Kray Z Comics And Stories

It’s a much delayed due to a hospital stay Kray Z Comics and Stories, and by now, Cory!! is so gun-shy about starting the show and being interrupted that he hesitates all through the opening. For good reason, as Joe interrupts to plug the MNCBA SpringCon, where Joe and Cory!! Will be appearing! They interrupt the plugs to talk about how polybags are coming back, Joe playing Facebook games, and wondering why Joe looks like his wife beat the crap out of him. You want to know why Joe has a huge gash above his eye as seen in the picture on his Facebook? LISTEN TO THE DAMN SHOW ALREADY!!

Since we were talking about injuries, Cory!! tells a story having to stitch up an injury with super glue, just like he was working at ECW back in the 90’s. His story, although finished for the most part, is interrupted by the Sad Music. Now the concept of Sad Music is stolen (as well as the crickets, sponsors and Joe being a wandering Hobo) from Wrestlecrap Radio, and if they want to ask us for it back, they can ask. Then, we’ll just steal for Car Talk or Howard Stern. It’s like real radio, where everyone is a thief anyway. The sad music is playing because Cory’s beloved Tivo, with 90 hours of televised crap on it, has died. After the morning period, Cory declared “Video bankruptcy” and Cory and Joe discuss the idea of just giving up on buying/getting new media (books, movies, etc…) because they just will never have time to get to them in their lifetime. Joe even did that with his comics back when he owned the comic shop.

This leads to a discussion of Bottom Feeders, people who come in for extreme sales to buy tons of comics for whatever reason. As we discuss these sorts of buyers it leads into Tales From The Shop:

Tales from the Shop is sponsored by Chris B.  So go to Chris’s website, sign up for the mailing list, buy the music and let her know that comics fans like good music too!

Our tale from the shop is “What did Cory do on the last day of Joe’s shop?” He fulfilled a lifetime fantasy on the last day there. No, not THAT fantasy, you sick bastards. Cory then talks to Joe about working at Shinder’s and digging through the back issues and marking up the cheese for the quarter bins. This leads to Joe talking about buying comics from “The Throat”. Don’t ask. In fact as I look over what I’ve written, the whole damn show is a double entendre waiting to happen.

We talk about some other people who would buy cheap comics in bulk for various reasons. We also discuss other fans who dig through bargain bins for various reasons. You would think the show would be done by now, but you’re wrong!

Cory picked up the new issue of Previews and is about ready to give an old fashioned rant, but Joe interrupts (sense a theme here?) to complain that Cory hasn’t sent him anything to read yet. We get to the rant and then discuss the stuff we’ve been reading lately, so we end with what we’ve been reading lately. Now, go listen to it!

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It’s time for yet another show, although if you listen, you won’t know the name of the show because Joe charges right in like a rhino on adderal with his plugs for SpringCon over in St. Paul. Oh wait, that could be poetry. Should I write the whole description in rhyme?

No. Poetry sucks.

Joe is also got a BIG announcement which will lead to a poll on TheComicForums.com that no one will vote in! You know how we said last episode that we want to have a get-together with the listeners here in Minnesota? Yeah, that’s not the announcement. They then talk about frying Pop-Tarts and Cory’s son wanting to inherit Cory’s comics. Really. These guys need to focus. They go back to discussing the comic convention’s early days, and how it was held for years in the tackiest hotel in Minnesota. We talk for quite a while about the early days of the convention from Cory’s point of view and how Joe got involved in the convention. Lots of stories here about Shinder’s that would have gotten Cory sued if Shinder’s still existed. But they don’t. So to hell with them.

We then segue into Tales from the Shop,WHICH HAS A SPONSOR!! Singer/Songwriter Chris Bargmann (at http://broomhildamusic.com/) is now the sponsor of Tales From The Shop.

After the longest introduction ever, since Joe is still running like a ferret after 5 double espressos, he tells the story of the Triangle of Terror, three comic shops working together to try to drive buys to each store. Oddly enough, it failed. Just like the new version of “V”, except the new version of “V” had explosions and the Triangle of Terror had chubby comics fans. It leads to a discussio0n of comic shops advertising and how it really drove sales to comic shops in the early 90’s.

Just so you know, while I’m editing this, I’m reading about 70’s exploitation movies and eating jelly beans. Working hard for you, the Kray Z Comics and Stories listeners.

This leads into more stories about how comic shops would order books or not order books even if people wanted to buy them and why. He also talks about why it was smart to open a comic shop near a Shinder’s because they would eventually drive customers to a comic shop by being rude to customers. Did I mention that Shinder’s is out of business?

To keep us from spending the whole episode bashing a comic shop chain that went out of business 5 years ago, Cory asks Joe about his recent comics purchases. Joe talks about Superman and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Cory goes into the core of Spider-Man and why he really likes the current run of Amazing Spider-Man. While Joe saves the world from vampire polar bears, Cory talks about the hardcovers he’s been reading. Wow, he likes old comics. Stuff from before he was born and while he was a small child. Is that a sign of senility?

Thankfully, they DO talk about comics from this Millennium as they talk about the Walking Dead TV show and comic, the stuff Cory reads first from his comic shipment and the proverbial much, much more.

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Joe starts complaining during the introduction and doesn’t stop! He’s upset we aren’t weekly, he’s upset that Cory wants to give the name of the podcast, upset that he can’t stop talking about the SpringCon here in Minnesota! After our plugs for worldwidenews.solitairerose.com and Dreamhost.com (use the code Krayz to save $20 on your new website!), we talk about the sale of Amazing Fantasy #15 and the heartbreak of slabbing books.

This leads to a discussion of grading comics, with stories of Cory’s time at Shinder’s, Joe talks about a comic he had that turned from rare to crap after being slabbed and we discuss a comic collector/dealer who has one of the most impressive comics collections around. And of course, any story about working at Shinder’s is a story about selling pr0n. But we digress, as we always do. Did you notice we forgot about naming the crickets? And we haven’t sent out the prize for admitting you read Deathmate? Is that a gimmick we ALSO store from Wrestlecrap radio?

We go back to talking about buying comics from customers at Shinder’s, which Joe derails by talking about Facebook. We’ve GOT to get him out of Barrow, Alaska and back to civilization. We then launch into a WHOLE BUNCH of Tales From The Shop, including:

-Cory buying a huge Silver Age collection for pennies on the dollar for Shinder’s

-Joe’s first big buy that started him as a “weekend warrior” buying and selling back issues at conventions

-Joe’s mom breaking copyright laws. Whoops…better hide that from the Lawyers.

-The kind of stuff people would bring into the shop for Joe to buy in the 90’s.

-How Joe got free comics for NOT buying a run of Justice League

-How Cory bought a nearly complete collection of Warren Magazines because a shop owner couldn’t care less about them

-How Joe would get great back issues by not doing anything

-How Cory started doing packs of comic book runs (and we have an appearance of Censor Cat)

-Why the new shop didn’t have back issues, and the state of buying and selling back issues in the current market

All this and the usual shenanigans!

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We begin the show with Cory complaining about his horrible haircut, which is what you are looking for in a comic book podcast. We then discuss our wonderful sponsors www.worldwidenews.solitairerose.com and dreamhost.com (where you get $20 off setting up your website if you use the code Krayz), and wonder if it’s legal for cigarettes to sponsor a podcast. We also talk about the upcoming 2 day Minnesota Comic Con and the stuff we will be doing there. We also go into the news that San Diego Comic Con sold out so fast that most people can’t get in. What in the world should they do? Joe and Cory BOTH have ideas.

Oddly enough, this leads to a discussion of marshmallow microwave popcorn. Really!

Eventually, they DO start discussing comics, with Joe talking about what he’s reading up in Alaska, and Cory!! talks about the difference between DC horror books from the Silver Age and Marvel Monster books from the Silver Age (he even says good things about Don Heck!). They discuss a few other books they’ve been reading, but when they get to the Batman TV being re-run on a cable channel and it leads to declarations of love for Julie Newmar! It also leads to a discussion about wanting super-heroes who are actually heroic instead of just fighting crime, but are just as bad as the criminals they fight.

We have a lot of “Tales From The Shop” as we talk about the end of a local comic shop, what they did wrong, and how comic shops close down from Joe’s perspective. It also bring in discussing overall comics sales, the issues with orders and distributor issues, which Joe and Cory know a lot about.  This leads to a LONG discussion on the mechanics involved in shutting down a comic shop.  All this and more in a Super-Sized Episode!

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We start the episode with a brief discussion of the weather before we plow right into Comics! Cory talks about the DVD he purchased that has every Star Trek comic from 1967 to 2002, which oddly enough leads to a discussion of the genesis of “Cowboys and Aliens”. If you know how Joe got to THAT trade paperback from a discussion of the Star Trek comics, please let us know at our phone number: (952) 856-0519

We then talk about the DVD some more, and this leads to a discussion of the inter-company crossovers of the 90s like Star Trek meets the X-Men, Archie Meets the Punisher, Total Eclipse and the big DC vs Marvel miniseries. Oddly enough, there is a Jay Leno story in the middle of all of this. Again, don’t ask me how…

We do our regular plugs for:

www.worldwidenews.solitairerose.com

dreamhost.com (use the code Krayz for a $20 discount)

and the SpingCon: www.minnesotacomicbook.com

The show then gets serious as we discuss the life and career of writer Dwayne McDuffie who passed away last week until the end of the episode.

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Wizard Magazine has died! Cory and Joe discuss the magazine, the history of comics fan magazines, how Wizard fueled the speculator boom and a number of related topics. We also have the usual shenanigans, including spoilers on Walking Dead, Fantastic Four, The Sixth Sense and other movies; what’s going on in Barrow Alaska; and the debut of the Censor Cat!

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We start up by giving the story of how Cory!! left his part time theater job for a new full-time job! Finally! Because he has some time between jobs, he took a trip to his hometown and found that they had opened TWO new comic shops. Joe, however, is amazed at the sun coming up in Barrow Alaska for a grand total of 20 minutes. We have more of the usual shenanigans, but quickly go to Sad New: The Comics Code is dead. Cory!! gives a history lesson on how comics sales were affected in the 50’s, and how the code did NOT cause the collapse in comic books sales, TV and distribution issues are what nearly killed comics in the 50’s.

Joe discusses his reading of the Walking Dead Omnibus and we debut the new Spoiler Alert Sound (created by guinea pigs…REALLY!!), and we talk about about the older series Deadworld and how it is different from Walking Dead.

We then finally dig into what we said we would last time, and do some analysis on the best selling comics of the year and why we think they sold the best as well as more evidence that while we all talk about not buying 3.99 books, the 3.99 books are what sell. There is also a discussion of market share, dollar share and other things that drive comic company profits and why they will be doing new events in order to drive people into the stores.

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We start with a discussion of the Spider-Man musical, nuclear explosions and our sponsors! We then find out that Joe is in Barrow Alaska! That’s right, the northernmost town in the US. Joe discusses the comics he’s been able to find up in the frozen tundra.

We then have sad news about Cory’s job hunt. Well good news for him, but bad news for listeners. Joe talks about getting food in Alaska where milk is $10 a gallon, and what he’s been reading up in the land of eternal night. This lead to talking about serialized reading, and attempts in the early 90’s to keep people going to bookstores. It must not have worked since Border’s is nearly dead and EVERYONE knows it’s sick. How does this affect comics? We discuss that!

Comics-wise, we discuss going more digital in today’s world, the changes in Marvel and DC management…which then leads Joe to talk about how hard it is to buy booze in Alaska.

After all of these shenanigans, we dive into the theme of the episode: What do we want from comics companies in 2011!

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We start with letting the listeners know what is going on in Minnesota with HUGE amounts of snow, and how it has affected the show. After our ads, we get into discussing COMICS NEWS:

-JMS is off of Superman and Wonder Woman

-Sales charts are out, and again nothing is selling over 100k, and we talk for quite a while about the state of comics sales.

-Marvel announced prices for a set of mini-series.

Then, we discuss Joe’s latest attempt to get out of town for a far off assignment, and how that fell apart and he wasn’t even able to get home due to the Minneapolis Blizzard.

Finally, after all of this discussion, we get to the theme of the episode, Winter Reading. Everyone talks about summer reading/beach books…light reading that’s fun on a beach or whatever. Winter, however, is when you read Big, Thick Serious Books. So, Joe and I discuss some of our favorite Big Thick, Meaningful comics!

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We start by explaining Joe’s technical difficulties that have kept our dynamic duo from recording. Then, we catch up on Cory!!’s job hunting, giving horror stories of on-line job applications and bad interviews….during which they are interrupted by breaking news, Syfy has announced their Movie Schedule for the next few months. Joe then lets us know what he’s been doing at his job, and why he’s now thought of as a “junk collector.”

Then, finally, we get to comics discussion, like the Walking Dead TV series, the big book of DC Comics history, and believe it or not, this leads to a discussion of Marvel’s “Fan Clubs” like the Mighty Marvel Marching Society, FOOM and WAM. When we get to what we’re reading, we discuss the big change in Spider-Man.

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