Episode 004 – Retailer Rebellion: An Exclusive Look at the struggles of Comic Shops

Welcome to the Nerd Byword

Kris: M. You are now listening to the Nerd by Word podcast. In this week’s episode, we give our weekly nerd commendations. We talk Star wars. We talk console wars, and in our first ever interview, we sit down with Robert Pilk of Mountain Empire comics for a look behind the counter. The nerd by word starts now.

Star Wars Squadron trailer released on June 15

Dave: And welcome back to the Nerd by Word podcast, the only podcast where we guarantee that we’ll actually stay 6ft away from you at all times. I’m here with my co host Kris, and we’re gonna go ahead and hit the nerdy news hard. Chris, what do you got for us?

Kris: Star wars squadron trailer was released, this past week on June 15. I read a great article by, Kaim Gartenberg on theverge.com. gameplay is going to be, revealed tomorrow, June 18, at the EA Play live event. So as of this recording on the 17th, we haven’t seen anything like that. it features many of the popular types of ships, that Star wars fans love, the, X wing, Y wing, U wing, tie fighter, tie interceptor, tie bomber, and the tie reapers. it’s a first person space, battle, or like dogfights, very a la rogue squadron, x wing and tie fighter that were very popular in the late nineties on pc. while multiplayer seems to be the primary focus, there is a story mode campaign that is centered around the events following the battle of endorphins, which was also visited in Battlefront two. they seem to have learned their lesson from the loot crate debacle, from Battlefront two, which I gladly came late to the party on and missed all of that. I got a used copy for like $17 about a year after release, so I didn’t have to worry about that.

Dave: They had fixed it by then.

Kris: and EA’s statement is everything, quote, will be earned through gameplay. End quote. now my fellow Star Wars Rebels fans are going to appreciate, a quick blink and you’ll miss it. Cameo in the trailer from the lovely Twilek captain Hara Syndulla.

Star Wars: Squadrons is set for release on October 2 for $39.99

Kris: And one interesting bit is Star wars. And this is a quote from the article. Again, you can find this article@theverge.com by Kyim Gartenberg. Star Wars Squadrons is set to be released on Xbox one, PlayStation four, and PC on October 2 for $39.99. EA has yet to announce whether it’ll be offering a next gen version of Squadrons for the upcoming PlayStation five and Xbox Series X, which also come this fall. So it’s a little bit, weird release date there, October 2, also right around the same time that these two new consoles are set to release or very close to. So for a lower price point is my initial take. you know, a lot of the factors that a lot of previous popular Star wars games, that first person shooter, you think that you’re in the. In the cockpit there along with it. So, it’s just. And I appreciate, you know, the rebels cameo from Captain Syndulla and all those, you know, fan, those little fan service bits, but the timing of this is just weird to me. Dave, what do you think?

Dave: Yeah, so I’m a little concerned about this, on a couple of different levels. So, first of all, this is absolutely up my alley. Absolutely my kind of game. I played so much rogue squadron on the n 64 that my eyes probably started, looking like x wings at one point. Absolutely fantastic game, and I really, really enjoy that sort of Star wars dogfight. Anytime you can put me m in an x wing cockpit and sort of reenact some of the battles in Star wars, I’m totally there. So this game is actually developed, by motive Studios, which are the same people who did the single player campaign portion of Battle Battlefront Two, which was okay, I guess, is the best way to put it. It didn’t exactly set the world on fire. And my concern with it releasing at a lower price point, that is usually the price point reserved for smaller, games, games that are not exactly Triple A, which makes me feel like although this is going to have a campaign, it is not going to be a substantial campaign. This is most likely going to be primarily five v five multiplayer. And as we discussed previously in our last episode, online multiplayer is by far my least favorite way of experiencing video games. So in light of the fact that this is coming out so late in the console lifecycle and that we don’t know if it’s going to be on next gen consoles, and the lower price point, which indicates there isn’t a big campaign right now, unless they really wow me with a gameplay trailer, this is going to be a hard pass for me.

Kris: Yeah, I totally agree. I echoed your sentiments last episode, and I still feel that way. I’m a campaign kind of guy. Unless you can give me an online sandbox, where I can basically create my own campaign like I do on Red Dead, I’m gonna have to agree with you there. Unless we see something substantial coming out tomorrow with that gameplay, it better be a real wowzer. and I agree with the campaign, wholeheartedly on Battlefront two, it was okay. I feel like they tried a little bit too hard to stretch it from the original trilogy into the sequel trilogy, with their character work there.

Sony finally revealed the PlayStation 5 in an online event

But, while we’re on the topic of new console release, Dave, you got something for us this week as well?

Dave: Yeah, I definitely wanted to talk about the big PlayStation five reveal, which, happened on Thursday, June 11. Sony finally revealed the PlayStation five in an online event. Gave us a good look at the console, which a lot of gamers have been itching for, as well as several games. overall, the event was extremely, positively received online. Several outlets have been very positive about it. I will say that the console looks incredibly odd if, you’ve not seen it. I highly recommend taking a look online. It kind of looks like a two tone white and black mid nineties modem somehow. It’s just a very odd look for a console. It’s definitely going to stick out like a sword thumb in your entertainment center. There will be apparently two additions. One digital only that doesn’t use discs, and another one that can play disc based games as well. I’m assuming there will be a price difference between the two, although we don’t know that for sure because once again, Sony appears to be playing chicken with Microsoft and has not announced a price. Neither next gen console has announced a price or exact release date. In all, the show revealed about 20, odd games, although most of them that they showed are not exclusives. stuff like, the new Resident Evil, Resident Evil eight, those sorts of games. There isn’t a whole lot announced for 2020 itself, which I find interesting. the only things that they really announced that are technically launch games is a platform game called Astro’s Playroom, which will actually come pre loaded on all PlayStation five s and the, standalone expansion to insomniac Spider man, which focuses on Miles Morales. And it’s by far probably the best selling point that the PS five has right now because that’s a fantastic character and it was a really, really good game, if a little derivative of the Arkham series. So, numerous highly anticipated games were shown throughout the event, but none of them had a release date. So there’s a new Ratchet and clank coming. There’s a sequel to Horizon Zero dawn coming called Forbidden west, but neither game had a release date. Microsoft, is actually scheduled to hold an event revealing more details about its first party games on the Xbox Series X next, month. Now I’ve primarily played my third party games on pc and on my Xbox one. I own a PlayStation four, but really only for the exclusives. And so far, there are exactly three games that they’ve announced that I’m at least somewhat excited. Spider Man, Miles Morales, Ratchet and clank and horizon, forbidden west. But only one of these games even has a release date. So although the PlayStation five looks good as far as the content that it’s going to deliver, I think it’s not going to be a day one purchase for me based on this because there is just not a lot coming out yet. Kris, what are your thoughts on this?

Kris: Yeah, so my initial thoughts are the graphics that I’ve seen. The trailers are just out of this world, especially for me. My heart, you know, that miles release trailer alone has me ready to make a purchase, but I have to be cautious, you know, because that’s really the only thing, if I’m being completely honest. If you hit me with Verita serums and truth serum, the only thing that I’m really excited about is the Miles game. I love that character so much and he has a special place in my heart. But I don’t want to make, you know, significant financial investment for one game. I also noticed that, you know, the game of chicken with. With no release date or price point being given, they’re daring each other to make the first move. I’m not a big specs guy, so all of those, you know, I saw several side by side comparisons with a bunch of mumbo jumbo that doesn’t really, you know, vibe with me. I know that, you know that I’m a bit of an oddball when it comes to the nerd community. I have, like, a regular 32 inch tv. I just want to play. Ah. I’m not worried about a whole lot of high quality stuff. It looks pretty. Then I’m happy. price was a major motivator for me in purchasing an Xbox one. I took about seven years off, from gaming, raising my kids and stuff. Kids are expensive, so I didn’t have a lot of free money to just throw at gaming. so in the last two to three years, I finally gotten back into gaming and I was sitting there and, you know, with, like, a side by side comparison between a PlayStation four and an Xbox one. and I basically bought two Xbox units over the past few years for the same price it would have cost me for one ps four. Ps four. When I looked a couple years ago, it was like $400. And an Xbox one I got for like, 217. And it came preloaded with like five mic, five Minecraft games which were great for my kids. and it came with like live subscription and all of that. And then, you know, PlayStation was almost twice as much. So that really kind of priced me out, having the large family that I do. and then, you know, recently here in the last couple of months, I purchased a second unit for myself and then, you know, the kids have the first unit. So if I can get two units for the price of one, you know, like, it’s no contest. As much as I love Spider man, I’ve never played the Spider man ps four game simply for that reason. And you know, after my first initial reaction and my endorphins and testosterone and you know, adrenaline calmed down after that. Miles trailer, I’m really trying to be a rational consumer again and I don’t know that I can justify it. You know, we’ll see what the price points say.

Game pass, backwards compatibility, those kinds of things matter for old gamers

Dave: I have a funny feeling, Chris, that you and I are going to have to have an episode where we talk a little bit about the console wars, especially next, month, once Xbox puts all their cards on the table. As far as, you know, first party stuff is concerned. I played my Xbox more than my PlayStation four. I’ll freely admit that. I like the ecosystem of the Xbox better. Game pass, backwards compatibility, those kinds of things for a old gamer like myself matter a great deal. Being able to take the original Star wars battlefront from the original Xbox and being able to pop in the disc and be able to play that game looking good on a 4k tv, it’s, you know, 60 frames a second is pretty incredible. And so, with my respect and my love for, for the older console generations, backwards compatibility is a big selling point for me, as is Game Pass, which is a fantastic service. so ultimately it really all depends now, really, on Microsoft’s presentation. The ball is in their court. If they can come out swinging with some good first party releases, they might win me over in this. As far as day one purchases go.

Kris: Yeah, I absolutely agree. And it’s almost like, you know, an athletic competition where you let your opponent go first, you want to see what they have and then you have the last say or you know, like a court of law. You want. I want the last to say. When it comes to opening statements or closing statements, I want to talk last. So Microsoft has a lot to counter here. And for me, just as an Xbox user, I’m very happy with my purchases that I’ve made with them. You, mentioned Game pass, and I’ve been using Game pass for several months now. Now, if not, it may even have been a year by now, but for $5 extra over, you know, the gold subscription per month, you can’t beat it. The access to like, 200 games. I can. And the great thing is about the backwards compatibility that you mentioned is those seven years I took off from gaming. I can go and find those games for like, next to nothing. They’re either on game pass or they’re like 499. Like, I went back and got, force unleashed and force unleashed. Two for four a piece. You can’t beat that. I’m a, I’m a massive assassin’s creed fan. And they’ll do, they’ll regularly do sales in the Microsoft store for like 70% to 80% off. And I can get the entire Ezio collection for like $9.99. You can’t beat that. so it’s. I understand. I’ve never been. I’ve never been because we’re nerds. I’ve never been, like, of the hive mentality where, like, listen, everyone is playing PlayStation. Like, I. Most of my friends play PlayStation, and I really just don’t have any desire to because I’m so happy with, with my, my Xbox. So it’s gonna be a tall order for PlayStation to win me over after all these years. The last PlayStation unit I had was the PS one back in the late nineties, you know, some crash bandicoot. That was the last time I played a PlayStation, I think.

Dave: And, I will say there was definitely one thing that they announced where they could have had me, where if they would have said this game will release, is a launch game will release alongside the PlayStation five, they probably would have had me. And that was the sequel to Horizon Zero dawn, because Horizon Zero dawn has kind of blown me away. I was a late comer to the game. It came out in 2017 and I just really, a few weeks ago started playing it. And it is, it is a fantastic game. Probably one of the best of this console generation. And if they would have come out and said, hey, this sequel is going to be, a launch title, I would have been sorely tempted, to pull the trigger. Between that and Spider Man, Miles Morales, you would have that one two punch of just, you know, you have to have this machine. But with so many games, not having, not having a release date for the PlayStation five at this point, it’s pretty clear there isn’t a whole lot in the cards for launch. So I’m gonna take a wait and see approach, I think, right now.

Kris: Yep, definitely. All right, ladies and gentlemen, that wraps up our nerd news segment for this week. When we come back, we have our first ever interview with Robert Pilk of Mountain Empire Comics.

Big-Talk: An Interview with Robert Pilk

Dave: And welcome back to the Nerd by word podcast. Today we have a special guest with us, Robert Pilk of, Mountain Empire Comics. Rob co-founded Mountain Empire Comics in late 1984. The original locations included bristol, Virginia, Johnson city, Tennessee, and Kingsport, Tennessee. The Kingsport store closed several years ago, but the Bristol and Johnson city locations continue to thrive. Rob, thank you so much for being with us today. We were wondering if you could tell us a little bit about your stores and how you’ve weathered the COVID-19 outbreak.

Rob Pilk: The store’s been here. We’re kind of an old timer, in, comic book stores. We opened up in October of 84 mount m empire comics, in Bristol. And we have now have another store down in, Johnson city, Tennessee, which is about 25 miles away. And, you know, it has hit us, you know, like every other comic store in America, but we’ve kind of struggled through. We haven’t been able to get any of the grants or anything. but, we’re paying the rents, we’re paying the bills and keeping, the doors open. And, now we’ve got to deal with the, distribution thing. And that’s another joy in life. But, yeah, it’s that great timing on this.

Dave: Absolutely.

Bouncing back from COVID

We’re going to ask you about that as well. so what factors give you the most hope for bouncing back, sales wise, after reopening the store?

Rob Pilk: Well, our customers, we haven’t really lost our, customer base. They’re still coming in, they’re still sporting us. They understand, you know, when I say, well, you know, the things are going to be a little different now. We’ve got to do this, we got to do that. you know, and, they’re fine with that. So it’s the customers that are really helping us out.

Kris: Are there any new strategies, or any kind of new tactics that you’re utilizing as you reopen to try to drive, to, bounce back? Is there anything new that you’re trying well, to.

Rob Pilk: I mean, we did. We do the curb service thing if somebody wants it, but we don’t have a whole lot of people asking for that. This area right here, the virus has not been as bad here as it has in other places. We have, I think we’ve had one death in, this area, so. And, you know, it’s pretty low amount of people who’ve actually caught the virus. So it’s not as bad here as it is in other places. as far as we wipe everything down, we wear the mask, we try to do the social distancing and everything. And, as far as doing anything new? Ah, no, not really. We’ve had some sales and, we’ve offered some things, for a lower price, but mostly, we’re just doing what we’ve always done.

Dave: What generally, generates more revenue for you during this time. Is it still comic book sales that are driving things? Are you starting to see people gravitate more towards gaming or memorabilia cells?

Rob Pilk: No, it’s still the comics for us, but I mean, we’re, we’ve always been basically a comic book store. We have a few, you know, we do some gaming, but just. But not very much. And, toys and things like that. But, you’d. About 90% of our sales are comics and that’s what we’re focused on. it will help, I think, once we get, back up to speed with the, you know, Marvel starts turning out a little more product and we start getting some stuff that’s been over late and overdue now. But, yeah, that’s what we’re focused on is the comic book.

The effect of DC’s split with Diamond

Kris: and you referenced this earlier, in an answer to a previous question, but now here it is. What is your take on DC’s recent split with diamond distribution?

Rob Pilk: I was a little puzzled by it. I don’t see where there’s any advantage to it. Well, there’s really no advantage to us as a comic book store. And I don’t really see what, how it’s going to help DC that much. I guess they’re hoping for higher sales or something, but I don’t see how different distributors going to help them with that. you know, ah, like I said, we’ve been here a long time and we dealt with the, the time that Marvel did this with heroes world, and that was a disaster. So we’re hoping that, it’s not going to be quite as bad this time with, the new distributors. But I don’t, I don’t get it. I don’t know why now, of all times, you know, they think this is a good time to do this. Seem maybe this is the worst time possible to do it.

Dave: Yeah. There’s been some talk, we’ve both observed that online from some big, retailers saying that they don’t really plan on stocking DC product anymore except for for people’s pools lists. Do you have any plans on changing your strategy with DC because of this?

Rob Pilk: Well, I think that would be cutting off our nose, despite our face to just say, we’re not going to have DC books. I’m probably not going to, promote them quite as hard as we used to. But, you know, we’ll still carry the stuff. We’ll still stock it. very large amount of our customers are big DC fans, and, they don’t care, you know, who the distributor is. so it’s basically just a thing with us and dealing with it. But now I think we’re going to, we’re going to go ahead, order what we’ve always been ordering.

Kris: Now, have you opted for the extension that was agreed with, with DC and Diamond? Or are you going with UC’s, Lunar out right now or what’s your current situation?

Rob Pilk: right at this very moment, we’re still getting stuff from, diamond. but, that changes at the first of the, of the month. And, yeah, we’ve opened an account with, with, actually, with both of them, but I don’t think we’re going to be ordering from Luna. We’ll be ordered from the UC’s. Okay, for now.

Boosting Comic Book Sales

Dave: Now, one of our previous episodes, we talked a little bit on our podcast about how to improve comic book sales, how to get the word out to people that this product exists. Do you have any thoughts on what companies like Marvel, DC, and the big, sellers could do to help drive up sales?

Rob Pilk: You know, if I did, I’d be shouting it from the rooftop. Things that help us, ain’t it, you know, we had to canceled free comic book day. That’s always a big day for us. And it always seems to pull in new people. Yeah, especially younger people. I, yeah, I do. Would, I think if, you know, you, you kind of focused on the younger readers. we do a lot of, I have a whole section for young kids at both of our stores, and, you know, that’s when you get them, when they’re 1011 years old and they start reading comics, that’s how you build up your, your market. So, yeah, I’d like to see DC and, and Marvel both kind of, you know, focus a little bit more, maybe have a line of, more than they do. They, they both do have some comics aimed at younger kids, and that’s great. I’d like to see a little bit more of that.

The All-Ages Approach to Comics

Dave: We talked a little bit about the notion of having like a, a, Pixar, all ages sort of approach, the kind of comic books that adults and kids could both enjoy on different levels. What’s your take on something like that?

Rob Pilk: Well, that was, the Marvel adventures line does, sell very well to, just the general public here. We’re, almost, like the Avengers. We sell as many of those as we do the regular Avenger titles. So I. Yeah, I think that would be a good idea. They’ve tried it in the past. I mean, I feel like at one time or another, they’ve tried about every sort of angle that you can come up with. Sometimes they don’t think they stick with it long enough to see if it’s going to succeed or not. so maybe, you know, you gotta, you got to be in it for the long term, and maybe that’s what they need to do with the, the younger reader comics.

The impact of Classic Comics

Kris: We also reference, like, the culture of the sixties. And specifically, we talked about the Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, amazing Spider man issues, about how those issues still hold up to readers of all ages. And it seems like, as we go through the decades of comic books with cultural shifts in the eighties and nineties into the two thousands, with darker tones and more mature content. so is there something like a return to kind of, like, retro? I know retro is usually in, but, ah, do you still, like, sell, I guess, is my question. Do you still sell large amounts of classic issues with more optimistic tones and things like that?

Rob Pilk: We do. And, you know, of course, I’m 67 now, so I’ve been doing this a long time. I worry that I’m too old and I’ll sit around. Why these kids today, they don’t know. Back in my day, we had real comic books. I try not to be that way, but, sometimes I think it, because I, you know, if a ten or eleven year old comes in and says, I love Batman as well, I can’t sell you any of the Batman. New Batman comics. What about Wonder Woman? Nah, not really. What about the X Men? I don’t think so. You probably wouldn’t like those. I steer them toward the old stuff.

Kris: Yeah.

Rob Pilk: And, you know, because that’s those, those things Marvel are doing, the, true, believers. Yeah, we sell a ton of those. And I feel really good about it because, like you say, it’s the Dick co, Stanley Ditko. It’s. They’re very family, friendly. Mm.

Rob Pilk: And, and we, you know, we want to, we strive to be a family friendly store, so that’s, that’s perfect for us.

The local convention scene

Kris: Now, Rob, you’re also responsible for a local convention in the area. Would you mind telling us a little bit about that and how it all got started?

Rob Pilk: Oh, okay. Yeah. It’s called the robcon, named, after me. We’ve had it since. We’ve had a convention of one kind or another, since we opened up in 84. but it’s just gradually grown and gotten bigger. And last, year, we had close to 4000 people come through. So it’s like a big, small con, a very small, big con. but we, yeah, we’ve added the guest we’ve got through the years. We’ve got a lot of things that we didn’t used to do, but it’s become like a cultural thing around here, and it really. We had to cancel it this year. That really hurt. But, we got all the, all the guests and stuff said they were coming back next year, and, so we’re already making plans.

Dave: So is your hope right now that you will be able to hold the convention next year if things continue to improve or.

Rob Pilk: That’s the plan. we’re already talking that we talking to the, convention site, and we’ve got our dates and everything. yeah, we’re already doing some work on next year. Hopefully, there’ll be a vaccine or things will, I don’t know if they’ll ever be back to normal, but that’ll be, what passes for normal nowadays.

Wishes for the future

Dave: Now, as you’ve mentioned, Rob, you have been in this business for an awfully long time. At this point, you have seen the ebb and flow, the highs and lows of the industry. Looking back over everything you’ve experienced and everything you’ve seen. As a comic book fan and a comic book retailer, what is your wish for the future of the comic book industry?

Rob Pilk: Gosh, that’s a good question. I’d like to see it continue. I worry about the, I don’t know if the publishers or the comics are as interested in them as some, of us fans are. Maybe, you know, I can’t see, you know, superheroes always being the, the main focus of the comic books. Maybe branch out even more than they are now. And I know that’s happening, and that’s good, but, I’d like to see them branch out a little more and do more variations of comics. I’d, like to see a lot of like, the younger kids, get pulled into it and, just, just keep the thing going. I worry that in my lifetime, the comic book industry will dry up and be gone. I used to go to pulp cons where they sold the old pope magazines like the shadow and Doc Savage. And, I mean, all there were, were really old guys and, older than me now even. And, and I’d look at that and think, well, maybe that may be turn out to be comics here in 20 years. It might just be no new stuff. Everybody just comes and looks at the old days and, you know, reminisce is, with the old comics, and I don’t want it to be like that. I always want to have a fresh, vital source of new, stuff coming out. So that I guess that would be my wish to keep things going.

Dave: You know, it’s funny you mentioned right at the beginning of your answer there that, you sometimes wonder if the people making the comic books care as much about them as the fans do. Chris and I have talked about before that, we sometimes wonder if these big corporate conglomerates now that own DC and Marvel see them more as idea factories for their movies rather than an actual viable, industry.

Rob Pilk: Oh, yeah, I’m sure they do. Some people, that’s all they do. I read some interview with, one of the, at amp t guys, I think it was in the Wall Street Journal, and he was saying, why can’t we just do reprint comics? Why do we have to do anything new? And I thought, I hope everybody doesn’t feel like that, but that thinking doesn’t go all the way down the, and, but it worries me that, you know, if that’s their mindset. Yeah, why would they, why would they want to keep on doing new comic? So, yeah, I don’t know. It’s the, we, I worry about it, but, on the other hand, you just gotta take it day by day and we’ll, we’ll see where it goes.

Kris: Rob, we thank you for your time, and we really appreciate you.

A message from your comic book retailer

Are there any final thoughts or messages that you want to communicate with our audience?

Rob Pilk: Support, your local comic book store. If you don’t support your local comic book store, they won’t be there to support you or something like that. Stick with us to help us help, the, help the local guys and, maybe we’ll get through this. Okay.

Dave: Well, fantastic. Thank you so much for your time, Rob. This has been a really, really interesting conversation. That’s it for our big talk this week here in just a moment. After a quick break, we’ll be back with our weekly nerd commendations.

Nerd Commendation: Miles Morales Spider-Man

All right, folks, welcome back to the Nerd by Word podcast. We are ready for some nerd commendations. Kris, what do you have for us this week?

Kris: I am recommending, the current Miles Morales Spider man. He’s been a hot topic of today’s episode with the ps five release, but his current book is just out of this world. Fantastic. He holds a special place in my heart already. And this just further, emboldens that place right there. it’s written by Saladin Ahmed, who’s a fantastic writer. He won an eisner for his black bolt, book a couple of years ago, and he doesn’t pull any punches with this series, either. Most of the art is done by Javier Garon, with assists from Aletha e. Martinez, Vanessa del rey, Ron Atkins, Annie wu, ze, Carlos iguara, Kevin lebronda, Ray Anthony Haidt, belen ortega, Corey Smith, Carmen cornero. just joined, with the most recent issue. and Patrick O’Keefe does a lot of the COVID work, and his cover for Miles Morales, Spider man on number eight. If you are somewhere near a mobile device right now, go look at the COVID for Miles Morales. Miles, Morales spider Man number eight. cover done by Patrick O’Keeffe. It’s like this silhouette of his face, and then, like, the city skyline of New York City. It’s just breathtakingly, just fantastic. and then I really just have to say, like, the writing and the way that it modernizes, the character and just returns to the heart. It captures the heart and essence of what it means to be Spider man and a young superhero. If you enjoyed 20 seventeen’s into the spider verse and just how, like, adorably lovable, miles is, then you’re gonna love this title. It gives a beautiful and authentic upgrade to what life is like in Brooklyn in 2020. As much as I love Peter Parker, some of his stuff seems kind of dated. a primarily caucasian, cast of characters, with the exception of, like, Robbie Robertson, Philip Chang, not a lot of diversity there. introduces fun new characters and cameos from some favorites. There’s a great story with rhino and Captain America right in there in the first arc, there’s some interesting tie ins from the ultimate universe. So if you’re a big fan of, the ultimate Spider man universe, like I am, you’re gonna, you know, have some fanservice for you there. And then, ah, I’ll reiterate, I appreciate the diversity of the creative team, and having their voices be very present in the product. it really feels like you’re going through a neighborhood in Brooklyn, and you see, like, carnita shops or, you know, like, it’s just very diverse. It’s bilingual in places. don’t worry, the Spanish isn’t too advanced. So I promise, if you have, you know, little handy dandy, translator or dictionary, you’re gonna be fine. A lot of common phrases, but just, like, it just breeds authenticity. And as someone who just craves that cultural authenticity, it’s very much, ah, sated right here in this book. So I love it.

Dave: That is some incredibly high praise, Chris.

Miles Morales is coming into his own as a character

I will freely admit that I’ve been kind of a lapsed Miles Morales reader. I was, right there when, he first was created, and, Brian Michael Bendis was writing the character. I adore Miles. I think he’s a fantastic character. But there were a couple things that happened where I became hesitant to read, and maybe you can tell me if this book sort of, addresses that. The first thing that worried me is that he seems to have been aged up a bit in the more recent books. I know when he first premiered, he was very young, and I thought that gave a very, interesting, perspective on being a superhero. The other thing is that he is now inhabiting the mainline marvel universe alongside Peter Parker, rather than being, you know, the one and only Spider man for his own earth, his own universe. and I wonder, you know, been kind of wondering how that works, because I really liked watching miles sort of having to carve his own path without being able to go to Peter Parker and be like, hey, I need your help. Can you explain how you would do this? So, based on your praise, I feel like I want to read this. do you feel like my concerns are addressed with this book?

Kris: I do, and I echo those sentiments. I tapered off in my reading of the Miles book, and this title really brought me back with the new creative team. so many times in comics, when you have a new creative team come onto a book, it breathes new life into something. and I was right there with you when Bendis and Pacelli created the character. I felt like something was lost when they turned him into a 15 or 16 year old, as opposed to being twelve or 13 at his creation. and then it was. I fully admit, as much as I love this character, I fully admit that it was a very clunky transition into the 616 universe after post secret wars, a lot of that really wasn’t addressed in his mainline comic book. I fell off. I didn’t read a lot of it while Bendis was still on the title. but I picked it up when they kind of rebranded it in 2018 or 19. Whenever this released, I think was late 18, maybe early 19 was when this started. there were about 16 issues in. It was delayed a little bit with the pandemic. they just released, I believe it was issue 16 here recently. I want to say the 10th. so a week ago today. But, so, yeah.

This is Miles Morales, Spider-man. Peter Parker does not appear

The thing that I do appreciate that you kind of referenced is Peter does. Peter Parker does not appear. If memory serves, he doesn’t appear in any of these issues to date. he may talk about him like, oh, yeah, Peter this or, you know, the other Spider man or something, but this is very much miles own book. And I think that’s, an intentional thing from Saladin. And the entire creative team is they want this to be miles. And that’s. And I think that may even be why they led that in the title. This is Miles Morales, Spider man. And it’s really just, you know, a beautiful, it’s a very family friendly book. It captures a lot of that heart and family, with his parents, and his uncle Aaron. So if you’re. If you were touched by that in the film, which I felt like was one of the strengths of the, of. Into the spider verse, then you’re absolutely, definitely not going to be disappointed with this title.

Dave: Well, that’s good to hear. Then I’m definitely gonna have the, go ahead and give this thing a read.

Kris: and I will say again, a lot of those issues are on, marvel unlimited. So, if you want to, like, binge a lot of that, check out that service. also they have a variety of trades. I know the first trade is available. It’s called straight out of Brooklyn. so you can find that on Amazon or at a local comic book shop. But, ah, again, definitely check that one out.

Nerd Commendation: Restore your Game Boy

Now, Dave, your nerd commendation was hinted at last, at the tail end of last episode. And it is quite a unique nerd commendation from what we’ve had so far. What you got?

Dave: Yeah. I highly recommend for fans, of retro games that if you have an old game Boy lying around, you need to upgrade that thing. I recently completed a restoration and upgrade of my game Boy, and I highly recommend it to people who love the system as much as I do. This was my first video game console. I have mad love for the Game Boy. And so I dug it out of my basement a few weeks ago and decided I wanted to play it. And it was not in great shape. The screen had some what we like to call screen rot. There were dead areas on the screen. my formerly white gray gameboy had turned this odd yellow color and so I decided to do my homework, and figure out what I can do to preserve my game boy for the future. My first step was to take it apart and clean it, which was shockingly easy. There’s really two things you need to know. Number one, you’ll need a tri wing screwdriver to open the system. They’re fairly cheap online, but they are specialized enough screwdrivers that you probably can’t find one just in any store. Second, there’s a video cable, a ah, ribbon that connects the two halves of the game Boy. So once you have the screws out, you can’t just yank the two halves apart. You have to gently disconnect that first. And the rest of the disassembly is very easy once you got it down to the bare plastic. If your game Boy is yellowed you need to figure out how to restore that. And there is a sort of trick that you can use. There’s a hair care product, believe it or not, called cream peroxide developer and this stuff has 12% hydrogen peroxide in it. Highly recommend that you use gloves if you’re going to use this stuff. It can leave some burns on your skin. But basically I smeared that stuff all over my game Boy and put it out in the sun to let the uv light activate it. And after several hours the plastic of the Game Boy was pristine again, the yellowing was completely gone. It’s incredible what you can do with hair care products, when you use it off label. there are also several online retailers who sell aftermarket replacement parts. I used a retailer called handheldlegend.com and ordered some replacement buttons and a new screen cover, something also called a lens. Mine was plastic and extremely scratched. The new one I bought is glass. The most important change I made though was to install a new screen because I did have screen rot. But instead of installing the same kind of screen that was in it, I actually put in an LCD screen. I used a screen called the DMG Rips LCD version three, which comes not just with the screen, but also with a new front pcB. It was shockingly easy to install. The most difficult part was that I had to teach myself how to solder two wires to, the actual pcB. but a quick look on YouTube on how to solder. Ah, that problem was solved. It wasn’t very difficult. It was just two speaker wires that have to be attached to the new PCB once I put it all back together. As of this week, I have a game board that looks brand new and plays better than factory new because the new screen, is backlit. And instead of creating four shades of really strange green colors, it is now a true black and white system. It runs perfectly. And after 30 years with the same game Boy, I feel like I finally prepared it for another few decades ahead.

Kris: That’s just incredible to hear.

Hours disassembling the system to restore the plastic color

Now, Dave, what type of cost are we looking at here, both in terms of cash and labor, like, hours spent and, and all the, like.

Dave: Well, disassembly, and actual labor didn’t take, very long. I would say maybe an hour or two over the course of several days. There’s a lot of waiting involved, especially if you have to, try to restore the plastic, get that yellowing off. I, remember actually thinking about it, that I had the plastic sitting out in the sun for like, 5 hours. So this is sort of a leave, it out there for a while and do something else. cost was shockingly cheap, too. Buttons, the lens, all those things are fairly cheap, just a few dollars. The most, expensive part of this process by far was the actual new screen and front PCB, and I think I spent around $60 on that. so not horribly expensive, but the smaller things, if you don’t want to actually go the route of putting a whole new screen in, a few broken buttons that you want to replace, and the actual process of, restoring the plastic, I think you can probably get by with $20 or so and very easily do a decent restoration on your system.

Kris: That’s fantastic.

Now, you mentioned YouTube, but are there any other sources of information and or tutorials that you utilize that, our audience should know about?

Retailers are selling great after-market parts for retro consoles

Dave: Well, the good news is that handheld legend, the people that actually sold the, parts to me for, each part on the product page, they have a whole bunch of pictures attached that shows how you actually, put stuff together. So, you can look up all sorts of tutorials using Google. But, the ones that I got directly from the retailer were extremely useful because it was just a series of pictures that showed in detail where everything was supposed to go.

Kris: All right, that’s fantastic. And that wraps up our nerd commendations for this week. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you again for joining us for episode four of the Nerd by Word podcast. Keep your eyes peeled, to your podcast feeds. Every Monday morning, you’ll be graced with another episode. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or the tune in app, or on our website@nerdbyword.com, you can find myself and Dave on Twitter individually at that nerdchris or that Nerddave. or you can find us on our, ah, podcast page on Twitter Instagram, ah, IRD byword. we also have a Facebook page called the Nerd by word. For some reason, erd by word was not available. So if you’re on Facebook, you have to add a the there. or you can just, do a Facebook search for the Nerd by Word podcast.

Dave: And we appreciate all of your support. We look forward to bringing you another episode next week. Thank you so much for tuning in.

Kris: Stay well and stay nerdy.

Dave: 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 Ashford design, as well as public domain comic panels. Find us online at nerdbyword.com on Twitter by word and send questions and comments to nerdbyword@gmail.com.