99th Episode

We celebrate the life of Uncle Don by discussing some of the things he enjoyed, and remembering the positive influence he had on Paul.

Before that though, Joecember shows Sean just how weird and kinky Cobra is. Copperhead has a very odd leather jock strap, and then there is Dr. Mindbender, and it only gets stranger from there.

First, we remember Keith Courage in Alpha Zones on the TurboGrafx-16. It is a weird game that involves fighting good fortune cats, with bonus points for the gold ones. That's just the overworld. In the underworld, Keith Courage becomes a mech fighter with an array of weird weapons to fight all manner of strange enemies.

We are able to relive these old games by watching people play these games on YouTube, which can sometimes be more enjoyable than actually playing the old game.

Second, we remember fireworks from our youth. It was always exciting when we got our hands on the good fireworks. Nothing stokes a young teenager's pyromania like the really good fireworks. Now, when your uncle builds his own bombs, that ramps all of that up to eleven!

Third, we talk about Battlestar Galactica! This show seems like it kicked off the current golden age of television storytelling that we have experienced for the last 15 years or so. On top of that, it was just a really great show, so Sean shares his memories of enjoying the show to entice Paul to get on the ball and watch it!

We discuss Westworld, Season One.

But first! Joevember and drawing! Sean has been drawing Joes, and we give away how far in the past each of these have been recorded.

Also, The Art of Manliness and goal setting! Otherwise known as: the art of avoiding threats! This also applies to our digital comics backlog. Also, basketball card collecting.

For the bulk of this episode we discuss Westworld, Season 1. Sean watched it a while ago, and Paul recently finished it. 

We talk about the show from the angle of the humans that go to the park, and what it reveals about them (and us), and we discuss the show from the perspective of the hosts, and whether we are routing for them or not, and if we want them to get agency over themselves.

There is a lot to unpack about this dense show, we do our best to cover it all in just a few minutes.

Some things we discuss:

Comic Con and how Comics bring us together.

Hawkeye, the show, and the comic. 

Trade paperbacks, and having too much objects.

Names and mispronunciation.

A Bride's Story.

The Wheel of Time show. 

Video Games! Paul killed some wild animals in Horizon Zero Dawn, Sean relived 12 minutes of mystery in 12 Minutes, puzzled through Myst, and flew around the pyramids in Flight Simulator.

We talk about older games we remember from our younger days, and how sometimes chasing that nostalgia is futile. Some games were fun at the time, but when we revisit them now, are not quite as fun. We are looking at you, Super Mario and Mega Man!

Also: Super hero comics are changing as a result of the realities of movies and TV. We are seeing a lot more change to super hero comic book characters, and this seems to be the result of the dynamic of actors that portray these characters.

Somehow, we draw the line at Batman though. One of us wants him to always be Bruce Wayne, one of us wants Bruce to retire for good.

We feast on this food for thought.

We return to discussing Sandman with the Distant Mirrors and Song of Orpheus stories!

The Distant Mirrors stories fall between Season of Mists and A Game Of You, and are all historical fiction in one way or another. The Song of Orpheus is a stand alone story from the Sandman Special Edition that was also published around this time.

Previous stand-alone stories have been very enjoyable. How did we like these, that incorporate more plot-centric story beats? What are our takeaways from each of the stories? Is there a common theme to these?

Our Sandman episodes are some of our favorites, so tune in while we get back to reading one of the greatest comic series of all time.

You sent Paul your questions, and we answer!

Thank you everybody that sent in some listener questions.

We talk about video games, books, movies, music, crossovers between all of them, and more.

You spoke, and we listen! Then WE speak!

Life is Strange has replaced The Long Dark as Sean's latest video game distraction. He explains why it is good, despite the teenage emo drama.

Some good TV is pretty bad, like Walking Dead and Breaking Bad. And Life is Strange, which is how we got on this.

Paul is back on the Junji Ito train, so we go back to that well.

Comic book collecting is the perfect hobby for retail therapy.

Paul is reading all the manga again, and tells us a bit about Mermaid Saga, which is not what it looks like and is actually a horror manga.

Sean has started reading X-Men again and is on the road to Onslaught! It has to improve one of these days! We have so many comics available now, we are very spoiled.

First of all, tragedy has struck in the video game world! Sean experienced a trifle of a tragedy, listen to find out more.

We talk about some other schlock...

Then, we discuss Passive Aggressive!

This comic book was secretly two comic books: "Passive" and "Aggressive". The covers are the same, but the interior is different. The region of the country where you bought yours determines the contents.

We have both read both parts, but in different orders, so we discuss that experience, and if there is any effect on our thoughts on the book as a result of the order we read the books.

Also, we disagree.

Paul talks about Madden video games, and Sean works hard to be interested. It sounds complicated and a bit like nonsense. Also, sports is pretty nerdy, it turns out.

We talk about unique records, because Sean is interested in those. The Music Tapes "1st Imaginary Symphony for Nomad". Tom Waits, "Beautiful Maladies". Philip Glass and Alan Ginsberg, "Hydrogen Jukebox".

Somehow this bends around to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the musical episode. Which is really good, actually. Also, the Simpsons is good too. 

Why don't kids these days like Ninja Turtles? 

Last of all, we plan for the future of 99th Episode.

For better or worse...

We talk about some cool old 80's movies. And some bad.

Paul played Zelda! The original, like for the NES. What was that like, and how much did he rely on the walkthrough guides to find that one secret entrance hidden in the woods? This allows us to discuss some of the virtues of Zelda as well.

Sean touches on Zelda II, and how it captures the fun sense of exploration that the original had. Of course, Sean played that one because it was the Zelda he had as a child. That touches on our childhood experience versus our adult experience. Now, entertainment is so easy to get, we are certainly spoiled.

We come to the painful realization that our experience isn't necessarily the best experience, and there are many other great experiences out there. For Paul, Ninja Turtles has shown this to Paul. For Sean, it is Star Wars.

Finally, Sean read Transmetropolitan again, which was really good. He has also been reading a lot of Isaac Asimov, which is really good. Both of them, however, value truth and logic quite highly, in such a way that it points out how much our current society does not value truth and logic. It makes us sad.