Kray Z Comics And Stories

We jump right in by talking about how Conan didn’t light the box office on fire, and more on the way Cowboys and Aliens made it’s way to the screen and eBay fame. This leads to a discussion of Mark Millar, The Simpsons, Squeak the Mouse and comics too violent to be imported into the US. This leads to…

Tales From The Shop, sponsored by Chris B, and we go into more detail on our contest to write lyrics for the Tales from the Shop Theme!

We quickly move to the bad guys in Hostess ads, Joe buying comics at Hastings and Cory keeps wondering how he gets from New Mexico to Wisconsin so quickly JUST TO BUY COMICS, and then they read the ad that DC Comics has given comic shops to promote the new 52 #1s!!!

Weirdly enough, this leads into Joe talking about buying ads for his old comic shop on TV and then into the secret history of the cable access show they were on in the 90’s called Collectin’ Stuff and how it is connected with Professional Wrestling! All this and the usual shenanigans!

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Cory wants to dive right into finishing up the order projections on DC’s 52 new #1s, but Joe gets things off track, as he always does, by talking about putting together orders at his old comic shop. After they get done with that silliness, they dive back into what they would order on the DC Reboot if they still worked at and/or owned a comic shop.

After they get done with the rundown of order figures, Cory goes on a HUGE rant on how DC isn’t doing their part to help the retailers by laying out an ad campaign. After they get done, they talk about the comics Joe is buying in New Mexico, watching TV through streaming and other shenanigans.

At the end, we shove in the ads including an ad for Chris B …and there is a CONTEST where people can send in lyrics to the Tales from the Shop theme and win fabulous prizes!

All this and much much more!

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They start this series of special shows by explaining where Joe is. That’s right, he’s shipped out again and hopefully the connection is better than it was in Dillingham Alaska. Believe it or not, we jump DIRECTLY into how Cory would have told Joe how to order DC’s 52 #1s.

OK, Joe distracts the show by talking about Border’s going under, the Mark Evanier book on the life of Jack Kirby, their favorite biographies and autobiographies, the Captain America movie, how I’d like to see Marvel reprint the old Disney stuff, San Diego news boring the hell out of us, and Cory’s need for pie.

As we get into Tales from the Shop (and back to the stuff on ordering DC’s 52 new #1s), which leads to our ad for Chris B …and there is a CONTEST where people can send in lyrics to the Tales from the Shop theme and win fabulous prizes!

When then get DEEP into how we would order DC’s 52 #1s in September. Which takes up the bulk of the show. Don’t ask, just listen!!!

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With only a few shows left before the BIG REBOOT where DC cancels us and replaces us with younger hosts that don’t have a lot of past continuity, we start off with Joe talking about his trip through South Dakota. Since he was digging through bargain bins, we talk about 90’s comics that flooded the market, why some stories couldn’t be reprinted and the sad fact that the Crazy Monument STILL is not completed.

We then discuss the list of current late comics. I doubt you’ll remember most of them.

As they discuss dealing with low selling books and really late books in Joe’s old shop, we have Tales from the Shop, sponsored by Chris B! 

This discussion leads to what Joe is interested in that he saw in the new Previews. Cory talks a bit about his comics order, but gets into how he spent his weekend reading the hardcover reprint of the series “Blazing Combat”. He gives a quick history of the book and a review (spoiler, he loved it). Joe has been reading Knights of the Dinner Table, and does a nice introduction to the book for people who haven’t read it. Cory talks about his love for the FF, and why he thinks it’s one of Marvel’s best books.

All this and the proverbial much much more.

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It’s the second part of our two part episode on the history of black and white comics and the boom and bust of the mid 80’s, so we have a familiar announcer get us all caught up on what has gone before.

We start up by explained what is going on with black and white comics and how they were affecting comics distribution in 1987 while Joe KEEPS interrupting with his theory about Gilligan’s Island. I would give a long descriptions of what goes on, but I’m just wanting to get the darn thing up and go to bed, so listen to it yourself, fanboy!

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We start by talking about Amish sexting. That’s right. Amish. Sexting.

Joe has had a pair of epiphanies,so we begin by talking about DC’s reboot and what Joe has been thinking about it. This leads into how hard it is to buy comics if you aren’t reading Previews, planning ahead and knowing what a publisher’s long term publishing plan is. This happy note leads us to our sponsors, World Wide News and Dreamhost (where you get $20 of your first year of hosting if you use the code KRAYZ). We also give a quick plug to Chris B and remind you that it’s long past time for you to order her CD. You should go do that while Joe and Cory talk about

Black and White Comics!

We start by talking about where comics started and why they were color in the beginning. Most comics were either color or “Duo-Tone”. Mostly because they knew Duo Damsel would become a popular character!

OK, no one knows who Duo Damsel is, but YOU come up with a joke about Duo-Tone. I dare you.

We get into how EC went to Black and White magazines with MAD and how they tried to go black and white with all of their books, only to be killed by poor distribution. We then discuss Jim Warren’s magazines like Creepy and Eerie, and how they created the idea for black and white magazines aimed at older readers to try to get wider distribution…but by the end of 1976, it was pretty much over. I’d also like to take this moment to apologize from my drunken co-host who spends a lot of the episode making loud crashing noises. Being straight edge, now, I’ll never do that to you.

At the same time, there were small direct only publishers who were publishing in black and white for cost reasons. When we get to the 80’s, the X-Men is the #1 selling book, indy books are doing well in the direct market and Frank Miller was the most popular artist in comics…so a couple of guys decide to parody his stuff with “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”…and Cory explains how a slow news day made it a HUGE selling comic. As Cory discusses how these parody books became big investment items, Joe starts spouting theories about Gilligan’s Island.

Cory even talks about his time writing for one of these companies, with some facts that may surprise you. All of this and the usual shenanigans in Part one of our discussion on the history of black and white comics!

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We start the show with Sad News, and I’m betting there will be a LOT of that as we go through the show. Joe is doing the show from bed,,,HELLO, NURSE! Oddly enough, we get to comics fairly early where Joe and Cory talk about what they have been reading lately.

First big sad news leads to a discussion of the constant renumbering of comics and how DC and Marvel don’t seem to know that there are fans who buy books to keep the run going, and we talk about customers who did that.

Back to the comics they were reading, Joe discloses how much he spent on comics last week, and I hope his wife isn’t reading this. You aren’t are you Chris? Some of the comics they like lately are the Green Lantern books, Walking Dead (and Joe goes off on getting a discount card in the middle of this, so it’s a mini-Tales From The Shop.) and the collected Bat Boy. From the Weekly World News.

Yep. They collected that.

We interrupt the program for MORE SAD NEWS! I’m amazed you all aren’t crying now since Lois Lane and Clark Kent will no longer be married. There’s also a discussion about Superman’s new costume and Joe’s theory as to why it was changed. Cory mentions the plethora of “popped collars” in the new costumes, and anyone who knows the 80’s knows what a popped collar means: The guy wearing the shirt is a douchebag. So, instead of DC comics, they will be called DB comics.

You may groan, but the crickets like it. This actually leads to another discussion of the Batman TV show. It’ll be nice once Cory has seen all of them and moves on to some other stupid obsession.

We have our ads for Dreamhost, Worldwidenews.solitairerose.com and Chris B and we talk about job interviews because it is the topic for the current strips on World Wide News. How is this a Tale from the Shop?

We talk about the hiring procedures at a comic shop (SPOILER, it’s not all that organized or planful), the different employees who spent parts of their lives there for next to know money and the love of comics!

All of this and the usual shenanigans!

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The show opens with the saddest of sad news!!

After we get that out of the way, we get into talking about the big DC announcement that they will be relaunching their entire line at the beginning of September. Joe and Cory talk about previous reboots, how DC is relying on old (failed) sales techniques and how they are reacting to it as fans.

After their ads for Dreamhost.com and Worldwidenews.solitairerose.com, they discuss what happened at SpringCon!

We stop in the middle with our NEW theme music for Tales From the Shop by sponsor Chris B (broomhildamusic.com). We then talk about the SpringCon for this year with stories about buying comics, sexy massage therapists, giving Howard Chaykin chicken sammiches and much, much more. You know the kind of shenanigans you are in for, so just hit play already!

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It’s a Super Sized episode as we highlight the 2011 SpringCon! Yeah, it’s the convention that Cory and Joe have been working on since the late 80’s, which makes them old. And not very bright, since friends don’t let friends work at Comic Book Conventions. We find out that Joe’s internet is NOT made out of moose antlers and get a short science lesson from him. And he’s blinded me, with SCIENCE!

After our lovely sponsors get their plugs, we discuss how Joe is able to get all of his stuff home from Barrow Alaska now that airlines will charge you if you have too much stuff. We would go on about the joys of having too much stuff, but we are interrupted by The Sad News Music, bringing the tale of the death of Tokyopop. Because Cory is a sick bastard, he goes into detail about why the company went under, stories of other companies who run into the same problems and if you are scared about the future of your favorite comic company, GOOD! You should go buy their stuff instead of stealing it off the interwebz, you lousy bums!

Then, it’s time! We talk about SpringCon!! We give the story of where the name came from (as well as why the one day was called MicroCon III for about 5 years in a row. Joe then discusses how he worked the convention when he was a retailer and how comic shops see comic conventions. Here’s a hint, it involves money! They give advice on what to bring as well as when and how to bring your art portfolio! They tell you what to bring to the convention! They talk about the history of the convention’s name! They go on and on about the convention for almost 90 minutes!

Download it and listen!

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OK, we start off with an update on Cory’s very serious medical condition, so if you want to skip that and if you want to skip that and go right to the comic stuff, skip to 34 minutes in for a mention of comics and until 41 minutes before we get into talking about comics.

Cory tells the story of how he ended up in the hospital for the 5 days, and Joe constantly interrupts with internet advice on how he could have gotten better.

Once we get to comics, Joe talks about the trade paperbacks that Cory was able to send up to Joe, and he recommends the ones he likes, and really only feels he wasted his money on a couple of them because they were too short. This leads to us to:

Tales From The Shop which is sponsored by Chris B at www.broomhildamusic.com Go there. Sign up for the newsletter. Buy her album. DO IT!!!

Out tale from the shop this time is when Joe had a medical issue when he had the small shop. He had to take a week away from the shop when he got a hernia from lifting too many damn comic boxes. Since he was out for a week, he created the League of Substitute Retailers. Finally, they discuss people who have said in interviews that they started reading comics when they were sick for a long time. Cory has a story like that where he was in the hospital after breaking his jaw and reading a bunch of the Giant Size comics from the 70’s and getting hooked on Silver Age Marvel.

This leads to a discussion of understanding the difference between a reprint and a new comic when you are a kid, Peanuts paperbacks, MAD Paperbacks, and Car-Toons magazine of all things. Have you ever seen a copy of Car-Toons magazine? It’s horrible. I’ve seen comics from grade schoolers that look better.

That’s it. That’s all. Go listen. And send Cory a get well card.

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