The Goadkicker Podcast

Just a light hearted episode where I discuss how a Doctor Strange comic from the year I was born reminded me why I prefer older comics, and also I talk about my slow descent back into buying a few baseball cards. 

What happens when a company tries to feed the runaway train of short attention spanned nostalgia gluttons that dwell in every nook of fandom? You end up burying $30 million worth of plastic in a landfill to make room for the Next Big Thing (tm). As much as I loathe Funko Pops for what they represent in the pop culture world, I take no joy in the news story floating around. 

Nerds, it is time we elevate the ethical topic of ecology in regards to our compulsive consumption. 

This week we look at three different approached to getting limited edition materials into the hoards of fire breathing nerds. Each item has a very different mission statement. 

Bad Idea Comics - intends to limit access as part of the schtick

Future Press - Publishes niche content to appease expected audience but does not reprint material

Holmgard Press - Trying to serve niche audience and new audience but is limited due to scope and cashflow

All three create items that are sold on secondary market for mark up, and all three have ravenous fans and collectors. What approach seems just, which appeals to you, which seems rotten? Or are you a laissez-faire nerd? I have an opinion, and a preference, but ultimately no one is forcing consumers to consume. The problem is the perhaps the creation of a market that is an attractive nuisance for those of us in the hobby. 

Lastly, Pyrate Queen by Bad Idea is a 5 Star book! 4 issues, outstanding art and story... and not only will it not be collected in a tpb for wider enjoyment, exposure, and distribution, but it is forever limited to those with access to the chosen few BI comic shops (or secondary market). I feel this is a crime. The rest of the material I read by BI felt as if it was made with the joy of creation but the knowledge that the project wasn't missing anything on a wider market. Pyrate Queen does not. Bad Idea has created a format that will prevent breakout hits. What do you think about this?

One of the worst parts of being a nerd is how almost every corner of your life is consumed with sedentary pursuits. Mix this with a lifestyle of acquisition for dopamine hits and instant gratification, and you have a health time bomb. Let's encourage each other to find a way to introduce a balance into our nerd communities and be active. Not cross fit, mind you. Listen to the show and see what I mean. Also, go Cubbies. 

RIP Dave of De La Soul

We talk briefly about compensation for your artistic works thanks to a viewer question.

We talk so little as the nerd community about our faith, whatever it may be, and how our media affects/reflects it. 

So I ask "Does imaginative fiction challenge your faith, introduce doubt to your faith, or celebrate your faith?" Is the ability to weave dense worlds with intricate relationships and cosmologies a sign that maybe we did the same when the world's religions were created, or does it maybe show that humans are blessed with talents reflective of their creator? Have we just evolved into storytellers that want to make sense of the unknown? Does imaginative fiction make you want to look deeper into your faith or does it sour you to it? 

In this lightly attended episode, Carl talks about the nature of us as individuals and wonders how much, and if, we can truly change OR if we can only become aware of change and need to continually work to overcome our default settings. Thanks nature and nurture! Also, mycomicshop better stop raising the prices on the Valiant back issues or I swear by Pete there will be hell to pay. 

Change is a process and once resolve dissolves, we need each other's help to hold us accountable and encouraged to stick to our plan. Also, Barnes and Noble looks different than it did 15 years ago. Manga is fun but very different than the Big 2 comics I usually ingest. And you all should buy Glen Cook's The Black Company, out now in a new Tor Essentials edition, even if the cover looks like a donkey's butt.

Using digital media too much can lead to a situation where you forget how to sit and enjoy an LP or paperback. Comic fans are naturally resilient to this for a few reasons, which I discuss. Also a brief talk about how well meaning attention and sudden success can drown a person. 

Do you like Japan? I mean, do you REALLY like Japan? Oh yeah? Name one waifu? When is the last time you build a Gunpla and what was it? Can you tell the difference between sushi and sashimi? Do you sleep on a tatami mat? How many Pocky can you eat?

These are the sort of questions that might be a red flag for a Western Japanophile that see Japan as a magical, wonderland ala Pandora or Oz, and not an actual culture with crime, families, industry, classes, debt, and hopes and aspirations. We focus so much on manga and anime and Godzilla and Power Rangers that we forget that for the majority of the country, life is still about survival and finding contentment against outside pressures. 

This episode I talk briefly about my enjoyment of sumo, manga, and anime and how in my long exposure to things Japanese I have learned to be cautious about crossing that invisible line from anthropology to appropriation. 

PLEASE NOTE: The first part of this episode's stream was not recorded for audio distribution. If you wish to see the stream in its entirety, be sure to check it out on replay at Twitch (carlsmithgames) or on my YouTube channel. I'm 1 for 4 with recording it properly, and for that I apologize. 

The first ever live Goadkicker episode, broadcast on Twitch over on my new home https://www.twitch.tv/carlsmithgames 

Topics: Marauders comic, Harm Reduction and Fentanyl 

Goadkicker will be broadcast live each Wednesday night at 8:30 PM Central, then recorded and reposted here for the usual suspects. 

PLEASE NOTE: Part 2 was lost as I did not restart recording at the midway break. You can watch the remainder of the stream, as well as this part, over on my Twitch channel. Please follow me there and join me live, where we can chat and interact in a way we were never able to in the past! 

Tim Benson (of OmahaBound) and Carl D Smith (Moleb the Giant, More Than Rust) continue to read through as many Hickman-era X-titles chronologically as they can before losing faith in everything they hold dear.

In this Episode, the guys read 25 comics, the contents of Dawn of X volumes 3-6 PLUS New Mutants 7, to finish out the first arc. What was Marvel thinking? A mutant beheaded, another cut in half, and one drowned! And that doesn't even count Apocalypse, or ::[A}::, the mutant formerly known as Apocalypse. Also, Storm stabs a man in the eye with a Wakandan dagger! Sunspot goes full Wonder Years! Fallen Angels mercifully ends!

Send your emails, tweets, audio files, comments, and praise to us on Twitter @goadkicer, via email to carlsmithwriter@gmail.com or on the Goadkicker Podcast page on Facebook. Be sure to check out Escape Pod Comics on both platforms as well, and also at Tik Tok and Instagram... Menachem might just help you find your next favorite read!

Tim Benson (of OmahaBound) and Carl D Smith (Moleb the Giant, More Than Rust) continue to read through as many Hickman-era X-titles chronologically as they can, or die trying.

In this Episode, the guys open 8 X-Men themed back issue grab bags from show sponsor and spirit animal, Escape Pod Comics. They then discuss the 12 comics contained within the Dawn of X Vol 1 and Vol 2 TPB. They argue about which series is the second best. A fight ensues. A fragile alliance is fractured. Will they find common ground? Will they unite again to fight a common enemy (Fallen Angels)? Find out in this here episode, dummies. Like we would give it away in the show notes!

Send emails, tweets, audio files, comments, and praise to us on Twitter @goadkicer, via email to carlsmithwriter@gmail.com or on the Goadkicker Podcast page on Facebook. Be sure to check out Escape Pod Comics on both platforms as well, and also at Tik Tok and Instagram... Menachem might just help you find your next favorite read!

Goadkicker finally adds a co-host. Welcome Tim Benson (of OmahaBound fame) as he joins Carl (of, er, Goadkicker fame) to read through as many Hickman-era X-titles chronologically as we can, until something shiny distracts us. 

Thrill as Carl fails to recognize cameos! Chill as Tim forgives Hickman for the ultimate sin. Spills as Carl decides to finally use Audacity like every other podcast. 

In this Episode, we kick off the All New, All Different Era of Goadkicker by reading the HoX/PoX trade, which collects all of 2019's House of X (1-6) and Powers of X (1-6). Tim gives us the elevator pitch, if the elevator is in the Sears Tower, and Carl finds a way to drag his weird flavor of prairie philosophizing into it all. Join us won't you?

Send emails, tweets, audio files, comments, and praise to us at carlsmithwriter@gmail.com or @carlsmithwriter on Twitter. If you use the Facebook, as the kids say, look up our Marvel fandom group Marvel Appreciation Society: Warts and All. We'd love to have you.