2024 Comic Creators Fantasy Draft w/ Badr (The Short Box) & Greg (First Issue Club)

Hello, this is James Tynan IV, the writer of Something is Killing the Children, Nice House on the Lake, Department of Truth, and Spectograph. And you are listening to the Oblivion Bar Podcast. Welcome to the Oblivion Bar podcast with your host Chris Hacker and Aaron Knowles. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 174 of the Oblivion Bar podcast.

This week we are bringing back one of our fan favorite segments and assembling a team of our favorite comic book giants, our comic book creator, Fantasy Draft. Now, as you guys can see, I'm sure Aaron is not with us this week. Instead, I'm going to introduce two of my best friends, not only in the comic book world, but just in the normal day-to-day life. are commonly known as the Comic Gents, I'm gonna introduce them each individually here.

Up first, we have one third of the Kansas City based comic book podcast First Issue Club, where they discuss that week's first issues every Friday when I open up my podcasting app, the FIC is the first up on my queue. So I'm thrilled to welcome back my good buddy and president of your local Muppets fan club, Greg Licti here on the show. Welcome, Greg. Hi, hey, hello, welcome. Good to be here. And ironically enough, you you're wearing a particular shirt today.

So I am wearing a like bootleg Muppet movie shirt. And Chris, I have to tell you, when I got the show notes, I saw that little mention in there of, you know, local chapter president of the Muppet Club. And I looked down and I saw that I was wearing a Muppet shirt. And I thought for a second, I was like, do I change? Do I change the shirt? And I said, no, no. This is who I am. This is who I am at my core. I can't deny who I am. So I decided to keep on the Muppet shirt.

and just represent the only way I know how, which is authentic. You know, and we didn't know that that wasn't planned. Anybody that everybody that was that was totally just off the like you hopped on the call, read the transcript, saw that I was mentioning them up. That's and it just made too much sense. It's like I knew. Yeah, you're like, yeah, yeah. I'm almost an out fan club. know, either or I don't have any out paraphernalia.

They NECA was selling one for San Diego Comic Con, but they had to cancel all the orders because they didn't have enough. I missed my chance to own an elf shirt. Well, let's bring in our other special guest here. Special co-host, should say. He is one of the true trailblazers in the comic book podcasting world with that silky smooth voice behind the short box. A comic book talk show for the last 12 years.

This man has been preaching the good word about Silver Age keys and ratio variance before it was cool. Bottom Milligan is coming back. He's back on the show to assemble his comic creator team. Now get this. He reads comic books. That's me, baby. What up? You oblivion bar. If that does not come through in the recording, I have to I have to grab that snippet from you so I can add it on my end. People need to hear that. Catch me if you can.

Has so many good sound bites for a comic podcast to just pillage. And I've that. Man, I'm so excited to be here. I have thought about this all day because aside from the little kickback I just got from Earlier today, this is the second source of happiness for me today. Cause the Jacksonville Jaguars did not provide any. All three of our teams. They did. Yeah. All three. Look, look. Your two teams combined did not lose as bad as the Jags did on their own.

So yeah, I've been in a bummer, but this has been, I've been looking forward to this, man. I cannot wait. Yeah. This is very exciting. As we said, or as I said there in the opening, this has been one of our, you know, more fan favorite segments. People keep asking. it, when we're going to bring this back, you know, last year we had Brad from the common couple's counseling and Sal from calling pop on it is to date the most listened to oblivion bar episode of all time.

Now I, I'm not going to, I'll say that that's maybe some part, the actual context of the episode, the subject matter. sure, I'm sure people enjoy hearing us talk about this, but I also sort of give a lot of credit to their listenership coming over and listening to that episode over on our feed. So I think that this has the legs to have a similar effect because we got the comic gents together everybody. And a lot of times when we hang out, we're over on the short box.

I don't know if we've ever had the comic gents. We've had the comic gents on the first Hitchi Club one time, right? Yeah. We're completing the trifecta today though. That's right. The C2E2 episode. yeah. That's right. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's nice to have you three, or you two gentlemen, having us three together all on the same call again. Real quick, one shameless plug before we get into the comic creator draft. If you want to support the Oblivion Bar podcast, consider checking us out on Patreon.

For your support, could gain access to a bonus episode each week called The Grid. It's sort of our stream of consciousness, our unfiltered, unfettered, total just behind the scenes look at the show. Things that we wouldn't generally say here on the Oblivion Bar, Aaron and I let it all out there on The Grid. So come join us over there. That's a lot of fun. To be honest, sometimes we have more fun doing The Grid than we do actually doing the Oblivion Bar.

But that's mostly because we say whatever's just on the front of our minds. You also get a behind the scenes look with our episode transcripts. You could get a special comic goodies, t-shirts, you know, different types of stickers, all types of things over on Patreon, Patreon polls. It's just a lot of the cool stuff over there. So give it a seven day free trial over on patreon.com forward slash oblivion bar pod. Or you can just check out the link in our show notes.

I'm talking to two patrons right now, and I'm also a patron on both of your shows. So we're just kind of cancel each other out. And that's totally cool. I want the extra content. I want the explicit fan fiction that you and Aaron write about different comic book characters. That's me through my Wednesday, to be honest. On the Patreon episodes, I could hear shit like this. You egg-sucking piece of gutter trash.

Which is always an interesting thing when it comes to fellow comic podcasts where we're like, look, on the Patreon episodes of where we get loose and goosey, there's no filter, things like that. It's like, you want to how we really feel. Yeah, go on to the Patreon. You'll hear my true opinions about Tom King. Go to Patreon. Yeah. But it's like, you know, on the front facing episodes, everything is dandy. Yeah, we try to put on our best smiles and keep everything nice and round and rosy.

But yeah, over on Patreon, it gets a little nasty. So anyway, let's get into our main topic here. Let's go ahead and get into this comic creator fantasy. Alrighty, here we are. We are here at our second annual or our 2024 comic book creator, fantasy draft. Everyone again, if you haven't listened that first episode, I will have it in the show notes.

If you want to go check it out with sound, Brad, but I'm excited about this second round here with the, with again, two of my BFFs in the comic book podcasting world. gentlemen, you guys both had a chance to listen to that episode before coming onto this one. we are going to make some smi small minor, you know, changes to the format. We'll go over that here in just a moment, but just out of curiosity and sort of for my own. I would love to kind of get your thoughts on that first episode.

there anything that sort of stuck out to you when listening to that and what made you interested on coming on for this episode for the second round? Cause you told us to. I told you had to be here tonight to do it. No, no, no. So as someone who, this is my second year playing fantasy, almost said final fantasy, final fantasy football. This is my second year playing fantasy football. So this episode kind of came, I think that where you dropped it last year.

And it was the same year I played fantasy football for the first time. So I thought it was an interesting amalgam of like this new thing I'm starting to get into with like, you know, this other thing that I've always been into. And I was like, I see Chris's vision. He's, you know, someone that is like kind of dabbling more in the sports, specifically like football. I sometimes I too think about these two worlds and how they're more similar, you know, sports fans and comic fans.

And I think either side would give things credit for. And I've always been curious like why I haven't seen or maybe been more aware of things like this, like a fantasy draft for creators. Now, granted, that'd be a lot harder to actually like, you know, track and do in the real world, but I love the episode. And I know you told me that both Brad and Sal had, you know, they weren't very familiar with fantasy football and things like that.

So it was also the nicest and most cordial draft I've ever been afforded. To its detriment. We'll be that nice here. It won't be that nice tonight. So yeah, now I thought the episode was, I mean, it makes sense why it's, you know, your most played episode. It's a fun game people can play at home. And, you know, it's kind of cool to hear certain perspective and insight into like the, the care, the creators that you pick, how they resonate with you. And I'm looking at the lineup from last year.

like, man, Brad had a killer lineup in terms of like thinking outside of the box and things like that. So yeah. Greg, how about you? Yeah. I mean, to mirror everything that Bodder said. had two fantastic guests on. They were too nice for my taste. I'd be interested to see if they come back. Like if we do this again next year and we're all included, like there's five people doing this draft, how more cutthroat they may be.

And they mentioned in the episode they've never done any kind of fancy football thing. But I feel like nerds, like Bodder said, have the same kind of thinking. We've all made our... comic book Mount Rushmore, we've all made our dream X-Men Avengers team. So we're familiar with the process. You want the best of the best for different reasons. You need your utility player, you need your star, you need your dependable one.

And that's what we're gonna be doing here, which is so much fun to think about. Because we all here have been doing comic books professionally and unprofessionally for like 20 years. So we have major thoughts and opinions and I know that we all think we have the best idea of who we want for a team who would win. So it's gonna be fun trashing both of you for your picks. Can't wait hear from the audience how good I did in my selections, to be honest. He's gonna skew the votes.

He's the ballots already. Chris, you know, and this is such a good idea because, you know, we talked about, you know, how we'd approach this episode and, you know, like I proposed like one change that I thought might, you know, enhance it. This is a game that, to what Greg said, you know, could only evolve and get better, you know, as you keep playing it and figure it out. Like you probably could figure out a way to do like a fantasy, like comic draft that that might take off.

But like right now I'm already like, damn, if we did it, like we added this component to it, I think it'd be really fun. I'm like, chill, chill, It's a Christmas thing. Well, you know, and I like all the ideas, to be honest. And I think one of my main goals in this idea and again, Tamir, what you said there earlier about it is that it is sort of a melding of two worlds that I love. But I wanted to sort of keep it pretty simple.

Cause again, we spoke about this sort of off air, but it's interesting to see how many folks sort of dabble both in the sports world and in the fantasy. Well, I guess I will say like, you know, the comic world, but I would say more just like, you know, reading in general. I think that this would be a fun sort of transition for folks who are maybe just sort of dabble in one or the other. This is a, I would say this would be catering to what they are interested in.

So I want to kind go over the rules here and then butter at the end. I want you to sort of add your little. your little notch into the legacy of the comic creators fantasy draft here. So for everyone, again, if you haven't listened to that first episode, here are the rules. Each of us present one creator that we want to nominate and the three of us will discuss that creator simultaneously while bidding in the background.

So basically as we're speaking about this creator, we will often give our little tidbit and then go, okay, I'll increase the bid by $20 or I'll increase the bid up to $200 or what have you. The creator must be working today. So. No Steve Dickos, no Art Spiegelman's in this auction. They gotta be working at least a little bit today, right? A small little notch that we've changed since the first one is that we're going to each have 300 invisible dollars.

So last time we had 500, this time we decided to cut it down to 300 to make us sort of work a little harder for these creators. You can start the bidding at any price that you want. And then again, as I said, there's that switch up from the last one at 500. We will have five minutes to bid on each of these creators. I will let everyone know when they're getting near the end. basically as we're getting near to the end at about a minute, I'm going to play this noise right here.

And that'll let everyone know both the listener and us bidding that you have a minute to decide. Also, I'll have a clock on our end so that we can all see what's going on. And then whenever the bidding is done and everyone has decided who got the creator, I will give my very informal and actual real gavel. And that'll end that auction. All right. And then, like I said, we're gonna have, each of us are gonna bid until we all have six creators on our team.

And then at the end, we will hold an open discussion on who we think has the best team. Now, in this conversation, that end conversation is more of just the listeners, but in reality, at the end, I'm gonna post all of our creative teams on social media. Go follow us at Oblivion Bar Pod, and you can sort of give your insight and vote and all the good things. So, I'm gonna hand it off to you really quick. What was the little notch that you wanted to include in our second annual Comic Courts?

Comic creator fantasy draft. It's too late to do it. But I think for the next one, you have everyone send in a name, Yeah. And then you use that wheel and whatever the wheel lands on, that's what everyone's bidding Everyone has to bid on. you build six, right? Yeah. I like that. That's a good So you're working from a pool and then eventually whoever's left. Because I mean, that's kind of what you do with fantasy, right?

Like everyone knows, you know, it's a pool of players you're picking from there and hoping to get them. And it's probability plus luck, is, which would be that would deal with the wheel itself. But so what are we doing today though? What's what's the wrinkle that you decided to add in for this fantasy draft? OK, so man, I feel like I'm now like a Randy ruler over here. I've got all these rules I'm trying to come up with coming in here, changing the format.

Geez. So I love that last year's episode. And I guess I'm always looking for ways to like. Make it little more competitive. know, pit friends against each other's break friendships and have people angry. You want us to not be friends after that? OK, got it. OK, I was thinking like we're all we all made our own list. We're all going to come and nominate a creator. Well, let's raise the stakes.

And because, know, like if you're coming with a predetermined list, you're probably going to stay close to that list of creators and whatnot. So what if of the three creators, it has to be someone that you You can only bid on three of the ones that you nominate yourself. The other three has to be, you know, it's gotta be someone that Chris nominated that I have to bid on.

So your team is equal, ideally your dream team, and then half, you know, creators that everyone else has brought to the table, which I think would be eliminated in the next time you do this with that pool of creators. hopefully someone is still like, you know, tracking along. I know there's a lot of rules, but let's just do like, So like three creators that you nominated yourself, the other three has to be from everyone else. Correct. think that makes sense. make it sort of...

Clean that up and post. I think you explained it really well and to sort of give a little context, since this creator probably won't be brought up. Again, there's no strict rule on us picking a creator that was talked about in last year's episode, but I think we all sort of decided that, you know, we want to bring in some new names because there's a lot of great names in comics, right? Like everyone has a favorite and, know, I guess... Maybe Daniel Warren Johnson will be brought up again.

Maybe Brian Gavon will be brought up again. on my list personally, I didn't include anybody that was talked about in 2023's episode. literally looked at what comic books I've been reading this year and I'm like, who did I like on this team? Who did I like on this title? And for the most part, they're pretty much different from who you guys had, which I'm telling, which I think last year's episodes set the bar pretty high.

Cause I mean, you guys got like Daniel Warren Johnson, Chips of Jarski, Bills and Cabbage, you know? So I'm coming, I'm coming different this one. I just copied Brad's list. I'm just going to steal it. Greg's coming with a Peach Wmoco nomination immediately. Greg's like, why mess with perfection? I agree, Greg. Why? Well, let me ask you guys really quick before we get into this.

I know I keep deviating here, but I'm curious of those three teams from last year, which are your guys' individual favorites? And Greg, I'll start with you. I don't know if you have that list in front of you. I can give it to you. I don't have it in front of me, but I remember that like Brad did have like a lot of left out of left field. selections where I'm just like, God damn, okay. He was picking his guys. You read a lot of the smart books. Someone likes Lovin' Rockets. Yeah, exactly.

I did like the nuance of that. Chris, you went with the classics. You throw out Brian K. Vaughan, it's just like, okay, this guy is going for the fucking dunk right now. then Sal, he had the most current like, Pop names. You know what mean? Like, and that's fine. Cause you, you need that. Like you need Michael Jordan on the Bulls and you need Pippen as well. It's just like, get the picks. So I can't really pick a favorite.

If I had to, it would be yours because like, liked the, the mix of it all. But if you put those teams in a blender and like what, what would spill out would probably be like pretty Gucci. you know what mean. Sure. But how about you? Did you have a preference with any of the three teams? And I'll name off the teams here just a moment. Yeah. So I've got the list pulled up right now and I, I guess I might have to go with Sal's, but not by much.

Chris, yours is probably, if your team created a comic book, it would be the best looking comic book ever. Cause there's like five artists on here. Zoe Thurow, good. Dan Moore, Alex Ross, Christian Ward, Trad Moore. And then you got Brian Kayvon handling the writing duties. you know, that'd be an insanely good looking book. Yeah, absolutely. Well, and Bader just named off mine. I'm very, I was actually really happy with my team from last year.

But then you had Brad who had Peach Momoko, Stan Sikai, Matt Lesniewski, Tilly Walden, Junie Baugh, and then Chris Somney. And then Sal had Daniel Warren Johnson, Chip Sadarsky, Tom King, Barry Windsor Smith, Nick Darrington, and Bill Sienkiewicz. That is a comic heads lineup right there. Right. Come on. Yeah. Yep. Exactly. Bill Sienkiewicz part, fucking Barry Windsor Smith. I'm like, okay. Okay. I see where he's coming from.

I think if I remember correctly, Barry Windsor Smith went for like $12 because Brad and I didn't have any money to spend at the end, or at least I didn't. So that's the kind of craziness that can happen. But okay, well, let's first, let's decide how we're going to start drafting here. Okay. So I have our wheel here. I have all three of our names. I'm going to go ahead and press the first one. This will be our third pick. So up at number three, have, looks like I am going to be picking third.

So I'll have, I'll have the turn and then, so I'm going to exclude my name here. And then for number two, pick number two will be. looking like it's going to be Greg at number two and then bringing up number illusion. First overall pick is going to be butter. Gentlemen, how do we feel about that? I actually like that I have two picks in a row, so I'm mad about that. Son of a bitch. Yeah, rig rig. You know, actually, here's the change for next year. How about we not rig it?

And Chris, how about we just make Chris infinitely powerful in this match? How about that home corner advantage? Talk about that. All right. Well. Are you ready? You want to nominate our very first creator? my god. Okay. Yes. As soon as you name it, I'm going to start the clock. Okay. Good Lord. I like the pressures on. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let's do it. on. All right. Give your give your nomination and how much you bid. my god. And I got a bit. Okay. Let's do it.

Okay. My first nomination goes to someone who is having a stellar stellar year. And I feel like it's kind of putting him back on the map. Not that he needed to be put on the map, because he's already on the map. But without any further ado, I nominate Wes Craig as my first creator. a fantastic year with Absolute. He's doing his own creator thing with Kaia. mean, not on top of everything else he's done in the past. So that is who I'm nominating. I'm going to start the bid.

I'm going go a nice 50 on this one. A 50. Who's on the $50 bill? cannot recall. Is that Andrew Jackson? can't remember. That's a 20. I don't know. I don't have that much. Is that OK? Yeah, I'm for a 50 clean 54 for West. Was correct. All right. So, Greg, what are your thoughts here? Wes Craig, obviously, I think we're all big fans of his, of course. You want to see his grant, by the way, is Ulysses Grant. Of course. Yeah, yeah, sure. The most racist dollar bill.

Co-creator of Deadly Class, Gravediggers Union, Kaia most recently. really love that Wes Craig recently, he opened up an Instagram account where he was posting a panel of Kaia every single day. I don't know if he's still doing that, but I thought it was a cool idea. But Greg, I took it over there. What are your thoughts? I think that's a great first pick. You know, it's interesting. It's outside the box, but, bottle, you're right.

I mean, the year that they're having, I think it's just like one of those things where you would have bought his stock so low about five years ago. And now you're just seeing it go up and up and up and you're just about to cash in all these West Craig bucks and make a killing. So I think that's an amazing pick. 50 bucks is super cheap. I don't know if I'm going to bite for 50. I have some tempting names on my list that I want to squirrel away.

So I mean, that's an amazing pick though for West Craig. Thank Thank you, Sarah. You know, I was like, you know what, let's start off strong. mean, a comic book ain't nothing without the visuals. So I'm going for one of the hottest artists out there. Yeah. Yeah. You know, Wes is one of those guys that is also part of the Felix comic art team. And I feel like Felix's team is just a, just a roster of your comic book, your favorite comic creators, favorite comic artist, right?

Like think of whoever and they're going to be like, I really love Stanford green. I really love trad more. I really love Ryan Otley, Ryan Stegman, whomever.

So Daniel Warren Johnson. So Wes Craig fills out that, that roster really well, obviously as we've said, many times, Kaia and to hear him talk about this book, I'm trying remember where I heard him talk about this might have been comic book couples counseling could have been comics collective or actually no, it actually might have been off panel with David Harper.

You know, Wes was talking about how this is the book that he always wanted to tell and that regardless of whether this book was popular and I think it is, I think it's extremely popular among fans. He was going to figure out a way to tell the story in its completion. So I really respect that. think he's at the point now, especially after doing deadly class with a recommender that like he deserves to tell his story in a similar way. Again, like Stanford Green that he did with.

Fuck, what was the Stanford Green book? Help me out, guys. I do. No, no, no. The longtime book that he did that he won a ton of awards for. He was the artist for. Dang it. Why am I spacing it now? I sound like an idiot. But the point being is that these artists that were on these long running career on titles eventually when they get off. They want to tell their own stories. So deadly class was, was actually West Craig. I'm talking about Stanford green, but, also root, there it is.

Yes. Thank you. Gosh. Okay. So for the sake of auction, I'll do 60, I'll do 60 for West Craig. think that he would fit in nicely on a roster for me. Damn it. Really? Chris, you could have just let that one ride. No. Okay. I talked about it for two minutes. Okay. I a bit on him. You know what? You can have West Craig. West Craig at $60. We have one minute. One minute left. Anybody want to take me at $60 for West Craig? Going once. Going twice for West Craig. go quick. West Craig for $60. $60?

Nope. All right. No, sir. No. I mean, as much as I would like to add West Craig to the roster, I mean, and me being the first one to have the opening shot. I gotta hold off, because it just speaks to the killer lineup of God ready in the back pocket. Like Batman, I prepared for this. boy. Can also say, Wes Craig's current absolute issue is almost akin to, you brought up Sanford Green, and I forgot that they're on the same, like in the same art house, or represented by the same art company.

And they have very similar sensibilities, you know? Like in terms of like style, I think there's a lot of... fluidity and there are work a lot of energy. But I was reading that absolute special and I could not help compare it, especially the second half where Wes Craig is doing the dark side story. I could not help but compare it to Sanford Green's doom book where you got to see Sanford Green draw basically every character in the Marvel universe that you would want to see.

Sanford Green had almost, not Sanford Green, I'm sorry, Wes Craig had the same opportunity with this all in special where he got to draw pretty much all of the Justice League that you'd want to see. So I thought, you know, that comparison, and especially both books came out the same year, they're both having a great year is what I'm saying. Both of those books are metal as hell, right? And you're so right to compare your normal Doom book, which is often being drawn by a house style generally.

And there's nothing against the house style. We all like the house style. And actually one of the creators that I really love in the comic world is Daniel Sanpere, who draws the other half of that all in special is incredible.

But to see the contrast with Wes Craig in that book is a perfect sort of illumination of the different voices within the comic medium and how special it is to not only have your typical Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, because Daniel Samper does draw Wonder Woman currently with Tom King to see that difference with Wes Craig, who again is again one of the more unique voices. It's incredible. So I will happily take Wes Craig. We'll add him to the roster.

We're to go and throw the gavel down and we will add him to the list. So, Greg, do you want to? take us with our second pick here in the draft? Yeah. So a funny thing has started to happen in fantasy football where QBs didn't used to go in the first round, but now they are because it's like the playmakers are the quarterbacks for this generation. So in that spirit, I'm going to throw out my superstar.

I'm going to throw out the one that I am hoping to get the most because let me just name off some of the books she's done. Captain Marvel, Birds of Prey, Black Widow. Scarlett. I know we're going. Black Cloak. Absolute Wonder Woman. I'm talking, of course, of Kelly Thompson. There you are. All right. Where are you the bidding at? $75. $75 for Kelly. All right. I like it. I like it. There is in my mind no one right now who is more of a sure thing than Kelly Thompson.

Like, doesn't matter if it's humor, serious, horror, fantasy. Like, she throws down the gauntlet every time. And I just have a smile on my face with every story that she's written. And I know that she has given a ton of thought and passion into the stories that she's writing. these are long-term stories. She's not going in for two or three issues and just like, okay, we're done here. Like she has set out a plan and really wants the reader to enjoy themselves.

Like you can tell some writers that they're just writing a story that perhaps... they want to write or that they want to see. And Kelly Thompson is just like, no, this one's for the fans. And it's been every book she's written has been for the fans. So that's where I'm going at. Kelly Thompson, $75. I like it. like it. 75 is rich. If I didn't get West Craig, would fight you for that. She's on my list as well.

Kelly was, she led this last year's Eisners with five nominations, which she ended up winning one, I think for best humor publication for it's Jeff. So, and I think she honestly could have easily won best writer. I think it went to Mariko Tamaki. But point being is that you're absolutely right. And that bird's a prey book. I cannot yell from the mountaintops how awesome that fucking book is. It's just so good. Hey, and shout out to issue two, the oblivion bars in that issue.

So shameless plug there. unfortunately, based on my roster and everything that I have, again, bidding on Wes Craig, which I'm still happy about, I cannot compete for Kelly Thompson. So, Bodder, I'm going to hand it off to you here. Got about three minutes left here on this Kelly Thompson round. What are your thoughts? $75? No, Greg can have that. I got a plan. I'm sticking to it. OK, I off with Patrick Mahomes of comic book creators right now.

think when you hear some of the ones I got, maybe no disrespect to Kelly Thompson. Kelly Thompson is a great pick, Greg, for all the reasons you said. Consistency, fan base. She's, know. She just makes quality comic books. Sometimes you want someone that's a sure thing and I think she's the definition of a sure thing. I read Absolute Wonder Woman for the first time a couple days ago and I still have to read Absolute Superman.

But right now Absolute Wonder Woman might be, I got edging out Absolute Batman just by a smidge. Just by a smidge. I'm in the same boat as you. Get in, the water's warm. You know what it is? It's because I was not expecting I think this is the most interesting one in terms of like I'm not the biggest, I don't know a lot about Wonder Woman. I went in there with it very fresh. You there's only so much of Batman.

know, it's like the, Snyder to the inverted of Batman, which isn't that, I guess like it didn't catch me by complete surprise, but going into Wonder Woman, I'm like, okay, how are they going to make her different? And having her raised in hell, I mean, come on. The best way to love a child is to raise a child? Come on. That's the way to show the love. is to give the child away. mean, you know, it was filled with like great quotes. I like it. Yeah, absolutely.

But Greg can have Kelly Thompson for 75. That's too rich for me, blood. Going once, going twice, going three times. We Kelly Thompson for $75. All right. And she again, as I said a moment ago, she was on my list. So a great, great pick there, Greg. All right. I'm going to bring up the rear both with the last pick in the first round and then the first pick in the second round. Up first, we are going heavy into I think one of if not the most business savvy creators in the industry.

think you get gentlemen will know who exactly I'm talking about as soon as I start talking about what they've done. Can I take a guess? Sure. Go ahead and go with the guess. If you got it right, I'll start. I'll start the clock. Is it tiny onion? That's a good guess, but no, it's not tiny. Let me I will say it is probably Scott Snyder. You got the first part right. It is Scotty Young and I'm starting Scotty Young at sixty dollars. Sixty dollars for Scotty Young writer, artist.

One of the just again, one of the most business savvy. If you guys ever been to the his website, which I'm spacing right now is stupid. Is it like stupid, crazy mess or something like that? Something like that. He has created an empire with all of his work. Stupid fresh mess. Excuse me. It's just incredible. All the stuff that he's able to do, not only with his variants, but some of his own creator own work with Middle West and I hate fairyland. And he has these unoriginal art prints.

Talk about an incredible idea where you can put up. a what looks like an actual page of like a moon night cover and it ends up just being a print that you can buy for 20 bucks. How incredible is that? It's so cool. So 60 dollars for Scottie Young is what I'm going to start with. Do either one of you gentlemen want to fight me? I don't think I really even need to say much about Scottie Young.

I think we all are familiar with how incredible Scottie is not only as an artist, but also as a writer and so on. So Scottie Young, any fight for 60 dollars? Well, he is a Kansas City staple. I'll say that. So. Scotty Young has been on my radar from, I think, pretty much the beginning. He's been at Planet Comic Con every year. He is just the nicest dude to talk to ever. He's super chill. He struck gold with his, like, chibi versions of comic book characters. He makes a million covers a week.

like you said, like, Bully Wars, I Hate Fairyland, Middle West, like... The man knows how to Strange Academy. man knows how to write his stories as well. so it's like this double threat thing that's going on that is a great utility player for a team. that's like a fantastic, fantastic pick. And it hurts me to maybe walk away from a KC boy only because I have a utility player on my list that I also want. in the... What was it at? What do you have it at?

$60 is the current current bid for Scottie Young. If you guys let me take Scottie Young for 60 bucks. I'll do 65. 65 dollars. I'll do 65. What are your thoughts on on Hometown Alliance alone? Yeah, of course. You got to at do one for the Casey guy. I mean, I've been playing conservative these first two rounds and a pardon me wants to continue playing conservative because it's only the first round. But you know, we are that fun. We're friends. We're here to have fun. Not for long.

Yeah. $300 is gonna go very fast, even though it's imaginary, but for the sake of fun, I'm gonna go 75. I'm gonna go in a bid for 75. mean, like you guys make a, you know the problem with it being five minutes is that you think in the beginning, you're like, okay, I'm gonna let that one slide. But then enough time goes by and you're like, well, they're all making very good cases. Maybe I do need, you know, a writer artist combo. I'm looking at his website. I'm like, website is... pretty well.

He's like got a lot of things figured out. I want that on my team. So yeah, I'm gonna go 75. 75. All I'm going to go 80 because I, again, I think that he is just one of the most, we spoke on tiny onion a moment ago, but I truly believe that what Scott Young has created here with stupid fresh mess might be at the top of the mountain when it comes to creating an empire within comics. Now, of course, I don't think there's a ton of Scottie young stuff being created into movies and television.

At least not that I know of. like tiny onions doing over with something is killing the children and all the other stuff that he's doing. But regardless, if you just talk about what people will shell out for original Scottie Young stuff and his just as covers in general, he would be a pillar on my team. So I'm very I'm confident at eighty dollars for for Scottie Young. I got to walk on my. Yeah, I might like to have that.

And I think this is where our differences and how we're approaching this with what mentality. Right. I'm going to this mentality in this game of like building out the best team that would put the best comic book together. So I think I've got it like, need a writer. need one minute down. So I think, yeah. So I think for that case and for 80 bucks, I'm gonna take a step back. threw my, you know, I threw a little hat in the ring. I threw my change in there. Yeah, I like it.

Honestly, I didn't really want to go 80 for Scotty, but it's worth it. Honestly, I feel really good about that. However, I have another pick here. Let me go ahead and gavel. I've got Scotty Young and Wes Craig over on my team. Which let's be real, if we ever seen a solicitation for whatever book, a Marvel DC image, a fucking boom, Dark Horse that said Scottie Young in the writer slot and Wes Craig in the artist slot, we'd be losing our mind.

Wes Craig in the writer slot and Scottie Young in the artist slot. Losing my paycheck. good point. Yeah, it'd be variant city galore. All right. I'm going to go. I'm going to zig here when I think you guys think I'm going to zag for my first pick in the second round. I'm going to go for a specialist slot. You know, we've got I've got two utility players. I'm going to go with one of the best colorers in the game.

Now, in the first fantasy, our first fans, have no colorists were taken, at least not in their in their normal slot. Say it. I'm going to start the bidding for Jordi Belair. I knew that was 30 dollars. Thirty dollars for Jordi Belair. don't even need to ask anyone. Fifty dollars. raise fifty dollars for Jordi Belair because I was thinking I was like that was the difference. And that's what I'm saying, Chris. You've got my mind racing like, they got to do this.

Is that I think for the next one, build out the team and cars has to be on his. I know. know. This is the project manager and me that and also the big brother that had to come up with all the games for us to play as kids. So I had Jordi Belair. And I kind of broke down my dream list in terms of like writer, artist, colorist, letterer. And I even had editor, but I might have to change tactics. But Jordi Belair was at the top of the list.

And I forgot what I was reading this week where she was doing the colors. But she's what I call sneaky famous in comic space because that role is gaining more prominence. know, their names are on the cover of books now, but it's still one of those things where you don't realize I don't think that colorist is like a household name just yet. It's getting there, but not just yet. But if there was any household name in the world of colorist, Jordy Belair would be it.

Cause I guarantee you right now, if any of you guys or anyone listening was to look at their stack of comic books right now, I put the 50 bucks that is waged and real money that Jordy Belair has colored one of those books, at least one of those books in your to read pile. I guarantee it.

I think now that I recall it, she... just drew an issue, the current issue of Amazing Spider-Man with Ed McGinnis, which, you you flip through it, you're like, first of all, it's Ed McGinnis, so the art is beautiful, but the colors, the lighting, the tone, all Jordy Belair, baby, worth 50 bucks easy. 50 bucks for Jordy Belair. Greg, what are your thoughts? I concur, like, they're up for an Eisner, I think, every year. They just won it last year.

It's just like, every year, it's like, they're always on that list. That's a great pick. It's like throwing out Dave Stewart. mean, Mike Mignola and Dave Stewart are just locked together. Mike Spicer, think, is in the same ilk. Like, people don't realize that there is more to a comic book than a writer and an artist. A letterer, is a colorist, is designers. Like, all of this is melted together to make a great comic book. So, you you throw me for a curveball here by including Geordie.

You know, speaking of that Birds of Prey book, you could have Kelly Thompson and Jordy Belair. They're two, I would say two of the best parts of that book on your team. Or you were think of comic books, and I tried it too, in terms of like filmmaking, because I think it's an easier one for one. Jordy, know, the lighting is so, it can make or break a film. know, think of, mean, for some reason, drive comes to mind.

You know, I think a lot of people remember some of the iconic lines and some of the general premise. but everyone remembers like the lights in it, the lighting. What was the other Ryan Gosling movie he did right after that? Only God Forgives, I think, know, moody lighting. And I think that's how you have to look at a colorist in comic books. They set the tone, the mood, you know, which can also play into the setting, how a certain panel or page feels.

Yeah, they don't get enough credit, but the really good ones, Jordy Belair, Tim Townsend. Greg, who did you say Dave Stewart? know, masters of the craft. Real quick, sometimes you realize, at least I realize, it's not the art per se, a pencil work that I like so much as much as like the coloring, know, and then Jordy Belair is, you know, you could like a book just because Jordy Belair is only color. Yeah. To make a sports reference here, colorists and inkers are kind of like kickers in football.

Like you don't recognize them. You don't know how valuable they are until you have a bad one. You know, yeah, right. Speaking as a speaking or having a really good one. Speaking as a Ravens fan, Justin Tucker killed us today and he's one of the greatest cookers of all time. Again, to make a football reference. But the only six points that Jags scored today was because of our guy, little kick. It was field goes for us. All right. All right.

We've got about 30 seconds here bidding at $50 here for Jordy Belair. Bauder currently a second. Greg, I'm going to back out here because I've got 160 on my bank account. I'm out as well. Backing out. Well, 50 dollars going once, going twice here for Jordy Ballard, going three times and we have a winner here. 50 dollars. I could have went a little lower, but you know, fuck it. 50 bucks. All right. Another roll thoroughly broke. That's all right. That problem and rewind it back. All right.

Well, Greg, you're up next here. We I'm going to go ahead and set the clock here. All right, so just for a quick update, everybody, I have Wes Craig at $60 and Scottie Young at $80, leaving me at 160. Greg currently has Kelly Thompson for $75 and Botter just took Jordy Belair for 50. Now we're on to Greg here. Greg, who is your second round pick? I'm going to go with my utility player here who can do art duty and writing duty and has and sometimes in the same book.

I'm going to start the bidding low so we can have a little back and forth, but I want to go with Kyle Starks. We're Monsters Fly, Peacemaker, Sex Castle, Rock Candy Mountain. I've talked to Kyle a few times on the show. He loves comic books. He loves making comic books and that really shines through in his work. mean, it's... There is not a genre that he is not willing to dive into. He's just a fantastic creator of comic I will see your 25 and rate. What's the increments?

Isn't there normally like a minimum? We'll just do five, five per. So if you want to do if you want to see 30, I'll see your 25. I'll raise you 30. All right. Well, I'll just go ahead and go 40 because it's just like the dude. The dude doesn't miss like Lobo cancellation special that just came out recently. I had no business being as good as it did. He also, man, he knows how to write comedy.

And I think if you know how to write comedy, especially in comic books, I mean, they say that about, you know, to go back to the movie reference, like when a comedic actor can nail like comedy, it's so easy for them to do drama or any other type of roles because, know, comedy is just kind of hard to portray, you know, as far as timing and, you know, sensibilities and all this and stuff. And I feel like Kyle Starks has mastered the art of fun and comedy.

but also will hit you over the head with like, will hit you in the gut with feelings and a really well thought out story. So with those reasons, I raise you 45. I go 45. Because he was on my list too. for Kyle Starks. It's just like, it's the dialogue. He knows how to write a conversation between two people or multiple people. I think it's like the, what is it? Like the seven sidekicks of Trigger Keaton. Trigger Keaton, like that was such a...

That's exactly what I'm thinking of and such a fun premise, too. Yeah, like 12 people you had to like get into the mood to to write. Two my favorite books of the last couple of years were Peacemaker Tries Hard and the Minor Threats Barfly book that he and Ryan Brown did. And for that reason, that's why I'm going 55. And it's just like, come at me, bitch. then it's just like, come on, bro. What's up? It's just like, you know what?

You think you know what you're gonna get with Cal Stark because you read his previous works and then you read his newest one. You're just like, he just keeps finding ways to surprise you. So, yeah. You know, I've talked to Kyle a couple of times here on the show. He's always an incredible person to have on the show.

He's long-winded and I mean that respectfully and in the best way possible because he will talk and talk and talk and it's awesome to hear him talk because he's like extremely intelligent and funny person overall. And we've had him on twice. It's always a great conversation. Unfortunately, again, with my bank account, see the thing about my bank account is I got my checking and my savings. Unfortunately, I don't, I don't have the funds. So I'm to back out on Kyle Starks.

I wish you both well in this venture and I'm jealous because he is on my list, but unfortunately I do not have the funds right now to, and if I want to get to the people that I want to get to at some point, Kyle Starks, unfortunately does not have a spot on my roster. Why did we agree to 300 from 500? You made up the rule. shit. It's me. I'm the problem. OK. We're at fifty five. We've got one minute to remind you just because the clock ends does that mean we stop bidding?

So if you're waiting till someone wins, you know, I'm not I'm I'm not I'm thinking really hard. I'm just thinking fifty five dollars for Kyle Starks. Fifty five. He can have it. He can have it. I'm a pivot. Five. He can have it. right. I bow out. So fifty five going once, going twice and sold sold to. Greg. All right. So right now, up next, we have Bada. Bada, you are up next here. What are we thinking?

See, this is what happens when you you want to control the rules and make them and come back and bite you in the ass. It hurts so much worse. OK, you know what? I'm going take a page from Greg's book and thinking about, you know, my my lead player, my QB player. I need a writer because a comic book needs a plot. So I'm going to nominate. Rom V. All right. Go for a solid 30. Let's start out with a solid 30. That's going to my opening.

Wager Rom V. mean, another person who has had a stellar year and I'm not just like a seller, but I still are like like past couple of years. And I keep looking at you, someone that you think he is someone that you think has been around for a lot longer than he really is. I think it's to say around like The first time I heard of him was in 2019 when he put out these Savage Shores, which I still have not read. I need to do a better job of catching up.

But ever since then, mean, it's been, you the rest is history for him. These Savage Shores, I mean, he's immediately went into DC, Aquaman, Detective Comics, Mini-Dev's Layla Star of Boom Studios, Rare Flavors. He's doing the new gods, is it absolute new gods? I think it's just new gods. Just regular new gods. And for a good reason, this guy has an ability to write aura. That is the best way I'd describe it. His writing has a certain aura to it, a certain feel. He knows how to get metaphysical.

To me, he is, I want to say one for one, but when I think of folks like Grant Morrison that are a little heady, a little okay to bring very serious and esoteric themes to their writing, Ron V all day. To me, anytime that he writes a book, it's at least worth checking out the first couple of issues to see if it's your thing. So I'm going on Rom V, a strong writer for the team. Well said, butter. I agree.

$30 for Rom V. I'm going to do $35 for Rom V. I will say that Rom, to this day in Oblivion Bar history, I don't know if I've ever actually shared this on the show. I know I've definitely told both of you about it in our group chat, but the Rom V, Evan Cagle conversation that I had with them about Detective Comics. is to date one of the hardest conversations that I've ever had.

And I owe Ram a bit of gratitude because he was one of the very first guests that I've had on the show where he just refused to explain things. Like I would ask him, what was sort of the process or what did you, what were you trying to say with this and this? And he refused to say it. And his reasoning for that is, that it's not up to him. The moment he puts pen to paper, this work is no longer his, it is the readers.

So whatever the reader gloms from that story is sort of what it was meant to be. And I just really respect it about him. So I'm gonna do 35 for Ron B. All well I'm gonna go 45. 45? gonna challenge that, Because for those exact reasons, I'm sorry to interrupt, Greg, but for those exact reasons, I think we want more people that think critically and very hard about comic books and the relationship between the artists and the writers.

when you have someone and you know, he comes from a, I think he was like a what, engineer, right? He was like, he went to like, he's got like PhDs to his name, I believe, but he went to like college. He's got like degrees under his name, like for a very, like, I don't know, methodical thinking. And I think he brings that to his writing, like a sense of intelligence, a sense of like professionalism, an air of like sophistication. And that's what I want in my comic books.

And as well as like what ideas he can bring. that maybe we, you know, that are fresh and new. So Greg, you want to challenge that or say anything to it? No, you're good. I I was going to bid 40, but you bid 45. So I guess I'm fucking moot at this point. Dude, you don't need two riders, Greg. You don't need two riders. You got Kyle Starks. Come on, baby.

But the thing about Ram-V is, and I'm officially backing out from the bidding, the thing about the Ram-V is he's following in the same footsteps as a lot of others before him, like Chip and James Tynion. and Tom King to an extent, like they were indie darlings who just absolutely annihilated it. And then they slowly stepped into the main two era of Marvel and DC.

And that's when like, I don't want to say like the eyes of the comic industry were on them, but it's just like everyone who was like reading Batman or like Daredevil were just like, who's this like Rom V guy or like Tom King guy. And then everyone found out what us. Indie readers already knew and it's just like it's fun to see that for him of just like stepping into that larger role and just Killing it like Detective Comics is Amazing this new new god stuff.

He's gonna be doing I know it's gonna be bonkers I think he did some venom stuff with yep. allowing yep. Mm-hmm is incredible like it's so nice and it feels like you're watching a friend succeed at something because you've read their work so long that it's like Hell yeah, Rom V, go fucking get that bag, brother. Really love his work on the well him him and Dan Waters on the six fingers in the one hand that they're doing over on it. so good. That side by side parallel story. It's really great.

But unfortunately, I don't have the funds for it. So I'm going to back out as well. And that's actually the end of our time there with Rom V. So you have him. Let me go in. Both of five. Where's my gavel at here? That Cheddar cheese water. You get Rom V at forty five dollars. So I think. Is that am I up or is it Greg? Greg, think you might actually might be. I'm Yep. All right, Greg. Who is your who's your third nomination here?

For my third nomination, I'm going to go for someone who is in a long staple in the industry and who has been making some massive hits as of recently with his imprint giant generator. Mr. Rick Remender. right. What were we starting the bidding at? 25. You got Napalm Lullaby, Deadly Class, Seven Two Eternity. I think he's doing grommets with Brian Posehn. The guy's just like blowing up. He started his Giant Generator stuff and he's just like, all right, I'm getting my team together.

He did what we're doing right now for like real life. created this amazing imprint on Giant Generator. And it's just like the dude's hitting gold, like one after the other. And specifically, like I'm loving grommets. Like it's just a... nostalgic story about skateboards and punk rock and, you know, identity and like you have Brian Posey on there, who is an amazing standup comedian as well as a great comic book writer.

So I think he's just kind of this like threat that no one perceives as a threat because it's just, you know, it's Rick Remender. Like he's just like an easy breezy kind of guy, but he will just throw daggers all night. And so, yeah, Rick Remender. Rick Remender. That's he's on my list as well. Again, talk about business savvy. has made himself a little nice nook over in the image comics world with the giant generator world. He can pretty much do whatever he wants now.

Speaking again of deadly class with Wes Craig, he's done so much. think I, this is sort of a low hanging fruit, but one of my favorite X-Men stories of all time is of course, uncanny X-Force, just an incredible sort of talk about elevating at that time, the X-Men brand where if you guys can remember back to the early 2010s, the X-Men line wasn't doing very well.

And it was like really one of the only highlights in that corner of the Marvel universe was the uncanny X-Force that he was doing there. I think that's maybe the last time that we'll see Rick Remender writing a big two book, but I'm so happy that we have it. So for 25, mean, $30 for Rick Remender. Why not? Let's do it. I'll see you at $30. $30. I'll raise you $35. $35 right now for about a Rick Remender. Giant generator. Do you want that on your team? Think about all the resources.

$40 for Rick I'll do $45. $45 for Rick Reminder. I'll let you out so you fight it out. $45 is what I will stop at. now we have to get into the thing now because like I have two people of my own bidding. If you get this, if you one, I'm kind of hooked unless you guys throw out absolute trash, which I don't think you're going to. I forgot all about that part. OK, damn, I got to rethink the strategy. All right, Chris. All you. You me a recommender for 45? Yeah. All right. You're welcome.

That's a good one. I think that's actually could be the steal of the day because right now the lowest so far we've been Rom V at 45. I got recommender and no no shame to Rom V. I think recommender just sort of has sort of supplanted his flag in comic history. Yeah. So OK. All right. Well, you know, to be honest, I'm happy that I got recommender. But let me do my gal really quick. I will say that the funds are not looking good, especially because I have two picks in a row here.

So the gavel sounded like on New Year's Eve, the game that we all play gunshots or fireworks. That's what I would just like to start their own imprint called the Ninth Circle as well. They may have. Yeah, I'm not sure, actually, but that doesn't surprise me. So let's see here. I have two picks in a row here. I got to play smart here because I have currently the way my roster is set up. I have only one of my own picks with Scottie Young, but I have three people and only $125.

So I'm going to do something risky here. And I'm sort of annoyed that I put myself in this place. I'm going to do Fiona Staples at $25. Fiona Staples at $25, arguably the greatest. female artist in comic history. You know, as many people know, I'm a giant saga fan. It's my favorite comic of all time. Brian K. Vaughn is my favorite writer of all time. Fiona Staples, one of my favorite artists of all time. But again, the way my checking and my savings is set up, only have so much.

So I'll do $25 Fiona Staples. 35. 35. 35. I'd do a four to five because. Damn you guys. I think, like I said, I'm approaching this as building a team. to sell the ultimate comic book. I feel like if anyone, Fiona Staples does not just do a bunch of work. mean, Saga comes to mind obviously first at the top of the head.

I think you also might think like the short run she did on Archie of Mark Waid, but she seems like someone that is very meticulous and selective about the projects that she jumps on because her artwork is so incredible. It looks like she's aware of how much time it takes. So I think she's like an automatic seller. see Fiona Staples name on a comic book. You're more than likely going to sell it and people are going to pick it up. It's going to sell. I'll do 45. $50 from Greg.

How much money you got over there, Greg? He's got 175. You have 175. I'm trying to count pockets for jeez. Hmm. I'm angry that you guys didn't just let me have this, by the way. while you guys are thinking about this, I will just say that when speaking to Brian K. Vaughn on the show, Brian. And this could have just been him being humble, but I kind of believe him when he says that most of the best parts of saga and there are a lot of great parts came directly from Fiona Staples of cerebellum.

Like she is the she is the genius behind saga. He even says at one point in our conversation that not only is she an incredible artist, but she's a better writer than him, which again, could be him being humble. But I tend to see a little bit of truth there, you know, with Fiona. So currently at was it 50 right now? Yeah. 50 for Greg. I'm going to do 55. 55 for Fiona Staples and it'll satisfy the rule that's coming to bite me in the butt about not having the team of everyone I pick.

So Fiona Staples was a damn good suggestion. I'm so out. It's annoying. Greg, you fight for this for me? What if I do 70? 70. I'd say 70. First issue club is going to treat you so good. Do we have a fighter for 70 fighter for 70 for Fiona Staples going once? We two minutes, so there's plenty of time left. minutes. Come on. You know what? I'm a go. Should I say that? 75757575 75. All right. Currently in a close second behind Scottie Young for the most expensive creators thus far at 80.

Do I see 80 from? I'm out. No 80. can't do 80. 75 going once. can't 75 going twice. I mean, Fiona Sables on the lineup is going to look pretty sick. 75. must be broke now. Well, the way it's looking right now, we've got Botter's at 130. Let's do a quick Chris count my pockets, man. Come on. We got a gift card that I got. Can I use the fifty dollar gift card? But before credit, I got credit. Yeah. Yeah. You got a venture discount. What's going on? All right. I stand firm. I stand firm.

Whatever price I just said. Seventy five. All Let me do my gavel here. Seventy five here. Fiona Staples going to bottom. OK, so we're kind of at the halfway point because we've all we've done three rounds. And the way our teams are looking right now, does this make sense here? Maybe I'm wrong here on the three rounds part. Don't vet me, anyone listening right now. currently the way it stands is I have $125. My team looks like Wes Craig, Scotty Young, and Rick Verminder.

Scotty being the only pick that I have. Solid. Greg is sitting at 175 with Kelly Thompson and Cal Starks, both his picks. And then Bodder at 130 has Jody Belair. excuse me, Jordy Belair, Rom V and Fiona Staples. I mean, and that could be it for me right there. It's like, boom, that's, mean, yeah. Writer, artist, colorist. mean, what else do I need? I mean, a whole lot more, but still. Well, we got three more people to go still. ahead.

may I suggest a mid game rule change that I think might add some pep to the steps and really raise the stakes. What do we got?

I say instead of five minutes cut that bitch down to three minutes really put some pressure Really put some pressure on us put some pressure on the heat is on that's what I'm saying Let's let's get it so hot that Greg goes from a cherry red to fucking fireball, you know supernova I don't know what's happening with my camera's color correction, but I look like you guys can't see this if you're listening, but we've got Greg All-day bender just like going at it

Butters like he got a green hue to his and I'm like, I've got a dark shadow behind me. I don't really know what's happening on my end either. But all right, let's take it down to three minutes. OK, come on. Three minutes, three minutes. OK, here we go. So for my third, I think it's my third pick. We've got let's see here. I'm actually taking this is like the start around for. Yes. Yeah, you're right. You're right. So I got a hundred twenty five dollars. I'm going to go sneaky here.

And I hope you guys don't challenge me for this, but I'm going to do Denzy Camp. current writer of The Ultimates and the upcoming Ultimate Wolverine, among other things, 20th Century Men. I'm going to go $15 for Denzi, sort of a newer name in the comic world. But in my opinion, I think one of the true up and comers, I would not be surprised if in three years Denzi has a couple of Isendr noms, maybe even a win.

would I think between him and Hickman is sort of leading the charge when it comes to the ultimate universe over at Marvel, which in my opinion, and I'd love to hear your guys thoughts on it. looking pretty good so far. I'm a big fan of all the runs. I actually haven't really been keeping up on the Black Panther run quite yet, but I will say that the Ultimates, the Ultimate X-Men, and then Spider-Man have all been great. So $15 for Den-Z Camp.

I went, I can't believe I'm gonna let you have that for 15, but I just dropped a lot of money. Cause you're not, someone's been 25. nice. 25. you said about, it's Den-Z, right? Den-Z? I think it's Den-Z Camp, yeah. Everything you've said about him is accurate. I went from being kind of iffy on picking up the Ultimates to now that is like, that's top of the reading pile. I think I look forward to that more than dare I say, Ultimate Spider-Man by Hickman.

Which is saying a lot, but I feel like every time you read an issue of Ultimates by him, there's so much nuance to it. You end up leaving with a lesson, know, something to chew on, you know, mentally. And yeah, I'm like, well, what else has he written that I'm not aware of? Like, you know, I think it goes back to what Greg was saying about when these indie darlings end up going absolute manhunter as well. that's right. that's right. Yeah. He's over in the DC years. I totally forgot about that.

You're right. I have not read 20th century men, but if it's as good as everyone says it is, if it's any indication, if Ultimus is any indication of how good that is, I'll be on that. You lucky lucky man. I'm doing 30. I'll do 30 for Denzy. Damn it. Greg. Greg's at the bank. Actually, I'll do 40. 40? I'm out. Federal Reserve Lick Tide, ladies and gentlemen. Yeah, no. I'm now looking at what they've done and what they're going to be doing. Yeah. right.

Damn. I got about a minute left, but I can't do... I'm at 125 and I got two more rosters or three more spots to fill. So, Greg, I think you might have your very first non-Greg pick. with Denzy Camp at $40. That's a good pickup. All right. Where's my gavel at? Geez. What a pick. Now, I'm kind of mad. I was hoping that I would just sort of get him. But all right. Denzy Camp off the board. And that leaves Greg up next. So, Greg, what are your thoughts here with your next pick? All right.

So I'm going to throw out Declan Chalde. all right. Before time, Moon Knight, Thundercats, Terminator, Alien. Also does the writer-artist combo when called upon. This is a name that has been in the indie world for a long time and that is now being utilized by Marvel primarily a ton to amazing success. think it's like him and Benjamin Percy are the people that they go to for like all the 20th century stuff and they're just like fucking cooking over there.

I think he's just like a solid... like foundational pick. Like he's the guy that's just like, if you need something done, that'll appeal to like the indie crowd and like the, the, the big two kind of crowd. Declan is the one you go to and I'll do a 25. We'll start low for the quarter.

again, I'm, I'm out on really, I really have to be selective and I love Declan Shalvey, especially that moon night that he did with Warren Ellis, but I, I just don't know if I have the funds to fight for Declan when I have Still a couple picks left. I went too hard with Scotty Young. it. I will see Greg's 25 and raise him 30 for Declan Shelby because Declan Shelby, much like Kelly Thompson is a name that has quality behind it.

The guy is got one hell of an eye for, mean, you know, and I'm coming at it from a Declan Shelby cover. Come on, you can put your money. yeah. He's got such a great eye for design, thinking outside of the box, know, action and all of that. So Declan Shelby would be welcomed to this roster over here. Greg, rebuttal at 30. I love that you should use it. wouldn't have a pencil. Botter Milligan note, mind you. irony is not lost. Sounds like I Declan Shelby added to the roster.

Another one stolen from going twice. That's good. God damn it. Lenshalvy at $30 to Bodder. All right, Bodder, you're sitting at $100 even right now. And I think it is your pick as well. What do you have here for your fifth spot on your roster? Man, I kind of definitely shot myself in the foot by having jumping the gun a little soon on the artist because I had a man. I can't wait to tell you who I had on the lineup for the artist. But that aside, I'm going go for a little curve ball here.

OK. We're over here talking about amazing writers, up and coming creatives and things like that. But you know what else makes or break a comic book in my opinion is the staples, some good. Spot gloss. I wish I had the name of like a staple company that I could just toss it in. like for $25 staples are us. No, I'm going to enough of a bustard. I'm going to throw out Hassan Otsman Elhout. I had a my list too.

Fantastic letterer, but also an amazing comic critic, which he was name dropped in the last year's episode, but no one actually bid on him. So with that said, I'm going to start the bid with him at 20 bucks. So 20 bucks for Hassan Outsman-El Haou because- 25 for my end. All right, all right. Chris, see what you want to do. All right, then I will go 35. And I will continue saying what I'm saying about Hassan because he, what was it? was absolute. my God. What did he just do?

I'm thinking it's a Tana. There's a Tana Black Label book that's currently out. Bring the House Down is phenomenal. Not only because you've got Javier Rodriguez doing the artwork, which he's already bringing a funky style, a pop art sensibility and amazing colors, but pay attention to the lettering, the captions, the automata, Pias. Like it all brings it together.

And I feel like everything I said about colorists kind of going unappreciated or kind of like slowly getting their appropriate spotlight. I think the letters is still an uphill battle for a lot of folks. So to have someone like Hassan Osman Alhaw who elevates the craft, who brings like a great design sensibility to a comic book, if I get them on the squad, I'm gonna have one of the best looking comic books ever. So Hassan Osman Alhaw. 35. I'm going to challenge that.

I'm going to do 40 for Hassan. Chris, come on, man. You don't have to. Not only is he one of the best letters in the game, not only did win an Eisner, but he was also the editor of VanLex panel. Potter, speaking as your accountant, you need to stop. 45 for Hassan right now. 45. All right. Next year's game, we all have to have our mothers on the call and for them to be like, honey, you can't afford that. And have life on the call next time. How much are you spending on these imaginary people?

Greg, what are your thoughts? you going to bid on the sign here again? One of the best letters in the game? can't. mean, he's got a plan. Look at Greg. Wow. No, I can't. Too rich for my blood and with with what's Look, I'm going to do 50, 50 real quick for us. Christ. Yep. I'm OK with that again. Hassan, in my opinion, and there are a lot of great letters out there, but I think he is just so far and away. Just number one in my book.

So. Speaking to Christian Ward about this on our City of Madness, he just cannot talk enough about Hasan and his work as a letterer. So I'm very confident at 50. Also Hasan is a writer himself. mean, aside from being like a comic critic, a journalist, a fantastic anchor, he's a writer too. I think he had a project with Junie Ba where he was like either a co-writer or on the project. So for those, I feel like I'm on Shark Check.

For those reasons, I'm out, but I'm not gonna be out because I was stalling time. I'm going to go ahead and bid him for 55. Fuck it. I'm going to go 55 for okay. I'm out. 55 is a good one. All right. Shoot. I tried hard for that one everybody. If you're listening for some reason, which I know you're not, I tried. All right. But Asana, if you are listening, remember when I had you on the podcast, had such a great time. Come on back buddy. We were friends. You had a great conversation.

I was going to, I was going to talk about that earlier before I start trying to outbid you. was, was a great talk. I was thinking about, I threw in the extra five because I was like, his personality was great. He was so nice. Yeah, absolutely. Come on now man. Welcome to the squad, baby. You know, Bod, you're sitting at a pretty decent spot. You've got $45 left, but you only have one spot to fill. So your team is looking good. Hold on. And this is the important part.

This last pick, is it going to be his or someone else? He has one more pick for himself. Yeah. See, I strategically was playing this game. He's like, I meant to do that, everybody. I don't know if you know this or not. this a school for ants? Greg, you are up next. Who do you have on your board? This is going to be a personal pick for me, someone who I have loved for a long time and who I am hoping to get on my team.

Brett Parson, who has done the Tank Girl series out on Titan and the Grommet series currently going on Giant Generator with RecreMender. His style is so stylized and neat and like honed in and it feels like you're watching a Saturday cartoon and like you're also like... It's a trick of the eye of just like, you look at his artwork and it's like, is this comparable to anyone?

You're just like, no, it's like an emotion that you're feeling of just like whimsy and like fun of like your younger days of just like. No cares in the world. And like, think Brett just perfectly encapsulates that kind of feeling in his artwork. Greg, the biggest grommets fan in the universe right now. I'm throwing down on that series. That's good. Why haven't thrown out Brian Posey's name yet is beyond me. Ten bucks. Ten bucks. nice. I like it. All right. Strong.

Brett, when you type in Brett Parson in Google, they show he pops up as visual artist. And I think that is so accurate. I know we're starting to do that. Google's just like, we don't want to put comic book artists. He's way cooler than that. Yeah. All right. Well, I can't challenge for Brett, unfortunately. I don't have the funds for it. But I want to have a pick. That's a great pick. Yeah. That's like a Monja Janobly type of pick. Like just coming off the bench six man.

No one knows how valuable he is until he's in the game. I, know, unfortunately, again, the way my team is set up, I just don't have the funds. We should have done 500, everybody. We really screwed this up. $500 would been much better, but that's okay. You know, you live and you learn with these. That's next year's, resolve. There you go. Yeah. Brett Parsons for $10. Yeah. If you want to know more about Brett, go read the Tank Girl stuff from Titan comics.

Like Tank Girl is already an amazing series, but like the vividness he brought to the new series was fantastic. So, I'm happy to be getting this pick, on the cheap. I feel like he's going to be my, my rally pick. There you go. Gavel goes live. Brett Parsons for $10. The steal of the night so far. The cheapest one before that was $30 for Declan Shalvey. So great pick, Greg. I have two picks here. Let's see who we have here. I'm currently sitting at $125 just so everybody knows.

And I'm going to go with someone. This is funny. You know what? Yeah, I'm going to do this here. Let's go with Robert Kirkman for $25. Robert Kirkman for $25. What do you guys got? Do want to challenge me? $50. Nice. Get it, Greg. Don't make it easy on him. Don't fucking make it easy on him. All right. Robert Kirkman. $50. Damn. Okay. Yeah. I mean, we've been talking about, I'm not bidding by the way. The tumors for my blood. can't even compete. He's like the, like the new Godfather.

That's what I'm saying. We've been talking about business savvy creators. Look no further than Robert Kirkman. Came in as a talented writer. I think he was like immediately, what role did they give him at Image? CEO? think Maybe editor in chief or something? They gave him a pretty prominent role pretty early on because his Walking Dead was killing it. And then eventually now he runs Skybound, which I...

To me, sometimes you forget that's just an imprint of image because it feels like it's, no, it is its own thing. It could be its own publisher itself from the branding, the marketing, the talent. Yeah. I just shared with you guys not too long ago that I recently just picked up Firepower for the first time and started reading the hardcovers and God, if that's not just a great book. And it's so easy to overlook Robert Kirkman because he's just done it so many times. Walking Dead, Invincible.

mean, again, Firepower, you could throw in. You can even throw an oblivion song if that's your speed. You know, got Marvel zombies, of course. Like, it's so funny to me to think about how, and I think this is sort of known among the masses that Robert Kirkman had to lie to Image to get The Walking Dead created. And it ended up working out in the best way.

And I love the story about how he sort of pitched the walking dead, the fake story for the walking dead while driving a comic creator to the airport. If I remember that story correctly, could be, don't bet me on that everybody, I could be telling a lie. But if I remember correctly, the way he got his name in on Image was he was working at a comic shop. He was driving a comic creator, high up comic creator, I'm forgetting the name now, to the airport, pitched it.

The comic creator put a good word in with Image and that's how he eventually got the walking decorated. So. Yeah, I had no idea. I knew about the fake walking dead story. I didn't know about the airport story. Now I'm beating myself up for all the times I've been like, I can't drive them to the airport because I got stuff going on. Son of a bitch. Robert Kirkman for fifty five. I will do fifty five. Earned it. That's it. That's the high price tag. You have Robert Kirkman on your team.

I'll I'll do sixty. Sixty. OK, I'm out. I don't have it. I don't have it. So can leave. Hercules going once. You don't have the funds. can't that. have say it like that. mean, geez. You don't have to play brokey. Brokey. Brokey. Brokey. Broke boy over here. All right. I guess. has been sitting. What is that phrase? In stock market, there's like a bear market and then like a pig market or something like that. All bear over there. All right. Here we go. Gavel. Robert Kirkman for $60.

Over to Greg. Greg, you are currently sitting at $65 now. Somehow through the ebbs and flows of this draft, I now sit atop with the most money. don't know how seeing how I came out hot with Scottie Young and Wes Craig at $80 and $60. But here we are. And I have one more pick. And gentlemen, I think I'm going to come in with another heavy hitter because I think I can beat you guys for this. Let's do Mike Magnolia for $35. Mike Mignogna, $35. God, oof. What do you guys got? Let's see here.

Now that we're playing with fire. Mike Mignola. mean, what? Of course, Hellboy fame. Everybody knows. We don't really need to say much, to be honest. I'll do 45. 45. I'll do 50. I was gonna throw my hat in for 45, but I was gonna wait until the clock got down just a little more. But you guys have fun fighting this one out. Damn, Mike Mignolo would be such a good... Because, you know, he brings all that experience. He brings the name recognition.

He's built his own little empire as well through Dark Horse. obviously he doesn't have his own imprint, but through BPRD and Hellboy and everything else he's done over at Dark Horse, he's been there since the early 90s. Like, come on. And Hellboy has just been consistently... You're talking about like Usagi, Ojimbo consistently good through its entire run. So $50 for Mike Magnolia. I'm happy about that. Greg, what are your thoughts? My thoughts are I'm going to go 65.

Nice. I'll do 70 and I'll beat you out. I don't have any money. $70. I'll take it for 75. It's a little unfair that Chris over there knows all of our wallet accounts. I got access to everybody's account. Well, just so that Everybody is, let me do my gavel really quick. Cause I got Mike Magnolia for 70. I have the two highest, no, I'm sorry. I don't have the two highest, the highest beds. You guys got Fiona Staples at 75, bought her and then Kelly Thompson, Greg, you got him or got her for 75.

So I'm happy with Mike at 70. That's a great pick. think even though it's a big amount, I think that's still a bargain. I'll just do a quick, just so everybody's tracking at home. I currently am sitting at $45. I've got Wes Craig, Scotty Young, Rick Verminder, Mike Magnolia. We got Greg at $65. Kelly Thompson, Kyle Starks, Denzy Camp, Brett Parson, Robert Kirkman, and you have Bodder at $45, Jordy Belair, Ram V, Fiona Staples, Declan Shave, Hassan Otsman, Elhelm, excuse me, like I said, $45.

So Bodder's currently winning in the utility camp. Greg is currently winning I think in. Well, actually, I think of all of our teams, Greg, you kind of have like a little bit of everything. You've got a great writer. You've got a good writer artist. You've got a good up and comer. You've got a quick I would say. And again, I mean this respectfully. You've got a bargain pick here with with Brett Parson. You have a giant with Robert Kirkman. And, know, I like I like my team as well.

Wes Craig's got a young Rick Bremender. I've got two empire guys with Rick Bremender and Mike Magnolia. So, Greg, it is your pick. A pic that I can't bid on, so this is gonna be fun. I will say, I'm torn between these two because one is a hometown boy and the other is one who is like building an empire themselves. I'm gonna go with Matthew Rosenberg. What's the furthest place from here? We can never go home. Four kids walk into a bank, which is turning into a movie or a TV show, one of them.

Matthew Rosenberg is one those. bet? Really quick before we go on. 30. 30? All right. Matthew Rosenberg is one of those guys that is inputting his love of music into his work love, which is comic books. And you see that a lot in What's the Furthest Place From Here, but you can tell that he is just like a music guy. He loves finding rare hidden gems and finding ways to use that in his comic books. And I really, really respect that.

you know, Mike D had his band when he was in college and Mike Russo, the budget king, was a big music promoter, had his own music label. So collectively as a first issue club, volume one, we had a lot of music talk on our show and Matthew Rosenberg was a guy that we always talked about because he just had such an affinity for music. wow. I know any of that. That's cool. And I've never thought to... Call any of my past, any of the past iterations of the short box, volume one or volume two.

That's fucking genius, Greg. Thank you. Thank you. You know what? Just for the sheer fact that Matthew Rosenberg is competing with us with Ashcan Press over at Substack with his podcast featuring the Supple Boys, I will not bid out of pure spite because he's hilarious. So I will not bid. Bader, what are your thoughts? $45, you've got one spot left. Yeah, I'm thinking I'm gonna hold on to my last spot here. And only because admittedly, I don't know much about Matthew Rosenberg.

But hearing Greg talk about how cool he is and the musicality, which is always is a surefire way to win me over. I don't know much about the comic side like that. I won't, you and that's on me. So Greg, I humbly bow out. You've got some like, you got some cool, I'm sorry, you got some cool. out of left field picks with the Brett Parsons, Matt Rosenberg. This is definitely a you line up that you got going on. I respect that. I'm good. I bow out.

I was joking earlier, Four Kids Walk Into a Bank is a fucking bonafide classic. It's literally just like, talk about a staple for around the time I started picking up comics, which was around like 2012, 2013. I've always been into comics, but around the time where I was like really, really becoming a Wednesday warrior, Four kids walk into a bank. Go into any comic shop and just ask all the people that work there, what's your favorite comic?

Four kids walk into a bank is gonna be one of their favorites. But unfortunately, again, the way my team is set up, I can't really bid for him. I will say that, Greg, you now have four picks on your team. But I think just, I guess the way the draft has sort of fallen, we kind of have to give you Matthew Rosenberg here. So we're already breaking rules, but that's all right. son of a bitch. Hey, okay. then my team's fucked Collusion. But you are also done, Greg. You have your roster.

You are good to go. So, Bodder, what are your thoughts here? You're you have five picks here. I have four people on my team. What is your next pick? All right. Now I'm going to deviate from the plan because I, you know, I felt like there was a little bit of, a little bit of a Duncan on me. You know, you guys have all these like premier A-list superstar names and you guys were like, yeah, Bodder's got a good little silly team. Respectfully. Cute man. Cute. So, so I think I need to.

I was going to go in my very nerdy fucking self-important way. was gonna go, well, my next pick is gonna be an editor. I it's gonna be Chris Conroy, which I think I would make that assumption, but I've only got one slot left and I wanna end it in a bank. So I'm going to nominate Frank Quietly. Ooh, I like it. And my opening bid will be for 25. Damn, that's a good pick. Why Frank Quietly? Frank Quietly, and I had to look it up. because Frank Pyle is kind of deceiving.

You're like, he's still doing stuff. And it's like, yeah, he's still doing stuff. But I think he's also at a point in his career where he's very selective. The last thing I could find is that in 2022, he did the first issue of the Mark Millar Ambassadors series, which I believe that whole series premise was that every issue there's gonna be a different artist, et cetera, et cetera.

And I think he now just, you can definitely catch a variant cover by him floating around out there every couple of months. But Frank Quietly, man, come on. Tremendous artist. He's worked with the best. I I brought up Grant Morrison. He's damn near, you know, glued to Grant Morrison's hip in terms of new X-Men. mean, absolute Batman and Robin. The list goes on. It's Frank Quietly. So I figured I've got Declan Shelby, who I believe is Irish. then I think, and then Frank Quietly, he's a Scotsman.

I mean, bring some of that European. you know, UK flair to the, to the lineup, give Declan Shelby a buddy that could relate to everything. mean, yeah. Speaking of like your favorite artists is artists, know, talk about, talk to the giants in the comic industry.

Frank quietly is often being brought up as like, you know, when I first started reading comics says, you know, Robert Kirkman, he will talk about Frank quietly in that light that like, if it had not been for Frank quietly in his work, that artist would have never continued to read comics. So what a pick. Man, I really want to fight you on this. If I do this, if I go to 30, that leaves me with $15 and that's assuming that I win. So for that reason, sharks, I'm out.

I got to unfortunately, I to give you Frank quietly. I got to give you, I got to give you Frank quietly at $20, $25. That's crazy. I will take it. And you know what? That is the not that saying that I didn't have some A-list star power, but I think Frank quietly is mainstream wise people. Yeah, come on. It's Frank quietly. Yeah. All right. Frank quietly at $25. Congratulations, Potter. But also your team is done, which means everybody.

I don't know if everyone's keeping track at home, but I currently have two roster spots and $45 to play with. Let's see what I'm going to do here with my last two roster spots. It's by two compadres here. Can't fight me on it. So let's start off with James Tyne in the fourth at $25. Anybody, anybody want to us off? James Tyne in at 20, $25. Anybody want to do James Tyne in at 25? Do I hear 25? 25 anybody going once. How much did I win? How much did I win?

Frank quietly for you would have had those spots open. You would have had $15. I think you would have $20. What's the bench looking like? What's the bench now? All right. I get James signed in for $25. Let me do my gavel. And then for my last spot here, let me see. Let me check my list. Chris, how did you end up passing to the fifth round? man. I lost all my picks. You guys took all my guys. I'm not healthy about it. You know what? So, Chris, you had a bunch of great recommendations.

That's what we stole. All of your great ideas. Yeah. You know what? I'm going to do. And again, this sort of works out, unfortunately, that like Greg and I both have four picks just because, again, the way the draft sort of laid out for my last pick. for my last $20 that I have, I'm going to do, and I have a couple of people, I'm just gonna go through the people that I'm deciding just so people can kind of go through my list.

I've got Tyler Crook, Daniel Sampear, Mariko Tamaki, Jesse Lonergan, Jeff Lemire, Dave Chisholm, Patrick Horvath, Michael Allred are the people that I'm deciding between. mean, Jeff Lemire is a solid dunk. It's between Jeff Lemire, Mariko Tamaki, and Michael Allred for me. I just was recently talking to you guys on our group chat about how much I love Michael Allred's Silver Surfer run. Everybody knows Silver Surfer is my favorite character of all time. But Jeff Lemire, yeah, you know what?

I think it might just have to be Jeff Lemire coming in at the tail end on my last pick. So we will do that for $20. utility pick as well. mean, writer and artist. You can never go wrong with having like a double or triple threat. mean. Yeah. And he's also, he does his own lettering as well. the triple threat's the lettering. Okay. Yeah. He also does the binding, which is crazy. You buy the staples. All righty. Well, let's go ahead and round this bad boy out.

We could talk about James, but I think everybody here knows who those two creators are. I will say everything. Take everything we've been saying about everyone else and just multiply it by 10. There you go. Right. Those two guys are they're giants in the medium for James has been a recent giant with this tiny onion stuff. And Jeff Lemire has just been consistently one of the best creators in comics. So let's lay the land here a little bit.

We've got my team sitting here at West Craig, Scotty Young, Rick Verminder, Mike Magnolia, James Tynan the fourth, Jeff Lemire. Greg is currently sitting at Kelly Thompson, Kyle Starks, Denzy Camp, Brett Parson, Robert Kirkman, Matthew Rosenberg. And then Bodders is bringing us up with Jody Belair, Rom V, Fiona Staples. Declan Shelby, Hassan Oztman, Elm Howe, and Frank Quietly. So that is our teams today for our second annual Comic Creator draft. Gentlemen, how do we feel?

How do feel about our teams? I kind of hate this game because now I'm like, why doesn't this comic book exist? Who would be your writer on your team, Botter? I think I'd have Ron V as the lead writer, Declan Shelby backup. But that's what I'm saying about Declan Shelby, right? sit in on that, that writer role. He can also sit in on that, you know, I, Hey, we need a solid cover. Declan's like, I got it. I got it. Yo, give Fiona and Frank some time, you know, give them a little break.

got, I got the covers. Don't worry about it. Hassan Esman, Al Hout. Come on. My squad is looking sharp and Jordy Belair cannot sleep on the contributions of a colorist. it. Greg, what are your thoughts on your team here? Are you happy with your, again, you got the steel of the draft with Brett Parson at $10. What are your thoughts on your team? I'm elated to be honest.

And I'm looking at this list and I'm thinking, you know, in the context of what Bauder is doing, I'm just like, what book would they write? And I would love to see this team do like some kind of historical fiction series where like, you know, the dinosaurs, the meteor that came didn't kill the dinosaurs. So now we're living side by side, maybe a dyna-topia kind of thing, you know, journey to the center of the world. think there's a lot of... Action to be told there, some humor can be done.

The artwork is gonna be fully covered with the people that I got. I got Kirkman on there as like one of those like classic editor kind of types. I got the Dark Horse with Brett Parson. I got a ton of utility players. I'm jazzed, I'm feeling real good. Sure, yeah. And again, I think the way that my team sort of set up there at the end, unfortunately I just got to be able to pick who I wanted, which... From my angle, I love but for the sake of the draft, we still have some fine tuning to go.

But again, I'm also elated with my team mostly because my four pillars, would probably end up being Scotty Young, Mike Magnolia, James Tynan and Jeff Lemire and Rick Reminder, both of them are both titans in the industry in terms of building their brands. between those four guys with Wes Craig bringing up the tail end with both being an incredible writer and artist, I'm extremely happy with mine. From your guys' point of view, unbiasedly, who do you think has the best team? Me?

Actually, no. I'm going to co-sign Greg. I mean, that's going to be a well-written fucking comic book right there. Kelly Thompson, Kyle Starks is going to be fucking funny. Matthew Rosen. I mean, I like Greg's a lot. I I went into this draft thinking I'm not leaving without Kelly Thompson. getting that pick solidified, I'm just like, all right, I have the Patrick Mahomes. I have the captain of my team right there. like, she's more than able to like pilot whatever happens with this team.

It's funny that you have, I wouldn't say it's funny, it's interesting that you have Kelly Thompson as your quarterback and not Robert Kirkman, who has, you know, again, been a giant in the industry for 20 plus years now. Robert Kirkman's my Andy Reid. He's the coach on the side. know what I mean? He's lived through it all. He's helping Kelly. get to her further greatness. Like this is looking good for, I love this game.

And I think that's why I was going to throw in, you know, a chosen editor because no matter how talented your squad is, and maybe this is the annoying big brother project manager in me, like you need someone to bring all that together. Keep like the project on the train tracks, you know, someone that has like a wider vision of like, you know, all the parts working together.

So I think for Greg, And I think that's why his speaks to me because having Robert Kirkman on there just from an oversight site, you know, like, yeah, you could have him like lead the writing charge and be the face of it. But him just like, you know, playing like that coach role. Come on, man. That'd be undefeated. Yeah. Well, gentlemen, thank you so much. Again, this is always the most fun. This actually went a little longer than I thought it would, which I'm happy about it.

We got a great conversation, bought a good call on shortening the time that we could actually talk about all this stuff. But I am extremely happy with the way this all came about. Anyone listening right now, if you have any suggestions on either format or what have you, please don't be shy. Let us know what your thoughts are.

But before we get out of here, I'm going to hand the baton off to you gentlemen one more time, because I, I, I, I so much enjoy anytime that we get to hang out on either of our shows, but especially on my show, because these type of events require someone outside of you either Aaron or myself, we got to bring in the big guns. So I, I so appreciate both of you coming on to the free labor. Yeah. Free labor is great. Exactly. This is, I, I required you guys to be here. I was leaving the group chat.

There would be two comic gents. That's the thing about hopping on another like podcasts, especially when like it's good. You're like, fuck, I wish we were recording for my show. God damn it. You're like, you're like, Damn, send me a copy of this. Well, Greg, I'm going to hand the baton off to you. Let the folks listening right now, again, if for some reason they've never heard of the first issue club, get people to run down. Why should people come check you out every Friday?

Yep. First issue club. Every Friday we go down the hottest and best first issues of the week. We started it as a reading club for newer readers to get into the comp industry because it is kind of daunting. There's a lot of stories that are being told right now and a lot of things that you may not be aware of. And we're here to walk you through the current week's best selections. We're also here to talk about books that we've loved previously.

Right now, the club is going through our list of top 100 best things about comic books, which we researched for five to six years and deliberated over many, hours of the top 100 things that are the best about comic books. And we're doing that through the holidays as like our evergreen episodes, because with the holidays, as you guys know, is Recording goes fucking sucks. There's always delays. As hard as hell.

So like good little boys, we pre-recorded some stuff and that's the one we're looking forward to the most. But yeah, we just love talking with people over on our Discord about comic books, over on our Patreon. It's been a blast. And I always say this whenever we meet, meeting the two of you and befriending one another. mean, we talk every day. We have text chain and like we talk every I talk to you more than probably my brothers sometimes.

It's just like I'm so thankful for this community and the ability to make an imprint in it. So if you want to come learn more about First Issue Club, come check us out. Yeah. And I don't I'm not just blowing smoke. I'm not just saying this because Greg is right in front of me. I've said this often both in private and to him physically. But the First Issue Club first podcast I listen to every Friday. Just absolutely. It's you know.

If not my favorite, one of my favorite comic book podcasts out there. And speaking of my other favorite comic book podcasts about her, tell the people about the short box. All right. I'm going to get my accolades out the way. And then I want to go back to Greg and Chris real quick. But the short box podcast, man, like, Chris had said, I've been doing this for a long time because I love comic books and comic culture.

mean, it brought me to these two amazing gentlemen, but the short box is the best way. to get your weekly dose of comic shop vibes without ever leaving the house. Okay. We drop episodes every Wednesday. We do news, reviews, and interviews about, you guessed it, comic books and comic culture. I've been on, I say this almost every year, but I think it's maybe a testament to me always trying to push the bar.

But I feel like this year has been amazing in terms of interview opportunities in the episodes I've been putting out. So. Let me know if I'm crazy. Check out the short box wherever you get your comic podcasts. To go back to the first issue clip, the worst thing about that damn show is when they miss a Friday. Okay. When they miss a Friday, you feel it. yeah, same things can be said to you too. Greg, I can say this on a podcast. That one list of a hundred best things about comic books.

And then on top of this too, I can say about the draft. It keeps me on my toes because I'm like, Damn it, that's a great idea. Why didn't I think about it? You've been doing this for 12 years, you lazy bum. Think better. So anyways, yeah. I think, don't hold me to this, but once the 100 is over, we might try to get some of you guys on the show to do like pre-100 or a couple of picks. so. That'd cool. I think it's just an expansive conversation that could be had.

I'm excited Some of the ideas, yeah. I don't want to spoil it because I think people should absolutely go listen to it. But some of the things you guys have already mentioned at the first 25, you're like, If we're already getting this nuanced and know, nitty gritty, then I cannot wait for the rest. So kudos. What are the small, small parts of the comic world? they bring in this list? Like the smell or the staples? Yeah. As I said in our group chat, I will say it live here on the show.

Everybody IDW best smelling books on the market. Okay. Go smell your, whatever IDW book you have on the shelf, go smell it right now. I say and buy that. But gentlemen, again, thank you so much for joining us here on the oblivion bar. you know, from Aaron and I, it's been great. I'm going to go through our sort of last, you know, call to action here.

Subscribe to the podcast, Apple podcast, Spotify, YouTube, Audible, iHeartRadio, wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts, that's where the oblivion bar is. Thank you to our patrons, Alex, Alice, Aaron, Bodder, Chris S, Chris Y, Christie, David, Elliot, Gianni, Greg, Haley, Ham6, Jake, Jeremy, Kyle, Lossi, Mack, Miles, Mike, Olivia, Ryan, Robert, Travis, Zach.

and Brad and Lisa. If you want to support the show without spending any money, a follow on your preferred podcasting platform and a five-star rating and or review on Apple podcasts and Spotify helps the show out a ton. It's like nice free way to support the show. Follow us on social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, blue sky and threads at oblivion bar pod. We've got some brand new merch over on oblivion bar podcast.com.

Of course we just got our brand new merch from, you know, from KDX studios. So go check that out. Thank you to KXD Studios for all of our Oblivion Bar. He is at KXD Graphics on Instagram. Thank you Dream Kit for all of our musical themes here on the Oblivion Bar. Thank you DJ Skyvac for our grid theme. And again, as always, do not forget to tip your bartenders 20 % or more. If you're tipping less than 20%, you're doing the wrong thing.

So again, from Greg, Bodder, and myself, thank you all so much for listening to the Oblivion Bar podcast. We will see you next week for episode 175.