this other black Latina comes onto the scene named Daisy, and she takes that place and you still see Freedom, but she's in the background, but she doesn't have the role that she had uh in that comic. She's like off in somewhere else. But Daisy is like, it's like that girl in the show. So they did do some changes there, but I don't she didn't get any powers.

We have to take another really quick break and they were in a hot back into more characters from Static Shock and also some of our favorite episodes right after this and we're back. So do you remember telling that was she was in um talking No no, no, no, Yeah, she was in Ebon's gang. Uh. She was. She was like a harpy and she you know, she was like she was like a flunkey of of she was not one of the ones that Static Shiv and Talent were like the and they would get their bus kicked like

all the time, like all the time. Evon and Hot Streak, I think we're like as far as recurring villains were concerned, were like the worst ones for so here part of her Lord's Teresa grew wings and parts of her body were covered with feathers. She was considered a mutant freak. Um. The criminal lifestyle led her to the Joker, who she helped to kidnap Batman and Robin, but was eventually defeated

by Robin. Um. They did some crossovers with They did quite a few crossovers, like there was a Superman crossover, Batman, Justice League crossover. Joker was absolutely one showed up as a villain and a clown Staddy. Every time they did a crossover, Staddy get clown so bad, Like wow, like they really disrespected this man on his own show, Like I get he's a teenager. And and that's also a

very nineties thing. Whenever there's a crossover, like the main hero has to like take a back seat to the guest, so so nobody's gonna whire they even there, you know, because Batman and Robins show up and talent and like some of another Ebon's gang are like enlisted because Ebon isn't around, like he's in jail or something like that. He just wasn't there, and Joker recruits them to help him, uh you know, pull off some shenanigans. So then it's up to a static Batman Abbin to save the day.

But um, that was one of the crossovers. But there was also one with the Justice League where they had Brainiac was the big bad Um. And then there was one with uh Green Lantern. I was about to say yeah that one, and um, was there one more? No, I don't think so. The Green Lantern one Fallen Hero aired two thousand and four, season four YEP, episode four, where the Green Lantern goes on a crime spree and

Virgil is disappointed that one of his heroes has turned bad. Obviously, it wasn't yeah, yeah, just to revisit this, you know how you said, you know, things got better after the first two seasons. Do you know who did the the title song starting with the third season. I do not. I just not it as dope because I was like, now, I like this was a little Romeo. I had a few that was when Little Romeo was and then he had his Nickelodeon show, the show we still got the

royalty checks. I mean he probably is, but I definitely do see him on the community college ads on the train, you know he's holding it. Yeah, he was like, look I needed a vocation too. I'm like, no, you didn't listen to check as a check. They had a couple of um people that were kind of introduced almost as antagonists, that were actually like good guys. Um. There was one Oh, and she's actually I think she might be my favorite character that's not static. Um she bang, it's spelled she bang.

I'm like, yeah, soul trifling with these names. But she was really cool. She was a little to a teenager. I think her name was Sharie, and um, she was not a bang baby. She was a government experiment and she had like she was nineties Superfowlers was like basically Parkour, so like she shows up with all the flips and the kicks and all that jazz. And she was also

super strong too, so she did have that power. And I thought she was really like when she shows up in her episodes, I think she has like three or four across the whole series. Her episodes are so fun, it's just so fun because she plays off a Virgil and Uh and Richie like so well because they're all teenagers. Like when they would crossovers with like the Justice League is like these are big grown adults, you know, just

like bodying these kids. So I was like, this is not like it's cool because like the animation goes up even more for the crossover one, like we gotta get the eight Team on this one, because you know Superman is gonna show up. Um. But with her episodes, they just had it seemed like they cared a little bit more like they were just so much fun. They were like the chemistry with them, um, just like the little

jokes and everything. It was really good. The other one that I thought was cool because they had a not he on there because the static in Africa. They don't ever say that they're in Ghana, but that's what they gotta just he's just in all of Africa, you know, statics in Africa, you know, but that was you know in the two thousands, you can get away with that. You didn't have to say a country, um, wherever you wanted to be. They do eventually say they're in Acara, Ghana, um.

And a Nazi is a superhero when they show up there and um, I forgot who the bad guy was. But he had Jaguar powers or something like that, you know, always with the jungle Cats with Africans. Come on, let's get creative. But no, a Nazi. I thought a Nazi was super cool because he had all these illusion powers and and just making people think that they were, you know, something that they not. I just thought the Nazi was

super cool. That's all I can say about it. And I like that he Um, him and Static worked really well together, and I just thought he was don't you also spell it for the people listening, Nazi a in a s I no, oh oh my god, no, no, no, no, okay, y'all watch American Gods or in the Vietnam. Okay. So here's the thing. American Gods is cool. The book is good, the show is good. The sequel to the book, A

Nazis Boys is way better than American Guys. I don't care what nobody's say, Like they could have skipped over American Gods for TV show straight or made a film out of that, because that is dope. It's super duper good and the Nazis are cool. Like and as God's super cool as a superhero. I thought he was really fun and I like that they had this unique, obviously African deity and a superhero. That's I think what I took away from I was like, now, that is the

coolest part. It is shout out that in Africa. I was just gonna say one other thing about um, so, yeah, that episode Dwyne McDuffie did right static in Africa, Yes, And I could tell like with that one because it seemed like somebody cared a little more episode like somebody cared, and I did want to say. In two thousand three, McDuffie was awarded the Humanitist Prize and Children's Animation for

the Jimmy episode. I don't know if you remember that one about Yes, that was the one they were I think that was season two and Jimmy was being bullied in school and he brings the gun to school because he's he's had enough and um, Richie ends up getting shot. Yeah. So that was season two. Yeah, that was season two.

They had a couple of episodes in season two. I was like, oh, y'all getting serious in there, like that one and the Homeless one where um, the one where the school shooting one and then the one where there's a homeless um met a human bank baby who um she has uh frost powers and she causes some problems. Like she was one of these antagonists that actually is like not a bad person, but she was just trying

to survive. And she like one of the things that I've always noticed because we see a lot of homeless people out here, especially in this neighborhood. Um, those people are ignored, they are stepped over, they're ignored there. It's like you're race And these were the words literally coming

out of this little girl's mouth. Our family dies, and you know, she goes into into the system and that they're not able to help her and she ends up being homeless and um, yeah, she starts causing problems after she gets her powers. And I thought that was a really like one of those touching episodes, and that one I just like, and I'm glad that they did something like that. Oh yeah, yeah, no, they weren't afraid to

touch on that. I did want to tell upon that Nancy episode and say, do you want to guess who joined guess who voiced the panther character. It's step Black dude that always is in everything, both both of them. The one with the eyebrows, Um, what terrible? That's terrible, right, I mean also that's just everyone has. You were like if you were like, who's the dad on Ship's Creek that oh Eugene Levy Ye yeah, eyebrows. Okay, so there's um not the one that was entails from the hood.

But he liked like he has like just this great rich voice. Michael Hite was the pain saw him down. Oh my god, Oh my god, was voiced by Carl Lumbley. That's who I was thinking of. Marcia Manhunter Injustice League, he was in Alias, he was in this show called Mantis. Uh. He was. He's He's been in a lot of so much. He was in a Bucker Rubas Eye from the what was the Fifth Dimension. I forgot this super super duper nerdy, like so nerdy nobody even gets it. But like people posted,

I'm like, nobody knows what you're about. Okay to stop. But Michael j. I saw him over to the Viscom building the other day and I was one of coworkers and they were like, who's that. You don't know? Black Dynamite. He was in our Black Panther documentary for Nurice. He brought his That's so dope. I wanted to say with Michael, why he's great? He was great to interview. UM. Season two also had an episode called Static Shack look at this. Yes, his head is compared to the red. This is before

before the General came into his life. Ready to go. Okay, I went to uh. I went to uh this. I didn't even know what it was. My friend was like, hey, do you want to go to this? Like, um, this benefit It's like a athlete benefit and I was like sure. It was a black tie event honoring legacy athletes. Shack was there, Michael Irving was there, Eddie Murphy was there, like also being honored with them but also presenting stuff. Every single athlete ever that's ever done anything was there

and I was in like shorts. I was hit. It was also because I was just like, oh, this is such a writer guy that was like, oh, I'm just wearing whatever. I'm like, this is literally black tie there with their gorgeous wives. Shock was there, but I was going to say, a Shock is very funny, like he just roasted the heck out of the last person was roast Oh my gosh. I was luckily in the back he um like Mike Tyson. He was presenting. He was presenting.

The Mike Tyson totally roasted Mike Tyson and was just very funny, but but also an embarrassing time in my life. I had some crossover episodes. It wasn't just not crossover like the Special Gift. They had a Backstreet Boy on air. If was it Brian, No, it was the one J. Yes, a J almost call him j T girl. This is how you know I'm old. I'm like aldern ages run together. But there are so many, there were so many listen. And then at that time you had all of these

little boy bands and nine Degrees. Everybody forgets about nine degrees, like missing ninety degrees backs all of them and they were like ninety degrees. Yes, that was a band. Yeah, I remember it was a band. My step mom worked in this community outreach program and so like whenever they would do things for the kids, you would let us

go and they took us to some event. It was at the old Forum back when it was blue uh and when it was the Great Western Forum, and we went in and I didn't know what it was but they're giving us these cassette tapes and it was ninety eight degrees cassette tape. And wow, they give you a pencil tool so you could turn it back like I just used my finger there. We go to put the pinky nail on it. But are they the ones who did quit playing? I don't know your voice, I don't

know none of you got that was them? Okay, girl, they an't run together, but they had him on there. And this was one because rubber band Man started out as a musician who got his as a producer, who got his track stole by another rapper and that's why he had a stink attitude and was gonna go bad and he did because well listen, he wanted his credit, he wanted his money, come on now and like that. That was a recurring thing for him. After he the first time he got caught and then he uh did

his time or whatever. He came back and actually had a music career for about five minutes because he changed his face because he had rubber power, so he can change his face. And this man, I swear the guy got on the stage. I was like, okay, he's gonna have a little music career. Okay, this man got on the stage with a keyboard and some um fireworks, I said, for real, like, and everybody at the concert like yeah, which was like a school gymnasium and everything caught on

fire and it was drama. But when uh, but this man was constantly pursuing his music goal. Yes, and that's what was what why a J was there because he finally got the hook up and was going to get put on because a J liked his music. Yeah. So then the man just took his woman from me, took her down to Tennessee. She was the best girl you ever knew. I wasn't for him, she'd still be true. Has been a good man. It's been said. Take that Manny, which was dead. Thank you for joining us and like him,

Where can everyone find you? Um, I'm on the Instagram? Uh at Crystal underscore, Savage underscore, savage like a savage beast for real dictionary spelling. Nice. Don't bother me on Twitter? Oh god, same for all of us. That's just a blanketed statement. Yeah, and you know it's it's it's me, it's your boy. If you w way on Twitter, doing Instagram, ifts on Twitch, check out super punch every night at

eleven pm Eastern eight pm Pacific time. We got lots of goops goofs Monday through Thursday, and then I'll be calling in on Friday nights. I'm at MS Danny Fernandez and all the things. Just follow me on Twitter or Instagram and you'll see all of my announcements. Oh yeah, and check out my I think I said this last week, but my the Good Immigrant Book that I wrote in is now inaudible, so you can listen to me read my essay in it and everybody else. Uh and as we always say, stay