Chris and Reggie's Cosmic Treadmill, Episode #70
Christmas With the Superheroes #1 (1988)
"Wanted: Santa Claus - Dead or Alive!"
"The Man Who Murdered Santa Claus!"
"The TT's Swingin' Christmas Carol!"
"Star Light, Star Bright... Farthest Star I See Tonight!"
"Twas the Fright Before Christmas!"
"The Silent Night of the Batman"
Writers - Denny O'Neil, Len Wein, Bob Haney, Paul Levitz, E. Nelson Bridwell & Mike Friedrich
Pencillers - Frank Miller, Dick Dillon, Nick Cardy, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Curt Swan & Neal Adams
Inkers - Steve Mitchell, Dick Giordano & Murphy Anderson
Letterers - Ben Oda
Colorists - Glenn Whitmore, Helen Vesik & Jerry Serpe
Editors - Len Wein, Julius Schwartz
Cover Price: $2.95
Keeping our Christmas on Infinite Earths... in July festivities rolling along, today I'm sharing Reggie and my first Holiday special... DC Comics' Christmas With the Superheroes #1 from 1988.
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This was one of our longer episodes... as we were looking at like skatey-eight hundred creators and a half-dozen stories. This was also my longest ever blog post to that point... and, actually, it very well still might be! I still haven't published that "full-length" Bizarro World piece yet, so I think this one still might take the length-crown!
With that said... Just as with yesterday, if podcasts ain't your thing, there is a text-n-pics variation on this discussion that you can check out if you decide to click the cover below! While you're at it, you might wanna check out my discussion of Christmas With the Superheroes #2 (1989)!
Chris is on Infinite Earths, Episode #7
JSA #55 (February, 2004)
"Be Good For Goodness Sake"
Writer - Geoff Johns
Pencils - Leonard Kirk
Inks - Keith Champagne & Wade Von Grawbadger
Colors - Hi-Fi
Letters - Jared K. Fletcher
Associate Editor - Stephen Wacker
Editor - Peter Tomasi
For Jordan Marquis
Cover Price: $2.50
With everything going on in the world and personally... it took me until the 17th of the month to realize we're in July! Well, we have a little tradition at this here site... that I'd hate to let pass us by, perhaps this year more than ever.
I tell ya, if there were any year where we (or I) need a little bit of Christmas on Infinite Earths... in July, it's 2020.
Questerdays: An EPIC ElfQuest Podcast, Episode #1
ElfQuest #1 (August, 1985)
"Fire and Flight"
by Wendy and Richard Pini
Marvel-EPIC Comics
Cover Price: $0.75
Release Date: May 13, 1985
Today, rather than going BACK TO THE PAST... we're going to be taking a peek into the future. This is a pilot episode for the feature that will eventually replace Morituri Mondays on the podcasting schedule when we run out of issues of that series to talk about.
Chris and Reggie's Cosmic Treadmill, Episode #134
Flash #268 (December, 1978)
"Riddle of the Runaway Comic"
Writer - Cary Bates
Pencils - Irv Novick
Inks - Frank McLaughlin
Letters - Mike Stevens
Colors - Gene D'Angelo
Edits - Julius Schwartz
Cover Price: $0.40
From DC Comics
Episode Published March 31, 2019
One of our oft-used taglines was that we put 40-hours of research into every episode of the Cosmic Treadmill. Welp, I'm going to somewhat shatter that illusion here, and suggest that a time or two, what it actually took was one of us to handcuff ourselves to our computer for an 8-10 hour stint.
This was one of those times.
Picking up where we left off yesterday, Episode 35 of Chris is on Infinite Earths was sort of another "proof of concept" recording to see whether or not this could serve as the new (temporary) normal for future installments of the Cosmic Treadmill.
This was actually an episode that I'd really wanted to do with Reggie, as I feel the story-behind-the-story isn't one that gets as much discussion as it warrants. Maybe it's just me, but there's a lot of sinister weirdness behind this one. I thought this was right up the alley of a Weird Comics History X Cosmic Treadmill hybrid.
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I felt like doing this episode "solo" was kind of a waste. The actual flagship show on the Chris and Reggie Channel is the one that gets the most listens... and, I thought just doing it as a Chris is on Infinite Earths was sort of doing the story a disservice as fewer people would listen... so, I really dragged my feet on actually pushing forward with it.
I was excited... but kinda nervous as well. I had to use my own judgment and be very careful with my words, lest I make any undue allusions... and wind up getting the Channel into hot water with a prominent creator or two. If none of this is making sense, maybe give the episode a listen... or, take a look at this piece I'd written about the True Crime aspects of this tale right here.
I was extremely excited for Reggie to hear this one in particular. First, when I "pitched" this as an episode, he didn't know about Greg Brooks and what he'd done... which, lemme tell ya, it wasn't often I'd get to teach him something. Also, once this recording was done... I had convinced myself that this was the right path/format for us to use for the immediate future of the show(s).
The day this episode went live... was also the day that everything changed.
On days where I'd release an episode, I'd usually do the social media "rounds" very early in the day. I'm usually up by around 5-5:30am Arizona Voodoo Time... so, these are bright and early notifications. Then, I wait a couple of hours and "check in" to see if there are any comments/likes/shares/problems.
When I checked on Facebook during my second "sweep", I had a couple of direct messages. I very seldom use Facebook for anything other than dropping links, so this was quite weird. The first message was from a friend, who said he was so sorry to hear about Reggie.
Now, me... being either far too dense, or uncharacteristically optimistic... just assumed they'd heard Reggie was back in the hospital with pneumonia. I'd spoken to Reggie less than 24-hours earlier, and the last thing I knew was his pneumonia diagnosis (the doctors told him he'd be able to go home the next day).
The second message was similar, but with added anger toward 2020 (the year). The clouds were starting to part for me at this point... but still, my knee-jerk thought was maybe... while pneumonia put him in hospital, maybe now he'd tested positive for COVID-19 on top of that... or something?
That, unfortunately, was not the case. I popped over to his Facebook Page and found out what had actually happened. The rest of that day (and morning especially) is a blur. I know I was doing a few sets while doing this second social sweep... and I dropped one of my dumbbells, chipping the hell out of a tile in my living room floor.
I didn't tell very many people, at least initially... just a few close friends, as I thought they had a right to know. I wasn't planning on making a "public" statement regarding his passing... mostly, as I didn't think it was my place, and I didn't want to do anything that put the focus on me. Then, as they always do... the Twitter karma-farmers came, and tried making his passing all about them. I had to make a statement at that point... because I felt it would've been weird if I didn't.
This episode of Chris is on Infinite Earths was pretty well received... and, it was just so weird getting likes and comments on it... in between receiving condolences. It was such a strange disconnected sort of feeling. Like, I dunno... a switch flipped in my head, and I thought about just removing the episode, and that day's blog post... just to make sure the focus was where I felt it needed to be.
I dunno. I'm not good at this sort of thing... emotions, coping, and what-not. Just a very surreal and sad day... that, will always sort of be connected with this Crimson Avenger "pilot" episode, which was supposed to inform the future of our recording process.
Welp, that's another weird stream of conscious piece... that I appreciate you reading.
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Before we go, last night I was a guest on the Source Material Live Podcast on the Radulich in Broadcasting Network at W2M. Mark and I discussed The Old Guard (2017) by Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernandez from Image Comics. If you're interested in checking that out, you can find it right here.
I'll be guesting on a few shows in the near future... an extended run on Source Material, Bill Bere's Bat-Pod, and WIZARDS over at the Retro Network. I'm really looking forward to getting my "pod-legs" back under me again. If anyone out there has a show that's needing a marble-mouthed Brooklynite to garble up the airwaves, hit me up.
Before starting today, I'd just like to share that we hit a blogging milestone yesterday. Right around 9am Arizona Voodoo Time, Chris is on Infinite Earths broke 800,000 pageviews. I'm not sure quite how accurate Blogger's stats are... but, in this game, we take any victory we can get.
I'm well aware that if we discount bots and folks who don't know how to spell the word "Crisis", there are probably a few dozen genuine "hits" there... so, any celebration is a little bit tempered.
Anyhoo, onto today's conversation...
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I've been in a mindset where I'm really trying to focus on the future... exactly what that's going to mean and look like for my "content creation" side. I still don't quite know... at least not enough to make a definitive statement about anything. I have some ideas, but... that's really all I've got at this point.
I am still gathering my thoughts, planning goals, and deciding whether or not there's even still a place for me in the already overcrowded and back-bitey commentary community. Again, I have ideas... but, that's about it.
So, what in the blue hell does my existential/inertial/motivational crisis have to do with Leonard the Duck? Why am I throwing this character in y'alls faces again? Well, this episode of Chris is on Infinite Earths was a result of the last time I took a look into the nebulous "future".
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If you're a long-time listener of my solo-output, you might have been able to tell that this Leonard episode was something of a departure from my usual way of "doing business". Gone where self-indulgent stories and anecdotes from my life... replaced with actual comics facts and history. It wasn't exactly a subtle shift in tone...
... and, that was intentional.
Y'see, this episode of Chris is on Infinite Earths (along with the episode that followed it) acted sort of as a "pilot" for what Chris and Reggie's Cosmic Treadmill was going to look like moving into the future... at least for the immediate future.
Following Reggie's stroke at the end of 2019, we had to put a pin in the old ways of putting together Cosmic Treadmill episodes. Reggie suffered partial blindness and was easily fatigued when trying to read. For a while, he wasn't able to make out words at all. He wouldn't be able to read or write the sort of scripts we usually worked with... and so, we'd have to "pivot", reevaluate... and adapt.
We still wanted to deliver the sort of content we were "known" for (even if it was only us who "knew us" for it), but we had to be a bit more creative about it. The answer was to sort of create a "hybrid" program, wherein we mixed elements from our Cosmic Treadmill, Weird Comics History, and Comix Tawk shows. Bits and pieces from each, in order to serve as sort of a band-aid/bridge until Reggie was recovered and confident enough for us to go back to "business as usual".
This Leonard the Duck solo episode was sort of my "proof of concept"... showing that it was possible to mingle the Cosmic Treadmill with bits of Weird Comics History... and the editorializing of Comix Tawk. I feel like it was successful on that front... though, unfortunately, I wouldn't imagine Reggie ever got around to listening to it.
In our final few phone calls, we brainstormed pretty heavily about what the "Chris and Reggie Summer" was going to look (and sound) like. I've still got a handful of partially finished scripts on my Google Drive. The gimmick was going to be less verbatim scripting... more off-the-cuff... more "bullet pointy", with a reliance on me to deliver/feed things like dates and factoids... while he would focus on elaborating and editorializing. It... ya know, it just felt "right"... one of those "So crazy it just might work..." sort of things.
I feel as though this Leonard the Duck episode put me in the proper head space for the evolution in the way we were going to create together... and, the fact that I felt as though I pulled it off decently enough, gave me the confidence to know that we'd definitely be able to make it work.
Thanks for reading this odd little stream of consciousness piece... and thank you for helping this little blog break 800k views.
This episode of Comix Tawk was a request from several of our Patrons... and, might seem just a little bit "dated" to revisit a year and change later... but, I believe there's still plenty of good conversation here.
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The inspiration for this episode was a speech given by the long-time owner of Comix Experience in San Francisco, and prolific writer and commenter of the things going on in the industry, Brian Hibbs. At the 2019 ComicsPRO Meeting, he would outline a 10-Point Plan which he felt would keep the retail side of comics healthy... and perhaps even extend the life of comics retail into the future.
It's a very common sense approach to the retail side of things... which is sadly, often overlooked by the distribution and publishing end. It's almost as though the industry itself (excluding retail) takes for granted that there will just always be stores to carry their halfhearted wares.
Now, why did we cover this on the show? Well, like I said, it was a request... multiple Patrons actually requested we comment on this, because... so much of what Mr. Hibbs says here, are the things we've discussed on earlier episodes of Comix Tawk. Only difference between him and us is... he's legit, and we're mostly talking out our asses!
Hibbs' 10-Points have been covered plenty of places, and I'd wager some of the folks reading this are already familiar with them... but, even if that's the case, I hope you'll give us a listen anyway! This was a very fun episode to put together, and allowed us to put our own personal spins/anecdotes on each of the points.
In case you aren't familiar with Hibbs' 10-Points... here they are (at their most basic):
- Stop Mixing SKU’s
- Sales Charts with a “penetration index” – # of accounts purchasing specific SKU’s
- Abandon “meets or exceeds” thinking
- Tie variant SKU’s to native base sales (1 variant per 20k sales)
- Tie variants to percentage of publisher’s line (25%)
- Shipping information in a box-by-box format, and review discounts and shipping
- FOC locked no later than noon Fridays, including all aft and information otherwise 100% returnable
- Every comic should be listed in PREVIEWS, not available only at FOC.
- Data Summit to determine where and when to assign “Series Codes”
- First three issues of every new series to be fully returnable from all publishers (including one-shots and mini-series)
