EPISODE 13: FLAT TIRE

Welcome back to Morgan Talks Comics...

This week, we have a look at JAMES COLLIER'S "FLAT TIRE", a lovely little indie comic from Canada. I discovered James' work through Instagram, and got hooked on his charming, surreal storytelling - which leads to some interesting conversation in this episode.

Don't forget to check us out on YouTube too! Just search for "MORGAN TALKS COMICS" to see what we're talking about... 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome back to Morgan Talks Comics.

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Um You've giggled so much you've lost your place there. Like you're talking comics. What's next?

SPEAKER_02 0:13

I've completely blown it. I've lost it completely.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Well carry on now.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Welcome back to Morgan Talks Comics. This week we are looking at uh an independent comic from last year called Flat Tire by uh I believe Canadian cartoonist James Collier. I found him online. Uh I was browsing on Instagram and came across his artwork and really liked it a lot because of his use of colour, which has really informed how I make my cartoons now. Uh joining me this week is Eliza Mariah Chamberlain. Hello.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Hello, and I've got a list. Can I share my list?

SPEAKER_02 0:51

You can share your list, go for it.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

This is a list of all the countries that have been listening to us, and I was just amazed when I saw it. I can't read my writing. Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Korea, the UK, USA, and Vietnam. I mean, it's just amazing, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 1:22

It's pretty remarkable, meaning we want more countries. We do.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

But we appreciate the ones we've got.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

Yeah, given that we're quite a small show at the moment, uh, we're we're thrilled. So thank you ever so much, everyone. That's brilliant. Um you thrilled are you? I'm thrilled. Thrilled. Thrilled. I'm thrilled, yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, so James Collier's a uh a cartoonist I I came across last year um while I was on Instagram. Really like his style, reminiscent to me of the children's illustrator Maurice Sendak, who did In the Night Kitchen and probably most famously Where the Wild Things Are. Um the way that James does sort of cityscapes you can see in the background. We're just looking at the cover at the moment. In the background here, there's these sort of slightly distorted cities. It reminds me a lot of Maurice Sendak's work, and also Robert Crumb as well, who we've we've mentioned more than once. We ought to do crumb at some point.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

Yeah, I'll gather I'll gather it's fairly important.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

He's fairly important. I want to get more of his stuff, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

I like the look of this, just the whole cover, I like it. I especially like a bicycle, I suppose sort of is. What's this?

SPEAKER_02 2:42

So this is the little cat character. We'll we'll get it as as we go into it. No, yeah, dangerous feet sticking out. Oh the comic is actually called Flat Tire, and the the front cover is like a it's a cityscape picked out in a nice sort of pinky mauve colour. Um with this small I know cat like character, and then this sort of almost abstract version of a bicycle with a flat tyre.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Well, it actually the entire it's just completely gone.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

It isn't a tire at all. And actual fact, what this isn't pinky mode, it's pink.

unknown 3:22

Okay, it's pink.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

Um something else I've just realised as I'm looking at this cover, is there's a there's a lot of um similarities to Dr. Seuss's style of drawing as well.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

Oh, those books about the cat and the hat and all the cat and the hat and green eggs and ham and all that sort of stuff. I wasn't allowed to weed those as a child.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

Yeah, so there's clearly quite a lot of influences here on on James's work. Um say I picked up on moving moving into it now, we we I picked up on his stuff last year and it's been a big influence on my stuff, particularly how especially how I work with colour.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

What's this?

SPEAKER_02 3:56

There are bones and a bag of rubbish.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Oh right, he hasn't put the bins out.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

No, he hasn't put the bins out.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

So heading in excuse me. So uh on the inside front cover, there's sort of a page of I'd almost say doodles. I've seen now that I'm I'm following James and I see how he works, I've seen that he does a lot of like a lot of artists, he sort of sort of spends takes pages and puts quite a lot of different artwork into it, just doodling ideas.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

You do that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Yeah, we all do we all do that.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

You keep making me jump.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

Yeah. Um there's a finish to date here of July 2025, which I think is a re I probably got it in August or September of last year, because I had to wait for um the it to come over to the UK and and to find a uh a UK supplier. Thank you to Gosh Comics in London who sent this out to me.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

It's um an American comic then.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

It's Canadian, it's printed in Canada.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Right. Right, had we had a Canadian one before?

SPEAKER_02 5:05

I don't think we've had a Canadian. Oh, actually we have. Jay Stevens, um who did the Fantastic Dwellings comic, he's he's Canadian as well.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

I think I've forgotten. It's alright, if I was to see it, I I would remember it.

SPEAKER_02 5:19

So uh we're moving into the first story of of this issue. It's it's it's a really lovely sort of just over just under A4 size comic, so it's a much larger size, so there's room for the artwork to sort of breathe.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

Um called Kitty.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

So Kitty is this cat character who has appeared on the front, you has a bandage over over his one of his eyes. So it's called Kitty Finds Employment, and we've got an opening panel, large opening panel of uh a van stuck in lots of traffic on like a flyover. You know.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

That's good. Sorry, I can't stop thinking that we're getting we're getting two kittens in a few weeks.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

We are excited because we are getting some new kittens soon. We are really looking forward to that. We've been without a cat for quite a while, and we're really looking forward to having some some little kittens again.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

Right, what's what's going on here?

SPEAKER_02 6:12

So Kitty is in a del he's in he's in a delivery van. He's working as a delivery driver, excuse me. He says, stuck in traffic again. And he's like, yo, kids, don't take your freedom for granted. There's some kids on the side of the street.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Don't cake take what?

SPEAKER_02 6:31

Don't take your freedom for granted. And they go, Aight.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

What do they go?

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Aight, which means alright.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

What in Canadian?

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Or sort of more like street slang.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Oh right.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Okay, I'd be like, he says, go back to school, study construction, because we can see the inside of the van.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Is he construction person?

SPEAKER_02 6:54

Well, he's working as a delivery driver. So the next we'd go over to the next page and he's carrying a big st uh toppling pile of of parcels.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Well, right, so he is like postman pack.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

He is a bit like postman pack, yeah. But as he as he's walking along, he trips over the curb and he drops all of the packages. But he's uh he's clearly a mindful cat because he's talking about practicing gratitude and that's why he's being punished. And then he says, I am blessed and grateful in this moment, so he's trying to practice like gratitude, you know, like why was he hang on.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Does that mean he didn't do gratitude and he or he tumbled?

SPEAKER_02 7:34

That's why that's why he thinks he tumbled.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

Right, okay. Oh, that's a bit close to home today, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 7:41

Yeah, it is a little bit close to home today, yeah. Do you want to tell him what happened?

SPEAKER_00 7:46

I came out of the hospital, just I mean, just a outpatient appointment. I fell over and broke my foot.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

Not only broke her foot, but broke the same foot that that the ankle had been broken on last year.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Yeah, so it's another six weeks or so of not doing a much. Oh it's frustrating. And what's more, it was a an appointment about my bones, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 8:13

That's what was there in the beginning. There's a there's a lot of irony in all of this, yeah. So at the moment Eliza Moria is literally sitting with her feet up.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 8:25

Making sure that there's no more injuries.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Well, let's that let's give them the picture. I'm in bed with a dog cuddling me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

Anyway, but that we've gone to off to what we've gone off topic, but hey, shout out to Tazan Asha, awesomely off topic. Um anyway, so the Kitty picks up the parcels and then he turns up and there's a there's a pig character in a dressing gown and slippers. Hang on, where's just down here at the bottom? There's a there's a little pig character. And Kitty goes, your packages, sir, and the the pig just there's a question mark. Is that yeah, it's like uh and then he's and then Kitty says says here John Pig, and then the pig says, That's not me. And he says, Who are you? What do you stand for? And he says, That's a very good question. Pig goes, don't come back, find God, and he goes, Okay. What? I'm not sure I get any of that. He's delivered to the wrong person. James kind of writes in quite sort of almost like an existential manner, he's talking a lot about sort of spirituality and sort of being more in tune with the spiritual side of things.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Clearly, I'm not spiritual because I've lost a plot here. But anyway, he's delivered to the wrong place.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

So he goes back to his van and they go, hey, it's my boy Lion, and this lion character comes along and they're they're talking about talking about having saving scene for all boy. Hmm? Who's boy lion? Boy Lion is coming in here, it's another character coming into it.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

Right, okay, yes. I'd rather like the lion. I'd like to see him a bit more. He's rather good, isn't he?

SPEAKER_02 10:08

So Lion and Kitty are having a conversation, and they're and then they go across a construction site and then they give a give each other a big hug. Good, great to link up. And then Lion says yes, good stuff, and they say bye later. Um yes. Kitty carries on walking along with this package, and he sits down and looks up at the sky.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

He's sitting on the pack. Is that it?

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Yeah, he's like he's lying on the package.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

It might be breakable.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

It might be breakable. And then he suddenly realizes he's running late and locked out, so he locked he's locked out of the design, so he jumps through the window of his fan. Right and drives off at a at a at a at speed to carry on making his deliveries, and then he actually ends up he ends up crashing into a milk van. And he's saying, Why is this happening?

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Excuse me, I can't really see that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

So it's crashed into a milk van and there's milk bottles come in pouring out.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Alright.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

Here I can see a lot of similarities to Sendak's stuff in the in the night kitchen. What the way the vehicles are drawn and stuff like that. I've seen that one. No, no, it's we could actually do it as a as a an episode of this because it is presented in a comic book form, even though it's a storybook.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

And it's one of the So we think about that another day.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

Confusing.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

Anyway, so Kitty carries on driving and he drives into the night and then stops with slops out in like what looks like the desert with stars all around him.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

And so he crawls on crawls up on top of his van, goes to sleep with a tarp, tarp all in on top of him. Yes, yeah. He goes, That's low-key comfy. Certainly like and then dawn breaks, and he goes, That's crazy. And he says, I guess this must be the desert.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

He hasn't delivered his parcel, though.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

No. So he's not delivered the parcel. So he's he turns right, he turns round and he he throws away his work cap and says, Begone, work cap, I'm reborn. So he's like a lot of things it's tapping into sort of spirituality and and mental awareness again.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

What's the name of the writer?

SPEAKER_02 12:30

James Collier.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Well, Mr. Collier doesn't uh stop littering, does he? He's all all about all this stuff.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Oh, is that supposed to be a and then some birds that could potentially be vultures because he's in the desert.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Oh, they think it might be dead. And if he can lay there any longer, he might be.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

And then there's a s a snake appears at the end and kitty's now lying on the ground in the desert. And he decides to walk off because he suddenly realised that maybe the wildlife is after him.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Right. Hang on, he's lost his van somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

He's lost his van now, because he's he's walked away from it. So he comes, he comes across to uh comes across some water thinking it's an ocean or a river, and he finds a raft and he said someone died on it because there's a pile of bones on top of the raft. So he moves the bones out of the way and then goes off into the sea. He says, fresh air, gulls, salt water, this is the life for me, and then a shark pops up. He goes, the shark goes, kid, and he goes, Ah, a shark! And the shark jumps up and bite and swallows him.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Do jar sharks trouble with my can't stalk. Do sharks jump? I don't think you do.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

If you if you've seen Jaws, the movie Jaws, which is all about massive killer sharks, you probably would believe that they do jump out of water.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

They come out of the water, but do you know artistic license?

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Oh, okay. So he's like he's inside he's now we've got a shot of Kitty's inside the shark. Oh right. And he goes, Looks like there's items in here which could be of use, such as this snorkel and a pack of Sigs cigarettes. And we see a panel of the shark being bashed about from Kitty's trying to bash his way out from the inside.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

And it works. And it works. And then he gives the give he manages to get out and gives the shark a cigarette. And they're both they're both smoking, and then Kitty puts on the snorkel mask and dives out.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

It's hard to see that when he comes up.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

Yeah. He's he's never he said never figured I'd see the ocean, much less swimming it, and he's up now at the bottom of the sea where you've got sea creatures f floating around.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Well, it is fairly unusual to be able to walk from a desert directly into the sea, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Yeah, I mean it's got a bit of a sort of a surreal edge to it.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

Oh, you don't say so Kitty. I'm sorry, we're not gone. I was going to ask, what's has he got sticking blaster?

SPEAKER_02 15:16

Yeah. So Kitty ends up on a little island and him and a seal sit on the island and smoke a sig. And then uh a boat comes along and he goes, A boat, looks like I'm saved. So there's this big big ocean going liner, comes up alongside him and he throws down the anchor which hits him on the head. Excuse me.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

That panel is rather why's that that colour?

SPEAKER_02 15:43

So I I think looking here, the most of the colours are kind of more sort of pastel, more uh lighter colours, but James has taken the opportunity here to use a really vivid red to pick out has he been bonked on the head before, so he's like he's he's used the red here to really pick out that panel and give it some impact. So he climbs up onto the ship and there's a there's a salty old sea dog as a captain, and uh he says, swap the deck, and he liked he starts to have to work, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Starts working on there what's going on here because I can't see that clearly enough.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

So the captain comes across and he goes, What's that? He says, Your dinner, a cracker and rum. And again, we see Kitty in a in a cabin eating his cracker and drinking the rum, going, Things are really looking up for me. Comes comes on to back onto land and he says, I am I am poor. He's walking along some deserted train tracks. He smokes his last cigarette and he's uh why are there so many coffee cups in his gutter? He's lying in the gutter.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Um how 'cause he litter how has he lit his cigarettes given that he's been in the water?

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Even if he had some matches, he would It looks like he's got a lighter, actually.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Well, would that wouldn't that be damaged in the It could be. Yeah. I see. This is not real, is it?

SPEAKER_02 17:08

It's not real, it's very surreal. And he makes his way to a phone booth where he calls up his friend Pop. And then there's a Where's Pop? He's calling him here on the phone. Okay. And so he arranges to meet him at the Nobody's Perfect Bar and Grill. And then the last page of this story meets up with his friend Pup and they're sitting there, sitting there at the bar having a having a having a beer, and he's told him the story of what's happened to him throughout this throughout these last couple of days, sort of trying to find employment and everything.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

But he had a job, he just messed it up.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Yeah. And he said, Needless to say, I'm looking for work again, so if you have any leads, oh, and I can't pay for this beer, and Doc Pop just like despondently puts his head in his hands.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Yeah, I'm not surprised.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

They come outside and it starts snowing and he said the first snowfall, and Kat says, Can I Kitty says, Can I like borrow a bus ticket? And the closing panel is Kitty going off on a bus with some headphones on, listening to music.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Where did he get the headphones?

SPEAKER_02 18:15

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Maybe he would they were hidden in his pocket. Yeah, they would have got damaged, wouldn't they? They would have got damaged. What's this for colouring?

SPEAKER_02 18:25

So it like I say, James does a lot of sort of working out of ideas, um, and it has got this kind of odd surreal feeling to it. So this is kind of a uh a character that's almost made out of a sheet of paper, so it's like really thin. So you can if you can just sort of see the form of a body here. There's an arm, legs there, and it stands up, but because it's made of paper, it blows off into the wind.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

Oh right. I have to say, all I can see is mope scribbly.

SPEAKER_02 18:57

Well, here, yeah, it's just used this sort of just darker, more purple colour, just in line only. But it's got a definitely got a very sort of surreal edge to it. And then we see this character flying off into the sky.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

Yeah, we'll pass on that one, I think. Mystified.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

Sometimes comics don't have to make sense, sometimes they can just be comics.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Well, that's fine if you like that sort of thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

I I I I I was really pleased that I could get this because um it uh it was a small press comic from the States, and um luckily there's a a good comic shop called uh Gosh in London who who specialise in bringing in small press stuff. Gosh! Yeah, gosh with an exclamation mark. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

I need to.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

Does that mean it's expensive to get over here?

SPEAKER_02 19:52

It was more expensive, yeah. It was more expensive. How much did it cost? Um I think it's cost about 15 pounds.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Yeah, that is.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

And it's because it's it's published in small quantities and stuff as well, so and it's nice paper. Yeah, it's on really good quality paper. So we've got another short story here called Coffee Shop, where we've got a character sitting in a coffee shop having drinking coffee, and then he turns around and asks for another cup of coffee. And the his this little sort of what looks like an alligator character wanders off scattered fresh cup, and there's a pipe which leak bleaks out coffee, so he's topping up the coffee cup.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

It'd be cold by the time it got to you, wouldn't it? It's not real.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

Remind me.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

And we see another character, like it look well, it looks like kind of a a duck or some kind of bird. And he says, This place is depressing, and he and he wanders off. So we're getting quite surreal in this one. He's walking off, and it looks like there's a storm gonna break, and he's wandering around, obviously uh quite worried about what's happening.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

What's this about God?

SPEAKER_02 21:09

So apparently it looks like he's he's saying here that cot that God is responsible for bringing the coffee into the world. Well, arguably, if you believe that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

God's responsible for everything, so yeah, of course he is.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

Yeah, sort of the drops have fallen into this cup, the little alligator character has fallen asleep, and the the God is in like a sp in like a thought bubble. Then he says, My cup runneth over. Oh my goodness. So there's a bit of a pun there. Bit of a pun there. You've got the little bird character who says, Need to cut this out of my life, causes stress, and he throws away the coffee. And he sit there are people protesting. About what? And says, so they said was it the cat the bird character says, Why are what are they protesting? And the the other guy who's sitting next to him says, Coffee, group of religious fanatics. Who think coffee is the blood of God. By drinking it, you're killing God.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

Oh dear, that's that will offend a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

And then we go back to the character we saw right at the right at the beginning of the story. He says, Where's my drink? And the alligator character comes up and he says, Sorry for the wait. And he drinks the coffee. And he says, Taste like Pooh.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Oh. I'm getting exhausted, especially with that one.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

That is a very surreal, it was a very surreal story. Um there's a lot of visual sort of storytelling in there. And coming through so sort of it's the the title story of the comic, uh, we but we come back to Kitty again, our our hero from the first story.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

I'm just thinking of that line in in or a a an oh dear. An Irish soap opera who saw a bit you on glue.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

So the next story is Kitty in Flap Tyre as the title of the of the whole comic. Kitty's on his bike riding through town, and there are tacks or pins on the on the ground and they burst his back tire. Yes. And Kitty's alright, that's it, it's over, finished. And frankly, I always knew this day would come. And he says, Does anyone have a pump? And we see a city scene where people are just happily just wandering around, just having a having normal life. And he sees a hot dog stand, and there's the smell of the hot dogs coming over to him.

SPEAKER_00 23:39

I'll interrupt. If you can hear background noise, that's the dustbin people.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

It's been day. It's bin day here today, so the bins are being emptied. So Kitty's trying excuse me, he's trying to make a call, but doesn't succeed, goes and buys himself a hot dog goes and buys himself a hot dog. And he's walking along, eating the hot dog and and peddling his bike along.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

I don't know how to what to say about this anymore.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

Yeah, I mean it get it's it's just got this kind of real surreal edge to it, which I you know, there's a lot about sort of psychol, you know, not psychology. Um what's the wellness what kind no, um what's the one when you talk about religion? I don't know. Um church. Not sociology.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

Uh uh philosophy.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

Philosophy! It's a f it's a very philosophical, thank you. It's a very philosophical comic. There's a lot about thinking about stuff and how how thoughts work and stuff like that. Mm-hmm. Another character comes along and says, Can you do something transgressive, please? And Kitty goes, No.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

Transgressive, mate.

SPEAKER_02 24:54

Um against the norm. Right. So something out of the ordinary. So Kitty gives him the rest of his hot dog, and he says to the character, What do you think about living at the city? And he says it's alright. And he's and then they're starting to talk about politics, but he says he doesn't have to answer it. Then he asks him if he can fix his bike, and the other says he hasn't got a clue. Well, what's going on here? So flipping over to the next page, there's a what this is a water tower. Oh, yes. So in you know, in America they have tack they have towers which are big containers full of water up above.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

So do we.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

Yeah, we do. Yeah. Um so Kitty then turns around and says, I need to tell you about my childhood, and the tone of the comic stop changes here from more traditional panels with speech bubbles into a into a this really nice little watercolour full page illustration, and Kitty starts talking about his life, and he said he had two eye two eyes to see the world with because all the time Kitty's got this sticking plaster over his eye.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

Why? Oh, because he's lost an eye. I don't know whether he's I think I don't know whether he's lost an eye or if it's just injured. It just feels like sticking plaster over it. Actually, could it be because this is real bit, but certainly in the past when people had a squint or something, they used to have glasses with sticking plaster on it, didn't they?

SPEAKER_02 26:21

I saw a picture of that just this week. There's an actress who d who had that at school, and there's a picture of her at school with a plaster over her eye on her glasses. A big sticking plaster stuck on her glasses.

SPEAKER_00 26:34

I do I I do people do that anymore. I don't think so. No. I think they sometimes might wear patches, but I'm not even sure about that.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

Anyway, we see a little shack, and there's a uh there's a dog character say calling Kitty in for his supper. And um he says, Where's that kitty cat? It says, Climbing if I had to hazard a guess.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

And Kitty's standing on sorry, could you be there? He says, Where's clear?

SPEAKER_02 27:01

Where's that kitty cat? And Kitty's climbing if I had to wager a guess.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

Oh right.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

And he's climbing, and he's uh there's another light large panel, or well, there's actually no panels here, there's a large picture of Kitty sitting on top of a sort of a mound of rocks.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

Yeah, we'll be receiving kittens from weird places, won't we?

SPEAKER_02 27:22

And then they climb up to another stack of rocks, and then these are with another like a little rabbit character, and they're looking up at the night sky, and then there's got a full page panel of the night sky with lots of stars and the moon in it.

SPEAKER_00 27:36

What does it say in that little thing?

SPEAKER_02 27:38

And at the bottom, excuse me, it says, Do you have a favourite one? Meaning the stall meaning the stars. He says, We forgot about dinner, so they run off and they run back down to come back for dinner.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

I thought Breeze was going to respond to that word, but she's asleep.

SPEAKER_02 27:57

Um Kitty's they come running back through the through a uh almost like a little maze of of stones or bricks or something like that. That's all bitty and back to back to where the the shack is, where their food is. And he says, I was born into a family of dogs. I never once questioned where I came from. And then he says, Later on in life, I lost an eye, so he's actually lost this eye. That's where it was sticking plaster over. And the other character says, I'm out. And he part done says I'm out, I'm leaving.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Yeah. Go slower because I keep missing saying.

SPEAKER_02 28:33

So Kitty's wandering off, he says, I'm still stuck carrying this thing, his bike. And he says, long road ahead. At least the route is somewhat scenic.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

And he ends up in the park and he finds Lion.

SPEAKER_00 28:49

Oh, I quite like Lion.

SPEAKER_02 28:51

Comes back to Lion and they go, Yeah, he is.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

And look at the state of his bike. Both the tyres are uh done. There's a nice tree there. I always like trees.

SPEAKER_02 29:02

Well Lysmarite does like trees.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

In real life as well as uh yes.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

So Kitty is talking with Lion, and then and then Lion says then you had an obvious transportation issue because his cat his bike is standing there with a flat tyre. Two flat tires.

SPEAKER_00 29:22

Has it got two flat tires?

SPEAKER_02 29:24

No, just the one.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

Is this one okay then?

SPEAKER_02 29:28

The front one's okay, the back one's punctured.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

Oh, it's turning round the other way. I got I got confused because it's like turn the bike round. Well, there you go.

SPEAKER_02 29:38

The lion's looking at the the bike and saying, I can't make head or head or head nor tails of this, and Kitty said it's a flat tyre. And he says, My honest advice, if I had any to give, would be to leave it for someone else to deal with. And the kitty and lion just walk off into the into the the day.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

Well, there we go, selfish. Yeah, very selfish. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:05

And then we have another page we have another page of just like character sketches and sort of little settings and stuff, stuff going through. And then on the very back cover we have Pop, who is the character uh Kitty met in the bar. And he's just going for a walk in the snow. That's it. I see him going into his apartment, sitting there reading a book with the radio on, and then he's back out in the snow again. It's just a little sort of a vignette type thing.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Can I give my opinion?

SPEAKER_02 30:36

So please do.

SPEAKER_00 30:38

Love the artwork, yeah. Love the colours, yeah. Don't like anything that's going on in it because I just thought, oh, what's this? Much ado about nothing. Well, yes, I know you like it, don't argue with me. I'm not I'm just giving my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

Yes. So as you were talking about that, towards the end, my mind was drifting on drifting off to the bin people outside. See, it was more I thought the bin bin noise was more entertaining. But I just love this front thing, and I really like the look of the characters. Um yeah, but the the very thing that he he does, which is this surreal thing, that's what you like, and I absolutely don't. Surreal art like Donald Darley, I really like very much. But I I'd also like it was very logical the way it was set out. Love the colours.

SPEAKER_02 31:45

So the colours are been a really big influence on me, and they're using colours more like this in my work now. Um I really like the way James puts his stuff together. Um, I I quite like this odd, surreal feeling to it. Yeah, it is, it's quite philosophical. It's sort of thinking about life and how how you get through life.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

Yeah, littering and being selfish. So it's all sides, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 32:17

It's all sides.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

Yeah. I'm afraid, Mr. What's his name?

SPEAKER_02 32:22

James Collier.

SPEAKER_00 32:23

Sorry, Mr. Collier, I forgot your name then. I only give it four.

SPEAKER_02 32:28

Oh dear.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

And that is mostly because of the colours. Could you just open it for me again, please? Is that I can't see that properly. Is that uppercase?

SPEAKER_02 32:41

It is uppercase.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

Oh yeah. Well, um given that there's only got four four points, I won't take off another one for for being just uppercase. So that's my opinion. That was a big disappointment. I looked at the front and I thought, oh, this is gonna be good. I love this. Look at the first page, and after a bit I'm drifting off with, yeah, right, right.

SPEAKER_02 33:08

So clearly not your sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

Definitely not my sort of thing.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

But that's I mean, that's no the the artwork I just love. The way it looks, the paper, yeah, all of that.

SPEAKER_02 33:22

I love the way this is put together. Um, small press stuff quite often has really good production values because it is made in smaller quantities, they can take more time and care over how things are actually made. So, yeah, it's on really nice quality paper. Uh the printing's really good, it's really nice. Even though James works in quite sort of a pastel, you know, lighter lighter tones of colours.

SPEAKER_00 33:47

There's tone in and everything. Um and he has a bit of yellow on there, but I have uh I don't think he likes yellow as much as I just as you do. And then your next page is all yellow, take that back. I'm talking rubber.

SPEAKER_02 34:04

So he's using yellow as a sky colour here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

Although arguably that's cream.

SPEAKER_02 34:10

Yeah. But it's uh it's it's in informed how I'm making comics at the moment.

SPEAKER_00 34:17

Yeah, a good thing to take away from them.

SPEAKER_02 34:22

But yeah, so there's a lot of references to underground comics and and I would say children's books as well, so there's a lot of Seuss in there, there's Morris Sendak, there's definitely some hints of crumb in there, crumb used.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

I you didn't point that out, so I don't know which bits are a crumb. Um I I'm not familiar with everybody enough to be able to look for it.

SPEAKER_02 34:46

That's very true, because whilst yeah, whilst I I I know what uh I'm talking about with comics because I'm I've read them like my whole life. Eliza Mariah hasn't read comics and is not things I've got better than the magazine. Yeah, it's not as visually literate as I am, so I can picture people's style straight away when I look at other when I look at other stuff.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

So could you show me where Crum was um reference?

SPEAKER_02 35:13

The fact that he's using a cat as the main character, crumb created a character called Fritz the Cat. Oh, I remember you mentioning we've talked about Fritz the Cat.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 35:21

And the way the cities are kind of drawn uh in almost like a silhouette style at the background.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

I like that very much because that means that the background doesn't um take away from the actual action.

SPEAKER_02 35:36

Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

The background is truly in the background.

SPEAKER_02 35:40

So there's a lovely um as we come towards the end of the story, when when Kitty arrives back at the land at land and you can see this city on the horizon, that to me is very much like crumb that looked very much like uh a scene from Fritz the Cat.

SPEAKER_00 35:57

Right.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

So the ways the way he's like arranged the buildings and I'll have to look at Fritz the Cat. We need to get Fritz the Cat because I just think it's it's such a great and important comic. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

Let me clarify, is that an aughty one?

SPEAKER_02 36:12

That is an aughty one.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

I look forward to it. Oh sorry, I forgot I'm a lady.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

Yeah, so but no, I I think I'd I've realized as I as I as I sort of got back into comics over the last five or six years, I've I've realised how much I actually enjoy independent comics. More small press stuff, because there's more freedom to tell stories the way you want to. You don't have to follow, you know, a an A to B point in the story. You can you can go off on tangents and it's not for everyone, as we've just proved here.

SPEAKER_00 36:51

Yes. I do f I I think that there's been very few comics that I really liked the stories of. Very few. Because this is m more. Well mate, is it the ones you choose? Is it because you choose this kind of thing to actually have in your mind?

SPEAKER_02 37:11

Well no, we've kind of looked at a bit a bit of everything.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

Um Oh, there was that one, it w um I oh I can't remember his name. He he went off and helped people.

SPEAKER_02 37:23

Do you mean Grew? Gru. We go back to Grew again, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

Yes. Yeah, that that was a good story. Grew has more than one of the Barnies.

SPEAKER_02 37:31

Yeah, Grew has more of a sort of traditional storytelling. He goes off on on adventures or rather misadventures.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

I've just realised that one could have five points. Oh, okay. And an ex extra point because as far as I remember there were no blooming Barnies in there.

SPEAKER_02 37:47

There were no fights in it.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

No. Which is I find it irritating. I'm reading a book at the moment, every five minutes I'm having a fight. So every five minutes I'm skimming over a few pages. But yes, so give it five.

SPEAKER_02 38:01

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 38:02

There we go.

SPEAKER_02 38:03

There we go. So there we go. That's Flat Tire by James Collier. Um, lovely little uh piece of comic book work. Um, yeah, with definitely a surreal edge to it, but again, it's small press stuff. I love the way they're made, they're put together, it's on really nice quality paper and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 38:21

I would look forward to hearing your comments with you. Are you Morgan's team or my team? I'm talking about the content, but yeah. Um yes, look forward to your comments. Oh, by the way, does everybody on the podcast realize that this is going up on YouTube too?

SPEAKER_02 38:43

Yeah, so over the last couple of weeks we've actually started because we've we've filmed these as well as record the or record audio for for the podcast, but we're actually filming these as well. Um for the last three weeks I've started uploading them to my YouTube channel. So if you look if you search for Morgan Gleave on YouTube, you should find, or even better, just search Morgan Talks Comics and you'll find the video videos of of the reviews we've done. This it the they're running about four weeks behind the podcast. Yes, yes. But they are but because we film these as well as so obviously comics are a visual medium, so people we want you to see what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

Yes, because we were doing the podcast, and I think I think it was me that said what why aren't we seeing it? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 39:36

Absolutely, and we're yeah, with them being a visual medium, it makes sense. So we've so for the last eight or so weeks we've been filming them, so I have a backlog of stuff, but yeah, if you look for Morgan Talks comics on YouTube, you'll find the videos of those, so you'll actually be able to see what we're talking about as well as as well as hearing it.

SPEAKER_00 39:54

Yes. And suggestions, we'd like some suggestions of comics, like ones that you really like.

SPEAKER_02 40:00

Please do, yeah. We'd love to because obviously I've got a large collection of comics that we can go through and I can pick stuff out, but yeah, let's have some suggestions for other comics to look at.

SPEAKER_00 40:08

And your uh uh your comments. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:11

We'd love to hear what you think of the show.

SPEAKER_00 40:13

Yeah, and if you you choose a comic, please tell us why you like it. It could be even you choose one you don't like and tell us that.

SPEAKER_02 40:23

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 40:26

But uh yes, we'd like we'd like some interaction with um people. When I read that list, when I found out how many different countries that this was going out to, I was amazed and thrilled and well I'd be grateful that it goes out and people spend you know a bit of time listening to us buddying along. Absolutely. So it'd be nice to have more countries next week.

SPEAKER_02 40:53

Who knows? Maybe we'll have some other countries appear next week.

SPEAKER_00 40:56

Yes, let's let's have Italy, somebody from Italy.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

Yeah, I don't think we've had it. And Italy's got a got a rich history of comic book uh comic book and cartooning.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

Yes, and it's my favourite country. Yeah. Mean apart from our own and on that bombshell, we'll say bye until next week. Bye. Bye