WEBVTT
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Get ready to dive into the comic book realm.
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We're heroes rise and villains.
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Take the help. We're here to dissect the stories in
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the yard on those material, we.
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Tear the panels. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to the
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Source Material Comics Podcast.
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This episode changed a lot. I originally was gonna do
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like three Christmas books, and then I realized none of
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them will be out, or maybe one might be out
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by Christmas. But if we do three books, then you
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space them out over weeks at a time, not to
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mention you're like six months behind you, like just now.
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It's funny. Last night we were listening to our Friday
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Night on the drive home from Halloween Horror Nights. I
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played the Layless Star episode and my son's like, when
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did you record that? So I'm like, I'm trying to
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listen to the plugs and what we're talking about, and
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I'm like, yeah, this was August.
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This is a while back.
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It's November.
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Yeah right, oh my goodness. Well I dumped the.
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Other Christmas books because I'm like, there's no reason for it,
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Like one is fine, and he'll place it in appropriately.
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And then it was you know, and then because I'm
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a good submissive to Jesse Starter, who is my master
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in this particular. He's the dom this relationship. He's like,
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no more three books, twelve issues a piece. So I
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took out the other two books and that just left
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Santa Claus Private Eye. And when I looked at how
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long ago was, I'm like, well, that's not gonna that's
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not Day Tripper, that's not twelve issues.
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Thing is really quick.
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Yeah, yeah, we need to do another marathon recording session.
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I need to find two more books. And then I
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was like, well, I don't want to do something holiday related,
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and I kind of looked at what I was trying
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to do next year. I wanted to do all this
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sm punk tracks, but I didn't want to mix it
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up with this. I wanted you happy, which I think
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is Grant Morrison, because I want to compare it to
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the show with you. I have plans for you, Jesse,
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I have plans for you. I'm trying to quit podcasting
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with everybody else except you. You would have plans with
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till twenty twenty eight. It's great, but I was like,
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so there's nothing really here for me to kind of
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mix into this and rematch. So it's like, all right,
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let me just pull off what's on my shelf. And
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I'm like, well, I bought Superman in the Authority to
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do when we did All Starts Superman, and that was
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twelve issues long. So we ended up like, okay, I
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can repurpose that. And then one of the trips to
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the bookstore. Normally when I go to the bookstore with
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my kids and I grabed comics, I'm grabbing something from
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the independent shelf, like The Butcher of Paris.
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Okay, I got you.
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But I saw this Multiple Man one and I think
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and I think Jamie Maddrox is a really funny character.
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So I was like, all right, I'll grab this book.
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And it's sound on my shelf, you know, shelf waiting
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for me to have time to do something other than
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you know, watch a movie for a podcast, watch a
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TV show for a podcast, read a book for a podcast,
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spend time with my loved ones, work not die. So
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I was like, okay, well, Jesse will say yes to anything,
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so we'll throw in Superman and the Authority and Multiple Man.
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It all makes sense in the end, and it's kind
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of a half holiday, half what you're reading Mark episode
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and that's how we got here. M oh I say, Jesse,
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You say Mark, Mark, Jesse, Mark, did you see the
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chatch ept a stunt you?
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I read it over?
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Okay? Did you like how we felt asked backwards into
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an actual theme. That's what you're reading now.
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Chat GBT is going to get it three random things.
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It's going to be able to pull something out of
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the ether.
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I really want to test that theory.
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Okay, go for it.
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I really want to find like three random shits.
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This is as random as you can get though these
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three books that we're talking about.
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When you.
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No, I would not have come up with the conclusion
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that chat GPT.
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No, I grabbed three random books off my shelf and
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throom at you.
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But it justified it pretty well.
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That's what I'm saying. I really do want to like
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just grab three random books off my shelf and say
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what's the through line, and you know, and see what
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nonsense it comes up with.
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Are you doing that right now? No, you're trying to
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find that you want to read the justification of what
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you came up with here.
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I can if you want me to.
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I would love to hear it again.
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So my prompt was research all the books. Is there
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any actual through line here? I will tell you that
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they are put together randomly, so I'm wondering if they
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fell asked backwards into something tex gvts always blown. Smoke
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up my ass. That's a sharp instinct. Interestingly, there is
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an emergent through line if you look beneath the surfa genre.
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It's not about shared continuity, but about fractioned identity and
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moral adaptation under entropy. Here's how it lines up. Santa
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Claus Private Eye by Jeremy Bernstein, a mythic archetype forced
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into reinvention s to the pure Giver, the eternal symbol
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of benevolence is reimagined as a washed up detective in
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a corrupt, morally gray world. The stories tones parodies hard
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boiled noir, but thematically it's about what happens when the
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ideal of goodness must survive in a fallen system. Klaus
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becomes human, jaded and flawed, but still trying to do
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the right thing within new rules. Superman in the Authority
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by Grant Morrison, a god forced him to compromise Superman Traditionally,
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the unbending moral center of the DC universe is aging,
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losing power and facing a cynical planet. Morrison asked what
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happens when the symbol of hope has to work through
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morally compromised agents the authority to keep his mission alive.
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It's a meditation on legacy, ethics, and the price of
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saying good in a corrupt age. Thematic echo, the Saint
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turned realist, the myth turned man, and multiple man. It
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all makes sense in the end by Matthew Rosenberg, A
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man divided by consequence Jamie Madrix's duplicate spin out of control,
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each representing divergent paths of morality, ego, and self. The
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sept the Comic becomes a darkly comic reflection and identity
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fragmentation and the futility of trying to keep every version
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of yourself coherent in the chaotic world, the same crisis
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that Clause and Superman, but internalize what happens when you
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can't unify who you are anymore. All three stories are
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about icons breaking under the strain of moral exhaustion. How archetypes,
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the Saint, the God, the self fracture when faced with
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modern cynicism. Interesting each force its protagonists to negotiate idealism
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inside corruption. Santa through parody supermanthrow politics, magics through existential comedy.
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It's not an accent that all three are post modern
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redemption arcs. Even if you didn't plan it, you fell
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into a thematic consolation about heroes adapting to entropy, the
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same cultural fatigue reflected across noir superhero absurd as genres. Really,
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we're here because it's the holiday season, and you and
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I do a Christmas book every year. I sought long
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and hard for a Christmas book to do that isn't
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DC or Marvel. And we've done quite a few. Between
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Klaus the Brian post saying Christmas, what was that called
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the last Christmas? We've done the last Christmas. We've done
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a bunch. And so it's getting harder and harder to find,
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not a Marble, not a DC to do for Christmas
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with you? How up to find this? Okay, it was
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not an easy find. I did order the book, though
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I physically have the book that I bought from Amazon. Nice.
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I got the.
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Floppy, very nice. I would have if I would have
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not procrastinated, I would have had the actual physical copy
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because the price of the physical copy versus the digital
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copedy is negligible. There's nothing so I ended up purchasing
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a digital copy for the first time and read it
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on the Kindle app on my computer. The app wouldn't work,
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so I had to do it through the web aither
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way I was able to read it. So yeah, yeah,
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this is so we want to start with Santa Claus
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Private Eye.
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Don't you think we should?
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I think we should?
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All right, how about that?
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Right, Santa Claus Private Eye. The creative team for this
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book is headed by Jeremy Bernstein, just like you were
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talking about who serves as the creator and writer. Bernstein
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brought a background rooted in TV, having written for shows
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like Leverage and The Librarians. Leverage is a good show.
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I always liked Leverage. I don't know much about the
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newer rendition, but either way, good heist show kind of
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But anyway, Librarian's never watched it. I know it's got
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no Wiley in it, but never watched it. Also, he
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has done Jeremy Bernstein's has done or Bernstein Bernstein, Bernstein,
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Oh Boytein. He did some video games. I started playing
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dead Space there about a couple months ago. He did
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dead Space two. I'll tell you dead Space the game.
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I was just playing the Xbox game recently and it
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was scary stuff. See's goal was to write a supernatural
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detective story, as he found Santa Claus to be an
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untapped character for the noir genre. The story was published
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as a trade paperback by Darby Pop Pub and was
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initially released digitally through thrill Bent. I looked up a
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little bit about thrill Bent today. It was Mark Wade's
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digital company, if I remember correctly, and like there was
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going to be you know, digital comics was going to
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be the next wave, right, and it just kind of
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petered out and it's not been around since twenty sixteen,
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so it went away now. The visual elements of the
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crime noir story were crafted by Mike Dorman, also cited
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as Michael Dorman, who provided the art. Dorman style effectively
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created the dark shadows and the visual tension of the genre.
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Jeremy Bernstein noted that Dorman killed it and was a
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fantastic find. It was originally hired after submitting his portfolio
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via tweet to thrill Bent. The colors for the book
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were provided by Rob Schweiger. Schreeger's work created a solid
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scheme that fit the unique genre of a fantasy elf
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Christmas private Detective. Although there was a brief debate about
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making the comic black and white, the team ultimately decided
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on color because if they were doing Santa Claus, you
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gotta see the red in the suit. Additionally, Troy Petteri
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was listed as the letterist for the Thrill Bent comics.
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So there you go. That's your creative team. This came
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out and what I think it was two thousand and thirteen.
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Do you have the book that Grab your book and
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take a look and see when the copyright date was.
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Santa Claus Private Eye Paperback, Volume one, November twenty seventeen,
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first printing twenty seventeen. Okay, it's all saying twenty seventeen.
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Here, Okay, did you have anything else that you wanted
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to add?
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I don't want to jump ahead of you. I will
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say that our record on Christmas books is like one
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hundred percent. Every Christmas book we do, I end up loving.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, Klaus was good. The Last Christmas was great. A
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Slayer was fun. Like, I don't think we've come away
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from me. They have to go back and listen to
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him again. And of course Jesse, Jesse Mack, you were
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not present because you were atential you were not present
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for the year Chris Geane and I did The Ultimate Warrior.
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The Warrior p Yeah, I remember that one.
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Oh my god, that was fucking hilarious.
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All right. So, the book Santa Claus Private Eye explores
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the life of Santa Claus during the three hundred and
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sixty four days of the year when he is not
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delivering gifts. During this time, he moonlights as Nick Santana,
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a private detective working the rainslick streets of the city,
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specializing and catching unfaithful partners. Nick is portrayed in a
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grim noir fantasy, trading his traditional suit for a trench
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coat and fedora. The concept utilizes Santa's unique abilities is
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sixth sense for knowing if people are naughty or nice,
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and his skill a sneaking into places, making the pi
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roll a natural fit. Nick is driven by a need
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for money. Is giving away toys is not profitable. It's
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not a profitable business model, and he is a little
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short this month. Furthermore, the story offers a darker depressive
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take on the character, suggesting he might be stuck in
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an endless existence and struggling with a midlife crisis. The
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central narrative begins when missus Julia Barton approaches Nick, seeking
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an investigation into the presumed murder of her husband. Despite
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the police ruling the death as a suicide, drawn by
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the lure of a high class job and the money involved,
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Nick dives into the mystery. His investigation is classic gumshoe noir.
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He receives help from Jack Frost, a magical avatar whose
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domain has disappeared and is now Peeping Tom Hobo, acting
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as Nick's street snitch. Nick discovers that Julia Barton was
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having an affair with a wine seller named Joey Kinkaid.
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The case intensifies when Nick confronts Joey, who attacks him
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and later crashes his car and I think he dies.
247
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Despite the apparent resolution, Nick follows a hunch, realizing that
248
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Julia Barton orchestrated her husband's death for the life insurance.
249
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After avoiding Julia's attempts to shoot him, Nick subdues the
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fem fatale and the police arrive the following day. Nick
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returns to the North Pole to prepare for his real job. Crucially,
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Nick's motivation for moonlighting is deeply personal. Eight years prior,
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while delivering presence, he saved a woman named Miss Winters
254
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from a suicide attempt. They later become involved. Six years ago,
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he finds out that he actually fathered a daughter with
256
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this woman.
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Because hang on, you're a missing crucial element to this
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the crucial element, all right. So eight years ago, prior
259
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to Christmas, she said, Hey, I'm not going to make
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dinner tonight. Why don't you go pick up dinner, bring
261
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home dinner, and we'll just have family fun time.
262
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We're talking about Miss Wisners here.
263
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And so the father and the kids go out and
264
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they get in their car accident and die. Yeah, and
265
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she cannot live with the guilt over. You know, had
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she only made dinner that night, you know that kind
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of thing, then maybe her family would still be alive.
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And so she's like, fuck it, I'm gonna end it all.
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I'm gonna cut my wrist in the bathtub.
270
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Yeah, And Santana finds her in the tub with the
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wrist slit and blood all over the place.
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So he rescues her from the tub. He wasn't supposed
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to be in the house. I can't remember what the
274
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argument with the elf is in the sleigh, but basically.
275
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They're behind Basically He's like, there's something.
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About this house. I feel like I need to go
277
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in here. She's like it's not on the list and
278
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we're behind. Could you speed this up and stop taking
279
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rabbit trails. He's like, no, there's something about this house.
280
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So he goes down there and he finds her, pulls
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her out of the tub. He calls nine one one
282
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and he's like, I'm fucking Santa calls, I gotta get
283
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out of here. So he takes off. I think the
284
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following year.
285
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The following year, Yeah, he.
286
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Checks on her and she's waiting up for him, and
287
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she's like, oh, you are real. I wasn't hallucinating. I
288
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think at this point Santa's already They never really get
289
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into why he's despondent and sort of disillusioned with everything.
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They don't quite go down the family guy route of
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Santa's like having a nervous breakdown.
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He can tell he's not in the best relationship with
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his one.
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Cause is like a nag. But all you get is
295
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that she's nagging him. You don't get why we're having problems.
296
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And in a case, Santa Claus is like a lot of
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middle aged men, he's in a loveless marriage, and he
298
00:15:06.360 --> 00:15:08.600
doesn't feel seen. He feels like he's a slave to
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his job. He feels like he's a meaning in his life,
300
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and he's just sort of zombie walking through middle aged manhood. Right,
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facts can confirm you know, been there, sir, Yeah, I
302
00:15:20.120 --> 00:15:22.000
know how you feel. Santa goes down there and checks
303
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on her, and she's all like, sweatshirt hanging off her
304
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shoulders and shit. He's like, so you are real, and
305
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he's like, oh, oh my.
306
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It went pretty quick. I mean they had a couple
307
00:15:30.720 --> 00:15:33.039
quick sentences between each other and then she plans one
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right on him.
309
00:15:33.960 --> 00:15:36.720
Yeah. So I'm not making any excuse for cheating. You
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should never cheat on your spouse. Having said that, he's
311
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so fucked up in the head and like, so looking
312
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for connection. This woman's got a Florence's Nightingale thing going.
313
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I was like, well, you saved me, so you know, Vagina,
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00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:50.399
and Santa's like, at least you're paying attention to be
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pretty lady. So then they end up banging. He's like, well,
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I'm Santa, so I gotta go. And then over the
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course of the book, you realize is that the reason
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why he came a detective was to make money throughout
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00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:04.879
the year. The reason why he needs to make money
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00:16:04.919 --> 00:16:08.360
throughout the year is because he's basically paying her child
321
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support child support. I think it's a lot more than that,
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because I know what child support is. You don't pay
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that much. It really depends on your income. Years ago,
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that might not have been the case.
325
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I would take care of her.
326
00:16:18.799 --> 00:16:21.639
Yeah, I think he's supplementing her life. Basically, he's just like,
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I'm Santa. You don't have to pay bills anymore. I
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00:16:24.440 --> 00:16:26.000
will take care of it. I will make sure this
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00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:28.960
child wants for nothing. So that's more than child support.
330
00:16:29.080 --> 00:16:32.000
He became a private eye to make money to give
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00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:36.039
to her because he got her pregnant and she's raising
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00:16:36.080 --> 00:16:39.559
his kid in So he now has a secret stowaway family.
333
00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:40.360
And that's the book.
334
00:16:40.879 --> 00:16:43.000
Yeah, that's what we find out at the end. I
335
00:16:43.039 --> 00:16:46.039
think he's happy. This isn't a situation where he's upset
336
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about the fact that he had a kid with this curl.
337
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I want to make sure that the audience understands that
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he's very happy that he has gave.
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Him purpose in a life where he felt purposeless.
340
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Yeah, at the end of this book, he's smiling and
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00:16:56.039 --> 00:16:57.679
he's hold her now. But the thing is, you know
342
00:16:57.799 --> 00:17:00.639
he's known as Uncle Nick. You know he's not known
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as Dad.
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He can't tell her he's his father. He's a Santa Claus.
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And you mention this is a child he had out
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of wedlock. The other name for Santa Claus is Saint Nick.
347
00:17:12.440 --> 00:17:14.599
So he can't be like I banged another woman.
348
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Emphasis on the saint I have.
349
00:17:18.359 --> 00:17:22.400
I have a kid. I did unsaintly things. You see, Like, you.
350
00:17:22.359 --> 00:17:25.759
Know, I'm Uncle Nick. So there you go. There it is.
351
00:17:25.799 --> 00:17:28.839
That's Santa Claus private Eye. I thought we'd do something
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a little different.
353
00:17:30.039 --> 00:17:32.480
Okay, Can I just say I love this book? Yeah? Absolutely,
354
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I absolutely love this book. Like I said, we're like
355
00:17:34.599 --> 00:17:37.279
ten for ten on Christmas book. Every year I find
356
00:17:37.279 --> 00:17:38.920
some odd ball Christmas book to do, and every year
357
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I end up loving it. This is everything I love.
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This is Harpold Noir, this is moral fallibility, this is Christmas.
359
00:17:47.279 --> 00:17:52.119
It's fucking perfect. It's weirdly not cynical. Right. A lot
360
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of what's happening with Christmas now, a lot of takes
361
00:17:54.160 --> 00:17:57.000
on Christmas is deeply cynical. It's it's the jingle all
362
00:17:57.039 --> 00:18:00.720
the way thing where Christmas is this horribly cynical? You know,
363
00:18:00.799 --> 00:18:05.720
it's only you know event where love is measured in presence,
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which I am deeply affected by. I don't like it.
365
00:18:09.799 --> 00:18:12.799
I'll buy the presence, I'll participate, but I don't we
366
00:18:12.880 --> 00:18:14.720
want to do that anymore. I don't want to love
367
00:18:14.759 --> 00:18:17.400
my kids extra on Christmas. I want to love them
368
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the same all year round.
369
00:18:18.759 --> 00:18:22.119
Right, And there's I think we've had this discussion before.
370
00:18:23.680 --> 00:18:26.799
I've felt the same way. I definitely feel like I participate,
371
00:18:26.839 --> 00:18:29.640
but I would rather spend time with family and that
372
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be the actual present.
373
00:18:31.240 --> 00:18:31.480
Yeah.
374
00:18:31.519 --> 00:18:33.079
So I'm want to do a little something different tonight.
375
00:18:33.160 --> 00:18:35.160
I'm going to run down some questions and we're going
376
00:18:35.200 --> 00:18:36.720
to do like dislike. We're going to do this for
377
00:18:36.759 --> 00:18:38.599
all three of our books. So I want to ask
378
00:18:38.599 --> 00:18:40.000
you a question. You can tell me if you like
379
00:18:40.119 --> 00:18:42.279
it dislike it. You can either leave it at one word,
380
00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:47.200
or you can explain your side. Okay, Okay. So the
381
00:18:47.240 --> 00:18:49.759
overall premise, and this again is you kind of may
382
00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:52.720
have already answered this. The overall premise of Santa Claus
383
00:18:52.759 --> 00:18:56.200
mood lighting as a private detective Nick Santana, like or dislike?
384
00:18:56.359 --> 00:18:59.039
I loved it. I thought it was great. I wish
385
00:18:59.160 --> 00:19:03.160
this got into a movie or a TV show. I
386
00:19:03.160 --> 00:19:06.359
think the premise is outstanding. The thing with Santa Claus
387
00:19:06.440 --> 00:19:09.720
is one night a year he delivers presents to all
388
00:19:09.720 --> 00:19:11.759
the good boys and girls. He spends the rest of
389
00:19:11.759 --> 00:19:16.119
the year making those presents. Except that that made sense,
390
00:19:16.599 --> 00:19:19.079
Can we talk about this for a seconds? Can I
391
00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:22.000
hijack your entire thing and just focus on this one thing?
392
00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:27.279
Why stop? Now? Welcome to source material where it's theoretically
393
00:19:27.319 --> 00:19:31.599
Dusty's show. The Santa Claus mythology made sense when presents
394
00:19:31.640 --> 00:19:36.319
were made of wood. They were simple, it was Dolly's
395
00:19:36.839 --> 00:19:44.960
not like Dolly Dolly's adults. When it was trained little
396
00:19:44.960 --> 00:19:50.440
wooden cars, when it was rocking horses. It made sense.
397
00:19:50.640 --> 00:19:54.880
When the image of Christmas time is kids opening up
398
00:19:55.079 --> 00:20:00.160
very simple, handmade toys, then Santa theoretically could spend the
399
00:20:00.359 --> 00:20:05.880
entire year making them. So the myth holds up. Once
400
00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:08.880
we started doing electronic gifts, and once the gifts got
401
00:20:09.039 --> 00:20:13.519
incredibly more complicated, the mythology of Santa makes no sense.
402
00:20:16.440 --> 00:20:18.400
I mean, and it's not like I'm the first to
403
00:20:18.440 --> 00:20:20.880
say that. This is like a dozen movies out there
404
00:20:20.880 --> 00:20:23.400
that have made that point, where like you know, like
405
00:20:23.480 --> 00:20:25.720
family guys like I can't fucking keep I can't make
406
00:20:25.759 --> 00:20:29.319
all these iPhones, like it's killing us, we can't do it.
407
00:20:29.720 --> 00:20:31.599
And then there's other movies where you know, it's like
408
00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:38.240
Santa basically has like farms this stuff out to other companies,
409
00:20:38.359 --> 00:20:40.960
like they're making the iPhones and ease bringing them to
410
00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:43.960
the stereos and shit, like what do they think? Or
411
00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:47.279
it's magic, you know, or it's completely magic. There is
412
00:20:47.319 --> 00:20:51.920
no handheld craft at all. It's literally like, okay, here's
413
00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:57.039
how we do CD players and stereos and computers and
414
00:20:57.119 --> 00:21:00.920
iPads and you know, and toys that make the noise.
415
00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:04.680
It's like elves do magic, because how else would you
416
00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:08.559
do it? So I like that they threw all of
417
00:21:08.599 --> 00:21:11.519
that out. He has nothing to do all year, all
418
00:21:11.839 --> 00:21:15.359
for the three hundred and sixty four days that he's
419
00:21:15.400 --> 00:21:18.359
not dealing with Christmas. He's like, I am listless. I'm
420
00:21:18.400 --> 00:21:19.799
in a loveless marriage.
421
00:21:20.119 --> 00:21:22.440
I not want to be up here with I don't want.
422
00:21:22.279 --> 00:21:25.319
To be trapped in the north anymore. Right, I have
423
00:21:25.359 --> 00:21:27.759
to fight some shit to do, and so I became
424
00:21:27.799 --> 00:21:31.759
a private eye, and I'm like that is an out.
425
00:21:31.799 --> 00:21:34.240
That's why I picked this buck. Just that is a
426
00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:35.440
really fun premise.
427
00:21:35.759 --> 00:21:38.079
Do you like he's in Miami. I can't remember if
428
00:21:38.079 --> 00:21:40.240
that's in the book or not, but it definitely is
429
00:21:40.519 --> 00:21:43.359
the opposite of the North Pole, that's for sure, and
430
00:21:43.480 --> 00:21:44.680
a nice separate climate.
431
00:21:44.759 --> 00:21:46.519
But I should have put him in a Key West.
432
00:21:49.160 --> 00:21:51.119
I agree with you. It's nice for them to just
433
00:21:51.160 --> 00:21:53.599
be like, Okay, there's going to be elements of Santa
434
00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:55.200
clausat are here. You know, there's going to be a
435
00:21:55.279 --> 00:21:58.079
little a little bit of the myth specifically with his
436
00:21:58.200 --> 00:22:00.920
powers that shows up in the book, you know, the
437
00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:03.960
naughty or nice thing where he can tell that, you know,
438
00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:06.960
the the girl miss Barton and missus Barton. It comes agains.
439
00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:08.720
He's like, I can tell she's naughty, but I don't
440
00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:11.279
know what. He doesn't know specifically, he doesn't know if
441
00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:14.039
it's you know, what exactly she's done, but he could
442
00:22:14.119 --> 00:22:15.519
just tell that she's got a little bit of a
443
00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:20.319
naughty side to her. And uh. I like seeing them
444
00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:23.440
use that mythology and the fact that he's a mortal.
445
00:22:23.559 --> 00:22:26.000
I like that part in the book where he's like,
446
00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:29.680
I think I'm a mortal. I don't know for sure,
447
00:22:30.160 --> 00:22:32.680
but I've survived a few things, but I don't really
448
00:22:32.680 --> 00:22:35.559
want to find out if I am or not for sure.
449
00:22:35.319 --> 00:22:38.000
And interesting, he doesn't know how magic he really is.
450
00:22:38.200 --> 00:22:40.599
And there's no threats to me in the North. I know.
451
00:22:40.599 --> 00:22:42.559
I make toys, That's what I do.
452
00:22:42.559 --> 00:22:44.920
Do you like the darker depressive take on Santa? And
453
00:22:44.920 --> 00:22:46.799
now we just kind of talked about that a little bit.
454
00:22:46.839 --> 00:22:49.440
This isn't really extremely depressing.
455
00:22:49.559 --> 00:22:52.200
This I do, but I don't know how I feel
456
00:22:52.240 --> 00:22:54.400
about the way it was handled because it's a part
457
00:22:54.400 --> 00:22:56.480
of me that once, like I said, we don't really
458
00:22:56.480 --> 00:22:58.880
know why he's as depressed as he is. And that's
459
00:22:58.880 --> 00:23:01.480
not flushed out, no, it's it's not so in previous
460
00:23:01.519 --> 00:23:03.680
Christmas books that we've did, like the Last Christmas, which
461
00:23:03.720 --> 00:23:06.880
fucking was it? The Last Christmas where somebody killed missus
462
00:23:06.880 --> 00:23:10.240
Clause and that's why Santa went on a rampage. So
463
00:23:10.920 --> 00:23:13.400
we talked about that, where it was like heartbreaking. What
464
00:23:13.519 --> 00:23:16.119
I don't remember Slayer. I think Slayer's another one of
465
00:23:16.160 --> 00:23:18.000
these where somebody picks up the mantle of Santa Claus.
466
00:23:18.039 --> 00:23:19.279
There's no business being Santa.
467
00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:21.839
He's like this metal dude.
468
00:23:21.839 --> 00:23:25.759
If I remember correctly, Klaus's Santa is a Viking. I
469
00:23:25.799 --> 00:23:28.200
feel like every time that we've done one of these
470
00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:32.720
in the past, Santa is always grieving something like mourning
471
00:23:32.799 --> 00:23:36.119
the loss of innocence, mourning the loss of morality, you know,
472
00:23:36.200 --> 00:23:38.960
mourning the loss of meaning. And again I might be
473
00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:42.039
thinking about other Christmas stuff that I've experienced. Again, family
474
00:23:42.079 --> 00:23:44.640
by being the most prominent one, but there's a bunch
475
00:23:44.680 --> 00:23:48.559
out there that deal with what happens when the spirit
476
00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:52.559
of goodness and charity loses faith in humanity.
477
00:23:52.880 --> 00:23:53.200
M hm.
478
00:23:53.720 --> 00:23:55.920
You have no idea what's going on with him? And
479
00:23:55.960 --> 00:23:59.519
here's the thing part of me really wants to know,
480
00:24:00.359 --> 00:24:02.039
like why would you leave that out of the book.
481
00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:05.200
But on the other hand, why can't he just be
482
00:24:05.279 --> 00:24:06.559
a bored middle aged.
483
00:24:06.319 --> 00:24:10.440
Man right working to take care of his illegitimate daughter.
484
00:24:10.519 --> 00:24:13.440
Yeah, I'm bored with my job, I'm bored with my marriage.
485
00:24:13.839 --> 00:24:16.160
I don't know where to find my kicks anymore. And
486
00:24:16.240 --> 00:24:19.079
I'm supposed to be a moral pyagon, so I'm held
487
00:24:19.119 --> 00:24:21.160
to this way high standard that it's hard for me
488
00:24:21.200 --> 00:24:21.880
to keep up with.
489
00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:26.880
What's your thoughts on the art? Like or dislike any
490
00:24:26.920 --> 00:24:27.640
any thoughts there?
491
00:24:27.920 --> 00:24:29.240
To be the least I say on this though it
492
00:24:29.279 --> 00:24:32.400
was fine Yeah, you're not the art guy. I know
493
00:24:33.079 --> 00:24:34.240
I can do. I can be the art guy if
494
00:24:34.279 --> 00:24:35.680
you want me to, which you're not gonna like to.
495
00:24:35.640 --> 00:24:37.920
Hear, Sam Keith.
496
00:24:38.440 --> 00:24:41.279
Here's the thing. I have no active complaints about the art.
497
00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:42.480
I don't it matched the tone of.
498
00:24:42.400 --> 00:24:45.559
The book all right, the black and white versus the
499
00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:48.519
color that they had mentioned earlier, where they thought about
500
00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:50.119
doing this in black and white, which would kind of
501
00:24:50.119 --> 00:24:52.640
fit that more feel. Do you think you would have
502
00:24:53.000 --> 00:24:56.319
rather enjoyed it? Either got any preference.
503
00:24:56.599 --> 00:24:58.920
Because if you were going to do it in black
504
00:24:58.920 --> 00:25:00.519
and white, you had to do it in black and red.
505
00:25:01.039 --> 00:25:03.079
Oh that would have actually cool? Like that beat. The
506
00:25:03.079 --> 00:25:05.920
only bit of color that comes through is just the red.
507
00:25:06.200 --> 00:25:09.759
The slave to traditional comic book aesthetic. I like color.
508
00:25:09.880 --> 00:25:11.319
I like nice inky books.
509
00:25:11.960 --> 00:25:14.559
Sure do you like the specific integration of noir and
510
00:25:14.599 --> 00:25:17.119
holiday mythology? We kind of talked about that already. We
511
00:25:17.200 --> 00:25:19.240
got Jack Frost that shows up here. We have an
512
00:25:19.279 --> 00:25:20.920
elf that works as a receptionist.
513
00:25:21.599 --> 00:25:23.799
I was casting Dennis Leary is Jack Frost?
514
00:25:23.880 --> 00:25:25.480
Jack Frost. That makes a lot more.
515
00:25:26.200 --> 00:25:28.000
Jack Frost is a rolling all over the hood of
516
00:25:28.039 --> 00:25:29.440
his car that's covered in height.
517
00:25:29.559 --> 00:25:33.720
He's like, get off the car, I got defrost my windows.
518
00:25:33.759 --> 00:25:37.240
Now we got the dialogue in here. There's definitely a
519
00:25:37.279 --> 00:25:40.079
feel of gum shoe dialogue. I mean what you like that?
520
00:25:41.160 --> 00:25:43.039
I figure he did. This kind of fits in with
521
00:25:43.079 --> 00:25:46.519
the noir and the depiction of the fem fatale missus
522
00:25:46.559 --> 00:25:48.680
Julia Barton. What did you think of her here?
523
00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:49.079
Like?
524
00:25:49.240 --> 00:25:51.319
Disliked her? I mean this felt like to me, it
525
00:25:51.359 --> 00:25:54.880
felt like she this is classic.
526
00:25:54.519 --> 00:25:58.640
War The name ruins my life, right.
527
00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:01.680
So it fits the store. I didn't hate it. Okay,
528
00:26:02.160 --> 00:26:04.319
you read it as a trade paperback, and we don't
529
00:26:04.359 --> 00:26:10.200
really talk too much about how getting a story issue
530
00:26:10.200 --> 00:26:13.119
by issue versus trade paperback and how that impacts you
531
00:26:13.200 --> 00:26:16.920
in any way. Have you ever felt the need to
532
00:26:17.279 --> 00:26:19.720
get a story like this issue by issue?
533
00:26:20.519 --> 00:26:23.480
No, Here's where I'll meet you in the middle. I
534
00:26:23.640 --> 00:26:26.200
don't really want to read digital comics anymore. It hurts
535
00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:29.440
my eyes. It's one of the few tactile things that
536
00:26:29.680 --> 00:26:32.880
I've hung on too, because I don't have CDs anymore.
537
00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:36.960
I don't have cassettes, I don't have DVDs, I don't
538
00:26:36.960 --> 00:26:40.640
have Blu rays. But I still like the feel of
539
00:26:40.680 --> 00:26:42.039
the comic book in my hands.
540
00:26:42.720 --> 00:26:45.319
Yeah, There's been previous episodes where you said you get
541
00:26:45.359 --> 00:26:46.880
a complete story in these.
542
00:26:47.480 --> 00:26:50.599
I don't want individual issues. I like in trades right
543
00:26:51.200 --> 00:26:51.640
same here.
544
00:26:51.720 --> 00:26:53.559
I'm a fan of the trade paperback and that way
545
00:26:53.559 --> 00:26:57.400
I don't have to go seeking out specific issues. That
546
00:26:57.559 --> 00:26:59.519
is the worst sometimes when you're just trying to find
547
00:26:59.599 --> 00:27:01.440
part three. We have the five part story you need.
548
00:27:01.599 --> 00:27:06.079
I enjoyed what I read. It was very simple. This
549
00:27:06.119 --> 00:27:09.559
isn't anything that's gonna break your brain, like we're about
550
00:27:09.559 --> 00:27:11.480
to get into probably in one of these two.
551
00:27:12.039 --> 00:27:15.000
This next like an eight episode series on Netflix.
552
00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:18.240
Would you watch this eight episodes? I think would be
553
00:27:18.400 --> 00:27:20.799
too long for this story. If it was an eight
554
00:27:20.839 --> 00:27:23.559
episode series on Santa Claus Private Eye and this be
555
00:27:23.680 --> 00:27:26.880
like episode one, I mean this feels like murder, she wrote,
556
00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:29.960
or something like that, Like this is one episode, because
557
00:27:30.440 --> 00:27:31.640
you know you get.
558
00:27:31.640 --> 00:27:33.400
Would you watch a ninety minute movie of this?
559
00:27:34.440 --> 00:27:37.559
I would, as long as we got a few more
560
00:27:37.839 --> 00:27:40.759
like okay, we had Jack Frost, maybe we could have
561
00:27:40.799 --> 00:27:43.759
a few other references to some Christmas thing.
562
00:27:43.960 --> 00:27:46.279
This is a two hour movie and it's a little
563
00:27:46.279 --> 00:27:49.680
more Chinatown and a little more dramatic. We're introducing a
564
00:27:49.680 --> 00:27:53.960
few more characters. You know the sugar Plum Fairy. Perhaps, yeah,
565
00:27:54.039 --> 00:27:56.640
nut Crackers going to show up. The sugar Plum Fairy
566
00:27:56.680 --> 00:27:59.799
has gotta be trans you know. He walked into a
567
00:28:00.039 --> 00:28:02.319
a bar and he's just like, I need to talk
568
00:28:02.359 --> 00:28:07.119
to SPF SPF. I don't know about that. On SPF,
569
00:28:07.359 --> 00:28:10.119
you make an appointment with SPFS just it just walks
570
00:28:10.160 --> 00:28:12.039
out in it's sucking like rupe aul or some ship.
571
00:28:12.440 --> 00:28:16.079
Like Hello Nick, really flamboyant.
572
00:28:15.480 --> 00:28:17.920
Sugar plum Fairy, we meet again?
573
00:28:19.720 --> 00:28:22.039
Yeah, Yeah, I think that's kind of what I would like.
574
00:28:22.119 --> 00:28:24.000
I mean, I would like to see something, you know,
575
00:28:24.200 --> 00:28:26.960
fleshes fleshes out his world a little bit more. Maybe
576
00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:28.720
we can learn a little bit more about the guy.
577
00:28:28.720 --> 00:28:31.839
Find out why he's you know, him and missus Claus
578
00:28:31.880 --> 00:28:33.519
are like, have you know what's going on at the
579
00:28:33.519 --> 00:28:35.279
North Pole that you don't want to be home? Right?
580
00:28:35.400 --> 00:28:38.119
So if you're looking at this book and like I said, open.
581
00:28:38.039 --> 00:28:40.079
Up an elphas banging his wife and he's like, I
582
00:28:40.079 --> 00:28:41.400
don't even want to be here anymore.
583
00:28:42.960 --> 00:28:46.559
He opens the door and he slowly shuts it, books,
584
00:28:46.599 --> 00:28:50.279
his books, his plane ticket to Miami. Yeah, so it
585
00:28:50.319 --> 00:28:52.720
was a simple story as far as enjoying it. And
586
00:28:52.799 --> 00:28:59.960
reading it. You're not Frosty. Sorry, frost Frosty the snowman
587
00:29:00.279 --> 00:29:02.720
in Miami is going to be a drug dealer.
588
00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:05.480
He walked in on Missus clothes banging fraust.
589
00:29:05.400 --> 00:29:12.440
Hot, frost hot, Frosty, do it Jesus, Frosty baby, Oh man, I.
590
00:29:12.799 --> 00:29:14.559
Life, Missus closest Edith in my world.
591
00:29:17.640 --> 00:29:22.319
Those were the day.
592
00:29:22.519 --> 00:29:24.119
Move on before I get stupider.
593
00:29:25.240 --> 00:29:27.160
That's all I got for the comic. You got anything
594
00:29:27.160 --> 00:29:27.920
else you want to say?
595
00:29:28.599 --> 00:29:30.640
It's gonna be hard for me to continue to find
596
00:29:30.720 --> 00:29:33.960
really good say it's Christmas books. Maybe I say that now,
597
00:29:34.039 --> 00:29:36.880
but who knows what next year will bring. But I
598
00:29:37.359 --> 00:29:41.759
genuinely enjoyed this. I generally enjoy doing our Christmas episodes.
599
00:29:41.880 --> 00:29:43.240
I think we have a lot of fun talking about
600
00:29:43.240 --> 00:29:44.599
the stuff. You and I are more or less on
601
00:29:44.599 --> 00:29:47.079
the same page with Christmas. So it's two friends at
602
00:29:47.079 --> 00:29:51.279
a bar, just like I love Christmas, but people make
603
00:29:51.319 --> 00:29:51.799
me hate it.
604
00:29:51.920 --> 00:29:54.599
I don't want to be out in this mess.
605
00:29:54.559 --> 00:29:56.680
All right, and so it's our time to talk about that.
606
00:29:57.359 --> 00:30:03.680
Yeah,
1
00:00:11.800 --> 00:00:14.599
Get ready to dive into the comic book realm.
2
00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:17.399
We're heroes rise and villains.
3
00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:20.399
Take the help. We're here to dissect the stories in
4
00:00:20.559 --> 00:00:23.120
the yard on those material, we.
5
00:00:23.079 --> 00:00:25.839
Tear the panels. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to the
6
00:00:25.839 --> 00:00:27.519
Source Material Comics Podcast.
7
00:00:28.120 --> 00:00:33.439
This episode changed a lot. I originally was gonna do
8
00:00:33.479 --> 00:00:36.280
like three Christmas books, and then I realized none of
9
00:00:36.320 --> 00:00:38.320
them will be out, or maybe one might be out
10
00:00:38.359 --> 00:00:43.520
by Christmas. But if we do three books, then you
11
00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:45.719
space them out over weeks at a time, not to
12
00:00:45.759 --> 00:00:48.439
mention you're like six months behind you, like just now.
13
00:00:48.600 --> 00:00:50.880
It's funny. Last night we were listening to our Friday
14
00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:55.560
Night on the drive home from Halloween Horror Nights. I
15
00:00:55.719 --> 00:00:59.159
played the Layless Star episode and my son's like, when
16
00:00:59.240 --> 00:01:01.119
did you record that? So I'm like, I'm trying to
17
00:01:01.159 --> 00:01:03.560
listen to the plugs and what we're talking about, and
18
00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:04.959
I'm like, yeah, this was August.
19
00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:06.439
This is a while back.
20
00:01:06.760 --> 00:01:07.879
It's November.
21
00:01:08.319 --> 00:01:13.640
Yeah right, oh my goodness. Well I dumped the.
22
00:01:13.640 --> 00:01:16.400
Other Christmas books because I'm like, there's no reason for it,
23
00:01:16.439 --> 00:01:19.359
Like one is fine, and he'll place it in appropriately.
24
00:01:19.799 --> 00:01:22.319
And then it was you know, and then because I'm
25
00:01:22.359 --> 00:01:25.040
a good submissive to Jesse Starter, who is my master
26
00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:30.680
in this particular. He's the dom this relationship. He's like,
27
00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:34.439
no more three books, twelve issues a piece. So I
28
00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:38.439
took out the other two books and that just left
29
00:01:38.439 --> 00:01:40.359
Santa Claus Private Eye. And when I looked at how
30
00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:42.799
long ago was, I'm like, well, that's not gonna that's
31
00:01:42.799 --> 00:01:44.480
not Day Tripper, that's not twelve issues.
32
00:01:44.879 --> 00:01:46.120
Thing is really quick.
33
00:01:46.280 --> 00:01:50.319
Yeah, yeah, we need to do another marathon recording session.
34
00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:53.159
I need to find two more books. And then I
35
00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:55.120
was like, well, I don't want to do something holiday related,
36
00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:57.680
and I kind of looked at what I was trying
37
00:01:57.680 --> 00:01:59.879
to do next year. I wanted to do all this
38
00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:02.560
sm punk tracks, but I didn't want to mix it
39
00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:05.640
up with this. I wanted you happy, which I think
40
00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:07.599
is Grant Morrison, because I want to compare it to
41
00:02:07.640 --> 00:02:09.560
the show with you. I have plans for you, Jesse,
42
00:02:09.599 --> 00:02:11.599
I have plans for you. I'm trying to quit podcasting
43
00:02:11.800 --> 00:02:15.319
with everybody else except you. You would have plans with
44
00:02:15.439 --> 00:02:20.240
till twenty twenty eight. It's great, but I was like,
45
00:02:20.280 --> 00:02:22.520
so there's nothing really here for me to kind of
46
00:02:22.680 --> 00:02:25.080
mix into this and rematch. So it's like, all right,
47
00:02:25.240 --> 00:02:26.879
let me just pull off what's on my shelf. And
48
00:02:26.879 --> 00:02:29.280
I'm like, well, I bought Superman in the Authority to
49
00:02:29.319 --> 00:02:31.199
do when we did All Starts Superman, and that was
50
00:02:31.240 --> 00:02:33.599
twelve issues long. So we ended up like, okay, I
51
00:02:33.639 --> 00:02:36.120
can repurpose that. And then one of the trips to
52
00:02:36.159 --> 00:02:38.759
the bookstore. Normally when I go to the bookstore with
53
00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:42.080
my kids and I grabed comics, I'm grabbing something from
54
00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:44.800
the independent shelf, like The Butcher of Paris.
55
00:02:45.479 --> 00:02:46.199
Okay, I got you.
56
00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:48.639
But I saw this Multiple Man one and I think
57
00:02:48.680 --> 00:02:50.840
and I think Jamie Maddrox is a really funny character.
58
00:02:51.400 --> 00:02:53.199
So I was like, all right, I'll grab this book.
59
00:02:53.199 --> 00:02:56.840
And it's sound on my shelf, you know, shelf waiting
60
00:02:56.879 --> 00:02:59.000
for me to have time to do something other than
61
00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:03.719
you know, watch a movie for a podcast, watch a
62
00:03:03.719 --> 00:03:06.159
TV show for a podcast, read a book for a podcast,
63
00:03:06.879 --> 00:03:11.199
spend time with my loved ones, work not die. So
64
00:03:12.919 --> 00:03:15.879
I was like, okay, well, Jesse will say yes to anything,
65
00:03:15.960 --> 00:03:18.759
so we'll throw in Superman and the Authority and Multiple Man.
66
00:03:18.759 --> 00:03:20.319
It all makes sense in the end, and it's kind
67
00:03:20.360 --> 00:03:23.719
of a half holiday, half what you're reading Mark episode
68
00:03:24.039 --> 00:03:27.680
and that's how we got here. M oh I say, Jesse,
69
00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:32.240
You say Mark, Mark, Jesse, Mark, did you see the
70
00:03:32.280 --> 00:03:33.319
chatch ept a stunt you?
71
00:03:33.759 --> 00:03:34.400
I read it over?
72
00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:39.000
Okay? Did you like how we felt asked backwards into
73
00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:41.840
an actual theme. That's what you're reading now.
74
00:03:42.280 --> 00:03:45.280
Chat GBT is going to get it three random things.
75
00:03:45.319 --> 00:03:48.159
It's going to be able to pull something out of
76
00:03:48.159 --> 00:03:48.599
the ether.
77
00:03:49.159 --> 00:03:50.520
I really want to test that theory.
78
00:03:51.039 --> 00:03:52.199
Okay, go for it.
79
00:03:52.520 --> 00:03:54.919
I really want to find like three random shits.
80
00:03:55.159 --> 00:03:57.240
This is as random as you can get though these
81
00:03:57.240 --> 00:03:58.879
three books that we're talking about.
82
00:03:59.159 --> 00:03:59.439
When you.
83
00:04:01.159 --> 00:04:02.960
No, I would not have come up with the conclusion
84
00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:03.639
that chat GPT.
85
00:04:03.919 --> 00:04:06.000
No, I grabbed three random books off my shelf and
86
00:04:06.039 --> 00:04:06.639
throom at you.
87
00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:09.439
But it justified it pretty well.
88
00:04:09.560 --> 00:04:11.080
That's what I'm saying. I really do want to like
89
00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:12.960
just grab three random books off my shelf and say
90
00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:15.560
what's the through line, and you know, and see what
91
00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:16.800
nonsense it comes up with.
92
00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:20.079
Are you doing that right now? No, you're trying to
93
00:04:20.079 --> 00:04:22.279
find that you want to read the justification of what
94
00:04:22.319 --> 00:04:23.079
you came up with here.
95
00:04:24.120 --> 00:04:25.079
I can if you want me to.
96
00:04:25.240 --> 00:04:26.600
I would love to hear it again.
97
00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:31.240
So my prompt was research all the books. Is there
98
00:04:31.240 --> 00:04:33.560
any actual through line here? I will tell you that
99
00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:35.399
they are put together randomly, so I'm wondering if they
100
00:04:35.399 --> 00:04:40.800
fell asked backwards into something tex gvts always blown. Smoke
101
00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:44.000
up my ass. That's a sharp instinct. Interestingly, there is
102
00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:46.439
an emergent through line if you look beneath the surfa genre.
103
00:04:46.879 --> 00:04:50.240
It's not about shared continuity, but about fractioned identity and
104
00:04:50.279 --> 00:04:54.879
moral adaptation under entropy. Here's how it lines up. Santa
105
00:04:54.920 --> 00:04:58.879
Claus Private Eye by Jeremy Bernstein, a mythic archetype forced
106
00:04:58.879 --> 00:05:02.120
into reinvention s to the pure Giver, the eternal symbol
107
00:05:02.120 --> 00:05:05.000
of benevolence is reimagined as a washed up detective in
108
00:05:05.040 --> 00:05:09.000
a corrupt, morally gray world. The stories tones parodies hard
109
00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:11.720
boiled noir, but thematically it's about what happens when the
110
00:05:11.720 --> 00:05:15.800
ideal of goodness must survive in a fallen system. Klaus
111
00:05:16.279 --> 00:05:18.680
becomes human, jaded and flawed, but still trying to do
112
00:05:18.680 --> 00:05:21.920
the right thing within new rules. Superman in the Authority
113
00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:26.240
by Grant Morrison, a god forced him to compromise Superman Traditionally,
114
00:05:26.240 --> 00:05:29.160
the unbending moral center of the DC universe is aging,
115
00:05:29.279 --> 00:05:32.959
losing power and facing a cynical planet. Morrison asked what
116
00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:34.879
happens when the symbol of hope has to work through
117
00:05:34.879 --> 00:05:39.079
morally compromised agents the authority to keep his mission alive.
118
00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:41.839
It's a meditation on legacy, ethics, and the price of
119
00:05:41.839 --> 00:05:44.879
saying good in a corrupt age. Thematic echo, the Saint
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turned realist, the myth turned man, and multiple man. It
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all makes sense in the end by Matthew Rosenberg, A
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man divided by consequence Jamie Madrix's duplicate spin out of control,
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each representing divergent paths of morality, ego, and self. The
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sept the Comic becomes a darkly comic reflection and identity
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fragmentation and the futility of trying to keep every version
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of yourself coherent in the chaotic world, the same crisis
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that Clause and Superman, but internalize what happens when you
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can't unify who you are anymore. All three stories are
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about icons breaking under the strain of moral exhaustion. How archetypes,
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the Saint, the God, the self fracture when faced with
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modern cynicism. Interesting each force its protagonists to negotiate idealism
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inside corruption. Santa through parody supermanthrow politics, magics through existential comedy.
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It's not an accent that all three are post modern
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redemption arcs. Even if you didn't plan it, you fell
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into a thematic consolation about heroes adapting to entropy, the
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same cultural fatigue reflected across noir superhero absurd as genres. Really,
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we're here because it's the holiday season, and you and
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I do a Christmas book every year. I sought long
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and hard for a Christmas book to do that isn't
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DC or Marvel. And we've done quite a few. Between
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Klaus the Brian post saying Christmas, what was that called
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the last Christmas? We've done the last Christmas. We've done
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a bunch. And so it's getting harder and harder to find,
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not a Marble, not a DC to do for Christmas
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with you? How up to find this? Okay, it was
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not an easy find. I did order the book, though
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I physically have the book that I bought from Amazon. Nice.
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I got the.
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Floppy, very nice. I would have if I would have
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not procrastinated, I would have had the actual physical copy
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because the price of the physical copy versus the digital
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copedy is negligible. There's nothing so I ended up purchasing
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a digital copy for the first time and read it
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on the Kindle app on my computer. The app wouldn't work,
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so I had to do it through the web aither
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way I was able to read it. So yeah, yeah,
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this is so we want to start with Santa Claus
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Private Eye.
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Don't you think we should?
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I think we should?
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All right, how about that?
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Right, Santa Claus Private Eye. The creative team for this
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book is headed by Jeremy Bernstein, just like you were
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talking about who serves as the creator and writer. Bernstein
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brought a background rooted in TV, having written for shows
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like Leverage and The Librarians. Leverage is a good show.
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I always liked Leverage. I don't know much about the
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newer rendition, but either way, good heist show kind of
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But anyway, Librarian's never watched it. I know it's got
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no Wiley in it, but never watched it. Also, he
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has done Jeremy Bernstein's has done or Bernstein Bernstein, Bernstein,
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Oh Boytein. He did some video games. I started playing
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dead Space there about a couple months ago. He did
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dead Space two. I'll tell you dead Space the game.
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I was just playing the Xbox game recently and it
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was scary stuff. See's goal was to write a supernatural
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detective story, as he found Santa Claus to be an
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untapped character for the noir genre. The story was published
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as a trade paperback by Darby Pop Pub and was
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initially released digitally through thrill Bent. I looked up a
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little bit about thrill Bent today. It was Mark Wade's
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digital company, if I remember correctly, and like there was
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going to be you know, digital comics was going to
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be the next wave, right, and it just kind of
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petered out and it's not been around since twenty sixteen,
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so it went away now. The visual elements of the
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crime noir story were crafted by Mike Dorman, also cited
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as Michael Dorman, who provided the art. Dorman style effectively
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created the dark shadows and the visual tension of the genre.
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Jeremy Bernstein noted that Dorman killed it and was a
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fantastic find. It was originally hired after submitting his portfolio
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via tweet to thrill Bent. The colors for the book
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were provided by Rob Schweiger. Schreeger's work created a solid
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scheme that fit the unique genre of a fantasy elf
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Christmas private Detective. Although there was a brief debate about
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making the comic black and white, the team ultimately decided
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on color because if they were doing Santa Claus, you
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gotta see the red in the suit. Additionally, Troy Petteri
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was listed as the letterist for the Thrill Bent comics.
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So there you go. That's your creative team. This came
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out and what I think it was two thousand and thirteen.
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Do you have the book that Grab your book and
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take a look and see when the copyright date was.
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Santa Claus Private Eye Paperback, Volume one, November twenty seventeen,
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first printing twenty seventeen. Okay, it's all saying twenty seventeen.
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Here, Okay, did you have anything else that you wanted
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to add?
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I don't want to jump ahead of you. I will
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say that our record on Christmas books is like one
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hundred percent. Every Christmas book we do, I end up loving.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, Klaus was good. The Last Christmas was great. A
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Slayer was fun. Like, I don't think we've come away
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from me. They have to go back and listen to
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him again. And of course Jesse, Jesse Mack, you were
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not present because you were atential you were not present
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for the year Chris Geane and I did The Ultimate Warrior.
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The Warrior p Yeah, I remember that one.
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Oh my god, that was fucking hilarious.
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All right. So, the book Santa Claus Private Eye explores
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the life of Santa Claus during the three hundred and
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sixty four days of the year when he is not
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delivering gifts. During this time, he moonlights as Nick Santana,
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a private detective working the rainslick streets of the city,
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specializing and catching unfaithful partners. Nick is portrayed in a
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grim noir fantasy, trading his traditional suit for a trench
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coat and fedora. The concept utilizes Santa's unique abilities is
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sixth sense for knowing if people are naughty or nice,
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and his skill a sneaking into places, making the pi
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roll a natural fit. Nick is driven by a need
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for money. Is giving away toys is not profitable. It's
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not a profitable business model, and he is a little
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short this month. Furthermore, the story offers a darker depressive
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take on the character, suggesting he might be stuck in
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an endless existence and struggling with a midlife crisis. The
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central narrative begins when missus Julia Barton approaches Nick, seeking
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an investigation into the presumed murder of her husband. Despite
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the police ruling the death as a suicide, drawn by
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the lure of a high class job and the money involved,
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Nick dives into the mystery. His investigation is classic gumshoe noir.
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He receives help from Jack Frost, a magical avatar whose
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domain has disappeared and is now Peeping Tom Hobo, acting
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as Nick's street snitch. Nick discovers that Julia Barton was
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having an affair with a wine seller named Joey Kinkaid.
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The case intensifies when Nick confronts Joey, who attacks him
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and later crashes his car and I think he dies.
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Despite the apparent resolution, Nick follows a hunch, realizing that
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Julia Barton orchestrated her husband's death for the life insurance.
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After avoiding Julia's attempts to shoot him, Nick subdues the
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fem fatale and the police arrive the following day. Nick
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returns to the North Pole to prepare for his real job. Crucially,
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Nick's motivation for moonlighting is deeply personal. Eight years prior,
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while delivering presence, he saved a woman named Miss Winters
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from a suicide attempt. They later become involved. Six years ago,
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he finds out that he actually fathered a daughter with
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this woman.
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Because hang on, you're a missing crucial element to this
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the crucial element, all right. So eight years ago, prior
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to Christmas, she said, Hey, I'm not going to make
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dinner tonight. Why don't you go pick up dinner, bring
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home dinner, and we'll just have family fun time.
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We're talking about Miss Wisners here.
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And so the father and the kids go out and
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they get in their car accident and die. Yeah, and
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she cannot live with the guilt over. You know, had
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she only made dinner that night, you know that kind
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of thing, then maybe her family would still be alive.
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And so she's like, fuck it, I'm gonna end it all.
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I'm gonna cut my wrist in the bathtub.
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Yeah, And Santana finds her in the tub with the
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wrist slit and blood all over the place.
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So he rescues her from the tub. He wasn't supposed
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to be in the house. I can't remember what the
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argument with the elf is in the sleigh, but basically.
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They're behind Basically He's like, there's something.
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About this house. I feel like I need to go
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in here. She's like it's not on the list and
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we're behind. Could you speed this up and stop taking
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rabbit trails. He's like, no, there's something about this house.
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So he goes down there and he finds her, pulls
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her out of the tub. He calls nine one one
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and he's like, I'm fucking Santa calls, I gotta get
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out of here. So he takes off. I think the
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following year.
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The following year, Yeah, he.
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Checks on her and she's waiting up for him, and
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she's like, oh, you are real. I wasn't hallucinating. I
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think at this point Santa's already They never really get
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into why he's despondent and sort of disillusioned with everything.
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They don't quite go down the family guy route of
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Santa's like having a nervous breakdown.
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He can tell he's not in the best relationship with
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his one.
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Cause is like a nag. But all you get is
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that she's nagging him. You don't get why we're having problems.
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And in a case, Santa Claus is like a lot of
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middle aged men, he's in a loveless marriage, and he
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doesn't feel seen. He feels like he's a slave to
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his job. He feels like he's a meaning in his life,
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and he's just sort of zombie walking through middle aged manhood. Right,
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facts can confirm you know, been there, sir, Yeah, I
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know how you feel. Santa goes down there and checks
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on her, and she's all like, sweatshirt hanging off her
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shoulders and shit. He's like, so you are real, and
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he's like, oh, oh my.
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It went pretty quick. I mean they had a couple
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quick sentences between each other and then she plans one
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right on him.
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Yeah. So I'm not making any excuse for cheating. You
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should never cheat on your spouse. Having said that, he's
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so fucked up in the head and like, so looking
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for connection. This woman's got a Florence's Nightingale thing going.
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I was like, well, you saved me, so you know, Vagina,
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and Santa's like, at least you're paying attention to be
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pretty lady. So then they end up banging. He's like, well,
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I'm Santa, so I gotta go. And then over the
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course of the book, you realize is that the reason
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why he came a detective was to make money throughout
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the year. The reason why he needs to make money
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throughout the year is because he's basically paying her child
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support child support. I think it's a lot more than that,
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because I know what child support is. You don't pay
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that much. It really depends on your income. Years ago,
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that might not have been the case.
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I would take care of her.
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Yeah, I think he's supplementing her life. Basically, he's just like,
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I'm Santa. You don't have to pay bills anymore. I
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will take care of it. I will make sure this
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child wants for nothing. So that's more than child support.
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He became a private eye to make money to give
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to her because he got her pregnant and she's raising
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his kid in So he now has a secret stowaway family.
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And that's the book.
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Yeah, that's what we find out at the end. I
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think he's happy. This isn't a situation where he's upset
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about the fact that he had a kid with this curl.
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I want to make sure that the audience understands that
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he's very happy that he has gave.
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Him purpose in a life where he felt purposeless.
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Yeah, at the end of this book, he's smiling and
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he's hold her now. But the thing is, you know
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he's known as Uncle Nick. You know he's not known
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as Dad.
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He can't tell her he's his father. He's a Santa Claus.
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And you mention this is a child he had out
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of wedlock. The other name for Santa Claus is Saint Nick.
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So he can't be like I banged another woman.
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Emphasis on the saint I have.
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I have a kid. I did unsaintly things. You see, Like, you.
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Know, I'm Uncle Nick. So there you go. There it is.
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That's Santa Claus private Eye. I thought we'd do something
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a little different.
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Okay, Can I just say I love this book? Yeah? Absolutely,
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I absolutely love this book. Like I said, we're like
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ten for ten on Christmas book. Every year I find
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some odd ball Christmas book to do, and every year
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I end up loving it. This is everything I love.
358
00:17:41.440 --> 00:17:47.240
This is Harpold Noir, this is moral fallibility, this is Christmas.
359
00:17:47.279 --> 00:17:52.119
It's fucking perfect. It's weirdly not cynical. Right. A lot
360
00:17:52.160 --> 00:17:54.119
of what's happening with Christmas now, a lot of takes
361
00:17:54.160 --> 00:17:57.000
on Christmas is deeply cynical. It's it's the jingle all
362
00:17:57.039 --> 00:18:00.720
the way thing where Christmas is this horribly cynical? You know,
363
00:18:00.799 --> 00:18:05.720
it's only you know event where love is measured in presence,
364
00:18:06.559 --> 00:18:09.400
which I am deeply affected by. I don't like it.
365
00:18:09.799 --> 00:18:12.799
I'll buy the presence, I'll participate, but I don't we
366
00:18:12.880 --> 00:18:14.720
want to do that anymore. I don't want to love
367
00:18:14.759 --> 00:18:17.400
my kids extra on Christmas. I want to love them
368
00:18:17.400 --> 00:18:18.559
the same all year round.
369
00:18:18.759 --> 00:18:22.119
Right, And there's I think we've had this discussion before.
370
00:18:23.680 --> 00:18:26.799
I've felt the same way. I definitely feel like I participate,
371
00:18:26.839 --> 00:18:29.640
but I would rather spend time with family and that
372
00:18:29.799 --> 00:18:30.839
be the actual present.
373
00:18:31.240 --> 00:18:31.480
Yeah.
374
00:18:31.519 --> 00:18:33.079
So I'm want to do a little something different tonight.
375
00:18:33.160 --> 00:18:35.160
I'm going to run down some questions and we're going
376
00:18:35.200 --> 00:18:36.720
to do like dislike. We're going to do this for
377
00:18:36.759 --> 00:18:38.599
all three of our books. So I want to ask
378
00:18:38.599 --> 00:18:40.000
you a question. You can tell me if you like
379
00:18:40.119 --> 00:18:42.279
it dislike it. You can either leave it at one word,
380
00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:47.200
or you can explain your side. Okay, Okay. So the
381
00:18:47.240 --> 00:18:49.759
overall premise, and this again is you kind of may
382
00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:52.720
have already answered this. The overall premise of Santa Claus
383
00:18:52.759 --> 00:18:56.200
mood lighting as a private detective Nick Santana, like or dislike?
384
00:18:56.359 --> 00:18:59.039
I loved it. I thought it was great. I wish
385
00:18:59.160 --> 00:19:03.160
this got into a movie or a TV show. I
386
00:19:03.160 --> 00:19:06.359
think the premise is outstanding. The thing with Santa Claus
387
00:19:06.440 --> 00:19:09.720
is one night a year he delivers presents to all
388
00:19:09.720 --> 00:19:11.759
the good boys and girls. He spends the rest of
389
00:19:11.759 --> 00:19:16.119
the year making those presents. Except that that made sense,
390
00:19:16.599 --> 00:19:19.079
Can we talk about this for a seconds? Can I
391
00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:22.000
hijack your entire thing and just focus on this one thing?
392
00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:27.279
Why stop? Now? Welcome to source material where it's theoretically
393
00:19:27.319 --> 00:19:31.599
Dusty's show. The Santa Claus mythology made sense when presents
394
00:19:31.640 --> 00:19:36.319
were made of wood. They were simple, it was Dolly's
395
00:19:36.839 --> 00:19:44.960
not like Dolly Dolly's adults. When it was trained little
396
00:19:44.960 --> 00:19:50.440
wooden cars, when it was rocking horses. It made sense.
397
00:19:50.640 --> 00:19:54.880
When the image of Christmas time is kids opening up
398
00:19:55.079 --> 00:20:00.160
very simple, handmade toys, then Santa theoretically could spend the
399
00:20:00.359 --> 00:20:05.880
entire year making them. So the myth holds up. Once
400
00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:08.880
we started doing electronic gifts, and once the gifts got
401
00:20:09.039 --> 00:20:13.519
incredibly more complicated, the mythology of Santa makes no sense.
402
00:20:16.440 --> 00:20:18.400
I mean, and it's not like I'm the first to
403
00:20:18.440 --> 00:20:20.880
say that. This is like a dozen movies out there
404
00:20:20.880 --> 00:20:23.400
that have made that point, where like you know, like
405
00:20:23.480 --> 00:20:25.720
family guys like I can't fucking keep I can't make
406
00:20:25.759 --> 00:20:29.319
all these iPhones, like it's killing us, we can't do it.
407
00:20:29.720 --> 00:20:31.599
And then there's other movies where you know, it's like
408
00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:38.240
Santa basically has like farms this stuff out to other companies,
409
00:20:38.359 --> 00:20:40.960
like they're making the iPhones and ease bringing them to
410
00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:43.960
the stereos and shit, like what do they think? Or
411
00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:47.279
it's magic, you know, or it's completely magic. There is
412
00:20:47.319 --> 00:20:51.920
no handheld craft at all. It's literally like, okay, here's
413
00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:57.039
how we do CD players and stereos and computers and
414
00:20:57.119 --> 00:21:00.920
iPads and you know, and toys that make the noise.
415
00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:04.680
It's like elves do magic, because how else would you
416
00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:08.559
do it? So I like that they threw all of
417
00:21:08.599 --> 00:21:11.519
that out. He has nothing to do all year, all
418
00:21:11.839 --> 00:21:15.359
for the three hundred and sixty four days that he's
419
00:21:15.400 --> 00:21:18.359
not dealing with Christmas. He's like, I am listless. I'm
420
00:21:18.400 --> 00:21:19.799
in a loveless marriage.
421
00:21:20.119 --> 00:21:22.440
I not want to be up here with I don't want.
422
00:21:22.279 --> 00:21:25.319
To be trapped in the north anymore. Right, I have
423
00:21:25.359 --> 00:21:27.759
to fight some shit to do, and so I became
424
00:21:27.799 --> 00:21:31.759
a private eye, and I'm like that is an out.
425
00:21:31.799 --> 00:21:34.240
That's why I picked this buck. Just that is a
426
00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:35.440
really fun premise.
427
00:21:35.759 --> 00:21:38.079
Do you like he's in Miami. I can't remember if
428
00:21:38.079 --> 00:21:40.240
that's in the book or not, but it definitely is
429
00:21:40.519 --> 00:21:43.359
the opposite of the North Pole, that's for sure, and
430
00:21:43.480 --> 00:21:44.680
a nice separate climate.
431
00:21:44.759 --> 00:21:46.519
But I should have put him in a Key West.
432
00:21:49.160 --> 00:21:51.119
I agree with you. It's nice for them to just
433
00:21:51.160 --> 00:21:53.599
be like, Okay, there's going to be elements of Santa
434
00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:55.200
clausat are here. You know, there's going to be a
435
00:21:55.279 --> 00:21:58.079
little a little bit of the myth specifically with his
436
00:21:58.200 --> 00:22:00.920
powers that shows up in the book, you know, the
437
00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:03.960
naughty or nice thing where he can tell that, you know,
438
00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:06.960
the the girl miss Barton and missus Barton. It comes agains.
439
00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:08.720
He's like, I can tell she's naughty, but I don't
440
00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:11.279
know what. He doesn't know specifically, he doesn't know if
441
00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:14.039
it's you know, what exactly she's done, but he could
442
00:22:14.119 --> 00:22:15.519
just tell that she's got a little bit of a
443
00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:20.319
naughty side to her. And uh. I like seeing them
444
00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:23.440
use that mythology and the fact that he's a mortal.
445
00:22:23.559 --> 00:22:26.000
I like that part in the book where he's like,
446
00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:29.680
I think I'm a mortal. I don't know for sure,
447
00:22:30.160 --> 00:22:32.680
but I've survived a few things, but I don't really
448
00:22:32.680 --> 00:22:35.559
want to find out if I am or not for sure.
449
00:22:35.319 --> 00:22:38.000
And interesting, he doesn't know how magic he really is.
450
00:22:38.200 --> 00:22:40.599
And there's no threats to me in the North. I know.
451
00:22:40.599 --> 00:22:42.559
I make toys, That's what I do.
452
00:22:42.559 --> 00:22:44.920
Do you like the darker depressive take on Santa? And
453
00:22:44.920 --> 00:22:46.799
now we just kind of talked about that a little bit.
454
00:22:46.839 --> 00:22:49.440
This isn't really extremely depressing.
455
00:22:49.559 --> 00:22:52.200
This I do, but I don't know how I feel
456
00:22:52.240 --> 00:22:54.400
about the way it was handled because it's a part
457
00:22:54.400 --> 00:22:56.480
of me that once, like I said, we don't really
458
00:22:56.480 --> 00:22:58.880
know why he's as depressed as he is. And that's
459
00:22:58.880 --> 00:23:01.480
not flushed out, no, it's it's not so in previous
460
00:23:01.519 --> 00:23:03.680
Christmas books that we've did, like the Last Christmas, which
461
00:23:03.720 --> 00:23:06.880
fucking was it? The Last Christmas where somebody killed missus
462
00:23:06.880 --> 00:23:10.240
Clause and that's why Santa went on a rampage. So
463
00:23:10.920 --> 00:23:13.400
we talked about that, where it was like heartbreaking. What
464
00:23:13.519 --> 00:23:16.119
I don't remember Slayer. I think Slayer's another one of
465
00:23:16.160 --> 00:23:18.000
these where somebody picks up the mantle of Santa Claus.
466
00:23:18.039 --> 00:23:19.279
There's no business being Santa.
467
00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:21.839
He's like this metal dude.
468
00:23:21.839 --> 00:23:25.759
If I remember correctly, Klaus's Santa is a Viking. I
469
00:23:25.799 --> 00:23:28.200
feel like every time that we've done one of these
470
00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:32.720
in the past, Santa is always grieving something like mourning
471
00:23:32.799 --> 00:23:36.119
the loss of innocence, mourning the loss of morality, you know,
472
00:23:36.200 --> 00:23:38.960
mourning the loss of meaning. And again I might be
473
00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:42.039
thinking about other Christmas stuff that I've experienced. Again, family
474
00:23:42.079 --> 00:23:44.640
by being the most prominent one, but there's a bunch
475
00:23:44.680 --> 00:23:48.559
out there that deal with what happens when the spirit
476
00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:52.559
of goodness and charity loses faith in humanity.
477
00:23:52.880 --> 00:23:53.200
M hm.
478
00:23:53.720 --> 00:23:55.920
You have no idea what's going on with him? And
479
00:23:55.960 --> 00:23:59.519
here's the thing part of me really wants to know,
480
00:24:00.359 --> 00:24:02.039
like why would you leave that out of the book.
481
00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:05.200
But on the other hand, why can't he just be
482
00:24:05.279 --> 00:24:06.559
a bored middle aged.
483
00:24:06.319 --> 00:24:10.440
Man right working to take care of his illegitimate daughter.
484
00:24:10.519 --> 00:24:13.440
Yeah, I'm bored with my job, I'm bored with my marriage.
485
00:24:13.839 --> 00:24:16.160
I don't know where to find my kicks anymore. And
486
00:24:16.240 --> 00:24:19.079
I'm supposed to be a moral pyagon, so I'm held
487
00:24:19.119 --> 00:24:21.160
to this way high standard that it's hard for me
488
00:24:21.200 --> 00:24:21.880
to keep up with.
489
00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:26.880
What's your thoughts on the art? Like or dislike any
490
00:24:26.920 --> 00:24:27.640
any thoughts there?
491
00:24:27.920 --> 00:24:29.240
To be the least I say on this though it
492
00:24:29.279 --> 00:24:32.400
was fine Yeah, you're not the art guy. I know
493
00:24:33.079 --> 00:24:34.240
I can do. I can be the art guy if
494
00:24:34.279 --> 00:24:35.680
you want me to, which you're not gonna like to.
495
00:24:35.640 --> 00:24:37.920
Hear, Sam Keith.
496
00:24:38.440 --> 00:24:41.279
Here's the thing. I have no active complaints about the art.
497
00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:42.480
I don't it matched the tone of.
498
00:24:42.400 --> 00:24:45.559
The book all right, the black and white versus the
499
00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:48.519
color that they had mentioned earlier, where they thought about
500
00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:50.119
doing this in black and white, which would kind of
501
00:24:50.119 --> 00:24:52.640
fit that more feel. Do you think you would have
502
00:24:53.000 --> 00:24:56.319
rather enjoyed it? Either got any preference.
503
00:24:56.599 --> 00:24:58.920
Because if you were going to do it in black
504
00:24:58.920 --> 00:25:00.519
and white, you had to do it in black and red.
505
00:25:01.039 --> 00:25:03.079
Oh that would have actually cool? Like that beat. The
506
00:25:03.079 --> 00:25:05.920
only bit of color that comes through is just the red.
507
00:25:06.200 --> 00:25:09.759
The slave to traditional comic book aesthetic. I like color.
508
00:25:09.880 --> 00:25:11.319
I like nice inky books.
509
00:25:11.960 --> 00:25:14.559
Sure do you like the specific integration of noir and
510
00:25:14.599 --> 00:25:17.119
holiday mythology? We kind of talked about that already. We
511
00:25:17.200 --> 00:25:19.240
got Jack Frost that shows up here. We have an
512
00:25:19.279 --> 00:25:20.920
elf that works as a receptionist.
513
00:25:21.599 --> 00:25:23.799
I was casting Dennis Leary is Jack Frost?
514
00:25:23.880 --> 00:25:25.480
Jack Frost. That makes a lot more.
515
00:25:26.200 --> 00:25:28.000
Jack Frost is a rolling all over the hood of
516
00:25:28.039 --> 00:25:29.440
his car that's covered in height.
517
00:25:29.559 --> 00:25:33.720
He's like, get off the car, I got defrost my windows.
518
00:25:33.759 --> 00:25:37.240
Now we got the dialogue in here. There's definitely a
519
00:25:37.279 --> 00:25:40.079
feel of gum shoe dialogue. I mean what you like that?
520
00:25:41.160 --> 00:25:43.039
I figure he did. This kind of fits in with
521
00:25:43.079 --> 00:25:46.519
the noir and the depiction of the fem fatale missus
522
00:25:46.559 --> 00:25:48.680
Julia Barton. What did you think of her here?
523
00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:49.079
Like?
524
00:25:49.240 --> 00:25:51.319
Disliked her? I mean this felt like to me, it
525
00:25:51.359 --> 00:25:54.880
felt like she this is classic.
526
00:25:54.519 --> 00:25:58.640
War The name ruins my life, right.
527
00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:01.680
So it fits the store. I didn't hate it. Okay,
528
00:26:02.160 --> 00:26:04.319
you read it as a trade paperback, and we don't
529
00:26:04.359 --> 00:26:10.200
really talk too much about how getting a story issue
530
00:26:10.200 --> 00:26:13.119
by issue versus trade paperback and how that impacts you
531
00:26:13.200 --> 00:26:16.920
in any way. Have you ever felt the need to
532
00:26:17.279 --> 00:26:19.720
get a story like this issue by issue?
533
00:26:20.519 --> 00:26:23.480
No, Here's where I'll meet you in the middle. I
534
00:26:23.640 --> 00:26:26.200
don't really want to read digital comics anymore. It hurts
535
00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:29.440
my eyes. It's one of the few tactile things that
536
00:26:29.680 --> 00:26:32.880
I've hung on too, because I don't have CDs anymore.
537
00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:36.960
I don't have cassettes, I don't have DVDs, I don't
538
00:26:36.960 --> 00:26:40.640
have Blu rays. But I still like the feel of
539
00:26:40.680 --> 00:26:42.039
the comic book in my hands.
540
00:26:42.720 --> 00:26:45.319
Yeah, There's been previous episodes where you said you get
541
00:26:45.359 --> 00:26:46.880
a complete story in these.
542
00:26:47.480 --> 00:26:50.599
I don't want individual issues. I like in trades right
543
00:26:51.200 --> 00:26:51.640
same here.
544
00:26:51.720 --> 00:26:53.559
I'm a fan of the trade paperback and that way
545
00:26:53.559 --> 00:26:57.400
I don't have to go seeking out specific issues. That
546
00:26:57.559 --> 00:26:59.519
is the worst sometimes when you're just trying to find
547
00:26:59.599 --> 00:27:01.440
part three. We have the five part story you need.
548
00:27:01.599 --> 00:27:06.079
I enjoyed what I read. It was very simple. This
549
00:27:06.119 --> 00:27:09.559
isn't anything that's gonna break your brain, like we're about
550
00:27:09.559 --> 00:27:11.480
to get into probably in one of these two.
551
00:27:12.039 --> 00:27:15.000
This next like an eight episode series on Netflix.
552
00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:18.240
Would you watch this eight episodes? I think would be
553
00:27:18.400 --> 00:27:20.799
too long for this story. If it was an eight
554
00:27:20.839 --> 00:27:23.559
episode series on Santa Claus Private Eye and this be
555
00:27:23.680 --> 00:27:26.880
like episode one, I mean this feels like murder, she wrote,
556
00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:29.960
or something like that, Like this is one episode, because
557
00:27:30.440 --> 00:27:31.640
you know you get.
558
00:27:31.640 --> 00:27:33.400
Would you watch a ninety minute movie of this?
559
00:27:34.440 --> 00:27:37.559
I would, as long as we got a few more
560
00:27:37.839 --> 00:27:40.759
like okay, we had Jack Frost, maybe we could have
561
00:27:40.799 --> 00:27:43.759
a few other references to some Christmas thing.
562
00:27:43.960 --> 00:27:46.279
This is a two hour movie and it's a little
563
00:27:46.279 --> 00:27:49.680
more Chinatown and a little more dramatic. We're introducing a
564
00:27:49.680 --> 00:27:53.960
few more characters. You know the sugar Plum Fairy. Perhaps, yeah,
565
00:27:54.039 --> 00:27:56.640
nut Crackers going to show up. The sugar Plum Fairy
566
00:27:56.680 --> 00:27:59.799
has gotta be trans you know. He walked into a
567
00:28:00.039 --> 00:28:02.319
a bar and he's just like, I need to talk
568
00:28:02.359 --> 00:28:07.119
to SPF SPF. I don't know about that. On SPF,
569
00:28:07.359 --> 00:28:10.119
you make an appointment with SPFS just it just walks
570
00:28:10.160 --> 00:28:12.039
out in it's sucking like rupe aul or some ship.
571
00:28:12.440 --> 00:28:16.079
Like Hello Nick, really flamboyant.
572
00:28:15.480 --> 00:28:17.920
Sugar plum Fairy, we meet again?
573
00:28:19.720 --> 00:28:22.039
Yeah, Yeah, I think that's kind of what I would like.
574
00:28:22.119 --> 00:28:24.000
I mean, I would like to see something, you know,
575
00:28:24.200 --> 00:28:26.960
fleshes fleshes out his world a little bit more. Maybe
576
00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:28.720
we can learn a little bit more about the guy.
577
00:28:28.720 --> 00:28:31.839
Find out why he's you know, him and missus Claus
578
00:28:31.880 --> 00:28:33.519
are like, have you know what's going on at the
579
00:28:33.519 --> 00:28:35.279
North Pole that you don't want to be home? Right?
580
00:28:35.400 --> 00:28:38.119
So if you're looking at this book and like I said, open.
581
00:28:38.039 --> 00:28:40.079
Up an elphas banging his wife and he's like, I
582
00:28:40.079 --> 00:28:41.400
don't even want to be here anymore.
583
00:28:42.960 --> 00:28:46.559
He opens the door and he slowly shuts it, books,
584
00:28:46.599 --> 00:28:50.279
his books, his plane ticket to Miami. Yeah, so it
585
00:28:50.319 --> 00:28:52.720
was a simple story as far as enjoying it. And
586
00:28:52.799 --> 00:28:59.960
reading it. You're not Frosty. Sorry, frost Frosty the snowman
587
00:29:00.279 --> 00:29:02.720
in Miami is going to be a drug dealer.
588
00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:05.480
He walked in on Missus clothes banging fraust.
589
00:29:05.400 --> 00:29:12.440
Hot, frost hot, Frosty, do it Jesus, Frosty baby, Oh man, I.
590
00:29:12.799 --> 00:29:14.559
Life, Missus closest Edith in my world.
591
00:29:17.640 --> 00:29:22.319
Those were the day.
592
00:29:22.519 --> 00:29:24.119
Move on before I get stupider.
593
00:29:25.240 --> 00:29:27.160
That's all I got for the comic. You got anything
594
00:29:27.160 --> 00:29:27.920
else you want to say?
595
00:29:28.599 --> 00:29:30.640
It's gonna be hard for me to continue to find
596
00:29:30.720 --> 00:29:33.960
really good say it's Christmas books. Maybe I say that now,
597
00:29:34.039 --> 00:29:36.880
but who knows what next year will bring. But I
598
00:29:37.359 --> 00:29:41.759
genuinely enjoyed this. I generally enjoy doing our Christmas episodes.
599
00:29:41.880 --> 00:29:43.240
I think we have a lot of fun talking about
600
00:29:43.240 --> 00:29:44.599
the stuff. You and I are more or less on
601
00:29:44.599 --> 00:29:47.079
the same page with Christmas. So it's two friends at
602
00:29:47.079 --> 00:29:51.279
a bar, just like I love Christmas, but people make
603
00:29:51.319 --> 00:29:51.799
me hate it.
604
00:29:51.920 --> 00:29:54.599
I don't want to be out in this mess.
605
00:29:54.559 --> 00:29:56.680
All right, and so it's our time to talk about that.
606
00:29:57.359 --> 00:30:03.680
Yeah,
