Hallowreads: Something Is Killing The Children

Garan: Welcome back to the Caffeinated Comic Club, a podcast where we read comic books and then talk about them. I am Garen. This is Marsh, and it is Halloween. And today we have our second guest of the month on. Welcome, Sierra. How are you? So happy to be here. Spooky season, my favorite of them all. Same, same. Literally it's gay Christmas. So clearly by the Bob. I'm gonna get the Bob on. Okay. we wanted to have you on the pod for a while and because all of your reviews are so in depth and so fun. Also, you're just very fun. Your content's fun, so it's lovely to have you here. What is your origin story with comic books? When did you get into it? How did you get into it? Yeah, so I which I think a lot of the newer gen comic readers all have kind of a similar story. We love the MCU. Big MCU fan. Watched all the movies, watched all the shows, and I'd always always have been a big reader. And I've always been interested in comics. I picked up graphic novels here and there. Before I knew that they were called trades, I would like to pick them up, flip through them. And then what came out? It was Fantastic Four was getting ready to release. And I was like, I really want to go through and read like all of Hickman's Fantastic Four. So I jumped in with that. and I read the full thing and I was like, my gosh, I love this. And at the time I was in a huge reading slump when it came to novels. So it was perfect to just like jump start me back into reading. And then I was picking up every trade known to man. My boyfriend went on like a sailing trip for two weeks. So I was home alone and I had so much reading time. And I found a couple local comic book shops, started going in, and then I just spiraled from there. So I've been pretty new to picking up and collecting. It's it's only been like a year. it's about been about a year for me too, with like actual serious collecting. I I have sparsely got comics throughout my life, mostly because like I was raised in a southern household where we didn't really do things for ourselves and it's especially not read. that was always something I was getting in trouble for. So now like healing my inner child and doing it, does you use the word spiral, you it spiraled from there. That is the perfect description for falling into this hobby, I feel like. I feel like a many of us have have just been completely like all encompassed by it. And it's really cool that that the MCU was your gateway in because there a lot of people say that it was like nineties cartoons and stuff, but the fact that these movies have have brought so many people into reading in the medium is just so sick. It's so sick. And there's so much to find. So much. So much. I kind of just started with the characters that I was interested in and, you know went from there and then discovered the authors that I liked and I really only started with Marvel and then I didn't watch a lot of DC. I mean like the Snyder verse was just not my tee. So I started picking up DC books and then it got me really hyped for Superman and everything. And now I'm pulling a lot more DC and then it introduced me into indie. And I think I read more indie comics now than I read Marvel, which has been really, really fun finding like new and authentic original stories. Very cool. by the way, Hakeman's Run on the Fantastic Four is a bold choice for your first Fantastic Four comic. Just gonna like say that. but I am glad that you liked it. I think when I first started posting on TikTok, I recommended it. And a lot of people in the comments were like, absolutely you should not be starting there. And now I hear you completely. Like, yeah, you should not be starting there. I had such a good time with it. I think I looked at it through more of a critical lens. A lot of my reviews are more critical and analytical. I went to school for communications. I studied journalism. So more Hickman, the way that he writes is very dense and very like over explaining boy brain, I like to think of it. It's just he just throws so much on the page at you at once. It doesn't really bother me, but I can see people that like. Are very used to secular stories in comics, getting a little confused with that. He's he's very Claremonty and and and long-winded voice speeches is kind of our bread and butter. That like those are the comics that we tend to enjoy the most. Our our favorites are from like the seventies and eighties. So Hickman is Hickman's wonderful for that. When you get to read Midnight X-Men, you're in for a l a lot of paragraphs. I'll tell you that it's so good, but the data pages are thick. Thick in that one. Midnight Spider-Man had a lot of words too. I'm just saying. Had a lot of words. It did. A lot of blood. I like words. Words are good. Better than just art sometimes. I'm I'm st I speaking of Midnight Spider-Man and the Midnight Universe in general, I've been seeing early reactions from people who got to read today. And my biggest fear was that people were gonna like just trash it because of how many words because historically people like like you said, like not as much big speeches in their comics and people are saying really nice things about it and about like specifically Hickman's stuff in it and I'm I'm very happy about it 'cause I was nervous. I'm like, I don't need another X Men titled to fail. I don't need anyone else to be mean to these babies, even though they're not really nice in this book, but It's nice to see that people are excited about reading, actually reading. I've also seen a lot of that. I I get so tired of like the review bombing that comes out with so many books. I will always be the first to like pick up something and check it out. I I'm kind of notorious of like continuing to pick up something even if I don't like it. Cause I always hold out hope that it is gonna get better Sorcerer Supreme. But That one did not, but I I don't I don't know, like black cat got like so much hate. I did like a review of why I really like G. Willa Wilson's black cat. And everyone's like, my gosh, this is not Felicia. This is like totally something like, no, like you should not like go to Jed McKay's. I'm like, guys, it's different, it's fun, it's fresh, it's written by a woman. You're seeing her outside this new lens. Like, can we just open our minds a little bit? No. No. No. And they won't. I will I will say though, speaking of notoriously picking up books that you end up not liking, if I wasn't such a big fan of the Fantastic Four, I probably would have dropped the second Ryan North run a while ago. I I actually completely agree with you on that. Like like his first run was so great and like the first couple arcs were okay, but like It's recently picked up for me, so like I'm glad I'm still obviously pulling it, but like the middle stuff, I was like, I this is not good. And the art looks the same. I tal I I I complain to Gare all the time that I I'm not a big fan of Umberta Ramos's art style. I think that all of his women look the exact same with just different hair color and maybe eye color. I do. And so I complain to him about that all the time. And I just I yeah, I just so yeah, if I wasn't such a big Fantastic Four fan, I would have dropped it already. Did it pick up for you at that issue where they were revisiting all of their like triumphs? 'Cause that's where I got I got back into it. Like he lost me a couple issues before that and I completely agree about the art too. Like there's also some panels where like Reed just looks absolutely absurd. It's it's it's almost like there's some facial features that are forgotten to be drawn on and illustrated. Yep. I'm like, okay, right. But I completely agree with the women. Like Alicia and Sue, like they look the exact same sometimes, just with different hair color. But I did jump back into it after that one issue where they were revisiting their triumphs and like that older woman that was like helping them when Scratch was like. Setting them in this loop. Now I feel a little bit more into it, but I agree. Like the first Ryan North run I read was my second Fantastic Four run that I read after Hickman. And I was like, this is this is fun. This is fresh. Not a lot of words. And now I'm like, hmm. Yeah, I don't I don't know what happened. It was after the movie came out. They restarted the numbers and like decided to go away from like this the singular story issues. And and I I don't know. I just maybe don't think. Ryan North is built to do over like arcs, like big arcs, like he's trying to do, which is fine. Some are some writers aren't able to do those things. Hickman is one of them that can. Claremont is one of them that can. but yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what happened. It's just but yes, it was the the one in August. It was the 65th anniversary issue that that like I was like, okay, I'm back. And then like the couple issues leading up to DNX have been really good. I haven't read the DNX issue yet. Yeah, I got distracted watching the furniture last night, so I haven't. I I've only read the first week of DNX. by tomorrow we're gonna be like six books behind. jeez. I'll probably need to lock it script and read it. gosh. My Age of Revelation books are gonna be delivered in I was telling Marsh earlier I'm gonna reread Age of Revelation in collected format because I I did not like it at all. reading it weekly and I'm like, maybe it's just cause I was reading reading it weekly. Maybe I like it better. I'm also a glutton for punishment. So I'm gonna do that. And then that goes right into DNX. So I'll probably I don't are you are you reading DNX Sierra? I'm not. So I'm a big I've become a big proponent now that I'm going to wait for collected edition editions for a lot of big crossover events. The only event that I am actively pulling right now that felt a little less intimidating is the Bad Seeds event that's happening with Batman and it's crossing. It's not too many crossover titles. So I feel like I can get a good handle on it. And I'm mostly reading all those titles anyways. But with Marvel, like I didn't even step into Age of Revelation because I was like, whoa. This is a lot. my shop was putting like every single title that was related to like next to each other and like Seeing the sheer volume of all of it just felt like so much on top of my weekly polls. And then I think I I agree, like a lot of the times, events just don't hit the same when you're reading it week to week. For it to like pull through with the story, like you almost want to be able to sit down and just like knock it all out in once. And it could be more impactful that way. That's what I'm hoping for. It I only got it because the the target sale was happening, the buy two get one free. And I was like, when these go out of print, they're gonna skyrocket anyway, price wise. So I might as well just get them for my collection now. And if I decide I really do hate it, I can just sell it when it gets more expensive. But the covers are really pretty as well. I'm not gonna lie. I was like, huh, these covers. I'm I'm a d I get seduced by art. Even if I know I don't like something, I'm like, well let me buy it anyway. Me too. I am a cover slot. A cover slot. Exactly. That is that is a great way to describe it. Like I'm not even reading Uncanny, but the amount of uncanny covers that I see when I go to my shop that I'm like And I just I simply have to tell myself I don't have enough room for the sheer amount of short boxes that I need. Like I'm gonna have to upgrade my storage at some point. So that's what Just get a filing cabinet. I know. I just I really don't have enough room for a filing cabinet. I don't know, I know I don't I have two in this sh only because we have a bigger place than what we used to have in Texas and they're really not in the best spots either. My husband just puts up with my shit. He's like, We can put them here. And I'm like, Cool. You have like the wide filing cabin. Like the le the the legal filing cabinets, yeah, yeah. They hold they hold like a a a a butt ton of issues. I got just a single filing cabinet because I was like, this is big enough. I d I don't know myself. I it's already full. Like it's completely full and there's just stacks of single issues around and I'm like my chore boxes are full and then it's just a forest of other ones. And I'm like, something's gotta happen. Something's gotta give because I need to stop. There's a lot of X Men books, you guys. So many. Seven hundred of Uncanny alone. You know? Yeah. that's about how many fantastic war issues I have too actually. I found out Yeah, her I'm only missing forty. I'm only missing forty issues. That's crazy. That is so impressive though. thank you. It really is. Like she sent me a video one time of her flipping through the drawers and like how she has it organized. And I was just like, I wish that were me with my X Men. Like I can't. She's an organizing queen. I love I love to organize. you know, Gare, one day I might come visit you and and I'll organize for you. How about that? I'll give you the keys. some some comic actually before we do comic news, I forgot to ask you, Sierra, because it is Halloween, what's your favorite scary movie? So I don't really watch horror movies. but scary campy movie that is my favorite is Jennifer's Body. That is like the most that I will dip my toes into horror. I actually it was very surprising to everyone that I knew that I started reading horror comics and horror books because I've been notoriously known as a scaredy cat. But Jennifer's body is just so camp in a way that like I can sit down and watch it and be like it was ahead of its time, truly, just eating boys, succubus, like also all the metaphors and allegories for sexual assault, for you know. How femininity can really be a target on your head as a teenage girl. So so so good. And it kills me to this day that the marketing for that movie was tailored for like gooning teenage boys, and then they all went to the movie and they were like, Whoa, this is like okay kind of feminist. What's going on? Because it could have just been I think of if if Jennifer's Body was released as like an A twenty four film, now it would have Sky, it would have done so well. I mean, I think it's iconic and like the cultural zeitgeist, but I think it would have done better for what it is worth. Did you see that they have started working on a second one and Amanda and Megan are coming back for it? I have. I'm excited, but I don't know how to feel because I feel that lately in the film industry, sequels have just butchered. like movies. Like I actually will not be seeing practical magic too because I've heard such horrible things about it and practical magic is one of my favorite movies that I I don't want that to live in my brain. That's fair. That's fair. That is understandable. Jennifer's Body is a is a great choice. And I I would say that like it's can't be horror, but it is horror. Like like I I was obsessed with that movie when it came out and It really it really the audience was so confused because you're right, it was catered to like Gooners and like I remember the conversations when I was talking about it online, how much I liked it. People were like, What the fuck? Like, no, that movie was not good and I'm like, You just don't get it and they didn't. They did not get it. And it it the cultural relevance has just grown and grown and grown throughout the years as like the society has shifted a little bit to where there's a lot more power from women on the internet now since that film came out. And the more people that talk about Jennifer's body, like, it's just it's lovely to see that still being brought up every year 'cause it's such a great film. And the soundtrack, my God. So good. And the outfits, they're like the sir I don't the serve that was had. Is undeniable. Even Amanda Seifrid's character, Needy, like she is supposed to be this really nerdy, shy, quiet girl, but like she's so cute in the movie in a way. And also that in itself. There's like a sapphic relationship almost. Like that was just ahead of it as well. Way ahead of its time with that because like that that's a topic that's rarely rarely ever brought up in films is that like sometimes when you're best friends with someone, the lines are so blurred that you don't know if it's like a love or a sexual love or if it's truly a like platonic friendship. And that's not something that gets made. a recommendation, you might have already seen this, but I think Diablo Cody produced it. She might have directed it actually. J Diablo Cody had something to do with this film. Forbidden Fruits, starring Lily Reinhart and a few other people. Yes. Lily Reinhart and then The Belly from The Summer I Turned Pretty. I have had that on my watch list for a while. that's something that I would definitely watch. I know that's like horror in a way. but I've heard that it would be more palatable because it's in this kind of same realm as Jennifer's Body. Yeah. I was gonna say it feels it feels like a spiritual sequel to that film. And it's also just fun. It's so s it's so fun and so silly. Victoria Padretti from You and the Haunting of the House is in it. And she's spectacular, like unrecognizable in that film, the role that she plays. It's very, very fun. Very fun. I'll have to check it out. Comic news. Comic news. Okay, I only have one bit of comic news today. He took he took my comic news. He took my comic news. If I show you my screenshot, I did it at ten AM. But Marvel announced today that they are joining the compendium game with Marvel Brick. Four titles coming out in the last half of twenty twenty seven. They're gonna be doing Uncanny X Men, All New All Different, which is the beginning of the Claremont run. I don't know how far it's gonna go, but it's a thick book. So it might be pretty far. Superior Spider Man, Uncanny X Force, and randomly, the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. I guess because of how popular Marvel Rivals is, but I was like one of your four like flagship titles that you're doing, like that's okay, Queens. That's a choice. Apparently so. It does look pretty thick. I'm not gonna lie. Ryan North did a run on Squirrel Girl. I don't know anything about it, but I know he wrote some. I think there's an omni for it. Is the is the Uncanny X Force, is that the Ricomander Recromenderan? Sick. Yeah it is. It's such a missed opportunity for them to do a Doom compendium. There was an omni that is now out of print from a couple years back, and it's a it's like every appearance of Doom, his origins, all that you look it up on eBay and it's like a thousand dollars. I'm begging Marvel to bring that back, especially pairing it with Doomsday, would have been such a chef's kiss to have on the table. You know what I'm kicking myself for speaking of Doom's origin story? So obvious so obviously Doomsday had been announced, but I was at CTV two this past year and I was looking at like the origin story of Doom, which is the Fantastic Four annual number two. And I thought about buying it for like six hundred dollars. And then I didn't buy it. And now it's way more than six hundred dollars. You do, dude. I'm telling you. You need to scoop up. I I I had to scoop up the Proteus for that before they make a Proteus movie. I got I gotta scoop it up. yeah. Mm-hmm. Dean Gray, like all the X-Men stuff is gonna just sh skyrocket in value. I can't even imagine how much like rogue stuff is going to with the Indy Navretti of it all. Mm. I've I the only thing I'm missing, like key rogue wise, is her first appearance in Avengers Annual. but hopefully, hopefully I'll be able to get that before the end of this year. 'Cause I've I've got it my eye on a few of them, but it is gonna skyrocket. The Dark Phoenix stuff that I don't have, I've gotta lock in and find it. I w I've got Emma Foss first appearance. thankfully. I will say that that they will skyrocket, but then they'll come back down. Right. Like they won't stay up forever. But then again, it's like will they come back down? So like it it's it's like the Fantastic Four books have come down. Like they've gone up and down. So like I can only assume that will happen with the Xbox, especially 'cause they've done the Phoenix story so many times that they can only go up so many times. You can only Sun Jean Grey is the Phoenix and the Phoenix is Jean Grey. Everyone triggers me with that. Hey, you need to keep reading it. That's all I'm gonna say. Le last week or la I say last week. Yes, for the dear listener, last week on the pod, not two days ago when we recorded the other episode, Marston you brought up Madeline Pryor being Jing or being Phoenix and I like, I'm just gonna keep my mouth. Yeah, and I I haven't been able to read and then now I just wanna read the midnight stuff, so this is This is the problem with being being comic book readers that you want to read so many things at once, but you can only read one thing at once. Mm-hmm. And I read slow as hell. Sometimes I wish I could doctor strange it and like come out of my body and have like my soul be doing something, reading something, and me be reading something here. Cause especially after I pick up my polls, it doesn't matter what is on my nightstand before I go to my shop on Wednesday. Yeah, it's all getting moved to the side. for whatever I'm that week. You know, I I I'm I'm glad for you because I was you can ask care, I was all caught up with my polls. Like I was caught up on all of my single issues like last month. And then I haven't read a single issue single issue since the beginning of September. And so like my stack is like like this this big now. Again don't be pulled again and I'm like Don't be pulled. My my stack is fat. My stack is fat. Don't be pulled picked up, I was out of town for a lot of September. I went to Harry Styles, I went to Charlie XCX. I was just around. When I went to my shop and I picked up my polls, I was like, my gosh. Hello. It's a little heavy walking out of there. That's fair. Yeah. Yeah. That happens. That happens. That was me last week because I'm I didn't go for three weeks the stack was huge and it was like ninety bucks. I was like, That's not that bad. This is my fault. No it's not that bad but when Does your shop do a back issue discount? yes, but they didn't count as back they didn't give me that. maybe they didn't do it because it was in my pool list and I already had a pull list discount. But the d with the discount, it was ninety bucks. And I was like, Yeah, I'm gonna have to start. Wait, y'all get a pull list discount? I don't get a pull list discount. Yeah, I get a pull list discount and then I also get a discount on like if I didn't pick up my polls from last week, if I picked them up this week, they would be discounted since they're not this week's polls. That's kind of cool. No, I just get like I think for every I don't know however many dollars I spend, I get like a dollar back. I don't know how I don't know what the equation is or whatever. But I will say I do have a lot of like dollars for their store that ended up letting me get two Epic collection for V D cents. wow. That was cool. Never be me. And they were half off. They half off. I was like. So I got this one. I was like, I'm so happy for you. And then I got this one. And they were half off and then I got them for fifty cents. Wait, which epic Spider Man is that? number three. nice. Wow. That's a good idea. And and they were they were like half off because they like have like a little bit of damage on them. Like this is like kinda like bent. And there's like some ding corners on the X Men one and I was like, I don't care. It doesn't bother me. Right. Okay. Yeah, I mean like sure I want my stuff to look good, but like I buy Like omni's and epics to read. You know? I've seen a lot of videos on TikTok recently where like other collectors are buying the omnies and not even taking the wrapper off of them. They just put them on the shelf with a wrapper. And they've been like some of them have been on the shelf for years and I'm like, What? That was a hundred and twenty five bucks. Then you're just not gonna read it? You're not gonna hold her? inside the house? I think the call's coming from outside the house, yes. no, I will So my problem is I buy too much. I buy too much. I'm a book dragon, but I also like to read. And so I always have too many things to read. And so like, yes, I have some omnis on my shelf that I might have had for a couple years that are still in plastic. But eventually they will get read. Now now they're out of print. Right. Yeah, I think I've seen the same thing, Garrett. Like I've seen people just get omnis, keep them in the plastic, even if they have. Like they are reading them. Like they'll do it and then maybe they'll like read it digitally or something. And I am also I'm also a book dragon and I have so much. Like this is my shelf, but I also have piles like around my sitting area right now. Yeah, I I wish I could show you there's like a there's just like a pile of like omnis and epic collections just stacked on top of each other and I'm like, Yep, that's fine. It's fine. Yeah, and I I really like to go into my books like like I annotated this. completely just like just a rare and I and I wrote notes. that's like my analytical brain. Sorry, just dropped that. But also like I feel the same way about Funko Pops. Like I take my Funkos out of the box because I'm like I just feel like it it makes me feel like Toy Story when they were stuck in the box and they like were like my God let me out and like Jesse and all of them came out. Like they want to play. In my head they're waking up at night and they're like battling. So I'm gonna let them have that moment. That's so valid because like I if there's like a figure or something that I want, I don't touch it at the store. I don't try to unless I'm gonna get it. And it it's so silly, but in my in my brain in that moment, I'm like, they're it like it's gonna be sad that I'm leaving it, so I'm not gonna touch it. It's it's so dumb, but I've done it since I was kid. And it's just like a it's just like a brain thing, and then I'll like catch myself doing it and I'm like, What the fuck am I doing? Like, what is going on? I'm like, did you just Speak to me? Like, should I buy you now? Yeah. Yeah. It's exactly what it's like. to keep talking about like epic collections and and stuff for just a s second longer. Have y'all noticed so many people are buying epic collections now? Like us. It's it's it's weird because like I've recently started buying them too, and I'm like, have I just been like s like suddenly influenced? Is this like the Josie and the Pussycats movie? Where like inside of the books they're like buying collections like subliminally. Because why are we all doing that? And like everyone starts talking about it at the same time. And I'm like, that I've been doing that too. Same with the when I was started to buy Omni's, it seemed like everyone was getting omnies too. And I'm like, Am I just seeing it because it's the the algorithm or is it a conspiracy? Sorry. I My's like I just don't know. I think it's like, have you ever thought about buying a car? And you've never seen that car before, like like like you're like, I'm gonna buy this, I don't know, Dodge Ram. I don't know, just throw a car out. And like you don't ever see it, but all of a sudden since you're since you've started thinking about buying one, that's all you see is dodge rams on the road. Like that that could be what it is. I've also the same influx though. Like I I think it's a mixture of two things. What I've personally noticed at my shop is my shop is getting in a lot more epics than they used to. I was just talking to somebody at my shop about this, like When I go, there is especially Spider-Man. There are a lot more Spider Man epics coming in to print, I think. And I think Marvel's going to start printing more. There are a lot that are out of print that are very, very hard to find. But I I don't know. I see a lot of people buying epics too. I do think they're a great medium as well. Like when you're reading these like condensed, iconic stories, especially if you can't get your hands on an Omni, but I think it's a mix of like Marvel printing them more and like more shops releasing them. Therefore they're like Okay, this seems like the easiest thing to jump into. And then also like I think we're just seeing a lot of people pick them up. So now we're thinking that everyone is getting them. 'Cause I felt the same way about the Omni. And I think now the next is gonna be compendiums. That's fair. No, you're so right about that. Especially with them announcing the brick today. I was like, okay. We're about to go back into big fat ass books. That's fair. I will say I do like the epic collections because they seem like they're easier to get if you can't get the omnibus, like you said Sierra. however though I decided I was just gonna collect sp Spider Man Epic collections and that's also a terrible idea 'cause I think they're the same price as an Omni, so it's just like why am I why am I even doing this? What I like about the Epic collections is that they l like they're much easier to take places. Like it's hard to look cute with an omni in public. You know what I mean? No, that's so true Carrying an omni feels like carrying around like a coffee table book sometimes. That's fair. It's just it is just so like outrageous. Even when I'm at home, like I don't have an omni, but like I think of myself reading my books at home and I'm like I'd have to get some like just get a skinny one. Get a skinny one. Get a skinny on one. This is also one of them that's that's still sealed. Yes, by a chip by Chip Sidarsky. Period. Okay. That's understandable. I had to be retired. I couldn't do it anymore. How do y'all do hair? mine's currently. I'm wearing another wig for Halloween and I just know at some point it's going to be snatched at some point in the night. I am going to be Starfire and my boyfriend's gonna be Nightwing. I love that. that's so cute. That is pretty cute. Are you doing the full like skin like you did last year? So hers is like orange, so like my brain was like, Okay, get a spray tan. I mean it works. It's you know what? It's better than paint. Yeah. I mean, I would be so down to do the body paint again. Like I had so much fun painting myself green. I almost thought about being She-Hulk because I loved the green body paint and I thought it would be a fun costume, but my boyfriend and I like to match. So we were I really wanted us to be Gene and Scott. But he was like I don't know. 'Cause he looks like Kit Connors and he's a ginger and I just feel like he would like get that vibe. I already have that red wig, so I was there, but we compromised and I'm gonna be Starfire, which I'm not mad about. I'm excited. I'm gonna do like the full colored contacts, her wig, everything. That's really cool. Yeah, that'll be a lot of fun. I'm gonna jump back for just a second because you said you're growing out your hair, Marsh. Yeah. What? Yeah, here, hang on. How long? Hang on, I'll show you. Cause I saw a picture the other day and I was like, I need to grow my hair out like that again. if it if my picture will come through, it'll like I'm trying to get it kinda like that. That short. So I love that. So Okay Bob. So That's exciting. If it will grow back. Are you guys ready to go into something is killing the children? Yes. Yes. My my is not annotated, but yes. this summary I did not write this week. I just took it directly from the website, so of the book, like the summary for the book. When the children of Archer's Peak begin to go missing, everything seems hopeless. Most children never return, but the ones that do have terrible stories, impossible stories of terrifying creatures that live in the shadows. Their only hope of finding and eliminating the threat is the arrival of a mysterious stranger, one who believes the children and claims to see what they can see. Her name is Erica Slaughter. She kills monsters. That is all she does. And she bears the cost because it must be done. So that is the description of this book from like directly the website. And I read it and I was like, what? And there's only one child that comes back and like sh talks to her, right? Yeah. Just James. It no, cause before we before she goes to Archer's Peak, she helps the little girl who also can see the monsters. yes, she was in the wagon. In the wagon. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, 'cause sh she was missing some lems. I assume from the monster. Yes. And her eye. In In her eye, yeah. Bless her heart. general thoughts. what do y'all think about it? Just like for the people who We're gonna skip through the the spoilers if anybody wants to do that. Sierra, I'll let you go first. Okay. Yeah, I thought it was great. I'm a huge Tinin fan. I think he writes phenomenally. It was spooky without feeling like it was a jump scare at you. A lot of the underlying elements felt terrifying in a way that like sits in your stomach and unsettles you, but it kept making me want to go more and more into it because there's like that underlying mystery in it. It's also beautifully illustrated. The coloring in it is impeccable. Like I love how it it gets very dark and those like uses of red and moments where there's obviously something really horrific going on. Overall, like I loved it. I enjoyed Erica. I think she's a really badass character. And if you're looking for a badass female lead to like lead you into spooky season, I think this would be the perfect book for you, doesn't get better than a monster slayer. That's fair. No, I agree. I I really liked it. I have actually read the first volume before and then I bought it volumes two and three. and then I didn't read them. 'Cause I forgot to read them. so rereading this was a treat because I forgot how much I enjoyed it the first time. like you said, it has like this underlying horror that isn't like a jump scare for you, but like it also like makes you want to keep reading it. So like when I got to the end of this one, I immediately Message gears. Like I'm I'm reading volume two. Like I don't I don't that's what I'm doing. Erica Slaughter seems like such a cool character. reminds me a lot of Buffy, which also might be the reason why I like kind of clung to this a little bit, just because it it I don't know. It just actually now that I said that I'm like, no, it really does. Cause like they have she has some sort of thing behind her, I forgot, I don't know what they're called yet, but like those could be the watchers. From Buffy and she's like the chosen one. She has to go kill the monsters. for people who've seen Buffy. yeah, no, I really liked it and you should read it. Yeah. So basically, everything that both of you guys said W the one thing that's different, basically you guys copy and paste what they said, but I think Tinyon does such a great job at building tension in this while also layering it with comedy. There's really good character work in these first five issues and the in the intrigue. Like these first five issues truly it's just him laying the foundation for the story that he's gonna tell. And That is a reason why a lot of first volumes of books, a lot of the first arcs are hard for me. Because it's I feel like it's hard to judge a book by the first issue or really the first arc because we don't know what kind of world building is gonna go on. I will say that like the the feelings that I usually have with books in their first few issues, I do I did not have with this one. He does it in such a natural way that it keeps you interested, but it also like he does tell like Not a complete story in this, but almost a complete story in this before we go into like the big reveal of what's go going into volume two. and I kinda regret that I wasn't like, We should read the first two volumes 'cause I had forgotten that this is really a ten issue first arc, essentially. Like, yes, it's split into two, but I was like, damn. I I hate that I didn't tell you to get volume two because I know that that cliffhanger was probably shitty to to to experience at the end of it. I definitely kept yes, exactly. And I was like, okay, this is my fault. I should have done a little bit more research. I read it last I read it a year ago and fully just forgot that it wasn't all wrapped up in these first five issues. I also mentioned the colors and it's funny because I specifically said I love that everything's so muted. All the colors are cool tones and muted the only like pop of anything that we get is red very sparingly. And I I love that you you picked on up on that too because Miguel Muertos, the the colorist for it, just I think it was genius of him to do that to give us this muted vibe until it was something very violent. And I just love that the blood was what it was. it's so interesting because you brought up everyone loves a monster slayer and you talked about Buffy and I I have a whole paragraph about the Buffy of it all in my notes. Specifically because initially as I was writing it, I was like, she feels like she could be a descendant of Buffy, a mu a much more jaded version. And then I realized she's Faith from season three, one of the slayers that comes in. Like she's so similar to Eliza Dushku's character. Sierra, if you haven't watched have you watched Buffy? I guess I should ask. I've watched a little bit of Buffy, but not not enough to know the character that you're referencing. Okay. Well, there there's a character it like sp mild spoilers. At one point Buffy kinda dies for a minute, and when she dies, the w the the magic or whatever that gives her the slayer powers thinks she's dead and gives her powers to someone else. When she comes back, she still has those powers, but so does the next slayer. And one of those next slayers is is essentially this character. Like They're they're so very similar in in their sarcasm and their strength. And she's just kind of everything that all of Buffy's own inhibitions are like stopping her from being. Violent, kind of kind of a loose canon. And it's interesting that she is our main character in the way that she is, because like she she is kind of like a little unpredictable, but she has so much love in her. It's just another example of like Tinyon's character crafting because she's clearly gone through some fucked up shit and does some questionable things, but like you can already kinda tell she has a heart of gold with the way that she interacts with the children. and we will see that more as we go into it. But yeah, I it's just funny that like all all of the things that I wrote, y'all all said. So that's cool. That we all had a very clear vision of what this book is. I also didn't notice the use of red like y'all did until I was flipping through it again and I was like, I should have noticed that. But like I was I was just too engrossed in what was going on and what was like the story of it all that I missed it. But no. The usage of red when it needed to be used was actually really, really cool. Yeah, it was it was great. And also to build off of what you were saying, Garrett about Tinian's character work, it feels like this first volume feels very true detective in a way. Wha how he's setting the scene. And it's like those first five issues, you're learning about multiple characters, but it doesn't feel like you're being jostled around. They're all connected in a way where they're flowing through each other. Like you learn about James. Like James intros this and it's very mysterious, jarring in a way that he does. And then it's immediately you're following the rest of the town. You're seeing the the pain in The drear that's held in this town while also seeing this outsider being Erica come in and how she jostles up this small town that's experiencing tragedy. So much so that like with Erica, the whole thing about her character, and when you said that she gives into her inhibitions, where when you were referencing like Buffy doesn't really with her violence, like I wrote down who could we really see as the monster? Cause like from a different perspective, it could be anyone. To the police and to the adults in this town and to the one, I'm blinking his I think his name was Tommy. Erica seems like the monster. And then to the children, well, they know who the monster is. And then Erica, she knows who. And I feel as her story continues, she'll get more details about like how that evolves. But when you're able to give in to that violence, like she does, it can either go one of two ways. These children can feel that you're protecting them. Or it can feel like you're being thrown into something that you can't escape and you look like a monster yourself. You can't discern the two. completely, completely agree. My my notes are withering away, you guys. because like we're we're covering them. I love that. I love that. it it's it's it is so interesting. And I I think I've only read the first four volumes of this book and like seeing it go down the path that you're like theorizing. I'm not gonna spoil anything for what your journey will be when you continue it, but you're kind of right on the money with with the questions that are gonna get brought up and like what the real monster is of it all. And like context clues, like James, the way he writes, the way he writes, like the answers are there all along. Like calling it back to nice house on the lake. If you really pay attention at the beginning, you know where we're going. Right. And I think it's fascinating that that he does that and gives you the answers, but it and it it never goes it never goes exactly the way that you think it's gonna go. And it it was it was just really cool to hear you say that because it's like, shit. Like you're keep pulling that thread. I'm interested to see where it goes when you when you continue because like how much of your own theories will line up. But y you're right about how he crafted her a as a question kind of like Of you know, it does go one or two ways. You can become the monster or the or the the hero, and I think it's I think it's gonna be a really interesting thing for you going forward. speaking of Tinyon's character work, I do have one note that I wanted to just talk about. This is I've not read much of his work. I've read a few things here and there, Exquisite Corpses and Nice House, but this is the second time. in the last year that I've read something where he has self-inserted himself into the story. and I think it's so fascinating because he was, you know, he's Walter in Nice House on the Lake. And then in this he's James. And like he is himself a young, queer kid. truthfully I usually find it cringy when a writer does this. Marsh and I have talked about this. John Byrne does this sometimes. There are other artists who who have done this that we've that we've read. Neil Gaiman's horrible ass did it in Marvel 1602 and it was I think the prime example of when it can be really bad. and it like he wasn't even a character. I don't find it cringy. And I honestly I think that in both e examples, Nice House on the Lake and this, I think it's pretty like revealing of of who James is and who he sees himself to be because of how important each of the characters are to the plot that he's saying. sometimes it feels like is he rewriting his own history sometimes? specifically because both of these situations, nice house and this, heavily involve his friends and his inability to save them. I just wanted to like note that because it's fascinating to me and I would love to if if someone out there knows of a of an interview or anything that he's done where he talks about why he's put himself in and in in and in the ways. that he has because it's just fascinating that that's something that is clearly one of his biggest fears. Like I at least that's the way it reads to me. but yeah, I just think it's interesting that he's he he's in this in such a very clear way. Where with Walter you could have been like, it could be him. It could just look like him. With this, he's that's James. And it's just really interesting. What did you guys think about that as you were reading it? I immediately wrote down Is this James Tinian? When I saw the character, and I also wrote down, This also looks like Walter, because they both he uses the same aspect of like their glasses, where you can't see their eyes in a lot of panels with their glasses. And then when you get to the interrogation with James and he's recounting the memories of his friends being murdered, that's when you see his class glass his eyes for one of the only times I think throughout the whole comic. And it holds such fear in his eyes. And it's almost like a mask is revealed. But it's really interesting because as I continue to read it, I didn't pick up on the having to save all your friends, but I picked up on the obvious queer storyline and then the undertones of denying yourself your own personhood that I also witnessed with Walter in Nice House on the the Lake. Like this whole time, Walter is denying himself of who he is or who he truly wants to be. And then I saw glimpses of that with James's character in here with him, you know, talking about how this was his like first real sleepover and he was trying to match the vibes by telling a care cr scary story and he's trying to almost mold himself in a way where he feels a little bit more accepted in this group when he knows that like when they're talking about the friendships and he sees those encounters with these other kids at the school, it seems like he was more of an outsider to these friends. besides the one that he had a really like close relationship. So I've noticed that both with Walter and with James in this. I'm not gonna lie. until you brought it up, my brain did not even put two and two together. So I was really engrossed in the story this time, okay? I'm sorry, I didn't read it critically this time. I was just here for the a g a good a good spooky story. Yes. Yes you are frozen. You sound like robots. Okay, this is robot Oprah. I heard period and that was about it. The rest of it was was was not coming through. No, Garrett, I'm not kidding you. Yeah, yeah. I feel like this is what Ultron sh sounded like when he was like crashing out, being like escaping from the like sphere. Are you kidding me? The fact that I just watched that recently and I know exactly what your reference Welcome back. No no one can hear you. Yeah, I muted. because I was like y'all said the Ultron thing and I said, Well, I'm gonna mute. You guys, I don't know what's going on. I don't know what was that. I'm scared. yeah, I don't know what's happening. So, my Wi-Fi is still down. It it it is not working. It usually, when it goes down because of rain and stuff, it comes back up within like five minutes. It is it has not come back. So we're just gonna pray that this cellular data works. Perfect. now everyone's frozen again. What? Can you hear us? no, y'all were just like sitting still. Never mind. yeah, we were listening to you. Everyone was serving. okay, w t tell me where we got. Sorry listeners, I will just be a picture from for the rest of the pod. We weren't ta talking about how I didn't realize James Tinian had put himself into his book because I wasn't reading critically. I was too busy reading for the plot. To be fair, like a lot of artists make like generic white men like kind of all look the same. So like it could have just been any guy with glasses. So I mean as as they said his name was James, I was like James. To be fair, once y'all said it, I was like, I feel dumb. Well you know what's funny though is that I didn't pick it up last year when I read it. To be fair I w when I that was this is the first James Tinion book that I've ever read. and then when I reread it this week, that's when I realized it. And I think it's just because of the Walter of it all. Yeah, the Walter, if I hadn't read Night's House on the Lake, I would have I would not have put it together that this was like a self insert. That makes sense. That makes sense. actually the first Tinian book I read was Department of Truth. really? That's on my T VR. It wasn't really great. It wasn't for me. So I hope that you love it. It but but it wasn't it wasn't for me. So but Wha why how so? Like you think just like story, like conspiracy theory theorist esque isn't like the vibe? So my problem was I started like in the middle of it. I didn't actually like start with volume one. So that's probably why if we're really like gonna like nail hit the nail on the head. So I should probably try it again, but it's just that I I just jumped in. I was like, this cover looks cool, we'll read that. And I read it and I was like, I don't know what the hell I just read. So Fair enough. So I have the first trade of it, but I I haven't I don't think I've tried it. Maybe I have to like tried it a little bit and then I was like, no. just it wasn't gay enough yet, I don't think. Honestly. That's real. That's fair. That's fair. Also Full transparency, I disabled y'all's videos on my screen because I y'all were still freezing and I was like, well maybe this will just help my audio quality. So if you're doing funny things that I can't see, don't because I'm jealous and I have a lot of FOMO right now. Right. Heard, heard, heard, heard. into into the notes. You talked a little bit about the side characters, Cyril, when you talked about your general thoughts. I love Tommy, the manager of the local Applebeams, brother of Missing Child Sophie, everyone. I just I love I love the use of that character. because like speaking of someone who's a loose canon, he is so full of grief and so full of rage. it just like all of his decisions in this once he thought, this is the person that killed my sister, because he was pretty level headed until that moment, and then he just lost his mind. And I thought the way that that Tinyun used him in this was was really really smart. also the the the cop. How do y'all feel about the cop? Lazy I actually I wrote that I wrote that down. lazy and so a couple things stood out to me. First, going off of what you're saying about Tommy, not only do I like his character because you kind of see all aspects of grief in this, right? Like you see Tommy, he's a loose canon Then later on, you see a father talking about grief and people asking him, like, you know, I bet you think of your kids as children now that they're gone. And he's like, no, like I think of everything that they won't be. And then you have Tommy's mother, and then you have James. Tommy's family, I think, plays a really important role and aspect of how the world keeps moving on, even though yours stops. I had annotated the part where he's going to the Applebeans. And his mom is like, take more pictures. And he's like, Mom, I can't keep taking more pictures. Like, I'm gonna get in trouble. And for her, like, this is her daughter. This is the end of the world. Her child is missing. But for other people, it it's like it was so crazy. That paired with Erica walking past all the missing child posters as she gets into the town, just riled me up in a way because I thought of like, how many children. Are missing that like people just forget about and their families, like that's that's everything to them. That is someone's whole world. And there's such an interesting exploration there when it comes to trauma and like societally, like how we deal with that. Like, I think a lot of times society wants you to just like move on, get over it, keep going with your life, but like you can't. Like it really is like you could tell the families here that are truly frozen in grief. I do want to jump on the back of that and just kind of talk about Tommy a little bit and how not only must it har be hard for him to have, you know, lost his sister, but like now he's also living with the grief of, you know, his mom is grieving and now he it has to help his mom deal with her grief while he's dealing with his grief. And I think that's that that can't be easy for a young adult to handle. Especially if the dad isn't in the picture and he seems like he's in on his own in his own place. And so I just the grief that Tommy must be feeling and I d we don't know how Sophie went missing, right? So it could have possibly been his fault. So then that adds extra grief to it. I am interested and hopefully we learn more about Tommy's character and how it it it intertwines with his sisters just to see if there's that I'm an angst monster, so I would love that little extra. Bit of angst, but yeah. But also as Yeah, Tommy Tommy felt very Jonathan Byers to me in a way, where you know, when Will first goes missing and Stranger Things and Jonathan is then taking care of mother and then he feels guilty in a way for Will going missing and everything like that and like the single household of it all. I think you see that also too, why that catapults his rage and his angst. for him to like lead this charge against Erica that we see when he when she comes into town of like, I have to do something. Like I have to solve this or avenge my sister. And just like how that drives him through the rest of the story was really interesting. It almost feels like he didn't do something before. And so he has to do something now. it also I forgot to add that It must be hard for him because you're right. Everyone's world stops when something tragic happens. When you lose a parent, when you lose a sister, a brother, what have you. Everyone's everyone in that family's world stops, but Tommy's doesn't, because he still has to go to work. He still has to make sure that everything's taken care of because his mom is no longer able to do that and that That has to be really hard. Yeah. It it's a really interesting like theme of par parentification that I always have like a fun time exploring in a book because it's not talked about enough, especially in households that experience such trauma, especially like child like childhood trauma, and him also dealing with the fact that He's now the man of the house. Like there's so many layers to that. Yep. Forget that guy I can't see us. In the way that I'm really enjoying my break from not being on camera. I'm just gonna say I'm like, to listen. I I will say the the way at the end of this volume the scene where he finds where they find Sophie's remains. my gosh. Absolutely gutted me. I was like, I forgot about this. Like that is so fucking traumatic for a character who is doing everything to take care of everything, you know? And who probably hasn't really been allowed to feel all of the things because he has, you know, been taking care of his mom and and just holding on to the hope that Sophie's still alive out there somewhere, you know? so that was just that was brutal. and now he can see the monsters. So I'm I'm I'm really interested in in seeing where that's gonna go in the future. because I don't really remember from from reading the first three or four volumes last year, if if there is like a trajectory for him going forward. And I think it would be interesting to see him kind of like be an apprentice of sorts to Erica. I don't know if that's a possibility, but there like the characters, there's so much depth to him for him to be be a side character. There's there's so much potential for them to use him in some some big way going forward. The the cop, you when you said lazy, I said yeah, my note was was Bumbling. I just wrote Bumbling. Bumbling. I just I I th I thought it was I thought it was really fascinating that like these two side characters that that they brought in, we we got very limited time with both of them, but they tied Erica to the town in such a way that like you can see that it's a foundation for like, you know, having some type of support system in the next volume or like the volume after that. And I I I just think again it's another thing that that Tinyon does kind of masterfully is like set up everything and give life to these characters that could have just been could have just been like warm bodies essentially. Like we saw the scene of the cop and his brother, and I thought that was s I had so much joy in my body because it's like just two idiots. Like just two idiots who have so much like I wanna say heart, but like they there's like so much character. in that one scene with both of them. And I loved that dynamic and yeah, I'm just excited to see where it goes from here with with Tommy and the sheriff. The cop I don't know if he's a sheriff. I also don't know his name. I put I feel like it's Tim or something. I have no I I can't remember Tim J the sheriff's name is Joe. that sounds like a sheriff name. Yeah. It does, it does. And then the fitting that comes in His name's is Richards. But I when I was first reading over the whole interrogation scene with Erica, and she's kind of like, You can tell this isn't her first rodeo. She already knows how this is gonna go. She's gonna come into this town, they're gonna blame it on her. And then they're he she's like, You're gonna get a call and you're gonna release me and I'm gonna solve your problem because I know that you've known you'd have this problem, but like you didn't put it together, which is so frustrating because there's this whole theme throughout the whole book of Denial. Denial, denial, denial. Like James is telling the police like what happened and the adults are trying to deny him his reality. And then Erica is saying, like, what's going on? And they're like, No, you're wrong. But it's like in front of you the whole time, which is so frustrating. And I think it's also terrifying for James in a way too, to know that you've experienced something so traumatic like this in all the people in your life who are adults, who you're supposed to be able to turn to. confide in that are going to protect you are denying your reality and now you have to like sit in this uncomfortability. And then we have Erica that comes into a lot of children, I think, in this situation, like she would be their savior. Like she is empathizing with them. She is embracing their experience. She's telling them they're they're going to protect them. And this sheriff is there. And when she calls him out on like This has obviously been happening for a while and you haven't even put it together. And he says, This isn't a town where things like that happen. I hate that small town narrative where like they're like, things like that don't happen here. People don't die. People don't go missing. Like that can happen anywhere. Like, and I I understand that he probably this is set in a town where he doesn't have like the resources. But like still enough of these kids are going missing. You would think something would be done about that. Like That missing like kids board was overflowing in the it was like the first couple pages. Yeah, no, absolutely. the thing the thing about this that I was reading it, you you mentioned childhood trauma earlier. and then in that in in that speech you you said she's kind of like their savior to them because she's listening to them. How many little kids out there are not believed when they when they talk about them their monster in their life? and how many of them are brushed off because like that this person would never do that, or like that doesn't happen here, like you said. it is a very small town mentality. because everyone in a small town loves to stick to the status quo. No one wants to rock the boat. And and and you know, oftentimes in places like this, like everyone likes to keep their secrets because there's a certain image to uphold. as I was reading this, I thought. this this could be a really good allegory for childhood sexual assault and and for for victims of that because it was kind of healing for me that the first thing Erica says to James is, you can tell me what you saw and I will believe you. because a lot of kids are not offered that, you know? because oftentimes it's like by people in their own family. And I'm not saying that this book is like officially an allegory for that, but I was like for me, a lot of this story specifically, like th this first volume reminded me of that. And I know that's not exactly what you were saying, but like I I feel like we're kind of both on the same path d depending on what childhood trauma, what thing it is. And that just piqued my that just piqued my ears because I thought about that. I didn't write it down in my notes because I was like, I don't want to get too heavy, but I I'm glad that you created space to talk about that because that's kind of something that I took from from the book. And I wondered, if that's what it was. Because it's a hard thing to write about but if you put it in the context of a horror story, it I mean, it is a horror story. regardless, like that subject matter. No, I agree with you. I actually wrote down underlying themes of childhood sexual assault and childhood abuse because it it really does feel like a metaphor for that. Especially when you think in the sense like when children are so young and they experience this Amount of complex trauma, they don't have a name for it, right? Like they can't say, this is PTSD, this is trauma, this is sexual assault. When you also talk about in the grand scheme of sexual assault, like a lot of kids don't know how to explain what happened to them because like they don't know what happened. And the easiest way to put that in perspective for them is a monster. It it it felt like it's giving the physical representation. Of something so traumatic happening to these children. Like their monster is going to be easier for them to picture as this like scary spider looking thing rather than, you know, the family friend or the next door neighbor. Like the way that they can rationalize it is so different. And I was also thinking about the same thing. Like, how many times do children come forward and they try and say something, you know, like w and they don't have the right words. Like maybe like, like this happened to me and I I don't know what this means and the adults in their life completely that deny their reality because they either brush it off because they don't think it's you know real and they're like, you're just you don't know what that means. Like you misunderstood or that wasn't their intention. Like that's not what it is. And it's left them with two ways. Like now they don't want to say anything if it happens again. And also now they're second guessing themselves of of what happened and and you can see James like doing that in this book. Like He's completely second guessing his reality until Erica steps in, She allows James to tell him exactly how her what exactly would happen. And then she gives him a source of protection. I one hundred percent agree. that was a a lot of the feeling that I had as I was reading this was like that I think this could be what it is. does anybody have any like more specific notes before we move on to to our ranking for it? I'm very interested in the whole two things. The octopus that was then revealed to have this like entity within it. And like she's carrying around this octopus. And I'm like, what is she doing with that octopus? And at first I'm like, is that like a hidden cell phone? Or I just watched Halloween Town and I'm like, is this like equivalent to like the talking heads in Halloween Town? Is she like talking to someone through that? And then at the end of the interview, it shows that there's this like spirit entity that also has like tentacles or something. And she's like talking about how this entity has like classified the monsters wrong. So like that intrigued me. I'm interested to learn more about like what the House of Slaughter is because it's it's named by the end of this. And then obviously it's a secret organization that Erica is either is a part of or she's like just left because at this point she says she hasn't hunted a monster as big as this one, which also piqued my interest because it's like, why? Why haven't you hunted something like to this size? Definitely like a lot going on there that I'm hoping is revealed in the next couple volumes. When do you think that you're going to continue the story? immediately. I'm literally already planning to go to my LCS this weekend. Pick up my polls and pick up volume two. Period. Period. Okay. I I love that that stupid little squid. I I th I think that's such a fantastic plot device. And I don't I don't think that you're too far off from like finding out a a bit more about both of those things that you mentioned. it is it that was like reading those first however many volumes I read, I'm like, this this man is an incredible writer. Like, and I w I wish I hadn't stopped. I just like got interested in other things because I think didn't the 50th issue come come out today? I think so. This it also was announced that this is getting a video game. And I think a Netflix series. Yeah series, yeah. Doing an animated series. I from what I understand, like this is Tinian's like love child out of all of his work. So I'm my shop manager told me this is why like he created his like tiny onion. was for like something is killing children. I love that. I love that so much. And you can tell how much he loves it with the way he writes it. There's so much joy in it. Like there's just he has a lot of fun in this. Like Nice House on the Lake I think is is incredible. Like god God tier kind of of writing, but it's so much heavier than this. And in this, like it's heavy but he has more fun, it seems. There's a lot more fun in the writing in this Yeah, we definitely just made it sound like really, really deep and heavy. But like do not deter everyone from this book, this is like my boyfriend is really big into anime and he got total like demon slayer vibes from this. I think that's anime, if I'm not mistaken. I I don't watch, but I was explaining who Erica was to him, and he was like, yeah, that sounds like that, like hunting demons and monsters and stuff, like It was so fun. And also just seeing her in action was unlike anything. I love seeing like a badass female character like that. Like I'm in the middle of my throat-in-glass read right now. Shout out Selena Tharathian, those who know who know. And like seeing like a pure assassin be able to take down just like whatever is thrown her way with such ease. Like Erica is fighting this huge monster that you get revealed. It's terrifying. And you go into its nest. And then you already revealed with all the kids and you see like Tommy's sister. It's truly horrific. That was like something that really stuck with me after reading. I was like, that was like a lot. But she is just like chopping this thing down like nobody's business. And then when you find out at the end that like this was like a wrong classification and that like she wasn't prepared prepared for this, I was like, girl, where? You made that look easy. She really is such a badass. She did make it look easy, yeah. I I just I I also love the way that what is what is their name? Werther Deladera penciled this book because the the like you said, the fight sequences, like the action, it looks so good. And they did such a good good job of like showing how strong and how skilled she is. She has a very specific skill set. and I like You bring that up. I'm like, yeah, it 100% comes across how much of a badass she actually is. Mm, Marsh, did you have something? I didn't mean to interrupt you. no, no, no. I was just I was just confirming that she was a badass. I do want to know why the squid kind of convinced James to go into the cave. Like he knew something was gonna happen. He was like, You you need to go to the cave and I was like, I don't think he needs to go to the cave. And of course then you find you know, then then things happen and things escalate. and I don't know, I just wanna know what the what the motivation behind the squid is. Because you're right, there is an entity in it, Sierra, but like I I want to know why it was so pushy to push James to go and help use error quotes to go help Erica. She doesn't need help. And the squid should know that. And it does kind of feel like a little bit Now that like we're talking about it, it does feel that like Squid was kind of working against her in the way, you know, from the first like misclassification where she then finds out that it's a mother and it's building a nest and that's how we like leave off. And then the James of it all, and then just like it just it feels like there's something more going on there that I'm hoping we find out because it doesn't feel like that squid is really in her corner. Right. We also didn't have so much fun with the next couple of volumes. That's all I'm gonna say. We also didn't bring up I can't I'm not I'm gonna butcher this name. The the survivor Beyon Beyond We didn't bring up Beyond. my gosh. That well at first I was like, is this Tommy's sister? Mm-hmm. And I got excited because I was like, okay, like at least he's gonna have this good. No. No. Which is interesting. And I'm also intrigued of why she was the only one left. Like, how did how was she the only survivor? And also, like, there were so many kids missing. And it's clear that it's because of like the nest of it all and it feeding its children or whatever. But she said she went in there with a sister. So she had been in there for a long while. So I'm interested to see like. Has this been happening a lot longer than like the sheriff even knew? So like I don't know sorry. He said the first Sarah. He said the first kid that went missing, her name was Sarah, I think. Yes. But I'm curious to know if like I don't know. I feel like I feel like Beyond is like is like the Trojan horse. Cause she yeah. Cause cause she doesn't feel like she belongs in this This era, if that makes sense. and she has like a weird scar on her face, which I guess she would get from from the monster, right? But like I don't know. It's just she says that she's been there a long, long time. How long? What is a long time? Is it a long time to because it's a kid? Yeah. I'd even think about like a different time era. 'Cause I assume that these monsters have been around for generations, and I assume that the House of Slaughter has also been around for generations. I don't actually know these things. I'm just throwing things out. but it seems like it would be like like one of those like what is it? The the Masons. Like like like like like like one of those type of old things that old people do. my god, the Masons look crazy, My grandpa was a Mason. That's the only reason I know what they are. There are a lot of Freemasons around here. Alabama love a Freemason. Yeah. my gosh. Marsh, I think we're on a path I th I I think we're on like the right the right pathway of thinking. I also just wanna note That Erica Slaughter is 5'2. short queen. Lathan. I thought she was a child. And then she's 28, I think is what it was. Or she was born in 1986. I was like, I thought this was a child. I'm gonna be real. I went through her whole life sense and I was like, 5'2. I'm 5'2. And you I was like, she is fighting these monsters. And like that panel where she's like really fighting it, like, she's I'm sorry, you can't see the scare, but she's like Flipping over this huge monster. I'm like, how are you getting that airborne? She does look so like I do one the one thing I love about photography and art is that you can make people who are short look very tall. So like I am also five, I'm five one, not five two, but and I had like soccer pictures taken one time for like me going to college. And when I got to go play college, someone was like, I thought you would be taller. Your photo that they used made you look taller. And I was like, That is the beauty of photography and art. Cause she looks huge in this panel. But she's apparently she's five two. And Gary, you can't see the panel, sorry. Just imagining it, you know. it's the like the airborne, you were like, How's she getting this airborne? I was muted and I didn't realize I was muted, but I was like them calves because like she have so much strength in her legs because she was flipping and flopping. And that monster was huge. Like huge my gosh, so big. And I also do wanna point out the fear of it all. How Erica tells James that the monster is pretty much feed on fear. And that's why like she didn't want him to go in to the cave. And that she didn't want him to show like that he was scared, which I thought was really interesting. And I'm hoping that we see more of that. Because then Tommy goes in and the moment that like she awakens him, it's she's like, my gosh. Well now you're scared. Now it's really gonna come after you right now. And he's just like that sequence is like another funny example how like Something really big is happening, but like Tidion's waving in this humor because you're like, he's like freaking out and having this like come to Jesus moment of like, my god, you're a killer. There's this monster. And then of course, like horrible, he sees his sister. And then she's like, my gosh, you're getting in my way. You're getting on my nerves, you're getting in my way, like, get out. And so quickly she takes that, what is it? The horde, horde gold, and she like opens his mind up. And it it almost felt like to her. It was like, okay, you're being annoying right now. This is to like make you stop being annoying. Cause she didn't really care what he was gonna do. He wasn't obviously gonna fight it. So she was like, Now you see, now get out of my way. It's true. That's true. Yeah. I also love that that humor was weaved in because it was it was very funny that he he's hot having a proper meltdown and she's literally so pissed. She's like, You're a fucking idiot. And it that made me laugh so hard. Because like it is this huge serious thing, but it's it's it also highlighted just how much she's done this. And I'm ready to know how much is how much, you know. Yeah. And I wanna know her time in between because like again, she does mention it's been a while since she's fought a monster of this level. And then the mystery man that gets on the phone with the sheriff and he has the tattoo, which I'm assuming is the symbol of the house of slaughter, not conform or den not confirmed or denied, but just an assumption I made. He basically was like, Well, if you've met Erica, you know that Erica doesn't work for anybody. So she doesn't work for me, but yeah, I want to know more of her origin. And I think there's also this way when she's talking to James and like how long she's been doing it, because she's like, once you see, you can never go back. And I think there's that other theme weaving into there is that like loss of innocence. Like now, James, like he can never go back. Tommy can. Like when you're you're when you're opened and you're awakened to this, and we've seen a lot of like, monster media or like even like conspiracy when they like let you in what's going on. It's like, okay, my whole worldview has changed. And it's been so easy for the adults to deny it because they want to preserve that worldview. And also like they've gone so long in a certain way. They say the same thing and like children are more susceptible and open to seeing spirits because like they haven't gone so long with this like stringent worldview. And it's it's very interesting seeing that like those ways like used in this medium, if that makes sense. I completely agree. th it's just it's just kind of fascinating. All of it is is really I I just had so much fun with this and like listening to you and your theorizing and your thoughts on it, both of you. and and only 'cause I've read like literally two more volumes than you guys have. I just can't wait. I just can't fucking wait. That's that's all I was saying. Was I just getting at it listening listening. Okay. Hello. Hello. Hello? You were a robot for Did y'all hear any of that? Yeah. Just at the end. You got a little robot. All I was gonna say to that was just how excited that I was. That's it. Gotcha. Okay, you're excited. Okay. okay. Do we have anything else? Wi Fi's back. good. Can y'all hear me better than you could a moment ago? Yes. Yes. I would like to apologize to everyone involved, all you both of you guys and the listeners that that I've been having these technical issues. so yeah, just wanted to say that. Continue on with your thoughts. I'm gonna I'm gonna mute just in case I sound like a robot again. You don't have to apologize. Yeah, you're totally fine. do we have any other thoughts before we want to move on to the rankings? I'm all good. Care. You're muted. I too am good. I too am good. I just like what I was trying to say during all of that, and I don't know what anyone heard and what anyone didn't, so I'm just gonna say briefly again. I I as someone who's only read a couple more volumes than y'all, I just I got really hype at the like at the end of all of that with y'all with y'all's monologues because yeah, it's just exciting. It's a it's a really good book. I it's hard for me To give a first arc of something a five out of five stars. it is rare. It's very rare because I'm I'm typically really hard on them. So this is the closest to five out of five for a first arc of a story that I've ever really had. and I also I I've I'm a little trepidatious to give it anything less than a five out of five because it kind of is it's kind of perfect. I don't really have any complaints about it, other than I don't love where it chose to end in this volume. And I think that's more of just a publication thing. So Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm gonna give it a five out of five for me. Wow. Okay. That's a really how I'm a very generous reviewer too, by the way. So this is immediately a five out of five for me. Like I throw fives like anywhere and anywhere. I do agree with you, Garrett. I think this is a publication thing. I wish it would have been at least like a 12 issue first volume. If we but I I don't know, depending on like how the next volume starts, it might have been like awkward of how that like would have laid within the trade. But like I thought it was great. The story was great. I felt connected to the characters. The art was stunning. Miguel Mirto's coloring was or whoever is on the coloring, every the whole team, the whole team was phenomenal. And I think it sets up a really great universe. Like I feel dropped in in the world building, especially for something in horror. Like horror can either set you up and like make you feel confident of that where you're going to go or like confuse. And it's a five out of five for me. it's gonna be unanimous between all of us because I am also a generous reviewer. I rarely give anything below a three. but this honestly, like everyone's already said, that this this just felt like it was a perfect first arc. but like you guys, I wish that there was more of it that I could have read in a single sitting because I would have just devoured it. I I had trouble reading Everything Dead and Dying. back to back to back. I kept getting distracted. But like when I started reading Something's Killing the Children, I just I couldn't stop reading it. It was so good. you know, the story is good, the characters are good. I want to know everything about Erica's Slaughter. I also want to read There's so not only is there something's killing the children, but there's also something called Fall of the House of Slaughter, which I did pick up a while ago. like I I was we can get up in single issues when it was coming out, but I didn't I wasn't reading Something Is Killing the Children, so I had no idea that they were connected. so I'd like to reread that. But yeah, no, five out of five, really good stuff. If you haven't read Something's Killing the Children, you definitely should. I'm sure someone on Comic Talks talk about it. And they aren't lying to you. It's actually really, really good. The hype is real. The hy the hype is real. Yes. It absolutely is real. It absolutely is real. yeah, I just I just had so much fun with it. I had so much fun and it it makes me want to continue. And I think that I might try to read the next couple of volumes on this trip that I'm about to take because I would like to keep the spooky vibes going. I know I have to read Hyde Street for when I get back, but I d I I feel like that's gonna be a very different vibe. And I like the vibe that I'm currently in. Yeah, I might just send it on the compendium. If I that's fair. I literally while you were talking about it, I was like, she's gonna get the compendium. It's at my shop. It's at my shop and before you guys even like asked if I was down to read this, I had been playing Will we, won't we with that compendium every week I went in. It's like I was eyeing it from across the room. Like, are you coming home with me this week? I don't know. But now that I've read the first, like I just know I'm gonna be so invested in this story. I I might as well. And with the sheer amount of volumes this has, might just be easier to have the compendium on my shelf. That's fair. It's also really beautiful. I I was looking at it earlier today because I was like, maybe I should just get the compendium because yeah, you're right. It might be nice to have it on a shelf. so to go into the final part of the pod, it is p time for pop culture pitches. Every week we talk about something that we're currently really enjoying. It can be anything you want it to be. It can be comics, it can be movies, music, a a random YouTube channel that you're into. Just something that you're really, really vibing with. Marsh, you want to go first to give Sarah a little bit of time to process. yes. yeah. my pop culture pitch for the week is the Midnight Fantastic Four that I haven't read yet. no. you know what? My pop culture pitch of the week is going to be Beneath the Trees where nobody sees. if you haven't read it, I know I bought Gare the first volume for his birthday and he read it in one sitting and really, really enjoyed it. If you like a good if you like Dexter with like animals and a really cool like just like character to follow around. Check it out. It's really good. It's really cool. And there's also like a murder mystery that's also inter intertwined into the into the book. It's just it's just a really, really a really, really fun, fun read. And there's lots of shocks and surprises that you don't that you won't see coming. Mm-hmm. So for spooky season. Lovely. It's so, so, so lovely. There's a lot of really good character work in it. A lot of really good character work. Mm-hmm. That's my pop culture pitch. Gary, do you have one? So we can give Sierra some more time if she needs more time. Sorry. I every time it goes silent, I'm like, they've lost me. I've become a real yes. My pop culture pitch. I'm doing all horror movies this month. Spoiler alert for everyone. and last week yes, last week, not two days ago, we talked about camp. horror and how how much fun those are to watch. So I decided that I wanted to pitch one that I'm sure a lot of you have seen, and if you haven't, you're in for a a really ridiculous treat. This film came out in 2006 and it is called The Covenant. I'm gonna read a little tiny little blurb about it. the Covenant follows four elite teenage warlocks and an exclusive New England Academy Who must stop a powerful and vengeful fifth descendant from destroying their family's ancient pact? This movie is kind of the 2000s answer to The Craft, which is one of my favorite horror movies of all time. Nev Campbell, Farouja Bach, Robin Tooney. That movie is incredible. If you haven't watched The Craft, you should. This is like a very cheap, like Walmart version of that film, but the the draw for it is that it's about well, okay, I I'll say hot, hot dudes. I was thirteen when this came out and I was very into all of them. This cast is insane. So we have Sebastian Stan, aka Bucky Barnes, as the villain of the film. We have Steven Strait as the lead and he played War and Peace in Sky High. We have Chase Crawford, from The Boys, aka The Deep and Gossip Girl. And then also Taylor Kitched, who from Friday Night Lights, and he was our first live action gambit in Wolverine Origins. And they're like Swimmers. There we're a lot of Speedos in this movie. And it's just full of really bad 2000s angst. It has terrible, like special effects. Sebastian Stan's performance is like almost theatrical. And he was like he was so wet behind the ears. He was so fresh in his acting journey. Like it's just it's just a mess, but it's so fun that, like I s I said about Idol Hands last episode, it's so bad. That it verges back into good. That's how camp it is. And yeah, if you have not seen the covenant, you absolutely should because it is so silly and so fun and everyone's really pretty. A gear. I saw that in theaters. period. Okay. I thought you were about to tell me I was a robot the whole time and I was going to lie. No, no, no. Trigger, robot trigger. No, no. I saw that in theaters with with two of my best girlfriends and yeah, all we did was talk about how hot everyone was in that movie. I feel like I need to watch this. Like, first of all, I could never imagine all of them in the same film together. Like that's such a stacked you had me at War and Peace. Period. By the way. Like that is a I mean you had me at Bucky Barnes, but like War and Peace is such a pull right there. It's not in a lot. He's not in a lot. After that movie, he really didn't do much. He did he did this really terrible independent film called Undiscovered, and it had Ashley Simpson's di act debut acting role in it. It was really bad. I loved that movie as a kid because I loved Stephen Strait. So that's the only reason why I went and saw this. He is the main character, he does pretty okay work in it. Everybody does okay work, but I think that everyone is gonna be so gagged by Sebastian Stan in that film because it was before he did Gossip Girl. With Chase Crawford. and it like again, it's just fresh. Y'all you should watch it. It's so fun. It's so silly. Was he a gossip girl? He was. Why do I remember those? He was Serena's boy he was like a a guy that Serena hooked up with every now and then, I think. And he was friends with Nate. He like gambled a lot. In the first season. Why am I thinking that's Chuck? But it's not Chuck. Obviously it's not Chuck. It's not. It's like during the gambling storyline that Nate had, he also was in Once Upon a Time. See that's Madder. Yes. That's right. Yeah. Yes. I thought I told you this. Yeah, he was the Mad Adder. That's crazy. And then and then he became Bucky Barnes. Well, my pop culture pick of the week is Silo. It's an Apple TV show. It came out in twenty twenty-three. essentially it's about a whole community of people. It's like 10,000 people. They live in a literal silo and it's like a city in there, and they have no idea why they're in there. All they know is that the outside is not livable, kind of like a nuclear situation. They don't know how long that they've been in the silo. And instead of like Fallout where they're taught their history, living like in the vaults and stuff, there's like this complete erasure of the outside world and of their history. And it is so good. There are three seasons out. I hopped on it kind of late. It came out in 2023. And I think the third season literally wrapped up in August of this year. And like the next season's gonna be the final season, but it's phenomenal. I didn't really recognize like a lot of the cast, but the main character is like such a badass. Her name is Juliet. She like runs mechanical, cause they're like 140 levels in the silo, and they're all separated into kind of like capital Hunger Games in a way, where like each level does something different and they're like a part of a different hierarchy. And like the higher that you get up, it's like the more important you are. So like you're in judicial or You know, it just gets nicer up there and our main character, Juliet, she's in mechanical and she's kind of like thrown in to this mystery of the silo when she's like passed on excuse me, passed on the Batana Sheriff and it's so good. If you like like a good conspiracy and like kind of like a apocalyptic, post apocalyptic show, it's totally worth the watch. Okay, one, that sounds so fascinating. and it it does sound right up my alley. I feel like a lot of the young adult books that I read growing up trained me to like that. It ca the way you were describing like the different factions kinda reminded me of Divergent. I'm gonna say that really. Yeah, it's it's it's very dyst Divergent. Divergent It's very dystopian in a way. And it's it's a little less like action. It's very mystery. Like You will find in the first episode that there is a huge mystery, which of course you can probably believe that it's the silo, right? Like, and it's pushing you through the whole show, but it's truly not predictable. Like Fallout, I love Fallout, but it obviously gets a little predictable. It's a little out there because it was like a video game before it was a show. But it takes those like themes of Fallout of them being in the vaults and like the government working against them and You know, the little guy as like Katniss and everyone like standing up and like actually causing a revolution for something to happen. Wait, is this the Rebecca Ferguson show? I was gonna say I had Rebecca Ferguson, yes. Yes. Yes. Okay, yeah. Definitely gonna watch it then. Yeah. I love Rebecca Ferguson. I love her. I love Rebecca Ferguson. Yes. I I'm I this was my first show that I've seen her in. Isn't she in is she in Plurbus? Or is that some? No, that's so many different. She's like in the Mission Impossible movies. she's also in The Greatest Showman. Who would be in the greatest showman? she sings never enough, but they use someone else to use her like her voice. She can actually sing, which I find crazy. I actually watched that for the first time this past year. That's okay, Garrett doesn't like it. I was I was about to be like, did you like it? I like had fun with it. It's fun. It's a fun movie. I just I as a musical theater bitch, I have like there's just something about it that like just rubs me the wrong way. And I wish I could explain it. I I wish I could explain it. I think that it's you, Jackman. Yeah, it's you, Jackman. We can say it. We could we could all say like Ever since that one guy on TikTok was doing the impression of how Hugh Jackman sings, I was like, now I have to see this for myself. And he truly does sing like how that guy impersonates him on TikTok does. If if you have not seen Lame is Rob with him and Anne Hathaway, they recorded all of those vocals live. And Greg Showman is not his voice live. There's a little bit of tweak in there, but in in Lame is it's live, and so the emotions are are real. The vibrato. That just ruined him for me. I sa I spent my whole life being in love with this man. And I think it was like the first true time I ever got the ick. Like in a crazy, like ruined a person for me. Cause he's just like, mm-hmm, mm-mm. It kills me. Kills me. Love him dearly. But it's that and also I see so much potential in the greatest showman that I was just like, I think I would like it better if it was on stage. Thankfully it is coming to to stage. It's coming to Broadway. So I'm really excited about that. But yeah. I also just don't love when actors who aren't singers get cast in things that are supposed to be like big musicals. And that's sometimes a controversial opinion. But yeah. th it's it's a great it's a it's a good movie. I'm just I'm just harder, harder on musicals than I am most things. and yeah, Hugh Jackman needs to needs to just You know what? Live his life as support his journey. Can I ask you a question real fast about musicals then? Yes. How do you feel about the sound of music? Well first, how do you guys feel about the sound of music? Lovely? Do y'all like the sound of music? I'm like scared to say my answer. Yeah, I am too, actually. Okay. Well, you shouldn't be because the here's here's the thing. This is my god. Say this publicly right now. I have never seen that film all the way through. really? I have tried. I have tried. I could not tell you how many times I've tried. It puts me to sleep. Yes. So fast. Like literally, I always get past her that endless song of her like running down the street. I think I've even no, I th wait. How do you solve a problem like Maria's at the very beginning, right? Yeah, I think I've seen her get to the house and then I always fall asleep. but what I will say is that Julie Andrews is. Is a gem to the world and I'm sure that movie is is great if I could just stay awake. It just bores the living hell out of me. Okay. That's fair. I was just curious. I don't like it. And I still love Julie Andrews, but I just don't it's just a boring musical. And maybe it's, you know, kind of like a sign of the times thing. Like it was a different sign. Like I don't know. Like Yeah. No, No, I get it. I get it. That is one thing I sh I struggle with golden age musicals so much. I I and I think that's just when I fell in love with musicals, it was in like the the era of like rant and wicked and like that those type of sounds. So I struggle with with older shows and and stuff. It just it's written in a way that puts me to sleep. And that's fair. I was curious. Do you love it? I don't love it, but it is it's it's I I I do enjoy it. I haven't seen it in long time, but I do enjoy it. Maybe I just need to like pull a Charlie XEX and do a little Coke and then watch it. Maybe I could stay awake. maybe I would enjoy it. Like Girl Six Five Party Girl it and maybe like collide thanks. There you go. I just f for for full clarity, that was a joke, everyone. I've never done that. I've never done that. but yeah, well, I think one day I'll be in a place where I can make it through it alive. but yeah, I always feel really embarrassed about the sound of music because it is it is so many people's favorite and but like the vast majority of people love it and I'm always like I've literally never seen it all the way through. I've I think I've seen twenty five minutes of it. But yes, Does anyone have any final thoughts on anything else before we before we wrap up the pod? I'm all good. I don't think so. Period. Well, thank you for joining us this week, Sierra. I apologize for the technical issues that I had because I feel like I derailed us too many times. that is not the vibe that we always have. So I apologize for that. But we're so so grateful that you came on. It was a lot of fun. No, it's totally I had so much fun. Thank you guys so much for having me. This is so great. My first podcast. Like this is so much fun. With all the technical issues, it gave it like a little lore and a little story that we could look back on. Some character. It did. Authenticity. The way that you said that, authenticity, that's legit. And and the way, dear listeners, I've probably edited out most of the drama of my robot voice because yeah. Maybe I'll leave it in. Maybe I'll leave it in for y'all. see and I'm using the freaking cat. You've seen him already. It's okay. I know, but still I love a cat. what was I gonna say? When you said this was your first podcast, a chill went down my body that this was your first experience. But I'm glad that you're being so gracious about it. I I really appreciate y'all holding on for me tonight because thunderstorms in Alabama, man. That's fair. But again, thank you. Thank you for coming on. And same time next week, Marsh. Same bat time. Same bat channel. Period. Sweet.