Covert Nerd Podcast

Al, Ben and Lee talk about their favorite 90s comic book characters.

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X from Dark Horse Comcis

Blood Wulf Image Comics

Bishop Marvel Comics

Bane DC Comics

Blink Marvel Comics

Gambit Marvel Comcis

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Al Ben and Lee talk about their favorite limited comic book series from the 1990s, hear what they enjoyed and let them know what your favorite 90s limited series is from the 90s.

Eddie and Lee sit down with their daughters and talk about the media that influence each of them during their formative years. Hear their kids opinion about the movies Eddie and Lee liked as kids and how the dads like the media the girls like.

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Lees pick:

Transformers The Movie (1986) Original Trailer

The Transformers The Movie draft script

Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors (intro)

GI JOE PSA - COMPILATION

 

Ruths pick:

Avatar The Last Airbender Original Trailer (2004)

Avatar - Sokka High Drinking Cactus Juice

 

Eddies Pick:

Genesis - a trick of the tail

 

Daphnes Pick:

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - People-Vultures

 

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Matt and Lee talk about Deathmate Image/Valiant crossover and some of their favorite Valiant Comics from the 90's.

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Deathmate notes:

Designated by color rather than issue numbers (namely Yellow, Blue, Black, and Red) plus two book-end issues, Deathmate Prologue and Deathmate Epilogue, as well as Preview issues collected with comic products, the four main issues were written so they could be read in any order. Created at the peak of the comic book speculator boom, the project was heavily promoted and sold hundreds of thousands of copies, but was beset with production delays.

The Image half (Black, Red, and Epilogue) came out severely behind schedule and out of sequence. Deathmate Red shipped after the epilogue issue, and despite cover dates of September 1993 to February 1994, the actual publication lag was far longer than six months.

The plot evolved around a chance interdimensional meeting of two characters, Solar from Valiant and Void from Image's WildC.A.T.s. The two became lovers, but their joining would mean the destruction of both comic book universes.

It is notable that only half of the Image founding members chose to take part. Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, and Todd McFarlane were not involved, although McFarlane's character Al Simmons makes a brief appearance in Deathmate Red.

In my personal opinion yellow, blue and the prologue had a more cohesive story. Where the image characters had a better integration into the valiant universe's history. Case in point brigade's characters worked for Harada Industries, an X men derived group.

Besides being delayed black and red's stories definitely had a rushed feel to the story.  In black we see the Top Cow studio take front and center with ties to Wildcats and Gen 13.  X O makes an appearance, but he is used more like a power hungry military general than a visigoth with an alien suit of armor. 

Union , an energy based alien creature is the one character from black that allows this story to connect to the epilogue.

Red's story, sadly for me, is just a Rob Liefeld sketchbook. The story is about Youngblood in this new universe the biggest addition is that Bloodshot is a member.  While the Prophet is poorly used as a plot point to let the heroes know what is wrong with this amalgamation of a world.

Red was so far delayed that it was released after the epilogue issue.

Epilogue centers more around the events from blue with Solar, supreme, and Darque.

This series had a great germ of an idea, but it missed the boat with the creative teams. If it had some editorial oversight for both companies it might have had a chance at being a success. However, with egos, missed deadlines, and perhaps the lack of experience from portions of the owners with the business side of things it went down as a failure.

For me , I liked parts of the story and going back and rereading the story with a more mature eye I can see what drew me to the story.

1 The crossover was something rarely seen between two independent comic groups.

2 Deathmate had the rock and roll comic artists

3 Although Valiant at the beginning wasn't flashy, they had a good set of storytellers and a well thought-out and connected universe. I was hoping that it would influence the Image books.

4 Finally the book introduced me to more “up and coming'' creators.   Like Joe Q and Jeff Matsuda.

Facts about publication sales:

The Valiant Deathmate books (Prologue, Blue, and Yellow) had print runs of over 700,000 copies, but by the time Deathmate Red was released, it had a print run of 250,000, although retailers were nonetheless left with many unsold copies. At the time, comic book distributors would only allow unsold books to be returned if they were six months late.

 

Valiant Comics Notes:

In 1988, former editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics Jim Shooter, Steven J. Massarsky and a group of investors attempted to purchase Marvel Entertainment. They submitted the second-highest bid, with financier Ron

Al, Ben and Lee talk about their favorite 1st issues comic books from the 90's

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More fun notes from the episode

 

Guess the Artist

 

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Ben Al and Lee talk about their favorite comic book cards from the 90's. 

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Marvel Trading card pack

The controversial Marvel card power rating

Definition of power rating

 

Links from the Episode:

Youngblood card series

Marvel checklistMarvel Series 3

Marvel Series 2

Marvel Series 1

How Marvel created the comic book card power levels

Marvel master series  

Hilarious marvel 1975 stickers

John Byrne

X-Force cards

 

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Ruth and Lee watch Peter Jacksons 2001 Fellowship of the Ring. Listen and watch the movie while they educate and entertain you with their comments. Or listen only and enjoy the conversation.

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Links mention in the Episode:

The New Tolkien companion by J. E. A. Tyler

Map of Middle Earth and the Undying lands

Tolkien Gateway Online Reference

Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring trivia and facts

 

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Previous episode with Ruth

Al, Ben and Lee talk about their favorite gimmick comic book covers from the 90's. Listen and let us know which one is your favorite.

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The Dark Age of Comic Books was the culmination of a gradual move towards an older audience for Comic Books, particularly those featuring superheroes that had started in The Bronze Age of Comic Books. Sometimes, to follow the Gold/Silver/Bronze progression, at other times it is jokingly called "the Chrome Age", owing to the frequency of publishers selling comics with holofoil covers as a marketing gimmick during the period, but "Dark Age" is the much more common and accepted term. Usually characterized as a Darker and Edgier period featuring an increased focus on sex, violence and dark, gritty portrayals of the characters involved, much of the content produced during this era is very controversial among comic book fans.

 

It's not the world's most exciting cover, but 1991's Silver Surfer #50 gets the nod for being the first comic in industry history to feature the chromium embossed effect, and for how it utilizes the gimmick in a sensible manner. 

As the 90s chugged along, publishers were seemingly embossing every other comic without much rhyme or reason. But Silver Surfer #50 adds the embossing to the Mr. Radd himself. And that makes sense since the character's name is "Silver Surfer" – so some silver chromium embossing is neither excessive nor inappropriate. Yes, I understand that I'm essentially awarding points here for lack of excess, but considering we're talking about the 90s here, why not applaud Marvel's show of restraint. 

Tom Chirstopher  Cover Art  Tom Christopher Inks  Ron Lim Pencils - Cover Art James (Jim) Starlin  Scripts  Tom Vincent Colors 

Als first pick: Marvels Silver Surfer #50 1991

 

One of the biggest selling comic books of all time, more than 8 million copies of X-Men #1 were snatched up in the 90s, primarily because of the gimmick – five variant covers that interlocked to create a beautiful Jim Lee-illustrated landscape of the X-Men fighting Magneto (there was also a special edition gatefold version of the comic which contained the entire image). Sure, needing to buy five copies of the same comic in order to see Lee's entire image was annoying and an inefficient use of funds, but the iconography of this issue and its gimmick cannot be denied. Plus, in terms of its historical significance, this was the comic that cemented Lee as one of the industry's best young artists, which of course led to the "Image Revolution" in 1992 of which Lee was one of the core founding member of the company (alongside Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld and Erik Larsen).

Chris Claremont-Scripts  Jim Lee Pencils - Cover Art  Tom Orzechowski LettersJoe Rosas Colors  Scott Williams Cover Art - Inks

Ben's 1st Pick: Marvels X-Men #1 Oct. 1991

Great interior art from Jim Lee. Look at Magnetos glorious mane.

Another amazing interior fold out page

The X-Men gather for Illyana's funeral. Magneto brings Avalon to Earth and offers the X-Folk a chance to join his dream. Colossus says "Yes." 

Script Scott Lobdell 

Pencils John Romita Jr.; Jae Lee; Chris Sprouse; Brandon Peterson; Paul Smith 

Inks Dan Green; Dan Panosian; Terry Austin; Tom Palmer; Keith Williams 

Colors Mike Thomas 

Letters Chris Eliopoulos 

Lee's 1st pick: Marvels Uncanny X-Men #304 September 1993

 

Writer(s)  Dan Abnett  and Andy Lanning  Penciler(s)  Doug Braithwaite 

Inker(s) Josef Rubinstein  Colorist(s)  Kevin Tinsley 

Letterer(s) Mike Higgins

Als 2nd pick: Marvels Punisher #75 Feb. 1993

 

Nails

 

 

Ghost Rider

Writer: Howard Mackie  Penciller: Mark Texeira Cover Artist: Mark Texeira 

 

Bens 2nd Pick: Marvels Ghost Rider #15 July 1991

 

 

Est. Print Run:, 935,000  Cover Date:, Apr '93  Cover Price:, $2.95  Current Value:, $3.00 

Blood Brothers: Prelude. Story by Rob Liefeld and Eric Stephenson . Art by Rob Liefeld, Dan Fraga, and Danny Miki. When the government needs a job done, they call in the best, th

Al, Ben and Lee talk about their favorite early 90’s comic books. They each talk about two early 90’s comic books and what they liked about the comic and how the comic holds up after all of these years. Listen and let us know which are your favorite 90’s comicbook.

Ruth, Jesse and Lee talk all things Cobra Kai season 4. We discuss our predictions from last time we got right and our predictions for season 5, plus much more. 

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Links from the episode:

Previous Cobra Kai episode

Jesse is a co-host on the Grawlixpodcast

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