Pulp Culture Podcast
Get ready for Pulp Culture, your freshly squeezed dose of all things pop culture with your hosts, MJ and Nath! We don’t mess around, we dive straight past the pith to bring you the essential flavour of Animation, TV, Movies, Comics, Toys, and more. Tune in for lively debate, deep-cut analysis, and the most a-peel-ing takes in the fandom world. Don't be sour, come get zesty with the Pulpsters!
Pulp Culture Podcast
001 - The Horror of Power Walking
Halloween might be over, but somehow our first episode has a horror twist! MJ & Nath dive deep into the eerie and the unexpected, from The Thing, Welcome to Derry and Stranger Things to the mystery of Who’s killing the children. We also head to Vatican City before counting down the Top 10 ranked Supermen ever to don the cape. Meanwhile, Batman ‘66 just sold for a cool million dollars, and MJ can’t stop talking about... power walking?!
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Welcome to the first episode of the Pulp Culture Podcast. I'm Nate, and with me is MJ. Yep. And it's great to have your company. Thanks so much for taking the time out, whether you're in the car or at home or listening to our dulcet tones as you drift off to sleep tonight. Power walking. Power walking. That's a that's a new one. I'm not doing it, but I'm sure some people do. Neither am I. So that's that's that's probably why we're doing a podcast on pulp culture. But anyway, we're grateful for your company. And uh just to give you a bit of background, um, MJ and I have been friends for the last a long time. Probably won't say how long, because that probably gives away our age. Um but uh we didn't want to do power.
SPEAKER_00:A popcorn for preferences will do that for us.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, absolutely. Um, but uh every every conversation is like a podcast, so we thought why not? Let's give it a crack. MJ, you're doing your own uh podcast. What's that one?
SPEAKER_00:I am, yeah, I'm doing my own podcast called uh The Titans Tower Reading Book. Um it's just a little podcast I'm doing for myself. Uh it's about uh every episode is about uh an individual comic issue from my collection, and I basically talk about what I like about it, um, talk about the artwork characters. Um it's basically just an homage to my love of comic books.
SPEAKER_02:And it's a it's always a great listen. It's and it's short too, it's not not too long like we are. So far.
SPEAKER_00:So far, they've all been fairly short episodes. Yeah, it's um yeah, just a nice quick one. Just for a quick power walk.
SPEAKER_02:Well yeah.
unknown:Quick power.
SPEAKER_02:Everything's gonna be measured in power walks now, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but I'll I'll try and make that the last reference I make to power walk.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, we're sorry if you're power walking uh listening to this because I'm getting tired just talking about all right. Well let's get let's get started. Let's uh let's get into the zest. So the zest is a uh it's probably our version of the news. So uh if you're not up to date with uh all things pop culture when it comes to the news, we'll we'll fill you in on a couple of things that we think are noteworthy.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's not that we think is um uh has has um piqued our interest during the work.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and there's always something that uh definitely piques our interest. First thing probably would be holy holy batsuit Batman um is is probably the the line I'm gonna go with. Uh the sure? Yeah, absolutely. Um Geek Tyrone have um have just posted that they have um they have the skinny on um Batman's uh the Batman collection, the Batman 66 uh outfit collection has just gone to auction. So the original costume. The original costume. So the Adam West costume has just gone to auction, which has actually sold more uh for than uh Linda Carter's Wonder Woman outfit. Oh wow. So that kind of gives you an idea. So there's obviously bigger fans of Batman than there was of uh Wonder Woman, but uh I'd be surprised if that was true. Yeah, but well, so Bert uh so Bert Ward's costume of Robin and Batman Adam West uh was combined was five hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars for their their costumes combined.
SPEAKER_00:We don't know who bought them, I suppose.
SPEAKER_02:Don't know who bought them. Someone who's got a lot of money who can afford to buy them. No, but then you had Cesar Romero um who played the Joker, um, very iconic um Joker outfit. Great suit. Um, which was actually probably a lot of comic book artists sort of replicated over the years that sort of outfit, that sort of bright and definitely an iconic colour scheme.
SPEAKER_00:Um obviously some very brightly coloured uh costumes for that show.
SPEAKER_02:So that was 212,000, yeah, followed by Yvonne Crave, who played Batgirl, uh went for 87, 87,500.
SPEAKER_03:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:Uh this is US dollars.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Uh Julie Newmar's Catwoman outfit was actually under Bat Batgirl's outfit, which it really surprises me. That was uh$68,750.
SPEAKER_00:I wonder what that is. Maybe it's something to do with the Catwoman one sort of when it comes down to it, it's a black catsuit. The um the the Elon Craig Batgirls, um there's a bit more to it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's a bit iconic in this white layers, right? Yeah. Um and then you have Burgess Meredith's uh penguin tuxedo, which fetched for 46,250 US dollars. So combined total, just shy of a million dollars. Amazing. Yeah, and then um and then on top of that you had the the bat scanner that uh you would see in the in the Batmobile that was uh$150,000. And Batman for me, this is probably where if I had the money, this is what I would probably buy. Batman's batarang and holster, which was fifty thousand.
SPEAKER_00:Do we know who was selling these? Was it it's not Warner Brothers or Fox who um originally broadcast the show?
SPEAKER_02:Well, Warner Brothers need money right now, right?
SPEAKER_00:So maybe no, it doesn't actually go into Well I I just wonder whether they were in the possession of like a private owner or yeah, I yeah, it doesn't actually tell us uh just tells us what they would want.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, exactly, exactly.
SPEAKER_00:But uh well I think I mean there's you know Batman's arguably never been popular, and I think that the Batman 66 costumes and design of the show in general has experienced a bit of a resurgence in the last decade and a half. Um we had a couple of animated movies and um uh comic book series, several comic book series, which were really popular. And fun. Yeah, really fun. I have to admit I've been revisiting them as well. I've got them all on that Lou-Ray a few years ago, and I've been slowly watching them.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I mentioned that also too that Wonder Woman's outfit was less than um and and that that her outfit plus the lasso of truth and her bracelets as well, yeah um all went for 225,000 earlier in the year. Yeah, it's crazy. So it was it's a it's a lot less, and that that that kind of surprised me. But I suppose the question for you, Joe.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, sorry.
SPEAKER_02:I was gonna say if you could have if you had the money and you could buy a piece of movie memorabilia or TV memorabilia, what would you buy? Oh my goodness. Uh put you on the spot. Movie and TV. It can be either, because we're talking about TV with uh Batman 66 or Wonder Woman.
SPEAKER_00:If it was the movies are probably and uh and you know, money was no object and and storage space was no object, which is definitely not the case in my place, I'd probably go for the um uh one of the versions of the DeLorean. Oh nice. Um obviously there'd have to be a yeah, I'd have to have space to put it, but yeah. That's the first thing that springs to mind.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um and from TV. Maybe I've just got Batman on the mine, but um probably go one of the Batman suits or maybe even Robin. I've got a soft spot for the character of Dick Grayson, so maybe I'd look at that one as well.
SPEAKER_02:The boy wonder out here.
SPEAKER_00:I mean I should point out I'm not gonna be wearing them.
SPEAKER_02:Right. You just you'd just like be put like Batman and have it in the in the glass case, right? Yeah, I'd put it in my backade but then have it on display.
SPEAKER_00:But um I'm not gonna be wearing it this particular plant.
SPEAKER_02:Right, good to know, good to know. For me, I would probably go with if it was movie, I'd probably go probably Indy's Whip or Fedora. Yeah, that did occur to yeah, maybe maybe those. Yeah. Um or Mark Hamill's original lightsaber as Luke Scott.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, very nice. Yeah, I just I like the idea of having the DeLorean because uh, as you know, I enjoy spending my time reading. With the DeLorean, I'd be able to sit on the DeLorean and read.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that's a good that's so that's your your reading nook. Yeah, why not? It's gonna be a fantastic place. So another another podcast coming soon. It's yes and MJ's DeLorean reading nook.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, look, anything's possible at this stage, so the sky's the limit. We don't need roads where we're going.
SPEAKER_02:You've you've already worked it out in the space of seconds.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yeah, that's um that plan has been formed.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, if it was TV, what would I go? Or I'd probably go something that was a little bit more Golden Girls? Oh, I was I was close. I was Golden Girls. I was gonna say uh Greatest American Hero uh out there. I knew you were gonna say that. Really?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Oh well there you go. I think I think I went from the Golden Girls hair to obscure. No, to the to the hair from the of the guy from Greatest American Hero. Because it was pretty good.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it was. Anyway, he for those of you who maybe are a generation less than us, Greatest American Hero was a TV series um about an average American man who gets a suit from aliens uh super suit and uh loses the instructions on how to use the suit and and trouble foils, teams up with a FBI agent, fight the bad guys. They're actually talking about doing that as a reboot. We'll wait to see everything's a reboot these days. So we'll give it a we'll we'll wait and see and see what see what comes about. What have you got on your list? And we'll take it in turn so that that way it's not all my my voice. Yeah, yeah, what have you got on the Z?
SPEAKER_00:Um the main thing that I've been focusing on is um there's been a new Stranger Things season five trailer. I'm very excited for the return occlusion of Stranger Things. Um and so yeah, I've watched the trailer several times and I'm I'm really looking forward to some new episodes. I've started doing a rewatch of season four. I watched the first episode, uh, which is called The Hellfire Club. And I'm gonna try, no, I'm going to watch the um season four episodes uh before season five comes out, just so I'm gonna refresh my memory. It has been a few years since um since season four. Figure freshening out is probably not a bad idea. Yeah, so the Stranger Things Five trailer, that's all I've been particularly excited about this week. Um it looks like the action Stranger Things Five is gonna go up a few levels. There's a couple of shots of yeah, some fairly epic sort of action in the trailer, um, as well as yeah, figurative drama for our kids from Hawkins.
SPEAKER_02:I read somewhere this week that some of the cast were saying prepare for tears.
SPEAKER_00:Oh yeah, well there's tears in the um the trailer, so I can only imagine what it's gonna be like the show itself.
SPEAKER_02:And if someone has followed these kids through their journeys through all the seasons, I don't think we're looking forward to what's ahead of them.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I'm uh uh hoping that most of them will find some sort of happiness in the end, but I'm sure it's not gonna be all of them.
SPEAKER_02:No, definitely not.
SPEAKER_00:Um the the song that plays over the trailer I noticed is uh Queen's uh Who Wants to Live Forever is a little bit foreboding. Which was used in uh was it Highlander? Is that I'm pretty sure that was I think you're right. The original Highlander. Um so yeah, I think that's the when I was listening to the lyrics of of that song play over the trailer, I have to admit I had a sense of um foreboding, but yeah, I'm sure it's gonna be a show to for us all to watch together and and talk about.
SPEAKER_02:It'll be definitely uh on the list in um in in in in the coming weeks when uh when we get the first first half, first half of the drop or first quarter of the drop.
SPEAKER_00:I think they're dropping the first uh I think they're dropping three episodes, yeah, and then they're dropping another three episodes, and then a day or two later or something, they're dropping the finale. Yeah, right. Um the finale for season four was more than two hours. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So um it'll just be like three episodes really.
SPEAKER_00:I would imagine so. Yeah, so it's it's um no doubt going to be a doozy, but yeah, no, bring it on. I'm looking really looking forward to it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, look, um comic book, uh comic book.com have posted uh that they have an exclusive they've checked with uh two independent revival sources, um, and there are plans underway thanks to Disney for the uh original Star Wars trilogy. So we're talking four, five and six uh to be unaltered. So the unaltered versions of those to be to be on Blu-ray. So physical media is back again after a little bit of a hiatus, and uh Disney are investing in looking to do these three.
SPEAKER_00:The original theatrical cuts, yeah. Um no special editions, no cleanup.
SPEAKER_02:No, no, no George Lucas Fever Dreams, where he thought, oh, maybe I'll do this and I'll do that and add Chubber the Hut into the uh the new hope scene with stuff on his tail.
SPEAKER_00:It's um I can't imagine George would be too happy about all this.
SPEAKER_02:Uh well I mean he obviously doesn't have a say, I mean he sold it for how many billion dollars? He he he did say recently he did say you know he's now over Star Wars and making comment he's just accepting it for what it is now because it's it it was originally his and now it's not.
SPEAKER_00:I hope that's true, but I think that's probably a very healthy way for him to be. Yeah. And um I I mean I know he's been out recently uh talking up his new Lucas Museum with um is it sequential? No, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, which looks amazing. It it does look amazing, doesn't it? I imagine that's probably where his um his attention is now because that's um definitely going to be uh something that's gonna be a massive legacy for him. Um not that he needs any more, but um yeah, I'm really looking forward to seeing the museum myself.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I'll probably go, let's uh let's go into the future then and back to the future, but to the future with uh with Buck Rogers. So uh for those of you who don't know, Buck Rogers uh is he's been around for about nearly 100 years, he's 97 years old. Um I think he was he did he start in comic books? Yeah, he started in comic books because that was they were at least 100 years ago. And then they they commented of a uh a serial in 1950s, 1960s, uh and then it was probably the most notable uh version of Buck Rogers was the 1980s TV series, which was two seasons uh with Gil Girard. Um, and then they brought in also some really interesting characters along the way, um, just uh sort of as a uh sidekicks for him. Uh that is now um in the works to get a um a reboot. Uh so who's who's looking at doing that? Yeah, so this is from um Legendary Pictures. Nice. Um doing the the reboot.
SPEAKER_00:Godzilla and um the Christopher Knoll and stuff.
SPEAKER_02:So they're looking to obviously um build some franchises um under their belt. They've had they've had the rights for Buck Rodgers for about five years and haven't really done much. Maybe the clock is ticking an hour and so they need to do something. It's been a pretty wild five years. Zeb Wells, yeah, yeah, from Marvel. Um he is uh going to be doing the new chapter for Buck Rogers. So that's really really exciting. So uh CBR had um had posted that, and so definitely newsworthy. There was a actually back in 2021, I think it was, um, George Corini was attached to to star in that. Um, but I think he's just a little too old to be in that that role. I don't want to sound too adamant about it, but yeah, definitely. Yeah, I I think you need a younger too. And I'm not when I say younger, I'm not I'm not talking about um I'm talking like David Cornsweat sort of age. You know, you want something that's you've got a bit of longevity out of.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_02:Um but they plan on doing not just um a movie series, they want to do a TV series as well, um, also an animated series. So I think they they really sort of have high hopes for Buck Rogers.
SPEAKER_00:I have to admit, I don't know whether I've ever watched, read, or any Buck Rogers. Um I've never consumed any of it, but I'm really excited about the prospect of them um tapping into that old-style serial type stuff. Um, because I mean that that's where we've gotten some of our favourite franchises from Star Wars to Indiana Jones. Um I'd be really down for it. I think it sounds exciting.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and and so Buck Rogers is uh astronaut, uh test test pilot, great astronaut. Silo silo you know, on a solo mission, solo mission, should I say, uh, and uh he gets something goes wrong and he gets frozen in time and uh he gets thought out in the 25th century.
SPEAKER_00:Nice.
SPEAKER_02:So it's a bit like Captain America, right? So um but in space.
SPEAKER_00:A bit like Adam Strange from the Beast of Comics.
SPEAKER_02:Adam Strange or um uh Carter from from Mars. Um, but let's hope hopefully not draw the same brush as Carter from Mars, even though I enjoyed that film. Um I still haven't seen it, but I I'm still looking forward to seeing it. Yeah, it's great. I I I actually saw it in the cinema. I was probably one of five that actually met in the cinema to see it, unfortunately. Yeah, so um so yeah, so Buck Rogers coming soon, so looking forward to that one being a fan of the 80s TV series. Yeah, no, pretty honest. That sounds really good. Yeah, um, okay, maybe let's go into the aisle. So, for those of you who want to know what the aisle is, this is where we walk down the comic aisle and uh pick some of our faves from this week's reading uh and uh and just chat to you about it and tell you what we like. Um, but you can also like tell us what what you like and what you've been reading this week. You can check out uh us on the socials, which is uh pulpculture uh pod. Uh or you can send us an email at uh popculturepodau at gmail.com. Uh MJ, let's start with you. What have you been reading this week?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well when it comes to um comic books, um I've been continuing to delve into my enormous comic book pile, um, which just gets bigger every time I visit it or start producing the city. Um which is a good thing, uh don't get me wrong. But um uh this week I've read a few issues of a series I've had in the um stash for a while, um Hornsby and Halo, um from uh Image Zoom and Ghost Machine, the um the Robert Kirkman um crew. Um yeah it's a uh sort of an all ages type series written by Peter Peter J. Tomasi with um uh uh art by um Peter now I said I was gonna get this right tonight. Uh Peter Snavier. Snabier, yeah, it's a Swedish name. Um I think. Uh and yeah, but no, the art uh by Peter Snagier is fantastic. Um and the story itself is great. It's about um two kids, uh I think they're about ten, um Zach Halo and Rose Hornsby. Um one of them uh was born in England, the other one was born in Devil, and it was part of a pact um between heaven and hell um to try and maintain peace. Uh they are adopted by human families that um sort of go against their natural um yeah genetic programming. So the angel uh boy Zachary is put with um some uh parents who were not um uh perhaps of the most highest moral character, and um uh Rose is uh who's a yeah who was a born of Demon is put with um some you know really lovely, altruistic, uh generous parents. Um and yeah, this is just about um the forces of heaven and hell starting to encroach on the lives of these two kids, and um yeah, that's a really fun series. So as I said, I've read the first three issues. It's um yeah, full of demons and angels and hellfire and motorcycles, and um yeah, I've really been enjoying um getting into Horn to be an Aler.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's on it definitely on my list and um it definitely piqued my interest being a Kirkman-related book. So um it hasn't hasn't sort of stepped into the Energon verse yet, as everything else seems to be heading that way.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, this is um, I mean it's part of their Ghost Machine initiative, so it sort of takes place in a universe of of its own, I think. Um unrelated to oh I don't know whether it's connected to the Rocketfellas, which is another series that um Ghost Machine have put out because I haven't actually read Rocket Fellas yet either.
SPEAKER_02:I've read that and that's really good. I'll definitely be talking about that in coming weeks. Ah beautiful.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's that's coming up in my um uh uh comic reading pile, but um they've got that as part of their um what they call their family odysseys um range. Yeah, right. I'm not sure whether they're connected in the same universe, but um yeah, uh that it's more of a yeah, sort of family friendly um type title. Um but yeah, I'm really enjoying it so far, and as I said, the uh the art by Peter Snaby is fantastic. Now that I've hopefully got it right, I'm saying it's a possible thing. Um just to show off.
SPEAKER_02:It's your warm-up before we start, right? That's my word's maybe a snake. What happens if you say it three times? What happens is he appear, or he writes better books.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, I can sign my copy of Cornspi and Halo number one and I'll be here. Um what haven't you been reading?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's funny, we're we're kind of on the same length when it comes to heaven and hell. Um so this week I read volume one of Vatican City, um, and you're like, oh, what's that all about? That doesn't sound too exciting. Um it's done by Mark Miller. So if you're a Mark Miller fan um like I am, then you're definitely gonna be digging this. Um, and the artwork's done by uh Herrberg is his name. Um and it's and it is good. Like I can assure you, this is what's what's the vibe? Yeah, so uh it is a uh vampire apocalypse.
SPEAKER_00:Oh huh.
SPEAKER_02:The last humans take refuge in the Vatican. Nice because vampires can't step on holy ground. Too many crosses, too many, well, just too many. Well, it's it's it's a holy ground, right? So the Vatican uh as a city itself is is is a holy center. Yeah, uh, and so vampires within the space of 24 hours have pretty much annihilated millions of vampires have annihilated the human race.
SPEAKER_03:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:Um but there's also this underlying current uh story that's happening, they need to get into the Vatican because there's something very deep underneath the Vatican that they need. So the vampires need to get the thing under the under the Vatican. But they can't get in, right?
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:So they're gonna have to rely on all sorts of different ways of trying to get in, um, and that could be relying on humans, uh, that could be relying on other techniques to be able to allow them to get into there. Nice. Um, so it's a group of of about, I think it's about 2,000 um who are left over, and that's like tourists, and um, you know, it's it's it it's definitely not like the the armed guard or anything like that. It's it's it's a bunch of people who you know band together to try and you know save themselves.
SPEAKER_00:So to draw a comparison a bit like the Walking Dead with vampires. Yes, so it's a whole lot of different disparate characters from different um uh backgrounds having to figure out how to work together.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, spot on. So and it's and that's a and it's a really good read. Um Kerberg's um artwork is definitely um appropriate for the read as well. It's very sketchy and very dark and in in places, um, and um but yeah, highly recommend uh that book. Is it a new title or has it been out for a while? Yeah, it's been out for a little bit. I mean it is volume one, um, so you know those first five issues have been around for for quite a bit. Um it was a release this year, so um, but but yeah, definitely if you're a Martinella fan, then then get yourself a copy of that for sure.
SPEAKER_00:Another one for me to check out. Yeah. Yeah, no, I've um definitely read a few comic books this week, but um I've been reading some books as well, so I'm gonna talk about some of those if that's alright. Not at all. Oh, okay. Okay. Thank you, listeners. Good night, thanks for tuning in. Um, I'm gonna do it anyway. Um, so um and again related to um uh trailers that have been out recently, um, you know, you and I have talked about the trailer for night with the Seven Kingdoms, um, the new show from uh the Game of Thrones universe, Westeros, um that's coming out in I think January. Um I've been reading the um I've started reading the novellas, uh the three short novels that they're that that show is going to be based on. Right. Um trying to sort of avoid um being spoiled before the show comes out. But um how do you do that? Well, I you can not listen to any podcasts, right, but I find that that makes life extremely boring.
SPEAKER_02:Won't the novellas give those away, or is this a lot of things?
SPEAKER_00:Right way. I could try and wait for the show, but I just have a feeling that if I'm listening to the podcast that I listen to, it's gonna get spoiled on there. So I'd rather find out in the way that uh the author George Arraman intended. There's more, I mean. Got it. Um but I've finished reading the first one of those, which I think is what um uh the first season of the show is going to be based on. Right. Um so I'm gonna spoil it all for you here right now. Um of course I'm not going to do that. Um yeah, but uh suffice to say, um, yeah, between having watched the trailer and now read the first of the novellas, um, which is called The Hedge Night, um, I'm really excited for um the show when it comes out next year. Yes. Um I think it's gonna be a real uh real good time and a real river story.
SPEAKER_02:So and I've seen the trailer too, and it looks fun. It is it looks like a fun, you know, it's obviously there's gonna be some darker parts in it and some bottom blah.
SPEAKER_03:No doubt.
SPEAKER_02:Um but we we we were talking about this off air and we kind of likened it to the Heath Ledger film. The Night's Tale. A Night's Tales.
SPEAKER_00:Right, okay. Yeah, and um yeah, I definitely agree with it. Now, having read the first story, I think that that's probably a really reasonable comparison. And I think it's gonna be really fun. Um I think it's gonna be uh something to a sports story. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, those um you know, I guess it's all uh sports stories, except that in this case it's gonna be jazzing with horses and uh sort of fighting with shields, and um I think it's gonna be really fun.
SPEAKER_02:All the things we love.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so I'll be reading that, and the other thing that I haven't started reading yet that I was excited to get this week was um uh I saw on Instagram uh advertised uh choose your own vegetable.
SPEAKER_02:You used to read those back in the day. I had them all. Did you did you cheat though? Did you when you were reading them? Did you evaluate like you wanted to check both sides? Like, you know, if I went this way or I went that way, and then you keep reading or I probably do.
SPEAKER_00:I don't know how you cheat, because it I mean it depends on whether you want your characters to live or die.
SPEAKER_02:That's right. But you would try and kill them? You try and do your best to to live, right? But you know, wait to get to the get to the end.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, I can see how that would happen. But anyway, anyway, this version of the choose your own adventure I was really excited for. About because I haven't read one for a really long time. But this is a Stranger Things version called Heroes and Monsters. And yeah, it's it's full of um fun illustrations of characters from Stranger Things, and apparently it's got 25 possible endings. So I guess that might be a nice one to have in the collection. And I'm looking forward to giving that crack.
SPEAKER_02:Is it a different story? Is it just like an independent story?
SPEAKER_00:The story beats in it sort of um seem to follow just having that flick through, they seem to follow the TV show a fair bit. Right. But um presumably um you can alter the outcome. You know, if you don't want your favourite character to um perish, um you can you can make that choice and try and try and save them, which I think could be quite fun. Who who is your favourite character in in Stranger Things?
SPEAKER_02:Stranger Things. Oh my goodness. Um I don't know. They're all lovable characters, you know. Sometimes you get shows where you're just like, I don't warm to any of these characters and they're not likable, but there's something really endearing about each of them in their own way. I think I probably um I'd have to say Dustin. Oh, you want to meet both. I think I'm both wearing the thinking cap, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so I really I really like Dustin because I know I mean he there's part of him that I think doesn't want to be a nerd, but I think when it comes down to it, he's super proud to be a nerd and he stands up for himself and he represents the things that he really loves, and I kind of um I don't know, I empathise with that, and I suspect you do too. But um no, I think Dustin's probably one of my favourites, and plus he's really funny, yeah. Um and he and this he has some really you know quite sort of touching scenes through the show too, and his um his relationship with Steve uh is a a joy. Um the the dynamic duo, the bro the bromance, yeah, the Batman and Robin and Falkins. Um so yeah, no, I'll probably say Dustin, but I mean I've got a stopstop for a little bit as well. Um I think she's a fascinating character given the unusual upbringing she's had. No.
SPEAKER_02:I was just gonna say that um one thing we didn't mention in uh in The Zest is that they are turning Something Is Killing the Children into a TV series. Yes. Um and I know that that's something that you've been reading, so it's a bit of a segue into the aisle. So MJ, what's what what tell us about something is killing the children?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, I've finished reading volume six of Something Is Killing the Children. Um you've read none of it? None of it, yeah, none of it. It's on the list. No, Something Is Killing the Children is um a great series, it's very, very dark, um, but uh it's a great uh horror series based on um the character of Erica Slaughter, who um is basically a monster hunter. Um and yeah, the the the it's gonna make a fantastic um TV series and also a movie, I think, or something along those lines. TV movie. TV movie, yeah. Uh whatever they do with it, um I'm sure it'll be fantastic. But the comic itself is um a very compelling reading. Um the individual volumes that I spoke of that I've just finished volume six consist of about four or five, maybe six issues. Yeah, right. Um but they're real page turners. Um I find I get through them really quickly, but um in a good way. Um and yeah, uh visually they're just it's spectacular. Um if they manage to replicate any of the the look of the comic books um in uh television, um it'll be fantastic.
SPEAKER_02:Is the last name Slaughter by Name, Slaughter by Nature?
SPEAKER_00:Um Slaughter, yes, most definitely. If you're a monster preying on children, then yes, um Eric is gonna rip you a new one. Yeah. Um it it's a bit um she it's part of an order of um monster hunters that basically exists to defend um humanity from the darker things that lurk in the night. Um and yeah, it's as I say, it's it's a it's a very dark theme um series, but it's also really fun. Um it's a it's a yeah, great fun read. Um so yeah, I've been reading those and a lot of the lines of the dark stuff as well. I recently finished reading um Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Seeds by Patrick Um the Book of the Year at the New York Comic Book, um, and that was really good too. It's um a really strange mix between um Sylvania families, you know, the Sylvania or um Barrett Stand Bearers and Dexter. Um so it's a serial killing bear that runs the local hardware store of this country town in America where all the animals live.
SPEAKER_02:And um appropriate store, right, too, I mean a serial killer.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, with shovels for burying stuff, and you know, all manner of all your tools to your to your liking, right? Yeah, I don't know, and she certainly certainly uses them. But um, I recently finished reading that the first one of that too, and it's fantastic. And what was that one called? Uh beneath the trees where nobody sees. Right. Um yeah, which is where they get buried, right? Uh absolutely 100% correct. I felt like I was giving away the the main character's um MO there. I felt like I was betraying her, but no, it's um it's in print and it's a bestseller, so yeah, great. I don't think I'm telling you telling you anything that the FBI doesn't really. Spoiler alert, right?
SPEAKER_02:No. Alright, well if that's everything, then maybe let's get into the review. So, review uh segment is when we go and uh tell you about what we've been watching this week. What have you been watching now? Have I been watching something really interesting? I I really have been. I I've been watching It Welcome to Derry. It's a bit of a horror thing. I mean we're past we're past the Halloween stage now, um, but there's definitely some horror tones to tonight's uh episode. So um, but yeah, I've been watching It Welcome to Derry. And how is it? Uh Mark, you're gonna definitely need to watch it with the lights on and during the daytime.
SPEAKER_00:Well I I mean I have to confess I haven't actually seen any of the it movies the first the original or the um the two recent ones. Yeah, right. Um I've got a bit of catching up to do. I have been getting more brave, particularly the last 12 months, with watching horror movies. Um I think I mentioned to you off air that um I'd watch the thing finally um at the encouragement of my 17-year-old son who's much braver than I am, um, but I haven't yet got to it or um part two.
SPEAKER_02:Well let's get to the thing in a sec. But uh the so it welcome to dairy is like it's following the events that's set in the 1960s. Is it prequel? And it's yeah, it's the time leading up to when the first film from Stephen King's It uh takes place. Uh so we're going back in time, and this is our first look at what's going on in the town. And not only, I mean, you know, it's it's no secret. Um, if you haven't seen it, that's okay. Um, I'm not giving anything away here with any spoilers, but essentially the character of it um uh feeds off people's fear, and so it is um tapping into what makes you afraid mentally, um, and then drawing on that, and it feeds on those that emotion of fear um as as like their sustenance. Yeah, and so they don't want to kill you, they want to keep you alive so that they can you know draw on that fear as much as possible and and and and tap you dry. Um and uh yeah, there's some really, really interesting scenes in it um that draw on, and it's always kids, it's never on adults because adults uh you know, as we get older, we we become a little bit more fearless and uh resilient to those things. Um it's always about children. Um, and I suppose that's the frightening thing about it is is that that it's it's preying on children, and that's why we kind of tap in and go, well, this is not making me feel so comfortable about it. That's another singularity with um uh Sunday's killing children. Exactly. Right.
SPEAKER_00:The victims are it's um HBO Max. HBO Max. So have they just released one or two episodes?
SPEAKER_02:Uh so I've uh seen now uh two episodes.
SPEAKER_00:Is that the releasing on the weekly format?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, on the weekly format. Yeah, absolutely. Um, but it's really compelling, really interesting. The the thing that I've noticed about this is that it's looking at through the eyes, and it's a bit like um Steven Spielberg did with ET, where you're looking through the eyes of the child, where where all the uh camera direction is looking down, yeah. So it's if if or looking up, should I say, where you're you're essentially looking through the eyes of the child, yeah, and to the point where you really don't like most of the adults based on their reaction to things, yeah, which is what children would would see, right? You know, so when something happens, an adult's reaction is usually not pleasant, and especially back in the 1960s, where you're in a town which is very traditional America. So it's that very 1950s approach where um it was, you know, children children are children are seen, not heard, and if they are heard, then they're usually you know inconvenient to the conversation. Yeah, um, but there's something a little bit strange about the adults as well that you just can't put your finger on yet. Um, and I think that that's what makes it really, really interesting. Uh so yeah, welcome to Dairy, uh It, Welcome to Derry. I believe that is it Alexander Starsgard who played the original in the last two It films. Uh Penny was yeah, he he has been billed to be in it. Okay. We haven't seen him yet. So I wonder whether it's like a build up to the end.
SPEAKER_00:I only recognise one of the actors from the trailers that I saw, and that's um the actor that played Lucius Fox in Gotham.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, he's he's great in this. Yeah, he's very good in Gotham. It does deal with some some interesting social tones about about um you know blacks and being welcome in America, and at that, and you know, at that time there's still that sort of you know push and shove about about what they can and they can't do. But there's also a storyline that's going on in the background um that has to do with the army and they're investigating something, and we're not too sure what that is, but I think that that has something to do with with the it character as well.
SPEAKER_00:HVO has uh had some really good stuff dealing with race relations over the last um five or six years on HBO and HBO Max. Um the Watchmen TV series was that's right and race was a very um prevalent theme during all of that. Um, and also um Lovecraft Country. That's right, that was a great series, which was another really great show. Too bad that finished. It was a shame it didn't get more, but um I'm still really grateful we had that because it was telling some very pertinent stories about the um the experience of of African American people throughout uh history. Um and of course, you know, Warner Brothers is the studio behind Sinners as well. Um so they're telling some really great stories about um yeah, topic that um continues to be extremely um uh relevant in American and and global society.
SPEAKER_02:And important to tell. Exactly, and important to tell.
SPEAKER_00:No, it's um important to tell those stories because um yeah, we need to look at where it be to hopefully get to somewhere better um in the future.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. The good thing about um uh about this this series though with It Welcome to Dairy, it's got a uh 7.9 out of 10 on IMDB and an 89% uh on Rotten Tomatoes. So that's a really good start for a couple of episodes. Yeah. Um but yeah, if you if you get a chance, watch it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, I'll um definitely um put the the it movies on my agenda, but I'll take under advisement whether I watch them during the day or during the night, punish myself and watch them at night.
SPEAKER_03:Now you've watched the thing.
SPEAKER_00:I have, yeah, uh a little while ago now, but um I've never seen it. Um and yeah, my um younger son's been becoming a uh a a real um film buff, and um he suggested we watch it one night, and I reluctantly said, okay.
SPEAKER_02:So this is the 1982 thing that John Carr puts up classics. It has been remade, hasn't it? Yes, yeah, it has been remade, which was 2010, I think it was. Yeah, um, and it was originally based on a 1950s film called The Thing from Outer Space, I think it was called. And the creature looked like a lobster.
SPEAKER_00:So it's an amazing film, yeah. Clearly, yeah, yeah, a really great horror film. Um, some of the effects within it were obviously fantastic, but yeah, no, I really I I did, I really enjoyed it, but horror's not my sort of go-to genre. Um, but I have been getting into some more of that um over the last little while.
SPEAKER_02:So so for those who haven't seen it like you originally, what can you simplify it? Uh it's about uh what are what are they doing in the snow?
SPEAKER_00:They're they're they're doing an Arctic research. It's a were they a research crew or miners or I don't remember. But um yeah, Kurt Russell and a whole bunch of others are um yeah, working in the Arctic when all of a sudden yeah, things start to go right. And um yeah, people start to die and dogs become demons, and um it's it's a wild time. It reminds me of um uh and no doubt later movies like James Cameron's Aliens and that sort of thing are influenced by the thing, you know, it's a sort of working average Joe's um The Abyss I recently rewatched and a similar sort of vibe.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, um that paranoia, it's like that, it's it's it's just this parano because the thing is a shapeshifter. Yeah. Um and so towards the end of the film you don't know who is who is who could be the thing and who's not, right?
SPEAKER_00:No, it's um and but it it it it's also um demonstrating um what uh different types of people do under pressure. And um uh yeah, it's it no, it was a really really good film.
SPEAKER_02:Um so do you think that Kurt Russell is the thing? I'm not sure. Is that is that a theory? That's the fan theory. Okay. Um it's never been confused by John Carpenter. He does survive at the end of it. He does survive at the end, spoiler alert. Even though he's like the main character, so you'd want him you'd want him to you'd want him to. I just realised what I did. I was trying to just refresh my own memory there.
SPEAKER_00:Um apologies, it's not.
SPEAKER_02:Spoiler alert. Uh 1982 I I think I think you've had plenty of time to watch it, right? You've had 43 years to watch it, right?
SPEAKER_00:So maybe we'll have to edit that.
SPEAKER_02:Plenty of time to watch it. But uh John Carpenter just recently uh was at a con and they were asking him about the thing. He said that he has uh got a treatment um and has an idea for what he wants to do. I know that Kurt Russell has been on the record that he would love to work with John Carpenter again. So a sequel. So a sequel um all these years later. So it interesting, you know. I mean it would be really nice in this lifetime that that that did happen. Um that thing you do? That's another one with it be starring Tom Hanks, right? Yeah, yeah, right. Um, but yeah, look, uh the thing, great, great film.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, great, great film, and as I said, I've it's I've been uh trying to um expand my horizons when it comes to horror movies. I've been getting into more of the um the gothic sort of horrors. Um I recently saw uh Guillermo del Toro's Frank Design at the cinema. Comes out uh this week in on Netflix, um, and I really enjoyed that and I enjoy Nice for Artum and the end of which um I'm slowly trying to be a big boy and uh catch up with some of these these horror movies that everybody's so passionate about.
SPEAKER_02:Definitely, definitely horror times right, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00:Well that's I mean I I can turn things to a slightly different time. Yeah, well a little bit. Okay, some of the stuff that I've been watching, actually, let's brighten things right up. Um this week I watched the finale of Only Murders in the Building. Oh right, okay, good. Um, which despite the title and the word murder in it, um, if you haven't seen Only Murders in the Building, it's a really fun, lighthearted um show about uh uh an apartment building in uh New York City uh populated by uh characters played by actors like Steve Martin, Martin Short, and uh Selena Gomez. And um yeah it's it's got uh sort of Miss Marple um uh clue vibes and the finale of season five um was on this week, um and I just watched that and and really enjoyed it. Um so yeah, that's definitely light affair, but um uh yeah, we really enjoy Army Riders and Building Our House. Uh we've also been watching uh Star Wars Visions on um uh Disney Plus season three of Star Wars Visions, um show that uh offers an opportunity to Japanese anime um studios to put a spin on um Star Wars stories. Um I haven't finished watching every episode of that yet, but we've been sort of hearing them out because they're so good. Um I've only watched episode one so far and I really enjoyed that. Uh that's the the Jewel, the second episode of the Jewel, yeah. Um a couple of them continue on from uh the first season, um uh and continuing stories into this one, um, that one and also the Ninth of Jedi into the second part. Oh, cool. Um The Ninth of Jedi is going to get a series of its own um at some stage continuing on from this season three, um, which I'm really looking forward to. But yeah, I've been watching that as well. Um anything else you've been uh checking out this week?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'd love to say that there's a lot that I've been checking out. Um I've been busy, but uh yeah, I'm packing and moving house, so we'll have a new studio coming soon. So any other excuses? Yeah. One one show I have been watching is called Talamaska. Uh it's a new series, um, it's in the immortal universe. Uh and uh it's uh for those who are not sure what the immortal universe is, this is the Anne Anne Rice uh interview with a vampire, um so the Vampire the Start. Uh so this is in that same vein where we're dealing with witches and vampires, etc. etc. Uh this is uh this is a new series, um and the uh originally it was a a friend of mine sent me a sent me a copy of it of the first episode um who uh was part of the production company and said and said, Oh you gotta check this out, um which is which was a a a nice uh nice have to. Uh but Talamasker is essentially um about a guy named Guy, um great, great name to remember, uh, and he is a telepath, not a very good one, but he is a telepath. Uh and his world starts to unravel when he discovers that uh he was adopted, um, that his mother might be alive, um, and that there is a uh secret society or a group called the Telamasca who can answer those questions for him. So is that perhaps the adoption something something to do with where he got his powers from? Well, it could be from his mum, um, and or it could be something related to that. Um but uh at the same time when he's uh recruited by this group Telamasca, they want him to go on a spycraft mission to London to discover who is giving away trade secrets about the Telamascor.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and you said that this ties into the Anne Rice vampire stuff. How does it connect to that?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so so and because it's talking about vampires, uh, there is um some characters in the TV series, the AMC TV series, um, which uh is it AMC or is it MGM? I think it's M it's AMC, isn't it? I'm not sure. I think every year it shows on SBS. On SBS, um and so so it will be showing on SBS later this year. Okay. Um but the yeah with Talamasker it's um they show uh a couple of characters from the interview with a vampire series. Yeah, but you don't need to you don't need to see that series to understand. Um there's just some of those characters that sort of pop up, and if you've watched that series, then you go, oh okay, now I've got the link. But overall it's it's a really interesting story. Um I think what I like about it is is that crossover of genres, so we do have that sort of monster theme, um, but at the same time we've got a spycraft movie going on as well at the same time. Nice.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, another one I might have to check out, add another one to my list. Um yeah, no, I have had um too much time to watch much else this week. Um prompted by the yeah, the Stranger Things 5 trailer that I started. As I said mentioned before, I started re-watching um Stranger Things season four. I watched the first episode this week and I'll um yeah, get into the second one soon and hopefully watch all of those before the new season comes out. Um it's not a TV show or a movie per se, um, and I don't play these with video games, but um this week I have started playing um Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on PlayStation. Um I'm as I said, not great with video games, but I do love these um first person ones where you get to immerse yourself in one of these universes that that we love. Um I'm a big fan of Star Wars Battlefront and Battlefront 2. And um I'm also playing Star Wars Outlaws at the moment, but um Indiana Jones is my jam.
SPEAKER_02:And what's the what's the um what's it actually like? Is it is it a good play?
SPEAKER_00:Is it uh Yeah, well I mean I'm playing it on a bit fancy I'm playing it on like the easiest level because you know I don't have I don't feel like I've got anything to prove to anyone. If I did try and prove my gaming acumen to anyone, I would just get that with anyone who used to be. Right, okay. Um now I'm mostly playing it just for the story and uh the experience, but um it's really good. The the game, um as a lot of people will know by now start out, replaying the first scene from Raise of All Star. Um so you get to um experience that from Eddie's point of view, um going through all of the different booby traps in the the temple there and um you know uh liberating the the fertility idol um and yeah running away from the the giant boulder and all that sort of stuff before it snaps into the the news story. That's cool um which yeah takes place at um in his place of work, Marshall College, in 1937, so the year after Raiders have lost that. Right. Um but I think yeah, I was gonna try and place it in the timeline, but it's it's the year after Raiders. Because the timeline is Temple of Doom, Raiders, Last Crusade, Raiders, Last Crusade, so this is in between it's the year in between uh Raiders and Last Crusade. Correct me if I'm wrong, I think it's 1938. Um but it's really really good. Um I know that Harrison Ford um had commended the actor that's doing uh his voice in Indiana Jones in this for doing a great job. Um Troy Baker, who um was uh the voice of Joel in The Last of Us, um as well as many many other games and um television shows, uh animated movies. Um he's a real uh genius.
SPEAKER_02:Was Troy Baker the guy that did more? Or was that somebody else?
SPEAKER_00:No, was it not that's not Troy Baker, that's um uh Sam Wigwell. Oh, that's it, yeah. Yeah, but yeah, Troy Baker, um actually I'm sure he's had some as well. Um he's one of those by Mike Hammel and uh Tom Kenny and I'm every name, but um I think the most famous for playing Joel and Last of Us and um hosting the HEO The Last of Us podcast for the TV show. Um he does an amazing job of uh replicating comparison for any other Jones, um, providing in the games really um a lot of the cutscene is really linger, but they go on go on for quite some time. Uh it reminds me of the movies. Um it's it's really up to the standard of um the other Jones movies at their desk, I think. Um so I'm really yeah enjoying playing that. I've been um wandering around the fact as it happens um in the game. It's all coming circle, right? Yeah, that's all coming circle circles. There's no vampires that I've seen. But um, but yeah, no, that they've replicated the Sistine Chapel and everything in the game a while. It's amazing. Yeah, that's um that's another thing that I've been partaking of this week.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's cool as yeah. I love it. Maybe we'll uh get into the bag. So the bag is we put a call out um for anybody that maybe want to send us uh some questions and we'll answer those questions uh on the show. Um and we put the call out earlier to um to everybody. You can do that and answer um any of those questions that you want us to answer. Have you heard from anyone so far? We have um they got uh on to us via the socials, um, but you can also send us an email at pulpculturepod uh at gmail.com um or anywhere on the socials under pulpculturepod. Uh and uh good friend of the show, Jose, um has asked us the question about what uh comic or book um has uh has has changed us, has has you know obviously spoken deep to us or changed our life or um helped us through a difficult time. Um and it's a really interesting question because you know it's not just uh experiences through life or people that that can help us through certain things. Uh literature can also help um art, TV, film, um what did it inspire in you that question? Yeah, it's a great question. Um, and you know, definitely one that came to mind straight away was the uh Hawkeye series, uh Marvel Hawkeye series from David uh Asia and uh Matt Fraction. Yep. Uh and uh I remember there was a a time uh not too long ago, well when I say not too long ago, it's quite a quite a number of years now, where had a very serious car accident. Uh and uh during my time uh in hospital, uh a great group of friends rallied with the help of um our good friends Mitch and Troy at uh at All Star. Yeah with uh with uh Mitch and Troy uh at All Star Comics, um great comic store. Check it out in Melbourne award winning uh Eisner award winning uh comic book store at that. Um so uh and they gave me a uh a massive pile of uh of of different uh comic books and graphic novels, etc. to to Read to during that time. And um, this this book stuck out to me because the first panel uh you have Hawkeye laying in a hospital bed and he says shattered pelvis, three broken ribs, uh sprained uh sprained neck, cractured femur, left clavicle, right, and it goes on and on and on about about his injuries. And for me, that was like, hang on a second, is he explaining how I am, or is this uh is was somebody looking in and wrote this really quickly for me? Or but uh and that sort of started me on that on that book, and it and it gave me a lot of hope because I watched uh Hawkeye go through some pretty awful situation where he fell off the side of a roof and that's where he ended up, um, but in the end uh came out on top. Um, and uh so the the writing is is exceptional from that fraction, which you would expect anyway from any of his books. Yeah um and the artwork from David Arjar is is uh Asia is is great. Um you know, and it tells a really good story. And uh one thing I really enjoy about books that don't have any uh um uh speech bubbles in it, yeah, um you can still follow along quite easily.
SPEAKER_00:It's a uh I recently revisited the first issue of that um as part of my Titan's Tower reading podcast, which I should point out you can only uh access on Spotify. You can access it on Spotify. But uh I recently re uh uh reviewed the first issue of that series and it really is uh a great show, a great uh series because yeah, click button, okay it all guys starts from rock bottom, right from as you say, the first couple of pages, and um he has a really sort of rough time um throughout the series, but um it's sort of a testament to the power of persistence, I think, that that that series. Um you know, he might sort of feel like throwing the towel and giving it up, but um when it comes down to it, um you know, he is his persistence is like season through. But it's um it's a really good grounded series, and I'm not surprised that it spoke to you in that time.
SPEAKER_02:Well definitely, and you can see that the show um the TV series definitely took some took some sort of liberties from from the comic itself.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it was definitely inspired um particularly visually and um yeah thematically by aspect of the comic book, as it should be, because it's um yeah, one of the best comic runs I've ever read. And fun. Yeah, super fun. Great fun. Um great fun, really grounded in you know the real world and real problems that people have, um not just the politicals and and that sort of thing, but you know, paying your rent and dealing with bullies and um uh you know the the various ups and downs of living in a capitalist society that sometimes acts like it doesn't care about you.
SPEAKER_02:And then the relationship between um both Clint and Kate Bishop.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Kate Bishop, yeah, when Kate Bishop gets introduced sort of in a few issues in um the whole thing just goes up another level. Yeah, as you say, I think that's where the TV series um uh tapped into the comic book series um and in a really charming way.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:Um yeah, no, it's it's a it's a really, really great, great series, um, and I'm not surprised that it it was um valuable to you at that time.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. What about you, MJ?
SPEAKER_00:What's your yeah, no well I'm um I mean comic books for me are are are always my refuge and they always have been. Um I've been reading them for decades. Um and uh I think probably in recent times um you know I've had my struggles with mental health and um various you know issues with with with that sort of thing. And um one of the things that I've uh become quite good at uh learning through all of that is um being more in touch with my emotions um and knowing when to um take a step back um and give myself a break because um yeah the world uh can sometimes seem like a really crazy place, and it certainly has done that in the last um half decade or so, and sometimes we need to really look after ourselves. And I find that comic books for me um are a great way of doing that. Um I often go back to the ones that um the the comics that I enjoyed reading when when I was a kid. Um I first got into comics through the New Teen Titans, um, the George Perez Marvel Marvel Ulfman stuff from the 80s, and I find that it's very therapeutic to um, you know, if I'm feeling a bit stressed or flustered by um you know whatever's going on in my life to to go back and read an issue of those. Is that the high collar Nightwing series? It is, it's um the high collar uh one where it's it's the series where he changes from being Robin to being Nightwing. So it's in the the suit that's inspired by the circus outfits that his parents wore. Um yeah, with the the grooving eye collar and the the yellow sort of details. Um that's yeah, well and truly being retired now, but um I sort of had a lot of affection for it. I loved it when I was a kid. Um the number of times that I drew that outfit um probably beyond count.
SPEAKER_02:But um I think high collars was kind of a thing at that stage as well. Cool guys had it. Daredevil had it, you know. I mean not Daredevil, um what was his name? Dead Man? Dead Man. And DC, yeah, yeah. Dead Man had it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, I think um that was a real that it was a real um visual trope for a lot of comic characters back then. Um but nobody knocked it quite rocked it like Nightly did. Yeah. Um stand by it and I will to the day I um no, those those comics that I loved when I was a kid are the ones that I go back to when I need um to take a break. And yeah, it's something that I always encourage others to do as well. Um you're never too old to go back to the things that that nourished and encouraged you when you were young. Um and and for me that's where I find solace in in the power of these stories and and comics, and I'm sure we'll talk about a lot more of them as the the podcast goes on. That's great. Thanks for sharing that.
SPEAKER_02:That's um I really loved hearing your take.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. Really thoughtful um one that gets to the heart of I think why we're doing this podcast.
SPEAKER_02:And we've definitely got some more um already in the in in the mix for for the next couple of weeks. But yeah, definitely if you have um a burning question you want to ask us, anything, um please reach out. We'd we'd love to uh to talk about it on air. Yeah. Let's go in. So each week we're gonna sort of pick something from uh the internets, the interwebs, that place that you surf. Uh and uh where it uh where where it ranks either a character or a structure or something from pop culture. Um and the one thing that that uh sparked my interest was uh the ranking of Superman actors. Oh wow. So um hold on to your hold on to your seats um because this is uh a really interesting. Is this for me? Because you know I love Superman. I know you love Superman, and it definitely is for you, um MJ. Um and it's it's the top 10 ranking now. Keep in mind that this is TV, film, and also animation. So this is not comic book related or novels or anything like that. This is purely actors, whether it be voice or screen, yeah um that uh that it's been ranked. And this has been done by Ranker. Um over 2,000, uh 200,000 um people have ranked this. Uh so we'll start with number 10, we'll work into number one. It's Channing Tatum from uh from when he voiced Superman in the Lego Batman movie. No, he's definitely not in the top, he's not in the top ten. I'll give you a hint Ice Ice Baby. It was Janning Tatum in the It was Janning Tatum. He was a good Superman. Yeah? But not in the top ten. Not in the top ten, no. No, like so. The hint number 10 is Ice Ice Baby. It would have to I don't love where this is going. Yes, it's definitely Dean Dean Kane. Um I'm I'm sure that this was ranked before uh he decided to join Ice and has lost his title of of Superman. Um but Dean Kane is definitely in there. What was the TV series that he was in? Was that uh Adventures of Superman Clark? That's right. Uh the Lois and Clark, the Adventures of Superman, is that right? Yep, and uh that was Terry Hatch's first sort of real it was a great Lois, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and Danny Kane was a passable Superman. Um but unlike a human yeah, no, he's he's um definitely dropped down any ranking that I would put him on right now. Maybe maybe we should have put Channing Tatum in there as 10, right? I'm disappointed that he's in there at number 10. I think if we were to take a um an overall because there's been a lot of you know animated versions of of Superman over the last say 20 years, you know, these animated films that DC have put out, yeah. I'm sure we could find someone else to be to put in there.
SPEAKER_02:Maybe we'll substitute with Channing Tatum for now. Just because we can. Alright. If we could do that, that'll that'll make you feel better, right? Yeah, don't join us. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Don't don't do ice either. It's not good instead of putting yourself on the correct side of the streets. Yeah, because you you do have that choice. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:The only match we like is vanilla.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah. And even even these had his name. Yeah. Number nine.
SPEAKER_02:Number nine, uh, so someone that most won't be familiar with, which is uh George Newburn. So George Newburn uh did a lot of voice acting. Um he sort of filled in for um uh for Tim Daly um during followed on from Tim Daly who did uh Superman the animated series. Yeah, like Justice League, Static Shock, uh Justice League Unlimited, uh The Batman, Superman and Shazam. You know, you were talking about different um uh productions that DC have brought out over the years. Yeah, it was great, so much fun. Um he did Superman um versus the elite. Okay um so he did quite a number, he did in Justice Guards, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:He definitely deserves to be honest.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, and and very similar, like very similar to Tim Daley. So uh for the vo for the volume of work as well as the quality of it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, uh yeah, you know, he was if he was the one from Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, then he's he's definitely super limited.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, um and and I I definitely I mean we mentioned Tim Daley, but we'll we'll definitely see him in the in the ranking a little bit further on. Spoiler alert super spoilers. You know, this one really surprised me. I would have thought he would have been higher, but I think it's based on the time line. George Reeves.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:So George Reeves, uh probably the original Superman, would we say?
SPEAKER_00:Uh I think there was another one, there was another one before him, whose name has just escaped me, who played Superman in a bunch of the um the short movie serials that were um uh released in theatres back then. Oh, right, yeah. Um George Reese definitely deserves to be on there, but I'm not surprised any sort of like um uh at number eight because we've had so many different versions of Superman over the last um I guess 40 plus years since um since uh the Richard Donner film. So yeah, I'm not I'm not too surprised. He he has sort of fallen into history a little bit, but for um Superman fans of of my vintage, not that I was around when they came out in the 1950s, but um I remember them being shown on television when I was a kid.
SPEAKER_02:Um well that series ran for four years, which was unheard of at the time, like to run in a lot of episodes, yeah, yeah, and and and yeah, a lot of episodes per season. Yeah. Um, and uh so so George Reeves was the original Superman for TV anyway, let's put it that way. Um black and white, and uh he loved running through a wall. Like there's a there's a great YouTube quick. Um, maybe we'll post it uh later on in the um in our socials of of every single wall that he's essentially run through. That sounds excellent. Even to the point where there's a door right next to where he ran through a wall. So just uh just to make you aware that he was Superman and that he could do what he liked. He's just showing you his boss.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:He's um looked great in the suit, George Reeves. Yeah, yeah. He's an iconic Superman and always will be. Um I just looked up while you were talking um the Superman serials that preceded the TV series, Kirk Allen. Oh, that's right. Um played Superman um in some of the yeah, he was the first live-action Superman. Right. Um he looks he's in the in the suit, he looks very much like George Reeves.
SPEAKER_01:Um was that in the 20s or 30s?
SPEAKER_00:It was in the 40s? 40s, right. It was sort of in the post-war World War II era when I think he was in probably a dozen or more.
SPEAKER_02:Was he beating up Hitler? Because there was a lot of that post-war stuff where they were loving it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, I just I'd I would I'd pay money to see that. Even now. Um you know, Superman beating up Nazis is something that I'm gonna watch all the time. Let's keep moving on. Uh number seven. Um, let me have a guess.
SPEAKER_02:Brain and Ralph. Brain and Ralph. It's probably a good place for him to sit. It's further down. Superman Returns, probably not one of the most popular of the Superman uh T uh movies. Sorry. Still a good film on that time. But I still I still think that you know, despite its um minor issues, I think that it was still a good film, and I think that he really tried to emulate um Christopher Reeves um in that in that role.
SPEAKER_00:I I I think if if if that movie had um any problems, and I do concede that it probably did, I don't think Brandon Routh was one of them. No, um I think he was fantastic um in his acting performance, and as you say, like they're obviously going for a um a Christopher Reeves, Richard Donner vibe with that film. Um and um it was supposed to be a follow-up, right? From Superman 2 or Superman 2. But um as Brandon Routh nailed it, um it was great to see him uh sort of reprise that role in a way in the um DC CW, the Arrowverse. The Arrowverse in the later years because um yeah, and I think he think he was hard done by um by the response that um that that movie got.
SPEAKER_02:Agreed. Yeah, really great. Yeah, agreed. Number six, Tim Daley. Tim Daley. Tim Daley, who we spoke about before. We knew he was gonna get in there at some stage. He's yeah, great Superman. Great, great voice for Superman, probably one of my one of my favourite all time, Supermans of all time. Um now, I'm gonna butcher this name. So Superman Lowis, actor, Tyler Heckland. Tyler Heckland, I think. Right.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, yeah. We're sorry if we butchered your name. If there's any Team Wolf fans out there, because he was in that show, um, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's Tyler Heckler.
SPEAKER_02:And Tyler, if you're listening, please come on the show and just tell us that we got it wrong. Okay, please sign my action for that.
SPEAKER_00:Tyler Heckler. Uh Superman Wallace. Great Superman. Yeah. Um Superman with a bit of stubble, um, which I quite like. Um, and yeah, he he's an excellent Superman, and it's a really good show. I have to confess I haven't watched, I haven't finished watching all of that yet, but um yeah, uh I'll I'll definitely get there because yeah, he's a great he's a great uh Superman.
SPEAKER_02:Um part of the Arrow reverse as well, which is the first one.
SPEAKER_00:Part of the Arrowverse, yeah, I think he first interviewed in Supergirl. Correct. Um and uh was in multiple um different shows from that shared universe. But yeah, no Tyler's definitely a worthy fifth. I'm really interested to see where these top four go because we're still missing a couple of real giants.
SPEAKER_02:Oh well, uh here's a here's a giant that you know that stands on many shoulders, uh, which is Tom Welling. Tom Welling. Tom Welling from Smallville. So many people's favourite.
SPEAKER_00:Um Smallville was the the show that that created many a lifelong Superman fan.
SPEAKER_02:And one of the Superman that you very rarely, I think right up until was it the last season that we saw him in costume, not even in the last episode episode.
SPEAKER_00:Um again, I'm not completely caught up with for Smallville. I've got them in on my agenda, but um yeah, no, he he was a great um clerk in um and and uh a great Superman even though he wasn't in the suit. Yeah. Um the way that they replicated the suit without him being in it with the colours and his outfits in that show I thought was really fun. Um if he wasn't wearing a red cape, he was wearing a red wood.
SPEAKER_02:We'll definitely have to go back and do a ranking for the Lex Luthor's, but the Lex who played Lex Luthor in Small Village probably Michael Rosemar would probably have to be one of the best uh Lexes of all time. Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_00:I think a lot of people still say that he was, and I know that um he was uh um an influence for Nicholas Holt's version of Lex Luthor's Super film. I can see that. I know they had some some sort of contact um prior to that, but his um Nicholas Holt, I know, was a Swann of a fan and uh Michael Rosenbaum, Lex Luthor fan from from way back when he was a kid. So he was an interesting experiment as a Lex Luthor.
SPEAKER_02:I'm sure he's right down in the in the bottom part of the rankings when we when we get to that another time.
SPEAKER_00:Interesting to see where he sits.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, right. Okay, so number three is our most recent of Superman. Ah, David Cornsweat. Yep. Nice. So um, and I think that's probably a good place. He's he he played a really good Superman, um, really enjoyed that that version of him again, sort of drawing on that Christopher Reeves sort of esque, making it his own, but at the same time you could see those those levels of the difference between Clark Kent and and and also Superman.
SPEAKER_00:I had a prediction, and that's that um if you give it another ten years um and he did a poll of a broad range of people across the board, I reckon David Corinsworth's gonna end up being a number one. Um just because you know, all going well in this new James Gunn DC universe, I think we're gonna see him play that character a number of times in a number of different films. I think um he's probably gonna solidify himself in pop culture as Superman, um perhaps like no one else ever has.
SPEAKER_02:Um more than the two coming up.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, for me for me, I mean it'll always be um I know we'll talk about Chris Reeves at some stage, but for me it'll always be Christopher Reeves but when it comes down to it, I'm an old look. Um, you know, I think all of the the kids and teenagers that um would have gone and seen Superman this past um summer um will uh that'll be their Superman. That'll be their Superman, yeah. And I think that's um as I say, if if he plays that character in you know 10 or 12 different projects, um even in sort of smaller capacities, um, I really think that um he's he's got a shot at becoming um the superman for multiple generations. Yeah, yeah, well that's that's where I hope it goes anyway. Being a DC fan. Watch this space. Uh number two. Is it gonna be Reed or is it gonna be Cavill? It's Cabell.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. It's Cavill. Um well deserved. Yeah, great, great looking Superman. Great actor. Great actor. I mean, then look what look at what he's doing now. He's doing everything, right? He's doing Witcher and he's now doing Highlander and uh Voltron. Voltron. Oh, that's right. Yeah, so we've got you know, I mean he he really is a uh he really is a a geek's geek, isn't he? He really loves um all these sort of properties and do a computer himself, too. That's right, did that over the uh over the pandemic. Not sure why we had to do it with without a shirt on, but and he's also a Warhammer fan, and he wants to do Warhammer as a film.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so uh I think he's a really great guy. I think he beheld a really great Superman. I really enjoyed him. I mean, I love Man of Steel, I think it's a great film.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, a lot of people don't, and and you know, they find the flaws in it, but I actually for what it was I really enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_00:I can see the flaws in it, and I can see what people have problems with it, but I just on the whole don't. Um no, I just I really love Man of Steel and I think the the look of it, and I think it was the update that the character needed at that time. Um and as I say, I think Henry Cavill was a really good Superman in that and also in um uh Dawn of Justice, yeah. Um but also in the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League. Um I think he's a great Superman.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, 100% agree. So number one, um what what we would expect uh which is Christopher Reeve.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I yeah, I mean we all saw that coming. Yeah but um yeah, he's he's the one that that defined the character in the modern era.
SPEAKER_02:Um is it the Christopher Reeve from um the quest for peace or no I mean yeah or what was Superman? Not as much as in his the Christopher Reeve from the first two Superman films. Not from um uh what was number three called? Uh with uh Richard Pry. Superman 3.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it was it was it had its I'm gonna say it had its charm.
SPEAKER_02:Um up until they got to Brainiac, right?
SPEAKER_00:Well look, I I think you know the that particular series of Superman films um definitely lost their way, but I think uh at the time superhero films were not a thing. Like Superman Superman was the movie that made superhero films. They there was no pattern for where they should go. Um you know, there was no formula, um, and so yeah, the fact that they lost their way a bit I think is probably just um something that the genre had to go through. Um Christopher Reed is as Superman to this point in popular culture. I don't think there's any denying that he defines the role um yeah, a hero and a legend in real life as well as on the screen.
SPEAKER_02:Well we wouldn't have we would we also wouldn't have had Batman if we didn't have the Christopher Reed movies either. So he he paved the way for those and Spider-Man too.
SPEAKER_00:You know, we wouldn't have um you know the Spider-Man uh movies with Toby and Maguire came about partly because of the advancements of computer generated injury and in um cinema, but um if it wasn't for the Superman films, um it definitely wouldn't have existed in the form that it did. Yep. Um it's where it all began from many uh perspectives. Absolutely. Um yeah, and I really like that list of um the top ten uh Dane Kane on the bottom. I'm not gonna put Chenny Tatum in. I've decided I'm gonna put Jack Quaid uh from my adventures with Superman because um he is great in that animated series.
SPEAKER_02:And um I think there's still more episodes to come, so um yeah, it's up for another season, so it'll be third season, I think, at least. Yeah, well whether we get any view on that, I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_00:But um, they've got some stories to explore with Supergirl and others in that. But yeah, Jack Quay, uh Zing Kane, um. He's he's on ice. Nicely done.
SPEAKER_02:Well, that pretty much concludes the show, unless there's anything else that you wanted to uh to raise before we finish up.
SPEAKER_00:I don't know whether we've um we've discussed the the the shout. You got anything to talk about?
SPEAKER_01:Oh good point.
SPEAKER_00:So let's let's talk about the shout. Tell us about the chat.
SPEAKER_02:So the shout is where we want to tell you or shout to you about things that are well worth talking about or going to see, or um any events, any artists that are are doing something special. So what you got Kickstarters? Maybe I'll start with you.
SPEAKER_00:That that sounds fine. Um for for my uh shout for um this week, um I just wanted to talk about uh all of the great films that we've got coming out this month. Um so many. I'm going to see uh the 40th anniversary release of Back to the Future this week. Me too. Uh comes out on Thursday. Um uh really looking forward to going and seeing that with my uh wife and my boys, um who've never seen it on the big screen before. Um and uh yeah, that's just one of uh a whole bunch of really great films that are coming out. Um, of course, on Netflix uh on the same day the Guillermo del Toro Frankenstein that I spoke of earlier comes out. Um that's uh sensational. It's a beautiful looking film with great acting performances from Oscar Isaac and Jacob Alaudi and also Maya Goff, um, Christoph Waltz. Um I was really thrilled to see it on a big screen, but um I highly recommend that anyone with a Netflix subscription checks it out because it's uh it's a really uh great version of um uh an iconic sci-fi story, the the first ever side sci-fi story um from pop culture. So um yeah, that's uh coming out on Netflix, but also in the cinema this week, and I'm gonna have to try and find time over the next fortnight or so to go and see Predator Badlands. And also um Edgar Edgar writes um The Running Man, version of Running Man with Glenn Powell, because that uh trailer looked amazing. Looks fun. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um not the Arnold Schwarzenegger version?
SPEAKER_00:No, apparently it's more the they've sort of gone, as they often say, they've gone back to the source material of the Stephen King book that it was first written, first uh based on. Um but I'm really looking forward to seeing both of those in the theatre, so um I'm gonna be a busy boy and made it 80% popcorn um before the month is half out.
SPEAKER_01:You're gonna be your own popcorn bucket.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's gonna be gonna be the um yeah, they'd like July all over again because was it June or July when Superman came out and we had Fantastic Four, Fantastic World, the latest one, um then I uh almost had to hospitalise myself to popcorn overdose.
SPEAKER_02:So so if you if if you want to do something, go and see a movie in the theatres. Do yourself a favour.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, take some time out. There's no housework when you go to the um when you go to the movie theatres. Um you've just got to sit and let yourself be transported to another world. Um yeah, now there's a whole just heaps of movies coming out this month. We've got Zootopia 2, um and of course, probably an argument, well, no, it's not an argument an argument. The biggest of all of them is going to be Wicked for Good, the second part of Wicked that comes out on November 20th. That thing is going to break some records. You reckon? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, well the first one was hugely successful, and this one's um uh meant to be um just as good, if not better. So um I'm so glad that.
SPEAKER_02:Not being strange, right? And it's actually in the theatres. Did you see the first one? No.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I went and saw the first one. It was opening day with uh the wife and some other friends, and um we were in a big full theatre, and the atmosphere was just fantastic. Um the film was spectacular, um definitely one that we see on a big screen. Um for uh a musical, I guess, um it was just visually um enchanting. And um the second one I'm sure will be fantastic. I've seen the stage show um back in the day, uh so I know the tops, the the twists and turns that the story takes, right? And some of the songs that we've got to look forward to in this one. Um and yeah, suspect they're not gonna be a drawing house. Well, it's gonna be fantastic. Wizard of Oz kind of spoiled it for everybody, right?
SPEAKER_02:So we know what's gonna happen. You need some get yourself.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, okay. They have to get wicked. Yeah, that's for good. That's right. Okay. Fully sick for wicked, alright, done.
SPEAKER_02:Um my shout this week uh is Yes, I do. Yeah, good. Yeah, I just had to pull it up because I couldn't remember all the details. Uh so uh the Yarrowville Comic and Toy Fair is coming up on the 30th of November. Yeah, awesome. Um, so definitely um go and uh check out that. That'll be at the Yarrowville Sing Centre. Not that there'll be seniors there, it's just at the centre. Um but uh oh there might be some seniors there, maybe selling some some of their older stuff, which would be culture too. Which would be great because there might be some ringings as well. Absolutely. I'm close, but I'm not there, yeah. Um but yeah, check that out. Um that starts at uh 10am until 2 pm. Uh that's November the 30th. Do you even know if uh tickets on sale for that already? Um yeah, you can get yourself um you can get yourself a ticket. It's actually um three bucks entry. Oh wow, yeah, so super cheap. So that leaves you seven dollars left to uh buy yourself an action figure if you want to or a comic book. Um we spend a lot more than that. If you're on a budget of ten dollars, of course. But uh yeah, 30th of November uh Yarreville scene you sent us, so definitely check that one out.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, get along and hang out with um some some fellow enthusiasts because it's nice to be if if anything can go and buy a whole lot of stuff, it's nice just to be amongst a whole lot of other people that are passionate about what you are passionate about.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. Um so uh over the um over the course of the show, if you uh have something that you want us to shout us um about, um we'll shout it from the rooftops or at least from the microphone anyway. Um and um you can catch us on the socials, so definitely um uh link us in on that or tag us or whatever else you want to do to uh get our attention.
SPEAKER_00:We've um while you're mentioning that, we've we've talked about our social feeds. Where can people find the podcast? And um further to that, where can people find you, Nathan?
SPEAKER_02:Great question. So uh you can find us on all the socials, uh, which is the Pulp Culture Pod. Uh, but we are available on any good uh podcast um platform, so that is uh Spotify or Apple Podcasts um and a whole bunch of others that are are around in the platforms. Podcast we've got it all going on. I mean, it is kind of our horror theme for tonight. So uh so we have uh you know taken some samples of each other's hair and burnt it and and made some some effigies, and uh we're now on all the pop uh on all the uh podcast platforms. Thanks thanks to that. It's taken a really crazy film. I have seen that film. I don't know what you're talking about. So but uh you can catch me uh on uh Instagram under Nate Stones. Um I'm also on X and uh Threads and everywhere else. Um so uh you can catch me there. What about you, MJ? What about where can we find you?
SPEAKER_00:Now if anyone wants to find me, I'm on Instagram uh at MJ TakesPix, E M J A Y Takes Pits. Um I've also got an art account, markjasper.art, if you want to have a look at any of my scribblings or um amateur comic art. Um and I'm also on Blue Sky. Um uh on Blue Sky, if you search for Moss Isley Dreaming, yes, um you'll find me on there. Um yeah, now hit me up on any of those if you want to say good day and and talk about what um you're enjoying in pop culture.
SPEAKER_02:Well, it's the end of the show. Sad to see see everyone go. We'll be back next week um with with with a lot more. We uh we thanks for your company and uh we really enjoyed uh having this this chat with you. Uh and um stay tuned next week when you hear uh MJ say. Uh good night, Stanley. Thanks for your company. See you next week.
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