We are lies. We are lies. Hi everyone and welcome to the Nodie Pothcast. It's a Nodie Pothcast and it's worsted by Northern nerds.
I am one of your horse some. And I am the other horse Paul. I love how you make this one I do that by the way. And we are joined by Dallas's original fun girl also known as the pop culture herald throughout the nerdy and geeky community.
You can catch around our many adventures across the interweb. Her Facebook page fan girl in Dallas which has been gone since 2013. She has worked various conventions, interviewed some very special guests throughout her YouTube She's a cosplayer, a gamer, a collector, a soap maker and she's an all-around fan girl. We are so happy to welcome to the nerdy of North Pothcast.
Taffy Darlene! That was the best intro I've ever had. Thank you so much. It was amazing.
It's been an old year as well. She's been very excited as I went a little sommie. Well, that was great. Thank you.
Well, he's my little fan girl moment. I have been following you since 2015. Oh, geez. Yes.
And when I heard you come on to the nerdy of North group, I was like, excuse me, what? Sorry. And my jumper today is actually in homage to you and your wonderful jumper collection. Oh, shoot, I love it.
Yes. Are those balloons? That is? It's Pennywise.
Perfect. Even better. Okay. Yeah.
Totally. Yeah. I don't know if you can tell. I've got spiders and skulls on the TV.
So you said that pretty girls and half went with me mouse and pumples. Yes. Exactly. Yes.
So yes. So thank you very much for joining us today as well Taffyder. And as I warned you before we went live, we do give up all the new guests as well to give us a little bit of nerdy credentials about your lovely self. So tell us about yourself there.
I don't know. I feel like I'd be redundant because she just took me out. She just gave me away and there's no mission now. Sorry.
No, it's great. Usually I have to come up with something, but you got it all. I don't know. I guess I'm 44 years old.
I had a log original art and into art. I specialize in Golden Age comic strips, Bernie writes in anything that's kind of DC in Batman. Yes. I am.
I'm a good at first person shooters. And I got. That's all we need. That's all we need to be fair.
And it's nice to actually have a DC supporter on the podcast as well because like Sami is a Marvel girl and everyone who comes on seems to be worshiping the flagship that is Marvel, but me being a DC fanboy, yes, represent. So thank you very much. And I always get excited as well when you pop up with a new Instagram story as well because you normally show off some cool ass Batman or a vintage Batman shit as well. So I'm all for that.
Well, I wanted to ask you firstly, the early the early days. So the early days of nerd is in the early days of social media. How is it that you kind of got involved in that sort? Because in 2014, are you okay?
In the house, you write an old shit about? In 2020, it really interests us because lessons in 2014 is when I found my kind of like home and I was like, oh my god, I got all these big, there was for me, there was you comic book girl 19 and Chloe Dijkstra who I had to kind of like go, oh my god, these are women, these are women and they love the same stuff that I do. How did you find it coming into the social media side of things in the early early days? You know, I always kind of believe in music and movies and pop culture and have an opinion about stuff.
So I guess that around 2013, 2014, maybe I was even earlier in that, I would do like a little guest spot on various other people's podcasts and stuff, mainly guys, and they just want to kind of like the female POV. So I would do like little stints here and there and that's kind of how I started. Someone found me like on my own blog that used to be curves and comics on Blogger and that's not even active anymore. But they just kind of found my random, you know, tangents and opinions and I just started doing different spots and I guess it just kind of started really is just interesting.
Especially like all the way back then as well, because let's be honest, the internet isn't the best place when it comes to like, Fandoms and stuff, especially now. So what was it like back then, because like I know being in the UK, it was very difficult to find anything other than like anything to do with comic books or anything like for us, it was nine on impossible. We had to travel to like Manchester or like London to actually see a comic book stuff, like especially in the North East of England, it was just like not heard of. So like what was it like, what blocks or anything to define starting out or was it just basically just finding a way in the comic book world type thing?
Well, I've been reading Archie Comics since I was like in fourth grade, that was kind of my intro to that. You know, I went to elementary school and at the end of the week, like I mean, I'm very like food and treat motivated. So essentially like if I was good at the end of the week, I'd get an Archie comic and like a little icy and that was just kind of it, you know, I got obsessed with Archie and then from there as I got older, there was a comic shot down the street that I would go and probably like, I think maybe in junior high in I think maybe like eighth and ninth grade is when I really got into like the lead in the monsters and the marble horse stuff because I was, you know, kind of like a sad bastard goth girl, you know, you know, monster and vampires and wolves and shit like that is what I used to read before. I even got into like mutants or even before I read Batman, like, you know, I was into, you know, monsters and that's just kind of snowballed from there, I guess.
Cool. We are talking to the monster expert as well. Some of you don't want to podcast on a Monday as well. So that's all for the facts and stuff.
We don't care about facts on this one. We just care about feeling love. I am trying. I am trying this Sunday.
I even getting into his Rotten Nords. Yes. He's never Rotten Nords. Yes.
I have Rotten Nords. Well, yes. So I know, as you said, because what we like to do as well when we talk about like with guests and stuff is like one of the things I like to do and it's a torturous thing for them. And again, you don't have to answer this now.
You can have a thing about answering later on. I'll get you to do your top five favorite movies. Everyone always seems to struggle with these as well because everyone always thinks, oh, it changes by the moon. But that's how we start out.
Our literal first episode was top five favorite movies. And quite honestly, if you asked us to repeat that list, it would probably be a lot different. I don't know about his. He's quite stickler when it comes to his movie.
His girl needs would always be number one. I think for the most part, like the top three have always been kind of consistent and interchangeable, but I think I've added like one or two along the way and kind of dropped some out depending on where I was and stuff. Well, we'll catch you at the end. I'll give them now.
I'll call you first. The life aquatic Selena, the burbs, big trouble in China and then young Frankenstein. Can we just retract a second Selena? I am such a huge fan of Selena.
It's all weird because in where I'm from, I'm from the northeast of England, which is kind of the top of England. And she would never ever have crossed paths over here. I would never have heard her music. I would never have heard something in the early 2000s.
Each of Hollywood's stories had her on there as obviously what had happened to her. And I was like, oh my god, I'm so taken by this person, had to watch Jennifer Lopez for them. I have coloring books. I have t-shirts.
I have, I am so fucking obsessed with her, but I couldn't like, I do listen to her music now, but that's not how I initially found her. I'm so kind of found in the city. Yes. Exactly.
Yeah. There's, you know, it'll be hard to find anyone who's in like, you know, mid 40s. It's a female here in Texas. It's not obsessed.
And that was pretty much it. I remember being 13 years old and like someone coming up and like picking up their kid from school and telling them and then like we found out about it like in homeroom. I was in a home room because I was in, yeah, in everyone that kind of found out. I think it was also the same, you know, time period, the same thing happened in Kurt Cobain.
We're like, yeah. I was like, it's like big like musical like outboard. Like, oh my god, what the fuck's happening to people that we like? No.
I always remember where I was the day Kurt Cobain died when it was announced. I was on a bus going to school. It was making it equal. I was on a bus going to school and the bus drive had the radio wanting to came on over the radio and I just sat there and didn't get up at my stop.
Just sat on the bus and just went, yeah. Oh, that's so, that's so good. Yes. I couldn't get through a podcast without me talking about someone dying though.
That is my thing. It's not gonna lie. So, like I'm all for a big problem that the channel and the verbs as well, to all-time classics. We did an episode on the big trouble that the channel finally made some actually watch the movie because we are going through a stage now where we review movies and Sam hasn't seen a lot of them because she also watched when she was a kid with school sources.
Yeah. No, that is no exaggeration. I forced Paul into doing this pop culture podcast and realized I've not actually seen anything. So, we are now going through the list.
Yes. But we can organise and influence and sort in so many different things where you get to watch these movies now for the first time. There's a little hint of jealousy there as well, that's not the first time experience. I know when we just say we're going through the description before because I know you were laughing at us like before we went live.
When we put the description up, you are the hardest weapon in murders and all the different things that you're working on, all the different projects. Just give us a little rundown on a few of the things that you are doing at the moment as well, just so that if anyone is listening and isn't aware, they can try and catch you as well. I know we put a few links in the description down below. But yes, there's just a few of your projects that you have got doing because I know you've got your podcasts going as well while you're interviewing different artists that I do actually quite enjoy.
Thank you. The podcast is kind of the main thing I'm focused on right now. I'm kind of on a self-imposed break, but conventions start up again for me in a couple of weeks and then I'll be doing that. So I travel to different cities and states to moderate panels mainly comic panels for various conventions.
So I have that coming up. I also work on different costumes. I don't really have anything new I'm working on, but I'm always kind of like in the process of upgrading or like updating something. So that's kind of what I'm working on now.
I'm wanting to redeem my back girl outfit and then possibly finish my Donatroy outfit. I started because I was going to meet his preeminist and then he canceled and I was like I'm not going to fucking waste my time on this. But now I'm just looking at it. I'm like, this is just like a giant sparkly like jumper.
I should do something with it. So in that in between that, you know, just trying to support everyone else much like y'all. You know, I love talking to people who are just super passionate about stuff and so that's kind of where I gravitate towards. Yeah, and it's always fun to hear like what other people are doing and saying like what's out in their in the community as well, especially such a vast space between us as well, which always blows my mind.
I think you're our third American that we've had on the podcast. We've had Holly and Marc I think about the third one. I was I'm sorry. I remember Holly because I've never I've never found out so much in all my life.
To the point I couldn't really talk properly. And what is your favorite cosplay that you've done? Oh, something. Well, it's weird like I mean there's stuff that I like wearing more than others, but there's stuff that I like how it turned out more than others.
Like I love my fucking dad, you know, as a monogirl. Yeah, you're gonna say that's what I love the makeup. I love the wig. I love the pop collar.
You know, plus she's like, you know, she's got energy and music as her fucking weapon. So I love being able to kind of, you know, take on that for a bit. But I'm also hindered by gravity. So I don't wear it very often.
In a sense of, you know, I usually just reserve that for like photo shoots and stuff like that. So we make the poll, if the rumors are true about Deadpool three, if we are getting to see as does that be quite interesting. Yeah, yeah, just the dazzler would be cool. I'm hoping we get just a little bit more of that in I guess also kitty pride.
It's weird. It seems like most of my Marvel characters are the female superheroes. And then like I've got, you know, my DC stuff, I got that girl and like, you know, some teen Titans. But I think I have more fun with the the Marvel girls.
I have a Marvel girl costume, but I think also just Kate pride her at scalloper. One because I really love kind of like that, you know, medieval. Again, I have a thing for pop collars and the big, big sleeves, you know, and then I have a Lockheed. So I get to like walk around with a dragon.
So I guess, you know, I love wearing kitty pride, but my favorite that I've ever like actually seen me in and then like, damn, you know, it's Dazzler. Say another one you did. I don't know if it was last year or the year before. The kind of actress is named by the character from legend where you were doing the dance.
That was absolutely fucking stunning, by the way. I've just like absolutely amazing. No legends. One of my own sick guilty pressures because I can say it's a fucking amazing film with Tim Curry and as well.
But he also got a guilty for like, Natam Cruz, for one of these days. And I've got seen it, but your, but Dazzler is the one that always remember it was your Dazzler. And love the Sandman one he did recently. That was fantastic.
And what I really, I know I mentioned earlier about your jumpers. I love you. And love you jumpers. And there's one in particular that I absolutely will have a green one.
Oh, I was thinking about that in the day. I was like, where is that? Because I have like a cool little like, you know, I'm not sure I were underneath it. Like, what the fuck is that?
Yeah, you really do pull the jumper and collar situation off really, really well. I could not with it. I am choking on this jump, by the way. It is, it's so heavy.
It's black milk and it is so like bottom heavy that it's like really jogging us. But I was like, I can't wear a jumper. So you mentioned about doing your panels. So how did you get into the panels?
We asked what we'd like notice doing when you're doing the cosplayer. Like, because we've like, it's one of things we've done in the past as well. Some successful and some interesting stories. I would never say it wasn't successful.
It was just ended interestingly. I'm not going to describe a lot of things at the end. I'm interested. Well, when anybody invited, when anybody who's a member of the audience by throwing Pokemon cards into the crowd, that wasn't the best idea.
Yeah. Just gonna tangle. I mean, I can relate. I've been there many times, but for the panels, whatever I was invited, when I invited to come in, you know, via cosplay, I guess part of that's usually to be a contest judge.
You know, do you want to cosplay contest judges and stuff? Again, I love talking to people and interacting with them. And then I think that just kind of eventually kind of transitioned. And that's really what I'm more focused on these days is just trying to do more moderating unless cosplay guessing.
I love my spots. I love my costumes. But I don't so prince myself. I don't really have anything that I sell.
So I always feel weird sitting at a table because it's just like me and like, hello. I have a thing. Sometimes I'll take my rig out there and I'll get some gaming going, but it's a hassle. But yeah, I think just kind of being there and given the opportunity and I guess being ready for the opportunity to just be able to talk to somebody, I think the the first big one that I did, I've been a lot of locals, but I was invited out to Denver to host the reunion of word science.
It was like a very new union. None of them had, you know, seen each other essentially since the movie. So I was like, oh, okay. You're talking polls like we're trying to sell.
So how would it like with all friendly? You know, the one thing that I requested is because like, I tell them the rock was one of my, you know, the ladies I looked up to back in the day, I wanted to be her and Elvira and Rhonda like all these like, you know, very like classy, but still kind of like hardcore bitches, you know, like they're helpful with especially like, yeah, but they can still, you know, intimidating, but once you get to know them, like, oh, you know, not so anyways. Yeah, so I was like, I just, I really need to meet Kelly the rock before I talked to Ron stage. I'm just gonna be sitting there the whole time just like, aha.
Yeah. I didn't go, you know, I was able to meet everybody. I usually try to kind of introduce myself, blah, blah, blah, but yeah, meeting her was pretty intense because she came up to me and she was like talking to me and I was just in, you know, deer mode was like, and like she put her hand on my heart. She's like, okay, and internally I'm like, oh, freaking out.
I was like, trying not to hide. Did you have the sound chocolate in your head as well at the same time? Like, weird science. I think a few times I looked at her and I was like, wips, dips, chains, I was like, girl, stop.
I didn't know about chains and chips, why didn't you tell me fucking the Brock, you know, it was just other things are, you know, on the outside. I was like, oh, cool. Nice to meet you. But on the inside, I was like, I'm about to fucking move it.
I need to go outside and go. So that's, I think that was kind of the big start. And that was about nine or 10 years ago, something like that, that started. And now, you know, my local conventions are nice to me.
Fan Expo's been really nice to me. I helped him out in New Orleans. I'm going to Denver. I do stuff for him at them in here.
Dallas. And so, you know, it's just, I'm always just excited. I've been thought of coming to the UK. I've won a few of the conventions over over here, because I know that the cost of the side of things has grown massively in the UK, especially over the last few years.
And it's something that you've thought about all, I'd say, between get to come over. Oh, no, I'd love to. Like, there's been quite a few panels to where, you know, I'd want to go out there in panels, but I can mention that I'd want to go out there for sure just to enjoy it. Like, I've never been overseas on that part of the world.
So I would absolutely love to, you know, take in a whole thing and make it like, you know, like a week or two of just convention and slash tourists and stuff. But, um, we'll take care of you. Come over, like, say, we'll take your two of the North East. There's not much to say.
There's not much to say. There's not lots of people. There's lots of food as well. But, um, if you get a bob in like some trees, I'm going lots of trees in the North East.
Lots of, lots of trees. You'll be good. And yeah, the convention scene over here is kind of like, up to scale a little bit, but we always seem to be just a little bit behind you guys. Like, we would now it's not so hard to buy.
And mentioned that you see now is so hard to find a comic book. So we will find out, we may have to go a little bit further than what we would like to, but we will find them and conventions are getting absolutely huge. And do you have a favorite kind of convention? Do you think I can go?
This is the one that I absolutely love going to. For a while, it was Denver Comic Con. But I think that's also because it's in the mountains and they have really, really good vegan food out there. And I like, I like the mountains and, you know, weeds legal out there.
So it's not, I guess it's just like this whole thing about, oh my god, this is just, you know, it's a fucking wonderland. But that one, and then they have a really killer artist, Ali, and then C2E2, I think is still probably the best artist Ali I've ever been to. And that's in Chicago. And I really want to go back to Chicago too.
But there's, there's some big ones that are coming up in the US. Like Megacon in Florida is on par with like your Comic Con in San Diego Comic Con in the sense of, you know, the guests that are out there. I'm quite jealous that Florida is getting some of those names. That's the only thing that lets the UK down a little bit because when we have our Comic Cons, it's all filmed in TV.
There's very little actual comic go-dives. There's some specialist ones, the one in Thought Bubble in Harrogate's, quite good. But I know they're keep announcing guests for the one in Liverpool that's in me. Me and Sami's not going to that one, but might be if they keep on naming the people.
Because they've just named the Lord the Rings cast, like Sean Astin. Yeah. But I want to say Sean Astin for one reason and one reason was he. I couldn't give a fuck about the rings.
It's all about the goonies. Yeah, those are the goonies. So the goonies, like, I would, it's one of them things that you always want to meet your heroes, but every scared, because if they don't live up to, like, say what they kind of would be, it would break me heart a little bit as well. But I know, because we did actually host our first ever cosplay competition in fact here as well.
Yeah. The people who, the person who doesn't have any experience whatsoever in cosplay, who would actually get so anxious if someone said dress up in this and they asked us to host it. It was, it was interesting. Well, it's just I'm the most social anxious person in real life when it comes to making people face to face.
And they put me on a table and went right, you've got to have people to sign up. So I was like, no, we haven't had people down since I'm not strange. I'm not, we have come over and sign my phone. And then you've got everyone else walking around with cameras and stuff taking photographs and video and but no, it went really well.
Apparently, the people we picked who won is the first time in years that nobody kicked off about the favoritism or people so we obviously we made the right choice. We didn't get fucking asked back. But still, no, let's be fair, who did get asked back were professionals. These girls do it for these girls.
But someone actually came as gladriel. I have never seen a cosplay as gladriel. She didn't win. But she got an honorable mention because of she had chain mail on and everything.
I was like in all of this person. She looked incredible. I personally would have had her win, but people would have known I would have been doing it just for favoritism. I thought that this was the chamber.
That was the series Amazon series. Yeah. Oh, nice. It was really, really, really awesome outfit.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I apologize if anyone can hear my kiddies.
They have into the room and they all really look behind me. So what you got planned? Like I know you said, you've got self-imposed time out for the podcast. So what's when does that self-imposed time out finish?
Like when does that when you start up again? Oh, I'm sorry. I meant that was like for conventions and cost. I'm still doing the I do I try to do at least like one interview with someone a week and I do a live gaming session, which which to like maintain like your affiliate status to where you can get like, you know, a couple of pennies, a, you know, a stream or whatever.
You got to put in, you know, sort of hours every month. And so I've just started incorporating like, you know, those as my, you know, gaming hours, people can watch or not, you know, like invite people, but I'm not like, Oh my God, please can watch me, you know, I can kill this person or die myself. So, but I do that on Monday nights and then Thursdays, I kind of reserved for my interviews. And so that's, but everything else I've kind of had on hold after I went and did my first convention in New Orleans for the first year after that.
I need, I need a break before I get back in once March comes, it's going to be not only that, but like I also just, I like to go, you know, see, you know, art shows and other shit. So we trying to manage all that and just kind of, I guess recharge my battery as I'm getting at it. We do need to be clear because we're doing so much at the same time as well, it must get hard because like, luckily for us, we've got a little bit of a team. So we've got people that do the gaming stuff, we've got people that do the trick stuff, we've got Sammy that does the horror, we've got a gig and stuff going up, but like, you're kind of like a fleshy, like a one man band type.
Yeah, that must be difficult as well. Like, no one to keep it all going. But obviously you'll love it. Otherwise you wouldn't be doing a type thing.
Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Okay.
Sorry. No, I was gonna ask, like doing the podcast and stuff, like, because I, when we started, I didn't want to do it. I'll be honest, like, no interest in me. I've got, I think it's what I've always got the imposter syndrome.
I think no one's gonna listen. There's no one's gonna take it seriously. So when you started it, like, did you have like a vision? What you wanted to go?
I was just winging it as you went along. Well, I mean, I kind of wing it as I go along just in general, because if not, I get role, I like to say Clark Friswalt or like an over plan. And then if things don't go exactly as right, just due to my like, you know, my own like neuro spicy brain, like, if I'm like, okay, I need to do this, if that doesn't happen, then I would get really frustrated with myself and beat myself up because I didn't, you know, meet my own expectations. So I'm trying to be more just kind of like, you know, we'll just we'll plan, you know, this and see what happens.
But that's kind of where I go with it. Like I, I do plan guests, but I think from the very beginning, I knew I just wanted to talk to like people and learn from them. And that's what motivates me. And that's what I do regardless, you know, if people are there, people are not at the end of the day, like, like, I have a really cool archive of some really talented people that I've gotten to know better and become friends with.
And I, you know, I talk to, you know, often now, because I've been able to chat with them. And I don't try to do like the normal stuff. I try to keep it kind of casual and just like, you know, shoot the shit with them and just kind of get to know them instead of like, we know, you know, everyone's art already, you know, I don't, I don't know, you know, highlight that anymore. So hopefully that answers your questions.
No, definitely. Like, same with us. And again, I think that's when we started out, we didn't want to be like this regimented or like have, because when we tried, we tried, we had a formula and it was so bad, it was just painful to watch as well. It was and then there was just this trigger moment.
And I will never forget it because it was the day of the me where everything kind of changed. I had, I had, I forced him to do this basically. And I had, so I had it in my head, how I wanted to hear how I wanted to be set out and bless his heart. He did it.
He did what I asked. And then one day we just realized this is not working. And it was halfway through an episode and we went, fuck this. Let's just throw it away and just talking talk to each other.
And when we started doing that, the whole dynamic started to change. And we very much kind of, yes, I take notes. And mainly because I have the worst memory in history. I get called Dory for a reason.
So I have to have notes to kind of let, yes, to kind of, to keep me on track. But I do, when I find something interesting, I want to make sure that I remember it to like, say it's because I find it interesting. Maybe you find it interesting. So I do keep notes in that sense.
But if we didn't mention it or I didn't, I wouldn't freak myself out. Like I would have in the beginning part of the podcast if I didn't say this. Like probably be yourself about it. Don't do that anymore.
So relaxed. Yeah, exactly. I know as somebody said, she's been following you for quite a while. Quite a while.
Yes. I became very aware of you. I think when I start following your page, and you commented on a TV show that I absolutely loved. So I wanted to quickly go on, I talked to you about this because I know you're a big fan of the actor as well.
Only murders in the building. And they're part of the family. Oh, yeah, yeah. People comment open.
I think your opinion of the show was exactly the same as mine. And I've not seen many shores like this. I've found out that hit one because we're doing a podcast at the time and it's based on a podcast. But the comedy is so straight at a time.
And you've got Steve Martin, who is for me, one of the best comedian of the show. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm glad we're still getting bitter from now.
I'm going to be sad because he has said when he finishes the show, that's the last thing he's going to be doing. Well, what a way to go out on the man. The physical comedy of that man is ridiculous. He should not be for on himself about the way that he does at his age.
But he does it for the off. He like, oh, you're amazing. That's why I love this show as well so much. And again, sorry, I'm going to find out about it a little bit.
Just because it's so restrained, like you've got Steve Martin being so restrained in the first season. Like I thought that the first season started. And not till the final episode, does it allow Steve Martin to give his physical and rubber man comedy where he's all drugged up. And I was broken watching that.
Like literally falling off the chair, laughing me head off crying. And I've not done that since probably playing strings and automobiles. Like I've never seen it. How do you feel?
Like when you first saw the show, did you have the same reaction? Did you make the films towards it? Yeah, I grew up loving Steve Martin. And Martin Short, that was kind of like the comedy I was introduced to as a young person.
Every story rotates as one of my top five movies constantly. It's definitely up there as one of like at least the top two of my romantic comedies of all time. I think Steve Martin, the brilliant writer, not only does he do the movies, but he writes novellas, he writes novels. And his shop girl is fucking amazing.
His records are amazing. So just anything that he does, I'm into. And as soon as I saw he was passed, I was like, okay, cool. And I felt pretty much the same way.
I was like, I bet he's really just having a hard time, especially playing opposite Martin Short to maintain kind of a more neurotic character without being so physical and being so out there, a little bit more reserved and stuff. So I definitely agree. I like when they finally cut loose. And then from there, it was just great.
I think many times I said, I'm so jealous of Selena Gomez. That's like a dream job. That's a career to between two legends, two guys who can do it all play music, seeing act right, direct. That's like, right there.
But it's so clever with the seasons as well, because it's not all in your face and throws like the comedy at you as well. But like the first season is very much like, it's not all about the one character, but it's focused on one. The character's like the first character was the first character was the second one was Steve Martin's character where he was bad. And the third one was by Martin Short and everything that happened with him.
And the people that get on the show as well, Paul wrote Paul wrote fucking nailed it by the way, and then that season like absolutely. I didn't know he was in it. We stopped. Oh gosh, we stopped off at season two.
And we haven't quite picked it back up. I didn't know Paul was in it. Yeah, that was nice. Absolutely brilliant.
That's came out to end of season two. I haven't finished season three. Oh, sorry. I'm looking at these spoilers.
That's like out of bed. Well, this might happen. But I've enjoyed it. And I thought he was a him and Meryl Streep or brilliant accessories, you know, additions to the season into that cast because everyone on there just brings her a game.
It's adorable. Definitely. And I wanted to talk a little bit about your work as well. I know you're not in work, so I do apologize for getting your talk.
I know that's fine. But like some of your course, you put up like the comic books you must see and hold on as daily basis. Sometimes I'm just like, it's my guess. Like get in mind.
But the smell like there's nothing better than an old comic book smell in my opinion. I know that probably makes me percent of it weird. Sorry. Sorry.
You're not in the chat. We all smell it. So, you know, so what's been like, being the highlights of the comics that you've actually held like since working on their type thing? Well, I don't get to smell them because a lot of them are graded and they're slapped.
So, you know, I don't actually like smell them. But I didn't smell like some like 17th century furniture the other day was walking in the hallway and I was like, Oh my God, I got to smell this and I was walking with someone. I'm sure that's weird. I was like, yeah, it smells like a castle.
You know, let's just keep going. I've been in castles in the North East. We know what they smell like. So, I don't really get to smell like the old old stuff.
But I mean, I get to hold some neat stuff, which is, you know, really cool. And I think, I don't know, probably for me so far is still the dark night returns covers that I held, you know, just because that's a, I mean, I wouldn't say that's like my absolute favorite, you know, comic book it up there. It was definitely covers really cool. I mentioned I love the monster stuff.
So getting, you know, to hold the burning right since then, you know, the Frank Fazetta, like all that stuff is, you know, really cool to see and, you know, being kind of the one where I'm approached. Hey, we have this amazing Batman piece. Yes, thank you. I don't want to write that.
It's just like, you have to go back now. No, no, I don't want to. Not today. It's one of the things where you think you wish you could take your work home with you.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get that lot and people are like, Oh, so you know, about like five dollars. Never heard that before. You know, it's funny because I guess I've been doing it for long enough to where like there's not that sensation about some of these big people anymore because at first I'd like, Oh my God, I didn't mean I'm like, Oh my God, I have like fucking four dumplings.
Okay, let's go. And that's not down play dumly, but you know that the nuance of it all becomes to where I get more excited about stuff in other departments and stuff that I don't see every day. You know, we had our science department, natural science. They had one of the only pieces of like actual like dinosaur like skin like, you know, reptile skin and stuff.
They had like this, you know, right exactly. And they had it on display with this huge thing. And it still had like, you know, like skin on some of the bones from, you know, dinosaur air. And I was like, Oh, I don't know.
I would have like, I would have paid it. It's trying to lick that just to see what we have to do. All right. It's like a doughnut.
It happens for real. And a little bit after the day and era as well. So yeah, I actually thought of that. And I've been like, what is this breed?
It's not here. What happened? It's a T-Rex cross with a fun girl. But yes.
Yeah. So, you know that and the historical stuff, we have a rare book department. So I've held like first edition, you know, talking of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. And that was really special to me to hold like, you know, one of the first printings of that.
Um, I would have. I would have. I would have. I kind of did.
I was like, okay, give me a second. You know, like, I'm kind of a what's when it comes to a lot of these things, because like, you know, these memories are just so strong. When it's tied to these various pop culture stuff that when it hits me, I'm like, oh my god. The historical department's really cool.
We had Mary Todd's morning gown and Mary Todd was the wife of Abraham Lincoln. And so we had her gown. We had, you know, parts of Lincoln's like gauze and bandages from when he was shot and stuff. And like, you know, people will keep anything and literally buy anything.
Yes. And so it was this weird, like, uh, it came with a, uh, glitter prominence. And so the family had just had this, you know, piece of Abraham Lincoln. Dawg.
Dawg. To me, that's kind of cool. Cause I'm a cool shit. You know, this is like, uh, you know, a weekend time.
Big deal here. So, you know, over here as well. Don't worry. We can like that.
It's literally, it's like, we murder billi. Yeah. From the time, like, Oh, sorry. I apologize.
I said I'd be on the other hand. I was like, oh yeah. So you're colors. Yes.
No, I was so interested in all. We would never get anything like that here, would we? No, no, no, no. It's not in the North.
It's down south of the North. We only got a satchel right from Jack the river when it wasn't really him. But the only thing we got is like, basically the Yorkshire River tips type thing where, where the Jody Jack, um. That's not really cool.
But uh, um, it's not the whole thing. It's not the whole thing. You mentioned about your favorite comics as well. So again, not to give you a top five.
But what are your favorite comics? Well, you can see what I know it's always a hard one. Cause for me, I'm a big Alan Moore fan. So, watching people then that would have been like, say British would also kind of the day.
So you've run a, like, I always heard like, Sandman is just like untouchable. Right. And I looked, I said, we did a whole episode on the Netflix show. I came out and I just fanboyed out so badly.
They ever got to meet Neil Gaiman. I probably would just cry. Uh, that is, oh, you met him, have you? Well, we're actually hosting him.
We're auctioning off his items. I'm one of the lead catalogers for his items. He'll be in our building and he'll be at the auction. And I'm currently helping plan the reception and all that.
Yeah. So there's a Northern nerd, uh, Cole Paul that very much loves him. Oh, I got you at your name in there. You know, Sandman is the, my mum is a, my mum is a huge, she's a sci-fi person.
But for some reason, and I don't know where it came from, but we went on holiday a couple of years ago. And all I heard was, who's Joanna Constantine? I don't know, excuse me. And she's, she was listening to the audio of a book of Sandman.
And she absolutely fucking loved it, even though I had to explain to her a million times. I've not read it. And so that was an interesting conversation with my mother, over Sandman. But yes, going back to your favorite comic books.
Oh, no, I'm, I'm right there with you. I love the same man. You know, that was also kind of around that same time where I was reading the monsters and stuff. And you know, you would see some of the, the older goth kids who were into it.
Like I was influenced. I had some cool people that were just a few years ahead of me. I had a lot of friends who were in punk bands and were skaters and stuff and were kind of independent thinkers and whatever. You know, they were reading, I was always curious.
So what, you know, when you're reading, so that was my introduction to the Sandman. You know, I love that. I think for me, when it comes to, I mean, Batman's obviously like, you know, my, my favorite character. But because there's such a continuity that fluctuates and because he's written and drawn by so many people and he's, you know, like 80 something years old, there's not, you know, there's, there's not one that I can really like, say, okay, well, you know, okay, that ends like their character.
But as far as like stories go, you know, I really liked the darkest night and brightest night. and, you know, I really liked what Jeff Johns did. I thought it was really weird to make his parents essentially come back from the dead because, you know, we always know the origin of, you know, they're dying and to have them kind of come back in resurrected with the Black Lanterns was fucking weird and gory and like horrific and like what the fuck. Um, you know, the death of Batman though, they're kind of giving you like lots of what a foot woman.
So when you're reading through like the Batman, so they don't treat him as carefully and as nicely as they do with the other characters, are we there? Yeah. Yeah. Like what kind of emotional trauma can we bring onto this card now?
Yeah, we'll just give it a fuck in the book, Ebroz. Yeah. Oh, sorry. Yeah, sorry.
Damien Wain's one of my favorite characters as well. You know, I love Damien Wain and the death of Robin. You know, that was actually something that kind of reverberated through the whole DC universe and tied into that, especially with him, you know, him being a clone and, you know, finding like, you know, thousands of other Damien clones of himself and having to kind of like come to his own realization with that. And you know, so I just say, you know, Batman is a whole because the bat family, everything in there is like trauma and tragic, but as far as like.
Yes, I can say when it comes to the Batman, I think I've told it before in the podcast. The long Halloween is the highest ones. I remember I used to have the original comics for that. I think it spiked in price.
I got greedy and sold them now. I wish I never did. Well, that's a great one. I mean, because you get so many villains, you know, you get talent a man, you get the red there, you get two face, you know, we get the introduction of like, you know, hush a little bit, right?
Or no, that's this. That's a little hush. Okay. Yeah.
You know, and I like that aspect of it because it is just kind of, you know, a group of villains coming together to, you know, fucking take out Batman. They're like, hey, you know what, we're all this fucking jail together. What can we fucking do to take them out? So, you know, plus it's Jeff Loeb and, you know, it's like, I can really, and you know, sadly, we don't have to have to sell anymore, but his art so dynamic and energetic and stylized.
So I'm with you. I got about the shit all times. As much as I am a Marvel fan girl, I am Batman is very much my DC character. Barbara Gordon is my girl.
I will ride a dive for that one. And but yeah, Batman is kind of, and I think was it last year I read along Halloween? Yeah, I think it was a kind of, I don't know, top five comics, if you do, I'll say so long ago. You all like them, I didn't want them for me.
I can't keep them. I think I was like, when we talked about it, you know, that sounds interesting. See, that's what I do. Yeah.
We talked about, we did it episode on the turtles and they were like, oh, the last row had an I was like, get my phone and just buy a copy of it. This is what I do. I just talk along. Yeah.
The last row and I haven't finished that one, but that's an interesting concept and it's a neat premise, you know, to have that kind of, you know, like vengeful, revengeful side of, you know, the turtle and like, you know, who is it? Who's left? Who are we? You know, because usually if you read the story, you know, who fucking, you know, you're falling, where the narration is coming from and with this, you just like, just like, that's a surprise.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So put that, use your reference to use the movie to use the cartoon version.
But use the movie. I'd be having an ad, be laughing constantly because the accents that come out of the movie are like, really. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
No, I love the last one. It's nice to see the turtles go back to the dark roots as well, because originally, as you said, the turtles comic when the first came out with Brute was fuck. And some of the more violent comics that came out at the time and then with the nice, nice cartoon, that came out for a while, it kind of lost its edge. So it's kind of brought back, I've heard that they went again for the last row round as well.
So they're going to bring out a... That'll be fine. So I don't know how it'll work with a first person or what I'll be, I'll be playing that and see, well, watching people as streamer. I don't play the many games though, yes.
Sorry. So yes. So here goes. So favorite comics that I use.
Oh, you know, the Batman, but also Sweet Tooth. Jeff Lemire, I found him at a time where I was just kind of inundated with superheroes and I was looking for something different. And as much as I love comics and superheroes, sci-fi is probably my favorite genre, you know, in kind of like a mystery and just kind of, you know, the isotearic shit and with Sweet Tooth, I kind of found all that, you know, not only was there a bit of superhero aspect, but there was also a bit of drama. There was just a bit of mystery about all of it, trying to figure out how these kids are born, you know, with these animal parts in this apocalyptic world.
And that was the appeal to it. But the more I read it, the more I just really, really loved Jeff Lemire and his artwork is just, it's so different. And it's so, it's so gloomy in a way that speaks to me. And it's beautifully, it's beautifully sad, you know, it's more of that tragic shit, you know, it's very, a lot of comics these days, forget about, they're trying to get bright and colourful and sparkly.
No, Nick, comic, sad again. That's what I see. Oh, yeah. Can you just remind me, Jeff Lemire, did he do so?
Or am I thinking of someone completely different? I think he did. Oh, he did Animal Man. That's also DC.
I don't know if he did Thor not because I don't read that title. I don't know. I can see the chat at the corner of my eye. I am Shua Becker that you're there.
People can correct me if I'm wrong. Um, but, oh, sorry, I just, I've got a name in my head. I've never read Sweet Tooth, but I went through that same phase of comics where two superheroes, I needed something different, something gritty. And that's when I fell into image.
And I, did I binge image comics? Like anything that was coming out from them and Beauty was a big one. Um, oh, gosh, what's it called? Beauty was so good.
Beauty was so good. That was so good. That concept was like, yeah, that beauty was a disease. A beauty was a disease.
I loved it. I loved it. It was one of my favourite comic books. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All time. And I wrote, I used to write articles. Back in the day. And I wrote pretty much in love letter to Kelly Sude to Connie.
And she wrote it. And I was very, I was mortified, but so happy at the same time. But um, Bitch Planet was another huge one. I had to be bored.
She got unfinished as it. And pretty deadly was another one. I'd have to say that they're pretty deadly. Yeah, yeah.
Love the pretty deadly. I actually have two copies of Pretty Deadly. I have my reading copy and I have my display copy. So don't touch the display.
Like I don't, like that's fine there. Break the spinal you want on the, on the reading ones. Just read it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Just do not touch them ones. And, but there was a rat queens, that was it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A door rat queens.
That was a good time in comics. Just a question. A question as well. Because I'm not talking about the negative side of like the Fandoms or anything like that as well.
But just to touch on, because I know when Sammy started out her journey being like a nerd girl and going into the comic world for the first time, she didn't have the most positive experience. She's told us the story before. Like how did you find like with a being in America as well? Like with being a woman in the, like the nerd culture, where you accepted straight away or was the barriers put up that you kind of had a breakdown type thing?