[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to the Geeky Brewing podcast. Joining me today, Mr. Sam Edwards.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: Hello.
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Mr. Leif Rice.
[00:00:05] Speaker C: Hi.
[00:00:05] Speaker A: And Mr. Keith Bloomfield.
[00:00:06] Speaker D: Hello.
[00:00:07] Speaker A: How the devil have we all been? We all been good. Cold. We've had full spring for a week in the uk.
[00:00:14] Speaker D: We had summer a couple of weeks ago. We had summer now, so that's all good.
[00:00:18] Speaker C: A couple of weeks, Keith. It was like three days.
[00:00:21] Speaker D: No, it was a couple of weeks ago. It lasted a couple of days.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: So it goes winter, full spring for a week and everybody gets T shirts out and goes, yeah, it's beautiful weather. Then we go back into winter part two, then we get spring part two, then the return of winter.
[00:00:34] Speaker D: This sounds like a Denis Villeneuve story.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: And then we get spring part two again. And then summer for a week.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: Spring part two again.
Not part three.
[00:00:46] Speaker A: No, it's part two again.
[00:00:47] Speaker C: Part 2.5 in space. Yeah.
[00:00:49] Speaker A: And then we get super summer for one week where everybody melts into a puddle. And then it's just autumn for six months until winter returns again.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: Sounds about right. Yeah.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: It's about UK weather. Roads, anyway, so the Oscars have been on. Sam, you did your predictions blog on the geeky Maroon website?
[00:01:05] Speaker B: I did indeed. I got two less than I managed last year, which is slightly annoying, but a lot of the ones I got wrong went to Anaura. I was sort of expecting them to spread them out a bit more, but like I said, I think a few months ago now. Anora was one of my favorite films of the last year. So very happy that it did better than I expected.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: Anybody else watch the ITV coverage over here in the uk?
[00:01:32] Speaker D: I didn't watch it live like Sam did. I recorded it, which is quite good. Although I did find it slightly ironic about Demi Moore not getting the actress Oscar. Yeah, it's just the substance in real life. It's all good.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: I felt quite bad about that. It was a breakout. But it's a horror film and the Oscars typically hate horror movies, so not.
[00:01:53] Speaker C: Real cinema is.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: Did get.
[00:01:56] Speaker C: For the record. Anyone listening or watching? I am a horror fan.
It was sarcastic.
[00:02:04] Speaker B: It did get makeup and hair styling, I believe. So it didn't go completely empty handed. Unlike Complete Unknown, which was nominated for loads of stuff and just entirely ignored.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: Well, that's the thing now.
[00:02:17] Speaker C: So it was a complete unknown.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: Biopics don't guarantee an Oscar anymore.
[00:02:22] Speaker B: No.
[00:02:23] Speaker D: Yeah, I was quite. It was quite nice to see Flo win the animated Oscar though, which was quite surprising, you know, I did. Particularly because the UK hadn't even. Hasn't Even seen it yet.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: Very frustrating. I'm dying to see that film. I've been looking forward to that for a while.
[00:02:39] Speaker A: I'm saying the trailer looks absolutely beautiful. And yeah, it's just very frustrating.
[00:02:44] Speaker D: It's kind of what I wanted the Wild Robot to be because it's like no humans, no dialogue, which is, you know. But we're back.
[00:02:53] Speaker A: We're gonna get an Oscar this time. We're back. We've done an amazing Pixar movie. And then Flo just comes and goes.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: Actually, you don't have a cute cat.
[00:03:03] Speaker D: Then DreamWorks went, okay, we failed this year, so let's release Shrek. And then they went, oh, Shrek, glow up. Hasn't worked. Oh, dear.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: No. Shrek has had the sonic treatment, I think.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: Yeah. It's hard to, I think, appreciate it properly from the very, very short teaser trailer we've got so far. I would imagine when you get the full length film, you hopefully get used to it fairly quickly. But it depends.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: Don't mess. Just don't mess with the animation. Don't mess with three, four films.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: The spin off Puss in Boots had Puss in the Last Wish last year, which was a more modern.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: Yeah, the hobbs and chores of the Shrek verse.
[00:03:48] Speaker B: But maybe that's what they were thinking. Maybe they thought, we'll freshen the animation style up a bit and it's not gone the way they wanted it to.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: Was it 25 years since the first Shrek came out? Roughly.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: Sounds about right. Yeah.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: It was the around the turn of the millennium, wasn't it?
[00:04:04] Speaker B: First ever window.
[00:04:06] Speaker C: I was gonna make a joke about like Shrek 5 and obviously off the back of the Hobson Shore, but I couldn't remember what the fifth Fast and the Furious film was called.
[00:04:16] Speaker A: Fast 5.
[00:04:19] Speaker C: This is what possible. I know the third one is Tokyo Drift and obviously we all know 2 Fast 2 Furious, but that's about it.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: But 4 was just fast and Furious, if I remember.
[00:04:29] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: So they just got rid of the number for that one randomly.
[00:04:32] Speaker B: They just have the words the Fast and Furious and they just throw darts each time and see what lands.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: And we had two Fast Too Furious as well.
[00:04:41] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:04:42] Speaker A: Which is the best use of number two in a title for a while.
But yes. So Oscars went well. If you want to recap Sam's Oscar predictions and who won, go and check out geekyrummy.com and Film Roundup every week. For those who miss the old days of like film 97 and Barry Norman actually doing weekly film reviews on telly coming up. Today we'll be talking about Invincible, which has just finished its season three run in the uk. Keith has a slight rant, I believe, about the comic book industry and the current position in the UK as well.
I'll also be talking about the two new shop openings in Birmingham and the prevalence of blind boxes and is this a good thing or a bad thing? And of course our one geek thing. But we'll join you after this.
[00:05:51] Speaker D: Welcome.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: We've just had Invincible, which is on Amazon prime in the UK and I think it's Amazon prime globally just finished in season three, which people have been waiting somewhat a while for this one. So first season came out in 2021, then 2023 I think was the next one and then just 2025 for this one. So it's going to be another 18 to 24 months week for season four, but it's been a pretty good season. I think season two dipped a little bit in quality. People were not as happy with the storylines and the progression and how fast they were going through the comic as such. But season three seems to accelerate some pace and the last two episodes have been rated as 9.9 and 9.8 on IMDb, which is in the top, some of the top ratings going for an animated teacher show. But yeah, written by Robert Kirkman, who you may know from the Walking Dead, Ryan Ottley and Corey Walker, co creators. And I think they do quite a lot of the work on the series as well. But yeah, voice cast Steven Yun, Sandra O, J.K. simmons, Greg Griffin, Jillian Jacobs, Walton Goggins, Chris Diamantopoulos, I can never get that name right. Mr. Trez Commas is all I can remember him from, from Silicon Valley. Jason Mansukas, ZZ Bits, Ross Markand Zachary Quinto. I'll stop there because it just goes on and on and on and on. And guest stars are just like, I think Marcia, Shali Ali's been in it, Aaron Paul, a lot of crossover between the Walking Dead, Seth Rogen's in there quite a lot. Ben Schwartz, Sterling K. Brown.
[00:07:25] Speaker C: Sonic's in it.
[00:07:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:27] Speaker A: Can't see round Calista Flockhart, Ally McBeal herself as we did it. But yes, I mean it's been eight weeks of a very fun ride and I'm very annoyed it's finished and now I just want more.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: Yeah, it's going to be a long, long wait for season four, I think. And season two had the surprisingly long gap in the middle, which I don't think helped it.
[00:07:52] Speaker A: No.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: But yeah, it's been. Season three has been incredible.
Just it sort of takes the kind of Game of Thrones thing of not worrying too much about keeping characters alive just for the sake of it. Yeah. And, yeah, it's. It's not pulled any punches.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: No. And I think Robert Kirkman's saying he wants to do a lot more with the ending stuff. I think they're planning to do eight seasons to cover the comic completely. And he wants to change the ending because everybody felt it was a bit rushed with the comic. So he's planning on expanding that a lot more out.
But, I mean, Keith, you read the original Invincible comics. How are you enjoying the animated version in comparison?
[00:08:33] Speaker D: Well, it's a very good adaptation. I don't really mind too much that they kind of whiz through some of the comic storylines, because the nature of comics and the nature of tv, they're two wildly different things. And it's kind of like people would get bored if you protracted. Kept things running for too long. So I think they're doing a good job of hooking you with a core story each season. There's obviously an underlying longer story that's going on behind you. I think they're doing a really good job. The characters are coming in, the introductions of the characters are really nice.
So I think it's probably one of the better adaptations that's out there. It worries me, the idea that they go, oh, we're not going to wrap up the story if we can keep it going for eight seasons. And you kind of think, is television going to keep you going or something? Come along. That puts people off.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: Or I suppose it just puts us at the start of book two this season with the introduction of Conquest.
So there's a lot of meat left on the phone.
[00:09:30] Speaker D: There's a lot. And I kind of, although I'm a few episodes behind, I have, unfortunately, access to the Internet, which is quite happy to tell you everything that you don't know. Yeah. So I quite like the idea in Kirkman saying that he's doing some stuff that he couldn't do in the comics at the time. So some characters that didn't really do much in the comics that he wanted to do a little bit more with are coming back. So hopefully that will be what we'll get as well as the kind of straight adaptation is actually just a little bit of new stuff, which would be quite nice.
[00:09:59] Speaker B: I believe there's a hint of that in a sort of credits scene on the final episode, which I won't say any more than that.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: But that was a very interesting credit scene.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: Yeah. I've since seen online that that's not from the comics at all. It's a completely new thing.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, I was a bit worried when they introduced Oliver, who's kind of Invincible's half brother, and I thought it's just going to be a really annoying little sidekick character. But I think Christian Convery really well played Oliver as well. But I think his introduction's actually been a real big benefit to this series. It's given Oliver something to kind of step into that father role a little bit more and be a bit more adult about things, even though he still whinges about every single time that anybody else gets put.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: Yeah. I think having a child actor and child character is always gonna sort of make or break anything where they're a key part of it. There's so many otherwise perfectly good films and shows that have been ruined because there's one irritating little kid.
[00:11:03] Speaker C: Or the scrappy doo effect.
[00:11:05] Speaker B: Yes, exactly that.
But, yeah, I completely agree. I think it's. It's made it a more interesting dynamic. It's given a sort of a kind of family storyline that allows us to move on from the relationship between Mark and his mother. Yeah.
And I think it's not just given Mark some character development, but also Debbie, his mum. Yeah.
Her sort of going from being very, very protective at the beginning to accepting that her children have these incredible powers and are capable of looking after themselves.
[00:11:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: By the end.
Even though that very nearly goes horribly wrong.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: Very nearly, yeah. But I think the other thing that I've seen a lot online is people up until episode six and episode seven were moaning about the animation quality and they've dropped the ball this year. But I think with the final two episodes, you see where pretty much all the budget went for this season on the animation scenes.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: Yeah. I think as well, there's a bit of a payoff, isn't there? Because we were saying earlier that it's a very long wait between seasons. If we wanted better animation, it would be an even longer wait.
It's. Yeah, there's a bit of give and take there.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Lots of the complaints I've seen is like, well, anime studios can do like top end animation. And then it's like. Yeah, but they were all overworked, insanely hard. And the American animators are still overworked and underpaid, but nowhere to the state of where you'll find it in Japanese animation. Because everybody wants to go into being a mangaka and anybody wants to go into getting into animation over there. So they are massively overswitched and overrun all the time.
[00:12:45] Speaker C: Plus, anyone saying that is ignoring just how many shortcuts do exist in anime.
[00:12:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:50] Speaker C: Like the amount of just static shots or two characters standing, which is.
[00:12:56] Speaker D: Well, they took funny because one episode of Invincible literally when.
[00:13:00] Speaker B: Yes. Oh, yeah.
[00:13:00] Speaker D: If you want, like, us to put episodes through, it's like you. Oh, yeah. They do all these tricks.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: Go make it. Do a static plan shot. And then you notice that nobody moves in the drawer.
[00:13:11] Speaker B: So sometimes you animate them from the back of the head so you don't have to spend money on animating their.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: Mouth or cover the mouth like this because they're just.
[00:13:20] Speaker D: I thought that was great when they kind of went, yeah, look, these are the realities of what an animated TV show can be. You know those guys doing south park knocking it out every week? That's a kind of like, you know, an outlier. That's not how it works.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: Normally, I quite like the animation style. In my head, it's basically a Saturday morning cartoon for adults. Yeah. And I think the animation style quite fits that nicely.
[00:13:42] Speaker D: Well, it's nice that it. Because it's a mature story. It's not all dark and gritty and rainy. It is like the comic. The comic itself is a very bright colored, clean, lined kind of book, rather than. Everybody would normally expect an adult story to be so scratchy and dark and. Or whatever it is. And this is very much kind of like it's a superhero story, but if it actually was real.
[00:14:03] Speaker C: Keith, Everyone knows that when you become an adult, all color disappears.
[00:14:06] Speaker D: It's constantly raining.
[00:14:08] Speaker A: But it's nice having animation made for an adult audience for a change, because it's usually. As I said, we've come across this problem many times in Gebra. We've said it lots and lots of times that animation isn't just for children. There is amazing adult animation out there.
And this is testament to that fact that something can be made for adults as an animation and people really enjoy it. I mean, there is a lot of stunt casting, I would say, with the voice cast.
[00:14:36] Speaker D: But, I mean, at the end of the day, it's an adult story that just happens to be an animation.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:41] Speaker D: And they've chosen animation purely, mostly probably because it would be incredibly difficult to do the things that happen in this show in live action without it looking really crap.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:52] Speaker D: Or cost billions and billions and billions of dollars.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: Could you imagine this being a live action show?
No. No. There's no budget in the world that would Cover this.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: Yes. Can we have the budget, please, to destroy Chicag?
[00:15:08] Speaker D: I don't know why, whether it's. Amazon particularly seems to be doing well with this because they've had Vox Machina as well, which is, I think is an Amazon product. And they've got. So they are kind of thinking like, yeah, there is. If we tell good stories, it doesn't really matter if it's live action or animation. An audience will be there to be told a great story.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: And well, Secret Level was probably not as successful as people hoped, but the Warhammer episode of Secret Level is one of the finest episodes of adult animation that I've ever seen. 3D animation is. Well, they got the guy from Astartes, apparently he did a lot of the planning work in the background, so he's credited on it. So Astartes, if you didn't see it, was a YouTube series where this one guy just basically turned the entire Warhammer animation community on its head because he just basically just made what a space Marine should look like. He made four shorts, about 20 minutes, I think, the run of the whole thing. And it took him like 10 years to do it. And then weirdly, for a change, Warhammer just went, yep, you go into work for us now. Cool. That's how it should be. Yeah, yeah, I think. And I think this is the thing that Amazon is, as you said, nailing, because you compare it to Disney plus, which is now starting to dip into more of the kind of adult themed content from its original, just purely Disney and Star wars and Marvel product. They are expanding it out and out and out, but they seem to be fumbling the ball so much in comparison.
[00:16:32] Speaker D: They have got a few products because in the UK it's all bannered under Disney plus, but it pulls in in America, what they have Hulu and FX and whatever. So it's pulling some of those shows. So things like Solar Opposites, which is coming from the same people who did Rick and Morty and there's a few other shows that are on there. You know, Netflix is similar, although they dropped the ball when Scavengers Reign.
But this, I think it's common side effects, is another show those creators are creating. So I think hopefully studios and networks are realizing that you tell a good story, it doesn't really matter if it's live action or animation, people will be drawn to it.
I've always been of the opinion if you tell a good story, it doesn't matter what form, I will be there. Batman, the Animated Series, kids show animation.
[00:17:19] Speaker A: But still Fantastic one, the Discovery, hbo, Warner mess.
[00:17:23] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: Because they pulled so much animation off. Because they just decided we're just going to cast all this away that we don't even care about, that we'll concentrate on the HBO side and the Discovery side and Warner Brothers and the animation history just went and just deleted it all to a lot of creators disdain. And some of the creators hadn't been told about it. They just got told it being deleted. I mean, case in point, Final Space, one of the greatest animated series of the last decade, cancelled and then just completely deleted. Now you can't watch it eradicated from.
[00:17:54] Speaker D: History almost, in a way.
[00:17:55] Speaker C: And I'm still mad about Coyote versus Acme. Yeah, I would have been there.
[00:17:59] Speaker A: Day one tanks right off as well.
[00:18:02] Speaker D: Well, I'm hoping what happens with the Day the Earth Blew up, which is the Warner Bros. Animation movie that they are releasing this year does Gangbusters. And then they go, actually, maybe we should stick out at me versus Coyote. Coyote versus At Me, whatever.
[00:18:17] Speaker A: I think that project is, is dead and vaulted.
[00:18:20] Speaker D: I think. So it's somebody that one away because I think there's. There's too much history and too much kind of audience identification with those characters and that franchise.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:34] Speaker D: For them to have shut it completely or somebody's. Somebody's got it on a hard drive somewhere.
[00:18:38] Speaker C: Yeah, we're going to see it online along with Batgirl. Yeah, yeah.
[00:18:43] Speaker A: But, yeah, I mean, so returning to Invincible though, do you think. I know. Keith, you haven't watched this. So do you think the last two episodes deserve the scores that they're getting?
[00:18:54] Speaker B: Absolutely, yeah.
So when I watched the penultimate one, I don't think I'd realized how far along in the season I was. I wasn't expecting it to be as big and I just kind of settled down on the sofa for a nice relaxing. Ah, good. Invincible is on. I enjoyed Invincible and then spent the next hour to sort of.
Yeah, it's. And I think especially having not read the comics and not knowing that that was coming up, it was just incredibly exciting.
Lots of.
It kind of pulled in lots of minor characters as well that have kind of flashed up briefly in the background of other scenes before. But it was fun to sort of see them get a tiny bit of spotlight again.
Yeah. It made me want to read more about the world of Invincible as well as really making me care for all the characters who are in it.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: And as we mentioned last issue, they're bringing Invincible back with some of the side characters. I think Battle Beast is getting a.
[00:19:57] Speaker D: Good battle Beast is getting a. I think it's a prequel series to kind of explain some of the background of Battle Beasts past, because obviously, I think I know what I've read about what's happening in the show, but I think we saw him spinning off into space fighting a Viltrumite at some point. But I think the market's there for. For that story, and I think Image and Skybound, you know, going to capitalize on that. I don't see why. Not, really.
[00:20:27] Speaker A: Voiced by Michael Dorn in the series.
Can't complain about getting Wolf as something that likes to think it's pretty much perfect.
[00:20:35] Speaker D: I mean, the good thing about Invincible is the fact that it's. It is a morally gray show as well. It's like there's a lot of kind of complex questions being asked under there because, you know, you've got the kind of traditional superhero idea which has plagued other characters, but for legitimate reasons, that hero shouldn't kill. But you've got Mark Grayson, who is morally conflicted, and sometimes he feels that sometimes that's the only solution to what's going on.
[00:21:02] Speaker A: Batman issue, isn't it? So Batman beats somebody up, puts him in Arkham Prison, they escape, they kill hundreds of other people, and then he just beats them up and puts them back in Arkham Prison and knows they're going to escape again. So it's like allowing the villain to live. Are you just creating further death down the line?
[00:21:19] Speaker D: What is that moral question? Is it rehabilitation or retribution? What do you do? Where should you draw the line? And that's what's nice about Invincible is sometimes that line, you either agree or disagree with the choices the characters are making.
[00:21:34] Speaker B: That has been a really big theme of this season in particular as well. And the kind of collateral damage of the fights that he's going through to try and bring these.
[00:21:44] Speaker D: Well, the season has one particular episode that really draws heavily on that idea of, like, when this happens, what's the collateral damage? What's the impact on other people?
[00:21:55] Speaker A: So it's good, Lee, we can convince you to dip your toe in. I know you hate toes.
[00:22:01] Speaker D: It's not a traditional superhero story.
[00:22:03] Speaker C: Everyone says, like, people say this, but I look at it and I'm like, absolutely not. I see dudes in tights, and I'm just like, get out.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: I think episode one is the litmus test. I think if you watch all the.
[00:22:15] Speaker C: Way through season one, episode one, no, again, I see men in spandex, and that instantly is like, I'm not interested.
[00:22:21] Speaker D: It's not quite Spandex. It's more of a sophisticated material that's specially made for them.
[00:22:27] Speaker A: Especially made by one Taylor who does everybody's superhero suits, apparently.
[00:22:32] Speaker D: And that Taylor is Mark Hamill. Come on.
[00:22:35] Speaker B: You could just tell yourself it's cotton if that makes you feel better about it.
[00:22:40] Speaker C: No, it's more just that they just look stupid in general. Superheroes, as a general rule, just look stupid.
[00:22:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I just can't wait to see Keith's face as he watches the finale episode. Cuz I watched that episode seven and.
[00:22:53] Speaker C: I was like, now, now episode eight.
[00:22:56] Speaker A: Now episode eight now. And then I watched episode eight and I was just like, more, more. You can't just leave it there.
[00:23:03] Speaker D: That's a good way for you to end a show is for the audience to be wanting more and not just kind of padding stuff out just for no reason whatsoever.
[00:23:11] Speaker B: Yeah, true.
[00:23:11] Speaker D: You know, you kind of think, think of the days when we had 26 episode seasons of Star Trek.
About four of them were worth watching.
[00:23:18] Speaker A: It's only episode.
[00:23:19] Speaker D: Oh my God.
So I kind of like these condensed seasons that kind of like you go, oh my God, it's all over already. But by God, we had a good time when we were watching.
[00:23:28] Speaker B: Invincible is quite good as well at having just like a little 30 second bit in the last episode that will tease some of the stuff that you can expect in the next series as well, which they do again here. And it's.
[00:23:40] Speaker D: Well, I do love the fact as well that they often like let the opening go for 20 minutes and then hit you with the title. Oh yeah. Because you go, how long is this episode? We haven't had a title yet.
[00:23:51] Speaker A: It's very cheesy how they do the titles.
[00:23:53] Speaker D: It's not cheesy. It's a work of a mitigating genius because you're trying to figure out at which point they're going to do that bit.
[00:23:59] Speaker B: I think the episode you referenced earlier did that particularly humorously.
It's not like he's happened again and again and again.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: But yeah, I mean it's been a fantastic series. I can't wait for more. It's one of the Amazon prime shows that I think is flying the flag a little bit for the, for that service. And it's definitely one of those, that it's worth investing in. Even if you don't like superheroes traditionally, I would, I would urge you to try this as a series and it's.
[00:24:31] Speaker D: Worth, if you, if you are interested in the original comic, there's some beautiful compendiums where they've. They've really put them together, massive things. And the art's really nice, the writing is really nice. I think a lot of people will think of Kirkman predominantly from the Walking Dead, but I think Invincible is probably his better work overall.
[00:24:53] Speaker A: Strong words.
[00:24:54] Speaker D: It's more coherent as a story, I think, overall, whereas the Walking Dead doesn't work quite so well.
[00:24:59] Speaker A: I was surprised how long it has gone back as well, because there's a clip going around online of Bobby from King of the Hill sat on bed and he's reading an Invincible comic book.
That shows you how long it's been since.
[00:25:14] Speaker D: 33 years now, since Image started. And it wasn't.
[00:25:20] Speaker A: It wasn't one of them massively early.
[00:25:22] Speaker D: On, but it was like quite. You know, it's one of the ones that really set Image on the path to being a competitor to one of the big two.
[00:25:30] Speaker B: Well, having mentioned Walking Dead, we also have to mention that in the final episode of Invincible, we get the rematch. Yes. Glenn versus Negan, round two, which is very satisfying. You're a.
[00:25:43] Speaker C: Although I hear Negan in round two and I think Attack in seven.
[00:25:47] Speaker A: But yeah, I was going to say Jeffrey D. Morgan. I was quite surprised when they picked him for Conquest because he's a big, burly old dude, so you're expecting a really deep voiced, kind of Michael Dorney style character for him, but I think he plays it very well.
[00:26:00] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, he's really sinister.
Yeah. Yeah. Much like you say you expect him to be big and violent and. And he is very much that. But also really quite creepy and unhinged.
[00:26:15] Speaker A: Blowing the bubble in space is probably one of the scene. And I'm not saying any more than.
[00:26:19] Speaker D: That, but I thought it was really good casting because he was brilliantly cast as the comedian in the Watchmen movie.
[00:26:23] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:26:24] Speaker D: Which for Zack Snyder's sins, is still. I still think is a very good adaptation of the source material.
[00:26:32] Speaker A: Yeah. So to wrap up, go watch it. Just go watch it. And if you dropped off during season two, this completely changes the ball game. So go back and yeah, season two is a little bit of a slog, I'd say, but season three makes up for it so much more.
[00:26:48] Speaker D: There's a lot of setup in season two, though.
Don't skip it because you'll be missing some vital points.
[00:26:53] Speaker B: You need to know who Oliver is. Otherwise a lot of season three will be very confusing.
[00:26:58] Speaker A: But yeah, enjoy.
If you're a regular reader of the geeky Brummy website, you'll know that Keith does A quite frequent comic round off most Wednesdays picking out the new titles, the floppies that are out the week, picking out the best of trades. But I think Comics is hitting a little bit of a crisis point, especially over trying to get some UK distribution. So Keith, do you want to explain more?
[00:27:27] Speaker D: Yeah, I think this week there was some more scobot on the Internet about the way publishers have been treating creators.
And it's been a recurring thing for many, many years and particularly since the success of the Marvel Universe films and the fact that often creators are not receiving adequate compensation or credit for characters and storylines that they've created. Although the argument is it's work for hire that people were employed to create these stories and characters for Marvel, just ignoring the the actual contribution they've made to all of these things. Some people have negotiated better deals, others haven't. We've got Superman film coming up later in the summer from James Gunn, which is at the moment in a legal battle with the family of the creators over the use of the Superman characters. And that's another legal battle that's been going on for years and years and years.
There's whole kinds of initiatives. Hero Initiative is another one where comic creators who have spent their entire lives entertaining people, generating money for corporations on a massive scale end up being unable to pay their hospital bills when they come to end of life care. And there's a lot of support for those creators.
We've had creators recently who have been exploiting their power because we as readers and consumers have idolized them to the point where they think they can almost get away with anything and in some instances have been getting away with anything. And again, companies don't seem to be responding to that in the way they should in terms of doing something with the sales. Dark Horse, particularly, recently cancelled. A few books that were being published later on that had been written or created or have some association with a certain writer whose initials are ng.
And Marvel this week have got into a bit of a hot mess because of using imagery that was done for development purposes and popping it on the covers and making them exclusive. And creators have really got annoyed with this now and they're not getting compensated well enough.
The fact that comics prices are increasing, the distribution is falling apart, and if you're not a top tier creator, it's becoming more and more difficult to make a career in comics. And we're seeing a lot of people now just moving away from it completely, self publishing, building their own audiences. Kickstarters kind of self funded bits and pieces are being done. And I kind of just think that it's time for the industry to really take stock of what it is, what it's doing us as an audience to also decide where our money goes and how we support creators.
I've kind of drifted away a little bit from physical books because it becomes quite an expensive thing to do. There's also the storage side of things, but what's nice is there are a couple of platforms now. Comixology, which was Amazon's attempt to do a comic book store, has kind of killed itself dead because Comixology was an independent thing that then became part of Amazon. And they just made a whole mess of the whole infrastructure and that. So digital comics kind of fell. We've now got Global Comics, which is drawing in a lot of independent creators. So they're doing Mad Cave Studios, they're doing Dynamite, they're doing Image. And it seems to be the model for that is that the people that are creating the work get a better payment for it. So they're trying to do the kind of streaming service idea for comics, but with a better deal for the creators at the end of it.
And it's just. I just feel that we should be supporting the artists and the creatives in there. So it's great. We've been talking about Invincible, So people like Robert Kirkman, I think he's the CEO or president of Image Comics and Skybound or whatever it is. So obviously he's levered himself into a position where he's got power and influence. He's making a lot of money. Predominantly, he's making it from TV shows rather than the comics and stuff. But again, without the comic, would we have Invincible? Without the comic, would we have Walking Dead? So, you know, would those things have been created independently, separately? You know, the studios have got an easy draw. They know there's an audience. They know they've got a story. It's easily to translate it.
So I've kind of made a decision in terms of going forwards with the Wednesday Weekly comics, which I've been off for a few months because of work stuff. And I'm kind of thinking, you know what, I'm not going to feature Marvel or the DC books as predominantly, if there's particular creators who I really think we need to be supporting. So the guys who were doing the kind of the Hellblazer comic, which was phenomenal, I've mentioned it a few times, Aaron Campbell. So I'm going to support their work, but in general, I'm going to kind of not Marvel. Don't need my platform to build an audience. I'm going to really focus more on those books that are coming from smaller studios that I've really enjoyed.
Recently, Magna Comics did the Pedestrian, which was a fantastic book available on global comics if you want to run for four issues. Brilliant. About a character who walks, a superhero who walks, that's his superpower. And there's all loads of weird stuff. And it really reminded me of early independent comics when there was a lot of weird stuff going on, how we ended up getting things like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all that kind of stuff. And then this year as well, first comics are coming back, so they're bringing back. The Badger, I think, is originally the first one that's coming back. So I'm going to predominantly focus more on smaller studios, smaller creatives, smaller producers. You know, Mad Cave. I've been talking a lot because they've had the Gatchaman license, but now try to explore more of their original content.
[00:33:20] Speaker C: Yeah, I've noticed that, like, over sort of the past few months, a lot of your sort of comics of the week have been a lot more interesting stuff. They're sort of more unusual, sort of smaller things that sort of are telling different stories. There's a lot of. That's kind of caught my attention a lot more than if you focus on.
[00:33:39] Speaker D: Yeah, it's kind of like there are big titles and, you know, Marvel are pushing, D.C. are pushing big books, but I think there's no spark of creativity there. A lot of people are doing it because they want to work on those characters. And sometimes that's the downside, is somebody in their career wants to go, I did Batman. I did Spider Man, I did Superman.
[00:33:58] Speaker A: I was gonna say to you about this, about the beige ification of content, because what happens is as soon as a corporation takes over and they start calling the shots, there's instant guardrails putting characters. You can't do this with them. You can't do this. You can't show them this way. We can't do that. We can't have this point in case. I think when Disney bought Star wars, it's a good parallel, which is basically Disney tried to say in a court of law, they bought the assets of Star wars, but not the liabilities. So if you think about all the Expanded Universe books that had been written up into that point, which were lucasarts, etc, part of the Star wars brand, they. They tried to say that they could continue printing them, but they didn't have to pay the authors. And quite a lot of a Lot of legal battles happen with that one. But again, it's the names that, you know. Like Timothy Zahn got invited to a new Thrawn trilogy, but that was because the character was reborn back into.
Yeah, it's the basification of content. And it's all kinds of content. It's not just comics. It's everything at the moment. And it's tv. It seems to get into that of there's no creativity left. Here is the character. Here is what they're allowed to do. Here is what they're not allowed to do. Especially with the Marvel Cinematic stuff. It's turned into a case of the film needs to start here, finish here. You're allowed to go between these guardrails, but you can't do anything else outside those guardrails. Because it needs to finish at this point. Because then we can peek off the next point in the franchise.
[00:35:28] Speaker C: Sort of like in games, you've got the situation of, like, everything has to be a live service. Everything has to be this. Everything has to. Big open world action adventure.
[00:35:37] Speaker A: Yeah. And Star Wars Hunters is closing. That got shuttered. Being shuttered very soon.
[00:35:43] Speaker C: I think pretty much the case with every single life service. I think there was something recently which pretty much that I heard about it after it had been shut down and it had been, like, active for like a week.
[00:35:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:56] Speaker C: Or something. And this isn't Concord. This was like a completely different thing. So it's becoming a trend of just.
[00:36:00] Speaker A: Yeah. I think Multiverse has died. Come back and died again, hasn't it?
[00:36:05] Speaker C: Although that's not surprising.
[00:36:07] Speaker D: It's that refusal to pursue new things because we forget that the version of the X Men that most people know now, the kind of Wolverine, Colossus, Storm and all the rest of them, they were created in the mid-70s, which was probably only about 10 years after the X Men comic actually started. And those characters have stayed and they've not really changed or developed. And I think I felt bad for Jonathan Hickman a couple of years back, who tried to shake up the X Men universe with the Krakoa age. And there was this big plan for how the X Men would evolve and change and new characters would come. But because of Marvel being like, can we really sell this? Can we really drive it through all of our other properties and through TV and through games and do whatever it is, it fell apart.
[00:36:51] Speaker C: Your point there, about, like, you know, you forget about, like, where it came from. That's kind of the problem with that, is you just, like, you don't get your big, big Name characters without letting someone create those characters in the first place and letting them become big names.
[00:37:08] Speaker A: Well, it's like perfect example Star wars games the last few years. So we've had Jedi, Fallen Order, Jedi Survivor, Again, both good games, both.
But again, Darth Vader has to pop in at some point or somebody's going to pop in it. Or Luke's got a pop in.
And then we had Star Wars Outlaws, which was a complete utter flop because again, such strict guardrails on. You can't be in this part of the universe. You can't be on this planet. You can't do that. So you can do these bits and expect a Tatooine level at some point because every Star wars game has to go to Tatooine for some reason. But here's your guardrails. You can't interfere with this element of the story because then that will conflict with this bit of canon or you can't have it with this one because this might conflict with the book that we've written about.
[00:37:50] Speaker C: The thing I find fascinating about Star wars is that we have a galaxy to explain, but we're always on this.
[00:37:54] Speaker D: One desert planet in the same family. Yeah.
[00:37:58] Speaker A: Which is supposed to be a backwater planet.
[00:38:00] Speaker D: That's the whole point. But I think it's just that the total ignorance of the characters because I think if you're interested in things like Wolverine and Deadpool. And Deadpool as a character who's come to prominence quite a lot and he kind of first appeared in an issue of the New Mutants a wildly different character to what he became. But, but the kind of core elements of him, Rob Liefeld was, was the guy who kind of came up with that concept and he's developed over the years. And to be honest, Rob, you did create him, but the character has evolved through going through other creatives in his time. But the fact that he's recently been on reporting and saying like literally he was just ostracized. The film premieres while executives CEOs at Disney are making bank off, you know, a character that they just want to exploit to the nth degree. And that's. That's all that is. So I think that's what was the.
[00:38:51] Speaker A: Creat of image in the first place, wasn't it?
[00:38:53] Speaker D: Well, Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, all the rest of them. You know, we've brought Spider man from being a kind of middle tier comic that was nobody doing Eric Larson same. They elevated that character was selling, you know, hundreds and thousands of copies and stuff and everybody was Buying is that new art style. It really reinvigorated Marvel at a point when they were just coming out of a point where they were almost about to go bankrupt. You know, they were selling off characters left, right and center to the likes of Sony and Universal to try and just make any money wherever they could. And those creators have gone on and gone, well, we want to own these characters. If we invent something, it's ours. It's come from our creativity and we want something for this and not just to be exploited as a work for hire creative. And I think as an audience, I want us. The beauty of things like Image and, and 2000 AD, which in the UK has had its own problems in terms of creators not really being acknowledged for the influence of certain characters over the years. It's getting better.
[00:39:59] Speaker A: I think Rebellion's ownership has changed.
[00:40:01] Speaker D: Yeah, it's getting, it's getting much better in terms of creators are being acknowledged and appropriately most cases compensated for the work that they're doing. But I think because people like Image and other titles are now having letters pages back, we just think we lost that in the Marvel and DC for years and years. It used to be one of the best things about reading the comic, but I think if you are reading comics and you are doing stuff, then we should be collectively as a whole writing to those comics, telling them how much we like the work, what, what we appreciate to it. Get involved with the creators online, you know, the fact that we've got social media that creators can be hearing our appreciation. If you don't like it, do one, don't tell them. They don't want to hear it. But if you have, if you do like it, do, do.
[00:40:50] Speaker C: This is where I was about to point out. People are expressing their opinions.
[00:40:54] Speaker D: It's the wrong kind of opinions, but again, and support, like when they turn up at comic cons and stuff, support the support the work they're doing outside of the kind of major stuff. So if an artist is working on a, a Spider man book, there's a potential that they're doing some other work for other people that might be even more interesting.
You know, even Kirkman and Image have got the license to Transformers, which is great. Transformers is doing a great book. They got G.I. joe as well. But one of the more interesting things that Kirkman done is he's created Void Rivals, which kind of goes alongside. It's part of the Energon universe, but it's a completely new creation.
And as is making that a much more interesting world. You know, you've got characters popping in and out of both books. So there is a lot of things that people can do if they're given the opportunity to create new things.
[00:41:44] Speaker C: What I will say, like your point about like going to comic cons and supporting artists there, just wandering around a comic con, you also get access to things that are outside of the big corporate spaces that are just doing much more interesting things.
[00:41:57] Speaker A: Artisani is always the most interesting part of a comic con because you will find stuff that you will never find anywhere else.
[00:42:03] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean distribution is one of the big, biggest problems for comics. You know, you can't walk into a newsagents now and and buy comics. And you know, kudos to Steve Tanner and the team at Time Bomb Comics who have managed to get Quantum into WH Smith's next to, you know, again, fantastic.
[00:42:18] Speaker A: Some of the Marvel books creative stories.
[00:42:20] Speaker D: That you're not getting, you know, brilliantly British anthology comic, fantastic.
[00:42:25] Speaker A: So but again the 77 as well, doing again fantastic early days kind of 2018 kind of storylines and they've done really well through Kickstarter.
[00:42:34] Speaker D: The guys who do Zajaz and stuff, which started off as a fan book, but again, look for this stuff, it's online, follow their socials, buy stuff, you know, often on Instagram you'll see people that you can just order things. It might be a few quid here and there. You'll get it through the post, you'll get a little thank you note and stuff in there. You might get, you know, little bits of extras that are in. But if you see, if you see something and you're interested, support it, buy it, you know, write back and say, you know, this is. I really enjoyed this. It was fantastic. Can't wait to see your next bit of work.
[00:43:04] Speaker A: The lovely chaps at Forbidden Planet in Worlds Apart, sorry, in Birmingham, have a nice independent comic corner and the staff there are always so knowledgeable. So if you want to look for something which isn't Marvel or dc.
[00:43:15] Speaker D: Yeah. I mean, by all means, still pick up Spider man, still pick up, you know, your Batman's or whatever it is, but try and look out beyond that and you know, think about. At some point though, these art writers and creators are not going to be able to pay their bills because some executive somewhere is, you know, lounging on a boat in the middle of the Bahamas, laughing like a flipping super villain.
[00:43:37] Speaker B: Do you think there's a. To an extent, there's a sort of more onus on the audience as well to look at these as books by these writers? Rather than. This is a Spider man comic and I like Spider Man. Think of it as this is a so and so writer comic. I like his writing. I mean, that's what I'm looking out for.
[00:43:55] Speaker D: I mean we do it in films, you know, we'll follow a director and they might do wildly different things, but it's the, it's the creatives we're interested in and the stories they're telling rather than it's.
[00:44:05] Speaker C: You know, there's a similar thing with games of just like people will like go on to like, oh, this company isn't what it used to be. And you know, I don't know what's gone wrong there. It's because all the people who made the thing you like have gone off somewhere else. Go buy those games if you want that.
[00:44:19] Speaker A: You know, I mean BioWare was a perfect example. BioWare was a fantastic RP2 doctors, which is what it's called, BioWare. But they made some of the best games in the world and there's no argument about that. And as soon as those two left and it got corporatized, I think.
[00:44:35] Speaker C: I think they're still out there doing stuff. But again, this is part of the problem. I can't remember off the top of my head exactly what it is right now.
[00:44:41] Speaker A: No, but it's a shell of a company that it was.
[00:44:44] Speaker C: Because I know that there's like been an announcement recently like Za. Um who did Disco Elysium. They're doing. And they've got, oh, we've got a new game coming out soon and it's like, yeah, but you got rid of all the creative people behind Disco Elysium so it's not even going to be remotely similar.
[00:45:00] Speaker D: Yeah, we could do with having a model similar to like, you know, music is an example. Music is produced and distributed by labels. But the if on repeat playings. Yeah, the artist gets. So I think if you were a creator working for Marvel and DC and they repackage your work and resell it to somebody else, you should be getting something as a result of that.
[00:45:19] Speaker A: But yeah, I think that's one of the core tenets of Geeky Rumi is look for the independent stuff as much as we can.
[00:45:26] Speaker D: There's a proliferation of things out there. There's something for everyone, you know, and if just find something you like and.
[00:45:34] Speaker A: You know, this is the thing is there is a growing movement or the rejection of corporate kind of content and I'm enjoying that. The fact that people are starting to wise up, that people are getting sick of having the same.
Even now, AI generated slop served to them on a regular basis.
[00:45:54] Speaker B: I think we've seen that in the Oscars this year as well. And Nora as an independent film doing so well. Like we said, Flo beating the likes of Pixar and DreamWorks.
I'm still here winning international feature over the much, much bigger budget. Emilia Perez.
I hope that the film studios are looking at that as well and thinking actually this is what the audiences want to see.
[00:46:21] Speaker A: Stop giving us sequels, not giving us original stories and original creativity and original.
[00:46:26] Speaker D: Talent in a world where creativity is being pinched at every side.
You know, as fans, although that word has its own connotations. As fans, we should be doing as much as we can to make sure that we are pushing for people, creative people, to be paid well, supported well and appreciated for the work we do.
[00:46:51] Speaker A: It's a hard game out there to be a creative person and there's many years worth of talent to get there. So they should be celebrated when they are doing something amazing.
We've had two new geeky shops join the plethora of geeky spaces in Birmingham. Well, one's open now, one's due to be open very soon. First one I'm going to touch on is Bandai Namco Cross Store. Birmingham is coming. So if you know where Muji was on, is it Corporation Street? Corporation street or New Street?
[00:47:20] Speaker C: I think it's classified as New street, but it's next to Corporation Street. Yeah.
[00:47:24] Speaker A: So if you go to their new street where Muji was due to open spring 2025, according to the website offering a range of Gash upon Bandai Official Shop, Ichiban Kuji Card Shop, Mega House Official Store, One Piece Card Game Official Shop, Sun Star Stationery Shop, Tamagotchi Shop and Tamashi nations in the Cross Store entry models.
[00:47:44] Speaker B: I actually went in there on the way here. They've got a one piece card game shop kind of pop up this week and there's not a huge amount there. But obviously if, if that's card game you're interested in the handing out information, they're going to be doing learn to play workshops and that sort of thing, which sounds like fun.
[00:48:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Because I know the Muji shop's actually deceptively large because they've got a big downstairs as well. So I'm assuming that's my. They might be putting all the gacha machines.
[00:48:14] Speaker B: Yeah, that makes sense.
[00:48:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:17] Speaker C: Because I've been to the one in London, the one that's in Camden Market and it's like it's like stretches on for ages and like half of it is just Gacha machines.
[00:48:25] Speaker A: Yeah. And the other half, you look upstairs, it's like got like the One Piece trading card game and then it's all like the kind of. There's always a small Gundam section which annoys me. It's like it should be bigger. Make goddamn bigger.
[00:48:36] Speaker C: Well, they're trying to like fit basically all their properties in because like when, when I went in I was like, oh well, it's Bandai Namco. Let's see what video game stuff they've got again. That's a corner where they've got like four copies of Elden Ring and that's about it.
[00:48:48] Speaker A: And maybe a Ryu figure if you're pretty lucky.
[00:48:50] Speaker C: That's. No, that's not. That's Capcom.
[00:48:52] Speaker A: Oh, is that cover?
Yeah. I wish they had maybe a Hoji figure, but yeah. And the other stuff, shop open, which is officially a pop up but I think it might become a permanent shop is Popmart. So that is Arm Bullring, that's open 10 till 8 Monday to Friday and 9 till 8 on a Saturday and 11 till 5 on a Sunday. But that does a huge range of blind boxes. And some of the bigger franchises, you know, like hello Kitty, I think they got dreamworks ones. There's quite a few other properties license which Sham will demonstrate in a second.
But yeah, I was gonna say we'll talk about blind boxes, I think because some people view them as gambling for children and some people view them as, it's a nice surprise. Bit like a Kinder egg. You don't know what you're gonna get until you open the boxer.
[00:49:46] Speaker D: You don't want to know what I think of those kind of people.
[00:49:49] Speaker A: So what is our opinion on a blind box? Because they've grown, especially with video game blind boxes or loot boxes as they're known as. And I think there was a big craze, what 10 years ago, loot box and those loot crates, etc. And then every single franchise was doing one and they've all stopped now because Marvel did their collector Craig D.C. would do their own one. There's quite a few of those and they've seen for died of deaths recently.
[00:50:16] Speaker C: I think it's because everyone was doing them that everyone just got sick of them. It was just like, yeah, no, I'm not buying this anymore.
[00:50:21] Speaker A: Yeah, it was kind of like the Netflix of the time. Oh, one streaming service. Everybody buys the one streaming service, 20 streaming services.
[00:50:27] Speaker C: And I think it also like got so, so Big, that, like, they just kind of started cutting corners. And the stuff you were getting in them was just like, oh, here's a pencil sharpener with a logo on it. And it's like, all right, well, I just spent 40 quid on this.
[00:50:41] Speaker D: Thanks.
I think they're a scam, to be honest.
[00:50:47] Speaker A: I mean, this taste, that rare 1.
[00:50:50] Speaker D: In 20 thing where you go, oh, it's a bit like panini stickers when you're a kid and it's like this, you know. But the difference is, is like, if you're stuck with 14 of the same Godzilla figure and you don't know anybody else has got the others, you can't get rid of them. I wouldn't mind if they went, oh, okay, there's some exchange system somewhere that if you don't get the one you want, you can change it. But when these things cost, like, eight quid, sometimes, you know, a tenner. And if you've got the same thing twice, you know, that's. You could be. You could potentially spending 30, 40, 50 quid.
[00:51:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:51:22] Speaker D: And not getting what you want. And that's kind of like, I'd kind of like, well, just charge me 30 quid for the one I do want and then I can just walk away going, I've got the one that I want.
[00:51:31] Speaker A: So now Lego are a big one for this, for their minifigures, they do, like, series of minifigures and they're all in bags. They used to be in bags and now they're all in boxes to stop people trying to feel and guess which one. Which one they are. But people, like, have worked out the code on the back of it so you can try and work out which one it is.
[00:51:47] Speaker B: I think it makes more sense for Lego because, like you were saying, if you get lots of the same one, the whole point of Lego is you can. You don't have to follow the instructions. You can put it.
[00:51:58] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:51:58] Speaker B: Do your own thing with it. Yeah. But, yeah, I do kind of agree with Keith in that if you're looking to get the whole collection of something, this is a really, really expensive way of trying to go about that.
[00:52:13] Speaker A: I did notice with popmart, though, they have a range of stuff which isn't blind boxes. So they have, like. They have a significant blind box, you stop. But there is some, like, bigger figures and stuff like that where you can just buy which one you want.
[00:52:24] Speaker D: Yeah. I think if the blind box was priced more aggressively, you know, if it was a pound. Yeah, fair enough.
[00:52:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:52:31] Speaker D: But when you're starting to charge 6.999 for one. Yeah, yeah, that's. That's not on.
[00:52:38] Speaker B: Well, I had a little look in there earlier and as Ryan mentioned, bought myself something to unbox on the show for the excitement purposes. But basically everything in there is £13 50, which does seem quite a lot. If you're getting four of the same thing.
[00:52:58] Speaker D: That's like going to like Virgin Records and buying a CD for 10 quid. But you don't know whose CD you're gonna get.
[00:53:03] Speaker C: Oh, no, it's you too again.
You want to spill it again.
[00:53:09] Speaker D: I think maybe that's what we should do with everything. Nobody buys anything without knowing what it is. And you don't know what it is. You go to the shop, Sainsbury's. What am I getting?
[00:53:17] Speaker A: Well, I saw a video online. I don't know how true this is, but somebody was sat there with a box of Pokemon cards and they were using a stud finder for the wall to check to see if the foil ones had metal in. So they're just scanning each pack to see if there's any metal in it.
[00:53:31] Speaker B: I was going to say we've been playing the Pokemon TV card game Pocket Game, which I think we've both got to a point now where we've got pretty much all the really common ones. And basically you can open two packs a day for free.
And it is a really nice kind of dopamine hit when you do get one of the rare ones. But most of the packs I'm opening are just trash that I've already got.
[00:53:59] Speaker C: Another clefairy.
[00:54:00] Speaker A: It's another clefairy. It's another clefairy.
[00:54:03] Speaker B: And that's fine for a free to play game, but if you're spending £10 plus per pack to get that. Oh, it's five cards. I've already got five of each.
It's just going to be crushing.
[00:54:18] Speaker C: Yeah, I was going to make a similar point. As someone who's been regrettably sucked into the Hoyoverse, I am playing a lot of Zenless Zone 0 and that's another one where in order to pull characters, you have basically it's a Gacha game. It's a Gacha. And so. But a lot of the currency you get to earn these, you just earn them in game and it's reasonably generous. It's not too bad.
[00:54:43] Speaker A: But like, it's one of those. You can spend money.
[00:54:45] Speaker C: You can spend money. But yeah, for the most part, like, you know, just to get the characters you want. I need Bernice in the new thing, you need more fire people.
[00:54:56] Speaker D: I think there just needs to be a system that you. If you end up with two of the same, there should be some kind of, you know, trading whether you lose slightly. But like, oh, if you've got two that you don't need, you can trade it for the one that you do.
[00:55:06] Speaker A: That was the one good thing I liked about Honkai Star World is if you pulled a duplicate character, it upgraded the existing character.
[00:55:13] Speaker C: It works the same in Xenosome Zero. You get like a. You get duplicates. You not only get an upgrade to that existing character, but also it gives you like an additional currency which can then be used to spend on things to pull more characters. So it kind of.
[00:55:29] Speaker D: Which can work in the digital world. Yeah, but like, if I'm pulling multiple Godzilla figures, it's not like I can put them together and it gets. The one I do want gets bigger. I can't upgrade the one that I do like.
[00:55:37] Speaker A: Yeah, but the reason I was talking about Gacha, because Gacha is exactly the same, even though half the ball's clear.
[00:55:43] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:55:44] Speaker A: It's still. You don't know what's going to come out that machine until you turn the wheel. Yeah, but they do some really good Gachas.
[00:55:50] Speaker D: But it's at least that desire thing. It's that kind of like the chase. It's the idea of like, oh, are you gonna get the one that you want? And like you were saying, it's that kind of like the preying on the psychological effects of like, ah, didn't get it. Or I did get it.
[00:56:05] Speaker A: So, Sam, do you want to show people what you bought and how many varieties of characters could you get?
[00:56:10] Speaker B: I've bought because I've got my finger on the pulse. A Game of Thrones model. There's well, 12 images, plus there's one sort of silhouette. So I guess there's a sort of question mark.
Exactly that.
Yeah. When I paid for it, the girl behind the counter went, I'm glad someone's buying these because no one buys these.
[00:56:36] Speaker C: You should have asked for a discount.
[00:56:40] Speaker B: Yes. So I will unbox now.
[00:56:42] Speaker A: But what's the odds? Quickly, before you do that. Does it have like the usual ones? One in five versus one in four?
[00:56:48] Speaker C: John's now 60%.
[00:56:51] Speaker B: They all seem to be one in 12, to be fair. Apart from the secret one, which is one in 144.
But I like my odds.
[00:57:01] Speaker A: But that's the thing is, like, do you like all 12 characters or is this somebody that you'd be disappointed to pull.
[00:57:08] Speaker B: I mean, just looking at the art on the side.
[00:57:11] Speaker A: They're all six fire characters.
[00:57:14] Speaker B: There's no hot pie.
[00:57:16] Speaker C: I know. I've seen like a Mario Blind box which has like four varieties of, of toad in it or something like that. And I'm just like, really?
[00:57:22] Speaker B: I'd say that there's one that stands out as sort of less exciting than like, a lot of them have quite interesting poses. San I, I almost dread to say it because I know as soon as I say it that will become what is in the box.
Starting now, anyway. So manifest it, Stan. The sansa one doesn't look as interesting as some of the others.
[00:57:44] Speaker A: Same as the character, basically.
[00:57:48] Speaker B: So let's have a look.
[00:57:51] Speaker A: I do like, to be honest, it's a quite nicely crafted box, to be fair, for a change.
[00:57:55] Speaker B: Yeah. It's satisfying to open.
Say that I'm not entirely sure I'm doing it properly, but never mind.
[00:58:03] Speaker A: And then we've got the. Will it be in a plastic bag as well?
[00:58:08] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:58:12] Speaker D: Get that ASMR going.
[00:58:14] Speaker B: And it is Ned Stark.
[00:58:17] Speaker A: That's actually quite nice. Yeah, it's, it's surprisingly big for a blind box figure because they're usually pretty.
[00:58:23] Speaker C: Yeah. I think when I looked at the box, because they printed the figure on the box so small, I thought that.
[00:58:31] Speaker D: How many more boxes do you think you'll have to buy in order to get all 12 figures?
[00:58:35] Speaker A: No, no, 13 figures.
[00:58:37] Speaker D: Oh, is it 13 with the bonus?
[00:58:39] Speaker C: Yeah, 44k. That's how many times. That's how odds work, don't you know?
[00:58:45] Speaker B: But I, I, well, I, I think what I'm doing is stopping here.
[00:58:51] Speaker A: It's nice, but.
[00:58:52] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. It's. I, I do think if you just want. If you've got a franchise that you like and they've got a range of these and you just want one thing to sit on your shelf.
It's quite a nice way of sort of giving yourself a bit of a surprise as to which one you're going to get if you not going to be disappointed by any.
[00:59:10] Speaker C: Yeah. This is how I knew about the Mario Blind box thing because someone bought it for me as a gift and I have one of those toads.
[00:59:16] Speaker D: Oh, it's the same with the Christmas badge that you got. That was a blind bag as well. Yeah, yeah.
[00:59:21] Speaker A: I mean, well, do you want to show the camera?
Pick a camera. I quite like that because it's in the Game of Thrones pose. That was season one, kind of. That was the imagery for it. So it Kind of sums up the series quite nicely.
[00:59:34] Speaker D: It's kind of nice.
[00:59:36] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm happy enough with that and I'm happy enough to stop there.
[00:59:41] Speaker D: It's a solid enough figure.
[00:59:44] Speaker A: You've got his name in.
I can't tell if that's Korean or Chinese. I think that's Chinese.
[00:59:49] Speaker D: And it is branded for Potmar on the bottom as well. So it's not like it's leftover stock from another thing.
[00:59:58] Speaker A: Well, they have a lot of series which I was looking at on their website. I think they have a lot of their own brand stuff and then there's quite a lot of their kind of licensed titles, such as Game of Thrones.
[01:00:08] Speaker D: Is there an EastEnders one?
[01:00:11] Speaker A: I mean, we could make. It should be.
But it's like the other thing I was thinking is, like, you've got shops like Kenji and Miniso popping up as well. They seem to always have blind boxes in it now. So it seems to be. Is this a culture transfer from, like, Asia or is it just a case of mugs?
[01:00:29] Speaker D: It's a scam.
Here's pay 13.50 for one figure that you might not want and do that 144 times to get the. The one you do want, because you're.
[01:00:40] Speaker C: Absolutely guaranteed to get it if you buy.
[01:00:42] Speaker A: Or just go on ebay and find the one that you want and buy it.
[01:00:45] Speaker B: I'd imagine there's going to be a big market for this sort of thing on ebay.
[01:00:48] Speaker A: Yeah, I was going to say, because there's quite a few shops now, such as Buyee HobbyLink Japan, where you can go and buy blind box stuff from Japan and import it in. It's becoming a bit of a thing online, I've noticed, is you'll get like the dropshipped version of it and I think. Can I remember the name of it?
Worlds Apart did one a while ago with JoJo's Adventures, where you buy a raffle ticket and you can win anything from a small prize to a big prize. But the thing that I like about that is you are guaranteed a prize and it is of, you know, exactly what kind of prizes are available.
[01:01:24] Speaker D: Yeah, I think we were. We are our own worst enemies when it comes to this, being fans or collectors. There's that element of you that goes, well, I kind of want that one or I want that Seth. So it's kind of like we're almost driven to. To do it because they know that.
[01:01:42] Speaker A: You know, you've got to collect the whole thing. You can't just collect one of them.
[01:01:45] Speaker D: So we can't probably our own worst enemies when it comes to that.
[01:01:48] Speaker A: Awesome. But yeah. So they are open there in Birmingham. So if you do want to go to Bandai Namco Cross Shop, it's open I believe.
[01:01:55] Speaker D: Can you just say that? Can you just tell me the name of the shop again please?
[01:01:58] Speaker A: Bandai Namico Cross Store Birmingham. Do you want me to.
[01:02:00] Speaker D: Just one more time.
[01:02:02] Speaker A: Bandai Namco Cross Store Birmingham.
[01:02:04] Speaker D: How big's the sign outside the shop?
[01:02:06] Speaker A: So do you want me to go for the shops that are inside it again? Because there is the Banpresto official shop. There is the Gashapon Bandai official shop inside. There's the Ichiban Kuji official shop inside. Mega House official store One Piece card game official shop, Sun Star stationery shop, Tamagotchi Shop and Tamashi Nations Cross Store entry models.
[01:02:23] Speaker C: Keith, it's gonna have that on us.
[01:02:26] Speaker A: If you see Bandai, you know it's in the right kind of location. And some Namco, that's the logo. No Pac Man Official shop though weirdly.
[01:02:35] Speaker D: Well, there's a few, there's a few Bandai Namco franchises and things. I'm thinking you've not mentioned any of those. The ones I'm probably interested in.
[01:02:43] Speaker A: So now they have, well they have quite a few stores now. There's the Camden one which is permanent. I think they had a pop up in Brighton and I think they've got quite a few other locations. I know they're doing things with, I can't remember. I think they're doing crossovers with the Bandai Namco arcades. So if there's a Bandai Namco arcade, I think they're doing a mini pop up shop inside those as well.
[01:03:02] Speaker D: I kind of, I'd kind of love it if there was like an arcade on the ground floor on the, on the downstairs because it reminds me New street, just off New street there used to be a Baskin Robbins ice cream shop on the top and downstairs was, was an arcade which used to have like, you know, all the good old arcade games, side scrollers, the Star Wars Stand up arcade. Love that place.
It used to be called Dayburst. Yeah, Bib knows we're of an age and I used to love that and I'd kind of like there to be like another arcade.
[01:03:34] Speaker C: But what you gotta remember about Bandai Namco is that it like obviously a lot of people associate with video games because the Namco part of it, but the bandai part is also like big toy anime companies. So that's Kind of where a lot.
[01:03:45] Speaker D: Of this comes from. Maybe they could blind box arcade machines. I don't know which one I'm gonna play until I put my money in Bandai. Ah, nice Pac Man.
[01:03:53] Speaker A: Again, do not, please do not Bandai start blind boxing Gunpla because that's just gonna be even more crack.
[01:04:02] Speaker C: But yeah, because they've got Gundam and they've got Tamagotchi. When you mentioned that I was like oh yeah, Bandai did, did make those. And that's where that comes from.
[01:04:10] Speaker D: They should blind box the Gundam Gunpla stuff. Particularly at the larger scale when you're paying 200 for a sec.
I've got this one already.
[01:04:19] Speaker B: I'll do it in like pieces. I've got like 50 left arms like those terrible part work.
[01:04:25] Speaker D: Build the starship episode enterprises642 issues.
[01:04:30] Speaker A: But it is the one thing I was going to say about things like this is it's great to see things like this coming to Birmingham because they've always been south of this south south coast or London centric for so long. It's nice to have a little bit more diversity in our geeky locations. And I hope they both stick around for quite a while and it's not just a pop up and it's not going to be. They could just hope it's this one.
[01:04:53] Speaker C: They have said is permanent.
[01:04:58] Speaker A: Cool. But yes. So if you want blind boxes and gasher ponds and lots of plastic tap, buy your plastic tat at locations around Birmingham.
It is time for our regular feature One Geek Thing about the one geeky thing that's been dominating our lives since our last issue. Let's start off with Lee.
[01:05:24] Speaker C: So I got the. I was fortunate enough to review a sort of relatively big game. Not like a massive, massive AAA game but like a few years ago it takes two one game of the year. And obviously been praised to high heaven for like just being this brilliant little co op game 12 hours long. Joseph Fares, the director and his team at Hazelight Studios have recently released their newest game which is basically another big co op game where we're going to shove every game possible into one game. And it's exclusively co op and it's called Split Fiction.
And I've played that for a review, gave it 9 out of 10 because it is extremely good.
Played with a friend of mine from America and just the whole thing is it's just brilliant. So basically the premise is you are two writers who have been invited by a big publisher to come get this publishing deal but it's actually they're going to feed you into a simulation and steal all your ideas. And it's like the most thinly veiled criticism of AI possible.
Even to the point where the CEO who's like, apparently spent years developing this machine to show how little creativity he has after all these years working on it, the only name he could come up with is the machine.
Capital T, capital M.
And yeah, so basically, like the thing with these writers, it's very funny because like they've. They are complete polar opposites in every possible way that they could be. One of them is a sci fi writer. She's very standoffish, she's very antisocial, she's, you know. And then there's the fantasy writer who is very cheerful, very optimistic. Basically, I described her in my review as the most whimsical cottagecore girly imaginable.
And it's like every discussion they have is like, oh, I like this thing. Well, I hate this thing. And I like this thing. That's the exact opposite. It's like, oh, I love techno music. Oh, well, I pretty much prefer like folky. Why can't people make real music with instruments and all this just constantly. But the whole game is just like them going through, like they're two different stories. So you alternate between a sci fi story and a fantasy story, but in every single one there are so many ideas just crammed in constantly. Like one minute you're like flying around on dragons, and another you've got like, you know, one of you's got a katana, the other one's got an electric whip and you're jumping through sci fi traffic and all this sort of stuff and it just. So much stuff is going on.
[01:08:11] Speaker A: I've heard they've got quite a few references or homages to other games in there as well.
[01:08:16] Speaker C: Oh yeah. Like, there's one section just straight up turns into contrast, just out of nowhere, like, now it's Contra. Just enjoy it.
[01:08:25] Speaker D: I'd heard as well that the final part of the game is probably one of the best final parts of the game ever.
[01:08:30] Speaker C: The final part of the game is.
I have absolutely no idea how they've pulled that off. It is absurd. I do not want to spoil any of it, but it's basically just creatively and technically I have no idea, like what they were on to achieve all of that, because it just does. It takes the sort of split, split screen thing and it just like explodes it out in new ways that you wouldn't expect. And like the whole time me and my friend Were just like, what the hell is happening? What is that?
[01:09:03] Speaker A: It's interesting. You say your friends are based in America and I imagine it's. It's a great kind of bonding experience for people that you can't get in like meet in person that often.
[01:09:14] Speaker C: Yes, it was. It was a great. We had to basically play it across an entire week. So it's like pretty much every night. Right now we've got to play Split.
[01:09:21] Speaker D: Fiction because I'm too lazy to look it up on the Internet. And because you've played it, does it do local co op as well?
[01:09:28] Speaker A: That's good.
[01:09:28] Speaker C: So it is local or online co op. And for the online stuff as well, you only need to buy one copy because it comes with a friend's pass that you can just send to your friend. And that's how they.
I think it takes two work the same way. But this time around that friend's pass is also crossplay.
[01:09:47] Speaker A: Amazing.
[01:09:48] Speaker D: Oh, wow.
[01:09:48] Speaker C: So you can do it like PC, PlayStation or Xbox and your friend doesn't need to be on the same platform?
[01:09:54] Speaker A: No, it's dropped on Xbox. Game pass, I think.
[01:09:58] Speaker D: I don't think it has just yet.
[01:09:59] Speaker A: I think it's due to come soon.
[01:10:01] Speaker C: If it does. If it does, it'll probably be through EA Play. Yeah, it's one of the EA originals, but basically because it's an EA original, EA haven't touched it. And it's great when you get the director just going like, oh, there's no microtransactions, there's no hidden costs, there's none of this bs. He literally just openly swears in the trailer for it.
[01:10:21] Speaker D: We just seem to be in a period at the moment where there are some really good games coming out. Because I was really interested by this one. I'd seen the graphics and that idea of that pastoral fantasy stuff with the kind of like cyberpunky Blade Runner esque thing. I was thinking this visually looks really interesting. Then I'd seen some clips of like what the dialogue and stuff was going on. And you go, this is really like witty and like really sparky. And this is a lot of engagement in here.
[01:10:47] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:10:47] Speaker D: So I'm kind of tempted to get that.
[01:10:49] Speaker C: And some of the side stories are especially like ridiculous and where they go like one of them. You're just straight up pigs.
So, yeah, I've been thoroughly enjoying that. I highly recommend everyone play that if they can gather a friend to go along with them. But yeah, it'd be. It's a great game.
[01:11:08] Speaker A: So it's not currently on EA Play, but it is rumored to be joining very soon. I think EA is probably trying to milk it as much as humanly possible.
[01:11:14] Speaker C: On direct sales before it's doing really well so far. Like it's already sold 2 million copies.
[01:11:20] Speaker A: Did a million in the first day.
[01:11:22] Speaker C: First weekend, and I know the I know it takes two sold 20 million in the end, so this looks like it might surpass that.
[01:11:30] Speaker D: I've got some Xbox Reward points that I think I might be using this for.
[01:11:36] Speaker B: Cool.
[01:11:36] Speaker A: Awesome. Thank you. Good game recommendation.
Sam, how about yourself?
[01:11:42] Speaker B: I'm going to talk about the return of Daredevil to Disney plus so it's Daredevil born again, having been born from the death of the Netflix series and at the time recording. I think there's three episodes, all of which I binge watched last night, having finished Invincible, and I'm really thoroughly enjoying it. There's so I'll try not to spoil anything but that the sort of opening of the first episode is genuinely quite upsetting if you've been a fan of the Daredevil series from the start.
And one of the results of that is that he kind of hangs up his mask and decides to stop being Daredevil for a bit, and then the show kind of focuses more on him as a lawyer and also Kingpin, basically making a bid to be mayor of New York.
Kingpin's always been like one of the best characters in Daredevil. Vincent D'Onofrio does an incredible job playing him, and Charlie Cox does a wonderful job as Daredevil. Matt Murdock as well.
And seeing Kingpin sort of trying to do something that gives the impression of being he's on the straight and narrow, but, you know, simmering underneath it all, he's just as angry and dangerous as he's ever been. It's really, really compelling. I'm really enjoying the legal courtroom drama aspect of it.
It's brought in another Marvel character called the White Tiger, who I wasn't very familiar with previously, but it's been quite fun kind of hearing about him and yeah, thoroughly enjoying it so far, even though it's not very superhero y.
[01:13:42] Speaker A: Do you think that I might revisit some of the other Netflix era characters?
[01:13:46] Speaker B: I've heard they're thinking about it and I'd be very happy with that.
[01:13:51] Speaker D: There's one character from the Netflix shows that's very prominently hinted at in those episodes we've had so far in terms of iconography that is appearing okay.
[01:14:05] Speaker B: Yeah, it's all very interesting and very Fun to watch. And yeah, I hope they do bring the other ones back because I really, really enjoyed Pleskatron's in particular.
[01:14:17] Speaker A: Did you like Iron Fist?
[01:14:20] Speaker B: I didn't hate was noticeably less good than the others, but it gave us Colleen Wing. Yes. Yeah, she was brilliant. And the way it ended with her being Iron Fist sort of made me think, I'd quite like to watch that series now and then cancelled. Yeah, if they can bring it back with her instead of Loras Turrell, then I'd be very happy. And Luke Cage, I thought was incredible as well. It was really the kind of tone of it just felt very different to a lot of the other stuff that Marvel was doing.
[01:14:58] Speaker D: I think they should because I don't know, in the comics world, Fisk does become mayor, but I think either currently or recently, Power Man Luke Cage is mayor of New York. In the comics. It might be different now. Who knows who's mayor, but I think they should kind of pull because those, those Netflix shows were really good and I think to just trash all of.
[01:15:23] Speaker A: That, I think Lee would beg to differ, but. Yeah, but there was some really good.
[01:15:28] Speaker D: Jessica Jones doesn't wear spandex.
[01:15:31] Speaker A: Doctor who turns up in it.
[01:15:34] Speaker B: I think you would enjoy Jessica Jones. Actually.
[01:15:37] Speaker D: None of them wear spandex, apart from Matt.
[01:15:39] Speaker A: Yeah, true.
[01:15:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:15:40] Speaker D: Yeah. So you're right there.
[01:15:43] Speaker B: Jessica Jones is almost more of a kind of psychological drama than I've heard about that one.
[01:15:49] Speaker D: Yeah. The Purple man story is brilliant.
[01:15:51] Speaker B: Yeah. David Turnen, just a really good baddie.
Same as in Final Space. He does evil stuff very well.
That's it. That's me.
[01:16:03] Speaker A: Thank you. So on Disney plus. Yes, Keith, how about yourself?
[01:16:09] Speaker D: I've already mentioned it once this episode, but I think I'm going to cycle back to it. It was global comics app, which bizarrely I wasn't really that aware of and I think it's been around for a while. It's available on most kind of platforms, but it's a repository for lots of different comic companies.
They recently added dc, which is kind of the big one for them. They haven't got Marvel because Marvel have got their own platform.
But this week they added IDW to the lineup of publishers that they're doing. So that means that we get access to things like their Star Trek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stuff. A lot of the other publishers that they do do a kind of almost same week release as the physical copy. So Mad Cave, Magnum and all those are doing the same drop. So although I'm buying the physical copies of things Like Gachaman and stuff. I'm also picking up the digital ones and it costs about 80 pound a year for the kind of normal tier which gives you access to thousands and thousands of comics. The entirety of Invincible is on there. There's a lot of Image books.
Some titles are not current releases, there's a few months behind, but a lot of Image books are appearing almost straight away. Things like Void, Rivals, Transformers, some of the GI Joe stuff is being available on there.
[01:17:32] Speaker A: Is there a free trial?
[01:17:34] Speaker D: I don't think there's a free trial. I think it's definitely worth the subscription because you are getting an awful lot for your money in terms of the comics range available. There's lots of smaller publishers and the beauty is being in the uk, it's often difficult to get those small publisher titles.
Even though I've ordered stuff through my local comic shop, if the distributor isn't shipping them over to the uk, you just don't get them. You, you know, regardless. And some of the smaller publishers, where the market is predominantly going to be America and they're not interested in sending two or three copies to the uk, you just can't read these things. And global comics, whilst it's digital comics, which I have a little bit of a problem with, I do like the physical things, but sometimes you just can't get it any other way. And because of the model of how they support the comics creators as well, that there's a much more robust way of people getting paid.
The pedestrian, which I've already mentioned, this issue did reasonably well in comic shops, but being on global comics, they've really got a much bigger readership. You know, they're doing over 40,000 views of each issue and stuff. And the other beauty is that each issue allows you to comment, so there's a community engagement part of it as well. So you can like the books and you can then type a message. That message is being read by the creators. So I've put a message on about, you know, I praised the pedestrian. I got the physical books, but I also read the digital ones and then just put a message at the end like, I'm really loving this series. Hope we get another one. It's been successful enough. It is coming back through Magna Comics later on, I think this year, so we get more of that. But there's that a little bit of that kind of social media engagement thing that you can kind of see what other people are liking. Put a little message in. It's being picked up by the people who are putting the books out. And I think for the. It's hugely good value for money and particularly if you just kind of think, well, whatever the cost of the Invincible books, which could probably take up that much space on your bookshelf, you could just binge the whole lot on a tablet and go through that all. And for your £80 a year, I think it's really good value and I think if they continue to support all the smaller publishers, great. I don't mind DC being on there. It's not their current stuff, it's a lot of collected works or you know, kind of six months to a year old. So they are really pushing the smaller publishers with their. This is their week, this week. And there's also a lot of indie comics which aren't distributed in any other way. It's just through global comics originals and there's a lot of, you know, really small artists and publishers work that you can really find really easily and they do do recommendations and stuff as well. So it's quite a well curated service.
I can't understand how I'd never found it before. I picked it up just before Christmas and I've just been reading tons and tons of stuff that I just wouldn't normally otherwise get in the uk.
So it's global comic should be available on most app stores, Android, iOS, so.
[01:20:46] Speaker A: You could probably pay 80 quid for unlimited.
[01:20:49] Speaker D: Well, when we're looking at a comic now being like 8.99.
[01:20:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:20:53] Speaker D: You know, you wouldn't even get a year's worth of books for that. And then you've got access to, you know, whole series all of Invincible, Walking Dead, Transformers, you know, runs of Batman.
[01:21:05] Speaker A: I'm surprised I never took like. Well that used to be nice thing when you had a dvd. I think there was Ultraviolet service in the UK which is basically came with this code and then you'd get a digital copy as well as your paper copy. I'm surprised the comics industry has never just taken that and ran with it.
[01:21:22] Speaker D: Marvel do do it to a certain extent. Extent.
And you, you, you can do that. But again I suppose you'd have to.
[01:21:29] Speaker A: Have it printed in so you can't open it in the shop.
[01:21:32] Speaker D: Yeah, they have, they have a little label over so the actual production process is a little bit tricky or you have to take a photograph of the book and then send it to the Marvel and then they get send you a code.
But yeah, IDW did have their own kind of proprietary service which I was a little bit against because they're week on week issue basically a copy was 4.99 for the digital version and I'm thinking it cost me less than that to buy it from a physical comic shop. So why would I buy the digital one but 80 odd quid a year.
[01:22:03] Speaker A: But massively for all the title as well. If you are thinking about picking up physically you can.
[01:22:09] Speaker D: Yeah, you could just pick up the trades and stuff. Then you know there's some like the Invincible Ones. You might be thinking this is really good. I do want it as the kind of omnibus oversized ones as a result.
But yeah, it's great service.
[01:22:22] Speaker B: Sounds like it's something good for someone like me who's not really managed to break into comics properly before but I'd be interested in reading them. But there's just so much. Yeah, it would be a huge investment if I was to go out and.
[01:22:35] Speaker D: Buy all the physical copies because IDW have recently joined. It means there's Sonic the Hedgehog comics available.
[01:22:42] Speaker A: So see, Sonic's a superhero.
[01:22:46] Speaker D: Yeah. There are not just superhero comics. Sonic the Hedgehog.
Yeah. But I highly recommend it. It's global comics. Thank you.
[01:22:55] Speaker A: All right, I'm going to go slightly different. I have read this series multiple times and listened to it multiple times because I've now got it all on audiobook form and it's one of my favourite series of books. It is called Traders Tales by a writer called Nathan Lowell and it's set in distant future interstellar travel. But it's not your standard kind of Star Trek y style interstellar travel story. Basically starts off with a character called Ishmael Wong. There is many references to the joke of Call me Ishmael all the way through the series but his mum dies when he's just turned 18 and all planets are owned by corporations. So it's a fact of well you're. Your presence on this planet was dictated by your mom's job. She was working at the university.
So when she passed away he's basically now thrown into this what am I going to do? I'm an adult now, I have no life. So then he starts working on a freighter, interstellar freighter doing transport between worlds and it's one of the most engaging tales in a really like kind of nicely not low stakes but interesting. The entire world building is amazing in this series. So basically the entire first chapter of him starting working on this spaceship called the Lois McKendrick. He starts at like the lowest role possible, like third rated crew working in the galley. But the entire first chapter is him talking about how to make a good cup of coffee and he gets sent to brew good coffee on this spaceship and then it's like, I think it's six or seven books in the series and it's basically him working his way up the ranks and becoming an officer officer, then captaining his own ship, then he's owning his own kind of trading and freighting operation. That's such a beautifully way it's written as well. I really, really recommend the titles. I think there's kind of spin off titles as well. It's all set in what he calls the golden age of the Solar Clipper. So the whole purpose is the ships go into inner orbit, get all the stock, do all the thing, do all the trading, go to a trading port and then they have weeks and months where they have to go out to like the edge of the solar system they're in to then jump to the NEXT system, etc. But you've got to think of all the things that could happen in there. So how do you keep the ship maintained? What could happen? What happens if you come across a derelict? Those kind of things. So it's really, really well told story by a guy called Nathan Lowell, US based writer. Done lots and lots of other stories about it, but it's just kind of one of those stories where the character Ishmael thinks very logically about things and he has a very way of thinking. But when he has a problem, you see how he has to solve the problem. It's not just a case of I know what to do. He goes through almost like, almost like a detective series but not a crazily kind of high stakes detective series. But it's really, really well written so I would really recommend it. I think they're all on audible, I think there's even copies. I'm not sure if they're available now but they used to be copies on Librivox where he read them himself. But I think it's then now it's turned into like a proper actual series that you can go and get a professional voice actor to do it all.
[01:26:04] Speaker C: So obviously you're saying that like obviously it's not like a Star Trek type thing. It doesn't. It sounds like just from him being like working on freighters and stuff, it sounds like a more sort of grungy kind of.
[01:26:16] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a bit lower dexy but not in a Star Trek lower dex.
[01:26:20] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:26:20] Speaker A: It's not like they're coming across aliens everywhere.
[01:26:22] Speaker C: It doesn't have. It's more sort of in the kind of alien kind of that sort of ship kind of kind of vibe is what I'm getting from that description.
[01:26:30] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it's. It's a bit like. I can tell he's like had some military experience. It's all working on merchant vessels. It's kind of those kind of storylines rather than that.
[01:26:40] Speaker C: It does sound interesting.
[01:26:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:26:41] Speaker D: When was it originally published?
[01:26:44] Speaker A: So going back.
So 2016 was the first ones published but it's a. It's a fantastic series. So I think that was the audiobook. I think the printed version was quite a long. I think it was independent to start off with and now it's become a proper series.
[01:26:59] Speaker D: It also sounds a little bit more kind of like the. The world sounds a little bit more like the one in the Expanse.
[01:27:04] Speaker A: A little bit, yeah, a little bit like that. It's a realistic kind of future space and it's kind of like as you said, corporate dominated worlds but they kind of. It's Intercellafres. So it's, it's always like a really good crew experience and it's kind of those kind of things. It's like him and his best mate and they're trying to work out how to do like some trading on the side using their mass allocation and stuff like that and how to get things running and working.
[01:27:29] Speaker D: So it's kind of like a real naval story put in space basically.
[01:27:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Imagine like thinking like what the cargo freighters would have been like in the 20s and 30s going from port to port and those kind of things where you crew is your family kind of deals.
[01:27:43] Speaker D: Cool.
[01:27:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I would really recommend it. I think I said the first ones out there or if you've got audible, just drop a credit on it, pick it up then see how you like it. But yeah, would really recommend it.
Thank you for joining us on the Geeky Brummy podcast this issue. Sam, do you want to introduce yourself and where people can find you and your film reviews?
[01:28:08] Speaker B: Yep. So you can find me on bluesky threads, Instagram D. Edwards89 and I'm on the Geeky Premier website every Thursday doing a film roundup about all the films that are coming out that weekend.
[01:28:24] Speaker A: Awesome. Lee, how about yourself?
[01:28:26] Speaker C: You can find me on Bob the Perfect Ferret on Blue sky and also on YouTube where this Astrobot video is now four videos, the one that you.
[01:28:35] Speaker A: Promised us last time.
[01:28:37] Speaker C: It will be out at the end of the month. It is almost done. And when I say video it is now four videos because I split it up.
[01:28:46] Speaker A: Is that because they dropped even more dlc but.
[01:28:49] Speaker C: Well, there's that. But also I just like, the more I was thinking about it, the more I was just like, I don't want to do a seven hour video.
I wanted to, I don't want to release a seven hour video. So it's going to be like it's now a series. It's now a series that's going to release across one week, the last week of March. So there we go.
And also like, like Sam, I am also on the Geekybro website, but every Friday doing a games roundup and we.
[01:29:13] Speaker A: Can also find your games journalism.
[01:29:15] Speaker C: I also am a freelance writer and mostly work with Silicone Era at the moment, which is where my split fiction review is since I mentioned it earlier.
[01:29:24] Speaker A: Awesome.
[01:29:25] Speaker D: Keith, how about yourself on the Blue Sky Threads and Insta As Hard Luck Hotel, so you can find me there. And after a saga like three month hiatus, Wednesday Comics will be returning.
So keep an eye out for that on the GeekyBroomie website and on the Blue sky and Threads feeds on Wednesdays.
[01:29:46] Speaker A: And you can find us
[email protected] as we mentioned on Twitter. No, no, no, no, no, no. Not for the Blue Sky. Blue Sky, Blue sky threads, Instagram and YouTube. Eekybrimmy. If you're seeing this with your eyeballs, you're probably aware that it's on YouTube. If you're not seeing this with your eyeballs and listening to it, you're probably on your favorite podcast streaming service of choice. But we also do appear on YouTube, so check it out if you're listening rather than viewing or vice versa. If you want us as an oral fixation, you can hear us over the interwebs.
[01:30:20] Speaker D: Yeah, get those viewer figures and listener figures up. Like watch the video with the sound down whilst listening to the podcast and then you get the best of both worlds.
[01:30:30] Speaker B: And for all the people who are just watching it on YouTube.
[01:30:36] Speaker D: Wow. Well, you've missed out. You didn't see that on the podcast.
I'm quite shocked actually.
[01:30:43] Speaker A: Maybe I'll have to cut that bit for the podcast version.
[01:30:46] Speaker D: I mean it's, you know, very risque.
[01:30:49] Speaker A: Yeah. But thank you for joining us. Don't forget to please like subscribe, share, tell all your friends about it. We do appreciate it, but otherwise, thank you very much. We shall see you for issue three. But for now, goodbye.
[01:31:04] Speaker D: Bye bye.
This issue of the Geeky Brummy podcast was hosted by Ryan Parrish with Sam Edwards, Lee Price and Keith Bloomfield. The show is produced by Viv Parish, and this was a Geeky Brummy production.
