Episode 003 – A comics breakup and unpopular nerd opinions

DC Comics and diamond distribution are finalizing their divorce

Dave: DC Comics and diamond distribution are finalizing their divorce, and the kids are none too happy. Plus, we discuss nerdy things we usually avoid and give some nerd commendations. The nerd by word starts now.

Kris: Hm. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome into another episode of the Nerd by Word podcast. Now, normally, we begin each week with two nerd news stories, but something, happened within the past week, and we’re only going to have one nerd, nerd news story because it’s. It’s quite a whopper. Dave, what are we talking about?

Dave: We’re, talking today about DC, comics leaving diamond distribution, which is incredible. DC Comics announced to retailers on June 5 that they’re leaving diamond, which has basically held, a de facto monopoly on the distribution of comic books for the past 25 or so years. According to the Hollywood Reporter, COVID-19 likely had an impact on this decision as diamond decided to halt distribution during the pandemic and then also withheld payments to publishers due to cash flow problems. moving forward, DC will be using Penguin Random House for their trades and books, while two new companies, Lunar and UC’s, will distribute their monthly periodicals. Lunar is run by a, mail order service, discount comic book service, while you cs, appears to be owned by notable retailer Midtown Comics. so in the statement that DC sent to retailers, they said, and I quote, DC has been analyzing its direct market distribution for some time, long before COVID specifically in light of sustained stagnant market growth. The timing of this decision to move on from diamond was ultimately dictated by the fact that DC’s contract with diamond has expired. But incidentally, the disruption by COVID to the market has required DC to forge ahead with its larger growth strategies that will benefit both the direct market and DC. So what do you think, Kris, is going to be the immediate impact of this move?

Diamond has lost 30% of the American comics market to two new distributors

Kris: Well, I read a fantastic article for Comicsbeat.com that was done by Heidi MacDonald. It was kind of like a peek behind the curtain. and some of the industry, experts that she spoke to, said that while they feel that diamond needed pressure and it’s been a long time coming, due to the de facto monopoly that you referenced, they believe it’s the worst timing possible with comic book shops losing out so much business, due to the pandemic and state regulations about, you know, that limit their ability to open and the sales that they can make with curbside and everything. M and especially with no new content coming out for, you know, a month and a half to two months that really hurt sales as well. Now, some other factors that I did notice in that article, by Miss McDonald were that, that there are, slightly higher shipping costs with lunar and UC’s at this time. but the comic shop owners and the retailers who have received, shipping from these two distributors found that they had better shipping quality, something that diamond, distributing was famously bad for. I’ve spoken to multiple, comic shop owners here in our region and you know, and that’s seems to, they seem to echo the same sentiments there. she had a quote in there from diamond owner Steve Geppe, about, you know, how disappointed he was and you know, is the worst possible timing, if we’re being honest, in layman’s terms, he kind of sounded like a bitter ex who had got dumped and, you know, just wanted to kind of drag in the mud the name of their ex. now, graphic novels, one interesting point that I found out that the graphic novels have been filled by other distributors, particularly penguin random house, for quite some time. That, diamond had not been in charge of that. So that doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a huge transition, in this immediate impact. I did see that, some really interesting things about diamond that they had a 3% reorder penalty. That really made it hard. so maybe they’ll ease up on that now they don’t have this monopoly anymore. maybe they’ll loosen up that stronghold and that, this is really a kicker. Diamond had been unwilling to modernize and they were still, two to three years ago when they had a job posting, were advertising their use of Windows 95, which has been out of date for about 20 years. so yeah, it’s a really worthwhile article. Again, you can find that@comicsbeat.com which is really fantastic.

Dave: So there’s some other stuff that I noticed about this too, kind of as a, ah, tie in with the whole COVID thing. And now this change of distributors is that DC will be moving to Tuesday as its official release day, which kind of breaks, actually, with all the other publishers who traditionally release new comic books on Wednesdays. and yeah, these two new companies, although, they are basically run by some experienced retailers, are new, untested entities when it comes to comic book distribution. so now diamond, ah, has lost 30% of the american comics market. I want to say that there should be some positive long term consequences of that. Competition usually breeds innovation. However, in the short term, retailers are going to have a lot of work and they have a lot to figure out working with these new companies basically overnight.

Diamond’s rules to list and distribute comic books are often unrealistic

Kris: Now, Dave, one thing I was wondering, is this simply going to be diamond by a different name? Do you feel like LCS owners are still kind of going to be handcuffed by the distributing systems, even though there are two new names entering the market? Do you still feel like it’s going to be business as usual?

Dave: Well, from what I understand, the terms that Lunar and UC’s will be, using seem to be basically the same as diamond, right down to limited returnability, except for certain issues and the like. So the systemic problems in the industry are not addressed by that, least in the short term. But, again, I’m hoping, now that there’s multiple options that maybe publishers can exert a little bit of pressure on the distributors and basically say, hey, if you don’t give us these terms that will help us grow the, market, then we will be able to just go to somebody else after our contract is up. But yeah, in the short term, it seems to me to be pretty much more of the same.

Kris: Yeah, I think so as well. And I even had that down. Returnability is still a, or the key issue. You know, we talked about this in our last episode with how to save the comic book industry when you’re, you know, I remember going into local comic book shops and seeing like random number thirteen s and fourteen s that were just overstocked. and now I know why. Because they can’t turn it back in, you know, unless it’s, you know, like we said, a limited edition or a special number one. So you’re just sitting here with a bunch of stuff that, that you have no use for and you can’t sell.

Dave: I totally agree. I will also say that not a lot of other publishers have really been willing to comment news outlets about this, with the exception of image comics Eric Stevenson, who said that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it, which I believe is probably referring to Marvel’s attempts to start their own distributor, back in the zero nineties, I believe. but, you know, Diamond’s rules to list and distribute comic books are often pretty unrealistic, particularly for small press publishers. I know that alterna comics already announced back in April that they’re moving to a self distribution model because they just couldn’t hit the benchmarks for pre orders, that diamond was demanding in order for them to even distribute the books. So that seems, to be sort of a policy that doesn’t really help smaller, newer publishers grow.

DC is severing ties with Diamond, which could cause Marvel trouble

Some creators have also weighed in, which I found really interesting. Peter David, said, to a news outlet, and I quote, DC has just announced that they are severing ties with Diamond Comics. DC represents 30% of the market, and there is no way, simply no way, diamond will be able to survive with that kind of come down in revenue. The mission here is to drive diamond out of business, which will then cripple Marvel comics. I’m a huge Peter David fan. I will say that I don’t completely agree with that assessment because Marvel being backed by Disney, they can. If diamond starts, having financial issues, I think Marvel will be just come.

Kris: To Papa Disney, you know?

Dave: Yeah, exactly. Now, Fabian Nicieza also had an interesting take on this. he said, I don’t pretend to know the details of today’s marketplace forces, but as a mutual veteran of the eighties distribution days, philosophically, don’t you think having multiple distribution sources for product is ultimately better for the retailers and industry? And I tend to come down more on the side of what he’s saying here. Although in the short term, this is going to lead to some growing pains and some problems, and the timing of it is incredibly unfortunate. I think there is a long term potential for this to have a positive impact.

Kris: Yeah, absolutely. And you even commented this before we hit the record button, is it’s simply a matter of their contract was up and they were displeased with it. and, you know, DC sat and figured, you know, Jim Lee and the rest of DC were like, you know what? We’re not happy with what, with what you’re giving us. So we’re going to go another direction. You know, it’s similar to any athlete or, you know, actor, actress that’s negotiating a contract. You know, you’re dissatisfied, you go another direction.

Dave: Yeah, that’s exactly right.

Retailer reaction to the news has been surprisingly negative

I have been surprised by the outpouring, of negativity among retailers online in particular. Have you noticed anything about that, Kris?

Kris: Oh, yeah. There’s a couple of, comic shops that I’ve seen on Instagram and social media that are frustrated by the initial growing pains that we’ve referenced here. not being able to fill pull orders, having to really rally around, you know, their, other resources to help fill polls and not really having any of the new issues really available, at time. But I really feel like once we get past these initial growing pains, I really just, my gut tells me, you know, the AP economy student in me is saying that competition is going to, as you said, you know, drive innovation, and you’re gonna have to, you know, improve the quality of your service, of your product if you really want to stay competitive. And, you know, you look at, you know, restaurants during this pandemic and the way that they’ve, you know, bent over backwards and try to, you know, really fire up their, their takeout services and really make it as accessible to customers. You look at things like door dash and, you know, services like that, you know, just trying to change an innovation. You look at, you look at technology in the past ten years, you know, it really just blows your mind, like, I can’t think of going without an iPhone now, you know, and ten years ago, I was happy to have a flip phone that had a camera that, you know, I would look at today and just laugh. So hopefully this is, you know, going to drive some positivity into the future.

Dave: Yeah, exactly. I will also say, just looking at, online over the retailer response, they seem to be concerned about discounts not being as high with, the new distributors that they have been getting with diamond. Although DC has released a statement, I believe earlier today that discounts, should be basically the same that they were getting from diamond. There’s, concern that shipping cost is going to be higher. But the one thing that I find the most remarkable, as far as complaints go, is that DCBs and Midtown, who are going to be basically running these new distributors, Lunar and, UC’s are retailers. and so they feel like they’re now directly competing against, their distributors because they’re also retailers. I think it pays to remember that many of the distributors throughout, the history of comic books started out initially as retailers and, and then later evolved into, distributors. So this is not, unheard of. So the, other concern I noticed was point of sale software, which has also been, sort of a monopoly, by diamond. The software that they use, the retailers use to manage all of their subscriptions and orders and reorders. and DC has now also stated, that UC’s is working on compatibility with that point of sale software. So they seem to at least be trying to address some of these concerns that retailers are having.

Kris: It really just seems like, you know, change, change in any time can be tough. I mean, like, you can, you can stratify this out to any aspect of life, and change is scary. and especially at a time like now, where we’ve all been cooped up in our houses for three plus months, you know, we haven’t had a real whole lot of experience with the outside world and, unless you’re an Instagram influencer, you know, out the beaches of Florida and California and you throw caution to the wind, but, you know, I think once we get. I keep coming back to it, just a gut feeling that, you know, change is hard at first, but, you know, hopefully. So I’m hopeful that, you know, that positive changes are going to come of this.

Dave: Yeah, I absolutely agree.

Kris: Ladies and gents, that concludes our nerd news segment for this week, the DC and diamond divorce. When we come back, we’re going to have our Byward big talk of the week. The quest less traveled. We each came up with three quote unquote nerdy things that we don’t like.

Dave’s dislike of online multiplayer games

All right, we are back with our by word big talk for the week. And as I stated before, the break, our topic for this week, we wanted to have three quote unquote nerdy things that we don’t really like. So maybe we’re the nerds of the nerd community because we don’t ascribe to those things. Dave, what’s first on your list?

Dave: Yeah, this is definitely going to be a hot take situation this episode. so my first nerdy thing that I don’t particularly enjoy, is actually online multiplayer games. I understand that they’re the wave of the future, but I dislike it for a number of reasons. I have been a lifelong gamer, and I’ve had a lot of experience with various consoles, over the last 30 years. And I grew up primarily with single player games and couch co op, and I get very little joy of playing with or against strangers online. I like overcoming obstacles. I enjoy a sense of progression and storytelling in games, which is something that is usually lacking in online multiplayer. Online games are also rife with cheating. I remember years ago trying to play Mario Kart online on the Wii, and there were so many game breaking events happening every time that I tried to get online. It was simply no fun to play anymore. I certainly prefer games with cooperation over competition, but even among those games, the toxicity of certain players makes even that basically impossible. I went on a binge for a while playing Overwatch, the online hero shooter, and I still really like the game. I like the basic design of it, I enjoy the characters of it, but the toxicity of the player base keeps driving me away. Either players don’t communicate, so you can’t really cooperate with each other, or they turn, their mic on to unleash a string of racist sexist and homophobic comments. Anonymity really seems to bring out the worst in people. And it’s sad that couch co op is slowly fading away, playing with family and friends, sitting next to each other. Those are some of my fondest gaming memories. At some point, the game becomes secondary then, and the social aspect is the primary motivation. I loved playing left four dead, for example, a couch co op with my wife. We never really even touched. The online, playing modes also related to that, I’m just gonna say it. Games with snipers are boring. Walk out of spawn, get shot immediately by sniper, respawn, rinse and repeat. There’s very little fun in that. There’s also I feel a little bit of laziness, in design when it comes to online multiplayer games because creators are not really, designing obstacles or progression system or truly interactive experience. They’re basically pointing at a playground and telling people to go entertain themselves. Fallout, 76 is a great example of this. A game that was so empty when it launched that it lost most of its playerbase, almost immediately. And theyve made a lot of changes to that game since then. Now that being said, I still play some online multiplayer games. Its just sad that most of the time I end up putting my controller down in disgust at the cheating, the toxicity and the uninspired design.

Kris agrees that online multiplayer games are problematic

Kris, what’s your take on online multiplayer?

Kris: Oh man, I’ll say a hallelujah and an amen, because you’re preaching to the choir over here. You beat me to the punch. I would, I was going to put this on my list and when you suggested this, we, we hit stop recording on, on last week’s episode. And you said, you know, I want to do this. And this is the first thing, for example. And I was like, let’s just do it. I didn’t need to hear any more of your pitch for this episode, because online multiplayer gaming and the loathsome attitude that I feel for them, I’m right there. I like to mind my own business. Like, I stay in my lane. I’m an introvert to the max. I don’t like leaving my house. So quarantine. Some people are freaking out about quarantine. I’ve been living the dream. During quarantine, I can just sit and play my games, I can read my comic books. Like all of my extroverted family members were like, would you please come see this? And it gives me a great excuse to not have to go to family functions, that I really didn’t have any interest in going into anyway, so I could be like, ah, quarantine. So, so I do like, I love playing video games, but I like to stay in my own lane. and it’s that stranger danger. Like, maybe if I had friends who played those games, like, if I were able to talk you to play Red Dead online with me, then maybe, you know, I’d be interested in that. But like, the one, the one game that I play online, I just turned off the Xbox to come record this episode. I do play Red Dead online. That’s the one game that I play. But that’s because I basically create my own story. I far prefer campaign modes and story modes with most stories because I like reading. So I like a story. I never skip the cinematics. I never skip the cutscenes. I want to be told the story. And the thing that I like about Red Dead online is you create your own story. I’m an existentialist. Life is what you make it to be. So, like, I create my own business. I have my horse. I take care of my horse. It’s very Tamagotchi. Like, you just take care of it and all of that. so, like today, for example, I was just trying to go to the butcher to sell some meat, and then all of a sudden I get sniped in the head while I’m standing there at the butcher by some kid named America 2000. 913 67. I’m minding my own business and I just get sniped because some twelve year old has a bunch of angst towards their parents who wants to unleash on me. So, yeah, it’s really problematic. And I echo all the sentiments you said about the toxicity, and the horrible, horrible things when people get behind. And this happens on social media too, when you have a cartoon character as an avatar and, you know, an odd username to where you’re not, you’re not attaching your, your legal name to it, they feel completely liberated to unleash a bunch of just awful, awful bile, you know, from their screens. I also miss, like you said, like, we had halo parties. Like, my friends when I was in high school, we would get together and play halo and we would play until three in the morning, and then we’d pass out on the couch. Like, I miss that. m my other favorite ones were like, x Men legends. X Men legends. Two. Those really got me back into the X Men and like, oh, man. Stoked the flames of the embers left over from the animated series from the nineties. And then they, the next step in that was Marvel ultimate alliance. Oh, man. That was my game. So those first two, I almost bought the switch just for ultimate alliance. I haven’t yet. I don’t know. All these consoles coming out, they released the trailer for the Miles Morales game yesterday, so now I’m thinking I need a ps five. I’ve been a Microsoft guy for so many years, but. So I totally echo everything that you said, man.

Kris’ dislike of villain and antihero worship

Dave: All right, Chris, so what is your first, nerdy thing that you do not enjoy?

Kris: Oh, boy. This is gonna upset some people. Here’s my hot take of the week. It’s official. I don’t get the whole villain and antihero worship stuff. I appreciate villains for what they are and, anti heroes at times for what they are as, like, a plot device and as an antagonist. What I don’t understand is why they are worshipped to the degree that they are. So here’s my pre apology for all you Deadpool venom, joker stans, we love you, and we embrace you in the nerd community, but I don’t get it. I’m really big into, personality types, and my Myers Briggs personality is the INFJ. I’m an introvert, I’m a feeler. And people who have been ascribed with this personality type can be characterized as having a psy complex. People who famous infjs. There’s really two different ends of the spectrum. I’m gonna go super nerd on you. I’m going psychology nerd here. Martin Luther King Junior was an infj. Jesus was ascribed as an iNFj. Then you also have individuals like Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden is the same personality type. You can go one way or the other. and I I just feel like m. I have this insurmountable moral code, this compass that I cannot deny. I cannot root for a villain. I cannot root for someone who does bad things. All apologies to the Punisher fans. I don’t get it. Like, there are elements and there are stories where he functions as a part of the process that I appreciate, but I am not going to emblazon his emblem on, you know, like, my clothing or whatever. It’s not for me. It’s not what I want to represent. I just can’t root for the bad guys. So apologies again to the Punisher fans, Deadpool, Joker venom people. It’s just not for me. What do you think?

Dave: Yeah, I see definitely where you’re coming from with that. you know, I see a lot of this happening with the Joker in particular. On the DC side, there’s a big, romanticizing of the Harley Quinn Joker relationship, although it’s been pretty clear from the word go that this is an abusive relationship. In both the animated series where Harley was introduced and later in the comics, the constant online memes about how romantic this relationship is has become really unpleasant because, it’s just. It’s not romantic. It’s a toxic relationship that is damaging the participants.

The Punisher is not a hero, but a troubled individual

And this is a great point for me to go ahead and point back to Superman again. You know, this is exactly the appeal of that character. He’s not an antihero. He’s good, decent, and moral. He’s what we should all really aspire to be. I, for one, don’t really aspire to be the Punisher. That doesn’t mean I won’t read Punisher books or watch the Netflix show. But let’s not fool ourselves, you know, he’s not a hero. He’s a seriously troubled and damaged individual. It makes for great storytelling, but not for a role model. And not. It’s not aspirational in any way, shape, or form.

Kris: Well. Well, Jerry Conway, someone who I hold in high regard, the co-creator of the Punisher, said himself, he is not a hero, and you should not worship him as a hero. You should not edify him. He is a criminal. So I’m going to take it straight from the source, the guy who created him, you know? So. But, yeah, and, I appreciate, like, I love. I love Venom as a villain, but he is a villain. Like I said this on our first episode, I get, you know, my sense of morals from. From Spider Man, Peter Parker. So I’m not gonna then root for, like, you know, his greatest nemesis. Like, I’m not gonna do that. So. But, yeah, so that’s. That’s my hot take of the week. That’s the first thing that’s quote unquote nerdy that I just can’t get behind.

Dave dislikes decompressed storytelling in comic books

Dave, what’s second on your list?

Dave: Yeah, here’s another one. kind of gonna dig in on the modern trends in comic book storytelling. I am not a fan of decompressed storytelling in comic books. This, is, a stylistic choice characterized by strong emphasis on visuals or character interaction, which, in turn, usually leads to slower moving plots. It is essentially writing for the trade. I need to make sure that my story stretches at least over five or six issues so it can be collected into a trade. This really popped up a lot in the 1990s. There is a certain manga influence there, but it has more content, is printed on cheaper paper, and is on black and white. This goes back in part to what we talked about last week about the bang for your buck ratio in comics. I’m not opposed on principle to longer stories that cover four, six issues. It’s just that many of these stories seem artificially stretched, with lots of splash pages and little actually writing on the page. There’s nothing wrong with focusing on art as a storytelling tool. rather than being overly verbose, I even appreciate the more cinematic art style of modern comic books. I just don’t like spending $4 on a comic book and reading it in less than five minutes and almost nothing happening on the page. So that’s sort of my big concern. I always look back at the old comic books where you picked one up. It had 60 pages, and there were, like, four or five different stories in it. Ah, complete stories, without this cliffhanger mentality. And again, I’m not opposed to even cliffhangers. Just, if you’re going to have decompressed storytelling going on, make sure that you’re still filling every single issue with lots and lots of content. otherwise, it just feels stretched thin and ultimately not worth the price of admission. What’s your, thoughts on that, Chris?

Kris: Yeah, I absolutely agree with that. I’m a big novel reader. Give me those 800 page novels from Alexandre Dumas and other authors of the romanticist period. I’m a sucker for those. And my favorite writers are Kris Claremont, Stan Lee, Jonathan Hickman. Three of the people that a lot of comic readers complain about because of their excessive use of prose and setting the scene. But sign me up for that any day. It’s almost like shakespearean. in the case of Stan Lee and Kris Claremont, it’s like shakespearean. So you’re basically getting a novel, you know, for the price of a regular comic. Like, you were saying, bang for your buck. The level of prose and dialogue, like, they leave. it also reminds me of, like, tolkien. Like, I had a friend who complained to me one time, they were starting the Hobbit, and we were in middle school or high school at the time, because he took a page like that opening page of the Hobbit, where he’s describing the hill, and it takes an entire page. I’m like, I don’t understand what you’re complaining about. Sign me up, sis. So, I love that amount. Like you said, bang for your buck. I just keep coming back to that because, you think of things like the dark Phoenix saga, that Claremont is probably most famous for that wasn’t like a three issue arc. That was an ongoing thing for, like, 20 or 30 issues. And it took, like, in. In real time. That was like over a year storyline where you had, you know, her Jean’s initial death, you know, way back when they came back on that mission from space. And then, you know, the dark phoenix thing, that took a long time to develop and breathe. and then even, you know, years after that, you know, she had her, you know, pop up in x factor and, you know, still struggle with being imbued with that power. for decades, she always. Even by other creators and other writers, you know, that was an ever-present thing with Jean. You know, that’s why she’s one of my favorite characters.

Kris has yet to connect with the world of Dungeons and Dragons

Dave: All right, Kris, so what is your next nerdy thing you don’t enjoy?

Kris: Okay. The next thing I put on my list, I don’t necessarily, like, hate it. I’ve just never really been exposed to it, and I’m not really interested in starting it up. And that would be tabletop gaming. I see a lot of, you know, LCS’s featuring, you know, even in their logo. I would just assume that that die that is in the logo. I assume that’s something to do with tabletop gaming. I have no idea. I’m such an introvert. Like I said before, like, I’d like to stay in the home. I don’t have an extensive friend group. most of the people that I interact with are, like, online or, you know, in like-minded things or live in different parts of the country. it seems expensive to me. seems like it’s, like, kind of almost like we talked about, with LCS’s in previous episodes. it seems like a secret society that I was not invited to. it seems really complicated. Now I am open. If somebody was like, hey, we’re doing a d and d and we want you to join. Like, I totally be down for that. I just don’t know a lot of people that are like, so, like I said, I’m not really, like, angsty about it. I’m not angry about it. It’s just something that I don’t describe to that I haven’t been really vibing with. What are your thoughts on that?

Dave: You know, it’s funny you say that. I always thought that tabletop gaming looked incredibly fun anytime you see in pop culture, you know, sort of them reenacting that sort of thing. Like, for example, in stranger things in season one when they do the whole d and d session in the basement. It look, it looks incredibly fun. I just, you know, I grew up in an era where finding fellow nerds was rather difficult. there weren’t a lot in my community, and, there was certainly not, a lot of Internet usage yet. So it’s not like I could connect with people that way. So us nerds back in the day existed sort of in little islands, and getting a group big enough together to really run a tabletop game was fairly rare in my experience. So I never really had the opportunity to get into this. It always seems really complex and daunting, like it’s a huge time investment. It’s not, something that you can pick up and enjoy and then put down and come back to later. There’s also this subclass of tabletop gaming, the subgroup that involves, models that you paint yourself and all that. And I don’t have an artistic bone in my body. I enjoy art. I mean, I’ll read comic books all day long, but as far as doing it myself, that is not something I’m particularly good at. So ultimately, it’s not something I necessarily dislike. It’s just something that I never had the opportunity to actually be exposed to.

Kris: Yeah, I totally agree. Basically, my experience as well, now this goes out to our younger audience. You know, times have changed. We’ve become more progressive. When we were kids, when Dave and I were kids, it wasn’t cool to be a nerd. Now, you know, it’s more acceptable and it’s more mainstream. But when we were kids, it wasn’t like, hey, I’m a nerd. Hey, I’m wearing this Captain America t shirt. It wasn’t quite like that. but, yeah, I kind of. I referenced this in our last episode as to why I prefer digital comics. You know, I don’t have the space and little pieces. You know, my household, my family, we really struggle to keep one deck of uno cards, you know, together. So me keeping together a bunch of little figurines that I hand painted, or a bunch of pieces, if I can’t handle a deck of uno cards, I highly doubt I’m gonna be able to keep up with this stuff. But, yeah, so that’s. That’s number two on my list.

Dave grows tired of poor CGI and prefers practical effects

Dave, what’s your third and final one for this week?

Dave: I think actually, with this one, many, nerds are gonna agree with me, especially connoisseurs of, older cinema. I’m incredibly tired of the consistent overuse of CGI, computer, generated effects in movies. I totally understand that there are situations where you need them, where you’re trying to show something so odd and outlandish that it’s not something that you can practically pull, pull off. But there’s been so many instances where perfectly good practical special effects could have been used. Instead, there is definitely this, what people like to call this uncanny valley sense. When you look at something that’s computer generated and if it’s not done with extreme skill, it’ll automatically take you out of the story. I know they were doing a sequel, to, John Carpenter’s the thing, or really a prequel, I believe, a few years ago, and they shot the movie with practical in camera special effects, and some of the designs and stuff leaked and they looked incredible. And then in post production, they decided, nope, we are going to go ahead and get rid of all the practical effects and we’re going to CGI over it. And it was to the huge detriment of the movie, you know, completely ignoring the quality of the rest of the movie, the writing and acting and the like. It automatically took a dip because those high quality practical effects were raised in favor of not very good computer generated effects. So when I have an opportunity to watch, you know, movies from the eighties, we like to talk about how things from back then look cheesy, but you believe that they’re there and that believability is oftentimes missing in modern movies. Look at a tv show like the Walking Dead, where they basically decided that all of their instances of blood splatter when a zombie is killed would be, would, be computer generated. So you have this, this fake blood spraying all over the place, and it’s so noticeable that it immediately takes you out of the storytelling. It’s really regrettable. there was such an art to practical effects, and so many of those movies that use practical effects primarily still hold up and still look amazing, whereas CGI ages terribly. there was a spin off of the mummy movies with, Brendan Fraser that featured the rock, the Scorpion king. And at the end, and at the end of the movie, the rock’s face is CG’d under this huge scorpion monster. And it is one of the most atrocious looking special effects by any standard, that I have ever seen. Oh, absolutely. But now you flip that, you flip that around and you look at a movie m that is actually older, the first terminator, where a lot of the effects had to be obviously, practical effects. Even that m, dummy face that they made of Arnold Schwarzenegger while he’s trying to you know, repair part of his face looks better than the CG in the Scorpion King. And so I’m just tired of computer generated effects being used because they’re cheaper. but they don’t add anything to the movie. I wish the movie industry would use them for things that they absolutely cannot pull off practically. But bring back some of the old, you know, creature work shops and special effects houses, and bring some of that art back, of practical effects. Chris, what are your thoughts on that?

Kris: Oh, I absolutely agree. I mean, it’s like you said, you hit the nail on the head. It takes me out of the movie. Like, I did go back and I watched Aquaman. Thanks, to your recommendation from episode one. And I absolutely loved it. Absolutely loved it. But in that movie, you have, you know, both sides of the spectrum when it comes to CGI. You have something that is as beautiful and as gorgeous as what they did with Atlantis, and that entire world that they built. But then, and I referenced this, you know, in the first episode, you have that lighthouse that looks fake, like something like a lighthouse. Okay. You did the hard part wonderfully. The easy bit. You made it look bad.

Dave: Just. Just go to a lighthouse and film there on location, and it’ll look good.

Kris: But now, that did not ruin the whole movie for me. Me, it was just a momentary eyebrow raise. So I love that movie. I love, you know, almost everything about it. The lighthouse scene didn’t do it for me. the practical effects that they use in properties like Star wars are, you know, what. What makes me hopeful for the franchise going forward when, you know, when. When we were getting ready for the Force Awakens and we were still getting over the prequels, when I saw that they were using puppets and practical effects, I was like, okay, this is gonna work. It’s all gonna be okay.

Dave: Yes, exactly.

Kris: And then rise of Skywalker happened. But we’ll get to that in a future episode. We’ll get to that.

Dave: I do believe so, yeah.

Kris: we’ll get to that in a future episode. but you look at something as so widely, you know, if I’m overstepping my boundaries here, please, you know, correct me. But if you look at a show as widely adored as the mandalorian was, what is the calling card? What does everybody love about that show?

Dave: That’s baby Yoda.

Kris: It’s baby Yoda. The child. We call him baby Yoda. but that’s puppet work. And that’s, you know, that was not CGI’d. And you can tell the quality of the product by using, you know, realistic effects. So I totally agree with you 100%.

Kris dislikes source-material worship

Dave: Alright, Chris, what is, your last nerdy thing that you do not enjoy?

Kris: Okay, I hope this doesn’t get me burned at the stake, but the last thing that I am not a fan of is source material. Puritanism. I am not a fan of. It has to be line by line, word by word, panel by panel. What the source material says. My life motto when it comes to comic book, film adaptations, graphic novel adaptations, or any kind of series or film adaptations from. From nerdy material, is just make it a good story. Tell a good story. That’s all I need from you. Okay? I don’t need you to go line for line, shot for shot, exactly like that. You know, in. In, a nerd community where we love alternate universes, we love spider verse, we love the ultimate universe, we love things like flashpoint that give us one of the coolest iterations of Batman. Just pretend, if it doesn’t go exactly as the source material says, just pretend it’s an alternate universe. Just tell yourself that. Maybe that’ll make you feel better. the reasons that I, you know, I did a rewatch of the MCU in anticipation for Endgame, and I really had to apologize for a lot of my dislike of age of Ultron, because I kind of fell victim to other voices telling me, it doesn’t do this. It’s not like the comic at all. there are issues with that film. It’s not the best of the MCU. it tries to develop too many plot lines in too short of amount of time. All of a sudden, Bruce and Natasha are in love, and I’m supposed to buy that. but there are elements of that film that are very, very good, and it doesn’t matter. I don’t care if they made them romantically involved. I don’t have a problem with that. That’s nowhere in the source material. I just don’t buy it because of what you showed me in the story. So as long as you tell me a good story, I don’t care that within the MCU, Tony Stark created Ultron and Bruce Banner created Ultron, and it wasn’t Hank Pym. That doesn’t bother me. Okay, just tell a good story. What do you think?

Dave: Yeah, I agree with this, and I will also freely admit that occasionally I, am guilty of this. So I’ll start with the part that I agree with. it seems silly in the world of comic books in particular, because characters are constantly being reinvented and reinterpreted in comic books. Every time there’s a creative team shift on a monthly comic book, there’s a new interpretation. so, it’s constantly evolving and changing. There’s also what ifs and elseworld stories, alternate universes, like you mentioned, all that jazz. So we, as a community of nerds, should already be used to the idea that comic books are constantly showing different interpretations of these various characters and stories. So I agree with you. I just want a good story. If they have to tweak a character to get there, then I don’t care. also, you know, alternative interpretations oftentimes fuel change and innovation in comic books themselves. Superman, flying, and Kryptonite came, after all, from the radio serials. They’re not originally from the comic books. Harley Quinn came from Batman, the animated series, before she was imported back into the comic books. So, these alternate interpretations, oftentimes lead to good additions to, the comic book world. Now, I will say that I don’t like when a interpretation diverts from the source material and thereby breaks the story. And a good example of that, regrettably, is, to me, the dark Tower film. I’m a huge fan of Stephen King’s dark Tower series. I think it’s one of the finest things ever written. I adore it. I’ve read the whole seven book cycle probably, four times at this point. And the movie did not represent the book in any way, shape or form. It didn’t capture the majesty, the characters, the, relationships. It fell flat. Now, if you can take, something from Stephen King and you can reinterpret it in a different way, which I think the, it movies it, part one and two did. It is not the same as the book in a whole bunch of different ways. And they were mostly successful then that’s great. But you better succeed if you’re going to change those things, because otherwise you’re going to end up with a dark tower situation, a movie that is now in the. In the five dollar bin at Walmart and is laying there probably for all eternity, because it was such a disappointment. Not because of the acting, which was fantastic, but ultimately because it failed to capture what the books offered. So if you can capture the, essence of a comic book, then you don’t have to be pure to the source material. Just capture the essence of what makes them appealing is, I think, what I’m.

Kris: Trying to say, and I totally echo those as well. Like, my example with that. I don’t have any experience with Dark Tower, I’ve had it heavily recommended to me, and I’ll have to check it out for sure. But for my experience as a huge web head, as a huge Spider man fan, for me, those are the amazing Spider man film series with Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. While those, films have some really high points when it comes to, you know, the web swinging, those scenes opening into, the amazing Spider man two when he is swinging through of New York, that’s everything that I ever imagined as a child. And if we’re being honest, still as a 31 year old man, when I put my middle and ring finger down to my wrist to pretend that I have a web shooter, that’s exactly what it feels like.

Dave: That first person view was genius. That they hadn’t tried that before in the Raimi films blows my mind. The first person view of swinging through New York was spectacular. Now there’s where CG actually works.

Kris: So, like, I totally, like, love that. but where it lost me was their work, or lack thereof, with the villains. Like, it completely. Like, I’m not upset that it didn’t go with the source material. This kind of goes back into my issues with Age of Ultron. I’m supposed to believe that Harry Osborn is his best friend because they met in the middle of the film. They hung out twice in the park and threw rocks on the lake. And now, all of a sudden, that turn is supposed to mean something to me as a person who reads 800 page novels. I don’t buy that. Tell me the story. Show it to me.

If you stray from the source material, present a better alternative

One of the strengths of that film franchise was the relationship between Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker and Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy. Because of, number one, the acting. The acting, especially Emma Stone is just out of this world. you know, and for me, I feel, and a lot of Spider man fans do, she’s a little bit mj more than she is actually Gwen Stacy personality wise. But, you know, the acting, number one. But, like, they’re, they’re relationship. The back and the fourth and the chemistry that those two actors have on screen is one of the high points of that. But the. The main problems that I have with those two films are, you know, because they not only, as you said, with the dark tower, they didn’t stick to the source material, they told a really crappy story.

Dave: Yeah, yeah. And ultimately, that’s the problem. If you’re not going to be true to the source material, you better make sure that the alternative that you are presenting is high quality and captivating. And when it’s not. I, think a lot of nerds default to, well, it wasn’t like the source material, when really it was just a bad story.

Kris: Exactly. And now, in counterpoint, what I think one of the strengths of with, a film like Homecoming is you have one of the best villain portrayals in the entire MCU and comic book movies. You know, you had to go get Batman to do it. But Michael Keaton is the vulture. That’s not the source material. Adrian Toomes is a withered old man. In fact, I think it’s an improvement over the source material. All love to Stan Lee and Steve Itko, especially the modernization of that. It just seems more realistic than some decrepit old man in a super suit, you know, flying around. But I think, know they didn’t stick to the source material, but it worked because it was a good, believable story. When he’s really into this girl, and it turns out, oh, my God, her dad is the supervillain that I’ve been chasing. Spoiler alert. If you haven’t seen the movie, sorry. It’s. It’s been years, but, But, yeah, like, so there you can diverge from the source material. Just tell a good story.

Dave: Yes, absolutely.

Nerd Commendation: Black Panther & the Crew

Alrighty, folks. that’s it for our deep dive this week. After a quick break, we are going to be back with our weekly nerd commendations. And we’re back, Kris. Nerd commendation time. What would you like to recommend to our listeners this week?

Kris: All right, so, with everything going on in the world, I wanted to focus on, something from a black creative in solidarity, with the Black Lives Matter movement. So I really went. And I also remember what you said last week, and you wanted a real deep dive, something that is not on folks radar. And I went with Black Panther and the crew, 20, 17 series, by ta nehisi Coates and Yonah Harvey, as the writers, Butch Geist, Mack Chate, and Stephen Thompson on the art with recap pages that are just so gorgeous to look at by Brian Stelfries. they are the same from the Black Panther series that was running concurrently at the time. it was announced in 2017. It was released, it was canceled after two issues, so they gave them an additional four simply but low sales numbers. And I remember reading this as it came out, and I was so disheartened. I think we even talked about it at the time that it was canceled. And then they and I went back and revisited it, this past week, and it’s just. It’s so prescient. it tackles issues that we’re dealing with in real life with. With interesting symbolism. You have, these. These Android police officers as the Americops, that are so robotic in their actions and their excessive use of force, that are just undeniable symbols. and a lot of issues that black Americans, and minorities throughout the country are dealing with, like gentrification of neighborhoods. They’re being pushed out of harlem for high rises. and then, you know, you know, the. The corporations that are. That are, behind all of this. And it’s just, just a really prescient, real world, symbolism that’s present here. And, ta nehisi coates, I can’t say enough about, you know, his work. It’s so prescient and it’s so, thought inducing. he’s one of my favorite writers, and in this just whole holds up right to that standard.

Dave: Yeah. So when I saw you put this on the list, I actually went ahead and I picked up the first issue. and I’ve got the trade on order. I’m actually planning on reading all six issues as soon as the trade comes in. But just sitting down and reading the first issue, I was incredibly impressed and a little disappointed, really, that it never seemed to catch on with audiences. the characterization of Misty Knight in the first issue is fantastic, and she’s just such an underappreciated and underused character. And the opening flashback to the 1930s and, you know, the crew taking down this, this mob boss in order to protect Harlem was fantastic. And that’s really a time period in superhero comics, considering that they started back then that we really don’t see much of anymore. So that was, that flashback was really intriguing, and, I really wanted to know more about the characters. and again, Misty Knight is just such a great character that is so often underused. So seeing her kind of starring in that first issue was, fantastic. So I’m really looking forward to reading the rest. I absolutely, am thrilled that you recommended this, because that was not on my radar at all.

Kris: Yeah, I absolutely loved it. I found the trade. I actually found, like, a used copy of the trade on Amazon for, like, a library for, like, $6. it’s not in, like, any pristine condition. Not like the trade that I recommended last week. it’s a little bit bent up and a little bit used. but, you know, all six issues are available on Marvel Unlimited as well, if you prefer a digital, and what I appreciate is, just like you said, the character work. each of the first five issues, are given, from the perspective, the dialogue, the inner monologue from a different character. And it starts off, as you said, with Misty Knight, and then it goes to, Aurora and other characters, who’s my personal, you know, favorite mutant. So I’m biased, but, so, yeah, just. Just fantastic work. And I can’t recommend that enough.

Nerd Commendation: Shantae

Now, Dave, your nerd commendation popped up this week, on my phone. I got a notification on it because it is now being offered for free with Xbox Live gold. What do you recommend it for us this week?

Dave: So, m. I’m this week recommending a, ah, series of video games called Shantae. They’re, platform video games that are developed by wave four technologies. The, heroine of the series is a half genie called Shantae, who, is protecting her hometown of Seguin land. she is sort of the guardian, of this area and has to face off against, her nemesis, the pirate risky boots. The very first game was actually released late in the life of the game Boy color and made very little impact. But it’s such a quality game and fairly rare because it didn’t sell very well at the time, that it now goes for premium online and is very difficult to get a hold of. And I’ve not had the pleasure of playing the original Game Boy Color version yet. There are, five games in the series now, and the one that is currently offered up by Xbox Live Gold is the one that got me into the series, which is Shantae and the pirate’s curse. It’s, sort of the last one in the series that uses primarily pixel art. as of the fourth game in the series, they use more of a hand drawn, sort of two 5d style. but the original pixel art is very appealing to me. It feels very old school. There are strong anime influences in the design, but gameplay influences include Castlevania and the Legend of Zelda. Shantae visits different regions or islands, explores a dungeon, receives a new item or skill there that she uses to defeat the dungeon boss, and then that new skill or item also unlocks new areas to explore. The game is bright, colorful, it’s humorous. The controls are tight. The, Metroidvania feel of it all of exploring and finding new items that unlock more of the map is perfectly on point. It can be challenging in places, but it never feels cheap. so ultimately, I really, really, really enjoyed playing Shantay and the pirate’s curse. And I plan, to play the next game in the series, which is also available on, Xbox, which is half genie hero, hopefully in the near future. it seems like such a gem of a series that I don’t often hear people talk about. Lastly, most, of the games feature a soundtrack by Jake Kaufman. And those tunes absolutely blow me away. They go so perfectly with the game that they have a fun, bouncy vibe. absolutely. Earworms cannot stop listening to this music. Almost worth buying the soundtrack just to keep listening to. So highly recommended. If you get a chance to play a Shantae game, it’s a, lot of fun.

Kris: All right, so, Dave, I’m playing, as I said, red Dead online, and that’s a real time consumer. M. Is this the type of game that’s going to take a lot of time, or is it something like a quick campaign you can fly through? Like, I did, the new Star wars game, fallen order. I did that in two days and I was done, like, which does it fall somewhere in between there or what are we looking at is time investment wise?

Dave: I would say it’s actually shorter than fallen order. My guess would be you’re probably going to be able to go through the whole thing as a completionist within ten to 15 hours, tops. It is not an extremely long game, and if you have an Xbox live gold subscription, then you don’t even have to worry about price point or anything as far as bang for your buck goes. but, yeah, I would say maybe ten to 15 hours at most. It took me, maybe three days to beat it, but I really played in sort of short sessions. So, yeah, I don’t think it’s a huge time investment.

Dave’s Side Project: Restoring his original Game Boy

Kris: Now, Dave, you referenced the Game Boy color. Now, your Twitter followers also had something else to, enjoy as far as your game Boy. Why don’t you tell us about that?

Dave: Yeah, so I have disassembled my game Boy in an effort to, restore it. This is the original game. Ah, boy. The DMG zero one. It’s, my first gaming console that I ever owned. I got it as a gift from my parents in 1989. And so since I still have the original game Boy, I’m trying to restore it. I’m about halfway through the process, and I think once I’m completely through with it, this might be something, that I talk a little bit about in, a nerd commendation segment, just to kind of, you know, if it’s worth recommending to go through the process of restoring an old console like this. Or not.

Call to Action

Kris: Ladies and gents, that wraps up another episode of the Nerd by word. We’ll be releasing new, episodes each and every Monday morning into your podcast feeds. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the Tunein app, or. Or on our website, nerdbyword.com. you can also find us individually, each on Twitter at that nerddave, and that nerd, Chris. You can also find me on my personal instagram at that nerdChris. I haven’t talked Dave into Instagram yet. Time will tell.

Dave: Yeah, and, just a quick call to action, folks. If you listen to the podcast and you actually enjoy it, please recommend, us on to maybe some friends of yours that are also nerds. And, drop us a, quick rating and review on Apple Podcasts. That’ll help us a lot in getting the word out that, this podcast exists.

Kris: Absolutely. And we appreciate, like, all the support that you’ve given those of you who have dropped a review and Apple podcast, we appreciate your kind words. for those of you who’ve been joining me on Instagram live the past two nights and answering our question of the day polls on Instagram and Twitter, we totally appreciate it. Really, really exciting to see, like, how welcoming the nerd community is. But then again, we shouldn’t be surprised because, like, minds travel together. we have some really exciting things coming down the pipe, some interviews that we’re lining up that we can’t wait to share with you guys. So stay tuned and stay well, and.

Dave: We’Ll see you next week. The nerd by word is produced by two nerds, Chris and Dave, to encompass all aspects of the nerd multiverse. The theme music was written by Al Jimenez. Our show, art features original art by Ash Redesign, as well as public domain comic panels. Find us online@Nerdbyword.com on Twitter nerdbyword, and send questions and comments to nerdbywordmail.com.