In this episode, the hosts delve deep into the world of the X-Men, discussing the latest dynamics and shifts in the Marvel universe. The hosts focus most of their attention on the Hellfire Gala special, diving into potential spoilers and the brutal stripping away of every success the X-Men have achieved. The dynamics between popular characters like Professor X, Magneto, and Moira MacTaggart are explored, alongside the challenges and choices that Marvel faced with the involvement of various writers like Hickman, Dugan, and Brisson. They also touch upon the complications with rights and shifts in character prominence due to external movie deals, offering some conspiracy theories and insights into Marvel's strategy during the Fox and Inhuman eras.

In this episode, get introduced to your hosts and find out a bit about what got them into comics in the first place! Transcript: Multiverse0_mixdown2 [00:00:00] This is episode zero of the multiverse. Come get to know us. Welcome to the multiverse podcast. This is episode zero. My name is Jason Roberts and you've got myself and a couple of the other guys who work here in this. Handy dandy comic shop, friendly neighborhood shop in Hurst, Texas. And we just thought it'd be fun to have some of the conversations we have in the shop recorded so that we can share them with all of you. To start off with this very first episode we thought it might make sense to to have each of us introduce ourselves. And first up is going to be Scott. Hi there I'm Scott Gilbert. I am the back issue shipping guy here on the weekends at the Multiverse.[00:01:00] How long I've been in collecting comics, as I was saying before. About roughly the 6th grade is when I think I could really be considered a collector. And I'm 55 years old now, so I was getting them back when they were on toilet paper and they cost a nickel. You're only 55? I thought you had Action Comics number one came out. Oh God, if I had five more. If I had, I wouldn't need a second job, Jason, but I would, and I'd probably have sold it to you. So there it's overrated. Is it? Yeah. Now Steve's got four of them. So that's, did you hear that? There's a congressman, one of the freshman congressmen, had the National Archives bring a copy of Action Comics number one to swear in on instead of a Bible. Really? You don't have to swear in on a Bible, you can swear in on anything else. Now somebody, the person that told me said it was Superman number one. I have to assume. If you're going to swear in on something, it's going to be action. But yeah, one of the freshman congressmen this round, that's what they did. Gotta respect that, but also question the use of our, my tax dollars going through the National Archives, I find that, do they have comics [00:02:00] in the National Archives, I believe they probably do. I think they have one of everything. Can you imagine that power? Like the one time you can pull anything you want. That's right. I would totally do it. Do I find out, are there aliens at Roswell, or do I touch Action Comics number one? You'd touch Action Comics number one. I'm probably going to touch Action Comics number one. I'm pretty sure they kept it wrapped. What in the world is that over there? I don't know, Nick Cage stole the Constitution, so that was Yeah, I'm not going to do that. Yeah, there you go. I believe he owned a couple. He actually did. I don't know if he had to, I think it's last the divorce. Yeah. Or the carpenter stole it from his house. There was a thing where I stole it. I don't know the man, but he had a bad run of some luck with his comic books and. I don't know who I'd ransom back faster, my comic books or my kids, because my kids could probably get out a window, but the comics are going to sit there. I gotta... You gotta look at the big picture. [00:03:00] Yeah. And I've read my kids can replace my kidney, but the comic might be able to pay for the kidney replacement. So I don't know where I fall on that. You might get a trade on a new kidney and a lesser quality action comics, number one. So you're still in the game. As long as it's slabbed. That's right. As long as it's slabbed. Anyway we've got a little note here about what got me into collecting comics. And for me, when I looked at this question, I started researching my first comics I actually remembered. Being something that I read and kept up with, because earlier on you got the little three packs, you'd tear into them, you'd read them, but those ended up being coverless, or stapled up on your wall. But for me it was Marvel, and two of them, Avengers 154, and Fantastic Four 164. The common theme in there is they were both, the interiors were done by George Perez. And I remember, That art caught my eye before I [00:04:00] knew creators. Yeah I didn't know that George Perez didn't draw every comic on the planet yet. Yeah, I didn't read any of that. And then years later, cause I was a, Marvel zombie for many years, but years later I saw George Perez on new teen Titans 23. And he did the cover of a Justice League, JSA, JLA crossover, which I think is 218 or 219, forgive me, I don't have those notes in front of me, but I can say that George Perez art initially roped me in to the comics and I regretfully, it was probably years later before I had a deeper appreciation of art styles and creative talent, but what fascinated, the team books fascinated me. Captain America, Iron Man running around. You watch Super Friends back in the 70's and that all made sense, it was on TV, but sitting there reading it, you hadn't, I hadn't seen anything like that. So that's what grabbed [00:05:00] me and kept running. Plus you got all the superheroes that you wanted to see in one comic for your, Heroes you didn't know who they were. I didn't know who Scarlet Witch or Vision. Yeah, we're at that particular moment in time, I knew Captain America because I had the Mego figure, and I still can't find that shield. I lost that early on, but those Dixie Cup tops really worked out good. You could take that on an arm and color it, so that's how I got by. Where did you get your comics from? On Sundays, this will add to the story, on Sundays my father would take my sister and I to the local 7 Eleven here in Hearst, and we were allowed to get one Slurpee, at the time they were handing out the Marvel Slurpee cups one item we could read, comic book, magazine, whatever, and then a pack of bubble gum cards. So it was, I was getting my comics off the spinner rack, it would be, wouldn't it be until my... 13th or 14th birthday a couple years later that I even knew of a comic shop or what the freestanding [00:06:00] store Can you know what could offer you right and here in Hearst? We didn't have a proper one until my sophomore year in high school We had a little store up the street that sold back issues, but magic tricks as well. You couldn't get new issues there, but when I stumbled into the first Comic store where you had all the new issues and all the back issues. I just wanted to look at my parents and go, you can leave me here. I don't need, I'll be right here. First time I bought bags. Didn't know about bags. Because they didn't have them. There were no backing boards back then. And all they had were long boxes. With the dreaded back, cardboard back that would sit in a slot so you could expand your collection as it filled the box, but those never held more than about ten before it just collapsed over. That was the design they got rid of quickly. But that's how I got my comics until I found a proper comic store. Did some mail order subscriptions, but those always came creased.[00:07:00] I like the, you get that, you hear a story like that, and then you get that flashback because we all had a part of that to some degree. So you're mentioning 7 Eleven, and you're mentioning, Slurpee Cups and things like that. And now all of a sudden I'm flashbacking without the benefit of LSD. Or am I? And I can remember that. I remember Spinaraks, I don't remember interacting with them, I remember getting money for trading cards because I had a ridiculously huge Star Wars trading card collection. Some of them had the red band, some of them had the yellow band. The blue for each, yes. The blue. Like volume one, volume two. Yeah. And I remember having a Slurpee cup because The character that was on the Slopey Cup was Mr. Mixy Spitlick. And I had no idea who that was until years and years later, because I wasn't really a DC superhero kid as far as [00:08:00] comics go. I've had that cup now, because thanks to Gilbert Gottfried on the Superman cartoon, that character cranks me up. But yeah, it's that sort of flash oh yeah, 7 Eleven, Slurpee, trading cards, comics, fun, it's funny what you're... What you remember about those first cups. I remember my first one was quick silver and I didn't know what the heck that was in the second one. I remember was man thing. And I was going, what do I need to do to get a Spider Man, what do I need to do? I don't know who either one of these guys are. And it wasn't like the cups told you anything, on the back, there'd be the character reciting something, but it never told me, Hey, I'm this, Version of the flash and right. This universe is swamp thing. I wouldn't have known who swamp thing is either. But I just remember looking at those going Spider Man, Captain America. And, but that was the hook to get you, keep you going back. We've got this, the, see, usually I can rattle that name off [00:09:00] mix old. Mix your spit lick. But I've got to think about Gilbert, again, Gilbert Godfrey, explaining how to pronounce the name from that kind of mix. And then the little picture of the bowl, I think, and a spoon, yes, and spit, and then lick. Creepy old man with a bowler hat. What the hell is that? But that's pronounced differently than Super Friends did it. Super Friends pronounced it slightly differently than that. I don't remember the character being in Superman. Mixel Spitalik. Yeah. I remember I've that's how I always pronounce it. That's the only way I knew how to do it. Mixel Spitalik. But can you say it backwards? I cannot. No. But I do want to take a moment. You've been talking a whole lot, but you haven't really introduced yourself. Oh, there's a reason for that. Oh, there's a reason for that. No, there's no reason for that. Because there's an FBI van that just pulled up. Are you having to go out the back again? Because that's annoying. I think they're getting wise today. I'm Steven, and yeah, now I'm freezing. How long have you been collecting comics? When did you start? Okay the, I [00:10:00] remember being a kid growing up in Florida. Because all us South Floridians sound like this. That's a joke that never gets old. Originally, y'all did. At some, depends on when maybe, yeah, that's a different I guess the word originally would what's the definition of that? What's the definition? The guys on the boat. Guys on the boat, there you go. I did not have the experience 7 Eleven and buying comics or anything like that. What I had was there was a church. Called St. Bernadette's. I don't know if it's still there or not. For anyone listening to this who happens to live near Hollywood, Florida, which is where I was born, if St. Bernadette's is still there say hello for me. They used to have a fair, and it was one of these very low key. Someone had hand built a train track so the kids could go around on a train. None of this stuff is up to code. This is all rusty nails. We didn't have codes back then. Elmer's glue [00:11:00] and plywood and stuff like that. I rode in the back up on the, in the windowsill of the family Lincoln. Oh, exactly. I thought it was great because the vibration of the speaker, would roll you to sleep. And there was always somebody there. Selling bundles of comics for, you get 20, 20 comics for a buck or so, whatever it was. And that was where my, my parents, my dad in particular would invariably grab one of these things. Oh, that'd be great. The kid would like to read this. And what I would always seem to end up with are these really strange DC war comics, haunted tank. And, this, the zombie brigade or, the, that story of, the creature commandos, the GI who's been stranded on an island only to find out that all the Japanese soldiers are now zombies and they're trying to, or variations on a theme. So that was my exposure to, to, to comics was like this is weird. This is very weird very strange. But the bug got [00:12:00] me. in June of 1982 because I just moved to England and I'm finding my feet and my mum and I were living with my grandad at the time and my grandad, who's retired he was in his very early 80s and he used to as many English people do would go into town to go to the pub and that's how he would spend The day. Not kidding. And he would, he took me with him and the pub in Letchworth which is where I grew up which if you've seen the Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright movie The World's End, that's where they filmed it. And the pub that my granddad used to go to is the Black Squirrel. I think it's the beehive in The World's End. Okay. And, he would go in there and start knocking them back. And there was a lounge and a bar. And the children couldn't go into the bar. And they [00:13:00] really couldn't go into the lounge. But the bartender knew my granddad. And he was like, no, that's okay. As long as he, as long as he sits next to the emergency exit and keeps quiet. So if any cops or inspectors come in, he can give my granddad the nod. And I'll run out the, Emergency exit. But this one day we went down there. And before we went to the pub, my grand We were outside a newsagent called WH Smiths. And my grandad he gave me a pound. A pound note, and he said, why don't you go and get yourself some comics and some sweets and stuff like this, now my grandad's mine uses like a pound, I should have walked out of there with, a complete, Encyclopedia Britannica Action Comics number one, a couple of them just, yeah, exactly, shares in, in Toblerone or whatever, yeah, and I came out with four comics because that's the day that I discovered that unlike the newspaper shop that [00:14:00] was on the council estate that we had moved to and there's a whole other show in British comics. Yeah, we'll do that. we were talking about that. But anyway, I, they had a big stack of American monthlies, and I was like that these were all 60 cents, I think. But they had a UK price in very tiny letters underneath the American price of UK 25p. And I was like, I can get four of these, which I did. And I still have them. And I remember walking out, my grandad's Oh, what'd you get, what'd you get? I'm like, I got these. A big smile on my face. That's all you got? What? And he was really pissed off and upset about that. But yeah, there were four marvels. It was Uncanny X Men issue 1 6 0, which is the issue that introduced... It didn't introduce Ileana Rasputin, but it's the issue where Ileana Rasputin goes to limbo for the first time. [00:15:00] Brent Anders drew that? Absolutely, yes. Brent Anderson. Yes, Anderson. Exactly. And it's Belasco and it, they find teenager Ileana and yes. The X Men go down and, do you know this? Oh, this. No, it's just shocking. The you're coming up with this on the top of your head, the artist and the storyline still. Oh. And, but we are just at the top of the iceberg here. It was the middle, it was in the middle of that X-Men brooded story run. 'cause that started X-Men uncanny 1 54. Yes, that's right. Drac. The Drac. Just up all this. Yes. All background. I came to fill in later, but this is my first experience with the X-Men. I've no familiarity with them whatsoever. The reason why I bought the comic is the cover because it's got this giant skewed perspective, this giant hand, which is Belasco the demon. And all these small versions of the X Men are fighting this huge hand. And for some reason I was like, Oh, there's a blue guy that looks like a [00:16:00] devil and some guy with, metal prongs sticking out of the back of his hand and some guy made out of metal and all this kind of stuff. And that is the issue introduces Limbo. And it's the issue that sets up decades of storytelling for this character, Ileana Rasputin. That's magic. Because they're trying to, at the end, they're trying to escape Limbo. And Kitty Pride is pulling her through the portal. And she loses her for a second and then, oh, no, I've got her again and pull and they pull her through and she comes out five, six years old. She's a teenager now. She left us. She went in, she was like five, six years old and she comes out, she's a teenager. And you've got this, it turns out she has spent now half her life in limbo. And there's that great, it's a great sort of atmosphere. Chris Claremont was really good at those cliffhanger endings where. She's asleep. Little Snowflake, as Colossus calls her. God, that's [00:17:00] from memory. And she's got this medallion in her hand. And I guess you, you learn that as she gets a little bit older and a little bit older these mystical bloodstones are going to appear. In this amulet and she will like aspire to a great destiny or something like that. It's ah, and then we found out many, several years later, Inferno. But yeah, so anyway Uncanny X Men 160 Incredible Hulk issue 274, which was really strange because my familiarity with the Hulk was all about Bill Bixby and Lou Frigno. I knew who the Hulk was. I had a Mego doll. You mentioned Mego. I had a Mego Hulk. Which is funny, years later, to see what those stinkers at Twisted Toy Fair Theatre would do with that. We could do a whole episode on that as well. Why is the Hulk speaking David Banner? And why is he not called David Bannon? So it's this kind of stuff. And so that, that was odd Iron Man, Invincible Iron Man [00:18:00] number issue 161 and I can remember the strap line on the cover because it's a split cover. You've got Iron Man holding up what appears to be a vault door with water pouring out and the copy on it. On his side is Iron Man's in deep trouble. And on the other half of the cover is Moon Knight. Who I don't know who the hell Moon Knight is, but this guy in a white Batman suit. And only Moon Knight can save him. And I was like, I know who Iron Man is because I remember the cartoon Tony Stark makes you feel he's the cool exec with a heart of steel. And why aren't you singing? 'cause I, I don't know those, I know that Captain America throws his mighty shield. Captain America throws his mighty shield and all who chose to oppose his shield must field. Yep. There we go. There we go. You don't remember the Ironman one though? I didn't get around here. They didn't show Iron Man. No. And they didn't show the Avengers. So I got Spider-Man. Yes, I got Captain America. And I got Hulk. [00:19:00] Ah. So I got the, see we got Spider-Man. Ironman and the submariner. See, you never knew there was a submariner. I saw a submariner one. Yeah. I, every once in a while we'd get a little bit of that. It would bleed over. Yes. So we, I saw Submariner. I never saw an Ironman one. I didn't know an Avengers existed. They did a couple, because I remember years later they, they did Avengers four where they found cap in the iceberg. Okay. Okay. And I think they did three. But I think that one didn't, imagine these days saying something that the Avengers did on TV didn't grab anyone's attention. That's funny. It is, because they didn't know who Thor was or, and I think there was a Thor, I think there was a Thor cartoon mixed in there too. Yes, I remember the Thor cartoon. But I never saw that and that was a case of Hanna Barbera. Was beating everybody with their DC Warner Brothers because it was all Animated and it moved and whatever Marvel was trying to do is they [00:20:00] took, Snapshot, it looked like the first season of South Park, but worse. Yes, that's exactly It's exactly yeah, they and yeah, I just didn't I just remember the Hulk's mouth when it would move Start real thin and then just open up just jump wide. Yes, that's not what No, and it's one of those things where because I found here we'll, let's jump back into that. The fourth book was Peter Parker's Spectacular Spider Man issue 69, second appearance of Cloak and Dagger. Yes. Yeah. And it's got that great, oh gosh, what's his name? Who did the cover? Bill Mantlo wrote it. Yeah. Mantello? No, Bill Mantlo, yeah. No, I'm thinking of the cover because it was a guy who, I think like every other cover in that, at that time, this guy just used to, he could zing them out really fast. Really high quality stuff. But anyway, yeah, [00:21:00] I'll find it. If only I had a device that worked like a turtle in a pursuit. And see, it's cloak and dagger. It's this is interesting. It's a guy who's made of darkness. And a cute blonde girl made of light. This is amazing. So anyways, that was the four. Ed Hannigan! Yes, thank you. Sorry, Mr. Hannigan. Which looking at the cover looks a lot like Frank Miller. It's Miller ish, where it's got the shadows and, because I know Miller had done some Spider Man covers about that time, like the annual, yes, he was on Daredevil at that time. But he, they, they had, Frank Miller's Hot List had him do random covers of Doctor Strange. Okay. That's a whole other, yeah, but just I'll close this one out because otherwise it's going to turn into the Steven Remembers show those four comics and That was it. There was, and the next month because American Monthly's because of the distribution system in England at the time, they would have a bundle. And I learned this because I knew a kid whose dad [00:22:00] worked in like a distribution center for magazines, periodicals, and they would get a bundle. And it would be one copy of everything that they printed that month and they would bundle it into a package and news agents would say, Oh, I'll have one of those. And but they would only get one copy of each. So here I am like, wow, this is that's X Men. What the heck is I'm going to follow that for sure. This Iron Man. Oh, I'm so spun, but it was part one of a two part story. Got to get the second part of that. The next month comes along, I go into the store, they don't have those because somebody else has bought those. Instead, the next month I've got an introduction to John Byrne on Fantastic Four. I've got an introduction to I think it was Ghost Rider. The significance of those numbers doesn't weigh on me too much. But, what I will say is, one of the comics that I picked up was actually Frank Miller's last Daredevil issue. I think it's 191. It's Roulette. [00:23:00] And we were talking the other day about, was there one book that hooked you oh, this is, there's no turning back, that would be it. Which one was this? I think it's Daredevil issue 191. It's his last issue in his first run. This is not counting Born Again. And he wrote and he drew it. And it's called Roulette. . And it involves I don't have any of the backstory. All I know is that there's this guy named Dead Devil, and this villain named Bullseye and Bullseye's been crippled. And he's in a hospital bed, in the hospital bed, and Dead Devil is telling him a story about his interactions as a lawyer named Matt Murdoch with this kid named Chucky. That's the one. That cover, just to this day that, that's the cover that gets me. And as he's telling this story, he's playing Russian roulette. And now I'm ten. Impressive. And [00:24:00] it's this, in twenty pages or whatever it is, it's crime, drugs, violence, suicide. What the, and it ends, I won't spoil the ending because Nobody should ever have that particular issues ending spoiled, but that was like, Oh that was something throw the book down. I don't know how I feel about that. I'm gonna pick it back up and read it again to throw it back down. I don't know how it feels. I'm gonna hide it so my mom doesn't see it doesn't, doesn't know I'm exposed to this already. And it's almost like a playboy. You're sticking it under there. And, Yeah, it's that episode of Friends where Joe Trini is, I think he's reading the Shining and he keeps a copy of the paper back in the freezer it's too afraid. Anyway, so that was it. That was and yeah. Much like yourself Scott, that. Marvel zombie that was that the 80s was absolutely dominated by Marvel because of that. What about you, sir? I guess I didn't do that. So I was really sick as a kid. I had a I had a long bout with this [00:25:00] appendicitis thing when I was in third grade, they couldn't figure out what it was. So it's a long story on that one. But, I started getting comics like when I was sickly, like I was sick a bunch and I remember early ones. I wasn't collecting at this time. The early ones that I had. I had the Flash Gordon movie adaptation basically. So there were like four issues, Flash Gordon movie adaptation various Superman books. I was always a superhero kid. Like I grew up with Like my mom made me capes. My mom would sew and she made me capes. And I had a kindergarten teacher tell her that that I I may need to see a psychologist because I didn't know exactly who I was. I kept saying that I was Superman and she was like, no, he's just got an imagination. It's okay. I did make her sew a pocket into the back because I was very worried about. Clark Kent's clothes and what happened, she said, Oh, there's a pocket in the cape. And I was like, there's not a pocket in my cape. So she made me a pocket in my cape. So as a kid, I was [00:26:00] always a superhero kid. It makes all the world. Yeah, that's fantastic. That's it. So that was that. But collecting comics, I, it didn't dawn on me. That was a possibility until I was older and I was in seventh grade. I remember. I was on a trip, a church trip, and we stopped, and we all had some money we could spend, and I go into I think it was in an airport, actually, and the new Batman movie was coming out, the 1989 Batman movie, and it happens that John Byrne, Jim Aparo were on Batman at that time. So I ended up picking up the many deaths of Batman. The second issue, not the first issue. The first issue is this crazy silent issue that everybody just was falling all over themselves about. And I never got a copy. I literally, to this day, I haven't had a copy of that book. It was Batman 433, but the one that I got was this cover with Batman, [00:27:00] lots of different Batmans on morgue slabs. And it was Batman 434. And I still remember just seeing that and thinking, Batman dies? How does he die so many times? So I pick up the book and find out what's going on. And I was hooked and then I was like I wonder what the Superman book is with that. And then, so I picked up Batman. I picked up Superman. I picked up I'm a pretty big DC fan. So I didn't do a ton of Marvel. It would take years for me to get to Marvel. I didn't get to Marvel until buying Marvel books. I didn't buy Marvel comics until Venus X-Men? No, not Beenus. X-Men. Venus Avengers, new Avengers. Wow. Oh wow. Gosh. Yeah. Okay. That is a hop. Yeah, I think I was bought, I bought some trades along the way because I think that, I can't remember what was going on during this time. There was at that point, like Brewbaker was on cap, I think. . [00:28:00] And then there was and that was just an extraordinary run to me. I thought that was the most amazing thing I've ever read. I've ever seen the artwork in there. It just blew my mind. So that's, it took me a long time to get to Marvel. And I'm still way more of a DC fan than a Marvel fan, though. I do love Captain America. I always have. And I mainly because of the cartoon where he threw his mighty shield. Yes. Yeah, and then I was the ultimate nineties comic collector. Like I was, I didn't think I was gonna retire from my comic collection like many of the people in the nineties did. But I did love it and I would go, I grew up in Plano and there you could ride your, we could ride our bike in the neighborhood without going on any major streets to. Baseball fever was which was baseball cops card shop that had comics and the sort of amount of comics they had was like this tiny little rack like the where we put our last week issues over here. That's, that was their whole comic section [00:29:00] at the time. And you could buy bags and boards then. I remember thinking, oh yeah, it's important, it would be important to save these, so I should get these bags and boards. But they were expensive. Especially for the time. It was like 25 cents even then or something. Which is ironic, because we still only charge 25 cents for the things. Maybe we should rethink that. But, but then I found out that this place over by the mall, Bob's, they bagged and boarded the comics for you, and they don't charge. They didn't charge extra if it was if you had a sub with them. I was like I'm doing that. So I signed up with Bob's and I got my comics from them. And that's what we do here at this shop, right? We bag and board all the books because it was a big enough deal to me when I was a kid that I would like it. Make my parents drive me across town to get books from there because I got the free bags and boards, right? So I figured there's got to be some people that's a big deal too. So [00:30:00] we back and board everything it's well and I can flesh that out because Years so now we're looking at Gosh we're probably looking at 1987 88 When did Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles start, the comic? Okay, so Eastman's first run was about 85, 84. Okay. Because I picked up issue 2, the first edition. Okay. Here, just up the road from me. It's funny, if you're in Hearst, Texas, there's a road. called Melbourne that's held just about every comic book shop that's ever been in hearse. And it's not even a main drag, but just up the road where my first job was, I got Teenage Mutant Ninja Trolls number 2. Okay. And, I got it because another friend of mine picked up issue 1 and said, this is crazy. You're gonna love it. But it was 84 85, right in there because I was...[00:31:00] It was when comic book day was on Fridays. Okay. And... Which makes way more sense, by the way. Yeah, I think there was also some maneuvering around because movies were released on a certain day for home use, but I remember because I was in the marching band and I had one hour from the end of class to get my uniform on and go back to school, but on Fridays I would almost run late because I had to get my comic books. Priorities. Yeah, it is priorities, and go back. And our. The band had this goofy rule that you couldn't be in half uniform, so you either had to have the full thing on with the hat, if you're out in public, or, so I couldn't change in the car. Long story, but, 84 85 is when that came out. The magazine size, I don't know. I don't remember if it was a monthly from issue one to two or because I know there's some times where they were behind on production schedules. So if [00:32:00] you're trying to nail down the time, yeah, I am because I had years later, it might have been earlier. My memory just isn't that precise. But there came a point when having infected. Several of my friends with the comic collecting bug, okay, where we had the benefit of living in a town that was on one of the train lines, we're going to London. So as a teenager we would go into the jump on the train and we go into London and there was this wonderful you had Virgin Comics, Richard Branson's Virgin Comics which was a store within the larger Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street. Forbidden Planet, around the corner from that on Denmark Street, and then you've got Comic Showcase on Neill Street. Basically what I'm getting at is that these three... Fantastic comic book stores are all within a couple of [00:33:00] minutes walking distance of each other. And I, but Virgin Comics would bag and board all of their comics. Forbidden Planet and Comic Showcase didn't. So when we went down there, we always went to Virgin first. And then try and, fill up those holes in what you were reading at that time. And then whatever they didn't have, then we'd go to Forbidden Planet and then fill it, and then whatever they didn't have, then we would go over to Comic Showcase or something like that. But the reason why I asked about the Ninja Turtles is because I remember being at Virgin Comics when they had gotten a delivery and one of the guys who worked there opened the box, pulled a book out, and said, And I'm butchering the accent here, but it's close enough for those people who know this accent. It's close enough I think to get the job done. He opens this box and he pulls his book in it. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Who the bloody hell's gonna buy this? And so I don't know if it had just come out or if [00:34:00] They had just I don't know. I don't know what the details are But that's because I remember looking at this guy going Teenage Mutant Ninja... Yeah, no thank you. I'll have X Men. Oh no! So yeah, you could have had that. So I could have had that. And instead, I laid down money for my first trade paperback collection. Because that was another thing wait a minute. They collect these in books? This is fantastic! Having now become acquainted with Wolverine. It was the Claremont Miller miniseries that they put together in in what would then be what we know now as a trade paperback. And it's got that great Miller cover where it's Wolverine fighting I don't know, 50 ninjas and it's like an arm and a leg and it's, I think it's a white cover. Yeah, it's this huge bundle of. Arms and legs and knives and swords and claws and throwing stars and oh yeah, and it was [00:35:00] probably like 6. 95 and the British price would, it probably cost me like four pounds or something like that with the exchange rate, we're talking about shops that bag and board. It's a nice thing to do. It is and it also dictated where I put my subscription. But as far as looking back historically over the collection hobby, the first time I remember backing boards, and I know they weren't around when I worked at the shop in high school, was when Valiant came out. And Dr. Solar, number one, the shop owner, Put the combination of the bag in the board because it had a coupon in it and it was going to be something really you wanted the book flat. And I have is the first time I ever remember that the bag wasn't good enough to preserve your and yeah, and I even [00:36:00] remember asking. How much is for a bundle of bags boards and he was like, Oh, we don't have them yet. I only got five of these cause I don't know that they're supposed to be acid proof and all of this other stuff. And so there was a, still to this day, there's a large chunk of my collection I haven't gotten to re bag and board cause I have a mortgage to pay and it would be quite pricey, but it's interesting to listen to Jason talk. There's a slight age difference between you and I, and a little bit greater between Jason and I. But his entire experience with the hobby has always been, it's an odd meter or metric to measure it by, but bags and boards were always a part of his world. But when I first started, I didn't know. But when you went to a shop, probably. I didn't know that they were like special boards. The first, my first attempt at. And using boards was, I got a poster board and started cutting cutting into the shape. Okay. Yeah. I, [00:37:00] yeah, like I tried to do that because there were a couple of comics that I just loved and I didn't want 'em to get all beat up. 'cause I had that experience. I'd beat up a bunch of my books. And we all did. Yeah. We didn't know. No. Oh yeah. You'd have the, there would be Oh gosh, what the heck was it? You would have these ads for Oh, I cut out some ads back in the day. Bubblicious gum or something, and there would be like a word search, and then if you got it right, the answer was like, grape. Drink more Ovaltine. Drink more Ovaltine, yes. And I may or may not have scribbled in a couple of these. Or the you could the thing at the ad in the back where You could start selling grit, the great American newspaper, which yeah, not from England, you can't, but maybe one or two comics in my collection where I'm circling the prizes that I would like to [00:38:00] have, I'd quite like to have that transistor radio. I'd quite like to have that portable TV set. Speaking of writing, I have a friend who he only collected for a couple of years back in seventh grade, but every comic he bought. . He wrote first issue , like the first issue. He bought second issue. He did 40 of 'em that way. Oh, no. And because he thought it was important to remember when he purchased it. And it was before, you didn't know issue numbers right there, there's, there wasn't there was a training guide when you started collecting comics back then. You could get the Overstreet guide and maybe read that. Yeah. But it, you didn't even know that existed. You found that later. But it, when I it's fun talking to both of y'all about. This because when I listen to Jason talk about his collection, I can almost see where I was in life. Yes. And then also remember, okay, he barely knows the world without back and boards. I remember when it was a long box, there was nothing. It wasn't called a long box. It's, here's the comic box. This was it. And for comic book collectors, some, [00:39:00] I'm not saying we all had this contest, but can I put both of them up on my shoulder and walk around in the store or whatever? Cause that was better than working out. But we were all beer bellied. How we're moving these boxes around and look the way we do sometimes. It's just, it's amazing to me, but it's in the part of this podcast, it's fun telling these stories and I hope people enjoy. Yes. Listening and can relate even if you're starting collecting today. Yes. If you keep up with it for 10 years, the medium and the way it's distributed is going to change. There was never a time that I haven't thought about it. I have a device. I could read my comics on my phone. Yeah. Sitting. Yes. Sitting at the airport. I either had to carry a the airport. That's where you are. I had to carry a, a stack of trades with me. Oh, yeah. Or now I can read. Crisis on Infinite Earths and all of its tie in on my phone. Yeah that's where something like I was thinking about this the other day I have, yes, that's right I was at my storage unit, and I have [00:40:00] most of my graphic novels, and for folks out there, it's not all just comics. He has household items in this storage, but it's... Yeah, but let's be honest, okay. Why we have the storage. And my wife was only too happy. Because if they're in the storage unit, that means they're not in the house. And, okay. I had to buy a comic shop. Yeah. We can't all be as fortunate as you, Jason. Once again, if I'd had that Action Comics number one. There you go. But I have a lot of graphic novels there. And I happened to be at the storage unit the other day. Making room for the inevitable return of Christmas. Decorations that will go back to the shed and I found I saw spider verse, the the trade that Marvel put out collecting, I think it was in spite of us. Yeah, I think it's spider verse. It's the first real. Hey, there's spider people from all different dimensions and stuff like that. And I thought, Oh, I could read that ages. I should [00:41:00] read that, and I picked this book up and it's a heavy trade paperback. Yeah. And then I thought, hang on a second, I get my phone out, quickly have a quick look at my digital comics collection. I've got the trade in digital, I don't need, I don't need the book because it's a lot easier to carry around my iPad. I just read it off of that. And there you go. And I feel a little guilty because I should, I prefer the paper. I prefer the tangibility of a comic book as opposed to a digital comic book. Did you read it? No, because like most things in my life at the moment, I'll think, Oh, I'd love to read that. And then I get home and think, yeah, I really should read this, finish this stack sitting right here before I get to that. But but no, I think it's Scott you hit it there. It's you. We're passionate about it. . And so yes we sit here and we tell stories and more conversations and certainly the longevity of the podcast is not back in my day, episode [00:42:00] 234, Stephen talks about the 80th comic book that he wrote. It was an issue of Battlestar Galactica that I found at the back of an old bookstore that Walt Simonson drew the cover of. Y'all remember him from Big Coffee Mug Stain right on the cover there. Somebody was using that thing as a. Here's what's ridiculous. He actually knew who drew the cover of the Battlestar Galactica comic. That just, that was a real thing. Once again, Adventures of Marvel Treasury Editions. Star Wars. Whatever happened to that shaken guy in there? Yeah, did he ever do anything? Did he ever do anything after that? But It we should talk about... The times that Marvel and DC crossover. No, let's not. All of them. I'm just thinking because the Treasure Editions. I've got a great Superman Spider Man Treasure Edition. That, that could be another episode. Because you've got to remember we have a differencing of opinions. And once again, it was a... As we were prepping for this last week, we learned something about Jason and his preference of a comic [00:43:00] series That's near and dear to us that we'll follow up at some point and this should be one of those because every time you mention Crossovers, yes, all I don't like Watchmen. Yeah, everybody else. I was gonna save that for later I just don't like Watchmen. You can hear why later, but Ss I've seen Steven get very upset over the concept of these crossover, and I don't know if it's just the Batman in the cult, it's company Crossovers, or is it the amalgam comics that they did when it was Spider Superboy or whatever that J L X and all of those hip 90 comics that the kids were wearing. And we don't have to get into that now. It's because we have an agenda here that look I like, I love Italian food. . I love Chinese food. You're not gonna put my chopped suey and a slice of lasagna on the same plate. I'm gonna let you know the restaurant across the street does. John loves it. Fusion our store manager Fusion here. So Steven is not a fusion, but that's No, Steve Steven's not a fan of fusion food. No. A little sushi. A little chopped suey. A little, PO in a bowl. Little water. Water. That would be fine, [00:44:00] but you're not gonna put. See, now I'm thinking about it. Actually, would it be so bad if you had some of the fried rice is excellent. Yeah, I've heard that. What I was hoping to achieve with my misguided food analogy is that I don't like it when DC and Marvel meet. I have a, it's like I'm seeing two women. Maybe that's a terrible analogy as well, but I'm gonna go with that one. So there's times where I like to spend time with DC. And then there are times where I like to spend time with Marvel. I don't want them at the same time. I guess they, they satisfy different needs and urges. There we go. There we go. I've laid it out. Wow. We won't put an explicit on this. No, we won't. We won't. Now that red dot that's on his head, that might be his wife sitting across the street. I don't know. Oh, she knows. She knows. She knows how I feel about this particular thing. And Malcolm? No, I don't know what you're talking about. You don't like the Malcolm universe? Nope. Nope. You guys know the chat [00:45:00] GPT thing? Like the the AI that will write... Stories. You can ask questions. It'll write you a story. So I was playing with this. And of course I asked one of the age old questions. Who would win in a fight between Superman and the Hulk? And it wrote me a story. It was a really lame story, but I was talking to a friend at the time we were talking about what this thing does. And my friend was like who do you think would win? And I was like very clearly it's going to be Superman and we had a whole set of reasons why and then we went into this whole argument of, but doomsday is basically the Hulk and doomsday, fought to a draw, basically they both died. We had this long story, but chat GPT, it also had all the best discussions about comics or who wins in a fight between these two people out of non. Out of different different universes. I'm sorry. I hear something like that and all I can think about is that line in stand by me where it's the, who would win in a fight between Superman and Mighty [00:46:00] Mouse and the response that whichever one of those four boys says that is that it would be Superman. Mighty Mouse is a cartoon character. Superman is a real person. It's Yes. . Yes. And that , just thank you for dropping in on the Multiverse podcast. Please subscribe and give us a rating on your favorite podcast site. It makes a big difference to a new cast like ours. If you'd like to find us in person, our brick and mortar store is the multiverse in Hurst Texas. If you'd like to find us online, we are at www. multiverse. shop. See you next time.