Had you already seen Conan the Barbarian or did you see that one later?

I am not sure.

Again, you know, we're talking 30, 40 years of pretty fuddled memory to try to figure out which I saw first.

And without not trying to slam anything for a couple points.

Other than that, they're not significantly different.

So now saying, you know, if like in one of the movies Conan died or something like that, I would remember a little bit more about them.

But I probably saw both of them, honestly, probably within about four or five years of each other as far as the movies.

And yeah, there's this list of

he won overwhelmingly.

He won 19 states.

And Martin Van Buren, the incumbent president, only won seven.

So there were only 26 states then.

And when I'm looking back at that history, that's the thing that fascinates me is where's America? What is our country at that point in time? And if you look, you know, challenge the listeners to Google U.S.

maps 1940 and look at what everything is.

I mean...

You went

What about you, Ed?

It's interesting to me that Marvel fanfare, high quality production values, paper, top name people, that this is the kind of story that would appear in that magazine just nine issues in when I think this particular story, regardless of any of the characters that were in it, is much more fitting in one of the anthology horror books that they've got going right now, or even one of DC's anthology horror books, who at the time was doing it much better than anything Marvel was doing.

So it just, I don't know, reading about the inception of Marvel fanfare, at least from the suit perspective, what they wanted to do with the book, to now where we are only nine issues in, the two don't seem to be on the same level.

And I'm not trying to speak ill of any of the creators involved or anything like that.

Just when you say... top-level creators.

Of course, as a consumer of the product, there's a list that pops into my head that would be the top writers and the top artists of this time.

And the last couple issues don't really seem to have hit that.

well alright well how about you guys sign off here with where everybody can find you and what you guys are writing and podcasting about and all that jazz why don't you start out Ed

What do you think, Ed?

Well, from what I know of what P. Craig Russell developed to be able to do.

Now, I don't know if at this point in his career, if he would be the same P. Craig Russell that we see later on in his career.

I don't know how much improvement he made.

But the P. Craig Russell, in my mind, if he had been cut loose on this panel by himself, would have done a much better job than what this looks like.

You know, this is what I think of when I think of Pete Craig Russell's art is the high fantasy kind of fancy kind of artwork.

So the prancing horse with all the accoutrement and the banner being held by the rider and the castle in the background, that is just absolutely the kind of thing that I think Russell would have just eaten alive.

And, Ed, I think you are also creeping around on Substack now as well, right?

They made the word magic look really awesome, but then, yeah, the whole piece there,

right? Yeah, there's some sort of maybe some sort of cabalistic, if that's the right word, symbol here with the circle and then things around it.

Maybe those are...

Three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Oh, maybe those are the Zodiac.

Maybe those are symbols of the Zodiac.

I don't know.

suppressed a yawn as he looked off across the sleeping city his determination deteriorating and he says he no use too tired just ain't going to be able to stay awake much longer and we then next see him in bed and he goes oh well maybe tonight things will be different maybe tonight i won't have that that stupid dream and man uh again we have uh starlin doing the pencils here so we know he did you know at least a very bare minimum did layouts here and what do you think of this opening page here and how this guy uh we see him slipping into a dream here

Perspective shots can be tough to pull off, but I feel like Aparo did a good job with this one.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

This was very well done.

You've got a worker that is hanging on a... a hook from a crane, the specific name just eludes me, as it's being held beneath a bridge that's being constructed.

And you see it basically from right behind this worker.

That's your field of view.

So you've got some machinery above.

Nobody believes Gordon.

Mm-hmm

... yeah, it, it, there, there just is something that is different a- about it visually, but also the, the setup of The Blob holding The Hulk, um, while this other individual who, yeah, I, I didn't really realize this was Eunice either, uh, is, is e- energizing, is emanating some sort of energy so that The Hulk is caught between The Blob, which we know or, or whom we know is immovable when he chooses to be, and this energy that this guy is, is putting off.

So I guess the, the thought, which of course we n- now know having read it, but just looking at the cover, the thought, I guess, is that they're trying maybe to smush The Hulk.

And the angle and, and if...

I mean, just the, the design of the cover, uh, a- as well as just the, the, visually the way it looks is, is very different from, uh, probably most any cover I have seen even up till today.

I- it's just got a different, um- Dramatic-ness to it or a different energy to it.

Uh, Eunice on the cover, of course, notwithstanding, but it, it just, yeah, it just looks and feels different from your, your standard cover.

What did you think of this one, Ed?

So what do, why don't you describe this cover for us, Ed?

Okay.

First of all, it's, it's very...

Uh, uh, the art throughout this book is, in my mind, a very fantasy, um, leaning art.

Both, both of the artists for the two stories are probably a couple of the better, um, sword and sandal, sword and sorcery, high fantasy, what- however you wanna categorize it, um, comic book artists that we have seen.

So I, I was very, very pleased with the art in this book.

Um, starting out with the cover, we have, uh, actually we have the majority of the cover is the artwork.

But, uh, you know, if, as usual, you know, where can they, uh, find you there, Mr. Ed?