A Geek History of Time - Episode 380 - SPECIAL Interview with Kevin Garcia for NightAxe and Golden Girl Part II

Episode Date: July 31, 2026

I mean, it is 2 o'clock in the fucking morning where I am. The 1848ers were so much more radical than what we're comfortable or familiar with. The layer, the layer of sarcasm involved in that entire delivery is, like I've seen, I've seen, yeah, it's not even frosting. But he failed, so fuck them, buddies. Now, after World War II ended, Lockley started mapping out foot trails for the newly created, oh God, Pembroke Shire. So Pembrokeshire. Pembrokeshire. Okay.

Pembrokeshire. Just please let me just read Latin today. We're way into the 19th century now. I'm sorry. Well, Damien, it's 3 o'clock in the fucking morning. There won't be any updates right now about either of us because I want to just jump right into the episode. As you heard from the last week's episode

or yesterday's episode, depending on when this drops, Kevin Garcia came on to plug his new comic book project that he has created called Night Axe and Golden Girl. Nightax, N-I-G-H-T-A-X-E and Golden Girl. This is available on Kickstarter, and I encourage you right now, do not walk, just run to Kickstarter, and make sure that you back this project. That way, by the time this episode ends, it will be fully backed, and we can get this incredible art into the world.

We want to support good art by good people. present human art to preserve humanity, and this is one of the ways that we seek to do so. So please, right now, after you hit pause, go and get Night Axe and Golden Girl. Pledge what you can. Make this a reality so that I can hold this comic book in my hand so that Kevin Garcia can have another comic book out there with his name on it. This guy is incredible. He is a wealth of knowledge, a wealth of understanding, tremendous.

care that he takes toward this art and he pays people to do good art. So please go and back Night Axe and Golden Girl. Okay, now that you finish hitting pause and you're back, this is part two of our interview, Ed's in my interview, with Kevin Garcia, the creator of Night Axe and Golden Girl, which you have already hopefully backed, and we join the interview in progress from the top so who's doing the art for this comic

yeah I've been mentioning them several times I need to go into more detail yeah well I already mentioned myself I'm Kevin Garcia obviously I'm writing it I have

I did all the initial designs I drew the picture but you can see them on the Kickstarter things that I drew especially in the update section but I don't draw regularly or consistently

enough to do a book you know so I work with other people the main art inside the book is Miguel and Hel Hernandez-Sadillo and he

again, I said earlier as an artist out of that of Cruz Mexico. And the thing is, if you look him up on Instagram, you know, Miguel Anhele Hernandez's art, basically, he is so freaking good and so quick that it frustrates me that I can

afford him. Because people should see his art. Like, you'll see he's got some like sample pages he's done of like Superman and stuff on his page, but he has worked for other people. But he's just so good and so quick at his work. And again, you, you, People are like, well, how do you know somebody's air or not?

Literally, he sketched it on pencil and handed to me a pencil drawing in like an hour and a half. I don't know what it was. And it was just so good. But, you know, he wasn't going to be able to color. Actually, got other jobs to do. And I was going to try coloring it myself. And I've never done that before. It's definitely not easy.

It's like saying, I would get ink myself. No, it's not easy. And as I was trying to learn, I talked to Mickey Lawson, who is, he's not, he's not, you know, but he's worked with other artists. Like he worked with Dan Garcia back in the 80s with Panda Khan. I'll get to that in a second. And he has been,

oh, actually I just say right now, he's been an artist, a colorist, a colorer anchor since the indie boom of the 80s, right? He was in a lot of the early image comic books. In the 90s image, the image style,

wasn't what we think of today where you think of all of the avant-garde books. It was like girls in bikinis blowing up things. But he was there, since the beginning doing the colors for that. So if you look up like, I think it was a Jade Dragon or something like that. Savage Dragon?

No, no, no. No. No. That's my name. This one was by Deodato's group and it was just like girls and bikinis. Oh, okay. But like, but like he did really good work, really did coloring. He's been doing it for so long. And he also does his own story. He's got a great story about a called Usagi, I think, coming out soon.

That is also Japanese rabbit, but it's not a Zagyu Jumbo. It's a separate story. Shiro Usagi. Yeah, it's a different story. And the thing is, is that, like, he's so good. And so he's, I asked him, could you just help me figure out how to do this? And he's like, I'll just help you with the art. So he's willing to help work with me on that.

So he's doing the coloring. And then I mentioned already the backup stories. So the main story is this like 22 page, which is average size of a comic book, a story with both of them, satanical I already mentioned, the creatures already mentioned. But then the two side stories are these two eight pages. stories. Real quick, before you get to the two side stories, this this one 22-pageer, it's a standalone, right?

Yeah, it's a standalone. Yeah, my thought was because like World's War Comics is a standalone story, but it does end on a cliffhanger. And the goal being that I would like to have it as a full story, but it's going to take me a while to do the chapters, essentially. Right. And I was going to do. This one you wanted one and done for people.

Yeah, yeah. This one I was like, look, I want to do a bunch of night acts and golden girl stories, but I want them to be one-shots. I want them to have a story that does have a through line and is chronological, but you don't need to have read all the stories. That's why there's not even an origin for them. It just, it happened a year ago. Like I have the origin written down. Sure. Maybe someday we'll get to it and we'll have them like somebody. A flashback scene or like cap getting his shield from FDR. Essentially. 40 years later. Yeah, exactly. Somebody narrating it later. But like as far as I'm concerned, it happened to them a year ago. So they've been in the situation for a year. All right. But I want the

stories to be standalone, to be individual stories. So like, um, the main story I already said, Miguel's doing the art. Um, the secondary story of night acts, the solo night act story, eight pages is Mickey Ramirez, who is this up-and-coming artist, really amazing stuff. I really, I first met him at a Indy Kana a couple years back and I was like, you, you're going to do some amazing stuff. In fact, in fact, uh, Mickey has expressed desire several times that he wants to do the second issue of World's War Comics, which I'd love to do. Because, uh, Ray Garza did the first issue and he told me before we got started like he'd never worked with the writer before but he wanted to see what it's like to work with the writer because usually he writes his own

stuff and he said I'm only going to do one issue ever I'm like I'm fine with that you know so so Mickey wants to do the second issue and so he's doing the solo and it's a it's a ghost story it's night acts in a ghost story essentially because again these are characters that can have a variety of stories and then then my friend from Brazil James Figuerrello he's worked a lot of indie companies. He does some really great art. He's also extremely active in Brazil's much maligned LGBT community because Brazil is another country that has a lot of issues with racism and homophobia and things like that. But he is doing the solo Golden Girl Story, which I'm calling a superhero story, because even though I do not consider it, they do not consider themselves

superheroes, that doesn't mean they don't get drawn into superhero situations. Right. And I'll tell you right now she's going to go up against a Batman analog. That is a thing. Okay. And so that's happening. But, so those are the stories we have. James Figuero, you know, oh, James, sorry, James Garcia de Figuido, which I think is, because most people work with them just use the two names. But I really love the fact that, A, he's got Garcia in there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, no relation, but it's fair. Right, right. So she's going to go up against a Batman analog and this exists. So could it be a German Batman named Der Flatermoos? I love that. Technically he's Icelandic. But the thing is, this is an actual character from the 40s, who was a Batman analog then.

But he has powers. He wasn't just like Batman flat out. But in his stories in the 40s, he tries to fight union leaders. He does fight union leaders and defeats them from forming unions. In one story, he actively. defends a factory owner who's a woman that literally has a bullwhip that she uses to whip her employees and when they try to fight back against her he stops them from from fighting back against their boss like why would you do this she's paying your your money um she's literally whipping them

with a bullwhip and he defends her and i thought maybe oh he's going to learn that she's the bad guy at the end no he doesn't learn as far as he's concerned she is the good person he's helping um he has helped scientists create active like war crime weapons you know and and I'm like he was the good guy in these stories and I'm like you know if I need somebody to represent a billionaire

right who makes his time up by beating up people with mental disorders yes whose names he knows whose names he knows personally yep then this is going to be the perfect example nice so I want to tell you a little bit about that, and then I'll tell you about the Nidex story too while I'll read it.

Give you an example of one scene that happens in this story. There's this guy called the green ghost who is mugging a woman in an alley, you know, as you do in superhero stories. Right. And he's like, give me all your green. And she's like, I don't have cash on me. I have credit cards. And he's like, none of those are green.

Your jacket's green. I want that. He's a Batman villain. You know? He's obsessed with green. Right. So the Batman analog shows up and bouches him and starts to beat him up and she comes in and she's like, no, stop that.

This guy clearly needs help. I'm going to go take him somewhere to get help. There's a shelter down the street. You stop punching people. And that takes off. That's some Squawgirl level shit. I like it. Yes, it really is. That is exactly it. You know, that's why I say she's not going to be patrolling the city looking for crimes. That's not what she's doing. But if somebody needs help, she'll get involved.

You know, and so that kind of stuff is happening. Now, for Night Axe that Mickey's drawing. Yeah. It's a ghost. I already mentioned how old the buildings in San Antonio are. and how they are famous for ghosts. That is exactly what I'm doing. I'm having him interact with some of the most famous ghosts in San Antonio. Oh, neat. And I'm having some...

That's awesome. That's cool. And what's great about both these guys is that I told them both, like, I'm just going to pay you for one page right now, and if this works, I will finish it. And the one page they each did is just been amazing. I'm going to post it soon. Nikki's already finished coloring his page, and James is going to color his page as we speak. So I'll post those on the updates soon. but like you know it's just it's been so much fun

as I've told you guys working with these characters that I really want night axe and golden girl to happen yeah and I would love to make more of them and and this is one of those things where like I wish I could work with a publisher I say I wish I could weirdly I've been in comics for so many years and I've never actually pitched a story to a publisher like every story I've done for other publishers they asked me to do stuff and I said sure I'll do it and then and then I've done my own stories, but like, I need to do that. I'd much rather if somebody handle the, the logistics of the thing and I'll just put the story

together. So, oh, go ahead, Ed. So everything that you've described to me about this gives off a very strong vibe in the same way that I get from, uh, like hellboy or BPRD. Yep. And so like I would, I would strongly encourage you if you, if you happen to, you, you know anybody in or know anybody who knows anybody at Dark Horse. Like, if you're going to pitch it to anybody, like, I just think, you know, it's worth trying.

I love that you said Hellboy for two reasons. Number one, I have a reference folder that I said to artists, and one of them just says inspo art, and it's all Mike Manila. Yeah, well, that doesn't mean you have to draw. Yeah, you don't have to draw that way. It's just that's the vibe. Right. And then, and then the other thing is I had been describing Night Axe as basically,

What if Hellboy had even less initiative? Because you know, Hellboy barely does his job as he is. Like, what if he, like, didn't decide to do that job? Yeah. Yeah. That's funny. That's funny. As I was describing that to somebody who is a comic book fan, you know, he said, well, actually, he's more like concrete.

And I was like, damn, that is accurate, but no one's going to get that reference. Right. Well, I mean, I get that reference. You do. You know, concrete? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So Concrete, for those who don't know, was that it was a character, I think, from 90s indie comics, who basically imagine that guy who's transformed into the thing, a giant stone character. But he's neither a superhero nor put in superhero situations. That just happens to be what happened to him. You know, and there's way more to him than that. But, like, my point is that, like, that isn't even better comparison. Yeah. Yeah. Concrete is a remarkable deconstruction of the genre.

It really is. It's so good. Yeah, yeah, it's a great read. It is. Yeah, and I totally did not, did not mean for that to be any kind of a pun. But yes, you're right. Damien, it is. Damn it.

Concrete is foundational to indie comics. Oh, nice. There you go. In fact, they banned him twice. They had to rebar him. You know, I was trying to find a way. I like that. I like that.

You know, I appreciate puns on such a high low, like literally one of the first lessons I do with my students every year is what do you think about puns? Who hates them and who likes them? And I say, well, too bad, because you're going to use them in this class. Yeah. You know, because, like, we're writing publications. And one of the things, we're naming a story, puns are good. They don't all have to be funny, but it's good to have a reference that means something, you know?

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Now, I remember you described a character as a seven foot. I feel like it's Sleepwalker or something like that, but, like, he's seven-something feet tall. he's Hispanic he's got like that's not sleepbucker i know what you're thinking okay tell me who i'm thinking of

so when i said that i had multiple stories that i was working on but none of them really worked yeah one of them was this obscure marvel character that i became obsessed with that's what it was and he is this guy named soul fire who's only had there only had two actual appearances that were consecutive right and then one cameo appearance in like another book 30 years later 20 years later um and he was He is a Latino character who was magically transformed into a giant with a flaming head that does not look like a head. It's a skull, but he's not a ghostwriter. And he just would rather spend his day going to work and, you know, literally in the comic that he's in, he's like, I just want to go home and play Nintendo, man.

Yeah, that's what I'm like. And I just love the idea that he looks like this in a world of superheroes. And he just wants to chill. you know and so so I and again a Latino hero with a lot of potential that no one ever touched on you know if Marvel ever asked me I would even after Night X I would still go and do that I would just obviously do it differently it wouldn't be the same story anymore of course yeah but like because there's elements from that story that could only be that story that are Marvel based elements right but like a lot of the stuff that wasn't I was like this is a whole new story I why am I even writing this for a character Marvel's never going to let me write so I was like I completely reinvented it from the ground up with what became nice Nightx and Golden Girl. So yes, I did say that before. And honestly, I have, I, one of the characters is intentionally meant to visually look a little bit like Nightex. Not in the main characters, but like another character that's in the book. And so far no artist has drawn it the way I've told them to, but we'll see. And the thing is one of those things that like, it doesn't mean anything to anybody but me. Right. But like, it's your own Easter egg that you. But there was a nod in there to Nightx reference that's in there. Sorry, sorry. I said Nightex. I see even I'm getting mixed up soul fire a soul fire reference that's in there okay does I say night X earlier man I'm tired yeah you did yeah he did yeah sorry the Marvel character's name is Soul Fire look him up he's only gotten two appearances

but what's hilarious to me as I mentioned he had one appearance 20 years later that was just a one panel cameo um dr strange was stripped of the title of sorcery supreme right and the amulet comes up and says these are all the people who could potentially be the new sorcerer supreme and you got got Dr. Doom and Barram Mordo and a bunch of other characters. And then there's NIDA. I said it again, there's Soul Fire. There's Soul Fire. And I just love the idea that this guy that has no ambitions to do anything was possibly

going to be the most powerful sorcerer on Marvel's Earth. And I just imagine he's like at dinner with his family. He's like, you know, I was once going to, yes, we know. We know you were once going to be Sorcer Supreme. Move on. You get a job yet. You know, that kind of stuff. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Would that have paid the rent. No. I've been saying the word NIDAC so much lately that I just start saying. in the wrong place. Sure. But yeah.

So far very much was something that went into this. I mean, I'm not going to bring it up, but I'm not going to deny it. Right. Yeah, right. Well, if you want, I will go back and chunk this part out. I will, no, it's fine. I will say one thing as a quick nod to something that means nothing to anybody but me. Soulfire was made by a couple Latino creators, one of whose, whom's last name is Nieves.

So when I was picking a last name for Nichelle, I'm like, Nevis. And then Nightak's last name is Sevea, and that's because I mentioned the good conquistador from the origin of Golden Lad.

Well, his name was Don Juan de Seville. So there's that. There you go. Nice. So who does the covers? Because I see in the Kickstarter, there's alternate covers. I mentioned all the interior artists.

I didn't get to the cover artist. That's why I asked questions. Literally, I've spent all day today with the main cover artist. And yet I didn't mention him yet. Roberto, I mentioned him earlier briefly. But Roberto Reda Padro is just a genius artist that every time somebody finds his work, they're just like, wow. You know? So I first met him, I think right before the pandemic at a small show.

And he was like the first one he'd ever done. And he's like, yeah, I'm thinking about doing more comics. And I'm like, you need to do more. And he's been doing more. So I will take credit for it, even if it's not mine. Sure, sure. There you go. Obviously.

But he's done some Godzilla comics. He's done some like Mothra stuff. He's worked with a lot of other indie publishers as well. But his signature book that he's, I think, most known for of his own is called Carlos the Kaiju Killer. And it is about this scrawny, 20-something-year-old Puerto Rican kid whose job is, every time a kaiju shows up in Puerto Rico. Rico, he's got to go punch it in the face. And what I love about his comic is that he is 100% a silent protagonist, like as a video game character. He doesn't talk through the entire book.

They never say if he can or not. It just doesn't come up. But it's so good. And what's great about that is while it starts off with just, you know, this scrawny Puerto Rican kid punching Kaiju in the face, he, as the story progresses, you find out he is intrinsically tied to the indigenous Dino culture and religion. Like literally the Taino gods and spirits are there backing him up and explaining, not explaining, but like establishing that there is a connection between him and them. Nice. And so Roberto took this fun little goofy story idea he had and expanded it into a love letter to his culture and his ancestral culture, you know. And he and I have been wanting to work together for a while.

We've still not done a full thing together yet, but he did this cover for me. So he's got, he is my main cover artist. And what's really funny to me, as I mentioned several times how beautiful an artist he is, well, most artists, not most, a lot of comic artists today work digitally. And that's practicality. I still remember when I first discovered Sarah Staples. I think she's the artist, Sarah Staples, yeah, who does the art for Saga, that she did most for work digitally.

I was like, wow, I can't believe she does. This is all digitally. It's amazing. Because at the time, it was not extremely common yet, but it was obviously becoming more common. Now most people work digitally, and he does too. But he comes to me when I said, can you do the cover? And he goes, well, do you mind if I do it physically in ink?

I'm like, why would I mind? That's amazing. Yeah. So watching him do physical covers or just pages. He does his own work in pages, physical ink too. I think he'd done back and forth with that for a bit. But I think because of everything going on with the AI and everything, I think he just needed to feel more of a physical connection to being a creator himself. You know?

Yeah. So there's a physical night axe number one cover, Nidex and Golden Girl cover, that you could buy from him if he wants he decides to sell it. You know, it exists, the original. And then he digitally colored it. And then he described what he wanted to do in the cover for me. And I was so confused.

I was like, so they're in a car with a giant sawfish shark man fighting. How do they fit? by the way, we haven't talked about it because it's not really super relevant to the story, but I also designed Night Axe and Golden Girl's car. It is I say in the description that

Golden Girl lovingly calls it the Nightbug because it's Night Axe's car. But it's a Beetle, the VW Beetle, which anybody who spent time in Mexico for the past 50 years was the most common car you'd see, but more importantly, the taxi fleet in Mexico were these green cars with white tops that were the taxi fleet.

And they were all beetles that had been recolored. And they actually retired that whole thing like maybe five, ten years ago. But for generations, that was the car of taxis in Mexico. So this guy is going to be an Uber driver. Having him modify one of those to fit his giant frame is ideal. Yeah. So basically he's got it higher up so he can step into it easier. so it's now on giant tires

It's got a little bit of like a Like a the the cowcatcher rig in the front of it They've turned the top into a convertible Because again, flying girl, giant man But still kept it the white white and green color scheme And they've spray painted on the front of it A large flaming heart Which is also very much not only a symbol of him

But also a symbol of Mexican religion Oh, okay But Mexican Catholicism You know And because it is a Catholic symbol but it is extremely tied to Mexican Catholicism. And so that is their car. And it's, again, it's in one panel of the comic.

It's not, and a couple panels from one of the backup stories. But it's just, I designed it too. And I haven't posted it yet, but I'll post it in the updates. I made a picture of it because people were having trouble understanding my description. And there is no AI in this picture. It will look like it. But it's because I took several photos and literally Photoshopped them together myself. Nice.

But anyway, so all that in mind, we have a giant shark man. Nightaxe, who's a giant guy with no head, and Golden Girl, all stuffed into one car fighting. And I'm like, how is this going to work? But I'm like, I trust you, just do it. And then he showed me, and I was like, well, this is beautiful. Yeah.

I just love this. It's just gorgeous. It is. And again, and again, the description that I gave of the artwork. It's bonkers gorgeous. It is bonkers gorgeous. That's exactly. Yeah.

I'll tell you that he made a trade paperback of his car. is the kaiju killer and I wrote the foreword of it. He's like, you're always talking so glowingly of it. Could you just write it for him? I was like, sure. Nice. Now that's one cover. But there are alternate covers, right?

Yes. So I have an alternate cover by a guy named Fish Lee who a lot of people in indie circles will know. He goes by Mr. Fish online. He's just a really, really nice guy who does beautiful, very classic superhero style art. And he works a lot of other indie. He was kind of like, he was helping mentor me a little bit, briefly because I'd been working this for a while but I'm like

I'm struggling and he's and he was giving me he's kind of mentally advice to which I think is really nice and then I asked him to the cover and I gave him a couple options of things that I thought would be good and one of the options was the idea of since he does such classic art style have him do the golden lad and golden girl

of the past and then the present put them together and and he did that with kind of a little bit of that giant size X-Men homage bursting through the page and it's probably going to adjust it later. The page they're bursting through is actually the first appearance of Golden Girl back in the 40s.

Nice. And so, yeah, that's a thing that happened. And so that's pretty cool. And so he did the backup cover. And I got some, the trade dress is not finalized, but I really wanted to feel like a classic comic book for this one. So I put out of the golden age into the now, which is now more number one from the 90s. said out of the depths and into the 90s

and I just thought I've always, even in the 90s thought that was such a silly, cheesy tagline. Yeah. That I wanted to mess with that. And then I also put

first issue, collector's item because like, again, if you're going to do that old school vibe, you need that. Right. Yeah.

And is there, oh, go on. And then I have a cover C which is by an artist. I have her real name on here. She said it'd be okay to put it with her art. But she goes by

Mexicoai online, which is a beautiful name if you know what Kauai means in Japanese so she's a Mexican artist who does Japanese cutesy art you know so literally Mexie Kauai

but which also in putting those two words together you also get Mexica which is where the word Mexico comes from which is the indigenous people that we most often associate with the Aztecs by the way for anybody listening if you hear me say Aztex and Mishika

sometimes interchangeably a lot of people say well they were never called the Aztex well no the Mishika were the Maschika. But the Aztecs, when we use that term historically, we're talking about the Triple Alliance as a whole, which was led by the Machika, but involved other groups as well. So it is a legitimate term, both in Mexico and in other areas, especially historically, but it was also a term. People tell you, it's a modern term. It may have been popularized more in modern times,

but it was used by the Michica as well. So, yeah, we have actual records of them saying that. So that's the third cover I did four covers for for World's War Comics And I would like to have a fourth cover And I've got a couple different artists That might do a fourth cover But depending on you know

Again we need to make our budget I think the fourth cover Before I had the finished colored version Of Roberto's cover I'd been showing people the black and white version But the one that was all again Physically inked and zip atoned by hand And it's gorgeous

So I'm like Maybe I think we should just do the black and white cover as a fourth cover. Again, it depends if we'd make the budget and everything. Right. But so then you'd have that option. Oh, by the way, I'll go back to the Mexia Kauai's art for a second. So it's this adorable thing.

And while I was talking to Fish Lee, Mr. Fish, you know, he, I told him like, I'm trying to think of like, like, artulent titles. Because I thought Nightex and Golden Girl, maybe that title doesn't work. Because I always tell people, oh, you have a great title, you've a great title, you know. And it doesn't, it, without the context, you don't know what it means. But literally everybody's told me that's who they are, use their names. So I'm like, okay. But I was talking with the back and forth, and he jokingly gave me a manga title.

If it was a manga, you know, that time I lost my head to an Aztec curse and my heart to the girl next door. And I was like, oh, my God, it's so beautiful. Yeah. So I put that on Mexicoi's cover. That's awesome. Yeah. Because it's have this anime and style thing. It was just so on the nose and yet also adorable.

I was like, yeah, it has to be there. That's perfect. Yeah. So these variants. Mexico, by the way, is also a Mexican artist from Mexico. Oh, okay. These variants are going to be, are these stretch goals or these if you buy at this level, if you support at this level?

A stretch goal would be additional covers. Oh, okay, gotcha. Currently, these two are options to purchase and order. Ah, okay. I would like there to be additional options. I would love to do more covers. But again, I need to make my budget first. I will say, you know, if you look at some of the, I put like the merch I have on there on my page.

And I'll talk about some other things. I felt bad using somebody else's art for merch. If I do, I always send them copies, but I want to make sure they're okay with it first. So I use my own art to make some. Actually, I got a pin right here from an artist that I quite like, who goes by Ketsa art. If you look him up, he does these Aztec style art of like modern pop culture characters. so these are enamel pins but then you mentioned

my Primos podcast which I am a co-host of one of the other co-host is Elia Madre who goes by Spiced Elia Maratresians online and she said I want to do stickers for you so I'm like okay we've got stickers so that is her adorable art

and I love that when she drew satanico I mentioned that he's probably going to be wearing a robe the whole time like he did most of the time in the old comics too but for whatever reason she drew him in a Speedo and I'm like you know what this feels right it's fine

Stick with it. Yeah, yeah. And then multiple artists have asked me, you know, the, the, uh, Asipakli, the, the giant sawfish shark man, you know, what's he wearing? I'm like, no, he's naked. Like, like, no, he's just naked. Like, like, he's basically doomsday, you know, but for boomsday's first appear, not Doomsday now where he's a time traveler or somewhere like, but the original Doomsday,

when he first appeared, it was like, Mertrap, yes. Like, that's about how smart this guy is, you know. Um, Dumesday should have been naked, but like they put, put a little, uh, bicycle shorts on him. In fact, when a birthday was doing the cover, he's like, does he have nipples? Can I draw nipples? I was like, yes, he has nipples.

I hadn't thought of that, but now that you ask the question, the answer is yes. He 100% has nipples, you know. Does he have other junk to? Probably. We're not going to draw it. It's not the comic. But, but yeah, you know. In fact, we haven't talked about rating too much, but if you were to give this rating,

I'd say like a low teen rating. It's basically like a low PG-13 or something Sure You know These are adult characters But I'm not gonna have cussing I'm not gonna have No real gore

I mean there's there will be some But not like a horror gore You know yeah It'll be less than than bull's eye Yeah Well no about that much Oh okay Okay

Yeah but less than like half of what Deadpool does Right right Okay there we go Yeah So there's that And and and while Golden Girls outfit is extremely short, which, by the way, I was adjusting everything, my fiance who, by the way, just dyed her hair gold, so she does look a lot like golden girl right now.

Like people who say that she's based on my fiance, I can't beat those allegations right now because as of today, died her hair gold. So, oh, well. Anyway, but she's the ones like, no, keep it short. So it's, you know, and she's been helping with a lot of, she's a stylist, a personal stylist. I've been getting a lot of fashion like history from her. It's been great.

But anyway, even though her costume is so short, from the camera's point of view of the reader, we never see anything. Yeah, it's not revealing. Yeah, because, no, no, it's 100% revealing. But like, we don't see it. It's not as lasciviously revealing.

Yeah, it's like old Taylor Moon comics. Yeah, that was what I was thinking. If you drew her from a different angle, but like the angle we're seeing her from, you know, and if people ask you like, how is that always possible, it's magic. It's a magic costume. Don't worry about it.

You know. Look, there's, there's a guy walking around with a giant gold idol thing for a head. It's magic. Yeah. If you have to ask the question, the answer is it's magic. Roll with it. Like, yeah. Somebody last time asked me what his favorite foods would be, what both of their favorite foods would be.

And I was like, well, she had like this and this. And then I was like, for a night axe, can he eat? For that matter. I imagine sushi. Because then he gets cooked fish. well that's the thing it's not actually fire in fact one thing as much as I've talked about

all the characters are in this story much that I've given you a lot of the thing one thing I've never talked about is the fire around his head that is plot relevant in an extremely important way that I am not going to get into until it shows up in the book

but but it will hurt you I guess but it's magical fire so I guess if you're more of a bad person will probably hurt you more, but that's about it. But the thing is like, you know, can he eat? Maybe hasn't come up.

He does sleep. He does have other like biological needs, I guess. He doesn't breathe technically. He doesn't have lungs or a heart where they should be. And but there's not a scene in this book, but probably if I do another book at some point, somebody will be like, how are you even talking? He's like, I don't know, man. I really don't know.

Like, don't even ask. It's magic. I don't know. Like, dude, look, my head's a giant floating. I say giant. In the original comic, it was about the size of a softball. And now it's about the size of a coconut. And being the artist has been drawing it bigger.

It's magic. It changes size as he needs it to, I guess. It's meant to be a little bit smaller than a head would be for a guy that size. But like, artists have been drawing it bigger. It's not meant to be the size of a head. You know, it's meant to be slightly smaller than what his head would be if he would be. Right. Right.

Yeah. So yeah so like can he talk I mean sorry how does he talk I don't know can he eat I don't know But you know I guess that might be one of the side issues of like him discovering that Yeah like he could probably continue never trying to breathe or eat for he probably doesn't even need to sleep Yeah but like he thinks he does and these two dating like yeah that other parts of him work just fine Yeah that too uh but like okay uh well he might be like back man though because of the fire but anyway well certainly

would be censored yes I'm not going to get into that yeah but what I was going to say is like oh that part of Batman oh you meant that yeah well I will say somebody pointed that out to me I'm not going to get into it for those of you know what we're talking about you know what we're talking about but I said already that that fire will not actually burn you

but it would probably tingle a bit so sure but again do with that information what you will you would have to experiment to find that it would take some effort on their parts to decide what his powers can do. That's quite a risk. Well, again, she has Supergirl level powers once she activates.

Good point. Very good point. You can't leave them on 24 hours a day, but she could keep them for, I don't specify it, but let's say she can probably, if she's not doing anything but like some light flying or whatever, probably keep it active for maybe six hours, maybe maybe a little bit less. But she's like really pushing herself to that Superman level. It's going to be a couple of hours. Yeah. You know.

So, you know. But I was, I was thinking like they go out on a date and she's, you know what? we've never done, we've never gone out to eat. And then I never thought about eating. The thing is, they go out to eat all the time, but he doesn't order. And the thing is, it's like, you should try something. How? I don't know, give it a shot.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, it just sounds like, it seems like it would be a really, like, it reminds me of that scene in X-Men 2, Electric Bugaloo, where Iceman is trying to date Rogue. And Logan's like staring him down. And he's like, we're trying to figure. things out like we want to it just you know and it's like you it brings up

the question without actually asking the question of would condoms protect him? And so again he's a holocaised so that's a whole other issue. No I mean Iceman in that movie from rogue's power. Oh that part and so just like the mundane

that answer is already no. But but like the mundanity of it in in that iteration of X-Men that was those kids were kind of grappling with it. And so just that same kind of mundane, have you tried eating? I will say one thing that I can guarantee you

is not how he eats. I mentioned that the original story is about a figure that rips open his chest. Right. And Nightex can do that. In fact, you see one of the drawings in the... Actually, I think it's one of the drawings on here, but it will definitely be in one of the update pages, is Mickey drawing him with an open chest. And you'll see

my drawings of him with an open chest. It looks like teeth, because it's ribs that have been opened up that closed together again. That is not how he would eat. He would definitely not put food in there. So I can tell you, I can't tell you how he would eat, but I can tell you how he would not eat. Right.

Okay. Good. But, you know, that there's your, the foray into, you know, figuring out. Like, I always love, like, a day. It's a very biological discussion. Yeah. But I just, I always love, like, the, the times where comic books just kind of sidestep into how does Peter Parker get his laundry done?

You know, stuff like that. It just, I always like things like that. You know, I was talking to somebody earlier. I have this thing I do whenever I'm at a convention of the table or whatever, and I tell people, look, I name any random Marvel character, and I will tell you something weird about them. And I used to, there's one thing I used to say about Spider-Man a lot, but I realize it's not that weird.

It's not an interesting. But then I was, ooh, the better answer, though, is this. Did you know Spider-Man once taught a god how to poop? I did not know that. And if they do not have that scene. I can believe it, though. If they do not have that scene with Tom Holland and one of the upcoming movies, I'll be very disappointed. So do you know who the Beyonder is? Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So for those people who don't know,

like as an example, Hulk is the strongest one there is, blah, blah, blah. Well, Hulk lives inside of a universe. And Beyonder is an entire universe. Right. Right. And when he first became physically human, just as a lark, just to see what it was like. By the way, canonically, what he looks like is a, is a combination between Steve Rogers and mid-80s era Michael Jackson. Yes. I kid you not, that his origin. Anyway, so he becomes a human for the first time just to see what it's like. So this is Secret Wars 2 when he comes back? Figure Wars 2, yes. Okay, so he's flying around in the car

using a cuisine art. Is it before that even? Okay. So he teleports into Peter Parker's apartment and he's like, because he can and Peter Parker's like, what are you doing here? He's like, I just want to tell you, being human's great. I can taste things. Food is amazing. I have this pain in this area down here. Why do I have this pain? And Peter Parker's like, oh no, you haven't, oh no, come with me. And then Peter teaches him how to poop.

And the thing is, I don't think he's ever told anyone this. Like, I feel like it's a secret he would take to his grave. But I would think it's bragging rights, man. You taught a God out of poop. Yeah. Marvel is planning a movie called Secret Wars. I really hope Beyonder is in it. And I really want Tom Holland to do that scene.

That's awesome. I can, I could picture Tom Holland. Yeah. In that situation. I could 100% picture it. And so the idea of like, we're talking about Night Axe and Golden Girl, uh, getting into the like the biology of, But like, yeah, that's an interesting thing when comics do that.

That's awesome. I have my, in the Kickstarter, I have updates. And I'm going to post another one today, but I got busy. So I'll probably post it later tonight. And I've been posting kind of behind the scenes of how it's done. One of them is designing Nightex and Golden Girl. And in that one, I go into like what went into their physical look. And I show, for example, with Golden Girl, I largely just kept the original

golden girl design mixing in a few elements of golden lad because I thought it was even though it only had one actual appearance in the 40s it is such an of its era silly costume that I'm like we have to keep this you know so I just you know modernize it adds some details a little bit but it's basically the same costume with it with some touches and and again these are my drawings like for example I realized the back of her cape looked very blank so like her front profile is very distinct her back profile is the cape by the way is about as long as Robin's original cape so like

yeah it's definitely not a full body cape it's like a robin cape just put it like that and I took golden lad had a heart here which according to his origin is supposed to be the actual golden heart but it's never it's always drawn flat so I don't know so I'm putting that heart symbol on her cape instead of as golden lad had it on his chest

sure and then for and then for golden lad I was like number one I already mentioned to you guys about the heart of coppel and all that stuff but I was also like okay look if he needs to number one he's a giant guy so he needs clothing that would fit him and and he's So he's kind of self-conscious about it. So he wants clothing, it's kind of mess up his profile a little bit.

So he does wear like a bigger, baggier shirt and jacket. And also he knows he might at some point need to open his chest. He doesn't want to do that for various reasons, but he might have to. So he needs to be able to get to it quickly. So he's wearing an engineer, a frontier engineer shirt is what I was called different things. Basically, you see it at rodeoes a lot. And he can very quickly pop it open and then access his chest, you know? Right.

So like, so that's all goes into their design. Like there's a reason, rhyme and reason to all of it. Nice. You know. So, yeah, go ahead. A couple questions for you. One, will there ever be a, a line that somebody says to Golden Girl or that she says to someone else where it simply thanks them for being a friend? Hold on.

What are you referencing? This is getting to my attention. The song, the theme song for the Golden Girls. Thank you. I pause for a second. Sure. You know what? There definitely will be at some point.

Okay. Definitely won't be her. Okay. She would definitely have a sense of humor about it. I imagine her doing a lot of Sailor Moon style like talking after transforming. Not because it's something she's supposed to do, just because she can. Right. She does it.

So she's going to do it. Like I am the Avatar of Justice or whatever she's going to just because she can. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But yeah, a golden girl would be great. Somebody needs to call her like Blanche or something like that. Or just have her start talking about the herring war. Yes.

Back when she flew up north to where were she from. Try to remember where she's from. I want to say to St. Olaf. Yeah, St. Olaf. What state was it? Minnesota. Yeah. She could fly anywhere in the world.

So she flew to Minnesota and was part of the Herring War. But it's like, what? It's like, it's the thing that happened. Don't worry about it. Moving on. I prefer not to talk about it. Right. Yes.

Yes, of course. Like, just get distracted and changes the subjects. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I got to say, exactly. I got to say one thing that's important for me as we talk about like, like, she's not flighty like that, but, but she's definitely a happy person.

And I will say that a lot of their first draw when I had other, I had many different artists I had hired do little like commissions of them to kind of visualize as I'm writing it. And a lot of them would draw her angry. And it's like, even if she's fighting, she'll be like, frustrated or intense, but not angry, unless somebody actively does something that would really anger her. Generally speaking, that's not her.

Generally speaking, like, you can fly. That's why I really dislike the Man of Steel movie because Superman spends the entire movie moping. And the thing is, Superman should be happy he can fly. He is excited about it. Like, yes, when people get hurt or when he can't help them, that affects him deeply on the inside. but like that's not him 24-7

you know yeah yeah you know and so like she is generally speaking a happy person and not just angry all the time right which you know is also a stereotype that is associated with certain people too so

yeah yeah that's an issue yeah so yeah absolutely okay so that that idea I will kick in more on the Kickstarter if that helps it yeah you know what I win when or if I get around to that I need to remember to put a little special thanks

because there's several puns and stuff that I've already like at some point they need to come up Oh sure I have a list But that one actually weirdly wasn't on it Although that is definitely part of why Goldengirl.com was so expensive

Yeah, I'm not as soon as he said 30,000 I'm like oh yeah yeah that'll yeah it's seven and a half thousand per girl So all right I noticed on the Kickstarter that there is a mention of something called the Florentine Codex Yes. Could you please do what you do and elucidate the Florentine Codex for us? Yeah.

So I've already mentioned that several of the creatures in this book are pre-Columbian, and I mentioned that they were written down by Spaniard colonial priests based on descriptions given to them by indigenous Nawa people in what the areas that are now like Mexico City and around that area. And for the Florenti Codex. Excuse me. Sorry, hiccup there. For the Florentine Codex, it's basically just a list of things.

So there's a section of it that's about the history of the empire, section of it that's about the gods, a section about plants that exist in the area and how they have different medicinal uses. A section about all kinds of things. And there's an extended section about creatures. And it's just set up as a matter of fact, kind of like, remember this is the 1500s. This is a time when they were still making bestiaries in Europe where they're like, yes, a beaver will cut off its own testicles and do this.

But if you get them, it's magical. It's like, right. Or my favorite is the raccoon is immortal. Oh, I had to hear that one. Like they straight up thought it was immortal. And that's why you have the phrase, I haven't seen you in a coon's age. It's the only time it wasn't racist. It was just stupid.

That's the thing. A lot of these phrases. Yeah, I was going to say a lot of these phrases don't necessarily. have initial racial undertones, but they become related later. One of my favorite ones, one that I want to use at some point in some story, I haven't figured out how,

is there is a leopard's pearl or something like that that basically is made from the tier of a leopard. I can remember exactly the details of it, but essentially it protects you from evil. And I'm like, it's just such a visually interesting concept to be a pearl made from the crying leopard or something like that. I can't remember. I have my

Beastiary books somewhere on the shelf here. I've got a bunch of books. I've got by the way I got tons of books that are not comic books. I have a bunch of comic books too but I got rid of most of them years ago. Basically I got rid of all my physical comics that I could not get elsewhere legally. So like if they're digital fine. I'm not going to worry about it because I just got too much to feel. So now I only collect comics that are unlikely to be

released digitally. So indie stuff and weird obscure gold and stuff. But But my physical bookshelf is like, I've got like tons of books that are, I got several books, for example, in Mesoamerica and languages and all kinds of things. Right. So back to the Florentine Cordyx. I'm all off topic. So this book is a great book. And you can literally read it yourself.

It's called the Florentine Codex online. It has it in the original Spanish and Nawa. Because what's neat about it is that it was written into languages. So the book has Spanish and now that's right next to each other, going all the way down through the book, almost most of the way. And it's fascinating when you read the two in the modern translations to modern Spanish or modern English they have, where there are overlap and where there's things that got left out. It's just kind of really neat.

But it has a list of all these creatures. So in that book, you can find the earliest written in Spanish description of the Night Axe. you can find all of these creatures that are the monsters of this particular issue the hummingbird fish and all that yeah exactly except for except for satanico he's not he's not in this

but they do reference Satan a lot but it's more of like a this god is probably Satan so I'm like okay sure yeah you know so all that's there and what I love is I just I tell people all the time and people think I'm exaggerating

I do way too much research for everything I do okay I don't see that as being possible, but okay. For Dragon Lee and the monster of Salty River, they didn't give me a lot at the beginning. They just said, give me the bare bones of it. So I put a ton of research into where are the families from, what is in that state,

what indigenous cultures lived in that state beforehand, what the area, it's called Salty River, because the main river in the area translates to Salty River. And then I also went in and put creatures from the Florantine Codex in that story as well. And again, there's other. I have a bunch of codexes on the wall, actually, but in the shelves, I mean,

but, but there's so many in that book that I could keep going back to it. You know, and what's funny to me is like, if you look up like cryptids of Mexico or whatever, you'll see some of these characters, characters, some of these creatures in those lists, further misinterpreted again. Right. Which I think is hilarious because, like, for example,

there's the eagle fish, which you will find on some websites as a giant monster fish from Mexico. And it's like, that's somebody, misunderstanding, the Spanish misunderstanding of the description of the eaglefish, you know. So I'm leading into that, and I'm making the eaglefish

the biggest of all these creatures. That's awesome. Nice. That reminds me of, Ed, you'll remember this from the history of puns podcast that I did. There is a topic already. Yeah.

There is, God, if I can remember the episode number, I'll tell you later. But there is a book called the, and I'm going to butcher this because I spoke Latin. the Chilam Balam of Chumayel Which was a book that came from a series of nine books

That were written on the Yucatan Peninsula And it was a bunch of miscellanies Named after the small towns in which they were kept And if I recall correctly Chilam Balam was the name of the person writing it as well Yes, yes He was a one of the few figures whose writings We can still go access

Which what I love right now is modern anthropology is making a big effort to bring back acknowledgement of people. There was a study recently that announced the name of a Maya astronomer. So we now know the name of one of their astronomers. Yeah.

Which is great because that stuff had been lost before. But yes. Right. So we got Toulam Balam. And his name, he was, his name translates to essentially he's a priest whose last name was similar to the word for Jaguar.

Yeah, Balam. Right. But to the untrained eye, it could look like Jaguar Priest, which again, you can get layers different, right? But this book, these books were a mixture of Latin script and hieroglyphic script. And the book itself, the books date back to the Spanish conquest of that peninsula in the mid-1500s. And again, it is just basically punning on the names of the towns as the Itza people wandered on their diaspora. So they got to a town called Talab, where the Itsa stirred for honey. And Tanlab means a division of land, but Hutya Kab means to stir up honey. And then they got to a place called Kikil,

which is where they had dysentery, because Kik meant rubber and or blood, but Kiknok was bloody guts. which is a good word for dysentery. And then they got to call, which is where they closed themselves in. And call can mean to imprison or to shut in or to trap or could just be the name of the place. And so you just have all of these like this guy's stuff is just like a trapes through puns of towns. And I appreciate that as you say puns, you're using it in its actual meaning.

Many people think a pun as being funny. Puns can certainly be funny. They certainly can't In modern I tell people that all the time They're 100% Often funny But they don't have to be

It's about having something That has more than one meaning Yes And I have a lot of that in these characters Santiago You know He's literally a saint You know

He's such a nice guy And Nichelle She shortens his name to Santi And he calls her Nish Or niche Nice So she is his niche

Right You know You know And And I would talk about languages. I have a bunch of books specifically on my egliffs. And that is a key part of parts of the story. Because again, I want to say it's that the original Golden Lad was 100% tied to the Aztecs in a weird uninformed way.

I want to tie the story to more than one culture and more of a history. Because I talked about like I mentioned earlier in the previous episode. like kind of a Latino diaspora and it's like people get disconnected from their past and there's so much of that there one of the one of the stereotypes in the US

is you'll have a lot of people saying well my great great grandmother was a Cherokee princess and that is not true right yeah some of those families may have actually had some indigenous relatives but like it was not a Cherokee princess

I've even heard that in my family at some point and I'm like no that's not how that works the white side of my family but for Mexico for many years especially on the border where I grew up people would 100%

deny any kind of ancestry other than Spain they would it doesn't matter how dark your skin is or whatever they would say I am 100%

Spaniard my grandfather had blue eyes you'll hear a lot of people say that over the past 20 years 30 years or so it's been changing

so that now they call it kind of decolonizing decolonizing rather decolonizing and a lot of lot of people have been like reconnecting with their ancestral past.

And the stereotype is, whereas you'd have a lot of white people in the U.S. saying they have a Cherokee princess, many, many people who are trying to decolonize will say, I have Aztec ancestry. And by the way, I was told that as well from my Mexican side of the family. And the thing is,

yes, possible. Certainly very probable that you would have Nawa ancestry, which is the larger culture that the Aztec people came from. But there are so many other cultures out there that to focus on only the most well-known one, the one where the word Mexico comes from, you know, is doing a disservice to the rest of it. Is there somehow a, an aspect of like anti-colonial nationalism involved in that when you,

when you say that, you know, it's the concern with, sorry, hold on a second. Continue. Oh. This interruption is brought to you by Ed's progeny. So I will come back to this then, and then I'll make him re-ask his question. So it sounds similar to, because I have family from the Carolinas, and they always would claim Native American ancestry. And I think somewhere somehow, I mean, there's the Dawes Act. There are historians who have broken down why that is, and you can look it up. It's quite interesting what caused that phenomenon to become such a phenomenon.

Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, even what is her name? The politician who claimed it for a while doesn't anymore. Oh, Warren. Warren, yes, Elizabeth Warren. Yeah. There is a historical reason of why that was done. It's tied a lot to the idea of manifest destiny.

Yep. And so, and it became just cultural repetition at some point. and people forgot why it became. Anyway, sorry, you were saying about your family. So they would always claim that, but they were also horribly racist people. Yeah, that's often two groups that. That's an often a group that does that all the most.

Yeah, and so you would always have this really weird tension when my grandma would be talking about things. And you know how everybody has a mean grandma and a nice grandma? Yeah. She claimed the title of Mean Grandma and Never Let It Go. But she would talk in terms of us and them in back. battles. And because she's mean and comes from a very racist background, it would be confusing when she would talk about how they lost to us. I'm like, wait a minute, no, that the native people

won that one. And then it kicked in for me that in fact, she was claiming that ancestry. And for that specific moment. Yes. And again, because- A lot of it has to do with groups feeling more. American by saying, no, I have a claim to this land. Right, right. It's kind of like the people who are like, well, see, Eric, the Viking was the first one to get over here. And it's like, that doesn't matter. Like, I read an article in 1999 that discussed this.

You're out of date. But she would claim that. And that whole side of my family would claim that kind of ancestry. I never really cared about heritage in my family at all. So I never really listened to much. but I would have other friends who also, as white as I am, would claim Native American ancestry. And I remember hearing that, like, what was it, people would always claim, again, Cherokee ancestry. And I'd start asking, I'm like, weren't their neighbors, like, just right down the road, the Choctaw?

Like, why is it? There's a very specific reason why Cherokee specifically, too. And I couldn't get into it right now. there are people who are more alerted about that than I am that will tell you the reasons. I mean, I know it ties into. Dr. Cruz, could probably tell you more about it. Oh, yeah, yeah, and being from the Carolinas. But yeah, that is a real thing. I will say real quick on the angry grandmother thing. Yeah. I am 100% convinced that Coco is just based on my family.

I had, my great grandmother was never quite all there, but she would kind of play with the kids, mainly because she couldn't remember if they were her toys or not. Right. And then my grandmother is probably One of the meanest and sarcastic, you're going to meet. And I would tell people like, well, asked her one day, Grandma, can you just me to make tamales? She's like, it's too much work.

Go to the store and buy it. I used to, I was very obsessed with like older culture. So I'd wear like my pant legs rolled up from like this 50s style, which when my uncles were kids. And she goes, you know, the boys used to wear that when they were younger. And I said, yeah, I know. And then she would go, whoever told you it looks cool was lying to you. And it's like, and I have so many examples of that.

Like she was just that, that person. And I would never call her mean, but she was definitely bitingly sarcastic. She was a dream stomper. Yes, 100%. And also her husband and my grandfather as well. I was a reporter and he's like, what are you going to get a real job? And then I became a teacher and he never asked me again. Oh, that's funny.

Yeah. It's funny. Yeah, well, because he and a lot of the sons worked at an air kitchen repair people. So they did a lot of physical labor. Right. But there were also teachers in the family and he knew how much stress that was. So he did not. Okay.

Cool. Go for it, Ed. Okay. So I apologize. Wait, I want to say one more thing before you continue. Yeah, yeah. I need to say this. I am extremely proud of my cultural heritage.

I would never call myself indigenous. I have been included in groups that are people of color. And they've told me you're also a person of color. Great that you're saying that. I am not going to say that. I am too, I don't consider myself white, but I am definitely too white to say that. So I am definitely proud of that, that part of my family history. I'm definitely trying to promote and support as many people as I can that are, you know,

in situations other than my own, but I would not say I am indigenous. So kind of like the characters here that are learning about their cultural ancestry, they are not themselves raised indigenous culture. They are learning about their ancestry. Sorry. No, that's an important distinction to make. I just think it's important to say that and to establish it. I know.

So, Ed, go ahead. Okay. So like I was trying to ask a minute ago, do you think the, you know, my ancestry is Aztec? that that what's what I'm looking for discourse. Do you think there is a stripe of like anti-colonial nationalism tied to it? Since, you know, as you pointed out, you know, the Aztecs, the Mexica are the, or Michica are the group from whom Mexico takes its name. Is there, is there an element?

Do you think there is an element of that there? Do you think it's just like laziness or like, okay. Well, part of it, I wouldn't call it laziness, but part of it is just familiarity. Okay. It is the group, like if they're going to be recreations of indigenous ceremonies on a broad scale, it's going to be Aztec. Individual communities are going to do Putapeta and other culture,

but in their communities. Right. But when it's on a broader scale, the one that most people are going to see is going to be Aztec. Okay. And but I wouldn't call it laziness But that is it is familiarity I would also

Very very much say Nationalism is not probably the right word to use Okay It is pride But nationalism has other connotations Okay But there's definitely that The biggest word in all of that is anti-colonial

The phrase that has been used a lot lately Is called decolonizing And it's decolonizing and kind of essentially retribalizing by learning where your ancestry came from and connecting to it. And while I think that is extremely important and I also consider myself doing that a little bit,

I would never do it to the extent to say that I have joined a culture that I was not raised in. You know what I mean? It's just not something that I can do. So I, like my family is from Mexico originally. I'm third generation. And I can tell you everything about every generation

since they came across, but nobody my family could tell you anything about earlier than that. So like that is what the experience a lot of Latin American families, especially immigrant families to the United States, have because you had generations of time,

decades of time, where people were just told just assimilate. Just assimilate into the American culture. Be white because you don't want to be black apparently in the 60s and 50s and something like that. And don't speak Spanish Right Don't acknowledge or encourage that Mexican part of you

And push being American So because of that I It would take a lot To get I think an anthropologist To trace my family And figure out exactly where we're

Not impossible It could be done, I'm sure But like to trace where they came from Because again my family nobody was raised talking about so like the cultural

after effects are still there in terms of like my grandmother putting an egg underneath my bed when I was sick as a child

and all of these things certain mores and traditions and even language parts I speak 90% English you know I have very poor I very poor Spanish

and I've been learning Nawat and and J'O Maya and so other things but I could not have a sentence in those languages and

And I have been told by my partner, especially recently, that my language, the way I form sentences is not often the traditional ways of English, but I'm using a Spanish formation for some of the languages. Not all the time, but it comes up that I don't realize I'm doing because I was raised speaking English in that manner. Right. Right. So, like, it's fascinating to me how a lot of that cultural history has been disseminated over the years. it's still there, but it's harder to see. And so I do think that that decolonization that the people have been doing lately

that's been really pushed online, you'll hear people have a lot, is interesting. And it's a great idea to connect with your ancestry. But at the same time, it's a dangerous slippery slope to just say, my ancestors were Aztec. Right, right. Yeah.

And I have a lot of mutuals and other people that I follow online that will, you know, call people out for doing that. And be like, you know, you know that there's, on the likelihood that it was Aztec, and also that there are other people in Mexico, several languages. What I love is there's things you can go to

that you go by state of Mexico. What is the most popular language? What is the second most popular language? A lot of the border ones, English is second, you know? In some of the communities, German is the second most common language in that parts of Mexico. But in other areas, it's various indigenous languages.

Yes, in several of them, it's not what? But like in others, it's, you know, Puerto Petaa mentioned earlier, it's other cultures, you know? It reminds me of, so my son and I were, we went to the UK this summer for his big 16 trip to see all the heritage steam trains that he wanted to see. This is where he got to choose to go. So my daughter, she's still deciding. We'll see what she chooses because when she's going to be 16 in a couple years.

She's like, what's the most expensive thing I can pick? That's the thing. She's not like that. And so I was like, do you want to do New Zealand? you know because hobbiton and she's like man maybe she's just like not as jazzed about such things at a cousin like that she didn't really want to do a kinsenietta and then last minute she's like you know what i do let's do yeah let's throw something together you know so uh you got emergency pedrinos basically yes that's but uh but anyway so we went up to scotland uh and again i don't put much stock in my own heritage

i just i never have um it's it's one of those things where i've i've joked about but joking seriously that my ancestors traded heritage and culture for access. And I am fairly common. The knock-on effect of that, you know, and also I was adopted by part of my family and stuff like that. So, but we go up to Scotland because he wants to see the Scottish Railway Museum. He wants to see all this. I'm like, well, fuck, if we're going there, we're going to go to Sterling Bridge. I want to see it.

And so we go to Sterling Bridge, and I'm there. And there's these three stones that are there that things are carved. into. And I start trying to read and I see, I'm like, oh shit, this is in Latin. So I start translating it. And this older man and his daughter, it's very clearly his daughter, they're right near us and their ears perk up. And then I hear them talking and I know that they're talking in Italian. So I was like, oh, okay, there's the crossover there. Okay. And so then I'm reading it and I'm like, okay, and it means this. And then William, he just points to me. He's like, it's in English right there, man. And I was close. So it was, I've done that. So, I've done that.

many times. Oh, God. I do that's so many times where I'm like, I'm like, okay, go back to this book. Go back to this book. And as I keep going, I'm like, oh, there was a translation here. Yeah. Nice. And then they also did it in, uh, uh, it's not Scouse. Uh, it's Scots. Scots. Uh, was it, was it, was it, was Scots or was it Scottish Gaelic? Yeah. I don't know. It's the one. Okay. It looks like, it, like if you say it, it sounds like somebody's talking with an accent. Okay. Yeah, that's, that's Scots. Okay. So it was Also in Scots.

I will say that by the white part of my family traces its lineage to Scottish culture. Yeah. Also, including, by the way, the Scotch Irish, who I find fascinating as a concept, because these are people that were disliked by the Scots for leaving, disliked by the Irish for coming, and considered canon fodder by the British. Yeah. And then used to displace native. Exactly.

That's the canon fodder part of it. Yeah. Yeah. That's mostly my maternal heritage. Yeah. West Virginia. Yeah. But anyway, so we're.

we're talking about it and stuff like that. And then the guy comes over and he speaks to me in very Italian-accented English. And he explains to me that he and his daughter were here at Stirling Bridge to connect to their roots. And I was like, oh, do tell. And what I was able to get from it was that he and his daughter were from Italy. but their relative God, how many years ago was it says like the 1,200s, right?

Almost 1,300. It was like 1297, right? And so, what are we talking? Over 700 years ago. Their relative fought for Andrew Morey, who's the other guy who fought alongside William Wallace. And they were Scottish. And then they were banished.

Yep. And so they ended up having to, leave and where do you go if you're Scottish, I guess to Bologna because that's where their relative went. And that's why they're Italian. And so it was just fascinating to me to hear him an Italian man being Italian hanging on to and reconnecting with these Scottish roots that he had. And I was like, man, I got none of this shit.

This is cool. Like, way to go. And how far back it goes, 800 years and stuff. And he's hanging on. like they made a pilgrimage to this bridge and I just happened to be there that day to witness it. But wow, right? And we were, my students were asking about heritage recently or, you know, a while back. And I just explained, I was like, because there are people who are, oh, we're descended to this.

We had descended to this and da-da-da-da. I said, yeah, my people are just basically racist horse thieves on my father's side. And on my mother's side, they were Scots-Irish who were. like shoeless for three generations. Like it really takes the pressure off. It kind of nice because I'm not disappointing any ancestor, you know, in any economic sense at least. By talking to people of color, I probably am disappointing all of them.

And that's fine. But I just, I loved that I was interacting with this guy in Scotland who's connecting with his roots that are 800 years old, like 700 years old. And he still felt a connection to that. I love every second of that. Yeah. It was neat. That's the thing is as I,

when people use the term Aztec, you know, they're talking about a culture that does not exist anymore. The Nawa people exist. The Nala people are here. They should not be overlooked as an existing culture. But the, the culture of Aztec,

that mixed Triple Alliance, the various tributaries, all of that stuff. You know, that is an ancestry that goes back very, very far. Mm-hmm. You know, so. Yeah. Yeah. So, well, this has been a hoot and a holler.

I know that you're two hours ahead of us, so it's getting late for you. So I have a list of Marvel heroes. Surprisingly not that late yet. I expected to be, we got an early start this time. That's true. Yeah, yeah. But I know that you're used. I have this list of Marvel heroes.

heroes that I will wait until the next time. Well, you can give me one then. One of them? We're saying it in the first half of this that I do, you know, any random Marvel character and we'll do something with it. And it's always fun. But and then I already mentioned the Spider-Man one earlier. Yeah.

And I want to repeat, although I believe if you're going to cut this into two, then the second half, by the way, how long have we been talking out of curiosity? I can't see the clock on. It's coming up on three hours. Okay. So yeah, it's definitely cut in two. So I'll do what I was going to say is I'll do this Marvel thing real quick. And then I want to throw it to you to plug the Kickstarter and all that.

We'll do it. Well, I was going to say this second episode, if you are able to run the first episode before Sendingu Comic-Con, you know, I will have said, hey, please go see me at Sunday at 1030 in the morning for my panel. Now it will be, I hope you saw me. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, so go ahead. Who are your Marvel characters right now? Keeping with kind of the theme of the day, I have a couple characters here. I wrote down a whole list.

There's a character named Chi-ilth, C-H-E-E-A-Postrophe, I-L-T-H. I might have transposed, Chi-L-L-H-E-E. Hold on a second. Let me write that down. C-H-E-E-L-A-Postrophe, C-H-E-E, apostrophe, I-L-L. T.H. I'm assuming this is the little furry creature from the Star Jammers. No, this is a a woman who is very, very strong looking

and seems to come from Native American ancestry. Seems coded that way, anyway. Okay, I'm going to look this up, because if you're going to be able to stump me, I need to look this up. Civilian identity is Gail Williams. Oh, okay. This is a character that literally just came out. Oh, okay.

So I do not know anything about her. Okay. And I'm actually even more fascinated to find out that she first appeared in her own first issue. So now I definitely need to know more about this character. Yeah. Only a one show. Oh, that's why. Contest of Champions. Now I understand. Okay.

So I can tell you... A lot of this is going to come from my roster. I will give you context for why she is a new character in this. because I do not know anything about her, and now I want to know. So you have successfully, I think, been, the other person that stumped me, some students been trying to stump me,

and they gave me one called Blue Dinosaur, and I was like, Blue Dinosaur. That's not the name of a character. It's just the listing of the character is a blue dinosaur person. That's why it's telling me. But this one, legitimately, I did not know.

It is a new character. Okay. Okay, so she's from Constant Champions, and I want to give some historical context in that and then get to the game, which I don't, never played the game, but I'm vaguely aware

story because of it. Because of the merch rounding. So Constance of Champions is the first ever comic book company-wide crossover that was done by any company. Like there have been crossovers with multiple characters.

There have been teams of multiple characters, obviously. Crossers of double characters. But the first time they tried to get all of the characters of a company or as many as they possibly could into a storyline, Marvel beat DC to the punch with Conchists of Champions. And it's not a super great story. And ironically, go ahead.

Great pun there. Beat DC to the punch. It's a fight. fighting game. It is. There to go. Yes. And also, Constant Champions was a fighting contest. So there you go. There you go. But even more so. If you will. Yes, did. Speaking of kickoff, it was supposed to be an Olympics tie-in. But if you remember, in the 1980s, the Americans did not go to a particular Olympic competition. That's right. So they had to

completely rewrite the story. Wow. And instead of being Marvel goes to the Olympics, it became the contest of champions. So that's why in the story, you have superheroes from every nation, which is why you'd have people of different cultures getting together in this original story from the 80s, right? Okay. And it was a bet between Grandmaster, the guy that was Jeff Goldblum in the movies and death herself were betting on this. And it was a whole thing.

And it wasn't super great, but it was like the thing that kicked it off. Then we had Secret Wars, the original. Then we had the Christ of Infinite Earth from D.C. and so on. And it became a thing to just have company-wide crossovers. Yes. Right. You know, by the early 90s. Most famously, Infinity Gauntlet.

Yes. Well, yeah, as I was going to say, by the early 90s, both companies were doing at least one a year. Right. So, like, Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War, D.C. had, like, Armageddon 2001 and then Bloodlines and other things. It was just a thing that happened. But, like, those were the first. So Concentrus was the actual first. And then Marvel has had a couple redos, like Cosco Champions 2, Consum Champions 3.

One of them was very odd in that they, you. introduced a new alien species called the rule, which is R-U-U-L, and they basically, it was a long game scheme by the Kree to whatever, it was weird. It was dumb, and they forgot about it, never mentioned it again.

But it was supposed to completely, because you know who the Kree are, the Kree aliens. Yes. They were in the Guardians of Galaxy and other things. Well, they was supposed to completely reinvent them, so they were no longer just humans that were blue, but they actually had distinct abilities and distinct looks. They had horns in their head, little tiny horns and tendrils.

And then, like, literally just stopped drawing them that way. They went back to drawing regular creed and just forgot about it. No, no explanation. That was that. Well, most recently, when Marvel was doing these video games, they would make tie-ins. And what's great about Constive Champions is that the title lends itself well to Secret Wars. Because Secret Wars was, just like the original Consent Champions, pulling people from different parts of the Earth. Right.

The Secret Wars originally pulled people from different parts of the universe, the first secret wars, and then the most recent secret wars pull people from different parts of the multiverse. Right. So basically what happened in that storyline is that the multiverse got destroyed. Sorry, we all died. You didn't know, but it happened. And Dr. Doom, of all people, was able to save the remainder of the multiverse. Right.

Little slivers. He made a greenland. Yes, exactly. One patchwork planet. Yeah. And what's interesting is they had the Guardians of the Galaxy, but they were was no galaxy. So they were called the Guardians of Nowhere because nowhere was just a space station.

Why is they have a space station? If there's no other aliens? No, no. But they have one, you know. He managed to save it. I mean, that's where, Ed, that's where they had the Thor core. Yeah, the Thor core, where Thor is from all different realities. Yeah, exactly.

Well, the second Thor core. But anyway, the first one was in the 90s. But anyway, the point was that happened. And then Reed Richards came in and fixed Dooms fixing and made the actual multiverse again. And that, in theory, should have destroyed that patchwork. work world, but it remained. And in the vestiges of that world, the maestro, or maestro is how I always pronounced it, which is a version of the Hulk who had become a despot, a dictator of the world,

tried to retake power. And he basically saw this like abandoned patchwork of realities that still had people on it, and said, I'm going to take this planet. And it became an actual battle between people of different realities. It was interesting. One of the characters that I found really fascinating they brought in was a guy, a guy who was basically the British Punisher, who was a black British man. Yeah. Who silenced him out of the Punisher.

But he retired. He like, I don't kill people anymore. Right. I remember. Because when Punisher went over to Europe to hunt down Kingpin, it was when they were doing two a months. Yeah. And he ran into him because he had the great line, does the queen shit in the woods. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, he came back. Yeah, but he's like a pacifist now, but still still involved. And then we're a bunch of other characters that were just really interesting. And that's why you have characters like this, who I am not immediately familiar with, but with her name being Gail Williams, I find very fascinating. And with the idea of her being a multiverse character, I am definitely curious if she is supposed to have an analog in the multiverse.

Gail Williams specifically makes me think of a couple real-world creators, as Gail Simone and you know and then and then Williams also ties who is it oh I'm thinking of Wilson that's a different name but there's that also she has very much again I don't know anything about her I'm fascinated you've actually stumped me but because really anybody yeah definitely you get the no prize if anybody's created in the past five years I'm less likely to have known them you know and she's 2023 but she definitely has what seems like Native American coded characters what fascinates me let's see here

brighter okay so that's why so the writer there is Native American okay and so we have a new character so she's not necessarily tied to an existing character

but she is indeed a new character so I find that very interesting okay so that gives a lot more context okay so again I don't know this character I can tell you everything about what led to her In fact, having a Native American writer, creator, Marvel, around that same time period, a little bit earlier, was doing what's called Marvel Voices, which was having people, I said earlier, from a community writing characters of that community. So you had, for example, a proud star, you know, the first X-Men to die in battle was Native American, and he's finally been written by somebody who is of Apache Heritage, you know. That was Thunderbolt, right?

Thunderbird, yeah Thunderbird, yeah James Proudstar Yeah, James Proudstar Yeah, Thunderbird Which is by the way Side point Chris Claremont

Later created a new Thunderbird Yeah The name Thunderbird But gave it to a South Asian man And I really hate That he took the name Of an American Indian Yeah

And gave it to an Indian Because I feel like it was a pun in his head That should not have been made Yeah I can see that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

But anyway, so we have that. And Silver Fox, a longtime background character, Wolverine, finally got a full story of her own at some point. Not to be confused with the father of. Yes, that's a different Silver Fox. Yeah. Okay. It's true. Yeah, I forget that.

I was like, oh, that's the guy that broke his ankle once. And he's an old guy who's a bird. Because in a lot of multiple reality versions of him, they'll call him the black cat. So I forget that he was silver fox. Right. Right. but yeah so you have this

convergence of bringing in people from a community to create characters of that community or to write characters of that community and the multiverse aspect of the secret warriors leading into the concept of champions that gives us this combined

perfect storm to create this character who again I need to read this comic book now and I'm going to do that soon because I'm very interested in what this is there was a character that was specifically made for the Marrable not contested champions but oh god

Strike Force I think it's called Yeah I remember that one too And her name is Kestrel Which I find interesting Because there's been a few Kestrel characters That often forgotten about She works for Shield And she is also of Native American heritage

At least the backstory in What do you call it? In strike forces So it's yeah I want to really quickly on Chilith She is youth, that is her only

appearance. So she has a one shot and that is her only appearance. This is really, it's really frustrating to me when that happens. The guy that wrote American-born Chinese Jean-Yung-Lang, I always, I'm sorry. I'm tired, obviously, you're right.

Anyway, he created a character that is based on the monkey god of the journey to the West and he has only really appeared in that one issue that he wrote. That is called Monkey God, I think, or Monkey King, Monkey King, not Monkey God, sorry. Monkey King from the journey of the West.

And that's also frustrating, you know. So we'll make a new character and that's all we get. Yeah. Well, and they just pigeonhole it to use it later. Well, yeah. Since I feel disappointed and having disappointed you, give me another character that's another character on your list. Okay.

Although it's also for the past five years that may be lost. I was going to say a lot of these came from the video game. Yeah. Go with it anyway. What are we got? Let's keep going with people that seem to be, indigenous coded. There's another one.

Let's see. Not her, not her. Where did the name go? Kashala. Hmm. And you're going with indigenous coded. What's interesting is these people, the names imply to me that these are interesting.

I didn't know there were that many indigenous characters in contests of champions. Well, again, this might be my misreading of her, but she has like a headband, dark hair. Spell it for me. K-U-S-A. H-A A-L-A Oh, wait a minute

Is this No, that's not A-L-A Marvel Let's see No, it is not who I thought Oh, I do know

who this is Oh good But I've never People don't usually Call her by that name So I just didn't think about it Yeah, in this game She's, yeah

Yeah, actually I can actually tell you A lot about her Do tell She's normally referred to as the spirit writer So I just They rarely talk to her

As of her real name because she is kind of ashamed of her existence, that she doesn't bring that up a lot. Okay. Because she sees herself as being damned, and yet her job is to protect the people. She is both the Sorcer Supreme of her era and the ghostwriter of her era.

Oh, wow. And so she finds shame in being a ghostwriter, despite the fact that this is a major part of who she is and what she is respected for. And the main reason we know about her is that time travel shenanigans allowed Dr. Strange to team up with a bunch of other sorcerer supremes from different sorcerers supreme. Sorry. I got to put the right plural there from different time periods, which ironically, people always talk about retcon this, recon that for years that had been established that the only sorcerer supreme before him for the past 500 years was the ancient one. Right.

But think about all the times that Dr. Strange has lost the title in the past 20 years. Right. So that clearly happened to the ancient one a lot. So we don't worry about it. But anyway, so he met several of them. Some of them actually ended up staying in the present for a time, including the spirit writer. And so she's been in the present a lot. In fact, if I understand correctly, she is currently still in the present.

But she is just a really, really fascinating, interesting character to me that I just, her design, both as a ghostwriter and and not is just visually amazing. And I just love everything about it. Yeah. But again, she does now that she's done that, she now keeps doing that. So she's one of those, it's like one of those things like, well, once you open that, that bottle is she's just going to keep happening. You know, she's out of that Pandora's box there.

Right. So she is technically of her time period of the 1800s, but she is also very much of the present. Okay. So I find her very fascinating. She's been involved into several really interesting stories, actually. I'm a little surprised they didn't bring her, because I know they did a Marvel 1880 something.

Interesting. Like they did an Old West Marvel. Like we even saw it in the What If Cartoon series. Yes, I remember that. Yeah. Yeah. And I saw that there was comics that came out after that. There's a really fun tie-in in the What-F Cartoon series that very few people

talked about it because it's not the most people that will be aware of. But you know Happy Hogan, of course? of course from you know played by the original husband of pepper pots yeah exactly exactly but I mean in the MCU you know he's he's now part of the Spider-Man world

Favreau thank you well in one of the episodes I think two episodes actually he turns into a large purple Hulk and people are like why is he a Hulk yes he's not a Hulk he's a freak like literally the freak

Happy Hogan got Hulk level powers weirdly never in our action with the Hulk or any Hulk but a couple times where he was turned into the freak which is a large powerful being

that is unable to think clearly and Iron Man had to return him to normal and then there's also a few other people have become the freak over the years

but it's weird despite being one of the earliest Iron Man stories does not come up that much like it's not one of those things

that gets called back a lot I think it should I think they should have the freak come back well I think I think Tony

and Happy would just prefer that never come up again. Like we don't, we don't speak of that. The thing is, happy is currently dead. Yeah,

there is that. But knowing Tony Stark, he would have, he would have put him in, in like cryogenic suspension or something. And Tony Stark is the one that killed him, too. Yes, he is the one that killed him too.

Kings the line. And the thing is, is that Tony has gotten, gone broke and become a billionaire several times since then, which is just fascinating that he can just do that. Yeah.

you know, sure us what happens to everybody, right? And who knows, like what happened to happy after that? But my point is,

I could easily see happy being revived as the freak. Oh, yeah. I think that would be a great... Somebody taking advantage of one of the times where Tony's down.

Yes, exactly. They liquidate and then they freakify happy. Exactly. That would be, you know, I could see that coming back. I think that's a neat callback.

I'm kind of curious now, since your list is from the concert champs champions, I want to get more of this. I keep going. going, yeah. Let's see. The overseer. Okay, yeah, that is a character.

That's a Hulk character. I was going to say, which overseer? What does he look like? He's got the gauntlet that has the Tessoract stuck in it, and he's got a broken shield. Oh, okay. And he's got like Iron Man's or Dooms. That's not the overseer that I thought it was. That is literally just a Hulk from a different reality. Okay, so, yeah, I don't know that

character. He's new for that. There are other characters called the Overseer. That's why I was very curious. But no, he's just, like mini maestro from the look of it. There's Ruby Thursday. She is a real character, one of my favorites. Tell me about her, because she just came out in the game. And she's goddamn ridiculous.

She is goddamn ridiculous. And I love it. Talk about like Golden Girls costume being kind of silly, but wanting to lean into it. Everything about Ruby Thursday. I imagine she looks like she does in the comics more or less, which is she's just an attractive woman with a ruby ball for a head. Is that correct? It almost looks like a Maraschino cherry. I don't know what...

Yes, yes. Okay, that took me a second. Yeah. And, well, so she's a character. There is a team of villains that Marvel put... I think John Byrne actually is the one of put them together. And they're... That tracks.

Yeah. They're... Well, no, no, it's going to get weird first and then it's going to even track even more. Which are mostly just callbacks to the pre-Marvel superheroes horror comics of characters that had a weird thing happen to them and now have a head that doesn't match their body. Is this Dr. Bong as well? No, he's not a member, really should be.

No. So like, Modoc should be a member, but he's not. But like their leader is, I think, Nagin, I don't remember his full name is, but he has a gorilla body, but a human head. You know, another one is just called shrunken bones, which is a ridiculous, you know, secret identity, not security identity,

code name, I guess. And his skull is smaller than his face should be. So his skin just sags around it, because science happens. Right. You know, another guy's head. Yeah, another guy's head is completely detached from his body. Sometimes sometimes have spider legs and sometimes do other things.

And so on like that, right? Well, they were all male characters because, you know, Marvel's had very few female. 90% of them. Yeah. So he, I think Ruby Thursday was created to join the group to have a woman in it. And of course, she's mostly in a, not a bikini, but like a swimsuit. And then has a head that doesn't exist, which has a lot to unpack there when it comes to misogyny. Yeah.

But she's a great character because it's just so fascinating, that design and the idea that they've kind of upped her powers over the years, essentially. So now she can, like, form things from her ruby head, like punching hands out of it and stuff like that. Yeah, that's her. That's one of her special abilities. Yeah, which Molly walks is just fascinating in that character. It's just one of those characters that's so unapologetically comic bookie. Yeah. And I like, I love, I really like, we're talking about Madaxie Bowling Girl.

Yeah, exactly. Like Slapsstick. Well, that's all. Believe it or not, Slapstick is one of the most popular videos I ever did for, for, for, I love. TikTok, and it's because so many people were thirsting after him sexually. They found Slapstick to be the sexiest Marvel character they have ever seen. And I'm like, are you serious? Okay, I did a second video about Slapstick's romantic past, which is not good.

You know, he's really a bad person, like really bad. And yeah, he's got, I'm sorry. I just like that Slapstick. Oh yes. They found him extremely sexy. Like I had so, like you could go to my night, my slapstick videos, and almost every comment is that would or like, hear me out or like I need to know more about him. Is he single? Like every comment. And they're not, at first I thought they were joking.

No, these were earnestly people who found him sexy. Because it's like there's this whole like bad boy vibe of like the one slur from the from the, from the, what's it? The movie, the Lorax movie apparently has a whole fandom. There's like the Loki vibe But there's also the clown vibe Which is a whole aesthetic that people have Right And then there's the sexy cartoons thing

Which people is a thing people have Yeah And he just hits all of those in one And apparently way more popular Than Marvel realizes I did not realize These people had never heard of him Before me video and they're like

Yes I need to know more about this guy I'm like I'm not one to kink shame But I am kink asking why That's the one That's the thing right there So I will say that he he there was a justifiable homicide that he committed uh during the the 50 states initiative no no no i it was not justifiable and b it wasn't homicide um he he beat a man to near death

yeah has never he has never been caught for it and never been punished and even the victim flat out said it was somebody else like like i he he was probably protecting him because the person that he nearly killed was his teacher. Right. Gauntlet, right? Yes, gauntlet. And the teacher was probably protecting his student, even knowing that his student snapped and beat him to near death. And the reason he beat him to near death. See, this is the part where I sympathize.

Which I say is not just really? What is the reason? Because all of slapstick's friends were the new warriors and this guy was shit-talking them and talking about how terrible they were, not recognizing their humanity that had been lost as well. I would agree with you. Okay. But having gone through all of slap six appearances, because of how popular he was,

and I said, all right, we need to do more. I did a lot of it research, but I did even more research. I do not think he gave one iota of a crap about the individuals who were the new warriors. Okay. He was only a member of the team for like five minutes. Right.

And if you read the couple flashback issues that show him on the team, they don't like him there. And he is just there because he feels like it legitimizes his existence. Okay. So for him, the name New Warriors is the one time people respected me when they didn't respect him on the team and they did not want him there. Yeah. He spent the entire time, he spent the entire time sexually harassing Namorita. Yeah, he did.

And other people. Yeah. And Gottlet was not badmouthing them as human beings. He was badmouting the fact that they had done something that they should have known better. And because they had done it, people died. And he was saying repeatedly, you do not want to be that. He never said, you know, for example, that like Namarita was a horrible person. He never said like, like, Speedball was thought to be dead at the time.

He never said like, oh, speedball. You know, he's a jerk, you know, I hate him. Never once. Okay. It was always, they did something that as adults, they should have known better. Okay. And because they did it, people died. You are my students, and you should never become that.

So he never once badmouthed them as people. It was always the concept of they became reality TV stars. Yeah. Making that making, which was a dumb miniseries to begin with. It was a horrible miniseries. And then, then, then, the team and the characters in so many ways. Yes, it did.

And the thing is that Martin Milar, I cannot stand him as a writer. But he took advantage of the fact that this had been existing as a real TV show. And it did fit into that plot. Yeah, yeah. And even Sally, the reporter of the drunk. She even mentions it later. Like when she's like reading. Who would have thought this was a good idea?

It was not. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I love Sally's stories. But yeah. So I would not. call it justifiable as a teacher who badmouths gang membership

two gang two gang members sure sure uh i've not currently because i don't have a lot of that now but i've had that in the past um i think that is justifiable for me to say that i tell people that like gang members i'm not saying they're bad people right joining a gang is stupid you can say you had no choice you can say you're forced into it all of that i understand but you are actively because many of these gangs are are led by people from outside the area, certainly outside, sometimes outside the country, certainly outside the city and neighborhood. You are literally helping an invading force destroy your own neighborhood. Yeah. And now whatever justification you give, whatever, whatever reason like you say, well,

I had no choice. I can understand that. I sympathize with that. But, but that is what you have done. And so- There's a bit of a randian aspect to that. There's a little bit of a randian aspect to that. Like, no matter what your reasoning was, you still did do this. See, I can understand that. But the issue is, like, for example, when I was a reporter, I would never consider myself, Randy, and so I'm, that's interesting. When I was a reporter, I went to a juvenile hall one time. I don't remember the reason for it. And I was interviewing some kids.

And I'm talking to this one kid who's there. And he's very proud of what he did. What he did is he drove by a house of one of his rival gangs and just fired at it for a bit. Like he's like, he even did the sound effect and everything. He was so excited. And I said, yeah, and so the guy wasn't there. He said, nah, of course not. He was just scaring him.

I'm like, okay. So you knew he wasn't home? He goes, yeah. How do you know he didn't have like a little sister or a grandmother that never leaves the house? Right. And he looked at me. His whole face just went pale as a ghost. He'd never considered this entire life.

He was like, I don't know. Like he just, it never occurred to him that something outside of that, that gang membership. could affect people. And so that, I had that interaction before I became a teacher. And so I've kept that with me, basically. And just like, look, I understand the, I had no choice thing. There are so many things to impact there. There's so many things that, like, I get that.

But there is the continued activity of encouraging that behavior, not behavior. Activity, activity. That, like that kid who shot up the house. without ever considering whether or not somebody other than his rival would live there at that time. That I just, you've done this to your family. Right. Do you have a choice? Would it have existed without you there?

Yes. You don't have a choice. I can see that. Would it have existed? Yes, it would have existed. That does not make it okay to encourage others to join. Right. You're still complicit in it regardless of, yeah.

Yeah, I would not call you like guilty in the whole good and evil part. Right, right. But I would say, this is a mistake that should not be continued. And that is basically what Gauntlet was saying about the new lawyers. So he was never once saying the individuals, I read every issue. I, yeah, even before I was a teacher, when I was a teenager, I love stories about teenagers learning to be superheroes. Yeah. And as a teacher now, I love stories about teenagers learning to be superheroes. I just love it. So I read every issue of that. Yeah. And he never once insulted them as people. I'm going to go back and read that now.

He was always the activity. Okay. And in fact, after the incident, when he recovered, he was a little bit more considerate. Yes, he was. Yes, he was. Which definitely does not justify the behavior because it's like, oh, well, if you beat somebody to death, they're going to apologize later. That's not great. So when I say Nightex is a bad person, he has done physical crimes.

He's done sexual crimes. He's done all kinds of things that he's never been caught for. And this one in particular, which he should have been caught for for, and I'm sure Christopher's Gage had an intention of doing something with that later. It just never came up. Right. You know, and it's just like, it's interesting. And so I would not I find the fact that he is an irredeemable character

fascinating. But even more fascinating is the fact that nobody's really aware of it. Like, none of the characters who interact with him. They just think he's annoying Bugs Bunny. Right. But he is literally evil. Huh. All right. Yeah, you've rehabbed Gauntlet for me at the very least.

Who, by the way, has a horrible ending. Gauntlet does? Yeah. What happens? I mean, he might be dead. I don't think so, but like, okay, so when Dan Slott, who wrote a lot of that,

the initiative series, he's the one that created Gauntlet, right? But he also wrote, you know, Spirit Spider-Man stuff. When he first wrote She-Hulk, 20-some years ago, right it was a really great series and they kept referencing

the reckoning war that was going to happen in the future that's going to be Sheeoke's fault and it just didn't happen the series got canceled they brought back it canceled again and later on he's writing Silver Surfer and actually ran into him at a convention I asked him so we got a cosmic character

are we going to see the Reckoning War come up and he's like someday but it didn't come up during a Silver Surfer run didn't come up once but in the meantime he'd been creating characters like Gauntlet who has this giant arm. And then there was a shield character called Southpaw, and she literally had the other

arm. Right. And they both had the arm powers. And I don't think they ever really showed them interacting, but like it should have been Gauntlet was, should have been teaching Southpaw to be a good person, because she was also quasi-villain teenager that doesn't need to be evil. And then he also introduced

in Great Lake Avengers, the Grasshopper, which was an ongoing gag where there'd be a character named the Grasshopper who had these cool, like, cyberneticly enhanced boots that allowed them to jump feet in the air, but then get killed horribly by one thing or another. Like a villain would kill him or something would happen, you know? And so every, there'd been like five or six grasshoppers and each one of them died horribly on like their first couple missions, you know? And it was just a gag, right? Yeah. Well, it turns out all of these things were connected

because when he was writing Fantastic Four, he finally brought in the reckoning war, which I'm actually disappointed was not a company-wide crossover. Because like, if you're going to have that much buildup, Let the man have the crossover he wanted to have. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it wasn't a carparker coming on, whatever. But anyway, so he had the Pedestan 4 series. And in that series, we find out that there is a alien who's called the Comerant. Comerant?

Cormorant. And he was missing his armor. So he goes to collect it. And you see the newest grasshopper trying on the legs. Oh, this is going to be so great. I'll be the newest grasshopper. Kills him. Takes the legs.

Those are his boots. Right. And then he rips the arm off both Southpaw and gauntlet. Oof. And leaves them there in the middle of nowhere. just gushing from the arm socket. And that's the last we see them. And then he also beats the crap out of squirrel girl,

who Dan Slott established as being unbeatable. Right. And had Cormorant beat her. He then proceeded to essentially defeat Franklin Richards at full power. Just to establish this is how powerful this guy is. So he warped everybody. Basically. Yeah.

But then, you know who he doesn't wharf? Doom. because Cormorant, which is kind of like, oh, boy, when I'm really ranting, it's stop me after the end of this. Cormoranty, ooh, I love that. Pun. So Cormorant was working for this dude in a mask,

and we don't see who he is. And he's like, ha, ha, I'm doing this. Doom will never learn, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then literally, he finally shows up in front of Doom, and he goes, Doom, you don't know who I am under this mask, but Doom kills him. Don't care. Cormorant, you're free.

And he's like, what? You're free. You're not going to make me your servant? No. you're your own person. And Cormorant goes, you're the only person has ever done that. I will serve you. So,

so Doom basically tricked that guy into being his servant by choice. Right. So, so Doom did not bother to fight him. Just killed the guy that had been pulling his string and said, you can choose to follow whoever you want. And he's like, I'm loyal to you now forever.

So, all of that for this, like, bit with Doom. And so that's why I say that, that I really would love Gauntlet to return, give a new arm obviously Southpaw as well

you know have them hook up with Misty Knight maybe yeah you know whose arm by the way it just does crazy stuff nowadays yeah it's made out of Antarctic Vibranium which is weird

weird thing to do in the comics anyway rambling yep I need to call it's yes before you do oh it's back to a circle yeah

before you do I think Ed and I are going to forego any plugs that we have and I want to give you the last the last bit of this podcast to tell people where to go to make sure that Night Axe and Golden Girl become a thing. Well, if you've gotten this far in this two-part podcast, then you understand exactly how weird my brain is.

And with that note, I really want to make Night Axe a Golden Girl reality. I want to tell the story of these two young kids. I say young kids. They're in their 20s-ish, you know, 20-something, who are given incredible powers and striking visuals but have no ambition to become superheroes, but may have to. And in doing so,

learn a little bit more about who they are and where they come from and how their lives have been shaped by their ancestors, even if they didn't even realize it. And have some fun in the process. Please help make this happen. Go to knightx.com or just look up Nightaxe in Kickstarter.

And the whole thing is Night Xax and Golden Girl. I've kind of jokingly, not jokingly, but I've kind of given it the moniker here of Chicano Monster Romance superheroes. But,

which I corrected you earlier on superheroes. I forgot that it says superheroes here, but I'd say superhero comic. But yeah, it's Nightex and Golden Girl. It's gonna be their first appearance and comics. I would hope it not be their last. Three complete stories by some amazing artists.

Let's help make this happen. Hell yeah. Awesome. So, if all of our listeners would just go on and pledge, give what you can. You can make this happen.

He's also just finished his stint at Comic-Con in San Diego. So if you were there, you should have seen him, and you can definitely go and make this happen. So go to Kickstarter.

Nightax is all one word. With any at the end. Yep, with any at the end. I think it's not as fun without the E. No hyphen. but go there and pledge and let's get this thing off the ground because support good art and this is all human art. Support human art.

There's a phrase that I don't know where when I started saying it, but I pretty much say it every time AI comes up and this is something I just came out of my head. Support the arts, support artists, support humanity. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go. Yeah. Well, Kevin Garcia, thank you so much for your time tonight. Really appreciate this.

Can't wait to see my physical copy of this comic come out. And for a geek history of time, I'm Damon Harmony. And I'm Ed Blaylock. And until next time, keep rolling 20s.