Kray Z Comics And Stories

Every month, Joe and Cory!! go through Previews to highlight comics coming in the future. This time, they go through Previews for comics shipping in June 2025 and beyond, point out the new, the collected and the interesting for YOU to bother your comic shop about!

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Joe’s partner in comics, Pat Gruber passed away a few weeks ago, and this week, we share stories and pay tribute to Pat.  Joe met Pat in High School over a shared love of comics. They started a convention based business together and then bought Hot Comics St. Paul in 1992. Joe and Cory!! Talk about:

• How Cory!! met Pat.
• Pat accidentally putting adult themed trading cards into MCBA giveaway 
• The Pat character in a minicomic made by two people at Hot Comics
• “The Shed”
• The infamous Wisconsin Dells comic convention
• How Pat outwitted a scammer by making sure he got cash
• The Poker game at MCBA cons and how Frank Cho lost a LOT of money and had to do commissions to make up the losses. 
• The infamous “blind guts” game
• Pat meeting Traci Lords
• “Hot Artist!!!!”

We also discuss Diamond Distribution news, freaking and geek, and the usual shenanigans. 

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Every month, Joe and Cory!! go through Previews to highlight comics coming in the future. This time, they go through Previews for comics shipping in May 2024 and beyond, point out the new, the collected and the interesting for YOU to bother your comic shop about! AND because of time constraints, they cover everything BUT Marvel and DC who were in Last Week’s episode.

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Every month, Joe and Cory!! go through Previews to highlight comics coming in the future. This time, they go through Previews for comics shipping in May 2024 and beyond, point out the new, the collected and the interesting for YOU to bother your comic shop about! AND because of time constraints, they only go through Marvel and DC, with everything else being in part 2, so it’s a Very Special Episode

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Cory found an old issue of Amazing Heroes in his vast files and sent Joe a copy of the top 100 selling comics list. Joe and Cory!! Go over the sales, what surprised them, what they bought, and some behind the scenes information on the comics named.

They also discuss:

• Joe and Cory give their “Five things they did at their jobs last week” report
• Cory has a trip to buy Previews and FAILS
• How did the comic Groo give us the phrase “Marvel Zombies”
• Cory!! Finding out about Alan Moore early on in his Swamp Thing run in the 1980’s
• We find a comic right outside the top 100 that NEITHER CORY NOR JOE KNOW ABOUT!! 
• Cory!! Talks about when DC comics bought ads in college newspapers in 1986.

A retro review of Amaing Spider-Man 178

All of this, the usual shenanigans and much, much more!

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We have a NEW Segment:  Diamond Watch as we go over the news coming out of Diamond’s bankruptcy

After that, Cory and Joe discuss their Fave Five Comic Series Crossovers!  The stories they discuss are:

• Spider-Man 171/Nova 12
• The Avengers/Defenders War
• Peace on Earth Thor 371/Thor 372/Avengers 296/Avengers 297/Fantastic Four 350 – 354
• Acts of Vengance – Marvel
• Tomb of Dracula 41/Doctor Strange 14
• Fantastic Four Annual 11/Marvel Two In One Annual 1/Marvel Two in One 20
• Superman Family 190
• Avengers Annual 8/Marvel Two In One Annual 2

All of this, the usual shenanigans and much, much more!

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Every month, Joe and Cory!! go through Previews to highlight comics coming in the future. This time, they go through Previews for comics shipping in March 2024 and beyond, point out the new, the collected and the interesting for YOU to bother your comic shop about!

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Joe and Cory!! read a LOT of comics, and this week, they will review a big batch fo them, including:
-Dog Moon and Hell Eternal (Vertigo)

-Mad Magazine 44 (DC Comics) 

-Smarg – A local Minnesota comic 

-The Little Stooges (American Entertainment)

-Astro City Metrobook 6 (Image)

-Epitaphs From The Abyss 7 (Oni)

They also discuss:
-Cory!! hypes his Gwandanaland subscription and they don’t even pay him to do it.

-Joe talks about how he would watch The Monkees at 3 am when Twin Cities TV went 24 hours

-They wander off onto a rabbit trail about syndicated TV packages of the 1970s

All of this, the usual shenanigans, and much, much more!

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It’s our 15th anniversary as well as Epiusode 666, so we have TWO things to do. Our secret origin and then the history of Marve;’s Son of Satan!  We also discuss:

• Why was the show ALMOST called Travelling Geeks?
• Where did freaking and geeking come from?
• What is the “push and pull” of the show?
• Joe still wants the podcast to be live on video.  
• What was the FIRST version of Son of Satan Sta Lee recommended
• And then there was a SECOND series name before Son of Satan
• How Son of Satan had to deal with 1970’s Marvel “Revolving Door” or artists
• A sideline into the Marvel Fill In series
• How the write when Son of Satan went from Marvel Spotlight to his own book was…problematic
• What happened to Son of Satan after his 70’s hayday? 

Joe’s Retro Review is the first issue of Hogan’s Heroes

All of this, the usual shenanigans, and much, much more!

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Diamond Comics Distribution has declared bankruptcy, which means they are going to reorganize under Chapter 11. This is a HUGE change in the industry, so Joe and Cory!! Have to talk about it. In doing so, they discuss:

• Cory gives a history lesson on how comics distribution got to where it is today.
• He starts with 1957. Wait, what?
• The start of the direct market in the 1970’s.
• The black and white comics collapsed in the 1980’s.
• Comics distribution in the early 1990’s
• Why the Twin Cities went with Capital City Distribution instead of Diamond in the 80’s and early 90’s.
• Marvel buying Heroes world and the comics distribution collapse of the 90’s.
• Joe talks about the weird things you had to do when ordering comics to get special discounts and rare items.
• Issue with Diamond over the years.
• How the pandemic was the last nail in Diamond’s coffin
• What is the fallout going to be

All of this, a Retro Review, Freaking and Geeking, and much, much more!

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