In this episode, get introduced to your hosts and find out a bit about what got them into comics in the first place! Transcript: Multiverse0_mixdown2 [00:00:00] This is episode zero of the multiverse. Come get to know us. Welcome to the multiverse podcast. This is episode zero. My name is Jason Roberts and you've got myself and a couple of the other guys who work here in this. Handy dandy comic shop, friendly neighborhood shop in Hurst, Texas. And we just thought it'd be fun to have some of the conversations we have in the shop recorded so that we can share them with all of you. To start off with this very first episode we thought it might make sense to to have each of us introduce ourselves. And first up is going to be Scott. Hi there I'm Scott Gilbert. I am the back issue shipping guy here on the weekends at the Multiverse.[00:01:00] How long I've been in collecting comics, as I was saying before. About roughly the 6th grade is when I think I could really be considered a collector. And I'm 55 years old now, so I was getting them back when they were on toilet paper and they cost a nickel. You're only 55? I thought you had Action Comics number one came out. Oh God, if I had five more. If I had, I wouldn't need a second job, Jason, but I would, and I'd probably have sold it to you. So there it's overrated. Is it? Yeah. Now Steve's got four of them. So that's, did you hear that? There's a congressman, one of the freshman congressmen, had the National Archives bring a copy of Action Comics number one to swear in on instead of a Bible. Really? You don't have to swear in on a Bible, you can swear in on anything else. Now somebody, the person that told me said it was Superman number one. I have to assume. If you're going to swear in on something, it's going to be action. But yeah, one of the freshman congressmen this round, that's what they did. Gotta respect that, but also question the use of our, my tax dollars going through the National Archives, I find that, do they have comics [00:02:00] in the National Archives, I believe they probably do. I think they have one of everything. Can you imagine that power? Like the one time you can pull anything you want. That's right. I would totally do it. Do I find out, are there aliens at Roswell, or do I touch Action Comics number one? You'd touch Action Comics number one. I'm probably going to touch Action Comics number one. I'm pretty sure they kept it wrapped. What in the world is that over there? I don't know, Nick Cage stole the Constitution, so that was Yeah, I'm not going to do that. Yeah, there you go. I believe he owned a couple. He actually did. I don't know if he had to, I think it's last the divorce. Yeah. Or the carpenter stole it from his house. There was a thing where I stole it. I don't know the man, but he had a bad run of some luck with his comic books and. I don't know who I'd ransom back faster, my comic books or my kids, because my kids could probably get out a window, but the comics are going to sit there. I gotta... You gotta look at the big picture. [00:03:00] Yeah. And I've read my kids can replace my kidney, but the comic might be able to pay for the kidney replacement. So I don't know where I fall on that. You might get a trade on a new kidney and a lesser quality action comics, number one. So you're still in the game. As long as it's slabbed. That's right. As long as it's slabbed. Anyway we've got a little note here about what got me into collecting comics. And for me, when I looked at this question, I started researching my first comics I actually remembered. Being something that I read and kept up with, because earlier on you got the little three packs, you'd tear into them, you'd read them, but those ended up being coverless, or stapled up on your wall. But for me it was Marvel, and two of them, Avengers 154, and Fantastic Four 164. The common theme in there is they were both, the interiors were done by George Perez. And I remember, That art caught my eye before I [00:04:00] knew creators. Yeah I didn't know that George Perez didn't draw every comic on the planet yet. Yeah, I didn't read any of that. And then years later, cause I was a, Marvel zombie for many years, but years later I saw George Perez on new teen Titans 23. And he did the cover of a Justice League, JSA, JLA crossover, which I think is 218 or 219, forgive me, I don't have those notes in front of me, but I can say that George Perez art initially roped me in to the comics and I regretfully, it was probably years later before I had a deeper appreciation of art styles and creative talent, but what fascinated, the team books fascinated me. Captain America, Iron Man running around. You watch Super Friends back in the 70's and that all made sense, it was on TV, but sitting there reading it, you hadn't, I hadn't seen anything like that. So that's what grabbed [00:05:00] me and kept running. Plus you got all the superheroes that you wanted to see in one comic for your, Heroes you didn't know who they were. I didn't know who Scarlet Witch or Vision. Yeah, we're at that particular moment in time, I knew Captain America because I had the Mego figure, and I still can't find that shield. I lost that early on, but those Dixie Cup tops really worked out good. You could take that on an arm and color it, so that's how I got by. Where did you get your comics from? On Sundays, this will add to the story, on Sundays my father would take my sister and I to the local 7 Eleven here in Hearst, and we were allowed to get one Slurpee, at the time they were handing out the Marvel Slurpee cups one item we could read, comic book, magazine, whatever, and then a pack of bubble gum cards. So it was, I was getting my comics off the spinner rack, it would be, wouldn't it be until my... 13th or 14th birthday a couple years later that I even knew of a comic shop or what the freestanding [00:06:00] store Can you know what could offer you right and here in Hearst? We didn't have a proper one until my sophomore year in high school We had a little store up the street that sold back issues, but magic tricks as well. You couldn't get new issues there, but when I stumbled into the first Comic store where you had all the new issues and all the back issues. I just wanted to look at my parents and go, you can leave me here. I don't need, I'll be right here. First time I bought bags. Didn't know about bags. Because they didn't have them. There were no backing boards back then. And all they had were long boxes. With the dreaded back, cardboard back that would sit in a slot so you could expand your collection as it filled the box, but those never held more than about ten before it just collapsed over. That was the design they got rid of quickly. But that's how I got my comics until I found a proper comic store. Did some mail order subscriptions, but those always came creased.[00:07:00] I like the, you get that, you hear a story like that, and then you get that flashback because we all had a part of that to some degree. So you're mentioning 7 Eleven, and you're mentioning, Slurpee Cups and things like that. And now all of a sudden I'm flashbacking without the benefit of LSD. Or am I? And I can remember that. I remember Spinaraks, I don't remember interacting with them, I remember getting money for trading cards because I had a ridiculously huge Star Wars trading card collection. Some of them had the red band, some of them had the yellow band. The blue for each, yes. The blue. Like volume one, volume two. Yeah. And I remember having a Slurpee cup because The character that was on the Slopey Cup was Mr. Mixy Spitlick. And I had no idea who that was until years and years later, because I wasn't really a DC superhero kid as far as [00:08:00] comics go. I've had that cup now, because thanks to Gilbert Gottfried on the Superman cartoon, that character cranks me up. But yeah, it's that sort of flash oh yeah, 7 Eleven, Slurpee, trading cards, comics, fun, it's funny what you're... What you remember about those first cups. I remember my first one was quick silver and I didn't know what the heck that was in the second one. I remember was man thing. And I was going, what do I need to do to get a Spider Man, what do I need to do? I don't know who either one of these guys are. And it wasn't like the cups told you anything, on the back, there'd be the character reciting something, but it never told me, Hey, I'm this, Version of the flash and right. This universe is swamp thing. I wouldn't have known who swamp thing is either. But I just remember looking at those going Spider Man, Captain America. And, but that was the hook to get you, keep you going back. We've got this, the, see, usually I can rattle that name off [00:09:00] mix old. Mix your spit lick. But I've got to think about Gilbert, again, Gilbert Godfrey, explaining how to pronounce the name from that kind of mix. And then the little picture of the bowl, I think, and a spoon, yes, and spit, and then lick. Creepy old man with a bowler hat. What the hell is that? But that's pronounced differently than Super Friends did it. Super Friends pronounced it slightly differently than that. I don't remember the character being in Superman. Mixel Spitalik. Yeah. I remember I've that's how I always pronounce it. That's the only way I knew how to do it. Mixel Spitalik. But can you say it backwards? I cannot. No. But I do want to take a moment. You've been talking a whole lot, but you haven't really introduced yourself. Oh, there's a reason for that. Oh, there's a reason for that. No, there's no reason for that. Because there's an FBI van that just pulled up. Are you having to go out the back again? Because that's annoying. I think they're getting wise today. I'm Steven, and yeah, now I'm freezing. How long have you been collecting comics? When did you start? Okay the, I [00:10:00] remember being a kid growing up in Florida. Because all us South Floridians sound like this. That's a joke that never gets old. Originally, y'all did. At some, depends on when maybe, yeah, that's a different I guess the word originally would what's the definition of that? What's the definition? The guys on the boat. Guys on the boat, there you go. I did not have the experience 7 Eleven and buying comics or anything like that. What I had was there was a church. Called St. Bernadette's. I don't know if it's still there or not. For anyone listening to this who happens to live near Hollywood, Florida, which is where I was born, if St. Bernadette's is still there say hello for me. They used to have a fair, and it was one of these very low key. Someone had hand built a train track so the kids could go around on a train. None of this stuff is up to code. This is all rusty nails. We didn't have codes back then. Elmer's glue [00:11:00] and plywood and stuff like that. I rode in the back up on the, in the windowsill of the family Lincoln. Oh, exactly. I thought it was great because the vibration of the speaker, would roll you to sleep. And there was always somebody there. Selling bundles of comics for, you get 20, 20 comics for a buck or so, whatever it was. And that was where my, my parents, my dad in particular would invariably grab one of these things. Oh, that'd be great. The kid would like to read this. And what I would always seem to end up with are these really strange DC war comics, haunted tank. And, this, the zombie brigade or, the, that story of, the creature commandos, the GI who's been stranded on an island only to find out that all the Japanese soldiers are now zombies and they're trying to, or variations on a theme. So that was my exposure to, to, to comics was like this is weird. This is very weird very strange. But the bug got [00:12:00] me. in June of 1982 because I just moved to England and I'm finding my feet and my mum and I were living with my grandad at the time and my grandad, who's retired he was in his very early 80s and he used to as many English people do would go into town to go to the pub and that's how he would spend The day. Not kidding. And he would, he took me with him and the pub in Letchworth which is where I grew up which if you've seen the Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright movie The World's End, that's where they filmed it. And the pub that my granddad used to go to is the Black Squirrel. I think it's the beehive in The World's End. Okay. And, he would go in there and start knocking them back. And there was a lounge and a bar. And the children couldn't go into the bar. And they [00:13:00] really couldn't go into the lounge. But the bartender knew my granddad. And he was like, no, that's okay. As long as he, as long as he sits next to the emergency exit and keeps quiet. So if any cops or inspectors come in, he can give my granddad the nod. And I'll run out the, Emergency exit. But this one day we went down there. And before we went to the pub, my grand We were outside a newsagent called WH Smiths. And my grandad he gave me a pound. A pound note, and he said, why don't you go and get yourself some comics and some sweets and stuff like this, now my grandad's mine uses like a pound, I should have walked out of there with, a complete, Encyclopedia Britannica Action Comics number one, a couple of them just, yeah, exactly, shares in, in Toblerone or whatever, yeah, and I came out with four comics because that's the day that I discovered that unlike the newspaper shop that [00:14:00] was on the council estate that we had moved to and there's a whole other show in British comics. Yeah, we'll do that. we were talking about that. But anyway, I, they had a big stack of American monthlies, and I was like that these were all 60 cents, I think. But they had a UK price in very tiny letters underneath the American price of UK 25p. And I was like, I can get four of these, which I did. And I still have them. And I remember walking out, my grandad's Oh, what'd you get, what'd you get? I'm like, I got these. A big smile on my face. That's all you got? What? And he was really pissed off and upset about that. But yeah, there were four marvels. It was Uncanny X Men issue 1 6 0, which is the issue that introduced... It didn't introduce Ileana Rasputin, but it's the issue where Ileana Rasputin goes to limbo for the first time. [00:15:00] Brent Anders drew that? Absolutely, yes. Brent Anderson. Yes, Anderson. Exactly. And it's Belasco and it, they find teenager Ileana and yes. The X Men go down and, do you know this? Oh, this. No, it's just shocking. The you're coming up with this on the top of your head, the artist and the storyline still. Oh. And, but we are just at the top of the iceberg here. It was the middle, it was in the middle of that X-Men brooded story run. 'cause that started X-Men uncanny 1 54. Yes, that's right. Drac. The Drac. Just up all this. Yes. All background. I came to fill in later, but this is my first experience with the X-Men. I've no familiarity with them whatsoever. The reason why I bought the comic is the cover because it's got this giant skewed perspective, this giant hand, which is Belasco the demon. And all these small versions of the X Men are fighting this huge hand. And for some reason I was like, Oh, there's a blue guy that looks like a [00:16:00] devil and some guy with, metal prongs sticking out of the back of his hand and some guy made out of metal and all this kind of stuff. And that is the issue introduces Limbo. And it's the issue that sets up decades of storytelling for this character, Ileana Rasputin. That's magic. Because they're trying to, at the end, they're trying to escape Limbo. And Kitty Pride is pulling her through the portal. And she loses her for a second and then, oh, no, I've got her again and pull and they pull her through and she comes out five, six years old. She's a teenager now. She left us. She went in, she was like five, six years old and she comes out, she's a teenager. And you've got this, it turns out she has spent now half her life in limbo. And there's that great, it's a great sort of atmosphere. Chris Claremont was really good at those cliffhanger endings where. She's asleep. Little Snowflake, as Colossus calls her. God, that's [00:17:00] from memory. And she's got this medallion in her hand. And I guess you, you learn that as she gets a little bit older and a little bit older these mystical bloodstones are going to appear. In this amulet and she will like aspire to a great destiny or something like that. It's ah, and then we found out many, several years later, Inferno. But yeah, so anyway Uncanny X Men 160 Incredible Hulk issue 274, which was really strange because my familiarity with the Hulk was all about Bill Bixby and Lou Frigno. I knew who the Hulk was. I had a Mego doll. You mentioned Mego. I had a Mego Hulk. Which is funny, years later, to see what those stinkers at Twisted Toy Fair Theatre would do with that. We could do a whole episode on that as well. Why is the Hulk speaking David Banner? And why is he not called David Bannon? So it's this kind of stuff. And so that, that was odd Iron Man, Invincible Iron Man [00:18:00] number issue 161 and I can remember the strap line on the cover because it's a split cover. You've got Iron Man holding up what appears to be a vault door with water pouring out and the copy on it. On his side is Iron Man's in deep trouble. And on the other half of the cover is Moon Knight. Who I don't know who the hell Moon Knight is, but this guy in a white Batman suit. And only Moon Knight can save him. And I was like, I know who Iron Man is because I remember the cartoon Tony Stark makes you feel he's the cool exec with a heart of steel. And why aren't you singing? 'cause I, I don't know those, I know that Captain America throws his mighty shield. Captain America throws his mighty shield and all who chose to oppose his shield must field. Yep. There we go. There we go. You don't remember the Ironman one though? I didn't get around here. They didn't show Iron Man. No. And they didn't show the Avengers. So I got Spider-Man. Yes, I got Captain America. And I got Hulk. [00:19:00] Ah. So I got the, see we got Spider-Man. Ironman and the submariner. See, you never knew there was a submariner. I saw a submariner one. Yeah. I, every once in a while we'd get a little bit of that. It would bleed over. Yes. So we, I saw Submariner. I never saw an Ironman one. I didn't know an Avengers existed. They did a couple, because I remember years later they, they did Avengers four where they found cap in the iceberg. Okay. Okay. And I think they did three. But I think that one didn't, imagine these days saying something that the Avengers did on TV didn't grab anyone's attention. That's funny. It is, because they didn't know who Thor was or, and I think there was a Thor, I think there was a Thor cartoon mixed in there too. Yes, I remember the Thor cartoon. But I never saw that and that was a case of Hanna Barbera. Was beating everybody with their DC Warner Brothers because it was all Animated and it moved and whatever Marvel was trying to do is they [00:20:00] took, Snapshot, it looked like the first season of South Park, but worse. Yes, that's exactly It's exactly yeah, they and yeah, I just didn't I just remember the Hulk's mouth when it would move Start real thin and then just open up just jump wide. Yes, that's not what No, and it's one of those things where because I found here we'll, let's jump back into that. The fourth book was Peter Parker's Spectacular Spider Man issue 69, second appearance of Cloak and Dagger. Yes. Yeah. And it's got that great, oh gosh, what's his name? Who did the cover? Bill Mantlo wrote it. Yeah. Mantello? No, Bill Mantlo, yeah. No, I'm thinking of the cover because it was a guy who, I think like every other cover in that, at that time, this guy just used to, he could zing them out really fast. Really high quality stuff. But anyway, yeah, [00:21:00] I'll find it. If only I had a device that worked like a...