Episode 80 - Spawn 13 and Scorched 24

[00:00:00] Speaker A: I'd like to clear something up. What should I call you when we're not in costume? I can't call you Redeemer all the time. [00:00:06] Speaker B: About that. My name's actually. [00:00:41] Speaker A: Good evening, and welcome to the mal bulge. This is regarding Spawn, the world's best spawn podcast. I am your co host, John Fisher. [00:00:54] Speaker B: And I am your co host, David Williams. And, Johnny, it's a day that we get to read Spawn, which means it's a wonderful, wonderful day. [00:01:03] Speaker A: Yeah, we've had a spawn filled week. [00:01:05] Speaker B: It's been a great spawn week. To let you guys know, this is the weekend after Spawn 350 came out, and, oh, boy, it's a good one. It really does deliver. It does. [00:01:18] Speaker A: It did. It was awesome. [00:01:19] Speaker B: I was very happy with it. I mean, I know that's not, like, the ultimate stamp of approval. That's all those at TMP productions are going for, but stamp it, stamp it. [00:01:30] Speaker A: Boom. [00:01:31] Speaker B: Respawn approved. [00:01:32] Speaker A: Yeah, that was great. And we got to do a little event at my comic shop, challengers, and met some fun people. Got some fun audio that we'll be sharing with you guys at some point here. [00:01:42] Speaker B: It was great. It was great. People were coming over and asking us questions, and we answered them without thinking about it. And then I turned to Johnny, and I was like, johnny, what the hell? How do we know so much about Spawn? [00:01:54] Speaker A: We actually know stuff. [00:01:55] Speaker B: We do. We do. Remember. I remember us being like, I don't know. I don't know. But now, you know, we could hold down a discussion for 3 hours. With people who run out of spawn questions to ask us, because we keep answering in general. [00:02:10] Speaker A: And one of the guys we talked to was, like, getting into spawn because of 350. So it was like, that's good. [00:02:15] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:02:16] Speaker A: We got to read it live there in the shop. [00:02:18] Speaker B: In the shop, yeah. [00:02:19] Speaker A: Sweaty palms. [00:02:20] Speaker B: Johnny let me read it first, which is. Thank you, Johnny. That's the greatest birthday gift anybody could have ever gifted. [00:02:26] Speaker A: Oh, of course. [00:02:27] Speaker B: And then after I finished, I got to watch Johnny and just be like, is he there yet? He's there. Yeah. [00:02:34] Speaker A: It was exciting. [00:02:35] Speaker B: It was great. [00:02:35] Speaker A: No, it was a really good day. It was a good spawn week. [00:02:38] Speaker B: We got ourselves some glizzies. [00:02:40] Speaker A: Some glizzies at red hot ranch. [00:02:43] Speaker B: Yeah, it was delicious. The best fry cook in the city was there. So good. Did you see him, like, racking up those baskets in the back like he was. [00:02:50] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Just like, boom, boom, boom, boom. [00:02:52] Speaker B: He was ready for a mid afternoon rush there. [00:02:55] Speaker A: Yeah. That's the one thing we didn't get the shrimp, and it's pretty good. [00:02:58] Speaker B: Oh, man, that would have been great. [00:03:00] Speaker A: But that would have been like a fried shrimp. [00:03:02] Speaker B: I love it. [00:03:03] Speaker A: Next time, I'm sure we'll be back at challengers at some point. [00:03:07] Speaker B: I'll never be there again. [00:03:08] Speaker A: On May 4, maybe. [00:03:10] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe quite possibly, because that is. [00:03:12] Speaker A: Also free comic book day. [00:03:14] Speaker B: That'll be the best day to try to corner Dal or Patrick and be like, can I talk to you about a few things? I can see you're not busy. [00:03:23] Speaker A: Yeah, what's up? There's no one here. [00:03:25] Speaker B: No one here. Now, free comic book day is always a good time at all of the shops in town. If anybody happens to be in Chicago for free comic book day, they all do it. They all participate, and it's all a fun time. Challengers does it very well. They've got. They've got the best flow. Because they can open one door to let people in. And then kick people out of the other door. Yeah, but, yeah, it's a good time. It's a real good time. [00:03:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And hopefully we get spawn back in a free comic book. [00:03:53] Speaker B: That would be awesome. [00:03:54] Speaker A: Or maybe in Adventures of Spawn. [00:03:56] Speaker B: Oh, that would be fun. [00:03:57] Speaker A: Get em young. [00:03:58] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm a little sad that they didn't announce a kids series coming up for 2024. Maybe that's. They're holding that back for 2025. [00:04:10] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe you gotta get the. Go back to the nineties. When they had, like, Robocop toys and, like, Terminator. Two toys, and they had, like, r rated movie toys. [00:04:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:18] Speaker A: And then have make spawn for kids. [00:04:20] Speaker B: Spawned the Saturday morning cartoon. That would be great. Sure. [00:04:23] Speaker A: It was floating around. [00:04:24] Speaker B: I mean, it can't be any darker than the animated series, which I grew up adoring and watching. Now I'm like, oh, shit, that was heavy for a six year old kid. [00:04:36] Speaker A: Yeah, it was. That show's like. [00:04:37] Speaker B: It was great. [00:04:37] Speaker A: Yeah, it's really good. [00:04:39] Speaker B: You know what else is really good, Johnny Spawn. Spawn is good. [00:04:41] Speaker A: We got two issues this week coming at you. We're back on our classics. So our first issue up is Spawn 13. It's the famous confrontation with chapel and Spawn. [00:04:56] Speaker B: It's also the famous book that broke Tom Orzakowski's wrist. [00:05:02] Speaker A: Oh, my God. There's so much text. [00:05:03] Speaker B: So much text. So much text. And then since it's got all that back matter, there's even more text in the letters. It took me a good hour and 15 minutes to get cover to cover on this book, Jenny. Yeah. [00:05:16] Speaker A: It was like a Tome like you said. [00:05:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Dear listeners, if you haven't read Spawn 13 yet, stop. Go read it. But take a snack with you. Be sure to come prepared. You will get hungry halfway through. [00:05:29] Speaker A: And then our second issue is the more modern scorch 24, which is the excellent continuation of John Layman's run. Really fucking good issue of Scorch. [00:05:38] Speaker B: It's an amazing issue of scorch. [00:05:40] Speaker A: Maybe one of the best. [00:05:41] Speaker B: There couldn't be a greater dichotomy of wordiness to, like, economy of words between these two issues. [00:05:49] Speaker A: True. [00:05:50] Speaker B: John Layman's able to get so much across. Just bam, bam, bam. Yeah, it's a good. It's a good one. [00:05:56] Speaker A: No, it's. It's awesome. It's the one where they go to the bar and some stuff happens. They have some get to it. [00:06:03] Speaker B: They have some Chicago handshakes, and then everybody's like, why you drink this? [00:06:10] Speaker A: I saw someone last night at the place I was at doing a shot on Malort, and, like, it was someone from out of town, and they almost vomited. Like, I was like, oh, my God, dude, you need to step outside. [00:06:22] Speaker B: There are 15 bars participating in a program this year around town called the Chicago Handshake passport. Where you go to the bar, you get a Chicago handshake. They stamp it for you. And then there's. There's some goal at the end. I didn't. I didn't stick around long enough for the goal to be revealed because I was just like, man, 15 beers by April. I haven't. I don't even think I've had 15 beers in the last year, Johnny. That's a lot of beers. That's a lot of beers. Especially cause of the 16 ounce cans too. That's a lot of beers. [00:06:52] Speaker A: Ooh, a lot of beers. I like beers. [00:06:54] Speaker B: I actually work with somebody who preferentially will sit down and nurse a Malort. Like, that's his favorite drink, is just a glass of malort that he just sips, like, a whiskey. And it's like, what? Hmm, interesting how I wonder if that started as, like, an affectation where he was like, ha ha. What's the silly thing I could do, people? And then, like, Stockholm syndrome took a hold of him, and now he's like, I love it. I love it. [00:07:23] Speaker A: For those of you that don't know, Malort is a liqueur that is native to Chicago. An eperitif is aperitif something. It is disgusting. Some like it. I'm fine with it. [00:07:32] Speaker B: It's very floral, very botanical. It's got like, that wormwoody bite to. [00:07:37] Speaker A: It, a little bit of grapefruit. [00:07:39] Speaker B: It's supposed to settle your digestion. You know, you go to the withdrawing room after dinner and you talk. You talk politics and business and you sit yourself with some more. [00:07:46] Speaker A: Yeah. But it's a good. It's part of the Chicago handshake that. With an old style or PBR. [00:07:51] Speaker B: Preferentially old style. [00:07:53] Speaker A: Preferentially old style. But sometimes it's PBR. [00:07:56] Speaker B: Or depending on where you are, a hams. [00:07:58] Speaker A: Sometimes a hamstring, man. [00:07:59] Speaker B: A hamstring. Slits. [00:08:00] Speaker A: A Chicago beer. [00:08:02] Speaker B: Uh, it's a Wisconsin beer. I mean, all of. All of them are Wisconsin beers, right? There's not as much slits. Schlitz here. Just because I think they went out of business for a decade or two days. [00:08:14] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:08:15] Speaker B: But what Shuba's tavern has, like, fucking Schlitz bricks right on the side of the building there, so. [00:08:22] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. I knew there was a couple places. There's a couple places around that have Schlitz, like, in the building. [00:08:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, there are a few of them. [00:08:28] Speaker A: That's pretty cool. [00:08:29] Speaker B: That is pretty cool. But you know what else is pretty cool? [00:08:31] Speaker A: Johnny Spawn. [00:08:33] Speaker B: Spawn. [00:08:34] Speaker A: Hell yeah, I know. [00:08:35] Speaker B: Also quite thematic. Since pitchers and catchers reported to spring training this week, the Sox and the Cubs are having their first preseason matchup this weekend. I do believe it comes up in spawn 13. When we talk about it, I'm getting ahead of myself. [00:08:48] Speaker A: It does. It starts with some baseball. [00:08:51] Speaker B: Makes me think we should have maybe done another fantasy baseball segment for this episode, but I didn't prepare anything, so. Sorry, y'all. We dropped the ball on that. [00:09:01] Speaker A: We dropped the ball quite literally. [00:09:03] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. The $3 million ball, of course. [00:09:05] Speaker A: Yeah. How many times have people mentioned the ball to us at their challengers? I guess just once. [00:09:10] Speaker B: I think it was just once. [00:09:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. It just feels like any time Todd father comes up, they gotta mention the ball. [00:09:15] Speaker B: They do. [00:09:16] Speaker A: There's a certain amount of animosity between him and, like, Gen Xers. I feel like. Like there's like a. I don't know. Just like, I feel like I get that vibe sometimes. [00:09:25] Speaker B: Yeah. The contemporaries of Todd McFarlane, it's like he was the nerdy kid in their class that maybe they bullied when they were little. And they're just like, that kid. That kid did something. That kid. I could do something, but they didn't, and he did. So there you go. You can't be basing your self worth off of other people's stuff. You can't be measuring your success by other people's success. That's just. That's not the roadmap to success. You gotta have your own internal compass. [00:09:52] Speaker A: You gotta go your own way. [00:09:53] Speaker B: You can be inspired by other people, but don't measure your self worth against others. There lies danger. [00:10:00] Speaker A: You're right. [00:10:00] Speaker B: You're right. [00:10:01] Speaker A: Good way to put it. [00:10:01] Speaker B: You are worthy more than you think you were worth. [00:10:04] Speaker A: And what's worth a million words is this cover. Oh, man, it's wild. [00:10:09] Speaker B: This is an incredible cover. Yeah, it's so good. We've been seeing it every week for the last few weeks. Cause it's been the advertisement for the spawn books on the back of the violator mini series. [00:10:21] Speaker A: Yep. [00:10:21] Speaker B: But it is some classic goodness. [00:10:24] Speaker A: It's like chapel screaming or, like, looking surprised in, like, a cross of skulls. [00:10:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So it's. It's kind of like it's a crosshair of skulls, but it's. It's not the central focus. [00:10:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:40] Speaker B: And then there's some of the best candles ever to be put on paper. Johnny, look at these. [00:10:47] Speaker A: Some good looking candles. [00:10:48] Speaker B: Great candles. These candles, like, wyah. Would be jealous of these candles. He's like, brett Booth drove me some good candles, but could I get some of those, Todd father candles too, please? Okay. [00:10:58] Speaker A: Can I get some of those with all the nice wax? Yeah, they're awesome. [00:11:01] Speaker B: And then it's got, you know, meatball head spawn holding his invisible orange. And it's even orange this time. [00:11:08] Speaker A: The invisible orange is orange. [00:11:10] Speaker B: Yeah. And he's, like, crawling out of a crate there. The candles are actually in very detailed candle holders. Not candelabras, because they're only single holders, but, like, all that detail went into them. And then there's just, like, they're, like, hidden behind the skulls. [00:11:26] Speaker A: So they are. [00:11:28] Speaker B: There's so much in this cover, I could look at it for hours. Johnny. [00:11:32] Speaker A: It's a lot of fun. [00:11:33] Speaker B: It's good. [00:11:34] Speaker A: It's just, like, a lot going on. Yeah, it sings. [00:11:38] Speaker B: And it's also got the eye logo with the sad spawn in there, of course, which we like a lot. [00:11:45] Speaker A: A blue title treatment, which is nice. [00:11:48] Speaker B: Yeah, it is very nice. Another fun story. We talked a lot about the titles again on 350 day. [00:11:55] Speaker A: Yep. [00:11:56] Speaker B: It's fun that. That other people have noticed that a lot of titles age very poorly. But this literally classic, timeless. It's great. [00:12:07] Speaker A: Spawn, baby. [00:12:08] Speaker B: Like, even people who aren't really big fans of spawn, like, begrudgingly are like, yeah, yeah, the logo is fucking great. I hate it a little bit, but it's great. So let's. Let's see what's underneath this cover, Johnny. [00:12:19] Speaker A: Yep. We open up, and it's image comics presents flashback, part two. [00:12:24] Speaker B: Oh, I guess we should cover. How are we reading this, Johnny? [00:12:27] Speaker A: Oh, yes. So I have a floppy. [00:12:29] Speaker B: I also have a floppy. [00:12:31] Speaker A: Yeah, I just have this. I have, like. I have, like, one through 20 in floppy. [00:12:36] Speaker B: I've got a smattering from that. That big. That big lot we got at the beginning. Yeah. [00:12:41] Speaker A: Cause there's a lot of doubles. Yeah, that's basically what I got, too, but. [00:12:44] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. So we're reading it in floppies, which means we get all the back matter. We get all the. We get all the credits. We get all that good stuff. [00:12:52] Speaker A: Get all the fun stuff. [00:12:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:53] Speaker A: That's story and art by Todd McFarlane. Letters and editor Tom Wojczakowski. I noticed that. Cause he has a little note, and it said from Tom. And I was like, oh, Tom put the note in there. [00:13:05] Speaker B: Obviously not editor as an editing down, but editor as it knows the story. [00:13:11] Speaker A: And putting it all, smooshing it all together and making it work. [00:13:14] Speaker B: Either that or editor in terms of. Of he's the guy who cuts the check for per word written. And he's just like, we need Todd. We need more words in here. I need. I gotta pay for that pool that I put a down payment on. Come on, keep it coming. [00:13:31] Speaker A: Yeah. And then colors by Steve Olaf. Ruben Rood, which is a cool name. And olioptics. [00:13:38] Speaker B: Ollie. Ollie optic free. [00:13:40] Speaker A: Ollie ollio optic free issues. Dedicated to George Perez. [00:13:44] Speaker B: So rip George Perez. One of the best ever. Do it, y'all. Obviously, he was alive at the time of this printing, but, you know, now he. He had stomach cancer, I do believe, which is. It's a rough run. Hey, David, what's that? [00:13:59] Speaker A: We got into c two. E two. [00:14:01] Speaker B: We did? [00:14:02] Speaker A: Yeah, we just got the email. [00:14:04] Speaker B: Okay, I guess. Nice. We, uh. [00:14:07] Speaker A: Dude, fucking awesome. Yeah. [00:14:10] Speaker B: Hell yeah. Okay, so c two e, 220 24. Come see your boys. We're gonna be doing a live reading of spawn kills everyone. [00:14:18] Speaker A: The first spawn kills everyone with some special guests. [00:14:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, man. [00:14:24] Speaker A: Cool, cool. [00:14:25] Speaker B: All right, that's the episode today, Johnny. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go celebrate. [00:14:29] Speaker A: Hey, I got the adrenaline going, though. [00:14:30] Speaker B: Oh, man. Woo. [00:14:32] Speaker A: But, yeah, so that's great. Cool, man. [00:14:35] Speaker B: Shit, yet? Shit. Yeah. All right, we've got the Ollie optics crew is all there. Everybody. Everybody. It looks like there's a whole rude crew because we got Ruben rude. And then there's Leia rude and Marie Roode. Man, that's a rude crew. The rudes. The rudes. Totally sounds like a television sitcom. Like, not the croods, but, like, if somebody were gonna do, like, an homage version of married with children, they would just call it the rudes. The rudes. The crudes, the tackies. As my mom would say, rude, crude and tacky. Surprisingly enough, Johnny, I wasn't allowed to watch married with children. Can you believe it? [00:15:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I wasn't either. That was the one that was, like, banned. [00:15:23] Speaker B: Yeah, I wasn't allowed to watch the Simpsons either, so I was allowed to watch the Simpsons. [00:15:27] Speaker A: But if you heard that Merriwood children theme song from the other room, my mom would come in and, like, slap the remote out of your hand. [00:15:37] Speaker B: For good reason. For good reason. There's a lot of stuff children shouldn't, like, be bathed in in that show. [00:15:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:45] Speaker B: Although, speaking of c two. E two. Johnny. There was one year where one of Wanda's cosplay friends, they and a partner dressed up as the couple for married with children and just, like, carried in an old couch and just sat near the entrance door the whole time on this couch. [00:16:05] Speaker A: Sit down here in costume with the couch. So we open up on. Yeah, some baseball talk. [00:16:13] Speaker B: Baseball talk. Maybe probably the most personal story Todd McFarland has ever put. We know. [00:16:20] Speaker A: I mean, it's gotta be a personal story, right? [00:16:22] Speaker B: Yeah, we know that. You know, Todd McFarlane brings things from his life ends to spawn Al Simmons real man, Terry Fitzgerald's real man, Wanda, his wife. Todd McFarlane's love for Wanda is what got him onto the idea of Al Simmons selling his soul. To see Wanda one more time. Todd McFarlane played baseball and broke his ankle. And then while he was recovering from breaking his ankle, that's when he started being like, well, I guess I'll draw now. Draw some more. Yeah. And just spent that time, like, working on a portfolio because he couldn't run around and throw a baseball no more. Like, I was reading this and I was. It felt a little. It felt a little bit like it's a story I shouldn't be reading. Like, oh, boy, this is like a diary entry. Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy. It almost got a little steamy there. And I was like, oh, Todd. Oh, Todd. [00:17:19] Speaker A: It does get a little steamy. [00:17:20] Speaker B: It's like, almost. [00:17:22] Speaker A: It definitely gets steamy. [00:17:23] Speaker B: It's like, your mother might read this, Todd, are you sure you want to put that out? [00:17:27] Speaker A: Staying up all night making love till the dawn. [00:17:30] Speaker B: Oh, boy. But it also is very touching in that way because it's, you know, write what you know, they say, and, well, todd McFarlane knows baseball. He knows Spawn. He knows love and Wanda. So there we got it. There we got it. [00:17:46] Speaker A: There we go. It's the exact huge text. Yes. It's much more wholesome. Yeah, there's all this text talking about how Al broke his ankle. And he used to love doing some baseball and was really good at it. It was that and killing, unfortunately. Fight and kill. But he liked baseball, and after he hurt himself, he would never play it again. [00:18:11] Speaker B: Yeah. He had to reckon with the fact that he was a fragile being with a set amount of energy that he can use to live. And somehow that translates into some knowledge that he needed for being a hellspawn, Johnny, because he realizes, oh, shit, I need to start paying attention to how much necroplasm I have, or I'm gonna. I'm gonna be sucked down to hell for all eternity. So he's. He's saying he needs to learn to be creative and fight the battles he needs to fight without using as much energy as possible. [00:18:48] Speaker A: And this whole text kind of dissolves into this, like, weird noises. [00:18:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:53] Speaker A: You know, what's quite going on. But it's like ping, ping, ping, pock, pock. Tech, tech. [00:18:58] Speaker B: It's a sadistic game, Johnny. And somebody's saying, come on, come on, come on, kill him. Yeah, kill him, kill him, kill him, kill him. Fire. [00:19:05] Speaker A: You turn the page and it's bad rock, aka formerly known as Bedrock, playing video games. [00:19:14] Speaker B: Yeah, he's. He's having a good time playing this video game. It's a rad video game, Johnny. It's a rad. [00:19:21] Speaker A: It says it's rad. It looks kind of like a doom rip off or something. [00:19:24] Speaker B: Yeah, it looks kind of like that's. That's overkill there on the screen. [00:19:29] Speaker A: It does look a little like overkill. [00:19:31] Speaker B: I wonder what this. This number corresponds to. This high, this bad Badrock's current score. I wonder if there's an actual number that they, they put in there as sort of. [00:19:41] Speaker A: That might be a phone number. [00:19:42] Speaker B: Yeah. What's area code 734? I'm gonna look up area code 734 real quick. [00:19:47] Speaker A: It could be a phone number. It's probably just like. [00:19:50] Speaker B: It's like, congratulations. You have found area code cover cities including Ann Arbor. Hell. It covers hell Michigan, Johnny. [00:20:00] Speaker A: That's why for hell Michigan, that'd be hilarious. Call the number right now. [00:20:05] Speaker B: Right now live on air. [00:20:08] Speaker A: No, don't call it. [00:20:09] Speaker B: Sure, I'll totally, I don't know your. [00:20:12] Speaker A: Numbers in a comic book. [00:20:13] Speaker B: It just goes directly to a voicemail box that they didn't put a name on. So I hung up. I didn't leave a message. I probably should. [00:20:22] Speaker A: Darn. [00:20:22] Speaker B: I probably should have been like, this is David Williams, the co host of. I could call back and leave a voicemail. No, now I'm too nervous. I'm not. [00:20:30] Speaker A: No, it's good. [00:20:30] Speaker B: Did you know your numbers in spawn number 13 from. We forgot to say the year, Johnny, this is from August 1993. [00:20:38] Speaker A: August 1993. Jesus. We're just talking all over. We're excited about being on Comic Con. It's also been a spawnfield week because we, we did our thing. But they also announced all those new figures. [00:20:49] Speaker B: Yeah, they did. They got, they got some groovy new figures. They've also got a questionable new figure, but some groovy new figures. [00:20:57] Speaker A: Yeah, we can talk about it during our merch segment later. [00:20:59] Speaker B: Yeah, we can. [00:21:00] Speaker A: Remind me to talk about it during the Todd's toy talk that we're going to be doing later in the episode. Todd's merch madness. [00:21:08] Speaker B: Spoilers. If you hate the episodes where we do Todd's toy talk, you know, you can shut it off right now because we're going to get there. [00:21:16] Speaker A: We're going to get there. [00:21:17] Speaker B: We're going to get there so bad. [00:21:19] Speaker A: Rock's playing this video game with the phone number in it. [00:21:22] Speaker B: Yeah. And he bets he can get a bazillion points on this one, Johnny. [00:21:26] Speaker A: A bazillion controller. [00:21:27] Speaker B: And he breaks the controller. [00:21:28] Speaker A: He's too strong. [00:21:29] Speaker B: He's too strong. [00:21:30] Speaker A: But this is all going on simultaneously while there's this whole monologue, like a novel from Al Simmons talking about Chapel and everything. [00:21:37] Speaker B: Just like in the margins for both of these pages, there's just. It's like a Star wars scroll where it's just like the backstory for what's about to happen. Like, you know, Al's friendship. Friendship with Chapel. Then, you know, after. After they worked together, they were both trying to be recruited to Youngblood, to the Youngblood teams. So Al then knows his way around the youngblood compounds because he was given a personally guided tour to them. [00:22:09] Speaker A: And you find out Chapel's, like, a womanizer and wanted to have sex with Wanda one night a week. [00:22:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, boy, he's a nasty man, we would say. [00:22:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Owl's not down with that. [00:22:21] Speaker B: No, he's not down with that clown. He's down with the other clown, the clown who says, wanda, wanda, wanda, wanda. [00:22:30] Speaker A: You came back for Wanda. [00:22:32] Speaker B: You came back for Wanda. And then bedrock's complaining about how he keeps breaking so many video games that they've started taking out of his paycheck the cost of the new ones. You think at a certain point he would be like, okay, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna play him anymore. They had a heart attack when he asked for an arcade game. Because Johnny, damn, that'd be expensive. That would be expensive. He would break it. Just. Just so you know, earlier on, he says that shaft. The shaft game was a sucky game. Johnny. [00:23:01] Speaker A: Yeah. What is he talking about? [00:23:02] Speaker B: That shaft. Shaft. Is this the leader of the Youngblood teams with the Arrows? Not shaft, like bad motherfuckers. [00:23:10] Speaker A: Okay. Did they make a game of him? [00:23:12] Speaker B: I don't know. I do not know. But anyway, this. I don't know if it's just look it up real time. There's a YouTube video that says, youngblood search and destroy cancelled game. [00:23:23] Speaker A: It's also hard to find because there's a Wolfenstein Youngblood. So you kind of get a lot of that. [00:23:28] Speaker B: The blurb on Wikipedia that comes up on the Google page, when I google, it says a Youngblood video game, an isometric action game similar to Crusader. So I'm assuming that there was a. [00:23:42] Speaker A: Game that was shitty. [00:23:43] Speaker B: A game that was shitty. It was never released, so. But that was in 1997, so that was a long time away. So he must be referring to just their popularity in general in the universe of youngbloods. [00:23:55] Speaker A: He had a video game made out. [00:23:57] Speaker B: Of him, but so, so shattered. [00:23:59] Speaker A: He uses all this tune, all these. He's like, this game's rad. Yeah, that game was limp. [00:24:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. It's very Sega v. Nintendo out in these streets here. [00:24:13] Speaker A: Yeah, he's definitely playing Sega. Yeah, he's got the tude. [00:24:15] Speaker B: Sega do what? Nintendo. [00:24:18] Speaker A: You know it. [00:24:19] Speaker B: Yeah. And Shaft's like, badrock. You better not be using the security monitor to play video games, which we know. We know Shaft knows that he's been doing that, which is why he mentions it. Al, like, boxed himself up and mailed himself to the youngblood compound. Like that old timey story of mailing yourself to another country so you don't have to pay for airfare. That's what Al did. Because he was able to get past the life life sign censors because, you know, him not alive. And then we cut to the X Men action room that the youngbloods have. [00:24:53] Speaker A: Yeah. And they're like. [00:24:54] Speaker B: They're all practing some robots all practicing their fighting. Chapel's. Chapel's upset with the quality of the. The robots they got. [00:25:01] Speaker A: Everybody's like, ah, look at that knife he's got. [00:25:06] Speaker B: Yeah, he's. It's kind of like a batleth where the handle is just built into the blade. Although. [00:25:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:12] Speaker B: Sorry, Johnny. I misspoke. Since it is a knife, a single wielded one, it would be a Mecleth, not a bat Leth. The bat leth. [00:25:20] Speaker A: Ah, I was about to say Meckleff. [00:25:22] Speaker B: Is a single handled, so. And as we know, for at least a couple of years, Worf was the, like, universe wide leader or, like, the top batleth fighter in competition. So was he. Yeah. I am returning from the batleth competition on Forkis three. I won champion standing. He wasn't as good with the Mecleths, but he was definitely the bat Leth. Champlain. Champlain. Champeen. [00:25:52] Speaker A: The chaplain. [00:25:53] Speaker B: He was the champeen. [00:25:54] Speaker A: That means he's the best wiener and still champion. [00:25:59] Speaker B: So there's a getting ready montage here of Al getting out of the box that he. He done shipped himself in. Right? Yeah. [00:26:07] Speaker A: I want to see this box. They don't even show it. [00:26:09] Speaker B: Yeah, they only show the box on the front there a little bit behind Bishop's head. Bishop Chapel. Oh, the issues are smushing together. Sorry. Spoilers for a second issue. But we got. We got a wonderful. A wonderful just alcimons classic spawn. Both feet the same straight up action figure right here. Yep. That's real good. [00:26:35] Speaker A: Just standing there. [00:26:36] Speaker B: It's real good. And he's in the. He's in the situation room. The damage, whatever the X Men call. [00:26:42] Speaker A: It, the danger room. [00:26:43] Speaker B: The danger room. Boy and all the youngblood team are just like, oh, what is this guy? Who is this guy? What is this guy? And then bad rock comes in and is like, hey, guys, something. The systems picked something up. Oh, okay. I could see. You could already see him. He likes his cape. Yeah, his awesome cape, dude. And then Al Twinkles. Twinkles. Both him and chapel out of the danger room. [00:27:08] Speaker A: Yes, he does. His little magical twinkle. [00:27:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:11] Speaker A: And he zaps out of there with chapel. [00:27:13] Speaker B: Yeah. And then we get a, like, declarative. They're calling him bedrock. And he's like, it's bad rock. You know, just cemented these names on. [00:27:22] Speaker A: The youngbloods are hilarious, though. Like die hard shaft. They're just like, so nineties. [00:27:29] Speaker B: They are so nineties. It's very ridiculous. [00:27:32] Speaker A: There's a game called Death Stranding by Hideo Kojima is kind of like an auteur video video game maker. And one of the characters name is just die Hard man. Because he likes die hard. [00:27:41] Speaker B: Does he not have any shoes? [00:27:43] Speaker A: He has shoes, but he's just named Die Hard man. [00:27:45] Speaker B: Does he look like John McClane? [00:27:48] Speaker A: No, not really. [00:27:49] Speaker B: Good vibes. Good vibes out to Bruce Willis. [00:27:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:53] Speaker B: Good vibes at the. [00:27:54] Speaker A: Hope he's doing okay. [00:27:55] Speaker B: Yeah. I must admit, Johnny Bad Rock is a way better name than Bedrock. [00:27:59] Speaker A: You think so? [00:28:00] Speaker B: I. Bedrock's a way better name than Bedrock rock because Bedrock. Well, Bedrock would make it if he were not just a putz. Because he's like the thing. But a putz is kind of his thing. And if he were. If he were like a better dude, like the bedrock of the team. Like, if he were the captain, he could be the bedrock of the team. But since. Since he's got a tude, Bedrock just fits him much better. [00:28:25] Speaker A: He's rude and he's got a tude. You're right. [00:28:27] Speaker B: Yeah. We flash back to. To Terry being unable to sleep. He's like those guys. [00:28:32] Speaker A: Much like last issue, we get our little interlude right here. We get a little bit of terry, Wanda and a little bit of Sam and twitch. Yeah, keep him in there. [00:28:39] Speaker B: Yeah. And just Terry's like, ah, shit. Ah, shit. Wanda and Cyan. Those guys. Those guys shook me up this morning. And, boy, this coming after Johnny. No offense to Al Simmons or anything, but Terry and Wanda are two beautiful people that are beautiful together. [00:28:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:28:55] Speaker B: Look at this. Look at this. This is the this is the the greatest waking up in the middle of the night scene ever. I mean, in real life, if you wake up in the middle of the night to go look at the window, you do not look as good as as Terry Fitzgerald does here. [00:29:08] Speaker A: No, he's got, like, his hair done. He's all, like, done together. Yeah. [00:29:11] Speaker B: And not not to tell too many stories out of school. But if Wanda were to go to sleep and something like that, she would not wake up as perfect. It would be like, halfway over her head. Cause they wake up beautiful. And then, you know, Cyan. Terry goes to check on Cyan to make sure he's okay. She's okay. And she's sleeping with her little pooh bear. [00:29:33] Speaker A: Little pooh bear. [00:29:34] Speaker B: Oh, oh. Mm hmm. Hey, don't you peck at your sister. So I got tiny dude here. He's the old Chihuahua guy that Wanda loves so much. He has decided that he has to be with me on the weekends. Because those are the days he likes to spend with me. And when he doesn't like something around him. He dung beetles it. He, like, hits it with his nose. And I've got one of the other dogs in my lap here, too. And he's just, like, trying to nose her off onto the floor. [00:30:04] Speaker A: This is my lap. This is my lap. [00:30:06] Speaker B: My lap. But, you know, thematically enough, we now go to a complaint that a local citizen is making to Detective Sam Burke about some assault against her. Fifi. Fu fu fu. [00:30:23] Speaker A: This is a crazy story. [00:30:24] Speaker B: This story makes absolutely no sense. [00:30:27] Speaker A: It doesn't make any sense. So who is she talking about? Her husband did this, or someone else? [00:30:30] Speaker B: So she's talking about, like, her husband and another guy. Her husband and this guy basically have some beef. Her husband, like, messed up this guy's car, and then this guy, like, took a chainsaw to their. To their dog's doghouse and the garage. [00:30:47] Speaker A: And Sam's just listening to it because they're on punishment because they got. They're still suspended because of the. Billy Kincaid. [00:30:53] Speaker B: Billy Kincaid, buddy. Yeah. And Sam's just like, yeah, yeah, I'm listening. I'm listening. And then twitch comes in. Twitch is an angel. He comes in with the best news of all. He's like, hey, guess what, Sam. You're supposed to know tomorrow whether we got into c two. E two. [00:31:08] Speaker A: Hey, I gotta start working on my Sam costume. Shit. [00:31:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. There's so much to do. There's so much. There's so little to do and so much time to do it in. Johnny. [00:31:19] Speaker A: No, that's good. [00:31:19] Speaker B: Wait, scratch that. Reverse it. [00:31:22] Speaker A: Reverse it. [00:31:22] Speaker B: And then, you know, Sam's like, good. I can't wait until we get back into our detective roles, because I'm gonna be cooking up something for our red coated friend. Our little red hero, he calls him. Sorry. Forgive me if I'm not quoting them directly, everybody. But there's so many words. It's hard to find the words you want. [00:31:44] Speaker A: So many words. [00:31:45] Speaker B: So many words. Then we. [00:31:47] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:31:48] Speaker B: Then the next page. It's the end of the shadow blast from the danger room. Back to Botswana, where. Where Chapel Dunn killed Al Simmons. [00:32:01] Speaker A: And it mentions the puking. Like, this is back in the early days, and they'd always talk about the puking after you transport. [00:32:05] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And then, you know, oh, boy. Uh, chapel and spawn fights. I don't know how much of the weeds we need to get in this, but Al Simmons is basically just like, you don't recognize it? You killed me in this place, and you don't recognize it? And Chapel's like, dude, I kill a lot of people. You gotta be a little bit more specific. And I was like, how could you. How could you not remember me? How could you not remember wanting to have sex with my wife? And then he's like, oh, Wanda. Al. [00:32:38] Speaker A: Al. [00:32:38] Speaker B: Like, that's. That's what. That's what shakes it up is, you know, talking about, oh, calling him the Don Juan of killers. What did you call me? De Lord Al. And in the middle of this fight, Johnny, we've got Spawnposter by Walter Simonson. [00:32:56] Speaker A: And it's, yeah, pretty cool spawn poster. [00:32:58] Speaker B: If you remember last episode, everybody, I was real excited to get to this one, and I am not disappointed. It's dope. It's a full color poster. [00:33:05] Speaker A: Swamp poster. [00:33:06] Speaker B: Unlike most, some of them are black and white, but this one is full, full color. There is not a. There's not a speck of white on this page, Johnny. [00:33:15] Speaker A: It's completely covered black as night. [00:33:17] Speaker B: And it's Walter Simonson. So, you know, it's good shit. And then I also, like, on the back of the poster, it's got that the moo crew of. [00:33:25] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what I was talking about. Look how fucking crude that is. [00:33:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. They're milking it for all time. [00:33:31] Speaker A: Grossest, crudest fucking logo I've ever seen. [00:33:37] Speaker B: It's real gross. It's like something that used to hang at that t shirt store in the mall. [00:33:43] Speaker A: Yeah, we're milking it for all it's worth. [00:33:46] Speaker B: Oh, boy. Oh, boy. But apparently the Moo crew swept pretty big at the CBG fan awards in 1993. Yeah, yeah. Very good. Favorite character was spawn. [00:33:58] Speaker A: Second place. His favorite comic book. Tom Wojczakowski first played his favorite letterer. [00:34:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Steve Olaf. His favorite colorist, favorite penciler. Todd McFarlane. [00:34:06] Speaker A: The moo crew. McFarlane, Orzacowski, Olaf. [00:34:11] Speaker B: So back to the fight. Chapel starts having his remembrance. [00:34:16] Speaker A: I mentioned this before, but there was a jacket at Spawncon that Steve Olaf had. [00:34:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Or one of them. [00:34:22] Speaker A: I think it was Steve Olaf. Is he Olaf or Chakowski? I'm pretty sure it was Olaf. [00:34:25] Speaker B: I think you. I think if I remember the conversations we've had correctly, that it was Steve Olaf. [00:34:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Boo. [00:34:31] Speaker B: And so then we get a flashback. We actually get, like, shunted into second person here. POV ur chapel getting the orders to kill al Simmons. But, yeah. So here's. Here it is. Here it is. A good soldier follows orders, Johnny. And. And Chapel was apparently a good soldier. Yep. [00:34:49] Speaker A: Jason Wynn told him, take out Al Simmons. He told him he was a traitor, basically lied to him. [00:34:53] Speaker B: And Chapel was like, shit, I'll buy him some drinks. Shoot him in the face. That's what he did. Look at that. Right in the face. [00:34:59] Speaker A: And he uses a fucking laser. [00:35:00] Speaker B: Yeah, a laser pack boy. [00:35:02] Speaker A: Fried him to a crisp. Crispy Simmons. [00:35:04] Speaker B: That's. That's rough. That's rough. Rough stuff. [00:35:07] Speaker A: That's rough. He really. Yeah, he really crisped him up. [00:35:10] Speaker B: Yeah, he did. Like a pound of bacon. He pulled a vanilla ice on him. And it's like Al Simmons was another mc. [00:35:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:35:19] Speaker B: Then we get a good pundits page for punish page flashback. [00:35:24] Speaker A: Pundits page. [00:35:25] Speaker B: It's the news coverage from the death of Al Simmons. All pretty run of the mill. We got CNN lady from 1987. [00:35:32] Speaker A: It says in the middle there, yes, indeed, CNN lady. [00:35:34] Speaker B: Given the facts, we got Brock the shock being like, there are 42 other dead soldiers. Why is this guy so important? And, you know, with actually a good. A good idea, which occasionally comes out of Brock the shock about, you know, this is obviously just a way to say, rah, rah. Look at us. Vote us. Vote for us again. We're doing some stuff. [00:35:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:35:58] Speaker B: You know, how do you improve your approval polls as a president? Well, you get into a war. Right. And then we can't forget that. Lieutenant Al Simmons. Lieutenant Colonel Al Simmons in 1985, was voted one of the ten sexiest men by Channel Seven. Shit. People magazine. [00:36:17] Speaker A: That's people. [00:36:18] Speaker B: People. [00:36:18] Speaker A: I mean, he must be pretty famous. [00:36:20] Speaker B: Yeah, he must be. [00:36:21] Speaker A: I guess it's cause he took that bullet. [00:36:22] Speaker B: It seems like it wouldn't be good to be famous and a covert assassin. [00:36:26] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what I was just about to think. But, I mean, so is James Bond. A lot of them are famous. [00:36:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:31] Speaker A: Everyone knows who fucking James Bond is. [00:36:34] Speaker B: Yeah. So that's. That's, that's that. [00:36:38] Speaker A: I mean, and all this also has been, like, shifted and retconned. [00:36:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:42] Speaker A: I mean, like, Thomas Healy was talking about how Iron man. It was. First it was, what, Vietnam or World War one? [00:36:50] Speaker B: I think it was Korea. War two is what Korea said. Yeah. [00:36:52] Speaker A: And, like, each one, like, they kind of bumped it up. Like, then it was Vietnam, then it was like the Gulf war, now it's just like, general terrorist attack. [00:37:00] Speaker B: And then it was. And then it was Trevor. Trevor as the Mandarin. [00:37:05] Speaker A: Oh, Trevor Slattery. [00:37:06] Speaker B: Trevor Slattery. Some call me a terrorist, but, like. [00:37:11] Speaker A: Just different origin stories that they kind of, like, slide around a little bit. [00:37:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, it's fluid. [00:37:18] Speaker A: This has been slid. This has been slid. [00:37:20] Speaker B: It's been issued to. Issued. [00:37:22] Speaker A: Yeah. But it's early stuff. [00:37:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:24] Speaker A: And it's funny because it's some of the most, like, plot obvious stuff people remember is, like, these 1st 20 issues the most. [00:37:29] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Especially the ones that Todd McFarlane did the artwork on. [00:37:34] Speaker A: Right. Those are the big ones. [00:37:35] Speaker B: And then chapel starts being like, you can't be real. You can't be real. And just wailing on Al Simmons. [00:37:42] Speaker A: Geiger must be messing with him. He must be some illusion, dude. [00:37:45] Speaker B: Yeah, must be. And then Al Simmons calls him a punk again. That's what the toddfather pulled out of the Frank Miller series is. We're just gonna have Al Simmons call people a punk all the time. [00:37:56] Speaker A: That's just a great. I love the line here. Cause it just. You can hear Keith David saying, but not dead enough, that I can't take a punk like you. [00:38:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:38:03] Speaker A: You can really hear him saying that. [00:38:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Chapel just, like, runs his mecleth right through Al Simmons's chest there. And, you know, Al just does the thank you for the sword, pulls it. [00:38:16] Speaker A: Out of his chest. [00:38:16] Speaker B: Yeah. We learned that there was how pitiful you've become. Al says that for some program that Al Simmons, like, refused to do because he was trying to, you know, he and Wanda were trying to have babies by refusing this promotion or whatever. He was not given a serum that then gave everybody who took it HIV. So Chapula is HIV positive. That's what happened here. Yeah, it's a very. It's one of those weird things that. It's very weird. Very weird nineties comic book stuff. [00:38:52] Speaker A: Yeah. That's intense for a comic book, especially. [00:38:55] Speaker B: For the early nineties. So, I mean, HIV is. You can live a long, full life if you have the correct meds now, if you are HIV positive. But it's. You gotta. You gotta take those meds reliably for a long time. So it's still. It's still a major thing. But it is. It is treatable now, which is hell, yeah. Hell, yeah. Too many people have been lost to the. To the virus. Too many people. [00:39:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:24] Speaker B: Boy, then, yeah. [00:39:27] Speaker A: He goes, how pitiful you've become. And it reminds me of, look how old you've become. That's Kylo Ren. [00:39:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Look how old you've become. [00:39:37] Speaker A: He says at the beginning of the Force Awakens to Lor Sonteka, played by Max von Sadow. All right. [00:39:45] Speaker B: All right, good. [00:39:46] Speaker A: I love the opening of the Force Awakening. [00:39:48] Speaker B: I think I might have accidentally replaced a lot of my Star wars knowledge with spawn knowledge. Sorry, Johnny. [00:39:52] Speaker A: Oh, you got all bumped out, huh? [00:39:55] Speaker B: Pushed it out, or later, Star wars. So that way, because, you know, I gotta keep all that clone wars info in there. That's the more. That's the more important part, right? [00:40:05] Speaker A: Well, that. No, I'm a movie guy. [00:40:09] Speaker B: You're. You're a movie guy, and I'm a tv guy, and I don't know if we can get along. We need a movie. [00:40:14] Speaker A: No, that's why I was. That's why it's good. Because we can. [00:40:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:17] Speaker A: Compliment each other and know that other different things. [00:40:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Johnny will give you the movie lowdown. I will give you some nerdy Star Trek bullshit, and then we'll both talk independently about the things about Star wars that we care about, which is wonderful. That's part of the thing that's so good about this. With Star wars, you can choose what bit of Star wars that you want to focus on. With Spawn, you can choose what bit of spawn you want to focus on, especially with all those. All those titles coming later this year. But, Johnny, we should probably. [00:40:44] Speaker A: Soon. [00:40:44] Speaker B: We should probably hurry up and get. Get through this issue. Oh, boy. [00:40:49] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. We're going long time. [00:40:51] Speaker B: We still have a whole second issue to get through. But anyway, so long story short, Al Simmons leaves Chapel with something to remember and buy. And this, I think, clears up the questions I had about wtfs going on with Chapel's face, Johnny. So Chapel used to draw the skull on his face and makeup, and it looks like after this fight with Al Simmons, Al has removed the skin of his face to make him permanently have his. His makeup on, although he left the nose somehow. But that's comics. Yeah, that's comics. That's what we get left with. At the beginning of the fight, Al Simmons turned off Chapel's transponder, and then he turns it back on after the fight. So that way, the youngbloods can come so they'll find him, because Al's not gonna kill him for some reason. He's a better man than that. And then next, we've got the return of the violator. Woo. [00:41:48] Speaker A: Which goes to the issues that set up the violator miniseries that we just covered. [00:41:51] Speaker B: Indeed. Yeah. So we're ahead of the. We're ahead of the curve there, Joni. We get a blah, blah, blah from. [00:41:59] Speaker A: Terry Fitzgerald also, he says, there's Terry Fitzgerald opens his blah, blah, blah. I got a little blah, blah, blah back. Yeah, he says. So I left off with a note about Jurassic park. Major holes in the store. You could drive a mack truck. Through. But weren't the dinos hype? [00:42:13] Speaker B: What the fuck? What do you mean? [00:42:15] Speaker A: Major holes in the story. [00:42:18] Speaker B: That thing was tighter. [00:42:19] Speaker A: Dressmark's drum. Tight. [00:42:20] Speaker B: Yeah, that's like, tight like a, like a, what are they called? Like a soldier's bunk. Like hospitals. [00:42:28] Speaker A: I'm sure someone can link us the. The cinemasins and there's a million. Oh, yeah, probably, but no, that's a great movie. [00:42:34] Speaker B: It was great. It was great. [00:42:35] Speaker A: I want Terry Fitzgerald. [00:42:36] Speaker B: The scenes with the T. Rex and the Velociraptors were truly awe inspiring. Uh, he. Then. He then turns this into, you know, talking about how Ilm did it miss. He refers to George Lucas as Mister Star wars himself, but talking about how Ilm did the Jurassic park effects. And, you know, how they do a lot of things and how they're working on something with the toddfather Johnny. Hmm. [00:42:59] Speaker A: And there's Spaz Williams. [00:43:01] Speaker B: Hmm. [00:43:01] Speaker A: Who could that be? Yeah, so it looks like they're forming that relationship. That becomes a relationship for the movie later. [00:43:09] Speaker B: Then we get the. The blurbs of everything coming up. I didn't. I didn't read through the blurbs. [00:43:14] Speaker A: You get Doug Chang, who's still doing Star wars art. He did a lot of the prequel art, especially episode one. [00:43:19] Speaker B: Nice. [00:43:19] Speaker A: They mentioned Doug Chang, and he's still doing stuff in concept art for Star wars. [00:43:23] Speaker B: Nice. But, yeah, I didn't. I didn't read any of the things. Holy shit. This trencher number four is featuring warblade, rip claw Turok, and exo manowar. Whoa, shit, that's a. That's. That makes it a crossover with the. The valiant universe. Johnny. That's pretty awesome. [00:43:38] Speaker A: That's cool. Nice. Kind of peaked at him, but it's just a bunch of different image stuff. That's pretty much the blah, blah, blah. [00:43:44] Speaker B: And we got the spawning grounds here. Number eight, overall, much more positive letters than the. The last spawning grounds. But, man, this one in the middle is. It's a doozy. Good Lord, Johnny. So we talked about, obviously. [00:44:00] Speaker A: Well, that's about it for blah, blah, blah. [00:44:02] Speaker B: Okay, awesome. Then we get a. We got a spanning. A spanning grounds, Johnny. [00:44:06] Speaker A: Spanning grounds. [00:44:07] Speaker B: Spanning grounds. And it spans from joy to some vitriol to some criticisms leveled at other people, but not Todd McFarlane. But Todd McFarlane listens to people, so they might as well tell him what their issues are. This is a wild spotting grounds. [00:44:31] Speaker A: There's a whole novel. [00:44:32] Speaker B: Oh, boy. This first one is about a guy who figured out his name is BJ. He figured out that chapel was who killed Al Simmons via the. He followed the trail. He was a good detective. And so they were like, we had to wait to print it. But we promise you, he sent this to us months ago. [00:44:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Pretty cool. And Toddler sent him a special gift in his mailbox. [00:44:56] Speaker B: That's pretty awesome. That's pretty awesome. You know, it makes me wonder, Johnny, if I should expect to receive something special in my mailbox for correctly guessing who the new monarch of hell is. [00:45:10] Speaker A: It's true. Maybe you do. [00:45:12] Speaker B: Maybe I do. Maybe I should call up Mister Thomas. Mister Thomas. [00:45:15] Speaker A: Hey, can you send me something for free, please? [00:45:17] Speaker B: So back in 1993, Todd was sending people people's stuff for guessing, right? [00:45:22] Speaker A: I guess. Right? [00:45:23] Speaker B: I have it on record. Some wild twists and turns in the spawning ground. Page is dummy. [00:45:29] Speaker A: Yeah. So, yeah, there's that first letter there, and then the second one is. I don't know, one guy's like, really? Like, I appreciate the love story element. [00:45:37] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And Todd being like, I'm older than most than basically everybody who reads spawn. So I like to pepper in the wisdom that I've gained over my life. I'm wondering, Johnny, if we're picking up what is laying down since we're now roughly todd father age, you know? [00:45:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Maybe we're getting some of that pepper in that wisdom. [00:45:55] Speaker B: Yeah, it's cool. It's cool. I mean, he's definitely putting a lot of things into these issues. Maybe some things that need to be cut out for readability's sake. But there's. There's a lot of. A lot of ideas, a lot of. A lot of things in there. It's. It's more than just a beat em up. [00:46:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Then we get a giant letter from a dude from Austin, Texas. [00:46:14] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:46:15] Speaker A: Craig T. Russell. [00:46:16] Speaker B: Craig T. Russell. [00:46:17] Speaker A: And it's just, he basically reviews, like, all the guests, 8910, eleven. All the guest spot ones. He did not like the Frank Miller. [00:46:25] Speaker B: One, I have to say. Hard same. Hard same. Todd answers with, you know, we know a lot of people like the Frank Miller one. It's like. But they. It was. It was a very tight assignment. They all did well with what they had. So the toddfather's not gonna say anybody failed. They did what they set out to do, and it worked. [00:46:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:45] Speaker B: Poor kid getting confused about what's supposed to happen at the Chicago convention. A weirdly unapologetic explanation. Cause, I mean, obviously the Todd father didn't do anything wrong. [00:46:57] Speaker A: He just lays down facts. He's like, look, man, that's how many autographs I could do. [00:47:01] Speaker B: Yeah. But he also does say that on average, he signs 2100 autographs a day. So he does about 300 hours. 300 an hour for 7 hours. And he doesn't take part of your food breaks, which, jeez, us. Christ, Johnny, I don't think I could do something I love for 7 hours straight. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. [00:47:20] Speaker A: Not without eating or peeing. [00:47:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Now without eating or peeing. I gotta. I gotta be eaten all the time or else I get grumpy. [00:47:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:28] Speaker B: I get hangry very, very quickly. Yeah, me too. And Jesus. Jesus. That's wild. That's wild. The Todd father is a machine. He might be Robocop Johnny. We should probably look into that. We need to make sure the Omnicorp isn't actually something that exists. [00:47:46] Speaker A: Right. This one guy, or Craig T. Russell mentions. I just remembered this was. He doesn't like that the trades, like, are like spoils Spawn's killer because of like, wizard advanced comics and comic shop views. [00:47:57] Speaker B: Yeah, but that literally, as the Todd father says, just part of the business. They gotta give him something. And yep, like he says, kinda sucks. But I do like how he says that. He complains about the price of things. Price prices have jumped from the 195 to the 250 to 350 range. And, well, Johnny spawns still in the 250 to 350 range. [00:48:18] Speaker A: It's true. [00:48:18] Speaker B: Except for things like Spawn 350, which was $4.99. [00:48:22] Speaker A: But oh, my God, there's a double size issue. [00:48:25] Speaker B: It was a double size issue. I haven't. I haven't heard. I haven't heard anybody complain about it. Because, you know, every time they do a special issue for anything, it's always a little bit more because, you know, you're getting more. You're getting more. It's a juicy boy, Johnny. It's full of hell juice. [00:48:37] Speaker A: Juicy boy. Full of hell juice. [00:48:39] Speaker B: That's a terrible way to describe issue 350. He's a juicy boy. [00:48:45] Speaker A: The juicy boy. Now we got some hell juice in this fan art in the back of the issue 13 here. [00:48:51] Speaker B: Yeah, we do. We got some. [00:48:52] Speaker A: You got some chapel, you got some spawn, you got some guys, I don't know. [00:48:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. A couple of these guys. [00:48:57] Speaker A: Max, is there a couple times. [00:48:59] Speaker B: There's that guy that Rob Liefeld had a poster in last epis issue. Oh, yeah, number seven. I don't remember his name either. There's a really cool lieutenant Colonel Al Simmons. Yep, there's a savage dragon. Which acab. So sorry about that. [00:49:20] Speaker A: Sorry, Savage dragon. [00:49:21] Speaker B: Sorry, savage dragon. That includes you. Then we get a team youngblood ad, which I guess is a youngblood spin off. An advertisement for Wildcats number five, which. [00:49:35] Speaker A: Man, I guess it's the first of its regular series. [00:49:38] Speaker B: Yeah, of its regular series. Pretty dope. Pretty dope. The back. There's an advertisement for wizard issue 28 that has. They all have Simpsons gatefold covers. [00:49:49] Speaker A: Yep. It's a big, big ad for the Simpsons. [00:49:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:49:53] Speaker A: In wizard magazine. [00:49:55] Speaker B: Itchy and Scratchy show. [00:49:58] Speaker A: Pretty cool. [00:49:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:49:59] Speaker A: A little portal back to 1993. [00:50:04] Speaker B: It was a good time. It was a good time. There's a lot there. Like I said, bring a snack. Bring a snack. You're gonna need it. [00:50:11] Speaker A: I'm hungry for more spawn. [00:50:13] Speaker B: Me too. [00:50:30] Speaker A: Next up, we got a real exciting issue we've been kind of talking about for a while. We've been really excited to get to. [00:50:35] Speaker B: It, and it's time to take a bite out of it. Johnny. [00:50:39] Speaker A: Chomp. [00:50:40] Speaker B: Ruff McGruff, Chicago, Illinois. Well, sorry. Acab also includes Ruff McGruff. Sorry about that. [00:50:46] Speaker A: No, he might be your private eye. He might not be a cop. [00:50:49] Speaker B: I guess that technically then means includes Sam and twitch. Dammit, Johnny, what have we done to ourselves? [00:50:53] Speaker A: See, not fictional ones. [00:50:55] Speaker B: No, fictional. Okay. Okay. So that means savage dragon is cool again. Okay. [00:51:00] Speaker A: Also, if you're a cop and you listen to the show, you're not a bastard. Sorry, they're too busy. [00:51:05] Speaker B: They're too busy. They're too busy re appropriating the Punisher logo for misunderstanding of the Punisher. [00:51:13] Speaker A: Just don't come from my stormtrooper logo. [00:51:16] Speaker B: That might be a little on the nose, Johnny. I don't know. The subtlety. The lack of subtlety. There is too much. [00:51:23] Speaker A: It's too much. [00:51:24] Speaker B: It's too much. [00:51:25] Speaker A: So we got scorch 24 is our second issue here. Yeah, we start with the covers. So let's fucking do it. [00:51:32] Speaker B: What cover you got there, Johnny? [00:51:33] Speaker A: I got both. [00:51:34] Speaker B: Oh. [00:51:37] Speaker A: But I'm reading the A cover by Z Carlos. [00:51:41] Speaker B: Who? [00:51:41] Speaker A: Just let me tell you, David, this cover makes me very excited for Rat City. [00:51:46] Speaker B: Yeah, this. I also have the Z Carlos cover, and it is fucking phenomenal. [00:51:50] Speaker A: Just all the spawns look great. The colors are awesome. Neon. [00:51:54] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It's a feast for the eyes. Yeah, absolutely. It's amazing. And Jessica's. Jessica's got a sword and a gun. She's got a. A nice little coy smirk going on. So she's nothing. Nothing's gonna take her by surprise. She knows what she's doing. Also makes me very excited for Zeke, for Red City. [00:52:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:52:13] Speaker B: And you got all the gunslinger in the background. [00:52:16] Speaker A: You got spawn. Everyone looking great. [00:52:18] Speaker B: It's awesome. It's very good stuff. It's very good stuff. What about that other cover you got there, Johnny? [00:52:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I've got the Tauntaun revolver cover. [00:52:26] Speaker B: Oh, it's. [00:52:27] Speaker A: We love a tauntaun revolver, Jessica. [00:52:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:52:30] Speaker A: Like, sitting down with some guns. She is all covered in blood. Like, she's blew some away. Just relaxing by a brick wall. [00:52:38] Speaker B: Oh, nice. As you do. Pretty cool as you do. I know that every time I've lasted somebody away, I like to just sit against a brick wall covered in blood. [00:52:47] Speaker A: You know, it happens. But, yeah, it's really nice. It's a little more noir, a little darker, but pretty cool. You get either or. [00:52:56] Speaker B: Also the. [00:52:57] Speaker A: The is back, huh? Did you notice that? [00:52:59] Speaker B: Uh, not until just now. [00:53:01] Speaker A: Cause it went away for a little bit. [00:53:02] Speaker B: Interesting, interesting. What's snapping to the slim Jim, Johnny? Eat me. [00:53:11] Speaker A: So we open it up, and as we mentioned, it's got script plot by. [00:53:14] Speaker B: John Lehman, with additional script by Todd McFarlane. [00:53:17] Speaker A: Additional script. [00:53:18] Speaker B: Steven Segovia, still doing the art. Very good. [00:53:21] Speaker A: Yep. Really wonderful. Steven Segovia issue. Get some good character work. [00:53:25] Speaker B: Indeed. J. David Rama, still doing those colors and world design. Still doing that lettering covered the covers that. Todd McFarlane is the creative director and the editor in chief is Mister Thomas Heligiani. Hey, we know that guy. We know that guy. [00:53:41] Speaker A: Previously in the Scorched. A confrontation with Spahn forces Jessica to make a decision. Will she lead the scorched or walk away? [00:53:49] Speaker B: Mmm hmm. [00:53:51] Speaker A: And we open on a prologue. Prologue on a church on the outskirts of York. Hmm. York. [00:53:59] Speaker B: I wonder. [00:53:59] Speaker A: Interesting. [00:54:00] Speaker B: I wonder if they've got any. Any people there. Any. Any guys named Johnny? They got Johnny. [00:54:07] Speaker A: Johnny of York. [00:54:08] Speaker B: Johnny's of York. [00:54:09] Speaker A: I don't know. Maybe. Maybe he used to tool around there. [00:54:12] Speaker B: I don't know. Have you ever been to York, Johnny? [00:54:15] Speaker A: Never been to York. I've been to Wales. [00:54:18] Speaker B: Nice. I've been to New York. Does that count? [00:54:22] Speaker A: I've been in New York. Even old New York was once New Amsterdam. [00:54:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Why they changed it, I can't say. [00:54:27] Speaker A: People liked it better that way. [00:54:30] Speaker B: This church, it's, you know, almost as if all knowledge of it was erased many years and centuries ago, as if it were meant to be forgotten. The locals know to avoid it, but, you know, it's got some visitors. It's got. [00:54:43] Speaker A: I always love the trope of, like, bad guys, like, digging up something at the beginning of the movie or show or. [00:54:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:49] Speaker A: I remember the first Captain America has it. I feel like Hellboy. [00:54:51] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that's also some. No, that's not how any of the Indiana Joneses start. No, some of the Indiana Joneses start. The new one does. Starts with some nazis digging up some stuff. [00:55:03] Speaker A: That's true. [00:55:04] Speaker B: Looking for the spear of Longinus. [00:55:08] Speaker A: Long giant, our favorite with center terminus. [00:55:12] Speaker B: Oh, man. So we've got. We've literally got a fucking Warhammer dude here lifting a rock above his head. But they're totally, totally Warhammer guys. [00:55:21] Speaker A: And Mister Bishop. Mister Bishop is leading them, is giving the orders and telling them to dig. Dig. [00:55:28] Speaker B: Yeah. And they find the passageway where he said it would be. And then he's. He's got crazy eyes, and he says, corsets. [00:55:35] Speaker A: Look at those crazy as they're going down. You can see on the walls there's, like, either a malbolger or a fleabiac. [00:55:40] Speaker B: I think it's a Malbolge. The. The potbelly is a pretty big. [00:55:44] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, there's a potbelly. Okay. It is Malbolgia. [00:55:46] Speaker B: It's a Malbolger ripping a. Well, it's a head off a night. It's an empty helmet, but you can assume that there's probably. Yeah, a body head somewhere. Yeah, yeah. They go down, down, down these stairs. Deep. Deep in the dark. Drums. Drums in the deep. And they're like. It doesn't look like any church I've ever seen. And he says, yeah, of course, because it's not a holy place. It is a place of worship, but not a holy place. One of the guys asks, is it safe to be here? And Bishop says, absolutely not, which is great. This is great. [00:56:21] Speaker A: And then all the dudes are dead. [00:56:23] Speaker B: Yeah. It shows how dedicated Bishop is to this, where he's like, it's not safe, but I'm gonna be here anyway. And then he calls forth the daughter of darkness, mistress of deceit. He says, I will free you. [00:56:37] Speaker A: Free me. You think you're capable of that? [00:56:40] Speaker B: I've been locked away here for only my hunger and my hate. [00:56:44] Speaker A: And we get the awesome shot of this monster. [00:56:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Who we don't know yet, but the. [00:56:50] Speaker A: Prolog ends, prologue ends. On this monster. [00:56:54] Speaker B: On this monster. Yep, yep, yep. And then we cut to Jessica Priest doing a. Well, she's doing exactly what Javi was doing the last episode, Johnny. She's clearing her mind with a nice little motorcycle ride. [00:57:06] Speaker A: That's what you gotta do. [00:57:08] Speaker B: And then, unlike Javi, she does not get shot in the chest. [00:57:12] Speaker A: No, Carl doesn't show up and shoot her. [00:57:14] Speaker B: Yeah, so. That's right. Fuck you, Carl. [00:57:17] Speaker A: Nope. She just needed a long, hard ride to clear her head. She goes to the devil's pitchfork. [00:57:21] Speaker B: Yeah, she does. It's a dive bar on the edge of the city. And, you know, she walks in. As soon as she walks in, all heads turn toward her and follow her. [00:57:31] Speaker A: It goes like. The error is like a record scratch. [00:57:33] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then, you know, she meets. She's meeting up with Mark, our old buddy. Mark's there. [00:57:39] Speaker A: He's early, getting his drink on Mark. [00:57:43] Speaker B: He's got his shit on the stool next to him, which is a party foul. Don't be putting your shit on the seat next to you. Put it on the floor or put it in your lap. Or sometimes they've got those little hooks under the bar. Put your shit there. [00:57:54] Speaker A: Even if it's a big medieval spawn helmet. [00:57:56] Speaker B: Even if it's a big medieval spawn helmet. I mean, all right, when I bring. [00:58:00] Speaker A: My helmets to the bar, I put them on the stool next to me. [00:58:02] Speaker B: You jerk. How dare you? [00:58:05] Speaker A: I'm just so inconsiderate. [00:58:06] Speaker B: Inconsiderate. So Mark orders her a whiskey, and the lady's like, you want the good stuff? And Jessica's like, oh, please. Only if it's the last of what you. [00:58:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I want. Whatever. [00:58:16] Speaker B: Whatever. [00:58:17] Speaker A: Jessica's down. [00:58:19] Speaker B: Yeah. She's like, why'd you bring the helmet? And Mark's like, well, I didn't know. I didn't know if this was gonna be just a social call or a fighting call. Jessica's like, just a social call. Please. [00:58:30] Speaker A: It's just the talking. We don't need the helmet. But then he kind of goes in this nice little. It's nice to get. This is just so great, because it just gives a couple of clarifications or acknowledgments to things that I've been kind of wondering. [00:58:39] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:58:40] Speaker A: Like, what is it like for Mark to be medieval spawn? And here you get a nice little monologue about how it's, like being of two minds. And, like, he sees the reflection. Sometimes he's John of York, sometimes he's medieval spawn. And it's like they're merging. [00:58:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:58:54] Speaker A: And I really like that they acknowledged that because that was just. That was like a thread that was, like, set up and then kind of just dropped. [00:59:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:59:00] Speaker A: And we never really saw. For the last few scorched issues or for the last arc, we never saw Mark. We just saw medieval. [00:59:07] Speaker B: Yeah, true. [00:59:09] Speaker A: So it's nice to, like, get a little bit of the people behind the mask. That's what's so cool about this issue. [00:59:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, one of the things that's so cool about this issue. [00:59:16] Speaker A: One of the things. One of the many things. [00:59:18] Speaker B: And then, uh. And then medieval or Redeemer comes up and is like, hey, I hope I'm not interrupting anything important. He's. [00:59:26] Speaker A: He's. He looks like fucking, uh, someone from, like, Sandman. [00:59:29] Speaker B: Yeah, he does. He. He looks like the Corinthian. Yeah, he looks like the Corinthian. [00:59:34] Speaker A: That's what I was thinking of. Yeah, the Corinthian who's badass. [00:59:37] Speaker B: He is a badass. [00:59:38] Speaker A: He's scary as hell. [00:59:40] Speaker B: Terrible. Terrible human. He's not a human being. He's a terrible entity. [00:59:43] Speaker A: Nightmare. He's a nightmare. Right. [00:59:45] Speaker B: Yeah, he is a nightmare. Yeah. [00:59:47] Speaker A: I read, um. What was it called? Shit, I read the. The James Tinian. Todd, the new Sandman universe came out recently. [00:59:54] Speaker B: Overture. Is that what it's called? [00:59:55] Speaker A: American nightmare or american. It was in the Sandman universe. [01:00:00] Speaker B: Okay. [01:00:00] Speaker A: And it's called, like. I can't remember what it was called. It was awesome. It had a lot about the Corinthian. [01:00:04] Speaker B: Corinthian is big badass. It's a very weird thing to say. He hopes he's not interrupting anything for something that he was invited to. [01:00:13] Speaker A: Hey, man, sometimes people are that overly polite, you know? [01:00:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [01:00:17] Speaker A: Oh, sorry. So you gotta apologize for your existence. I can. I can understand that. You know, sometimes people just do that. [01:00:22] Speaker B: So obviously he's a midwesterner. [01:00:24] Speaker A: Obviously he's a. Yeah, there's a clue. [01:00:27] Speaker B: If. If they ever do a food scene and he starts dumping ranch dressing on everything, then we'll know for sure. [01:00:34] Speaker A: Yep. Like, you're from the Midwest, aren't you? How do you know it's, like, overly polite. [01:00:37] Speaker B: I do, I do like, I do like the detail on the top of the next page. They're all sitting. They all have their, like. Mark has his beer. Jessica has her whiskey. Redeemer orders a motherfucking umbrella drink. And that's so badass. [01:00:51] Speaker A: That's pretty badass. [01:00:52] Speaker B: It reminds me of a zodiac when Dudeface is meeting other man. [01:01:00] Speaker A: Robert Downey junior is meeting Jake. Illinois. [01:01:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And Robert Downey Junior is like, what the fuck are you drinking? He's like, oh, it's a blue hawaiian. Don't make fun of it until you try it. And then it smash cuts to them with, like, seven empty blue hawaiian cups between them. [01:01:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Hey, I'm a fruit. I'm a fruity boy. I love a fruity drink. I'll go for pina colada. [01:01:19] Speaker B: Hell yeah. [01:01:20] Speaker A: I love sticky drink, margarita, anything like that. [01:01:23] Speaker B: Mai tai. Hell yeah. I love tiki drinks. [01:01:26] Speaker A: Me too. [01:01:27] Speaker B: So good. So good. And you can feel healthy. Cause you're basically drinking fruit juice, right? [01:01:31] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. It's healthy. [01:01:33] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Just don't drink four or five of them in a row because they're a little struck or maybe do. If you're looking for a good time, you could do much worse than down in four or five tiki drinks before you realize they'll catch up to you, though. [01:01:47] Speaker A: But it will. [01:01:49] Speaker B: So they're sitting down. They're about to have their little wrap sesh and the cheesemo, the cheesemo crew that called the hellborn come up and start trying to put the Mac on Jessica. The. Just a beautiful encapsulation of Jessica priest here. Dude's like, what's a, what's a woman? What's a, what's a woman? Fine as you doin with these two nerd boys when you could have some real men. Jessica priest just says, hey, you know what? I'd love to be with some real men. Point them out if you see them. [01:02:23] Speaker A: Nice. [01:02:26] Speaker B: Oh, boy. And a dude just starts brass knuckling up and punches redeemer right in the face. And just. And Mark's, Mark's like, ah, helmet. Ah, helmet. Just. [01:02:37] Speaker A: No, no, none of that. We don't need that. We can take these guys. [01:02:40] Speaker B: No powers because we don't need them. [01:02:41] Speaker A: We don't need them. [01:02:43] Speaker B: Yeah, just boot to the head. That's the. She gave this man, you know, a lifetime supply of ice cream. And the flavor of that ice cream is boot to the head. Johnny bam. Look at him. [01:02:56] Speaker A: She's just wailing on people. Mark picks up the helmet and is using the helmet to wail on people. [01:03:00] Speaker B: You know, Johnny, I love this. I love the only thing that hit any of the tree. The three teammates was a revelation, which is a great way, a great way of saying that they handed these guys their ass with no repercussions to themselves whatsoever. [01:03:17] Speaker A: Yep. The revelation of how well they fight together. [01:03:20] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a real good one. John Layman, God damn, you are good at writing comic books. [01:03:26] Speaker A: I would say. Yes. [01:03:27] Speaker B: Very good. So Jessica's like, now you, boy, I need you boys to leave now. And they just like, scamper out. And then they, they just go back to the bar like, like nothing happened. And they're like, where were we? And Jessica says she's not quitting the scorched but they're gonna be. There's a new sheriff in town, and there are gonna be some changes to. [01:03:49] Speaker A: Be a little less chaotic. The scorched is going to be those three corps members. [01:03:53] Speaker B: She's like, we're the scorched. Everyone else is a tool that we use, but we are the triad. We are the main core. [01:04:03] Speaker A: Yep. [01:04:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:04:04] Speaker A: Which is pretty true. [01:04:06] Speaker B: And then she's like, scorched on 3123. And then we get the. The opening reading where we're about to get Redeemer's name when a head comes flying through the window. [01:04:18] Speaker A: I know this is the opening reading where she's like, so what can we call you besides Redeemer? Cause this has been something we've been wondering since King Swan. [01:04:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:04:24] Speaker A: Number one, right? That's where it was in the back of that. [01:04:27] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, indeed. [01:04:28] Speaker A: And we know he doesn't have eyes, or he hasn't shown his eyes. [01:04:32] Speaker B: Did he show up in King Spawn first, or did he show up in regular spawn? I can't remember if he showed up. It was in the back of one of those 299. [01:04:39] Speaker A: I don't remember. I think it was in Kingspawn. [01:04:43] Speaker B: No, no, no. Well, I'm thinking of. I'm thinking of Eddie turning into reaper. Okay. [01:04:47] Speaker A: Oh, right. [01:04:47] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Literally. Literally. When I read this first on the train home, the day I got it, I laughed out loud at the tease of, you know. [01:05:01] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. My name's actually crash. Something flies through the window. [01:05:06] Speaker B: It does say Krish. So I wonder if his name is Chris and it's an extratease. [01:05:12] Speaker A: Yes. Hello, I'm Chris. [01:05:14] Speaker B: And then we get. Coming out of coming. There's just, like, smoke and fog and dust on the other side of this broken window from whence the head was thrown. And then we slowly get some eyes coming out of it. And it says John of Rio. [01:05:28] Speaker A: Mark's, like, costumes. Jessica, she says, affirmative of action. [01:05:32] Speaker B: Unfinished business. This page. Super awesome. Them just powering out. [01:05:38] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [01:05:40] Speaker B: Very difficult to read. [01:05:42] Speaker A: Everything's kind of out of order. [01:05:43] Speaker B: Yeah. So. [01:05:45] Speaker A: So you have to let it wash over you. [01:05:47] Speaker B: Yeah. You have to, like, read it, and then you only know what order you're supposed to read it in after you've read it. But you're gonna read it wrong the first time, so don't worry about it, guys. It's fine. [01:05:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:05:58] Speaker B: Obviously, we get a little bit of backstory about how it's somebody that medieval used to fight, but he left them a lot. He thought he killed them, but he won't be making the mistake of just thinking it this time. [01:06:11] Speaker A: And we turn the page. [01:06:12] Speaker B: Yep, yep, yep. And then we get a nice little reveal of. Has the fleabiec name? Has family name been forgotten in this era? What if my brother surely violated, still lives? Or can it be his sister? Is the last one standing? The last. The last fleabiac standing, which, Johnny, we might have to reckon with sooner rather than later. [01:06:35] Speaker A: What? [01:06:36] Speaker B: The last fleabiac standing? [01:06:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, if 351. If 350 is to believe, we'll see what happens. [01:06:44] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll see what happens. Not too much spoilers, but, I mean, it has not too much spoilers, but we. We learned that this is violator's long lost sister. The viscerator. [01:06:55] Speaker A: The viscerator. Pretty cool. [01:06:59] Speaker B: Very awesome. We get scorched skull, the end of the issue. And spawning grounds this time is a whole bunch of fan art. That's some good fan art. We got a really cool spawn and clown there. A extra awesome candy skull Jessica there. [01:07:16] Speaker A: Yeah, that's pretty awesome. [01:07:17] Speaker B: For some day of the dead action drill. Good. A couple of excellent, excellent jessicas by Jordan Noor. Yes. [01:07:24] Speaker A: Who was at Spawncon. [01:07:26] Speaker B: Another excellent Jessica. Another excellent Jessica. [01:07:30] Speaker A: And so many good jessicas. [01:07:31] Speaker B: And a very Javi Fernandez esque king spawn. [01:07:36] Speaker A: Yes. That's some great fan art. [01:07:38] Speaker B: Excellent. It's all good. Need more sponsor universe, Johnny. [01:07:42] Speaker A: Check out these ongoing titles. [01:07:44] Speaker B: Yeah, you should do it. Do it now. [01:07:46] Speaker A: Then we get an ad for monstrous and an ad for demon Slayer action figures. [01:07:51] Speaker B: Yes, indeed. Yeah. [01:07:53] Speaker A: And that is scorch 24. [01:07:55] Speaker B: It is scorch 24. So, Johnny, I think. I think it's that time again where we gotta rate these puppies. [01:08:03] Speaker A: It's time to rate the puppies. First up, we had Spawn 13, which is kind of a classic early Todd McFarlane spawn. You get a lot of spawn action. You get a little bit of the youngbloods universe. You get a little bit of Sam and twist, a little bit of Wanda. Like, it seems like there's kind of a pattern to these, but this one was fun. You know, it's something that, like I said, I'd rather be reading or not, like I said, but I think I'd rather be reading the Jessica story, because I like Jessica. And I'm curious about that. We'll get to it because it's in curse of the spawn, but it's interesting to see this version of his origin. But I can also understand why they didn't do it for the movie and why they didn't do it and why they changed it going forward. Cause it's just like, it's so messy having it closely tied to another character like that. And I just imagine that it's just so much cleaner to have your own character that did it. But at the time, it was probably a cool crossover thing and people were probably pretty hyped for it. [01:08:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:08:57] Speaker A: But art's great. Lettering's fantastic. Colors popping. The moo team's at it, so we love it. I would give it four broken Sega Genesis controllers. [01:09:09] Speaker B: Hell yeah. [01:09:10] Speaker A: From bad rock. [01:09:11] Speaker B: Very good. Very good. Very good. I agree. It was an exciting time to be a spawn fan. A new universe fan. It's still an exciting time to be a spawn fan. The art is excellent. The writing is very there. The Mu team is excellent. I don't think I care much for the. I don't think I care much for the Youngblood team, Joni. [01:09:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't really either. [01:09:34] Speaker B: But, you know, you know, bedrock's funny and short, short segments. Well, the rest of them I could take or leave. It wasn't. It wasn't a bad issue. It was very. It was a good issue. But it's hard to approach. It's. It's not very approachable. It is, because it's hard to approach so much. So much word. So for that. For that, I have to give it. I think. I think I'll give it a 3.5. The little pooh bears. [01:10:02] Speaker A: Aw. From cyan's crib. And then our second issue was scorched 24, which, shockingly, I'm gonna give a great review. It's just awesome to see the scorch team have kind of some downtime after just like, so many threats. It was like the. The sin devours into the terminus into just like, so many threats in a row. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. It was nice for them to get a little downtime here. [01:10:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:10:26] Speaker A: And kind of a reset and just get some teases and get some information with, like, a little bit about Mark's, how it is with him in the helmet. Get a little bit of hints that they know we don't know who Redeemer is. They are going to tell us. That's nice to know that they are acknowledging that. That's something I've been wondering about. But just a great little. Great little story. One of the. One of the best issues of scores is, for my money. Yeah, I would say. And I'm going to give it five shots of not good whiskey. [01:10:55] Speaker B: Ah, hell yeah. Hell yeah. [01:10:58] Speaker A: Five shots of not the good stuff. [01:11:00] Speaker B: Not the good stuff. Just the rock cut. [01:11:01] Speaker A: I. Jessica drinks. That's good enough for me. [01:11:04] Speaker B: I agree, Johnny. It's. It's hard to beat. It's hard to beat this scorched right now. It's. It's a good little. It's just a great little team building episode issue. They're all getting together. We're still, you know, we're still learning their characters, even though, even though we know them, we're still learning more about, about them, which is always wonderful. It's great to continually learn about the characters that we're loving here. And, you know, it's got that good Steven Segovia artwork and it's just, it's just great. I am also going to give it five I'm going to give it five little umbrella drinks, Johnny. [01:11:37] Speaker A: Nice. We love to see it. [01:11:39] Speaker B: Yeah, we do. We do. [01:11:41] Speaker A: And I'll mention again, I love the Z Carlos cover. It's very excited for Rat City. [01:11:45] Speaker B: It's a great cover. It's a great cover. You should be. You should be excited for it. [01:11:49] Speaker A: Should be. [01:11:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:11:50] Speaker A: Well, David, we've been such good boys by reading this big issue of Spawn. Say with all those big words, we. [01:11:56] Speaker B: Need a good boy. Deserve a treat. Yeah, we do. [01:11:58] Speaker A: Yeah, we deserve a treat. And I think a nice treat is it's time to open up another pack of our spawn, the movie trading cards that I got at Spawn Con. [01:12:07] Speaker B: Hell yeah. [01:12:08] Speaker A: Bought straight from the spawn hunters booth himself. So this is a time for Todd's card talking. And so we've got, we've each got a pack of movie trading cards. [01:12:40] Speaker B: Cards. [01:12:41] Speaker A: Gonna be opening them here. We got lovely spawn on the COVID Yeah, they do. Shiny. [01:12:46] Speaker B: It's that, it's that classic, that classic spawn, the movie poster of just like a half face. Like the half moon of his face with the eye. [01:12:57] Speaker A: So let's pop it open here. Let's see what we got. [01:12:59] Speaker B: Let's do it. Oh, we gotta get through the crinkle. [01:13:02] Speaker A: Crinkle, crinkle, crinkle, crinkle, crinkle. [01:13:12] Speaker B: Love that inky goodness. Okay, do you want to go first? You want me to go first? [01:13:19] Speaker A: Okay, let's see. First up. Oh, my God. I got one with Todd the bum. [01:13:23] Speaker B: Nice. [01:13:25] Speaker A: I got the one with Todd the bum. [01:13:26] Speaker B: Hell yeah. Woo. That's a good one. [01:13:30] Speaker A: Special note, the actor playing the role looks familiar. He should. It's none other than Todd McFarlane. Spawns. Dad. Daddy. [01:13:38] Speaker B: Oh, my first up is crispy Simmons. Meatball heads. Meatball head, Al. [01:13:43] Speaker A: Oh, nice. [01:13:45] Speaker B: It says rage of the Avenger. Yeah. No, it then just gives a little recap of spawn showing up in the Fitzgerald house. [01:13:54] Speaker A: Okay, what'd you get? My next one is balcony berserker, and it's spawned with his double guns. [01:14:01] Speaker B: Oh, nice. [01:14:02] Speaker A: Jumping off the balcony. [01:14:03] Speaker B: Excellent. [01:14:04] Speaker A: He's. It's just, like, spawned. The movie to me is where he jumps. He does, like, a flip with, like, shooting two guns. [01:14:09] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like hot shot that's down into the, like that. That balla party, right? [01:14:16] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [01:14:17] Speaker B: So this one, my next one is called afterlife, and it's literally just a shot of the roof of the church where he hangs out. [01:14:26] Speaker A: There it is. [01:14:28] Speaker B: It looks like there's a, it looks like there's a crew. Remember that? They got caught in the photo there. But it's just like a picture of the church set. [01:14:35] Speaker A: So this is funny. This card is called the final battle, but it just shows a picture of spawn and. [01:14:41] Speaker B: And Melbolgia from Earth, though. [01:14:43] Speaker A: This is just spawning this. [01:14:44] Speaker B: Just violator. [01:14:46] Speaker A: Violator, huh? [01:14:46] Speaker B: Because it's. [01:14:47] Speaker A: Because they're still working on all that shit. These were made probably before they finished that part. Probably because it has the description at the end of it in the back where it says, like, yeah, yeah. [01:14:55] Speaker B: Oh, no. Okay. [01:14:56] Speaker A: I guess. No, I guess this is what it's describing anyway. But this is a scene from earlier in the movie, and they're using it at a different part. But anyway. [01:15:03] Speaker B: Nice. My next one is, you still haven't learned, and it's spawn talking to Coleostro. Look at that guy. Look at that guy. Fuck that guy. Fuck that guy. For real. Coleostro. [01:15:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. He used to be nice. Now he's, he used to be a wacky little dude. [01:15:21] Speaker B: What you got next, Johnny? [01:15:23] Speaker A: Next I got, this was a showdown in hell, which is the violator and spawn. [01:15:26] Speaker B: Oh, nice. That's a good one. Look at that long jaw. [01:15:30] Speaker A: Interestingly enough, if you go to the back, there's a picture of Kagliostro and the violator, but they're against the blue screen. [01:15:35] Speaker B: Huh? [01:15:36] Speaker A: They haven't finished the special effects when they made this card. [01:15:40] Speaker B: Nice. My next one is literally just Spawn's face. And it's called spawned. It's actually card number one. Nice. [01:15:50] Speaker A: Oh, you got card number one. [01:15:51] Speaker B: On the back, there's a picture of Todd McFarlane standing next to that Malbolgia puppet. That's violator. No, the. The jaw is really small, though. Is that not? [01:16:01] Speaker A: Yeah, but it's. It is small. Yeah, it, like, grows. [01:16:04] Speaker B: Oh, okay. Okay. Well, dang. [01:16:08] Speaker A: It, like, grows for a few times, but it's not always that long. [01:16:11] Speaker B: Nice. [01:16:11] Speaker A: Because the Malbolsia puppet they made was a miniature. My next card is mocking his fate, and it's just clown making fun of Al Simmons in the alley. [01:16:22] Speaker B: The Johnny, quite, quite appropriately, the next one is called the Grave of Al Simmons. And it's clown showing Al Simmons his grave. [01:16:34] Speaker A: There it is. [01:16:34] Speaker B: This is mocking him. There's a random. There's a random punker on the back, too. It looks kind of like a reject from the crow universe. I don't know. [01:16:46] Speaker A: I think originally, either in the movie or in a cutscene, there were, like, punks messing with his grave or something. And I can't remember if it's in the movie or if it was a deleted scene. Then I got metal morphosis, which is the part where he changes his motorcycle into, like, a cool shield. [01:17:03] Speaker B: Johnny. It's not the next one that I have, but it's the next one after the next one I have. I also have metamorphosis. [01:17:09] Speaker A: We got the same card. Look at that. But, yeah, it's that part of the movie where spawn turns his motorcycle into, like, a shield thing. [01:17:16] Speaker B: Yeah. So your next one. [01:17:19] Speaker A: Oh, my neck. Yeah, cuz. Yeah, you too. Well, I got. I can just talk about both at the same time. I got. I got two of the character cards where they're, like, in the. It's just, like the image logo. They're, like, burning out of it. [01:17:30] Speaker B: Nice. [01:17:30] Speaker A: I got a clown, and I got a Wanda Blake. [01:17:33] Speaker B: Nice. [01:17:33] Speaker A: So pretty cool. [01:17:35] Speaker B: Very nice. My next one is. These flashbacks are killer. And it's. It's just a picture of the clown. [01:17:41] Speaker A: There he is, looking at all his glory. [01:17:42] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:17:44] Speaker A: Those are my last two. [01:17:44] Speaker B: Oh, and then I have a spawn revealed, one of four. And it's. It's one quarter of the full spawn costume. Oh, and it's, uh, it's embossed a little bit. Yeah. [01:17:58] Speaker A: Ooh. [01:17:59] Speaker B: So it's got some text. [01:18:00] Speaker A: It's like a chase card. [01:18:02] Speaker B: I wonder if it glows in the dark. I bet it glows in the dark. [01:18:05] Speaker A: Looks like it might. [01:18:06] Speaker B: That's what it looks very much like. Glow in the dark pigment. I'll have to charge it and see, but, yeah, so that's a good batch of cards, Johnny. [01:18:16] Speaker A: And we got the promo card that's advertising. Is 1997 as the year of Spawn? [01:18:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:18:21] Speaker A: The soundtrack, the toys, all of it. [01:18:25] Speaker B: All of it. Yeah. Well, nice. That was a good little bit of. A good little bit of. [01:18:31] Speaker A: Little trip down spawn memory lane. A little trip down spawn history lane. [01:18:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:18:35] Speaker A: With some spawn the movie trading cards. [01:18:38] Speaker B: Indeed, indeed. [01:18:39] Speaker A: And while we're on Todd's toy talk, or to merge talk, they did just release the information about the 30th anniversary figures. [01:18:46] Speaker B: Yeah, they did. [01:18:47] Speaker A: We've got the hellspawn, where he's holding the Gatling gun from the COVID of. [01:18:50] Speaker B: Hellspawn, based on the Ashley Woodart. [01:18:53] Speaker A: Ashley Wood art. Then we've got the Todd McFarlane and Spawn, which is awesome. [01:19:01] Speaker B: Yeah. It's the Todd McFarlane himself and then the original spawn that Todd drew in high school. [01:19:09] Speaker A: Yeah. So he looks kind of, like, a little dumpier, but he's hilarious looking. They're both. And the Todd father's given the peace sign. It just looks like a hoot. [01:19:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Then there's a 30th anniversary commando spawn, which looks like the adventures of Spawn. [01:19:22] Speaker A: Right. And I have pre ordered one of those because I thought that was very cool. [01:19:27] Speaker B: And then the Black Panther. [01:19:33] Speaker A: Somewhat controversial in our opinion. [01:19:35] Speaker B: The black Panther Chadwick Boseman homage cover they made into a figure. I don't know how I feel about that one. [01:19:45] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a little weird. It feels like a weird timing. It feels like weird cash grab. [01:19:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:19:50] Speaker A: It just doesn't have much to do with. It doesn't anything to do with Wakanda. [01:19:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:19:55] Speaker A: Except that they're both, like, black. [01:19:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:19:58] Speaker A: And for a white guy to be capitalizing that, I don't fucking know. [01:20:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:20:03] Speaker A: Not for me. [01:20:04] Speaker B: We talked about. We talked about it. [01:20:06] Speaker A: We talked about on that episode. [01:20:07] Speaker B: Look at the three up. [01:20:08] Speaker A: 311 episode, if you want to hear us talk about the COVID Yeah. [01:20:11] Speaker B: So, yeah, that's some. Some cool toys coming down the pipeline there. [01:20:15] Speaker A: Yeah. I got to keep an eye out for those. Get the pre orders going. And also, while I was pre ordering, they had a ninja spawn for $10, so I bought it. [01:20:23] Speaker B: Nice. Hell, yeah. I was like, what? [01:20:26] Speaker A: $10? Come on. [01:20:27] Speaker B: Yeah, you can't do. Can't I? You can. You can't do bad. That's not bad. [01:20:32] Speaker A: Can't do bad for $10. [01:20:33] Speaker B: Can't do bad. I don't know what else. [01:20:34] Speaker A: Can't do. Can't do bad. Can't do bad. Well, David, your host, can't do bad. [01:20:40] Speaker B: Who's that? [01:20:41] Speaker A: Our great friends on Instagram. [01:20:43] Speaker B: Oh, that's cool. [01:20:44] Speaker A: We got one to shout out this week. [01:20:45] Speaker B: Yeah, we do. Who? [01:20:46] Speaker A: I got to say, hey, dude, we didn't really like me, but, like, I said, hey, to, like, check out their booth at Spawn Con. But a follow we've been following for a while. Who's a big spawn fan at Jordan Dot nor. Yeah, they got a really great artist. [01:20:58] Speaker B: Got a couple of good pieces in that. That fan art section of the spawning grounds. [01:21:03] Speaker A: Yeah, scores. 24. They're in the spawning ground, so you gotta give them a shout out. And they've just been a big spawn. Obviously a big spawn fan there with Spawncon doing stuff. So just make sure to check them out if you aren't following them. They're amazing. [01:21:17] Speaker B: Yeah, pretty great. While you're over there, don't forget to follow and like. And love on our meister of music, Mister Brian, at Brian Voyles, 27. He's a good man. You should know him. [01:21:31] Speaker A: And we're over there too. Regarding Spawnpod. Yes, we are posting our stuff about the episodes, other things, events we've been doing. We posted about Comic Con. [01:21:41] Speaker B: Yeah, we do. [01:21:42] Speaker A: We were posted about our 350 days. We had some fun pictures of us on there. [01:21:45] Speaker B: Yeah, we were. It's gonna be. [01:21:47] Speaker A: That was a good time. [01:21:48] Speaker B: It's a good time. Come, come shout at us there. And if you don't have instagram, you can always reach usgardingspawnpodmail.com. You can send us questions, comments, pictures of your collections. If you send us an email, Johnny will read it on air. If you don't want it read on air, please be sure to let us know that. And if you send us your address, we will send you some stickers. [01:22:09] Speaker A: Hell yeah. [01:22:09] Speaker B: Hell yeah. [01:22:10] Speaker A: We love stickers. And each week, I like to add a prompt just to get the juices flowing. [01:22:16] Speaker B: Those hell juice. [01:22:17] Speaker A: And this week, I want to ask you, what are the plot holes that Terry Fitzgerald is talking about in Jurassic park? Let me know. [01:22:21] Speaker B: I don't know. [01:22:22] Speaker A: Watch the cinema says. And talk to me about it. Cause I don't really. That's just the perfect movie to be. [01:22:27] Speaker B: It's great. I can't think of a single thing that he's talking about. Johnny. [01:22:32] Speaker A: He must have talked to the wrong guy. That convinced him that there were all these plot holes or something. [01:22:35] Speaker B: Yeah, whatever, whatever, whatever. When you gotta go, you gotta go, Johnny. [01:22:41] Speaker A: Chuck. [01:22:42] Speaker B: So, so Johnny speaking. When you gotta go, you gotta go read some more spawn. And then you gotta go. Come back and listen to us talk about that more spawn next week. Hey, all y'all spawnverts, it's your co host David Williams here. I just had to break in here to let you know that between when we recorded this episode and when we were releasing this episode, we decided to have a little change in what we were doing for the next episode. That's a lot of time to say an episode in one episode. Can you believe this episode of me saying so many episodes? But anyway, so for next week, you don't have to do any homework at all, y'all. You can just sit back, relax. We're just gonna have a couple of snippets of our conversations that we had at challengers comics and conversation on Spawn 350 day. We talk spawn with a lot of people who like Spawn, a lot of people who sell Spawn, and, you know, we have some fun time. Bran is there, our best friend Bran, you know? So come on, come on, come on. Listen to the conversations that we have out in the wild. And that's what we're going to be doing next week. So don't worry about reading nothing for next week. Just. Just bring your ears. You don't even got to do nothing. We want to see you there. May the scorch be with you. And back to the end of the episode. Be sure to like us. Subscribe to us everywhere. You get your. Your podcasts. Tell your friends, your family, your coworkers, the random person on the bus, you know, if you got some stickers, hand them out randomly, slap them in a place where people will, you know, read the scan, that QR code. Yeah, just. Just generally, you know, help us spread the gospel of our lord and savior. Lieutenant Colonel Albert Simmons. [01:24:21] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely. That's all we're trying to do here. [01:24:23] Speaker B: That's awesome. [01:24:24] Speaker A: We just. [01:24:24] Speaker B: We just want to spread the good word. Uh, it's fun, and it's good. And, Johnny, I think that leaves me with nothing else to say. But may the scorched be with you. [01:24:35] Speaker A: And also with you, David. [01:24:36] Speaker B: Hell, yeah. [01:24:38] Speaker A: Hell, yeah. [01:24:39] Speaker B: Hell, yeah. And we're gonna see you guys at c two e two. Come. Woo. [01:24:44] Speaker A: We just found out. We're so pumped. [01:24:46] Speaker B: It's gonna be good. It's gonna be good. [01:24:48] Speaker A: It's gonna be great. [01:24:49] Speaker B: It. We'll talk about that on my. Yeah. [01:25:34] Speaker A: Then I will let you have an enjoyable conversation. For its own sake, David, make it content. [01:25:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Somebody will consume it.