Do Go On - 57 - Superman with SPECIAL GUEST NICK MASON

Episode Date: November 23, 2016

We are lucky enough to be joined by The Weekly Planet podcasting's suave larrikin Nick Mason as he talks to us about the history of Superman, including creators Shuster and Siegel, Nicolas Cage's obsession and Jess laughs at the idea of She Hulk for a fair while... Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] the show and get rewards like bonus episodes:www.patreon.com/DoGoOnPod  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serengy Amarna 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there. Canada, we are visiting you in September this year.

If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. And welcome to Do Go On. My name is Dave Wonacky and I am joined as always by Matt Stewart and Jess Perkins. And before I get them to say anything, I'm going to say that this is a very, very... Wait, hang on, yeah.

Hi, Dave, good to see you. Mike's off. Mike's off. Nice t-shirt. How are you going? It's an average t-shirt. There's someone else here too. That's right.

It's the first ever time that we are joined by a fourth host. You have heard him before, but we've never been in the same room all at the same time together. And that is The Man the Magic, the fourth Doogawanda. That is Nick Mason. Hey, guys. Thanks for having me here for the third episode of Do Go On. Yeah, the other episodes are just in between episodes. I like to think so.

Not official canon. We had a good time of that first episode where I did the Marvel thing. And then the second episode where you did the Elvis. You are doing, you know, you're sort of pulling more than your fair share of weight, having done two of the three reports. Right, exactly. But thank you for that. One day, Dave.

One day what? I can only imagine Dave's reports It'd be shit He'd rush him at the last minute And they'd be just You know, very quick a paragraph Probably padded out And still somehow dry as fuck

Mm-hmm Okay, that's the only bit that's accurate But anyway, guys How are you? Jesse haven't said very much so Well, I tried, but you said Before I let them speak Which is typical Warnocky

But I am pretty well, thank you. Patriarchy I know Well, speaking of patriarchy How about we talk about the Patreony. At the time of recording, we are a week ahead. We have released our Patreon this week.

And we've already had a lot of support from people supporting the show. So we'd just like to say thank you to everyone that did that. And we set up our first goal. You can set goals, May, so I'm not sure if you're familiar with Patreon. And if you eclips that goal, a little red bar gets full and everyone seems happy. Seems happy. Not on the inside. Deep down.

We asked for a little bit of money to buy a six pack of beer so Matt could drink on the podcast again. As people always tweet in, they love Matt's drunken episodes. And Matt, we're going to do it. Oh, magical. That was nice. That was nice. So this episode brought to you by Patreon.

And Colch, sponsoring Matt's alcohol addiction. What was your thing before, Matt? You've already had 12 beers today. He actually said that. And a cider. Takes the edge off. I like that he looked quite defensive, but that it was and a cider. Get your facts right, Warnocki.

Hey, while we're mentioning Patreon and other people supporting us, Matt and I did a gig on Thursday in Ballarat. Thursday a week ago. Thursday a week ago, yeah. Yeah, I know. By the time you hear this. By the time you hear it. Look, enough curtain lifting Warnacky.

This is live. Yeah, whenever you're listening, we are recording it live. Yes, you, Derek. There's got to be one. Derek's twin in. Right, come on. There's got to be a Derek. Statistically.

Anyway, I mean, we listen to by everyone on the whole planet. There's got to be a Derek. If you're listening on an oil, Derek, that's also a thing. An oil Derek. Yeah, an oil Derek. What's an oil derrick? It's a fancy name for it. They're called a Derek.

Never thought of Derek being a fancy game. The nerdiest kind of, yeah, right? Hey, that's what this show's all about. It's built on learning and laughing at Derek. Anyway, that's my report, guys. Okay. The facts are funny for oil rigs. No, anyway, Jay, you were doing a shout-out to Ballarat.

Yes, so we did a gig in Ballarat, and a couple of listeners came down, Josh and Connor, and they saw Matt and I do some stand-up and, you know, politely said it was good, so that was very nice of them. But it was just really cool to meet them, so I just want to just a little shout-out to say thanks. And I believe that they contributed to the hat. They did. Not digitally as usual. Yeah, the first ever hand-written suggestion that was submitted to the hat. Very exciting.

And can I ask, has it already been lost? No, it's in the hat. It's in the hat, yeah, it's in the hat. Matt's chuggy's pockets. It's in the hat. No, it's in the hat. It's in the hat. It's in the hat.

It's really cool. Very good. They're Ballarat-based suggestions as well. Yeah. Oh, goody. A little bit of sizzle there for maybe a few months down the track. The 1947 Ballarat Premiership. Ooh.

The pancake parlor. You've been peeking in my hat again, Mesao? Yes. Stop it. Well, he could have been because Mesao, we've asked you back. And we've made you do all the work yet again. We've asked you to do a report yourself. I'm ready, guys.

This came up the first time around. You did Marvel. We talked about, yeah, Marvel and the great Stan the Man Lee, who is sort of the icon, sort of this, you know, Marvel's kind of kindly uncle who kind of, you know. Ripped off ideas. Well, he's sort of, you know, he's this great salesman and he sort of had a hand in creating sort of hundreds of characters for Marvel

but also he, you know, it's, in a lot of people have said that so he sort of diminished the contributions of a lot of other people that sort of helped him out with that. And so that, you know, that's kind of a good through line to Marvel. And I'm like, well, you know, I should come back and talk about DC because I'm sure there'll be a like a fun, a vuncular kind of grandpa figure. A vuncular. Like an uncle. That's a great word. Two words. We've learned two words this time around.

I. A vunk and Derek. And Derek. And Derek. But, but yeah. So I was like, I'll talk about DC colleagues. And we've had listeners tweet in, like, regularly since then asking when it was going to happen. Well, wait no bloody longer.

Well, because we're not doing it. We're not doing the DC Stanley. Yeah, there's no DC Stanley. We're like to have, like, rolled off your tongue for the whole. I know. We would have called the episode DC Stanley. Right? If only it was so easy.

But, like, I mean, Marvel's Wall is all about sort of breaking away from the mainstream and doing their own thing. and in many ways DC was the mainstream. There's going to be DC-based. There's DC-related. I'm actually excited for that because I was expecting DC, and usually when we walk into the room, and I'm not reporting, I don't know what we're going to talk about at all. And now I feel like I don't know, so it's good.

Because I'm sort of brought in, you guys know what's happening, and my question was going to be, what was the thing that I did last time, but it's the other one, which is DC. But luckily, we've found a way around that. So, okay, so my question is it's got a little bit of a lead-up, So in February of the year 2000, the police were called to the fancy Bel Air neighborhood in Los Angeles to a mansion. This was not the home of the Fresh Prince of Bellet, but the Fresh Prince of Acting, Nicholas Cage.

It was Nicholas Cage's house, and he called him in to report a theft. He was in rage because something had gone missing from his mansion. His skill? He's an Oscar-winning actor. His ability to choose good films? Well, fair. He's relevant? Yeah.

I feel that... Oh, Nick. I feel his process is that every couple of months his agent comes in, he's got a big stack of scripts, and he's like, okay, we've got a romantic comedy, we've got an action film, we've got a blah, blah, and he just takes the first one off the stock, and he just goes, that one, that'll do.

I bet he does. I want that one. Yeah. But he's also known as an incredible Oscar-winning actor, leaving Las Vegas. That's right. But also he's sort of an obsessive collector. So he's an obsessive collector of things.

So he's literally never left Las Vegas. In a way. I don't know what that meant, but I just thought I'd agree with it. Yeah, good call. Anyway, that's what we do. Derek is the name of an oil rig. So we've all learned something. Well, if you've come all with one fact, it's that one.

So the question is... Wait, wait, wait, Nick. He's an obsessive collector of bad movies. Nice. Yeah. Got him. Got him. Was it Nicholas Cage and Leonardo DiCaprio last year that had a big bidding war over a...

This was in 2007. He tried to bid on some sort of fossil. Dinosaur skull. Nicholas Cage has a collection of dinosaur skulls. Of course he does. But who won that one? Him versus Leo both throwing... That was Nicholas Cage?

Firstly, Dave, you said was that last year? It was in 2007. They might have a continual war going on. How slowly is your life going? Or quickly? Which would it be? We are talking about dinosaurs. I mean, in the scheme of things.

One year, nine years? Well played. I don't want this dinosaur skull anymore. It's from 2007. Did one of them have to give it, did they have to give it back? Because it was stolen or something? Nicholas Cage had to give one of his

dinosaur skulls back to Mongolia, because it was stolen from the nation of Mongolia. But, okay, but the... Dear Mongolia. The thieves went right past his collection of dinosaur skulls. They went past his collection of shrunken heads. They went past his half a million dollar 195 Jaguar D-type that he had assembled in his lounge.

room. You can't get it through the door. They had to take it apart and built it in his lounge room. He sounds like fun. Yeah. But what was the, what's the purpose of that? Do you rev it?

Yeah, you're revert for guests. Hear that, maybe? Does one revet? Yes. Does one rev? But the thieves did not steal any of that. Because it was literally impossible to drive it. In a way, sure.

What do you think they stole? If I can give you a hint, Wasn't his Oscar statue? No. I'll give you a hint. The man who they brought in, the detective they brought in, his name was Don Hrycheck,

and he is the head, or he was at the time, the head of the LAPD's art theft unit. Oh, I'm going to guess, some sort of art. Yes. He was a detective. Was he like a DC?

Is that a kind of detective? No, is that what's the... P-I. P-I. I'm thinking of P-I. I'm thinking of the bill. You think of D-C-E. DCI.

DCI, okay, great. No, DC is also a thing. Detective Constable. Okay, yeah, good. That's what I was thinking of. Didn't you used to love the bill? That's why I know, because I love the bill. DCI is Detective Chief Inspector.

Oh, very good. We talked about that on first date with Jess. Yeah, it goes out. Constable Sergeant, Chief Inspector. So the thing I said wasn't dumb. In a way. Just recapping. Is it his copy of

action comics number one featuring Superman? Yes, it is. amazing, good work Dave. Thank you very much. I know a bit about Nicholas Cage and his dinosaur skulls, but not enough to know that it was seven, nine years ago, but not... Well, in some facts, you might know about Nicholas Cage.

So he's actually Nicholas Coppola, so he's the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola. And his stage name is Nicholas Cage after Luke Cage, the Marvel Comics character, who now is a Netflix series. That's a little bit tidbit. And is he in the series... Does he get a cameo? No, you don't see him.

You think you'd demand one? You'd think so. Also, his second son, who I think is eight or nine right now, his name is Callel. And is that, that is Superman's real name? That is Superman's a cryptonian name. Okay, so Nicholas Cage, huge nerd. Oh, no. Got him.

But who would you say is a bigger Superman fan, Jerry Seinfeld, or Nicholas Cage? I think he can name you kid after. Yeah. Like you are, that is a spell that. That's not a normal looking name. No, that's K-A-L-L-E-L. That's his... And is he a cage or a Coppola?

He's Calell Coppola, I believe. Oh, okay, that's pretty cool, actually. Right. He sounds like a rapper. DJ Calell Coppola. A DJ or a rapper, Jess, please. A DJ then, Matt. A DJ who dabbles.

Yeah. DJ dabbler. Calel Copel. Kall Dabler. K.K.L. Dabbs. That was good. So Action Comics number one. First appearance of Superman, so I decided today we talked about Superman. because it's got a fun little wrinkle.

What do you guys think about Superman? For some people... I reckon he's bloody super. Now, I think I already made my opinion known on the Marvel episode. We briefly talked about some sort of DC thing. So Superman, I think... I find him a bit... When he's too good, a little bit dull.

Too good at his job or too good as a man? As a man. Well, how many roads must a man go down? That's absolutely right, yeah. Well, because he's almost unstoppable. Invincible kind of thing, right? But he's also, yeah, he's a bit of a good boy, right? Well, I think a lot of people will say it, and I think we did talk about this in the previous episode.

He's kind of a one-dimensional goody-two shoes. He's kind of, he can do anything. He can, you know, he can juggle planets. He can fly around the world backwards and turn back time. Is there anything he's bad? Is he, like, sexually awkward or something like that? That would be amazing. if he just couldn't make the first move.

I would like him a lot more if they talked about that. I think maybe it's actually the other way. There was a famous essay written a few years ago called Man of Steel Woman of Kleenex, which details of the physics of Superman having sex with a mortal woman and it's... Not good. Not good for anyone, but mostly...

Mostly lowest line. Sure. People have too much time, I feel. Were they saying that the physiology of the two of them? Yep. But leave one rendered. Correct. Hurt.

Yes. By any encounters. Precisely. Does he, I mean, does he even have a human dick? Has it ever been seen? He has a son now. In the comic books, he has a son. And Lois is the mum?

Correct. Oh, okay. Did he have to go in a cup? Is she now in a wheelchair? No one know, guys. Take blood it. Come on, guys. Come on.

No, it's fine. You can. That's good. That's good stuff. I mean, so a lot of people sort of question the relevance of Superman, but like in terms of, like, here's the origin of the term. Like, when you think superhero, I mean, that's the... Is that why they're called superheroes?

Yes, yes, it is. Yeah. Well, a bit of credit there. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, until Superman arrived, there was no such thing as... There was, I mean, there was, there was, you know, we had the Phantom. Yellow Man? We had the Yellow Kid.

The first, the first comic book character. Yellow Man. Did you just say the... Phantom. Okay, because, all right, I'm going to bring this up. Oh, no, no.

The first episode, Nick Mason was on, we talked about superheroes. I felt a little embarrassed to reveal my favorite superhero. Then when I was away in Iceland, not at Nazi camp, but some of you will say.

Hey, none of us said that right now, and you did the Elvis episode. Somehow the Phantom came up and you all laughed at how shit the Phantom was. The Phantom is my favorite comic book character. He's also Sammy Jay's favorite comic book.

Sammy Jay? Yeah. And Zach from Arnie Donna. Yeah. This studio is full of weird phantom people. And do I need to remind you, Nick Mason? We are behind a waterfall here. And Matt Stewart was there as well, actually.

Do you remember this comment? One night after a gig here in Melbourne. Do you have the clip ready to go? We went out for dumplings with a group of comedians. Matt Stewart was there. I was there. Nick Mason was there. Now US superstar Ronnie Chang was there.

That's right. Buying dumplings and forcing me to eat them because I'm too thin. He was worried about me. I don't know. We were talking about superheroes. and I revealed that my favourite was The Phantom and Ronnie Chang, now you a superstar, laughed at me for about five minutes

out of it. The Phantom was, do you have any recollection of that? Because I have not forgotten that. And I've been too embarrassed to talk about the Phantom ever since. But you will when you can name drop Ronnie Chang though, eh? That's right, yeah. Oh, we know Ronnie Chang. Yeah, good for you.

That's right. Well, not only do I know him, he once bullied me at a Chinese restaurant. Not okay, Ronnie. But I do love The Phantom. I'm a big, big fan. Is that in the comic book world that you dabble in? Oh, yes.

Or more than dabble. Is The Phantom laughed at by non-people that aren't obsessed like myself or Sammy J-son? No, I think he's just had a bad run. Like, he had, there was, they, they, I think he's a character where maybe the time has passed for that sort of genre. Like, he's sort of stuck in the sort of 1920s, 1930s kind of era. And they attempted one movie with Billy Zane in the title role. I liked that movie. You did?

Yeah. It's fun. Nice one. I was, what year was that? I was a child. 96 or 7. So I was 6 or 7. And McDonald's did the tie-in and the happy meal you get the skull rings.

Yeah. And to be honest, I haven't seen it since. So probably watching it now as an adult would have a different opinion. But I remember it fondly from my childhood. But is there a reason why they couldn't give it the Captain America treatment? Oh, and reboot him in the future. They keep trying. There's one.

There's a heap set in them. Because he's a descendant. Like he's the current one in the... a long line of phantoms. So you can set them basically anywhere. There's one set in 2040. The Defenders of the Earth is set in the future. But yeah, it just never latches on.

I mean, there's plenty of diehard fans and there's some good stories, but it's not. Is there a chance? Because it's from some other weird third company, isn't it? Is there a chance that... Maybe one of the good ones could buy it and make it into a good thing? No, both Marvel and Dese have tried. Oh, really? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Why would these people not want to make billions of dollars? Well, would you say no to Marvel knocking on your door? No. Wait, you mean they've tried to do it or they've tried to buy? Yeah, no, Marvel and DC have both had phantom series over the years. Right, and they just failed. Oh, sorry, sorry, I thought you meant they tried to buy it.

Oh, no. And these King features were like... The estate of Lee Fork was like, no, no, sir. I think I know what we're doing. So, yeah, like, so the idea of a, you know, man in tights meeting out justice, we had, you know, we had the phantom, we had Flash Gordon, we had Buck Rogers, we had those kind of guys. But this was, they were, you know,

there were, there were humans with a little bit of an edge, and they were kind of, you know, they were, they were just regular human beings, more or less. And, but Superman, they were like, okay, well, what if we gave him all the powers? What if he was the mightiest man in the universe kind of thing? And so, um, I should call him mighty man.

There is a mighty man. It's taken. Try, try and name another superhero. I bet they exist. Um, uh, microphone. and stand adjusting man. You've got me. Thank you.

Copyright. It sounds fucking terrible. The estate of leafalk has tried to. What about, like say realistically, like something that's a positive word and then a type of human or thing. The first one was I thought of Superman. That's he's so iconic.

What about, uh, excellent man? Mr. Excellent? That sounds like, it's a Mr. Terrific. fucking hell. It's terrific. It's a great. Captain Fun. If I can cover all the bases, Hydromans real.

Glorious girl. Our man is real. He's looking around the room. He's pointed out of bottle of water. Hourman was his watch. Duff man. Duff man's real. Mild alcoholic.

Dependency man. That's Iron Man. That's Matt Stewart. That's Matt Stewart. Oh, hang on. Yep. Got you, mate. Oh, thank you.

Yeah, so I mean, so we started off with Action Comic Number 1. That was in 1938. 10 cent cover. price bargain at the time was that a bargain at the time that was about standard and what's his 1938? A good year

very good year and so Superman didn't get the whole issue was like an anthology issue various other characters Marco Polo famous adventurer got a historical Marco Polo Was he have superpowers

No just regular Oh Yorn am I right Snoo Superman was the first one We're to have super powers Today He's a thing.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's right. He's one of our own. Just so. So Superman only got 13 pages in the first issue. Was there a whole story or a two big continued type? It was a series of stories. So he had a one page origin.

That was one of the pages. He finds a man who's beating up his wife and he just thumps him. So that's good. But like kills him? No, he doesn't die. Okay. Probably wishes he was dead. Superman doesn't kill people, right?

Mostly. Batman. Batman. Superman. Oh, yeah. If... Superman. Yeah, I know, right?

Said a good example, mate. Yeah. He saves a woman from the electric chair, wrongly convicted. Oh. And he... But do they just recapture her and try it? No, no, no. He goes to court.

He presents new evidence. New evidence. Just very, very fast. He gets a law degree to do so. You know. Fucking would. He didn't save Stompey the elephant, though. Oh, no.

No. No. Don't bring that up again. That made me so sad. That was really sad. Thomas Edison, you maniac. Thomas Edison, man? Electro. Electro. Yeah, super villain, electro. Static. Lightning, lad. Lightning, light. Aren't that many good girl ones?

Do you name some good girls? Bat girl. Supergirl. Wonder Woman. She Hulk. She Hulk. She Hulk. Yeah. She Hulk, Supergirl and lawyer. She Hulk. That is a good girl.

Very silly. Dr. X and Y? Oh yes. Instead of Dr. X? Chromosomes. Chromosome joke. X and Y would be a man, though. Yeah.

Otherwise, everyone would have immediately got that. Jess is still laughing at Sheehog. Why is Sheehog funny? Surely electric lad or whatever's funny. Lightning lad. Sheehog. That's so. No, dumb.

Nick's done a really nice thing and come in here today. He didn't invent she-hawk. Sorry. I'm laughing at Nick. You know what? I'll take my laugh where I can get him. Let's try it again.

She-Hulk? Is She-Hulk respected? Are we going to be chastised for laughing at She-Hulk? No, no. She-Hulk is a... She-hawk received a blood transfusion. She's the regular Hulk's cousin. She received a blood transfusion from the original Hulk.

And she's also a lawyer. So. That's the funniest part of all. Jess, still laughing, still laughing at the lawyer. She-Hulk. Jessica Perkins. No, it's still pretty funny. It is funny.

What would it have been fun? Like, I don't know where you would go with it though, because all the other ones, it ends in man, so you just flip that. But Hulk has got no way to, you know where to grip onto, Mrs. Hulk? Mrs. Hulk, exactly, yeah. Mrs. Hulk. Lady Hulk. Yeah. Could it just be Hulk lady?

Yeah. Because if it was just Hulk. it would be confusing, right? I'm just the woman Hulk, but I just call Hulk because it's not right that I should have to... He doesn't have to have a Mr Hulk.

Why should I? You're absolutely right. I mean, we're digging deep into something here. Like a lot of... Do you reckon this is how most of them are created? Four people sit around and just like... Probably. Back and forth until they're like, yeah, Chick Hulk.

Yeah, what's up? I'm actually really glad... This is so off topic, but I'm really glad my dad was not aware of She Hulk because when I was... You might have been named She Hulk as a child? Because when I was like 12, because I always played basketball since I was about 7,

and when I was 12, they changed the rules so that girls played with smaller basketballs because they decided girls are weaker. But we were used to the bigger ones, so then I would always throw the ball out of court because I would throw it stronger. And my dad always used to go like, nice pass, Igor. But Shehawk would have been much funnier. Shehulk. Is that a thing for professional, like people in the WNBL, the women's national

basketball league do they play with smaller balls? I couldn't say for sure but like I still play basketball and we play with the six and the men play with a seven. So I would probably assume... That is bizarre. In the new women's AFL league they're going to play with a smaller ball and with two

less players on the field. Oh, same size field? Same size field. Well I mean they're all randomly sized anyway in the NFL. But why... That's a good point. Why less players? Less players? They reckon it's a better way to play football.

bitchy that way. Yeah. Just less bitchy. They've done science and 18 girls. That's why they're two or less players. Two of them always going off the side to bitch about the other. Yeah, yeah. Oh, they're still there.

No, because one's always offended and has to go, and then her friend has to go with her. Stacey, wait. And then is the smaller ball, is the smaller ball pink? You can understand that upsets me quite a bit. I hate that. Well, yeah, the less players are supposed, like 16 on the field is just, I think it's a better way.

It's supposedly a better spectacle, but that's, I don't know. Apparently, apparently the players, I'm so. tick this off. So I was at first, I'm like, this is stupid. And then I read that, I'm like, well, I guess they've probably got more right to say than I do. So I'll just slink back down in my chair. Yeah, well, yeah, cool. If that's what they said, great.

But it's just dumb. Sheehawk. Fucking Sheehawk. But we had a good laugh. I enjoyed that quite a bit. Sorry to derail. I had the listeners enjoyed Shehawk. Sorry to derail, please.

Do go on. Oh, sure. Thank you. That's my first actual official do go on, I think. You're welcoming, guys. He also rescues Lois Lane, who's his longtime love interest for like the last 80 years. Oh, in the first,

first issue, yeah, Laus Lane, yeah. But she wasn't the electric chair. No, different women. He's just saving women left and right. Jack and she's, Lovis would be pretty jealous. But, like, that's, that's been a foil for many years. Lois Lane Lana Lang. So Lois couldn't get over the fact that he saved someone from the electric chair.

That's right, yeah. Fucking hell. Yeah, right? I mean, she was innocent. St. Lois, the evidence is there. Just look. Let him fry. Steady on his lane.

God. Was that her? That was my love. She sounds jaded. So, at this point, he was basically, he was superhumanly strong and he could leap over tall buildings. So hence, you know, more powerful than the locomotive able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Can I ask the famous phrase, what's that, a bird? Is it a plane?

Is that an old thing or is that a movie? Now, that's from the radio show. Oh, right, do that come along? That was like 1943. Oh, okay. Which is like Matt's era version of the podcast. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, Matt, did you on that?

Did you do some bloody... Yeah, I was there. Some of the crinkling of paper. Oh, yeah, nice. I can't remember what that was for, but that was one of the... Yeah, fire. He didn't have heat vision at this point. He didn't have X-ray vision.

He didn't have super breath. He didn't have... Super breath? Yeah, well, you know, like ice breath. Always minty. How do you go to, like, university or something to get that? you don't think so can I get that

it's more a case of you know a lot of you were talking about you know a lot of you were saying a lot of superheroes were probably developed around a room

just people going you know what about this what about this a lot of I think a lot of this stuff was like well why not

just just throw it just give him how can he get through that I can just use his extra vision he can see through it why not yeah he's pinkies a key

to every car in the world yeah so so the original incarnation of Superman the idea was he'd come from the planet Krypton where everything

was a much more harsh environment so you know the sun beat down harder and the gravity was much more intense and the you know the the the air She-Hulk! Guys I'm trying to give you facts all right guys you just popped into my head again

if you need to leave the room which likes some pictures of She-Hulk I'll make it worse But like the atmosphere was kind of like you know piece soup kind of you couldn't see through it so you know as a result he was stronger and he could leap and he could see through. So

if everyone from Krypton survive, they get killed right? The planet blows up? Yes. The planet was unstable at an unstable core and so Superman's father Jorrell Nogles K, his second trial.

That's right. Jora! Go back here! Get in your room! Your planet's about to be destroyed. Get out of my dad's in the lounge room. He was like, the planet's going to be destroyed. I'm going to put my son in this ship and send him off to Earth.

And nobody else believed him and then the planet was destroyed. So all the other Kryptonians were... Right. Why didn't Jorrell get in the plane? It wasn't enough resources to build another spaceship. Oh, that's good. I thought there was going to be no answer to that. So I feel like a bit of an idiot.

I didn't realize all that stuff about the harsh environment and stuff. That's a really sweet way of explaining it. Well, that's old school. Superman's been rebooted a number of times and the explanation has changed you know so over... But from that original one if the planet hadn't survived

would everyone be as good as Superman? Yes, they would have been to our planet. Yeah, they would, yeah. Is that what happens with people like Supergirl and stuff? They're like, oh, we're found her. After a while they go, okay, what if there was another Superman and so they're like, well, there was a lady, let's make Supergirl.

So it turns out that Supergirl's father had also put her in a rock. It turns out there was enough resources for one more rocket. So they put her in the rocket. And she was actually older than... She was sort of a teen girl at the time. And she was sent to Earth, but it flew off course. By the time she ended up on Earth, Superman had grown up to Superman,

and she was still a girl. Oh. Oh, that means that... I guess that's why she's girl and not superwoman. Yes. Because that... But there is a superwoman, so don't worry about that. Good, good.

It's already a superwoman. But she's a super girl because she's still a teenager. Correct. Gotcha. Right. So nothing can happen between Superman and Supergirl. No, they're cousins. Ew. So what's the problem?

Oh, Dave, no. Dave, you already know about the purity. Don't, don't, integrating. You know all about that, mate, so don't. But she and him are the only two compatible people that I'm going to kill the other one. So, what, therefore it's okay to fuck your cousin? God, you're sick, Warnocky. No.

Yuck. Gross, man. I mean, then what happens, Dave? What's the next generation? Yeah, what then, Dave? They've got super tumours and super bloody, super extra thumbs. I don't want any of that. You don't want an extra thumb.

I kind of want an extra thumb now that I think about it. Come on. Three thumbs up. Three thumbs up. Yeah, having a great time. Do go on. Okay, so, yeah, so eventually over the many years, I mean, I guess the number one conceit of that Superman had that none of the other heroes,

Like if you think of the phantom, you think of Buck Rogers, those kind of guys. They were always that guy. You know, they were always, it was always, you know, the most, the greatest difference was the phantom would occasionally put on a trench coat and he'd be the phantom wearing a trench coat. But, uh... Hello, I am the phantom wearing a trench coat. But, uh, Superman's creators, they, they invented the conceit of sort of the super secret identity. So Superman was, you know, he was this paragon of virtue when he was Superman, but when he wasn't, he was just Clark Kent, who was this bumbling reporter. And like that sort of, I guess, struck a chord with, you know, kids especially, because he, like, he loved Lois Lane, but she loved Superman.

Like, she had no interest in, in this bumbling, this bumbling idiot Clark camp. And it kind of, I guess for kids and teens especially, it was sort of like this, you know, I'm, I had, you know, I have so much more to off later. Once you know the real me. Yeah, once you know the real me, exactly, that kind of thing, yeah. I'm at what a nice guy's always. I'm such a nice guy. Why don't the girls look at me? Is that you as a teenager, Maddie?

No, that was me doing Dave. That was you last week. Oh, God, hey! Oh, hang on. No, no, no. No, no, that's it. You get that? Matt was trying to pin one on me, and Jess slammed one on him.

Oh, classic perk. I was being too real, and Jess felt sorry for Dave, i.e. Jess didn't feel sorry for Dave. She just wants to make you feel bad. So, yeah, so over the years, Superman developed all these various powers, you know, the heat vision and the flight. and millions of other powers and yeah, it was just kind of border him kind of thing

the only, for a while, for a long time his only weakness in the universe was Kryptonite and we were speaking about the radio show in in the, the, Cryptonite was invented basically because, you know, radio shows you couldn't draw them, obviously, because they're

going to, perform by real people. What? No, that's true. It's true, Jess. I just don't think... Guys, I'm not a bloody report veteran like you guys. I don't think the listeners could even imagine what a radio show would be like. Just voices in your ears. Seems dumb.

It's weird. So basically, the guy who played the voice of Superman on the radio show, this was in the 40s, Bud Collier, basically... Did you know him, Matt? Yeah, it was my... Best man? Son?

Yeah, I was trying to... Wait, is it... Yeah, younger than me is funnier, right? Yeah, he's my great, great-grandson. I still almost fucked it. But yeah, he's like way younger than me. I hope he's doing well that young buck So basically

Bud Collier who was the voice of Superman Was like I kind of want to take a vacation from this I just don't want to I want a few weeks off for whatever people did in the 40s And so They were like okay well we need to We need to weaken him And we need to trap him

And so basically they invented kryptonite They put him in a kryptonite cage That weakened him And they just had a stand in just groan in pain For several episodes Oh my God. So basically it was like, you know, it was like, you know, Perry White, who was the head of the daily planet going, where's Superman? We've got to find Superman to stop this in Lois Lane's.

Oh my God, I love Superman. Where is he? And then just cut to Superman going, oh. I'm in such pain. That's amazing. So funny. So that's how most of these things are invented. Guys, pre-record you nerds.

Oh, good. What's the idea? So the, so what is Krypton? Cryptonite is. Cryptonite. Oh, that's right. So Krypton had an unstable core And so Superman escapes

Supergirl escapes Crypto the Superdog escapes The Crypto the Superdog What breed? That's a joke He's a... No, he doesn't have a specific breed He's white

He's like, he looks kind of It's like a Labrador It's kind of like a white Labrador He's a bit of a mix Yeah, he's a mix, yeah He's a mutt He's a mutt Super Super Vitzer

Various other Whoever needed to escape to be added in the series later, escaped, and then Krypton exploded, and the remnants of Krypton became these glowing green rocks called Kryptonite, which are lethal to Kryptonians. Why are they lethal if it's their planet? Okay, well...

Who's to say? There's no... Look, you've had a lot of good answers so far, Nick. What, Dave? There's nothing on Earth that could kill us? That's a good question. Even regular rocks. I can't think...

People have been killed by regular rocks. What do you reckon about that? They're not one thing that could kill me. Asbestos. Asbestos man Asbestos man Is that a thing? Rat sack lady

Oh Oh She-hock She-Holk With a bag of rats Lady Asbestos Muzbestos We like that

She-Hulk That's silly Anyway action comics No one So people They made about 200,000 They printed about 200,000 copies of action comics number one

But I mean Comic books Up until maybe the 90s Nobody cared about it comic books. They were like the newspaper. You would, you'd read it, you'd show it to your friends, you'd pass them around, you'd stick it in your back pocket or whatever. And so of the 200,000 copies left, there's maybe 100 left now. Oh, wow. So it's 100. One, maybe probably less now. Wow. And who were the people keeping them? Were they like just accidentally? Oh, I've got a list of all

100. No, I just mean, were they people who were they like going, I love this so much, want to keep it? Or were they just people who, for some reason, just found it later in there? Well, we'll get to it in a little bit, but a lot of them had just survived by chance. It's just where they happen to be, you know, an abandoned building or what have you. And they've survived sandwiched between something else. That's cool. And they've just happened to happen to survive, yeah. Fuck, check your sandwiches, people.

Sandwiches. He looks so proud, but also hates himself. So anyway, Nicholas Cage's copy of action comics number one. Yes, I'm very... So he had one, he's had one of... of the best. So it was a near mint. So when he bought it, they didn't have,

there wasn't a real grading system, but they were like, oh, this is near mint. It looks pretty great. Later, they developed a grading system from 1 through 10. Is 10 being... 10 is the best. Oh, that's right.

Yeah. That's good. That's the most surprising thing today. The higher the number, the better the condition. Well, do I need to tell you that whoever comes number one at the Olympics gets the gold? Oh. Thank you.

But what if they found a better copy? What if number one was the best and they found an even better copy? What would you do then? Oh, no. Oh, no, no. Two gold bills. Oh, great.

Yeah, okay. This is a three gold medal rated. It's got a gold in a silver copy. 407 gold medal rating. No, so do they later say what Nicholas Cage's version would be? Yeah, we'll get right. We'll get to it very soon. Stop skipping ahead.

No, please. I can't wait. I just love this. I love it so much. The first time it ever appeared, unnamed buyer, unnamed seller. It was sold at Sotheby's, which is the big auction house in England, but $86,000, that's in 1993. Sophabies. Soffabies.

That's fun. Then it was bought by a man named Stephen Fishler. He owns a big collectible store in New York called Manhattan Collectibles. He bought it for $135,000 in 1996. And then in just sort of 1996, 1997, Nicholas Cage was signed on to do a Superman movie. It was called Superman Lives. It never came about. But he was fitted for the costume.

I've seen a video of it. Would I have seen a video or photos? No, you would have seen video and photos. It looked great. He would have been so excited. Was he absolutely stoked? Yeah, that was, that was his dream. I'll do it for free.

Right, well, yeah. So, yeah, and he, there's footage. There's Kevin Smith, the film director. He was brought on to write a draft all that script. and the producer John Peters who also produced the 1999s Batman movie he gave Kevin Smith three notes I don't want to see him in the suit

that's Nicholas Cage Superman I don't want to see him in the suit For the whole movie Yeah I don't want to see him fly What? And he has to fight a giant spider in the third act Those are the three Those are three really dumb notes

Right and I'm no film buff I did a bit of film stars at university But that sounds like a really dumb I need And I know my arachnids. Hey, what would Sydney Shineberg think of that, do you reckon? Spider. How about a ladybug? Kids love ladies! I think that's what it'd say.

Hey, remember Shee Hulk? Get Sheehog in the fourth act. I'll be back for Sheehawk in a couple of weeks, guys. Sheehog origins. Yeah, so I mean, I guess that's the kind of met. So this was going to be a Tim Burton film, and I think... So Tim Burton was going to direct... Yeah, this was after Batman, they're like, you're the guy, you're the...

Oh my God, wow. And the guy that produced Batman, which was good. John Peters, former hairdresser, who became a movie producer. Yeah, but I think there was a lot of drafts, there were a lot of meddling, people couldn't, people couldn't settle on a script for a really long time, and then people dropped, Tim Burton dropped out because he didn't want to be a comic book movie guy anymore, and it all just sort of fell the face of it. But in their defense, I'm sure you must have seen much more comic book movies than most of us.

Have you seen ones that are worse? than a giant spider? Surely there's worse. Oh, absolutely, yeah. It sounds ridiculous, but maybe it could have been great. The Fabulous Four, for instance. Fantastic Four, or is it? Fantastic Four.

Fabulous. I wish there were a giant spider in that. Fabulous. John Peters Wader later went on to produce the Will Smith film Wild Wild West. Oh, wow. There was a giant spider. In the finale, there's a giant robot spider, so apparently that's his thing. Oh, that is so funny.

He's got a weird fetish. And that movie sucked. Yeah, it wasn't great. It made a lot of money. Yeah. So... Wow, while worse. So to prepare for this role,

Cage went to Stephen Fishler, who's this collectibles owner, who had Action Comics No. 1, and he bought 400 vintage comics, and one of them was Action Comics number 1, which he bought for $150,000. He bought 400 comics. Were they all Superman?

No, they were all just an assortment. I think he wanted to get into the... What the fuck? 400. You know what? I think it was. Because he's always been, like I said, this obsessive collector, he's always been into this sort of stuff. I think it might have been a case of, well, if I buy 400 at a time, and I say it's a research thing, I can write it off.

And then, like, and then you've automatically got a collection, too. It's not like, beginning a collection where you've just got a three. No, it's a collection. That's right. You start with 400. You're a collector. Exactly. Can I ask, you know how he's obviously into Superman so much that he names his kid, the real name?

Yep. In this time, was he into Superman, or did buying this comic make him even more obsessed, do you reckon? Oh, that's a question. Or was he already obsessive Superman? I feel Nicholas Cage is always at level 10 obsessed with everything. From 1 to 10? Sotheby's was giving him a 10. I don't think he could go over or under that at any point.

Wow. So anyway, Superman. Origin of Superman. So Superman was created by the writer Joe Siegel and, sorry, Jerry Segal and Joe Schuster, who were these, they were, they grew up, they were friends together in Toronto in Canada. And so Joe Schuster, he, he. He grew up on comic strips. His father would put him up on his knee and show him all the comic strips.

Some of his favorites, I took note of this because I thought they were fun. His favorite comic strips are the Cats and Jammer Kids. Boob McNutt, because it was a character from the 30s. Do you know anything about the thought of Boobb McGregor? Because the less we know the better. And it's difficult to Google that. Speaking of Happy, another one, Happy Hooligan and Barney Google. Ah, Barney Google.

Not as good as Boob McNut. No. So, anyway, so Schuster was this sort of tiny little teenager who wanted to be a tough guy. Dave. He was kind of like, yeah. He was the kind of after school workout and eat raw eggs kind of.

Dave. I really like this guy. And he illustrated a comic strip for his high school newspaper. Dave. Is this my life? So he met, these two met in 1931. And they, they work together on this. little fanzine school newspaper kind of thing

which they sold for 15 cents Oh More than Superman Yeah for more than Yeah And And yeah So in 1933

They created a character called They created a story called The reign of the Superman Where this Superman was this bald villain with mental powers Didn't really go anywhere So that's fun But I can think about

Plenty of bald Bald people With superpowers to come Yeah I know right Why don't they have to be bald to get the thoughts out of their head. It's like hairs trapping them in. Imagine Professor Xavier from X-Men with an Afro.

He's like, oh, they just glue an Afro wig to his head, and he just can't do his telekinesis. So Jerry Siegel said, in an interview in the 80s, he said, as a high school student, I thought, someday I might become a reporter, and I had a crush on several attractive girls who either didn't know I existed or didn't care I existed. Dave.

As a matter of fact, some of them looked like they hoped I didn't exist. It occurred to me What if I was real terrific What if I had something special going for me Like jumping over buildings Or throwing cars around Then maybe they'd notice That was there

Girls of the 30s were very different I know right If you can't throw a car They got If you can't throw a Chevrolet They got no interest But so that's the story you gave Many many years later

So just before he passed away He actually told the story That his father was a tale His name's Mitchell Seagel And in 1932 three men went into his father's tailor shop and robbed the tailor shop and his father died of a heart attack while that was happening.

Oh no. And then very soon afterwards he suddenly created this character who is, you know, super strong and invulnerable and can leap over tall buildings. And he went 50 years. He didn't tell anybody that story, which is... Oh, man. Fun fact, right? Super, super fun fact.

That's amazing. So anyway, so they shopped Superman around for years and years and years. so, you know, 33, so five-ish years. And in 1938, they went to DC Comics, and they pitched Superman to them, and the company paid them for this 13-page story in action comics number one, $130, and they split it down the middle.

What? Yeah, that's right, $65 each. What? Pretty good. And with the check, they got a check, the agreement was that they got, Detective Comics got the exclusive right to the character of Superman to have and hold forever.

A few months later, they were hired to become staff writers at DC. They again signed a deal naming Detective Comics, the exclusive owner of their work, including Superman. This has been described as the original sin of comic books because that's kind of set the precedent. You create a character, no matter what happens that character, they put it on lunchbox, they make into movies, what have you. You got what you paid for that day, and that was it.

So here's a little fun fact. So here's another fun, one of these fun facts he loves for Jess Perkins. So Stephen Fishler, Manhattan Collectibles, our friend who sold Nicholas Cage, all this stuff. He actually acquired some, I think a bank representative sold him the check. Or he somehow acquired the check, the $130 check that they got. That was sold to a collector for $160,000. So even the paper it's written on is worth a thousand times the amount.

Right, exactly. Good. Yeah. But she Hulk, though. Yeah, right. That's fun. That's fun. That's still paying the big bucks.

Yeah, right. That's the good stuff. Yeah, but I mean, Superman, again, as we know, Superman since became this, you know, profoundly iconic character. You know, movies, TV shows, cartoons, lunchboxes. He's done a bit. Yeah, he's done a bit, right? He's done the four major mediums. Yeah.

TV, movies, radio, lunchboxes. Yeah. That's what you want. That's a big four. The big four. God, the day that there's a do-go-one lunchbox, be a happy day. If you contribute $1,000 a month to the Patreon, we will mail you an exclusive do-go-one lunchbox.

Only $1,000 a month. We'll wait here. You get your checkbooks. We'll print a thousand in advance. Imagine that. We get a million dollars a month. That's too many dollars. That would make me anxious.

Too much money. where are we Riches make you nervous Oh yeah Okay so we were talking about Matt you were saying Where did all these Superman

When did these action comics number one All the vintage comics Where did it up So back to Manhattan collectibles He once Our friend Stephen Fishler once auctioned A low grade copy of action comics number one So this is a 1.5

Out of 10 Out of 10 That sucks Yeah So Put it in the bin I don't want to have to explain scaling to our listeners but 1.5, that is only 1.5 of the way to 10.

Yeah, that's right. 15%. 15%. Which is half of 30. And even that wouldn't be that good. You got a 30% you put that in the bin. So basically a man named David Gonzalez. He was a contractor.

He was renovating a home that was built in 1938. And he smashed through a wall and he found being used as insulation a whole bunch of newspapers and he shuffled through him and there was action comics number one just being just stuffed into the wall. Did he realise what he had straight away?

Yes, he did. Well, but here's the thing, okay, here's the thing though. Imagine the moment. So basically he went home and he was like, check this out, look what I've got. And his wife's aunt was there, big family home. And she was like, this isn't worth anything.

This is kind of rubbish. And they tussled over it. And he accidentally ripped the. back cover off. Why would you be like so adamant that you were like, no, I'm going to take it off you and put it in the bin. That's how it worse. So tearing the back cover

took it down, I guess, to a 1.5. And that took $75,000 off the market value. But it still sold for $17,000. Still sold for $175,000. That absolute bitch. And did David Gonzalez get it or the person who owns the house that he was renovating? Doesn't say. Oh no, fuck that. He gets it.

Do you have? Yeah, it seems away. Fuck them. No. Might have been, might have been, could have been in Indemned home? Finders, keepers, loses, fuck off. Well, I know that that went rid of that I thought it was going to go. Because in a way, this is kind of... That's the Perkins way.

I guess it's the form of archaeology. And in a way, often people, they make a deal. Like, if I find something on your property, they'll split the profits. Well, I mean, I don't think you make that kind of deal when you hire a trade to come in and renovate. From now on, if anyone ever comes into my house, they must sign a clause that if they find some sort of valuable hidden in the wall.

I think, I think it should be the... You don't own the house. I think it should be the... The homeowner should get it, I reckon. No. They might have been dead. Maybe they should. Oh, look.

No, look, I reckon they were dead. I don't think it's fine. But if they were alive... Maybe they should have got off their bums and been renovating the house themselves then. Do I do it? No, Jess, you're being... I reckon you're being unreasonable. I don't think I am at all.

I say, as I mentioned before, finders keepers, losers, everybody? I've got Jess's phone now. Oh, fuck. Can you keep that? Yeah. Only Jess's. You didn't find it.

It was sitting on the table in front of me. It's not finding it. Found on the table. Found it. I was sitting in front of it. It's mine. Yeah, it was in the wall of their house. What is?

It's my phone. They often turn on each other. I know, right? It's fine. You don't know the past code. Well, I can figure out a password. Can you? One day they'll develop a certain amount of familiarity with me and that will

breed contempt and then I'll be pounced upon. That's right, but for now you are a guest in our home. So good. And if whatever you find it in our walls, you keep. Thank you. Dave, no. I found some soundproof. Can I get the soundproof tires? Oh, definitely.

Sure, go for it. Okay, so in 2008, we had another action comics number one. There was a six out of ten, so that was $317,200. That's what they got for it. In 2010, we had one that was an eight, and that was $1 million. That got that $1 million flat. A million. And then later on in 2010, there was an action comics number one, that was an $8.5, and that got $1.5 million.

Nicholas Cage's copy is a nine. So, a nine. A nine. And is, does a ten exist or do we not know? We'll get to that. Yeah. It's starting to sound like an inside job. But I mean, short answer, short answer is yes.

There's a ten. The ten exists. Well, actually, it's like a nine, four, nine, five. So, it's pretty good. It's almost like it's not possible to be a ten because a ten would be straight off the press in the olden days. Back when I was in a boy. Yeah, back when that was a boy. They're so stringent.

Like if you turn a page and you've got a little bit of grease on your hand and you turn that, then it's not a 10 anymore. Something built into my personality means I don't want a 1.5. Someone's offering me, it's like, I don't want your shitty ripped pages in my house. I don't want to be anywhere near it. What's the lowest you'd settle for? Well, I'd have to look at what they actually mean, but I'm guessing probably an 8.5. Really?

Wow. So the 1.5 million? Yeah. That's kind of, that's my, that's my, that's my, that's my. when I'm starting to think about making a bid. I'd take a two or three, I reckon. It's loved. It's got a story.

It's got history. Oh, look, I just, I want it intact. Oh, big time. Yeah, right. What happens if it says inside the front page, like, what number would it be if it's, like, it's very good, apart from inside the front, it says a property of little David Warnocky. Oh, and it's very good. Like, as new? As new.

So it's just inside cover. Good one, Dave. That's probably an eight, I reckon. Okay. I just cost me up a couple hundred grand. Yeah. Fuck. Yeah, that's right.

Do your parents write inside books, like their name and stuff? I think they used to. Maybe when we were kids. Yeah. My granddad had a, because he had a collection of over 5,000 books. Whoa. He had a huge library. And some of them on the inside, he had either a stamp made up,

so property of James Ferguson, or he had stickers made up so they'd go on the inside. That's great. But, yeah, you say great, but they've just gone from a 10 to an 8.5, apparently. And if you want to peel out sticker off, he might cause even more damage. Then it's a seven. Then you don't know to us. Six, yeah. And then Matt doesn't even want it anymore.

No, yeah. The Jess will take it. Would you guys like to know how the thieves stole the action comics number one? Nah. I would. All right, good night, everybody. I love, I love a good thieving story. Okay, well, this is a pretty good one.

So basically, he had his comic book room, and it was sort of all these sort of locked chests full of comic books. I'm starting to feel a lot less sorry for the guy that it can afford. What a comic book room. So sort of these these armored, like steel comic book chests. The room was also guarded by a puma. And he wanted to, you know, he couldn't put them all on his wall. So he had these glass, glass, bulletproof glass cases around his room.

How about give some money to charity? Jesus. There's comics. He's such a waste. Just let me ask you this. Do you think he's a bad person? No. No, he's a colourful character.

Colorfully terrible. In a way, that's what I meant. You didn't let me finish. So basically, he liked to rearrange it. He had them all in the chests. And so he liked to rearrange. He liked to, you know, put the new ones up or the latest acquisitions or whatever his favorite one he was thinking about the time.

So basically, he had one, there was one key to unlock. You could unlock all the bulletproof glass cases, and he would swap them in and out. And so what the thieves did, Bulletproof? Who's going to shoot comic books? I'm going to shoot this one out. Oh no, I've just made it a 0.5. It's covered in bullets.

I just smashed the glass, you idiot. Why are you going to shoot? That's very silly. I mean, I think... I mean, it's impervious to bullets as well as anything less than the bullets. No, I understand that. But I mean, like... Well, I can't get through with a bullet, but this screwdriver should do the trick. I just mean like

when you're putting, when you're designing that room and you're talking with your architect and you're like, okay, and I'd like them behind glass cabins. Oh shit, better make it bulletproof.

Like, fuck you. Well, I think when you're a Hollywood celebrity, you don't want anything less than bulletproof. If you're in a car, you want a bulletproof window. That's a good point, yeah. Do I need to remind you

that despite the fact that they were bulletproof, it was still stolen somewhere? Oh, that's right. Okay, so, so he would like to swap them out. Did he wear the key around his neck? Well, here's the thing.

In a bulletproof case. That's right, which contained its own lock. So basically what happened is the thief, the thieves somehow managed to get into his house, and they went into, they made it past the Puma, and they went into, they made it past the Jaguar, the D-Type Jig, and they made it past.

That's right, yeah. And they made it past the dinosaur, the scary dinosaur skulls, and they got into the comic room, and then they got the key, which was placed right in front of all the cabinets. And they unlocked all the cabinets. The one key was just sitting there.

Just sitting there. Well, where else? I hate him. Otherwise, he'd leave it. In a lot of ways, that makes the key almost pointless. In the way, doesn't it? And the glass, yeah. And the glass.

Yeah. So they took the action comics number one out and they took off with it. Did they take any others or just that one? Yes, they did. They took four. Well, they took all 400. Damn it! Cage initially thought they took four, but it turned out that one of them was just lost in his house.

And then he called, a year later, he was like, two dozen more have been stolen, but it turned out, again, just in his house. But where, we're on the toilet? I guess so, yeah. It takes them to read them and just leave them. So they knew what was going on. They knew he had him, and they went and picked out three important ones. This home apparently was, you know, he had a lot of Hollywood parties.

His birthday's in January. So potentially he had 1,000 people over for his birthday, and people just wandered in and yoink. I don't know 1,000 people. No, scratch that. I don't like a thousand people. I don't think Nicholas Cage does either. I don't think I like 100 people.

Nah, probably. Yeah, I mean, so, so, um, So, Reichek, who was the investigator, apparently that's, he said that that was fairly common sort of in Hollywood. If something really expensive had been stolen, it's somebody had just left it unlocked or they hadn't to, you know,

they had a million dollar alarm system, they just didn't switch it on. Have you ever seen the movie The Bling Ring directed by Nicholas Cage's cousin, Sophia Coppola? No, but does it star Hermione Granger? Yes, it does. Emma Watson is in it. Hermione Granger.

Pardon me, yes. Hermione Granger, yes. I've seen it. I've seen the trailer for it. Honestly, it's about Paris Hilton being robbed several times

because he just left the front door unlocked. They just waltz into her house and steal like a million dollars of jewels and the teenagers.

And it's based on a true story I'll say that. Oh my God. Well, there's one story here that he, he related that a musician in the Los Angeles

phallemonic orchestra went home with a Stradivarius cello, a three and a half million dollar stradavarius cello he had his hands full. He put some, he was like,

okay, I'll just put this here and this here in a bag here on the top. on my car and then he just shuffled around. He's like, okay, grab my keys, got everything, and he opened his door and he went to bed. And then he came up, woke up the next day, like, oh, where's the cello?

He left it on the roof of his car and somebody had just taken it. And he lost the Stradivarius. Did he get it back? Not the purpose of this report, Dave. I don't know. I wonder if he had insurance. I like how you think the answers for everything are there? Dave, I don't know anything if it's not about Spider-Man or something.

Or she helped. How did you come across that story, then? Oh, this was just, right check, who's the man who investigated all the art theft. Oh, sorry, pardon me, art theft guy. Yeah, he was, uh, anyway, a few days later, a few days after the theft. Um, our friend Fishler got a call from another comic bookstore owner.

Uh, someone called and asked about the three comics that were stolen. Like, how much would I get for these particular items? Oh, I just like the Mona Lisa, the guy that took it. Where would I, where would I sell them? What would I do? Sort of thing. Um, call left, no contact details, never called back. Hypothetically, if I had Nicholas Cage's Jaguar

What are you feed a panther? Yeah, oh yeah. He's like, ideal in antiques, yeah. So in 2002, the word got around in the comic book Dealing industry that there was somebody in Memphis was selling some of these issues, and maybe it was Nick Cage's stolen in issues, but they got a local place.

They got a search warrant. They turned out it was fakes. It was a man who had gotten scans of the covers, like copies of the covers, and he'd put lingerie catalogs in between. And he'd stuck them together and he'd put him in a sealed, like a plastic bag. And he'd be like, these are too valuable to take out of this. But you have to trust me, this is the real. Did you think that anyone would trust him?

He put a little sticker on in the front of it. It's the property of Nicholas Cage. And also, bearing in mind, these are people who will leave their Stradivarius on the roof of their car so they'll probably be like oh yeah that does sound safe to don't take it out yeah I mean there were a lot of there were a lot of various sightings

nothing ever really sort of turned up and the sort of trail went cold for quite some time right and I imagine are these insured yes they were insured so he's getting paid back anyway I guess so but the the investigation has to like it

they have to drop the investigation I think first before they can And are we thinking it might be Nicholas Cage inside job? Because I have seen like sort of BuzzFeed style articles before. How did Nicholas Cage spend $200 million? Right, exactly. Like he went, did he go bankrupt? Is that the thing?

He owes the IRS like $16 million or something like that in back taxes. He has a number of castles. Oh, come on. You can't have a portfolio of castles. You get one and then you're done. Surely. One and done. One and done.

That's what they say in the castle biz. Are you in the castle biz day? I am prospecting to get into the castle piss. What are you looking for just like a 13 bedroom?

Oh no. Anyway, does anybody want to hear about... 20 plus, anybody want to hear about the continuing adventures of Siegel and Schuster, the luckiest two boys

in the comic book history? Yes, are the people that didn't get paid for their... That's correct. Okay, so, they're doing pretty good from like 38 to 47. They're doing pretty good

because they were on staff writing. Apparently, they would split to 70... In 1940, they split to 75. grand in gross salary, so that's before taxes, which is quite good at the time. Siegel said actually it was less than that, but who knows?

In 1943, Seagull went into, it was drafted into the army. While he was away, D.C. published Superboy, which was The Adventures of Superman when he was a boy, as you might imagine. Which was Siegel's idea that he had pitched to D.C. twice. They'd rejected it twice. and then when they published it they didn't ask him about it It was like Yeah, all right You did it on our time

And it's Superman and Superboys What dogs Yeah I know right dogs So in 1947 Seagull and Schuze to file the lawsuit They wanted to annul all the agreements Because they were like Well look

We didn't know it was going to be So successful We didn't know it was going to be selling You know 800,000 copies in issue A million copies in issue That doesn't sound like a legal footing to me Hey I didn't know That this would be worth more

And now it is Can I have a law degree? that I don't think you can pipe in, champ. I've done multiple. Have you? Law degrees. Have you done multiple law degrees? Yes.

Ask me any questions about the law. Can I go into a court of law and say, I didn't know? Oh, good question. That's relevant too to what we were just talking about. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was going to say objection relevance, but it was very relevant. Thank you.

Yeah. Good safe. And the answer, we'll surprise you. Next week. I'm graduating. I'm going to pass the bar next week. Okay. So they were like, okay, well, we would like the rights, you know, the rights back, we want our fair share.

D.C. were like, no, no, we've paid you your fair share. You know, you've worked here. You've got plenty of money. The result was basically they gave D.C. the rights to Superman, but not Superboy. And so Siegel got the rights to Superboy. And then they renegotiated and they said, okay, look, Siegel and Schuster said, okay, you can have Superman, you can have Superboy, but we want $94,000, which was pretty good in the 40s, a pretty good amount.

Is that each or together? Together. Why 94? You know I like rounded numbers. Just go 100. 100 grand. 94 shits me so much. So, but basically.

So someone said to you next year, I'll pay you $94,000 a year. You'll laugh them out. I would say, don't insult me. That's what I'd say. That's what I say, Dave. Okay, so I'll do go on, shall I? Please,

Hey, Nick, sorry, please do go on. Thank you. We've all given you one now. I know, I feel good. So, yeah, I mean,

so they, you know, they got their money and they were like, we don't, you know, we don't want any more to do this. And so,

but in a way, they were kind of blacklisted from DC especially, but, you know, the comic book industry because they're like, okay, well,

if they create something and then. They're going to be dicks about it. They're going to be dicks about it, exactly. So, Siegel did some sporadic comic book writing for various competitors and the work but they worked right up because they were like

because the black you know word got around Schuster did various odd jobs he was sales clerk he was a janitor in the 90s the creator of Superman cannot be a janitor no no guys no no guys things are looking up because in the 1950s

there's a man named Jerry Robinson he was a long time Batman artist He co-created Robin and the Joker and a lot of other characters. He was told, okay, you've got to get some new stationery or new equipment or wherever it's going to be delivered today. And it turned out the man delivering it was Joe Schuster, because he was a delivery man. He was delivered to, he delivered that stuff to the DC offices. And this was a little bit embarrassing. And the CEO summed him up to the office and gave him $100 and said,

go out, buy a new coat, find another job. So that's, yeah, pretty brutal. right? He thought that the coat was the problem. Yeah, right? You can be anything you want. As long as you're wearing this coat. That's, he's a CEO, man.

Yeah, he knows. Hey, Dave, how many companies have you been the CEO of? The question is, how many coats do I have? Yeah, how many coats do you have, Dave? One nice one. That's all you need. Have you got a good job yet? That's pretty good.

I'm an ass prod. Oh, yeah. Congratulations. Thank you. Matt just with a... Hmm. Let's see. Shuster moved in with his mother

shared an apartment with his brother at one point Siga lived in a one-bedroom apartment with his family Oh my God Did he say things were looking up? Yeah, we'll get there Was the jacket thing they're looking up? Yeah, that's right.

He got $100 for free. Once he had a spiffy new jacket, things were turned right around. In the 1950s, Schuster made a living by secretly drawing sadomasochistic soft porn for a series of pamphlets called Knights of Horror. That's a fun little tidbit.

The jackets's paying off. Yeah. Your idea of fun is very different. I like to have fun. He put on a jacket so people at home could jacket. Good jacket? Yeah, I like it. I like it.

Oh. It took me a while, but once I got there, I enjoyed that. You want to play on words. Oh, words. That's, yeah. You're okay, but they may be very quiet. Look, I'm finding four people is a lot of people. A lot of people, right?

It's a sensory overload, isn't it? I'm really trying to just give some space for you guys. to Phil. Sorry, all we'll all step back. Nick, would you like to say something? Yeah.

It's my big bloody chance. I just want to say that I hope Schuster and Singlet make it. Thank you. Thank you for time. Well done. Nick, do go on. Thank you.

Let's see. So in the mid to late 70s, it turned out that Warner, who owned DC at the time, we're going to make a Superman the movie. Siegel sat at his typewriter and he wrote a little letter. I, Jerry Segal,

the co-originator of Superman, put a curse on the Superman movie. I hope it's Superbombs. Did he write Superbom? Yep, I hope it's Superboms. I hope the whole world will avoid the movie like a plague. The ideals which made Superman one of the top

comics properties of all time and caused its creation, namely compassion and desire to help the oppressed, have been turned into a money-making machine, which callously ruined the lives of Joe and me and deprived us of the fruits of our creation, Superman. That sucks. Yeah, well, look, so basically, this caught the attention of Jerry Robinson, a aforementioned Batman artist, and Neil Adams, who is also a great writer artist, and they basically launched a national shaming campaign of like, sort of how dare you, they all, Neil Adams, so shaming who? DC, DC and Warner Brothers.

Oh, saying, look at these guys, not shaming the letter. Yeah, I kind of thought that's... These guys had it too good for too long, let's shame them. Yeah. And so basically they Wow Yeah so they launched this campaign And the president of

Warners Jay Emmett said Look There's no legal obligation But I sure feel that there's a moral obligation And so basically from that point forward They went okay we're going to give you an annual salary Sort of for the rest of your life And we'll start at this amount

And we'll sort of ramp it up You know with inflation Wow So you'll never have to work again We'll pay your wife's you know We'll pay your wife's pension we'll pay all this sort of stuff. They paid for all sorts of bits and pieces.

They put, they said, like they said, okay, well, you own this, but we'll put created by Siegel and Schuster in on the front of all the comic books. That's good, it's good. When the first movie came out, in 1978, Superman the movie with Christopher Reeve, they went to the premiere

and it said, you know, when Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster came on the screen, the entire audience broke in applause, and we all cried. Oh, wow. Created by Joe Seagull, Jerry, whatever. Yep. Cursed by Jerry Schuster. Did you renounce the curse?

Sure, you've got to renounce it, right? It doesn't say you renounced it. Yeah. He did not run... Because there is a thing called the Superman curse. There is a Superman curse. You want to hear about the Superman curse? We can divert.

I've got a little bit more here, but if you want to talk about the Superman curse, let me just... But just because I know that there is one. Yeah. I think I know a little bit. Well, the Superman curse, I guess, is that they're supposedly all related.

If you're in an adaptation of Superman... Superman, like if you're in a movie thing or a TV thing, something bad will invariably happen to you. So, George Reeves, no relation to Christopher Reeve, he was in the black and white adventures of Superman in the 50s. He died of a gunshot wound at age 45, but it was ruled a suicide, but his fingerprints were not on the gun. He's pretty clever than it. Yeah, right? Yep. Just a rope and pulley system. No, I could have done it with his feet. Yep, got it on his feet, exactly.

His toe prints were on there. They never mentioned the toe prints. I'm sure. Yeah. That's weird. Do you want to compare toe prints after the show? Yes. I do want to do that.

Get them out. How about this? A few Patreon are subscribers if you subscribe for $5 or more. By December 15, we've promised to send you a Christmas card. I will personally stamp my toe on every single one of those. That's fucked. Dave, this podcast started out as a dream about, boys or some shit and

that's right and great ideas and now it's just a money making bullshit scheme I put a curse I put a curse on I put a curse on my toes do curse on

do it Matt are you cursing me Matt no I'm gonna the Pharaoh's curse I'm putting your toes I'm gonna curse your toes and the curses that you'll never put them on someone's card

you're filthy fucking idiot well if you have subscribe to our Patreon and you are getting a Christmas card let me know if you do want the toe because I will give it to anyone My God. This is so complicated.

If anyone requests it. Okay, well, you're doing, you're figuring out. We were hearing about a real curse a second ago. Oh, the curse. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So this George Reeves suicide, but didn't touch the gun. Correct. A real curse, I said, by the way.

This is a real curse. Christopher Reeve had a horseback riding accident. He was paralyzed. And that other guy now hosts Ripley's believe it or not. So that's the biggest slap in the face of all. A lot of, a lot of, see, that's. the thing, a lot of it is, a lot of his type, but a lot of it is, well, maybe, maybe you just

looked like Superman, like, and that's all you look at, uh, so the, the, poor Dean came. No, he was in, um, he was in Lady Dynamite with, uh, that's where he was in, um, and that's a very good series.

Scott Pilgrim. He wasn't Scott Pilgrim, yeah, he's great. So, fuck you, Wachiegley. I actually really enjoyed reviews, believe it or not. Oh, this is, yeah, Lee Quigley, who played Superman as a baby in the 1978 film died at age 14

due to solvent abuse so that's solvent at age 14 yeah Jesus that's young and his

fingerprints were not on the solvent that's right he was oh that's funny he died he had 14 I know

but anyway Dave he was he was insolvent yeah very good is that is that almost a joke Nick

is there anything I could have done that to make that a full joke is it anyway that's as much as anyone could have done Yeah, okay.

Yeah. Your joke-making ability has been cursed by Super... It's like the Pharaoh's curse, but now we've got Superman's curse too. Yeah. But basically, I mean, you can claim... You could claim anyone.

Like, Marlon... Nicholas Cage. Exactly. Robbed Superman's good. And that tax bill. Marlon Brando was Jorrell in the movie. He's had a lot of troubles. Just in general.

But don't worry, I think... I think Marlendo's going to come good, though. He'll be fine. He's on the way back. He'll be fine. Richard Pryor was in Superman 3. Also still going strong though Yep, trouble

Troules My Go Kidder who was Lois Lane through all the Superman movies She went missing for several days Turn out she was just at a retreat Yeah She had bipolar disorder Which is you know

Hilarious But she went look That's it's rubbish You know She said look She crashed her car at one point And she crashed into a telephone pole and if she hadn't crashed into the telephone pole

she would have fallen into a ravine and would have died. So she's like, well, what about the luck of Superman? She said that herself. Yeah, yeah. Silver lining, yeah. Good on it. That's a positive attitude.

Exactly. Yeah. Where was I? I've forgotten. Sorry, I'm glad we talked about it. I were at the other curse. Oh, that's right. Yeah, yeah, he cursed.

So anyway, so Siegel and Chuster themselves apparently were quite happy with the way everything turned out. They actually moved into adjoining neighborhoods. they were like two blocks away for their remainder of their lives they DC paid them out the kids were like

Jerry Siegel's kids were like called them my uncle Joe they were kind of all together but I mean years later the lawsuits began again the estates of Jerry Seagle and Joe's shoes they since passed on Oh come on

Yeah well they started again It's interesting for me, solely for me But in 97, Siegel's wife and daughter were like, okay, we're going to, we've given you these rights. We're going to contest these rights again. And basically in contesting these rights, they were like, okay, we contest your ownership of Superman. And Superman is, we're going to define him as he wears this red and blue suit. He's got a cape.

He doesn't wear a mask. You can see his face. Bullets bounce off him. He can fly. He can shoot heat vision. He's got icy breath. You know, he's always suit. even when he's Clark Kent, this kind of thing.

And in a weird coincidence, they did this in 97, and in 1999, DC completely redesigned Superman to have none of those characteristics. That's a lot of things. Yeah, I'll show you. I'll hang on, I'll find you a photo of him. But basically they went, okay, well, he doesn't have a red and blue costume anymore. It's blue and white.

We take away the cape. He wears a mask now. He doesn't have heat vision or super breads. This was like 1998 to like 2002? Hang on, I'll show him. I have no record of this. This is real. This seems like I'm making it up.

But, yeah, they were like, okay, bullets don't bounce off him. They pass through him now. He can walk through walls. He, when he transforms from Superman to Clark, can't he's fully human now. So they're basically like, okay, well, maybe. Totally new thing. Yeah, hang on. So to them, they're like, are the names what the people like?

They don't care about everything. Yeah, see, that's Electric Superman. Oh, I don't like that at all. Oh, they can't even. Electric Superman. Well, it was just Superman, but colloquially we call him Electric Superman. Was he a hit? I don't think so.

It was some fun stories, but it was not a hit. But I think it was sort of leverage. Never officially, but it's sort of like, well, we'll give you, okay, we'll give you all the money for Superman who does all these things and where's the cape. But we're not producing that Superman anymore, are we? So I guess you won't be getting anything. It was kind of that. Yeah. But were they, I mean, they had a lot of money for a lot of time.

and then only after the actual people who made them up died, then they were, now give me money. It sounds like they'd renounced the claim three times in their lives. It's like from a business standpoint, you can't just keep being like, all right, here's some more money for your grandchildren. It definitely gets a bit muddy. Okay, so by the aughts, this one was, yeah, that, they agreed on a settlement that passed through.

there was another settlement, there was another lawsuit in 2005-ish, kind of 2005-2006 and this one was over the ownership of Superboy again so we had these two different property Superman Superboy and by this point Superman and Superboy were two different characters

so we had Superman who was the regular crime-fighter Superman and we had Superboy who was a clone of Superman and they both existed in the same time and so they sued and they're like we would like more money for your use of Superboy and so they just killed Superboy. Oh, just like... Yeah, you want money for this guy?

He's dead, yeah. In the courtroom. Yeah. They shot a... This is why they want money for this? They shot a real life actor. Yeah, we'll... But they use real bullets.

As long as... The bullets pass through this kid? I don't think so. As long as this kid lives, we'll keep paying you. Yeah. Would that be okay in your courtroom, Dave? Yeah. Fuck yeah.

The school of... I mean, the court of life. So anyway, bad blood on all sides But apparently, by all accounts, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster They had a, you know They went out and they had, you know, they had some tough times,

but they went out of it together as friends And with enough money to have a good life They're dying happy. Would you like to know what happened to Nick Cage's No. Yeah, so. And can I think, What year was Nick Cage's copy stolen?

Uh, 2000. 2000. Yep. And was that one of the years that some of these lawsuits started happening that perhaps Joe Schuster's family to seek revenge could have broken into Nicholas Cage's house

stolen a copy of Superman number one to show Nicholas Cage who's the boss Wait, they've got no beef with Cage You're thinking of Tony Danza That was he was the boss In the end

That was a show from before you were born I do know who Tony Dancer is Oh you kids See I'm flipping it Oh little kiddies Yeah Little children I can hardly see you so little

You're under my feet Fuck off Thank you Oh he's returned to fall Yeah Bounce back Here he is He's the father of the podcast

Yeah He respect Grandfather Come on, man Sorry I would like to go back Okay I would really really like to hear about what happens

To Okay so stolen in 2000 In 2011 So after Eleven years after Hang on Does it check out That man,

Okay, good, because I've only got 10 fingers, so it was kind of hard to, I ran out and I'm like, oh, God, no. Luckily, I've got a third thumb, so I have a left. That's hard. 2011, Jess. Yeah. So, basically, a man named Dan Dotson,

who is, he's an auctioneer in Los Angeles, and he's also been on the TV show Storage Wars. People might know from that. Maybe not, I don't know. I've definitely seen an episode, so maybe. Yeah, it's probably him. So he was approached by one of his clients, a man named Sylvester Lozano.

Great. Yay. That is a lot. the most trustworthy name I've come across. And he said, basically, I've got this Superman comic book. What do you think it's worth? And he sort of opened it up and he flipped through the pages and he's like, oh, this is a brand new comic book.

Like this is, like it says 1930. It's this action comics number one, 1938, but it's like it's brand new. It's, you know, it must be a reproduction. Wow. But clearly not. So Dotson goes to, introduces Lozano to another man, Mark Balelo, who's another auctione also on Storage Wars. Also trustworthy as well.

You might have recognised that guy from storage walls. Who said he knew the biggest comic book dealer in the US. So he contacted Stephen Fishler from Metropolis Collectibles from earlier in the tale. Oh yeah. And he sent Fishler, he took a photo of the comic book and he said, what do you reckon $1 million? What do you reckon for this one? And Fishler's like, immediately he's like, that's it.

Like because you can, like it had, you know, certain little printing errors on the front cover. Like little details. like, that is definitely, like, it doesn't have... You mean that's the Nicholas Cage comedy? It's a Nicholas Cage Action Comics number one. He's like, I've seen it before, I've seen a photo of it, I know. Yeah, because surely he'd have it documented for the insurance, right?

He's like, okay, it's got a little bit of dot of blue missing from the banner, so that's in this one, and you know, and so he's like, okay, that's... So basically, Fishler from Metropolis Collectibles and Don Kreich, who's the art theft LAPD investigator, decided we'll do a sting. What we'll do is, they set up a meeting. at Baleilo's warehouse. Crychick posed as Fishler's associate and they had some police officers outside

and they said, hey, this is, fishler was like, you know, he examined it and he's like, this is so good, how did you get it? And Lozano's like, oh, I bought an old storage unit a few months ago. He was in a box full of books. It was within a hardcover book, like a hardcover book

and that's how it had survived. Just found that they must have been there for, you know, for decades. Who knows? Do we trust him? Yeah, 100%. That could happen though. If the person who had stolen, it just ditched it.

No, but it's been in there for a long time. See, that's what fucked him. If you said he found it recently and a thing that could have easily just have gone in there recently, right? I explained that well. Because the concept of storage wars is that they buy empty, like lockers that are unclaimed, right?

That's right. People can't afford to maintain them and they lose the rights to. And they get whatever's inside. Exactly, yeah. But many years, you are right, Matt. Yeah. I don't get it.

So basically, Fishler and Hyshechek were there. They examined the book, and Fishler gives them the nod like, this is the real thing. And Hrychecks like, here's my LAPD business card. This is, you're not getting a million dollars for this. You're not getting anything. Yeah.

You're getting a million years. No, probably not that long, but probably less than that. But it sounded cool if I said it like that. Yeah, dickhead. So they got the photo they had, like the auction photo. the original. They compare it to this. There's 15 points on the cover that are identical to the one there and they're like, okay, this is, this is the one. And so, uh, Nicholas Cage issued a statement. He said, it is divine providence that the comic was found. And I am hopeful that the heirloom will

be returned to my family. And then, finally, proof that God exists. And then he, uh, found my million dollar comic book. It went to the insurance company. Uh, he, um, he, they settled the claim. Uh, it was returned to his family. And then he immediately put it up for auction. What? Straight away. Did he just find it? It was tainted. I guess so, but also he owes millions of dollars to the IRS.

Oh, sure. He had to sell any number of his castles. Was he just like, oh, thank you, fuck. I really needed that. $1.5 million. Yeah, this will get me through the week. The value of it would have risen by, oh, you're about to say that. Well, he, this, this nine, this Nicholas Cage nine, sold for $2,161,000.

Okay, so that'll put a dent in the a 16 million a ores. Yeah, yeah. Is that you putting a dint in something? Yeah, cool. get it. So Sylvester Lozano, who said he found this number one in the storage unit, he was never charged in the end. He told Hrychek, he couldn't remember precisely which unit the book came from

since he'd buy several at a time and just mix up the contents, put him in the back of his truck. Horacek narrowed it down to a number of units, but he was like, okay, the units he claimed, and he's like, okay, well, all the units, we looked at them all, and none of them had any connection to people who knew Nicholas Kahn. or would have been at Nicholas Cage's house. So, what do they just cross-check it with a hundred most influential people on IMDB?

And they're like, well, none of these people, none of these people are A-listers. Helen Mirren, no, she wouldn't do it. Look at her face. I'm sorry to save a mystery episode. We don't know. Oh, it's a secret mystery. Secret mystery episode. I'm going to say that that is typical of the bloody police, isn't it?

Someone just says, I don't know where I got it. Yep, let him off. Yeah, let him off. I can't remember where I got it from. When has that ever stood up in court? And yes, I am a judge-slash-lawyer. I can't remember where I got it from, and I didn't know. So did I misunderstand that?

Didn't he say that it was in a thing that had been locked up for ages? That's what he said. So that makes it sound like he's full of shit to me. In a way. But how does he know? Matt should have been the cop. Yeah. Damn it.

You were there. I missed another opportunity. So Mike Balelo, who was the other man, who would hope to make this big commission selling this discovered Superman action Oh yeah the guy Was he pissed off? Well he committed suicide in 2013

Because of it? Superman curse He was arrested for Superman curse Yeah he was arrested for Possessing meth So maybe that had something to do with it But maybe is a mess

Curse Yeah Divine Providence So we never That proves that meth exists Yeah So we never We never

Beyond all reasonable doubt We So ultimately we never Learned who Who stole that from And also But you know Action Comic

Number 1 was recovered. The two other comics stolen from Nicholas Cage. So Detective Comics No. 1 and Detective Comics No. 27, the first appearance of Batman, were never recovered. So which two? Sorry. Detective Comics No. 1, so DC's first ever issue was stolen from Nicholas Cage. So they picked out the three. Are they the big three?

They're the big three. Wow. And Detective 27, which is the first appearance of Batman. That's incredible. Forever. We've never seen it. It has yet to be recovered. There's time. Yeah, I know, right?

Are they as rare? Are they like... They're not as rare, no. At this point, this was... Detective 27 was like 1940. Comic books have picked up Steam, and there was just... It's not that people thought it was more valuable at the time.

There were just more copies to go around, I think. Oh, man. Marses. Yeah. More people have, like, bulldoze their house and found a copy in the wall. So they're the... Sorry, I'm going to, like, now go off on different tangent.

But they're the big three. Any questions, anyone? No. What would be... What would make up the next, you know, what would round out the top five of the big comics? Oh, good question. Any Marvel ones in there?

Maybe Amazing Fantasy 15, which is the first appearance of Spider-Man. That might do it. Fantastic Four number one. What about the Ant-Man movie? On Blu-ray? On Blu-ray. They only made one copy. That's right.

And Nicholas K. Jones it. Yeah. For a while. He's going to wait it for a while. until somebody just walks in. God, he was good in the rock, though, wasn't he? Shee Hulk, though.

Sheeulk, that'd be a big one. She Hulk the movie. I'm just going to check my notes, see if I missed anything. Could you show me a picture of Shee Hulk? I can probably look at myself too. I'm picturing it as normal Hulk with long hair. No, no. I'm picturing Princess Fiona from Shrek.

Oh, yeah. You are all very incorrect, hang on. No, but I'm closest. Well, I can ruin the magic for you, right? Yeah, go on. I'm imagining the Ukrainian gold medalist for weightlifting. Why Ukrainian? That's kind of racist.

No, I think you'll... I think if you check the records of the... Oh, she's a babe. Right. She's a babe. She's green. She's not hulking at all. She's got some muscles.

I reckon I can bash her. Oh, God. Take you on. Whoa. I've been in a fight. Fair fight. Oh, God. Wow.

I mean, in a fight. What else would you have? men. I mean in a fight. A fair fight. I definitely am against all forms of violence, especially against women. Oh, fuck.

Oh, that's very funny. Spider-Man. What about, so X-Men and stuff, those ones aren't like that at all. X-Men comics aren't at all like these sort-after ones? Well, when did the X-Men? The X-Men debuted in the 60s.

So, I mean, they certainly have, but you can get an X-Men number one for sort of a reasonable rate, like five figures. you know I think is right okay all right and will

that makes sense it's got to be that's why the Marvel ones aren't as rare because they're a newer friend yeah yeah exactly

yeah what about yellow kid number one oh I don't know see that might not even exist wait there are newspapers yeah what about phantom number one

would that be worth money I don't think so to certain people but do you want to deal with those people no thank you yeah and I just want to touch them

like you'd have to like shake their hand He's cooler, right? He's not cool. He's the ghost. He's not cool, chap. Yeah. Have you seen the goat? Float, which is way cooler.

Yeah, that's better than walking. I just liked his horse and the waterfall. Yeah. Hero was the name of the horse, I think. Oh, that's a sick name for the horse. Fuck yeah. Or his dog, maybe his dog was named hero. It doesn't matter.

One of them is called Hero. Yeah. Cool. It's the ghost, the ghost who walks. Yeah. I don't know about that as a thing. Didn't David Jeff say that? I feel so boring.

No, I'm just recapping. No good. It's got the Matt Stewart, no good, tick of a disapproval. Yeah, we're good, I think. Do you want any more fun facts or any? I don't know if I have any left. No, that was great. If you've got fun facts, even one would be cool.

Okay, here's one. So, 9092, we had the... Oh, a good year. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I miss my own catchphrase. I think we're just about covered it.

In, hang on, where am I? Oh, actually, yeah, in 1992, we had the death of Superman storyline. That broke big in the mainstream media. Superman was killed by a monster called Doomsday, and he was replaced by four replacement Superman. Four, yeah. One was Superboy, the clone. There was a cyborg Superman.

There was a guy called The Man of Tomorrow, who was basically Superman, except he had a big yellow visor. And there was Steele, who's an African-American man. in like a big armoured suit. Wait, what? So he died and then he broke into four bits. Oh no, just these pretenders showed up to. And so at the time, Superman had...

The pretenders were in it. The band? Yeah, the band The Pretenders. Jeez, Louise. I'm not getting the comic books. Got a little LP on the front cover. It was pretty good. Yeah, so there were four Superman books at the time,

so each of them got their own one kind of thing. But basically this came about, this was a huge media event and it's like, oh, Superman, he's finally... He's finally, you know, reached his end. But basically this happened because they decided, okay, well, Lois Lane and Clark Kent, they're in love. They're, you know, they're going to get married at some point. Let's do a, let's do a Superman Lois Lane wedding storyline.

And then they discovered that. Sixth issues when they're planning the wedding. What kind of flowers should we have? Oh, just get whatever you want, Lois, it's fine. I'd like it the other way around. You know, I was actually doing impression of. Oh, very good. She was like, shut up.

Can we have this sort of kryptonite arrangement on the front? No. No, that'll kill my heart. So basically they were going to do this, but then in the TV series, Lois and Clark, The New Adventures of Superman, they had also planned to do a Lois Lane and Superman get married,

but that was going to take a long time to, you know, they're going to do it next season. Yeah, you've got to book the, you know, the ceremony. And so basically they went, okay, well, we need, okay, well, tell you what, TV you can't steal our thunder we won't steal your thunder we'll do them both at the same time

so we just need a storyline to fill in like they had to brainstormed around the table of like all right what do we what could Superman do before he gets made then they just went yeah it was hours of debating and somebody went well just kill him who cares I'm sick of dealing with Superman we'll just kill him and so they did but that means they can't do the wedding

they bring it back nobody ever really dies in comics so they brought him back they did yeah and then he got married right then he got married then he turned into electric Superman Nick, Nick, I don't, look, I'm feeling like I'm so out of my depth now. So there's four books of Superman and each of them got one. What does that mean? Well, there was Adventures of Superman, there was Superman, there was The Man of Steel,

and there was another one that I can't remember. And they're all done by DC somehow. All done by DC, different artists, one a week. That was, that was in the 90s. That's ridiculous. It should be alive in the 90s. I know, right? Can you imagine?

Jeez Louise. I can't. I'm far too young. Anyway, that's all I go, guys. That was a great, let's give him a big round of a ball. Oh, thanks guys.

Thank you guys. Genuinely, great, great report, great structure. I hope you learned. Jumping in between the decades. I will just say, we're good at shutting us up and just keep going. It's a hard skill.

Now, would I feel bad about that. No, don't. Don't, because otherwise it would be here for 100 years. Thank you, Nick Mason. No one's ever had to put up with three of us before. Yeah, that was full on. That's true. Sorry if that was.

hard to listen to but it was also an historic episode Mm-hmm Mm-hmm Now In what way Because it was four of us

Okay yeah great Oh like the four Supermen's Oh Yeah like the fabulous four Which one Can you name us all Who would I be

What I'd be A fabulous four Would I be Beal Beal Oh Am I the tall African American

You'd be steel wool Like that bloody beard You got there Oh No No Too far I'm all up

For a bit of fun In games No you'd be the Viser one Because you've got glasses Great Biser guy

Yeah I'm super boy, let's be honest. So what am I? Does that leave me? You'll be Cyborg Superman or Man of Steel. Cyborg. All right, cool. Love it. So you're a Man of Steel, Mason? Perfect. Perfect.

Great. Nick Man of Steel and Mason, thank you for joining us on this episode. Now, we would like to hear more of your voice. You do your own podcast every single week. I do. If you're not sick of me talking about superheroes ad nauseam, just we do it nonstop on the weekly planet, which is on iTunes. We'll talk about my friend James, Mr. Sunday movies. We talk about superhero movies and TV shows. comic books and video games and all that sort of stuff.

I listen to it and I have a lot of... I wish... This is the best because I can ask the questions because I'm listening to it and you're talking about all these interesting things. I'm like, oh, uh, pause. I'm going to go Google some stuff for a while. But here, I just...

You've got Maseau's number. Pause and text him. Oh, that doesn't sound tedious for him at all. Yeah, that seems really unfair to Mesa. Actually, it has a life. Three years ago on episode 49. What did this reference mean? No idea.

Don't remember. Yes. Couldn't tell you about it. last week, I don't know. Now, before we wrap up, we have promised that people that contribute $5 or more per month to our Patreon, which, as we said, is going quite well. We'll do a shout-out to them at the end of the episode.

So I thought that maybe we'd go around the table. There's four of us here. We each will try and pronounce, but probably mispronounce. Don't set me up to fail, mate. I'm going to nail it. Me too. I'm feeling very confident. Now, we're just going to go in order of the people that pledge.

I'm going to let whoever it is down. You'll probably do a better. Cool. Because they're like, I wonder if Matt'll call it. It's a question. Yeah. That's me. It's me. I'm the other guy. I would like to say a massive thank you to the first ever person to contribute to our Patreon. Wow, that's cool.

Contributing. Our issue one. That's right. Action Comics one day will knock down a wall and he'll be in the wall. Oh, boy. Oh, so it's a he. It's a he. It is a he. A bit of sizzle. Now I would like to say a big thank you and I hope I do not mispronounce your name. or I hope in a way that I do,

who's probably a badge of honour, to Patrick Wadden. Patrick. Wadsey. Wadsey, a bloody legend. Thank you, Patrick. Thank you. You are possibly the number one fan.

Well, eager. Or you were online at the time we announced that we had a Patreon. Either way. Thank you. All good. All right, passing the phone. So Patrick Wadden?

Passing the phone to number two. And also the second best on the podcast. Oh, I got a really good one to announce. You too. Everyone else got trickier ones. Oh. Look, I'd love to. Can I go now then?

No. Oh. Hey, uh, number two on the list. What a bloody legend, Mr. Andrew Eastwood. Cheers to you. Cheers to you. Cheers to you. She's so enthusiastic.

Cheers big dick. Um. Big dicks are saying, isn't it? That's what you say. That's a term of endearment to your friends. Our third. Wait. Wait.

Who am I looking at? Third from the bottom. No, no, I got it. Third from the bottom. Yeah. I was like, this. I don't reckon that. Okay.

Third, to pledge, is Piet. It's one name like Cher. That's right. The Piet. The Piet. Thank you, Piet. Four from the bottom. Above Piet.

Oh, very good. Piet, we appreciate that to no end. Thank you so much. Jess, you're so young with your fresh references about share. Yeah, I am. As the fourth member of Doe Go On. That's right, mate. Look, I hope you're going to get your money's worth and one day we'll do a fourth

episode of this podcast. But in the meantime, in the meantime, thank you to Zach Steinbacher. Hey. Good on you. Thank you very much. Zach Steinbacher, Mesa. Thanks so much, guys. Maysoe appreciates it, don't you, Maso? Absolutely, I do.

And we all appreciate it. Thank you very much, everyone that has been contributing. We're going to release a bonus episode at the very start of December because these, I didn't realize this, but each month, because you pledge for a month that goes through on the first of each month. So there's no point. We'll release out of the first of each month. First episode. Dave,

Dave likes to tell you guys more than you need to know. Too long, don't read. That's going to be an episode out at start of December. All right. Thanks everyone for listening. Well, I mean,

they're an hour and 40 minutes in. I may as well as keep the pain going. Now, we'll release our first many episode. And that's the people that pledged $10 a more a month. So get in there. I can't wait. I've got the top you picked out.

It's going to be fun. Great. Could be a mystery. Awesome. getting contact on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, email. At do go on pod for all the first three there and email, do go on pod at gemar.com.

We'd love to hear from you. But, uh, Mesao, have you got, we follow you on Twitter. I'm at Wikipedia Brown on Twitter. If you want to say hi. It's a great joke. I still get it. It feels good, right? It's good when Doug gets the jokes.

Still get it. Still get it. I still get it. But thanks so much for listening, guys. We do appreciate that. If you are new to the podcast, maybe Mesao has brought you over here. We've got, I don't know, what, 55. of other episodes, you can go back to our back catalogue,

including two of which that feature The Man the Magic. If your new listeners, just exclusively download those two. Yeah. No, you know what, don't. In fact, I imagine that they will do exactly that. You know what? As someone who was a fan of this podcast,

long before I was on this podcast, if you are new and you're listening to this, download all the episodes because they are very fantastic. Thank you. We will be using that little sting of your voice at the end of every episode from now on. And on posters for live shows. Yeah, right?

Definitely will. Live shows, we might do one soon. Who knows? We'll keep you in the loop, but until then, I will say a goodbye. Bye. Mesao. That's the best catchphrase. Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are,

and we can come and tell you when we're coming there. Wherever we go, we always hear six months later, oh, you should come to Manchester. We were just in Manchester. But this way you'll never miss out. And don't forget to sign up, go to our Instagram. click our link tree very very easy it means we know to come to you and you also know that we're coming to you yeah you will come to you you come to us very good and we give you a spam free

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