December 25, 2024

01:44:04

RE:Spawn Christmas 2024 - With Guest SPAWNOGRAPHY

RE:Spawn Christmas 2024 - With Guest SPAWNOGRAPHY
RE:Spawn
RE:Spawn Christmas 2024 - With Guest SPAWNOGRAPHY

Dec 25 2024 | 01:44:04

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Show Notes

Welcome once again to the Merriest SPAWN podcast! This year for Christmas the boys are covering SPAWN issue 39, aka, The Christmas Issue!

This year, the boys talk with George and Pierce from the excellent SPAWN podcast, SPAWNOGRAPHY!

Don't forget to wish Happy Holidays to our meistro, Lonny Bones!

Come visit us on The 'Gram!

May the Scorched be with you this holiday season!

Happy Holidays!

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Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Huh? Footsteps. Lots of them. Oh, maybe. Yes, it's them. The little helpers. That means Santa's here. Good evening and ho, ho, ho, and welcome to the Malibols. This is regarding Spawn, the world's merriest Spawn podcast. I'm your co host, John Fisher. [00:00:59] Speaker B: And I'm your co host, David Williams. And Johnny, what's Christmas time without friends and family and all that? [00:01:09] Speaker A: You know, I don't know, David, because I've been very lucky in my life that I've never had, like, a, you know, lonely Christmas like Bobby or Bootsy or maybe even Al in this issue does. [00:01:19] Speaker B: Maybe even so. [00:01:20] Speaker A: I don't know. Yeah, well, I don't know what it. What is it? It's probably not fun. [00:01:24] Speaker B: I don't know. Hope. I hope to never know. I hope to never know. And at least this year, I don't have to know what it's like because we've got guests, Johnny. [00:01:34] Speaker A: Two guests. [00:01:35] Speaker B: Two guests. We're doing the. We're doing the Christmas time thing with all the people all together, all at once. [00:01:41] Speaker A: We've all got our Christmas sweaters on. They're Spawn themed. Oh, if only we were. A visual podcast. You guys would love it. [00:01:48] Speaker C: Do y'all ever get angry responses to your podcast that are like, what am I supposed to do? Look at your logo for an hour and a half? I'm like, who watches podcasts? [00:02:01] Speaker A: So weird to me, I haven't gotten that one. [00:02:04] Speaker B: We've. [00:02:05] Speaker A: We have got a lot of weird questions of like, is there video? Why don't you do video? There should be video, like, a couple times from people. And it's just like, I don't know. I'm in my closet. These are clothes next to me. [00:02:17] Speaker D: Take a walk outdoors. That's more interesting. [00:02:21] Speaker C: Listen, it's 2024. You don't have to stay in that closet. [00:02:25] Speaker A: You're right, I do, because I live at the loudest intersection of Chicago. I just dox myself, leap out the address. I live in a very loud intersection, Chicago. And, like, it's the. It's the best spot in my house because every. Every other room has windows to, like, a hellscape. [00:02:42] Speaker B: He's. He's not in the closet. Spawn. Spawn wise. Spawn speaking. He's out and proud. Spawn wise. [00:02:50] Speaker D: That's right. [00:02:50] Speaker B: Don't you worry about it. Don't you worry. [00:02:52] Speaker C: Then that's good. [00:02:53] Speaker D: If he's anything like the rest of us, his family knows, and they've asked him to stop talking about it. [00:03:03] Speaker A: Oh, my poor family. Yeah, it'll Be interesting this year when I go home. What? How much Spawn comes up. But the reason we're so high on Spawn right now, guys, because we have with us our friends. You know them, you love them. From Spawnography. Pearson, George are here. How. [00:03:21] Speaker D: What was that noise I just made? I wanted to say howdy, howdy, howdy. And ho, ho, ho. And my brain went, how, How. So you can leave that in or deleted or whatever. And that's just another how this psyche works. Keep it in. [00:03:37] Speaker B: Triple it. [00:03:38] Speaker D: Wow. [00:03:39] Speaker A: Oh, man. Yes. This is our second annual Christmas episode and we are regarding Spawn, where each week we bring you two issues from Spawns universe. Except when we don't. [00:03:48] Speaker B: Just like today. [00:03:49] Speaker A: This week is no different, except it is different. We are bringing you one issue because as you know, we have guests. We do one issue. And as you know, if you listen, last year. This is our second annual Christmas episode where each year. Dave, I'm gonna ballpark it. This is my guess. I bet we do. I'm gonna guess 23 years. This is my guess. [00:04:07] Speaker B: Okay. [00:04:08] Speaker A: Because you will make me do it. But I will. I don't know. 23. This is our second of 23 times we're gonna cover this issue because every year we cover Swan 39 until they release another Christmas issue or something. [00:04:20] Speaker B: Could you imagine that we have to do two issues for the Christmas episode every year. [00:04:23] Speaker A: No, you just retire this one and then hopefully they do another one. They gotta be coming with. So with the 15 books that are. [00:04:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Somebody's. Somebody's got to have a Christmas. [00:04:34] Speaker C: I'm surprised there's not just like a Krampus Spawn crossover. [00:04:37] Speaker B: I mean. [00:04:38] Speaker D: Oh, right. [00:04:39] Speaker A: Like, there you go. [00:04:39] Speaker C: That just seems right there. Right. [00:04:43] Speaker A: The amount of Spawn books coming out, you could probably email Thomas Healey and get signed for that Atomic Farland Productions tomorrow. [00:04:49] Speaker D: That's. Honestly, if they listen to our podcast. They've heard us ask Todd to call us about many such ideas. The phone's not ringing, so. [00:04:59] Speaker B: Oh, well, maybe. Maybe you got to get a hold of him on teams. [00:05:03] Speaker D: Oh, I was assuming he's listening and they're just all duds. [00:05:06] Speaker A: No, there's no. I mean, Spawn Krampus is brilliant. [00:05:09] Speaker D: Well, there you go. [00:05:10] Speaker A: It's perfect. We were talking a little bit before record with George and we were saying how easy it fits is why don't they do a Spawn Christmas special every year? Like they made an action figure of this cover. His colors are red and green. Everyone loves Christmas. Come on. [00:05:27] Speaker C: And they use this image, the COVID of this as like the every time they had to put something out around Christmas, like the Spawn movie, the Spawn TV show. Like they were just like, oh yeah, we've got one Greg Capullo Spawn as Santa Claus. We'll use that until the end of time. But they could update it. Doctor who does a Christmas special every year. [00:05:48] Speaker B: Yeah, that's true. [00:05:49] Speaker A: I mean there's many great Christmas specials and episodes. [00:05:52] Speaker B: I just had a great idea. So they could do a Violator style miniseries like current Violator miniseries that spans multiple years so an issue only comes out at Christmas time. It's like their Christmas special and they could point out that all of the significant figures that go into being Christmas time, you know, both here and the European central mines. Like all those key figures were spawns themselves. Like St. Nicholas. A friggin spawn. Who else would there be? I guess there's St. Nicholas and then. [00:06:27] Speaker D: Yeah, wow. [00:06:28] Speaker B: Maybe. Maybe a little baby Jesus was a spawn. [00:06:31] Speaker D: Oh, they have the Christmas witch in Italy. That has to be maybe Dominic. [00:06:37] Speaker C: Dominic Christmas Spunky. [00:06:43] Speaker D: Donkey Spawn on its own. That's something that we really could use at this point. [00:06:48] Speaker C: Well that's just Eeyore. [00:06:49] Speaker D: Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. I bet in the 90s there was probably a really big T shirt you could get that had your. With like Spawns makeup on it. You could probably buy it at a state fair or something like that. [00:07:01] Speaker A: Yeah, the state fair. The mall. One of those weird stores in the mall that had the. The big Johnson shirts and like space. [00:07:08] Speaker D: The big Johnson shirts. When I was a kid I was like, these shirts sure are funny. I don't get them at all. [00:07:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I was like, that guy gets into a lot of trouble with those ladies. [00:07:17] Speaker D: Yeah, exactly. He owns a lot of companies is what I was thinking. [00:07:24] Speaker C: What if they just did big dog T shirts but with Spawn. [00:07:28] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:07:29] Speaker B: Yes, please. I want that. I want that big Saint Bernard in Spawn. [00:07:35] Speaker D: Yes, that would be good. That'd be fun. [00:07:37] Speaker A: I'm so sad. I never. When I was a kid in like seventh grade, I wanted. I went to Branson with another family. [00:07:43] Speaker D: Like I. Wow, Branson. [00:07:45] Speaker A: Yeah. And there was a big dogs outlet mall there. [00:07:47] Speaker C: Oh yeah. [00:07:49] Speaker A: No, that can't be all my money. I had no money left for me. Like buy stuff. They had a Star wars episode. It was the summer of Episode one and they had a big Dogs Episode one shirt. And I was like, I wanted it so bad I couldn't get it. [00:08:00] Speaker D: That's so funny. [00:08:01] Speaker B: Big dogs. [00:08:02] Speaker D: I had a. I had a Star Wars Episode 1 bucket hat that Was my. Oh, wow, it's lost the time. [00:08:10] Speaker C: My. My old guitarist, Raj. George knows Raj, but my guitarist and one of my best friends, Raj, had a Pepsi pod racing, like, vinyl flag on his wall. Like, it was like an ad for Pepsi with just, like, Anakin pod racing in his apartment for a really long time. He's not single anymore, so he doesn't. [00:08:36] Speaker D: Get rid of that one. That changes. [00:08:40] Speaker A: That changes it. [00:08:41] Speaker D: Everything can stay. Except that the one. [00:08:45] Speaker C: It might have been the Ultimatum. I don't know officially. I hope he still has it somewhere. Actually, it might just. [00:08:49] Speaker D: You don't throw away a treasure like that. You pass it. [00:08:52] Speaker C: You can't. [00:08:53] Speaker D: That's an heirloom now. [00:08:55] Speaker C: Can't shout out to the George Lucas talk show. Come on. The Spawn on any of the two biggest sponge podcasts on the Internet. [00:09:03] Speaker B: Yes, please. [00:09:04] Speaker C: Yeah, we are, because those guys are really funny. [00:09:07] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:09:08] Speaker D: Wow. [00:09:09] Speaker A: The. That's our. That's our big dream. Just kind of adjacent to the George Lucas talk show. We were like, who's the most famous podcaster we get? And we're like. We were listening to Blank Check, and they kept talking about the Spawn movie with Ben Hosley. I was like, I bet we could get Ben Hosley on here. He loves Spawn a lot. [00:09:24] Speaker C: I've reached out. It's my favorite podcast. [00:09:26] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, we love Blank Check. Yeah. Oh, that's great. Well, hope you all get them. [00:09:30] Speaker C: That would be great. I met them, actually. [00:09:34] Speaker A: Oh, nice. [00:09:36] Speaker C: During COVID with our old. With George and I's old boss. [00:09:42] Speaker D: Wow. [00:09:42] Speaker C: Because he invited me to see Doctor Strange 2 for a press screening because his daughter didn't want to go. And. And I. So I went. And then I'm washing my hands in the bathroom, and I just see glasses and, like, a mask. And I look over and. And Griffin is. Is pretty short compared to me. I'm six three. So I look over, I'm like, huh? And then I, like, look over again, and I'm like, wait, that guy looks really familiar. And. And then I was like, oh, that. That was Griffin Newman. And then when I walked out, I saw David SIMS is like, 6 5. [00:10:20] Speaker A: Oh, nice. [00:10:21] Speaker C: So, like, I walked out, and I was like, oh, that's that. That they're wearing masks, but it can only be them. And I was just like, I'm so, so sorry. I love your show so much. It's the best. And they were super nice. And then I left, and then I tweeted at them, and they were like, that was one of the least awkward experiences I've Ever had. So thanks for that anyway. [00:10:42] Speaker A: That's awesome. That's a great story. [00:10:43] Speaker B: That's great. [00:10:45] Speaker A: And then you got to see a pretty pretty. In my opinion, you know what? Okay. Sam Raimi movie. A pretty good Sam Raimi movie. [00:10:51] Speaker D: Yeah, pretty good Sam Raimi movie. [00:10:53] Speaker C: Perfectly cromulent. [00:10:57] Speaker A: I just like. There were a couple of flourishes. I was like, thank you, Sam. Like as a big, you know, Evil Dead kid growing up. [00:11:02] Speaker C: Zombie cape. [00:11:04] Speaker A: Yep, the zombie cape. [00:11:05] Speaker C: Zombie spirit cape. Yeah, sure. [00:11:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:09] Speaker C: Do that all the time. [00:11:11] Speaker A: But we're talking about a man with a different cape. [00:11:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:14] Speaker A: Today it is a spirit cape though. It kind of is. It's a living cape. [00:11:18] Speaker C: It's true. [00:11:19] Speaker A: Yeah, kind of is. [00:11:20] Speaker D: Sam Raimi direct King Spawn. [00:11:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Sam Raimi direct King Spawn. [00:11:25] Speaker B: I'd say his cape is less undead and more living its own life. [00:11:31] Speaker A: Living its best life. [00:11:33] Speaker B: Absolutely. Well, not right now. Not in curtain continuity. But here definitely. [00:11:38] Speaker A: Yes. K7 Leaf has been on the down low because in modern Spawn everyone has lost their powers. So now no one has power. So everyone's just. Everything's just like a street level beat em up now. Which is good in some ways. But it's kind of blurring. It's kind of blurring together. [00:11:56] Speaker C: Well, like the vampires kind of still have powers, right? [00:11:59] Speaker A: Yes, the vampires do. [00:12:01] Speaker B: The hybrids. [00:12:01] Speaker D: The hybrids got to the fucking vampires. I just hate them so much. [00:12:11] Speaker C: In recording continuity, we just got to the first time dead zones come up. [00:12:16] Speaker B: Okay. [00:12:16] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:12:17] Speaker C: Okay, so that's where. That's where about. [00:12:19] Speaker B: We are like in 72. Is that. Is that one? [00:12:21] Speaker C: Yeah, right around. Right around there. Wow. Incredible memory. Because. Because soon that. That knowledge will be erased from my mind. What exact episode or what exact issue it is. But yeah, we just found that out. We found out like Bootsy's an angel. Like things are moving and we're going to meet the heap soon. Yeah. Who I love. I love. I love what we have coming up. I told George. George hasn't read ahead yet, I don't think. No, I. I read ahead and I. I get spoiled. But yeah, the current continuity is crazy because it is, it is. I mean, I guess 300 was another soft reboot, right? So yeah, we've now we're just rebuilding Spawn and Spawn lore again, so. And also red haired, not Angela. And Spawn's daughter is also. She's got powers, right? [00:13:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:13] Speaker A: Yes. And then yeah, another one they're digging, popping up. It's like Jedi after they were all killed. There's all. There's tons of them. [00:13:19] Speaker D: They're all dead for the hell. [00:13:21] Speaker C: Except this one. [00:13:22] Speaker A: Except this one. Yeah. [00:13:24] Speaker B: So. Well, warnings, George, since. Yeah, you're just getting there. Boots, he's gonna break your heart. Okay, fair warning. Okay, fair warning. [00:13:34] Speaker D: I'm waiting for it. [00:13:36] Speaker B: Gurt yourself. [00:13:37] Speaker D: I will. I will. I'm. I'm waiting for it. I'm ready for Bootsy to. To pay off this angel turn. So we'll see. [00:13:47] Speaker A: Well, we. I don't even know if. Did I say what issue we're even covering yet? I was trying to. [00:13:51] Speaker B: I think you have. [00:13:52] Speaker A: All right. We're doing Spawn. We were doing spawn 39. The title, Noel. The Christmas issue. And that's what we're here to talk about today. [00:14:06] Speaker B: Yeah. We gotta start where we always start when we talk about comic books, Johnny. [00:14:11] Speaker A: With the COVID With the COVID How is everyone reading this? Because this is my first year. I'm giddy because last year I was reading the Compendium, but I got this at C2E2. This year for $6, I got a copy. So I'm reading the actual copy. [00:14:26] Speaker B: Tell them what else is exciting about that copy, Johnny. [00:14:29] Speaker A: I forgot. [00:14:30] Speaker C: I. [00:14:30] Speaker A: Even. So what's exciting is we bought it. And then we were walking around and we ran into. We, of course, because we didn't do any research or anything. It was there. We bumped into Tom Wikkowski's booth. Oh, Tom Wowski is here. And so we got him to sign it. So if you honestly. [00:14:50] Speaker D: Coolest person you could have had sign it. That's pretty dope. [00:14:53] Speaker A: Hey, I'll let you know we're close friends. Because when I saw him at Spawn Con, he asked me. I said, like, I really like your work. He had done a talk, and he was, like, standing there. I went up to him. I was like, I really like your work. Like, that was a great talk. And he, like, nodded and asked me where the bathroom was. [00:15:07] Speaker D: Perfect. Wow. [00:15:09] Speaker A: So we're good friends. [00:15:10] Speaker D: Yeah. You guys are buds now? I met that fraction in the bathroom at. At Heroes Con one year. When I say I met him, I was washing my hands and I turned and looked, and he was washing his hands, and we made eye contact. And I could see the look on his face where he was like, is this person gonna fucking try to talk to me in. And I was like, this is so weird. I'm so sorry. And I, like, walked outside, and then I ran into him later and shook his hand. And it was probably way more awkward than that in real life, but it was. It was truly, like, a terrifying moment to look over I had just been reading Sex Criminals. It was like, surreal. Anyway, that's a lot like when I. [00:15:54] Speaker C: Took a piss next to Kyle Mooney at the SNL gala at the Museum of Natural History there. And I definitely looked over and I was like, huh, okay, that's Kyle Mooney. Because the sports video is an alz timer. And then. And very important to my life. And I did not. I did not see him after that. But one of my. One of my friends did run into Colin Jost and Scarlett Johansson that night. [00:16:20] Speaker D: And I was like, Mr. And Mrs. Johansson, amazing. [00:16:24] Speaker C: It's pretty up that you didn't text me, but. [00:16:28] Speaker D: Wow. [00:16:29] Speaker C: Well, big Colin Jost fan. That hers Johansson. [00:16:33] Speaker D: Big Colin Jost fan. You're the only person who's ever said that. Not even Scarlett Johansson has said that. Yeah, I'm a joker. [00:16:47] Speaker C: We call ourselves Josers. But it's fine. [00:16:53] Speaker A: We have a name for it. [00:16:55] Speaker D: Oh, boy. [00:16:56] Speaker B: I am unfortunately reading digitally. I got the digital version of that. Origins Volume 7 is what it is for that. [00:17:07] Speaker A: For that humble bundle. [00:17:08] Speaker B: Bundle. [00:17:08] Speaker C: Yeah, I got. [00:17:09] Speaker D: Oh, nice. [00:17:11] Speaker A: You got everything. Like 10 bucks, right? [00:17:13] Speaker B: Yeah, well, yeah, I think it's like. I think it was 20 to get everything. [00:17:19] Speaker D: Not a bad deal at all. [00:17:22] Speaker C: I have this issue, but I didn't feel like digging it out. Yeah. And so I'm just reading the Comixology digital version because I had that before I had the hard copy. So there you go. [00:17:33] Speaker A: It's nostalgic. And sometimes in Christmas it's nice to go back to things, you know. [00:17:37] Speaker C: That's true. [00:17:39] Speaker D: And I'm still on the anthology, so. [00:17:41] Speaker B: Nice. [00:17:42] Speaker D: Yep. [00:17:43] Speaker B: I like that we're all reading it a different way. [00:17:45] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:17:45] Speaker A: Yeah, that's actually. That's good with your differences. You come together on Christmas and that's what we come together. [00:17:53] Speaker C: It's the meaning of this cover. [00:17:55] Speaker A: It's the beauty of Christmas. And we've got a Capullo McFarlane cover. It's pretty iconic. Like we said, they made a fucking action figure of it. Yeah, they should. They milk it for all it's worth. It's on every company Christmas card. And they posted about in the Next, let's see, two weeks, they're going to post it about 30 times on Instagram. And it's like, why not just do another one? It's so simple. Come on. [00:18:20] Speaker B: I don't know. It feels like. It feels like 1995 had a love affair with. With Christmas that we haven't quite rekindled yet. Because that was also like. [00:18:29] Speaker D: Well, there's been a War on. [00:18:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:32] Speaker B: Like. Like, how many different Christmas songs did Weird Al make in the mid-90s? [00:18:38] Speaker D: Was.95. That was. That was a little bit before Jingle all the Way, which I think was like. Yeah. So we're building to it. We're building to it. [00:18:49] Speaker A: Home Alone really got us all pumped up about. [00:18:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I was about to say it was probably the Home Alone effect, and then. [00:18:55] Speaker D: That's what I'm saying. Home Alone at the one end of the 90s. And then jingle all the Way killed it at the end. [00:19:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:01] Speaker D: That's an insane. Have you seen that movie recently? [00:19:04] Speaker C: Jingled all the Way. Killed Christmas. Is that what you're saying? [00:19:06] Speaker D: No, I'm saying killed the 90s Christmas movie. That's what I'm saying. [00:19:10] Speaker A: I haven't seen it. I mean, I think I. I haven't. [00:19:12] Speaker B: Seen it in, like, 10 years. [00:19:13] Speaker A: A long time. [00:19:14] Speaker D: Sinbad blows up a bunch of cops with a mailbomb just for. [00:19:18] Speaker B: Just for an action figure. [00:19:20] Speaker C: Yes, truly, that also makes it the best Christmas movie. I'm not sure what you're saying, George. [00:19:27] Speaker D: Oh, wow. Well, I'm not gonna. We gotta talk about Spawn now. [00:19:31] Speaker C: FBI. You didn't hear that? [00:19:35] Speaker A: I just wanted a Turboman when I was a kid. Wow. I didn't even see the movie, but they made a Turbo Man. I just thought it was cool. [00:19:43] Speaker D: I had a Buzz Lightyear. [00:19:44] Speaker A: Well, I had a Buzz Lightyear eventually. Yeah, that was a cool toy. [00:19:48] Speaker C: What's everybody's favorite Christmas movie? [00:19:51] Speaker A: Favorite Christmas movie? [00:19:53] Speaker D: Spawn. [00:19:56] Speaker A: I would say. I mean, like, specifically, like, Christmas movie. Probably Muppet Christmas Carol. Nice is probably what I would say. [00:20:06] Speaker C: It's a. It's a wonderful life for me. [00:20:08] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. I'm gonna say It's a Wonderful life. [00:20:12] Speaker B: Oh, man. Well, I mean, it is a wonderful life, isn't it? This life that we're living. I don't. I don't know. I don't really do favorites. [00:20:21] Speaker D: Yeah, that's. That's fair. [00:20:22] Speaker B: Is the. Is the problem. But, I mean, there's like a three or four of them that I have to watch every year. [00:20:28] Speaker D: Yeah. What's your traditional. [00:20:30] Speaker A: What's your. [00:20:30] Speaker B: Yeah, so it would be, obviously, Home Alone. [00:20:33] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:20:33] Speaker B: Christmas Vacation and Edward Scissorhands. [00:20:36] Speaker D: You hit one of three of my favorites right there. I mean, I watch Christmas Vacation every Christmas Eve and Home Alone and. Yeah, I said. I said It's a Wonderful Life confidently to rip off Pierce, which I do love. But my other favorite. My other favorite is also Gremlins, I think I love. [00:20:55] Speaker C: Oh, I just watched Frankie Frico. [00:20:59] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, you should have a trailer for that. [00:21:02] Speaker C: It is a perfect film. Okay, but it's G rated, has nothing to do with Christmas. Okay, but it's by the same guy that did Psycho. Gorman. [00:21:09] Speaker A: Okay, okay. [00:21:10] Speaker C: And, God, I God damn, I wish this man would make a spawn movie because it would be the fucking best. [00:21:16] Speaker A: Is it. Is this his new movie or is. [00:21:17] Speaker C: This like, this came out this year. It came out in, like, October. It's on Amazon for like $6. [00:21:23] Speaker A: Okay. Psycho was great. [00:21:25] Speaker C: Fucking get into it. It's 82 minutes long. [00:21:27] Speaker D: Oh, perfect. It rules. [00:21:29] Speaker C: The main. The main little freakos are named Frankie Frico, Dottie Dunko, and Boink Lippo or some shit like that. And they're the best. Boink's my favorite. [00:21:44] Speaker D: Good to know. [00:21:46] Speaker C: Anyway, you didn't ask, but I needed you to know. [00:21:49] Speaker B: That's great. No, no, we. [00:21:51] Speaker A: That's the. We were just talking about before. Before y'all were here when Dave and I were chit chatting, setting up. We were talking about how we love all the. Of course, like, a lot of the Shane blacks. Like Iron Man 3. Great Christmas movie. [00:22:05] Speaker D: By my opinion. [00:22:06] Speaker A: The best MCU. [00:22:07] Speaker C: Don't get George started. Don't get George started on Iron Man 3. [00:22:10] Speaker A: Hate it or love it? Oh, no. [00:22:14] Speaker D: I find it unwatchable. But you know what more for you? [00:22:18] Speaker A: I'm sorry. [00:22:21] Speaker D: That'S the magic of Christmas. We can overcome this. [00:22:24] Speaker A: That is. But I, you know, I mean, you know, Batman Returns, of course, is fun. [00:22:30] Speaker D: Yes, Batman Returns. Great movie. [00:22:33] Speaker C: Not a movie to go see with your parents. My birthday is two days before Christmas, doxing myself again, and I saw that movie with my parents at a movie, like, it was. There was like a. Some screening of it, like, nearby, and I was like, oh, no, this movie's too horny to watch. [00:22:53] Speaker D: The last movie I saw with my mom was Deadpool and Wolverine. And there were definitely some points where, like, I was sitting there, realizing I was next to my mom and I'm 41 years old, and I was still just like, whoa. He just said, what? Like, then, of course afterwards, my mom was just like that. Hugh Jackman, my goodness. Yeah. [00:23:16] Speaker B: Well, I mean, speaking of. Speaking of horny movies, you can imagine that somebody who watch that, watches lots of vampire movies with his mother spends a lot of time being like, don't. [00:23:27] Speaker D: Yeah, exactly. [00:23:28] Speaker B: She can tell if you're looking at the tits. David, don't look at the tits. [00:23:33] Speaker A: David famously watches vampire. Vampire movies with mom. [00:23:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:40] Speaker C: Is that your other podcast? [00:23:42] Speaker D: Yes. [00:23:42] Speaker B: We should start a podcast. [00:23:43] Speaker C: Should Be. [00:23:44] Speaker A: Oh, man. [00:23:45] Speaker B: I don't know if I could do the long distance tech for that, though. [00:23:50] Speaker D: Your mom calling you on the phone. [00:23:53] Speaker B: I would literally just have to record it, like on a speaker. [00:23:57] Speaker D: That's amazing. Well, moms are special. And this Christmas issue is really, really all about that, isn't it? [00:24:04] Speaker C: Yes, it is, George. It really is on track. [00:24:07] Speaker A: Yeah. Thank you. So, Yeah, I think. I don't know. What else do you say about the COVID It's great. [00:24:11] Speaker B: It's great. [00:24:11] Speaker A: Santa Spawn, what are you gonna do? [00:24:13] Speaker B: I like that. [00:24:13] Speaker C: There's one hand in that. In that sack. [00:24:16] Speaker A: Yeah. One hand and who knows what else. [00:24:20] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:24:22] Speaker A: We pop it open. And so we have. Image Comics presents Noel story by Todd McFarlane, pencils by Greg Capullo, inks by Todd McFarlane, letters by Tom Wojcikowski, color by Steve Olaf, Quinn supply and Ollie Optics. A special thanks to Kevin Conrad, Julia Simmons, and Jeremy Johnson. And it's dedicated to Phyllis Capullo, which is, as we all know, because we haven't said before, but this is both of our second times covering. [00:24:51] Speaker C: Yeah, that's true. [00:24:53] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:24:53] Speaker A: Covered it. [00:24:54] Speaker C: We covered it in, like, September. [00:24:57] Speaker D: Yeah, it was August. It was the Spawn. [00:25:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:02] Speaker D: Christmas spectacular. [00:25:03] Speaker A: It was your birthday, though, George. Right. It was just. [00:25:06] Speaker D: Yeah, that was the holiday end of August. That's exactly right. [00:25:09] Speaker A: And I just. I listened to it. It was great. It was great. [00:25:11] Speaker D: Thank you so much for listening. You know, I'd love to meet a listener. [00:25:17] Speaker A: It's always a thrill. [00:25:20] Speaker D: But. [00:25:21] Speaker A: Yeah. So as we know, it's Greg Capullo's mother. [00:25:24] Speaker B: Yes. [00:25:25] Speaker A: Phyllis Capullo. And we stan a single mom because I was raised by a single mom. [00:25:33] Speaker D: Same, same. [00:25:35] Speaker A: We love Phyllis in this issue, and we love Phyllis Capullo, I guess. [00:25:39] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:25:40] Speaker C: Well, listen, listen. Unless you're. Unless your parents are lesbians, you only have a single bomb, so. [00:25:47] Speaker A: Wow. [00:25:48] Speaker D: Good point, Pierce. You know, Pierce is good at pointing out good points. [00:25:53] Speaker A: That is a good point. Yeah. [00:25:55] Speaker D: Yeah. No, I was also. I grew up with a single mom as well for most of my childhood. And like you said, Phyllis in this issue brings back very warm memories of. Of what it was like in my house at the best of times. So. I love this issue, honestly. [00:26:13] Speaker A: Yeah, it was really fun revisiting it, actually. I, like, gotten the. It got me in the Christmas spirit. I hadn't really felt it so far this year. I read it today, and I was like, yeah, oh, yeah, Christmas is coming. I don't know. [00:26:24] Speaker D: Yeah. By the end, I. I was a little misty by the. By the End of rereading it. I won't. I won't lie. I have some. It just reminds me of some very specific times in my life, and we get into that. I might have talked about it in our episode, but you know what I didn't do is re listen to it going in fresh. [00:26:44] Speaker B: You start at zero every day. Like the Todd father. [00:26:46] Speaker D: That's exactly right. Todd the God waking up. [00:26:49] Speaker C: I forget everything that's ever happened to me every day that I wake up. [00:26:52] Speaker D: So that's why. You know what? I think that probably cog is representative of the old man that Todd has employed for years to come into his house every morning and be like, you don't understand. Try and explain his whole life to him. [00:27:12] Speaker C: I really like this issue, too. It's really, really sweet. It's a little schmaltzy, but in the way that Christmas stuff always is. Georgia, I don't know that you've ever tried to write a Christmas song. I definitely have. [00:27:25] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:27:26] Speaker C: It was called Hang High the Stockings Children. [00:27:30] Speaker D: Wow. [00:27:30] Speaker A: Good title. [00:27:32] Speaker B: Great. [00:27:32] Speaker C: Thanks. [00:27:32] Speaker B: Great. [00:27:33] Speaker C: But it's not good. I mean, I haven't listened to it in a decade, but I don't think. [00:27:38] Speaker D: It'S not easy to write it like, a really convincing Christmas song. Honestly, it's just really not easy to write a convincing song. [00:27:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:45] Speaker D: So. [00:27:45] Speaker C: Yeah, well, that's true. And similarly, though, it's not easy to write, like, a convincing Christmas story. I think that the reason that a lot of, like, Christmas movies at this point are Hallmark movies, right? My mom loves those. Shout out to my mom, who loves Hallmark movies. [00:28:00] Speaker B: Shout out to Pierce only. [00:28:02] Speaker C: The only things she watches now, if it's not on Hallmark, she doesn't watch it. Like, it's hard to try to reinvent a classic. Right? So is Home Alone really, like, the last good Christmas movie we got? [00:28:20] Speaker B: I mean, I know a lot of people who would stab you with one of their 14 copies of ELF for. [00:28:28] Speaker A: Oh, it doesn't have the warmth, but, like, I don't know, Home Alone has that, like, fireplace. Feels like it's the last one. That felt like. [00:28:37] Speaker D: Well, maybe it's because we were all, like, 8 or 6 years old when it came out. Yeah. [00:28:43] Speaker C: We had our whole lives ahead of us. One of us is in the closet. [00:28:49] Speaker D: Exactly. Right. [00:28:50] Speaker C: We all have a spawn podcast, so, like, hey, cheers. [00:28:55] Speaker A: I'm drinking a mar. I got a margarita in here, so I. Cheers to the Coors. David's drinking water. [00:29:00] Speaker B: I'm drinking water. [00:29:01] Speaker D: Hey, H2O, baby. [00:29:03] Speaker C: All right, well, hey, this is. [00:29:05] Speaker A: This is a Good balance. [00:29:06] Speaker B: It has the balance of the podcast. We did previously say that Johnny is the Pierce one and I am the George one, so. [00:29:15] Speaker D: Well, I mean, that. That kind of tracks. [00:29:17] Speaker A: Yeah, that tracks. [00:29:19] Speaker B: Just fuel for the fire. [00:29:20] Speaker D: That's right. [00:29:21] Speaker A: So there is a prelude that we have to read. So we always read the previously on. For some reason, this is so weird that it has this weird prelude that just goes. And I know that some of you don't have it, but it's just this prelude that says. For the first time in his existence, Spawn feels he has no purpose. He is spinning aimlessly, not knowing where to stop. The once clear target has disappeared. The mysterious hobo Pagliostro made Spawn see that Jason Wynn was just a small pawn in a very large game. Until the true enemy is revealed, unknown, random victims will fill the emptiness. [00:29:55] Speaker C: Which has a lot to do with this episode. [00:29:57] Speaker A: I mean, kind of. Yeah, they are unknown, random victims. That's true. That's it. Yeah. It's so funny that. And they don't usually have that. [00:30:07] Speaker C: Our joke is always that the previously on Spawn is just probably the one paragraph that Todd gives to Greg Capullo to be like, yeah, I don't know. Issue 38. Here you go. [00:30:20] Speaker B: This. Yeah, we used to feel that. That you could reliably guess that about half of what was in the previous Leon actually happened. But it's kind of. They're usually pretty okay. The vaguer they are, the more actually correct they are, though. [00:30:38] Speaker D: That's true. That's very true. [00:30:40] Speaker A: There was a recent modern one that ruined its own issue because the previous issue ended with, like, Spawn and Lyra talking. And then the previous nail was like, Spawn and Liar have been captured. And then it opens with them talking to this guy, and then they get captured. But, like, it just. It was supposed to be in media res with the previously on Completely ruined. [00:31:00] Speaker D: Yeah, that's very strange. [00:31:03] Speaker A: Very strange. [00:31:05] Speaker C: Listen, that's what happens when you own your own comics empire, right? [00:31:10] Speaker D: Sometimes you can't be dealing with intros and messing with recaps when you're designing, you know, hit toys, baby. [00:31:19] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that's true. [00:31:21] Speaker A: So that is. And then we dive into the issue and it opens with, basically, I imagine a Canadian's view of New York city in the 90s where he's like, it's nice. But the faint sounds of Christmas music, sirens, and the odd gun, it's just like. [00:31:38] Speaker C: Yeah, I like to think it was like a weird gun in the distance. You just hear, like. [00:31:48] Speaker B: That electronic blaster gun that had. Yeah, Noises that it was. [00:31:52] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. [00:31:54] Speaker A: This one was the best. [00:31:59] Speaker D: Oh, wow. We got Michael Winslow on the show tonight. [00:32:04] Speaker B: Wow. [00:32:05] Speaker C: We do get. We do get probably the worst rendering of a child that maybe any comic book artist has ever rendered. Because, like, usually kids look like they have adult heads on, like, tiny bodies. I don't know what's going on with this kid. [00:32:25] Speaker D: Every drawing of Little Greg looks like a Halloween mask of a child. Terrifying in a way, which is extra weird because Greg Capullo drew this. And that's Greg Capullo. Like, that's the premise of this issue is that's Greg, that's his older sister, that's his mom, and this is the kind of Christmas miracle that Spawn brings into their life. And just. Boy, I would have taken a little more care to render myself as less of a dead eyed mannequin, but, you. [00:32:57] Speaker C: Know, do you think that Greg Pulla. [00:32:59] Speaker A: Doesn'T have any mirrors or something? [00:33:01] Speaker D: Oh, Greg, I forgot. Pierce made a good point. Greg a Pullo been a vampire since he was a kid. [00:33:08] Speaker C: That's why he looks so good now. [00:33:09] Speaker D: That's exactly right. Invisible to photography. Famously. [00:33:13] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:33:13] Speaker A: So I will say, I do love both Nadine and the mom's hair. [00:33:18] Speaker D: Yes. [00:33:19] Speaker C: Yeah, that's cool. [00:33:20] Speaker D: Nadine has like all time 90s older sibling hair. Like, if you saw an older sibling like that in the 90s, you knew they were about to kick out on a skateboard. Yeah. And there was gonna have to be some heartwarming reunion moment after they, like, left their kid brother alone to go to the big party with the guy who looks like Rob Liefeld. [00:33:41] Speaker A: Right. [00:33:43] Speaker C: And, like, learned a lesson. [00:33:44] Speaker D: That's right. [00:33:45] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:33:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Just we. I think. I'm pretty sure we talked about it last year, David. But like the Rob Liefeld commercial. [00:33:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:51] Speaker A: Directed by Spike Lee, where he's in. [00:33:53] Speaker C: The jeans, which is such a crazy question. Or such a crazy premise. [00:33:59] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:34:00] Speaker A: He's like, I'll make up a character for you. [00:34:02] Speaker C: Spike got a. He's got a camera on his head. [00:34:07] Speaker D: Like, it's like a. Like you'd expect from Spike, man. [00:34:11] Speaker A: You know? [00:34:12] Speaker D: Oh, God. [00:34:13] Speaker A: Oh, man. [00:34:14] Speaker D: That's so. That's the level of creative fervor that Rob Liefeld brings to every project. It's the enthusiasm. [00:34:21] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:34:23] Speaker A: You know it is. [00:34:24] Speaker D: We'll frame it that way. [00:34:25] Speaker A: How much did he like? [00:34:27] Speaker D: He was taking a lot of enthusiasm. [00:34:29] Speaker A: They have the Liefeld shoe store in Delphi. Deadpool, Wolverine. He was probably happy as a clam. [00:34:35] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:34:37] Speaker C: As long as that. It's only because they didn't reference Fabian at all. Yeah, Louise Simonson. [00:34:43] Speaker D: Yeah, exactly. [00:34:44] Speaker C: If they had done that, he wouldn't have signed off on it. [00:34:48] Speaker D: I did an interview with Rob Liefeld once over the phone, and I'm just. We published the interview years ago. It's been scrubbed from the Internet. Not because of the. Not because of the contents, but just because of cms, you know, tech changes, garbage. Anyway, I did this interview and I got to question two. And the question was, something about the look of Deadpool has evolved over the years. And he stopped me there and was like, deadpool. Same character I created 30 years ago. He's Spider man with swords and guns. And that's it. And he went on a rant for, like 30 minutes. He counted all the spot. Or that would be funny. He counted all the Deadpool toys in his house. He just wouldn't let me talk because he. He was so upset that I implied that someone else had something to do with anything to do with Deadpool. But I'm sure he's nothing like that when he was working. [00:35:45] Speaker C: Similarly, I interviewed him right after the first Deadpool movie came out, and I could not actually complete that assignment. I interviewed him and I didn't turn it in. And my editor was like, what the fuck? Where's your thing? And I was like, chris, I'll give you what I have. I have nothing. Because I didn't get a word in edgewise. I asked one question to, like, open up like a softball. Like, oh, must be cool to see Deadpool on screen. And I was only given 10 minutes. And like, he ranted at me for 10, 15 minutes. I couldn't ask another question. And that was it. And I. I have nothing. I have nothing for you. [00:36:32] Speaker D: You guys are getting a real window into the ups and downs of comic book journalism here. [00:36:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:38] Speaker C: Honestly, easily my worst interview that I've ever done. And I've done some bad ones, but. [00:36:44] Speaker D: I'm sure he's nothing like that when he was working with Spike Lee. [00:36:47] Speaker C: No, he's probably. He's probably great. He's probably great. [00:36:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Nadine, the one who wants to sneak out, which we find out later, is pouting. And mom is basically like, sorry, I can't afford a babysitter. I gotta work on Christmas Eve. [00:37:05] Speaker C: She's gotta clean toilets. It's really sad. [00:37:08] Speaker A: She's gotta clean up. Weird, though. Yeah, it's really sad. [00:37:10] Speaker B: A weird marble toilet. Yeah. [00:37:12] Speaker C: Looks like it's the things toilet. [00:37:14] Speaker D: I have to say, this is just one of those things that rings so weirdly true. For me, because when I was growing up, my mom, who raised me and my. My younger sibling for. For most of our childhood alone, her job for a long time was cleaning rich people's houses. So this is like a window into my life watching my mom scrub a frickin, like, marble toilet. There's just little touches of authenticity throughout this that, like, yeah, that's exaggerated, but also that someone's real life. And Greg Capullo, and I think Greg in particular, and also Todd, really drive a very heartwarming and very really human story here, which is kind of funny because it winds up being the kind of classic Christmas parable, encounter with Santa kind of thing. [00:38:02] Speaker A: Yeah, I. It's just, it is, It's. It's heartwarming and I found it that way, especially this time. Just like, I don't know, I love the detail of, like, the snow, how deep it is, and like how covered in snow she is when she gets there. [00:38:21] Speaker D: Yeah. And the art is great. I mean, Greg really takes care with the rendering here and the inking is working really well as well. [00:38:31] Speaker A: Then we get Nadine talking about Liefeld. I guess it's a guy named Brad who looks like Rob Liefeld. [00:38:38] Speaker D: Yeah, she says, so cool. Like that guy I just love in the Lee jeans ad. And this was in the era where. Era when Todd was taking any shot he could at Rob Liefeld. There were like whole issues dedicated to just clowning on, like one weird thing. [00:38:55] Speaker C: So we got off a little bit lovingly, I think. [00:38:58] Speaker D: I think. Yeah. [00:38:59] Speaker C: A little bit lovingly still at this point. [00:39:01] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:39:02] Speaker C: Like, I know that later on it's not quite as nice, but I think at this point it's still like, well, we're both co founders of the same company and. Yeah, yeah, you know, we'll see what the new Youngblood looks like. [00:39:13] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:39:13] Speaker C: In 2025. [00:39:15] Speaker A: Is that coming a new young blood? [00:39:18] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, sorta. We'll see if it's not tax evasion. [00:39:26] Speaker D: What would you ever mean? [00:39:28] Speaker C: Famously, Rob Liefeld does not own the rights to Youngblood anymore. [00:39:32] Speaker B: Okay. [00:39:33] Speaker C: So he will not make new Youngblood comics unless some money is getting thrown his way to do it and he sort of gets control of it again. And so, George, you have a little more info? [00:39:46] Speaker D: Yeah. The guy who owns Youngblood is also the guy who. Who co founded Malibu Comics, and he is the reason why Marvel will never bring back the Ultra Verse while he's alive, because he does. He has a deal where he gets, like, right of creative control and, like, he gets, more importantly, a bunch of money to the point where, like, it would be totally unprofitable. He's just a weird guy who owns a bunch of comic stuff, and Rob Liefeld made a deal with him, I guess, to draw the. The Youngblood comic or something and bring it back. So there you go. There's your big news. [00:40:23] Speaker C: It does feel like it's to prime them for, like, a movie. Like, to be like, oh, like, look, you can make a movie of this, right? It's just Suicide Squad, sort of. [00:40:33] Speaker A: But. [00:40:35] Speaker C: Anyway, we like Bad Rock. He's the only good Young Blood. [00:40:40] Speaker B: Bad. Bad Rock is fun as hell. Fun as hell. He's just playing his. Playing his app games. [00:40:47] Speaker D: There was that. There was that Spawn issue where they had him as still when he was still Bedrock. [00:40:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:52] Speaker D: And he was doing Yabba dabba do, and they had the whole, like, Todd had the little editor boxes, like, talking. Every time he would show up, saying, like, bedrock, copyright Hanna Barbera Entertainment or whatever the hell. [00:41:07] Speaker A: Right? [00:41:07] Speaker D: Because. Oh, wow, that's a whole. That's a whole other podcast. [00:41:12] Speaker C: I think he'll do that when Angela shows up again. He'll be like, copyright Neil Gaiman, probably. [00:41:18] Speaker B: There's a. There's a Bedrock versus Violator miniseries, and. [00:41:24] Speaker A: I haven't read it. [00:41:25] Speaker B: I haven't read it yet either, but I got it in boxes over here. [00:41:27] Speaker D: Oh, nice. [00:41:28] Speaker B: I'm excited. [00:41:29] Speaker C: You know what? We'll figure out where that fits into continuity. Maybe we'll cover it with you guys. [00:41:34] Speaker B: Because I think that's. I think that's also an Alan Moore. [00:41:37] Speaker D: Is it? [00:41:38] Speaker A: Okay. [00:41:39] Speaker D: Wow. [00:41:39] Speaker C: It isn't, is it? [00:41:41] Speaker D: Wow. Alan Moore. All right. Comics Alan Moore. [00:41:46] Speaker C: Sometimes that. Yeah, I have a whole Alan Moore thing, but just, like, only because people hold him in such high regard. And I'm like, this is a man that also made comics for money. [00:42:00] Speaker D: Yeah, still does. [00:42:03] Speaker B: Have you read those? [00:42:05] Speaker C: Yeah, they're weird and not good sometimes. [00:42:09] Speaker B: Sometimes. [00:42:10] Speaker D: No, they're great. [00:42:11] Speaker B: But they're always welcome together. [00:42:13] Speaker D: Yeah. There's always something to say about them. [00:42:17] Speaker A: That's true. [00:42:17] Speaker B: But now he's. Now he's 100% prose only, so. Yeah, this Pros is pretty good, too. I enjoy it. [00:42:23] Speaker D: Yeah, it's not bad. [00:42:24] Speaker C: Not so bad. [00:42:25] Speaker D: They're making a movie of his next new book, and he's really excited about it. He's like, I want them to make this movie. Do you guys think, okay, Greggy gets left alone because Nadine's like, no way. I'm missing Brad. [00:42:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:39] Speaker D: Do you guys? And she leaves him watching Rudolph on the vcr. Do you guys think that Greg Capullo actually loves Rudolph that much? Like, do you think that's his actual favorite? [00:42:51] Speaker C: You know, I actually think that it just is perfectly timed for how old they are. That, like, that would be the pull. Because the Rankin Bass Rudolph came out in the early 60s, right? Early to mid-60s, yeah. And that was the thing I grew up watching, too. [00:43:08] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:43:09] Speaker C: So I think it just tracks as the thing that you watch that enough people would have watched that they would clock it, even though it's rendered a little weirdly here. [00:43:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:22] Speaker C: Not my favorite, though. My favorite is the Day Without a Santa Claus. [00:43:26] Speaker A: Not a good one. [00:43:27] Speaker B: Yeah, we just talked. We just talked about that. My first experience with the Day Without a Santa Claus was the Schumacher, Batman and Robin. [00:43:34] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. Heat Miser, Cold Miser. Yeah, Yeah. [00:43:37] Speaker A: I mean, those songs rip. [00:43:39] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. They're great. They're great. [00:43:40] Speaker B: There's a reason. There's a reason that Mr. Freeze was trying to teach his goons to sing it. [00:43:44] Speaker D: My favorite is the Life and Times of Santa Claus. And if you've never seen it, it's rarer. But it's a. Basically like a fantasy adventure movie about this young kid setting out and he becomes Santa Claus and he, like, fights the winter warlock with a battle axe. It's very like Grant Morrison claws type shit. But it's like Rankin Bass claymation. It's bizarre. [00:44:06] Speaker A: I'm pretty sure I've seen that one because it's like. It shows Santa's like a kind of a dashing. [00:44:10] Speaker D: Yeah, he's like a younger guy with, like, red hair and he's like. [00:44:13] Speaker A: Yep, yep, I've seen that. Yeah. [00:44:15] Speaker D: Based on a book by L. Frank Baum, who wrote the wizard of Oz. [00:44:19] Speaker B: Nice. [00:44:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:20] Speaker C: L. Frank Baum, the. The inspiration for the name Elphaba. [00:44:26] Speaker D: Oh, my God. Wow. [00:44:28] Speaker C: Anybody knew that? [00:44:29] Speaker D: It's all coming together. [00:44:30] Speaker A: It's all coming together. Well, that's good, because the episode we just released this week, we talked about how. Because I saw. I saw a reel on Instagram. I didn't know if it was real, but this preacher, I don't know how it got my feed because I was looking at Wicked content, I guess, and he was like this. This doll leads to a porn site. And David's. We call them Wanda on the show. David's Wanda works for Mattel. And indeed that did happen, and they had to have a big meeting about it. [00:44:58] Speaker D: Oh, gosh. [00:44:59] Speaker C: They put wicked.com on there, which is not the website. It is Wick movie dot com. [00:45:05] Speaker D: Yikeroni. [00:45:07] Speaker A: Whoops. [00:45:08] Speaker D: Oh, exciting. [00:45:10] Speaker A: Those are collector's editions. Speaking of. [00:45:12] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:45:13] Speaker A: The end of this issue. Well, at the end of this issue it has like this whole. I don't know if you don't have the back matter, but like there's this whole letters page about like which variants are which about the toys. And it's just really infuriating. It's that 90s collector culture that made me as a little kid not be able to get a Princess Leia figure because like there were like five variants and I had to go to the flea market to find one because I just wanted a Princess Leia figure. But the, the 90s collectors were so on it. [00:45:44] Speaker D: It was, that was the, the beginning of the adult collector. And yeah, that is what. That's. [00:45:50] Speaker C: Do we have to blame for that? [00:45:51] Speaker D: Well, actually we have more than anyone. We have George Lucas to blame for that. Well, yeah, and Kenner for the original Star wars line because they were selling millions and millions and when they, they. They ended it in the mid-80s, brought it back with the re releases and it was selling more to adults than to children. And they were having like the midnight release for like the Episode one toys. And it was all adults like scrambling to buy them as collectors. And that is kind of very specifically what started the adult collector market with Todd McFarlane who really pioneered the idea of the adult collector toy. And the toy that is marketed more towards an adult than a child and more towards a collector than to a play experience. Not the only guy in the game, but in the late 90s, he really was the one who pushed. I mean, you guys probably remember, like what were they? Movie Maniacs and all that stuff. The playsets that were really just dioramas that were just to sit on an adult shelf. Anyway. End rant. [00:46:55] Speaker A: Well, George, before the show you were saying, before we recorded, you were saying that there was a Christmas specifically, or maybe a couple Christmas. You got a lot of Spawn stuff. [00:47:03] Speaker D: Oh yeah, there were a couple Christmases where Spawn was my. I grew up on toys and action figures just always. And even when I was a young teenager, like even like 11, 12, 13, 14, I was. Still wanted the, the toys, but I started to just want Spawn figures and I got a ton of them. The one I remember the best, that was my favorite Christmas Spawn memory. I can't remember what year it was, but it was a little after this. They had Future Spawn and Future Spawn was just a desiccated like half a desiccated corpse inside like this weird Spawn cape looking mech and it had, like, a missile in his chest. And it was so weird and cool. And I was like, my mom would always be like, okay, make a Christmas list and make sure you put, like, the top thing you want at the top. And, like. And it was, like, the top one. And I was like, future Spawn. And sure enough, it was under the tree. And, boy, I sure just. I still have it somewhere. That was just a great, great Christmas memory. I love those. Those Spawn toys. And also, I mean, that's the thing, is that they were the exact right kind of toy for people who were buying Spawn, who had grown up on, like, you know, toy biz, Marvel kind of stuff that's really marketed towards kids and wanted to keep collecting, but wanted stuff that really appealed more to an adult sensibility. So Todd the God, a big pioneer in that market. [00:48:32] Speaker A: I had a big Christmas that we talked about a little bit before, but I got the entire line, basically, of Tim Burton's. Of McFarlane's Tim Burton Sleepy Hollow figures. [00:48:48] Speaker D: Yes. [00:48:48] Speaker C: Nice. [00:48:49] Speaker A: And, like, I knew my mom was probably scouting, like, Spencer's Gifts and Suncoast Video to find them, but I got, like, the Headless Horseman. And, like, that's so cool. [00:48:58] Speaker D: That's exactly what I'm talking about, too, with adult collectors toys. Like, you weren't buying that at Toys R Us. You were buying it at, like, Suncoast Video, like, the. The. You know, probably fye. The places that are that adults shop, not kids. And so it's exactly what I'm talking about. And those are so cool, too. The Headless Horseman one in particular. I'm sure that was sick. [00:49:18] Speaker A: Oh, it's a great figure it came with. You could put on. I think I still have it, but you could put on the skull, or you can put on Christopher Walken's head, or it could be headless. It had three heads. [00:49:28] Speaker D: We also discovered, John and I, before the show, that we both did book reports in the same book about Tim Burton. Tim Burton, when we were in high. [00:49:36] Speaker A: School, Both in the 10th grade, probably. [00:49:38] Speaker D: Yeah. Around that same time. [00:49:40] Speaker C: So it's amazing. [00:49:41] Speaker D: Yep. [00:49:41] Speaker A: Kindred spirits. Much like Greggy is kindred with Rudolph here. He loves Rudolph. He thinks Rudolph's the coolest. Which. [00:49:47] Speaker C: Incredible transition. [00:49:49] Speaker A: Hey, we're at 100, what, 16 episodes now, David. [00:49:57] Speaker C: We're doing our best to catch up. [00:49:59] Speaker A: Usually we're Transitioning out of 10 minutes of silence, and then we have to figure out a transition out of that when it's just the two of us. [00:50:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:07] Speaker C: You know something that you mentioned about Home Alone is that it has that, like, fireplace feel. And it's something that I. As much as I like this issue, it is something that I don't think is community. That that kind of feeling isn't necessarily communicated well through the art and the colors. Here. [00:50:29] Speaker D: I think it is at the end. [00:50:31] Speaker C: At the end. [00:50:32] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:50:32] Speaker C: I would say I'm talking about, like, even here, it's so cold still. [00:50:38] Speaker D: Well, I think that's the point. He's waking up alone and no one's there. It's the middle of the night. That could be a scary moment for a kid. But it's also kind of like the only light is really the. The. The TV and the. The nose of the slowly dying. [00:50:56] Speaker B: Snowman. [00:50:57] Speaker D: Snowman, yeah. Which, I mean, that's an experience I've definitely had. Waking up on the couch and, like, the night lights out and the TV's off. I kind of like it. But also, you're right. It doesn't have that fireplace feel. It feels more kind of grounded than, like, then sort of sentimental. [00:51:16] Speaker C: Do we think it's also that Capullo, at this point, isn't maybe great at delivering that kind of experience? An artist who I think would do that extremely well and has done something similar with a Christmasy type issue is like a Chris Samney, where there's, like, a cleanliness of work and, like, it kind of feels nostalgic because it looks a little old. Whereas, like, when you're in the edgy 90s, maybe the scratchiness doesn't really. Yeah. Deliver the same thing. [00:51:55] Speaker A: Yeah. There's a. There's just a tinge of. I don't know if it's like. Like I said, like a Canadian writing what he thinks New York is like at that time. [00:52:05] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:52:06] Speaker A: Or if that's an element to it or just, like, the fact that it's gonna go to this spawn, like, if that's part of it. But. Yeah, it doesn't. It has a. I mean, there's a bit of melancholy, I guess, because he's by himself. [00:52:21] Speaker D: You know, they're all true. They are very much in that last big panel under the. Like that. That Greg Capullo classic sequential, like, panel inset of the Snowman. After that, that big panel at the bottom. It's really selling the. Like, they don't have a lot of money and they live in Harlem. And the walls are kind of cracked. Like, the ceiling's cracking with the guy landing on it. And, like, even still looks like Bart Simpson's been chewing at their walls. Christmas tree is Plastic. They're really selling like these people don't have a lot. And it's very kind of Bob Cratchit in a way, you know? [00:53:00] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Crunchy does. [00:53:02] Speaker C: I do hate this giant Greggy head. [00:53:06] Speaker D: Like I said, it looks like a Halloween mask of a child. [00:53:09] Speaker B: The one. [00:53:10] Speaker D: This one. [00:53:11] Speaker B: The one that's just floating in the gray background. [00:53:13] Speaker D: Yes. [00:53:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:53:15] Speaker C: Not. Not a great way to lay out a page. Sorry, Greg. [00:53:19] Speaker D: I like the inset panels of Spa. The guys on the run from Spawn. [00:53:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:53:23] Speaker D: Of course, the splash page of Spawn where Greggy's saying, oh, Santa's here because he hears Spawn chasing the guys across the roof. [00:53:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:53:31] Speaker D: Great page. If you're only going to have one Spawn in the issue, make it kick ass, right? [00:53:36] Speaker B: Yeah. Especially with that jutting jaw that Capullo brought in. Oh, boy, it's a. It's a great looking spot. [00:53:42] Speaker C: I love that. I love the jutting jaw and I love the. [00:53:45] Speaker B: I love the sex with the dollar signs on them. [00:53:48] Speaker D: Classic. That's where they keep money. Yeah, yeah, I've seen it. [00:53:55] Speaker C: Anytime, Anytime I take money out at, at the bank, I just bring a. [00:54:00] Speaker A: Sack with a dollar sign on it. [00:54:03] Speaker D: I do something different. I write food on my back. So a robber or a highwayman sees me, he's gonna think that person has food. I want money. Yeah. [00:54:16] Speaker A: Not going for that. [00:54:17] Speaker C: We're looking for somebody who stole money. [00:54:19] Speaker D: That's right. That's right. [00:54:21] Speaker B: How do you have 40 bags of sandwiches? [00:54:25] Speaker C: Because that's for me to know and you to find out. [00:54:27] Speaker B: They're clinking a lot. Are these hard sandwiches? Yes, they're petrified sandwiches. [00:54:31] Speaker D: Frozen sandwiches. Yeah. Yep. [00:54:34] Speaker C: I like this like Rudolph, like Spawn breaking this guy's nose. [00:54:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:41] Speaker C: And so he has a red nose. Hahaha. That's very funny, Greg. [00:54:45] Speaker D: Again, out the snowballs. Have you guys ever eaten the Little Debbie or I think their Hostess or Little Debbie Snowballs? [00:54:54] Speaker B: I had some not too terribly long ago actually. And I was really excited when I was eating them that I was like, I can finally understand what these are. They're just. They're just like some butter cookies with. [00:55:05] Speaker C: Some powdered frost marshmallow and like marshmallows. [00:55:08] Speaker D: Oh. Oh, no, no, no. These are a little different. [00:55:10] Speaker B: Oh no. [00:55:11] Speaker D: Or maybe these are the same cookies because I don't know. But I was thinking of the Little Debbie Snowballs, which are sponge cake with the, with, with coconut all over them. [00:55:21] Speaker B: Okay. [00:55:21] Speaker D: Yeah. Those ones are pink. You're right. These are white cookies. Those are good. [00:55:25] Speaker A: Well, they might be there's a debate. We talked about it last year, I think, David. But did you say it was like a snowball, was, like, peanut butter and chocolate, like, covered in. [00:55:34] Speaker B: No, that's. That's what I wanted it to be. But we called those peanut butter balls or. [00:55:39] Speaker A: Those are peanut butter balls. [00:55:40] Speaker D: Peanut butter buckeyes. Yeah. [00:55:42] Speaker A: Buckeyes. Yes. That's what it was. Okay. [00:55:44] Speaker C: Yeah. Snowballs to me, were always pink, but they were, like marshmallow. [00:55:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Coconut with. And they had, like, a chocolate cake in them. It all. [00:55:52] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:55:53] Speaker D: Wow. The treats that we experience, the nostalgia we enjoy. [00:55:58] Speaker C: Yeah. Something that, if I ate it now. [00:56:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:01] Speaker C: Would, like, put me into a coma. I would. [00:56:04] Speaker B: I would eat so many of those fraking cherry fruit pies. Oh, I'm pretty sure if I were to eat half of one right now, I would. I would have to lay down for, like, 45 minutes. I would be overcome with the sugar. [00:56:19] Speaker C: Listen, Spider man loved him, so he. [00:56:22] Speaker D: Had to protect them. People were stealing them. You could not keep them on the shelves. Spider man and, like, a Hulk were working overtime trying to protect. They were all out there. [00:56:33] Speaker C: You know what? That's the thing Spawn never got. He never got a hostess ad. [00:56:36] Speaker D: Ah, they need to do that. I was just saying. [00:56:40] Speaker B: Where's the cream filling campaign? [00:56:42] Speaker D: Right. I was just saying this before. They should do Spawn. Oh, I wasn't saying this before. They should do Spawn ones with green cream inside. That'd be incredible. Like, they used to have the Ninja Turtle ones. Anyway, I was saying before, they should do a Spawn House, like, Christmas anthology comic with just, like, a bunch of, like, that in it. [00:57:00] Speaker C: Like, fake ads and stuff and, like. Well, and the old McFarland Toys ads. [00:57:07] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. Exactly where you learned that, like, Santa's really an angel or something, right? [00:57:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, they could even do Easter Bunny Thanksgiving. They could do all of them. [00:57:19] Speaker D: They could be Easter Bunny. Come on. [00:57:21] Speaker B: It could be a real nightmare before. Before Christmas. [00:57:24] Speaker C: I want Spawn. I want Spawn to fight Jack Skellington. [00:57:28] Speaker B: Yeah, that would be great. [00:57:29] Speaker A: Oh, man. Jackson. He's got a big reach. [00:57:32] Speaker D: Yeah, Jackson. [00:57:34] Speaker A: That'd be a rough fight. [00:57:36] Speaker D: That makes me wonder if. If Halloween town is, like, technically a level of hell. Yeah. [00:57:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Halloween town's probably a level of hell. It could be in there. [00:57:44] Speaker D: Yeah, it's 1:1. It's a few above the Malbols, as they say. [00:57:47] Speaker A: Yeah, right. [00:57:50] Speaker B: Well, before you get to the psychic ice shrimp, you gotta go. [00:57:53] Speaker D: That's right. It's the. You gotta go. [00:57:56] Speaker C: I always forget about them. [00:58:00] Speaker A: That's a great issue. Just Weren't the one where they drag Billy Kincaid through hell. [00:58:04] Speaker B: Oh, man. [00:58:05] Speaker D: Oh, Vinny, Speaking of Alan Moore Violator. [00:58:09] Speaker A: The Vindicator. [00:58:10] Speaker B: Man, I love those boys. [00:58:12] Speaker A: The sleepy Ax. [00:58:14] Speaker C: George is a big fan of the Vacillator. [00:58:16] Speaker B: I love. [00:58:17] Speaker D: Well, I kind of like the Vacillator. [00:58:19] Speaker C: But I kind of go back and forth. [00:58:21] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:58:24] Speaker A: Zing. [00:58:24] Speaker C: I'm sorry I beat you to that one, George. [00:58:27] Speaker D: Well, you kind. I was trying to bring it back. [00:58:32] Speaker C: That's okay. [00:58:32] Speaker D: Okay. You know What? You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. [00:58:37] Speaker C: Wayne Gretzky, Michael Scott, George Marston. Oh, boy. I'm sorry that you guys are going to lose listeners after this one. [00:58:47] Speaker A: I don't think so. [00:58:48] Speaker B: No, I don't think so at all either. [00:58:51] Speaker D: No. I love the back and forth with the guys outside getting beat up by. [00:58:56] Speaker B: Spawn and Greggy being like, oh, the cookies. Oh, the lights. [00:59:03] Speaker D: You gotta get in bed. It's a good little fight, too. I mean, we got this great cape. [00:59:09] Speaker B: I remember very specifically being like, oh, I do have to stay in bed because Santa won't leave my stuff. Oh, boy. But I got. I want to go see, But I gotta stay in bed because Santa will know. Oh, boy. [00:59:19] Speaker D: That was like the best trick that the parents had was like, if you don't stay in bed. [00:59:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:59:26] Speaker D: Santa won't come. [00:59:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:59:28] Speaker D: So you actually can't catch Santa. So you might as well just stay the bed while you wrap these presents and get them under the tree before you wake up at 6am and while they. [00:59:38] Speaker B: And while they eat enough of the cookies you left to make it seem that the cookies got eaten but not enough that they could see. [00:59:46] Speaker D: When I was really little, my mom and my dad before my mom. Before, it was just me and my mom and my sister went all out when I was an only child. The first couple years, like, they would, like, fill the room with presents. And, like, they'd put, like, footprints of snow all around the room to make it look like Santa had walked around and all kinds of stuff. My mom always was great at Christmas. But, like, there was a time when they put so much energy into it, it was wild. That's why I don't have kids. [01:00:18] Speaker C: My. My parents never let us know that Santa was real. Because they told us that if we believed in Santa and then found out that Santa wasn't real, that we would believe that Jesus wasn't real. Jokes on them. [01:00:37] Speaker D: Jokes. [01:00:38] Speaker C: I know Santa's real. I know Jesus is not real. [01:00:43] Speaker D: Wow. [01:00:43] Speaker A: Oh, man. [01:00:44] Speaker C: But that's a real thing. I. I knew from a very young age that my parents got all of the gifts. However, to this day, all of the gifts that my parents get me say to Pierce from Santa. [01:00:59] Speaker D: I thought you were gonna say they say they're from Jesus. [01:01:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:03] Speaker C: Which would make more sense. [01:01:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:01:06] Speaker C: But I also, when I give my parents gifts, I put from Santa. I don't know. [01:01:11] Speaker D: That's your family. [01:01:12] Speaker C: Why I don't take credit. It's called religious trauma. [01:01:17] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, Yeah. [01:01:20] Speaker C: I. [01:01:20] Speaker A: Look, my dad is like an evangelical, but he didn't live with us, so my mom. We were just Episcopalians, so it was just like, whatever. [01:01:29] Speaker D: Catholic life, similar experience. [01:01:32] Speaker A: David's a good Catholic boy. [01:01:33] Speaker B: Yeah, grew up Catholic. I didn't realize it was anything special. [01:01:39] Speaker C: No, Catholics have the coolest, horniest traditions. Nobody's. No, listen, there's not like hot Protestantism. There's like hot Catholic demon cults or whatever. [01:01:57] Speaker D: Right. Like wizards of Christianity. [01:02:00] Speaker C: That's what I'm saying. [01:02:01] Speaker D: So, you know, more Alan Moore adjacent conversation. [01:02:06] Speaker C: Exactly. [01:02:08] Speaker D: I love this double page spread of Spawn where it's him with the guys now that he's been chasing across the roof all wrapped in chains. [01:02:17] Speaker B: Yes. Chucking them chains and TV antennas. [01:02:20] Speaker D: Yeah. So it looks like reindeer. It looks like Santa and his reindeer. You know that. That's one of those panels that I. I have to imagine Todd put in the script and Greg Capullo was like, you want me to draw fucking what, man? [01:02:38] Speaker A: You know, like, tangles up all the guys that look like the sled of the reindeer. [01:02:42] Speaker D: What? [01:02:44] Speaker C: But because also Spawn can't fly, to our knowledge, and he weighs 500 pounds. [01:02:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:51] Speaker C: So did he do that and jump really hard? [01:02:53] Speaker B: Well, yeah, he's got. Good job. [01:02:56] Speaker A: He throws them at the moon and then jumps. [01:02:58] Speaker D: Yeah. And that's the magic of Christmas on Christmas Eve. Spotify. [01:03:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:03:03] Speaker D: Yes, that's right. [01:03:05] Speaker B: That keeps. That keeps doing enough. It's probably got some sort of lift. [01:03:08] Speaker D: Yeah, he can glide, I'm sure. I have to say one thing I love about this issue is we get this little moment of heartbreak here where Greggy thinks that they. That. That Santa came and didn't leave anything before he finds a band on the ground. But I thought for sure, based on so many of the times that Spawn has interacted with children or other human beings, that it was going to be like. And then Greggy gets held hostage and Spawn accidentally, like, rips his head off and, like, his sister comes home just in time to see it. And Spawn's like, sorry, right, That's. We kept. Kept it heartwarming. Yeah. [01:03:52] Speaker C: I mean, we kept it heartwarming. Except for the panel of Greggy finding the money. We don't need those harsh shadows on his face. We could just see his face smiling. He doesn't have to look like a nightmare. [01:04:05] Speaker A: But he's silhouetted. [01:04:06] Speaker B: He's coming out of the dark. [01:04:08] Speaker C: I know, but we. Whatever. [01:04:11] Speaker B: But I mean, technically, technically, he's still leaning out of the fire escape. He's just picking up. [01:04:15] Speaker C: I don't care where the light source is. [01:04:16] Speaker B: So the light source is all behind him. Coming from the apartment. [01:04:20] Speaker D: Do you think Greg Capullo got to that panel? Was like, I can't draw this face like this again. I have to. He just like. [01:04:27] Speaker A: Or. [01:04:28] Speaker D: Or was it Todd that inked this one? He was like, inking it. [01:04:31] Speaker C: Maybe it was. [01:04:33] Speaker B: I mean, I saw. I saw a video not too long ago of, you know, Todd McFarland doing inking in the car while Wanda drives. So maybe this was one of those driving him around and he accidentally still to let her. It was like, oh, oh, I guess this is where we're going now. [01:04:50] Speaker D: That probably did happen years ago. Speaking of Rob Liefeld, there was a video he posted on Facebook of himself inking Hawk and Dove Pages while driving. [01:05:03] Speaker C: New 52. Hawk and Dove. [01:05:05] Speaker D: Yes. It was laid on the steering wheel of his car. And he's like, inking while driving like this. And he's like, yep, just inking hockey double driving here. You know, that's how sometimes how you go do when you're on deadline. And I was just like, wow. [01:05:20] Speaker A: What? [01:05:21] Speaker C: He's got that grindset mindset. [01:05:23] Speaker B: Okay, Exactly. [01:05:24] Speaker D: Right? [01:05:24] Speaker C: Yeah, George, like, you don't have that grindset mindset. All right? You're not inking when you drive. [01:05:29] Speaker D: You're right. I am a fat, wasteful nothing compared to someone who is able to work at that complex A level. [01:05:39] Speaker C: Yeah, listen, you gotta. [01:05:41] Speaker A: He did famously recently call Todd McFarlane lazy because he hasn't done any interior pages recently. [01:05:47] Speaker C: Wow. [01:05:49] Speaker A: Even though he has, like, you know. [01:05:51] Speaker D: Like we just said, he's writing billion. [01:05:53] Speaker C: More dollars than Rob Liefeld. [01:05:55] Speaker D: He's got that million dollar baseball money, daddy. And he is still cranking out DC toys. He's got a whole empire to run. Rob Liefeld is trying to like Finnig. I don't want to make this. [01:06:08] Speaker B: Aren't they putting out some Marvel toys now? Didn't he get a Marvel it? [01:06:11] Speaker D: They're doing statues. They call them. They call them like static action figures, which I hate. [01:06:19] Speaker C: They're just legally distinct from legally Distinct. [01:06:23] Speaker A: From action figures from Marvel Legends. Yeah. [01:06:26] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:06:27] Speaker A: Well, who is that? Hasbro. [01:06:29] Speaker D: Hasbro. [01:06:30] Speaker C: Yeah, Hasbro. [01:06:31] Speaker A: Okay. [01:06:31] Speaker B: Which. [01:06:32] Speaker C: Which you gotta fight with Hasbro because. [01:06:35] Speaker D: Well, there's a whole. [01:06:36] Speaker C: Elon. Elon Musk wants to buy Hasbro. [01:06:39] Speaker A: Really? [01:06:40] Speaker C: No, that's when. That's when I'm gonna quit magic the animal. [01:06:44] Speaker D: I can't talk about this. I'm gonna have a heart attack. He tweeted that magic or that D D is Dungeons and Dragons now, and he needs to buy Hasbro. It's like, how much to play Hasbro and immediately get rid of the identity politics in the Marvel Legends community. It's immediately split of, like, Todd should get it, the license and do Marvel Legends now. And other people being like, I'll kill myself. [01:07:10] Speaker A: Oh, man. [01:07:11] Speaker C: The thing. The thing about it is. And George, we've talked about it a little bit, is that I don't love the. I don't love the paints on the DC Universe toys. However, you pointed out very smartly that they are meant to be a little bit cheaper. So they don't have. Great. [01:07:31] Speaker D: They're also in scale with Spawn. Right. They make them a little bigger, which, I mean, I get. A lot of people complain. I. I collect a lot of Marvel Legends figures, and a lot of people in the community complain that Todd McFarlane's figures are not in scale with Marvel figures. And to me, it's just like, why would he make them in scale with Marvel if he's going to make them in scale with another character in another company? It's gonna be the Spawn toys. [01:07:59] Speaker C: He's been making ones that cross over. There's no. There's no Spawn Spider man yet. [01:08:05] Speaker D: Yeah, but also, I mean, if he's making both, he's not gonna, like, make them match with someone else's. Like, like a double. Two layers of competitor. [01:08:13] Speaker C: Yeah. Anyway, no point. [01:08:16] Speaker D: I've ranted about toys so much in this episode. I am so sorry. [01:08:20] Speaker A: It's okay. I have toys next to me. I've got. I have the movie Al Simmons right here. [01:08:24] Speaker D: Oh, nice. [01:08:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Michael. Ty White. [01:08:27] Speaker D: Hang on my wall. I have my Todd. Oh, hell, yeah. [01:08:33] Speaker A: David got that one. I didn't get that one. [01:08:35] Speaker B: Mine's under the bed right over here. [01:08:37] Speaker D: Nice. [01:08:38] Speaker C: Mine's on its way. I don't have. I only have magic cards around me. [01:08:41] Speaker A: Oh, nice. [01:08:42] Speaker C: I just have. [01:08:44] Speaker A: Hell, yeah. [01:08:44] Speaker D: They should do a Spawn magic expansion. That would be sick. [01:08:47] Speaker B: I mean, have you seen George? [01:08:49] Speaker C: George. Don't get me started. Don't get me started. [01:08:53] Speaker A: I remember you said you didn't like, except for the Last Jedi, which you're correct on. You don't like new Star Wars, Pierce. But I will say the new Fantasy Flight game, Star Wars Unlimited, is really good. I went to a couple events for it with some sealed decks. [01:09:07] Speaker C: I heard it's really good. [01:09:08] Speaker D: Really, really good. Okay. Is that. Is that like an lcg, as they call it? [01:09:12] Speaker A: No, it's a. Seats of full tcg. [01:09:14] Speaker D: Okay. Okay. The only Fantasy Flight game I played was when they had the legend of the 5 rings license for a while. [01:09:22] Speaker A: Okay. [01:09:22] Speaker D: When they relaunched that, that's the last competitive. [01:09:25] Speaker C: I've heard. The Star wars game is incredible. I know. I know a lot of people who are starting to be like, maybe we'll play this more than we play Magic, which is understandable. [01:09:34] Speaker A: Yeah, it's fun. And, like, I don't know. It has a. They have so many different. You have to have this hero. There's so many different characters, and it really determines how your deck's gonna work. [01:09:43] Speaker D: And it's interesting. [01:09:44] Speaker A: Some of the matches are really fun. It just feels Star Warsy. [01:09:49] Speaker C: Yeah. It feels a little bit also like Flesh and Blood, which is a game that a friend of mine has. Is a judge for and has tried to get me into, and. And she's been playing Magic, and I have watched games in person of Flesh and Blood, and I'm like, I already play a very complicated game, and this game, it doesn't make any sense to me. I don't care how it works. [01:10:15] Speaker A: I was at an event for Star Wars Unlimited. They were playing Flesh and Blood, like, at the other tables, and it looks intense, and, like, I was like, man, that looks. That looks crazy. [01:10:24] Speaker C: The reality is that Magic is a game of compiling resources and using those resources, whereas these other games are sort of like wars of attrition. [01:10:34] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:10:34] Speaker C: Because you start with a bunch of things and then you lose things over time, and that is not, to me, a good play experience. But anyway, this is not a TCG podcast we should get. We're almost at the end of this issue. So. [01:10:50] Speaker B: Games and trading cards and action figures aren't the only presents underneath the tree in little Greggy's house right now as he boxes up and wraps up the fat stack of cash and writes mom's name on it and then just, like, stares at it under the tree like a little stinker. [01:11:06] Speaker C: He's just like, oh, boy. [01:11:08] Speaker D: You know? Well, I just want to say the. This face, I don't hate as much. This one where he's looking at the tree, but also I want to say, to your point about earlier, earlier, about it looking cold, this has a lot more warmth to me where he's just kind of basking in the Christmas tree. [01:11:24] Speaker C: That's true. [01:11:25] Speaker D: Like, it's still the same kind of blue color of the walls, but, like, he's sitting there just kind of like he's. This is so cool with the lights reflected in his eyes. You know, it's nice. And then, of course, throughout the next two pages, you have all the garlands and everything. [01:11:41] Speaker B: Yeah, well, like, it's. Because, I mean, earlier he's. He's by himself, and it's not. The. The spirit of Christmas isn't with him because he's by himself. And as he slowly gets infected with the Christmas spirit, he gets, you know, he infects all of his family and friends and loved ones, and they all start glowing a little bit. [01:12:00] Speaker D: Yeah, it's nice. His mom takes the money and makes a party for the whole building that they live in and buys presents for all the kids and nice food for everybody, which, you know, I think there's something about that generosity of spirit in that that is very beautiful. [01:12:17] Speaker B: Absolutely. [01:12:18] Speaker D: I think there is a mindset of people that would be like, she should have put that in a Roth ira. This is so irresponsible. But at the same time, this really reflects another. You know, this issue really brings me back to a lot of experiences from my childhood because I grew up without a lot of money with a single mom living a lot of the time through the grace and generosity of the community and of our friends. There was a time when I was maybe about 9 years old when our neighbor, a good friend of, like, family friends, won the lottery and got like $10,000 or something on a scratch off ticket and took, like, my whole family shopping for, like, new clothes and, like, we got toys and, like, bought us a ton of groceries and stuff. And like, her kids got that too. Like, their family got that too. But it's just a kind of. Exactly this kind of experience of like, someone has this great windfall, and when you don't have a lot and you get a lot and you look around and see other people that don't have a lot too, it is very easy to feel that spirit of giving and sharing and wanting to give it to other people. And it really rings true to me in that way. And I'm kind of tearing up now thinking about how beautiful an experience that could be. [01:13:45] Speaker B: It is the ultimate epiphany within the Dickens Christmas Carol, right? Like, yeah, it's that knowledge of that. That is what the spirit of the season is, leads Ebenezer to be like, buy a goose. Buy the big goose. [01:14:01] Speaker D: Buy a goose. [01:14:03] Speaker C: Yeah. So it's. It's something that. Even when I was a little kid, because my birthday is so close to Christmas, you know, you. You get to an age where you start to get money for Christmas, right? Like. And I was at my church's, like, like, midnight mass, essentially. Even though we were Protestant, we still had, like, a midnight Christmas thing. And they would do, like, a bunch of religious stuff, but then they'd also sing regular Christmas carols and stuff. [01:14:29] Speaker B: Did you hold. Did you. Everybody get a candle, too? And you. [01:14:32] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, we all got a candle. Yes. 100. We all got the candle processional, but. And that was always really cool because all the lights go out and everybody has the candle, and, like, you're playing Christmas songs, and it's really cool. And the. And playing with the fire and the wax was always really fun because you're eight. But also, there was, like, a collection for. I guess it was some missionary mission that the church was doing, which, like, in retrospect, I'm like, maybe not great, but at the time, I was like, this seems like helping. And my dad saw me take my Christmas. My birthday money and, like, put it into the tray or whatever, and he would. He, like, started crying, and he was like, why did you do that? And I was like, well, because other people need it more than me, right? And he, like, was just like, after that, like, basically, he was like, whatever you want. Like, I'll get you whatever you want. Like, he. He was just. But he was just so taken aback that I was, like, a little kid, and I could see that. And I think that that's one of the things that comes across here in this story, right? Is that, like, yeah, for little Greggy, like, life isn't bad. [01:15:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:15:45] Speaker C: Because this is the only life he's known. And his mom loves him, and his sister is annoying, but she loves him. But, like, his life is good. It's as good as he's ever known it to be. Right? And so, like, he loves to be able to give his mom this gift, and he doesn't understand how it happened. And he does believe in Santa Claus, and he does believe in magic still. It's really beautiful. And then for his mom to turn around and be like, party for everybody is like. I mean, that's the same way my dad is. And that my favorite. The people that I try to surround myself with are the same way as well. And so. Yeah. I mean, see, now, George, I'm getting, like, a little choked up because, like, yeah, this is a good issue. [01:16:32] Speaker A: It's like. [01:16:32] Speaker B: It's an amazing issue. [01:16:34] Speaker C: And. And it. And it's. And that's what Christmas is about. It's not about, like, the big flashy gifts or, like, whatever. It's about, like, just giving and giving. When you have. Giving what you have. Right. And. And that's enough. And that's just really beautiful. [01:16:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:16:55] Speaker B: Christmas perhaps means just a little bit more. It's true. Now, as ever before, I. [01:17:04] Speaker A: Like I said, I really hadn't. I got this. Reading this today and thinking about, you know, getting ready for the recording with you all just, like, got me the Christmas spirit. But lest we forget, we get the great baubles of all of our favorite friends. [01:17:19] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:17:21] Speaker A: Because we have. You got Wanda, Terry and Cyan. [01:17:25] Speaker B: You got the boys Sam and Twitch, and then the other boys, Bootsy and Bobby. [01:17:31] Speaker A: But notice, like, let's. Let's. Let's not pass over the fact that Twitch is giving Sam a donut with. [01:17:38] Speaker D: A ribbon on it. Incredible. Great. [01:17:42] Speaker A: He's so happy. [01:17:44] Speaker B: That's. [01:17:47] Speaker D: You think that's the first time that Twitch has ever indulged his, like, disgusting eating habits? Because Twitch never eats, like, anytime together. Twitch is like, sipping a cup of coffee. [01:17:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:17:59] Speaker C: He's also canonically never taken a. [01:18:04] Speaker D: It's true. [01:18:04] Speaker C: On panel. [01:18:05] Speaker D: Nothing goes in, nothing has to come out. That's why he's. [01:18:07] Speaker B: I mean, he eats some meatloaf in the new Salmon Switch case files. [01:18:11] Speaker C: You know, in a way, we're all the Sam and Twitch and Bobby and Bootsy of. [01:18:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:18:17] Speaker C: Spawn podcast. Yeah, sure. [01:18:20] Speaker D: Okay. [01:18:20] Speaker C: Spawn immunity. [01:18:22] Speaker B: So now we have to. [01:18:23] Speaker C: Since they're in vibes. In vibes, not in, like, person characters. [01:18:26] Speaker B: We now have all fight for who we're gonna be. [01:18:30] Speaker D: Oh, boy. I'll be Sam. I just eat enough pieces. [01:18:35] Speaker C: I do do the voice of Twitch, but. But I feel like David looks more like Twitch. [01:18:40] Speaker A: I mean, we would have saved twitch to C2E. [01:18:44] Speaker B: Yeah, we. And in. In temperament, we both tend to. To be towards one direction. Johnny is much more outgoing than I am. [01:18:56] Speaker D: And every duo, in every duo, there's a stamina. [01:19:00] Speaker C: There's the body in the booth. [01:19:02] Speaker A: Exactly. [01:19:03] Speaker C: There's a Spawn and a Cogliostro. [01:19:08] Speaker D: I hope not. [01:19:09] Speaker A: I hope not. Yeah. I hope not exactly. [01:19:12] Speaker D: For the sake of whoever asked. Yeah, that's right. [01:19:16] Speaker C: There's an Abbott and Costello. [01:19:20] Speaker A: Yeah. We end with all of our friends. And Greggy is super happy. And the bells are ringing. And it's a. I mean, like, I've read a lot of Todd McFarlane, especially a lot of modern Todd McFarlane recently, and this is, like, one of the best things he's ever written. Absolutely. I'm not. I'm not even exaggerating. [01:19:40] Speaker D: No. [01:19:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:19:40] Speaker D: It's very sweet, and it's very clever in how it manages to bring Spawn in and use him in a very. A very fun and endearing way. That doesn't take away from Spawn as, like, the horror superhero. [01:19:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:19:56] Speaker D: Where he's still wrapping these guys up in chains and, like, antenna wires and flying them off through the sky, breaking their noses. [01:20:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:20:04] Speaker D: But for one little boy, that's magic. Yeah. [01:20:07] Speaker A: Yeah. It ends with the. I love the ending. I love the final page. Because even though Christmas is always a happy time, even, like in A Christmas Carol, there's scary stuff, and it's melancholy. Like, it's. It's. It's the dynamic of the end of the year. Like, the sadness and, like, you know, it's that balance of the really happy, warm fire feeling and then the melancholy of being in the cold. And now I'm tearing up. [01:20:37] Speaker C: And also. And also we get Spawn's version of the Wolverine meme. [01:20:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:20:44] Speaker C: Like, quite, like, straight up is Spawn looking at a photo and blocking out Terry's face. Right. So, you know, and it's about never kind of abandoning the people that you care about. And in this case, for Spawn, he's pretty. Still one track mind at this point. [01:21:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:21:03] Speaker C: Around only. Only a tenth into his history. But, you know, he blocks out Terry, and he loves Wanda, and he's. They got complicated feelings about Cyan's existence. [01:21:17] Speaker A: Yes. [01:21:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:21:19] Speaker A: So is she. Are you all at the point where she's, like, obsessed with, like, her binky? [01:21:25] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:21:25] Speaker C: Yep. That's exactly. [01:21:27] Speaker D: She just straight into traffic trying to get it. [01:21:30] Speaker A: Oh, right. [01:21:30] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:21:33] Speaker D: Which. Which I know, like, Spawn's face. [01:21:37] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [01:21:38] Speaker D: In his face. [01:21:41] Speaker C: But I know, like, the Misery miniseries just wrapped. Right. [01:21:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:21:44] Speaker C: And also, like, she's an adult who interacts with Spawn as a person now. [01:21:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:21:51] Speaker C: And also has superpowers. We'll get there. We will get there in four years. Nice. I will find out what we really think about that. [01:22:01] Speaker B: It was important at the end of, like, Cosmic King Spawn before it's become more. Much more ground level. But that was. There was. They were building up a bit of. A bit of cyan in that kind of swerved. They swerved for. It was the. The meme of the highway with Cyan being the main destination and Granny Blake being the exit. They. They took the Granny Blake exit. [01:22:31] Speaker C: Another situation where life is a highway. [01:22:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:22:35] Speaker D: Wow. And Spawn's gonna do it my way or his way? [01:22:40] Speaker A: No, it's. That's what we were talking before, but, yeah, the movie is called King Spawn, and, like, that's what we're confused about, because King Spawn starts first, like, 18 issues or so. Are this cosmic horror and, like, why I got into Spawn and probably why this. Our podcast exists. [01:22:57] Speaker B: Probably. [01:22:58] Speaker A: And then it switched. Tom McFarlane took over, and now it's just, like, this kind of weird. [01:23:03] Speaker B: No, it's, like, weird. [01:23:05] Speaker C: He hates that. He always wants things. He always wants things to be Daredevil. [01:23:10] Speaker D: Yeah, exactly. [01:23:10] Speaker A: That's a good way to insane. [01:23:12] Speaker C: He. He loves, like. Like, ground level. Like. Like, everything's on the streets. [01:23:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:23:18] Speaker C: And it's the streets of New York in the 70s, even though it's never been that. [01:23:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:23:23] Speaker C: And it's wild. And it's really funny because the era we're getting into is Brian Holguin coming in as a co writer, and it's, like, starting to move in a different way where just, like, stuff actually starts to happen. And you're like, oh, okay, sure. But I think. I think the title is just the title because it differentiates it from the old Spawn movie. It was just called Spawn. People would be like, what the fuck? But King Spawn sounds better. And he can't really use any of the other titles that he really call it Spawn to Universe or, like, Gunslinger, because that's a whole other character. [01:24:04] Speaker D: Right. [01:24:04] Speaker C: So, like, King Spawn. The other thing, too, is he's gonna base it around Salmon Twitch. Like, it's gonna be a Salmon Twitch movie that Spawn appears in. It's a Commissioner Gordon movie that Batman appears in. [01:24:16] Speaker D: I hope they move away from that a little bit, because we were just talking before the show about the Hellboy movie that they did that kind of was like that. That they just did that. [01:24:25] Speaker C: The new one where it's, like sort of a horror movie, but not really. But it's mostly from the Cops perspective. Yeah. But they made it for, like, $4. [01:24:33] Speaker A: That's why. [01:24:34] Speaker C: And Mignola was like, actually, I think this is one of the better ones. [01:24:38] Speaker B: I mean, there was that one that was basically a detective story, and the detective goes into the configuration. [01:24:49] Speaker A: I think he just. I don't know. I think. I think Todd, like, wishes he would have gotten off the ground sooner. Obviously, the superhero craze. And now we're like, A superhero. [01:24:57] Speaker D: Weird. [01:24:58] Speaker A: Lol and I. But Bloom House, like, obviously has. They just had their biggest hit, which was Five Nights at Freddy's. So they have like money to burn, but, like, do they. They're not gonna go. The cosmic crazy King Spawn. The comic was for the first 18 issues. So it's gonna be. [01:25:14] Speaker C: The thing that they up though is that they should have gotten Mike Flanagan to do it. And Flanagan's doing the Clay Face show now, so DC's got him and you're not gonna get that guy. So now they're gonna have to go down the list of different horror directors that they're going to want to get. And we're inevitably gonna end on the bottom of the barrel. [01:25:37] Speaker D: They should get the guys who did talk to me, the brothers who did talk. [01:25:40] Speaker C: That would be sick. I think that'd be great. [01:25:42] Speaker B: That was a dope movie. [01:25:44] Speaker C: I still think they should get Stephen Kostanski who did Psycho Corman. [01:25:49] Speaker A: I mean, that sounds. I never thought about that. But yeah, after seeing. [01:25:53] Speaker C: I love that movie and I loved Frankie Frico. [01:25:57] Speaker A: Okay, Frankie Freako. I'll look that up. [01:25:59] Speaker C: Oh, man, it's so good. I had so much fun. [01:26:02] Speaker A: Sweet. [01:26:02] Speaker C: But John, what do you got first in the back matter there? Because I know that there's a pretty lengthy back. [01:26:08] Speaker A: There's a lengthy back matter. You got the blah, blah, blah from Terry Fitzgerald where he bitches about hockey for a while. [01:26:14] Speaker B: Typical. [01:26:16] Speaker A: And then he likes the talks about Christmas and Thanks a ton of people. Then you got the letters, which are. I had to psych myself up to read because sometimes it's just like so dry. But I don't know, the highlights of it were. I don't know, I just. I feel weird to the letters by myself. It's. There's a lot to cover. The only one I would really say that was like, interesting is the. Is the past. The two page spread. The end cap. [01:26:55] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [01:26:56] Speaker A: All people bitching about Variance Toys. [01:27:00] Speaker D: All the people are like, can I still get Green Angela? Or is it just Red Angela now or what? [01:27:06] Speaker C: Where are all the stores sold out? [01:27:11] Speaker A: There was one that's like acid. Like, why some Angelas have no panties? Why are some angels bald? It's just. It's just factory mess ups. [01:27:20] Speaker C: Incredible. [01:27:21] Speaker A: But, well, the letters, I don't know. Like the. [01:27:25] Speaker C: They might not be good. Sometimes we run into letters that are just like interesting. Not that good. Because a lot of them are just like the most misogynistic shit you'll ever hear. And then they're like, I'm 13. And you're like, oh, okay, right. So that's totally fine. [01:27:44] Speaker A: But I like the end cap because there's just people bitching about variants, which is hilarious. [01:27:50] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:27:50] Speaker A: The toy stuff is like this one from Sugarland, Texas. John Cubihan wonders. The violator. Two figures slightly different than the cybernetic violator on the package. Why? Great letter. [01:28:06] Speaker D: Amazing. And see this? [01:28:08] Speaker A: They do. They do. For interesting sake, which we already all do is. Can you please give us the correct pronunciation of Malbolia? And here's how what they say. The first sound like ma, with emphasis on the ah. Rhymes with guy. Oh, no, no. First sounds like mal, with emphasis on the ah. Ah. That rhymes with galaxy map. The second sound is bowl. The third sound is Shaw. Albolja. Yeah, yeah, we know that. [01:28:37] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:28:37] Speaker C: Malbolia. Yeah, we've been saying it. Right. [01:28:40] Speaker D: My favorite Christmas dish as well, when I go visit my Nani. Big bowl of Malbol. [01:28:47] Speaker A: Oh, you gotta bring it. That reminds me when I was a kid, speaking of TCGs, also, I was playing the decipher Star Wars CCG for the 90s when I was, like, 12 or 13, and me and my friends always thought Darth Vader ship was the Executor. But then, like, we were corrected by the older people that played the game, like, it's actually the Executor. And I was like, yeah. [01:29:08] Speaker D: Oh, my God, that's a. I read it wrong. Which is easy to read wrong. And it makes more sense as the Executor in a way. [01:29:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:29:18] Speaker D: But like, oh, it's the Executor. Okay. It's the bureaucrat of, like, a will. Yeah. [01:29:29] Speaker A: It dishes out your death. Yeah. [01:29:30] Speaker B: But putting an X in anything automatically makes it feel a little bit more dangerous. So. [01:29:35] Speaker C: Hey, worked in the 90s. [01:29:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:29:38] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:29:39] Speaker B: Everything's. [01:29:39] Speaker A: The best part of the back matter is the final two pages was ad for Spawn, the board game. [01:29:45] Speaker D: Oh, hell, yeah. [01:29:46] Speaker A: The Super Nintendo game. [01:29:47] Speaker D: Oh, wow. [01:29:49] Speaker B: Does that say A match made in Hell, Johnny? [01:29:51] Speaker A: It says A match made in Hell. [01:29:53] Speaker C: Yes. The Super Nintendo game. The best Spawn game, hands down. [01:29:58] Speaker A: That's what. Yeah, that's what everyone says. [01:30:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:30:01] Speaker C: Because the other ones are rough. [01:30:04] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:30:05] Speaker A: I played the 3D arena battleground. [01:30:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:30:09] Speaker C: Yeah. We did a podcast on that one. In the Demon's Hand. [01:30:12] Speaker A: Yes. [01:30:12] Speaker C: And it's. It's. It's sort of fun. [01:30:15] Speaker D: It has the coolest concept to me, where you just pick all your guys and you can play as, like, sandwich. I've been playing a lot of Marvel Rivals this week, and, like, they could definitely do a Spawn version of that. I mean, they could do a Spawn fighting game. So easy. Half of the action scenes in Spawn are literally just two guys fighting in an alley. [01:30:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:30:34] Speaker D: Like it's built in. You got, you know, just have your spawn and your handful of different variations of mafia built cyborgs, a couple of angels, and you're good to go in there, baby. [01:30:46] Speaker B: You could call it. [01:30:47] Speaker A: We keep pushing for a Spawn kart racer. [01:30:52] Speaker C: Yeah, that would also be good. [01:30:54] Speaker D: Hell yeah. Oh, that'd be great. [01:30:57] Speaker A: It ends. It ends. And everything begins with a ad for the Cygor toy. [01:31:04] Speaker C: Oh, hell yeah. [01:31:04] Speaker A: The bag is just like cyborg, but. [01:31:06] Speaker C: At this point we've never. We have no idea who that is. [01:31:09] Speaker B: Yeah, that is just a toy. Because there's also the. The slow role of introducing him where he shows up like over little bit, 12 issues. [01:31:20] Speaker C: Like he's the Twilight sword. Insert her. [01:31:22] Speaker D: But like, worse, it just occurred to me in this moment that Cygor exists as a comic character. Because Todd McFarlane was like, what if we had a toy that was a cyborg gorilla? I guess I have to put that in the comic. [01:31:36] Speaker C: Even though most of the toys that he comes up with, like Viking Spawn or whatever, don't show up in the comic. And he's like, I don't know, maybe they won't. [01:31:44] Speaker B: There's Fan edition. [01:31:46] Speaker C: I know, I know. [01:31:47] Speaker B: Well, there's also Violator issue two. [01:31:51] Speaker C: Listen. Yeah, all right. You're splitting hairs here. I'm just. I'm just saying what Todd said is maybe sometimes I'll make spawns that don't show up in the comic. And then sometimes he does end up making the show. [01:32:06] Speaker B: He also did say that if anybody dies and Spawn's universe, that they're dead forever. And Cyclor's come back like twice. [01:32:13] Speaker C: Spawn has come back like four times. So anyway, for a while. [01:32:24] Speaker A: So, David. [01:32:25] Speaker B: Yes. [01:32:26] Speaker A: What have we reached? We've reached that point. [01:32:28] Speaker B: So we've reached that point where we got. Oh, man, I have no puppies around me. How the hell does this happen? Oh, I got one right here. He's actually right where I left him. [01:32:41] Speaker C: Oh, look at this guy. Hi, Rufus. [01:32:44] Speaker B: Rufus doesn't know what's going on, but he. He knows that Spawn is good and that's all that matters. [01:32:49] Speaker C: Oh, got this Dog Spawn. [01:32:52] Speaker B: Yeah, Dog Spawn. The tm. Tm buddy of ours. Dog Spawn. The old Jet Lucanus. [01:33:01] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:33:03] Speaker B: But it's that time of the show where we got this puppy here in terms of spawn 39. And we got to rate it. So it's time to rate the puppies, Johnny. [01:33:12] Speaker A: Perfect. It's time to rate the puppies. All right, so this week we did spawn 39. And just so y'all know, it's out of five. Format is whatever five from the issue you want to give it. [01:33:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:33:30] Speaker A: You know, I don't remember what I gave it last year. Even though I just listened to that episode the other day, I still. I don't remember what I gave it. But, like, I don't know, it really touched me this year. It really got me the Christmas spirit. I was really excited to record with y'all. This was like, so much fun. So I'm gonna give it five snowballs. Like the treats. Five snowballs out of five. It's great art. The touching story. It just reminds, I don't know, maybe because we were all 90s growing up around this time and Christmas was living that post home alone glow. Like, I maybe cracked it there. But it was. It was a lot of fun to read. And I'm gonna give it five. Five snowballs out of five. [01:34:15] Speaker B: Excellent. Excellent. I. Johnny, I agree with you. I remember loving it last year and I loved. I loved it again this year. It's heartwarming. It hits you right where you need to be hit, when you need to be hit there. It's so earnest and it works. It comes off so well. The Greco Pullo art is fantastic, as it always is. And when the Todd father is good, he's good. So I am also going to give it five, and I will give it five Santas on the door of the apartment leading on the way out because he's a silly little Santa guy. And I remember those sort of form, molded plastic decorations. [01:34:57] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:34:59] Speaker B: So, yeah, it's good. It's good. [01:35:02] Speaker C: I'm gonna go ahead and give it five out of five. Greggy's the hero of our story. [01:35:08] Speaker A: Just his face though, right? [01:35:09] Speaker C: The sweetest kid. Just his face on that one page with the gray background with his disembod bodied head. [01:35:15] Speaker B: You're gonna blow that up to poster size. Leave it on your ceiling so it's the first thing you see in the morning and the last thing you see at night. [01:35:21] Speaker C: Yep, exactly. No, he's a good kid and he loves Christmas and he's very heartwarming. He's. He's. And he's a great artist. He grows up to become a great artist who's. Whose work I love and have loved for years. So five out of five. Greggy's. How about you, George? [01:35:38] Speaker D: Well, you kind of stole mine. I was gonna give it five. Oh no. Really? Well, that's okay because the spirit of Christmas is a spirit of giving and I thereby give you that. That's yours. [01:35:48] Speaker C: Thank you. [01:35:49] Speaker D: But just like everybody else, I'm going to give it a five. I'm going to give it a five. It's a great issue. It really hits the nail on the head. For everything you want from like the one and only Spawn Christmas issue, I'm going to give it five older sibling haircuts. Like five. Five. [01:36:05] Speaker C: Nadine knew you were going to say that. [01:36:07] Speaker D: I know you were. I know you knew because you always know what I'm going to say. And then you say it first. Like when you said five little Greggies out of five. Which you know what? I'm not mad about. You can have that. It's Christmas. That's yours now. [01:36:18] Speaker B: Love. I love how you know that if she puts on a. If she puts on a helmet to go skateboarding, that there's going to be tufts. [01:36:24] Speaker D: Yeah, exactly, exactly, exactly. That's what I always wanted my hair to look like in the 90s. I had the under shave. It looked like. [01:36:33] Speaker C: That's what I want my hair to look like now. But I don't have any. [01:36:35] Speaker D: Well, womp, womp. [01:36:37] Speaker A: David, you know what that. [01:36:39] Speaker B: What does that mean? [01:36:40] Speaker A: This is another entry to the Hellfire Club, baby. [01:36:42] Speaker B: Absolutely. [01:36:42] Speaker A: That's all fives all around. Play the sound effect. That's what we. We both consider five out of five. And this has never happened with a guest. So this is huge. [01:36:55] Speaker D: This is the perfect spawn comic. [01:36:58] Speaker A: It might be the perfect spawn comic. [01:37:00] Speaker B: It might be the perfect comic. [01:37:03] Speaker A: I don't know about that, but it's a lot of fun this time of year. It really hits the spots well and it just. It's great. [01:37:10] Speaker B: Well like, like all the best Christmasy things. It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has good job done and it just does the job particularly well. [01:37:18] Speaker D: Absolutely. [01:37:21] Speaker A: You know who else does the job particularly well? David. [01:37:23] Speaker B: Oh, who's that? [01:37:25] Speaker A: George and Pierce. So for our shout out today we want to of course just shout out Spawnography. You guys aren't listening. Please. [01:37:32] Speaker B: They put on a good show. [01:37:33] Speaker A: Check them out. It's a great show. [01:37:35] Speaker B: They have much more in depth background to certain things. So. [01:37:39] Speaker A: Yes. [01:37:40] Speaker B: So if you want to actually know facts in the world of. Of Spawn and etc. Comic books, they're the way to go. We're more vibes focused over here. [01:37:52] Speaker C: I don't know, sometimes we just talk about avatar for like 10 minutes. [01:37:55] Speaker D: Yeah, there was an episode. [01:37:59] Speaker A: That's good. [01:38:01] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:38:02] Speaker A: Thank you. Y'all talked about on. Because I listened to the. Just the episode you guys did on. [01:38:08] Speaker C: This and episode 23, if you want to go find it. [01:38:12] Speaker A: Hell yeah. The number 23. He talked about Furioso, which I really appreciated for like 10 minutes. [01:38:18] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. [01:38:18] Speaker A: I love that movie. So great movie. [01:38:20] Speaker B: Good movie. [01:38:20] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:38:22] Speaker A: I loved her, like, mentor guy who like solid Snake. He was so badass. Yeah. [01:38:27] Speaker D: Rip. That would be great. [01:38:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:38:31] Speaker D: Wow. [01:38:32] Speaker A: Well, so that's our shout out this week is Spawnography. Give them a follow, give them a listen. Wherever you get podcasts, please do that While you're on the Internet, please give us a follow and listen. We are regarding Spawn Pod on Instagram. [01:38:46] Speaker B: Yes. [01:38:47] Speaker A: And if you want to reach out, we are regarding spawnpodmail.com. [01:38:51] Speaker B: Yes, indeed. We will talk to you at either place, Instagram or the emails. We like talking to you. Previously on Next Time on. Regarding Spawn. Well, well, speaking of 37 other issues, Johnny, would you like to read 37 more issues for next week? [01:39:14] Speaker A: No. How about one? David? How about just one special issue? [01:39:17] Speaker B: Just one. Just one. Just one number three and not a number seven. [01:39:22] Speaker A: One number three. Exactly. And you always know when we're doing one issue, it probably means we have a guest and we do. Next week we have Rob Dwayna Sketchcraft. [01:39:31] Speaker B: Yes, indeed. [01:39:32] Speaker A: Interior artist of Spawn kills every Spawn on our podcast. Our first interior artist. [01:39:37] Speaker B: Yes. We are so pumped and we are covering his work. Spawn kills every spawn number three. [01:39:44] Speaker A: Yes, I'm sure it's great. We haven't been recording that this weekend as of this record, so we cannot wait for that. [01:39:50] Speaker B: Yeah, we cannot wait. I'm going to go ahead and say now that it's a fucking amazing episode and you guys are going to love it. If not, I'll love it at least. So very excited for that. So. So get yourself some Spawn kills every spawn number three. I mean, go ahead and get. All of them are out right now. [01:40:09] Speaker C: It's. [01:40:09] Speaker B: It's a fun little. If you want to. If you want to wait for the trade, wait for the trade. And then, you know, while you're reading the third issue, just listen to us talk to Rob Duanez about it. [01:40:19] Speaker C: Come on. [01:40:24] Speaker A: What else we got? Like, review, subscribe. Thanks, Lonnie Bones, for our music. [01:40:29] Speaker B: Yes, Lonnie Bones. [01:40:32] Speaker C: And thank you all for having us also. [01:40:34] Speaker A: Oh, of course. We'll get into that. Yeah. [01:40:36] Speaker B: Thank you for coming. [01:40:37] Speaker A: So much fun. Like, just. This was great. This is one of the Best times we've had recording episode in a long time. [01:40:45] Speaker B: Yeah. It's fun to do something that, you know, we can fall back in it a little bit. We don't have to think so hard about issue 39 of Spawn. It's. Yeah, it's very clear what it is from the beginning, and we don't have to piece it together to other things. So it's. It's also a fun little. A fun little jaunt. [01:41:04] Speaker D: That's right. [01:41:04] Speaker B: And glad we could bring friends along to do it. And, man, love talking Spawn with both of you. [01:41:11] Speaker C: Hell, yeah. [01:41:12] Speaker B: So much fun. [01:41:14] Speaker D: It was. It was really a blast. And thank you guys so much for having us on. We'll have to have you guys back on again soon as. Well, you know, anything. [01:41:23] Speaker C: We'll. We'll talk about the movie probably with y'all first before anybody else. So we're working on scheduling that, which I'm. [01:41:30] Speaker B: I'm excited to watch the movie again and feel like there's bits that I didn't catch any previous times because it always feels like a different movie every time I watch it. [01:41:40] Speaker C: You know, that is definitely about it. [01:41:44] Speaker D: One of its qualities. [01:41:46] Speaker A: It's just a fever dream. It's like, what am I? What happened? [01:41:50] Speaker B: All right, well, with that, I think. I think we've all kind of run out of things to say, so may I just be the last to say to you all today. May the Scorch be with you and also with you. Hell, yeah. [01:42:06] Speaker A: Hell, yeah. So what do you guys have? Any other favorite, like, Christmas episodes of things like. [01:42:16] Speaker D: Or movies. [01:42:17] Speaker A: I know we talked a little bit, but, like, is there any. Or comic books even? Or. They're famous Christmas comics. Besides this. This one here that I. Y'all know so much more about that than I do. [01:42:27] Speaker D: There are. I don't know, Daredevil. [01:42:31] Speaker C: There's some Mark Wade. There's some Mark Wade. [01:42:33] Speaker D: Yeah. That's cool. [01:42:34] Speaker C: That has, like, some. [01:42:35] Speaker D: That. [01:42:35] Speaker C: That's why that came up in, like, why I mentioned it, because there's some Daredevil that I was like. Oh, that's really good. Yeah. It's so good. [01:42:43] Speaker D: So good. Yeah. [01:42:44] Speaker C: There's also a bunch of episodes or issues. [01:42:49] Speaker B: Oh. [01:42:49] Speaker C: That are, like, really lovely. [01:42:51] Speaker B: There's. What do you get the man who. Who has everything? The Alan Moore Superman. [01:42:57] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, of course. And then there's also the classic Kitty Pride being stuck in the mansion with an alien trying to kill her. [01:43:06] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [01:43:08] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:43:08] Speaker C: Which is technically Christmas, sort of. And she's Jewish, so she's left behind, which is, like, up in retrospect. Oh, I should stop recording, right? [01:43:21] Speaker A: Yeah, let's stop recording.

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