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Thursday, October 14, 2021

CUBED

Another fun conversation, this time with the Comics Cube podcast.  We touch on all the usual suspects, but also go off into some unexpected and interesting places.  Enjoy!



21 comments:

  1. Actually Dematteis, Superman's son is Bi, not Gay.

    Also, I am going to keep calling you Dem-at-is. Just so you know. Always imagine my voice saying that. Always.

    This is probably the best podcast you have been on, that I have heard. Just for the opening.

    Usually with comic podcasts, when they interview anybody, it is often the same questions about the same stories. Which... okay, I get it. the big name stories draw people in.

    However, the first UNwritten rule of the business is that people like reading about people.

    Just having that opening bit, not asking about getting into comics, but what a specific era was like, made all the difference. That was a great choice by him. That alone is enough to make t stand out from the billion comic podasts.

    Everyone wants a gimmick, this guy knew the most important gimmick is developing a rapport and the reader/listener/writer.

    Even when he asked standard questions later, it recontextualized it, and gave more meaning than just asking the questions.

    Sorry, I just had to bring that up.

    I think the chemical in the brain idea is correct, but I see it a little differently.

    Also, Bi, not gay.

    Jack

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    1. Yeah, I was very happy with the way it turned out.

      And I know the kid is Bi, I simply misspoke.

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    2. Misspoke... Or used it as a way to convince the podcaster to mention Arnie Roth, and spread the word about his upcoming 25-part Maxi Series. "The infinite Dinosaur-sized Covert extraction of Arnie Roth's Cosmic Emerald Tie-pin, for Messianic Brotehrhood... Explosion!"?

      And I wonder which J.M. Demat is writing it. I believe it is J,M. DematTEIS.

      Your mind games don't fool me Dematteis.


      JAck

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  2. Dematteis, I am sure you get this all the time, but...

    If the JLA and Fantastic Four met in the 60s, would Ben Grimm and Hal Jordan have gone to Vegas and caught a show at the Sands together?

    If so, and Sinatra were playing that night, would either or both laugh when he sang "Fly me to the Moon"?


    Jack

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    1. You kidding? After the show, they would have taken Sinatra to the moon with them!

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    2. After meeting the two, would he have to change teh lyrics?

      Fly me to Oa
      Let me play outside sector 2814
      Let me see what Spring is like among the Shi-Ar.


      Also...
      do you remember back when Lee and Kirby wrote Fantastic Four, and they self-inserted? So, the F.F. and villains would encounter them?

      When you were at MArvel, did that eve happen, but with Loki showing up and making DeFalco think he was Archie Bunker for a week?

      You know calling him into his office and saying, "Well, what have you got for me this moth meathead? And if it's any of that Hippie crap, you can just stifle it."

      Sorry, I am sue you get that question all day every day, and twice on Sunday.

      Jack

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    3. Heroes and villains would regularly show up at the Marvel offices back in the 80s and 90s. They were all nice people, even the bad guys. Every one of them a huge comic book fan.

      Delete
    4. Is that why so many villains switched sides over the years?

      Did Magneto become a sympathetic villain, then anti-hero, and finally X-Men because he bought Claremont lunch, after stopping by to compliment his John Kowalski stories in War is Hell, and the two got to talking?

      Is that why Defalco had Sandman leave a life of crime? After months of grabbing a beers together, Sandman finally got down to brass tax.

      Sandman: You get where I am coming from, right Tommy?

      Defalco: Don't call me Tommy. Sir will do fine.

      Sandman: You know, we are both guys from the neighborhood. I just got a bad shake, you can help a guy out, right?

      Defalco: Not a bad point. I'll take it under consideration. But, right now I have to get back to the office, and call Dematteis a meathead then tell him to stifle the hippie crap.

      Speaking of Dematteis, how many writers have turned as many villains as him? or at least had them quit or focus on them being victims of somehtin.

      There are probably conversations in the villain community saying. "Yeah just give this Dematteis guy a sob story, tell him you love his work, and he will all but do PR for you."

      The same week his Electro story in (adjectiveless) Spider-Man came out, Electro actually turned off power to an old folks home just for fun.

      Then there is Thunderbolts. Well written series, yes. But I can't help but wonder if maybe those villains charisma was working on overdrive.

      Maybe the only one I can really trust anymore is the Silver Surfer and NIghthawk.

      After all, we all know Len Wein and NIghthawk became Bridge partners only AFTER his run on Defenders concluded. Common knowledge.



      Jack

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    5. One person I never socialized with was Kraven. We went out for lunch ONCE and he ended up chasing me around the restaurant with a rifle and a net. A very disturbed fellow.

      But we did bond a little over our mutual love of Dostoyevsky.

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    6. Did he chase you because you accused him of taking his whole shtick from a Richard Connell story?

      Probably should not antagonize people who carry rifles around New York City, Dematteis. Of course, it was the 80s. I guess it would have been harder to find someone NOT packing. Or... so the movies, TV, and comics of the era would have you believe.

      He was probably just prejudiced. After all, he was an aristocrat, and you were a Brooklyn farm-boy, turned Hippie. You were a symbol of all he was bred to have contempt for.

      It was farmers...like yourself... who tore apart hos precious czarist Russia.


      But, what was this socializing like? You killed off a lot of those villains, and Aunt Mays.

      How crazy were those parties?

      Maybe Ben Grimm told them how weird it could get when you socialize with the creatives...

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3jRXi3bTrk


      Jack



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    7. "Thing right do your thing!" What were they thinking?

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    8. Imagine being a human child. Then, your fist experience to the Fantastic Four are reruns of both that show (called Fred and Barney Meet the Thing), and the 60s Fantastic Four cartoon.

      As you might imagine, it leaves some questions as to what the story with this character. Especially when a new cartoon pops up around the same time, and then you pick up an F.F. comic.

      That is strange.

      Also, I think the idea was to mix Thing with Captain Marvel (the Fawcett version) and Archie... Maybe Spider-Man.

      It actually IS an interesting idea.

      Also, thing ring do your thing sticks in people's head.

      Jack

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    9. Something tells me that if ever the Giffen/Dematteis F.F. run materializes, the Thing Ring will be at least referenced.

      Just think about it this way Dematteis, as you mock the Thing Ring, who knows how many kids saw that show in 1979, and then picked up a Fantastic Four or Marvel Two-in-One issue because of it.

      Because, here is the weirdest part of that show. Despite all the weird choices; no F.F., no villains, weird nerdy teenager Benjy Grimm, transforming being weirdly antithetical to the the nature of the character, the Yancy Street gang as they are... When he is the Thing, the personality is pretty spot on.

      The way he talks. The personality. The self-deprecating humor. That is Ben Grimm.
      Okay, thinking he might be a rabbit is probably off, but in world it makes sense.

      INCREDIBLE HULK!. I just realized, that show was on TV in 1979, I have heard it was a hit. That is probably the idea. A kid friendly hulk show. Cut down on the melodrama of being a hunted outcast, and expand the MArvel brand.

      That s probably what it was.


      Jack

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    10. Interesting theory.

      Yes, HULK was a huge hit. And, however goofy it may seem now, it was perhaps the most serious treatment of a superhero we'd ever seen.

      Delete
    11. It is like Conan the Barber.

      The character was huge in the 70s, one of Marvel's biggest sellers. Fanzines were filled with shameless rip-offs.

      Big in the 80s as well.

      However, because of the quick loss in popularity in the 90s, and older skewing audience, if you were not there it seems a little strange.

      The last issue is expensive because of the low print run. Marvel even gave up the licensed in 2001.

      Which was unfortunate, since Lord of the Rings came out that year, and became a phenomenon, and having a fantasy book might have been good.

      Nut that another conversation.

      Somethings... it hits a time period hard, so it goes quickly, and everyone knows it was popular...but if you were not there it is almost like a relic/

      Not every pop culture success is Jaws, Star Trek, The Simpsons, and the Rolling Stones.

      Just weird.

      Jack

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  3. People are excited about the MCU adapting stories, they apparently don't remember THIS golden age, or how Ben Grimm feels about Rabbits


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuFBEscIdDk


    Fiegi has a lot to learn from the 1970s. I think we can ALL agree on that.

    Jack

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    1. Best thing about that is that the Thing talks like Jimmy Durante, which is pretty accurate!

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    2. No, Dematteis. The best part is that accent is very distinctive as Thing, but as Ben Grimm there is just...I don't know.... a random nerd voice? Very unrealistic Ohio?



      Jack

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  4. Dematteis, because it is almost Halloween... and you are a hippie...here is the greatest thing John Lennon ever had his name lent to.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs7nGAVJIQc

    You. Are. Welcome.


    Jack

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