Episode 0 - Introductions

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...